A Welcome Distraction

Aside from a couple close friends, this will be the first time I've posted my erotic fiction like this, so I would greatly appreciate any feedback readers have. Thanks!

*****

As Nik drove through Iowa only other vehicles he saw were parked in little groups and at odd angles deep in the snowbanks on either side of the road. It didn't take long for him to discover why. The glittery flakes looked insubstantial as they fell from the sky, but the slightest breeze sent them flowing across the narrow road to create drifts of various heights and depths. The first time he drove through one of those piles of snow he was forced use magic to keep his vehicle from sliding into the ditch right next to one such grouping of cars. After that, he slowed down before driving through the drifts, but that wasn't enough. The road was clear the next time his car spun towards the ditch. He sighed and resorted to maintaining the spell for the rest of the drive. At least there were so few homes near the road that the odds of detection were nearly zero.

Since his last visit to earth was long before their invention, it was Nik's first opportunity to drive a vehicle, and he had no idea why humans liked them so much. Vehicles were unnecessary on the sky islands his people had inhabited for millennia. They were located high above any clouds that produced unnecessary precipitation, and while the magic that held them in the sky allowed for variation of temperature, it never got cold enough to produce snow. His most recent experience with it, in fact, had been in a bloody battle on the slopes of Mount Olympus long before humans had even been created.

Either way, using a spell to drive the vehicle instead of focusing on it himself left him alone with his thoughts. Normally Nik would have savored every minute of quiet. As the king of the four dragon kings, even when his time wasn't consumed by official duties, guards and servants were never far away.

That day, though, the quiet time was just an opportunity to torture himself thinking about it just Sylvia, the beautiful succubus he had unwillingly left behind that morning. She clearly desired him as much as he desired her, and nearly any other female in the magical world would have been overjoyed to be matched with the king of the dragon kings. Any woman who became his wife would instantly become one of the wealthiest, most influential women in the magical world. Sylvia was not only unimpressed, she actively hated the idea of becoming a queen and had spent only one night with him before sending him packing.

That one night had been enough to magically tie them together. Between the fear that she would never agree to be his queen and being this far away from her when their bond was this new, his stomach twisted, and his skin felt a size too small even when he wasn't thinking about her. Each time he actually thought about her, it triggered painful craving. Thankfully the pain came and went nearly as quickly as a lightning bolt, but it always left him hard as a rock. Bringing himself to orgasm didn't prevent it from happening again the next time he thought about her, so he had given up on releasing the tension himself and just spent four-hour drive uncomfortably hard.

After a couple hours on the highway, his GPS guided him down a series of roads that became less well maintained after every turn. Realizing how near he was to his destination finally forced his thoughts away from Sylvia. Today he was meeting with Chloe Peters, the youngest witch to ever serve as a directoress of the Circle of Light. Cloe had insisted on meeting with him privately, entirely away from the prying eyes of the council. Even his daughter Thora, who handled all political relations with the other races his stead, wasn't welcome.

The young directoress obviously wanted to meet with him regarding either personal matters or political machinations behind the backs of the rest of the directorate. If she desired his armies to support an internal coup, Nik would be forced to refuse her. Even though he could easily win a war with the Council, he had no desire to shed his people's blood to support one ambitious young woman's agenda.

The directoress' home was at the end of a long driveway, a welcoming three story yellow farmhouse with a huge white porch. Behind their home woods stretched as far as the eye could see, very different than the miles upon miles of flat farm fields he had driven through on the way here.

When Nik got out of the car he stood still for a long minute, enjoying the magical energy he felt radiating from the trees behind the house. At home, magic was always humming in the air, the powerful spells that kept his islands aloft and hidden from human eyes. He had missed that feeling during his visit to earth.

When the directoress answered the door, she insisted that he call her by her first name instead of her title. Chloe was as stunning as he remembered, with silky white blonde hair that fell to the bottom of her shoulder blades and large blue green eyes. She was in her late twenties, but when she smiled looked almost ten years younger. Her simple green wrap sweater, black skirt, and heels was completely professional, but deliciously emphasized her slender curves.

She followed custom by kneeling before him, but her presence radiated anything but subservience. It also gave him a perfect view down the front of her sweater, making him wonder how her breasts would feel cupped in his hands, how her nipples would taste in his mouth, and then how her full lips would feel if she unzipped his pants and—no doubt that was exactly the effect she intended. Circle politics was a dangerous game, and if she had survived the game this long, she would be accustomed to using every tool at her disposal.

"When you took off your coat—if you don't mind, your collar could use some help," she said.

He offered her his hand, and she rose from kneeling before him, her eyes holding his as she moved her hand slowly up his arm. Even in heels she was so tiny that she had to lean against him to reach that high, in the process pressing the front of her body tightly against his. When she swayed as if losing her balance, he instinctively put his hands on her waist. Her reach had pulled her sweater up, so his hands landed on the soft skin of her waist. His body responded immediately, and she had to be feeling his reaction as well.

Aside from her beauty, her magic called to his. No doubt the Circle knew of only a tiny fraction of the power she possessed. They never would have suspected that this young woman, a peasant in their hierarchy, had the unheard-of ability to draw on three types of magic. Even more than that, each type of power alone far surpassed any other witch or mage alive. She was at least ten times more powerful than the leader of the Circle and could have bested the Mages' Grand Meister without breaking a sweat. He smiled. This directoress was easily powerful enough to shatter and remake the entire political order for witches and the mages. Maybe supporting this young woman's inevitable rise to power would be in the best interest of his people despite the cost.

Her lips were close to his, and without thinking he leaned forward to taste them, but her lips were already moving away from his. He inhaled sharply as the sensation of her body sliding against his made him even harder. When she returned to her own feet Chloe smiled, and he could tell that she was enjoying this seduction game just as much as he was.

"We will be able to have some privacy in my office," she said.

She gestured for him to follow her down a hallway to the back of the house, and he heard a man's frustrated sigh as she closed the door behind them. Nik could feel the power of an angry god washing over him, but the god wasn't nearly powerful enough to be of any concern him.

"Don't worry about Mimir," she said. "He doesn't like it when I meet with other handsome gods, especially ones more powerful than him. But he's physically unable to defy my order to leave us alone, thus the frustration. And seriously, if he would just admit that he's in love with me I might stop taunting him, but no... He'll never stoop to admit that he's in love with a weak little witch, even one who is powerful enough to hold the leashes of two gods."

Chloe was purposely speaking loudly enough for Mimir to hear her through the door, and Nik smiled when he the god curse in Vanir, the language of the Aesir gods. Nik and Mimir had never gotten along, so Nik was happy to help Chloe taunt him.

"Two of them? Where is the other?"

"Hoenir is out helping my mom deliver a baby. They're so adorably and inseparably in love that it's nauseating."

"Hoenir has been helping your mother deliver babies?"

Granted it had been over two thousand years since Nik had seen Hoenir on the battlefield, but back then the other god had killed with an ease and enjoyment that sent a chill down Nik's spine. They were both dripping with the blood of each other's armies by the time their swords met, and the resulting wave of power and the earthquake it triggered had knocked every soldier on both sides to the ground to watch the battle with rapt attention. Hoenir had been just as powerful as Nik back then, and the battle ended in a draw. Once they had injured each other to the point where neither of them could fight, their generals had pulled them out of the crater their battle created and dragged them home to heal.

"Ah, I take it you've met him before? He is helping my mother deliver babies, and I get the impression he likes it. It works out well. They're happy to be joined at the hip so I get an especially devoted bodyguard for mom."

"Your mother needs a bodyguard while delivering babies?" he asked.

"Being a midwife, she delivers babies of all races, and without a bodyguard it would only be a matter of time before someone used her against me. But she lives for her work, and there is already a shortage of skilled midwives. Making her quit would be allowing women to die unnecessarily, and I won't allow that to happen when it can be prevented."

When discussing the risk to her mother, Chloe's tone and body language abruptly changed, the flirty, bubbly girl replaced by a world wise politician in the blink of an eye. She gestured for him to take a seat in one of the two wood chairs in front of her enormous polished wood desk, then took a seat in the chair next to him instead of in the large leather chair on the other side of the desk.

"I know your time is valuable, so I will address business first. No doubt you understand that none of what is said here can be repeated to anyone else. Can I silence our conversation from all others and make this negotiation binding?"

Nik had expected the request when he walked into the room and recognized the magical circle drawn on the floor beneath the two chairs. After he agreed, the spell she cast was far more complex than he expected. The room didn't look as if it had changed in the slightest, but he could feel the difference. She had temporarily created her own dimension, and as such their meeting could not be observed or invaded by anyone less powerful than Odin, the king of all the gods. Impressive. It was much easier to just let the dimension appear as it was, that they were floating in a dark, endless void.

Because it was a dimension of her own creation, they were both subject to the laws she had created for it. She explained that the first was compelled both parties to speak the truth. The second bound both of them to secrecy and prevented them from using the information gleaned from their meeting against each other. Nik wasn't surprised that she cast the most difficult version of the spell with ease, and it was yet another reason she would have insisted on meeting here instead of her official office. If she had cast this spell near anyone from the Circle of Light, it would have loudly advertised both that she was engaging in secret negotiations and that she was much more powerful than she appeared.

"Very impressive," he said. "You added something. What is it?"

"Most never notice, and I try not to reveal it," she said. "My addition makes any agreement we reach temporarily binding, and as soon as we step back into our world we will be compelled to make it permanent. And know—I will require that we complete it fully, both in the blood tradition of my people and the tradition of yours."

She had clearly done her research. His people traditionally completed bonds sexually, but since the rest of the supernatural world largely disapproved of such things these days, dragons still sealed their agreements with other races with blood. Few beings other than dragons remembered anymore that type of bond even existed.

She had been cultivating his desire from the moment he walked in the door, which he had assumed was supposed to punish Mimir. But this went much further than making Mimir jealous, and he had Sylvia. As a succubus, monogamy was impossible for her, and his culture rejected monogamy on principle. He desired Chloe, and he had no reason to reject her offer. Sylvia was likely enjoying her mage lover and plenty of others in his absence.

"Is this about punishing Mimir?" he asked her.

She shook her head firmly. "If you haven't already noticed, I take what I want. And you—any woman would be crazy not to want you."

Damn it. She apparently knew exactly what he needed to hear at the moment. Either she had a very speedy network of eyes and ears that had already passed along the news of Sylvia's rejection or she was reading him like a book.

"Thank you."

"Now to conclude our business so that we can move on to pleasure," she said with a smile "First, this is yours regardless of what agreement we reach. I'm not cold enough to use your son's life for political advantage. Should we reach an agreement I'll discuss it with your researchers myself, but if not the spell and explanation should be enough."

Chloe took a deep breath and handed him a sheaf of papers folded down to a size that fit in his pocket.

"This is the spell that drew your gods through the barrier?" he asked.

"Yes. It's a ritual that every woman in my family has used to summon a familiar. In the process of learning it, I figured out how to change it in order to summon Mimir and Hoenir from Asgard instead of a familiar from the underworld. Despite substantial pressure from the council for centuries, we have never shared it with anyone. I ask that you keep our secret, and do not use it for any purpose other than saving your son."

"Of course. No matter what the result, I will be eternally grateful for this kindness."

She nodded. "Now for the real reason you are here. I intend to rule both the Circle of Light and the Mages Guild. Since your people are powerful allies of the Circle, at the very least I want your oath not to interfere. At best, I would like your support. In return, you would have even more influence in the Circle than you already do, and for the first time you would be allied with the Mages Guild as well.

Even after the barriers come down, we would be one of the most powerful alliances in the universe. And it is also in your best interest that as part of such an agreement, I will be bound to do what is best for both of our people. If you turn me down, I will not hesitate to harm your people in the process of saving mine should it be necessary."

"Why do you wish to rule?"

She hesitated, then sighed. "Both the witches and the mages are getting progressively weaker the longer the barrier separates from us from Asgard. I have no doubt the other races who rely on power from sources that are not in this world are losing power as well, but will not admit it. Think about it—when was the last time in history that we went fifty years without as much as a skirmish between or within any of the races?"

Nik nodded. She was right. It had been unnaturally quiet since the barrier went up, and for some time he hadn't heard of or felt any powerful spells being cast to try and take down the barrier. He had assumed that they had simply run out of ideas for the time being, but it made even more sense that the races had become too weak to attempt casting spells that strong.

"Of course, your people haven't experienced this yet—and to be blunt, right now that makes your people strong enough to wipe every other race off the face of the earth. That fact makes me very grateful that you are an honorable man. Mimir said—"

Nik laughed. "That's where your youth is a liability. Clearly Mimir didn't tell you much about me, or you would know that I'm not an honorable man."

"If you would let me finish, I can explain why it is in your best interest," she said firmly. "And no matter what you say, I know that you are an honorable man."

There was something about her voice that sent a jolt down his spine. For the first time he looked deep into her eyes and he fell in. He no longer knew where he was in time and space. He was simultaneously a small child being held by his beloved mother, an older child who loathed himself for enjoying the taste of his first kill, a new father when his son was born, an unwilling king dripping with blood after being forced to kill his father, a soldier who loathed obliterating a legion of soldiers with one swing of his blade, a young man hiding from his father in a musty closet, a naive young lover willingly giving every piece of his soul to his first mate—then there was a sharp pain in his cheek.

"Are you okay?" Chloe was repeating over and over.

Luckily her eyes had returned to normal, because she in front of him holding his face in her hands, too close for him to avoid her gaze. She removed one of them as if she was winding up to slap his other cheek, and he muttered a response in the dragon tongue. It stopped her hand, but she looked confused until he remembered she couldn't understand his native tongue and repeated himself in English.

"Fine, I'm fine," he mumbled.

Nik was trembling and so dizzy that he couldn't stand, but he was starting to feel his current body again. He knew exactly what had happened, and he would physically be fine in a few minutes. There was only one thing in the universe that could fracture time like that, drawing him into every key moment of his life all at once. Chloe was young, but she possessed a very old soul, possibly even older than Nik's grandfather's soul. Nik had fallen into those points in his history because she had been connected to them somehow, even if it was only peripherally. Since they were all significant events, turning points in his life, that meant that today was a turning point as well.

At his age, he knew better than to fight fate. Though Chloe would never remember any of her past lives, her soul was so old that it was nearly perfected. It had been shaped by countless lives, her choices were guided by millennia of wisdom. She was here today, and had been there at so many pivotal points in his life because their threads were tied together in the tapestry of fate. They were destined to be allies, and in practical terms, he knew that being on her side was much more likely to keep his people safe than rejecting her.

"I will ally with you."

"You don't need time to think it over or consult with Thora or your kings? This will require all of them to be bound directly to me as well."

He shook his head. "I rule absolutely. If I had any doubts I might solicit their opinions, but they would only be opinions. The decision is always mine, and they are unable to defy a direct order from me to ally themselves with you."

She was still close to him, and all he could feel was an undeniable urge to taste every inch of her. She forced the spell to dissipate as he dropped to his knees and forced her skirt up her smooth thighs. She wasn't wearing any underwear, and opened her legs, eagerly pulling him in closer. The compulsion to complete their alliance was that strong, and it affected her in equal measure. As he tasted her, she moaned loudly, alternating between begging for him to make her come and begging him to be inside her. He picked the first option, and she was coming loudly within minutes. Moments later when she pushed him to the floor he didn't resist. He had gotten the taste he wanted. Now he was happy to let her do whatever she wanted with him. She was over him unbuckling and sliding down his pants as she spoke. "Don't get me wrong," she said firmly. "I'm not suggesting an actual relationship—just purely physical pleasure shared with and ally who will hopefully become a friend."