by HDA Roberts
"You were quick tonight," Price said.
I explained what happened, the setup, the layout and the numbers. She noted some things down on a pad, but she was starting to eye me up as time went on, and it was becoming very intense.
"Good, good," she said, leaning back in her chair. She undid the top button on her jacket. I heard snoring behind me and saw that Demise was curled up on the sofa, Crystal sitting next to her, stroking her hair.
"Is she alright?" I asked.
"Of course," Price said, drawing my attention back to her, "she's just sleeping."
I never even had a chance to see it coming.
Price distracted me and Crystal was at my back before I had even the slightest idea what was happening. I heard my jumper tear, and there was a sudden sharp pain in my neck. I didn't even have the chance to call my Will, I didn't even think I was under attack. This was a safe place, these were my friends...
Warmth spread from the wound, and I felt lightheaded. The pain left almost immediately, and a sense of intense peace and relaxation came over me. The last thing I remember of that night was Price standing up, her fangs prominent in a wide and hungry smile as she moved towards me.
Chapter 22
Okay.
Not good.
Still woke up, though, so I took that as a good sign.
I found myself lying on a wide, comfortable bed and even though my head was trying to kill me, everything else was where it was supposed to be (I checked). The sheets were soft and clean, smelling faintly of Crystal's perfume, which I hoped wasn't a sign that I'd done something I shouldn't have. I wasn't quite naked, still in my shirt and underwear, which reassured me a little, though I was even paler than usual (and it didn't take a genius to figure out why). The room was elegantly decorated, the bed a four-poster with transparent silk curtains. There was a very dim light coming through a gap in the heavy blinds, so it was probably what passed for daytime in Gardenia.
God, my mother was going to flip her lid; I'd just disappeared on her!
Demise was sitting in an armchair next to the door, looking at me, she didn't look happy. She was fully dressed and otherwise looked none the worse for wear.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
She looked away.
"Did they do anything to you?" I asked, my voice instantly cold and a little nasty, Shadows flickered from all the dark places as I prepared to knock the building down.
"No!" she said, standing up, "No, Mathew, I swear. They didn't feed on me at all, they couldn't... Death Mage."
"Ah. Then what happened? You look like someone kicked your puppy." I asked, looking around for the rest of my clothes and finding them in a neatly folded heap, freshly laundered. I hopped out of bed and dressed quickly. I wasn't as clean as my clothes, but I didn't feel grimy, or even dirty, really. I did notice that there wasn't a scratch on me, so there was that.
"How much do you remember?" she asked, swallowing hard.
"I remember getting bitten, and that's it."
She sighed, releasing a breath, "Good."
"Good?" I asked.
"I made an arse of myself. I'm just glad you don't remember it."
I frowned, that didn't sound right, "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked her, "They didn't... do anything to you?"
She smiled, just a little, "Nothing I didn't ask for in the heat of a stupid moment, and, like I say, I'm just glad you didn't see it."
I might have pressed, but Demise seemed pretty adamant.
"If you ever do want to talk about it, I'll listen," I said, "And you know I don't judge."
She smiled again, and I'd have sworn that her eyes went a little moist, but that might have been my imagination.
"Thanks," she said, patting my shoulder a bit awkwardly.
"Any idea where Price is? I'd like to get home for breakfast, and I'd better check in before we go."
The door opened right on cue, but it wasn't Price.
Crystal wore a grey silk dressing gown, and that was it as far as I could tell. It was a good look on her.
"You bit me!" I said, making her jump before she broke into a smirk.
"That's hardly my fault, you smelled like sexy food and you turned your back on me, what was I supposed to do?!"
"Well, that's fair enough, but still very bad form," I muttered.
Just like with Kandi, it was more or less impossible to be angry with Crystal for more than a minute, she was too... bouncy, too sweet.
And it wasn't like it was her fault, she'd made her intentions towards me very clear (repeatedly), and since I was the idiot who came into her parlour sporting Succubus musk (which was essentially throwing myself into a shark tank while wearing a swimsuit made out of fresh meat), I had only myself to blame that she sunk her fangs in. I was just grateful that I woke up with my ability to enjoy sunbathing intact (as well as all my appendages).
Crystal slid up to me and drew me into a very nice hug, which was surprisingly affectionate, rather than carnal.
"You still smell terrific, by the way," she whispered, dragging the tips of her fangs along my neck.
"No, bad Crystal," I said, pushing her back to arm's length, "and I did tell you that I'd made a Magical mistake with my hormones."
"And? You say that like it matters," she said, still smiling.
I shook my head, having trouble not smiling myself.
"How far did you take the biting?" I asked, exasperated.
At this, she looked a little shifty.
"Oh, you didn't, did you?"
"Sorry," she said, blushing, "I couldn't help myself, you were so tasty! And then I took a little too much, so I had to give you some of mine so you wouldn't snuff it, and then it was easy to make the bond, so I did..."
"Damn it, Crystal!"
"Well don't blame me! You were Vampire Catnip, how was I ever not going to scratch?"
"Self control?" I offered.
"You realise what I do for a living? Does that really scream 'self control' to you?"
Again, fair enough.
"Still, bad form," I repeated, it just made her laugh, which banished my grump.
"It's not a problem for you?" I asked, "The blood bond thing? It doesn't produce a dependency or anything?"
"Hardly, just makes feeding more fun and nutritious and you'll have some wild sex-dreams about me, so it's not like that'll be anything different," she said, her smile turning a bit naughty and sending my heart-rate up.
"Ha, ha," I said dryly, tweaking her nose, which only made her shiver. I needed to get out of there, she was still under the influence of the musk.
Naturally Price came in just as I was contemplating a swift exit.
"Ah, you're awake," she said with a smile. She was dressed in her usual business-casual, "And upright, I was worried for a moment there."
I glared at Crystal, who whistled innocently, staring at the ceiling.
I shook my head, "My apologies for any... problems caused last night," I said.
"Oh, you were no trouble at all," Price said in a predatory way, turning her eyes on Demise, "absolutely no trouble."
Price's eyes swivelled back to me, taking me in from head to toe, "You know, my lord, if you have some time today, I'd love for us to have a nice, long... chat about how our business interests could further... combine."
I swallowed hard.
"I'd like that, but today is rather packed for me. If you still want to talk, it would have to be in three days or so."
At which time, she'd have forgotten, and the musk would have worn off... hopefully.
She licked her lips and took a step towards me.
"Easy," Demise growled at Price, the Death Mage's hand in her jacket.
"Come, come, we've been through a lot together, sweet Demise," Price said pointedly, surely you don't mean to get in my way, who knows what might slip out in the heat of the moment?"
"Ms. Price," I said in a hard voice, which startled her enough to make her turn around, her eyes clearing, "You're not yo
urself. I'm still putting out that pheromone, remember? Would you really break a confidence like that under any other circumstances?"
I respected Demise enough to let her keep her secrets, and even help her do so if it were that important to her.
Price's eyes cleared, and her cheeks coloured. She bowed to Demise, "My apologies," she said, sincerely.
"Not your fault," Demise replied, quite graciously. She even took her hand off whatever weapon she'd been reaching for.
"Look, we've all had a bit of a night, some of us did some things we shouldn't have," I said, "Let's agree to move on and never mention it again, alright?"
"Nope," Crystal said, beaming happily as she continued to stare at me.
"Agreed," Price said, pinching Crystal's wonderful rear end, which made the younger vampire squeak and glare. I couldn't help but chuckle, and feel a rush of affection for those two. Even under chemical influence, when they could have easily done me all manner of harm, I'd been able to trust them (more or less).
I nodded, "I'll be in touch."
"I should hope so," Price said, her eyes narrowed and interested.
"See you soon, Mathew?" Crystal said, a glint in her eye that reminded me of Cassandra eyeing up my last packet of chocolate digestives.
I nodded and opened a Gate, smiling at them both as I took Demise back home.
Half an hour later, we emerged out of the Shadow under a tree on my front lawn. It was just after eleven, and we walked up to the back door. I found Mother in her study, hard at work. She hadn't noticed I'd gone, which was good, in a way, but also a little sad.
I walked and fed Burglar, who was near-manic to get out of the house. Then I went to the shower and took care of my morning ablutions while Demise watched as usual. I still wasn't used to that, but there seemed to be less of a barrier between us since last night, like we knew each other a bit better, perhaps. There certainly seemed to be less reserve on her part, and I found that I was just that little more comfortable in her presence as well, which was nice.
"Are you hungry?" I asked her once I was in a new set of clothes.
"A little," she said.
I nodded and led the way to the kitchen so she could eat. I wasn't that hungry, and I was just a bit worried about Crystal and what had happened. I knew that nobody had been in their right mind, but it seemed to be a very hard thing on her, like I was leading her on.
That sounded idiotic, even to me, but I was nothing if not a sucker for a pretty face. So I tried not to think about it, which led to me thinking about it; it was an irritating cycle. I needed a book, a movie, something to distract me.
"The Starborn Lady told me that you spiral," Demise said, sitting down at the kitchen table, Burglar hard on her heels looking for titbits (he'd discovered her to be a soft touch), "Don't spiral. That girl is not some ingénue flower that will wilt at the first sign of strangeness. She's older than you by a solid margin and has more experience of men and relationships that I hope you'll ever need. She understands, trust me."
"I still feel like a..."
"Cad?" Demise offered.
"As good a word as any."
"You're not."
I smiled at her and she returned the expression.
I felt a bit better and made some breakfast, which the dog stole while I wasn't looking.
Afterwards, I pulled out one of the Level Ten Magic textbooks and headed outside. I'd been neglecting my Magical education for too long, what with one thing or another.
At Level One, the book was the width of my thumb with big writing, comforting pictures and detailed descriptions. The Level Ten 'book' consisted of five volumes, each two inches thick, and you needed to know every spell in every volume to pass the tests, and these were spells that required sub-spells to cast and a variety of energy types to work properly.
I loved every frustrating page of it.
I'd made my way through the first volume and part of the second. Though complex, it wasn't really hard to understand. Magic came to me like breathing did, as naturally as life itself. It just took time to learn that much material, though retaining it was much easier than Shakespeare, it just sort of... went in and got stuck, particularly if I cast the spell in question.
The book was arranged by loose 'Schools' of Magic that had so much overlap at that level that categories were more or less pointless. I was studying an 'Enhancement' spell, the principle of which was to grow a field of something from a single seed of same. So, take a wheat seed, and make a whole field of it.
It was about fifteen different spells in one construct, and awfully complex. It had to be, so as not to rip all the nutrients out of the soil and leave it barren, while also avoiding horrific mutations in the plant, in this case, apple trees.
My mother always said she wanted an orchard.
Demise sat down on the grass next to me in an open stretch of our back garden. I'd taken an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen for my experiment. She peered down at the book as I studied the spell frameworks.
"Complicated," she commented.
I nodded.
"You're Level Nine?" she asked.
"Certified," I said, a little proudly, "You?"
"Seven. Highest among my sisters. We mostly focus on Battle Magic, but I always liked studying the general spells."
"You getting ready for Eight?"
"I... I have trouble with some of the transjunctions and sensory input spells," she said self-consciously.
"I still have all the Level Eight books," I offered, "I had some trouble with sensory input, too; I can show you how I solved the problem, if you like?"
"You're busy," she said, turning away.
"This'll keep," I said, standing up, "and reviewing the theory is always useful before trying something new."
It certainly helped pass the time and to focus my mind on better things. Demise was an exceptional Sorceress, powerful and versatile, but holding multiple spell effects in her head at the same time was a bit of a problem for her. That, and she wanted to do everything quickly, like ripping off a bandage, which was a battlemage thing. It took me a while to persuade her that advanced sensory alteration spells shouldn't be rushed (that's how I ended up with purple vision for a week).
I helped tighten up her spell groupings and her constructs. She only took four hours to progress. That was far quicker than I'd managed, just so you know, it took me days to get those spells right.
She smiled as she succeeded, casting one of the more complex variations on Mage Sight.
"You're a natural teacher," she said.
"You did the work, I just helped you scrape off the rough edges," I said, going back to my Level Ten book while she started leafing through some of the other spells in the Level Eight.
"A natural teacher, but a terrible fighter."
I snorted, "I hate fighting," I confessed.
She looked surprised.
I nodded in reply, "It's true, I absolutely loathe it."
"They way you fight, I'm not surprised."
I grinned and went back to reading.
"But why?" she asked.
"Why what?"
"Why do you hate fighting so much? An Archon would be exceptional at it."
I closed my book and looked at her.
"You know what my first piece of serious Magic was? I don't mean practice or little stuff around a house. I mean Magic in earnest, when it really mattered?"
She shook her head.
"My brother fell down a gorge. It was a bad fall, maybe thirty feet down a rocky slope and right onto a broken fence post, hit him right here," I said, pointing at my chest, mid way up where my right lung was.
"He nearly bled out before I got to him. I knew a few bits of Medical Magic, barely anything. I cast a Lifelink without even knowing what I was doing; all I knew was that I wanted Des to live so badly that I was able to reach out and give him what he needed. If Magic can do that, let a clumsy young Magician save his brother when he shouldn't be able to... then using it
for... hurting people, killing them... how could I do that? When Magic can bring my brother back from the brink of death, how could I use it for that?"
She sighed, looking at me for a long time, "We do it, Mathew so that the next person's brother doesn't die. We do it because people need someone willing to stand between them and the things that would eat them. And often, we do it because the next person wouldn't survive trying."
"I still hate it," I said.
"Learn to love it, that's what I did. And learn quickly, spending time with you is making my sword hand itchy."
I laughed.
I did some spellwork, and made some progress.
Then I called Tethys.
"Oh, good, I was just about to call you," she said.
"Regarding?"
"I need some paperwork signed, what was your thing?"
I told her about the previous night, leaving out a couple of details, but she was able to infer. She wasn't an idiot and knew that my skills at Medical Magic were too far advanced for a hormonal mistake like that.
"Can she hear my side of the conversation?" Tethys asked, referring to Demise.
"No."
"Was it really a malfunction?"
"No."
"Was it Gabrielle?"
"Yes."
"Get over here. I want to see how bad the damage is. Vampire and Demon."
"I can't. I dare not risk being around women right now," I said.
"I can control myself, Matty, and your Captain doesn't think of you that way. I'll keep Kandi out of the room, I promise."
I let out a breath.
"Okay, be there in ten," I said.
"Now what?" Demise asked once I'd put the phone down.
"Tethys wants to take a look at me after the whole... Vampire thing. Just to be on the safe side."
I told my mother I was going out, and then Demise and I Shadow-Walked to Blackhold. We emerged into a downstairs loo and opened the door to the sudden surprise of Jillian, who shrieked and nearly shot me, before calming down and telling us that Tethys was in her office. I led the way and knocked on the door.
Cassandra and Tethys were waiting for us.