by D. R. Rosier
I moved through the crowd collecting my share of lustful stares as I sent out tendrils to skim energy and sat down at the bar. The bartender didn’t make me wait long, and I was soon sipping my drink, relaxed and feeling the crowd in no time at all.
“Dance?” the question rung in my ear over the loud music.
I smiled and turned. He was probably a few years younger than me, cute college guy, with a confident look on his face. That hadn’t taken very long. I swallowed the last of my drink and stood up. I let him take my arm and lead me out on the floor. He wasn’t a very good dancer, but he was enthusiastic and it was still a lot of fun.
Between feeding and dancing my heart was pumping and my body was on a slow burn of ramping desire. I wasn’t so sure this guy was going to be the recipient though. After the second dance I let him buy me a drink and we talked, as best we could in a loud club. He must have sensed my reticence and moved on at that point.
Sure, a succubus needs sex, but that didn’t mean we didn’t have standards, and something was just off about him. Maybe it was nothing more than he was a little too young for me, not that twenty six was old. I felt something different then, and turned toward the door. The magical aura was a little like Rafe, just… less. There was definitely a were, or shifter of some kind coming in.
I was looking for whoever it was, expecting a muscle bound male, six foot five, that was very built. My expectations were not met when I picked the person out of the crowd. Surprisingly she came in with two human women, but I couldn’t help but stare. I could feel the animal in her and would bet money it was a large cat of some kind.
It was strange to see a shifter or were in the city, usually they were with their pack, firmly under the thumb of their alpha out in a wilderness area. They were highly protective of their females and this one was just roaming around with humans, in Chicago.
Another surprise was she was petite, I’d guess right around my height at five foot four, with a tight little body that made her thirty four C breasts look huge in comparison. She had shoulder length dirty blonde hair, green eyes, and generous lips. The greatest surprise though, is I would have thought a cat would be more confident, walk with a slink, and be dressed to kill. Not her though, she was in a loose shirt, her skirt was too long and an unfortunate color of brown, and she hardly had makeup on.
Still, even in this surprisingly geeky outfit she was at least an eight. I had to conclude she was… doing it on purpose and I had to say, she had my interest, or at least my curiosity. I wondered if her humans knew what she was, then remembered… no, they most certainly didn’t. Shifters were still hidden, the rest of us had been known for fifty years but not their race.
“Dance gorgeous?”
I took a sip of my drink then shook my head gently giving him a smile. That usually works for most guys, except the drunk and belligerent kind. Luckily he wasn’t one of those and moved on. I was curious and wanted to approach her, but her human friends made that more complicated.
Okay more than curious. She was not only beautiful but her aura was… refreshing to my senses, and a little wild. Not exactly that, but close enough. It was hard to explain… my magic liked her. It wasn’t any kind of ridiculous instant connection, think more like magical chemistry, some people were much more compatible, like human chemistry due to pheromones.
Lust at first sight works too.
“You want a kitten little witch?” Rafe’s questioning voice rumbled with humor.
I snorted a laugh then checked to make sure no one heard me. That would have been awkward. Damn dragon. I finished my drink and walked over to their table. They all looked up at me, but I focused on the shifter.
“Dance?” I whispered the question, depending on her reading my lips.
Her nose wrinkled as if she was taking in a scent, not obviously so, but since I knew what she was it wasn’t unnoticeable. Her eyes widened a bit at whatever scent she got, then narrowed.
“No,” she said quite firmly.
Huh… Well it happens, even to a succubus. I don’t know if it was really about me, or if it had to do with her hiding. I could feel a little fear, and a lot of anger most likely because of the former. It actually didn’t matter, I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable so I smiled slightly, and then walked away.
I guess my curiosity would have to go unanswered. I didn’t see anyone else that grabbed my interest in that way, but there were plenty of other people that stirred my lust. While waiting for Mister right, or Mrs. right, there were plenty of Mr. right now available to choose from. I let one of them take me home and by the time we made it to his bed, I’d completely forgotten about the shifter…
It’s so easy to sneak out of a man’s apartment when you can portal out from the bathroom. I went home, showered, put on my dress down work clothes and went to the clinic. My crystals and I were all full of energy and I felt extremely satisfied, my body was pleasantly sore in all the right places. It was something I could heal in seconds, but this kind of soreness I enjoyed.
The lobby was full, but I slipped into the back and went to the office to sign in. On the way in the room I heard a clearing throat behind me.
“Can I help you with something miss?”
I twisted my body and looked back, a man that looked around thirty four had a bemused look on his face as his eyes subtly took me in. I’d never seen him before, he was gorgeous, but then most angels are. He was a tall one as well, over six feet easy.
I smiled and said, “Hi, I’m one of the volunteers, I was just going to sign in.”
I finished turning around and raised an eyebrow, “Are you new? I’m Dawn.”
His eyes widened a little and he smiled, “Tom’s daughter? Nice to meet you. I’m Trent. He told me you might start coming in again. Actually I’ve been here around six months, I was just off last night.”
Duh, of course. It was me that hadn’t been around in a few years. Had I expected none of the staff to change? Not really, I just hadn’t given it any thought. The pause was starting to get awkward so I nodded and turned around and walked to the desk to finish signing in. I felt him linger for a second and for a moment I regretted the shapeless pants I had on, I should have worn tight jeans.
It was fairly busy through the night, although there were no true emergency situations. We didn’t really get a chance to talk, but it was obvious to me Trent was interested. He was perhaps a lot older than I was but I wasn’t overly concerned with that. He had a draw on me too, but I couldn’t figure out what it was exactly for a while.
He was confident, in good shape, but extremely gentle and caring with the patients. Not arrogant at all. He also clearly loved to heal people as much as I did. Granted, not surprising traits to find in this profession, but there it was. Oh, one more thing, he also couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off me when we crossed paths… not in a leering way. It was more a curious and showing interest kind of thing.
Around six am I decided to call it. I was on weird hours, which was fine as it worked with my habits and needs. I signed out and turned to leave only to find Trent in the doorway.
“Breakfast?”
I smiled, “Occasionally.”
He raised an eyebrow at my poor joke and I just nodded in assent. A short time later we were in IHOP.
He asked, “So is this a career change for you?”
I shrugged, “I’m not looking for something permanent, it’s better that way since I don’t really need the money. I just sold my business so…”
He tilted his head questioningly, “Better?”
I nodded, “Sure, if I take a healer slot that means I won’t be an extra anymore.”
He shook his head, “And that’s a bad thing because?”
I shrugged, “The city is cheap. If I stay a volunteer that means you’ll have one more healer in the clinic, less work for everyone, no one has to wait a day or two in pain before healers get their energy back.”
His eyes widened, “I hadn’t considered that.”
&n
bsp; I grinned impishly, “Plus I can set my own hours.”
He rolled his eyes, not buying my selfish reason at all. I had fun talking to him throughout the meal. He clearly didn’t like talking about himself, but I managed to learn a few things. He was alone, his parents having passed away in the demon war. He’d been friends with my dad for a long time, for some reason that didn’t bother me enough to consider saying no when he asked me out for Saturday night, three days from now.
I didn’t even ask what he had in mind.
I knew everyone said I was too trusting, took people at face value and believed the best of everyone. But I knew this guy was good.
He had very kind eyes.
It was close to eight by the time we finished breakfast and went our separate ways. I was tired but wanted to walk off breakfast so headed toward my new home. It wasn’t that far, maybe six blocks. I took the elevator up to the fourth floor and when the doors opened I froze in shock for a second. The shifter woman, the one that told me no last night, was standing right in front of me.
She had on a similar outfit to yesterday. A brown sweater that was almost loose enough to hide her breasts, and a white skirt that went down to her ankles. She was really good at dressing down. I wondered if she knew the nineteen seventies called and wanted their clothes back.
She looked at me angrily and growled, and her skin started to… move.
I held up a hand and said firmly, “Stop,” while releasing a spell to freeze her in place.
I was curious what kind of cat she was, but I didn’t want to find out when she was pissed off.
I sighed and said, “I live here. Strange coincidence, but this isn’t about you, or whatever the hell you’re running from.”
I walked past her and released my spell as I walked away.
She said in a confused voice, “Wait, I think I am a little paranoid, my alpha… she trailed off.”
She asked with a little steel back in her voice, “If you aren’t hunting me then why did you approach me in the club?”
I stopped and turned around. I knew lying or half truths wouldn’t work, between their sense of smell and hearing a cat shifter could spot a lie or evasion a mile away, so I spoke the blunt truth in a matter of fact voice.
“Two reasons. One, I was curious what a shifter was doing in the city, especially a female one all by herself. The second reason was I was trying to pick you up last night. With the intention of taking you home and seeing how many times I could make you scream my name.”
Her mouth dropped open and I added in a more normal, sultrier voice, “So I guess in a way you were right, I was hunting you, just not in the way you assumed. That would have been you screaming Dawn by the way, what’s your name?”
She blushed but answered, “Danielle, my friends usually call me Dani, or El.”
She was still a little flushed and flustered from my bluntness, I’d take that over hostile any day.
Danielle sounded reluctant when she said, “I’m going to be late for work, I’m an accountant at a law firm.”
A shifter as an accountant? It was hard to process.
I nodded slowly, “It was nice to meet you Danielle,” I caressed her name with my voice. I wasn’t sure what was up with me, I wasn’t usually this aggressive. I didn’t have to be. There was something about her, something wild that was dying to come out, that captivated me.
She turned to go but then turned her head back and asked, “Would you like to have lunch today?”
“I’d love to have lunch with you.”
We took a minute to trade numbers and she suggested a steak house. At least that was one thing that made sense to me, shifters love meat. It wasn’t until I got in my apartment, stripped my clothes off and lay down on the bed that I realized her lunchtime wasn’t my lunchtime. Her idea of lunch was in fact only four hours away. So much for a long sleep. Still, I’d skip sleep altogether to make my date with Danielle if I had to.
I was almost asleep when I felt the tingle of magic all over my body. It panicked me so hard I was deep in my magic, time slowed to almost a standstill, immediately. I took a moment to study it. It looked a little like a summoning spell, but with added elements… that looked like a world gate. Someone on magic world was summoning me? Or at least trying to it seemed. I could see the spell fail every tenth of a second as our protections from invasion ripped the spell apart.
Okay, maybe I wouldn’t be sleeping at all.
I got up and pulled on a casual pair of jeans and a clingy shirt, put on a pair of ankle boots, and blew out a breath. I was doing all of this in less than a second, still holding my magic. I knew this was probably a really stupid idea, but I cast the spell to stabilize gravity in this room for the next ten seconds. I could always come back to a normal return point, and by the time the spell got me to magic world my room would be protected again before they could do anything.
At least I was taking some precautions.
I kept my magic ready but let time speed up again and the spell surrounded me and pulled me away…
Chapter 14
I appeared in some kind of circle like in a bad Hollywood movie, a backward shield from what I could tell. Hmm. I looked around and saw Mara, then Tanner, and there were three other people I didn’t recognize. Whatever this defensive circle was repelled my magic, my protections were fine, I just couldn’t see anything outside of it magically.
“What is this about,” I asked Tanner directly.
I was probably nuts, but my biggest worry just then was I might not make it back in time for lunch with Danielle. Probably the foolishness my sisters always went on about, I didn’t really believe Tanner would hurt me, not after what I did for them.
One of the others said, “I knew if we kept pushing we’d break through.”
I suppressed an eye roll, but kept the information that I’d allowed myself to be summoned quiet.
Tanner replied, “Dawn, we wished to speak to you. We wanted to see if we could trade for more of that crop growing magic, at least ten other villages that we know of lost all their crops.”
I shook my head, “So why am I in here instead of a bartering table?”
I put out tendrils of magic, going over this prison. It was like standing in a tube, it was being fed from below, I wasn’t positive, but I’d say directly with elemental earth magic. I wondered if I could disrupt the spell by going after the threads of magic feeding it. I couldn’t do anything with the spell from in here, but the raw magic was a natural force.
In theory anyway.
Tanner sighed, “Because lass, we knew what world you came from by your soul and magic, it has the same signature. When we tried to go there, it was hard not to notice the world is blocked, the same as the dragons. Quite a coincidence wouldn’t you say?”
I shrugged, “My world has been blocked for twenty five years, to prevent an invasion from the demon world. The angelic dimension has been protected from invasion for eons. The demon world is also protected from invasion. It’s not an uncommon occurrence in creation. We have trees, and dirt too,” I added sarcastically.
I hadn’t lied, but I still felt guilty. It was my fault, even if I didn’t intend things to be quite the way they turned out. Still, they had me in this circle, I wasn’t admitting shit. If they’d just asked me I’d have probably spilled my guts out of guilt. Kidnapping kind of tips the balance in my mind.
Tanner asked, “So you have nothing to do with their new protection?”
Well shit, they’d know if I lied.
I sighed, “It was a mistake. They lied to me through misdirection. That’s why I came here the other day, to find the truth of things.”
Tanner frowned, “What do you mean by misdirection?”
I shrugged, “They told me absolute truth, just not all of it. They said they wanted my help shielding their world from aggressive raiding parties that were stealing their blood. Of course, they left out why you needed the blood, to protect yourselves from them, or that they’d started it.
My world is not your enemy, in fact many of my kind are angry that I was fooled, though we are hesitant to further intrude into someone else’s war.”
And I stole candy when I was nine. Damn I can’t keep my mouth shut. I’d be a horrible spy.
I was pretty sure the same spell I used to push magic away from me when I was here would do the same to the Earth magic causing the spell to starve, all I’d need to do was cast it an inch or so below ground under the circle. I was also pretty sure I could just portal out, the magic would completely bypass the shield by going through another dimension.
That also meant I could probably just go directly home if I needed to. I felt myself relax, these clowns only think they trapped me, much like they thought they stole me away against my will.
Maya hissed, “Why should we believe you?”
I frowned, “You can’t tell if someone is lying? Well… if I was allied with the dragons or even a separate enemy, why would I grow crops and heal your injured people?”
One of the others said, “To deceive us.”
I snorted, “To what end? You have nothing we need. Well, you have more magic, but that’s not something we can take from you is it?”
I really need to learn when to shut up.
Tanner sighed, “I don’t think she’s lying, she hasn’t come back since she learned our history with the dragons.”
Maya said, “Perhaps, but can we trust her enough to barter her help?”
One of the others said, “Let her leave, we will discuss it among ourselves.”
I was pleasantly surprised when they dropped the shield. I pulled out a gold piece and embraced my magic. I fashioned it into a ring and placed the spells for the communications necklaces on it before tossing it to Tanner. Well, some of the spells.
He looked at me questioningly.
“You can use it to contact me, it works through your intent. Just focus on the ring while thinking of me and say my name.”
