Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 21:39:40 -0800 (PST)
From: James Hogue <solibol@yahoo.com>
Subject: Vinculum Chapter One

Vinculum
By James Hogue


Prologue


Shaolin Temple of the Red Dragon
Irving, Texas


The incense hung like a thick cloud in the air, and its sweet odor
permeated every inch of the room.  Master Ming Wei sat on the floor, his
eyes closed in deep meditation.  In his contemplative state he saw the
object that had been entrusted to him when he became master of the Shaolin
Temple of the Red Dragon.  The masters of this temple had guarded the
object for almost five hundred years.  Next to the object stood a beautiful
woman who was engulfed in incandescent light.

The woman smiled at him and said, "It is time."

Suddenly his eyes opened, and he quickly got to his feet.  Walking over to
a cabinet, he opened it, unlocked the safe hidden within, and removed a
medium-sized jade box which he then placed on his desk.

He considered the enormity of what he was about to do.  In all the time
that this box had been under the custodianship of this temple, no one had
ever opened it.  Not even when China had fallen to the Communists in the
nineteen-fifties and the priests of his order had immigrated to the United
States had this box ever been opened.  According to the tradition that had
been handed down to him by his master, the box was not to be opened until
the right time was made known.  Apparently, the right time was now.

With reverence, he opened the box and looked at its contents.  Nestled
inside was an ancient scroll, yellowed with age.  He removed the scroll
from the box, carefully unrolled it, and then inspected what was written
upon it.  The words were printed in Mandarin script, and they seemed almost
alive, leaping out from the scroll, enticing him to read them.  Taking a
deep breath, he began to read aloud:

 "At the beginning of the third millennium of the foreign chronicle, the
darkness within the darkness will begin to engulf the light.  In this
season a Mystical Warrior Dragon will meet a Neophyte Healer Rooster.  This
encounter will provide a propitious opportunity for the forces of light.
If the Mystical Warrior Dragon and the Neophyte Healer Rooster join
together, becoming one, then the resulting Vinculum will shine forth as a
beacon of light.  This light shall bring illumination to the darkness
within the darkness and shall cause its profusion to diminish.  If the
Mystical Warrior Dragon and the Neophyte Healer Rooster fail to bond in
love, then the darkness within the darkness will prevail, and all of
mankind will suffer."

After re-rolling the scroll and placing it back inside the jade box, he sat
down at his desk and considered the prophecy that he just read.  If the
prophecy was authentic--and he believed it was--it was imperative the right
people were made aware of it.  Grabbing pen and paper, he quickly
translated the prophecy into English, and placed the translation inside the
box with the original text.  On another piece of paper he wrote a message,
placed it in an envelope, sealed it, and then called out for one of his
attendants to come into the room.

"Yes, Master.  How may I be of service?"  The attendant bowed to Ming Wei.

"Take this box to the address written on the envelope immediately.  When
you arrive, ask for the Prime Guardian. Give it to her and no one else.  Do
you understand?"

"Yes, Master.  I understand.  Your instructions will be carried out."  The
attendant bowed, and then retreated from the room.



Chapter One


St. Michael's Medical Center Dallas, Texas


The trauma room exploded in fire and flying debris.  Dr. Todd Warren,
without a thought to his own personal safety, threw himself protectively
over the trauma victim he was treating to shield her from further injury.

He couldn't believe any of this was happening.  It was all so surreal.  An
hour and a half ago he'd been looking forward to getting away from the
hospital.  It was eleven p.m., and there was only an hour left to go in his
thirty-six hour shift.  He had intended to go home and get some much needed
rest, but things in an emergency room seldom go as planned.

Being an attending trauma surgeon in the Emergency Department of
St. Michael's Medical Center, he was used to the unexpected.  But what was
happening now was more than unexpected.  It was unreal.

Before being called back to duty, he'd been in the E.R. staff lounge
attempting to pass the time left in his shift by reading a medical journal,
but he couldn't concentrate on the text.  He wasn't able to stop thinking
about the bizarre things that he'd been experiencing lately.

It all started about a week ago when he was paged to the E.R. to surgically
evaluate a man who had been involved in a car accident.  As soon as he
walked into the trauma room and saw the patient he knew that the man had an
aortic laceration, despite the fact that he had yet to physically examine
him.  He didn't know how he knew this, he just did.  His snap diagnosis was
confirmed by an ultrasound.

At first he shrugged the incident off as just an accurate educated guess,
but what happened the next day convinced him that it was something more
than that.  A woman from the housekeeping department brushed past him to
empty a garbage can.  The moment she touched him he knew with a certainty
he couldn't begin to comprehend that she had a condition referred to as a
Triple A, an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and she needed immediate surgery.
He talked her into allowing him to run some tests, and his diagnosis was
proven correct.

These two incidents disturbed him greatly, because he had always thought of
himself as a logical and rational man.  He'd been taught that the only
things that were real were those that could be verified by using the five
senses.  If you couldn't see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or touch it,
then it wasn't part of the fabric of reality.

To top everything off he had also been extremely restless of late.  He
didn't know what it was, but he'd been experiencing a deep longing for
. . . something . . . no, that wasn't quite right.  It was more like
someone, not something.  All he knew was that he felt as if a part of
himself was missing, and that somewhere out there was someone who could
complete him.  Todd was shaken out of his reverie when the door to the
lounge opened and in walked his best friend, Andrew Reeves.

Andrew, an emergency nurse practitioner, looked at him, and then shook his
head.  "Typical doctor.  You think just because you have the initials
M.D. after your name you can lounge around with your thumb up your ass
reading, while the rest of us work our asses off.  Well, playtime is
officially over because we have a trauma coming in.  The paramedics are
about two minutes out.  All the other surgeons are occupied, and your
replacement won't be here for another forty-five minutes.  So tag, you're
it!" Andrew said as he touched him, smiled, and then playfully danced out
of reach.

Todd returned Andrew's smile as he got up from the chair where he'd been
sprawled out.  "Ha, ha.  You're a laugh riot. What type of trauma?" he
asked as he followed Andrew out of the lounge.

"All the information I have is that it's a penetrating abdominal injury of
some sort, and that it's apparently pretty bad.  The paramedics reported
that it was a scoop and run."

Todd mentally prepared himself by going over a checklist in his head for
the treatment of penetrating abdominal injuries.  The victim must be in
critical condition, because 'scoop and run' is a term used by paramedics to
describe a trauma so severe that they need to get the victim to a trauma
center as rapidly as possible, with any attempts to stabilize the victim
done en route.

When he and Andrew reached the receiving area the ambulance bay doors were
just swinging open.  At that moment he knew, though only God knows how,
that the victim's injury was an abdominal evisceration.  Two paramedics, a
man and a woman, pushed a gurney into the E.R. on which lay a severely
injured teenaged girl.  As he listened to the female paramedic's report, he
realized that his supernatural senses were once again correct.  "We have a
female victim approximately sixteen years of age with an eviscerated
abdominal wound.  She was unconscious at the scene.  Her intestines are
exposed, and there is an unidentified white viscous fluid in the wound.
We've covered the area with several ABD pads soaked in sterile water.
Vital Signs are: blood pressure 60/40, pulse is 120, and it's weak and
thready, respirations are 30 and labored.  She is on 100% oxygen, and we
started a large bore I.V. with lactated Ringer's solution."

Todd and Andrew motioned the paramedics to take the girl to a trauma room.
Todd, Andrew, and two nurses began the process of fully assessing and
attempting to stabilize the teenaged trauma victim.  When they removed the
ABD pads they saw that the paramedics had indeed been correct.  Her
intestines were definitely exposed, and there was a white, gelatinous
substance in the wound.

"What is that stuff?  I've never seen anything like it," Andrew stated as
he looked closely at the thick white matter covering the exposed
intestines.

Todd took a sterile swab and collected a sample.  "Neither have I.  I don't
know what that is, but perhaps the lab can tell us."

Looking over at the paramedics who were still in the room, he asked, "What
exactly happened to her?"

"We're not quite sure," the male paramedic responded.  "The witnesses at
the scene were kind of in a daze.  They were just a group of teenagers who
had been making out in their cars.  They reported that they heard a girl
screaming, and went to see what was going on.  When they arrived they saw
the girl being dragged away by a weird-looking creature.  They all started
yelling and throwing rocks at the creature, and it dropped the girl and ran
off.  When they saw how badly injured she was they called 911.  When we
arrived we found the girl in this condition.  There was a boy with her
about the same age, but we couldn't do anything for him.  His throat had
been slit, and he was already dead."

"What do you mean a weird-looking creature?"

"The teenagers said it looked like some sort of reptile man," the female
paramedic answered.

"A reptile man?" Todd asked shaking his head.  "They must have all been on
drugs."

"Do you think she's going to make it, Doc?" the male paramedic inquired.

"She's young and it appears that she is otherwise in good health.  Add that
to the fact that you were quick in bringing her here, and I think she's got
a good chance.  Her vitals are starting to stabilize, so we should be able
to get her to an operating room soon and repair the damage," Todd replied.

A few minutes after the paramedics left, the trauma room door opened and a
woman entered.  She looked at the injured girl and said, "Jenny, oh, my
God.  My poor baby, what's happened to you?"

"Are you her mother?" Todd asked briskly.

"Yes, I am.  Is she okay?  The police called and said that she had been
brought here.  They didn't tell me what was wrong."

At that moment the room was filled with the discordant klaxon of the fire
alarm, which was quickly joined by an intercom announcement.  "Code Red in
the E.R., Code Red in the E.R."

"Oh, shit.  This is all we need," Todd groused.  Looking over at the two
nurses who were assisting Andrew and him, he ordered, "Go help with the
evacuation of the other patients.  Andrew and I can handle this."

The victim's mother was looking rather panicked.  "What's going on?  Is
there a fire?  Oh, my God.  I need to get Jenny out of here before anything
else happens to her."

Todd turned to speak to the woman while Andrew continued to treat the
patient.  "Ma'am, calm down.  I'm Dr. Todd Warren, and this is Andrew
Reeves, an emergency nurse practitioner.  We're going to take good care of
your daughter," he calmly assured her.

"We'll do everything in our power to keep her safe.  I'm sure they have the
fire under control by now.  It's probably nothing.  More than likely, it's
just a fire in a wastepaper basket.  Right now it's more important that we
focus on your daughter.  She has been severely injured, and if we don't get
her to an operating room soon to repair the damage she is going to die."

"You're not going to take her anywhere," the woman hissed.  "She belongs to
me now.  She is going to be my new childe, so I'm taking her out of here."
With that, the woman began to change before Todd and Andrew's eyes.

A human woman no longer stood before them.  Instead, towering over them was
a reptile-like creature approximately eight foot tall.  It had a bipedal
humanoid appearance with two arms and two legs, but that was where its
similarity to a human being ended.  It had green, scaly skin, and its head
was shaped like that of a Komodo Dragon.  It had a large tail that extended
to the floor giving the illusion of having a third leg.  The nails on its
hands and feet were long, thick, curved, and razor sharp.

When the creature spoke its voice now had a sibilant quality to it.  "Give
the girl to me, or you'll regret it."

Todd took a deep shuddering breath and shakily drew himself up to his full
height.  "You can't have her.  She is my patient, and under my protection.
If you want her you'll have to come through me to get her."

The reptile-like creature let out a roar, looked at a row of cabinets
directly behind Todd, opened its mouth, and exhaled forcefully.  Fire
spewed from its maw, and the cabinets exploded in flames and flying debris.

It was at this point that Todd threw his body over the teenaged trauma
victim to shield her.  He braced himself for the impact of the flying
debris, but felt nothing.  Looking up he saw the debris hailing down
towards him, Andrew, and the girl, but before it reached them it seemed to
bounce away from them, as if an invisible barrier surrounded them.

What was going on?  First he was diagnosing his patients before he even
examined them, and now a walking, talking refugee from an old Japanese
horror flick was attacking him, his patient, and his best friend.  This
wasn't real.  It couldn't be. He had to be dreaming. When the creature
growled again he knew that this was really happening whether he wanted to
believe it or not.

This time the creature breathed the blast of fire directly at them.  The
invisible barrier deflected the flame, but he could still feel the heat
radiating from it.

He was suddenly overtaken by anger greater than he'd ever experienced
before.  This wasn't the usual kind of anger.  No, this was righteous
indignation.  How dare this evil, vile creature assume it had the right to
do whatever it wanted with this innocent girl!

Drawing on a power he was unaware he possessed, he straightened up and
extended his right hand.  From out of nowhere a red ball of energy appeared
in his palm.  Raising his arm he threw the energy ball at the creature.
When the ball of energy impacted with its target the reptile-like monster
disintegrated into a pile of ash.

Todd was in total shock.  This couldn't be happening to him.  He felt as if
he were starring in his own episode of the Twilight Zone.  From what seemed
a faraway distance he heard someone calling his name.  He looked around for
the source, and saw Andrew looking at him with concern.

Andrew reached out and touched his arm.  "Todd, are you all right?  It
didn't hurt you did it?  You sure as hell hurt it.  How did you do that?
Where did that energy ball come from, and what was that thing anyway?"
 "Andrew, I don't know what's happening.  This is just too bizarre for
words."  Todd looked around the room at the flames licking at the cabinets.
"Everyone will think we're nuts if we tell them the truth.  They'll lock us
up in the loony bin and throw away the key.  God!"  He rubbed his face in
an attempt to wash away the confusion he felt.  "What should we do?  We
have to think of something to tell them."

Andrew walked over and grabbed the fire extinguisher that was mounted on
the wall by the door.  As he was putting out the fire, Andrew calmly
suggested, "Why don't we just say that the woman who attacked this girl
came here to finish the job?"

After he took a few deep breaths to calm himself, Todd went over and
checked on his patient.  Glancing at the monitors that were connected to
the girl, he was relieved to see that she was still relatively stable.
Turning away, he looked over at Andrew and replied, "Yeah.  We can also say
that she threw some sort of explosive device at the cabinets, and then ran
out of here."

Andrew nodded his head in acquiescence, and asked, "Have you noticed that
the fire alarm has stopped?  I'll go out and see what's going on."

"Good.  While you're doing that I'll dispose of what's left of that thing.
Call surgery and book an O.R.  We need to operate on her as soon as
possible.  Oh, and you'd better call the police so we can report our
version of what happened here."

Andrew returned, bringing with him the two nurses who had previously been
assisting them.  When the trauma nurses went to check on their patient and
prepare her for transport to the O.R., he pulled Todd aside and lowered his
voice to an almost whisper.  "It was a false alarm," he stated.  "Some
prankster pulled the fire alarm.  They have everything under control now.
Caleb just arrived, and as soon as he changes into scrubs he'll take over
for you.  The police were already here, so I didn't have to call them.  A
detective is waiting outside to talk to us.  After you finish with the
police you can go home.  I'm sure after all that has happened you'll want
to go and get some rest.  I'll come over to your apartment in the morning
about eight for breakfast, and we'll try to figure all this out
together. By the way, our patient's real mother is outside, and she would
like to know what is going on with her daughter.  I told her that you'd be
out to speak with her soon."

"Thanks, Andrew.  I'm so glad that you were here.  I don't know if I
could've handled this all by myself.  I'm so grateful that you're my best
friend," Todd said with heartfelt emotion as he pulled the other man into a
tight embrace.

Andrew returned the hug enthusiastically.  "You're welcome.  After all,
what are best friends for?"

Todd pulled out of the embrace just as Dr. Caleb Reed walked into the room.
Caleb was new to St. Michael's, having just been hired recently as an
attending trauma surgeon.  Todd didn't know him that well yet, but he had
the opportunity to see the man in action and he knew that he was an
excellent surgeon.  He therefore had no qualms about turning over the care
of the teenaged girl to him. After he finished giving Caleb the report on
the condition of his patient, Caleb and the rest of the trauma team took
the girl to the O.R. to begin the surgical repair of her evisceration.

Todd took a moment to prepare himself, and then he and Andrew went out to
update the girl's real mother on her daughter's condition, and then they
went to talk the police.


* * * *


Connor Stevens exited the portal.  He immediately surveyed his surroundings
to see if he could determine just where in the Hell he was.  Like all
Mages, he could teleport himself through portals created within the
time-space continuum, traveling millions of miles in the blink of an eye.
He simply fixed his destination firmly in his mind, opened a portal,
stepped through, and violá, he was there.  But this time was different.
He'd never before teleported himself without knowing where he was going to
end up, and still had no idea why he'd been compelled to do so now.

He and his best friend and partner, Jason Medicine Wolf, a benevolent
Vampyr, had just finished an assignment for the Prime Guardian and decided
it was time for a little rest and relaxation.  They'd been working hard
lately.  The organized forces of supernatural evil, also known as the
Synod, recently increased their efforts to enslave humanity, and the best
team of Guardian Enforcers, that being Connor and Jason, had been working
overtime trying to stop them.  It didn't seem to be enough.  Connor hated
to admit it, but it appeared as if the Synod might be winning the war.

He'd only been in Madrid for three hours when he hit the jackpot, or so he
thought.  There he was, about to score with an extremely beautiful and sexy
woman, when all of a sudden he was overwhelmed with an irresistible urge to
be someplace else.

Exactly where, he didn't have a clue.  To make matters worse, the more he
tried to overcome this urge, the stronger it became.  He tried to focus on
the extremely eager female lying naked beneath him, but it quickly became
obvious that his attempt at concentration was the only thing that was going
to be hard.  And that was definitely something that never happened to him
before.

He mumbled an apology to the now extremely angry Spanish woman and made a
hasty exit.  As soon as he had exited her apartment he ducked around a
corner, placed a cloak of invisibility around himself so that he would not
draw the attention of any passing humans, and then opened a portal, blindly
stepping through.  His destination unknown.

As he looked around, he realized he knew where he was, the Emergency
Department of St. Michael's Medical Center.  He recognized his location
because this was where one of his best friends and fellow Mage,
Dr. Geoffrey Spencer, worked as an attending trauma surgeon.

Why was he here?  Was something wrong with Geoff?  No, it couldn't be
Geoff, since he knew for a fact that he wasn't on duty this evening.  Geoff
told him yesterday that he had the next two days off.  So, if Geoff wasn't
the reason he was here, just what was?

Remaining cloaked, Connor continued to look around the E.R., hoping he
could uncover some clue as to why he felt compelled to come here.  He
watched as the doctors and nurses went from room to room, treating their
patients and responding to emergencies with calm efficiency.  Suddenly the
doors to the ambulance bay swung open, and two paramedics quickly pushed a
gurney into the E.R.

Moving closer so that he could better see what was going on, he walked
beside them down the hall, remaining unseen.  He listened to the report the
paramedics gave the two men, whose name badges identified them as Todd
Warren, M.D. and Andrew Reeves, R.N., E.N.P., who had been there waiting
for them.  Connor wasn't sure what all the medical terminology meant, but
it didn't sound good.  From what he could understand, it seemed the girl
was in serious condition.

The doctor and nurse practitioner directed the paramedics into a trauma
room.  Mesmerized, Connor felt compelled to follow them.  Dr. Warren
immediately took control of the situation.  For some reason, Connor
couldn't take his eyes off him.  At that moment, even though he didn't
understand it, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had found his
purpose for being here.

Connor studied the trauma surgeon with intense concentration.  He was
hoping to find out what it was about this man that necessitated his
presence here.  The first thing he noticed was that Dr. Warren was a member
of the elect, a group of special individuals who would become full-fledged
Mages, and would soon undergo complete metamorphosis. One of the abilities
that were common to all Mages is that they are able to sense the presence
of another unshielded Mage or member of the elect.

The next thing he observed was that Todd was an extremely attractive man,
in that sexy, naughty-nerd sort of way.  Whoa, there!  Where had that come
from?  He was not gay, but he was reluctantly forced to admit to himself
that he definitely felt an attraction towards the trauma surgeon.  This
admission was based on the fact that his earlier thought about nothing
being hard tonight except his ability to focus on the woman in Madrid, was
apparently completely false.

He was never so thrilled about his ability to cloak himself from humans
than he was at this moment.  If the people in the trauma room could see him
right now, they would surely notice the huge circus tent in his pants.
Jumbo the elephant was on a rampage and trying to escape.  He couldn't
believe it.  He had never been this hard before in his one hundred and
thirty-four years of existence.  His erection was so tumescent that it was
beginning to throb painfully.

This couldn't be happening to him.  Less than an hour ago, he'd had an
enthusiastically beautiful woman lying buck naked beneath him, and his
penis hadn't even twitched.  Now he took one look at a man, and his cock
became so rigid he could break-up concrete?  Something was not right here.
He wasn't gay, was he?  He couldn't be gay!  He would not be gay!  Sex
between two men was unnatural and disgusting.  A man was meant to have sex
only with women.  He reassured himself of the rightness of his beliefs by
considering that the old adage of 'opposites attract' was proven correct in
both biology and physics.

The science of biology demonstrates that male and females of any species
are driven to acts of sexual congress out of the instinct to procreate, and
procreation can only take place between males and females.  Sexual pleasure
was a fringe benefit of copulation, and just because immortals were sterile
didn't mean the urge to have sex was taken away.

In physics the concept of opposites attract is shown through the example of
magnets.  Two magnets of opposite magnetic polarities are attracted to each
other, and therefore cling together.  On the other hand two magnets having
the same magnetic polarity are repelled away from each other.

Both sciences prove that homosexuality was unnatural.  Since he fervently
believed this to be true, he could not be gay.  Yet, if he wasn't gay, why
was his cock suddenly acting like a divining rod that was pointing at
Dr. Warren as if he was a hidden source of life-giving water?  And if sex
between two men was so disgusting, then why did the thought of having sex
with the trauma surgeon fill him with such excitement?

He paused for a moment.  Could he actually be gay?  No.  For as long as he
had lived he'd never been attracted to a man before.  He had not even
wondered what it would be like to be with a man sexually, because women had
always been sufficient to satisfy him.  He smiled as he remembered his many
sexual conquests.  No, he was not gay.  There had to be some other
explanation for why he was sexually aroused.

Connor willed himself to calm down.  He had to focus.  There was a reason
he was here, and he had yet to figure out what it was.  He knew it had
something to do with Dr. Warren, but what it was he didn't know.  There was
the fact that he was a member of the elect and about to go through complete
metamorphosis within a week's time, he estimated.  Maybe that had something
to do with it.  Connor considered that for a moment, and rejected it.  He
didn't need to be here for Todd's metamorphosis because the Council of
Benevolent Mages would already be aware of it and would send someone to
tutor him when the time came.

Maybe Dr. Warren wasn't why he was here, after all.  It could be something
or someone else, and his erection could be explained by the fact that he
had left Madrid sexually unfulfilled.  This plausible explanation
thrillingly relieved him.  He started to turn and walk out of the trauma
room, determined to find whatever or whomever it was that brought him here,
and to never think about Dr. Warren again.

Suddenly, he couldn't breathe, and he started to panic.  He felt as if a
part of his soul was being ripped away from him, like he was abruptly
severing himself from something that was vital to his existence.

What was going on?  He turned back, and looked at the trauma surgeon.
Instantaneously the feeling of panic left him, and he had a sense of
connection and completeness.  This was definitely confusing.  He must have
been right the first time, because it seemed that Dr. Warren had to be the
reason for him being here.  He could no longer deny it, or the fact that he
seemed to be connected to him on some spiritual and sexual level.

Once again Connor studied the trauma surgeon.  To be fair, he had to admit
that Dr. Warren was a handsome man.  He was about five feet eleven inches
Connor figured, because they were about the same height.  Just the height
he preferred in a lover so they could kiss without either of them having to
bend down or reach up, and boy did he have kissable lips.  Wait a second
... a lover?  What in the Hell was he thinking?  He needed to stop this
right now.  He had to concentrate.  He needed to focus only on his
spiritual connection to this man, and not on the sexual one.

He'd already reluctantly admitted to himself that he was sexually attracted
to Dr. Warren, but he'd never let lust rule him before and wasn't about to
start now.  Besides, there had to be more to his presence here than just
the realization that he wanted to fuck the man silly.  The compulsion he
felt to come here had been so strong, he knew that there had to be some
tremendously important reason for it.

He continued with his perusal of the trauma surgeon who captured his
attention so masterfully.  He had short, black hair that was cut in a
contemporary yet professional style, and sexy, brown eyes that were
charmingly displayed by his small, black, and oval-shaped wire-frame
glasses.  His square-jawed face was beautiful, but masculine.

Connor guessed that Todd was about one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and
he was muscular.  Not exaggeratedly muscled in that grotesque body-builder
sort of way.  No, Dr. Warren had a well toned and sculpted body, just
enough muscle to add definition.  Connor watched as Todd bent over his
patient and listened to her chest with his stethoscope.  The movement
caused his scrub pants to pull taut across his buttocks.  Nice ass, Connor
thought as he stared at the trauma surgeon's backside.  Oh, no!  There he
went thinking with the wrong head again.  What going on with him?

Connor's musings were interrupted when he noticed that the doctor was
removing the dressings from the injured girl's abdomen.  When he saw the
girl's exposed intestines, a wave of nausea swept through him at the
thought of the violence she had experienced, and the absolute terror she
must have felt.  Who would do something like this to such a young one?
Then he noticed the presence of the white substance in her wound.  Oh,
hell!  Could the reason he was here be to protect Dr. Warren from what he
expected was about to happen?  He heard the paramedics describe what they
heard from the witnesses at the scene.  His suspicions concerning the white
substance were confirmed when they mentioned that the teenager was attacked
by a reptile man.

After the paramedics left, a woman came in claiming to be the girl's
mother.  Connor realized she was lying because he recognized her for what
she truly was.  He had to do something before everyone in the trauma room
was killed.  There was also the danger that the supernatural world would
become apparent to the humans in the E.R. and cause unnecessary panic.
Thinking quickly, he left the room and pulled the fire alarm.

All hell broke loose.  Doctors and nurses began running around preparing to
evacuate the E.R.  The two nurses who had been assisting Dr. Warren came
out of the trauma room and began helping with the evacuation.  He returned
to the room just in time to see the woman morphing into her true nature.
He'd been right, she was a Dragonian.

Connor was surprised when the trauma surgeon stood up to the immortal,
refusing to hand over the girl.  When the Dragonian expelled a fireball out
of its mouth and destroyed the cabinets behind Dr. Warren, Connor was
prepared to throw a shield around the doctor and the others, but saw that
it was unnecessary.  Dr. Warren had erected his own shield.  The immortal
attacked the doctor again, but he summoned an energy ball and vanquished
it.

Was the trauma surgeon aware of what he was?  The look of shock and
confusion on his face convinced Connor that Dr. Warren had been ignorant of
the power he was capable of wielding as a member of the elect, but that was
not the case any longer.  He was going to need someone to instruct him on
how to use his newfound powers, especially since it appeared that, from
what Connor had witnessed, Dr. Warren was going to be an extremely powerful
Mage.

Connor's heart swelled with pride.  He realized he wanted to be
Dr. Warren's private tutor in the use of his Mage abilities.  Even though
the doctor must have been confused and terrified, he still had the presence
of mind to react quickly enough to save his own life, and the lives of the
others as well.  He'd been faced with a supernatural creature that must
have looked as if it climbed out of a nightmare, one that he probably
thought he had no hope of defeating, and yet he stood up to it anyway,
refusing to relinquish the girl.

He couldn't get over his reaction to this man.  He needed to get out of
here, and away from Dr. Warren's influence for a little while.  He couldn't
seem to think rationally when he was around him.  He needed to go someplace
where he could clear his head, and somehow figure out what in the Hell was
going on.  Connor opened a portal, stepped into it, and vanished.


to be continued...