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“What did she look like?” Nadia asked.

“Not what I expected. Nothing I’d call demonic. Long fingernails, with blood on her hands. No eyes. Just empty bloody sockets. She looked like she clawed up her face and tore out her own eyeballs. I’m also pretty sure demons don’t wear stained satin nightgowns.”

Nadia leaned back in her seat. “No, that doesn’t sound like the Bloodmaiden at all. It sounds more like…what is that game…” She pulled her phone out and poked at it. “Yeah, here. Bloody Mary, or Bloody Bones. ‘A spectral vision of a skeletal, eyeless woman drenched in blood. Children often attempt to frighten one another by pretending to summon her during sleepovers’.” She lowered the phone. “That makes no sense. If it was the Blood maiden, she would have appeared as a Dark Elven woman who looks like she just got out of a bathtub full of blood. She has a major Erzsebet Bathory thing going on.”

“Access,” Rose said. “Crom is using books and movies to gain access to his world. She assimilated the Bloody Mary legend and used all the energy raised by kids telling each other ghost stories.”

“Could be.” Nadia thought for a moment. “Something still isn’t right. Once she has the ability to manifest on Earth, she’d appear as herself, just the way Crom did when David saw him.”

“She might not have that ability yet,” I said. Then the light bulb went on. “That’s why we can’t attack her until after seven tonight! Whatever is involved with her forming an avatar on Earth won’t be finished until then. Once she has physical form, the spear can kill her.”

Rose checked the map on her phone and shook her head. “Allowing half an hour for rest stops, we’ll still be a little early. We might have to find a quiet spot to wait until after seven, and then go in full-throttle.”

Nadia said, “We could stash the car someplace safe, teleport to my parents’ suite, and use Mother’s crystal ball to locate the Bloodmaiden. Once we know where she is, we grab my folks and a few dozen Houseguard, teleport in, and you backstab the bitch. How’s that for a plan?”

“Works for me,” I said. “Let’s go with that, unless someone has a better idea.”

Nobody did.

Erica sighed. “Now that we have a plan, I’d appreciate a chance to get some different clothes.” She looked at Nadia. “And, I’m not really a good choice for a partner. I’m sure you could do better.”

Rose rummaged through her dimensional closet, pulling out a handful of clothes and passing them to Erica. “These are pretty loose on me, so they should fit, but…smoke and ash, you have huge shoulders.” Her brows furrowed. “Is that body actually female?”

I heard Erica tear through the leather strips she was wearing and kept my eyes on the road. As an afterthought, I also angled the rear-view mirror to up so all I could see was the canopy.

Erica sighed again as she slipped a shirt on. “Yes, it’s female. I don’t plan on nursing a child while I’m here, so I see no purpose in over-glorifying its mammary glands.” She stopped and did a quick comparison between herself and Nadia. “Or was there something I missed? Am I required to have long hair? Please say I’m not. This length for this ethnicity appeared to have the easiest maintenance routine.”

“No, your hair can be any length,” Nadia said. “And it’s normal for muscular, athletic women to have smaller breasts. Your body looks fine. Now, you and Rose obviously know each other. I’m assuming you grew up together. I want to know what the problem between you and Rose is. I’m not going to dance back and forth dodging land mines having both of you in my life. So who wants to start?”

“I will,” Erica said. “We grew up together. Our mothers are both mystical academics…they worked together. We were friends, until we got older and I started asking questions no one wanted to answer. I was tarnishing Rose’s reputation, so I retreated into my studies to save her embarrassment.”

“You were never an embarrassment. You’re an excellent evoker. I’ve never met anyone with your command of battle magic.” Rose had her arms tight around her chest, staring straight ahead.

“I was an embarrassment. We were supposed to come to Earth together. I…I postponed taking the class. I devoted my time to academics, studying evocation with far-flung teachers and hoping the world would forget about me. I was just beginning to gain recognition for my knowledge of battle-magic when my parents brought me back and insisted I begin studying to come here.” Erica looked down at her lap, picking at a hole in the pants leg.

Rose said, “Committing to the class involves applying the first round of spells making up the acceptance. Once you start with them, you have to have each additional sequence applied in the right order and at the right time or your body loses regulation of your energy consumption. It’s a terrible way to die.”

“Why didn’t you want to come here?” Nadia asked.

Erica bit her lip. “I hate being told what to do. I’m not an idiot, I know what our population issues are, but the idea of being forced to mate disgusts me. Drakes…I’ve never met one I could stand to be around. I don’t want to be around them, and I certainly don’t want to have to interact with one in order to raise children. I’d rather…I’d rather not be here.”

Rose said, “Please, just tell them.” She kept her gaze fixed out the front window, clinching her arms tight to her chest.

“I said I was sorry, but I’ll say it again—I regret my words, and I beg your forgiveness.” Erica paused, but Rose didn’t reply. Erica looked down and shook her head. “Very well. After Rose…lost her fertility, my family thought it would do both of us good to see one another. They thought her distress would open my eyes to the value of what I was rejecting. All I saw was a friend in pain, and I said the first thing that came to mind. I told Rose I wished I’d known she’d needed to kill a Unicorn, because I would have volunteered to do it. It would have been my liberation.”

Nadia winced. “Oh, ouch. I can see how that could hurt you, Rose. But Erica did apologize, and I’m sure she never intended to hurt you. She was trying to comfort you, and she said the wrong thing. Please forgive her. Honestly extend her forgiveness.”

“I know she did,” Rose said. “I want to…I do…accept your apology. I forgive you.” She turned around and took Erica’s hand. “It wasn’t what you said. I mean, yes, at first it was. Later…I was angry because I needed you with me. I wanted to have my friend with me, helping me through this, and you couldn’t be there. If we’d gone through the class at the same time, we would have stayed together. You would have been by my side that day.”

“I would have come if you had called.”

“And you would have died. The ambient magic level here could not have maintained the acceptance sequence. It would have collapsed and you would have died. How could I ask that of you?”

“I still would have come!” Erica blinked tears out of her eyes. “Oh, what fresh hell is this? These slagged-out meatsacks leak under pressure?”

Rose started sobbing as well, despite the fact she was laughing at the same time. She got out of her seat and slithered into the back for several miles of crying, hugging, and making up for lost time. I did what all guys do in times like this: I handed out tissues and thought about the Empire.

Once the tears dried and the snuffling stopped, Nadia said, “If you two don’t mind, Erica and I have some talking to do, and I’m going to give us some privacy, okay?”

“Oh, fine. Have fun. Just make sure you can hear us if we start yelling,” Rose said. She climbed across the seat again and added, “Oh, if you want to try the sex, Nadia was an excellent instructor. Just be sure to clarify any terms you’re not familiar with.”

Nadia blushed. “And on that bombshell, goodnight…”She pulled Erica into a cuddle and filled the back seat with
Darkness
.

“You Humans may not have a lot going for you physically or magically,” Rose said, “But recreational sex is a magnificent invention. Your people did a great job with that one.”

I pulled her close to me, and kissed the top of her head so I could keep my eye on the road. “Well, at least we’ll be remembered for something.”

Eric/Erica

An hour or so later, the
Darkness
in the back of the car dissipated. I glanced in the mirror while I tried to think of a suitably smart-ass comment, but that idea went right out the window. Erica was gone. The short-haired bodybuilder was now blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, Nordic, and most definitely…male. He looked happier than I’d seen the female Erica being. Clothes were still an issue. He was packed into the silk panties Rose had provided, and they were starting to split up the sides.

While I looked surprised, Rose looked horrified. She stared, open-mouthed and trembling, unable to bring herself to speak.

Nadia said, “Well, we talked, and I think we got everything worked out. We’re going to go ahead with the link, but Erica—Eric—needs some information to finish his new form.”

Rose said, “We can’t take male forms! The acceptance is based on female biology. You can’t change that!”

Eric took Rose’s hand and gave her several
there-there
pats. “I’ll be fine, really. When I realized I couldn’t get out of coming here, I started studying the acceptance ritual. I was approved to apply it fifty years ago, and I’ve worked with your mother to repair several applications. All I had to do was re-anchor the energy flow to the kidneys instead of the egg repositories. The energy transfer will occur normally. I’ll just have magnificently clean blood and piss like a tundra mammoth.” She, er, he, turned his attention to me. “David, I need an imprint of your physiology.”

That didn’t sound scary at all… “What does that involve?”

“I need to touch you for a few minutes to learn the pattern of your flesh. I just need your hand or shoulder.”

Nadia said, “I can take over driving for a few minutes. The map says we have about fifteen miles to Tuba City, so this would be a good time to swap.”

I didn’t have a good argument, so I pulled over and got in the back seat. Thankfully, land barges from this era were designed with huge back seats. Eric put one hand on the back of my neck and one on my wrist. He closed his eyes, and just stayed that way for several minutes.

His Adam’s apple appeared first. He tried his new voice several times, tweaking the results until he was satisfied. With that out of the way, his chest, shoulders, and hips rearranged themselves. He added some muscle bulk and body hair, topped off by a light dusting of stubble on his face.

When Eric opened his eyes, they were a pale sky-blue. He blinked at me twice, changing the color to more of a royal blue. “Is this coloration acceptable?”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Nice aesthetics.”

Then he pulled off the panties. “These genitals are unruly. Are they supposed to do that?”

Oh, Goddess. He’d found the Package Slider.

I looked out the window, hoping to spot a jackrabbit or something. Rose looked over her shoulder and coughed. “Oh, myyy... Um, Nadia, you might want to register an opinion here.”

Nadia snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. She pulled off the road and had a look over the seat, biting her lip to keep from laughing. The laughter stopped and her eyes bulged out. “Holy shit…Dude, that’s just…” She took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice as calm as possible. “Eric, you’re exceeding that body’s design parameters. Just…could you stick with mirroring David’s attributes, please?”

“Of course.” Eric set himself back to default. “Are these dimensions adequate?”

Oh, look—a broken beer bottle, out in the dirt on the other side of the road. I started counting the pieces I could see.

Nadia laughed again. “That will be just fine, thank you. Rose, do you have any clothes at all that might fit him?”

It took Rose a few minutes, but she was able to locate a pair of sweatpants and a belt. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. I took the wheel and got us rolling again. Nadia pronounced Eric suitably male and agreed to the acceptance. As she did, I took Rose’s hand and relaxed, allowing the acceptance to bring our minds and emotions back into harmony. We stayed like that until the Tuba City exit. Thankfully, the nearest gas station was clean and modern. Equally thankfully, Eric didn’t require instruction in using the men’s room.

Nadia spotted a clothing donation bin in the back of the gas station’s parking lot. She picked the padlock on the door and we took a functional set of men’s clothes and a pair of athletic shoes. Armed with drinks, snacks, and a brand new, fully-dressed, low-mileage Norwegian, we got back on the road.

After some discussion, we decided to route through Flagstaff. It was a slightly longer trip, and I hoped anyone planning an ambush for us would be staking out the shorter, more northern route.

When we hit Flagstaff, I cruised past the gas stations right off the highway and drove until I spotted one adjacent to a grocery store in a corner strip mall. We made it through filling up the car and hitting the rest rooms without a crisis, so we decided to risk a sit-down meal at a small Native American restaurant. I went for a buffalo taco, piled high on fry bread stretched and cooked just for me by two grandmothers who laughed and pointed at Rose and Nadia’s hair while chattering away in Navajo. Then laughed harder when Rose thanked them for the food, also in Navajo.

While we ate, I asked Rose, “How many Earth languages do you speak?”

She shrugged. “Twenty-eight living languages, plus Etruscan, ancient Egyptian, classic Latin and Aramaic. Mother normally only teaches ten, but she has friends.”

Eric said, “I was planning on disappearing into sub-Saharan Africa. I focused on Nigerian, French, and Afrikaans.” He laughed. “I didn’t find out until last week that ‘blood diamonds’ weren’t an actual type of gemstone. I changed my plans and decided to go back to Fair Banking and settle in at one of the counting houses there. At least until I decided what to do with myself.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Fair Banking? Do you mean Fairbanks? In Alaska?”

“Yes. Fairbanks. That’s where I am from, officially. It seemed a good location for staying fed.” He paused and licked meat juices off his fingers. “But, this boofallo, I could get used to eating. Where do they roam?”