“It's not the capacitors is it?” Nathalia asked once they were alone.
“I'm in love with Aaron.” Maeve paused, “The spells're done. I've never fallen for a mark before. It feels terrible.” She laid her head in Nathalia's lap.
“I'm sorry, Maeve. I'm the one who put you up to this little experiment.” She brushed the hair off of Maeve's face and tucked it behind her ear.
“It isn't your fault. Neither of us knew he was a man of The Family when we decided to try.”
“I'm proud of you for going through with the matchmaking. You could've called him for yourself. I don't doubt with your expertise that you could've done it, but you did the right thing.” Nathalia paused, “No other matchmaker has ever done the spells for someone they were in love with. It looks like you have yet another jewel for your crown. If you can, take some satisfaction in that. It'll help ease the pain.”
The sat in silence until Libby rushed back into the room with a cup of tea and a small vile of bluish gel. She offered it to Maeve. “I really think it'll help. We were all feeling so sick before.”
Maeve sat up slowly and took the cup from Libby. As she put it to her lips, a huge silhouette darkened the door. Maeve actually jumped and spilled a little of the tea onto its saucer. The guardian was in front of them in a flash and had the tea away from Maeve in the next instant.
He tasted it and closed his eyes. He was obviously analyzing its ingredients and making sure it was safe for Maeve.
Nathalia was mad, “How dare you barge in here like that! Do you think that Maeve's in danger from us? That tea was made by our own Ingenium Primo. Do you actually think it could be poisoned?”
The guardian spoke not a word, but stood there stoic with his eyes closed as the Abbess railed at him. When he opened his eyes, he only looked at Maeve. He handed her the tea back and bowed one of his deep bows to her. It was obviously safe for her to consume.
“Oh, so she has your permission now, does she? How grateful we are to you.”
The guardian only bowed again as he backed out of the room. On his way out he grabbed the tiny bottle from off of the nightstand. He opened it, smelled it, and then put a little on his finger. He waited a moment but it obviously met his approval also, because he handed it to Libby and gestured toward Maeve.
“Nathalia, easy. It's fine.” Maeve lifted her glass in a mock toast at the guardian, took a sip and then another as Libby rubbed the salve on the matchmakers head and wrists.
The guardian was gone by the time Maeve looked up, “Wow, that's crazy! I do feel better. Ingrid deserves some praise.” She sounded more cheerful than she felt. The sick feeling was gone, but the unease she felt about being away from Aaron was not. She just wanted to run to him.
“I'm gonna have a talk with Margaux about him. He doesn't have to act like he owns the place.” Nathalia crossed over to the large door and shut it theatrically. She bolted it from the inside. “Shouldn't he be helping Camilla now anyway? That's what he's here for.”
Maeve shook her head, “He has to rest sometimes too. Did you know that he sleeps on the roof, in full sun during the middle of the day?”
“He's been up all night like the rest of us, plus he was up all day too helping clear the last batch of polluted power. How ever he gets his r and r is fine with me. I'm not sure what we'd do without him.” Libby rationalized.
“How WOULD we correct the problem if the guardian didn't have his unique gift,” Maeve glared at Nathalia, “or was unwilling to share with us?” reminding her leader that he did not have to be here at all.
“I'm not sure, because no storage has ever been tainted by black energy before ours.” Libby thought about it. “But I guess we would have two choices, both too terrible to contemplate. Sacrifice our capacitors – they'd all have to pass away and break the circuit before the energy would dissipate OR use one of our Primos to siphon the power through and it would more than likely kill her.”
The librarians answer clearly rocked both of the other women. He was not just helping them; he was saving one or more of their lives. Maeve thought she would try to be more tender toward the guardian. She had jumped on him at the club, but she vowed that would be the last time. He had been nothing but protective and helpful since she first laid eyes on him and his willingness was unforced and genuine. He had enough anger coming from Nathalia, without Maeve's added to that.
Libby sat on Maeve's other side and hugged her tightly. “We were so worried about you.”
“I thought you'd been killed.”
“But, I'm not part of a matched pair. It was silly to worry since my murder couldn't have caused the dark energy.”
“I'm sorry to contradict you, Maeve, but a Vinculum Primo is connected to the capacitors like none other. Your predecessor was my very best friend and so I know a bit about the matchmaker's discipline. She told me that embedded in the two main spells is a lesser spell. It sets up the path for the energy to follow from each couple you make to the capacitors. You have an intimate connection with them because of your familiarity with that path. Those women rely on you to supply them with the connections that provide the power to keep them alive. I imagine that your murder would bring a darkness over the capacitors worse than any of us could anticipate.”
Nathalia stood up and paced the room, plainly ciphering out something. Maeve thought about her mentor, “Yes, now that you mention her I remember how toward the end, right before she joined their ranks, she talked about feeling the connection to them acutely.”
“Yes, she thought it was why so many matchmakers chose to move on to that next plane of existence earlier than other Primos. She used to say that 'In order for Vinculum to ascend to Primo, they have to put one foot on the other side'.”
It was Maeve's turn to console Libby. The Renuntio Primo was saddened by talking about her friend. Just like with Christians, 'heaven's' gain was a personal loss felt by those left behind.
“I know we give up our identities when we join the capacitors, but I thank the Mother that she wasn't the one killed down there tonight.”
Nathalia had evidently gotten an idea from their discussion that needed clarification, “So, if Maeve's connected so intimately with the capacitors that her murder would have the same conclusion as the murder of a matched pair, then is her excess orgasmic energy gathered by them just like with a matched pair?”
“I guess if there was excess power, yes, but Maeve can tell you that matchmaking is a big set of spells that requires a huge amount of energy. There's not normally anything left over.”
“She's right. I use all of my energy when I do a matchmaking and once the spells are cast, my partner usually doesn't want anything more to do with me so there are no superfluous orgasms to be collected by the capacitors.”
The sun had been rising for the last few minutes and it just broke the horizon. The warm sun burst through the window and shone on Maeve's face. She closed her eyes and the glow through her eyelids reminded her of the ecstasy she'd felt with Aaron. That warm feeling of being completely out of control with orgasm washing over afterglow washing over orgasm was more addictive than any drug she knew of. In the pleasure of remembering, Maeve forgot to keep quiet about her breach in etiquette, “Except with Aaron it wasn't that way”.
“How so?” Nathalia pushed.
“Once the spell was done, I expected him to react the same way as all the others, but he didn't. He wanted me to stay with him. We made love over and over and, Nathalia, I've gotta say: I've never seen anything like it. Every barrier, every safeguard, every hang up was analyzed and broken down by him in an instant. He was so in tune with me that he knew what every sound and every move I made, meant. The first time we did it was the best sex of my life, and it only got better and better throughout the night. By early this morning, I had climaxes overlapping so that I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began.”
Maeve was slightly embarrassed by her own gushing, but it was all out there now. She felt most embarrassed because sh
e had been out there enjoying carnal pleasures forbidden to her by title while here all hell was breaking loose. Here, the dark effects of a matched couple’s murder had been so great as to cause one capacitor to bash another's skull in. And Maeve, completely caught up in an afterglow that was so all encompassing, took a while before she even felt the evil sickness.
Nathalia and Libby both knew Maeve well enough to ascertain that she was feeling guilty about enjoying herself so much and tried to quell that notion. “We're glad you enjoyed your night with Aaron. You deserve it and I gave you permission for your slight sabbatical. I'm not asking and pressing you because I want to point out any error in your choice, only because something odd happened with the capacitors tonight.
“There was a great excess of power being collected and at first I just thought it was because of the ban on communal power, but then I found out it hadn't happened the last time there was a ban. Until just a second ago when Libby started talking about matchmaker’s connection to the capacitors, I just thought that a lot of matched couples were making love tonight. After all, it's Midwinter and what better time to make love than the longest night of the year? But now I think its Maeve.”
It had been many years since Maeve had a sexual partner for pleasure. It was all duty these days. If this was the best night of sex she'd ever had, and the power hadn't been utilized for spells as normal, then the power of Maeve's unused orgasms was sizable, unbelievably so.
“Sounds to me like you found a Levitus, Maeve.” The Librarian knew her mistake instantly. Because of the Abbess' bias against men, there were certain subjects that they didn't breach. Leaving out information wasn't the same as lying outright to her face if she asked, and Libby had given Nathalia just what she needed to ask.
“What's a Levitus?”
“Levitus means 'the lightning'. They're the rarest breed of men, one in several million, that are so sensitive and attentive to their sexual partners that the pleasure they can give a woman is unparalleled. They work like superchargers for our capacitors.”
Leonard had actually taken some interest in the one book containing records of a man with this skill. He'd been convinced that it could be learned if a man had a natural inclination, just like within the female ranks. They had eluded him; they were apparently genetic. With a normal woman, capable of small and infrequent orgasms, a Levitus could turn them into multi orgasmic nymphomaniacal partners. Libby could only imagine what one could do with a woman like Maeve who was already on such an elevated level. “It's no wonder that the capacitors are overcharged with Maeve as the partner to a Levitus. It's probably best that it was temporary. It doesn't sound like they could handle being overcharged night after night with a ban on communal power usage”
Maeve was not sure she could handle being supercharged herself night after night, but she could think of nothing else besides getting back to Aaron's arms.
“Abbess!” They could all three hear the woman shouting in the hall. “Abbess! Nathalia, where are you?”
Nathalia opened the door and Camilla came stumbling in. “There's another problem with the capacitors.” Camilla didn’t wait to see if it was okay to talk. She just blurted it out, a sign of how distracted all this made her. Nathalia pulled her all the way inside and closed the door behind them. “Another one's dying.” Before Camilla could continue there was a knock at the door. Margaux came right in without waiting for an invitation.
“M'excuser. Le gardien said Panacea Primo quit working on the efforts of black magic removal and was hystérique. Le Conseil desires me included on any issue involving this matter.”
“Of course, Margaux. Camilla, another capacitor's dying?”
“I can't...It's not...She's just...”
“Calm down and tell us what's going on.”
“Peggy's dying. I don't know what's happening with her. She's just fading. At this rate she won't even turn to stone like the others. It's like the power's eating away at her. Bit by bit she's coming apart. It's nothing I can fix; I can't replace what's missing.”
“We know, your power can only remove what doesn't belong.” The Abbess attempted to comfort their healer. She had an idea of what was happening. “Peggy joined the inner circle with a partner, as always. Capacitors work in pairs and now that hers's dead, the circuit's gone. We'll have to find a replacement or lose them both.”
“And it has to be soon.” Camilla wouldn't have time to heal the black energy before the connection was lost. Whoever stepped into the circle would be going into a very painful existence, at least for a while.
“I'll go. Peggy's my best friend and I can't bear the thought of her suffering or dying.”
“Libby, you're not thinking clearly. You're mated. Leonard would surely suffer and die if you two were separated. No, it can't be you.”
“I'll do it.”
“No, Maeve.”
“Why not? I'm the obvious choice. I have no mate, Sara's ready to step into my shoes, and Peggy and I already have a bond. She was my mentor.” It was just as well. Without Aaron, the world held nothing for Maeve anymore.
“C'est noble de vous, but your time is not come.”
This was it. They were in danger of losing Maeve. It was within Nathalia's power to sacrifice her own life in place of her friends. Maeve had to be Abbess after her, so something must happen to take Nathalia out of the position of leadership. Abbesses don't step down, back into the Primo circle.
Margaux must have known what Nathalia was thinking, because she said, “Neither is yours come, Nathalia. Your time of duty is soon but this is not it. It is I who take her place. C'est ma destinée. Je l'ai vu. I have seen it.”
“You can't step in because you have no link, no bond with Peggy. It won't work. You would still just be two singles, and we need a pair.”
“Ne pas présumer pour tout savoir de moi ou des capacitors! I have connections to Peggy, Je ne vous explain pas, but will work. Je peux remplacer le one you have lost. It is simply a matter of you saying yes.”
“You don't know what you're asking. The blackness is there, permeating them every second. We've all experienced a small part of it through our link to the energy, but you haven't. It'd be like stepping into...”
“Fire and freeze. Je sais et je consens.” Margaux knew what to expect and she was still willing.
Chapter 13
“How can they not know?!” Jill insisted through gritted teeth. It hurt to have Michael draw blood. He insisted that it had to be gained through violence; a syringe just wouldn't do.
Jill was face down on alter in their basement. She was nude from the waist up with only jeans from the waist down. Michael sat on her upper thighs and his erection pressed into her backside as he leaned forward to draw the blade across her back. His cut mirrored his previous slice on the other side. He avoided the spinal area; she couldn't really do them any good paralyzed. Blood swelled up and ran down her ribs to drip on the alter. It was specially carved to draw the flow away from her body and into collection bowls.
“The veil keeps them from seeing. It is up to us to find the right ones.” Michael cut two more matching lines just below the first set. The high priestess was the first donor of the night so the carved canals were dry. She would have to donate until all the lines flowed red and each of the four bowls carried her blood.
He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I will come to your room after the last donor is done. I will need relief before I can ask her.”
His cock was literally aching. He would cut every girl here tonight. Some of them might even cry. God, I love that, he thought. Not as much as he loved it when she cried but it was still good.
Jill knew what it did to him to draw the ceremonial blood. “Fine. But make it quick.”
He most certainly would not. Jill had much more pain coming that night at the hand of her high priest.
“You better get some names from her. The moon will be right again soon.” His pressure against her eased up a bit and she took a big breath. He was look
ing at the wounds and they must have slowed because Michael pushed at them, forcing more out of each cut. She didn't mean to, but she let out a whimper.
Michael let out a ragged sigh. Nothing pleased him more than that sound. “She'll tell me who they are. She has to mark them for death. Nathalia will know where to find them.”
***
Aaron sat at the bar on the upper deck where he had a clear view of the dance floor. It was the exact spot he had been when he saw her for the first time. He glanced at his watch and then downed the rest of his drink with one gulp. He caught the bartender’s eye and tapped the top of his glass. The tender nodded and headed over to serve Aaron one more. A hand shot out preventing the bar tender from the refill.
“I think he's had enough” Lucas said as he sat down beside his lovesick friend.
“He's only drinking Diet Coke, but he is on his 8th, so maybe he has had enough” the bartender joked as he refilled Aaron's glass.
“Why on earth are you drinking that nasty shit? Wait, don't tell me...that's what SHE drinks. Seriously man, you gotta get over this girl; she's obviously over you.”
Aaron visibly winced at the verbal blow from his friend. “I know I should and she said it would get easier, but I feel sick without her. Physically ill. I know it sounds crazy, but I think we're meant to be together. I have to be here, in case she shows.”
“And if she did, would you spout all this 'meant to be together', 'sick without her' bull shit directly to her face? Look, I don't know her all that well, but I know enough to know that you can't sound this needy and get a woman like Maeve.”
Aaron's heart jumped at the mere mention of her name. He could almost feel the strings pulling at his heart, pulling him towards her. He stood up. “I think I'm gonna to drive over to the compound.”
Ishtar Bound (a book of Sinnis) Page 15
