by D. R. Rosier
After the shift Trent and I had breakfast again. This time when I got home there were no interruptions and I fell into a deep sleep, finally getting a decent night’s, or rather day’s rest.
I woke to a soft lingering kiss. Rafe. The feeling of safety, of coming home, of being cherished overwhelmed me and we made love. He played my body like an instrument, and I used all I knew to give him all the pleasure he could want. When he finished in me I fed on his seemingly endless magic and life energy, causing me to come undone in ecstasy.
When we came down he asked, “Dawn, happy to see me?” in his rumbling voice.
I kissed him and mumbled, “Maybe a little.”
He chuckled knowingly and lay beside me.
“So did you have any plans?” I asked.
He shrugged, “We should talk later about serious things, but for now I just want to enjoy you. I missed you little witch.”
And he did enjoy me, and I him, for the next few hours…
Hunger however drove us out of bed around dinnertime. I put on a robe and went to the kitchen and put together a quick meal. Chicken parmesan and spaghetti sounded good. I considered making salad too, but rejected it, he’d have no interest in it. I hadn’t dug into his memories, not since I saw the dragons raze a town, and wondered what he wanted to talk about.
We kept things light however during the meal. He told me he was looking forward to meeting Danielle, and that I’d been right about the magic pointing out the compatibility between us all. He also explained since it was his magic in me doing it, it would only work on compatible females. Just because I didn’t feel it so strongly with Trent didn’t mean we weren’t another good match.
Of course, it didn’t mean we were either, only time would tell.
He also talked of Caph and Cary during the meal, that I should visit again soon. Especially Cary. It was true that Cary felt like a sister to me, we had gotten along very well while I was on the dragon world. My personal life was getting complicated, and I was enjoying that fact. Once we were done eating though we moved to bigger topics than our personal relationships.
Rafe got a serious look on his face, “I told you I would investigate, I looked into the records for our clan. Though there is some truth in Tanner’s story, there is another side. We were allies against the phoenix world. We gave them blood for their protections and fought with them side by side, they took care of our cattle to free up more warriors. Humans are more numerous than dragons, it seemed a good trade off.
“Once the war was won, things continued to stay the same for a long time. In their version it was two millennia, in ours it was a couple of centuries before discontent started creeping in. The whole issue is the generation gap, dragon generations are much longer. The humans breed like flies in comparison.”
He took a sip of his drink and I waited for him to continue, not exactly seeing why that was a problem yet.
“You see, in two hundred years they had ten generations, quadrupling their population. They live in clans much like we do, so that meant four times as many new clans striking out, four times as many villages, four times as many protections needed.
“In other words, four times as much dragon blood. We on the other hand had grown much slower. It wasn’t really a logistical issue yet, but it had become apparent that it would be a problem in the future already. The humans that were part of the war were all gone, but plenty of the dragons still lived, and they counseled we keep them as allies and continue the supply against the day we may need each other once again in common defense.”
I thought I saw where he was going but didn’t interrupt.
“There came a breaking point. In two thousand years our population had grown as well, so we needed to request more humans to help with the larger herds we now needed, and also needed more grain to feed the larger herds. The humans having shorter life spans seemed to overlook the fact that we were giving many times more blood than back during the war, they protested that we were asking for too much in return. I know Tanner told you we decreased the amount of blood, but that isn’t true, we just told them they couldn’t increase it anymore. It must have just seemed like we gave less, since they needed so much more.
“The dragons in the war had recently passed, and there were divisions in the council. Most wanted to cut ties and just go on own way. We could take care of our own cattle. A smaller part of the council didn’t like the idea, they saw the humans as cattle, taking care of the tasks no dragon would want to take on. Another portion, the smallest group in the council including my brother, saw them as allies and equals, wanted to sit down with the humans and explain what they were missing, work it out and stay allies.”
He smiled, “Dragon arguments can take a century to decide, we are stubborn, don’t know if you noticed? Well, while we were still arguing all the humans on our world left. Suddenly we had to scramble to watch our herds. We also had long since given up on agriculture to support the herds and they were too big to be supported simply by foraging wild grasses and plant life. Even if we started planting immediately it would take too long, most of the herds would die.
“We had no choice at that point, we started to raid for supplies to feed our cattle, and of course that’s when they started raiding for blood to power their protections. Things as they stand now aren’t all that good. There are only a few sovereigns who would consider peace talks. Most want to just raid long enough for our own planted fields to start yielding what our cattle need.
“There is however a small but growing group of sovereigns that see the humans as dangerous and ungrateful. They feel it would be more prudent to take over their planet, make them work for us as slaves if need be rather than chance them growing strong enough to threaten us. Caph is doing his best to oppose them, but the idea is growing in popularity. We are an alpha species, making them submit to us is a tempting proposition and in our nature, though a great many of us know that path is folly.”
He shrugged, “I would talk to this Tanner on my own if I thought it would do any good. But as it is we have no choice but to support the majority vote, no matter how distasteful my brother and I find it. For now that means raiding until our crops have a chance to kick in, then we will leave them alone. I just hope that happens before the other movement has a chance to grow and take over.”
I asked in a concerned voice, “Do you think that’s likely?”
He sighed, “It depends, as it stands now probably not. But if the humans somehow show themselves to be a real threat to us before we can break off completely the odds go way up. It’s in our nature, threats aren’t tolerated very well. Right now they aren’t a serious threat to us at all.”
We got back to lighter conversation after that, but I did take a moment to pass on the memory of the story to the rest of my family. When work time got close we took a shower, after which Rafe left to return home. I already missed him before the phantom touch of his embrace left me.
Something about what we talked about was bothering me though, it took me a long time to figure it out. Dragons don’t tolerate valid threats well. I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant for how they would approach this world, the home world of witches. After all, I had totally obliterated that dragon in a second or two during the challenge…
I was brimming with energy from feeding on my dragon, so I didn’t need to do that tonight. I wasn’t running late, so I walked to work. I was disappointed to learn Trent was off tonight, not that we had all that much time to talk when at work. Plus, I’d see him tomorrow, after I got some rest that is.
My father was working tonight, along with another healer named Silvia. She was an older angel, so old she showed signs of old age and had a matronly air about her. I got started working on clearing out the room. Healing is hard for me to describe, it was relaxing to me, calming. It was also one of the best feelings to see the look of pain fall off of a person. Gratifying.
I’d just gotten done healing a four year old girl who’d fallen down the stairs. Someh
ow, thank goodness, she’d managed to break her collar bone instead of her neck. She was all smiles in her mother’s arms as I walked them to the door. I went to get the next person when the door opened, two men came in with a third between them. The two men gave off vibes of violence, I could tell they were some kind of law enforcement but they were wearing plain clothes. One was human, the other a demon.
Probably a special operations team for the police. They worked in human/supernatural pairs and went after non-human law breakers, which took me to the third man who I scanned with my magic. He was barely conscious, beaten bloody and most of the bones in his right hand were shattered. It looked swollen, purple, and quite painful. He was also human.
I said without preamble, “Follow me,” and turned back to the hallway.
I led them into an examination room, my emotions roiling. I’d like to know who did that to him so I could deliver some back, perhaps I was more like my mother than I admitted to myself, I just wouldn’t deal well with the politics of that kind of life.
I asked, “What happened?” as the men placed my patient on the bed.
I started healing him knowing it would take a while to fix it all, especially the shattered bone.
The demon answered, “Gang violence. Guy was mugged and decided he should fight back, against a gang of juvenile demons. We got an anonymous tip, but by the time we got there…”
I sighed and continued to heal him and surreptitiously checked under his fingernails and around his body for foreign DNA. I had to embrace my magic and slow things down a bit to multi-task once I found some. I followed the blood on his knuckles to the mind of one of the attackers.
His name was Jake and he was living on the street. Right now he and his buddies were drinking and carrying on in a condemned building. I took the time to rifle through his mind and get all their names, where they spent most of their time, and their favorite places to mug people.
Of course, this sped up the healing to an insanely fast speed from the perspective of the cops. When he was healed I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote it all out, giving the information to the startled officers.
I smiled grimly, “I hope that helps?”
The human cop looked… afraid. I rolled my eyes and turned to the demon ignoring the human cop. Case in point, I could never do what my mother did. I don’t know how she handled all the suspicion and prejudice.
The demon simply raised an eyebrow in question.
I shrugged, “Dad’s an angel, hence the healing. Mom’s a witch.”
Yes, I used hence in a sentence and was probably being a wiseass. I was annoyed. At least the beat up human looked appreciative of me, in more ways than one actually. I sent a flirty smile his way.
“You should be fine now. Glad you got that punch in, our friends here should be all set to go kick their asses. Right?” I asked a little pointedly as I turned back their way.
The demon nodded slowly, “We’ll get right on that,” and winked at me.
I walked them out to the entrance, then took the next person…
Chapter 17
I’d just gotten to sleep, warm, comfortable, and quite possibly dreaming about getting Rafe and Danielle in bed at the same time, when I was rudely awoken by Tanner. What was I thinking giving him a communication ring? I looked at the bedside clock, it was eight thirty. My date with Trent started at one. I thought longingly about those four hours of sleep I was about to miss.
Of course, as a succubus I didn’t really need to sleep more than once a week, to maintain sanity, but it took life energy and magic to accomplish. I told Tanner I’d be there in a half hour and jumped in the shower wondering what they wanted me for. I didn’t dawdle, using magic to dry off, then throwing on a pair of comfortable jeans and a light sweater shirt that clung to my curves.
I opened a world portal and stepped through right on the edge of town. Probably not my smartest move, but the mages held their fire when it was me that came out. I’d have to remember to walk in from down the road next time.
I gave Tanner an apologetic smile, “Sorry, wasn’t thinking. What did you need?”
He didn’t look too annoyed when he replied, “Follow me please. I’ll show you.”
I followed him to one of the other general buildings. I noticed they were making good progress rebuilding the houses. There were a few up already, and all the burnt debris was gone. We walked into one of the buildings. I smelled books, and dust. It was definitely a library of some kind. He took me to the center of the building where there was a plinth that was covered in symbols. I could see the spell forms thick and strong around it.
Sitting on it, was a flask full of what must have been dragon’s blood snugly fitted into a recessed shallow hole on the top. I turned to Tanner and raised an eyebrow in question, wondering why the hell they’d take me to the center of their protective magics. I was afraid to know the answer.
Tanner cleared his throat, “I wanted you to see this, what we need the blood for. There were many people against it, but the majority when told of the powers you exhibited wanted to see if you could help.”
Uhoh. This didn’t sound good so far.
“Help with what?”
Tanner replied, “Well, we can’t get our hands on any replacement blood, we were hoping you knew of something, maybe from your world or magic that could replace what it does.”
I frowned, that sounded like a bad idea. It would put me in the position of directly affecting the balance of power in a war. I was pretty sure I couldn’t fix it though. I was curious to take a look, I slipped into my magic and time slowed. I started studying the spells and how the blood powered it. I began to feel uncomfortable when the obvious conclusion occurred to me.
On my world, magic was precious, every single drop of it. One of the things witches were taught were how to do as much as possible with as little as possible. On a world such as this, there was such an abundance of magic, the people of this world truly had no idea how to use it. I wondered if Cassie had any theories yet, but it wasn’t something I could ever pass on to them.
To put it simply, when they tapped into raw magic to use spells, it was like trying to collect water from a pool using a skimmer. Sure, you might get a little wet, but it was inefficient. Actually, saying what they did was inefficient was being kind. Dragon blood though, they were a little better at. The magic was more organized for them, absorbed into the blood much like a crystal but to a much greater degree. Still, even with the dragon blood it was like they were using a thimble to collect water from an ocean and a lot of the magic spilled out and was wasted.
I thought it odd dragons were so much stronger than the humans on this magic world. The truth was they weren’t, or at least they shouldn’t be. Of course, I was terrified to even speak of it. If the dragons found out about it, especially that the humans here knew and were trying to fix it, they would become a legitimate threat. It would change the war from temporary raiding until the dragons could support themselves into a full invasion.
Then of course I felt guilty, what would Rafe do with this knowledge? If I knew it, surely he would come to learn it as well. Tanner was trusting me with at least my silence, and I felt like an unwitting spy. I also knew I could fix it. It wouldn’t be hard to crystallize the blood and set an enchantment to have it absorb the raw magic from the atmosphere.
It would be like a never ending battery, at least until the core of magic at the end of creation is used up. Nothing is free, but that would be close enough to almost not make a difference. Think of it like solar power. Was it free? Not really, but it would be there until the sun ran out in a few billion years.
But if I did that, could they study it and figure it out? If they did, then it would be as bad as me telling them they sucked at working with raw magic, and shouldn’t. Suck that is.
I should have stayed in bed. It was a really good dream I was having too.
Well, only a few seconds had passed real time, and he hadn’t asked me about any of that stuff, j
ust if I knew something to replace dragon blood. Technically I didn’t, but my answer would completely violate the spirit of his question.
I released my magic and shook my head, “No, we can store magic in crystal structures, but nothing that comes close to how much magic that blood holds. Even then the best material on my world for that is diamond, I’m pretty sure you already have better than that?”
He asked, “How would you know that?”
I frowned and looked at him guiltily, “Some crystals better than diamond was part of my payment from the dragons.”
He nodded seemingly appeased, had he thought I was spying on him? I was angry for a moment but then I almost snorted, because I kind of was.
He said, “We may call for your assistance if we run into food issues, other than that we don’t really need anything I don’t think. Thanks for coming, even if you couldn’t help.”
I felt as low as a bug as he escorted me out of the village. I opened a portal while using my necklace to stabilize the field in my bathroom. The portal popped open as I expected it would. I made my escape. I was wide awake now so I might as well have breakfast…
I wound up just leaving the casual clothes I had on, using a quick spell to remove the dust on my jeans from the other world. I still had no idea what Trent was planning, but I was excited anyway when the knock came at my door a few minutes before one.
He looked good, tight shirt, loose jeans, and a pair of boots. His eyes sparked with admiration as he took me in, so his words took me by surprise.
“That works, except for the sandals, you have boots?”
I raised an eyebrow, but he stubbornly kept his lips closed.
“Just a sec,” I muttered as I went back toward the bedroom.
