Seven Wardens: Books 5-7

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Macey was on the warpath. She’d sent Jared to Belgium to get them some waffles, but instead of waffles, he’d brought a kludde. There was a fricking kludde standing in her bedroom, not fazed by her nakedness in the slightest.

“Jared!” she growled. “What the f*****g waves is going on?”

She was tired, she was hungry, and she was not in the mood to deal with politics.

The incubus peeked from behind the kludde. “It’s important,” he whispered with a shrug. “I’ll get you waffles tomorrow.”

Macey felt like lying back down. This day wasn’t starting well at all.

“Apologies, my lady,” the kludde said with a voice that reminded her of stone grating against stone. Why the heck was he calling her a lady?

“What’s the matter?” she asked with a yawn, pulling the duvet higher to cover her breasts. She didn’t have a problem with being nude, she was a shifter after all, but she didn’t want the kludde to return to his people and talk about kelpie princesses running around naked. It didn’t give a good impression.

“The Teacher has sent me. He has unearthed some information that might help you in your quest.”

“What quest is that?” she said, only half in jest. Her to-do list was growing with every waking moment and if she wasn’t careful, she’d commit to far too many missions. Already, there was a kelpie delegation wanting to speak to her, and the fir na ghorma had sent word as well. Ever since her victory over the Mahoun, Macey had become a very busy woman. Not that she hadn’t been busy before, but that had been travelling around, fighting monsters and helping people. Now, it was all about giving advice, being polite, trying to stay out of politics even though everyone seemed to be wanting to drag her into them. The kelpies in particular. If she wasn’t careful, she’d cause a civil war.

The kludde cleared his throat. “Your quest to eradicate all the Mahoun’s siblings, of course.”

Oh yes. That. Yes, that was pretty high up on her to do list. So far, she’d only defeated Self-Doubt and the Mahoun, but she knew that there were many more of them out there.

“The Teacher may have found a way to discover them and draw them out.”

Suddenly, Macey was wide awake. That had been the big problem until now. There could be hundreds of these beings out there, and finding and killing them one by one would take years. They needed a better strategy than going on a wild devil hunt.

“Why didn’t he come himself?” she asked the kludde and he wrung his hands, obviously uncomfortable.

“He’s busy,” the man hedged. “I’m not sure he would want me to tell you…”

“Out with it,” Jared said from behind him, impatience lacing his voice. It seemed the incubus was just as annoyed by the lack of waffles - or maybe the lack of privacy - as Macey was.

“He’s giving birth.”

"He can do that?" she asked, a frown marring her face. Last time she'd talked to the Teacher he'd been noticeably male. Then again, the kludde were shapeshifters, maybe they could shift their gender too. Macey had seen weirder things in her time on land. Sometimes staying in the Loch seemed like the safer option.

"Yes, my lady. The kludde don't procreate like your people do. We're a species born of mitosis."

"Oh."

"It's a very happy occasion." The gash where she reckoned his mouth would be widened, revealing square wooden teeth covered in a green substance she suspected was moss.

"Erm…congratulations?" She returned his smile, hoping she was saying the right thing. This was why she wanted to keep away from politics, it involved far too much working out how different people took different things. A high compliment for one kind of people was an insult to another.

"Thank you, my lady. It's all down to your influence. Without defeating the Orca and the Mahoun, we wouldn't have the restored stability for the Teacher to create more kludde." He clapped his hands together, causing an odd hollow sound to fill the room.

"I'm glad I could help." She clutched the sheet tighter to her chest, wishing the kludde would leave so she could get dressed. This conversation would be a lot better if she wasn't quite so naked.

"And so we want to help you. Especially as we couldn't be part of your fight against the Mahoun."

"Thank you," she replied, perking up slightly and resisting the urge to exchange glances with Jared. He didn't need her to understand the importance of what the kludde was saying.

"He suggests you wait for a blue moon to occur and perform an ancient ceremony using blood cakes."

"Blood cakes?" She blanched thinking of the stories she'd heard about the faeries and their baking skills as a child. It wasn't something she wanted to look into more. Blood magic would lead down a scary path.

"You must leave them out. When the moon begins to wax, you'll know it's time. They'll be drawn to the smell of the blood and the sweetness of the cakes. The Teacher doesn't think they'll all be drawn out but most of them should be."

Macey nodded, her eyes widening as she tried to process what he was telling her. The whole idea filled her with dread. Messing with the faeries was something everyone avoided, even those beings who lived in places the faeries couldn't reach were scared of them.

"Is there anything else?" she asked, hoping there'd be an alternative.

"No, unfortunately we know no more."

"Thank you, anyway." She dipped her head in acknowledgement while thinking it looked ridiculous when she was still sat in bed. "Would you like anything before you leave?" she asked, hastily remembering the manners her Aunt had told her.

She pushed thoughts of her Aunt to the side, knowing she still had to deal with the knowledge that she was her mother. But talking to Nessie wasn't something she was looking forward to. Going into denial was a lot easier.

"No, thank you. I'd like to get back and see to the new births."

"Of course," Macey responded. "Completely understandable."

"Thank you, my lady."

"Jared?"

"Yes, Macey?”

"Would you take our friend back to Belgium?"

"Of course. If you'd like to step this way." The incubus gestured to the door and waited for the kludde to leave before giving Macey a long, lingering look.

She gave him a weak smile and watched with regret as he left the room. She could feel his incubus side getting restless and longed to take care of it for him. Even with more downtime, nothing seemed to be keeping him under control. Almost as if something was triggering it more.

Macey swung her legs around, pushing herself out of bed and pulling on her clothes. If she was going to be organising a trap, then she'd need help from the others.

That was a problem for another day. Just like a lot of her other ones. But first, she needed to work out when the next blue moon was. They could plan from there. If it was far enough away, maybe she'd even be able to deal with Nessie before facing the Mahoun's siblings. Macey pulled a face at the thought. She really didn't want to face up to the truth about her heritage. If she did, she'd probably have to deal with the potential war between the different kelpie factions, though why that was happening while her father still sat on the throne, she wasn't sure. There were a lot of questions that needed answering from her kin. Her best option was probably to abdicate. Her men couldn't live under the water with her and it wasn't fair to the kelpies for her to rule them while living on land. But then, she might be the best option for ruling them all. Which would mean she owed it to them to be their Queen.

"By the waves, I'm screwed," she muttered as she pushed through the door and into the hallway of the men's house. She was glad to be back here, especially with the fresh water pool the place supplied for her.

"Not from what I heard."

She looked up to find Lucian leaning against the wall with a satisfied smirk on his face. Macey scowled at him.

"What are you doing here?"

"Good morning to you too," he responded.

"That didn't answer the question."

"I'd have thought it was obvious. I'm stood outside your bedroom door when I know you're awake. I'm waiting for you so we can talk." His smirk changed into the charming smile she'd grown used to over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes, she found herself wishing her men hadn't invited Luc to stay with them, even if she knew it was for the best.

"Go wait for me somewhere else," she muttered.

"So you can continue avoiding me?" He raised an eyebrow.

He was right. She'd been avoiding him at all cost. Luc confused her. She didn't know who and what he was. Was he a friend? A mentor? A guide? Something else entirely? And most of all: could she trust him implicitly? Just like with Malan, his vagueness made it difficult to read him. She was never sure whether he was telling her the whole truth, even though she didn't doubt that some of what he was saying was true. Maybe it was a strange compulsion that made him be mysterious.

"I want breakfast," she said, realising that she was hungry. "You can join me or not, I don't care."

"You should work on your politeness," Luc grumbled. "You're not going to make a good queen if you can't be polite."

That had Macey stop in her tracks. "I'm not going to be queen," she hurled at him, anger bubbling up in her. Why did she always get angry at Luc? He seemed to rile something up in her that nobody else managed to do. "I have no desire to get involved in kelpie politics, so shut up about being queen."

"Did I hit a sore point?" Luc asked with a smile. "You seem a little touchy about the subject."

"I'm going to show you touchy if you continue going on about it," Macey muttered but her stomach growled again, distracting her.

She continued towards the kitchen where her men were waiting. Luc trailed behind her, much to her distaste. Everyone kept talking to her about politics and all she wanted was for them to shut up.

"Morning!" Cam said cheerfully as she entered the room. "We've got fresh scones!"

He had a giant scone in front of him and was busy breaking it in half. It did so perfectly with hardly any crumbs.

"The best scones break apart in two perfect equal halves," Luc remarked. "That's what my mother always used to say."

Macey was tempted to ask him about his mother - after all, she knew nothing about his family and where he came from - but then decided that eating was the more interesting option. She took a seat next to Cam and stole half of his scone, which he'd already covered in a thick layer of jam and clotted cream.

"Oi!" he complained, but he was smiling.

"Delicious," Macey said between chews. "Who made them?"

"The house," Flint replied. "They just appeared on the kitchen counter when I came in this morning. No idea how and why, but maybe it noticed I was craving scones."

"I wish you'd been craving waffles," Macey muttered, but the scones were good enough to almost make her forget about not getting her beloved Belgian waffles earlier. She realised the guys wouldn't know about the kludde yet, so she filled them in between bites. Cam handed her another half of a scone and she gave him a quick peck on the cheek in return, leaving a sticky lip print on his skin.

"He was actually giving birth?" Rónán asked, grinning widely. "I wish we could have seen that."

"No, we don't," Jared said, entering the kitchen. "I've heard stories about it and trust me, it's better not to even imagine what it looks like. Let's give the kludde a few days to recover before we go there. By then, all the bark should have healed."

That threw up so many questions, but Macey decided on what was actually important.

"Do any of you know when the next blue moon is?"

Immediately, a calendar appeared on the wall to Cam's left. He took it and flicked to the right page.

"Thanks, house," he muttered while searching for the correct date. "Two days from now."

Macey sighed. She'd hoped it would be today, that would have given her the perfect excuse not to deal with the kelpie situation. Now though, it seemed that she would have to do something about it.

"We better find a blood cake recipe then," she said and wasn't surprised in the slightest when a book appeared on the table in front of her. The house had been incredibly supportive recently. Maybe it had missed them, maybe it was glad to be able to be of service again.

The book was ancient and covered in ink - or some other dark fluid.

"I know that one," Jared said, taking it and flicking through its pages. "It's from our library."

"I love this place," Rónán chuckled. "Does it provide anything you ask for?"

"Not waffles," Macey sighed. "I've tried that."

Jared paused, running his finger over one of the pages. "Page five hundred and twenty one, Blood Cakes. The recipe isn't too difficult, except that we need a lot of blood for it."

"Do we have to make that many cakes?" Macey asked.

"No, but we have to distil the blood to make it more potent. I think we're all going to have to pitch in."

"One massive blood donation session? Count me in." Rónán licked his lips.

"Are you suddenly a vampire?" Cam asked, eyeing the selkie warily.

"No, but I like the sensation. I went to donate blood at the Red Cross centre in Oban occasionally. They never complained, so I assume they didn't realise my blood is a little different from human blood."

"You risked exposing your kind to donate blood?" Flint asked, his eyes wide.

"That was a joke," Rónán replied, but Macey wasn't sure if it really had been a lie. "Anyway, how much blood do we need?"

"Six litres."

That made Macey gulp. That was a lot of blood indeed. "If Luc joins us-" she gave him a glare that made sure that he did -"that's more than a litre for each of us. We can't do that in one day."

"No, so let's take some today, tomorrow and then on the day after. That should be enough for our bodies to recover." Jared continued to read through the recipe. "All the other ingredients are things we have here. So how about a quick blood donation now while we're all in one room, and then we can continue with today's tasks?"

An hour later, two bottles of blood were cooling in the fridge. That had to be the strangest thing they'd ever done, Macey thought. And with all the adventures they'd had together, that said a lot.

"Kelpie time?" Rónán asked, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"I guess there's no way around it. I'm not sure though whether to talk to my father first or to Nessie."

She refused to call Nessie her mother, nor did she want to think of her father, the King, as anything but her biological dad. Who cared that she might have been fathered by someone else. She had parents, she really didn't need another set, especially not Nessie.