Chapter 16

Mark flopped on his back on the bed.

Jean snuggled into his side, and he gathered her into his arms, so her naked breasts and body were pressed against him. She still hadn’t regained her normal breathing, but he could feel her satisfaction from their lovemaking.

They’d had a busy day and used a lot of magic, so the sex had been all the more fun with their orgasms being heightened by the magical recharge. Not that they needed an excuse to fuck each other stupid. Nor was it the first time that day that he’d managed to have his cock in her. They couldn’t seem to get enough of each other.

Jean could get him stirred up with just a look, and if the opportunity arose for a little privacy, she was just as quick to take advantage of his desire for her as he was. A nap after lunch, if they were home, had become the norm for them. They took advantage of the girls and Davy having a nap at the same time.

He had been surprised by how fast Jean and his daughters bonded. Janet and Celia hadn’t moved out nor had they left for their holiday. Having two babies and four toddlers in the house kept them all on their toes.

The Grannies loved having the kids around them and took over nanny duties, as they said they had a right to do. It kept them happy, and Jean and her mother were getting on great these days, so the house was full of laughter and good times.

Not to mention the flickers. For fun, and to check on the house in the mountain, he had taken the family to meet the flickers. When they went to go home, for some reason, Kia had packed up his tribe, and they came back to the estate with them.

Kia had left the other two Primes in charge of the Mountain Retreat. Aye and Bee said they had no problems as they got on well with all of the flickers and they all had plenty to do. The flickers knew what not to touch. All the same, Mark had made sure that his workshop and Jeans lab was spelled, just in case.

So now, they had their own tribe of flickers. The servants were a bit nonplussed at first, but they had adapted. They were surprised by how much the flickers helped around the mansion, and they took over the gardens. They gathered the fruit and helped with planting and maintenance.

The servants were surprised and then amused that Kia and his wives, ate at the table with the humans and that they used the correct cutlery. They often commented on their lovely table manners. They also learnt that they could communicate with the flickers quite well and that the flickers soon became just part of the household.

Mark sat up, “Jean, we have a visitor.” He rolled off the bed and hurriedly dressed. Then he blinked to the front of the house and watched the Auto that drove up. He was surprised when he recognised the Major get out of it.

The man walked around the other side of the Auto to collect a bundle from the passenger seat, and then he walked up to Mark. The Major flipped the blanket off the sleeping babies face. He then presented her to Mark.

“She belongs here,” he said gruffly. Once Mark had hold of his daughter, Tomas turned to go.

“Wait,” Mark ordered. He watched the man’s shoulder slump and then he turned back to Mark.

He straightened up and said, “Yes, Sir.”

Mark opened the door and then stepped back and waved the man inside. Tomas stiffly walked into the foyer. Mark entered and closed the front door. He then headed to another door and looked back to see if Tomas was following. He followed and sat where indicated.

Mark also sat and looked down at his daughter. “Why?” was his first question.

“She wanted you, not the child. She thought it was a way to get you to come to her. Brianna cries if she comes near her and I don’t even think she has cast her eyes over the child in the last week. Brianna is starved for love. I only get to see her when I go back to report every three days, and it’s not enough.”

“Yes, I’m aware of your pattern,” Mark said to the surprised Tomas.

“You know I’ve been spying on you?” he asked. Mark gave him an enigmatic smile and Tomas Millan, the now ex-Major, had to chuckle. He had a feeling that his fascination hadn’t gone unnoticed but they hadn’t stopped him either, and he had to ask why.

“You were not a threat,” Mark answered, “but you have presented me with a problem.”

Tomas looked at the child in Mark’s arms. Brianna had woken, and she reached up to touch Mark’s face. He was sure he saw a little spark when she did. Mark’s face had softened, and he felt a shiver, as he fully comprehended that he had brought Brianna home where she belonged.

Alina may have had the child, but Brianna had never been her child. They hadn’t bonded in the slightest and Alina resented the child for the pain and suffering of carrying her and not bringing her what she had wanted. Tomas felt no remorse for his actions.

“Brianna wanted you,” Tomas found himself saying.

“Yes, my people are not like yours. We feel a bond even if it is tenuous with all our children. My grandmother said her father knew all forty of his children. He had stronger bonds with some, than others. However, he knew their names and who their mothers were.”

“He knew some of their likes and dislikes, their disciplines and how they did in school. Who they had bonded to and how many kids they had and to whom. He even knew if they were in peril or if they just needed him. He was rather extraordinary by all accounts. Everyone who is related to him finds they too can feel the bonds of kinship.”

“So you knew Briana was not happy?” Tomas had to ask.

“Yes and no. I got the occasional twinge of deep dislike, but I did know that someone made her very happy,” Mark said and smiled at Tomas.

Tomas blushed and said, “She was lonely, and I liked to tell her what you and her brother and sisters were doing.”

“Ah, that explains something about the way you were spying. At first, I thought you were a danger to the kids, but Davy said that you weren’t, so I just kept an eye on you.” Mark then chuckled and said, “The look on your face when the girls surrounded you that day and wanted to give you a hug just about had me rolling on the ground.”

Tomas’s blushed deepened, “Why did they do that?”

“They knew you were talking to Brianna. They all communicate with each other. My other two boys did it too, so I’m not surprised that these children do. Are you aware that you were being manipulated by this little scamp?”

“What?” Tomas said in surprise.

“Yes, I’m sure she has strong Psychic skills. I think you showed her compassion and she latched onto you. The fact you were telling her about us probably deepened the bond she feels for you. I’m still trying to make up my mind what to do with you. Can you answer me one question?”

Tomas shrugged. “If I can,” he replied.

Mark nodded, “Did you kill the scientists and workers at Jean’s lab?”

Tomas shook his head, “I may be a soldier, but I’ve never condoned the killing of innocents. Alina gave two of my men orders to do it, and while I was looking for Jean, they went back, raped and then killed them. The next day when we searched again, I killed both of them and left them for the animals. I told Alina the spiders got them.”

“Thank you, I had wondered at the strangeness of your voice and why you lied to Pauli that night. The fact that the kids all liked you had me a little perplexed. So have you eaten?” Mark asked.

“Hum, well, not for a while, but I’ll be fine. I’m sorry bringing Brianna to you is going to cause you problems, but I guess it wasn’t all my own idea,” he said with a small smile. “Thank you for being so gracious, I’ll be on my way,” he finished as he stood to leave.

“No, I think not,” Mark replied and watched as Tomas stiffened. “I’ll need you to testify, and Brianna doesn’t want you to go.”

“I agree. You will be safer here while the issues are resolved. I guess you get to be the children’s guardian?” Jean said as she looked at Mark with her last words. She had been listening to the conversation and felt it was time to intervene.

Mark stood and handed Brianna to Jean. He walked up to Tomas and reached out to touch him on the temple. Tomas’s eyes went wide. Mark winked at him, and a satchel appeared at his side. He glanced at Jean and said, “I had been wondering why I made these boxes, but now I know.”

He then presented Tomas with a box. Tomas paled and looked up at Mark wide-eyed, “It’s calling to me.”

“They do that when they find a person they wish to serve. You, sir, are what we call a Shield Mage. You are a protector and a guardian. I must give Palene and Renita the new boxes for their Shields too.”

“You’re hiring me?” Tomas said flabbergasted.

Mark grinned, “No, I think Brianna did that. She really likes you.”

“Who does Brianna like and who is Brianna?” Janet asked as she and Celia entered the room.

Jean held up the baby, “This is Brianna. She is Alina’s daughter.”

Tomas bowed his head, “Tomas Millan, at your service, my Lady.”

Mark added, “Shield Mage Tomas Millan, the children’s self-appointed guardian.”

Janet looked Tomas over and smiled, “My, my, ain’t you a cutie.”

Tomas found himself blushing, yet again. Personally, he had always liked and admired Janet. Her companion was nothing to sneeze at either as far as looks went. Neither woman looked more than five years older than Jean had. But then Jean now looked younger than he knew her age was, too.

He looked at the box and grinned to himself. He wondered if Alina knew he was a Shifter. He had been born male, but he could shift gender. She had never asked and never shifted when they slept together. “Shit! That lying bitch!” he suddenly said aloud.

The others all looked at him in surprise. “She isn’t a Shifter. She said she was, but she never shifted. The one time I asked if she wanted to change, she said no and that she didn’t like changing for male sex. I was going to change for her, but she got all shitty and kicked me out. Why didn’t I realise that she wasn’t?”

“She probably uses a spell, so people who touch her believed she was what she said she was. Hum, now that is interesting. She may be a Duchess, but she isn’t a Shifter. We can use that. The Burgis Race doesn’t automatically assign the right of a child to the mother.”

“The fact that I had no say in her using my sperm to have my child, plus Tomas can testify that she didn’t provide a loving environment for my child, we can contest custody,” Mark said thoughtfully.

Celia moved over to Tomas and slid her arm behind him, and he felt her fingers brush over his arse, “So let’s see your bling, handsome?”

Tomas surprised himself when he said, “Is that all you want to see?”

Janet took up to his other side and looped her arm into his. She pressed her breast against his arm and replied, “Well, a new mage sometimes need a lot of recharging while they learn. I think Celia and I can help you out if you would like.”

“Mother!” Jean said shocked as she realised they intended to seduce poor Tomas.

Janet smirked at her daughter, “We’re only offering to help Tomas settle in and become acquainted with us, since he will be spending as much time with us, as with the children.”

Mark chuckled and said, “How about we get him to put the bling on, and then feed the poor bloke before you two lusty ladies sap what energy he has left out of him.”

“Ooh, I like the sound of that,” Janet said squeezing Tomas’s arm again.

Tomas looked at Mark and Jean and realised he had just been sucked into this family. Janet and Celia’s appreciative looks held no guile, and their touches and offer were genuine interest. The erection forming in his pants told him that his cock had no objections to finding out how the ladies liked to play.

Tomas opened the box, and Janet took out the medallion and slipped it over his head. Celia took the diadem and put it on his head. Janet then took the ring and slipped it on his middle finger, and Tomas shivered at her touch and again when the entity sent him waves of pleasure.

Celia took the baton styled wand and placed it at his side and said seductively, “I’ll show you how to make your baton extend and retract later.”

They all ended up cackling with laughter.

Mark sent Alina a message.

He explained that Brianna coerced Tomas to bring her to him. He, however, was not happy with his daughter’s upbringing and would like to discuss with her how they were going to resolve Brianna’s unhappiness.

Mark was surprised that it took Alina two weeks to get back to him. If it ever went to court, her delay in asking after her child would not look good. Tomas had said she was at the Castle. With the communication feature of the books, he had contacted the healer, and she confirmed Lady Alina was well and in residence.

Mark had let the Guild Lords know that he had Brianna and they had the lawyers looking into how he could keep her if Alina said no. When he did receive the message from Alina, he wasn’t pleased. He forwarded it onto the lawyers.

Alina hadn’t asked how Brianna was in the short, terse note. He also found the meeting place rather strange. He had expected to go to her Castle, but the note said to meet her in one of her safe houses, near the Exclusion Zone, that her silk workers used. She had also told him to bring the traitor and no one else.

He couldn’t think of what sort of trap she was trying to set or what she hoped to achieve. He and Tomas discussed the meeting, and it had both of them mystified. She hadn’t asked him to bring Brianna either. So at the appointed time, he and Tomas blinked to the small house. However, they arrived cloaked.

The first hint that all wasn’t right was the fact that no vehicles were present in the compound. Mark also felt the shield form over the compound. When he tried to blink out, he knew that the shield was designed to be triggered by the presence of his DNA and Tomas’s, so he told Tomas to uncloak. “So what is next, Alina?” he called out.

“Well, for one thing, I want you to kill that bastard,” she said, as she appeared from a small building that she had hidden with an invisibility spell.

“You and I both know that I can’t do that, even if I wanted to,” Mark replied.

“Yes, it is one of your limitations isn’t it mighty Lord. But you see I don’t have such limitations with my docile entity, neither do my friends,” she added.

Twenty men emerged from the other building, and another ten came from behind the one they stood near. Then Vasari and two other men came out to stand beside Alina. Mark was even less pleased to see her. He wondered what they had cooked up for his entertainment.