Bug magic the paranormal.., p.1
Bug Magic: The Paranormals of Ahl Book 2, page 1
Bug Magic (The Paranormals of Ahl Book 2)
Copyright © 2024 by ML Conklin.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations, bodied in critical articles or reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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MLConklin@MLConklin.com
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ISBN E-book: 979-8-9900731-2-8
ISBN Paperback: 979-8-9900731-3-5
First Edition: August 2024
Contents
A Note from the Author
1. Drake
2. Jen
3. Jen
4. Jen
5. Drake
6. Jen
7. Drake
8. Jen
9. Jen
10. Jen
11. Drake
12. Jen
13. Jen
14. Jen
15. Jen
16. Jen
17. Jen
18. Drake
19. Jen
20. Jen
21. Jen
22. Jen
23. Jen
24. Jen
25. Jen
26. Jen
27. Jen
28. Jen
29. Jen
30. Jen
31. Jen
32. Drake
33. Jen
34. Jen
35. Jen
36. Jen
37. Jen
One more thing.
A Note from the Author
Hello.
Every time someone enjoys one of my books, I have a little ‘yay’ moment, so thank you for that.
Bug Magic is the second book in the Paranormals of Ahl series. If you haven’t read The Dragon Problem, Book 1 in the series, I suggest you start there, or some things might not make sense.
Trigger warnings and heads-up:
A heavy reference to past child abuse.
References to torture.
Violence throughout the book.
Profanity.
A romantic theme between a dragon shifter and a mage.
I’m not a spicy writer. The love scene(s) are fade-to-black.
The romance has an age gap (I know some people don’t like that).
Chapter one
Drake
Drake wrinkled his nose against the putrid stench of decaying food as he slipped through the back door. Dirty dishes, discarded receipts, and other garbage littered the kitchen. Unopened mail piled on the counter amid the other garbage told him he missed her.
The weathered two-story house on the outskirts of what the humans called Philadelphia was the third one he found in his year-long hunt for the second queen. She remained elusive and a step ahead of him. As if she knew he hunted her. The narrow staircase groaned as he climbed them. He stopped at the top and stretched his foot.
‘Creeeak.’ The sound echoed off the walls of the otherwise silent house.
He peered back down the stairs and waited. When the house remained quiet, he moved into the room. Half-empty glasses and some sort of human bottles sat abandoned on the nightstand. The blankets on the bed were a tangled mess, and clothing littered the floor. The distinct scent of decaying flowers and stale alcohol indicated it hadn’t been long since the second queen had lived in the house. His stomach soured.
Moving to the bathroom, he peered in. It held nothing but a bar of soap. He eased out of the room.
Halfway down the stairs, he froze. Was that a swish of clothing? Drake amplified his senses.
“This is not your task, First.” A dry voice floated up the stairs.
“What are you doing here, vampire?”
Tarquin appeared on the landing. “This is my case.”
They’d run into each other a few times during his hunt for the second queen. “She’s no longer here.”
“Of course not.” Tarquin pushed past him and disappeared into the bedroom.
“It is as if she knows when we’re coming.”
“Yes.” Tarquin’s blank brown eyes revealed no emotion as he emerged. “Odd since I do not report my whereabouts.”
“Nor do I.” Jenella opened the bond as they entered the kitchen, and his heart fluttered. “Jenella’s in Ferine.”
“She is finishing up a relocation case.” Tarquin shuffled through a stack of papers. “I do not know why she bothers with the mundane. It is a waste of her talents.”
“She is appeasing her brother. Same as you.” Drake picked up the stack of mail. He thought it clever that humans had an organized, affordable service for sending messages. Although, with all their electronic gadgets, he didn’t understand why they still used it. The mail was addressed to Amanda Smith. “She’s up to something.” He handed an envelope to Tarquin.
“She is hunting for the other Firsts and hides her intentions well.” A note of pride rang through Tarquin’s voice.
The familiar pang of longing made him pause. He’d requested she wake the other Firsts to save them from the hellish half-sleep not long after her incredible magic woke him. It didn’t surprise him that Jenella kept her word. Unlike her mother, she was honorable. “Has she found any of them?”
“I am not the foremost authority on all things Jenella.”
“Noted.”
“What do you plan to do when you find the former queen?” Tarquin asked as they slipped out the back door.
Drake breathed the fresh air to erase the disgusting odor of the house. It didn’t help. It coated his sensitive nose and would for a good while. “Eliminate her.”
Tarquin narrowed his eyes. “That is not wise.”
“What do you propose I do?”
“Tell Jen the truth.”
“You say that as if you’ve been honest with her.”
“I am working for the Regent. You are not.”
“The Regent forgets he works for the Queen.” Drake leaned forward. “That means you also work for her.”
“Your point?”
“That you have the balls to criticize me when you lie to her face.”
The vampire turned toward the back gate. “Oh, yes. It is my fault that she doesn’t know her mother is alive.”
Drake shook his head. “The information won’t sit well with her.”
“Correct. Which is why I will not utter a word.” Tarquin disappeared.
The world went dark, and sharp pain radiated through every inch of his body as Drake morphed into his dragon form. He shook his head as his vision and perspective adjusted and launched into the air. Dishonesty would kill any chance he had with Jenella. Yet, revealing the secret would also alienate her. She would hate him no matter what he did. He’d gotten the information by listening to a conversation that wasn’t his business. It wasn’t the first time he wished he could go back and make different choices. He dismissed the thought, launched into the sky, and flew toward Ferine.
Chapter two
Jen
Tall trees cast long shadows along the edge of a bubbling brook that flowed over rocks, making a joyful sound. A combination of trees, damp earth, and wildflowers perfumed the air. The place was perfect for a family of trolls to live. Perfect, if I overlooked the elves lurking in the trees, armed with various weapons, the three troll kids bickering on the center bridge, and the two dragons circling overhead. I doubted anyone else noticed the dragons because of their cloaking magic.
My troll clients were silent as they examined the three bridges and ignored the ear-splitting shrieks their kids made every few seconds. I scanned the trees where I sensed the elves. A tickle of excitement danced in my stomach. I’d never been in the pocket of Ferine before, nor had I met so many elves at one time. A branch near the kids wiggled. We needed to move this along before the elves got twitchy and killed my clients. “Will this work for your family?”
The patriarch of the troll family shifted from one foot to another. “Are you sure no kelpies reside in this water?”
It was a fair question. Kelpies and trolls were always fighting each other. The Troll King liked to charge the kelpies when they passed under bridges. The Kelpie Queen retaliated by driving the trolls out and taking over the water underneath them. They’d brought their dispute to the crown who ruled over all paranormals, or me and my brother, multiple times. Not that they knew I was the Queen of Ahl. I wore undetectable glamour made by one of the most powerful dragons in the world when I did my detective work.
The feud between trolls and kelpies continued, no matter how many solutions we offered. The ongoing tension between the leaders unsettled their people. That they couldn’t come to an agreement bothered me, so I jumped at the chance to help the troll family move to better bridges. “This stream is too small for kelpies. The bridges are on Greenwood Elf land, and they agreed to allow you to live here if you meet their conditions.” I’d spent hours negotiating with their stern-faced chief through a projection spell. He had a reputation for his temper and handled uninvited guests with violence. I liked the guy.
I pulled out my phone and brought up the list of demands. “You must respect the environment. They won’t charge you rent if you allow the elves to pass over the bridges for free. The Chief would like to discuss a noise ordinance and a few other things with you in person. He also wants you to help defend the land from trespassers.”
“Those are acceptable terms.”
“Yes. We can live with that,” the patriarch added. “Did the elves agree to allow us to use all three bridges?”
“Yes.” My eyes slid toward the trees.
“Very well. If you’ll excuse us, we wish to have a private discussion.”
“Sure. I’ll wait at the rocks.” I headed toward my guard, Tracy, who sat on a boulder working on her phone. Not that she had anything to guard me against. Since we’d taken out a demon and rescued the Dragon Queen, I’d stuck to helping regular paranormals with small things. I helped an ogre find an antique lamp stolen from his home and caught a gremlin who kept raiding a hive of pixies to steal their magic dust. My favorite case was in a pocket named Pyron, where I tracked down some stolen jewels for a mid-level tech mage.
I’d spent a lot of time helping the Rübezahl. The mountain guardians insisted I go to the pocket of Mage Mountain about once a month to solve some minor problem. One time, they hired me to find the person responsible for leaving footprints on the corner of their land. The tracks in the snow led to the mountain and then disappeared. It turned out to be a young goat shifter who got lost and veered the wrong way. He didn’t realize that he’d encroached on their territory until I explained it to his parents.
Another time, they hired me to warn a sasquatch family to stop running past their village screaming at night. It took me three days to track them down and warn them. The sasquatches claimed they’d come through the entrance on that side once. They’d messed with some human bigfoot hunters and were a little too wound up. In the end, they promised to be quiet in the future when they raced through the gate near the village.
The simple cases allowed me to meet a lot of regular paranormals and become a pretty good detective.
More than that, they allowed me to travel to other pockets, or small individual realms scattered around the world, where paranormals lived. Every time I went to a new one, I scanned for anomalies. I wanted to find the resting places of the Firsts, the paranormals who created the magical races. My mother had put them to sleep against their will before she died and I planned to right that wrong. Plus, I’d promised Drake, another First, to look for them.
The trick was not to tell anyone what I was doing. Especially my brother. He’d have a fit if he knew why I took cases in the various pockets. So far, I knew the general vicinity where two Firsts rested. I needed to catch a case that would take me back to those pockets and then try to repeat the magic I used to wake Drake.
My stomach fluttered at the thought of him, and I shifted on the rock. The minor cases gave me cover to search and made my brother back off with his safety measures. They also beat being kidnapped by the Bellicose, a group who wanted to eliminate me and take over the throne. And they were so much easier than fighting mind-controlled dragons and demons. Or so I told myself. If I bothered digging a little deeper, I’d have to face the fact that I was bored and restless.
Tracy dragged her eyes away from her phone. “Hey. You about wrapped up here?”
“I hope so. They seem to like this area.”
“Good. I’ve booked a hotel for tonight. I mean, we can see if there’s a transport heading back to Allure if you want, but I have a couple of potion clients in Ferine that I need to see.”
“That’s fine.” I pulled out my phone to check my messages. Verity, my assistant, sent one outlining the queen’s schedule for the next week. As queen, I had to remove my glamour and make appearances at the castle now and then. I tried to avoid it because I loved my freedom and wasn’t ready to take the throne. Besides, the one time I’d stepped up and tried to lead, my brother slapped me down, so I left him to carry out the duties as regent.
The second message was from an old acquaintance, Colonel Ballard. A level-headed and competent bear shifter who led the enforcers in the pocket of Hospa. I’d met him when mind-controlled dragons kidnapped us a while back and he’d later saved my life. His message asked me to call him when I had a moment. I slipped my phone into my pocket and stood as the troll couple approached. “Do you like it?”
“This place is acceptable,” the matriarch said.
“Great. Would you like to meet with the Elven Chief?”
“Yes.”
I whistled, and elves melted out of the woods from every direction. The Chief signaled the other elves to hang back as he glided toward us. He didn’t look any different from the other elves, with his long brown hair and bright blue eyes. He wore a green long sleeve T-shirt and khaki cargo pants. I introduced the two parties and waited while they worked out the rental agreement. When the magic contract settled over them, I collected my payment, and Tracy and I headed down the trail toward our car.
The pocket of Ferine was nestled in the rolling hills of a state humans named Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of a town called York. It held a picturesque, medium-sized city with charming architecture and several types of paranormals. While Ferine didn’t come close to rivaling the bustle of the capital where we lived, Allure, it held a certain charm that I adored. The downtown area had a range of accommodations for visitors, everything from luxury to basic, with a smattering of boutiques and a few restaurants.
The sweltering heat of late summer mirrored the human world, but the pocket had clean air thanks to the wards that kept it contained and included air filtration. Unlike Allure, Ferine allowed human vehicles inside. Against Tracy’s wishes, I’d rented a car with air conditioning in the human world.
I slid into the driver’s seat, started the car to cool it down, and called Colonel Ballard. He answered on the first ring. “Colonel Ballard.”
“Hey, Colonel. This is Jen Hendrix. You sent me a text?”
“Oh, hey, Jen. Yes. A friend of mine needs some help and doesn’t want to involve the local enforcers.”
I perked up. “What kind of help?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. He oversees a pride of leopards in Ferine and asked if I’d recommend a competent and discreet detective. Since you single-handedly rescued the Dragon Queen from my pocket without alerting the multiple spies, I recommended you.”
He referred to my first case where I’d gotten myself kidnapped by chimeras. I wasn’t conscious when they dragged me into his pocket and locked me in a cage. But he ignored that fact. “Right. Sounds dangerous to me. I try to avoid dangerous cases these days.” I’d almost died trying to save the Dragon Queen, Deva.
“He didn’t give me the impression that this one is dangerous. The pack needs someone with magic to solve a puzzle.”
I tapped my knee as I considered it. I didn’t have another case lined up, and I trusted Colonel Ballard’s judgment. “Okay. I’ll talk to him, but I make no promises. It just so happens I’m in the pocket of Ferine.”
“Great. When can I tell him to expect you?”
“We’ll head over now.” After I got directions to the compound, I ended the call.
As I pulled away from Elven territory, the car’s tires kicked up gravel. We skidded around a corner, and I stepped on the gas, rocketing toward the other side of town. Another car pulled out ahead, and I slammed on the brakes, swerved around it, and took the corner leading to the shifter compound too fast. The car fishtailed onto the dirt road, and I fought to recover. Excitement bubbled in my stomach as I swung into the gravel parking lot and skidded to a stop somewhat inside a parking spot. “You can work on your potions while I solve this if you want,” I said, as we climbed out of the car.
Tracy shook her head. “No. I’ll work around your case.”
We stopped in our tracks just inside the gates to the compound. Thick, inky black tendrils of magic oozed down the main path. Small offshoots stretched out in every direction and thinned into points. One led up the front steps of a cottage, while another wrapped around a tree. That one wiggled. I shuddered. “Ick. Are you seeing this?”
