Head Down (The Valens Legacy Book 4)

by Jan Stryvant

  "Sean! Where have you been hiding yourself? It's been what, two weeks?" Roberta said giving him a look that made it clear to him that she wasn't exactly happy.

  "I'm sorry, I'll explain everything, I've been busy, could we please come in?"

  "Wellll, I don't know. I mean you haven't even called!" Roberta said standing there, hands on her hips.

  "I don't have your number! Just give me the damn collar already!" Sean grumbled, "If I didn't care, I wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be pregnant. I missed you. A lot. Now can I come in and spend time with you, please?"

  "Hmmm," Roberta started, when Jolene interrupted.

  "Roberta, you should know better than to tease lions, Sean's been stressed enough already this last week."

  "Why's that?"

  "Because I've got a hundred wolves now to take care of," Sean grumbled. "They all decided that they wanted to follow me, and honestly?" Sean spread his hands, "I need the help. But at least we have a nice place downtown with lots of rooms."

  "Then why are you here, if you have a nice place downtown?"

  "Because you're here! I love you too, you know." Sean growled, tail lashing in annoyance.

  Roberta smiled and pulling the collar out from inside her robes she tossed it at him, "I just wanted to hear you say it. Several times. Maybe on your knees later too, just to be sure."

  Sean grumbled but put the collar on and they all stepped inside as she opened the gate.

  "You know he's just going to make you pay for it later," Roxy snickered to Roberta.

  "That's half the fun," Roberta replied with a wink.

  As soon as the gate close Sean smiled and turning to Roberta he grabbed her and pulled her close, bending down to kiss her.

  He didn't stop until she started to push back against him several minutes later.

  "Okay, Okay," she laughed, "I get it, you missed me. I missed you too," she admitted.

  "Let's go back to your room and we can all get caught up."

  "I'm supposed to be on duty, Sean."

  "What, you don't get time off? You're a boss; get someone to fill in for you!"

  "Well, I guess I can, it has been a while," Roberta said with a smirk. "Joyce, call up Hanna and tell her she's on watch tonight with you."

  "Yes, Roberta."

  "Now, let's go to my room, and you can all tell me what's been keeping Sean here so busy."

  "In the morning," Sean grinned.

  "Why not now?"

  "Because I have other things on my mind than talking right now, it has been two weeks after all."

  Roberta laughed, "Surely you don't expect me to believe that they," Roberta waved to the other girls as they walked, "haven't been taking care of you?"

  "Oh, they have," Sean agreed pulling Roberta up against him as they walked, "but you haven't."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "It means," Jolene chuckled, "that you're not going to be getting much sleep tonight."

  "So," Sean said with a yawn as he finished explaining things to Roberta the next morning, "that's where things stand right now. And I was hoping to borrow one of your workrooms while I'm here to start work on my device."

  Roberta nodded; they were all sitting around the table in her small kitchen. Roxy and Daelyn had actually volunteered to make breakfast and right now Jolene was talking with Roberta's daughter Sarah as she ate.

  "I can tell you," Roberta said, "that Deanna is going to want some of those necklaces and tags for our lycans."

  "Your lycans?" Sean raised an eyebrow.

  Roberta nodded, "Not everyone here is just passing through. Some of them have made serious commitments with the sorceress that they live with. If things are going to get nasty around here, Deanna's going to want to get them protected."

  Sean thought about that a moment, but he really couldn't see the harm in it.

  "Sure, I can do that," he told her. "It's not like anyone here is being held against their will. That's all I want, is for lycans to be free to choose."

  "Then I don't think there'll be any kind of problem. What do you need to do your work?"

  "One minute," Sean got up and went and found his pants, then got the list that was folded up in his pants pocket. Enchanting did take a few tools, and there were actually quite a few items that surprisingly made it easier. Some of them were common, like kosher salt, charcoal, and various crystals. Others were less so, like the gold the plate was made from, other metals, and some semiprecious stones. He'd brought the more expensive items with him.

  "Here's the list," Sean said and passed it over to her.

  Roberta looked it over briefly, "I'll talk to Karen, the woman in charge of the workshops. Most of this looks pretty common, but I'm not really an enchanter, and other than you, there aren't any high level enchanters here."

  "Really? Where do you get your items from?"

  "We buy them, mostly from out of state, but there's Gus Hampton who lives up near Incline Village. He's not cheap, but he'll make us stuff if we pay for it."

  Sean nodded, "Well, once I get this all done, maybe I can help you all out with a few things."

  Roberta smiled, "Deanna will love you, if you do that."

  "Well, I might as well get started, let me get my things, and we can go talk to Karen and then I can get to work."

  "Are you going to need us to get anything for you, Hon?" Roxy asked.

  Sean shook his head, "This is pretty much a one-man job. There really isn't anything any of you can help me with. For the most part I'm just going to be studying and casting all day."

  "It takes that much time?"

  "When you're new at it like me?" Sean nodded. "At least if I screw up, I can just wipe the plate clean, miss-enchanting usually doesn't destroy the item."

  Roxy nodded, "Okay, we'll see you later then."

  Sean gathered up his things and then went and saw Karen, she did have the things he needed and he'd be using the same workroom as last time. The workrooms didn't see a lot of use at the guild, so Sean would be undisturbed.

  Setting everything down on the workbench, he gave Roberta a hug and a kiss, and then sitting down he opened up his stats program and took a look at things.

  His physical stats hadn't changed in the last two weeks, he wasn't really surprised at that, it did seem like his body had finally stopped growing and adapting to his lion abilities.

  His mental stats also had started to level off, though he still had two points left, which he just plugged straight into memory. If he understood what he had read properly, his wisdom would continue to increase with age, maybe his intelligence as well. But unless he ran into something seriously different in his life, he shouldn't expect to see too many changes there. You had to be learning new things to improve, and after all the new things he'd just learned, Sean wasn't looking for any more challenges for at least a while.

  His magical stats however, those were still changing. With all the enchanting he'd been doing for the last two weeks, making collars, wands, defensive amulets, and anti-scrying amulets, his ability had gone up considerably. Once again he was able to raise his mana level several times, but the price cost was doubling each level now, so he was starting to hit a wall on that. He put most of the remaining points into willpower, figuring that with all of the concentrating and focusing he was going to be doing the next few weeks, that he'd need it.

  That left him with spells.

  Again, all of the studying and enchanting he'd been doing, well maybe not the unpacking of the tarballs, that was kind of cheating. But the rest of it had increased the amount of 'points' he could spend on learning the new spells. Sean had been reading and re-reading so much of this stuff, all he really needed to do now was spend those 'points' to anchor the concepts and the spells that came with them in his mind.

  He ignored any combat spells, or protection spells. He concentrated completely on the enchanting spells. Once he had things well underway on the gold plate, he'd spend a little time enchanting a bunch of protection
spells on some items for him. The girls all had several nicely enchanted rings now, which would protect them from a multitude of spells. He just needed to make some for himself. So far everything he'd been enchanting either for defense or offense had gone either to the girls or to the wolves back at their base. He'd have to make a few things for Roberta too, come to think about it.

  Exiting his stats program, Sean turned towards his notes and opening up his father's book, he went to work.

  "Okay, so where to, girls?" Roxy asked as they drove of from the guild.

  "I need to stop in to check on some of the production orders," Daelyn said from the driver's seat. "But that really shouldn't take more than twenty or thirty minutes."

  Roxy nodded, "You, Jo?"

  Jolene smiled, "I know of this really nice spa in Carson City, and as long as we're going to be there anyways..." she trailed off with a smile.

  "A spa?" Roxy blinked, "Why do you want to go to a Spa?"

  "Oh, come on, Rox!" Jolene grinned, "When was the last time we had a day to ourselves? One where we didn't have to deal with Sawyer, or talk to other people about what's going on? Where we weren't helping Oak and the wolves for Sean as they got settled in? Where we weren't dealing with dwarven contractors and production contracts?"

  Daelyn laughed, "She's got a point, Rox. We've been running around busting our asses as much as Sean has, so he can stay focused."

  "Welllll," Roxy sighed, "Maybe. But I feel a little guilty taking the day off when we left him back there working."

  Daelyn snorted, "This from the woman who busts her ass harder than any of us, making sure that Sean and the rest of us are taken care of. You've earned a little time off, Rox."

  "She's right," Jolene agreed, "besides which, even Sean would tell you to take a break, and you know it."

  Roxy sighed, "Okay, okay, the spa it is."

  "And maybe a little shopping afterwards?" Jolene teased.

  "Well, promise to stop by a gun store, and I'm there!" Roxy replied with a laugh.

  When Roxy got back to the guild, the first thing she did was go down to the workshop to check on Sean, who was curled up on the floor in his full lion form, sound asleep.

  "Ahem!" Roxy cleared her throat.

  Sean opened an eye and looked at her, "Hi," he said and then sitting up slowly he yawned widely, then stretched, as he slowly stood up on all fours.

  "When's dinner?"

  "Now I think. I thought I'd find you hard at work, and here I find you sleeping like a lazy lion!" Roxy giggled.

  "After being up all night, when I finished for the day, I figured I'd take a nap."

  "And whose fault is that?" Roxy asked and hmmed, at him.

  "Well it can't be mine," Sean said and grinned at her while tilting his head to the side. "It's never the lion's fault."

  "Un-huh, sure. Well come on and follow me to the dining room or mess hall or whatever they call it here."

  Sean nodded and padding over, he fell into step beside her, "Oh, Hon, I've been meaning to ask you something."

  "Hmmm?"

  "My lion still talks to me."

  Roxy shrugged, "My cheetah does too sometimes, mostly it's about things my human mind misses but my animal mind picks up."

  Sean shook his massive head, "No, I mean like he's a different person. Sometimes we still talk like when I first got him, but it's different now."

  "Different, how?"

  "Well, it's like he wakes up sometimes and decides I need to know something, like when he told me not to bite Chad but suggested Oak do it. It wasn't something I just 'knew,' I had to be told."

  Roxy shrugged, "Considering that everyone talks about how lions won't change just anyone, I don't see that as being all that strange."

  "I don't know what he said to Michael in that meeting," Sean sighed. "He told me I fell asleep and that's why I don't remember any of what he said."

  Roxy stopped, causing him to stop as well, and looked down at him. "Have you asked him?"

  "He keeps avoiding the details and I've been afraid to push it, actually," Sean confessed. "I need him too much to piss him off."

  "Why would that piss him off?" Roxy asked, a little concerned now.

  "Because if he refuses to tell me, I'm going to have one hell of an argument with myself, and I don't think it'll end well, regardless of the outcome. I don't want to lose my hybrid form because I'm all pissy at my other half."

  "You remember how it felt mentally when you first willingly shifted to your lion form, that night when we were sneaking back home?"

  Sean nodded, "Yeah, I felt like I was in the back seat."

  "I want you to try and hop back into that 'back seat' again, Sean."

  "Why?"

  "I want to talk to your lion."

  Sean blinked; he could feel his lion quite readily. For all that they were fairly well integrated now, in this form Sean knew that his lion side was the dominant side; it was his lion that was really in charge now. Slipping back, as it were, Sean pulled his conscious will away from what he was doing, leaving his lion fully in charge.

  "Yes?" Sean's lion asked, looking up at Roxy.

  Roxy dropped down to her knees, putting her eyes on a level with his.

  "What is going on with the two of you, that Sean is afraid you won't tell him the truth?"

  "I never said I wouldn't tell him what happened."

  "But he's afraid you will, why is that?"

  "I can't say."

  "Can not? Or will not?" Roxy asked slowly.

  Sean's lion blinked, and then smiled, "You are a sharp one, Hon, aren't you?"

  Roxy smiled back, "How do you think I snagged you?"

  "I seem to recall Sean doing a bunch of snagging in your room that first night."

  "And you seem to forget that I tracked him down and dragged him back there. Now, Sean may still be new to this, but I'm not. You're mine now, and I'm yours. I want answers."

  "Oh? And if I don't give you any?"

  "If you think having one bitchy wife giving you the cold shoulder is bad, wait until all four of them are doing it," Roxy said, still smiling sweetly. "We're mates now, you have an obligation, and the simple fact that we're even having this conversation tells me that something is quite wrong."

  Sean's lion sighed, "Nothing is wrong, this is normal."

  "How is this normal?"

  "It's just another way that lions are different."

  "Oh, joy," Roxy snorted. "Then please enlighten your mate as well as your human side. Before he has a nervous breakdown, and you don't get laid tonight."

  "Oh, bringing out the big guns?"

  "Just wait till I start crying," Roxy warned, "lion or not, trust me when I say you don't want to go there."

  "Okay, okay! No need to be so cruel," Sean's lion snorted, "I'll tell Sean eventually, when we've been together longer. There's a number of reasons why there aren't all that many of us. The change did more to Sean then just create a beast's mind within his 'self.'"

  Sean's lion paused a moment, "I don't know how to best put this, because right now, anything I say to you, I say to him. So I'll just say it like this: If I expose all that I am to Sean now, before he's fully ready to deal with it, it would hurt him."

  "Hurt him, how?"

  "I might end up the dominant psyche in his mind, instead of him being the dominant one."

  "How is that possible? You're him, and he's you!"

  "I can't say anymore."

  Sean would have shaken his head, if it had been his to shake at that point.

  'You're hiding something from me, aren't you?'

  'Yes.'

  Sean could feel the regret in that answer.

  'But you're going to tell me, eventually, right?'

  'Yes.'

  'And just when will that be?'

  'When the time is right. I trust you, do you trust me?'

  'What are you trusting me with?' Sean asked, confused. As far as he knew, he wasn't the one hiding anything.

  'I'm trus
ting you to do what needs to be done. I have the power to force myself on you, but I trust in the forces that brought us together and I trust in you.'

  Sean capitulated, 'I trust you.' He did trust his lion, and as long as he would find out just what was going on, he'd just have to put his faith in him as well.

  'Thank you,' his lion sent.

  "What's going on in there?" Roxy asked.

  "We were having a conversation," Sean's lion told her. "He's okay with waiting."

  "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this," Roxy sighed, standing back up.

  "We are all, still finding our way in all of this," Sean's lion sighed, then shook his head as he realized that Sean wasn't pushing to take back the 'driver's seat'.

  "What?" Roxy asked looking down at him.

  'As long as we're in this together,' Sean told him with a mental smile, 'I think it's only fair you get to spend some time with the wives.'

  'But I spend just as much time with them as you do.'

  'Seeing is not doing. Tonight, you're doing.'

  Sean's lion chuckled, "Sean wants me to spend the evening with all of you, with him in the 'back seat' for a change."

  Roxy shrugged, "Works for me, I love ya' both. Don't know how the others are gonna react to you being a lion for the whole evening."

  "Then maybe they need to get used to it?"

  Roxy laughed, "Sean said that, didn't he?"

  "Actually, we both did."

  Roxy watched Sean with interest as they walked back to the dining area. Sean didn't switch back to his hybrid form, instead just staying in his full lion form. Interestingly enough, Roberta was perfectly fine with it and no one else in the guild really seemed to care either, though Roxy did notice Sean getting a few appraising looks from some of the other women in the room.

  Of course, they all had to help 'feed' Sean, seeing as he really couldn't use any silverware, and the idea of him sticking his face into the food on his plate to eat, seemed to be a messy proposition at best.

  When they got back to Roberta's apartment however, is when things got interesting. Sarah mobbed him almost immediately, showing no fear at all, which made it clear to her that Sampson had also spent time here in his full lion form. But that wasn't the most interesting thing that went on, as far as Roxy was concerned.