by D. R. Rosier
“Come, we are safe now.”
The women all looked at her like she was insane, and hopelessly naïve. She could see in her eyes they all thought they’d just exchanged hands to new captors, or their old ones had fought off the new ones. She sighed.
“I’ll go check it out then, and then will you believe me?”
A few of the women nodded reluctantly, but their faces told Mara she was already dead or being raped in their minds. She suppressed an eyeroll, because she was far from perfect. She was a priestess of a goddess of healing and protection, but she was still a young human woman with all the imperfections and wonders that implied.
A soft female voice filtered down, “Umm, you’re all safe now, and we’ll get you back to your villages. Just… give us a few minutes would you, to clean up.”
The shocked disbelief on the other women’s faces slowly morphed to hope, and several broke down crying under the weight of emotional release.
Mara waited with them, and it was only about twenty minutes later when two very young athletically curvy women came down the stairs. They couldn’t have been older than eighteen, nineteen tops. They were also identical twins. They were five foot five with blue-black shiny straight hair that looked like liquid midnight running down their backs. They both wore black leather pants and vests, though one had a skintight pink shirt on underneath the vest, while the other had a red sports bra. They had generous C cups, a whisper thin waist, and rounded hips with tight bubbled asses. Their faces were delicately beautiful, and they were clearly of Asian descent, though she had no clue from exactly where.
They also wore two blades that were a foot and a half long. They were slightly curved, single-sided blades. She wasn’t sure if they were pointed long daggers or maybe a curved short sword. Mara wasn’t an expert on bladed weapons. She also felt the magic in them. By appearance, they didn’t look at all dangerous outside those daggers, but they obviously were if they’d killed twenty men in close up combat.
They’d also showered, very recently, and the leather clothes took on new meaning. Easy to clean blood off of. They were very dangerous women, and there was something odd about them. They gave off… she wasn’t sure.
One of them smiled, and spoke with a gentle voice, as if to calm a spooked horse, “I’m Lin, this is Kim. You’re safe now, we just need to know where you’re all from. Then our master will make sure you get home safe, or if you don’t want to do that, we can figure something else out? There’re about two hundred good communities to choose from if you’re afraid to go back home. My master only runs about half of them, but the others aren’t bad either. This commune was one of the last of the bad ones. We’ve been trying to track them down and have been dealing with the aftermath for two years now. Until now, they’ve kept one step ahead of us, always fleeing before we could catch up.”
Mara asked, “Does your master always send two women into evil men’s lairs alone?”
Lin sighed in a longsuffering way, “No. Only if we ask him really nicely.”
Kim giggled, “My sister has a weird sense of humor. He used to send groups of men out to investigate, but there were a few misunderstandings as a result of that. Even good men can be fierce and paranoid about protecting their community, and strange men with weapons can be intimidating enough to spark that paranoia.”
Lin nodded, “Whereas the two of us are seen as relatively harmless walking into a community to check things out, make sure no abuses are being taken while just passing through. We’re also both the bait and trap, if evil men run the community or commune, it doesn’t take them very long to notice us and start making unreasonable demands of our persons.”
Kim continued, “And we can handle ourselves. We’re not strictly normal, or even human I suppose. Not anymore.”
Mara’s eyes flickered to the blades.
Kim smirked, “Only you can see them, priestess. And others with magic. People without magic tend not to notice them at all. They’re not invisible exactly, just… unnoticeable.”
Several of the women rubbed their eyes and blinked, and then stared at the blades in shock.
Lin shrugged, “At least until they’re pointed out. The magic is subtle.”
Mara nodded, and took the liberty of naming several villages. The women had filled her in on some of their history the last month they’d been stuck in the room together. The men had picked most of them up while raiding villages before they’d moved the last time. She was one of the only ones from around there.
Kim grinned, “Got it. Most of those villages are about a hundred miles south? We should move outside, though it’ll be a little while before he gets here. I bet you all need to get out of this room. We have enough time for showers as well. Priestess, my master will want to meet you I’m sure. Just to talk, he treats men and women of power very well who choose to work on the side of angels.”
Mara was about to turn her down. She had to get back to her people, but a stirring in her soul changed her mind.
“I will, what’s your master’s name?”
Lin said, “Sean. Sean Anders.”
She shivered. Everyone had heard of Sean Anders. The man was responsible for mostly pacifying everything west of the Rockies, and he had authority over a hundred communities. That just as many existed outside his authority was about the only good thing she’d heard of the man. It was said he ruled with his power over the undead.
She’d never heard of abuses being done in his name, but most spoke his name with a feared awe and superstition.
Mara’s eyes widened as she realized the truth. Lin and Kim were strictly speaking, alive in every way that counted, but their souls had long ago departed this world at their deaths. No wonder they’d felt odd to her magic. Despite their petite size, they must’ve been incredibly strong and wickedly fast.
They truly were alive, their hearts beat, they breathed, they just shouldn’t be, alive that is. Not anymore. It was only her deep faith in her goddess that the suddenly spooked priestess didn’t change her mind. That… and Sean’s prohibition of rape and abuse and the penalties against it were particularly harsh. Despite anything else she’d heard about the infamous and all but in name ruler of everything from Southern California to Canada west of the Rockies, the man wasn’t an abuser of men and women.
She’d listen to what this man had to say, then she had every intention of going home. Her villages needed her, if not her protection as much anymore, then at least her healing and guidance.
Chapter One
The night was warm in Sean’s southern California mansion. The windows were thrown open for the small breeze the slightly cool night air offered, and his wife, lover, and mate was in his arms as they slept. He’d come a long way in the last five years, his undead army had swept up the west coast quickly. Most of the stupid and cruel had died quickly, fueling his magic and army with the essence of life which he could control.
Of course, the smart and evil ones had evaded that sweep, as he’d put together several communities of good men and women who were concerned with family, life, and freedom. He’d also avoided the good communities that were already decent. Even if they didn’t run them quite the way he would, he felt he didn’t have the right to impose his will on all people. Just the assholes, that needed to die.
He’d been referred to as a king by some, but really he just saw himself as the trash collector, and there’d been a lot of trash to dispose of. After a few close calls with good communities, he’d changed his tactics and started to send out zombies that were beautiful women. Both bait and the trap. If they spent a few days in a community and moved on without being accosted by the authority in that village, then that community got his seal of approval.
It was that simple.
Another side effect of having the area west of the Rockies mostly cleaned up was the lack of life force influx. He’d had an army of close to twenty thousand undead. One human life drained could run about twenty zombies for a year, without souls they didn’t naturally cr
eate more life force, so when it ran out it ran out.
So that’d been the second change, as his zombie army had become a twentieth of its size. Just ten of them in each of the hundred communities he was responsible for. A thousand in total. After five years, they no longer farmed or collected clothes and medicines, or served in that way. The ten zombies in each town were the police and community protectors, period. In the beginning it’d been necessary to ensure he saved as many lives as possible, and that they had food for the coming winter. But that’d been an interim strategy.
On the good side, there were no taxes either, he just did it because he could.
The men and women of the communities were responsible for their own farming now, their own livelihood. All he did was keep them safe from evil men, so that they could live in freedom and without fear, and flourish by their own efforts.
He’d also appointed the leaders of most of the communities, human ones. Point was, with only a thousand zombies, that was only fifty deaths a year to keep them powered. There were a lot more evil assholes than that in his slice of the world. Maybe one day he’d even let those thousand go. His own power was enough to maintain the zombies that kept his mansion clean, and that planted and made his food. But that time had not yet come, and just maintaining law and order had an overage of life force coming in by a large extent. Those thousand he still supported had enough life force to last for at least a decade.
He no longer had to kill them personally. Thanks to his Cassie’s discoveries with magic, he’d been able to adopt that and enchant blades for all of his undead. Anyone who was judged worthy of death, and was killed on those blades, would have their life force sucked out and into the wielder. Since he was connected to every one of his zombies, he could move that life force around, equalize it, or even take it into his own body to heal wounds. In addition to the draining spells there were also shields of a sort enchanted on them. So that if they ever faced a sorcerer, then they wouldn’t be destroyed in the way Cynthia had been. Not unless the sorcerer was able to overcome that shield with their power.
Sean was forty years old at that point, five years after emergence, but his body appeared to be that of a twenty-five-year-old man. He’d stopped regressing in age at that point. He imagined he could look eighteen, but apparently his power was partially guided by his subconscious desires, and he simply didn’t want to look that callowly young. He was also a lot more toned and muscular, though still average in looks around the face. His body through his magic and hard work in this new world without technology, was in the best shape that it’d ever been in.
He woke as his twin enforcers sent him information through their magical life force link that bound them both to him and to life. They’d have to move soon on it, but they still had a little time. She’d given him the name of six communities for the eighteen captives, plus he was excited to find out she’d found a priestess. He could really use one of those. Too many of his people died due to disease and childbirth, with the fall of modern medicine.
He turned to Cassie and brushed her face gently, moving the shimmering hair behind her ear. He’d wake her in a moment, but she still mesmerized him in her sleep.
Cassie didn’t look twenty-five like him. His sorceress, lover, mate, wife, and dearly loved life partner still looked twenty-two years old despite her age of twenty-seven. Apparently his subconscious wanted her to look younger than him, or perhaps he simply didn’t want her to change at all. She hadn’t changed a bit from the day he’d met her five years ago. She was five foot five with gorgeous light long blonde hair, and the deepest blue eyes he’d ever seen. She had a heart shaped face that both gave her a cute and sexy appearance, and she was stunning beautiful in his opinion. She had a lushly ripe and sumptuous body at five foot five, with rounded D cups, a sinfully curvy waist, and a bubbled ass.
She was also still almost insanely loyal to him in his opinion. Her fierce and unwavering love and faith in him still blew his mind. She longed to be useful and to be safe, and he gave her both in spades. She was also somewhat of a nymphomaniac and loved it when he took control of her body and took his pleasure. It was what she liked, and she got off hard and often for him when he did so. Not to say they didn’t make love, because they did often, but more often than not their love life was torrid, hard and fast, and more than a bit wild. She also took pride in it, and did it in love, to act as a stress relief valve for him.
Her words, not his. She called it her stress relief duties.
He hadn’t taken her with rage in his heart in a long time, not since that dark time after Cynthia’s final death five years ago. But keeping a hundred communities safe was stressful at times, and he took his relief in Cassie often. He didn’t even feel all that guilty about it anymore, she obviously wanted him too and loved to be that for him. She was sensitive to his moods, and more often than not dropped to her knees of her own volition for some quick relief, if they didn’t have time to spend on a proper coupling.
The one thing Cassie wouldn’t do is give him a child. She used her magic to prevent conception, not wanting to bring a child into this darker world of magic and monsters.
It was still far from a safe world. Wild magic and other races made it more dangerous than the old one, not to mention other humans. There’d always be dangers, but he thought maybe it was time to bring it up again. It’d been two years since he’d asked her last time to give him a child, and he knew that she’d be a fantastic mother. The world was a lot safer now, or at least their corner of it, thanks to him and Cassie.
They’d had a few other female lovers in their bed the last three years as well, but none of them had effortlessly formed an equal love connection with them like Cynthia had. None of their affairs to spice up their bedroom life had soured to bad results either. More often than not those people were his most trusted magical allies at that point in his life. Three of the four women they’d tried to make a new lover in a triad relationship had ended up ruling one of their towns with an even and loving hand.
They were good women, just not cut out for the type of relationship that his wickedly delightful Cassie wanted for both him and her. The fourth had left on good terms too, but didn’t want to rule, didn’t have the desire for it or the ability, so she’d settled down somewhere else. Last he’d heard, she’d started a family, and used her magic to protect the community with the aid of the zombies there.
He was perfectly content with just Cassie, but her kinky and loving side seemed determined to give him variety, and also to increase their security by adding another woman of power to their household. It was what it was, and she was in charge of that really, seducing other women into their bed. She was also choosy, which was why there’d only been four attempts in the lasts five years.
Her scent was delicious, flowery mixed with her natural feminine scent, and he knew they had a little more time before all those women were showered and ready to be picked up.
His cock stirred at her beauty.
He couldn’t help himself, as he slid the sheet down and revealed her lovely body to his admiring gaze. He slipped between her legs and softly caressed them apart with his fingertips. Even in her sleep, her body responded to his every touch. He knelt down and put his head between her legs. Not for long, he just licked her silken folds long enough to get them wonderfully moist and ready, both from his wet tongue and from her instant and copious liquid arousal.
Her soft sweet moans and the way her legs spread even further for him in her sleep as he pleasured her with his tongue, turned him on to no end. She was truly his, heart and soul, and he was hers as well. He was tempted to stay down there and just keep running his tongue along her folds until she came for him, multiple times. He loved the scent of her, and the taste of her, but they didn’t have that much time before they’d need to go.
Clearly, only a quickie was called for. He couldn’t make all those ladies wait for a proper marathon.
He moved into position, and then let out a little groan of pleasu
re as he slipped into her snug but slick passage. She not only looked the same as the day he’d met her, but she was just as tight and snug around him as the first time he’d entered her. His ability to control life force was good that way. He was pretty sure his magic preserved her perfectly every time they coupled, subconsciously.
Her eyes popped open, and she smiled alluringly as her back arched and she thrust up against him to finish taking him in. She ground herself against him as she squeezed and let out a little gasp of pleasure.
“I love it when you wake me like this,” she said in sultry breathiness.
He smirked, “I love waking you like this.”
She giggled, “I bet, still dark out?” she asked as she glanced at the window.
He started to rock his body, her snug silken warmth caressing around his sliding sex, and the friction they caused on his most sensitive skin sent tingles of pleasure throughout his body.
“The twins managed to take out those assholes that have been eluding us the last two years. Eighteen victims need a ride home, and there’s a young priestess we can try to recruit.”
She let out a sigh of pleasure as she started to rock her body. The wild lust in her eyes told him to shut up and fuck her, and that she’d listen later.
He smirked, mostly because she’s the one that asked, and then started to piston in and out of her with long-strokes the full length of his cock. He loved the way her deep blue eyes glazed over with pleasure, as she increased her own rocking hips and grinds to match his with perfect synchronicity in opposition.
She was his wild sexpot, and she was never an idle participant in bed. She worked her body hard for him, raising the pleasure they both shared to new heights as she squeezed, ground, and milked his cock hard as he pulled out, only to soften and release to slide easily into her snug heaven once more. She impaled herself wildly up into him, arching her back and rolling her hips hard with each pounding stroke he sent down into her body.