Owen shifted at my back, drawing my attention. His eyes looked a little worried and he seemed very tense. I took a breath and commented idly, “It’s hard to think of him as a demon while he’s helping his mom fix my hair and lay out my clothes.”
My bodyguard shook himself and gave me a puzzled look. “He lays out your clothes?” was his only response.
I shrugged and was turning back toward Jace when he wrapped me in his arms and bent me over backwards as his lips captured mine. The water bottle dropped from my fingers as I clutched at his shoulder. I wasn’t sure what this was about but was more than willing to enjoy the moment. We made quite a spectacle of ourselves and when he let me up, I was nearly panting and eager to get him downstairs where I could get his clothes off. He seemed satisfied as he propped me back onto my feet and gave me a peck on the cheek. “No time for that now,” he remarked, and then wandered off to talk to a couple of the guards that were standing in a group having a conversation and trying not to stare.
I stood there sucking air in through my teeth wondering what had just happened. I didn’t appreciate being used like that and the fact that he could just wander away unaffected, really irritated me. I’m not sure what I was thinking, or maybe I wasn’t capable of coherent thought because I focused my gaze on his back and shoved desire at him, full blown urgent needy gut reaction got to touch taste and feel right this instant desire. He stiffened and immediately turned toward me. Unfortunately he wasn’t the only one.
There were perhaps thirty some odd men in the room and only a handful of females. Every one of them turned hungry eyes my way. Jace was fast, but not fast enough, and Owen, who had been closest to me and must have received the strongest jolt, took me to the floor with the weight of his body. I found myself under the length of him pinned to the mat as he held my wrists and tried to kiss me. I was so shocked I couldn’t react, even when other hands grasped my ankles and feet and slid between us to cup my breasts.
Oh this was so not going to happen. Lucky me I was wearing a one piece or he’d have been in me in a flash. As it was I could feel his erection pressing against me and struggled to get out from under him. I turned my head in Jace’s direction expecting him to save me from my own stupidity and found he had his own hands full trying to hold off a clinging female that had wrapped herself around him like a boa constrictor. I stretched my neck and from what I could see the other remaining females were locked amidst groups of men, all writhing on the floor in plies of squirming hands and legs. I had to do something quick and I did what seemed only natural. I screamed for Mi.
Tan and grey fur appeared next to my face and large amber eyes blinked down at me in question, then took a slow glance around the room before settling back on me again. I swear she raised an eyebrow. I moaned as someone bit my nipple and gave her a rather sickly look. Someone’s hand slipped under my shorts and my breath was a little ragged as I pleaded, “Can you please do something?”
She sighed and flicked her tail and everyone in the room except the two of us froze. Now that was a talent that could come in handy!
“So,” she inquired, glancing around the room again. “Was this your doing? Or is this a normal occurrence here in Dragon land?”
“You know it was me or I wouldn’t have called you for help,” I told her as I worked at squirming out from under Owen. “By the way, thank you so much for coming. I hope I didn’t take you away from anything important.”
She flicked her tail and simply replied, “What exactly did you do?”
“I’m not sure. Jace kissed me than walked away… and I didn’t like it much so I think I… I just thought desire at him.”
“You thought desire at him and nearly forty non-humans suddenly had the urge to procreate?”
I nodded miserably.
She stood up and wandered over to Jace and wound herself between his legs. She looked like she was contemplating the situation so I let her be and worked on getting out from under Owen and whoever else was assisting him. When I managed to get free, I climbed to my feet and took a good look around. Yikes! This was such a disaster. Mi wandered back over to me and looked up with an expression I wasn’t sure I liked.
“I am most impressed with you,” she informed me. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything like this. I can’t wait to tell your Mother.”
“Must you?” I whined. It wasn’t pretty, and surely no one wants their Mother getting that kind of news. Oh yeah, by the way, your Daughter…bless her heart, can inspire orgies of mass proportion with a thought and a wish. Gee …that is such an endearing ability. She’ll be so proud.
Mi actually grinned her toothy smile at me. “Well perhaps I’ll soften it up a bit,” she told me, which made me love her even more than I already did. “So what do you plan to do with them?” she asked bluntly.
“Can’t you just… I don’t know put them back to normal?” I inquired in a small voice.
She just blinked at me and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Crap, she wasn’t going to fix this and I was going to have to. I glanced around again and asked, “Do you think it will wear off soon?”
“Not while they’re immobile it won’t. Maybe if you’d gone for happiness or lust it wouldn’t be a problem. But full blown sexual desire is another thing and one I’m afraid won’t be so easily banished.”
I ran my fingers over my head and rubbed my eyes. Maybe what I needed here was a little more help. “Plug your ears,” I told Mi, then mentally yelled for Gareth. After a second’s hesitation I also placed a call to Nick. I wasn’t certain he’d hear me but I figured I had nothing to lose by trying. I made the call sound very urgent and could only hope that they would bring reinforcements.
While we waited I wandered over to Jace and pried off him the black haired woman that had first joined me when I’d been practicing katas. She outweighed me by about thirty pounds, but I managed to untangle her and drag her some ten feet away. Mi just watched me in amusement. When I was done I wandered back to her.
“Anyone else you can think of that might help?” Mi queried with a tilted head.
“I don’t think Spot would be of any assistance,” I told her with a frown and then bit my lip and wondered if maybe…. “Areth?” I called softly. There was a swirl of light and she appeared in the air before me, looking beautiful and dainty in a dress made all of black to match her hair and eyes.
“Greetings Lexi, daughter of Princess Shaylee” she spoke in her clear bell like voice. She glanced around and her eyes grew very large when they landed on Mi. She floated to the floor so they were at eye level. Areth curtsied low and added, “And greetings to you too Merecat Mi, Holder of Knowledge. It is an honor.”
Mi dipped her head and replied, “My gratitude for your timely care of my charge.”
“She is now my charge too,” Areth responded with a bright smile. “One I think that has been slightly naughty,” she observed, glancing about the room again before turning to look up at me. “We felt the strength of her compulsion but did not realize it had affected so many…this time.” She crossed her hands behind her back and looked at me inquiringly.
“This time?” I asked, my voice sounding slightly strained.
She smiled and nodded. “Each time before was less powerful, and aside from your first night here had only affected the male Dragons.
I chewed my lip and thought about what she said. “Does this mean I’m getting stronger?”
She shrugged and glanced at Mi. Mi nodded slowly and replied, “It was inevitable that you would become more powerful once you mated.”
“Every time I mate, or just the first time?” I demanded, wanting to clarify that point right then and there.
They both shrugged at me and Mi added, “your Mother suspected only the first time, but I’m not sure that’s the case.”
Oh great, the more sex I had, the more bizarre I might become. That wasn’t comforting at all.
Mi heaved a sigh and shook her head. “You are such a trial,” she told me. �
�Most beings in your position would feel grateful.”
“How am I supposed to feel grateful when all I have to do is think desire and this happens?” I replied, waving my hand around the room to indicate the piles of bodies.
“Well obviously you will need to learn to control this ability, but think what it could be like if you could actually reach out and touch a single individual, and only that individual, with the force of your will across a crowed room.”
I mulled that over for a few seconds and decided that yes, that could be an interesting ability, if I could learn to control it. “I’m not sure Jace or Gareth will be happy with me practicing on their men.”
Areth laughed and Mi rolled her kitty cat eyes. “Child,” she told me, “you can be so naive at times.”
I frowned at her and would have asked what she had meant by that but there was a commotion at the stairs. Apparently reinforcements had arrived. Mi blinked out, leaving me standing there with Areth, who levitated onto my shoulder and seated herself there.
Gareth walked onto the floor with Nick at his back, leading about twenty men who were all flashing weapons and looking about with wide confused eyes. I hadn’t been specific when I asked for help so it wasn’t surprising they would be looking for an enemy.
He came to a halt in front of me, glanced at Areth and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t even bother to say anything, just lifted an eyebrow. Behind him Nick and his men spread out, glancing around as if the attack might come from any direction.
“You can put your weapons away,” Gareth told Nick in a calm voice. “I think we have Lexi to thank for this.”
Nick looked at me, and at my nod he frowned and lowered his weapon. “You called?” Nick inquired as he holstered his gun and straightened his lightweight coat back into place.
“Thanks for coming; I wasn’t sure you’d get my message.”
He snorted and told me bluntly, “Hard to miss, considering it shoved me off my chair and onto my ass.” He jerked his head at the men around us. “There’s a few upstairs that are still unconscious. You pack a helluva mental punch, lady.”
I winced and raised my voice so I could reach those farthest away. “I’m very sorry,” I told them. “I’m still new at this.”
Nick shook his head and said in a slightly horrified voice, “You nearly incapacitate over sixty men and women and you’re new at this? Jesus!”
Gareth glanced between the two of us and finally inquired, “I assume you requested our presence for a reason?”
Oh yeah, I looked around the room and winced again.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he glanced about and asked as calmly as he could. “Are they hurt?”
“No,” I muttered then added. “Well maybe their pride.”
He nodded. “Obviously your workout got out of hand?”
“Not exactly.”
He sighed and asked patiently. “What exactly did happen?”
I didn’t wish to appear the tattle tale, so I just pursed my lips and glared back at him. “Why don’t you ask that idiot?”
That idiot was obviously Jace, and Gareth sighed again and told me, “I’d love to, but you seem to have turned him, as well as the rest of them, into some type of statue. You didn’t actually turn them into statues, did you?” he demanded, his voice sounding not unlike Nick’s in that it was slightly horrified.
“No I did not turn them into statues!” I hissed at him. “That was Mi. I called you because I thought it would be a good idea if we had some assistance when she releases them.”
“Who’s Mi?” Nick demanded, looking at the demon sitting on my shoulder.
I ignored him and continued, “I don’t know how to undo this….”
“Who’s Mi?” Nick tried again.
Gareth waved his hand at him, which caused Nick to turn his steely glare on me. I mouthed, later at him while Gareth continued, “So when they are released…” Gareth hesitated and glanced around the room.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
He rubbed his face then glanced at Nick who was looking grim. “This isn’t going to spread to the rest of us, is it?” Nick demanded, clearly worried about the twenty or so people he’d brought with him.
“It shouldn’t. I think they would have had to have been here when I…ah thought it,” I told him, then glanced around the room, forcing myself to make eye contact with those guards that had come at my call and whom were clearly considering the outcome of our conversation.
“Thought what?” Nick demanded.
Gareth glared and responded, “What does it look like she was thinking?”
Nick looked like he was trying to swallow his tongue. “This is what caused the crowd issue two nights ago isn’t it?”
It was close enough, so I nodded and glanced around at the guards. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised that most of them were having a hard time hiding their sudden interest, in fact a couple of them were actually grinning at me.
“What are we going to do with them?” Nick demanded. “We can’t leave them like this! We don’t have many females as it is and I can’t think they’ll be too happy when they realize what she did to them.”
“Actually,” I interrupted… then thought better about adding anything else to that sentence.
“Maybe we should try releasing Jace first,” Gareth told me.
“Okay but you might want to ah… stand back. Just in case.”
Gareth cursed under his breath and most of the guards closest to me shifted. Nick gave me a dirty look but stood his ground right behind Gareth, who also refused to move. I didn’t bother speaking, knowing that Mi was still there with us, just out of sight. I just turned with Areth toward Jace and waited.
Jace unfroze and flapped his arms, clearly still trying to push away the female that had been attached to him. When he realized he was free, he looked right at me and made a beeline for me. His eyes shifted and they were nearly whirling as he covered the last few steps toward me. To my side, Gareth shifted and bent over double at the waist with a strangled cry. It distracted Jace and he hesitated and blinked his eyes back to normal.
“Dammit, Lexi!” he nearly yelled at me. He stopped about two feet away, with his fists clenched. He closed his eyes and dragged in a deep breath. Obviously he was struggling against the compulsion and I was so hoping he was going to win. He took another deep breath and cracked open an eye. “Are you okay?” His eyes slid to Owen and so did Gareth’s.
“I’m going to kill him!” Gareth growled and Nick suddenly looked worried again. The three of them all stared at Owen and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why he might be in the position he was in, nor what he had been doing there. Of course there wasn’t anyone under him…anymore.
Jace held up his hand at Gareth. “No, this is my fault.”
Gareth didn’t even look at him. “I don’t know what the hell you were doing, while he was doing…that! But it’s fairly clear what he was doing!”
“And I say no! This is no more his fault than it is Lexi’s.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m trying to tell you that I caused this.”
Gareth flexed his hands and rolled his head on his neck. Beside him Nick looked like he was uncertain if he should be protecting his man or blaming Jace. “He wants her.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
Jace sighed and turned to me. “I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have teased you like I did. But please don’t ever do this again, at least not in a roomful of people!”
“I’m sorry,” I told him, reaching for his hand but letting it drop when he quickly backed up a step. It made my chest tight and I turned away and blinked at the sudden moisture in my eyes. Gareth sucked in air and held up his own hands. His eyes looked a little wild as he stared at me, almost as if he was picking up the compulsion from Jace. Which I supposed wasn’t really surprising.
“Oh God, Lexi,” Jace moaned. “I’m not afraid of y
ou. It’s just that if I touch you right now….” His eyes were beseeching and then he growled in frustration while he ran his hand through his hair. “I want you!”
On my shoulder, Areth’s laughter split the tension and all eyes focused in on her as she leaned against my ear and cupped her hand over her mouth so she could whisper to me. “You can do that?” I demanded when she had finished speaking. She nodded and jumped, landing on her feet in front of me.
She glanced up at me and said, “Everyone but him or him,” and she indicated Jace, and then Gareth, with a graceful wave of her hand.
I thanked her with a smile. She winked and began singing a high pitched song that echoed off the walls as she skipped among the frozen bodies, touching each on the forehead briefly before moving on to the next. She left those nearest me for last and came skipping back singing and dancing to touch Owen and the other men at my feet. When she had touched everyone in the room, she returned to me, curtsied deeply then disappeared.
I didn’t look at anyone merely said, “We should probably separate them before we unfreeze them. They won’t remember what happened up to the point of my… ah. Well, she’s wiped the last few moments from their memories.”
I could feel their eyes on me but refused to look at their faces. Nick made a motion with his hand, sending the guards into the piles so they could gently untangle their comrades.
When they had all been separated and a few of them redressed, I thought my request at Mi. Within seconds everyone was pushing to their feet, straightening clothes and looking around in confusion. Jace raised his arm for everyone’s attention and would have spoken except I cut him off. I was going to owe my safety to these people and no matter what Jace thought; I’d been the one to lose the compulsion on them, not him. The least I could do was apologize.
It actually didn’t go too badly. I think the fact that most of them that had seen Jace kiss me made them look at him as partially to blame. I also mentioned that the power was new to me and that I’d obviously need to learn to control it better, at which point I had several men offer to assist. I don’t think Gareth or Jace were particularly happy about that but they let the comments go. Perhaps they realized that it might come to that if we couldn’t figure out some other way to improve my skill. Mostly I was just glad that Gareth and Jace didn’t kill Owen, though the looks they shot him had the poor man as skittish as a cat on a hot tin roof. And when they would have asked Nick to assign someone else, I put my foot down and turned mutinous.
Dragon Lust Page 17
