Crazy Seduction(erotica)

“Is everyone ok?” he asked instead.

“Yes. We got Nate away from the Marquise. Camila, Marisa, and Siobhan are all good. A few cuts, some bruises. Roy called in a Council clean-up team. Mahati received a statement to share with us. The team left the scene with enough clues to give a reasonable and mundane cover story to explain what was found, including the death of the Marquise and the ship’s crew.”

“They’re all dead?” he gasped.

Sigrid nodded sadly but held off on telling him his part in the death of the Marquise. “The clean-up team killed the crew to eliminate loose ends.” Sigrid hated the Council’s team default solution.

“The story is that she, and her friend Chantelle, both known for the escalation of their thrill-seeking, borrowed the yacht to sneak into New York City to kidnap the child of one of the city’s crime syndicate families. Documents hinting at this were on the ship. The stunt went bad, and the target family took their revenge. They torched the yacht with the Marquise’s body chained to the bed.”

“What if they ask the families?” Henry asked.

“None will admit that this could happen to one of their children and all could have done what happened to the Marquise. They’ll all believe one of the other families did it so they’ll all maintain their innocence but not vigorously. Since no one will claim it, they’ll all use the story to their advantage and as a warning.”

Henry rested back against the pillows, stunned by the viciousness of the solution. “This all happened last night?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes- oh! Roy called in the middle of the night. Apparently when he licked your wounds to seal and heal them…” she paused when she saw Henry’s horrified expression. “Oh stop it! Werewolves have all kinds of healing capabilities. Besides, you can’t catch anything from him. Anyway, while healing you, he got a mouthful of your blood. The Wild Magic saturating it knocked him out and when he woke he’d changed.”

Henry gave her a worried look. “Better or worse?”

She smiled. “Roy said better. He hasn’t called me back yet so I don’t know what the changes are.” She saw Henry was still worried so she ran her fingers through his hair. “He didn’t sound upset. It’s good.”

He smiled for her then his eyes slowly shut while she enjoyed his soft hair. Soon he was breathing deeply with a gentle smile on his lips.

Meixiu looked at Sigrid’s matching smile then followed her out of the room.

As they made their way downstairs Meixiu caught Sigrid’s eye. She’d explained the events of the night to Meixiu in great detail. “Why didn’t you tell him he killed the Marquise?”

Sigrid frowned unhappily. “Henry’s a gentle soul. That information would make him very upset. I don’t think he was aware of what he was doing by the time he ran over her. It was an accident. There’s no need to tell him as it would just cause him pain.”

Meixiu thought about that and nodded to the tall blonde. She was such a good judge of people. Far better than Meixiu who’d been sheltered for so long her ability to empathize with others sometimes felt like it had atrophied from lack of use.

She liked Henry. He was kind. She remembered when he was Stanley Garin, a much smaller man and it pleased her that, even with his larger body, he hadn’t changed inside.

Marquise Oletha Thanemark sounded like a very bad person to Meixiu. She felt like the universe was balancing itself by having such a good person remove the bad. There were a lot of bad people out there in the world. It made her feel better when good triumphed. She allowed herself a little smile. Sigrid called her a romantic.

Maybe she was.

She couldn’t wait for Henry to get better. She wanted to show him just how much of a romantic she could be.

***********

Nate stretched his arms above his head and yawned mightily. The night before had been amazing! Camila was an exciting and skilled lover. Sex with her, both times last night, had been better than his one experience with Oletha. He frowned as he recalled that woman’s gruesome end. He gave himself a little shake. He wouldn’t let himself brood over that as the night’s ultimate resolution was so much better than finding himself on his way to England to be a slave.

Like his time with Oletha, he didn’t feel like he’d fed. The sex had been amazing, but it was just that, sex. Not that he was in any way disappointed! Camila claimed to have received energy from it, so she was happy.

He looked around the stylish and expensively furnished room and smiled. Certainly more comfortable than his rented bedroom in Jo’s apartment. His happiness immediately dimmed again as he recalled the words of the lovely brown skinned woman last night. Stay away from Jo, she’d said. The blond was his best friend! He didn’t want to lose her!

“What’s that frown for?” Camila said as she entered the bedroom.

“Not for anything you did!” Nate said, replacing his expression with a smile.

She raised an exquisite eyebrow as she held his eyes and Nate shrugged gently. “I was thinking about my friend Jo. That woman last night told me to stay away from her but- I need her. She’s my friend.”

“So keep her as a friend. Just be cognizant of the dangers you potentially represent for her. Henry has a small circle of Human friends. They’re precious to him.”

He winced again when he heard her mention humans. She even said ‘human’ with a different emphasis than he did. “Sorry for screwing up last night when I mentioned Jo wasn’t like us.”

“That brings me to a question I have for you. You were unaware of your true state until last year, yes?” He nodded. “During your life did you ever spend time with a little old Slavic woman in a peasant’s dress?” Nate slowly shook his head as he couldn’t recall such a person. Camila continued. “A very grumpy, unpleasant woman-”

Lights came on behind Nate’s eyes. “Oh! There was that one time back on the night with Oletha. A woman matching that description walked up to me, scowled at me strangely for a moment and said ‘Shit!’ before walking away. She made an impression, but I haven’t seen her since. I don’t recall seeing her before that day.”

Camila nodded as she pondered that. “That was probably her. She’s the one responsible for pulling Henry from the past. Like you, he grew up believing he was Human and learned nothing of how to disguise his true nature as he was unaware of it. Unlike you, he lived with the crone. His introduction to the Hidden Races was not smooth.”

“I’d like to get to know him,” Nate said.

“You should. Henry could use a friend to pull him out of his solitude. A male friend especially,” Camila said. “You need to get cleaned up as I need to take you to the office today to speak with Mahati Chandra, the lawyer you met last night. You’ll also need to meet with the heads of the Hidden Races Council as you represent another ‘Wild Card’ for them. You need to be on their good side as we all depend on them for our continued existence,” she finished.

Nate looked at her in trepidation. “That’s not intimidating at all!”

She nodded. “It helps to maintain that caution. Remember, the Hidden Races are greatly outnumbered by Humans who, for the most part, would hunt us to extinction if they knew we existed. Secrecy means our survival. That can’t be over-emphasized. Tremendous effort is made to ensure any hint of our existence is eliminated, sometimes fatally, as happened with the ship’s crew from last night.”

“What?!?” Nate gasped.

Camila nodded. “The crew I met were showing signs of mental distress. Oletha abused their minds on the trip over to New York. She overfed which was why she was so strong. Who knows how damaged she would have left them after the return trip.” She frowned sadly. “The clean-up team took the expedient course of action and killed them, using their deaths as part of the cover story.”

Nate stared at her in surprise. “That’s… frightening!”

She nodded. “The Council takes our safety and survival seriously. You’ll need to prove you aren’t a threat to that-” When Nate made a noise of protest she held up her hands. “We’ll help you as we helped Henry. We’re the best ones equipped to deal with this, and we’re in your corner. Make no mention to anyone about your link to the realm of Wild Magic, nor it’s transformative effect on others.” She gave him a sympathetic look as she saw the lost look on his face. “Your new life isn’t as bad as it may seem at the moment. There are many amazing aspects you have yet to discover. You have to learn a new set of rules. You’re already an expert at the most critical one.”

He looked at her curiously.

“How to behave like a Human. You and Henry do it far more comfortably than us,” she said with a smile. “Now, go get ready. I washed your clothes, but you have no shoes or socks. When you’re finished in the washroom, I’ll show you how to include clothes in your glamor.”

He smiled and slipped out of bed. He walked up to her and gave her a sensual kiss. She smiled and gently pushed him toward the door.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

“That was lovely, but we need to move!” she said with a smile.

He double timed it to the washroom she mentioned and took a quick shower. She met him in the living room with a magazine open to a picture of an ad with a well-dressed male model.

“You’ll need a visual aid at first, and it might take a few tries to get it right, but you’ll get it. First, drop your glamor,” she instructed.

He did and smiled at her.

She lifted the magazine and held it before him. “Now, look very carefully at the image. Make a mental note of the style and design of the shirt, the jacket, the slacks, the shoes, and socks. Absorb all of the little details of his outfit. See yourself in those clothes. Imagine how they feel and move on you. Keep looking at the picture and keep it in your mind as you engage your glamor.”

Nate was suddenly human again, but this time he had clothes on- minus the shoes.

“You stopped thinking about the shoes,” Camila said with a smile. “Once again.”

It only took two more attempts with him staring intently at the picture to get it right, and Camila praised him for the success. She tore the page from the magazine and stuck it in her purse.