Home for Horny Monsters - Book Five

Risky Business

He explained the situation with Leeds as he put on his shoes, and then they walked into the main room of the cabin. He had just finished telling her about the new truce when he noticed that the building had changed.

The television and entertainment center was gone. Instead, a massive fireplace with a roaring fire greeted them, casting long shadows into the eaves of the cabin. When he looked in the kitchen, it was much bigger and had an assortment of drying meats hanging by the window.

Kisa whistled. "This place is impressive."

He frowned, then looked upstairs. The shadows parted, revealing that the walls of the cabin were covered in various animal trophies.

"This isn't what it looks like in the real world," he told her. "Stick close to me."

She pressed herself into him and sighed. "Damn, you feel good," she muttered. "Just having you close makes me feel better. And safe."

He put his arm around her and squeezed. His magic responded to her presence, filling him with warmth and calm.

There was a thump from upstairs. They looked at each other, and then Mike looked at the front door.

"Don't suppose it would make sense for us to run, do you?" he asked.

The thump repeated itself. Mike pushed Kisa behind him and moved toward the stairs, his palms suddenly sweaty. Kisa shoved past him before they got to the top of the stairs, and he tried to grab her and pull her back, but he was too slow.

"What the hell?" Kisa looked over her shoulder at him. "I don't get it."

He climbed the last three stairs and saw what she was looking at. Instead of the upper floor, they now stood in a thicket of pines. Between a pair of gnarled trees, a massive stag stopped to regard them.

Kisa moved toward the nearest wall and ran her hands along it. "It turns into this tree," she told him while peeking through its branches. "It's almost like the cabin—"

"Is the forest," he finished, then knelt to touch the soil. When he buried his finger in it deep enough, he could just scratch the wooden floor beneath it. "But that doesn't tell us where we are."

The trees around them rustled, but there was no wind. He tried to track the invisible breeze using his hands, then jumped when he watched a nearby tree pop out of existence, leaving behind a stump with a woman sitting on it.

"Greetings, Caretaker." She winked at him, a playful smile on her lips. Her dark hair was wavy and hung loosly around her ears in a bob cut. She wore a leather tunic with matching pants, and her boots looked to be made of deerskin. "I see you brought your familiar with you. She's cute."

Mike tried hard to relax, but was worried. He was already up shit creek without a paddle, he didn't need any further complications. Kisa growled a warning from the back of her throat.

"You seem to know who I am, but I have no idea who you are," he told her.

When she laughed, the sound triggered memories of a summer rain.

"That's intentional," she told him. "In fact, when I summoned you here, I was very surprised I could take this form at all. It's been a very long time since I've spoken to a mortal, and when I do, it's usually as a disembodied voice. Having a body is something I haven't done in a few centuries."

"That still doesn't tell us who you are." Kisa moved in front of Mike protectively. "So let's try again. Who the fuck are you?"

The woman answered. The moment the words left her mouth, Mike felt like his soul temporarily left his body, and the forest shook. Kisa actually lost her balance and fell. When he knelt to help her up, he realized that he couldn't remember the woman's answer. His mind was full of static instead of sound, and even the movement of her lips had been blotted away like a stain on a rug.