Author's Note: This one is definitely rated M. Don't read it if explicit material is not your cup of tea. For those of you willing to continue reading, please review.

I collected my laptop and notes and walked to my office, escorted by my Guard. Robert stopped by and leaned in the doorway.

"My Lady, I won't be available for our lunch meeting today. Is there anything you would like to discuss now?" he asked.

I thought for a few moments. "What is the next step with the supplicants?"

"Have you reviewed the analysis of your visions provided by the senior staff?"

"Yes. Now what do I do?" I asked uncertainly.

"If you do not agree with the analysis, you may enter your own assessment. If you agree with the analysis, simply enter your concurrence."

"Who tells those two people about the visions?" I asked anxiously.

"The Court liaison for the Guild will inform that supplicant, and the Court liaison for the Witches will tell the woman her result," he explained.

"Does the Pythia ever tell someone their result in person?"

"Not usually. The liaisons are experienced in dealing with supplicants…sometimes they are not happy about their result and can get…er…demonstrative. However, on a few rare occasions Lady Phemonoe did inform the supplicant personally. Do you wish to do that this time?" he asked in a careful voice.

"Uhm…no."

Robert nodded and turned to go, breathing out a quiet sigh of relief.

I spent an hour methodically working through the contents of my inbox until it was empty, ending up with several hours of spare time before the scheduled visit with the third supplicant at sundown. I considered putting in some time training since I had not trained with Pritkin or anyone else in over five days. I wondered if my mentioning that to Pritkin would rouse him out of that infirmary room for a little while. He usually looked pleased in a twitching-mouth sort of way after my usual face-plant onto the sparring mats. It would cheer him up. A Guard escorted me to my rooms in the Residence. I didn't need him if I was going to see Pritkin.

"I'll be in my rooms until this afternoon, and I might take a nap so please don't disturb me," I told him with a straight face. The Guard nodded and I shut the door. I started towards my bedroom to change into sweatpants and a tee shirt before heading over to the infirmary. I stumbled over something on the floor. Pritkin's duffel had ended up in my room at the Residence. After three days, I was tired of tripping over it. With my hand on the side of his duffel bag, I shifted to his quarters. I thought he would still be over in the infirmary, so we were both surprised when I appeared in his room. He had just finished his shower and was toweling himself dry as he walked out of the bathroom. He was unabashedly naked and simply glared at me as he tossed his towel behind him onto the bathroom floor and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Where is your Guard, Lady Cassandra?"

"He's right in front of me. Why?" I shot back at him. I let go of his duffel and crossed my arms, mimicking his I'm-going-to-be-firm-with-you posture…only I was wearing clothes and he was in nothing but his bare, golden skin. I couldn't stop myself from taking a long look at the taut silken skin over hard muscle, lightly furred with damp body hair. Even his legs showed a growth of short damp hair to replace what I had shaved off. My eyes lingered on his groin and the heavy penis I remembered. It lengthened and thickened under my gaze.

"I'm not on duty," he said matter-of-factly. My heart did a little jump, not at what he said but at what he did not say. He did not tell me he was no longer in the Pythian Guards and he did not say he was no longer my bodyguard.

"Why not?" I asked, somewhat appeased. "Aren't you due back today?"

"I took sick leave when the child became ill," he explained as he turned to a dresser and started opening drawers. I had an unobstructed view of his fine, spankable ass. "I've delayed any decisions regarding separation from the Corps. Most unexpectedly, I find I actually need the medical benefits the Corps provides for dependents." He slammed the drawers closed as he cursed under his breath, and then turned his attention to the duffel bag I had brought with me.

I closed my eyes and breathed through the remembered hurt before I spoke. "Why did you threaten to leave?" I asked quietly.

He turned around, crossing his arms over his chest again and regarded me through half-lidded eyes. "Nothing else seemed to get through to you. Now that you are Pythia, you are more of a target than ever before. You must listen to your guards and take them seriously…stop shifting whenever and to wherever you damn well feel like it. And don't try any 'rescues' you are ill-equipped to handle."

"You could have been nicer about it," I scolded in a small voice.

"Could I? Really?" he snorted. "Tell me Lady Cassandra…have you shifted without a guard since I left? Or attempted any more 'rescues'?" he demanded.

"Uhm…no."

"And why not?" he pressed. He rummaged in the duffel bag and cursed even louder as he pulled out several items of small, pink clothing.

I thought about that question for a few moments, being honest with myself. "I hoped you would come back if I followed all the rules," I answered simply. "And everyone else has been telling me the same thing…even Mircea agrees with you."

He smiled grimly. "So you finally listened," he remarked. He exhaled roughly and tilted his head as he regarded me. "Your Guards are part of your life now…get used to it. I will not always be near you. I have a life outside of this Court and I have the child to care for. And you have your vampire." Huh? What life, I thought with a flash of jealousy.

"I'm not planning on a visit to Mircea anytime soon. He tried to influence me into his bed and it pissed me off," I said tiredly. "I stopped it with the spell you taught me."

He looked at me with interest. "You had to have practiced that spell for it to be effective."

"Which reminds me…I have not trained in over five days. I have several hours and I was wondering if you are up to some lessons?" I asked cautiously.

"I have no clothing," he admitted, and cursed some more. I looked at him quizzically. "I have been in hospitals and infirmaries for the past two days without a change of clothes and my luggage is not here. I cannot wear what I had on because the child peed on me during her seizure," he offered in explanation as he ran his hands through his damp hair, leaving spikes.

"Why bring her here? Doesn't the Corps have medical facilities in Stratford…near the Silver Circle HQ…closer to your house?" An image from my last time with him in his home briefly crossed my mind. I found myself getting warm all over at the memory…or maybe I was getting warm because Pritkin kept walking around stark naked and didn't seem at all concerned with covering himself.

"This infirmary is better equipped to handle her particular affliction. No other facility has such expertise in treating clairvoyant vision-related maladies." He ran his fingers through his spiky hair again, and started pacing across the small room while he rubbed his arms nervously. He turned to me with his palms held open. "I could not help her and I had nowhere else to take her. Even the doctors at Underworld General recommended I bring her here for treatment," he admitted as he resumed his pacing. He opened the small closet and inspected the almost-empty shelves. His uniform hung there, protected in a clear garment bag.

"What is Underworld General?" I asked curiously.

Pritkin looked at me silently while he placed one hand on his bare hip and rubbed his jaw with the other. "It is a hospital that serves the Underworld inhabitants," was his less-than-helpful answer.

"Underworld? Is that for homeless people?" I could relate, having been homeless while on the run from Tony.

He grabbed the pink clothes from the duffel and walked out of the room and entered the second bedroom. I followed and watched him from the doorway as he tossed the pink clothing into a drawer, then methodically searched the drawers and closet. "Not exactly," he evaded. I looked at him expectantly. "It is a hospital for demons," he finally conceded.

"D-demons? You took her to a demon hospital? Are you crazy?" I yelled. The glyphs on the door glowed. I guess I had taxed the silence glyphs with that outburst. He gave up his search of the second bedroom and returned to the sitting room, slowly turning his head as he visually inspected the scant furnishings for any items of forgotten clothing.

"I had to avoid the Circle clinics…there was a risk her gift would be discovered and she would be detained." He rubbed his red-rimmed eyes. "There is a Haven spell on the hospital. She was perfectly safe there," he hurriedly explained. Of course she was, I realized. Pritkin would never put her in danger.

"What about you? Aren't all demons out to collect the bounty on you? They could have found you there," I worried. Pritkin stalked back into his bedroom and kicked a pair of faded jeans lying in a heap on the floor, cursing again.

"Maybe so, but the Haven spell protects anyone while they are in the hospital, including me. I just had to be careful while leaving the hospital with the child, but I managed. They cannot follow me in the ley lines."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "What did the demon doctor tell you?"

"Dr. Eidolon stabilized her and had her under observation for 24 hours, then recommended the facility here for continued treatment," he responded distractedly as vulnerability briefly flashed across his face. Something else had crossed his mind just then. "The medic mage here tells me she will be fine. The catatonia is a means the mind has of giving itself time to heal. So we wait."

"You thought of something just then…" I prompted him.

He looked at me speculatively. "Dr. Eidolon is an incubus demon, of the seminus breed. That is one of the rare breeds of incubus demons that are corporeal in this realm. Their breed goes through a phase in which they engage in continual, unrepentant, mindless sex with any females they can trick into the act. Eidolon, with help from his brother, has researched for decades looking for a preventative for this stage. His research has identified several remedies that seem to be effective on incubus demons in general, but did not have the desired result in his own breed." Pritkin peered at me intently.

"Er…that's too bad for Dr. Eidolon?" I offered, not getting his point.

He frowned briefly, then rubbed his chin again. "One of these compounds might temporarily reduce or eliminate the incubus drain I have such trouble controlling," he finally spelled it out for me. "Eidolon gave me some samples to try," he told me tentatively.

"Oh!" Now I understood…he wanted a round of 'bedsport' to test the samples. I looked at his face. He was trying to exude an attitude of disinterest, but the hopeful light in his eyes gave him away. He was actually holding his breath as he waited for my response. I wasn't going to reward him so easily. Up until a few minutes ago I had been under the impression he was still angry with me. I didn't like being manipulated by him, so he could damn well stew about it…for a few minutes anyway.

He misread my reluctance and exhaled, disappointment clouding his eyes. He rubbed his hands through his hair and tried another approach. "If any of these work, it might be a weapon to use against Rosier…at least temporarily," he said evenly.

That got my attention. "A way to neuter Rosier? We have to try it!" I told him excitedly. "Show me what the good doctor gave you!" I urged.

Pritkin smiled…a little grimly and a little sadly. He grabbed a small drawstring bag off of the dresser and sat on the bed. I sat next to him as he carefully extracted several items. There were three small bottles much like his potion containers, a medallion of some sort on a chain, and a piece of parchment. He held up a blue bottle.

"This is topical. Rubbed straight onto manparts, the drain and everything else is halted." He picked up a red bottle. "This is also topical, but is intended to simply dilute the drain...to assist the user's own willpower."

"So it has a 'patch' effect, much like the norms use to kick their tobacco addiction?"

He nodded and picked up the remaining bottle. "This is taken orally. Eidolon tells me either of these last two compounds can lessen the drain but not completely stop it. The user would have to want to stop for these to be effective." He next dangled the medallion in front of me. "This amulet is rumored to lessen the drain regardless of what the wearer wants." Lastly, he picked up the parchment. "This is a spell. It will supposedly remove the desire to feed." He looked at me hesitantly. "I do not know what the side effects will be from any of these, particularly with my mixed blood. That is the risk."

I knew what I wanted to try first, but I wasn't going to appear too eager. I would torture Pritkin a little bit longer. It was payback for the crappy way he left me after my installation as Pythia. "Do you have a preference for what to try first?" I asked.

A tiny smile of relief danced on his lips. "You pick," he offered.

I poked through the items, picking up the blue bottle of topical remedy. Pritkin looked dismayed at my choice. I opened it. It smelled hideous…like a concentrated cross between dog breath and old cheese. I couldn't imagine anyone voluntarily rubbing that vile stuff onto their penis. I wrinkled my nose and replaced the lid. I picked up the two other bottles. "How long does the effect last?"

Pritkin shrugged. "We would have to test that, as well as how long before the effect is noticed."

I smiled softly and held up the red bottle. He rose to his feet, pulling me with him. He gathered me to him and brushed his thumbs against my temples, looking into my eyes.

"Are you willing?"

I nodded and he covered my lips with his own warm mouth, kissing me gently and then more urgently as he pushed his tongue into my mouth. He skimmed off my suit jacket and ran his hands up under my pullover top, taking it with him as his hands continued over my head. My bra was gone a second later. My calf-length skirt dropped to the floor and I stepped out of it. I was wearing nothing but a scrap of lacy panties and my three-inch high-heeled pumps. I had started wearing the spike-heeled shoes to give myself some added height. I broke away from him and bent down to take the shoes off, but Pritkin stopped me.

"Leave those on," he told me in a heated murmur as he wrapped his arms around me and kissed me again. My nipples rubbed his chest hair, tickling the nubs into pebbled hardness. His hands stroked firmly down my back and then lightly up my sides, over and over, leaving a trailing tingling that started to build. I felt his erection pressing insistently against my belly. I broke away swiftly, suddenly remembering why we were doing this. I looked into his eyes, searching for any hint of the drain. His pupils were normal.

"Good," I breathed.

"Huh?" was his distracted response.

"The stuff." I motioned to the red bottle I had left on the bed. "Let's apply it before things get out of hand". He blinked and nodded, then maneuvered me onto the bed. I picked up the red bottle and opened it, pouring a dollop of the ruby contents onto my palm and sniffing it. The oily stuff felt warm and smelled pungent, evoking images of a bright desert world filled with color and spice and debauchery. I looked at the bedside clock and announced the time. Pritkin lay beside me and leaned against the pillows.

"Do you know what to do with that?" he murmured in a rough voice as he nodded at the ruby pool in my hand.

"Rubbed onto manparts, right?" I said brightly. He nodded again and grabbed me, swinging me across him so that I straddled his thighs as he lay on his back. We both looked at his erection, growing larger as I watched. I breathed sharply and grasped his penis, then slowly so as not to spill it I smoothed the aromatic vermilion oil over his shaft. I started at the base and worked up, covering the length of him. His warm hands smoothed over my thighs, alternating with massaging my butt cheeks through the wispy lace of my panties. I shifted so that my damp privates rubbed against his muscled thigh, the hot friction spreading through my belly and up to my nipples. I eased his foreskin back from the head. I gave into temptation and gently flicked my tongue across the wet ruddy tip of him, tasting the slightly salty slit. His penis leapt in my hands, the slick hardness bobbing stiffer against Pritkin's tightly muscled abdomen. He moaned as his fingers clenched my thighs, abruptly halting the smooth caressing. I rubbed some oil on the bulbous tip of him, then shifted my attention to kneading the oil onto his balls. His harsh breathing reminded me to check his eyes.

"Look at me," I insisted. He opened his eyes. His pupils were still normal. "You're maintaining control," I told him admirably.

"I'm not feeding because you are not fully aroused," he informed me with a slight gasp. He sat up gingerly, then lifted and turned me so I was again straddling his thighs, but now I was facing his feet. He lay back down, pulling me with him so that I sat lightly on his chest. His hands smoothed down my back and over my butt to my calves and then to the heels of the spike-heeled pumps I still had on. He grabbed my feet by the shoe heels and gently pulled me towards him on my knees until I felt his hot breath on my damp panties. I shivered with pleasure as I realized he had positioned me so I was almost sitting on his face. His tongue probed my damp curls, nudging aside the gossamer lace panties. Heat flushed over my chest and climbed up my neck. His hands curved around me and cupped my breasts from behind, rolling my nipples between his thumb and fingers and slightly pulling them. I stroked the brightly red-stained erection in front of me, noticing how the oiliness was gone and how smooth the skin was. I leaned over and pulled the tip of him into my mouth, tasting the peppery flavor remaining from the now-absorbed oil. I arched my back as his hot tongue found my sensitive bud, teasing it over and over with flicks of his tongue and suction from his lips. Hot tendrils shot out from my core in unison with the pounding pulse in my engorged bud, spreading scorching wires of tension through me. Slick heat pooled from me and Pritkin licked it up. I felt a tug and then my panties ripped and were tossed aside.

"Dammit! I liked those panties," I gasped, and grazed my teeth along the soft sensitive underside of his penis.

"Underpants are overrated," he mumbled, and lightly bit my throbbing bud. I came so hard I screamed. The lights flashing behind my eyelids were brighter than fireworks. I actually saw dragons breathing fire this time. The ripples of pleasure were still coursing through me when I remembered to turn around and check his eyes. He had anticipated me, and was smiling at me with perfectly normal pupils. I vaguely wondered what my pupils looked like to him; whether or not he saw the same pinpricks of colored light that were still firing in my eyes. I crawled off of him and lay beside him, still breathing hard with my limbs feeling like jello. He placed his warm palm on my belly and gently stroked.

"My turn now?" he asked, a little breathlessly. I nodded and snaked my arms around his neck as he positioned himself over me. He kissed me deeply, wet and open-mouthed. Our kisses were slightly pepper-flavored. That red stuff was pervasive. He moved an arm down and hooked his elbow behind my knee, bringing my leg forward. He grabbed the heel of my shoe and pulled my leg straight, running his hand along the back of my thigh and smoothing me all the way to the heel of the shoe. He repeated the action with my other leg and then rose to his knees between the vee of my straight legs as they both pointed to the ceiling. He stroked both legs a little harder, pushing them forward and consequently raising my hips off the bed. He positioned his erection at my entrance and smiled at me with perfectly normal pupils. He looked into my eyes as he pressed into me. I gasped, wondering how he would get that entire penis inside me. He filled me and then pressed some more and somehow my body accommodated him. He pulled out slowly, tantalizing me by pushing forward again only this time staying outside of me and stroking his entire length slowly over my still heavily pulsing bud. Then he pressed inside of me, again filling me until I thought I would burst and then still finding more room. He took his time, alternating the strokes inside and out and occasionally biting or sucking my nipples. I was a loosely trembling pile of sensation from my neck to my toes. He finally let go of my legs and let me wrap them around his waist as he stroked faster. Sweat beaded on his face and neck, but his eyes stayed normal. Oh God…could he really finish this time? He was panting and my heart was racing in tune with his. I came right before he did, my legs convulsed so hard that my heels dug into his ass. To his credit, he kept his eyes open and trained on me the entire time. I thought his pupils had gotten a bit larger, but they stayed normal as he finally groaned and spurted deep inside me. He thrust deeply once more as he shivered over me, then collapsed. He rolled off of me, pulling me with him so he could hold me close to his side as our breathing steadied. I glanced at his slack penis, watching with fascination as the red stain faded to pink, then to nothing. Pritkin's pupils started to dilate.

"So that's how we tell the stuff is done," I said to myself. Good to know. Pritkin got control of the drain very quickly, and I gave him a congratulatory kiss.

"Four more remedies to try," I reminded him cheerfully. He looked at me with disbelief.

"Er…don't you want to wait awhile…enjoy the glow?" he asked.

I laughed joyfully, and kissed him again. "I can wait until this evening. Can you…er…" I fumbled.

"Yes, I can perform again this evening," he assured me. I smiled and lay back down next to him. He gently stroked and kissed me until I fell asleep. I woke later to an empty bed, and shifted back to my rooms.

Author's Note:

Dr. Eidolon and Underworld General are the creation of Larissa Ione. Larissa Ione owns these and all other characters from the Demonica series.