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Cassandra Palmer was an enigma, annoyingly so. John had never encountered someone so unlikely to be Pythia, so unworthy of the title and respect her predecessor had held. She had stolen at least 5 weapons from the Senate and released the Graeae on the world, he had no idea how this woman, this tiny package of skinny limbs and a messy bob of curly hair and freckles like a doll come to life, could seriously have survived the last week. She enraged him, but he needed her to be bait and he definitely needed the runes she had stolen. His fae blood would help to an extent, but he hadn’t been able to fully access his elemental magic in a century, and while he deserved to be cut off from his powers, he could really do with them now. The tattoo session had been cut short while they discussed the weapons and the girl’s ward.
The seer wouldn’t use her power, and John was furious as they spoke, some sense of owing the power if she used it had caused him to nearly bleed out and spend far too long tussling with the gargoyles at Dante’s, yet she had claimed she didn’t take them to the 19th Century on purpose. What kind of Pythia couldn’t use the power?
His anger got the better of him, hot as hell in this tiny cramped room he found himself moving into her space
‘Your explanation of the power’s actions make no sense, not if you truly are Pythia.’
He couldn’t have been an inch from her, he was full of a multitude of emotions, some he was quite sure he would never experience again in his lifetime. She was not like anyone he’d met before. He looked down towards her expecting her to step back, to feel as intimidated as he wanted her to be. But this woman surprised him again, she looked up into his eyes, and he felt those small hands move to his chest. He felt her fingers move slowly over his skin, pulling slightly on his chest hair, making patterns over his pecs, scraping a nipple as she went. Shock didn’t cover it, and years of yearning, desire and need crawled back into his mind and his incubus started to rise. His better judgement long since gone, he grabbed the seer’s wrists, he would later affirm in his mind that it was to move her away, but he had always been good at denial.
The pain was instant, her geis decided to hurt them; he’d felt pain like it, but not for some time. The temptation to use his power was overwhelming, override the geis, remove the pain on them both and take her was warring with the overwhelming pain. Luckily Mac intervened, his hands forcibly removed from the girl’s wrists, her screams stopped abruptly replaced by sharp breaths as they lay apart on the floor.
‘Are you all right? Cassie can you hear me?’ Mac spoke to Cassie while John learnt to breathe again. ‘Right, stay where you are and I’ll be right back. Whatever you do no touching!’ John would have laughed if he’d not been so busy reacclimatising to the lack of pain, no chance of that, he wouldn’t touch her again if his life depended on it.
John stared at the ceiling while Mac was out of the room, taking shallow breaths as the memory of pain subsided. A washcloth was applied by Mac, and they spent a few minutes getting themselves back to normality, John swore he wouldn’t look at the seer again, he got to his feet and added a shirt, the topless look was not happening again around her.
‘Could Mircea have altered the geis?’ She asked
‘Unlikely.’ He responded glancing at her only briefly.
‘Would somebody please tell me what the hell just happened here? Mac asked
‘Then why am I suddenly lusting after every guy I meet?’
John found a boring spot behind the refrigerator and answered the question.
‘The pain was the geis defending you against an unauthorized partner. It would not draw you to one.’
She leant on the nearby table, slight relief on her features, he made sure to not look directly at her though.
‘So what is going on?’ She asked.
‘I… am not sure.’ John took a breath and closed his eyes composing himself, he was being ridiculous, this girl would not tempt him again. ‘Did anything go wrong during the ritual?’
‘What ritual?’ Mac was puzzled, John should have filled him in a bit more before Miss Palmer arrived at the shop, but he’d been concentrating on the tattoo request and wasn’t sure she’d even turn up.
‘The transfer ritual,’ she said in reply ‘the one required to become Pythia. I don’t know what it’s called. Agnes started it but she said that I had to, uh…’
‘But Mircea took care of that.’ John said, he was sure she was not chaste any more.
‘Not exactly. We were interrupted. Rasputin attacked remember?’
‘Vividly.’ John said, his mind whirring with possibilities. ‘You’re saying that you’re still a virgin?’ He couldn’t keep the Incredulity out of his voice.
‘Not that its any of your business, but yes.’ John couldn’t believe it, only a few days ago he’d considered her a loose woman, now, well he couldn’t be sure of much.
‘I would never have considered that.’
‘Do you have a theory or not?’ He could hear the annoyance in her voice.
‘The most likely explanation is that the Pythian Rites are trying to complete themselves.’ She missed a beat before replying to him in a strangled voice.
‘Let me get this straight, since Mircea isn’t here, the unfinished ritual is starting to draw me to other men to complete itself. But the geis doesn’t like, and it’s making its feelings known by torturing me and anybody who gets near me. Is that’s right? And more importantly, is it going to keep happening?’
‘What geis? You’re under a geis?’ Mac asked
‘Her vampire master put her under a duthract. It is conflicting with the Pythian Rites, which have yet to be completed.’ John snapped out, vampires seemed to cause more problems that they solved in his limited experience.
‘Oh bloody hell.’ Mac sat down, an understatement that didn’t really cover it in John’s mind
‘Answer me.’ John could have sworn the woman was contemplating hitting him.
‘I don’t know enough about the rites to say for certain if there is a way out at this point. The ceremonies are held within the Pythia’s court and there are few records kept on anything connected to the office.’ He struggled to admit his lack of knowledge in this area, but he could only offer her what he had.
‘What about witnesses?’ There was a hint of fear and panic in her voice. ‘The ritual was done for Agnes once, right?’
‘That was more than eighty years ago and even if any witnesses still live, they would be of little use. Most of the ritual is carried our privately. The only people who know the complete procedure and the Pythia and her designated heir.’
‘Myra. What about the geis then?’
‘You are already doing what you can by staying away from Mircea. That will at least slow down the process. There is no other remedy, other than having it removed.’
‘Then how do I do that?’
He knew he could try, he had created the blasted spell and its counter, so knew it by heart, but it might keep her in check to leave the geis in place for now.
‘You don’t.’ It was final, if she showed any potential to be a good Pythia he may consider removing it, but right now she was better away from the vampires while they found the missing heir.
‘Don’t give me that! There has to be a way.’
‘If there is, I don’t know it.’ He lied, an edge of regret for the continued ruse. ‘If I did I would tell you. Unless the ritual is completed, it will continue to draw you to men, but the geis will oppose any except Mircea. And it will likely grow worse over time. The duthracht is spiteful when its opposed.’
‘But… but what about Chavez? He touched me and nothing happened. I didn’t go writhing all over the ice rink!’ It was time to change the subject he decided, he was getting frustrated with her questions again
‘You were at the ice rink? Why?’
‘To get that.’ She pointed at the bag on the floor. ‘I didn’t want to take it into Dante’s’
‘So you left it unattended in a public area where anyone might pick it up?’
‘It was in a locker and can we get back to the point? I felt something start to build when Casanova touched me. It was nothing like what just happened, but it felt- I don’t know. Like it could get bad fast. Only he dropped my hand before it flared. But Chavez didn’t affect me at all, and that was later. So, if you’re right and the reaction is strengthening, shouldn’t it have been worse?’ John had an uncomfortable feeling he knew.
‘I don’t know.’ Though it seemed Mac was going to join the dots for them.
‘The only reason I can think of, is that the geis determines the amount of threat by reading the interest level of any prospective partners and reacts accordingly.’ John felt a little sick at his friends words. ‘Casanova was likely somewhat attracted to you and this Chavez wasn’t Casanova was therefore identified by the geis as the wrong match and as a potential problem, and warned off, But Chavez, although also the wrong one to complete the bond was not interested in you, and therefore was not perceived as a danger.’ John looked over at the seer, horror in his eyes, oh yes, his incubus side liked the woman just fine.
‘Of course, when there’s mutual attraction, the reaction is stronger because the warning is going both ways…’
John tried to not let it get to him, keeping as straight a face as possible and avoiding eye contact. while mutual attraction hasn’t been something he’d experienced much since Ruth, he’d weathered worse in his time. She’d be out of his life soon and he’d go back to fighting his incubus urges as normal. He was adamant, Cassandra Palmer wasn’t going to be a long-term problem, he wasn’t beholden to her and certainly not attracted enough to be in love.