TWENTY-FOUR (TERRA POV)

"I still think you have a terrible taste in women..."

"Oh, come on, Terra. Just let it go..." Iselen rolls her eyes hard while we walk up the side of the narrow road, hiding behind the lush vegetation around David E. Marsh's house, the famous Hollywood producer, officially, but also the crazy half demon who's ready to unleash the hell's fury on earth. I wonder why he's doing this... According to Raven, this situation would not be good for any of us, humans and magical creatures would be terribly affected by war, hunger and diseases, and it would be bad for her own family because they'd turn into slaves of the powerful purebred demons. Has he reached a special agreement to become a privileged servant?

"I just can't believe you lost your virginity with that stupid Zoe..."

"I think it's very reasonable," Ruby looks back at me over her shoulder while walking towards the house back door. The main road leading to the top of this hill in Bel Air must be full of fancy cars carrying guests to the party, thank God this area is quieter since the catering company staff arrived hours earlier to get things ready, this is why the secondary road is deserted except for us and the vampires monitoring the perimeter of the property discreetly. "Iselen grew up in a small and conservative village, I don't think she could find many lesbians around to flirt with and, besides, she was terrified that her family could find out about her feelings... You were in the closet."

"A very big and deep closet," the vampire admits.

"Zoe was the first woman you met that shared your interests, she was pretty and sophisticated, experienced..." Ruby smiles. "You were young and curious, a powerful vampire who didn't fear what narrow-minded priests said anymore, and you needed affection because your entire family had died... I think it was natural for you to fall in her arms."

"Thank you for your understanding, babe." Iselen leans forward to kiss the human's lips and this time I am the one rolling my eyes hard. "Okay, Terra, I'm not proud of my choice of girlfriends, I admit it. I should've waited till finding a special girl, sweet and funny, asking her to go out for dinner, writing love poems for her and all that... someone like Ruby."

"Thank you," the human answers smiling.

"I am special, sweet and funny too, and I like love poems," the vampire raises an eyebrow, staring at me skeptically. "But I don't think you're capable of writing a good one, to be honest."

"Seriously? What about this?" Iselen stops in the middle of the road, checking out of the corner of her eye that we're still alone and the members of her clan are too far away to listen to us. The sun has set already, the sky is still a little pink but turning dark blue fast, the first stars are starting to shine. The beautiful brunette takes my hand and looks right into my eyes, rubbing my tattooed skin with her thumb, I hold my breath when the vampire charm kicks in suddenly.

Roses are stinky,

And expensive too.

I'd rather get kinky.

What about you?

I stare at her in disbelief for a few seconds while she keeps a straight face. Ruby's trying not to laugh out loud in front of us, covering her mouth with her hand to remain silent but she can't help gasping, amused.

"Very romantic, Iselen, not even Sapho could do it better. Sometimes I don't know why I bother with you, shameless bloodsucker..."

"Why are you so upset about Zoe? She's in the past. Ruby and you are the only important things in my life now," the vampire cuts me off and I purse my lips, thinking of an answer that doesn't seem ridiculous. The truth is that I don't know why I hate her in such irrational way, to be honest... or maybe yes.

"I'm jealous and angry at myself. If I'd understood my feelings earlier, if I'd fought for you, you wouldn't have gone looking for her these past centuries in order to find affection... I should've done..." Iselen moves closer to me, hugging my waist and holding me tight against her body, sliding her lips down my temple and following my jawline gently before whispering in my ear.

"It's over, my love. We're together now and everything is perfect, not only because Ruby managed to shove a little sense in our brains, but because we're ready now. I think our relationship wouldn't have worked centuries ago: we were too busy building and running the Wind Rose and everything was stressful, the war continued and our families hated us, we both had emotional damage to fix, we were reckless and immature. Everything is way better now, I'm pretty sure the three of us can be happy together... after we kick Marsh's butt hard."

"You're right, we should be focusing on that problem," I admit reluctantly touching her arm while she looks at me smiling.

"You're right too. Zoe is a brat and I had terrible taste in women till I chose you both. I'm so sorry, baby. If you want me to beg for forgiveness the way I did last night, I'll be very happy to please you..." The vampire smirks mischievously and I can feel my pussy walls clenching when I remember her kneeled down in front of me, the tip of her tongue flicking my clit at a feverish pace while Ruby kissed me to muffle my cries. Despite I'm a strong werewolf, my legs were shaking so bad I couldn't remain standing with my back leaned on the wall while pleasure ran through my veins like molten lava, and both women had to drag me to the bed.

"It's getting late," the human's words bring me back to reality and I blink while the vampire is still staring at me, smiling smugly because she knows exactly how I melted under her mouth, turning into a quiverish mass.

"Let's go," I whisper and she nods, leaning forward to graze my mouth with her lips before letting me go and turning around to look at Ruby.

"You'll stay with us, even if they catch us and things get ugly, I want to be the one protecting you and not those idiots from my clan. Are you wearing the pendants Mirabelle sent us this morning?" We nod and the vampire takes a look at the massive house on top of the hill. "I think we can get closer protected by these bushes, I need to find out how we can sneak into the building but dodging those humans who are working... Isn't it weird to see all this vegetation here? I'm not complaining, it suits our purposes right now, no one can see my vampires while they're hiding behind those tall trees but, judging for what I've seen around this city, Los Angeles seems to be quite... dry."

"Only for poor people, or for those who don't care about climate change and don't understand how precious water is, but wealthy people want to buy houses surrounded by green plants like they're living in the middle of the Amazon Forest and they water them to keep them lush not caring about the water restrictions other citizens have to comply with. I've tried to choose cacti for my back garden, along with other plants that can be found in arid climates, but they want bougainvillea, palm trees and natural lawn in perfect condition always."

"Well, we're talking about a half demon guy, I guess he can't help being selfish and greedy." Iselen shrugs and the three of us start walking cautiously, getting closer to the back door where some delivery vans are parked, two humans are carrying bottles of wine inside watched closely by a human security guy who looks very bored. The house is so massive that we can't hear the guests chatting and having fun around the pool in the front garden from here, maybe because it's also divided into terraces down the side of the hill, overlooking the city.

Suddenly, something catches our eye to our left: blond hair shining under the artificial light of the lanterns attached to the façade. Zoe is watching us with morbid curiosity, standing right next to a bush, not caring that people working at the back entrance could see her. She's wearing black clothes to be discreet but has pulled the hood down, the stupid girl. Hans appears out of the blue, takes her arm and pulls hard, forcing her to squat down rudely. The vampire looks at his queen mouthing an apology we can't hear while Iselen rolls her eyes hard, angrily, before he points to our right and mouths the word 'garage.'

"Let's go," I whisper when I understand what he's trying to say. The vans are hiding us from view while humans keep carrying bottles of wine inside through a narrow door, the guard is lighting a cigarette, but the garage door is open, maybe to take bigger things inside, and no one is paying attention now.

"How many cars can he park here?" Ruby asks shocked. "This is ridiculously big."

"I bet the entire house is like this" Iselen replies pointing at a door in the concrete wall that leads to an empty corridor, thank God. We can hear some people talking to our left, they're human, I think, and at least one of them sounds very nervous, screaming at others telling them to hurry up with the trays before the food gets cold. It must be the chef and they're working in the professional kitchen that these Hollywood wealthy big shots build in their houses when they hold lot of parties, it's not the familiar kitchen where the family gather to have breakfast usually and it's closer to the main living room, according to what Ruby told us. The vampire points at the other end of the corridor and we follow her cautiously, moving away from the voices.

"We haven't run into any supernatural creature so far, that's a good thing," I whisper when we find some stairs leading to the main floor.

"We've been roaming around for only three minutes," Ruby answers pointing at the sink and dryer. "This is the laundry room, we're still in the service area."

"If the charms didn't work, they would've caught us already," I reply and she nods while Iselen opens the door and takes a quick look outside for a second.

"Another empty corridor," we all leave the laundry room walking on tiptoes, getting closer to the brighter light. We can hear conversations from here too but no one is screaming, some are laughing out loud, glasses are clinking and nice jazz music is played softly... the party is in full swing. Ruby sticks her head around the corner discreetly before turning around.

"Okay, this is the main living room, the floor-to-ceiling windows are open and everybody is standing around the pool and the gardens of the lower floor, I guess, waiters are wandering around carrying trays full of drinks and canapes. The entrance hall is in front of us and beyond, there's a family living room, the main staircase and kitchen... I don't think we can reach that area without any guest noticing us. What's wrong?" Iselen gestures at me so I take a look too, ignoring the human, and I obey her for a split second before moving a step back to look at her with my mouth wide open. "What? You're getting on my nerves..."

"There's a very interesting mix out there," I answer reluctantly. "I know that they look like normal men wearing designer tuxedos and normal women wearing fancy long dresses and dazzling jewels, and I'm sure some of them are... normal, I mean. But most of them are not human..." Ruby looks at us bewildered and the vampire sighs, exasperated, keeping an eye on the corridor through which we've walked a minute ago. "There're some half demons among the guests, harpies, sorceresses and necromancers, goblins and evil fairies, priests of Kali... the demon, not the goddess."

"Are you kidding me?" Ruby hisses and I shake my head.

"There's a Baba Yagá, I think," Iselen grimaces pointing at the pool. "Very bad news, Marsh is recruiting the scum of the magical world."

"What's a Baba...?"

"A witch from countries in eastern Europe," the vampire cuts her off. "Their diet is a bit... peculiar, I'm afraid."

"You're the one to say that..." Ruby crosses her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow.

"Sometimes, they eat toddlers," I whisper quietly and the human opens her eyes in shock. "Fortunately, there're very few and they live hiding in distant, deep forests because, well, it's not easy to kidnap a bunch of kids in this modern world without people noticing it and the police forces always get involved. No one in the magical community wants nothing to do with them, obviously, so I understand why they're interested in being Marsh's partners in crime. If the world plunges into sheer chaos because of those demons, it'd be easier for them to get their special food."

"For God's sake, this is crazy..." Ruby's beautiful eyes are filled with tears suddenly. "Kids are in danger in this city, we need to stop that bitch before she..."

"Don't worry," Iselen puts her hand on her arm. "I'm pretty sure Marsh told them to be discreet right now and not to do anything foolish. They don't want Mirabelle and her friends to know there're so many dangerous creatures gathering in this city, even if the good witches can feel the changes in the atmosphere and energy, for sure. I know she looks like a nice woman who loves cats, above all now that she's not looking at me suspiciously anymore, but she's a powerful and dangerous witch if she gets angry." The vampire points at the small backpack the human is carrying. "Terra, can you take some pics with your phone carefully and send them to the queen of voodoo?"

"Good idea," I answer unzipping the backpack cautiously and taking the device. "Mirabelle and her friends can keep an eye on this trash while we focus on the demons."

"Are there any bloodsuckers or werewolves out there?" Ruby asks with curiosity while I take the pics and send the text immediately.

"No, our people are smarter and wiser, sometimes they can be evil but would never make deals with demons, they know it always ends badly. And that's good for us because, even if we're wearing these charms, they could smell us anyway and they'd know we're here." Iselen looks at the entrance hall and the main staircase that's out of reach for us, unfortunately. "What are we going to do now?"

"We have to find the service stairs," the human answers pointing at the other end of the corridor through which we got here from the laundry room. "This way, I'm sure... A stupid snob like Marsh wouldn't want to run into the maid carrying his dirty sheets in his living room, I bet there's another way to go to the upper floor near here."

"There should be guards around, don't you think?" I ask confused while we climb up the stairs that were exactly where Ruby told us. "I know most of them are watching the garden and the main gate, and your vampires are watching them, but we should find demon soldiers inside the house. Unless..." Iselen grabs the human's T-shirt, stopping her abruptly on the last step while she stares at us perplexed. There's a small living room to our right working as a vestibule for the second floor, with a white couch in front of a big TV and shelves both sides, everything seems quiet...

"Let's take a look..." the vampire leans forward, watching the floor in front of us. "You're right, there's something here, can you see it?"

"What are you talking about?" Ruby leans forward too, puzzled.

"It's... I don't know how to explain it," Iselen bites her lower lip. "You cast spells with energy and they leave a trace in the atmosphere that can be seen, if you know what you're looking for, and here, right at the end of the stairs, there's some kind of... wave or ripple, an energy-disruption..."

"Okay, I think I can see it," Ruby whispers staring at the hardwood floor planks entranced. "These straight lines here are blurry sometimes, just for a split second... What does it mean?"

"An alarm, possibly, if we step on this floor and cross the energy barrier, it'll warn the guards..." Iselen opens Ruby's backpack again and grabs two small mirrors. "Luckily, we're ready to deal with this..." She gives me one of them and points at the other side of the step, I nod while she walks to the other end. "One, two, three..." We both put the mirrors in their place at the same time and I can feel the energy traveling between them, reflecting on the silver surface. "Let's go, babe, you have to jump..." Ruby obeys and lands on the other side without feeling anything usual.

"We must be careful, this second floor could be full of traps... And we must remember taking the mirrors with us later when we leave the house or they'll know we've been snooping around." I follow the human and the vampire nods, pointing at the short corridor leading to the master bedroom.

"I bet this room is full of traps..."

"I can't see anything weird," Ruby peeks from the corridor, frowning. "It doesn't even have a door and windows are massive... This is not the best place to hide something. We should find Marsh's studio."

"Good idea, but let Terra go first and put your feet where she tells you..."

"Don't get closer to the windows or a guest could see us from the garden," I whisper. "There's a spiral staircase here but it's made of cast iron."

"I bet it goes to the rooftop," the human answers. "There's a terrace up there to enjoy the city views. The studio should be at the end of this corridor but I don't know where this other door leads to. Maybe a bathroom..." I can't see any trap, Iselen can't either because she leans her hand on the wooden surface and pushes gently, the room is dark but that's not a problem for us since we can see perfectly well.

"Wow..." the vampire chuckles and I shake my head.

"What's wrong?" Ruby whispers, worried. "I can't see anything..." I raise an eyebrow and Iselen shrugs, checking that we're still alone in this corridor before tuning the lights on. The human gasps, shocked.

"Fuck!"