by D. R. Rosier
It wasn’t love, but it was commitment, and… I felt incredibly close to him. I didn’t think it would be hard at all to take that last step. I smiled and tasted his warm skin as I ran a hand down his hard body and between his legs. I was sure the magic would allow a slower more detailed exploration now. I was determined to know every inch of him intimately.
So I did…
Chapter 7
After a couple of days I was starting to feel comfortable with our connection. It was easy to see not only what he was thinking, but also what he desired. It went both ways of course, and it did take a couple of days before I went back to enchanting. It seemed the only time we weren’t in bed was during meals.
So far there was nothing further from the other dragons as far as problems. Even Ruby and Tal were polite, although in their cases it was more fear than any kind of acceptance. There was an unintended side effect of our bond however that we didn’t discover until I went to enchant the fourth object. When time slowed for me, it did the same for Rafe.
At first he was freaked out, but the advantages to this were obvious. He quickly got bored though, and when he realized it would be something like two months of subjective time for ten minutes, he withdrew from my mind for the first time. I wound up following not long after, it was disturbing how his thoughts slowed down as I watched.
I think he might have felt a little guilty leaving me alone, because when the ten minutes were up he had a meal and drinks ready in our quarters. We relaxed and explored each other for the rest of the day, both mind and body, and I was glad there were only two more enchantments left.
Rafe said, “You miss Lily and Tony very much.”
I do? I thought about it, and of course I missed them. For them it had been five days, for me… eight months. It would feel like a year since I’d seen them when I was done here, only a week and a handful of hours for them. I pondered that for a minute.
I replied, “I suppose I do,” not bothering to explain my thoughts, after all, he’d already seen them. Apparently recognized them before me as well.
He grunted and smirked a bit before kissing me breathless.
I got out breathily, “I’ll survive.”
Things were starting to get interesting when the alarm went off again, but it was different this time. Rafe’s urgency heated my blood as well, and we ran for the courtyard. Caph, Tal, Ruby, and a few other dragons were already there.
Caph said shortly, “Cary is being attacked by human magic users, she went to gather fruit by the lake,” and he literally jumped thirty feet and took off in that direction, the rest of the dragons following.
I felt Rafe was about to shift and said quickly, “Wait.”
He looked at me sharply, but relented when he saw what I was doing. I’d been up by that lake already so it was easy to open a portal straight there and we both stepped through. It wasn’t really my fight, it wasn’t what I was here for, but I happened to like Cary a lot. She was welcoming, and my favorite dragon, after Rafe of course. Plus I felt a little bit of Rafe’s loyalty and concern and that overrode any second thoughts I might have had about stepping in it again and putting myself where I wasn’t wanted.
Cary was on the ground struggling in dragon form. I couldn’t see what held her with normal vision, but I could discern the magic net surrounding her. There were eight humans, four of them were surrounding her, maintaining the spell that was holding her captive. The other four were holding a large flask and chanting. I could see the blood level in the flask rising and felt the magic that was doing it.
Rafe’s body exploded into his dragon and he didn’t hesitate to launch lightning, and a deafening roar of outrage, at the mages with the blood flask. It struck a dome of magic and was deflected toward the sky. This was my first look at human magic from a strongly magical world, and I wasn’t quite sure how I could deal with them. If it deflected lightning, I had a feeling it would also keep out fire, the other common dragon breath weapon.
So that was out.
I tried to create a ball of gravity to destroy the flask, and most likely the person holding it. But as my magic reached out it was rebuffed by the shield. Was my only choice to overwhelm it? Could I? There were four of them and only one of me. I reached out with my power, the dome was just that, a dome, not a sphere.
I smiled and reached into the ground finding the roots from the closest trees. I encouraged them to grow, reach up, and bind the magical humans. I was reluctant to kill them, I still felt a little guilty about the death challenge I fought. Besides these people weren’t killing Cary, only stealing a couple of quarts of blood.
I wasn’t even sure if they were mages, sorcerers, or Wizards. Come to think of it, I wasn’t even sure what the differences were. I’d have to find the time to go through Rafe’s memories of that world soon. The roots jumped from the ground and started wrapping around the mages. Fast, much faster than I’d expected. I wondered if I’d ever be used to this much magic being available.
I also wondered if I’d be loath to give it up when it was time to go home. Not just because of the power, but because my succubus hadn’t pushed me for sex since I got here. I didn’t need to feed at all really.
Whatever spell the humans were muttering failed when they were picked up and held by the tree roots. The holder of the blood flask was so startled he dropped it and cried out in shock and anger. Rafe moved forward to physically attack while one of the humans started muttering.
The roots started to rot and fall apart and the humans fell to the ground. The one with the staff glared at me and flourished it to the side. It wasn’t an attack though, a world portal opened and they grabbed the flask and all eight ran for the portal.
One of them didn’t make it. Rafe roared and swatted the last man, launching him into the air. His body pulped when it hit one of the trees. Then the portal closed. I stood there for a moment, and then ran over toward Cary. Whatever spell had held her started to unravel without the magic users maintaining it and she was free, and very pissed off.
I felt the other dragons closing in and reached out with my witch magic to check on Cary, but it was rebuffed by dragon magics. I wasn’t used to having my magic denied, and having my healing scan denied annoyed me more than the rest had.
Cary growled, “Thank you, but I’ll be fine.”
I was starting to think I was very lucky when I fought Aralindris. He had underestimated me. This place was too dangerous for ignorance, I either needed to get knowledge from Rafe, or stay in my damned suite until I was done and off for home.
I tried to remain a part of the background as best I could when the other dragons came in for a landing. Raph was pissed off and angry as hell his mate had been attacked. Since he was the sovereign, or alpha, all the other dragons were affected as well.
When I was asked for my version of things, I was very concise. At the first opportunity I opened a portal and went back to my suite. I wasn’t really afraid, but it’s disconcerting to be surrounded by a very angry, and very large, species of predators.
It felt a little late, I should have done it long ago, but later on that day I did delve a bit into Rafe’s memories with his blessing.
A wizard basically used magics through objects, enchanted glyphs and the like. Much like the staff that opened a portal. Mages used spells, directly shaping magic and spells with their minds. Sorcerers used and channeled magic to control the elements directly. Just like I could use magic to directly create a storm, or well of gravity, they use it to control fire, earth, water, and air.
The catch was, a person wasn’t limited to one of those. They usually had a greater talent at one or the other. One would be better at spells, while one would be better at enchanting items, or controlling the elements. In other words, they specialized in one of those three things. That didn’t mean a master at sorcery couldn’t learn a spell or two, or enchant a protective ward.
It was just extremely rare to find someone who excelled at two, never mind all three at once. Reason
being is the thought process and organization of magic is completely different for all three. So consider an interpreter who knows multiple languages, run over that person’s foot with a car, and they’ll be cursing in their original language. It’s very much like that, they specialize with what magic feels the most natural to their nature.
Fortunately, there were no other issues the next couple of days. I’d been able to finish up the enchantments, deploy them to space and test them. They worked fine, I only had one more thing to do and I could go home. I knew I’d be back though, and I knew Rafe would visit Earth, a lot actually. I couldn’t really imagine my life without him in it, and we would always be connected.
When I woke the morning I was leaving Rafe looked excited. I should have known what it was about, but I was still waking up as he led me deep inside the keep and down into the Earth. I could feel more protections, spells, and raw magic than what protected the surface. As we came to the bottom of the stairs Caph was there to greet us.
Caph smiled proudly and said, “You can keep your hoard wherever you want of course, but as Rafe’s mate you are now part of us. We thought you should have a vault of your own here, if you want to check it out?”
I pondered that a moment, I was already well set at home, and I thought it might be difficult importing the one percent of theirs, much less the hoard I won from the late Aralindris. I could always come here and take some if I ever needed it, it’s good to have options…
“I think I would like that, lead on?”
He led me down a hallway with large metal doors every hundred feet or so. There was so much magic I had to pull mine in, it was making me a bit dizzy. He stopped at the fourth on the left and opened the door, then did something to the magic.
Caph ordered, “Touch the door.”
I hesitated for a second, I really hated the alpha thing sometimes and had to remind myself that he was my ally and actually liked me.
I reached out and touched the door and the magic… tasted my magic and physical body. Not a great description, but it was apparent it was a magical bio lock of some sort, only I would be able to open this vault in the future.
I walked inside and took a look around. There were shelves worked into the stone, polished stone tables that looked a little like marble, but different, and a number of stone bins. One of the shelves had a large number of those crystals that were better at storing magic than diamonds. One of the bins was almost half full of platinum coins, a second bin was almost full of gold.
Just in coin there were… millions and millions of dollars worth.
There were also other items. Weapons and just plain decorations made of platinum, silver, and gold. Lastly there were smaller bins filled with diamond, sapphire, rubies, and other precious stones I wasn’t sure about at a glance.
The wealth in the room was unreal. I thought I was well set at home with a few million in a trust, what was in here just… dwarfed it. I felt I kind of earned it though, if only a small part of it was the one percent they owed me. It was a year’s worth of non-stop work and concentration. Those enchantments hadn’t been easy. I was assuming of course, they’d already moved Aralindris’s hoard here.
My assumption was shot down at my mate’s words.
Rafe said, “So, we can go ahead and move Aralindris’s hoard here now? This stuff is just the one percent we owed you.”
I turned and looked at him, because I could hear him laughing at me in the back of my mind. He had a bright twinkle in his eye and winked at me. Damn, I really needed to learn to pay attention to what was going through his head, I’d had a lot of practice and habit ignoring things like that though as a witch.
I nodded and said weakly, “That’d be fine, thanks.”
I did feel kind of proud though, they wouldn’t have to worry about raiders anymore, for a long while at least.
My hoard grew to ridiculous proportions, practically all the dragons here helped, carrying large tubs of loot. It was very surreal, I was so rich now that… I didn’t even know what to do with it. It just didn’t even feel real.
I spent the rest of the day in bed with Rafe, I would miss him for a while. He said he would come in a week or maybe two at the most. Caph needed him for something, though he wasn’t sure what yet. I didn’t really even want to leave, but I missed Tony and Lily, I missed my club, and I missed everyone else in my life back on Earth.
I didn’t belong here though, and I’d only miss Rafe, Cary, and the need not to feed. But feeding was natural, and believe it or not, I kind of missed it, no matter how convenient my life had been over the last week. It was time.
Just before I left, Rafe removed his magic blocker or filter, and I felt the pressure of it again. I opened a world portal to the apartment above the club, kissed Rafe and caressed his mind with my thoughts, then stepped through.
Chapter 8
The first thing I did was package all I’d learned about the two worlds in my mind, minus all the personal stuff, and sent it to my sisters, mother, grandmother, and Cat. Cat is the oldest witch alive, and one of our closest family friends. She’d taught my grandmother magic, and she’d fixed my mother’s. Luckily my sisters and I managed to avoid the errors that caused issues with my mother’s magic when she was younger.
Regardless, I thought it was worth them knowing. A mental package was less a telepathic message, than a full on memory. Kind of like the difference between a video and a text message, if the video came with emotions, smells, touch, and taste that is. I took a deep breath and let it out. I felt… right. It was so good not to be deep sea diving in magic again, it was just there.
I was excited and looking forward to seeing everyone again. At the same time it felt a little off. My body felt right being here, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have to feed myself or charge my enchantments at all until tomorrow night, I was fairly well topped off in that way. But it felt a little off, I wasn’t the same person as when I left.
Not only had I aged a year, at least in my mind, I was a killer now. No matter how much the Aralindris had deserved it didn’t matter, I was still affected. I blew out a deep breath and took a long shower. Stepping out I used my magic to leave all the water in the tub and went to my closet. I chose a dark blue dress that was somewhat conservative for me, but in human terms was barely on the classy side of risqué.
I decided to leave my hair down, or most of it, pinning part of it up on the sides of my head. A few hairs were left loose, framing my face. I put diamond earring studs and put on an emerald and ruby necklace I just couldn’t leave behind on dragon world. It wasn’t gaudy, but it looked good against my skin with this dress, and it was tasteful. I slipped on a pair of heels and headed for the door.
I am not an arrogant person, but I am a succubus. There aren’t any ugly ones. I felt confident and good, and for some reason a little nervous. I still felt a little out of sync, not that I couldn’t fake it, and even enjoy myself. The old life just felt a little off, like a favorite pair of shoes I’d grown out of. I was hoping that would pass.
I opened the door to the top floor of the sex club and peaked in my office. I took a couple of minutes to look at the books, my partner Lily had done an excellent job in my absence. Absently I extended my succubus magic below, it wasn’t exactly packed but it wasn’t too bad. There were close to forty people down there, and they all seemed to be having a good time.
I didn’t feel Lily so assumed she was next door running the night club. I did feel Sam however. He was one of our managers for this side of things. He was also a demon, so I was confident he could keep a pulse of things, make sure nothing got out of hand. It was rare, as I’d mentioned before we screened people before they could join the club, but nothing is foolproof.
Sometimes alcohol or life situations can change a person. I smiled at the irony of that and headed down the stairs. I wasn’t sure how the bond magic worked exactly, but I could still feel Rafe in the back of my mind, and I was aware of his despite being separated not only by distan
ce but by uncountable worlds and dimensions.
I heard a low whistle and smiled while turning my head. Sam looked about thirty four, which meant he was probably around five hundred or so. He had tanned skin, hazel eyes, was about six foot four, and was probably our most reliable employee.
“Hi Sam,” I said lightly, “How are things going?”
He looked me up and down, he was a terrible flirt, but he never actually made a pass at me or Lily. He had a wife he loved to distraction and was immune to us and the place he worked.
He grinned, “Good now that your back. Things have been about like now for the last week. The protestors are still out there, even more of them now. It’s… annoying. It’s our shyer clientele that haven’t come in anyway, the ones that get the private luxury rooms for an escape from home, or kids.
“Of course, the voyeurs, exhibitionists, and BDSM crowd couldn’t care less and are more likely to flirt with the protestors than blush and turn away.”
I nodded, that made sense.
“How’s the woman, and the kids?”
He snorted, “Senna is great of course, the kids are keeping out of trouble, or trying to at least.”
“Lily next door?” I asked.
He nodded, “So tell me, are dragons very… big?”
I suppressed a snort, but my grin was a lost cause.
I muttered in mock disgust, “Dirty old man.”
As I walked away toward the entrance I turned my head back and said sultrily, “Very,” and winked.
I walked outside and I could feel the hostility clogging the air. There were a lot more protesters than last week and I couldn’t help the frown that came to my face. I thought maybe it was because tonight was a weekend night, Saturday, but I wasn’t sure that was right. I smirked when some rather crude suggestions were shouted out and I glanced at the signs.
It was… almost typical. Demons are evil, sex outside wedlock will get you sent to hell, down with the iniquitous, etc… For a moment I thought maybe I should have taken a portal, there was a lot of anger and self righteousness in the crowd. But I liked the walk, and to say hello to the people lined up at the club.
