by D. R. Rosier
He grunted, “Alright, you’re welcome to come with us. I assume you’ll also be trying to explain how horrible I am, and all the mistakes I’m making?”
She smiled, “Something like that.”
He snorted, “Fine. It might even be worth it. Health care is something I’m concerned about for my people, and a couple of priestesses can only do so much that way.”
Katie smiled, “I guess you won’t need a ride back. I should go, it was nice to see you all again.”
She suppressed the sigh of relief that was on the tip of her tongue. She wasn’t entirely sure he’d have agreed to host her on his own, and suspected it was Cassie’s influence that actually made it happen. Which… said good things, or at the very least that he didn’t control his mates, but she’d reserve judgement for now.
It was later in the afternoon that same day when Lori walked out by the pool. Lin had offered to make her a suit a long time ago, and she’d begged off at the time, horrified at the idea of prancing around a man in a two piece after what she’d gone through, but had recently reconsidered. She felt exposed and sexy in the skimpy yellow bikini as she walked outside, which was a shocking thrill. Usually, in the past, those two feelings had also been accompanied by fear and dread, but that day she felt a little amusement as Sean’s intense gaze followed her for several steps before suddenly looking away.
She’d been so nervous for much of the last month, as she recovered from her long tribulation, that she hadn’t noticed just how nervous she made the powerful life sorcerer in their midst. She suspected that was more because he was a gentleman than anything else. She didn’t think it was her power he feared. She suspected it was more that he feared to show the approval in his eyes at her appearance when he looked at her, lest he make her upset or feel uncomfortable or afraid around him.
In short, she’d found a new toy, and she pretended to be oblivious to his short admiring gaze and adorable shying away as he tore that gaze off her body. She felt warm inside, and a big part of that was the power he was giving her. She had no fears that he would try to take advantage of her in any way.
She felt a little wicked, as she lied down next to him and then stretched as she let out a sigh. She’d never been a tease before, never mind with her body. She’d only been thirteen when her captivity started after all, and to tease her captors would be to encourage them to rape her body. She felt anxiety flutter in her stomach as she felt his eyes on her for another short moment. A good flushing anxiety.
It was a harmless thrill anyway, and there was no cruelty in it. He already had two mates, and the twin bodyguards that panted after him. She had three lovers of her own as well. It was just… being able to exercise that power over a man without fearing rape was… an unbelievable rush to her. She felt a little guilty because she truly wasn’t a tease by her nature, but she didn’t think he’d really mind the eye candy. With his mates and two on standby, he certainly wouldn’t be suffering a lack of attention for his libido if she enflamed it without delivering. That did much to assuage any guilt she may have felt.
In short, her teasing wouldn’t leave him wanting, that would be cruel. But as it was, it was extremely good for her confidence.
Those same mates were inside with the elf and Emily, chatting about who knows what. Probably priestess stuff. She’d considered joining them, but it’d been a long day. She loved to talk about her goddess and had a good day, a good day’s service and effort, but it had also been emotionally draining being around all those men in the village. She didn’t want to think anymore, She just wanted to relax and get a little sun before dinnertime.
Betty and Nancy never came out to the pool at all, they weren’t ready yet. So it was just him, her, Lin, and Kim out by the pool at the moment.
Chapter Five
He wondered if Lori had any idea what she was doing to him. She was truly stunning in the tiny yellow bikini she had on, all supple and toned feminine flesh. He’d had to force himself to look away earlier, before he spooked her with his perverted stare. He wasn’t hard or anything, but she had stirred his middle a bit with her appearance.
He was also glad he was out by the pool, and the damned hot elf was inside. He’d held onto his anger during their talk, imagining the arrogant bitch attacking his Lin had made it difficult to keep his cool. He thought his mates were beautiful and sexy, and Lori was a goddess that way too, perhaps even the most beautiful as far as faces went, he admitted to himself. Lori could’ve been a supermodel in the old world, a perfect ten that way.
Point was, he’d been stunned by Sy’lia’s exotic beauty and flowing grace when she’d walked into the bar earlier. She had the face of an angel, thin with high defined cheekbones, long eyelashes, and the darkest blue eyes he’d ever seen. Her light shimmering ash blonde hair framed her face and softened her beauty. Her pouty lips, upswept pointed ears, and youthful beauty had quite an impact.
The hot elf’s body was lithe and extremely similar to Lori’s. They were both around five foot seven, both had thin toned legs that went on forever, and both had the soft feminine curves of a dancer. They even both had a dancer’s grace. Even their breasts were similar, supple and proud B cups above a flat stomach and soft curvy waist. Of course, Lori’s skin was a delicious dark tan, while the elf’s skin tone was even fairer than Cassie’s.
She was in short, magnificently sexy, and he couldn’t afford to be stunned. Of course, her first words just made that even worse, because her voice was musically sweet, which was somehow just as alluring as Lori’s naturally sultry tones.
He reminded himself he had two sexy as hell and beautiful mates inside the house. His mind only lingered on Lori and the elf because… Well, because Lori was right next to him looking like a goddess in a yellow bikini, and the elf’s alien exotic beauty was on his mind because… because she pissed him off.
Fucking arrogant elves.
She’d told him he was abusing his power, and risking falling into the dark temptations that doing such things engendered.
Well, duh! He knew it was tempting as hell, whenever he drained a life force. That’s why he had his zombies do most of the work that way now, with the enchanted swords. The advantage was too key to give it up. Without them he’d have to build a human army somehow, tax the people, and all sorts of shit. Sure, that was normal in any country, kingdom, or province, but using his power for the advantages was worth it, and better for everyone.
Hell, just the fact it was undead people dying instead of people with souls made a difference, though in Lin’s and Kim’s case he knew that wasn’t true for all of them.
Not to mention the idea of transitioning to a human army when war was coming within a week, was a really stupid idea. Perhaps it was wrong from the elven point of view, and he even got her point to an extent, but he was strong enough to resist those temptations.
If he wasn’t, he’d already be either dead or ruling the whole continent by now. Cassie and now Mara also helped keep his keel even and kept him going in the right direction. Their trust and faith in him strengthened his already determined will to avoid going down a darker path.
On the purely shallow side, if he stopped his mates and he would start to grow old, albeit as a slower rate. It seemed dumb to lose any of the benefits, including that one, when the people that were going to be executed were going to die anyway. Anything less wouldn’t be doing his best, neither for himself, his mates, and especially for his people.
Stupid hot elf.
Lori’s warm tones took him by surprise, “Annoyed at the elf?”
He snorted, “Is it that obvious.”
She giggled, “Just a little bit. Only the people that know you… and everyone else in the world, would be able to tell.”
The sad part was he was actually more relaxed than he’d been earlier. As soon as they’d gotten home Cassie had gotten him somewhere private and insisted upon taking up her relaxation duties, as she’d dropped to her knees. Her sweet devoted mouth had taken the edge off, but
the elf woman was still frustrating. He’d only agreed to the insanity of her guesting at their home due to Cassie’s damned logic.
The elves could help his people still. Not in basic survival or farming, but for healthcare, education on their new world, and things like that. If that happened, he might even think the trial of having her here worth it.
He was also pretty sure Sy’lia hadn’t told him everything. She’d never said why those doubts had been brought up in council for instance. It could’ve been just the fact he’d helped Katie with the balance thing that gave them second thoughts, at their first and violent reaction to him and his twins, but that was just a guess and could be off base. He got the idea her mission was a lot wider than she’d stated.
In short, he as pretty sure she was a spy as well as an ambassador. He just wasn’t sure what her orders and objectives were.
He replied, “I’m a pretty simple guy.”
She snorted, “My goddess’s power has a tempting dark aspect as well. All magic does, I think. The elves are just different, and too arrogant to see that a second way, the human way, is just as valid as theirs. And in fact, is probably necessary for the balance. If humans are necessary for the balance, it seems logical that those differences are a part of it.”
He was a little warmed by her short passionate speech, and he felt more secure about his own decisions. It was also true, for as much as the fucking elves went on about their balance, they were awfully arrogant when it came to human failings and their ideas about the right way to do things.
He said, “You’re very wise.”
She snickered, “Emily is the true wise one, I’m just smart enough to listen. Would you do me a favor, what you did for Emily, will you… check me?”
He asked, “You’re sure?”
She nodded and bit her lip as she turned her head and met his eyes.
He reached out slowly and gently took her hand, and he sent his magic into her delicious body. Bad Sean, focus. He focused on what her life force told him, it was easy to avoid reading her life, something he certainly had no interest in doing. He didn’t want her memories, not even at a remove. It was all a matter of focus and mindset.
Her body was perfect, no doubt healed thoroughly by Emily, but there were a few internal shortfalls as far as her full potential. He gently pushed in some more life force, and then set it to work. Her mind was also less than her full potential, her intelligence, but he hesitated to fix that. It would change who she was, while maximizing the potential of her physical body’s systems would just make her body more efficient, her brain development was an entirely different matter.
It wasn’t like she was dumb either. She was already smarter than he was, brilliant really, but in a healthier lifestyle and not being a captive, she’d have been a true genius.
He wasn’t even sure he should mention it.
“Umm, so your metabolic functions should be a bit more efficient. Not that they were bad. Your body’s growth wasn’t stunted at all.”
She nodded, “I ate well enough, I did what I had to do. By the time the men took an interest in more intimate activities, it was already a deep habit. What aren’t you telling me?”
He laughed, her suspicions proving his thoughts on her brilliance, in his mind, “You’re extremely intelligent, but there’s some unrealized potential there. Thing is, messing with that will probably change who you are, your personality… and stuff.”
It was a bit shocking, that she still hadn’t looked away from him, and her brown eyes were a lot warmer than he’d ever seen them before. That cold visage wasn’t present at all. He was happy about that, both that she was healing, and that she seemed to have developed trust in at least him.
She frowned slightly, “I’ll have to think about that then. Thanks.”
He nodded.
He added, “If it matters to you, my inclination would be not to. It would be like killing the person you are. Plus, you’re already smarter than most people anyway, including me.”
She giggled, “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
The warm sultry laugh and sparkle in her eyes took him off guard, but after a second or two he looked back up and closed his eyes.
She sighed softly in disappointment.
He asked, “What’s wrong?”
She whispered conspiratorially, “I was hoping for bigger tits.”
He gasped and almost choked on his own spit at that rather naughty admission.
Lin and Kim snickered.
He almost told her she was perfect the way she was, because she really was. He loved his Cassie’s D cups, but size wasn’t everything, and he loved the twin’s C’s and Mara’s B’s were absolutely mouthwatering and perfect handfuls and then some. Any bigger on Lori and it would ruin that graceful dancer’s body she had. They were already perfect. But he thought better of it, Lori was just coming out of her shell, and he didn’t want to flirt her back into one. He’d have meant the compliment as a friend, but he was wary on how she’d have taken it.
Dinner conversation was a bit more reserved with the elven guest there, which was natural he supposed. It’d been the same the first few nights their other four guests had arrived, and hopefully things would loosen back up once they got to know Sy’lia a little better.
She just, seemed very formal, uptight, and arrogant, so unless that changed a little it probably wouldn’t go back to normal anytime soon.
He pushed that out of his head, since he had more important things on his mind than the hot and annoying elven female. Not just the coming war either.
“So, there’s a group of moving through the Rockies on I-90, out of Montana into Washington. There’s around a hundred of them, families with woman and children. Cattle, wagons, bags of feed, all sorts of stuff to start a small community. There’re about twenty guards, the younger men. I’ve been tracking them for a bit as they came out of the mountains, and I had no intentions in making anything of it. They’re welcome to some land and protection as far as I’m concerned. But… it looks like someone’s chasing them, thirty-two men on horseback, with bows and swords and moving with a purpose. At the rate they’re going they’ll catch up in a few hours. Anyone want to go on a trip?”
Kim said, “The nearest community to there is almost thirty miles from where eighty comes out of the mountains. That’ll take hours, more than three I mean.”
Sy’lia interjected, “A canter could get us there in two hours, and I can enhance the horses’ stamina with my magic, so a run that long doesn’t harm them. If you want.”
He nodded in thanks, more than a little surprised how quickly she spoke up. Maybe insufferable arrogance in elves doesn’t imply unhelpful, like it does in humans?
“Alright, that’s the plan. We ride out, welcome our new refugee citizens, and see if we can make the assholes go away when they catch up. I imagine in two hours… they’ll be stopping for the night. Getting there an hour earlier will help, because we can find out what’s going on first.”
Sy’lia asked, “Do you have a name for your kingdom?”
Cassie giggled.
He shrugged, “We usually just call it the west coast. My style of rule is casual to say the least. Outside of the two death penalty crimes and protecting all the communities, all rules, laws, and customs are in the hands of the village ruler. I don’t even really have a title, which is a bit of a running joke actually.”
Kim interjected, “The leaders that want to be mayors call him president, the leaders that want to be barons call him king.”
He snorted, “But it’s all a tongue in cheek kind of thing.”
Sy’lia looked a little lost at that expression.
“Human humor is different than elven humor?” Then he added, “We’ll talk about it later, elves do have humor, right?”
Sy’lia nodded, and said, “I laughed not two decades ago.”
He gaped at her for a moment, which made her laugh.
She said, “That was elven humor.”
Rig
ht, so dry, deadpan, and vague. Got it. He ate a little fast, they had an hour buffer but he didn’t want to blow it all. In the end, Sy’lia, Mara, Cassie, Lin, Kim, and Lori came along. He was pretty sure Emily had wanted to go as well, but she didn’t want to leave Betty and Nancy alone after they’d been gone all day. Those two were recovering, but not nearly as fast Emily, and even Lori was.
He didn’t mind, since any one of them could handle thirty-two assholes without any magic, except maybe Mara who wasn’t a fighter. Well, he hoped they had no magic. But even if one or two did, they had more than enough people along to get the job done. He was also sure Lori only came along in the hope of punishing some more assholes, and that he could get behind.
They were all dressed decently enough for dinner, so got the horses saddled quickly, then Cassie teleported them to the edge of the community closest to where they were going. They took off at a trot, and then shortly sped up to a canter when the horses were warmed up.
They slowed down to a walk as the stopped caravan came in sight. They’d already unhooked the horses from the wagons and had a fire going. It wasn’t quite dark out yet. Lin and Kim were in the lead, and they called out a greeting. That was probably wise, he didn’t want to spook them. They really did come in handy that way, young and exotically gorgeous twins usually put even protective and paranoid men at their ease.
Two of the guards picked up bows but didn’t knock an arrow, as four men got up and headed toward them to intercept before they’d reached the caravan. He wasn’t panicked, that was a reasonable precaution. It was also reasonable for him to be alert and ready for trouble, and Cassie had the staff in her hand and no doubt a spell on the tip of her tongue.