Hexes and Wolves

  Hexes and Wolves

  Queen Lucy: Book Two

  Rhiannon Lee

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Part 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Part 2

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Part 2

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Part 2

  Chapter 17

  Part 2

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Sneak peak

  Coming soon

  Chapter 1

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Hexes and Wolves Copyright © 2018 by Rhiannon Lee. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover Elements & Supporting Graphic Artist

  MoxiMoon

  https://www.facebook.com/MoxisArt

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Rhiannon Lee

  Visit my website at www.RhiannonLeeAuthor.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: Dec 2018

  Independently Published

  ISBN-9781728772714

  Formatted by: Kassie Morse

  This book is dedicated to my grandmother, who bought me armloads of books from our local department store any time I wanted something to read. She single handedly fed my interest in literature until it became a mighty flame with a life of its own. I love you.

  “A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.”

  —DANTE ALIGHIERI

  Chapter 1

  Lucy 1:1

  Everything slowed down like a bad movie on half speed.

  “No!” I screamed as Viran moved with superhuman speed toward the wolf in front of me. Her sword appeared out of nowhere, now clutched in her hands and there was murder in her eyes—cold calculating, bloody murder.

  “Viran, stop!” She wasn’t slowing.

  On instinct, I leaped up from the bed that held my sleeping soul mate and flung myself forward. If I could only get between them in time!

  Between screaming and flailing my arms, you’d think she would have noticed me, but apparently, she was too intent on killing the wolf.

  Any other day, I would have kissed her, or given her a medal or some shit.

  She was on him now, shining sword high in the air, a scream ripping from her throat. I watched the blade drop as I tripped off the edge of the bed and fell forward on the rug between me and them. Damn rugs, bane of my life!

  I flung my head back up and frantically pushed the hair out of my eyes as Viran’s sword slammed down. Instead of cleaving wolf flesh, her sword sailed through empty space and thwacked against the floorboards with a loud thump.

  Surprise finally shook her focus, and she stood, searching for the missing animal. It should have been dead with her ninja speed. I knew it. She knew it, too.

  “Where did it go!?” she yelled as she leapt into motion, searching the rest of the room.

  “Damn it, Viran, stop for a minute!”

  Thank god she had missed him! I thought as my panic ebbed. Viran the heat-seeking missile can’t stop until she eliminates her target, the sarcastic thought followed in my head as she swept through every inch of the room.

  Finally, she managed to pause and turn toward me. Apparently, seeing me on the floor was enough to snap her out of her mission. She sucked in a shocked breath and ran toward me.

  “Your highness, oh my god, are you okay?!” she exclaimed.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Can you just stop for a minute? I know that wolf.” She gripped my arm and helped me to my feet.

  My focus switched to Cain; he hadn’t moved. How in the hell he was still asleep after all the commotion was beyond me. I couldn’t leave the room without him waking up, but people could wage a war right at his feet and he sleeps through the whole thing. I shook my head.

  My new kitten was just as confused as the rest of us, his darting eyes trying to suss out the threat. I groaned as I saw the frayed rip in the carpet where her sword had hit.

  “Mother fu–” The curse cut off with a flip of my lip across my top teeth. “Okay, first things first, what do you mean all the prisoners have escaped?” I asked her.

  “The cages are empty. All the doors are open, and they are all completely bare. Every last one,” she answered.

  What I had dismissed as a jumbled vision had been real. The blue door with its magnetic, mesmerizing swirls that had lured me in when I first got here had meant so much more than I ever expected. It had called to me, and I had brushed it aside. I should have looked into it harder. Guilt swelled up in my gut. My wolf—man—had been trapped in a damn prison cell and what was I doing? My body moved toward Cain instinctively. I had been falling in love, that’s what. No matter what happened with this new person, I didn’t regret giving my heart to Cain. It might leave me a confused disaster at times, but he was worth every second. Speaking of, he’d finally come to and was staring at us both like we were out of our minds.

  His eyes drifted over to the paranoid cat that still had hair sticking out everywhere and then back to Viran and me.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “So good of you to finally wake up and join us. Every single prisoner has escaped and there was a giant wolf in here who…” What exactly did it do?

  “A wolf?” He now looked as confused as I felt.

  “The wolf from my vision was here! He popped in and back out when Viran tried to hack him to bits.” I waved my hand like a game show host assistant to indicate the spot in carpet.

  Cain drew his legs around, keeping the blanket over his important parts for Viran’s sake.

  “That wolf? Are you sure?”

  Using erratic hand gestures, I tried to convince him with, “Yes! That wolf. There was a ball of energy or magic or something and then poof, there he was. All this time he’s been locked in that gosh darn prison!”

  Now that he was standing, I could see the reality of his tired body as his shoulders sagged while he scrambled to find something to wear.

  “Sit down and hang on, I’ll get you some clothes.” He continued to search, ignoring what I had just said.

  “I’m serious. Sit!” Upon hearing the command in my voice, he turned his attention to me. He paused for a brief moment, locking eyes with mine, and then planted his ass back on the bed.

  “There isn’t anything you can do in that condition, anyway. Besides, Viran has everything under control.” I turned and looked at her. “Right?”

  My words were mostly steady, but my hands were shaking as I opened my closet that had never had any of his stuff in it. My brain was too preoccupied to remember that truth, until I paused and glared into it.

  Viran snapped to attention and feigned seriousness, knocking me out of my momentary mental drift. “Yes! Right! Everything is fine. I’m just going to go get the search started. I ran here first to make sure you were okay.”

  “See it’s fine,” I said, my voice unconvincing as I watched her rush back through the doorway.

/>   Cain looked more determined than usual, and that was saying a lot. When I turned back to him, he was muttering something I was barely able to make out.

  “…it can’t be.”

  Sighing, I walked back over to him and sat back down quietly, while ordering him with my eyes to tell me what he meant.

  “There is only one wolf I know of in the cages and it’s not good. That’s one reason I dismissed your vision the other day. I just couldn’t believe it was the same wolf. I should have said something,” he explained.

  “Him, who?” I asked.

  Shifting his body around to face me, he tucked a leg under himself and I got a flash of boxers. I closed my eyes for a moment and shook the distraction out of my head. Focus, Lucy!

  “There are a few beings who have been locked in the cages for a really long time. Keep in mind that this was before my time, so I only know the details second-hand.”

  “Okay,” I said, urging him to continue with a couple short nods.

  “His name is Abaddon and his only goal is destruction. He was created by one of Lucifer’s brothers in a time when they were enveloped with anger and grief. He came to be with all of those feelings. Only, they weren’t just emotions for him; they were the very fabric of his being. Not having the heart to destroy him, because his actions were simply a result of his creation, Lucifer locked him away where he couldn’t do anymore harm.”

  I squinted my eyes and tilted my head in confusion. “That really doesn’t sound like the guy I’ve been having visions about.”

  “Abaddon may have been trying to manipulate you into releasing him somehow. It’s the only thing I can think of. We need to find him and lock him back up before he finds his way to Earth. Even here, in hell, he will cause a lot of damage. Killing is his first instinct, and he could take a lot of people out before we even know where he is.” His face was contorted in concern by the time he finished speaking.

  “I need a moment to think about all of this,” I admitted. “And when we do catch him, I need to speak to him before we just lock him back up. I also want a list of the other prisoners who have escaped and the details of their crimes.”

  Blindly locking people up felt wrong.

  Maybe they deserved to be there, but I was in charge now, so I wanted to review their situations. I needed to find out what kind of beasts we were housing right under our noses. Plus, the one thing I knew for sure was that we couldn’t let anyone under my new rule get slaughtered. If this was a plot to gather people under the overthrow Lucy campaign, well, there would be a special place in Hell set aside just for them. Right along with the other sickos who didn’t deserve my mercy. Trying to take my throne was one thing but killing people by setting crazed lunatics free to do it crossed the line. I had no doubt that someone helped get those doors open.

  The sound of someone walking through the main door made me look up, it was Bran, my housekeeper. His eyes were shining with wariness, and I realized I must have been scowling, so I forced my face to relax. Picking the corners of my mouth up, I motioned for him to come in. I waved my hand in the sign for hello. He could read lips very well, but I preferred to meet him half way whenever possible. He looked down at the tray in his hands and then back up and nodded his reply. I could smell coffee, but instead of my bodies’ normal reaction which included slobbering all over myself, my stomach churned. Coffee didn’t sound as appealing now since Cain had ended up dying from the last pot we shared. Silvie, the person who had previously been in charge of foodstuff, had tried to kill me by putting poison in my drink. I used to think her webbed fingers and toes were endearing, but now the image of her shrunken, doll like frame made the fury in my gut boil and try to leak out where it didn’t belong.

  Still, maybe poor Bran had no idea I’d developed a repulsion to the stuff, so I indicated to one of the many tables in my rooms where he could set it down.

  “Are they making you do Sylvie’s job?” I asked once he wasn’t distracted and was able look at my face to see my lips.

  “Yes, till they find someone else,” he said out loud with an accompanying upright wave of his fist to sign yes along with his words.

  “You can have either job, which one would you rather do?” I asked him.

  “This one,” he answered, pointing at the tray of cups.

  “Who’s in charge of hiring?”

  His nose turned up in disgust. “Rupert,” he said and made the sign for asshole, shoving his middle finger into a ring he’d made with his other hand.

  Caught off guard by his directness, I snorted. My knowledge of American Sign Language was limited, but I’d definitely learned most of the curse words. That probably made me a horrible person, but to my credit, I had tried to learn much more than the rude stuff. A new item was added to my mental note to pick up my education once this disaster was over. I had meant to, anyway, when I had first met Bran and realized someone here would benefit from the knowledge, but then Cain died and had to be resurrected. Time hadn’t dictated for anything except healing lately.

  “I completely agree. Maybe you should take his job.” I didn’t like Rupert, even though I’d only met him once. He was in charge of managing rooms and the general upkeep of the place, but he seriously rubbed me the wrong way.

  Bran’s jaw dropped in shock.

  “I’m kidding. Sort of,” I replied to his gape. As much as I wanted to fire Rupert and remove him from my presence forever, I wouldn’t really do it without a good reason. Knowing my luck, I’d be petty and get rid of him only to find out his family starved to death because of it. No, I needed good karma, not bad. Wait, did karma even work down here?

  “I’ll talk to Rupert and tell him to hire someone for the housekeeping job instead.”

  He signed ‘thank you’ by touching his open palm to his mouth and sweeping it outward as he excused himself.

  I was still too lost in thought about the karma thing when he left to sort the coffee situation out. Maybe it was a onetime reaction. Thankfully, my stomach wasn’t revolting anymore, so I got up and walked over to where it was placed. Leaning down, I took a long inhale—testing the waters, so to speak. Only coffee was mostly water, so it wasn’t entirely a metaphor, I realized and chuckled to myself.

  My new kitten smoothed his fur back down and slunk his way toward me, so he could rub himself against my ankles. He wove in and out between my legs, then stopped and looked up.

  “You want some coffee, fluff?” I asked him, and he responded with a loud meow.

  “I swear to all that’s holy, if you turn into a human, you’re fired,” I scolded half-heartedly. I already had one werekitten and he was enough.

  He moved again through my legs ignoring my asinine threat, and I scooped him up into my arms. “You can’t actually have any coffee, but you can have a name. I dub thee Sir Frank Fluffy Butt of Hell.” Purrs were already emanating from his tiny body by the time I’d announced his name, which meant he really didn’t give a shit what I was saying. It’s hard to be offended when you’re just glad your cat can’t shape shift.

  “Alright, alright, I’ll get you some food,” I told him as I moved to do just that. Once he was content with his itty-bitty face buried in his dish, I resumed my coffee reintroduction.

  Coffee and I had been in a serious love affair for a very long time and I wasn’t prepared to go through caffeine withdrawals any time soon. I also wasn’t about to let the asshole steal one of the true joys in my life. Sure, it might be a bit shallow to love coffee more than most people, but coffee didn’t sass me or try to make me wash dishes after an eight-hour shift at some nameless burger joint.

  Queen of Hell Pays Ridiculous Import Fees to Ship Columbian Coffee Beans to Hell flashed through my brain and I nodded happily. Yes, yes, I would.

  I grabbed the fancy silver carafe and poured myself a cup. It dawned on me while I was pouring that it wasn’t gold like everything else around here. My grandfather sure liked his bling, I thought as I eyed the detail on the couch in front of me. Even the
toothbrush holder in the bathroom sparkled with the stuff.

  When the deep black magical liquid touched my bottom lip, I paused in case my stomach had a change of heart and revolted. Still no nausea. Thank God in Heaven, I thought as I took a tentative sip, moaning at the rich flavor. Then I took another, letting out a smaller but equally sexy noise. Honestly, erotic noises made everyone happy and was also my way of showing my coffee how much I loved it. Everyone needed compliments from time to time, I wasn’t going to leave it out. Okay, that was total bullshit, but it sounded good since I couldn’t exactly help doing it. Queen of Hell is Mistaken for Porn Star While Drinking Coffee flashed in neon, making me snort again, causing the coffee to bubble in my cup. Coughing, I tried to avoid choking on the liquid as I composed myself.

  Cain cleared his throat, making me stiffen at being caught, so I gripped the cup in my palm and turned around with a wide smile.

  “Yes, dear?” I asked in a much better mood. Coffee always did have that effect over me, like it was injecting joy into my body alongside its wake-up drugs. Eyes drawn down his body, I saw that he was thrilled to see me.

  “Unless you're prepared to ravish me, put that tent away.” My eyes darted downward and back up to his face again to stress my point.

  He flashed me a million-dollar smile. “As much as I would love that, we have other things to worry about. It’s your fault, anyway. I’ve never heard anyone make love to a cup of coffee before.”