It was the stillest time, the hour between night and day, when she opened her eyes, suddenly awake, startled from sleep by a feeling of presence that invaded her dreams. She opened her eyes slowly, scanning the room, the feeling becoming something tangible that set her heart racing.

When her eyes reached the arm chair she gasped and sat up, her eyes narrowing, rejecting the name her mind was screaming at her.

“Hullo, Dinah” the figure said.

“Mac?” She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.

He nodded. “In the spirit anyway.”

Dinah struggled upright, heedless of the fact that she was naked. She swallowed again. She blinked at him. “But you're dead,” she told him, her voice high and tight. Next to her, she could feel Marc stirring and she nudged him hard to hurry him up.

Mac just smiled sadly, looking as tired and worn as the day he'd walked into her hotel.

Marc jerked out of his half-sleep at the voice in the room, sitting up, already gathering energy. But one look at the apparition on the chair and he let the energy dissipate. "And this is?" he asked.

Dinah bullied her wits back into some semblance of order.  "Uhm, well...Marc, meet Mac.  Mac...this is Marc."

"Hullo."  Mac said quietly.

"Aren't the jealous type I hope?" Marc asked.

His smile grew wistful.  "No."  His eyes scanned Dinah's face.  "I'm glad to know I was right though.  She's like vintage wine, and deserves to be savored slowly.  You will never know how much I envy you."

"I'll accept your word on that. Are you a simulacrum or actually risen from the grave, so to speak?"

Mac laughed softly.  "It's me, or what's left anyway.  I do apologize for intruding, as it were."

Dinah rolled her eyes and prayed for patience.  Then, recalling her state she jerked the sheet up to her chin and glared.  "Oh, it's no problem at all.  What's another intrusion more or less?" she snapped.

"Dinah, I really am sorry." Mac said.

"If you weren't already dead," she hissed, "I'd kill you myself."

"So," Marc said, looking from one to another.  "Shall I leave and give you two privacy for your lovers' quarrel?"

Dinah turned her glare to Marc.  "Get a grip!" she snapped.

"Dinah," Mac interrupted.  "Please."

"What?" she asked, not at all mollified.

"Try and understand.  Please.  I've no right to ask anything of you but I've no other choice.  I need your help."  He was openly pleading with her.

"Well, the way things are now, you appear to be the only one who does, your friends refuse to tell me anything and your brother is an ass.  So what the hell am I supposed to do?  Punt?"

"I should leave," Marc said, and began to get up, ignoring the fact he was naked too.

Dinah grabbed his arm and yanked him back down.  "If you dare...."  Then she sighed.  "Now I'm the one who's sorry.  Please, I'd like you to stay."

Marc stopped resisting and sank back, arms folded on his chest. "Right. I'm all ears."

Mac stirred in the chair.  "Malec is trying to protect Malachi.  He won't be able to, I'm pretty sure."  He looked from one to the other on the bed.  "Most of all this is in the journals Kalie gave you.  I don't know the whole thing...it's a mess, Dinah.  It's not just the war between Sere and Kenget.  We've been manipulated for years."

Dinah just waited for him to go on.

"I didn't know when I went to the hotel that you were a child of the Awakened.  I swear to you Dinah, I didn't.  It wasn't a set up.  Everything that happened after...I was just looking for a place to hide, to rest, before going back."

Dinah let out a breath like she'd been hit in the stomach and the suspicion she'd refused to face dissipated.  "I'm listening," she said, her voice quieter.

"I don't know all of it, all of what's going on.  I got into it after I left St. Azael's.  The worlds, the gene patterns, everything I did, until about two and a half years before we met, it was about ending the war.  Malec told you the truth.  It's what we were all working towards.  So, when I was approached, they were convincing and I wanted to be convinced.  But I was stupid and I didn't understand that what they wanted was control of the gene trade, the whole of it so they could control the licenses for the new worlds and the gene stocks.  Now they've got Malachi in their claws and I need you to help get him free and end this.  Please Dinah, I'm begging you to help him."

"Surely Azael... he claims to have been your friend."  Marc was frowning, trying to make sense of what he'd said, based on what they knew.

"Azael doesn't know.  There is some cabal, some combination of monks from all the orders and one of the houses, I don't know which.  Plus, I think, given the gene patterns they had, Awakened genes, there's a tie to the Awakened somehow."

Marc's eyebrow shot up. "How interesting. And yet you claim you had no idea about Dinah."

Mac made a helpless gesture.  "I know it looks like I'm lying."  He met Marc's eyes.  "Kevin suggested it when I started to think things didn't make sense.  But it was Michael and Azael...I'd, I'd figured out a few things and the first thing I did was steal the patterns.  When they found out, I ran and...after months of running and fighting they caught me.  Michael and Azael knew Dinah as well, and two years later, they helped me get out of there and agreed with Kevin.  I...they helped me get there."

"It might be true, Marc."  Dinah said.  "Michael and Azael have been around the hotel since before I was born.  Kevin came every summer for years."

Marc nodded, accepting that for now.  "So, Malec is being such an ass because he thinks he's protecting Malachi?  Why the sudden alteration to Malec's attitude last night then."

"Malec wasn't expecting what happened."  Mac looked from one to the other.  "The Awakened genetics are unique and off limits, or were, because Earth isn't a unimensional world; but it's still a world inhabited by fully sentient life so it can't be claimed or its genetics harvested or traded.  Now, because of yesterday, they're in play and you own them."

"So, let me get this straight. You first, and now Malachi, got suckered into some sort of scheme regarding illegal genes and licenses. You stole them and ran. And now Dinah's got them. And, apparently, they're still illegal?"

"Not illegal, the planets anyway.  The idea was that a new house, a new gene trading house would change the status quo to such a degree that then Kenget and us, we'd have to negotiate.  But to start a house we needed stock to trade.  New gene stock emerges as planets are found and added to the unimensional worlds, or as planets are seeded.  I found the worlds and filled for the licenses.  The gene patterns I got from Sere stock and Malec and Malachi knew that, plus I stole Kenget's.  That's the point.  You have a copy of every gene traded up to about fifteen years ago, plus the illegal genes I got from Earth and from Azael's contacts. And the planets to use them on, to create new patterns.  But they don't know that.  They want Malachi to find the genes and get them back, plus Dinah's genes."

"But why?" Marc asked. "Now that they belong to a new house, isn't it too late?  Or can more than one house claim the genes and then, what, fight over them?"

"They could get control a couple of ways...kill Dinah before she names an heir, force a marriage with her, steal them or take over the new House by conquest.  Or try to buy them."

Marc looked over at Dinah, lips twitching. "If I were them I'd try for the marriage option myself."

"If that's a proposal the answer's yes.  And even if it isn't as soon as we get up I'm naming you my heir." Dinah told him.

Marc's mouth opened then snapped shut.

"Just think of it as a token of my esteem." she explained cheerfully.  Then she looked at Mac.  "What if I just take my new toys and go home and forget the lot of you?"

"Then they'll come after you just like they did me.  They don't care, Dinah.  What you now control, the genes, the worlds and the Awakened genetics...it's priceless.  It's a key to controlling the unimensional worlds economically and politically."

"And you think Calum will suddenly forget his own ambitions and join with Dinah's house and Sere against this unknown enemy,"  Marc wondered.

"I don't know.  We haven't talked about it.  The key there will be getting him to wonder about who really killed his father, since it wasn't us."

"Ah, so you've been visiting with everyone?" Marc's voice was sardonic, with a touch of anger.

"No, it was a poor attempt at levity."  Mac sighed.  "Look, Malachi sent Malec a message last night that Kenget is planning to reject the negotiated protocols and fight an all out war.  That's why I'm here, to tell you that and to get you to go see Malachi."

"Writing 'go see Malachi' in fire on the wall might have been more effective."

Dinah laid a hand on Marc's arm, then pinned the ghost with a glare.  "Why should I care?"

Mac smiled sadly.  "Because of who you are and who you're becoming."  Then he waved a hand and the room changed.

Dinah saw, suddenly, the worlds as she'd once seen them, as he'd shown them to her long ago only now they were teeming with life and promise.  He showed her herself, and, she realized with a gasp, the Awakened, creating them.

Marc sat frozen, regarding this.

"Dinah, you care because you do.  Like you cared about a bum who walked in to your hotel and needed a place to rest.  But more than that, the power you now hold....you'll never be allowed to sit back and not use it.  Either you choose how and when and where or someone else will do it for you, with or without your consent.  Nature abhors a vacuum and power is never allowed to remain unused."

"Mac's right about that, Dinah. If someone knows, they'll find a way to force your hand. Better to choose your own."

"Look, go see Malachi and then if you still want to, go home and think it through.  Read the journals.  Everything I know is there.  Maybe you can even break the code.  And then go see Carmine and Azael and tell them I sent you.  Then decide."  Mac suggested.

Dinah regarded him for a moment and then looked at Marc.  "I need to visit Azael's anyway, with Asher and Celie."

"Right. Just don't let Mac manipulate you into something either."

"Oh trust me, I won't," she said waspishly.  "I'm done being manipulated."

Mac nodded.   "I'll go now.  Tell Kalie I miss her, will you.  And thank her."  He hesitated, clearly torn.  "I've missed you, too," he added softly and then was gone.

"If you need to name an heir name Stephen."

She just pointed to his palm.  "Besides, I'm not planning on dying so you're safe."

He sighed. "Putain de merde, what a bloody mess."

Dinah thought about that, then said, carefully, "I know that you've got things you're committed to and that all this is really a distraction you don't need.  I also know that all this is something that is more my problem than yours and that I've been depending on you in ways you never consented to perhaps.  But there is no one else I know who knows what to do with all this, the worlds and the genes, who can even begin to guess."

He pulled her over against him, wrapping an arm securely around her. He rested his chin on the top of her head.  He took his time, before saying, equally carefully, "It's not that. But I don't know what you want to do here. And, well, you're not the only one being manipulated. And I'm considering murdering Tabitha."

"Uhm, Tabitha?  She's part of this?" Dinah was clearly lost.

"Never mind. I'll tell you some time when we don't have a thousand things going on. But her bit of manipulation is, or at least was, aimed at me. This bit might be part of her scheme, too. I dunno. I just know I don't like having somebody pull my strings any more than you do."

"Okay, that's fair.  As for what I want to do here...I really don't know yet.  I mean not that long ago I was just an inn keeper and wanting a vacation.  Now, everything in my life has changed and there's no way I can go back to being a simple inn keeper even if I wanted to, which I don't think I do.  All I know for sure right now is two things.  I want you in my life and I can't just walk away from this if it turns out there's something I can do.  In part, too, I suspect it's a lot like that line, about keeping 'em down on the farm.  I've seen Paree."

He chuckled at that. "You've got shit taste in men, woman, s'all I can say.  So I guess we go see Malachi, even without the flaming words on the wall."

"Okay."  And then she wriggled against him, recalling something else and suddenly unsure.  "There's, uhm...something else..."  She squirmed again to get a look at his face.  "About yesterday...I uhm, well, you see the thing is...I ah...don't know, uhm what came over me and I don't want you to, ah, well to think that I uhm....that I'm the sort who ah...." she trailed off her face flushing red.

"Who flirts with men she's dancing with?"

'Uhm, no, not that.  I ah thought you'd like it, that's all.  It's the ah, the thing earlier, you know?"

"I did like it. I didn't dare stand up.  What earlier?" He eyed her for a minute, then said, "Ah, the afternoon tryst?"

She nodded.  "I'm ah not, I swear, the sort who uhm....er...well, not into that sort of thing."

"Uhm, how many men have you been to bed with?"  At her look he added quickly, "I only ask because that sort of thing is fairly common. I've never thought much of BDSM but certainly there's nothing wrong with fantasy so long as both of you are willing, and neither gets hurt. That was my worry. That I'd hurt you, fulfilling your need."

"Oh.  Well.  Okay.  "I just felt..."  She stopped and got a grip on her inhibitions.  "I'm all for fantasy, too, for the most part.  I just didn't like, well, using you like that and I'm not into playing rape games, as it were."  She smiled at him.  "I just didn't know what else to do."

"Dinah, I didn't feel used. Not at all. I wanted to help you, give you want you wanted, needed.  We all need to.. well, let our fears or confusion out in some way. And sexually is a great way to do it. I don't think less of you because of it, either, if you're wondering that."

"I dunno know.  More like guilty I think.  Plus not knowing what you thought at all.  You're harder to read sometimes than the bloody sphinx."  She started playing with his chest hair, thinking for a minute. "I don't want to get tangled up the wrong way in your boundaries I suppose."

"As to the guilt, the moment we get back you're going to confession. Just don't sit down with the Reverend, he's already halfway convinced I'm a demon.  As to the rest, too late. You've already busted through most of my boundaries."

"Ahhh," she said grinning.  "Which ones are left?"

"I'm not tellin' and don't you go asking Kalket either."  His hand drifted down her side.

"Can I, uh, go exploring on my own though?" she asked, her fingers becoming busier.

"Be my guest. I suggest you start right...yeah, right there."

It took Dinah the better part of the morning, or what was left after Marc let her out of bed, to free herself from d’Brazos and his financial reports and then satisfy Malec, after which she caught up with Azael and Michael and set up the visit. Then she skipped lunch and set out to talk to Asher and Celie, who’d spent the night with Mollie and Miles, according to Quinn.

“So,” she said, “I take it you two like the dragons?”

They just glowed and nodded.

“I have an idea I think you two might like. But before I explain I want to stress two things. First it’s entirely up to you and second if you will always have a home and a job at hotel, no matter what, OK?” she said and held her breath.

Asher looked and Celie and they communed for a moment. “We like it at the hotel, Miss Dinah. Honest we do.”

“I know you do, and I like having you there. Mabel says you two are great to work with and the guests love you. I’m just…well. Look, I don’t want to pry, you two know that, right?”

They nodded solemnly.

“But you’re both obviously terrified of something or someone or both and I think, feeling kind of helpless, maybe?” She looked from one to the other, trying to gauge their reactions without invading their privacy.

“Miss Dinah…?” Asher began.

“Look, just hear me out and then if you don’t want to, that's okay, no more said…is it a deal?”

They nodded slowly.

“Okay. I was thinking that it might help if you two knew how to defend yourselves…like marital arts. That way, maybe things would be easier for you. You might feel safer.”

“You mean like learning kung fu, or something?” Celie asked her, puzzled.

“Yes, exactly. Azael, you know, Julian and St. Michael’s friend, has a place here where they train warriors and their dragons. He’s willing to show it to you this afternoon, you both and Mollie and Miles. And if you’re interested to work it out so you can stay there for a while and train with the rest of the students.”

“With Mollie and Miles? They’d be ours?” Celie asked, awed.

“Yes, at least for now. The dragons choose their own…companion…and the dragons here thought you two would be good for Mollie and Miles so we introduced you. Mollie and Miles want to go to Azael’s and they want to go with you guys. What happens later, over time, well that’s for you and them to work out, but it’s most likely they and you will be together forever. If it doesn’t work out at Azael’s, then I’m pretty sure a friend of mine, Stephen, will let us keep the dragons on his property in West Virginia and you’d come back to the hotel.”

Celie and Asher looked at each other and then back at Dinah.

What I’m asking is if you’re interested in at least visiting Azael’s place this afternoon with me and Marc. Azael, Michael and Julian would be going too, and we’d take Mollie and Miles. Just a visit. Then you can think it over and let me know what you want to do.”

“But we don’t have to; we can go back and work for you if we want, right?” Asher asked.

“Exactly,” she reassured him. “And if you decide to try it and don’t like you can always come back, too. With Mollie and Miles if they want.”

They communed for a long time. Finally Asher said, speaking for them both. “We’d like to go and see.”

Dinah kept her relief off her face and hugged them both carefully, and briefly. “Good, we’re ready to go, then.” She led them off to where the others were waiting. Azael and Michael would meet them there, Azael had said.

Five minutes later or less they exited a portal and the dragons set them down in a large courtyard paved in flagstone that matched the stone the building was made of. It looked like a self contained medieval monastery. Dinah patted Quinn’s nose and looked around while a man she vaguely recognized from the ritual as one of the scrutineers hurried out to greet them. Michael and Azael followed more leisurely.

"Lady,"  I am so happy you've come to visit.  When I heard...well I just couldn't believe it.  And to think you are a close friend of St. Azael himself."

Azael waited until the man stopped to draw breath and introduced him.  "Dinah, this is Father General Justin Quintillius.  He is the head of the order.  Father, the lady you know, and the gentlemen with her are Marc Rogatien and Julian Vaurian.  And these are the two I told you about, Asher and Celie, who might be interested in studying here for a while.

Quintillius shook hands around and then signaled to two students who'd been waiting in the background.  "This Jack and his sister, Reva, they're in their second year here and have volunteered to show you two around."

Asher and Celie looked at Dinah, fear lurking in their eyes.

"And Mollie and Miles, too, correct?" Dinah asked Quintillius.

"Absolutely, since they'd be admitted as a pair, student and dragon."

"How's that, then, Asher?" Dinah asked him.

He glanced at Celie and then nodded.

As they started on their tour, Quintillius, watching them leave, said, "I was told they had been traumatized?"

"Yes," was the only response he got from Dinah before she changed the subject.  "Now, I also understand that Malachi'Maelcom is here, too.  I'd like to see him if I might.  I'm leaving tomorrow and I'd like to say good bye before I go." Dinah smiled brightly at him.

"Ah yes, he's in his room, I'll show you."  Quintillius said.  "He's no longer a student here, but considering joining the order.  So he lives with the monks."

Once Dinah and Quintillius were out of earshot, Azael confided that he'd spoken with Quintillius and he understood how to deal with, he assumed, sexually traumatized youngsters. Marc nodded, saying, "Dinah doesn't know their story, but we're both pretty sure it was very bad indeed."

"They'll be given every consideration here. Many of the students come with problems.  But having watched them with Miles and Molly, I think they'll do just fine."

"And Malachi?" Marc asked Azael as they and Michael walked in the garden.

"Ah, Malachi. Perhaps we should wait for Dinah to return to discuss him."

Marc nodded his agreement.

Michael looked around.  "Why don't we look around while we wait for her.  Nice place you have here, Az.  You'll have to see mine sometime" he said.  Then he turned to Marc, all party boy attitude gone. "Did I understand you right when you said you'd been told it's monks from all the orders?"

"That's what Mac believes. He wants you to tell Dinah what you know too."

Azael raised an eyebrow. "Ah. Well, there's a code word we're supposed to wait for.  I think it might be a matter of timing as well as security."

Michael agreed.  "You know Az, we might want to get the other two checking things out at their places as well.

Azael nodded, then grinned.  "Ain't seen Haniel or Radziel since that night we spent in Copenhagen, remember Michael?  The time we got the bears out on the ice with the figure skaters?"

Micheal grinned.  "Oh yeah!"

"Do you guys do anything other than party?" Marc wanted to know.

"Apparently we don't do enough if we have rogue monks. Dammit. Work."  Michael nodded his agreement with those sentiments, then added for Marc, "I saved your butt not that long ago...if you recall?"

"I thought that was you partying, myself," Marc said with a grin.

By that time Dinah was approaching with Malachi in tow. He didn't look happy about it.  About that time Julian popped in, through a portal Puff had opened up.

"Thought you'd gotten lost there, dude.  Guess you just wanted a little along time with Puff, there, huh?  Away from everyone?"  Michael commented, grinning broadly.

Puff puffed up and flew off looking smug. Julian looked completely unabashed.

Dinah looked around and decided not to ask.   "Malachi isn't what I would call a happy guy right now." she shared confidingly.  "He, ah, is wondering if he could, uhm, come home with us tomorrow." The last was obviously directed towards Marc.  "He, uhm, feels that, ah, well if he stays he might have some problems.  Or did I misunderstand you?" she asked, looking at Malachi.

Malachi shook his head no.

"Can you identify which monks in this house are involved?" Azael asked Malachi. "I'm going to purge house. I could use your help, but will understand if you'd prefer not to help."

Malachi went ashen and gulped air like a drowning man.  Finally he said, even more unhappy.  "I, uhm...well I only know one, for sure.  Her name's Calliope."

Azael put a hand on Malachi's shoulder. "Thank you for that. Rest assured she won't know you tipped me off. But that gives me a place to start. I hope you," he added to Michael, "can get as lucky."

"So do I.  I have the law school to worry about, too." Michael said glumly.

"Marc?  What do you think?  Can he go back with us?  Not to the hotel obviously, but to the Refuge?  Until we know more?"

"I don't see why not," Marc replied finding a smile for Malachi. "We're taking back a bunch of dragons, What's one more pair. Although..."

"Although?" Dinah asked.

"What do you think of Italy?" Julian suddenly said.

"Italy?"  Malachi repeated.  "I don't know.  It's fine, I guess.  Why?"

Dinah raised a brow.  "You thinking Carmine?  I need to get those papers to him."

Julian nodded. "He's down a mage. At least you'd feel like you had something to do. Or do you not like vampires? Granted, Carmine's a pain, but still..."

"Me?" Malachi said.  "I don't mind them.  And I know Carmine, from Mac, so that's okay, I guess, if he'll have me."

"He promised to help if he could.   So you can come back to Caer Kista with us tonight and we'll leave in the morning." Dinah said.  When everyone nodded, she fixed Azael with a look and said, "Asher and Celie will be back any minute.  You make sure nothing bad happens to them, 'cause if it does, I swear, I'll make sure you never party another day in your life.  You got that?"

Azael gestured submission to her demands. "I so swear."