Endangered Ch. 05

"Human, I accept you, place you under my protection. I share the Secret and mark you as one of us. Serve me well."

Neither of them were enthused about it; an arrangement of necessity rather than out of any desire to be tied together for the rest of their lives. Still, Chris tried to give her a little of himself. It was nothing like the experience with Annabel, his heart wasn't in it. Perhaps she might have better luck or protection, something. At the least he should be able to feel where she was and sense if she was in danger.

At the last minute, he'd put his hand over her shoulder and saved her the pain of the tattoo needle, putting his registration number on her in magic, purple digits. The dragon continued to surprise him with these displays of magic, despite their lack of training. He didn't know how he did these things, probably couldn't repeat them if he tried to; they just happened when he felt strongly about something.

Michelle wept quietly at the loss of her freedom. She knew it wasn't his fault and could feel him trying to comfort her somehow. Ultimately, when faced with the option of servitude or the rape of her mind and death, she'd chosen servitude.

Besides, she could tell Chris wasn't the kind of person who would take advantage of her situation. She couldn't blame him for this or the men he'd killed in Scotland; everything fell on Radek's head in her numbed mind.

So, as he held her gently in his purple arms, she'd repeated her part of the ceremony after the midnight elf.

"Being, I give myself freely to you, bind myself to you. I vow to serve, place you above all others, and uphold the Secret. I'm yours."

Their situations had reversed was so rapidly; he was now her protector, her lifeline in the very world she'd been fighting against. She could feel the little tingle of magic on her shoulder. It was strange, her head cradled against his chest, their connection locked into place, her body 'clicking' somehow as he gave her his small safeguard.

When they broke their embrace, they stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Michelle had to get up and walk away, overwhelmed by what she'd just agreed to. She was bound to a dragon for the rest of her life!

Annabel followed, catching up and stopping her. They slumped into a nearby pew, the otherworldly lights hovering uncaringly above.

Michelle held her head in her hands as Annabel stroked her back, all unfriendly thoughts erased from her mind as she'd helplessly watched the woman be forced into her current position.

"It's not so bad," Annabel murmured. "There's no one better you could be bonded to. You might even come to enjoy this world eventually; I know I love it already, even if it does have ugly parts."

Annabel couldn't help but glance over at the large screens showing the Synod, still arguing about the best course of action.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Michelle whispered. "My whole life I've... They just... it wasn't even a real choice."

"I know, I'm sorry," Annabel consoled. "But you seem like the kind of woman who wouldn't let that stop you. I know Chris will help you make whatever life you want for yourself but first you've got to help set things straight."

As the younger woman's words sunk in, Michelle looked up towards the crowd, searching for him. He was easy to spot, facing away from her as he talked with his mother. His huge stature alone would have been enough if the clawed thumbs, the high points of his purple leathery wings didn't stand out a full foot above his head.

As if sensing her gaze, he turned his attention and gave Michelle a nod and a wry smile.

"You're right, Annabel," Michelle lowered her head from view and smiled weakly. "I don't even know you, but thanks. I can probably do a lot of good on this end."

They sat in consolatory silence until Chris came and got them several minutes later, the Synod was fed up with waiting. He led Michelle back to the interrogation chair whilst Reyla produced a small vial of bubbling, orange syrup.

Michelle sniffed it. If she didn't know better she might think it was simply Fanta.

"Promise me, Chris, you won't let them hurt anyone I name."

"You know I can't guarantee that, Michelle, but I'll try. After today, I'm sure you'll be involved in sorting this out anyway. You can help make sure they stay safe."

She gave him a very searching look before downing the little potion in one swallow.

It was surprisingly viscous. She could feel it tingle her throat, instantly understanding that she would be uninhibited, speaking the truth with little control over if she answered or not. Her lucidity faded rapidly and, in a few moments, she felt absolutely drunk.

Michelle fought desperately but felt her mind enter some sort of detached state. She looked at the concerned dragon kneeling next to her, letting out a tiny, drunken giggle at his appearance despite resisting the urge for all she was worth. It was a terrible sensation, but she watched her giggle transform into manic laughter until Chris steadied her with a gentle hand.

The Synod grilled her for about half an hour.

She gave up everything; the president and his key advisors, the joint chiefs, the heads and deputies of the other security agencies. Everyone in her own agency who knew of the Secret as well as those she thought might know in Australia, France, and the UK.

She told them every Being they knew of and every place she knew they frequented; the Synod becoming more agitated with each new answer to their questions. They really didn't like it when she started naming the hub cities around the globe.

Occasionally, a heated argument between the Beings would give her a much needed break.

Intoxicated, her attention was drawn to her "master," whom she studied woozily; his huge stature, his multi colour skin, and his reptilian features. He even had claws and wings! He looked very enticing to her uninhibited mind. At one point she reached out to touch his delightfully smooth, tiny scales but almost fell off her stool, her balance completely failing her.

"You're pretty drunk, huh?" Chris said as he caught her and propped her back up on her chair.

"You're pretty... pretty," she hiccupped without even meaning to. Her detached, conscious persona screamed embarrassment but it didn't stop her lips moving.

"Pretty?" the dragon asked, swivelling very quickly to look at her. He had a smile on his face which revealed very sharp, interlocked teeth and his canine fangs, suddenly highlighting how dangerous and inhuman he was.

"Yeah, pretty scary, too," she continued quietly. Her inquisitive hand snuck upward to brush his thin lips but he caught it short and guided it back down to her thigh.

"It will be over soon, Michelle." He patted her arm, keeping his hand there to steady her wobbling. This potion was truly an absolute violation. He hadn't considered how much everyone relied on inhibition to keep themselves in check.

The questions resumed soon enough and now they asked about any revealing evidence the governments might have. She slurred her way through an explanation of the video of the werewolf transformation. There were also hours of surveillance footage they'd taken while observing Beings but it probably didn't have anything incriminating on it.

When asked about the fail safes she'd mentioned earlier, she vehemently proclaimed, "I don't know!"

Chris watched the Synod's faces darken even further. They'd obviously been hedging that Michelle would reveal the human's plans under the influence of the truth syrup. The humans had been careful to limit the distribution of this information for this very reason.

She'd already told them everything she knew about Radek. That bastard deserved to rot in Hell for what he'd done and what she was now being put through because of it. As they continued to question her about him, though, her anger overflowed into loud cursing and some rather vigorous gesticulation. She couldn't stop herself, her throat becoming hoarse as she shouted out every insult she could think of at him.

"Motherfucking shit-faced old fuck asshole!"

The assembled Beings looked a bit taken aback at her outburst as Chris tried to soothe her.

"Easy, Michelle, calm down. Look at me. Look at me!" He ended up trapping her arms against her sides with a bruising grip, forcing her to stop and look at him.

She eventually stopped struggling, tears streaming down her cheeks as she finally focused on him. He released his hold and stroked softly up and down her arms.

"I'm so sorry, Michelle."

Her tears overflowed again and she flung herself forward into his comforting arms, his cozy scent.

Chris rubbed her shaking back, he knew this was necessary for the synod to be satisfied but it had gone on long enough.

Usually Michelle would have beat the shit out of anyone who dared to touch her like he was, but as she cried herself out, it strangely didn't feel wrong. It had been so long since someone expressed care about her well-being. In her delirious state, it felt good. Her mind started to focus more on that feeling, forgetting about Radek altogether. She calmed rapidly after that, staring unfocused and blurry between his wings as she automatically snuggled into his neck.

"That's enough," she heard him state firmly.

"You don't decide that," came the high pitch voice of the fairy.

"She's distraught and she's told you everything she knows. You haven't managed to uncover any suggestion that she's trying to mislead you and perhaps most importantly, she's my familiar. It's enough!"

There was silence as the Synod considered whether or not to push the issue further. They were the ultimate authority among Beings, but a Being had sovereignty over his own familiar. Precedents would be broken if they overrode that.

No one spoke up, so Reyla handed Chris the antidote with an amused smile.

He quickly guided the vial to Michelle's lips, a sour mixture which had her head clearing slowly as she listened to the Synod resume their bickering about what to do.

"The only think we can do is try wiping the slate clean, eradicating the memory of everyone who might know, damage to their minds be damned," spoke the blonde elf from before.

Chris took note of the man as someone to watch out for. Snake, his dragon murmured hatefully. Chris had to agree, he seemed particularly callous. How far removed from any aspect of humanity he must be to consider their lives so valueless.

"It's too late for that, Eramir," said a pale man with a thick, European accent from behind a dark cowl. "Even if we had enough psykers to attempt simultaneous wipes worldwide. Someone would slip through the cracks even if the damage we caused miraculously went unnoticed. You elves have too much faith in your magics."

Several others agreed, and thankfully, calmer heads prevailed, reasoning that such a blatant pattern would only arouse further suspicion and wouldn't stop any fail safes from triggering. A few talked about global preparedness to strike, spells to knock out satellites, aircraft navigation, and communications networks worldwide.

"That won't help either," Michelle said as she found her voice. "They'll know exactly why it's happening, except the countries that don't will assume they're under attack. You'll have a global nuclear standoff until someone explains what's going on. Please, consider revealing yourselves peacefully. You could come up with a treaty, name almost any terms you wanted."

"You humans truly wish our existence to be common knowledge? How do you expect us to live side-by-side?" asked a venerable wizard.

"It won't be easy, sure, but it will be far better than war," Chris said. It was a scary thought, but he could already begin to see the advantages of a peaceful revelation, given the alternative.

"It would be the opposite of what Radek has worked to achieve," added Michelle.

Her suggestion was met with mixed reaction, and the heated debate started again.

Finally John Guthrie, previously not very vocal, spoke up after a particularly pointless argument about more memory removal.

"People, our path is straightforward and clear, in my mind at least. The breach is too large to stopper, humans in places of power have been aware of us for months. They cannot be wiped nor removed without committing an act of war in the eyes of the humans, who have unknown mechanisms in place to counter this very kind of action. Our only option, outside of starting a war which would likely destroy this planet, is to meet with these humans and prepare to reveal the Secret on our terms. We all knew this was a possibility and to be honest, it's a miracle they hadn't already found us on their own."

"How do you expect us to live without the Secret?" Eramir asked petulantly. "The humans will hunt us down."

"I don't deny it will be difficult, it might even destroy both of our society's ways of life. But we must rely on our own governorship and guide our people, having faith in human leaders to do the same. We have nothing to lose. If peace fails, we will only be sitting in this exact position again, that is to say, on the brink of a war which would end us both."

"How are we to feed? The humans won't allow us to prey upon them any longer," the gaunt man in the cloak said.

"Vladimir, there are enough humans to feed every vampire in the world thousands of times over. You can live off donated blood or the blood of your familiars. I know there's something in it for you to hunt and chase your prey down but we will all need to make sacrifices."

"You won't even have to do that," Michelle piped in, a bit hesitant at first before her voice and ideas strengthened as she spoke. "There are so many freaks around these days. Hell, there are probably people who would pay to be fed on, as long as you don't kill them. You Beings have enough money and power to buy whatever you want in the human world. That's really all this will come down to, money and power. You are going to bring an entirely new resource into the open, magic. Sure, everyone is going to freak out for a few months but when the dust settles and we sort out the details, you'll be able to walk down the street in your true forms and ask whatever price you want for your services. That's just the beginning. Think about what magic and science could accomplish together. You could probably cure diseases and stop global warming."

"I doubt it will be as simple as that, but the woman has a good point," agreed the ancient dragon. "A vote then."

There was several more minutes of muttering but eventually, all thirteen members conceded to at least explore peaceful revelation, to contact the humans and see what they actually wanted. Besides, what other choice did they really have?

***

Michelle couldn't believe she was actually doing this, acting as go-between in what was likely to be the most revolutionary first contact in recorded history.

The Synod told her very specifically that she wasn't allowed to reveal any tactically significant information but that had slipped right through the cracks, she was so nervous. Barely five hours ago, she had been questioning Chris. Now so much had happened, and most of it was based off information she'd given the Synod. If it all went wrong, would it be her fault?

She spoke her identification code into the phone, as well as a codeword which indicated the supernatural nature of call's subject. She didn't even have to wait ten seconds.

"Michelle, thank God! We've been in a situation room for the last two hours, since you missed your contact time. What the Hell is going on? The feed from the Harrisburg facility came back up a couple hours ago. No one can find Director Neelson and the generals are talking about first strike capabilities like it's our only option."

"Calm down, Mr. President, and I suggest you stop talking for a moment. I'm as compromised is it gets, there are Beings listening to this conversation," Michelle replied.

"Shit!" the President exclaimed, silencing everyone in the dark, screen lit room in Washington and signalling a technician to put the call on speaker, as the Synod had done from the start. The powerful men and women assembled listened with rapt attention; in the background, someone was told to trace the call.

"You won't be able to trace it, I'm in Denver, though," Michelle explained, looking around her nervously for signs of disapproval.

"You were captured. Are you hurt? You're under duress obviously but I hope they didn't hurt you," the President said.

"I'm fine but... I ah... I'm one of them now. A familiar. They know everything I know now, they used a truth serum on me."

There was an angry outcry around the room followed by hushed muttering.

"So they let you contact us... Michelle, what is going on?"

"You're going to find this hard to believe but this is all Radek's fault. He attacked the Harrisburg facility and we barely escaped. He's trying to force a confrontation between us and the Beings. They've agreed to talk with you about peaceful negotiations; they're about as shocked by this as we were at the start."

Looking around, Michelle tried to make sure she was doing okay. Chris gave her a nod but the faces of the Synod members on the screens were stern and unreadable. She assumed they would stop her quite abruptly if she misspoke.

"Well, that's a bit hard to swallow, Michelle. I'm sorry, but by the looks on some of the faces here with me, I'd say this is what's called stalling. By our accounts, you've been in their hands for several hours and by your own admission, you're compromised."

Michelle was at a loss; she'd told the Synod that this was exactly what would happen. With Beings, once you were compromised, anything out of your mouth was worth less than a lie directly from your enemy's.

Chris looked towards the Synod in frustration. Weren't they going to do anything to help Michelle? It appeared not.

"Mr. President, if I may," Chris spoke up. "It's an honor to talk to you. My name is Christopher Baryst, the Being you've been monitoring, Michelle arrested me this morning."

"I'm aware of who you are. Son, if you hurt Michelle there will be..."

"I won't hurt her," Chris interrupted. "She's my familiar now so it's my job to look after her."

"I've read all sorts of reports about mistreatment of human ... familiars," rebutted the President.

"I'll be fine, Sir," Michelle supported.

Some of the Synod were starting to look a little irate at the dragon's boldness. However, none of them spoke up.

"Look, this is going to be hard on both sides but it comes down to this. We don't want a war, and we hope that you don't either," Chris tried to explain. "It's going to be difficult to build trust but the first thing you need to know is that Radek isn't who you think he is. He isn't your friend. As far as any of us can tell, he isn't even part of our society. And, he is certainly far more powerful than he's led you to believe. He's set this all up to start a conflict between us, both Michelle and I heard it from his mouth only hours ago, before he tried to kill us both."

"Why?" asked the President.

"I don't know but a war can't be good, can it?"

In the dark bunker, the President was searching the faces in the room for guidance, looking to his generals and advisors but ultimately having to make a decision based on his own moral compass. This was the moment any sane person in a position of power dreaded, when it came down to the line and you made a decision which would affect people's lives, a decision you would be remembered for.

"It's true, Bob," Michelle added, using his first name was an established duress signal which indicated she was telling the truth. She doubted it would actually increase her credibility but it couldn't hurt. "Radek knew who Christopher was before he identified him to us, he's a Class One dragon, for God's sake, and he's very high profile because he's only just been discovered as a Being. Radek wanted to stir up as much outrage at us amongst the Beings as possible and did the same for us by trying to kill everyone at Harrisburg."