Chapter Six: Protection vs Fangs?

Thoughts can be used one of two ways, like a Band-Aid or like a rubber band. Choose to stretch.

-Rhonda LaShae

He was half pondering the need for a spell that would instantly disrobe a woman when actual pain shot up his leg, Jaral had scratched his calf hard enough to pull him from the spell of Sana's kiss. He let out a half yelp of pain and confusion, the promise of pleasure in her embrace trying to tug his mind back down as he pushed against the girl futilely, her heritage offered her a strength that didn't reflect itself in her frail appearance.

"Sana." He even sounded weak. "Stop before I have to dislodge you with force."

The threat was hollow, he was having a hard enough time not returning to feeling up the girl on top of him instead of pushing her away, he doubted he could have summoned the control to remember what he'd even prepared, more or less form the spell itself.

Thankfully, she stopped before he needed to test his willpower, her tongue licking over the paired puntures she'd placed on his neck was already enough that his wandering fingers had found their way back to her hips. Both of them were still breathing heavily and his brain was entertaining the temptation to push her down and have his way with her more than he liked. If he wasn't so disoriented and exhausted from blood loss he might have tried it. She seemed to suddenly come to her senses herself, her whole body going rigid before she scrambled away from him, staring at him in horror.

The irony of her reaction compared to his own hazy mind made him laugh outright, Jaral had moved between him and the girl as if the feline had every intention to protect it's master. "Well, that remedies me of the need to ask you where your unique appearance heralds from."

"Sand." She blinked, crawling back over and touching his forehead, ignoring the protective kitty hissing at her. He wasn't as warm as he should have been. "God, I'm such an idiot. They must have tampered with my vials. We need to get you to a healer...I didn't mean to...damn. Do you think you can stand up?"

The concern creasing her face made the elf smile, albeit a bit tiredly. "Calm down. I will try."

He didn't even get to his knees before stars danced in front of his vision and the girl was forced to catch him before he landed face-first in the dirt. He could feel himself being lifted but his consciousness gave out before he could form any other words. His clever retort lost with the blackness that engulfed him.

Even with the added help her undead heritage blood gave her if Sand hadn't been such a light load she doubted she would have been able to carry him without help. It was good that she'd been able to visit the church in the blacklake district during her visit or her teleport might have gone horribly awry and made the situation even more dire. As it was she had no explanation for the bruise she'd left on his neck, she hoped that the priest that was there when she appeared in the middle of the church was capable of keeping their interactions to himself.

He felt vaguely like he'd joined Khelgar on his binge styled pursuits, his head was aching as he began to come back to consciousness. He could hear chanting, the familiar sound helping to pull him from the dark abyss of sleep, the words were unfamiliar but he could guess the spell once a warmth enveloped him, he'd been on the receiving end of more than a few restoration spells in his adventures and he recognized the surge of strength that accompanied the mystical glow.

"Oh thank god." Adversely, the relieved words when he opened his eyes weren't ones he was used to hearing. Blinking to adjust to the low lighting in the temple's back room where he was laying across an uncomfortable wooden bench and a cleric was touching his face, making him scowl. Sana was seated on the floor next to where he was laid out, distress clinging to her face despite her words. "Are you okay?"

He pushed the cleric's hands away from his face before he sat up, gaining a more dignified position was the first thing on his mental list before answering any questions. Speaking to the attendant in a hoarse voice. "Could you retrieve me some water?"

"Yes." The man glanced between the pair before heading dutifully out of the antechamber.

Leaving Sana to be quiet and Sand to watch the woman that had accosted him as he added up what had happened before he fainted. "Care to explain?"

"I..." She hesitated, it looked as if she had been crying. "I didn't mean to attack you."

"I assumed that much from you repeating it several dozen times." He noted with a bit of a smirk.

"I don't know what happened." She answered honestly. "I...normally I'm in control of my hunger thanks to an artifical form of sustenance but...someone must have tampered with it. Are you sure you are okay?"

"I'll manage to weather through. Easier if you'd stop repeating everything." He leaned back on the bench, still a little too dizzy to consider standing safe but unwilling to lay back down. "Who else knows?"

She didn't answer, the cleric had returned with a tray. "Here, I want you to drink this cider and eat these. The sugar will be good for your system. I wouldn't linger too long my lady, I'm sure they'll miss you at the palace."

After the fellow had left she sighed herself, shaking her head...her hair had been let loose of it's hairpiece and flowed around her face making a beautiful frame. It was a little disheveled, along with her robes, which were ripped at one of the shoulders.

"Gods, I sure did a number on her...I even vaguely remember tossing that comb of hers off into the bushes...I didn't realize I'd torn her clothing." Sand measured her over before looking at himself. "Not that I'm any better off."

"Only the King is aware of my true nature." She finally admitted nervously, fiddling with a strand of the blue hair between two fingers. "He knows that I'm capable of suppressing it with the help of magic and well...he didn't even tell the Nine."

"Did anyone see what happened?" Sand was trying to gauge what he would expect, picking up the cider to try to rid himself of the dryness in his throat.

The alarmed expression she returned him already told him what she was about to say. "Gods, I hadn't even thought of that. I don't know. Once I, er, once you pushed me away and I realized what had happened I brought us here."

"I doubt you got all the way here in the middle of the day without someone seeing you." He picked up one of the cookies the cleric had brought and put it in his mouth, chewing as he tried to organize his thoughts.

"I didn't walk..." She frowned when she said it. "I teleported us here, you needed help right away, I wasn't sure how much damage I'd done."

"You are a sorcerer aren't you?" He chuckled to himself, the question was a statement. "I should have known. That's why you stormed off the other day."

"You don't mind?" She blinked, surprised at reaction, it was quite the opposite of what she had expected. "I thought you'd..."

"What, toss a fireball at you?" He mocked with a smirk. "I'm hardly that droll. The fact that you nearly killed me is a bit more distressing than that discovery."

She winced a little when he mentioned it, glancing back at the stone floor where she was seated. She was certainly the most humble sorcerer he'd ever come across. "I'm sorry Sand, I should probably let you recover...I'll need to explain the situation to Nevalle."

"I wouldn't recommend it. Nasher would have a fit if you went about telling your dark secret to people." Sand reprimanded calmly, picking up another cookie. "I am perfectly capable of keeping secrets dear girl."

"but..." she paused, the conversation was going completely off of the track she'd practiced. "You could have died."

"Intent on reminding me of that?" He offered her a sidelong glance after he'd finished chewing and swallowed some of the cider. "Now that I am aware of your...particular circumstances I will be able to put protections in place."

"Protections?" She repeated the word dubiously. "Against what? Fangs?"

"Something of the sort." He replied mysteriously. "If you think a detail like nearly expiring is going to frighten me away then you misunderstand my resolve."

The comment made her smile a little. "Glad to see you remain so immobile when I was terrified."

"I bet you say that to all your meals." He offered her a smug glance when she dropped her mouth open at the comment.

"You...you are impossible." She crossed her arms with a huff at his unshakable attitude. "Just finish eating so we can go back to the gardens. If Nevalle figures out what happened he won't be nearly so stoic."

"If the nobility hears what we were doing in the gardens you will be the last person Nevalle is concerned with speaking to or gutting, respectively." Sand observed, his own tone a little darker with the thought. "Nasher would behead me for certain."

The burning blush on her cheeks reminded him of the details of what they had been doing in the gardens. Her skin was much softer than it looked...though her nails were sharper than they appeared...he wondered just how much further she'd of been willing to go. He frowned a little then and shook his head to clear it of the less than pure images running through it. "-That- is the last thing you need to be thinking about right now. It has only been a decade or so sense you laid with a woman Sand, get a grip."

"Such an embrace isn't natural anyway." He reminded himself. "Likely a gift to the undead leeches from a powerful succubus on some lower plane."

"We should be on our way." She finally managed to compose herself enough from that reminder to mention it. "Think you'll be okay?"

"I'll be fine." He nodded. "Are you whisking us back then?"

"Unless you'd rather." She shrugged a bit. "I don't want you to grow an aversion to me just from me casting some spells."

"If my near death didn't leave me adverse to your company I doubt anything will." He offered a sly smile, holding out a hand for her. "Besides, I need to see for myself how sloppy your casting is before I make further judgments."

An eye twitched a little at his comment but she reached out and took his hand, closing her eyes to picture the gardens and invoke the words that would return them to the castle. It was a short moment and the feeling of being weightless washed over both of them before gravity returned, the scent of incense replaced by freshly cut grass and roses. The teleport had left them back where the assault had started, a piece of fabric from her robes tangled in one of the bushes near an area where the grass had been pressed into the earth.

"Just how hard was she pushing me down?" He thought as she dropped his hand, the girl seeming more nervous about their sudden return than he did. He was more preoccupied with making sure there was no remaining evidence of their intimate encounter.

"Crap." The single word brought his eyes to bear on where Nasher was heading into the gardens nearby. He wasn't expecting the shove that dropped him into a group of gentle blue Hydrangea bushes, resisting the urge to bellow his indignation at the sudden relocation of his person. Though he gritted his teeth and stayed as much out of sight as he could. Going with whatever it was the girl was conjuring seemed his best chance for survival.

End Chapter

I had to search on yahoo for a little bit to find the actual name of the flower type I was after. My neighbors had a bunch of them when I was kid and I knew what they looked like but had to search to find the actual name. I loved those things, they were so pretty. The quote this chapter was inspired in part by Purple Crow and her wild fiction Some Things Will Never Happen.

-Aura

To my reviewers:

Oh wait, I'd have to have some. -Insert sigh here-