Ceri gave a soft chuckle. ‘You might as well ask what Ed’s angle is, or Mei’s.’
‘Well… surely Ed’s teaching you…’
‘But why?’
‘Oh… I hadn’t thought of it like that. I guess he just likes teaching sorcerers.’
‘Yeah, maybe he does. And maybe Brenhines is just being protective of one of her descendants.’
‘There was the dream,’ Lily said.
‘She said we would meet,’ Ceri said, ‘which Alexandra said would happen, and we have. She said Ed wouldn’t tell me everything, and if he knows Brenhines is my ancestor, then he hasn’t. She said I needed to be watchful, and that was pretty good advice, considering.’
‘You said it sounded threatening, though.’
Ceri gave a little shrug, careful not to disturb the head on her shoulder too much. ‘I don’t think I know anymore, love.’
Lily cuddled up tighter, snuggling up like a cat against some nice, warm human foolish enough to lie still. ‘You’ll figure it out,’ she said. ‘You’re smart and I have faith in you.’
‘I wish I did.’ It was a stupid thing to say. Lily would be forced to tell her off, or voice some platitude, or…
Lily’s hand moved downward across Ceri’s body coming to a stop over her pubic bone. Ceri blinked when it did not do anything but rest there, and turned her head slightly. She could just about see a faint, red light cast on her skin from Lily’s eyes. Then she felt it, the power growing between her spine and her clitoris, and her skin began to glow, shimmering as Lily brought out the dragon inside her. It felt… wonderful!
‘You’re wonderful,’ Lily whispered, ‘believe it, because I do, and I’ve got the evidence to prove it. You come from a line that must stretch back thousands of years and there’s nothing you can’t overcome if you put your mind to it.’
Ceri’s body sang to her in a ringing, ancient voice. It sang of flying high above the land and looking down upon the world below. It sang of freedom. It sang of living magic, breathing magic, being one with the magic of the world. For a brief instant Ceri felt like she was aware of the entire planet and everything in it… And then she was just aware of Lily, and the meeting of their lips.
Part Five: Demon’s Wrath
Battersea, July 27th, 2011
Ceri had never felt so good in fur. There was the fact that she was no longer being watched by MI5 agents, and even the Greycoats had handed over her security to the pack. She could run with Michael to her heart’s content or talk to Alexandra and not worry who was watching. Mostly, however, it was just that everything felt glorious, fresh, new!
Michael had caught on to her mood and they had been running like yearling puppies through the park from the time she had changed. She ran after rabbits, frolicked with the other wolves, and felt wonderful the entire time. When Michael eventually took her out to the riverbank, even the humans making comments about them could not dampen her spirits.
You happy, Michael said in wolf-speech. His eyes were bright, happy that she was happy.
She gave a bright yip of reply. Yes. Most. Feel most me.
Wolf, Fire Worm, Man. There was not a word for dragon exactly, or if there was it had been lost to the language. Werewolves, for creatures so fond of tradition, tended to focus their “native” language on things that affected them now.
Yes! Ceri barked in response. Her gaze fixed on a young man walking past them. His reaction was atypical of the general trail of pedestrians. Most ignored them, sometimes very forcefully. Some made rude comments under their breath; the ones Ceri generally hated. This young man fell into by far the far smallest bracket, he was actually attracted to the sight of a naked, furry girl with the head of a wolf.
Ceri gave a little growl. ‘Wait.’ Then she bounced across the paving stones to block her admirer’s path.
His eyes grew wide as she stopped, bright-eyed, in front of him. ‘Uh… hi,’ the man said.
Ceri sniffed. His arousal was obvious and she twirled in front of him, trying not to laugh because it came out like a strangled hen with a wolf’s larynx. Stopping, she leaned forward, her muzzle an inch from his nose. His breath caught as her jaws opened, and then her long tongue licked his face from his chin, across his nose, to his forehead.
Yipping happily, she bounced away to where Michael was watching with amusement in his eyes. His growl said, Don’t play Men.
But man funny. It was a shame she could not pout, but she managed to get the same feeling into her posture.
Michael shook his head and watched the bemused young human walk away. Hopefully Ceri would calm down a bit soon. Otherwise he would have to resort to ropes.
Kennington, July 28th
‘You’ve been rather quiet for a few days,’ Ceri said as she closed the summoning room door.
Ed smiled weakly at her. ‘I’ve been rather busy lately…’
‘Strange, I thought you were avoiding me because Brenhines paid me a visit.’
‘Ah, well…’
‘Not mentioning she could just drop into my house any time she wished was bad enough,’ Ceri said before he could articulate much.
‘Yes, but…’
‘Not mentioning that she was the origin of my bloodline, however, was just plain stupid. How am I supposed to take that? What were you thinking? I’d rush off to see her?’
‘Perhaps if I could get a word in?’ Ed suggested. When she did not say anything to stop him, he went on. ‘I should certainly have mentioned that she could communicate through the statue. My apologies, it slipped my mind. As for the other matter… yes, I may have misjudged your reaction.’ He frowned slightly. ‘I may have misjudged her as well.’
‘How so?’ Ceri asked, settling a shoulder against one of the stone walls and crossing her arms under her bust.
‘I haven’t spoken to her since the end of the Toba Flare period. Losing her mate… unhinged her. She became unpredictable, capricious. The lands she had ruled over with Brenin was a grand civilisation before there was civilisation. The two races of man lived together there, peacefully. There was learning… I taught so many…’ He looked wistfully off into the distance for a second and then shook his head. ‘The world changed. Brenin tried to hold back the tide, so to speak, and died in the attempt. The magic field in this world dropped to virtually nothing. Their kingdom was inundated…’ The professor stopped, looking at Ceri’s expression of mild disbelief combined with resignation. ‘What?’ he asked.
‘They ruled over Atlantis?’ Ceri asked. ‘Ancient civilisation, enlightened, advanced, sank beneath the waves.’
Ed rolled his eyes. ‘Of course not! How could the destruction and submergence of an area of land over thirty thousand years ago have influenced Plato writing in three-sixty BC?’
Ceri raised an eyebrow. ‘Uh-huh… You were saying?’
‘When Brenhines returned to look for her mate and discovered he was missing she became bitter. She formed another kingdom, but this one was oppressive, cold, driven by her need for love. After Badon she left. No one saw her again until she returned to Anglesey after the Shattering. We have no idea what she wants now.’
Ceri pushed away from the wall. ‘All right,’ she said, ‘I can accept that, and I understand why you kept the information from me.’ She straightened herself up and prepared for the exercises she knew he would make her do. ‘But you should have told me.’
~~~
Faran had had to sneak past John, who was doing guard duty, but that was a lot easier for a creature who could walk through solid objects than it might have been for someone else. ‘And I’m not letting a little thing like police surveillance stop me from seeing my daughter,’ he added as he settled down on the floor of the dungeon.
‘Well,’ Ceri said, grinning, ‘I’ll just ask a couple of questions and then I can be out of your hair so you can be with her.’
‘I quite enjoy seeing my daughter’s mistress as well, you know?’ the incubus replied. ‘I admit that’s at least partially lust, but I
do.’
‘Thank you,’ Ceri said. A year earlier she would have blushed at being lusted over. ‘I have what seems to be an ex-pacted wizard trying to kill me. I suspect he was destroyed and dragged into your world last year and now he’s come back. He seems to be able to possess people.’
‘Lucky human,’ Faran commented.
Both Ceri and Lily looked at him with a surprised expression. ‘How is he lucky?’ Lily asked.
‘Most humans we get our hands on end up either torn apart or as slaves. Someone really likes him if he was given power.’
‘But what kind of demon is he?’ Ceri asked.
‘An ordinary one.’ He smiled at Ceri’s slightly perplexed expression. ‘The demons you see normally, Devos, Devim, Dakag, Cherich, Lorril…’
‘Lorril?’ Ceri asked; she had heard of the others.
‘Devotik word for incubi and succubi,’ Lily said. She beamed; she loved it when she could actually tell Ceri something she did not know.
‘Quite,’ Faran went on. ‘Those are the demon varieties most commonly called to Earth and able to manifest here. There are plenty of demons who have no particularly special powers and if they were actually summoned here they would not be able to manifest a form. The more powerful ones are able to possess humans, but only specific ones they attune to. Generally they need to have some impediment to resisting the possession as well.’
‘The one I know about has no soul,’ Ceri said.
‘Perfect. He would either have been summoned, or they sometimes slip over on… what do you call it… Samhain. Various immaterial demons pass over then, but most of them can do little more than scare people. Others tempt magicians into pacts, cause mischief, that kind of thing. Your demonologists refer to them as “Tempters,” we call them Det.’
‘Which is the Devotik word for demon,’ Lilly said.
‘I’m glad you remembered your lessons,’ Faran said, smiling at his daughter.
Lily giggled. ‘Akt letok mi tavishti chovach?’
‘I hope that was directed at Ceri, dear child. I’m your father.’ Lily tried her best to look entirely innocent and Ceri wondered what the Hell she had said.
‘How do I get rid of him?’ Ceri asked.
‘Banish him,’ Faran replied, ‘if you can corner him. Killing him here would be… difficult. He’s immaterial, Lily’s daggers have nothing to stab, and that’s assuming you can get him out of the body he’s in. I’m assuming you’d rather not destroy the host?’
‘I’d prefer that option,’ Ceri said wryly. ‘Aside from any moral issues, they’d probably lock me up for life.’ She sighed. ‘So I have to banish him, which means he could just come back.’
‘Not if you do it properly. Banishment bars him from this reality unless someone summons him back.’
‘It’s July,’ Ceri said. ‘If he had come over by himself he would have attacked me before, surely? He had to have been summoned.’
Faran shrugged. ‘He would need to find a suitable host, cement his position, possibly plan his attack. There may have been other things he needed to deal with unrelated to you. Remember, he would not have the power he does without the intervention of a Lord.’
Ceri nodded. ‘Banishing it is.’
‘If we can find the Mektopak,’ Lily said.
Faran blinked at her. ‘I never taught you that word.’
‘Oh yes you did.’
The incubus cringed. ‘Don’t ever tell your mother I did.’
Ceri grinned at Lily. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’
‘Oh yeah,’ Lily replied, ‘blackmail material.’
Battersea
Anita looked along the line of her troops and nodded. ‘All right,’ she said, putting her hands behind her back and marching along the line, ‘we’re solidly into the summer months, the schools are out, and we all know what that means. Yes, we’ll have kids running about trying to spot us naked in human form or at it in the bushes.’ Anita managed to keep a straight face through the rumbles of humour from the Guard, just like a real Sergeant Major; except that most of those were not six-foot naked Amazons. ‘Just remember, they’re human and teens, they don’t know any better. Make sure everyone keeps their activities private so we don’t get complaints like last year.’
There were nods from around the team, and Michael looked right at Ceri. Luckily her fur made it impossible to tell she was blushing.
‘We have had a few people scenting demon around the park,’ Anita said, and Ceri was suddenly all ears. ‘No one has seen anything yet, Alexandra is not sensing any direct threat to the pack, but you’re to report any evidence of them to me or Alexandra.’ She gave everyone a quick look, receiving nods of confirmation. ‘That’s it for tonight, off you go.’
She turned back toward Alexandra’s clearing, shifting as she did so. Ceri thought she would never get her transformations as smooth as that, but then Anita specialised in just that one bit of magic. Still… Turning to her mate Ceri gave a bark. Come, hunt demon.
Michael had obviously been expecting this since he was off before she could start moving. He headed out toward the eastern end of the boating lake among the trees. Scents here, he barked at her as she ran beside him. She lifted her muzzle, but could not catch anything in the breeze and they looped around to go through the trees on the south side of the lake.
They found nothing until they got to the south-west side, and then Michael raised his muzzle, scenting the breeze. He pointed and started off across Carriage Drive. Ceri’s brow furrowed; they were heading for the area where Ceri hid her clothes. Putting on a burst of speed, she caught up with her mate and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. His look was questioning.
Ceri nodded toward the corner of the park. Man stuff tree, she growled. Care. Do hide.
The scent of demon was stronger now. Michael nodded and they slipped through the trees taking it slow and easy. Michael stopped suddenly about ten yards from the little clearing where their tree was. He was the more experienced wolf and his gestures suggested that they were close, but Ceri had a trick he could not perform. Gathering her power, she allowed her perceptions to spread out around her, searching for the distinctive energy signature of demons. She held up three fingers and then pointed; three demons, one in the tree, two on the ground. She could tell they were Devim, but if there was a way to tell Michael that she did not know it.
He gave a soft growl. Attack?
Ceri reached out and touched his shoulder, light flickering over her fingers, and a faint, orange flame flickered over him. He raised an eyebrow at her, but she just did the same to herself and growled a reply. Attack!
They burst into the clearing, Ceri gathering a spell in her palm as she did so. Three darts of flame sprang from three points around the clearing, one up in the tree in which Ceri hid her clothes. Two of them hit Michael and he reared back… and then realised what Ceri’s spell had done. Devim, imps, were fire demons and she had fireproofed him. With a howl of glee, he charged at one of the sources of the flame bolts while Ceri, using the angle of trajectory from the tree, fired a bolt of light back the way it had come. There was a squeal and a Devim came crashing out of the branches; for a creature with wings, that had to be embarrassing.
Ceri could hear fighting from behind the tree Michael had dived behind, but she had her own problem in the form of a four-foot high, purple-skinned, winged creature flying at her with its horned head lowered. She seized up its trajectory, skidded to a stop and fell flat on her back, lashing out with a foot as the creature flew overhead. She felt her toe claws bite and heard a shriek of pain, and then the thud as the distracted creature slammed into a tree.
A flame dart hit her in the side of the head. The one from the tree was still mobile, though its left arm was missing; dark blood pumped from a hole where its shoulder should have been. Without warning a clawed hand came from behind it, wrapped around its throat, and ripped its windpipe out. There was a look of surprise on its face as it keeled over. Ceri watched it fall
and then turned to what she assumed was the last of them. She almost fell over laughing.
The little creature was struggling frantically to free itself. Its horns were jammed firmly into the tree it had hit. Michael stepped over the second imp he had killed, wondering why his mate was doubled over. Then he burst into howls of laughter as well. About two minutes later there were six more wolves, including Anita, gathered in the clearing, looking on with amused expressions as the wounded demon cursed them enthusiastically, but in a language they could not understand, while trying to free itself.
Ceri finally tired of the creature’s antics, and apparently so did Anita. The Guard Captain looked at Ceri. Question? she barked. The chances of getting useful information out of the thing were slim at best. To her knowledge they did not even speak English. She shook her head and Anita grabbed the demon firmly by the shoulders and twisted. Ceri flinched at the wet crunch which came from its neck. Anita looked up again. To Alpha, she said.
Alexandra looked up at them as they entered her clearing, Anita and Ceri shifting to human. ‘I heard howls,’ she said, ‘but they sounded like laughter.’
‘Three demons,’ Anita said.
‘Devim,’ Ceri added.
No danger, Michael growled.
‘No,’ Alexandra said, ‘they wouldn’t be. Aside from the fire they’re no match for a werewolf.’
‘I fireproofed us before we went in,’ Ceri said. ‘One of them got his horns stuck in a tree, hence the laughter.’
‘Terrible breakdown in discipline,’ Anita said, smirking maliciously.
‘I see.’ The old woman’s face did gymnastics as she tried not to laugh. ‘No sign of whoever sent them?’
‘I scented nothing,’ Anita said, Michael rumbling a confirmation.
‘I was looking for demons, but I think Barnes would have shown up if he had been nearby,’ Ceri said. ‘I doubt he was though, he preferred to have his dirty work done by someone else, at a distance, when he was human.’ She scowled. ‘Of course, demons are easy to summon. He can send more.’
‘I suggest you check your bag for enchantments before you leave,’ Alexandra said, ‘but I think he’ll attempt something different next. We’ve demonstrated the ability to demolish such minor minions. Another plan is needed.’
Thaumatology 04 - Dragon's Blood Page 20
