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She froze as an expression flashed across her face.
Siobhan suddenly pulled his face to hers, and her tongue was in his mouth in a frantic kiss. She moaned and shook as she flopped back down to the bed.
“What was that?!?” Henry exclaimed.
Her eyelids were still closed as she leaned her face away from him, panting and licking her lips as if trying to capture the last drops of ice cream from her lips. He watched this odd behavior with increasing unease.
“Damn, Henry! You taste so good! Like nothing I’ve ever had before!” she gushed.
He leaned back from her. “What have I done?” he muttered in dread.
“No, Henry! Please! It’s good, I-I just need to recover from the initial shock, and I’ll be able to get control of my senses once again.” She went quiet, and a look of embarrassment crossed her face. “This may sound like a terrible request after what we just shared, but it might be easier for me to get control back if I was alone. You’re just too strong a source of Wild Magic.”
Her face froze again, and she faced him without opening her eyes. Her jaw dropped open. “You are a source! It’s coming from within you!”
Henry was still feeling awkward about being kicked out so soon after their intense intimacy, so her comment about being a source took a moment to sink in. He paused and looked at her. “I’m a source?”Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.
She nodded and tried to open her eyes but snapped them shut again as she held up a hand to shield her eyes. “It’s like there’s a… tear in space within you that leads to the realm of Wild Magic. It’s… pouring through.” She turned her head from him as she could feel where he was in the room without seeing him. Her perception of magic was back, one thousand-fold! She opened her eyes and watched the energy flowing away from Henry to splash against the walls around them before seeping through. Her head began to spin as her senses started to overload again.
“I’m sorry, Henry. It’s too much. I’ll come to see you tomorrow, okay?” she said delicately.
“Sure! I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as he backed out of the bedroom, where he reset his glamor with the outfit he’d arrived in. He walked to the door and reached for the doorknob when he heard the bedroom door open.
“Wait! Henry!”
Siobhan rushed over to him in her dressing gown with her eyes closed but somehow didn’t collide with any of the furniture in her haste.
She thumped against his chest and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, Henry. You don’t know what this means for me!”
“No more stubbing your toes walking through your apartment in the dark?” he teased gently, his voice still a little shaky.
She pushed back as her face flushed with intense tingles from holding him. She gave him another of her crooked smiles. “Cheeky fellow.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said with a smile.
She tilted her face up for a kiss, and he cautiously leaned down to gently press his lips to hers.
Her arms went around his neck, and her tongue was suddenly in his mouth as she moaned.
He gently untangled himself from her arms and tongue and held her at arm’s length as she panted.
“Good night!” he said as he ducked out her door and closed it behind himself. He made his way down the flights of stairs and adjusted himself in his pants. Damn, she was sexy!
He stopped in her lobby and rested his forehead against the cool tile of the wall. He let the tingles fade, and cold reality slipped back into his mind.
He pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed a number before he could talk himself out of it. It rang.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Marisa! It’s Henry. Sorry to bother you… but I need your help.”
Her voice returned with tension in it. “What’s happened, Henry? Are you okay?”
“Sorry I’m fine. I was just with Siobhan, and I can’t really give you any details, but… I think she might need some help or advice.”
“Henry, you’re not making sense. You had a date tonight with Siobhan, yes? What happ–oh!”
He could almost hear the lightbulb coming on, so he continued. “Yeah. She said she just needed to be alone, but I’m worried I’ve done something… bad. Maybe you could call her and see if she needs help?”
“Yes, I’ll call her now. I’m sure she’s fine. Take care, Henry. Good night!”
He looked at the cell’s screen with a sigh, then tucked it away.
Stepping outside, he glanced around at the dark streets. He wondered if he should have had the car wait. Shrugging, he walked to the subway entrance and managed to catch the train as it entered the station. He rode this until he was able to transfer over to the Path train to New Jersey.
His mood on the way home steadily dropped
The night was clear and warm tonight as he walked down the pathway along the water’s edge towards his condo. He was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed tonight. Tish was working a night shift, which was fine as he didn’t feel like he’d be good company at the moment.
A stab of guilt went through him as he worried about Siobhan. The image of her rushing across the room with her eyes closed returned to him, and he felt his initial dread once more. He’d fucked up her senses, or maybe it was more accurate to say Wild Magic did that. He was tired, frustrated, and sick of magic!
“Mroww?”
Henry came out of his funk to look down at a black cat sitting on the path, looking up at him. He was immediately entranced by her eyes, one amber, and one blue. He wasn’t sure why he thought the cat was female. It just popped into his mind. “Hello there, beautiful!”
“Mroww?”
“My name’s Henry. What’s yours?” He looked for a collar but no luck. She might be a stray.
The cat walked past Henry and looked back at him. “Mroww?”
Did it want him to follow? He’d heard of that behavior before, but tonight he just didn’t have the energy. Instead, he walked over to the bench he’d last shared with Ikehorn and dropped himself wearily on it. He looked out at the darkness over the water.
He caught motion in the corner of his eye and saw the cat was now sitting on the bench watching him.
“Sorry. I’m just too tired to go wandering in the night. Besides, there are things that go bump in the night out there that you should be careful of.”
The lovely eyes just watched him, so he looked back out into the darkness. “So many troubling things out there, and I can’t do anything to help anyone.” His expression turned bleak. “I’m asked to help a friend, and I might have fucked up her life instead.” His breath caught in his chest, then more words blurted out. “I can’t protect the children,” he hissed quietly, thinking of his daughter with Baba Yaga, thinking of the dead infant in Kuwait City, and thinking of his child in Tish’s womb. He snorted bitterly. “How can I be a father if I can’t protect them? All this fucking magic, and I can’t do shit with it!”
He leaned forward and put his face in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees. He held his tears of frustration and despair back through sheer willpower alone. He felt overwhelmed by the responsibility he felt for the children he had no power to protect.
Henry felt a gentle nudge on his arm and looked down into mismatched eyes, watching him cautiously. He eased himself back on the bench and took slow even breaths. When he felt his equilibrium return, he gave the cat a weak smile. “Sorry for indulging in a moment of self-pity. It gets to be too much to cope with sometimes.” He took another deep breath, then held out his hand for the timid cat to sniff. He felt the gentle rasp of a rough tongue licking his finger. He smiled a little more as he watched the cat breathing through her mouth. He was sure that behavior meant something, but he had no clue what. It just looked sweet and brought a smile to his face.
“Henry? Is that you?”
He looked in the direction of the familiar voice and saw Dayshia on the path. “Hi, Dayshia. What are you doing out so late?”
“I could ask you the same,” she insisted.
He smiled at her. “I was just talking with my new friend here–” He turned his head, but the cat was gone. He heard a gentle snort behind him.
“Don’t you have enough friends? Now you’re making up imaginary ones?” Dayshia teased.
“What? No! It was a cat! Probably a stray…” He stopped when he saw the amused expression on her face.
“Very funny,” he huffed.
“Come on, Cat Whisperer. Let’s go inside. Is Tish working tonight?” she asked as she held out a hand to him. He nodded.
They began walking the final steps to the front door when Dayshia suddenly froze. She squeezed Henry’s hand. “We’re being watched,” she said stiffly.
Instinct made Dayshia’s eyes flare violet as she swept her gaze across the path behind them. Her sight peered into the shadows until they heard a shriek. A tall, roughly human shape jumped to his feet from behind some bushes across the road and scrambled to run away. Dayshia leaned forward and stared harder at the figure. He screamed in pain as he sprinted away and dove around the corner of a building.
Henry watched this in shock as he’d felt Dayshia pulling on his Wild Magic while she’d… attacked their stalker. He hadn’t seen what she was doing, but it certainly had an effect on… the shape of their stalker was suddenly familiar
“Was that…?” Henry began.
“Roger,” Dayshia confirmed in a grim voice. “I felt the pressure of someone staring at us, and it wasn’t a friendly gaze. There was a definite malignant intent behind the gaze. He was preparing to attack. I-I could feel it! I don’t know what Roger’s become, but I doubt he was looking to talk about good times.”
While he was shaken by the encounter, he could tell Dayshia had been deeply affected.
He sighed. “I’m sorry.” She looked at him in surprise, so he explained. “All of this is my fault–”
“How is Roger’s intent to attack us your fault?” Dayshia asked in confusion.
“Changing him, all of you, was my faul-”
Dayshia took his shoulders in her hands. “Stop. I know I was pretty hard on you for what happened, and I regret that now. I shouldn’t have treated you so harshly because, in my heart, I knew you’d never intentionally harm us. You’re a good person. I was scared, and I lashed out at the easiest target. I’m so sorry, Henry. Like Tish, my life has been greatly improved by my change. I wouldn’t choose to be human again over this. Thank you.”
Henry forced the lump in his throat down and pulled Dayshia into a hug. She felt wonderful, but he was so exhausted by the emotional rollercoaster this day had been he caught himself yawning.
Dayshia must have noticed, too, as she guided him to the front door. “You’ve had enough fun today. Bedtime for Henry.”
He gave her a chagrined smile and a nod as he held the door for her when they entered.
She was right. He’d had enough.