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“Yeah, with how you get around, keeping track of your position would be impossible,” Lorelei said in agreement.
“Hmmm, you make me sound like a slut,” he said with a grin.
Lorelei’s face warmed up, and she was spared answering immediately as their food arrived. When the waiter left them alone once more, she leaned forward and locked eyes with Henry. “You know very well that’s not what I meant!”
He grinned as he shook his head. “Yeah, but it’s still kinda true. It seems to be the nature of Satyr’s to wear their hearts on their sleeves and fall in love quickly and often. Then there’s all the physical stuff.”
“That’s better than locking your heart away to protect it, never experiencing the joy out of fear of rejection. And there is nothing wrong with all the physical stuff,” Lorelei insisted.
Henry smiled and chuckled. “I never said the physical stuff was bad.”
She shook her finger at his teasing, and they made small talk as they quickly finished their small meals.
Henry paid the bill, and they left the restaurant to walk two doors over to the theatre.
“What are we seeing?” she asked.
He glanced up at the display with all the movie titles and times. “I thought maybe you’d like to see that new comedy?”
“Ooo, I heard there are some sexy scenes in that one,” she grinned.
“Oh, if you’re offended, I’m sure there’s a slasher film we could see,” Henry suggested.
“No! Sexy comedies are good!” she insisted.
Henry chuckled and went to buy the tickets.
They picked up their overpriced popcorn and drinks, and Henry picked up some super sours hard candy. Then they found decent seats in the theatre, which was still relatively empty.
The preshow was playing, which they mostly ignored as they watched a couple enter the theatre, both having separate conversations on their cell phones. The man was arguing with someone angrily, and not quietly. He was seriously pissed. The young woman was barely out of her teens, and every second word seemed to be like.
Henry and Lorelei shared a weary look as the couple sat a few rows down from them and continued to snap and blather into their cells, respectively.
Lorelei sighed. “I try not to do this in public anymore since Roy pointed out how surveillance cameras can pick up the effects of my songs. However, I also want to enjoy the movie.”
She glanced around to see who else was in the theatre. There were only seven other people, three couples and a small woman seated in the back row. She caught the telltale glow of embers from that woman, so she might have been smoking-another inconsiderate behavior in the theatre.
“Okay, it looks like the coast is clear,” she said in the dimly lit room. Henry glanced around as well and frowned at the back row.
Lorelei sang quietly, gradually increasing the volume. The tune carried the message of public courtesy, and when the cell phone abusers didn’t respond to the call for empathy, she changed the message to specifically order them from the theatre. They got up and glanced around angrily, unaware of the direct source of the rejection, and made their way to the exit flipping the bird to the audience in general. She threw in a request for no smoking and let the song fade. She glanced at Henry shyly, and he lifted her hand and kissed the back. She felt a little thrill from that and smiled at him as she squeezed his hand in return.
She glanced back and saw no sign of the glow she’d seen earlier. She settled down in her chair and caught the tail end of Henry’s glance back. He had a slightly disturbed look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He shook his head gently. “It just seems a little sad to attend a rom-com and sit alone in the back row.”
“Sitting in the back row would normally attract the least attention,” Lorelei suggested. She leaned closer to whisper to him. “Besides, I think she was smoking earlier.”NôvelDrama.Org owns all © content.
“Really? Who does that?” he whispered back in fake shock.
“I know, right?” she said equally aghast, then giggled.
The movie began, and they put other thoughts from their mind.
During the first sex scene, her hand landed on his leg, and after a moment, he squirmed. She glanced at him. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly.
“My pants are shrinking,” he whispered.
She snorted and covered her mouth to contain her giggles. Her eyes flashed happily at him, and she gave his strong thigh a squeeze. She squirmed a little, too.
They enjoyed the movie, but by the end, they were too distracted to say they gave the film the attention needed to assess it properly. As it had worked them up, both were willing to watch it again, together.
As they left the theatre, Henry held Lorelei’s hand, and she felt that warmth through her body. They walked back to the spot the driver would be picking them up in fifteen minutes. There was just a light dusting of snow, and they weren’t feeling the chill in the air. The theatre crowd quickly dispersed until it was just them and the rare passer-by.
“That was a lovely date, Henry.”
He smiled and nodded. “I had a great time too.”
Henry suddenly pulled her off her feet and swung her up into his arms.
She squeaked and noticed the edges of a black box begin to close around them. Then, they were falling.
Henry absorbed the impact with his legs as she saw they were on Eden once more.
“What was that?”
“Someone was trying to catch us in a Paradox Trap,” he said as he peeked through a tiny tear. He grinned. “There you are.” He looked at Lorelei. “It would be safer if you waited here while I confronted our assailant.”
“No! I’m going with you!” she insisted.
He nodded as he set her on her feet. Suddenly, he was much bigger in his Satyr form. “Please stay close but stay behind me.”
She nodded as he peeked through once more, then close it and opened a new larger one, and jumped through. She leapt right behind him and heard the tear snap shut.
Then Henry backhanded the cloaked being who was facing away, and they dropped to the sidewalk. Something tumbled out of their grip. Henry bent down and picked it up. He showed it to Lorelei, and her eyes had a difficult time focusing on its moving surface.
“This is the little box you and I would have found ourselves in with no way to get out,” Henry explained. He tucked it into his jacket pocket.
“Is she an assassin? Is this the Hidden Races Council again?” Lorelei asserted.
Henry chuckled. “No, they don’t do that anymore since Roy’s in charge of security.” He flipped the cloaked one over with a hoof, and the cowl fell back. Platinum blonde long hair, white eyebrows, button nose pinked with cold, long lashes, high cheekbones, rosy from the cold, and a cut on her chin from landing on the sidewalk.
The cowl hid the dimensions of her body. Henry knelt and sniffed her mouth. He stood and stared down at her in shock. He gestured behind himself to Lorelei. “Move back, quickly. She’s a dragon.”
Lorelei skipped back four large strides, and reality twisted violently around the woman. Henry was right in the middle of that distorting space.
“HA!” the twenty-foot-tall white dragon bellowed as it suddenly emerged intact.
“OOOOOF,” it grunted as Henry’s big fist slammed into its lower stomach.
The wind left the dragon as it crumbled to the sidewalk, curling around its injured tummy. Henry seized the whiskers on the left side of its huge muzzle and pulled.
“OW! OW! Stop, you stupid git!” the beast shrieked with a full-on British accent. Lorelei was no expert on regional accents, so she didn’t know which part the Dragon was from, but Jolly Ol’ England was certain.
“That’s no way to speak to someone in control of such a sensitive appendage,” Henry insisted as he squeezed.
“AAAHH! Okay, I’m sorry! Just stop!” it shrieked again.
He eased his grip but didn’t let go. A glow began in the back of the beast’s throat.
Henry sighed, pulled something from his pocket, unwrapped it with one hand, and tossed the small yellow ball into the big maw. As quickly as it began, the glow snuffed out.
“CHCHCHCHCHCHCHCTTTT!” the dragon choked as it tried to clear its mouth.
“WHA IS DAH!” it cried as its tongue thrashed, trying to clear the invader.
“Switch back, or you’re getting more!” Henry threatened with a handful of super sours.
The dragon shuddered, and reality twisted once more. When it snapped back into place, Henry was behind the small blonde woman, holding her arm up behind her back. She had a dagger in her grip, but he squeezed her wrist, and the knife fell. She spat out the lemon candy as she gagged.
“How? How are you able to survive the glamor change?” she asked incredulously.
Henry spun her and held her upper arms in his big hands. “I was disguised by a dragon glamor for the first two decades of my life. My body is familiar with bending to come out the other side intact. I don’t fight it.”
“Who gave you the Dragon’s glamor?” she snapped.
He moved his mouth to her ear. “Baba Yaga bonded it to my infant finger. Walter Zhao took exception to that. He’s dead. Baba took the Dragon glamor back. You have no quarrel with me.” He looked her in the eye. “Now, why were you trying to capture us in a Paradox Trap?”
She blinked in fear, hearing of his link to the infamous witch. “Collection. My collection. It’s gone! I was burned out of my home, and everything I collected is gone. I had to flee my home and country! Eight hundred years, I’ve lived in that home, and now I’m homeless.”
Henry felt the softness of her plush jacket and snorted. “You’re not poor.”
“No, I have my bank accounts, my money, but I have no treasures!” She gestured to Lorelei with her chin. “She is unique and priceless. A perfect start to a new hoard!”
“Wrong answer. People are exempt from hoarding,” Henry growled. “Inanimate objects only!”
Her mouth opened as she gazed up at him in shock.
“Non-negotiable. Break that rule, and losing your collection will be the least of your concerns.”
“Who-who are you?” she asked, completely intimidated.