On his magical stats, he was again surprised to see his Ability had gone up another point and was starting to near the maximum for that stat. Sean could only assume the creation of his virtual workbench and the work he was doing there had paid off handsomely for him, as he not only had gotten that, but he had six whole points to spend. Sean put two points into his 'will' stat and the other four into his 'mana' stat, which only pushed each up a single level. He hadn't hit diminishing returns on either of them yet, but mana looked like it was going to get even more expensive soon, if he understood the process correctly.

  Checking his spell lists next, Sean saw that his virtual workshop had created a new category of research spells. He also saw he had a lot of points built up in his 'Spells' category, so he pushed a few of them into the research group, mainly at his emulator and simulator program spells, which still needed a lot of development.

  Next he pushed a few into his framework spells, focusing mainly on his defense framework. Sean was going to have to do some work on that to handle more power, and specifically try to do something about magical traps. He'd been hit three times now with nasty spells and effects. One of those he'd been ready for, so it had only been uncomfortable. The other two could have been deadly.

  Closing everything down, he opened his eyes and saw Cali smiling down at him, stark naked.

  "I thought I'd come see if my husband was hungry?" Cali said with a wink.

  Sean grinned and, sitting up, he put an arm around her and pulled her onto the bed, her legs straddling his as he gave her right breast a nip, causing her to shiver.

  "Oh, I'm hungry alright, but I think I've found something much better than food," Sean purred. The tag machine could wait a little longer, he really hadn't been spending enough quality time with Cali, and it was time to make up for that.

  Smiling up at her, he took her right breast in his left hand and massaged it slowly as he teased her nipple with his teeth, causing it to stiffen. Letting his right hand snake around behind her back, he slowly stroked it up and down along her skin and slowly kissed his way up her body.

  He took his time as he followed the curve of her shoulder towards her neck, where he alternated nibbles between kisses as she tilted her head back and sighed happily.

  Cali sighed as her husband, her lord, made love to her. Reaching down between them with one hand, she teased him and stroked him, bringing his manhood erect, as she ran the fingers of her other hand through his hair. She loved the hardness of his body as he pressed against her, and the tenderness of his lips as he kissed his way up her body. She loved the scent of him, the way he stroked her, caressed her, and held her.

  Sean gave his own sighs of pleasure as she stroked him, kissing up her neck, then along the side of her chin until finally, his lips met hers and he once again enjoyed the sweet taste that was Cali, as he sat up straighter and pulled her closer to him.

  As Cali fitted her body into his lap, she rose up briefly on her knees as she moved her hands to his shoulders, and pressing her sex against his stomach, she lowered herself carefully until she had captured him between the folds of her sex.

  Then she dropped down onto him, gasping loudly in pleasure as her Sean, her husband, was once again hilted deeply inside her.

  Sean gave an involuntary buck as Cali dropped down onto him unexpectedly, and moving his hands down to her hips as they continued to kiss, he began a nice, slow rhythm, but apparently Cali wanted none of that and pushed at his shoulders. Sean laid back on the bed as Cali smiled down at him and bounced up and down on him.

  Leaning forward, Cali grinned as she took control and put her hands on his chest, redoubling her efforts, riding him hard and fast. For his part, Sean just held onto her hips, made sure she didn't go too high, and helped to pull her down so they could go harder and faster. She loved it when he let her do this, when he let her ride him, hard and deep, as she made her desires clear and demanded her man give her what she needed, what she craved. His fingers sinking into her firm, dark flesh as he gripped her tight, as he drove up against her, in counterpoint to her own punishing pace.

  It wasn't long before they were bouncing on the bed, Cali pushing him to go faster and harder, her fingernails sinking into his chest. Sean had an almost equally tight death-grip on her hips, when Cali suddenly whipped her head back and cried out loudly as she hit her peak and drenched him with her fluids, grabbing at him so tightly that, with a loud groan of his own, Sean followed her into bliss as Cali quaked and bucked atop him, his strong hands keeping her pressed tightly down upon him.

  When she finally started to come down, she collapsed slowly onto his chest and they kissed languidly and happily, holding each other's heads and stroking slowly along each other's face.

  "How about you be on top this time?" Cali teased.

  Sean looked at the clock, then back at Cali.

  "I think I like that idea."

  It was almost noon when Sean stumbled out into the kitchen, wearing only a pair of pants, with his arm around Cali, who was only wearing shorts and her vest, the hair on both of their heads still wet from the shower.

  "Put some clothes on!" Louise said, looking at the two of them.

  "Eh, just have to take 'em back off, Mom."

  "Sean! TMI!" Louise laughed.

  "It's not that, Mom," Sean said, blushing a little. "I'm going to be enchanting today. I don't want to risk burning anything."

  "Your father never had to worry about that."

  Sean nodded. "True, but dad never channeled the energies I do. Plus it's his invention that ends up causing it, even if I'm using it in ways he probably never envisioned."

  "Then it's just your own fault," Louise said, then looked him over as Dania handed both her son and Cali their lunch. Her Sean really had filled out substantially. While he still had his father's features, he had become a lot more muscular.

  "At least put some shoes on!"

  Sean laughed, and leaning over, gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. "I'll think about it, Mom." Then he headed out to the dining room with Cali following, and they sat down to eat.

  "What are your plans for today?" Cali asked as Sean started in on his lunch. Thankfully Dania had given him about three times as much as Cali.

  "To try and get as much of the tag machine done as possible. Any idea what happened to Stewart?"

  Cali shook her head. "Peg told me the betting was running three to two against him doing it, however."

  Sean looked up from his plate at her. "They're betting on this?"

  Cali grinned and nodded. "There's even a second line on who bites him if he does agree, Rachel or April. Me, I bet on Rachel, because she's a lot more conniving than April, who's still fairly innocent."

  Sean just shook his head and sighed.

  "Rachel did poison her last master, after all."

  Sean looked up again. "She did, huh?"

  Cali nodded and smiled. "I don't think he was the first one she'd killed, either. But she really liked Stewart; when he freed her instead of selling her, I think she fell in love with him.

  "Plus he is Art's son, and almost all the wolf girls think any son of Art's has got to be a man worth knowing."

  "Well, he sure seems to have changed a lot since the last time I saw him," Sean said, returning to his lunch, as his stomach reminded him he was hungry.

  "Do you think they should bite him?"

  "I'm staying out of this," Sean said between bites, "because if I say anything, they'll probably take it as my recommendation."

  "But just think of the money you could make by betting on it!" Cali giggled.

  Sean shook his head and wondered if Peg had been corrupting Cali? Then again, Sawyer thought the world of Cali, so for all he knew, Cali might be corrupting Peg.

  If such a thing were possible, of course.

  Sean finished his lunch without further comment, then standing up, he stretched and gave Cali a very heartfelt kiss.

  "Well, I'm off to my workshop. Let everyone know I don't want to be interrupted unless it's important."

  Cali nodded and followed him out the doorway to his shop. Once he got to working, he noticed she'd disappeared at some point.

  Sean started off by making a dozen tags and a dozen collars. There were never enough, and it was a good way to warm up, as it didn't really take him that long anymore.

  That done, he moved the tag machine from where Daelyn had left it over onto his workbench and prepared it for the spells he'd be 'downloading' into it. He'd start with all the powering spells, then once he got those done, he'd move it over to the rack of batteries Daelyn had also built for him. The amulet machine only needed to sit on one battery. The tag machine was going to have to sit on a stack of batteries, as it took the magical equivalent of fourteen kilowatts of power to make a tag, and each of the large owl-shaped batteries he used only held ten kilowatts.

  The dangerous part was the energy rebound at the end of the enchanting process. It was almost two-thirds of the initial energy needed to perform the process, and it would take a single battery at a minimum to handle it. So Sean had to make sure that when the batteries were being charged, some of them would be left empty to work as a reservoir. Otherwise the machine could explode, and with all the power it would be handling, it wouldn't just kill whoever was using it. It would level a small house.

  The design he'd settled on was two batteries in the center that could not be charged by the conversion plate, but into which all returning energy would flow, and then the energy there would flow out to the main reservoir, which would power the machine. The main reservoir would be comprised of eight more of the owl batteries which would be set three to a side and one at either end. Those eight would have to be tied together and mounted on a foundation to hold everything together securely.

  Between the batteries, which weighed about twelve pounds apiece, and the machine, which weighed another twenty, the whole device was going to weight about a hundred and forty pounds, plus another twenty for the supporting rack that was going to hold everything. Once he got it all assembled, he'd have Daelyn weld the rack closed and bolt the machine down to it. This wasn't something you ever wanted to break apart, as the machine could hold as much as a hundred kilowatts, which was about the same energy as two hundred pounds of TNT.

  Not something to mess with.

  That of course let to another problem. Sean definitely needed to put an energy gauge on the device. When fully powered, it would make about a hundred and sixty of the tags, and in the interest of speed, it would be best to fill it once a day, then spend the rest of the day making tags. So the chances of it being overfilled and exploding were reasonable enough he'd have to do something to prevent it.

  For now, that would consist of an energy gauge, which would sound a very loud alarm if the device got within ten percent of the main reservoir capacity. Some sort of a magical circuit breaker would be safer, of course, but Sean didn't have the time right now to try and design one. So they'd just have to rely on training.

  "How's it going?" Daelyn asked as she entered Sean's workshop. The sun had set hours ago, and while Roxy had checked to make sure he'd eaten his dinner, he hadn't set foot out of the building all day.

  Sean looked up at Daelyn and smiled, feeling pretty drained.

  "Hi, Dae. The batteries are all in place, and they're connected properly. If you could weld that frame closed and then bolt the machine down on top of it, that would be wonderful. Then I can test the power section, and once I know that works, I can start laying down the other parts."

  "I have a better idea," Daelyn said with a smile. "How about you come to bed and we'll all do our best to make sure you stay in it until dinnertime tomorrow?"

  Sean chuckled. "Okay, what time is it?"

  "It's only eleven. Well, half past, anyway. Time to give it a break and come back tomorrow."

  "Does that mean you're not going to weld it now?" Sean said, looking back at the stack of stuff.

  "Well, I guess I could do that before bed," Daelyn agreed.

  "BED! NOW!" Roxy growled, coming into the workshop. "I should have known better than to send one gearhead out to get another one!"

  Daelyn looked up from where she was sitting; she'd been watching Sean working on the energy gauge component.

  "It's after one! Now, up, both of you!"

  "Can't I just…" Sean started.

  "No!" Roxy cut him off. "You can barely stand up straight as it is! Now! Both of you!"

  "Let me grab…"

  "You'll grab nothing!" Roxy growled and pushed a naked Sean out the door. "If I let you touch anything, they'll be coming out and yelling at all three of us before you know it!"

  "…my pants!" Sean sighed.

  "Trust me, no one's gonna see anything they haven't seen before."

  "Well, maybe not one as nice!" Daelyn snickered.

  "Hush you! You're just as guilty as he is!" Roxy grumbled and, herding the two of them out of the shop, she closed the door behind them and gave Sean a swat on the ass to get him moving faster, then gave Daelyn one as well.

  "What's that for?" Daelyn yelped.

  "Encouraging him!" Roxy grinned.

  "Well, at least it's mostly done," Sean said, then yawned as they came to the back of the house. "Another day or two and it should be finished."

  "Great, now, bed! Both of you!"

  "Uh huh."

  The moment Sean hit the bed, he was out like a light. Roxy looked over at Daelyn and almost growled, but Daelyn was already sound asleep as well.

  "Somebody not getting what she wanted?" Peg teased.

  "Like I'm the only one who wanted." Roxy sighed, pulled her own clothing off, then joined Sean in bed. "You know, for the last three months, we've been letting him work way too much. Sooner or later he's going to burn out if he doesn't get some down time."

  "I'm not sure any of us have that option, Rox," Jolene said with a sigh.

  "Well, we need to start figuring out how to make it an option. We all get time off, time to go and do something fun, even if it's only for a few hours."

  "Sex is fun!" Cali giggled.

  Roxy grinned. "There is that. But still, dinner at Steve's last week was the first time our Sean has been able to just hang out and let his hair down since he got infected three months ago. We've all busted our asses to have a safe place where we could have some down time and relax when we needed it. Well, we need to make sure he starts getting some of that, too. Just us and him, maybe a few friends, hanging out and relaxing a couple of hours a week. You know, family time."

  "I like the sound of that," Roberta said with a yawn. "Now, go to sleep! You can have first dibs in the morning."

  Sunday

  "I still can't believe they left out so many rations for us yesterday," Steve said as they started out the next morning.

  "It was a test," Gary said. Thankfully today they were starting out with Steve carrying Dave.

  "A test?"

  Gary nodded. "We left enough for the others yesterday morning when they obviously shorted us. They've been shorting us at every stop. We could have left the same as we did earlier, and the people behind us would never have known."

  "So why didn't we?" Dave asked.

  "Because I'm not a prick," Gary sighed, "and I don't want to play these games. In case it's escaped the rest of you, we're being taught a lesson."

  "And what is the lesson?" Matt, one of the others, asked.

  "That not treating other people like shit gets rewarded."

  "Why would they want to teach us that?"

  "Because we've been treating them like shit," Gary sighed, "what the hell do you think?"

  "But they're not people!" Steve grumbled, not wanting to talk with all that weight on his back.

  "I'm not so sure about that anymore," Gary admitted. "You know, my grandfather once told me depending on the lycans was making us weak. That they were growing stronger while we were getting weaker."

  "Yeah, that sounds like him!" Dave chuckled.

  "Yeah, but look at what happened to us. We got our asses kicked, and who got their asses kicked the worst? The Vestibulum, the people who relied on them the most."

  "Huh, I hadn't thought about it that way," Dave said, and Gary noticed quite a few of the others were looking thoughtful as they walked along.

  "Yeah, so when we get back, I think we need to start thinking more about doing for ourselves, and not having others do for us."

  "You want us to give up our lycans? You want to give in to them?" Matt asked.

  "Matt, both my father and my girlfriend's father were killed back there! If we hadn't become so damn dependent, if we had just said 'fuck it!' and stayed home, they'd both be alive today!" Gary yelled, getting angry.

  "My brother told me this was a fool's errand. My brother, who used to sell lycans, and probably had more to lose than any of us!

  "They want to be free? Fuck 'em, they can be free! I don't care anymore. I can cook my own damn breakfast, and I can wash my own damn clothes. Fifty of us died because we couldn't see the writing on the damn wall. Because the leader of the Vestis couldn't bear to see his power slipping away."

  "But, but, we've owned lycans for years! That's just the way it is!"

  "Well, fuck that! Fuck all of that! And fuck all of this, and fuck you too, if you can't deal with it! I'm done with it! All of it! You hear me! Done!"

  Looking around, Gary noticed the hills to the south weren't all that steep anymore, so turning south, he started up the incline. Dave had been going on about Forest Hill Road being just to the south. Well, time to find out. And if the lycans watching them didn't like it, fuck them too!

  "Gary!" Steve yelled, but Gary just flipped him off and kept heading up the hill.

  "Damn! Now what?"