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“My hawks stay in human form at night when they patrol. Their night vision sucks.”
“Eagles’ night vision is about equal to a human’s, but since it’ll be the full moon, we’ll have some in eagle form, but most in human form, with weapons.”
Cora nodded, and I realized she wasn’t going to fight me on this. I leaned my head forward, so our foreheads touched, and she said, “Thank you. I won’t run away from my home, but I’ll accept help guarding my people. This is a vampire problem, so it makes sense the vampires we’re connected to will help keep us all safe.”
“My ultimately practical wolf. I adore you, I love you, and I need you to stay safe through this.”
“I love you, too, my ultimately practical vampire.”
Days later, I was invited to Drake Security, to meet with Aaron and Sophia. I was given a badge when I entered the lobby, and then walked through the building and downstairs to what looked like a living area.
“Of those who’ll possibly be oathing to one another to create a binding with all four elements,” Sophia said, “We believe everyone has enough individual ties to make it happen, with one exception.”
I wasn’t certain how to respond. I’d fucked the Dragon King centuries before, but I wasn’t certain if Sophia knew.
“She knows of our history,” Aaron said, “but we’re both concerned the connection might be too old.”
He was right, but I’d had to hope our connection, old as it was, would be enough. If I was here, the two of them must have a way to refresh it — something acceptable to them both.
“I’ve explained to my wife how your gift works,” Aaron said. “She’s proposed that…”
When he stopped talking, Sophia finished his sentence. “If Aaron and I have sex in an adjoining room, and you feed from our lust, will that be enough to refresh your connection to him?”
“Yes. Absolutely. If the two of you make the change to swan at the end, it will cement the connection even more.”
Sophia nodded. “For the record, I’m not a fan of being watched, but it isn’t the first time I’ve had to have sex in ways I wasn’t happy about for purely political reasons. I would ask you not speak with anyone except Cora about this, however. Not even your Secundo.”
“So long as I don’t put anyone’s life in danger by keeping the secret, I give you my word I shall keep it.”
“To be clear,” Aaron said, “you have permission to feed lust from me, but not my wife. I’m aware a small amount may trickle from her because of our binding, but I trust you’ll be able to keep it to a minimum.”
I nodded, the two of them walked into an adjoining room, and I feasted on dragon lust for the next twenty minutes.
* * * *
Cora
We had nine days to prepare for the full moon run. I talked to my Pack and arranged it so we’d only do this once, on the night of the actual full moon, rather than on the three nights surrounding it.
Etta spent four of those days in New Hampshire with Ryan, but when they returned, the two of them also helped with the planning.
Blaze came without Augustus, and Ryan housed her in one of his homes.
I talked to Nathan about when we might pull Aaron in for some kind of binding ceremony between me, Kirsten, Aaron, and Marco, so we’d have all four earth elements. I’m earth, Kirsten is earth, fire, and air, Aaron is air, water, earth, and fire, and Marco is air. Nathan said if we did it, he wanted to be part of it as well, and I left it up to him to set something up with Aaron.
And so, two nights before our planned full-moon run, I sat in the basement of Drake Security in a large conference room with Marco, Kirsten, Nathan, Aaron, Blaze, Ryan, Etta, Venom, twenty-one of our security people, thirty-seven of Marco’s, the Fabulosa Trio, Panda, Mira, Ember, and Sloan.
Aaron Drake would be leading the security teams, but first, we needed to perform a small ceremony to bind me, Marco, Aaron, Nathan, and Kirsten into an official unit.
Aaron used a claw to bleed us all, and we dripped blood into the four goblets. Kirsten’s goblet started out half-full of a deep red wine, but the rest of us would enjoy the blood undiluted.
“Everyone here has a close tie,” Aaron told the assorted group. “Cora and Marco, Cora and me, Cora and Nathan, Cora and Kirsten. Marco and me from centuries ago, but the connection is still strong. Nathan and me, and of course, Kirsten and me, because I mentored her for years. And, finally, Nathan and Kirsten.”
Kirsten held Nathan’s hand, and Marco held mine, and the five of us floated up to sit in the center of the huge conference table with a goblet of blood in our right hand.
We’d all removed our shoes, and we sat criss-cross so our legs and feet touched in the center, we each used our left hand to grasp the person’s bicep to our right, and at Aaron’s nod, we recited the agreed-upon oath.
“Earth, air, water, fire. Five beings, four elements, the power of three raised to the fifth power. If any of us are attacked, all of us will respond. Friends, lovers, allies. Together with our people, we are a superpower.”
