by Tamryn Tamer
“Holy shit,” Jericho chuckled. “You captured Talia?”
“Of course!” Jinx said cheerfully while holding Talia’s wrist. “I told you I’d beat her! I’m the strongest. Idiot. Moron.”
“Technically,” Mirage started to speak but Jinx shot her an irritated glare. Jericho imagined they both had something to do with the capture but Jinx wanted credit. “We would have never captured her without Jinx. Although Terra was useless as usual. I have no idea why you keep her around darling.”
“Yeah,” Jericho looked around. “Where is she anyway?”
“Well,” Mirage smiled. “That depends on how far away the nearest graveyard is.”
“Who is she?” Jinx glared at Riseva. Or more specifically at her naked chest. “Is she coming to live with us? Lecher. Pervert.”
“Oh,” Jericho laughed. “Riseva, meet Jinx and Mirage. Terra should be along shortly. Jinx, Mirage, this is Riseva.”
“Why haven’t you killed her?” Riseva asked while glaring at Talia sitting silently. “She’s a deceptive little time witch.”
“I like you!” Jinx grinned. “Let’s kill the witch! Dolts. Dummies.”
“I am a demigoddess of time!” Talia snapped as Jinx pinched her arm. “Ouch! Ouch! Sorry!”
“Jinx,” Jericho said judgmentally. “What are you doing?”
“Mirage said I’m allowed to pinch her arm when she annoys me,” Jinx said. “It was a compromise. Jerk. Nitwit.”
“Compromise?” Jericho turned to Mirage. “What kind of compromise?”
“Jinx wanted to beat her every time she annoyed her,” Mirage said. “I managed to negotiate our way down to pinches. Although it seems anytime Talia speaks it annoys her.”
“Ah,” Jericho said somewhat surprised Mirage managed to negotiate Jinx down to pinches given the circumstances. “That makes sense.”
“Well,” Sable smiled. “What now? We hadn’t expected this.”
“Unfortunate we need to let her go,” Jericho sighed. “Our deal was I wouldn’t try to capture her until twenty-four hours after defeating Dalmeth.”
“What?” Jinx screamed furiously. Mirage quickly blinked to place her hand on Talia as Jinx removed hers to rush toward Jericho. “You can’t let her go! Moron! Numbskull!”
“Ha!” Talia laughed arrogantly. “You heard your master! You have to let me go!”
“We’ll let you go,” Mirage smiled sweetly. “But that begs the question, what about our deal?”
“It’s void,” Talia said derisively.
“Okay,” Mirage pulled out her knife and gestured for Jinx to come over. “Jinx. You heard her. No deal. That means when I let her go, she’s all yours.”
“Wait,” Talia said as Jinx placed a hand on her shoulder. “That’s not fair. Jericho said I get a twenty-four-hour head start. You have to give me a head start.”
“We didn’t make that deal,” Jinx growled in her ear. “Our deal was that I wouldn’t beat you and kill you if you became my master’s familiar. Peasant. Plebian.”
“Hey!” Talia looked at Jericho for help as Mirage started to slowly slice her bindings away. “Call her off! This is breaking our deal!”
“Uh,” Jericho avoided eye contact with the blonde witch. “Technically they’re right. Our deal was that I wouldn’t chase you for twenty-four hours. I never said anything about my familiars. And I made an agreement with Jinx that if she didn’t fight Dalmeth she could try to kill you. But, in my defense, I expected to catch you before she ever got to you.”
“Wait!” Talia yelled as Mirage’s dagger reached the final binding. “So, let me see if I have this right. You have a deal with me not to start hunting me for twenty-four hours. You also have a deal with her that if she catches me before you, she can kill me. Is that right?”
“That’s right,” Jericho said apologetically. “But I really didn’t expect her to catch you. I expected you to just freeze her and run away.”
“Oh darling,” Mirage giggled. “That won’t work anymore. We figured out the trick.”
“The trick?” Jericho asked curiously. “What do you mean?”
“As long as you’re touching her your speed will match hers,” Mirage smiled as Jinx squeezed Talia’s shoulder. “So as long as Jinx holds on, Talia can’t escape her.”
“That’s how he did it,” Jericho groaned as he realized that Dalmeth didn’t have some sort of special barrier. He was just prepared for Talia to touch him and he must have swatted her as soon as she tried it. “That would have been good to know going in! I was all worried Dalmeth had some type of reflective barrier so I spent half the fight observing and avoiding!”
“Wait,” Talia looked at Jericho. “You actually killed him?”
“Yeah,” Jericho grinned while gesturing at his still recuperating body, “Did you think this happened because I tripped?”
“I don’t believe it,” Talia looked at Riseva. “If that’s true why is she still alive?”
“She’s going to serve Jericho,” Luna said cheerfully. She slapped Riseva’s naked ass playfully, “I fucked her into submission.”
“Ahem,” Riseva nodded toward Jericho. “The other part of our agreement.”
“Oh,” Luna’s face turned red. “Right. I almost forgot about that.” Luna turned to Jericho and smiled sweetly. “Do you remember before the fight when you said you were hoping for an opportunity to fuck her?”
“Vaguely,” Jericho said glancing at the blushing demon. “What are you saying?”
“Well,” Luna smiled excitedly. “It happened to come up while we were talking and she thinks you’re handsome. Well, normally. I mean, you don’t have a mirror right now but you’re not looking your best. Take my word for it. Honestly, I wouldn’t touch you with Mirage’s shapeshifted cock and Sable pushing in the state you’re in right now. No offense. So, we probably don’t need to talk about this right now.”
“Shouldn’t we be discussing the Talia situation,” Mirage tried to interrupted as Jericho and Luna ignored her.
“Luna,” Jericho crossed his arms. “Is this going where I think it’s going?”
“I knew you were lying blinky,” Riseva’s looked away embarrassed.
“I wasn’t lying!” Luna said adamantly. “He said he was interested!”
“Goddammit,” Jericho guzzled another potion and shapeshifted to appear healed. Admittedly, Luna’s description of his injuries attacked his sense of vanity. He pulled out a high-calorie chocolate bar in one hand to maintain the form and another healing potion in the other to keep the rejuvenation going behind the scenes. “You pimped me out.”
“I think we’re getting off track,” Theia attempted to interject.
“I simply relayed your interest to somebody who was also interested,” Luna said defensively. “You already admitted to saying you were interested. I only told the truth.”
“It’s not about that!” Jericho insisted as he refreshed his potions and food. Jericho turned to the humiliated demoness. “Riseva. I want to make something abundantly clear. I will not accept any deal or negotiation that comes with the caveat that we must sleep together.”
“I understand,” Riseva said dejectedly. “I assumed...”
“I want it indisputably clear that when I sleep with you, it’s because I want to. Not because of some ridiculous deal you made with Luna.” Jericho turned to Luna. “My affection is not a commodity to be traded and bartered with. It’s given freely.”
“Wait,” Riseva’s face turned bright red. “You’re saying you’ll sleep with me regardless of whether or not I serve you?”
“Absolutely,” Jericho grinned while staring lecherously at Riseva’s exposed breasts. He was insanely curious about how making love to Riseva would feel. “You’re gorgeous.”
“Gorgeous,” Riseva smiled excitedly. “Really?”
“You’re not as pretty as me,” Jinx growled at Riseva while gripping Talia’s shoulder. “Scorpion. Pest.”
“Ouch,” Talia whined as Jinx�
��s grip tightened. “That hurts and I didn’t even do anything!”
“Darling,” Mirage gestured at Talia. “Can we get back to the topic at hand?”
“Right,” Jericho looked at Mirage holding her knife on the final strap of Talia’s bindings and Jinx gripping her shoulder. “Jinx. Can you let her go so we can do this fairly?”
“We already caught her fairly,” Jinx answered. “In exchange for not killing her, she made a deal. Either she keeps her end of the deal or I kill her. Con. Bastard.”
“Jinx,” Jericho shook his head. “I don’t really want a familiar that was forced to join me because she feared for her life. I’m sure if I catch her and beat her myself, she’ll want to join me. I just have to prove I’m strong enough.”
“You already have,” Talia said unhappily. “If you really defeated Dalmeth you proved you were stronger than me. Maybe there’s room for a new deal?”
“I’m listening,” Jericho smiled. “What do you have in mind?”
“I will become your familiar but I want some things,” Talia said. “First, I want a temple dedicated to me with statues. Even if I’m your familiar I am still a demigoddess.”
“You’re a time witch,” Riseva said coldly.
“I am a demigoddess!” Talia said furiously. “I deserve statues! People give statues to idiots who just happened to be born into noble families! They give statues to people who cure diseases! I should have statues!”
“If she gets a statue, I want a statue!” Jinx snapped jumping on the bandwagon. “I’m a demigoddess too! Cad! Rake!”
“You’re just a spectral beast,” Talia snapped as Jinx squeezed her shoulder. “Ouch, ouch, ouch.”
“Okay,” Jericho chuckled. “I’m not building a temple, but I’ll get you a statue. I think some statues of the familiars might make the garden look pretty nice.”
“Will the statues be tasteful?” Mirage asked playfully.
“God, I hope not,” Luna laughed. “Where’s the fun in that?”
“I suppose that’s fine,” Talia said. “I also want all the familiars in the house to obey me.”
“Ha!” Jericho laughed. “They don’t even obey me! That’s not happening.”
“What about servants?” Talia asked. “Surely you have servants?”
“Not really,” Jericho answered.
“Then what do you even have to offer?” Talia asked angrily.
“A home,” Jericho shrugged. “And friends and fun. I also do my best to meet everybody’s needs. Nobody ever seems to leave so it can’t be that bad.”
“I didn’t get a statue,” Sable smiled at Talia. “So, you’re getting more than I got. Did you get anything for joining him Theia?”
“I got the head of a Fallen Prince,” Theia said cheerfully.
“I didn’t get anything!” Jinx stomped angrily. “Why do they get things but I don’t? Cheapskate! Tightwad!”
“You literally have enough precious gems and jewelry to start a small kingdom,” Jericho sighed. “And this isn’t a competition.”
“Of course not,” Mirage smiled. “Because if it were, I’d win. You killed an entire army for me.”
“You know,” Luna crossed her arms. “I didn’t get anything special.”
“You got to watch us have sex for two weeks, pervert,” Sable offered. “Your welcome.”
“Fine!” Talia snapped. “As long as I get my statues. It’s better than nothing. We have a deal. I’ll become your familiar.”
“Great!” Jericho said cheerfully. “We can take care of all that once we’re back at the house and healed up. We have a bit of a walk ahead of us to the nearest portal.”
“Walk?” Luna scoffed. “I think I’ll meet you all back there.”
“No,” Riseva wrapped one of her tails around Luna’s waist and pulled her close. “If I have to walk, you have to walk blinky.”
“Hey,” Terra said approaching the group in her death robes. She glanced at Riseva and sighed knowingly, “Welcome to the family. Now, where’s my body?”
“It decayed,” Mirage said. “We thought you’d be back sooner.”
“What?” Terra looked around in a panic. “No, no, no. Did you at least loot it before it decayed?”
“Sorry,” Mirage pointed at Talia. “We were a bit preoccupied.”
“No, no, no,” Terra stared at Jericho. “All of my stuff! Fuck! My bow! Goddammit!”
“Terra,” Jericho grinned as he saw Mirage trying desperately to hide her amusement. “I think Mirage has your stuff.”
“What?” Mirage feigned shock. “Why would you think that?”
“Do you really?” Terra said hopefully. “You’re just messing with me, right? It’s not really gone, right?”
“I may have found some junk,” Mirage smiled playfully. “You can try to earn it back on Thursday.”
“Fuck,” Terra laughed. Jericho knew exactly how she was feeling having lost plenty of valuable items to long corpse runs. “Holy shit. I thought I just lost my legendary bow. What a relief.” Terra stared at Riseva. “You’re planning on fucking Jericho, aren’t you?”
“Hopefully,” Riseva smiled.
“Mind if I call seconds?” Terra asked playfully.
“Technically it’s thirds,” Luna smirked. “I got there first.”
“Can we just go stop this nonsense and get walking?” Talia asked as Mirage cut her final binding. “I want a safe place to reverse the flow of my time and get back to normal.”
“Reverse?” Mirage stared at Talia as if she found her new best friend. “Does that mean what I think that means?”
“Increasing my speed increases the speed at which I age,” Talia said looking at Terra. “That goes for everybody who was in stasis with me as well. Fortunately, you only lost about a year’s worth of time.
“What?” Mirage panicked and pulled out a knife to find her reflection. “A year? I want my year back. Can you get it back?”
“Yes,” Talia answered. “But we need a safe place because while we’re reversing our time flows we’re completely vulnerable.”
“How far can we reverse?” Mirage asked curiously. “Can I go back to my twenties?”
“That’s where I normally stop,” Talia smiled. “But you can stop wherever you want.”
“I love you,” Mirage grabbed Talia and squeezed her tightly. “Oh, I love you so much! I’m so happy I didn’t let Jinx kill you! We’re going to be best friends!”
“Let’s go home! Slowpokes! Snails!” Jinx roared excitedly.
Chapter 10
A Strange Homecoming
“What the fuck?” Jericho said as he stared at the massive stone walls nearing completion around his manor. Some of the dragons were already roosting on three completed towers as fairy workers magically sped through the others. “What the fuck is happening?”
“I don’t know,” Terra said as they walked through the front gate. “But I fucking love it.”
“You have this lavish home and you won’t build me one tiny temple?” Talia scoffed. “You are selfish!”
“You’re not even his familiar yet,” Sable said. “Give it time. I’m sure he’ll do something stupid and build you a temple to make up for it.”
“This is an impressive home for a mage,” Riseva said in awe of the enormous manor. “Then again, anything is better than the hole I was locked in. But I wasn’t expecting something so grand.”
“Neither was I,” Jericho looked around slightly concerned about what was happening. In his experience, when something really good was happening it was a precursor to something really bad.
“Master!” Ariel yelled excitedly while rushing out of the front door. “Did you see what I did? Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” Jericho said while staring at the ludicrous building. It was now at least triple its previous width and a distillery was attached to one side. “How did you do this?”
“Well,” Ariel said anxiously. “Do you remember how when we first met, I gave you all of my gol
d and even after you sold all the houses you kept it and gave me nothing?”
“When she says it like that you kind of seem like an asshole,” Terra said. “But technically that’s exactly what you did.”
“I remember,” Jericho said. It wasn’t as though he was trying to be an asshole. Ariel just didn’t seem to care much about money and didn’t seem to mind. “What’s that have to do with this?”
“I just want you to think about that as I explain,” Ariel said while smiling anxiously.
“Uh oh,” Terra laughed.
“Okay,” Jericho smiled. “Continue.”
“Well,” Ariel paused. “I was planning something and then I realized I needed more space. So, I got to thinking, I’m the Queen of Dayrose so I have control over zoning. Then Cynthia helped me find the various zoning documents and we made some changes. Cynthia’s actually still working on other things related to them. She’s really excited. But it looks amazing and it only cost about nine million gold.”
“Ah,” Jericho realized why she reminded him of the money she’d given him. She nearly emptied his treasury for the expansion. He couldn’t really be mad at Ariel since she never asked for anything and had in fact given him the gold that allowed him to purchase the manor to begin with. He was more surprised than anything. It was unlike her to do something so ambitious. “It looks really nice.”
“Really?” Ariel asked. “You think so? Oh! You haven’t seen the best part! It was the reason for the entire expansion! Follow me! I don’t want to ruin the surprise!”
“Surprise?” Jinx asked excitedly. “Is it treasure? Moth. Pest.”
“No,” Ariel said while grabbing Jericho’s arm to pull him inside. “Come on!”
“I think I’m going to get changed first,” Terra sighed. “I’ll catch up.”
“Me too,” Theia said looking down at her filthy dress. “And I need to put my head away.”
“Okay,” Jericho said as Ariel tugged on him. “I’m sure you’ll all catch up.”
Jericho let Ariel pull him into the manor and through the massive foyer toward the dining area. Before he even arrived, he heard the happy chirping of dragons even though they weren’t supposed to be in the house. As they turned the final corner Jericho walked into a grand dining hall beyond anything he imagined.