S.A. Price (5 page)

“Of course, my love, I don’t have a care about that. You’re mine.”

“Umm, that I am my priest.” She rolled over, rubbing her cheek on his thigh and watched as his cock jumped, begging attention. She looked up at him and then moved, a smile quirked on her lips. “I have missed you, you know.”

Cristof smirked and patted his lap. “As have I goddess. I have been without your attentions for far too long.”

She crawled up his body and straddled his hips, just as the long lounger turned into a large bed with white satin sheets. She grinned and then gasped as he snapped his fingers, and she was suddenly nude on his lap. “Well that’s handy.” And it was. He really was getting better at dream control, and that was a relief.

“Indeed.” He kissed her and she moaned, enjoying the action, no matter how little she actually felt. It was all practice, for when she was flesh again.

Delphyne giggled as the kiss broke and snapped her own fingers, his clothes disappeared into a fine mist, and as it did it caressed his skin. “I live for your pleasure, my priest.”

Her body hugged his as she sank down on his shaft slowly, and she felt him tense, knowing that he felt everything in this realm. Again, it was more real for him because of his newfound astral strength, and she was jealous. It was a means to an end though, as he got more addicted to what she could do for his body, he lost more and more resistance to her. By the time she was flesh once more, he would be completely under her spell, and she would be the dominant force. But for now, she could play the submissive, and let him think he was a god.

~20~

FIVE

“It’s hardly like I slapped her Mer, what was I supposed to do? You said to play it up…” Kira had her hands on her hips again.

“No I said suggest it.” Merrick growled at her.

“She insulted my dominance, I had no choice.”

“You had every choice.” He shouted at her.

“No.” She shook her head letting her hair fall around her face. “I didn’t. If you want my help Mer, then I suggest you don’t take that tone with me.”

He blinked calming himself. She was right and he wasn’t angry with her, he was angry with himself. Seeing Elise again had affected him more than he’d anticipated. She was everything to him, always had been and he would gladly rip out his own heart than cause her any kind of pain.

Unfortunately it wasn’t his heart on the line, it was his kids and their lives were more important than Elise’s pain. He’d just have to go to her and let her know everything was ok.

Kira smiled up at him. “That’s better. You’ve got your scheming face on again, things will be better soon. On the plus side the Archons are worse than sharks when it comes to weaknesses. They’ll be too busy working on ways to exploit hers than digging at ours.”

He nodded gravely, hating himself. “They take us for easy meat anyway. The sooner we speak with Elise the better, if we both work together we can keep them all looking in the right direction long enough to find the girls and keep us all alive.”

She snorted a laugh “You really believe that don’t you? You wanna ‘work together’? Fuck Mer, you’re just after a booty call.”

He frowned angrily at her; Elise could never be something like that. “Show a little respect and remember what you are. Kira, you could never be even half of what she is… she’s an Archon of your race and demands your respect.”

“She ain’t my Archon, you are. Everyone else can blow me.”

He smiled at her insolence; she’d always been like this. Coupled with her loyalty to him it made her perfect for this job, she just had to tone it down a little. “You’re young and youth never respects their elders but give Elise a chance, she deserves it. Despite that it will be good to have someone at the meeting on our side.”

“Think she is on your side? She seemed pretty pissed with you.”

“I don’t doubt that she is.” He told her steering her back towards the meeting room for lunch.

Things were due to be tense, with any luck they had done as Kira had asked and made their lists.

He was hoping for a few more missing. It wasn’t something that he personally wanted, but it was needed for support. The more support they had and the more respect that they could gather, the easier it would be for the archon’s to grant them with nest status. They needed to be invaluable.

Taking the lead Kira walked in first, by his count they were ten minutes late so everyone was already there and in their places. There were two spaces left together in between Ramona and Elise, undoubtedly things had been planned that way. Kira grinned sitting down next to Elise. Once she was seated Merrick sat next to Ramona keeping his body language very submissive.

~21~

“Sorry we’re a little late,” His posing Archon politely told the room. “I hope I didn’t miss anything important.”

Elise gave her a smile. "Not at all. Marcus and Bettina only just arrived. It seems they have a few more missing than they thought."

"So it's as I feared, and you? How are your people faring?"

"We are all accounted for and in the states, so as of now we are ok. I have put out the call to return to the compound."

"Very wise of you." She smiled laying her hand on hers before turning from her dismissively and looking toward the others. "And the rest of you?"

Olivia nodded. "Jasper and Olga are missing in California."

Ramona sighed "And I've been unable to contact Lillith, my daughter, and her small nest. I'm not worried though," She said haughtily. "I doubt she's been taken, my daughter can take care of herself as could the others."

"Still, it bears being cautious. Now this begs the question, do we have any leads?"

"We have some," Kira informed them sitting back in her chair. "Merrick dear?"

She'd switched from love to dear and it was at least some sign that she'd been listening to him.

This was his moment to talk and lord knew he wasn't going to get many of them. Careful to walk that fine line of informative and assertive he leaned forward placing his elbows on the table. "Of course Archon," he smiled. "We haven’t found a lot. Everything’s clean, all the sites of abduction and drop off points of the dead. I say drop off points because the boys we've found weren’t killed there and as of yet we haven't been able to find the place of death, hopefully it’s where the girls are. Either way it’s all clear, I struggle to use the word military but it sure looks like it. My guess is that it’s ex-military or they at least have some working for them."

Olivia looked at Elvin, her Defteros and husband. "Then it is as we feared. Both Jasper and Olga are ex-military, and not taken easily. I only hope that they are ok. Unless..." she mused and looked at Elvin. "There might be another answer to this riddle, one that I had dismissed months ago, and perhaps shouldn’t have."

Merrick almost bit his tongue from hurrying her along; thankfully Kira stepped in squeezing his shoulder. "Well do share...please."

"The Lamia legend." she said simply, lowering her eyes. "Anya had talked about it several times before her death, asking if it was possible, through alchemy or magic to turn a human with no snake blood in them at all into an Ophidian."

"I haven’t heard of that... is it possible?" Kira asked with a frown, this wasn’t a possibility they’d discussed.

"No it’s not, A human has to have some snake blood in their background, and only then can there be a possibility, but it’s slim. That’s where the Lamia myth comes in." Elise said and looked over at Marcus, who picked up where she left off.

"The Lamia myth has been around as long as the sub species of snakes have been around. A woman half snake, half woman, engaging in sexual congress on a regular basis with willing human consorts so they become like her, allowing her to breed, which is utterly preposterous. I don’t know one female snake that can partially change."

Merrick sat back frowning, the ruse momentarily gone. This made sense; it was what he'd been missing. Though the thought of what that meant for his missing girls chilled him to the bone.

"So what is the military angle? They’re using them to lift the girls? Storing them somewhere? And how would they get the link to Lamia? Surely they'll be figuring that it’s not working by now, no doubt they're changing tactics is why they're taking more and more." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It certainly explains the torture on the recently found boys. They're searching for information... I need to know everything we have on the subject. Scripts, scrolls and the like... anything that they might have."

He groaned, "Fuck if it’s humans they might even be researching from films."

~22~

Olivia nodded. "Wick, my nephew is here at the University of Ohio and he’s been studying the exact subject for his doctorate."

"Perfect," he smiled at her. "Then, with your permission Archon, I'd like to send somebody to pick it all up, maybe even to talk with your nephew. There could be some place or relevance for them."

"Already taken care of. He’s the one that mentioned the possibility of the Lamia cult in the video conference we had. He can’t leave campus right now, but he’s sending everything over to the ranch’s server." she said, smiling.

The possibility of another of Olivia's people here in a perfect position to strike at them irked slightly. "Good." Merrick smiled meeting her eyes.

Kira nodded motioning for Merrick to sit back. "Then I'll arrange for our other to arrive in the morning."

"I would expect nothing less, of any of you. Seeing as I am bending the rules of the meetings, I would expect you all to have someone else here helping with this issue. Wick should have the information here by early tomorrow morning, and I’m having one of our Diarkos flying in with other information from our vaults."

Elise moved forward. "Beryl, my niece, is close as well, about an hour's drive. I’ll have her come.

She might have some interest in this as well."

"Really?" Ramona asked, "And what would that be?"

"She’s an anthropologist with the Aberdeen campus of Ohio State, her main focus is the mythologies of Sumeria and Ancient Babylonia. Anything Wick sends to the server she can get on and confer with him over the video conference." Elise said smugly.

"Ah... how good for her." Ramona sneered before turning to Kira. "Kira darling you must tell us all where it was that you dug up Merrick from. Last I heard he was dead and ducking for cover." She smiled snidely. "You were Archon when you met him, he came to you I take it?"

"That’s a little close to the bone isn’t it?" Merrick growled upon hearing Elise's sharp intake of breath. "Of course I was ducking for cover. Over half the people in this room wanted me dead, yourself included. I had my reasons for going to ground just like I have my reasons for being present here."

He saw Geraldine's eyes narrow from across the table; she was a sharp old bird he had to give her that. "Yes Merrick dear and one has to wonder just what those reasons are."

"I'm merely concerned for the loss of my nest mates. I want them to be returned home safely..."

He smiled simply.

Elise narrowed her gaze at him and then looked away, clearly not buying his explanation. Olivia smirked. "Right. And you showing up at the back of a new and very young and beautiful Archon hopeful is just because no one else could be there? Yes, yes I believe that, don’t you Elise?"

Elise looked over at Olivia and then over at everyone else, finally landing at Kira, but missing Merrick. "Actually, I don’t think Mr. Merrick's affairs are at issue here, and therefore I don’t care what the conversation entails. What is important is that we have nest mates missing and we need to find them and where they went. Everything else is of no consequence." The salad had been brought and was placed at each of their seats. "Now what do you suppose we do about the issue at hand?"

That was his Elise, always in control; he repressed a smile knowing it would do him no good. He'd just have to make it up to her, prove himself. Kira nodded her agreement to Elise. "I believe we should put all our information together, mainly where the girls were taken from. Merrick you haven’t mentioned the scents yet."

"No I was waiting. We managed to pick up two scents at one of the bodies. Male and I think human, it's something Aiden or I would recognize again. It won’t do anyone any good unless I can get near whoever's doing this."

Elise nodded, as did both Olivia and Marcus. "Indeed. We need a point of origin, and a list as far back as a year if we are to be successful I think."

~23~

Kira beamed, "I have mine... and I can get the disappearances for most of the transient rouges.

We should get a map and work out the rest."

"There’s the territories map in the Library here, they can work from that." Marcus said as he forked some salad into his mouth.

"Good idea." Kira smiled pushing some salad around on her plate. Merrick knew she'd never eat it, Kira was a fussy eater and when she did eat she leaned towards meats. They ate for a while in silence, Merrick going over the rest of the night’s plans in his head.

Olivia was the one to break the silence. "I’ll have Terrance make up the extra rooms for our fact finding team. I suggest we reconvene tomorrow after breakfast so we can see what we can see. Elise, I’m sorry but after this information I’m going to have to bow out of dinner this evening, I have much to do in securing my territory, as do we all."

Elise nodded. "I agree. I will make sure the staff sends plates to all your rooms this evening. I should think we will be here for a while then? Longer than the weekend?"