By the time the first football game had gotten to halftime, Shamira had lowered the number of possibilities down to a handful. Their little television-watching party had grown, as apparently Bangaly the werelion and his werelioness Kira were both die hard fans . . . Detroit Lions fans, to be more precise. The pun had made Shamira groan. Renata showed up just for the hell of it, and spent a lot of time flirting with Bangaly. Between Henry and Clara, Shamira felt like she was shopping for presents with teenage girls when reviewing the donor list. It was a long string of “Ooh, look at that one. That one’s pretty” or “You don’t want that one. Too scrawny” or “Ewh! A vegan? They taste like crap!” It was a bit surreal.
In the end, Shamira chose a young married couple who owned a comic book store over on Canton Highway. Both were cute, in a geeky-pseudo-goth kinda way. He carried a couple of extra pounds and she had glasses so thick that she could probably use them to look at star constellations, but there was just something about them —
“Why them?” Clara asked, noticing that her friend had been staring at the same couple of pictures for a while.
“They seem smart, and fun-kind-of-geeky, and –” She stopped.
“What?”
“Because they’re just as deserving as the other candidates, but no one else . . . I’m mean, they’re not as ‘attractive’ as some of the others or –”
“In other words, you think the rest of us are shallow,” Henry said, feigning offense.
“No, it’s not that. Not really. But you have to admit, the ones who get chosen tend to be more . . . Beverly Hills 90210.”
Clara kissed her friend’s cheek. She figured these two reminded Shamira of Jimmy Fisk, the boy she thought she should have kept safe. Never mind that she had been a fourteen year old girl getting pushed around by high school boys. Jimmy Fisk had died, and Shamira had been protecting people ever since. Clara was convinced that part of the reason Shamira was a submissive was to compensate for her otherwise constant need to protect everyone. She was a dichotomy, and she was wonderful.
“Good choices,” the Native American said, moving the laptop aside and laying her head in her friend’s lap while sucking down another pizza roll. “Wait a minute,” she muttered, glancing one last time at the screen next to her, “did you see the health section?” She sat up again. “They’ve got –”
“Yeah, I saw that. I can’t be affected, right? And vampires can’t be transmitters?”
“That’s true.”
“Then I want to do this. They should see someone’s still willing to touch them.”
Clara smiled, then kissed her friend long and soft before finally settling in for the game.
Renata smiled to herself as she watched the two interact. She wondered if Shamira had told Clara everything about what had happened last night, including the last thing the conduit had turned into before the ritual ended. Somehow, she doubted it. ‘Oh well,’ she thought. ‘They’ll figure it out for themselves soon enough.’ But the whole incident had left Renata realized that she hadn’t had a chance to play with Shamira yet, and it was something she planned on correcting very soon.
“Shamira,,” came Shane’s voice from on high, “could you come by my office?”
Halftime had just ended, and Shamira doubted that it was wise to keep the boss waiting for another hour and a half, so she gently worked her way out from under Clara’s head. “Save my spot?”
Clara grinned and eyeballed Henry, who had moved to get the prime real-estate that had just been vacated. “I’d be glad to.”
Shamira smiled, wondering how much of the lounge area would be intact when she got back. She had wondered why a house the size of Shane’s had so few televisions, but she’d been told it was to make people interact more and establish a sense of community. Otherwise, everyone would just hole up in their own rooms, much like teenagers.
“Yes sir?” she asked when she arrived. There was an abundance of plant life in his office now that had to be new. Then, peeking out from behind a palm frond, Shamira spotted a faerie.
“Shamira, His Great and Royal Majesty the Most Illustrious Leader Frolthac and Her Delectable and Most Beautiful Majesty Queen Lillia of Nature’s Glory have already sent a messenger. I thought you should be here.”
The faerie, a young female by the looks of it, was staring at Shamira with something resembling hero worship. “I appreciate this,” she squeaked, glancing at Shane. “And thank YOU, most illustrious Sex Goddess of the House of the House of Stapleton. It is an honor to be in your presence.”
‘Is she giving me the eye?’ Shamira wondered, taken aback by her apparent new title. “Please, call me Shamira.”
“Oh Goddess, I –.”
“Shamira.”
“Goddess.”
“Shamira!”
The tiny woman stomped her foot in mid-air. “Their Majesties have determined that the first person to outlast the conduit will be referred to as the Sex Goddess! I must obey their royal wills!”
“For how long?”
The woman cocked her head. “How long must I obey? Oh, only as long as they’re alive and –”
“No, how long am I stuck with that name?”
“Stuck?! It is a great honor –”
Shane was trying very hard not to laugh. “In your realm,” he said, trying to be diplomatic, “she shall honor that title, but in my house, she must be addressed by her real name. It is our way,” he said.
When Shane used that voice, people listened. The little faerie woman was certainly captivated. “Yes sir.” Her face became more formal. “Their Majesties wanted you to know that we have already received directed communications from a number of colonies, all of whom feel this is a noble effort. And they really wanted to know how they’d managed to call up that much sex magic.” She smiled and looked at Shamira. “You’re famous now.”
Shamira rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, we’re getting call-backs from as far as Toronto. I didn’t even know where that was, but apparently it’s damn far. Anyway, we have a list of faerie colonies that are experiencing missing members.” The woman handed Shane a very tiny scroll. Shane didn’t look concerned, so Shamira assumed he could read it. “It may take a few weeks to hear back from the other Georgia colonies, but these are the quick responses.”
“Thank you, m’lady,” Shane said. “What was your name?”
The faerie blushed. “Glareen, your lordship.”
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Glareen.”
“Send our appreciation and thanks to their Majesties,” Shamira added, offering her tongue. Glareen quickly flew up and kissed the offered muscle, then looked at Shane. Shane smiled and made a similar offering, which the faerie also took before vanishing into the plant life and then, with a green flash of light, disappeared completely.
“Strange people,” Shane muttered. He looked down at the scroll. “This will take a while, but I want you to make personal contact with the other Georgia colonies once we get some more responses in. Get a lay of the land. You won’t be able to hit all these places by yourself, so I’ll put some of the other enforcers on it. I can’t spare the security detail, since we’ve got this meeting coming up.”
“What’s that about?”
“The Tribunal just wants all the Southeastern lords to come together and discuss some zoning issues. And I believe there will be some words for Andrew Lacroix and his recent activities. A member of the Tribunal will be in attendance, so everything must be safe and organized.”
“Will this Lacroix guy be there?”
“Yes.”
“Why? I mean, he’s trying to kill you and –”
“Allegedly,” Shane said. “And any lord or lady who comes here under Tribunal order cannot be harmed for the duration.” He smiled an put a hand on Shamira’s shoulder. “You still have some things to learn about our world, but you’re doing well. I am proud of you. Now go back to your game and . . . oh yes, remember that we’re retrieving Tabitha tomorrow night.”
“Yes sir. And tomorrow is another safe day for me. Oh, I’ve decided on a couple of blood donors. Clara’s going to help set up a meeting for Tuesday. I didn’t know if you had anything planned for me that day –”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you’ve finally found someone acceptable. I’ll have an assignment, but it can wait until you’re done. By the way, has anyone told you about donor etiquette? No? While sex with our donors is commonplace, I do no want you to engage in submission games with them. Humans really aren’t capable of dealing with that kind of relationship with someone so much more powerful than them.”
“Yes sir.”
“Clara can fill you in on the rest.”
Shamira headed back to finish watching her game. Clara had kept her promise to defend Shamira’s spot. Henry was rubbing his shin and looking indignant. She filled everyone in on what she and Shane had talked about, including filling Bangaly in on the hunt for morning star dealers. The werelion took immense offense at the practice, making Shamira like him all the more.
At one point, Shamira got back up and headed to the kitchen to grab a case of microwaveable taquitos only to find that she wasn’t alone. Renata had followed her and was grabbing a glass of lemonade out of one of the refrigerators. She walked past Shamira and sat at one of the many stools that littered the room.
“Hey, how are you holding up?”
“You mean after last night?”
“No, I mean after the other really weird mystical gangbang you’ve had recently.”
Shamira gave the girl a frown. “Sarcasm doesn’t become you.” The she grinned and said, “I’m actually doing fine.”
“That was some weird shit. You fantasize about that stuff a lot?”
Shamira shook her head. “I hadn’t thought about that in a long time,” she admitted. “I remember seeing this really creepy japanime flick called ‘Curse of the Overfiend’ or something like that once. I hated that none of the girls in those movies actually consent, but –” She paused. “This is going to sound sick, but the whole thing with tentacles . . . this unstoppable thing that just fucked you until you couldn’t take it anymore just got me excited.”