“Go ahead.”
Food in tow, he kicked back on her bed and watched a reality show. But it wasn’t nearly as colorful as his and Jenny’s lives. If they had cameras following them around, the world would be shocked. Hell, he was shocked. This was a particularly strange night.
And it was about to get stranger.
Jenny came rushing in. “I heard a noise at the window. I think someone is out there.”
He jumped up and followed her to the living room. They stood and listened. Indeed, something or someone was tapping on the glass.
He reacted like the man of the house, even if he had no intention of being the man of the house. “I’ll go see what’s going on.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Apparently she was afraid to stay inside alone. Noah opened the front door, descended the porch steps, and walked around the side of the building, with Jenny creeping behind him.
He stopped in his tracks when he saw who the tappers were. Jenny peered out from around his shoulder.
She gave a little gasp. “It’s the
sapiya
.”
It most certainly was. They were launching themselves at the window, much in the way a boy would toss pebbles to get a girl’s attention.
“Do you think they know we’re standing here?”
“Of course they do. They just haven’t acknowledged us yet.”
“What should we do?”
“Stay here until they decide to talk to us.”
“I wish they would hurry up. This is making me nervous.”
Him, too, but he wasn’t about to admit it out loud.
In the midst of their game, the little stones multiplied. When they hit the glass, one would become two; then two would become three and so forth.
Soon there were hundreds of them.
Swarming like bees and glowing like fireflies, they flew straight at Noah and Jenny. He expected to get pelted. Apparently she did, too. She latched onto him for support.
But the
sapiya
didn’t stone them. They stopped just short of an attack and formed a giant heart in the air.
A freaking heart, Noah thought. Wasn’t Jenny accusing him of loving her enough? Did the
sapiya
have to remind him of it, too? Naturally, she seemed mesmerized by the romantic symbol. He would’ve preferred being pelted.
“Jenny?” the
sapiya
said.
“Yes?” she responded.
“We can bring Lareina to you. All you have to do is catch one of us.”
Boom
.
Zoom.
The heart exploded into separate pieces, and the
sapiya
sped off. Jenny ran after them.
Noah was fast on her heels, but not for long.
Thud
.
There it was: the same invisible force that had shoved him into his chair at Sienna’s house. Only now it surrounded him like a giant bubble, containing him within it.
Fuck.
The
sapiya
didn’t want him interfering with Jenny’s attempt to make a catch.
Infuriated, he shifted into lion mode, snarling and snapping, even though he knew it wouldn’t help. He would remain powerless until the force let him go.
He couldn’t see Jenny anymore. “What if she falls and gets hurt?” he said to the disembodied energy that held him. Her property was laden with low-hanging trees, stiff shrubbery, and dirt paths. A danger zone in the dark.
His concern was ignored.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Ten minutes? Twenty? Finally he was released, and he dashed into the brush and picked up on Jenny’s scent.
He found her on the ground. She
had
stumbled, and she
was
hurt. One of her pant legs was torn and her knee was bleeding. He swept her into his arms. “I would’ve come sooner, but the
sapiya
wouldn’t let me.”
“I couldn’t catch any of them. I chased them until I fell. Then they were gone.”
“If they show up again, you need to tell them that you changed your mind and you don’t want to pursue Lareina.”
“But I haven’t changed my mind.”
He carried her into the house. “Don’t you see how dangerous this is? It’s not worth it.” He set her on the edge of the bathroom counter, shifted back to human form, and opened her medicine cabinet, looking for antiseptic and bandages. He noticed them on the bottom shelf. “If the
sapiya
brings Lareina here, she could kill you.”
“Why would she, especially if I have blood ties to her?”
“And what if you don’t?” He removed her shoes and helped her out of her jeans so he could treat her wound. “What if she’s not the magic you’re connected to?”
“I know it’s risky. But I’ll figure out a way to keep Lareina from hurting me.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, gee, that’s reassuring.” He smoothed her hair and discovered a leaf that had gotten lodged there. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, Jenny.”
“I’ll be careful.”
He discarded the leaf, picking away the crinkled pieces. “The way you were careful when you ran off in the dark and cut yourself?”
She leaned forward and kissed him. “Thank you for caring.”
He held her close. “This doesn’t mean that I love you.”
“I think you do, and I think the
sapiya
were trying to tell you the same thing.”
That damned heart. “And what good did that do? You still ended up on your ass.”
“Next time I won’t.”
“You’re getting cocky.”
“Maybe I’m just feeling strong because of the magic in my blood.”
She didn’t look particularly strong, not in a T-shirt and cotton panties and a Band-Aid on her knee.
He helped her off the counter and led her to bed, insisting that she get some sleep.
Later, as they lay beside each other in the pitch of dark, he hoped her so-called strength didn’t backfire on both of them.
Jenny sat across from Noah at her scarred kitchen table. She’d stayed awake for most of the night, wracking her brain about the Lareina dilemma and finally coming up with a solution.
She said, “After breakfast, will you go to the rescue with me?”
“What for?”
“To talk.”
“About what?” He frowned. “And why can’t we talk here?”
“I have an idea on how to keep Lareina from hurting me and it involves the rescue. So I’d rather discuss it on-site.”
He agreed to accompany her, and she took him to an area with an empty enclosure.
She said, “We use this as temporary housing to separate an animal for social or health reasons. That’s why it’s smaller than our primary enclosures. I want to use it for Lareina. I think it’ll be a safe place to keep her.”
He more or less gaped at her. “And just how do you intend to get her into a cage?”
“I’m going to ask the
sapiya
to put her there, and after I’m done talking to her, they can send her back to wherever she came from.”
He obviously wasn’t impressed. “
That’s
your idea?”
“What’s wrong with it?” To her, it sounded as plausible in practice as it was in theory.
He shot it full of holes. “You’d have to catch one of the
sapiya
first, and even if you’re able to accomplish that and they’re able to put Lareina in a cage, you can’t control how she behaves or if she’ll talk to you. And what if someone on your staff sees her when she’s in human form and reports you for having a woman locked up?”
Jenny patched the holes. “She won’t be in the enclosure long enough for anyone to see her. I’ll have the
sapiya
bring her here after hours. As for her refusing to talk to me, I’ll tell her that if she doesn’t cooperate, I’ll turn their magic against her.”
“You’re putting a lot of stock into those stones and just how far they’ll be willing to go for you.”
“If I catch one of them, I’ll be its owner. Then it will have to listen to me, won’t it?”
“As long as it thinks your requests are reasonable. And there’s no guarantee that the
sapiya
will reappear and even give you a chance at ownership.”
“Stop discouraging me. At least I came up with a plan.”
Noah approached the enclosure. “If you are able to get Lareina here, I wonder if being locked up is going to set her off, if she’ll pace and snarl the whole time. If it was me, I’d go stir crazy. I’d lose my mind.”
She moved closer, standing beside him. She recalled his aversion to cages. “It’s not going to be you.”
The sun beat down from the sky, glinting off his jet-black hair. “Lareina’s motives never mattered to me before, but now I can’t help but wonder: Did she choose me randomly or was I part of a bigger picture from the start?”
“I don’t know, but those are some of the questions I intend to ask her.”
“It was easier not caring. It was easier before I met you, Jenny.”
Because she was changing him, she thought, bringing his emotions to the surface. “It was easier for me before I met you, too.” She talked a good talk about making him mortal, but what if she couldn’t do it?
After a stretch of silence, she said, “Don’t you think it’s strange that we haven’t heard from Coyote yet? Seems to me he would be chomping at the bit to find out what happened at Sienna’s house.”
“He probably already talked to her about it.”
“I’m going to call him later and fill him in on the rest of it.”
“I’d prefer that you leave him out of it.”
“If he hadn’t arranged the meeting with Sienna, I wouldn’t know about the blood tie and the
sapiya
probably wouldn’t have offered to help. Coyote is part of this, whether you like it or not.”
“What about the family tree? Are you still going to mess with that?”
She nodded. “I’m not going to leave any stone unturned. No pun intended.”
He changed the subject. “Let’s go to the club tonight. Let’s clear our thoughts and have some fun.”
Curious, she asked, “Do you have something special in mind?”
“Actually, I do. We can watch other people play in the sensation center, and afterward, we can play privately in my apartment. You and me and the sex toy of my choice.”
Her blood went thick and warm. “Which is?”
“I’ll tell you when the time comes.” Territorial as ever, he pulled her into his arms.
Making her glad that she belonged to him.
The sensation center fascinated Jenny. The massive room offered sparkly walls and an array of beds, which were out in the open, and, according to Noah, had to be reserved ahead of time.
Lovers pleasured themselves or their partners in a multitude of ways. Vibrators, masturbators, massage oils, silky fabrics, feathers, metal spurs. The list went on and on. But the most curious, at least to Jenny, was the use of a sex doll.
A trio of women in mermaid costumes spritzed water at one another, via spray bottles, as their groupie, a male doll dressed in a vintage sailor suit, shared their bed. With his tousled hair, tanned skin, slight beard stubble, and intricate eyelashes, he looked amazingly lifelike. He also had a thundering erection popping out of his pants.
“The doll of dolls,” Jenny said.
Noah responded, “It’s made from silicone and has a skeletal frame with flexible joints. I think it cost around six grand. They pooled together to buy it.”
“That’s certainly a far cry from the blow-up kind.”
“Those are still around, mostly as gag gifts. But there are some in-between models, too, made of latex. Just about anything you’re looking for is available now.”
“Gosh, who knew?”
“The first sex dolls originated in the seventeenth century and were fashioned from cloth. French and Spanish sailors used them on long sea voyages. The dolls were female, of course.”
She glanced at the mermaids. “So they dress their boy toy like a sailor? That’s a clever role reversal.” She took a closer look at the women and recognized one of them. “I remember her from my first night at the club. I saw her in the lobby. She’s really beautiful.”
“So are you.” He kissed her, warm and slow, and she savored the feeling.
They separated, and she noticed that the mermaids were taking turns with their silicone groupie, kissing him the way Noah had just kissed her.
Intrigued, Jenny watched. It was oddly flattering to be mimicked in such a romantic way. Oddly arousing, too.
“Do they have actual sex with him?” she asked Noah.
“All the time. His dick is like a dildo, but with the rest of the body attached. Have you ever used a dildo?”
She shook her head, felt a zip of excitement. “Is that your sex toy of choice for tonight?”
He nodded. “I’ve got a big, brand-new one that’s calling your name, and I want to fuck you with it.”
The zip of excitement intensified. But she got nervous, too. “Just how big is it?”
“Big enough to look impressive, but not big enough to hurt you. It has clit-stimulating bumps, and it’ll squirt any type of liquid.”
Oh, my goodness. An ejaculating dildo. “What type of liquid are you going to use?”
“A recipe for fake cum.” He nuzzled her ear. “And you can tell me exactly when I should squirt it. The moment it happens is up to you.”
Jenny tingled, anxious to be the recipient of his liquid-spilling toy. “Can we go to your apartment now?”
“Absolutely.”
After they entered his place, he produced the dildo. It was still in its box. He opened the container and handed her the phallus, allowing her to examine it.
The soft, smooth head led to a ribbed neck and long, thick shaft, making it an anatomic wonder. The sensory bumps he’d mentioned were near the base, as was a squeezable bulb for the liquid.
She returned it to him, and he washed it at the kitchen sink. Then he got started on the fluid, warming it on the stove. Mostly it consisted of plain yogurt.