Satyr Play

Stanley was wobbling on his feet. He rubbed at his face with his hands, then looked down to see he was tenting his pants badly. Glancing at the others and catching Dayshia's troubled look, he discreetly lowered his hands to cover himself.

"You felt that too, Stanley?" Tish purred. She'd seen the evidence.

Sandy turned to face him and saw his cheeks had gone bright pink.

"I-I think I'll head home now. I had a lovely time tonight," he said with a rough voice.

"Are you sure you can't stay a little longer?" Sandy asked and bit her lip.

The sight of that went straight to Stanley's cock so he shook his head and eased around the three women. They followed him to the door. When he turned to say goodnight, Tish stepped closer, took his face between her hands, and kissed him. She was a great kisser. She released him, and he had to brace himself against the wall.

"Good night, Stanley," Tish said sweetly, and he nodded in a daze.

Dayshia's kiss caught him completely by surprise as it was so quick and intense then she was disappearing down the hall to the living room. He turned back to the door and into a deep and sensual kiss from Sandy. God! She felt and tasted amazing!

As the kiss parted, a lock of her hair reached forward to stroke across his lips. Sandy didn't even appear aware of this as she looked him in the eye with a smile.

Then she stepped back, closing the door, and he was out in the hall. He walked to the elevator and took it up to his floor. He let himself in and locked up. He had to lean back against the door to catch his breath.

He wasn't sure what had just happened... but his body appreciated it. He stripped off his clothes and got ready for bed.

But sleep wasn't quick to claim him tonight.

-=-

Back in Sandy's condo, the three women were busy grinning at each other.

"He's a pretty good kisser! A little gentle for my tastes," Tish sighed.

Something about that comment triggered a recollection for Dayshia. She looked at the statue again. "Three fingers."

Sandy's head whipped around to stare at her friend. Her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Bigger muscles. Much bigger," Tish sighed, looking at the art piece too, now.

Sandy stared at her as well. "Long brown hair," she said quietly, and her friends nodded, Tish with a dreamy smile and Dayshia with wide troubled eyes.

"And an absolutely monstrous cock!" Tish giggled.

Dayshia had reached her limit. "How the hell are we all seeing the same image? I know I've never seen this... Satyr... Faun... thing before in my life! Yet now it's front and center in my mind!"

"What happened?" Sandy asked.

Dayshia shook her head. "Your crazy hair got all charged up, and Stanley put his hand right into it! I grabbed his arm—"

"I grabbed the other one!" Tish blurted with a grin.

"Next thing I knew, I was... feeling... really good!"

"Me too!" Tish sighed.

"I felt incredible! My whole body did!" Sandy sighed. "Stanley put his hand into my hair?" she asked quietly.

Tish had a sexy smile as she recalled Stanley's reaction. "I think it felt really good for him too!"

"That's when I saw the... Faun!" Dayshia asserted.

"That's when I was remembering it!" Sandy said with wide eyes.

Dayshia blinked at her friend. "No... no, that's not possible," she said as she shook her head.

"Hey! Crazy shit happens!" Tish said with a shrug. "Maybe something about that static charge let us synchronize our minds for a second. That's all the time it would take to share an image." She raised her hands. "I'm not saying that's what did happen. I'm just suggesting that maybe it could have happened that way."

"I don't believe in telepathy or any of that other mystical shit!" Dayshia growled.

Tish held up her hands in surrender but smiled. "I'm just offering a potential explanation."

"There has to be a more reasonable answer," Dayshia insisted.

"Come on, let's head out. On the way, we'll try to come up with answers your silly, rational mind will accept," Tish said with a grin. She hugged Sandy, as did Dayshia, and they headed home.

Sandy tidied up the packing peanuts and realized she'd be returning the sculpture. The differences between it and the image of the Faun in her memory were too annoying to let her keep it.

She'd send it back in the morning.

As she prepared for bed, she thought about that amazing feeling she'd experienced when Stanley touched her hair. A new wave of tingles, gentle this time, trickled from her scalp to her toes as she smiled and hugged herself. She twirled a lock of her hair around a finger as she laid back on her pillow. She had warm thoughts of Stanley as she recalled their kiss tonight. He seemed pretty tipsy. She wondered if he'd remember in the morning. She doubted she'd ever forget. Tish was right. He was a good kisser!

Chapter 27

Detective Harmon scowled at the polished concrete floors. He'd spent all of his Saturday trying to get an address for this business and then most of his Sunday trying to reach the super of the building to get him inside when he discovered the business seemed to be shut down.

"Geezus! I wish my place was this fucking clean!" Morris growled.

The building super looked between the two angry detectives. "Is there a problem with how clean it is? The previous tenant moved out and removed the leasehold improvements they made as per their leasing agreement."

"Do they normally scrub and polish the concrete?" Morris asked.

"No... never."

"When did Ulysses Global Investments close up shop?" Harmon asked him.

"I don't know. Maybe... ten days ago? I got a message from the owner saying he was breaking the lease. A few days later, I came by and found it like this. I wish all tenants were this good about cleaning up when they left," the super said.

"Do you have an address for the owner?" Harmon sighed.

"Mr. Ulysses? No. The only address I had bounced his mail back to me. I always contacted him here, but his checks always cleared at the bank," the man responded.

"Geezus, the guy's name is Ulysses? Sounds like a tool." Morris grumbled.

"Are all the floors like this?" Harmon asked.

"The company only used the ground floor, the second floor, and the top floor, though they rented the whole building," the super explained. "The other floors are as clean. Like I said, a good tenant."

"Shit." Harmon sighed. Another dead end. He wanted to go back to speak to their witness. See if the name Ulysses rang any bells with him. If that didn't work, maybe he'd let Morris get the truth from the little guy.

He sighed as he knew he wouldn't do that but was starting to taste the rot in this case. It was turning his gut. This scrubbed-clean building set his instincts off. They were telling him that, like the original scene of the kidnapping, someone died here.

Someone was keeping secrets. Harmon wondered exactly how much Mr. Garin knew.

Chapter 28

Stanley relaxed back against his sofa after handing Marisa a cup of tea. She'd brought him some dinner, and they'd enjoyed the meal.

He'd brought her up to speed on the events of Sandy's party, omitting the kissing, and she was wearing a concerned look on her face.

"The magic isn't fading," she murmured quietly.

"What happens if she draws attention to the fact that her hair actually does have a mind of its own?" Stanley asked.

Marisa's face showed her worry quite plainly, so he inferred something bad might befall his friend to silence her.

"Shit! How do I warn her to keep it quiet without giving anything away or making her want to know more? This is my fault!" Stanley exclaimed.

"It's more my fault than yours, Stanley," Marisa said sadly.

"Then what are we going to do about it!" he asked.

"There isn't anything we can do about it. We aren't magic wielders. We can't take the magic away. Saying anything to her is just going to make matters worse for her. If she appears on the Hidden Races Council's radar as a problem... steps will be taken."

"If we're not wielders, maybe we could ask a wielder to nullify the effect on her hair for us!" he said excitedly.

"Who? Walter? You must have picked up on how he feels about Humans. The Fae? Not fans of Humanity either. Their solutions would involve violence of some kind," she sighed.

"What about Baba? I could ask her!" he blurted.

Marisa gave him a sad smile. "Do you really believe she would make this kind of effort for a Human? How do you think she feels about Humanity?"

Stanley recalled her expression when she told him his parents had been murdered by humans. She'd been testing him, but he didn't know for what.

"She's human—"

"Maybe... once. A very long time ago. I don't believe she holds any connection to the race anymore," Marisa said softly.

Stanley surged to his feet in frustration. He needed to do something!

Marisa leaned forward to catch his eye. "There's also the matter that the magic which... changed Sandy isn't the old magic. It's stronger. Feeling my connection to it, I can feel how weak the old magic has become. I doubt the current wielders could do anything to suppress or control it. Their solutions, again, would be more permanent."

"Fuck! I hate all this secrecy!" he barked.

"You understand its importance, though, right?" she asked cautiously.

He sagged back to the couch. "Yes," he said in defeat. He was just one man. What could he do?

There was a loud knock on the door. Marisa shared a look with Stanley. He rose to his feet. Marisa joined him as they walked to the door.

"I'm not expecting anyone," Stanley said quietly.

He reached the door and looked through the peephole.

"It's the detectives!" Stanley said as he pulled the door open. The two men were not smiling.

"Mr. Garin. We have some additional questions," one said as his partner was openly checking Marisa out. Stanley bristled until he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Come in, officers," she said, gently pulling Stanley back to the living room.

They closed the door and followed them in.

"And you are?"

Stanley recalled this one was Detective Harmon.

"I'm Marisa Villamor."

The detectives' eyes locked on her. "Villamor of VRL's Villamor?"

"My aunt, Camila Villamor, is the CEO. I'm Stanley's Executive Assistant," she said with a smile.

The other detective snorted, and Stanley gave him a frown.

"We went to the address you gave us, Mr. Garin, but the site had been professionally cleaned. There was also already a crew repairing the damage. Paid for by Ulysses Global Investments." The detective was watching Stanley's reaction

"You seem to know that name, Executive Ass-istant Villamor," Detective Morris said with a greasy smile.

She threw him a bored look and turned to the other detective to answer. "They're a competitor of VRL. I believe my aunt knew the president."

"Used to be a competitor. Closed up shop. No forwarding address." Harmon said with a scowl.

Marisa didn't have to fake her surprise, and Detective Harmon frowned as another lead seemed to be going cold.

"Any idea why this tool Ulysses would want to kidnap little ol' Stanley here?" Morris asked Marisa.

The detective was getting under Stanley's skin. He scowled at Morris. "Why don't you go ask him?"

"We tried. His office was cleaned out, right down to the cement floors, and even those were scrubbed and polished. Anything you'd like to tell us about that," Morris growled at Stanley in return.

Stanley just shook his head in confusion at the man. "What the hell would I know?"

"I'm not buying this bullshit about the floor just falling in so you could miraculously escape! I wanna know what really happened in that basement! What secrets are you hiding in that big brain of yours?" Morris yelled, getting right up in Stanley's face.

Heart pounding and blood roaring in his ears as he flashed back to Leaharin's rape, Stanley froze as he felt himself touching his ring with teeth bared in a snarl. He saw Marisa's wide, frightened eyes and slowly pulled his hands apart as he allowed his face to relax. He glanced towards Detective Harmon, who was watching him closely, with confusion in his eyes and tension evident in his stance.

Taking slow, deep breaths, Stanley turned from Detective Morris and sat on the sofa.

"I think it's time you both left. If you have any additional questions, please contact my lawyer, Walter Zhou. Good evening, gentlemen," Stanley said stiffly as tremors ran through his muscles.

Morris looked like he wanted to continue, but Harmon touched the back of his arm to move him towards the door.

Marisa locked up behind them, then rushed back to Stanley's side.

"Oh my god, Stanley! I thought you were going to kill him!" she said quietly. She hugged him as he struggled to get his equilibrium back.

-=-

As they walked out the front door of the building, Detective Morris rolled his stiff neck muscles. He had a lot of unspent adrenaline. He would have liked to beat the little punk down, then taken his assistant's sweet ass for a ride... if Harmon hadn't been there. He snorted in frustration and looked at the other man to catch a strange expression on his face.

"What?"

"Why do you have to play the bad cop so well?" Harmon sighed.

"Who says I was playin'?" Morris grinned. He liked pulling the man's chain and dancing on danger's edge. He missed Harmon's grimace.

Detective Harmon glanced back at the building. He knew Stanley Garin was a small man, not a big bruiser like Morris. But he couldn't shake the impression he'd been a split second away from seeing his partner's death.

Chapter 29

"It was a fascinating read."

The two representatives of the Fae council glared at Walter across the expansive surface of the oak desk in the lawyer's study. Upon its surface lay the leather-bound journal once owned by Leaharin. Next to it was the tablet PC.

"Are we to believe you have reviewed the encrypted contents of a private journal of the Queen's Inquisitor?" the Fae, who'd introduced himself as Ikehorn, said quietly.

"This act alone has sealed your fate," the other Fae, Kelshard, growled.

"Oh, please. The encryption was child's play to one such as myself. As for my fate, I haven't invested in a life this long to take needless risks now. No, we have too much to gain by our mutual cooperation to consider my little trespass to be of any concern to either of us," Walter chuckled.

"What could one such as yourself have to offer the Fae?" Ikehorn said in disdain to the old man across the desk.

Walter smiled. "A means to extinguish the pestilence of Humanity once and for all."

The Fae's expressions froze.

"I thought that might catch your attention. Leaharin was very troubled by the damage Humans are causing the world and the effects this is having on our link to the realm of magic, the source of our power. The plans he outlined in his journal have potential but lack a decisiveness that would guarantee their elimination. They breed like vermin. It is necessary to expunge them all in one act."

"There are billions of them. How could that many be... expunged, as you say, without damaging the very environment we must preserve?" Ikehorn asked.

"That's where our cooperation comes in," Walter smiled wickedly. "For decades, the Fae have been maintaining and priming a spell that currently encompasses the planet. In itself, it has great range, but there is no payload. It achieves nothing. I can supply the payload that will act decisively to eliminate all Humans within the focal area of this spell. Every Human on the planet. Gone."

Ikehorn was disturbed that the Dragon was even aware of the spell, but his partner leaned forward in interest. "We're listening," Kelshard smiled.

"That's good, but I'm done talking to lowly underlings such as yourself. For the rest, I'll only speak to the Queen." Walter leaned back with a satisfied smile.

The Fae's expressions immediately went back to scowls.

"The Queen does not entertain idle boasts. What proof do we have of this payload?" Ikehorn sneered.

"Let's just say the Queen's current object of desire is integral to the payload's delivery," Walter offered.

"The Satyr?" Kelshard blurted.

Walter nodded slowly.

The Fae shared a troubled glance then Ikehorn pulled out his cell. Glancing at the old man across from him, he dialed and waited. He murmured into the phone when it connected, and moments later, he placed it face up on the desk.

A circular disc of light formed above the cell roughly three feet in diameter. When the light focused, Walter was facing Queen Mab.

"Greetings, your Majesty. I am Walter Zhou," he said in introduction.

The Queen did not look happy. She was not used to being denied and did not like it. Being unable to get possession of the Satyr had put her into a terrible mood. Before her was one of the people obstructing her. "Why am I speaking to the legal representative who is denying me what is rightfully mine before the scheduled meeting?" she said sharply. Ikehorn and Kelshard twitched.

"I asked to speak with you to discuss a matter that concerns us both greatly and how our cooperating will greatly benefit us both."

"Indeed. What matter causes us both great concern?" she asked, holding his eyes with hers.

"The extinguishing of our link to the realm of magic." This was a title he'd read in Leaharin's journal.

Now, he had her attention. "You've read my Leaharin's journal." Death was hinted at in her tone.

"The issue was already known to me. I have watched the state of our connection to the realm diminish for centuries. The journal's reference was merely a confirmation from an outside source," Walter said calmly.

She was quiet for a moment. "And this cooperation. How would it benefit us both?"

Walter smiled. "By eliminating the cause. Completely. Once... and for all."

"The Humans. You propose a means to eliminate Humanity?" she said in an amused tone, but there was no amusement in her eyes. "I have heard such suggestions before, and none have proven to be more than empty boasts. No one has enough power to do such a thing. Except the Humans themselves, of course. But they'd take the rest of us with them." Her expression turned bitter.

Walter leaned forward and lost his smile as well. "You are correct. Alone, no one has the power to launch such a powerful spell, but together, it can be done."

"Together?" she snorted delicately. "Since when are Dragons team players?" Mab said, raising one exquisite eyebrow in question.

"Indeed, we are solitary beings. However, like the Fae, Dragons are wielders. We, too, are dependent on access to the realm of magic. The boundaries between here and there are closing to protect the other side from the rot Humanity has polluted this world with. We would both benefit from eradicating the cause. Reversing the damage can only begin when the source is dealt with."

The Queen was silent for a time as she pondered the being before her.

"What would our part be in this... plan," she asked carefully.

"Access to the Fae's global overlay spell," Walter stated.

Her eyes flared for a moment when he mentioned the spell. It was one of their greatest secrets. The Dragon knew too much, but she wasn't sure if he knew its role in holding back the disease her people suffered from. She could not allow the spell to be harmed.

Walter continued as if unaware of her sudden reaction. "The Fae spell has the benefit of encompassing the globe, making it the perfect vector for a payload I am uniquely qualified to create and deliver."

"This spell cannot be altered. It will not be disabled," she said with finality.

"Neither is required. It needs to continue exactly as it is. Undisturbed and spanning the planet. My payload would merely use its focus as a location vector to isolate its targets. The payload draws no energy from the overlay."