Satyr Play 03 Pt. 01

She froze as an expression flashed across her face.

Siobhan suddenly pulled his face to hers, and her tongue was in his mouth in a frantic kiss. She moaned and shook as she flopped back down to the bed.

"What was that?!?" Henry exclaimed.

Her eyelids were still closed as she leaned her face away from him, panting and licking her lips as if trying to capture the last drops of ice cream from her lips. He watched this odd behavior with increasing unease.

"Damn, Henry! You taste so good! Like nothing I've ever had before!" she gushed.

He leaned back from her. "What have I done?" he muttered in dread.

"No, Henry! Please! It's good, I-I just need to recover from the initial shock, and I'll be able to get control of my senses once again." She went quiet, and a look of embarrassment crossed her face. "This may sound like a terrible request after what we just shared, but it might be easier for me to get control back if I was alone. You're just too strong a source of Wild Magic."

Her face froze again, and she faced him without opening her eyes. Her jaw dropped open. "You are a source! It's coming from within you!"

Henry was still feeling awkward about being kicked out so soon after their intense intimacy, so her comment about being a source took a moment to sink in. He paused and looked at her. "I'm a source?"

She nodded and tried to open her eyes but snapped them shut again as she held up a hand to shield her eyes. "It's like there's a... tear in space within you that leads to the realm of Wild Magic. It's... pouring through." She turned her head from him as she could feel where he was in the room without seeing him. Her perception of magic was back, one thousand-fold! She opened her eyes and watched the energy flowing away from Henry to splash against the walls around them before seeping through. Her head began to spin as her senses started to overload again.

"I'm sorry, Henry. It's too much. I'll come to see you tomorrow, okay?" she said delicately.

"Sure! I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he backed out of the bedroom, where he reset his glamor with the outfit he'd arrived in. He walked to the door and reached for the doorknob when he heard the bedroom door open.

"Wait! Henry!"

Siobhan rushed over to him in her dressing gown with her eyes closed but somehow didn't collide with any of the furniture in her haste.

She thumped against his chest and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Henry. You don't know what this means for me!"

"No more stubbing your toes walking through your apartment in the dark?" he teased gently, his voice still a little shaky.

She pushed back as her face flushed with intense tingles from holding him. She gave him another of her crooked smiles. "Cheeky fellow."

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said with a smile.

She tilted her face up for a kiss, and he cautiously leaned down to gently press his lips to hers.

Her arms went around his neck, and her tongue was suddenly in his mouth as she moaned.

He gently untangled himself from her arms and tongue and held her at arm's length as she panted.

"Good night!" he said as he ducked out her door and closed it behind himself. He made his way down the flights of stairs and adjusted himself in his pants. Damn, she was sexy!

He stopped in her lobby and rested his forehead against the cool tile of the wall. He let the tingles fade, and cold reality slipped back into his mind.

He pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed a number before he could talk himself out of it. It rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Marisa! It's Henry. Sorry to bother you... but I need your help."

Her voice returned with tension in it. "What's happened, Henry? Are you okay?"

"Sorry I'm fine. I was just with Siobhan, and I can't really give you any details, but... I think she might need some help or advice."

"Henry, you're not making sense. You had a date tonight with Siobhan, yes? What happ--oh!"

He could almost hear the lightbulb coming on, so he continued. "Yeah. She said she just needed to be alone, but I'm worried I've done something... bad. Maybe you could call her and see if she needs help?"

"Yes, I'll call her now. I'm sure she's fine. Take care, Henry. Good night!"

He looked at the cell's screen with a sigh, then tucked it away.

Stepping outside, he glanced around at the dark streets. He wondered if he should have had the car wait. Shrugging, he walked to the subway entrance and managed to catch the train as it entered the station. He rode this until he was able to transfer over to the Path train to New Jersey.

His mood on the way home steadily dropped

The night was clear and warm tonight as he walked down the pathway along the water's edge towards his condo. He was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed tonight. Tish was working a night shift, which was fine as he didn't feel like he'd be good company at the moment.

A stab of guilt went through him as he worried about Siobhan. The image of her rushing across the room with her eyes closed returned to him, and he felt his initial dread once more. He'd fucked up her senses, or maybe it was more accurate to say Wild Magic did that. He was tired, frustrated, and sick of magic!

"Mroww?"

Henry came out of his funk to look down at a black cat sitting on the path, looking up at him. He was immediately entranced by her eyes, one amber, and one blue. He wasn't sure why he thought the cat was female. It just popped into his mind. "Hello there, beautiful!"

"Mroww?"

"My name's Henry. What's yours?" He looked for a collar but no luck. She might be a stray.

The cat walked past Henry and looked back at him. "Mroww?"

Did it want him to follow? He'd heard of that behavior before, but tonight he just didn't have the energy. Instead, he walked over to the bench he'd last shared with Ikehorn and dropped himself wearily on it. He looked out at the darkness over the water.

He caught motion in the corner of his eye and saw the cat was now sitting on the bench watching him.

"Sorry. I'm just too tired to go wandering in the night. Besides, there are things that go bump in the night out there that you should be careful of."

The lovely eyes just watched him, so he looked back out into the darkness. "So many troubling things out there, and I can't do anything to help anyone." His expression turned bleak. "I'm asked to help a friend, and I might have fucked up her life instead." His breath caught in his chest, then more words blurted out. "I can't protect the children," he hissed quietly, thinking of his daughter with Baba Yaga, thinking of the dead infant in Kuwait City, and thinking of his child in Tish's womb. He snorted bitterly. "How can I be a father if I can't protect them? All this fucking magic, and I can't do shit with it!"

He leaned forward and put his face in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. He held his tears of frustration and despair back through sheer willpower alone. He felt overwhelmed by the responsibility he felt for the children he had no power to protect.

Henry felt a gentle nudge on his arm and looked down into mismatched eyes, watching him cautiously. He eased himself back on the bench and took slow even breaths. When he felt his equilibrium return, he gave the cat a weak smile. "Sorry for indulging in a moment of self-pity. It gets to be too much to cope with sometimes." He took another deep breath, then held out his hand for the timid cat to sniff. He felt the gentle rasp of a rough tongue licking his finger. He smiled a little more as he watched the cat breathing through her mouth. He was sure that behavior meant something, but he had no clue what. It just looked sweet and brought a smile to his face.

"Henry? Is that you?"

He looked in the direction of the familiar voice and saw Dayshia on the path. "Hi, Dayshia. What are you doing out so late?"

"I could ask you the same," she insisted.

He smiled at her. "I was just talking with my new friend here--" He turned his head, but the cat was gone. He heard a gentle snort behind him.

"Don't you have enough friends? Now you're making up imaginary ones?" Dayshia teased.

"What? No! It was a cat! Probably a stray..." He stopped when he saw the amused expression on her face.

"Very funny," he huffed.

"Come on, Cat Whisperer. Let's go inside. Is Tish working tonight?" she asked as she held out a hand to him. He nodded.

They began walking the final steps to the front door when Dayshia suddenly froze. She squeezed Henry's hand. "We're being watched," she said stiffly.

Instinct made Dayshia's eyes flare violet as she swept her gaze across the path behind them. Her sight peered into the shadows until they heard a shriek. A tall, roughly human shape jumped to his feet from behind some bushes across the road and scrambled to run away. Dayshia leaned forward and stared harder at the figure. He screamed in pain as he sprinted away and dove around the corner of a building.

Henry watched this in shock as he'd felt Dayshia pulling on his Wild Magic while she'd... attacked their stalker. He hadn't seen what she was doing, but it certainly had an effect on... the shape of their stalker was suddenly familiar

"Was that...?" Henry began.

"Roger," Dayshia confirmed in a grim voice. "I felt the pressure of someone staring at us, and it wasn't a friendly gaze. There was a definite malignant intent behind the gaze. He was preparing to attack. I-I could feel it! I don't know what Roger's become, but I doubt he was looking to talk about good times."

While he was shaken by the encounter, he could tell Dayshia had been deeply affected.

He sighed. "I'm sorry." She looked at him in surprise, so he explained. "All of this is my fault--"

"How is Roger's intent to attack us your fault?" Dayshia asked in confusion.

"Changing him, all of you, was my faul—"

Dayshia took his shoulders in her hands. "Stop. I know I was pretty hard on you for what happened, and I regret that now. I shouldn't have treated you so harshly because, in my heart, I knew you'd never intentionally harm us. You're a good person. I was scared, and I lashed out at the easiest target. I'm so sorry, Henry. Like Tish, my life has been greatly improved by my change. I wouldn't choose to be human again over this. Thank you."

Henry forced the lump in his throat down and pulled Dayshia into a hug. She felt wonderful, but he was so exhausted by the emotional rollercoaster this day had been he caught himself yawning.

Dayshia must have noticed, too, as she guided him to the front door. "You've had enough fun today. Bedtime for Henry."

He gave her a chagrined smile and a nod as he held the door for her when they entered.

She was right. He'd had enough.

-=-

Minkah waited until the coast was clear and no eyes were on her before switching back to her Human form. She stepped out of the shadows by the tree next to the bench and looked to the front door where her quarry had gone.

He wasn't at all like she'd expected. Her impression of the smaller, timid man in the large body had been strengthened by their encounter. If he'd followed her to the alley, she would have tranquilized him and stuffed him away in the council's dungeon. She wouldn't have heard his confession. He was going to be a father, and he wasn't ready. He seemed to have endured some unresolved trauma involving a child. That had shaken his confidence badly.

He'd shown her kindness and didn't try to pet her or pick her up. Instead, he'd held out his hand and let her set the pace. She'd tested his magic with a taste, and that made her fur stand on end. He'd just smiled at her, but at that moment, he could have done anything to her as her senses were overwhelmed by a new kind of magic. Only the arrival of a new threat jarred her free from her paralysis, and she'd fled.

The woman who spoke to Henry--her quarry--was one of the altered Humans she read about in the dossier. What was missing from the file was a description of her powers. Minkah witnessed the woman spot a predator that even she'd missed. It was another red-eyed sound tracker. Fear shot through her, and she didn't like that.

What happened next was beyond her experience, and if it hadn't been for the extended color range her feline eyes were capable of, she would have missed it. The woman somehow projected high-intensity beams of ultraviolet laser light from her eyes. The red-eyed monster seemed to be particularly sensitive to this wavelength and found it intensely painful. It fled but sustained multiple wounds before it escaped.

She overheard Henry and Dayshia talking after the woman drove the creature away and was shocked to learn they knew its identity. It was their missing friend, Roger Jensen, the one the Hidden Races Council had been hunting.

Now, unless there were other examples of this creature In New York, she highly suspected Roger Jensen was their serial killer. The one she'd killed in the nuclear facility caused comparable damage to the other assassin as this killer was doing to its victims. It consumed its prey.

Minkah was calling tonight a success. She'd gathered intel on the target. She'd witnessed the capabilities of one of his Wild Magic powered friends.

She also had a lead on the serial killer, which she'd hand over to Lise-Anne Hoek.

It was a good night.

Chapter 14

Carl watched his dinner guest crossing the restaurant, drawing every eye in the room. He felt the strong pull on his attention too, and a stirring down below as he imagined what it might be like to take the Succubus to bed. He frowned slightly as he couldn't recall ever feeling such a strong effect from her kind before. The woman paused in her journey to his table, and he almost felt compelled to join her. His frown deepened before he forced his self-assured smile back in place.

She was speaking to three dark-skinned women at a table by the window, and while they were all smiling, Carl picked up a change in the room's tension level.

He saw Camila respectfully bowing her head to the centermost woman, and he realized the trio must also be Succubi. He could never read their age by just looking, but the one in the middle must rank higher than Camila for her to earn the gesture. Carl hadn't felt anything from these three. They were either suppressing their nature, or Camila was pushing hers to the max, perhaps to impress him.

He glanced around the restaurant at the other patrons. There weren't many tonight, maybe three other occupied tables. He had three of his men sitting at tables of their own, as well. This was just a precaution you took when visiting a territory under someone else's control.

None of the customers were Human, this being a very exclusive restaurant, and all were behind their glamors. He saw everyone was aware of Camila's arrival.

After a few more words and another head bow, Camila moved on to approach his table.

He stood and smiled at her, leaning in to press his cheeks to hers.

"Thank you for joining me for dinner tonight, Ms. Villamor."

"Please, call me Camila," she purred, and he felt that in his pants as well.

She smiled at him again, and he couldn't help but feel the impact of that brilliant display. He glanced over at the table of three and saw them frowning angrily in Camila's direction. They suddenly stood and marched out of the restaurant.

He looked back to his guest with a raised eyebrow as he knew she was also aware of their departure.

"Any trouble?" he asked delicately.

"An internal matter," she said mildly, indicating she wouldn't speak of Succubi issues with him. He nodded and gestured to a chair he held for her. She sat, and he moved to his seat.

He personally didn't consider Succubi, or Incubi for that matter, in the same category as the Hidden Races' real hunters. Considering their diet, he equated them much lower on the food chain, closer to leeches than sharks.

Upon reflection, with the force of will rolling off the woman before him, he was willing to concede her the status of apex leech. This thought helped push back some of the uneasiness he'd begun to feel.

"I love your Cajun accent!" Camila sighed. "It's a breath of fresh air."

Carl smiled and tipped his head to her in thanks. "You've managed to keep some of your Spanish alive as well."

Camila nodded slightly. "One of the costs of moving from place to place is that it puts a strain on the valuable but intangible aspects, like accents and cultural traditions," she said a little sadly.

"Something lost, and something gained, I suppose," he agreed.

The waiter arrived with the menus, and Carl took the initiative to order an expensive bottle of red wine.

Camila glanced at him as the wine he'd selected wouldn't pair well with the salad she was considering. He seemed oblivious to his faux pas. She ordered the salad anyway. Carl chose a steak, rare, and the waiter left.

"This restaurant is best known for its preparation of meat. Yet, you went for a salad?" he asked with a smile.

"The difference is that I eat to enjoy the flavors and textures, not for sustenance," she said with a small smile. "I took care of the latter before I arrived."

"Ah yes," he nodded as if she'd shared some wisdom.

Camila returned to a point she'd been making earlier. "What pulls you away from New Orleans? I understand your business is doing well there."

"Yes, business is good! So good I'm looking for new pastures to add," he boasted.

She smiled. "It's my understanding that such activities usually come with some strife from those already in those pastures."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, it can, which is why it's not done without first establishing a strong base. Only then should one set their sights on new territory."

The waiter arrived with the wine and served them both after Carl pronounced it delicious. They were soon alone once more.

"And what territory might you be setting your sights on?" Camila asked.

"New York, of course!" he said with a gesture of his arm to encompass everything.

Camila fixed her eyes on the man. "Which part?"

"All of it! Eventually."

She relaxed a little and raised an eyebrow. "Ambitious. Where will you start?"

Carl raised his glass. "At its heart, of course. Manhattan."

Camila took a sip of the wine and did her best not to spit it in his face. It was bitter and heavy, much like the man who ordered it.

"Ah. That's a pasture that's been tended to very well for a long time. The surrounding pastures have been peacefully tended for an equally long period, and all get along in a very civil way. I've certainly not heard any rumblings of discontent from the other communities regarding how these areas are being managed."

Carl shrugged. "Other communities' concerns are their concerns. This is... an internal matter." He smiled as he used Camila's words against her.

"Unless it threatens to expose us all," she clarified.

Carl fixed his eyes on Camila. He didn't like her implied threat. He didn't want someone like her telling him he had to give up on his expansion plan. He put a smile on his face.

"I've been doing this for a long time. I control New Orleans and a large portion of southern Louisiana. I think that gives me the authority to say I know what I'm doing when it comes to territory acquisition and management."

"With all due respect, New Orleans is not New York City. The comparative population densities alone set them worlds apart--"

Carl raised a hand to stop her from continuing, then waved it dismissively. "I didn't invite you here to review the merits and challenges of the plan. I'm aware that Roy Duncan, leader of the Manhattan Pack, works for your company, VRL. I wanted to assure you that when I take over the territory, the security responsibilities his team is currently fulfilling for VRL will continue without interruption. Additionally, unlike Roy's little operation, de Bellisle Enterprises includes a law office to cover VRL's legal needs."