Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 21:39:40 -0800 (PST) From: James Hogue Subject: Vinculum Chapter One Vinculum By James Hogue Prologue Shaolin Temple of the Red Dragon Irving, Texas The incense hung like a thick cloud in the air, and its sweet odor permeated every inch of the room. Master Ming Wei sat on the floor, his eyes closed in deep meditation. In his contemplative state he saw the object that had been entrusted to him when he became master of the Shaolin Temple of the Red Dragon. The masters of this temple had guarded the object for almost five hundred years. Next to the object stood a beautiful woman who was engulfed in incandescent light. The woman smiled at him and said, "It is time." Suddenly his eyes opened, and he quickly got to his feet. Walking over to a cabinet, he opened it, unlocked the safe hidden within, and removed a medium-sized jade box which he then placed on his desk. He considered the enormity of what he was about to do. In all the time that this box had been under the custodianship of this temple, no one had ever opened it. Not even when China had fallen to the Communists in the nineteen-fifties and the priests of his order had immigrated to the United States had this box ever been opened. According to the tradition that had been handed down to him by his master, the box was not to be opened until the right time was made known. Apparently, the right time was now. With reverence, he opened the box and looked at its contents. Nestled inside was an ancient scroll, yellowed with age. He removed the scroll from the box, carefully unrolled it, and then inspected what was written upon it. The words were printed in Mandarin script, and they seemed almost alive, leaping out from the scroll, enticing him to read them. Taking a deep breath, he began to read aloud: "At the beginning of the third millennium of the foreign chronicle, the darkness within the darkness will begin to engulf the light. In this season a Mystical Warrior Dragon will meet a Neophyte Healer Rooster. This encounter will provide a propitious opportunity for the forces of light. If the Mystical Warrior Dragon and the Neophyte Healer Rooster join together, becoming one, then the resulting Vinculum will shine forth as a beacon of light. This light shall bring illumination to the darkness within the darkness and shall cause its profusion to diminish. If the Mystical Warrior Dragon and the Neophyte Healer Rooster fail to bond in love, then the darkness within the darkness will prevail, and all of mankind will suffer." After re-rolling the scroll and placing it back inside the jade box, he sat down at his desk and considered the prophecy that he just read. If the prophecy was authentic--and he believed it was--it was imperative the right people were made aware of it. Grabbing pen and paper, he quickly translated the prophecy into English, and placed the translation inside the box with the original text. On another piece of paper he wrote a message, placed it in an envelope, sealed it, and then called out for one of his attendants to come into the room. "Yes, Master. How may I be of service?" The attendant bowed to Ming Wei. "Take this box to the address written on the envelope immediately. When you arrive, ask for the Prime Guardian. Give it to her and no one else. Do you understand?" "Yes, Master. I understand. Your instructions will be carried out." The attendant bowed, and then retreated from the room. Chapter One St. Michael's Medical Center Dallas, Texas The trauma room exploded in fire and flying debris. Dr. Todd Warren, without a thought to his own personal safety, threw himself protectively over the trauma victim he was treating to shield her from further injury. He couldn't believe any of this was happening. It was all so surreal. An hour and a half ago he'd been looking forward to getting away from the hospital. It was eleven p.m., and there was only an hour left to go in his thirty-six hour shift. He had intended to go home and get some much needed rest, but things in an emergency room seldom go as planned. Being an attending trauma surgeon in the Emergency Department of St. Michael's Medical Center, he was used to the unexpected. But what was happening now was more than unexpected. It was unreal. Before being called back to duty, he'd been in the E.R. staff lounge attempting to pass the time left in his shift by reading a medical journal, but he couldn't concentrate on the text. He wasn't able to stop thinking about the bizarre things that he'd been experiencing lately. It all started about a week ago when he was paged to the E.R. to surgically evaluate a man who had been involved in a car accident. As soon as he walked into the trauma room and saw the patient he knew that the man had an aortic laceration, despite the fact that he had yet to physically examine him. He didn't know how he knew this, he just did. His snap diagnosis was confirmed by an ultrasound. At first he shrugged the incident off as just an accurate educated guess, but what happened the next day convinced him that it was something more than that. A woman from the housekeeping department brushed past him to empty a garbage can. The moment she touched him he knew with a certainty he couldn't begin to comprehend that she had a condition referred to as a Triple A, an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and she needed immediate surgery. He talked her into allowing him to run some tests, and his diagnosis was proven correct. These two incidents disturbed him greatly, because he had always thought of himself as a logical and rational man. He'd been taught that the only things that were real were those that could be verified by using the five senses. If you couldn't see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or touch it, then it wasn't part of the fabric of reality. To top everything off he had also been extremely restless of late. He didn't know what it was, but he'd been experiencing a deep longing for . . . something . . . no, that wasn't quite right. It was more like someone, not something. All he knew was that he felt as if a part of himself was missing, and that somewhere out there was someone who could complete him. Todd was shaken out of his reverie when the door to the lounge opened and in walked his best friend, Andrew Reeves. Andrew, an emergency nurse practitioner, looked at him, and then shook his head. "Typical doctor. You think just because you have the initials M.D. after your name you can lounge around with your thumb up your ass reading, while the rest of us work our asses off. Well, playtime is officially over because we have a trauma coming in. The paramedics are about two minutes out. All the other surgeons are occupied, and your replacement won't be here for another forty-five minutes. So tag, you're it!" Andrew said as he touched him, smiled, and then playfully danced out of reach. Todd returned Andrew's smile as he got up from the chair where he'd been sprawled out. "Ha, ha. You're a laugh riot. What type of trauma?" he asked as he followed Andrew out of the lounge. "All the information I have is that it's a penetrating abdominal injury of some sort, and that it's apparently pretty bad. The paramedics reported that it was a scoop and run." Todd mentally prepared himself by going over a checklist in his head for the treatment of penetrating abdominal injuries. The victim must be in critical condition, because 'scoop and run' is a term used by paramedics to describe a trauma so severe that they need to get the victim to a trauma center as rapidly as possible, with any attempts to stabilize the victim done en route. When he and Andrew reached the receiving area the ambulance bay doors were just swinging open. At that moment he knew, though only God knows how, that the victim's injury was an abdominal evisceration. Two paramedics, a man and a woman, pushed a gurney into the E.R. on which lay a severely injured teenaged girl. As he listened to the female paramedic's report, he realized that his supernatural senses were once again correct. "We have a female victim approximately sixteen years of age with an eviscerated abdominal wound. She was unconscious at the scene. Her intestines are exposed, and there is an unidentified white viscous fluid in the wound. We've covered the area with several ABD pads soaked in sterile water. Vital Signs are: blood pressure 60/40, pulse is 120, and it's weak and thready, respirations are 30 and labored. She is on 100% oxygen, and we started a large bore I.V. with lactated Ringer's solution." Todd and Andrew motioned the paramedics to take the girl to a trauma room. Todd, Andrew, and two nurses began the process of fully assessing and attempting to stabilize the teenaged trauma victim. When they removed the ABD pads they saw that the paramedics had indeed been correct. Her intestines were definitely exposed, and there was a white, gelatinous substance in the wound. "What is that stuff? I've never seen anything like it," Andrew stated as he looked closely at the thick white matter covering the exposed intestines. Todd took a sterile swab and collected a sample. "Neither have I. I don't know what that is, but perhaps the lab can tell us." Looking over at the paramedics who were still in the room, he asked, "What exactly happened to her?" "We're not quite sure," the male paramedic responded. "The witnesses at the scene were kind of in a daze. They were just a group of teenagers who had been making out in their cars. They reported that they heard a girl screaming, and went to see what was going on. When they arrived they saw the girl being dragged away by a weird-looking creature. They all started yelling and throwing rocks at the creature, and it dropped the girl and ran off. When they saw how badly injured she was they called 911. When we arrived we found the girl in this condition. There was a boy with her about the same age, but we couldn't do anything for him. His throat had been slit, and he was already dead." "What do you mean a weird-looking creature?" "The teenagers said it looked like some sort of reptile man," the female paramedic answered. "A reptile man?" Todd asked shaking his head. "They must have all been on drugs." "Do you think she's going to make it, Doc?" the male paramedic inquired. "She's young and it appears that she is otherwise in good health. Add that to the fact that you were quick in bringing her here, and I think she's got a good chance. Her vitals are starting to stabilize, so we should be able to get her to an operating room soon and repair the damage," Todd replied. A few minutes after the paramedics left, the trauma room door opened and a woman entered. She looked at the injured girl and said, "Jenny, oh, my God. My poor baby, what's happened to you?" "Are you her mother?" Todd asked briskly. "Yes, I am. Is she okay? The police called and said that she had been brought here. They didn't tell me what was wrong." At that moment the room was filled with the discordant klaxon of the fire alarm, which was quickly joined by an intercom announcement. "Code Red in the E.R., Code Red in the E.R." "Oh, shit. This is all we need," Todd groused. Looking over at the two nurses who were assisting Andrew and him, he ordered, "Go help with the evacuation of the other patients. Andrew and I can handle this." The victim's mother was looking rather panicked. "What's going on? Is there a fire? Oh, my God. I need to get Jenny out of here before anything else happens to her." Todd turned to speak to the woman while Andrew continued to treat the patient. "Ma'am, calm down. I'm Dr. Todd Warren, and this is Andrew Reeves, an emergency nurse practitioner. We're going to take good care of your daughter," he calmly assured her. "We'll do everything in our power to keep her safe. I'm sure they have the fire under control by now. It's probably nothing. More than likely, it's just a fire in a wastepaper basket. Right now it's more important that we focus on your daughter. She has been severely injured, and if we don't get her to an operating room soon to repair the damage she is going to die." "You're not going to take her anywhere," the woman hissed. "She belongs to me now. She is going to be my new childe, so I'm taking her out of here." With that, the woman began to change before Todd and Andrew's eyes. A human woman no longer stood before them. Instead, towering over them was a reptile-like creature approximately eight foot tall. It had a bipedal humanoid appearance with two arms and two legs, but that was where its similarity to a human being ended. It had green, scaly skin, and its head was shaped like that of a Komodo Dragon. It had a large tail that extended to the floor giving the illusion of having a third leg. The nails on its hands and feet were long, thick, curved, and razor sharp. When the creature spoke its voice now had a sibilant quality to it. "Give the girl to me, or you'll regret it." Todd took a deep shuddering breath and shakily drew himself up to his full height. "You can't have her. She is my patient, and under my protection. If you want her you'll have to come through me to get her." The reptile-like creature let out a roar, looked at a row of cabinets directly behind Todd, opened its mouth, and exhaled forcefully. Fire spewed from its maw, and the cabinets exploded in flames and flying debris. It was at this point that Todd threw his body over the teenaged trauma victim to shield her. He braced himself for the impact of the flying debris, but felt nothing. Looking up he saw the debris hailing down towards him, Andrew, and the girl, but before it reached them it seemed to bounce away from them, as if an invisible barrier surrounded them. What was going on? First he was diagnosing his patients before he even examined them, and now a walking, talking refugee from an old Japanese horror flick was attacking him, his patient, and his best friend. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. He had to be dreaming. When the creature growled again he knew that this was really happening whether he wanted to believe it or not. This time the creature breathed the blast of fire directly at them. The invisible barrier deflected the flame, but he could still feel the heat radiating from it. He was suddenly overtaken by anger greater than he'd ever experienced before. This wasn't the usual kind of anger. No, this was righteous indignation. How dare this evil, vile creature assume it had the right to do whatever it wanted with this innocent girl! Drawing on a power he was unaware he possessed, he straightened up and extended his right hand. From out of nowhere a red ball of energy appeared in his palm. Raising his arm he threw the energy ball at the creature. When the ball of energy impacted with its target the reptile-like monster disintegrated into a pile of ash. Todd was in total shock. This couldn't be happening to him. He felt as if he were starring in his own episode of the Twilight Zone. From what seemed a faraway distance he heard someone calling his name. He looked around for the source, and saw Andrew looking at him with concern. Andrew reached out and touched his arm. "Todd, are you all right? It didn't hurt you did it? You sure as hell hurt it. How did you do that? Where did that energy ball come from, and what was that thing anyway?" "Andrew, I don't know what's happening. This is just too bizarre for words." Todd looked around the room at the flames licking at the cabinets. "Everyone will think we're nuts if we tell them the truth. They'll lock us up in the loony bin and throw away the key. God!" He rubbed his face in an attempt to wash away the confusion he felt. "What should we do? We have to think of something to tell them." Andrew walked over and grabbed the fire extinguisher that was mounted on the wall by the door. As he was putting out the fire, Andrew calmly suggested, "Why don't we just say that the woman who attacked this girl came here to finish the job?" After he took a few deep breaths to calm himself, Todd went over and checked on his patient. Glancing at the monitors that were connected to the girl, he was relieved to see that she was still relatively stable. Turning away, he looked over at Andrew and replied, "Yeah. We can also say that she threw some sort of explosive device at the cabinets, and then ran out of here." Andrew nodded his head in acquiescence, and asked, "Have you noticed that the fire alarm has stopped? I'll go out and see what's going on." "Good. While you're doing that I'll dispose of what's left of that thing. Call surgery and book an O.R. We need to operate on her as soon as possible. Oh, and you'd better call the police so we can report our version of what happened here." Andrew returned, bringing with him the two nurses who had previously been assisting them. When the trauma nurses went to check on their patient and prepare her for transport to the O.R., he pulled Todd aside and lowered his voice to an almost whisper. "It was a false alarm," he stated. "Some prankster pulled the fire alarm. They have everything under control now. Caleb just arrived, and as soon as he changes into scrubs he'll take over for you. The police were already here, so I didn't have to call them. A detective is waiting outside to talk to us. After you finish with the police you can go home. I'm sure after all that has happened you'll want to go and get some rest. I'll come over to your apartment in the morning about eight for breakfast, and we'll try to figure all this out together. By the way, our patient's real mother is outside, and she would like to know what is going on with her daughter. I told her that you'd be out to speak with her soon." "Thanks, Andrew. I'm so glad that you were here. I don't know if I could've handled this all by myself. I'm so grateful that you're my best friend," Todd said with heartfelt emotion as he pulled the other man into a tight embrace. Andrew returned the hug enthusiastically. "You're welcome. After all, what are best friends for?" Todd pulled out of the embrace just as Dr. Caleb Reed walked into the room. Caleb was new to St. Michael's, having just been hired recently as an attending trauma surgeon. Todd didn't know him that well yet, but he had the opportunity to see the man in action and he knew that he was an excellent surgeon. He therefore had no qualms about turning over the care of the teenaged girl to him. After he finished giving Caleb the report on the condition of his patient, Caleb and the rest of the trauma team took the girl to the O.R. to begin the surgical repair of her evisceration. Todd took a moment to prepare himself, and then he and Andrew went out to update the girl's real mother on her daughter's condition, and then they went to talk the police. * * * * Connor Stevens exited the portal. He immediately surveyed his surroundings to see if he could determine just where in the Hell he was. Like all Mages, he could teleport himself through portals created within the time-space continuum, traveling millions of miles in the blink of an eye. He simply fixed his destination firmly in his mind, opened a portal, stepped through, and violá, he was there. But this time was different. He'd never before teleported himself without knowing where he was going to end up, and still had no idea why he'd been compelled to do so now. He and his best friend and partner, Jason Medicine Wolf, a benevolent Vampyr, had just finished an assignment for the Prime Guardian and decided it was time for a little rest and relaxation. They'd been working hard lately. The organized forces of supernatural evil, also known as the Synod, recently increased their efforts to enslave humanity, and the best team of Guardian Enforcers, that being Connor and Jason, had been working overtime trying to stop them. It didn't seem to be enough. Connor hated to admit it, but it appeared as if the Synod might be winning the war. He'd only been in Madrid for three hours when he hit the jackpot, or so he thought. There he was, about to score with an extremely beautiful and sexy woman, when all of a sudden he was overwhelmed with an irresistible urge to be someplace else. Exactly where, he didn't have a clue. To make matters worse, the more he tried to overcome this urge, the stronger it became. He tried to focus on the extremely eager female lying naked beneath him, but it quickly became obvious that his attempt at concentration was the only thing that was going to be hard. And that was definitely something that never happened to him before. He mumbled an apology to the now extremely angry Spanish woman and made a hasty exit. As soon as he had exited her apartment he ducked around a corner, placed a cloak of invisibility around himself so that he would not draw the attention of any passing humans, and then opened a portal, blindly stepping through. His destination unknown. As he looked around, he realized he knew where he was, the Emergency Department of St. Michael's Medical Center. He recognized his location because this was where one of his best friends and fellow Mage, Dr. Geoffrey Spencer, worked as an attending trauma surgeon. Why was he here? Was something wrong with Geoff? No, it couldn't be Geoff, since he knew for a fact that he wasn't on duty this evening. Geoff told him yesterday that he had the next two days off. So, if Geoff wasn't the reason he was here, just what was? Remaining cloaked, Connor continued to look around the E.R., hoping he could uncover some clue as to why he felt compelled to come here. He watched as the doctors and nurses went from room to room, treating their patients and responding to emergencies with calm efficiency. Suddenly the doors to the ambulance bay swung open, and two paramedics quickly pushed a gurney into the E.R. Moving closer so that he could better see what was going on, he walked beside them down the hall, remaining unseen. He listened to the report the paramedics gave the two men, whose name badges identified them as Todd Warren, M.D. and Andrew Reeves, R.N., E.N.P., who had been there waiting for them. Connor wasn't sure what all the medical terminology meant, but it didn't sound good. From what he could understand, it seemed the girl was in serious condition. The doctor and nurse practitioner directed the paramedics into a trauma room. Mesmerized, Connor felt compelled to follow them. Dr. Warren immediately took control of the situation. For some reason, Connor couldn't take his eyes off him. At that moment, even though he didn't understand it, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had found his purpose for being here. Connor studied the trauma surgeon with intense concentration. He was hoping to find out what it was about this man that necessitated his presence here. The first thing he noticed was that Dr. Warren was a member of the elect, a group of special individuals who would become full-fledged Mages, and would soon undergo complete metamorphosis. One of the abilities that were common to all Mages is that they are able to sense the presence of another unshielded Mage or member of the elect. The next thing he observed was that Todd was an extremely attractive man, in that sexy, naughty-nerd sort of way. Whoa, there! Where had that come from? He was not gay, but he was reluctantly forced to admit to himself that he definitely felt an attraction towards the trauma surgeon. This admission was based on the fact that his earlier thought about nothing being hard tonight except his ability to focus on the woman in Madrid, was apparently completely false. He was never so thrilled about his ability to cloak himself from humans than he was at this moment. If the people in the trauma room could see him right now, they would surely notice the huge circus tent in his pants. Jumbo the elephant was on a rampage and trying to escape. He couldn't believe it. He had never been this hard before in his one hundred and thirty-four years of existence. His erection was so tumescent that it was beginning to throb painfully. This couldn't be happening to him. Less than an hour ago, he'd had an enthusiastically beautiful woman lying buck naked beneath him, and his penis hadn't even twitched. Now he took one look at a man, and his cock became so rigid he could break-up concrete? Something was not right here. He wasn't gay, was he? He couldn't be gay! He would not be gay! Sex between two men was unnatural and disgusting. A man was meant to have sex only with women. He reassured himself of the rightness of his beliefs by considering that the old adage of 'opposites attract' was proven correct in both biology and physics. The science of biology demonstrates that male and females of any species are driven to acts of sexual congress out of the instinct to procreate, and procreation can only take place between males and females. Sexual pleasure was a fringe benefit of copulation, and just because immortals were sterile didn't mean the urge to have sex was taken away. In physics the concept of opposites attract is shown through the example of magnets. Two magnets of opposite magnetic polarities are attracted to each other, and therefore cling together. On the other hand two magnets having the same magnetic polarity are repelled away from each other. Both sciences prove that homosexuality was unnatural. Since he fervently believed this to be true, he could not be gay. Yet, if he wasn't gay, why was his cock suddenly acting like a divining rod that was pointing at Dr. Warren as if he was a hidden source of life-giving water? And if sex between two men was so disgusting, then why did the thought of having sex with the trauma surgeon fill him with such excitement? He paused for a moment. Could he actually be gay? No. For as long as he had lived he'd never been attracted to a man before. He had not even wondered what it would be like to be with a man sexually, because women had always been sufficient to satisfy him. He smiled as he remembered his many sexual conquests. No, he was not gay. There had to be some other explanation for why he was sexually aroused. Connor willed himself to calm down. He had to focus. There was a reason he was here, and he had yet to figure out what it was. He knew it had something to do with Dr. Warren, but what it was he didn't know. There was the fact that he was a member of the elect and about to go through complete metamorphosis within a week's time, he estimated. Maybe that had something to do with it. Connor considered that for a moment, and rejected it. He didn't need to be here for Todd's metamorphosis because the Council of Benevolent Mages would already be aware of it and would send someone to tutor him when the time came. Maybe Dr. Warren wasn't why he was here, after all. It could be something or someone else, and his erection could be explained by the fact that he had left Madrid sexually unfulfilled. This plausible explanation thrillingly relieved him. He started to turn and walk out of the trauma room, determined to find whatever or whomever it was that brought him here, and to never think about Dr. Warren again. Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and he started to panic. He felt as if a part of his soul was being ripped away from him, like he was abruptly severing himself from something that was vital to his existence. What was going on? He turned back, and looked at the trauma surgeon. Instantaneously the feeling of panic left him, and he had a sense of connection and completeness. This was definitely confusing. He must have been right the first time, because it seemed that Dr. Warren had to be the reason for him being here. He could no longer deny it, or the fact that he seemed to be connected to him on some spiritual and sexual level. Once again Connor studied the trauma surgeon. To be fair, he had to admit that Dr. Warren was a handsome man. He was about five feet eleven inches Connor figured, because they were about the same height. Just the height he preferred in a lover so they could kiss without either of them having to bend down or reach up, and boy did he have kissable lips. Wait a second ... a lover? What in the Hell was he thinking? He needed to stop this right now. He had to concentrate. He needed to focus only on his spiritual connection to this man, and not on the sexual one. He'd already reluctantly admitted to himself that he was sexually attracted to Dr. Warren, but he'd never let lust rule him before and wasn't about to start now. Besides, there had to be more to his presence here than just the realization that he wanted to fuck the man silly. The compulsion he felt to come here had been so strong, he knew that there had to be some tremendously important reason for it. He continued with his perusal of the trauma surgeon who captured his attention so masterfully. He had short, black hair that was cut in a contemporary yet professional style, and sexy, brown eyes that were charmingly displayed by his small, black, and oval-shaped wire-frame glasses. His square-jawed face was beautiful, but masculine. Connor guessed that Todd was about one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and he was muscular. Not exaggeratedly muscled in that grotesque body-builder sort of way. No, Dr. Warren had a well toned and sculpted body, just enough muscle to add definition. Connor watched as Todd bent over his patient and listened to her chest with his stethoscope. The movement caused his scrub pants to pull taut across his buttocks. Nice ass, Connor thought as he stared at the trauma surgeon's backside. Oh, no! There he went thinking with the wrong head again. What going on with him? Connor's musings were interrupted when he noticed that the doctor was removing the dressings from the injured girl's abdomen. When he saw the girl's exposed intestines, a wave of nausea swept through him at the thought of the violence she had experienced, and the absolute terror she must have felt. Who would do something like this to such a young one? Then he noticed the presence of the white substance in her wound. Oh, hell! Could the reason he was here be to protect Dr. Warren from what he expected was about to happen? He heard the paramedics describe what they heard from the witnesses at the scene. His suspicions concerning the white substance were confirmed when they mentioned that the teenager was attacked by a reptile man. After the paramedics left, a woman came in claiming to be the girl's mother. Connor realized she was lying because he recognized her for what she truly was. He had to do something before everyone in the trauma room was killed. There was also the danger that the supernatural world would become apparent to the humans in the E.R. and cause unnecessary panic. Thinking quickly, he left the room and pulled the fire alarm. All hell broke loose. Doctors and nurses began running around preparing to evacuate the E.R. The two nurses who had been assisting Dr. Warren came out of the trauma room and began helping with the evacuation. He returned to the room just in time to see the woman morphing into her true nature. He'd been right, she was a Dragonian. Connor was surprised when the trauma surgeon stood up to the immortal, refusing to hand over the girl. When the Dragonian expelled a fireball out of its mouth and destroyed the cabinets behind Dr. Warren, Connor was prepared to throw a shield around the doctor and the others, but saw that it was unnecessary. Dr. Warren had erected his own shield. The immortal attacked the doctor again, but he summoned an energy ball and vanquished it. Was the trauma surgeon aware of what he was? The look of shock and confusion on his face convinced Connor that Dr. Warren had been ignorant of the power he was capable of wielding as a member of the elect, but that was not the case any longer. He was going to need someone to instruct him on how to use his newfound powers, especially since it appeared that, from what Connor had witnessed, Dr. Warren was going to be an extremely powerful Mage. Connor's heart swelled with pride. He realized he wanted to be Dr. Warren's private tutor in the use of his Mage abilities. Even though the doctor must have been confused and terrified, he still had the presence of mind to react quickly enough to save his own life, and the lives of the others as well. He'd been faced with a supernatural creature that must have looked as if it climbed out of a nightmare, one that he probably thought he had no hope of defeating, and yet he stood up to it anyway, refusing to relinquish the girl. He couldn't get over his reaction to this man. He needed to get out of here, and away from Dr. Warren's influence for a little while. He couldn't seem to think rationally when he was around him. He needed to go someplace where he could clear his head, and somehow figure out what in the Hell was going on. Connor opened a portal, stepped into it, and vanished. to be continued...