Against All Odds: A Gripping Secret Baby Romance (Bad Boys After Dark Book 9)

by Gabi Moore

  The images would be burned into my consciousness, that much I knew.

  My body had been different, and what's more, I had gotten my wings back once again. I swear, I could still feel the sting of the creature that had pulled me underground, but only while my eyes were closed. When I opened my eyes up once more to examine the source of the stinging, all I could see were thorn scratches.

  Well, at least I'm here... not too bad looking in this form. Absolutely human.

  Frequently, when Fae crossed over into the human realm, they magicked themselves up to be beautiful. The men more so than the women. However, this beauty charm, or ‘Glamour’ was not a necessary aspect of the transition into the material world.

  If I were to go about the material realm in my actual form, there would be chaos. I would be captured and put into a sexualized circus for sure. That, or I would have to bring the lives of a few humans mercilessly short, and escape.

  There wasn't any inherent danger in being in my true form, or Fae form, within the material realm, its' just that it was grossly impractical. How was a person supposed to get any work done while the rest of the world was too busy staring at you to provide a coherent response or maintain a conversation?

  Absolutely not. I had to be incognito in order for this to work, but fortunately, there was something about the cross-dimensional travel which made that all work out.

  I had heard of others, other Fae who had somewhat arrogantly decided to magick themselves into their original form while on the material plane, but I wasn't nearly that prideful. Not anymore.

  In spite of it all, I was pleased to discover that I was actually fairly good looking.

  I had more muscle and substance in my human form. Instead of one wing, I had intricate tattoo lines splayed downward along the side of my body. Through the torn fabric of my clothes, I could see both muscles and tattoos along the surface of my skin. I had both healthy tone and solid muscle definition. Much of the time, in the Fae Realm, I didn't consider much of my physical appearance. At least not since I was on active duty.

  I was glad to know that whatever fates were involved at least had a sexual inclination for the way my body adapted to the change between realms.

  I stood up and admired myself for a moment, trying to assess how much damage had been done to my clothes, and what sort of form I would be working with in order to complete my mission.

  Tits and Ass for days, and a solid athleticism too. ‘Bout fucking time something went right.

  I wasn't prepared to go anywhere just yet, and for the moment, I allowed myself to indulge in some stretches. It felt good to release some of the tension in my muscles. I was disoriented, but pleased to discover that I could at least function well enough in this form. My balance was on point, and after about a half hour of meditation, my focus was solid as well.

  Unfortunately, I realized during my period of adjustment that I would have to deal with all of the problems that came along with adopting a human body.

  Humans, as a general rule were more susceptible to illness and fatigue. Their brains required more effort to prevent them from losing focus. They were hungrier, more often, and due to their shortened lifespan, they had a much higher sex drive than the fae.

  I had been on the material plane for less than an hour, and already my mind was swamped with desires and 'urgent needs' of all kinds.

  I don't understand how they manage...

  Shaking my head, I set about to clear my focus once more. I needed to create a Meta Map Spell in order to figure out where my target was supposed to be located. Casting spells in human form is easy enough, but you need to clear your mind of other preoccupations first, and sometimes, that can be more difficult than not.

  Two critical components of the magic which operates portal technology are proximity and intention. These are highly subjective, and are therefore left to the efficacy of the magic itself in order to integrate these variables into the spell itself. The end result is that the user is theoretically transferred toward the exact, or approximate, location where they requested to be. The portal opens, and deposits the traveler across both time and space. When they arrive, all that they should need to do is be relatively observant, and their objective should make itself apparent.

  All of the rules of magic, and especially the rules governing inter-dimensional travel are speculative. The study of magic is like every other pursuit of knowledge. A working model must be accepted until it is proven wrong. Unfortunately for me, I had already been through one major systemic anomaly.

  It would be nice if my target was around, but it was pretty obvious that I could count on nothing.

  Just standing there, I managed to get hungry and aroused and fatigued all at the same time. My attention waned, and I was unable to complete the Meta Map Spell. The frustrations left me feeling defeated and trapped by my own baser instincts. I couldn't tell if I wanted to fuck something, eat a raw fish or fall asleep.

  Better hurry up and get out of here ... this place is harsher than I remember.

  Yet another undocumented theory about inter-dimensional travel involves the supposition that forms tend to retain themselves as a matter of convention. If a Fae were to assume a human form for too long, they might forget how to access their native form. The obvious danger here is that they would lose touch with their magic, and consequentially never be able to cross planes again.

  Being this fucking horny for no damned reason is about as exciting as it is frustrating. A temporary walk-in to the human form might be an enjoyable experience, but I'm not sure I want to make that kind of long-term commitment.

  I looked around to see if I might be able to get away with masturbating for a bit, and saw nothing more than forest. I was excited to try it out, but before I could take my new nervous system for a spin, a man appeared from the tree line right in front of me.

  Blushing, I pulled the tattered remains of my clothes over me, and then relaxed once more.

  Shame, I thought. That was weird.

  “Hey there... sorry to interrupt, just passing through."

  Erol? I thought, scanning my memories for his characteristics. There you are...

  "Actually, I'm all fucked up by this briar patch."

  "Do you need some help?”

  Well that was easy.

  Chapter 5

  I wanted to wrap this whole thing up as quickly as possible. If this quest were up to me, I would straight take this guy's will and then force him to follow through with whatever plans Thane had in mind for the guy. I was in no mood for games, and I figured that if I was going to enjoy my time away from the Fae realm, it needed to be after my responsibilities were taken care of.

  A sense of urgency overtook me, and I decided that I would charm him. I would move forward with as ruthless tactics as would be allowed.

  No sex, and no seizure of free will, I thought to myself. I can work with that.

  I brushed a leaf from my hair, and pretended to be very concerned with removing some imaginary thorn from my pants. Standing up, I was able to catch a glimpse at him as he approached. He looked like a total square.

  "I've fucked with beings that are stronger than you," I silently swore, and then offered a nod of acknowledgment and a disarming smile.

  He approached looking concerned, and a bit unsure of himself.

  "So glad someone found me,” I said. “I might have been stuck here for a while."

  "Looks like you might not have been too bothered."

  *Astute and conservative.*

  *Interesting.*

  *Divert to the physical.*

  "You wouldn't believe how deep some of those scratches go..."

  *Blush.*

  "Hiker?"

  *Sensual thrust diverted into contextual small talk.*

  He had closed the distance between the two of us by that point, and I noticed how easily my body responded around him. My body drew nearer to him on a subconscious level. I could feel my own heartbeat, as well as an increased level of heat fl
ow through my entire system. My own impulses were fucking with my focus. The body I was in couldn't distinguish the difference between intent and reality.

  I was ready to pounce him and strip his clothes off then and there. I had to breathe deeply and restrain myself.

  "Actually I was climbing in some of those trees. Really just trying to get some solid exercise in, and my foot slipped. Fell straight down into that briar patch."

  "Ouch," he winced.

  "Really fucked up my clothes. If I didn't know better, I'd say these vines were trying to get in my pants."

  I stared at him, catching his eyes directly within my own. I wanted to know whether or not he would respond to the imagery I had offered. I caught another blush, and moved to close the distance between the two of us once more.

  "Ha ha... okay, well you look like you're doing all right now."

  His stance shifted, and he looked to the side. The embarrassment only lasted for a moment, but the seed had been planted. He would have little choice at this point but to move forward with me in a context which had already included sexual conceptualization. He regained his footing and met my eyes as I moved closer.

  If I could get close enough for contact, I could cast a touch based charm. He would retain enough autonomy to be useful, but every suggestion I had to offer would assume the position of primary directive in his mind. Naturally, to minimize damage to others in his life, he would still be able to function as usual.

  I had no use for mental slaves, but I did need this man's help if I was going to achieve the reason for my visit to the material plane.

  "I'm glad you're around, because I was beginning to wonder if I had actually gotten lost. The fall and all of the tangles from the briar patch are fucking with my head a bit. I don't seem to remember the way out of here."

  He nodded and held my eye contact. "Well, you're actually pretty far in, so I wouldn't doubt that you might be lost. You're actually way off the trail. I was here looking for something a bit off the beaten path. If I hadn't of shown up, I'm not sure that you would have seen another person today."

  This guy talks like a knight.

  I nodded and did my best to appear grateful, but he sensed something was off in my demeanor.

  "Here," he offered, "this might help."

  From his backpack, he produced a large metal canteen.

  I watched him carefully, and allowed myself the slightest hesitation before reaching out for the canteen.

  "Here," he insisted, holding the canteen outward in my direction.

  My hand reached out to grab ahold of the water, and I very carefully, and very intentionally placed the tips of my fingers along the backside of his hand. While I touched him, I looked him in the eyes and transmitted the mental energy necessary for the charm to work. My lips parted into an easy and gentle smile.

  "Thank you for your help."

  He blushed once more, and I felt the rush of magic course through my body.

  It was done. The suggestion was planted, and the contact was made.

  By all accounts, everything should have worked. Instead of staring at me in a post hypnotic haze, he only shrugged, and turned to the side. He even took a step backward and turned away for a bit; as though he wanted to give me a bit of privacy while I hydrated myself.

  The whole thing was confusing, and after a long draw from the canteen, I looked down to see that one of my breasts was hanging out of a tear in my shirt. There was no way to remedy the situation by simply placing the breast back into the shirt. Both my body and the hole in the shirt were too large for that level of adjustment to be possible.

  I looked over at him and watched as he intentionally diverted his gaze toward some nearby flowers. He had kneeled down toward the ground and brought out a camera so he could take a photo of a flowering vine that grew in bundles along the forest floor around us.

  "Tell me what you're looking at," I said, verifying that my spell had worked.

  "I'm sorry?"

  He turned around to look at me. His eyes went to my breast, and then up to my face once more.

  "I was thinking about something, what did you say?"

  *Failure.*

  I turned my shirt around my body so that my breasts were at least relatively contained. The scratches that were in the back of the shirt were at least salacious and revealing, but not entirely compromising the functionality of the shirt.

  I shook my head and offered a defeated smile.

  "I was just curious as to what you were looking at."

  "Oh, this..."

  The tips of his fingers gingerly brushed against a tri-color, trumpet shaped flower.

  "Ipomoea Violacea. That's the formal name for it. It's one of the environmental factors I track in my research. I find that in all of the locations that I have visited over the last three years, some variety of this sort of plant has been present in the area, even if the actual subject I am looking for is nowhere to be found."

  "You're looking for a rare type of flower?"

  He smiled wearily.

  "Something like that."

  I offered the canteen back to him, and he accepted it with a continued smile.

  "I've been looking all over the area, but I think I’ll be calling it for the day."

  He looked up at the sky for a moment and then looked back down at me. He was working something out in his head, and then decided that it was important for him to share the thought pattern out loud.

  "I was about to head back. I think it's probably going to start raining soon. Do you want to head back toward the road with me? You can get back home from there, I'm sure."

  "Sure. That would be great."

  I looked at him once more and offered a nod of gratitude. Right about then, he looked down and noticed that I was not wearing any shoes.

  "Do you have a car?"

  The question lingered in the air for a moment, and I shook my head from side to side.

  "C'mon… I'll give you a ride back into town."

  Fortunately for me, he wasn't exactly the talkative type. I had him, and I was able to move forward in contact with him. For the moment, that had to be enough. I wasn't in any condition to talk about much at all. I was tired and it was difficult enough for me to move my body through the forest, let alone bother to keep up any sense of conversation.

  He seemed to sympathize with me in that regard, as he didn't mind the fact that I didn't have enough energy to share at that time. The entire time, I was walking, but I was also keeping an eye out for him. I wanted to know how he saw the world.

  I noticed that he wore jewelry. Occult bracelets and amulets of different sorts. There were bits of copper wire, and crystals of different shapes. I was certain that there were more that I wasn't immediately aware of. He was too interested, even on a superficial level, to not have deeper and more hidden protection charms.

  I wonder...

  The prep info that I read through before the portal experience came back to me in pieces, though I didn't have the attention span to focus on them.

  "Lots of jewelry."

  The statement was more along the lines of a thought that spilled out from my mouth. An absence of filters, but it was interpreted as a conversation starter.

  "Oh, lots of different purposes. I'm a bit of an enthusiast."

  "What are they for?"

  "Do you believe in lucky charms?"

  "Sure, I believe in a lot of things."

  "Well, that's it. They are basically lucky charms that help me by reminding me about certain ways that I want to live my life."

  "You have a lot of different ways that you want to live your life."

  "You seem pretty interested, but you're not wearing any jewelry yourself."

  He was switching the topic, but I felt like If I pushed harder, I might be able to pick up something useful about him from this topic.

  He was a powerfully built man, and the trinkets didn't seem like they went along with a warrior type persona. This man was a superstitious magician,
through and through. However, just because I could pin down his type didn't mean I had any hope of understanding him without inquiry.

  "They look like rocks to me," I said, wondering if I could bait him into revealing more.

  His response was benign.

  "That's what a lot of people see."

  "But you don't see them that way. To you, they hold more symbolic meaning."

  "I personally believe that lucky charms are just 'rocks' that have an emotional charge attached to them. That emotional charge can be anything, but the point is that it is there. Have you ever heard of a person who has jewelry as an heirloom?"

  I nodded.

  "Well, that jewelry is physically little more than metals, and rocks, crafted together in some sort of clever or stylistic fashion. When we accept the plane material explanation for it, we see nothing more than rocks and metal. However, as soon as we start talking about how it was created, and the intention of the person who created it, then the object begins to grow more pregnant with meaning. Now suppose that you have your entire life to know this person, who would be some sort of grandparent to you. Everything that grandparent has ever taught you, and all of the value that this person has provided for your life will be bound in emotion and memories.”

  I nodded, my attention coming out of my state of fatigue out of sheer curiosity for the extent of this man's knowledge.

  "Now, imagine that this grandmother gives you this ring. All of her memories may or may not still be attached to the object, so if you want to talk about generational significance, or artistic intention in creation, these might still cling to the object. But what is for sure is that all of the memories that you have associated with the grandmother will definitely be attached to the piece of metal."

  "So the ring is symbolic for the value of the grandmother."

  "Exactly, it is a talisman. A symbol for the psychic contents that you assigned to that person in your life."

  "So, those are like heirlooms?"

  I wanted to get the truth out of him, and sometimes, you have to pull a tail until the dog barks at you.