No Fate But My Own
Chapter 14
Lauren woke up and instantly realised that Bo wasn't in bed beside her. She sat up and stretched her muscles and rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes. Lauren placed a hand on Bo's side of the bed to feel if it was still warm, finding the space where her lover was supposed to be cold, she frowned and looked at the time. It was early, just after six. Way too early for the succubus to be up. Lauren slid out from beneath the covers and sat on the edge of the bed. She reached out with her mind trying to get a sense of Bo through the bond but found the path to her lover blocked from the succubus' side.
She stood up and grabbed her robe that was hanging on the closet door and shrugged it on. She slipped her feet into her slippers and shuffled out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen where she found Kenzi filling up a huge bowl with four different kinds of cereal. The doctor just smiled. She had gotten used to the young woman's strange habits and found most of them charming now, instead of annoying. Though the mess that the goth managed to make with everything that she did still infuriated the neat freak part of her, she was able to ignore it for the most part.
"Morning, Doc," Kenzi says, though a mouthful of cereal.
Lauren turns on the coffee maker before greeting the goth in return. "Good morning Kenzi. Have you seen Bo this morning?"
The goth shakes her head. "I presumed she was still upstairs sleeping."
"No she's not there her side of the bed was cold when I woke up. What's got you up this early, Kenzi? You aren't usually up this early either."
"I know, right," Kenzi responds emphatically. "But last night was unusually quiet and there weren't parts of the ceiling falling onto my face as I tried to sleep. So I'm all refreshed and ready to face the day," Kenzi replies, with huge twinkling blue grey eyes and a teasing smile. Lauren blushes at the goths statement and gives a small, "hmm," in response as she pours herself a cup of coffee. "Maybe there's something in the water because Bo Bo's obviously already out and about too. Uh don't you have like an inbuilt GPS now that can sense where our succubutt's butt is right now?" Kenzi shovels another spoonful of cereal into her mouth as she waits for the doctors response. She wipes the trail of milk that escapes from her mouth with her sleeve.
"It doesn't exactly work like that, Kenzi." Lauren starts putting away all the boxes of cereal and wipes the counter around the Russian with a cloth, catching all the stray colourful shapes that had managed to escape from her bowl into her hand and tosses them into the trash.
Kenzi swallows her mouthful and puts down her spoon. "You're worried," she says noting the doctor starting to get into one of her cleaning frenzies. "What are you sensing through the bond?" she asks, as Lauren's fear starts to spread towards her as well.
"Nothing," Lauren responds. "That's the problem. She's blocking it from her end. Bo's gotten really good at it. It makes me feel a little empty inside like something is missing that should always be there." Lauren at that moment feels a little bit of her connection with Bo returning. As she is trying to get a sense of what the succubus is feeling, muffled shuffling sounds come from behind the front door. Kenzi snaps to attention and grabs the samari sword from its position on the end of the kitchen island and walks silently towards the door, sword at the ready in front of her. Lauren steps up beside her and watches as the door knob turns slowly. The door opens revealing Bo. One hand is gripped onto the side of her neck, blood trickling though her fingers while her other arm is leaning against the door frame aiding the succubus to remain standing. Kenzi's katana clatters to the floor as her and Lauren rush to either side of Bo and grab her before she collapses. The succubus losing the will power to continue holding up her mental shields and her body, lets go of both and falls into her friends outstretched arms. Lauren gasps as she feels Bo's pain through the bond, her calming power instantly rising to ease them both.
"Jesus, Bo! What the hell happened to you?" Kenzi says in a high pitched and extremely worried voice. "Lauren, where are we taking her?"
"If you can hold on to her and support most of her weight, she can feed off me to give her the strength she needs to get upstairs," Lauren responds, her expert eyes running over the succubus assessing her injuries. Lauren keeps one of her arms around Bo to help Kenzi hold her up and steps around to face the bruised and bloody features of her girlfriend. Bo is barely conscious and hadn't made a sound since her return. The blonde leans in and kisses Bo's swollen bloody lips ignoring the taste of blood in her mouth. Lauren uses her free hand to hold Bo's face and flicks her tongue across her lips to ignite Bo's succubus powers and encourage her to feed. After several agonising seconds, Lauren almost sighs in relief when Bo's eyes light up neon blue and she feels the familiar tugs as Bo begin to feed from Lauren's life force.
Bo's arms reach out, her hands grab the doctor by the waist, the material of the kimono bunching up as Bo pulls Lauren towards her. Kenzi lets go of her friend and is pleased to see that she is now having no trouble standing on her own, Lauren's potent chi giving Bo strength. The goth watches as the large gash on her neck stops bleeding and begins to close. Lauren closes her mouth and breaks the flow of chi, causing a low growl of frustration from the hungry succubus. "Upstairs Bo," Lauren whispers huskily, fighting her own arousal enough to think straight and spare Kenzi another glimpse of her naked. Bo had been starting to open the robe to get to her waiting and ready flesh inside.
Bo still blue eyed and filled with her primal power picks the blonde up, forcing her to wrap her long legs around Bo's waist as the succubus starts walking with purpose towards the stairs. "Righto, Hotpants, while you are sexing it up and healing Bo, I'll uh... be down here saving the world from zombie robot hookers. Just give me a yell if you need me." Kenzi watches Bo manhandle the doctor upstairs before grabbing her now soggy cereal and heads to the couch to finish eating.
Dyson
Dyson smiles politely at the waitress that places his coffee on the table beside all the books spread open on the table before resuming his reading. There had been a spate of attacks lately with the victims insisting it was some hideous monster or wild beast. He had been able to brush off these comments by saying that it was dark and that their minds may be manifesting a monster because of how terrifying and traumatic the attacks were. But his gut was telling him that an under-fae was behind these attacks. The problem with the under-fae is that they had no governing system or laws. The Light and The Dark used them when one these creatures had a power or ability that was required, but neither side wanted to be responsible for them. That of course made his job and other people that were contracted to ensure that the fae remained hidden from the humans even more difficult.
Trying to comb through all the scattered and vague descriptions from the victims was exhausting and most likely a waste of time. There were so many different types of under-fae spread throughout the world and they pretty much slithered or walked into adjoining territories all the time. There was no book that they had to sign in to at a way station and no one they had to answer to if they went on a feeding frenzy or killing spree just for the fun of it. Dyson lets out a growl of frustration and slams yet another useless book closed and places his head in his hands in despair. The Ash was demanding he find whatever was doing this and take care of the problem and his sergeant at the station was riding his ass to get results and solve these crimes as well. Sometimes he longed to go back in time to when the world was not as civilised and political as it was today. He longed to go back to the simplicity of the hunting and gathering days.
"Well that isn't a very happy wolf sitting there all by his lonesome," says a crisp British accented voice from someone that had just entered The Dal. Dyson looks up from his hands as his ears prick up and his heart skips a beat at the familiar singsong voice that he never thought he would hear again.
"Ciara?"
"Hello Dyson. It's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit." The Fairy Queen lowers her suitcase to the floor and approaches the wolf enjoying how his eyes flash with the old familiarity that had been between them so many years ago.
"And you look even more beautiful and graceful than I remember," Dyson replies a genuine smile crossing his features as he stands and embraces her in a hug.
Ciara returns the hug in kind and chuckles softly at the shifters words. "Oh, I doubt that very much much but it's nice of you to say." After lingering a little too long and noticing that several people were now staring openly at them they step away from the embrace and beam happily at one another. Dyson motions with his hand for the fairy to take a seat across from him and sits back down. He motion for the waitress indicating that his new companion was in need of a coffee as well before giving his first love and biggest regret his full and undivided attention.
"So what brings you here all the way from London?" Dyson asks, slowly recovering from the shock of seeing her for the first time in almost a century and how his heart and body still reacted to her after all that time.
"The Ash has requested my presence something about joining the new joint council of elders."
Dyson's eyebrows knit into a frown, "But the fairies aren't aligned to either the dark or the light. You are their queen. You rule over your people."
Ciara smiles at her friends words. "That is true but The Ash and The Morrigan are moving for a combined council of both the dark and the light as well as the fae with self contained rulers. They are calling for a peace summit amongst other things. I have heard rumours that representative of the dwarves and the dragonkin have also been asked to convene here in the next week or so. Where's Trick? I was hoping to stay here until I can get settled and find a house."
Dyson who was still wondering what the hell was going on with The Ash lately, freezes as the last of her words sink in. "Wait, you are planning on moving here? What about your people? Aren't you needed there with them."
"Things are a lot different than it used to be Dyson. My people are spread out into smaller communities all over the world now and I am reachable through email and video conferencing. I don't know if this will be a permanent move or not but I can pretty much run everything from wherever I am in the world with the technology at my disposal...So is Trick here?"
Dyson shakes his head as much answering the question as he was trying to comprehend that Ciara may be here for a while and that he would be seeing a lot more of her. And he wanted to see a lot more of her. "No he's gone off somewhere. No specifics just that he would be back in a few days." He smiles a devilish grin and says, "Why don't you stay with me? I have plenty of room. It's not much and probably nowhere near the luxury that you are accustomed to, but it's warm and it will give us a chance to hang out and catch up. What do you say?"
Ciara smiles at the shifter her own long forgotten feelings returning in a rush at his smile and eager proposal. "Sure, why not. It will be good to catch up. Do you mind if we head off now? I'm exhausted from the trip and I have back to back meetings scheduled tomorrow with The Ash and The Morrigan."
Dyson jumps up and starts stacking the books on the table. "No problem. Let me just clear this mess up and we can get going..."