Chapter 1 An image was taking shape on the canvas, an image of serpentine coils the colour of tarnished silver, of blood-red claws, and of dark eyes that drew you in and devoured your soul…
Katinka breathed out and stepped back from the easel, scrutinising her work with a critical eye. This was the closest she'd yet come to accurately depicting her nightmare but she still wasn't getting across the subtle horror of compulsion. The young artist shoved a paint-smeared hand through short, flaxen tresses, her irritation with the length of her hair momentarily eclipsing her dissatisfaction with the painting. Dammit, it was long enough now to tuck behind her ears. Maybe she could sweet-talk Rani into cutting it though her vibrant little flatmate had been on at her for months about letting her hair grow longer than a couple of inches. She knew it'd been a bad idea letting Rani see those old photos. Katinka sighed, bloody Rani, how she'd let the little minx talk her out of continuing to dye her hair…? The artist had spent the last half of her twenty years trying to be invisible and while she could admit, privately, that she rather liked her natural colour, the shining pale-yellow had stood out far too much at a time when she was desperately seeking anonymity. She'd gotten used to being a brunette, feeling safe behind the ordinary, mid-brown her hair had become. It'd only been a pity her eyes weren't suited to contact lenses because their changeable nature could've been disguised as well, though she'd compensated with sunglasses, and slouching, and never looking anyone in the face.
Katinka smiled softly and shook her head. Rani had changed all that, blowing into her life like a wind-devil, the sheer force of her cheerful nature and enthusiasm whisking the darkness away. Still smiling, Katinka dropped her brushes into the cleaning solution: Rani was the most important person in her life - one day maybe she'd even tell her so…"I'm back!" a light-hearted voice sang out and Katinka heard the door slam shut - the only way you could get it to stay closed. "Tink? Y'here?"
"In my studio!" she called back. That was something of a private joke between them, the apartment was tiny, basically one room and a bathroom - Katinka's 'studio' was the corner near the window.
Rani stepped into the room from the cupboard-sized alcove that passed for the entranceway, her large, deep-brown eyes lighting up at the sight of the tall woman.
"Ah yes, there you are. How was your day?" She dumped a couple of overfull cloth shopping bags on the kitchen counter.
"Productive, I think," Katinka smiled, wiping her hands on an old t-shirt. "Yours?"
Rani rolled her eyes.
"My mother's lined up another man for me to meet."
"You're joking!" the artist chuckled. "I thought she would've exhausted the supply of eligible Hindu bachelors by now."
"Oh this one's a real catch, apparently," Rani was clearly speaking tongue-in-cheek, "Very rich, very old, he'll die soon and leave me a wealthy widow."
"Your mother said that?"
"Her words exactly," the cinnamon-skinned girl grinned. "She's so desperate to marry me off she's gone past subtlety."
"Why don't you just tell her you like women?"
Rani quirked a fine, black eyebrow.
"You've met my mother - how do you think she'd take that?"
Katinka laughed and loped the few paces separating them, smoothing her fingers through Rani's very long, lustrous ebony hair.
"It'd just make her try harder, wouldn't it?"
The short woman wound her arms around Katinka's waist, smiling up into beautiful, almond-shaped violet eyes.
"Exactly!"
It astonished Katinka that Rani's parents hadn't twigged to their eldest daughter's sexuality. Rani was out and proud and vocal about it, secretary of the on-campus Queer Society and an enthusiastic campaigner for gay (and human/ women's/ children's/ animal's) rights. The artist suspected it was probably a wilful act of looking the other way. Maybe they thought their daughter would grow out of it? Fat chance of that! Rani was happy with who she was… even though she still couldn't quite bring herself to tell her parents the whole truth.
"What about your cousin? The one doing Economics? He goes to our Uni, surely he's noticed your name on the noticeboards?"
"Oh yes," Rani's smirk was evil, "He knows. But I have certain…information about him he doesn't want his parents to find out about. We've agreed to a mutual non-disclosure pact."
Katinka chuckled and planted a kiss on the pretty woman's forehead.
"Remind me never to get on your bad side."
Rani's grip tightened around her waist and for a moment her dark eyes were filled with a soft, loving warmth.
"You could never do that, Tink." She peered around her flatmate's shoulder to look at the latest canvas and the moment was lost. "That's coming on." Rani shuddered, "Looks kinda creepy, but there's a – I don't know – a nobility to it."
Katinka snorted indelicately.
"Nobility? Dragons aren't noble, they're arrogant, self-seeking, vicious -"
"Mythical." Rani interjected with a smirk.
Katinka blinked, then smiled ruefully.
"Yes, mythical. Thank you, little-miss-realism." She stooped to brush a kiss over her lover's full lips.
Rani sighed happily, returning the kiss.
"How about - " she unwound her arms from around the artist's waist to twine them about her neck. " - we have pizza for dinner - we haven't splurged for a while - there's that bottle of red we've been saving - " she grinned and waggled her eyebrows suggestively, " - a bubble bath, an early night - ?"
Katinka chuckled, sliding her hands down Rani's back to cup and gently knead round buttocks through the loose denim.
"An early night's a good idea, I've got a crack of dawn start tomorrow if I want to get to class on time for a change."
Rani scowled.
"You're as romantic as a brick-wall sometimes!"
The artist smirked, kissing the corner of a pouty mouth.
"Eh, I guess I don't need that much sleep…"Their apartment might be small and shabby but it did have a couple of things going for it. The single, large window in the main room let in a good deal of light, perfect for painting, and the bathroom boasted a huge, old, peach enamelled, claw-foot tub.
Katinka, long legs splayed wide and hooked over the sides of the bath, quivered and gasped, tensing as she approached orgasm. All that could be seen of Rani was the soft mounds of brown buttocks rising up out of the bubble-topped water and the pink soles of her feet where she was bracing herself against the far end of the tub. The artist groaned quietly as she came, head dropping back against the curved metal edge. A couple of seconds later Rani's face broke the surface of the water. She grinned, taking deep breaths, watching the other's face as the woman's shudders gradually eased.
"How - how do you do that?" Katinka was still panting. "Stay under water for so long?"
"Willpower, meditative techniques learnt from yoga," Rani chuckled - with her big brown eyes, and black hair plastered close to her skull she put the artist in mind of a seal, "being a long distance swimming champion in school."
"Oh - right - good."
The smaller woman manoeuvred herself until she was kneeling between her lover's spread legs, the bath water sloshing around them.
"So. We've had our pizza, and the wine," Rani murmured, apparently absorbed in watching her fingertips trace the ragged scar on the inside of Katinka's thigh, "and the bath - " she glanced almost shyly at her flatmate, "How about that early night?"
The artist reached up to languidly caress a full breast before stroking down to a rounded belly and out over a curvaceous hip. She loved Rani's curves, soft and welcoming so different to her own slender, almost spare frame. Katinka slid her hand between satiny thighs, grinning at the quiver that shook the plump, brown body.
"Yes, I think I'm ready for bed now," she asserted quietly...The wan light of the three-quarter moon shone through the gaps in the threadbare curtain, splashing streaks of palest gold over the almost completed canvas.
Katinka couldn't sleep - not unusual when she was close to finishing a piece – but there was something else nipping at the edge of her awareness, something... that didn't fit, something that wasn't meant to be here.
She gently disentangled herself from Rani's soft embrace and padded naked to stand in front of the dragon painting.
The creature seemed to gaze smugly out at her.
Soon...
Katinka fancied she could hear it's sibilant whisper echoing in her mind. She smirked, sharp eyes turned grey by the night, and shook her head.
You have no power over me.
Katinka had excellent night vision, more than equal to the task of painting by the insubstantial moonlight. In the near-dark the colours on her palette morphed into textures, feelings, emotions. It took a different kind of headspace to work them but it was a challenge she enjoyed. Indeed, Katinka felt that some of her best work had been created in the absence of light.
She selected a brush from the jar, delicately swirling the very tips of the bristles into a still moist patch of pallid paint left over from the afternoon's work. Katinka dabbed at the image, adding layers of subtle refinements, a shiver of goosebumps sweeping over her scalp as the dragon was brought to life by her skill...A lone figure, swathed in a long, black coat crouched at ease on the roof ledge several stories up. They were silhouetted by the moon, an easy target should anyone be foolish enough to make the attempt, not that it was a cause for concern if they did. Blank silver eyes narrowed as a patch of darkness writhed in the alley below. The watcher stood up, moving fluidly, then after a moment's pause leapt off the building's edge, the encompassing coat flowing around them like a cape as they neither drifted nor fell downwards. By the time they'd landed gracefully amongst the detritus on the alley floor, a solid shape, ugly and malformed had coalesced out of the moving shadow.
"Orst wants to see you." Bulbous eyes gleamed a dull yellow.
"I don't want to see Orst." the watcher replied, wisps of bright silver hair coiling around a chillingly beautiful, feminine face.
"Have a heart, Elga," the creature could have been scared, the roughness of it's voice made it hard to tell, "he'll kill me if you don't come."
"I'll save him the trouble."
The thing in front of her barely had time to register it's shock as a shining, faintly curved sword flashed out, neatly bisecting it from hip to shoulder. Elga danced aside, easily avoiding the spray of corrosive, grey liquid. She watched impassively as the body dissolved into a puddle of stinking ooze that quickly evaporated until all that was left was a faint, unhealthy odour already mingling with the other fetid smells in the alley. Elga smiled grimly, wiping the blade clean on a scrap of paper before resheathing it beneath her coat. One of these days Orst would finally get it through his obdurate skull that she really didn't want to see him. Then maybe he'd stop sending these stupid minions and leave her alone...It was close to three in the morning when Katinka slid back into bed.
"Probl'm sorted?" Rani murmured sleepily, snuggling into the slender woman.
The artist hesitated.
"Problem?"
Rani sighed, already sliding back into deep sleep.
"Th' painting..."
"Yes," Katinka smiled, kissing a plump cheek as she settled herself, " all sorted."
© 2003 December 22nd Lutra
On to Chapter 2
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