Everything looked different from up in the air. The forest shrank until it looked like a diorama made of toothpicks and tongue depressors all dusted with black powder, and though the town steadily got closer, it still looked more like a drawing on a map below them, save for the glowing points of light from streetlights and windows.
With each flap of her wings, Sabine rocked up and down, and for the first few moments, Melissa swore she was going to go tumbling off to fall to her death, turning into a gory, grisly pancake on the ground below.
It was a mild fear, though, entirely trumped by the knowledge that Melissa was riding on the back of a dragon. (Wyvern? Was that actually the right term? Considering Sabine didn’t have any front legs, but then again, Melissa supposed if she was actually a were-wyvern, Sabine would have said as much, and honestly it was probably a very pedantic distinction, and there were more important things to focus on just then.)
After a few moments of steadily rising, the motion actually became fairly predictable, and it was easier for Melissa to keep her balance. By the time Sabine rose as high as she planned on getting, she stopped flapping for the most part, instead simply gliding along smoothly, save for the occasional adjustment of the ends of her wings to catch a breeze and change her angle.
Slowly, Melissa peeled herself away from Sabine’s neck, so she could properly look around in open wonder. It was like being on a different planet or in a different world. Melissa had been in an airplane before on numerous occasions, true, but it didn’t compare. Being able to spread one arm out to her side with her fingers splayed open and feel the way the air passed turned it into an entirely different experience.
The clouds seemed close enough that Melissa swore she might be able to touch them, and she found herself reaching a hand up high over her head before she could even scold herself for
being ridiculous. There were no cotton candy clouds to touch, and the stars remained stubbornly out of reach, but the air as it flowed between her spread, outstretched fingers was cool and crisp, and she tipped her face up as she lowered her hand once again.
Even if she fell off right that instant and plummeted towards the ground below, she was pretty sure she would still be able to die happy.
It was a brief flight, though. Sabine moved at a decent pace, and the brewery wasn’t that far away. It seemed like no time at all passed before Sabine began to slow for a landing. She seemed strangely awkward as she did, as if she was making a deliberate effort to land more gently than she otherwise might. If that was the case, Melissa was grateful for the effort, considering she didn’t even want to know how roughly she might land on any other occasion.
Once Sabine’s claws were safely on the ground, Melissa slid down, stumbling forward a few steps once she landed. Her arms and legs felt like jelly from clinging so tightly. She opened her mouth to make a joke, only for her mouth to close with a click, as Sabine abruptly barged past her, towards the brewery.
Brow furrowing and eyebrows drawing together in confusion, Melissa followed her at an easy jog, only to pick up the pace as she got close enough to hear the unmistakable noise of fighting coming from inside the building.
Mitch had gotten into a fight. Of course, he had. Melissa couldn’t even find it in herself to be surprised about such a discovery.
Sabine reached the building first, of course, coming to a bay door that hadn’t been opened in years. She leaned down, caught the rusted handle in her teeth, and heaved upwards. The metal shrieked as the door reluctantly grated upwards, until the opening was just big enough for Sabine to duck through it. She got stuck for just a moment, before she snapped her wings open above her, forcing the door the rest of the way open. There was the sound of buckling metal, and Melissa got the impression that the door was never going to close again after that.
She put on a burst of speed to follow as Sabine flung herself into the building, and as Melissa followed her in, she had to stop and stare. It was…quite a sight, to put it mildly, and she
wondered if this sort of thing was going to become commonplace in her life. If so, she had rather mixed feelings about it.
Mitch’s jeans and shoes were tossed off to one side, and Mitch had transformed at some point, the tattered remnants of his shirt still clinging to his fur. He had his jaws clamped around the arm of a vampire who looked as if he couldn’t have been older than fourteen, though that didn’t make the vampire look especially less threatening, with his fangs bared to such an extent that it looked as if his jaw had extended.
As Melissa watched, the diminutive vampire caught Mitch in a headlock and managed to toss him aside. Mitch hit the floor and tumbled, only to throw himself back to his feet almost immediately, barreling into the vampire as quickly as he could. Both of them landed in a heap on the ground, and Mitch’s jaws gaped open as he bore down on the vampire, aiming for his throat, though he came up short as the vampire caught Mitch’s upper jaw in one hand, caught his lower jaw in the other hand, and wrestled him back to arm’s length, until Mitch had to wrench himself free and stumble back before either of his jaws were broken or dislocated.
And then, Sabine shrieked, her jaws gaping open as she did, and she spread her wings out to her sides until she looked large enough to almost fill the entire room. Mitch and the vampire both ground to a halt as they stared at her, slowly backing away. Melissa flapped a hand until she caught Mitch’s attention and waved him over, though her attention was largely still focused on Sabine as she flung herself onto the vampire like a scaly missile with a bad temper.
As Mitch loped over to Melissa’s side, Sabine bashed the side of her head into the vampire’s torso, sending him toppling to the ground. He scrabbled backwards, trying to put some distance between the two of them as he scrambled back to his feet, but by the time he was standing again, Sabine simply caught his arm in her teeth and yanked him back down to the ground.
Mitch and Melissa watched silently for a moment, before finally Mitch transformed once again, if only so he could observe, “I see you found a dragon.”
With that observation made, Mitch sat down heavily on the concrete beside Melissa, panting to catch his breath. “Meet Jasper,” he offered with a bland sort of amusement as he waved towards the vampire, who was backpedaling away from one of Sabine’s wing claws at that moment. “He’s a ray of sunshine, as you can see.” Mitch sat for only a moment before he picked himself up off of the ground to fetch his pants and his shoes from where they had been tossed before.
“Were you expecting this to happen when you came here?” Melissa asked, wondering at just how casual Mitch seemed about a vampire attempting to kill him.
“No?” he replied, sounding bemused by the question. “I mean, not to any huge degree, but I tend to assume just about any inhuman creature might want to attack me no matter what I do.”
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Really?” she asked flatly. “You’re an inhuman creature, and you use it to find people lost in forest fires. I really doubt you’re the sole good-natured inhuman in the world,” she informed him blandly. “I mean, I’m sure there’s someone somewhere in the world who really is the most unique, but I don’t think it’s anyone in this brewery.”
Mitch scoffed and rolled his eyes, one hand on his hip and his pants hanging limply from his other hand. “Really?” he sighed. “Someone tries to murder me, and you’re going to lecture me about needing an attitude adjustment?”
“You usually need an attitude adjustment,” Melissa reminded him, folding her arms and shifting her weight to one side. “Now seems like as good of a time to point it out as any other,” she added, feigning innocence as she did.
The impromptu argument didn’t continue for long, though, as Melissa’s attention was drawn back to the fight going on only a matter of feet away.
Sabine stumbled back as Jasper managed to slam the heel of his hand against her nose, followed by a punch that landed soundly in the middle of the hollow of her lower jaw. She gagged and stumbled back a step, though she recovered quickly and surged forward, sending Jasper sprawling as she butted the flat of her head against his chest. He rolled to the side before she could beat her wings down against him, so instead all she managed was to carve a pair of matching grooves into the concrete, as easily as Melissa might have chopped a potato in half with a knife.
“Quite a sight,” Mitch observed after a moment, watching with nearly rapt attention. “I have to say, this isn’t what I was expecting when we said we were going to track down a dragon and some vampires to question.”
“Quite a sight,” Melissa agreed quietly, but she couldn’t find it within herself to find it entertaining in the same way Mitch seemed to. She wasn’t even sure how he found it entertaining, considering he very well could have died if she and Sabine hadn’t showed up when they did.
Slowly, she looked at Mitch, just watching from her peripheral vision for a few seconds before turning to look at him properly. He looked more or less alright, though she had no idea how long the fight had been going on before they showed up or how intense it might have been. And while she wasn’t a doctor, she knew enough about injuries to know that they weren’t always immediately visible or apparent.
If Mitch noticed her staring at him, he didn’t react, instead seeming content to watch as Jasper dropped to the floor and actually crawled under Sabine before she could grab him.
It turned out not to be the best idea, though, and Melissa watched with alarm as Sabine partially turned and kicked him away, so he landed on his back on the floor. She stalked forward, closing the last bit of distance between them and planting one of her feet in the middle of his chest, pinning him to the floor. She watched him for a moment, tipping her head this way and then that way as Jasper stared up at her with slowly increasing terror, until she reared her head back, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
Sabine made a noise like a car in the distance, its engine roaring without a care, and there was a smell like smoke and burning chemicals as she prepared to finish the fight.
Melissa could have simply watched the fight and watched the way the end of it played out. Neither Mitch nor Sabine were likely to say anything about it if all she did was observe. But she couldn’t do that. More than that, she didn’t even want to do that.
Something about the fact that the vampire looked like a child tugged at Melissa’s heart, so as Sabine’s head reared back, sparks jumping in the back of her throat, Melissa skittered a few steps closer, barking, “Hold on!” as she did. She hugged Sabine’s jacket to her chest like a security blanket.
Sabine came up short, closing her mouth with a sharp, meaty snap and blinking at Melissa
slowly. As if to translate her confusion into words, Mitch wondered blandly, “Pardon?”
“I think he gets the picture,” Melissa stated.
“He wanted to kill me,” Mitch groused, pulling his pants back on finally.
“Were you being an ass?” Melissa asked flatly. “If you say no, I’m not going to believe you, so just admit that yes, you were being an ass.”
Mitch threw his hands up in exasperation and turned away, as Sabine pulled her foot off of
Jasper’s chest and backed away a few paces. Slowly, Jasper sat up, righting his clothes as he did. He glanced fleetingly towards Melissa’s face a few times, before he blurted out in a rush, “None of us have been doing anything weird. I mean, I can’t guarantee you aren’t still looking for
vampires, since when it comes to anyone outside this specific coterie, I literally could not give less of a damn, but no one here is your pyromaniac. We prefer fires we can actually put out if we need to.”
Melissa nodded slowly. “Alright,” she replied. “Thanks.”
With that, Jasper skittered deeper into the brewery.
They were gathering a crowd at that point, silhouettes moving through the shadows. They began to back away slowly as Jasper retreated, and they backed off entirely when Sabine bared her teeth.
It seemed like a good time to get out of the immediate area, and the three of them made their way back outside to the crumbling, weed-strewn asphalt. Finally, Sabine transformed again, and when she held out an expectant hand, Melissa tossed her coat back to her. When Sabine shrugged it on, it was just long enough to protect her modesty.
“Well, that was a thing,” she observed after a moment, and Melissa snorted out a laugh.
“Ah, yeah,” she agreed, before she gestured between Sabine and Mitch. “Mitch, this is Sabine. Sabine, Mitch. He’s a bear. He’s also grumpy and shouldn’t be allowed to do anything related to PR.”
Mitch growled and flipped her off, to which Melissa’s response was to pat him on the shoulder like a fussy toddler.
“Anyway,” she carried on, “Sabine didn’t start the fires, but she noticed they were happening and was poking around.”
Shrugging and then stretching her arms out in front of herself and then up over her head, Sabine supplied, “I don’t really have anything concrete yet, but I’ll get in touch with you if I find anything. Sound like a plan?”
“As close to a plan as we’ve got right now,” Melissa agreed pleasantly, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Do you have a number I can use to get in touch with you?”
Sabine reached out with one hand, hand flexing with expectant, grabby fingers in Melissa’s
direction until Melissa handed over her phone. Sabine typed her number into it and texted herself before handing Melissa’s phone back.
“Get in touch whenever you need me,” she offered, before she shrugged out of her jacket once again and transformed. She picked her jacket up carefully in her teeth, careful not to tear it, just before she launched herself into the air.
Nothing happened for a few moments after that, save for Mitch stomping his feet back into his shoes and halfheartedly plucking the last few strands of his shirt off of his shoulders. But it was late, and it wasn’t getting any less late; Melissa didn’t want to linger any longer. Besides, she still needed to make sure Mitch was actually alright.
Melissa held a hand out expectantly, and when Mitch didn’t react, she wiggled her fingers and said, “Keys. We’re heading to my house, so I can make sure you’re actually in one piece and that you aren’t just trying to be a macho man and pretend you’re fine.”
“I am fine,” he insisted sourly, but Melissa just kept brandishing her hand at him, until finally he huffed, pulled his keys out of his pocket, and handed them over to her. She wasn’t going to comment on it out loud, and she knew Mitch would deny it even if she did, but he was pretty
blatantly sulking as she ushered him over to the car and into the passenger seat.
“Ugh,” she groaned, hopping into the driver’s seat. “You drive an automatic?” She slid the key into the ignition and turned it, and the engine rumbled to life. “Honestly, how boring can you get?”
“I’m more than happy to drive if it bothers you that much,” Mitch returned flatly, though he was already buckling himself in.
Melissa rolled her eyes. “Look, if it turns out you hit your head on something, I’m not dying when you pass out behind the wheel,” she informed him blandly.
With a snort and a scowl, Mitch slid down lower in the seat and stared out the window as Melissa started to drive.
Honestly, men could be such toddlers sometimes.
*
Melissa’s house was not what Mitch expected it to be. He expected a tiny, generic little one-story at the edge of town, possibly with a mud pit in the backyard to go searching for frogs. When she carried on driving into the mountains, he had to adjust his mental image slightly. And then, she kept on driving, higher and higher, until finally the narrow, pitted road turned into a leaf-strewn gravel driveway.
It rumbled and rattled and crunched under the car’s tires and curved in an almost perfect arc until Melissa pulled the car to a halt on a slab of tidy concrete, just beside the house that looked
nothing like what Mitch had imagined.
The yard was sprawling, and the moonlight was dappled and scattered as it fell through the leaves. The house itself was an enormous wooden A-frame cabin, the wall facing them made almost entirely of glass, so Mitch could see into the kitchen and what looked to be a living room. He had to stare as she led him inside, where the tile and hardwood floors gleamed, and the fireplace looked like a centerpiece all on its own.
Melissa looked up at him slowly, her smile sly. “It used to be the vacation house,” she explained, her smile very quickly broadening to a delighted grin. “My folks sold it to me for like a hundred bucks once we determined that I’d be able to pay all the bills and taxes.”
“Your parents just…gave you a house,” Mitch translated slowly.
“More or less,” she replied, apparently willing to concede that $100 was not much of a price tag in that context. “Why not? We don’t really do the whole…family vacation thing anymore, so the cabin was just sitting here. Why not let me have it? It’s not like my parents get anything out of it if I need to scrounge for every cent to pay rent in an apartment that looks like a cat threw it up and has zero luxuries.
And it’s not like they’re losing anything by giving me a house that we weren’t using anymore.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “There was literally no reason not to let me live here, other than…I don’t know, building character? But let’s be real, that excuse is always bullshit. You can build character doing literally anything. Sit down on one of the stools.”
The topic changed so quickly that it took a moment for Mitch to process it, before he sat down on one of the two bar stools at the kitchen island. He watched in bemusement as Melissa set about investigating, checking him over carefully for any sort of injuries. He let her have her way for a few minutes before he sighed and pointed out, “I told you, I’m fine.”
“A vampire kicked your ass,” she reminded him, utterly unsympathetic.
“Tried to kick my ass,” he corrected her, folding his arms over his chest. “I think I held my own pretty well, all things considered.” A beat, and he conceded reluctantly, “I guess I lucked out that he was a small vampire.”
“You think?” Melissa wondered dryly, though she did step back. “Look, just…” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers, knuckling at the corners of her eyes. “You were worried about me, but you’re the one whose first instinct with basically anyone is to say the least helpful thing you can think of.” She dragged her hand down her face. “Your baseline state of existence is throwing rocks through windows and then running from the homeowner’s dogs. I mean, I know I can jump the gun, but I do it on accident.”
“I don’t do it on purpose,” Mitch protested, rolling his eyes.
“Maybe not consciously,” Melissa conceded, shrugging one shoulder. “Anyway, my point is, can you just…chill out for a while? I mean, we’re doing something important, and it’s going to be a lot easier to get it done if I don’t need to keep worrying about whether you’ve pissed off…I don’t know, a Chupacabra or a skin walker or something.”
“Mel?” Mitch sighed, sliding down from the bar stool.
She fell silent, looking up at him expectantly. And she let out a noise sort of like a startled squeak when he bent down, cupped her face in both hands, and kissed her. For a few seconds, her hands fluttered awkwardly in the air as she tried to figure out what she was supposed to do with them, before they fell limply back to her sides as he slowly pulled away.
“Stop worrying,” he finally replied. “It was just a bad day. That’s all. I’m fine.”
She simply scowled up at him for a moment before she reached up, curled her hands around the back of his neck, and dragged him back down for a second kiss, insistent and exploratory. His hands settled on her hips as hers began to explore his stomach, fingers sliding over his skin.
She didn’t protest when he curled his hands beneath her thighs and picked her up, her legs curling around his waist as he deepened the kiss, his tongue probing at the seam of her lips until they parted. Their tongues slid together, and Mitch’s hold on her tightened as he began to make his way towards the door that seemed like the most likely one to be a bedroom.
Though, if they happened to get distracted and sidelined before they could even get there, he certainly wasn’t going to complain. He would be just as happy to fuck her on the couch or against a wall as he would be to fuck her on a proper bed. He would make it good no matter where it wound up happening or what surface it wound up happening on or against, and he wasn’t really getting the impression that she would object to either of those outcomes at that point, as she was panting through her nose while Mitch’s tongue delved deeper into her mouth.
To Mitch’s surprise, they did actually make it to Melissa’s bedroom before anything truly started to happen, and he set her back down as he fumbled with the door knob for a moment before opening the door.
He backed her towards the bed and pulled her shirt over her head as the back of her knees met the edge of her mattress and she came to a halt. Reluctantly, she pulled her hands away from where they were wandering -- his chest and abs -- to instead help him pull the garment off, and to unclip her bra, letting it fall to the edge of the mattress where it then slid down to the floor.
Mitch’s hands trailed down her sides until they came to the waistband of her pants, and he slid the tips of his fingers beneath it as he dragged his hands towards the button, his fingers pulling along the fabric of her panties until he popped the button and tugged the zipper down.
One hand curled around her hip, the tips of some of his fingers still beneath her waistband, and his other hand dipped below the open fly of her pants, fingers sliding along the cloth of her panties until he was stroking her clit through the fabric. She shivered against him, her hands clenching against his arms.
“Have you ever…?” Mitch’s voice trailed off midway through the question, and Melissa shook her head tightly. His fingers slowed, until her grip against his arms tightened enough that her nails started digging at his skin.
“Keep going,” she commanded, and though her voice shook slightly, she sounded sure.
Slowly, Mitch nodded, he pressed his fingers more firmly against her clit and kept rubbing it, and Melissa sucked in a quiet breath, letting her head dip forward to rest her forehead against his chest. Mitch kept rubbing, his other hand absentmindedly stroking the skin of her hip in small, idle circles, until her panties were damp, and finally he pushed them aside, so he could stroke her properly.
She heaved a slow, shuddering sigh as he dragged his fingers along her vulva, already hot and damp and ready. But if this was her first time, then Mitch wasn’t going to rush it. She deserved for her first time to be incredible, and he fully intended to make it so.
He rubbed his thumb in slow, steady circles against her clit and pressed his middle finger to her entrance. He massaged around it at first, finger moving in slow circles, and with his other hand he began trying to fidget her pants down her hips, until she pulled her hands away from his arms. They shook only slightly as she shimmied her pants down her thighs just enough to give him room to properly work.
He coaxed her into spreading her legs as wide as she should with her pants still around her thighs. Finally, he sank his middle finger into the velvet heat of her sex, and she gasped, her hands once again clutching at his arms.
“Alright?” he asked, voice low, and he didn’t move until she nodded. And finally, he began thrusting his finger into her.
Melissa clung to him, her grip on his arms tight and her face hidden against his chest as she panted and moaned and whined with each motion of his hand, utterly unashamed of the sounds she was making. Mitch waited until her breath was hitching before he slid a second finger into her, and his other hand slid from her hip up her side and to her chest. He grinned at the little gasp that escaped as he pinched one of her nipples between two fingers and twisted slightly. He gave it a squeeze and a tug and a firmer pinch, and he pressed a third finger into her as she was distracted.
She moaned, long and low and wanton, as he finally began to pick up the pace. Her legs began to shake as he thrust his fingers fast, and with each thrust inward, she had to rise onto her toes slightly, until finally he urged her back onto the bed. Her legs hung over the side, and he put a knee on the mattress, leaning over her as he thrust his fingers into her over and over, until her fingers clenched in the bedding and her toes curled against the rug. Her back arched, her stomach went taut, and her sex clenched around his fingers as she came with a long, whimpering moan.
It seemed like a short eternity before she went slack again, her chest heaving as she slumped back down onto the bed. She was coated with a thin layer of sweat, and her hair was sticking to her face and neck. When Mitch leaned down and kissed her, she was slow and sluggish to
respond, and he could feel her trembling with overstimulation as he kept working his fingers into her.
He had determined he was going to make her first time good, after all.
Slowly, he pulled his fingers out and pulled his hand out of her panties. He kissed her again
before he began trailing kisses along her jaw and neck, making his way to her chest with lips and teeth and tongue, until finally his lips closed around one pale, pink nipple. He flicked the tip of his tongue over, circled his tongue around it, and with the lightest pressure of his teeth he gave
it a tug, and she moaned gently beneath him. As he pulled away, she sighed out a quiet protest,
only to moan again as he gave the same attention to her other nipple.
Slowly, he leaned back, and he curled his hands around her hips to pull her farther onto the bed. He pulled her shoes off, followed by her pants and her panties, and he sighed in relief as he
unbuttoned his pants. He shoved his jeans and his boxer briefs down his thighs, his erection springing free, and once he got them to his knees, he kicked off his shoes and let his pants drop to the floor, stepping out of them.
Melissa was propping herself up on her elbows as Mitch knelt on the mattress and shuffled closer to her. As he settled between her legs, he urged her to sit up with his hands on her hips, until she was straddling his thighs.
She was so small compared to him. It took almost no effort for him to lift her off of his lap, his hands cupping her ass. He paused for a moment once her entrance was hovering over the head of his cock, and Melissa sucked in a breath as he began to lower her. The head of his cock breached her, and he had to stop, both to let her adjust to the feeling and so he could adjust as well. She was so tight it almost seemed impossible.
Her hands clenched against his shoulders, and slowly he began to lower her. It seemed to take forever before she was once more seated on his lap, and he was fully sheathed within her, her damp heat hugging every centimeter of his cock. She trembled slightly on his lap, but when he asked, “Everything good?” she nodded slowly.
His grip beneath her ass tightened, and he began to lift her off his lap. He sighed, slow and unsteady, at the drag of her passage along his cock. He only stopped lifting her when just the head of his cock was still sheathed. He paused for a second before he began lowering her again, just as slowly as the first time. She breathed out a sigh that almost sounded as if it was being punched out of her lungs, and her grip against his neck tightened.
Slow and steady, he lifted her off his lap and lowered her back onto his cock three more times with Melissa whimpering and moaning all the while, before she managed in a voice that slurred with pleasure, “You can go faster.”
He sped up only slightly at first, until she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and pressed her body flush to his, urging, “Faster,” once again.
That time, Mitch got the point. He lifted her off of his lap in one swift motion, and just as swiftly dragged her back down, and the moan that ripped itself from her throat was more of a sob, followed by a strangled, “Yes, yes.”
She didn’t talk anymore after that, unless the jumble of senseless syllables and half-formed words that spilled past her lips with each quick, pounding thrust as he bounced her on his lap counted as talking. With each drag downwards, he rose up onto his knees slightly as he pounded into her, and Melissa moaned and babbled senselessly in his ear all the while.
When she came a second time, it was not a gentle sort of pleasure. It surged through her more like a bolt of lightning, as her hold tightened, and her toes curled. Her passage tightened around Mitch’s cock and her back bowed, and Mitch kept thrusting all the while, drawing her orgasm out for as long as he could, and then longer still as he felt his own orgasm rapidly approaching.
Melissa was just beginning to twitch and shiver with overstimulation again, her muscles going lax as Mitch came. He managed a few more faltering thrusts before he finally slowed to a halt with Melissa on his lap, his softening cock still sheathed within her. She rested quietly against his shoulder, mumbling something too softly for him to catch it. Carefully, he lifted her off of his lap and laid her down, but she was asleep before he had the chance to ask her what she said.
Rolling his eyes fondly, Mitch pulled her glasses from the bridge of her nose and set them on the nightstand before he lay down beside her and pulled the blanket over them both. It wasn’t long before he was asleep as well.