Only Human (48 page)

I walked him to the front porch, and his goodnight kiss made me wish I could take him upstairs and let him have his way with me again, no matter how sore I was from his ravishing the night before.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Monday morning I again made sure everything was shaved that should be shaved, and then got ready for work. James had texted me to go to the same cabin as last time. We didn’t go to this one very often, so I thought it a bit odd. The only things this one had going for it were the hot tub in the master suite, and the fact it was so far away from civilization we could do things outside without worry of anyone hearing or seeing.

As it turned out, after inspecting me for damage, he spent the day working on my ability to take things anally. James is good at mixing enough pleasure with the pain to make it good, but anal stuff is hard for me so it was a difficult session and I was crying when he finally untied me and held me.

“I’m sorry,” I said into his chest, knowing I’d been a huge baby.

“Sshh, it’s okay, go ahead and get in the tub. We’ll talk about it.”

He’d run the water earlier, and my hair was already up in a ponytail, so I lowered myself into the water without delay.

Master James brought a kitchen chair into the bathroom, and sat in it with his bare feet on the side of the tub. He wore jeans and a t-shirt today, but he usually kept his shoes on.

“You’re wondering why I’m doing this to your back entrance — causing you pain when I’ve worked so hard to teach you pleasure there?”

“Yes, Master James, I am.”

“You’ve told me how large your new man is, and said you felt as if you’d been fisted by a woman—” He raised a hand to keep me from correcting him. “I know you said he isn’t
actually
that big, it’s just the way he felt, but I’ve been preparing your ass for the eventuality that someday someone would require anal sex of you. However, I prepared you for a normal sized cock, not someone as large as your new man. I want your first experience to be pleasurable, so we’re going to work to prepare you for him.” He reached for the vanity and pulled one of the dildos from the sink — the last one he’d used on me. “Put this into your hand and see how it compares.”

“It’s about as big around as he is, though it’s longer than him, Sir.

“You’ve learned to accept and wear the plugs, but you’re only spread wide for the largest part for a few seconds, and then you only have the smaller part holding you open. I intend to work with you until you can handle the width of a dildo that holds you open as wide as your man will.”

I looked down as I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them in the water. “I understand, Master James.”

He leaned forward and caressed my cheek, “I am not disappointed in you, Dear One. I was hard on you and you handled it well. We’ll work on this together. It’ll be okay. Lean back and relax for a little bit, and let the water heal you.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Wednesday night was Halloween. I’d notified my late Wednesday patients months ago that we’d be closing the office at four today so I could spend time with my family.

We had an early dinner, and I followed Lauren to my parents’ house for pictures before I turned her loose to drive herself to the party. Watching her drive off in her dress fit for a queen was damned hard. Parenting isn’t for the faint of heart.

I went home, donned my salt-encrusted clothes and hiking boots, and headed to Drake Security, as the plan was to meet there and ride to the battlefield in Drake vehicles.

Aaron might’ve allowed me to participate, but he’d assigned me to a far corner not likely to see activity. As far as I knew, there’d never been demon activity near the Alexander’s Bridge section of the park.

My babysitters for the night were Randall, Cora and two of Abbott’s vampires, Kieran and Ronald. I wondered how much political wrangling had been involved in my having these particular bodyguards, and decided to ask Aaron about it later. If he’d assigned me Randall, and Abbott had insisted some of his people be with me as well, I wanted to know.

I also realized every supernatural who’d be sensing for activity tonight had several people as backup, and I hadn’t actually been assigned babysitters.

We were dropped off so there was no car to give away our position, and we went far enough into the woods to not be seen from the road.

It was a chilly night, but I’d dressed appropriately and would be okay. There was still enough of a moon we could see, though barely. I knew everyone but me had excellent night vision, so I kept my flashlight in my pocket. They’d see, hear, and smell anything long before it arrived. Sure, I’d have felt better with a little light, but we were keeping a low profile. Plus, I didn’t need to remind them of my human weaknesses.

Randall opened a chair facing due north, and used an actual compass to situate it before pointing for me to take a seat. Aaron had handed the compasses out when he’d given directions. The long-lived appreciated technology, they just didn’t trust it to tell them where north was, apparently.

When those of us sensing felt something, we were to give the clock position to Control, and if multiple people were reporting then Control could triangulate and send people. If only one or two people sensed it, they’d still send people in the general direction, but zeroing in on the specific location might be harder.

So I sat in the woods with my imaginary membrane stretched a few inches out from my shields, and waited to feel if someone was “disturbing the force.” As hokey as it sounded, we’d done it the other night and it’d worked.

It felt a little silly now, though, while sitting in the woods.

If we needed to get somewhere fast I was supposed to ride on Kieran’s back, as there was no way I could keep up with vampires and werewolves. We had instructions to stay together as a group, and I had no idea if the vampires or the wolves would be faster, but figured it was best not to ask.

A little before eleven, Nathan felt activity. Surprisingly, it wasn’t around Snodgrass Hill, but about four hundred yards east/southeast of the tower, hidden in the woods.

Those close were directed to the area, while we were told to move northwest about a mile and a half and hold position, still a good ways from the activity.

I levitated up enough to wrap my arms and legs around Kieran so I could ride his back, and said, “Let’s go.”

The Control Room had sent coordinates to Randall’s GPS, and we made the trip in less than two minutes — on rough terrain, going through the woods at night, and following the GPS. I was happy with my human status but had to admit being supernatural had its perks.

I levitated down to standing, Randall aligned my chair with north, and we held position while I started sensing again, still getting nothing. After only a few minutes the GPS units had new coordinates. I levitated back up to Kieran’s back and we were on the move again as Control spoke into our earpieces to let us know another group had three human men inside a circle of blood, with a black cat ready to sacrifice.

We weren’t terribly close when I felt something off to my right and said, “Stop.”

My group did so immediately, and I levitated back to the ground a few feet away from the others, to be sure what I was feeling.

I pushed the button so Control could hear me, too, and said, “I feel something off to the right. Not just something. It’s big. Huge… and…
dark
. Bad intentions.” I had goose bumps and I rubbed my arms, though it didn’t help.

“How far?” Randall asked.

“I have no way to gauge. If it’s far away though, the power they’re putting out has to be massive, so I kind of hope it’s close.”

“Head towards it,” the voice in my ear instructed. “No one else is sensing this one, but I have two teams headed your way. Find the activity, but do
not
engage.”

We turned right and walked at my pace, this time.

With every step closer the dread grew in my heart. Cora touched my arm at one point, and I held her hand as we walked. It helped, but what I felt in front of us could only be described as
evil
.

When the supernaturals could apparently hear or sense whoever we were headed towards, Randall motioned for me to ride Cora as he told me telepathically,
she can walk through the underbrush quieter than you.

I heard Aaron in my earpiece, issuing orders for more teams to head our way, but everything fell away when we topped a hill and I saw seven people, one of whom appeared to be stretched out like a human sacrifice. She was alive, but her skin was carved up over her forehead and chest. She was naked and had what appeared to be a huge piece of cloth in her mouth, and she was crying and hopelessly trying to scream.

I knew the vampires could transmit silently to Abbott, and I looked at Kieran who nodded to me to let me know he’d reported in.

Meanwhile, I broadcast to both Cora and Randall.

She’s supposed to be a human sacrifice. We have to stop them.

Randall answered,
not until backup arrives.

I levitated away from Cora’s back and pulled in more energy than I’ve ever done on my own. I pulled in so much it hurt, and kept drawing it in as I blasted my red laser towards them.

Unfortunately, they were in a circle my laser couldn’t penetrate. I didn’t know a circle could keep me out, but this was the second time I’d run into a situation that could defeat my laser, so I shut it down quickly to be sure they didn’t begin to drain me as Xaephan had.

The men performing the ritual looked up, saw us, and looked at each other.

I could clearly see their intention was to move faster with their ritual — not to fight us or try to flee, but to finish before we could reach them.

Apparently, they were pretty sure their circle could keep us out.

I didn’t know if it could or not. I refocused my eyes, as if I were viewing someone’s aura, and could clearly see the dome around them.

Randall spoke into the mic, so I heard him in real life, and a split second later electronically. “Kirsten engaged with the target and her laser was unsuccessful. What’s our ETA for backup?”

“Twenty seconds,” came into my ear, and I lifted my hand and created my sword of light, concentrating on putting all of the colors into it so it would be as white as possible. I ran forward, jabbed it into the circle, and froze in shock when it worked.

The man I was closest to realized the instant it went down, and we were only a few feet away from each other. He turned and I saw blood on his face, forming a grotesque mask, and I realized it was the blood of the virgin they had tied on the ground.

His arms reached towards me and I was a split second too late blocking, so he grabbed my arms, holding them to my body. Instead of resorting to martial arts, I focused my power and concentrated on putting as much heat and energy into his head, as fast as I could, when someone charged us and knocked him away from me.

I’m not a hundred percent sure of the play-by-play after that. Other groups began arriving and it soon became clear the people we were fighting weren’t human. Not only that, but my exploding brain thing wasn’t working on them, because they figured out what I was doing and somehow dissipated the energy as fast as I could put it in. I couldn’t create my quarterstaff of light, or even a knife, because there was too much of a chance I’d hurt one of our guys.

With nothing to offer and no way to help fight, I levitated straight up to get out of the way.

As most of the fighting moved away from the woman tied on the ground, I made my way down, created a knife to quickly cut her free, dissipated the knife, and then struggled to levitate us both back up into the air and away from the fighting. I found a nice strong tree branch about forty feet up, and we sat and watched. She was nearly catatonic at first, frozen with terror, so I put my arms around her to be sure she didn’t fall.

It looked like all of the wolves shifted, and Nathan and a few of his people shifted as well. Within perhaps five minutes four of the bad guys were dead, and the other two badly injured and restrained with silver twine.

As the battle went on below us, the girl’s breathing became more and more ragged and she started to move and jerk. By the time it was over she was in major panic mode, so I levitated her to Abbott. He immediately saw the problem, looked into her eyes, and she chilled. I hoped they could wipe her memory later, so she wouldn’t remember any of this. She couldn’t be more than fifteen or sixteen.

“We need to leave the area,” Aaron barked. “Law enforcement will be here soon and I’d rather not complicate things with them.”

Somehow, I ended up on Randall’s back this time as we ran through the woods. Where Kieran had been cool like Abbott, Randall was hot, much warmer than my body temperature.

He also moved different, though I wasn’t sure how to explain it. Kieran ran like a superfast human, while Randall’s run was smoother, fluid.

I levitated off him as we neared the vehicles, thanking him as I looked for the girl. Someone needed to be sure she was taken care of.

Nathan had her, and assured me one of the vampires would wipe her memory of the night. “We’ll replace it with a less traumatic version, because we have to account for the cuts on her forehead and chest, but we’ll make her believe she fought back and escaped.”

I didn’t like it, but couldn’t come up with a better idea. Nathan’s face softened a little and he said, “I’m going to hand her off to one of my people. He was born human and is close to his sister’s kids. One of his nieces is the same age as this girl. He’ll take care of her.”

Satisfied, I nodded and turned to find Aaron, as I wanted to know what the men were, and what would happen to them.

Abbott found me and herded me towards his car, though. “I drove so we could leave together, my darling.”

I tried to stop, but he kept me moving. “I’m going back to Drake,” I insisted. “I need to get some answers.”