Dinah fished a phone number out of her purse and started punching numbers. It took a minute, being overseas, but finally it was done and she was listening to it ring on the other end. She heard Carmine’s voice on the other end, speaking Italian and sighed with relief. “Carmine,” she said, “It’s Dinah. Got a minute?” When he responded in the affirmative she explained her need and then listened closely as he outlined a plan. “Got it, she said. We’ll see you then.”

“Okay, he’s agreeable to talking to you about it. He’ll meet us this evening, early at the hotel and if it all works out you're set. If not we’ll figure something else out,” she promised him.

“Thank you Lady, I appreciate it, and Mr. Abrizzi as well,” he assured her formally.

She nodded. Hopefully working for Carmine would chill him out a bit.

Just past sunset she and Malachi zapped off to the hotel, arriving just as Nicco appeared with Carmine in tow. Nicco dashed off to the kitchen to plead for gelato while Dinah left Malachi and Carmine alone to talk.

They'd seen one another before but not ever spoken beyond formalities.  Malachi looked tense. Carmine waved him to a seat and sat opposite him.

"I had a great deal of respect for Mach. Malachi. And your brother Malec, although not quite so, how you say, sociable, is a worthy successor. I am surprised you want to be away from your family. Can you tell me what it is you wish? I do not mean to pry, but if this is to be a temporary position my choices are different than if you are perhaps considering something more permanent."

"At the moment, I don't know, to tell you the truth.  It isn't...wise...for me to be home or at St. Azael's right now.  Probably not for a long time, either, I'd imagine."  Malachi told him.

"Ah, well then. You are a mage, as well as a warrior monk, is that not right?"

"Yes, well yes I'm a mage, the same genetic line as Mach.  As for warrior monk, properly speaking, no, but I've trained and studied with them since I was very young.  I was still considering whether to join them or not when all this came up."  Malachi added the last as an after thought.

"Va bene. But you understand the art of defense?" At his admission he did, Carmine asked, "And how would you feel about living in a vampire's household?"

"I can't imagine it would be a problem after living at St. Azael's.  Would I have to sleep days and live nights?" he asked.

"Well, my household has quite a few non-vampires in it  so although it slows down during the day, there are many things to do then. Security is 24/7 and Vitorio, my chief of security, would be very glad to have another human who could respond during the day. But as you are a mage, it seems a shame to limit you to security. Can you, do you think, work with my First Mage, Nicco?  I understand he is a trial, sticky hands not the least of his problems. But despite his apparent age, he is a very powerful mage. And, more importantly, I love him."

"I don't think that'll be a problem, he's a very loveable....er...person.  Plus we all took turns at St. Azael's working with the younger students so I'm used to having ...er...children around, too, though I'd never call him that.  I wouldn't think he'd take it well." Malachi grinned at the thought.

"He is sometimes confused," Carmine confided. "He is very bitter at times that he cannot grow up and experience the things adults do. So if you find yourself  struggling with him, I try to remember how frustrating it must be for a talent like that to be frozen in a child's body."

"I guess it must be." Malachi agreed.  "So, uhm, anything else I can tell you?"

"Your dragon. Will you want to bring her with you? Or would she want to stay at the Refuge with the others and visit? I'm sorry, but I have never had much discussion with them, although Nicco tells me they are quite wonderful."

Malachi rubbed the back of his neck.  "I'd prefer it if she were with me, but that's really up to you and, truth to tell, she'd prefer to be with the others if she isn't with me.  So probably at the Refuge.  I can, uhm, arrange a ride if you'd like?"

"My villa is built into a cliff face. We could if she wants it, accommodate her in the underground passages. I do not wish to separate you if we can find a way that will make both of you happier."

"Thanks.  I appreciate it, and if it doesn't work out or she's a problem I can always move her back to the Refuge, not that she won't be there a lot anyway when I'm busy." He chuckled.  "Dragons tend to be fairly gregarious creatures."

"Si, I understand. And you? I hope you will be happy with me. If you aren't you must let me know and I will arrange something else for you. I like those with me to feel content."

Malachi nodded.  "Thanks for the job.  First one I ever had," he confided.

Dinah checked the table one last time, running through the checklist in her head. Wine and Perrier on ice, the seafood salad was ready to toss together, the bread sliced and the fresh fruit all set to go. Smiling, she let Marc answer the front door. It was his house after all, not hers…but she was glad to be back. She smoothed the table cloth and headed out to the deck where Marc was handing Stephen a scotch and Doni a Perrier. She grinned at Doni and took a Perrier to keep her company, and then found a seat.

“So how was dragon riding, Stephen?” Dinah asked him.

He laughed. “Worth the trouble they’re sure to cause with the hikers. Every boy’s dream come true.”

"And I understand congratulations are in order, Doni. I'm delighted to hear it," Marc added, smiling at her.

She blushed slightly and laughed.  "Thank you.  Now that the caffeine withdrawal is over, I think I may even mean it."

"Oh man, that must have hurt," Dinah said sympathetically.

Doni agreed emphatically.

"Are you planning to continue helping at the Infirmary?" Marc asked.

"For now, anyway.  It frees another healer for the teams and I can do some training too, working with the rotations."  She shrugged.  "It's not the field, but it'll keep me busy.  After they're born, I don't know."

Marc nodded. "So, Stephen wanted to know exactly how we ended up with a dozen dragons and assorted personnel too, Dinah. I thought I'd leave that explanation to you."  His voice clearly meaning, since it was she who got them into it, she could try to make sense of it to Stephen and Doni.

Dinah gave him a look and then told the story of the week at Caer Kista.  "So," she finished, "I'm now head of a genetic trading House that, apparently, will seed the stars with life, if Kevin is to be believed, plus the sole beneficiary of all of Mac's licit and illicitly gained wealth."

Stephen having taken it all in asked, "So what are you plans?"

"I don't know, but I do know I can't just go back to the hotel."

"You never were destined to be a mere innkeeper Dinah," he told her.  "Or a mere anything for that matter."

"Call her Lady," Marc advised. "It makes her crazy."

"So," he added, after Dinah shot him a look and Stephen and Doni laughed, "the dragons. We don't have much choice I'm afraid. We can go somewhere else if you don't want them here. Ocala maybe.  Although no mountains there for them."

"There's how many?" he confirmed, "twelve?"

"Fourteen here," Dinah corrected, "plus several of them are....well...pregnant Quinn told me this afternoon.  They'll be born in the early spring, just before mating season if I understood him right."

Stephen rubbed his chin.  "Well, eventually we'll have to deal with the park service when the hikers on the ridge report seeing them, but I think it'll be fine.  I know if I try to make you move 'em I'd get lynched."

Marc's lips twitched. "Well, perhaps we can have Trevor put them on security rota. Make them earn their keep."

"That's a great idea,"  Stephen said.  "Though I'm guessing they feel they earn their keep just by being around."

They all laughed and then went in to dinner.

Dinner went well and they all relaxed. After dinner, sitting on the deck looking out at the darkened mountains, Marc finally got around to the one question he wanted to ask all evening. "Doni, I don't mean to upset you, but I've been doing some thinking. With the new powers I've acquired, I'm hoping I can perhaps have a chance to find out what happened to Lily's kids. As I understand it you scanned their minds. Can you show me what their signatures looked like?"

Doni nodded and got a slightly vacant look, as she riffled her memory banks.  Then she said, "Go ahead," and lowered her outer shields.

Marc slid into her mind carefully, and examined what she offered him. He exited as quickly as he could. "I hope that wasn't too difficult for you. But it been bothering me a long time. I want to know what happened to them, and I think I have a way to find out.  With this information, I'm more confident than ever that if they're alive I'll find them."

After they left Dinah turned around to see Marc standing in front of the open dishwasher staring at it as if it were an alien contraption. She grinned and took the dishes from dinner out of his hands, expertly loading it. He watched but then again he wasn't really watching. His eyes had that look they got when his mind was MIA.

He snapped out of it finally and met her eyes, saying, "I'm going to use the CE rig to find Lily and Richard's children. I need to calibrate it to the changes in my DNA and to the talents you gave me.  It may take me a week."

"The CE rig?" she asked.

"Cerebral Enhancement rig. I used it to get Doni back. It ups my natural talents, and extends their range and power. Since they know we got Doni, they'll have put even more effort into protecting those kids.  But then they won't know what to expect with what you gave me on Caer Kista.  Hell, I don't know what to expect. Especially not when I try to marry all that to the CE rig."

"Uhm yeah.  Okay," she said, drawing out each syllable.  "Do I, ah, kiss you good bye now or later?" she asked, drying her hands on a dish towel.

He drew her into his arms and said, "Oh, I think it can wait until morning. Unless you're too tired..."

She gave him a look that answered that question.  "So, before you shred any capacity I have for rational thought, would you mind explaining in a bit more detail what exactly you're going to do.  I mean you don't know where they are, so how will you find them?  The boy, by the way is named Christopher, the girl, I think, was named Adrianna, Drianna they called her."

He nodded, attaching the names to each of the brain scans Doni had shown him. "It's a bit hard to explain."  At her look he continued, "Okay, I'll give it a shot."  He put an arm around her shoulders as they walked toward the bedroom.

"The rig is a sort of computer that connects directly to my brain. I can direct it, tell it to scan an area of the sky, or of Earth or of Home, and look for certain characteristics. I'll feed in the data Doni gave me on their brains. The readings will be different now, but should still have enough similarities that any hits I get might be them. Also, I'll have to scan for areas that read as black or empty. That's how shielding would show up.

"If I find shielding, I'll have to figure out  a way to get through it without hurting the kids. And, they might not even be behind it. They might, I suppose, even be dead."

Dinah nodded, her fingers moving swiftly, busily along the buttons on his shirt.  "So, how can I help?" she asked, spreading his shirt wide, and running her hands lingeringly over his chest, tracing the muscle definition with her thumbs.

"I want you to promise me you won't go near the control room. Reno knows how to work the equipment. He can handle it fine."

"You always ask me to promise when you think I can't be trusted to know better," she observed, her fingers busy now with his nipples.

He took her hands in his and stopped her distraction. "Listen, please. It isn't that at all. It's... My son tried to kill me when he saw what it was like. It terrified him, especially when he knew I wanted him to use it too. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I'm afraid you won't trust it."

"Ah, okay.  What I'll promise then is to do nothing Reno doesn't tell or ask me to do."  She shook her head as he started to protest.  "Best you're gonna get I'm afraid."

He met her eyes for a few moments then nodded. "You can bring him chicken soup for dinner while he waits for me, how's that?"

"I make a mean chicken soup.  You'll be sorry you missed it."

"I'll be sorry I missed a lot of things," he said, as he backed her up to the bed.

"It'll all be here waiting for you," she promised.  "So," she added, suddenly fierce, "you'd damn well better come back able to enjoy it."

Roz crumbled the single sheet of note paper in her hand viciously and tossed it on the fire. Then she poured herself a brandy and swallowed it in two gulps, before refilling the glass. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been so furious.

First Doni rescued and now this. Now Dinah, an awakened, now a mage as well with all the genetic gifts of Sere’Ster and the head of a House that whispers were labeling incredibly powerful and with gifts no one had ever seen before. And then, the stupid bitch, the first damn thing she’d done was endow Marc Rogatien, already too powerful, with the same powers. She swore fluently and comprehensively, and then rang for Felix.

While she waited for him she sat down at her desk and pulled a sheet of paper towards her, then began writing rapidly. When she was finished she read it through once and then put it in an envelope and sealed it.

She looked up and held it out to Felix, waiting patiently for her to notice him. “Deliver it into his hand and no other’s. There won’t be a reply so you needn’t wait.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, bowing. Then he was gone, zapping away.

Roz poured herself a third brandy and considered the course she’d just committed herself to. Her friends would be angry but that couldn’t be helped. She flipped on the news channel and was paralyzed into fascinated, gleeful horror at the scenes unfolding in front of her eyes…the shots of the bodies they’d found in the woods, graphically displayed.

Serves them right, the bloody bastards, she thought. She felt like applauding who ever it was who was doing it. She sipped her brandy, feeling the alcohol ease her tension, while her anger floated free, warming her, igniting her nerves.

She ran her tongue over her bottom lip making it gleam, considering her options. She picked up a telephone and dialed as swiftly as she’d written the note. When it was answered on the other end she said only, “I want you. Now.” And then she hung up.

A short time later she was in her room, dressed in black from head to toe, tapping a riding crop against her thigh, her companion naked in front of her, his hands stretched so high above his head in cuffs attached to a bolt mounted in the ceiling that he was raised up on the balls of his feet.  Roz smiled and ran a hand over his flank, picturing someone else entirely in her mind.  Then she stood back and lifted the crop, saying harshly, "count them."  And as he obediently said one, she lifted the crop bringing it down hard across his buttocks.

It was early, the sun barely touching this part of earth when he woke. He looked over at Dinah, sleeping peacefully beside him.

He hoped to sneak out while she was like that. He wanted to have that picture of her in his head in case.... He slipped out from under the covers and pulled on jeans and a shirt, while at the same time contacting Reno mentally, telling him to meet him at the shack on the back forty and start firing up the rig.

He was tiptoeing out of the bedroom when she said, "I just knew there was another woman.  Tell me, how have I failed you?"

"Right, like I have an ounce of sexual energy left after last night," he said, smiling down at her. "But I really don't want you to see this. And I need to go.'

She was up and dressed with a thought, "I promise not to sob loudly in farewell, but I do want to toss flowers at the ship as she sails."  Her voice was light, her eyes serious.  "What exactly is it that you think I won't be able to handle?"  She took his arm.  "You can tell me on the way."

"Dinah, for one thing the nutrient wash stinks. And even Reno has his doubts about the wisdom of my risking my ass in the thing, so..."

"I'll hold my nose." she told him.  "Besides, I'll worry less if I know and don't have to imagine.  I've a very vivid imagination when it comes to you...as you know."

"Please?" he tried, going all out.

She shook her head. "I may not get you back, so..."

He froze for a moment. "I'll be back. I've survived worse. This time I'm not...It'll be fine."  He kissed her forehead. "All right, then."

He zapped them to the remote cabin where the rig was housed, Reno was already there. When Dinah walked in she was astonished to see how elaborate the setup was. There were banks of computer equipment attached to monitoring equipment that would make any of the most fancy secret government research lab jealous. The coffin part was lying in the middle of the room.

Reno, on seeing her, opened his mouth, giving Marc a look that clearly wondered if this was wise.

"Morning Reno," she said cheerfully.  "Don't mind me.  I'm just here to watch.  Figured we could do breakfast afterwards, maybe."

"Uhm, oh yeah. Right," he replied as he scanned some readouts. "All green, boss. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Marc shrugged. "No, but it seems to be what is going to happen regardless."  Without bothering to go out of the room or reach for privacy, Marc stripped. Reno handed him a dead black one piece body suit that Reno had to help Marc put on. Dinah finally stepped over to help too. The thing was snug and pretty stiff.

"It's protection against the possible radiation and g-forces for when I travel between the interstices of space," Marc explained.

"And this?" Dinah asked, pointing to the connections.

"Waste disposal, nutrient input, the means to keep my body alive if I'm gone for a long time," he replied.  "My brain will be on overdrive. I'll be utilizing bodily energy at a vast rate so I have to feed it."

"I'll keep dinner warm then, since I'm guessing you'll probably be late," Dinah said.

"I hope not," he replied meeting her eyes. "Try not to worry."

"I'll be fine.  I'm gonna get Julian to help me deal with this other thing." She ran a finger down his cheek.  "So don't you worry about me."

He kissed her lips then said, "All right, Reno."  He turned then and climbed into the coffin. Reno hit a few keys on a control panel and the coffin began filling with a viscous evil smelling liquid. Marc was connecting the tubes to the suit and when he was done the fluid began to cover him. Last  of all Reno brought over a helmet.  Marc, with a last look at Dinah, let Reno slip it over his head. As it locked onto the suit he wore Dinah saw thousands of needle leads emerge from within the helmet and prick Marc's head in an even pattern along his forehead and presumably in other areas as well. His eyes closed."

Reno was sheet white as he watched it. "He's out of it at this point, hooked to the CE rig, letting it fry his bloody brain," Reno commented.

A dark cover that had been under the coffin now slid up and over and slipped into place, with a hiss of air that indicated a vacuum.  Marc, for all intents and purposes, was gone.

Dinah was as pale as Reno.  "Will you wait here with him, the whole time he's gone?" she asked.

"Yeah, I don't feel right just leaving him there, although he always tells me I should."

"If you show me what to do, and make sure I know how to reach you I can maybe give you a break," she offered, looking at him owlishly.

"Tell you what. You go get Julian to fix you and if Marc's still gone when you get back I'll take you up on it."

She gave him a brilliant smile.  "Cool.  Want me to go get you a latte?"

Reno managed a weak smile. "That'd be great. If you could maybe tell Melly I won't be around for a few days, that'd be great too."

"Yeah.  Will do.  Want me to tell her where you are in case she wants to say hi or is all this secret?"

"Uhm, maybe better not tell her. Just say, uhm, I'm with Marc."

"Got it," she said and was gone.