FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Vick found a place to park under one of the few surviving street lamps along the street and cast a wary glance around outside the car. While being a nice, exposed place to park the department skimmer, its light also blinded them to anything beyond its pool of radiance. It had not taken them terribly long to arrive, once they had slipped out of first skyway traffic and down to Street level, so the clock only read ten forty five.

“We just going to sit here for an hour?" Delmos asked as he peered into the shadows on all sides. A derelict van that had once been a ground vehicle, its wheels missing and its carcass sitting on bricks, blocked any view directly behind them. A couple of swoops were parked slightly ahead, but not so close they could not get out of the parking spot quickly.

Vick watched the coin perched atop his knuckles where they rested on the skimmer's control yoke. It slowly rotated, Artela's arrow pointed evenly to one side and behind slightly. Their mark was on the same level as they were, probably on the same street, but moving if the coin was accurate. “I doubt it'll take that long."

Thirty meters or so down the street was the bar called the 'Rat's Pit' and it was certainly living up to its name. They had counted no less than seven rat theriomorphs moving in and out while two much larger rats, or something resembling a rat, stood sentry at the door, stout metal banded cudgels in their hands. All of those who had entered wore some manner of white, mostly around their right biceps. Only one wore the white upon their head but they had been human. The sloped brow of a typical mammalian theriomorph made head scarves awkward to wear and hampered their ears.

“Think she wanted us to actually go into that place? We already stand out like ants in a sugar bowl." Delmos sighed as a quartet of swoops slowly idled past, two of their riders looking hard at the skimmer. The darkened windows would show them nothing of the vehicle's interior, nor the fact that two people were inside watching them. “Nothing screams 'cop' louder than a skimmer on Street level." Due to the labyrinthine nature of the often narrow roads swoops were far more efficient methods of getting around.

“Nothing for it unless you want to get more people involved." Vick replied, watching the swoops glide down to the bar and park along the curb among a couple dozen others. Only one of this quartet was obviously cursed, as a theriomorph boar, while the three others were human or close enough. They could be elves or androgynes for all that Vick could tell at this distance. These, too, all wore some flag of white.

“That's going to be a shitstorm when it blows up." Delmos observed, stating what everyone already knew, from the Streets to the fourth skyway. White had moved in where Red had once dominated, and brought with them man portable artillery the likes of which had never been seen on the street before. Not even the old gangs sported that much firepower, or firepower at all beyond the odd unlicensed mage. They had tended to rely on more brute muscle to get their point across rather than exchanges of spells or weapons fire. Even the Reds, once they had all but taken over, had refrained from excessive use of heavy artillery.

But these Whites were something else altogether, far more ready to employ violence and firepower to push, or simply take, the Reds out.

At some point it was going to come to a head and all out war would claim the Street, perhaps even the first and second skyways where police were in short supply. Only the third, fourth, and upper tower levels would find any degree of security. Those types could afford private armies, and very often already had them, to supplement the already saturated police presence.

Something rapped lightly against the rear quarter panel of the car and Vick dropped his eyes to check the mirror as Delmos turned briefly to glance back in that direction before snapping his attention forward in completely the opposite direction. Neither mirror nor visual scan revealed anything immediately.

Then Vick saw something in the mirror; a brief, tiny flash toward the curb side of the skimmer about fifteen meters behind them. Again something rapped lightly against the rear of the skimmer, bouncing twice before landing beyond their vehicle. “See?" He said to Delmos as he squared his shoulders. “She was watching for us. Behind, left side, fifteen meters. An alley or side street."

“I can't see shit beyond that van." Delmos complained as he craned around in his seat to look through the rear windows.

“Let's take a stroll. The gangers at the bar already know we're police, so let's not give them any excuses." Vick dropped his left hand to the door handle. “Walk around the front, then let's stick close to the buildings." Other than the bar the other businesses on the street had closed long ago, their steel security doors rolled down and double locked. Many even had metal expansion gates drawn across outside of the roll down doors, those also double or even triple locked. There were plenty of derelict vehicles, though, which would provide some cover if they needed it.

Delmos got out of the car, circling around to the front while Vick watched both forward and in his mirror. Once Delmos had taken a position against the closed door of the nearby shop Vick got out and walked over to join him, each keeping their gaze up or down the street. Since Vick knew where the pebble had been thrown from he led the way, Delmos half a step behind and to the wall side using his ears as much as his eyes to listen for anyone approaching from behind. No one seemed interested in them other than a brief glance and glower from the two massive rats at the door to the bar. They did not leave their post, however.

At the mouth of the alley they both stopped and cast a quick glance into the darkness. Neither of them had the eyesight of elves or some theriomorphs so they only saw darkness with a few vague shapes creating shadows within the shadows. “Well, you told us where to meet, so here we are." Vick growled into the inky void.

“And you just want to stand out there on the sidewalk and talk?" Came a sarcastic, hushed feminine voice from the depths of the alley. Vick's ears told him that the voice had bounced a bit before reaching his ears; she was likely standing behind one of the bulky shadow shapes deeper into the alley.

“Yeah, lady, we did." Vick replied with the same level of sarcasm. “Everyone on this street has already fingered us as cops so the longer we're out here dilly dallying with you the more time they've got to consider coming out here to air their well deserved grievances on all of us."

“Then step into the alley." The woman replied with a bit less venom in her sarcasm. “Ten paces should do it. That way we can see if anyone on the street peeks in before they see us. We won't be talking long and I've already seen to it that the bouncers will steer everyone away from investigating too closely."

Vick cast a dubious glance down at Delmos, then the street, and finally the alley before slipping cautiously around the corner and into the darkness. Delmos followed close behind, his back to the alley while their view of the street quickly narrowed to a slice only twenty or so meters across. “So, what's your deal, Helen?" Vick asked after taking the recommended ten paces into the darkness.

She had been right; they could see the street but Vick could barely make out Delmos' shorter form not even an arm's length away. Anyone who wanted to follow them would be impossible to miss. He heard the woman chortle, a soft, rich sound that sent a shiver of ice running up his spine. “So, you've done your homework, bully that." She could not have been more than three or four meters away but Vick's inadequate night vision revealed nothing.

“Such as it was. Your records are effectively blank, behind an Imperial seal. So you're someone's asset, or were, before the vamp caught up with you and your boyfriend."

“Was, and he was my fiance." The woman's sarcasm gave way to a furious snarl, “They took him straight off the street, got him hooked before I could find him again. When he arranged a meet I got… I got careless, I admit. I was so frightened because of his disappearance that I did not exercise proper protocol. Fucking vamps pounced me the instant I walked in." Vick could sense her shaking her head at her own carelessness. “I was never a field agent, detective, I was an analyst. I sat behind my desk and looked for patterns, that was it. Ministry of Intelligence."

“And then what?" Delmos was watching the mouth of the alley, letting his partner do the talking while he recorded everything. “That's a hell of a lot of effort for a mere intelligence analyst."

“I was in the Ministry of Intelligence. They want more inside people and I was an all too easy mark."

“And you shoot damn well for a desk jockey."

The woman let out a scoffing snort. “We all go through the same training, detectives, just like you do in the academy. All the rest comes after, when you get to your job posting. For some that was field work, for others it was desk work, but we were all trained to shoot."

“All right, I'll give you that. You turning yourself in? Clearly, since you didn't plug us when you had the opportunity, you want to try coming in as clean as you can, considering the circumstances. Those animals, yours?"

“Not ours, no. They were merely nesting there and were good at disposing of cattle that no longer had any use." The woman sighed softly. “Wasn't my call, I couldn't do anything about it. I was forbade from turning myself in, or reporting my situation to my superiors. When the vamp who sired you gives an order you can do nothing but obey."

“So your master told you to kill the two puppets and stake the other vamp up there with you?"

“He did not tell me not to, that is more accurate to say. And to shoot when 'they' entered, which I chose to mean those who entered the front since your group did not until the scavengers were spooked out of their nests."

“And, now, then? What has he overlooked that finds you here, talking with us?"

A soft, nasal chuckle came from the woman's general direction in the shadows nearby. “He did not say exactly when I should arrive at the new rendezvous. He has sent a spy to look in on me, but that will be of no consequence if you could show me the silver trinket you used to track us down."

Vick blinked and raised an eyebrow, his hand straying to the pocket of his slacks where the coin vibrated with soft eagerness. “How did -"

Again that quiet laugh and a shadow moved out from behind a greater block of darkness, a pale face emerging like the moon slipping from behind clouds. “I know many things, detective." She said, eyes gleaming a sulfurous yellow in the pale face. “Such as the fact you seek a woman who travels in the company of a skunk." One hand raised, slowly, non threatening, to wave corpse pale fingers in a beckoning gesture. “Come now, your trinket. Swiftly now, danger approaches."

Vick had taken a step back at her appearance, closer than he had at first thought, no more than three meters away. She moved with the silence of the shadows from whence she had spawned, clothed in black so that only her pale hands and face were easily discerned. He took the coin from his pocket and raised his hand, palm up, the coin rolling on its edge into the center of its cupped surface. Artela's arrow pointed unerringly toward the woman's face, the silver glinting bright.

The vampire woman moved faster than his eyes could track, faster than thought, far faster than he could even flinch. She flickered forward, from three meters to less than one, and slapped the back of his hand. The coin was launched upward, never erring in its pointing, even as she lashed out and slapped it from the air. It disappeared into the shadows near the mouth of the alley as a streak of glinting silver, and buried in a shadow that had just slipped around the corner from the street into the alley. It lurched backwards and grasped at its face, the gleam of silver shining from somewhere in the vicinity of its eyes.

The shadow let out a keening wail and the sound of harsh sizzling filled the alley. Delmos caught the motion of her hand, eyes turning too slowly to track the coin as it zipped through the air. Even as Vick's hand jerked toward his holstered gun his child sized partner was drawing, but the vampiress was far faster. She passed between them with a ripple of air, reaching down to draw something from somewhere about her lower leg. It flashed as darkness within darkness and the keening was cut off with a hissing gurgle. There was a heavy, rustling thud as something collapsed to the ground, a whisper like the voices of angry serpents replacing the sound it had made barely a second before. Within another two seconds even that sound faded to silence.

When she turned back two handguns were pointed at the center of her chest, fingers on triggers. Vick saw her eyes flash, the dim light of the street defining her figure as a black shape all too easily hit at such distance. “Stop." She ordered, her eyes boring into Delmos' and his in turn. He froze in place, rocking unsteadily back on his heels as Delmos went rigid. He tried to speak, tried to move, but his body would not obey. “Lower your weapons. There is no longer danger, no harm to you."

Vick felt his arm lower, muscle reflex slipping his finger to the trigger guard of his pistol. Before he could think of disregarding her command his hand had slipped the weapon back into its holster and flicked the locking plate back into place. He could see that Delmos had done the same, the pedomorph's hand hovering over his pistol butt as if eager to draw it free again.

“I will release you, detectives, my master's spy has been removed. He will not know of this meeting without a spy to tell him. I mean you no harm, and have called you to tell you; I know where your missing girl will be, and her companion. He is whom my Master has gathered us to find and capture, not her." Her eyes dropped and her gaze shifted to the side slightly. She unfisted the hand that had slapped the coin, smoke coiling up briefly from her palm.

Abruptly Vick felt back in full control of his faculties and snatched at his pistol again but did not draw it, fisting his fingers around the butt. Delmos did the same, actually managing to draw his weapon only to bring it up before his chest in a high ready position, finger resting along the side of the frame. The young looking detective was breathing rapidly, his posture radiating horror at what the woman had done so easily.

“What the absolute fuck?" Vick rasped, pushing down on the butt of his holstered pistol to prevent himself from yanking it free and unloading it into the human shaped shadow before them. “Gods' balls, woman, what did you do?"

“Vamped you, detective, but only briefly." He saw her pale hand come up and touch lightly to her cheek just below one eye. “That is why your helmets had mirrored face plates, after all, to thwart our gaze."

“Jashua on the tree." Delmos rasped, his body slumping back to lean against some large, square object. From its relative lack of stench Vick assumed it was a crate or air conditioning housing.

“Yes, that." She nodded slowly, lowering her hands. One of them held some long, slender object; a blade of some sort. She slowly eased it into a scabbard strapped to the outside of one calf. “Your missing girl will be on the inner concourse, behind the Legacy Natural History Museum, outside of Sebastion Stonefinder's souvenir shop, tomorrow afternoon at three seventeen. He will look like an old man with a cane, she will have the appearance of a young Sathmoran woman with long red hair."

“Disguise, or illusion?" Vick asked as he felt his heart slow its rabbit-like hammering within his breast. His adrenaline was still spiked and he knew he would be completely out of sorts when it crashed in a few minutes.

“Illusion. I will say these same words to the vampire who turned me in but a couple of hours. What I will not tell him, and I will forewarn you, is that the skunk is Death. Do not stand in his path. The woman will be released unharmed, he has not taken her unwillingly and will not hold her beyond what he feels he must."

“How do you know all of this?" Delmos asked, his voice an octave higher than usual, his posture still caught between fight and flight.

The woman chuckled that warm, bedroom laugh again that Vick knew he would never wish to hear in his own bedroom. “I know many things, senior detective. You should understand how." She turned, her body briefly a shadow in profile, one eye glinting yellow against the dim backdrop of the street glow beyond the alley. “I must leave you now, but I will see you again tomorrow. Until then, be safe, and be wary. My Master's spy is dust, which means he will seek to find out why. He has very little time left, and none of it to be wasted on seeking you out, but he may send his offspring, or his chattel, to look for you."

“Why are you telling us all of this?"

“Two reasons, detective. One lies in your morgue, a crime for which there is no forgiveness. The other is that, before I became this, I was much like you, even if it was from behind a desk." She paused, the pale moon of her face turning to look back over her shoulder. “Ah, yes, a third reason. Meta'kema is in two days' time. I imagine you would rather spend it at home, not out chasing a girl who is perfectly safe. And don't involve anyone else, detectives. No other police, and most certainly not the Lightbringers. That will only mean death to many who do not deserve it." And then, silently, she slipped beyond the mouth of the alley and out of sight.

By the time Vick and Delmos had run the ten paces back out to the sidewalk proper she was nowhere in sight. They scanned the street, both of them with their sidearms out and readied, but saw nothing but a small crowd of patrons outside the bar enjoying their evening, the two burly bouncers looking on impassively. Vick looked down at the coin now lying quiescent on the pavement in a pile of dust and ash. He bent and picked it up, but it did not move, whatever enchantment it had spent.

“Well." Delmos said with an explosion of released breath. “That was bloody fucking terrifying." They did not holster their weapons until they were at the skimmer and getting in.

“Damn right. Even as fucking exhausted as I am I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight." Vick agreed as he started the skimmer and spooled up the turbines. “Or the rest of the damn week." He shook his head and maneuvered out into the street, passing the bar and the couple dozen swoops parked outside. “I think we should really look into finding some protection from that shit, even if it comes out of my own wallet."

“Fuck yes." Delmos slumped back in his seat with a defeated sigh. “But tomorrow, I'm done in."

Ash was more than pleased to wake up not wet and smelling of medicine piss, even if she did know she smelled rather strongly of skunk. He was still pressed up warmly against her front as if neither of them had moved since falling asleep. Considering the size of the cot and the unpleasant repercussions of moving about too much that was a pretty logical expectation. Even asleep the body tended to know where it was in relation to the edge of a bed. As she became aware of herself she also became aware that the arm beneath her, and he skunk's neck, was painfully asleep and the other was cupped rather comfortably upon the skunk's groin.

She chuffed at her damn libido, it was getting out of hand. It had only been a week, even if it was one very celibate week, and her control had slipped so far she was feeling up strangers while they were asleep. Sure, they happened to be asleep in the same very confined cot and where else would her hand stray to, but still.

It was embarrassing; he was asleep. No, he was flat out unconscious! If he'd been awake enough to be aware of her wandering touch maybe they could pass the time in more entertaining ways than just reading a rather heavily salacious book.

She could feel his tremors, still, though they had much subsided. Rather than the uncontrolled shivering and thrashing she had gone to sleep against it was now more like the first shudder of an uncomfortable chill. At least his arms had slowed their writhing strain against the carefully tied ropes that bound his wrists and hands to his upper chest. Her fingers splayed across the skunk's private parts, cupping against him and drawing his weight back slightly as she sought the leverage to extricate her numb arm. Within seconds the numbness gave way to intense pins and needles as circulation returned and she was forced to merely lay there and suffer it; that arm was far too weakened to support her. The other lacked any leverage with which to pull herself up, even if she did release his junk to grasp the edge of the cot.

And, despite all of her licentious hand's impertinent groping, she could feel that his maleness had not awakened in the least. His scent certainly had not changed, but she did not really know how he would smell aroused compared to his normal masculine scent which was an enticing undercurrent beneath his species' musk.

Get a grip, girl, she thought to herself as she levered the elbow of her slowly, painfully, awakening arm beneath her and pushed up slightly. Her other hand reached across to grab the edge of the cot though its aim had, at first, been elsewhere as if to say 'but I did have a grip!' With care she eased out from behind the skunk who rolled over onto his back with a chuffing sigh but did not awaken as she stood.

Shambling on legs still unsteady from sleep she made her way to the bathroom to deal with nature's demands and a quick soaping down to dampen her own scent. The feel of stubble irritated her to no end and she once again vowed never to go anywhere without the proper hygiene items. At least she did not have to delve into the stash in her bag, thank all of the gods for that bit of luck. Spending the past week on cycle would've been even more of a nightmare.

She went to the kitchen side of the counter after emerging from the bathroom and felt her way through the bags. The vegetables were still there, and relatively fresh. She found cubed carrots in a plastic tub and popped a few in her mouth to crunch on while she let her hands wander through the rest of the unidentified items. More vegetables; turnips, cucumbers, greens, snow peas, and a bottle of what smelled like Valley Spice vinaigrette.

And chocolate bars, of course, there were still plenty of those. Enough to last her a few days after the salad ingredients gave out. The fresh meats and other perishables they had eaten the same day she returned with them, but there were still dried meats on the shelf above. Not that she had any desire to try making anything with those without any usable instructions. She doubted she could even manage the pre-cooked, dried rhagesh Kai had made before, without considerable trial, error, and waste.

Unwrapping one of the chocolate bars she gave it a cursory sniff finding that it contained raisins and cranberries, most certainly edible. Filling one of the mugs with chill water from the sink she crossed back over to the cot and sat upon its edge while she nibbled and drank. Kai had stopped thrashing and the shuddering had faded to little more than an occasional flutter of changing hues through his body. Whatever he had gone through seemed to have passed and there was no hue of sickness. She had no idea what his normal temperature was supposed to be so could not determine if he had run a fever by any measure other than the color her Sight gave to his illness.

Now he looked perfectly ordinary, as far as a living being was concerned; his mana clean, no emotions, no distress, and more importantly no pain. Not even the muscles of his arms, which had been straining against her impromptu restraints for who knows how long, showed a hint of strain or discomfort.

Disposed of the chocolate wrapper in the discards bag and returned the mug to the sink once she was finished with a second drink. She returned to the bunk, fishing the braille tablet from the top of the small chest under the bunk. It was still fixed on the last page she had read so she went back a few sentences, sat once more on the edge of the cot, and began reading aloud.

Two chapters later, in the middle of a rather heated scene between the Sensate and a boorish, obese client Kai stirred and rasped his tongue against the roof of his muzzle. He let out a rattling sigh and waking groan as Ash stopped reading and turned to regard him. His life mana was unchanged save for being slightly brighter, a bit more rich in its hues as he awakened. A flicker of startlement raced through that mana when he tried to move his arms and found them bound.

“What?" He grunted and strained his arms against Ash's bonds once more. “Ash?"

“You were thrashing about." She explained as she slid the reader back under the cot where it would be safe from blindly trodding feet or paws. “I had to restrain your arms before you hurt yourself, or me with those claws of yours." She stood up and turned to place a calming hand upon his wrists.

“Water." He choked softly and Ash hastened to the sink and drew a mugfull. Returning to the cot she held his head gently and helped him sip it slowly. “How long was I out?" He asked once he had finished, dropping back down with a long sigh.

“Not sure. A day, maybe more. I slept, at least until you pissed on me." She laughed and saw a dark ripple of unease, perhaps embarrassment, wash outward from his breast. She watched the color shift through him, pooling in his face and, incongruously, his groin. She chuckled again, softly. “I daresay you're quite the labor to bathe while unconscious."

“As opposed to awake?" He asked sardonically and Ash watched the color deepen in his loins yet fade from his face. Where were his thoughts spinning, she wondered, for that hue to remain without fading swiftly away.

“Awake, I daresay, would be easier." She admitted with a nod, setting the mug beneath the cot. “Probably more pleasant."

“Undoubtedly." He concurred with a nod, color suffusing his face again before fading downward. “And, since I am now awake, and blessedly clean of my unfortunate release, you may unbind me now." He held his hands up slightly, as far as the rope around his upper chest would allow.

Ash rocked back slightly on her knees and looked him up and down slowly as he lay there, hands bound, relatively helpless as far as one with such claws could be. After a few long moments she spoke.

“No." She said simply, with a warm depth to her voice, and shook her head.

“No?"

“No." She reiterated with a smile, watching how the colors of confusion and curiosity wash through his life mana. “See, here I am, all alone, with one of the oldest and most powerful men in the entire history of the Empire. One of the most powerful mages, powerless, bound, and completely at my mercy." She leaned closer and splayed her fingers into the deep fur of his chest below his bound hands. Flexing her fingers she pressed the tips of her weak human fingernails into the flesh beneath and slowly raked downward. “No, Kai, my dear. I think I like you just the way you are." As she spoke her hand continued to rake downward, combing through the fur of his chest, stomach, and groin before coming to rest lightly on the velvet fur of his theriomorph foreskin; his sheath.

Surprise blossomed within his breast, racing through him, suffusing his head and breast but making the warm center of color in his groin blossom all the more beneath her touch. That gave way to a brief flicker of anger that quickly subsided, then amusement that lingered longer. Dropping his head back he let out a sharp, loud, trilling churr of deep chested laughter.

“Oh, is that so, villain?" He growled, though not with anger, the fur of his tail flicking up between his thighs to brush the back of her hand. “Do what you will, foul torturer, you'll get nothing from me."

Ash turned her hand slightly, splaying her fingers across the firm ridge and warm fur of his crotch to curl them lightly against the cool fur and flesh of his balls. Leaning down she turned her head to brush her cheek against the fur of his stomach, watching as the colors that had drawn down to his loins deepened, becoming brighter, richer, and the scent of him; as skunk, as male, and the aroused mix of both, filled her nose. Her hand slipped still further down until she was cupping his balls fully and she bore her head down further still.

The fur of his sheath was short, dense, and as smooth as silk against her lips as she drank in the heady masculine scent of arousal that wafted up across her cupped palm directly to her nostrils. She inhaled deeply of the rich scent equal parts man and skunk but not in the least unpleasant, not after so long trapped with it. She brushed her lips along the ridge of his sheath, from its tip to its base, feeling the contours of the flesh within twitch and pulse through the thin barrier. “Oh," she mused, kissing her way back up, “I think you will give me exactly what I want, skunk."

With that she gave the tip of his sheath a more firm press of her lips, her kiss pressing the fur and flesh back, and allowing the slick taper within to slip free. She had felt it during those times she had bathed him, had even smelled it insofar as the shower allowed. But the taste was something she did not know, or even think, she would have desired only four days before. Not even two.

But reading erotica to him during his illness had kindled a slow burning fire within the center of her being that now sought to be stoked, to be fueled, to find its release in the consuming fire of passion. Probably not the best reading material to have read, admittedly, but a damn sight better than a dry treatise on Reconstruction in the Church.

Kai let out a hiss through clenched teeth at the warm caress of her lips, his hips shuddering and rising slightly with a fresh waft of mis mingled musk. That slipped the blunt, slightly tapered tip of his altered cock pressing against her lips and she parted them to let it slip into her mouth. The flavor was sharp, but not unpleasantly so, slightly musky and sweet all at the same time. She let her tongue play against it as the skunk's hips fell, following the motion with her head as she rolled his balls within the cup of her fingers and palm.

When next they strove up she did not draw her head up with them, letting his length slide easily into her mouth, tasting more of him and delighting in the feel of his arousal growing within the embrace of her mouth. Her own quickened arousal was a roiling heat churning within her groin and she let her free hand drop down to delve one finger between her lips. She was not surprised at how wet she had become, two fingers slick as they sought her entry. She gasped around the cock in her mouth, receiving another rapidly thickening inch, as she found her inner trigger with those fingertips.

Hooking her fingers toward her front she dragged downward and ground her swollen clit under her thumb, pressing it back against her questing fingers. Above her head Kai growled and panted, his body writhing now for an altogether different reason. The feel of his slender but rigid maleness thickening at her attentions, within her mouth, was one of the most arousing things she enjoyed. She relished finding the men in her circle at that nascent edge of arousal, their members still flaccid or at the earliest stage of tumescence, and bringing them to full erection within her mouth.

Or, with some of the theriomorphs who possessed baccului, within her sex. That was an altogether different thrill; of the penetration and the swift throb of thickening against her inner walls as they rode her to a shared climax. And there had been so delightfully many of them, usually. Two or three at the very least, whenever they had a gathering, and she sought to pleasure, and be pleasured by, each of them in turn. Each was different, each had their little foibles, what aroused them more than it did others and vice versa.

But this awakening of a male's erection within her mouth was one of those foibles that was hers, and she relished it. Even now, as the panting skunk clenched his teeth and snarled that bestial trill, she felt her body tensing, the muscles of her inner walls tightening with the first onrushing release of orgasm. When it crashed upon her she took him fully, letting her head fall to meet the unsteady thrust of those powerful, heavily furred hips. She felt the thickest curve of him part her jaws as the tip nudged firmly against the back of her throat and she swallowed the hot, thin wetness that spattered from him hungrily even as her body strove toward the edge of the cliff and plunged over.

Raising her head she suckled firmly upon the hot, rigid flesh in her mouth until she reached the tip, kissing it gently and circling her tongue about it, tasting the salty sweet tanginess of the skunk's pre. The scent of their shared arousal was a heavy pall that outweighed even his potent mephitic musk and she soaked it in with each breath. Kai was hissing, as if trying to say her name but it came out as nothing more than strained shushing noises. Driving her fingers deep into her aching depths she let her head down, tongue pressing toward the roof of her mouth as his cock was forced into the tight, constraining passage. She could feel the balls within her hand churning, tensing and drawing up with his incipient release.

No sense in holding back, she thought eagerly to herself, feeling the throbbing pulse of his ridged cock thickening subtly against the rolling rasp of her tongue as she drew up quickly and repeated the slow, firm downward plunge. His snarling growls grew to a strained, almost bird-like keen as his hips tensed against her cheek and the upper curves of her breasts that rested against one side. As she pressed down, her nose touching the balls she lifted to meet her indrawn breath, she let out an eager, growling affirmative of her own. Yes, Kai, yes she thought hungrily as his entire body grew tense. She felt his tail curling up toward the top of her head, its thick muscular root pressing against the back of her hand. She growled that affirmative again, taking the entirety of his length into her mouth once more.

Kai let out a choked chirrup and his hips slammed upward against her face as she felt a solid jerk of the skunk's much modified cock. An explosion of thick, musky, liquid heat filled her mouth suddenly and she sealed her lips against it, swallowing rapidly. Almost before she could gulp down that powerful, salty sweet dose of his release a second jerk poured forth more, and a third. She moaned as her own body reached its second peak and the wonderful, twitching heat of it radiated outward through her body from loins to breast. His taste was not foul at all; a salty, slightly sweet heady musk that lingered on her tongue as she took it into herself only wanting more. His cock throbbed and jerked almost a dozen times releasing that gift and she made sure that not the slightest drop escaped her thirst.

Only as the jerking had faded to twitches did she draw her head up, inhaling a breath through her nose, and released him with a kiss to his blunt tip. Like many theriomorphs with that internal cartilage that kept them rigid he did not immediately shrivel as a human or elf might, nor did it quickly lose that solid girth. She traced her tongue along its underside, pressing the length of him into the fur of his groin and letting his fur tickle her face. Kai's body slumped in a fair facsimile of flaccidness as she enjoyed the taste of his rigidity and the heavy warm musk of his arousal.

“That, villain, is cheating." He managed to rasp after several long minutes of lassitude as she enjoyed licking and kissing at his maleness which did not flag. She turned her head to look upward, his erection lifting slightly to rest against her cheek. His life mana was brighter still than it had been, suffused with the rich hues of pleasure and arousal that moved through him in slow waves.

“And here you said I would get nothing from you, my prisoner." She teased softly, turning her head to press a long, firm kiss just below the tip of his shaft, where a frenulum might be on those not cursed with animal forms. Kai's colors shifted with humor as he let his head fall back and took a long, deep breath, shuddering slightly at that delicious, slow kiss.

“Torture is torture, villain." He laughed warmly, the motions causing his cock to shift and twitch against her lips as she followed that kiss with others downward along the underside of his shaft. “If you call that torture, I am most eagerly at your mercy."

Her fingers rolled his balls lightly and she let her middle finger trace slightly downward, pressing firmly against his taint though not so far as his anal ring. He was, after all, a skunk. No sense tempting that unfortunate fate if she should caress the wrong muscles and arouse them into action. “You are, aren't you." Her lips moved down across the ridge of fur and flesh gathered at the base of his cock, kissing the balls resting upon her fingers. “And there is so much more for me to take."

“And not give, my villain?" He teased as she heard him sniff as he spread his thighs slightly apart, letting her explore directly with her weak human nose where his own was capable from more than a meter away. “Nothing to slake my own thirst but a cup of flavorless water when I can smell a much more palatable drink so near?" Dipping his chin Ash could feel his shoulders shifting and his body beneath her, warm fur brushing against her extremely sensitive breasts. With an upward jerk of his head she heard the sibilant whisper of rope sliding against rope. He had found the loose end of the slip knot holding his entire bondage together and jerked it free.

One hand came down to delve blunt, powerful claws and long fingers into her hair from the nape of her neck upward across the crown of her head in a way that sent shivers down her spine. The other hand reached out to slide along her hip, beneath her flank and inward along the crease of her mons. She drew her hand from between her thighs, feeling the warm wetness of her arousal and release cooling quickly on her fingers. His hand caught at her inner thigh and pulled, dragging her hips toward the head of the cot. He held her head in place against the base of his cock and balls as he shifted the grip of his other hand and drew at her again, lifting slightly as she was drawn alongside the cot.

With her head prisoned by the touch of his hand and cock she was unable to move easily as he wished but managed to get one knee up onto the cot, then the other with the assistance of his arm. Only then did he release her head and use both hands to grasp at her hips and, with some easy strength, to lift her over himself until her knees straddled his head. Without any additional snarky comments about her smell or unshaven flesh his tongue laid wonderful heat against her lips and licked.

Much as she had licked his spent cock that tongue was slow, deliberate, and thorough as it drew across the outer curves of her labia and mons. Ash moaned at the wonderful, slightly coarse feel of its nimble, facile strokes. It was not as broad as a wolf's tongue, more like the raccoon or rat who formed the backbone of their hedonist circle. And it missed nothing, yet seemingly everything, the teasing caresses tantalizingly close to her inner labia or clit without actually finding it. He made Ash writhe and gasp, made her thighs shudder as she shifted her hips from side to side, back and then forward, trying to coax his tongue to find her most needful parts.

All while she had returned her attentions to the tumescent erection directly before her. She teased and licked and kissed in turn, along either side upward but shy of his tip and back down to the short velvet of his balls and the rich musk her nose found there. His colors and scent were intoxicating to see and to breathe, untainted by sickness or pain.

And then something found her clit and it was not a tongue.

Ash let out a sharp gasp against his balls when she felt the delicate touch of fearfully sharp teeth capture her bud between them, her hips stilling instantly as a surge of heat and pleasure almost made her orgasm immediately. Held by those deadly points she could only keep herself perfectly still as his tongue flicked and circled and probed at her tender flesh until she thought she would simply explode. The muscles of her stomach tightened and her back ached as she was unable to arch or buck her hips for fear of those teeth doing more than hold while he tortured her delightfully with his skillful tongue. Trapped in the throes of her rapidly rising arousal she shifted her thumb under his cock, lifting it upward, and plunged her mouth fully upon it to the gathered fur of his sheath and suckled hungrily.

That made him gasp, his muzzle opening wide and freeling her clit, offering her only a momentary surcease from his torture before his muzzle plowed between her thighs, his nose driving against that narrow bridge of flesh between sex and anal rim and his tongue drove into her. While far thinner than a human's muscular tongue it was notably longer, easily long enough to delve deep into her clenching passage and curl downward to lick across her inner sensitivity. That rasping caress drew a choked cry from Ash's throat, vibrating around the cock filling her mouth as she felt the firm, ribbed front of his lower teeth and gum grind against her exposed clit. The teeth of his upper jaw pressed firmly against her ass as powerful, claw tipped fingers dimpled the back of her hips and hauled her weight down, increasing the pressure against her clit and giving him easier access to her passage.

The assault was overwhelming and divine, catapulting her pell-mell to the brink and over. Her hands grasped at the back of his thighs as her body shuddered, her inner walls clenched, and a rush of hot warmth washed over the skunk's facile tongue. She rolled her hips against the pressure of those teeth against her clit as she bobbed her head upon his shaft. Her desire and arousal urged rapid movements but she knew, from many lessons, that doing so could be uncomfortable and most certainly reduced the sensitivity in the male. That's why they could continue longer while using such power, or having it used against them; the vagus nerve that was the chief recipient of such haste and power overwhelmed the more sensitive nerves of the pleasure centers.

And it went both ways, for the recipient of such wild jackhammer thrusts as much as the one delivering them or, in the current case, receiving them from her eager mouth. So she grasped his thighs and rolled her hips through the power of her orgasm and, even as it faded, felt another swiftly approaching. Despite how sharp his teeth had felt under the touch of her fingers the ridged facing of them and his gums were something else altogether. His nose blasted rapid, hot breaths along the cleft of her exposed ass while her own breaths did the same to the balls before her. Her fingers fisted into the thick fur at the back of his thighs and she completely forgot about her proximity to her monochromatic lover's vents. At least he seemed to have sufficient unconscious control to keep those secure.

Where it had taken but a couple of minutes to bring Kai to his release the first time, his second took far longer. By the time she sensed his balls growing taut between his thighs and the musk of his arousal thickened into a rich, dense heat heralding his approaching climax he had brought Ash to six of her own. Well, six that she could actually remember counting.

Shifting her knees slightly she pulled her hips upward despite the grasp of his claw tipped fingers and shifted her tingling sex away from his skilled tongue. She drew her head up abruptly at the same time, leaving his cock bereft as she gasped for breath. Before he could regain his hold she rose up onto her toes and quickly turned about before letting her knees settle back onto the cot astride his waist. “You tasted good, my captive." She panted as she leaned down to press her lips to his, missing at first and getting only a buss of whiskers before she corrected. “But now I want you elsewhere." Her hips came down firmly, finding the rigid girth of his cock easily with her extremely wet lips.

She tasted herself upon his lips, the fur of his muzzle and long whiskers. When his hands grasped her upper arms lightly to bring her down, a breath hissing from his nose when she ground firmly down against his cock, he was tender where she was needy. His tongue tasted of her release and his fur smelled of her own sex. He found her without guidance, a slight shift of his hips beneath her while she rocked against that solid, ridged girth. The feel of its contours grinding between her lips and against her sensitive clitoris drove her rapidly toward the edge of that freewheeling plunge from the precipice.

She bowed her head slightly, biting her lower lip, when his tip; a blunt taper that seemed both familiar from her rich past experience and different at the same time. His hands dropped from her upper arms to her waist, staying her from immediately dropping down upon that wonderful spear. “Please." She heard herself moan eagerly, his strength holding her aloft with naught but the first couple of inches held within the grip of her entry. He relaxed, slightly, but only enough to let her slip a couple more inches of that delightful girth into herself. The subtle ridges around its girth sent sharp, explosive waves of pleasure washing through her each time they slipped into her, echoed by similar brilliant waves of pleasure through the life mana shape beneath her. There were only three such ridges, she knew, each followed by a subtle thickening along his length, before the larger girth at his base. By the second she felt stretched wonderfully, the firm contours grinding against her inner nerves and sending her spiraling.

By the third she was feeling the subtle strain of stretching but that was far, far from uncomfortable. Many of the toys the circle used did exactly the same thing. The smaller girths prepared the inexperienced for the pleasures to follow, the greater girths prepared the experienced for even greater pleasures; either from other toys, or a visitor who was larger than average or whose theiromorph species made them so.

The third ridge drew her to the precipice and she felt herself slip over rather than plunge, a soft, lingering orgasm clutching at the muscles of her lower belly as Kai let out a strained but low rumble of pleasure. After the third ridge, she knew, was the larger swelling toward his base. It was no canine knot to lock them together, and not nearly so large, but it brought her to the brink of her limits without pain; a slow and gentle easing of her muscles before the abrupt narrowing behind it. She slipped over that subtle, straining thickness as her orgasm reached its peak, faded, and immediately returned anew as he let the last of her weight drop. A short, intense plunge of perhaps an inch but it felt as if he had slammed his entire length into her in a single uninterrupted thrust. She cried out as another climax hammered into the one previous, her voice muffled in the fur of his shoulder.

Her body clenching, muscles completely beyond her conscious control to relax or tighten, she pulled up against that smooth contour, felt it grind against her inner nerves and gasped, dropping down and rising again. Each time she rose just a little further, pulling against the base of his cock, feeling the girth and the ridge that preceded it rubbing perfectly against her as if designed solely for that singular purpose.

Transmutation, he had said.

Fuck yes, she thought, more of that, please.

Bit by bit she was able to draw up further from his cock and ease downward, her body tight around him, as his breathing took on a ragged, strained edge. She buried her face against the hollow of his neck and throat, drinking in the rich melange of his scent and her own, as climax collided with climax within her. None were so profound as the first few but, taken as a whole, left her in a blissed state of hyper-aroused numbness where all she could feel was his cock and her body around it.

And when his cock stiffened, swelled within her, and jerked the subsequent flood of warmth was something her body ached for. She felt it surge into her in a rush of heat, washing back along his length which she had buried to its hilt once more and clenched down upon. His seed found no release there as a second surge followed swiftly behind the first. It filled her with a delicious feeling of liquid movement around throbbing, twitching solidity, the heat spreading upward into her, far beyond the stretched limits of her passage.

His second climax did not last quite so long as his first but it felt as if he had unloaded a bucket of lust into her. She kept her weight upon his loins, her body clenched and fluttering, as she felt each twitch of his orgasm as a visceral blow to the center of her being. As it faded she felt his body go slack and she collapsed atop him, her own fusillade of stuttering climaxes fading soon after. Ash, strangely, did not feel at all exhausted from their lovemaking. She felt energized, eager for more.

But she knew males, and knew that two in such short succession, especially after a bout of sickness and unconscious slumber, going for a third would only lead pleasure into the realms of pain. So she rested her weight on knees and elbows and nuzzled into the fur of his neck to enjoy the long minutes of lassitude that followed their shared euphoria.

“Holy sweet gods of light, that was -"

“Intense?" Kai finished for her breathlessly, his cock giving a twinge within the steady grasping clench of her depths.

“Uh huh." She nodded, raising her head to give his furry lips a peck, those long whiskers angling forward to tickle her cheeks as his cool nose brushed to one side of her own.

“I heartily agree." He returned the kiss, his slim, strong hands stroking her naked ass as she sprawled atop his smaller frame. He did not seem terribly distressed by that weight. His strong hands roved down her back, blunt claws raking delightfully across her flesh until they came to rest on her rump, squeezing those muscular curves gently. “As much as I truly enjoyed this wonderful breaking of my fast, I think real food is in order." He said warmly as he nuzzled her cheek, long whiskers tickling lightly as his cool nose slid upward along her jaw before his sharp teeth nibbled lightly at her earlobe. “Though perhaps not immediately." He chuckled, nipping a little harder, and she felt his cock twitch within her deliciously. “One thing concerns me, however."

Ash raised her head to look down at his face, the colors that lent his form a gauzy definition denying her the basic sense of body language or facial expression that others took for granted. “Oh?"

“The magic of my enchanted items is gone."

That's when she noticed that the three magical gleams of his eyepatch were dark.

“We found your girl" The voice, a clearly therianthropic growl, said over the phone, bringing Vick up in his seat with a loud clack of feet hitting the floor as they slid out of the nearby chair. Delmos, working on the final touches of their raid the previous day, looked up curiously.

“Where?" He said quickly, making Delmos' eyebrows lift.

“The Mines, one of the utility entrances."

“We'll be right over." At the growling affirmative he rang off and pocketed his phone.

“They got a hit?" Delmos said as Vick stood. He slid out of his seat and grabbed his long coat as Vick shouldered into his.

“Yes, at the Mines." Just where the Helen the Vampire had said she would be.

He and Delmos hastened out of the precinct and made their way to Empire Surveillance which was buried deep inside the Citadel. They had to pass through many checkpoints to gain entry, surrendering their weapons and phones at one of the first. They were escorted deeper into the sanctum of the Ministry of Intelligence, which oversaw Surveillance, by a huge burly man who could easily have been mistaken for a Breed had he not looked like the quintessential northern tribesman. The man said nothing as he led them down long corridors past closed doors and finally into a large room full of video monitors.

Dozens of people sat at desks, each of which held half a dozen view screens which they viewed either in realtime or sped up. A few were frozen while the analyst pored over some bit of information neither of the detectives could ken.

Red Brightleaf was a typical specimen of his family line; a fox. His coat was the bright cinnabar red typical of the Brightleaf lineage, the tip of his spotless, well groomed tail black as were the highlights of his muzzle and ear tips. He gave their escort a nod when the burly man brought them to his desk and the man withdrew. Red motioned to two office chairs near his desk as an invitation for them to sit.

They sat to either side of the fox, cautious of the tail thrust out from the back of his chair, he made a few clicks of a mouse next to a keyboard, one set of many arrayed across the broad front of his desk. Several frozen video images appeared on the half dozen large displays, one showing a woman clad in a white robe holding open a door, two large satchels over her shoulders.

“This is a service entry about a half mile from the entry of the Legacy Museum." Red said as he pointed at the screen and clicked the mouse. The image jumped and she disappeared, showing a closed door deep set in a loading bay from outside. A few seconds later the woman appeared from below the frame and mounted the stairs to the dock. She pulled open the door and a gust of wind coming out blew the hood of her robe back. The scene jumped to another camera, this one inside the loading bay, focused on the now open door. With the hood blown back the camera had a clear focus on her head and, more importantly, her face. “Facial recognition matching gives a better than ninety percent match."

“Yes, that's her." Vick nodded, leaning forward in his chair. “Any more matches? Can we track her back, or forward?"

“Forward, yes, until she gets deeper into the recycling areas. As for following her path, using the robe as a referent we were only able to get three other hits. One on a metro rail car, another in the market plaza of Duke's Court, and the last on an escalator. She was not carrying anything in the first two, those bags in the third. Unfortunately that does not give us any idea where she went or what was in those bags, there are no markings on them."

“Why so few?" Delmos asked as his gaze flicked from screen to screen, brows drawn down in confusion.

“Your initial report said she had some sort of masking magic in place, that's why. Most modern video is magic augmented to improve resolution and focus. Whatever magic she was using prevented her from being captured. These images," He waved at the monitors, “were from older cameras that have not been replaced in years. They're entirely analog so her magic doesn't work on them. Apparently, once the video was captured, her magic also did not work on the mana crystals we use to archive our footage."

“When was this captured?" Vick asked, leaning forward to peer at the time stamp which was annoyingly small.

“Yesterday afternoon re-entering the mine. The first image we captured was mid morning in the transit car. We also got footage of her leaving, about eight in the morning, but the hood stayed up so there's not much to see."

“Anyone with her?"

“No one when she left or returned to the service door. She was alone in the service ways that lead toward the recycling areas where we lost her because those cameras are newer. With only snippets from the transit, escalator, and plaza we can't verify that she made contact with anyone."

“How about the street where she went missing?"

Red's white teeth gleamed alarmingly bright against the cinnabar fur of his muzzle, his long whiskers twitching. “I thought you'd never ask. We're in luck, there. Pretty damn good luck." He rattled away on his keyboard for a few seconds and brought up a long list of filenames that all looked identical to Vick. He clicked on one, highlighted more than twenty, and clicked play.

A surprisingly crisp, full color image appeared on the center screen of his array, showing the dimly lit corner of a Street level roadway. A skimmer cab pulled up to the side of the road and a few moments later a woman got out, tapping the ground with a long white cane. After a couple of steps she stopped and turned to the cab but it was already moving away and a brisk clip, the rear door closing automatically as it fled. “And there's our asshole cabbie." Vick grumbled.

They watched for a couple of minutes as the woman walked slowly along the street toward the camera. As she got closer it twitched and tracked downward as she passed out of view below it. The camera continued to rotate until she reappeared, the camera now looking at her back. “If you were wondering, these views came from a security company. Of course we don't know what they were securing down there, but we won't look a smiling fox in the muzzle, eh? They sent the video in this morning when they audited their footage." The fox leaned back in his chair, the bottle brush tail flicking animatedly with his good cheer.

As they watched the woman walk further from the camera something appeared from one side, also walking the same direction on the opposite side of the street. Unfortunately, while they could see the motion, it was simply a smear in the footage that offered nothing. “What the hell is that?"

“I suspect it's your mage." Red waved one hand toward the screen without reaching for mouse or keyboard. “Masking magic and mana augmented cameras. If we could figure out how to isolate those anomalies we could track her even under the veil of the spell but we've neither the time nor resources for a single missing person."

“Who's not nobility." Delmos quipped laconically and Red cackled a fox laugh as he nodded and then shrugged.

Then the street was suddenly full of people; four on the far left of the frame, one of them holding the lead on the queerest looking dog Vick had ever seen. It took him a moment to realize he was looking at a baboon on a leash. In the center right of the frame a dozen or so people seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Play that back, where the fuck did they come from?"

Red leaned forward and rewound the video a few seconds and let it play through again, at half speed. Vick felt one of his eyebrows creeping up his forehead as the newcomers appeared directly from a wall covered with graffiti.

“Veils with illusions to mask them from mage sight." Red reported as he leaned back in his chair, letting the video resume at normal speed. Three of the group in front of the woman and two of those behind were bracketed in yellow. “My edit. Based on their motions and basic physical look I flagged them as vampires. None of them hit anywhere on our database of known vamps, though two did come back with a rough match for some people from the south, one missing person."

“A female?"

“Got it in one, detective." He pointed to a pale face among the crowd in front of the blind woman. “Completely clean jacket but registered dreamwalker, quite the haul for whichever vamp is in control."

“You figure that one out?"

“Not with any veracity, no. Shit happened too fast, when it started happening." On the screen the group had moved in, the blind woman and the smudge moving closer and, suddenly, she was gone. “The masking has a radius." Red nodded toward the screen as if sensing Vick's glance of askance. “I figure about two or three meters. Whenever something gets that close to it they just become blobs, mostly."

One of the yellow brackets rushed into the blank area and it juddered mysteriously. A moment later it lurched back out, arms flailing, and ran at blinding speed away from whatever it had encountered. Vick and Delmos let out twin grunts of grim humor as the fleeing vamp ran full speed into a wall and collapsed, stunned. At the same time the crowd shifted in a convulsive retreat, hands going to faces or waving madly as the people began to cough and double over. One of them stepped forward into the smear, disappearing.

“Mostly?" On the screen chaos had erupted. Another of the yellow bracketed forms charged in at blinding speed, almost too fast for the camera's video frames to follow, and disappeared into the undefined smear. They were launched back into view a second later as the entire alley erupted in a cascade of blinding lightning arcs. The camera briefly fuzzed out of focus as it dealt with the assault and recovered, laboriously resolving the image again as bodies fell and twitched.

At some point the baboon had been released from its leash and it charged in with that strange gait that seemed mostly arms and rear legs little more than an afterthought. When it reached the blob it did not disappear.

“Magic eater." Red observed, chewing a whisker idly. “Near as I can tell, whatever the masking magic is doesn't affect it. But it does not affect the masking magic, though its owner is. Watch." The baboon seemed to roll and snap at a figment or a poltergeist, getting thrown off and returning in a rush, dark blood flying from its fangs. When it plowed into the shape again something flickered, the smear vanishing for a brief moment, then another. Without prompting Red reached across and brought up another window, freezing the tableau on the primary one.

The second window was a zoomed-in view of what they had just witnessed, running at quarter time. There was not much to see in the first instance of the magic wavering; something black or white, roughly humanoid in shape. The second faltering showed a long leg waving in the air, swathed in black fur and tattered blue pants above the knee. It also showed a huge tail striped black and white.

“Destabilizing the skunk's magic?" Vick offered, curious.

“Absolutely wrecking it, I can imagine. But not the masking spell, so I imagine it's an enchantment, likely on something the skunk is wearing. Whenever the magic eater comes in contact with it the magic is damped for a split second. And here's the tell." He pointed as the slowed image blurred again for several long, agonizing seconds, and then snapped abruptly into focus. A hand at the baboon's throat, a ruined arm in its muzzle, and a skunk's furious, agonized face in stark focus.

“Tell me there's a one-eyed skunk mage on the registry?" Vick asked quickly.

“Just one, and I looked into him, took me all of fifteen seconds. He's in Bayview East, right now, where he's been the last two and a half years after spraying down an entire transit platform and biting a police officer. Certified schizophrenic, registered water caster, and a heavy spellfire habit." Red informed them with a rueful sigh.

“Then who the hell is that?" Vick jabbed a finger at the slow moving image of the agonized, enraged visage.

“Not a clue." Red shrugged, whiskers drooping and ears flicking flat back briefly. “And that's pretty much the best image we could resolve. Nothing hits back on image rec."

The rest of the battle was amazingly anticlimactic. Shortly after the brief image of the skunk's face everyone abruptly keeled over and began convulsing. The vampires simply fled at full speed leaving behind a scatter of corpses for the MCPD to puzzle over. The skunk eviscerated the baboon though the exact method was not visible; its guts just began spilling out and scattering a meter in all directions before it collapsed and then slumped aside, discarded by the victor who was now hidden behind that smear once again.

After a few moments the woman managed to regain her feet and move carefully over and then disappeared into the anomaly. Neither were visible after that, the smear moving away after a couple of minutes, disappearing quickly into the shadows beyond the camera's view. No other video had been provided by private companies and the city simply had none down at those levels that ever survived more than a few days.

After getting printouts of the skunk's face and the faces of the vampires that were in focus Red escorted them back out to the entry checkpoint where they received their weapons back.

“Well, that was another dead trace." Vick sighed as they slipped into the skimmer and got moving again. The traffic was considerably thicker, and commensurately slow, as people left their jobs early or went out to do some last minute shopping before the Meta'kema holiday in two days.

“It did confirm the vampire's information, though." Delmos replied with a shrug. “It wasn't a total waste of time. I think the skunk is a non-issue, really. She went to them after the fight and they disappeared together. It doesn't look like she went unwillingly. Again, it's in line with what the vamp chick said. If they're where she said they would be we'll be able to verify her safety. After that what she wants to do is, really, up to her. She won't be a missing person, and that'll close our case."

Vick grunted with a nod as he sought to find a hole in traffic without resorting to flying above it all. “Still leaves a great many questions unanswered, even with the video evidence. Like how she managed to kill all of those people in one go. Those cameras did not pick up on any magic that wasn't flashy, like the skunk's."

“She, or the skunk, obviously did something devastating, like that lightning burst. That didn't kill anyone, outright. You see the mage die?"

“No, I wasn't watching that screen." Once they had left the citadel tower onto open skyways Vick elevated their sedan above the constrained flow along the traffic corridor and picked up some speed. Not too much, unless some other government vehicle did the same without signaling, but enough to not feel hemmed in so much.

“That cardboard came from across the alley, too fast to see much more than it leaving the ground, and then his head just rolled off his shoulders, faster than an eyeblink. Whichever one of them did that has a hell of a lot of control to make a piece of trash into a guillotine."

“I figure it was the skunk. Nothing in Ashleigh's file indicates magic use, and the rat said she simply had none whatsoever."

“There's those funky wafers. Her employer bottled up right tight and began making very heavy handed demands that they be returned due to proprietary research."

“And she was just walking around with them? Espionage, you think?"

“Or taking them home to tinker with off hours. How many old reports have you got stashed away in your apartment?"

Vick chuffed a rueful breath of irony, “More than a few. You?"

“A whole box of them, cold case stuff from when I was a rook. Crime scenes I dealt with as patrol or investigated after I made detective."

“So, now what?"

“Now, grasshopper, I think we should go home and rest up. Tomorrow's going to be damned interesting." Delmos looked through the windscreen, his youthful face grim. “Oh, and see if we can find some old school body cameras, the analog kind."

Ash blinked at the dark eyepatch where those gleams should have been and then down at the multitude of charms the skunk wore around his neck. All of them were dead to her Sight, their magic drained. Her muscles involuntarily tensed and he sucked in a soft breath as she clenched about his shaft. “Your pain."

“My what?"

“Your pain, I think. Once you had drained your inner magic I think it was looking for more, to sustain itself."

She sensed his confusion as a wash of color that sullied the pure radiance of his pleasure, dampening it slightly. “How could the pain of my old injury drain my enchantments? And what the hell happened, because for the first time in… in a very, very long time I don't feel it at all."

“You said it was caused by a cursed weapon?"

He nodded slowly, “Soul drinker, a dagger favored by disciples of Ba'al. Shadowbringers, opposed to the Lightbringers a thousand years ago. Ba'al ceased support of them in the mortal realm soon after the Gods were brought down."

“Its curse tainted you, bound itself somehow to your magic, I think." Ash shrugged slightly and settled her weight back down, mostly on her elbows and his hips, enjoying the continued heat of his erection. She could feel its pulse as a visceral thing within her loins, the slow shift and surge of his release a liquid sensation of movement as it matched her body temperature. “With your magic gone, I saw it extend outward from your body, like tendrils of fog." She nuzzled into the fur of his throat, upward to his cheek and whiskers, letting them caress her lips and face. “It pulled toward me but I moved away far enough it could not reach once I noticed it. Then I brought your silvaril trap close."

“So, the blade cursed my magic, not my soul?" Kai asked curiously, seeming somewhat put off and surprised. Ash felt him begin to recede, his girth thinning slowly as his mind moved from the passion of their lovemaking to this newest revelation of his own magic. “I was told it had torn away a piece of my soul, even by the gods."

“It may have, I cannot look closely at your soul, Artela's gift is far too bright. But it was sustaining itself on your magic. I could see how it had spread through you, infesting your mystic centers."

“Interesting. Had I but known a thousand years ago I could have shed myself of it then rather than suffer it for thirteen centuries. What happened when you brought the vessel close?"

“The manifestation moved into it, just like your magic did. But it did not contain it as it contained your magic. It still quested outward, looking for more magic, even tried to find its way back to you but I had moved it far away."

Kai's head turned to regard the storage unit but she doubted he could see anything without the light she had brought from the store. Without whatever enchantments had been on the eye patch he probably saw even less than he had before, assuming that those gems had been enchanted to replace his missing eye. “I don't sense it at all."

“I threw it into the forge."

Kai twitched, his now slim shaft shifting about within her as Ash strove to keep it securely planted. Her muscles could not clench so tightly now that his arousal had receded and she felt herself leaking as it slipped free. She let out a soft sigh as the pleasure of their shared intimacy began to feel distanced from his current thoughts. “You did what?"

“It was trying to get back to you. Considering all of your magic was trapped in that thing and the manifestation of pain was trying to use it, I feared it would gain enough strength to make its way back. So I took it out to that catwalk we came across, the one that took magic trash toward the foundry. I threw it on the conveyor."

To her surprise Kai let out a chuff, and then a trilling bark of laughter, his body quaking beneath her. “A quarter million marks of silver and mithril and cold iron… thrown out with the trash." he laughed powerfully, his hands continuing to hold Ash's rump, preventing her from easing off. “Delightfully smart of you, Ash, lass. Delightfully smart! No matter how fey the magic, it will not survive as a bound spell or enchantment in the smelter. By now it's just so much raw mana, gone. Poof." He gave her rump a light pat with one hand and lifted his head to press his furry lips against her own. “You've freed me of a thousand year burden, my dear, and that is a debt that can never be repaid, even in another thousand years." He pressed another, warmer, hungrier kiss against her lips, his tongue darting between them to flick against her own. Ash returned the kiss eagerly, her own shorter, blunt human tongue tracing the sharp points of his teeth.

Ah, but what he could do with those teeth, she rejoiced.

After a few moments of tongue dancing she realized that the muscles of her thighs and arms were beginning to protest at her position above her pungent lover and she forced herself to sit upright. She chuckled and winced a bit at the twinge in her legs. “I'm for the bathroom." Kai's gift was not staying put without the thick presence within her and she could feel it trickling down her inner thighs as she cautiously stepped off the cot.

Kai sat up and turned to sit on the edge of the cot with a whuff of exhaled breath. “Did you realize that my scent canceling amulet was also drained?" He asked as she made her way toward the bathroom, grabbing the edge of the towel shelf to keep herself upright. She paused and looked back, seeing that the collection of charms he wore about his neck was as empty as those on his eye patch were.

“No, I didn't notice." She shrugged one shoulder and smiled at the corner of her mouth. “After this many days I had stopped paying attention." Now that she was consciously aware of it his musk, mingled with the heavier scent of their lovemaking, was quite strong. “Why?"

Kai chuckled softly and his mana silhouette shrugged as well. “Just pointing out. In the past perfumers used to distill skunk scent for perfumes. Some compounds were said to have aphrodisiac properties."

Ash could not help but laugh a warm, throaty sound. “That might explain why I jumped your bones, you mean?" She shook her head and turned to face him, transitioning one hand on the shelf for the other. “No, that wasn't it. Maybe a bit, but I've been… well, I've been having those thoughts for a couple days now, Kai. Smell aside, you're a nice, gentle man when you're not having to fight to save the world."

She saw his head shape move in a slow nod as a subtle ripple of pleasure shimmered through his life mana. “Thank you, dear. I hope you can remember that in the future."

Releasing the shelf she shuffled back to the cot and bent to stroke one hand through the thick fur of his cheek ruff. “Kai, you want to be the way you are, now. I will always remember that. Circumstances force you to be otherwise, and I understand that, too." Leaning down she pressed a light kiss to his cool, leathery nose. “Would you like help cleaning up?" She asked in a throaty, coquettish voice, trailing her fingers along his neck and chin before drawing away.

“Food, lass, I need food." His fingers touched her hip lightly, tracing up her side before drawing inward and across the lower curve of a breast. He chuckled softly, the pad of his thumb tracing across the nipple in a slow, light brush. “Later, certainly, your pleasure will be mine." Ash closed her eyes at that gentle, intimate caress and gave his nose another peck before straightening and making her way to the bathroom.

As she stood in the shower rinsing she had to laugh at herself, and at the situation. Kai had done something that no others had offered; he let her take the lead in their tryst. Usually she had acceded to those who led the activities of their circle, often becoming the center around which it rotated because of her need to touch, to smell, to taste her partners since she could not simply sit back and watch the fun. She always followed where the play led and had never been unsatisfied. They accepted her and did not fault her blindness where many did, outside the safety of the tenant block and that tight knit circle of amazing friends.

Once she was satisfied that what was left of the skunk's rather copious gift would not continue to escape and she had dried Ash walked back out. Kai was at the counter, the pale mana plume of his tail held low, sweeping lazily side to side behind his knees. “The cooktop seems to have failed, so we're have to make do with cold vegetables and chocolate, I'm afraid." He said as she padded up. From the way he moved with confidence Ash assumed he had re-activated the enchanted light. After her time with her circle Ash no longer had any self consciousness about being naked in the company of others, especially those she had just shared a bed with, so the light revealing her was not distressing.

“The pain… magic, or whatever it was, that curse got to it before I realized it was not trapped in the vessel." Ash explained as she moved up to stand beside him at the counter, the smell of the vegetables and chocolate adding another layer under the heavy musk of skunk and lingering sex. “That's when I thought to throw it into the recycling."

“That was good thinking, dear." Kai admitted with a nod as he tossed a few ingredients into one of the bowls and tossed them a few times before stirring with a set of chopsticks. “Best to just get rid of it if it could not be contained or controlled. By now it's destroyed, utterly. And I am free of it." He turned slightly, his head dipping and rising. “You look nice, by the way, since I had not said it before."

“Other than to remark on my skimpy clothing." Ash joked as she gave his near arm a stroke with her fingertips.

Kai chuckled and pushed one of the bowls toward where she stood. “Well, they were so not there as to be pointless, I admit. I thought it best not to make too much of it since neither of us has anything else to wear." Ash picked up the bowl and smelled it, somewhat surprised. Kai had combined the last of the vegetables with the vinaigrette and chocolate in a way that smelled very enticing rather than conflicting. Using the chopsticks in the bowl she plucked out a few pieces and nibbled.

The cucumber, celery, and bit of lettuce were complimented, rather surprisingly well, by the tang of the dressing and shavings of chocolate. “Oh, this is good." She said as she chewed. Kai picked up his bowl and went to sit in the center of the floor, legs crossed, his huge brush of tail stretched out behind him. Ash did likewise, sitting on the floor facing him.

“It's all I could think of, given the ingredients." He admitted as he ate. From the sounds of his stomach she could tell he was positively ravenous. It was no wonder, considering he had gone almost two full days without eating. “And, unfortunately, this is the last of the ingredients we can eat without cooking, unless you fancy dry rhagash."

Ash made a face and he laughed softly. “Thank you, no. What do we do now, then?"

“Wait." He shrugged and swallowed another mouthful of his salad. “I will need to see if my magic is stable when it recovers. If it is, I open myself to the local mana lines and recoup my reserves. After that, we get the hell out of here."

“And then what?" She asked softly, fearing that when they left that would simply be the end of their association. Despite the recent intimacy they shared Ash could not really say he was a friend, anything more than a passing acquaintance of necessity.

“Firstly, I find you someplace safe until this issue with the vampires and their minions has been dealt with. After that I'll play it by ear." Leaning forward he touched one of her knees lightly with the pads and claws of his fingertips. “Don't worry, Ash, I'm not just going to drop you on a street corner and forget you exist." He huffed and splayed his fingers to grip her knee. “Dear, you took from me something I thought was a permanent part of my being for a thousand years. That is not something to walk away from as I might a prostitute on the street or a sensate after our hour is complete." He shook his head. “No, I think I would like to enjoy your company for as long as my current waking cycle allows." He withdrew his hand and resumed eating.

“If your magic returns stable."

“Even if it does not, we cannot stay here. Getting to where I wish to go may be more difficult, but we will manage. You will be safe there, and they may be able to help stabilize my magic." He set the bowl aside after scooping the last few bits into his muzzle using the chopsticks. “Once I have sufficiently restored my magic I can see about repairing my arm, then my charms. I doubt we would get far smelling as we do."

“As what? Skunk? Why would that turn heads? I don't go a day without someone's musk curling my nose hair."

“A skunk and his mate." Kai clarified as Ash collected the bowls and rose to her feet. “I could get by but with a human smelling the same? That would attract attention, and not just from species purists."

“Mate, now?" Ash laughed and shot him a coy smile, or at least what she imagined was coy having never actually seen such a smile with her eyes, only her fingertips. A flush of color, one she could not place, washed through him and faded slowly, the last of it collecting at his groin before disappearing.

“Hm, well, yes, I guess. That works for now." He said a little roughly, like a child trying to explain away their hand in the cookie jar. “Let me meditate for a time and see if I can get my own reserves started."

He settled himself more comfortably in his cross legged pose, resting his hands atop his knees. Ash washed the bowls and utensils before returning to the cot. She sat upon its edge and watched as the slow movement of his life mana grew still and dimmed slowly but not by a great margin. She felt herself drifting as she waited, her eyes growing heavy.

“He'll disappear, you know." Ash blinked and looked up in surprise at the very different voice, warm and laced with humor, intruded on her lassitude. She looked around in surprise, the strange colors of the room strikingly alien. There was the color of elemental mana in the stone, glass, and metal but there was a hard limit there, like a surface that defied her Sight.

Not far away a tall, slender form stood, the colors of life mana strong and steady, most of it centered about the speaker's, male by the timbre of the voice, breast and groin. The overall shape was strangely distinct; she could actually see their head, limbs, and long tail of lush fur swaying lazily behind them. The man was a dark hue, darker than earth tones but he was no elemental. The sight completely perplext her and Ash sat up, fear kindling in her breast.

How had she come to this strange, alien place? Where was this place?

“Fear not, child, I have not whisked you away from your shelter." The man said as he crossed to sit in a nearby chair. His clothing, actual clothing that had the normal mana colors but much, much more. Ash rubbed her eyes and looked again at him, realizing that she was seeing his exterior. Actually seeing it; fur in a dark hue, the gleam of eyes and teeth as he smiled silently at her confused regard. Slim, dexterous fingers tipped with short dark colored claws. On his feet were coverings of a pale color, much like the hues of pleasure but solid rather than nebulous and shifting.

“Where am I?" She asked in a small voice, scared of the situation but strangely not of this alien man she had never seen before.

“In a dream, child. In my demesne."

“Who are you?"

The man waved one hand languidly and shrugged, a smile lifting his whiskers - actual, honest to goodness whiskers she could see across the three meters that separated them - and making his short ears pin forward. “No one of any import, one of Her faithful, that is all."

She rubbed her eyes again and blinked, trying to resolve just exactly what she was seeing. Colors everywhere, but solid colors that did not move save for what she could see beyond the stranger's windows; shifting clouds, what she thought might be birds, shafts of brightness angling down from a sun she could not see beyond one side of the window. “Her faithful? Who her?"

“Someone you asked for aid, in the name of the Sleeper." He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, hands hanging between them. The clothing he wore was strange but looked rich and certainly they fit him well. Without mapping him and his wardrobe with her hands she could not place any clarity to his person or his clothing.

“The sleeper? You mean, this is Nocturna's realm?"

“Yes, where all people travel, if lightly, every time they sleep. This is the Dream, and I have awakened you to it so we might speak."

“He said I should call to Nocturna for help, in his name."

“And so you did, and you were heard. Worry not, lass. His plight was foreseen long ago and several were set upon the path to give him the aid he needed. Most did not heed the call, one did."

Ash nodded slowly and frowned looking around the lavishly appointed chamber. “So, I was maneuvered? Like a pawn on a chess board, by your goddess."

The man actually laughed, a bright, merry sound that revealed he laughed often, with no malice in it. “Oh,. Blessed Nocturna, no. She foresaw he needed aid, but could not see who would hear his call, much less rise to it. That was entirely you. You would have been where you were in any event and a single, slight nudge was given that you might prepare yourself for the situation you found yourself in. And you rose splendidly to the task."

“So why am I here, if I am the aid he was given? What can I do now?"

“Another nudge, my dear." He smiled again, leaning back in his seat and crossing his legs, his arms resting along the arms of the chair. He wore tall boots, she realized, his legs more human than bent like a dog's, or the skunk's. “Enjoy his company while life allows, for he may disappear unannounced as is his curse. I fear, however, that this time will be different than all of the others before. You have taken from him a limitation to his strength and other powers are moving close below the surface. The future has become a great mystery, even to my Matron. His centuries-long endeavor may come to a head sooner than any of us would want."

“Speak plainly." Ash muttered in exasperation. “Am I to be a part of that coming to a head? How do I prepare for things that threaten the entire world? I'm just a blind office worker, no great mage or immortal."

Again the man laughed a warm, merry laugh. There was something of the skunk's meter in that laugh, she realized, or this man's meter in the skunk's laugh. “It is not the nature of the oracle to speak plainly, lass. It skews the message. I also brought you here to prepare you for what may come." He raised one hand to wave at the room, ending with a long sweep down his slender, dark furred and lavishly clothed form. Whatever that meant completely eluded Ash's comprehension so she could only stare at him. “Enjoy what time you have. Don't waste it worrying about what may happen in the days and months to come. And your choices will please him, whichever they might be; make them for yourself. He will very much be pleased by your unexpected gifts."

“Will be? Gifts?"

The theriomorph waved his hand languidly, dismissing her questions. “Such are the threads of potential, lass. Let's not pluck at them too strongly lest they unravel and the greater darkness finds a way in." He stood in a single smooth, graceful motion. “Waken, lass, and partake of your pleasure. We will again meet, in due course." He made a deep bow with a flourish of one hand and the room faded to mana shadows until they, too, faded.

Ash blinked and sat up before she fell over, having listed considerably while she slept. Kai had not moved, his mana stronger than it was before. She mulled over the dream as she watched the slow growth of his mana, how it pooled in his breast and along his back and most considerably in his lower abdomen. Her eyes drifted lower as she contemplated the last parting words of the fanciful creature in her dream.

Partake in your pleasure, he had said, with a brilliant smile full of sharp, predatory teeth but not an ounce of threat. His eyes, dark and deep, held only cheerful good will and it was only then that Ash realized that she had seen his eyes.

Seen them, in the way people saw eyes normally. And those teeth, his whiskers and the pale color that adorned his fur from chin and throat to disappear into the collar of his fanciful shirt. A shirt that buttoned, dark in color and decorated with intricate embroidery she would never have noticed without touching him. How could she see in a dream, this the first that she could ever remember in which she had done so? How could her brain even process what her dream sight was showing her?

Well, she thought as she shifted forward onto her hands and knees to shuffle forward toward the slow churn of the skunk's life mana before her, she had not been born blind. She had seen as anyone might see until the tragedy that took her mother away. Now she simply saw differently, but she still saw. The Lutin had told her it was with more than her eyes that she Saw, but they were a large part of how her Sight worked. So, apparently, they still worked. Or some part of her brian that processed Sight worked, allowing her dreaming mind to comprehend what she saw as fur and teeth, stone and carpeting and a vaulting window looking out at a blue sky populated by scudding clouds.

But why?

She had no answers, could not even wrap her mind around how she could even ask the question. It was just another circular enigma of the dream.

Yet Nocturna had answered, if through one of her lowly lackeys. She, Ash herself, was the aid that had been sent, before aid had even been requested.

Take your pleasure, the lackey had said.

And share it, she amended as she stopped before the skunk, her face mere centimeters from his own though she could not tell if his good eye was open or not. The patch on the other side of his face was still dark. His slow, steady breaths had not changed, the thrum of his pulse not increased. Was he even aware of her?

She smiled to herself wickedly. If he was not now, he would be very soon. Repositioning her legs she bent her arms and lowered her face until she was looking into the hollow of his crossed legs, the rich scent of his species and gender filling her nose more strongly. Did it contain compounds that were arousing, she wondered, and decided she did not care.

He was, himself in his entirety, what aroused her, musk and all. She could feel the warmth that had been simmering in her own loins quicken to an expectant tingle, the slip of her flesh becoming slick with dampness. Supporting herself with one arm she reached back to slide her fingers across the curve of her mons and over the lips of her labia, already wet and warm becoming hotter by the second.

Bending her supporting arm she lowered herself to her elbow and craned her head in to inhale a long, deep breath a mere centimeter from his sheath. His male scent was more pronounced than his animal musk with lingering traces of herself still clinging to his fur. She had needed to bathe herself after their earlier play but he had not, and thus not done so, letting the wetness of her release linger and dry upon the short, dense fur of his crotch.

Leaning closer and lowering her head into the hollow created by his crossed legs she let the tip of her nose touch the base of his sheath, just above his balls, and inhaled again more slowly as she slipped two fingers between the folds of her sex. A shudder raced along her spine as her fingers caressed the awakening bud of her clit, circling and rubbing against it as she let out a shaky breath.

Still he did not stir, his breathing did not change nor did the pulse of his heart and mana increase. But she could smell the subtle changes of the musk wafting to her nose from between his legs. Breath by breath it became deeper, more rich, promising fecundity in those vulnerable orbs within their fleshy purse. Letting her nose rove upward she leaned in a little closer, brushing his flesh with her nose and lips as she drank in that heady, earthy musk.

Reaching the tip she pressed in closer, her lips lightly caressing the soft fur, tasting their previous fun upon his fur mingled with the heady musk that was Him. She shuddered again, taking in a slow, deep breath as her nose pressed into the deeper fur above to drink in his scent; pungent and powerful but not offensive. How, she thought now, could she have ever found it offensive, it was merely Him. Her kiss deepend slightly, pressing against the firmness separated from her by nothing more than a thin membrane of flesh and dense fur. She exhaled and drew in another breath, pressing her kiss more firmly, until she felt hot, slick, firm flesh press against her lips. Then a little more firmly as she let that blunt taper press between her lips and she tasted the round, heavy bouquet of him upon the tip of her tongue. Her fingers worked feverishly against the swollen, wet hardness of her clit and her breaths hastened as molten fire spread through her groin and suffused her body.

She leaned in closer and let more of that delightful firmness press into her mouth, cupping her tongue along its underside as its taste exploded across her senses and she felt her loins clench. A hot huff of breath escaped her nose and she moaned softly as a firm, sharp orgasm rippled through her. Slick warmth trickled down her fingers into the palm of her hand as she pressed up hard against herself, the fevered movements of her digits spreading that slickness against her own flesh.

Blunt, hard claws pressed through her hair, raking against her scalp as he finally seemed to become aware of her attentions. She heard his breath hitch and felt those claws work lightly across her scalp, not pressing against her head to hasten her slow savoring of his flesh upon her tongue but not trying to push her away, either. His scent of arousal increased further as she let her head drop downward, slipping him into her mouth past the first thickening to the slight narrowing behind the first ridge, then the second. She let her tongue press up against him, feeling the smooth texture of his girth and the way it throbbed and thickened.

Oh, that awakening of his arousal at her touch, her tasting of him, was arousing as hell and she wanted all of him right there, in that moment. She forestalled herself, however, wanting to savor taking him fully, languid centimeter by centimeter while his erection grew in the hot passage formed by tongue and palette. It throbbed and twitched, pressing against the roof of her mouth as she listened to the hiss of indrawn breath through clenched teeth above her.

Sharp, deadly, predatory teeth that could both rend and please at the whim of the mouth that held them. His one hand continued to stroke her head, blunt claws raking her scalp lightly, her head shifting ever so slightly to follow the unconscious guidance of each caress. Another hand joined the first, slipping to her shoulder, inward to the hollow her neck, then downward. She raised herself slightly, the angle of her neck steepening as that warm hand slid downward to the curve of one breast. A single claw tipped digit found the achingly firm nipple, pressing and circling before drawing back with a flick of a hard clawtip.

Ash gasped and shuddered as another orgasm lit through her with the intensity of an electric shock. Her entire body tensed and her thighs quivered with the intensity of it as she continued to let her mouth slip down upon him. Waves of release eased the tension that had built in her loins and she let her fingers slip back further to hook upward to curve into her own needy depths.

She found the sensitive bundle of nerves within her body, at the base of her clitoral shaft, and shoved solidly against it, toward her belly, and drew her fingers back for a moment before plunging them in again as she finally gave in to her hunger and let her head drop completely. She took the last of him in an eager clench of her mouth about the base of his shaft, were it tapered slightly after the thickness at its base. Warm, sweet saltiness trickled against her tongue as that erect length twitched and pulsed and she gulped at his pre thirstily.

As the orgasm built and faded she drew her head up slowly, until only that first thickening taper was held upon her tongue and suckled greedily, her fingers plunging into herself with more and more haste. The wet, slick sound of it added to their rapid breaths in the small storage unit and she grunted a moment later as she climbed to a third orgasm and took him slowly to the base within her mouth again. His hand cupped gently at her breast, alternately circling her nipple with a coarse fingerpad or smooth, blunt, hard clawtip or pinching it firmly but gently and rolling it between pads or claws. Each caress sent sharp, intense shocks through her that seemed to lance straight to her sex and made it clench against her fingers.

Drawing her head back up slowly, under the gentle stroke of his claw tipped fingers, and then let him slip from her mouth. Raising up fully to look him in the face she drew her hand away from herself even as she felt her fourth orgasm rapidly nearing its release. Putting both hands to his shoulders she pushed, firmly. Seated with his ankles crossed and only his tail for support he toppled back easily, but not awkwardly, both of his hands shifting to smoothly grasp below her arms as he fell back. She moved forward even as he lay back, her breasts dragging against the fur of his chest, the warm fur a thrilling caress against aroused nipples.

Straddling his hips she leaned down to brush her lips against his prolific whiskers, the fur of his cheek ruff, upward to one of his rounded, furry ears. She nipped lightly at the tip of it before letting her lips rove back down the other side of his head, through the ruff of his cheek fur, whiskers, and then found his lips. Her hips settled downward, pressing against his erect cock and grinding it between them, her labia sliding along its contoured underside with rolling motions.

His hands slid from her sides to her hips, blunt claws pressing against naked, exposed human flesh as she rolled against that hard ridge parting her lips and gliding against her clit. Her tongue found its way into his mouth, caressing sharp teeth and wrestling with his longer, more dexterous tongue. Bit by bit the rolling grind of her hips worked the slick valley of her sex along his shaft until the tip slid below her clit.

From there it was hardly a centimeter before it pressed against her entry, sliding upwards even as she threw back her head, let out a sharp cry of pleasure, and rolled her hips back and downward. His girth speared her smoothly, stretching her clenching tightness past the first ridge that sent a twitching shudder through her so powerfully lights danced in her vision. Then the second, thicker girth and narrowing, until the third thickening was forced bodily into the ever tightening constriction of her flesh.

Her fourth orgasm broke with the intensity of a tsunami and her cry became a deep, rumbling grunt as she felt him forced past her restriction and pressed fully within her. He grunted as well as the intense tightness clamped down against him and grasped madly at his girth, muscles seeming to push outward against his length even as they seemed to draw him deeper. Ash did not give her body a moment to savor his solid girth, rising up several centimeters through the throws of her orgasm before plunging down again with the strained sound of her juices being forced from her body by the tightness of muscle against erection.

The force of her orgasm seemed to redouble as another broke amidst the one already occurring. Ash could only gulp and gasp, rising again sharply and easing down with hardly any less speed, then rising again. Each time he let out a sharp, animalistic grunt of mounting pleasure, the pads and claws of his fingers clutching at her hips. She rose up higher upon him, almost fully upright, her head thrown back as she rose and fell with increasing urgency, orgasm after orgasm exploding through her loins. Hands left her hips, sliding up to cup her breasts, catching nipples between thumb and palm and kneading with gentle force, claws raking against flesh.

Lights exploded across her vision, swirling about the room in all of the colors of the rainbow she could not name. Someone had once described the dance lights of a rave to her, but she had not been able to picture it, until now. Like the throbbing hammer of a base beat had pounded at her ribs those brilliant lights pulsed and flashed, growing brighter and wider, spilling against the ceiling of the small room, swirling into a vortex of countless hues that seemed to be descending even as her own body seemed to rise toward them, pleasure cascading through her with the rapid onslaught of high intensity dance music.

And then Kai let out a choked cry, half grunt half animal snarl, and she felt his rigid length swell within her abruptly. The stiffening length pressed the hard curve of his greatest girth directly against her most sensitive inner core, just at the base of her clitoral shaft. It throbbed and twitched, and then she could feel it.

Like water through a too-narrow hose she felt the surge of his release through the thin membrane of his shaft force its way through the constriction of her clenching vaginal entry a rapid heartbeat before the heat of it exploded deep within her and the swirling lights overtook her in a blinding detonation both within and without. She let out not a cry but a shriek as his orgasm flooded into her, found no outward release past his erect girth, and forced that heat deeper into the very center of her being. A concussion of bright lights blinded her Sight into a single throbbing pulse of every color all at once in time with the solid hammering of that cock within her.

Once; an explosion of heat. Twice; pouring into her, seeking her limits. Thrice; finding nowhere to go but deeper. Four times; filling her until she felt they were beyond being merely joined in passion. Five times; fading heat, becoming her own heat, spreading through her entire being and becoming one with the light. Six times; less mighty, commingling the colors of the chamber, the skunk, her own all into a single blinding corruscation that washed outward.

Ash collapsed, her body quivering with small, spastic convulsions as she was held up by those hands upon her breasts, all of her muscles slack. Her orgasms continued to clench and grasp, sending waves of mind numbing pleasure through her as the pleasures within her loins subsumed rational thought and muscle control. He continued to twitch and jerk softly within her but the skunk was clearly spent once again.

Somewhere, some stupid corner of her lust addled mind, chuckled maniacally; if all men had the reciprocal rate of this skunk she would not need a circle of hedonists to satisfy her sexual needs. His hands eased away from her over sensitive breasts to her shoulder as he let her, once again, collapse fully atop him as if she weighed no more than a babe. She knew she probably weighed half again as much as he did but she doubted, at that moment, that she could have supported a quarter of her own weight had she wanted to.

They lay there like that, sprawled on the cold stone floor of the chamber, for several long minutes, lost in the euphoria of their shared release. His hands roved her upper and lower back slowly, just firmly enough not to tickle or tease, occasionally caressing the curves of her rump. She could feel him, still fully erect, twitching and throbbing with her as a part of her own being, still sending slow surges of his release deep into her as washes of warm, liquid motion spreading and fading into her own heat.

“Oh," Ash panted at length, bowing her head to nuzzle between his ears, all but burying his muzzle between her sweaty breasts. “Oh, you're good, Kai. Damned good." She clenched the muscles of her sex against him, feeling how the fluidity of his release moved about that buried rod of wonderful, ridged magic.

Kai chuffed and gave her rump a squeeze. “I'm good?" He chided, turning his head slightly and nuzzling at the curve of one breast, then found her nipple with those sharp teeth and nibbled ever so lightly. “All I did was lie here, Ash my dear. You did all of the 'good' yourself, and well I might add."

Ash clenched again, hissing a breath through her teeth as she found that her arms were at last obeying her will enough to support the weight of her upper body. She raised up slightly to take her weight from him and looked down. “How long did it take you to perfect that so well?" She asked and clenched again to make her point, her eyes lidding as his cock gave a firm throb against her.

He chuckled again, lifting his head to lightly draw the subtle coarseness of his tongue against her nipple before teasing it with those teeth again. “Centuries, once I realized that nature did not endow my template species with anything that could satisfy anyone."

Ash smiled down at him, blinking at the strange incongruity of his colors. “It's perfect." She breathed as she lifted her hips slightly, just enough to make his eyes widen and his breath stutter before settling back down to ratchet her muscles down around him lest any of his release escape.

His eyes, that was it! Or, rather, eye. It was like the eyes of the animal man in her dream, dark and piercing, surrounded by darker fur. A far lighter color began as a narrow line along the top of his tapered muzzle and widened across his brow.

Fur.

Fur?

A dark eye, surrounded by fur? All of which overlay the ever shifting hues of his life mana still tinged with arousal and recent pleasurable satiation.

Fur!

“What happened?" She gasped and he hissed as her body reflexively tensed, and clenched, in shock. “What happened?!" She shifted her weight to one hand and rubbed at her eyes with another, looking at him again.

Fur? Yes, fur, dark to either side of a bright, pale hue. Dark curved features on either side of his angular head, the glisten of a dark leathery texture at the tip of his muzzle. White teeth when he gritted them against the rhythmic clenching of her inner muscles. “What do you mean?" He grunted softly through clenched teeth, his cock seeming to thicken once again, forcing that liquid motion within her to surge and shift. Finding no outward escape its only path was upward, deeper into the center of her being. “Ash, dear, please relax. I really want to keep that attached."

She tried to, but she could not. She looked around in alarm. Walls that shimmered with natural latent mana but now covered by a skein of strange, drab solidity. A countertop, shelves beneath, bags and boxes and other shapes of unmoving color. A blinding object set to one side of something that arched and gleamed brightly in the glare. A glistening thing hung at the apex of the arch for a moment before falling, disappearing out of sight with a soft, quiet plip. Ash closed her eyes, finding surcease from the confounding sights behind the darkness of her eyelids.

But when she opened them again nothing had changed, gone back to the way it had been before. Colors were supposed to move, to shift from one thing to another, the shifting of mana from potential to potential, pooling and flowing. They were not supposed to remain fixed in place.

The skunk beneath her, dark and light. Below and between them, intense gathered mana behind a skein of pale furless skin and fur where they joined, fur and skin that glistened and moved with each breath, each clench of muscle, each twitch of solidly buried erect cock behind her navel.

Her navel.

That was her skin? Pressed against the pale colored fur of his lower stomach behind which power pulsed with banked intensity.

“What the hell?" Not only was the mana pooled in his form behind that dampened fur, but behind the barrier of her own lower belly as well, just below the dimpled shadow of her navel. “What the hell!?"

“Ash, are you okay? What's wrong?" Kai asked in alarm, his cock rapidly growing slim within her as she sat up fully to look down at their joined bodies and slowly upward until settling upon his face.

“I can see." She reached down a shaking hand and brushed lightly at the long, plentiful whiskers to one side of his muzzle. Whiskers she had never seen but only felt, before. Her hand strayed up to the cup of a curved ear, tracing its edge lightly. “I can see you, Kai, the real you! Fur! I can see your fur, not just touch it or taste it, I can see it!"

“See?"

Shifting her weight back Ash abruptly shoved up onto her feet, heedless of the mess the sudden decoupling caused, and staggered back until she collapsed to sit on the cot. She gaped and looked rapidly about the room as he lay sprawled, a strange look on his animal visage. Or, perhaps, not so strange Ash could only wonder, as she had never seen a facial expression with anything but her fingers before. She laughed and cried at the same time, looking down at his crotch and the slim rod of glistening flesh disappearing into the dark furred column of his animal foreskin. “Oh, my bright fucking Gods eternal, Kai, I can see!" She looked down at herself, the pale hue of her own skin, her hands, the powerful flow of mana just beneath. At her own groin and thighs glistening with the wetness of their passion.

Behind which still glowed a powerful collection of life mana that surged and swirled through her. What she had seen before had not, then, been the mana of Kai's cock buried deep within her; it was her own mana. With a strange sort of clinical detachment she stared at her own mystic center and the curve of her mons, at the slow dribble of glistening wetness seeping its way through the rippled, narrow folds of her sex. She let out a choked cry as she traced a finger through that glistening flow and brought it to her mouth.

Yes, it was certainly him, her; them. It was no dream, and it tasted wonderful.

Covering her mouth with her hand she cackled an almost hysterical laugh and cry as she gazed, wide eyed, over at the skunk who had managed to sit up. “Oh, gods, Kai, you fucked me sighted!"

His jaw hung open at that bold statement, good eye going wide. “Oh, dear gods. It must've been the Rift." At her momentary look of confusion he scrambled up and hastened over to drop to one knee in front of her. “You said you lost your sight after an attack, but not because of the attack. It was after some sort of light passed through, one that ended the attack?"

“Yes?" How handsome he looked, she thought, even with the strange lines above and below the patch that covered his left eye. But then, he was the first man she had seen since she was three and could not, at that time, appreciate the difference between genders. “It stopped the fires and guns but the animals attacked, I think, or so it sounded. I was three, the memory is foggy." She reached out to trace the contour of his face, seeing what her fingers still Saw for her, a strange dichotomy of senses.

“The Rift is almost pure life aspected mana, far too much for humans to survive in most cases. It also surges, sometimes extending beyond its borders. That is what must have happened on the night of the attack, and it blinded you. Or, perhaps, you blinded yourself after seeing the atrocities of war." Kai explained as he let her fingers explore his head as if lining up what her fingers had Seen for her. “It did something to your mana, sealed it away. When your mana came back, so did your sight."

“Why then?" She paused and cocked her head, then giggled as she felt more of his release escaping her clenching sex and trickling along the cleft of her ass. “Why now?"

“Who knows why then, but now?" He shook his head and laughed, dumbfounded. “You pounced me, darling, when I was on the cusp of opening myself to the local mana streams." He reached up with a dark furred hand, his claws equally as dark but with a smooth sheen to them. “I should have stopped you but, well, what you were doing was so damn good." He cupped her chin and leaned forward to gaze up at her. “Ash, no one, in more than a thousand years, has approached me to seek my pleasure as their own, and to share it. I had to employ them, and even then I could tell it was a performance for remuneration, not shared pleasure." He waved a hand to take in his appearance, and perforce the stink that came with it. “So I did not tell you to stop, which was unwise, and perhaps unkind of me."

“Unkind?" Ash scoffed, grasping his hand between her own firmly. “Love, you gave me back my sight! How could that be unkind?"

“Because it was dangerous." He admitted with a duck of his head and sigh. “That much mana flowing into me, through you and into me, could have caused you irreparable harm. But I was lost in the realization you sought me for your own pleasure, and were doing a damnably good job of it, I did not even think to stop you. I tried to hold myself back from the ley mana but, well, I completely lost command of my faculties when you took me." His muzzle quirked up at one corner in an expression Ash could not read but assumed was not angry. “I let the mana in, and it came straight through you as its conduit." His free hand reached out to touch lightly just below her navel. “And it opened your reserves that the Rift outburst had closed."

“And my eyes."

“And your eyes." Kai nodded slowly. She could see it, the way his dark head moved, up and then down, a slash of pale colored fur between his ears. Fur, rippling with each motion, his ears twitching back in consternation before standing and rotating forward. She could see how they tracked, how they focused, untouched by her fingertips.

Ash leaned down and pressed a kiss to the cool pad of his dark colored nose, and then his lips, letting the kiss linger for long moments. “Love, if that is your unkindness, please show me more of it, hmm?" Sitting back up she drew the fingers of her hand firmly between her thighs and across her sex, collecting the cooling wetness of their coupling from herself. Giving him a huge smile she pointedly licked her fingers clean, shivering at the musky, salty sweetness of it. “And more often, but let me wash; again."

At his laughter she stood up and shakily made her way to the bathroom on legs still unsteady from their lovemaking. It was absolutely amazing, she thought as she stood at the sink ignoring the warm trickle down her inner thighs, to stand before a mirror and see herself.

Her true, actual, live, real self without using her fingers to do so.

A woman stared back at her whom she did not know. Her skin was a rich shade she could not name, neither pale nor dark, spotted here and there with small pricks of darker hue mostly across the top of the cheek bones. Eyes of a different, paler hue gazed back at her with curious regard, taking in the broad nose, long slightly wavy hair of a similar hue but subtly different. Ash drank in the view of that stranger, a face she had never seen, and that's when it struck her.

The man in the dream had prepared her for this! She had seen his eyes, his face, his own whiskers, the color of his parlor and clothing. Seen it, with a normal person's eyes. That was why she had not immediately realized what she was seeing when she looked at Kai. She had seen it before, in that dream, it had not come as horrifyingly unreal.

And now it was real, and the dream man had taken away much of the shock of it.

Ash raised her hand to touch her cheek and left behind a glistening blot on her skin. The sharp, almost rank smell of her shared lust with Kai struck her nose with its heavy, pungent musk and she blinked. She looked at her hand, also glistening with dampness, suddenly freshly aware of the cool trickle against her inner thighs. A sharp edged giggle bubbled up from deep within her breast, building into a soft laugh that grew with each passing second until she was laughing uncontrollably.

And crying at the same time, her legs unsteady as she grasped the edges of the utilitarian steel sink. She slumped to the floor in a fit of hiccoughs, gales of laughter, and peals of inconsolable wailing all at the same time. Strong, warm, fur swathed and wiry muscled arms were around her but she could only see a smear of dark and light through her tears. She buried her face in Kai's fur and succumbed to her wild chaos of emotions. Her arms clung desperately to him, grabbing fistfuls of fur as she buried her face in the thick warm embrace of his pelt, snuffling at his potent musk. He settled down beside her, drawing them away from the sink against the opposite wall, his arms around her and his head atop hers as she wailed and guffawed into the fur of his breast.

She could see.

She could see!

Twenty years of darkness and shimmering mana and, suddenly, she could see again! It was too much and her mind was bent askew at the hilarious irony of sex as a cure for more than blowing off steam or to bolster a weak self image, something she had suffered from for years. Who would want a blind girl? A disparate group of randomly collected hedonists, it so happened. They showed her self worth, taught her to value herself beyond the mere physical but for the strength of her character, blah de blah blah. And, now, perhaps, a strange skunk immortal who had never known her, would never have known her, until a gods bedamned cab driver dumped her into the middle of the war between himself and some vampires.

She soon cried and laughed herself out and she slumped, weak, into Kai's solid embrace. For such a little man he was surprisingly steady and, to her Sight, positively glowing with mana after refreshing his reserves. His own life mana was buried in that beacon glow, somewhere, but it was beyond her bleary eyes - both normal, gods be blessed, and Sight.

“There now, Ash, let's get washed up, then get some sugar into you. After a fit like that you're going to be utterly spent." Kai said gently as he shifted and helped her stand, if a little unsteadily, his nose coming no higher than the nipple of one breast. He did not take advantage of that proximity but Ash felt it like a fire held close to her flesh. He steered her into the shower and dialed on the water, helping her stand upright by putting one of her hands on his shoulder and holding her waist gently.

Despite her earlier contemplations, when he had been a boneless, unconscious heap under her blind ministrations, their shared shower did not dissolve into another inferno of shared lust. His hands worked gently but efficiently lathering her when her weakened limbs seemed inadequate for the task. She just rested a hand on his shoulder and moved with him, watching him silently scrub her down with nothing more than soap and the coarse pads of his hands. He spared her most intimate places no less scrutiny but a great deal more care, chuckling softly at the fresh wash of their shared musks.

Ash had recovered some degree of muscle control during the shower and helped wash him, in turn, with the same care though her hands never came near his own intimate spots; he was simply too short for her to reach that far down. She satisfied herself with his back and shoulders. They stood and embraced wordlessly as the drying cycle washed over them after the water, his head pillowed between her breasts though not salaciously so.

“What do we do now?" She asked, her throat still a little raw after her fit of hysterics, when they stepped out of the shower. His lush, dry tail flicked against the front of her thighs as they moved out into the room. She did not bother reaching for her shabby office clothes which she now saw were a strange hue, like the color of plants, that did not seem to suit her new Sight. They looked crude, compared to what the man in her dreams had been wearing, but she had only that comparison to make. She knew they would feel their many days left hanging after one wash and poor drying; stiff and chafing.

Much like her legs and crotch, which Kai had not seemed to notice at all. Or, at least, had not mentioned. She could not imagine the sandpaper texture of emerging hair stubble was comfortable against his cock.

“I should recharge my charms and see if I can put my arm more to rights." He held up one arm and Ash winced at the sight of it. Where his right arm under the fur was smooth and muscular, this left arm was encircled by ridges and divots of exposed flesh that looked an angry dark color, like the pain she had taken away but there was no pain beneath those angry looking weals. “That should take a couple of hours." He knelt and drew the chest out from under the cot, setting her braille reader aside before opening it.

From inside he took a few vials and pouches from within. The entire chest was full of similar containers and loose items that she could not put names to. Her nose told her many were herbs, some dried and some apparently fresh, a few minerals. Closing the box he slid it back under the cot and paced to the middle of the room. He looked about as he turned a slow circle, then flicked his tail around himself from one side. “After I cast my circle, lass, do not cross its borders, no matter how impassioned my vulnerable state might make you." He said with what Ash assumed was a smile, his whiskers lifting but no teeth gleaming through the black fur of his lips.

As he spoke he carefully poured some of the powdered material from one vial into the fur of his tail. Once he capped it the vial floated on its own volition over to the counter to settle with a quiet click. He dispensed more material from other vials and pouches directly into the fur of his tail, his concentration evident as he watched his own work, his measurements careful and precise. The last was some sort of dried aromatic herb, like anise, that was crushed into a fine powder in his palm. All of the items situated themselves in a neat row on the counter like soldiers returning to a formation after their superiors were done with them.

And then he shifted his feet slightly, flexing his strangely shaped canine-like legs, and abruptly spun in a tight circle, his tail flinging out in a wide. The powders and other reagents burst from his fur in a shower of sparkles that quickly settled around him in complex, intricate lines on the floor. He spun to a stop after one full revolution, the plume of his tail drawing up close behind his shoulders as he regarded his casting circle. He slowly turned in place, examining the complex, two meter wide ring of powders on the floor around him before one last rotation settled into a smooth, cross-legged seat in the center of the circle, his tail wrapping around to fall across his lap.

Ash clucked her tongue as he concealed himself from her and his dark eye gleamed in the shadowed planes of his face, the light source still on the counter behind him. She was actually curious to see what he looked like, now that she could see, but would have to satisfy herself with a closer visual examination later. An exam that would only be visual as long as it took her desire to taste him to overcome her restraint.

She could satisfy her curiosity now, with other things, for she had so much to see even in this one small room. There was more than enough space for her to move around the outside of the circle. With a last smile and a slight nod his eye closed and his breathing slowed considerably.

The kitchen area was an absolute trove of fascinating things to examine, both with her eyes closed in the usual manner and then with her eyes open. The vegetables offered color, though none had the name of the color conveniently printed on their packages. Likewise with the spices from the shelves above, dried meats, rhagash in half a dozen flavors. She examined the pouches and vials, reading the tiny, crabbed lettering and smelling the contents from a few centimeters away but did not touch any of them, not even to move them aside. Whatever they were dealt with the skunk's magic, if not in the immediate moment, and she knew well enough to leave a mage's reagents alone.

She knew when he had recharged his scent dampening amulet almost instantly; his musk simply vanished from the room leaving it smelling unbearably empty and mineral. Even her own scent was all but eliminated, including their shared scents. Suddenly all she could smell was the stone of the place, the dustiness of whatever made up the fabric padding the walls, and the cleansers beneath the sink. It was unsettling and made her pause to watch him for several long minutes. The small motes on his eye patch regained their minute glow as Ash watched.

Mana shimmered through the circle on the floor, bright around the outer edges where it traveled inwards along the intricate, complex lines he had laid with a flick of his tail. At the inner edges the mana swirled up around him in a thin veil too gauzy to limit her sight of him, the inside surface of that veil coursing toward him like mist on a lake moving toward rising air currents.

She shifted her Sight into deep registers, skipping over the layer that encompassed the soul where his aura was still blinding, and watched how the numen swirled and convoluted about him in mad gyrations. Thin tendrils of it broke away from the deeply bowed curves and flickered across his eye patch or amulets, some of them sticking and remaining there while others roved over his arm in tight, convoluted gaussian curves. In front of her startled eyes the bands of numen tightened, drawing thick ropes of life mana from his mystic centers, and wrapped about his arm where it writhed like a captured serpent. The divots and weals of naked flesh paled, filling out to restore the normal contours of his arm, dark colored fur fuzzing the flesh out of focus briefly before covering it in a fresh coat of shining, dark fur.

Several long minutes later his breathing increased to a more normal respiration and his good eye opened, blinking at her a few times while he regained his focus. “Damn that feels so much better without the pain that usually came with such deep work, and days faster as a result." He smiled warmly, a bright gleam of teeth shining from his dark colored muzzle. “I cannot thank you enough, Ash, again."

Ash sat back and smiled in return, and then laughed. “You restored my sight, Kai the immortal. I think we're even, on that score."

He scoffed and shifted forward to rise in a single smooth, supple motion. “Not even close, my dear, not even remotely close." He stepped over to her and held out a hand, drawing her to her feet and giving her a warm hug, leaning his head back to look up at her and grinning lecherously. Then he kissed each of her nipples, on an even level with his muzzle, warmly before stepping away. “Now, let's put some clothes on, I'll put an illusion upon us, and we can get the hell out of this place. Despite the wonderful memories I will have of my time here, with you, I shall not miss the place itself."