A guanaco blanket covered most of Jenséa, with her feet pointing toward the sea. Angel Boy stood guard like a weak little rat, wrapped in his multicolored-striped serape. His clean-cut aura tempted me to unleash his dormant libido into a tidal wave that would crush him with shame. Hmm. If only I had time to play.
Granny’s blue wool tunic matched the dark sea. She was squatted near Jenséa, stroking her face. “Let me take you to a hospital in France.”
Angel Boy said, “Yes, let Charlotte and I deal with saving the earth.”
“No,” Jenséa shook her head. “johnny is here and I need him.”
Granny said, “At least, let us move to a more sheltered place.”
“No,” Jenséa said. “I need the sound of the sea, the energy of the sea. It calms me and helps me through the pain.” Then she cried out as a contraction hit. “johnny, where are you!”
Granny said, “Your Prince is evil, ma chère. Do not trust him. Do not.”
I felt the pain roll through her. I inhaled the expelled energy until the contraction passed. Ah, such a delicacy. Jenséa’s body jolted. Her head snapped my way, even though I was in Pericludies. I guess my guard came down when I was reveling in her pain.
“johnny?” she said.
“No, no!” scolded Granny. “You must block him. You must!”
Ah oh. Granny sensed me too. She dove into my fluid mind, attempting to steal information. I hardened my thoughts quickly. Maybe I could trap her. She shot out of me before my ideas froze her in my stone prison. A lot of good it did me to be invisible. Only Angel Boy didn’t know I was here.
“j o h n n y!” Jenséa cried, “Please come to me!”
Angel Boy turned his head about nervously, afraid I’d appear. He was no match for me, and he knew it. Then he squatted cowardly next to Charlotte.
I wanted to appear, but I didn’t want to be visible with Granny and Angel Boy present. They’d just want to argue with me. Hmm. How to get her away from them . . . . I needed to distract them, or maybe get rid of them, but not appear the culprit. I opened my mind for an answer. I felt the heavy presence of something in the water, near the shore. Electricity. Reptile-like. Ah. Jackaeels. Maybe ‘I’ could summon a few of them from the sea.
I focused on their energy presence, attempting to loosen them from Aruka’s spell. With tenth level power, I gave it all I had, sending my command to three of them. I stared out at the sea, waves washing in, washing out—the lullaby of life and death. Old volcanoes jutted up in the distant ocean, silhouetted in the moonlit sky. The blue-black water sparkled in lunar light. Even I, a fire Dragon, found it worthy.
Jenséa sobbed, “johnny, johnny, johnny.”
Granny said, “Forget that demon!” And reading Charlotte’s mind, I saw that she was trying to hide Jenséa without her actually knowing.
Jenséa held her abdomen. “I need him, Charlotte.”
The sea behind them flashed yellow. Flame-shaped topknots rose from the water.
Hell yeah, it worked! Three slimy grey Jackaeels emerged from the waves and padded toward us on webbed feet at a speed I’d not thought likely. I didn’t know how a Shen’s Divine Light might affect them, but it would be fun to discover.
Granny and Angel Boy, sensing the approaching Jackaeels, looked to the creatures. Then they snapped their heads to each other so hard that Granny’s grey curly hair bounced, and Angel Boy sprained his neck, evident by his fingers kneading his neck muscles.
“Oh Charlotte,” he said, glancing at the Jackaeels. “What are those things?”
“I don’t know.” Charlotte’s eyes slid nervously toward them. “I’ve never seen such creatures.”
Jenséa sat up the best she could in a pregnant state, facing the Jackaeels. The blanket had fallen around her hips. She grabbed her stomach, her fingers curling into fists, not from a contraction, but rather, hysterical defiance. She threw her head back with eyes squeezed shut. Tears streamed from the corners. “No, oh, oh, oh no.” Her voice quivered as she sobbed, “Oh god, no! No! No!” and then she whispered tearfully, “my babies, my babies, my babies.”
Charlotte rubbed Jenséa’s back too quickly to actually be calming. “It’s all right my child; it’s all right.”
She looked at Charlotte, tears still dripping. “It is not all right.” She whimpered, “They don’t look friendly.”
The blue-black air dampened and became electrically charged, more so as the creatures neared—the eel brigade, coming to my rescue.
I rose, eager for entertainment. I would intervene if I must, but only to save Jenséa for her showdown with Suko.
“Ohhh . . . ” Jenséa moaned, doubling over, her scrunched face almost in her lap.
Granny blurted to Angel Boy, “We must get her out of here. You will have to fly on your own, André. It will take my full attention to transport her safely in her condition.”
“Fly?” His face took an incredulous expression. “I can’t fly. I don’t even understand how you fly.”
Jenséa cried, “Oh, this hurts so much!”
Granny hugged her gently while eyeing the incoming Jackaeels, who were nearly upon them. “I know dear, I know.”
When the contraction was over, Jenséa jutted her head my way. “johnny, I can’t see you, but I can feel you. Why won’t you appear!”
Charlotte said, “Because he’s evil, dear.”
Angel Boy jumped to his feet. “Take her Charlotte; get her out of here!”
Jenséa cried out, “johnny! We can’t leave André with these creatures. Will you carry him?”
I didn’t answer. Maybe, she’d doubt I was here. I’d not spoil the fun of watching the scene by saving Angel Boy. And if they couldn’t save him, they’d have to fight. And maybe Jenséa would take charge, and the whole Suko event would be unnecessary.
The Jackaeels were nearly upon them.
Jenséa was hysterical. Still she resisted taking charge in a fight. Granny had taken charge. I’d have to make sure no help was present for Jenséa’s showdown when Suko arrived.
The Jackaeels’ heads jerked back with opened fat fish lips. From each mouth there emerged a skinny, foot-long tongue that spit a jagged blue line of electricity, not quite close enough to hit their targets, but the Jackaeels intentions were clear. Their egg shaped, yellow eyes harbored pinhead pupils that lent them an icy reptilian stare, void of mercy. They seemed mentally unevolved, driven by cold instinct. I was anxious to see if Granny’s Shen power would be effective against them. Though I would protect Jenséa until she was restored, it would serve me well if Granny and Angel Boy, as they say, ‘bit the dust.’
Granny shouted, rising to her feet, “Attack the one nearest you with Divine Light!”
Granny shot a thin Divine Light beam from her forehead to a Jackaeel’s forehead. Angel Boy did the same, but his beam was fat, for he’d not yet learned how to make it deadly. Jenséa followed suit, lagging a little behind. The Jackaeels were unaffected, probably because they weren’t actually malefic. The three Jackaeels’ foot long tongues shot out again, spitting thin blue lines of lightning at the Shens.
I Black Light Shielded Jenséa. Granny was hit in the arm, and Angel boy in the stomach. They both fell to the sand, convulsing. Then they stilled—but not the frozen still of death, for I could hear their pumpers beating. One more shot might do it. If they had been solely human, or maybe hit in the head, they would have died already.
Jenséa, on her knees, stared at them both, horror-stricken, wondering why she had not been struck. She brought her attention back to the three Jackaeels staring at her.
All three, jerked their heads back, and opened their mouths to spit electricity.
Jenséa cried out, “No!” and crouched away from them with her arm wrapped around her head.
The Black Light Shield absorbed the electricity.
She snapped her head back to the Jackaeels to see what might have happened.
The Jackaeels, not being too bright, jerked their heads back, opened their mout
hs, and prepared to attack again.
Jenséa started panting hard, wheezing shrill tones of terror, unsure what to do. “johnny, if you’re there, if you can hear,” she screamed, “help us!”
I liked it that she was calling for me to save them all. I should not like it. I’m no Angel. The Jackaeels spit blue bubbles around Granny and Angel Boy. Ah, the kidnapping. I would love nothing more. I wanted to take Jenséa and leave, but once I appeared, she’d question my actions. So, I decided to play it like a rescue scene.
I appeared physically before Jenséa in my handsomest state, dressed as a Musketeer in a white, billowy dress shirt, and black pants tucked into thigh high boots. My long clean hair blew gently in my fabricated breeze.
Jenséa cried out, “johnny! You are here.”
“Yes, my love,” I said. Showing off for her, I conjured a level ten Red Wall between the Jackaeels and the three Shens. This wall was conjured with more ease and charged with more power than any Red Wall I’d ever created. Sand blew away where the wall formed. I moved the wall toward the Jackaeels. I was hoping to move them back into the sea so that Jenséa would deem me—humane. But the creatures were too stupid to back up, so the Red Wall enveloped them. They disintegrated like a clump of dirt, dissolved to dust.
Jenséa whimpered, “Ohhh!” in a motherly way. Empathy for the enemy, always. She looked to her fallen brethren and gasped, “Charlotte! André!” The blue bubbles that had been around them had vanished with the Jackaeels. She threw the blanket off her legs and crawled to Charlotte awkwardly, as her knees kept pinning down the wool gown. She stroked the old woman’s wizened face with great tenderness.
“They are alive,” I said. “They will recover once the electricity dissipates.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “I must heal them anyway.”
Dissipating the Black Light Shield around her, I reached down to her arm and pulled her up. “There is no time. Your—our babies are coming. I will relocate you and return for them.”
She asked, “Why didn’t you help us earlier?”
“Your grandmother and—” I almost said Angel Boy, “your French friend are against me. I had to make sure they would not attack.”
Suspicion clouded her face. “I was not struck, but Charlotte and André—”
“I can only Black Light Shield one person at a time,” I lied, “and there was only time for you.”
“Oh,” she said innocently, trusting me still, despite Granny’s mutiny.
She buckled over, grabbing her abdomen, then fell to her knees, yellow hair caving her face.
I knelt to her with my hand on her back, waiting for the contraction to pass.
When it was over, she looked up at me so sweetly that I almost loved her again. But, I did not.
“Do you love me, johnny?” she asked.
Helping her rise, I drew her into my arms. “Always,” I said. I gave her a tight squeeze, pleasuring in the curvature of her belly. “Time to go.”
“We can’t leave them unprotected.”
I looked to the fallen Shens. “I’ll protect them with a Black Light Shield while I am away.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” I said out loud. But in the dark recesses of my diabolical, black light shielded mind, I said, Fuck them. I wanted them dead. Yet, in Jenséa’s eyes, if I did not protect them, she would suspect me. And my deliverance to the Dragon Worlds as Ruler to reinstate balance in our universe, hinged on her loyalty to me. I turned slightly toward the fallen Shens and placed a Black Shield of invisibility around one and then the other. I’d destroy them later.
She smiled lightly. “You are noble, johnny.”
“I am,” I said, and I meant it.
Chapter Eighteen
I lifted Jenséa in my arms and flew her to the dormant Volcano 21. The stars were at 11:30 p.m. Still, I had time. I found a flat nook and manifested white fur hides in a shallow crevice, sheltered from the blaring moonlight. I created a sphere of 75 degree temperature all around her as I helped her onto the blankets.
“You’ll be safer here,” I said, “away from the sea where eel creatures dwell.”
“Go get my Grandmother and André, johnny.”
“All right,” I said.
“Hurry back, johnny!” Her body tightened, and her face reddened as another contraction rolled through her. “Two minutes apart, johnny.”
I triple protected her with invisibility. Of course, that would not fool Dragons. Suko would find her with ease. I began to leave, but as an afterthought, I made myself lean down and kiss her cheek, and then I made myself say, “I love you.” Soon. Soon, I would not have to make myself do anything anymore.
I left her there in the jaws of Volcano 21. I flew toward the Shens. I had to keep them from her long enough to complete my mission. I had to create a diversion, or get rid of them with a convenient accident. Outright killing them wasn’t an option. I might fail and be had if Jenséa found out. The risk was too great.
I appeared where I had left them, but they were gone.
“Over here, Tazmark,” a voice sounded behind me.
I turned around. There by the boulders, stood Angel Boy, absent my Black Light Shield. I didn’t see or sense Granny. However, I knew they were up to something.
Angel Boy asked, “Where have you taken Jenséa?”
I replied, “Where is Charlotte?”
“If you love Jenséa, then you must join our side.”
“I have.”
“Charlotte says you have not.”
I made my eyes soften, “I returned to bring you to Jenséa.”
Angel Boy said, “Take me then. Charlotte won’t come.”
“Where is Charlotte?”
He cocked his head. “Why do you care?”
I knew Granny was around, even though I couldn’t sense her. She was unusual for a high powered Shen, not standing out in a crowd, but wise enough to do her work quietly, behind the scenes to avoid a Shen’s usual fate: assassination, or the less—though not impossible fate, death by Tazmark.
“Take me to Jenséa,” ordered Angel Boy, a little too bold for his usual puniness.
“All right,” I said. I grabbed Angel Boy’s forearm and carried him into the sixth realm.
He dangled below me. “Must you carry me this way?”
“If I must carry you, yes.”
Granny was trailing me from the seventh realm. I could smell her gardenia fragrance. Even if Jenséa had not waged war on me, Granny and Angel Boy had.
Diego sent me a telepathic message. Take the male Shen and the Old One to Tupuro and Aruka on Volcano 8 where they now fight. They will delight to see two Shens, and lay down arms temporarily to manipulate them into their ploy.
I said telepathically, And if they succeed?
They will not, Diego replied.
And with that, our communications ended. To fulfill the requested task, I had to smoke out Granny—sure she was nearby for she’d not likely abandon Angel Boy. I flew to Volcano 8, then released Angel Boy on a steep ledge in the third realm.
“Wait here,” I commanded. “I sense Tazmarkian activity, and I want to make sure you are safe.”
He clung to the rock wall with barely room to stand. As I walked around the corner of the ledge, I heard him mumble, “I wish I knew how to fly.”
I magically willed the earth under his feet to give way. I heard him wail as he slipped down. I clairvoyantly peeked into the third realm where he had fallen. I couldn’t see him, but the residue of his essence lingered in the air where his falling had stopped. Ah, Granny had somehow caught him from the seventh realm and pulled him into it with her.
I could see them now, clairvoyantly. Granny had taken Angel Boy to safe ground in the third realm on the far side of Volcano 8. They were in a bowl-like clearing. My plan had worked. I had to keep them there until Aruka and Tupuro sensed their presence.
I appeared before Granny and Angel Boy, mustering empathetic eyes. I looked to Angel Boy.” I heard you cry
out. I am glad you are okay. Please believe, I am not against you.”
“You are,” Granny said. “You made André fall.”
“I did not. Search my mind.”
“I can no longer find betrayal in your mind.”
“Then why accuse me?”
Her eyes narrowed. “It is something you would do.”
I huffed lightly, “What is it with you Shens? You, of all creatures are the prime givers of unconditional love. None of you will give it to me, and I am the only Tazmark who ever has asked.” I sank to my knees, thickening lies over truth. “Give it to me.”
“Prove yourself then.”
“How?”
“Take down your shields.”
I reached into the last year and pulled forth the commitment I once had to Jenséa. Then, I released my outer shields, like dropping off an outer layer of clothing.
Charlotte said, “Yes, I do believe you once loved her.”
“I love her still.”
“Then why can’t I see a future with you loving her?”
I sensed Aruka and Tupuro nearing.
I said to Charlotte, “I must check on her now.” I disappeared into the sixth realm and went a distance away so that they might not sense me watching the scene from a clairvoyant state.
Angel Boy said, “Where did he go?”
Granny said, “No, why did he go? And why didn’t he take us to Jenséa?”
Clairvoyantly, I saw Aruka come around the volcano mound walking up behind Granny and Angel Boy. Her long, black hair lay soft over her purple gown. Her twenty five-year-old face left no clue that she was over three thousand years in age.
She glided up to Angel Boy’s back, beaming sensuality as she touched his shoulder with fingers of silk.
He turned around. His mouth fell open. His eyes widened, captivated by the vision of dark beauty before him. Aruka’s eyes whirled.
Tupuro appeared behind Granny, muscled arms prominent with the wear of his skimpy, maroon leather vest. He kissed her shoulder.
She spun around and jumped back. “What treachery is this!”
Tupuro’s eyes hailed Granny with masculine charisma and eighth level charm. He snatched her passionately in his arms, bending her back in a Rudolf Valentino embrace, his face nearly touching hers. “Your beauty spins my heart out of rhythm.”
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