Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So… this is, like, one of The Nails?” Inari asked slowly, as she looked over the sword, with the rusty (she was pretty sure that it was rust, at least) nail that had been set into the hilt.

She was hardly the religious girl that Molly (or any of the female Carpenters) were, but she was at least a western citizen, had been one her whole life, and that meant that she knew about the Crucifixion.

“Yeah!” Molly grinned. “That’s what Dad always told us. He always said that we couldn’t leave the house with it though, unless he or mom were with us.”

“Since you might get jumped by a vampire or something trying to get rid of it?” Inari guessed.

For a few seconds, Molly’s face looked a little embarrassed, but it faded quickly “Yeah, that’s it!”

“Mom said one time when Molly was younger she got arrested for taking it out in public and Dad had to get a lawyer to get the sword back from the police!”

“Daniel!” Molly sputtered.

Inari felt a burst of laughter emerging. She didn’t try to fight it.

Chapter Text

Sometimes, life and God just decide to throw you these curveballs. Things you didn’t see coming and had no idea were there.

For instance, today, I discovered that some men have radar that allows them to find women who are already dating someone and decide to flirt with them.

Aunt Harry never told me about this...

“So, well, I haven’t really had any dates in a while. Ol’ Ramirez charm must have scared em’ off!” Carlos said, tossing me a grin that should have been banned by the Geneva convention.

“Er, thanks, but can we set up the veils before we try to do this?” I replied, trying to diverge the topic. “I’m not really that good at multitasking yet.”

“Oh! Er, sorry, guess I was laying it on a bit too thick there.” Carlos replied, throwing me another smile, this time more subdued and paying more attention to the illusions we were setting up.

“It’s fine!” I said quickly. “It’s nice and all, but… well, I’m still an apprentice, and I’d rather not have something go wrong with my boss right there.” There, that ought to be safe.

“You’re an apprentice? Because these are some of the best veils I’ve ever seen.” Carlos looked rather impressed.

I’ll admit it, I was flattered. “Really? Thanks!”

Carlos gave me another devastating grin. “What can I say? Pretty work for a pretty girl. Cute and talented!”

I forced my eyes back to the building. It took me more effort than I’d like to admit.

Do not blush. I do not want Harry teasing me in front of Inari about how somebody besides her seduced me. Do not blush.

Chapter Text

Molly Carpenter had, her whole life, been fairly good at being her parent’s daughter. Her dad was awesome! He was a knight, a REAL one! Not like those jerks in the middle ages that he always told her about who had been a part of the Crusades.

Admittedly, having to go to Catholic school could be annoying with the dress code, but she had never had doubts in her faith.

She had met angels. It was kind of hard to not believe in God after that.

Well, she had been good at being her parent’s daughter. Up until a few hours ago.

“Inari! Inari, calm down! It’s gonna be okay!” She exclaimed, holding the older girl (woman?) in her arms as she tried to stop her from hyperventilating. She wasn’t having much success.

“Oh god. Oh god.”

Could she really blame her, though? If she had just found out that her family was composed of succubi and had been lying to her for her entire life…

Well, yeah. Anyone would be freaking out.

“T-that’s what happened to the guards. Why they never talked. T-theydid that to them! And D-dad was going to do it to me!”

Molly’s mind pointed out that unlike the guards, who didn’t seem to do much of anything unless they were told, Lara and the rest of the Raiths could think for themselves.

But given what she’d heard Lord Raith did to Lara, from Lara herself, that probably wasn’t much better.

“T-that’s what happened to him.”

“Huh? Who are you talking about?” Molly asked.

Inari breathed in, clearly trying to calm herself down. “I barely ever think about this, but… when I was younger, like six or seven, we went to the Mediterranean to see some of dad’s associates. We took one of our boats to get there, and on the way we were attacked by pirates. Lara sent me to my cabin with some of our mercenaries.”

“...Yeah?” After several seconds without anyone talking, Molly felt Inari should continue.

Inari gave her a look filled with pain. “Halfway there, we were all attacked by two guys with guns, and after they shot up one of my guards, Lara found us and jumped them. She got them, but they shot her too, and she didn’t seem bothered.”

Molly winced, already knowing where this story was going.

“She told me to go to my cabin, and said that she’d take care of the guy who got shot after she got fixed up.”

Inari started to breathe more heavily.

“I never saw him again, and oh god. Lara ate him, she drank him like he was milk, and I’m going to be like her!" Inari burst out into hysterics.

“Hey, calm down! You’re not going to-” Molly began to reach out towards Inari.

“Go away!” she yelled.

Before Molly could even realize what was going on, the ceiling had suddenly gotten much closer.

Later, she realized that Inari had somehow tossed her across the room - and thankfully, just into her bed.

Before Molly could figure out what was happening, she suddenly felt… weird. Like, she just wanted to rip her pants off, and her shirt, and -

Holy crap, when had Inari become so attractive -

Whoa! Hold up! I’m supposed to be straight! Molly yelled at herself mentally.

It didn’t work.

As she looked up, Molly saw something that she would recall the rest of her life.

Inari Raith looking down at her, more beautiful than anyone she had ever seen outside of Thomas or Lara, with an expression of pure starvation on her face and her eyes rippling like pools of mercury.

Chapter Text

BLAMMM! BANG! CRASH!

The Fourth of July at the Carpenter’s house was always a magical time - while nobody in the family was a patriot, none of them needed much of a excuse to have a party. As long as their parents didn't argue.

The “magical” part was more literal this year, though, and the spark fountains and smoke bombs Michael and Daniel had planned to set off lay forgotten.

Molly wasn’t sure how Harry had gotten the Summer Lady to be their fireworks technician.

“Wow!”

Molly fought down the twinge of jealousy that came over her as Inari watched Lily’s display with total awe, ignoring the streaks of flame in the air in favor of watching her girlfriend.

She never looks at me like that…

“Jealous, grasshopper?”

Molly just gave Harry a Look (which she had gotten from her mother). However, she wasn’t as good at it as Charity was, and it rolled right off Harry.

Harry just smiled back. “Don’t worry, kid. She’s in love with you, not Lily.”

Molly thought out several retorts - that Harry didn’t know that for sure with someone as pretty as Lily was. That they had only been going out for a few months, and Inari could change her mind about “them” at any time.

“Molly? Why aren’t you watching?”

But Inari spoke up, and her interest in her boss vanished.

“Huh?” Molly turned around to Inari, absently noticing the rest of the Carpenters - as well as Fix, Mouse, and Maggie - all watching the display with wide eyes.

“Why aren’t you watching the fireworks? Everyone else is - they’re beautiful!”

As if to accentuate the point, Lily fired off a sphere of flame that erupted like a spiral galaxy, with colors that hadn’t been seen in the mortal world for centuries.

Molly didn’t care, and beamed at the other girl. “So are you.”

As Inari smiled back, Harry left. It was clear to her that this was private time for the two teenagers.

It was quiet for several seconds after that.

Inari spoke first.

“I love you.”

There it was.

Those words.

Molly and Inari had been saying them to each other ever since they started dating.

The words that could free Inari from her demon.

The words that Molly knew would drive her mother crazy if Charity knew she’d said them.

And the words that neither of them were that certain they meant.

So as the fireworks burst over their heads in beautiful display, keeping everyone else occupied, Molly hugged her girlfriend.

“I love you too.”

And as Inari replied with a quick kiss, Molly hoped that, one day, she’d be able to say those words and know she truly meant them.

Chapter Text

It really didn’t make any sense to Inari that she was so hungry. She’d eaten less than two hours ago with Lara and Molly, before Molly took her to her house - but she was so hungry!

And for some reason, when she looked at Molly, she felt that hunger only get stronger. It was overwhelming her mind, overwhelming her reasoning - which was trying to tell her something.

But whatever it was, it could wait until she wasn’t hungry.

Not knowing or caring why, she jumped onto the bed with the other girl, and felt a grin spreading across her face, with no idea where it came from.

Then, Molly (who was not exactly running on logic at the moment) captured her lips with her own.

Inari couldn’t fight it any longer then, couldn’t fight the wave of pleasure that washed through both of them, and felt herself reaching out in a realm not physical, to do something she had no idea about before today -

Stop.

Then, she heard the Voice.

For the rest of her life, Inari would remember that voice. It wasn’t human, not by any understanding of hers - not even like the voices of her family when their eyes turned silvery.

It was vast, big beyond her father’s, but - different.

Where her father’s voice was long consumed by Hunger, this voice was consumed by something… different.

Compassion. Caring. Love.

And with a start, she remembered where she was, and her hunger suddenly vanished.

“Inari? What’s wrong?” Molly asked, looking at the other girl with a wide-eyed look of confusion.

“I - I was about to -” Inari felt herself shivering as she started to hyperventilate again.

“Inari! Did I do something? What’s wrong?” Molly asked, still partly under the succubus’s spell.

“I was about to feed on you.” Inari said flatly, before she got up and walked towards the door.

“Whoa! Inari, you can’t go, you have to stay here so your dad won’t go after you or something!” Molly said, pulling the other girl back down.

“Molly, snap out of it!” Inari yelled. “I could have killed you!”

That got the other girl’s attention.

I was - whoa. Hastily, Molly tried to focus on her room. On the things Aunt Harry had told her about throwing off psychic attacks. She tried very hard to not focus on Inari, and didn’t succeed.

“I can’t stay here.” Inari decided. “I - I could kill one of you. I have to go.”

“So what? You can kill someone else instead?” Molly countered. “I was there for when Lara told you about this, remember?”

Inari stopped moving at the doorway. Then, slowly, she spoke again.  “I - if i’m going to kill somebody if, well, i’m going to be a monster, I’m going to do somewhere else. Far away from here, where I can’t hurt you.”

“Hey, nobody said you had to kill anyone, remember?” Molly was off her bed now, and was behind Inari, holding her shoulder. “Lara told you that you could get out of it.”

Inari shook her head. “You don’t get it - it was - overwhelming. I couldn’t even think about anything besides filling it up, and -” Inari stopped mid sentence as her eyes widened. “That’s it. That’s why Lara and Thomas have to do it. They’re like that - all the time.”

Molly wasn’t sure what to say about that. So she just hugged her instead.

Inari smiled sadly. “Thanks, Molly. But… Bobby has to go.”

“What?” Molly looked confused from the non sequitur.

“Sorry. They managed to get all of the shots done in another studio, after Harry deflected the curse, so Arturo says they should be able to negotiate for a new contract.” Inari replied. “But they’re barely staying afloat already, so they can’t hire anyone for now.”

“Couldn’t you be an intern?”

“Maybe? I guess.” The demi-succubi shrugged. “But Bobby doesn’t know about any of this. The whole… vampire thing. And how could I tell him about this?”

Her voice took on a mocking tone. “‘Hey, I’ve gotta fall in love with you and vice-versa or I could turn into a vampire and kill you!’”

Molly looked amazed. “You - you’re worried about someone not falling in love with you?”

“Yeah. What, are you in love with me?” Inari said in a joking tone.

There was a brief silence. Nobody broke it for several seconds.

And when Molly spoke, it was very carefully. “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever known. You aren’t driven off by me being all magical and everything. And… you’re really nice.”

Molly gave her a weak smile.

“Er, go out with me?”

Chapter Text

As I walked through the Carpenter’s house towards the workshop in the back, I wondered how my life had come to this.

Charity was out, taking all of the kids to school, and wouldn’t be back for at least half an hour - I had checked before, and she took her time with this. Michael was home alone, making lunch for himself and his wife.

Which was good. I did not want her to overhear this.

“Michael, can we talk?” I asked as I entered the room.

Blinking, he looked up. “Of course, Harry. What is it?”

I winced. “It’s… about Molly. And Inari. I figured that you should know.” And if you tell Charity, then I won’t have to.

He nodded slowly. “Yes?”

“You remember what Thomas told you, about how Raiths can kill their Hunger off?”

“Yes. Romantically, they have to love someone else and be loved in return.” he replied, nodding.

“Yeah.” I replied carefully. “At least, before they feed the first time. If they’re already a White Courter and they feed on someone they love, it won’t kill their Hunger, and they’re still stuck as a vampire.”

An image passed through my mind, for a single second.

Thomas and Justine, down in the garden of the Raiths, with the now white-haired girl in a wheelchair. Thomas kissing her - and coming away from it with burned lips.

“Harry, why are you telling me this?” Michael asked. “I already know it.”

“Well… Inari has to feed on Molly. The first time she feeds, before her Hunger emerges fully. And if they’re in love, when her Hunger does emerge, it will die and neither of them will get hurt.” I said carefully.

Michael frowned as he spoke. “Harry, didn’t you tell me that White Court vampires feed by…”

He trailed off. Judging by the dazed look on his face, I could tell that he understood what I meant - and that before, he hadn’t quite connected the dots. Or at least, how they related to Molly.

“ Oh .” He said. He blinked.

“Yeah.” I shrugged.

"There's... no other way?" He asked carefully. "She has to feed on her?"

"Yeah." I said. "Unless you want the two of them to split up and Inari to find somebody else to fall in love with. And what do you think the odds are of Molly agreeing, anyways?"

Michael's only response was to sigh and shake his head.

I shrugged and headed towards the door. "Sorry, Michael."

The rest of what I was thinking didn't leave my head, though.

But there's no way I'm explaining to Charity that her daughter is going to have to have pre-marital sex...

Chapter Text

“Seriously! What’s wrong with me?!”

Inari had rarely been so insulted in her life.

She and the Carpenters had been planning a day out for almost a week now, after Molly had talked her father into letting her come with them.

But the second that she walked out of the downstairs bathroom, Charity told her to go back in!

“That is not appropriate for swimming!” Charity countered as she looked over Inari’s clothing, which… did cover all of her body parts that could be considered “reproductive”, at least.

Not much else, though.

“Something wrong, mom - whoa.” Daniel began to ask what was wrong as he walked up the stairs, stopping dead the second he saw Inari.

“Hey, hands off!”

As one, the other three turned around, as Molly dropped the veil she had been holding up and walked forward to stand behind Inari.

“Hey!” Inari shot a smile at the blonde, before she frowned. “Wait, you were behind me. Molly, were you peeking?”

“No need to peek.” Molly looked extremely pleased as she looked over Inari.

Charity shot Molly a look that said they would be talking about this later.

Inari sighed in exasperation. “Seriously, what is wrong with me to you people?”

Daniel spoke up carefully. “Er, Inari? Your brother and sister are demons, Aunt Harry told us?”

If looks could do harm, the way Inari glared at Daniel would have blasted him through the wall of the house. “They’re my family . Watch it.”

Daniel nodded in apology.

Then, she sighed. “And they're mostly human, but… yeah, they’re incubi. Why?”

Daniel shrugged. “Just… why do you think that they would have the same views on swimwear as us?”

“...I see your point, but I didn’t bring any other swimming gear with me.” Inari admitted.

“I have some old swimsuits downstairs.” Charity interjected. “Maybe one of them will fit you better.”

As the three walked downstairs, Molly followed them, stopping to throw up a weak anti-sound veil and take in the sight of Inari. “Killjoy…”

Chapter Text

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Molly yelled as she moved towards the door. “Middle of the freaking night…” she muttered under her breath.

As she opened the door, though, her bad mood evaporated.

“Aunt Harry!” Molly felt her heart start to speed up as she saw her adoptive family member (and her first crush) standing on the porch, heavily leaning on her staff.

And the five people standing behind her, none of which looked like they were doing any better than she was.

And four of them had grey cloaks.

Woah. Wardens. “Er, come on in, please!” Molly said quickly, gesturing to the doorway and stepping back. “Aunt Harry, should-”

“If the question is, “should I get mom and dad”, then yes.” The tall woman stated.

“Dad’s out Knighting!” Molly replied as she ran up the stairs and started pounding on her mother’s door.

It took almost half a minute of knocking frantically before Charity answered.

“Molly, what in the world?” Charity muttered sleepily, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to chase out the weariness.

“Aunt Harry’s here, and she brought her friends! And they all need help, like now!” Molly quickly said, before running to the bathroom to find the medical kit.

“You have our deepest gratitude, Mrs. Carpenter.” Luccio stated, before wincing as Charity started the process of stitching up her sword wounds.

“Thank me later by sending me some money so that we can afford to replace the electrical systems.” Charity muttered. The lights - which had only turned back on recently (after the Darkhallow was dispersed, specifically), were already starting to flicker occasionally, with five additional magic-users in the house all in high (or low) spirits.

“And how’d you all get like this?” Molly questioned as she walked in from the kitchen, carrying a coffee pot and several mugs.

Four Wardens, plus Aunt Harry, and they all looked like they had gone through a warground. She didn’t even want to know what the heck could have done this.

Luccio, Morgan, and Harry all gave each other a Look.

Eventually, Luccio spoke up.

“There were several warlocks in Chicago. They were attempting to perform a spell that could only be done tonight.”

“They’re not a problem anymore, but they all had a ton of backup.” Carlos continued. “Necromancers.”

Luccio winced as Charity’s next stitch came down with a little more force than it should have.

“Um, is something going on here?”

Several of the eyes in the room went to the two who had just gotten to the bottom of the staircase. A young woman and a boy in his teenage years.

“Daniel, Inari. Could you both get the other medical kit from the workshop?” Charity looked at the two of them in a way that made clear it hadn’t been a request.

“You have good kids, Mrs. Carpenter.” Yoshimo quietly commented as the two left the room.

“Inari is just staying over.” Charity replied, before looking at her daughter. “And wasn’t supposed to be staying over.”

“Hey, don’t look at me! She was here when the power went out, and things weren’t in any shape for her to go home.” Molly protested, before looking at her mentor again. “And what happened to -”

“The necromancers are deceased.” Morgan stated bluntly.

“Kumori might have gotten away, but the rest are all definitely dead.” Harry interjected.

“You are certain?” Luccio interjected, turning around to face her.

Harry put up three fingers. “Two got headshotted by Carlos and your truly - er, sorry.” she quickly added, as Luccio raised an eyebrow. “Cowl’s… storm spell imploded on him. Maybe in him. It was really close.”

“And you wouldn’t be standing here if he did it.” Morgan’s face was somewhat dark as he finished.

Before Harry could reply, the sound of a wailing child came from upstairs.

“I’ll get her.” The newly-inducted Warden stated, already heading for the stairs.

Chapter Text

Charity and Michael watched quietly as their eldest daughter stormed out of the house, walking down the curb towards the car that was waiting there.

Both of them knew who was waiting inside, and knew perfectly that Molly wasn’t going to listen to them.

She had inherited too much from the two of them to listen when she was convinced she was right.

“They’ll be back, dear.” Michael said calmly, holding his wife’s hand to calm her down.

“I know she will.” Charity replied frostily, seeing as Inari opened the door for Molly to get into her car. “Both of them will.”

Michael looked… troubled at that. Like he wasn’t sure what to think.

He was happy for Molly for finding someone to potentially love, whether romantically or as a friend.

But even as the image of Molly and Inari kissing inside the car passed through his mind, another two passed through as well, evicting it.

One made him happy.

A mental view of the inside of St Mary of the Angels, with Molly and Inari both clad in white gowns at the end of an aisle, looking into each other’s eyes without any fear or hesitation.

The other would pass through his mind for years to come; long after it had become impossible, it would haunt his mind.

Inari curled up in a bed in the Raith household.

And across from her, a breathless Molly, her gasps edged with pleasure, and the light in her eyes slowly fading as the eyes of the woman across from her burned a deep silver.

Chapter Text

“Uuuugghhh…” To say Molly looked drained as she walked into Inari’s apartment (which Lara had helped pay for) was a rather simple way of putting it.

“What went wrong?” Inari would have asked if Molly was okay, but the answer to that would clearly have been “no.”

“My boss is a sadist.” Molly replied deadpan, before collapsing onto Inari’s sofa (which she had taken from her family’s Chicago home). “Potion-making pop quizzes suck .”

“Potions?” Inari was now interested (even more so than she had been, magic had really captured her imagination after she learned her family were all vampires…)

“It’s not like Harry Potter.” Molly shook her head. “It’s structured, but it’s not the same. Everything’s related to the potion you want, but… you can change things in the recipe, if you have to.”

“Huh?” That seemed sort of contradictory to Inari, but she wasn’t magical. Unless you counted the demon apparently living inside her, just waiting to jump out and eat somebody -

Calm down. Deep breaths. Inari (not) calmly ran through her mental exercises that Michael had taught her after a brief panic attack at the Carpenter’s house. “So, can you tell me more?”

“Uh, I can tell you the general idea for them, and stuff. But Aunt Harry hasn’t shown me anything really good yet.” Molly shrugged. “So far it's been… hearing better, a nourishment potion, and a... pick-me-up, she called it?”

“Well, we can learn together!” Inari replied. “There’s gotta be something out there on good potions.” She hastily pulled out a laptop and started typing. Molly quickly gave her girlfriend space - she hadn’t wrecked any computers yet, but it was likely just a matter of time, from how her mentor couldn't even have electricity without something going wrong.

And there had to be something about how to make potions on the Internet somewhere ...

Chapter Text

Inari could not remember the last time in her life that she had been less impressed.

“This is… where you live?” She turned her head to look around Harriet Dresden’s apartment, with its two rooms (and apparently, basement/lab). The place where her brother (and… her sort-of-sister and sorta-niece?) were living.

“I know.” Thomas sighed, not looking any more impressed than she did. “Harry says it’s because she might get arrested if she has to move all the stuff in her lab, and that she’d have to take out all the electricity for wherever we moved, and that there might not be a strong enough threshold to put up wards.”

“There’s no electricity here?” Inari took a second look around, this time looking for outlets, or even lights. There was a definite lack of them. “How do you get around here?!” She knew from Molly that strong magic could apparently interfere with technology, since she had started to leave her cell phone at home after the second time they went out, but this was absurd!

“I’m fairly certain Harry’s responsible for keeping the Chicago candle industry above water.” Thomas replied, pulling out a book of matches.

“Couldn’t you get a house built, or something?” She asked. Lara said she’d cut Thomas off, but he still had a lot of money of his own, since he was going to night school for something without a job, and helping Harry stay afloat. “Mr. Carpenter would probably be happy to help you. Right?”

“I brought it up with Harry. She said unless I could find a place to build it that was near her office and her mechanic’s house to take it off the table.” Thomas shrugged. “So, since it’s Chicago… a few years, maybe.”

Chapter Text

“You’re certain this is what you wish?”

Most people would have practically dropped everything at the sight of Lara Raith. She was, simply put, drop dead gorgeous in a way that would make most women and gay men question their sexuality. What she would do to people already attracted to women didn’t bear repeating.

To Inari, Lara was just her big sister, and even the idea of thinking about her like that made her sick. “Yeah. You knew I was going to do it sooner or later, right?”

“Indeed. But are you certain that Sir Carpenter and his wife will be welcoming?” Lara replied. “The way you have described them hardly makes them seem like the sort to be accepting of you dating their daughter.”

“It’s safer for me there then here.” Inari didn’t even look bothered as she continued to place her clothes into one of several suitcases. “Especially with the family reunion in a few weeks.”

Lara had a brief mental image of Inari shaking hands with Madrigal and Madeline and burning their hands. She dismissed it out of hand - getting other Raiths burned by True Love at a peaceful gathering was not tolerable.

Even if the image was very satisfying to her. “Very well. But you will always have a place here if you wish, dear.”

“I know that.” Inari looked nervous for a second after that. Lara, recognizing this for what it was - her sister trying to think of what to say before she said it - waited.

“I love you.”

Lara waited for a second as her sister pressed on.

“I love you, and I love Thomas, and… I still love Dad.” She looked at the floor. “And I love Natalia, and I love Elisa. You’re my family, even if you’re... predators.” Her eyes began to water as she spoke.

Lara’s did not.

Even she was unsure if it was because she was suppressing them or because they weren’t coming at all.

“And… you’re like my mom. I love you, and I admire you, and I always will.” Inari looked sad. “But I can’t be like you. I don’t want to be like you.”

Lara’s face could have been stone at that moment, it was so still. As she spoke, Inari put the last of her clothes into the suitcase, and closed it.

“So… I’ll see you later, sis. Take care.” Inari, as she spoke, got up, grabbed her luggage, and started walking towards the door.

Lara watched as she left. She watched as Inari walked out of her house and to the car that was waiting outside.

As her little sister got into the car, and Thomas pulled away from the house, Lara quietly walked from the room.

You as well, child.

Chapter Text

Molly had never been more aware before now of the fact that she was a Catholic both by upbringing and by nature.

“Um… why are we here again?” As Molly spoke, she was briefly drowned out by a cry from one of the lower balconies. It wasn’t the sort of cry that came from pain, and it was not the only cry of that type she had heard that night.

“Lara told me about Zero, and said our family owns it.” Inari didn’t look nearly as uncomfortable as her girlfriend, though that may have had something to do with the headphones she had on. Or alternatively the fact she had grown up in a family of White Court vampires that had very different ideas on sexuality than the Carpenters. “I thought that we could get free food and drinks here.”

“And that family thing didn’t raise any red flags for you?” Molly was pointedly Not Looking at anything save Inari as she replied. “You could probably buy a whole bar with what Thomas helped you skim from your family without ever touching their funds, from what he said.”

“That’s why I brought these.” Inari shook her head a little as she spoke, not dislodging her headphones.

“Couldn’t I have gotten some?” Molly mentally started imagining a bubbling cauldron in her head, and the ingredients for a hair-color change potion.

Several moans came from the balcony she thought was under them.

Eight components total, representing taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, mind, spirit, and the base liquid to mix it together. Sight and touch and taste always had to be different depending on what she wanted the end result to be. For hearing, use an partial echo, or something that sounds like something else. Base liquid is strawberry lemonade, because it tastes good and doesn’t look yellow like lemonade. Smell is...

“Maybe next time. I owed you for dragging me to that church mass over Christmas.” Inari looked far too pleased with herself as she interrupted Molly’s train of thought.

“You agreed to go, and it was mom and dad who asked you!” Molly wasn’t always the biggest fan of Sunday mass herself, but she couldn’t be held responsible for bringing Inari along to one.

“I know. I was just kidding.”

“...So why are we here?” Molly was trying very, very hard to not focus on the sounds around her besides Inari, and what they could mean.

Inari’s smile was almost as predatory as Lara’s. “Your mom and dad can’t see us do this here.”

Before Molly could reply, Inari had grabbed her girlfriend’s collar and pulled her into a kiss.

Molly returned it. Enthusiastically.

Five minutes later, when a waiter (whose uniform covered far less of his body than it would in other bars) arrived with their food, it took him nearly as long as it took him to get there to get their attention.

Chapter Text

My world, as I awakened to it once more, was light and throbbing pain. From what I’ve been told, it was probably similar to some unholy combination of being sedated and coming down from a hangover.

The point was, while my mind was more or less working just fine, my body was several seconds behind at the moment, and all I could focus on was how much my head hurt.

I could feel someone else’s body under me, though, but that just made my head hurt more as I tried to remember who it was.

“Oooh. Oh God, what did I do to deserve this?”

Distinctly, I saw a patch of light by the door seemingly shift and become taller. Very tall.

“Boss?” I immediately regretted speaking as my voice cut through my head.

“That’d be me.” Harriett Dresden replied in an amused tone - taking pleasure in my suffering. Jerk. “Let me guess, you two were trying to brew potions for yourselves?”

I somehow managed a low, affirmative moan that confirmed her suspicions.

“Good. Okay, I think I know what you were doing, and I’m going to list the ingredients. Groan in agony when I get one right, okay?”

I would have flipped her off if moving didn’t take so much effort.

“This is why apprentices need to be supervised for potions at first.” I said in a somewhat amused tone to Michael and Charity, in one of the upstairs rooms.

“It’s nothing bad, then?” Michael looked relieved, to say the least. He had called me at ten o’clock last night, almost in a panic, when he found Molly and Inari in the former’s bed, not waking up no matter what he tried.

He rang right as I was getting Maggie to sleep, too, and had set her off all over again. At least he’d offered to let me stay the night afterwards.

“Yeah, just a sleeping potion. Nothing too bad, just a little powered up.” I replied, absently looking at the upstairs television - powered off, since I was there. It was a cassette player, actually - no CDs or DVDs, so it might have been able to stand me around for a while, and Molly, who was still developing her talent, might have been able to have movie night with her girlfriend.

Then I noticed the Disney tape near the top, and my brain clicked into gear.

“Oh, you stupid kid…” I muttered, chuckling a little.

Michael and Charity both looked at me oddly - Charity might have asked why I was calling her daughter stupid a year ago, but she knew me a little better now.

“They didn’t mess up the potion, I think they got what they wanted from it, and Molly just picked some up by accident.” I had to fight down a few giggles. “Inari was on the bottom, right? She wanted to be cured by true love’s kiss.”

Half a second later, they got it, and Charity sighed. “Sleeping Beauty?”

Chapter Text

It was a rather pleasant evening at the Carpenter house. Molly and Inari, after several days off working with Harry for a case, had returned rather suddenly that morning.

“So Molly, why exactly did Harry call you and Inari so suddenly?” Michael asked. “She’s usually insistent that you stay here when she goes out for cases.”

“She said she wanted us learning the ropes on supernatural detective stuff. And this was safe enough we could tag along, according to the client.” Molly replied. “He just wanted us to check on his kid while he was in school.”

“Well… that’s safe enough. But why couldn’t this client simply check on them himself?” Charity looked as though she wasn’t sure what to think of her daughter learning more about the supernatural world.

“His kid doesn’t know about him, I think? He said that his people wouldn’t that supportive of him living outside of their people if they knew about him, so he wants to keep him away.” Molly was trying to think carefully as she replied, thinking about what she had heard from Harry and River Shoulders.

“And who were this client and his people, exactly?” Michael looked slightly curious.

Inari smiled. So did Molly.

“Well… we were working for Bigfoot.”

Chapter Text

Nights that I spent with Justine were almost always weird in some way.

This wasn’t to say that I disliked my brother’s girlfriend - quite the opposite, even if the first time I met her she had been mostly naked and sort-of trying to seduce me.

Not very hard, but still. Going to Michael’s house with her, to discuss how Molly’s training was going? Beyond awkward. Especially with our mutual vampiric acquaintance back at my apartment being an uncle to Maggie.

At least Charity wasn’t being mean to me anymore. But she still got twitchy-eyed around Thomas, typically. That could have been because of how most of her older kids got wide-eyed and blushy around him, though.

“So, how is Molly’s training going?” Michael said in a calm tone.

“Mostly fine. We had to move it out of the apartment and over to my office for her to study, though. There’s not really enough room for her to train in there, and I’d rather not take her into the lab yet.” I replied. Especially with Maggie there and still having issues walking and talking properly, and Justine still needing a cane to get around on some days. It was amazing how you could fit four people, a dog, and a cat into something that small if you were smart enough.

Thomas was still on the lookout for somewhere else to live, though. Or alternatively, somewhere that we could pay Svartalfheim to build us a house without electricity (mostly). Every time that he brought me over to a house that looked old-fashioned enough, though, I blew out the bulbs within the first ten minutes.

“It worked just fine before.” Charity looked puzzled.

I sighed. “That was before Justine moved in and Maggie started walking around.” Half the time, I wasn’t willing to stay in my own apartment anymore. I know my brother and Justine love each other, but the way they were basically all over each other every time they saw each other was sweet enough it practically gave me diabetes.

Judging by what I had seen from Inari and Molly, it seemed that ran in the family.

“Ah.” Charity and Michael both looked more understanding now. “Is that why you’re here with her?” Michael looked at Justine, white hair flowing down her shoulders.

She smiled. “Actually, I came to say hello. Thomas wanted to spend time with Maggie before he went to work. I have the day off, and I thought it would be nice to meet you.”

“Welcome, then. Do you want any lunch?” Michael didn’t miss a beat as he smiled at the young woman.

“I already ate before I got here, thank you.” Justine smiled rather pleasantly. I tried not to think of what I’d had to deal with before and during lunch. Images flashed through my mind despite my best efforts, and my cheeks burned for several seconds.

“I understand your concern, Mrs. Carpenter, but no, we’re quite happy. Just ask Harry.”

“You two steal my bed every other night.” I replied in an annoyed voice.

“Only Thomas. I steal it every night.” Justine gave me a friendly look that was just filled with…

I am not going to say or think it, and I quickly averted eye contact.

Chapter Text

Knock knock!

Sighing, Charity moved towards the the front door of her house, having just finished saying hello to the woman her daughter loved.

Inari was a perfectly nice young woman, but she had never really lost her interest in the indecent clothes that her family favored. Though given it was summertime, she couldn’t blame her...

She just wished Inari had not brought Thomas this time.

As she opened the door, though, she was caught off guard.

“Hello Mrs. Carpenter. May we come in?” said the faerie standing on the other side of the door.

It was a faerie she knew. Not that well, but one that she knew.

Blinking in surprise, Charity quickly recovered, looking at both the Summer Lady and her Knight. “Do I have a promise of good conduct from both of you for as long as you are here, to do no harm to any other guest directly or indirectly, protect the household from any hostile forces, and not seek to use any form of agreement to force anyone into a debt they must fill?”

“I do swear to uphold the terms you have just given us.” Lily replied without missing a beat.

“As do I.” Fix said from beside her formally. Then, a slightly more friendly smile came over his face. “How’s everyone doing?”

“Thomas came with Inari this time.” Charity sighed.

“You’re worried about your kids staring at him for too long or going gay because of him?” Fix asked in a semi-joking tone.

Charity just let out a sigh and moved back into the house. Fix and Lily came in after her. “I wasn’t expecting you two to come here, though.”

“The Summer Court doesn’t really celebrate Thanksgiving. And we needed some time away from all of the mental curveballs.” Fix shrugged. As he spoke, Lily pulled out a extra-large apple pie.

From… somewhere. Charity gave it a dark look, then gave Lily one.

“I picked it up at the grocery store.” Lily did not miss a beat as she spoke.

“A human store?” Charity questioned.

“Yes. And none of the ingredients were sourced by a faerie. Well, except Lily, since she got it.” Fix added.

Charity seemed satisfied by this.

“Hey Lily!”

Returning to the kitchen, Charity kept an eye out as her daughter went up to the Summer Lady and started a friendly conversation in the front room.

“So your illusions are improving, I was told?” Lily asked, her appearance more or less wholly that of what she had looked like as a changeling today.

“Yeah, Aunt Harry’s been having me practice more with the noise part of it lately, though. Mostly so-”

“HeyMollyCouldYouWatchMaggieForMeMurphyJustCalledMeSomeone’sTryingSomethingBadHaveAGoodTimeOhHiLilyBye!” Harriett Dresden said, rushing by her apprentice and placing Maggie in her arms before bolting off.

Molly blinked, then winced a bit as the toddler in her arms started to cry over her mother leaving.

“Could I?” Lily asked, holding her arms out.

It was very subtle, but the look on her face was almost one of… longing, to anyone who knew her.

Molly knew her… semi-well, and knew it was. “Maggie, say hi.” She grunted a little, then handed the crying child over to her godmother.

“Hi there, sweetie.” Lily cooed in a motherly tone, rocking the girl in her arms. Maggie’s crying didn’t end, but it started to quiet down. Then, light music without a source started to fill the room, and Maggie’s voice grew silent.

“Mozart?” Lily raised an eyebrow as she rocked Maggie.

“Hey, whatever works.” Molly replied, stroking the baby’s forehead.

Chapter Text

“Are you sure that Harry will be that happy about this?” Inari said, watching as Mouse nudged a chess piece with his nose.

“Hey, she said we should take Mouse and Maggie out for playtime while she was doing her case. She never said how.” Molly cheerfully bounced the now-three Maggie on her knee happily, the toddler gasping “Mowlly!”

“Aaaw.” A passerby smiled and scratched Maggie affectionately, then walked away.

Inari smiled as she looked at the nearly-filled coffee can and the sign in front of the four of them. “Well, maybe she’ll be too amused to make you take a pop quiz.”

PET THE BABY - 1$

PLAY CHESS WITH THE WORLD’S SMARTEST (AND BIGGEST) DOG - 5$ (IF YOU WIN, YOU GET 10$).

Chapter Text

Molly still wasn’t sure just what had happened. She and Inari had been walking to their car after they had finished their make-out session at Zero.

And then, the car had driven by without either of them in it. And neither of them had realized what was going on until the vehicle they had driven there had opened fire from a window.

And now, Inari was down on the ground with her left arm bleeding from three holes clean through it.

“Oh god - hold still, I - I’m gonna call an ambulance.” Molly quickly said, looking down at Inari’s purse, where she kept her cell phone turned off, scrambling for the bag and not quite catching Inari’s pain-filled mumbling due to her raging emotions.

Scrambling for the power button, Molly tapped it and felt her heart lift as the screen turned on.

Then, it dropped as the screen went black with a fizzle that came from wrecked electronics. Right. Magic. Emotions high. Wizard apprentice. Fuck.

A choked sob from behind her drove Molly’s panic from her mind.

Oh God. Inari.

“Inari - the phone’s dead, I’m gonna get us back. Zero has phones, right?” Molly started to reach out and grab Inari under the arm.

“Molly… go away.”

“Wha - why?! You’re gonna die if you don’t get help!” Molly snapped.

“Not me, you…” As Molly helped her to her feet, Inari just barely managed to hiss the words through her teeth.

Realizing what her girlfriend meant, Molly’s eyes snapped to the punctures in Inari’s arm.They were starting to close.

It hurt. Oh good Lord it fucking hurt.

I wasn’t talking about the pain from the bullets, even though it did hurt. I was talking about stopping myself from letting the thing inside me fix it. Because I knew what it would want after it was done healing me.

You can’t have her. You can’t have her . I hissed to myself - or rather, to my demon. It - or me - didn’t pay attention. And one of them started to hurt less.

“Molly - get away. I’ll… find someone.” I couldn’t let it have her. I couldn’t let it have her, no matter how much I wanted her myself.

“No. It’ll be fine.” Molly shook her head as the two of us hobbled along. “Just, wait a minute, okay? You’re gonna be fine. Both of us will.”

“It can’t have you.” That was all I could focus on, all that was going through my mind. It could not have Molly.

“It can’t touch me.” Molly sounded a lot more confident than I did. “And it can’t have you either. I love you.”

Through the haze of need in my mind, I realized we were inside Zero again. And that Molly wasn’t supporting my arm. And that her shirt was gone.

“It can’t have you.”

“It won’t .” Molly’s lips covered mine. And any restraint I had vanished.

“I love you.”

I wanted to say my first time having sex was special. That it felt amazing and changed the way I looked at the world.

Mostly I just hoped we’d both live through it.

Chapter Text

“So do you have any idea why they’re here?” I asked Thomas, driving up to the police station, a worried look on his face and probably on mine.

Hey, we had gotten a call at the Carpenter’s house early this morning that my apprentice and his sister needed a lift from the police station because their car was stolen. Michael and Charity hadn’t been able to make it because of their jobs (watching six - seven counting Maggie - kids is a job and I don’t care what you think) and had asked us to go get them.

“Again, I don’t have any idea why they’re here.” Thomas looked sort of annoyed before he half-ran up the steps, with me trailing behind him.

As we walked into the lobby, the man at the front desk looked up. His eyes went wide. He must not have been straight. Well, not like I could throw stones there.

“Who are you, sir?” He asked, focusing almost entirely on Thomas.

“Thomas Raith.” He replied, looking at the officer head-on. “I was told that my sister Inari had been detained and couldn’t leave on her own.”

“Oh, her? Yeah, she came in last night…” the officer started typing on his computer, and I quickly took a few steps backwards. “Someone apparently tried to shoot them, and stole her car.”

“What?”

Thomas… yeah. I couldn’t come up with any good smartass comments to describe the look on his face besides unholy demonic rage, so I decided to just drop the train of thought.

I had heard about the car, but…

The cop nodded. “She’s telling us what she knows right now. We sent someone to look over the scene earlier, too. They’re still going through it, and we’re going to try and find the car.”

“Good.” Thomas calmly walked by, and the cop watched him go for a few seconds before he sighed and turned to me. “He’s with you?”

“I gave him a ride, if that’s what you mean.” I walked off after Thomas, who was heading towards the interrogation rooms for the police station.

I suppose that my record of being arrested/helping the police had given me a good knowledge of their station’s layout.

I wasn’t sure where to go after I got to the interrogation rooms, and neither was Thomas. So we just looked for Molly.

“Aunt Harry!” the grasshopper waved fiercely as soon as she saw me, with Thomas already standing next to her. I headed right for them, just grateful that I had been able to find them in a timely manner.

“You doing okay, shootee?” I looked at her with a patient look. My apprentice winced. “How exactly was it that you two got shot at and didn’t think to tell us?”

“I didn’t know who was listening, and my parents would have freaked out if they’d heard?” Molly said with a hopeful tone.

It was true and I couldn’t argue with that. “Fair.” I admitted, before frowning at her. “But you are going to tell both of them everything when you get home.”

Molly winced. “Uh, about that… there’s something you should know.”

“And that would be?” I asked, raising an eyebrow in accordance with the traditional expectation for a private eye asking something like this.

Molly started to talk, but then she saw a police officer come out of the interrogation room, with Inari a foot or two behind him. “Um, it can wait for a bit.”

Thomas tried to move and hug Inari. Before he could get close, though, she backed into the room almost unseemingly fast. Thomas looked sort of surprised by this.

“Thomas, well… I’m free now.” Inari gave him a nod towards Molly. Molly just looked sort of red in the face, but was smiling kind of goofily.

My mind put the pieces together at the same time as Thomas’s, judging by the look of joy on his face.

“Not telling Charity one-two-three!” I blurted out.

Thomas was so focused on hugging Inari while trying to do it without touching any of her skin or hair, he didn’t seem to notice what I said. Inari just smiled and did the same thing as our brother.

Chapter Text

“So… it’s gone.”

I just looked at my daughter, hand in hand with the (now former) succubus, both of them smiling - not beaming like somebody who was plastering a smile on their face. This was the sort of smile you could build a house on, a smile that said you had found stability with someone that you were certain would last forever.

I was almost certain that it was the same smile that I had when Michael saved my life. I guess Inari would be staying with us.

“I know, but what is this that I hear about someone shooting at you?” Michael asked from next to me.

“They got away before we could see anything?” Inari replied. “We were kind of panicking that someone shot at us.”

“It’s not like they won’t find the car in a few days or anything. The Raiths don’t exactly go for common vehicles.” Molly shrugged.

“We can discuss the arrest of whoever tried to shoot you two later. For now, well, we should be grateful.” I replied.

The older vampire brother to both Harry and Inari got up from the table. “I’ll go make a few calls for stuff, then-”

“Get back here!” Harry yelled after her brother as he vanished into the house at a rather indecent pace.

I sighed. “All I ask is that if you two decide to sleep together again, you do it away from your siblings, and that you not brag about it.”

Perhaps I should not have been as pleased as I was that Molly nodded without complaining.