Curse of Magic

by Michael Brightburn

  And relief.

  Still, I wanted to get away from here. No reason to taunt them by standing just out of their reach. “Come on.”

  We ran again, slower this time, and eventually caught up to Vi.

  She, of course, had heard us coming, and was now stopped in the road, watching us as we approached, holding Sienna.

  I said nothing until we reached her, then whispered, “You hear her?”

  “The Breaker?” She shook her head. “No. This is the way she went?”

  I nodded, glancing at the trail of magic residue ahead of us. “We need to catch our breath. Let’s go sit by that tree there.”

  “But the dead,” Vi protested.

  “They stopped following us at the edge of the city,” Alva said.

  Vi nodded at this, then did a double-take at Alva. “You’re not Trin.” She raised her hackles, a low growl coming from deep in her throat.

  “Down girl,” I told her.

  “What kind of dark sorcery is this?”

  Alva headed toward the tree I pointed at, shrugging as she passed by. “No idea.”

  She set an unconscious Trin down next to it, then sat down beside her.

  “Come on,” I told Vi. “Bring Sienna over there. She needs to recharge.”

  I hoped that was all that it was.

  Vi grunted and followed, and we all sat around the tree.

  Sitting felt good. I wasn’t accustomed to this much physical exertion.

  To exertion of any kind other than the purely mental day-to-day duties of a king.

  I studied Trin’s unconscious form.

  Parts of her flesh were deathly pale, but I didn’t know how to counteract that.

  Maybe Sienna would. When she woke up.

  If she woke up.

  If that dead city hadn’t done something worse to her than just cut her off from the earth’s power.

  “She’s getting farther away,” Vi growled.

  “That’s the point. Let her think she won. Let her think she lost us.”

  “How did she know we were following her?”

  “Maybe she didn’t,” Alva said.

  “She led us right into a trap. She went into that inn and waited till the dead awoke. Then called them and cast whatever kind of spell she did on Darthos.”

  I nodded. “I should’ve been more careful. She must’ve twisted my ability to sense magic. Used it to make me see a delusion instead of magic. I thought I had run after her, then I woke up to find I was still only a few paces from where I’d been when she’d screamed.

  “That might be how she knew we were following her. Perhaps she detected my sensing of her magic. If so, that would mean that she’s… incredibly powerful. Moreso than I could have imagined. It’s not impossible, but detecting something that passive would be a hell of a thing.”

  “So what do we do?” Vi asked.

  “We leave her alone, obviously,” Alva said.

  I shook my head. “I promised Trin. Besides that, I want to know what that spell is. Why it’s so important. And who it’s important to.”

  Alva sighed. It was incredibly strange seeing her so large.

  Her breasts were proportionally even bigger than I’d realized. Her proportions, period, were amazing. Large chest, narrow waist, wide hips.

  Though I shuddered to think how much blood she would need at this size. That pouch that had knocked her out at the layhouse would now barely be an appetizer.

  Vi looked at Trin, then Sienna. “I need food. I can’t eat either of them.” She glared at Alva. “But she has even more meat now…”

  “You’re not—” I began, but Vi put up a clawed hand.

  “I know. But I need to eat something. I’m going to go to that stream. I think I smelled fish in there.”

  I motioned at Trin. “Check her bag. She might have food.”

  Vi wrinkled her nose. “Only bread. I’m not eating bread.”

  “Can’t you wait?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “You shouldn’t go back toward that city.”

  “I won’t.” She pointed across the road to a gradual hill. “I hear the stream over there. I’ll go that way until I meet it.”

  “Fine. But don’t go far.”

  “I’ll go as far as I need to while still being able to hear you. Whistle and I’ll come back.”

  “You sure you’ll be able to find us again?”

  She huffed. “I could smell you from farther than I can hear you. The trick would be not finding you.”

  She headed off over the hill, leaving Alva and me alone with an unconscious Trin and Sienna.

  Alva watched until she was gone, then turned and looked at me. And kept looking.

  “What is it?”

  “All this excitement has made me excited.”

  “Okay… And?”

  “Well, we’ve got time. I’m big now. You’re big… So…”

  “So, what?”

  She bared her fangs and leapt at me.

  43

  Before I knew what was happening we were both naked and I was on the ground beneath her.

  She was soaking wet already and it didn’t take long for my manhood to respond and grow engorged.

  She wasted no time sliding this inside of herself, letting out a moan of ecstasy as she did. “Oh by all the dead gods.”

  I couldn’t help but run my hands down her sides, her perfect curves. I gripped her massively large breasts.

  She rode me hard and fast—chaotically—moaning loudly enough that I was pretty sure that Vi would be able to hear what we were doing.

  “Shh,” I hushed, thinking that the Breaker might hear us as well.

  Then again, she had to be far from here by now.

  When Alva didn’t slow down, I rolled us over so I was on top. Then I put my hand over her mouth and moved slowly in and out of her.

  “Quiet,” I scolded, and she nodded. Then she bit my hand and I yanked it away.

  “What the—”

  She smiled. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t hurt you. It was just a bite. You won’t get infected. Kiss me. I want to feel what it feels like.”

  I kept moving in and out of her slowly as I said, “You’ve never been kissed?”

  She shook her head.

  “How is that possible?”

  She panted softly as I pushed into her all the way. I held there for a moment before slowly pulling out and resuming my normal rhythm.

  Eyes closed, she replied, “We live a long time, vampires, so we have to be careful that we don’t make too many of us. So we can’t mate, not really. We tried just laying together without mating, but it always leads to mating. We’re insatiable that way. So the only way to not create too many of us is total abstinence until we’re ready for offspring.”

  “That sounds horrible.”

  She nodded eagerly. “It is.” She put her hands on my butt and squeezed, pulling me into her. “You feel so good. It feels so nice to have a man filling me.”

  “You’re not worried about producing some more little vampires?”

  Her eyes opened and her head tilted slightly. “Can we?”

  I shrugged. I had no idea.

  She shook her head. “I don’t care.” She pulled me into her again.

  I leaned down and slowly pressed my lips to hers.

  As soon as we made contact she moaned, arching her back and then a moment later I felt her convulsing around me as she orgasmed.

  I smiled but kept kissing her.

  An orgasm from a kiss. There was something exciting about that, and it pushed me very close to the edge myself.

  I moved faster and harder, trying to stay quiet, continuing to kiss her. I dug my hand into her hair, enjoyed the feel of the heat radiating off her body into me, the feel of her tongue against mine, of our naked skin rubbing together.

  Then I couldn’t hold back any longer and slammed hard one final time into her, and came.

  Pleasure washed through my body, and I became aware of every
single point at which our bodies touched: mouth, chest, stomach, crotch, thighs. Then this delineation faded, and it felt as though we’d merged, become one.

  She orgasmed again as she felt my seed inside of her and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me hard against her.

  I lay there, collapsed on top of her as she twitched, hand loosely coiled in her hair, both of us stupefied by pleasure.

  Then she twitched hard, tightening down on me so much that it was like she’d grabbed me with her hand and squeezed with all her might.

  It didn’t hurt, but it was shocking.

  She let out a squeak and suddenly the tightness was even stronger.

  I was just pushing myself off of her when she abruptly shrunk beneath me, popping off my cock and going flying, like those annoying laysheaths were wont to do.

  She landed a few feet away, her normal size now, once again about the length of my forearm.

  I stared at her as she spat out dirt and brushed herself off. She looked up at me in confusion. “Did you just get…” She looked down at herself, then around at the surroundings. “No.” There was a deep sadness in her voice.

  She ran back to me, and when she saw that she was small again, collapsed to her knees and started crying.

  “Hey,” I said gently, and scooped her up.

  She pounded at my hands. “Put me down! I’m not a little doll for you to play with!”

  I quickly put her back down. “Sorry. I only meant to comfort you.”

  “Why did I have to shrink again? We were so perfect together. We fit so well. Now I’m back to barely being bigger than your prick!” She started sobbing.

  I wanted to comfort her, but didn’t know how. I tried resting two fingers on her tiny shoulders.

  She grabbed them and wrapped them tight around herself. “I don’t understand. Am I being punished for mating with a human? What did I—” Then she looked up at me, her eyes going wide. “No. I passed out! After the lizard blood.” She stood up, dropping my fingers. “That must be it!” she said excitedly. “We need to go get more of those lizards.”

  “Alva, that was a long ways back.”

  “I don’t care,” she pouted.

  I glanced at Trin and Sienna. Both were still unconscious. “We can’t. We’ll lose the trail. And we still need to wait for them to wake up. Besides, it knocked you out for longer than you grew for.”

  Alva crossed her arms across her bare bosom.

  “How about this. After we catch the Breaker or see where she’s going, we’ll come back here and get those lizards for you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. We’ll get as many as you want. Actually, I think Sienna said something about the mushrooms around there. So maybe it was those. We can get some of them too.”

  “Do you promise?” Her arms fell to her sides.

  “I promise.”

  She leapt up and grabbed onto my neck, hugging me.

  I held her there with my hand.

  Then she grabbed my chin and kissed me on the lips.

  It was different with her at this size, as her lips were maybe a fifth the size of my own.

  I set her down and started to dress.

  “What?” I asked, when she only stared at her clothes.

  “They’ll fit me.”

  “Of course, they—” Then I realized what she meant. “Huh. Guess Elanos is a really good tailor.” Her clothes hadn’t torn when she’d grown, even when she’d grown as large as a building, and now they were back to their normal size.

  I’d thought it was only certain areas that would grow and shrink to fit, but apparently it was all of them.

  Strange. But Elanos was a divine, and there were much stranger things about them than this.

  44

  When Vi came back she was carrying two bitter carps with her.

  She saw that Alva was once more small, and smiled. “I brought you food,” she said, looking at me. “And her.” She didn’t look at Alva as she said this.

  Alva jumped for one of the fish, but Vi lifted it out of her reach.

  “Gimme gimme gimme. I’m famished after—” She stopped herself. “After all that walking.”

  “What walking?” Vi growled. “You’ve been asleep the whole time.”

  “I wasn’t asleep. I was unconscious. There’s a difference.”

  “Oh yeah? What is that?”

  “One’s a choice, the other is a requirement.”

  Vi huffed, but lowered one of the fish down so Alva could take it.

  She tackled it to the ground and sunk her fangs into it, sucking greedily.

  Vi handed me the other fish.

  “Thanks,” I told her.

  She nodded and sat down beside me as I got out my sword from the man who fell from the sky, and began scraping the scales off.

  “What are you doing?” Vi asked.

  “I’m cleaning it.”

  “It was clean before you put it on the ground.”

  “No. I’m taking the scales off. You can’t eat the scales.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’re not good. They’re hard and sharp.”

  “Ah. You just have to make sure you swallow it headfirst.”

  “I’ll stick to eating it how I’m used to.” It was too bad we didn’t have a fire. Bitter carps weren’t the greatest raw—where they got their name—but I didn’t feel like building one and potentially drawing attention with the smoke.

  By the time I was done cleaning my fish, Alva had sucked hers dry.

  Her enlarged breasts, butt, hips, and stomach drew my eye and made me wish she was my size again so I could luxuriate in her soft flesh.

  Instead I sliced a fillet from the fish and bit into it.

  It was bitter, as expected. A bitterness that fire would’ve turned sweet. I chewed mechanically.

  “That place must’ve really drained her,” Vi said, looking at Sienna.

  I nodded in agreement. “We need to get moving soon. I don’t want to risk losing the Breaker.”

  “What if she detects us again?” Alva said lazily from her place on the ground where she lay sprawled.

  I hoped she hadn’t drank too much blood. The bitter carp Vi had given her was nearly the size of her own body, and the fish she’d left behind looked dehydrated, like it had been left out to dry into jerky.

  “I don’t know.” This was risky, but it was the only way to secure Trin’s help. Help which would make defeating Orathar so much easier. Not that it would make it easy.

  Other than a wizard—or a divine—I couldn’t think of anyone who would be more useful.

  When I finished my fish, I picked up the carcass Alva had left and tossed it and my own far away from the road, then went to Trin to inspect her.

  She didn’t look any better than she had before, but she also didn’t look any worse. And critically, she was still breathing.

  In her pack I found a flask of water, and took several long drinks from it.

  “I should have taken that to fill,” Vi said.

  “We’ll get more.” I held it out to her.

  She shook her head. “Just went fishing, remember? Drank my fill.”

  I put the flask back, then checked on Sienna.

  She was still out. I shook her, slapped her face gently to try to rouse her.

  She made a noise in her throat and moved slightly, but didn’t wake.

  “It looks like we’re going to have to carry them,” I told Vi.

  Her lip quivered, briefly baring her teeth to me, but she didn’t protest, instead getting up and lifting the dryad into her arms.

  I stowed my blade, then swung Trin over my shoulder, her pack whacking me in the head as I did.

  I grunted.

  In the road I turned back to Alva, who was still lying on the ground. “You coming?”

  Her eyes opened and she let her head roll to look at us. “We’re moving already?”

  “Or we can leave you behind,” Vi said.

  “No,” A
lva said, and pushed herself up lazily.

  She got to her feet and staggered to where we were, holding her arms up to me.

  I frowned down at her. “What?”

  “Pick me up.”

  “I thought you didn’t like being treated like a doll?”

  She sighed heavily. “My legs are not as big as yours.”

  “You’ll live,” I told her, and turned to walk down the road.

  Vi happily joined me.

  “But Darthos…” she whined.

  “Better hurry up with your little legs, else you might get left behind.”

  She moaned dramatically, but then started following us. “My feet hurt.”

  “You’ve only taken a few steps.”

  “I know!” she agreed emphatically.

  I shook my head and continued on.

  Every couple hundred paces she would whine again.

  But she kept up with us.

  I only Pulled to check the magic trail intermittently, to minimize the chance that we would be detected again by the Breaker, if that was how she’d discovered we were following her before.

  She’d have to be very powerful to have done so, but the fact that she had planted a delusion in my head by Breaking my passive tracking spell was ample proof of just how powerful she was.

  It made me wish I had practiced magic more growing up, wished I hadn’t been so afraid to do so.

  I was sure my father wouldn’t have been fooled, wouldn’t have let his magic be twisted like that.

  But I wasn’t my father. I was no god-king.

  The trail wound through the gentle rolling hills, and I wondered again where the Breaker was headed. Where she was delivering that scroll to.

  Wondered again what it was for, and why it contained such an extraordinary amount of magic.

  And what was this mysterious organization that had killed Trin’s parents? What use did they have for the spell?

  We walked until sunrise, the trail of magic breaking off from the road and going into the hills, leading up onto a mountain.

  Alva’s complaining increased as our climb steepened, and eventually she started falling so far back that I relented and let her sit on the shoulder Trin wasn’t currently occupying. She was light, so it wasn’t much more of a burden.

  She hugged my neck, then snuggled into it, resting there, legs draped inside my shirt for balance. It was no throne, but she seemed comfortable nonetheless.