“I do, Luv. I won’t do anything without your permission. Seamus and Sol helped me bring you here, and I only gave you one more kiss, enough to help you regain consciousness, nothing more. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do, but we’ve got work to do, and a universe to save, and if you’ve any interest in being able to help, you need this.”
I thought about that for a moment. Az’s power scared me, but how much of that was simply that I didn’t understand it?
“Are they still launching the attack against MOME?”
Az’s expression went from sultry to troubled.
“Yes. I explained everything we’d learned to General Aira, but they aren’t planning to hold back against MOME. Albert wants to talk to you—he has a lot of questions, but Seamus and Sol said you were in no condition to answer them, and they were right. You weren’t even conscious, and you still wouldn’t be right now if I hadn’t given you a bit more of my power to help you out. With everything you’ve gone through, you’d be lucky if you woke up in a week.”
I laughed, or would have, but it only came out as a agonized huff.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I whispered.
“We don’t have much time if we’re going to try to stop Dryer, Luv. You and I both know that a full strike on MOME isn’t going to stop this if she keeps going. We need to go after Dryer herself, and we need to do it before she can go to ground. I know you don’t trust my power, but… after all we’ve been through together, can’t you believe that I would never hurt you?”
I raised my head just enough to look Az in the eyes, and realized that what I saw reflected back at me was pain. Damn. That stung. Az had, despite plenty of reasons not to bother, always tried to help me. They’d saved my life more than once, and we’d literally walked through Hell together…
“Tell me how your power works,” I said, knowing that information was likely to be the only thing that would calm the fear coiling inside me, even if we didn’t really have time for it.
“The short version is that anytime I’m intimate with someone, I have two choices: I can just take, or I can give and take. Oddly enough, I can’t just give. I’ve tried. It never works. I’m a succubus. My power comes from life energy, but specifically in the form of sexual energy. I generate lust in people simply by breathing, generally, and if I siphon that off, it’s enough to sustain me, but a succubus becomes more powerful by taking more than lust. It only sticks if I give back, though. I can only make permanent changes to myself or others through a full exchange.”
Azrael sighed.
“If it makes you feel any better, I almost never offer a full exchange. I can get by quite nicely just siphoning off a bit of lust here or there, or consummating with a normal human and skimming a bit of their unused energy in the course of events. That’s enough to keep me going. A full exchange gives a part of my strength to the receiving party, just as it takes a bit of their strength for myself. It’s not something I do lightly.”
“Demons are weird,” I chuckled, realizing that the fact that Azrael’s biology was so incredibly distinct from my own was just something I was going to have to accept. I couldn’t think of a simple energy exchange between humans that would make one noticeably more powerful, but Az insisted that I would benefit from it too, and honestly, it was clear from the fact that I wasn’t still completely unconscious that Az wasn’t lying about that part. I was beyond exhausted, my body ached with it. I could feel my brain trying to shut things down, even now. One kiss had been enough to bring me back from unconsciousness, and I didn’t feel like any part of me was missing. Az was talking about making me stronger… and they had made it perfectly clear that if they just wanted to take my soul they didn’t need my permission. Az wanted to help me, and damn it all, I needed help.
“Does it hurt?” I asked, finally willing myself to admit that I might have to do this if I wanted to be a functional person anytime soon.
It was Azrael’s turn to laugh then.
“Oh, Luv. Quite the opposite, I assure you. I am widely regarded as one of the best lovers in any realm, and I come by that reputation completely honestly. I guarantee you that not only will it not hurt, but it may well be the most pleasurable experience you’ve ever had.”
The smile that accompanied that statement was enough to have me almost panting. I was seeing both Az’s again, but I closed my eyes for a moment and decided to focus on the female Az. I opened my eyes and felt my pulse race and heat flood my body. There was no denying that the idea of getting much closer to Az was entirely appealing whenever I didn’t think about the whole “taking part of my soul” piece.
“So, I get an energy boost and some healing out of it, and what do you get?” I asked, trying to shed the last of my hesitation. If I was going to do this, I wanted to enjoy it, and not be hung up on my random fears of the metaphysics behind it.
“Oh, Vic, Luv, you’ll get quite a bit more than an energy boost, but I can’t say what exactly, as we’ve never tangled before. Similarly, I can’t tell you exactly what I’ll get out of it either, outside of some fun with a person I respect and find very attractive. We will both take a piece of each other away with us. It doesn’t bind us, if that’s what you’re worried about. We exchange energy, and a bit of… spirit, if you will? But nothing that marks either of us as a possession. It’s important you understand that; this isn’t like vampirism, or any of the more sordid demon exchanges. It’s an even trade—the give and take must be equal. I know I’ll give you enough energy and healing to make you fit for immediate action, but beyond that I can only guess based on our respective powers. Those will mix and come out magnified, possibly changed, on the other end, but it’s anyone’s guess as to how. I’m afraid there’s really only one way to find out.”
I took a deep breath. When it came down to it, I trusted Az. They’d had plenty of chances to do horrible things to me if they’d wanted to, and it sounded like they could have just forgone my consent if they wanted to be underhanded, and taken my energy without me ever knowing or caring until it was too late. I thought of the vampires that Az had dropped so easily when we’d rescued Siara, and a shiver went down my spine. If they were just here to hurt me, they’d be done by now. They weren’t doing that, and ok, that alone did not make them a hero, but I trusted them. And I was willing to give up a little bit of spirit if it meant I could get back to making sure my friends didn’t die while attempting to save the world.
“Alright,” I said, trying to smile as I took in the glory that was Azrael in any form; ebon skin, silver wings, white hair, silver eyes, and in this case, their deliciously feminine form. “Come show me why they call you the best succubus in all the realms.”
Az’s smile sent heat spreading through my whole body, and their approach was enough like that of a stalking cat to make me giggle nervously. Their eyes were so alight with heat and attraction as they approached the bed that all self consciousness fled me, scars, spirit, and exhaustion all forgotten.
“I promise you will never regret this choice, Victoria Marmot,” they purred, as they spread their wings and bent down to envelope me in a kiss so electric I was fairly certain my hair was standing on end afterwards.
~~~
What felt like hours and a hundred climaxes later, when we came back to reality, we were both glowing. Literally. Silver light radiated from both Az’s skin and my own, and I watched in fascination as the air around us trembled with unspent energy. I felt alive. I felt like I’d just climbed a 14er and simultaneously gotten twelve hours of solid sleep. This was somehow more than that, though. I felt like I could almost see time. My senses were sharper than they’d ever been, as though I was part snow leopard, part dragon, and part myself all at once. So much had happened in the short time that Az and I had been intimate that it all sort of melted together, but there had been a few key moments when I’d felt like we had ceased being two separate entities. It was every trite romance novel description of a climax, except it was more than a m
etaphor, it had felt like our bodies, and our perceptions, had actually become a single unit for a series of heartbeats. At the time, it had seemed like the only logical outcome of the way we’d joined our bodies, but afterwards it was clearly more than that. Something in me felt altered. I was more than I had been at the start.
“Wow.”
Az’s voice caused my head to snap up from where I’d been staring at my own hands and contemplating the difference I felt.
“I thought you’d done this a hundred times,” I said, watching them flex their wings and stare at their own hands on the bed next to me.
“This is…different than the last few exchanges I’ve done,” Az admitted, still staring at their hands.
“Is the glowing not normal, then?” I asked, suddenly worried.
“Not exactly,” said Az. “It’s cool, though. I can’t wait to see what new tricks we’ve picked up.”
“New tricks?” I asked, now nervously watching Az’s wide-eyed expression, as they inspected their own skin.
“Yeah. I did mention the part about growing stronger, didn’t I?” Az finally met my eyes with an expression of genuine puzzlement.
“Yes, you said you’d get stronger, but—”
“Not just me, Luv. You too. This was an exchange—couldn’t you feel it? We’ve both gained something. I just can’t tell what yet. It will be truly delightful to find out.”
I took a deep breath. Right. For Az this was a neat science experiment. For me, it was a healing I desperately needed and… well, boy howdy, had it ever worked. I not only felt like I had the energy to get up and walk, I almost felt like I had enough energy to fly without my dragon wings. It was… mildly disconcerting, but only because I felt like I needed to go run a few miles before I burst at the seams.
“Shall we go kick some MOME ass, then?” I asked, unable to contain myself any longer.
Az smiled widely and nodded.
“Oh yes. Let’s.”
THE LAST PERSON I had expected to find waiting outside the room in which I had just had very vigorous and probably quite vocal sex with a succubus was Albert, but if my life randomly started meeting my expectations now, I was going to get incredibly suspicious.
Az and I walked into Rhelia’s living room to find the white-haired mage enjoying a cup of tea and a magazine on Rhelia’s largest sofa.
“Everyone feeling better now?” he asked, without preamble.
I felt the blood run to my cheeks and ears, and tried to remember that what we’d just done had been the only way to get me back on my feet in time to be useful to our plans, though it was difficult to remember that now, after however much time we’d spent decidedly not hurrying the experience.
“Yes,” I said, my voice clearer and stronger than I’d expected it to be. “I’m ready to get to work on stopping MOME and Dryer. Have the dragons already launched their attack?”
Albert shook his head.
“No, they agreed to wait the ten minutes I assured them it would take to have you in fighting shape.”
“Ten minutes?” I asked, looking between Az and Albert with my eyebrows shooting up to high five in the middle of my forehead.
“Yes, I managed to put that room into a brief temporal distortion. Azrael assured me that three hours would be enough, and I managed to slip you out of time enough for that to take only a few minutes. We wouldn’t have needed the full ten if we hadn’t had to carry you over here. Still, we’d best get back to the field if we are going to launch our attack in time to catch Dryer unawares.”
If I hadn’t just spent Gwen-knew-how-many hours or days trapped in my own pocket dimension, and then come back to the exact instant I left, I would have assumed that Albert was making a very bad joke, or had simply lost his mind. As it was, I understood exactly how he could have used his dark matter to keep us suspended in our own timeline outside of this one, and so I simply nodded and reached my hand out to take his proffered one. Az took my other hand, and then I blinked us into existence in front of General Aira.
~~~
I was almost giddy with how little energy it had taken for me to move the three of us from Rhelia’s home to the middle of the dragon council’s plateau. Granted, it was a tiny distance, relatively speaking, but still, yesterday it would have been a noticeable drain on my energy to carry the three of us that far, and now it felt like I’d barely blinked. I wanted to laugh at how little it had cost me. If this was what getting busy with Azrael did for me, I was going to have to seriously reconsider my ‘no giving part of your soul to succubi’ stance. I felt like I could move a mountain with nothing more than my big toe.
Instead I tried to arrange my face into something resembling a grave expression. General Aira was going over her attack plan with Albert, as he suggested how we might maneuver our strike team to take out Dryer.
“She’ll be hiding, in all likelihood,” Albert explained. “It’s unlikely that she’ll be among any of her people at MOME, least of all wherever she plans to set someone off using Technetium next. She won’t want to be in the line of fire. Hers, or ours.”
“So how do we find her?” Azrael asked.
I remained silent, but my brain started to throw together a number of puzzle pieces, even as Albert began to speak.
“We’ll have to hope she’s at one of her known hideouts and send multiple strike teams timed exactly with our other attacks.”
General Aira was shaking her head.
“We don’t have time for that. We can’t assume that she won’t hear about those strike teams before one of them actually reaches her, so we would risk putting her on high alert instead of taking her by surprise. We can’t take the risk that she’ll predict our movements and take out our best people after the first strike force is discovered.”
“We can’t just do nothing,” Albert said, voice rising, as though this wasn’t the first time General Aira had rebuffed him. “Dryer is the linchpin to this whole operation. If we don’t remove her, none of this will ever stop. We’ve got to—”
“Albert,” I interrupted, my brain taking over my mouth before any other part of me could think better of it. “Do you have any way to get some of Rebecca’s blood?”
Albert and the general looked at me, their faces almost humorous mirrors of surprise, but Azrael smiled, as though they knew what I was thinking.
“I am not in the habit of keeping the blood of my enemies on my person,” Albert replied, calmly.
“Well, do you know where we might find a relative of hers? One that’s not under the same kind of security that she is?”
Albert thought for a moment.
“I might be able to find a cousin of hers. We were friends in school, and we’ve kept in touch over the years.”
“Excellent,” I replied, unable to keep the smile off my face. “Then if you’ll just give me a few minutes, I believe I have a plan.”
STANDING ON A very narrow ledge with a three thousand foot drop behind me should have been terrifying. Even years of rock climbing, and my latest forays into free-climbing, hadn’t changed that. What had changed was that I now felt exhilarated by the height, the danger, and the energy pulsing through me that was practically urging me to jump and see if I could really fly without wings right now. That little voice was terrifying, so I closed my eyes against the view of distant green meadows dotted with needle towers and embraced by a hazy mountain range, took a deep breath filled with clean late summer air, and then turned towards the whole reason I’d come here.
The cell in front of me was bare stone, fronted by iron bars as thick as my arm, and sparsely furnished. It contained what looked like a recently cleaned latrine in one corner, a small bookshelf covered in withered paperbacks, and a low, but clean and comfortable looking, pallet. Atop the pallet was what looked like an enormous pile of stacked cowhides.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Marmot?” asked a baritone voice originating from the center of the pile.
“I’ve come to ask a favor,” I replied.
/>
The pile of cowhides sat up, revealing itself to be a single cowhide draped across a large, muscular man covered in short brown fur and topped with a bull’s head.
“I am listening,” Torrence replied.
“Is Nethia…” my voice trailed off, unsure of how to word the rest of my question.
“She has not woken since you last saw her. I have been informed that she is being kept somewhere comfortable yet secure, and if she ever wakes, she will stand trial for her crimes.”
I swallowed. I wasn’t sure which was worse, honestly, an unending magical coma brought on by a broken blood oath, or whatever the dragons were likely to do to her when she was finally put on trial.
“I’m sorry,” I managed to say after a moment. “I know you were…friends.”
Torrence sighed and stood up from the pallet, walking over to the bars beside me and leaning against them.
“Once, perhaps. I am afraid Nethia and I haven’t been friends for a long time now. The bond of the Dragon Hunters was all that held us anymore, and she made it clear that even that meant little to her in the end. I thought, hoped is perhaps more accurate, that she had seen the wrong in all that we had done, as I had.”
Torrence stared into the distance. The view through the bars was unencumbered, and certainly good for contemplation. Leave it to the dragons to put their prison inside the tallest cliff in the realm. Maybe they were hoping the view would inspire their prisoners to lead better lives. Or maybe they just wanted to terrify people. With dragons it was hard to know. Maybe I just needed to spend more time as a dragon to figure it out.
“I was wrong, regardless. She was very good at convincing the world, or at least the Unterberg council, that she believed in the values that Unterberg strives for and—”
“Look, Torrence, I don’t want to keep you from mourning Nethia in your own way, but my favor is kind of…time sensitive.”
I grimaced. I really hated to interrupt the dude while he was processing this, but I’d barely managed to convince General Aira to hold off her attack while I enacted my “plan,” and I’d never told her what I was planning to do, just that I had a way to get to Dryer that would let us keep the element of surprise. She’d reluctantly agreed, with Albert’s added prodding. I’d only gotten away with not telling her the details because she wanted it done fast, and didn’t want to waste time on planning sessions. Luckily, with my particular skill set, I didn’t really need her to know what I was up to.
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 53
