"They'd been told you didn't accept surrenders, or the three who lived believe the others would have knelt down as well."

  "I'll try to remember that for next time."

  "Hopefully there won't be a next time."

  Caitin and Jade came up to the table and set down several large plates of food, which all three of them immediately picked bits of food off of and ate it as he sighed and tried to purr in his incubus form.

  "Let me eat, and then let's go home. I think spending the next day or two in bed sounds like a good idea, don't you?"

  "Yes, we do," Jade said as Talin and Caitin smiled and nodded in agreement.

  Back to Work

  Monday morning, Mihalis and his wives were just beginning a second day of doing nothing when Talin's phone rang.

  "It's for you," she said and passed it over to him. "It's Troy."

  "Troy? What's up?"

  "I need you to catch a flight out to Kansas City and rejoin the campaign."

  "Why?"

  "Because I need to take care of something, so you get to cover for me."

  "I don't know, Troy."

  "Mihalis, please ."

  "Whoa, you called me by my full name!" Mihalis said with a laugh.

  "I asked Mom Dae to come and pick you up a couple hours after sunset. You can catch a charter from the base out to Kansas City and pick up with Steve in the morning."

  "How long?"

  "Well, it's four stops, then a three-day break. After that, four more tours, with two days between each of 'em. This is the final stretch."

  "Fine, we'll do it."

  "Great, and don't hit Steve."

  "Huh?"

  "Mike, this one's on me. I dropped a lead, and it's my fault. If you wanna punch someone, I'll give you a free shot after I get things wrapped up."

  "You sure about that, Troy?"

  "Yeah, I am. Now I gotta go make things right, so please play nice and all that other shit Dad always used to tell us."

  "Okay. Later, Troy."

  "Bye."

  "What was that all about?" Taeria asked as Mihalis passed Talin's phone back to her.

  "Well, we're back on the campaign trail."

  "Yeah, we gathered that. But what was that other part?"

  "Apparently Troy thinks what happened to us is his fault."

  "How can that be?" Kerrie asked.

  Mihalis shook his head. "No idea, but this is Troy we're talking about, and if he's taking responsibility, he's all shades of pissed."

  "What I want to know is, are you going to punch him?" Talin asked, putting her phone away.

  Mihalis frowned. "Maybe."

  "Well, don't forget to call Noje and Harmony and tell them you can't go biskop hunting this week."

  "Oh! Right. I'll see if we can get a flight back during the three-day break. Hopefully they'll have found one by then."

  "Or we could go get one right now," Harmony said, walking into the bedroom and throwing Mihalis' clothes at him.

  "Don't you knock?" he grumbled.

  "I seem to recall asking you that one once," she said, and Mihalis blushed. "Now, get your gear on. Any of you girls want to join us?"

  "I'm up!" Taeria said, scrambling out of the bed.

  "Does this require wings?" Jade asked.

  "Sadly, yes, or you'd be more than welcome."

  "Fine," Mihalis said, and getting out of bed, he put on his clothes. "Where'd you find one?"

  "About a thirty-minute flight to the southeast."

  "That far out?"

  "I slipped Peg a bribe, and she used the recon aircraft to find us one."

  "Ouch! Don't tell Dad!"

  "With how much she's charging us? Hell, no! He'd laugh at how badly we got taken. At least I can put this on my expense report to Ruxton."

  "Well, let me get my rifle, and we can head up to the roof. Just understand, we need to be back here by sunset."

  "Oh, we're planning to get back here a lot sooner than that! Trust me."

  "So what's the plan?" Mihalis asked as they winged their way off to the southeast. There were five of them: Cinnamon, Taeria, Noje, Harmony, and him.

  "Kill everyone with him, then subdue him and tie him up?" Noje replied over the radio. They were all wearing headsets so they could talk while flying.

  "And how many are with this biskop?"

  "A ridder, four råge, and around two dozen bonde."

  "That's all?"

  "SJ killed his lord up at the mountain, and apparently without his guidance, he's been having a lot of problems. When Ennakoida invaded and gathered up the other biskops and their underlings, this one ran. Peg thinks he's running to Lord Basun."

  "He's not trying to self-promote to a lord?"

  "If he was, he must have failed at it, because he's got next to nothing left."

  "Afgift, his former lord, probably took his best people with him," Harmony said, joining the conversation. "Leaving competent troublemakers behind probably wasn't something he wanted to do."

  "Good point," Mihalis agreed. "Noje, Harmony, you two can engage the biskop; I'll go for the ridder. Cinn and Tae can go for the råge. Once I kill the ridder, I'll help them mop up any remaining råge, and then the three of us will take out the bonde. Once that's done, we can all focus on helping you two subdue the biskop."

  "Sounds like a plan," Cinnamon agreed, "but how are we supposed to subdue a biskop without killing it?"

  "Let's start off with paralyzation and sleep spells," Noje suggested. "Then if that doesn't work, we'll try mental domination, and after that, maybe our 'cubi abilities? We just need to tire him out so we can roll him up in that netting, then get those iron chains around him. "

  "It's all worth a shot. I'm pretty sure the 'cubi stuff will work if nothing else does."

  "Why's that?"

  "Because 'cubi are the part of dark elves that's demonic based, so if anything is gonna work, I'd think that would."

  Mihalis nodded to himself in agreement. What Cinnamon said agreed with what they'd learned.

  "Well, look sharp," Harmony said, "because he's down in the wash on the other side of this ridgeline."

  Mihalis, Cinnamon, and Taeria unlimbered their rifles as Harmony and Noje readied their swords. Diving down, they cleared the ridge by just a few feet and stayed close to the ground as they quickly came upon the small caravan of djevels. The råge were driving the bonde before the biskop and his ridder; the bonde were harnessed to four small carts they were pulling.

  Noje and Harmony moved over to the left as they lined up for the biskop, Cinnamon and Taeria moved further right to go after the råge closest to the front of the column, and Mihalis brought his rifle up to target the ridder.

  Værktøj grumbled to himself as he watched Redskab keeping his råge under control so the bonde didn't upset their carts—again. He couldn't afford to lose any more of his cargo. Prince Talt had been cultivating a large number of taika käyttäjä eggs for the next phase of his planned attack on the lions when he'd met his end. Værktøj knew Lord Ennakoida and his prince hadn't gotten along, but Lord Basun had been quite cooperative. Why his prince hadn't taken Lord Basun as another of his lords, Værktøj was never quite sure, but it wasn't his place to be sure. It was his place to oversee the care of the eggs, and once they'd hatched, to see that they were raised properly so they evolved into powerful magic users for his prince to use.

  He wasn't happy about the eggs he'd had to destroy to keep them out of Lord Ennakoida's possession, but he'd still saved almost half of them. He was sure a gift such as this would earn him a good position among Lord Basun's biskops. Certainly a far better one than Lord Ennakoida would ever have given him.

  Especially now that he'd destroyed so many taika käyttäjä eggs, which had taken Prince Talt a good many duodaers to gather and cultivate due to their rarity.

  Just then he notice the front two råge using their whips on the bonde pulling the first two carts as they squealed in fear.

  "Redskab!" he said, pointing forward as his ridder looked back at him.

  "Yes, my biskop?" Redskab inquired, and then his head exploded as the bodies of the two råge at the front jerked and almost danced before falling to the ground.

  Turning to the left as he drew his swords, Værktøj let out a loud oath. Winged demons! He'd heard about them, and how they liked to feast on the bonde, and even the råge! Obviously, they'd become braver and now sought to feast on those sworn to him, thinking him an easy meal, caught out here in such small numbers.

  They would soon learn that Værktøj feared none, while many feared Værktøj!

  Moving to engage the two winged demons, he crossed swords with the two of them, fighting furiously. It soon became apparent to him that neither of them were a match for him, as they rarely touched him! All they were doing was preventing him from stopping the other three, one of which was much larger than the others, from protecting the bonde pulling his carts, his råge now melting under the cursed infernal sun of this new world.

  Now that he knew their goal, Værktøj moved to protect his bonde, as he needed those carts to secure his position with Lord Basun. One of the two he was fighting called out to the others, and the larger one turned and came to their aid, while the remaining two continued to kill his precious bonde, who were still struggling to remove the traces that tied them to their carts.

  "Mike! We could use your help if we're not going to kill him!" Noje yelled.

  Turning from slaughtering the bonde that were trying to untie the lines keeping them tethered to the carts, he saw the biskop moving to defend the carts. Obviously he'd realized neither Noje nor Harmony were a threat to him.

  Bringing his sword around to join the girls as they tried to drive the biskop back, he left the destruction of the bonde to Cinnamon and Taeria. Trying to push it back without severely damaging or killing it was not only hard, it was getting him wounded in the process! Swearing, he threw paralyzation and sleep spells at it, as well as any other enfeebling spells that came to mind, burning through his mana quickly.

  Noje saw Mihalis casting and did the same, Harmony quickly following. The spells were having an effect, but nothing like they'd been hoping for.

  "I'm running out of mana!" Noje called out.

  "Use the power pool!" Mihalis called back.

  "Huh?"

  "Ask your lioness!"

  "Ing says until she's out of my head, I can't touch it!"

  Mihalis swore as he took a cut across the chest. He switched to his incubus powers and went immediately to Bend Will on the biskop. Seeing that, Noje and Harmony did the same.

  " What do we do with the carts?" Taeria called.

  "Burn 'em!" Mihalis growled and pumped as much power as he could into the ability as the biskop suddenly fell to his knees, dropping his weapons, begging and pleading for his life and the eggs in the carts.

  They all dropped their packs, and Noje and Harmony wrapped the biskop in plastic, using the same rolls Mihalis had used to help Marx palletize stuff back in Sawyer's warehouse.

  As Cinnamon cast fire spells on the carts and they blossomed into flames, Mihalis noticed the biskop had lost his will to fight and just gave up, resigning himself to his fate.

  "Maybe we should've burned the carts first?" Taeria said to him, noticing the biskop's surrender as well.

  "Maybe. Now, help me with these chains and the sling. Carrying this back is not going to be easy."

  Værktøj gave up as the winged demon, who had powers such as he'd only seen back when his prince was still alive, ordered him to submit. He'd begged for the eggs in the cart, but his pleas had been ignored.

  He was quickly bound in some substance he'd never seen before, then chains that would've burned him if not for the substance tightly wrapped around him.

  When he was picked up off of the ground and carried up into the sky, he wondered what was in store for him next. The substance that bound him, while clear, didn't allow him to see his surroundings very well. Not that he would've recognized things from above, he was sure. He realized now they could have killed him from the strength of the power that had forced him to submit. That thought buoyed his spirits. Obviously he had worth, value. Perhaps they meant for him to serve them? Perhaps the big one was planning to breed the smaller ones and needed someone to guard the eggs they would lay?

  That would explain why they'd killed all but him, the one in charge of protecting the eggs he'd been taking to Lord Basun. That would also explain the destruction of the eggs, because breeding demons never allowed a competitor's eggs to survive to compete for the same resources as their own offspring.

  Værktøj had had to protect the eggs more than once from others whose instincts had driven them to try to destroy the ones he'd been guarding for his former prince.

  When he suddenly felt ground beneath him once again, he noticed it was no longer as bright as it had been before, and when the chains were suddenly removed, he realized he was in a small room, by himself.

  Struggling, it took him a while to free himself, until he realized he could use his claws to cut the material that was binding him. Once he'd finished freeing himself, he looked around his new home. There were no entrances or exits; the walls were either metal, or some sort of material he could almost see through.

  He wondered, as he examined this new place, what its purpose was. With no openings, how had he come to be here, and how would he leave?

  "Looks like you were right about our 'cubi powers," Mihalis said to Cinnamon as they looked through the heavy one-way glass on this side of the chamber. "Bend Will and Intimidation worked pretty well."

  Noje and Harmony joined them then, hauling a heavy looking set of welding gear.

  "Well, that should hold him," Harmony said.

  "We loaded some food for him while we were up there as well," Noje added. "Now, before we let the researchers in here, let's go over all the security procedures and the emergency protocols."

  "I'm gonna head back home," Mihalis said. "I got stuff to pack, and it's after six already. Hauling that sucker back was hard ."

  "As you're not going to be here, I guess you don't need to hear it. The big thing is, no one's allowed in here unless one of us is. In a pinch, Sampson can sit in for us, but that's only for emergencies; we don't want anyone figuring out what he is. Now, let's go over the controls first…"

  Mihalis left as Noje reviewed everything with Harmony and Cinnamon. The sun would be setting soon, and he wanted to make sure everything in the Auction House was secure and the guards knew what to do. While all three of his sisters were still living there, only one of them would be there at any time. Then of course, he'd have to pack his clothes for the trip, if the girls hadn't taken care of that for him.

  He thought for a few moments as he walked back about the biskop's reaction when he'd used his incubus powers on it. He'd used a lot more than his sisters had, because they didn't have access to the power pool like he did—something he hadn't realized until they'd told him. That also gave him a few thoughts about how their powers worked versus his. But getting back to how his incubus powers had worked, he'd been more than a little surprised. It was definitely something he'd have to talk to his father or the First about. That was an aspect of their 'cubi powers he hadn't thought about, and it might be useful in the future.

  It did, however, seem to prove the djevels who'd originally mated with the elves to create the dark elves, the original 'cubi, had come from the Onderwereld. He wondered what exactly their history was, because he was fairly certain the current breed of djevels couldn't mate with anything , much less elves.

  He made it back to the Auction House unmolested, thankfully. He did see several guards on their patrols, especially down in the nicer districts. Going inside, he went to their private quarters to see what the girls were up to.

  "Ah! There you are! Taeria just got back a few minutes ago and tells us everything went okay?" Kerrie asked.

  "I had to haul it myself," Mihalis admitted, "though Cinnamon was able to cast a spell on it to lighten the load a little."

  "Ugh."

  "Did anybody pack my suits?"

  "Seeing as you never unpacked them, no."

  "Umm… yeah. Forgot about that."

  "Obviously."

  "Where are Caitin and Talin?"

  "They just ran off to their mom's, now that Taeria's back."

  "Huh? What did they need her for?"

  "Because you weren't here?" Kerrie said, giving him a mischievous look.

  "You know, you're not too old or too big to spank, my little vixen. Now, what's going on?"

  "Those three dark elf girls?"

  "What about them?"

  "They want to stay and work for Shaylee."

  "They do?"

  Kerrie nodded. "They feel they're safer here right now than back at your family's house, because as long as they're here, everyone will think they're dead."

  "So what does that have to do with Talin, Caitin, and especially Taeria?"

  "Taeria is House Valens, and as a dark elf, she knows all the right oaths and stuff they have to swear."

  "Azure could've handled that."

  "Ah, but Taeria's a succubus, so she can use her powers to ensure they're swearing true."

  "They must really be worried, if they want to stay here."

  "I have a sneaking suspicion, based on what Beri and Azure have each told me, that working at HoJo's for Shaylee is a paradise compared to how they were living back in House Uunregarten. They really are low status women. Probably the only one among them who had any status was the one with the wand that you slew."

  "Well, let's go do the rounds, talk with the guards one last time, and once the others are back, I guess we'll wait up on the roof for Mom Daelyn to come get us."

  "Are you okay with going back to do this?" Kerrie asked him with a serious look on her face.

  He sighed. "Mostly. I know Rik and Az enjoy it. I got the impression the rest of you liked doing it too?"

  "It's fun and interesting, and becoming friends with the next president of the United States isn't a bad deal, either. But if this is really going to bother you, we'll all be more than happy to pull up stakes and come back home, Michael."