by JJ Jones
He rose up, seemingly on an unspoken cue and she brought the chalice to his lips. It wasn’t anything fancy, merely a dented ceramic covered cup that was common on camping trips. In fact, the cup looked like it was older than he was. After his first sip he was able to speak once again. “That’s a pretty strange cup for what you’re doing.”
Her smile was vivid and bright, mocha skin wrinkling at the corners of her grin. “It took me a lot of time to realize that the looks aren’t important, but rather the nature of the tool.” She gripped the instrument and appeared to concentrate. Her eyes were closed and her head was turned upwards, as if impeaching whatever powers that be to aid her in her project. Her wisdom flowed over the room, invading even the darkest corner with an infusion of light. He couldn’t tell if she was actually creating the light or it was just the way that his mind perceived the magic that was pouring off of her body in waves.
With the cup held up, around the level of her face she continued chanting for long minutes. Her breath was rhythmic and she seemed trapped in the moment. Every ounce of her being was focused on her work. As she began to lower the cup, he struggled to raise himself of the floor, propping his large form on his elbows. She brought the cup to his lips and stopped chanting. “Drink.” Her command was ominous and firm.
He didn’t resist, even after the nasty liquid coated his tongue. He fought his gag reflex and forced the foul liquid down. When he finished the last awful gulp he pushed the cup away from his mouth. “That was awful.”
“It’s supposed to heal you, not taste good. If you wanted something that tasted good, you came to the wrong witch.” Her eyes sparkled with the joke as she began to pack up the left over herbs and close her closet.
He forced himself into a sitting position. “I feel a lot better now.”
“That’s nice.” She walked out of the room with the cup in her hand. After a few minutes the sound of running water rushed through the house. She scrubbed the cup clean and took a moment to concentrate on it, focusing on removing residual magic that might hinder the next spell. As she placed the cup in the dishwasher she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She jumped, waving the cup at the unexpected intruder like a weapon.
“Wow, that’s the first time anyone has ever threatened me with a cup.” Gregor was laughing. “I’m sorry if I startled you.”
“You didn’t startle me; I’m used to being here alone .” She chuckled about the situation as she tried to turn away.
“So I can take that to mean that there isn’t a Mister Dominique.” The shifter’s eyes sparkled brightly.
“I don’t like being called Dominique.” She told him, her eyes shielded. She looked down, noticing how scuffed and damaged her shoes were.
He walked into the kitchen. “Your house is quite lovely. I love the fact that you are surrounded by plants.”
She looked up at him, her eyes bright. “Do you really like them? I have a greenhouse in the backyard.” Her excitement was bubbling to the surface.
He couldn’t help but smile at her. He approached her and brushed the hair out of her face. She looked at him, unable to respond to his closeness. He captured her gaze, his crystal blue eyes staring into her brown ones. For a moment the rest of the world disappeared. Then he leaned in, slowly, as if he was waiting for her to run away. She didn’t, instead she stayed in his eyes as his lips lowered to hers. When their lips finally touched, their eyes closed. They could hear the ocean as the blood rushed to their lips, forcing its way to the location of the contact. They could see stars form behind their eyelids as his hands started to run over her body. “Dom?” He whispered her name as he moved his lips to her neck.
“Uh-huh?”
He didn’t respond, taking her physical responses as the only answer he needed. Her hands steadied her body against the counter as his fingers snaked up her shirt, finding her breasts. He pinched and squeezed her nipple, enjoying the moaning that accompanied his motions. His other arm wrapped around her, his hand touching her buttocks, squeezing them and pulling her closer to his body. His desire was throbbing as he nestled himself between her thighs. She could feel his hardness pressing against her in her most intimate area.
Her hands started to move over his body, wrapping around his body and running up and down his back. One hand ran through his hair. The black strands were smooth as silk between her fingers. She loved the feeling of his hair, and brought her other hand up to touch his hair as well. She ran her fingers over his head, dipping her thumbs to touch his cheeks delicately. She moved his head up and brought his lips up to kiss her again. She was voracious, wanting the kissing to continue for eternity. His lips descended on hers and they overtook her, slipping his tongue into her mouth in an attempt to possess her. She was willing.
His hands dropped down to her legs, and quickly he lifted her by her thighs. He held her steady as he sat her on the edge of the sink. His arm snaked under her skirt, stopping on her hip. Her skin felt smooth in his hands, he needed her more than anything at that moment and there was plenty of evidence straining at his zipper. “I want you.” He mumbled into her lips.
All she could do was moan in response. “It’s been so long.” She pressed herself against him, her mocha skin contrasting against his pale skin of his arms as she ran her hands down them.
His kisses rained over her lips and neck, seeming to be everywhere at once. One moment his lips were grazing her shoulder blade, the next moment his kisses touched her ear. She loved every moment of it, giving into his advances. He touched her, one hand on her back, pushing her against him, and the other hand still up her skirt, touching her hip. The hand that had rested on her hip moved to the top of her thigh, hovering just above the center of her desire. He could feel the heat and moisture radiating from her and it did nothing other than spur him on. His hands grazed the lacy panties that she had on. They surprised him; from the practically bohemian nature of her dress he didn’t expect undergarments quite so delicate.
“What color are they?” He wondered out loud.
“What?” She gasped as his hand grazed her panty line between her thighs once again.
He tugged at the fabric. “I wonder what color these are.” When his finger slipped into them she moaned at the bare skin touch to her wet skin. She couldn’t respond immediately, instead focusing on the sensation. “I’ll have to see for myself.” He removed her hands from his body and allowed her to brace herself on the side of the sink, with one hand on the divider between the two sinks.
He lowered his body down to his knees, his height easily allowing his head to fit between her thighs. “I didn’t expect pink, they’re quite lovely.” He moved the skirt up to her waist and settled his mouth to kiss the pink lace. He nibbled on the fabric as she put her head back and gave in to his touch, allowing the tingling sensation in her skin to take over the moment. It didn’t take him long to shift the panties to the side, to finally reach the object of his lust at that moment. His tongue grazed her skin, sending shudders through her entire body. She leaned back, carefully bracing herself as he continued his careful ministrations. “Gregor?”
He pulled his face away for a minute. “What?”
“Should we be doing this?”
“I don’t know, all I know is how much I need you right now.” He buried his head between her thighs once again, licking and thrusting with tongue.
She gave up her inhibitions and enjoyed the moment. “I want you too.” She could barely get the words out, every sound struggled into the next, her concentration strained from the pleasure that he was giving her. “I want you inside me.”
His eyes sparkled as he rose to meet her face. Her fluids glittered on his face as he fumbled with his zipper. He freed his erection by pulling his pants down just past his hips and wiped his face on the back of his hand as he moved towards her, once again claiming her lips with his.
He paused before he thrust into her, teasing with his smoothness so close, yet so far away. She whimpered against him, as the outsid
e sound interrupted their moment. It took them a long minute to realize that a phone was ringing in the other room. It snapped them out of their moment and he stepped back, away from her. She groaned and hopped off of the counter to adjust her clothes.
He pulled his pants back up, trapping his manhood once again and stepped out of the room. She had just fixed her bra and pulled her shirt down when he walked back in, the phone held to his ear. He was talking to someone and his face was serious, a complete change from the expression that he had just a minute earlier when they were lost in each other’s arms.
“I’ll call you when we leave. It shouldn’t be too long.” He hung up the phone and looked at her. He touched her arm. “Are you alright? Do you need anything?”
“No, nothing, I don’t know what came over me.”
He looked concerned. “I don’t know what happened either, but we have to get moving. They finally got the wolves and coyotes willing to talk. We have to get to the meeting sight as soon as possible. Should I have someone come and get me?” The question wasn’t entirely without merit, but she didn’t want him to know how embarrassed she was by her shameless behavior.
“No, I can take you. Let me get ready.”
“Hurry, I told them that I would call as soon as we left. They seem to be a little suspicious about how long it took us to get to the phone, and I think the fact that I was answering your phone made it a little worse.”
They gathered everything in silence. Carefully making sure that wallets and keys were all accounted for, they walked out into the sunlight. “How long did that spell take? It looks like early morning.”
“It is, you were in and out of consciousness all night.” She explained. “We have to get you to headquarters.”
He called to tell them that they were on their way. “Is there anything else you could tell me?” Gregor hung up his phone and looked at his lovely guide. He found himself having to fight back his lust once again and quickly looked out of the window on his side.
“I don’t know a whole lot about this. All that I know is that with the current issues with the human society has spilled over into the supernatural world. Everything is becoming more and more dangerous. The spirit that you ran into is a prime example.” Her words were tense, coming from a place inside her that was very afraid of the consequences of the growing conflicts that were occurring around her. “You’ll have to meet with them to be sure.”
Chapter6
They entered headquarters from the basement of the parking garage. He had been there before, but he still found their ingenious entrance from the back of a small closet fascinating. The door seemed to sense people who were meant to be there and after they walked in, it was a simple matter of turning around and opening the door they had entered the closet from. On the other side of the door was a vast room that looked scarily like a office building stuffed full of cubicles. The major difference between this room and the standard office buildings was the stark sterile white of everything except the people inside.
They made their way into a large conference room at the other end of the large office space. He looked around the room and saw three additional people. The dark haired woman at the foot of the large table was Anna, both Dom and Gregor already knew her, even though they had never seen her personally. When the regional leader of the organization laid eyes upon the shifter and his guide her eyes narrowed. It was obvious that she saw what was going on between them.
The other two guests at the table were obviously shifters from the way they were snarling at each other over the table. Dom couldn’t tell which one was sitting on which side of the table, but she was sure that Gregor’s quick senses had already identified each party. He straightened his posture and deepened his voice. He walked to the head of the table and looked from one side to the other, carefully sizing up both parties. “What’s going on here?”
His question spurred an entire rambling monologue by both of the shifters; neither party was understandable through the din of growls and yelling voices. “Calm down, can one side speak at a time please?” He asked them and the yelling ceased. There was still an undercurrent of tension filling the room. Dom went to leave, but Anna motioned for her to sit. It was obvious that any interruption could ruin these talks, so Dom sat down next to Anna and watched Gregor work.
He introduced himself, staying calm in the midst of all of the agitation from the warring parties. “Which one of you would like to go first?” When both parties showed insistence at going first, Gregor rephrased the question. “Would anyone like to make the first step towards peace by allowing the other party to present their case first? It would be clear to everyone that you want peace.” His words were calm and obviously well rehearsed, but the amount of times he may have said them did not take away from the meaning of the words.
“I’ll let the coyote go first.”
“No, no, the wolf should go first.” The coyote representative insisted.
“If it’s acceptable, I’ll pick who goes first. I’ll use a neutral method.” He reached into his pocket, a large smile forming on his face. “Heads or Tails?”
The coyote leader won the toss and began to lay a list of grievances into the room. “The wolves have constantly taken more and more territory from us. They have taken our women and destroyed our houses since the bullets started flying across the border. We’re tired of being treated like we’re less important than the wolves just because our blood is considered dirty.”
The wolf representative cut him off. “You do have dirty blood. We’ve a set way of working, and you coyotes are at the bottom, just like all scavengers are.” He was obviously very offended by the impudence of the other party at the table. His hands gripped the edge of the table, knuckles turning white with the strength his hands held.
The coyote was equally upset, however for a different reason. “We’re scavengers, so what. We play an important part in our world and we want to be respected for it.”
Gregor had sat in silence, watching the argument reach this point. He turned to the wolves. “Who has been the aggressor about the territory?” He held his had up as the coyote tried to respond, signaling silence.
“That land was ours anyway. We let the coyotes live there, but it was always ours.” The wolf deflected the question.
“So you were the aggressors?” Gregor spoke calmly, specifically not laying blame on either side of the table. “What made you suddenly want your land back?” He asked, after making his observation. It was a simple question, but one that the wolves obviously couldn’t answer immediately.
After taking a moment to realign his argument the alpha wolf started to explain. “They were trying to claim the land as their own, instead of just living there like we let them.”
“What use do you have to the land? Its useless desert and you know it.” The coyote representative started to yell, jumping out of his chair, making the seat fly backward and shatter against the wall.
That was all it took for the tenuous peace to end. When the chair leg flew across the table and almost hit the wolf they broke into aggressive stances. The growling over took the talking and the beasts began to change form. Hair grew all over their bodies as their clothes ripped to pieces. Muscles rippled and grew. Dominique was surprised at how well the movies had always portrayed the changes a shifter’s body goes through in order to take on its primary combat form. By the end of the changes both of the men were hulking man-beasts. The wolf was significantly larger than his coyote cousin, but no less angry. They growled and snapped at each other over the table, trying to establish dominance. Dom jumped back, trying to stay out of the line of fire. Anna jumped forward, shielding the young witch with her body. Gregor stepped forward as well, pushing the table out of the way, forcing the table out from between them and forcing himself between them.
His body began the same process as the other two beasts, but instead of his fur being a solid color like the wolf, which was a grayish color or the coyote colored blonde, he grew feline feat
ures that were covered in white and black striped fur. Dom gasped, she knew that the man she had been with for the past day had been a tiger, but had no idea he was one of the rare white ones. It explained everything: white tiger shifters are renowned for their noble heritage and the fact that their presence can often resolve disputes without words. They, creatures with a genetic abnormality changing their pigmentation, were supposedly related to the famous tiger that had stopped the shifter wars almost three hundred years before. As a result, they were respected and able to mediate disputes that others wouldn’t be able to. That was why they called him down here.
The warring tribe leaders backed down at the sight of Gregor’s combat form, unable to bring themselves to attack the noble shifter. He stood between them, desperately trying to calm a situation that shoddy workmanship and defective materials had caused. Anna pushed Dom back. “Go, get out of here!” Her order was clear. Dom burst into action, scrambling for the door. The coyote was closest to the door at this point saw the movement and rushed toward the witch.
The truth was that there was no way that Dom was going to outrun the beast, he was stronger and faster and infinitely more instinctual. The man-beast hybrid jumped on her, grabbing her with one hand wrapped around her waist and lifting her like a rag doll. “Let me go!” She screamed.
Gregor attempted to grab her, save her, but Anna got to Dom first. The wolf had taken advantage of everyone’s distraction in order to leap at the coyote. He ripped at the creatures flesh, causing him to drop the witch and focus on his attacker. Gregor swept Dom up into his fur-covered arms and sniffed her for severe injury. When he found none, she swore she could hear him purr for a moment and he stepped forward to try to stop the fight, but it didn’t look like it was going to work. Anna jumped forward once again and ripped one of the shifters off of the other one. Dom couldn’t tell the difference between them anymore, now that the combatants had already taken large pieces of flesh out of each other and they were covered in blood.