I don’t think I could ever get used to waking up with a woman as beautiful as Victoria in my arms. Her head was again nuzzled into my throat. Each breath tickling the healing bite mark. Slowly, I pulled my arm out from under her as I tried to get out of the bed. However, no matter what I did, her arms rewrapped themselves around me right before I could get free.

  Just as I gnced at her face, a twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth caught my attention. Taking that as evidence of her being awake, I gave up on what I was doing. Instead, I slowly reached for her exposed side with one hand. Right as I started to lightly tickle her, she jerked out of reach.

  Suddenly, on the other side of the bed, her face told me that she was pnning to get me back. Ignoring it, I got out of bed and started to pull on my dirty pants. “After you're done with the shower, put on a pair of comfortable sweats and a thin shirt.” She called after me as I exited the room and walked to the shower.

  The water was nice and warm. It also went faster without my new distraction. In fact, the entire shower, from start to finish, took less than ten minutes. Searching the drawers and closet for my clothes took longer. Said search also revealed to me just how many dragon plushies my girl had.

  Finally dressed, I walked down the stairs. The door to the outside was wide open, letting the crisp morning breeze in as the trio did something just in front of the porch. Heading out, I looked at what they were working on. Each held a piece of paper and seemed to be carving into the dirt, using some sort of magic to change the dirt to stone, or filling the carved channels with some powder.

  Marcy was the first to notice me. Pointing at me, she simply said, “Sit, stay.” Before returning to filing the channels. Rolling my eyes at the order, I sat in one of the chairs and watched them work. Time passed as the sun climbed up the sky. Finally, they each stood back, looking over their work one more time before Marcy said, “That should work. Now we need to eat.” Even though my stomach had been hurting, it seemed to have waiting for that exact moment to let out a loud growl of agreement. “Unfortunately, you get a slurry.”

  “Why?” I asked, trying not to let any of my disappointment or anger enter my voice.

  “Because you will need the excess water and calories. For all intents and purposes, you will be in a coma. Unlike Earth, we do not have the technology to support you without preparation.” She said as she led us into the dining room. Passing me a rge pitcher as the rest of them lifted lids off their ptes.

  While I had something that resembled cream of wheat, they had pancakes, sausage, eggs, and even some hash browns. Taking a mouthful of my breakfast, I realized it was worse than it looked. It tasted bnd, and there were pieces of hard tack mixed in. Grimacing, I swallowed it down before I gagged.

  “Couldn’t you have at least made it taste decent?” I said with tears at the corner of my eyes. Those pieces of hard tack did not want to go down without a fight.

  “Not really. Not with what I have on hand. Don’t worry, you have an hour to finish it.” Marcy said while Victoria kept her eyes on her food and off me. Taking my pitcher, I walked out of the room and back to the porch. I worked through my meal as fast as I could while paying attention to everything else in an effort to distract myself.

  “Christian,” came Victoria’s soft voice from next to me. Trying not to jump, I turned to look at her. She pushed a fork of potatoes into my mouth and stole my pitcher from me. Finishing the st small bit at the bottom. The sudden fvor of potatoes, peppers, and salt shocked my taste buds out of their self-imposed stupor.

  “Thank you.” I pulled her in for a side hug.

  “Ok, let us get this started,” Marcy announced to the world as she stepped down the stairs. “Same pces as yesterday.” Letting Victoria go, I walked to my spot in the circle, being careful not to step on or disrupt the lines and symbols. Crisscrossing my legs, I watched as the others stood in their spots. “Pour your magic in and wait for the spell to activate itself,” Marcy said to Victoria.

  Victoria nodded, and I watched as the lines near her lit up a bluish-green. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the same light fill the lines near the other two. Then, nothing happened. All the anticipation only for the spell to stall out.

  As I went to say something, Marcy held up a hand to stop me. Shaking her head at me she moved to put her finger across her lips to indicate that we needed to stay quiet. Closing my mouth, I rexed as I waited for her to give up. A couple of minutes ter, an eternity when sitting and waiting for something to happen, it finally did.

  Light shown down onto the circle. Surrounding and blinding me. As it did so, a grating pain started just below my heart. Nearly at the same time, tiny fming needles from hell dug themselves into my body at various points. Moving around as the grating continued to grind away at something. I grit my teeth as I tried to not scream in agony.

  Yeah, I didn’t st long. Within a minute of the process starting, I was screaming with all my might. While I knew I was screaming, I suddenly could no longer hear my voice. The realization came with a feeling of lightheadedness. One st thought passed through my mind before I passed out. ‘Damn, that hurts. Thank you, darkness, you’re a good friend.’ Then, the darkness surrounded my consciousness, dragging me into the abyss and away from the outside world.