EnchainedDragon Page 2

  Lying naked in bed after a total stranger had given him a sponge bath and waking up to a room full of strangers telling him fantastic tales wasn’t bizarre enough for Jason’s tripping out mind. Now it had to go paranoid with his soldier’s mind working. “Neutralize as in kill?” he asked.

  “No!” the guy who had bathed him exclaimed, drawing a narrow-eyed look from Sheels who answered in a much different tone.

  “No, but because of the circumstances, you will be relocated in Vargr.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Jason drew a deep breath and blew it out slowly. His head might still be screwed up, but his body was recovering. Naked or not, he slipped off of the bed and gathered his clothes. Modesty be damned. He was getting the hell out of there. He didn’t know if he had really heard what he thought he heard. Hell, he didn’t know if there really was anyone there, but fresh air and exercise had to help.

  While he dressed, the first guy, the one who’d chased Emory out told him, “Do not think we do not anticipate your intentions, Jason Burge. Do not attempt to leave as I would be forced to restrain you, and I have no wish to cause you injury.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “My name is too difficult for a human to pronounce, and I have as yet not chosen one for this dimension. You may do so.”

  “How about Asshole?”

  “Another derogatory—“

  “Yeah, yeah, like fuck. You said you rescued me. From what?”

  “I am uncertain of Estacrewban’s intentions on this occasion, but he would either have turned you into his sex slave and taken you back to Vargr or fucked you to death.”

  Jason jerked and then laughed. “You’ve learned to use that word okay, Asshole.”

  Though he flinched slightly at the name, he answered calmly. “Yes, and I suspect the latter as he had time to observe your character before he began his spell and judged you would be a difficult slave even with an enchainment spell.”

  “I can see why,” the fourth man said, pushing the laptop for Sheels to see the info on the screen. Asshole and the last man leaned in to see as well.

  “You guessed this?” Sheels asked Asshole, but looked at Jason like he didn’t believe what he’d seen.

  Shaking his head, Jason pulled up short on his way to the door at the answer Asshole gave.

  “My evaluation was not a guess.”

  “You glemmed it?” Sheels asked in a tone that made Jason suspect he didn’t like Asshole very much.

  “My instincts are seldom in error.”

  “I’ve seen men enchanted, and he doesn’t seem anything like the usual type for possessing.”

  He jabbed at whatever was on the laptop screen, and Jason backed up to see what it was since they were talking about him. Sure enough, there was his picture complete with information

  “How many have you seen who overcame an elf enchantment spell? Estacrewban had not completed the enchainment spell before I interceded. Jason is beginning to recover his senses now. You would be aware of this if you had seen him earlier for comparison. Once he comes to terms with the information we are giving him, you will see that.” He jabbed at the laptop.

  “Enchainment, enchantment?” Sheels questioned and commented with a sneer, “He’s gay.”

  “Prick,” Jason muttered, heading for the door. He didn’t care one damned bit for the fact they’d looked him up on the internet, and to judge by the glimpse he got, they’d hacked into his military records as well.

  Assshole beat him to the door, blocking it and talking to Sheel. “As you know we have no such discrimination for sexual preferences in Vargr. You continued display of your contempt is deferential to our working together in harmony.”

  One of the other men grunted.

  The fourth man, the one Jason would have sworn had twin horns poking out of his head when he first opened his eyes, said, “You do understand I have no problem with what you refer to as homosexuality.”

  “Because you’re another…” Sheels caught himself before the word was out. “I apologize. It’s the whole idea of fucking someone to death that doesn’t sit right with me.”

  “Yet two males makes it worse for you.” Asshole asked Jason, “You have determined which of us are human and which is Vargr by our conversation?”

  With a shrug, Jason told him, “That would be cheating, maybe making you think I’m waking up more than I am or smarter in some way. I saw you when I first woke up. You’re shape shifters or some shit.”

  “You know of such things?”

  “I read a lot, and a lot of m/m stories have shifters in them, wolves, lions, and bears, oh my. My head, crazy after some drug Emory slipped me, has just incorporated fiction into my hallucinations.”

  Sheels snorted at his words. Jason’s guy smiled, and the transformation was astonishing. In that instant, Jason wanted to fuck him on the spot.

  “Though I do not understand the reference Commander Sheels finds disgusting, I see you have recovered to a degree since you are able to jest, and now you are assimilating the information we have given you, though you still prefer to believe it isn’t real and explain it away with a drug. Your intensive sexual need was not stimulated physically, but mental by an enchantment spell. ”

  “Whatever,” He was just going with the flow for the time being because it was easier. “You better get one thing straight, though, I’m no one’s sex slave, and I’m not going to Vargr, wherever and whatever that is.” He twisted enough to face his guy squarely. “I’ve got a job, family, and friends.”

  “With your military qualifications, you would be an asset if you were to join us.”

  “Chasing a sex pervert isn’t war.” He’d had all of war he wanted too. “You need to move.”

  “I cannot. Your life is in danger, and the battle you would be required to participate in against Estacrewban, you are not qualified for. I am.”

  “You don’t want to find out how well I can fight.”

  “No, Jason, I do not.” A feather light touch of his fingertips stroked Jason’s jaw. Jason’s cock paid attention and that made it hard to concentrate. “I believe now that you have been warned, you will be more able to resist magic, but Estacrewban is exceptionally strong. Where he has failed with one spell, he will attempt another.”

  Jason shook his head and stepped back. “Does that mean I’m immune to it now?”

  “Only that one, and only if you guard yourself against it and the many others he will attempt.”

  The other being spoke up. “He may decide to just eat you.”

  Jason laughed. So did the other man Jason had identified as human. Sheels scoffed.

  His guy said, “Patrick does not jest.”

  “No,” Patrick agreed, “and you are incorrect when you say there is no war.”

  “There is not, as yet,” Asshole argued.

  “There will be. If King Egill or his sons do not keep control, the Vargr will turn against the humans, and the humans will lose.”

  His guy told him, “What is happening there is not our current concern. You are an intelligent man. While it seems to be too much to assimilate now, you will do so.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “You must.”

  “Or what?” Jason demanded.

  “You will leave us no choice but to take you to Vargr.”

  “I already told you, I am not going anywhere.”

  “Jason, you must—”

  His arm rose, and his hand aimed for Jason’s face. Jason backed away, shaking his head. “You’re trying to pull the same crap on me Emory did. I’m not going to fall for it. Not again.”

  “Interesting,” said Sheels. “Is that normal?”

  “No,” Patrick answered.

  His guy concentrated on him, stalking him as Jason retreated. “Back off,” Jason warned.

  “I wish to touch you.”

  “You already did. Plenty.”

  Patrick asked, “Do you t
hink as he was under a spell to hide a Vargr identity as Prince Elvie was to hide he is a fairy?”

  Before anyone could answer, Sheels asked in accusation, “Did you fuck him while he was enchanted?”

  “I did not.” Asshole twisted to face those at the table. “Estacrewban ignores our laws. I do not.”

  “How did you touch him then?”

  “I manually manipulated him into a climax.”

  “You about ripped me fucking in two doing it,” Jason complained, looking for his shoes and hoping no one noticed he’d been so anxious to leave he hadn’t even thought of them until that moment.

  “You penetrated him?” the other being shrieked.

  “My fingers only! I did not fuck him!”

  To everyone’s surprise, Sheels burst out laughing. “Newbies will screw up every time. I keep saying they need training before they send them to us. During your quick set of instructions, they must not have mentioned how careful you had to be of a transference during an enchantment. We thought you’d only interrupted Estacrewban. If you did anything sexual to help him break free, you gave him the will to resist you as well as Estacrewban. If you want to fuck him as bad as I think you do, you’re going to have to make him want you the human way.”

  “He is quite young,” Patrick said in his guy’s defense. “No many in Vargr have ever faced such a situation to even know of the possibility of a transference.”

  “Fuck,” Asshole retorted.

  Jason had to laugh. As screwy as everything was, not sure he believed a second of it, he did appreciate one thing. Asshole was learning human profanity.

  * * * *

  Jason sat down on the edge of the bed. The other three, certain no doubt that his guy would be able to control him, had left them alone, promising to be back later. “Okay, tell me the difference between enchantment and enchainment.”

  “Enchantment binds you to another’s will but is temporary and will wear off in time and with distance. Enchainment binds you to another’s will while making you insatiable, not only willing, but desperate for sex from him or whoever he gives you to, and it is binding until death. As elves are much stronger and more viral, to fuck you to death is most often the result of an enchained human.”

  With a chill running up his spine, Jason asked, “Where does the eating me part come in—and I don’t mean a BJ.”

  With a slight smile first, he said, “Many from Vargr find human flesh appetizing. Estacrewban is a dark elf and has been known to partake of such. There is no sense to many of the things he does. He is evil, but it is possible he has chosen you simply because of your place of employment.”

  “I’m a night watchman in a food warehouse,” Jason said with a scoff.

  “Yes, a position of insult to a warrior such as yourself. However, many items here are priceless in the Vargr realm. I suspect his objective was to gain control of you to allow him easy access to the stores you protect.” He sniffed and added, “You carry the smell of those stores—chocolate for one, a commodity much favored there—which would have drawn him to you. A trace of some spice also, nutmeg I think—something very rare there.”

  While Jason attempted to recall if he’d seen any cartons marked with any chocolate or spices, Asshole made a rapid shift of subjects. “You are calmer now. You have accepted what we have told you?”

  “Hey, guy, this has been going on too long to be a drug, right?”

  “Guy is the name you have chosen for me?”

  “No, it’s—sure why not? As good as any, unless you prefer Asshole.”

  “No, I do not. May I ask a question?”

  Jason gave him a lopsided grin. “Could I stop you?”

  “I ask permission as I do not wish to violate your privacy.”

  “Right off hand, I’d say that’s already been done to the max lately.”

  “Of your body, yes, but not your thoughts and feelings.”

  “If you want to know what I think about all of this—well, shit, Guy, hell if I know yet.”

  “I am curious as to why a warrior would choose so menial a position or why one of your caliber would be discarded by your military.”

  Jason fisted the covers on each side of him. Did he want this guy knowing every fucking thing about him, including his failures? No. He lied. “They didn’t discard me. I quit.”

  “Why?”

  Continuing with the lie, Jason said, “Let’s just say some of my squad lost faith in me when they found out I’m gay.” No way was he going to tell him he’s lost his nerve on the battlefield and broken out in a stress produced rash.

  “Why should that make a difference?”

  “You really don’t see it as any different.”

  “As we are immortal and have little interest in reproduction, same sex relationships are as normal as opposites.”

  “So you’re saying you never die?”

  “Not of natural causes or diseases, but we can be mortally wounded.”

  “That other guy, Patrick, said you were young.”

  “I am but ninety-seven years.”

  “You don’t look more than thirty,” Jason exclaimed. “Are you ever going to age?

  “Yes.” Guy sat down beside Jason, leaning toward him, but careful not to touch. “I sense disquiet and unhappiness in you. A turmoil that is disturbing to you. You would find quiet in Vargr. I would be able to visit you often also.”

  “In the first place, I’m not going to Vargr, and in the second place, if there’s a war brewing there, that ain’t peaceful.” He didn’t add the only thing that interested him was the thought of visits. Guy had maximum sex appeal, at least to Jason, and Guy wasn’t even putting a whammy on him the way Estacrewban had.

  “Then you must join us at WRAITH. We are the inter-dimensional policing agency between our two worlds. I believe you will find the work satisfying. We retrieve any who come here from the Vargr Realm, return them, and neutralize any human witness who may come in contact with them.”

  “I’m sure it’s interesting as hell, but like I said, I’m not interested.”

  “Until he is captured, Estacrewban will be a threat to you. You cannot win in a battle against him.”

  “I’m not letting him dictate my life, either.” Standing, he told him, “I’m going to go home, clean up, get my uniform on, and head to work. You can’t stop me, but you can go with me.”

  “I could stop you.”

  “Not if you meant what you said about not hurting me. That’s the only way you’d stop me.”

  With a sigh, Guy answered, “Very well, I will accompany you. I must alert the others as to where we go.”

  “I thought they left.”

  “Only to watch from a distance.”

  “You wouldn’t be using me as bait, would you?”

  “Yes,” Guy answered bluntly. “As you refuse to go to Vargr, we have no other choice.”

  “Yeah, well how would you catch Emory or Estacr—whatever you call him—otherwise?”

  “As you do not wish to join us, our methods are of little concern to you.”

  “That just means you aren’t going to tell me. Fine.”

  Chapter Two

  “Exciting work, huh?” Jason asked, leading the way down the wide aisle in the warehouse. “I at least get some exercise making the rounds. Sometimes I jog it.” He pointed to the fifteen foot high shelves on either side. “I climb those sometimes too.”

  They reached the end of that aisle to the open aisle running the length of the warehouse. Pallets of boxes sat against the opposite wall, lined up for loading in the morning. Jason pointed to one stack for Guy to sit on and went to the one next to it. He wasn’t out of control needing sex anymore, but just walking his body gravitated toward Guy, and his fingers twitched just to touch him. Figuring it was still dregs from the spell, he worked hard to keep it under control instead of slamming Guy down to the floor and fucking him silly.

  “The position is not worthy
of your skills,” Guy commented, perched on the closest edge of the pallet to Jason and leaning toward him.

  The body language told Jason, he wasn’t the only one interested in touchy-feely. While considering the possible results of giving it a try, the only warning Jason had that something weird was about to happen was Guy got all shimmery and the air around him rippled in waves like heat coming off hot payment. Guy lunged to his feet.

  Without time to even get to ask what it was, the dark, almost mirror reflection of himself was gone. Holy shit! Guy was an elf? Slim, blond, and, while not in shock or with his head messed up, Jason saw the most beautiful man he’d ever seen in Guy’s place. The anger radiating off of Guy did nothing to take away from his beauty, but told Jason clearly that Guy’s beauty did not mean Guy was not a warrior.

  Turning to see what had set Guy off, Jason got no more than a flash of the blond Emory he knew before a dark, not so pretty thing stood in his place, tall, bony, long arms with claws at the end. Thinking how close he’d come to letting that thing fuck him gave him the chills.

  “You have come a long way, Cousin, to finish our battle,” Estacrewban said, his hideous features twisted in a sneer, shoulders hunched, and claws flexing.

  “I came to finish you,” Guy answered, twitching but not moving forward.

  “What?” Jason asked. “Just a fucking minute. What happened to my job attracting him to me? All that chocolate and shit he smelled on me.”

  Emory—no, Estacrewban laughed, holding his hand to his stomach. “He smells of chocolate to you? How delightful, and it would seem you have told this human an untruth”

  “That you had escaped Vargr, and I had a connection to you is the truth.”

  “You’ve made no mention of your hatred of me? Of your personal reasons for wanting to see me dead? ” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Does it make you wonder at the irony of my leading you to him?”