3. THE BANSHEE QUEEN

“It is my honor to introduce the Eighth Seat, Her Royal Highness, the Queen Aisling; Long may She reign.”

The elderly majordomo stepped aside, and a woman in a black suit walked into the room. She was fantastically pale, her eyes such a light blue that they were almost colorless. Her hair, by contrast, was perfectly black, absorbing all the light that touched it as if she were a walking event horizon. She looked much younger than I had anticipated the leader to be – physically, she appeared to only be a few years older than I was. As she entered, I saw Cynthia and Sam stiffen and freeze.

I felt my stomach turn over, a sudden wave of fear crashing over the seawall that was my perception. My new senses rapidly detected it, a sour and displeasing affront to my nostrils. It was instantly overwhelmed by the surges outpouring from Sam. The terror rushing off her was imposing in magnitude, dominating the concoction of emotions I was detecting to such a degree that it became painful. The cold, calculating beast in my mind noted that, for the first time, I was tasting something from Cynthia. It was faint, barely noticeable behind Sam's agony, but the dread controlling her leaked through whatever obscured her from me.

I could sense some apprehension from Beth, but it was even less than what I felt from myself. She was nervous about meeting someone influential and making a good impression, not gripped with absolute magical horror like Sam and Cynthia were. She also had yet to notice the O'Briens' condition, her green eyes tracking the new arrival, which likely explained some of her limited response.

I started to feel the icy grasp of pure terror spreading from my gut, threatening to spread like a cancer and dominate all of my faculties. Her presence was almost overwhelming. Almost.

I felt the voice in the back of my mind growl, and the fear I had felt was suddenly gone. He was insulted that we had been forced to endure this mistreatment and further insulted at the ease with which he could brush it aside. If we were to be tested, he desired a challenge, not a trivial formality for tormenting little girls. With my senses returned, I stood and bowed slightly while speaking, “Your majesty, it is a great honor to be invited to meet with you.” Beth had stood when I did, but Cynthia and Sam remained rooted in their seats, cemented in terror. They didn’t even seem capable of noticing that anything had changed in the room.

Aisling responded as she glided across the room, moving in an effortlessly refined manner. “Save your honorifics for when you have enough knowledge for them to carry meaning.” Her voice was calm and measured; She wasn’t trying to insult me with her statement, just cutting past the formalities. I waited for her to take her seat before sitting myself.

At her seat, several papers were waiting for her. She began to glance at them, skimming their contents. I put my hand on Cynthia’s leg and rubbed it softly. I needed her guidance and support, but she was completely frozen, locked up in fear, and unable to assist me. It made me wonder why Beth hadn’t been – after all, she was in the alley where we met. It would’ve been much more understandable for the unrefined teenager to be affected here, especially when the two witches had been incapacitated. After a handful of seconds, I felt Cynthia’s hand shift to rest on top of mine. I kept massaging the front of her thigh for the time being. I could see how much of a struggle it had been to move her hand to mine, but when they connected, I found her fear fade from my senses.

Aisling set the papers down and stared at me intently, her hueless eyes boring into me mercilessly. “Cynthia thinks that you are a dragon. Cynthia has an impeccable record with correctly identifying those undergoing transitions.”

She paused, and her intense gaze fell on Beth. “You are a human. That is what the report says. But you aren’t afraid of me, and I can’t find you underneath the shielding layers of enchantment. Enchantment with no paperwork or history.”

Beth answered timidly, “I find you quite intimidating, your highness. I am quite afraid and not used to places like this. Cynthia said something similar about me being unsensable. James did something, I think, but neither of us knows what.”

Aisling tutted back like she was dealing with a child who was out of place. “You aren’t afraid like you should be. Look at Cynthia’s daughter.” We looked at Sam, and I was pained by what I saw. Sam had her head down, her eyes clenched shut, and her hand gripped the fork she had been eating from with as much force as she could muster. All the color had drained from her face, matching her white-knuckled fingers. She was thoroughly gripped by horror.

Aisling continued, “You are afraid, but you are not incapacitated with terror. I was told you were protected with unrecorded enchantments, and I wanted to investigate this assertion myself. I have some answers now, and it would be cruel to continue torturing my servants.”

I watched Aisling, and she visibly softened. Her eyes sparkled blue, her hair began reflecting light, and I could see her cheeks touched with the slightest blush. She no longer appeared as a character on a backdrop. Now she resembled a mortal, capable of interacting with the environment around her. Cynthia’s hand gripped mine entirely, and she lightly squeezed it. I went to withdraw it from her leg, but she pinned it where it was. The tangy fear retreated somewhat, no longer smothering and oppressive. Evidently, Aisling intentionally forced the girls to feel that way to see what would happen, and she had relented now that she had her conclusions.

Sam opened her eyes and dropped the fork back on the table. She spent a few moments breathing violently and then whispered, “Holy fuck" to herself before looking up and seeing all of us looking at her. She blushed and squeaked out, “Your highness! I’m terribly sorry; I forgot myself.”

Aisling nodded proudly, “I believe that is quite an accurate description. It is no offense to me – that is the reaction humans should have when I want them to. Please, enjoy the dinner for the time being.”

When she said that, the younger man came in and provided what must be the main course for the meal. As we ate, Aisling looked through the remaining papers, rummaging through the pile seemingly indiscriminately. Ten minutes passed with only the sounds of us nervously eating the opulent fare and Aisling manipulating her documents. When we consumed this course, Aisling appeared ready to begin discussions earnestly.

“Cynthia, you believe this man to be a dragon. You have only been mistaken in the past under incredibly trying circumstances and when someone was trying to mislead you. I trust your opinion and am not trying to toy with you or undermine your conclusion. This is simply too monumental an event to not discuss in its entirety. Please give me your reasonings when you are ready.”

Cynthia took a moment to collect herself, trying to rationalize that the Queen was familiar with her work, and then spoke. Her voice wavered on her first words, but she promptly found her footing and laid out her formulaic approach to eliminating every other conceivable scenario. She discussed, at length, my answers to the situations she had established to test me and how they confirmed her suspicions and procedurally reduced the potential pool to two. She concluded her description by describing the scale of force she had experienced on our road trip, another data point functionally confirming her conjecture.

“The confirmation for me was when you asked me to get him to push; To get his being to expose itself utterly and reveal itself. I had warded myself according to the established protocols, using specific, personalized protections that named him directly, and was wholly overwhelmed anyway. He brushed them aside like dusty cobwebs and filled my entire being with his magnificent presence. I don’t know what else would be able to do that completely untrained, twelve hours after awakening and twelve hours after emptying itself of mana to layer archaic protections over Beth.

“The only thing we haven’t technically eliminated was a demonic incursion and possession pretending to be a dragon awakening.” Cynthia paused, and guilt came off her, the second taste of emotion surprising me. Aisling hardened as the words left the senior redhead’s mouth, her hair darkening and the hint of warmth being icily sucked out of the room.

Cynthia shivered but forced herself to continue, “I know that there hasn’t been a reported crossing in my lifetime, but the circumstances around James are strange enough that I considered it. We don’t have any official guidelines for that evaluation —”

“For good reasons,” Aisling interjected. “There hasn’t been a demon sighting in hundreds of years because we forced them to leave our plane alone. They may as well not exist.”

Cynthia swallowed, “I referenced his behavior against some historical accounts of first contacts. I haven’t proved that James definitely isn’t a demon, but I also have no further suspicion of it. All of the documents suggest that possessions attempt to remain hidden as long as possible while they acclimate. He awakened, broadcast his spark freely, and enchanted Beth within an hour with shielding charms. What demon would try to imitate a dragon of all beings – and one awakening in a completely unprecedented manner? What demon would use its own energy to create an aegis over an insignificant human girl without an obvious self-serving interest? It doesn’t align with any of their documented behaviors.”

Aisling softened somewhat, finding a middle ground between the terrifying visage she could wear and the almost human she had seemed just a minute ago. “Good. I am ordering you to leave that suspicion out of your official report. We do not want those kinds of rumors to spread.”

Cynthia bowed her head in acknowledgment, and then continued, “There is another complication I need to bring to your attention, my Queen.”

Aisling nodded, indicating for Cynthia to continue. Cynthia fiddled with her handbag a moment and produced the tablet she had utilized in the diner. She fussed with it for a moment, and I could see her scrolling through the video of me responding to her questions. She found the moment she was looking for and passed the tablet to Aisling.

Without further discussion, Aisling started the video from the point that Cynthia had selected. It was the final hypothetical situation Cynthia had posed to me. Aisling watched, and the rest of us listened as past Cynthia established the scene. Aisling was then enraptured by the recording as I struggled against the answer everyone seemed to expect I would give freely.

Past me gave the shocking answer. The video ended, and Aisling softened further. I heard Sam take a profoundly deep breath. Cynthia spoke first, “As you saw, even connected to his dragon soul, he was able to oversee his own choices. This eliminated any trepidations I had about a possession – a demon would’ve given the expected answer hastily to conform to our expectations. Unfortunately, I was unsure about how to proceed, your grace. I didn’t want to share this information except with you personally once I had confirmed a meeting with you.”

Aisling nodded and mused in her thoughts for a moment before saying, “That was a prudent decision. Keeping information about James discreet would be ideal.” She paused for a moment and sipped the champagne poured during dinner. It was the first time she had touched any of the offerings.

Aisling eventually continued, “James, you’ll have to remain here. In the city, for the foreseeable future. I need to understand exactly what you are and what you could be capable of. I will arrange for you to meet with a scholar I trust intimately.” She spoke with a conviction that offered no option for refusal, yet she paused and awaited a response.

I answered her cautiously, “I could be amenable to that, your highness.”

Having played my part in the conversation, Aisling continued, “I shall see you compensated for these inconveniences.” She slowly leafed through her documents with controlled and deliberate motions before selecting the ones she desired. She confirmed the information on them was what she wanted to see and then passed it to me with a pen and, confusingly, a small knife.

“This is a general agreement for your loyalty while you remain in my lands. Read it. Sign it. Your name in ink and your thumbprint in your blood on the lines.”

Another piece of paper was slid across the table.

“This is an agreement for a residence in a building I own on the north side of town. With Cynthia as your handler, it would be convenient if she stayed near you. She also has access to additional funding to accommodate your daily needs here. Tomorrow, I’ll have a legal advisor meet with you with the requisite agreements to solidify our relationship while you remain in this region. Afterward, I would encourage you to meet with the archivist here.”

Aisling paused again, waiting to see if anyone would interject with a question or comment. I felt she desired someone to ask something, so I asked the most obvious question that came to mind to interrupt the silence.

“Why do you believe it would be beneficial to meet with the archivist? I’m not sure that I follow the logic here.”

She smiled, and chills ran down my spine. I saw both Sam and Cynthia shiver, the elder O’Brien’s hand clenching mine desperately. I couldn’t tell if this meant that I had asked something incredibly foolish or if it was what Aisling had desired someone to ask. I also couldn’t tell if Cynthia was trying to encourage or discourage me or if it was simply a physical reaction to the banshee's magical pressure.

“Antonin is almost as old as I am, and he’s the only one in my court that I know with certainty has interacted with another dragon. You need training in many disciplines, as you are essentially a newborn with no parents or clan to care for you. He will be able to identify what you require immediately and who can provide services with the necessary discretion. Don’t misunderstand me, dragon; I am not running a charity here. The faster you can shed your naive, ignorant youth and grow into a mighty force, the faster you will become a productive and profitable member of our society.

“You will become a great boon, eventually. The amount of energy you can provide, should you find yourself engaging in commerce here, can provide wealth for all of our residents. Other leaders, be they political, economic, or industrial, could become jealous of this development. You are a wonderful resource for me; Others may try to sway you to their causes. If you decline these invitations, they may decide it is in their best interests to remove you from my realm by removing you from every realm. So, I need to accelerate your transitionary period before others learn of you until you are powerful enough that everyone will respect you individually. The more I invest in this, the faster I see my returns.”

I hadn’t expected her to put it so bluntly. Cynthia had said that the consensus was that Aisling was politically devious and capable of scheming and controlling. I wondered what angle she could be pursuing by evidently playing me straight up. It wasn't obvious what duplicitous chicanery she was engaging in, which made me even more nervous than if the ruse had been perceptible.

She answered me when she continued, “Members of my community primarily solve their grievances by answering to their house leader. Humans have their Archwizard, Werebeings have their clan Alphas, Banshees have their Queen, and so on. You are the only dragon – so you both answer for and represent yourself in political matters as the head of the draconic house. It would be unbecoming of a house leader to be so unprepared for life here. It benefits me to have strong leaders, as weak leaders cause instability and insecurity among the populace. Decorum demands I treat you as a venerable house leader, even if you’re a puny whelp unfit for anything today. Tomorrow, you won’t be, and I won’t have you lauding a perceived slight over my head in a generation's time when we could simply engage amicably.”

Aisling had paused again, so I responded, “So, you need this Antonin to evaluate me and suggest other teachers for areas I’m deficient in. You’re investing your time and connections in me because eventually, I will increase the potential output of your entire region, increasing your power relative to other leaders, and will additionally directly owe you favors then. That seems reasonable to me.”

She smiled at me, an icy, chilled visage on her sharp features that didn’t reach her eyes. She looked like a predator toying with a completely outclassed prey, satisfied with her dominant position and hungry to continue towards her unquestionable victory. I wondered if this was an act or a genuine display of contentment.

She spoke, “It’s good that you can at least repeat my words back to me. I hope you enjoy the remainder of dinner – I must excuse myself to make the arrangements your unexpected arrival requires.”

With that said, Aisling stood and left the room. Sam sighed hard as soon as the door shut behind Aisling, and then she said, “Holy shit. I feel like I can finally breathe again.”

The door opened again, and the young man brought another course of the meal to the table. Sam jumped when the door opened and then laughed at her reaction when she realized who had come in. We spoke more while we ate.

I asked what I thought would be a light-hearted question, “So, why the extra table setting?”

Cynthia answered, “Aisling is the Queen. That is where her husband, the Queen's Consort, would reside. She hasn’t found him yet but would not dare dishonor him by not preparing his place at his table.”

Sam and I softly chuckled at the absurdity of the answer, but Beth swooned. “Oh, that’s just adorable. Touch crazy, but really romantic in its own way.” The beast in my head told me that romance was far from what was on Aisling’s mind – being tied to a single family’s lineage made Banshees incredibly stiff and perfunctory, in his opinion. Aisling followed a precedent that an ancestor had set ages ago simply because it had been established, not out of reverence to a prospective mate but out of duty.

The man came and retrieved our dishes, and I looked at the paper Aisling had left behind. It had an address and a pair of keys taped to it. Each key had a SIM card attached to them. I turned to Cynthia and said, “What would you say to checking out this place she seems to have loaned me? That’s where she expects me to meet her lawyer tomorrow, I think, so we might as well look at it.”

Cynthia agreed, and as we rose from our seats, the elderly man who had shown us to the room initially retrieved us. We traversed the maze of gratuitously decorated hallways in his wake and were let out in the same place we had entered. Returning outside was a major shock – I was reminded that the everyday world still existed. The sun was setting, and the city was coming alive for the night. Ordinary people having their typical weekend evening passed me by on the sidewalk, none the wiser as to the insanity I had been through in the last twenty-four hours. It was surreal.

We descended the steps from Aisling’s modern urban palatial estate and located Cynthia’s vehicle. As we piled in, Beth refused to go around and use her own door. She clung to my arm and followed me into the back seat, sliding across my lap to sit in the middle. Logically, I was unnerved by this, but the beast in my mind was exceptionally content with how she was acting. He chided my reluctance and suggested that I encourage and reward her rapid affinity. After all, she was our first mate and prime; Why wouldn’t we want her to be affectionate and attached to us?

My thoughts were wandering again. I was lost in the disparity between what I thought I should be feeling and how the draconic presence in my mind felt about our situation. The cognitive dissonance was quite bothersome. Hopefully, I would be able to catch my breath and catch hold of my thoughts without being overcome by the being sharing my mind.

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Cynthia again pulled into an underground parking garage as her GPS chimed that we were at our destination. I noticed that we were no longer in the center of Philadelphia. The buildings here were, in general, smaller and less densely packed. The green spaces were more regular and sizable. When Cynthia pulled into the building's driveway, I was surprised by what I saw. From the outside, the building was impressively modern in its appearance. This wasn’t what I had anticipated from a place essentially handed to me for simply existing.

I had expected a hostel situation, something resembling my freshman dorm room. Instead, I viewed a modern apartment building with surprisingly pleasant architecture and a large grassy communal area. I was impressed, not that my standards had been high. Cynthia parked the SUV, and the four of us got out and located the stairs. Cynthia provided me a key as we reached the floor that the apartment was on, allowing me the honor of first opening the door.

The building must either be new or recently remodeled because everything had a modern black matte aesthetic, sleek and minimalist appearance. It reminded me somewhat of a hospital in that it was completely spotless and pristine, with a faint smell of a chemical cleaner lingering in the hallways. The building wasn’t tiny from the outside, but I noticed only four residences on each floor. We climbed to the fourth floor and located the door with the listed number.

I used the key to open the door and was immediately surprised at the scale of the room I was greeted with. The door opened to a spacious sitting area, two couches placed perpendicular to each other. One faced a massive wall-mounted television, and I found myself wondering if there was a single space it would fit in my old apartment. A facade of a fireplace was installed in the wall across from the other couch – presumably gas or electric atmospheric heating for the room.

Beyond this living room, I could see a full kitchen and dining room. The obnoxiously large table was flanked by twelve seats. A stovetop oven sat next to a double-doored fridge, and elegant black marbled countertops stretched around the room, continuing into a half wall that separated the kitchen from a hallway that continued deeper into the apartment. Four stools sat on the kitchen side of the wall.

I finally took my first steps into the residence, and the women followed me. Cynthia, presumably, knew what to expect and quickly continued into the room. Sam uttered a noise of mild surprise as she entered. Beth was anomalous in her reaction as she released a sharp, shrill noise of indecipherable excitement. She rushed into the room and hugged me.

Patiently, I detached myself from Beth's embrace and continued exploring the residence. I followed the hallway and poked my head into each doorway I found. A massive bathroom was the first room. A walled-in shower, large enough that I could lay down and spread my arms wide and still not touch the perimeter, occupied half of the room. On the other side of the room was a gargantuan tub, large enough for multiple people to comfortably use at once. I could see jets lining the walls. I would absolutely enjoy using that.

The next room was obviously a bedroom. An L-shaped desk with a chair snuggled into one corner, a queen size bed flanked by two bedside tables dominated the opposite wall, with a wooden dresser running along the hallway wall finishing the major furniture. I turned the soft ceiling light on and saw a laptop and a manila folder on the desk. The folder had a sticky note adorning it with my name scribbled hastily on it. Assuming that meant this room was intended for me, I walked further in and glanced in the closet. I found a handful of smart, professional-looking clothes. Searching further into the apartment, I discovered that there were a further seven more similarly furnished bedrooms and a second slightly more modest bathroom.

As I hadn’t actually brought anything with me from my old life – and I had a moment of incredulity at that thought – I had no reason to linger and unpack personal belongings. With my exploration concluded, I returned shortly to the sitting room. Cynthia was sitting at the dining room table, switching between looking at her phone and one of a set of papers. I collapsed into one of the couches and rubbed my temples. I was mentally exhausted by the insane upheaval I had gone through over the last day. Despite sleeping in the car while Cynthia drove us here, I felt fatigue plaguing my mind. I was anxious about sleeping here tonight – I had never slept particularly well in new places, and it would be some time before I felt at home here, surrounded by new people in an unfamiliar city.

Mere moments after I had sat down, Beth was cuddling up next to me, her slender legs curled underneath her and her shoulder buried against my chest. I instinctively reacted and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her against me. She cooed appreciatively at the contact. Cynthia joined us, sitting on the other couch, while Sam sat at the far end of the one I was on.

Without opening my eyes, I addressed them. “It’s a nice place. Pretty large for me. Seriously, there are like ten bedrooms here, each comparable to my old apartment. What’s that about?”

Cynthia responded, “Sometimes, we’re required to relocate entire families or clans. They don’t take kindly to being separated into ten different homes all over town on the first night in a new place.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I guess that explains why this place exists, but why assign it to me?”

“Well, that brings us to our first serious discussion. Would you be comfortable with Sam and me staying here for a while? I don’t mean to impose, but it’s not like we had planned this trip either, and it certainly would be convenient to be close to you as we help you transition into the magical realms.”

“That sounds good to me. Still leaves half the rooms empty. Maybe I’ll sleep in a new bed every night and only make the sheets once a week.” Beth giggled at my juvenile remark.

“There’s another reason for it, probably. For now, I have some information about who you’ll be meeting with tomorrow. The legal advisor Aisling has sent is to become your...” She paused for a moment “... How should I put this? ‘Professional Advisor’? ‘Legal Representative’? A vampire lawyer by the name of Evgenia.

“She’s an official representative of the Queen’s government, assigned to be your financial assistant and judicial confidant. I guess Aisling sees you as important enough to necessitate it. Imagine that you are the secretary of state on a business trip to Japan. You’d have a translator and local culture guide helping you with your everyday activities. That’s my job, getting you used to the world you're in now. You’d also have an official attache from the Japanese government, someone to help you with official meetings, hotel accommodations, and business ventures in their country. That is what Evgenia will be assisting you with.”

“So she’s here to report my activities to the government because I’m too important to just let walk around on my own. Cool. Cool. Cool.”

“That’s a disfavorable way of putting it, but probably not incorrect. She will almost certainly update her superiors on your behaviors and activities, given the opportunity. Her superior would likely be the local vampire lord, who would relay answers to Aisling rather than Evgenia reporting directly. Although, as a government employee, she may answer directly, depending on how her contract is worded. Without asking all of them or fishing for information, we’ll probably never know the exact structure.”

“You said she’s a vampire? What does that mean? Do they drink blood? How much of the folklore is real? Silver and garlic and running water scare her away?”

Cynthia laughed softly, amused at my curiosity. “She could drink blood, but she’s almost certainly been forbidden from drinking yours as a part of her employment agreement. Vampires require routine blood consumption to sustain themselves and larger quantities if seriously injured. Still, it’s handled pretty well by human blood donation or voluntary consumption from a regular host. The rights of humans and vampires concerning feeding have been contested in the courts of the seats somewhat regularly over the last fifty years. A portion of her salary will, quite literally, be paid in blood.”

“Ok, so she won’t be snacking on us. Anything else I should know about vampires beforehand?”

“I don’t think there’s anything pressing. She will be able to explain for herself when you meet.”

“And she’ll be here for how long? I have to meet with the archivist as well, but we didn’t exactly confirm a time.”

“She’s almost certainly receiving her instructions now and will facilitate our meeting with Antonin since she’s coming here as a member of Aisling’s government. If she knows no more than we do when she arrives, in the worst-case scenario, we can petition for a meeting at Aisling’s next open court session.” Cynthia then paused a moment before she sighed in annoyance and continued speaking, “Actually, you may be required to attend outright as a council member. The council comprises Aisling’s personal advisors and the house leaders who wish to preside over interspecies disputes. Aisling might want you on the council to make others wary of troubling you by elevating your status, or she might want you to avoid the council to keep you out of the public’s mind for the time being.”

“Security by obscurity isn’t exactly a well-supported doctrine.”

Cynthia sighed again, “No, but it might be a decent short-term plan until you’re more up to speed – a couple of months at most. It’s not like you would have any pressing issues to adjudicate as the only dragon. Some other realm might have a particularly clever oracle looking for obscure awakenings. They could identify that you are here and send a dragon to liaison with you, forcing you to acknowledge them as the house leader in this region. That’s a lot of assumptions, though, the biggest one being that someone who identifies you correctly could convince one of the few of your kin to come here just for that.”

“So eventually, I get to be a public leader representing... literally just myself. Cool. More pomp and circumstance. Lovely. Sounds exhausting.”

“Indeed. Unfortunately, since you’ve been deemed important enough, there will almost certainly be regular public appearances in your near future.”

“Hopefully, showing my face will be enough. Makes me a bit uncomfortable. Not like I have anyone to represent.”

Both Sam and Beth shot daggers at me with their eyes. Evidently, they saw themselves as members of my house despite not being dragons. I could live with that, actually.

“I am certain you will find a way to persevere.” Cynthia rose from her seat with a comforting smile and addressed all of us, “I am going to retire for the evening. Don’t dally too long; tomorrow will be longer and more exhausting than today.”

With that, she left the room. The three of us sat silently for a while before Sam nervously made a statement.

“Hey, J? Thanks for letting us stay here. That’s pretty cool of you. I’m... I’m happy you awakened.”

Without giving me a chance to respond, she also fled the scene to find her own bedroom. Her statement left me confused. Beth and I spent the next few minutes sitting in silence, where I was trying to wrap my mind around why this massive change in my life would make Sam happy.

Eventually, Beth asked a question without lifting her head away from my chest. Her tiny voice lifted up and provided a hint of her insecurities. “Can I sleep with you again tonight?” I could smell the anxiety she had tried to hide. She was terrified of being rejected, brought to a faraway place and abandoned by the only connection she had made. I hadn’t given her any reason to have that fear – someone else had trained her to expect it.

I attempted to maneuver my way through the inevitable minefield. “You don’t want your own room?” See, I wasn’t rejecting her. I was offering something that was hers and hers alone.

Beth held me tighter as she responded, “You make me feel safe and cared for. I’d like to stay with you.” She giggled slightly and added, “I’ll use a room for my stuff after you buy it for me. Not like I have anything now.”

“At some point, we’ll have to sit and talk about this. Not tonight. Even with Cynthia doing all of the driving today, I’m exhausted. I can’t imagine that you’re much better.”

She untangled herself from me and leaned back so she could look directly into my face, her eyes wide with surprise and tentative joy etched on her face. “You mean I can stay with you?”

“Even if I said ‘no,’ would you let go and find your own bed?”

She let go of me and looked down at her hands dejectedly while sitting up and separating herself from me, sliding a foot away down the couch. The disappointment in her voice was palpable, with the excited, spunky, and tough tomboy replaced by a shattered and battered shadow. For the first time, I missed her bony hips digging into me as she sat in my lap. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone.”

The 180-degree shift in her emotions was painful to observe, and the smell of self-loathing and anguish was nauseating. She hadn’t seen my comment for the playful teasing I had intended it to be – just as a precursor to a gentler rejection. She wasn’t the valuable guide to a mystical new world or the childhood friend who returned from the mists of time; she was just a little parasite connected to me out of her own will. Why would I ever show her any favor when she had so little to offer?

I don’t know where these thoughts came from, but I could see how she saw herself for a moment. Maybe I was a monster; the thing in my head conspiring to destroy her old life and claim her for ourselves, with all the care and foresight of a child impulsively deciding on a toy in a shop. At that moment, the insecurities of the scared girl in front of me reached my humanity.

“Beth, I was teasing you because you have barely left my side all day. I wasn’t trying to get rid of you, just trying to inject some levity where I could to try and keep myself sane.” I grasped her hand with one of my own and found her eyes slowly lifting up and bouncing between my own. She was cautious and withholding herself, scared I was just playing with her for amusement. I continued, “You can sleep with me if that’s what you want. I’m sorry my careless words hurt you.”

After a moment of contemplation where she waited for the inevitable rejection I never gave, she launched herself back into me, hugging my chest hard and babbling incoherently in thanks for my acquiescence. “Thank you, thank you. I’m sorry; I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. You just make me feel so safe. I won’t be in your way – you won’t even know I’m there.”

I had to interrupt her after she made that comment. “Beth, if I didn’t want to know you were there, I wouldn’t have invited you. C’mon, let’s go to sleep.” I wasn’t going to tell her how enticing her demands of contact were last night. It was enticing because of how out of character it had been – reinforcing it would shift the behavior to in character. I liked her, emotional scarring aside, as she was. Peppy, cute, stubborn, and assertive when she needed to be, but still undeniably young and naive in many ways because of how fast she had grown up. She never got to ease into the changes and learn how to be an adult with a safety net of familial support like most people – she simply had to do it and every misstep bordered on catastrophic failure. It was incredibly endearing that she let me through her tough outer shell. My only concern was how many more shells remained before I met the true Beth.

The beast chipped in with his unsolicited opinions. She was undeniably human, terrified of being left behind. Since she was our mate and therefore we would never do that, we were a great match. A dozen comments flitted through my fatigued mind. Primarily that he had literally advocated abandoning her this morning for a pile of old metals. That was followed quickly by scolding him for treating her like an object we were playing with. She was a person, and we needed to take thoughtful care in acknowledging her opinions and desires.

Two rooms in the hallway had lights leaking underneath closed doors. Sam and Cynthia had claimed rooms next to each other, across the hallway from my bedroom. I found myself undressing in that room while my mind wandered. I hung my shirt and pants over the chair to the desk, reminded myself that I would need to look at the folder with my name on it at some point, and turned around.

Beth stood there, stripped down but clutching her clothes in her hands in front of her. She was practically shielding herself with her garments, hiding from me behind them. She timidly set her clothes with mine and then scampered to the bed to slip under the covers. She was wearing the same bright pink, lacy underwear she had been in last night because, of course she was. She never had the chance to get any of her belongings.

“You could have your own room if you’d be more comfortable,” I offered. I still felt like I was taking advantage of her, even though she had, in no uncertain terms, begged to be here with me.

“I’m not going anywhere, and you are going to join me over here right now.” There was the assertive girl I was coming to cherish. Even if she was worried about me seeing her tonight, she wanted me next to her.

After turning the lights off, that’s what I did. In the dark, under the concealing mask of the sheets, Beth pressed against me, returning to claim the position where she had spent most of the day. She took one of my arms and wrapped it around herself. I was spooning her while she adjusted how we were connected.

“You weren’t nearly as timid last night. What caused that?”

“Sam.”

What on earth could Sam have done to have damaged Beth’s resolve so much? I was with them almost the entire day, and Sam certainly hadn’t done anything I had seen. Of course, that didn’t mean that Beth didn’t invent something out of her insecurities to put herself down.

I fished for an explanation. “I’m sorry, I don’t quite follow what you mean by that.” I felt somewhat obligated to console her, but I also wanted my little firebrand pixie back. Then I recognized that thought as mirroring the possessive ambitions of the beast in my mind and was disgusted with myself.

Beth twisted and turned in the bed so that she was facing me. Her face was an inch away from mine, and in turning to talk to me directly, she had somehow made laying together even more intimate than it already had been. Our noses bumped slightly, and I could feel her breath on my face.

“She’s just so beautiful. Her skin is perfect, and her eyes are so light and blue, and have you noticed the rest of her? I guess I just saw her trying to get your attention today, and she is just so hot and, oh my god, her curves! She’s just so feminine and womanly and wonderful, and how could I possibly keep your eyes on me if she was here? She knows you and likes you and is independent and resourceful and strong, and oh yeah, she’s also a witch. I’m sad and small and boyish and can’t hold a part-time job, forget about any magic.”

Ahh, so Sam actually hadn’t done anything at all to upset Beth. Beth simply felt threatened because an attractive, seemingly available woman would invariably be in our presence for the foreseeable future. Beth had compared herself to Sam and, with her distorted perception, had found herself lacking in every area. Even going along with her uncharitable analysis, there was one specific area that she had ignored.

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about there. You know how I knew Sam as a kid, right? I asked her out a couple times in high school, and she made sure I knew that wasn’t happening quite clearly.”

Beth wrapped one of her legs around mine as she giggled at what I said.

“Oh, you’re such a blind boy. Did you hear what Cynthia said?”

“Cynthia said a lot today. You’ll have to refresh my memory.”

“Sam rejected you because you weren’t a mage or already in her world. She couldn’t get involved with you without putting you in danger or eliminating your freedom. I bet she kept hanging around you even after that. I bet the other girls knew she had claims on you, too.” She whispered, “Now, you’re not just in her world, but the hottest thing in town.”

She pushed my shoulder to roll me onto my back and slid her leg to straddle my hips on her knees. My body recognized this for what it was, an erotic and intimate position, and I felt myself stirring while the heat started to build between us.

Beth continued to talk, her whispers going directly into my ear as her body pressed against me. “But I don’t want to talk about her. I want to talk about you and me. Us. I know it’s too fast and too soon, and you can’t possibly feel the same, but I think I love you. Don’t lie to me and tell me you do too. We’ll fix it in the future. But whatever you did to me makes me feel so safe, and I can feel you all over it. Every awful thought I had today, it felt like you were there helping me stay sane, pushing them away, and leading me to comfort. All I could smell all day was you, and I felt like I had to be next to you. I want you.”

She practically growled her last statement, and then she kissed me. Hard. She pressed herself against me and poured all her emotion, vulnerability, and fragility into the kiss. I was so shocked by her outpouring and assertiveness that I spent a handful of moments unresponsive. What on earth had I done to this girl? How had I damaged her and forced her to feel this way? I would have to figure it out later – I could only imagine just how shattered she would be if I rejected her now. I had to keep digging the hole we were in to buy myself more time. So I kissed her back. Even without the parasite in my mind allowing me to smell her desire, the room was full of her arousal, and it was infectious.

She let her hands roam all over me while she kissed me. I let mine settle onto her hips, pulling her into me. She had no precision and no finesse in her conquering of me. She was composed of passion, fire, and youth, her entire body pressing firmly against mine.

She lifted her head away and looked into my eyes as she breathed before she spoke, “Being against you all day really got me going. I wanted you in the car. I wanted you at dinner. I wanted you on the couch. Please take me.”

I had been struggling internally with the idea of whether I had forced her to feel this way. She managed to dispel those for the moment. I didn’t understand why she wanted this or if I had forcibly caused it, but right now, her desires were unmistakable. The smug bastard in my mind laughed at my feeble reservations. She was our mate, he reasoned; Of course, she wanted us. It was the natural order of things. By now, I had stopped listening to him because my own desires had taken over my exhausted mind.

She sat all the way up, the sheets sliding down her back off of her as her chest lifted away from mine. She contorted her arms behind herself and unhooked her bra. She slowly, demurely, teasingly let the shoulder straps slip off her, but she held the cups in place. After a moment’s pause, she lowered her hand, and the bra fell down her abdomen to the bed.

Her breasts were cute. I know that isn’t what she would want to hear, but it’s what came to mind. They were taut and barely moved as she wiggled on me. I could see why she felt insecure about Sam, though. They were small, firmly in the A-cup range, but they fit her. She was petite and adorable, and her rougher past had turned her into a waifish pixie of a woman. A larger bust on her would’ve looked wrong, unnatural, and unbecoming to the point of seeming synthetic. Her nipples were ghostly pink, nearly as pale as her skin. They stood at attention, and with the warmth between us, it certainly wasn’t because she was cold.

She sat frozen, biting her lip as she watched me take her in, her eyes full of tension as her breath caught in her throat. I could tell her she had nothing to worry about, that she had my attention and that her body was perfect for who she was. I knew, however, that words would almost certainly never convince her, and drawing attention to her insecurity wasn’t going to do me any favors. So I pulled her face back down to mine and kissed her. I allowed my hands to roam, and when I cupped her breast, she whimpered into my mouth.

While we kissed, she was grinding her hips into mine. She had been nervous and cautious right after she removed her bra, but now she was hungrily kissing me and humping me into the bed. I kicked the sheets off of my legs and pushed her away from me for a second. I lifted her off me and rolled her onto her back, putting her shoulders onto the stack of pillows.

She looked at me, wariness creeping back into her eyes. I was kneeling between her spread legs, putting my hands on her hips, gripping the waistband of her bright pink underwear. I helped her lift her hips and slowly inched them down off her hips and her legs. Her needy scent, no longer trapped by the clothing, filled the room.

I kissed the inside of her thigh and slowly worked my way up to her pussy. She was clearly aroused already, her lips slippery and her scent filling my head. I tentatively kissed her lips and tasted her. She was earthy and sour, but the taste wasn’t strong, and I found it surprisingly pleasant. She moaned as I kissed her there.

I raised a hand and spread her lips, moving my mouth to her clit. I used my fingers to spread her and gently entered her with my index finger after wetting it on her lips. She shivered and whimpered as I entered her.

Beth spoke up for the first time since I had taken control, “Your hands already set me on fire. I don’t need to be warmed up – I’ve been ready all day. Please, take me. I’m yours.”

I slipped my boxers off and tossed them aside while I moved up the bed. Beth ran her hands over my shoulders, across my chest, and wrapped them around my waist to pull my body against hers. I kissed her again, and she slipped her hands down my front. They came to rest at the base of my dick, and she softly stroked me.

Beth rolled her hips slightly and widened her legs even further. She rubbed my dick up and down her entrance, getting my head wet, ready to enter her. She spent a moment rubbing her clit with my dick, staring into my eyes and softly moaning, before lining me up to take her, holding me at her limits.

She wrapped her legs around my back and said, “Please. Do it.”

I slowly pushed forward with my hips, her legs pulling me further into her. She wrapped them tighter around me, and her hands wrapped around my back, pulling my chest to hers. She kissed me hard as I pushed my way into her.

She moaned out, “Yesssssssssssssssss,” directly into my mouth. Her eyes were open, but they were unfocused. I rocked my hips back and forth, and her nails dug into my back as she gripped me tighter. A few moments later, her silky sheath tightened around me, and she arched her back, pressing her shoulders hard into the bed. Her mouth was opened, holding a scream caught frozen before it had started. Her eyes were scrunched shut as her head pressed sideways into the pillows.

After a moment, she groaned hard, an utterance with no words but still just as easily understood. Her pussy fluttered around my hardness, and she slowly uncoiled and relaxed, stretching out as her back returned to the bed.

I stopped moving, and the room was suddenly quiet, filled only with her panting breath. Eventually, her hazy eyes opened lazily, and she looked at me.

“Shit, that was a big one. You had me really worked up.”

“Evidently. Are you alright? Do you want to stop?”

She wiggled her hips underneath me and said airily, “You didn’t finish. I want that.”

“Uhh, Beth. I just met you. I know you feel otherwise, but I… I guess what I’m saying is, are you on birth control of some kind? Probably should’ve asked this earlier. You were distracting.”

Her eyes gleamed as I said that, although she was already glistening with a light sheen. She continued wiggling her hips as she answered my question, “Yeah. I mean, I didn’t take the pill this morning because, you know, but I had been. Should be fine.”

I returned to gently sliding back in and out of her and said, “Ok. Maybe we’ll have to talk about this as well.”

She kissed me hard again and whispered to me, “Make me cum like that again, and you can give me a baby bump whenever you want.”

I knew I didn’t actually want that, but it was hot. It affected me on an instinctual, primal level. I felt the dragon inside me surge forward in response, and he took over. Not to the same degree as he had during the fight, but I started aggressively rutting my hips back and forth, encouraged by the beast inside.

Beth’s legs wrapped around my hips, and her arms tightened around my back, her nails digging into me again. She groaned into my mouth as I aggressively kissed her, claiming her mouth with mine. I changed my approach, moving to kiss her neck. I cautiously sucked on her skin, not creating a hickey but using enough suction on her neck so that she knew I could if I wanted to.

The dragon demanded that I bite her neck, hard, driving my teeth into her skin and seizing her. My mouth was already there; it would take the smallest amount of effort to break her skin and claim her. It was something my human side wasn't interested in, especially undiscussed with a new partner, so the resist the confusing temptation, I lifted my head away from her.

I listened to the other instincts the dragon inside me was having. I kept myself almost entirely inside her and just ground back and forth an inch, rubbing my pelvis back and forth against hers. She must have enjoyed it because she began moaning along to the rhythm I had set. I moved my hand to her breast and roughly kneaded her, holding her nipple between my fingers.

She moaned again loudly, this time, “Fuck James, Fuck me.”

I might've worried about how loud she was becoming if I wasn’t so caught up in what we were doing. As I continued, she got louder with each moan.

“Beth, I’m getting close.”

“Fuck, yes. In me, please.”

I started to speed up and brought my hand away from her breast to move it down between her legs. I put my thumb over her clit, and every time I pushed into her afterward, my pelvis jostled it and rubbed into her. After a few moments, she tightened up like a spring being compressed again. Her face screwed up in a tortured visage, her mouth open. This time, however, she screamed out.

“Oh, FUCK YESSSSSSSssssssss.”

Her back rocked back and forth underneath me, and her pussy clamped down on me. It pushed me over the edge, and I painted her insides as her sheath tried to milk me for all I was worth. No longer capable of producing words, she groaned incomprehensible gibberish and panted. Her face flushed with color, scarlet spreading through her cheeks and across her forehead. It continued down her neck, her entire chest lit up with rouge above her nipples. Even her ears were illuminated like a Christmas tree light. She unwrapped her limbs from me and pushed away from me, dislodging my cock from her. She drunkenly crawled up the bed and curled up onto the pillows into a ball.

In my orgasmic haze, I tried to catch my breath, kneeling on the bed and panting for thirty seconds before lowering my eyes to the woman with me.

She wasn’t moving at all, and I couldn’t hear any noise beyond my own strained breathing. She had been panting and gasping to catch her breath a minute ago, and now I heard nothing, and her chest was perfectly still. I brought my hand to her neck, my forearm in front of her face, and felt nothing. No breathing on my arm, no pulse in my fingertips.

I leaped off the bed and grabbed my underwear, stumbling while putting them on as I brushed against the door frame. I practically tackled the door to Cynthia's room, knocking insistently and saying, “Cynthia? CYNTHIA? I need your help, please.”

The door opened, but instead of the mature woman I was expecting, her daughter stared back at me, murderous intent plainly evident on her visage.

“The fuck do you want?” Sam spat at me.

“I don’t know what happened. Beth’s not breathing. Is there any magic or anything you can do? Help her!”

She stepped past me, uttering a sigh of disgust, and walked to my room. I followed her like a little lost puppy looking for a home.

What I saw in my room confused me. Beth had moved off the pillows and into the center of the bed, and while she was still curled up in a ball holding herself, she was definitely alive and appeared physically ok. She was crying her eyes out, whimpering, and shaking the bed.

Sam turned to me and started to lay into me, jamming a finger into my chest as she screeched venom, “What the fuck is wrong with you? How could you do that to—”

She was interrupted by a naked Beth slamming into my chest, pushing her back from yelling at me.

Beth continued sobbing as she languished, her voice weak, “I’m sorry. I got so scared that you had left me, that it was all a dream. I came to, and you weren’t here. I’m sorry.”

I didn’t understand what was going on. “Can we all just sit down?”

Beth’s outburst seemed to have taken some of the hate out of Sam, replacing it with confusion, so she sat down at the desk chair. Beth and I sat down on the bed, Beth once again refusing to be apart in the slightest.

“Ok, what the hell happened? Sam, do you have any ideas? I mean, we uh, you know, but then she finished, if you will, then she curled up, wasn’t breathing, and didn’t have any pulse. It kinda scared the shit out of me.”

Sam shrugged, bouncing her eyes between me and the girl in question, who had climbed into my lap and wrapped herself around me. “Maybe, some part of your protection enchanting put her into stasis for a moment? I dunno. You should ask my mother. In the morning.”

With that, Sam got up and left the room, still shooting disapproving glances at me. I was confused when, in addition to the apparent distaste she was emitting, there was a sizable dollop of jealousy, a touch of arousal, and a fleeting mote of satisfaction.

I moved back up the bed and pulled Beth with me. “Let’s try to get some sleep. I guess we’ll have more to talk about in the morning.”

Beth wrapped around me like she had the first night, her leg tucked between mine and her head on my chest. She murmured, “I thought you had just used me and left. I know that’s crazy, and I had no reason to think it, but I woke up, and you were gone. I’m sorry I freaked out.”

“Shhhh, let’s figure it out in the morning.”

“It was perfect before the craziness. Perfect. I love you.”

“Goodnight, Beth. Sleep well.”