Thaumatology 04 - Dragon's Blood Read online

  Lily giggled. ‘Wait until you get inside.’

  As Ceri walked in through the inner set of doors on the porch, a silver-white ball of light trailing gold sparks flew down the stairs from the upper floor. She stopped dead in her tracks as the small sphere buzzed around her legs, up her body, and then materialised into a four-inch tall, nut-brown fairy with bobbed, purple hair and feathery, blue-white butterfly wings. Twill, enigmatic fairy housekeeper, was speaking, but Ceri could not understand a word. When excited, Twill sounded like someone had recorded her and was running the tape too fast. The chatter suddenly ended and Twill leaned forward like a brown version of Tinkerbell and gave Ceri a kiss on the cheek.

  Ceri giggled. ‘I missed you too, Twill. Was any of that important because you know I can’t understand a word you say when you get excited.’

  Twill must really have missed her because she did not threaten to starch Ceri’s underwear. ‘Nothing really important, no. I was just pointing out that I disliked being alone so much and the house doesn’t feel the same without its Mistress. Oh, and Michael dropped by to say that he would visit after dark.’ The smile on her tiny face became more of a smirk. ‘I’ve had some contractors in to reinforce the bed.’

  ‘Twill!’ Ceri said, mock-shocked. ‘Anyway, it’s stood up well enough so far.’

  ‘I’m sure I don’t want to know,’ Alec commented, coming through the door with a pair of large bags.

  ‘Hush you,’ Ceri told him. ‘I’m amazed the airbed didn’t explode.’

  ‘Airbed?’ Twill asked. It was amazing how Twill’s presence could make even a big man embarrassed when the subject of sex came up. It was especially funny considering what Twill occasionally got up to.

  ‘Ask Lily,’ Ceri said, partially to save Alec’s blushes and partially to save her own. ‘She tells these stories so much better.’

  ‘As you wish,’ Twill said, flitting across to Alec and hovering right beside his face. ‘Your cheeks are red, young man. You’ll stay for dinner?’

  ‘Well, I’ve got to get Cheryl home…’

  ‘I’ve got steaks,’ Twill interrupted.

  ‘I should really get…’

  ‘They’re T-bones,’ Twill added, ‘and I have four…’

  ‘I’ll go get Cheryl.’

  ~~~

  ‘A dragon skull?’ Twill said, sounding distinctly incredulous. ‘A real dragon skull? Well, that is a turn up for the books.’

  ‘The Journal of Thaumatology actually,’ Cheryl said. ‘So it’s a turn up for the periodicals.’

  Sat on the kitchen table with a thimble filled with alcohol-thinned honey, Twill glared up at Cheryl. ‘Don’t think you’re too old to be spanked.’

  Lily pouted. ‘You’ve never offered to spank me, Twill.’

  ‘No, because you’d enjoy it.’

  Ceri interrupted the laughter. ‘Do you know anything about dragons, Twill?’

  ‘Probably not much more than you, dear. You might find a few fae around who remember them, but I’m far too young.’ Twill had always claimed to be eighteen, but both Ceri and Lily suspected that that was, if not exactly a lie, then an embroidering of the truth. ‘To my knowledge,’ she went on, ‘not even the oldest fae know where they come from. My mother used to say they were huge, magical beasts. Really magical! The air around them would hum with magic. But they could change shape and hide themselves. They would even take the shape of men and there were rumours that they fathered children, but that was a long time ago.’

  ‘During the Dark Ages?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘Oh no, this would be in ancient times, back in the First and Second Magic Ages. I think I heard a rumour that some of the Chinese dragons had spawned a few offspring during the Dark Age period, but… well, China is a long way off.’

  ‘If they were inherently magical in some way,’ Cheryl said, ‘that might explain how the skull is powering the henge.’

  ‘Essentially an irradiated source,’ Ceri said.

  Cheryl nodded. ‘Magical toxic waste.’

  ‘I’m not sure I buy it though. I’m pretty sure the circle wasn’t active before the Shattering. Someone would have noticed.’

  ‘It’s always been considered a mystical site,’ Cheryl replied, thoughtfully, ‘but you’re right. If it was active back then it was operating at a really low level.’

  ‘So, the increased general magic field reactivated it?’ Alec suggested.

  ‘Possibly,’ Cheryl said. ‘Of course we don’t exactly know what the Shattering did. It’s one of the big mysteries of quantum thaumatology left to be solved. Why were null thaumitons blocked from our world before the Shattering? What actually happened to allow them in? The super-magic field is the most popular theory, but there’s absolutely no proof.’

  ‘Huh,’ the werewolf said, ‘well, you’re not going to solve that sitting around here, and unless you’re going to sleep in the spare room upstairs I’d better be getting you home.’

  Cheryl smiled and nodded. ‘I’ll call you tomorrow about that meeting with the Minister, Ceri.’ She pushed her chair back and stood up with a groan. ‘Too much food after cooking for ourselves for a couple of days.’

  ‘We should have kept Shelly,’ Ceri commented.

  ‘I don’t think we could have fitted five on the airbed,’ Lily said.

  ‘Oh yes,’ Twill said brightly, ‘what’s this about an airbed?’

  Alec made a run for it.

  Soho, June 13th

  ‘How many more shops are you going to drag me into, Lil?’ Ceri whined. Thankfully her feet did not hurt; she had not actually spent that much time on them. On the other hand, Lily seemed to have dragged her into every shop on Oxford Street which looked like it might sell evening dresses.

  ‘We’re going to the Green Room,’ Lily said, ‘to have dinner with the Minister for Supernatural Affairs, in the Green Room.’

  ‘You mentioned it being in the Green Room twice.’

  ‘Yes, the place is far more important than some stuffed shirt minister.’ The half-succubus grabbed the sleeve of Ceri’s jacket and yanked her through a doorway. ‘We will go to every single shop as far as Piccadilly if we have to.’

  Ceri sighed. She had been a little surprised when Cheryl called mid-morning to say that Malcolm Charles, Minister for Supernatural Affairs, did want to meet her, and a little more surprised when she said that he had asked if Lily would attend as well. Of course she had said yes; there was no way Lily was going to pass up a chance to be an actual guest at one of Carter’s clubs, especially not the Green Room. Sure enough, Lily had been gleeful, until she had decided that they had nothing which would be suitable to wear.

  ‘I don’t see why we can’t wear…’ Ceri began, but her plea was washed away in Lily’s enthusiasm for the latest thing she had found to dress Ceri in.

  The distinct possibility that they would find nothing up to Lily’s standards before they ran out of shops had occurred to Ceri, but she was pushing that horrific thought aside and praying to various gods she did not believe in that something would come up. Attempts at “oh this looks fantastic” and “you look really sexy in that” had failed. Lily knew exactly what she was looking for, and it was not whatever she was finding. When, two hours and six shops later, they dodged down Poland Street and into a small boutique on the west side of the street, Ceri had one simple thought. ‘You’ll let me sit down for five minutes, won’t you, Catherine?’

  The slim, blonde-haired Alpha werewolf behind the counter smiled at her. ‘Lily running you ragged?’ she asked, pointing at a plastic chair beside the small, curtained door to the changing rooms. It was there for men reluctantly shopping with their wives or girlfriends, but at this time on a weekday in June there were none of those about.

  Ceri sagged into the chair with relief and appreciation while Lily started going through racks of clothes. ‘We’ve both been invited to a semi-working dinner tonight,’ Ceri said. ‘Malcolm Charles is meeting us in the Green Room and Lily’s gone wiggy trying to find jus
t the right dresses.’

  ‘I think I may be able to help you,’ she said. ‘Just keep an eye on the till for me a second, would you? My assistant’s on her break.’

  ‘Sure,’ Ceri replied, frowning slightly as Catherine dodged back into the changing room area, but then slipped through a side door and into the back of the shop. The confusion did not abate as Catherine emerged a few minutes later holding a pair of flat boxes about two feet on each side.

  ‘These came in today,’ the werewolf said. She handed one box to Ceri. ‘Go on, try it on,’ she added eagerly before turning. ‘Lily? Try this. You’ll love this.’

  The cubicles in the back were empty and Ceri put the box down on the stool in the nearest one before closing the curtain and starting to take her clothes off. She heard Lily giggling as she walked past to one of the other cubicles. Stripped down to her knickers, Ceri opened the box and took out the dress, holding it against her chest. It was a gorgeous pale blue and very simple. The lower half was a tube which she stepped into before pulling it up. It fitted very snugly around her legs and hips. The back was very low, barely covering her behind. The front fixed around her neck via a collar with a Velcro fastening and had a deep slash from her throat down to her navel. The loose fabric at the top contrasted nicely with the clinging fit from her hips down. She was going to need heels to go with it, but that was expected. Looking at herself in the mirror, she realised that the knickers were going to have to go too.

  ‘Come on,’ Lily’s voice came through the curtain. ‘Show us the result.’

  Realising that she was rather keen that Lily liked the dress, partially because she did, and partially because it would mean they could go home and she could crash, Ceri called out, ‘Hang on,’ and spent a minute or two struggling out of her thong before straightening the dress up and walking out of the cubicle.

  Lily’s gown was the same basic form as Ceri’s, but it started out at her throat as a subtle orange, gradually shading to a deeper, vibrant colour around her ankles. Her rather more substantial chest resulted in more flesh showing through the slash at the front. Lily beamed at her and motioned with a finger for her to turn. Smirking slightly, and holding her arms out from her sides, Ceri did a little twirl. ‘Gorgeous,’ Lily said breathily.

  ‘You look better in yours,’ Ceri replied.

  ‘Nonsense, you look…’

  ‘Lil,’ Ceri said seriously, ‘I know you think I’m the most beautiful being in the world, but seriously, you would make a potato sack look sexy. You’re a half-succubus, you’ve got all the advantages. Just live with it.’ She looked at herself in the mirror again, turning her hips back and forth. ‘I’m quite happy with being second best when it’s your body I’m second best to.’

  Lily slipped up beside her, her arm sliding around Ceri’s wait. They looked at themselves in the mirror. ‘You still look gorgeous,’ Lily said.

  ‘We look gorgeous.’

  ‘Better than mortal man deserves.’ Lily grinned brightly. ‘Okay, you’re saved, we can go home now.’

  Ceri giggled and turned toward the cubicle to get changed.

  Mayfair

  The Green Room was a tall, four-storey building on Green Street, near the junction with Park Street. It was brightly lit, and there was a man in a smart, dark green uniform, complete with cap, to open the door and allow Ceri and Lily inside. Beyond the Georgian façade, the interior was just as grand. Dark green wallpaper with gold fleur de lys pattern ran from richly carpeted floor to moulded ceiling. A grand staircase led up from the left, sweeping around to the upper floor landing, while ahead of them was the entrance to the restaurant and a tall man in a suit waiting in front of a lectern. They were heading for that when a woman in a slightly stylised maid’s uniform approached them.

  ‘Miss Brent and Miss Carpenter?’ she asked.

  ‘That’s right,’ Ceri replied.

  The woman smiled. ‘Mister Fleming is expecting you, please follow me.’ Turning, she started for the stairs with the two friends following behind her.

  The sound of jazz, almost certainly played live drifted down from a corridor at the top of the stairs. This floor had the public club room, Ceri surmised. Their guide, however, kept on going, up a second flight of stairs before leading them to a panelled door on the next floor. She opened it without knocking and then stood aside so that Ceri and Lily could walk in. The door closed behind them as Carter rose from his chair to greet them.

  ‘Ladies,’ he said warmly, ‘right on time. Cheryl and Petra you know. Let me introduce Petra’s father, Malcolm Charles, Minister for Supernatural Affairs.’

  Petra was an attractive girl with bobbed blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her slim figure was enhanced by a short, black corset dress which fitted her personality; she was noted for being something of a wild child, a constant embarrassment to her father. Ceri was a little surprised to see her here since, whenever she wanted to annoy her father, her favourite method of attracting publicity was to go to bed with Carter.

  Despite this, the elder Charles looked rather pleased. Petra’s looks had obviously come from her mother’s side; Malcolm had a slightly bulbous nose with a high bridge, ruddy cheeks and hair which had once been black, but was now mostly a dull grey. His suit was smart, but did not fit as well as it might have. Ceri suspected he had once had quite a good body, but it was now sagging around the middle. He did, however, rise to his feet so that he could greet them, and he clearly knew who they both were.

  ‘Miss Brent,’ he said, raising her hand to his lips, but not quite touching it, ‘I’m pleased to actually meet you. You would not believe the number of reports I’ve pulled out of red boxes about you. Or perhaps you would.’

  ‘Nothing bad, I hope, sir,’ Ceri replied.

  ‘Not bad, no,’ Malcolm replied. Something in the way he said it made Ceri wonder exactly what he had been reading, but he was moving on to Lily. ‘Miss Carpenter, I’m glad you agreed to come. You’re a unique individual and a man in my position is not allowed to go to places like the Jade Dragon to meet you.’ He raised Lily’s hand to his lips as well and she smiled at him. Ceri could tell how he had done well in politics; if not exactly an attractive man, he was charming.

  ‘A girl in my position doesn’t get to meet ministers often,’ Lily replied, ‘nor can I afford to eat here so I had to come.’

  ‘Well, let’s get sat down,’ Carter said. ‘We’ll have something to eat and then we can get down to business.’

  ‘Not too much food though,’ Ceri said as she took her seat. ‘This is not a dress for huge meals.’

  There was laughter, and then the waitresses brought in food and there was small talk over dinner. Carter had, apparently, considered the waistlines of all those present; he had laid on a banquet-style meal with numerous dishes which could be sampled in large or small portions. The only person keeping up with Malcolm was Lily, who had the annoying ability to eat more or less as much as she liked without ever seeming to gain an ounce. Ceri had a suspicion that any extraneous fat she managed to attract went straight to her boobs.

  ‘I understand that you’re to be congratulated on your PhD, Ceri?’ Malcolm said as the dishes were finally cleared away. They had dispensed with the formality after a few minutes and Ceri was having a little difficulty reconciling the man sitting at the table with the minister she saw on TV, and the man his daughter loved to embarrass.

  ‘Thank you,’ Ceri replied. ‘It’s not totally official until the graduation ceremony, but thank you.’

  ‘From what Cheryl and Carter tell me, you’re the rising star of thaumatology. My ministry is keeping an eye on your work.’

  ‘Don’t scare the girl, Malcolm,’ Carter said.

  ‘Oh, far from it,’ the Minister said, raising his hands to ward off any apparent ill intent. ‘Let’s see, since your, um, accident you have stopped the military from developing a weapon which would have delivered the world to the demons, saved us from a world-scale war with deranged werewolves, cemented far more so
cial relations between the government and the London packs, assisted the police in a number of difficult cases, developed a power system which various agencies are looking at with what I can only describe as avaricious glee, and proposed a system of power which could provide us with enough power to run the country. Have I missed anything?’

  Cheryl smirked. ‘We’re getting to that.’

  Malcolm raised an eyebrow, but kept going. ‘With a list like that, and yes, I know Cheryl is involved with the scientific work and she gets full credit for it, but you can understand that we would want to keep you on our radar.’

  Ceri nodded. ‘Yeah, I can see that.’ It was not good news. The last thing she needed was scrutiny, especially from the government.

  ‘So what’s Cheryl hinting at?’ Petra asked. ‘I know she called up and suggested you should be here, which is cool for me since Dad said we should make it a little more social and I could come, but now you’ve peaked our interest.’

  Cheryl grinned. ‘Well, you’ve had a very rough report on the success of the Stonehenge experiment.’

  Malcolm nodded. ‘Indeed.’

  ‘As a proof of concept it worked exceptionally well,’ Cheryl went on. ‘We were getting good, stable results from the basic configuration, but we thought we could do better. We did some analysis of the thaumic field emissions from the circle.’

  ‘Using the same scanning system that Ceri used for her were-creature work,’ Lily put in.

  ‘And some magic,’ Cheryl added. ‘We were able to reconfigure the collector to a seventy-three per cent efficiency increase. We’re confident that, if we can set up the ley line system Ceri has suggested, we can generate a lot of electricity.’

  ‘Excellent,’ Malcolm said, ‘but I’m not hearing the surprise revelation.’

  Cheryl looked at Ceri encouragingly. ‘We discovered what actually powers Stonehenge,’ Ceri said.

  ‘I thought it was something to do with the stones?’ Petra said.

  ‘So did we,’ Ceri replied, grinning, ‘but it turns out that the stones are there to contain the power, not to generate it. The actual power source is a dragon skull buried under the circle.’