Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

His life signs began to fade, so she was forced to shock him. It worked but... the dagger. She scowled as she looked at Henry. He had answers, but they were forbidden to her.

She went to his monitoring station's console and set the sedative to a slightly lower volume but started his treatment again. She watched his brainwaves move from the regular sleep patterns into a deeper state. She wouldn't allow him to slip as deep as before. With a final glare at the mystery man, she tucked the dagger into her jacket and slipped out into the hall, locking the door behind her.

She had plans for the ancient weapon.

-=-

Tish unpacked her suitcase into the bureau in Kristin's guest room. She knew she'd be repacking in two days when she went to Steph's home. Her sisters had set up a schedule of who she'd be staying with over the week. With four sisters and two brothers, she had too many family members to fit into the week, but they tried. Each wanted to have a party at their home to celebrate the miracle of Tish's pregnancy, but Tish wasn't sure she could endure that much. Kristin's party completely wore her out.

When she arrived at Kristin's house, her sister almost passed out when she saw the baby bump. Then the shrieks of joy began. As the rest of the family showed up, the explosions of shock and joy continued. As she'd told Henry, she gave them minimal information about the how of her pregnancy and instead fielded many questions about Henry. Her sisters exploded into more shrieks as she finally showed them a photo of the two of them together. Steph grabbed the cell and skipped ahead to see a picture Tish had snuck of Henry's naked Human body from behind. That produced screams the neighbors were sure to hear. Tish was relieved she'd kept her promise to never keep photos of their true selves.

It was an emotionally charged day.

She'd missed her family and promised herself she would take more time to visit them more often. She wasn't sure how this was going to work when she had a Faun child. Regular Hidden Races people didn't have Human relatives they had to keep secrets from. She couldn't put them at risk.

She sat on the edge of the bed and thought about how sweet Henry had been when he'd told her about his worries and his joy at being a father. She felt a warmth enveloping her, and she flopped back on the mattress with a smile as she could feel Henry's strong arms around her. She looked up and saw the ceiling spinning. She was more tired than she thought.

Lips caressed hers as she felt Henry's strong Satyr arms wrapping around her once more.

She lifted her hands to rest them on his chest as her body filled with warmth and his energy. Her exhaustion caught up to her, and with Henry's love filling her mind, she fully relaxed and felt lips kiss her belly.

A sweet smile surfaced as she finally fell asleep.

-=-

Kesini was restless, and that wasn't letting Sandy fall asleep either. The truth was, sleeping in her childhood bed felt weird. It was almost like she'd never traveled to New York to make a life for herself, never got a job at the hospital, never inherited the condo from her grandmother, and never met Stanley then Henry. Kesini hugged her, which helped dispel those unhappy thoughts, but she still missed Henry.

Showing up in town and seeing how little everything had changed had shaken her. It really felt like a bubble in time. Her parents looked older, and the house looked a little more worn down as her father wasn't able to maintain it as well.

Kesini was on her best behavior and gave absolutely no sign of her presence. This helped Sandy relax.

There was some kind of high school gymnastics competition underway, which had drawn in parents and students from all over the county. The hotels were booked, so Sandy had no choice but to stay in her old bedroom with her folks.

She met the neighbors and her parent's friends, and they, too, just looked a little older. At dinner that night, they talked about the same things Sandy had heard when she lived there. Needing to shake that feeling, Sandy talked about her life in New York, minus all the magic stuff. They listened, enthralled, but none were eager to experience it first-hand.

They talked about the serial killer with fear in their eyes, and her parents showed extra concern for their daughter, but she deflected with questions about her brother. Apparently, her parents hadn't heard anything from him either.

Sandy's thoughts returned to how stagnant this town felt to her and how much she missed her new home and Henry in particular. She struggled to keep her tears at bay, but she was losing that fight as she was so tired from the trip.

She sucked in a sudden breath when she felt large hands gently touch her face, thumbs brushing away her tears. It was Henry!

Kesini swept forward, but there was no one there to hug. She was confused until she felt Henry's strong hands slide back through her hair to massage her scalp and the back of her head. Kesini trembled and settled to the bed as Sandy sighed happily. When she felt his lips gently kiss hers, and a flush of energy rushed through her, she fully relaxed, and Kesini curled up beside her.

That's how sleep found them.

-=-

Dayshia was pacing in her sister's guest room. This motion matched how her brain went round and round, struggling with her inability to deal with how she felt about Henry, currently the only man in her life.

This always happened when she spent time with her sister and her wonderful husband. They were a perfect couple, in her mind at least. They loved, respected, and supported each other even if they didn't always see eye to eye on all things.

Dayshia screwed up all her relationships. There was always something she'd identify as a deal-breaker. Her inability to compromise on even the smallest of issues inevitably meant she'd break up.

Henry's issues were the largest of all. He wasn't human. He was a creature of magic. He'd turned her into one too. He upended her entire life without so much as a may I.

Then there was the fact that he had many lovers. She despised players but putting him in that category felt wrong, too.

Yet for all that, she was intensely attracted to him and thought he was one of the sweetest men she'd ever met.

He made her so confused! The fact that he didn't match her ideal mate in so many ways made her begin to doubt what her ideal was.

She wished she could talk with him about it, but she was terrified of the change that might bring.

Dayshia dropped herself onto the edge of the bed and put her face in her hands.

She squeaked when she felt the pressure of large hands resting on her knees. She felt the warmth and energy from Henry seeping into her body.

Glancing quickly to confirm she'd locked the bedroom door, she dropped her glamor and let her eyes scan through a range of frequencies. Nothing.

Then she thought about how Henry might be here only as energy, so she concentrated on picturing that in her mind as she closed and slowly opened her eyes again. She felt her energy levels draining as she projected a black light from her eyes, which caused an outline of him to appear, as he knelt before her in his Satyr form. He moved to sit next to her and took her hand in his. The effort to see him this way lessened as he began to feed her more energy through his touch.

"Henry? Are you okay?" She knew he didn't travel out of his body willfully. His jaw appeared to move, but she heard nothing. She saw him pause then wobble his hand side to side in the so-so gesture. Speaking with him didn't appear to be possible.

"Where are you?" she asked.

His hand moved up to bump himself on his forehead. What did that mean? Then he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. Tingles shot through her body. He held her hand against his cheek, and his warmth and magic filled her.

"Oh! I miss you, too!" she gasped.

The doorknob rattled, and Dayshia snapped her glamor back in place.

"Dayshia? Are you okay in there?" her sister Beth asked from the other side of the door.

"Yes!" she said and felt Henry slip away. She got to her feet and opened her door. Beth glanced in the room and saw her sister's cell on the dresser. She looked at Dayshia.

"Who's Henry?"

Dayshia frowned at her big sister. "You still listening at your little sister's door?"

"I was just passing by this time. Besides, you were always the wild one. The one I had to keep tabs on for daddy. Now, don't you go changing the topic. Who's Henry?" Beth said with her hands on her hips.

Dayshia pouted and huffed. "He's... he's a friend."

Beth's eyebrow went up. "A friend you miss that much," she said, nodding downward towards Dayshia's generous bosom, where a certain excited stiffness was displayed against her nightie.

The younger sister wrapped her arms in front of her. "Rude!"

"You're the one getting hot and bothered in my guest room. Where is he?" Beth said.

Dayshia scowled at her sister. "He's obviously not here! He's back in Jersey City. He has a condo in my new building."

"Is he another of your bad boys?" Beth asked wearily, and Dayshia burst into laughter at the thought of Henry being thought of that way.

Beth watched her sister in surprise.

When Dayshia managed to calm her laughter, she smiled at her sister's burning curiosity. "No. Henry is the opposite of a bad boy. He's a tech nerd. He's the CIO of an investment house. He's all about computers, networks, and tech."

Beth's face lit up with a smile. "A CIO with an investment house? That's quite the departure for you!"

Dayshia's earlier troubled thoughts intruded. Henry really was a change in direction for her. She couldn't keep that doubt from her face, and her observant sister caught it.

"What's wrong? Is he married? A cross-dresser? Abusive? A Serial Killer?"

Dayshia scowled at Beth. "No! He's a sweet, kind man."

Beth looked once more to her little sister's cell phone. "You have a picture of this prince among men?"

Dayshia nodded and picked up her phone to launch her photo gallery app to scroll through her pictures. She found one Sandy took of her with Henry and handed the cell to Beth.

Her sister's eyes widened as she looked at the big man. "Ooo, he's pretty!"

Dayshia couldn't keep the satisfied grin from her lips. "And his kisses make me melt in his big hands!"

Beth's eyebrows rose. "Have you determined if anything else is big?" She burst into giggles at her own audaciousness, and Dayshia joined her.

Chris, Beth's husband, appeared in the doorway in his jammies. "Can you two keep it down? You're gonna wake the kids."

"Sorry, baby. We'll be quiet. Go to bed. I'll be there shortly," Beth said to him.

Dayshia noticed Chris looked pretty good in his sleepwear too.

The man nodded with a little frown and closed the door gently behind himself.

Beth turned back to her sister. "Well?"

"Oh! Yes, he's... nicely equipped."

"So, you've had sex with him," Beth said bluntly.

Dayshia's expression lost some of its joy as she shook her head.

The older sister's brows came down in concern. "What's wrong?"

"You know how I am in relationships." She took a shaky breath. "I've found flaws in every man I've been with, and I always break up with them. Nothing lasts." She looked into Beth's eyes. "You're right about Henry, though. He's... an extreme departure from my usual boyfriends."

"He doesn't have issues like the others?" Beth asked.

Dayshia snorted explosively, and Beth looked at her in surprise. Dayshia gave her head a quick shake as her expression became pensive. She knew what her issues with Henry were, and none of them could be explained to her sister. She shook her head again, more gently this time. When she closely examined the concerns she had, searching for the big deal-breaker, she realized none gave her the same gut-level rejection she'd felt with other boyfriends. "They just... don't seem as important with him."

Beth gave her sister a hug. "That's love, baby girl." She smiled tenderly at her sister.

Dayshia took a deep breath. "What I have now with Henry is so good, I'm terrified I'll destroy it if I go further."

"If you don't take that chance, you'll also never know how much better it could be," her big sister admonished gently.

Dayshia looked into the loving eyes of her sister and knew she was right. She gave her a small nod.

Beth kissed her forehead as she used to do when she had her big sister talks with Dayshia during their childhood. "Time for you to get some rest. We're going to see dad tomorrow, and he hasn't been himself recently. It's going to be a trying day."

"Thank you, Beth."

The woman smiled at her sister and nodded. "You're welcome." She went to the door and looked back. "You need to bring that hunk with you on your next visit."

Dayshia smiled and nodded.

Beth grinned and went to join her husband.

Dayshia closed the door and locked it once more, just as a precaution.

As she settled under the sheets, she recalled the sensation of Henry's touch tonight and realized she needed to get past her fear. Henry wasn't going to hurt her. It wasn't in him to do that.

She smiled as she thought about Beth's words. She wanted to know how much better it could be.

-=-

Henry was feeling his energy levels dropping as he checked in on his friends. He'd felt an intense need to reach out to them after his ordeal with Mab. Her threat to hurt his friends struck too close to home, and he needed to reassure himself that they were okay.

He wasn't sure if he would be able to find the ones not at home in his current state as he didn't know their actual location. He concentrated on how he felt about them, and his connection to them through the Wild Magic made them stand out in the distance like arc lights beaming their brilliance up into the sky. Surrounding their beams was a sea of candles, which had to be Humans based on their numbers. He was a little confused that Humans showed up at all, but he pushed that aside with his joy at finding his friends.

Now, he was discovering that physically moving shit was exhausting, and lifting Tish to reposition her on the bed may have been a little over the top.

Before he lost the ability to communicate at all tonight, he needed to tell someone about Mab. As he'd discovered with Dayshia, speaking was not an option.

Mahati wasn't lighting up the horizon as she was a wielder of the old magic. Henry knew where to go to find her.

Home.

He found himself standing outside his door. Instead of going in, he moved to Mahati's place and slipped through her door. He found her burning the midnight oil, working on her laptop.

He looked closer, and she was typing something into a document. He reached past her and pressed the enter key. It wasn't too difficult, so he felt confident he'd found a way to leave her a message.

She stopped typing to see her paragraph had broken. Cursing softly, she moved the cursor back to the break and fixed the text.

Her kitchen sink tap suddenly began running, and she squeaked in surprise. Cautiously, she got up and went to shut it off.

While her keyboard was open, Henry moved the cursor down and started a new paragraph. He typed quickly, in point form, as he felt his strength waning. He paused as he was beginning to hear sounds from the hospital room. There was a voice speaking words he couldn't comprehend. A Fae spell and the drugs were waning! He focused on the keyboard and pushed the last few keys before he felt himself pulled back to his body.

Slowly blinking his eyes open, he saw the doctor watching him.

"There you are. You've been a naughty boy, flitting about while your body is secured here. We're going to have to put up some additional barriers around you to keep you in place."

His brow furrowed as how could she have known?

As if reading his mind, she chuckled, but the humor never reached her cold eyes. "The dagger. I did my research, and the last sighting of it was millennia ago when our former queen used it to clear her way to the throne. No one else has seen it since, yet you brought it to me. This means you went to see her. The bloodstains on your gown tell me she used it on you, yet you're alive, and you had the dagger when I brought you back. Is she finally dead?"

He tried to glare at her, but whatever she'd done to him was making everything so hard to do. "Too soon," he sighed.

Her eyebrows went up. "Had I waited a few more moments, it would have been done?"

He nodded slightly.

"Ah, that's on me then."

He needed to tell her Mab was preparing to kill the Fae, but he'd reached the end of his strength. He didn't sleep, but he wasn't awake. The spell she'd used on him tied him to the threshold, and he knew that she could keep him there indefinitely. He'd just have to counteract it. It was strong, but it wasn't Wild Magic.

If he could break free from the lethargy first.

Chapter 30

Minkah stared at the destruction in the cafeteria with wide eyes. The orderlies were doing their best to separate the salvageable bits, but it was clear they wouldn't be having breakfast here. Even the coffee maker was a smashed mess.

"What happened here?" she asked as Rand wandered in with a sour look on his face.

"Who's the only new inmate in this prison?" the dwarf growled.

She immediately scowled at him as he seemed to target Henry for everything that bothered him, and she was seriously tired of it. "You've got him locked in a cell. Didn't you say he'd be unconscious for the rest of his days?" she snapped.

He glared at her. "Listen, nothing about that Satyr is normal or predictable. The rules don't seem to apply to him, and crazy shit has been happening since the day he first appeared. We should have terminated him the moment we learned of his existence. Back when there was only one of those fucking animals!"

Minkah froze. Satyr? Henry was a member of an extinct race? That seemed significant. Why wasn't that included in the file?

Of more immediate concern, Animals? What the FUCK?

Rand's speciesism had surfaced, and it was an ugly thing. Her muscles began to vibrate. He froze as well as he suddenly recalled the tall woman beside him was a Bastet.

"Perhaps you should go back to the city without me. Now," Minkah said slowly, and Rand nodded, walking away cautiously.

She struggled to get her nerves to calm. Running after the bigot to gut him with her knives might feel good, but it wasn't a good idea.

She'd have to find the center's administrator to arrange for another car for her to drive back to the city. Speak to the woman who'd completely dismissed her the night before.

Shit.

-=-

"Billy! The boss wants to see you!" Ted bellowed over the echoing whine of the crane moving into place to move the huge ladle. He saw the man wave to him and head towards the exit.

The heat was barely tolerable even from this far out, but at least he wasn't basting in his own juices in one of those silver suits. Ted was a floor manager now, and his days of working that close to the liquid metal were over. He climbed the stairs to the observation booth, where he could see the entire operations area.

He had a good crew, and they were going to exceed their monthly numbers. This brought a smile to his face. Maggie was going to be happy with that bonus check he was going to get.

He kept his eyes on the massive ladle as the crane carefully lifted the heavy container and moved it to its pouring position. Slowly the ladle tipped, and the molten metal began to pour.

Ted loved this part. Watching the creation of new steel.

"Did you hear the report of last night's light show?"

Ted glanced to his left and saw Mike Bentley, his crew chief, walk into the booth. He shook his head as both men turned their heads back to the pouring.