Coren asked, “Just half?”

  Saria said coldly, “We can hope for stupidity, but evil doesn’t mean stupid. I doubt their commander will commit all their numbers in the initial rush at the walls, he’ll test our defenses first. In fact, if he doesn’t commit at least half, I suggest Karana save her surprise until later in the battle.”

  Coren blushed in embarrassed anger.

  I held back a smirk.

  Jaren nodded, “Should we treat with them, they’ll no doubt offer us a chance to surrender. Personally, I don’t see a point in it.”

  Karana said, “It might be useful to send a message back to the king of our intentions and give him demands to stay away. If the rumors spread, and they always do, we might find others of like mind joining us. We’ll win this battle, but we’ll lose by attrition eventually if our numbers don’t do anything but go down.”

  Jaren nodded, “Thirty-six hours?”

  Saria replied, “They’ll most likely set up camp tomorrow night, and attack at dawn in two days. It’s possible they’ll want to parley the evening before, to give us time to decide, as if the decision is in doubt. I suggest we implement our plans, and I’ll give orders to our scouts to harry the enemy where it’s safe to do so.”

  Jaren asked, “Any objections?”

  No one objected.

  Over those thirty-six hours I missed Saria a lot, she was always there connected to me through the bond, but I hardly saw her outside of our bedroom late last night. Regina, as usual, was an ever present and supportive presence at my side. I honestly didn’t know what I’d do without her.

  I was busy too, getting set up in the common room of the inn to take in the wounded. There were around twenty volunteers who would be getting the wounded to me, and I gave them a crash course in first aid and binding wounds. They’d also be performing a crude type of triage if I was overwhelmed with numbers, and they’d bring the worst cases to me first. I had no doubt there would be some deaths, but I couldn’t be on the walls or everywhere at once. Without me, there’d be a lot more deaths, and I had to be satisfied with that.

  Then there was the guilt that I could do more to ensure more would be saved, but I held back because of the evil in some men’s souls. My abilities were dangerous enough when controlled by me, and I feared creating tools for others to use would see them twisted toward evil ends.

  I went outside the inn when the alarm was called by those on the walls, the enemy had been spotted. I walked over by the gate, where Karana, Saria, Jaren, and Coren stood watching as they moved in and set up camp just out of bow range from the city walls.

  It was an intimidating sight, seeing five hundred people gathered together to kill or enslave us. I reached behind me and took Regina’s hand, and squeezed it. I didn’t care who saw it, or what they thought, holding my redheaded beauty’s hand gave me comfort.

  War was absurd, and stupid, but evil men would prosper if they weren’t stood against. Peace would be better, but there came a point when good men needed to fight, and even kill to prevent or stop worse evil. This world had taught me that, evil was real, and had to be fought. In truth, my world wasn’t much better, but in the United States we were sheltered from most of the world’s depredations and the evils men got up to.

  Sadly, I’d just never taken much notice of what went on in those other places. Murder, torture, rape, slaughter, sex trafficking, and where women were treated as chattel, that had been far away from my own little world back home, but here I would fight against it, even if only to heal and help others to do so. I wasn’t a warrior, even if I could defend myself now against some few, I’d be lost in a field of battle.

  The best thing I could do anyway, was to be who I was, a healer and physician. I’d heal and keep our side strong, as the fight was fought.

  “This is the part in the stories, where the defenders shut the gates.”

  Karana looked at me with amusement, I’d sounded playful when I’d said that, not scared.

  “We’re safe enough, James. The gates close fast in an emergency, and we’re expecting a parley. If they don’t approach by dark, we’ll shut them.”

  I loved the way her voice caressed my name sensually, actually I just loved her voice, I could listen to it all day. Phone sex operators everywhere would cry themselves to sleep at night if they could hear her voice. Only Saria’s voice came close to it, and that was only when we were in private, and being intimate.

  I smiled, “The inn is ready, and I have twenty solid volunteers to help carry the wounded.”

  Saria nodded slightly, with just a slight smile on her face.

  “We’re ready too. Most of the scouts are going to harass the enemy camp tonight, and I sent two of them back west, to make sure this isn’t just the first wave of the king’s response. They’ll come in a few hours before dawn, to get some sleep before joining everyone on the wall.”

  Jeran waved in the direction of the army, and we all looked over. Three men were walking toward the gates, two of them in mage robes, one in armor.

  He blew out a breath, “Let’s go say hi.”

  I itched to go with Saria, I knew she was a hundred times the badass I was in my dreams, but I couldn’t help the urge I felt to protect her. Human male instincts and all, but I stayed just inside the open gate as they walked out to meet them.

  Regina squeezed my hand and sent sparks of pleasure into my body, that seemed to relax my muscles. She was getting very good at being subtle with her ability.

  “She’ll be fine.”

  I smiled and looked into her green eyes, “Am I that transparent?”

  She nodded, “To me. You love us and you’re a bit of an idiot when it comes to your protective urges.”

  I smirked, “Thanks,” and looked back at the group who met halfway between the walls and the invading army.

  She said, “Saria and I approve of Karana by the way.”

  I snapped my head back, “What?”

  She smirked, “We’d have to be blind not to see the way you look at her lately, and her flirting isn’t as teasing anymore either. It might have been just a game to you both ten days ago, but not anymore. I think she likes to tease her light elf friend and our mate, and you did intrigue her, but it’s way past that now.”

  Damn, she was right. Karana’s flirting had even gotten subtler over the last few days, more subconscious, and even if I’d failed to notice that at the time, I could see it now in hindsight.

  As for me, Karana kind of drove me crazy, but in a good way. The idea of taking our friendly flirting farther, was an appealing one. I did care about the mage, and more importantly I did trust her. The fact I’d been worried about the battle and considering upgrading her armor told me that. Still, it was hardly the time given the danger of an attacking army outside our gates.

  I’d talk to her about it later, in a few days after the danger passed, find out if she had any interest in the idea. Assuming of course, we won the battle. We thought we had the element of surprise due to Karana’s efforts and magical mastery, but the enemy could have surprises for us too.

  Chapter Twelve

  We were pretty sure the enemy wouldn’t attack until dawn, but I was sleeping in the common room of the inn that night just in case. When the four came back, Saria and Regina had followed me back to the inn. If the attack came, Saria’s place was on the wall, but it made sense for her to get rest for tomorrow’s battle if she could. Of course, it also meant this was the first night since our bonding ceremony that we didn’t all sleep together. I pushed that selfish thought away, I’d survive, and I’d still get to hold them.

  “So, what happened?”

  Saria said, “They had two demands, and offered to spare our lives if we surrendered the city. They even would have let us elves leave back to our forests.”

  “Surrender was one demand, what was the other?”

  Saria touched my arm, “You were. They demanded we turn you over to them immediately.”

  I blew out a breath, and nodded, “I’d half expected something like that, the king probably sees me as a bigger danger than the whole rebel city.”

  If the idiot only knew the full extent of our powers, he’d be really scared. On balance I was glad he didn’t, using flesh sculptor magic by feel alone would have been very limited in comparison to what I could do. All that evil stuff I could do and never would, the king wouldn’t hesitate.

  Saria said, “We told him we were independent of Desal, and warned him to take his army off our territory. Jaren also gave a speech about what we stood for.”

  I nodded, “I just wish it was the whole city that did.”

  Regina cuddled into my side, “I think we’ve got the big nasty stuff stopped. Some husbands may still abuse their wives in private, which isn’t good, but not to the extent of what we saw in those tunnels. Maybe their leader is still running around, but I really think most of the people who are left aren’t that way. Maybe they don’t see us as equals like you do, but at the least they can see us as real people.”

  She turned to Saria, “That’s one thing I envy about your people, you don’t have those problems, do you?”

  Saria shook her head, “Our population is smaller and closer knit, and as you know women serve as warriors. We’re by no means perfect, we have our own stupidities, but we don’t share that human foible.”

  I said, “Be careful tomorrow, I love you.”

  Saria leaned forward and gave me a chaste kiss in the dim light of the room. Not exactly a public display, but more than I expected from my beautiful mate who was always so restrained in public.

  “I love you too, James,” she whispered in my ear in a soft voice.

  I kissed Regina goodnight too, and then held them tightly against me as we fell asleep. I felt confident we’d win tomorrow, but I also knew there’d be a cost in blood, and I was scared for both of them.

  The next day was one of the hardest of my life. I worried for Regina too, but she was safely by my side, Saria was the one in battle.

  I heard the rumble of the earth, crackling of fire, fierce cutting winds, and the sounds of screams, swords meeting sword, and war cries. It all reached my ears here in the inn, and it was horrible not being able to see it, and how our side fared.

  The steady stream of wounded started about fifteen minutes later, and it was a decent distraction from my worry for Saria. Stab wounds, burns covering most of the body, impaled bodies from spikes of ice, bodies broken from being tossed off the wall with wind, and blunt trauma from tossed earth or telekinesis punches. Missing limbs, limbs hanging on by a thread, and other mutilations.

  I healed them all as calmly as I could, and in as detached a manner I could manage. I moved quickly, and at times when large amounts came in I skipped the verification process and simply trusted my magic would act properly to my intentions.

  No one who entered my domain died, and no dead bodies were brought in. I had no idea how many died on the walls, before the volunteers could get them to me, but I knew there’d be some.

  I was in a trance as my magic jumped from body to body, and felt both sick to my stomach with fear for others and a solid determination to heal them all. I tried not to think of the fact they were running back to the walls.

  It felt like days, but in what was probably only two hours after the battle started, I felt the wave of paralyzing magic blow through the inn. The charm I had against my body, held snugly by my armor, got warm. All my assistants had the charms as well. I’d considered testing the armor myself, but if my own ward failed I’d have been paralyzed, and unable to keep healing, so I’d asked Regina to test it.

  I glanced over, and she smiled at me tentatively, and I relaxed. It’d worked, and I knew that we were safe from mind and body effecting spells with our armor.

  A vast quiet settled as the battle stopped. The quiet seemed almost unnatural after the sounds of constant battle for the last two hours. I felt ashamed, when I hoped a lot of paralyzed enemy troops were being flayed alive right now.

  More wounded came in, and I got back to healing.

  Saria came in a short time later, about ten minutes after the wounded stopped arriving.

  She looked fine, but I pulsed my magic at her to check, and laughed when her armor blocked it. Of course she was fine, if she’d gotten hurt her armor had already healed her. She was covered in sweat, and not a little of the enemy’s blood, but she was fine.

  The grin on my face felt selfish, but I didn’t care.

  She said, “It’s over. Less than fifty of the enemy escaped, and only thanks to the mages. Karana waited until the enemy had fully committed all his troops, but the two mages weren’t effected, and managed to free the general and a few troops near them, before we could kill them.”

  That was probably a good thing, the survivors would spread tales, and we might get more people showing up to join us.

  I sighed, “How many?”

  She sighed, “Thirty-eight total died on the wall, nothing you could have done. Ten elves, seven dark elves, and twenty-one humans. We’d have lost a lot more without your efforts.”

  Regina said to Saria, “He healed two hundred and four people over the last two hours, we’d have lost half our numbers, to take out nine tenths of the enemy’s matching numbers. Not a bad ratio, but far too high for the long run if we’re to survive.”

  I smiled gratefully at my voluptuous vixen, and felt good about that, but the deaths still hurt.

  Saria replied, “We’ll see what the king does next, from what we know that was about a tenth of his standing army.”

  Could I have saved more if I did more? I needed to figure out a way to create some organic tools with magic that couldn’t be abused, or even used by others? That meant creating triggers, and making sure those tools didn’t spread or multiply, which shouldn’t be too hard. It also meant taking full responsibility for the deaths they would cause against the enemy, which gave me pause.

  It would be much easier if I could depend on everyone to do the right thing, but all I could do was deal with the real world, wishes didn’t get me anywhere. I had a few ideas to try out, but not now.

  I sighed, “When they come back they’ll bring twice the numbers and be ready for Karana’s spell. That will still leave him with thirty-five hundred to defend against attack out of Gritor in the west.”

  Saria said evenly, “It’s what I’d do, but we’ll see what the king decides.”

  “You okay?”

  Saria said, “I will be, let’s go home. The cleanup is underway, and my people know what to do.”

  Regina gave Saria a measuring look, and then said, “I’ll make us lunch.”

  I wasn’t sure what that look was about, or what Regina had seen in Saria to so obviously give us time alone, but I was smart enough to wait until we were back in our suite to ask. Saria didn’t like to open up in public, but she’d let her guard down in private.

  We left the inn and headed back toward the keep and our suite inside of it.

  Chapter Thirteen

  My petite, supple, and curvy elf fit against me perfectly, as I rested my head on her silky soft silver white hair and held her in my arms.

  Regina had gone to the kitchens to give us time alone, and my sweet exotic beauty had come right into my arms as soon as I’d opened them when we got back in our suite.

  “My love?”

  She nuzzled into my chest, and I felt a little guilty about the hard on that started to dig into her stomach, but I couldn’t help my reaction to her alluring and feminine scent, and the feel of her soft body against mine. Regardless, I ignored the reaction as I caressed her hair, the back of her neck, and her back. Gently protective concern and a deep love rose in my chest, and it pushed the familiar lust that she engendered in me when she was in my arms to the side.

  She said softly, “Make love to me James, please?” as her armor melted off her body.

  I caressed her down to her lower back and was about to grab her by the ass and carry her, but then I changed my mind at the last second and scooped her up in a bridal carry instead. She wrapped her arms around my neck as we moved into the bedroom, and she started to trail kisses over my throat and jaw with light brushes of her slightly parted lips.

  Saria was usually a wild thing, my little sex pot, and we hardly ever made love and then only after a very hard fucking. Her soft kisses and gentled demeanor filled my heart with the need to love her gently and show her exactly how I felt about her.

  I laid her in the tub and stripped off my breeches and shirt while the water filled it. I stepped inside, and sat down behind her. I ignored the way her soft silky skin felt against my hard cock, and reached for the soap and a cloth instead. I loved the smell of her sweat, but the blood and scents of battle had to go.

  With gentle hands I cleaned one of the loves of my life, paying gentle attention to every inch of her skin, not just the fun spots, as I nuzzled her hair as she relaxed back into me. She had such a supple and tight petite body, with perfectly rounded B cups, a waist to die for, and the sexiest tight little bubbled ass I’d ever seen. The exotic alien beauty of her face, ears, and dark blue eyes still took my breath away in our more intimate moments.

  “You are so beautiful, love.”

  Her hands caressed my legs slowly in response, and she made soft sounds of pleasure and sighs of contentment as I finished cleaning her and I up. Then I picked her up and stepped out of the tub. Drying her off with the towel was kind of nice too, and I was painfully hard by that point with my mate on display. The way she was acting had my protectiveness at an all-time high, it was as if she’d surrendered herself to me and my whims and was lost in me.

  She’d never been this submissive before.

  I scooped her up again, and carried her to the bed and laid her down. I crawled up on top of her, and gave her a soft loving kiss, which she returned in gentle intimate passion. I ignored the desperate need I felt to be inside her, and started to kiss down the sweet graceful curve of her neck. She sighed in pleasure as I reached and teased the flesh of her breasts with my lips.