Sell you a Bridge chapter 70

Shadowcrest August 2nd 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  expected her to be angry at me for hiding things. Or hurt or something,  but Zee being Zee skipped all of that and moved onto geeking out. She  was fascinated by my power, pacing and babbling about the details and  how it might function and just generally being her amazing self.   Admittedly with her new race features it was even more distracting than  normal. Aside from being more toned her body wasn't actually different,  but the way she carried herself was.

Watching  her was mesmerizing, the grace and beauty and the way it made her ass  stand out. Admittedly that last one had been on my mind before the  transformation, my girlfriends dumptruck booty was a favorite viewing  pleasure of mine, but somehow it was on a whole other level now. She  snapped her finger in front of my face "Morgan! Focus! Sweetie it's very  flattering how much you like my butt, but now is not the time! I have  so many questions. How do your points work? How does your power know  what is and isn't spam? Why spam?"

She  was gleeful to the point of mania, and I vaguely predicted I might come  to regret telling my girlfriend my secret for a whole other reason than  betrayal. I was genuinely worried she might hound me to death with  questions. I reached out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her into my lap.  She squeaked and landed on me. "Ok, you're making me dizzy babe. Calm  down. I told you I'd tell you what was going on and I'm perfectly  willing to answer questions, though I might have less answers than you  would like."

This  close I was thunderstruck by her beauty. She had her new illusion  necklace off since it was just us, and it was all I could do not to get  lost in her eyes. I'd have blamed to ritual but honestly I found her  beautiful to the point of distraction even before she took a level in  sexy. She giggled a bit and took a deep breath. "Sorry. You're right."  She wiggled in my lap, getting comfortable and leaning against me.  Despite the physical changes her hair still smelled of lavender and  chamomile. I loved that smell. "Ok, now, those three questions please,  in order."

I  laughed and kissed the top of her head, putting my arms around her.  "Fair enough. Firstly the points seem to be some kind of universal  power. They work for anything I want to use them for. Because of that  I'm able to level in the dungeon which I can use to expand my point  total. For you guys that's the magic stat. Yours is fucking insane now.  You're at fifty which is almost ten levels of dumping points purely into  magic. I suspect that being dungeon born elves so to speak you should  be able to level now too."

Her  eyes widened in excitement. "Wait really? That is so cool! I feel so  strong right now already, I can't imagine getting more powerful!" She  pulled my into a quick kiss. "This is so exciting! We can get stronger  together and go on adventures and...oh I'm so excited! Keep going  though, the points seem to be a native energy source, it's odd that it's  so versatile and convenient but that could be subconscious. What about  the other two questions? Why does your power only work on spam and how  does it know?"

I  shrugged. "That's what I meant when I said less answers than you might  like. I have no idea about either. My power almost seems to be alive, or  at least aware. Like it changes based on what I need at that moment.  It's not a consciously directed thing. I've been trying to envision a  life bar for weeks and it won't come up. I'd be willing to work with you  to try to figure some stuff out, but honestly with the Court and all  the nonsense with the Labyrinth it hasn't been a priority. Superpowers  are weird, I just kind of accept it as it is."

She  pouted at that, clearly unhappy with my lack of curiosity about the  nature of power and it's metaphysical origin, but finally she rolled her  eyes. "Well fine. I think it's weird not to be curious but I guess you  do have bigger fish to fry." She frowned for a minute then her eyes lit  up. "Oh! Daddy has his month League meeting on the eighteenth, we can go  to Salem and visit my Uncle Kent! I'm his favorite so he won't tell  daddy about us coming to see him and I bet he could help you learn  something about your powers."

Honestly  that sounded worrying, but out of my mask I wasn't wanted for anything  so it should be safe enough, and we could bring Artemis and Reggie as  backup. I said as much and Zatanna just smiled. "Of course! I want to  introduce Uncle Kent to my new sister. He's known me since I was a  little girl and he's taught me a ton about magic. I bet he'll be  fascinated by use being Heaven Punishing Elves now." She held up a hand  as I opened my mouth "And yes, I remember we're supposed to tell him it  was done by a shrine in the dungeon."

There  wasn't a shrine that did that obviously, but since the dungeon was  instanced no one could prove that. Things changed from person to person.  In the end I shrugged. "Alright fine, we can do that." Of course  assurances or no I was packing my Holiday pistol and I needed to make  sure I got my new power before we left. I'd hit level five killing The  Butcher and had dumped the resulting stats into my points bringing me up  to twenty five a day (ten at noon fifteen at midnight) so I could  afford it within two weeks for sure.

Zee  squealed with happiness, cuddling against me and I smiled softly. The  idea of introducing me to her Uncle was clearly important to her. My  aura sight told me as much. I think because her dad was such a hard ass  all the time she kind of thought of this as a trial run of meeting the  parents. Speaking of which. "I actually wanted to talk to you about  something else." My face flushed a bit. "My mom is going to be coming  back to town from her cruise in the next few days. I was hoping you  might...want to meet her."

She  looked up at me wide eyed and I flinched, backtracking. "I mean if you  want. No pressure or anything, you're just really special to me and I  wanted her to get to know you because you're both important to me. But  if it makes you feel weird meeting my mom this soon, I totally get that  and I won't bring it up again. I just know she would love you and-" My  babbling was cut off with a soft kiss, which she held until I stopped  trying to talk. She pulled back from me hands on my face, her electric  blue eyes boring into mine.

Her  aura looked...intense. Like this was a huge deal and she wanted to get  this right. Her face was serious. "I would love to meet your mom. Maybe  we could have dinner together. I have to wait until the next time daddy  leaves so it might be a bit last minute." Her face flushed and she  leaned up to kiss me again. "I've never met a boy's mom before. I mean  obviously you're my first boyfriend. It's just exciting. You talk about  yours all the time and you love her so much. I hope she likes me." She  smiled sadly. "I think my mom would have liked you."

Zee  didn't talk about her mom much. I pulled her tighter against me. "Tell  me about her. I haven't heard much but I know she was important to you.  She must have been quite a lady to have raised a daughter as amazing as  you." It was one of the reasons I couldn't really hate Zee's dad despite  everything he'd inadvertently done to her by keeping her so isolated.  What he and Zee had lost...I'd felt a flash of that watching Annabel  die, but it was nothing compared to losing your wife of decades to  cancer while you sat by and watched.

She  smiled sadly. "She was amazing. Daddy was inspired by Superman to take  up the hero game when I was real little. He was out so much of the time,  but mom was always there with me. She was my whole world. She taught me  how to read and write and taught me magic, she was Homo Magi like daddy  and I though she was kind of retired. She would take me to the zoo and  the aquarium and on adventures to other countries to see amazing things.  Just field trips we took together so I could learn and see what life  had to offer."

Her  voice was hoarse talking about it, but I didn't interrupt. Sometimes  you just needed to cry it out, to prick the wound and let it drain when  it got uncomfortable. She stared out her bedroom window, the moonlight  shining across her milk pale skin, making her look every bit the elf she  was now. Otherworldy and perfect. "Every day was a new adventure. Every  day was a fun experience. Mom wanted me to have the childhood she never  did, and dedicated her whole life to making sure I got to really live.  She did everything for me."

I  stroked her hair and when I saw she was pausing I prompted her a bit.  "You said the childhood she didn't have, did your mom grow up in a bad  area?" Zee's eyes were shining and I knew she was going to cry soon. It  felt like a knife in my chest seeing her so upset but I knew she needed  this.  I couldn't imagine losing my mom, and I could tell from how Zee  was talking that Sindella had basically raised her on her own. She'd  been every bit as important to her daughter as my mom was to me.

She  took a deep shuddering breath. "Mom grew up in a sort of magical  commune. A cult almost. They live in this secret city in Turkey. One day  she got out and was exploring nearby and she ran into daddy fighting  one of his old enemies. He saved her and she fell for him right there.  They ran away together and had me and never looked back." Tears had  started to fall from her eyes. "I used to ask her if she regretted  giving up all the magic and wonder for a simple life with me and daddy,  but she just said that we were more magical to her than an entire city  of Magi could ever be."

Her  tears were falling freely, but quietly. Not interrupting as she talked.  She gave me a fierce look. "That's what you did for me Morgan. You came  into my world and you rescued me, just like daddy did for mom. I always  had sorcery around but you made things magical. After mom died daddy  became so afraid, so paralyzed, that he didn't even see he was  suffocating me. Hell even I didn't see it."Her voice was sad but  resolute. "Don't get me wrong I love daddy and I know he does his best,  but I never realize how confining this house was until I met you."

She put a hand to my cheek. "You put your lips to mine and suddenly I  could breathe." She pulled back with a laugh, wiping her eyes. "Listen  to me I sound crazy. I'm surprised you aren't already bolting for the  door. But I just want you to know that you made the right choice to  trust me. I love magic more than anything Morgan. And you're the one who  brought the magic back to my life." I didn't know what to say to that.  How to respond to that level of trust or intimacy, so I just held her  tight. Apparently that was the right response, because her smile took my  breath away. I wondered if this was what being in love felt like.