by Sarah Hawke
“You could have used your magic,” I pointed out. “I watched you manipulate the mind of the guard back at Sobren’s underground club. You could have done the same thing with this woman.”
“Probably,” Jorem admitted. “But I seem to recall you chiding me after I did that last time. Something about ‘you just proved why people with your powers can’t be allowed to roam free.’”
“It’s true.”
He grunted. “This may surprise you, but I don’t actually like forcing people to do my bidding. I don’t like blowing people up, either. I just do what I have to survive.”
“The glib response of a lifelong criminal.”
Jorem rolled his eyes and began untying our horse. “Look, you’re obviously going to believe whatever you want, sweetheart, and we’ve already established that I’m completely at your mercy here. I don’t see the point in arguing about ethics with a Senosi.”
I remained silent as he fiddled with the straps and fed the horse an apple. He seemed genuinely resigned to his fate, whatever that happened to be. It should have made me feel powerful, but it didn’t.
“You noticed something else while we were in there,” I said eventually. “Something that made you trust her.”
Jorem glanced back over his shoulder, eyebrows arched. “What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. But I’m right, aren’t I?”
He smiled thinly. “The first thing every crime boss does when he returns from a trip is make certain that his allies haven’t betrayed him. That vineyard had ten times the number of goons I was expecting, far more than it actually needs. What does that tell you?”
“That they weren’t there to protect the wine,” I said. “They were there to watch her.”
“Exactly. And if they were there to watch her, it means she probably did something while he was gone. Maybe her production slowed. Maybe she lost a shipment. Maybe she fucked one of his brothers. Who knows? The point is that with the Brotherhood rotting from the inside, she had probably started looking around for an out. Sobren knew it, and he wanted to remind her who was in charge.”
“Which means she was upset,” I reasoned. “And probably looking for an excuse to stab him in the back.”
Jorem’s smile widened. “See, I knew you were a smart girl.”
I felt a sudden rush of heat in my cheeks. “You really are more cunning than you look.”
“People say that about me all the bloody time,” he muttered. “Do I really look like that much of an idiot? Wait—don’t answer that.”
I giggled then glanced away in embarrassment at the girlish sound. Was I suddenly fourteen again? What had gotten into me?
“All right, we should probably get moving,” Jorem said, smacking the saddle. “It might take us a while to find this mine, unless you know where it is.”
“I do.”
“Ah. Well, in that case it probably won’t take us more than a few hours. We might have to wait around for nightfall to avoid being spotted. I don’t know if my distraction trick will work a second time.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
He turned and looked at me, hearing the strange tone in my voice. “Something wrong?”
“Very.”
His brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you—?”
I lunged forward and kissed him. He froze in place, nearly as stunned as I was. As much as I loved kissing women, I had never bothered spending much time kissing men. It had always seemed like a waste of time. I wasn’t interested in having my chin prickled with a beard, let alone “romance” or “building an emotional connection.” I just wanted to fuck them, and I knew they wanted to fuck me. It was so much easier when we dispensed with all the annoying foreplay.
But when Jorem’s tongue slid between my lips, I melted into his arms like hot butter. The heat of his breath, the softness of his mouth…it was like he was trying to devour me. And by the gods, I wanted to let him.
I pulled him down onto the ground on top of me. My legs locked around his waist, and my hands clawed at his back until I eventually managed to unbutton his tunic and slide my fingers along his sides. I dug my nails deep into his flesh, knowing precisely how much it would hurt and hoping he would return the favor.
He did. Growling like an animal, he grabbed my wrists and pinned them behind my head. I playfully fought back, squeezing his waist with my thighs and trying to wriggle free with my arms. He eagerly accepted the challenge, bolstering his strength with the Aether until he could overpower me with ease. My bare skin tingled at the magical energy coursing through him, and my quim ignited in response.
“Fuck me,” I begged. “Fuck me right now!”
Grinning devilishly, Jorem pulled off his belt with one hand while he held mine in place with the other. Once it was free, he used the leather band to tie my wrists together so tightly it hurt. And I loved every second of it.
He grabbed and squeezed my breasts as he eagerly sucked my nipples through his lips. I threw back my head and gasped, breathless, fantasizing about how great it would feel to have his cock thrust between my tits until he dumped a fresh, steaming load all over my face. The mere thought of his smoldering seed on my skin made my cry out in release…
“Easy, sweetheart,” Jorem cooed, smiling down at me. “We’re just getting started.”
He kissed me again, but this time his hands crept down my sides until they found my belt. I eagerly kicked and thrashed to help him tear the trousers from my hips (why the hell didn’t I wear skirts more often?) then sighed expectantly when he pressed the head of his cock against my quim.
I was so wet he had no trouble burying his whole length inside me with a single thrust. He fucked me slowly, sensuously, as if he wanted to savor every moment. I kept my ankles locked tightly around his waist, and I pushed and pulled my hips in rhythm with his movements so the scalding walls of my quim could milk every drop of seed out of him.
“Harder!” I pleaded. “Fuck me harder!”
He smirked down at me, his brow already beading with sweat, as he grabbed the back of my calves and pushed my knees all the way to my shoulders. I was flexible enough that it didn’t hurt in the slightest, but he wasn’t done—he kept pushing down until my feet were over my head and my ass lifted off the ground. He then grabbed my discarded belt and expertly used it to bind my ankles to my wrists.
I was now completely at his mercy, and he knew it. After getting a firm grip on my thighs, he began pounding into me without the slightest bit of compassion or remorse. The slapping of our thighs echoed off the trees along with my pleased whimpering, and waves of pleasured shuddered through my body until my vision went black. He was treating my like a piece of meat, and it was driving me mad.
“Gods, here it comes!” he warned.
“On me!” I begged. “Cum all over me!”
He pulled out just in time. His cock erupted as powerfully as ever, showering my stomach and tits with his seed. Just like when he’d had me tied up in his den, I climaxed the instant I felt the warm splash on my skin. I still didn’t quite understand why. He was effectively marking me as his, which I should have found insulting at best. He was prey.
Apparently the Huntress likes being hunted. And she loves getting caught best of all.
“Fuck,” Jorem breathed, slumping over like he had just suffered a mortal wound. “Why are crazy girls always the best lay?”
I smiled, completely lost in my own bliss.
6
I didn’t fully come down for several minutes, but when I did I felt as powerful and energized as I ever had before. Jorem was still leaning back on his haunches looking at me, probably wondering if I would be willing to destroy our belts to free myself.
I realize these things are designed to kill me,” he said, dragging his fingertips across the rarely exposed tattoos on the back of my thighs, “but I’ll be damned if they aren’t sexy as hell.”
I smiled as I tried to lick some of the cooling strands of seed from my cheek. “Wer
e you planning on untying me anytime soon?”
“Nah,” he said. “You seem pretty flexible.”
I mock scowled at him. He had an impish glimmer in his eye, and I wondered if he just wanted to leave me like this so I couldn’t properly clean up.
“You do realize I can break out anytime?”
“Sure,” Jorem said. “But why would you want to?”
He leaned forward and brought his lips to my still sodden slit. His tongue flicked across my swollen clit, and another wave of pleasure shuddered through me. I had never met a man so eager and willing to feast on a woman’s cunt after his own climax, but perhaps it was just further proof that Jorem was different.
Perhaps it was just further proof that we made a really, really good team.
He brought me off again a minute later, at which point he crawled all the way up to my body and leaned in to kiss me. The taste of my own juices on his lips and tongue drove me wild, but it was more than that. I actually just…liked kissing him?
I could have stayed like this for hours, folded in half with our tongues dancing together, but Jorem eventually leaned away and unstrapped the belt buckles. While I stretched out my legs, he traced his fingers across the slowly fading tattoos on my stomach.
“I guess if I want to see them more, I’ll have to conjure up a little snack for you first,” he commented.
I chuckled. “Is that really so terrible?”
“No,” he said. “Not at all.”
We eventually cleaned ourselves up in a nearby stream, playfully splashing each other like a pair of dopey, love-smitten teenagers. It was so out of character for me that I felt like scowling at my reflection in the water, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This was fun—harmlessly, helplessly fun. Was that really so terrible?
It will be once you finish your mission and have to kill him.
The thought swept in like a black storm cloud over my mood, and I sighed and got dressed as quickly as possible. We hopped on the horse and headed straight for the mine, and just like I planned we arrived not long after sundown.
“I really hope you know where you’re going,” Jorem commented when the terrain became a rocky, nearly impassable mess. “Because there’s no way in the abyss we’d ever find this place in the dark.”
“I’ve been here before,” I told him, surveying the moon-shrouded silhouette of the mountain on the horizon. “There’s a trail, but we’ll have to leave the horse again.”
It took us almost half an hour to follow the rocky, winding trail up to the actual mine, but the Brotherhood presence was obvious long before that. The torches in the distance were the most obvious clue, but there also footprints everywhere. They must have been moving people in and out of his place with surprising regularity.
“Watch out for the traps,” I said, pointing to a nasty spring-loaded clamp a few yards off the path. “I can’t imagine why anyone would come out here, but they’re obviously not taking chances.”
“Maybe that’s a sign that Sobren is here after all,” Jorem mused.
“Probably.” I pursed my lips and tried to recall the layout from memory. “This way. I think we can work our way around the perimeter without being spotted.”
A few minutes later, we were staring at the entrance to the mine—and the dozen armed men the Brotherhood had guarding the entrance. I didn’t doubt our ability to overpower them if necessary, but doing so silently would be virtually impossible. And if any of them shouted a warning, their boss would be long gone before we ever got close. I wasn’t going to make that mistake a second time.
“You’re skilled enough with evocations,” I whispered after we had crouched down behind a pile of rocks about thirty yards from the entrance. “How are you at transmutation?”
“I can’t wiggle my fingers and melt us a way through all that rock, if that’s what you’re asking,” Jorem said. “The only way in is straight past that horrible bottleneck, and who knows how many more men they have inside.”
“I’m not worried about the men—I’m worried about the noise.” I sighed in frustration. “You know Sobren better than I do. What are the odds he has an escape route built into the mountain somewhere?”
“Is there anything higher than one hundred percent?” Jorem replied dryly. “He’ll flee at the first sign of trouble. We could roam the hills and try to find the exit, but that could take days.”
“If not weeks,” I agreed. “Like you said, the only way in is through.”
“It’s too bad you ruined that red dress.”
“Somehow I doubt the slave girl trick will work a second time.”
“It wouldn’t. I was just thinking how much I’d like to see you in it again.”
I snorted softly. “We could always wait, but there’s no guarantee he’ll leave through this exit.”
“Or that he won’t have fifty more thugs with him,” Jorem agreed. “So what’s the plan, sweetheart?”
“Back at the vineyard, you said that killing isn’t always the answer.”
“It’s not.”
“I’m about to prove you wrong.”
“Uh…what?”
“Follow me,” I said, grabbing his arm and tugging him along.
We stayed low as we swung around to the western side of the cavern where several Brotherhood thugs were loitering around some old mining carts. Once they eventually ambled back to their companions in front of the mine, I unsheathed the tiger claws concealed in my gauntlet and began mentally mapping out the location of every perimeter guard.
“No…” Jorem whispered. “Please don’t tell me you’re planning what I think you’re planning.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s bloody insane!”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me, then. Now be quiet and let me do my job.”
After taking a final calming breath, I crept towards the lone nearby guard as he lazily circled the perimeter. His mind was clearly somewhere else, and I didn’t have the slightest bit of difficultly sneaking up behind him, clasping my hand over his mouth, or slashing open his throat. He died gurgling silently into my palm, and once he finally stopped twitching I dragged his body into the bushes and concealed it as best I could.
I remained silent and alert for several seconds afterwards just to make sure none of the other guards had heard anything. When no one in the camp responded, I slinked back over to the mining carts and signaled to Jorem.
“This is madness!” he hissed, his eyes flicking down to the fresh blood dripping from my claws. “Escar’s mercy, we can’t—”
I shoved my left hand into his mouth while my right drew a charged vatari crystal from my pouch and crushed it in my palm. Its energy washed over me, and I took another deep breath to steady myself. Jorem was right about the relative sanity of this plan—the odds that this would actually work like I imagined were somewhere around zero. But he and I had already proven that we were a pretty good team, and there was nothing quite like a suicide mission to put our skills to the test. Besides, the bottom line was that this was probably the last chance I would ever get to catch Sobren Lecasi, and I intended to make the most of it.
“Stay calm and quiet,” I said. “This will work. I promise.”
Before he could argue, I used my Senosi strength to throw him into the mining cart. I dove on top of him, then pulled one of the tarps over us and hit the release lever. The cart started rolling forward down the track and into the mine.
I flattened myself as low as I could before anyone spotted us, hoping that the guards would assume someone else had triggered the track from deeper inside. No one cried out or shot at us, which seemed like a pretty good first step.
I grinned down at Jorem as we rolled. With the tarp slung over us, it was completely dark in here aside from my faintly glowing eyes. I could see their reflection in his dark brown irises along with his rising fear. He genuinely thought I was mad.
I was, of course, but not in the way he thought. My smile widened, and I brought
my lips to his as we continued picking up speed. He kissed me back, tentatively at first but more passionately with each passing second. I felt him reach out to the Aether and sheathe himself in a protective mantle of energy, but he didn’t stop there. His fingers touched my midriff while he channeled, allowing me to feed almost as easily as if his cock were bursting in my mouth. I siphoned as much energy from as I could without stripping away his power completely, and I even nibbled at his lip for a final taste of his delicious, teeming blood…
And then the cart came to an abrupt, crashing halt. Frantic shouts echoed through the mineshaft, and I heard the ringing of scabbards and the clod of armored boots all around us. I couldn’t tell if we were surrounded by five soldiers or several dozen, but at this point it honestly didn’t matter.
It was time to finish this. One way or another.
I vaulted out of the mining cart, drawing both crossbows from my hips in mid-air. I only had a split second to take in our surroundings before I landed, but it was more than enough. Eight Brotherhood goons were fanned out across the passage, their faces and bodies lit by the magical torches on the walls. We appeared to be at some sort of junction on the track, and these men obviously hadn’t expected a cart to arrive at this hour. They were suspicious enough to have their hands on their weapons, but not suspicious enough to have them loaded and ready.
It was their last mistake. I fired a single shot from each crossbow a microsecond before I hit the ground, killing two of the guards before they even realized what was happening. I lashed out with my right leg and kicked a third hard enough that half the bones in his body shattered when he struck the wall, at which point I dropped into a crouch and tumbled forward while the mechanical cartridge in my weapons automatically reloaded. Most of the men had actually drawn their weapons by the time I sprang back to my feet, but it didn’t save them. I shot two more of them before they could move, then rushed forward to engage the rest hand-to-hand.
Even without my enhanced strength and speed, I was more than a match for any one of them individually; with it, I probably could have butchered an entire squad of these wretches without breaking a sweat. I pounced between them in a blur of claws and feet, slashing open their flesh and smashing their skulls into the rock one after another.