Mine...Yours Pt. 04

Lucretia rubbed her chin, "Human mannerisms are confusing Master."

"Don't worry about it. You did a good job with Jemima here for your first try. I think after you meet William Abernathy, a friend of mine, he can help you a bit better than I can. He is always better at explaining stuff than I am...even if he does use larger and older sounding words to do so." I chuckled a little, still keeping a sideways eye on Jemima. She looked like she was going to burst apart at the seams!

Lucretia turned back around to Jemima and said, "Thank you for letting me practice my greetings on you."

The poor Gatewatch vampire was breathing hard, her eyes dancing back and forth between us. "I...I just...GREG! What in the HELL is going on here! Why are you...and what is THAT?"

She stepped farther back from us and I thought she was going to leave, but she just stayed where she was and opened her phone. She punched a few numbers into it Then she looked back at us, her face blank and unreadable.

"Greg." Jemima said.

"Yes." I answered.

"Did you summon that creature?" She snapped an accusatory finger at Lucretia making my succubus bristle.

"Nope. Her mother brought her through." I replied.

Jemima slowly lowered her arm, though her gaze never left Lucretia's area she spoke to me again.

"Explain." She commanded.

"Why should I?" I responded.

That got a look from both her, and Lucretia!

I guess I should explain. Jemima was being commanding, bossy, and trying to tell me what to do. She had no authority over me, so she had no right to talk to me like this. Classic behavior of a bully, and no one likes a bully. Funny thing is everyone says they hate bullies, yet we keep on getting more of them all the time! As for me, I don't get bullied anymore, not ever.

I walked towards Jemima. Oh, she looked pissed. "Lucretia, please stay back by the truck, Jemima and me need to talk."

"Yes Master." Lucretia said, then sat on the tailgate of the truck, playing with a pipefitting I had found, and watching us interact.

Jemima opened her mouth but I held up my hand and spoke over the top of her. "Hang on there! Wait, what exactly is your problem?"

She gaped at me, "Where do I even start Greg?"

"How about you start at the beginning and when you reach the end stop. Oh, and try not to sound like a demanding school principal while you do it...okay?"

It's a good thing her hair already was in a retro-afro style or it would have bristled! She clenched her fists so hard I heard knuckles pop and she was gritting her teeth. Ah, found out something. Her fangs actually fit on the outside of her lower teeth when extended. Huh...I always wondered if they folded in like a snakes fangs or something like that.

"Greg..."

"Yes." I interrupted.

"Let me finish...please."

"Okay."

She shook her head raising her hands to her temples. "Greg, is that, or is that not, the succubus that you fought at our Halloween party a few night ago?"

"She is." I said simply, my hands behind my back.

"We saw you beat her, she even crumbled apart like they always do...did you summon her back here?"

"Already answered that one. No I did not." Jemima seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Good, that's...that's really, good actually."

"Her mother, someone who calls herself Queen, brought Lucretia through the Veil, or Border or whatever you call it. Lucretia was supposed to avenge herself by killing me" I stated.

Jemima glanced at Lucretia who was swinging her legs while sitting on the tailgate and playing with my multi tool now.

"Lucretia!" I called.

"Yes Master?"

"Don't break my tool, I need it later!" I called out. I nearly slapped myself in the face for my double entendre'! Really, hanging out with a succubus for less than twenty-four hours and I was getting a dirty mind! I watched Lucretia giggle, and start playing with the pliers.

"Don't worry Master, I'll be gentle with your...tool!" I heard her laugh louder, then go back to trying to take apart the pipe-fitting.

Jemima didn't look too pleased with how lightly I was taking the situation. I was almost surprised at how I was acting, but I guess my brain was finally catching on. If I treat this like a serious situation, which to be honest it was, then Jemima will be acting even more serious. Then things escalate, and my guess is things would start exploding and blood would be spilled. For some reason though, I was kind of grooving on all the tension. It was like I was having a controlled adrenaline rush while everyone around me was getting more tense. Which wasn't normally like me at all, another thing to think about. I hope my brain can keep track of all this stuff to remember. I wonder if I should start keeping a journal?

The fact that Lucretia was acting like this was all a walk in the park seemed to help, though she acted really nervous when Jemima first walked up. Then again, the first two times we met she seemed to be cold and cruel. Yet now after binding herself to me she was acting different. She's acting different, I'm acting different. I know there is something important to that, but I can't figure out what it...oh yeah, Jemima's talking.

"Are you in danger Greg?" she asked seriously.

"All the time, which type of danger are you referring to?" She growled at me. I saw Lucretia's head perk up, and she pulled back the hood of her sweatshirt watching us closely.

"This isn't a game, do you even know who, or what you're messing with?" Jemima snapped.

"Yes, I am messing with you. Instead of being polite and talking with me your being a demanding wench."

I stepped forward and poked my finger in her chest, I could feel that pressure building in myself again.

"Greg..."

"You keep saying my name like it means something. You have told me time and again you're my friend. Heck, last night you tried to kiss me! Then tonight you come walking up and start acting like I am a criminal? Huh? Are you the type of woman who just tries to make out with any guy, or do you try to pick one who you judge to have good character? You strike me as the type to find the right one. So if I am the right type, then where do you get off immediately assuming the worst when you see a situation that you don't understand?" I stepped closer to her, and she seemed surprised at how close I was getting.

"So who did you call Jemima?"

"What...I..."

"Was it the rest of the Gatewatch? You all coming down here to put the hurt on me because you thought I summoned an Outsider? Is that it? So now, three people who I called friends are going to come and treat me like an enemy?"

"Greg it's not like that!"

"Then what is it like? Tell, me Jemima? From my side it looks like I'm the bad guy now...Explain!"

I figured I had her off balance enough by ignoring her demands and making several demands and arguments of my own. I engaged my Sight and sure enough it was easy to see she was totally off balance. Both her and her specter self were staring at me with wide eyes. I happened to look down as my hand was receding from poking her and I almost lost it!

There was one thing that I had never done before. Never even thought of doing it, and now that I think about it, I never would have attempted it even if I thought about doing it! Yeah, I hoped you followed that since I nearly confused myself. In the area of using my Sight, I usually used it for brief glimpses or studying other people closely. I had never thought to look at myself. I don't know why I never thought of it. I guess most normal people would be going crazy and using binoculars and microscopes or looking into pools of water or anything to experiment and learn. I must be one slow turtle then since I never really cared too much to see what I could do. You can imagine then, my surprise, when I first Saw a part of me.

Bandages, lots of bandages. Not like band-aids, with the little adhesive and pad on it. Not like an athletic compress either. These were like, linen I guess, wound around my chest, arms, legs, even my fingers! I quickly pushed my surprise away from me, but Jemima seemed to catch it anyway.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly. Her eyes darted over to Lucretia who had hopped down from the trucks tailgate and was walking over. She had a concerned look on her face, and her right hand was clenched so tight around the scar in her palm I could feel it in my matching scar. Wait, how could I feel in my scar what she was feeling in her scar? It was, of course, at that point that all hell broke loose!

In mid step, just about ten feet from me, a huge blonde furry shape slammed into the much smaller succubae in front of me and they went tumbling across the asphalt to smack into a bunch of dumpsters in the train! At that point Gwen seemed to materialize out of thin air with a deck of really big, odd-looking playing cards in one hand. Gwen shot a glance to Jemima who in turn nodded to me.

"Sorry Greg, this has to be done." Gwen said and tossed several of those cards through the air towards the struggling pair on the ground. I saw Hildy leap back from Lucretia who was now huge again. I guess that must be the shape she takes when in combat. All six feet and 200 pounds of lethal wings and claws! There didn't appear to be a scratch on her as she crouched and faced off with the werewolf. One of her hands opened and between her five claws I saw sparks begin to fly, like she had a couple handfuls of sparklers in her grasp. The cards finished their flight to land a few paces from my succubus and the sparks died out.

Lucretia looked at her hand, noticed the cards and I saw real fear cross her alien features. She suddenly shot to the side and slammed into, nothing. She was pressing with all her strength against what looked to be air!

"Barrier." Gwen said, as she shuffled through her cards. "Keeps Outsiders inside as I find the proper formulae to banish them."

Lucretia moved a couple paces to the other side and felt along the invisible walls there. Then she jumped and slammed her horns against what appeared to be a roof, again all invisible to the eye. I looked at Gwen and said, "Stop this right now."

"No Greg. She is not supposed to be here." She replied.

"Yes she is. I bound her!" I said, my voice rising.

Gwen looked at me like I was crazy. "You couldn't have bound her, only people who have magic can bind an Outsider!"

There's that magic shit again! I know I have the Sight, so I guess that makes me a "magic" person.

"You don't understand, she didn't tear through the Veil, there was no ritual to bring her here. Her mother..." I tried to explain.

"Greg," Jemima interrupted. "This is really for the best. She will kill you one day, it's what they do."

I didn't know what to do. I thought I was out of my depth before, but this really took the cake. Let's recap here. Jemima, vampire...could hand me my ass on a silver platter with a side order of whimpering. Gwen, witch...just sealed off an angry Outsider with a couple of playing cards. Hilda, werewolf...a walking, snarling, hairy tank on four legs. Greg, human...yeah, got a power I don't understand and probably isn't applicable to the situation.

Yet the pressure was still building.

I started walking towards Lucretia who was still raging inside the, I don't know, magical construct? Oh yeah, Gwen called it a barrier. That word sounds smart so I will stick with that as a good name. I don't know what I was going to do, exactly. I just know that, this was my responsibility. Lucretia was my responsibility. Mine...Lucretia was MINE! They didn't have any right to take her from me! To trap her in a cage...A CELL! I followed the rules to the best of my ability! They tried to hurt her! They are trying to banish her! Who gave them the right to do that to what is MINE? It's not right, it's not JUST!

I could hear Gwen and Jemima trying to call me back, but I ignored them. They didn't matter, at least not right now. I turned on my Sight, and Saw the glistening silver walls of the barrier shimmering in the dark. They were almost transparent and I could see Lucretia trying to dig ineffectually at the asphalt, but the barrier covered the ground as well. Smart girl. Can't climb it or get around it, try to dig under it. Then Hildy got in my way. I had to look up to see her. I thought she was glaring at me down her long muzzle, but looking at just her eyes and ignoring those big ivory colored teeth I could see it looked more like pleading.

"Please Greg..." her voice rasped out. "We are trying to help you!"

"By attacking my student, by trying to break an agreement I made?" I asked quietly. She looked confused.

"Agreement...you made...?"

"Move, Hilda." I demanded. I could see her ears twitch as I used her name, and not the Hildy I had before.

"This is what we do Greg. You can't just..." She started.

I had heard enough, though. I was angry, and felt justifiably so. I grabbed her fur-covered arms and yanked up and to the right. I don't know if I was more startled or she was as she was thrown almost to where Jemima and Gwen were standing! I reached down to touch the cards. I figured that if I moved them, maybe the barrier would drop. A static charge of lavender colored light flashed around my fingers making me draw them back! That hurt, like getting shocked with a car battery, without the burning of skin though. Well, I was no stranger to pain! I shoved back, and the lavender sparks kept on making my fingers twitch.

My own pressure kept growing, and I could see a soft blue glow enveloped my hand. The sparks were no longer hurting; they died maybe an inch or so before touching me. I picked up the card and swiftly moved to pick up the others, until they were all in my hand. Lucretia now free turned and shook her wings. She dropped to all fours and tail lashing began to charge the three members of the Gatewatch!

"Stop." I said to Lucretia. She did, and turned on me furiously!

"Master! NO! They tried to banish me! They attacked me! They need to..." she carried on in this vein for a while. I let her get it out of her system. Venting is good for the soul. Believe me, I know. She looked to be winding down so I held up my hand and waved it to get her attention.

"Go ahead and change back to your rebellious teenager look." I suggested. She looked stunned.

"I am more easy to harm in that form." She said quietly. I nodded.

"Don't worry Lucretia, I will protect you." I said jokingly. She snickered, then paused and looked me over.

"Master, you're different." Her large clawed hand touched the side of my arm. "You're, really different."

"So are you...shouldn't you be ignoring me and wreaking bloody vengeance on my friends over there?" I asked sarcastically.

Lucretia changed to her human form, complete with hoody and bright blue bootlaces. She looked over her shoulder at the three women. "I guess, I am. I don't feel like attacking them anymore...why?"

I shrugged, "You ever get the feeling that we are both the teachers in this contract? I think Mother has more plans than we know about than just you learning about humans." Lucretia nodded her head at that statement.

I took her hand in mine and walked back up to my neighbors, I held out the cards in front of me. "Here Gwen, you can have these back."

Gwen took a step forward, and at the same time I pulled Lucretia behind me, putting my body between them.

" Gwen. Please don't use them." I said, holding them out. She took them, truth be told I was surprised as hell that we hadn't been attacked walking up. Hilda was watching me with narrowed eyes. Jemima still had a shocked look on her face like I had slapped her ass in church, Gwen...she just looked sad.

"I don't want to fight you, but Lucretia is mine. I didn't break any laws that I know of, and if you want to talk more about this in the future. Ring my doorbell and come on over." I shook my head.

"Jemima came to visit me at work last night, and we talked. I am sorry that I kicked you all out of my house. I tend to not like people poking at my secrets." I turned to look at Lucretia and felt her hand tighten in mine. "I guess I don't have that luxury anymore." Looking back at the three Gatewatchers I said, "If you come over tomorrow, I will do my best to answer all questions that you have, and I will even make cookies...a lot of cookies." From their expressions, you would almost think that I was trying to bribe them...maybe I was. They are really good cookies, probably are suitable as good bribery material.

"Now, if you will excuse me, Lucretia is helping me with my job tonight. I hope to see you all tomorrow around...I don't know. How about 3:30pm?" Hilda glanced at the others, and then nodded at me.

They left, never turning their backs on us and I breathed out slowly, releasing the tension in my spine.

"Greg?" Lucretia asked.

"What? No Master this time?" I chided.

She was quiet for a moment and then squeezed my hand a little tighter.

"Why did you not let me attack them?"

"They are my friends." I answered simply. She seemed to need more of an explanation so I thought about it.

"Help me get these dumpsters back in place, and we can talk while we work." I said.

I got the compactor going and started going through the train of garbage, every now and then pulling bits of metal out for the scrap pile.

"Alright Lucretia, you ever make a mistake?" I asked.

"Sometimes." She replied, pushing a cart until I indicated for her to stop.

"Does that mistake make you different than who you are?" I asked again. I raised the dumpster to dump, then used a pole to make sure all the loose articles had fallen out and into the machine, then cycled the large press.

"I don't think so." Lucretia replied, watching the dumpster come back down to the ground. Then she took the other end to help me push it over to the rest of the empties.

"Did the Gatewatch make a mistake by trying to banish you?" I asked after latching the hitch in place. Lucretia shrugged.

"They seem to think that I am going to kill you, so maybe they didn't." She said. I chuckled and put my arm over her shoulder as I walked her to the door of the truck and opened it. I helped her in while she frowned at me. I leaned in a pushed her hood back so I could get a good look at her face.

"That is something I really, really appreciate about you!" Her eyes widened with a questioning look. "You don't try to lie to me." I said, and leaned in to kiss her cheek. I pulled back and her eyes were black all the way through! Her breathing was heavy and she grabbed my arm as I pulled away.

"Master..." She took a breath and slowly exhaled, her eyes going back to their normal hue. "You use the word "Please" a lot so it seems to be important." She gulped. "Please...continue to be the Master you are."

Now I was puzzled. Not for long though, she kept on talking.

"You let me get away with so much. I...I should have been punished a long time ago for acting the way I did several times. You didn't, why?"

"You are not your mistakes. The Gatewatch made a mistake, no need to attack them; we will set it straight tomorrow. You made some mistakes, but it was out of ignorance, I am not going to punish you for that." I patted her hand.

I got around to my side of the truck and started up the engine. Time to put the empty dumpsters back and then go home. I saw my little Succubae looking at me.

"Another question?"

"Shouldn't I be punished for biting you?"

"Nah! If I punished all my friends for biting me, I wouldn't have any friends."

She reached over and took my right hand in hers and traced the scar in my palm. "You really are very different from any Master I have ever heard of..." She kissed the scar and a strange tingle passed through my body. "...Thank you."

"For what?"

"For what I learned today." She answered.