• Almost four hours later, they were waiting for the action to come to them, and had been for most of the two hours.

    Dezzy let herself enjoy some petty satisfaction in the fact that Veldra was the only one of the team uncomfortable like this.

    The group had, not surprisingly, decided to ambush the targets as they crossed the bridge.

    Sadly (or fortunately as far as Dezzy was concerned), there wasn’t much cover around the bridge, so they decided to hide underneath it.

    Thing was, Dezzy could attach herself to walls and ceilings comfortably and Emeris could easily float for long periods of time… Veldra couldn’t do either of these things.

    Dezzy couldn’t help but throw a small smirk at the drow as she adjusted herself yet again. The pompous b***h hadn’t swallowed her pride and asked Emeris to levitate her as well with his telekinesis, rather, she had decided to use a short spell to climb down there with them, stab her shield into one of the supporting pillars, and then sit on that once her spell faded.

    This would’ve worked better if the shield was a bit bigger.

    As it was, even a perfectly balanced and slim dark elf couldn’t sit comfortably in the small portion of the shield that protruded from the pillar for any length of time.

    The b***h was stubborn, Dezzy would give her that; she hadn’t asked either of them for help in all the time they had been waiting, even with none of them having any real idea how long until their targets would be here.

    She paused in her musings, there was something…

    Closing her eyes, Dezzy listened.

    She could hear the slow, relaxed heartbeats of her teammates, the blood rushing through their veins, flowing just beneath the skin. She ignored the sound. She could hear the water of the river below them play across each rock individually. She ignored that too.

    Then the wind shifted, and Dezzy caught it, the faint squeal of oil-thirsty treads, the rumble of several tons of metal and death rolling along the street.

    The tanks.

    They were still a ways off though. When the wind shifted yet again, Dezzy couldn’t hear them despite knowing what to look for.

    Still, “They’re on their way.”

    “Finally,” Veldra somehow made the word sound husky and seductive despite her discomfort. Dezzy was marginally surprised when the drow managed to stretch while staying planted on her shield.

    Emeris cracked open an eye, glancing over at Dezzy from his place cross-legged in the air.

    Dezzy knew that look.

    “No, not yet, we’ve still got some serious time before they get here, so don’t worry about it just yet.” Her friend nodded, closing his eye and returning to his meditations.

    The drow hummed disapprovingly, taking a second to try and settle back in her shield. Once the discomfort hit, a scowl crossed her face and, surprisingly, she looked over at Dezzy, “He doesn’t have to worry about what?”

    It took a moment for her question to actually hit home, when it did, Dezzy frowned. This was exactly why she didn’t like adding people to Emeris’ and hers partnership. She’d have to explain everything about how they worked! Gah!

    Still, she was going to be a part of this, she had to know.

    “Emeris is going to link all of our minds together, mostly on a subconscious level so we won’t get into each others way.” Dezzy gave her fellow teammate a pointed look, “But it’s also so any orders can be sent between us quickly and silently, without the enemy being privy to our strategy.”

    Veldra was plenty perceptive enough to read the subtitles for that statement and accepted it as the reminder it was: Dezzy was in charge here. It didn’t matter how many centuries of experience you had, you followed her orders without question in the field, because, far more often than not, Dezzy was a step ahead of everyone else.

    “Such a connection sounds… agreeable…”

    Dezzy let herself feel the faintest glimmer of petty satisfaction at Veldra’s subservience before squashing the emotion.

    Vampires always had to have these Master-Servant relationships, and Dezzy still got the edges of that supernatural impulse. She’d stopped trying to deny it, but that didn’t mean she had to indulge those feelings.

    So, it was with a soft sigh that the leader of the Ravens Rebellion settled back against the support pillar of the bridge, patiently waiting for their targets to approach.
    ________________________________________

    It took the vehicles more than an hour to reach the bridge, though the ladies had heard them coming long before that.

    When they judged their targets to be about ten minutes away, Dezzy had Emeris connect them. It was an… interesting, experience to say the least.

    Though Emeris was comfortable with it, neither Dezzy or Veldra were used to brushing minds with another. As often as they were mentally contacted by Emeris, it was an entirely different feeling.

    Emeris’ mind was unobtrusive, Dezzy related touching his mind to something like wearing a pleasantly warm and cozy winter hat and scarf, even when he ‘spoke’ to her telepathically, it was like he was whispering to her against the base of her skull. Disconcerting at first, but it quickly became mundane and easy to accept.

    Veldra’s however…

    First, Emeris had connected himself to both of them separately, a familiar sensation to Dezzy, though she could distantly feel another’s presence through the blanket of his power. But once he connected Veldra and Dezzy to each other… Dezzy could hear a screeching sound, almost like metal grinding against glass. She knew it was quite literally all in her head, but that didn’t change the fact that the sensation was almost unbearably nasty.

    Then, Emeris did something, filtered their minds somehow, and the screeching was gone; it was replaced by a decidedly… unpleasant sensation. Dezzy likened it to someone grinding a rough stone against the front of her brain through her skull.

    Dezzy winced slightly at the sensation, but then the familiar touch of Emeris’ mind brushed against hers, ‘Testing, testing, 1… 2… 3… testing, 1…2…3…’

    Dezzy smiled, thinking pointedly back, ‘Dezzy, checking in.’

    Veldra’s voice soothed out from somewhere near her breastbone, ‘Veldra De'ville, present and accounted for.’

    Well, at least her voice was still pleasant, telepathically or not.

    It didn’t take long for the two women to adjust to the discomfort, their personalities clashed, so too would their minds. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t work together for a common goal.

    And that goal was passing over them right now.

    Veldra crouched on her shield, knowing that moments later Emeris would pull it free of the wall telekinetically. Dezzy scurried along the underside of the bridge silently even as her team floated the other direction.

    Through Emeris’ telepathy, they knew where each solider was above them, and where the mutant werewolves were.

    With little thought, both Dezzy and Veldra flipped up onto the bridge from opposite sides of the caravan.

    Dezzy felt time slow as the adrenaline rushed through her veins, and the image of the idling military burned into her brain.

    Men in full gear on the tanks, about four per tank, three tanks, no basilisk. Alternating line, tank, armored car, tank, armored car, tank. The men are only just starting to turn towards the two blurs of motion on either side of them.

    Then she moved.

    She moved far faster than most of these men could aspire to, she ran for the front truck, her blade sliding into her hand at a thought. They would have several uncontested seconds as the military men realized there was a threat.

    Her sword danced when she brushed past the rear bumper, the long silver blade striking out as she raced around the truck, splitting open tires like over-ripe melons.

    There was a squeal of metal against pavement as she dashed towards the front of the truck, distantly, she could feel her will wrap around the tank behind her, only it wasn’t her mind, it was Emeris’s. Even as her blade stabbed out, opening up the first front tire, the tank, such inconsequential matter, lifted into the air and was tossed casually aside.

    Dezzy slid across the hood of the armored car, feeling it crush under her hammer. No, Veldra had reached her vehicle and brought her hammer down upon the hood, her satisfaction had rushed through the link so strongly Dezzy had almost been there as the block of engine crumpled under her magical might.

    Yet as Dezzy slid across the hood, her hand did not slow in its descent to her hip, clutching the pistol in its holster and twisting it up. Letting the feel of the next moment guide her hand, her instincts meshing with Emeris’ precognitive edge as her finger squeezed the trigger twice, the massive rounds each clipping a half turned solider in the shoulder.

    Her feet touched pavement again and her sword struck out again, stabbing into the hubcap of the final tire, a quick twist snapping it off its axel.

    Screams rang in her ears an octave lower than they should’ve been, the two men she had shot screamed as they lost an arm at the shoulder each, and there were the screams of the men who had been on the middle tank as they were flung like ragdolls by her telekinetic power.

    Emeris’ power, not hers.

    She had to remember that, though it didn’t matter now. Not as her massive blade came up, a tire on the end of it for just a second before she flicked her blade disgustedly and sent it flying.

    A part in the back of Dezzy’s mind noted that Veldra’s personality was leaking through more easily than Emeris’.

    One of the soldiers in front of her had turned, his gun brought up to bear, his face contorted in surprise and mild rage.

    They could smell his fear.

    Not just his, all of them. Every man in sequence as they realized what was happening. Who was happening.

    Dezzy could feel herself falling into the battle-link, her individuality fading under the merge of senses, skills, and adrenaline, and she let it happen, because that’s when they became unbeatable.

    They felt a tremor in the man’s mind, a flash of three bullets streaking towards their right breast at the edge of the future. Their sword came up, twisting in the air even as the trigger was squeezed, they felt the bullets ricochet off the blade and into the door of the armored car.

    The armor was good enough to stop the bullets from reaching the driver, They knew, but it startled him and kept him in the truck longer.

    They felt bullets ping off their shield, the military in the back truck were elven, faster reactions than humans. Those two had taken their guns and were firing at the part of Them that was Veldra.

    A grinding sound reached their ears and they felt the thoughts, the men in the front tank were turning the turret around to fire at the part of Them that was Dezzy.

    They came to a decision, a plan fully formed even in the half second the two unharmed soldiers on the tank leapt to the ground.

    Their sword flowed through the air, the blade turning the bursts of bullets aside easily as the part of Them that was Dezzy slid back behind the truck.
    Their backs touched, and a jolt went between Them.
    Dezzy and Veldra came back into themselves, individuality coming back in a rush. It caused the briefest moment of hesitation.

    Hesitation that might’ve killed them if Emeris had not joined them, creating an equally brief barrier, a visible distortion in the air of telekinetic force.

    It only took a moment for the two women to return to the fight, but it had cost them their psychic offense.

    Dezzy knew that Emeris had expended too much power in blocking all of those bullets directly to maintain their link and fight… at least for the moment.

    Her sword danced in the air, deflecting bullets from the trio of Ravens, waiting for the two foot-soldiers to ease a bit further around the truck. Distantly now, Dezzy could feel the bullets thundering against Veldra’s shield; the drowess had to deal with all six infantrymen shooting at her, two from the truck and four off the tank. The staccato of gunfire rolled like thunder in their ears.

    The difficulty increased as another pair of guns were added, the two men in the front armored car finally getting out, firing at Dezzy and her team.

    These men were well trained; they alternated fire, reloaded at different times to keep up a constant stream of bullets at the team.

    Seconds dragged by, a sword dancing in the air and a shield trembling under constant gunfire. But the two women didn’t even attempt to retaliate, letting this defensive struggle drag on for almost fifteen seconds.

    Fifteen unending seconds in battle; an eternity when you’re the one being shot at.

    But they did this with a purpose in mind.

    Because, for those fifteen seconds, Emeris was gathering his power. Recharging.

    And after those fifteen seconds, when the women felt the mental Ping! they moved.

    Dezzy’s hand dropped to her hip, twisting the pistol up and squeezing the trigger, once, twice, letting her instincts guide her shots.

    The half-vampire turned and drew the ungainly pistol in one smooth motion, idly flicking her blade one last time to deflect bullets from that direction.

    But as she abandoned her position, Veldra was taking it, her shield coming around to replace Dezzy’s sword.

    Dezzy took her teammate’s position with a lunge of her blade. The swords edge intercepted the path of bullets aimed directly at the group, guided by instinct, experience, and a glimpse of the future.

    She could hear bullets change trajectory in mid-air, nudged aside by the almost intangible field of psychic power that surrounded them; it made her grin. Distantly, she heard the two soldiers she had just shot collapse to the ground as one of their knees simply disappeared from the high velocity rounds.

    Her pistol came up, her sword jerking to and fro in front of her body to protect her torso from the hail of bullets.

    She squeezed the trigger twice again, this time lining up her shots and sending large rounds straight through the guns of the two elven soldiers.

    Smooth as a dance, Dezzy and Veldra switched positions again, shield replacing sword against a hail of bullets, sword diving into air, angled to deflect the lead streaking towards them.

    It took Dezzy but a moment to line up two more shots, it was painfully easy. The two military humans left on this side seemed to be moving through molasses to her, and the direction of their shots were excruciatingly predictable; she didn’t even need the precognitive edge to deal with the two of them.

    Two more deafening shots came from her oversized pistol, and the final two soldiers on this side of them joined their fellows on the ground, screaming as shrapnel from their destroyed guns filled their arms.

    The reload was automatic; the magazine dropped from the gun, her sword finding its sheath before reloading the empty gun with smooth, practiced precision as Dezzy took cover behind Veldra’s enchanted shield.

    A solid blow to her calf reminded Dezzy that they were not completely protected by the small shield, enchanted or not. A bullet had skipped across the asphalt, thankfully only to slam into her body armor, she would bruise in the morning, but she could still use her leg.

    It was time to end this.

    Veldra shifted, and Dezzy found herself glad that the drowess had been included in the subconscious link, her pistol already half up.

    They would see the gun, it was hard to miss such a massive black pistol even at night, but since Dezzy herself was not peeking around the shield, they probably thought she was firing wildly.

    Poor fools.

    Sadly, Dezzy wasn’t entirely sure who’s thought that was, or whether it was the teams shared sentiment.

    But in any case, it was true. Dezzy didn’t need to see them, because through Emeris, she felt where each and every soldier was. It wasn’t as good as being able to see her target, but it was good enough to incapitate normal military without killing them right away.

    She took her time with each shot, taking out three of them before the last one got smart and dove back into the armored car, using the block of steel that was the engine as cover.

    It was sadly easy, this team was surprisingly effective at covering its own a**, any adrenaline rush she had was fading quickly. Dezzy was almost disappointed at the ease at which they were taking out the military men.

    Unfortunately, the universe decided not to disappoint.

    As she waited for the man to peek out of the truck in any meaningful way a rumbling mechanical sound came to her attention.

    The large tank in the front of the line of vehicles had finally turned around enough for its turret to peek around the immobilized armored car.

    The three shared a sharp intake of breath for half a moment as the barrel swung around. In that fraction of a moment they belatedly realized they had forgotten the two remaining tanks.

    After that though, they scattered.

    Dezzy felt the air distort as Emeris slipped through the cracks in reality and heard the scrape of ceramic on asphalt as Veldra dove under the armored car, confident the tank would not fire at their own men.

    After the half-second of hesitation to be sure her teammates were getting to safety, Dezzy leapt through the air, adrenaline and magic fueling her leap and sending her over the edge of the bridge.

    Whoever was that tanks gunner had pitifully slow reflexes, firing a good two seconds after the three of them were long gone.

    The explosion rocked the bridge to its foundation, the pressure wave pushing Dezzy further than she’d planned and nearly made her miss grabbing the lip of the bridge with her free hand. But she still managed to swing herself under the bridge, clinging to the concrete to give her a moment to collect her thoughts and breath.

    A soft, cold thought pierced through the adrenaline, ‘The back tank is mine.’

    It took a second for Dezzy to run through the implications in her head before sending the affirmative thought.

    ‘Then Veldra and I will take care of the front one.’
    There was a moment of hesitation on the drow’s side of the link before her thought came, ‘If that insufferable turret gave me but an iota of room I could reduce it to slag.’

    ‘So… I’m bait?’

    ‘Basically.’

    Dezzy couldn’t help but grin; now this was what she was after!

    With a grin as feral as she felt, the half-vampire holstered her pistol and flung herself back onto the bridge, knowing Emeris would coordinate himself with her.

    Her feet hit asphalt once again, and she didn’t move for a full moment, taking her time to absorb the landing. Then she dashed forward, not moving as fast as she knew she could.

    The turret followed her movements, sluggish to her adrenaline fueled eyes.

    A scrape of ceramic on asphalt touched her ears, followed by a brief airy whistle.

    Dezzy wasn’t sure who was more satisfied when the warhammer plowed into the barrel and bent it back on itself, Veldra or herself.

    But even with the main cannon disabled, the half-vampire did not slow her dash, instead, she sped up.

    She felt like a blur as she reached the side of the tank and her fingers stabbed into the armor. Her body tensed, blood, adrenaline and magic flooding her muscles.

    A guttural growl escaped her clenched teeth before she could stop it as she heaved.

    The tons of metal and ceramic lifted of the ground slowly at first, quickly gaining speed as the tread left the asphalt. In only moments the battle tank was on its side, and was completely flipped with little more than a light kick.

    Distantly, she felt Emeris’ willpower encompass the other tank and tossing it aside much as the first. Dezzy half turned, ready to congratulate her team on a mission well done, but a sound reached her. The beginning of a shout touching her ears:

    “Dez-!”

    A thought slammed into her mind like a train, ‘Dez! Duck! Damnit, nevermind, I’ll do it!’

    The half-vampire had nearly begun to duck when her muscles left her control, her body beginning to lurch away. Then pain blossomed in her neck.

    SILVER!!!

    It was like fire in her veins, but it was fading fast now… It took her a second to realize she was face first on the ground…

    Well… that’s not right…

    A warm sensation spread across her neck and shoulder, curious, Dezzy turned her head slightly, wincing at the pain lancing through her back.

    Her eyes landed on a widening pool of blood on the ground, her blood, coming from a wound on her neck.

    It was at that point that she passed out.
    ________________________________________

    A soft easing of tension spread through her shoulders, trickling through her arms and down her back.

    Dezzy twitched her hand, her arm jumping to her holster, only to find her pistol absent.

    “I was wondering why he was so insistent about relieving you of your weapons, now I understand why…” the soft and husky voice that met her ears was unbelievingly soothing, “You might’ve had a round in me before I could’ve stopped you…”

    With a relieved sigh, Dezzy slumped back against the warm body of Veldra, “Can you blame me…?”

    “Why should I?” the half-vampire felt a small pinch in her shoulder before more tension seemed to ease out of her body, “I would’ve done the same or worse.”

    Dezzy couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her lips, despite her closed eyes, “So… it was bad enough that you decided to give me a drow massage?”

    The woman behind her let out an amused ‘humph’, “Not a full drow massage, but yes, I find it helps the healing process. Even for those such as you that heal quickly.”

    “Hm…” Well, it was certainly making her feel better, “How bad was it?”

    “You lost a bit of your fourth and fifth vertebra as well as a lot of the back of your neck. If you had been any slower you would no longer be with us, half-vampire or not.” There was a bit of bite to the tail end of that, but Dezzy accepted it without comment.

    “So… do I have you to thank for my miraculous recovery?”

    “To be brutally honest…? I’m not entirely sure,” her slender fingers dug slightly into the back of Dezzy’s neck, seeming to push the tension out as she spoke, “Your body was trying to heal itself even as I got to you, it was not doing the best job by itself, but Emeris may have been able to guide your healing…”

    “But your clerical magic…” Dezzy trailed off.

    “Yes, my spells certainly made the process instantaneous.”

    A sigh escaped the younger woman’s lips, though she herself was uncertain of the source of it. After a moment, she bothered to ask, “Where are my weapons?”

    “Three feet to our right.”

    Just out of easy reach, made sense all considered.

    “So… what happened? I couldn’t exactly see what was going on…”

    “The cowardly male that had hidden in the truck had taken advantage of my momentary distraction to shoot at you,” Dezzy could hear the sneer in Veldra’s voice, “I rewarded his tenacity with a quick death.”

    “Ah…” Dezzy couldn’t keep the smile off her face, “So… you forgot about him too…”

    She sniffed disdainfully, “A heavily armed and armored vehicle often takes priority over a single, cowardly male.”

    “Ah, touché’.”

    The two women maintained the silence for a long moment before they broke out into a fit of soft giggles, soon fading back into silence.

    Dezzy finally forced her eyes open to find that they were still outside. It took her a moment, but eventually she spoke up again, “What happened after you killed the soldier?”

    “I came over and healed you; and once Emeris was certain you would be okay he began to remove the soldiers from the area.”

    Dezzy nodded, it was standard procedure after all. They were to try and keep from being recorded in any way, they had found out the hard way that this usually meant getting any kind of military as far away as possible before they actually did anything. Not to mention that they were supposed to spare lives, avoid collateral damage, and attempt to avoid witnesses as much as possible.

    “On the subject of Emeris…” Dezzy froze, if she wasn’t mistaken, the drowess actually sounded… hesitant.

    “Yeah, what about him?”

    “I… do not know much about him and… it is bothering me… he is not like other males and I find him… intriguing… and I wish to understand him.”

    Veldra probably felt Dezzy’s shock at her words and spoke in a quiet rush, “I am no fool, I know you do not trust me around him and I can not fault you for this mistrust. But please, believe me when I say I only wish to understand him. He is a puzzle to me; he is the first male I have not understood within hours, the only one to surprise me again and again… and I cannot bring myself to leave this puzzle unsolved …”

    When Dezzy remained silent, the hands on her shoulders squeezed, Veldra’s voice becoming almost desperate, “Please… if there were any others I could ask I would. But you are the only member of the Ravens who has any substantial knowledge about him… Everyone else knows only rumors or things that I guessed within minutes of meeting him…”

    She sounded so… human like this… Her voice was still low, throaty and sensual, but… she sounded desperate, at least for her. And as much as Dezzy did not trust her, as much as she wanted to hate the drowess, she couldn’t help but feel a connection to her.

    She knew what it was like to be grasping at straws all too well.

    “I can’t exactly just start ranting about him over nothing…” Dezzy would give her some leeway. But the moment she so much as toed the line, Dezzy’s mouth was snapping shut.

    Veldra paused, gathering her thoughts before speaking slowly, her hands absently returning to massaging Dezzy’s shoulders, “For one… why didn’t he stay in the air the entire fight? I know his power is not unlimited, but being airborne seems like such an advantage…”

    “It’s just another thing he’d have to focus on. He’s already maintaining a precognitive edge, linking the entire team together, reading surface emotions of our enemies, generating mental static and using his telekinesis…” She paused before continuing in a softer tone, “Emeris is an amazing multitasker, but asking him to fly on top of all that? It’s too much even for him.”

    “I… I was wondering why it seemed so easy…”

    “Yeah, he’s not worth as much in a straight up fight as me, or even you really, but he excels at making things easier on his team and harder on his enemies.”

    Veldra was silent for a long moment, her fingers absently working against Dezzy’s shoulders through her armor. When she spoke, her voice was soft and hesitant once again, “He’s… he’s holding back all the time isn’t he?”

    “Yeah… as far as I know…”

    “Why? Why would he restrain himself so much? He tossed those vehicles around like so much tissue paper…!” Dezzy could hear the disbelief in her voice, “I can understand why he does not want the responsibilities of leadership, but… why does he not at least show his power? So few of the Ravens show him respect, especially…”

    That last bit startled Dezzy some, “Especially what?”

    She sighed, “Especially since… since I started showing interest in him…” The drowess finally stopped her absent-minded massage and leaned against Dezzy’s back, “It’s actually pretty common, I show interest in a male and most of the others suddenly dislike that male, I know that amongst the surface races it’s jealousy but…”

    “But…” Dezzy prompted her when she hesitated.

    “But… most males that I have favored have either been smug at having my attentions, haughty, or at very least disdainfully ignoring the sneers and disrespect of others… Emeris… Emeris doesn’t react, he doesn’t acknowledge their disrespect, he doesn’t act like anything’s different even… he just… acts like it’s normal. It’s as if he’s actually bored by their disdain and jealousy.”

    Veldra pulled away from Dezzy’s back for a moment and the half-vampire could feel the dark elves gaze focusing on the back of her head, “I just can not understand! His power is enough that a mere brush of his thoughts would knock them aside! If he were to focus on the insolent fools they would collapse at the weight of his mind!”

    “He makes no demonstrations of his power! None! A casual touch of his telekinetic strength, a mere fraction of his power, and they would be in awe of him! None would dare assault him! I cannot understand it!”

    The drow clutched at the back of Dezzy’s bullet-proof vest with surprising strength, “Even I, one completely untrained in the ways of the mind can feel the thrum of his power just beneath his skin! I have seen the sparks of his power dance across our skin when we lay together! I have felt the presence of his mind filling his rooms as we embrace!”

    “And despite all of this, he contains it the moment that door opens! It is hidden beneath a blank face and half-lidded eyes the moment another sees him! I simply can not understand why he does not take the respect he so rightfully deserves!”

    “He is weak! He has no ambition for power! He takes nothing! He follows orders as the most broken and obedient males I have ever seen! And yet he remains intriguing!” By this point, the elves voice was loud and breaking up with barely contained tears of frustration, and if she had not been clutching so tightly at the back of Dezzy’s vest she would’ve turned to… to do something.

    “I just can’t understand why something so weak could be so strong! Why I would be so dasth fascinated by some illbith with no ambition!”

    She broke into contained, soft sobs that she immediately tried to swallow down; her hands finally loosening on Dezzy’s vest enough for the half-vampire to pull away just a bit and turn around.

    Dezzy’s blue eyes looked over Veldra’s face slowly, taking in her wild eyes, barely contained fury and frustration showing all over her face, her hands fidgeting in her lap and looking for all the world like a caged animal with no way out.

    For a brief instant, she entertained the thought that Veldra might be playing this up to soften Dezzy’s feelings towards her. Then quickly discarded the idea.

    Drow valued strength, self-serving actions, betrayal, and deceit. Any show of emotion was controlled, any slip could spell their death. Trust equaled death. And yet here was an outpouring of emotion, Veldra was strong, controlled, and seductive, Dezzy just couldn’t see the drow lowering herself to this just for some tender feelings.

    Dezzy had never been good at consoling people, but…

    Reaching out, she placed a firm hand on Veldra’s shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze.

    Wild crimson eyes flew up to meet her calm ones, and something passed between them.

    Veldra closed her eyes and swallowed down the last of her sobs, quickly calming her breathing and collecting herself. It was only a couple seconds before those light crimson eyes opened again and Veldra nodded at Dezzy.

    Taking her hand back, Dezzy pondered what to say to all of that. Unless she missed her mark, Veldra was finding herself actually liking Emeris, enjoying his dry sarcasm and occasional swings from laid back calm to inhuman intensity… and the drow didn’t know how to deal with it.

    Veldra wasn’t just intrigued, she actually liked him. Nothing in her life would’ve prepared her for this, and Dezzy couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her.

    Then it hit her.

    The perfect way to explain why Emeris hid his power to her.

    “Veldra…” the drow acknowledged her with a nod, “You know how the surface treats your kind-” Dezzy’s had snapped up at the scowl that crossed Veldra’s face, “I don’t need to know details, but I completely understand that almost all races are prejudiced against your kind, heavily… You hid your heritage outside of the Ravens, why?”

    Unabashed shock flashed across the drow’s face before she scowled again, “You know full well. You yourself hid your vampiric heritage not too long ago.”

    “Yeah, I did… but amongst the Ravens we can escape prejudice can’t we?”

    Veldra paused, her voice dropping some, “Yes… we can…” she looked at Dezzy with a questioning intensity, “What is your point?”

    “Emeris can’t. For all of our acceptance for things most of the world can’t even think about standing… if Emeris let slip what he really can do, everyone would treat him like some sort of god…”

    She paused, letting this sink in, “When we want to escape prejudice, we don’t really want to be treated better than them, you and I just want to be treated like anyone else… and so does he.”

    “People have hated our kinds for longer than either of us can remember… but Emeris has the opposite problem. He’s always had a large degree of psychic power, because of this he was always treated special, given concessions and treated like a prodigy…” Dezzy blinked, a small part of her mind screaming at her for giving away Emeris’s past so easily, but she shut that out easily.

    “He had a chance to escape all of that and he took it.”

    Veldra had nothing to say, her lips pressing into a thin line as she processed such a possibility. Dezzy could almost see the thoughts in the drowess’s head, surprised at how easily she was read.

    ‘Hiding your strength because you would be treated differently? Wasn’t that the whole point of strength? To be treated better? To be treated differently from everyone else?’

    Dezzy could practically see the thought cross her mind, see the realization settle upon her.

    ‘But what if that was all you had known…? What if you only wanted to disappear for just a little while and could never do it…? What if your entire childhood had been trying to escape the attention and you never could…? Wouldn’t you just try to blend in…? Try to get some reprieve from the constant admiration?’

    ‘Would I?’

    Dezzy had gone through almost that exact thought process when she had first discovered the real extent of Emeris’s power.

    In a world where most people were Class 1 or 2, (somewhere around the capability of a high school football player or the state college’s MVP respectively) and few exceeding Class 3 (the NFL’s MVP), Emeris certainly stood out…

    As he had put it: “Qualifying as a Class 8 on an exponentially increasing 10 point scale that measures approximate capability and strength with a median of 2 and a standard deviation of 1… well… it stands out something like an hot, well-dressed woman at a comic convention.”

    Actually… that gave Dezzy an idea… She would see how Veldra reacted to that news, and if it was acceptable, she promised herself that she wouldn’t interfere with this little relationship they had going, if it wasn’t, she would step in.

    Veldra seemed to be getting over the realization that Emeris had an understandable reason to hid his ability…

    Well… time to drop the bomb and see how she handled it, “Veldra… how strong do you think Emeris really is?”

    The drowess paused and thought over her answer before speaking, sensing something was up, “I would have to say he’s stronger than me, maybe stronger than you… most likely a class five to class six...”

    “Vel…” the soft, almost affectionate use of her name had Veldra immediately bracing herself, “He’s a Class 8.”

    Well… to tell the truth, she wasn’t taking it too bad.

    Her mouth was hanging open just a bit, her eyes were a little wider than normal, but all in all, not too bad.

    Then she shook her head, loosening the cobwebs before her mouth opened and closed several times, obviously trying to say something but tossing away each thing before she said it.

    Finally, after several seconds of this, Dezzy decided to throw her a line, “Veldra… I want you to be honest with both yourself and me, will that change the way you act around him?”

    The shock that crossed her face wasn’t surprising, and her mouth opened to give an immediate answer. But after a moment, her mouth shut and her expression melted into a certain degree of concentration.

    Eventually she looked Dezzy straight in the eye, “No, it won’t. I find myself more curious about how he can hide his power…” A look crossed her face that Dezzy couldn’t put a name to, “And I find the challenge of getting him to show it all to me to be irresistible… but it will not change the way I treat him. I simply find myself more intrigued by the paradox of his ability.”

    With a slow nod, Dezzy accepted her answer, and in a way, was giving Veldra a shot at Emeris. She still didn’t really trust the drow with him, but she was willing to give her a shot after this. If she hurt him, Dezzy would make her pay, and she would be there to pick up the pieces.

    The two of them lapsed into silence as they waited for Emeris. And by the time he popped back into existence to help the women set the armored cars up for teleportation back to the base, Dezzy had come to a conclusion.

    Despite all of the troubles in her life, all of the love problems she had been experiencing, the constant life or death struggle she fought almost every day, and all of the responsibilities of leading the Ravens in a rebellion against a power-hungry usurper that seemed to be everyone’s friend… she felt better.

    She knew that the issue of Veldra sleeping with Emeris was far from resolved, but… this felt like a turning point, like something had finally changed for the better in her life. Something she hadn’t had to scrape and claw and work at to eek out even the slightest good.

    For the first time in far too long, things actually seemed to be looking up.