But I think I realize now what jealousy is, and I can't help you with it. I hope you don't hate me, for I love you too in the way of my people.' Lukas was clearly struggling with the alien concept of jealousy, wanting to make everything right but realizing he was, in a way, the main problem.
But even Paul would not accept that: 'I don't know how much you've heard Lukas, but please realize that this is not your fault or your problem.
If you can share love freely, you're clearly the most deserving. I understand the situation a lot better now and I will try to find my own way in it. Not getting intimate with Melissa for fear of getting hurt has hurt a lot so far, so maybe I should try sharing if you're both willing.'
And having said that in English slowly and carefully, he said something in Greek afterwards, knowing Paul probably the exact translation of what he'd said before. Lukas looked a bit lost, still unsure what to do with an alien situation.
He kneeled next to us, which was a disconcerting sight as his legs were jointed differently, but he managed and wanted to be held by both of us. And who could refuse this innocent creature the love he craved? I certainly couldn't, and Paul did not look forced at all as he embraced Lukas and
stroked his stubbled head. Fortunately he stayed clear of the horns, for touching them would have really confused poor Lukas.
Chapter 10
I soon felt more awake, but not up to any more magic. So I sat and watched Paul and Lukas work together, the precision work done, Lukas could assist again and ask questions. Paul did brew me nice cup of tea in a blackened kettle on the back of the furnace, touching my hand as he gave me the cup.
I hoped he would dare court me from now on, taking it slow but not denying himself every semblance of love. When the time had come to have dinner, Lukas asked Paul if he could cook in his kitchen, which Paul graciously said yes to. So the three of us moved to the Gothic palace again, where Paul and I sat down at the table and made sheep-eyes at each other, whilst Lukas moved through the kitchen like a chef and made us a lovely salad with cheese and olives. He served a special kind of bread with it, clearly baked according to his own recipe, which was a natural combination with the salad.
After dinner, we chatted some more and then Lukas and I left early, since I needed sleep more than anything after my magic exercises. Before we left I took the pins out of my hair and let it fall down in its copper-toned wealth, then kissed Paul goodnight. He couldn't help touching it of course, and I felt confident we left him reasonably happy with how matters were.
Back at my apartment Lukas immediately 'lost' his clothes, and I used the opportunity to check the welts on his back. They were healing fine, and I had the distinct feeling he was filling out a bit already. I ran my hands over his mottled back, towards his ribs, and his bones did indeed stick out a little less.
Laughingly he remarked: 'Am I being appraised for the cattle market, mistress?' I replied: 'Yes, you need a bit more flesh on you before you fetch a good price,' and I ran my hands decidedly lower than his ribs, feeling his flat stomach and the insides of his legs, then cupping his testicles carefully. His penis didn't rise at that, because it had already at my first touch.
I embraced him from behind, pressing my body close to him. 'You feel...dressed,' he observed, turning around in my arms and touching me with his glorious erection. He started to undo my buttons, kissing me at the same time. There were a lot of buttons, so it was a long kiss.
But finally my jacket, blouse and skirt came loose, and he put them away carefully, not conscious at all of his naked body and his rather large erection.
Then he removed the rest of my clothes, caressed my creamy, naked curves, and took a careful hold of my breasts.
' You have the most beautiful breasts ever,' he breathed, kissing me again and rubbing his whole body against me, his penis hard against my thighs. Of course I was horny already, but he had my lust rising and rising, making me forget how tired I had been not half an hour ago. 'Shall we shower together,'
he asked, 'I have sweated a lot and I'd like to freshen up before we warm your bed.'
That sounded wonderful, so I nodded and went that way, with him following me, touching me where he could, kissing me every few steps.
But we did manage to reach the shower, and it was really nice and warm, and very relaxing. I would have become very sleepy really soon, but Lukas didn't let me. He kept my lust up and rising by caressing me, kissing me and exploring my wet body all over again.
I still felt that wrench when he kneeled before me, but when he spread my legs a bit and started to fondle my clitoris with his tongue I soon forgot about his weird looking knees in my rising heat. When I had a climax I wanted to have his large member in my mouth, so I kneeled between his slim legs and as he stood up I took hold of it and put my warm moist mouth all over it and used my tongue as well. He enjoyed that of course, moving along a little in a slow rhythm I was afraid the hot water would soon run out, so after a short time I suggested we'd dry off and move to the bed.
A cold shower was not my idea of a stimulant, though it would wake me up.
He hadn't realized the water would turn cold, but when I told him he was very ready to move. I dried his back, and he did mine, and we kissed a lot during the process.
Finally we were done, and as we neared the bed, he proposed I lay on it with my upper body, but with my knees on the floor. That idea excited me a lot, so I did that quickly. Immediately I felt him enter me from behind, which was as exciting as I expected. He pumped happily for a while, but apparently it was not totally to his liking, for he disconnected, turned me around and guided my legs on his shoulders. Then he used his tongue and a few of his nimble fingers again to bring me to a noisy high, and then he entered me again, still kneeled beside the bed, now thrusting forcefully, with that high still
resounding in my body, building on it until I came again in a wave of little shocks. That was to his liking, and he laughed out loud as he speeded up, clearly stronger now he wasn't emaciated anymore, keeping it up long enough to give me another lingering climax. But of course he did drive himself hard enough to collapse on me with a moan.
That wasn't really comfortable on the edge of the bed, so we wriggled to lie on it still connected, and we laid like that for quite a long time.
When I felt sleep approaching rapidly, I let it come, knowing he'd find a place beside me, entangling me in his arms and legs. And wondering what kind of surprise he'd wake me with the next morning, I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming of grids and singing metals, and not of collapsing buildings and ruined reputations. Fortunately.
That morning I woke to the smell of coffee rather than to an erotic fantasy, which gave me just a twinge of disappointment, followed by an enormous feeling of happiness when I found Lukas beside the bed with a tray with breakfast for two.
He smiled from ear to ear at my reaction to his surprise. After a nice good morning kiss he said: 'I have already recovered so well thanks to your loving, I can surprise you in a different way.' He did indeed look a lot better, still skinny but not unhealthily so, with a lot more colour to his unmottled face, and even to the patterned parts of his skin.
His hair was growing back in rapidly, and I stroked it lovingly. It felt nice.
He put the tray down and handed me a steaming cup of coffee, then lay down next to me with a cup of his own.
We took a little time to enjoy our breakfast together, then I washed and dressed, trying all the time not to think too much about the building. Would it still be standing, would they start covering it with glass today? I felt a nuzzle in my neck, and Lukas' voice breathed in my ear: 'Don't think about it. Even if something has happened, there is nothing you could have done about it.
People have to trust you for your Gift to be useful.'
'Gift?' I asked him. 'That's what we call a magical talent,' he replied, 'Yours is developing rapidly, I can already see a little of it, like I saw a lot of it in Paul.
' 'And you couldn't see it a few d
ays ago?' I asked. He replied: 'No, I couldn't, so it has strengthened a lot the last few days. Or it may be my strength coming back, and my hair.
Somehow my own Gift seems connected to my hair.' I was puzzled: 'I didn't
know you had one of these Gifts too.' He explained: 'I have not yet been able to perform active magic, but I have always had an uncanny ability to hide myself, even in plain sight. That is an unconscious form of magic-use.
My captors shaved me after I had nearly escaped after fooling them into starting a fight amongst themselves. They knew.' I had a revelation: 'Is that why I couldn't immediately see you behind the hearth? You're actually quite large to hide behind it.'
He thought about it, and said: 'That may be, though I was so weakened and with my hair shaven I wonder if I had any magic left. I am very skilled in hiding as well, I used to be in trouble all the time.' This was interesting talk, but I had to go to work.
Lukas did add: 'If I can see your Gift, anyone with the talent can see it in you as well. Paul will have to teach you to shield soon, preferably today. Don't trust strangers or even people you know when they offer you things.
Predators catch their prey with seduction, at least at first.' That was such a scary and unreal thought that I decided to not ask what a predator was when in a hurry, but just be careful and trust my common sense.
I kissed him, tickling the base of his horns, sending a shock of passion through him. He fired up in a second, lifting me with much more ease than his slight frame and my solid one suggested, and squeezed me, groaning at me: 'Aah, you minx, you tempt me to make you late for work!' I kissed him again, and promised: 'I'll be back before you know it.' And then I left reluctantly.
The twenty minute walk was not as pleasant as it usually was, despite the lovely spring weather. My mind kept going around and around, alternately telling itself that without the so-called Gift I wouldn't even have known about the flaw, and warning me it would be my fault if lives were lost. A bit disconcertedly I entered the building site, afraid of what I might see.
Most probably nothing remarkable, the building would likely not collapse until the weight of the glass was added, maybe not even then. The structure might hold for months or even years, or not even a day.
And I had to look twice to believe what was really going on: the offending support had been braced with thick temporary beams from four sides, and metal workers were in the process of removing the support itself. A replacement was lying within reach, and a large winch was erected over the site. They were going to replace the faulty support!
I was incredibly relieved and flattered they had taken my concerns seriously, even though I had admitted they were not supported by the facts I had gathered myself. I did hope they'd find a flaw in that support once it had been replaced, and I was dying to get my hands on it, to check it myself with my newly found skills.
As soon as I was spotted, the architect and the overseer came towards me.
Seeing the relief on my face the overseer observed: 'Miss Thorn, you didn't think I wouldn't believe you because you couldn't prove your doubts? I had a hard time convincing the parties involved, but the image of the building collapsing that I presented them with, with or without loss of life, was too much for them to bear in the end.'
We spent an hour watching the actual replacement of the large support, quite an operation, and when the flawed support finally rested on the ground, I approached it carefully. It still felt wrong, and I now recognized the buzzing feeling as the typical emanations of cold iron, enhanced to a level that was palpable to me even without going into a trance.
I decided to openly 'feel' the support even though I might fall into a trance scanning it for flaws. If I was to do this more often, the people on the building site would just have to accept seeing me like that.
Doing it in secret would be very difficult on this busy site, and if someone were to see me it might even look like sabotage. So I sat down in a comfortable position and laid my hands on it. The force of the emanations from such a large piece of flawed hard iron hit me harder than I expected, and I had to brace myself not to fall.
My mind had to wrestle the iron to be able to see the dense grid within. It took a long time to scan the entire piece, but I could feel the direction in which the problem lay, which made it easier to find. What I saw filled me with incredible relief and quite a bit of pride: there was a long, narrow cavity throughout the foot of the beam, a casting flaw that reduced the bearing strength of the support to a fraction of the force it would have to withstand to keep the building up once the weight of the glass was added.
I had been right, and I could prove it!
Chapter 11
Coming back from my light trance, I scanned the little crowd that had gathered to watch me work, to find the face of the overseer, and tell him he had saved the building.
Seeing him quite close, he clearly seemed a bit concerned at the sudden weariness on my face, caused by the wrestling match between the cold iron and my magic.
I fixed his gaze in mine, and said in a loud, clear voice: 'John, I need to thank you for your trust in me. You have saved my reputation, the building and who knows how many lives. If you saw through this support at this point here before it is re-melted and recast into something else, you'll find a cavity, a casting error, of at least twelve inches long and three inches wide, reducing the bearing capacity of this support to practically nothing.'
All the faces were a study in amazement. Of course that would only increase when they found the cavity for real. This would either make my reputation as building expert, or get me ostracised from the community as witch.
But for me there was no choice, I had taken this job to save lives, and save lives I would, openly. I didn't stay to watch the support hauled off to the iron works, I knew John would supervise the check himself, his neck was on the block even more than mine. He had bullied his superiors, virtually blackmailed them into complying with his demands to have a safe building.
He needed to be proven right as much as myself.
I inspected the new support, found it flawless, and decided there and then to check the cast iron parts before they were used from now on. If I still had a job tomorrow.
Pretending nothing had happened, I discussed the glass panelling schedule with the architect and the contractors. They looked at me with a mixture of awe and doubt, which I ignored. When the inspection was done, I decided to call it a day.
The use of magic had tired me, and it was nearly time anyway. I asked the
architect to send a messenger over as soon as the results of the test were known, and he promised. He could clearly see the results of my struggle with the iron, for he asked: 'Shall I send someone with you to see you home safely? You look very worn out.'
I thanked him for his concern, but politely declined, I would be fine once I got some sleep. And I felt much better already when I left the building site, relieved the danger had been averted, and only slightly concerned about the consequences of my open use of magic. I counted on people not wanting to believe in the supernatural, denying what they had seen and only believing the result. The lovely spring day soon caught me in its spell, and I decided to do some shopping straight away, to stay outside a little longer.
This made me feel for Lukas, cooped up inside, stronger now and aching for a good run to stretch his legs and get rid of some of his accumulated energy.
Maybe I could feel the structure of his horns too, discern if it would be safe to trim them. But the very thought of taking his horns, his manliness, from him made me sick to the stomach, and I decided to get him some nice cheese and olives to make up a little for the things he missed.
When word came later that day that a large casting error had indeed been found in the support, the news spread fast throughout the small world of the builders in town. As I had hoped, my discovery had been credited to some sixth sense, and my reputation as building inspector was made.
My boss apologized for advising me to i
gnore the feeling, and my services were in high demand. Checking metal for flaws became easier and less tiring quickly, and Paul had started my education on shielding after a hint from Lukas.
Lukas sat in on these classes, improving his English by listening and asking questions, and preparing for the possibility of his own talent awakening further. We filled our days with work, learning or teaching magic, socialising together. Paul and I stayed on much the same footing, stealing a kiss now and then, hugging and sitting together and holding hands, as if we were teenagers in love for the first time, desperately in love but way too shy to do something about it.
I got used to Paul taking a lot of time before he moved our intimacy up a notch, enjoying his attentions and still making passionate love to Lukas regularly.
Lukas became ever stronger, but his restlessness increased linearly to his
strength. I felt very sorry for him, but I couldn't think of a solution to his problem besides trying to make his 'captivity' bearable.
Then one day I came home from work, and something was not right, all was very quiet, when usually I could hear the furnace roaring or a hammer ringing or the sound of filing. Lukas was quite an able craftsman himself by now, and well on his way to his own style.
He helped Paul with his commissions, and in return got instruction and materials to make his own pieces. They had made the promised centre piece for my living-room together in the first week, a semblance of the mirror but made of metal instead. The workmanship was superb, and obviously still Paul's, but Lukas was developing a distinctive style of his own now.
He had sold some pieces through Paul, and had given me a share of the income for food and rent, and kept some to invest. But he was not really happy, he clearly felt caged, with early summer on us. He never took it out on me, he just became quiet, only seeming to come to life when we were making love and he could exert himself.
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