CHAPTER#120

Satisfied that Amir wasn't going to show his face again, Mike set the lions back on their pedestals. They assumed their original form, simple stone statues, once up there, but he could feel their magic burning in his blood still. The sundial had rotated slightly - of all the magical artifacts he had seen so far, he found it ironic that the most powerful defensive magic he had seemed to function like an egg timer. He had only partially twisted it, so he paused long enough to twist it the rest of the way.

Twenty four hours. In the next twenty four hours, he would have to twist it again to keep the lions activated. Part of him secretly hoped that the Society would show back up, magic blazing, only to get snuffed out for good in the middle of the night.

Celebrations were brief. Tink took the goggles from Mike then swatted him on the ass before inspecting the damage to the house. Sofia was using the garden hose to wash the blood off Abella, and Beth sat with Cecilia on the front swing, her head in her hands as she woke back up. Lily had vanished shortly after Amir had, and he hoped that wherever she was, she was doing okay. The mimic was still in the yard, a macabre scarecrow with one of his favorite shirts torn to bits. He picked it up and carried it through the door. Not knowing where else to put it, he leaned it against the wall.

He walked through the house into the back yard. Dana and Naia sat in the middle of the fountain. Dana was smiling, but still looked sickly.

"That was quite the commotion," Naia said. "But it's gotten pretty quiet. I take it you activated the defenses?"

"I did." Mike sat on the edge of the fountain. "The lions made very short work of the situation."

"And they'll attack anyone who steps onto these grounds with ill intent." Naia smiled, her memory of the home's defenses restored. "I wish I could have told you sooner."

"It's all part of the journey, isn't it?" Mike thought back to the last couple of days. Maybe it was a weird thing to think about, but he felt almost like every challenge was part of a path that had been set before him. He briefly thought of his vision, moving game pieces across a board, then dismissed it. He was ninety percent sure it had been a hallucination, a dream that had chased him into the real world. "And you? How do you feel?"

Dana shrugged. "I don't feel like I'm going to tear your face off, but I don't feel good either. Kind of cranky mainly."

"I am so, so, so sorry you got pulled into this. You need to tell me what it is I can do to help make this right."

"She still needs something from you," Naia said. "She's operating on borrowed time. The blood is rapidly wearing off."

"I haven't forgotten." He let out a sigh. Dana was avoiding his gaze, her fingers drawing shapes in the surface of the water. "But I'm getting the feeling that there's more to the story."

"There is." Naia moved by Dana's side. "Do you want to tell him, or should I?"

"Zel originally gave me a potion she had made, which was far better than the blood. She said that your sperm was in it, and I wanted to think it was gross, but I was so hungry that it really didn't matter. Anyway, Zel has a theory that if I were to eat your... fluids straight from the source, the effect would be magnified."

"And?" He could tell there was more.

"I've never been with a man before. This isn't a naïve virgin thing, this is a lack of interest thing. You're the first guy I've even been attracted to, and Naia explained to me that part of that is her fault. But honestly, I'm not super into you. Or men, in general." Dana let out a long sigh. "So in a way, I've kind of traded one prison for another."

"Well, could we save it? Keep some in the fridge? You could eat it later?"

"If Zel's theory is correct, the effect diminishes immediately upon exposure to air. Something about intent and intimacy. She wants me to collect it... personally." Dana sighed again. "Which brings up the other problem. When I drank it before, it made me super horny. And it ended up being okay, but only because someone was there to help me through it. Someone who wasn't a man. I'm still me, even if I'm dead. And part of me is afraid of what I'll become if I have to force myself to have sex with you just to stay alive. I feel like I have to choose between ravenous hunger, or losing my mind. It's hard for me to say it, but even if I just let you jack off in my mouth, part of me is gone forever, a part that waited for so long to be alive."

"Damn." Mike hadn't thought of that. She was dependent on him to stay sane, but didn't want to be involved with him sexually. "The important thing is that you need to decide what is okay for you. I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do."

"You're not? I thought... I thought the others had to have sex with you to stay here?"

"Who gave you that idea?"

Naia rolled her eyes. Mike let out a laugh.

"Lily's been telling stories, it sounds like. I'm guessing she implied more than a few things. May I?" He gestured at the spot next to Dana. She nodded, so he sat next to her. "This is going to sound weird, but sex here and with the people in this house isn't like sex out there. Here it's no different than going to a movie, or eating ice cream with friends. Granted, there are a bunch of emotional attachments, but I'm not forcing myself on anyone. In fact, I think more than a couple of them have forced themselves on me."