TWO
(12/02/319 0345 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper slowly opened his eyes and looked around sleepily. It became immediately apparent he was in a clinic or hospital room. The ceiling lights were off and the illumination in the room came from the displays of medical equipment that sat on either side of his bed. A couch and a couple of chairs were placed against the wall. A shadowy figure was stretched out on the couch and soft breathing sounded periodically.
“Rosie?” Cooper’s voice was little more than a whisper and he worked his mouth to get some saliva to moisten it before trying again. “Rosalind?” It was still a croak, but it was a little louder.
The figure jerked and sat upright. “You’re awake.” While the voice was female, it wasn’t Rosalind’s. She got up and came over to the bed. Green eyes glowed in the dim light from the instrumentation. “You should go back to sleep.”
He croaked again. “Who are you? Where’s Rosalind?”
The woman ignored his questions as she poured him a cup of water. “Here, drink this.” She held the straw to his lips and he sucked thirstily until the cup was empty.
Cooper cleared his throat. “Thank you.” His voice still sounded strange to his ears but it wasn’t an unintelligible croak this time. “Who are you and where is Rosalind?”
“We’ll talk in the morning. Right now you need to sleep.” She touched him on the forehead with a fingertip and his world went dark.
***
(12/02/319 0915 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper opened his eyes and looked around. The woman from last night was sitting in one of the chairs and reading something on a tablet. “You’re real.”
She looked up. Her hair was white and glittered in the light from the fluorescents overhead. Her skin was only a shade darker than her hair, making her look almost monochromatic. She wore a white blouse, skirt and shoes that almost matched her skin. Only her green eyes and red lipstick gave her any color. “I am.” She slipped the tablet into a briefcase. “The nurse said you might be hungry when you woke up. Do you want breakfast?” His stomach growled at the suggestion and she smiled slightly. “Then I’ll be right back.”
She left the room and was back a few moments later with a Nursejoy who gave him a bright smile as she moved the wheeled over bed table into position and put a tray on it. “Corporal Cooper, I’m Linda. It’s good to see you’re awake.”
“Thanks. How’s Rosie?”
Linda uncovered the tray to reveal some soft boiled eggs and two pieces of toast. “Rosie?”
“My Officerjenny. She was with me when we were attacked.”
Linda’s face stilled and she glanced over her shoulder at the blonde. “I’m not sure. I’ll see what I can find out while you eat.”
The blonde’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t lie to him.” She touched Cooper on the arm. “I’m afraid I’ve got bad news, William. Rosalind didn’t make it.”
He blinked at her and suddenly the smell of the food made him nauseous. He shoved at the table. “Take it away.” Tears began to well at the corners of his eyes and he leaned back to stare at the ceiling.
Linda put the table against the wall and covered the tray again. “You need to eat, William.” She turned to the blonde. “I’ll check on him in half an hour. Try to get him to eat something.”
“I will.”
She patted Cooper on the arm and smiled. “I’ll give you a bath when I return.”
The blonde frowned. “No, you won’t. I’ll take care of it.”
“I’d heard that,” Linda began.
“I know what you’ve heard,” the blonde interrupted, “and you heard wrong. Spread it around.” She looked Cooper over. “And remove the IV before you leave.”
Linda shook her head. “It needs to stay in. He’s still recovering from the healing we had to do on him and hydration is important for the process to proceed smoothly.”
The blonde shrugged. “Fine. We’ll see you in half an hour.” She locked the door behind Linda. “Idiot, as if I can’t take out a simple IV without help.” She crossed the room to his bed and began working at the bandage covering the IV. “Hold still.”
“Who are you?”
She stopped tugging on the tape and chuckled. “That’s a fair enough question. I’m Gloria and I’m a detective with the MPS.” She went back to the tape. “I’m not much on people skills so I’ll be blunt. After you were immobilized your attacker went back and murdered Rosalind. I’m involved with the investigation.” She turned off the drip and deftly removed the needle. “Do you want to help me catch her killer?”
Anger burned through Cooper and muted the pain of Rosalind’s death. “I do.”
“Then you need to do what I tell you to for a little while. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself back being a patrolman and probably you’ll be ordered to stay out of the investigation. Can you follow my direction?”
Cooper nodded firmly. “Yes!”
“Linda was right that you’re still weak. Magical healing forces the natural healing process to accelerate a great deal and provides the energy the cells need for reproduction, but the raw material comes from your body and you have to replenish it afterward. You have to eat food and take in a lot more liquids than you can get through an IV for that to happen. But you’re not in any danger right now and both food and liquid can wait until I can get you to a restaurant.” Gloria let down the handrail on the side of his bed. “You need to bathe and I’m going to help you.” She turned away and picked up a bedpan. “But first you need to empty your bladder. If you don’t, you’ll go before I can get you into the shower and I’m not excited about cleaning that up.”
Suddenly Cooper needed to pee in the worst way. “What the hell?”
Gloria pulled the sheets down and efficiently slid the bedpan into position under his bum. “Let it go.” She waited until she heard the stream of urine hitting the bedpan. “Like I said before, all of the raw material for your healing comes from your body. All of the wastes from healing stay with your body, too, and almost always result in a very full bladder.”
“You’d think they’d make a healing spell that took care of supplying and removing stuff, too.”
She smiled suddenly. “Oh, there are spells like that but you won’t find a Nursejoy using them unless she’s unusually powerful and has been training with a real magic using pokegirl who felt like sharing. Are you done yet?”
“Yeah.” She handed him some wipes and he cleaned up.
“Raise your hips.” She carefully removed the bedpan. “I’ll be right back.” She disappeared into the bathroom. A few moments later he heard the toilet flush and then running water. Gloria returned and put the bedpan to the side. “Ok, let’s get you into the shower.” When he hesitated, she shook her head. “Don’t tell me you’re shy?”
“I’ve never been naked around a human woman.”
She laughed abruptly. “You think I’m human? That’s flattering, but I’m not. Besides, except in a few cases involving oddball pokegirl breeds, between a human woman and a pokegirl everything important under their clothes is pretty much the same.” She chuckled softly. “Even if sometimes there’s fur, scales and possibly a tail.”
“Ok, I’ve never been naked around you.”
She tugged him upright. “There’s a first time for everything, Coop, and today is the first time for that.”
“I can walk.” Although healed, his leg was still a little weak and he determinedly limped into the bathroom and climbed into the shower under his own power. He shut the door and tossed the medical gown over the top before turning on the water. Once steam was rising from the spray he adjusted it to a comfortable temperature and stepped into it to let the water cascade over his body.
“Move over.” He jumped forward as a nude Gloria slid into the shower behind him. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his neck as she rubbed her body against his back. When her hands slid down his stomach he grabbed them. “I know it’s really too soon since Rosalind,” she said softly, “but this has to happen and it has to happen now if you’re going to be able to help. Trust me, please, and I promise not to draw this out any longer than necessary.” He relaxed and she dropped her hands to begin stroking his growing length.
She turned him around and he stumbled. Instantly she held him up and turned off the water before lowering him to the floor of the shower. “I forgot about your leg,” she muttered apologetically. She straddled his waist and dropped down to sit on his stomach. He stared at her. Even her nipples were pale and her skin was unmarked by any mole or freckle. “Will you kiss me?” When he nodded, she leaned forward and kissed him hungrily, sucking his tongue into her mouth. She moaned softly when he reached up and rolled her nipples with his fingers. She slid backwards and rubbed her ass against his erection, breaking the kiss.
“That feels so good,” she whispered as he lifted his head and sucked a nipple into his mouth. Gloria pulled his head against her breast. “Harder.” William bit down gently and she gasped. “Yes!” Then she gently pushed him away. “Please save that for later, but that nurse will be back soon and we need to finish this.” She lifted up and slid backwards, reaching underneath to take him firmly, lining him up and lowering slightly until she could feel his head. She placed both hands on his chest, closed her eyes and slowly dropped with a sigh of pleasure. “It’s been so long,” she whispered. Her eyes opened and locked on his as she began to ride him, slowly at first and then moving faster and faster. She stopped suddenly and shuddered as her breath hissed out. Cooper was close and he grabbed her by the hips and began thrusting as fast and as hard as he could until he exploded inside her.
A smile appeared on Gloria’s face and she bent down to kiss him. “Thank you, William.” Sudden pounding on the door to the hospital room made her jerk upright. “Shit.”
“Don’t curse.”
She looked down at him in surprise. “What?”
“I said don’t curse. There’s no reason for it.”
Gloria’s eyebrows went up and then she shrugged. “If that’s what you want. It’s a habit, but I’ll try to break it.”
The pounding stopped, paused and started again. Cooper carefully rolled Gloria off of him. “Turn the water back on and then let Linda in. Then, if you wouldn’t mind, please come back and bathe me like you said you would. I don’t think I can hold my arm up long enough to wash myself.”
She gave him a sideways look. “You don’t want Linda to clean you?” Surprise flicked across her face when he shuddered and shook his head violently. “What is it?”
“My sisters are Joys. I don’t want to ever be naked around one, much less tame one.”
“You’re serious.”
He sighed. “Fine, I’ll do the best I can by myself. Just keep Linda away from me until I’m dressed again.”
Gloria pulled herself to her feet. “No, I’ll wash you.” She lifted him up and carefully put him on the extruded seat the shower had for invalids. Then she stepped out and turned the water on. “I’ll be right back.” She shut the shower door. It was partially translucent and he watched as a white blob wrapped a towel around itself and left.
The pounding stopped. Cooper could hear Gloria and Linda’s voices but couldn’t make out the words. A pink blob appeared in the doorway to the bathroom. “William?”
“I’m here and I’m ok.” He waved his weak arm at her.
Linda took a hesitant step into the bathroom. “Would you like me to wash you?”
“Thanks for the offer, but Gloria’s already helping me and I know you probably still have rounds to finish.”
Gloria stepped past the Nursejoy. “You heard him. Take the food with you when you leave.”
“He has to eat something.”
“He’s not hungry right now. When he’s clean, we’ll be leaving. I’ll take him straight to a pub or restaurant. Will that satisfy you?” Linda stepped closer to Gloria and Cooper heard her whispering. Gloria’s response was in her normal tone. “I promise that if he tells me he wants a Nursejoy you’ll be my first call.” More whispering and Linda left.
Gloria hung the towel up and got back in with him. Cooper regarded her warily. “What’s going on?”
“She thinks I’m your alpha.”
“Aren’t you?” His face twisted bitterly. “Rosalind is dead and she was my only pokegirl.”
Gloria took a washcloth and soap and began thoroughly washing him. “Are you acknowledging that we may be bonded?” Even as busy as she was, Cooper had the distinct impression that all of her attention was on his response.
“You agreed to stop cursing when I asked you to. That suggests we did.”
“I could just be being agreeable.” She pulled him to his feet and knelt to wash his legs.
“I don’t think you’re the just agreeable type. You already said you’re not a people person.”
Gloria sat back on her calves and looked up at him. “You’re smarter than I thought. Now hold still so I can finish before someone else comes calling.” She quickly finished bathing and dried him. She handed him the patient gown and began dressing herself. Cooper noted idly that even her panties were white. “You’ll have to put the gown back on while I go get you some clothes. Can you get back to the bed on your own or do you want help?”
“Let me try on my own first.”
Cooper slowly made his way to the bed while Gloria hovered close until he settled down. She lifted his legs up and put the handrail back into place. “They had to cut your uniform off of you but there’s a shop downstairs where I can get some clothes for you to wear. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Don’t go anywhere.”
“I won’t.”
After she left, Cooper used the remote to scan through the channels on the vid. It was mildly depressing that none of the news he found had any mention of Rosalind’s murder. She should have rated at least something, but apparently the death of an Officerjenny in the line of duty was unremarkable.
“How are you doing, Cooper?”
He looked up and froze at the sight of Rosalind standing in the doorway. Then he realized it was his FTO, Sergeant Katrina. “Hi.” He shut down the video and tossed the remote on the table. “Rosalind is dead and I don’t even have any new scars from it. I’m just great.”
She cocked her head. “Heard, did you? It’s a shame. She had the makings of an exemplary officer.” She pulled up a chair and sat next to the bed. “We’ll find the bitch who did it and she’ll pay.”
“Hello, Kat.” Gloria eyed the Officerjenny as she came over to stand next to Cooper on the other side of the bed from Katrina.
The Officerjenny shot to her feet. “Back off, ghoul,” she practically snarled. “You’re not getting this one too.”
“I happen to be investigating Rosalind’s murder, Kat. Coop’s going to be helping me.”
“No, he’s not. Tell your major to assign someone else to this one.” Katrina shot a hard look at Cooper. “I order you to avoid all contact with Gloria.”
“You can’t order that, Kat.” Gloria said smugly. “That’s the one thing you can’t order him to do and you know it.” She smiled unpleasantly. “It’s a law.”
Katrina grasped Cooper’s arm. “She’s killed eight tamers, Cooper. Don’t let her kill you too.”
“It’s too late, Kat.” Gloria dropped a bundle into Cooper’s lap. “Coop, these will have to do until we get to your home.”
Katrina gave Gloria an angry glare. “You’re lying.”
“I assure you that at this instant his seed is deep within me.” Gloria’s smile turned nasty. “Or do you want to put your hand inside me and see for yourself? It’s the closest you’ll ever get to having him inside you.” Katrina blurred around the bed and raised her fist to strike. “Go ahead,” Gloria said calmly. “Striking a superior is a courts-martial offense.”
“Gloria,” Cooper’s voice was firm. “Stop goading her.”
The blonde backed up a step. “All right.”
“Sergeant, Gloria is telling the truth. We’re bonded and I want to help her find whoever killed Rosalind.”
Katrina rubbed her knuckles and shook her head tiredly. “You don’t know what you’ve just done, Cooper.”
“You’re probably right, but you weren’t going to let me be on the case, were you?” The expression on her face was confirmation enough. “I had no choice.”
Katrina let out a heavy sigh and turned to Gloria. “You’ll let me know about his funeral?”
“If it becomes necessary, I will.”
“I’ll see you later, Cooper. As soon as you’ve been cleared for duty, I want you at the station. You’ve got a lot of paperwork to do.”
Cooper was confused. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Katrina gave Gloria a hard look and left. “All right, Gloria, what’s going on between you and Katrina?”
The blonde was watching the doorway. “Let’s get you out of here and someplace with food. I’ll explain everything, but not here while the Titacruels are circling.” She lowered the handrail. “Get dressed and we’ll find out who’s hiding your release paperwork.”
***
(12/02/319 1245 London, Blue Continent)
Cooper wasn’t hungry, but he knew he needed food so he set out to methodically eat everything on his plate. As he picked up the sandwich, he looked at Gloria sitting across the table from him. “Start talking.”
She picked a chip off his plate. “Where should I begin?”
“Tell me about yourself.”
“I’m an Enchantress, I’m twenty five years old and I’ve been in the BLSF since I was sixteen and the MPS since I was twenty one.” She chewed the chip slowly and reached for another one. “I have had eight tamers before you and Kat is right when she said that they are all dead.” She glanced at him. “How much detail do you want? I mean, most tamers aren’t interested in hearing about the men who have been with their pokegirls before them. I didn’t kill any of them, if that’s what you’re curious about.”
“I know that.”
She dropped the chip she’d just filched. “You do?”
“If you’d killed any of them, you’d be dead already.”
“You keep making me revise my estimate of your intelligence upwards.” She smirked. “I’m not used to that.” The smile faded. “They all died in the line of duty, but police are superstitious to a fault and they decided I was cursed by a Witch I had to put down.” She shrugged. “The fact that only one tamer died after this so called curse didn’t matter. In fact, I was about to be booted from the MPS and probably completely out of the BLSF because of it.”
Cooper paused curiously. “Why?”
She eyed him for a moment. “You don’t understand just how valuable you are right now, do you?” When he looked at her blankly she snickered. “Think about it for a moment. In both the military and the police, who is most likely to die in a fight, the tamer or his pokegirls?” She didn’t wait for his answer. “The tamer is, of course. So there are a lot of pokegirls who lost their tamers in the line of duty. Under BLSF rules, you know that if you take a civilian pokegirl you’ve got six months to get her up to speed on BLSF protocol or she can be confiscated, right?”
He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he knew the answer to that question. “Yeah.”
“Essentially what happens is he forces her to join the BLSF. Well, if a BLSF pokegirl joins a civilian tamer’s harem, she can’t force him to join the BLSF. She has to give up her career and become a civilian, even if she’s an Officerjenny. So they have to resign themselves to a life without a formal tamer or give up their job.” Gloria waved a chip at him for emphasis. “So if a military tamer loses his harem, every tamerless military pokegirl for miles will know about it at the speed of gossip which, by the way, is the fastest thing in the universe. Here’s a tamer they don’t have to train or give up the career they’ve spent years building for. Needless to say, they come flocking.” Gloria realized she was still holding a chip and popped it into her mouth. “I’m sure Kat came around to see how you were doing, but if the opportunity came up to give you a shoulder to cry on she would take it without hesitating and do everything she could to snatch you up on the rebound. They all would, including hospital pokegirls like Linda. She was just the vanguard of what was going to be a flood of ‘helpful’ pokegirls.”
“Isn’t that what you did?”
She shrugged and reached for another chip. “Yes and no. I did hold out the carrot of getting you to help me find Rosalind’s killer to get you to bond me, but I meant it and it wasn’t an empty promise. And with me you get to leapfrog over several years of your career.”
“Oh?”
“You’re a uniformed lance corporal. I’m a plainclothes detective and a lieutenant. Since I outrank you by a rather large margin, you get to come to my job instead of me going to yours. It’s unusual for the pokegirl to outrank her tamer, but when it happens the rules are clear and were set up by the Officerjennys so they didn’t have to go back to being a regular constable.” She waved for a waitress to come over and ordered a drink and a plate of chips for herself. “You’ll get bumped up to full corporal and become a detective in training. Since I’m an officer and you’re enlisted, you’ll also get a special note in your record that gives you a priority consideration for OCS if someone decides they need another officer in our department. If you can do the job, and I will make sure you can, you’ll become a full detective in six months.” She grimaced. “I’ll drag you kicking and screaming if I have to. I look horrible in uniform and I am not going back.”
“Even if it kills me?”
Gloria choked on the bit of potato and hacked before spitting onto the table. “That is not funny.”
“Sorry.” Cooper frowned. “Why don’t the tamerless pokegirls find tamers with smaller harems and join those?”
“They do so when they can, but military harems tend to be small when full so there’s not a lot of room in even a small harem. I don’t doubt that, before her death, Rosalind was already talking with pokegirls who were interested in joining your harem. The fact that you probably didn’t know anything about it shows she was being smart and negotiating with them to see what they could bring to the harem and your careers before letting them anywhere near you.”
“She was doing this without discussing it with me first? That’s kind of rude.”
Gloria shrugged. “The alpha is responsible for the wellbeing of her tamer and the harem, so it’s her right and responsibility to ensure that any pokegirl considered for the harem is useful before bringing the potential recruit to her tamer. Rosalind controlled access to your dick, which meant she held every possible advantage in any negotiations with a tamerless pokegirl. If anyone tried to force her way in, the alpha can make it look exactly like it is, an invasion into her family, and likely twist her tamer against the interloper.” She grinned at his expression. “And you just thought we were pretty fuck toys. Pokegirl life is more complex than you can imagine.”
“You cursed.”
She blinked. “I’m sorry, Coop.”
“Gloria, does that mean they’ll be negotiating with you now?”
“That’s right.” The smug expression he’d seen earlier reappeared. “And that’s why Kat is probably breaking everything she can get her hands on right now. That girl’s got quite the temper and she knows I’m worse than most Enchantresses about sharing. Anyone who wants to woo you will have to wait for you mourn Rosalind and she’ll have to be dam,” she broke off, “darned impressive to me and I’m one of the best at my job. And, for at least the next few years no Officerjenny has a chance with me no matter how good she is.”
“Are you that mad at them?”
She smiled. “No, it’s that they’ll all remind you of Rosalind. I’m not going to let them hurt you like that.”
Cooper stared at her for several long seconds. “You’re right. Thank you.”
“It’s part of the job. Now, eat up. We need to get you back into uniform so you can report in and do all the paperwork to get you transferred to my department.”
***
(12/09/319 0355 London, Blue Continent)
Careful not to disturb Gloria, Cooper slipped out of bed and padded quietly to the window. Gripping the window in both hands, he relaxed enough to let the tears pour down his face as he silently cried for Rosalind. Each day, he felt her loss keenly and in spite of the short time they’d been together, he missed her terribly.
He was never sure how long he stood there, but finally he wiped his face with his hands and turned around to wash up and go back to bed. Gloria stood a few feet from him, easily visible in her white nightgown. He felt a flash of irritation and suppressed it. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I wish I could take your pain from you,” she said softly. “I know how much the loss of someone you care about can hurt. What I can do, though, and what I will do is stand watch over you while you grieve. And any comfort that I can give is yours without reservation.”
“Thank you.” He took her hand and felt her tremble. “What’s wrong?”
“I wish I’d known her. She must have been remarkable to command such feelings from you.” She made a sound that was half chuckle and half sob. “We’ve never met and I’m jealous of her.”
Cooper wrapped her up in his arms and she clung to him. “It’s hard to compete with the dead, Gloria. You have Rosalind to compete with and I have eight other men. None of them are here, just the two of us. So if you’ll try not to compare me to your other tamers, I’ll try to not to compare you and her.”
They were silent for a while until Gloria gently untwined from him. “Are you ready to come back to bed?”
“No, but we’ve got a long day today and I need any rest I can get.”
“I could make you sleep. I did it when you were in the hospital.”
He nodded. “I remember. It was when I thought you were a dream. Will I sleep through the alarm?”
She shook her head. “I’m a better spell designer than that or I couldn’t use it on deployment to help the members of my unit sleep. You still wake up if disturbed.”
“Then please do.”
***
(12/09/319 0845 London, Blue Continent)
Major Douglass Neff was a short, dark haired man who had a personal presence that made him seem larger than life. He nodded to some chairs in front of his desk. “Sit down, corporal.” He glanced to his right. “Liv, get us some tea.”
Liv was a brown furred Blade Bunny wearing a lieutenant’s uniform. She bobbed her head to Maggie, the Gunbunny who was Neff’s alpha, and left the office.
Neff leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers over his flat stomach. “So you’re Glory’s latest capture. I don’t suppose you actually have any useful talents.”
“I can see my file on your desk, major, so you should know that I have a double degree in criminal science and forensics from An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath.”
“I don’t speak Irish, Cooper.”
“It’s the University College Dublin, sir.”
“A degree is just a piece of paper, corporal. How much practical experience have you had in the field?” Cooper hesitated. “Speak up, corporal.”
William took a deep breath. “I’m from Wateford, sir, and my father is the head of medicine there while mother is the chief of nursing. She also does all of the autopsies. She tends to believe that any day we’re not busy is a day to help out and I’ve been assisting with her autopsy and forensic work from the age of twelve until I went to university at eighteen.”
Neff’s eyebrows rose. “Your mother made you help with autopsies? Why would she do that?”
“Sir, she enjoyed them and wanted me to share in the fun. My sisters weren’t all that interested in cutting open dead people, you see. Their psychology leans heavily more towards tending for the living instead of the dead. That made it my job to learn to at least pretend to enjoy mother’s hobby.”
“Their psychology? I don’t understand, corporal.”
Gloria cleared her throat. “Major, Coop’s sisters are Nursejoys.”
Neff blinked. “I see. Corporal, is your mother a pokegirl?”
In order to have had a son she had to have been a pokewoman, but Cooper didn’t think it would be proper to point that out to his new commanding officer. “She’s a Night Nurse, major. It’s why my eyes and hair are their shiny black.”
“So you have experience with bodies.”
“I do, sir, from the freshly dead to one that had been left in trash bags in the sun for a week.” He made a face. “That was nasty. We had to run her through a strainer for evidence.”
Maggie made a disgusted noise and Neff’s face echoed agreement. “Well, Glory, I think he’ll be a good fit for you.” He reddened slightly when Maggie giggled. “You know what I mean.”
Gloria put her hand on Cooper’s shoulder. “I couldn’t agree more. I thought we’d share a desk until he can get one of his own, but it means we can get right to work.”
“Good. Find the bastard who did this to one of our own, Glory.”
“I intend to.”
***
William Cooper
Gloria - Enchantress