She moved.
Before Val could react, she had shifted from sitting next to him to straddling his lap. Her legs, clad in those thigh-high leather boots, locked around his waist. Her hands came up to rest on his shoulders, pushing him back until his back hit the cold rock wall.
Val froze. His heart hammered against his ribs.
She was close. Too close. He could smell that scent of rain and ozone again, mixed with something uniquely feminine. Her golden eyes were half-lidded, glowing in the dim light of the magic fire.
"Uh, Ferrer?" Val squeaked. "What are you doing?"
"Recharging," she whispered.
She leaned forward, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
Val expected a bite. He expected her to drain his blood or suck out his soul.
Instead, she just... inhaled.
A sensation washed over Val. It felt like static electricity was being pulled out of his skin. It wasn't painful, but it was intense. It was a pulling sensation, deep in his chest, right where the connection to the tattoo on his hand felt strongest.
[System Alert: Mana Transfer Active.]
[Ferrer is draining 2 Mana/sec.]
"Your soul is warm," she mumbled against his skin, her breath hot on his neck. Her body was heavy and soft against him, pressing him into the stone. "Most humans taste like wet cardboard. You taste like... lightning."
"Is that... good?" Val asked, his hands hovering awkwardly in the air, not sure where to put them.
"Put your arms around me, idiot," she muttered, her voice muffled by his shirt. "Surface area increases transfer efficiency."
Val slowly lowered his hands, wrapping them around her waist. Her waist was impossibly small, but the muscles beneath the skin were hard as steel.
She relaxed instantly, her body melting into his.
"Don't get any ideas," she said sleepily, though she didn't move away. "This is purely for survival. If I revert to my beast form now, I'll crush you."
"Right. Survival," Val agreed, staring at the ceiling of the cave, trying desperately to think about baseball, or taxes, or literally anything other than the bombshell demi-god currently using him as a teddy bear.
"Good night, Master," she whispered.
Within seconds, her breathing evened out. She was asleep.
Val sat there, pinned against the rock wall by a woman who could level a city block. The magic fire hummed. The wind howled outside.
He looked at his status screen again. His mana was dropping steadily, then regenerating, then dropping again.
[Mana: 140/150]
He realized with a jolt that she wasn't just taking mana. The tattoo on his hand was pulsing, feeding energy back into him, keeping his regeneration rate high enough to sustain her.
It wasn't a parasitic relationship. It was a loop.
He tightened his arms around her slightly. She made a small, contented noise in her throat, shifting her hips to get more comfortable.
Val closed his eyes.
Okay, he thought. Maybe getting kidnapped to another world isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
The next morning.
Val woke up because he couldn't breathe.
It wasn't a nightmare. It was because Ferrer had shifted in her sleep. She was no longer straddling him; she was now sprawled entirely on top of him, her face buried in his chest, one leg thrown over his, pinning him to the dirt floor.
Also, she was drooling slightly on his shirt.
Val tried to move. "Ferrer?"
"Mmph."
"Ferrer, I can't feel my legs."
She groaned, tightened her grip, and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Five more minutes, mom."
"Wake up!" Val hissed. "Something's outside."
That woke her up.
Instantly, the sleepy, soft girl vanished. Ferrer's eyes snapped open, the gold irises slit like a predator's. She didn't scramble; she simply flowed from a lying position to a crouch in one fluid motion, placing herself between Val and the cave entrance.
Val sat up, rubbing his numb legs. "I hear footsteps. Heavy ones."
Ferrer sniffed the air. Her lip curled in disgust.
"Metal," she spat. "Oil. And sweat."
"Monsters?"
"Worse," she said, standing up and straightening her disheveled hair. She looked back at Val, her gaze sharp. "Humans."
Val stood up. "Humans? That's good, isn't it? Maybe they can help us."
Ferrer laughed. It was a cold, sharp sound.
"Master, look at me." She gestured to her outfit, her eyes, her general aura of danger. "Then look at you. You look like a lost puppy. I look like a high-value target."
She walked to the entrance of the cave, the sunlight catching the silver of her hair.
"In the Sealed Lands, humans don't help," she said, glancing back over her shoulder with a wicked grin. "They loot. Let's go see what they brought us."