---

 

He moved towards the sobbing he had heard and it sounded as if the person doing it was wrenching out her guts.

“Hey.” He announced himself without getting too close and noted that she was naked. “What happened, are you hurt?”

“No.” The girl answered faintly. “Not hurt, not physically.”

“You need help?”

“NO!” She seemed to recoil at his offer, moving deeper into the alley and waving him away. “Stay away from me!”

“I'm no threat, girl.” Zack shrugged and spread his arms with hands wide open to show that he meant no harm. “Only trying to help here.”

“No one can help.” She moaned softly. “It's too late for that.”

“Never too late.” Zack countered. “A really good friend I hardly knew taught me that a while back. You live with what you did wrong and move on, try to do right or the best you can.”

“I don't know what I did that was wrong!” She shot back, then shook as she seemed to force herself to stand up. “But look at me! I'm a monster!”

“Depends on what you call a monster.” He answered while taking her in with all her pale skinned glory with the tangle of white hair and eyes so white they had to be blind even if they did track every motion he made. “I've seen real monsters, girl. And every one of them looked pretty normal on the outside, and not one of them admitted to being what they were.”

“Look at me!” She demanded.

“Not hard to do, I'll admit.” Zack grinned then shook his head. “Girl, in this neighborhood, you wouldn't even attract that much attention. You'd blend in if you were careful.”

“I've killed people!” She shot back.

“Lady, just about anyone in this neighborhood could say that, or that they tried at least once. Hell, I know people who would kill you for your pocket change and not even worry about it. Or they did it to protect themselves or someone they cared for. It's a nasty world, and a person does what they have to do to survive.”

“But...”

“C'mon.” Zack took off his ragged coat and draped it around her shoulders. “I've never seen a monster naked and shivering all balled up on itself in some nasty alley. Let's get you inside where it's dry and warm, get you some clothes, and we'll go from there. Okay?”

She didn't argue and let him lead her out of the alley.

I don't understand. I'm a monster, a freak that anyone could see just by looking at me. But this man shrugged that off, put his coat around me when I know it's cold, and was taking me home with him, or at least to somewhere he frequented.

He was determined to help me even if I felt as if I didn't deserve that. I could have killed him in the space between seconds, if I wanted to. He wasn't unaware of the danger, but chose to ignore it. For my sake.

For my sake.

Not to make himself feel better for helping someone, just to help.

“You don't know what I am.” I told him as he guided me through alleys and streets that seemed uncomfortably familiar even if I didn't recall them.

“I know you're in trouble, and you need some help.” He shrugged, shivering from the cold I didn't feel because he'd given me his coat. The coat wasn't the reason, I just didn't feel the cold. At all. But the giving had been important to him, so I let it go.

Let it go? What is with me? I know I'm dangerous, I know someone is hunting me, and that I have killed. I have no right to 'let' anything go right now.

“I don't know what I did.” I told him honestly. “I don't know what was done to me.

“But hiding me could be dangerous for you.” I went on.

“Wouldn't be the first time.” He shrugged and grinned at me. He had a nice smile, too. “I'm Zack.”

“I don't even know my own name.” I told him. “They called me Zephyr, but that wasn't my name.”

“Then we'll figure out a name you like.” He answered. “After all, we can't keep calling 'Hey you! White girl!' every time we want your attention can we?”

“No.” I actually chuckled at that one and couldn't recall the last time I'd seen humor in anything. “I guess not.”

“C'mon White Girl.” He grinned at me again as we stopped in front of a dilapidated door. “Let's get inside.”

Hines

Hines sat in chair in his own office, facing his superior who was seated at the desk he was used to being behind with people in this office. The man was still going through files, looking at graphs and projections that speculated about and tried to predict the future.

“Just what the Hell are you doing here, Hines?” His boss questioned after another ten minutes of scanning files.

“Long story, sir.” He answered, afraid that his project would be shut down out of hand. “I can give you some perspective to go with what you've been reading and looking at there.”

“Justifying illegal experiments, and then letting one of those experiments slip your leash?” The man asked with deceptive mildness.

“Yes sir, on the 'experiments' anyway.” Hines grimaced. “Zephyr getting loose wasn't anticipated and we had all security measures the protocols demand in place when that happened.”

“Cut the shit, Hines.” His boss answered flatly. “You let something very dangerous get out of this facility, and I want to know why you even thought it would be safe to create something like that in the first place.”

“We didn't create her.” Hines answered slowly. “We woke her up, and she would have been out there, loose, without anyone being the wiser within a few years if my people hadn't found her host and awakened her.”

“That has something to do with this 'new type of energy' all these reports are talking about?”

“Yes sir.” Hines answered carefully. “This new energy was detected about five years ago, but it had been around and growing for years before that. We can measure it, to a point, so we know it's growing in strength all the time. Not much yet, but soon the increase will become exponential, and that could be disastrous for all of us.”

“A new source of energy?” His boss asked. “A disaster for everyone? I would think it would be a godsend.”

“It might be.” Hines nodded. “But it refuses to be manipulated in the usual ways, and is having some side effects throughout the world even now.”

“Side effects?” The man behind the desk sighed, and asked. “How so?”

“You've read the reports.” Hines shook his head. “We have documented proof, from more than one source and the ones we use aren't cranks or mental cases. We have information from a lot of people who have been trusted for their honesty and accurate observations about these things.”

“People crack, you know that.”

“But people from all over the world?” Hines persisted. “All within a few years and all their observations coming from after that new energy was discovered?”

“That would be a big series of coincidences.” The other nodded without looking down at the files. “But you still have a hard sell going here Hines. I'm waiting to be convinced.”

Hines stood then moved to the other side of the desk to pull up a file on his computer. “Documented evidence from the Middle East of creatures who call themselves Djinn and seem to be able to alter just about anything they please. One of these things totally wiped out a fairly powerful circle of men who did use what they called magic. I know our organization is aware of them and the things they could do. Well they're gone now, thanks to this new being.

“Sightings of things the locals describe as Fae, Legendary Elves or Sidhe, if you prefer, Pixies and other things in North America, Northwest Europe, England, Ireland and Scotland.” Hines brought up another file for his boss to examine.

“A firebird, or close to it in New Mexico, a feathered serpent in Mexico City, Something in Japan people are calling a Kami and actually worship, rumors from Russia and Eastern Europe about people encountering things from their mythology.

“Sir,” Hines softly said as his boss went through the files, “I believe this new energy IS magic and that its resurgence is awakening these things and they are even now running loose in the world.”

“These sources are verifiable?” The other asked.

“Of course they are.” Hines snorted. “These are incidents that can't possibly be explained by any known means and we have weeded out the cranks and obviously mistaken reports. These are genuine, sir.”

“And that's your justification for this project.”

“Yes!” Hines let his passion show in that one word then calmed himself. “Sir, the magic, or whatever you choose to call it is growing and with it the number of these incidents. If the increase in both the magic and these beings keeps going the world is going to full of creatures — beings that are capable of doing a lot of harm to humanity.

“If we can learn about them now, before things get too bad, we can find what they are, what they are able to do, how to counter them, deal with them, or even kill them if it comes to that.” Hines continued. “If we don't have that information I don't believe there's much hope for human civilization as we know it to continue, and humanity could well become extinct.”

“A compelling argument.” The other nodded. “I want copies of all this stuff and I'll boot it upstairs, along with your own personal assessments and those of your staff. Have them ready for me in twenty-four hours.”

“Of course, sir.”

“And Hines?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Neutralize this monster that got away from you.” The man ordered. “If you don't some powerful people won't be happy with me and I'll be sure to send them to you.”

“I understand, sir.” Hines nodded while wishing he dared pull out his handkerchief to mop his forehead. “She won't be that difficult to find once she starts feeding.”

“You'd better hope your people find it before that starts.” The other said with quiet finality. “If this gets into the public eye, the blame for the general panic in the population is going to land right on your back.”

And put an end to his project, Hines knew. All he could do was nod in acknowledgment while wishing this self important ass would get out of his office so he could actually start getting things done.

I let him lead into the place.

It wasn't all that wonderful, but it was warm, and fires in trashcans I saw told me why that was.

“I'm dangerous to be around.” I told him, trying to get away from all the Humanity, the things that I'd lost, I got flogged with once I'd entered the place.

“Aren't we all?” He answered quietly.

“Not like me.” I countered, shivering again at the fragmented memories that wouldn't leave me alone.

“Listen to me.” Zack put his hands on my shoulders, gently but with enough firmness to get my attention. I had to quell the almost automatic urge to remove them. “And look at me when I say this, please.”

Pulling in a long, deep breath, I looked up into his face and nodded.

“Good.” He smiled and nodded in his turn. “You're scared, running from something — someone, naked and alone in the dead of winter. Have I got things right so far?”

I nodded slowly.

“You say you're a monster, and true enough, you do look a little freaky, but you've done not one thing since I first saw you that shows me that might be true. You were curled up a ball crying so hard I thought you were going to hiccup your stomach out in that alley. You didn't automatically try to kill me, or anyone we walked by while I was getting you here, now did you?”

“N-no.” I agreed then clarified that. “But I've had to hold myself back. The impulses I get are to do just what you said I haven't.”

“But you haven't, you control those impulses, don't you?”

“Right now, yes.” I had to nod. “But I can't promise that will keep being the case when I really start to get hungry.”

“We can make sure you don't go hungry.” He assured me.

“You don't understand.” I answered as my fangs descended. “It isn't normal food I need. It's blood.”

 

---

 

He looked at the fangs, yes fangs, the girl was showing even while trying to keep her mouth tightly closed to hide them and backed a step away. Then stopped. And took the biggest chance of his life.

“If you need blood that bad, here it is.” He told her, rolling up a sleeve and offering his wrist, then tilted his head so his neck was exposed. “Or is this more to your liking? All I ask is one promise out of you first.”

“A promise?” She questioned, puzzled by his apparent fearlessness.

“That's right.” He nodded then waved to the other people in the area, most who were already watching the tableau in mixed confusion and fright. “I brought you here, so I'll pay the price if I was wrong about you. But when you finish me, promise that you'll leave and not touch the others in here. They don't deserve to die because I might have been stupid.”

“You would die to keep them safe?” She asked in something like wonder and shook her head. “Why?”

“Let's just say that someone once saved me from a slow death, I'm passing it forward and leave things at that, all right?”

“You are a very brave man.” She answered slowly then added. “But also very foolish.”

“Sometimes it takes a fool to do the right thing.” He shrugged. “Your promise?”

“It won't be needed.” She closed her eyes and visibly fought her urges back so hard her whole body shook with the effort. “You and yours are safe from me, and will stay that way. That is my promise to you, and them.”

“Thank you.” Zack let out an audible sigh and managed a smile. “As for blood, does it have to be human?”

“I don't know — again.” Zephyr answered with frustration showing in her tone and staccato answer.

“Well, then, come on in and we'll see if we can't find you an alternative.”

“If we can't?”

“We'll worry about that when it comes up, but there are solutions even then.” He tilted his head as he shook it. “Let's not get too worried about that until it becomes really critical, okay?”

“Why do I trust you, Zack?” She asked as he turned to lead her farther inside.

“I have a nice smile and a winning personality?” He grinned.

“Damned fool.” She shook her head while saying that.

“Yeah, that too.” He agreed. “Now come on, we have some raw meat and the blood in it isn't so important to us as having the food. Maybe that will help.”

“Madman, that's what you are.” She breathed then nodded. “It's worth a try.”

I followed him into a part of the building the heat didn't reach while trying to understand what had just happened. Something inside me insisted that I had just passed a very important test but I had no real idea what that test meant.

I did know that I would keep my promise to this man. Why? Because I had made it, and another vague memory told me that whoever I had been would have done the same. How could I do any less?

“They say that the mad are truly closer to the gods.” I muttered as he led me towards the tantalizing scent of blood. It wasn't hot, as it would have been from a living thing, but it was there and I began salivating as we got closer to the source.

“What was that?” He asked while pulling a plastic curtain aside to allow entrance to another, smaller, and colder room.

“Nothing.” I said with a grin. “Just something I remembered suddenly.”

Then the blood caught me.

There were actual carcasses hanging from hooks chained to the ceiling. I didn't ask how people seeming so desperate had gotten them, just went for the blood. Which is much harder to get when not driven by a still beating heart, by the way. But after some time, sated, I wiped my mouth then licked the blood off my hands and arms and nodded. “That worked. I'm still hungry, but the worst of it has been blunted now.”

He only nodded and I realized that I had shrugged out of his coat while feeding, and the contortions I went through to clean myself had him almost mesmerised. He had just watched an attractive, and very naked woman doing things that had to raise fantasies in a male mind. If I could have blushed, I'm sure I would have then.

“Sorry.” I told him and he snapped out of it with a sharp intake of breath.

“You could make a fortune as an exotic dancer.” He answered slowly.

I shrugged and asked. “You mentioned clothing?”

“Oh, yeah.” Very carefully picking up his coat, he again draped it around my shoulders and moved to the plastic covered doorway. “This way.”

“Might I ask?” I questioned as we left that cold room. “How do people so obviously in need have sides of beef and whole pigs hanging in their back room?”

“Oh, things 'fall off the truck' all the time.” He told me. “The people around here who have work know the ones who don't need all the help they can get. It's never much, but it keeps us going.”

“Good.” I answered and promised myself that I would help more things 'fall off the truck' in the future, and not just for the blood.

“What are you doing here?” Hines asked his subordinate.

“Coordinating the search for Zephyr.” Bill Stewart answered.

“Not good enough, Stewart.” Hines answered. “She got loose on your watch. Get your butt out there in the field and coordinate from there, not here.”

“I should point out that I'm not field trained, I'm a scientist, sir.”

“I don't give a damn.” Hines shot back. “She's on the loose out there and in my estimation that's your fault. Get off your ass and go find her.”

“Yes, sir.” Stewart let out a sigh.

“Take Taggart with you.”

“Taggart, but sir...”

“I know things tend to get messy when he's involved, Bill.” Hines put a halfway conciliatory tone into his voice. “If she's gone back to familiar haunts a little collateral damage won't be anything to get all choked up over.

“Plus, when you do find her, you're going to need a stone cold killer like Taggert to take her down.”

“Then you don't want her back?”

“Stewart.” Hines patiently answered. “We obviously can't contain her in this facility and there is no other more secure in the world that I know of. The only alternative is to kill her. See to it. Before she starts killing civilians out there.”

“Whatever you say.” Stewart answered.

Hines did not miss the lack of an honorific in that answer.

“Like I said, see to it.”

The man gave a sharp, abrupt nod and left without another word.

Once He was gone, Hines pinged Willis Taggert's secure phone. There were some orders that needed to be given before he was contacted by Stewart.

Willis Taggert examined his image in the mirror as he shaved. Hard, honed by years of Spec Ops, then more in the even more secret Black Ops military wing of the CIA it still pleased him that those grey eyes staring back at him showed no hint of emotion.

But he was seething inside. One of the freaks this place had made was loose, and had the temerity to kill four of his own hand picked people when it got away. Something like that could not go unanswered.

But that soft idiot Hines had shown more backbone than expected following the escape of the thing code named Zephyr and had held the leash on him so tightly it nearly choked him. When all he wanted to do was get out there, find and kill the monster.

His secure phone buzzed and he took the time to finish shaving before answering it. “Taggert.”

“You're a go on the hunt.” Hines' voice answered his prayers. “I have some additional orders for you though.”

Taggert listened, confirmed he understood what was needed, and closed the connection.

“Oh, now it's time bitch.” He quietly spoke into the air. “I'm going to kill you, and anyone trying to help you.”

“Taggert.” He muttered to himself while thinking the man was a not only a psyhopath, but a homicidal maniac who only managed to get away with what he was because people in powerful positions found him useful.

Taggert was a cleaner. Meaning that he got rid of things his superiors found inconvenient and dangerous.

William Stewart had abrubtly realized that he was now among those 'inconvenient' things.

So started making plans of his own, and readying things he had very carefully kept hidden just in case such an event happened. If Taggert couldn't find him, no one could, and he was reasonably sure he could stay out of the way until this mess with Zehpyr had been finished and the fallout was far away.

Caught between the known, and bloody,threats of both Zephyr and Taggert, he was desperate enough to take any chance offered.

Clothes.

They felt strange on me. Just the fact and sensations of wearing garments was odd to me.

I got a flash of another place. Huge, with sterile white walls, large windows and faces watching me, unclothed, for what felt like an eternity. I hadn't been allowed the dignity of clothing in that horrible place. So it was no big surprise that nudity held no taboos for me at all.

But wearing clothing was strange and felt not quite right.

After that I got another flash of memory. Of electical prods, and other less pleasant things used on me. And pain, pain like no living thing should have to endure.

And others were going through the same thing, even now, I was sure.

I didn't know how just yet, but was very sure that there would be a reckoning for all that pain. I would see to it personally. And release those others from their agony when I did.

Why? WHY couldn't I remember? Why was I plagued with tantalizing bits and pieces of things past before the one sure memory of agony chased those away? What had happened, was done to me, to make my mind shy away from even looking at it?

I promised myself then and there one thing. No matter how much it hurt, I would remember.

Then would come time for retribution. Bloody, screaming retribution. And this time, I wouldn't be the one screaming.

What, what oh gods, had I become? Half insane, I knew that, but clinging to a morality and sense of ethics I barely understand. Or recall.

But I can't, just can't let go of those last two things. The only shreds of decency left to me.

If I did, then I would truly be lost.

 

---

 

He was taken by surprise at just how uncomfortable this odd young woman seemed to be wearing clothes. She had even shaken her feet like a cat that has stepped into water by accident once she'd pulled on the socks. It was clear that she knew how to put things on, but also that those things, normal clothing, felt strange to her.

“You have worn clothes before?” He asked, then felt stupid for even doing so.

“Yes.” She nodded then got a puzzled look on her face. “But I don't really remember. They wouldn't allow it where I was... Wearing clothes.”

She started shaking again after saying that and visibly got herself under control.

“My god, girl,” Zack whispered while she was going through that. “What did they do to you?”

“I don't remember.” She shuddered and gave him a look that was a look of mixed pleading and submerged anger. “I don't remember. Other than it was bad.”

Blood drinker, dangerous, whatever. The girl in front of him was hurting, bad. Zack slowly and carefully gathered her into a loose hug and felt her trembling in his arms. “It'll be okay. You're away from those bastards. They can't hurt you here. Not anymore.”

“Yes they can.” She mournfully answered. “Every time I feed, they've hurt me again, and worse, they'll be hunting me.”

His arms around me felt good, but wrong at the same time. I was like a newborn, not sure of what to do, how to do it, or even interpret what others were doing. But those arms around me felt better than anything I could remember just now.

But I could smell the blood running through him, hot, salty, spicy, and so alluring. I could hear his heart beating to push that blood through his body and the hunger raised its ugly head again. I got out of his hug, as gently as I could and shook my head.

“Don't do that, please?” I asked him and knew the anguish I felt was showing on my face. “I can smell your blood, even from here, and hear your heart beating. It's like seeing a menu in a restaurant that serves the really good food.

“I don't want to hurt you.” I finished with a heavy sigh. “But being close just rouses things in me that I have trouble holding down. I wanted to rip your throat out there for a second, and drink, bathe, in the hot blood that is running through you now.

“I can't, won't, do that.” I whispered while watching him flinch away again and look fearful. “I'm not a killer, Zack. I never wanted to be a killer, but the blood, the hearbeat, calls like a bell ringing for dinner time.

“Please, I can control it, but don't get too close to me like that again.”

He'd felt the strength of my hands when I gripped his shoulders and lightly pushed him away, and looked afraid again before gathering his wits and nodding. “All right. But you need someone right now, just to be there if nothing else.”

“Knowing me is probably a good way to die.” I almost sobbed. “I'm not a person anyone sane would want to get close to.”

“Well.” He grinned. “Sanity has been said to be overrated, and I've never been accused of having much of that to work with anyway. So what now?”

“Don't ask me.” I let out a sigh and shook my head. “I'm kinda making this up as I go along right now.”

“Aren't we all?” He asked simply.

Dammit! He would die if he stayed around and tried helping me. If not from my appetites from those hunting me. How could he just stand there and smile at me? And just how could I be so sure that people, dangerous people, were after me? But I knew it was so and in spite of how obviously dangerous I could be he simply stood there and looked at me while gently asking questions without a hint of the fear I smelled on him showing in any other way. Idiot.

Infuriating, and more than a little endearing.

But I knew his mind was made up and it would take more than me to change it. And not because I was some sexy babe. He actually intended to help in whatever way he could.

Scary as I knew I was, this man was determined to help me. Without expecting a thing in return. Crap.

I am a monster. How does a monster deal with someone who just takes it in stride and won't take no for an answer when help is offered?
Was I this bad before whatever had happened to me?

I just nodded, and wrapped the coat I'd been given to go with the unfamiliar clothing around myself in an attempt to hide what I felt.
Gods! I had to start remembering sometime didn't I? Who had I been, what had I been before waking up in that awful place?

What had they done to me while I was there?

Why was I a creature out of nightmare? Or a fantasy story?

Just what the Hell had happened to me?

Who had done this to me and more importantly, why had they done it?

Answers, unfortunately, weren't forthcoming at the time.

But I felt it. The answers were there. Just below the surface of my conscious mind and waiting to boil out and scald me with the truth I so badly wanted to know.

I just had to work a chink in my 'not remembering' that would allow all that to come back.

That frighened me as much as what I was now did.

But I had to know.

I had to KNOW.

KNOW.

The truth might not set me free, as some old sayings professed. But it damn sure would clear some things up for and about me.

“Sir?” Constanza, his second interupted his thoughts. Or lack of them at that moment.

“Yes, Constanza?” He shook himself mentally and turned his attention to his subordinate.

“Everything is ready to go, sir and Dr. Stewart is waiting.”

He wanted to just say something like 'Fuck Stewart', but didn't. “All right, lets get this dog and pony show moving.”

“Of course, sir.” Constanza, like everyone who worked for him was afraid of him. That caused his lips to curl up just a bit in amusement.

Everyone in the facility was afraid of him, which was good. Things like what were being done in this place needed someone people feared just to keep things in line.

He walked towards the beat up looking SUV that was his ride, and again lost himself in thought.

He'd felt odd ever since that white skinned freak the boffins had created, or awakened as they liked to say, had come into being. His already sharp senses had gotten even more acute. He slept less than he ever had, and was always restless.

And he could smell the familiar scent of blood even if none was spilled.

That filled him with a yearning that he didn't understand, but quelled as harshly as he was able. Besides the scent of freshly spilled blood was nothing strange to him. Not at all. But he had a mission to take care of before he could logically sit down and deal with the odd feelings he'd been having.

He had a freak to find, and kill.

And another 'accident' to arrange.

Willaim Stewart thought about his wife, Rebecca, and his children, six year old Aaron and three year old Olivia with a pang of worry. So far Zephyr had exibited no real agressive tendencies or had actively hunted anyone. She had simply defended herself and secured her freedom even if that had been a literal bloody mess. But he knew without a shred of doubt that when she did start hunting, her target would never be safe. But...

No, she wouldn't go after his family. The people he worked for? Or with? Taggert wouldn't even blink an eye while doing such a thing. That thought caused him to shudder in mixed revulsion and fear.

“We're all set, Dr. Stewart.” The Seargeant assigned to shepard — watch — him, interrupted those worries and Stewart nodded.

“All right, Hodges.” He answered with a calm that surprised him. “Go ahead, I'll be along in a minute, just have a few things to grab and I'm afraid some of them are way above your clearance. Sorry, but it's safer for you not to see them right now.”

“Understood, sir.” The man nodded and turned to exit the room. “I'll be waiting right outside.”

“Who watches the watchers?” Stewart whispered to himself while gathering his things. Hodges was pleasant enough, and a good bodyguard if it came to that. The man had saved his ass that nightmare of a night when Zephyr had escaped and stood ready to be between him and the then ravening monster that had broken her leash and was running loose in the facility. Stewart reminded himself that hadn't been necessary and also that the vampire, or whatever she was hadn't actively gone after anyone not trying to hold her in the facility or tried balking her efforts to get out.

He knew Hodges was as much a keeper as a protector, though. Stewart was uneasy with that and checked one last time to make sure he had the cash, twenty-thousand in uncomfortably large bills, but space was a problem since smaller bills would have added way too much bulk to his things, and the ATM card to an account in Bermuda that was under a name he hoped his employers didn't know about. He was relatively sure that once in the cess pit of 'The Dregs, or whatever the inhabitants called that area of Denver that even the army hesitated to enter, he would be able to disappear quite completely.

Once things settled down, he could get in touch with his family and get them to wherever he decided to relocate. Preferably somewhere far, far away from Project Awake or anyone who knew anything at all about it.

Surviving long enough to make that escape was kind of problematic.

With a sigh, he shook his head and muttered. “Either I will or I'll die.”

Picking up the pack and briefcase he had prepared, he opened the door, gave Hodges a nervous grin and said. “Okay, Seargeant. Let's get this show on the road and see what the audience thinks of it.”

“Sounds good to me, sir.” Hodges grinned back. “Let's go find us a freak and kill it.”

“Yeah.” Stewart grinned back while thinking that it was very possibly going to be just the opposite of that sentiment.

For the first time since he had been exposed to them, Stewart actually felt a little grief for Taggert and his people. If they won, they still lost by ignoring just that much more of their own humanity by killing something — someone — who was only trying to be left alone. If they lost, he thought they might be lucky if simple death was all they had to face.

All at once, because of that thought, his own situation became less dire in the whole scheme. Live or die, he would still be his own man in most respects. Thoughtfully, he decided he could live, or die with that.

For a while, Stewart was actually at peace with himself.

For awhile.

---

 

I had to really work at keeping the 'predator' part of me from showing too much though I knew I couldn't hide all of it or all the time. So the people in that shelter, or whatever it was knew I was dangerous and potentially deadly.

But they took me in. Even knowing that they took me in.

I was told more than once that the person talking with me had seen real monsters, and that I wasn't one of those, though I couldn't understand that. I was a purely white skinned thing who lived on blood, and had the fangs to get it. I didn't look close to human other than my shape and still these people took me in, tried to help me even when they had to know I was potentially their death.

Simple acceptance can often be harder to take than anything else. I didn't know how to deal with it. These people knew what I was and they just decided to do all they could to help me. A lot of them had seen me draining the blood from meat they had around, but they simply shrugged it off and kept trying to help me.

What could I do? I accepted their offered help. The alternatives would have been more than I could bear.

“There you go.” Teresa, who had deided to help me with makeup grinned. As if I really cared about all that 'looking good' stuff girls got from guys. But looking in the mirror my complexion was more human, at least from the neck up. I was still pale, but with the foundation and blushes (I had no real idea of what those were at the time) I looked like a human who hadn't been out in the sun much. Except for my eyes. Those white orbs would never be taken for human.

“Here.” Teresa handed me a pair of sunglasses. “Put these on.”

With those, I looked pretty human.

“Contacts could fix the thing with your eyes.” Teresa told me. “But we don't have that kind of thing here.”

What I saw in the mirror was a pretty, no beatiful, woman wearing sunglasses. I took off the glasses and turned away from that vision. I was female, obviously, but why did using makeup and looking attractive send that sense of absolute wrongness to me?

“Honey.” Tersa told me softly. “We all know something was done to you, and you don't look like you used to. But try and work with what you've got instead of trying to fight it. You may have been plain, or ugly, or just not a girly kind of gal before, but now you're fucking gorgeous. Learn to work with that. Learn to deal with it. You are what you are, and we can't change that now. Neither can you.”

“I'm what?”

“Gorgeous.” She ran yet another nail to hammer down what I might have been before all this. “You would make most women jealous, and Hell, I'm jealous. You. Are. Fucking. Beautiful. You'll attract attention wherever you go, so get used to the idea now.”

“But.”

“No buts dear.” She flatly told me. “You are what you are, even if you weren't that way to start with, and even all white like you usually are, you are simply, beautiful. Kind of weird, but beautiful.”

“But.”

“No buts here.” She told me flatly. “You are one Babe, as the guys say. So get used to it.

“Learn how to use that to your advantage.” She went on.

“Beauty is power, dear.” She went on. “Looking like you do, you could get any man to do whatever you want them to if you know how. And you very certainly have that. In abundance. Face, form, you have a really great body, and attitude. All you need now is the attitude. And the moves, you walk like a truck driver.”

The obvious question there led to lessons on how to not only walk, but sit. Sheesh.

“I was a guy, Teresa!” I shot back, then had to sit back and work that one out. I was obviously female, and with a figure that men would really enjoy just looking at. So how could I have been a guy?

“All the more reason for you to learn these things.” She grinned. “I've known more than a few transsexuals and every one of them needed to be shown a few things to look real. I don't mind doing it for you.”

So, I spent the next few days learning how to walk, gesture, and even sit. Crap. But I did seem to be stuck as I was now, so learning that would help me blend in. Especially with the makeup, which I practiced several times a day. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to take a completly white canvas and make it look alive? Everything had to be very even, without a spot of white showing through. Putting that stuff on my hands was interesting.

But with the right clothes and that, I could pass for human. If I wore sunglasses. Which is kind of weird if you do it at night.
Can't win 'em all, I guess.

My hair refused to take dye at all, and also grew back any time it was cut. Now that was annoying.

We figured out I could pile that mass of hair up, put it in a bun and wear a wig if the wig was 'big' enough hair-wise, though.

Ah well, small victories are still victories, right?

At least I keep telling myself that.

In time, I might even believe it.

“Hey Zeph.” He called to her and as she turned to look at him, he smiled. “Looking good there.”

“So I've been told, repeatedly.” The odd woman let out a sigh, shrugged and nodded, then surprisingly grinned. “Well you did tell me it would be best to blend in, right?”

“Yeah, I did do that, didn't I?” He shook his head and grinned back before pointing out. “But your hair is still kind of strange.”

“Won't take dye,” She shrugged, “and grows right back if I cut it. Just another weird thing about me I guess.”

“True.” He noted while thinking that she was moving with more grace and confidence than she had a few days ago. “Your gestures, walk, mannerisms are all getting better, too. You used to look a bull dyke with a Lot of problems but now you actually appear feminine.”

“I know.” That idea seemed to bother her for a while, but she shrugged it off, tilting her head and giving him a half smile that was almost Mona Lisa-like. “Teresa told me I moved like a big male truckdriver, and she's been coaching me over the past few days.”

Zack refrained from telling her that her body, her form, and her presence seemed designed for sensual feminine gestures, walk, and other things he didn't even want to think about just then. “It's working. You look pretty much normal now.”

“That's the idea, isn't it?” She asked with an air of innocence that was disarming even though he had heard her story, all of it, that she remembered.

“Yup.” He nodded and gave her a smile. “You could go out in broad daylight now and no one would give you a second look, well amend that you'd get second looks, and probably more because you are one beautiful woman. But I hope you get what I mean there...”

“It's okay, Zack.” She laughed, actually laughed just to do it and that was another milestone that neither of them really paid that much attention to at that moment. “Teresa and her cronies are constantly telling me that I'm 'Fricking gorgeous'. Just something I'll have to learn to deal with along with everything else.”

“Yeah.” He nodded and forced himself to breathe evenly before going on. “You are, and you will.

“Any more flashes of memory lately?” He changed the subject to avoid uncomfortable ideas.

“No.” She shook her head in frustration. “All I get is that place and some faces I can't put names to right now. The nightmares bring some of those back, but I really wonder if regaining them is worth the mess.”

“They're in there.” He shook his head. She had been sleeping in a place far away from others because of those nightmares. She was fast, and strong enough to be dangerous when she first woke from one. She had quite literally torn one the dorm rooms to pieces the first night and nearly killed the people who rushed in to see what was wrong. That saddened and angered him. Not for the first time he wondered what kind of monsters could do things like that to another living creature. “Maybe the nightmares are how they're trying to get out?”

“Maybe.” She softly admitted then shook herself. “I just wish they'd do it and be done with it. I don't want people being afraid of me, Zack. I don't want to hurt anybody.”

“We know that.” He soothed while moving up close enough to take her hand and repressing a shudder at just how cold that hand was against his own warmth. “You're doing good here. The memories will come or they won't, but you're starting to fit in around here and not as many people as you think are afraid of you anymore. A little cautious, probably, but definitely not afraid.”

“Progress.” She almost spat out.

“Yes it is.” He countered and pulled her into a hug that she first stiffened at then just kind of flowed into much to his surprise. “It really is. Give yourself time, you only remember being as you are for several weeks. You'll learn, and more importantly, when you're ready, I think you'll remember.”

“Oh, I hope so.” She whispered. “I do hope so.”

He let out a sigh of relief when the locker at the downtown bus station he had set up much earlier was undisturbed. Removing the beat up suitcase it contained, he appeared as casual as possible while heading for the restrooms.

One inside, he entered one of the stalls and winced at the smell and general nastiness but made himself ignore that. Changing out of the nondescript clothing he'd been wearing he put on the even more ragged and dirty looking things in the suitcase, then checked that the emergency funds were all there. They were, and he took out a small bundle of bills, removing a few and putting the rest back in the suitcase. He knew that it wouldn't do at all to have more than forty or fifty dollars on him where he was going and even that could be dangerous if someone found out but this time needed a bit more than that. He put a twenty in the beat up running shoe on his right foot and the other hundred and fifty was stuffed into his underwear, uncomfortable as that was. The twenty was for the shakedown artists and muggers. That would hopefully keep the rest intact if they went past finding the five in his pants pocket.

A bit of grime artfully applied to his face gave the appearance of a beard shadow, if someone didn't look too closely, and the same greasy, nasty stuff rubbed in his hair darkened that and gave it the unkempt look that most of the denizens in this slum had.

The smell of sweat didn't have to be faked. He'd been sweating in fear for the past two days and hadn't showered so it would build up and linger. On his way out, he'd buy a cheap bottle of something alcoholic and douse himself with it just to add to the disguise.

Satisfied that he was as scruffy looking as he could be without more time and real dirt, booze, and sweat, he emerged from the restroom, made sure no one was paying attention to the apparent transient bum he was trying to look like, and put the suitcase back in the locker.

He made himself remember to abandon the confident stride he was used to using, stooping his shoulders and shuffling like any other beaten down inhabitant of these slums. Getting that perfected had taken time, and some nearly dangerous near encounters while he was watching his models, but now it wasn't simply out of interest or future planning. Now it was real, very real. So the defeated slump, the uncertain gait, the lowered eyes nearly came naturally. If they didn't, Taggert would find and kill him.

“What do you mean you've lost him?” Hines almost shouted into the phone.

“Sir.” Taggert calmly responded. “Stewart took one of the vehicles and told us he was headed back to the Zoo to retrieve some information we needed. And no he didn't go alone. Hodges was with him. We haven't found him either.”

“Car jacking?” Hines wondered aloud thinking that would solve the problem just as well.

“Maybe.” Taggert answered doubtfully. “Stewart hadn't showered in a couple of days, like the rest of us to fit in, and was more nervous than he should have been, while seeming too familiar with the area at times.”

“Why didn't you just get it done and blame it on a mugger before now?”

“Our priorty is Zephyr, sir.” Taggert calmly responded. “Stewart was a secondary concern. I think he got rid of Hodges some way and sold the vehicle to some chop shop.”

“Then find it, and where he went after that.” Hines ordered.

“Easier said than done, sir.” The unperturbed answer came back. “Don't worry we'll find him but there is mission priority to consider here.”

“Any sign of her?”

“Not yet, and that's a little troubling.” Taggert answered. “It tells me she's found help of some kind or is a lot smarter than we thought.”

“She has to have left some traces.” Hines answered in frustration. “A creature who needs blood to survive wouldn't go that unnoticed, even in that hell hole.”

“So far she has.”

“She'd stand out in any crowd.” Hines answered.

“Not if she figured out to use makeup, and only go places at night.” Taggert snorted. “We've had six false alarms on sightings since we've been here.”

“What did you to with those once you questioned them?”

“Don't worry about it, Hines.” Taggert answered without a trace of emotion. “It's taken care of.”

“Just find her.” Hines answered without saying the rest of the order, which Taggert was already well aware of.

“We will.” The black ops veteran assured him.

“Then get rid of Stewart, wherever he's gotten to.”

“All part of the deal, boss.”

Hines did not miss the almost contemptuous emphasis on that last word.

“Just get it done, Taggert.” Hines felt a chill along his back as he went on. “You have no idea of just how dangerous her being on the loose is.”

“For the world or for you?” Taggert asked then laughed. “We'll find her.”

“You keep saying that, but where are the results?”

“Patience, sir. She's gone to ground and is hiding a lot better than anticipated. We're checking the old haunts of the person she was before, and those are the most likely to be where we'll find her. These things take time.”

Hanging up the phone, Hines wiped the sweat off his forehead and cursed the arrogant bastard who had been selected as head of the project's security.

“This is turning into one huge cluster fuck.” He said into the empty office.

Stewart getting away like that was bothersome. If Hodges ever turned up it wouldn't go well for him.

That sanctimonious prick Hines almost enraged him, and Taggert had visions of ripping the man's throat out. With his teeth. That idea kind of shook him but also excited him.

Not the death thing, it was the lack of control on his part that was bothersome.

Stewart was an annoyance, and Taggert remembered how the man had smelled. Somehow he knew that underlying scent couldn't change, so finding and eliminating that would would only be a matter of time, too.

But that white eyed bitch was a problem. He felt her presence, somewhere nearby, but was unable to pinpoint it.

And she had left not the slightest trace behind. Not even some derelict found emptied of blood in some dark, noisome alley.

She was getting help.

When he found her, the ones helping her would die, too.

Running his tongue over his longer, and sharper canines, Taggert knew that killing that freak was very important to the rest of his life.

And he would need to do something about the urges to rip someone's throat out and drink the blood that would result from that.

It was a different feeling, urge, need, but not so different that he didn't understand it. Taggert was and had been a predator since he was a child.

Besides, anything he did, could be blamed on the white bitch.

The Hunger was rising, the need, and he saw no reason to deny it.

After a few minutes thought, and some small resistance because doing so could endanger him, Taggert went hunting for the first time.

 

---

 

The nightmares had been horrendous. I was really glad I'd isolated the place I sleep from everyone else here.

But I remembered. At least part of it. Who and what I had been before at least, even if that was more than a little uncomfortable given what I was now, and that doesn't mean the vampire thing.

I had been a man. Male. With all the drives and urges.

And I'd known most of the people who were helping me now.

Dammit! How, just how, was I going to handle that?

Epecially telling Zack who I'd been?

Life ain't easy, I know that. But dammit. Just dammit!”

Well, it wasn't like I was dealing with anything easy at the moment. Why should that be any different?

But now. Now. I was female. And in spite of the really outre look I had without the makeup and sunglasses, I was a female guaranteed to attract male attention.

Crap.

How to deal with that?

Answer?

I didn't know and would just have to roll with it and make things up as I go along.

Crap again.

I had no real clue about how to be a woman. Though I had been doing pretty well since I got here, I thought.

But then again, being female is a physical and mental thing. The physical I had even if I tried to deny it, had the look, the walk, the... Whatever.

I couldn't even remember how to walk like a male and something told me that if I tried, it would hurt.
And just be... Wrong.

Crap, Teresa and her cronies had shown me how to move, but now I couldn't conceive of any other way to do that now.

I tried to walk the way I remembered doing before I changed. I couldn't, and trying looked ludicrous. My hips were wider, my legs farther apart, my back was different. Walking like a male just wasn't going to happen now.

Worse? Watching msyself in a mirror, the walk and stances I took were just... Sexy.

Oh, gods. Kill me now. Please.

If you hadn't noticed, the mental changes were a bit slow on the uptake there.

This was going to take some work.

Okay, a lot of work.

Damn.

But I was what I was and somehow knew there was no going back to what was.

And I was damned if if I'd let anything, mental, physical, or from the outside, kill me.

I was going to live.

Other things? I'd work out later.

Like I had a choice.

On top of everything else I has this niggling sense that there was another one like me out there, and close. Plus the certainty of that one was not one I really wanted to meet. I'd felt his feedings last night. He was out there, feeding, cruel, and I knew I didn't want to run into him.

But I knew I would. No matter how much I avoided it, he was hunting me. He was out there, killing, not caring about that, and feeding. I wouldn't be able to avoid him.

So I had to prepare to confront him.

On top of everything else.

I also knew, how I don't know, that he meant to kill me.

That I would not allow if I had anything to say or do about it.

So while he hunted me, I decided to start hunting him.

Predators do not usually get along all that well when their territories are invaded. And mine had been invaded.

Oh, all right, it isn't nice at all, and I wasn't hunting in the area, but this one was intruding on my territory.

And I knew, instinctively, that without my permission for him to do that, I would find him, he would find me, and one of us was going to die.

What? What had I become?

That idea, and the things it showed me, were absolutely terrifying.

Especially with the anger, no make that real rage I was feeling just then over what had been done to me, and to others though I didn't recall any of that other than who and what I had been before. I was being hunted by a person or most probably persons unknown. Worse was what angered me the most.

Someone was hunting in my teritory without my permission.

I stayed in my room for over an hour getting that rage under control. What I saw in the mirror during that time was truly terrifying.
Once it had faded, I sat on the floor with my arms around my knees, rocking back and forth.

My room was a shambles again. Things broken, the matress on the narrow bed shredded, bits of foam rubber from the pillows scattered everywhere. Picking bits of that last from under my nails, and out of my teeth, I shuddered then let out a little sob.

Obviously, I wasn't safe for anyone to be around. At least not untill I was able to contol myself better.

A sense of lonliness I'd never experienced in my life rose up and I sobbed again.

A knock on the door pulled me out of that, but I wasn't in the mood for company just then.

“Go away, puh — please go away. I'm not safe to be around just now.”

Hearing that, and the sobs from inside the room, Zack answered. “You always say that. Have a bad one this time?”

“Yeah.” The answer faintly came back. “Really bad.”

“You going to hurt me if I come in?” He asked.

“Nuh, no.” The answer was hesitant. “I don't think so.”

“Well, that beats 'Go the Hell away or I'll rip your throat out.' Mind if I come in?”

“Why not?” She answered tiredly.

He entered, looked at the general destruction and moved to give her a hug. “Really bad one, huh?”

“Yeah.” She didn't move away from his hug, but stiffened a little. “Zack, I remember who I was — before this happened to me.”

“That's a good thing.”

“I don't know if it is or not, Zack.” She answered quietly while getting out of his hug to give him a forlorn, alsmost lost look. “It might have been better if I hadn't remembered.”

“Is it that bad?” He asked. “Were you some kind of serial killer or something?”

“No.” She drew in a breath, visibly gathered herself, and went on. “I was Shane.”

“What?”

“I was Shane Duncan, Zack.”

“No...”

“I was.” She insisted. “I remeber pulling you out of the gutter and giving you an address to the rehab and employment center.
“I told you, urged you, to take the chance, and that if it didn't work out there was always the bottle to go back to.”

“What happened to you, then?” Zack questioned, still not completely believing what she'd told him.

“I still don't remember.” She hugged herself and shook her head. “I got who I had been, or some implanted memories, but I don't remember how that happened yet.

“But there are people hunting me, and another one like me who doesn't restrain himself.”

“Are you saying there is another Vampire loose around here?”

“Yes.” She almost chewed the answer she was so clearly angry. “And he's hunting in my territory. WITHOUT my permission!”

“Back off, girl.” Zack held out his hands. “Or whatever you are. No one here is doing something like that.”

She hissed, and nodded. “I know. But he's out there, and working to draw me out by killing and leaving the bodies where they can be found.”

“How do you know that?”

“I don't know how I know.” She shook her head. “I feel him, and what he does, that's all I can tell you right now.”

“You were Shane?” He ignored that and looked her in the eye, which was disconcerting because she had no visible pupil, only pure white orbs to look back with.

“Yes.” She answered without saying more.

“Damn.” He shook his head and simply sat there for a bit. “That's a lot to get my head around, Zeph.”

“Try it from in here.” She answered while tapping her head with a long, slim finger.

“Point taken.” He nodded then shook his head. “Now what?”

“Same as usual, I guess.” She shrugged, then hugged herself tightly. “I don't know of any other way to do this right now. I still have to learn how to blend in, and at least look like a regular person. Other than that, I don't know just now.”

“Yeah.” He agreed, then looked up at her with alarm. “You said there is another one like you on the loose and killing people? How do you know that?”

“I don't know how!” She said with a force that showed it was the truth. “All I know is that I feel him out there, and at times see what he does. I can't explain it, it just happens.”

“Does this one feel your connection?” He asked in alarm. “Would he be able to find you through that? And how do you know it's a he?”

“I just know, Zack.” She answered tiredly. “I can't explain how, but I know. And I don't think the connection goes both ways since he's obviously trying to draw me out right now. But again, I don't know.

“I need to leave.” She decided. “My being here is more of a danger than I'd thought it was for everyone around me . I wouldn't, couldn't forgive myself if that one got loose in here.”

“You got anywhere else to go?” He asked bluntly.

“You know the answer to that one.” She miserably answered.

“So just what the Hell would you do out there, on your own?”

“I don't KNOW!” She shouted the last word then visibly calmed herself. “Would I survive? Yes. Would I like what I had to become to do it? Probably not. But Everyone here, everyone is in danger if I stay.”

“Okay, now I know you used to be Shane.” Zack sighed. “Always worrying about everyone else and not wanting to take help when someone offered it to you. You need friends now, you need to know that you aren't cut off from the world. Let us help.”

Against this what can any of you do to help?”

“Be your friends.” He simply answered then shrugged. “As for the rest? We'll make it up as we go along. Life is like that, especially around here. You don't turn away offers of friendship because sometime, somewhere, friends are liable to be the only thing that saves your ass. All of us here live every day knowing it could be our last one and there are people — now things — out there that could make that so.
“So you take the friendships offered, work to protect your friends as much as you can like they do for you, and get on with life as best you can.

“And don't even think about giving me that crap about you being a danger to us here. Hell there are people here being hunted by bad people for one reason or another and I can't even start counting them. That's why at least half of them are in this cesspool to begin with.

“We work together, Zephyr, or Shane, or whatever other name you decide to go by. We survive. We actually manage to thrive. You knew how to do that once. You need to relearn it here.”

“But...”

“No buts about it, hon.” He stopped that protest with a wave and the interruption. “We're all family in this place, we help each other, we listen to each other, we fight for each other. Simple as that.”

“You don't know what's coming.” She countered.

“We, all of us, know what we have here right now.” He said. “And have faith that you can handle whatever it is that is coming. We all know what you are, we all appreciate how you've worked to protect us from that even if we don't really understand what happened to you. But dont leave your family because you're worried about us getting hurt. We're a tough bunch, as you should know, and no matter how nasty someone is, they are always vulnerable in some way. Hell, people have already figured out ways that would hopefully kill you if you get out of hand with us, and I'm not talking idiot stuff like garlic or exposing you to sunlight.

“We're tough by necessity, the ones who aren't don't last long around here, you know that.” He grinned at her. “So don't run away from us because you're afaid we'll get hurt. We deal with crap like that every day and a bit more isn't a big deal.

“You got that?”
“But...” She was beginning to think that was the only word she knew.

“Just let us help.” He told her. “We have eyes, and ears everywhere in this part of town, and we want to help. If you'll let us do it.”

“You could all die.” She protested.

“Like that's something any of us don't look at almost every day.” He snorted. “The question here is will you let us help you, or go off on your own and probably get killed trying to take this other one you talked about down? And leave the rest of us to Him?

“Good intelligence is what wins most battles, you know.” He finished with a shrug. “And if you take it, the help, you have an intelligence network that covers half the city.”

“I don't want to make things worse.”

“Dammit, listen to me here!” He took her shoulders and gave her a little shake. “How the Hell could things get worse for most of the people around here? How?”

“They could die.”

“Been through that already.” He said with a little grin.

“That could happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Why is here that different?”

“Because, you're all, you're all, my friends.” She told him with a shudder.

“So take our help and try to keep us from dying, at least any more than usually happens around here.”

“Okay,” She let out a sigh and nodded before looking back up with a determined expression. “But I will NOT move back into the general housing.”

“Given your nightmares, and reactions to them,” Zack waved around the room and chuckled, “that's probably a pretty good idea right now.”

Zephyr laughed in response and felt a huge weight lifting from her when she did. “True.”

“So now what?” He asked.

“We find this 'other one' for starters.”

“Then?”

“I'm going to kill him.” Was her simple, chilling answer.

“Okay.” He spread his hands in a 'what can I do' gesture and nodded. “I can live with that.”

That time, she hugged him.

The room was almost nasty, but it was private, and actually had it's own bathroom so he wouldn't have to share that. His sensibilities screamed to douse the whole thing in bleach and not come back for a week, but it was private and even had a shower, though the water never went from anything but cold to really cold.

He had a bed that didn't collapse when he sat on it, even if the springs tended to poke at body parts if you laid on the wrong part. And a hot plate. All of which was luxury in this god forsaken slum.

It had cost him a hundred and fifty dollars, a small fortune in this area to get it, then the bribe to keep the manager from telling anyone about the guy who had enough to pay for all that and not flinch was another hundred. That would drop to probably twenty a month, but still...
Even in this hell hole, maybe especialy in this hell hole, money made the world go round and work.

But he was away from that damned Zoo and the things they routinely did to things that had once been human. And he was, hopefully, under Taggert's radar now.

Time would tell on that one, but as with any other living creature, the survival imperitive was strong.

He cringed at the idea of staying dirty, unsahven, and wearing the rags he'd found in some refuse bin earlier.

But, like all living things, William Stewart wanted to keep on living.

At least things hadn't reached the point where people would go after his family, though Taggert worried him about that. The best course of action was to hide, say nothing, and hope.

He was raging, inside. ut showed none of that to his subordinates.

The bitch KNEW he was out here, and killing. Drinking and leaving the bodies so they could be found. But she refused to show herself at all.

“Coward.” He breathed as he though of that. “I know I'm hunting in territory that should be yours. You should react to that.

“Come out, come out, you white eyed bitch.” He murmurred. “You won't hide forever, I know that. I share the same instincts you do. I'm hunting in your territory and if you don't stop me, I'll make it MY territory.

“So make it easy for both of us and come out to play.”

 

---

 

Hines was watching the security vids of Zephyr's escape. Again. What he saw still caused a chill to run up and down his spine and made the hair on the back of his neck stir.

She was so fast the vids had to be slowed down considerably just for the observer to see what she had done. Oh, it had been obvious that she was deadly. She had, after all, killed four very well trained, military black ops security people in less time than it took to say that. Her grace, and the accuracy of her attacks in the slow motion vids was akin to a hunting cat striking, but Hines seriously doubted that any cat, wild or domesticated, would be able to keep up with her. The spectacle held it's own beauty with the precision and speed of her killing blows, which made it even more frightening.

“Something like that on the loose in the general population would be more than disastrous.” He breathed while watching the footage again and shuddering. “Regular law enforcement or even military would have very little chance of stopping her.”

Even more frightening, the vids showed clearly that she had taken shots from the security team's weapons. And hadn't even slowed down when that happened.

“Taggert,” Hines whispered. “you'd better find her soon. Something like that running around loose is more than bears thinking about.”

He grinned at the last message he'd received from that pompous idiot, Hines.

Zephyr hadn't shown herself, or even killed that anyone knew of after the disaster at the facility. She was being very careful if she was feeding, and if she wasn't she would be drastically weakened. Which was fine with him.

“You have no idea, you damn fool.” Taggert thought while he smirked. “But I'll be sure to show you once I finish this and get back there.” He thought of how much fun it would be to show the pompous ass a real monster, just before he killed the man. Anticipation sent a thrill all the way through him as he imagined the scene.

He scanned the people around him and let out a sigh. Still no sign of the bitch. Or of that turncoat, Stewart. But he'd find them.

The thing was, that every human he saw looked like food, and he had to consciously stop himself from salivating when he watched them. It was daylight and there were a lot of people around, so he quelled the impulse to take a few of them and feed. That impulse would have truly worried the man that he had been, even as ruthless and cruel as that one was. Taking prey in broad daylight was something he knew would lead to trouble. He soothed himself with another thought. Stewart would make a fine meal once his team found him.

The people he saw were almost pathetic. The lost, the hopeless, the unwanted, all milling about in one part of town. Something odd he noticed though, was that the people he was watching and at times interacting with, didn't strike him as hopeless discards of society. Oh, sure, there were some of those, but as he honestly thought about it, someone could see much the same thing in places that were a lot better off.

But the unity he was seeing was almost humbling. Family groups, friends, acquaintances, all worked together in one way or another, watching out for each other, comforting the ones who needed it, closing ranks to help those who needed the help. It was something he hadn't seen since he'd left home and went to college.

Oh, there were some bad ones there. But the majority, the ones willing to help others survive outnumbered and usually did their best to ignore those who tried preying on the others, or joined ranks and ran them off.

A person he didn't know warned him about one of those. “Hey, that guy you were just talking to?”

“Yeah? What about him?” Stewart questioned.

“Not telling you how to live your life, dude.” The woman, in clothing that was nearly a bunch of rags that had been knotted together to just cover her shrugged. “But he's bad news. Listen to him and invite him in, he'll take everything you got and if you protest he'll just kill you. The bastard would kill someone for a few quarters. Just wanted you to know.”

“Why?”

“Newbies don't tend to last long around here unless they make the right kind of friends.” She answered then grimaced. “And I don't mean the takers like that one. Whatever he offered you, it was a lie. Just trying to help.”

“Why?” Stewart felt like some skipping CD or a tape with one word on it.

“Cause we help each other 'round here.” She answered simply. “Bad enough we got to deal with the other shit all the time. Just walkin' inta it is more than anyone deserves.”

“Thanks.” Stewart was genuinely thankful, and touched by her concern.

“Life can be shitty enough 'round here.” She responded with a little smile. “Get to know some people and they can help. Lots of good 'uns here if you just look 'round.”

“I will.” He nodded.

“Name's Meg.” She answered with a hint of a smile. “Live in an old wharehouse down the street. “Bout six blocks. Come say hi and introduce yerself, get ta know some people.

“I will, thanks.” He answered, then added. “I'm Stewart.”

“Good ta meet ya, Stew.” She used a version of his name that he had always disliked, but coming from her it wasn't so bad. “Come on over some time, meet some folks, be safer fer ya in the long run.”

“I will, thanks.” He nodded then looked up. “But how will I know which place is right?”

“Hard ta miss, man.” She laughed. “Jest watch fer the place with folk goin in an out.”

“Okay.” He laughed, probably the first time he had in what felt like ages. “I will. Thanks again.”

“No problem, dude.” She shrugged. “We spot a newbie, we try an help is all. Place is bad enough with friends, it's deadly when ya are alone.”

“I'll look you up tomorrow.” He promised.

“I'll tell tha watchers ta expect ya.” She nodded. “Bye.”

And she was gone as quickly as she'd appeared.

“How did she do that?” He wondered aloud to himself.

But what she'd told him made sense.

I was just walking around, watching people, letting myself feel like I was at least half human.

I was wearing sweats, ragged like everything else around here, a hoodie to hide my hair, gloves, and the heavy makeup and sunglasses that hopefully allowed me to look like just another person in this place.

I was hunting, and I didn't want the people I was hunting to know that.

This bastard, whoever he was, violated my territory as if it meant nothing.

He was going to die for that effrontery.

I just had to find him, then figure out how to do that. But I would.

Predators do NOT like competition.

And as much as I was trying to hold on to my humanity, I was a predator.

And some asshole was killing in places that are MINE.

That would NOT pass.

I was going to kill him or die trying.

Doing that might get me some answers I really needed to have, too. Or I would get to stop worrying about all of this.

But a confrontation was near.

Truthfully, at the time, I didn't really care which outcome came to pass. Except for my friends. Yeah, I needed to win in this upcoming confrontation because of them.

But I really needed to know my adversary, my enemy, before I could even start to plan for that. Going into a fight blind was just asking to get your ass kicked. Angry as I was about the intrusion, and somehow knowing that he was one of the people hunting me from that place, I held it all in, pushed it aside, and concentrated on finding the information I needed.

I might have to lose a fight with, him, without dying, to learn what I wanted. That wasn't a pleasant prospect. On the other hand he'd shown nothing that indicated stealth, which I had found I was good at. Maybe I could survive a first encounter with him.

But I knew it was going to hurt. I'd do it, though. The bastard was hunting in my territory.

I'd find him.

What would happen after that? Who knew?

But he was the invader and I had to, just had to, defend my territory.

After a night of agonizing, and reaching the conclusion that remaining alone would not be good for either his physical or mental health, he was back on the streets and walking in the direction Meg had shown him the day before.

Meg had been right about finding the place. From the outside it looked just like all the other run down, falling apart warehouses in this part of the district. But there was a nearly constant trickle of people going in and out of the place.

He walked to the entrance and was stopped by two very large, and surprisingly fit men. One of them looked him over as if searching for weapons and asked. “What do you want?”

“My name is Stewart.” He answered with as much calm as he could manage. “I met Meg yesterday and she invited me, said she'd tell you guys, if you're the watchers.”

“We are.” The second one answered while still looking him over. “Meg described you and told us to watch for ya. Go on in, you'll probably find her in the kitchens right now.”

“One thing.” The first one put a large hand on his shoulder. “Cause trouble and getting thrown out would be the best option you'd get. Got me?”

“No intention of causing trouble here.” Stewart said as he was allowed to enter.

Inside, the warehouse had a warmer feel than out on the street just outside the door. Not just physically from the numerous fires burning in fifty gallon drums, but the atmosphere. He understood almost immediately that this was a community who worked together and protected themselves well enough to be secure.

These people didn't have the furtive look that a lot of the street people he'd seen had. They walked with straight backs, or as straight as they could get and weren't constantly scanning the area for either threats or opportunity. He noted that some of them, men and women, were watching things very alertly and appeared more than ready to defend the others and what they considered their home. He didn't see any easily apparent weapons but was familiar enough with security details to know those people had them and were willing to use them.

Finding the area that had some crude grills and improvised fire pits with pots, skillets, and kettles over them, he rightly decided that was the kitchen area and moved in that direction to find Meg. While thinking that this place would be a lot more secure than his run down apartment.

I had taken on the responsibility of protecting the people in this enclave once I'd realized they just accepted me and to my shock, trusted me. Given what I was now, that trust meant a lot to me and I had promised myself I would never violate it no matter how hungry I got. There were plenty of low lifes out there that worked as an adequate menu when the beef and pork blood wasn't enough. And I was careful when I fed on the street, making sure there were no bodies to raise questions. The rats around here were as hungry as everyone else.

Someone new caught my eye as I watched things from the seclusion of a small cubbyhole that still allowed me to see most of the warehouse. I got out of my comfortable seated position and walked out into the enclave proper to get a better look. Something about this newcomer roused feelings and memories I had thought were forever lost to me.

“Zeph?” One of the other watchers asked as I froze. “You okay? Is there trouble here?”

The guy was shabby as everyone else, looking worn and frightened. But I remembered a much better dressed person in a white lab coat watching me endure more tortures than I really care to think about. I didn't know his name but I remembered his face even with the beard, unkempt hair and ragged, dirty clothing.

Pristine white rooms. Chains. Restraining chairs. More pain than anything, anyone should be expected to go through. More memories flooded my befuddled mind and more pieces of my past fell into place. Experiments, they called them. I called them pure torture meant to find just how much punishment I could take and for how long. Along with the time it took me to heal from their damned 'experiments'.

Worse, I knew there were others going through what I had who hadn't escaped the hell hole I'd been a prisoner in. The flood of memories came close to overwhelming me. Hard learned discipline pushed that away and I only shook my head and swayed for a moment or two.

“Zeph?” Silas, another of our security people asked again. Carefully because I had been so volatile during the first month or so I'd been here.

“I'm fine, Silas.” I managed to answer while still looking at the man who had awakened all that.

“Who is he?” I had never learned the names of my tormentors and even though I really wanted to savage the man here and now, I knew doing that would do more harm than good in this safe haven.

The guy reeked of fear. But not because of me, he hadn't seen me yet and thanks to the help I'd gotten I didn't look like the unfortunate creature he had helped torture. No the fear I smelled on him was from something else and if he was hiding here I decided it had to do with his employers.

I watched him, to see if he was here as a hunter or was hunted. His responses to interaction with others here wasn't one of a spy or scout. The man was genuinely frightened of something and it wasn't me.

I had just decided to follow him when he caught sight of me. I had the hoodie on with my hair covered and the makeup and sunglasses, so he couldn't have recognized me instantly. Or so I hoped.

He didn't stay here, I knew that. So I would follow and find where he was hiding. After that? I didn't know, but killing was at the top of the list. once I'd gotten the information I wanted from him.

He was walking towards the kitchen area when someone caught his attention. She was tall, with a shape that would attract any man's attention even if it was shrouded in the ragged and often bulky clothing common to this area. But it was way she moved that really attracted attention. She was like a sated hunting cat walking through a herd of deer. The 'deer' weren't exactly afraid of her, but they did tend to move away a bit wherever she walked.

And who wore sunglasses inside when it was dim enough in the place that it was hard to see into some corners?

When she turned to look at him, a wisp of thick snow white hair escaped from her hood.

She gave no indication that she recognized him, but the chill ran from his tailbone to his neck. Even disguised he knew the person he was looking at was Zephyr.

Stewart ruthlessly pushed the terror he was feeling down. Hoping the creature hadn't recognized him, he watched the people cooking and didn't see Meg among them. That gave him the excuse to head back towards the doors to outside without seeming to run.

Once he got outside he breathed a long sigh of relief and took time to get his breathing under control. What he hadn't noticed was the lithe, pantherish graceful form that had so frightened him gliding across the warehouse floor to follow him.

I followed him carefully, never showing myself whenever he looked back or around, which told me he had become somewhat streetwise. I still followed, but at times moved ahead when it was clear he only had one direction to go. So I wasn't always behind him.

One thing that kept me from just killing him was that he had information I badly wanted. Like just who or what was killing indiscriminately in my territory and leaving the bodies to be found. Whoever it was had to come from the same place I did. The man had information I needed. And he was definitely running scared from something that wasn't me. He knew something. More than one thing that I needed to know.

As I followed I committed his scent to mind. I'd pulled the hood off and put my sunglasses in a pocket while the sun went down. Shadows were my friends and I could hide in them easily after sundown in spite of my pale skin and hair. Besides, when I did confront him, I wanted him have no doubt regarding who was standing in front of him.

He'd made it back to his own safe haven without seeing anything to indicate he had been followed. Not that the idea helped much. As he entered the run down apartment building he failed to notice the shadows in the street shift as one approached the building.

Once in his apartment, with the door triple locked and braced, he took time to breath a sigh of relief.

A sudden breeze caught his attention. He knew he'd shut and locked all the windows before he left so he turned towards the source of the breeze.

She was there. Standing in his apartment in front of an open window in all her pale, white haired glory, or terror.

“Hello.” She gave him a smile that showed far to much pointed canine teeth and looked at him as she was observing some disgusting specimen in biology class.

“You know who I am.” It was a statement, not a question. “I remember you, too.”

His bowels threatened to let loose as he stared, transfixed like a mouse being stalked by a snake. “Yes.”

“Good.” She widened that frightening, terrifying smile. “Now, give me one good reason for not killing you right now.”

 

---

 

His bowels were threatening to loosen as he frantically told himself she had not said kill him right now. Even if his hind brain was screaming in terror he managed to keep looking at her while trying to come up the reason or reasons she had wanted. “I — I can tell you things give you information you want.”

“Can you now?” Tilting her head a fraction her gaze never left his eyes. “Tell me then and we'll see if that's worth your life. First I want to know why you did this to me.”

Stewart looked at her and let out a long sigh. “We didn't. You were this way when the pickup team brought you to the facility. All of you 'subjects, patients, changed spontaneously. Nothing we did or could have done would have triggered the types of changes you and others went through. All we really intended to do was study you, learn what happened and try to find a way to keep it from happening to others.”

“So you 'studied' us with torture?” Her anger was threatening to erupt again but was quite visibly pushed away.

“I know you probably won't believe this, but originally that was never my intention, at least.” He lowered his gaze and whispered. “But much to my shame that's exactly what the research devolved to. The project head and other higher ups started to think of you and other types of the changed ones as no more than slightly dangerous lab animals.”

“If you and your fellow torturers didn't cause this, then what changed me and the others?”

“Some time ago creatures from myth and legend started appearing all over the world. What they called a Djinn in the middle east, Something called a Kami in Japan, Faeries, creatures that no one has ever seen except in fairy tales have been cropping up everywhere.

“These appearances correlate with a new form of energy that was detected some years ago though it was in very minute quantities, was difficult to detect or even measure at first. But it's increasing, getting stronger in an exponential curve. The more of the stuff we detect, the more fantastic creatures appear.” Stewart let out another long sigh. “Hell we didn't even know what to call it for quite awhile so many researchers started calling it Magic as a joke. Seems the joke was on them because I believe that's exactly what the stuff is.”

“That's pretty hard to swallow.” Zephyr stared out a window instead of glaring directly at him for a few moments.

“Any harder than what happened to you, and the others being held at the facility?” He asked simply.

“I suppose not.” That burning gaze returned to him while she regarded him thoughtfully. “You reek of fear even terror, Stewart. But I don't smell intentional lies or see them in your expression and posture. You actually believe this.”

He nodded.

“Why did you run, bolt from the fold?”

“Mainly because I think we're making enemies, deadly enemies, of beings that humans are going to have to deal with for a long time to come.”

“That's not the only reason, is it?” She probed.

“No, I made sure that you would wake up, regain consciousness before the guards had you safely restrained, and that there were no real impediments to you getting out safely. I had no idea of just how really deadly you could be, no one did up to then. That escape terrified us all, Zephyr and I believe my former bosses suspected that I was responsible, deliberately responsible for your getting out. They planned on my having an 'accident', I'm sure.”

“You've given me a lot to think about here, Stewart.” She turned back to the window. “Do you know anything about another one like me out here?”

“I have a pretty good idea about that one.” He said faintly. “Taggert. The facility's security chief. He was acting strange, even for him, just before I slipped the leash.”

“Taggert.” She mouthed the name as if tasting it and finding that taste to be extremely unpleasant. “Tell me about him.”

It didn't even occur to Stewart to wonder how she already knew Taggert was male. “A bad one even when he was still human, if he is the one. Amoral, vicious, and wouldn't have hesitated to kill anyone he was ordered to, or if he counted them as a threat at all. He started out military, the kind of ops that no one talks about, but he was too nasty for even those branches of the military to tolerate. They retired him several years ago and put him in charge of supposedly harmless lab facility in the Rockies, high up in the mountains. I imagine you can work what that lab was without my saying it.”

Her answer was a nod. “Can you get me back to that hell hole?”

“I'll give directions if you're so intent on committing suicide.” Shaking his head he finished. “But I'm not going near that place if I can help it.”

“Can you get me there?” Her voice had a force that was hard to ignore, or deny.

“Yes.” His answer was whispered. “But I'd be dead within seconds of getting inside.”

“You will be dead if you stay here, too. If not from me, then someone else, maybe this Taggert or his underlings. He is here with a team, isn't he?”

“Yes.” He softly admitted.

“In that case, Stewart,” she gave him a thoughtful look, “Lets see if we can't do something to help your survivability.”

“H...”

She was on him before he even saw her move.

He had no real time for reaction before I had hold of him by the shoulders with my fangs buried in his neck. I made small soothing noises as his blood flowed into me. Hot, rich, red human blood. The kind that whoever or whatever made me into this creature that I was meant for me to drink. Once the flow started slowing and his heart was beginning to falter, I pulled away from his throat and gently laid him on the floor.

“Now, hush for a second or two.” I told him while he fought for life. “It will be over soon.”

He was dying but I needed him just a bit further along for what I intended to try. I cut my wrist with a fingernail then set the wound to his mouth. “Drink now. You need what I'm giving you in more than one way, Stewart. That's right, drink.”

He tried pulling away at first and I held him gently but firmly without letting my wrist leave his mouth. Drink or Die, the choice is yours now.”

His eyes watched me in a mix of horror and wonder as he slowly began to lap at the blood going into his mouth then latched onto my wrist with both hands while he truly began to drink.

“Better.” I encouraged. “It will be over soon.”

He protested when I finally pulled my wrist away, and I watched in near fascination myself as the wound healed without so much as a scar. After carefully arranging him on the dilapidated couch and covering him with a threadbare blanket I found in the tiny bedroom I seated myself in an ancient easy chair to observe him. “Sleep now. I'll watch over you until you awaken.”

He slept until just before dawn.

His latest feeding was interrupted by something he couldn't really identify. With a snarl, he killed his latest victim then tried to search for the feeling, the sense of something unusual that had interrupted him. As he left the alley, he still couldn't find that white eyed bitch. Or really get a handle on what he was feeling.

“Ahh.” He finally nodded to himself. “There is another one of us here now.”

But to his frustration, he couldn't locate that one either. Someone would slip up and betray where they were, he was sure. This new one would die, just like that damed Zephyr would. And the new one would make mistakes the bitch hadn't. Maybe that one would lead him to her in time. He could vaguely feel the link between the bitch and this new one. Eventually, one would give the other away enough for him to find them. Then the other would die, too.

“Patience.” He told himself while still fruitlessly questing for that opening. “One of them will make a mistake. Then I'll find them.”

He dismissed the vague sense of foreboding he was feeling. The bitch and the newbie together would be no match for him.

He woke with a start of terror as he remembered what had happened earlier. He was on the couch, which was pretty uncomfortable and covered with a blanket. Once he got the blanket out of the way, the first thing he did was reach for his throat. It was smooth, unblemished and not the ruin his memories told him it should be.

“Welcome back.” A familiar voice greeted him with amusement clear in it.

“Did I have a dream? A nightmare?” He asked while still touching his throat where he remembered the savaging she had given him should have still been evident.

“No.” Zephyr answered with a shrug. “The things you remember happened.”

But — you killed me.”

“More or less.” She agreed then gave him a little grin. “But are you dead now?”

“How the Hell would I know?”

“This is real, quite real, Stewart.” She answered. “I need you alive, and just don't have the luxury of time to watch over you all the time.”

“What did you do?” He questioned with fear evident in his voice and from the way he huddled back ito the couch and pulled the blanket around him.

“I turned you.” She shrugged.

“What?”

“I made you like me.”

“Nooo!” he shouted, trying to deny that possibility with every fiber of his being.

“Yes.” She told him in a curiously gentle way given what he already knew about her. “I need you alive, Stewart. I can't be with you, or watching you all the time.”

“I look nothing like you!” He shouted back. “I'm not white, my hair isn't white... Are my eyes?”

“No.” She answered seeming amused and perplexed at the same time. “You're pale, but still look human.”

“Why?” He asked. “Why did you do that to me?”

“Because I need you alive.” Was her succinct answer. “A human trying to kill you would have to be very lucky, or very good to do that now.”

“What about Taggert?” He questioned then added. “And just how can I keep up with his people? They're all trained to kill. I'm just a geek scientist.”

“Taggert is another matter.” Zephyr shrugged. “Don't confront him, don't let him catch you or you will die. As for his minions? You will find that you are stronger, faster, and a lot tougher than they are.”

“I don't know how to fight.”

“Learn.” She told him flatly. “I can and will teach you how to do that.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you are my firstborn.” She told him. “My first child. I will do whatever is needed to teach you, keep you alive, and would kill anyone who genuinely threatens you if you can't defend yourself.”

He had no answer, or question for that one.

“For now,” She went on, “gather the things you want to keep. We're leaving this place.”

 

---

 

“Oh, don't ever think I'm at all happy with you, or that I've instantly forgiven you even if you know that I need to keep you around.” I told him. “You know things, have access to things that I need and couldn't get without you. If you're working under the mistaken assumption that I turned you to save your miserable life forget that now. I need you, for my own reasons and those aren't likely to change in any foreseeable future but I did not, not do this out of altruism.”

He looked at me and the fear was still plain on his face, but that didn't bother me. Truthfully, I don't know if I could have outright killed him but knew I had come close.

“I don't think you'll believe that I've done you any favors, Stewart.” I gave him a thin smile. “Once the changes start progressing like I think they will.”

He had already changed a little. Not enough that most people would notice, but he had. And no, he wasn't going to like that at all once he started noticing the changes.

“The only reason you're alive now is that I need what you know, your access to places, and your help to get those. Don't make the mistake of thinking I like or love you just now. Those are things you'll have to earn and the only way you're going to do that is to show me, do things, that will tell me what you believe to be true are true.” I told him. “If you leave the straight and narrow here, try going back to them or give in to the blood lust this Taggert has, I'll kill you and find another way. Understand?”

He closed his eyes and shuddered. “Yes.”

“I can feel it in you,” I softly told him, “The hunger. Consider fighting that a test. If you can hold back from feeding on anyone around you and are able to keep doing that, you just might pass it. I can find you suitable meals, lord knows there are enough of those around here for us. But if you attack and drain one — ONE — innocent, you will die, and I will find you if you run.

“If you can control the hunger and not attack those around you'll have proven to me that you deserve a chance to live. Fail in that, and as I said...”

“You'll kill me yourself.” He nodded. “I understand.”

“Do you understand why?” I asked. “Or is that simply agreeing to all that just in order to keep me from saying more or killing you now?”

“Both, I think.” He said after a few seconds of thought. “If I start preying on everyone around me, I think I'd want you to kill me. I don't want innocents to die because of me.”

“Thats a good start.” I nodded then waved around the place he called an apartment. “Now get the things you want to keep, the ones you can't replace. We have to get out of here.”

Once that conversation was over he did start looking for the precious things he'd managed to keep and had no way of replacing. The picture of his daughter pushing her face into the birthday cake on her second birthday. The old and tattered picture of his wife Claire at their prom when they were in high school after she shocked him to near fainting by agreeing to go out with him.

There wasn't much when he finished. A few photos, a ring (not his wedding ring) several greeting cards.

After all this time, were those the only things he considered important enough to not leave behind?

Stewart realized that was a sad commentary on fifteen years of marriage and having a beautiful thirteen year old daughter. Where had he gone wrong with all that? He hadn't been there for a lot of his daughter Diane's important events because of work. He hadn't even manged to be there for his wife when her parents died.

He'd been a decent, if indifferent person in the past.

Seeing that hurt more than anything he'd ever gone through.

“If I don't pass your test, Zephyr,” he finally whispered, “I hope I'll ask you to kill me.”

“I will.” She answered and Stewart had no idea if it was promise, threat, or actually caring.

“I'm ready.” He'd packed some clothes and the pathetically few pictures in a backpack.

“Good, she said and gestured to the window. “Let's go.”

“But it's a three story drop to the ground.” He protested.

“You have a lot to learn, Stewart.” Was her only answer before she threw him out the window.

He screamed like a little girl when I tossed him out the window. After hearing the thud of his landing I looked out the window to see him sitting on the ground wearing a befuddled expression at his survival.

Grinning, I climbed out the window, closed it then using the abundant hand and foot holds in the old brick and Masonry, quickly climbed down the wall then stood beside him.

“I think I broke my ankle.” He told me with an accusing glare.

Kneeling down beside him I looked both at both of his ankles over and saw that one was at strange angle. “I'd say that's a pretty accurate assessment.”

“Why did you do that?”

“Lesson one, Stewart,” I told him while gently handling the broken ankle, “there is usually an easy way and a hard way to do things. Take the easy one if it doesn't mean you'll get killed or someone who doesn't need to will die because of your actions. You left your apartment the hard way, I did it the easy way.”

“You threw me out the damned window!” He almost shouted then winced as I felt for the damage that had caused.

“Yup.” I answered with a little grin. “The best way for someone to learn the real differences between the hard way and the smart, easy way is force them to do it the hard way so they won't forget. I'll bet you'll never forget this, will you?”

“Hell, no!” He shot back then repeated. “You threw me out the window.”

“We've been through that part.” I said simply. “Get over it. You are now stronger, faster, have much better reflexes, but that doesn't mean you are invulnerable or immortal. Tell me what you felt and did during your fall.”

“I screamed and thought you were killing me after all, then...” He trailed off.

“Then?” I prompted.

“Things really slowed down, I twisted in the air, had time to figure out what kind of landing I had the best chance of surviving then went into a roll right after my feet hit the ground.”

“See?” I answered with a grin. “You were never really in danger there but learned that you can still get hurt. Now for lesson number two.

As I said, we're stronger, faster, tougher than humans, but we aren't invulnerable. We can be hurt, and the injury is serious enough, we could die.”

“Got that.” Stewart gasped as his ankle obviously gave him another wave of pain.

“Hurt a lot?” I asked almost innocently.

“Hell yes!” He responded.

“Next lesson.” I said while grasping the injured ankle and foot it was attached to. “We heal very fast.”

“Good to hear.” He panted.

“If we don't get the bones straight,” I went on as I jerked and forced his bones into proper alignment, “before we heal, we, or in this case you, would be half crippled and need to break the bone or bones again to get that set right.”

His yelp wasn't quite a scream, but it was close. “DAMN! You could have warned me!”

“Another lesson learned that you won't forget.” I grinned at him.

“No shit.” He managed to get out with sweat beading his face. Then got a look of surprise as the pain faded. “What just happened?”

“You healed.” I told him simply.

“Really?”

“Stand up and test it.” I said with a shrug.

She was right. As he cautiously got to his feet expecting a jab of lightning like pain all that happened was that he stood up. No pain, no ache, nothing. “This is amazing.”

“One of the perks of being like we are.” She answered with a little shrug.

“I feel sick.” He answered. “Like I haven't eaten in a few days.”

“You need to feed.” She told him without one show of emotion. “Healing like that takes a lot of energy and you've depleted yours.”

“Feed?” He asked.

“You need blood.” Zephyr said. “Human blood would be best.”

“But you told me not to do that just a few minutes ago. He protested while feeling more than a little nauseous at the idea of actually biting someone and drinking their blood.”

“I also said innocents.” She flatly told him. “There are more than enough in this place who prey on the weaker ones. They need to learn what a real alpha predator is like. And trust me, those people are far from innocent.”

“But..”

“No buts.” She said without a hint of remorse or disgust at the topic. “You need to feed, and that kind is fair prey as far as I'm concerned. Come, we'll find you a suitable meal.”

Still having his reservations, Stewart followed her. The idea of actually killing a human being wasn't something he liked to think about. But the hollow feeling in his stomach and other places tried very hard to quell that sensibility.

I led him through the dark streets, searching for just the right prey.

“What are we doing?” He asked and I could tell he was getting used to being able to see things in the dark. I'd figured out that my vision went into the ultra violet and infrared but he was still getting used to that.

“Seeing interesting things?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He said in a distracted manner. “I see things glowing in the dark.”

“Part of what we are.” I answered simply. “We can see in the dark, even when no heat sources show as red in our vision.”

“I'm seeing that. Literally.” He answered.

“Don't let it overwhelm you.” I told him while still leading him through some of the nastier places in this slum. “Pay attention to what's around you without falling victim to the 'pretty lights' you see.”

Prey like I was looking for was easy enough to find. They strutted, stalked, or just sauntered, but every one thought they were an alpha predator. Time to show them what a real alpha predator was.

There were three of them, relative newcomers to the are but had already established that they took what they wanted when they wanted. And thought of themselves as the alpha predators in this place. I suppressed a laugh at that.

“Hey ladies.” One of them started while looking both of us over with obvious hunger in that look. “You looking for a good time?

Well, if you are or aren't, it doesn't matter.” He smirked. “My friends and I are going to show you one in a few minutes here.”

I moved faster than they could see, and had them all laid out in front of the alleyway they had come out of. “Help me move them back into the dark.” I told Stewart.

“Why?” He asked.

I pointed to one of the would be rapists and simply said. “Feed.”

He wanted to resist, to hang on to last of his humanity. But the scent of the blood in the three toughs had his mouth watering.

“It's what we do to stay alive.” Zephyr said as she knelt over one the guys and put her mouth to his neck.

He did the same, savoring the hot, salty sensation of what he was taking. When he'd finished with the first one, Zephyr gestured to the other. “Feed.”

Much to his shame, delight, horror and satisfaction, he did. And felt much better once he'd done so.

She then moved the bodies towards the sewer, opening a manhole someone with her build shouldn't have been able to do without help and negligently tossed the bodies into it then put the heavy cover back.

“The rats will get them.” He protested with a slightly sick feeling in his stomach.

“They will get rid of the evidence that we've been here.” She answered with a shrug. “Rats help get rid of the garbage, and they have to eat, too.”

“But..,”

“No buts, here.” She told him emphatically. “That hides the fact that we've been here and fed. Or would you rather leave a trail that Taggert and his could follow?”

“Point taken.” He admitted then started to follow her out of the alley before something hit his conscious mind like a sledge hammer. “Did that guy call us Ladies?”

 

---

 

“A mirror, Souri.” I told her. “I need a mirror.

“It is done, Mistress.” She told me as a full length mirror just showed up in front of me.

That nearly undid, killed, the old me when I looked.

Oh, I knew my new body was one for adolescent wet dreams just from the feel of it.

But it wasn't the large, full, firm breasts standing out almost insolently, or the thin, almost tiny waist that led to very generous hips, slim arms, small smooth hands with long, delicate fingers, or the long, gorgeous legs that hit me.

It was my face.

Staring back at me from that mirror, atop a sex kitten body was a face I would never forget.

Miri was staring back at me.

“Damn you.” I breathed, moaned, then fell to my knees. “Damn all of you to any Hell, from any god that exists!”

Seeing that face, that beloved face, on me, and knowing what the ones who had done this to me intended nearly unhinged my sanity.

They knew I would hate myself for what they made me do. Putting Miri's face on me was a calcultated strike to make me love her less and start thinking of her as nothing but a plaything, a whore.

Each time I was called, had to do what they wanted, I would know, know, that the face of the person doing that was Miri's.

I had run out of curses, damnations, Rage.

Now all I did was hurt. Where their other manipulations had failed, the pain had a good chance to undo me, the me I had always held to so stubbornly. The me that I had always thought of as the core of my being.

But I'd found that was wrong. I wasn't at all what I had once thought I was.

But what, just what the Hell, was I?

Who was I?

“Come back, Mistress!” Souri's distressed cries and shaking finally roused me a bit. “You fade! That is death for your kind! Come back to me!”

“Death.” I whispered. “That would be a good thing right now.”

“No, it would not.” My servant firmly told me then asked. “Would you leave the shell of your form, your power, for any to use as they see fit? If you fade that will happen, Mistress.”

My muddled thought processes realized that was probably exactly what the ones who had done this to me wanted. In fact, I had been told that I would lose myself in time. That I would not let happen if there was one shred of self left to me.

So I fought my way back. And it was a fight.

Part of me didn't want anything to do with coming back, being what I had become. Another part grieved at the loss of Miri and our son and was looking for oblivion because of that. But another part, an important part, was angry, determined, and intent on surviving just to thumb my nose at Miri's father and the others if nothing else. Guess which part won?

“Vengeance.” I barely sighed. “I will have it.”

“Spoken like a true Princess of the Djinn.” Souri gave me a quick hug, then jumped away with an apologetic look. “My apologies, Princess. I grew too familiar.”

“It's all right.” I gave her a weak smile. “I don't believe that I'm exactly what you think I am, Souri.”

“You are my mistress, my princess.” She had her face pressed into the carpet again and her voice was muffled because of that. “Others better than I have died for such temerity.”

“Just what are you, Souri?” I asked as much to change that subject as to give myself time to figuratively regroup after my meltdown. “A prisoner here, like me?”

“Only because you are here, Mistress.” She answered carefully. “I was pledged, pledged myself to your service long ago. I am here because you are.”

“You spent twenty odd years waiting in this bottle for me to show up?”

“Oh I have waited far longer than that, mistress.” She told me then got a dreamy expression on her face. “Your father was a great one, your mother a queen beyond compare among the Djinn. I was there at your creation, your birth, over five thousand years ago. I knew then that my fate was entwined with yours and that I would serve you for all time. I held you as an infant, played with you as a toddler and child, and helped you find your own beauty as you matured. When you were hidden among mortals I thought I would fade from the grief but I have watched you, watched over you through all these years.”

The time span she was talking about was more than I could get my head around just then. Not to mention what she had said about my supposedly original parents.

But the absolute, unyielding love and committment that came from her as she had said that was something I had never experienced before. Or could deny. It was a palpable force in the air between us, around us.

It was a powerful as what I'd felt from Miri, but without the sexual overtones. It just was.

Wow.

I managed to get up and even gently pull this child-woman who claimed to have been my nurse, nanny, playmate, and confidant to her feet. Something in me quite firmly insisted she was telling the truth. I hugged her, tightly.

“I don't remember, Souri. I can feel it but I don't remember you. I'm sorry.” I told her once the tenseness in her body relaxed. “I am so sorry.”

My hug was returned, lightly, and she pulled herself away from me shaking her head. “You were awakened prematurely, mistress. You may regain those memories, or not. I have no way of knowing how this works since you are the only one of your kind to be hidden in mortal flesh. No matter, I am here to serve you, help you and if needed, teach you. If you will have me.”

I wondered if I dared trust her. And felt guilty for that thought almost right away. But with what had happened to me lately it was hard to trust anyone I hadn't already known. But I felt like I'd known Souri for a long, long time. I decided to deal with that later. I had something I desperately needed, another person in this prison of mine. Even though the idea that she was there voluntarily, for me, boggled the mind.

Not to mention the five thousand plus years of faithful watching and waiting she had told me about.

“I would be honored to have you stay, Souri.” I told her and not really sure where that came from. “You have been faithful to me for a long time from what you say and I feel that is truth. Refusing you would be unconscionable. Unforgivable.”

“All those years in mortal flesh have changed you, mistress.” She gave me a careful look and shrugged. “Perhaps that is no bad thing so long as it didn't make you weak.”

“Well, we won't know until things happen, will we?” I answered. “When they do, we deal with it.”

She had no response to that other than a nod of the head.

“Are you Djinn, Souri?” I asked once all the angst had settled down. “You say you have been with me one way or another for a really long time.”

“No mistress.” She shook her head and even appeared a little shocked. “I am Efreeti. A female of the Efreet. We have magic, are magic, are usually full of mischief, love causing trouble, and like you — the Djinn, we too can be bound. My kind are wild, and rarely allow ourselves to make promises of any kind then find ways to get out of them if we do. Djinn always keep thier promises, mistress. Always.

Your kind bound mine long ago, some say to keep the damage down, others say it was to save us, others that it was simply that you did not wish for your power to be contested with. Your kind was, and is, cruel, mistress, but also fair. You, your kind never punished for caprice, but the punishments were never easy, or kind.”

“Was I like that?” I asked, apalled at the idea.

“At times.” She told me, but you were different. You refused to punish on a whim, among your kind you were the gentle one, the one who considered others when deciding things. Your parents often berated you for that weakness, but you simply bowed, gave them the respect due to them, then went as you had been. That might be why they hid you in mortal flesh, my princess. They knew that hiding would have a chance of success with you. Another Djinn would have been destroyed by that.

“But to your original question, the culture you call modern, and its precursors confused us with the Djinn because of our similarities and because we were the ones mortals usually encountered. But no, I am not Djinn. We Efreet are as children standing among adults to the Djinn. Even gods were wary of your kind, and respected your people, mistress. There is no comparison at all between my people and yours other than the magic.

“I do not think those who awakened you realize just what they have brought back into the world.” She finished with a little smile and shrug. “And you did promise them things, mistress.”

“That I did.” I nodded slowly. “But I didn't tell them, or say anything.”

“A thought is as good as a word, mistress.” She told me. “You made promises, you will keep them or cease to exist for trying to keep them.”

“Oh, that's interesting.” I blew some hair out of my face with a puff of breath without even thinking how wrong that would have been for me not long ago. “So I have to careful about what I think as well as what I say?”

“Indeed, mistress.” Souri gave me an approving look. “A promise, even unspoken, is your word. You would die rather than go against a promise.”

“Interesting, and kind of disturbing.” I sighed while wondering if I could actually find all the hells I'd promised to the ones who did this to me.

“If you can't find them you could create them.” Souri told me.

Oh, now that was someting I was in no way ready to think about, let alone hear.

Okay another file away for later thing there.

I had magic, was magic. That was a bit hard to comprehend.

But I could feel it even if I didn't yet quite believe it. And what I felt told me that the magic around me, the potential was slowly getting stronger.

Interesting and more than a little scary. I was getting more powerful with every passing second. But I was still nothing more than a slave.

That was something I needed to end, somehow, before real magic flooded the world again.

I didn't know how to do that. Yet.

But I would figure it out.

What I did know was the ones who had done this me, awakened me, wanted a nearly mindless shell they could command and one that would comply with those commands without demure.

So I resolved to show them that when I was called, no matter how repugnant it might be.

Those bastards were not going to keep me chained.

There was nothing wrong with my brain, or mind no matter what had happened. And I had been a math and computer major...

There had to be a way to get free.

I just needed to find that loophole.

 

---

 

I had magic, was magic. That was a bit hard to comprehend.

But I could feel it even if I didn't yet quite believe it. And what I felt told me that the magic around me, the potential was slowly getting stronger.

Interesting and more than a little scary. I was getting more powerful with every passing second. But I was still nothing more than a slave. That was something I needed to end, somehow, before real magic flooded the world again.

I didn't know how to do that. Yet.

But I would figure it out.

What I did know was the ones who had done this me, awakened me, wanted a nearly mindless shell they could command and one that would comply with those commands without demure.

So I resolved to show them that when I was called, no matter how repugnant it might be.

Those bastards were not going to keep me chained.

There was nothing wrong with my brain, or mind no matter what had happened. And I had been a math and computer major...
There had to be a way to get free.

I just needed to find that loophole.

As I was thinking those things a truly odd sensation hit me. A tingly pulling like everything about me, physical or not was being prodded, then gently pulled at. Almost like a mild electric shock and a sense of moving even though I was standing still.
Then I got the feel of being in a really powerful sports car that had just been accelerated suddenly. I was pressed back a bit and then pulled forward.

To find myself in a different place.

“I trust your new accomodations are satisfactory, Samireh.” A voice I will never forget spoke once all that had finished.

It was Miri's father smirking and admiring me.

“They are adequate, Master.” I answered carefully as I bowed to him.

Ignoring me, he turned to another person in the room. “Here she is boy, give her the price she demands.”

The boy, a pimply faced teenager stared at me in mixed awe and fear for a moment, then almost hesitantly moved forward, took my hand and pressed something into it.

I knew it was a silver coin of some kind. Debased, not pure, but still, it was silver. I sent the coin to my newly acquired home, prison, and gave the kid a smile. “The price has been met. What would you have of me, Master?”

“She is yours for the night, boy.” Miri's father told him, then added. “Perhaps she can make a man of you since nothing else has worked.”

So my first was to be a youth who for some reason had not measured up to what his elders thought he should be. He was nervous, even frightened, so I gave him a reassuring smile and held out a hand. “Come Master, tonight I will show you things most mortals only dream of. I will give you a taste of heaven.”

Why did I say that, while cocking a hip and smiling again? The spell that had made — awakened me? A compulsion to act the shameless harlot? Both, neither? I didn't know just then and could do nothing to change things even if I had. “Come Master, join me and I am yours for the night.”

I was not under the illusion that starting me with this boy was a mercy. It was a test, for me, and likely for him. My 'creators' weren't yet sure of me so were cautious about making use of what I had become and sent a near child to risk any deceits I might pull. Oh there would be deceits, I was sure of it, and the first one would be tonight, but not at all what they half feared. I would not harm this boy or even try to.

No, the ones I intended to harm would not see anything other than the compliant little magical whore they had made. For this night, and a number of others, I was sure. I would give them no hint that I wasn't what they had planned for me to be until I was ready to show them.

Then, oh then, they would wish I had sent them to some mere Hell. But I had to be patient, and learn. Even though biding my time would involve things I had no wish to do.

The youth took my hand and we were back in my prison, my so opulent prison. It was clear enough then that I would be given no hint of freedom, not even when performing my — duties.

“Souri!” I called and clapped my hands. “We have a guest! Bring refreshments for him!

“Now, Master,” I whispered while leading him to a couch, “what is it you would have of me?”

He hesitated, then told me. No wonder He hesitated.

“Master, I am sorry, but that is not in my power to do.” I sadly told him, running into another limitation to how I could show myself. My first preferred men.

“But they said...”

“That I could give you your heart's desire.” I touched his lips to stop him. “That I can do if you are brave enough to take what I offer.
“What will they do to you, if you don't pass this 'test' they have given you?” I asked.

“They will make me become a woman.” He answered. “But I won't be a complete one, and they are cruel to women, especially ones like me at the best of times.”

“Ahh, and if I could help you avoid that?” I asked. “What would you say, or do to have it?”

“They are watching.” He nervously told me.

With a look to Souri I nodded and something we'd planned early on happened. Once I was sure it had worked, I smiled at him. “They will see what we wish them to see. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, back to my question, what would you give me for something like you desire without the abuse you would get for it otherwise?”

“Anything you ask.” He simply told me, then amended that. “Other than killing my father and uncles.”

“A favor would be all I ask for it.” I smiled at him marveling at his concern for men who obviously had little for him. They fully expected him to fail here.

“A favor?”

“A favor.” I nodded. “That I will call in when I need it. Nothing more.”

“How large a favor?” He looked worried, this boy was no one's fool.

“Does it matter that much?” I shrugged. “Information, answering a few questions when I ask them, nothing else. I'm not asking for your soul, child. Or for you to kill anyone for me. Oh believe me, I don't want them dead at all. Not at all.”

“But...”

“Hush.” I touched his lips with a fingertip again. “Yes or no is all I require here and the cost will not be so onerous for you, that is a promise.”

He thought about it, the alternatives, and slowly nodded. I caught images of the abuse he had already endured and was actually very impressed that he didn't want bloody revenge for some of things he'd been through. “All right. I agree.”

“Good, Naderah.” I answered, giving him a name that meant Rare, which this boy really was. “Now sleep that I may do my work.”

I touched him, felt his very being, and set it to shape its physical self to his mental and emotional one, but with a trigger to start that. I also made sure that the magic he could touch would not become inaccessable once he had transformed. One like this deservered more than that, but I couldn't give it, only make sure that when Naderah came to be she would be beautiful as her soul was.

“You will return, and they will change you, dear.” I told his sleeping form. “I am sorry for that but it must be for this to work. But the changes they make will be added to by what I do and you will emerge like a butterfly from the coccoon as what you have always wished to be. But you will have the power to make certain you are no longer abused even after the real change. Do not, I ask, misuse it.”

I really wanted to send him back smelling of sex with a woman, but that would have been painful and repugnant to him. And would have delayed the changes he truly wanted even with the culture he lived in.

“Sleep well, my little Naderah.” I touched his forehead and somehow knew I had my first daughter. “I will be watching over you, my beautiful child.”

So my first sally against those I hated was made, provided the precautions Souri and I had taken really worked. Even if not, my first daughter would walk the world within months anyway.

Because there was nothing, nothing at all, a mere mage could do to halt the birth of a Djinn.

Yes, that was a very satisfying first time for me.

“That was interesting, Mistress.” Souri told me once the boy had gone back. “But a boy as your daughter?”

“Didn't you see his soul, Souri?” I asked.

“I didn't really look, it is not my place.” She answered.

“His soul is female and in a lot of pain right now.” I told her then added. “From now on, look — really look, at the ones who come here. Your insights will be helpful on that count. Besides, did you feel the power in that awkward form, the sheer ability to manipulate magic?”

“Well, yes.” She admitted.

“My — creators, or awakeners — whichever you prefer would have stunted that, maybe even killed it. I couldn't let that happen, Souri. I just couldn't.”

“As you say, Mistress.” She lowered her head as she agreed. “It was well done on two counts. Now you have a potential ally who is free and owes you that favor, and you have a daughter.”

“That I do.” I nodded thoughtfully. “That I do.”

“Nicely done, Mistress.” She grinned.

I had to return the grin. “Now if our little trick works. If not I will have to find a way to keep Naderah from being bound.”

“Leave that to me, Mistress.” Souri answered quietly. “I am not bound to this place, only to you.”

Now that had possibilities that would need thinking about. I upgraded my chances of gaining my freedom by about twenty percent after hearing that. They were still pretty slim at the moment, but I was pretty sure other things would come along to improve the odds, too.

If only I was smart enough to not only see them, but use them.

“This is a very fine, tight net they have woven around you, Mistress.” Souri sighed as we looked at the spells that bound me to this bottle and to the will of others. “They worked for years to perfect this before using it.”

“There has to be something they've overlooked in here.” I muttered while taking in the web of magics designed to hold me and force my compliance with the wishes of those who had set them. “All we need to do is find that one little gap, one chink in this wall.”

“I fear that is far easier to say than do, Mistress.”

“The one thing I remember that is important here, from my old life — the one I remember, anyway — is that nothing is fool proof or airtight. No matter how strong some firewall or internal defenses of a system are there is always something, usually a little thing, that the makers overlooked and will allow it to be exploited. It is going to take time, but there is at least one of those in all this. There has to be.”

“Solomon left none.” She pointed out.

“These people aren't Solomon and he had a god helping him.” I answered and at least hoped I was right. “They had to have screwed up somewhere and all I have to do is find that one little weakness.”

“It is good to see,” Souri tilted her head and gave me a thoughtful look, “That the resolve, the strength that you had is still there.”

“I'll find a way.” I told her almost dreamily while examing the web that made this place my prison. “And when I do...”

“Indeed, Mistress.” Souri actually smiled for the first time in hours. “I do believe you will.”

That silver coin I had been given, niggled at me for some reason. But I couldn't find just why that was. Though in time I'd either figure it out, or start ignoring the thing.

“Mistress?” Souri questioned. “Why do you keep looking at that coin, touching it? In your position I would want nothing to do with it at all.”

“Normally, I'd chuck it far away where I couldn't see it, too.” I agreed while staring at the thing in the palm of my hand, the 'price' that was given for my sexual favors. I had a number of them already and yes, I should have hated the sight of them. “But I can't get past the idea that this is important not only because it's the price men pay to use me...”

“How could that be?” She asked.

“I don't know, Souri.” I shrugged and tossed the thing back into the small pile of others that had accumulated over the past while. “But I do intend to find out.”

My first real clue came around the twentieth time I was summoned. And no, I will NOT describe the previous times. Lets just say that most who called me would make perverts look clean and civilized.

Interestingly, all of them called on gods I had either vaguely heard of or not at all. Not one of these 'pillars' of Iran once invoked Allah.

I was pulled from my own search, and musing again to find myself in an opulent bed room with an older, but still hale man looking at me.

“What is your will, Master?” I asked softly, bowing and appearing meek and accomodating as much as I hated that.

“Why does anyone call you, whore?” He smirked. “You know what I want.”

“And you, Master, know the price for that.” I quietly answered.

“I helped make you, whore.” He still had that smirk on his face. “I have no need to pay for your services. You are my slave after all.”

No price offered, and I was still present. Now that got me thinking so I thought I'd try something on my own for a change.

Smiling seductively I lowered my lashes and watched him through them while holding out my hand. “As you wish, Master. “Come. Take what is yours.”

With a broad, self satisfied smile he reached out to take my hand.

He blinked once we had returned to my prison. Looked around as if he owned everything in it, including me and took in my face and form again. “Strip, dance for me, whore.”

The compulsion wasn't there. For the first time since this had started I wasn't made to simply acquiesce to a command.

I smiled at him and just stood there.

“You heard me, bitch!” He spat out. “Strip and dance for me.”

“Oh, I think not.” I returned his smile and shook my head. “You see, you owe me a price, even if you don't wish to pay it. Now that you are here, it is mine to collect as I see fit, I do believe.”

His eyes widened and his mouth started to form the words of a spell.

“Be quiet.” I told him and his mouth stopped making sounds. “Now stop that, too. This is my home and you have entered it without the right safeguards. I don't want you say a word until I say it is time for you to do that. Clear?”

His mouth snapped shut, and the gestures he had started making stopped. It was my turn to smirk. “Now, what to take from you for my price?
“Don't move.” I ordered him while walking forward to stroke his bearded cheek and he went still as a mouse in the presence of a hungry cat.

“That's better. In this place, if the price isn't met beforehand, it seems that I have the power. Isn't that interesting? Thank you for showing me that.”

I saw a glint of gold at his chest and pulled a medallion away from him. It burned, slightly, but I'd noted that Souri was staying well clear of the thing. A sharp tug broke the chain around his neck and I took a few moments to examine the thing before closing my hand and sending it — elsewhere. Don't ask me where that is, or the mechanics of the act, I couldn't describe either, but when I opened my hand it was gone.

“You thought that would protect you?” I watched the fear in his eyes and gave him a gentle smile. “Your kind have been dealing with creatures you thought were Djinn for so long you have no idea of what a true one is.

I waved Souri forward and without that medallion in the area she did so without hesitation, bowing to me and giving the mage a look of pure hatred.

“Souri here is of the kind you think of as Djinn.” I told him almost off handedly. “She is Efreet, however and no, it is not the same thing. The Efreet were and are servants of the Djinn. That charm would have held her away once you invoked it, but as you noticed, I'm sure, it didn't really bother me all that much.”

He was struggling to speak. I gave him a nasty grin and shook my head.

“No spells, prayers, or invocations from you.” I waved a hand in front of him. “Other than that you can speak now.”

“What are you?” He whispered.

“Djinni.” I shrugged. “But it's pretty clear you have no real idea of what that is, do you?”

Of course, I really had no idea either, but at the moment I had the upper hand and there were things I wanted from this man. Careful to make sure he had no other nasty little tricks waiting, I also admit to a bit of cruelty there in really wanting to get some of my own back on one of the men who had wrecked my life.

“But the real question here is what am I going to do with you?” I thoughtfully tapped a finger against my chin. “What payment would possibly make up for what you and your companions did to me, took from me?”

“Anything.” He answered hoarsly, already having found that nothing he did would break the binding I had placed on him. “I'll give you anything at all, just free me.”

“Anything?” I sighed and waved at our surroundings. “Can you release me from all this — luxury you've imprisoned me in? Can you give me back the life you took from me? The love I had and the child I may never see? Can you give me that?”

“Anything else.” He answered. “Not those, but anything else. Ask and it is yours.”

“Here, in this situation,” I just looked at him, “I command, not ask.”

If he could have moved to cringe, I think he would have. And yes, I am ashamed of myself over what I did with that man. But there were months — I think — of pent up rage, frustration, degradation, humiliation, that had to come out. I have no excuse for that because there isn't one. I know I was needlessly cruel and was enjoying it. But the experience did teach me a few lessons about myself that were good to know.

“So what?” I looked at him. “What should I take? Your miserable life? Maybe your soul? Possibly your very existence? What should I do, in your opinion, mage?”

He had nothing to say to that.

“I have it.” with a nod, I smiled at him. “Information. You tell me things and I promise you'll live through this.”

Souri started to say something, probably protest that offer, but I stopped her with a shake of my head then looked at the mage. “Answer my questions, tell me what I want to know, and you'll leave this place alive.”

Needless to say, after a bit of thought, he spilled his guts. What he admitted to, when questioned, and let slip at other times, almost staggered me. Not enough information to let me break free of the prison I was held in, but more pieces of a puzzle that was slowly starting to come together.

They hadn't cared about Michael or Miri. What these bastards wanted was our child.

Oh, if I had anything to say about it, or could do about it, that was NOT going to happen. What these people would do with the child of a Djinn and a magically powerful human wasn't something I even wanted to think about.

“So I gave you what you wanted.” He managed to tell me, beginning to act as if he had some control in all this. “You promised I would be free once I did that.”

“No.” I answered. “I promised you would live through all this.

But don't worry, I'll free you to live your life, just as I said I would. My kind always keep our word, mage.” I reassured him and watched the relief show in his eyes for a moment. “Oh yes, I'll set you free, and let you live.

“But I really don't think you'll enjoy that life, Fariba.” The name was a woman's and meant charming, enticing, or both. I sealed his magic potential away from any reach he might find then started the transformation.

“You are beautiful, inviting.” I told the nearly hysterical girl that resulted from what I'd done. “Your husband is a very lucky man, Fariba.”

“Nooo!!” Was all she got out that was coherent.

“Oh yes, girl.” I answered without a trace of pity for her. “You are young, beautiful, fertile. Quite a catch, actually.

“Oh, another thing.” I said as if it was an after thought. “You and your companions mouth the praises to Allah in public but believe none of it. Well, now you'll find that you are a good little muslim girl and wife, and you'll be able to tell no one who you once were or what happened to you.

“Have a good life, beautiful Fariba.” I told the shaking girl. “Give your husband many sons.”

With a wave of my hand she was gone. To the 'freedom' I hadn't quite promised. But she was still alive.

And you know what? I felt more than a little dirty after doing that.

“Souri, take my bottle back to where that one took it from, if you would.” I requested instead of commanded. “It wouldn't do to have the others discover the things we did this time around, would it?”

She blinked out then was back. “It is done, Mistress.”

“Good, thank you and please bring me some wine. I have a lot to think about right now.”

“You have no need to ask, Mistress.” Souri told me primly as she produced what I'd requested.

“Oh, I think I do, Souri.” I answered tiredly. “I really think I do, and should.”

She said nothing at all in response.

A presence came to my notice suddenly as I sipped at the wine and thought.

“Well, Princess.” A deep voice accompanied by clapping interrupted those thoughts. “It seems that after so long, and even caged, that you are still dangerous. My congratulations and salutations.”

I stood up and turned, noting that Souri was cowering behind me as I did to see a male, tall, powerfully built, and supremely confident, standing in a place no one uninvited had come to yet.

He was NOT human. Oh not even close.

“Offer me some wine, a seat,” He told me with a grin, “and I will repay you with a story.”

I'd never seen one before, except for myself.

Another Djinn, a free one, had come into my prison. And a very, very male one at that.

 

---

 

A presence came to my notice suddenly as I sipped at the wine and thought.
“Well, Princess.” A deep voice accompanied by clapping interrupted those thoughts. “It seems that after so long, and even caged, that you are still dangerous. My congratulations and salutations.”
I stood up and turned, noting that Souri was cowering behind me as I did to see a male, tall, powerfully built, and supremely confident, standing in a place no one uninvited had come to yet.
He was NOT human. Oh not even close.
“Offer me some wine, a seat,” He told me with a grin, “and I will repay you with a story.”
I'd never seen one before, except for myself.
Another Djinn, a free one, had come into my prison. And very, very male one at that.

"Actually, I have two tales to tell you, Princess.” He told me while seating himself on a couch I had waved to while still getting used to the idea of another Djinn in my presence. “Now, the wine?"

He saw Souri cowering behind me and gave her a little smile that actually did reach his eyes. “You have nothing to fear from me, oh faithful Efreeti. I will do nothing to harm you. My word on it.”

Souri was still trembling, so I gently touched her shoulder and gestured to an out of the way pillow where she could still watch. “Go sit for a few moments. I'll take care of our guest.”

She gave me a grateful look and did as I told her. Our visitor raised his eyebrows at that then just nodded as I conjured the wine, a fine crystal tray and goblets to match the decanter it was in.

“Wine.” I told him as I set the tray on the table and poured for both of us, handing him one goblet while I took the other and settled into a nearby couch.

“That is beneath you, Princess.” He told me simply.

“Prison or not, this is my home.” I answered. “How I treat my guests is up to me, and I chose to do it. Now, you mentioned stories?”

“Introductions first Princess.” He set the wine down, stood again, and formally bowed to me. “I am Behrouze, the Fortunate and it is a pleasure to meet you Princess Vanda.”

“That isn't my name.” I answered slowly but nodded.

“No, the ones who have bound you perverted the meaning, Wish and Desire with the name they gave you, Princess” He lowered his head then looked back up at me. “Also, names do tend to change with time, but we both know you were once, Vanda, the worlds's desire.

“And your beauty is every bit as overwhelming and intoxicating as the tales say, Princess.”

“You didn't know me?” I let myself get sidetracked there, but this was more that I hadn't known. Souri and I were going to have a little talk later, I thought to myself.

“Unfortunately no, Princess.” He shrugged. “I was born after you had been sent to dwell in mortal flesh. I was the last Djinn to be formed before the magic faded.”

There was a real sadness there, I felt it and almost reached forward to give his arm a reassuring touch but held back for reasons I didn't understand. Instead I nodded,gave him a sympathetic look and gently asked. “How many of us are there in the world these days, Behrouze?”

“You and I, Princess.” He shrugged. “Oh there are a few sleeping, waiting for the magic to return, I can feel them stirring at times, but they, like you and I, were hidden by the more powerful so that we could survive the dead years. Then there is the nascent daughter you made just now. Other than that, none that I know of and I have searched. For a very long time I have searched.”

I did set a hand on his arm, and gave it a slight squeeze after that. I wasn't sure how I knew it, but this one wasn't lying or even trying to deceive me. “You were alone all that time?”

“Not alone.” He assured me and gave Souri a tentative smile. “The Efreet were with me.”

“My kind has survived?” Souri questioned in amazement as she rose and moved forward to stand beside me.

“Some, yes.” He nodded. “They have been my constant companions, teachers, friends through this grim time. I hold your people in high regard, lady.”

Souri nodded with actual tears in her eyes then moved forward to hesitantly take his hand and place a gentle kiss on its palm. “Thank you. I had thought I was the last, too.”

“Then we have much in common, pretty Efreeti.” He answered, touching her cheek then gently withdrawing his hand. “But I promised you a story in return for your hospitality, so a story you shall have.”

It came to pass in times long gone, that the Great Djinn Queen Astarte and her Consort, Gilgamesh brought forth a daughter they named Vanda for her beauty and the things they foresaw regarding her.

This princess grew into the beauty that was expected, but she was headstrong as all children tend to be at times, doing things that she shouldn't, not being what was expected of her, and just a bit rebellious. Such is the way of a child in any race, though, so she was not unusual there.

Her kind nature, though was something that worried her parents, and others. We Djinn aren't so much cruel by nature as simply arrogant, uncaring for those of lesser strength. We bound the Efreet as much to gain servants as to keep them from extinction, and to keep them out of mortal hands because much grief had come of that kind of thing. But we did tend to brush away lesser things that got in our way without a thought. Hence the race's reputation for evil and cruelty. Why concern ourselves for lesser beings when we had no need to fear them? Could simply change things so they were no longer an annoyance, or obliterate them entirely?

Oh, we were a proud, unseeing race back then.

But the Princess, Vanda, actually cared for the lesser beings, showed concern for them and even helped them at odd times. This was cause for much concern among the Djinn and seen as a weakness, a flaw in one who would someday rule. There was no room in what they, we were, for things such as mercy, or compassion.

Yet the Princess also had power. Enough that she was not one to trifle with, and she was also shielded by her Mother's Strength. So her idiosyncracies were mostly ignored and attributed to the wildness of youth.

Then the magic began to weaken. Lesser creatures, even some of the weaker Djinn faltered, began to fade and it was clear that our time was coming to an end. But it was also known that the cycle would change again in the future and that gave hope.

The queen and her consort worked a great magic, one none had seen before and one that hasn't been equaled since. Vanda thought she was being punished and raged, but that did her no good. In truth, she was being saved, though she failed to see that at the time. She fought the working, and her parents, but to no avail. Her essence, all that she was disappeared from sight of the Djinn and other creatures of magic, as well as from that of human mages who had started binding our kind with the lessening of magic.

The Princess Vanda was hidden within mortal flesh, to return when there was once again magic in the world and continue the presence of our race in some future time. If that had not been done, she too would have faded, or been bound and the Djinn as a race would have ceased to be.

Thus our long darkness began, but with hope of light again in time.

“So you have returned, Princess.” He looked at me with as much worry as anything else. “But prematurely, and bound by spells crafted specifically for you. Our light has returned with you, but it is caged, directed by others at the moment.”

“Would you have a solution for that?” I asked, hoping he did, but getting the feeling that wouldn't be.

“Sadly, no.” He shrugged. “My parents weren't great ones, simply clever. They were able to house me in objects that could draw on the little magic left and at least sustain me, but I haven't the power, strength, or knowledge to break this cage of yours.”

“Back to square on on that one then.” I sighed.

“True, but I will find what I can, then get the information to you Princess.” He let out a sigh himself. “As I know you are probing for a weakness yourself. It might take centuries, but to ones like us, what are a few of those. In time you will be free.”

“More time than I care to spend in this bondage.” I growled then shook my head. “I'll find a way, and sooner than a few centuries.”

“What assistance I can give is yours, Princess.” He told me. “Little enough as that is.”

“Whatever you can do will be appreciated very much.” I assured, him. “You risked a lot just coming here, didn't you?”

“I am still weak, Princess.” He nodded. “My presence here is only a seeming and even that strains what I can do. But I will rest, then watch. Anything I discover, I will find a way to let you know.”

“Thank you.” I told him and meant that. It was clear that even what he was doing was a strain and I knew that was because the magical reserves he had built up were being depleted faster than he could draw it in. So I gave him some.

His eyes widened, and he started to protest. “Princess, you need all...”

“Hush.” I smiled and shook my head. “I don't even know how I did that yet, but since I can, I did. Stop complaining, I can get more and I think I can do it faster than you could.”

“Indeed, my Princess.” He bowed again and gave me a look that was an usettling mix of fear, awe, and love. “My thanks.”

“You have another tale for me?” I asked and he nodded. “One I probably have told you first, but I didn't realize my being here would be so — draining. This prison is quite nasty, highness.”

“Forget the titles for now.” I told him, not used to them and not really liking them either once I thought about it for a moment. “I'll probably have to get used to them later, but for now just talk to me.”

As you wish Princess.” He nodded and actually stopped himself from bowing. Which was kind of a relief.

My second tale is more recent, and germane to your present situation, but you needed to hear the first one to be able to put perspective on the second.”

Souri refilled his goblet, and mine, then waited like I was.

“Five hundred years ago, give or take a decade,” he started, “a group of weak mages discovered that what they could do, how they manipulated what little real magic they could touch, was growing. This astounded them at first, then elated them. But some became worried. If they were getting stronger, others likely were doing the same thing.

“As they investigated, the ambient magic continued to increase, not a lot, but they had devised ways to measure it. And that increase worried them when they recalled old tales of magical creatures, plus like most thinking beings, they wished to keep thier ascendency among others even if that was a carefully guarded secret.

“So they began — breeding for the gift.” Behrouze went on. “They already knew that if a female from a line able to use the magic had a child by a male with magic potential, that child would be even more 'gifted' than the parents. So they used that knowledge, ruthlessly. Deceit, bribery, threats, kidnapping, whatever it took to join two magic potentials into a stronger child were methods they used. In time, they even stopped trying to justify what they were doing. It had all become a quest for power, and once the cycle changed, bringing the magic back fully, they wanted all the power, all the skills, all the ability to control that, in thier hands.

“They envisioned themselves, or their descendants, as future gods, and fully intended to do whatever was needed to see that come to pass.” He grimaced at that.

“Several hundred years ago, one of them discovered your tale, Princess.” Behrouze sighed. “And set out to make your power thiers. They searched, planned, and began to devise a prison that would not only hold you but destroy you while leaving your powers as thiers to command. It took them over a century, but they had learned to be patient. And they found you.

“Unfortunately, for them,” Behrouze grinned, “the flesh you were in that time was killed before they could reach you and you were lost to them again for a time.

“You remained lost to them until very recently.” He shook his head sadly. “But they once again found you, and one manipulated events so that you and his daughter would meet. “

“Miri.” I breathed. “Was she part of this?”

“Only as another pawn, Princess. She truly did love your mortal flesh and was unaware of what her father was truly after.

“What surprised these mages, a thing they found terrible, was that thier female was able to use the magic in small ways, and your mortal form was very resourceful and unwilling to abandon the one he loved. Unfortunately that played into what they truly wanted even if the two were very difficult to find.

“The child was your undoing.” He sadly told me. “He was a beacon that they could not miss, so they found you. Once they did that and found the child to be viable, they stripped the mortality from you and imprisoned you here. That you have not become the empty shell they hoped for has vexed them, though.

“Your mate, the child's mother, will be given to another of them to produce more children, but the one you and she conceived is what they have been waiting for. The magical potential of a Djinn combined with the power of the human line that helped produce it. That child may well emerge as Djinn himself, but more likely will be only a very powerful human mage.

“And that, my Princess, is my second tale.”

I drained my wine in one gulp and worked, really had to work, to hold back some powerful emotions. Relief at first, that Miri wasn't a conscious part of all this. Then rage. A rage like I had never felt before and aimed at the ones who had done this. But that was useless for now, so I dulled it to an ember in the back of my mind, the deeper recesses of my soul, if I actually had one and took a breath to calm myself.

Behrouze had noticed, as Souri had, and both were giving me very wary looks when I managed to come back to myself.

“I'm okay.” I assured both of them.

“Do not lose yourself, Princess.” He was almost imploring as he took one of my hands and kissed it before going to Souri and doing the same with her. “You have stayed with her through all of it, help her now or we may lose her for all time.”

“I won't let them kill me, Behrouze.” I told him softly, or subjugate me any more than they have. Thank you, I am in your debt for this.”

“It was freely given, Princess.” He did the whole face on the floor bow thing and that was just — embarrassing.

“Then stand up and stop with the bowing and bruised forehead thing.” I answered and managed a grin at his almost shocked look. “Well your first story did say that I'm kind of unusual for our kind, didn't it?”

“Time in mortal flesh has changed you, Princess.”

“How would you know that if you never knew me?” I asked as he stood up. Once he had I walked up to him, took his cheeks in my hands so I held his face and softly told him. “You have given me two great gifts today, Behrouze. The knowledge that I am not the only one of our kind left, and what you have told me. Be welcome in my house whenever you choose to come.”

Where that last one came from I wasn't sure at all, but it felt right. Very right.

I kissed his forehead, giving just a bit more of my precious strength, but I also knew that he needed it worse than I did at the moment. “Now go before my jailors discover you are here.”

He stared at me in shock, shook himself and nodded. “I am your man, Princess. Command and I will give it should that be within my abilities.”

“Just go safely.” I told him, not at all comfortable with his declaration but working to hide it. “Keep your head down, and watch thngs for me. Stay safe.”

“As you say, my Princess.” He nodded started the bowing thing but stopped at the beginnings of a scowl on my face and actually grinned. “As you say.”

Then he was gone.

I had a lot of things to digest after that visit.

Some bad, some good, most just — mind boggling.

“Mistress?” Souri cautiously questioned after I'd been silent for some time.

“Yes, Souri?”

“you are disturbed.”

“No, Souri.” I quietly answered. “Disturbed doesn't come close to covering it right now.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don't know.” I shook my head. “Yet. But these people won't have my children, either of them, or have Miri.”

“Will you mate with him? He was very handsome.”

“Mate with him?” I asked, puzzled for a moment then it dawned on me. “With Behrouze?”

“He is male, you are female.” She pointed out a little cautiously. “You two are the only Djinn in the world right now...”

“Ohh.” I had to grin. “He's a bit young for me, don't you think?

“Besides,” I knew a thoughtful look was on my face. “I believe he would be a better match for my beautiful Naderah.”

“As you say, Mistress.” She answered with a straight face but I could see the amusement in her eyes, and something like relief at the same time.

I decided not to press the issue just then. And she left it alone, too.

Damn, here I was a Djinn for not more than a few months and I was thinking of getting my not yet born daughter together with a guy?

Me? A matchmaker or worse, a dynsaty planner?

But Behrouze had survived for a long time and I just had the feeling that he was honorable. There could be worse matches for my coming daughter.

Man, this Princess crap was a pain at times.

Okay, most times.

“One of us is missing.” Miri's father told me once I materialized in front of him.

“Indeed, Master?” I questioned while showing indifference about that.

“Your price.” He shot down any hopes I had of getting my hands on him in any way but sexually while placing a silver piece in my hand. “I think Faroud, arrogant bastard that he was, refused to pay it. Am I right?”

“I do not know this person you are speaking of.” I was mostly honest. I hadn't known the jerk's name at least and I wasn't compelled to tell this one more without specific questions from him. Besides, that person didn't exist now.

“No matter.” He chuckled. “The others will so someting to violate the parameters of what you are and do. I imagine you will get rid of them, too.”

This man was strong with the magic, it blasted from his aura, but I still didn't know his name. Oh he was careful about that. Another thing to think about. I just looked at him and smiled, much as I hated doing that.

“Oh stop that.” He waved as I was taking a seductive pose. “Lovely as you are, that isn't what I want from you, slave.”

What? Oh, now this was getting interesting.

“If not my charms, Master,” I softly asked, “what is that you desire from your servant?”

“That isn't for you to know, slut.” He glared at me. “But what would you do if I offered the others to your less than tender mercies?”

“Master?” I asked, not quite understanding but starting to feel more hope than I had since my transformation, or awakening.

“The others will make mistakes with you, my dear.” He smirked. “They all believe that you are completely in thrall. I know differently. I'm proposing a bargain here slut.”

“Tell me more.” I smiled at him and had yet another clue.

“The magic is returning, soon as far as cycles like that go.” He told me. “It won't be within the next twenty years or even longer, but it is coming. When it does other things will awaken. Humans will need to be protected, but a committee can't do that.”

“Are you saying you can do that, Master?”

“With the magic they won't be using, and your power,” he nodded. “Yes.”

I nodded, there was more to this, but he wasn't going to tell me. I also got the unsettling sense that he was older, far older, than the flesh he had. That gave me a really bad feeling.

“I can give them to you, one at a time.” He smiled and that smile was something that made my skin crawl. “Everyone makes mistakes, my beautiful Samireh. I'll just lull them enough to make them do that with you.”

“And then, Master?”

“They are yours to do what you will with them, as I know you did to our missing brother.”

“As you say, Master.”

“As I say.” He nodded with satisfaction. “Now go. I'm done with you.”

That was one, nasty, evil man.

And he wanted my power all to himself.

Oh, I wouldn't turn down his offerings. Not at all.

It would take time, but I felt good, elated even. I just had the idea that I now knew how to break my bondage.

It wasn't going to be easy. But his arrogance had given me the one clue I had been missing. The vital piece of the puzzle that I really hadn't been doing so well at putting together.

This would take some thought.

But you're damned right that I'd take anyone of his circle he threw to me.

Maybe just not in the way he thought.

 

---

 

That was one, nasty, evil man.

And he wanted my power all to himself.

Oh, I wouldn't turn down his offerings. Not at all.

It would take time, but I felt good, elated even. I just had the idea that I now knew how to break my bondage.

It wasn't going to be easy. But his arrogance had given me the one clue I had been missing. The vital piece of the puzzle that I really hadn't been doing so well at putting together.

This would take some thought.

But you're damned right that I'd take anyone of his circle he threw to me.

Maybe just not in the way he thought.

The man's capacity for betrayal surprised me, but then again it didn't.

The feel that he was older — far older — than his body was disturbing, though. Very disturbing.

What was he? A human who had discovered a rather unpleasant way to prolong his life? A magical being who was hiding in human flesh? A mix of the two? Had the original at one time made a pact with something for that ability and been joined or even subsumed by the being it had been done with? Some investigation was in order there.

But more importantly, I knew how to break the bonds that held me. Oh it wasn't going to be easy to get what I needed, but now that I knew what it was at least I could work around the constraints that had been set on me enough to get it done. It wouldn't be an instant fix, but now I knew, KNEW, what it was I had to do to be free.

Then, oh then, there would be a reckoning. I would have my vengeance, and set a few other things right at the same time.

Oh yes. All that and more.

In time.

And as Behrouze had said, I had all the time in the world to do it in.

The puzzle finally made sense.

Now all I needed were the missing pieces to complete it.

And that bastard who was Miri's father had just offered them up to me. The Fates do have a sense of humor, it seems.

“Oh, my poor, beautiful daughter.” I mourned while watching what Nadereh was going through. The surgeries, the beatings, the drilled in training.

“She knows what waits at the end of this, Mistress.” Souri told me quietly. “She has endured worse already and you know that. She is anticipating her true birth.”

“I just hope she isn't born a bitter, hating creature.” I sighed.

“Your beautiful souled, Nadereh?” Souri shook her head. “There is no hate in her, Mistress. Not even now. She will be all that you hoped she would be, I am certain.”

I could only hope Souri was right.

Another interesting wrinkle in things, as you probably noticed there, is that I can see the ones I've touched, or changed. Though that wasn't always the blessing you might think.

“Fariba has adjusted more quickly than I would have thought.” I mused while watching the other I'd changed.

“She knows that what she is, Is, Mistress.” Souri agreed. “She has a strong spirit that has been changed by her new form into something it never could have been before.”

That was true. Fariba really had become that dutiful, loving wife I had sentenced the one she had been to being.

“In time,” my servant and confidant thoughtfully went on, “she may well see what you did to her as a gift rather than a punishment.”

“We'll see.” I sighed while reaching out to test her. By allowing just little of her magical ability to open up. “What she does with this will be interesting and important to her future.”

“As you say, Mistress.” Souri nodded.

Fariba felt the slight return of her magic and started as if she had put her fingers into a light socket.

Then a slow smile grew on her face and she looked up, as if actually seeing me and whispered. “Thank you, Mother.”

That set me back a bit.

“Mother? She calls me Mother?”

“Any you change, Mistress.” Souri told me. “Any of them, are your children even if they remain human.”

Now that was going to take some thought, and getting used to.

And the possibilities just kept growing.

“But they must come to you willingly, Mistress.” Souri added. “You won't get that effect if you just randomly change people. Those who come of thier own accord are attuned to you from the start.”

“Sheesh.” I shook my head. “I hope I can be a good influence on them, then.”

“That worry.” She smiled at me. “Is needless, Mistress.”

“Huh.” Was about all I could come up with for an answer to that one.

“You are the coming Mother, Mistress.” Souri told me simply. “The Queen who will make the Djinn a gentler, kinder people.”

“I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet.” I couldn't get the idea of being a Queen into my head even if everyone I'd met outside of those mages called me Princess.

“When the time comes, you will be, Mistress.” She told me with a simple confidence that warmed my heart and soul. “But do not worry. Being Kind and caring does not mean one is weak.

“If you succeed here, your people will be strong and for once, loved by others.”

Well, that was another of those 'think about it later' things. That succeeding part was what I really needed to concentrate on at the moment.

I looked at the still small pile of silver coins I had accumulated, separated the dross from the pure, and noticed that what was left was pitifully small. But again, I had time. Now to see if I had the patience. And the strength to do what was needed.

My mouth was engulfing his penis, taking it all in and working it with teeth, tongue and throat.

When he erupted, I swallowed all of it, then tried to get more.

Pulling away, I cleaned him, then brought him back to arousal.

Then climbed on top of him and rode that newly revitalized rod like a child on a pony. I used him until he was too exhausted to go further and much to my lessening distress, the sex was good. Very good. My body was singing with the pleasure I had felt, and wanted more.

But the vessel I had been tapping was empty.

Not that it stopped me from trying.

What I pulled from him then was something entirely different.

I tasted his masculinity, his maleness without the disguising flavor of sexual acts.

And I drank that in, too.

Oh, it wouldn't show right away, but with that I knew I had gained another daughter. One that no one suspected at all.

So discovered there was more than one way to take the ones I needed into my own circle. Interesting, satisfying in several ways, and oh so good in both ways.

Okay, I admit, the me that was now really enjoyed the rutting part of things. I couldn't even blame myself since that was how I had been made. I'd tried to do that to fight it, but it was as much a part of me as my hands, or head now. Not something I could get rid of without rather disastrous results.

A person has to adapt to realities or just cave in and stop being.

I was NOT going to do that. Giving up was just not in my nature. Either nature I recalled.

“Very nice, little whore.” That hated voice congratulated and taunted me as Miri's father stepped into view. “You had a very appreciative, and surprised audience for that last performance.”

“I wondered what he meant when he turned away from me and told someone. “Well, go ahead, pay her price.

“I find reunions to be so uplifting.” He grinned nastily at me as the person he had addressed came out of the shadows and hesitantly put a silver coin in my hand.

It was Miri.

Her expressions were many and varied. Shock. Pain. Sorrow. Outrage. And worse, the worst of them all, a trace of disdain.

 

---

 

“Very nice, little whore.” That hated voice congratulated and taunted me as Miri's father stepped into view. “You had a very appreciative, and surprised audience for that last performance.”

“I wondered what he meant when he turned away from me and told someone. “Well, go ahead, pay her price.

“I find reunions to be so uplifting.” He grinned nastily at me as the person he had addressed came out of the shadows and hesitantly put a silver coin in my hand.

It was Miri.

Her expressions were many and varied. Shock. Pain. Sorrow. Outrage. And worse, the worst of them all, a trace of disdain.

I just looked at Miri as she stared at me without being able to say a thing. No matter what had happened to me, I still loved her and the things I'd seen in her face hurt.

“I'll just leave you two to enjoy this.” Her father said and left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Bastard.” I breathed.

“Oh yes.” Miri nodded. “That and worse.

“Oh, Mike, what have they done to you?”

“What you see, what you saw.” I shook my head. “I can't help being what they have imposed on me just now.”

“They're watching.” She turned to look at the walls and everywhere else with real concern.

“No matter.” I shrugged, reaching out to make sure what they saw was an argument that I hoped wouldn't really happen. “They are seeing what I want them to see right now.”

“You can do that?” She asked with a surprised look on her face.

“Oh, yes.” I gave her a little smile. “They may have me bound, but I am finding more and more ways around that every day.”

“Then why?” She asked simply. “Why do what you just did?”

“Miri, it's hard to explain other than to tell you that the binding spells they put on me make that a part of my nature that I can't fight. And don't think I haven't tried to do that. I still love you Miri, even with how I look and what I am.

“This.” I looked down and the silver coin in my hand with a slow smile. “May just be part of what I need to get my freedom.”

“Can you do that?”

“In time.” I nodded.

“I want my husband back.” She wistfully told me.

“Miri.” I tried to think of how to tell her and just decided to say it. “What you see is me. Michael was a shell, to hide all this.
“I was born so long ago that no civilazation that was there exists in any more than ruins and interesting things in museums today. This essence you see was hidden away in mortal forms that changed with each time I died and was reborn into a new one. What your father and his companions did was to strip that mortality away, destroy it so the essence was forced to take shape just to survive. And they had their trap well set before they did that.

“But I have no real memories of that long ago life, or of the human lives I've lived beyond that of Michael's, and like him, I do love you Miri. And the people who have done this to us are going to pay.”

“Can you take your old, Mike's shape?” She asked. “I want to spend at least a few moments with the man I loved. If you do have that kind of power, and are the Heart's Desire' of anyone who pays your damned price, I want Mike back for a little while.”

I tried, oh gods I tried. I could take any female form someone wished, could become any woman in the world or fantasy. But I couldn't go back to being a male for even one second for the person I loved in life more than anything I had ever known.

So I clothed myself in an illusion, for her sake, to at least appear to be what she wanted so badly to see.

“I can't hold this for long.” I told her with tears in my eyes. “And probably will never be able to do it again. Taking a male shape is just something my essence fights.”

“Oh, Mike.” She was weeping. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, Miri.” I hugged her and just holding the illusion was taking a lot my strength. “But I can do no more than this. I'm sorry, my love.”

“It was enough, just to know that you still exist in whatever form.” She answered with her face pressed into my chest. “I hate my father. That was the last look you saw on my face, it wasn't meant for you.”

“The shock, pain, and sorrow nearly undid me.” I softly told her. “To think that you hated me was almost more than I could take.”

“Oh, never that my love.” She quietly answered as my illusion shimmered and vanished. “You were the love of my life, the one who refused to leave when you were in danger because of staying with me, the father of my son. I could never hate you even if seeing what you have been made to do is painful.”

“Our son.” I let out a breath looking at her trim figure. “He was born, and is well?”

“Oh yes.” Miri nodded and smiled through her tears. “He looks like his father, and is very healthy.”

“And you?” I asked. “What about that arranged marriage?”

“Well I'm not being auctioned off to a member of my father's circle.” She answered. “His name is Miles and he isn't that bad at all.”

“Miles?” I asked.

“He was born in England and raised there.” She told me. “So he isn't all that big on the making women bow down and all that crap. And he is a good man, Mike. Not part of the inner circle, just someone with a lot of potential they want to tap and he's related to some of them.”

“Then try to be happy with him, Miri.” I told her quite honestly. “I can't ever be what I was with you again. Your father and his friends saw to that, I'm afraid.”

“Then make love to me as you are.” She looked at me, and began taking her clothing off. “I know who's in that body, please make love to me.”

So I did.

And you know? It was just as good as when I had been Michael.

“Never forget that I love you, Miri.” I told her when we were finished. “But I can't be Mike for you.”

“They saw to that.” She nodded and I could see the anger in her.

“I can give you something that will make things easier, but you have to promise me not to try and get revenge on people if I do that.” I told her as I held her.

“What?”

“I can open your magic to you, Miri.” I answered. “But only if you promise me not to use it right now. They would kill you if you showed it here.”

“Magic?” She shook her head. “Females can't use magic.”

“Miri.” I took her cheeks in my hand and looked her in the eyes. “You have used it. When you swore you and our son wouldn't forget me. It isn't that females can't use magic, just that they have been taught that they can't. You hid us for several years while we ran from your father, you know. You just didn't know you were doing it. Just use it to make sure you aren't mistreated or you will suffer. You wouldn't be strong enough right now to fight the circle.”

“I know, love, I know.” I tried to soothe her. “I can give you that gift, but if you use to fight them you will lose and find yourself bound far tighter than I am just now. If you can't promise me that you won't use this against them, I will not open it to you, and if you even try to fight them, I will close it again. Do you understand? This is simply something to make your life better, not a thing for vengeance.

“Believe me.” I told her while giving her a tight hug. “I intend to take care of that and will.”

“I want them to pay.” She whispered.

“Oh they will.” I promised. “Just don't, please don't, try to do it yourself. I WILL take care of this. Believe me.”

“Are you strong enough?”

“Oh yes.” I nodded with a little smile. “Back when, even gods hesitated to fight with my people. Oh yes, I can do it.”

“I'll hold you to that.” She told me.

“I will do it.” I promised. “And with a promise, my kind are bound just as surely as we can be by magic. I've made that promise to you, it will happen, my love.”

“I don't know why, but I believe you.” She answered softly while hugging me tighter and pushing up against me. “I believe you.”

“One of them already screwed up, and has paid for it.” I told her. “The others will, too.”

“If one of them is beaten, does that weaken the spells that hold you, make you do those things?” She asked.

“No, I wish it was that simple. The spells binding me have been in the making for over a century, Miri. But I think I've found another way. If that doesn't work there will be another, or another. I can afford to be patient, if I have to be but believe me when I tell you that bindings or not, the ones who did this to us won't enjoy what they've done for long.”

“Patient?” She almost exploded. “I don't have eternity to wait, you know.”

“I know, I know.” I hugged her and ran a hand through her hair. “This Miles you told me about, he is a good man, really?”

“Yes.” She nodded and her face flushed. “But I thought just going to him would betray you — Michael.”

I nodded. “How does he feel about raising a son that isn't his?”

“He's told me that Michael is my child and he will treat him as his own, and I believe him, but...”

“No buts here, Miri.” I set a finger lightly to her lips. “The one, the one really important thing about love is that you want the one you love to be happy. I can never be Mike again, or even male other than with an illusion. I'm not even human now. If this man is what you say he is, and he will love our son as his own, go to him. Be happy with your life. That's what matters to me here. Do you understand that?

“You being happy.” I finished and kissed her cheek.

“But...”

“No buts, here, Miri.” I gently told her. “You have to get on with life now. And don't worry. The Circle, or whatever they call themselves, are going to have a lot more to worry about than screwing up your life or doing anything to our son very soon. Really soon.”

“Promise?”

“I've already promised you that, Miri.” I grinned. “Don't worry. Marry this Miles, let him get you out of this damned country, and I'll handle the other things. Okay?”

“All right.” She reluctantly answered. “But what about you?”

“Oh, I have plans of my own.” I told her, okay kind of lied to her, but I would have those in time. “I'll be fine.”

“That isn't what I wanted to hear, you know.” She poked me in the ribs.

“Okay, okay.” I took her hands and kissed both of them. “I honestly don't know what is going to happen with me right now. But I do know that this bondage I'm in is not something either Mike or my original self, Vanda, would tolerate for long. I'll get out of it, and trust me, people are going to regret what they've done. That's all I can tell you right now.”

“But what about love?” She asked.

“I've had it, still have it.” I kissed her and then did it again. “I'll find it again, I'm sure. Right now we need to worry about you.”

“I'd say that was bullshit.” She kissed back then pulled away. “But I have our son to worry about now.”

“I'll be watching, Miri.” I told her, promised without saying it. “But you're right. Just make sure he grows up to be a good man. I wish I could be there to help, but that isn't going to happen. Other than me watching.”

“If you really are what you say,” she whispered, “that should be enough.”

“And the magic?” I asked. “Will you take it, and not try anything stupid with it?”

“Yes.” She had to think about that but closed her eyes and repeated it. “Yes. Provided you hold to your promise about things.”

“My kind always keeps our promises, dear one, my love.” I assured her.

“All right.” She tilted her head in that way that used to drive me crazy, and gave me a sad smile. “I'll accept that and go on with my life like you've asked. Without trying to do anything to those bastards who did this to us.”

“Good.” I smiled and reached in to really open up her access to the magic. “Teach our son well, Miri. He is going to be something really special.”

She felt what I'd done and her eyes widened as the sense of the magic flooded her being, her mind, her soul.

“Now you feel it.” I told her and pulled her back into a hug. “Now you know, so learn. And do no harm with it, my love.”

“I won't.” She promised and I knew that was the truth.

“I have to go now.” I was crying, but what the hell, I'd have done that if male or female. “Goodbye, Miri. Live well, love well, and be happy.”

“I'll do it for you.” She said and her cheeks were wet, too.

“No, my love.” I corrected. “Do it for you. You deserve it.”

“Mike...”

“Call me Vanda, Mike is gone.” I answered though it wrenched my heart to say that. “That is my name, Miri, Samireh is one forced on me. Call Vanda if you need me and I will come. Another promise.”

“I will.”

“Oh, don't forget to look angry when you leave this room.” I reminded her. “Our watchers have been enjoying a pretty nasty argument.”

“Oh, that won't be so hard.” She grinned at me. “I AM angry. Just not at you.”

“Have fun, get out of this place, and live well, my love.” I hugged her again.

“I will.” She told me. “That's a promise.”

“I have to go now.” I didn't want to, wanted to take her back to my my prison, but that wasn't something that could be. “I love you Miri.”

“I love you, too, and always will.” She answered as I faded away.

I cried for hours once I had returned to my prison.

I stared at the small pile of pure silver I had managed to accumulate.

Once the impurities had been taken out what was left was kind of disappointing.

But that was the key, I just knew it. Why I knew that? Don't ask because I don't have an answer. I just knew it.

I ran my hand through the precious metal, felt a tingle, and found myself looking at a flat disk of silver that was probably around two ounces in weight.

“Wow.” I looked at what was left after that and the small pile was really discouraging if that disk was what I really needed. It would take forever and then some, to get enough for what I was thinking.

Inanely I recalled a sequence from a movie called Switch that I had once watched. A woman got out of a limo wearing a fur coat and some activist confronted her and yelled. “Do you know how many innocent animals had to die to get you that coat?”

Her answer was quite succinct. “Do you have any idea how many animals I had to fuck to get this coat?”

Now I really understood what she was talking about.

Shit.

I knew what I had to do. How to do it. What it would take to do it. And it wasn't a happy thing, let me tell you.

“This is alduterated.” I frowned and tossed the coin back to the man who had offered it. Granted, that took some effort, but I did it. Yay me. “If you really want me, get me a pure coin.”

“You do not dictate here, slave.” He flatly told me while tossing the coin back at me. “That is your price, take it and obey me.”

“I don't think so.” I smiled at him and with a wave removed the scant clothing I'd been wearing. He didn't even realize I'd moved us into my prison he was so caught up in the view and surprised that I had refused him. “After all don't you think I'm worth the pure coin instead of that cheap imitation?”

“The rules are quite clear on that one, whore.” He spat back even if he was kind of distracted by my deliberately sexy poses. “If it is silver, you have been paid and must perform as ordered.”

“Rules can change.” I told him simply. “I've just changed this one. Now my price is pure silver.”

“You can't do that!” He protested, then demanded. “Show me the proper respect while you're at it slave, or someone you love will suffer for it.”

“Don't threaten me or mine in my own home, Master.” I put as much contempt into that title as I was able and watched him finally notice where we were. “As for changing the rules? I guess someone forgot to tell me about not being able to do that and as you know, it is a woman's prerogative to change her mind.

“Well, I changed mine, and oddly, here you are with me, in the place you and your companions made to hold me. Without having paid my price.”

I let that little thing sink in for him and watched in amusement as he went from anger to worry, then to outright fear. “I command you to return us to where we were!”

“Oh, no, revered master.” I smiled and it wasn't a nice one at all. “Here, in these circumstances? You don't rule, I do. I have three words that very neatly sum up this situation...

“You are mine.” I finished then proceeded to show him that.

When I was finished, I told the very subdued male. “When you return, be sure to let the others know how my price has changed, would you?”

He nodded, unable to even speak just then.

“Good.” I purred, then reached out to stroke his now beardless cheek. He flinched and I have to admit I hadn't been all that kind, but then again, he had threatened Miri. “Once you do that, you will leave the area and your magic will close to you. Try using it before then and I guarantee you won't enjoy the results. Do as I say and you will be a cherished young wife, try to fight and you will be at best a concubine and at worse a common whore. Do you understand?”

He nodded again and I waved him back to where he had first called me.

Oddly, as angry as I had been, I didn't savage him. Oh trust me, I scared the crap, and other things out him, but I actually did very little of anything truly pyhsical to him.

Oh, no. All I'd done was tell him about the new life I had planned for him.

Needless to say, that terrified and horrified him.

Oh well.

And yes, I'm a bitch.

“Why are you asking for pure silver?” Miri's father shouted at me.

“But my price is a piece of silver.” I answered simply. “You had people giving me things that were not so except for coatings. My binding demands silver, not imitations, Master. Have I not performed adequately once the price has been paid?”

He didn't like that answer, but had no response other than. “Yes, little whore, you have satisfied all your customers.”

“It pleases this slave that she is pleasing her master.” I did the whole prostrating on the floor bow thing. “Would master care to sample what I do?”

“Yes.” He gritted out, not wanting to, but also wanting to.

“You know my price, Master.” I gave him a coquetish smile and waited.

That was the most unpleasant of all my times. But like the others, I was able to take things from him other than his manly seed or the small coin he had given me.

But the thing is, he gave me another bit of what I needed to be free.

Just to spread my legs and spurt.

I was never so glad that mortals couldn't get a child on me as then.

I bathed and scrubbed for hours following that one, even had Souri almost flail me with the scrub brush.

But even after that, I still felt soiled in a way I never had before.

With each thing I tried, each little success, I would check the weave of magics that imprisoned me.

The web hadn't weakened at all. But...

“Is that a gap?” Souri pointed at one small, very small, blot at the base of the corruscating web designed to subjugate me.

“No.” I answered beginning to think about allowing the elation I was feeling to come out. “Oh, no, Souri.

“That.” I watched the tiny, so tiny, dark spot in all that brightness with a smile slowly growing on my face. “That is the tip of the blade that will rip a gaping hole in all these spells.”

“Then it is starting.” She gave me a hug and a satisfied smile.

“Yes.” I hugged her back. “Yes it is.”

“It is a good thing those idiots had no real idea of what they were trying to hold.” Souri grinned at me. “I do look forward to seeing what you do to them, Mistress.”

“Now that Miri is safely in England, and reunited with her mother, and both have their magic opened, as well as Miles being taught, I know my wife and child are not going to be harmed.” I nodded while my expression turned grim, “So yes. It is time to get this really started. Past time.”

“I so want to hurt them.” Souri sighed. “They took a Princess, A PRINCESS of a race they can't even begin to comprehend and made you into a common whore!”

“Souri.” I took her face in my hands and gently kissed her forehead. “Your fidelity, your love for me does you a great deal of honor. It actually humbles me to know what you've done, what you would do for my sake. But this is for me to do.

“They stole a life from me even if they did give me back my true self. They have humiliated me, degraded me, and worse, they want my son. They will NOT have him, Souri. I am going to see to that.

“I know, I know.” I hugged her again. “You are raging, wanting to harm the ones who have tried to harm me.

“I've seen it in you since all this started.” I told her. “But to act would be more than dangerous for you, it could destroy you. These mages are powerful enough to not only bind you, but end you. If that were to happen I don't think this country they live in would survive my response. Please, please don't do something that would make that happen.”

“You, you would do that?” She actually looked surprised and more than a little pleased as she asked. “For my sake?”

“That and more, Souri.” I nodded. “If they really harmed you, I would pull the gates of whatever Hell I could find, bring it here, and walk them through it.”

“For a mere servant?” She asked in wonder.

“Oh, I'm beginning to see that you are far more than a 'mere servant' Souri.” I answered. “You were with me, in every life I lived, weren't you? You watched over me, helped, protected, prodded, whatever it took to make certain I lived at least happily.”

“She nodded with tears in her eyes. “Yes. Part of me has been a lover, a spouse, a friend, a parent, a child, even an enemy if that was needed. Yes, I have been with you through all that time.”

“And you have to ask if I would do what I said if something happened to you?” I asked with tears in my eyes, too.

Looking into her eyes, I saw something familiar, very familiar. But decided not to press that just yet.

“I would, I will if they harm you.” I promised, and she felt the force of that as surely as if it had been a major magical working. “I would hunt them, and any like them to the ends of the Earth, and beyond to avenge you. So please, don't do something that would make me do that.”

“As you wish.” She let out a long sigh but I could tell she was still thinking about it.

“Just keep doing what you are doing.” I grinned. “That is a lot more help than you seem to think.”

“Your Miri and her mother are becoming quite adept.” She answered with a little grin of her own. I'd sent Souri to teach them both how to make use of the new access to magic I'd given them, and she was also carefully guiding Miles into the ways of using his own potential.

“And Naderah?” I asked.

“She is going to be like her mother.” Souri actually smiled at that. “She already reminds me of the child I fell in love with so long ago, Mistress.”

“My name,” I told her while lifting her chin with a forefinger so she was looking into my eyes, “is Vanda. Please use it, dear one.”

“That, that would not be proper.” She told me.

“Oh, I think you've earned the right.” I said in return.

“This is going to take some getting used to.” She mumbled.

“Just try, you'll get used to it.” I chuckled.

“I doubt it.”

“Again, just try. Please.” I asked.

“That was well done, Princess, or possibly I should start saying, my Queen.” A familiar voice congratulated me as I was thinking about things involving Souri, and sadly, my vengeance.

“Oh?” I turned to see Behrouze standing there in all his male glory and he not only bowed to me, he prostrated himself before rising and nodding.

“The fidelity, the perserverence, the love, that little Efreeti has given you has already become legendary among the survivors of her kind, you know. In time, that one will be a queen in her own right.”

“She is a queen.” I nodded. “She has shown strength, and great deal of restraint through this, though she has badly wanted to do more. She deserves much more than simply being able to use my name to address me.”

“Indeed she does, my queen.” He bowed again then grinned. “I don't suppose you have any under used and not yet appreciated wine sitting around?”

“Always, my friend.” I laughed and made it appear.

“And where is your faithful Souri right now?” He questioned while taking an appreciative sip of what I'd called up.

“Off teaching my daughter how to make the best use of her magic.” I chuckled.

“An excellent teacher for that.” He smiled back then got a slightly nervous look on his face. “As for your daughter...”

“I know you've been visiting her, too.” I laughed and poured some wine for myself while sitting on a couch so I could look at him. “I do hope your intentions are honorable?”

“I'm besotted with her.” He let out a sigh then gave me a weak grin. “I don't know if it just because she is only the second female of our kind I've encountered in so long and is nowhere near as intimidating as her mother — yet, anyway, or if it truly is what I think it is.”

“And what would that be, Behrouze?” I prodded a little wickedly, but hey, this was important and not deadly dangerous for a change.

“I think I love her.” He answered carefully.

“Think?”

“All right, I do love her.” He admitted. “She has such beauty, of form and soul. How could anyone not love her?”

“I named her well.” I smiled. “She truly is a rare one, isn't she?”

“That she is, my queen.” He answered with a little shrug then looked at me. “Would you object to my trying to show her that, and hopefully wooing her?”

“Not at all, Behrouze.” I smiled and reached over to pat his hand. “You are a good one, my friend, and my daughter deserves a good man in her life who will live long enough to really be with her.”

“Then I have your blessing?”

“Oh yes, contingent on her being willing, that is.” I told him.

“I would never force myself on her.” He actually looked a bit outraged at that.

“Peace, dear.” I smiled. “I know you wouldn't do that. I take it she has shown interest already?”

“Do you watch everything?” He asked.

“Only until it reaches the really personal parts.” I nodded.

“I'm going to have the mother-in-law from Hell.” He shuddered but was grinning while he said that.

“I like you Behrouze, but don't push it.” I gave him a mock severe look then went on. “Just make her happy. After what she has been through she deserves that.”

“And more, my queen.” He agreed.

Just promise me that you won't do things to hurt the ones who have hurt her in the past.” I ordered. “Magic is coming back into the world and our race was not well loved the last time around. Part of the reason there are so few of us is that no one wanted to help us when the magic faded. I won't have a repeat of that.”

“As you say, my queen,” He bowed, “So it shall be.”

“The go show my daughter what a wonderful man you are.” I chuckled and shooed him off.

Damn. If circumstances had been different, I would have grabbed that guy and run.

But he was a good match for my daughter.

“Building a dynasty are you?” Souri asked with amusement as she shimmered with the effect that happened every time either one of us returned from somewhere.

“Yes I am.” I admitted without shame. “The Djinn could do far worse for a crown prince, you know. And Naderah is besotted with him, too.”

“So she has told me — in great detail.” Souri laughed.

That pleasant interlude was short, but needed.

Now, now, I had all I needed to gain my freedom but the quantity. The best part of that was making the ones who had done all this suffer, and change, as I did it.

I have mentioned that I can really be a bitch, right?

Then there was the queen thing.

Me?

Queen of a race that contested with gods? And won as often as they lost?

That one, I was really going to need to think about.

I had touched, changed, every one of the circle who had done this to me.

Oh, not all of them had been transformed into females. But every one of them, with the notable exception of Miri's father, were now mine to use as I needed.

Odd. I was their sex slave. But they were my slaves.

And, as my pile of pure silver grew, that tiny dark spot in their magics grew.

My time was coming.

Oh, yes, it was close now.

I would have my payment, my true price, soon.

 

---

 

I had touched, changed, every one of the circle who had done this to me.

Oh, not all of them had been transformed into females. But every one of them, with the notable exception of Miri's father, were now mine to use as I needed.

Odd. I was their sex slave. But they were my slaves.

And, as my pile of pure silver grew, that tiny dark spot in their magics grew.

My time was coming.

Oh, yes, it was close now.

I would have my payment, my true price, soon.

The Price of Freedom

My true price. Now that was interesting.

Even the ones I hadn't changed into females were going through a slow, and probably at least emotionally painful metamorphosis. They were losing their manhood, but slowly. Incrementally.

Hey, I did tell you that Djinn had a streak of cruelty. These people had ripped me prematurely from safety, and destroyed a life that I was truly happy with then endangered somone I loved. They had to pay for that, and hopefully, learn a few things while they did.

I still had plans for them. All of them.

And no, I'm not at all gentle with my enemies. But I could have simply wiped them out of existence and didn't. As the saying goes, where there is life there is hope. I wouldn't deny them that one solace.

But they were going to pay my true price, in full.

As with many things, that was far more simple than most people would have thought.

They would learn what is to be female in a society that not only pushes females down, but often brutalizes them. Let them feel at least some of what they did to me, and to my poor, beautiful daughter, Naderah.

Hopefully, that will open their eyes to other things, too.

If not? Well they were being, or going to be quite adequately punished.

Not by being female, oh no. But by how the culture they were part and parcel of treated females.

I'm sure that those lessons would be hard ones, but illuminating.

Very illuminating.

“The tear in the binding spells grows.” Souri noted as we looked at them again.

“Yes.” I looked at the once tiny spot of darkness in all that light and color and nodded. “Everyone I take, each one, adds thier power to the breaking. It looks slow, but spells, bindings like this are at best very difficult to unravel.

“But when they do...” I smiled in satisfaction at that thought. “They collapse completely. There is no slow unwinding, or unraveling, it simply rips and that is that.”

“I look forward to the day.” Souri told me.

“Oh, so do I.” I answered with grin I knew was nasty. “Oh, so do I.”

“They are sooo, cute!” Souri laughed as she watched over my shoulder.

“That they are.” I chuckled while watching Naderah and Behrouze. “They dance around each other and their feelings for the other while being like opposite poles on a magnet. The attraction isn't something either one can stop. I think it's about time they stopped being careful and just move into being the couple that they are.”

“Are you going to help that along?”

“Why?” I asked and shrugged. “It's going to happen, they know it, we know it, and all that stuff. Let them do their mating dance and we can tease them about it later.”

“Me? Tease a pair of Djinn?” Souri actually looked outraged and fearful at the same time.

“Dear.” I told her. “If any of your people have earned that right, you have. Behrouze thinks very highly of you, and Naderah only knows you as my very faithful, long time companion. So yes, you. Feel free to tease them about this because I know I will.”

“I don't know...” She shook her head doubtfully.

“Souri, look at me.” I asked her, no command, just a request. Once she did I smiled at her. “You are a queen in your own right, mighty Efreeti. Behrouze respects you beyond mere acceptance, your own surviving people revere you. Get used to it, my little darling. You are now officially one of the Powers in the world.”

“Me?” Her eyes widened and she started to deny that.

“You.” I nodded. “Not only are you the eldest of your kind now, you have been inspiring your people to work at survival for a very long time. Admit it or not, like it or not, you are their Queen.”

“I think I need to go and do some thinking here.” She quietly answered that one.

“Take your time, dear one.” I gave her a smile and a hug. “You will see that I'm telling you the truth here.”

“Queen Souri.” She shook her head again. “That just does not sound right at all.”

“Oh, in time it will.” I assured her. “It is, after all, a responsibility you won't ignore. Just as you've stayed with me all this time no matter how hard that must have been for you off and on. Believe me, Souri, you are special, very special.”

She disappered then, gone to think, pout, and get used to the idea, I'm sure.

Souri wasn't the only one who knew her companion inside and out, you know.

“I need to talk with you, Mother.” Naderah told me after she appeared in my opulent prison.

“About?” I asked with a little smile.

“I'm in love.” She answered a bit uncomfortably.

“With your husband?” I asked, deliberately drawing this out.

“No.” She kind of shook herself and shook her head. “That one could hang for all I care. No it's someone, something else that I've met.”

“Oh?” I gave her an interested look and let that hang.

“He is Djinn.” She said in a rush. “The last male Djinn in the world right now. He should be yours, Mother.”

“Why?”

That question surprised her. But she rallied quite nicely. It is so good to be proud of your children and at that moment I truly was proud of her. “Because he should be yours, Mother.”

“Again, why?” I prodded and hid my amusement behind a genuinely curious expression.

“I am still a child!” She shot back. “He has lived through centuries, like you. He should be yours, not mine!”

“Naderah.” I touched her cheek and caressed it for a moment. “Behrouze was born after I was hidden in mortal flesh, and he has not been in the world all that much himself. He is a child to me just as you are. Why do you think I would take a child for a husband?”

“You know him?” She actually appeared shocked at that one.

“Yes.” I nodded. “He is young as you are in experience, my beautiful child. The two of you should be allowed to mature, to grow, with each other.”

“You aren't angry.” She wasn't asking, just stating something.

“Not at all.” I said with a wink and smile. “He is for you, you are for him, what else is there to say?”

“But...”

“Hush.” I stopped her. “I want grandchildren like any mother would. Let him love you, love him. And give me those grandchildren.”

“Did you manuever this?” She asked suspicioulsy.

“No.” I laughed and grinned at her again. “I simply let nature take it's course. And yes, I approve. Let him be your man, daughter. He should be a good one to have.”

“But what about you?”

“I have my own loves, sweet.” I answered simply. “Go get yours.”

She grinned back and I could swear that I heard a very enthusiastic 'Yahoo!' as she left.

My pile of coins was growing.

What I had to do to get them? Well I'm sure you already know that so I will not go into the nasty descriptions.

If you are wondering why I didn't just pull silver out of the earth to get what I needed there is an answer to that.

The silver I needed, had to be given to me in payment for my — services. I could have accumulated a fortune in the metal, but it wouldn't have done me any good if I had gotten it for myself. The bindings demanded that what I used were payments.

Unpleasant as that was at times.

On the other hand, off and on, what I had to do was feeling kind of good.

So tell me I should fight it more. Go ahead.

I am female now, very female, and the Heart's Desire of any man who calls me.

At some point it was either start to enjoy being a female or go hopelessly insane. I took option one there.

Accuse me of weakness if you like, it doesn't matter.

When you think about it, I had been female a lot longer than I'd been male in any and all incarnations.

The soul knows, and I knew.

I was now quite unabashadly female.

And even if I was still a slave of sorts, I was glorying in it.

And again, my time was coming. I would be free.

And have my vengeance.

Now what more could you ask for?

I had all that I needed.

I had also, whimsically, put my face on one side of the coins and a hangman's noose on the other. They were actually quite pretty, and rare. They would become collectors items almost immediately, espcially since all of them were two ounces of pure silver.

I carefully put the coins into a very fine leather bag I had found and tied it so nothing would spill out. Losing even one coin just wouldn't do and I had no intention of doing that.

Weighing the bag in my hand, and listening to the muted tinkle of coins bouncing against each other, I had to smile. It had taken years in mortal terms.

But I held my freedom in my hand.

Now. Oh, now, it was time to go get it.

Along with some retribution.

Life can be good at times, can't it?

 

---

 

I had all that I needed.

I had also, whimsically, put my face on one side of the coins and a hangman's noose on the other. They were actually quite pretty, and rare. They would become collectors items almost immediately, espcially since all of them were two ounces of pure silver.

I carefully put the coins into a very fine leather bag I had found and tied it so nothing would spill out. Losing even one coin just wouldn't do and I had no intention of doing that.

Weighing the bag in my hand, and listening to the muted tinkle of coins bouncing against each other, I had to smile. It had taken years in mortal terms.

But I held my freedom in my hand.

Now. Oh, now, it was time to go get it.

Along with some retribution.

Life can be good at times, can't it?

In my hand. It had taken years, but I held it in my hand. Freedom.

It was held in a really pretty little leather bag I'd found in a second hand store.

And yes, I could wander, watch, whatever, so long as I remained at the beck and call of the ones who had enslaved me. I could even go shopping.

But my freedom was in my hand. I could feel it's weight. Along with the sense of joy that release was.

More, I could feel it's power. Even in my hand and not being where I needed to get it, I could sense the weakening of the bindings that held me.

“It's time.” I nodded to myself.

“Past time, Princess.” Souri nodded. “I'll go gather the others.”

“I'll get Miri.” I told her and she nodded. “We'll meet you there.

“Good.” I smiled and actually felt the smile as something that lightened everything that had happened to me over the past years. All the losses, all the gains, all the revelations.

The most staggering one was about Miri's father.

“How many bodies have you stolen from innocents, Ephriam?” I asked once I had appeared in his study.

“What?” He jumped a little when he heard my soft voiced question and turned to glare at me. “You have no business here, I didn't call you.”

“Answer my question, and aren't you curious about how I know your original name, Ephriam Abu Ghorbani?”

“That one died centuries ago.” He countered, still trying to avoid the question and the fact that I was standing in his study without having been summoned. “I command you to stop this line of questioning and to return to your bottle, slave.”

“Oh, I don't think so.” I smiled at him and he flinched at that. “You don't command me any longer, body thief, and you certainly aren't going to steal the body of my son. I'd kill him myself before that happened just to save him the pain you have inflicted on so many others.

“But that won't be necessary now, will it, my so arrogant Master?” I asked almost sweetly then let the bag of coins jingle in my hand as I bounced it a few times. “You had no idea of what you were trying to bind with me, but at first neither did I. No matter, I know now, and in a short time, you will too.”

He thundered a curse at me that had power behind it. I simply stood there, absorbed it and dispersed the thing harmlessy then shook my head with a little laugh.

“You would send me away in that manner when I've brought you a gift? How rude of you to treat a guest that way.”

“You aren't a guest, you're a slave.” He blustered, but I could see the growing fear in his eyes as he tried another spell. Which I ignored much like the first.

“But you have invited me into this place before, master.” I shrugged. “While not revoking that invitation once. Sloppy of you. But arrogance tends to make people careless.

“You may be powerful for a human, Ephriam,” I let out a little sigh while lowering my eyes then looked back up and allowed all the anger, all the hate, all the pain this man had caused to show. “But you are nothing, nothing at all compared to me.”

He tried again and I let him, while feeling the others arrive and Souri departing. “Oh, forgive me, my gift.”

I tossed him the bag and with typical reflex action he caught it without thinking even if he did flinch. I felt the last of the bindings on me unravel at that and nodded in satisfaction. “I think the going rate for betrayal used to be thirty pieces of silver? You have your payment now.”

“Payment?” He had felt the bindings let go and was truly afraid for the first time in a long time.

“You betrayed everyone who ever trusted you, Ephriam. Your companions, the innocents you displaced and destroyed when you took their bodies for your own, your own daughter. What more fitting payment for that kind of thing than thirty pieces of silver? Except for your daughter Miri, everyone of those thought you were their friend.

“Well that ends today, mage.” I glared at him and he flinched again.

“What are you going to do to me?” He asked with a sneer, still trying to regain control. “Kill me and I'll simply take another body and start again.”

“Oh, I'm not going to do a thing to you.” I gave him an almost gentle smile then gestured as the door opened. “They are.”

Everyone in his former circle, whether from fast changes, or the more painful slow ones I'd inflicted on them were female by then and had been for a number of years. They silently filed in to form a circle around the two of us, then Naderah entered with the presence of a true princess and took her own place in the circle.

“Hello, Father.” Miri entered last and the look she gave him was filled with contempt, loathing, and yes pure hatred. “You stole my happiness from me once, and now you planned to take my son from me? We can't allow that you know. You've done enough harm already you soulless creature.”

With a wave, I took his magic from him and with another returned it to those in the room who had lost it before. They felt the return and were startled for a few moments, but remained silent, well schooled in how a woman behaves in a man's presence in this culture.

“You have all paid my price.” I looked at them and nodded. “I hope you learned some lessons from that even if they were hard ones. And you all know the one rule for keeping what I've just restored.”

“Do no harm.” Everyone but Naderah and Miri whispered. Those two already knew and practiced that.

“Good.” I looked at each of them, in a way each was another daughter, then to the still stunned mage and body stealer in the middle of their circle. “In this instance, that is rescinded. You can't kill him, but be creative, ladies.”

With that I walked out of the room.

Outside the room I still heard the murmurings of their discussions, though not what they were planning. Oh I could have, but there wasn't any need for that. Everyone in that room had changed from what they had been in more ways than the physical. Whatever they decided would be justice, I was sure.

I also heard the body thief's voice, first trying to command, then cajoling and promising, which was answered with silence. Then he started to plead with them.

Then he started screaming when they began the retribution they'd decided on.

Yes, that made me feel a bit dirty, but it was also quite satisfying in a way I truly prefer not to dwell on and hope I never feel again. That old saying people have been using for years about being a prisoner, 'Don't let them give you to the women?'. Well it's true. Females tend to be far more inventive, and cruel, when someone is really at their mercy. Ephriam was now discovering that for himself. After all, he had betrayed, and harmed each of the people he faced now and was most definitely at their mercy.

So okay, I admit it. This felt good. Even if I didn't much like myself for thinking it did at the time. This man had taken young bodies for centuries, leaving the children he'd displaced in aged, dying husks without a hint of remorse. Oh, simple death was way too good for this one. My daughters and former wife would make sure that was redressed one way or another. And each of the ones working on him had been abused at some point or another. Because he had betrayed them.

So this was theirs to do, not mine. Letting them do it was enough for me. Vengeance can get old and I'd had plenty of that in the years since I had been changed.

“It is done, Mother.” Naderah told me as she walked out the door. “I think you'll find our decision to be appropriate for the crimes.”

The creature I saw huddled against itself on the floor when I entered the room almost had me laughing. Oh yes. Appropriate? Try poetic.

Stand up, Samireh.” I gently ordered the former mage who looked up at me with shock in her vividly green cat slitted eyes. I shrugged and shook my head. “You corrupted my own name after you stripped the human shell away from me, and gave that one to me. I find I don't need it any longer so it is yours now.

“Evening's Entertainment.” I chuckled while looking at her, still unbelieving touching breasts, hips, bottom, and other things. “That is indeed what you are now, little succubus.”

I looked at the one time mage and smiled again. Voluptious beyond mere human, beautiful and sensuous simply standing there shivering, and her little horns were so cute. “You will be pleasing a lot of men in the future, Samireh, but now that is in your nature. And in keeping with what you once did, you will be taking a bit from them in return, it will be how you feed, after all.

“Only now you won't be taking bodies from innocents.” I had to smile at that one, and that the one who had sentenced me to what he thought would be an eternity of being a whore was having to face that just made it all the better. “You'll be taking in the male seed, and their lust. Which will likely mitigate other things they might do without your services. For once, you'll be doing something good even if it isn't all that decent.”

“No.” She whispered in a voice that was like velvet so smooth, soft, and charged with potential electricity.

“Yes.” I nodded and again handed her the bag of coins. “Take them out, count them.”

She didn't want to do that, but did.

“How many are there?”

“Thirty.” She answered.

“Each coin represents a century.” I told her. “That is your sentence. With each hundred years, one coin will disappear until they are all gone. When that happens you'll be free. Much better than the eternal whore you had planned for me to be, don't you think?”

“Three thousand years?” She'd done the math and was appalled.

But you are assured of your freedom at the end of that.” I pointed out. “Something you wouldn't give me.”

“You call THAT a mercy?” She screamed at me while her tail lashed and her leathery wings beat at the air.

“It's as merciful as I get.” I answered. “I am a Queen, little succubus. A Queen! Of a proud race that contested with gods, and you would have had me playing the obedient little whore for eternity. I could have done much, much worse to you. You know when your freedom will come. You didn't give me that, or give it to anyone you betrayed in your former life.”

She screamed, raged, fought, but those of us watching just did that, watched.

“I even have a home for you, Samireh.” I gave her a nasty smile as Naderah brought out the bottle that had been my prison. “I have no need of it now, so you may as well use it.”

She stared at the thing and shuddered, then shook her head in denial.

“Time to go home, Samireh.” I told her and the bindings that had held me for so long snapped back, but around her this time. “Go.”

She screamed as the bottle sucked her into it, dwindled as if going into the distance, then she was gone, inside the prison she in another existence had so carefully crafted to hold me.

And hate me for that if you like. But it was very, very satisfying and my son was safe at last.

If she ever touched him, it would be to give pleasure rather than pain and loss. And she would do a lot to ease male frustrations and aggressiveness.

“Three thousand years?” Miri asked.

“You think that's harsh?” I asked my former wife who was still lovely enough to make my heart ache when I saw her.

“It wasn't enough.” She said with a frown. “And worse that one will be free when that time is up.”

“Miri.” I had to grin at her in spite of her anger or maybe because of it. “Did I once say that she would be male, or even human once she was free?”

“But...” Then her eyes widened as understanding came.

“Yes, dear one.” I softly answered. “After that much time being what any man who calls her wishes, drinking, feeding off male lust, desire, aggression and seed, do you think she could go back to being a male, or even human? No, even free, she will be what she is now. For a very long time.”

“Return to your lives.” I told the others in the room once all that was done. “What I have given you back should ease them now if they were unpleasant, and remember this. Even if you are human, you are all my daughters, and I will watch over you, and watch you. Misuse your magic again and you'll lose it forever. Be wise, be strong, be what you are and live well, my children.”

You know what? Each one of them came up and hugged me.

“Thank you, mother.” The last one smiled at me once she had done that. “I truly wish our first meetings had been different, but what can you do? I and the others have learned our lessons well, thanks to you. With the magic returning, we will grow stronger, but we will also be careful with how we use it. I hated you once, after you changed me, but as you say, I learned things, important things while that was happening and after. I have daughters, sons now, and all of them have the potential to use magic. I'll do my best to guide them, teach them, and to make sure they know that people are important no matter who or what they are. But most importantly that no one deserves to be punished for simply being different.”

“Fariba, my beautiful daughter.” I smiled at her and nodded. “I know you and your scattered sisters will make me proud to be your mother.”

We'll try our best, mother.” She told me.

“That will be enough.” I answered and kissed her cheek. “Now return to that family of yours and love them as you teach them. Though you might want to keep who your children's grandmother is to yourself for the time being.”

“Just come visit once in awhile.” She told me.

“Oh, I think I can do that. Now go, get home my dear child.”

“That was interesting.” Naderah told me once Fariba had gone. “Do they have any idea that they are already half Djinn, or of what will happen to them and their children once the magic does come back completely?”

“No.” I shrugged. “I'm sure they'll understand when it happens, though. And our race will be renewed through them if they don't mess up before that time.”

“When the world changes, it will be flooded with Djinn.” She shook her head and laughed. “As busy as those girls have been.”

“Hardly.” I had to laugh at that idea. “At least this time around maybe we won't be hated and feared by everyone.”

“Good point, mother.” My so lovely Naderah nodded thoughtfully and gave me a mischievious grin. “Well, time to go. Behrouze is waiting for me.”

“Enjoy him.” I had to grin back.

“Oh I intend to.” Naderah laughed as she vanished.

“So where does that leave us?” Miri asked while looking at me quizzically. “Am I your daughter, too?”

“No.” I moved forward and took her into a hug. “You are the love of my life, all of my lives beloved.”

“What?”

“You'll understand in time, Miri.” I told her. “Until then just know that we will never be truly apart. I will always be with you, you will always be with me.”

“But.”

“No buts, Miri.” I smiled and kissed her, really kissed her as I did when I was Michael. “Our love transcends time and it always has. When the time comes we will truly be together again. I promise.”

“I'll hold you to that, you know.” She kissed me back and smiled.

“You better.” I answered. “Now, you have children to raise and teach, and a very good man waiting at home for you. Take the blessings you have and enjoy them, Miri. Live well, love well, and we'll be reunited in due time.”

She just nodded, tears in her eyes and used her own magic to return to her home outside of London.

*

“She is happy, Vanda.”

I looked at the source of that voice, my always faithful Souri and nodded, then walked to her and gave her a gentle kiss while I hugged her. “I know you are. Hello my beloved.”