by Logan Jacobs
The rat I’d aimed for stopped as the first of the flames started to lick upwards, but some of the oil must have splashed onto its fur. There was a whooshing sound as the rat’s fur caught fire, and then the rat squealed as its fur burst into a blazing fireball. The rat tried to run away, but all it did was carry the fire deeper into the store.
While the rest of the rats tried to find a way around the growing flames, I grabbed anything I could find that I thought might burn and fed it to the fire. I ransacked the nearby shelves and added some yellowed paper, some rotting wood poles, and even poured out some liquid in a plastic bottle that was described as ‘flammable’.
The mystery liquid was exactly what I needed. Blue flames leapt up and incinerated everything that had been hit with the liquid. I opened more bottles and tossed them into the middle of the rats.
The squeals became one long rodent scream as more fur caught fire. The rats began to run in every direction. Those that had been doused with the mystery liquid spread the fire even more quickly while those rodents who remained flame free tried to find a way past their packmates.
It was time for my own escape, and I started to run toward the exit as a thick smoke filled the depot. It smelled of burnt fur and crispy flesh, and an unpleasant, acrid odor that I couldn’t identify. It didn’t smell like anything natural, and I wondered if it was some of the pre-magic material that was now burning merrily along with the rats.
Unfortunately, with so many holes in the walls and roof, the fire had plenty of air to keep it fed. I nearly lost my way in the thick haze, and I was doubled over from coughing on the smoke. I was certain I had somehow gotten turned around when I stumbled over one of the wretched barrels. I picked my way through the rest of the containers and then spotted the exit just ahead.
I stepped into the fresh air just ahead of a handful of rats that had also fled the fire. The rodents shot past me when I stumbled to a halt and vanished into some of the nearby wilderness. I could still hear some of their relatives squealing in pain inside, but I had little sympathy at the moment. There was a whooshing sound, and then flames appeared along the roof.
“What did you do?” Sorcha asked as she moved toward me.
“I threw the lamp at them when I ran out of bullets,” I replied.
“Too bad we didn’t have a chance to scavenge the store,” she said as she helped me limp back toward the car where I had left the bags. “But at least we made it out alive.”
I coughed again and tried to get rid of the smoke taste in my mouth by spitting. I didn’t have much spit left, though, so I dug through the bags until I found the flasks I’d taken from the barge. I gulped down the cooling water until my throat stopped burning, then turned to watch the blaze that ate the last vestiges of the store.
“Well, if the gunshots didn’t draw anyone’s attention, this certainly will,” Sorcha noted dryly.
“Is this your way of suggesting we keep moving?” I asked with a grin.
“I think I have enough adrenaline right now to keep running until daylight, but we both need to take care of these wounds,” she replied. “I would suggest that we find somewhere a bit further away from this place to take care of that. Before the locals start to show up to investigate, that is.”
“Agreed,” I sighed before I gulped down some more water. “I think we can follow the path of the canal without getting too close to the water. And it looks like there are plenty of old buildings along here that we can shelter in.”
Sorcha handed me one of the packs before slinging the other one across her shoulder. Then she looped her arm through mine, and we picked our way across the parking lot using the firelight from the blaze. At the edge of the lot, we found the remains of a paved road that appeared to parallel the canal. We nodded to each other, then set off into the darkness.
We traveled as far as we could manage, but between the dog bite and the smoke inhalation, we were a pretty sad pair. We stopped at a much smaller building, one that held rows of strange looking machines called Xerox and Ricoh. I lit our last lamp and helped Sorcha find a comfortable spot in the remains of an old office. While Sorcha picked through the salves, I investigated the rest of the store in search of anything useful.
But it didn’t look like anyone had been in the place since the meteorite hit, and the only useful things I found were another bottle of aspirin and some sort of uniforms. I grabbed some of the shirts and pants, and returned to the office, where the mage was busy applying one of the salves to the bite.
“Anything interesting?” she asked without looking up from her work.
“More of that aspirin stuff and some clean clothes,” I replied as I sat on the edge of the desk where she had spread out the collection of salves and ointments. “How’s your wound?”
“Clean,” she sighed as she sat back. “Still stings though, and I won’t be able to do as much as I had hoped with these medicines. Some of it’s garbage and some of it’s lost its potency. But there’s enough here to take care of you as well.”
“Maybe some of this aspirin will help,” I suggested. “It’s supposed to help with pain.”
“I wonder what it is,” Sorcha mused as she studied the bottle I had set on the desk.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked as casually as I could. “About magic?”
“Of course,” the mage agreed quickly as she set the bottle back down. “Anything.”
“When I fired the last shot from the guns that I created, they disappeared,” I began.
“Maybe your magic works like a portal mage. Those disappear as well once the magic starts to break down. That’s why they’ve never been able to establish permanent portals.”
“You said you were going to tell me more about how my magic works,” I said.
“Well,” she chuckled. “I doubt anyone knows how your magic works, but I’d guess it’s similar to the summoning school, but that normally does creatures. Summoning is part of the larger evocation tree that includes elemental and portal use.”
“What about that amulet of yours?” I asked.
“Garth recharged them periodically,” Sorcha explained. “Lucky for us, he did so recently, so we have plenty of time to reach the bridge before it loses all of its magic.”
“At the rate we’re moving, we might need all that time,” I teased.
“Oh, please don’t say that,” she laughed.
“But maybe that’s what happened to me,” I mused. “Maybe I need to recharge or something.”
“Also like a portal mage,” she replied. “See, only the really great portal mages can create portals between two very distant points. But that requires a lot of energy and magic. Every portal mage goes through a recovery period after each portal, but the greater the distance, the longer the recovery.”
“So, when I’ve recovered, I can create both guns again?” I pressed.
“I should think so,” she replied. “The fact that you were able to create another revolver would seem to support that.”
“How long do I have to wait?” I asked.
“That I couldn’t tell you,” she sighed. “It’s a shame Garth isn’t here. We’ll just have to wait and see how long it takes you.”
“I guess I’ll just keep testing it until it works,” I mused. “If it does. I’d hate to think that I could only do it those few times and then I was done.”
“But you did do it the second time and a third, which suggests that all you need is time to recover,” she pointed out. “So how much time passed between the first and second revolver? And while you think about that, I should clean out those new cuts and take a look at the old ones.”
I peeled off my shirt and pants once again and sat patiently on the edge of the desk while she studied my nicks and scratches in the lamplight. I tried to calculate how much time had passed between the first and second revolver and decided it must have been close to a day. About half that time had passed since I fired the last bullet in the snub nose and tried to create another one.
“Do you think the fact that I kept the gun until I fired the last bullet might be important?” I asked.
“I don’t know much about evocation magic,” she admitted. “And the few things I’ve tried to do, like creating a flame, haven’t always been successful. I’m really not any kind of expert on this type of magic.”
“But based on what you do know?” I pressed.
“It could be,” she admitted as she smeared something dark and smelly into a wound on my shoulder.
I pondered that for a bit while she continued to cover me with various substances. When she was finally satisfied, she stepped back to examine her work.
“That should keep you protected for a bit longer,” she replied. “Though I’d feel better if we could find a doctor or a healer.”
“There was that doctor that Benny and June used,” I pointed out.
“I don’t think I would trust anybody they recommended,” she said curtly as she started to pack away the potions.
“Then we’ll have to make do with your skills,” I laughed as I picked up the shirt I’d worn on the barge. It was covered in blood and bits of brain and fur, and my pants weren’t much better. I had no desire to put either articles of clothing back on so I picked through the pile I had collected and selected a set that looked about my size.
All the shirts were the same, a bright purple thing with short sleeves and only three buttons near the collar. A patch on the left side said ‘Kwik Copy King’ in black and gold, with a small crown draping the K in Kwik. I pulled the shirt on, which was made of some shiny material that slithered when I held it.
“Well?” I asked when I saw Sorcha studying me.
“It’s… very purple,” she replied.
“It beats staying in that,” I said as I looked at her own blood-covered clothing.
She glanced down and winced at the sight of her shirt. With a sigh, she slowly pulled it off and dropped it to the floor.
“You could stay like that tonight,” I teased as I drank in the sight of her pert breasts.
“I thought you wanted to recover,” she said as she raised an eyebrow. “So you could create another gun.”
“It’ll be hard to sleep without getting a little warmth going,” I pointed out as she shivered in the cold air.
“Everything hurts,” she added, though she didn’t protest when I stood up and pulled her closer.
“We’ll take it nice and slow,” I assured her as I ran my hand down her back.
“You don’t understand,” she sighed as she looked at the floor. “Being with me isn’t like the sex you’re used to.”
“I won’t get scared away,” I assured her as I ran my hand slowly down her back. I felt her shiver again, but this time in excitement.
“You say that now,” she sighed.
“I do,” I agreed. “And I’ve been thinking about what you said back at Fat Frenchie’s. It seems to me the solution is to sleep with someone until they become used to it.”
I felt my own arousal start to grow at the possibilities. Her powers didn’t scare me, not after everything we had been through together. So what if we were being chased by mages bent on murdering me, I still wanted to make love to this beautiful woman, possibly even more so than the night we had spent on that worn out bed in the Green. The fact that we might die by morning only added to my need.
Sorcha stepped back, her hands balled by her sides. Despite that reaction, I could tell she felt the same rising desire that I did. I also knew she was trying to fight the heat that filled us both, and I squeezed her shoulder in an effort to reassure her.
“Hex,” she said in a cold voice that was meant to dispel the heat in the room.
“Sorcha,” I countered in my deepest, warmest voice. “I know you’re attracted to me, as much as I am to you.”
“We just met,” she sighed. “And… I need to get you out of the city. It’s my duty.”
“Your duty?” I asked as I pulled her gently toward me again.
“Yes,” she glanced away from me toward the window. “We’ve been waiting for you. It’s… Important that--”
“Why have you all been waiting for me?” I asked as I tried to hold on to the heat I felt.
“I’ve said too much,” she cleared her throat and glanced back at me, but her eyes lingered on my lips.
“Well, I think I have the right to know,” I said. “I don’t really understand how my magic works, or if it is magic, or… shit. Whatever. I thought I didn’t have magic. I’ve spent my whole life thinking I was normal. And now you just announce that you’ve been waiting for me.”
I felt the heat in the last words I uttered, and not all of it was from the passion I felt for her. There was anger there, as well.
“You aren’t normal,” she whispered as her emerald eyes drifted up to mine. “We… well… You might be…”
She stopped talking and then looked away from me again.
“Look, I know you’ve had a rough couple of days,” I said after the silence had stretched on between us and I had forced myself to count to ten. “Your friends are gone. We were chased by gangs and drugged by blood mages who wanted to turn us into their next meal. And then there were the rats. But it’s been a rough couple of days for me as well.”
“Please, you don’t need to remind me,” Sorcha snorted as she looked at her arm.
“But we’ve got a plan that I think will work, and a place to call our own for tonight,” I added. “And you did say you would answer my questions.”
The beautiful woman didn’t respond, but her eyes drifted down to my lips again.
“Sooooo…” I continued. “If you aren’t going to tell me exactly what’s going on with my magic, or why I’m so important, then I want to do something else with you.”
“Oh?” She pursed her lips together, and her eyebrows rose up.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m going to make love to you, since we might die tomorrow.”
She opened her sweet mouth to speak, but before she could talk, I stood up and pulled her against my body. She was rigid at first, but when she lifted her chin to glare at me, I felt desire sizzle along my nerves, and I knew she felt it as well. She gasped, and when I leaned in closer, she didn’t pull away. I captured her mouth with mine and drank in the taste of her. Neither of us broke away until we were desperate for air.
Sorcha mewed as we broke apart, and I groaned in response. My erection bulged against the fabric of my pants, and I had never been so desperate to remove them. I started to tug at my clothing without taking my eyes away from Sorcha’s. Her green eyes looked lit from within, and after a moment’s hesitation, she started to pull off what was left of her own clothing.
When we were both naked, I took a moment to drink in her fair skin and the perfect proportions of her body. Her round breasts offered an enticement that was hard to resist, and I swept her into my arms again as we tumbled onto the floor behind the desk.
“Hex!” she squeaked as I bit and teased her nipples.
“I can stop,” I suggested as I glanced up at her face.
“Don’t you dare, cowboy,” she replied as she wrapped her fingers in my hair.
I grinned, leaned back down, and worked my lips and tongue from her breasts, down her torso, and finally between her legs to her vagina.
Her pink pussy tasted of apricots and flowers, and she writhed beneath me and gasped as my tongue rubbed against her nub of flesh at the top of her tunnel. Soon her gasps turned to moans, and then she started to buck from the sheer pleasure. Her climax slowly reached a crescendo, and as her body went rigid, I moved my mouth away from her dripping pussy, came up on my knees, and angled the tip of my cock toward her twitching pink lips.
“Wait!” she gasped.
“What?” I groaned as my tip rested at her quivering entrance. It was taking every ounce of my willpower not to thrust into her, and her body was still trembling from her own climax.
“You’ll…” she hissed as she bucked her hips and caused my cock t
o slide against her wet entrance. “You’ll feel what I feel while we make love. Is that okay?”
“Yes,” I declared. “I want to feel you in every way possible.”
She nodded, and then we both gasped as I slowly slid my length into her tunnel.
“That’s really good,” she sighed when my full length was inside of her.
“You are so tight and wet,” I purred into her ear. The words were true. It almost felt like her tunnel was gripping me as tightly as her fingers would, and she was warmer and wetter than I could have possibly imagined.
“Ohhh,” she gasped when I slid my length out of her, and then she moaned again when I pushed back in.
“Wow,” I gasped as I began to build up tempo. “Wow. Wow. Wow.”
“It’s happening,” she gasped. “You are feeling me feel you.”
I felt her open up all her senses to me. It was the most incredible thing I had ever felt. I could still feel my own heat and the pleasure that pulsated through my body, but I could also feel Sorcha’s pleasure as I pounded into her.
As I continued to drive into her, our copulation merged even more. I could tell exactly which spots to hit, and she moved with me as if we had been doing this for years. There was a wicked intensity to it that I had never felt before, and I wasn’t sure if that was me, Sorcha, or our combined lust.
As she approached her climax, I felt my own body responding in kind. It felt as if we had fused together, and all I wanted to do was keep filling her, driving my rod deeper and deeper, and savoring the ripples of delight that I felt in response.
“Oh please, oh please, oh please,” she begged as she arched toward me. Her green eyes were wild with pleasure, and her golden hair spread across the floor in a tangled mess.
“I’m coming inside of you,” I gasped in awe as I felt her pleasure and mine at that simple act.
“Fill me, Hex,” she begged. “Soooooo goooood.”
I pulled her against me as I ground down, and I felt the tingle that moved through her body. She shivered as she climaxed, and I did as well as my nerves sent the same waves of pleasure through my body that Sorcha was experiencing at that moment. We held onto the pinnacle for an insanely long period of time, and my semen pumped into her with every thrust for what felt like an eternity.