Perfect Strangers

by Jan Stryvant

  Looking around, Sean blinked, "How'd we get over here so ..." he stopped, "Oh yeah, you're driving."

  Roxy laughed, "She is fast, isn't she?"

  "Considering I usually took the bus, it's going to take some getting used to," Sean agreed.

  "So, what are you looking at, that Camaro?" Roxy asked.

  "Oh hell no, those things are slow," Daelyn said and pulling into the parking lot she stopped the car and Sean almost laughed as the salesmen just stopped and gawked at Daelyn as she got out. She was wearing a dress again, a rather short one with a nice plunging neckline, as well as those three-inch spike heels.

  "Um, may I help you?" the first salesman asked, as Sean climbed out of the back behind Roxy and they circled around the car to join Daelyn.

  "Yeah," Daelyn said, "what's the story on that Ram van? Get the keys; I wanna take a look at it."

  "Uh, sure," he said tearing his eyes away from Daelyn's chest, "I'll be right back."

  "Is that yours?" the other salesman asked Sean, only he was staring at the car instead of Daelyn or Roxy.

  "It's hers," Sean said and nodded towards Daelyn.

  "Hers?" He said and blinked.

  "She rebuilt it," Sean smiled proudly, "I wouldn't even know where to start."

  The guy blinked again, looked at Daelyn, then looked at the car, then looked back at Daelyn.

  "Would you marry me?" he said.

  "Sorry, she belongs to me," Sean laughed and put an arm around Daelyn who was staring at the salesman.

  "You'd marry me because I rebuilt a car?"

  "No, I'd marry you because you rebuilt a classic muscle car and you're hotter than my ex-wife," the guy laughed then, "why are the good ones always taken? Come on, I'll show you the van while we wait for Chris to find the keys."

  Sean just stood back and watched, along with Roxy, as Daelyn gave the van the once over, popping the engine cover off inside the van, and then starting it up. She revved it a couple of times, put the cover back on, then took it out onto the street and up and down the block a few times.

  After she was done, she pulled back in and parked it.

  "Okay," Daelyn said climbing down out of it. "Two grand."

  "What! I can't sell it that cheap!"

  Daelyn rolled her eyes, "Look, if you know enough to appreciate what I did for the 'Cuda, you know that third gear is almost shot, the reverse gear synchro is going, and that the seventh cylinder's got a burnt exhaust valve. Twenty-five, cash, or I'll come back in a month and offer you fifteen for it."

  The guy just sighed and looked at Sean, "She always this rough?"

  Sean laughed, "I know better than to argue with her when it comes to cars," and reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his bankroll, rather happy that they'd hit the bank up on Thursday. "So, deal?"

  "Yeah, deal. Let's go inside and do the paperwork."

  Sean nodded and followed the guy inside with Daelyn, while Roxy stayed outside to keep an eye on things. Twenty minutes later, Daelyn had a temporary registration and a bill of sale.

  "Hon," Daelyn said in a rather sweet and seductive voice all of the sudden.

  Sean sighed and looked down at her. "How much?"

  Daelyn grinned, "How much ya' got?"

  Sean pulled out his bankroll; he'd started off with ten.

  "Oh! That'll do!" Daelyn laughed and grabbed it, then pulling him down she kissed him. "I gotta pick up a few things; I'll meet you guys back home in a few, okay?"

  "Huh?"

  "Hey, Rox! Catch!" Daelyn said and tossed Roxy the keys to the 'Cuda. "Scratch it and I'll scratch you!"

  Shaking his head he watched as Daelyn almost danced over to the van and climbing up inside it, started it up, and then barreled out of the parking lot at full throttle.

  "She's going to Summit Racing, isn't she?" the salesman sighed.

  "Are they open Sundays?" Sean asked, going around to the other side of the car as Roxy got into the driver's seat.

  "Yup."

  "Then I suspect that's the case," Sean got in and closed the door as Roxy started the car. "Can you drive stick?" He asked her.

  Roxy laughed and putting the car in gear took off out of the parking lot leaving a fair bit of rubber along the way. "Sheriff's kid, I can drive anything!"

  "You wreck it, and Daelyn will kill you."

  "Pfft, I'm a cheetah, fast things and me get along. Besides, I went through the same driver's school the cops do. Don't worry, I can drive!"

  Sean just sighed and did his best to refrain from holding on to the seat with a death grip.

  Daelyn didn't make it back down into the bunker until three hours later.

  "Do you have any of my money left?" Sean sighed, looking up from his father's book that he'd been reviewing heavily since he'd gotten back. There were a lot of very interesting and unique spells in it, and he'd identified three he needed to start with. He just had to pick which of the three to do first.

  "I stopped for some groceries and something to drink," Daelyn blushed, "so err, just a couple hundred."

  "What'd you get to drink?" Jolene asked.

  "Oh, a couple kegs of beer. Nothing fancy."

  "Dwarves," Roxy sighed, "gotta love 'em! You pick up a tap too?"

  "Of course! What, do you think I'm stupid? Help me get them down here; the fridge is big enough to hold both of them."

  Sean just sighed and went back to studying his father's book.

  "Did you pick something up other than beer?" Jolene asked as Roxy and Daelyn headed back up the stairs.

  "What else is there?"

  "Wine!" Jolene called and then sighed.

  "Don't look at me, I drink water most of the time," Sean said without looking up. "We couldn't afford soda."

  "Well, hopefully it's good beer."

  "She's a dwarf; of course it's good beer."

  Sean went back to the book as the girls wrestled the kegs down the stairs, though to be honest; it wasn't much of a wrestle. Roxy had shifted and was simple holding it over her head, while Daelyn was holding the other one against her chest with her arms wrapped around it, reminding Sean that dwarves, even the women, were pretty damn strong.

  Ten minutes later, Daelyn came out of the bedroom wearing her coveralls with a tool case in either hand.

  "I'll be upstairs working on the van, if anyone needs me!" Daelyn said rather cheerfully and headed up the stairs.

  "Well we won't be seeing her again for a while," Roxy sighed and plopped down next to Sean. "What are you up to?"

  "Looking over the spells in my father's book and trying to decide the best place to start."

  "Looks complicated."

  Sean nodded, "My father was obviously a genius. The things he's got in here are just amazing. I found the spell to enchant the tags, and it definitely is a protection from silver device, but it's not just a spell, it's an incredibly involved system. It'll take me months just to learn everything involved in it, before I can even begin to try and learn the process for making one."

  "What about your tarball spell?"

  Sean shook his head, "It's got a pretty involved encryption algorithm running over the top of everything. I can't run the tarball spell against it, until I've figured out how to crack that."

  "Isn't that in the book?"

  Sean nodded, "First section of the book, teaches how it works, how to cast it, how to get past it, all of that."

  "Well, I guess that's where you should start," Roxy smiled.

  "Yeah, but what's the key?"

  "Key?"

  "Every encryption programs need a key," Sean told her.

  "Well, I'd say to learn the program, err, learn the spell, and find out what kind of key it uses. I'm sure whatever it is, your father probably left you a hint someplace."

  Sean nodded, "I guess you're right. Did Daelyn pick up any food while she was out?"

  "Yup! Well, you go study while Jo and I go deal with other things," Roxy winked and suddenly Jolene didn't look so bored anymore.

  "Let me k
now when you've made dinner," Sean chuckled. "Until then, go have fun."

  Sean watched as his women sauntered off to the bedroom. Roxy and Jolene had been lovers before he'd come along. As Sean understood things, it was more a matter of Jolene wanting power and Roxy wanting a good time, at first. Apparently they'd gotten fairly close over the last couple of years, which was why when Roxy and Sean had gotten in trouble; Jolene had been the first person Roxy called.

  And of course it hadn't taken Sean long to realize that he wanted Jolene himself, and not much longer for Jolene to realize that she wanted Sean as well. Though Sean often suspected that his already having Roxy as his woman had sweetened that deal for Jolene.

  It was nice to see that they still had feelings for each other, and he wondered just how long it would take Jolene to seduce Daelyn. Jolene was a tantric witch after all, and honestly, it just wasn't about the sex with her, she was an incredibly loving woman and if you actually loved her back it triggered some very deep responses inside her. Sean had a suspicion that there might be something in Jolene's past that had led to that behavior, but right now he had his own problems to deal with.

  Digging back into the book, Sean had to agree with Roxy. He needed to learn the encryption spell. Then he needed to learn its key so he could get through the encryption to archive the entire device. It would most likely be a year before he could even start to construct one himself, and then he'd only be able to put out one a year, if he used his father's methods.

  Using the tarball he could create one in a couple of minutes. However the power requirements would obviously be huge.

  Well, he'd tackle that problem when he came to it. There was that entire section on 'energy management,' hopefully he'd find an answer in there.

  Sean yawned and leaning back in the seat he closed the book and set it down. Looking around, there was no one in the room, and it was quiet. Looking down he saw the empty beer mug sitting on the seat besides him, and remembered now that Roxy had handed it to him, along with a plate of food....

  Sean didn't see the plate, but he vaguely remembered eating. He'd been so heavily wrapped up in the learning the spell that he'd really not been paying attention to anything else around him. He'd taken it apart and put it together in his head a dozen times, going over each aspect as he learned it. It was a thing of beauty and his father really had been paying attention to the things that went on in the real world, having taken the 'family' encryption method that his father had passed down to him, and updated it with techniques stolen from the lost keys method.

  Cracking the encryption on the tag would be so hard that it might as well be impossible. But Sean at least had an idea of what the key looked like, format wise, so when he found it, he'd hopefully know it.

  He tarballed the encryption spell, then used it on the book, locking it to himself with a keyphrase. No one would be able to read what was inside it now, other than him, going forward. The encryption spell alone was something he didn't want anyone getting their hands on, and the description of the functioning of the spell on the 'Silver Tag' as he now thought of it, was something he wasn't ready to share yet.

  The device was a protection from silver system alright, but the description at the front of the spell hinted at just how complicated it was.

  It started off as a shield spell that covered your body, and only your body. Even your clothing was outside of the effect of the spell, same for your hair or fur if it was long enough. The spell hovered literally on the surface of your skin, to conserve energy, as it was always armed and ready to go.

  The second silver hit it; the spell immediately went into action by splitting an alpha particle off of every silver atom, turning it into a rhodium atom. The energy from the release of the alpha particle was captured by the spell and used to power the spell's functions, of which there were several.

  Most of the power that was captured was used to corral the electrons freed when the alpha particle was split off, to pair those electrons back to the alpha particle and turn it into helium-four, a stable element, to cut down on radiation given off by the shield.

  But that wasn't the really brilliant part; for all that it was brilliant to start with. While only about ten percent of the power was left over from that function for the device to use, when you considered just how many silver atoms there were in a silver bullet, that power added up phenomenally fast. That power was used to harden the shield and increase its power. The processes of transmuting the silver slowed the silver coming through the shield down, as it generated a kinetic force due to simple physics. So as the power of the shield increased, that kinetic response also grew and started to repel any silver coming in contact with it, with greater and greater force, and eventually any metallic object! Until it reached a point where the shield would simply rebound any metal thrown against it in an inelastic manner, deforming or shattering the bullet.

  The next stage would be that the shield would begin to expand, slowly, until it was an inch away from the surface of the skin, so it could begin to radiate excess energy as heat, without hurting the person inside the shield, while recharging the magical energies of the lycan using the device, as it was assumed that the now transformed bullets, or other weapon, would have done the wearer some damage in the initial attack.

  That last statement lead Sean into calling up his own 'character sheet' and doing some extensive examinations of his own abilities. He was able to confirm what he'd been told earlier: that it wasn't just shifting that used a lycan's magical energy, but their regeneration abilities sucked it down as well. Which was why lycans had so much energy.

  And why he suspected now so few of them were magic users. As a magic user, if he cast too much of his power, he would not only be unable to shift, but he'd be unable to regenerate as well!

  Sean stopped and thought about that a moment, happy that he'd discovered that little pitfall here in his father's book, rather than out in a fight, where it might kill him. He also realized where that extra bit of energy he was having trouble accounting for was coming from when he ran his tarball spell. He was also doing a version of alpha decay on those items! He'd have to learn how to use his father's spell for canceling the radiation output, or he was liable to harm himself, or one of the girls!

  Going over to the refrigerator, he drew a fresh mug of beer and quickly drank it down. Checking his watch, he saw that it was after three in the morning.

  Getting another mug, he took a few drinks from it, and decided to go upstairs to their little garage and see what Daelyn had managed to do so far. After sitting on that concrete seat, for the last twelve hours, cushions or not, he definitely needed to stretch his legs.

  Going upstairs the Dodge Ram van looked like it had undergone some sort of explosion, however a fairly orderly one. There were parts laid out everywhere, and the old engine had apparently been replaced by a newer and much larger looking one. There were also what looked like suspension pieces and parts everywhere.

  Sean found Daelyn sound asleep, lying on a mechanic's creeper under the transmission that was also in a good many parts, none of which he could make head nor trails of.

  Rolling the creeper out, he first pulled off her gloves, then started to undo her coveralls.

  "Huh? What?" Daelyn said rather groggily as Sean leaned down and kissed her. Other than some grease and oil smears on her face and in her hair, she was actually fairly clean. Though her coveralls were a filthy mess.

  "Bed time," Sean whispered and with his right hand pulled the coveralls down past that nice little ass of hers while pulling her against him with his left.

  "I gotta work on the car," Daelyn yawned.

  "You were sleeping, there is a better place for that," Sean chuckled and standing up, he pressed her against the wall and kissed her again.

  "And that place is?" Daelyn gasped as he moved down her body, kissing her neck.

  "My bed of course," Sean purred and started in on that lovely chest of hers.

  Daelyn sighed as Sean made love
to her, with her pressed up against the wall. While the concrete may have been cold, his body was definitely very warm, and his hands and mouth were very talented as he worked his way down her body. She'd grown up around strong men, dwarves were all by their nature incredibly strong for their size, but she'd noticed that Sean really wasn't quite conscious of his. She might be small, but Daelyn was by no means light, considering the amount of muscle on her frame, and even dwarven bones were made of denser and heavier materials than human ones.

  Yet he still treated her like she weighted nothing at all to him.

  When he finally brought her to a rather satisfying completion, he moved up her body and having shucked his own pants, he entered her tight warmth and drove her to complete distraction a second time. Wrapping her legs around his hips and her arms around his neck, she saw the same look in his eyes that he often turned on Roxy and Jolene. She could see the lion lurking in the background, he may have only been transformed a few weeks ago, but Daelyn could see that Sean had taken well to his lion side. He didn't even question how he could take three women as his mates, or that he could love them all.

  He simply did it. Not unlike he was now doing her and the words of love and tenderness coming from his lips were obviously sincere. Dwarves had a gift for telling when someone's words were true, or when they were lies, it came from generations of bartering and dealing with the other races, some of which could be quite glib and deceiving. But Sean wasn't, not with her, not at all. Daelyn's uncle had been honest with her; when he told her Sean was the best deal she'd ever get in a husband.

  And her aunt had been equally right when she'd told her that lions were known for their passions and their commitment. That it would be strange at first, but she would love him in the end.

  To be honest, Daelyn suspected she was there already, when it came to the loving part. He definitely made her feel like no one before ever had, and that wasn't even taking the sex into account!

  They hit their peaks together, and Daelyn clung to Sean as he held her close, the two of them savoring the moment.