by Ben Reeder
“Make yourselves comfortable,” I said. “She might be a while.” I took one of the chairs and stretched my legs out in front of it. Lucas and Monica took the couch, and murmured softly to each other while I clasped my hands over my stomach and leaned back, determined to tune them out and maybe even doze a little.
I wasn’t sure how long it was before Synreah glided into the room in a rustle of satin and smelling of lust and sweat. Her hair tumbled down to the middle of her back in a mess of black curls, and her face was set in a satisfied smile as she tied her black robe off before she sat down in the red chair, her own red skin a brighter shade. Her all-black eyes bored into me as she sighed and laid a riding crop down to one side on the desk top.
“Darling girl, I wish I could say it’s good to see you, but you aren’t due to show your lovely face here for a couple of days. And your friends smell almost as much of stress as they do of lust,” she said.
“Synreah, this is Lucas and Monica.” I said. Synreah leaned forward, her robe parting to reveal her deep cleavage.
“Monica, eh?” she purred, her eyes lingering over the other girl’s figure. “Oh, honey, you look delicious. It isn’t everyday I meet a girl better endowed than I am. And they’re real, aren’t they?”
Monica blushed, but her shoulders went back and she lifted her chin a little. “Yes, they are.”
Synreah’s pointed black tongue slid over her dark lips, and she smiled. “Well, if you ever want to make use of your natural charms, come talk to me. But I doubt you’re here looking for work. What’s wrong?”
“We need a safe place for Monica for a few days,” I said, and launched into a quick recap of how our night had gone already.
“Sounds like you do need a safe place for her,” Synreah said when I finished. “But you’re not going to find it in this town. I do have a place in Shanghai I can let her use, though.”
“Shanghai?” Lucas asked.
“Yes, Shanghai,” Synreah smiled. “Well, it isn’t really mine but the guy who owned it has never complained before, I doubt he’s going to start now.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “We don’t need any extra hassle here.”
“Well, he’s dead, so yeah, I’m pretty damn sure. Leave her with me, and you two do what you need to do. I promise, she’ll be safe.”
“Lucas?” Monica turned big blue eyes on him. “Do I have to?” Her hands clutched at his arm, and I smelled fear and adrenaline come off her in waves.
“It’s only for a couple of days, until we get the book out of play and make sure no one is going to come after you,” he said.
“She needs clothes and basics,” I told Synreah.
“There’s a room at the end of the hallway,” she said with a smile. “I’m pretty sure she can find some shirts and dresses that will fit. There’s also lingerie and a bed if you want to give her a proper send-off,” she smiled at Lucas. He gave her a shake of his head and pulled Monica with him.
“He’s trying to do right by her,” I said.
“Then she’s going to have to go brunette. Judging by her eyebrows, she’s not a natural anyway. I’ll get her taken care of while we’re in Shanghai.”
“Thanks, Syn,” I said.
“Any time, sister,” she laughed as she came around the desk and stood in front of me. “You look stressed. When was the last time you let go?”
“Too long,” I sighed. “Not since Chance went to Boston.”
“Close your eyes, and think happy thoughts,” she said as she reached out and put her hands on my head. Her fingers gently kneaded my scalp, and I felt my shoulders relax a little. After a couple of minutes of scalp massage, she curled her fingers in my hair and pulled gently, slowly working her way through my hair until she was at the back of my skull. Finally, she closed her hand around a thick bunch of hair and gently pulled my head back before letting her fingers slide out of my hair. I wasn’t quite relaxed, but I was a lot closer to it.
“I don’t know why that works so well, but it does,” I said.
“I could say it’s simply pressure points in the scalp,” she said. “But, with you, it’s something deeper. All people need touch, but your wolf needs it and enjoys it more. It’s why your pack is always so physically expressive with each other. You’ve already worked out the need for Chance to be equal to your alpha, but with him not around… you’re just now learning what healthy intimacy without sex is like. You need someone else you trust.”
“And that would be you?”
“Who else?” she smiled and leaned back against her desk. “Either way, I have this. You, go home, pretend to be normal for a few days.”
“I wanted to see Paris next,” I said.
“Paris will always be there,” Synreah said. “Spend a couple of days being normal.”
“Why?”
“Practice, sweetie. Practice. Even if you aren't normal, the world is full of people who expect you to at least look like you are.”
“Point,” I said.
“Point, set and match, I told him,” Douglas Fairing said, leaning forward and gesturing with his glass of ice tea. Across the table from him, Mom laughed as he delivered the punchline to his story, so I gave a courtesy laugh, too. “So, anyway, he writes the check out to the children’s fund for Dad’s hospital right then and there. I could tell he was trying to be a good sport about it, but he was not happy about losing to me. I mean, it had to be embarrassing, a tennis pro losing to a senior in high school, am I right?”
“You’re a Valmont Prep man,” Dad said. “When you set your sights on something, nothing stops you.” Douglas looked my way before he nodded. “Yes, sir, Mr. Cooper. A Valmont man always gets what he wants.”
Dad looked to me and gave a nod toward Douglas. “You could do a lot worse than Doug here, sweetie.”
“But you can’t do much better!” Mom added before I could reply. “Dave, why don’t we go get another game in, and let these two get to know each other better. I’m sure we’re cramping their style or something.”She got up and smoothed her tennis skirt out, then grabbed her racket and gestured for Dad to follow, which he did in all his pastel glory.
“So, I understand your parents are still sending you to public school,” Douglas said. “You need to talk them into sending you to Valmont.”
“Why? I happen to like Kennedy, and last I heard, they had the best AP courses in the state.”
“Well, first, it’ll make dating a lot more convenient if you’re at Valmont, and second, it won’t be so awkward having to explain why I’m seeing someone from a public school. Besides, a diploma from Valmont will open doors for you, and I’ll introduce you to my circle of friends. They can do more for you than some bunch of public school losers.”
“I already have a boyfriend,” I said as I clenched and unclenched my fist under the table. “And you don’t know anything about my friends.”
“You’re about to trade up, babe,” he said, as he moved to the seat beside mine and slid it closer to me.
“Don’t I get a say in this?” I asked.
He stopped for a moment and looked genuinely confused. “Well, yeah, you get to say yes,” he said, his smile resurfacing. “No girl ever says no to me.”
“I just did,” I told him and stood up.
“Come on, baby,” he trailed after me. “You have no idea what you’re missing out on.”
I stopped and turned to face him. “You have no idea what you’re playing with. So just stop. Please.”
He looked at me, and the grin on his face got bigger. “Hey, I can take care of myself. I’d bet I’m a much better man than the loser you’re dating now.”
I turned back to face him. I doubted he’d ever even seen a vampire, much less fought a coven of them. Or done any of a dozen other things Chance and I had faced together. “You couldn’t even take me on the tennis court,” I said. “Much less anywhere else you have in mind.”
“Is that a challenge?” he asked with a confident grin.
“Sure. In fact, I’
ll make you a deal. If you beat me on the court, I’ll go out with you.”
“I’ll try not to beat you too badly. I hope you like Italian.”
“And if I beat you?” I said.
“Not even possible.” Boy, was he in for a shock.
“You’re on. I’ll even go easy on you. Best two out of three.” I went back to the table and grabbed my tennis racket, then spun it around my finger. I chuckled as we walked toward the court, suddenly realizing that I was as free here as I had been in Dubai. There was very little that the normal world could throw at me that I couldn’t handle. Douglas thought he was going to trounce the pretty redhead in a game of tennis, but I was about to turn it into a full contact sport.
As I hefted the tennis ball for the first serve, I understood. Freedom was being able to be anywhere in the world, but being okay no matter where you were standing. Now all I had to do was figure out what I wanted when I won.
Those Who Can
I had figured on getting more sleep once Chance went to the Franklin Academy. But, once again, I was trying not to fall down the stairs to answer the front door at some ungodly hour. After the first few times, checking the clock stopped mattering. My bare feet slapped across the hardwood floor in the kitchen, and I pulled my spare wand out of the pocket of my robe as I flipped on the porch light at the side of the house.
Lucas stared back at me through the glass of the kitchen door, his hair slicked back and his hand inside a navy-blue greatcoat. He smiled as he saw my face, and I unlocked the kitchen door to let him in. As soon as the door opened, he slipped inside, glancing over his shoulder as he hurried past me and made a beeline for the study.
“Good to see you, too, Lucas,” I muttered at his back. “No, no, no explanation needed. Late? Not at all. It can’t be past, what? Three? Oh, earth-shattering emergency? You kids and your apocalyptic hijinks.” I followed him to the study, hoping this one time it was something normal. Relationship troubles, unreasonable demands from adults, the utter unfairness of life in general; just once, I would have loved to have to field some good old fashioned teen angst.
Lucas pulled a slim tome from inside his coat and laid it on my desk. The runes on the front crawled under my gaze, and the symbol underneath them made me queasy. “Boy, am I glad to see you, Dr. C. I know it’s late, but this is important. Like, disaster movie level important.”
“Go on, I already had the rest of this conversation in the kitchen,” I said.
“Okay, so the priest I was looking for the other day? I found him. And I kinda took the book the vampires were using to perform their ritual.”
“And they want it back?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said, looking sheepish.
“And you think I can do a better job of holding on to it than you can.” He nodded. “Well, you were right. At least you always have a good reason for knocking at my door at oh-dark-thirty. Just out of curiosity, what were they trying to do?”
“Bring back a vampire, only they were going to over-power the spell so he would come back all wrong and do mass property damage.”
I shook my head and closed my eyes. “What is it with vampires and trying to destroy the world? First Etienne, now this bunch of idiots. Well, you’ve done your part. I’ll take it from here.”
“Thanks, Dr. C. Hopefully they’ll leave Monica and me alone now.”
“Monica?” I asked. “Who is that?”
Lucas laughed, and so help me, the boy blushed. “You probably remember her as Chastity.”
“Thraxus’s messenger girl? The one who kept trying to hook up with…well, everyone?”
“That would be her,” he said with a smile. “Only she’s not his messenger girl any more. She’s…she’s her own woman now.” Even though he had a serene smile on his face, his energy levels were climbing, especially the root chakra. Which explained the pause. If my more than fifty years on the planet had taught me anything about young men, it was that they had a possessive streak a mile wide when it came to women. But Lucas was much more self-aware than most guys his age. If he was trying to suppress his own urges, then they were pretty strong where this girl was concerned. I only hoped she was as into him as he was into her.
“Hopefully, you and she can get on with your lives, then. Do you need an escort back home? And does she need any security?”
“I’m okay, and Shade has Monica covered for now. But…uh… we may need some help making her,” he held his hands up and moved them in circles, “official?”
“I can help with that,” I told him. “Just get me her info, and I’ll see about getting her into the system.”
“Thanks, Dr. C,” he smiled. “I know this has been a pain in the ass for you but-” He stopped as his phone buzzed. He had it out in a flash, then looked up from the screen with a broad smile. “It’s Monica. I need to take this. Synreah took her to Shanghai.” He was walking to the kitchen with the phone to his ear without even waiting for a reply. While I couldn’t hear the words, his tone was warm, and I could hear the smile in his voice. Of the small group of kids that Chance had brought into my life, Lucas was the last of them to find romance. I went to my desk and pulled out the bottle of Coke from the six pack I kept there. Growing up in West Texas, I’d gotten used to drinking it at room temperature. Tonight, I popped the top on the handle to the drawer and threw a little bit of cold at it before I took the first sip.
“Here’s to young love,” I said as I pulled the book toward me. “May it last.” Maybe later, I’d get a sip of something stronger, but for now, I needed my wits about me. When vampires were involved, you never went at things at less than a hundred percent. The script on the front cover was Muvian, a vampiric alphabet from before Atlantis fell. I had to translate it into Lower Lemurian to make sense of it, but when I did, I wasted no time in reaching for the phone on my desk. And yes, I do still have a landline. There are some places you just can’t reach with a cellphone.
Forty-five minutes later, I was on the lift down to the New Essex Underground, buckling my gun belt around my waist and ignoring the wide-eyed look I was getting from the Dwarf operating the lift. The book was in my backpack, and I had a duffle bag at my side. The lift bounced as it hit the ground, and I was over the waist-high railing, gone before the operator could open the gate. As I ran, I pulled the ankh medallion out of the pocket of my tactical vest and slipped it over my head. Even without the Sentinels’ trademarked blue cloak or the paramiir staff, it was enough to get people to move out of my way, and in less than ten minutes, I was at the Priority Transit booth. A Gnomish woman with gold-streaked brown hair looked up at me from the raised seat. Sapphire blue eyes blinked behind a pair of gem-studded spectacles that perched on a long nose, and she gave me a smile that dimpled her round cheeks.
“Corwin, Trevor J,” I told the Gnome as I held up the ankh necklace. My name, credentials and an image of my face flashed into place four inches from the pendant. The Gnome looked it over, then handed me a narrow piece of parchment.
“They’re waiting for you, sir,” she said, her long, narrow nose quivering. She straightened, letting her tunic pull tight against her well rounded figure as she pulled the glasses off her nose. “Good luck.”
I gave her a quick nod and touched my fingers to my brow as I took a couple of backward steps. “Thank you, ma’am. Here’s hoping I don’t need it.” Her smile broadened enough to show teeth, and I turned to head for the Priority Transit pad. Gnomes might be homebodies, but as much as they generally despised excitement and most forms of hardship, they loved seeing or hearing about adventure. And to actually be close to excitement, without being part of it, of course, was like crack to them.
The little box with the sickness bags was conveniently full, and I grabbed a couple as I presented my ticket. The Gnome at the platform took it and gestured to the eight foot wide circle in front of me.
“Ah, New Hampshire. Local time would be approximately six-twenty-five AM. Less than half an hour before sunrise, if I recall correctly.” His m
oustache almost vibrated under his thick nose, and he made his way to the platform controls with a spring in his step. I moved to the center of the platform and went to one knee, then nodded toward him. The world went blue.
“Are you sure you don’t want to try the omelet?” Andrew Polter asked with a chilly smile. “Or the eggplant and tomato hash?” He paused long enough to stuff a bite of his omelet into his mouth. Goat cheese, spinach and avocado were not things I wanted to mix with eggs after a rough transit and the prospect of another one going back.
“I think I’ll pass,” I said. “Just the coffee and toast for now,” I said to the waiter.
“The chef here is top notch,” Polter went on. “I’m sure he could rustle you up some grits. Or even biscuits and gravy.”
“Andrew, please,” I said. “I’m not hungry, and the more you talk about food, the more likely I am to ruin even your appetite.”
“We are here formally, Wizard Corwyn. The proper form address is Master,” he shot back, making sure to emphasize his rank. “I guess it’s just as well that your part in all of this is almost done, then.” His blubbery lips smacked together as he leaned back, then took a sip of his latte. I looked away, trying to concentrate on the spectacular sunrise outside the restaurant’s window.
“You’re right about that,” I said. “Because so far, a couple of teenage kids have done more to safeguard humanity over the past few days than you have. Master Polter.”
“I have done all that my position allowed, as you well know. But, as the saying goes, those who can,” he pointed to himself, “Do. Those who can’t, teach.” He swept his hand in my direction.
“Man and Superman. Quoting Shaw, Andrew?” Nick Draeden’s tenor came from behind us. “Satire, I find, is a double-edged wisdom. Too many times, it makes its point by saying the opposite of what is true. And Wizard Corwyn’s role in this little affair is far from done.”
“Nick, the Elder Council was very clear about their expectations,” Polter wagged his finger at Draeden.
“Yes, they are nothing if not precise, are they not?” Draeden smiled as he leaned back in his chair. The waiter returned with a plate and a cup of black coffee. Evidently, they knew what Master Draeden wanted already. He nodded to the waiter and smiled. “Thank you, Jamison. As I recall, they were very specific regarding the Conclave not interfering in what was happening in New Essex. But we’re not in New Essex right now, are we?”
