"Pretender to the Throne"
by "URN My Power"
Chapter VIII - "?????"
[Author's Note: This chapter has been written and re-written more times than I care to recall. I do hope it's still enjoyable.]
The tail of the beast slammed Kevin against the wall of a building, and the creature stomped on its hungry way. It was similar to the carnosaur from Fantasia; three claws, semi-upright stance, boxy head, long, snakelike fangs...but the similarities ended there. Its three toes were set at angles equidistant to one another, as were the fingers of its scrawny hands. Its tail was long enough to reach around to any place on its body to swat away an attacker, and it was purple, with stripes of a slightly bluer purple. It could dislocate its jaw to swallow things that were larger than its head, could suck things into its mouth like a miniature black hole, and it wasn't picky about what it ate. So far it had swallowed some light posts, a tree, several parked cars, a bus, some police units, along with their vehicles (one of them was mounted on a horse), and every pidgeon that came within its sucking range. Kevin managed to save one woman who wasn't fast enough to get away alone, though her poodle was lost to the gaping jaws. He left the woman in an alley, and dashed to remove some kids from the monster's path. The creature scooped up the pavement where they had been, and swallowed it heedlessly.
"I always knew Barney was bad for kids." Kevin muttered as he put the kids down a fair distance from the battle. The creature seemed to have noticed that everyone was gone, and started to look for new prey. "Hey, Barney, get your ass back here!" he shouted. The creature ignored him. Kevin threw an energy blast at its head. The boxlike head turned slowly in his direction. "That's right, you putrid purple pusbag, you and me, we're going to have a little heart-to-heart."
The creature leaped into the air like a flea, and descended with all the pointy bits aimed at Kevin, but it was unable to capture him, thanks to Kevin's teleportation abilities. He tossed some more energy-bursts, which served only to anger the creature. He drew his sword. Modeled after the sword he'd used on the Therzathje (the original had been destroyed in the explosion), it was no less effective, as he had proven on a few minor demons that had been cropping up since word of Sven Monsterhunter's death had spread. He charged, aiming the sword between the monster's ribs, the potent tail nowhere near close enough to stop him, he charged it with his most potent blade-reinforcement spell. Shin Tsu had taught him the spell, and with Kevin's power backing it, the old Dragon assured him that if a sword charged with this spell couldn't penetrate something, nothing could. Shin Tsu was not known for exaggeration. The world moved in slow-motion, the demon only now noticing the location of his prey, the tail only now beginning to swish around. The strike was perfect. Perfect placement, perfect angle, Shin Tsu's spell firmly in place. The blade shattered like brittle glass, and Kevin, shocked by this development, forgot to arrest his momentum and slammed into his foe's flank. He was only just recovering when the tail lashed him aside. Kevin backflipped just in time to avoid being stepped on.
"Okay, tough guy, round two!" Kevin shouted, forming an energy-sword in his hands. He slashed his sword across the creature's underbelly on a speedy pass between the legs. Nothing happened. Kevin leaped to the monster's shoulders and slashed at the eye when it picked its head up to look at him. It got angry, and lashed out again with its tail, but nothing else happened. Then it opened his mouth and began sucking things in. Kevin surrounded himself with an aerodynamic force-bubble to prevent himself from joining the ranks of its lunch. "Eat this!" he shouted, focussing as much power as he could in one spot. He let go of his force-bubble and released the energy right down the dino's throat, but even that failed to harm it.
"What the fuck?" Kevin exclaimed when he tried to stop the beam. He couldn't stop shooting. All of his energy was draining out through his hands and down the beast's throat. He couldn't divert any from the beam to make himself an anchor chain. Worse, the flow only got stronger as the creature sucked harder. A force dome appeared around the monster, severing the connection. Kevin fell to his knees, exhausted. He saw Monkshood holding a strong force field around his foe. He also saw it turning a bluer shade of purple. It stopped its suction and began to pant and gasp. Finally, it fell to the ground, unable to breathe. Monkshood held the bubble for several minutes before the demon began to die. Its stomach sucked inward, muscles deteriorated, flesh pulled backward, and it looked like it was dying of starvation, not suffocation, and in time-lapse. When it was finally, undeniably and reliably dead, Monkshood released the force-field, allowing air to whoosh into the vacant space. Kevin was lifted unceremoniously to the former Enforcer's back and taken back home. Despite his protestations, Kevin was placed in a bed, his shoes removed, and he was tied down with a sweater. "Okay, fine...rub it in." Kevin grumbled.
"I have no intention of rubbing anything in." Monkshood said, closing the door. "I...have a confession to make."
"You voted Republican, didn't you?"
"Give me credit for some intelligence." Monkshood growled. He took a calming breath and crossed his arms over his chest. "You remember the battle with the Terzathje?"
"You mean the giant cat-thing that attacked the car with Deanna and my sister in it, and put me in the hospital? No, sorry, doesn't ring a bell." Kevin quipped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Monkshood ignored it.
"A reporter, Mercy Gallegos, reported on the fight." Monkshood continued. "Ordinarily, you and the Therzathje would not have appeared on tape. The predator's magic that shields you from observation by indirect means would prevent it."
"Ordinarily?"
"Someone charmed the camera." Monkshood said. "You and the creature showed up as clear as day."
"Still waiting on the confession part." Kevin said. "And why I have to be tied down."
"Patience." Monkshood admonished. "We acted quickly to cover it up. Even the destruction of a bridge by an 'unseen force' can be suspicious to humans, after all. When we discovered the recording, we tried to get our hands on all the copies, and we almost succeeded."
"Almost?" Kevin asked, not liking the direction this was heading.
"The master recording from the television station is missing." Monkshood said. "I've had Transcendents slipping into every government and military installation I know of, and those we've found along the way. I've tried every location-spell I know...I even asked Oberon to teach me new ones, but nothing. There should even be some indication if the tape was destroyed." He shook his head.
"Okay, so Big Brother has access to science or sorcery that can block location-spells." Kevin said, calmly.
"They're not supposed to." Monkshood responded, as if Kevin simply didn't get it. "It takes a lifetime to gain the proficiency necessary to create a blinding field to hide things from human mages. All the beings capable of deflecting Oberon's sight are living right here in this palace. Even then, one can ask to be shown the edges of one's sight, and the hidden areas will show up as blackness encircled by a halo. Whoever it is we're dealing with has the power to fool magic itself." Kevin could see the negative emotions boiling in Monkshood's eyes. It was curious, seeing Monkshood's Sarek-like calm so weakened. "Only the elite among the Divine and the Fallen have such strength."
"Would you kindly stop trying to scare my husband with your apocalyptic soothsaying?" Jessie asked from the doorway.
"I still don't get why he had to tie me down..." Kevin muttered.
"That," Monkshood said, "is because you are far too...hands-on. You've just been weakened by a monster the humans once called Gullet, the All-Consuming Famine. You're in no condition to go looking for the being who hid the master tape, nor the being who summoned Gullet, or even Mercy Gallegos, and until you can free yourself from that Wal-Mart sweater, I will not be convinced otherwise."
"Why would I go after Ms. Gallegos?"
"I've wiped her memories three times." Monkshood said. "Each time, they resurfaced within a day."
"Someone who is resistant to our hypnotic abilities?" Kevin asked, intrigued. "There's something for later, then. For now, put a cleanup team together. I left a bit of a mess out there."
"Give me a moment to recover from my shock at that revelation." Monkshood said, dryly. Jessie growled, and Monkshood withdrew hastily. She floated an inch or so off the ground--a mode of locomotion far more dignified than the waddling gait that her advanced state of pregnancy gave her--as she moved to Kevin's side.
"Asshole." she said, glaring at where Monkshood had stood before his departure.
"He's good at what he does." Kevin replied. "How are you doing?"
"I look like a blimp." Jessie complained. "I feel like one too."
"And floating everywhere you go is supposed to help how, exactly?" he remarked. Jessie punched him in the arm, hard enough to break a normal human's bones.
"Always with the jokes."
"Hey, it works for Spider-Man."
"You're not Spider-Man."
"No, but then, I'm real."
"Sure about that?" she remarked.
"I'm real enough to knock you up, twice." he pointed out.
"You like to live dangerously, don't you?" she said, bending down to glare into his eyes.
"Of course, why do you think I spend so much of my time pissing off Ultimate Evil?" he quipped. "And my beautiful wife too, whenever I have a spare moment."
"Stick with Ultimate Evil." Jessie suggested. "It can only kill you."
"I wish that were true." he said, looking elsewhere. Jessie could sense his feelings, and even if she couldn't, she'd still be able to recognize the ache within, that no healing power could cure. She'd felt that ache herself, an eternity ago, or so it seemed. Kevin had cured that ache by restoring her sister to her.
She curled up next to him in the bed, and wished with all her heart she could return the favor, or at least take back the words that had stung him.
* * *
Arsenic followed the next most-recent scent trail leading from the site of Gullet's attack. Cleanups were always tedious affairs at best. It couldn't be helped, however. Even those who were used to being discrete would be hard-pressed to conceal a giant monster from the public. Kevin couldn't really be faulted. He was only inexperienced in battling this species of demon. He couldn't really be expected to know that the easiest way to defeat it was to turn its own powers against it, by forcing the mouth closed when it tried to suck something in. Like a crocodile, the muscles used for biting were stronger than the ones used to open the mouth, and any decent chain would keep that gaping skull-cave shut at least as long as it took its tiny mind to figure out how to slide the chain off the front of its muzzle, and the pressure difference caused by its suction-effect would implode the creature before that happened.
Here we go. he thought to himself, arriving at his quarry's domicile. He slipped through a shadow and into the apartment. There she is. he thought, as the apartment's lone occupant busied herself in the kitchen. Arsenic crept up behind her. His eyes fell upon her tight, heart-shaped ass, encased in faded denim, and the sight made him pause--at least long enough to adjust his swelling penis to a better position. The rest of her wasn't bad, either. Her short-sleeved shirt exposed a midriff toned through regular exercise, and barely covered a pair of breasts that would fit nicely in his hands if he were to hold them. His eyes were drawn down to the best set of legs he'd ever seen on a human, shapely and flexible, terminating in a pair of bare feet with delicate, well-taken-care-of toes. Her brown hair tickled the middle of her back, just below her shirt, and shone like a polished car in some magazine. She turned, then, and he saw her delicate, smooth-skinned face, with its perfect nose and delicate, almost elfin chin, deep, brown eyes that widened in surprise as she saw him. One soft, delicate hand reached behind her, grasping a cast-iron skillet. He easily caught it when she lashed out, trying to brain him. "Relax, I'm not here to hurt you." he said, wrapping his wings around her struggling form. She looked into his eyes, and he latched onto her consciousness. The memories of the monster attack were easily excised, and replaced with an uneventful journey home from work. Reposed as she was by his hold on her mind, she was even more beautiful, and he could not resist the desire to kiss her. The kiss grew more passionate almost immediately, and his hands fondled her helpless body at will.
He knew at once that he had to have her. He quickly located the bedroom and carried her there. "Undress for me." he commanded. He could simply have willed it, but there was something about saying the words, and having them obeyed, that gave him a thrill. Her body was a joy to hold, every inch of her smooth skin brought new delight to his senses, and her smell was intoxicating. He reached back into her mind, and replaced the uneventful trip home with something a little more exciting: An attack by a stranger while crossing the street, being knocked down and robbed of her purse. He inserted an image of an out-of-control truck barreling down on her, then himself, scooping her away to safety. He crafted a romantic hero fantasy in her mind, then released her to play it out from the end. She moaned as he kissed her, caressed her favorite places. She didn't get to see his wings this time around, unfortunately. Best to save that for a later time.
For now, they were tumbling into bed, and she was guiding him into her wetness. She accomodated him easily, as if she had been made only for him, and that thought goaded him on. It was important, of course, that she enjoy it too, so he monitored her sensations, her desires, her needs, and adjusted his technique to accomodate them. She loved the attention he lavished on her breasts, and soon enough her first orgasm struck like a pleasurable seizure. It wouldn't be her last; no, certainly not.
* * *
Monkshood watched the goings-on inside the mortal dwelling with a mixture of disappointment and relief, and strangely enough, a touch of envy. Disappointment that one of his better detailers was shirking his duties in favor of carnal frivolity, relief that he hadn't made her into a living wind-up doll--a fate once suffered, albeit briefly, by two former humans in Kevin Shadows' circle, Renee Gonzales and Tina Bates--and envy stemming from the animal part of him that knew only that a rival male was engaged in copulation with a very desirable female.
I shouldn't think of him as a rival. Monkshood admonished himself. He's a valued member of my team...who is engaging in carnal frivolity instead of doing his job.
"A little 'carnal frivolity' now and then isn't so bad." said the voice of Suzy Schiff, appearing near his right side. She seemed to prefer Elvish teleportation to Enforcer shadow-walking, using the latter technique only when she needed to maintain a presence in the area without being physically IN the area. "I miss it, actually. I think Kevin's still stuck on thinking of me as his sister-in-law."
"You are his sister-in-law." Monkshood reminded her. "At least since he married Jessica."
"But I'm also one of his brutkreis." she responded. Kevin, for his part, didn't much like all the German words he had to learn when it came to the Vampire society, but it was Abraham Van Helsing who wrote the book, so to speak, on Vampire culture as it was known to non-Vampires, so the German names stayed, including the one for "Brood-Circle," a mature male Vampire's harem of brides.
"You're feeling left out of the circle." he said. She nodded. "Then you must tell your sister. She is, after all, the one with the authority to inform Kevin that he will not wake up with his testicles in Taipei should she find you in his arms."
"Wow, Monkshood made a joke..." Suzy said. "Will wonders never cease?" He was about to snap back a retort when she kissed him on the cheek and disappeared. As Monkshood rose to his feet, Arsenic's new human lover screamed in the throes of another climax.
Cyanide, what is the status of the cleanup? he sent telepathically toward the detail crew.
We'll be finished momentarily, Monkshood. Cyanide sent back.
Good. I'm leaving you in charge until I return, or until Kevin Shadows has recovered, whichever comes first. The human orgasmed again. "Please her well, Arsenic." Monkshood muttered, as he disappeared.
* * *
Mercy set the half-empty screwdriver on the bar and held her head in her hands. There was a time when she would be happy, giggling and wanting to try something new by her third drink. The time she'd shared a man with another woman came easily to mind. Now, however, it just made her angry. Angry at whoever had confiscated all the copies of the angel's fight with the hell-cat. Angry at the silver-haired man with the hooded eyes who kept erasing her memories. Angry at her fellow victims who, through whatever fault, didn't regain them, though she always did. Angry at her boss who refused to believe there was a mind-erasing cover-up conspiracy, and fired her for her supposed "paranoid obsessions." She knocked back the last of her drink in an effort to stifle another rising tide of anger. It didn't help. She paid for her beverages and staggered out. She tripped over her own feet, and someone caught her.
"Easy, my child." the man said in a soothing voice. "Get your feet back under you. There." He helped her stand again. Mercy could see his priestly collar, but unlike her prior experience with men of the cloth, his gaze was not judgmental or admonishing...and what was he doing in a bar anyway?
"Something I can do for you, Rev?" she slurred drunkenly, using the diminutive of Reverend on purpose.
"Actually, I believe there's something I can do for you, Ms. Gallegos." he said. "Come." He held her hand as they walked out. The sun was peeking over the tops of the buildings, and Mercy winced. She was quickly seated in a smallish, white car with tinted windows. He seated himself beside her, helped her with the seatbelt, and poured them both a glass of Gatorade. "Drink." he said, following his own advice. "Rehydrate yourself, or you'll end up with a hangover." Mercy drank. He'd drained his own glass, so she guessed it was safe. Unless he'd taken an antidote beforehand...
"What's this about, Rev?" she asked. He didn't even wince. He closed the door, and the friar behind the wheel drove slowly away.
"Answers to the questions tormenting your mind." he said, refilling his glass and hers. "Drink."
"I've drunk plenty." she said stubbornly.
"Yes, I've noticed." he said dryly, draining his glass again. "Please, indulge an old man. I promise I'll make it worth your while." Mercy frowned, but drained her glass. It was quickly refilled.
"No offense, Padre, but I don't exactly like the berry flavor."
"A pity." the priest said. "Berries have always been a favorite of mine." They pulled up to a cathedral and went inside. He opened a cooler next to the practicing choir and bade Mercy choose whichever flavor she liked. She grabbed something called Lemon Chill and followed the priest into the confessional. He slid the partition aside.
"What's this about, Rev?" she asked again as she opened her bottle.
"It's all about you, precisely the way you like it." the priest responded. "You are...were, a reporter. Think of this as an interview. Ask me anything."
"Do you know who the silver-haired guy with the hooded eyes is?" Mercy asked. "The one who keeps erasing my memories?"
"That would be Monkshood." he replied.
"Who the hell is Monkshood?"
"For three hundred years he was the leader of the Enforcers--a race which in the beginning took it upon themselves to enforce the Great Masquerade. They were the Men in Black of the world of supernatural beings."
"'Was?' 'Were?'" Mercy asked.
"A Vampire called Pirondael, the oldest Vampire still living at least until recently, made himself more powerful than they were by assimilating the powers of the other Pretender races. To stop him, they joined with Kevin Shadows--the winged being you witnessed fighting the demon in the city."
"What are Pretenders?"
"Supernatural beings who live among humans." the priest replied. "Most of them are harmless, and just want to go about their business. Some are mischievious, and like to play tricks on humans. A small few--Vampires, Incubi and Ogres for the most part--are predatory, feeding on the human population. The Church has many Hunters in its employ, and there are many more who work alone, with our blessing if not our direct aid. Kevin Shadows is one of the latter. His mother was half-Elf, half-human. His father, half Vampire, half-human. During a battle against a Vampire during the early part of his career, he found it necessary to call for aid from the power of Avalon. It made him more than human, more than Elf, more than Vampire, a creature containing--and transcending--all three. Like Vampires, he could increase his own power by making apprentices of other Pretenders with different powers. Unlike them, he did not add their weaknesses to himself as well. It's something the Church has yet to discover a reason for."
"So, the Enforcers are with Kevin now?"
"Yes, and technically he is their leader now, but he leaves the business of maintaining the secrecy of the Masquerade to those who are accustomed to it. We think, deep in his heart, he doesn't like it."
"Point in his favor as far as I'm concerned." Mercy responded, taking a swig of the citrus concoction in her hand. "So confiscating all my tapes was all part of this Masquerade? Because people can only go about their happy little lives if they don't know there are supernatural creatures living among them?"
"That recording should not have been possible." the priest said. "One of the Vampire's predatory adaptations is invisibility to indirect detection. They can be discerned by the five human senses, and through telepathy. They cannot be seen in a reflection, or captured on film. Neither can Kevin or his Transcendents."
"Bullshit! I saw the film myself! I watched it through and through to make sure I didn't make a fool of the network before broadcast!"
"As I said, the film should not have been possible, but somehow your camera was charmed beforehand to be able to record Kevin and the Therzathje."
"Therwhatty?"
"Therzathje. A lesser demon that consumes the souls of its victims as well as their bodies."
"You call that a 'lesser' demon?" Mercy asked, incredulous.
"We do indeed." the priest said. "But then, we call any demon that can be destroyed by inflicting sufficient damage to its physical body a 'lesser demon.' And as far as the predators are concerned, children are indeed better off if their parents have plausible deniability when it comes to things that go bump in the night. Rest assured, my child, that for now at least, there are enough things bumping back that the majority of humans have almost nothing to fear from supernatural beings." Mercy sat quietly, absorbing what she had learned.
"Why tell me all of this?" she asked at last.
"Because your single-minded quest to expose the cover-up no matter the cost can only end badly." the priest said. "It has already cost you your career. Unchecked, it could cost you your sanity or your life, in addition to whatever it costs the others you will inevitably affect. And I have a feeling you may have some part to play in the Pretenders' drama yet."
"What part?"
"If I knew that, it would save us all a great deal of trouble."
* * *
Jessie found Kevin in the nursery with Deanna's twins and Evan. Evan sat on a soft chair, with baby Darci in his lap, her head in the crook of his left arm, a bottle of pumped breast milk in his little hand. Kevin fed Dililah from a similar bottle, nodding reassuringly at his eldest. It was so cute, Jessie teleported her charmed camera from the bedroom and snapped a picture. The camera was a gift from Oberon, to preserve family memories, especially from the precious early years.
"Where's Deanna?" Jessie whispered.
"Sleeping." Kevin replied, the undertones in his voice indicating that she needed it more than he. Jessie could sense her in the next room. She felt like Kevin when he would come back to the Enforcer lair after spending most of the day building their home, back when they were hiding from Pirondael. "I had to push her to get her to go to sleep." he said. "She's enchanted by them, refuses to let them out of her sight, even to let someone else hold them for a while."
"I can see why." Jessie said, caressing one soft cheek. Her unborn child wiggled into a new position. At least it wasn't using her kidneys for kickboxing practice this morning. She was certain Evan hadn't been nearly as big a pain. When Darci had finished her bottle, Kevin had Jessie drape the nearby towel over Evan's shoulder and help him reposition his half-sister for the burping procedure. Predictably, a trickle of milk came up with the gas, but the towel caught it all. When Dililah finished hers, Kevin draped his own towel and repeated the process. And the veteran shows the rookie how it's done. she remarked telepathically.
It hasn't been all that long since I was doing this for him. he responded. "Jessie, hon, would you be a dear and put down the crib gate?" She obliged him, and he laid his twin down on her back and opened the bottom of her one-piece pink garment. Darci was wearing a yellow one, to help distinguish the two. Evan carefully carried his half-sister to the crib, though Jessie had to take her from him so they could get her in.
"Diaper." Kevin said, and Evan obligingly pulled one out of the bag. "Wipe." Evan grabbed a moist towelette from its tube and handed it to his father. "Powder." Evan handed Kevin the bottle of baby powder and watched in fascination as the scented nimbus rose from the unseen interior of the crib. Kevin repeated the process for the other baby.
Sonja slipped into the nursery, along with Lil, the former Succubus Jessie had brought home during that mess with Luther. The pair peered around Jessie's shoulders at the children, their eyes sparkling.
Deanna hasn't let anyone near them, except for Titania and of course Master Kevin. Lil explained mentally. They're so beautiful...
Kevin drew the onlookers closer, and held Evan up so he could join in as well. You should be resting too. Jessie reminded him. As he moved to follow her out, Evan wriggled out of his grasp and asked Sonja to pick him up so he could look some more. Jesse led him to their room, and they spooned together under the covers of their bed.
* * *
Kevin awoke before the dawn. Jessie was elsewhere, and he sensed she was having a discussion with her sister. He didn't intrude, respecting their privacy. Instead, he got up, stretched, and flew out the window. He landed on a grassy hill behind the house, dominated by an old oak tree. He climbed the tree the old-fashioned way, and sat in its leafy branches, watching the eastern horizon. The rising sun lent the mists surrounding the island an almost magical glow, before the solar disk rose above them to truly show itself. Kevin hopped out of the tree and opened his wings, letting the sun's rays energize him. His watch soon told him he was going to be late, unless of course, he teleported. He retracted his wings and grabbed his books from the counter where he'd left them, and he and Jessie, with Evan in tow, transported themselves to the college. They appeared just outside the bookstore. Kevin kissed Jessie and Evan before heading off to his first class of the day.
"Hey, Kev, how was your weekend?" asked one of his classmates, Julio, as they were changing into the athletic attire for the Unarmed Combat class for law-enforcement majors.
"Friday afternoon was exhausting, but I'm recovering." Kevin replied.
"Some kinda party I didn't know about?" Julio asked.
"Nah, just a real mean customer at work." Kevin responded.
"A real beast, huh?"
"Yep."
"Enough chit-chat, Officer McAlister's gonna be here in a minute!" said another of the students. Kevin and Julio finished dressing and headed out onto the gym floor, which was cold, but warmer than outside. Within moments, Sarina McAlister entered.
The red-haired woman was barely five feet tall, if that. She insisted she was five-one, but most joked she was four-eleven. Still, Nature had made excellent use of the available material, giving her catlike agility, a contortionist's flexibility, and a set of dangerous curves that distracted most perps at exactly the wrong moment. Her flashing green eyes took in everything around her, and today she seemed to have Kevin in her sights.
"Shadows, you're up." she said, tossing a switchblade at his feet. Kevin flicked it open and checked the blade by habit.
"Is this a switchblade or a butter knife?" he asked.
"Today, I'm going to demonstrate with Pretty Boy here how to disarm and restrain an opponent with a minimum of fuss and force."
"'Pretty?'" Kevin asked, blushing.
"Get up there, Blushy McModest." Julio said, pushing Kevin out onto the mat. Officer McAlister lunged, and Kevin dodged nimbly.
"You're supposed to be the bad guy." she said. "Not a flea on a hot brick."
"'Bad' I can play, ma'am." Kevin responded. "'Brain-dead imbecile with no survival instincts whatsoever' is not a role I'm familiar with."
"Shut up and..." She lunged again. Kevin slashed the front of her shirt open.
"Just so you know, this weapon's a little smaller than what I'm used to wielding." he said. The rest of the class laughed.
"Only a little?" the teacher responded, drawing a chorus of "ooh"s from their audience.
"I thought you were going to disarm me." Kevin said. "I hardly think a real perp would just stand here and play nice."
"Fine." she said, pouncing. It took a tremendous effort of self-control to hold back his speed and agility to within human possibility. Nevertheless, cut a slash in the waistline of the instructor's athletic stretch pants. The garment bunched around her knees, cutting her mobility and giving the class a nice view of her panties. She grabbed the sliced waistline and held it up with her hand. She was breathing hard, trying to restrain her temper, and her bra gave up the ghost, snapping the final threads that had held it in place. She quickly covered her chest with her left hand. "Class dismissed, see you on Wednesday." she growled, and stalked off. When she slammed the door, Kevin tossed the knife, embedding it in the bottom of the door. The "thunk" sound distracted her a moment, keeping her in range just long enough for him to pluck her size from her subconscious mind.
I broke it, I'll buy it. he thought to himself, checking his watch to see how much time he had.
* * *
Sarina McAlister trembled inside as she made her way to her car, wearing her regular clothes, minus her undergarments. She'd gone light on young Shadows, and he hadn't let her get away with it. He'd played the modest one for the class, but she could see in his eyes that he was playing with her like a cat plays with a mouse. Next time, she was going to bring a cap gun, not a knife--no danger of her clothes getting sliced with that. Then, she was going to make him pay.
She drove home, six miles across town to a loft apartment above a Mexican restaurant. The owner, Martina, kept calling her 'Selena,' but convenient dining and apartment space when it was so hard to find had overridden the nuissance. She ignored Martina's inquiry about her early return and went upstairs to fetch more athletic clothes for her later classes. If she hurried, she might make it back before the next class. She'd called her partner to tell him to cover for her if she wasn't there five minutes after her class started.
Her thoughts kept straying to Kevin. It was stupid. He was a student of hers--and a married man, with one child already, and another on the way. Her thoughts latched onto a breeding tangent, much to her distress. "This is stupid!" she growled to herself, throwing off her clothes and stepping into the shower. She turned on the cold water and stepped under the merciless spray.
Her lips were turning blue and she almost had herself under control when her doorbell rang. She dried off as best she could and put on a bathrobe. She opened the door, leaving the chain in place, and saw Kevin with a box. With ribbon.
"I wanted to say I'm sorry." he said, holding the box in front of him, a suitably penitent expression decorating his face, his exotic silver hair hanging like a cowl of penance from some country she'd seen a documentary about on cable.
"I can't accept gifts from students." she said, trembling.
"What gift?" Kevin asked, locking eyes with her. She felt strange all of a sudden. Her body relaxed, and her fear began to dissipate. "I'm replacing damaged property. It's quite alright. In fact, it's only fair."
"Replacing damaged property. Quite alright. Only fair." she repeated, her arousal returning, focused entirely on him.
"May I give this to you?" he asked.
"Of course." she responded, her hazed mind realizing, though only barely, that he couldn't give it to her through a closed door. A single solution presented itself, and her hand rose, unchaining the door. She backed up gently under his guidance. His lips brushed against hers, and she responded passionately, kissing him feverishly. She heard his voice in her head, but ignored it. He couldn't possibly be speaking to her while she was kissing him to within an inch of his life. It must be a fantasy. A wild, hot, steamy fantasy.
She came back to her senses in a flash as her cell phone rang. Blinking, she looked around to find herself alone. She picked up the phone and opened the cover. "Hello?"
"Sarina, are you okay? I thought you just went to your apartment to get some spare workout clothes." It was her partner.
Shit! she thought. "Uh, there was nothing clean, had to do an emergency load of laundry. I'll be there ASAP, just hold down the fort for me until then, OK?"
"OK, I guess." he said. She glanced at the clock.
"I'll go check the dryer now."
"OK, I'll let you go, then. Hope you can make the eleven o'clock class, though. I don't know how you managed to get one whole class of hot girls, but I don't fancy my chances of being able to restrain myself if I have to restrain one of them." Sarina laughed. That was a joke--her eleven o'clock class was indeed all female, but it was hard to think of anyone from the group as attractive, unless the beholder was into tomboys, big women, female bodybuilders or (in the case of one student) Punky Brewster. She closed her cell phone and began to take stock.
There was no sign that she'd done anything inappropriate with Kevin, at least as far as she could tell. Her clothes were still in order, and she didn't feel any signs of recent sexual activity on her person. Perhaps his visit had been just a fantasy? No, she realized. His box was right there, on the bed. She opened it carefully, ready for anything--almost anything. There were six pairs of stretch pants inside, all matching the one he'd ruined, six shirts more than suitable for athletic instruction, but after that...
Her breath caught in her throat as she beheld the beautiful undergarments awaiting her gaze in the bottom. Instead of merely replacing the bra, he'd bought six matching bra and panty sets. How he'd figured out her size, she had no idea, but the material felt good in her hands, even better against her cheek. She felt yet another upwelling of arousal, and didn't have the will to stifle it. Her fingers traced the letters of Kevin's name on her clitoris over and over again until she came.
"I've got to stop this." she said, shoving the garments back into the box. "I should give this back. I should..." Looking down at them robbed her of the will to part with them. Her fingers were at work again. She put her hands on her hips with an effort of will and returned to the shower. In her emotional state, she completely forgot to make it a cold one.
* * *
"Fourth damn belt I've bought this month." Kevin muttered as he pushed his father's lawn tractor back into the garage. "Out of four times I've tried to mow this month, at that."
"Hi, there!" someone said from the sidewalk in front of the house. "Something wrong with your lawnmower?"
"Nah, I've decided to go with the 'Two-Face' look for my lawn this year." Kevin responded, and gestured to the mowed side and the unmowed side in turn. "Good side, evil side."
"Okay, I get it, here's my sign." the young woman said. "You know, Kev, you used to smile more."
"When was that?" Kevin asked, trying to place her face. From her facial features, he guessed he'd seen her at a family reunion--back when his adoptive family used to attend them, although which of the many, many obscure cousins he'd seen back then might be this young woman was hard to guess.
"Oh, jeez, I think Harold quit showing up for reunions about, what was it, ten years ago? You probably don't remember me. You used to call me 'Besty.'"
"Betsy?"
"No, 'Besty.'" she replied. "Everyone else called me Betsy." He remembered now. Betsy Jones-MacElroy, some obscure maternal second-cousin who used to latch onto him at reunions since they were almost the same age. She looked so different now, he hadn't made the connection. "Where is Harold anyway?"
* * *
Betsy sat at Kevin's table, her mind trying to assimilate everything she'd been told--and everything she'd seen. She felt as if she'd been drawn through the looking glass, and the fact that the gate to his family's home was concealed in the back of a wardrobe seemed the most natural thing in the world considering what waited on the other side. A whole new world, with its own rules--rules which were constantly evolving, guided by experience and necessity.
When she had contacted Harold to inform him of her plans to finish the rest of her degree at the college near where he lived, he'd invited her to stay with his family instead of spending money on an apartment or living in the dorms. Kevin had a place of his own, he'd said, so there was an extra room. Now, Kevin was the only one left. Betsy could see it hurt him to talk about it. He said if she was willing to keep house, she could stay at his parents' place. Right now, he was attending to his son, Evan, keeping him entertained while Jessie took a nap. Watching the two of them play was cute, and the restraint Kevin displayed--a man with what she had to call Herculean strength somehow managing not to injure a rough-housing toddler who had not yet come into his own power--was amazing. At present, they were in a magically warded residential suite of the castle, where Kevin lived with his harem and children.
"Mommy!" Evan shouted as Jessie emerged from around a corner. He ran to his mother, who dipped down to one knee to enfold her son in her arms.
"Did you have a nice nap, Jess?" Kevin asked.