Stronger Together chapter 202

I owned a jet now. Not like a tiny one or two passenger thing either.  My jet was huge. It had a bed, and a shower, and more than one floor.  Mina had not been bullshitting about it being able to handle everyone.  So, since it could handle everyone, it did. We brought the whole crew  with us to go look at my castle in Romania. I had a castle in Romania. I  had a castle. That was such a weird thought.

I'd gotten  used to having money since I got here. Buying a house, or a car, or  owning some gems and gold or expensive art was one thing. But now I had a  fucking castle. Castle and jet money was way beyond the few million I'd  had in the bank, and that wasn't even counting the actual money that  came with the stuff. I was in bed currently, with Raven and Cinder and  Barb. In my bed on my jet. I couldn't get over that. It was a damn comfy  bed too.

The girls of course were all cool as cucumbers.  Raven never freaked out, Cinder was used to much higher tech luxuries,  and Barb's first boyfriend had been the heir to a billion dollar  fortune. Plus she'd been around Wonder Woman who had an invisible plane.  Of all the girls only Andi seemed impressed by my new flying  accommodations which was at least enough for me not to feel like a  bumpkin. The other girls had all spread out through the plane taking in  all the rooms and the luxuries.

We in the meantime were  doing the obligatory teasing of our redhead. Barb was laying between us  with her head in the pillows moaning in exasperation as I caught Rae and  Cinder up on her little meet cute. "So Sigrun goes 'I'd be happy to  take the lovely Miss Gordon off your hands for a while' and Barb  basically melts. Honestly I'm not surprised. Barb likes to dom with you  guys but she usually plays sub for me. And Gard has some serious mommy  vibes, with maybe a bit of sexy librarian thrown in. I always knew Barb  secretly wanted to ride bitch."

Raven snorted at that and  Cinder burst into giggles. My goth took pity on Barb though "Ignore him  Barb, it's very nice that woman you're attracted to is interested in  you. We never talked about being exclusive, I don't mind sharing  obviously, and Cameron is a chauvinist pig who doesn't count sex with  women." I furrowed my brow and she hushed me. "You know it's true. You  think it's hot so you don't care as long as she tells you about it. Hell  I'm surprised you didn't ask to watch." She turned back to Barb. "As  long as Cinder doesn't mind it's fine, so tell us how your night went."

I  narrowed my eyes at her vicious and totally accurate accusation. Cinder  patted Barb on the back and reassured her she was fine with her having  sex with other women as long she told us about it beforehand, and Barb  finally rolled over, pouting sulkily. She glared at me. "I listened to  you and didn't do anything under the clothes." She blushed bright red.  "We just danced, she kissed me a little. And she put her hands...on me."  She looked so shy when she said that I had to try hard not laugh. It  was just so cute seeing her shy.

Her expression got a  little dazed. "She let me touch her too. She has so much muscle but her  breasts are so soft." She shot Raven and embarrassed look. "Not as soft  as Ravens. They're actually smalled, but the muscle on her chest makes  them seem bigger, and it's just such a dissonance from all that tight  flesh. And her ass." She shuddered as she thought about it. "It's so  tight and toned but so round at the same time. She said she liked my  body too. She said I have the frame of a warrior. Her hands were so  gentle."

I was beginning to regret bringing this up,  because this was really turning me on. I admit Raven might have a point  with her chauvinist accusation. If another man had touched Barb I'd have  tried to kill him, but imagining tall, sexy Gard putting her hands all  over my girlfriend just kind of made me wish I got to be the meat in  that sandwich. I cleared my throat, reminding myself to ask her to tell  this story when we were somewhere with thicker walls and less prying  ears. "So how was Mina? After your dance you had her play majordomo  right?"

Barb blushed and cleared her throat. "Oh, yeah.  She was fine. She was vibing Dalton most of the night weirdly. They had a  bit of a back and forth thing going. Brynn was not pleased, but she  refuses to lock him down because she says he's too flaky so it's her own  fault. They're not even in an open relationship or anything, she just  wont let him get close to her because she thinks it would be doomed.  Apparently her family was pretty Catholic. She doesn't hold out  situation against us but she's not comfy with sharing."

I  gave her a flat look and she laughed. "Right, of course you don't care  about the gossip you workaholic. Short answer is she's great. She knows  her stuff, she's polite to her superiors but aggressive in negotiations  when she needs to be and ahe anticipates perfectly. Whatever Drakul had  her doing he trained her well. I get the feeling they were sleeping  together but she mostly didn't care about it. Like if you decided to  fuck her she would let you but she isn't interested in you and she had  the same situation with him. Obviously you wouldn't do that and I  honestly think she appreciates that."

I winced. I was  pretty sexually open but the idea of banging my brainwashed vampire  secretary when she didn't want me too was...gross. Even if she didn't  care either way it gave me bad vibes. "Yeah no. I wouldn't push someone  into bed if she wasn't interested just because I knew she'd put up with  it. I'm really glad Drakul is dead now. What an asshole. Anyway I wish  her luck with Dalton. I have to admit I'm surprised he's her type. I'd  have pegged her for the upper crust urbane vibe. Dalton is a good  looking dude but he's more Han Solo than Lord Worthington."

Raven  chuckled at that. "Mina is actually a bit more of a wild child than she  lets on. She finds Dalton fascinating. From what I can pick up she just  has a serious case of uptown girl. Wants to walk on the wrong side of  the tracks and all that. Drakul made her act with decorum all the time  and now that daddy is gone she wants to let her hair down. She was being  so obvious in the car to feel out your reaction, once she got your  tacit approval she started putting her plan in motion. Dalton isn't  exactly a bastion of self control, I doubt he's going to last long."

God  it was useful dating an empath. I would have literally never figured  any of this out. I just shook my head. "I have three girlfriends but  women are still a complete mystery to me. Anyway I assume you felt her  out about the whole Romania thing? It would be nice to know what we're  walking into. I'd ask her directly but I'm not entirely sure I trust her  yet. I have faith in your ability to gather information though so did  you get anything out of her?" Barb was a master of deduction if anyone  could pry secrets from Mina it would be her.

She burst out  laughing and leaned up to peck me on the cheek. "You've gotten way too  paranoid. After winning her in that duel Mina considers you her master.  Combined with our relationship and a serious need for friends that girl  didn't stop talking all night. Seriously she is massively under  socialized. I think Drakul kept her in his damn castle almost year round  handling his estate and stuff. She's so happy to be out and about and  she really wanted to bond. It was honestly kind of cute in a little  sister kind of way."

I smiled when Raven gave a firm nod,  echoing the sentiment. "Ok fair enough. I'll try to be less suspicious.  In the meantime what can we expect from castle Drakul? Ghosts in the  hallways? Mummies in the basement? Scantily clad Romanian farm girls as  maids with obvious bite marks all over their heaving bosoms." I paused  for a second. "That last one might be a bit unrealistic, I might be  mixing up the Dracula movies I've seen with porn. Still there has to be  some spooky stuff around, even if it's just more Black Court vamps or  Darklings."

She chuckled a bit at  that. "The other Darklings are mostly out and about but one or two does  live at the castle. Benjamin the chamberlain and Louise the maid. Mina  seems to be pretty relaxed about seeing them so I doubt they'll be any  trouble. Other than that I don't think there are any supernaturals  around. At least not ones I heard about. Regardless it'll be interesting  to take in the local color. The castle is outside Sibiu. It's a resort  town now, but still mostly has the charm of an older village, plus it's  legendarily name checked in Dracula, if obliquely."

At  my confused expression she grinned. "Sibiu is known as the site of the  Scholomance in Romanian legend. Dracula was supposed to have studied  there. It's a school of black magic under a lake run by the devil  himself. Presumably the whole Dracula attending rumor cropped up because  of his father's castle being in such close proximity to where it's  rumored to be. I'm torn on whether we should visit though, with our luck  it'll turn out to be legit and we don't need any of that nonsense in  our lives. We have enough to deal with."

I  winced at that, she wasn't wrong. Tracking down cool off beat legends  and creepy mystery places lost some of the appeal when creepy mysteries  were a thing you ran into daily. Hell I was betting even back in her  universe Barb would have wanted to go, but in the Dresden Files I could  totally see the actual devil running a school under a lake in Romania. I  made a mental not to stay the fuck away from any bodies of water during  my visit, though I was actually interested in checking out this resort  town.

We  spent the next two hours or so talking about Romania. Barb, being a huge  nerd, had done a ton of research on the place before we left, and had  plenty to tell us about it. I smiled at her enthusiasm and it was  honestly infectious. I loved hearing about the details of the region and  the history and the local customs. She'd clearly gone all out to gather  information on the place and I was sure it was going to come in handy.  Raven and Cinder also seemed to get a kick out of it and we all just  cuddled up for the flight talking about our destination.

Finally  after hours of talking and an admittedly not inconsiderable amount of  nap time we got a message over the intercom from the captain that we  were preparing an approach. Despite all the old world charm of Romania  Drakul had owned a jet and as such had been smart enough to have a  landing strip put in on his property so we would be flying in directly.  As the plane touched down and we stood to join the others before  disembarking I braced myself. It was time to meet my new subjects,  hopefully they didn't try to eat me.