by Bruce Sentar
He’d never killed a human before, at least not in this life. The devils and the hellhounds had felt different. It would have been different in the heat of battle, but with Henry just laying prone on the ground, it felt wrong.
Swallowing around the lump in his throat, he tried to lower his hand, only to hesitate again. He spat and cursed. Why did this have to be so hard?
“What’s wrong?” Cherry asked confused.
“I just… fuck, I haven’t killed before.”
Cherry paused. “Sure you have. You killed the devils, the hellhounds.”
“I know, I know. He’s a person though, not some monster.” He still couldn’t bring himself to kill.
“You’ve clearly fought before,” Cherry added. “Did none of those times end in death?”
“A bar fight or in a ring? Sure, that’s fighting, but you end the fight when the other guy can’t get up.” The wizard was still at his feet and it grated on him; it was wrong.
“Dar. Listen to me. You have to kill him, or he’s going to come back with the entirety of the wizards and nobility in the city to hunt you. They will kill you, kill me, kill Sasha and anyone else you care about. Or worse, kill all of us and capture you for experimentation.” Cherry added steadily, “Kill him.”
Roaring into the quiet night, Dar used the imagery Cherry had just provided. He knew instinctively she was right. He pictured the wizard standing over Sasha’s dead body, and the world came into a clearer focus.
This time, he had no hesitation as he slammed his hand down, rippling with the dao of heat and burning a hole through the man’s throat.
The wizard’s eyes snapped open one final time before the light bled out of them to a dull, glazed gaze, staring up at Dar.
As the rage left him, Dar heaved, leaning over to the side and losing the contents of his stomach. He felt no guilt; the decision had been clear. But he hated that it had to happen.
Soft hands wrapped around his arm and tugged him away from where he was emptying his gut. “Come here. Don’t puke on your pants or Sasha will kill you.”
He appreciated her throwing in some humor in the moment, but his thoughts were still starting to spiral. He had just killed someone for the first time.
Cherry shushed him and pulled his head to the side, wiping his face for him. He let her, feeling suddenly wearier than before. He felt dry and used up, not just from puking, but also from the emotional toll of what he’d just done.
Letting Cherry lead him to a tree and sit him down, he just focused on this breathing. He took in mana with each breath and breathed out the used air and his worries.
He could hear the murmurings of Cherry talking to the other spirit, but he couldn’t bring his brain to make sense of any of the words. Every time he’d try and focus, the dead eyes of the wizard kept pulling itself back to the forefront of his mind.
Leaning his head back against the tree, he gave up and continued working on his breathing, hoping the wizard’s face would fade from his mind.
In. Hold. Out.
He repeated the mantra over and over until he started to feel more control.
“Dar, are you okay?” Cherry’s voice was close. She must have crouched down.
“I think so.” Dar’s voice was so strained; he wasn’t sure if he even believed himself. He cleared his throat. “Yes, I’m doing better. Can you… bury him?”
“Yeah, Dar, I’ll take care of it. Mika is stripping him for his enchantments right now.”
“Mika?” he asked.
“The spirit. She’s sworn enough oaths to me now that we can let her live. But, Dar, it might be best if we kill her. Oaths aren’t ironclad, and sometimes they get twisted over time.”
“No, don’t kill her.” While there was some risk, if she’d sworn oaths, it seemed like a waste to take her life. She’d already had so much taken from her by the wizard. There’d been enough lost life for the day.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Mika said, and he opened his eyes to find her above him. She dropped a small armload of enchanted items at his side. “I don’t know how much you’d want to use these. The wizards in town would recognize them.”
Dar pointedly turned away from where he knew the wizard was to look at the enchanted items. “Are any of these common enough to get away with?”
Mika scrunched her nose and kicked the pile over to spread them out as her eyes wandered over them. Now that he wasn’t fighting her, Dar actually had time to get a better look at her.
The spirit was pretty, with light blue hair like the foam from the top of a wave and sandy brown eyes. She, like all the spirits that Dar had seen so far, was trim with curves in the right places, visible when she moved even though she was dressed in loose, rough clothing.
“No? I don’t think so.” She focused back on him and saw his attention, cocking an eyebrow. “Are you checking me out?”
Cherry laughed at the other spirit’s confusion. “Yes, he is. He is from far away, and he sees spirits and demons as attractive. At least, the ones he’s encountered so far.”
Mika looked confused, but then she just shrugged it off. “I’ve done my part. You’ve sworn me to oaths tighter than a devil’s asshole.” Mika gave a small glare towards Cherry before focusing back on Dar. “Can I go?”
“Will you be okay in the city?” Dar asked.
Mika snorted in disbelief. “Did he really just ask if I was going to be okay?”
“You are known there, right? As his spirit? If you go back—”
“I’m going to grab a friend from the city and get out of here. Fuck, the wizards are going crazy. I want to get as far away from Bellhaven as I can. You should too. If any of them realize you are… What are you?” Mika tilted her head.
“We’re calling me an immortal,” Dar said.
“Well, when they find out you aren’t a wizard, but an immortal wizard, they are going to trap you in the deepest, darkest hole they can and cut you apart piece by piece until they understand what you’ve done.”
While the reminder wasn’t pleasant, Dar was glad that she was at least enough on their side to volunteer the information and try to protect him. Or maybe she was just trying to provent his secret from spreading, but regardless, her intentions seemed on their side.
Dar looked at Mika. “Thanks for the advice. We are planning on leaving as soon as we’ve gathered a few things we need from the city.”
Mika looked over at Cherry. “Nicest damn wizard I’ve ever met. Good luck. I’ll watch the forest for the night like I promised.”
The wave spirit walked away, keeping an eye on Cherry. Mika seemed wary of Cherry, like she might attack at any moment.
“She was nice,” Dar commented as Cherry turned away from the departing spirit.
“Yes, she was. Shame I couldn’t convince her to come with us. But after being bound by oaths so tightly, she rightfully wanted to be as free as possible.” Cherry came and sat in Dar’s lap, pulling out a few of the dark red fruits she so loved.
“Cherry?” she said, falling into the cute head tilt she’d done so often.
“Sure, my mouth tastes foul.” He took the cherries one at a time, popping them like candies.
She broke her act with laughter. “Puking does that. Here’s a waterskin I found, to rinse your mouth out.”
Dar rinsed and spat a few times, only to be offered more cherries while she sat straddled on his lap. As he started feeling better, enjoying her company, he started to become much more aware of the warmth of her body pressing on his pelvis.
The warmth from her fruits gathering in his lower gut seemed to be relaxing him.
Cherry started scooting closer, seeming to intentionally rub against his member as she did so. He could feel his body starting to stir.
“Cherry—”
She put a finger over his lips and then leaned forward, replacing the finger with her lips. Her hand glided along his jaw, eventually sliding behind his ear and tangling into his hair. She gripped it tightly, pressing her body
into him more tightly.
Dar teased at her lips, nibbling on them and enjoying the slight lingering cherry juices passed between them as they kissed. She tasted like the cherries she so loved, and Dar couldn’t get enough of her.
Not quite sure what was coming over him, Dar suddenly felt ravenous. He pulled back. “Did you do something to me?”
She only smirked. “No, but you would be far from the first man to have this sort of reaction after combat. And I’m more than happy to help you get relief.” Her hips started rocking on his half mast, encouraging it to its full length.
Adrenaline still pumping through his body, Dar realized she was right. He felt invigorated after surviving the battle and his near-death had Cherry not warned him at the start.
His other battles had left him injured, but this time was different. He was clear headed after this one and he wanted nothing more than to lose himself in pleasure and forget everything that had happened.
“You feel good,” he said, focusing on her hips as her hands started to roam.
Cherry licked along his neck. “You taste good.” Her mouth moved along his jawline, suckling on the tender skin just under the side of his jaw.
He let go of a heavy breath, letting himself sink into the moment with Cherry and forget the rest of the world around him. She knew what he needed in that moment, and it was making his emotions and need for her surge even stronger.
“You are amazing, you know that?” He tugged at her white dress, pulling it up and over her head. As it moved upward, his eyes traveled along the revealed flesh. She was exquisite.
Cherry licked her lips and sat back, letting him take her in. She swayed on his lap as she ran her hands up along her curves. When she reached the locks of her hair, she pulled them up above her head, swaying her hips on him while her breasts followed the movement. Dar felt nearly hypnotized.
She gave him a sultry look, releasing her hair down her back, running her hands back down her face, along her breasts, until they were running along her thighs.
A ragged breath escaped Dar’s lips as she gave him her best ‘come fuck me’ look.
She gave a throaty laugh and sat further back as he shucked his clothes as quickly as he could. She lent a hand in pulling free his pants, only for his cock to spring out of his pants.
“Oh” There was genuine surprise. “Bigger than I expected.”
He grinned as he grabbed her hips, positioning her above him. “I hope you don’t want to back out now.”
“Never,” she purred, lowering herself slightly and working herself over his tip. He could feel her sweet, slick warmth, and it took all of his control not to thrust up into it. But he could tell she needed a bit of warm up before she’d be ready to take him fully.
So instead, he slid his hand between her thighs and traced loops around the hood of her clit, eliciting small moans of frustration. He continued circling, never quite making contact with the bud he knew would drive her crazy.
She gave him a heated look, starting to move her hips with his movements, trying to align it so that his finger would brush against the spot she wanted. It only worked part of the time, and she let out an exasperated moan.
“Fuck me, just do it already!” She pushed her hips forward and Dar made one last loop before directing his attention to her swollen pearl.
Cherry ground down harder on his cock, throwing her head back and moaning into the night before she started to sink further down on him.
He kept rubbing her clit while she worked him deeper into her. “You feel fantastic.” Stopping the movement, he took the moment to savor being sheathed deep inside of her.
“It just keeps going,” Cherry joked, swaying her hips several times until she worked him all the way to the hilt. They both sighed as he finally slammed home.
Dar tried to hold still while she relaxed around his girl. It was delicious torture not to thrust up into her at this moment, but he knew it would be worth the wait.
Cherry swayed ever so slightly on him, working to get used to him and stretch around him.
“I’ll go easy.” He grinned.
“I heard you and Sasha. There’s no way I’m letting you lead at first. This monster would split me in two.” She started to add more bounce to her hips, and Dar couldn’t help but lift her just a tad more to feel her slide back down on him.
They moved in sync, picking up the pace as she rose higher and higher on each sway of her hips. Soon she was moving so high that Dar found his own hips rising with her so he didn’t fall out.
Every time she came down, he was reminded just how gloriously tight she was. Holding her above him, he squeezed her thighs and started pistoning into her from below.
“Yes-s,” she cried as she braced on his shoulders. Her sex squeezed tightly around his cock as she threw her head back, panting in rhythm with him.
As her moans grew, Dar could feel Cherry’s body growing slicker and more heated. Soon after, she threw her head forward, biting on his collar to muffle her scream as he felt her ripple around him in orgasm.
“You okay?” Dar asked. She was still clamped into his collar.
“Yeah. Help me to my feet.”
Lifting her up, she braced herself against a tree, turning her heart-shaped ass to him, wiggling it as she tried to stand on unsteady legs. “Come and get it.”
Dar didn’t need a second offer. He positioned himself behind her and pulled her hips back, sliding her lush paradise around him. Easing back and moving her with him, he made sure that they got into a rhythm that wouldn’t have her getting pushed into the tree.
He slid back and forth into her, savoring each thrust as he kept his hands on her hips, directing her motions.
She was incredibly slick, and he leaned into it, closing his eyes and working himself in and out of her sex, feeling the pressure build in his balls. The sounds of flesh slapping together drowned out the sounds of nature as he built to his peak.
“Come on, fill me, Dar,” Cherry encouraged him, bucking against him.
Feeling aggressive, he grabbed a fist full of hair and pulled, arching her back and making her squeeze him even tighter.
It was just what he needed, thrusting into her tightness till he let out a grunt as he unloaded himself into her.
“Phew,” Dar breathed out heavily, pulling out and feeling spent. He laid down on the forest floor and motioned for Cherry to join him. He could already feel leaves sticking to his sweaty body, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care.
Cherry lay down on his chest. “Feel better?”
He almost asked what she meant, but then remembered what had just happened before their moment together. Oddly enough, the battle felt distant now. Other, stronger emotions like those he had for Cherry had smothered his reaction to killing the wizard.
“Actually, a lot better.” He grinned.
“Good. Let’s see how much better we can make you feel.” Cherry sat up on his abs.
Realizing they were still in the woods, he raised a brow. “Maybe we shouldn’t be so distracted.”
Cherry flung her hair back and smiled. “This deep in the woods, I’ll be able to warn us better. Not to mention, Mika’s oaths included guarding the area tonight. Poor girl has to be rubbing one off right now.”
Looking left and right, he saw no sign of the spirit, but if Cherry said she was looking out for them, then he trusted her.
“Besides, I like one-on-one sometimes. It’s going to be hard getting you alone once we go back to Sasha.”
He couldn’t help his mind filling with ideas of the two of them together.
Cherry laughed, following his thoughts, but in response, she moved her hand down his body, gripping his flagging member. Grinning mischievously, she started to pump it back to life. “Maybe another time, Dar. Right now, you are mine.”
Chapter 25
Dar dusted off his hands as he finished putting the last troll corpse into the loamy soil around the dao tree.
He had insisted that they
head back to the city after they had worn themselves out. Sleeping in the forest not that far from corpses was a great way to wake up with a predator sniffing you.
So they had managed to get back into the city, the guards had thrown a fit to let him back in, but in the end, Dar had used his status as a wizard and forced his way back into the city. Dar had dumped the wizard’s enchanted gear into his inner world with the trolls, excited to experiment with them later and see if he could use them for his dao tree.
The dao tree was in the process of absorbing twenty-eight trolls, give or take a few. Some of the trolls were in pieces, so it was a bit hard to really know how many were there. A dozen mantis bodies were also buried.
While they were the far more dangerous beasts, Dar realized that the mantis and trolls had only led to one casualty. Going up against him and the wizards, they’d been relatively well managed. It was the gremlins that had killed the most; the poor militia only armed with spears. They didn’t have near the weaponry of the wizards.
Picking up the staff Henry had used to cast the ice shards, Dar inspected it. The thing was an old, gray wood, roughly shaven from a gnarled branch and smoothed with the passage of years rather than a wood worker.
Carved into the staff were dozens of dao characters intricately joined together. Sasha had taught him the basic idea of enchanting, but the wizards had made an art of it even without understanding of a dao.
He looked away before he became too absorbed in the dao characters. None of them jumped out to him as feeling familiar even after entwining his dao with Cherry.
Glancing back at the tree, it had absorbed enough of the bodies for him to start his experiment. Dar knelt next to the tree, digging a small hole and placing the staff inside of it. He had no idea if this was going to work, but the tree had shown him objects in the past, so he didn’t think it was a totally crazy idea.
Standing up, he circled the tree, although part of his peripheral stayed on the mound where the staff was, hoping he’d see it lower as the staff got absorbed.