Sean blinked. "Where?"

  "I'm not sure; that's the problem. The company name on the invoice is 'HoJo', and it's for a thirty-day fee on a room? But I did a search on the name, and nothing came up."

  "Where's the processing center?"

  "That also didn't make sense. It's in Ireland. Should I call them?"

  "No," he said, smiling, and he gave her a hug and a kiss. "And don't contest it or cancel it, just pay it."

  She leaned into him. "So, good news then?"

  "The First told me he was up around Black Rock last night. Now I know where."

  "There's a hotel in the DEZ?" she said, pushing back and looking up into his eyes. "That takes credit cards?"

  Sean nodded and laughed. "More than one, actually. I'll have to check with my intel people, but I think I know where Mike's staying, at least. Though why the hell he went there is beyond me."

  "I find it difficult to comprehend that there are djevels using credit cards."

  "I'm not so sure they are, but the DEZ has turned into something of a honey pot for a lot of evil people and unscrupulous companies. As there's no law inside, they pretty much feel they can get away with things there they couldn't get away with anywhere else."

  "As long as you don't mind getting eaten," she said with a snort.

  "Some of these people deserve to be eaten," Sean said with a snort of his own. "But we're keeping an eye on them, and if any of them become a problem, no one's going to complain if we go in there and kill everyone."

  "I still worry about the kinds of people who would consort with djevels," she said with a shake of her head. "Well, I guess I'll get back to work..."

  "Oh, what's the hurry?" Sean asked, and pulling her close again, he kissed her a lot more seriously this time.

  "Oh, in that case, Master Sean, I believe I could stay a while."

  Sean smiled down at her and steered her over to the large couch in his office. He'd talk to Sawyer and Peg, see what they knew, and find out where this 'HoJo' place was. But, first, he needed to spend a little quality time with Deidre. He didn't think his son was going to get into too much trouble any time soon. Not if he was staying at a hotel.

  Highwayman

  Mihalis had been surprised at how much Bree had let him feed off of her. He suspected a human woman wouldn't have had that much energy, and he got about three times what he'd taken from Caitin the night before. When he added that to what he got from having sex and making love, it was probably a tenth of what he'd gotten from a ridder.

  He also realized if he'd sucked her dry, due to that little 'Meal Estimation' skill he had, he'd have gotten as much as a ridder.

  Which meant there was a bit more to Bree than perhaps she was letting on.

  But whatever the truth was, he didn't care. He'd had another night of wonderful sex, he'd enjoyed everything he'd done with her, including feeding off of her, and not only was she plastered up against him come the morning, he could honestly tell she liked him. Caitin liked him, too.

  While there were people who might laugh at him because that was important to him, he suspected the ones who really mattered wouldn't.

  "What are you thinking about?" Bree asked with a yawn when she finally woke up.

  "That I could get used to this? It's always nice to wake up with a lovely woman in your arms."

  "You're such a flatterer, milord," she replied with a touch of a blush.

  "I just hope I can convince you to share it again."

  "Oh, I don't think you have any fears there," she said with a smile and kissed him. "Now, I need to be up an about things, or Shaylee will be most upset, I'm sure."

  "And we wouldn't want that," he agreed with a smile.

  He lay on the bed and watched as she got up and got dressed. Getting out of bed as she finished, he stretched, then gave her a hug and a kiss, and smiled at her as she left.

  "You look happy," Shaylee said as he came out to the bar to grab a bite to eat.

  "I thought I'd give it a try and see if I liked it," he said with wink. "Now, how about some breakfast? I have a bunch of flying to do today."

  "Going someplace?"

  "I just want to check on a few things. Don't worry, I'll be back."

  "Oh, I'm not worried."

  "Uh-huh, then why'd you ask?"

  "Oh, the girls would be devastated if you left before they each had a turn at you," she said with a wink.

  Turning around, he noticed there were three girls waitressing on the floor, one of whom was Caitin. While he'd noticed the other two, he had no idea who they were.

  "Here's your breakfast!" a new voice said.

  Turning back, he saw yet another young woman, with rich, auburn hair done up in a very long braid. She also had green eyes, like all the rest of them, and was perhaps a little bit thinner than Bree and Caitin, but just as lovely.

  "You are?" he asked.

  "Brianna, milord," she said, and gave him a small curtsey, then left. He looked down at the generous amount of food on the plate, then back up at Shaylee. "How many of these girls are there?"

  "Oooh, six," she said and then smiled.

  "Is that with or without you?"

  "Without," she said and gave his hand a light slap. Which tingled just a slight bit. He noticed her eyes narrow a moment, but then it passed. He suddenly realized that she'd never touched him before, not once, even when he'd passed her his credit card.

  "So you're lucky number seven?" he said, recovering quickly.

  "Yes, you would be rather lucky if I was to spend my time with you," she teased.

  "You mean like you are right now?"

  "I meant in other ways," she said with a slight smirk.

  "Sure you did," he teased back and started in on his breakfast. While eating, he checked all his energy levels; he'd have to edit the spell to include the new powers, he realized. But his mana was maxed, which was what he'd expected, as he hadn't been using any, and his personal pool of 'lion' power was also full. Not that he'd been using that, either.

  He wondered briefly what everyone back home was doing, then squashed that thought. No one had tried to contact him—then again, no one knew where he was, and he'd left his phone back at the barracks. Still, it made him wonder.

  He left a few bills on the bar when he finished and went outside. Stretching a few times, he cast a shield spell on himself, the jumped up, beat his wings down, and climbed up away from the front of HoJo's. He didn't climb too high; he wasn't sure if he'd get shot at or not, and he didn't want to have to go very far to return to the ground if necessary.

  He flew out over the wall, then did a partial circuit of the outside, turning back towards the first gate as he got a good aerial view of the city. He didn't like the way the guards by the lab were sighting down their rifles at him, and while he didn't think they could hurt him, he didn't feel like putting it to the test. So he turned around and went in search of the road he'd followed here, to see what kind of prey he could find on it.

  After about an hour, he saw something that looked interesting. Several small djevels traveling with a much larger one. The problem was, he couldn't tell more than that from flying high up above them without coming down a lot closer to see. An obvious flaw in his plan. He either needed to come up with some sort of spell, or he needed a pair of binoculars when flying.

  The next thing he discovered was how hard it was to draw his sword from over his shoulder while he was flying, almost cutting his wings several times in the process, until he glided for a minute and was able to do it without fumbling.

  Turning around, he started in on a dive with his sword in his hand. He leveled off about twenty feet behind his target, which must have heard him, for all that he'd thought he was being quiet, because it turned to look behind itself, saw him, and tried to duck at the last minute.

  Thankfully, he still got it with his sword.

  Un-thankfully, very un-thankfully, he discovered just how much it hurt to hit something with a sword, no matter how sharp, when you're doing about forty miles per hour…and they're not.

  He lost his sword; he also broke his wrist, his radius, ulna, humerus, and his shoulder, having damn near ripped his arm off! The force of the hit spun him around, so he found himself suddenly cart-wheeling down the road, breaking several more bones he had no name for, because they were all in his wings.

  He slid another thirty or forty feet in a heap, once he stopped rolling and tumbling and swearing.

  Panting, he raised his head to look back at where he'd been, as his bones slowly reunited and knit. He saw that whatever it was, it was lying on the ground in two pieces, and he was definitely getting power from it.

  But the small group of bonde, with a råge and a ridder that were all running at him with swords drawn were probably going to kill him before he could stop them.

  "This is not what I had in mind," he groaned and got rid of his wings. That helped a lot, as now it was only his right arm that was healing, if he discounted all the scrapes, bruises, and other contusions all over his body. Then he remembered that the only weapon he had, the sword, was lying on the ground a hundred yards away.

  "Damnit!" he swore. There was only one thing for it. He cast the biggest fireball he could at the råge, immolating it in flames, then shifted into his lion form. He charged the ridder, roaring in pain the entire way as the bones that were trying to knit had to deal with the abuse, being slowed down by the massive mana drain from the fireball he'd just cast.

  Most of the bonde were so shocked by the fireball, and trying to avoid the now flailing råge so it didn't set them on fire as well, they didn't even notice the lion in their midst. But the ridder who'd just gotten a face full of him had, and the fight Mihalis was now engaged in was that much more painful because he had no weapons beyond his claws, and no armor, either, but the ridder had a sword, and he was using it. At least the ducking and dodging of the sword fight gave his right arm and shoulder time to heal, but it also gave the bonde time to gather their wits and come to the aid of the ridder he was fighting.

  Getting desperate, he charged the ridder, then jumped to the side at the last minute and raced around him, running—albeit not all that fast—back towards where his sword was on the ground. When he saw them hesitating, he intentionally stumbled and started to limp. Thinking him mortally wounded, the ridder charged after him, yelling at the bonde to follow.

  When he got to the body—which was a biskop!—he 'collapsed' and slid to a stop by his sword, putting his paw on the hilt and readying himself. As soon as the ridder was on him, he shifted into his hybrid form while grabbing the sword and rolled out of the way, popping up to his feet.

  The ridder immediately slid to a stop, but two of the bonde didn't, and Mihalis dispatched each of them with a head slice, then he closed with the ridder and immediately struck as hard and fast as he could. Four bonde normally shouldn't be a big deal, but as he was about to have them at his back, it would be quite a big deal.

  He ended up having to sacrifice his left hand by swatting at the ridder's sword, causing the ridder to cut off Mihalis' left hand, but that gave him the opportunity to run the ridder through and rip his sword out the side, killing it. Sucking in the power from that, he turned to engage the remaining four—a quick thrust and now three—bonde attacking him.

  He got cut a few more times, but two minutes later, he dropped to his butt on the ground, panting and cursing himself for not having bought a canteen and brought some water!

  He wasn't sure how long it took his hand to finish regenerating, but once it did, he shifted back to his dark elf self. Getting up, he searched the globs of tar that had once been a biskop and a ridder with their attendants. He turned up almost two thousand dollars in their purses, which were thankfully tar proof. He also found about ten silver one-ounce coins, which were another popular form of currency, he guessed. Searching the råge gained him three more, but that was all.

  He was a bit surprised to find something as important as a biskop this far out on its own, but then again, it seemed to be heading towards Bartertown. He found a larger bag with several documents in it, but that bag hadn't been proof from djevel tar, and he really didn't care enough to try to clean it.

  The biskop, ridder, and even the råge had decent weapons, so he took those; he could see about selling or trading them. Nothing else they had really struck his fancy. Gathering it all up, he took to the air, and noticed almost immediately that he'd lost his wrist compass when he'd lost his hand. He was fairly certain which way Bartertown was from here; it was about an hour's flight back there, but the house he'd stayed at earlier was a lot closer, and he was getting thirsty enough that he knew if he didn't find water soon, he was going to be in trouble. Climbing up a bit higher, he looked around until he'd spotted some of the distinctive land features of the area, headed in what he thought was the best direction, locked his wings as he rode the thermals, and headed what he hoped was southeast.

  He woke up just before he hit the ground, banking up hard. He would have sworn it was impossible to fall asleep while flying, but with his wings locked, apparently, it wasn't as hard as he would've thought. Climbing back up to burn off the speed he'd picked up, he saw the house and banked over towards it.

  His landing wasn't at all graceful, and he left the weapons he'd found where he dropped them as he crawled into the bathroom, turned on the spring-fed shower, lay under the water with his mouth open, and tried to drink.

  It was dark when he woke. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep.

  Getting to his feet carefully, he turned off the shower and went to get some food. Once he had something reconstituting over a small magical fire, he gathered up the loot he'd gained, hid the two larger weapons for later, and clipped the dagger to his harness so he'd at least have something else he could use in a fight if he needed to, and he'd lost his sword by doing something stupid.

  He checked his incubus power level before he ate, and was impressed by what he saw. None of the abilities had the infinity symbol next to them anymore. In fact, the most expensive ability he now had, which was Seduction, he could probably use for days before there was any kind of an issue!

  Remembering the coins, he pulled them out to enchant them, one at a time. Power-wise, they didn't take all that much, though doing thirteen of them at his stage of development took up more than half of what he had. He could have done fewer, but he was afraid to be found with both enchanted medallions and the silver rounds. The last thing he wanted people to figure out was that he could enchant stuff. He left his father's backdoor in them, as well as the one for Jolene, and for this group, he added one for himself as well, just in case.

  The moon had set by the time he made it back to Bartertown, so he flew straight in to land at the square near the hotel. Someone took a shot at him, but he had his shield spell up, and they missed anyway. He also took note of the two other helipad locations as he flew right over one of them.

  Landing on his feet, he quickly made his way to the door and knocked on it. He knew it was locked an hour after midnight, and he knew it had to be at least that late.

  The eyehole opened, and he heard a gasp, then the door opened, and he was pulled inside as the door was closed and barred behind him.

  "We though ya was dead!" a buxom, black-haired beauty said.

  "I had to go farther than I thought," he said and held up the pouch with the medallions in it, and shook it. "Then there was a headwind coming back. Flying's not as easy as people seem to think."

  "Well, I for one am happy yer back, and I know the others will be, as well."

  "I'm sure, and which one are you?"

  "Oh! I'm Raelyn, milord!"

  He smiled down at her. "Well, Raelyn, care to join me in my room?"

  "Well…umm…tonight was supposed to be Brianna's night.

  "I'll be sure to make it up to her tomorrow." Mihalis smiled. "Why wake her up? Come on, let's get better acquainted.

  Come morning, he was a lot better acquainted with Raelyn, who definitely had a kinky streak of the kind he'd heard of, but had never experienced before in his young life. He must have gained a new skill somewhere along the way, because the things she wanted were a lot more involved, and she ended up in some very interesting positions as he discovered you actually could use bed sheets to tie someone up.

  "So, what was so important that you had to fly so far away?" Raelyn asked much, much later. The sun had come up, and neither of them had gotten a minute of sleep, but she'd fed him well, so he didn't really care.

  "Magical medallions," he said, reaching over and grabbing one out of the bag, he showed it to her.

  "Oh! I've heard about these! They're hard to come by out here, and the people selling them want far more than I can afford."

  "I didn't know fae had an interest in such things."

  "It's the protection from scrying that's the big one for us! Most mental spells don't really work on us fae because we have a different way of doin' things. But not being scryed on? Oh, that's worth a fair deal to any of us."

  Mihalis smiled at her. "Fine. You want it, it's yours."

  "What? You can't be serious, milord!"

  "I can get more; for me, they're cheap. Besides, after last night…some things are worth it to see a lovely woman's smile. Keep it. Consider it a gift made in friendship."

  "Oh, I think I'll consider it a bit more than that, milord," she said with a saucy smile.

  "Do you think the others will want one?"

  "Oh, I'm sure of it!"

  "Well, then, I guess I better get a few more out," he said. Sitting up on the edge of the bed, he counted out six more. Looking over at Raelyn, he was surprised to see she'd already attached it to the charm bracelet she was wearing around her ankle. He was a little surprised he hadn't noticed it before, but she was fae, so he guessed he shouldn't have been.

  Grabbing his shorts, he put them on, then gave Raelyn a hug and a kiss as she got dressed. Opening the door, he was surprised to see Shaylee walking quickly towards the room.

  "Morning, sorry if I messed up your order," he said, yawning as she came up to him. "Oh, here, have this. Consider it a gift made in friendship. I know fae can be touchy about gifts, so I don't want you to think you owe me anything."