Page 26 of Monsters of Mayhem

“They’re separate properties,” Eunice explained as she passed the large Victorian house that stood facing the street. “I like it here in the back where nobody can see me and nobody minds my business.”

I stared at the small Victorian house tucked away.

“It looks like it was built over a hundred years ago,” I murmured.

“It was,” Eunice responded. “They sectioned off these properties a long time ago. This parcel was divided in two and the back was sold off.”

“You could only buy it because you are a witch?” I asked.

“No,” Eunice said. “You don’t really understand how the DGC works do you?”

“I don’t really understand anything,” I murmured as she opened the door with a wave of her hand. We walked in and a blue light went up around the door and along the wall.

“No harm can come to those who are here.” She said the words as if she was reciting a carefully constructed line.

Then I realized it was a spell.

“The house is warded and protected. They can still come to the door but they won’t disturb us.”

“What if they ask to come inside?” I asked. “It looked like they were doing a door-to-door search as we walked through here.”

“Don’t you mind . Why don’t you go and get in the shower and clean off,” she said. “Nothing personal, but you do have a bit of grime around you.”

“Thanks,” I said with a grin. “A bit of honesty.”

“Towels are in the cupboard above the back of the toilet,” she said.

I smiled, thanking her. There was something I really appreciated about Eunice. She had a quirky motherly feeling. If I wasn’t so old, I would’ve thought of her more as a grandmother but she was about my mother’s age. It was weird getting older. The people I thought should be grandparents were parents. The people you thought were parents were your age. I felt a twinge in my stomach at the thought. I guess it was because I never had kids.

I had always wanted them, but by the time I found Ryder, we would’ve needed to make babies immediately and not only was he not interested in it, but he was also always gone, so it made it virtually impossible. Now I knew why. He was a monster. If we had a child, well, our child would be a monster also.

A hand instinctively went over my slightly round stomach. It was strange I was still feeling the need to have a child even though I was past childbearing years. I knew it was still possible to get pregnant, but it was improbable. To say the least.

I stripped off all my clothes and took a deep breath before I turned the water on. Didn’t take long for the water to get hot and soon I was standing under a steamy hot shower.

I was in the shower when I heard the knock on the door. It was more than a knock; it was more of a pounding.

I kept the shower running because well, Eunice said she would handle it and if I did anything like turn the water off, I would maybe mess with whatever mojo she was doing.

I was shocked when I heard the sound of clumping on the wooden floor throughout the small house. Satyrs were inside, and they were looking in every room.

I couldn’t hear more over the water, but I decided to just stand there and close my eyes and hope to God, they didn’t find me. I jumped with a start and swung around to clap my hand over my mouth to stop from screaming as a tall dark satyr ripped open the shower curtain and looked inside. He stared straight at me, his eyes narrowing. I jumped out of the spray of the water and for whatever reason he didn’t seem to see me. I was hunched in the back of the shower and the water was just flowing. I glanced down at my arms. I was still visible but he didn’t see me regardless.

He gave a snort like a beast, sniffed the air a couple of times, and then turned and walked out of the bathroom. I heard him walk through the house and the front door shut before I felt safe turning off the water. I grabbed a towel and shrank down into a crouching position in the bathroom, just trying to breathe. I felt like I lost two years of my life in that startling moment.

“Are you okay?” Eunice asked, opening the door.

“Doesn’t anyone knock around here?” I asked. “Doesn’t anyone notice there’s a middle-age naked woman in the shower?”

“When you’ve been around all this as long as most of the supernaturals have, things like nudity don’t really have the same impact they have to humans,” Eunice said. “We’ve all seen each other a million times, you know, in principle. A lot of supernaturals when they shifted around with their junk hanging out. It’s not really that big of a deal.”

“I’m not supernatural yet, am I,” I insisted.

“I made you some soup,” Eunice said. “I put some of my daughter’s clothes out for you so you can have a change of clothes. You sure smell a lot better now.”

It took me about fifteen minutes to pull myself together, dry off, and wrap my hair in a towel. The leggings and tank top she left out for me fit me perfectly and I put them on gratefully. She even left me a pair of flip-flops I could slip on my feet, so I was finally padding around in something other than my bare skin.

I sat down at the small dining room table. We were in an eat-in kitchen, which I really loved. There were herbs and dried foliage hanging from every hook in the ceiling throughout the entire place. She had stacks of candles in the corner and an altar set up with a candle and incense burning.

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