Night Walkers: Opposites

By

Maggie Finson

Author's Note: I am using The Nightwalker world with ScramblerJ's kind permission. All characters appearing in Hunter's tale, the first story in this world, and the world set-up are ScramblerJ's property. Any characters appearing in this story (with the above-mentioned ones excepted) are mine. If you find a few things different, consider it my fault and my fault only. I hope you enjoy this one. Also, it has been a number of years since I wrote this one, so please forgive some of the grammar and other little glitches. I was learning then as I’m learning now, and only hope to improve my craft as I go.

 
Chapter I

A bedlam of gunshots, zipping whines of energy weapons, and clashing steel against armor or armored hides made hearing much of anything else pretty well impossible. Seeing a movement that didn't seem quite right in my peripheral vision, I whirled while raising my pistol. The faithful old HK Duratech 5mm needler saved my butt again, firing a burst of twenty explosive, armor-piercing rounds into the face of a Vamp trying to catch me from behind. His head dissolved in a spray of blood that soon joined with the rivers of it flowing through what had been, scant hours ago, Central Headquarters for Hunter Operations worldwide.

I say "had been" because a furious, and undetected sneak attack by a Night Walker force of combined types had swept through our outer perimeters and vaunted defenses like a tidal wave in a beach town. I spotted a gargoyle reaching an ugly claw towards Audra Lang, one of my usual partners if Ops, and fired off another short burst that entered the creature's back and blew its chest out as the force of the exploding rounds slushed the contents of its body cavity.

Audra nodded her thanks, then bounded to where I was, ensconced behind an ultramodern computer terminal that by now was no better than what I was using it for. Cover. "Thanks, Josh!. I didn't even see that one coming up on me. Where did all these bastards come from?"

"Got me there, Audra," my response was short as I picked off a dog sniffing around several bodies that had been friends of mine. The silver jacketed rounds, blessed by a saint, ended any thought of feeding that werewolf was going to have. The hairy monster dropped like a load of bricks had landed on his head and didn't move again. "That's one of the sons-of-bitches that won't be killing any innocents again, I muttered in bleak satisfaction while scanning the wide open space of Centrals inner concourse.

It was pure, hellish shambles. Red strobes flashed, klaxons wailed with now useless alert warnings, and a number of small fires added smoke and flickering light of their own to the scene. It wasn't encouraging. Bodies were strewn everywhere, Human, Hunter, family members, and Night Walkers; twisted into agonized poses like dolls tossed away after they had been broken. Only dolls didn't bleed, or spill intestines on the floor in front of their incredulous eyes.

Our ears rang in the comparative silence that engulfed us. The carnage and destruction of the Night Walker attack had swept over us and was now concentrated in the science wings behind and slightly to the left of our position. Audra and I seemed to be the only living, breathing, or moving creatures left in this part of the massive underground warren that had been both our homes since birth. I swore at the sight, and felt tears of grief threaten to pour from my smoke irritated eyes. "Mother of God, Audra. It's gone, all of it."

Pushing the grief, and the towering rage that replaced it away with an effort that took more out of me than all the fighting so far, I offered my dark haired companion a grin to show that I wasn't cracking up. Yet.

Evidently, she had been going through the same kind of thing herself, and the tears flowed freely down her smooth cheeks. "Josh, what do we do next?"

"Get us into a less exposed position," I answered shortly, levering my two meter, one hundred kilo bulk into something resembling an upright stance. "Then try and find out what the hell happened here."

Audra gaped in momentary horror at my mangled right leg, a dog -- werewolf -- to you laymen, had laid it open from just above the knee all the way down to my ankle, and my self healing ability was having a tough time regenerating torn muscle and tendons. At least the bleeding had stopped. With a grimace, I pulled off the shreds of my dark blue leather armor, a product of alien tech, and tossed what was left of it aside. "Damned body suit was worse than nothing at all, it actually slowed me down. Come on, let's find a safer spot to recover for a bit."

With Audra for support, I reeled and hobbled about fifty yards to the ravaged front of what had been a dress shop. Forcing the warped door wasn't easy, even with our greater than human strength, but we managed; creating far more noise than either one of us cared for. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any enemy around to hear it, or notice the exhausted pair who gratefully threw themselves to the littered floor and simply lay there gasping for breath.

I was graying out, and fighting tunnel vision with every gram of willpower I possessed. My injured leg throbbed, then would send out a white hot bolt of jagged edged agony before settling back to a mere throb. If the fighting, or the victorious Night Walkers returned to this area before I'd had a chance to heal a little more and get some rest, I was dead. So was Audra, suffering a number of lesser wounds than I did, but also barely able to function because of them. Her left shoulder was broken, I could see part of the bone working back into her torn flesh as her own healing began realigning the bone.

"How much ammo you got left?" I asked in a strained whisper.

"Bout half a clip," was her terse, and worried answer. "You?"

"Fresh out," I responded. "Shagging that Dog used up all I had left."

"Damn!" she swore like a journeyman dock worker. "Fucking great. Neither of us in any kind of shape for hand to hand and we're out of ammo. Shit! Maybe I can scrounge some weapons from the bodies. Hang in there, my friend. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Careful," I nodded understanding and cautioned all at once. I sure wasn't in any kind of shape to go on such a search, but we needed the weapons and ammunition that had to be out there.

"Yeah," her soft acknowledgement drifted through the fog I was struggling to lift. In spite of trying to stockpile weapons and ammunition, neither one of us harbored any pretty illusions about our situation. We weren't going to get out of this one alive. All we could do was take as many of the fuckers out as we could before they got us.

It only seemed like an instant until she was back, spreading out a pathetic few usable weapons, grenades, and sparse ammunition. "This is what there was.

"I think the fighting in Sci-wing has finished up," with a heavy exhalation of breath she settled beside me to look her scavenged booty over.

One heavy duty plasma rifle at half charge, a beautifully crafted six-gauge shotgun that came with a tooled leather bag holding a scant seven shells, a pair of ultra-Uzi submachine guns with three full clips each, around a dozen odd handguns with varying, and very limited amounts of ammunition, one hand held missile launcher with a smart warhead resting in its cradle, and what looked like a simple flare gun.

I perked up a little on seeing the launcher and flare gun. pointing at the latter, I grunted, "That what I hope it is?"

"Uh huh," she answered with equal economy, then grinned. "Sun bomb."

"Thank you, God," I breathed, leaning my head back against a splintered counter to ease its aching. the Sun bomb was a deceptively simple weapon, and fairly new to our arsenal. Once ignited, it would hang in the air releasing a sustained emission of deadly ultra-violet rays. Deadly to a lot of the Night Walkers, that is. Especially to Vamps. Finding that just might be our one slim chance at survival, I thought. But I had to heal up enough to run before I had a chance.

Shutting down my personal radar unit to conserve its precious power source, I lifted the visor of my helmet and settled back to get what rest I could. My communicator still spewed a tale of desperate defenses elsewhere in the complex, all doomed to failure. There were just too many of the bastards.

"Somebody sold us out," Audra muttered.

"That's what I think, too," was my listless reply. "Some Dog fucking son-of-a-bitch gave them the codes. Only way they could have got in here at all, especially so many of them."

"Yeah," Audra nodded without the heat we both should have felt. It just took more effort than either one of us could afford to use. Hunter training at work, put your emotions and losses aside until later. Focus on the problem, instead of how much you're hurting inside and out. It worked, too. Maybe that's all that kept both of us sane through that first part of our ordeal. Maybe not, too.

Making myself as comfortable as possible, I slumped back to the floor and sank into half-delirious reflections about what I was, had been, and would probably end up being soon enough. Dead, or worse, in thrall to some Night Walker. Pushing that last idea away, I settled in to wait, determined to make the finish of Joshua Howard Ryan -- Hunter, team leader, and protector of Humanity one that would be remembered by Night Walkers for a long, long time.

Chapter 2

I had been what I was born, raised, and educated to be, a Hunter. Hunters were created long ago by a Night Walker who realized what her compatriots were doing to Humanity and didn't care all that much for what she was seeing. Only being one being, and with few of her kind even sympathetic to her perceptions, she set about righting that perceived wrong in the only way she could find: by recruiting Humans to her cause and training them to serve her purpose. During that training, she gave her proteges several very important gifts. Super- human strength and speed, longer life spans, incredibly fast healing and regenerative powers, and most importantly, a resistance to magic that was powerful enough to be considered immunity. Once the selected humans had finished training and been given their powers, she more or less turned them loose with one and only one mission; kill Night Walkers.

Something Hunters have been doing very well since then. Unknown by the masses of Humanity we were made and sworn to protect, Hunters soon became very well known, hated and feared, by the Night Walkers who were our natural prey.

I grew, trained, and became a full fledged hunter with a purpose, a reason for being, that stretched back to antiquity with all the traditions and responsibilities going with such a rich, ancient background. Joshua Ryan, a young Hunter with a shock of thick flame red hair, and steely gray eyes in a superbly muscled and conditioned body became very good at what he did, what I did. By the time I was twenty-five I was a confirmed team leader and in demand generalist for briefing and even accompanying other teams on hazardous missions. Which included everything we got sent out on.

I'd even encountered one of The Fallen during one of those missions. Fallen are the part of the Host who rebelled against God in Heaven and lost the war. They're very powerful, subtle, and scary as hell -- which incidentally, they do not inhabit. Hell is home to their offspring from human mating with Fallen, Demons. Anyway, The Fallen are real scary people and not to be screwed around with unless you're either foolhardy, have a strong death wish, or have some massive and powerful backup of your own ready to jump in if things go bad with the encounter.

I was or had none of the above when I met Asuko. Appearing as a delicate Asian girl in her late teens, that particular Fallen took enough of a liking for me to at least listen for a moment before wiping out the foolish, and hapless Hunter team that had stumbled on to her lair. My end of the conversation was mostly, "Sorry, Ma'am, Lady. Didn't mean to disturb your rest. Please forgive us and we'll all do our best to forget we ever saw you."

With a musical laugh that sent chills up my backbone then ran them back down from my neck with tiny clawed feet intent on digging into my very soul, she graciously allowed us to leave. I'm mot kidding about that either. She permitted us to go, otherwise I wouldn't be telling you this story. Asuko held me back for just a moment as the others fled her imposing presence. "Joshua Ryan, you will have a most interesting life from here on out. I give you leave to visit me again with no fear for yourself. Go now, and I will see you again."

I did, leave, sweating like some stuck pig and terrified as the rest of my team, but also intrigued and wondering if I'd ever be fool enough to accept The Fallen's invitation. I broke about fifty long standing laws by doing exactly that and doing it more than once. But Asuko was good to her word. She still scared the shit out of me, but had never offered harm or threat to me when I was visiting her. She was a gold mine of information and new/old techniques for survival. Much as I disliked admitting it, her information and teaching saved my ass, and the collective asses of my teams more than once.

With all that, you might start to get the idea that I was something extraordinary among Hunters. You'd be wrong. I usually kept a low profile, did my job, and remained mostly unremarkable beyond my strange and unsettling friendship with Asuko. I'd never be a Mike Dayton, or his father. Or any other kind of hero. Heroes, especially among Hunters, had a bad habit of ending up dead, or worse. I was far too thorough to be a hero.

The last time I'd seen Asuko, she'd had a visitor. A member of the Host. Now The Fallen can be reasonable, and even fairly well disposed towards some humans and Hunters. Not The Host. Those mothers were the ones The Big Guy upstairs sent to settle problems in the Human realm. Their methods were effective but catastrophic. Bastards would take out a whole city without a qualm just to get one or two people they had targeted. Needless to say, I ran like the Wrath of God was after me when I saw that, and it could have been if The Angel hadn't been in a good mood.

I hadn't seen or heard from Asuko since.

Chapter 3

Something jerked me out of my memories, a sound or lack of it really. The klaxons had gone silent and the red alarm strobes weren't flashing their mindless, useless warnings any longer. I noted with grim satisfaction that my leg had finally healed up enough for me to stand and move with something close to my usual grace and speed. That it had taken my regenerative powers so long to get it there was worrisome, and had sapped my own energies to dangerously low levels getting me this far.

Audra was also alert, watching the concourse with narrowed eyes and fingering the shotgun she had appropriated for herself. By mutual, silent agreement, we divided up the rest of the looted weaponry. I took the sun bomb, both Uzis, and an eleven millimeter "Demon Buster" hideaway pistol. That left her with the missile launcher, shotgun, plasma rifle, and assorted other pistols. Our arsenal was pathetically small and supplied, both of us knew, but did a hold a few surprises for our unwelcome guests that might just get us out of our situation alive.

Whines, clangs, and loud snicks were what we heard next, as massive fire/security doors opened and locked into that position. Audra glanced at me, dark eyes full of rage, grief, and resignation. "They've got Main Control."

Knowing my own eyes mirrored what was showing in hers, I nodded. Main Control was the heart of Central HQ, heavily armored, protected twelve ways from Sunday by both automatic and directed defenses, and staffed with a constantly vigilant squad of heavily armed and armored Hunters regularly rotated to keep them fresh. With MC in their possession, our enemies could shut down any system in the complex, or turn them against their former owners. Our chances to survive had just dropped close to zero again and both of us knew it.

It hadn't come as a complete surprise. At least I'd had the presence of mind to disable the security cams in the shop we occupied before completely falling into my emergency healing trance. So the fuckers couldn't see us through the internal systems. That was the good news. The bad was that remote sensors outside our refuge might still manage to pick us up in spite of all the jumble we were using for cover.

All too soon we found that they had. the first indication of trouble came from just outside the entrance to our hideaway. A soft scrape of claw on ferrocrete that halted the instant it reached us. Other small, furtive noises in the concourse told us that whatever had made the first noise was not alone, and had deliberately let us know it was there.

"Bastards are playing with us," Audra mouthed at me, anger clear on her beautiful face. I nodded, slowly scanning the area in front with my personal radar and coming up empty. The small unit had neither the range to give me a full view of the concourse, or the power to penetrate obstacles. If something was lurking in all that rubble, something we were both very sure of, I wouldn't be able to see it unless it foolishly moved out of the radar shadow that sheltered it. What power remained in its batteries drained to nothing and I ended up removing the now useless helmet that was more of a hindrance than protection without the radar unit functioning.

Taking the flare gun, modified for its new, deadly to Night Walkers purpose, I gave Audra what I thought would be the last quiet smile of encouragement she would see from me. Nodding her understanding and approval, she shouldered the plasma rifle and waited.

I should say here that Audra and I had been lovers for the past five years and were seriously thinking of marriage. Hell of a piss poor way to say goodbye, wasn't it? At least we'd go out together.

I set the range and altitude settings on the flare gun, aimed at a point in mid concourse, and fired off the first of what I was convinced would be my last shots of vengeful but doomed intransigence against circumstances and fate.

The small missile arced out of the still open doorway, speeding to the spot I had programmed then exploded with a small pop. The sound was deceptively quiet, unlike the missile loaded versions some teams had been issued, but the results were identical. Almost blinding light filled the concourse as the point source of energy at the heart of the small explosion emitted massive amounts of ultra violet and staggering amounts of bright, buttery light. Judging by the screams, there must have been about a hundred Vamps out there, and that one shot had taken all but a few of them out of the action right away.

I didn't have time for more than a grim flash of satisfaction, though. Creatures that were either unaffected by the sun bomb or only injured rose from hiding and rushed our position. I don't know how many of them I killed, or that Audra got. We covered each others backs, lashed out hand to hand when things became too crowded to bring our weapons to bear, and held the Bastards at a stalemate in the doorway of our improvised fortress for an eternal fifteen minutes. Zombies, some wearing Hunter uniforms and familiar faces, Dogs, gargoyles, several demons, and even a few Vamps fell to our desperate defense. Audra took out a warlock, two witches, and a wizard with her ranged weapons, while I spread havoc in front of us with the Uzis, then the Demon Buster, and pistols.

The dead Night Walkers were piled so high around us, we had to climb out of the pile ringing us to avoid being trapped even worse than we were. But the bastards kept coming, and coming, until panting, bleeding from to many wounds to count or worry about and out of ammunition, we watched in puzzled amazement as our attackers withdrew. Actually, I'd been out of ammo for a few minutes before that happened. My own bladed weapon of choice, 'Lightning Tongue' a supple, strong Dai Katana that had been passed down through the generations of my family was just as devastating in close quarters as the more modern weapons I'd been using.

Blessed by ancient Gods, its folded and lovingly layered blade quenched in the blood of a martyred saint, 'Lightning Tongue' was a formidable weapon against Night Walkers in the hands of someone who knew how to use it. I did. Ken Jitsu, or Art of the Blade if you prefer a rough translation, had been something I trained religiously in since I had been old enough to hold a mock blade in my small hands.

An ancestor of mine, European and strange in Asia, had once gone against the Laws of our kind and aided one of the Fallen in a terrible conflict against some heavy duty demons. In gratitude, the Asian Night Walker had ceremoniously presented my ancestor with 'Lightning Tongue'. The magnificent blade had been in our family since, and not one of its wielders had even once disgraced it.

I flicked the blade to rid it of excess gore, most of which had already run down the channels in the blade and flown off in combat. The silence, broken only by our panting breaths, and the odd moan of a Night Walker who wasn't quite dead was eerie after the bedlam we had just been the center of. My sensitive hearing picked up the muted hum of Audra's energy blade, and not much else for several seconds.

"Ryan!" a calm, powerful voice broke that silence. The tone was masculine, and the voice held unconscious confidence of power that only the most ancient or powerful Night Walkers possessed. "Joshua Ryan, hear me. You and your companion have fought well. We honor that courage and I offer you a truce. Come out and speak with me, you will not be harmed. My word on it, Hunters."

For some reason I believed what he had offered was true. So did Audra, who gave me a resigned but suddenly hopeful glance before nodding agreement to my silent question. As if to reinforce his, at least temporary, good will, the owner of that compelling voice stepped clear of an intervening wall, then moved to a clear pace within the concourse. He was tall, probably about seven feet if he was an inch, I judged, and moved with the feral grace of someone with warrior training. Something that jarred with his appearance otherwise.

Clothed in a floor length robe of iridescent purple, with no weapons in evidence, he spread his empty hands in the age old gesture of peace. At first I thought he was some kind of wizard or warlock, but his aura was wrong. Hunters can read auras, and identify Night Walkers in disguise by those spiritual indicators of being. This guy didn't have an aura that I'd ever seen or heard of anywhere. It was red, a deep, pulsing red that would have been eye searing if I'd been using my eyes to see it.

"What in the Hell is he?" Audra hissed out as I was wondering the same thing.

"Only one way to find out," I answered, sheathing 'Lightning Tongue with the distinct click that told those conversant with that type of weapon that it been locked in the scabbard. Audra's energy blade stopped humming as both of us cautiously left our refuge and moved towards the unsettling stranger.

In his turn, the strange merely waited patiently until we were less than several paces away, then allowed us time to give him a good, close looking over. He was tall, standing head and shoulders over me, and dwarfing Audra, his shape under the robe hinted at a powerful physique to match. Ebony skin nearly competed with his robe for attention, flashing with highlights from the surrounding light sources.

His face was finely formed for an African, aristocratic with a severe chin, nose only slightly wider than a Caucasian's, and his eyes held a slight almond shape. Along with the surety of absolute power in the present situation. He was beardless, and his thick, glossy black hair hung in waves to his shoulders. After observing both of us with what I perceived as tolerant amusement mixed with something else not so identifiable, he bowed first to Audra. "Lady Hunter, I honor your courage and refusal to die. You have been truly magnificent."

Without waiting for a response, he turned to me, offering another bow, less than he'd given Audra, but more meaningful. It was the acknowledgement of one great warrior to another. "Joshua Ryan, this is an honor I have long awaited. I am called Soru, and offer you a chance to survive this debacle."

Night Walkers of many kinds had surrounded us, keeping their distance, but present to let us know escape wasn't an option. But Audra and I had already known that. With a bow of my own, I let him know I was prepared to negotiate without saying a word.

"Excellent, my young friend," Soru flashed brilliant white teeth in a fleeting grin. I didn't think I'd ever consider him a friend, but he held every card in the deck now, so I simply listened to what he was saying. "First, that blade you handle so effectively is quite remarkable. May I see it?"

Wordlessly, I pulled 'Lightning Tongue' from its silver covered wooden sheathe, and in one smooth, practiced motion presented it for Soru's inspection with the blade flat and resting on my clothed forearm and the edge turned towards me.

That created a stir among the gathered Night Walkers, with some of them moving to prevent harm to their obvious leader. Soru frowned in their direction, and they grudgingly retreated to their earlier positions.

"Its name is 'Lightning Tongue'," I told him quietly. "And this blade has served my family with honor and loyalty for twelve generations."

"Remarkable," Soru admired the offered blade for a moment, then raised his deep eyes to mine. "You do me great honor with this introduction, Joshua Ryan, and I will not forget that.

"But now we have some -- unpleasant matters to discuss," he told me as I replaced 'Lightning Tongue to its proper resting place over my shoulder. "Your Hunter Central Headquarters is now quite firmly in the hands of my allies, and Hunter presence in Europe is nearly a thing of the past. Your regional headquarters have either fallen to our assaults, or are currently under siege, so there will be no assistance coming from any of those. You two, are the last of your kind in this complex, and members of a pretty thinned out group across the entire continent, and even the entire world."

"We'd already figured that out," I answered without heat. "If you were attacking Hunter Central HQ, then it was a fairly obvious conclusion that that our other enclaves were neutralized. What's this leading up to, Soru?"

"A bargain, of sorts," Soru answered with confidence, and I felt an irrational urge to accept whatever he had in mind. Alive there was a chance we could escape and link up with other survivors of that hellish night. Dead, we were worse than useless. Converted to Night Walkers, we'd be even worse than that.

"We're listening," I agreed after a glance of confirmation from Audra.

"Wise of you both," Soru complimented us. "The two of you have cost us very dearly here. As a result, many of my erstwhile allies want you for their own playthings. I think you can imagine what that would mean, can't you?"

I turned slightly to give Audra a sick look that she returned. If that happened, we'd spend a lifetime of torment at our captor's hands and claws. With our regenerative powers restoring our bodies for more fun and games. As I'd said before, Hunters lived a lot longer than Humans did and the prospect of spending all those years under constant torture was just about unbearable. Our minds would give out long before our bodies did under that kind of life and we both knew it.

"I see that you do understand," Soru nodded sympathetically. "Good, that should make our agreement much easier to reach.

Gesturing to the surrounding Night Walkers with thinly veiled contempt, Soru went on. "All that stands between you and that fate is me. These others fear me, and in the event of a falling out are reasonably sure that you two will side with me. The three of us in concert makes a very daunting proposition for them, I assure you.

"That state of affairs will not hold for long," He grimly promised, "once things are more settled, and consolidated other leaders will come to replace those who have fallen here, and that fear for us will be outweighed by numbers and the wills of their own Masters.

"Surrender yourselves to me, willingly, and I will take you to a place of safety," Soru promised, "and will give you honored and very high positions among my servants until such a time as your duties, which will be of a finite length are discharged. I will then return your freedom and make certain both of you are in positions to survive once you are away from my sphere of protection."

That last part of the offer was not spoken aloud, but mind to mind, and Soru's mental voice held power that caused his physical presence to pale in comparison.

Instinct, and long training recoiled from his offer as if I'd been handed a white hot poker and told to grasp it with both hands. Hunters. Did. Not. Surrender. Ever. We died instead.

Just as thousands of our kind had done that night. Something had to survive this disaster to start again, to rebuild the organization and repopulate the depleted ranks of pureblood Hunters. If both Audra and I were to, by some miracle survive, we would be that hope.

But to do so went against every Law of our kind. We would have to do something no other Hunter in memory had, and no matter what slim choices were being held out to us, the idea sickened me. Audra felt the same, as she placed an encouraging hand on my arm. No matter how much it went against our principles, upbringing, and personal prejudices there were really no other viable options. We had to not only surrender, but also willingly give ourselves into the care of a Night Walker. Put ourselves into his service, and no matter how gentle or urbane Soru seemed to be, servitude to him would be galling to both of us.

"What other choice do we have?" she questioned softly, and that pulled out my own, still reluctant agreement.

"Time is short, Hunters," Soru pointed out, "and others are now coming from their own business here. Others that will sway these to act against their present fear. You must choose, and choose now."

With a defeated sigh, I did the hardest thing I'd ever done or am likely to do over the rest of my life. Swallowing bile, I pulled "Lightning Tongue's scabbard from where it rested against my shoulder, squeezed my eyes shut to stop the tears, held the sword out in both hands, and went to my knees with bowed head. "I agree."

"Say all of it," Soru gently prompted.

"I surrender to you, Soru, to no one else and I'll do what I can to make you regret if either Audra or I falls into other hands because of this." the promise sounded as empty to me as it did to my captor, but he refrained from humiliating me any more. "Further, I swear on my honor as a Hunter and warrior, to serve you faithfully for the full length of the term you impose on me. During that time, I willingly accept you as my Lord and Master."

Audra performed the same actions, spoke the same words, then both of us could take no more and stood to face our new Master.

His eyes held sorrow, and a deep respect I couldn't at the time, understand at all. "Keep your weapons, you have sworn to me and that is enough surety for both of you my children. I know how much that act cost you two, and truly appreciate the enormity of the act. Come now, it is time to go."

Soru opened his mouth impossibly wide, showing rows of sharp, needle pointed teeth, and his robe spread to cover his entire body. before metamorphosing into glittering scales. As a weird purple glow gathered deep within that gaping maw, I knew finally what I had given us to.

A Dragon. A legend, a myth, a story to frighten and fascinate children. A creature even Angels had reason to be cautious of, and I had just sold myself, and worse, the woman I loved, into bondage to that thing!

Despair flooded through my heart and soul as the purple light reached us, then enveloped us. The first thing I noticed was the pain. Whatever the damned creature was doing to us hurt. It hurt a lot. Audra screamed as I felt something within me rip loose and vanish. Then the changes began, without my magic resistance fighting them. I thought I was growing smaller as darkness, sweet, merciful darkness, reached out and pulled me gently into its comforting embrace.

Chapter 4

I swam slowly, even a little reluctantly back to consciousness with the certainty I had made a terrible mistake in agreeing to Soru's terms. Someone was moaning with a few hopeless sobs of anguish punctuating the moans. Without much in the way of surprise, I found that the sounds were coming from me. Damn did I hurt! I felt as if I'd charged headlong into a freight train and lost the fight to boot. Every bone and muscle in my body cried out in such a clamoring overload of pain that I couldn't tell anything about the shape of my body, or what condition I was really in. The pain was too much, and it was clear that my regenerative ability had flown with my magic resistance because there was no lessening of the near agony shooting to my fuddled and fogged mind from every part of me that had nerve endings.

All I knew for sure, was that whatever had happened, I was quite firmly in Soru's service, and felt the stirrings of a desire, no make that need, to serve him well. Thinking of that impressive black man who was also a Dragon gave me the first ease from pain that I had experienced since awakening. The warm, tingly sensation was a relief as it spread from a center at my crotch to seep through my whole body. I drifted back into darkness, but this time it was real sleep.

The next time I awakened, the pain had gone, and I could see an unfamiliar, but very lovely young woman across the small room we were being held in. Her satiny skin was ebony that shone with highlights. She had high, firm breasts jutting proudly from her slender chest, with a narrow waist that swelled outward in a curve of generous hips and bottom that in turn flowed into long, lovely legs, trim ankles, and small feet. Her face was delicate, heart shaped, with large brown eyes, a finely shaped nose straight as a razor's edge, high, lush cheekbones, and a full, sensuous mouth. Slender, rounded shoulders twisted a little as she raised one small, red nailed hand to move aside a mass of thick silky jet black hair then stroke one of her lovely breasts.

And I felt a hand brush against my chest at the same time while a flood of sensations filled my mind. I was that beautiful young woman! That son-of-a-bitch Soru had changed me into a damned woman! And had altered my race into the deal. Unbelieving, I continued staring at that gorgeous vision in the mirrored wall opposite me, and saw her moving exactly as I had. Whenever I did. I opened my mouth to voice a denial, and her inviting lips parted to show a row of small, even white teeth clamped firmly together to hold in a scream while her beautiful, soft brown eyes registered the same kind of shock I felt.

"NO!!!" her voice was as beautiful as she was, modulated in a low, throaty contralto full of musical lilts and velvety promise. Only it was my voice now. I heard my new voice coming back to me from the walls, and raised it in a horrified scream of anguished loss. Dear, sweet God in Heaven, what had I done? What had Soru done to me? And what had happened to Audra?

"She is well, little one," a voice assured me from behind, "and awaiting her lover's return from the extended mission I sent him on in payment for our agreement. She does not know you have been changed, or that part of my own agreement with the damned leeches and curs was that I would never allow the two of you to leave with the ability to mate with one another. It was the cost of saving you, my sweet bride."

"Bride?" stunned out of my anger and disgust, I turned to find Soru in the form of that imposing black man standing only inches away from me. He seemed even huger than before, and was nude. Looking at him standing there, I felt warmth at my crotch followed with a dampness there while my nipples tingled with anticipation. I wanted this being to touch me! At least my body did, and there was nothing my mind could do about it but ride along and hope for a way to break the enthrallment.

"There is none," his deep, resonating voice answered my unspoken thought. "You freely gave yourself to me back at your former base. I accepted and now there is nothing you might do that will break that agreement beyond honoring its terms to the limit.

"In my turn, I will honor mine," he went on reaching out a large, calloused hand to stroke my soft cheek with a long fingernail. Once my chosen task for you has been satisfactorily completed, you will be set free. With your lovely companion."

"Then you'll change me back to what I was before? " I questioned, shamed by my body's eager acceptance of what was in essence another man's touch.

"I fear that will not be possible, little one," Soru consoled with a sad smile. "the way you have been taken has no possibility of a return."

"Then I'm to be stuck this way for the rest of my life?" angered, horrified, and shamed to the point of absolute despair, I closed my eyes and mentally cursed the monster even if I had already eagerly pressed my soft breasts up against him and was, to my shock, stroking his large cock with one hand while the other was teasing at his scrotum.

"It won't be all that bad, little one," Soru promised while gently pressing down on my smaller, weaker shoulders until I went to my knees. With a sick understanding of what he wanted, and knowing my body was out of my control regarding these acts, I gave in to the inevitable. No matter how I tried, there was no rebellion in me against either this Dragon or what my new form wished to do of its own accord.

To my great humiliation, and joy, there was no hesitation at all before I began stroking his massive cock with one hand while stimulating myself by tweaking a sensitive nipple with the other. Soon, too soon for my still shell shocked mind, I had both hands resting on Soru's taut, strong rear while my tongue had started to explore the mysteries held within that iron hard, scalding hot rod standing out from his crotch and directly in front of my face.

The head was enormous, and I wondered if my poor mouth had the capacity to even hold that much of his member, but worked my lips over it and sent my tongue darting in and out of the tiny hole in its center. Slowly, my mouth worked its way down the shaft until that huge head was banging at the entrance of my throat. Relaxing muscles even more deeply inside, I soon had all of him engulfed. Then began moving back and forth, nearly drawing my mouth completely away, and then surging back to swallow it almost whole again.

The wetness at my crotch testified to how my physical self felt about my actions. Mentally, I was becoming rapidly lost in a series of very intense sensations that gave me pleasure like I'd never experienced before. Soru began moaning, and pumping his hips back and forth with increasing frenzy and I was hard put to keep him in my mouth. Then he stiffened, arching his back and pushing my head into his crotch with enough force to nearly choke me. The explosive spurts of heavy, salty cum almost took me down the last spiral into insanity. I knew what it was, and swallowed reflexively to keep from choking on the stuff, then had to swallow more and more and even more before the assault on my tattered male sensibilities finished and he went limp in my mouth.

Even then it wasn't finished. I felt compelled, eager, to carefully lick him clean from the base of his dick all the way to its tip. Then wiped up the spillage from my own chin with a dainty ebony colored finger only to lick that clean too.

"Ah, good, my little one. my priceless jewel," Soru sighed once I'd finished and remained on my knees with head bowed in humiliation and shame. "There is no shame attached to this, for you are a woman now, fully and forever. Your name shall be Elaynia Soshu M'boruti, a very old name holding much within it. You are patterned after a sorceress I once knew intimately, and will find that her habits become yours as time goes on.

"This is a spell I borrowed from a fellow Dragon named Han, and it is very effective. Others of our kind have taken Hunter brides as well, whether those were male or female in the beginning I do not know. But the crossbred children of those unions should be very interesting. I very much look forward to finding out personally."

'My resistance? My regeneration? Are they all gone, my Lord? For good? " I shook with the thought of not only being trapped in this alien body for the rest of my life, but at being like that without benefit of my Hunter abilities. Truthfully, the idea terrified me.

"Hush, my beloved," he soothed, running a gentle hand over my hair, then reaching under my chin to raise my tear streaked face so he could see it. "Your powers are not permanently gone. they will gradually return over the next months. But by then you will have been in this lovely form long enough that it is the one they will preserve."

"Thank you for that much, at least, My Lord," I replied, inwardly cringing at the way I naturally addressed him. Also from the very real thrill of excitement when he had called me beloved. Had I already sunk so low that such subservience was something that came to me without being forced into it? Or that protestations of love from a male had me almost in a quivering heap of delight? God help me, this damned weak body was betraying me with each step I took, figuratively speaking since I hadn't attempted to walk in this shape up to then.

"Come Elaynia," with a wave he was once again wearing his deep purple robe. I found myself clean, scented with something spicy and almost sweet, and wearing a floor length, figure hugging gown of shimmering white silk with small gold sandals on my pretty feet. "It is time you left this bare, ugly place and took up living in accommodations more fitting to your beauty.

"You will not, of course," he added as simple afterthought, "tell anyone of who and what you once were. Is that clear?"

"As you wish, My Lord," I bowed my head in assent, not at all upset over that. Even if I had been, in this place he was master and his word was Law. I had no choice but obey him.

"Of course," he agreed genially while taking my arm in a light grip and leading me out of the prison I had finished the major parts of my metamorphosis in. Whatever was going to happen next, it was sure to be interesting. Like the feel of my breasts swaying with my movements and the swing of my wide hips and rounded bottom as my long smooth legs propelled me on my tiny feet into a future I was and wasn't looking forward to living.

Chapter 5

I was still struggling with a welter of conflicting feelings, emotions, and needs, completely unaware of how gracefully I managed the long skirt or walking beside my new Lord. No matter how much I tried to deny it, that is exactly what he was to me. Sure, I'd been maneuvered neatly into the position, but once all was said and done I had brought it all on myself by accepting his offered bargain and the chance to get out of Central alive. Though I wished I had died fighting, there was no sense in beating a very dead horse. A horse in this case with the name Joshua Ryan. To all intents and purposes, Joshua was gone forever, replaced by a beautiful, delicate, ultra feminine, African woman named Elaynia.

Who had been, I knew, very well trained in the arts of giving men pleasure before finding her gifts and becoming a sorceress. Poor Elaynia, she should have remained a pampered, valued pleasure slave. She spent a scant four months as a sorceress then was killed in a random Hunter sweep. Soru had been extremely fond of her, so making a male Hunter over into her image was strangely appropriate. Even to me. Even though I had been transformed into the form and stage of development where she was still nothing more than a valued possession with a talent for pleasing her Master.

Just like me.

God, how I hated being like this! Becoming a woman was bad enough, but to be forced into enduring the life of a submissive little slave girl was just about more than my still strong male ego could bear. "This is who and what you are now," I thought to myself bitterly, "So it might be a good idea to get used to it."

"Yes, it would be a good idea," Soru agreed with me, wearing a crooked smile as he turned his head to look at me briefly. "As I will not allow you to sink into insanity, my sweet little jewel."

"Neither," a husky, fluidly feminine voice that I hadn't heard in a long time added, "would I allow that, Elaynia, dear."

"I believe you two are already acquainted," Soru chuckled as my small jaw dropped in amazement and shock while I simply stared at Asuko lounging comfortably on an ornate couch. "I will leave you to catch up on old times for a few minutes, ladies."

"My, my, Joshua," The Fallen looked me over appreciatively. "What have you done to yourself? You've changed a great deal since I last saw you."

"I had a moment of weakness, all right, Great Lady?" I snapped, surprised at how my submissive personality had faded away when I was no longer with Soru. "Besides, it was My Lord Soru who changed me to fit his own designs."

"And ours, dearest," Asuko gave me a small smile, then rose to glide across the plush carpet to take my small, soft hands in hers. "Trust in us, little beauty, we truly regret what must be, but you and your intended must survive the next several months. Doing so as your old Hunter selves would have been impossible, you must believe that.

"More importantly, dearest," she pulled me into a sisterly embrace and whispered in my ear. "You must trust in yourself. You are far stronger than you give yourself credit for, Elaynia. That strength will either sustain or betray you in the uncertain times to come. That choice is yours alone to reach and act upon. No one can or will help you make it when the time arrives. So hold this close to your heart and never forget; trust in yourself. You will, I think, find the end results rather surprising."

"But look at me, Lady, just look. I'm......a...."

"A what, little one?" she questioned without sympathy. "A whore? A Night Walker? Go ahead and say it. Out loud and not just in your mind. Tell me what this terrible, demeaning thing that you have become is, why don't you?"

"I'm a small, soft, weak.....female, Great Lady," I burst into tears as I said it, shamed beyond all reason at losing the magnificent male body that had once been mine and finding it replaced with something that was repulsively soft and yielding. With a shape that males would not only find appealing, but that also found males appealing. "I am a woman."

"Oh, is that all?" her laugh was almost cruel, "I, too, am female, and have been so through all of my long existence. One of the most steadfast defenders and partners you had as a Hunter was a woman, who could be either soft or yielding, or hard and dangerous. We can be both you know, without either shame or tearing ourselves apart over it. Such is the nature of females. Such is your nature now, dear Elaynia. If you should choose to be weak, you will be. Choose otherwise, I would advise. There is no place for a weak and frightened little female Night Walker in the world that is coming. No place that is, but one similar to the one you occupy now, as a slave."

"But," I began to protest.

"But nothing, girl!" Asuko's voice rose and I found myself facing a true Fallen in her full, terrible glory. "You had better realize, and soon, that the vessel is unimportant. It is the spirit within that vessel that truly defines what one is, and will be. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and see reason. If you can't do that you will either die or truly become what you see yourself as now. And that would be such a waste. You were not meant to spend your days as a plaything."

"However," she went on in a quieter, but still terrible voice. "Since you seem so set upon that disastrous course, I'll allow you to see and feel just what life as a sexual plaything will be. So, until you shake yourself out of it, without help, a lovely little slave/plaything you shall be. Go to your Master, slave, and think carefully on what I have told you."

"As mistress commands," I found myself simpering in response, and just about crawling I was bowing so low in front of her.

"Go!" she ordered, "I am sick of the sight of you."

"As you command me," I arose gracefully and backed out of the room.

'Elaynia," her voice had gentled again, becoming warm and comforting. "I would hope that you would soon shake free of this, so you might make a fitting bride for one such as Soru. In honor of that union, I will leave you with a small gift. Make what use of it you will, and remember that I do genuinely care for you."

"Yes Mistress, Thank you Mistress," I bowed again, then saw a pale globe of light shot through with a rainbow of colors leaving her hand and moving with purpose towards me. Before another thought could enter my mind, it settled over my head then spread downward from there until it covered me like a second skin. A short, not unpleasant tingling filled my entire body and it was gone. When I finally worked up the courage to look, so was Asuko.

"I would have thought that you, of all people," Soru frowned at me once I had reached his chambers, especially after I groveled at his feet and greeted him as Master instead of My Lord. "should know enough not to anger one of The Fallen."

All I could do was lower my head in abject misery, with tears flowing freely down my cheeks.

"Ah, well, Asuko was uncharacteristically gentle with you," he sighed, then gestured for me to get on the large bed. "So, then, little toy. Pleasure me. I command it."

I did. After a lot of mouth work on his sex, he turned me on to my back and positioned himself above me. "Now, plaything, I show you what being a woman is really like."

Oh my sweet God, he did. I did. My crotch was soaking by the time he lowered himself on to me and teased his cock between the puffy, welcoming lips guarding the entrance to my vagina. I worried that he was going to split me wide open, his member was so huge in comparison to me, but to my surprised gratification, it fit quite nicely in the warm, moist tunnel giving access to my womb. Muscles I hadn't really considered having flexed, squeezing his cock and massaging it as he thrust deeper and deeper into secret recess of my body that I had refused absolutely to acknowledge with anything beyond shame and self derision.

I arched my back to get more of him within me, wrapped my long slender and beautiful legs around his waist then used that grip to pull myself more fiercely into his thrusts. All through that, my first lovemaking as a female, my body and soul were wracked with orgasms that grew from tentative into earth shaking. By the time he reached his own, the hot, sticky seed he shot up into me caused one more orgasm so intense I nearly lost my mind with the pleasure it gave me.

He left me then, lying naked and sweaty on the rumpled bed, to see to some other business he had in the hold. Somewhere from deep within myself a small, hesitant voice demanded that I accept what had happened, but not as a slave. Strangely, that low period of my life was the beginning of winning my freedom, from bondage, from Soru's plan for me, and most especially, from my own perceptions of what being a woman meant.

I won't dwell on that week that passed as if was a month. I spent the time bowing and scraping to everyone in that hold. Soru took me whenever, and wherever, he pleased. With no regard for my feelings or desires. To my humiliation, he screwed me in front of his wives, in front of the servants, in front of guests, and in front of a golden stranger with a strong, handsome face that seemed vaguely familiar.

Finally, I could take no more of it. I refused him.

"What do you mean, telling men no, Slave?" he thundered in anger at my standing up to him for once.

Then and there, I decided that it would be better for him to kill me in his rage than to continue as I had. Straightening my small form to its full height of five feet five inches, I glared directly into his mad eyes and screamed , "I am NOT your Slave! I will accept you as My Lord, but will die before remaining anyone's Damned, simpering SLAVE!"

Soru glared for a minute, then allowed a very small grin to play at the corners of his generous mouth. After that he threw back his head and let loose great ringing peals of joyous laughter.

"Then what would you be?" he questioned me quietly once his reactions had run their course and the tears of mirth had stopped flowing from his eyes. "If not a slave, then what are you, my little beauty?"

"A woman," was my simple answer. Then I tilted my head with a small smile of my own, "A woman, do you hear, and damned to you if it isn't bad at all. I won't be anyone's plaything unless I decide that will be, then it will only happen on my own terms and end once I decide it ends.

"Ah, Elaynia," he shook his head, holding out a hand for me to take, then pulled me gently into his embrace. "It is so good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," I responded, reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck and pull his face down into my kiss. "I don't think I'll be going away again until you tell me it's time, My Lord Soru."

"Hmm, I just may keep you longer than I had originally planned, little minx," he replied fondly, giving my bare bottom a friendly, possessive pat that I found much to my liking.

"For as long as you like, My dear, dear, Lord," I breathed into his ear and finished with another kiss.

Then I noticed that we weren't alone in the room as I had first thought. The stranger I had dubbed The Golden One because of his thick, reddish blonde hair and even tan was standing in a doorway with mouth open and staring without the least shame at my state of dress, or rather undress.

I would have been mortified only a week before. That was then, this is now, I thought while taking in the stranger's well muscled form under the warrior's tunic and leggings he wore. "And just what exactly do you think you're staring at, sir?"

"The most incredibly beautiful woman," he answered without a trace of embarrassment, "That I have ever been fortunate enough to behold."

"Why thank you, sir," I teased, then waved him away. "But you may as well forget any ideas you might have. I am wholly and quite happily, Lord Soru's."

"Not forever, from all I hear," he answered with a bold grin as he continued looking me over.

"Do you have a name?" I asked archly, "Or should I just call you 'That Infuriating Young Man Who Does Nothing But Stare At Disheveled Young Ladies with His Mouth Gaping Open And His Tongue Hanging Out?"

"It would probably be much easier to call me Auric," He answered, and finally having the grace to appear at least a little embarrassed. "My apologies for staring, my Lady. But in all honesty, you are well worth the time and effort."

'Excuse me," I snorted, bothered not so much by my nudity, as the way Auric affected me. And he was a most infuriating young man no matter how charming, handsome, and desirable, he might be. "I'll leave you gentlemen to your business and make myself more presentable."

"It might be a good idea for you to put on some clothes instead," Auric called after me to my Lord's amusement and my own discomfiture. Yes, that young man was very, very infuriating. Not to mention quite interesting, too.

Chapter 6

Whatever Asuko had done to me, that week spent as a slave seemed to have lasted a month at least, but that may just have been my own native pride and individualism fighting its way through at last. I might also mention that the euphoria I seemed to be experiencing right after getting rid of that rather nasty little trick faded pretty rapidly. Oh, I didn't slide back to the way I had been, railing against things I could no more change than I could the weather.

I knew that I was a woman, and would remain that way for the rest of my life, and had gotten to where that wasn't all that hard to accept. Let's be honest, every time I dressed, looked in a mirror, went to the toilet, or had sex, It was very hard to convince myself that I was male. Especially since with this lovely young body, I really started liking the sex.

One day, in Soru's bed following some --dare I say it? -- lovemaking, I brought up something that had been troubling me a great deal. "My Lord?"

"Don't tell me you want more already?" Soru groaned with mock weariness. I wasn't spelled to do it, but I had actually come to love the Dragon. More on how I knew later, I promise.

"Well, I wouldn't complain, but there is something else I would like to ask," I rubbed his chest lightly with one hand, and began teasing his cock with the other while wearing the most winsome smile I could come up with. (I'd been practicing.) "I have not yet seen the young woman who was with me when you got us out of Hunter Central."

"She is well, little one, and still very much herself," Soru assured me. "I will take you to see her soon, but trust me for a while longer. She has not been harmed and is still within my walls.

"By the way," he put in as an afterthought it first seemed. "You appear to be quite taken with Auric. "There is no need to deny it, I had more or less planned on that happening, but tell me, would you consider him as a lover, or even a mate once your tern of service is finished with me?"

"So I have a choice?" I questioned lightly, still feeling like I was being railroaded into something that I had considered anyway, but not caring all that much for how arranged it seemed to be. "Auric is funny, fascinating, at times infuriating, obviously intelligent, fit, and yes, I do like him."

"But?" Soru prodded for more of an answer from me. "There is a but, isn't there?"

"He's a Warlock," I sighed in frustration. "My Hunter training and upbringing still make me somewhat uncomfortable around him for that reason."

"But you are now a sorceress," My Dragon Lord pointed out. "Does that bother you?"

"Some," I admitted, "I don't know if I'll ever get used to actually seeing the magic around me in vibrant living color, let alone bring myself to use it. I don't even know if I'll be able to do so once my Hunter powers come back."

"Oh, you will," Soru calmly answered. "Asuko gives no gifts without a reason."

"Asuko? " I sat straight up in the bed. The Fallen gave me the ability to become a true sorceress? Why?"

"It went with the body, I suppose," Soru shrugged, then pulled me gently back down beside him. As for the why, well that is a long and tedious tale right now, my little dove. One that you needn't concern yourself with for now beyond knowing that the world is on the verge of a great change. Before that comes, and becomes a stable existence, there will be great chaos with alliances shifting, and friend becoming foe along with the opposite. Already, the Hunters who have survived are working closely with some forms of Night Walkers. Those of us who see the upheavals coming are seeking allies capable of weathering the storm. That is why I took you and made you as you are. It is also the reason your beloved Audra has been well treated, and explains the presence of Auric.

"We are going to require strong, loyal allies and friends in the near future, Elaynia. All of us,"

"Even Dragons? " I asked, then added, "And the Fallen, too?"

"Especially Dragons, little one," he nodded, then grinned while reaching for me. "At least this Dragon will. As for The Fallen, something has them worried, but I would not presume to either answer for them or tell someone what their thoughts may be. Now let us cement our own relations with one more bout of lovemaking."

"You won't find me arguing with that idea," I smiled back as he turned me to my own back and straddled me.

I've heard stories and even spoken to other Hunters who had been transformed and made to be Dragon wives. Unlike most of them, My Lord Soru made no attempt to either terrify, bespell, or otherwise force me into the relationship other than the first few times. In my experience, the Dragon was unfailingly gentle and loving, concerned as much with my pleasure as his own, and his goal in taking me to his bed anyway. I may have been his favorite, but I wasn't his exclusive partner, and spent most of my days within the rooms he had set aside for my use.

I spent a fair amount of time in those rooms, too. Learning to be a woman in ways other than as a sexual partner, which wasn't easy with all I needed to pick up. The body knew what to do, and I often let it go and watched, learning how to do specific things that way. There were so damn many things to keep track of, and to do, just in an ordinary day. I'd never known how much trouble a woman would go to in order to look perfect for her man, or in my case, Dragon. But I learned. After about a month, most of those things, like makeup, jewelry, and the proper clothing for different occasions had become nearly a natural part of my knowledge. By that time, I wouldn't have gone back to being a man, not even my old self, if the opportunity had walked up and tapped my on the shoulder. Well, so much for Joshua Ryan.

Not that my old self was gone, far from it really. I had all my old memories and knowledge, and most of my old skills, the rest would return with my Hunter abilities. Or so I had been told. Auric spent many long hours in the spectator's area of the practice yard while I became accustomed to my new shape and center of gravity and how it altered the ways I would need to use 'Lightning Tongue'.

Oh, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Soru returned my precious Dai-Katana the same day I reared back and told him I was not a slave. Coincidence? I don't think so. By then he would have been well aware that any resentments I held over being transformed into my new shape would have become almost non-existent, which they had. Also, how are you going to assassinate someone who can read your mind?

Never have figured that one out. Not that I'd want to kill Soru. My Hunter background still screamed in fury off and on over that sentiment, but I basically told it to go to hell and leave me alone about that subject. I was no longer a Hunter, and might never be one again. I was a Night Walker, and bride to a Dragon, which should obviously tell you that sooner or later, I was going to bear Soru a child, and a sorceress. Though that last was still giving me some problems both mentally and emotionally, but mostly intellectually.

You see, as opposed to Witches and Warlocks who work magic through written and memorized spells or potions, a sorceress just used the magic where she found it. No incantations, no potions, no foul smelling cauldrons at home, or spell books to lose if something went really wrong. A sorceress, and Wizard to some extent, simply saw the magic, knew it and how to bend it to their needs, and mostly left things at that. We were capable of using written spells from books, but seldom bothered for the reasons I've already mentioned.

And up to then, as a sorceress, I was a complete bust. Oh, I could see the magic all right. In a Dragon's lair it was a bewildering tangle of multicolored threads floating just about anywhere you cared to look or walk. The damned stuff actually got in the way at times and I had to shoo it away. Oddly, that was the one thing I was able to do without effort. So I knew the magic would obey me. My biggest problem was understanding what exactly I wanted to do with the stuff, and how to convince it to do just that for me. Frustrating, and hard work, my practice with magic.

The most frustrating thing about it, though, was the certain feeling that I'd need that ability, and maybe a lot sooner than I would have liked. So, I kept working on and with it. It wouldn't have been so bad, but at times, I got the very eerie feeling that the damned stuff was laughing at me.

The watershed with the magic, and finally convincing my stubborn remnants of a male ego that I was not and never again would be male came when Soru finally managed to get me pregnant. With some relief on his part, since I discovered that my old powers were coming back and in enough strength to render my getting pregnant from a Dragon pretty well impossible after another few days had passed. Fortunately, for Soru and as it turned out, myself, I took just days ahead of the stage where my re-burgeoning powers would have automatically prevented such a thing.

I knew immediately when I conceived. The feeling was like a flame had started in my belly and progressed to where I was actually conscious of a tiny, hard little knot resting in my womb. From that day on, all I had to do was think of it, and I could feel the growing life in there even when it was so tiny that there were no physical sensations. Unless you want to count one horrible case of morning sickness. I mean the crap that I threw up was almost enough to make me wish my powers had come back soon enough to keep me from conceiving at all.

My vomit was almost always green, livid green, and burned all the way up. Then the burning lingered in my throat and stomach for another few minutes after that. I'd swear to God himself that some of that vomit actually started the water in the toilet boiling. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but if you haven't experienced such a thing first hand, don't laugh or make judgments. There were times when I wondered why my mother had even gone through with having me. I know I had my doubts off and on. At least I didn't have to deal with periods after that happened. Yes, periods. I'd had one, and knew there would be more, but wasn't really looking forward to them. And PMS? Wise people stayed far away from me for the two or three days I was having that.

Happily, the morning sickness faded to bearable proportions after a few weeks. Oh, I still got nausea whenever I got a whiff of some particular flower, perfume, or food. Not always the same ones, but you know what I mean. If you haven't experienced the joys of pregnancy personally, I'm sure you've known and been around someone who has.

I was lying around being generally miserable about three weeks into things, when I had a very odd, and interesting visitor. She appeared to be a lovely young Asian Lady, dressed very well, and confident in her femininity and beauty. But I saw her aura -- I'd been able to do that again since getting pregnant -- and could see the telltale red that meant she had to be a Dragon.

The deep black silk gown she was wearing clung to her figure like a wet tee-shirt to a woman's breasts in a wet tee-shirt contest. It was sheer enough in spots to actually show part of her skin through it. Her long, glossy black hair was up on top of her head in combination braid/bun that I still haven't been able to duplicate.

"Hello, Little Mother," she greeted me in a low, musical contralto. "How are you feeling today, still fussy and cranky?"

"Goes with the territory sometimes, doesn't it?" I grumped. She may have been a Dragon, but by God, she wasn't the one that was pregnant. With a sigh, I managed a smile and shrugged. "I'd never dreamed that I'd end up female, let alone pregnant. At least the morning sickness has started to let up."

Her laugh was like crystal chimes in a gentle breeze, as she acknowledged my gripe with a nod. "That is good, I suppose. My name is Mia, and I just had to visit the newest wife of an old and valued friend, do you mind if I am here?"

"No," I returned her smile. "In fact, it's kind of nice having company who doesn't cringe every time I get a little upset."

"You are a sorceress, dear," Mia pointed out. "Most mortals and many immortals are afraid that your magic will manifest and do something unpleasant to them."

"Hah! fat chance of that," I chuckled. "I still haven't gotten the crazy stuff to anything but get out of my way when there's so much around I'm afraid I'll trip over it."

"Soru told me you could see all of the magics here," Mia gave me a thoughtful look, then smiled cheerily. "Which is a very good sign for your future as what you now are, Elaynia. I think your greatest problem with controlling the magic is one of overload. Once your mind becomes accustomed to all the variety and sheer volume of it, you'll begin using it. And become a very powerful sorceress once you do."

"This isn't just a social call, is it, Lady?" I asked with my eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"This one is, dear," Mia grinned. "A mutual acquaintance of ours requested that I come and help you gain control over the magics since she would not be able to do so herself. That friend is one who it is wise for even a Dragon to heed, if you get my drift?"

"Asuko?"

"The same," Mia nodded, "It seems she is quite fond of you for some reason."

"Go figure," I spread my arms in a gesture of puzzlement. "She seemed interested in me from the first time I stumbled across her. I did my best to run at the time, by the way."

"A very wise choice, all things considered," Mia agreed. Her eyes focused even more than they had been, right on me for a moment, then returned to their normal(?) clear intensity. "And you are not ensorcelled, as Soru had said. Very interesting, that you love him as yourself. Why is that, dear, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I willingly took Soru as my Lord, though I often wonder why I caved in and did it at the time," I answered truthfully. "It wasn't just to survive, I'd been prepared to die given the position I was in at the time. He just seemed so, I don't know, sincere. I know that sounds silly and crazy as hell, Lady, but I trusted him from the moment I first spoke to him. Since then, well, I was understandably upset over what he did to me once we got here, but he's never been anything but kind and considerate towards me since he first convinced me I was really a woman and had better get used to the idea."

"You are a very strange individual, Elaynia," Mia mused while looking me over from top to bottom. "I see why Soru places such value on you. Remarkable. You actually do love a Dragon without being forced to. Do you have any idea why?"

"I've always been a little perverse about going along with accepted precedents," I shrugged. "Besides, Soru was my first, and once you get past the part of his being a Dragon, he isn't really all that hard to love."

"They were right," Mia nodded, impressed for some reason I couldn't quite fathom. "You are different, and as I see now, very, very special.

"Well, I must go now," leaning forward, she lightly kissed my cheek, then straightened with another look at me. "I will undertake showing you how to grasp the magic, that will be, I think, all that is needed for you. Farewell, Little Mother. May the female you carry in your belly be as wondrous as her Mother."

Then she was gone. No opening doors, or walking away, she just -- went away.

Chapter 7

"My darling," Soru gently took hold of my elbow and guided me in a direction I'd never been allowed to go in the past. Since you are now carrying my child, it is time you were introduced to the birthing chambers. Brace yourself, what you are going to see is not what one might call pretty, but remember my promise to you and your companion."

"I will, My Lord, Soru," I promised, uneasy but doing my best to hide it. Since my Hunter powers had returned, he could no longer read my mind, but there was one, forming within my Belly, that I could. The tiny creature was not yet able to communicate in words, or even images, but I did get impressions of intense hunger, and eagerness to be out of the shell.

"I know you will, my dear," he replied fondly, then patted my belly. "I also know that you are able to communicate with the small one inside of you. Please do not upset our child with your reactions to what you will see in this place. You have the unique chance to teach your baby even before it is hatched, teach it to love you, not to hate or fear you, and all will be well following her birth."

"All right," I responded, feeling a little twinge in my womb as something settled a bit lower and began to feel harder than a normal child should. Now how would I know something like that? I questioned myself. What did I, a former male know regarding pregnancy and child birth beyond what I'd already experienced? But I did. I guess the original Elaynia had been pregnant at least once. It seemed that her knowledge came out of almost nowhere to help me adjust or do whatever was required with this female body. So she must have been, at some point or another.

A serpentman guard, bowed, lowered its wickedly tipped spear, and hissed, "Masstter, Missstresss, while making way for us to pass. Serpentmen were a breed I had seen very little of, though I knew they were used quite extensively in certain parts of Soru's hold. I had no real antipathy for the poor creatures, but then again, I wasn't extremely fond of them either.

Then we were past the creature and inside the birthing chambers. About Twenty young women in various states of pregnancy watched us, while happily greeting Soru. "Master!" many of them called out, reaching for him, and in turn being touched. Most of them watched me with something between jealousy and awe. It was clear to them that I was something rather special to their master, and many of them didn't like that.

"Be kind, and accept as one of you," Soru commanded, without the customary gentleness he showed to me. "She will soon be ministering to your needs here, and even now bears a female child for me. You will show her respect, and kindness of your own. She is after all, your sister in childbearing for me."

"My Lord," I lightly touched his sleeve and gestured towards a familiar figure huddled alone in a corner. "Is that?"

"Yes, my love, that is your Audra," he replied quietly. "I release you from the command not to tell her who you were. She is quite ill, and not bearing up well under all this. Perhaps you might lend her some comfort. Remind her of my promise, and that I will not let her die."

She looked up as I stopped in front of her, face drawn with pain, hair in matted disarray, and with a belly stretched so tautly that it looked white. On further examination, I discovered that it was white. Because it was the shell of an egg forming in her womb. Tatters of flesh that had parted to make way for the egg , fringed her stomach, and she would listlessly scratch at them off and on.

"Another new bride and mother to be come to gape at one going bad?" she nearly snarled up at me with tears starting from her still lovely eyes. "Well, you've seen. Now leave me alone in my misery, please. I want none of your sympathy, or shock. Go away."

"Oh, Audra," kneeling to take her in my arms and rock her, I whispered, "I had no idea this would be the result when I agreed to the Dragon's offer back at Central. No idea at all."

"You made no bargain with me around, bitch," Audra began, then stopped while studying my eyes, which were brimming with tears of my own. "It can't be. Hunters are immune to such changes."

"Not any longer, it seems," I shrugged, then gave her a direct, inquiring look. "Do you know me now, my love?"

"Joshua?" Her voice cracked with first disbelief, then grief. "What has he done to you, my poor Josh? What has he done?"

"That should be fairly obvious," I quipped with a lopsided grin. "But it's still me in here, mostly."

"Josh!" she reached a claw like little hand to grip my white gown and pulled herself up. "I never thought I would see you again. He -- he told me you were serving out the terms of your own bargain and would not see me until after I had given birth."

"I am serving out the terms," I nodded. "Just not quite in the way either of us anticipated. At least I still have and am able to use 'Lightning Tongue'."

She just more or less collapsed back to the pallet that was her bed with a wan smile. "Well, at least you're a beauty, and alive."

Which was something Audra wouldn't be for much longer. The magics circling around her body were all dark tinged, some of them even black as night. Without even knowing how I'd really done it, I reached out to grasp the pulsing red of pain and snuffed them out. The results were immediate, and Audra, my poor Audra, was able to rest. She fell into a deep sleep.

As she slept, I attempted to chase off the black lines as I had done with the red. I didn't work no matter how much I tried. She was dying, and nothing I could do would change that. Vision blurred, I turned to find Soru standing silently behind me, watching my loved one with concern in his eyes. "You have eased her pain, that is good. Her time here draws short, my beloved."

"You promised me we wouldn't be harmed!" I hissed at him, balling my small hands into tiny fists and raising them with intent to beat him as hard as I could. "She's dying, damn you, and I can't stop it!"

Effortlessly catching my fisted hands, Soru pulled me to him, enveloping me in his strong arms. "It would take more than a sorceress or healer to halt that, my love. Do not fear, your former lover must die to be reborn. I keep my promises. You recall my asking you how you felt towards Auric?"

I nodded into his chest, still wanting to hurt him in some way, and angry with myself that I couldn't. I couldn't have even If I'd been capable of it.

"I have prepared a shell for your Audra to inhabit once she is done with that one," he whispered. "A shell her consciousness has already been practicing in, and moving around at odd times. You have seen her new form many times, dearest."

"Auric?" I questioned with growing hope.

"The same, Little Mother," with a grin, he held me at arms length to give me fond smile then pulled me in for a light kiss. "I believe that he will be a bit less irascible about the changes in body than you have been. But, by the time you have finished giving birth to my child, I'm certain that he will have completely adjusted and be ready and waiting for you with open arms.

"Given the circumstances, this was the only way I could allow the two of you to stay together," Soru sighed. "I could not allow two more Hunters to mate and produce offspring according to the deals I made to get the two of you. My so called allies, however, did not forbid a sorceress and a warlock mating to produce offspring. And I do think they will live to greatly regret that omission."

"Why is everyone so damned interested in me?" I questioned a little querulously.

"You will find that out in time, little one," Soru ended that discussion without a move or other word. Now tend to your friend, her time grows short and for now she can use all the comfort you can give her. Return to me in my chambers when it is over."

It didn't take long. My poor Audra's ravaged body had very little resistance to whatever illness had consumed her. I still believe that the only reason she lasted in that form as long as she did was a combination of her Hunter's regenerative gift and waiting for me to return. I sped her departing soul along the thin golden thread that lead away and out of the birthing chambers. Then without thought, did another thing I hadn't thought myself capable of. I wrapped the magics still present around her poor body and pushed until they ignited. The body, empty by then, even the egg was dead, dissolved into ashes in moments.

My slow progress back through the outer birthing chamber was interesting to say the least. Women who had reviled me, at least in their minds, now watched me with a respect mixed with fear than was unmistakable in their eyes. Many of them flinched out of my path until I reached the doors leading out and turned to look at them all. "None of you need fear me, I will knowingly bring no harm to either you or your children. Farewell for now."

"Missssstresssss," Another snakeman guard approached me and bowed. "Massster requessstss your presssenccce in another chamber than his own. Pleassse follow me."

"All right," I nodded as he turned away and started off, expecting me to follow without question. Which I did.

The chamber he led me to was Spartan in comparison to the others I'd seen, with bare marble walls covered in places with only a few tapestries and martial paintings. Stacked neatly against one wall was a set of ornate and magical armor, a short sword, long composite bow with quiver, and an energy blade. books of magic spells lined a fairly good sized set of shelves, there were several standing lamps, a table, and three hard chairs carved intricately from some exotic wood, and a small bed.

It was the bed that drew my attention, or more importantly what -- who -- was sleeping comfortably on it. Auric, and my new sight told me that the soul within that strong male body was my Audra's. I moved closer, reached out a tentative hand to stroke his cheek, and felt tears forming again. What was with this crying thing? I wondered, but not really that bothered, since these tears were from happiness.

"Thank you for letting me see this, my Lord," I quietly said to Soru, then walked to where he was standing to wrap my arms around his waist and lay my head against his shoulder. "Thank you so much."

"He will sleep like this for some time," Soru told me, answering the hug with one of his own. "I doubt he awakens before you must completely retire to the birthing chambers for your own child's coming."

"So long as he's here and waiting when I come out," was all I said. It was clear between us, that my time as his bride had passed, and would not be repeated once I had given birth to the child in my belly. Once that was done, my part of the bargain would have been fulfilled.

"I'll see to it personally, my Lady," Soru promised, shocking me with the added honorific. "If we are to be friends and allies, it would be a good idea to show you the respect you deserve."

I felt another twinge in my belly, and almost doubled over with it. I might have fallen if Soru hadn't caught me. "It would seem that your time for the birthing chambers has come a bit earlier than either of us anticipated. Come, I will escort you and get you settled comfortably."

Chapter 8

I'd rather not dwell on my time in the birthing chambers. Being pregnant at the best of times can't possibly be all that comfortable. Being pregnant with a Dragon's child that talks to you from the egg in your womb sure isn't.

"Mama," the little internal voice interrupted my morose thoughts. "Miri hungry."

"Peace, little one," with a sigh, I shunted more nutrients from my own body systems into the still leathery egg. "Better?"

"Yes, " was all the answer I could get out of the little thing. Unless you want to count some contented gurgles and slurping sounds. Now how, I ask you, can an unborn creature inside an egg slurp anything? Wondering that, I patted my hardening and distended belly. "That's mama's good little girl,"

Actually, Miri and I communicated a lot while she was developing. I taught her a lot of things that would be good to know once she was out of the shell, and had to keep reminding her that I myself would not be around much once that had happened. (Truthfully, if Miri went true to breed, she'd eat what was left of my body once she hatched out. Uggh!) Personally, I kind of think that takes the ideas of mother love and sacrifice for one's child just a bit over the top, don't you?

Anyway, I wouldn't be here, exactly, when that happened. I would, hopefully, be safely within the comforting, non-pregnant flesh of an exact duplicate of my present body. Soru carefully cloned it for me, not so long ago. She wasn't quite up to getting out of bed and walking around yet by then, but when the blessed event (?) arrived, she would be ready to accept my soul. I wasn't exactly looking forward to that, but hey, it sure beat hanging around to get eaten by my loving, and ravenous, offspring.

I helped quite a few of the other women along through their own growing pregnancies and birthing. Fortunately, most of them were dead by the time their little ones began their first real meal. The only really bad part of the whole thing was that there would be no rebirth for any of those poor women. At least not like Audra's and the one that was soon to be mine. I don't know, maybe God took them up to heaven, or sent them on to other lives, or something. All I knew at that point and from my perspective was that they were dead and wouldn't be coming back this way any time soon. Nothing I could do about it, so I just went with the flow. God I hate being me sometimes. Not all that often, though. This new body with all it's peculiar talents lumped into one big mess that I'm still working out and will probably be sorting for another few centuries, isn't all that bad to live in.

Getting back to the pregnancy with Soru's child. The damned egg leached calcium from my bones for the shell, and tissue from the rest of me to nourish the child within it. first my bones got brittle, and even with the regenerative powers I'd regained, moving around much became an exercise in caution. Until moving around at all ceased to be an option. Close to the final stages, that egg was almost four feet long, and two wide at its largest circumference. My legs were useless bags of flesh with not much else in them, my pelvis was entirely gone and my ribcage had pretty well disappeared completely.

Strangely, there was really very little pain involved with all that. Endorphins and some other weird hormones secreted during the egg maturation, I suppose. Although I do have to admit that it was a great relief when Miri began shaking her egg, twisting and turning, while sending. "OUT, WANT OUT! MAMA LET MIRI OUT!"

Can't help you there, sweetie," I crooned in the curious mind talk we had developed, "You'll have to be strong and break your own way out."

"But Mama DIE, if do that," Miri sobbed mentally.

"Hush, child!" I remonstrated. "Mama will be here for her beautiful little Miri. Break out and eat, little one, until you can hold no more. Mama will see you after that, I promise."

"Swear?" the little thing almost begged.

"Swear, Miri, mama swears," I gasped as the Dragon child began fighting her way out of the egg, and finished. "Mama has to go now, sweetie, but I'll be with you in a little while, ok?"

"OUT!" was all she was capable of thinking by then.

"Yes, child, out," with a sigh, I reached for and found the golden thread leading out of the birthing chambers, and laboriously began climbing out of my used up body. "Mama will be back, sweetie. You eat and be strong for mama and daddy, now. We'll see you soon."

The move to my new body took less time to do than tell about it. I awakened in my old chambers, feeling whole once again, and immediately tried getting up. Which resulted in my thumping the carpeted floor with my plump ass and muttering a few curses under my breath.

"Cursing will do you no good, mother of my newest child," Soru chuckled as he held out a hand to help me to my feet. 'Had I known our child was to be such a strange one, I may have forgone the pleasures of getting you with her."

Reaching out with my mind, I felt Miri greedily consuming what was left of my old shell, and suppressed an involuntary shudder. "I think I'll wait to see her until she finishes that first meal, if you don't mind. And if you didn't want a strange child, you shouldn't have given me the form of a sorceress. You had to know what a sorceress' relationship with her unborn children is like."

"Indeed, I did, Lady Elaynia," he grinned, then got a far away look for a moment. "Many of my kind have wondered, speculated, on what would come of interbreeding with a sorceress. Now, at least I will find out."

"I'm sure she'll be a handful," I laughed as his expression cleared.

"Why would you think that?" he questioned with a lift of his eyebrows.

"I taught her everything I know while she was still in the egg," I giggled, "and I do mean everything."

"Consider your revenge complete.” he sighed, then gave me a long, gentle hug followed by a light kiss. "Come along, our child has finished cleaning up the mess and is looking for you."

She was beautiful, so much so as to be just about heartbreaking. I know mothers always think their babies are that way, but Soru, and the other mothers to be agreed with my assessment. My little Miri was snowy white with iridescent flashes of purple highlighting her immaculate scales. Her bright blue eyes sought everything in the room with an intelligence that was just about unheard of in a newborn Dragon, and those large orbs fixed on me with a brightness that was hard to misinterpret.

"Mama!" she screamed in joy, scuttling up to nudge me with her snout. "Oh, mama, Miri loves you so much. Miri was afraid you were gone forever."

"Never forever," I hugged the sweet little, precocious thing tightly. "Now you go with these nice fellows and they'll get you settled in the newborn's crche, all right? Be a good girl for mama and never forget that I'm only a thought away."

"All right, mama," the child followed the snakemen out with a grace that was almost impossible to believe in a newborn.

"That child is going to be something very special," Soru thoughtfully watched her leave the birthing chambers. "You have fulfilled your part of our bargain quite admirably, Lady. Now, though, I must ask something of you that may not be easy.

"No, no, no," holding out a defensive hand before I could explode over what I thought he was going to tell me, he hurried on. "This has nothing to do with the child. Rather with the mother, and her new lover and husband."

"Go on,"

"It seems that some of my erstwhile allies are becoming difficult," he shrugged. "They have become very demanding, and show a lack of the respect that should be due one of my stature and race. I wish to dissolve that alliance, in no uncertain terms while teaching them the folly of pressing a Dragon and trying to push one into a corner.

"My concern with this is that they may have recovered something from a Hunter arsenal that could do me harm, even kill me. All I ask is that you and Auric accompany me in case of trouble at the last meeting I intend to have with these curs and leeches."

"In other words, you want someone to guard your back," I nodded, feeling the old Hunter training flooding back into the forefront of my mind. "Someone capable of dealing out more harm than your allies anticipate."

"Exactly," Soru nodded with a grim smile.

"I'll need to speak with Auric about this," I told him.

"Auric has already agreed."

"That's not what I mean," I insisted. "I more or less expected that, and would never turn down a request like that from you. But Auric and I need to compare notes on what skills and weaponry we have to use before jumping into this thing. All right?"

"That is as he said you would tell me," Soru nodded. "Go to your husband and prepare. The meeting is to be tomorrow night."

"We'll be ready long before that," I promised. "How well is this place defended against attack, my lord?"

"Well enough, lady," he assured me. "Now go to your husband. He is anxiously awaiting your presence in your chambers."

"Audra!" I thought with a thrill of excitement. That thrill redoubled as I thought of her as the powerfully muscled Auric, and I'm afraid that I departed Soru's company in quite an impolite hurry.

Chapter 9

I hope you'll forgive me if I don't tell you much of that reunion. Auric was waiting at my door, and nearly crushed me with the hug he gave me. We were kissing and touching each other in a most unseemly manner, but could have cared less who saw us or what they thought. It had been nearly a year since we agreed to Soru's terms, and neither of us had really been able to spend any amount of time together since then. Let's just say that we made up for all that lost time and compared notes on the experience as opposed to being the other sex as we had before. Our votes were for the way things were as they stood, and I'm afraid we actually spent very little time planning. But we spent enough.

After discussing our options with Soru, then paying a visit to Miri, we settled into the almost forgotten, but familiar waiting for a hunt to begin. We had no illusions about that. Things were going to get very nasty very fast where we were going, because the Vamps and Dogs that had attached themselves to Soru would not take kindly to his severing of the alliance. It seems Dragons were suddenly in great demand among different factions of Night Walkers, and those who had alliance with one were very reluctant to let it go; or risk the Dragon's allying with some other faction. His own allies had killed a young Red named Phorus when he had flatly told them the alliance was over.

Both Auric and I were determined that fate would not be shared by Soru.

He watched us assemble our arsenals with more than a little curiosity and surprise. "Are you two sure all this is necessary?"

"Probably," I answered over my shoulder while checking to make sure the mini-sub-machine guns in their wrist sheathes would extend when I wanted them to and not before. I had also picked up a very nice combat grade Browning auto-shotgun. It was only twelve gauge, but I had two very special loads for it, once set was phosphorus, which Vamps hate because it sets them on fire and can't be put out. It's kind of a slow, messy death for them, but effective. Just to help things along, I'd added holy water to the casings that held the phosphorus together until hitting the target. No, it didn't try to burn me. I guess my pure thoughts (ha!) and plans to kill Vamps protected me. The second set of loads was silver oxide. Not only is silver fatal to Dogs, the silver oxide compounds were very volatile when contacting any were form. The stuff was kind of nasty for anyone to handle, but the satisfying booms of exploding shells and screams of dying Dogs when I was on target made up for the difficulty.

The last, but most important item in my own arsenal was 'Lightning Tongue. That sword wasn't magic, but as I've said before, it has been blessed by multiple gods and a sainted Martyr (though I don't think the martyr in question was really too happy with the idea at the time.), and was sharp and tough enough to penetrate the strongest armor provided the wielder was determined. Well, okay, suicidal is a better fit for that one, but what do you expect? It was crafted in ancient Japan and is still one of the finest existing examples of the sword maker's art from any era.

Auric carried his old energy blade, of course, along with a heavier caliber assault weapon than I thought was less than practical. But I did have to admit that the American made fifty caliber tommy gun would be pretty devastating in close quarters. It was a piss poor distance weapon, though. He finished his own outfitting with a matched pair of H&K eleven-millimeter automatic pistols.

With the addition of a few grenades of different varieties, and a lightweight, but very high velocity nine-millimeter auto fire, laser ranged pistol he insisted I add to my own stuff, we were ready. Oddly, the only things that showed at all beneath my robes were 'Lightning Tongue" and the damned, bulky shotgun. Under the robe I was wearing some very good, flexible body armor Soru had given me. Strange stuff, almost like an ancient suit of chain mail. The mail was very finely meshed and was a dull, flat black. The leather I had to wear underneath it was something I wasn't all that sure of, but good sense told me what a good solid hit to the body would do to me if there wasn't some pretty decent padding under the stuff. Besides, Auric thought it was sexy.

Let me tell you, that was the strangest damned team I'd ever assembled for an assault on Night Walkers. One Dragon, One sorceress who could as of yet not manage the simplest manipulation of the magics beyond shooing them away, and a Warlock who might or might not actually have some kind of spells ready. Oh, the sorceress and warlock also happened to be well trained warriors who were armed to the teeth and then some.

What were we up against? Why merely twenty odd Vamps, at least one Vamp witch, roughly thirty Dogs, assorted zombies, a few gargoyles, and maybe a demon or two. You figure the odds. I didn't care to try.

"You sure you can't find a few more bodies for this thing?" I questioned hopefully as we gathered ourselves for the transport to the meeting place.

"Not now," Soru answered with an almost Human sigh, "What other trustworthy allies I have are being kept occupied in other spheres of interest. I'm very much afraid that we're all there is. My snakemen would be worse than useless in that kind of fighting, simply they draw their energy from my hold, and the farther away from that they are the weaker and more vulnerable they are."

"Oh, well, it was just a thought," I grimaced, then shrugged. Auric seemed to really like what that gesture did to my anatomy, and I shot him a warning glance, "Business, big man, tend to business."

"Not to worry, sweet, beautiful lady," he grinned. "When did I ever lose focus because of your presence?"

"That was before I looked like this, and you had to contend with all that testosterone," I grumbled, then gave Soru a quick glance. "Ready, big guy?"

"Just waiting for you two to finish bantering," he answered. "I'm ready to open the gate."

"Let's do it," was my flat response, and Auric nodded his agreement.

With a gesture, Soru opened the gateway and with a deep breath, we all stepped into it.

Chapter 10

To emerge in a vast arena like chamber that had to be an old sports complex. Tiers of seats rose on all sides of us, with black exits peppering the whole. Scattered pieces of maintenance equipment were scattered over the field that still had markings for a football grid on it. There was no one in sight to greet us.

"I've got a really bad feeling about this," Auric whispered while searching our surroundings for any movement.

"Yeah, kind of makes your skin want to draw up and hide, doesn't it?" I replied, ranged to the other side of Soru and searching for signs of anything animate just as carefully.

We both caught sight of and recognized the cylindrical tube of an automatic launcher, and its type at the same time. Auric swore softly then asked, "Sweet Mother of God, Layne, do you recognize what that son-of -a-bitch is?"

"Tactical Nuke," I replied uneasily. "Hot and ready to go."

"God, even a bunch of worried Vamps and ignorant Dogs should know what that damned thing would do to them if they used it here." My lover and husband breathed.

"Which means... oh, my God!" I turned to Soru with an urgent wave. "Get us out of here! Now! Back to your Hold, and don't say a word, that god damned thing's triggered to activate and launch when you say something.

"Now damn it!" I almost screamed. "They aren't here! If I'm right, they're hitting your place right now and expect this little toy to take you and anyone with you out. Get us HOME, damn it!"

Soru was ahead of me, opening another gate, then pausing as we passed through. "One thin..."

The nuke fired, but we were already gone.

Damn, there are times I really hate being right. The second we returned to Soru's home, we were bombarded with a mess that grimly reminded me of that horrible night at Hunter Central. Screams, gunshots, howls, and the smell of smoke greeted us.

"Auric," Soru took command with more ease than I would have shown. "Go to the east wing, that seems to be where most of the fighting is going on. Rally my snakemen, and get them back into some defensible position. Elaynia, get to the creche and defend the children. I'm heading for the birthing chambers first then will join Auric. GO!"

I was already gone, racing towards the nursery where the young Dragon children were nurtured and hoping to any god that might see fit to listen that I was in time. I didn't spare one thought for Auric or Soru at that moment, just willed myself to move faster in the need to reach my endangered child and the other young ones. These bastards didn't intend to kill the little ones, but to capture them, then enslave the poor hybrids of human/Dragon mating. I had the awful feeling that Miri wouldn't stand for that, and would die if she resisted.

Miri was calling me. Frantically. So I knew there would be some bloody business to take care of once I reached my goal. I sent a quick, urgent message to stay down, that I was coming and would be there in seconds.

The sight that greeted me induced a rage like none I had ever experienced in my life. It wasn't a heated, blind thing like such emotional storms usually are, but an icy, preternaturally clear state where everything was moving in slow motion.

A woefully outmatched snakeman was trying to hold two demons at bay while not stumbling over the bodies of his three compatriots. And my brave, foolish little Miri was right behind him, hissing, throwing what scant Dragon fire her small body could produce, and determined to stand right there until either killed or incapacitated. Why, I asked myself, did she have to be so similar in temperament to me?

Not wanting to risk firing one of my projectile weapons, or to use a grenade, I took the only other alternative open. 'Lightning Tongue' whickered out of the sheathe, and sang a song of such elemental force that I knew without doubt where her name came from. The pure unadulterated force of steel in the hands of a well trained and raging mother almost gave the blade a magnificent life of her own. Never again would I refer to that precious blade as an it, because of the way she seemed to leap forward with little or no guidance. One demon lost its ugly head and an arm before either of them knew they were under attack from behind. With one swiftly fluid follow stroke, I severed the bastard's other arm, and gave the second a vicious cut in the belly.

Roaring, spilling the green, acidic goo Demons used for blood from its gaping belly, it turned so swiftly I just about missed the arc of its black mace. I did see it soon enough to take a glancing blow to my shoulder rather than in the head as he had planned. My whole left side above the waist went numb with the shock, but my killing strike was already launched under his guard and the wide arc of his heavy mace. The blade penetrated his ugly throat, and emerged from the back of his neck, which ended the ungodly bellowing, anyway.

With a superhuman, even for a Hunter, twist and pull on the blade, I pretty well ripped the thing's head off its shoulders. As it staggered, I finished the fight with a quick stroke to part the grisly tendon and ripped muscle still holding the head to its neck.

Then stood there with head down, panting for breath and searching for any sense of feeling in my left shoulder.

"It isss broken, Lady," a soft voice brought me back into focus and I felt scaly hands on my good shoulder trying to pull me into the nursery. "Yooou came jusssst in tiime."

I stumbled over several bodies, snakemen, and vowed to rethink my formerly low opinion of the creatures. Even if they had been only following commands. Four snakemen against two demons was nothing close to an even match. And this one had stood alone against them once his comrades had fallen.

"Thank you," I meant it, while looking the creature over critically. He was badly hurt, with too many wounds to count and bright blood oozing out of most of them. Arterial blood was spurting around a crudely tied tourniquet just above his hip.

He knew he was finished, and gave me a fatalistic shrug. "We all die, Lady. I served, I protected, now I must go."

"Your name, brave friend," I requested, and saw his eyes glow with pride at the compliment. "Give me your name and I will sing a song for your spirit once this is over."

"Tsssil'ahhhn" he breathed, hardly able to make himself heard. "You do this poor servant far too much honor, Lady."

"You gave your life defending my child," I responded softly. "and the rest of them. No honor would be enough for that. Go in peace, my friend."

He died, then, but not in my arms. All things considered, that was just as well, because a deep, amused voice interrupted whatever I might have done just then. "How very touching, the Dragon's prize bitch saying goodbye to her faithful servant."

Turning with a snarl, I stopped short at the sight of one of the biggest damned Vamps I'd ever seen or heard of in my life. He easily topped seven feet, and his massively muscled body had to have weighed at least three hundred pounds or better. His face was a mass of scars that had to have come from exposure to sunlight, or a sunbomb, and his mouth was curled in a permanent smile on the right hand side. The eye on that side was also blind and glaring white.

"Like my face, bitch? he questioned with a voice full of menacing promise. "If what I hear of you is true, this is your work. I survived the sun bomb fired off in the middle rotunda of your precious Hunter Central, and am one of the lucky ones in spite of my injuries.

"My whole clan died under that blast," spitting the words out like curses, he then gave me an evil, predatory smile. "But you will atone for that for a long time to come, little bitch. I'll take you and make you my cringing slave, then force you to watch as we take these brats for our own training and discipline.

"This one, though," he waved an ugly, jagged sword that had to weigh almost as much as I did towards a now still Miri, "Has too much spirit for what we want. She will die in front of you bitch, and you will do nothing to help her despite the most piteous cries she may let out."

"You stupid bastard," I hissed raising the shotgun under my robe and hoping to hell, or heaven, that I'd put the Vamp loads in the drum magazine. Pulling the trigger and holding it for full automatic fire, I was greatly pleased to find that I had. He dissolved into a haze of blood and tissue fragments before I was able to finish what I was telling him. So I told the red puddle on the floor. "Talk or fight. Didn't anyone ever tell you that, dumb ass?"

"Mama hurt!" A small nose nudged my aching ribs gently and inquisitively.

"I'll be all right, child," with a bottled up scream through gritted teeth, I set the bone in my shoulder then sat back on the floor beside the dead serpentmen to catch my breath and wait for my regeneration to start in.

"Miri fight bad things, too," My baby asserted, "Just like mama."

"Yes you did, my beloved," I agreed with a tired smile. "You were very brave, but now I have to ask you to do something else for me, okay?"

"Miri not leave you!" She stated with finality that I recognized all too well, having seen it in myself more times than I care to admit. God, didn't this infant get anything but her shape from her father?

"Listen to the babies, Miri," I urged, and she tilted her head to listen. The wails and screams of anguished terror were very loud. "I need for you to go take care of them for me, all right? It's a very important job. Just calm them down, and if anything gets past me, fight it to protect the babies for all you're worth, can you do that for Mama?"

"Sure!" brightening, she turned far too gracefully for a newborn, and hurried to the back part of the nursery. I heard her shushing and comforting infants and children that were all older than her, and had to smile as I wondered just what she would be like once she matured. I sure didn't want to be on her bad side when the time for that came.

Just then several Dogs trotted into sight, half and half in form with blood dripping from their lolling mouths. I opened up with what was left in the shotgun. The loads wouldn't really do much damage to them, but would sure distract them long enough for me to get hold of something that would.

The nine-millimeter barked rapidly in my good hand, satisfyingly splattering the Dog's heads and upper chests all over the hallway. "Another blow struck for Motherhood," I grimaced at the pain lancing through my injured shoulder, but accepted it as the good news it was. My healing powers had kicked in full bore and I'd soon be good as new. Providing the attackers gave me any time without more wounds to contend with.

With the breathing space, I checked out my remaining resources. One clip for the nine-millimeter,that I rammed home after discarding the empty one. Two filled drums of shotgun ammo, one of Dog loads, and the other mixed for Vamps and Dogs. My two little hideaways were still snugly resting against my forearms fully loaded and ready, and of course, there was 'Lightning Tongue'.

Getting to my feet with an involuntary groan, I hoped that would be enough. But knew that if help didn’t arrive soon, I was going to be just as dead as the enemies littering the hall in front of me. The rage I felt about that wasn’t for my own death, but for my child, and the others who were depending on me to keep the bad guys out. If I was going to die, I grimly promised any power listening that the attackers would even feel my teeth and nails if it came to that. I would not make this easy for the bastards.

What I saw moving down the hallway towards the nursery made me think it wouldn't be easy for anyone.

A wizard, a damned Wizard(!) was browbeating a mixed group of zombies, Dogs, and gargoyles into a crude phalanx designed to overwhelm whoever was defending the battered down outer doors of the nursery. That would be me, by the way.

Even worse, the bastard was holding a shielding spell in front of them. One that would deflect bullets, or any other type of distance weapons I might have on hand. Great! Just fucking wonderful, I grumbled, seeing the intricacies of the spell and the strength of the will behind it. I'd be no match for that, and held no pretty illusions about suddenly finding my own abilities in that realm and frying the sorry son of a bitch on the spot. Nope, wouldn't happen. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Go directly to the Wizard's slave pens, or the halls of the dead. The chance card holder's choice, and I wasn't the one holding the card.

After considering several alternatives, all with me ending up dead or worse, I resorted to the time honored methods of outgunned and outnumbered fighters all through history. I hollered for help.

"Miri!" I called mentally, "Contact your father, quick! Tell him we need him here and we need him thirty seconds ago."

"He's coming!" Was the answer, "He says to hold on for just a little, and he'll be here, mama!"

"Yeah, a little while is about all I have left here," I grumbled, then sent a quick thanks to my daughter. Well come on you miserable excuses for a commando force. If you had any guts, you'd already be at this door trying to get me dead."

The crowd of Night Walkers hesitated in spite of the Wizard's exhortations. On the face of it, I could see why. Two dead Demons,the very visible remains of a vaporized Vamp that had to have been one of their leaders, and three very dead and headless Dogs in the corridor in front of them. I suppose that would have daunted the bravest of them. That and they didn't really have any idea of how many defenders were hunkered down behind the pile of bodies and debris blocking the doorway that was their ultimate goal, the entire purpose of the attack and for luring Soru and anyone he trusted at his back away long enough for it to be pulled off. A goal that now appeared to be in more than a little jeopardy.

Because we'd come back, and screwed their pretty plan royally. Or so I hoped. Make that prayed. The Wizard had just convinced his half reluctant troops to begin moving when an enraged roar reverberated through the hallway, along with a blast of fire that took the bad buy from behind. Which, incidentally, and quite happily, broke the sucker's concentration on the shielding spell.

I never had to be invited to party twice. I opened up on the massed bodies in front of me with everything I had. Emptied the shotgun twice, used up the nine-millimeter so fast it almost overheated, popped my hideaways out and splattered more bad guys, then threw out the few grenades I had for good measure.

That hallway was a pure, hellish mess. There were body parts, blood, and guts everywhere I looked. And, thankfully, no more gang of goons. But that damned Wizard was still standing, and giving Soru a real run for it. In fact, it kind of looked like the wrinkled old bastard was getting the upper hand.

"Oh, I don't think we can have that," I muttered, drawing 'Lightning Tongue' again, and moving forward as quietly and rapidly as I could. Luckily, the fight up ahead was a noisy one, so my intended target didn't hear the squishy thump and curses when I lost my footing in a particularly obnoxious pile of entrails.

Unfortunately, he did hear my soft footfalls behind him when his battle with Soru went into a sudden period of quiet. With a casual flick of one hand, he had me tangled in a magical web that refused to allow me to move a finger. "Well, well, look what I've caught,"

"Would this little fish I've netted serve as bait for the big one farther down the hall, I wonder?" Smiling at me with an appraising and evil little leer that I might have found enticing if I'd been , say, a bimbo with a bigger bra size than IQ. I couldn't even open my mouth to swear at him, though I thought some real dandies in his direction.

"Give it up, Soru!" he shouted down the hall. "I've got your little bitch here all wrapped and ready to fry!"

"She's not my little bitch," The Dragon called back softly, with what I took as an insulting lack of concern.

"No, asshole," Another familiar voice entered the conversation right beside the startled Wizard, who blanched and reached one hand frantically to his side. Auric appeared and finished. "She's my Wife, and you're not going to fry anyone."

Remember my fight not talk thing? If not that's okay. Because Auric did. The Wizard's soul may have heard that last part, but his body was already dead and sectioned up into neatly cauterized pieces thanks to my love's energy blade.

I fell into a very undignified heap, again right into the middle of the most redolent messes in the hall, once the Wizard's bindings let go. Disgusted, but relieved, I didn't even bother to get up for a few seconds. "Hey, guys. How's things with you?"

"Marginally better than they seem to be with you just now," Auric grinned down at me. "At least we're reasonably clean. Is any of that blood yours?"

"No," I answered a bit shortly, then glowered up at him. "You know, husband, you are the most infuriating man I've ever met? You could at least offer to help me up. Please?"

"Oh, I suppose I could," He replied beginning to reach out a hand to do as I'd asked.

"By the way?" I inquired sweetly, "Is the fighting over with now?"

"Routed the misbegotten sons right back to where they come from," Soru answered with a wicked grin. "Sadly, for them, they ported right into the middle of a small, but very radioactive crater."

"Too bad," I nodded, reaching for my husband's helpful hand. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of folks."

"That's tru...whoa!" Auric made a very satisfying splat himself when he landed face first in the same muck I'd been sitting in.

"Now I know why Soru let me marry you," He spluttered while scooping large amounts of the crud off his face and out of his hair. "You're too damned devious and dangerous to be trusted with a poor defenseless Dragon."

All three of us burst into laughter, and my loving, dear, Infuriating, husband, snaked out a hand to catch my ankle and pull me back into the muck with him.

Chapter 11

Well, that just about finishes up that part of the story. Auric and I were offered, and accepted positions as personal guards for Soru and his hold. At least until we could find and settle on a place to start a home of our own.

I'm a sorceress, sure, but still haven't gotten a real handle on how to use my powers in that respect. Auric is still mastering hisown spell casting abilities, too, but at least he can read his off of a scroll or out of a book.

Miri was proving to be very precocious, and may be the real reason Soru invited us to stay. My daughter is headstrong, stubborn, opinionated, and growing into a very lovely young Dragoness. Give her another month or so, and she'll probably start shape shifting. Which would be a bit slow for the little darling with the speed she has shown in mastering everything else. The really scary part about her, is that not only is she a Dragon with most of those attendant powers and abilities, she's also a sorceress. Hell, I think poor Soru would have offered me half his hoard to stay around and ride herd on the kid.

I've got another coming, by the way. This one will not be part Dragon. I'll leave the details for you to figure out.

So, anyway, here we are at probably another cusp. Auric and I are still Hunters in our hearts and souls, but we're also Night Walkers. I've heard that the reorganized remnants of the Hunter's Guild is working with selected Night Walkers now, but am still leery of approaching them. On the other hand, probably half the powerful Night Walker clans in the world have grudges against Soru, not to mention Auric and me. We do have some allies, though that's for another tale.

Miri wants some attention, I can hear her father bellowing in her playroom again.

And I'm not far enough along that Auric and I can't enjoy a few marital games when we get time.

Good bye. For now.