Stronger Together chapter 102 (Patreon)

Today had been pretty exhausting, so we told Raven and Cinder and the  girls we would fill them in tomorrow and headed to bed. Of course Barb  and I took Raven with us, but she was fairly quiet when it was just the  three of us unless she had something important to say and trusted us  enough to wait for the meeting to get caught up. Barb was still shaken  from seeing Safehold and the memories of home it brought up so we didn't  do anything sexual, just cuddled up against her on both sides and fell  asleep holding each other.

The  next morning came quickly, no dreams marring my sleep that I could  remember. I felt safe and warm and comfortable wrapped around my girls.  Barb was cuddled up to Raven's soft curves and her back was still  against me. I could smell her tea tree shampoo and feel the softness of  her wild red locks on my face as I smiled to myself. I probably should  have gotten up but taking a minute to myself to enjoy my life did a lot  to keep me sane. It was healthy to stop for a minute and smell the roses  in a life as crazy as mine, to remind yourself of what you were  fighting for.

As  I looked up from smiling down at Barb I caught sight of a pair of  violet eyes over her head. Raven was staring fondly back at me, watching  me watch our girlfriend. I leaned up over Barb to kiss my sorceress  softly on her naturally purple lips before leaning up to whisper "I'm  going to go make breakfast before Harry gets here. I'm thinking  omelette's. Keep her warm while I'm gone." She answered with a longer,  slower kiss and snuggled back down to hold Barb as I rolled out of bed.  As I got my pants on I saw her watching me get dressed. I raised an  eyebrow "Enjoying the show, perv?" Rather than respond and wake Barb  Raven just licked her lips slowly.

I  rolled my eyes with a smile and then winked at her before turning to  leave, shaking my now pajama bottom clad ass a bit in her direction. I  heard a stifled chuckle which I counted as a win and slipped out of the  room, closing our door as slowly as possible. When I made it to the  kitchen however I was surprised to find Harry already at the stove  making crepes. He was chatting with Yang and Morgan while Cinder and Sam  sat at the table sipping coffee.  Harry saw me come in and smiled in  greeting "Hey kid, sorry I got here early but Yang let me in. Figured I  could do breakfast."

I  raised an eyebrow at the pan "Wasn't aware you could cook boss. Much  less crepes." I spotted a bowl next to the pan and my eyes widened "Wait  are you making cheese blintzes? I love those. They're a ton of work and  pretty delicate so I can't make them, haven't eaten them in ages.  Thanks Harry." I was now genuinely excited for breakfast. I loved  blintzes. Harry grinned and nodded back, picking back up in his  conversation with the girls as I made my way to the table to sit with  Cinder and Sam.

The  blonde vampire with the pink streaks grinned at me as I sat down. "Hey  there big man. Heard you didn't make a move on hot stuff here when you  were out of town. Bad call in my book but hey, the cute ones are never  smart." Cinder look mortified, which was a funny look on her, but Sam  continued "How about talk dark and beastly, he make it back with you  all? He still owes me dinner and if he's lucky I'll rock his socks." She  licked her lips as her eyes lost focus, clearly thinking about River,  which honestly weirded me out. But judge not and all that so I let her  know he came with us.

Apparently  even snuggling with a sexy half succubus can't keep someone asleep  through the smell of fresh crepes because Barb and Raven came out a few  minutes later. Morgan looked ready to get Kara and Morgan but I shook my  head holding up a finger to stop her. "Hey guys, Harry made breakfast.  Morgan, don't bother Kara, she and Inari deserve some alone time and  this next part isn't something she needs to com along for anyway. This  is all magic nonsense. We'll definitely want her on hand for the  vampires but until then let her have her time. Besides she can hear it  all from her room anyway." Morgan just pouted as the other two sat down.

Barb  must have slept deep because she wasn't her usually grumpy self, though  she was a bit out of it. Raven sat the dazed redhead down and went up  to grab the first plate of blintzes from Harry and bring it to her. The  commissioner's daughter groaned slightly and blinked a few times before  giving a sleepy smile. "Cheese blintzes? Awesome." She looked up at  Harry "Thank's boss, you're the best." The big wizard shot her back a  soft smile with a distinctly paternal tint to it I think she missed. The  incident yesterday had definitely changed the way he looked at us,  especially Barb. Apparently he'd had the same thought about dad practice  I had.

I  made sure to snag the next plate of blintzes that came up, but sadly we  only had fresh maple syrup, nothing fruit based. I wished I'd bought  strawberries or something but needs must where the devil drives and all.  I poured fresh maple syrup over my blintzes since it was all we had.  Harry finished plating up everyone's then put two more plated in the  microwave for Kara and Inari and came to sit down with his own food. He  took a bite, closing his eyes and groaning as he savored the flavor,  then he turned to me. "Ok so tell me about this island."

I  nodded to Raven and flicked my eyes out the windows and hers flared  with her usual dark light before a wave of glowing black energy covered  the table, isolating us from even the shadows. I nodded my thanks and  turned back to Harry. "The island is somewhat complicated. In my visions  it was important to you. It's a containment place for some bad stuff.  Kind of a prison. It needs a Warden to function properly which I think  is why so much energy pours out of there. I know for a fact you can  benefit from becoming that Warden." I held up a hand to stop him "You  don't need to live there or anything, just visit once in a while, and  once you claim it you have a fallback point with insanely powerful  defenses."

I  tried to present it in the best possible light because I knew for a fact  we would need Demonreach as a safe house at some point. The circle  there was the be all end all of magical defenses, powerful on a level it  was hard to conceive of. If we could get access to it that was one more  trump card we had. Not to mention Harry's intellectus and and number of  other defenses on the island. If we didn't get it there was a decent  chance someone else would and that would also be bad. That said the  place was also deeply creepy and came across as semi evil.

Harry  look partly convinced but seemed a bit on the fence "How would I claim  it? So I have to do some kind of ritual? It sounds like the place isn't  exactly puppies and rainbows, tapping that kind of power could have  serious consequences. Not to mention how bad it would look to the  council if I suddenly had a secret island lair complete with dark magic  playset." That was another aspect of things to consider. The council had  lost their shit the first time Harry claimed Demonreach, I just didn't  see where we had a choice, plus hopefully interacting with us so much  would give them more of an idea of his character.

Luckily  I could answer at least a few of those questions. "You need to use a  Sanctum Invocation. As for the power the  Genius Loci of that island is  sentient like Flamebird was. He can manipulate the island's energy for  you and run the defenses, you don't need to tap into the dark energy  personally. Plus it'll prevent someone very bad from getting access.  There are things in that prison that would make you vomit just by  looking at them. They have at least one Skinwalker like the one we  fought, and it's in their minimum security wing. The Warden controls who  gets let out, if some asshole gets control of it he can release those  things whenever he wants. That place is not nearly far enough from here  to be safe from that fallout."

That  actually was a huge worry of mine, and it would be one for Harry too.  He was about to have a daughter, rampaging elder gods of darkness a few  miles from her home town was a bad way to keep her safe. I saw the  thought slam into him like a mac truck even as I watched. It wasn't  really fair of me, but I wasn't manipulating him, everything I said was  the gods honest truth. We needed to be the ones to control this place so  we could keep all of our loved ones safe. He gimly stared at me for a  minute before he exhaled and nodded solemnly.

I  exhaled in relief, I'd been worried about convincing him but this was  damn important. We needed this place locked down and it needed to be  Harry who did it. The Starborn thing made him an ace in the hole against  outsiders and we would need him to stop He Who Walks Before when he  showed up. I turned to Raven "Sweetie, I need you to look into a few  things for our trip there with Cinder. I trust you to know whats best  after hearing about the place, but I need at least a negative energy  shield. The place is pretty thick with dark power, Harry will be fine  with the spirit looking out for him but the rest of us are going to lose  it if we stay there too long."

The  fact that the island drove people crazy was one of my biggest worries.  It wasn't an active part of the defenses, the wellspring of evil power  that bubbled up from the collective mystical body heat of all those  horrible monsters was so intense that it corrupted anyone who sat in it  too long without protection. Raven nodded confidently and I smiled, if  anyone knew how to prevent energy contamination from evil power it was  my girlfriend. I turned to Barb "We also need a boat. You know how  things work in cities like this better than I do from working the  streets in Gotham, can you find us something old enough not to be  shorted by magic but still sturdy and functional?"

Barb  was wide awake now and she grinned back at me "Of course. I always have  Marcone as a fall back but I'd rather start cultivating some sources of  my own. It'll help with the PI stuff. We can't just run down and ask  Henry when anything happens, besides which having your finger on the  criminal pulse is a good way to stay ahead of future threats." I could  see excitement in  her eyes, she was clearly still itching for something  to do. I felt bad we had gone away to do magic stuff right after she  started her PI job, but hopefully this would make it up to her. I was  looking forward to seeing what a member of the bat family could  accomplish in Chicago with our resources and powers.