by Aaron Crash
Tessa gave him a smoldering look. “He does. Of course he does. Who wouldn’t?”
That was the question. Who wouldn’t want to watch the two women kiss each other, their lust so visible on their faces, their skin flushed.
Sabina turned Tessa around and undid her dress. The blind woman licked up Tessa’s neck and then nipped at her ear.
Slowly—agonizingly slow—Sabina pulled Tessa’s dress down to reveal her pale breasts and pink nipples. They were big pools of luscious skin with a little nubbin at each tip. Sabina cupped Tessa’s breasts and kissed her neck. “She is nice, isn’t she? The ink on her skin is so dark. It makes her skin, especially her tits, look so bright.”
Steven’s mouth was dry. He was so hard.
Tessa moaned as the blind woman caressed her skin.
“Would you like to see more, Steven?” Sabina asked.
“Hell yeah I would.”
He took a step away from the door. His footstep echoed through the room.
“No, my Prime. You’ll just watch for now. It will be better this way, I promise,” Sabina said. “Trust me. Let the anticipation build like the embers of a great fire.”
Steven wasn’t sure. He was aching for some relief. But he’d play the game that Sabina obviously wanted.
He nodded.
Sabina gathered the material of Tessa’s dress and pulled it up and over her head.
Tessa stood in only her black panties and her black heels. She looked like a goth goddess being worshiped by Sabina.
“Oh, fuck, Steven,” the barista whispered. “This is turning me on so much.”
Sabina kissed up Tessa’s thigh and then peeled her underwear down to show the top line of the barista’s pubic hair. Sabina’s hands touched the heels before slowly sliding up the barista’s legs until one hand caressed between Tessa’s legs. The barista shifted her weight to give the kneeling woman access to her sex.
Sabina had her eyes closed. She rested her cheek against Tessa’s thigh. “She’s wet. I can feel her through her panties. She’s so warm there. So excited. Do you want to see?”
“Say yes,” Tessa hissed.
“I do,” Steven gulped from the door. He shouldered off his coat and let it fall to the floor. His shirt followed. He kicked off his shoes and pulled off his socks.
Sabina took the sides of Tessa’s underwear and pulled them down until the triangle of fur between her thighs was revealed. The barista stepped out of the panties.
“Oh, my Prime, but you can’t really see her, can you?” Sabina stood and eased Tessa back onto the bed.
Tessa let her legs fall open. Steven was given a wonderous view. Sabina knelt on the bed, moving her hand up and down the barista’s belly, to her breasts, to her neck, and back down.
Steven finished undressing and stood naked before them. His desire was apparent.
“She is excited,” Sabina said in a sultry voice. “And you are too. I’ve tasted her already. Can I taste you?”
Steven nodded. His heart pounded in his ears.
Sabina tweaked one of Tessa’s nipples and kissed her head. “Do you mind if I get our Prime ready for you?”
“Oh, fuck, I think he’s ready, Sabina. And I know I am. You’re killing us.”
“No, mi amor, not killing you. I’m going to make it so sweet for you both, when the times comes.”
Tessa laughed a little. “When the time comes, I’ll come with it.”
The barista was a marvel, always so funny, always so clever.
Sabina rose and stood in front of Tessa. “Can you unzip me, mi amor?”
Tessa rose and took care of Sabina’s dress. With one sweeping motion, the Latina woman peeled it up and over her head. She tossed it on the bed. She then cupped her own breasts. “This is the first time you are seeing me, my Prime. I hope, I pray you like me.”
“I do,” Steven whispered. “I will.”
Sabina reached back and unclipped her bra. She let the lacy thing fall to the floor.
She had big, thick nipples, dark on her creamy brown skin. She was as big as Tessa, if not bigger. Sabina bent. Her breasts hung from her taut body as she undid the straps of her shoes. She kicked them off, straightened, and then jiggled her wonderful frame to remove her panties.
The newest member of his Escort stood naked in front of him.
Steven licked his lips. She had amazing legs, full hips, and clipped pubic hair.
Tessa was up on her elbows, watching them. She was still spread on the bed. Her heels were still on—sexy as hell.
Sabina slunk toward him, hips rising and falling, getting nearer and nearer. When she was close, she whispered, “Give me your hand.”
He did. She placed his palm on her breast, and he felt the nipple grow even bigger. She leaned in. “Kiss me. And then I’ll taste you. I’ll get you ready to fuck Tessa.”
That wasn’t exactly necessary. Steven had never been harder. He was a little worried that he wouldn’t last five seconds once she touched him.
He kissed Sabina. She radiated sex through her body heat and through her perfume. Their tongues met, she moaned, and he found himself moaning along with her. She nipped his upper lip playfully.
Then she was on her knees before him, sucking on him.
Tessa had one hand on her breast, giving him a look that scorched his soul. He knew she wanted to rub her sex, but she was going to wait for him. Like Sabina had said ... it would make it all the sweeter.
Sabina used her mouth on him, and her hands, and he moved with her. His hand dropped to her head. He had to force himself not to be rough. Just when he threatened to erupt, Sabina withdrew and kissed his thigh and touched his lower back.
She stood. “I think you both are ready. I will watch. I will pleasure myself. And someday, my Prime, someday soon, you will pleasure me. But not yet. It is the anticipation you see. Unquenched thirst is an agony until it is satisfied. And then it is heaven.”
“Hurry, Steven!” Tessa wailed.
Stabina stood, and he led her over to bed, helping guide her.
“Go to her,” Sabina whispered.
Tessa scooted up onto the bed, lay flat, and then Steven was inside her.
She felt so sweet, so hot, so wet around him.
Before he knew it, he was pistoning in and out of her, going faster, faster, faster.
Tessa let out a gasp. “Coming, Steven. I’m coming on you. Harder. Fuck me through it. Fuck me forever!”
Nothing could stop Steven from being thrown into one of the best orgasms of his life. Sabina was forgotten for the moment, but he had the idea that had been her plan all along. The teasing, the blissful torture, the whole deal had been a gift from her to Steven and Tessa.
Steven pounded into Tessa until both were satisfied. Glorious Animus filled them both, making their skins glow.
Sabina had stacked pillows against the headboard. She leaned back against them, touching herself.
Steven withdrew from Tessa and stood at the edge of the bed.
“I can help with that, Sabina,” the barista murmured.
“I know you can, mi amor. If you want to, I will be quick.”
“Take all the time you want.” Tessa crawled between the other woman’s legs. The barista’s ass was in the air.
Sabina sighed at the feel of Tessa’s mouth on her. “Sí, oh, sí, sí, sí.”
Watching them together did wonders for Steven. He got on the bed and slid back into Tessa. Gripping her hips, he made love to her once more, this time slowly.
It wasn’t long until all of them were filled with more Animus, and the room turned into a furnace of sex. The wind off the ocean, coming through the open window, did little to cool them off. Hours passed.
In the early morning hours, dawn not far away, Steven found himself on the bed, sweating, while Tessa slept.
Sabina, though, was awake. She was spooned next to him. She rested her head on his chest. Yes, it made his situation sweatier, but that was okay. He was so satisfied.
“So it’s clear you don’t think I’m ugly,” Sabina said with a little smile in her voice.
“Far from it. You’re amazing. What you did for us ... to us. It was amazing.” Steven felt a fresh wave of excitement zip through his body, but he kept it down. He was tired. And they needed to rest. It had been a hell of a day. Or night. Depending on the time zone. They’d all been up an entire day if not more.
“You will be my third husband,” Sabina murmured. “I thought about letting you take me tonight. I wanted it. I wanted you. I saw the joy you brought Tessa. But then I remembered my own sadness. Scotty was kind to me, too. He respected me. Mulk was cruel, but he was a good lover. He didn’t talk to me, and that was fine.”
Steven had to laugh a bit. “Uh, talking about your exes is not really working for me.”
“I know.” Sabina sighed. “But I have to tell you why I’m being careful with my body and my heart. When we make love, it will join our lives. You are magic, Steven. You are special, and I worry that I will be destroyed by you.”
That shocked him a bit. “I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“If I give you my heart, and you die, that will destroy me. You wield a power that my other husbands did not.”
Steven held her close. “And with that power, I will stay alive, and I’ll keep you safe. I swear I will.”
Sabina slid off the bed. “I know you will try. But I also know what I’ve seen in my visions. Death, bloodshed, sorrow—the shadows coming alive to devour us. And there is Mouse. I see her burning, weeping, lost and alone. She is a troubled woman, and I fear her troubles are only beginning.”
Steven sat up.
Tessa rolled over and slapped him, totally by accident. She didn’t wake up but slept on.
He got out of the bed.
Sabina went to the window that looked out over the city lights to the dark walls and black ocean beyond. “I smell the world. I feel the air. I can’t see, but I can feel so much now. It scares me. The past is always there, with its secrets. And the future looms with its many uncertainties. And the present is poisoned by them both.” A pause. “There is something I want, my Prime. I’m afraid you won’t like it, but I will tell you. I want to become a Dragonskin. I want to go through the rituals, however difficult, to grow in power. For too long, I’ve watched other people have power I didn’t. I want it for myself.”
“If that’s what you want,” Steven said. “But I hear the process is difficult and painful.”
“I don’t fear pain,” the blind woman said. “I don’t fear the darkness. My only fear is losing you ... or failing you.”
Steven wasn’t sure what to say.
Sabina found the words. “Magica Divinatio.” Emerald light poured from her eyes. She picked up the third volume and flipped to the last page. Steven moved to look over her shoulder. His eyes kept going to her wonderful nipples, though, which made it hard to concentrate.
The words flowed around like spilled ink until lines began to form, going from paragraphs into illustrations. Mountains stood over a cabin beside the glistening waters of a stream. On the porch, an old man was in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth. The lines moved, animating the page. Words appeared underneath.
Uchiko brings me the peach cobbler, and I love her for it. I miss my books. I miss my brothers, though I don’t remember their names. I’m old. I was so young for so long. Why didn’t I enjoy it? Why didn’t I celebrate my mind? And now it is gone. And I am left with nothing but my friend, my one friend, and a broken mind that betrays me at every turn.
“Mathaal,” Steven said. “Old Matchstick is alive. But where is he?”
“Montana,” Sabina whispered.
The book slammed shut and fell to the floor. They watched as iron bands and large locks appeared out of the leather, and in seconds, the third volume had locked itself tight.
Steven bent down and picked it up. It was far heavier than it had been.
He thought he heard laughter from inside the bound book, but it was hard to tell. Soon, the only sound was the wind through the window and Sabina’s breathing.
Her eyes had lost their glow. “We should go, now. Rahaab didn’t think I could see through the magic he put on the book, and it was Rahaab that ensorcelled the text. If he could sense me, he could send his wives to find us.”
Steven nodded. So much for spending the night in their love nest. If Rahaab knew that they were in France, they needed to get back to America, to Montana, as fast as possible.
“Hurry, guys,” Steven said to his Escort back in Wyoming. “We need to get home.”
Chapter Sixteen
MOUSE PULLED THE CHEVY Silverado into the dirt parking lot of Torchy’s Bar and Grill in Hooper, Montana. The sun was gone, but the red light of the sunset still glowed on the horizon. Mouse did a little time zone calculation. It would be after 5 a.m. in France—the next fucking day.
It had taken forever to get to Montana. They’d had to hook up the trailer, and they’d gotten a flat fire on the Chevy. Liam was wiped, so he couldn’t help much. It didn’t matter, though, as Mouse and Aria were dragons and could lift some heavy shit, so hitching up the trailer and putting on the spare had been easy for them. The Yellow Ronin did have enough energy to pull the dad card, though: he’d insisted that they all sleep in a rest area in the middle of Wyoming’s grasslands that first night.
While Aria and Liam had crawled into the Jayco, Mouse slept in the driver’s seat. Of course she couldn’t just sleep. Horrific dreams haunted her, visions of her walking alone and naked through a wasteland of fire and ash. Things with claws and teeth filled the shadows. And they weren’t dragons.
It was eight hours from Cheyenne to Hooper. They’d taken I-25 to where it became I-90 and then breezed through Montana highway towns—Billings, Park City, Big Timber—until they hit Livingston. They took a left on Highway 89, like they were going down to Yellowstone. The scenery was pretty—wide meadows, tall mountains, crystal-clear rivers, and lakes full of trout—but Mouse couldn’t give a fuck. She wanted her Steven back.
Hooper was a wide spot on the road off the highway ... basically a Shell station, a post office, three dead restaurants, and Torchy’s, which wasn’t really living, but wasn’t quite dead either. Undead. Clearly, it didn’t get a lot of foot traffic outside the local meth heads, bikers, and wild-eyed survivalists who still cared enough about modern civilization to drink its mass-produced whiskey. Oh, and Cassius Pine’s foot soldiers who stayed close to his Yellowstone Aerie. But not too close.
Too bad the town was doomed. Mouse remembered what they’d done to the little hamlet of Ash Hollow in Nebraska. Every building had been destroyed. Hooper, Montana, might share the same fate.
Mouse parked the truck and trailer on the far side of the parking lot. In front of the bar were a dozen Harleys, a rusted, beaten-down brown truck with a tattered camper on it, a mud-splattered Toyota Forerunner—mostly primer sitting on four bald tires—and a brand-new BMW sedan. Bingo. One of these things is not like the others.
Aria sat next to Mouse in the passenger seat. Liam was in the back seat doing his best impression of a throw pillow. He was curled up under a blanket, out to the world.
“Are you sure we’ll find Cassius Pine’s people here?” Aria asked.
“It’s an outpost for the Rocky Mountain Plains Primacy,” Mouse answered with a nod. “Let’s get dressed up and go in there. I can’t drink. You have to.”
Aria frowned. “Why?”
“Just follow my lead. We need to figure out who is a civilian—those are the people we shouldn’t kill—and who is working for Cassius. Those we can kill all we want. But we have to save a couple for Liam so he can get his mojo back and get a damn portal spell up and running.”
The Indian woman didn’t move. “American bars. I’ve played this game before when we needed money. I don’t like to drink. And I find such places distasteful.”
Mouse laughed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, and battlefields are just fine.”
>
“They are,” Aria replied simply, no sarcasm in her voice. “There, the rules are clear. Kill or be killed. Inside a place like that? I must be careful who I murder. It’s such a pain.”
Mouse raised her eyebrows and had to close her mouth. “Yeah, indiscriminate violence is far easier. Come on, Ms. Bloodthirsty. You’ll get a fight. And this is my chance to let Cassius Pine know that we don’t believe his bullshit.”
“Steven might not approve,” Aria muttered, genuine concern seeping through.
They weren’t going to revisit this teaming up with the enemy nonsense. “Aria, Steven promised me revenge. I mean to get it. And besides, he’s a man of his word. He’ll be alright with this.” She banged out of the Chevy and into the Jayco, going fast. Aria eventually joined her. They both got dressed up, hit the makeup, sprayed on perfume, and did the hairspray thing. Mouse thought about taking the Slayer Blade in with her but decided she wouldn’t need it, not against low-level mercenaries.
Aria wore a slinky scarlet dress that accentuated her dark skin and dark hair. Thick mascara made her green eyes pop. Holy damn, she looked so hot it almost made Mouse rethink her sexuality. As for the petite blonde, she went classic black dress, tight enough to let men know what she looked like naked. Both dresses were going to be sacrificed though, once the shifting and fighting started.
In stilettos, they maneuvered across the dirt. Mouse slammed her hand against the Chevy. “Liam, wake the fuck up. We’re going to bring out one of Cassius Pine’s scumbags so you can feed on him.”
“I’m not a vampire,” the Yellow Ronin protested. “And don’t bring me the blood of the innocent. I’m not a demon either.”
“Oh, there’s no innocence in a place like this.” Mouse hooked arms with Aria. “Do you like to drink?”
“No, I don’t like to lose control,” Aria replied.
Mouse rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you need to say that again in English. I have no idea what that even means.”
They walked into the bar. It was an ode to taxidermy and the second amendment. Deer heads, antelope heads, elk heads, and bare antlers covered the cheap fake-wood paneling of the walls. Above the bar were rifles—every make, model, and flavor imaginable, from AR-15s to muskets complete with bayonets.