Crazy Seduction(erotica)

He looked over the site as they heard sirens approaching. He saw one of the transformed men begin to move. Shit. “Sigrid?” he said, pointing to the waking one.

He was directly responsible for creating this one, and it was a harsh reminder that he shouldn’t be fucking around like this. Earlier, he’d avoided killing Roku as he didn’t want her blood on his hands, but this? This was on him.

He paused as he realized he should have remembered the potential for forcing the change. Was this evidence of the evil magic changing him, or had he just been a dumb ass for forgetting? This random chance shit was a menace. He’d have to be more vigilant.

Sigrid nodded as she watched the man who began exhibiting signs of being a dTesh, a red-eyed night hunter. “Get back to the office. I’ll join you in a second.”

Henry put an arm around Alice and hustled her across the yard and through the door back into his outer office.

He’d have to work on his shield spell to ensure it absorbed all kinetic energy to prevent what he’d just gone through. Fuck, that demon had been strong!

The moment Sigrid stepped through, Henry moved closer and released the link between the doors.

“The team will collect the newly transformed, and more ambulances are on the way. The area is still charged with energy, so I dragged the unconscious beings clear and texted a warning to the incoming rescue workers to limit their time at the site,” Sigrid explained.

“Thank you, Sigrid. I’m so sorry I didn’t think my actions through. I-I can’t be sure why I didn’t,” Henry confessed, and the beautiful Valkyrie watched him with concern. He shrugged self-consciously and continued. “This is Alice Shaw. The burned home belonged to her. I need to get Alice back to the cavern under the home so she can transfer her treasure to her new location.”

“Ah,” Sigrid said as she suddenly realized what this was all about. “Those people were attempting to dig their way into your hoard.”

“And the Demon was probably controlling them. Alice identified him as one of the people controlling the mob who firebombed her home. He told me I was interfering with his work,” Henry added.

Sigrid called Roy and asked him to join them. She looked back at Henry. “Before you head off to help Alice, we need to bring Roy up to speed on this new development with the Demons.”

“What’s this? New Demon behavior?” Roy said as he overheard Sigrid’s comment.

Henry introduced Alice to Roy, then explained what he’d just done and what happened after he did it.

Roy was watching him with the same concerned look Sigrid gave him. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I think so. It was likely just a brain fart,” Henry said, but his voice wasn’t filled with confidence even in his ears.

“So, the Demons are looking for funds to pay for their activities. We shut down their sex and torture clubs worldwide, so now they are going after Dragon hoards. That’s a bold move,” Roy said and looked at Alice.

She shook her head. “As much as it pains me to say it, I am the easiest target out of the remaining Dragons. White Dragons are the least combative of our kind.”

Roy tilted his head in acknowledgment of her comment. “Still, thank you for letting me know.”Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

“Is your new location secure?” Henry asked.

Alice nodded. “Completely.”

“How are you going to move all that stuff?” Henry asked her.

She gave him an uncomfortable glance. “I do have some magic at my disposal. I’ll manage it as quickly as I can.”

Henry nodded to her, then looked at Roy. “Could we have VRL’s artificial men assist her? I’ve seen how effective a group of them can be in finishing a large task quickly.”

Roy frowned. “We lost a lot of them after Skyfall. The Fae haven’t seen fit to make an appointment with us to replenish them.”

Henry blinked at Roy. “I wasn’t aware of that. Do we still have the raw materials from the ones that failed?” Roy gave him a cautious nod. “Maybe I could reanimate some with one of Baba’s spells?” Henry offered.

“D’ya think she’d have something that wasn’t nasty?” Roy snorted.

Henry looked into Baba’s spells and found one that made Golems.

Ah.

These Golems were killing machines. He gave Roy a nod. “Baba’s Golems are grim and deadly monsters, all right.” Roy returned the nod as he’d expected no less.

“However, if I replaced their behavior rules with those from an existing artificial man, we’d have a very strong worker. It wouldn’t pass for Human like the artificial men, but it would be much stronger. Like comparing a passenger car to a construction bulldozer.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Roy asked.

“Can I take a look at one of ours? Maybe I can make some workers capable of quickly completing the transfer for Alice,” Henry suggested.

Alice was growing concerned. “What do you want in return for this?” she asked, point blank.

Henry smiled at her. “Very little. I have a friend I’d like you to speak with. He recently underwent the transformation process himself, but he became a Dragon.”

Alice froze for a moment then her eyes lit up. “Really? A new Dragon? There hasn’t been a new one in centuries! I was one of the last!”

“Yes, but there’s one major difference. He’s not linked to the old realm of magic. He draws power from a new realm of Wild Magic, which is much stronger. He was a Human with no knowledge of magic, and now he’s a wielder with great power but no spells of his own other than a strong shield spell which I taught him. Would you meet with him to give him some background on what it means to be a Dragon? I don’t know how else to help him with this.”

Alice looked a little uncomfortable. “It isn’t something we would speak about to anyone other than a Dragon, and even then, we don’t seek out each other’s company. However, I would be very interested in speaking with the first new Dragon.” She eyed Henry with a shrewd expression. “I would also like to learn how to use this Wild Magic very much.”

Henry gave her a sad look. “From what I’ve been told, Wild Magic is toxic to wielders of the old realm magic, the exception being the Naga. I don’t know if Dragons are also an exception, as I know very little about them. I’m just learning as I go too.”

One of VRL’s artificial men appeared in the doorway, and Roy gestured for it to approach. Henry turned to it and suppressed a shudder as he gave it a close look. For him, this was an uncanny valley reaction to something that looked so Human but was completely alien inside, just magic driving its actions without any Human presence.

Henry closed his eyes and looked to Baba’s spells to see if there was anything that resembled a spell reader. One surfaced, and he determined Baba used it for removing curses. Of course, she probably used it for adding them, too.

He placed his hands on either side of its head and looked at the spell required. His eyes opened when he detected minimal old realm magic there. He gave Roy an embarrassed look. “The head is empty, which I suppose makes sense.”

He moved his hands down to its torso. Closing his eyes again, in its core, he found a series of light spheres nested within each other, each containing instructions for the spell that animated the simulacrum. He copied the code in its entirety and stepped back from the artificial man as he opened his eyes. “Got it.”

“You think you can make more?” Sigrid asked.

He looked at her. “Not ones that look like this one. That spell wasn’t in Baba’s repository. It’s a Fae specialty, I guess. But I have the animation spell, which I can use within the Golem spell… with modifications. Can we go see the failed artificial men?”

“While you play with clay, I have to get back to work,” Sigrid said to Henry and slipped up to kiss him.

He smiled when she pulled back as tingles danced along his nerves. “Thank you for coming to my rescue again.”

She snorted, nodded to Alice, and patted Roy’s arm as she left to return to her office.

“Come on,” Roy said, leading Henry and Alice back to the elevators. They took one to the lowest basement level and walked to the end of a long corridor to a locked door. Roy brought them inside, and the lights came on to show a large, mostly empty room. Stacked against one corner were the remains of the failed artificial men. The sagging clay seemed to give them expressions of sorrow and pain, and Henry visibly shuddered.

“Fuck, Roy! These are gruesome!” he gasped.

Roy glanced at him and smiled. “It’s just clay.”

Henry took another look, but he was still disturbed. “I’m just not used to them having an expression.”

“How old are you?” Alice asked as she stared at Henry. Roy looked away to hide his smirk, but Henry spotted it and scowled at him.

“Why are you asking?” he huffed at Alice.

“No disrespect meant! It’s just… you have all this power at your fingertips, and I’ve seen you do things only master-level wielders can do, yet you get squeamish about some bits of clay. That seems to indicate a… youthful level of maturity,” Alice said as gently as she could.

Roy’s shoulders were shaking from his suppressed laughter.

“I’m old enough,” Henry grumbled and moved closer to the inanimate clay. As he looked at the mass before him, he reviewed the spell for the Golems and saw he had roughly enough raw material to make five of the larger simulacrum.