Hey everyone! I really got this chapter out quick! I'm proud of myself. LOL I've been writing at work LMAO.
I hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter and the build up - and then I hope ya'll enjoy this one. I'm a little anxious and nervous as I've never really written action scenes before and I'm afraid it sucks. I mean, I'm pretty well known for my OTHER kind of 'action' scenes, but this is a lot different. So nervous writer here - show some love - or if you hate it...please lie?
LOVE YOU ALL! REVIEW PLEASE!
Lauren spun me around so that we were now back to back so we were able to protect one another since we were surrounded. I gripped the gauntlet that the siracon had activated into tightly – readying my position. I watched as the men slowly neared us. I tried to keep my breath even, my body ready to fight. I was thankful that Trick had found it necessary to train me in sword fighting and Isabeau trained me in other ways to use my succubus abilities – especially as they applied to war. I felt prepared and ready to kick some Magina ass.
Lauren stood against me – I was acutely aware of every movement she made even though she was rather calm. It almost amused me to see Lauren in a battle-ready stance, but it pained me that she didn't have any weapons. I decided in that moment that we would need to fix that should we live through this.
"Do you trust me?" she whispered, looking from side to side.
"With my life," I replied without hesitation.
"When I tell you, we will have 30 seconds before they reach us. In those 30 seconds I want you to feed from me as much as you can. Even if you think you are draining all the life from me, do not stop feeding until those 30 seconds are up."
"Lauren…I can't…"
"You can, Bo. You must. Trust me…"
"Lauren…"
"Now!" Lauren yelled, turning around, grabbing my chin and turning it towards her. My body followed as Lauren's lips melded to mine roughly.
I couldn't wrap my mind around it initially, but then I felt myself feeding. Only I wasn't feeding on purpose. I was trying not to feed because I knew that Lauren needed her strength, however, here I was, drawing Lauren's peach-like chi into myself. The only thing I could possibly rationalize was that Lauren had the ability to force me to feed. If it was going to be like that – if I had no other choice, I much preferred it when I had the reigns. My succubus nature took control and I grabbed her jaw roughly and drew as much chi as I could, as fast as I could. Aside from feeling myself pool between my thighs, I felt myself regaining my strength from the exhausting day – and then some. Aside from the normal sensations I experience when feeding, I also felt something like electricity – adrenaline maybe – coursing through my veins. The only weird thing - I had experienced adrenaline before, but this… this was different. It was like a physical sensation, like something inside of me was awakening – a power I hadn't experienced before.
Before I could overanalyze it, my thirty seconds were up – and Lauren was left leaning against the car, frail and weak. My heart broke seeing her so exhausted. I fed much more during those 30 seconds than I ever had from anyone – ever. It was almost like a binge feed where I fed on her much more than I ever required to, even to be completely full, but she told me not to stop. She didn't tell me to stop when I felt full or when I was satisfied or even when I was just rejuvenated. She told me not to stop. And my worst fear came true – she was pale and fragile and there was nothing I could do because before I could comfort her and try to make her feed from me to help, the three men closed in on us.
Cut each of them with the Siracon I heard inside my head.
I didn't have time to ask questions, I just did as I was instructed. I expertly wielded the Siracon out in front of me, cutting each of the men across the gut. They weakened – not much, but weakened neverthesless. However, despite their small setback, all three seemed to just get that much more pissed off. Not a good sign.
They began to attack, but Lauren was still regaining strength. I was completely on my own. I struggled with the three men, doing my best to keep them from Lauren to allow her time to recover. I used the sword, my fist and the trusty heel of my boot to keep them at bay. I had to admit this was probably the very first time I was truly thankful of one of Dyson's many exercises when he and I were training together. Dyson decided that he and Hale were going to go up against me – and I had to learn how to defend myself against both of them using only my fists and my ability to move quickly and diligently. The men and I continued our dance for several minutes – getting relatively nowhere. I wanted to check on Lauren – to see how she was (I could have really used the help), but I didn't have a moment. It took everything I had to pay attention to anticipate each of their moves so I didn't get hit too hard.
Follow your instincts, Bo.
Hearing Lauren's voice in my head was quite unsettling. I didn't know she could do that and I wasn't necessarily comfortable with it. But we would have to have that conversation later. She said to follow my instincts. What were my instincts saying? I was a succubus and these were three really tasty looking men. "Okay, lets go old school," I said loudly to the three abnormally large brutes. I felt a surge inside of me – the same power I felt when feeding off of Lauren – and I began drawing the chi from all three men simultaneously. I felt Lauren stand up beside me, her hand grabbing mine and instantly I felt a transfer of energy. I was not getting weaker, but Lauren was getting stronger with each passing second. She no longer leaned on one leg, but rather she resumed her battle-ready stance and winked at me.
The three men had significantly weakned for a period but then their weakening platued and so I stopped drawing their chi. Something told me that it would have taken more than a little chi suck to defeat them, but a girl could try. It also dawned on me that Lauren was probably expecting me to immediately go for the chi-suck strategy at which point she would have been able to transfer the energy into herself much earlier in the fight. I felt a little sheepish not figuring that plan out beforehand.
"You ready? That only slowed them down, but it won't last forever," Lauren explained quickly, watching the men slowly regain their composure at least 20 feet from us. "They are predators and can regain their strength quickly. Remember – never assume. These species of Fae can heal quickly and like Trick said – they cannot be killed easily. Also, if we try to run, they can and will outrun us but will not tire. We have less of a chance to survive if we run, than if we fight."
I looked over at her – I saw my brilliant blue reflection in her eyes – "Then let's fight."
"Listen to me carefully - follow your instincts. I can read their thoughts and can help guide you. You have more power than you know, Bo. Just follow your instincts," she directed pointedly.
Had it been any other time, I would have probably freaked out a little bit knowing I could hear her inside of my head and knowing she could read my thoughts. And while I made a mental note to talk to her about this – now was not the time. We were in danger, the woman I yearned after was in danger and that did not jive well with my succubus nature. I was a naturally lustful yet protective creature. I thrived on sex and love and intimacy and I would die protecting the people that I held close to me. Lauren just so happened to be one of those people.
I tried to clear my head and let the power-fused blood course through my veins as one of the men that gained his composure first came running at us full speed. I lunged at him, my body dancing with his – the sword cutting into his flesh. We boxed for many minutes until he blocked one swing and countered, hitting me square in the chest with his large first. My body flew through the air and landed on the hood of the car with a thud. It stung. Like really fucking stung. But mostly, it just pissed me off.
Follow my instincts. I jumped off the hood of the car and stood beside Lauren – who had her hands outstretched to two of the men, drawing a dark purple, nearly transparent energy from their chests. I didn't have time to appreciate her technique as I was met with man #1 bringing his fist down towards me. I lifted the Siracon up and made contact with his flesh - the skin of his forearm cut easily by the blade. I turned on my feet and kicked him in his solarplex – his large form soaring through the air. As he was in mid-air, I ran quickly in his direction, jumped up to grab the back of his pants and slammed him into the pavement – allowing gravity and his momentum to aid in his descent. He clambered to his hands and knees, only to be met with a dumpster running into him – pinning his massive form to the brick wall behind him.
I smiled briefly before looking over at Lauren battling two of the men. I noticed she had stopped her feed and was in the midst of a full on fist-on-fist battle with both of them. I sprinted towards her, quickly engaging myself in the combat. It took me a minute to get my head fully in the fight because I was entranced by the bad-ass blonde – the woman could fight. It was like she could anticipate every move as if it were a pre-determined chess game. She blocked punches with her forearms or ducked when the large men would swing. She used their own body weight against them – letting them expel more energy by swinging and missing instead of swinging and hitting. I swung the sword, cutting the flesh of the back of the knee of one of the men – he dropped to the ground in pain. I quickly collided the heel of my boot with his unfortunately attractive face, drawing blood from his nose before grabbing his collar and sucking the chi out of him. Lauren stood back-to-back against me, our shoulders touching, using the bare skin-to-skin contact to revitalize herself once she knew I was healed and fed again.
Damn…if only we weren't fighting for our lives right now – Lauren…damn. I wonder if I got hurt if she'd be willing to help me heal. I could always pretend I needed to heal… those arms and that look on her face when she was feeding…god I just want to drop to my knees and…
Bo, pay attention.
Shit.
You ready to use their powers against them?
How can I do that?
The power of a conduit works multiple ways, Bo. Don't go far. Just follow your instincts –even if they are different than normal.
I felt another surge of electricity go through me and lifted my hands up – the 3rd man who originally attacked me was running at me full force, but he stopped mid stride and fell to the ground nearly paralyzed. I looked over to the men running towards Lauren and saw a similar event – both men fell to the ground without a sound landing in the fetal position.
I felt the urge to feed, but not my typical feed- it was strange, abnormal. I held out my hands – one towards man #3 and one towards man #2 in a similar fashion as Lauren. A purple energy flowed from their chest into my hands – this is what Lauren was doing before. It was like a movie screen flashed before my eyes – different dates, facts, math equations, biology facts, surgeries all playing out on the screen like a moving picture. These were someone else's memories. Memories of humans and memories of Fae. A part of me wondered where all this knowledge had come from. Some memories were old – I could see outdated equipment and old dates. These were not young Magina – I saw a memory flash from 1772 with notes about nitrogen gas and air. My mind was overwhelmed, between Lauren's and my efforts, I saw Man #2 significantly weakening.
I ended that type of feed on both men before ramming the Siracon into the belly of Man #3, hoping to at least impede him momentarily, and immediately grabbed the collar of man #2 – whom Lauren was still feeding off the memories/intelligence of – and began simultaneously drawing his chi. Within a few moments, the chi and the memory feed from Man #2 ended – there was not much left of him. I swung the Siracon and pierced his heart – the body falling limp onto the ground.
I looked at Man #1 and man #3. Lauren had stopped feeding off of #1.
They're scared. I heard in my head.
Sure enough, the two men saw the other laying on the ground and then looked up at both Lauren and I before retreating back into the darkness.
Lauren knelt down towards the man laying on the ground and checked for a pulse. When she felt none, I relaxed a bit, and put my hands on my knees, bending over slightly – that was one hell of a confrontation. I wasn't really sure if their retreat was a good thing or a bad thing, but I was just thankful we knew who and what we were up against now and that between Lauren, myself, and the Siracon, the men could be defeated. I deactivated the Siracon and put it in my pocket, then looked over at Lauren. She had stood up and was positioned similarly, except she had several cuts on her face and arms and a large rip in her jeans at the knee.
"Lauren, you're hurt…" I fussed, trying to assess her wounds.
"I'm fine Bo. I'll heal."
"Let's get you back inside…" I directed, helping a limping, exhausted Lauren back into the building.
I found an office with a couch and picked the lock before helping Lauren to it, forcing her to sit down.
'I'm fine Bo, I promise," she coaxed. I didn't believe her.
"Lauren, I can heal myself…you're a conduit…use my powers to heal…"
"It doesn't work that way, Bo. The only power I cannot gain through my ability is the power to heal myself. But I will heal in time – it's faster than a human's healing…much faster. It's just slower than your healing."
I gave her a concerned look. "Wait here." I ran to the laboratory – I was sure that there would be alcohol or something that could help clean up the blood. I managed to find some rubbing alcohol pads in a first aid kit, a few bandaids, and some other items – so naturally I ripped the entire first aid box off of the wall and made my way back to the office where Lauren was resting.
"Here… I didn't know what would be best. You're the doctor," I admitted, opening the box and showing Lauren the contents.
Lauren smiled, but made no move to grab any of the items. "I don't typically get infections – my cells protect me against foreign pathogens. I appreciate the gesture thought."
"There's got to be something I can do…" I pleaded, searching my head for answers.
"Bo," Lauren began, placing her hand on mine. "I will heal. I promise. Just breathe. I'm more than okay. It's just a couple bruises and cuts and a little pain. Nothing major."
"In the parking lot you told me to trust me insticts, right?" I questioned, refusing to listen to anything she was saying.
"Yes, Bo. I can feel your power as an Eired. I know there is much more to you than what you have discovered."
"Right… I'm going to follow them…" I stated quickly before grabbing Lauren's chin, kissing her hard for a brief moment, and then pushing some of my chi into her. I didn't know if it would help, but it was an instinct. My mother was powerful, my father was powerful, my grandparents were powerful. I was powerful and Isabeau always told me that from my lineage there was not much that I wanted to do that I wouldn't be able to accomplish.
I continued to push my chi into Lauren – her eyes turning bright blue and I watched as the cuts and bruises faded, her skin healing to the perfect slightly tanned color it always was. I stopped pushing chi into her, but Lauren pushed her lips onto mine, kissing me soundly. I wasn't worried about pushing too much chi into her – the several (and different) feeds gave me plenty of energy, so more than enough to spare. I grabbed the base of her ponytail and the back of her neck and pulled her into me - caressing her lips with mine gently.
The kiss broke, but we pressed our foreheads together, breathing heavily against one another.
"I told you there had to be something I could do," I teased.
"How did you do that?"
"I'm not sure, really. I just did what you said – followed my instincts."
Lauren smiled at me before recapturing my lips for a brief second. She laid back onto the couch and I moved to sit beside her.
Several moments passed before I gained the courage to ask her what the hell happened outside. "So…"
"You have questions," Lauren knew exactly what I was going to say.
"I mean, yea." And then word vomit came rushing out, "You activated the Siracon without touching it, you read their minds, read my mind, spoke to me without saying anything, and enabled me to draw their energy source too…AND you forced me to feed…"
Lauren remained calm, just smiling at all of my questions and the rate of which I asked them.
"Some of that was the ability of a conduit – like forcing you to feed and enabling you to feed from their energy source. As a conduit, I can act as a one way, two way, and multiple way street so to speak. As long as we are close, if I want you to have any powers that I gain from being around others, I can open that door. As long as you trust your instincts in that situation, you'll be able to use those powers as well as your own until I either lose the ability or until I shut off that avenue. It's the same with forcing you to feed. I mean, we've experienced this before…" she teased grabbing my chin roughly and kissing me deeply – her tongue swirling inside of my mouth, making me dizzy.
"Do not feed from me. Understand," she breathed against my lips.
I nodded and she roughly resumed the kiss instantly as she shifted her body to straddle my sitting form. She tangled her long fingers into my dark hair, securing my lips to her. She drew chi from me but turned around and pushed the chi back into me, causing me to feed without trying. When she felt satisfied that my question had been answered, she sat back, her ass resting on my knees.
"See?" she questioned.
I barely could breathe, but I nodded in response. Come to think of it, I did remember Lauren doing this with me before. Granted, I wasn't really thinking straight because my fingers were inside of her – or her fingers were inside of me… details didn't matter. We were fucking. She forced me to feed when we were fucking, which is why I didn't really remember that exact sensation as there were many sensations when Lauren and I fucked.
"That's almost what I did to you – to help you heal," I explained, after catching my breath.
"Somewhat. I can force you to feed, but what you did for me went well beyond anything I am capable of. As for the bouts of telepathy, that's something that I gained from my grandfather."
"So you know everything I'm thinking all the time?"
"No, I don't invade privacy like that. This was a one-time situation. Our lives were in danger and I knew I had to use it. Again, I can shut it off or turn it on."
"But you can be in my head, anytime?"
"Yes and no. I have never before. This was the first time. And now that you know, should you ever make the conscious decision that you didn't want me to know what you were thinking, I wouldn't be able to read your mind or speak to you regardless of how hard I tried."
I looked up at her, concern still showing in my brow. Having someone around that could read my thoughts was awkward, especially since she didn't tell me at the beginning. It felt almost like an invasion of privacy – like she knew every secret – knew that I liked her before I told her…
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I shut it off so much because I don't want that ability. It's not something that just happens – I have to make the conscious decision and focus to do it. Sometimes I even forget I can – until its absolutely needed."
"And you've never used it with me before?"
"No. I promise you," she sat back up onto her knees and cupped my face with both hands. "I promise I have never used it with you before and unless it is absolutely dire, I never will again. However, I will always keep the connection open to me – so if you need to tell me something or get my attention and you can't speak or I can't hear you, you can talk to me. All you have to do is…"
"Follow my instincts."
"Right. Bo, are we okay?"
I let out a huff of air before looking into her soft brown eyes. "We're perfect."
"Promise?"
"Promise," I emphasized, bringing my fingers to her jaw line and tracing it lightly before drawing her closer to me.
I captured her lips in a sweet kiss – expressing everything I had to say with just the dance of soft pedals.
"We probably should get to Trick. He needs to know," I whispered, breaking the kiss.
"You're thinking about your grandfather while kissing me?" Lauren spat playfully, pretending to be offended.
"I don't know, Dr. Lewis. What am I thinking?" I challenged, consciously making the decision to allow her to read my mind.
For fun, I thought of all the naughty things I wanted to do to her: how I wanted to taste her nipples in my mouth, taste her sweet liquid heat flowing onto my tongue. How I wanted to leave bite marks all over her tanned skin and tie her to my bed so she couldn't dominate me.
Lauren's face blushed bright red. "Quite the charmer you are, Ms. McCorrigan," she chuckled.
"We still have to figure out whats wrong with the car." I respond, changing the subject, as we both stand to start heading for the door.
"Oh, I know whats wrong."
"What? How?" I questioned.
"I used some persuasion techniques to make them think about it when you were fighting the other guy. There's a device under the hood on the left side. All I have to do is deactive it and the car should work fine. I don't know what it is or how it works, but I'm certain I know how to take care of it."