by D. R. Rosier
“How did I figure out you were starting a witch hunt Lenny? Your brother, he isn’t very subtle for the work he is involved in. He had Smith and Jones coming at me with both bores, demanding to know about my powers and abilities. The fact he’s your brother also rather sped things along.”
He nodded, “So why are you here?”
I sighed, “To attempt to get you to change your mind, and call off your brother. I get the whole thing that capacity equals intent in the eyes of the government, but there is a lot of history that says otherwise in our case. We simply aren’t the enemy.”
He frowned, “And after this talk if I still believe we need to gather data and confront the threat you pose?”
I shrugged, “I’ll put you to sleep, and excise the memory of this conversation.”
He grabbed a beer and offered me one, which I accepted, then sat down across from me.
“So give me your pitch.”
I gathered my thoughts, “This is all new to you. You saw me create a storm and take out a dragon with lightning bolts. I get it, scary witch. Here’s the other part though. It’s not new to me, it’s not new to witches. We just didn’t wake up two days ago and discover we could do these things.
“So you have to ask, why is there no time in history when we tried to take control of the world, to rule? So that’s my first point, we haven’t tried it since the beginning of time, we aren’t going to do it now either.”
He just waited patiently, I was surprised how composed and relaxed he was.
“Secondly, I work for America and we police our own. Just like the U.S. hires demons and Angels to subdue the ones that go bad, we do the same thing. Sure, we have more power, but in the end that doesn’t make a difference, if one of us goes bad, we take care of it. By the way, the last time that happened was in Russia over seventy years ago, and she wasn’t trying to control the government, it was internal.
“Third, we are all woman, the power doesn’t show in men. It’s an X chromosome ability. We are to the last peaceful and revere life, and only take it in defense of others. Did you know my sister is still mourning the fact she killed that monster two days ago? She’d never once taken a life before then and she did it to defend me and this country from harm.”
I sighed.
“Lastly, we hide most of our ability for the most part to prevent fear. If you look at history we’ve been hunted before and to be honest, we all expect it to happen again. But if that happens, we can’t protect anyone except ourselves and that means disappearing into the population. I don’t want to try and use fear to change your mind, but the blunt truth is that right now isn’t the best time for that. We are the country’s, the Earth’s, best defense right now.”
I held my silence, I knew it was weak. My plan A was simply to overwhelm him with the truth, and hope he could see it. Ironically it was almost the opposite of being a shadow witch, I was in essence, reading him into our side and hoping he went for it.
I admired him too much from what I’d read in his mind not to give him that chance, before I took the less savory route.
He asked, “So what are you asking me exactly?”
I sighed, “Call your brother off, trust that we’re not dangerous megalomaniacs and are actually here to protect and nurture this planet.”
He sighed, “But we know all about angel, demon, and elf powers, why are you afraid of us having knowledge about yours?”
I frowned, “Because the truth will scare too many people. You’re a good man general, but a lot aren’t and would hunt us for fear of something we wouldn’t ever do. The truth is also more complicated than that, no two witches have the same exact abilities. It’s not a list, like Angels can heal and call fire, they live for so long and all have blond hair. Demon’s have fire, female demons can also influence and control others through sex magic, succubae. Elves have very strong mental abilities. All those races have cookie cutter supernatural powers, easy to classify and file away in a drawer.
“Witches are different and don’t fit in a neat little box. Much more diverse.”
Ugh, I hadn’t meant to get into it so deep.
He looked frustrated, “I guess I’m too much of a military man. How can I estimate what kind of asset or threat a witch is?”
“And that’s the problem right there General. You can’t, and that’s where the fear comes in. So the real question is can you trust us, just based on the history of our actions.”
The general shook his head, “Can you explain that?”
I tried another approach, “General, you wouldn’t hire an electrician to run plumbing. You wouldn’t ask the guy at the register in the grocery store for legal advice. Witches have power over natural forces, but only the ones we understand. But we’re people too, so there are witches that could make storms, or ensure healthy crops, or heal a genetic defect, but not every single one could do all three. Only the ones that understand the underlying principles.
“A witch’s power is not instinctive like an Angel’s or Demon’s power, it takes knowledge, study, and hard work to do the simplest of things.”
He sighed, “Alright, I think I see the problem. It’s like asking what a human is capable of and expecting a straight answer.”
We finished our beers in silence as I let him think it through.
“Alright Amber, you win. I’ll tell my brother to back off. If I have more concerns though you might find me calling you.”
I nodded relieved and stood up.
He lifted an eyebrow, “That it? You just believe me just like that?”
I grinned impishly, “Of course, you can’t lie to me Lenny. Let me tell you, that fact is really useful in the CIA.”
He shook his head, his voice bemused “I don’t suppose you’d do some interrogations on the side for me?”
“Sorry General, I can’t say yes to that, but I will go where my boss sends me. If you can make that work… I’d be happy too.” I trailed off.
It was a relief, I really didn’t think he’d back down. On the other hand, he probably got what he wanted to know out of me in the process. My plan had depended on him being able to handle the truth, and be willing to not spread it around. I would have to keep an eye on him though, make sure he didn’t change his mind in the future. That wasn’t paranoia, it just made sense.
We said our goodbyes and I went by a couple of clubs to skim off lust and life force. I packaged up my meeting with Lenny and sent it to Cat before I arrived at Terry’s.
Chapter 17
I was tingling in all the right places when I showed up at Terry’s, feeding never fails to engender that reaction. But I had to ride it out a little longer as Terry’s sister was still in town. Luckily, she made herself scarce after dinner, and I had no trouble at all seducing him up the stairs and into the bedroom.
A while later I felt rather content, and just enjoyed resting in his arms. He had questions at that point, the dragons, what the NSA was sniffing around for, and other things I’d be happy never talking about. It went against the grain telling him about any of it, not because of mistrust, simply because I didn’t want him to be in danger, or worry about me. Turns out I was right about that.
“Seriously?” he asked worriedly, “You’re going after that thing alone? Sometime in the next day?”
I grinned and kissed him, “Yes. I’ll be okay. I won’t say it isn’t dangerous, but this last red is weaker than the green and silver I already fought, and I learned a lot from those confrontations.”
He just looked at me disapprovingly, “How do you know that? That he’s weaker I mean.”
I shrugged innocently and said in a reasonable voice, “Dragon’s will follow the strongest. The silver was the leader, then after that the green was.”
He seemed to want to argue, but he abruptly changed the subject.
“I talked to Lia earlier, we’re getting together tomorrow for dinner.”
I grinned, he said it so self consciously, like he knew I’d be excited about it, but t
hat it was also contrary to his expectations of women.
I caressed his chest with my fingertips, “That’s great, you’ll have a good time. Are you okay with all of this? You sounded unsure.”
He looked thoughtful, and I almost lost track of the conversation when he drew circles on my back with his fingers.
“Dating, with the intention of becoming lovers, with two incredibly beautiful and intelligent women isn’t a problem exactly. It’s beyond my expectations, but it also runs against everything I’d been taught. I’d have to say I half expected you to be outraged, even though I knew you wouldn’t be. I get the polyamory multiple loves in all directions part, but I guess it will just take time to make it seem real.”
My hand wandered down lower, teasing his abdomen, “I think I understand. For me though, I grew up with it. Both my parents and grandparents are in a polyamory circle. And then of course… succubus, I’m kind of made for it.”
I lowered my hand even further and his breath caught as I gently wrapped my fingers around his girth.
He pulled my hair firmly, bending my head back and then claimed my lips with his own.
My empathy told me he cared about me a lot, if not loved me already. That wasn’t all that surprising, we’d known each other as friends for a long time so it wasn’t quite as fast as it seemed. There was a real chance he could deal, but I couldn’t really think about it anymore right now as he started to tease my nipples between thumb and forefinger and knead the underside of my breast with his other fingers.
I released my succubus magic which made me his perfect lover. It was something I did as a succubus, almost by instinct, raising the pleasure to the greatest extent as we once again joined our bodies together. It was different though, even more intense through my empathy as we shared not only our pleasure, but our deep feelings of caring, and yes I admitted to myself, even love.
That didn’t mean of course, that we were gentle. He took me over and over in different ways, both soft and hard. It was indulgent of me, but I kept feeding his libido, extending our marathon of sex and losing myself in the pleasure of it. I couldn’t get enough.
Call it a succubus version of vacation, I had a lot of stress with everything that went on, it was the perfect release. There was a part of me that reveled in it all, I felt safe, warm, loved, and thoroughly well fucked.
I lost count of the rounds and was startled when I saw it was after midnight. I knew I should be worried about losing this connection with him. I’d fallen hard despite my reservations and didn’t want to lose him. But my normal pessimism was on vacation, I was entirely blissed out and sore in all the right places.
He was in much the same shape, and it didn’t take him long to pass out after our marathon. I leaned my body up against his and followed him into sleep…
Last night had been wonderful, but this morning was a rude awakening.
Cat sent, “He has stopped, he’s located a few miles outside Colorado Springs.”
My mind was fuzzy when I replied, “Alright, send me coordinates? I’ll go… ten minutes?”
I needed to wake up first. I gently removed Terry’s arm and slid out of bed. I took a portal right from the side of his bed leading to my shower and turned it on. It was cold right at first, which did the job of waking me up very fast. I didn’t tarry in getting cleaned up, and was in my closet getting dressed just a few minutes later.
Curiosity got the better of me, “How did you know when he would stop?”
Cat replied, “How do you think I did it.”
I started laughing. That was Cat’s preferred method of teaching, make the student figure it out. If they weren’t smart enough to, they didn’t deserve the power the knowledge would bestow. It was probably a wise thing, but right now it just annoyed me.
“I’ll think about it.”
I could feel her amusement. She sent me the coordinates and I started building up my spells, this time for fire and blunt trauma. I also decided to attack right away, as I couldn’t risk trying to talk to him and him just running away. Besides, he’d killed and destroyed way too many and too much to allow him to leave. Not only because of justice, because of the knowledge he’d be able to impart about our world.
The mental picture of a hundred dragons doing non-stop hit and run attacks made my blood run cold.
I embraced my magic slowing time and opened a portal at his coordinates, but a hundred feet above him. I put one hand through and released my satellite cover spell then stepped through. I hung there with gravity manipulation as I considered gathering a storm. I decided using my sister’s approach would be better. There would be less a chance of the nearby city seeing anything, a huge electrical storm would be another show for the world.
Not something I should do again.
Instead I raised my hand and then constantly built an imbalance of energy between us. Even with time dilation I couldn’t shoot a constant stream of lightning, it simply wasn’t possible. However it may have seemed that way to an outside observer as a staccato of lightning bolts shot from my hands.
He was awake and in the air by the time the fourth one struck. I’d fought two dragons before, I expected him to circle, breath flames, and make a pass with his claws every once in a while. But I was wrong, way wrong.
He roared in anger and lunged into the air straight at me. He was fast, faster than me, but I was far more maneuverable. I dodged quickly to the left and he barely missed me as his jaws closed in a loud jarring sound. His claw however managed to catch me and bounced off my physical shield. I felt it weaken and added energy to it as I spun to release more bolts.
I only got two off before he was again coming at me incredibly fast. Worse, although he couldn’t cast spells, he seemed to have control over his natural shields, he was pouring all his magic into them and attacking me physically. It seemed that feral or not, this dragon was cunning, and had paid attention to my previous fights. My lightning just wasn’t getting through.
There wasn’t nearly enough of it, and I was quickly tiring as I dodged him over and over while getting in two or three strikes per pass. I was starting to heartily regret not making the damn storm. I’d taken a few hits from claws, but thankfully had avoided getting chomped in half. Still, my shields and energy were draining. Not alarmingly yet, but I needed another approach and fast, but it was hard to think among the onslaught.
I modified my shields to convert some of his physical attack to momentum, and the next pass he grazed me and I went flying away. My shield was still damaged by the attack, but not nearly as badly, it also gave me a little more distance and I got five strikes in before he closed with me again.
His shields held.
I was seriously considering pouring most of my magic into one needlelike thrust and hoping it breached his shield when I heard the sound of helicopters. Shit. There was a base rather close by, this red really knew how to pick an encampment, and by that I mean not so much.
I went with my desperate plan, after two more passes I sent one lightning strike laced with almost all of the magic I had left. If it didn’t work I’d have to retreat, which would be bad. Maybe not for me, but for wherever the dragon attacked next.
The lightning deflected off his shield, but the raw magic I’d sent with it ripped through. With a fast desperate thought I created a gravity well inside his body and it was instantly crushed. Since the battle in D.C., I’d come to regret leaving a body for scientists to study, so I called up demon fire and burned the blood, splintered bone, and compacted flesh to ash.
I looked around and the helicopters were still far away and not in line of sight, so I didn’t have to worry about footage. I opened a portal and stepped through, closing it as I released the satellite cover spell. I was almost completely drained of energy, and most of my enchantments were dangerously low. It was four in the morning, where exactly was I going to feed?
Well, it was only midnight in Anchorage, Alaska. My clothes and everything were fine, he hadn’t breached my shield, but I
was sweaty and felt the need to shower. After that I went hunting in Anchorage, leaving several confused, sleepy, but very happy males and females in my wake. Skim feeding just wouldn’t work when I was this low…
Chapter 18
I found out the next morning that the General had kept his word. I hadn’t slept since the battle as it was only a few hours earlier, but I walked in full of energy and wide awake from my predations. Smith and Jones were in my boss’s office, and I went up there and they debriefed me. They weren’t too happy with my answers, I only told them there were no more dragons left on our Earth, and that I’d killed the last one earlier outside of Colorado Springs.
The reason I knew the General had kept his word was because they didn’t dig into me for what I did, or ask me anything about my magic. Not to say they were touchy feely, because they weren’t. That was okay though, I was willing to put up with their frustration.
Just another day at the office.
There were no more dragons here, but the danger was hardly passed. I hoped of course the dragons would back down, but barring that I’d prefer to hear that they were attacking magic world over ours. I had the feeling my sister was running out of time, Dawn only had about half the villages upgraded to new protections, which left a little over sixty to go.
I also wondered what, if anything, we owed that other world, but I knew whatever the answer was I would be staying here. I had a purpose and responsibility with both the CIA and Cat that I couldn’t just leave behind. Outside of any responsibility we may have had to that other world, there was also the question of practicality, stopping the dragons there meant we wouldn’t have to worry about facing them here.
As was typical of me, I worried over this for most of the morning, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Terry managed to snap me out of it, he took me to lunch and his relief and joy that I wasn’t harmed in the fight was just too contagious.
