SELENA

WOULD YOU LOVE A MONSTER GIRL?

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CEBELIUS

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 CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Afterword

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 1

J ames sat at one end of an oblong, green-felted table with eight other men,
two cards face down in front of him, staring at a pile of chips with no
particular expression on his face.
Most of them had drinks either in hand or on side tables next to their
chairs. All but one were openly speculating about the hand, grinning and
glancing from him to the only other person silent at the table.
That man was rail thin, with skin that looked like it had been hung out
in the summer sun to dry and pale gray eyes under a battered wrangler's hat
curled up on the right side. He was also on James' immediate right.
The rest of the room was loud and smoke-filled, packed with men used
to handling hard lives with hard drinking. All around were taxidermy
animals, antler racks, and above the bar was a full-size wyvern head with
jaws agape. It was a rough-and-tumble place, but James didn't see any of it.
He didn't really even see the chips, and he wasn't thinking about the hand.
He'd already made his decision; he was just waiting to see what would
happen.
At last, the man in the wrangler's hat snarled and slapped his cards
down over the five already in the middle of the table as he said, "Gawd
dammit!"
The dealer, a woman too young to look as old as she did, reached out
and scooped the chips toward James, who waited for them to cross the
faded line in the worn felt on his side before he picked up his own two
cards and tossed them toward the center, leaving them face down.
 Wrangler man abruptly stood and reached for those cards, but James
stood with him and slammed his hand down atop the other man's. Wrangler
snarled, "I wanna see them cards!"
"Then you should have paid," James said quietly. He paused, meeting
the other man's eye, then added, "You didn't."
"You don't get to make the rules here, scrub!" Wrangler growled,
twisting his hand over to catch James' wrist as he reared back, set a foot on
the edge of the table, and yanked hard.
James hadn't expected such a rapid escalation and wasn't a particularly
heavy man. He came around the edge of the table as everyone else slid back
as one, already cheering the action. No one seemed to think the game was
more important, or that the money mattered.
For James, it did.
That didn't help him as he was hip-checked to land face down on the
hard concrete floor, stars bursting in his vision as he rolled instinctively
away from the table, catching a boot aimed for his head on his shoulder
instead.
The force of the blow actually helped him to his feet and he came up
swinging as wrangler man stepped in with a lightning-quick jab that caught
James just under the eye. His own looping punch missed as the angry loser
dodged under it, coming up with a vicious uppercut that snapped James'
head back and sent him sprawling off his feet again.
"That's what you get for grabbin' me, fucker! Now lemme see them
cards!"
James only dimly heard the words through the ringing in his ears, but he
rolled over and pressed himself to his feet again, then shook himself as
wrangler man screamed, "Ah fuckin' knew it! Scrub fucker didn't have
nuthin!"
Taking a deep breath and a step forward as he loaded up, James was
already halfway through a swing he brought in from way back when
wrangler turned back to face him, and caught the other man clean.
The hat flew off and James felt the leathery skin under his knuckles split
as blood and spit sprayed away. Wrangler's head snapped to one side, he
came down hard on his heels, then hit his knees before planting his face on
the concrete, out before he hit the ground.
"Holy SHIT! Newbie just put sarge's lights out!" a big man with a florid
face and a beer bottle in one hand crowed, not even up out of his seat as he
looked down at the sprawled-out fellow on the floor.
All eyes turned to James, who had a hand on his jaw. He rolled it once
before he said, "I don't care who you are. You want to see my cards, you
pay. And don't think of mixing those piles. I got eighty-seven fifty with that
pot, and I better get every fucking cent."
A deep, authoritative voice said, "Game's done, boys. Sort those chips
and pay this man."
"Yessir!" came from several different throats as James turned to see
Captain Floyd Grayson — head of a soldier of fortune company the Black
Jacks — also with a beer bottle in hand but otherwise neat and tidy in a
black uniform with gold trim. He was square-jawed, clean shaven, with a
high widow's peak of black hair and blue eyes, standing tall at six foot four.
He had broad shoulders and his tailored uniform revealed the sharply
defined taper of a man who kept himself in top condition. He looked every
inch the soldier.
"You don't move much like a man with a broken back, James," Grayson
said as he smoothly wrapped an arm over James' shoulder and turned to
walk away with him.
"The treatments work," James said quietly, glancing over his shoulder at
the pile of chips he was leaving behind.
"Oh, don't you worry about that. They'll get you your money," Grayson
said with an easy smile. "I saw the whole thing. Seven trey off-suit? You
run some dubious cards, son."
Shrugging, James said, "I won."
"Yes you did. Curious what made you think you could."
"He didn't have enough strength to call," James said absently, glancing
away as the reminder of his old profession sent him down darker paths. "I
was a cop. I'm pretty good at reading people ... especially half-drunk
people."
"Well, you've got balls, and you can take a hit. Let's talk about your first
real assignment with us."
"Finally ready to take me off admin?" James said, looking at the captain
with a hopeful expression.
Grayson nodded and said, "If you can come up off a concrete floor
twice with enough juice left to knock the other guy out in one punch, you
can run an op. There's a contract we plan to fill, and we need everyone who
can pull a trigger when it counts. It'll be bloody."
 "Non-humans?" James asked.
When the other man nodded, he said, "I'm in. Just ... don't put me in that
guy's squad."
"Him?" Grayson sneered, shaking his head. "You'll be taking Dewey's
place. A man who can't abide the rules of a game he agreed to play doesn't
get paid, and as I said, I saw it all. We're en route in thirty."
"A combat op at the end of the day with no notice?" James asked,
forgetting himself in his surprise.
Grayson chuckled and said, "There was notice, you just weren't in the
know. Now you are. This op isn't for the whole unit. It's a handpicked crew,
and I'm the one doing the picking. You good?"
"I'm good."
The captain clapped him on the back as he said, "Knew you would be.
Collect your winnings and load up. We've got a truck idling out front. Be on
it in five. You'll get your gear at staging."
"Yessir!"

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 2

S elena took a deep breath , let it out slowly, and said, "Consider your
position, chieftain. My patron is offering protection. All he requires is your
service. We both know you no longer have enough raiders to protect your
territories. Under our auspices, not only will you gain time to recover, your
influence will increase. Without us your tribe will be overrun by the end of
the season. Your females will be confiscated, the rest of the males made
slaves or killed. This shouldn't be a difficult decision."
Silence was her answer, and she schooled herself to patience. She kept
her body coiled, her hands folded before her, and her hood retracted as she
waited for the orc chieftain to speak.
He was big, at least for his kind, and though strong it was obvious he
was a replacement for someone stronger. He was no raider, and he knew it.
Selena knew it too. She could sense the fear in him by the heat that suffused
his face. She could sense every tiny fluctuation of his temperature, and long
experience with his kind had given her everything she needed to read him
despite the lack of overt expression.
This creature was a coward. When he inevitably said no, she would be
forced to use ... stronger methods of persuasion.
It was all very tedious, and Selena had long since come to resent being a
strong arm for a dragon whose time had come and gone. As she waited to
take the next step, she wondered if she could simply escape. The human
city-state nearby might offer her sanctuary.
"Dragons don't protect. They take slaves," the orc said, obviously
struggling to get the words out past his fear. "We refuse."
 Selena sighed, then languidly spread her hood as she tasted the air
between them. The chieftain recoiled as she straightened from her slouch to
tower over him, the shadow of her hood falling across his face as she said,
"Defiance is only noble when it serves a purpose. Yours is futile. Serve us,
or be replaced."
He tried to look away, but it too late. His eyes were locked on hers, and
she reached out to gently set a hand on his shoulder. It took a strong will to
break her mental dominance, and this creature didn't have what it took.
"Go to hell!" the chieftain blurted, knees visibly shaking.
"You first," Selena said, then spread her jaws wide, fangs dropping into
place as she hissed. It was a quiet sound, but she knew it would be the
loudest thing this orc ever heard. All she had to do was hold the threat a few
seconds longer and this weakling's feeble resistance would collapse.
The moment shattered with the sound of gunfire. Selena closed her
mouth abruptly as she glanced toward the entrance to the hut. Freed of her
mental suggestion, the chieftain spun away, pulled a human firearm off a
rack near the entrance, then turned to face her with a snarl on his face.
His mistake was meeting her gaze a second time.
She reared back, hood opened wide and eyes blazing as she said, "You
would not dare. Go, coward, and die to the guns of the humans. Had you
not so long delayed me, this would not be your fate."
He tried, but her will smothered his, and he couldn't bring the weapon to
bear. At last, he snarled, "I'd rather be shot down than serve your master!"
"So be it," she replied with a quiet wave of dismissal. He turned and
fled the hut, raising his weapon as his eyes tracked something she couldn't
see.
A staccato burst of sound greeted the move, and before the blanket over
the entrance settled back into place the erstwhile chieftain was soaking the
ground with his blood.
"Fool," Selena said, coiling down until only her irregular portion
remained upright, hands resting on her uppermost coil as she waited. She'd
been through several human engagements since the war and knew she had
no hope of escaping unnoticed through the middle of a firefight. Once
they'd slain the orcs foolish enough to put up resistance they would search
the huts for loot. In doing so they would be less likely to shoot her on sight.
As long as she could engage in conversation, she could talk her way out.
While human soldiers tended to have stronger wills than their civilians,
they'd likely be no match for her.
Several minutes later she knew she'd misjudged the situation. The
sounds of screams and gunfire had given way to that of roaring flame. No
one had even attempted to search the hut she sat in. Worry gnawed at her as
she slid out of her coils to a spot near the entrance, tasting the air and
searching in vain for heat blooms. She'd waited too long; the fires all
around her made any human signatures invisible.
Hissing discontentedly, she got down on her belly, crossing her arms
over her chest to protect it as she slithered out of the hut, pausing just
outside to take a long look around. Seeing no one, she turned and hastily
made her way toward the edge of the village. If she made it into the trees
she'd almost certainly get away. The mountainside was familiar to her as
she'd spent most of the last six months exploring the area, getting to know
the various tribes and other, less sociable denizens.
As she came to the edge of the village and passed the last of the fires
her heat sense began to return, but what it told her filled her with dread.
She'd come out into a semi-circle of armored soldiers, and in almost the
same moment that she saw them, they saw her. With guns trained on her
from several directions, she raised her hands, palms up and fingers together,
then slowly lifted her upper body as she said, "I surrender."
"What the fuck is that?" someone asked.
"Lamia," came from another direction. "There weren't supposed to be
any of them around here. Hey sarge, what do?"
Selena kept silent, though it galled her. She was not a lamia.
"Who cares what it is. Kill it," another man said.
Selena spread her hands a bit further as she said, "I will make no
trouble. I was visiting the village for trade. Please ... let me go. I'm not
hostile to humans."
"Like that makes any difference," one said, and the bitter edge in his
voice turned Selena to look.
At first glance, there was nothing really to differentiate the man from
his companions, but a closer look revealed subtle, telling disparities. His
equipment was one such. Much of it was obviously new, but there were a
few items that showed significant wear, and a glance around at the others
told her they were unique to him. As well, unlike the other men, this one
was using a hand gun rather than a rifle. His stance was practiced. Of all the
men surrounding her, he was most on edge. The others were largely
unconcerned, having already accomplished what they came for. This one
was ready and willing to kill her.
"Chill out, newbie. She's not part of the kill orders, and she's an unusual
species. We'll take her back to staging and let the captain decide what to do
with her," one of the other men said, and as the rest agreed, the on-edge one
lowered his weapon slightly, then raised it again.
He said, "Start moving, and keep your hands where I can see them. That
way."
Following his instructions, Selena arrived at a small clearing about half
a mile down the mountain. Only two men accompanied her, but every time
she attempted conversation the one with the handgun warned her to silence.
She could sense the tension in him, and knew it was probably his first
operation with these men. Yet, that didn't account for his borderline
hostility. The others hadn't cared about her one way or another, but this man
seemed to be looking for an excuse to put a bullet in her.
While she didn't typically carry weapons, she was very familiar with
and had trained with several varieties, including handguns and rifles. She
had a healthy respect for them, which was one of the many reasons she'd
lived so long.
The clearing had a pair of all-terrain vehicles designed for troop
transport, and she estimated there must be somewhere between twenty-five
and forty men involved in the operation if those two transports had been full
when they arrived. Given what she knew about the orcish village, half that
number would have been enough.
She glanced back and saw the orange glow of the fire lighting up the
mountain behind and above them. She hadn't seen any other prisoners. No
females. No young.
Just her.
"What's this?"
The voice was deep and ripe with authority. Selena turned to meet the
inquisitive look of a large human with receding hair and blue eyes. The hair
was dyed black — she could tell by its unnatural shade — and there were
other traces the man was hiding his true age. That said, there was nothing
weak in his posture or physique, and his eyes were sharp and casually
penetrating.
He also didn't meet her gaze for long enough to allow her in.
"Found her trying to sneak out of the village," the pistolier said.
 "Nagini are rare," the man said with quiet appreciation. "Very rare. Did
she tell you what she was doing?"
"Nagini?" the man asked, reaching up to pull his helmet and goggles
off. "I thought she was a lamia."
"Hah! No. Lamias look almost human from the 'waist' up. This is
definitely a female naga, though I've never seen one personally before. I've
got a watch order for one of these. Good job bringing her down alive and
unharmed."
"Don't blame me. I'd just as soon put a bullet in her," the man grumbled.
"That's the difference between new recruits and old salt. If they aren't in
the kill orders, we don't waste the bullets. Besides, like I said, I have a
watch order for one of these. Perry! How'd he do?"
The other man nodded and said, "Rock solid, Captain. Killed two that I
saw. Dropped 'em both on the charge with that peashooter of his. Four
shots. Dude's pro ... you'd never know he was just a cop."
As he spoke, the man patted his belly then his forehead, indicating the
pistolier had finished his kills with headshots.
"The Daytau police don't tolerate slackers, Perry. As for you, James,
you've earned your pay and a little something extra. Here."
Selena watched as the man pulled a coin from his pocket, then flipped it
toward James, the man with the pistol. The unmistakable glimmer of gold
caught her eye as it flew. James caught and turned the coin, examining it as
he asked, "What's this?"
"Just what it looks like, and yes, that's real gold. You keep that on you.
If you're in trouble that can open a lot of doors out here in the Tracts. We'll
talk more about it later. For now, mount up. James, you stay with this one.
We've got zip ties in the transports. Bind her wrists and fasten them to a
brace behind her. She's got poison and can spit, but it's a hemotoxin and
isn't strong enough to kill immediately. She doesn't seem like she wants to
die tonight, so you should be fine. Provided we get this one delivered,
there'll be a bonus."
"Yessir."
The captain walked away with the other man, Perry, as James turned on
her, eyes cold. Selena looked him up and down. Now that he'd taken off his
helmet and goggles, she could see he had brown eyes and hair. He was of
average human height, perhaps an inch or two under six feet. His build was
disguised by his armor and baggy clothing, but there was nothing to suggest
he was unfit. There was a rifle on a speed sling on his back, which told her
he used the pistol because it was genuinely a better weapon for him.
"Turn and walk. Stop at the back of the truck, there," he said, drawing
her attention back to his face.
"What is a cop?" she asked, though as she spoke she did as he bade. The
man still hadn't relaxed, and his weapon was still in his hand. She wanted to
open a dialog with him. The more she could get him to know about her, the
less likely he was to shoot her.
"Never mind," he said. "Just do what I tell you and you'll live through
the night."
She didn't try again until her hands were bound behind her and secured
to a rail in the transport. She deliberately left most of her body coiled at the
far end, leaving only the space directly across from her empty for him to sit.
Since he'd been standing there to secure her, it shouldn't strike him as odd.
She knew she'd done well when he glanced at the length of her body coiled
toward the tailgate and scowled, then sat down where she wanted him. The
closer he was, the more effective her eye contact would be.
Selena considered what opener to try next. Most of the time she'd have
asked a question about him, but she sensed he wouldn't be open to telling
her anything, so instead she said, "Your captain is a very knowledgeable
man. Not many people know the difference between lamia and naga."
He glanced at her, then away again, foiling her attempt at eye contact.
The length of her body seemed to be his primary focus, though she knew he
could see her face in his periphery. He said, "Oh yeah? I didn't know there
was a difference. I thought they were just two words for the same thing."
"Lamia are ... closer to human, I suppose," Selena said, tone thoughtful.
"They have flesh. Their faces and heads are similar to your own."
"Hair instead of hoods, that sort of thing?" he asked, glancing up at her
face, then away again.
She nodded slowly, keeping her frustration at not being able to make
eye contact out of her voice as she said, "Just so."
"Good to know."
"Is it?" she asked, deciding to try another soft probe. "Do you have a
fear of snakes?"
"I wouldn't be sitting here if I did," he said irritably. "Stop talking."
"I can see that you have no idea why I'm being taken prisoner, so asking
about that would be futile, but would it be too much to ask why you seem to
dislike me so much? What have I done to deserve your hatred?"
"Non-humans ruined my life," he said shortly, glancing irritably at her
again, then away.
"You seem to be doing well enough. You are healthy, employed, and
apparently skilled in your chosen profession. I would venture to say most
humans have less than you."
"Looks can be deceiving. I answered your question, so would you do
me a favor in return?" he asked, glancing up at her and — for the first time
— making sustained eye contact.
She gazed back at him, then flinched at the completely unyielding
willpower she found behind his eyes as she asked, "Yes?"
As he stared at her, he very deliberately said, "Shut. Up."
Then he broke contact, and she fell silent as she considered what she
had learned.
The human across from her was a hard man, driven into a corner and
crushed by circumstances of which she knew nothing. Yet she did know that
what she dealt with was a shell, not a core, and what lay underneath that
shell might be just what she needed.
She knew full well what a police officer was, and nothing about this
man suggested he had forgotten that life. Rather, he clearly resented being
forced to his present circumstance. He wanted to be the man he used to be,
and a man with desire could be swayed. The trick would be finding out
what he needed, then convincing him she could provide it.

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 3

T he naga stayed quiet and compliant, but everything about her was deeply
unnerving. He'd seen a variety of non-humans in his life, but he'd never
seen anything like her. She was ... a snake with arms, yet her face was
expressive in a way he would have been hard-pressed to explain. Her eyes
were golden, with big black pupils, and she seemed to see right through him
whenever she made eye contact. She was hooded like a cobra. Her belly
scales were pale, but the rest of her was the most vibrant pattern of green
and black he'd ever seen. It was so brilliant it didn't seem real.
Her clothing consisted of little more than a worn bandeau around her
chest ... and the fact that a snake had tits left him with more than a few
questions. If he were being honest, those chesticles of hers made it a lot
harder for him to take her seriously as a threat.
She very clearly was a threat. She was a monster. James put a rough
estimate of her length at around twenty feet. She had short, sharp black
claws on her hands, and the captain had told him she was venomous. She
was thick enough and probably strong enough to crush the life out of a
human too, and James couldn't help but wonder if she'd ever eaten people.
She was big enough to do it, given what little he knew about snakes.
Yet, that expressive face of hers, those depthless eyes ... and what the
hell was a snake doing with a rack? It made no sense.
He wanted to ask. It was the only real question he had about her. Why
would a snake have boobs?
James rolled his eyes hard at himself and tried to focus on something
else, but there just wasn't much else to look at. She filled up the back of the
truck and the road they were on was rough, so every time he caught
movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced her way, all he saw was
the jiggling set that should not be.
It didn't help that he was the only guard assigned, not that he could
blame the captain. When he'd come around and had a look at all the snake
crammed into the back, he only shook his head and had everyone else load
into the other transport. There'd only been twenty guys on the detail so it
wasn't a problem, but that left him stuck with the monster. And she really
did take up most of the space. She probably weighed as much as half of the
team she'd displaced.
"Why do I have them?"
"Huh?"
He glanced at her, eyes bouncing down, then up again, and found out it
was apparently possible for nagas to smile. While her face looked at first
glance just like a snake's, she clearly had more complex control over her
features than a typical animal. Her expressions were disturbingly human.
Her expression was wry as she said, "You keep glancing at my chest. I
can only assume you're wondering why."
That isn't the only assumption you could make, he thought, but did not
say. He didn't answer out loud at all. Talking to her unnerved him. He'd
spoken to plenty of non-humans over the course of his life, but never one so
... vastly different.
"We breed with humans. Mammalian secondary sexual characteristics
are a commonality virtually all non-humans share," she said, answering the
question he hadn't asked.
"Have you?" he asked, then gritted his teeth.
"No, though ... I got close once," she said, glancing out the back of the
transport at nothing. It was dark, the road they were on was barely worth
the name, and the tail lights illuminated the boles of trees and low-hanging
canopy that constantly scraped the canvas roof over their heads.
"What happened?" he asked, interested despite himself.
She glanced down at herself. James followed her eye, but didn't see
anything remarkable. Nevertheless, it was obvious she was looking at a
particular spot as she said, "He stabbed me. Several times."
James raised an eyebrow as he drawled, "You weren't as close as you
think you were if he stabbed you."
 "I doubt you would understand," she said, glancing back up into his
eyes.
"Probably not," he said, breaking eye contact immediately. "I can
honestly say I've never been tempted to stab someone I was about to have
sex with. Are you sure you weren't about to rape him and just got careless
with the cutlery?"
"Yes. I'm sure. He lied to me. He told me he loved me."
"Yeah? Where is he now?"
When she didn't answer he glanced over, then away again when he
found her staring intently at him. She was always trying to make eye
contact. It was like she was attacking him with her gaze.
He flatly declared, "You killed him."
"You would have too, in my place," she said.
"I doubt I'd have ever put myself in your place," he said dryly.
"What's a cop?" she asked.
James hesitated, then said, "A cop upholds the law."
"If that's what you are, why are you here in these lawless lands?" she
asked.
Shrugging, James glanced absently out the back of the rumbling
transport as he said, "I got stabbed."
"I suppose we have that in common," she said.
He glanced at her, then away again, and she asked, "Why don't you look
at me?"
"I'm always looking at you."
"Why won't you look me in the eye?"
"I don't like the way you look back."
She was silent then, for several long minutes. James let his mind drift,
and was surprised when she abruptly asked, "Do you know what these men
plan to do with me?"
"I have no idea."
"Your captain mentioned there was a watch order for one of my kind.
Do you know what that means?"
"No clue. This is my first real operation with the Black Jacks."
"An ominous name."
"It's a soldier of fortune company; they all have ominous names. No one
wants to hire the Witty Pretty Princess Pals when there's killing to be done."
 "It must have been a grave wound, to put a man sworn to uphold the law
in such poor company."
"Says the snake monster found with orc raiders."
James saw her lips twist and she nodded slowly as she said, "It seems
we both have fallen far. I wonder what it would take to restore us to our
proper places?"
"You're on the wrong world, to be talking about your proper place. As
for me? This isn't what I wanted, but I have one small comfort."
"Which is?"
James looked at her directly, and met her eye as he said, "I get to kill
monsters."
"Is that really what you think I am?"
James opened his mouth, then closed it again. Something in her eyes
caught and held his attention, and the glib answer he had ready slipped
away. After a long moment, he said, "You're a prisoner. What happens to
you once you leave this transport is none of my business."
"Oh? You seem to have forgotten that you'll be rewarded for what
happens to me once I leave this transport. I would like you to remember
that."
James didn't answer, and only broke eye contact with a supreme effort
of will. It was hard to look into those golden eyes, but even harder to look
away. He managed, and resolved not to do it again. His fingers tightened
around the grip of his pistol, and he kept her upper body in his periphery as
he watched the bulk of her tail. If she wanted, she could probably throw that
weight around hard enough to cause the truck to swerve and there wasn't
room for that kind of thing on the narrow track they were on.
"I have no intention of disrupting this vehicle," she said, as though
reading his mind. "A collision would likely break both my arms, if not tear
them from their sockets. You can relax."
"Yeah right," he said, careful not to look her in the face. "What are you,
some kind of mind reader?"
"I am Selena. I have no surname. And you?"
"James Henderson."
"Well, James Henderson. While I cannot say it is a pleasure to have met
you, perhaps one day it will be a pleasure to know you."
Despite himself he glanced at her, then sharply away as those golden
eyes threatened to pull him in. He didn't answer, and resolved not to talk to
her again. He knew that if she lived through the next week it would be a
minor miracle. He didn't know what a watch order was but he had his
suspicions, and for the sake of his own future he'd rather not find out he was
right.
He wasn't sure he could live with himself if he was. Killing monsters he
could deal with. He wished with all his heart Captain Grayson had just let
him put a bullet in her when he got her back to the rendezvous.
She's just a monster. Monsters ruined my life ... does it matter if I ruin
hers?
His jaw clenched.
It mattered because he thought of himself as better than they were and
his very first mission on the job he needed to make his medical payments
might just prove him wrong.
By the time they reached the main camp, James was bone weary and his
back was killing him. There were no cushions on the hard benches of the
transport, and the ride had been rough. While he was cleared for physical
action he wasn't a hundred percent, and the long, hard ride had taken more
out of him than the actual raid.
The captain was waiting as he freed Selena's wrists and nodded her out
the back. A pair of Black Jacks he didn't know put proper handcuffs on her
as the captain smiled and said, "James, I'd like you to meet an associate of
ours, Doctor Johan Kravitz. Doctor, this is James Henderson, the newbie I
told you about."
"So you're the man with the broken back, eh? You seem sprightly
enough," Kravitz commented in a clipped tone as he looked over a pair of
narrow glasses pushed far down a long nose at James. He had a very small
mustache on a narrow face and his black hair was parted precisely down the
middle of his head, cut evenly just above his ears. His clothing was neat and
tidy, though it spoke of a man told to prepare for rough country without any
real idea what rough country was. James imagined he could still see the fold
creases on the pants, and the hiking boots didn't have a speck of dirt on
them.
"I've had two vertebrae replaced and treatments to close the slice in my
spinal column are ongoing. Nothing that'd keep me out of the field," James
said in a bland tone.
In truth he'd been hospitalized for most of a year, having to fight the
whole time to get the city to approve rejuvenation treatment rather than just
giving him a wheelchair and medical discharge. In the end he'd had to sue,
which wound up costing his job, his retirement, and any remaining benefits.
A small price to pay to walk again ... but it left him with a mountain of
debt and no way to pay it off. When Captain Grayson reached out, claiming
he'd heard James' story in the news, James had taken the man up on his
offer and worked admin duty for the Black Jacks almost six months as his
recuperation and physical rehab continued. Though he managed not to
accrue any more debt, he'd been able to make precious little progress on
what he already had.
"Yes. I've reviewed your condition. I was dubious about your capacity,
but Floyd said you were good to go and I see that he was right. It isn't the
first time I've been surprised by the resilience of fighting men. In any case, I
will be overseeing your continued recovery and the administration of your
shots from here on out. No sense going to a hospital just to wrack up the
surcharges, eh?"
At James' raised eyebrow, Kravitz smiled and said, "Never fear, I have
all my certifications and 'Doctor' isn't just something I decided to call
myself one day. I've saved more than a few Black Jacks in my time, and
plenty of other soldiers too."
"Where do you want this?" one of the other men asked, jerking a thumb
at Selena.
Kravitz blinked owlishly, turning to regard her a moment before he said,
"There's a cage outside my tent that should suffice. Put her there for now."
The two men had rifles ready and Selena was in no position to escape.
She went along quietly, though James felt her eyes on him until she was
literally out of sight.
When she was gone he asked, "What's going to happen to her?"
He hadn't meant to ask, hadn't wanted to ask, but something inside him
forced the question.
"She'll be sterilized and sold," Kravitz said with an airy wave, obviously
considering it a routine matter.
When James glanced from Kravitz to Grayson, the captain said, "We
have relationships with buyers all over the continent who give us bounties
for certain species, provided they're in good condition. We'll make more off
her than we will for removing the orc raiders."
"Sterilized?" James asked.
 "The Branson-Williard Splice would kill her the first time the client
uses her if we don't remove several key organs. It isn't common knowledge,
but once properly sterilized monsters can be fucked without resorting to
splicer intervention. Of course, the reverse is true of human women, which
is perhaps why the truth isn't more widely known," Kravitz said, then
looked keenly at James as he added, "You seem very curious for someone
who is newly come to his position."
"I was a cop. Asking questions is just an old habit," James said, using
his answer to cover up his revulsion at what he was being told.
"Yes, so I read. I trust that the laws of Daytau will not constrain your
activities out here in the Tracts ... young man?"
James shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.
"He's good to go," the captain said, sliding an arm around James'
shoulder and turning him deliberately. "After what the city did to him, he
doesn't owe them anything."
"No sir ... I do not," James said, knowing he had to cover his slip.
Kravitz narrowed his eyes at James, then shrugged with one shoulder
and turned as he said, "Well, be that as it may. Get some rest. I doubt very
much your back is feeling quite right at the moment, and sleep is the best
medicine."
"Too right. Come on, I'll show you where you'll bunk. We'll be here a
few days," Grayson said, and the two walked away from the doctor, who
strolled off in the direction they'd taken Selena.
"You sure you're all right with this?" Grayson asked, voice kindly.
James glanced over at him and nodded, though it was hard to keep his
disgust out of his tone as he said, "There's nothing illegal out here, and it's a
hard world. She couldn't have been up to anything good in a raider village.
What happens to her from there is her own damn fault."
Grayson turned to face him and tapped him hard on the chest with a
pointer as he said, "Too right. You're solid, James. I like you. Got balls, you
can shoot, and you follow orders. Won't be too long before you're leading a
squad for me, but as they say, you gotta do some time first. Understand?"
"Yessir."
"Good. Your footlocker's in there, and the bed it's under is yours. Can't
say it's the coziest but better than an army cot, which is what most of the
men are sleeping on tonight. Anyone gives you guff you tell 'em to come
see me. That'll sort 'em right out. Give that back some well-earned rest."
 "Yessir. Thanks for giving me my shot."
"That reminds me," Grayson said, smiling broadly. "I put in some calls
after we talked at the trade post. Saying I'm impressed with you is one thing
but I'm a man who puts his money where his mouth is. We bought out your
medical debt. From now on, you won't pay a penny of interest, and we'll
only take forty percent until you earn out. Not to mention we've got your
food and lodging covered. The Black Jacks take care of our own. You do
good work, James, and you're in good hands."
"Thanks ... sir. I ... don't know what to say," James said, staggered by
the news. Not having to pay interest would shave years off the time it
would take to pay things off, especially if there were bonuses involved.
"Oh you've said all the right things already. Now rack out. It should be
quiet for the next few days, but I want you off your feet for now. Talk to
Borgmen tomorrow after breakfast and he'll work you into the guard
rotation."
"Yessir. Goodnight."
Grayson nodded, smiled a fatherly smile, and strolled away.
James looked after him as his own smile faded from his face.
The news he'd just been given was fantastic. It should have had him
practically jumping for joy.
Instead, he felt as though he'd just been put in chains ... and the only
thing left for him to do was pick up a shovel and start digging a grave for
his conscience.
As he found his bunk and took his boots off, all he could think of were
Selena's words.
... you'll be rewarded for what happens to me once I leave this
transport. I would like you to remember that.

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 4

S elena turned to face the guards even as the rest of her bulk slid past and
into the cage, but while one man had his weapon aimed at the ground the
other didn't, and he was several feet farther away. If she tried anything she'd
be shot.
The camp was well-organized and fairly large. There were many more
soldiers at this camp than there had been orcs in the village where she'd
been captured. Having spent more than a little time in such camps, she
estimated there were perhaps two hundred troops here.
The Black Jacks seemed to be a competent, well-supplied fighting
force. The clearing they chose for their camp was filled with temporary
buildings that had the look of structures used far longer than their design
implied. There was even a small hangar, though what it might contain
Selena had no idea.
The cage she was in was ten feet long by six feet wide by ten tall, and
the bars were spaced in such a way as to make it impossible for her to
squeeze through.
The entire thing sat on the ground between a tent and a flatbed truck
with a crane attachment. The metal the cage was made from either did not
rust or was new, and the locking mechanisms on the doors — which slid
vertically up tracks on the long ends — were electronic. Beyond that, she
had no idea how it was operated, and scowled as she was reminded that
many of her skills were now obsolete. Had it been a standard lock, with
proper tumblers, she might have been able to free herself given a little
privacy.
 As it was she could destroy the lock, but that wouldn't get her out of the
cage. She slid her tail between the bars, then back, gripping two of them as
she looked all around. Her heat sense revealed no one, and she slid her tail
up until she had the bars near the middle. She squeezed and the metal bent,
but not in a useful way. It also complained loudly. When she let them go the
bars snapped back into place, vibrating with the release of tension. She
knew she wouldn't be able to open a large enough hole to fit through if she
couldn't get the metal to deform.
Slipping fingers into the folds of her bandeau, she pulled out a small
ruby the size of a thumbnail and considered it, expression pensive.
If she couldn't escape on her own, she would have to call for help. If she
made that call, she would wind up even deeper in debt to a creature fated to
lose everything. The decline had already begun. Allies had fallen away until
only a few remained. Zealots, fanatics, cold-hearted mercenaries ... and one
lone idealist.
But time and experience could make a mockery of even the grandest
ambition, and Selena's had long since faded. She slipped the small
gemstone back into its place as she thought, No, better to use him only when
there truly is no other option. First, let us see if there really is a noble heart
left in James Henderson.
She had seen his spirit, found it pleasing. He was like her in many ways,
though his travails were compressed into one human lifetime. She could not
see his past directly, but the scars of his experience were plain to her, and he
had been ill-used. Like her, he wanted to leave a better world than the one
left to him. Like her, his dreams and ambitions had been crushed under the
weight of nature.
The world did not want to be a nice place. It did not desire kindness, or
compassion, or mercy. The world's desire was made plain with the chaos
that infused it, starkly outlined by the evil that ran rampant within every
sentient heart. It desired strength, resilience, and cunning. Those with the
requisite traits met success. All others were given to chance, and most fell
to darkness.
Yet, of all the powers to rise from the soup of chaos, humanity had
come closest to achieving her dream. They had bound their weak hearts
together into something stronger, lashed themselves into pacts made of law
and trust. Their collective might had grown slowly, but as the years passed
into decades, then centuries, tribes became towns, then cities. The power
arising from their social construct seemed without bound, and might one
day rival that of the gods themselves.
Gods, however, were far-sighted and jealous.
Humanity paid the ultimate price for the insolence of demanding a
better world than the one they were given to live in.
Now, Selena was watching it happen again on another world. Even with
no gods to ensure the path, once-great humanity was failing.
Yet, there were still men like James Henderson. Men struggling to hold
onto the shreds of their human dignity in a world that spared no effort to
snuff that dignity out.
She wanted to see it. She wanted to believe in it. She could not call her
patron while there was even a shred of hope that it might happen. James'
story was old, and well known to her. She could see the trap laid for him,
could see him struggling to overcome what must feel like an inevitable end.
Most men would never escape the ends nature intended for them, but Selena
believed he might.
He had met her eyes ... then looked away. She hadn't let him do it. She
had bent her whole will against it, but he had looked away from her.
She had hope that, strong as the jaws of fate were, he might escape them
too.
"You are an interesting one."
Selena twisted, coiling as she turned toward the tent between her cage
and most of the rest of the camp. The doctor stood there, looking absently at
her. His glasses were far down his nose, and she could tell by his lack of
focus that his eyesight without them was very poor. She couldn't influence
him unless he could see her clearly. At the moment, he didn't care enough
about her to use his glasses, and was looking over their rims at her.
"I'm sure everyone you say that to thinks so," she quietly said.
"Just so. We are all the heroes of our own stories. I am afraid your story
is about to go through the trials and tribulations phase, but don't worry.
While I have no specific concern for you, I'll make sure the scarring is
minimal. You're such a beautiful creature."
"What do you plan?" she asked.
"An old acquaintance of mine once said, 'Patience answers all, and
everything comes to him who waits.' I wait for appropriate tools, and you
wait for a money transfer. In the meantime, is there anything you require?
Food? Drink? What would you prefer?"
 "A legitimate offering to me would be thirty pounds of fresh meat and
two gallons of water," she said. "Though I have little hope of a legitimate
offer while being kept in a simple cage open to the elements."
"It's spring; the night is clear and temperate. You have no need of a roof.
As for the rest ... I'll see what I can do," the doctor said with a faint smile
before turning away.
Half an hour later, the hindquarters of a competently dressed buck were
delivered, along with a jug that held closer to five gallons than two. Selena
had no reason to believe the offering would be poisoned so she ate and
drank, then settled into her coils.
The night was more than half over. She had no idea what the day would
bring and hadn't been hungry, but such a small meal wasn't enough to cause
her any problems or lassitude if she needed to get away, and the energy
supplied would do her good.
The sound of the tent flap drew her attention, and she set her hand on
the ground just outside the cage. It was too soft for what she wanted, but
Selena didn't have to rely exclusively on her natural gifts. She focused her
will on the task at hand, then closed her eyes and listened through her
fingers.
The one called Captain Floyd Grayson said, "We'll be able to get you
the surgical tools you asked for by the day after tomorrow."
"Why the delay?" Doctor Kravitz asked.
"Slim got raided. All the safehouses are on lockdown so we have to
source new equipment. Can't get everything from one place or the city
computer would pick it up. Proper obscurity takes time, you know that."
"Did they catch him?"
"Of course not. They never do, and that wasn't the point. The cops are
flexing, that's all."
"Speaking of cops, I don't like your new man. He doesn't have the heart
for this business."
"What makes you say so?"
"Something in his eyes."
The captain laughed and said, "You are the last person on earth I would
accuse of being sentimental, but that's what this is. I talked to the guys in
the squad with him. He's accurate, decisive, and professional. He's got
blood on his hands now, and he took the coin. We own his debt, which
means we own him. He'll tow the line and do whatever we ask or he'll wind
up paralyzed with no prospects when we cut off his medical treatments."
"I thought you liked him."
"I do. I never let that stop me."
"What do you like about him?"
"Heh. Something in his eyes. James is hardcore. Man's got no quit. If I
give him a shovel and point down he'll dig until he finds New Zealand.
With twenty men like him I could take a hoard from a dragon. He's as
likable as they come."
"And they call me a sociopath," Kravitz said, sounding amused.
"We both know you spread that rumor yourself," the captain said.
"Anything else?"
"Not at the moment. I don't like that snake. She's not panicking. She
should be. She's still got options."
"Like what?"
"If I knew I'd have dealt with them by now. I want a guard on her.
Someone with skin in the game. Put someone on her that'll lose out if she
goes missing."
"She's just a snake."
"Snakes will be around long after the human race is dead and forgotten,
Captain. If you don't put a guard on her, I won't be held responsible if she
escapes."
"Well, that's fine. I know just the man."
A few moments later the tent flap sounded again. Selena lifted her hand
and returned to her coils, though she opened her eyes when the captain
strolled into sight.
He stopped just beyond her cage door, staring down at her.
"Something I can do for you, Captain?" she asked.
"You're doing it."
"Do you intend to sell me? Surely you know that non-humans make
poor slaves."
"Yes, and yes."
He smiled, and his eyes met hers.
Selena looked deep, then pulled back, startled. She glanced away, and
his smile broadened a bit as he said, "Some of the old ones I've met can do
that. Your kind must age well. Whoever buys you will have his hands full,
but then, that'll be his problem. Now I know James has it where it counts,
and you've answered my only question. Have a good night, little miss."
He turned, waving idly as he walked away, but Selena said nothing as
she stared at the ground, hand over her heart. It was beating fast, and she
had to work hard to keep herself from trembling.
There were all kinds of strength in the world, but the most terrifying of
all was the void.
The complete absence of value.
It was always a mystery when such power materialized because it
invariably consumed its source. The void ate everything without limit,
swallowing up past, present, and future.
The man walking away from her was more of a monster than she had
ever been. When the world finally ended, Selena knew a man like Floyd
Grayson would be there to watch it burn.
Oh James. Please hurry.

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 5

I t was an hour before dawn when James gave up trying to sleep and put his
boots back on. His back hurt, but that just meant he was still alive and he
ignored it as he put his belt on, checked his load, and holstered his weapon.
He left the rifle hanging off the bedpost. He could use the thing just fine but
he didn't trust it. He'd been practicing with his pistol for most of ten years.
He'd gotten the rifle less than six months ago.
The night air was cool. The breeze was light and refreshing as he
stepped out of the bunk tent and glanced around. There was no one, which
suited him fine. He couldn't sleep after the captain gave him the news about
his transfer of debt, and the last thing he wanted to do was talk to someone
about it.
Who here would understand?
He walked past the hangar where they kept the heavy vehicles, then the
mess tent, headed for the edge of camp. Once there he turned and started to
walk along the concertina line. There was no fence, but a trench had been
dug. Both sides and the bottom were lined with twisting coils of barbed
wire, creating almost thirty feet of no-man's land. It was more than enough
to discourage the local wildlife. If it could fly, the auto-turrets set up toward
the center of camp would handle it, and the boom of those guns would wake
everyone up.
There was a pair of sentries at the main entrance, but he just waved as
he walked by and got perfunctory nods in return. These men didn't know
him, but he was on the right side of the wire so they didn't challenge his
presence. The Black Jacks were a big organization, enough so that not
everyone was known. He'd heard that soldier of fortune companies had high
turnover, and six months working admin for one had born that rumor out.
Mercenaries might quit because they couldn't stomach the work, or
because someone somewhere else made a better offer ... or because they
died. Companies like this routinely patrolled the superhighways between
city-states, raided deep into the Tracts looking for resources, and fought
each other over what they found. City-states almost never officially
declared war. When two metro areas had beef, they most often settled it by
throwing mercenaries at one another.
It was well known that the city-state military forces were essentially
training for the real thing, as they almost never had to fight. Soldier of
fortune companies, by contrast, rarely did anything else.
Turning at the corner, he saw the cage and stopped.
Selena was there, laying in a coiled heap in the center. Just next to the
cage on one side was a large tent that had to belong to Kravitz, and on the
other was a flatbed with a crane extension clearly designed to load and
move the cage.
The tent wasn't a standard type, and probably took five times longer to
put up and tear down than anything else in camp. Nothing about it was
military, which suited the nature of the man staying there.
James didn't like Kravitz on a deeply instinctive level. He had the air of
someone that saw no difference between saving a life and taking one.
Kravitz probably couldn't beat up a pillow, but he was deadly all the same.
I'm so fucked, he thought absently to himself.
He'd had the thought often over the last year, so often in fact that it had
lost all true emotional weight. As meaningful to say that the sun rose in the
east or that every man had a price.
James certainly had a price. He knew what it was too ... and who had
paid it.
He didn't know much about the ongoing process to rebuild his spine, but
he did know that it required regular injections, and if he didn't get those
injections he was more likely than not to wind up a paraplegic. Two more
years, they'd told him. Three thousand an injection, once a month, for two
more years. No insurance, no city-backing, find the money or wind up
paralyzed.
All he had to do to keep those injections coming was whatever Captain
Grayson wanted.
 His next was due in seven days ... and would be administered by Doctor
Kravitz.
"Eyes that do not see are tragic."
James blinked, then looked at Selena. She hadn't moved, but her eyes
were open. She was watching him, and had spoken softly. Unless Kravitz
was awake and alert, no one could possibly have heard her but him.
He briefly debated leaving, and she said, "I will not try and convince
you that I am helpless, but I truly mean you no harm. Come closer. Talk to
me."
"I can hear you just fine from here. What do you want?" he asked, tone
flat.
"I want the same things anyone in my position would want. Summed up
in a word, I want help. Why are you here so late at night, when everyone
who might notice your presence is asleep? Surely the novelty of my form
would have worn off on the long journey here, and even if I thought that
might be it, you weren't looking at me. You were looking at you, and you
did not like what you saw."
"You sound like a fortune teller," he said, scowling.
"I have done that very thing many times," she said agreeably, and he
heard the soft sound of scales sliding as her whole body moved, coiling as
she slowly straightened.
"You must not have given welcome advice," he said, looking her up and
down pointedly.
"Only people with problems look for fortune tellers, James Henderson.
Yet, often as not, what I told them was unwelcome and my advice was
spurned. Even in those rare instances when it was taken, I was seldom in a
position to reap the benefits of gratitude."
James stepped toward the cage absently as he asked, "Is that an offer?"
"What would you like to know?" she asked in turn.
He thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I already know
what needs to be done."
She was silent a long moment, then said, "You fear what will happen
once you take those steps."
James didn't answer her. There was nothing he could say. He wanted to
turn around and walk away. He wanted his life back. All he had to do was
shut up, sacrifice his conscience, and he could finish his treatments, pay his
debts, and get out. If he towed the line and played his cards right, working
for the Black Jacks could set him up for life.
All he had to do was give up on the idea of being a good man.
"Most of the advice I give is given with some basis in experience,
James. If you walk away from your reason now, it will abandon you
forever."
"My reason is telling me I should walk away right now," he said dryly.
She shook her head, and her tongue tasted the air between them before
she said, "Not your rationale, the reason you became who you are."
"Who I was."
"That remains to be seen."
"You're just saying this shit because you want me to save you and damn
myself."
"James, I want you to save me, that much is true. I can promise you
only my gratitude. I have very little hope, and none at all if you abandon me
to my fate."
"You're not being very convincing."
"If I tried to be, you would leave. I need you."
"Why were you in that village, Selena?" he asked.
She didn't immediately answer, and he said, "You can't tell me you're
not a bad person when we both know you weren't in that village to trade."
"Why do you think I'm lying?" she asked.
"Because a trader doesn't dress in rags and avoid mentioning where
they're from or what they were trading. Then there's the fact that those orcs
were slated for extermination because they raided Daytau holdings and
manses several times over the last few years. They managed to kill some
rich dude's kid on one of those raids and earned a place on the shit list, but
they weren't successful raiders. No money, no resources ... nothing except a
willingness to do violence and breed. So what were you doing there? Lie to
me again I'm done with you. I have enough to deal with keeping my own
head above water."
"I was trying to recruit them on behalf of my ... patron."
"Who is?"
"Are you aware of the red dragon?"
James blinked, then pointed at her as he said, "You work for a dragon?"
She nodded gravely and said, "Old and misguided, he nevertheless
commands me through circumstances I shudder to think of even now. His
reach exceeds his grasp, but he is hardly the first leader to disregard my
advice."
"What did he want with orcs?" James asked.
Selena met his gaze and held it for a long moment before she said, "To
make them effective, successful raiders ... and to take a cut of the profit.
He's decided to roost here for the time being and — dragons being what
they are — wants income."
He heard her, but found the words slipping past him as he gazed into
those almost luminous golden eyes. Just as it occurred to him that he should
look away, she broke eye contact to twist, staring up and away into the
night sky as she said, "I am afraid that decisions of any sort must be held in
abeyance, and you may well have lost your chance to be the man I hope you
are."
"What do you mean?" James asked, blinking as he shook his head to
clear it.
"My patron-"
She got no further as the ground shook so violently it threw James off
his feet. A blast from near the center of the camp sent a billowing wave of
debris flying past, and more rained down all around him.
Acting mostly on instinct, he scrambled to get under the truck parked
next to the cage and watched with wide eyes as klaxons abruptly wailed.
Just in front of him, Johan Kravitz stumbled out of his tent wearing light
blue-and-white-striped pajamas. He looked around and James saw his eyes
widen when they turned toward the center of the camp. He then looked
toward the cage and spotted James.
"You!" he barked. "Get that crane operational! Load the cage! Time is
of the essence!"
He then dashed back into his tent and James rolled out from under the
truck and stepped onto the operator platform for the crane. He'd never used
anything like it, but the key was in the ignition and the rest of the levers
weren't hard to suss out with a few moments of experimentation.
As he moved the crane and lowered the boom into place over the cage,
Selena said, "He'll be here personally soon, James."
"He who!?" James asked, glancing despite himself toward the center of
the camp where he finally saw what had done all the damage.
A boulder the size of a house had taken the place of the central hangar,
resting in a crater. Fires were raging, and many of the adjacent structures
and tents were simply gone. The rock was far too large for anything man-
made to even move it, much less lift it. Yet, by the way it rested, it had
obviously been dropped from on high.
What he was looking at was impossible.
Recovering from the distraction, he crossed the bed of the truck, stood
atop the cage, and fastened the straps so as to keep the cage level for
moving. As he did this he noticed Selena staring up at him through the bars
and realized that if she chose, she could attack him. She seemed disinclined
to do so, and he carried on with the risk.
As he finished, she said, "You should know you can't escape from him
with me in tow. My presence is what prompted this attack. If you wish to
escape, you should open the cage and let me go."
"Like hell," he said, stepping off the cage to operate the lift. "Your boss
is killing us."
She remained silent as he lifted her cage onto the flatbed and went about
securing it to the clamps there for the purpose.
At last, she said, "He's a dragon, James. There's nowhere you can go."
He spread a hand toward the chaos beyond the tent and said, "You could
have been anywhere in this camp, Selena. Even if he came here because of
you, he clearly gives no shits about your survival. I don't care what you
think. If this is who your friends are, how the hell would I get anything but
trouble for setting you free?"
Selena's head tipped down, then away from him, and she said nothing
more.
It took most of fifteen minutes, but he was done by the time Kravitz
returned — now wearing proper clothing along with his glasses — and said,
"I can't raise Grayson. You and I will ... wait, is that James? What the hell
were you doing here?! I asked for a guard with skin in the game, not one
who'd let the snake go!"
Skin in the game? NO ONE has more skin in the game than I do, James
thought as he stared down at the little man. Kravitz clearly didn't trust him
and was completely justified, but James wasn't about to admit it. Kravitz
had his glasses on now, but obviously couldn't see for shit without them if
he hadn't been recognized right off.
Aloud he said, "I'm here, take it or leave it. The cage is secured."
"Whatever. You didn't set her loose and you're driving. Let's go! I can
get us to a manse nearby that's friendly. We'll regroup there!"
 Rolling his eyes, James climbed into the cab as Kravitz got in the
passenger side. Just like operating a crane, he hadn't ever driven a large
truck before but turning the key and finding the pedals wasn't hard science.
He did mow down Kravitz' tent on the way past — drawing an indignant
squawk from the man — but wouldn't have been able to truthfully say later
it was an accident.
When they got to the gate, Kravitz leaned out the passenger side and
literally screamed threats at the guards until they opened up, and James
drove through onto a barely recognizable path as he said, "This thing-"
"Got in here, and it can get out, relax. I know where we're going just
follow my directions," Kravitz said as he rolled the window back up.
"You'll be making a left in about half a mile. One of the trees on the
right side will be lightning blasted; it's impossible to miss."
"It's dark out, Doctor. It will be easy to miss," James said irritably as he
peered forward, moving about fifteen miles per hour over the rough-cut trail
they were on.
"If we don't pick up the pace the sun will be up before we get there!" the
other man snapped.
"You're welcome to drive."
"Just keep going until I tell you to turn."
James glanced at the other man, then returned his attention to the path,
doing his best to hide his snarl. Of all the people to wind up taking orders
from, why'd it have to be this guy?
Neither spoke again until Kravitz pointed out the turn, and again a mile
or so later. That put them on something actually recognizable as a road,
albeit unpaved, rutted, and riddled with ridges from vehicles going too fast
while the ground was wet.
Finally, James asked, "Do you know what did that?"
He didn't need to say what 'that' was. Kravitz got a haunted look and
shook his head as he said, "That rock was too large to be moved. While I
can't deny its placement, I don't know how it was possible."
James debated relaying what Selena had told him, but in the end kept
quiet. He didn't trust Kravitz any more than the doctor trusted him, and
what could he possibly do with the information? He would either wave it
off as the prisoner trying to convince the captor to release her, or — if he
believed the story — might kill her himself.
The least likely scenario was that Selena would be released.
 Why do I mind if she dies?
The question rattled around in his brain, though most of the rattling was
probably transmitted to him by the abysmal condition of the road. With no
ready answer and most of his attention on not wrecking the truck, he put it
on the back burner and drove into the morning. The odometer said he'd
gone almost fifty miles before a turn brought them to a road that obviously
saw regular grading, and they began wending through lighter woods toward
a manse that could be seen in glimpses through the trees.
"There it is," Kravitz said, sounding relieved. "We should be safe here."
"Great to know house-sized boulders can't be dropped on this place like
they can out in the forest," James said, glancing over. "If you think we're
safe anywhere from that, you're out of your mind."
"It's one thing to attack a camp out in the woods, quite something else to
attack a manse attached to Daytau," Kravitz said, lips twisted with
annoyance. "If whatever attacked us hits us here, the city military would
respond."
"I doubt it. I was a cop, remember? None of the properties out here are
under city protection."
"If the owner here wants action from the city, he gets it. I appreciate the
drive, but don't push your luck, new guy."
"What the hell, Kravitz? I just stated the obvious. We aren't safe here.
Whatever attacked us hit a heavily armed military camp with a ... a hill.
What's this place got that we didn't have?"
"Influence," Kravitz said dismissively. "Just get us there. The rest is
over your head."
James shut his mouth and drove, but there was nothing in the walls
surrounding the mansion and its outbuildings or the railguns mounted along
it that gave him any sense of security.
If he chose not to believe what he'd been told he had no explanation for
the attack on the camp. All he knew was that nothing he'd ever seen could
stop it from happening again. Only one person he knew might give him that
answer.
He had to talk to Selena again.

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 6

S elena slid up from her coils as she heard the door above and beyond her
open. The room they'd moved her to was underground. It was a box of
white-painted concrete, nothing more. Even the door was white, and all but
seamless once closed.
She couldn't tell how long she'd been there, and were it not for her
ability to sense vibrations she felt she might slowly go mad. The room was
obviously designed to muffle sound. It had a sterile smell and its complete
lack of color left her feeling disconnected from the real world.
Yet, she could sense the vibration of life beyond these walls, and it kept
her somewhat grounded to feel someone walking by above her, or past her
cell.
Beyond, she heard voices. She pressed her hand to the wall to hear them
better.
"-told me I was to be relieved at seven."
"It is seven. Go eat. I'm here for the night watch."
"My phone says six thirty-five."
"Are you fucking complaining about me being early? Fine, I'll be back
in-"
"W-wait wait wait! Fucking boring watch anyway. Try not to fall
asleep."
Steps receded, silence fell again, but Selena's attention never wavered.
She focused as hard as she could, but the man outside her cell wasn't
talking. She heard footsteps, a few electronic chirps, then nothing for
several long minutes.
 "Speak," she whispered despite herself, an edge of desperation in her
voice. "Please ... say something, say anything!"
Ten long minutes later, she heard more electronic chirps, then a
mechanical snap so loud she jerked her hand away from the wall. She had
an image in her mind of a wheel attached to two heavy bars centered in the
door. The wheel's movement was quick, and the bars retracted. The door
was unlocked.
As she processed this, it opened inward and James stood there, his pistol
pointed at her.
She stared at him wide-eyed, too startled and relieved to assert her will,
and he asked in flat tones, "Why were you trying to recruit orc raiders?"
"My patron told me to. We've talked about this, he wants to build a
hoard."
"No games. Straight answers or you won't like who you see next time
this door opens."
Selena hesitated, then lowered her head and said, "He wants to build an
army. He wants to assault Daytau."
James blinked, then let out an incredulous chuckle as he said, "He could
recruit every non-human for a hundred miles in every direction and all it
would do is give the wall gunners target practice."
"He dropped the rock on your camp."
"So? Unless he can do that about a thousand times from over the
horizon, shit like that won't work on the city. He has to know that."
Selena sighed and turned her eyes away from him as she said, "Whether
he does or not, I do. He believes they have his mate held hostage inside the
walls of the city."
"That's absurd."
"You said it yourself. He's insane. He hasn't been sane since ... well, for
a long time. He came here to mate — to sire a new generation of dragons to
preserve the species. There was a dragon in the mountains near here. They
knew each other. Now she's gone. I think she was killed. Her lair is empty,
all its riches taken. Nevertheless, he refuses to believe she's dead. He claims
he would know."
"Is that possible?" he asked.
Selena met his eye and saw genuine curiosity there. She said, "Yes. But
I believe he is lying."
"Why would he lie?"
 "The bonds which can tell life or death are stronger than anything he
has ever had. They are legends ... like winter roses. I have been in his
service for a long time, and he could never engender the sort of true love
that speaks across time and space. He would lie because like anyone, he
wishes he were better than he is. Unlike some, he wants others to believe he
is better than he is."
"He wants to level Daytau because he isn't willing to admit this dragon
in the mountains got killed?" James asked, incredulous.
"I could tell you his story ... but suffice for now to say that few beings
alive have been through as much as he has, or suffered as grievously. It does
not excuse him, but it does explain him. He has lost everything, and will do
anything to try and get it back."
"And you are helping him."
"I have been, but his pain is beyond redemption or peace. I have known
that for some time, but I have nothing else. I think you know what that's
like."
James nodded slowly, listening despite himself. Selena — through long
habit — had thoroughly captured his attention. Something warned her not
to press her advantage too far, but she was desperate. The white walls of her
prison spoke eloquently of the fate that awaited her if she could not sway
this man.
She said, "Unlike my patron's, I believe your pain may be eased. I know
the Black Jacks bought your debts."
He blinked, startled by her knowledge, and she went hurriedly on.
"Captain Grayson spoke to Doctor Kravitz. I overheard. They will use
you, corrupt you, then dispose of you. They were practically laughing about
it. No matter how much you think you owe them ... it is a debt you cannot
pay. Even should you manage it, the man you would become in so doing
would be unrecognizable. The man before me now doesn't need
redemption. He just needs help. Let me help you. I will, I swear it."
James swayed on his feet, shuddering under the force of her words, then
broke eye contact and gritted his teeth as he said, "Tell me the truth. Are
you using magic on me?"
"Yes, but only to ensure my words are heard. The choice is yours."
"How?"
Selena hesitated, thinking of what she could, or should, say. Eventually,
she decided she had no real choice but to give him a demonstration, despite
what that might mean. She reached into her bandeau and pulled out the
small ruby. She held it on her outstretched palm.
He looked, and she said, "Force of will. It is the lowest form of magic,
but also the most penetrating. It does not make fire rain from the sky or
cause the dead to rise, but just as words can convince, force of will can
manifest if it is strong enough. Watch."
She reached out with her other hand, picked up the ruby and set it on its
sharpest facet, then spun it on her palm. As it spun, she said, "My palm is
uneven, the flesh soft. Ordinarily, a gem would spin for a revolution,
perhaps two, then fall. "
Time passed as she bent her will toward her object, and the stone in her
hand continued to spin. She made it spin faster, and gradually began to
move it up her finger, then to the tip of her claw where it spun with
breathless rapidity, so swift that it began to sing.
James was spellbound, staring with complete shock at the stone.
"A strong will can stretch the boundaries of what is possible to their
absolute limits. My will is strong, James Henderson. I can help you. But I
will not compel you. Right now, I could strike, then leave you here to make
my way alone. I will not do that, because I believe you are worth saving. I
believe in you, and I want you to believe in yourself."
As she spoke, the ruby continued to spin faster and faster. Its singing
became a tiny scream before it finally shattered so completely that only
glittering dust filled the air.
And with this, my service to my patron ends, she thought ruefully,
lowering her hand as the startled human shook himself from the daze he'd
fallen into.
She knew that what she'd told him was true, but there was more than she
said. She didn't know how to escape. She did know that there must be
monitoring devices outside and she had little hope of getting away
unnoticed. She would likely be shot as soon as she was seen.
She clasped her hands before her and bowed to him, hiding her eyes as
she said, "I beg you. Please, help me."
"I can't free you. Not now. Here. Take this."
She looked up and blinked as she reached out to accept a small book
from him. It was thick, and the print within was small. It was obviously
designed for travel. It was an old book, worn and well-read. She looked at
the title, and read aloud, "Tennyson, Yeats, and Others? What is this?"
 "A book of poetry. It's a family heirloom, from before the Cataclysm.
The cell they have you in is designed for white torture. I doubt you know
what that is, but I do, and how effective it can be after only a few hours.
Maybe you don't need something like this because your will is so strong,
but just in case you do ... those poems are some of the best my race ever
wrote. Just don't tell anyone where you got it if someone finds it and
questions you later."
"Why are you giving me this?" she asked, looking up from the book to
meet his eye.
"Don't ask stupid questions," he said, stepping over to a spot on the wall
that looked just like any other. He smashed it with the butt of his pistol and
the paint tore, revealing a now hopelessly broken thing that he pulled out
until it dangled by a single wire.
"They'll be pissed about you 'finding' the camera and microphone, but
shouldn't hurt you over it," he said, and walked to the only exit.
She watched him with wide eyes, and when he stood at the door she felt
a powerful urge to race past him to freedom, but restrained herself.
"You've made your decision," she said quietly.
"Whether I have or not, it won't matter unless I can piece together a way
to get you out. Be patient. One way or another, this will be over in a day or
two."
With that, the door shut, and she was alone in the stark white,
featureless room.
Except it wasn't featureless anymore. There was a scar on the wall and a
broken piece of equipment. In her hand she held a tiny book.
A gift of solace, given out of pure compassion.
Selena set her hand to the wall and listened as she felt a disturbance
above her, then footsteps.
James said, "Dude, you're fucking late!"
"Oh come on. Two minutes is not late. Anything interesting?"
"She found and broke the camera a while ago."
"No shit? How?"
"Fucked if I know, I wasn't watching. Not like she can get out."
"Heh, true. Aight, go on, shift's over and mess is hot. I got it from here."
"Thanks man. See you round."
Footsteps on the stairs up, then the door above her closed. James had
tricked both guards to get the chance to speak with her. Should those two
men talk later, he would be found out.
He had taken a terrible risk ... and in all likelihood had made up his
mind about what to do with her before she'd even made her plea.
James Henderson was a good man. She had met such men before, from
time to time.
Looking down at the small book in her hand, Selena opened it to a
random page, trusting her mystic intuition. She often used items like this to
divine for others, and such an intensely personal keepsake would tell her
much about the man she now depended on.
Tears started in her eyes.
Selena closed the book, clutching it to her chest as she murmured,
"Tread softly ... because you tread on my dreams."

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 7

"M r . H enderson !"

James paused, eyes shutting in momentary annoyance before he
composed himself and turned, putting his hands behind his back to keep
them from clenching in plain sight.
The two men were on the parapet of one of the outbuildings. The
architecture was white-washed stone and concrete in an arcane and — to
James' eye — needlessly gaudy style. Then again, the whole place belonged
to someone with more money than sense. They were living out in the Tracts
after all. Insanity must love useless architecture.
James had been there some time because it was out of sight of the main
yard. He didn't want to accidentally run into the dayshift guard before the
man racked out, and had to avoid bed himself because all the grunts were
being housed in the same place. The sun was down but the sky was clear
and there was a bright moon, though the wall of the forest out beyond the
manse was black and ominous looking, at least to him.
"What can I do for you, Kravitz?"
"I'm a doctor, Henderson. It isn't an optional title; I earned it."
James raised an eyebrow at the other man, then shrugged and said, "All
right. Did you want something?"
Kravitz's eyes narrowed, then he sighed and rolled them as he said,
"You fighting men are all the same. You keep the bravado right up until you
need me. I wanted to tell you we'll be here until the captain arrives. I've put
in an order for the tools I need, but the next transport to the local rail won't
leave until tomorrow so it'll be a week or so before those tools arrive. Until
then, the snake stays where she is. There's a guard schedule, but we're
shorthanded. I want you to work in."
"I can do that, but are you sure the captain's even still alive?" James
asked, and Kravitz nodded.
James asked, "What makes you so sure?"
"I've been a surgeon for the Black Jacks fifteen years, give or take.
There are only three men still alive who've run over a hundred ops with us.
Two are retired, and the third is Captain Floyd Grayson. I'm not inclined
toward superstition but if I were I'd say that man did a deal with the devil.
He's alive, and he'll be coming. You can count on it."
"Any idea what happened?" James asked, putting aside the issue of the
captain for the moment. The fact that Kravitz would be a week getting his
'tools' was a bit of a relief. It gave him some breathing room.
"If I were to guess, I'd say the new dragon in the area noticed us."
"A dragon dropped that rock on us?" James asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kravitz shrugged and said, "I have no idea what they're capable of. All I
know is that nothing human could have done that, and the only new
variable of any consequence near Daytau is the red dragon. Observational
science is the weakest sort, but it's all I have at the moment. No other
explanation seems even remotely credible."
"I've seen footage of it, and even at a distance it's not big enough."
"Henderson, it'd have to be the size of a skyscraper to lift what got
dropped on us. Do you need me to spell it out?"
James didn't answer. He'd just seen something impossible on a much
smaller scale ... but once that barrier was broken, it was broken for
everything. Selena had told him her 'patron' had attacked them, but to have
Kravitz independently come to the same conclusion just drove things home
in a way her word alone hadn't.
She'd done small magic, but magic nonetheless. Kravitz was
acknowledging the phenomenon without saying it out loud.
"I thought not," the doctor said sourly. "Get some rest, and work into the
rotation tomorrow."
"I'll do it. Sleep well, Doctor Kravitz," James said, and the man nodded
as though James had passed a test as he walked off with his hands in his
pockets.
Turning back to the view of the forest, James continued to wrestle with
his conscience. Of all the outfits that could have hired him, why did it have
to be these guys? There were plenty of SoF companies that did caravan
work on the highways, or did protection detail for survey parties and long-
range expeditions. The problem was no one doing legitimate business
wanted a man with a broken back and a mountain of debt.
He only wished he'd understood that sooner.
The truth was, James knew — as he looked out over the black forest in
front of him — that he was going to die. He was going to die because he
was going to help a non-human escape, be discovered, and even if he
managed to get away he would be a marked man among his own kind. His
medical treatments, left uncompleted, would degrade. He would end his life
crippled and alone. The beginning and end of his problems would be a non-
human ... but he couldn't help himself. He'd long ago decided he couldn't
live with shame. So it was, and so it would remain.
There were no phones out beyond the wall. Long-range radio was the
best anyone could manage. Even microwave and laser were unreliable
because non-humans recognized and destroyed communications towers
whenever anyone was dumb enough to try and put them up.
Sentry turrets worked great when they had support, but isolated
emplacements tended not to last long and were far too expensive to
maintain.
James had heard somewhere that at one time mankind had satellites in
space that could be used for long-range communication. If any of them
were still up there they were just curiosities for kids with good telescopes.
Space flight was practically a fantasy, though there were enough
references to it in old media to make it common knowledge there were
human footprints on the moon.
They should still be there. He wondered if there would ever be more. He
hoped so.
Here on Earth, radio was it, and radio had a range determined by the
power of the transmitter, which wasn't great for handheld devices. The only
real communication with the city from this far out was by courier or relay.
James knew there was a rail line nearby that fed some of the largest
facilities outside the wall and terminated at End of Line station in Rectau.
Ideally, he could escape with Selena and reach that station before
anyone was aware either of them were gone, but that was a fantasy. He
didn't know exactly where the station was, and had no map of the area.
Kravitz had one. He'd proved it by being able to guide them here. But there
was no way to get those maps. They'd be on a tracker map, but unless he
took the doctor hostage for his biometrics there'd be no way to access the
information even if he found and stole it.
The only real plan he had was to head north until he hit the rail line,
then parallel that until he saw the walls of Daytau, which he would then
have to circle until he got to a superhighway. That would get him to one of
the ports of entry.
One was on the east side of Daytau proper, one on the west, and one to
the north that left out of Oolytau. The closest would be the superhighway
east or west, but he'd never get there before the Black Jacks could post
guards. His best shot would be to skirt the city and head for the Oolytau
terminal. It was the one most commonly used by non-humans to enter from
the Tracts and the least likely to have a comprehensive watch ... it was also
over a hundred miles away.

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 8

T he next day after breakfast James was no closer to solving the larger
problem, though he'd cracked the smaller one readily enough. He'd spoken
to a sergeant who worked him into the shift schedule, and none the wiser
about his shenanigans the previous night. The Black Jacks as an
organization were still a chaotic mess after the attack on the camp. What
remained of the command structure was hanging by the twin threads of
habit and discipline. Guarding 'the snake' was a job no one wanted. She
apparently creeped most of the other soldiers out. Since there were plenty of
other jobs that needed doing, James filled in easily enough.
His first shift was that evening, and since he'd be working through the
night he had the rest of the day to himself.
The manse they were taking refuge in had a substantial yard, and part of
that yard was given over to gardens. Because the main house was off-limits
and he'd explored everything else, that was where he went. He knew
nothing about plants and didn't care to learn, but he couldn't sleep and
sitting still only depressed him. He'd done far too much of that during his
many months as a bedridden invalid.
To his vague surprise, the gardens weren't empty.
A young man — couldn't have been more than eighteen and looked
younger — was clipping hedges with a trash bin next to him and several
full bags beyond that.
He looked up as James approached, and smiled. James smiled back,
though he noted as he did so that the boy had golden eyes. He was either
wearing contacts, or he was a hybrid.
 "Hey!" the boy said, smile breaking into a grin. "You're one of the Black
Jacks, right?"
"That's right, who are you?" James asked, stopping and looking back
along the hedgerow. The kid obviously knew his business because his lines
were straight. Growing up, James had lived in a house and tending the lawn
had been one of his weekend chores. He'd never been able to get the bushes
to look right.
"Andy!" he said, offering his hand, which James took and shook. "I do
gardening for a lot of the mansions out here in the Tracts."
"Just you?" James asked, glancing around.
"Naw, Benny helps. He had a job on another plot today and dropped me
off."
"Where do you stay?" James asked, curious. By the sound of it, this kid
didn't actually live here.
"We got a place out in the woods. Pretty quiet. No one bothers us."
James gave Andy the side-eye and said, "Be-cause you're non-humans?"
"Eyes gave it away, huh?" Andy said, grinning. "Yeah, Benny's a
werewolf."
"Is he your age?"
"How old do you think I am?" the kid asked.
"Not a day over sixteen," James shot back.
"Uh ... two months over sixteen, thanks, and no, Benny's in his late
thirties. He's been taking care of me since I was little, but he's not my dad."
"What happened to him, if you don't mind my asking."
"Nothing. He's fine. It's a long story I'm not supposed to tell. Anyway,
I've been looking at the companies for a while now. Sick and tired of
gardening and scraping by. I wanna do something with my life. Are the
Black Jacks hiring?"
"Even if they were, this isn't the outfit for you, kid," James said sourly.
"These people play rough and do mean business."
"Like what? All the SoF companies play rough. That's kinda the point."
"Not like these dudes. If I had it to do over I'd have never signed up
with them. If you want action, go to Daytau and enter the academy."
Andy's expression soured and he shook his head as he said, "Can't. I
can't go into the city."
"Why not? There are plenty of non-humans-"
"Reasons, okay? I got reasons."
 "Like what?"
"You tell me why you don't want me joining your group and I'll tell you
why I can't go into town," the kid said with a challenging tone.
James sucked in a breath and sighed hard, staring at the boy. On the one
hand, he didn't want to shatter this kid's dreams, on the other ... his dreams
were threatening to take him to very dark places.
"The Black Jacks trade skin, Andy. There's one here now, waiting for
surgery so she can be sold as a sex slave."
The kid's jaw dropped and he stared at James for a long few seconds
before blurting, "And you're okay with that?!"
"Of course not! Why the hell do you think I'm trying to warn you not to
join?"
"Then why are you still helping them!?" Andy asked, and his tone was
accusing.
"I'm ... looking for a way out. Pretty sure there isn't one but at least I'd
like to get the girl away. That's why I'm still here."
James didn't have the heart to explain about his back, or his debts. This
kid wouldn't get it anyway. He wasn't so old that he couldn't remember what
it was like to be young, when the world was black and white, when the
good guys and the bad guys were easy to spot.
"Well ... I can help you with that."
Blinking, he looked at Andy incredulously, but the boy seemed serious,
so he said, "How?"
"Benny and I have a truck. We go all over this area and know it pretty
well. If we tell him, I'm sure he'll want to help too."
"There's no way you don't get fired from this job if-"
"-if the dude that lives here is buying, selling, or even tolerating slavery,
then fuck him and his money."
Must be nice, James thought.
Aloud, he said, "When is Benny going to be here?"
"This afternoon. I never know exactly when. I'll be done here in another
hour and a half. What else can you tell me? Where will we need to post up
to be ready to help?"
"You know the small white outbuilding behind the garage?" James
asked.
When Andy nodded, he said, "We'll be coming out of there."
"That's just a storage shed for fertilizer and gardening tools."
 When James gave the boy a steady look, Andy threw up his hands and
said, "Yeah, okay. I get it."
"Can you get us to the Oolytau terminal?" James asked.
"Wouldn't the eastern terminal be faster?"
"How fast could you get us there?" James asked.
"Two days."
"Within six hours at most they'll know she's gone and three after that
they'll have a man at the station waiting to catch the next train for Rectau.
They'll beat us there."
"Why don't we go to that station and use it ourselves?"
"How many trains come out this way?"
"One every other day. There's one tomorrow morning."
"There's no way we don't get spotted waiting."
When Andy's brow furrowed, James added, "She's a big girl."
"How big?" Andy asked suspiciously.
James looked up, then guessed, "Twenty feet long?"
"Holy shit! What is she, a giant snake?"
"Pretty much."
Andy blinked, then hesitantly said, "Uhh ... they want to make a giant
snake a sex slave?"
"Look around, kid. Does anything about this place strike you as
normal?" James asked, pointedly glancing at the house.
"What about the Spite?" Andy asked.
"Surgery of some sort. Don't ask me for details. I don't know and I
really don't want to find out."
"Twenty feet ... we'll have to ditch all our equipment to fit her, and even
then she'll have to go in the back."
Pulling a small radio from a clip on his belt, Andy showed it to James as
he said, "Freak 11 22 C. Tune to us and I'll click twice when I've got Benny
on board. At some point after that you'll need to fill us in on the plan,
whatever it is."
"I suggest you talk it over with Benny before you commit to this."
Andy shook his head and said, "I don't need to. I mean I will but I
already know he'll say yes."
"Oh yeah? How's that?" James asked skeptically.
Andy just grinned and jerked a thumb at himself as he said, "It wouldn't
be the first time he's saved someone who needed saving. I gotta pay that
forward. Trust me, we'll help. You just need to get her to us and find a way
to keep the gate open. There's no way we don't get spotted with someone
that large riding where there should be lawn mowers."
"Yeah ... don't I know it. I'll figure something out," James said. "You're
buying a lot of trouble here, Andy. I can't promise it'll work out like you
think it will."
Andy nodded and said, "Life's what happens while you're busy making
plans. I get that. But you seem like a straight shooter. I can't smell any hint
that you might be lying to me, so I have to help. I'd never be able to sleep at
night now that I know this is going on if I don't do something to stop it."
"You really should join the academy, Andy. You'd make a good cop,"
James said wistfully as he turned to go.
The boy turned back to his work as he softly said, "Yeah ... I probably
would."

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 9

S elena looked up from the tiny book she'd been given as she sensed
movement above her. Despite her best effort to keep track of time, the
changing of the guard always surprised her. She would never have thought
simple isolation could be so powerful a torment. She had spent years alone
at times and never felt as she did now after only a few days in this hellish
white room.
Her only solace was to lose herself in the poetry she'd been given. It was
obvious by the style, cadence, and many strange words she didn't
understand that some of these poems were truly ancient. The linguistic style
was suggestive of another language entirely at times, but she knew enough
of the tongue to decipher most of it ... and all that she understood was
beautiful in a way that touched the heart.
Even as she slid toward the wall next to the door and set a palm on it to
listen, the lyric beauty of those words she read entranced her. Her former
patron had never thought much of humans, even as he collected their
products and labor for his hoard. He failed — or refused — to recognize the
true value of what he stole. He claimed only to take what belonged to lesser
beings so they would feel the lack, then create more for him to steal.
There had been a time when she too refused to see the beauty in men.
Then she met one that changed her mind. After he betrayed what they built
together she returned to her old ways, but in the depths of her heart she
knew the truth: having misjudged one man did not justify her condemnation
of them all.
 That hadn't stopped her from joining her patron, or working for his
cause. Only years of loneliness and frustration pursuing what she had
always known to be a futile effort dulled her resentment enough for James
Henderson to overcome its remnant. Yet, even as she waited and hoped for
him, part of her held back. He was a human. She had once trusted a man so
completely that it cost her the future she wanted more than anything else. If
she trusted another, it might cost her life itself.
The previous guard left, and slow minutes passed. Selena fidgeted
despite herself. Her composure was cracking and it shamed her that she
could be so easily manipulated. She knew a hundred different ways to
torture man or monster, but she'd have rather suffered any physical pain
than have her identity chipped away bit by bit all alone in this cold,
unfeeling cell.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the electronic sounds of the
lock, and lifted her hand away from the wall before the hard clank of the
mechanism could shock her.
The door swung silently open, and James stood there.
For a moment, she simply stared at him, drinking in the sight of another
person. Then she asked, "Have you found a way?"
"No ... but a way found me. I wouldn't normally involve other people in
this, but right now I don't see a choice. I need to get you out of here, and
we're on a tight schedule."
"When do we leave?" she asked.
"Right now. It's after dark and just over halfway through my shift. I've
arranged for the gates to be open and our ride should be here in just a few
moments."
"Over halfway through your shift? But ... you just arrived. I heard you."
James glanced around at the room meaningfully and said, "I think
you've had just about enough of this room. Let's get you out of here."
"I don't understand," she said as she slid out behind him and ascended
the stairs.
"White torture is all about dissociation. You lose touch with reality.
Time loss is commonly reported by survivors."
"Survivors?"
"Most people who are left for any length of time in a white torture room
are irreparably mentally damaged. The suicide rate skyrockets."
 "Why would they do such a thing to me if they plan to make me a
slave?" she asked.
"Human cruelty runs deeper than most of us care to admit. Enough talk.
Let's get you out of here."
He didn't meet my gaze, she abruptly realized. Not once since he opened
the door.
She looked at him with her heat sense and saw an unusual concentration
in his lower back, but she dismissed it as irrelevant as she sought the
patterns she had long since come to associate with fear. They were present,
but she didn't know if it was the circumstance he feared, or the company.
Either way, he was right. Now was not the time for talk.
He opened a heavy door and stepped out into a small building that
seemed to be a storage unit of some kind. The smell of earth and loam was
heavy in the room, and all around her there were bags of what looked like
simple dirt stacked neatly atop wooden frames.
There was little light, but he seemed to know his way without it. She
could see him perfectly well by his heat, and followed him without trouble.
They arrived at a sliding door and he paused there to listen a moment before
pressing it open.
"Henderson! What are you doing up here?" a startled man said from the
other side, and Selena reached past James to jerk open the door as she saw
him reach for his pistol. A shot would reveal them more surely than
anything else.
The door slid swiftly aside, revealing a man who looked to her
unpracticed eye very much like Henderson himself. Yet even as she saw
him, she struck, sinking fangs through his armored jacket and into his back
as her jaws surrounded his right shoulder.
"Aaugh! What the ... fffuck ..."
The slurred last word told Selena her fang pierced the man's heart. She
released and let the body fall, then began picking over it as James gaped at
her.
Without looking, she said, "If you had shot this man the entire
compound would be alerted. My way is better."
"Will he live?" James asked.
She shook her head, but made no verbal answer as she pulled the rifle
and its sling from the dead man. She glanced over the weapon. It was a
bullpup design and after only a few moments she triggered the magazine
release, checked the load, and slid it back into place. She charged it, then
pulled the dead man's web belt from his waist along with the spare
magazines and other equipment.
All the while James watched her with an expression of extreme unease.
She could all but read his mind in those moments. He was risking
everything to help her escape, but did not want to see her armed. Before, it
had not been a matter of trust between them. Now it was. She had bared her
fangs, shown him a hint of the danger she posed to him personally, and now
demonstrated she not only knew of human weapons, but was familiar with
their use.
When she actually glanced his way he refused to meet her gaze even for
an instant. She asked, "What has changed?"
"Everything. Every damn thing. Come on. The truck we're riding out of
here is around the corner. Over there by the garage."
Selena bowed low and sped along ahead of him, peeking around the
corner from no more than a foot above the ground. She saw the vehicle and
frowned, but beggars were not in a position to bargain. Two machines that
had obviously held pride of place in the open back of the truck had been
off-loaded and — given the size of the cab forward — that was clearly
where she was intended to travel.
Two men waited with the vehicle. One was grizzled, with ragged black-
furred ears that identified him as a lycanthrope, but the other was beardless
and looked like a young human male. Both saw her in the same instant, and
though the elder man's eyes were green and the younger's gold, both pairs
glinted tellingly in the low light. They were both non-humans.
"Go go go," James whispered urgently from just behind her, and Selena
did as he bade, slithering rapidly over to the truck and into the back, coiling
smoothly about herself to minimize the space she took. It was a tight
squeeze, but she managed without too much trouble and without a word the
two men waiting pulled a tarp over the back, sliding it forward until she was
obliged to slip under it and be sealed into darkness.
The rifle felt good in her hands, and with it she had a measure of
security that eased her discomfort. She wanted James to be the hero she
believed him to be. Yet, if time proved her no better a judge of character
than she had once been, she could at least do something about it at range.
The vehicle began moving with a silence that surprised her. The vehicle
that brought her here had roared and grumbled, but this one only whirred,
and she wondered at the difference. It was counter-intuitive, for she would
have thought silence more to be desired by military men than gardeners.
The two men James had recruited were obviously that, given the grass
clippings and torn branches poking her at odd angles.
From behind her she heard a shout, but it was a distant sound. Much
more immediate was the abrupt rattling ahead of her, which she took for the
sound of a gate closing.
The whirr of the vehicle's motor got louder, and Selena lurched as an
abrupt burst of speed and heavy thump got them past the gate, or so she
supposed. A moment after that the ride got much rougher as she heard a
sound she hoped never to hear again: the whine of a railgun charging.
Selena closed her eyes and bent her will in a direction she could only
have described as luck, but which was closer to fate. Destiny had a
preference, but could be negotiated with. Garnering luck this way had its
disadvantages and she knew she would pay for her meddling in the future,
but exchanging bad luck then for not being blown into chunks now seemed
like a worthwhile trade.
The vehicle slewed and jerked violently from side to side as it bounced
off the road and into the trees. A moment later the horrible sound of those
trees being torn apart came to her, and she no longer resented the tarp
covering her body. She didn't want to see what went on outside. If one of
those turrets hit their vehicle, everyone in it was practically guaranteed a
gruesome death.
She felt the pressure of fortune bearing down on her and fought it with
all her considerable might. She knew how good the tracking systems on
those guns were. She knew how slim their chances of escape must be. Yet
she desperately wanted to live, to vindicate her faith in a stranger who had
— out of the goodness of his heart — thrown his own future away to further
hers.
A minute passed, but for her that minute stretched into a small eternity.
Then, the gun fell silent. Their vehicle bumbled on through the dark
before the dawn, hindered only by the terrain. Selena's exhaustion caught up
with her and despite the violent jostling she endured, she slept.

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 10

J ames sat in uncomfortable silence in the cab with Andy and Benny. The
three rode into the morning, continuing until the batteries on the truck died
completely and the vehicle stalled.
No man spoke as two doors opened and everyone piled out. Benny
bowed backward until his back cracked so loudly James heard it on the
other side, but though he wanted to he dared not do the same.
His back was warning him that he was on thin ice, and popping it was
about the worst idea he'd ever had.
So instead he turned and freed the tie-down closest to him and flung the
tarp back.
Selena was sound asleep and didn't stir. As he wondered about that,
Andy asked, "How is she?"
"Smart," James said with a wry grin. "She's asleep."
Turning to face Andy, he asked, "So what now?"
Andy opened his mouth, but a gruff voice from the other side of the
truck beat him to an answer as Benny said, "Ordinarily, we don't need
backup batteries for this, but you and thunder-butt there are way heavier
than our equipment. So now we put out the solar cells and hope they don't
find us before we get enough charge to go the rest of the distance. "
James met the other man's eye across the bed of the truck, and nodded
as he said, "Noon?"
Benny nodded. "We won't get any decent input power until at least mid-
morning."
"I'll watch. You two-"
 "Shut your yap and go to sleep, human. The boy and I'll keep watch.
We'll need to keep the cells oriented by hand anyway."
"Thank-"
"I said shut it! I don't need your thanks, and I don't deserve it yet. When
I do deserve it you won't be able to afford it so just ... shut up and go to
sleep. If shooting's all you're good for, I at least want you shooting straight
when the time comes."
Too tired to argue, James turned away, wandered over to a likely
looking spot of ground under a tree, and carefully laid down.
Andy followed him and murmured, "He's not angry. Well, he is, but not
at you. Don't worry about it."
"I won't," James said, and closed his eyes.
He opened them again a moment later, only to find that moment was
almost seven hours later.
"What's the good of sleep," he grumbled as he started to lean up, only to
stop when a sharp pain shot up his spine.
He slowly laid back down, rolled over onto his belly, then carefully
raised himself to his hands and knees before straightening to stand. He
knew the signs, but there was little he could do about it now. He wouldn't be
getting his booster from Kravitz and could only hope his back held out until
he got Selena to the terminal. No matter what happened to him after that,
she'd be safe enough once she was going through the immigration process.
On his feet, he turned to see Selena gazing steadily at him, most of her
bulk still coiled in the back of the truck. He walked over and, careful not to
make direct eye contact, asked, "Are you okay?"
"James, we are far beyond the point where you might wish to avoid my
eye," she quietly said. "Look at me, and know I gaze upon a savior, not a
pawn. My deepest wish is your happiness, for you have given me a gift
beyond measure."
He thought about that, then looked into her eyes. She was smiling, and
her hands were clasped over her chest, holding the book of poetry he'd
given her.
Their eyes locked, held, then he looked away and nodded as he said. "I
could use a few good wishes and so could you. We aren't out of this yet."
"Yes, I've spoken with Benny and Andy. It seems we have another ten
miles of rough travel to get to their lodging. They are good people. We owe
them much."
 James rolled his eyes and shook his head as he said, "Yeah ... I owe
everybody these days it seems."
"Think nothing of your debt to the Black Jacks. Those traitorous men
deserve no loyalty from anyone."
"Yeah, I'm not so sure you know how debt works. But it's not your
problem, so never mind."
James looked to Benny, who'd appeared through a gap in the trees and
was heading their way. He opened his mouth, then closed it when Benny
flicked a hand and said, "Andy's bringing the cells back. The batteries are
reinstalled. We'll get going in a few minutes. Are you gonna make it?"
Nodding, James said, "I'll make it. Anything you need from me?"
"Not a damn thing but that you keep your trap shut. You've done
enough. How the hell did you get twisted up in the slave trade anyhow?"
"I owed more than I could pay," James said ruefully. "The wrong people
bought me out."
"Uh huh. Well, good of you to stick your neck out, even if it was for a
snake. I don't like lamia, and I've never even seen one of whatever the hell
she is, but I like skin traders even less so I'll tell you what I'll do. I can get
you to within about twenty miles of the Oolytau terminal, but from there
you're on your own. The boy and I can't go to the city, and if we get any
closer than where we'll drop you it's too likely we'll be seen."
"I meant to ask about that-"
"Yeah well don't. It's none of your fuckin' business. All you need to
know is Andy's a good kid and what wrong I've done I'm paying for in my
own good time. Get in the truck."
What followed was another day and half the night of travel, stopping
only briefly at a cabin that was well if crudely built. There Benny swapped
out the batteries in the truck and loaded another set into the back with
Selena, grumbling all the while about how she was heavier than the lawn
mowers he almost certainly wouldn't be getting back.
Andy departed at the cabin, though he took the time to shake James'
hand as he said, "I hope it all turns out right for you, sir. And her too."
"Yeah, one's more likely than the other but thanks, kid. Whatever you've
got going on, I hope you make it someday. Given your attitude, I think that's
pretty likely. Just ... do your research before you sign on any dotted lines,
all right?"
Andy smiled and nodded, then waved until they were out of sight.
 James' stomach was grumbling but he had no food and Benny wasn't
offering, so there was no point making an issue of it. He wondered idly if
Selena was hungry, but the question was academic and served no purpose
other than to occupy his time as he listened for the rumble of a troop
transport coming up behind them.
Diesel engines were loud but they made up for it in mileage. The men
on their trail wouldn't have to stop to replace batteries or charge; they could
keep right on going as long as they knew where to go. It'd probably take
serious work to pick up their trail after all the damage the railgun did to the
forest, but by now they were on it, and probably gaining. They'd find the
cabin, but since Benny obviously knew that based on the grumbling he was
doing, James made no mention of it.
Andy seemed like a smart if idealistic kid. He'd be nowhere around
when the Black Jacks pulled up, and they probably wouldn't stop when it
was obvious their quarry was escaping in a different direction.
He only hoped they didn't burn the cabin down for spite ... but found it
likely they would. Benny and Andy had lost just about everything helping
them ... and James marveled at that.
Eventually, he said, "I'll make it right someday."
"I've heard that before ... but whatever. Never know when a marker'll
come in handy. My boy ever comes calling?"
"He'll get what I got."
"That's everything."
"I'm aware."
Benny nodded and said no more.
The sun had just gone down when James finally heard the sound he'd
been dreading.
At about the same time, Benny's ears swiveled around before his came
up and twisted to look back. He started swearing bitterly.
"Thought we'd keep ahead of them if we made it to sunset. No such
luck. I hope you're good with that pistol, man."
"I'm the best in these woods."
"I'd be reassured if I didn't know mercs carry rifles with grenade
launchers."
"Take it or leave it," James growled as he skinned and checked his
weapon, then glanced at the mirror just outside his door. There they were,
flickering lights coming up from behind.
 His back twinged, and James closed his eyes for a moment as terror
gripped him.
"Hey! Get your shit together!" Benny said, hitting him with a quick
punch that sent agony searing down James' spine.
"Don't touch me," James said, opening his eyes to meet the other man's.
Benny's eyes widened at what he saw, and he put his full attention on
the road as he quietly said, "The road here's too tight for me to get off for
another mile. I don't know what you can do, but whatever it is better be
good."
James unbuckled his seat belt and turned carefully, settling on his knees
facing backward, bracing his ass on the dash as he tapped the window
control and it spooled down. Every bump sent a shock of pain through his
back and the track they were on was more pothole than road.
The transport's windshield was bulletproof. He knew that. He also knew
the tires were puncture resistant and wouldn't blow out no matter how many
bullets he put in them. His pistol wasn't small caliber, but it also wasn't a
hand cannon. His chances of penetrating the engine block were next to
nothing and there was a blast shield in front of the radiator.
So what could he do?
As he thought, he noticed Selena slip up from under the tarp, bracing
her back against the cab as she brought the rifle she'd stolen to bear. He
watched her charge it and — loud enough to be heard over the road noise
— said, "That rifle won't get through. Don't waste bullets."
Selena twisted around the edge of the truck to look him in the eye,
smiled softly, and said, "I try not to waste anything. If I could ... get through
... what would be the best target?"
"The driver."
"Is that the right side of the cab or the left?"
"Your right."
She closed her eyes in seeming acknowledgment as she twisted away
from him and raised her rifle, couching it with the air of long practice as she
sighted toward the rapidly approaching transport.
She aimed for what felt like a long time, then fired one shot.
James blinked in astonishment as the truck slewed violently, its lead
right tire blowing out under the sudden, impossible strain, and the whole
thing bounced into the air, twisting in a bizarre pirouette upside down
before smashing into a tumble.
 Selena twisted down and smiled through the glass between them, then
dipped back out of sight under the tarp.
Shocked beyond words, James painfully turned to settle back into his
seat as Benny said, "Hell of a shot."
"No. It wasn't," James said quietly.
Benny glanced at him as he said, "She killed a military transport with
one rifle shot. What would you call it?"
James thought for a moment, glanced back at the now empty darkness
behind them, then looked forward again. There was only one word for what
he had just seen.
Impossible.

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 11

S elena knew something was wrong . It was obvious in the way James
stood. His posture was subtly off. His face was drawn and pale, and a cold
sweat gave his brow an unhealthy sheen.
They were stopped, though the spot seemed no different to her than any
other she could see in either direction on the dirt track they'd been
following. Most of the journey she'd spent coiled under the tarp in the back
of the truck, and she was well-rested.
Benny pointed off to the right as he said, "That way. A little less than
twenty miles and you'll run into the city wall. It'll be Oolytau. Turn left
from there and you'll run into the terminal. Following this road will take
you to Bronson's place."
"We'd rather not go there," James said, and Benny nodded.
"Probably not. I can almost guarantee they'll have an alert for you by
now. They've got microwave communication with the city. Presuming your
old friends sent someone in by rail they'd have made it days ago."
"Thanks for your help," James said.
Benny glanced from him to Selena and back as he said, "Yeah,
whatever. I never had much use for humans, but you seem like you're trying
to buck the trend and it might just as easily have been me or mine that
needed saving. Take care."
With that, he got back in the truck and drove on.
Selena turned her attention to James and said, "Are you all right?"
"I'll make it," he said, barely glancing her way before stepping off the
road and into the trees.
 "Perhaps we should rest-"
"No resting. We need to get you to the terminal. I promise not everyone
died when that transport went over, and they'll be coming. There might be
another vehicle inbound. We can rest when you're being in-processed. Let's
go."
Selena slithered after him and the next several hours passed in silence.
She watched the man she was traveling with move with increasing concern.
He was obviously in great pain, and just as obviously unwilling to discuss
it. It was in every line of his face. She could see his resentment, frustration,
and anger warring with resolve.
She wanted to ask, but dared not. She did not think she could tip the
balance of the war her way. Her instincts warned her to silence. So she said
nothing and they made steady progress.
Before them, looming through gaps in the trees, were the great gray
walls of the city-state of Daytau. She'd seen them from a distance, but had
never been as close as she was now. She'd never believed she would enter a
human city-state again. Not after barely surviving her last such entrance.
That had been over thirty years ago, but as she watched the glowering
walls ahead grow taller, it felt like yesterday. Nothing had changed for her
in all the time since then. She knew that the rest of the world had moved on,
but for her those memories remained fresh. What happened in the years
between amounted to nothing. She had spent that time trying to guide a lost
soul, going to sleep each night a failure.
Now, the walls ahead of her represented something new.
Safety.
James' movements had become so mechanical that when he stopped, it
jarred Selena from her musings and she twisted to look at him, tongue
flicking out to taste the air between them.
His pallor was even worse. He looked deathly pale and was soaked in
sweat. Her heat sense showed the concentration of heat in his lower back
was much worse. When their eyes met, she saw clearly that he was
operating on sheer willpower. Beyond his physical desperation, she saw
potential like nothing she'd seen in over two hundred years. She'd sensed
his character in their first meeting, but hadn't realized the depth of his
spiritual strength until that moment.
He swallowed, then nodded forward as he said, "From here, things get
dangerous. The Black Jacks lost their chance to catch up to us, but they
probably guessed where we were going. If they plan to recapture you, it'll
be here, in the last mile or so before we get to the terminal."
He pointed, and Selena turned to follow his line. She saw a guard tower
peaking above the trees in the distance, beyond which the massive wall
between her and the city showed a gap. As she saw it, he said, "That tower
stands at the edge of a tarmac terminating the superhighway and one of the
transit rail systems. It's also one of the main ports of entry from the Tracts.
Anyone who sets foot on the tarmac automatically gains city protection
until they're identified, but there's a hundred yards of cleared ground
between the forest and that tower. That space is still in the Tracts ... and it's
called the dead zone for a damn good reason. It's possible we'll get to the
tarmac without a problem, but it's not likely."
"You think they're waiting for us?" she asked.
He nodded, and said, "If we come under fire, get to the tarmac. The
Black Jacks won't fire toward the city. If they do the guards and automated
turrets will shoot back, and they don't miss."
"You're saying this like you don't plan to come with me."
"Oh I'm coming with you, but I know you can move much faster than I
can."
"Shall I carry you?" she asked.
James shuddered, then shook his head as he said, "No way. I go home
on my own two feet or not at all."
"That's rather fatalistic of you, considering you were willing to explore
any option when it came to my survival."
He hesitated, then shrugged and started walking again. Selena saw the
stiffness in his stride, the agony every step obviously cost him, and finally
asked, "Why do you not accept my help? Your injury seems to be getting
worse."
He didn't answer. She followed him as she said, "We will make it, James
Henderson."
He glanced back at her, though he didn't turn more than his head. Then
he shrugged and turned away, pulling his pistol from its holster as he said,
"If you want to make sure of that, get ready. Ask no questions and don't
hesitate. Unless I say otherwise, shoot on sight."
She lifted her weapon and cradled it as she nodded her assent.
Ten minutes later two men stepped into view, rifles coming up. One of
them wore an ugly, gloating grin under a wrangler's hat curled on the right
side. James shot him in the face as he was opening his mouth to speak.
Selena killed the second man as he brought his rifle to bear.
She looked at James, but he hadn't even stopped walking and she was
forced to follow. When he reached the bodies he paused, listening. She
heard a voice sounding from an earpiece on one of the dead men, though
the words were too faint for her to make out.
James hesitated, then said, "Can you pick that up for me?"
She did, handing him the small device, and he fit it to his ear and said,
"All clear. Sarge's been wrong in the head since newbie knocked his ass out.
Shootin' at shadows."
She heard laughter, and James dropped the earpiece in the dirt a moment
later as he walked away.
"You knew these two?" she asked.
"Just the one. He accused me of cheating at poker. I was only on the
operation to wipe out the orcs because I won the fight I had with him over
it."
"So if it wasn't for the man you just shot-"
"-we'd have never met. I'd still be in the dark about the Black Jacks. In a
very real way, that fucker cost me everything."
"You would have lost it later ... and I might even now be a slave," she
said, then asked, "Do you regret it?"
"I regret a lot of things. All I wanted was to get my life back on track.
Not much chance of that now."
Selena could tell he was in no mood to talk, so she let it rest.
The two of them crossed the open space between the forest and the
tarmac less than ten minutes later, and ten minutes after that were in front of
a pair of heavily armed humans wearing fatigues. They were guarding a
reinforced double fence topped with barbed wire. Signs hung to either side
of the gate announced that the fence was electrified.
James raised both his hands, and Selena dropped her rifle to rest in its
sling as she copied him.
He said, "I've brought in a refugee from the Tracts. She wants to apply,
and has a statement to give."
"Who are you?" one of the men asked, voice wary. "There was shooting
out in the forest."
"That was us," he said simply.
"Who were you shooting at?" one of the guards asked.
 "Men from a soldier of fortune company called the Black Jacks. They're
dead."
"Why?" the guard asked.
"She can give you the details," James said, tipping his head toward
Selena without lowering his hands.
The guards glanced at each other, then the talkative one said, "Safe on
and turn your weapons in with us, then see the terminal immigration officer
over there."
Selena silently and slowly put her weapon on safe. James did likewise,
and after disarming the two found themselves in an office that was a little
too small for Selena's comfort, talking to a sharply dressed officer. James
sat down in a chair as she told her story, and the man asked no questions
until she was done.
He then turned to look at James and asked, "And you corroborate this?"
"Yes."
The officer's expression twisted as he glanced between them. He
touched a button on a device at his desk and said, "Send them in."
A moment later the small room grew even more crowded as two men in
blue uniforms walked in, one of whom said, "Miss? Would you come with
me? I'm afraid there's a lot of paperwork we need to do, but we'll start the
process immediately."
She glanced at James, who nodded and smiled encouragingly as he said,
"Go on. You're safe. The Black Jacks can't do anything to you now that
you're in the city. Just ... go through the process."
"Where will you be?" she asked.
James glanced at the frowning officer seated on the far side of the desk,
then at her and smiled a very fake smile as he said, "I'll be around. Go on."
She wanted to question him further. She was certain James knew what
was happening, but sensed she'd get nothing more from him. When one of
the blue-uniformed men waved a hand toward the exit she twisted to glide
through it without objection.
The remaining blue uniform closed that door, but as she was led away
her doubts remained and she asked the one leading her, "What will happen
to him?"
He gave her a kindly smile and said, "Don't worry. We'll get a new
statement from you now that you're not under threat. We were warned Mr.
Henderson would be coming in with you as a hostage. Now that you're
separated, we can deal with him safely."
"Deal with him?! What do you mean?" she asked, her sense of
foreboding giving way to alarm. "I wasn't his hostage!"
"He's a member of the Black Jack soldier of fortune company. Their
captain sent us a message claiming he'd gone rogue, duped a non-human,
and planned to use her as cover to re-enter the city. A warrant was issued
for his arrest yesterday."
"Arrest?! What for?!"
"I'm not privy to all the details, but according to the warrant he's wanted
for the murder of twelve men."

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::ISO RESIDENT 164C0 TEXT CHANNEL OPEN::

'James?'
"Yes?"
'James ... Henderson?'
"Yyyes?"
'Oh good, they connected the right one this time. How are you, James?'
"I exist in a virtual world consisting of simple blocks in four colors plus
white. Nothing I do impacts that world in any meaningful way. The people I
see are all identical stick figures lacking any recognizable characteristics —
not even a nameplate — that would let me tell one from another, and text
boxes are my only means of communication. I can't hear, smell, taste, or
touch anything. If I didn't have access to library functions I would be
absolutely insane by now, whenever now is. How are you?"
'My name is Lacy Donegal. I'm a junior clerk from the Oolytau
magister's office. I've been tasked with apprising you of your rights and
responsibilities in the coming preliminary hearing.'
"I'm aware of my rights and responsibilities, one of the former of which
is your presence. I have a copy of the arraignment. I've read it so many
times I have it memorized. I've also familiarized myself with the processes
and procedures I'll need to conduct myself at the preliminary hearing."
'I'm required to ask if you have any messages for friends or family?
Provided the persons you wish to contact are in the city database you are
permitted one thousand total words.'
"There's no one."
 'Very well. You have one message from a woman named Selena
Daytau.'
"She's neither family nor friend."
'She filed as the latter. Considering she arrived out of the Tracts in your
company her application as such was accepted. Would you like to send her
a message?'
"'Live your life.'"
'Noted. She asked us to relay a message to you, but you're under no
obligation.'
"Sure. Lay it on me."
'Don't give up.'
"... That's it?"
'It seems both of you are fond of three word messages. I'm sure the
censors will twist themselves in knots trying to figure out your code. :)'
"There is no code. How did she even find out how to contact me? I
thought indoc for non-humans coming out of the Tracts was six weeks. She
should still be stuck in class."
'James, it's been ninety-seven days since you were incarcerated.'
"I thought I was entitled to a preliminary hearing no later than one
month after arraignment?"
'While technically true, that law has been suspended in Oolytau for the
past twenty years or so. The Oolytau court system is incredibly overbooked.
Your hearing has been rescheduled twice to make way for more urgent
cases.'
"I've been accused of murdering twelve men. That isn't considered an
urgent case?"
'The fact that all your alleged crimes occurred in the Tracts makes this a
matter principally about breach of contract between you and your employer:
Black Jack Operators. The only reason you are incarcerated is because you
were deemed a threat to public safety in light of the severity of the
accusations coupled with the sheer number of affidavits filed in support of
the charges. Their solicitor has agreed — at each court request — to the
extension. Since you never replied to the court when these requests were
forwarded to you, the extensions were granted. Should you be exonerated in
future you'll be compensated by the city for each day beyond the allotted
thirty.'
 "I haven't received any correspondence of any kind since my
arraignment."
'I'm just a clerk. I don't have the authority to pursue this accusation, nor
can I file any claims on your behalf. Would you like me to contact a
solicitor for you? Presuming you still have an account open anywhere in
Daytau you are free to use those funds to secure one. Likewise, you can use
me to relay requests for financial assistance to others.'
'James?'
::ISO RESIDENT 164C0 HAS TIMED OUT. TEXT CHANNEL
CLOSED::

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 13

"A ll evidence is in . All arguments have been submitted by counsel.

Before the court is the decision of probable cause. The defendant is charged
with the statute set out in Section 649 Title 1, paragraph D. Principle
element of that statute is breach of contract resulting in bodily harm or
death. Twelve such charges have been brought."
The wizened old judge paused, looking over her readers at the court,
and Selena held herself unconsciously erect as the judge's hawk-like gaze
met hers. She'd long since noticed that humans beyond a certain age tended
to be less malleable, but the black-robed woman seated above her in
judgment over James Henderson's preliminary hearing took that
intractability to an extreme.
Selena had said nothing throughout the hearing and was, in fact, not
even part of the proceedings. She sat in the gallery, which was otherwise
completely empty. There was almost no one present at all. Beyond the bar
the plaintiff's table was vacant and at the defendant's table sat a single
human man in an understated suit. A bored clerk seated almost out of sight
around the corner of the judge's bench monitored the transcript and made an
occasional correction when the software chose the wrong word. Beyond
that, the room was empty.
It had taken Selena almost nine months to arrange this hearing. She had
gone through three different charity organizations before finally arriving at
a creature the likes of which she personally found beyond distasteful. That
loathsome thing had — however — proven key to progress. It arranged a
competent solicitor to represent James' interests, for a price to be paid in
future.
Selena shuddered as she was forced to acknowledge her debt to a slime
of all things, but it wasn't the first time she'd worked with unsavory forces.
She could only hope the price wouldn't be too high when the debt came due.
The judge continued.
"The court finds no element of that statute satisfied by probable cause
evidence, none of which has been introduced in this case. Several affidavits
filed in support of the charges have been credibly falsified by evidence
provided by the defense, four of which exist under names of persons
demonstrably deceased before the alleged crimes were to have been
committed. In addition, Black Jack Operators has ceased to exist as an
organization and no one remains with both an interest and the right to
pursue claims against the defendant. In light of these conclusions, the court
finds no cause to hold the defendant for any further proceeding and hereby
dismisses the charges against him. A monetary award is ordered to the
defendant in accordance with relevant clauses under Section 987 Title 7 for
remedy of imprisonment without timely due process. The court further
orders the immediate release of the defendant."
The old woman slammed her gavel down and James Henderson was —
at least technically — a free man.
Selena glided out of the courtroom and waited beyond the doors for the
solicitor, who paused to face her as he stepped out a moment later. He said,
"Congratulations, Miss Daytau. There are some lingering matters of record
that require James' imprimatur, but those can wait. There's a transport
waiting; would you like to go to Iso with me to pick up the lucky man?"
"Yes, please," she said, and slid down the hallway next to the lawyer,
Steven something. She'd heard it twice but for some reason the name simply
hadn't stuck with her. Perhaps it was her aversion to demons. While this
man wasn't — at least so far as she knew — a demon, he did partake of
their favorite pastime: litigation.
He said, "I admire your dedication, Miss Daytau-"
"Selena. Please. The surname 'Daytau' is a matter of record for the city,
not a name that bears any true relation to me."
"Of course. As I was saying, I admire your dedication. Having
familiarized myself with the circumstances surrounding the case over the
course of my work, I'm quite amazed at the lengths to which you've gone to
secure this man's freedom."
"He risked his life and sacrificed his health and freedom for me. I find
your surprise to be a rather stinging indictment of the current state of affairs
in this city," Selena said quietly. "At no point in this rather long, pointlessly
drawn-out process was my life ever in any danger. I've much left to do to
repay the precious gift James has given me."
Steven visibly chewed on that for a moment before he bowed his head
slightly and said only, "Of course. This way."
He led her out under overcast skies and down the steps of the filthy,
graffiti-defaced courthouse in the teeth of a cold wind that wasn't freezing,
but was close. Once beyond the doors and the harsh roar of an air blower
that violently ruffled her blouse, the rank miasma of the city washed over
Selena in a powerful wave. The noise was no less intrusive or cloying, and
the people on the walk and loitering on the steps of the government building
were true representatives of the dregs of a society. Their clothing unwashed
and tattered, their faces wary and suspicious.
Of necessity she had nothing between her scales and the grimy concrete
beneath. The feel of it made her shudder. She detested absolutely everything
about this wretched place, and though most of a year had passed since she'd
been granted entrance she still couldn't decide if her situation had actually
improved. She'd been accosted several times over the course of things and
while the threats posed had not been truly serious, they spoke to the manner
of person that could call this city a home. She'd been told that Oolytau was
the worst of Daytau's subcities, that literally anywhere else was better, but
that was cold comfort.
A long life had taught her that a people should be judged by the best of
their number, not the worst, but Oolytau had only convinced her to pray the
best of this people hadn't simply abandoned the place entirely.
The vehicle waiting for them at the edge of the grimy curb was an auto-
cab. As her particular body form was unsuited to driving or even riding in
most human-made vehicles, she'd become intimately familiar with the
drone fleets controlled by distant computers and this one was of the largest
type, with a sliding door that opened on an interior void of feature save a
narrow bench in the back, and another facing it with a space of about six
feet between.
 Selena paused and listened to distant thunder rumble overhead as she
watched Steven get into the front seat adjacent to a wheel that had no driver
behind it, then slid into the cab herself, surreptitiously scraping her ventral
scales on the edge of the frame as best she could in a vain effort to be rid of
the grime from the sidewalk.
She wore a white blouse cinched by a gold-buckled black leather belt.
Over the blouse was a black business jacket. She'd been advised to wear the
clothes regardless of the fact they did nothing for her otherwise vibrant
coloration because gaudy dress in a courtroom was considered gauche.
Despite the high quality of the material, she hated the understated look they
gave her. She was beautiful, knew it, and had spent far too long in the
wilderness dressed in rags. Now that she was in a place where virtually
anything could be had for the right price, she at least wanted to dress well.
Oolytau had disabused her of that idea rather quickly as its denizens
aggressively targeted anyone who manifestly had something that could be
taken. As she rode toward the prison these humans called 'Iso,' her
inclination to vanity fostered some small hope that once James was free
they could leave the underbelly of human society. Selena had seen such
places before in another place and time, but had never been forced to
endure them as she had this past year.
Her time in Oolytau was testing her will in new ways. Hell was a place
to be avoided or escaped from. She could have done either, but for the sake
of the man to whom she owed her life and freedom, she had not.
Despite his admonition.
Three words. That's all that had come out of Iso in all that time. She'd
uncovered evidence that the court-ordered notices and paperwork had all
been rerouted, never reaching the intended recipient. Other tampering was
in evidence everywhere in the delays and motions filed for the case, which
might legitimately never have come before a judge had Selena not made her
deal with Emmeraud Symerald.
The solicitors behind those delays had been hired on a retainer sufficient
to keep James waiting for trial all but indefinitely, but they hadn't even
bothered to show up to plead, undoubtedly knowing what they were doing
was not only unjust, but untenable.
Selena planned to deal with them later.
The ride through the city was one with which she was familiar by now
as the dwelling she had arranged for herself was very close to the prison
facility. It was, without question, the oddest prison she'd ever encountered
in all her long life.
When they arrived at the visitor's parking lot she slid out of the cab and
beheld a vast, completely flat tract of empty concrete surrounded by a
hexagonal double fence twenty feet high girding a band of solid concertina
wire. Both fences had loud yellow signs declaring they were electrified, and
guard towers hosting several different kinds of turret systems were posted at
each corner of the fence. The only details beyond the single gate were a
small guardhouse just inside the perimeter, and a building removed by
almost a hundred feet on the outside that served as the only means to
communicate with anyone in the prison.
Steven set a hand on her arm as she started to glide that way and said,
"They already know. All we have to do is wait here at the gate. They'll
bring him out."
"How long will that take?" she asked, twisting to look down at him. In
her agitation she'd risen to tower over him and her hood flexed open. She
didn't want to threaten him, but she also didn't bother to shrink down.
The man was suitably intimidated and both his hands shot up between
them as he took a hasty step back and yelped, "Woah! Hey! Easy ... easy.
I'm told it can take up to two hours. All the out-processing paperwork was
forwarded to my office and will be handled there. We just need to be
patient."
As though to punctuate his words, the thunder rumbled again. A fat,
freezing cold raindrop slammed the back of Selena's hood, and she glanced
up at the glowering clouds in annoyance.
The lawyer glanced up too, then shrugged and climbed back into the
cab. Selena did likewise and a moment later the rain came down in sheets
so heavy she could barely make out the tiny guardhouse on the far side of
the fence.
Inside the cab the rain was deafening but Selena endured it, eyes fixed
on the gate.
Red lights atop the poles on the inner gate glared to life, spinning like
tiny lighthouse beacons as a klaxon began to wail, loud enough to cut
through the thunder of the rain on the roof of the vehicle.
Steven glanced back as Selena opened the door, but didn't get out
himself.
 The rain felt like an icy assault as she slid rapidly toward the outer gate.
She could see a small vehicle moving toward the open inner gate out of the
gloom. The thing was little more than a seat with a platform behind it.
There were no windows, no roof, and the driver was wearing a slicker that
hid his features. Behind him on the platform there was another man in a
slicker riding with his legs dangling off the back, and a stretcher.
James lay in the same camouflage clothes she remembered him wearing
when he was detained, sans weapons. He had a single hand up that covered
his nose and mouth and a sizable beard, but it was obviously him.
The tiny vehicle cruised into the space between the gates and stopped
there. An armed guard from the first building joined the other two as the
inner gate closed. He advanced to the outer gate and made broad sweeping
gestures toward Selena as he shouted to be heard over the rain.
"Back fifty feet! I am authorized to use force!"
Selena stared at James as the two men riding the cart slipped off and
stood to either side of the stretcher but did as the guard commanded,
retreating until he stopped waving her back.
Once the inner gate was completely closed the klaxon changed to a
different, lower pitch as the outer gate opened, sliding silently aside in the
rain. Once it stopped moving the two men hoisted James off the back of the
cart and set him down just outside the boundary and slid him off the
stretcher onto the pavement. One of them returned to the cart and brought
back a vacuum sealed clear plastic container that held the former prisoner's
belongings, then both retreated.
When Selena started forward the guard's weapon tracked toward her and
she stopped, hood fully spread, glaring hatefully at the man as he stood
watching her until the gate slid closed between them.
The guard forced her to wait almost three increasingly rage-filled
minutes until the inner gate was also closed, with him on the far side of it.
That done, she was finally allowed to advance. She leaned down over
James, spreading her hood to block the rain from his head.
His cheeks were sunken behind his beard and his face was deathly pale.
It was also twisted with pain. His body was a wasted shell of itself, and her
heart broke to see him.
He gazed up at her, then rasped, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to get you," she said quietly. "Did you think I would abandon
the man who saved me?"
 "I told you to go."
"You told me to live my life. I am doing exactly that. Can you walk?"
"No."
"Can you feel?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Then this is probably going to hurt. Please bear it," she said as she slid
her arms under his shoulders and lifted, then shifted around to slide her tail
under him at an angle, coiling around and in until she had him balanced on
her body.
When she looked askance at him he said, "Gotta admit, that felt really
weird."
She smiled and said, "Let's get you to my residence. There you and I
can discuss what to do next."

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J ames quietly allowed himself to be carried to a small, one-room flat in a

crumbling apartment building less than a mile from Iso. Throughout the
journey Selena kept him atop her, and the way she traveled was so smooth
that even when going up stairs with one of her arms linked through his to
keep him from slipping he barely felt the uneven terrain beneath her body.
Then again, it might have been a rough go and he just couldn't feel it
because he was well on his way to freezing to death from the icy rain of
January.
The interior of her place was a marked improvement from the outside.
The room was clean, the walls were freshly plastered and painted. The floor
was newly tiled in some sort of reddish stone. There was even caulk sealing
the window closed to keep the smell of the subcity from seeping in.
A small twin bed and a coffee table without chairs were the only
furniture, and she carried him to the bed and laid him atop it as she asked,
"Are you hungry, thirsty? What can I do for you?"
"Wrap me in every blanket you've got. As for food, I've been on a
nutrient drip for months. I'm not hungry and even if I were I was warned
not to eat much for the first few days," he said.
"What is it like?" she asked even as she shifted back into the bathroom.
She was so long that she didn't even have to really move more than half her
body to do it, and she soon returned with a towel to dry him. That done, she
brought and dumped a literal pile of blankets atop him, wrapping him in
layers before settling into a coil just next to the bed, her head hovering over
his. "They told me that Iso prisoners are contained in tubes and stored like
... cargo."
James nodded and tipped his head to one side, reaching up to finger a
small bandage on a shaved spot near the base of his skull as he said, "Most
of it's done with a helmet that mutes sensory input, but they have a signal
interrupter that goes in here. It basically kills all voluntary motor impulses."
"They said you would be weak?" she asked.
Again he nodded and said, "They have epidermal pads that exercise the
larger muscles through electric impulse, but almost everything else
atrophies. I was given a recommended exercise regimen."
She nodded, and her serpentine face was nevertheless so human in her
obvious concern for him that he was moved to say, "Thank you. You saved
me. Once that court clerk made it obvious someone was blocking my
communication and deliberately drawing out the process I thought I would
be shut away in Iso forever."
Selena's expression twisted as she said, "The Black Jacks never
officially terminated you and used their position as your employer to
reroute your correspondence. Four months ago they officially dissolved, but
the lawyers they'd put on retainer kept approving delays and — I suspect —
other even less scrupulous things."
"Wait, they broke up?" he asked, brow furrowing.
She nodded and said, "They no longer exist. Apparently, most of their
material was destroyed when a rock was dropped on their camp. He also
attacked them personally after we escaped. I suspect many of the deaths laid
at your feet occurred at that time."
"What happened to the captain? Doctor Kravitz?"
"I don't know. I looked, but my resources remain limited and I simply
don't have the knowledge or the contacts. I've expected an attack from
them, but they've yet to make a move. Perhaps they never will. Mercenaries
are a mercurial lot. They are less willing than most fighting men to hold
grudges. I have little money and they'd never be able to smuggle me out of
the city, so perhaps once you got me here I became worthless to them."
James thought about that, then laid back and closed his eyes with a sigh
as he said, "Well, again ... thank you. I can't even describe to you how I felt
when I woke up and saw the real world."
"They put you in some sort of virtual place, correct? I did research and
was shown pictures of what it's supposed to look like, but I can't even
imagine living in a world like that."
"You can't actually touch anything, don't even have hands," he said
softly, shuddering at the memory and reaching beyond his head to press his
fingertips to the rough plaster of the wall in unconscious reassurance.
"No one is recognizable. You can talk to people, but never know if
you'll ever meet them again. I don't know how many prisoners there
actually are in Iso ... but I only met someone more than once ... once.
Everyone looks like identical stick figures. Beyond basic gestures and
proximity-based text channels there's no way to communicate. The only
audio available is for job training courses. There's no music, no sense of
time passing ... nothing. Even your text is corrected to basic language. No
idioms, no swearing, no accent. The only power you have is to 'mute'
others. Do that, and they simply vanish from your perception. Essentially,
the entire world is designed to remove your ability to influence anyone else.
There are no gangs because every time you wake up you're in a different
instance of the program with a randomized group of people. There are no
friends, no enemies, no ... nothing. The only way to measure time is by self-
improvement, and the only means of self-improvement are corporate-
sponsored training modules. In the nine months I was detained I passed the
qualifications to become a detective and certified as a level four computer
technician. The detective stuff was a dream of mine ... but the computer
stuff's actually worth something. I qualify for jobs that start in the low six
figures if I can find anyone who'll hire a cripple."
He hesitated, then shuddered as he murmured, "It's so good to hear my
own voice. It's so good to talk, to hear, to be heard. I can feel again. Oh my
god, it's so good ... I-"
James broke down and wept. He couldn't help it. He didn't want to cry,
but there was nothing else he could do. Every time he opened his mouth the
only thing that left it was a great, wracking sob.
Selena offered her hands and he held both, then pulled himself to her
despite the wrenching agony in his lower back at the move. She said
nothing, offered no comfort beyond her presence.
At last, when the well had run dry, he murmured, "I couldn't cry. Or
scream, or die. I have never wanted anything so badly in all my life. But I
was powerless. I just ... kept waking up."
"Do not let this second chance at life go to waste, James. If there is still
any desire for death in you, let it go. Embrace life. What you will know
now and in the future will be better than what has gone before."
He opened his eyes and looked into hers. They glowed like molten
metal as she met his gaze. It felt like she was peering into his soul.
Whatever she saw there, she smiled, then gently pressed the tip of her
snout to his nose as she said, "There. I see everything that you are, and I
will help you. I swear it. All you have to do is accept my help, as I once
accepted yours."
His smile was weak as he said, "Considering I can't even really go to the
bathroom now without help ... I think you may be in for more than you
bargained for. The payout I got for my time in Iso will cover basic living for
a while, but nothing more. Selena ... I'm paralyzed."
Nodding, she leaned back and spread her hood, filling his vision with
herself as she gently hissed, "Yes, you are ... for now."
"For good. The doctors warned me that the treatment I was on had to be
finished or I'd end up worse off. I can feel my lower body, but that's it.
Unless I get a full cybernetic bypass — which is practically science fiction
— I'm crippled."
"There is one other option, if you're willing to explore it," she said
quietly, never taking her eyes from his. He lacked the will in that moment to
break her gaze, but some part of him began struggling to do just that. The
feeling of being helpless abruptly overwhelmed him all over again.
Just as he felt he would scream she slowly, deliberately blinked.
All at once the tension eased, and he sagged back on the now soggy
pillow. It wasn't his tears that had made it wet, it was the rain water that
soaked him.
That was what he told himself.
Closing his eyes so he wouldn't get drawn in again, he asked, "What
other option?"
Selena said, "I did quite a lot of research on Iso. It routinely and
efficiently kills. Lou-Anne's Law — the law requiring a trial to move
forward within thirty days — is named after a woman who died waiting for
a hearing on charges of domestic abuse. She was imprisoned as a public
threat on the word of her then-husband. She died after sixty-two days in Iso.
In the end, investigators demonstrated that the man falsified the charge and
injuries in a successful attempt to defraud a life insurance policy ... by using
the judicial system to murder his wife. What the Black Jacks did to you —
given your already desperate situation — should have killed you. But you ...
you are extraordinary, and I have known that from our first meeting."
Opening his eyes as his frustration overcame his reluctance to meet her
gaze, he asked again, "What other option?"
Her expression was fond, but her eyes drew in and locked him down as
she asked, "James Henderson, will you become my apprentice?"
"Learning what?" he breathed, utterly unable to escape.
Selena smiled.

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"F ocus on the coin . Examine its spin. Memorize every detail. Fall in love
with its whirling dance ... join in. Become intimate with the movement ...
sustain it. True love's kiss was the first magic. Love most strongly expresses
a will to preserve and protect, but that is not all the mortal will may do.
What we recognize as magic flows from the will, which itself is the motive
power of the soul. It manifests in everyone, everywhere. A little bit of luck,
intuition without precedent, a result that exceeds expectation. Some of these
are coincidence, some divine interference in mortal affairs, some a
fundamental lack of understanding, and some ... are magic. Magi achieve
through focus and training. Just as a strong man focuses on his muscles and
a scholar focuses on knowledge, a mage focuses on agency in its rawest,
most undiluted form. We are not our bodies. We are not our minds. Both
these things exist to serve what we truly are. Magi understand this and can
mingle with what is outside those things, to influence reality without touch,
without words ... without limit."
James listened with half an ear to Selena's soft, hypnotic voice as he
focused on the coin spinning in front of him. It was difficult for a variety of
reasons, the most immediate being the fact that he was propped upright
amid Selena's coils, and only because she was holding him that way. There
was a subtle, persistent ache in his lower spine that throbbed, sapping his
focus.
The coin continued to spin on the simple plastic table, golden and
glinting in the light of the half-melted candle a few inches away, which
provided the room's only illumination.
 He lost track of how long he'd been watching the coin spin. He knew
that it should have shifted, wobbled, fallen, but it did none of those things.
Instead, it spun in an endless, glittering dance. Just as Selena commanded,
he poured all his active focus into the movement, studying every element of
it, every glint when the faces of the coin and even its edges threw light into
his eyes. It was mesmerizing.
"Do not simply watch. Spin yourself. Become the movement. Do that,
and you decide when the dance will end."
He heard her, but the words flowed through him. He did not ponder
them, only received them. His world had become the coin, its beautiful
spin, beckoning him with an eternal simplicity of movement and magic ...
James opened his eyes and blinked. The coin was down and still on the
surface of the table. He didn't remember it falling. His eyes absently traced
the words on the face.
Death to all who oppose us.
Against all odds, the solid gold coin had been among his returned
possessions. Selena had chosen it as a focus for her training.
"What happened?" he asked.
Selena chuckled softly. He could see her snout in his peripheral vision,
watched her serpentine tongue whisper from between her lips before she
said, "You fell asleep. It's a good start, all things considered. You supported
the coin all on your own for almost a full minute."
Blinking, he turned his head, careful not to shift his back. Their eyes
met and he asked, "Wait, what?"
Her tongue flickered out again, tapping his nose. He startled, wrinkling
it as she chuckled and said, "Are you so surprised? Did you think you'd be
incapable?"
James frowned, thinking hard. Then he shook his head and said, "I just
didn't expect to be able to do it so soon. We've only been at this a week. I
don't feel any different."
"Not now, but in that moment you were not yourself. You were the coin,
spinning into infinity. I knew that you had promise. I'm quite pleased. I
have known would-be magi who spent years trying to do what you just did,
failing because they never truly believed they could, or did not trust what
they were told."
She smiled, her eyes glowing with reflected candlelight as she said,
"That you could take control from me so smoothly reflects more than just a
superior will. It also speaks to your faith in me as an instructor. Your trust is
... touching."
"If I had it, why did I fall asleep?" he asked.
Selena turned her face from him to look down at the coin as she said,
"Magic is a fundamental exertion, just like anything else you might choose
to do. Tossing balls is easy. Juggling them is not, until well-practiced. Your
will already manages both your mind and body simultaneously. Extending
the analogy, you added another ball to your juggling act and dropped them,
that's all. It is not power you lack, but mental dexterity. This is expected
progress. My instructions had you investing wholly in the object of your
desire, but in doing so your attention on other necessary elements of life
falters. As you grow in competence you'll be able to invest partially in your
objective and retain wakefulness. Enough for today. Just as with so many
other things, over-exertion can do more harm than good. Would you like
anything to eat or drink? Is there some other way I can see to your
comfort?"
"I'm paralyzed, not helpless. Just prop me up on the bed and hand me
the datapad. I've got plenty of leads on jobs. I need to land a gig before the
money runs out," he said.
Selena smirked at him even as she slid around his body, moving him
without bothering to use her hands. She folded the pillow to support him
against the wall and adroitly shifted him to the bed. As she did this, she
said, "The money won't run out. As you can see, I've established enough of
a support system to get by here."
"Meant to ask about that," he said, eyes tracking her as she turned away
from him, reaching into the kitchen even as the latter half of her body
remained where it was. She was so large that everywhere in the small
apartment was within her reach.
"What do you do?"
"I thought I told you. I tell fortunes," she said, turning back to him with
a mug of steaming coffee in hand. She passed it to him as her tail
disappeared under the bed, reappearing a moment later kinked under the
body of a datapad.
James sipped the coffee and watched in idle fascination as a ripple
traveled down her body that neatly bounced the pad from her tail to his lap.
He could only marvel at the control she demonstrated.
 "Did you use magic to do that?" he asked, picking up the datapad and
unlocking it with a thumb.
"Long-time practitioners blur the line between what is and is not magic.
I honestly can't say whether some of the things I do are ... assisted, or not. I
just do them. You can consciously breathe, but not every breath you take is
conscious. In a similar way, my desires manifest more strongly than those
of untrained folk. All magi are similar in that way. Our efforts always have
a tincture of success. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but with us it is more
likely."
She rolled her eyes up and away in absent amusement as she said, "And
I never lose a coin toss."
Her smile was warm, her eyes bright as they met his and she winked.
"You'll be the same one day. Patience and practice, James. Patience and
practice."
He thought about that as he scrolled job listings looking for entry and
intermediate positions that matched his skillset. Technically, a level four
technician was considered a master trade. Practically, his experience outside
training simulations was zero, and in the real world experience always
trumps training.
He didn't bother searching jobs that might utilize his training as a
detective. There weren't any. People with those skills in the private sector
usually worked as investigators for hire, and he'd have a hard time doing
that from a wheelchair.
"If you can influence luck like that, you should just go spend twenty
minutes at one of the casinos in southside," he said as the thought occurred.
"Be a hell of a lot easier than working for a living."
His search was disrupted as Selena cupped his face in her hands and
tilted his head, forcing him to meet her eye as she said, "Listen to me very
carefully. What I'm about to say could genuinely be the difference between
heaven and hell for you. Everyone has magic. They don't use it in a
conscious way, but it exists, and not without consequence."
"Such as?" he asked, finding his gaze inexorably drawn to hers. He held
himself mentally still, as though standing with a strong wind at his back on
the edge of a cliff. It was hard, draining, but he held his ground as she
spoke. It was obvious she was pushing her understanding toward him,
willing him to accept it.
 He didn't want to reject what she was telling him, but did want to hear it
uninfluenced.
The focus required was difficult to maintain, and she seemed to sense
his resistance. She could see the frustration in his eyes.
"Imagine a log floating in a lake. When the lake is placid, the log makes
no disturbance in the water upon which it floats. Toss a rock into the lake
and ripples spread out. They reach the log. What happens?"
"Ripples bounce back," he said.
Nodding vehemently, she said, "Exactly. If the log weren't there, only
the rock's influence would cross that space. Now imagine that every living
thing is floating in this endless lake, including you. The power I am
teaching you to harness creates ripples, James. Everything it touches
responds, and that response isn't always proportionate. If something you do
impacts a hundred people, then your one ripple might be returned to you a
hundred-fold. In that case ... well. You'd better pray the ripple did good, or
what happens to you will likely be complete misery, disaster, and despair."
James thought about that, then looked curiously at her and asked, "So
when you give someone a fortune they don't like, doesn't that negatively
impact you?"
"Sometimes, yes. Telling fortunes is a dangerous business."
"Why do it?"
"Because one good fortune can legitimately change life for the better,
save it, or save several others. Most of the people who come to me wanting
to know their futures don't see a way out. They're desperate, or they
wouldn't be asking for help from supernatural sources. If I show them how
to escape their troubles, or solve them, their gratitude lifts my life like a
wind fills a sail. Over the years I've learned to spot opportunists. These I
either turn away or simply give completely ordinary advice. Their malice
has no supernatural power if what I tell them lacks the same. But surely you
see how going to gamble would be a bad idea for a mage?"
James nodded thoughtfully as he said, "I'd be cheating someone, either
the house or the other players, and their resentment would hit me as ...
misfortune?"
Selena smiled, cupping his face with both hands as she said, "Yes ...
typically. Sometimes, we must do things that accrue ill will even knowing it
will harm us in the future. That is simply the nature of life. There is no life
without death, no living without killing. In acknowledgment of that, a wise
mage seeks to use his magic to accrue gratitude and good wishes from the
people around him. Those in turn protect him when he must cause harm, or
commit some malfeasance against the natural order."
She paused, looking into his eyes, and James let himself go, willingly
falling into them and her sway. Just as she earlier saw his resistance, she
recognized his acceptance and breathed a sigh of relief. She said, "Using
magic to advance yourself must be done carefully, with a keen eye on the
consequences for others as well as yourself. Using it to convince someone
to hire you to do a job you actually plan to do when the employer might not
otherwise give you work is one thing. Whether they'd have done as you
wished without magic or not, they'll benefit from the work you do. Use it to
cheat someone and you open yourself to the unpredictable vengeance of
their latent magic."
James nodded as he said, "Yeah, yeah ... I get it."
As she twisted away from him, he asked, "Is that why you were out
there in the Tracts, wearing rags, doing a shit job for someone you hated?
Were you ... I don't know how else to say it, evil?"
She froze, and didn't turn to face him as she tipped her head up, as
though looking to the pitted ceiling above them for answers.
At last, she drew a deep breath and said, "I have lived a very long life
and many of the lessons I have to pass on were hard won."
She turned to look searchingly at him, then said, "To be honest ... I
didn't deserve your mercy. I can only believe that your need for me was
strong enough to break the cycle of my suffering. I will do absolutely
everything in my power to justify your choice to save me, James."
He turned over what she said, and was left with an obvious question.
Yet as he looked at her it was to see she'd turned from him. She'd moved her
upper body into the kitchen area and was fussing at the coffee machine with
her head down, hood pulled tight to her neck, and it occurred to him that
she was afraid.
Selena knew the question was in his mind, and refused to look at him as
she waited in silence for him to ask.
As he gazed at her, considered all that she'd done for him and what she'd
promised ... he couldn't bring himself to believe that this was something he
needed to know. He was curious and it would nag at the back of his mind ...
but as he stared at the dangerous, mysterious, paradoxical serpent woman
who had chosen to help him when she had no real obligation to do so, he
realized he couldn't take that secret from her. Not when she so very
obviously didn't want to give it up.
"All right," he said. "We'll leave it at that."
She twisted to look at him, eyes wide with surprise, then she slid over
herself, returning to his side and leaning in with startling quickness. Selena
pressed the tip of her snout to his cheek, then slid her head past it to rest on
his neck as she said, "Thank you."
"I worked in a system that never forgets anything," he said, lifting a
hand gently to the back of her broad neck. "Once your name is in that
system - whether you did your time or not — certain doors close for life. If
we truly believe someone paid for the wrong they've done and turned a new
leaf, the only way to really prove they've been forgiven is to forget what
they did. Forgive and forget ... that's how it should work. Leave your past in
its grave, Selena. You've given me hope for a future I thought was gone for
good. You saved me from a place worse than death. Whatever ... ripples,
you get from me? They'll be as good as I can make them."
Selena curled her head around behind his, resting her snout on his neck
as she said with a hint of tremble in her voice, "For this gift ... for your trust
and acceptance of me I promise ... not only will I help you regain what
power you had, I will elevate you far above your fellows. If you desire it,
you will become a god among men."
Chuckling ruefully as he marveled at the depth of feeling he sensed in
her, he said, "I'll settle for being able to pee standing up."
Selena's stuttering hiss struck him as laughter before she said, "So long
as you have ambitions beyond so meager a goal."
"Meager? Right now I could ask anyone who was treating me before
and they'd tell me what I want is impossible."
"There are impossibilities, even for gods. Trust me when I say what you
want is not one of them. I will not give you my estimate, but having
watched you this past week I can say your full recovery isn't just a
possibility. Keep working with me and you will walk again."
James gently pressed her away from him, mindful as he did so to keep
his hand on her shoulder rather than her chest, which she'd been pressing
rather shamelessly against him. She slid back, looking askance at him. He
asked, "Why am I making progress? If it were really as easy as 'want
something bad enough and you can get it' there'd be magi all over the place.
I'm not the only driven man out there. There's plenty of people in deeper
shit than me."
"Aah," she said, and slid over his legs to prop herself up in the corner,
her shoulder touching his. The length of her body draped across his legs
was heavy, but spread out enough not to be uncomfortable. It was also
warm. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and the way it fell across her ample
chest made him blink. It wasn't as mesmerizing as her eyes but it was
certainly an eye-catching sight.
Her smile was wry as his gaze found hers, but she didn't call him out as
she said, "The truth is you're something of a perfect storm for this sort of
training. First, you have a strong will, tested and tempered by a difficult
life. Second — and much more important — you know magic exists. I sat
through the rather tedious indoctrination classes, James. Most humans don't
believe magic is real. They think the Cataclysm was somehow driven by
some lost technological disaster. But you've seen it. I showed you, and that
kind of sight opens doors in the mind that are otherwise very hard to
unlock. Third ..."
She trailed off, glanced away from him, and stared at the wall as she
said, "You're afraid. For many pursuits that would be poison, but for magic?
There are nigh endless complexities to be mastered in the pursuit of this
craft, but at its core magic is simple, primal agency. Simple tasks are
elevated by strong emotions. Run faster, strike harder, surpass your limits,
break your chains. Fear stretches the boundaries of what is possible more
than almost anything else."
She glanced back to him, effortlessly capturing his attention. Before she
could speak, he said, "I really wish you wouldn't do that every time we look
at one another."
She blinked, and the effect vanished as she rolled her eyes and
grumbled, "Sorry. Like I said, force of habit. I'm not doing it consciously.
Besides, as you grow stronger my influence over you will naturally
diminish. As for what I was about to say ... don't let it go to your head.
Many magi begin their careers with the best intentions, the most noble
goals. But if your goals are too cheaply won, the power remains, and power
demands to be used. Once you're walking to the bathroom on your own, be
sure you've got your next steps planned. If you don't use your power, your
power will use you."
"Ominous."
 "Good. I haven't entirely lost my touch."
"Warnings and jokes don't mix. You're inviting me to take you lightly,"
James said with a wry smile.
"I trust you. I'm sure you won't misinterpret me."
James glanced down at her chest again, which was now pressing into his
arm, then back up at her with a raised eyebrow.
The way she stared back at him left him feeling like a door was open
there.
"Try not to send mixed signals," he said, returning his attention to the
datapad and his job search.
To his vague surprise she didn't say anything. She did lean a little away
from him, but their shoulders remained in contact and her body lay across
his legs.
He got his attention back where it was supposed to be, but it wasn't as
easy to do that as it should have been.

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 16

S elena watched James absently as he worked. After most of a year in a

human city she was familiar enough with datapads to follow along with
what he was doing. The pad he was using belonged to her, one of many
purchases she'd had to make in the intervening months.
As always, her attention focused on the angry heat in his lower back.
She knew he was in pain, even now, but he never complained about it. The
first time she'd had to help him into the bathroom he was in a cold sweat
and deathly pale before it was done. She'd forced herself to ignore his pain.
She had known men like him in other times and places. Acknowledging his
pain would only shame him.
She wanted to wrap him up but dared not. It would put him in agony.
So she watched him in silence and wondered what to do. As always,
only one thing came to mind: teach him.
Pity was not what she wanted to feel for this man. It colored everything
else, washed out the vivid colors he'd painted in her life.
It had been a long time since she'd felt like this for anyone. More than
anything, she didn't want to ruin the chance that there might be more to
their relationship than master and apprentice.
Yet, the way he acted ... he was obviously keeping his distance. If she
didn't do something, once he had what he needed to restore his lost mobility,
to ease his pain, there'd be nothing to keep the two of them together.
She wanted to stay with him, and it was more than just his potential.
James was good all the way through. Once he'd learned what was planned
for her, his conscience had forced him to give up everything: his job, his
freedom, his legs ... to save her from that fate. There was only one reason
for a man in his position to do that.
Somewhere inside him was a man she wanted to love, and she wanted
that man to love her in turn.
First she had to get him back on his feet, and that wouldn't happen soon
even with his rapid progress.
She knew of ways to restore him quickly, but they involved rituals that
couldn't possibly be mistaken for other than what they were. What she was
teaching him now could be passed off as miracles and good luck. If she
performed formulaic magic to restore his back she opened them both to
discovery. If they were discovered, hunted exile was the best outcome, and
humans here in Daytau seemed positively obsessed with recording
absolutely everything.
Better to take the slow and certain path, no matter how frustrating.
A change in James' breathing drew her attention to him and she saw
he'd fallen asleep.
She leaned against the corner the bed was set in, gazing idly at the man
on whom she'd pinned her future as she considered exactly what it was she
wanted.
She'd read James Henderson's fortune more times than she could count,
each time with different aims and intentions. In virtually all of them he died
a grim death: betrayed, abandoned, and alone. It was only if she stayed and
developed his talent for magic that there was even a chance at a brighter
future. Of course, she couldn't tell him that. He would think she was staying
for pity's sake, and her genuine feeling for him wouldn't get through.
Not that it was getting through in any case. James was a closed book.
He'd been that way all the time she'd known him. She had to believe there
was a chance for romance with him, but none of her tellings had revealed
the method.
The problem with fortune telling was that one's own fortune could never
be known. If she wanted the bright future she imagined, she would have to
blunder her way toward it as best she could manage without the aid of
supernatural insight, just like everyone else.
She smiled and rolled her eyes at herself. If she could read her own
fortune she'd have been a slave to it, just as surely as to anything. To know
the future was to lose agency in the present. Some powers were better off
beyond the reach of mortals.
 Still, the fact that she had read James' fortune so many times made her
feel like she was intruding on his life. He certainly didn't see it that way
now ... but no matter that it took weeks or months, his back would heal.
Once that happened they would be at a crossroads.
Somehow, she had to convince him that she would be a worthy
companion no matter which path he chose. She wanted to stay with him for
several reasons, but she knew her desire for him was more than pity
because the most poignant reason was a purely selfish one.
When she was with him, for the first time in decades, she didn't feel
alone.

OceanofPDF.com
 17

J ames watched the coin spinning out of the corner of his eye as he worked
his way through a trouble ticket on the Vector servers, wanting to finish the
contract strong so as to have a decent chance at an extension.
As he confirmed the solution and checked the clock, he noted he'd had
the coin spinning for almost three hours with only incidental attention.
Setting his datapad aside, he reached out and set his finger on the edge of
the table. The coin began drifting his way. When it reached his finger he
smoothly picked up and lifted it, watching it spin on the tip of his nail. He
could feel heat building up due to the friction, and shunted that heat deeper
into his body to dissipate there as he focused more and more of his attention
on the spin.
He'd been living with Selena for almost six months. In that time, he'd
become comfortable with nudging probability to and past its limits. So
much so that he could start the coin spinning by simply tossing it onto the
table. It felt like a genuine extension of his being.
It was a party trick.
James lowered his finger, letting the coin spin on top of his nail before
flicking it up into the air and catching it neatly, sighing softly as he
considered the door to the small one-room space that had become his world.
He'd never left the apartment, not even once, in six months. Money
wasn't an issue; he'd been able to land a steady series of gigs and project
work despite the fact that no one would hire him full time. He had a
growing reputation, but the fact that he was an accused murderer let them
contract him cheap and always let him go when the renegotiation window
opened.
It meant, among other things, that he couldn't move out of Oolytau.
Without a permanent position in one of the other subcities he simply wasn't
allowed.
Not for the first time, he considered hopping one of the supercarriers
and heading to another city-state. Then he remembered that 'hopping' wasn't
something he could do anymore. His eyes settled on his toes, then narrowed
as he tried wiggling them.
Nothing.
With a long-suffering sigh he closed his eyes and focused inward.
Selena hadn't taught him anything beyond how to stretch probability. While
simple in explanation, practice was considerably more complex. After six
months he could do things that were absolutely magic, but whenever he
focused inward he got a big blank. Nothing. Nothing at all.
There was a key bit of knowledge he was missing, and each time he'd
asked about it Selena had told him the same thing.
You're not ready for that yet.
With those words echoing around in his mind, the door opened and their
origin slithered in. He watched despite himself, because no matter how
many times he saw her he always underestimated just how big she was. The
upright portion of her stopped by the door and waited as more, and more,
and more of her coiled in, twisting across the space until finally her tail
flicked into sight, and she closed the door.
Without looking at him she took a plastic bag into the kitchen, opened
the refrigerator, and put several containers inside. That done, she turned to
face him and smiled a vibrant smile that he'd grown incredibly fond of. He
smiled back, though there was no feeling behind it.
"A bad day?" she asked, tongue sampling the air absently.
"Not particularly, but you and I need to talk."
She hesitated, molten eyes boring into him. Yet what she'd said months
ago had proven true. He no longer had any problems meeting her gaze and
maintaining his position.
That didn't mean he could hide things from her.
"Your patience has been stretched to its breaking point," she said, body
slithering over itself as she came to settle next to the bed. He had his back
against the wall, and didn't bother to answer her. He just nodded.
 "I didn't want to teach you the next step in the process until you
mastered the first."
"I don't have a metric for that either," he said dryly.
She shook her head, blinking languidly at him. She said, "The reason I
have not done this is because a mage's hold on magic is more tenuous than
you might believe. To be thwarted in one's desires can utterly suppress the
ability. It is like ... learning to do something truly dangerous. One learns
how incrementally, improving little by little, mastering all the details. Then,
when ready, the task is completed. But if the task is failed, confidence is
shattered and all the skills one learned are subconsciously doubted. Then,
success becomes infinitely more difficult. Do you understand?"
His brow furrowed, and he said, "Can you give me an example?"
Her head tipped up, hood spreading a little as she searched, then her
head lowered abruptly, eyes locking on his as she said, "In my case, it was
learning how to read fortunes. There are a thousand different ways to
perform the task, but in each of these there are a million different ways, or
more, to read the signs. Learning what each sign is, what it can mean in any
given circumstance ... that's one thing, and typically takes years to master. It
is entirely another thing to sit down in front of a stranger, look into their
future, and accurately predict its course. Get it wrong, and all the learning
that went before falls into doubt. Instead of reading the signs, one questions
them, and answers become impossible."
"But you didn't have a problem with the kind of magic you're teaching
me?" he asked.
She shook her head and reached out, setting her hand on his as she said,
"I was raised with magic. I learned it even as I learned to speak. It is as
natural to me as breathing, as seeing. I can never doubt that part of what I
know just as you could never doubt your hands, or your sight."
"I don't know. I've seen some pretty questionable things," he said,
looking her up and down.
Her smile twisted, and she gave him 'the look,' then said, "Do you
understand?"
"Yeah, I get it, so? Now what? I'm done with this twist the coin shit. I
can practically do it in my sleep, I do do it while I'm working. What more
do you want before you teach me how to fix my fucking back?!"
She winced away from his words and he did the same a second later,
raising his hands in apology as he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I'm frustrated.
I just ... I could get used to this, you know? I could live like this if I knew
there was no other way. But I can't; you know why? Because you gave me
hope! And I don't want to give up on that. I need you to help me. You
promised you would."
Selena was staring at him, hood flared, expression unreadable. In that
moment, she was more like a snake than he ever remembered. He stared
into those molten eyes and pushed. He put all his conviction into his voice
and said, "Don't you dare tell me I'm not ready yet. I can't hear those words
from you."
Her head twitched, then again. Finally, her hood slowly closed and she
very deliberately blinked and bowed her head as she slithered right up to
him, putting her snout less than an inch from his nose before opening her
eyes again.
Their gazes locked and James braced himself as he felt the full force of
her will slamming into him. He tried to blink, failed. He couldn't even push
her away. His body utterly failed to obey him.
"I have not been patient with you, James ... I have been teaching you
patience," she hissed. "If you are to succeed, you require a change of heart,
a new perspective. You told me the story of your back injury, remember? I
read the news articles related to it. There is a discrepancy between them and
your telling. Do you know what it is?"
She waited, but her will crushed him like a compaction roller. He
couldn't even breathe.
Selena pointedly waited, but when he failed to answer she hissed,
"Success! I asked you in the woods if you regretted saving me. Do you
remember what you said? The greatest good you ever did for anyone in all
your life, and you regret it! That does not show me the spirit of a man who
can reach out, grasp an impossible dream, and make it real! It is the outlook
that clings to the scraps others deign to throw him and knows only how to
lament their loss!"
"I'm still here!" he said through gritted teeth.
"There is a difference between a survivor and a victor. A survivor learns
to live without. A victor claws fortune from the jaws of fate."
"I can't win if you won't let me fight," James said softly.
"You aren't ready ... however."
When she released her hold on him he gasped for breath, gulping air as
he shut his eyes in relief.
 He only dimly heard her say, "I think we can move to the next stage of
your training. You've already mastered stretching probability for ongoing
activity. You can make a coin spin indefinitely or a candle burn without
consumption. You can twist smoke into symbols and direct small objects in
motion. Give me your coin."
James handed the golden coin to her and she set it on the table, then her
eyes met his again, but she didn't pin him with her will this time. She said,
"You can start the spin by tossing it to the table, but can you do this?"
Her tail curled up behind her and thumped the edge of the table. It
rattled the coin, which stood up and started spinning. She didn't maintain it,
and the coin quickly settled again.
Waving a hand his way, she said, "Now you."
James considered what it was he was being asked to do. He'd started the
coin any number of ways, from flicking it into motion to flipping it from the
top of his fist, what was different about this?
Nothing.
Abruptly, he got it. Not just what she wanted, but where she wanted to
go with it. He looked up into Selena's eyes and held her gaze as he lifted his
hand and snapped his fingers.
The coin shuddered. The movement developed into an increasingly
steep roll around its edge until finally the coin went vertical, spinning.
It was the first time he ever saw complete shock on Selena's face. She
was genuinely, totally surprised.
He said, "There's no functional difference between what I've been doing
and what I just did. What were you going to do? Have me thump the table,
then the floor, making my initial physical influence over the coin weaker
each time?"
Still clearly shocked, Selena nodded as she said, "Essentially."
"Do you understand why I helped you?" he asked.
Her eyes clarified and she focused properly on him as she said,
"Because your conscience would not allow you to do otherwise."
"Do you understand what that means?"
She hesitated, then spread her hand in invitation, eyes now hooded as
she watched him.
"I can't disobey my conscience. I tried, Selena. I tried really hard. I
couldn't sleep, couldn't think about anything except getting you out from the
moment I knew what Grayson had in store for you. If it's the right thing, I'm
bound to do it no matter what it costs. I didn't save you because I wanted to.
I saved you because I didn't have a choice."
He paused, but she was patiently waiting, so he said, "I live my life in
black and white. I'm not a hero. I'm a slave. I do the right thing whenever I
know what that thing is. That's all. My life is simple. Training is one thing,
but once I know the steps, all I want to do is dance."
"You're bleeding."
"What?"
James glanced down at himself and several drops of blood fell from his
nose onto the white undershirt he was wearing.
"It's rather like typical human flexibility. It is possible for a human to
splay their legs into a straight line, but knowing it can be done and doing it
without incremental practice are still two very different things. Essentially,
you just did the magical equivalent of dropping into the splits to impress a
girl and crushing your balls on the floor. I've seen it happen ... it was very
amusing," she said, now obviously trying to keep from laughing at him.
"I don't get it. I thought I just fell asleep if I over-extended," James said,
glancing around for something to stem the now very definite flow of blood
from his nose.
"James, this is the first time you've ever done that. Always before, you
just grew weary and fell asleep. This time your reach genuinely exceeded
your grasp, if only by a little."
"Okay ... so why am I bleeding?" he asked as he accepted the dish towel
Selena tail-flipped him from the kitchen and pressed it under his nose.
Her eyes wandered, then refocused on him as she said, "You're bleeding
because that's how your unconscious mind chose to interpret damage you
can't physically sense. Think of it like a pain response. Fortunately, your
force of will grows stronger with exercise, but there is always a point past
which you may only push with damaging consequences."
"Why is what I did just now so much harder than what I've been doing
the past half year?" he asked. "I mean, it's all impossible, so what's the
difference?"
Selena slid over his lower body to twist into a seated position next to
him on the wall, her shoulder touching his as she said, "The flexibility of
the boundary between what is and isn't possible doesn't mean all magical
action is equivalent. Do you remember when the truck was pursuing us and
I was able to stop it with a shot from the rifle?"
 "Sure."
"Would it be more or less possible for me to have taken a bullet from
the magazine and thrown it by hand to achieve the same end?"
Raising an incredulous eyebrow at her, he said, "Less."
"Yet you understand that neither would be completely impossible. A
sufficiently strong will could have done it either way, but one is clearly a
more probable success than the other. What you did was essentially the
same as throwing a bullet rather than firing it from a weapon as intended.
You are ... very fortunate that a bloody nose seems to be the worst of your
damage."
"Wouldn't it just have failed?" he asked, then blinked when she shook
her head.
"No. Magic isn't like any other practice. You can — and many do —
trade life to fulfill a desire that is truly beyond you. It would be a shame if
that desire happened to be spinning a coin with the snap of your fingers."
James blinked at her, astonished at the idea that he might just have
killed himself, but Selena seemed completely serious.
She said, "Magic is all about certainty. We know when we enforce our
desire with will that we will succeed. There is no trying and failing with
magic. Once you have complete confidence in your magic you will succeed
... but you won't always know the price to be paid for that success. The
more advanced forms of magic help us discount that price by offering
compensation in advance. In order to actually 'fail' at magic, you have to
have that possibility in mind, which makes it inevitable."
James thought about that, then shook his head and said, "You lost me."
She smiled and reached out, touching his nose with the tip of one of her
claws as she said, "With infinite will all the trappings of magic would be
unnecessary, but we mortals are defined by our limitations. We require tools
to help us fulfill our desires and boundaries to define our intentions just as a
bullet needs the explosion of its powder and a rifled barrel to achieve its
greatest effect. Prolonging the time an already moving coin continues to
spin is a trivial imposition on causality. Making it spin by vibrating the
table it's on to force it to move is less trivial, and so on. You described my
planned process yourself. I won't lie. Your being able to command the coin
with a snap of your fingers was very impressive. Eventually, you'd have
done as you did under my tutelage, when your will was strong enough to
bear the additional strain."
 "So does this mean my will is stronger than you thought it was?" James
asked, checking the bloody dish towel and shifting it to a clean spot before
pressing it under his nose again. The blood didn't seem inclined to stop, but
as long as Selena wasn't worried, he wouldn't let it bother him.
She was looking pointedly at the bloody cloth as she said, "Yes. By a
few orders of magnitude. It also means, among other things, you've been
practicing while I wasn't present despite my warning."
James shrugged. It was true, but if she'd honestly expected him not to
practice practically every waking hour she was delusional.
She gave him a narrow-eyed look, then sighed and said, "Well, I
expected it to an extent. I just didn't want to come home to a cooling
corpse."
"I might not have practiced so much if I thought that was a possible
outcome," James said wryly.
"Teaching an apprentice magic is a delicate balance between risk and
reward. Teach too much caution too early and a mageling will never
improve. Lean away from it too much and inevitably a learner's reach will
exceed his grasp. I have lost more than one apprentice over the years."
Squinting thoughtfully at her, he asked, "How old are you anyway?"
"That's a very rude question. What will you ask next, my weight?"
"How would you even know? You'd need a vehicle scale to ... uh ..."
He trailed off at the dire look she was giving him and said, "Yeah, sorry.
It doesn't really matter."
"Not as long as the floor supports me, no, it doesn't."
James recognized the redirect for what it was. He decided that — just
like whatever other secrets she wanted to keep — Selena's age wasn't
important to him. It was just another drop in the bucket.
"Is there anything else you haven't told me about practicing this shit that
I should probably know now?" he asked pointedly, pulling the cloth away
from his nose. The bleeding seemed to have finally stopped.
She thought for a moment, then said, "More of a reminder. Magic
doesn't always cost life. Sometimes, when you go too far, you acquire a
share of misfortune instead."
"Is there anything we can do about that?" he asked.
She shrugged and said, "Do good for others when you can. Doing so in
the normal way doesn't prevent supernatural ill fortune but it does help ...
though the ways in which fate works are seldom clear.
 "One thing that is clear is that if I don't accelerate your training you'll
wind up killing yourself. So ... get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I will
teach you how to begin healing your body."

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 18

J ames fell asleep almost immediately , not even bothering to change his
bloody shirt.
Selena watched him for a quiet moment, then slipped the datapad away
from him and coiled next to the bed in her own accustomed place. She was
worried.
Six months. Had she not seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have
believed an adult male human with no knowledge of magic could grow so
strong, so fast. Nothing was impossible, but some things were, even with
magic, highly suspect.
There was, however, an alternative explanation for what she had just
witnessed.
She picked the golden coin up off the table, turning it over in her hand,
examining it, not for the first time.
A sword with a laurel crown and the words, 'Death to all who oppose
us' on one side, and on the other a list in several languages, only two of
which were written in the trade language of the city-states. Both were
names.
Johannesburg and Chicago.
She had used the city intranet to search the words but though there were
a few people with Chicago as a last name there was nothing that might
indicate a general awareness of why it was on this coin. The other
languages were even less helpful, because the city of Daytau only had one
human language. Most of the city-states she had visited were the same, and
used the same language, though there were accents and strange words
differentiating one place from another.
No one in Daytau publicly knew that both Johannesburg and Chicago
had been cities, and the people with the surname Chicago had that name in
memoriam.
Whoever had made this coin did know. Selena couldn't read the other
languages on the coin but knew what a few of them must mean.
Kyiv. Baghdad. Bay of Bengal.
Shanghai.
She closed her fist over the coin and sighed, looking from it to the
sleeping man next to her. James Henderson didn't know what the coin
meant. He didn't know about any of it. Had he stayed with the Black Jacks
... he'd have learned.
As far as she knew he hadn't pursued the mystery of the coin. It was
simply something that had been given to him, too valuable of itself to give
away. It was solid gold, and in a pinch that gold could buy a lot.
Selena knew a bit more.
They called themselves the Gold Coins, and over the course of the year
before they'd claimed responsibility for a great many killings. Not all of
them were non-humans. Many were human sympathizers, humans who'd
married non-humans, hybrids.
Two attempts had been made on the mayor, Andrew Bremmin, and his
wife, Velise Drainheart. The second had put him briefly in a hospital and
three of his security staff in graves. A vampire of which Selena knew much
had supposedly been destroyed when the GC raided one of his restaurants.
Selena knew better than to presume that black-hearted corpse was
actually gone. The biggest hint he still existed was the fact that there were
no suspects apprehended in relation to that attack.
It meant they'd been dead before the police arrived, but — for whatever
reason — Shiro had not resurfaced.
The Gold Coin assault seemed to have its origin in a news story from
two years previous about a man calling himself the Black Knight. That man
killed five of the six non-human recruits who'd been first to join the Non-
Human Investigative Corps before vanishing without a trace. As far as
anyone knew, he was still out there somewhere and presumed to be one of
the leaders of the organization.
 Recent improvements in human/non-human relations were beginning to
fracture. Non-humans rightly blamed humans for the attacks while humans
distanced themselves from non-human friends and neighbors so as not to
make themselves targets.
Yet there was also a growing segment of the human population turning
against the Gold Coins. Over thirty members of their organization had been
turned in by their neighbors, friends, even relatives. What crippled the
assault wasn't the death of their membership, but the compromise of their
security. No one knew how many there were, and no one believed that the
organization had actually been destroyed, but in the last six months there
had been only one attack.
It had occurred earlier that day.
A whorehouse run by slimes — the people of Daytau called them gels
— had been gassed. Fortunately, the place had not been open for business at
the time of the attack. Twenty-two gels were confirmed dead inside, though
precise identification was impossible as the gas had dissolved all but the
core of each gel. One of the presumed fatalities noted in the news was the
slime lord that helped Selena free James Henderson. It's name was
Emeraude Symerald.
The locals called her Madam Face.
Selena glanced from the coin in her hand to the refrigerator in the far
corner of the room. Madam Face's core was in that refrigerator in a small
container with just enough slime to coat its surface. The only reason she
still existed was because Selena had granted her the reading she asked for
three months ago, then the sanctuary her survival demanded.
James' freedom had been a single favor that she repaid with the reading.
Shelter was a second favor. When the proper amount of time elapsed,
Emeraude Symerald would be set free, and she would owe Selena.
For now, she was living insensate at barely above freezing temperatures.
The architect of the attack had not yet been caught.
Selena used the datapad to pull up the current newsfeeds, her eyes
defocused as she took in the information in the same way the humans did:
all at once.
She didn't read each individual word. She simply accepted each page of
information as it was presented and let her mind sort out the details for her
as she consumed the next.
 The gas was powerfully acidic and had been disbursed through the
ductwork. The exposed slimes had simply disintegrated, and were clearly
the primary targets. Because the building had been closed to the public,
there were no other fatalities.
The closure, it was noted, was unexpected.
Selena knew that the cores left in the building had been purchased from
core hunters living in Subtau. In fact, no one had died in the attack, though
for Emeraude it had been a close thing. She alone had remained behind to
arrange suitable evidence. It wouldn't hold up under scrutiny, but it wasn't
supposed to. All that was necessary was for the Gold Coins to believe
they'd been successful long enough to claim the incident.
Sighing, she put the datapad down and glanced at the now gently
snoring James, then at the coin in her hand.
There was one other possibility that would explain his ability to move
the coin. It might be an artifact invested with significant magical power. In
order to find out, she'd have to test it.
Magical effects were difficult to invest in objects. It required an
extremely strong will and the right knowledge. Once an object became
invested with magic, it was much easier to influence. If this coin was such
an artifact, that would explain James' ability to move it so adroitly. It would
explain how he had so quickly taken control of it at the beginning of his
training.
She'd let her enthusiasm, her growing love of him, distract her from the
possibility. Now she had to face it. She needed to know what was in store.
She hoped she was wrong.
Selena gently opened her hand, focused on the coin, and softly said,
"Show me."
The coin drifted out of her hand without any physical aid, then slowly
dropped to its edge, showing her the sword and its laurel crown.
The words emblazoned around the edge began to shine with a subtle
molten radiance.
Death to all who oppose us.
She closed her eyes and the coin dropped into her hand. She closed her
fingers over it, then gently put it aside.
The Gold Coins had someone who could use magic working for them,
and not just a mage.
A genuine wizard.
 "I've got to get you back on your feet, James," she murmured quietly,
twisting to lean over him, fingers lingering just off his cheek.
"I wish we had more time ... but we just can't stay here. I'm afraid I'll
have to leave you with the belief that you're stronger than you are for just a
little while longer and pray that fate does not punish you too harshly for my
selfishness."
She glanced away, coiling up to sleep as she murmured, "I'm so sorry."

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 19

"S o what ' s the trick ?" James asked.

Selena was coiled next to him, her forearms laid across her topmost coil
as she braced her chin on them, looking pensively at him. She'd been that
way when he woke, and he knew by the look in her eye that he wasn't going
to like what she told him.
"I won't lie," she said quietly. "It usually takes many years of diligent
practice before it's even remotely advisable to try something like this, but
you and I are pressed for time. Since you have demonstrated a great deal of
promise, I'm going to do my best to help you cheat."
"Cheat?"
"Yes, cheat. The reason you can't sense your body — and don't pretend
you haven't tried — is because you're already invested in it. You can't look
yourself in the eye without a mirror, and you can't use magic on yourself
unless one of two conditions applies. The first, you have what amounts to a
mystic mirror. We don't, so put that one out of your head. The second is that
you divest yourself of your body, then re-approach it from the outside."
"So like, what, I need to do some kind of out-of-body thing?" he asked.
Selena blinked and asked, "You know what that is?"
"Well, sensational stories pop up from time to time, anecdotes. People
seeing their sleeping bodies from above, that sort of thing. Most of the time
when anyone does research into it, the guy's on drugs."
Selena chuckled softly, then shrugged and said, "Yes, well, fiction
wouldn't have so much of a grip on the mind without an element of truth.
You will be drugged. That's the cheat. To divest oneself of one's body
without drugs requires years of meditative training we do not have time
for."
James gave that some thought, then shrugged and said, "I've taken more
drugs over the course of the last three years than most junkies get in a
lifetime. What's one more dose. Tell me how to actually do this, and let's
make it happen."
Selena did just that, explaining in great detail what he would need to do.
James listened, repeated back what she'd told him, and the two went over it
for the better part of an hour. Only when he was completely sure he
understood what he was supposed to do did he say, "Just one more
question."
"Ask."
He met her eyes, held her gaze, and asked, "Why are we short on time?"
Selena hesitated, tongue flicking out to sample the air between them. At
last, she said, "I've done a reading. The truth is I've done more readings than
I can count. Your fortune is about to take a terrible turn, James. If you aren't
back on your feet soon you're going to die. Since I won't let that happen it
means I'll be dead too, so for both our sakes let's hope this works."
Rolling his eyes dubiously, he said the only thing that came to mind.
"Yes ma'am."

J ames woke up coughing , his ears full of a sound he couldn't understand.

For long seconds he struggled to remember how to beat his heart, how
to breathe, how to think ... how to live.
He had no memory of what he had just done. All he remembered were
Selena's words to him, her wish for success. He'd been warned it would be
like that. His memories were stored in his brain, and he hadn't had that with
him when he was doing ... whatever it was he'd done. While he remembered
what he'd been told, he could only hope he'd gotten it right.
At last, he managed to open his eyes only to discover he was coughing
and the room was full of smoke. The sound he hadn't understood resolved
itself into the wailing of a fire alarm.
Selena was next to him. When he shook her she proved unresponsive.
He could feel her breath, but it was feeble.
 Rushing to the kitchen, he yanked the dish towels off the rack, soaked
them in the sink, and held one to his nose as he returned to toss the other
over Selena's snout, frantically thinking of what to do. As he did, he looked
around for inspiration and noted with alarm that the door to their apartment
was wide open, and smoke was pouring in.
If this had been a building in Daytau proper he'd have dragged Selena
into the bathroom, shut the door, and waited for the fire to die. Suppressive
systems and the quick response of fire units meant that building fires very
rarely claimed lives, and even then only when they'd been maliciously set.
They weren't in Daytau proper. They were in Oolytau. Building codes
were often ignored, suppression systems went years without maintenance,
and emergency response varied neighborhood by neighborhood.
He knew that Iso had a complete suite of emergency services, but
despite it being only a few blocks away he knew none of them would
mobilize.
The building would burn. Whether it collapsed was even money.
Those weren't odds worth taking.
He already knew the window was practically welded shut and he'd
never get it open. Stepping into the bathroom, he yanked the towel off the
rack, then ripped the rack itself out of the wall. He wrapped his arm,
shattered the window, cleared the glass from the casing, then swept it with
the towel, shaking it out and laying it across the frame.
The fire escape was there. He could get out. There was just one
problem.
And she probably weighed something like a thousand pounds.
Smoke was billowing out the window he'd shattered, and the roaring of
flames was beginning to compete with the wail of the alarm. The
suppression system seemed to be offline.
James had no idea how long he had, but he knew it wasn't long enough.
He stepped to where Selena lay, collapsed atop her coils. As he passed
the table he swept the golden coin up and pocketed it, then hauled the table
up and away to clear a path. He pulled her upper body over his shoulder,
using her breasts as a catch to haul her body along as he kept her wrist to
his waist, arm braced across his chest.
Selena was impossibly heavy and he'd never be able to move her all at
once, but that weight was distributed in such a way that he could pull her
head to the window without moving more than the first half of her body.
There he paused long enough to wrap the sheets from the bed around her to
protect her as best he could from the glass hiding in the frame. That done,
he slipped outside and began to haul with all his might.
She came slowly, all but filling the frame with her bulk. He thought for
one horrified moment that what passed for her hips would wedge, but the
sheets only caught for a moment before tearing, releasing her.
He guided her front end to the stair, then stepped back to the window,
letting gravity help him get the rest of her out as Selena's head slid down to
the next level.
James almost had time to breathe a sigh of relief as her tail slid out the
window when a wrenching scream of metal warned him he'd traded one
danger for another.
The entire fire escape dropped three feet with a gut-churning lurch, then
began tilting slowly away from the outside wall of the building.
James caught Selena's tail, wrapped it around himself, then grabbed the
railing as the world went sideways.
In Daytau proper the fire escapes were rated to handle the weight even
if every single step had a person on it. They would have held.
This was Oolytau. James and Selena weren't saved by a competently
maintained fire escape.
They were saved by the fact that the buildings were built too close
together.
The impact as their collapsing cage of metal slammed into a similar
cage on the far side of the narrow alleyway was bone-jarring and sent a
shock of pain through James' back. He gritted his teeth and groaned, staring
up at a towering inferno.
Most of the floors above them were completely destroyed. Flames were
roaring out every window and debris was showering down, most of it
pinging off the metal mesh on the side of the escape.
"Selena! Now would be a really really good time to wake the fuck up!"
he yelled as he rolled, twisting to carefully maneuver down to her head. He
slapped her, but his luck wasn't that good. She was out like a light, and he
still had twenty feet between him and the ground below.
The problem was their way down was now a hopelessly twisted mass of
metal. There was no way to get out of the fire escape. They were trapped in
a perilously balanced rusty cage, and if they didn't get away before the
building collapsed they were going to die.
 Where the fuck was emergency services?
"Hey! You! You on the fire escape! Up here!"
James twisted around and saw — of all things — a goblin. He was
leaning out an open window one floor above them in the building against
which they were wedged.
"Need help!?" the goblin shouted to be heard over the fire.
"Yes!" James shouted back.
"Yeah! I'll bet! She looks heavy!" the goblin yelled, then cackled and
slammed the window closed before dropping the blinds.
"Son of a-"
James tried to take a deep breath but a heavy piece of flaming debris
slammed the cage less than two feet from his head, showering him with
sparks. He let his failed attempt at calm out in a yell of frustrated rage
instead.
The cage they were in groaned and bowed down, the metal shearing
apart with a stressed scream that dropped them another few feet before the
wreckage jerked to a halt again.
Their section of the escape was now almost parallel to the ground, with
Selena crumpled along a significant length of the mesh that formed the
outer shell.
As his eyes tracked her length, he noticed a spot toward the middle
where her body dipped lower. The metal mesh at the corner there was torn.
"Oh this is a bad idea. A very very bad idea," he grumbled as he
grabbed her head and pulled her upper body around to the same area,
concentrating her weight on the weak spot.
He immediately got his reward: the shearing, rending sound of metal
stressed to its limits. Since their situation was so far beyond fucked that it
defied description, he wouldn't have called the fact that the tearing metal
followed the line of the ninety degree bend away from them rather than
shearing straight toward her body 'good luck.' It did, however, mean that if
they died it wouldn't be because the torn metal mesh ripped their guts out
on the way down.
Once that tear really started moving, James backed up and wrapped
both his arms and hers around the stairwell now hanging above them. He
watched as her tail drooped, then fell out the widening gap as the mesh tore
away.
 He was only able to hold on for a second or two as the rest of her body
slid out before it dragged him along for the ride and the two of them
plummeted two stories to land on the concrete below.
It was, for him at least, a soft landing.
For her, less so.
Though he cradled her head to his chest on the way down to keep it
from splattering on the concrete, she abruptly woke up with an agonized
hiss and clutched at him with a strength beyond human endurance.
"Aaaugh! Fuck! Stop! You're crushing me!" he cried. "Come on! We've
got to move!"
"My tail is broken!" she cried, obviously in agony.
"Yeah, well my back is ... shit!"
James buried his shocked realization and wrapped her arm around his
shoulder as he scrambled out of her crumpled coils and started hauling her
down the alley toward the street as he said, "Fucking move, you bottom-
heavy bitch!"
She did, though her progress was erratic and amounted more toward
randomly causing him to stumble than helping him move her. Nevertheless,
he did get her to the street where they turned sharply, joining the crowd
streaming out of the burning building and away from the towering inferno.
As they staggered along, James glanced around as he caught sight of a
few fearless, foolish bystanders, many of whom were shamelessly filming
the tragedy unfolding in front of them. No one was helping. There wasn't a
cop or fireman in sight.
Just as he was turning away to concentrate on helping Selena he froze,
staring at someone gazing steadily back at him.
Their eyes met for several long seconds before the visibly shocked man
pushed his glasses up his nose and twisted, disappearing into the crowd.
Less than ten minutes later the apartment high-rise collapsed and sent a
wave of ash and dust billowing down the street.
James watched from inside the Iso visitor's center, but felt neither safe,
nor relieved.
Doctor Johan Kravitz had found them.

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 20

"Y ou ' re sure you don't want to go to the hospital?"

"You've asked me that six times over the course of the last day. Before
you make it seven, take my word: if I change my mind I'll tell you. No
hospitals."
James rolled his eyes but nodded, one hand in his pocket absently
fingering the coin that was all he'd been able to save from the fire.
The two of them were sitting in a run-down coffee shop. It was the
middle of the day and they were the only two present. Selena's tail filled
their corner of the shop, and though many had come and gone, no one —
not even the employees — had worked up the courage to question them.
Several other loiterers had been thrown out, but they were left alone.
Selena knew some of their reticence had to do with her large and
intimidating presence, but James was the real reason no one approached
them. He was wearing ragged, ash- and mud-stained sweats. His face was
lined with grit, and there was a hard, merciless look in his eyes whenever he
caught someone looking their way. His aura in that moment was dark, and
foreboding.
She asked, "And you're sure that we can't-"
"Just as sure as you are that you don't want a hospital. The building
collapsed. I don't care what you left behind, it's buried under a thousand
tons of rubble now. What's so important anyway? You leave your favorite
shirt in the closet or something?"
"Or someone."
 Selena winced as she shifted her tail, then focused on a visibly baffled
James as she said, "You've been doing your job, I've been doing mine. I did
a reading for a non-human in exchange for its help getting lawyers to free
you from prison. Long story short, that reading led me to get it and its
people away from an attack, and I was sheltering it for the time being."
"Who?"
"I doubt you've ever heard of it. Emeraude Symerald? Madam Face?"
"You keep saying 'it' ... what is it, a gel?"
Selena nodded, not bothering to disguise her distaste.
"Where were you keeping her?" he asked.
"The refrigerator."
James blinked at her, then shrugged and said, "Well, if anything could
survive a building collapse it'd be a gel, and if there was any place she
could have survived it from it'd probably be the refrigerator. Not something
I'd bet on but if you've taught me anything it's that 'impossible' doesn't mean
what I used to think. Either way, we can't get to her. Period."
Selena sighed and said, "I know. I said I'd protect her. I hate not being
able to keep my promise."
"Blame me."
"You know I won't do that. Even with the power of foresight, I make
mistakes just like anyone else. If I'd told you, you could have saved her
easily enough. The blame remains mine to bear."
"Why didn't you?"
She glanced away as she said, "Because you'd have correctly pointed
out sheltering it-"
"Her."
Selena's lips twisted in a frown, and James said, "Just say her. She calls
herself Madam Face, and I don't play the pronoun game. Calling her an 'it'
just leaves me thinking you're talking about an object, not a person."
"It ... she, isn't a person as you understand it, but I'm not in the mood to
argue. Sheltering her is a risk we didn't need to take. She's a target for a
terrorist group. I fear I may have drawn their attention to us. The timing of
the building fire was unlikely to have been coincidence."
"I don't think it was," James said quietly. "I saw Doctor Kravitz in the
crowd around the building afterward. That man would never voluntarily go
to Oolytau unless he had business there. Profitable business."
"The Black Jack surgeon?" she asked, and he nodded.
 Selena thought furiously, then looked James in the eye as she said,
"You're right. I believe the fire was set by this man, though in pursuit of us
or the slime lord I can't say. He will continue hunting us. He will bring
others."
"What do you want to do?" James asked. "I have some money, I assume
you do as well. We could get out of the subcity."
"Where would we go?" she asked.
"Rectau ... Subtau, or Daytau proper. The other subcities either aren't
large enough to hide in or wouldn't allow us entrance. In Rec or Daytau
we'll have to rent a room, and there'll be a paper trail. Any half decent
detective would be able to find us with just a couple phone calls. If we stay
here, we could maybe find a new place off the books and the camera grid
here is pitiful, but you aren't exactly subtle. They'll have an easier time
attacking us here than anywhere else."
"And Subtau?" she asked.
"Worst camera grid in the city ... also fewer people. We could hide for a
while, a few weeks maybe. Eventually, we'd be discovered. There can't be
more than a hundred like you in the whole city."
"James, there probably isn't more than one like me in the whole city.
The rest would be lamia. My ... kind, have never been common."
"So what do you want to do? We could try and get in a convoy to one of
the other city-states. No way to get you on one of the supercarriers. Neither
of us has that kind of cash. Our only other option would be the Tracts."
Selena thought quietly for long moments, then asked, "Is that really our
only option?"
She watched James think about that, then say, "You want to go after
him?"
"He is an evil man. The world will not miss him, and I don't like
running and hiding. I have been living in poverty for the sake of your
recovery, not of necessity. That's complete. I say we step into the light and
make them regret reopening old wounds."
"How long will it take you to fix that?" he asked, gesturing at her
visibly swollen and strangely kinked tail.
She grimaced and hissed her discomfort as she said, "As long as I have
somewhere quiet, somewhere we won't be disturbed ... I could do it in a
day."
 She watched him think, and could almost see his thoughts turning down
dark paths. At last, he said, "I know a place. We won't be welcome there,
but she won't turn us away."
"Someone from your past?" she asked, and he nodded slowly.
"Who?"
"My ex-wife."
Selena straightened, gazing steadily at him as she said, "I did not know
you were ever married."
"She left me when I started a fight with the city to restore my legs. Said
I'd lose everything. She was right. She made sure of it, in fact."
"But she'll help you now?"
"For a single day? I think I can manage that."
James folded his hands on the table between them and stared down. Her
heat sense revealed the shifting welter of emotions despite the fact that his
face could have been carved from granite.
"There are other options."
"No better ones. No money changes hands, no paper trail, and we don't
have to leave Oolytau."
"You may draw misfortune to her," Selena said quietly.
His jaw clenched, relaxed, and he looked her in the eyes. She felt his
force of will, though he wasn't pushing. His success with his back had
genuinely strengthened him, both physically and spiritually. His words were
cold.
"Whatever misfortune befalls that woman, she'll deal with it. If there's
anything I've learned about her it's that she puts herself first. Always."
Selena felt her heart well with pity at the hard look in his eyes, at the
wall erected against his feeling of betrayal. She said, "I'm sorry."
"Not as sorry as I am. But she'll help, at least for one day. She's too
passive-aggressive to actually say 'no' to my face. She didn't even have the
guts to tell me what she intended. She had a fucking lawyer deliver the
papers while I was in the hospital, knowing I'd have to agree to all her
conditions because all my money was wrapped up in the suit against the
city. She got everything."
He hesitated, then thrust himself to his feet as he said, "I'll have the kid
behind the counter call us a taxi. You wait here."
"D arlene , I'm hurt. So is my friend. We're staying here for a day and if you
want to call the police you're more than welcome. I may have burned my
bridges with the city but if you think the beat cops they'll send will take
your side in this you're out of your mind. I don't want your food, I don't
want your money, I don't want your company, I just want the spare bedroom
for twenty-four hours. For you this is an inconvenience. For me it's life or
death. Now get out of my fucking way."
"You'll be out in twenty-four hours?"
"Sooner if possible, and you'll never see me again if I have any say."
Selena watched as James stared balefully at a rail-thin, mousy-haired
woman who looked older than she probably was. She had a cigarette
dangling forgotten in one hand and was wearing a fluffy bathrobe that had
seen better days. She was also terrified, and Selena might have been too in
her situation.
James had the look of a desperate man. He had a huge non-human
behind him. He wasn't asking any favors, and his voice was so full of
suppressed anger that it would be impossible to believe he wasn't capable of
enforcing his demand with violence.
In that moment, Selena wasn't certain he wouldn't, but it never came to
that.
The haggard woman stepped out of his way and stared at him with wide
eyes as he walked into the house. Those wide eyes snapped to her as she
reached the door. Selena met them, pushed a soothing air at the woman and
effortlessly captured her complete attention. She needed reassurance, and
that at least, Selena could provide.
"I am truly grateful, and were there other options we would not be here.
Neither of us will trouble you beyond absolute necessity. Please don't think
badly of him. He's doing all of this to protect me."
"Are you witpro?" the woman asked, her voice just as haggard as her
face.
"No, she's not. Never you mind what she is, Darlene. The less you learn,
the better. All you need to know is we'll be gone tomorrow."
James' voice came from a hallway, along with the sound of him opening
a door. Darlene's eyes never wavered from Selena's, and she softly said,
"Relax. We are not criminals. If you pull up the newsfeed you'll see that an
apartment building was recently destroyed by fire. We were tenants. A
single day to recover our bearings, and we will leave you in peace."
 "He was in prison!" Darlene hissed.
"The charges were false and dismissed in due course. He has been
convicted of no crime. You of all people must know how hard his life has
been."
The human woman's eyes glinted as resentment stirred, followed by
anger, but Selena smothered both with her force of will as her own anger
sparked to life. James, it seemed, hadn't lied. This woman not only
abandoned him in his hour of need, but had come to believe her subsequent
misfortunes were also his fault. It was in every line of her face, in the worn
bathrobe she was wearing and the ill-kept appearance of every part of the
apartment's interior that Selena could see.
This woman was a coward.
Selena might have wondered how James could have ever married such a
woman but her long life had taught her that in order to correctly judge the
character of another, most had to learn what to watch out for the hard way.
"One day, then I want you out!" the woman hissed, then whirled away,
disappearing into a room on the far side of a small living space filled with a
ratty L-shaped couch and coffee table covered with fast food wrappings and
the ashes of old cigarettes.
Selena slid into the hallway and found herself confronted immediately
by the open door of a bathroom far too small for her to fit. That was nothing
new, the bathroom she'd spent the last year living with had also been too
small, but the difference was she had several broken bones in her tail.
Sliding through to wash would be agony.
As she hesitated James paused, turning back into the hallway from the
room he'd stepped into. He looked at her, then at the bathroom. His eyes
had lost their hard edge as they met hers, and he asked, "What can I do to
help?"
She gazed at him as a flutter of emotion sent her thoughts skittering in
different directions. She had helped him countless times, so often that he'd
lost all sense of shame with her long ago. Yet she had never needed his help
in the same way. In truth she might still manage without him if she was
willing to put up with the pain, but as she looked into his eyes, they told her
she didn't have to.
"My body is filthy with grime and soot ... the broken bones will make it
agony to twist through that tiny space to wash. Would you ... be willing to
bathe me?"
 She was intensely gratified when he nodded immediately and said,
"Yeah, I thought you might ask. Let me rig up a curtain for the hallway and
we'll do it right here. Go ahead and get your upper body into the bathroom
while I get the curtain out.
Selena settled, her shoulders resting against one wall across from the
commode as she watched him pull down the tube supporting the shower
curtain and move it to the point where the hallway let out into the living
area. She didn't think Darlene would come back out again. Even if she did,
Selena didn't care what she might see. Yet it was obvious to her that James
wanted as little to do with the woman who had once been his wife as
possible, and said nothing.
The bathroom only had a shower, but there was a bucket under the small
sink and James filled it with soapy water as Selena watched. She was
conflicted. She wanted to say something to him, but didn't know what to
say. He'd saved her a second time. The first had been from slavery, the
second, her life. It was that simple truth that finally made her ask a question
she felt she already knew the answer to. It was the only way she could think
of to break the silence.
"Why did you save me?"
He paused, then set the lid on the commode down and the full bucket on
that as he reached out absently to pull a washcloth from the rack. Then he
paused again and without looking at her said, "That's a stupid question."
"No, it isn't. It might be one of the most important questions I've ever
asked. You could have gotten out. You knew trying to save me cut down
your chances. Your back is healed. Your life is open. A thousand thousand
possibilities lay before you. You don't need me anymore."
"I didn't need you the first time," he said, turning finally to look at her,
his expression angry. "And it is an insult that you would ask me why I
would save you or anyone."
"I love you."
He stiffened, staring hard at her. She watched her words sink in as their
eyes met. She held his gaze and said again, "I love you, James Henderson."
"This isn't a fairy tale, and you're no princess."
"Not anymore, no. I was once. A long, long time ago. You've done more
for me than anyone ever has in all that time."
"You helped heal my back."
 "Don't make this about debt and repayment. Don't belittle my wish for
you by assuming I am simply grateful, or scared of being alone, or eager to
see just how mighty you might one day become. Love doesn't spring from
gratitude, or fear, or ambition. I don't care where we go or what we do, as
long as we can do it together. Answer me, James. Please."
"I think you're playing me," he said, dropping his washcloth into the
bucket, then pulling it out and squeezing it until the water stopped splashing
and he had a fist full of suds.
"I swear I'm not," she said, turning her head to watch him step out into
the hall, the bucket in his off hand.
He didn't answer her as he set it down and began to wash her tail,
starting at the very tip.
"Please be gentle," was all she said.
Selena let out a shuddering breath and closed her eyes, focusing on the
throbbing pain higher up to keep from complicating the situation further.
Despite the anger she could feel radiating from him, his touch was
considerate. The feel of him so tenderly washing her body felt wonderful.
It took him half an hour to wash her but he did it methodically and
thoroughly. He might have finished more quickly if he didn't constantly
have to take the washcloth to the sink to rinse it. Each time he did the water
ran black.
She had many abrasions and cuts. He washed these out carefully, then
used a stinging solution also found under the sink to disinfect the wounds.
He didn't stop until he reached the subtle flare of her hips. She'd long
since taken off her ratty, torn blouse. She wasn't hiding anything from him
and knew it was the first time he'd seen that part of her clearly.
It obviously wasn't what he'd been expecting and he blinked after a
moment, then looked away to rinse the cloth again before setting the bucket
back on the commode. He offered her the cloth without turning as he softly
said, "I think you'd better do the rest yourself."
She caught his wrist instead of the rag and held it when he tried to pull
away. She said, "I'm not playing you."
He turned, met her gaze, and bluntly declared, "You want revenge and
you need me to help you get it."
"I want so much more than revenge," she said earnestly, meeting his
eye.
 Her will no longer made any impression on him, but he didn't push back
as he said, "Yeah well, I don't. I want to be done. I want to save up, get to a
different city-state, a decent job, and put all this behind me. What I don't
want is to give these fuckers a shot at ruining my second chance. I don't
want to wind up eating my own bullet because I will never, ever go back to
Iso. I don't care what you've gone through you have no idea what that was
like. You cannot even imagine it and I will do anything, anything, to stay
out of that place. Kravitz is connected. He's got no record with the city for
illegal activity and he's a doctor which means he has assets on both sides of
the law. If we go after him, win or lose we will get caught. That's all there is
to it. Revenge isn't worth that to me. Give it up."
"No."
She let the word hang between them, maintained eye contact, and let
him see her soul. She let him see her desire for him, her needs and wants
laid bare.
She said, "It's more than revenge because if we don't go after him, he
will come after us. He knows we're aware of his activities, what he's done.
He will fear what we might do, wonder if we can somehow hurt him, so
even if we do nothing, he won't. It's too late to escape this, James. He's
coming. And somewhere beyond him is Floyd Grayson. If you want peace,
if you want it to be over, you need to help me get them both before they get
us."
"Then don't you dare tell me you love me," he whispered, voice hoarse
with anger as he jerked his hand out of her grip, then jabbed a finger at her
snout. "You tell me the truth, which is that you need me."
He pointed past her and said, "I could walk out that door right now and
vanish."
"I'd be dead within a week," she said.
Nodding gravely, he said, "I know. So don't you pretend to me. I played
that game with the city. I played it with the bitch not fifty feet from us right
now, remember? The moment I couldn't fulfill needs I got dropped like a
pile of fresh dog shit. You don't love me, you need me, and I will never,
ever hear 'I love you' from someone who needs me again."
"James, please."
His words cut far deeper than she expected. While her feelings were
genuine, she had nothing to answer his pain. Nothing she could say would
allay his suspicion. His experiences all worked against her.
 "I'll stay," he said, tossing the washcloth at her, forcing her to catch it.
"I'll help you because I think you're right and I don't want to look over my
shoulder for the rest of my life."
He hesitated, staring hard at her, then turned away as he said in a
resigned tone, "We'll get it done ... just don't make it complicated."

OceanofPDF.com
 21

J ames had his feet crossed at the ankle as he sat in a chair leaned in one
corner of the small room. At his right hand he had the window. The curtains
were drawn but he peeked periodically for peace of mind.
Taking up the bulk of the floor space and with her upper body laid on
the bed was Selena, still as death. She'd warned him to expect that, so he
tried not to worry about her every time he looked at her and his monkey
brain screamed at him that she wasn't breathing.
He wondered if he'd looked the same when he'd done ... whatever it was
he'd done to fix his back. He remembered what she'd told him to do, and he
could only presume he'd done it, but the time he'd spent out of body was a
complete blank.
Spinning on the index finger of his left hand was the golden coin he'd
gotten from Floyd what seemed like a lifetime ago.
He knew what the coin was, what it represented. Part of him wanted to
melt it down or sell it somewhere. Another part of him was oddly fascinated
by the sword with its laurel crown, the inscription, the names.
In the end he kept it because it seemed like a good idea to stick with the
familiar when it came to magic. Confidence was key and though he'd spun
other coins, done other minor feats of prestidigitation, something about the
golden coin always had him returning to it, practicing with it before all else.
I love you.
James scowled and glanced out the window again, then let the curtains
drift into place. He wished she hadn't said it, but those weren't the kind of
words anyone could take back or forget.
 A soft sound on the far side of the hallway door alerted him, but when
he heard the bathroom door closing he let it go. He didn't want to talk to or
see Darlene. Just the memory of her face made him seethe.
That was what love had gotten him. Some part of him still loved that
rotten bitch, even knowing everything anyone ever needed to know to
realize how shallow and worthless a human being she was. She hadn't given
two shits about him. As soon as she realized he was sacrificing his pension
and disability to get his legs back she bailed, jerking the rug out from under
him in the process.
Love doesn't spring from gratitude, or fear, or ambition.
James bared his teeth as he thought, It doesn't spring from need either,
or if it does it's got a short fucking shelf life.
The more he thought about it, the more it pissed him off ... but he
couldn't bring himself to think about anything else.
There was nothing else worth thinking about. Selena hadn't lied about
Kravitz. He knew the type. The good doctor would dream up some excuse,
presuming it hadn't been him behind their building burning down. That
seemed most likely. Why else would he have been not just in Oolytau, but
right there watching the fire?
Kravitz was already after them and he had to be dealt with, for Selena's
sake.
She needed him, and he was okay with that. Being needed gave him a
sense of purpose. He didn't care what she thought, he owed her more than
he could ever repay. He'd bail her out a thousand times if that's what it took
... but she'd said the words she couldn't unsay, words he couldn't unhear.
He glanced out the window again, then paused.
The street wasn't empty.
Darlene's flat was on the fourth floor of a decent apartment building, at
least as far as Oolytau apartments were concerned. The neighborhood was
nice, but it was now very late at night. The entire area was residential.
There were no shops open anywhere around. He'd seen people walking by
periodically, but the figure below him was wearing a J-mask — a cyberware
jacket that projected a false face. It was also bulky and long, almost all the
way to the ground, designed to disguise the wearer's stride. People wore
them when they wanted to fool the camera grid and city computer facial
recognition systems.
 James had kept his vigil for the past twelve hours. Selena had told him
to expect her to awake sometime around dawn, and he'd resolved to remain
alert until she was back on her ... well, her tail? Dawn was still a couple
hours away.
The stranger in the J-mask was looking up at their building, and James
watched the figure's head bob as it moved.
Then he turned and disappeared into what James knew was parking
garage access.
He let the curtain drift closed again as his mind raced. He didn't have a
gun. All his gear, remarkably returned to him when he left Iso, had been
destroyed in the fire.
Glancing once at Selena, he left his chair and opened the bedroom door
in time to meet Darlene leaving the bathroom.
The two froze, staring at one another. She saw it in his face and swung
at him as she screamed, "I knew it! I knew you'd bring trouble!"
He caught her wrist and she froze again, staring at him with a mixture of
fear and rage before she spat in his face and hissed, "I wish I'd never met
you. You took my best years! You ruined my life!"
For long seconds, James couldn't even speak. Every ounce of his self-
control was spent keeping his grip on her wrist light.
At last, he asked in a voice filled with deadly calm, "Is the gun safe still
in the bedroom?"
"You know it is. Your eye is the only one that'll pop the damn thing."
"And you didn't sell it hoping someday you could force the court to
have me come open it for you? Well, I guess today is your lucky day."
She jerked her wrist from him and whirled. He followed her to the
bedroom they'd once shared. He tried not to look at the pictures on the
mirror. Darlene wasn't alone in those pictures, and it wasn't a dog she was
cuddling.
It wasn't him either.
The gun safe was in the closet and she slammed the clothing aside and
turned, glaring expectantly at him.
"My spare vest?" he asked as he leaned down, pressed his thumb to the
scanner, then showed his eye to the camera.
"Sold."
"Of course it was."
"Fuck you."
 The heavy door opened under his hand and he reached in, pulled out the
belt and buckled it on. He then opened one of the ammo boxes and quickly,
expertly loaded two spare magazines before slotting them into place. He
dropped the magazine from the empty pistol, filled that, and slid it back
with a soft click. The weapon was oiled and ready, which was exactly how
he'd stowed it in another life.
He glanced at the interior of the door and paused, then reached up to
gently pull the picture down. The tape peeled away with a soft pop, and he
was left with a photo of two people in love, smiling happily as they
snuggled atop the city wall in one of the visitation areas with the Tracts
spread out behind them.
He noticed her hand slipping past his body and shifted to block her. Her
wrist slammed the metal and she yelped as she jerked back.
"It's mine by court order!" she said, clutching her wrist.
Nodding, he showed her the picture for a second before flicking it into
the safe where it came to rest atop the stack of cash, his emergency reserve.
He closed the safe and locked it, then met her eye calmly as he said,
"Yes it is. I'll leave it right here and you're welcome to it. For now, I
recommend you stay in this room but feel free ... as always, to ignore me."
James left the room and all the memories, good and bad, still living
there. Darlene didn't follow him.
He opened the front door, glanced left and right as he thought about the
best way to handle this situation. He'd only seen one man on the street. That
didn't mean there was only one man coming. The question was, how would
they come? The rooms in this apartment were arranged around a square
hallway with stairs and elevators in the maintenance shaft that ran up the
center of the building, but the apartment they had was centered on the front
face of the building and someone could come from either direction to reach
him.
If he waited inside the apartment their only way out would be the fire
escape, and that idea did not appeal.
There was also another, more disturbing possibility. If the fire in their
last building had been deliberately set then there really might only be one
man ... and they'd never see him on the fourth floor.
If he guessed wrong and went to the basement, Selena would be dead
before he could get back. If he guessed wrong and stayed with her, a whole
lot of uninvolved people were going to get hurt and killed when the
building burned.
He thought about it, then swore bitterly and ran for the central corridor
that would give him access to both the elevators and the stairs. Doctor
Kravitz wasn't a fighter. If he was behind the attack, it would be sabotage. If
Grayson was behind it, well.
There was only so much one man alone could do.
He punched the elevator call button and one of them opened
immediately. He drew his weapon before peeking the door, but it was
empty. He reached in, pressed the button for the basement, then let the
doors slide closed as he ran for the stairs and took them two at a time on the
way down. As a former resident he'd been in the basement of this building
before and the stairs let out on the far side, opposite the elevator in a
hallway that led to a parking garage and the facilities maintenance rooms. If
anyone was watching, the ding of the elevator doors opening would pull
attention away long enough for him to slide in on the backside without
being shot. That was the hope anyway.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and paused there, breathing hard as
he listened.
Clear as a bell, he heard the ding as the elevator finally arrived. He
waited a five count, then pressed the crash bar on the metal door in front of
him and opened it, wincing against the likelihood the door would squeak.
It didn't.
It wasn't dead silent either, but as he glanced right and left, there was no
one in sight. He closed the door as gently as he could, and was satisfied to
see it stop short of latching.
The garage to his left seemed completely empty so he turned right,
heading for the facilities rooms.
A quick peek around the corner showed him no one at the elevator
bank, and he made it in silence to the first of the facilities doors, of which
there were four. The first was for communications equipment. He listened
for a moment, then moved on. The second door had access to drainage and
hot water. It was sealed and had a visible layer of dust across the handle, so
he passed it by as well.
The third door accessed a storage room containing all the various tools
and chemicals used for building maintenance. The door was open and the
light was on, but a quick check revealed it to be empty.
 The fourth door allowed access to the building breakers and power
lines.
The door was propped open, and James stepped quietly inside.
The lights were on, but what caught his attention first was a metal soup
can that had been converted into a candle of some sort. It was balanced atop
a set of pipes that terminated in the breaker box. There were several other
similar candles positioned around the room. The man in the J-mask was
setting another one as James stepped in, raised his weapon, and quietly said,
"I'd sure like to know what you're burning in those candles, mister. Turn
around slow, hands where I can see 'em, or I'll have to find out for myself."
The figure startled, his hand on the candle wobbled, and it began to tip.
He lunged to catch it even as he said, "Don't shoot!"
James didn't. He recognized that voice and shook his head in wry
amazement as he said, "Doctor Kravitz in the flesh. I would never in a
million years have figured you for doing your own dirty work."
"The formula for these is delicate. If I hired some simple fool to do the
job he would more than likely immolate himself or fail to succeed for poor
placement," the man said, turning with his hands out, palms up, once he'd
balanced the candle again.
At a distance of no more than fifteen feet, all James could see of
Kravitz's head was a distorted collection of glitching blocks of visual static
that only vaguely resembled a face.
"You should have left us alone," James said. "We weren't hunting you."
"Yet," Kravitz replied. "I know your kind. I warned Floyd after our very
first meeting. Your overblown sense of justice would have had you chasing
us sooner or later."
"Overblown sense of justice?"
James had to make an effort not to pull the trigger as he said, "Take the
coat off. Slowly."
"What for? You already know who I am," the doctor said as he reached
in, pressed a release, then shifted the coat from his shoulders. As soon as
the coat fell open the distortion covering his face vanished, revealing the
doctor and his glasses.
"Of course I know who you are. I'm stealing the coat. Me and my
overblown sense of justice need it more than you."
Kravitz dropped the coat aside, then nodded toward one of the candles
as he said, "We should go before those burn through the wax and reach the
solution underneath."
"I've got a better idea. You sit right there."
James kept him covered as Kravitz scowled but did as ordered. James
lifted the candle closest to him, stepped over to the seated man and said,
"Hold still," as he balanced the can on Kravitz's head.
Kravitz went deathly pale as he said, "James, I have money. You can
have it, all of it."
"How long until those candles burn through?" James asked curiously.
"Fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty."
"Plenty of time to call the police, which you can do any time. Call
anyone else and I'll put a bullet in your brain and let that candle do
whatever it's going to."
As he spoke, James walked around the room and extinguished the other
candles, careful to simply blow them out rather than touch them. He might
not ordinarily have been able to manage that since several of the candles
were positioned above his head, but adding a bit of will to a puff of air was
nothing, and he had no trouble.
When he was done, he crouched a few feet in front of the doctor, gun
trained on him as he said, "I didn't want anything to do with either of you.
You came after me. Now you're going to die the way you wanted me to go.
Seems fair, doesn't it?"
"James, you can't do this. You're a police officer!"
"Once upon a time. Now I'm just a washed-up merc who did time in Iso
for a crime he didn't commit and you know what? That hardly seems fair.
Seems like if I did the time ... I should get to do the crime."
James gave the nervous, sweating man in front of him a grim smile as
he said, "What was it again? Murder? Twelve murders? So after you I guess
I get eleven more? Maybe it's prorated because they let me off the hook but
I'm sure I get at least one. You can call the police anytime, by the way. I'm
waiting."
"I didn't bring my phone with me, you fool! I can't be tracked here!"
Kravitz hissed, trying hard to balance the candle despite his increasingly
violent shaking.
"Oooh, see, that's a problem," James said, tone conversational as he
stared grimly at the other man. "I had a phone, but it got destroyed in a fire
just yesterday sooo ... I don't have one either. What to do ... what to do."
 "You know as well as I do that you won't let me die this way. Not for
my sake, but for yours," Kravitz said.
"I think you'd be surprised how much a man can change after most of a
year in Iso," James said quietly.
He met the other man's eye and pushed his will into his words as he
said, "I didn't have much to do there aside from hate the people who put me
there. That'd be you and Grayson, in case you were wondering. Watching
fire melt through your skull might be just the thing to soothe my savage
soul. I might let you off the hook, though, if you give me a bigger fish to
fry."
Kravitz stared at him a few long seconds, then lifted his chin as he said,
"I don't believe it."
James watched him reach up, pluck the candle from atop his head, and
set it down on the concrete next to him. Once his hand was away, James
nodded and sighed.
"Okay, you called my bluff. Good for you. Where's Grayson?"
Kravitz shook his head as he said, "You don't have the stomach for
torture or murder. Go ahead, call the police. I'll be out in under an hour."
James nodded thoughtfully and said, "You're right. I suppose I'll have to
take you to a phone. But a lot can happen between here and there and I'm
very inclined to take any excuse. I hope you bear that in mind."
Kravitz' brow furrowed as James lifted the muzzle of his pistol to
indicate the other man stand up, which he did. James said, "Lace your
fingers behind your head and walk, Doctor. You wanted to burn down the
place I'm living in, you may as well see it for yourself."

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S elena ' s reconnection to her senses was a gradual thing but she was — if
not accustomed to — then at least familiar with the process. She'd done this
many times. At last, she recognized what she was looking at and blinked as
James asked, "How is it?"
She glanced at her body, then slid into a proper coil as she said, "The
bones are restored. I'm more interested in what's gone on here. How did you
capture that man?"
Kravitz was duct taped to a chair looking very unhappy. As Selena
focused on him his expression grew fearful, which pleased her.
"It wasn't hard," James said, arms folded as he looked at her where he
leaned against the wall. "He's the one who burned down our apartment. He
tried to do it again here last night."
Selena frowned. James hadn't actually answered her question, but she
let the matter rest as she rose up and moved her upper body to face Kravitz
from only a few feet away as she quietly asked, "Why is he still alive?"
"I tried to get him to tell me where Grayson is, but I'm not the kind of
man who can torture people. It's just not in me. Since he's my only lead to
Grayson I can't kill him yet."
"You said you would call the police!" Kravitz said bitterly.
"I lied," James blandly replied. "Just because I can't get the information
we need out of you doesn't mean she can't."
Selena tilted her head down to glance at James with a sly smile before
spreading her hood as she turned back to the fearful doctor. She opened her
jaws wide, let her fangs drop into place and hissed languidly at him, then
said, "Rest assured, I will have all this man's secrets. Do you want to stay
and watch or wait outside?"
"I'll wait outside. I don't want to be tempted to stop you," James said,
leaning away from the wall and turning for the door.
"Wait. Wait! I'll talk, just don't let her have me!" Kravitz said.
"I've already let her have you, Doctor. You could have told me what I
wanted to know downstairs. You didn't. Now you face the consequences."
With that, James left the room and the door closed behind him with a
deceptively soft sound.
Selena smiled wickedly at Kravitz as she said, "Your first name was
Johan, was it not? Tell me, Johan, why did you not leave us in peace?"
"I would have, believe that. Floyd contacted me, paid a handsome price,
even provided the plans and resources to carry them out. He assured me
you'd never survive the fire."
"That seems a foolish risk for a doctor with a clean record to take. May
I presume Floyd Grayson presented more than simple money, or are you
truly so easily bought?" Selena asked, her eyes locked on his. He tried to
look away, but his terror fractured his focus and made him a slave to her
attention.
"He's got footage of me performing surgery on monsters," Johann said,
reluctant but unable to keep himself silent.
"So despite your being his ally, he felt he needed to blackmail you?" she
asked.
"I wanted nothing to do with you! I didn't even know either of you were
an ongoing concern. Once James was incarcerated and the Black Jacks as
an organization dissolved I found other occupations. It wasn't until he
contacted me with the job that I was made aware of your still being alive,
much less your efforts on James' behalf. Nothing about our business was
personal!"
"On the contrary, to me it was rather deeply personal," Selena quietly
said. "Where is Floyd Grayson now?"
"I don't know."
Selena increased the force of her will on Johan and felt his resistance
crumble. He whimpered, "He's somewhere in the Tracts. He paid in gold!
That's all I know, I swear!"
"Do you have any of this gold?" Selena asked, and wasn't surprised
when the man shook his head. She kept her grip on his will, and his eyes
teared up as they remained fixed on hers despite the move.
"Let me go," he begged.
"Where is the gold?" Selena asked.
He whined fearfully and his words came out in a rush. "My apartment!
It's in a biometric safe I'll take you there it's all yours just please let me go!"
Selena let her jaws gape, hissing quietly as she continued to increase the
pressure on Johan Kravitz. She knew some part of the man must realize by
now that he was under genuine attack. His soul was open, unprotected, and
defenseless. He had neither conviction nor divine providence to guard his
spirit, and his will was fundamentally weak.
Johan was a man of exceptional talent to whom everything had come
easily. He never felt the need to support others because he never truly
required support himself. It was only when he grew older and continually
failed to achieve the recognition he felt due that it dawned on him
something was wrong. He resented those he considered his lessors and
exploited them ruthlessly to extract the value he felt he deserved.
It had never occurred to him that his problem might be of his own
making. Even now, as Selena steadily and inexorably crushed his spirit, his
deepest conviction was of injustice.
"Help me. Oh God ... help me!" Kravitz whined, struggling madly
against the tape and the chair despite being utterly incapable of so much as
blinking to break his eye contact with his antagonist.
Selena had no mercy for this cruel, thoughtless creature, and hissed, "It
is too late for prayer, little man. Gods require loyalty for their aid, and even
then it is far from a certain thing. You are alone, subject to me now. Now,
and ... forever."
With the last word, Selena saw the final vestiges of Johan Kravitz
crumble, felt the embers of his spirit grow cold, and was satisfied.
"James?" she called, swirling up to a height roughly equal to his own as
she turned to face the door.
It opened and he stepped in, eyes flicking from her to the dull-eyed husk
of a man behind her.
"Did you get what you needed?" he asked.
She nodded gravely and said, "You can free him. In fact, it's best you do
so. We don't have that much time. We need to have him take us to his lair
and turn his treasures over to us before it's too late."
 "Why, what did you do, poison him?" James asked as he stepped around
behind Kravitz's chair to cut him loose.
"I broke his will. He will be of increasingly limited utility, so we must
get what we can from him while we have the chance. Johan? You will take
us to where you reside and turn over all your possessions to us."
Kravitz stood up and started walking toward the open door, arms limp.
James' brow furrowed as he looked after the man, then cast a hard-eyed,
questioning glance at Selena, who said, "I will explain later. For now, let us
simply follow him."
Selena slid out of the apartment after the shambling Kravitz and
hesitated, watching James softly close the door behind him. She watched
him pause, his hand on the handle, before turning away.
Selena gently asked, "No parting words for her?"
He shook his head, refusing to meet her eye as he nodded after Kravitz
and said, "Let's go."
Selena had to stop him once they got to the lobby of the apartment.
James spoke to the building superintendent and convinced the man to
summon an auto-cab for the three of them.
They then stepped outside. The sun was only just up, but there was no
breeze and the air was still and fetid with the omnipresent reek of the
subcity. Selena was once more garbed in virtual rags and knew it would be
at least the morning before she'd be able to shop to replace them. She hated
looking like a refugee, but Johan would be utterly useless by sundown, so
she had to get what she could out of him first.
She glanced at James, noted he was studying their captive, and said, "As
I said, I'll explain it later."
James glanced up at her but his eyes barely met hers before flicking
away as he nodded.
Selena sighed, reached out to palm his head, and turned James pointedly
to face her, making deliberate, sustained eye contact as she said, "I couldn't
do it to you even if I wanted to. What I did to Kravitz only works on
weaklings."
His face twisted in a scowl as he said, "I'm not afraid of that. I just ...
want our interaction to be genuine, not a constant contest of wills."
"James, this isn't a contest. It's communication. I make eye contact
because I want to connect with you."
 "Yeah, and that works with most people because they can't do what you
can," James abruptly declared, and Selena felt the force of his will as
though it were a wall erected between them.
The strength of that wall was startling.
James said, "But since I know what you can do, how am I supposed to
just ... look at you?"
"Are you still carrying your pistol?" Selena asked, knowing full well the
weapon was holstered at his waist and hidden by the strange jacket he'd
claimed from Kravitz. He wore it, but it was open and its technological
functions were disabled.
"Yes?"
"How am I supposed to converse with you now, knowing you could
shoot me at any moment?" she asked.
"That's absurd," he said, lips twisting as he gave her a look suggesting
he expected better of her.
"Yes it is, and what you're doing when you refuse to meet my eye is no
different," she said.
He visibly thought that over without a word to her until the cab arrived
and began to move. Only then did he say, "You're right. I guess I'm just
afraid, all right? If you had a gun I'd be completely fine with that."
"It's something you have to get used to," Selena said. The two of them
were seated facing one another in the back of the cab, with Kravitz seated in
the front next to the empty driver station. She deliberately lifted the last few
feet of her tail and draped it over his lap.
He gave her a startled look as he pressed hands to her in an almost
instinctive move to shove her away, but hesitated as she said, "I'm not
human, James. Not even close. But I do my very best to learn your ways
and fit in with your society because that's where I am. I never act as though
the world should conform to me. I take it as it comes and adapt. So must
you."
"I feel like you aren't just talking about the obvious here," he said wryly.
She smirked and her tongue flickered, tasting the air as she noted a bit
more heat rising to his face. It was a promising sign.
She said, "I'm not. I've made my desires explicit and they were rejected.
Consider this my subtle way of telling you I don't take rejection well."
"I told you not to make it complicated."
"I heard you."
 "So?"
She gave him a wry look and said, "I'm not the best at simply doing
what I'm told either. What are you going to do about it, leave?"
The look of frustration he gave her wasn't pure. It was mixed with a bit
of embarrassment, and this pleased her. She smiled gently and said, "I
thought not. I also don't intend to give up. I won't always need you. I might
not always want you. But I will always love you."
He rolled his eyes and stared pointedly at her, then shook his head and
looked out the window.
Her humor faded as she watched the emotions roiling inside him. He
wanted to believe her, he wouldn't have been embarrassed otherwise. He
just ... didn't.
"I taught you to believe in magic, James. Is love so hard?" she asked.
With wide eyes he looked at her meaningfully and said in dire tones,
"Sleight of hand is not magic. Be careful what you say in public or you'll
get us in trouble we can't get out of, Selena."
Selena's expression clouded as she glanced at Kravitz, then back only to
see James shaking his head gravely before rolling his eyes to indicate the
cab itself.
She dipped her head, hood pulled tight to her neck as she glanced away,
ashamed. She knew about the human penchant for surveillance, and she
knew that humans didn't tolerate magic. She'd become careless in her
pursuit of James himself, and could now only hope the lapse didn't cost
them.
The autocab got on one of the main thoroughfares and James glanced
around, then said, "We're headed for the tunnel toward Daytau proper.
Kravitz will need to declare us as his guests to get us through."
Selena nodded as they reached the end of a short line of vehicles and
began to inch forward, eventually coming up to a camera installation on an
articulated boom at the entrance of the tunnel.
Kravitz seemed completely out of it and didn't turn to face the camera
until an automated voice from the installation said, "Please face the camera
directly."
Kravitz didn't move. His slack expression didn't even twitch. Selena
quietly said, "Face the camera and declare us your guests."
"These are my guests," Kravitz said dully as his head turned, and the
cameras shifted to the rear of the vehicle. Selena faced the camera and a
few seconds later James did likewise.
For a moment the camera didn't move, and Selena gazed with wide eyes
at James, who narrowed his, shook his head, and made a tiny wait gesture
with his hand.
Then the boom slid out of view and the autocab dropped into a set of
tracks before being shot into the transit tunnel with a lurch, accelerating to
almost a hundred miles an hour in just a few heartbeats.
The tunnel was completely dark and there were no lights in the back of
the cab aside from a very faint band of light that described the roof above
them. It was just enough to reveal shapes, and James became a shadow on
the far side of the cab.
Selena abruptly felt one of his hands settle on her tail, which she'd never
moved from his lap. He didn't stroke her, nothing so intimate. He simply
placed his hand on her and left it there, but the sensation, the contact,
warmed her more than she could readily express or acknowledge.
She had declared her love, but the feelings associated with that love had
been so long absent from her life that his touch, innocent though it might
be, brought her powerfully into the moment. She reveled in that moment
with a clarity that didn't fade until they left the tunnel some six minutes
later and light flooded in, causing her pupils to narrow to bare slits.
Momentarily blinded, she focused on her tail only to see James with his
head on the rest behind him, eyes closed, mouth open.
He was asleep.
One of his hands was still on her tail.
"How do I convince you, James?" she quietly asked, putting her will
into the question as she bridged the gap between them through his willing,
if unconscious, contact. James might not think it fair of her to ask questions
of his sub-conscious mind, but Selena never cared too much for fairness.
What she wanted wasn't wrong, and she'd learned many lessons over the
course of her long life. One of the most important was that playing fair was
for suckers.
For long minutes he didn't answer, and the suburbs of Daytau slid
swiftly by as the vehicle accelerated down the vast freeway toward a cluster
of buildings that seemed to scrape the sky.
She was on the verge of giving up when he — still asleep — sighed,
"Just ... stay."
 Warmth flooded through her and she eased forward, hands outlining his
sleeping face without touching it as she gazed lovingly at him, hood spread
to shade his face from the morning sun. She lowered her head until her
snout was just next to his ear, then softly whispered, "I will."

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J ames warily eyed the receptionist as she stared after Kravitz. When she
opened her mouth to speak to him, he dully said, "They're my guests,"
without even a glance in her direction, repeating the words he'd been given
to say.
"They need to register with-"
"They won't be spending the night. Don't bother me."
And then they were past the desk.
The building Kravitz apparently lived in was a high-rise apartment
complex at the top end of the spectrum offered by southside, an area just
outside downtown Daytau. The design of the building seemed minimalist:
the walls were plain black with blue bands of light at every edge. The floor
was polished and there was a massive geometric chandelier looming
overhead as they made their way to the elevator bank in the back.
Johann Kravitz was, if anything, even more listless than he'd seemed in
the autocab. Selena had to enter the elevator first and essentially pile herself
up along the back wall before James and Kravitz could step in after. The
doctor had to be prompted to place his fingers on the biometric reader,
which acknowledged him and closed the doors, automatically rising toward
whatever floor he happened to live on.
As they ascended, James wrinkled his nose as it was abruptly hit with a
faint wiff of ...
The sound came a moment later, and James blinked, then looked
incredulously at Kravitz.
 The man was pissing himself, and seemed completely oblivious to the
fact.
Twisting to look at Selena, who filled the majority of the elevator with
her bulk, he saw her looking gravely at him as she shook her head. The
message was clear: wait until privacy could allow her to speak freely.
The elevator door opened into less of a hall and more of a reception
area. There were two separate sets of couches surrounding tables. Double
doors terminated each side of the room and directly across from them.
Given the size of the building they'd stepped into, James figured there were
only three units taking up the whole floor.
Kravitz wasn't a top floor resident, but he obviously wasn't struggling.
"Let us into your unit," Selena quietly said, and only after being given a
command did Kravitz respond, turning left and moving to the end of the
room on that side, shoes squelching.
Like the elevator, the lock was biometric. This time it required both a
fingerprint and facial recognition before the doors opened, permitting entry
into an open floor-plan apartment that had a depressed living room to the
left and a complete bay of windows making up the far wall, terminating in a
small kitchen area. There was a desk and terminal on the left wall next to
the bay of windows, and a square dining room table breaking up the space
between it and the kitchen area. To the right was a waist-high wall that gave
the bed beyond an illusion of privacy. Beyond the bed were other rooms.
The whole place had an airy but sterile feel to it, and James was certain
there was daily maid service to keep it like this.
"Give us access to your material wealth," Selena said as James closed
the door behind her, and Kravitz turned to walk past the bed toward one of
the rooms in the back.
"All right, we're in private. What the hell is going on with him?!" James
asked, waving a hand after the man.
Selena glanced after Kravitz with the air of a woman making sure her
child does what he's told as she said, "I crushed his will. He fundamentally
has no motivation. Absent constant intervention he'll be dead in a few days.
Think of him as a ... a living corpse, if that makes any sense."
"Can he be fixed?" James asked.
"Would you want that?" Selena returned, twisting to look curiously at
him, tongue flickering out to taste the air between them.
"Not ... really?"
 "Good, because I have neither the desire nor ability to fix him. There
are stages of willful domination. Usually, it's best to simply subdue. They'll
resent the defeat, but won't fundamentally change as people. Breaking
someone's will leaves it intact, but removes their ability to resist you
permanently. What I did to Johan Kravitz is more severe. I crushed his will
entirely, and as time passes even his autonomic functions will fail. Right
now he's like fresh ashes, still warm but with no fire left."
"So what you're saying is the lights are on, but no one's home?" James
asked.
She nodded gravely and said, "It may not look like it, but I killed Johan
back in your ex-wife's apartment. His body just doesn't know yet. Using this
method leaves no 'reasonable' way to tie us to his death. I'd just as soon
continue to be able to live here, and I assume you want the same."
"The more I learn about what you can do, the more I understand why
the government's got such a hard on to stamp magic out," James said with
quiet amazement.
"You can do it too, James," she said, giving him a wry smile. "You
gained the ability as soon as you learned how to invest your eye contact
with real will."
"Heh, doubt it. I tried. Couldn't even get Kravitz to tell me where
Grayson is. There's no way I could destroy him."
"You are a gentle soul at heart, James. It is one of so many things that
endears you to me."
"I guess your ability to kill him like this means you aren't gentle,"
James said.
Selena paused, swaying slightly as she thought about her answer. James
watched her, mesmerized despite himself. At last, she said, "Let us say that
while not naturally inclined, I can grant mercy if given a good reason. I
couldn't think of any in his case."
James chuckled ruefully as he said, "I can't disagree with that. Anyone
willing to involuntarily castrate someone would be hard to excuse or
forgive."
"Just so. Let's go see what our little zombie has granted us, shall we?"
she said, then slid around the edge of the wall and past the low-slung bed
toward the hidden area of the apartment. James followed to find Selena
blinking as she gazed at the interior of a sizable wall safe Kravitz had
opened.
 There were several large stacks of cash, but what caught James'
attention were the bags. One was a small black felt bag, the other was the
size of a party balloon, leather, and obviously filled with heavy coins by the
outlines they made.
Selena glanced back at James and tilted her head toward the safe as she
said, "Take the leather sack."
He did as she asked, but almost dropped it when it slid off the shelf and
proved much heavier than he anticipated. He barely caught it with his other
hand and practically had to fold himself under its weight as he groaned,
"What the hell? This shit weighs a ton!"
"See for yourself," Selena said as she reached into the safe and plucked
out the much smaller velvet sack. She pulled the drawstring loose, opened
it, and glanced inside to confirm her suspicion.
Precious gems.
James lugged the bag to the bed and dropped it with a relieved gasp
before pulling it open.
His eyes boggled and he glanced up at Selena, shocked speechless.
She cinched the tiny bag in her hand and tucked it into her cleavage as
she said, "Close the safe, then go sit on a chair in the living area."
Kravitz blankly followed her command as she slid toward James and
looked down at the contents of the bag. He said, "There's got to be millions
in gold here. If we manage to get this out of the building we could be set for
life."
"It won't be difficult," Selena said. "We'll simply cover the bag with
your coat and have you walk out with it over your shoulder."
James shook his head and said, "No way. I'm serious; that bag weighs
well over a hundred pounds. There's no way I could look natural carrying it
out."
"Hm," Selena said, head tilting as she glanced around. After a moment
she said, "Buildings like this have aerial service, do they not? We could
arrange for such a vehicle. It seems unlikely there would be anyone to
challenge our departure that way."
"How do we pay? It's not like an autocab that can use our biometrics.
Aerial service requires deposit in advance, not to mention a complete route.
We don't even know where to go from here."
Selena hissed in obvious discontent, eyes wandering as she thought. At
length she asked, "What would you suggest?"
 "Depends on what you want our next move to be," he said with a shrug.
"And you? What do you think we should do?"
"Exchange this at whatever rate we can get from a fence, jump a
supercarrier, and move to another city-state as far as possible from Daytau,"
he said, waving a hand at the gold.
"And leave Grayson to work his evil?"
James thought about it, then decided to be baldly honest. He said,
"Selena, I am scared shitless of going back to Iso. I was deadly serious
when I told you I'd eat a bullet first. Grayson isn't a criminal here in Daytau
and even if he were I'm not a cop anymore. I have no more authority to hunt
him than you do, which is none at all."
"Johan said he was out in the Tracts. The laws of the city-state don't
matter out there."
"That isn't precisely true. While the burden of proof is much higher, it is
possible to make charges stick even if they took place out in the Tracts, so
long as the accused is a resident of Daytau. Even without proof, a credible
threat can get the accused thrown into Iso."
He met her gaze and said, "I was imprisoned for most of a year because
affidavits were filed, remember? Grayson has access to as many witnesses
as he wants. He can 'credibly' accuse me even if he has no real proof. The
only way I can be safe from him is to transfer to another city entirely."
"Why didn't he do that to both of us instead of-"
"Because he'd have to have an incident to point to, something serious to
pin on us, and now he does. He never cared if Kravitz killed us or not. Look
at this. If he's got this much gold he can buy as many witnesses as he wants.
I'd bet everything I can see that he's got 'witnesses' talking to the cops right
now, telling a story with you and me in it. In that story we're the ones who
burned that building down."
"James, everything you've said more firmly convinces me that we need
to find and end this man, and I think I know where he is."
"Where?"
"He's with my old patron."
"Grayson is a Gold Coin. He hates-"
James trailed off as Selena shook her head gravely. She said, "No. I
locked eyes with him once. He might have a gold coin, but that doesn't
mean he is one. That man acts for himself. Whoever can reward him has his
loyalty for just as long as the rewards outweigh the risks and not one
moment longer. My old patron knows his kind well, and how to use them to
devastating effect. Grayson's out in the Tracts, and if what you say is true
we'll be safer out there looking for him than in here waiting for his minions
to find us."
Selena paused and a look of confusion passed over her, then she asked,
"What do you know about the Gold Coins? You've never indicated any
interest in them."
"Everything there is to know, at least publicly," James said, pulling his
own golden coin from his pocket and flipping it absently, letting it glint in
the air a moment too long before snatching it.
James raised an eyebrow as he asked, "You honestly think I wouldn't
look this thing up?"
"You never said anything."
"Why would I?"
Selena's mouth was open, but she seemed stuck for anything to say. At
last, she said, "I'm non-human. I thought — after you made your hatred so
clear in those first days — that I shouldn't push you toward learning about
an organization that might take you away from me."
"Selena, I don't like non-humans. What I hate is monsters. I thought
that's what you were at first. You were dealing with orcish raiders attacking
humans. I realized pretty quickly after we met who the monsters really
were, and acted accordingly. The coin was your choice for a focus. I
assumed if you knew what it represented you'd have picked something else
to work with. Since you didn't, I figured it wasn't worth complicating things
by bringing it up."
She nodded, obviously thinking about the ramifications. James couldn't
help but focus on what she'd told him. It wasn't a declaration, but it was
important. It left him with feeling uncertain, which sparked annoyance. She
needed him. Of course she didn't want him to leave.
"I didn't know we'd have to deal with these two at the time, James," she
said, as though reading his mind.
Their eyes met, but to his surprise she broke contact almost
immediately, tilting her head down and away as she said, "I didn't need you
then."
"You felt you owed me."
"While true, it troubles me that you have so hard a time accepting what
I tell you about myself as the truth."
 Frowning, James found himself stepping into her space. She was
avoiding eye contact, so he set a hand on her shoulder as he said with as
much patience as he could manage, "It's not that I'm sure you're lying. It's
that it doesn't matter even if what you're telling me is true."
Anger flashed through her expression. Her hood spread as she looked
him in the eye again and hissed, "You dare to tell me my feeling doesn't
matter? You are not so callous. I will hold my anger as best I may while you
explain."
Taking a wary step back, he flicked his finger back and forth between
them and said, "We have nothing in common. You're some kind of sorceress
that's been around way longer than I have, and you'll probably still be
around long after I'm gone. We don't want the same things. We aren't even
the same species. Even if we make it through this shitshow we're in now I
don't see a future for us. You'll realize it for yourself later, and what then?
You expect me to just cater to your infatuation until it wears off and you
leave? I've been burned one too many times for that."
"That you presume my affection is in any way like what you've known
before only increases my anger, James."
"Why? You think you're special?" he asked, expression hardening. "You
are, but not the way you think. I owe you. You wiped my ass and took care
of me as an invalid after working for months to get me out of prison. I saved
your life. We've gone to extraordinary lengths for one another. That's not
love-"
"You fool. That is exactly what it is," she hissed, abruptly sweeping
around him once, twice, a third time. Her body wrapped him so thoroughly
that he was utterly unable to move. The power he could feel pressing him
on all sides, from his knees to his chest, was immense. Her upper body
arched away then doubled back on itself, placing her snout no more than an
inch from his face as she glared at him.
"When did your ex-wife ever save you?! More to the point, when did
you ever save her?"
She waved a hand as she said, "You met, fell in love, married. In the
end, the stress of what happened to you was too much for her and she
abandoned you rather than face the pain. I have done so much more than
she ever did for you and it didn't break me. I am special in exactly the way I
think I am! You can do magic, but can't believe my love for you might last?
Well it can, but only if you let it."
 James was having trouble breathing, but it wasn't because she was
actually squeezing him that hard. It was more in what he felt radiating from
her. Her anger had a curiously desperate edge and he felt off-balance again,
utterly baffled.
Some of her anger faded from her expression as she watched him, and
she gently said, "I know I must be patient with you. I know only time can
prove my love for you will last. But you have to give me that time. I need
you to be open, just a little, to the possibility of us. Don't reject me based on
your past experience. Try and believe in me."
She reached out, palmed his cheek, and earnestly said, "I'm not doing
this for you, James. I'm doing it for me. I want us. What are the vows you
humans take? For better or worse? Rich or poor? Sickness or health? What
better describes you and I? We've already survived all that. Is it really so
hard for you to believe that we could be happy together even after all this is
over?"
For a moment, he couldn't think of anything to say. Then the words
came without any thought behind them.
"What would we do?"
She blinked, then smiled and draped both her arms around his shoulders
as she slid her head past his, resting there as she said, "I think we would
help people no one else will help. People who deserve a second chance."
"That sounds ..."
A lump in his throat cut him off and he cursed his weakness as he
swallowed. It sounded good. From anyone else it would have sounded like
a shallow play, but Selena had done just that for him, and he'd done it for
her. If the mess they were in now actually worked out somehow then ...
"Sounds?" she quietly prompted, leaning back just enough to gaze at
him. Her snout was touching his nose. She was so close.
"Good," he said, having to swallow again to get the word out.
She softly said, "I'm going to kiss you, and you're going to let me."
"How exactly would I stop you?" he asked, more to delay things as he
tried to re-center than because he needed an answer. He was looking into
her eyes, but couldn't feel any pressure from her. All he could feel was
emotion. Her will he could have fought, but he just didn't know what to do
with her love.
"Just turn your head away and I'll let you go," she said.
"Your word?" he asked.
 "My word," she breathed, then tilted her head slightly, her snout
slipping past his nose as she closed her eyes.
Her tongue was forked, supple, and as more and more of it piled into his
mouth she cupped both sides of his head with gentle hands to hold him.
It was — without question — both the most passionate and weirdest
kiss he'd ever had. Her tongue wrapped his own, played games with his
cheeks, completely filled his mouth. When she finally leaned back she was
a foot away before the delicate fork of her tongue left his lips.
He blinked at her, a bit dazed as she said, "Now ... just imagine what
else I can wrap that tongue around."
"You trying to turn me into a pervert or what?" he asked, bemused by
the rather shocking realization that a serpent woman was turning him on.
She chuckled and her body slid down past his knees as she added
another coil to the wrap she had him in as she said, "Yes, actually. Love is
more than just a feeling, James, and I'm going to need more from you than
company and the occasional kiss. I plan to thoroughly corrupt your desires
until they aaall revolve around me."
She tilted her head playfully as her hood spread and she asked, "Sound
good?"
"Sounds dangerous."
"You'll manage ..."
She smirked, and her tongue flickered lasciviously out to touch his
throat as she added, "... and like it."
James was still trying to think of something, anything, to say to that
when a feminine voice from over by the couch melodramatically started
yelling, "Oh save me! Save me, Doctor! I need your help!"

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 24

S elena glanced past her captive human, then looked him in the eye with a
bemused expression as he rolled his eyes and said, "It's Kravitz's phone. Let
me go."
"His ring tone is someone pleading for help?"
"Kinda suits him perfectly if you think about it. Easy ego boost," James
said as his feet touched ground again and Selena slid over to look at the
table next to the couch, then reached for the phone, gazing curiously at it.
"Who's calling?" James asked.
"The caller ID says 'NHIC Dispatch'."
James held up a hand and Selena tossed him the phone, which was still
pleading for help. He set it down in front of Kravitz and said, "Answer it."
Kravitz didn't even blink.
Selena slid up next to James as she said, "Answer it, Johan."
It was like watching an animatronic move as Selena said, "He really
only responds to commands from me. As the echo of his will continues to
fade, commands will be increasingly difficult."
"Doctor Kravitz?"
The voice was very small and distant, but could be heard in the
otherwise dead silence of the room. James reached past Kravitz to put the
phone on speaker, but didn't otherwise speak.
"Doctor Kravitz, this call is to notify you that a request for an NHIC
visit was put in by the lobby staff on your behalf. I'm calling to ask if you're
okay."
Selena leaned in and whispered to Johan, "Tell her you're fine."
 "I'm fine," Johan quietly said.
"Be sure and let the team know that when they arrive," the woman on
the other end said after a pause that was just a few heartbeats too long. "I'll
stay on the line with you until-"
James frowned as he touched the disconnect on the phone and said, "We
don't have long. The dispatcher obviously didn't buy that bullshit zombie
answer."
"Bring the gold to the table," Selena said, thinking hard about how they
might escape. There were three potential methods, but the aerial seemed the
least likely to succeed. They would either have to descend by the stairs or
the elevator, and they were quite high up.
She knew enough to know that if the elevators were stopped while they
were inside they would be well and truly trapped. The stairs represented a
very, very long climb, and didn't give them any exit out of the building the
elevators didn't afford. They were unlikely to escape if they were found.
James had a handgun, but might hesitate to use it given they were facing
law enforcement.
The heavy clink of coin as James set the bag down drew her attention,
and she waved at it as she said, "Don the coat and fill its pockets. There's no
point losing our freedom for greed. Leave the rest in front of him to make
them wonder."
A few moments later they stepped out of the apartment and moved to
the elevator bank, which had three doors. Selena glanced around, then used
her claw to press the button.
None of the doors opened, telling her the one they'd rode up in was
elsewhere.
"Draw your weapon. You may have to shoot," she said, glancing at
James, who shook his head.
"If I do there's no getting out. One bullet would seal the building and
alert police dispatch. Every closed door would automatically lock and every
cop within three blocks would get notified of the active shooter. They'd all
come running. We've got to get out of here without a firefight or we won't
get out at all."
"What do you suggest?" she asked.
James tipped his chin toward the door to the stairs as he said, "Wait in
there until this door opens, then summon the elevator from one floor down.
We'll ride it to the second floor, get off there, then use the stairs to access
the parking garage."
Selena nodded, slid to the stairwell door and opened it. James followed
her and waved her to the landing between floors. There she waited while he
stood with the stairwell door barely cracked.
Seconds ticked by, and with a hand on the wall and her tail holding the
lower floor's door open, Selena felt the rumble as the elevator approached.
She hissed, "James! It's here. Close the door and let's go!"
Despite her warning, he waved her on and stayed at the door. Hissing
discontentedly, Selena slid to the lower floor and out, pressing the button to
summon a car as she waited.
She sensed the door above her closing, felt James' heavy footfalls as he
descended the stairs, and slid her tail away as he took the weight of the door
off it, then closed it behind himself.
"Was there anyone?" she asked.
Nodding gravely, he said, "The problem is NHIC officers always go in
two-man teams, but I only saw one."
The elevator doors opened as he spoke, and Selena hissed as a strange,
muscular woman with black-and-orange-striped hair said, "Freeze."
Selena's eyes flicked to the shotgun the griffin had leveled at them, then
up again to the woman's vivid green eyes as she said, "You must be Tayra
Manes."
"That's Corporal Platz to you, and you have questions to answer," she
said, showing off an emerald ring on her left hand without shifting the
barrel of her shotgun, wings flaring a bit as the stairwell door opened and a
hulking beast of a man stepped out, deceptively small pistol ready in one
hand.
Selena glanced at James, whose eyes were fixed on the woman in front
of them as he quietly said, "You're looking a bit slimmer than the last time I
saw you."
Tayra blinked, then her head cocked in a bird-like gesture as her wings
relaxed a bit. She asked, "When was that, and who are you?"
"Nobody worth remembering, apparently," he said with a scowl. "Let
me give you a hint. The last time we were together, you rode with me in an
ambulance."
Tayra's expression grew confused. Selena noted that James was
applying the force of his will on the unsuspecting griffin and turned her
own attention to the male officer as he stopped a few feet away and said,
"That's enough. We received a call that there were some suspicious guests
entering the apartment on the floor above this one. We have access to the
building cameras and since we saw you deliberately moving to avoid us, we
thought we'd stop and ask why."
Selena reached without looking and brushed James' shoulder as she
locked eyes with the officer and said, "We were invited up, and told to
avoid you on our way out."
The force of her will made his eyes widen slightly, but the officer's gaze
hardened as he asked, "Again, why?"
Selena said, "Johan Kravitz wanted to give us remuneration for a
misunderstanding several months ago."
Curiosity let her will sink deeper into the man as he asked, "What
misunderstanding?"
"My partner was accused of violence against an organization with
which both he and Doctor Kravitz were affiliated," Selena said, her voice
soft and hypnotic as she slowly increased the strength of her mental
domination.
She noted with satisfaction that Tayra wasn't saying anything at all, nor
was James. She knew without looking that while she worked on the officer
in front of her, James had matched his will against the griffin. Unlike
Selena, James was only keeping his target frozen with indecision. He had
neither the skill nor the true desire to dominate anyone, but he did have a
very strong desire to escape without conflict. He knew Selena was working
on that, so all he had to do was keep Tayra from moving.
So far, he appeared to be succeeding, but Selena knew her time was
short. She had to plant a seed quickly, and gain them the freedom to escape.
The story that would allow them to do so was easy enough to construct
using pieces of the truth, glued together into a semblance of credibility by
her force of will.
She softly continued, "The affidavits filed were sufficient to see him
imprisoned, but deeper inspection, which took months to arrange, revealed
the accusations to be baseless. In the meantime, the organization itself was
dissolved and Kravitz, all unaware, moved on with his life."
The black-haired officer said nothing, eyes locked on hers, will fully
ensnared. His gun lowered as he listened, and Selena went on.
 "As fate would have it, we survived a massive building fire just a day
ago, and Kravitz saw us as we escaped. Wracked with guilt, he approached
and offered to compensate us for the ruin we suffered, and we accepted. The
man is disconsolate. He offered us gold, though we could only accept a tiny
fraction of what he wished to give. Apparently, he does not customarily
accept visitors like myself and my companion, which is why I presume you
were notified. We avoided you on Kravitz's own advice. He didn't want to
trouble us with further run-ins and false accusations."
"I ... see," the man said, now so thoroughly under Selena's mental
domination that putting his own sentences together obviously took serious
effort. Selena knew she couldn't keep him controlled for long without doing
real harm, but she didn't need to. All she needed was a few moments of
belief, the few seconds that would get she and James into the elevator, with
the doors closed.
"You should go see him for yourself. Make sure he's all right. He was
sitting at his dining room table when we left, but didn't seem very happy,"
Selena gently suggested.
"Tay, let's go check on this guy," the man said.
"Mm? Yeah ... sure," the griffin said, voice hazy as she stepped out of
the elevator to follow the other officer back into the stairwell.
James lost no time getting in the open car and was already smashing the
close door button as Selena slid in behind him.
"Damn that was exhausting," James said, breathing hard as he leaned
against the back wall of the car.
Selena's stomach lurched as they began a rapid descent, and she asked,
"What did you do?"
"I kept her trying to think of where she'd seen me before. It's weird but I
just ... it was like her curiosity was its own thing that I could, pet? I know
that's a shitty way to describe it, but it really was like stroking a cat to keep
its attention on me. She wanted to know the answer but wasn't actually
looking for it. She just focused."
"It's called either fascination or hazing, depending on how it's applied,"
Selena said. "It's the first stage of mental domination. Serpents like myself
have a special affinity for it, and we're naturally very good at it."
"Telling me you're rubbing off on me?" he asked, giving her a wry look.
She could tell that he really was drained just by how his eyes lacked the
vital spark they usually had when they met hers. James' lack of complete
trust in her had led him to the habit of always putting up his mental
defenses before meeting her gaze, but right now they were down, which
meant he really was spent.
"I certainly hope so," she said, tongue flicking playfully out to touch his
nose. "I'm a very poor teacher otherwise."
"What'll happen to her?" he asked.
"Since you didn't do anything with her attention it's more properly
called hazing. She'll remember everything but her sense of time will be
dilated and she'll wonder why she never pursued her curiosity when she had
the chance. How she reacts to the lost opportunity depends on her unique
personality, but be aware that if you see her again any time soon she'll be
more resistant. If you try again she's very likely to realize she's being
attacked."
James' eyes widened, then closed in despair as he softly said, "Aw ...
shit!"
"What?" Selena asked, abruptly concerned.
James gave her a level stare and said, "We need to get out of the city,
and I mean now."
"Why?" she asked as the elevator doors opened, letting them out into
the lobby. James walked out past the receptionist, who gazed at the two of
them with the sort of mild shock that told Selena beyond reasonable doubt
that she'd been the one to notify the police in the first place.
Outside, James passed her to the crowded street, looked around, then
stepped boldly out into traffic to stop a manned taxi. It was a van
configuration but had seats and wasn't ideal, but James indicated the sliding
door as he came round to the driver's side just as the man lowered the
window and said, "Hey buddy, use the app like everyone else!"
"My phone got stolen. Haven't had the chance to replace it. Do you
know what this is?"
As Selena opened the sliding door and laboriously began cramming
herself into the back of the van, fitting as much of herself under, then over
the bench seat as possible, she heard the driver ask in breathy disbelief, "Is
that gold?"
"It is. And this whole coin is yours if you can get us to the
superhighway terminal adjacent to Rectau in under an hour. Do it in under
half and I'll double it. Do it without city navigation and I'll double that."
 "Get in get in, clock's tickin' brother!" the driver said, and James
enthusiastically slapped the hood of the van on his way around to slide into
the passenger seat.
Selena was very quickly grateful that she was so tightly packed because
the driver broke several traffic laws in the next twenty-eight minutes ... and
he got his gold.

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 25

T ayra and T ony waited outside the apartment, staring at one another.
Tony's thoughts weren't going fast or far, and Tayra looked like she was in
the same condition. The two of them were waiting for authorization to enter
the apartment after the resident, one Doctor Johan Kravitz, refused to
answer his door.
In fact, he hadn't even acknowledged their request to enter.
Tayra finally broke the silence as she asked, "Why did we let them go?"
"I ... I do not know," Tony slowly admitted. "If the heat comes down for
this, it's my fault."
Tayra rolled her eyes and stared pointedly at him as she said, "Our
service records are combined, remember? You don't get to pull blame off
me. We're a single corporate entity."
"Then where's our partner?" Tony asked sourly. "Maybe if we'd had one
we wouldn't be in this mess and what the hell did I just do?! It's driving me
nuts! I should never have let her go!"
"What did we just do. I stared at that guy saying nothing for I don't
know how long, and just who is he anyway? I know I've seen him before.
When was I ever in an ambula-oh shit! I know who he is! That was James
Henderson!"
"Who?" Tony asked, one eyebrow up.
Tayra's eyes were wide as she stared in shock at Tony and said, "The
cop who got his spine sliced defending me in Oolytau station!"
Tony gaped at his partner, whose expression went from boggled to
guilty to all but crushed in the space of about five heartbeats. She glanced
around and down as she practically babbled, "I never followed up. I never
went to see him. I forgot all about him I am a terrible person, Tony! How
could I have forgotten him he saved my life!?"
Tony held up his hands in a vain effort to slow her roll as he drawled, "I
... can't say it's great you forgot about him. I can say I never thought about
him either. We were in way over our heads back then, and Yearly kinda took
his place. At least he survived. She didn't."
"But afterward?" she asked, looking at him with what he could only
describe as severe emotional distress.
His eyes flicked away as he said, "We spent most of the next few
months either fucking, flying, or working our asses off to prove ourselves to
the department."
Tayra slipped her claws in under his armor on both sides of his chest,
jerked him in and shook him hard as she said, "That's no excuse! Tony, he
saved my life!"
"What do you want me to say!?" Tony asked, catching her head with
both hands to steady her.
Tony's phone lit up before she could speak and the earpiece he had in
auto-connected the call. It was Yates, and she sounded upset as she said,
"You've got authorization to breach. Cameras off and stay out in the hall
where the monitors in the antechamber can see you unless you see an
immediate need to enter."
Tony held up a stern finger between them and Tayra let him go as he
said, "LT? What are you doing on the line? It should be dispatch answering
the request to enter."
"This guy's got an open case and that's all you need to know about that.
Follow my instructions, cameras off."
Rolling his eyes, Tony said, "Acknowledged, we'll notify one more
time, then breach."
"Be careful with this one, Corporal. He's known to be litigious. Keep
this line open."
Tony frowned and beat on the door as hard as he could without hurting
his hand as he said, "Doctor Johan Kravitz!? This is the NHIC! Police!
Open up!"
After a long twenty seconds of silence, Tony nodded at Tayra, who
already had an open line with the building superintendent. She said, "Open
3112."
 The door in front of them clicked and Tony pushed it open, letting it
swing free as he swept the interior without stepping inside.
Kravitz wasn't hard to find. He was seated at his dining room table,
staring at an open leather sack. From where he was, Tony couldn't see the
contents.
"Why does it smell like piss in here?" Tayra abruptly asked.
Tony could smell it too but shushed his partner as he called out, "Doctor
Kravitz?"
The man made no response.
"What do you see?" Laura asked.
"He's sitting at his dining room table. Eyes open but seems completely
out of it. Not responding at all but it smells like he peed himself. Doctor
Kravitz!"
The man at the table didn't even blink.
Tony frowned, glanced at Tayra, then said, "No response."
"Can you see him breathing?" Laura asked.
"Y-yes?"
"Close the door. I'll dispatch a medical team and an investigator
working on his case. Where are the two who generated the call?" Laura
asked.
"Current location unknown."
"Talk to the receptionist. Access the building cameras. You should know
how this works by now, Tony! Get on it!"
Laura hung up as Tayra reached for the door.
Tony stopped her, staring hard at the man seated at the dining room
table as he murmured, "Something's off about all of this."
"Yeah no shit, so? We're going to get busted down and drummed out
when they review the footage of us letting those two go if we don't catch
them! You heard LT. She's taking care of this guy. We need to go after
them!"
"Show me incorporated news on James Henderson," Tony said to his
phone, eyes still on Tayra, who's expression was rapidly sliding from urgent
toward death glare.
Rather than meet that gaze, he glanced down at his phone and frowned,
then said, "Narrow scope to former police officer James Henderson from
the last twelve months."
 Tony scrolled the headlines, then selected one of the most recent articles
from a few months back that seemed like it would provide a decent
summary and quickly flicked through it.
Once he was done, he met Tayra's eyes and said, "That man spent most
of a year in Iso on false charges."
Tayra blinked, anger evaporating as she asked, "What charges?"
"Murder. Twelve killings. Seems like it was all a setup too. Affidavits
and witness statements fell apart under scrutiny, but the case didn't move
forward for months due to court backlog ... and there's something else."
"What?"
"He's ... paralyzed. From the waist down. It was mentioned several
times. The nagini with him is Selena Daytau. He got her into the city but
abandoned a crucial injection series to do it. He shouldn't be able to walk at
all."
Tayra blinked at him, then looked toward the elevators as she asked,
"What the hell? So that wasn't him? Where is he?"
Shrugging, Tony said, "Article didn't specify, but I'm pretty sure that
was him."
"Why do you think so?" Tayra asked.
"You mean aside from the fact that you recognized him? It was
mentioned in the article. A bunch of science nerds from USD asked her to
participate in studies to learn about her species. She was offered a life-long
stipend and transfer to Rectau. She turned them down, saying she needed to
get James out of Iso. After she said no they tried to force the issue with the
city but it turned into a civil rights thing and the university backed down
before taking it to court. Selena Daytau is mythic. She's the only one of her
kind to ever set foot inside the city."
"Set foot?" Tayra asked, one feathered eyebrow lifting pointedly.
Tony rolled his eyes at her and said, "You know what I mean. Point is,
that was Selena, and the guy with her was James Henderson. She got him
out."
"Didn't look very paralyzed to me," Tayra noted.
"Me either. So let me lay out my thoughts. What do your
transformations, his walking, and our being mind-fucked into letting them
go all have in common?"
Tayra's head tilted and she stared at him out of one eye as she breathed,
"No way."
 Nodding, he said, "Oh yes. Yes way. We are officially in over our heads.
That's both bad and good news."
"Good news? How?"
"Because without a very good reason we are already both fucked
whether we catch them or not after what just went down in the hallway on
camera," Tony said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Excuses won't cut
it."
"Should we call it in?" she asked.
Nodding, Tony pulled his phone and said, "Yeah, but there's no official
reporting scheme for this. Only thing I can think is to dump it in DI
McCreedy's lap. Laura's no good after what we just went through and the
new captain hates us, so we'll skip him too if you don't mind."
"Can't argue with that. Verner wants me gone in the worst way," Tayra
said sourly. "He'd never believe we weren't just suckered."
"I'm sure he'll love the fact you said so," Tony said as he glanced wryly
at the camera nodule above the elevator bank.
"Just make the fucking call," Tayra said, rolling her eyes as she sighed,
then nodded toward the still open doorway as she asked, "What about him?"
"Well, if I'm right, he's another piece of evidence in our favor. I don't
know what kind of case Laura's got on him, but I'd say this takes
precedence and we'll wait right here, in sight of him, until we get a straight
answer from someone with juice."
"Selena and James?" Tayra asked.
"Face facts, they got by us. If we get another shot at them we'll deal, but
I want clear instructions first. I'm not sure we'll be able to just 'catch' those
two."
As Tony waited for the call to connect, Tayra suddenly shook her head
and said, "I'm not going after them."
Tony's brow furrowed, and she added, "Conflict of interest. He saved
my life. If I had to put him down I don't think I could do it, and I wouldn't
let you do it either."
Tony frowned, but McCreedy picked up before he could answer.
Without wasting any words, Tony shifted gears and laid it all on the line.
"Larry ... I think we just got hit with real magic, and the two that did it
got away."
For a long few seconds there was dead silence on the other end of the
line, then Larry sighed and said, "Fucking hell. What is it with you two?
Talk fast; if this is legit, I have to pass it up the chain."
"There's a guy twenty feet from us staring into space. He's breathing but
hasn't blinked that I've seen since we laid eyes on him. The two we were
called out here to confront talked their way past us and left. One of them is
James Henderson. Tayra recognized him as the cop that got cut saving her
at Oolytau station. Check the feeds. He's a former cop now but get this: he's
supposed to be crippled. Broken back, fucked his injection series ... it was
in the news. The guy that just got past us, though? He's walking just fine."
"And the non-human?" Larry asked.
"Selena Daytau. Only nagini ever to enter Daytau city."
"And you think this is magic because they talked past you?" Larry
asked, sounding dubious.
"Pull the vid, Larry. If you think I'm really that dumb, I'll take every
drug test known to man then hand Verner my badge on my way out the
door."
"And you didn't call him because ...?"
"He hates Tayra's guts and would absolutely believe I'm as dumb as I
look on the vid. He wants to ding me fine, but this can't wait for me to fight
that fight so I called you direct. I'm serious, Larry. This is no joke fuckin'
magic."
There was another long pause, then Larry grimly said, "Stay on the line.
Chief Inspector Gutierrez will want to hear what you have to say."

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S elena moved with James through the crowded terminal, eyes shifting
constantly. They were inside the Daytau city wall. Though she'd been
through the Oolytau terminal, it proved to be nothing like the one adjacent
to Rectau, which was was apparently the central hub for inter-city-state
trade. There were humans everywhere, and many of them stared
unabashedly at her as she moved. Her ambulation forced people to step
aside for her body despite her keeping her sway as narrow as possible.
At every moment she expected the human mob to turn and swarm her.
A careless man lugging a box on wheels behind him bumped into her only
to stagger and fall when she whipped her head up and hissed at him, hood
snapping wide.
"Watch where you're going. Let me help you up," James said, smoothly
stepping between her and her object as he bodily hoisted the man to his feet,
caught the extended handle of his luggage, and handed it back to him as he
jerked his head to one side in an obvious dismissal.
The man's face had gone from pale to red as fear gave way to anger, but
as he was opening his mouth James snapped his fingers right in front of the
man's eyes, forcing him to flinch and lose his words.
James put his finger in the man's face and quietly said, "I mean it.
Watch where you're going and what comes out of your mouth."
His words had a calm authority that cut through anger and left cold
certainty in its wake. Selena could see James wasn't using any actual will,
but he didn't need to. The man really didn't want a fight. He'd only intended
to bully a non-human who wouldn't be able to fight back. Selena had been
the recipient of such antagonism more than once in her time in Oolytau.
Once James made it clear she had a human defender, the would-be
antagonist deflated and jerked his luggage onto its wheels before moving on
without a word.
James turned to glance up at her as he said, "You need to relax."
"I admit I'm not good with crowds. I don't fit," Selena said quietly as
she tucked her hood and folded her hands in front of her, looking suitably
chastened.
"We're almost at the Long Walk, just stay with me," James said as he
turned and started moving again.
She followed, but her eyes cast about constantly, unable to relax. She
wanted out of this place. There were too many people for her to keep track
of, too many directions from which danger could come. Her heat sense was
overwhelmed and even her nose was full of the cloying stink of too many
bodies in too close a space.
James took a sudden turn that, thankfully, left the vast bulk of humanity
behind and put them in a much narrower corridor. The walls were gray
interspersed with huge screens playing advertisements, most of which were
for items ostensibly needed by people who wished to brave the Tracts.
It reminded Selena that the two of them had virtually nothing in the way
of supplies. They had no food, no bedding, only one pistol, and nothing else
but the clothes on their backs.
They hadn't even stopped to get access to their accounts.
As she had these thoughts, James stopped in front of a terminal and
pressed his thumb to a pad as he said, "James Henderson."
"Welcome to Daytau's Central Banking System. How may I help you
today, Mr. Henderson?"
"I'd like to withdraw eighty-five percent of my current balance, rounded
to the nearest hundred," he said in answer to the smooth, feminine,
intensely artificial voice.
"For withdrawals over five thousand dollars the city tax office requires a
stated purpose for the funds. What is your stated purpose?"
"Purchase of weapons and equipment for a bounty hunt in the Tracts,"
he said.
"Record complete. Twelve thousand six hundred dollars will be placed
on a transferable credit chit due to request exceeding maximum allowed
cash withdrawal. Be advised: these chits do not require identification for
use and are considered legal tender. You have no recourse if this chit is lost.
Do you confirm?"
"I confirm."
The machine whirred and a small chit slid out of a slot near the center of
the machine. James pulled it out and jerked his head as he said, "Come on.
We won't exactly be spoiled for choice at the duty-free but we don't have
time to stop anywhere else."
"Should I withdraw my funds?" she asked.
James hesitated, then said, "Sure, but only to eighty-five percent. Go
over that and the bank requires extra paperwork."
Selena pressed her finger to the pad and went through the same
prompts, then pulled a chit of her own and turned to see James gaping at
her, a look of wide-eyed astonishment on his face.
"What?"
"A hundred twenty-two thousand?"
She blinked at him, then said, "Yes?"
"For fortune telling."
His voice was flatly skeptical and she smirked as she leaned in to
whisper, "One man in particular was very generous. He visited me regularly
to ask which days were best for him to go gambling. I was given a small ...
consideration, each time my predictions proved profitable."
James just stared at her, then said, "So ... gambling yourself is bad juju
but telling someone else when to gamble is fine?"
She shrugged and said, "I'm just telling him when luck will favor him.
Whether he goes or not is entirely up to him. Whatever gambling he does
will be completely within the natural order, and all I have done is help
another person."
James chuckled, shaking his head as he resumed his walk. "I can't help
but think you're scamming the universe."
"When you've lived as long as I have, you learn how to turn a profit
with whatever might be to hand."
"Was he a good person?" he asked absently.
"Certainly not. The woman he was in a relationship with, strangely
enough, was, and his being flush from winning saved her from beatings that
would eventually have claimed her life. When he died in a random shooting
just over a month ago, she got everything," she said, unable to help the
smug tone of her voice.
 When he glanced back with a raised eyebrow, she held up her hands and
said, "He never asked about his health or life expectancy. I tend not to
volunteer information."
"Yeah, I'm beginning to get that," he said wryly, and let it drop.
"So I admit to some curiosity. What is a 'duty-free'?" Selena asked as
she moved up next to him.
"It's a store in which you can buy things without paying the city tax," he
said.
"Why would the city tolerate such a store?"
"The short version of the long story is that the products sold won't be
used inside the city-state. They'll either be carried to another city-state and
taxed as imports at their rates, or out into the Tracts. It stimulates trade with
those outside the walls and gives people who get caught out there
something to bargain with, if they can."
"What's to prevent someone from purchasing these products and simply
re-entering the city?" Selena asked.
"They'd either pay the taxes due at that time or be tagged for fraud.
Even if they handed their goods to strangers to bring in the city can track
most of the high value stuff because all such items get scanned for
contraband anyway. It really comes down to what you buy and how long
you're gone. Presuming you do come back, you might be taxed and you
might not. There's a set of rules that govern it but don't ask me for details. I
was never stationed on the wall."
Selena considered this as James led her to another kiosk, one of a pair
that flanked a massive metal door that terminated the hall they were in.
"Where is the store?" she asked, glancing around as James inserted his
credit chit at the terminal. An advertisement playing on the rather over-
sized screen above him shifted to display a menu, answering her question
for her.
"Fortunately, they have kits you can choose from," James said as he
scrolled through the menus and selected one of what were optimistically
called 'adventure kits' before shifting into another menu. As she watched, he
selected ammunition for his handgun, a cleaning kit for it, then a sizable
tent that had a laundry list of features.
He confirmed his selections, his account was debited, and a wait timer
appeared at the top of the kiosk as he turned to her and pointed across the
hall to the kiosk there as he said, "I'd recommend you pick up a rifle and
ammunition, then browse the kits. You've got enough money to buy way
more than you can carry, but don't go nuts because we will be carrying this."
Selena nodded, copied him, and was soon browsing the menus. She
selected an assault rifle in the bullpup configuration chambered in .308,
then bought a tactical harness that she filled with extra magazines and other
equipment before selecting one of the 'adventuring' kits, as James had done.
When finished, she browsed a bit as she had the feeling whatever
money remained after they left Daytau would be of little use, and said,
"James? They have vehicles."
He stepped up next to her and blinked as she scrolled through the
selection. There weren't many, and he made the obvious observation after a
moment when he said, "None of them will fit someone your size."
"Not without help, no. But a few of these can pull trailers. Shall we?"
she said, putting together a setup that included a spare set of batteries for a
four-wheeled open-air vehicle with a roll cage and an attachment for a
trailer. She selected a two-wheeled version with low, two foot high
sidewalls and various tie-down connections.
"I can ride on that while you drive," she said, waving a hand at it as she
glanced down at him.
"If you say so. Sure you want to spend-"
"Money will be useless out there. This won't. Anything else we need?"
"Grab aerial camouflage and make sure it covers thermal. Should be on
the list because wyverns can sense heat. The tent I got does the same. We'll
need to hide the vehicle and trailer. Twenty by thirty ought to be enough.
"Done," she said after a brief search, and made her purchases. A timer
popped up on her display just as a side door opened next to the kiosk James
had used. A hover-loader floated out, his gear stacked neatly atop it.
As he packed his backpack, Selena watched him pensively, then asked,
"Are you sure this is necessary?"
"Absolutely."
"But, the NHIC officers that confronted us were a human and a bound
griffin. That bond is magic. Powerful magic. If they accept that, why not
us?"
James paused as he glanced at her, then resumed packing as he said,
"Maybe they would, but Tony and Tayra are an exception, not the rule, and
the fact they made that exception is just more proof of what I already know:
the city don't play fair. You can stay if you want, but I'm not trusting my life
and freedom to Daytau law ever again. I don't know where I'm going but I
do know this place — and everyone in it — can kiss my ass."
Selena frowned and slid to him, settling as she wrapped her arms around
his waist and said, "I suppose it would be too much to ask you to trust these
people, but at least spare them blame."
"Oh, I don't blame them," James said ruefully, and Selena was gratified
when she felt him lean into her, if only a little. It was the first time she
could recall him accepting a purely casual embrace.
"I just don't trust them and if I can't trust them, I don't want to live with
them."
"No city full of people is trustworthy," she said softly, resting her lower
jaw on his shoulder. "And at no place or time on any world has everyone
been saved. There is always a limit to the time, attention, and wealth people
can bring to bear to support the needy and ensure justice is done. Those
limits describe gaps in even the most rigorous system, and people will
always both fall through and exploit those gaps. It doesn't mean the city or
its people are fundamentally bad."
"Way to make me feel guilty about leaving. Still, I know for a fucking
fact they're going to send people after us, and those people won't be trying
to arrest us," he said sourly, glancing sidelong at her, though he didn't pull
away.
"If you are certain they will do this, then I trust your judgment. We will
leave this city, see to Floyd Grayson, then make our way to a far-off place.
The world is vast. There is room for us out there, somewhere."
James didn't answer, but he relaxed further into her embrace, sighing
softly. It occurred to Selena that he hadn't really slept in days and she
squeezed him gently as she said, "A little longer, and we will find a safe
place to rest."
"Are you reading my mind?" he asked.
"Your body," she said.
"Heh. Close enough, I suppose. How long have-"
The massive metal door that gave access to the world beyond the wall
shuddered and began to rise. Just beyond, the items she'd purchased were
already loaded on the trailer fastened to the back of the four-wheeler. A
young man was just stepping out of the driver's seat, and he waved and said,
"Good luck, you two!" as he strolled off.
 James breathed a sigh of relief and pulled away from her as he
shouldered his pack and said, "Let's get out of here."
Selena followed him and slid up into the trailer, coiling around her gear
as she picked up the box with her rifle inside and began prepping it for use.
She tensed when she saw a man in a blue police uniform approaching
them, but James wasn't alarmed and stepped over, offering his hand to
shake before accepting a datapad that he scrolled and sealed with his thumb.
A moment later the man came to her and said, "Standard waiver release for
travel in the Tracts, ma'am. If you'd read and sign?"
Selena didn't bother reading, she simply flicked the document to the
bottom and sealed it, then handed the pad back to the man who nodded
politely and walked away.
James got in the driver's seat and took a few seconds fiddling with
something that looked like a phone before slotting it into a spot obviously
tailored for it on the dash.
"What's that?" she asked absently.
"Quantum map. It identifies our location on a map based on its position
relative to an entangled static particle elsewhere. The company that makes
them can't use their half of the entangled pair to identify the far end, so even
if the city got a subpoena they couldn't use it to find us. As long as the
battery doesn't die, it'll never lose its place."
"How long does the battery last?" she asked.
"Sixty days, and it can charge off our solar cells," he said as he
accelerated smoothly over the vast open tarmac. It was an intensely lonely
feeling, with absolutely no one anywhere in sight. Stretching away and up
behind them was a vast gray wall with an even now closing door. The
tarmac itself was a square mile of concrete, pitted and weedy, with large
railgun tower emplacements at each distant corner. Above them and casting
shade over much of the space was the elevated superhighway and rail line
that left Daytau for other city-states to the east.
As they sped along, a crushingly loud horn sounded and Selena looked
up to see one of the rolling supercarriers gathering speed as it left the
station.
"I wonder what it's like to ride in one of those," she said once the blast
of sound ceased, glancing over her shoulder at James. Given their vehicle
was electric and they weren't going too fast, he could easily hear her,
though the thunder of the engine above them got louder as it drew abreast
of, then passed them, still gaining speed.
"Don't know, never been on one," he said, looking up briefly before
returning his attention to the tarmac. They were rapidly approaching the
edge. There was no fence, nor any barrier. The concrete simply gave way to
a cleared space a hundred yards wide. Beyond that, the forest. Several dirt
roads left the tarmac in various directions. James seemed to know where he
was going and picked the closest, wending over the ground around the
stumps of old trees to reach the tree line beyond.
As Daytau vanished behind them, Selena wondered if she would ever be
allowed to live in peace with others. She had spent much of her life alone,
but it wasn't by choice.
If not Daytau, then somewhere else.
She'd had enough of running. Once they found and killed Floyd
Grayson she and James would find a place to belong. Then she'd spend the
rest of her life with him.
The thought made her smile.

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A s the miles crawled by , James tried to relax in vain. He just

remembered over and over the briefing he'd had way back during his
orientation phase. The first week of wearing a badge had been nothing but
job specific briefings and appointments for gear requisition, final
qualifications, drug tests ... but one of those briefings stood out above all
the rest, and its contents boiled down to one simple command: if you see
something that looks like magic, retreat and report. Leave it to the Nick or
the military.
Daytau military forces sported the most advanced combat gear on the
planet. While they didn't do much actual war fighting, they did see use
cleaning up problems the regular police couldn't handle. While mysterious
shit usually got chalked up to non-humans James was now fairly certain
real magic was in that category too, despite the fact it wasn't acknowledged
and there were no records that explicitly credited disturbances as having
magical origins.
That was what worried him the most. There were no records, but here
he was, able to do magic, caught on camera doing magic ... and now he was
out in the Tracts. There were no witnesses out here, and if they dispatched
an aerial unit to wipe him out there'd be no records of him either.
The only reason he kept driving was because the alternative was worse.
If they caught him in the city he'd go back to Iso unless he managed to eat a
bullet first. Once in Iso, they'd keep him there until he died, which wouldn't
take very long. He'd kept himself together the first time because he knew he
was innocent, knew if it ever came before a judge he could plead his case. If
he went back now, for magic? They probably wouldn't even give him a case
number.
Shuddering, James drove on against the heavy weight of exhaustion
pressing at his eyelids. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept.
Couldn't remember the last decent meal he'd eaten. All he knew was that he
had to put as much distance as he could possibly manage between himself
and the city, find a place where he could hide the vehicle and cover up in
case they dispatched aerial support craft to find them. The farther out they
got the more danger they were in from local wildlife, but the same would be
true of any aircraft, and they'd be much bigger targets than he was.
Wyverns were known to attack aircraft in the Tracts, and they didn't
always lose.
The sun was down when the engine battery died and James coasted to a
stop, so tired he didn't even realize why they'd quit moving until the
infodash flickered and dimmed a few seconds after the engine cut out.
"Dead battery," he mumbled, groaning absently as he got out to swap
the cables to the backup.
"Let's just cover the vehicle. If we go any farther tonight you're as likely
as not to run into a tree," Selena said, slithering out of the bed of the trailer
with the sizable package of camo already in hand.
"I can't argue there," he grumbled, and helped her spread the
camouflage tarp over their ride.
Once he'd staked down the corners he stepped away to complete his
business then slipped underneath the tarp and crawled into the driver's seat,
too tired to even look at setting up a tent, no matter how 'hands-free' its
advertisement claimed it was.
A moment later, Selena joined him in the all-but complete darkness. The
only light was shed by the dash, which had entered low power mode but
was still enough to show him his immediate surroundings.
He could feel her presence looming behind him as she said, "Surely that
can't be comfortable."
"Too tired to do anything else," he said, sighing and already half-asleep.
"Join me. It will be better, that I can promise."
"Join you where? The bed of the trailer? How's that any better? At least
the bucket seat is woah, woah, hey! What gives?!"
James' eyes went wide in the black as Selena reached under his armpits
and hoisted him bodily out of his seat, carrying him with her to the trailer as
she said with more than a little bite in her tone, "I know it's been a while
since you were in any kind of real relationship, but you're in one now. Try
and remember that I actually want your company. Please?"
"Why should I bother when you're obviously not shy about letting me
know yourself," he said, still a bit confused as she folded her arms around
his back and kept him elevated as she moved underneath him. When she
finally eased her hold, he was entirely supported against her coiled body.
"Take your clothes off," she said primly. "I'll be comfortable enough as
long as I don't have your tools and boots prodding me in twenty different
places."
"What if-"
"Hush! No 'what if.' They'll find us or they won't. At this point we're
largely helpless anyway. You're exhausted and I'm hardly any better off.
We've done what we could, now get your clothes off."
Had he not been so tired, he'd have argued. But he was, so he didn't. He
just pulled blindly at his laces, then tugged his boots off, followed by the
rest of his clothing. The temperature under the tarp was already warm, it
was July. He expected to be overheated pretty much immediately, but
Selena's body wasn't anywhere near as hot as he expected it to be.
As he got down to his undershirt he asked, "Are you cold-blooded?"
"Not as you understand it, no. Don't stop, all the way down to your
skin," she said, tugging at the fabric of his shirt.
"Why does it matter?" he asked, irritated as he pulled the shirt free, then
asked, "Underwear too?"
"Yes, and it matters because skin is more comfortable against my scales
than that synthetic cotton fiber garbage you insist on. To your question, I'm
more susceptible to temperature extremes than humans are but not so much
as a true reptile. I generate heat just like you do, but I have so much surface
area that in direct sun I can overheat and in cold temperatures my body heat
radiates away faster than I can keep up. The cold is worse."
She smoothed her hand down his chest in the dark, though she shifted to
his thigh when she got past his abdomen. She softly said, "You're so thin. I
look forward to seeing you regain your true form and strength."
James already had his eyes closed and curled over, slipping comfortably
between two of her coils. It wasn't flesh, not exactly, but it felt smooth and
softer than he expected. It wasn't the first time he'd touched her, but it was
the first time he'd rested on her. Usually, there'd been a sheet between them
when she slithered over him.
Her words only dimly registered, and he said, "I ... actually that's a good
point. Why am I not weak right now? Is that magic too?"
"Yes and no. In successfully divesting yourself of your physical form,
you performed what my old teacher used to call an ascension. There are
many subtle effects, but one of them is that your muscles work much more
efficiently and degrade more slowly over time than they used to. Your
health will be better overall. Only the most virulent diseases will have any
..."
James woke up.
It was dark, and he didn't have anything nearby to tell him the time.
Selena was asleep around him. At some point after he passed out she'd
wrapped and shifted him more deeply into her coils.
She was both the big and little spoon.
He also gradually realized that his head was tucked into her chest,
which made for an extravagant pillow. Her warmth and weight surrounded
and cushioned him in a way that was unique in his experience, and far more
comfortable than he'd have imagined.
When was the last time I slept with someone else?
He knew the answer but couldn't picture it in his mind. The memory had
faded so much that it wasn't more than a data point now, just random trivia.
Lifting a hand, he brushed it across her scales. They were pliant and warm.
If he'd been this close to a human woman ... or pair of women —
considering she was both in front of and behind him — everyone would be
overheated and covered in sweat, but Selena's embrace was ... only barely
warm. Her scales wicked his heat away, but weren't cold.
Wow, this is ... actually really nice, he thought, shifting slightly to pull
his foot into a more comfortable position.
"Are you all right?" Selena softly asked, voice coming from above and a
bit in front of him.
"Yeah ... don't take this the wrong way but, you're insanely
comfortable," he said, speaking quietly.
She hissed, but it was a soft sound he recognized as her version of a
pleased hum, and she said, "Go back to sleep, my James. It is hours yet
before dawn."
Closing his eyes, he relaxed. It was so easy to do. Her tits were so ...
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S elena watched James drift back to sleep, pleased beyond her ability to
express by the way his hand rested atop her body.
She'd awoken to feel him stroking her, and it was wonderful to hold him
this way. His body was warm and soft, his skin luxurious against her scales.
It took a bit of mental effort to reclaim sleep, but she did it, knowing she
would wake when he did.
It didn't matter that they might be pursued. In the moment, she had what
she most wanted and was content. Let tomorrow bring its problems. She
wouldn't be alone to face them.
Her next moment of consciousness brought both knowledge of the dawn
and the feeling of James squirming as he woke. He was prodding her in
several places, one of which immediately captured her interest and filled
her with wicked intent.
She smiled and twisted her head down to look at him as she asked,
"Sleep well?"
His expression was bemused, almost embarrassed as he said, "I actually
can't remember ever sleeping so well. You're ... um ..."
"Say it," she said, curling her head down to flick her tongue across his
throat, tasting the delicious salt of his sweat.
"Comfortable. Really, really comfortable."
"And just imagine: you could have been sleeping with me for months by
now," she said, laughing softly as she unwrapped him. He twisted to right
himself, already reaching for his garments.
"Rub it in why don't you," he said, voice full of good humor.
 Reaching out to catch his hands, she turned him and leaned in, tongue
gliding deliberately over his throat as she said, "As you wish."
He shivered violently and Selena smiled, eyes on his as she laid him
back against her coils, one hand capturing his wrists as her other drifted
down his chest. This time when she reached his groin she didn't move aside,
tilting her hand to keep her claw from him as she ran fingers up his morning
hardness.
"I didn't, mean-oooh," he trailed off as she deliberately wrapped and
squeezed him.
"I know," she said, snout drifting down his chest as she let his hands go.
It was a test he passed, for they came to rest on top of her head, fingertips
tracing the rougher scales over her brow as she descended his body, tongue
tasting him all the way down. When she reached his erect shaft she pursed
her lips, eyes flicking up to his as she tilted her head, then easily took him
to the root.
He groaned and his body arched as her tongue wrapped him, gently
twisting as it tugged. She slipped back from him, showing him with slow
deliberation just how many coils she had wrapped around his cock.
She opened her jaws but was careful not to gape at him. She didn't want
her fangs dropping into place and ruining the moment. His eyes were intent
on her. He was intensely focused, and he wasn't pulling away.
Selena deliberately started tugging on his cock using nothing but her
tongue as she said, "This isn't a favor ... I enjoy it."
"Good to kno-oh ... wow you are ... really good at that," he said, gritting
his teeth as he arched into her play.
She trailed her hands up his body and lazily writhed beneath him so she
could present the tip of her tail. She laid it on his chest, still tugging and
stroking as she said, "Feel free, but be mindful. I'm sensitive there."
"I wondered if it was my imagination or just the pain you were in when
I washed you earlier," he said, boldly taking her tail in both hands, one to
anchor it as the other wrapped and stroked it, gently at first, then with a bit
more pressure as the pleasure of his touch sent a shiver through her whole
body.
"How can you ... talk like that?" he asked, struggling to get the words
out as she closed her mouth around his shaft again, hiding it from view as
she bathed him with lingual attention.
 "I speak from my throat," she said. "Your human scientists call it a
syrinx. My lips are more flexible than those of a snake but my tongue is too
narrow to sculpt sound and I have no cheeks to form breath. I can't make
words the way you do. I'm also not pleasuring you enough if you can spare
thought for errata ... let's see what we can do about that."
Sealing her snout around his rigid length, she loosened the coils of her
tongue around him and began tickling the head of his cock with her fork as
she suckled strongly.
She had to suppress a gasp of pleasure as his hands squeezed her tail,
but it was worth it as his head lolled. He groaned, body shuddering, and she
felt the strong pulse of his heartbeat through his cock as his fist began
mindlessly stroking the last few inches of her tail.
"Ooooh, that's good. Keep doing that, James ... it feels sssooo good,"
she hissed.
"I'm gonna cum if you keep that up, SeLL-"
"Do it! Give me your flavor," she hissed, shivering as blissful sensations
radiated from her tail through the long length of her body, seeming to
amplify as they traveled the length of her until her jaws ached with the
effort of keeping them closed. She wanted to gape, to relieve the tension of
the pleasure rippling through her body, but her eyes remained on him. She
wanted to finish him, and intended to get what she wanted even if her own
pleasures must come second.
It was fortunately a short wait as the first burst of his orgasm splashed
into her maw, followed quickly by more as he groaned, arching back over
one of her coils. His hands kept moving, faster and faster. She realized it
must be instinctive, some part of him was associating what he was doing to
her with self-pleasure. Despite being locked in the throes of orgasm his
hands just didn't ... stop!
Her body spasmed and she released him, unable to help herself as she
hissed and gaped, arching up until her head bowed up the tarp strung above
them.
Bliss shivers followed as she languidly closed her jaws and looked
down at him. Some part of her mind worried at what he'd just seen, but she
found to her pleasant surprise that he was looking at her with awe in his
eyes, not fear.
"I guess that really hits you where you live," he said as she settled
bonelessly back into her coils, supporting herself with one elbow on the
topmost as she eyed him.
"It's ... orgasmic, but not an orgasm," she said, speaking slowly as she
tried for a description he'd understand. "It is a pleasure so great that my
brain perceives it as erotic even though it serves no sexual purpose. Does
that make sense?"
"Sure, but that leaves me with another question," he said, wincing as he
shifted to reach for his clothes.
"Ask," she said, watching as he pulled on his socks, then his boots.
"Can you actually have a genuinely sexual orgasm?" he asked, sliding
over her outermost coil to set his feet down.
"If you're attentive about it, certainly. Where are you going in just your
boots?"
"Morning business."
"Ah."
"Details?"
"No no, some mysteries are best left unsolved."
He clicked his teeth, pointing at her as he winked cheekily before
disappearing out into the morning sunlight.
Selena's expression was wry as she looked after him, then she rolled and
closed her eyes as she laid back, still shivering now and then with the
remnants of their morning play.
"How long has it been since anyone did that for me?" she asked idly,
trying to remember.
The answer — when it finally came to her — was depressing. She let it
go and slid out from under the tarp, her heat sense picking up lingering
traces of him that allowed her to choose a different direction for conducting
her own business.
She returned to find him dressed and working to stow the tarp. She
helped him, and when it was done he glanced up at the sky and said, "We'll
swap to the secondary battery and get to a clearing where we can set up the
solar cells and charge. Going electric means we don't really have to worry
about fuel, but it also means we won't get very far each day."
She nodded, then looked askance as she caught him staring.
"Something catch your eye?" she asked, smiling faintly as she picked up
his blush with her heat sense.
"Can't you put a shirt on or something?"
 "I could, yes," she said, then smiled wickedly at him and folded her
arms underneath her chest, shelving it for his inspection.
"Does it feel good to-"
"Yes, they're sensitive. Feel free to see just how much for yourself. I am
very fond of being touched. I adore close contact."
He flushed and shook his head. "Pass, but only because we need to find
a spot where we can get power. Not sure how we're going to do that and
hide from any aerial patrols that get sent after us, but there's no help for it."
"Now that we are out of their jurisdiction, are you so certain they'll
continue to pursue us?" she asked. "Were I law enforcement in Daytau, I
would simply post notices and wait. If we return they'll catch us then, if we
don't it's not their problem anymore."
"I just don't want to risk it," he said, then added, "And please put
something on. If you leave your tits on display like that my train of
thought's gonna jump its tracks every time I look your way."
"This pleases me," she said, though she relented and pulled a bandeau
she'd purchased along with her gear out of her pack. It was a brilliant red
that contrasted well with her scales and she wove it artfully around herself
as he watched, obviously enjoying the show. Once it was in place, she
covered her hips with a red silk sarong. She generally preferred long
blouses secured with belts to hide her sex, but such clothing hadn't been
available for purchase at the duty-free. She'd also been unable to purchase
pasties. The one she'd worn at the time of the building fire had long since
lost its adhesive quality and been discarded, leaving her unguarded.
"What do you think?" she asked, twisting one way, then the other.
"I always liked red and green, but you're going to be visible for miles,"
he said, smile fading as thoughts of their situation intruded.
"Do not be so concerned," she said.
When he pursed his lips, giving her 'the look,' she said, "I will perform a
reading to guide us. We will never know peace as long as Floyd Grayson
lives. Even if we could escape his reach, knowing he exists will trouble me.
Evil as profound as his must be purged. While I am not so concerned as you
about pursuit from the city, we do have a purpose to serve before we can
truly leave the area."
His expression sobered and he nodded, then said, "I've never seen you
do a reading. What's it entail?"
 She frowned as she thought about how to answer, then said, "Not much
from your perspective. There are innumerable ways to accomplish a
reading, but the method is often determined by what kind of information is
being sought. In this case, I will look for the answer to a simple question by
observing you."
"Why me?" he asked.
"Because one of the immutable laws of fortune telling is that one's own
fortune cannot be read. What I need to know is what direction you would
travel to gain the greatest favor."
"That's ... really vague," he said, frowning at her.
She shrugged and said, "It's difficult to explain, but vague questions are
much easier to answer. If I were to ask the much more specific question of
what direction we should go to defeat Floyd Grayson, that answer would be
available, but much harder to see. Since I'm personally convinced the vague
question and the specific question will yield the same answer, why would I
work harder than I have to?"
"Why would 'greatest favor' lead us ... oh. Because you think ignoring
Grayson will eventually cost us."
She nodded gravely and said, "I do. And that's not magical intuition or
anything so nebulous. I have a great deal of life experience to draw upon. I
know men like him generally and my former patron much more
specifically. Our greatest, and perhaps only, chance at happiness is to
remove Grayson from this world."
"But not your 'former patron'? And why don't you just say his name?
What is his name anyway?"
"What happens when you hear someone call your name?" she asked.
"I'd look to see who it is and what they want," he said, shrugging.
"Now imagine you could hear it when someone called your name no
matter where they are in the world, and with a bit of focus you could listen
to that conversation."
"He can do that?" James asked, obviously boggled by the thought.
Selena nodded and said, "I will not tell you his name and I never speak
it for that reason. In this, you must simply trust me as my apprentice. While
you've made remarkable progress so far it'll take decades to make a
journeyman of you. My former patron's power is virtually unrivaled on this
world, both physically and magically. To draw his personal attention would
most certainly doom our effort to failure."
 He thought about that, then drawled, "So ... his will is stronger than
yours because he's insane, is that it?"
"Even when he was rational he could easily best me in any magical
contest," she said softly. "His power is not limitless, but what limits he has
are closer to those of the gods than to mortals."
"So if he and Grayson are in the same place, what then?" James asked.
"They won't be. My former patron detests humans. He would never
remain in the presence of one voluntarily."
She smiled wryly and added, "If I'm wrong, my reading will send us
away from them both."
"Because it's vaguely worded."
"Just so. To gain a favorable reading one must concentrate on one's
ultimate, rather than proximate, desire. Not Grayson's death, but your ... and
my, happiness. I am simply confident one will lead to the other. Certainty
may be necessary for magic, but it can also blind one to other options. It is
usually beneficial to remain open to alternative solutions."
"This shit's way too complicated for me. So your reading will tell us
what direction we need to go to make our eventual 'happy end' most likely.
That about sum it up?"
She nodded, smirking playfully at him.
"So when do you start?"
"Start? I'm done. Our conversation was my reading."
"Ookay. So what direction do we go?" he asked.
Pointing, she said, "That way. South by southeast. There will be running
water in sight of distant mountains. The direction of your fate, and mine,
will be decided there."
He looked, then sighed and said, "So that's where Grayson probably is."
She showed her hands, then asked, "So, now is the time to decide. Are
you willing to see this through with me? Do you trust my reading, or will
you choose another path?"
"If I did, what would you do?"
She slid up to him and laid her forearms over his shoulders, gazing
fondly down at him as she said, "James, I love you. I will go where you go
and suffer whatever fate awaits you there; that is my decision. What is
yours?"
She watched him wrestle with himself. It was obvious he still doubted
the wisdom of seeking out the man who had made himself their enemy. It
was a vast world, surely they could lose themselves in it, escape to safety
somewhere far away.
All these thoughts were written on his face, but when he spoke all he
said was, "South by southeast it is."

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 29

J ames sat .
There was nothing else to do. Selena was away from their make-shift
camp. The batteries were charging, their solar cells properly oriented, and it
would be hours before they fully charged.
While he'd known travel would be slow, experiencing that pace was
something else. They'd gone almost 50 miles in two days, discharging both
batteries, and rested now on a small, rounded ridge of dirt and gravel that
had been a rail line at some point in the distant past.
The metal and wood that once made up the track was long gone,
replaced by scrub and young trees. That last had been annoying and falls of
timber from the surrounding, much older forest slowed their progress.
They'd often had to stop for hours at a time while Selena and James both
worked to clear their path of fallen debris.
Some problems simply didn't have magical solutions, though Selena
proved several orders of magnitude stronger than any human as she helped
him lift and carry. At times, she was able to coil around and simply break
the logs in their way, saving the trouble of having to weaken them with
hatchets that proved surprisingly adequate given their small size.
As he waited, James looked out over a comparatively open space in the
forest. It had once been a city, though now its designation on the map said
only, 'Ruin U2885.'
The city was one of countless such abandoned during the Cataclysm.
Two hundred years of neglect had brought most of the buildings down,
though the general layout of the city was visible in places here and there.
Some buildings and structures still stood, though completely overgrown,
covered in moss and rust.
Beyond the bulk of the ruins from James' perspective was the bend of a
river. The city had obviously been built here because of the water.
James wondered idly what the city's original name had been. He didn't
have any clue what 'U2885' meant. It was a sobering thought. He'd lived his
whole life in Daytau and rarely thought about the Tracts as other than some
alien landscape he was thankful he never had to travel through. Neither
geography nor history were part of general education in Daytau. Most
citizens would be hard-pressed to provide the names of more than a few
surrounding city-states.
Maps of any kind weren't common, even maps of Daytau. The city
computer controlled navigation systems and directed traffic. No one
actually needed to know how to get around because every vehicle was fitted
with those systems and could drive itself.
He didn't know if the river he was looking at had a name, much less
what that name might be.
His eyes settled on the smoke drifting up from a huddled mass of ruins
near the bank of the river. Someone was there, but whether it was a camp or
a permanent settlement he had no idea. Were the residents human? What
did they call the river?
A soft sound sharpened James' attention and he dropped a hand to his
pistol as he turned, then relaxed.
Selena climbed the embankment as easily as she might walk down a
level street, and he said, "Kinda envy that you've always got perfect
balance."
"You wouldn't say that if you had to scrape Oolytau street shit off
fifteen feet of belly scales every day," she replied as she slid up to and past
him, then around, circling his body twice before settling with her upright
portion next to him.
He looked around at her body, now coiled around him to the waist, then
leaned back. Her coils supported his weight easily and he wound up in a
lean with her body keeping him mostly upright. Her look was wry as she
said, "I'm not a chair."
"If you wrap me up like this I'm going to take full advantage," James
said, then deliberately leaned as far back as he could.
 Selena tilted her head, watching him as she kept his legs in place
without any apparent effort. He was able to touch the ground behind him,
then straighten again, twisting his lower back through a full range of motion
as he said, "It still amazes me every once in a while that my spine works.
Most of my life I took that for granted."
"As you should have done," Selena said with a quiet smile. "It is
unseemly to be overly impressed with the minimum. Shallow satisfaction
may offer contentment, but steals away ambition."
"Yeah, maybe. Thanks ... for helping me get it back."
"You're welcome to express appreciation any time you like," she said. "I
accept gifts of all kinds but at the moment I'd enjoy your touch more than
anything else."
James grinned and wrapped an arm around what would be the waist of a
normal woman. She settled against him as she looked out over the ruin.
That he could see her brilliantly green-scaled snout in his periphery was
surreal, but he buried his discomfort. She might not be human, but she had
done more for him than any member of his own species ever had. To deny
her affection because she didn't look like him seemed not only ungrateful,
but silly.
"Who do you think that is?" James asked, waving his free hand toward
the distant, drifting column of smoke.
"You're asking me to tell you what you already know. Our trouble with
Floyd Grayson ends in those ruins."
"Well, if your 'former patron' picked him up, there's a good chance he's
got mercs down there with him."
"It does seem likely."
She leaned down to put herself in his eye line as she asked, "Will it
bother you if we simply kill him at a distance and leave? I prefer to keep
things like this simple."
"You think we can?"
"My rifle should have the range, and you already know I'm a very good
shot. I simply need to be able to see him."
James glanced around, then said, "Well, there's plenty of hills around for
vantage, but we'll have to get a lot closer to figure out where he is ... unless
your fortune telling can solve that?"
Shaking her head slowly, she said, "Fortune telling is akin to your
human meteorologist's ability to predict the weather. Significantly better
than nothing, but very rarely as specific as we would like. It led us here, but
success now depends on our good judgment."
James nodded, then glanced behind them at the sun beginning to set in
the west as he said, "Well, let's give the cells the rest of today to recharge,
and we'll go in on foot after dark."
"We should go down to the outskirts now," Selena said, nodding toward
the distant town. "Once the sun is down we'll have to use running lights and
they can be seen from miles away."
"Hadn't thought of that," James said, frowning.
"You've lived your whole life in the city. Out here, light after dark is
wholly unnatural and very obvious."
"Says the woman dressed in bright red."
She gave him a wry look, then said, "You know that's not the same."
"Do I? I'm just a city boy."
"Sarcasm is unbecoming. How long until the battery has enough of a
charge to get us down there?"
"An hour or so, but the more time we can give it the better."
"Presuming we aren't stopped by another major deadfall, it's only a few
miles to the the edge of those ruins. We'll leave the vehicle behind there. We
don't want to risk having it discovered and captured behind us."
"Should we wait an extra day so we can fully charge the batteries and
backups?" he asked.
Selena wavered, the entire upright portion of her body drifting one way,
then another as she thought, then said, "While I prefer not to delay, perhaps
that is the wiser course. I would imagine Grayson has been based here some
time. The likelihood that he leaves just when we arrive is slim. Ensuring the
batteries are charged gives us the greatest chance of escape once the deed is
done. Nevertheless, we shouldn't stay here. If we can see them, they can see
us."
"Well, if we're only going a mile or two the battery has enough for that.
You need to let me go if you want to get moving."
She tilted her head, eyeing him up and down as she musingly hissed,
"Perhaps we should stay here a little longer. I'm never inclined to let prey
escape."
As he tried to think of a reply she wrapped another coil around him, her
upper body weaving to and fro with a curiously hypnotic motion, her eyes
fixed on a part of him that James wasn't accustomed to acknowledging
publicly.
"My eyes are up here," he said.
"I'm aware. I also know where your cock is, and which of the two is of
greater interest to me at the moment," she said, arching away from him
before doubling over her own length to place her head at crotch level as she
reached for and unbuckled his belt.
"Are we really doing this now?" he asked, though he made no effort to
stop her because he couldn't think of any real reason he should. He was
surprised that she apparently wasn't just teasing him.
"You aren't exactly struggling," she noted as she loosened his pants
before pulling all and sundry down with a quick tug before pausing a
moment to gaze upon her prize.
"I can't reach your tail tip from here," he said, watching that very
dangerous tongue of hers flicker out, brushing the length of him in an idle
but persistent tease that had him squirming after no more than a few
seconds.
"I don't require reciprocity in my play, James. Sometimes I'll just want
to make you cum because doing so pleases me."
"Turnabout's fair play," he warned, then grunted as she leaned close,
touched the burgeoning head of his shaft with her snout in a curiously
delicate kiss, then took it in as her eyes lifted to his, smoldering with
mischievous lust. She stroked him to a full erection with just the brush of
her lips, revealing more and more of his length each time she moved until
he stood at rigid attention.
Their eyes met again, and watching her wicked smile broaden as her
tongue slipped out the tip of her snout to slowly wrap his shaft from the
head down was a mind-bending rush. With it fully engaged, her voice came
to him unimpeded as she said, "Duly noted. Take this as my open invitation
to play."
She spent the next ten minutes giving him the most dynamic head he'd
ever even seen, much less experienced for himself. He was absolutely sure
she could have gotten him off with just her tongue, but she didn't. She
stroked him with closed lips, suckled his length, stroked the head against
her palate, and brought him to the edge of orgasm several times before
finally finishing him off by wrapping his cock from root to head and jerking
it with her tongue all the while applying suction.
 All he could see was her snout touching the base of his groin, almost
entirely still as the action inside her mouth went from bliss to more than he
could take. Her hood spread as he got close, showing its vibrant emerald
patterns as her eyes slid shut in obvious anticipation. She didn't say
anything. She didn't have to. It was impossible to deny her what she
wanted.
He shuddered and leaned over her, hands finding the topmost of her
coils around his thighs for support as he came hard, teeth gritted as she
locked his body up with pleasure.
Selena didn't let him go until long after the last pulse of his orgasm had
faded, gently milking his shaft without touching the head at all, obviously
conscious of and avoiding his hypersensitivity. Only when he was
completely drained, and clean, did she withdraw.
Their eyes met, and the satisfaction in her expression was so pure, so
smug, and so justified that all he could say was, "You ... are amazing."
One corner of her lips lifted, and she languidly winked at him as she
said, "We should get down to the ruins. I've had my fun ... for now."

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 30

J ames crouched behind the last in a line of trucks, pistol in hand, and
looked at the camp spread out in front of him.
Several of the ruined buildings in this area had been cleared of rubble
and tarps spread over the hollow remains to provide cover from the
elements.
He could only see two people, and of those only one was human. The
other was a troll, and it had taken him an embarrassingly long time to pick
him out in the dim light. Asleep, the creature looked like an extension of the
pile of rubble he was using for a bed, his craggy features and body fit in
almost perfectly with his surroundings.
The human was walking a circuit, but clearly wasn't invested in the job.
He had the look of someone who'd been doing the same thing for weeks,
maybe months, and never saw anything special.
James waited for him to turn his back, then stood from his crouch and
walked away from the camp into a narrow valley between piles of rubble so
covered with dirt that they looked more like natural hills than jumbles of
concrete and rusted steel.
On the far side of the camp was a single-story building that looked like
new construction. Rising from that building was a guyed tower supporting a
microwave transmitter. It was aimed south southwest, toward the distant
mountain range. If Grayson was here, then he was probably in that building.
James had to confirm that, but he wasn't about to cross the camp and
risk discovery to do it. He wasn't military, had no special training, he didn't
know how to sneak. He just knew he'd be less likely to get caught if he
circled wide and came in from behind the building. He was also aware that
that patience would serve him better than speed.
It took him almost half an hour to navigate the ruins without going to
the top of any of the mounds around him. Most of the buildings were pure
rubble, but here and there walls still stood. Without being able to see the lay
of the area, every turn he made was a calculated risk. By the time he began
moving back toward the camp he could only hope he'd come far enough
around to arrive near the communication building.
Who is that microwave even aimed at? he silently wondered. It wasn't
pointed back toward Daytau, and even if it had been it was too far away to
reach. There must be a base camp higher up in the mountains to the south.
Somewhere with a clear line of sight to the ruins.
I wonder if we aren't far enough south. This might not be the right
place.
James could only hope he was wrong. If this was just an outpost and
Grayson was at an even larger base farther south ...
He stopped at the edge of a mound and looked slowly around it. The
regular lines of the building ahead of him caused him to let out a quiet
breath. He was in the right place. Now he just had to make sure there
weren't any cameras or motion sensors installed that would give him away
before he got close. That was one advantage of having spent years as a
police officer. He knew what security looked like, where and why it was
installed, what it could do and what it couldn't.
As he examined the building ahead of him, he made out the subtle dome
of a submerged turret installation on the corner of the roof. Below it was a
small nodule in the concrete of the building. That's where the camera would
be, along with a motion sensor.
The fact that it hadn't detected him and deployed the turret yet meant its
sensitivity was turned down, probably because of all the wildlife traffic
through the area. It would be a waste of ammunition to gun down every
rabbit, rodent, and deer that wandered by, not to mention all the false alarms
it would generate if every movement were considered significant. Small
movements wouldn't trigger the sensor, but there was no way he could get
any closer than he was from this angle.
He had to find another way.
The fact that the lone sentry he'd seen was walking around in front of
the building meant, unfortunately, that was probably the easiest way to get
in or close undetected.
Someone with special training might manage to do that.
James would have no shot at all. There was also the fact that the sun
was starting to rise. Soon he'd be out of time and would have to retreat as
the camp woke up.
But maybe there was a way to get the information he needed without
getting any closer to the building. He couldn't just wait where he was; once
the camp woke up, he was almost certain to be discovered. The fact that
there was a troll meant there were probably other non-humans too. They
might be able to smell him or detect his heat. If the camp was a decent size
smelling a human by itself wouldn't alert them, but if they had reason to
track him ...
The best way he could think of to get what he wanted was dangerous,
but so was waiting around. The longer they stayed near the camp the more
they risked being discovered before they could get their shot.
James slid back from the edge of the hill and backtracked until he found
an suitable sapling. He chopped it down easily with his hatchet and stripped
unnecessary branches, then moved back toward the installation as he bent
the remaining limbs and slid them into the sleeves of the J-mask coat he'd
stolen from Kravitz. It was to be his last ditch effort if discovered to turn the
coat on and try a bluff.
But in a pinch it would also work very well to trigger a response from a
security installation without risking his own body to do it. The camera and
sensor combo would instantly recognize the holographic tech in the jacket
as a valid target. The motion sensor would trip, the sentry would activate
and, most crucially, the alarm would sound.
"Ding dong mother fuckers, who's home?" he muttered as he turned the
coat's functions on, closed the collar, and waved it once out around the
mound of rubble he was hiding behind before jerking it back out of sight.
There was a high-pitched whine of servos before searing tracers of
brilliant light half-blinded James as a tonal alarm spooled up and squalled
its alert. Concrete spall stung him in the back and arms as the stream of
gunfire tore into the area all around. He hugged his make-shift dummy
close and ran as fast as he could for another crumbling ruin some thirty
yards away, dodging trees and shrubs as he went. He didn't stop to look
back until he was under cover. Only then did he throw the branch away and
slip the coat back on.
 That done, he crept to the edge of the low, crumbling wall and peeked
around to see what kind of response he'd get.
The ear-piercing alarm cut out after almost a full minute, but it took five
before he saw anyone.
When he did see who'd come to check on the alarm, James swore
bitterly and turned, making his way deeper into the ruins as he frantically
tried to think of a way out of the mess he'd just gotten himself into.
If it had been a human, or an orc, or a goblin, or even that troll, he'd
have stayed to watch. Unfortunately, what came to investigate the alarm
was none of those things.
Oh well. At least I don't have to wonder if he'll be able to follow me.
He'd wanted to isolate someone he could question but a lycanthrope was
just about the worst match-up he could possibly face. He had no silver
bullets, no way to even hope to subdue a werewolf. He also had no way to
ditch the man once pursuit began.
It took all his courage not to run. The sound would give him away. He
only had one hope, and she was waiting over a mile away on the far side of
a camp he would have to avoid to reach her.
That was a long way to go with a werewolf on the trail.

"W ell ?"

Bango glanced around, sniffed, sneezed at all the concrete dust in the
air, then growled, "Can't smell anything over the dust. No body, no blood.
What did the camera show?"
"I'm looking at it but I only got a few frames and it's blurred. Some kind
of light projector."
"Are you kidding me?" Bango asked, getting angrier by the word.
"What kinda chucklenut shitstain pranks a fucking sentry turret and sets off
the fucking alarm at four fucking thirty in the fucking morning!?"
The speaker on the radio changed and Bango stood up straight out of
pure reflex as the deep authority in that voice froze him in place.
"Whoever it is, I don't need him. Find him, kill him, bring me his head.
If you don't find a culprit I don't need you either. You read me, son?"
"Yessir!"
 "Grayson out."
Bango growled low in his throat and flexed his hands absently as he
began circling, looking to pick up a scent trace.
Three minutes later he had a trail and grinned savagely as he started
tracking his prey.

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 31

S elena lay along the gritty remains of what had once been a building wall.
It was no more than eight feet off the ground and the rubble all around
suggested the structure had been three, perhaps four stories taller.
Before her lay a long, slightly curving path that must once have been a
paved street. Now, trees grew tall through the cracked concrete and tufts of
grass. Shrubs had all but obliterated the thoroughfare. To either side lay the
ruined remains of other buildings.
All about her lay the twisted wreckage of her once great ambition. She
knew of ruins like this all over the world, and their memory brought with it
the soul-crushing weight of responsibility.
As she had done many times, she cast it off. Some burdens simply could
not be borne, and she was hardly the only one on whom the blame might
fall.
She had her weapon cradled in her arms, but wasn't sighting. Just then
the path before her was empty, but she stared down it with an intensity born
of longing. In another hour the sun would be up, but at that moment only
the dull gray light before dawn lit the scene. As far away as James was she
couldn't see him, couldn't sense his heat, but she knew he was there.
Somewhere in the gloom ahead was the camp they'd spotted from the
old rail line, and James had gone to scout it instead of her.
They'd argued, but he'd gotten his way by pointing out that he was no
good with a rifle and couldn't cover her if something went wrong. So she
lay in quiet wait, watching intently even though she could neither see nor
sense movement ahead of her.
 He'd been gone most of an hour now.
Selena's will was bent on him not because she was attempting to cast a
spell, but because she had found in him a friend, an ally, and a lover. If he
died she would follow him, but was resolved that she wouldn't make that
trip alone.
It had been over a century since she'd personally entered a battlefield,
but she was prepared to do so again now. Ideally, she would take a single
shot and flee, killing only one man. But before she could take that shot she
had to know where her target was.
They'd seen vehicles, but not of a military type. They'd also caught
glimpses of humans, orcs, goblins, even a pair of trolls. There was no way
for her to know the true extent of the encampment until James returned, but
that it was the seed of a growing mercenary force now seemed certain to
her.
Why must you beat your head against this mountain? Why can't you just
let go?
The questions faded as soon as they occurred. She had asked those
questions for decades of a once great being, trying again and again until her
former patron ceased to be a person in her thoughts. She was finished
asking. She wasn't even curious anymore. He was now a simple force of
evil in a world that needed none of what he had to offer. Some day someone
would gather the power necessary to destroy him, but that would not be
today, and she would not be that person. She no longer had the hubris to
think she could change the world.
Now she had only one change in mind, a small but not insignificant
death in the great scheme of things. Once done, she could vanish.
How many times has it been 'just one more'?
Tears started in her eyes and she blinked them away, refocusing on the
street. There was a reason she no longer sought the front lines, and it wasn't
because she couldn't fight.
It was because she'd already fought too much. Even a monster like her
had limits no magic could stretch. There was only so much one person
could do.
That was the problem with long life. The weight of responsibility could
only grow. No rightly formed conscience could ever be free of it.
Eventually, that weight crushed even the strongest will.
 Her former patron was proof of that. In the beginning he'd advocated for
a short, brutal war, to be complete inside a month. While there was dissent,
the council ultimately agreed to the plan and named him grand imperator
for the coming campaign. Crush a few human nations so thoroughly that the
rest would bow down in fear, convinced the Council of Fire was invincible.
With superior magic and the vast numbers in those first armies it would be
easy, and casualties would ultimately be fewer on both sides. It would also
make the non-human forces immediately dominant in the new world and
prevent long-standing conflicts from reigniting.
It had sounded so good.
Their victories in those early days had ultimately cost them the war.
The council hadn't understood the power and speed of what was then a
global web of information sharing. While those first victories were total,
records of what the invaders had done spread too quickly, too completely.
Reports and video footage of the carnage and devastation unleashed on
humanity were instantly transmitted from one side of the planet to the other,
laying the council's atrocities bare in vivid detail for the whole human
world to see.
Within a week all the remaining nations on earth set aside their
differences and resolved to fight to the death.
Instead of admitting failure and adapting, the imperator had grown ever
more ruthless, more genocidal, until even over a hundred years after the
fighting stopped and generations of humans had lived and died without war,
their descendants killed themselves, destroyed their own city, rather than
surrender. The weight of responsibility for destroying any chance of
achieving his dream ultimately shattered the grand imperator's mind. He
was now little more than a machine bent on vindication that was forever out
of reach.
Yet here she was, having seen for herself how refusing to turn aside
could lead to ruin, refusing to turn aside when given the chance. It was a
bitter irony. She knew the evil in Floyd Grayson would consume them if
they didn't take just one more life. Just one more.
The world would be a better place.
It sounded so good ...
She knew it was true, but she also knew it didn't matter. There must
come a time when responsibility passed to the next generation, but that time
had yet to come for her. Floyd Grayson was like a shadow of her past
misdeeds come to life. He was an incarnation of the misfortune she had
helped wreak on this world.
The truth was she had lived too long. Floyd Grayson was her death
made flesh. Had she not found James at the cusp of her destruction, she
might have accepted the fate he'd planned for her final days.
But she had found him, and now dared to dream that she might snatch a
second chance from the jaws of fate.
Just a little happiness. James saved me; can't I share just a little
happiness with him? Just a few decades, if not for my sake, for his. If I can't
be selfish, even now, I can at least grant him the happy ending he deserves.
Let me give joy and contentment to one man, just one. Please ... that's all I
ask.
Selena wiped the tears away again and waited with the patience of a
born ambush predator. She had read James' fortune countless times. A death
sign always appeared in that fortune unless one caveat was considered. A
world without Grayson opened a brighter future.
Once it was done Selena would withdraw from the broader affairs of the
world. She would aim small, limit her ambition, share the burdens of one
good man and love him with all her might.
When he passed, she would go with him.
She had dreamed once of correcting past mistakes on another world.
Just as she constantly warned James, her reach had exceeded her grasp. She
knew that now. So she would fight just one more time. She'd support a hero,
her hero ... one last time.
She would buy a future for them both with the blood of one evil man
and let the rest of the world fend for itself.
A shadow shifted down the street and she sighted, all thought draining
from her mind as she entered an endless, seamless, now.
James stumbled into a run just as the sun rose in the east behind him,
casting long shadows.
Selena's pupils narrowed as her focus shifted past James. He was
running. The reason would be behind him. A second passed, then two. Four.
Seven.
A target presented itself.
Two seconds later, Selena fired.
The bullet whipped past James and the man only five feet behind him
stumbled, then fell face-first.
 James didn't slow down. He didn't look back. He didn't even hesitate.
It's a therianthrope, and James knows it.
It was the only reason he'd carry on as he was. Selena shot off her perch
in a straightforward lunge, clearing fifteen feet before any part of her
touched the ground. She saw James' eyes widen, then he flung himself aside
even as he brought his pistol to bear on the man already standing up behind
him, murderous hatred in golden, reflective eyes.
Selena knew therianthropes were weaker than they had been on the old
world, their powers slaved to the tidal forces of the Earth's moon rather than
divine cycles of influence. Yet, even at their weakest, all such species
regenerated from grievous injury in moments and there were few ways to
stop them once enraged. Selena knew the moon was waxing at three-
quarters, but she didn't know what type of therianthrope she faced and so
couldn't be certain what stage its power was at.
Selena had long believed the best way to counter the unknown in
combat was with overkill.
James passed her as she fired twice more, barely needing to sight, so
focused was she on her target. Those shots — guided by her will — took
the creature in the heart and head, but it didn't go down. The bullets she was
firing were fully jacketed, high-velocity rounds. They yawed past initial
contact, increasing the size of the wound by imparting more kinetic energy
to surrounding tissues. Such damage took orders of magnitude more time
and energy to regenerate than normal pistol wounds. James' handgun did
virtually no harm by comparison.
Even so, with the back of his head blown off and a crater where his
heart had been, the therianthrope didn't go down. He did stop, body
shuddering before every aspect of him bulged with a violent release of size.
Triggered by the severe damage, the transformation happened as though a
rubber band under severe tension suddenly snapped, releasing all its energy
in an instant. Gray fur erupted everywhere as a largely human face turned
feral, muzzle rippling even as it formed to display the teeth sprouting from
a lengthening jaw. His clothing exploded from his body as he tipped his
head back, howling with the unbridled display of sheer physical power.
It was a sight that had been known to break even hardened warriors,
sending them screaming from what they believed to be certain death. It was
also a predictable move, one very few therianthropes could resist. It was all
but instinctive, which made it easy to exploit.
 An officer of the NHIC would have called it 'compulsive behavior.'
Selena reared up, putting her head at the same level as the beast-man's,
then spit directly into his eyes from less than a foot away.
The howl of triumph guttered out into one of agony as the werewolf
gouged its own eyes out trying to rid itself of the venom, but Selena gave it
no room, no chance of recovery, and no mercy.
She struck again and again, injecting venom repeatedly even as the
hapless creature uncontrollably doubled over and voided the contents of his
belly.
The contents flooding out of his mouth turned pink, then red. Only
when she'd struck him nine times did Selena pause in her relentless assault,
and James, standing behind her, asked, "Can you kill him with that?"
"Yes. My venom is strong enough to kill a therianthrope in sufficient
quantity, but it will take him a very, very long time to die."
"Help ... please!"
The words were barely intelligible in the midst of horrible retching, and
Selena's hood spread as she leaned down and made eye contact. The eyes
that he'd gouged out himself were already restored, but blood was leaking
from the tear ducts as her venom continued to do its grim work.
Driven half-insane by the pain and ongoing damage ravaging his body,
the werewolf was unable to break her gaze despite his race's normally
extreme resistance to fascination. Selena asked, "Floyd Grayson. Where?"
"W-waiting at camp. Antidote! Anything you want! Mercy!"
Selena brought the rifle to bear and with a three-round burst obliterated
the creature's head, ending both his suffering and his life. Already
overloaded trying to deal with her venom, his regeneration simply failed.
Death was immediate, but she'd already dismissed him. Her eyes were
on James.
He was looking at the corpse, but shifted his attention to her. Before she
could ask, he said, "I'm fine with it. Relax. Dude was trying to kill me and
we got what we needed out of him. I'm not a cop anymore. It's not like I
have some compulsory need to keep people alive or turn them in so 'justice'
can be done. Not when I know where they'd wind up. I'm just worried those
shots will give away our location. I doubt Grayson will come personally to
investigate. He'll send a team. We should circle around toward the camp and
see if we can catch him in the open."
 Selena nodded and said, "There will be no way to disguise our scent
trails if Grayson has another therianthrope. If he doesn't, well, that would be
more luck than I'm accustomed to. Still, I agree, we should circle and see if
we can arrange a shot."
"Therianthrope?" he asked, brow furrowed.
"That," she said, waving an absent hand at the corpse.
"Lycanthrope."
"Sure, this specific breed was lycan ... oh. You didn't know."
James was giving her a blank look. She smiled, leaned in, and pecked
him on the cheek as she said, "'There are more things in Heaven and Earth,
James, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
"Where's that from?" he asked, head tilting. "You're obviously quoting."
"Oh, somewhere. When you're an old lady like I am you don't
remember every little detail," she said, giving him a wicked smile she
hoped would cover the fluttering of nerves she felt at having re-awakened a
curiosity he had consciously decided to bury for her sake.
"How can you be so convincing and such a bad liar at the same time?"
he asked, giving her a frank stare.
"I'm actually a pretty good liar, you just ... distract me."
"Is there still poison on your lips?"
"Poison? You mean venom, no, why-mmph!"
He kissed her, and for a long few seconds every single thought failed
until she gave up thinking and wrapped her arms around him, tongue
writhing against his.
The kiss broke, leaving her a bit breathless, and she asked, "Not
complaining but ... I didn't expect that."
"I get there are things about your past I don't need to know. I also
understand you'll slip up every once in a while and remind me those things
exist. Next time it happens just shut up and kiss me. Okay?"
"Have I told you I love you?" she asked, head tilted as she gazed at him
with a grin she knew looked silly, but she just couldn't help herself.
"Not today."
"Well, I do. You don't mind hearing it, right? Even though I still need
you and I'm using you to help me kill someone?"
James gave her an odd look, then glanced away and shook his head
wryly as he said, "What can I say? Your blow jobs are just that good."
 Selena's jaw dropped and they stared at each other for a long moment
before she said, "I am intensely conflicted right now."
"Complimented but?" he asked.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Then we're even. Next time you tell me you love me maybe don't mix
it with the fact that I'm here to help you murder a guy, okay? Makes me
look like a fucking sociopath."
"Would it help to remind you this guy we want to murder is a
blackmailing slaver and that he paid someone to burn us along with an
entire building full of people?"
"Well, those reasons certainly contributed to my being your willing
accomplice, but I'm pretty sure I've said this before: Don't make it
complicated."
Selena shook her head as she said, "You're an odd man."
"You love me."
"Do you love me?"
The question came suddenly and was past her lips before she'd fully
considered the wisdom of asking.
Their eyes met and held for only a moment before he nodded, but didn't
say the words. Instead, he turned and headed back the way he'd come as he
asked, "So should we pick off the team they send after this guy or go
around and hit Grayson as soon as possible?"
"How large was the camp?" she asked, sliding after him as she absently
ejected and reloaded her magazine.
"Couldn't say," he admitted. "If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere
between twenty-five and fifty people."
"Too many. We should go for a shot before they're fully alerted. Did you
see a likely perch?"
"Not really, no. The place they chose for their camp is surrounded by
ruins but none that are much more than piles of rubble. The highest
remaining wall in the area is part of the camp. The roads for this town aren't
really straight in that area either, so there are no long sight lines. I was able
to get right up to the trucks without being seen from the camp."
"What about farther out?"
"How far?"
"Half a mile?"
 James blinked and looked at her, then at the rifle she had slung over her
shoulder as he said, "Do you have a scope for that thing?"
She shook her head.
James glanced around, bemused, then said, "Well, there was a ruin that's
still got a wall about twenty feet high off that way. I didn't check but if I had
to guess I'd say you could probably see at least some of the camp from
there."
"Show me."

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J ames rested on his belly , watching the distant camp as the summer sun
beat down on him. The perch was half a mile from the enemy camp and
while the lip he hid behind was more than enough to cover them both, the
heat had eventually gotten to Selena. She now lay at the base of the rubble
pile in what shade there was to be had, waiting for word from him. The wall
faced north and the sun was tracking across the sky behind them,
minimizing the chance for lens flare, but James constantly worried they'd be
discovered as he examined the camp through what were obviously
recreational binoculars.
The magnification was fine, but the damn things didn't focus quite right
and kept folding to pinch his nose. The coat he was using to keep the sun
off kept the heat in, and he was drenched with sweat.
It was muggy, uncomfortable, tedious work. If Grayson appeared they
might not have more than a few seconds to make the shot. With Selena at
the bottom of the rubble half out of it with the heat, James couldn't bring
himself to be optimistic about her chances of hitting her target without a
scope.
Then again, she's got magic.
The thought didn't comfort him because if he were being honest with
himself, he didn't want to be here. He wanted to pack his shit and just ... go.
The idea that he'd be leaving Grayson alive behind him wasn't exactly
comfortable, but unlike Selena, he didn't see the mercenary captain as his
problem to solve. He'd always thought revenge was a sucker's game. It was
a big world and with the gold they had they could go a long long way away.
 Of course, he'd also thought that leaving things to the courts was best,
and he'd never been more wrong about anything in all his life.
So here he was, playing at being a ... something. Mercenary didn't fit
because he wasn't being paid. Soldier wasn't right because he wasn't doing
this for the city. Assassin? Again, no money.
Killer?
Yeah, that fit, and he didn't like it. He could remind himself all he liked
about just how much of a shitbag Grayson was, but a career as an officer of
the law had drilled a number of convictions into him. One of those was that
taking life was something to be done only in self-defense. Doing it for any
other reason was murder.
The world would definitely be a better place without Floyd Grayson in
it ... but that didn't make killing him right.
Selena obviously didn't have that problem. Then again, James was sure
she pre-dated the Cataclysm.
He'd had hours sitting here to piece it together. All the little things she'd
said added up to one conclusion. Selena had seen it all. She knew the truth
because she'd been there. She had helped invade his world, contributed to
the downfall of human civilization.
He wasn't sure she had any right to call anyone evil. In fact, he was sure
she didn't. He didn't know much about the Cataclysm save that it had been
the beginning of a dark age and the point in time when all the non-humans
appeared.
That meant war.
Floyd might be a lot of things ... but he wasn't complicit in genocide.
Selena was.
James took a second to scrub the sweat from his eyes with an already
sweat-soaked collar, then blinked hard against the sting before gluing his
eye sockets to the binoculars again.
He wanted to leave. There was nothing stopping him.
She said it herself. If I go, she'll go with me.
Seconds passed. Insects and birds made noise. The camp was still and
mostly silent.
He'd noted that one of the trucks was gone, but there was nothing to be
done about that. It had been gone when they'd arrived at this position, and
with just the two of them there just wasn't any way to follow up.
 As the minutes rolled away his thoughts kept circling a drain of
inevitability. What they were doing was insane, and it was going to get
them killed for nothing.
James believed Selena had a change of heart. He might be stupid for it,
but that didn't change the fact. He wanted to believe in her, did believe in
her ... and he loved her.
But he didn't want to be a murderer for her.
He shook his head slightly, then again a few seconds later with growing
conviction before grumbling, "Fuck this."
He crawled back from the edge.
The more he thought about it, the less it became about Floyd and the
more it became about him. He didn't want to be a killer. Someone would put
Grayson in the ground at some point for the things he'd done. It didn't have
to be him ... and it didn't have to be her.
Selena shifted, then straightened as he made his careful way down the
rubble.
"Did you see him?" she asked.
"No."
Her head tipped as she gazed at him, and he met her eyes steadily as he
said, "I've changed my mind."
She blinked at him, then her eyes flickered around as though searching
for something to say.
He spoke first, deciding to lay it all on the line.
"Selena, I love you. I believe in you. I'm willing to leave your past
behind and give 'us' a shot, but in return I want out of the revenge game. It's
all wrong. If we'd left Kravitz in a condition to talk he'd have cracked and
spilled everything on Grayson. We didn't, so instead he's a zombie and I
don't know how much the cops back in Daytau will put together. Maybe all
of it — they're pretty good — but we've been going about this the wrong
way. Chasing bad guys isn't my job anymore, and I don't have the authority
to put a bullet in anyone who isn't trying to kill me."
"I've read your for-"
"I don't care how many readings you've done! This isn't right, and I
want out. So the question is, are you coming with me?"
"If we leave him alive, you're doomed," she said, voice barely above a
whisper.
 "If I help you kill him in cold blood, it will eat at me for the rest of my
life."
"But he's evil! If you don't fight evil it multiplies, James. It grows
stronger! Even if we could be safe from him others will suffer! We cannot
leave him alive!"
"I'm not a vigilante. I may not be able to trust the law anymore but that
doesn't mean I don't believe in the reasons we have it. We give up the right
to pass judgment ourselves because we understand we don't always have the
whole picture. That's why we have courts, why everyone gets the chance to
defend themselves."
"James, you know what he is. You saw it for yourself! We are outside
the city's authority! Who will act if not us!?"
James drew his pistol and pointed it at her.
She froze, eyes seeking his. He met them, matched wills with her, and
said, "You were part of the Cataclysm."
Her will crumbled, giving him final confirmation. His eyes bored into
her as he said, "I don't know much about it, but I do know it marked the end
of a civilization. Did you know there are human footprints on the moon,
Selena? If it weren't for you we might be out among the stars now. So don't
you dare talk to me about letting evil go."
"How long have you known?" she asked, sounding completely
disconsolate.
"I figured it out watching the camp. Little things just added up. I wasn't
absolutely sure until just now. So? What's it going to be? You think you've
suffered enough to make up for the fact that most of our world looks like
this?"
He gestured around at the ruins with his free hand as he mentally
released her. She immediately looked away.
"Monsters in wild places, humans only able to live in fear or in walled
cities? Billions dead? You think you've done enough good to make up for
that? That you deserve the second chance you're getting?"
"No," she said, voice hoarse with emotion. "I don't."
"Well neither does Grayson for the things he's done," James said, then
holstered his pistol and turned away, adding, "Let's go."
"What will you do?" she asked, following with reluctance.
"We'll pack our shit and go. I'm thinking we use the map to find a city-
state at least a thousand miles away and see if they'll let us in. If they do we
start over, build a life. That helping people idea you had isn't a bad one. You
and I can start an agency. I think we could make it work."
"You're not ... abandoning me?"
"Of course not. I love you, didn't you hear me say it?" he asked, pausing
to look back at her.
She wavered, obviously shocked, then said, "But you know what I've
done-"
"People can change. I believe you have. So you haven't made up for
what you've done. Yet. But you've been around quite a while and don't look
like you'll keel over any time soon. So, let's do what we can ... the right
way. I'll help."
Selena was quiet for almost ten minutes as the two of them made their
slow way out of the ruins toward their vehicle, but at last, she said, "I will
go with you, James. I just ... please don't misunderstand, but every reading
I've done ends with either your death, or Grayson's. No matter where we go,
how far we run, he'll be there, somehow."
James thought about that, and cold realization sank in. He stopped,
turned to face Selena, and said, "You're absolutely sure?"
She nodded, then her eyes narrowed as she asked, "What is it? What are
you thinking?"
"I'm thinking I absolutely, one hundred percent intend to leave this place
and go as far as I have to go. It's just not feasible for Grayson to be in our
future unless he's in our immediate future. With me so far?"
"Yes?"
"There's one place we have to go if we want to get away."
He saw it when realization dawned. She said, "You think he's found our
vehicle."
"I'm sure he has. One of the trucks was gone from their camp. They
probably did a circle around the ruins and found our trail. They followed it
in. They'll be waiting for us."
Selena thought about that, then nodded slowly and asked, "What would
you suggest?"
He shrugged and said, "That we cheat."
"How?"
Their eyes met. He smiled and said, "Use magic."

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J ames pulled the coin from his pocket and examined it idly as he waited.
A sword and laurel crown, a credo, and a list of places. The people
who'd made this coin knew more than he did about the Cataclysm. They
hated the non-humans and were fighting a war for revenge ... against people
who'd had nothing to do with any of it.
He slid his thumb over part of the credo and read what was left.
Death to all.
With him was a woman who deserved more than anyone to meet that
death head on, and he'd fallen in love with her.
His smile was wry as he thought about that. He'd only admitted it aloud
after realizing just who she was, what she'd done. Before that, he couldn't
bring himself to say the words. Before, he'd doubted. Now he didn't. It was
strange. As a human he should hate her for what she'd done ... but his heart
just didn't care about who she had been, only who she now was.
He was on his own two feet because she fought for months to get him
out of hell, then months more to teach him the magic he needed to stand.
She'd known what she was teaching him could get her killed, but she'd done
it anyway. She'd saved him, given him a second chance.
The idea that he might not do the same for her made him feel sick
inside. He'd been willing to forgive and forget, just as he'd told her, but he
hadn't been able to love until he knew what it was he was forgiving.
He couldn't excuse what she'd done, but he could live a better life with
her, help her make the world they were living in now a better place.
 The plan was simple, though it was based on completely bullshit logic.
It all hinged on his own certainty in the decision he'd made. He had turned
away from killing Floyd Grayson.
He was committed to running away, yet according to the future Selena
had been shown countless times, one of them had to die.
So the last chance for them to meet would be here, in these ruins. If it
was going to happen, it would happen at the place they'd left the four-
wheeler and trailer.
That was why James hadn't seen him all day: he wasn't there to be seen.
He was here, waiting.
He had asked Selena to do a reading for them on the best way to
approach the vehicle and the answer she'd given was absurd. It was
completely insane, but he intended to go through with it.
All that was left was the wait.
He was giving her time to sneak around and deal with whoever Grayson
had with him. Only one truck was gone from the main encampment so he'd
have five people, six at most.
Four of them at least were probably hidden in the ruins surrounding the
vehicle, and it was these Selena would handle.
He had no idea where she was now, or how successful her hunt would
be. She'd asked for half an hour, so that was what she'd get. When the sun
touched the horizon in the west, he would do his part.
It was a strange feeling that filled him. He was in love with a monster
and probably about to get shot, but none of it bothered him. It only
gradually dawned on him that this must be what it was like to make peace
with oneself. All his life there had been a tension between what he thought
of himself and what he expected of himself. Always there had been a drive
to change.
Since deciding to abandon going after Grayson that tension had left
him. Though he knew he was about to confront the man, it just didn't feel
the same. The difference was night and day, but he couldn't explain why.
All he knew was that he wasn't worried anymore.
James glanced at his watch, then stood and started strolling down the
ruined road, idly flipping the gold coin as he went.
Grayson was leaning against the hood of the four-wheeler, arms folded.
Flanking him were two men James didn't recognize. Grayson had a pistol in
a holster at his belt while the two with him held rifles. Though his guards
were armored, Grayson was wearing a uniform very similar to the one
James had met him in all that time ago.
"Well boys, will you look at that! Bold as brass," he said admiringly as
James walked up and flipped the coin toward him.
He caught it, turned it over in his hand, then pursed his lips as he said,
"Yeah, seeing as how you threw in with a snake I'm not surprised you don't
want this anymore. Came a long way out here to give it back, though. Mind
if I ask why?"
"Kravitz said you put him up to burning us alive. Made me mad, if we're
being honest. You killed a lot of people hunting us. Mind if I ask why?"
"Nothin' personal, James. New employer put me up to it, and it wasn't
you he wanted. It was her. Getting you was just a bonus for me. Did you
know just what a baaaaad bad girl she is?"
"Yeah, she told me. I guess I have a type," James said. "Least this one's
got a nice rack."
Grayson blinked, then tipped his head back and laughed as he leaned
away from the vehicle, slapping a thigh as he said, "God damn it's a shame
I've gotta kill you! Really it is, son, but I gotta do it. You took my money
and stabbed me in the back. Can't let that go. Where's the snake?"
"Probably sitting somewhere close by waiting for an excuse to blow
your head off," James said with an unknowing shrug. "I honestly don't
know why she hasn't done it yet."
"Oh, there isn't a bullet made that can hit me, but uh, that does put you
in a bit of a pickle! See, I know you've only got two players on this board,
and I've got an open radio channel to my guys at the station. They're locked,
loaded, and rumbling this way right now. Even if you get all of us you can't
outrun them in this little piece of shit, so you're dead no matter what
happens."
"Grayson, I walked in here to talk to you. Do you honestly think I'd
have done that with no plan? Why'd you sick Kravitz on me? Wasn't putting
me in Iso enough?"
"Told you. New boss, and it wasn't you he cared about, it was her. She
stabbed him in the back and he didn't care for it ... kinda like I didn't
appreciate it too much when you turned on me. I did right by you, boy. I'm
real disappointed."
James tipped his chin at the coin in the other man's hand as he said, "A
gold coin working for a dragon seems a little weird, doesn't it?"
 "Whatever made you think I was one of them? I work for who pays,
son, that's all. They were paying the bills, now it's a dragon, simple."
"So where is he now? Your boss?"
Grayson shrugged and pocketed the coin as he said, "No clue. Doesn't
like us humans much but like I said, pays well. Apparently, I'm a lot better
than the snake at recruiting too, because I've got bases like this all over the
countryside."
"What for?" James asked.
Grayson's eyes narrowed a bit and his head tilted as he listened. A
moment later, James heard it too.
It was the sound of an aerial patrol vehicle.
Grayson said, "You know what? I get the feeling I've been had. It's
about time we wrap this up."
As the man's hand dropped for his pistol the harsh chatter of fully
automatic rifle fire burst through the clearing. The men on both sides of
Grayson jerked and twitched, but the man himself dropped into a crouch,
apparently unharmed as his pistol came up.
James got a shot off first, but despite being no more than five feet away,
somehow, he missed.
Grayson smiled at James as the black eye of his barrel bloomed and
time seemed to slow as James leapt into the shot, all his will bent on
survival as he fired and fired again.
The two men collided, guns blazing as the aircraft roared by overhead,
its cannons opening up moments later.
To James the sounds were impossibly distant, ethereal and unreal.
Everything was like a reflection in water. He felt like if he touched it, all
reality would waver and vanish in an explosion of rippling motion.
Then it was over James was on his knees atop Grayson, gun smoking,
slide locked, barrel pressed to Grayson's head. He could feel the cold press
of a gun against his temple, and the hand holding it belonged to Grayson.
"I'll be damned," the other man breathed. "There's more than one of me.
Ain't that somethin'."
James blinked, but before he could answer Grayson snarled and flicked
his wrist, pistol-whipping James as he rolled away, reaching for a reload.
There'd been little force behind the blow but it was still enough to split
the skin over his temple and set his head ringing. With blood dripping down
his face, James gave Floyd no chance at a fresh magazine as he threw a
hard right that caught Grayson flush and dropped him to the ground.
Floyd Grayson was tough. He rolled away and back to his feet. He'd lost
his gun going down and raised his fists to guard as James came in swinging.
He made a hard block and came in underneath with a brutal hook that
all but paralyzed James' wind, doubling him up. He then dropped James
with a wicked cross to the face that split his cheek as he grunted, "Fine!
Guns are boring anyway. You wanna settle this like men? Let's do it. Come
on!"
The crackle of rifle fire sounded behind James, but it was all he could
do to lurch back to his feet in time to weave away from a hard jab and
counter with one of his own that Floyd slapped away with a sneer. He
feinted left then threw a punishing right that James took on the shoulder as
he finally landed a shot to Floyd's liver.
The man grunted and snarled as he over-committed to a hard left that
James slipped and countered with a cross that sent the grizzled ex-captain
spinning to the ground.
James forced his lungs to work as he said, "You were playing me from
the start, Floyd. You had to know I'd never work for a skin trader without a
gun to my back!"
Floyd staggered back to his feet, then spat blood and wiped his lip as he
said, "You're just too stupid to know when to quit. Any ordinary man would
have taken the money and the treatment, but you? Hah! Gave up your life
and your legs for a monster. What'd she do, suck the chrome off your pipe?
You dickin' down a snake, boy? Nasty!"
James growled and threw a series of hard shots but Floyd had found his
feet again. He danced away, grinning savagely past bloody lips as he
slipped the last of the flurry of punches, measured James with a left, then
sent him staggering with a hard right that widened the already bleeding split
on James' temple.
"I've been fighting longer than you've been alive. You shoulda just let
me shoot you."
"I tried but you're a bad shot ... and you punch like a bitch," James said,
grinning through the pain.
Floyd's eyes narrowed and he shook his head, then stepped in swinging.
James caught most of it on his arms and shoulders as he too stepped close,
whipping his elbow in to catch Floyd in the jaw, snapping the other man's
head back.
The sense of peace he'd felt, the strange imperturbable calm, was gone.
In its place was a boiling rage. He was now in a fight for his life and he'd do
whatever it took to win that fight.
He grabbed for Floyd's arm but wasn't fast enough as the other man
whipped it back and slammed a fist into James' gut. There wasn't much
power in the shot and James took a half step back then hammered the other
man with a hard right before hooking Floyd's heel and tripping him off his
feet as he staggered under the blow.
James followed him down, raining everything he had on Floyd
Grayson's face. He felt the man's nose break with a wet squelch under one
powerful shot, then split both lips with another before he was thrown clear
by a wicked cross from the battered old man, who somehow got back to his
feet yet again.
Both men were through talking and James walked in, throwing powerful
shots his opponent seemed too dazed to get away from. Floyd's head jerked
around under the impacts before he surged in, knee shooting up between
James' legs.
Twisting desperately to avoid it, James stumbled and fell, then caught a
vicious kick to the ribs as he rolled over trying to find his feet again.
Floyd Grayson might be old and battered but there was no quit in him.
He sent another kick that James managed to catch, wrenching and twisting
the foot to send the other man back to the ground.
Both men came up, bloody and bruised, snarling hatefully at one
another as they stepped in swinging. There was no art in their movements,
no skill or grace.
James didn't have a single thought in his head. All he had was a deep-
seated need to beat the man in front of him. It didn't matter how much
damage he took, as long as Floyd Grayson took more.
Then, through a haze of pain, one eye all but swollen shut, James caught
Floyd with a straight left then dropped his shoulder, putting every ounce of
power left in his body into an uppercut that landed clean, snapped Floyd's
head back, and dropped him.
He didn't get up again.
For long seconds, James wasn't really sure the fight was over. He was so
battered and confused that he just stared at Floyd, wobbling on his feet with
his guard up, waiting to see what would happen next.
"Turn around. Slowly."
James tilted his head, then did as ordered, fairly sure without looking
that whoever was giving commands had a gun.
He was right.
The man was huge, wearing light tactical gear that was obviously
custom fit. He had salt-and-pepper hair over a careworn face torn by a scar
down the left side. He was at least in his fifties, but there was no question
he had more than enough in the tank to tear through men half his age.
"Who are you?" James asked.
"Your savior. If you need more than that I have a bullet chambered.
Who are you?"
James had to take a few seconds to put together coherent thoughts, but
the man standing some twenty feet off with a pistol that looked like a toy in
one huge hand seemed perfectly willing to give him all the time he needed.
The gun wasn't aimed at him specifically, but it was pointed in his general
direction.
At length he said, "James Henderson. The guy that came to kick that
guy's ass."
"Do you know who 'that guy' is?" the stranger asked.
"Floyd Grayson. Slaver, murderer, back-stabber, extortionist, all-around
textbook scumbag," James said, trying to come up with options and
drawing a blank. Selena was nowhere to be seen and though he could hear
the sporadic sounds of combat, they were distant and difficult to pinpoint
amid the twisting maze of ruins. He couldn't hear the aerial scout ship
anymore so it had either landed or left the area.
"Mind if I ask why you're here, and how you got here so quick?" James
asked.
"I and my men have been hunting Grayson for a while. He's done some
things of which my organization doesn't approve."
"How'd you find him?" James asked.
The man with the gun flicked the barrel of it dismissively and James
obligingly stepped to one side as the stranger came forward and crouched to
rifle Floyd's pockets.
He found the gold coin and pulled it free, then held it up for James to
see before pocketing it himself as he stood, shifted the muzzle of his gun,
and fired three shots.
 That done, he turned and looked at James as he asked, "The coin. I'm
going to assume you gave it to him?"
Dumbfounded at the casual display of brutal murder, James just nodded.
"Where did you get it?" the man asked.
"Floyd gave it to me himself a while back after the first and only job I
ever did as a Black Jack Operator," James said. Someone willing to kill a
downed, unconscious man without batting an eye wasn't the sort to get cute
with, and the pistol was now aimed at his gut.
The man asked, "Kill any non-humans on that job?"
"Few orcs."
"Do you know what the coin means?"
"Yes, but I don't fight for causes, Mister. There's a reason I gave it
back."
"I should kill you, but you gave me Floyd on a platter so it'd be
ungrateful to feed you a bullet today. I get the impression he betrayed you
and we have that in common. That said, pray you never run into us again.
Most Gold Coins wouldn't tolerate your nagini, but I'll let her go too as a
sign of respect. You fight like you mean it."
The man's smile was slight and cold, but it was there.
James said nothing as their eyes met, and the same animal instinct that
warned him not to press his luck made him break eye contact almost
immediately. If death had a face, it was scarred on the left side.
Without another word the stranger turned and left.
James let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and turned
wearily to search for his pistol as Selena revealed herself and came forward,
eyes riveted on the departing killer.
"Who is that man?" she asked, hood flaring as she watched him go.
James stopped, turned, and stared at Selena through the one eye that
wasn't swollen shut.
She met his eye for a long few seconds, then her hood folded tight to
her neck as she said, "You're right. Some questions are better left unasked."
"Help me find my gun."
"It's over there."
"Check that asshole for anything useful, will you? Then grab those rifles
and whatever gear they've got. We need to get away before someone wins
that fight over there and wanders over to clean us up."
"You sound like you need a hug."
 James sputtered into laughter with no transition, unable to even look at
Selena as he said, "Desperately. Later and elsewhere."
"It's a date."

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 34

S elena returned to the makeshift camp with her rifle slung on one
shoulder and a dead badger on the other to find James had finally gotten
around to pitching the tent he'd bought.
It was actually pretty sizable, being ten by ten feet square not counting a
brief entry and ranging from six to eight feet tall. The material it was made
from blended in well and would be virtually invisible from the air. She
smiled as she confirmed for herself that both of them could easily fit inside.
James was seated in front of the tent, dabbing fresh medical cream on
his wounded face. Selena had watched much of his fight with Floyd and
though she could have ended that fight early with a well-placed shot, it
hadn't occurred to her to do so.
She had been around long enough to know that James needed the fight,
needed to finish it for himself, and so he had.
She had not expected the strike force that had engaged Grayson's forces,
and genuinely had no idea who the man that had put three bullets in him
was. She was certain she'd never seen him before, nor even heard of anyone
like him. It seemed obvious he was a Gold Coin, and it wouldn't have
surprised her to learn he was their leader.
His aura had been so powerful that it had a suppressive weight all its
own ... very similar to the one possessed by her former patron.
Yet, he'd given none of the signs, and it made no sense for a dragon to
be working as a terrorist against non-humans.
The man was and would remain a mystery.
 James was a much more immediate concern and she dropped her kill
aside as she approached and encircled him.
He paused, watching her with curiosity but not concern. When she
settled into place and wrapped her arms around his stomach, he willingly
leaned back against her and she laid her snout on his head as she said, "Your
wounds will heal quickly."
"Mm. Apparently, your hunt went well," he said, setting the medical kit
aside and relaxing completely into her embrace.
"Yes. I will gather wood for a fire and we'll have meat tonight."
"Looking forward to it," he said.
She spent a few moments simply enjoying his presence against her, then
asked, "Have you thought of where we should go? Now that Floyd Grayson
is dead, there is no longer any reason to delay. With a vehicle that requires
no fuel and no real limit on time given it's the middle of summer, we could
go a thousand miles, perhaps two."
"Hadn't given it much thought," he admitted. "I just knew we had to
leave Daytau. I guess we just have to hope they don't send notification to
every city-state on the continent and pick one to emigrate to."
"You don't sound enthusiastic for the trip," she said.
"Well, I do have one regret."
"What's that?"
He tilted his head and looked up at her. She lifted her head from his to
meet his eye as he said, "We need to find a gene splicer if we're going to
take our ... relationship, any farther than we have."
Selena smiled and nuzzled him fondly as she hissed quietly and said,
"No, we don't, though that's a mixed thing. Do you remember when I told
you I'd been stabbed?"
He nodded, but didn't speak, obviously sensing her suddenly somber
mood.
"I lost the ability to bear offspring. Since you know I was ... active, in
the days of the Cataclysm, you should know that I was there when the Spite
first manifested and spread across the world. I had a ... well, a human
paramour at the time. He was one of many who chose to service certain
members of the hierarchy rather than rot in a cell. His seed killed several of
my contemporaries, but had no effect on me. While I cannot claim a precise
understanding of the Spite and how it works, I do know that it acts upon the
reproductive system specifically. Johan Kravitz was correct. If certain
organs are removed, the Spite is harmless."
"You never said-"
"Why would I? So the Black Jacks could immediately sell me to their
'buyer'? And afterward? Why would I volunteer knowledge that would
require me to share how I know? I couldn't tell you, James. There was no
way."
She watched him mentally digest that, then said, "And ... you're sure?"
"I'm as certain as it's possible to be. We need not expose ourselves to the
power of the gene sages, we're safe."
"Odd way to put it, I suppose I'll take your word then."
Selena smiled and slid around, wrapping her arms about his head as she
pressed it into her chest, this time from the front. She smirked down at him
as he tipped his head up for air and said, "As badly beaten as you are, I'd
have thought you'd want to wait to consummate our victory. Perhaps you're
more primal than you like to let on."
"I think someone is projecting," James said, though his smile was
quirky as he slid hands down her sides and his fingers nimbly defeated the
knot holding her sarong around her hips.
Selena's smile was wry as she tasted the sweat mingled with blood on
his throat. He'd cleansed his face, but there was still evidence of his brawl
in his flavor. She found no particular savor in sex immediately after combat,
nor did she scorn the opportunity. She was surprised that she could feel his
shaft already straining against her coil, but the idea that she should defer
taking advantage never crossed her mind.
She wordlessly began divesting him of his clothes as she allowed him to
unwind her bandeau. He unsurprisingly finished first, but she was a bit
startled at the assertive way his fingers sank into her breasts.
Pausing to look askance at him, he shrugged without apology as he said,
"I've been curious what they feel like for the longest time. I can't even feel
the difference between one scale and the next. It's just like flesh."
As she unbuckled and absently divested him of his belt, then pants, she
said, "It's a mixed blessing. Males of my kind can move much more quickly
and unobtrusively because they don't have to keep their tits protected."
"What about their um ..."
"Only externalized in the act."
"One or two?"
 Selena hissed in amusement as she cupped his face and gently pressed
her snout to his lips, then slid her tongue past them. She could see the glint
in his eye that said he knew he was being cut off, but didn't seem to mind as
his hands kept right on molding her tits. The sensations cascading from his
touch made her feel a bit weak. While her breasts weren't terribly sensitive
and her nipples wouldn't show themselves without the changes that attended
a pregnancy, it was still pleasant to have them fondled and her love of the
man doing it only added to the savor.
Just as she only gently gripped him, her tongue was sensual and easy in
its exploration of his mouth. Here too she could taste the blood shed for his
hard-won victory, and she enjoyed the flavor of iron mixed with his own. It
made her want to take his cock in her mouth again. Oral sex was a fetish of
hers, and she'd been happy to discover in James a willing recipient.
There were few feelings so poignant as taking control of a man's
pleasure and making him cum. It was delicious in every sense of the word.
The fact that she had gone so long without true sensual pleasures only made
her desires now harder to control.
She broke the kiss and hissed, "I have such sights to show you ... such
pleasures for you to endure."
"That you say it in such a scary way just makes me look forward to it
more," James said as he leaned back, one hand slipping away from her
chest to disappear out of sight, but only for a moment.
Selena's eyes widened, then rolled as she melted into a shiver of
pleasure. His wayward hand was wrapped around her tail about six inches
from the end, squeezing and stroking her in a way that made her feel
boneless.
Her gaze turned reproachful as she sank down the length of his torso
and settled her tits around his arrogantly exposed and erect flesh. She said,
"Cheating."
"From you that's not an insult," he noted, the tremble in his voice
getting worse as she squeezed her chest snugly around his cock and
caressed the head of it with her forked and supple tongue.
"It's so good to have an apprentice who pays attention," she said quietly,
taking full advantage of not needing her mouth for speech. She started
rhythmically bouncing her tits off his groin as she slipped one of the forks
of her tongue into him, unwilling to wait to draw out his flavor. James
grunted, wincing at the intensity of the sensation as his fingers began rolling
around the very tip of her tail, bending it back and forth as he squeezed with
his palm.
Selena felt the pleasure travel all the way up her very very long spine
until her shoulders tightened with the bliss of his play, and her tongue
wrapped his glans and squeezed her reply.
For long minutes neither spoke, each dedicating all their attention on
one another. Each sought the other's pleasure with a single-minded devotion
that delayed the inevitable outcome, but at last, Selena realized she was
about to lose.
The magnification of the pleasure radiating up through her tail by her
being able to play with her partner just as much as she liked was just too
much to keep up. She coiled her tongue down around his shaft and buried
her snout between her own tits to engulf his cock as she shuddered with a
powerful sensual release that only technically wasn't orgasm.
She was gratified to feel his grip on her tail ease, but not release. James,
for all his willingness to get in fights, wasn't a bully. Not with violence, and
not with pleasure. Rather, his touch remained gentle as her shuddering bliss
gradually eased. She released his cock and lifted her body along his,
pressing herself into him all the way up. She was 'taller' than he was even
measured from the hips, and kept going until his head was sandwiched
neatly between her heavy breasts as she hissed, "It's time we played a
different game. Are you ready?"
In answer, he wrapped an arm around her waist and released her tail to
guide himself into her.
She didn't have thighs or a distinct mons venus, though her arousal had
engorged the folds of labial flesh that defined her sex to the point that they
were exposed and glistening. Selena couldn't see what he was doing but felt
it keenly as she shifted up a bit, then slowly down as he held himself for
her.
Her sex pulsed strongly as she felt him abruptly nudge in and had to be
careful not to slam down. She'd made that mistake once and done grave
harm. With nothing to catch and stop her, she'd bend him in ways he wasn't
meant to bend.
Fortunately, experience was a reliable guide, and she knew how to
maximize their pleasure together. She pulled him from the log he'd been
sitting on and laid him back, her tail wrapping around his legs several times
to anchor her in place. There was still plenty of her tail left and she brought
it up to wrap under his head, supporting him as she sighed in luxurious
satisfaction, hands pressed to his chest as she looked down on him, hood
flared to block the sight of all else from his mind.
His eye met hers, the other still swollen shut. Nevertheless, their contact
deepened as he let her in, let her see everything.
It was a first. She had never before had sex with one of her apprentices,
never trusted another mage enough to make herself vulnerable in that way.
James was still a novice, but making connections was what Selena herself
was best at, and she had taught him well.
She fell into their connection, let herself feel both her pleasure and his,
and settled slowly down atop him until every inch of her was touching some
part of him.
She barely moved other than to flex and writhe, but this she did with
slow deliberation and no knowledge of time's passing. Their contact was a
point of liquid heat that radiated sensations up and down her body. She
shared that sensation with James both physically and spiritually. He would
have cum in moments were it not for their locked gaze. With it, she
prevented his finish and prolonged their mutual pleasure until the slow
build of it grew into a sweet agony that demanded release so loudly that she
couldn't resist its power.
Her eyes shut as she coiled tightly around him and came with a
shuddering violence that shook her soul. James' release was voluminous and
he gasped, unable to move despite the straining of every muscle. Selena
smiled darkly as she felt his body fall limp a few moments later.
He'd fainted.
It was only after she straightened to look down upon him and await his
reawakening that she realized the sun was down. A glance at the moon told
her it was past midnight. The two of them had been engaged for at least the
last eight hours.
When James didn't wake up, but instead fell into a deeper, proper sleep,
she wasn't surprised. She gently carried him into the tent and coiled about
him, content to see what the morning would bring.

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 35

J ames woke up feeling like he'd just been run over by a truck. It felt like
every muscle in his body was bruised. Yet, as soon as he tried to move the
feeling faded.
Confused by the abrupt shift, he tried to sit up, which didn't happen
because Selena was laying across him in at least three places. All three
began tugging at him in different directions as she moved, sliding off him
with languid ease to coil next to him, jaws gaping so wide that her fangs
dropped into place for a moment before she closed her mouth again and
said, "Good morning. A night of rest seems to have done wonders for you."
He blinked, then sat up, this time successfully. Both his eyes were open,
but as he took stock he realized that most of the bruising and damage he'd
taken in the fight with Floyd Grayson the day before was gone. His ribs still
ached and the cut above his temple still stung, but other than that he felt
fine.
"The feeling of misery you woke up with was essentially a memory of
pain you ... let's say you skipped it."
"Skipped it," he said, sounding dubious.
Her body swayed as she smiled a mysterious smile and said,
"Essentially. You heal much more rapidly than you should, but that doesn't
mean you don't feel every bit of pain the process entails. You were asleep
for most of it this time, but that pain still happened. You felt its embers
upon waking, that's all. Consider yourself fortunate that your sleep was so
deep."
 "I don't think that was luck," he said wryly. "Please don't fuck me into a
coma every time we have sex. It's really weird to cum and then just ... wake
up the next day."
"It won't happen every time, but beyond that I make no promises. If I
didn't know how badly your body needed rest, I'd have woken you sooner to
play more."
James tilted his head as a memory from when he was just a kid flashed
through his mind. It was a strange memory, but it seemed to perfectly
justify Selena's seeming childishness. His grandfather had been talking to
his dad about something, and had said, 'I'm old. I'm retired. I've done my
duty. Let me be a kid again.'
"You're thinking something rude."
Blinking away the memory, he gazed as innocently as he could manage
at a visibly skeptical Selena and asked, "Who, me?"
"Being responsible all the time is exhausting, James. Sometimes it's
good to just have fun for the sake of it."
"It wasn't rude."
She tilted her head, looking at him sidelong as she asked, "What was it
then?"
"You reminded me of my grandpa."
Her jaw dropped, then she slid forward, hood spreading open as she said
in a dire tone, "He must have been a very wise man."
"Okay, I get you aren't happy that teasing me reminded me of granddad
but would you rather I lied?"
With an emphatic nod, Selena hissed, "Yes! Obviously. If the truth were
everything it's cracked up to be lying wouldn't be so common. Use your
head, James. I might be non-human, but rest assured there is not a female
on this planet that wants to occupy the same space as a grandfather in her
lover's mind."
Lips parted, teeth closed, James nodded as he drawled, "Granted but ...
you'd have known I was lying."
"Well, sure, so? If it's not important I don't care if you lie to me, so long
as it's entertaining."
He cleared his throat and pointed at her idly as he said, "By that logic,
the truth was far more entertaining than anything I could have made up."
She blinked, then made a strangled sound and her shoulders drooped.
Her hood practically deflated and she fell bonelessly against his chest,
which incidentally slammed him back into her tail, which she had sneaked
around his back at some point.
"If it makes you feel any better, I know what you meant," he said,
wrapping an arm around her to run his fingers over the rough scales atop
her head.
"It does not, because I'm still trying very hard not to laugh," she said,
snuggling in against him. "We're free. It still doesn't seem real."
"It's weird, for sure," he admitted. "I mean we might not be nearly as
free as it seems. For all we know Daytau's mobilized their military into a
grid search to hunt us down and kill us before we end the age of science or
some shit."
Selena sucked her teeth and James didn't have to work very hard to
imagine her rolling her eyes as she said, "Magic is not so rare as you
obviously have been led to believe. Even Floyd Grayson was what
amounted to a hedge mage. Rather, Daytau will suppress what evidence
exists and quietly take us into custody if we ever return on some pretext or
other. To do otherwise would only spread knowledge of magic farther,
which would undermine the point of capturing us to begin with. You'll see
... or rather, you won't. They'll leave us in peace so long as we don't return."
Brow furrowed, James twisted to look back at her as he said, "Hold up.
Grayson was a wizard?"
"A mage, and a primitive one at that," Selena corrected.
"What makes you say so?"
"There's no way you missed him with a full magazine's worth of bullets
at point blank range, James. Just as there's no way he missed you. Yet
neither of you were shot. You asked a while back why there aren't magi all
over the place, given the strength of people's desires. The truth is there are
people like Floyd Grayson. Legends develop around such men, and the
legend becomes something like a self-fulfilling prophecy. In his case,
bullets simply didn't reach him."
"Oh yeah? What about me?"
"I'm not certain, to be honest, though if I were to theorize I would say it
had something to do with that golden coin. It was a probability sink,
twisting and strengthening the desires of those around it."
"A probability ... so it amplified everything going on around it?"
"Not everything, just the strongest thing. Grayson clearly believed
bullets could never harm him. When he had the coin, he was right. As for
why you weren't hit, I think it has to do with the fact that the two of you
were close enough with regard to the strength of your wills that the coin
shared that power between you, but I would have to study the coin to be
certain."
"How long have you known that coin was something special?" he asked.
"Since you did the finger snap," she said, gazing evenly at him.
His eyes wandered, then returned to her as he said, "You knew I couldn't
have done that on my own."
"I knew no such thing. I only suspected. I confirmed the coin's magic
later, but not its purpose, which would have required a ritual. As for why I
didn't tell you-"
"I'd have started to doubt myself, which might have crippled my magic.
Yeah, I get it. Thanks for looking out for me."
"The truth doesn't always serve us," Selena said with a soft smile. "I'm
glad you understand."
"Why tell me now?"
"Because you no longer have cause to doubt yourself. Your magic is
real and will continue to develop without the coin. Just ... don't try the snap
trick again until I tell you to, all right? Fortune may favor the bold, but
disaster tends to get them first."
James nodded and said, "Fair. It's not like I'm in a rush."
"Just don't get too complacent."
"Everything is a balancing act with you."
"Such is life. Speaking of which, we need to decide where we'll be
living from now on."
"Yeah ... the more I chew on that, the less I like my options," James
said, frowning. "Criminal records get passed throughout the city-states. I
think you're right that Daytau won't spread it around that you and I can do
magic, but they can frame us for any crime they want, and other city-states
won't necessarily stop to question that information."
"I came to a similar conclusion, and I have a thought on where we
might go if you're open to ... a rather dramatic change of lifestyle."
He gave her 'the look' and her smile broadened.
"What did you have in mind?" he asked.
"Get that map and let's see if I can show you where I'd like to go. It's
fairly remote from Daytau, but provided we can arrive safely I have a dear
friend there who'll certainly shelter us."
 The quantum map was technically global in that it had fairly accurate
depictions of the land masses and major bodies of water, but as James
continued to zoom out at Selena's direction he grew more and more
concerned. At last, she pointed and said, "These mountains here."
"That's ... 'Ostingrath?' The map has that area and half the route
projected as hostile to human life."
"I'm confident we can make the journey," Selena said, and sounded like
she meant it. "It will be slow, months in fact, but I believe we can get there
before winter grows too harsh. There's a long stretch here between Daytau
and the city-state Constantinople where we could simply use the highway.
Once past that we can follow the southern coast of the sea. There are
several non-human settlements we'll need to traverse, but they won't bother
us as long as we don't make a nuisance of ourselves. We've plenty of
ammunition and the gold from Kravitz should easily be enough for bribes
or barter should need arise."
"Before I agree to this, what ... I mean, who lives in Ostingrath?"
Selena's eyes lifted as she glanced left, then back at him and asked,
"You aren't afraid of spiders ... are you?"

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J ames H enderson in mid-October was a much changed man from the one
who set out in late July to make what turned out to be a cross-continental
journey. For all the hazards of the road, the trip was more pleasant than not,
to his own ongoing surprise.
Selena seemed to almost transform as the days wore on, and his initial
impression of her as a reserved, mysterious woman vanished under the
deluge of subtle tricks she played and her almost compulsive need to have a
coil around him. Whenever they weren't actively doing anything that
required freedom of movement, she wrapped some part of him up. Even
during the days when he had to drive, she would often wrap the tip of her
tail around his neck.
It was disconcerting at first, but he'd gradually become used to her
constant desire for contact. She wasn't shy about her sexual needs either and
it was a rare day that didn't see the both of them mutually exhausted before
they got to sleep.
James had never met a woman who gave head with even half the
enthusiasm, and he quickly came to accept the fact that she was doing it as
much for her own satisfaction as to pleasure him. She just genuinely loved
it. He began returning the favor, but though she had a pleasant taste she
actually derived much more excitement from having her tail licked, bitten,
and teased. It took him a while but eventually he caught on that any time
she wrapped her tail around him, she was inviting him to play with her.
Once he did catch on he very rarely passed those opportunities up.
 Selena — as it turned out — was an amazing partner, though she very
rarely did anything without getting him involved. She didn't just go hunt,
she took him with her and taught him how to hunt. She taught him how to
cook, how to start fires ... essentially, she taught him how to live again.
Everything about their journey was new to him, but she had done it all
before and happily shared her knowledge with him. They did very little
explicitly magical training over the course of the journey, but as time went
on James came to appreciate the subtle ways her power seemed to naturally
enhance everything she did. In the end, that was something she passed on to
him as well.
He became better at everything, learned it faster, performed it more
efficiently, and Selena was always there. It was like a new relationship and
a new job and a new ... everything, except this time it was all going right.
James had never been as happy as he was on that trip, so much so that
when she told him they would reach their destination in the next day or two
the first thing he felt was a pang of disappointment.
Selena picked up on it and said, "We can winter here and move on, if
you like."
"If we did the going will be slower. The batteries we're using have
already lost seventeen percent of their capacity. We'll have to replace them
somehow."
"Ostingrath is not so isolated that they do not conduct trade with human
cities. I am sure that what we need can be purchased or bartered for. Do not
let such petty details concern you."
"O-okay, how are we going to make a living? I doubt my skills as
detective or data engineer are going to do much good here."
Selena just rolled her eyes and said, "Humans are obsessed with work.
Relax. Trust me, there will be no concern for money. We still have plenty of
gold and you will be an honored guest, as will I."
The next day was a crossing of green plains, but rising out of the
distance were snowcapped mountains, and the heat of summer had given
way to the chill of autumn. Toward the evening they reached the foothills
and a small town unlike anything James had ever seen.
The buildings themselves were simple, built of stone block and clay, but
from them arose vast spires of ruddy material that James discovered was
spider silk infused with the dust that constantly blew through the area. The
spires rose anywhere from twenty to a hundred feet, and were the
residences of the first arachne James had ever seen up close.
They ranged in size from his height to more than twice that, and though
most seemed to have principally black chiton, most had markings in other
colors ranging from a green almost as brilliant as Selena's scales to a deep
red that almost seemed to glisten in the evening light.
Beyond their chiton the spiders were all arrayed in silk, which didn't
surprise him. Even the plainest clothing here would have been fantastically
expensive back in Daytau, and the principle style seemed to be based
around accenting undyed silk rather than coming up with a harmonious
color palette. Each individual chose a single dye to accent their clothing,
usually matching whatever color contrasted with black on their carapace.
Their faces were disconcerting, with myriad pink eyes that ranged from
human looking to faceted. Some arachne had as many as sixteen eyes, but
most had six or eight, and the one who seemed to be the designated
spokesperson for the village had only two, and they looked human aside
from the fact that the irises were pink.
It was obvious they'd been seen from a long way off, because when they
pulled up outside the old wooden gate set in a mortared stone wall, she was
there along with several others to greet them.
"I am Dignitary Naomin. It is my duty to ascertain your motives. Who
are you and what do you want here?"
Since he'd been warned to stay quiet and follow Selena's lead, James
simply stood next to the vehicle and waited as Selena slid up next to him
and spread her hood, though the gesture was slow and had the air of
formality rather than threat. She dipped her snout slightly and said, "I am
Selena, this is my mate. We have come to seek sanctuary from Valia
Drainheart."
"Are you known to Matriarch Drainheart?" the dignitary asked, arching
an eyebrow but otherwise making no sign or gesture that might give away
her thoughts on the request.
"We've met."
She said it with such wry amusement that James couldn't help but grin
even though he had no idea what was going on. The dignitary remained
silent a few moments, and James' eyes wandered to the others. He'd already
noticed that every single one of them was female, but he picked up other
details now that he was near enough to examine them closely.
 They were all armed, but the weapons they carried looked like they
could use a good cleaning. It was obvious they weren't well-taken care of,
and he wouldn't be surprised if half of them weren't functional. He also
noticed that though they all wore silk, there were telltale marks here and
there indicating repeated mending, and no one save the dignitary herself
looked like they were actually prepared to receive visitors.
It seemed obvious to him that he and Selena were the first to arrive here
from anywhere in a long time.
"It would be inappropriate of me to presume that the matriarch will see
you, and inappropriate of me to turn you away on the off chance your bold
presumption on her is not a lie. I will, therefore, permit you to remain here
this evening and I will send word to a noble higher up in the mountain. She
will make the final decision, and you will have our answer at dawn."
"Be certain you include my race in your report, Dignitary Naomin,
along with my specific color pattern. Should my request not reach the ear of
the matriarch, whomsoever refused us will be quickly and dramatically
replaced," Selena said, and though her words carried a dire threat, there was
none in her tone.
He glanced at her and couldn't help but feel the presence radiating from
her. She was undoubtedly using magic of a kind he hadn't ...
It's the same thing that killer with the scar was doing.
The realization made him look again at the dignitaries escort, and now
that he knew what to look for he could see a few of them trembling.
I bet anything if I'd tried getting in here on my own I'd have been
gunned down.
The dignitary turned her head slightly, and that seemed to be a dismissal
because her escort turned almost as one being and filed back through the
gate, leaving her alone with he and Selena.
She then stepped close, until there was no more than five feet separating
the two women. Naomin was at least ten feet tall, but Selena was
conspicuously limiting herself to James' height, though there was no hint of
cowering as she looked up at the arachne, her hood still spread.
"You're a bold one," Naomin said quietly. "And you come here with a
human male in tow, claiming him as your mate. I'm ... astonished. I will
ensure your message carries the proper weight, but should you not pass the
test of renown you've set for yourself I'll take him as my prize. We have a
splicer here, and I am certain if your human would take a snake, he will just
as easily accept a silken embrace."
James' lips compressed, and it was an effort to keep quiet. He managed
it because this wasn't his show, and because he wanted to see how Selena
would respond.
She did, in dramatic fashion, by rising sinuously to stare at the dignitary
from a foot above her, and hissed, "When I pass this test of renown, I will
have you as my personal attendant for what time I choose to spend in the
'nation' of Ostingrath. Prepare your belongings for a move to the capital.
You will travel soon."
"Then, victory is mine," Dignitary Naomin said, though her quiet smile
gave no indication she was at all intimidated by Selena's display.
Her pedipalps switched from a right to a left cross as her four legs
turned her away.
The gate closed once she was through, leaving them both outside.
"I suppose this is what passes for a customs inspection out this way,"
James said.
"Tests of renown are not common, and not truly known by most
ordinary folk," Selena said as she turned to take their tent from the trailer
and begin setting it up. The two of them had long since fallen into a habit,
and had it ready in under five minutes despite its complexity. Though the
ground was rocky, it was flat where they were and they had no trouble.
As they worked, she said, "Essentially, my description will be passed
on, along with the impressions of the dignitary. Should I be recognized at
the echelon I claim, I will be allowed an audience at that level. Valia
Drainheart is the matriarch over all of Ostingrath. Essentially, what we just
did would be akin to walking up to a terminal gate in Daytau and
demanding to see Mayor Bremmin."
"And ... couldn't help but notice, but did you just bet me?" he asked as
he pulled out some of the wood they'd carried to start a fire.
"Yes, I did, but again if you'll permit an analogy, I just wagered the sun
would rise in the east tomorrow morning."
"She didn't seem to think so," James noted. "'Victory is mine'?"
Selena hissed pleasantly as she said, "A more human way to say it
would be, 'win, win.' You'll see. For now, cuddle with me. It's getting cold
at night."
"Not about to turn that offer down."
 "Have I told you I love you lately?"
"Yes, but it's always good to hear."
She wrapped his waist with her tail and settled, watching him build the
fire before pulling him in and practically engulfing him in her coils.
After dinner they slipped into the tent, made love into the early hours,
and when dawn came, they received both an answer to the test of renown
and a servant to accompany them to the capital.

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S elena glanced at J ames , concerned. Like so much else about him, his
perception had noticeably sharpened and even though she was looking at
the back of his head he sounded annoyed as he said, "Will you stop that?
I'm fine."
"Most humans wouldn't be. I can't help it," she said in as close as she
ever got to a grumble. The two of them were walking up a very steep slope,
even for her. Though there were technically stairs, they were narrow, tall,
and the ledge they were on was perilously narrow. So much so that James
was walking just ahead of her.
The wall to their left was entirely coated in spider silk and intricate web
designs in black and red confused the eye of any but an arachne. Before
beginning the climb, they'd been warned that humans were known to
become mesmerized and fall off. Despite this, no other method of climbing
the interior of the cavern had been offered, and Selena knew it was one of
many tests they would be required to pass. Even her new servant Naomin
had wished them well and used her silk to effortlessly ascend to the upper
audience chambers, there to await her new patroness.
Naomin was annoyingly precise in everything she did, but that was to
be expected of a low-ranking but ambitious young arachne female. Selena
knew she desperately wanted to take advantage of James, and the thought
made her smile wryly.
James was about to get way more female attention than he was used to,
and she looked forward to seeing how the man handled it. She knew him
well enough by now to know that she had nothing to worry about ... though
the presence of a splicer here was both unexpected and troubling.
Gene sages were the architects of the Spite, and though most now knew
them as munificent beings principally concerned with the practice of
medicine and therapies that allowed humans and non-humans to breed,
Selena couldn't bring herself to trust them.
As much evil as she had done, the splicer cult was responsible for far
worse. She had hoped such a remote place as Ostingrath would be free of
their influence.
Still, as annoying as that had been to learn, what they faced now was
both more immediate and trying. Her eyes wandered to James again, but
slipped past as she continued to make her slow way up the stairs behind
him.
For a human he was moving swiftly up the steps. For a human. Selena
was having a harder time than she would have otherwise having to go so
slowly, and the months of travel in what was essentially a wagon hadn't
done much for keeping her limber and in good shape.
James, on the other hand, had recovered wonderfully over the course of
the last few months. He was lean and fit, and the thought of his body made
her sample the air behind him, just to take in a bit of his flavor.
"Thinking pervy thoughts again?" he asked.
She startled, then hissed in exasperation at him as she said, "Stop that. It
annoys me that I'm so predictable."
He chuckled, but saved most of his breath for the climb.
When they finally reached the top James stepped aside for her then
stopped, gazing around in open amazement. It'd been quite a while since
Selena had seen true opulence, and though not shocked, she did take time to
admire the matriarch's work.
Valia always did have a good eye for decoration, she thought.
The hall was relatively cozy, only twenty feet tall and perhaps twice that
wide, hung with drapes of silk dyed in fantastic designs, each featuring fine
gemstones worked into their patterns that glinted and shown in the pale
luminescence cast off by what she greatly suspected were ordinary light
bulbs hung out of sight in pockets and crevices.
Having fire in such a place would be a sacrilege, and with a splicer here
it wouldn't do to use any form of magic where it could be seen. She knew
the spiders didn't like change, but also that they were pragmatic when
forced. Human technology offered easy solutions to age-old problems, and
Valia wasn't alive and still leading her people today because she was
stubborn.
Speaking of which ...
"She's uh ... big," James said, his eyes riveted to the distant woman
seated in the midst of a web so bejeweled that its sparkle confused the eye
such that the first impression of the massive, blood-red abdomen of the
matriarch was that it looked like a massive ruby.
It was only as one studied the matriarch that the outlines of her legs
resolved themselves into a true picture of the woman, and she was mighty.
Most arachne were in the range of three to four hundred pounds, though
many were smaller. Valia Drainheart easily weighed a thousand pounds, and
was twice as tall as any other arachne. It was only fitting, as old and
accomplished as she was.
She was also surpassingly beautiful by any measure, arachne or human.
She had a perfectly sculpted face with two eyes, every feature refined to
perfection. Her hair was like a fluffy white cloud that haloed both her head
and body, framing a lush figure that invited every man's most decadent
fantasies.
It was therefore a moment of immense satisfaction for Selena when her
lover's first description of the most powerful, beautiful arachne on the
planet was 'big.'
She managed not to chuckle.
Barely.
"Selena ... it has been quite the span between visits. Do come in. Come
in and show me what you've brought me."
Dignitary Naomin stood in a far corner and made no move to advance
with them as Selena and James strode down a lane of webbing in brilliant
red and black. To simply stand in the presence of the matriarch as a servant
was, for a female of her lowly stature, honor enough.
"Answer if you're spoken to directly, be polite. Remember, this woman
is akin to a Mayor," Selena said soto voce as they stopped, still a full twenty
feet from the matriarch, at the base of a dais with webs that began on the
second step.
James nodded, but said nothing at all. Selena could see Valia's fanged
smile as the woman focused on James, and her hood spread in irritation.
Valia was wasting no time testing Selena's protégé.
 She had warned James this would happen at some point, so she held her
silence despite her increasing annoyance. Valia was, in many ways, ruled by
her greed. If she could steal this man away from a professional rival, she
would absolutely do it.
It was a risk she had long known and accepted. She was confident both
in James' ability and in the bond they shared, so she waited in a silence that
stretched.
At last, Valia said, "What do you think, James? Does my web not suit
you? Would it not be marvelous to embrace me, to revel in all that might be
yours?"
"I think I'm quite happy with what I have, and I doubt your webs would
be as comfortable for me as my lover's coils," James said quietly.
Selena smiled darkly as she felt the other woman's aura fade, and her
attention turn.
"This is a surprise, Selena. You've taken on an apprentice. The test of
renown sent to me made no mention of this."
"I wasn't aware until I arrived that you'd invited a gene sage to stay with
you. You'll have to forgive my reticence," Selena said.
"I suppose I must. He does show promise. Did you bring him to me to
further his training, perhaps?"
The hopeful note in Valia's voice sent a shiver all the way down Selena's
spine, but she swallowed her misgivings and said, "Perhaps. I came here to
avail myself of the hospitality you once offered me."
"That was many, many, many years ago, and as I recall your rebuff was
both rude and complete at that time," Valia said, making a study of the
chiton knives that were her fingers.
"I was a different person. I am ... somewhat at your service, in penance
for that distant slight," Selena said. She could feel James' attention on her,
but dared not glance his way. Every word of this encounter was important,
and she couldn't allow herself any distractions.
"I suppose it would be boorish of me to refrain, despite the reluctance
with which your service is offered. Very well, the deal is struck. You shall
have my hospitality and I shall have your service. I do have a task you and
your ... mate, would be well-suited to accomplish. We shall save a
discussion of that for another day. At present, I must presume your journey
was long and that you wish to rest. Quarters have been prepared for you and
— I trust — will suit your taste. I have also taken the liberty of preparing
raiment suitable for one of your stature. Those rags you're wearing are
hardly fit for an audience, but can be forgiven just this once. The next time
we speak, I trust you'll be properly accoutered."
"I present myself in genuine gratitude, and when next we meet will be
dressed in a manner more fitting the lofty station of my host."
"Dignitary! Prepare an easy descent for my guests and see to their needs
in every detail for the duration of their stay. Should Selena — who is a dear
friend of mine — express satisfaction with you, I may bother to learn your
name."
Naomin bowed so low the first joints of each leg touched the floor, but
she did not speak, not even to acknowledge the matriarch's command.
As they turned to go Valia held up one hand to pause them as she asked,
"You are called James, are you not?"
Selena tipped her head to watch as James turned back around, facing the
matriarch squarely as he said, "Yes."
"You have a strong will. Whenever Selena comes to see me, do you the
same. I am ... eager, to hear the stories you have to tell."
James visibly hesitated, then awkwardly bowed, though he said nothing
as he turned away.
Selena took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she smiled. James had
done well. It was a rare man who could withstand the presence of Valia
Drainheart. Yet, as they descended in the woven conveyance prepared for
them, Selena couldn't help but wonder again why a member of the splicer
cult was here in Ostingrath. They had traveled through several arachne
settlements on their way into the mountains, but she had not seen a single
human of either gender.
The implications eluded her, and that was troubling.

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V alia was silent and still in her web, though her thoughts were many and
fractured.
Selena had an apprentice. A male, human apprentice.
"Such a waste," she said. There was no one to hear her, though she
could summon any number or type of servant with a few plucks of her web.
The thought of that sterile, dried-up old snake with a human lover was
irritating enough, but that she'd found one with the potential to become a
mage, perhaps a wizard in time, was infuriating.
Valia was conflicted. On the one hand, she was bound by the rules of
hospitality to offer no threat to her guest. On the other, she desperately
wanted to steal that male for herself. If she could seduce him, make him her
own, she would have a human breeding partner that could last indefinitely.
She remembered the hard light in the man's eyes and scowled. Selena
had trained him well. He was not simply resistant to her sexual aura and the
pressure of her will, he was practically immune. It had to be a combination
of Selena's peculiar talent for fascination and the man's genuine inner
strength. He had a will forged and tempered not just by hard experience, but
triumph over those experiences. It was in every line of his face, every subtle
gesture he made.
Valia was supremely confident in her ability and power, but she
genuinely doubted even a succubus could steal James from Selena's coils.
Despite this, his presence sent Valia's thoughts skittering in other
directions. She had encouraged her own spawn for the last few generations
to disperse into the wider world, gain experience and — if they were
skillful and fortunate — human breeding partners.
Thus far, she knew of only one success, but such a success as to make
even Valia's stone heart swell with pride. It was a shame that Velise was so
completely independent. While Valia selected for that very trait, in Velise
she had succeeded too well. She doubted her daughter — now the mate of a
city-state Mayor — could ever be convinced to return to Ostingrath to
assume her proper role as a matron. To do so would be a reduction in both
status and power. Yet, there was some hope that Valia might gain the service
of some of Velise's spawn. She knew that her daughter had borne three
'children' out of her first clutch with Mayor Bremmin, and she very much
wanted to see those younglings for herself.
She had one lure with which she might tempt Velise, an offer she had
not made to any of her matriarchs in over a hundred years. If she made that
offer she might reasonably expect Velise to return, but a journey over such
vast distance was not made lightly, and presented an opportunity not to be
wasted.
She took a breath, let it out, then closed her eyes. The web of
consciousness lit up all around her and she effortlessly lifted herself onto
the astral plane. She cast about, looking at every life that had a connection
to her. There were so many that it was like looking at a sky full of stars, but
some of those stars were more distant than others. It took time to find the
one she wanted, but once she had it firmly in sight she traveled the distance
with a thought.
She paused for a moment, looking fondly on her daughter.
Velise was alone in her web, though Valia could see the faint strands
that connected her daughter's consciousness with those of her own spawn.
Three faint strands.
Only when she was certain that Velise was alone and unobserved did
she make her own presence known.
Velise blinked, then glanced down at her belly, absently rubbing at the
web tattoo Valia had carved there. Realization dawned a moment later, and
Velise spoke softly, eyes losing focus.
"Yes?"
"So abrupt," Valia said. "Surely you have more respectful words of
greeting than this."
 Valia watched Velise draw a deep breath as her pink eyes darkened, but
the words were respectful as she said, "Of what interest am I to you,
Matriarch? Truly, I believed myself beneath your notice, having
accomplished so little in these last few years."
"Ahh, there is the venomous young tyrant I adore. I trust the birthing
went well?"
"It was difficult. I have recovered and the children are healthy. My
husband and I will have more next year."
"So slowly?"
"As I said, birthing is difficult. Egg-laying is no comparison. To what do
I owe the grace of your attention, Matriarch?"
"Your many successes do you honor. They would bring you much
prestige should you return here with your mate in tow, but fear not. I will
not make an offer I know you would refuse. I would not be so foolish as to
disrupt the influence of my favored daughter on one of the most powerful
human city-states in the world."
"My gratitude knows no bounds," Velise said, tone exceptionally dry.
"Such bite. As I know my presence wears on your mind I will not delay
further with pleasantries. I have desires you can satisfy. Rest assured, you
will not want for remuneration."
"What desires would those be?" Velise asked, a note of genuine
curiosity creeping into her voice.
"I would like to arrange a visit of state."
Velise blinked, then said, "Surely you jest. Whoever has suggested you
visit a human city should have their legs removed and be left exposed for
the harpies to torment."
"Were anyone to offer that advice I'll take your suggested punishment
under advisement. I wish for you and your husband mayor to visit me."
Valia watched her daughter consume that, waiting patiently to see how
far ahead she would think. She wasn't disappointed.
"I presume you want us to bring a sizable retinue, principally male and
open to seduction?"
"It's so pleasant conversing with someone who doesn't need to be led by
the hand."
"I cannot imagine remuneration sufficient to justify the personal cost
inherent in even suggesting such a journey. Bremmin has one more year
before the election cycle begins, and I intend for him to serve a second
term. A trip to Ostingrath would take a week one way by even the speediest
means necessary to convey a mayor in style and then what? A month before
the return journey? Six weeks at a minimum for your purposes and how
would we justify that expense in either time or money? Ostingrath isn't
even known to the majority of the citizenry here. What possible pretext
could we offer the voting public for such an extended absence? Not to
mention this is literally the worst time to even consider making the journey.
There must already be snow on the peaks and even if we set out tomorrow
the weather we would contend with would be monstrous."
Valia laughed pleasantly when she noticed Velise pause to draw breath,
then cut her off before she could continue the litany.
"I will evaluate you for mystic study, Velise ... and not just you, but your
mate as well. I am certain an arachne as accomplished and highly placed as
you are can come up with all the excuses needed to handle the rest."
Velise froze, and the shock of the offer drained her eyes almost white. It
took her long seconds to recover, and when she did she offered her own
delightful surprise to Valia.
"They came to you. Selena Daytau and James Henderson are in
Ostingrath!"
"How remarkable. You could only know that if they had stirred up some
trouble in your city."
"Trouble is a ... curiously inappropriate word for it, Matriarch. Suffice
to say yes, I am aware of them and they did come from here. Watch notices
were issued to all human city-states to be on the lookout for them as
criminals, to be apprehended and disposed of as such."
"Because the idea of a human mage cannot be allowed to spread," Valia
said, smugly satisfied as she offered her progeny a fanged grin.
"What will you do with them?" Velise asked.
"An unusually direct question but I'll forgive the impertinence. I offered
them sanctuary. They are not only guests, but Selena is ... indebted to me."
"I will ... consider your ... generous offer, Matriarch. It remains to be
seen whether there is a method to accomplish all that you desire. I am not
certain how I would convince a splicer to accompany us. They are not ...
pliable."
"I have already retained the presence of a splicer. Another will not be
necessary. As for the rest, I'll contact you again in three days' time. It would
please me to have a definite answer in that time ... though there is no need
to rush in any other regard. Think of the easiest time to convince your ...
'husband.' As you know, magi have no need to rush."
Valia could see Velise's mind was racing and knew her daughter would
do absolutely everything she could to arrange the journey, but all she said
was, "As you wish, Matriarch. I will see if your desires can be met."
"As many males as you can bring, Velise. I know you won't disappoint
me ... and do bring your spawn as well. I would very much like to see for
myself what modern human blood can bring to the Drainheart lineage."
For the first time, Velise offered Valia a savage smile. She said, "My
pride in them is something I look forward to sharing with you, Matriarch."

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 39

J ames looked around curiously as they stepped into what would be their
lodging for the next however long. It was essentially a silken orb suspended
amid a massive web of more of the same. There was a 'floor' of silk and
even what amounted to furniture in the form of strands arrayed in such a
way as to provide seating, table and counter space, shelving, and more. The
catch? None of it was movable, at least, not by James.
It had the feel of something an artist would put together and rent out on
condition that the residents not actually touch anything.
"The arachne are very particular about their designs," Selena said,
having slid in behind him. He'd long since grown used to the way she
seemed to effortlessly follow his train of thought.
"Yeah, it really does convey a 'like it or fuck off' kind of attitude,"
James agreed.
The place was more convenient for Selena than James, given she was
much more flexible and could easily climb to make use of what turned out
to be a layered living space with four distinct areas. The lowest was
accessed by a simple hole covered with a colorful rug. It had no furnishing
or embellishment. It was a simple dark space that could be used for storage
or sleep if nigh complete darkness was preferred. The second area was the
primary living space lit by translucent patches in the walls that appeared
random but were in fact in line with light sources out in the cave, which
were constant and supplied by scattered fixtures powered through
conventional power cabling.
 Though the arachne seemed keen to hide it, they made extensive use of
human technology, though it all seemed to be in poor repair.
The third section was reached by a sinuous winding of silk obviously
intended for someone with more legs than James had. For him it was an
interesting climb that let out into another sleeping and reclining space.
The last area was actually on top of the orb. For an arachne it was
simply an open air space with a view, if a gargantuan inconsistently lit
spider colony could be considered scenic. For James the three by three
meter space was entirely too small due to the fact that it didn't have any
kind of railing.
In point of fact, the entire arrangement of the colony was like something
out of an insurance adjuster's darkest nightmares. The silk that seemed to be
the primary building material didn't adhere to skin or clothing, nor was it
slick or inherently unsafe to walk on. The problem — at least for him —
was that unlike the arachne, he didn't have the ability to walk upside down
on the stuff, nor did he have the benefit of spinnerets to save him should he
fall.
The cavern itself was more like a massive vertical crevice in the
mountain. At no point that he'd seen was it more than three hundred feet
wide, but seemed to be ten times that high.
Selena, who'd watched him explore in silence, said, "This place need
not be a permanent home for us. I simply knew Valia would offer sanctuary,
and from here we can determine whether or not it would be safe to try for a
human city-state later. Ostingrath has rather lucrative trade with humans, so
we should be able to get information on our status."
He nodded and glanced back at her. Their eyes met, and he said, "It'll do
for now but ... I can't stay here. This is no place for humans."
She let out a hard breath and said, "Your city-states are no place for
nagini. It is something you will have to endure for a time. Just because we
have dealt with our greatest antagonist does not mean our life will suddenly
be easy."
"Our life. I like that."
Selena chuckled as she said, "Good thing too, because that's what we've
got."
"So how hard is Valia going to try?" he asked, testing a silk seat before
setting his weight on it.
 "Not very. She's persistent, not stubborn. She doesn't think about people,
she thinks about the qualities they possess. If she can't control a person that
has those qualities she'll look for someone else who has what she wants.
People are imminently disposable to her, which is on one level horrifying
but on another serves us well. She's taken your measure and will tease, but
won't try hard again unless she sees an opening. You've shown her
something she wants. If she can't get you she'll get someone else she can
make like you. Now that she's seen it can be done, the risks are lower for
her to try it herself."
"And you got all that from a meeting that lasted less than five minutes?"
James asked.
Selena slid over to him and coiled her lower body around his feet as she
pressed her upper body in next to him. She was soft in all the right places as
she leaned in and tickled his ear with her tongue, then said, "Suffice to say I
have a great deal of experience with her. You and I will be as safe as we can
be. We can develop your skill and our relationship here. By the time our
welcome wears thin we'll know everything we need to move on."
"Will she keep me a secret, do you think?" James asked.
Selena hesitated to answer, then said, "I doubt she will notify the
humans, but Valia would never promise to hide you. All I can say is that she
is likely to consider you an asset for now. She rarely reveals those unless
she has a definite reason."
James' eyes narrowed as it clicked, and he said, "You told me you were
done trying to change the world, Selena. You knew Valia would figure me
out and you knew she'd make plans around it."
"This wasn't my intention so much as something I realized during our
audience. Your very existence is a seed that will germinate all across the
world. It will be slow, but I believe those few magi who are left will seek
out and train human partners. If the seed of magic is planted in such a way
that its growth can't be stopped, it'll shift the balance of power. But I didn't
teach you because I wanted to change the world, James. I taught you
because I love you. I want you to be happy."
"Selena?"
"Yes?"
"I love you too."
She wrapped another coil around him and he got comfortable with her
weight and warmth. It was something he'd grown accustomed to. Perhaps it
would be better for the world if he and Selena disappeared. But it wouldn't
be better for him, and he was done letting the world beat him up for lunch
money. If it wanted his life, it could come and fight for it.
In the meantime, he was going to take all the happiness he could get,
and Selena had opened those doors for him.
"So, do you know what this job she has in store for you will be?" he
asked.
"I have no clue."
Nodding, James leaned into her and sighed, letting the exhaustion of the
last few days wash over him as he said, "Well, at least I won't have any
trouble finding a job."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. All the tech around here is falling apart. I may not be able to fix
everything, but even if it's just servicing weapons and basic maintenance,
there's plenty of work to do around here."
"You might find that difficult without four legs and a set of spinnerets."
"I've got those."
Selena shifted, then lifted his head to look him in the eye, intensely
skeptical.
"Her name is Naomin."
Her expression shifted to one of sly satisfaction as she said, "Ahh, you
sneak. You stole my servant and it hasn't even been a full day."
"Ours, and she'll be of more use to us ferrying me around than she will
doing ... whatever you were going to have her do."
"You should know that working in that way will be intensely
humiliating for her," Selena warned.
"Serves her right for trying to win me on a bet."
She hissed in dark satisfaction and said, "I think you'll adapt quickly to
life in Ostingrath, James. Have fun with it."
Nodding, he settled back into her coils and said, "May as well. Do me a
favor?"
"Need a break?"
"I'll make it worth your while. Six months here and I'll have legs of
steel."
"I suppose a nap wouldn't be out of the question. Sleep well."
As he drifted off, James couldn't help but wonder what he'd let himself
in for, yet as he had the thought it brought a smile to his face. It was the first
time he could ever remember, even with trouble on the horizon, that he
hadn't worried.
With Selena by his side, he could handle anything the world sent his
way.

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 AFTERWORD

Welcome to the end of book four of the WYLAMG? series. It’s been a
while, and all I can say is 2022 was not a great year for me and it isn’t that
year anymore, so that’s all I’ll say about that.
As always, I really appreciate you lending me your eyes and
imagination, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the time you spent in my
world. If you did, I’d really appreciate it if you spread that good word
around because without it, I’ll wind up working fast food in my twilight
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At the last, I want to thank you, once more, and from the bottom of my
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and I will never, ever take you for granted. What you’ve given me is a
priceless gift, and you have my deepest gratitude.
Until next time.

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