“She’s right,” Charlie spoke up at that time. “We don’t. We just have enough people on the ground here on Level One to keep things in order. We’re nowhere near equipped for a mass evacuation on a scale of that magnitude.”
“Felix is suggesting that we pull more people from other sectors around the Tri-State area and in the Northeast—since Boston is a lost cause. The survivors have regrouped in Sarah Winters’s old homestead of Albany, New York.” Gertrude stringently overrode the older boy’s firm analysis of things.
“It still won’t be enough. We would need two months of round the clock evacuations and I doubt the armies of the Third Watch would ever be that gracious.” Tillie voiced up front. “Or generous for that matter. It was hell getting here on my own and I’m sure the head commanders of the Third Watch must already know the box we’re in at this time in regards to the indigenous populations currently on the island.”
The old woman sighed—giving the girl more ground in this discussion.
“Okay. If we can’t evacuate as Felix suggests, what would you propose?”
Tillie looked at both her mother and Sarah Winters collectively.
“We’re the only three magical familiars here on Level One, right? Possibly within the whole city proper on top of that?”
Her mother nodded quietly. “So far.”
“Then we fight.” The girl decided then and there. “It would be the very last thing anyone would expect us to do.”
“Are you talking about everyone on Level One? Or just you, your mom, and your friend?” Gertrude wanted to know—genuinely surprised by the girl’s idea.
“Just us. With a little field support from Level One.”
“Honey—” Alicia said in quiet protest. “I don’t think—”
Tillie cut her off with a wave of a hand.
“Mom. We need to start thinking strategically. Not empirically.”
Gertrude nodded. “I would have to bring this up with Felix. But he may not like your idea.”
“In two days time, it won’t matter. We need to act now before it’s too late. And that limited time frame won’t give anyone in the Resistance a chance to mount any kind of a rescue of the city’s beleaguered populace. But if we were to strike at different key sectors—it would throw whatever plans the armies of the Third Watch have in store for everyone here and would buy us some time to start shuttling whomever we can to the Underground.”
Alicia was impressed by her daughter’s idea then. “So in other words…a diversion.”
Tillie nodded. “Make them think that there are more than a few witches around that had survived the initial purge. That would drive them batty for sure.” She said.
“And give me a reason to do some target practice—because this fourth glyph incantation of mine is a royal pain in the ass to initiate.”
“The Storm Bringer one?” Sarah Winters guessed.
Tillie nodded. “The one that is an essential barrage of lightning bolts—yeah. But I’m still trying to master it. I mean, I have the other three down to a science. But this one—?”
Alicia smiled warmly. “You’ll get the hang of it, honey. Just keep practicing.” She quietly urged.
“Do you see the others as more of a handicap to you?” Sarah ventured.
The teen shook her head. “No. But they each have their own strengths and weakness. This glyph doesn’t from what I can tell.”
“Maybe it needs time to mature?” Charlie joked—breaking the ice a little between them.
Tillie blushed. “I don’t think so man. This thing has a powerful kick as it is and it’s still in the early stages. I don’t know how far it will go. Or what it will encompass.”
“So it’s not an isolated event?” Gertrude inquired with some curiosity on her part.
The other girl shook her head. “It’s a Mass Effect event on a regional scale. It takes its power from the elements themselves and amplifies things up a couple magnitudes of order. More than mom’s Fire Bolts. And she’s a Level 3 pyro.”
“And I always thought that witches cast spells like Frog or Toad or some other debilitating namesake.” Teena giggled.
“Maybe in the old days, they did.” Tillie said with a laugh of her own. “But magical familiars are almost like sorcerers themselves in many ways, but we have control over the primal things in nature that they do not. Call it an affinity of sorts.”
“So for you, it would be metal, Mother Nature, and off-style weaponry.” Gertrude guessed correctly. “But why a Gatling gun? Why not a Pulse Shaver or an Aconite Pistol?”
“None of them have much metal in them for one due to their plastin resin composite materials,” the girl revealed. “And they wouldn’t work with either my glyphs or incantations.”
“So you’re a bit old-fashioned. Like me.” The head manager teased out into the open for the other girl’s benefit. “I always wondered just how much of the old ways are still alive in these new generations…?”
“Probably more than you’ll ever know.” Alicia offered in full support. “Just because we are about to enter a new century it doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly forgotten.”
“Or left behind.” Sarah chimed in along with Teena herself. Even Charlie was nodding in full agreement.
“Now let’s go talk with Felix and see what he has to say about my daughter’s new plan.” Alicia decided right then and there—getting up out of her seat.
The others followed suit and the head manager nodded.
“Very well. I’ll give him a call over the audio link down at the end of the hall. It’ll be faster that way than sending a courier with this new information. But heed my warning: He may not like it.”
“He won’t say no, I know that much.” Tillie said with supreme confidence, after she slid her chair forward up against the far end of the table—then glanced over at Charlie who was smiling at her and nodding all the same.
“See? Even Charlie agrees.”
Teena laughed. “Charlie will agree with anything that will give him a chance to be the hero for one day. That’s all he thinks about. Fancies himself as some long lost sorcerer.”
Tillie grinned despite her earlier misgivings. “Does he?” She echoed in mirth. Then she looked at him and asked directly: “Do you?”
“Yep.” Charlie played along for her sake. “I have the scars to prove it. Wanna see?” He said, lifting one end of his tucked in shirt for her personal inspection.
Tillie shrieked in outward embarrassment and then batted his hands away before he could follow through.
“Not now!” She howled. “What do you take me for anyways? Some kind of fawning prude?”
“So you don’t want to see my magnificent battle scars then?” Charlie continued to tease as they all left the sanctity of the head manager’s office.
“Only if I’m drunk like your other friend—then maybe.” She deliberately baited then.
“That should be a simple affair,” Alicia cast out. “Tillie once got rip-roaring drunk off some of my late husband’s spiced apple cider once. The hard stuff. She managed to sneak an entire bottle into her bedroom. We both found her passed out on the bed with the bottle by the night stand. She could not stand straight for three whole days.”
“Mom!” Tillie screeched. “That’s more than I wanted to share with Charlie! Jeez! Are you trying to embarrass me even further on his account?”
“Well, you did say you liked him—right?” She revealed to the party at large.
Charlie was surprised by her mother’s admission. But he took it in stride just the same.
“It’s okay. I won’t press the issue on her behalf.”
Tillie’s pounding heart slowed just a tad bit when she heard those words coming out of his mouth.
“I was thirteen when it happened.” She confessed to him in a rush. “How was I supposed to know it has twenty percent alcohol in a single serving while it tasted so good at the same time?”
“It’s the flavoring additives.” Sarah to
ld her as they came up to a kiosk/booth. The same one that had been outside the lunchroom. “That’s how come they are so popular with the teens of your generation.”
The head manager called for everyone’s attention.
“All right,” she declared. “I’m going to make the call. So everyone simmer down. And be quiet.”
There was a unified consensus on that front—even as the old woman punched in her four digit access code followed by a nine-digit number.
Tillie held her breath for a moment, silently counting to ten—before glancing over at Charlie.
He was making the most horrendous face in existence—which made the girl snort out her breath reflexively and dissolve into half-contained giggles.
“You two—!” Alicia growled. “Knock it off.”
Tillie quickly composed herself and nodded.
“I am. I am.” She beseeched quickly. But inside she was still dying with laughter—especially given how Charlie was silently egging her on.
What a crazy day today turned out to be! She thought, even while she waited for the news of her plan.
But things weren’t as bad as she thought—even though she almost did vaporize Charlie into oblivion.
Well, I can get past that little misunderstanding. She reasoned to herself—before she looked at Charlie again and seeing him turned away from her in that moment.
But the sight of him shirtless (inside her already overworked imagination) made her more giddy than normal and she couldn’t wait for the day when she had that opportunity.
Or maybe it’ll happen sooner than anyone expects? She figured out for herself. In that case—?
Plans within plans began the time honored process of asserting themselves into her mind as she quietly waited for the outcome of it all.
Then she got it eight minutes later.
“New plan everyone,” Gertrude announced to the body at large. “The boss wants to see you all lickety-split. So you better get going. The court house should be open already for visitors and clients.”
Tillie sighed.
“The court house…? Again? Didn’t we just come from there? Why couldn’t it be at the pizza parlor like last time?”
Her mother grabbed her by the arm gently. “Come on. Let’s go. I promise you it won’t be like the last time.”
But the girl wasn’t convinced of that. Not one bit.
“Says who?” She argued blithely.
But she had no choice but to follow—falling behind Charlie as she went.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Role Reversals
Jake Harper finally appeared with a disheveled look of his own—dressed in his boxers and wearing a Gordanian lightning bolt t-shirt with a list of tour dates imprinted over it.
“How long have I been out, Kay?” He wanted to know with a powerful yawn to beat the band.
“It’s only four in the afternoon. You didn’t really fall asleep until about three this morning after I finished fucking your brains out the hard way.” Kara offered with a small smile of her own.
Then she felt his arms around the back of her neck as he drew her into an appreciable hug of his own.
“You’re amazing. You know that? And insatiable.” He whispered into her ear—making her current rock solid composure break just a little bit.
“You’re worth it, baby.” Kara answered in all honestly—she said before turning to face him; her face betraying the hints of actual emotion.
It was a trick that Jake had gotten used to since they started seeing each other and then going on out—before Kara invited him over to her place for a spot of tea and the promise of a home cooked meal.
“What is it now?” He volunteered innocently. “Why the face?”
“It’s work. I’ve been ordered back to duty.” She revealed at that point.
“Already?” Jake murmured with heartfelt disappointment. “But they were supposed to give you a four day liberty pass! It hasn’t even been a full day yet!”
Kara chuckled to herself. “Welcome to military life, Jake. But I still have a couple of days worth of leave before I have to report in. Then after that—? We’ll have to see if my superiors would be open to me having the next week off.”
Jake nodded hopefully.
“That’s cutting it pretty close,” he mused quietly. “I have to leave the day after—taking a flight back to London from Newark International.”
Kara smiled at him. “I know. I saw the ticket in your travel case.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him back—sighing all the while.
“But let’s not worry about that. We still have a couple of days before I go back.”
Jake held her from where he was standing and neither said anything for a moment.
“You need a bath, baby. You smell like BO and mixed apple spice.” His girlfriend told him, before pulling away.
“I thought that came from you?” He fired back teasingly.
“I bathed after I woke up this morning. Somebody decided to give me more than a lifetime’s worth of facials and body shots before he passed out from all the excitement.” Kara giggled—the experience still fresh in her mind.
“Couldn’t help myself, love.” He said without a hint of embarrassment or shame on his part.
Kara grinned then. “You could never help yourself when you are around me. What was it you said during the throes of passion? ‘I am going to own you—mind, body and soul’? I was to be your personal fuck toy? Your love doll to be played with forever and ever?”
Jake hesitated for a second. “I thought you were too tired to remember anything that was said during that time?” He questioned.
His girlfriend laughed. “I have a dragon’s memory, Jake. Things like that are hard to miss by a mile. Besides, I think you like it when you dominate me in bed—not that I don’t let you.”
Jake smiled despite his seemingly precarious position.
“You mean you feign helpless in bed because…?”
Kara got up off her high chair and stood.
“Because it’s such a huge fucking turn on for me, lover boy. I want you to both pleasure and please me to no ends. I like the fact you take control of the situation—like you did later on in the end—and fucked my brains out for a change with a thick dick of yours.”
“I’m not that—” he started to protest mildly. But she shut him up with a firm kiss to the mouth.
“You are.” She stated unwaveringly. “I know—because I blessed you with it with a special family incantation.”
“I seem to recall you kissed me there—right on the head—before taking me deep into your mouth.”
“It’s the benefits of being with a dragon,” she winked. “But I will not stand here and say you were any less endowed, baby. But average size with a heft amount of girth does wonders for my sex drive and libido.”
“Just be glad you’re not like some of my Welsh friends. They are hung like a championship race horse and then some.”
Kara giggled—trailing a finger down his chest lightly.
“If that’s what I wanted, I wouldn’t be dating you, lover boy. I wouldn’t be letting you get within striking distance of me in bed. You would be sleeping on the couch or in one the guest bedrooms instead.”
“Really? So how did I manage to get so lucky with you?”
“Because you have the heart of a poet. You’re a good listener. You don’t intrude on things when I ask, and you make a pretty wicked representation of my favorite British pork and cider casserole dish.”
“So you want to marry me—”
“—eventually.” Kara interjected smoothly.
“—because of my stellar cooking skills?”
She rose up on the tips of her toes and kissed him on his giant nose.
“Yes.” She said. “If I weren’t a dragon already, my weight gain through your high caloric cooking would be totally legendary by now. I wouldn‘t be able to fit into my combat harness or jumpsuit—to say nothing of the rest of my uniform.”
>
“I still haven’t seen you in your military best yet, Kay.” Jake reminded her with eloquent patience.
Kara’s eyebrows went up ever so slightly.
“So you have another fetish you want to share with me, mister? Is that it? I thought the Blood Maid was your all time favorite?” She lightly accused.
“Being a defense contractor, I’m around a lot of military brass—some of them just as cute or as beautiful as you.”
Kara scowled. “I thought I told you to stop flirting with any other girls you may come across? I warned you what would happen if I ever found out?”
“Hey, I love you to pieces, baby. You know that. But I’m not dead just yet.”
Kara jabbed him in the chest. “You will be if you keep flirting with all those single ladies out there.”
“—some are married.” Jake admitted up front and openly.
She stared at him is disbelief.
“You dog!” She bit out in a blind rage. “Do I need to tie you down onto the bed to keep you from escaping?!?”
Her boyfriend held out his hands. “Go ahead. I won’t mind. You know how much I am into bondage and kink.”
Kara laughed, her anger all but forgotten. “Yes, I know. You fancy yourself as the dom in this relationship and I’m you’re willing sub.” Then she kissed him again.
“But don’t forget…it works both ways.”
“Not today, baby. Not today. I still rule the roost on that account.”
His girlfriend pushed him away then.
“Until you take a bath, I’m the one who is calling the shots. So turn yourself around and head back upstairs to the first bathroom and jump in.”
“You’re going to have to make me, Captain.” Jake deliberately baited.
Kara gave him a look that communicated everything in that one single second.
“Now Jake.” She stated with unswerving authority. “Don’t make me punish you like last time.”
Jake grinned. “Punish me, punish me, please punish me…?” He playfully begged of her—while doing a little dance for her benefit.
The woman rolled her eyes and sighed.
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