Chapter 9

"Are you ready? We don't have to do this if you really don't want to. We might be able to find another way. Or we could find someone else, or..." said Kat as she looked at Rory.

Rory reached out and put his hand on her arm and gently held it.

"Kathryn, we don't have a lot of time and it's not like it's our first time together, remember? Ariel is running loose and it's only a matter of time before she runs into a caravan or something else, and a lot of innocents become harmed because of her.

"She would never be able to live with herself if that happened and I wouldn't be able to either. Let's do this so that you can help our friends," said Rory gently as he held onto her arm.

Kat was scared and Rory could feel her trembling.

For her, this was the first time someone offered to give her power that she didn't just take from them. It felt strange and she was now unsure of herself.

Leading her back in into the room that was once shared by Ariel and Nathan, Kat did everything with-in her power to make the transfer of power from him into her as enjoyable for Rory as she could make it, and drew out the transfer as long as she could to enhance his pleasure while she took the large majority of his life essence.

Not enough to kill him but she did take almost all of it.

Thankfully the day before they were able to repair the door to the room, and also managed to replace the front door that Nathan destroyed while he was sick. With those repairs they felt a little more secure against the elements and prying eyes as they did what they must to save Nathan and Ariel.

Once she was done, and Rory was left resting so that he could recover, Kat realized he had far more essence than she would have thought from just looking at him. She had gained more power than she expected, but not enough to do too much for long if she wasn't careful.

As she made him comfortable, Kat slowly exited the room and closed the door behind her. Once she was fully in the room she saw Terrance seated at the table with his back to the room she just vacated, and in front of him lay some of Nathan's and Ariel's things.

Kat silently took a seat across from him for a moment.

"Is he sleeping now?" asked Terrance softly without looking up.

"Yes. Because I took a large part of his essence and he'll be out for about three or four days, but he should be fine after that as his body recovers. He'll not have any problems or be troubled by what we've done," said Kat quietly as she tried to meet his eyes once she looked up, and failed.

She still carried a lot of guilt around trying to kill him like she did on a whim.

Having been around him for the time that she had, she could see a lot of good quality she would have deprived others of seeing if she had killed him. He was very passionate about everything he did, including protecting his friends.

"Will the boy be safe with that family you left him with yesterday?" asked Terrance offhandedly. "No one will bother him there will they? He was pretty scared earlier."

"I can't believe he's still worried about the others at a time like this, unlike I used to be," thought Kat as the guilt again reared its head.

"Yes he will be safe. The family I left him with has a child for him to play with about his age. I think letting him be a child for once instead of forcing him to grow up like he had to do on his own is the best for now," said Kat quietly.

They both sat quietly for a few moments each gathering their thoughts. Kat was thinking that she should get started soon if she wanted to find Ariel quickly. Nathan might be dead, but if there was a glimmer of a hope of saving him, then he would be the key to saving Ariel as well.

"You need more power don't you?" asked Terrance out of the blue again, interrupting her thoughts while still not looking at her.

Kat thought to deny it but reconsidered. She just assumed he would expect to go with her as well because she knew he still didn't completely trust her.

"Yes, I could always use more. I've learned trying to do without is always dangerous in this world. But I will have to work with what I've been given and hopefully that will be enough to get the job done," said Kat as she looked down.

"Just a moment," said Terrance as he got up from the table and entered the bedroom where Rory was sleeping.

After a few moments he returned with a blanket under his arm.

"I'm not going to insult your intelligence and lie, so I'm sure you realized that the reason I went in there was to check to make sure Rory was ok first. I did that because I realize that you should have as much power as you need to do this right the first time. So you should take mine as well so we can help my friends," said Terrance quietly.

"I ... I ... I," started Kat getting flustered.

"No, we're all in this together, right? The four of us are kind of a team. A screwed up team I admit, but a team none the less. Right now you are our best shot, our only shot, at saving their lives and finding everyone quickly. Please just promise me you'll do everything in your power to fix this because neither one of us left can," said Terrance quietly.

"I promise," said Kat as she was finally able to look up at him.

She could see the determination in his eyes, and as she stared at him she could also see the fear he was trying desperately to hide from her.

The blinding fear he felt, that he was trying hard to hide, was because of the fact that the last time they were together like this she tried very hard to kill him. She had almost succeeded if it hadn't been for Nathan, and yet here he was again willing to face the same danger just to save his friends.

And she knew that Terrance realized that there was no one left to save him if she wanted to kill him this time.

Again as she had that thought, the guilt hit her hard.

Kat knew he had reason to be scared, but she had to prove to him, as well as everyone else at all cost that she was different now, and she did need all the power she could get.

"Let's do this in the other room. If Rory were to wake up before me I wouldn't want him to trip over me out here," said Terrance jovially with a lopsided smile that he really didn't feel.

"Ok, give me a few moments to clean up and I'll be right with you," said Kat softly as she closed her eyes and used a small spell to clean herself up magically.

She didn't want anything to detract from her proving to him that she had changed.

As soon as she was finished with her spell she followed Terrance into the next room, and she gave him the same type of slow tender loving that she had given Rory and did her best to extend it and make it the most intense either of them had ever had.

One thing she did notice was that, unlike Rory, he didn't try to kiss her or make it anything other than what it was, a simple transfer of his energy from him into her.

Soon as Terrance was sleeping as well she again cleaned herself up. Thanks to his contribution to her power reserves she was now a touch more confident in her ability to find Nathan first.

Returning to the table alone, and in the now quiet of the room, she retrieved a pair of Nathan's pants, pulled the belt from them, and held them as she used her spell to see of she could even find out where he was.

She had a fear at first of failing because the spell would only work if he was still alive.

After a few moments she felt a sharp tug in the direction he was. It was faint but it was there. She knew that she could now find him!

He was alive!

They could now find him and with him to help they might be able to help stop Ariel!

She had no idea how far the poison was progressing through his system, but she needed all the small victories she could get right now, and wouldn't let herself dwell on any negatives that would stop her from trying.

Leaving the two sleeping men behind her in the house, Kat magically sealed the door and then held on to Nathan's belt as she used it as a divining rod to try and locate him.

As long as the spell was active she wouldn't need to feed it anymore power, but she only had enough power to cast this two more time or at least quite a few other smaller spells. She wanted to use only what she needed in case of any emergencies.

While Nathan's fever had broken he was still trapped in his fitful dreams as he recovered because of how he used his Battlemage magic while the black spell interfered with it while he was in his fever.

In his dreams Brianna had wanted to couple with him quite a few different times, and while he was happy to help her, something still didn't feel quite right about each time with her. But if that's what it took to make her happy, then he would do whatever he needed to do for her.

He hoped she would soon return to her normal self, and while he enjoyed pleasing her, something felt like she wasn't quite getting what she should out of it.

Each time it felt like she was a completely different person than who he felt he should have been with.

Dawafal had just returned from bathing. She had to clean up because her new mate really could release a lot and it took a while to get cleaned up.

When her time came she knew she would easily be fertilized by him. And their children would be very powerful. She was sure that their daughters would easily be leaders of their new tribe.

While she was sitting stroking his hair she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand straight up. She could sense a lot of magical power headed her way.

She knew it wasn't those wolves because it felt different. This was a truly powerful elemental and it appeared that it was headed right for her.

Dawafal put out the fire and did what she could mask her presence, but the being was still coming right for where she was. If the elemental didn't stop it would discover her and her man she was trying to protect until he got better.