Necromancer Chronicles Pt. 08

She shrugged, "It's still pretty small and in one piece, even if it's in two parts inside."

We talked about another project we had on standby while waiting for lunch. New theoretical power sources, although we couldn't settle on an approach. For a lot of it we would have to wait for the tech to catch up but there were a few things we could try.

We went out for lunch a little early; waiting for the fabricator had been driving us nuts. We wound up eating Mexican. Toni rolled her eyes at the idea, but she was outvoted. Apparently if you're raised in San Antonio, it isn't really Mexican food up here.

When we got back to the lab we replaced the failed experiment with the new device. I held my breath as I turned it on. We cheered when we lifted the book up, and it stayed there, apparently unaffected by gravity. Though we noticed after a few minutes the book seemed to be a tiny bit lower. We took more measurements and the field was much more stable, but still a little too weak from signal loss.

We turned up the voltage going into it by a hundredth of a volt at a time until our readings were right. It seemed pretty stable but thought the resistance might change enough to matter when it got hotter, or colder. We'd have to figure out some software to control minor tweaks.

The device couldn't create gravity; we had theories for that but not enough power to make it happen, yet. But still, as it is it would be worth a lot and extremely useful. If a person wore a device that cancelled gravity they could literally get to space by pushing off with their toes, assuming of course the wind didn't blow them down at some point.

Point being it would take very little resources to create lift and forward motion. Downward motion could be created by weakening the field and letting just a little gravity leak in. Past flight and easy access to space, it could be used for moving, construction, rescue work, zero-g training and labs, cargo weight limits on boats, planes, and rigs would no longer matter, and I'm sure the list was much longer if I put just a little more thought into it.

The scary thing is it was a simple toy really, with the discovery I had made. And it would change the world. I frowned for a moment, worried about what I had seen on the news. Still, I couldn't help that the geek in me felt elated by it.

We flagged down Lina and got her started on filling out papers for the patent, giving her all the relevant information and schematics along with all the possible uses we could think of for it.

We decided in the late afternoon we would vote on what to do next tomorrow, we had gone over a large number of ideas this morning and this afternoon. We thought it would be better to sleep on it.

Before we left I asked, "Hey, are either of you busy tonight? My... partners want to meet you, and we should celebrate with some dinner and drinks."

Abby blushed at that, I guessed she wasn't too thrilled about me having two mates.

She said, "Sorry, my husband told me he's taking me out for dinner when I called earlier. Maybe next time?"

I nodded and looked over to Toni who said, "I'd love to."

On the drive over Toni asked me a little curiously how I'd ended up with two women. Even in our world it wasn't all that common a thing, though it did happen.

I grinned, "I was head over heels in love with Kristi. Then one day I went home and a werewolf attacked me. Apparently that's how they pick their mates, it's all very instinctual. Kristi wasn't exactly pleased at first, but they fell in love too."

Toni looked over at me and sounded surprised, "They did?"

I nodded, "I don't have a harem. The three of us all love the other two. I don't think it would work otherwise, jealousy would screw it up. Plus, I told you Kristi has mind magic, as well as some other stuff, it's hard to miss the fact you're loved when you can feel it."

She looked thoughtful so I let her think about that as I finished the drive. I wanted her to understand, for some reason her opinion mattered to me, maybe because I had to work with her, or possibly because I already thought of her as a friend. It would make it rather uncomfortable if she couldn't understand and judged us for it.

I pulled into the driveway and she looked a little nervous, I've never seen her act that way before. I shrugged, not sure what to say, if anything at all. I walked her in the door and could feel my mates in the kitchen so headed that way. Kristi was still in her work clothes, Alicia was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, they were both moving about.

Kristi smiled, "Nice to meet you Toni. I'm Kristi and this is Alicia. We're almost done getting dinner going. Vinnie, why don't you give her a tour of the house? We'll meet you in the living room in a few minutes."

Toni replied, "Nice to meet you both too."

Alicia seemed to look her over, as if sizing her up for trouble. She finally smiled and nodded in greeting. Wolves...

I showed Toni the first floor, all that was really upstairs was our bedroom and a couple of spares. I showed her the den, where the bathroom was, and the deck in the backyard. Since she wasn't a guy I skipped the garage and cars. Eventually we got back to the living room where I offered her a seat on the couch and got us drinks.

Toni whispered, "Is Alicia always so intense?"

I whispered back, "It's a wolf thing... and so is great hearing."

Toni blushed but I heard Alicia's light laughter in the kitchen. They both walked out and took seats.

Alicia said with self deprecating humor, "It is a wolf thing, territory and all that. As long as I'm not growling you're fine," she winked and her lips quirked into a half smile.

Kristi said, "So congrats on the breakthrough today, that must be exciting. I know I am excited about it, I work as an engineer for a green company and I've already drawn up a few proposals on it."

I snorted and narrowed my eyes as I hadn't told her yet, "When?"

She coughed innocently, "This morning after you left for work. Don't worry; I won't submit them until the patent is in."

I shook my head, "That non-disclosure agreement is worthless with you around..."

Toni smiled but otherwise ignored my interplay, "It is, we're already trying to figure out what to do next while we wait for patents and then I guess we'll be able to think about manufacturers. That's really our boss' job though."

We chatted for a while longer, by the time we made it to a second drink my mates had Toni looking a lot more relaxed. I was a little relieved myself; it would have been a nightmare if they'd hated who I spent eight to ten hours a day with.

Dinner was very good, we had broiled steaks, mashed potatoes, veggies, and some dinner rolls. I was fairly stuffed when we finished. We had some cake after and time flew by fast. Toni was curious about Kristi having magic, so Kristi explained a little more about what she could do, but was rather vague about where the magic came from.

At the end of the night Kristi gave me a thumbs up to indicate my destination was clear and I teleported Toni back to her car in the parking lot.

Toni said, "Thanks, they're really great, we should do this again, or go out one night?"

I replied happily, "Sounds good to me, I'll let them know..."

We stared at each other awkwardly for a second, and then she got in her car and drove off. I teleported back to the house and found my mates in bed already. They had started without me and were demanding my attention. I watched them with a smile as I started to undress.

Chapter 4 - Hope

Tuesday Morning...

Crap. I checked on my spy ghost after meditation, the fae had gone all the way to Montana and opened a gate to the fae world. There seemed to be some stones set up in the area and strange markings that could be spell work. I left the ghost there to see if he, or more of them, came through again, but I had no idea if there were any others already here.

It hadn't occurred to me to ask before I let the other's ghost move on. I hadn't been expecting the other one to run on home so to speak. Oh well, I'd be more careful next time. I jumped in the shower to start getting ready for work. I smiled as Bree joined me. That always led to a pleasant result.

My body felt pleasantly sore and tingly when I left the house. I took the Metra in and was a little disappointed the fae didn't take it as an opportunity. It also forced me to dwell on other things, like the prophecy. I'd have to make a decision and figure something out soon, it seemed like all the news and riots around the world were pushing me to choose.

As usual my mind shrunk from the task. In theory I knew this had been set into motion long ago. Vinnie and I weren't responsible for more than being involved in a pivotal moment, but how do you choose? The fae had done very little to earn my favor, but did they truly deserve to die as a race? The humans I grew up with, some of them I loved, but they could turn into a horror and invade world after world in the future. It was what they did.

There had to be more too it as well. There was no way the other worlds would just step back and let the fae destroy humanity or vice versa. Perhaps something I would do will push them to a certain side? I could go crazy thinking about this. Too many possibilities.

It wasn't quite that simple either, I had an idea what I could do to at least stop the downward spiral of the current violence, but not if it was what was needed to make a difference in the end. The fae should have hung their seers a long time ago, it was impossible to understand. I pushed all that down and got to the hospital even earlier this morning. I checked the charts to get them out of the way then went to get Jeremy's answer.

I could understand his skittishness, he didn't know me that well and hadn't been treated the best by the communities so far. How could he trust me to use my magic on him and keep his defenses down? I was sure he had felt the truth of my promise last night, but often emotions get in the way and can lead people to make foolish decisions.

I knocked lightly on the open door and stepped in. Jeremy was sitting up, his knees propped up by a pillow, Bell was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Good morning Jeremy, Bell."

Bell nodded and Jeremy returned my greeting.

I asked, "Have you made a decision?"

Jeremy said, "Yeah, we talked about it. It seems hard to believe but there was no doubting you meant what you said last night, go for it."

He flinched a bit when my magic covered his body. I ran a scan after I started his knee healing and noticed a few other things. I fixed his eyesight, which wasn't bad but he was on his way to needing glasses, I also cleaned up a badly healed break in his arm.

When I told him what else I got he smiled and moved his arm around.

"Thanks, it was actually a little sore still, so should I stick around a bit? I plan to tell them I have a family emergency and have to reschedule."

I nodded, "Sounds perfect, thanks. Did you want to exchange numbers? I was serious about you two sticking around here. You'd only be one oddity of many in this town."

He chuckled and pulled out his phone, we took care of that, and then I got myself to where I was supposed to be. I was changing into my scrubs when I felt her come in.

Callie grinned, "Morning. Last night was a rousing success. I even got yelled at."

I snorted, "You really do like living on the edge don't you?"

She nodded unrepentantly, "Of course, how do you think this happened," she said while running her hand along her body.

"I was a bit to wild for my own good when I was alive. Believe it or not, this is mellow me."

I grinned and finished getting dressed, feeling a little self conscious as she watched me.

"When was that?"

She chuckled, "A long time ago. France in the sixteen hundreds actually."

My eyes got a little wide at that, "Why aren't you in charge then? You must be way more powerful than the current councilor."

Vampires got more powerful the older they were, the current councilor was probably just around a hundred or so.

She snorted, "Would you really want to put me in charge? No, I'm the... disruptive element and like it that way. Life is too short not to have fun. We should go out again soon," she smiled evilly.

I frowned, "Just for the thrill of it?"

She shook her head, "I'd be lying if I said getting along with you so well was the only reason. I do like you and we would have been friends regardless. But yes, it does give me a little bit of a thrill."

I asked curiously, "Why..."

She stepped forward getting close to me. Her almond eyes were mesmerizing and although I knew I could enslave her with a thought she looked like a goddess of some kind in the flesh.

She said with a sexy smile, "You're dangerous sweetie, in more ways than one. You are the only one in this town that could take me out with a thought, you are sizzling hot and exactly my type, and your blood has the scent of life itself. Add in everything else and how could I not be drawn to you like a moth to a flame?"

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, she was incredibly bold and I was a bit flatfooted. Was it kind of hot in here? I also seemed to be having some trouble breathing and my mouth felt dry. She thought I was hot? I hadn't felt so attracted to someone in years, not since Bree, Rafe, and I had formed a solid relationship. It was thoughts of my family that broke me out of her mesmerizing gaze, and no, I wasn't talking magically.

"Maybe, but I'm not the only dangerous one," I whispered harshly.

She smiled at me mysteriously and walked out of the room. She had clearly known and quite enjoyed the fact she had managed to fluster me so thoroughly. Bree wasn't upset at my reaction or feelings, she thought it'd been kind of hot actually, and I could feel her amusement at my reaction through our bond.

I had no idea what to do about it, but she wasn't the only one who enjoyed fun. If nothing else she was that, so I figured I'd probably go out again with her sometime for another girls' night out.

My work day went pretty smoothly after my interesting morning. All of our patients seemed to have good a good prognosis for surgery being effective. It was only my third day. I hadn't snuck in any healing at all. I wondered how hard that would be with Andoman always looking over my shoulder to make sure I didn't screw up.

I could hide any visual aural affects of my magic, but he wasn't stupid.

Wednesday was a little interesting. I got to observe two surgeries. I knew it would be a few months before I was trusted to participate, but it was interesting, and at the same time a little frustrating to not be able to just heal them as I knew I could so easily do.

Wednesday night got a little too interesting. Four fae came through the gate. I set ghosts on them all, to follow. I thought about attacking right away, but against four I'd definitely need my brother's help, possibly more than that. Also, I wanted to leave them enough rope in case there were more fae around that they would lead me too.

I kept an eye on them while at work Thursday morning. I should have Friday and Saturday off, if I don't get paged, and I could deal with it then. Hopefully with some help. It was Thursday afternoon when I started to regret putting it off. I had worked seven years of college to get to this point, and if I disappeared or didn't show up it would be very bad.

My ghost on portal guard called out and I reached out through the bond with my senses to see what he was seeing.

The strange writings were glowing brown, and there was what looked like a rip in reality. I couldn't see through to the other side, the surface of it was a mottled swirl of black and brown colors. I watched as fae started to pour through, when it got to twenty, one came flying out of the portal and slammed into a couple of his buddies.

My ghost looked closer and he was bleeding, his leg looked mangled. I looked up to the portal and some more fae were coming through backwards while surrounded with their brown shields. I thought perhaps some other fae on the other side were trying to stop them. The next one that came through was clearly dead, then there was a magical explosion of some kind and the portal closed violently, the stones containing the strange writing were destroyed.

A little over thirty fae had come over and were still alive. What's worse was I didn't know if this was the only portal, or if there were more to worry about. They separated into five groups of six and moved out while a couple stayed behind, trying to help the wounded one. I assigned five more ghosts, one to each group, and took a deep breath. I had no idea what was going on, but whatever it was didn't look good.

Another thought occurred, all the escalating violence worldwide. The humans were certainly capable of violence, but what if they were being helped along? I was sure Kristi could do something like that if she wanted too. The original four fae were still hours away, and it would take at least a day for the others. So I decided to finish my shift.

We were doing the last check that evening on a patient after surgery when I felt the first fae. I tensed for a moment, wondering what to do as I felt his magical aura enter the front of the building. I had obviously been right about others being there, but they had foregone contact. Maybe they had just used their magic and spoke mind to mind, or maybe they were all independent.

After all, they should be well aware of our capabilities with ghosts spying and information retrieval after death. Solitary cells all with the same mission would make sense.

As I considered what to do, I felt another fae come in a back entrance, and then another through the ER. Would they attack in the open? Well, if they did, they could either erase it from the humans' minds, or simply not worry about it. I had a feeling they would want the instability that would follow, anything to get the humans to panic and start killing each other.

"Jones!"

Uh... "Yes Doctor Andoman?" Shit. I had no idea what he asked me.

Dr. Andoman rolled his eyes and asked the question a second time, he didn't look pleased even though I was able to answer it. But it was late and he cut us loose.

I was going to teleport out, but I felt Callie moving toward one of the fae. I shut my eyes a second to get focused and used my magic to move much more quickly as I took the stairway down to the first floor. I was moving pretty fast down the hallway when I heard her voice.

Callie asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"

She had no clue of course, I hadn't told her anything yet really. I got to the room in time to see her raised off the ground and flung into a wall. I heard a few humans scream, I really needed to get out of here. I ran to pick her up and teleport, but two of them hit my shield at the same time from different directions.

I went down to my knees knowing I either needed to bring out my real shields, or get out of there when suddenly the attack stopped. I looked up and saw Callie staring at someone in shock, but before I turned around to see who it was I heard...

"Hey gorgeous, can't you keep out of trouble for a few days?"

I felt so relieved my eyes moistened a little bit. That asshole.

Callie floundered, "He's human, how in the hell did he do that?"

I turned and saw two decapitated bodies, Rafe looked to be wearing a t-shirt and shorts, but I bet his magic was out.

I snorted, "Meet Rafe, he's an angel, and I don't mean his personality."

Rafe snickered, "It's good to see you too. There are more of them coming you know."

I said, "Just lay low Callie, they're after me so they'll leave when I do."

Callie asked, "I'd like to go..."

Her eyes were lit up with excitement and I rolled my eyes.