Hot, Hard & Howling - OpenDrive

Hot, Hard & Howling
The moth opened and closed its wings in a slow, steady, hypnotic rhythm. The
markings on it were vibrant in the harsh light of the bare bulb. Nell reached down and
righted the overturned table, then tried to get the moth to move off her arm. The thing
clung stubbornly to its spot.
Another joined the first, and then another. If she’d been afraid of insects this would
be a very trying event. “All right, kids, this isn’t going to work.” She shooed them as
she tried to gather the contents of the spilled box onto the table. “What brought you all
here this evening?”
Two other boxes had landed on their sides on the floor, still concealing their
contents behind generous amounts of shipping tape. Somebody had wanted these
things sealed tight. But this one had opened and scattered easily.
The notes were normal descriptions of a cave system, the drawings mundane and
scientific. On most pages, anyway. She found several yellow legal pad pages stapled
together, also with her father’s handwriting, that didn’t match the rest of the research
notes. The print on these pages was from edge to edge and top to bottom, no margins
and very few spaces. It was crowded and messy. Not that his usual print wasn’t hard
enough to decipher, but this was almost illegible.
Nell gathered the remaining spilled papers, scanning the notes, articles and
newspaper clippings. All of them on the Isle of Skye caves. She emptied the box,
flipping through the documents. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. Other than
the freaking moths. Nothing looked worthy of stealing, worthy of an attack. She picked
up the box…
And the moths converged, fluttering and landing on her head, her shoulders, on the
box.
She dropped the box to the table and waived her hands wildly over her head in a
vain attempt to scatter the moths. They clung, walking and fluttering their wings over
her body and hair. More and more of them took to the air to swarm her. Nell stepped
away from the table and tried to shake them off. Some fell away but took no time in
returning.
“I don’t want to hurt any of you, but you’re starting to freak me out.” Her Demon
power would do little good in this situation. She was good for flinging dildos, but
intricate work to safely remove confused moths was way out of her league. “Crap.”
She hated to do it, but she brushed the few from her face and eyes. She felt their
wings fold and bend as she did so and grimaced. She knew these things were somehow
significant and wanted to do as little damage as possible. They weren’t native to the
area. Something brought them here.
A tiny spark of magic made Nell pause. She wasn’t extremely sensitive to the magic
of others, not like her sister Sonja was, but she knew blood magic when she felt it.
She froze, letting the moths continue their attempts to cover her body. She listened
and tried to reach out again, to sense an intruder.
Nothing.
39