I barely have time to take in their pink depths before an avalanche of naked limbs and soft flesh hits me. “Oh, hero,” Akalia cries as she peppers my face with little kisses, clinging to me like I’m the only thing holding her to the world. Her tits press into my chest and she wraps me tight, lips at my ear. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“Heart shaped nipples, check,” Mika says, voice dry as a desert.
“Akalia,” I manage, craning to see Mika round her bobbing head. “Akalia!”
“What?” she whimpers before planting her lips on mine. Her tongue quests into my mouth and she moans like she’s already fucking me. She tastes like the faintest aftershock of liquor and smoke, good scotch mired in sin.
“Akalia!” I shout, taking her slim arms in my hands and physically pushing her away. She’s ridiculously strong, or maybe it’s that I’m trying not to accidentally hurt her. With my upgrades, I feel like I could snap her little arms in my hands by accident. “Stop, please. Stop.”
“Why?” she asks, staring at me dreamily. “You’re rescuing me. We both know what comes next.”
“Yeah,” Mika says, mouth quirked. “You know what comes next.”
I glare at her. “You’re not helping.”
Akala heaves huge breaths. Each time she does, the scrap of material at her chest rises and her nipples come free for a heartbeat. Mika’s right. Her little nubs are normal, but the pink staining around them is definitely heart shaped. She licks her lips as she notices me staring, arching her back so I have a better view. “Like them? You’re going to love them when you find out what comes out when you give ‘em a suck.”
“I… What?” I blink. “When I–”
Mika crosses her arms, clearly enjoying this. On one hand, I love her so much more for her lack of jealousy. On the other, she’s doing nothing to help. “Maybe you should give it a try, Sam.” She winks.
“Oh, God.” I know she’s noticed how hard my cock is. I can’t help it; Akalia’s lips and tits and soft skin under my hands are intoxicating. And after Kara’s and then the orgy downstairs, not to mention the kiss outside the door, it feels like I’ve got a permanent case of blue balls.
Mika purses her lips and glances downward. I groan inwardly. I’m gonna pay for this later.
I need to reassert control. I hold Akalia tight. Her entire body strains against my grip like she can barely restrain herself from taking me right there. “Listen, stop. We have to get out of here. There are guards, and–”
“I know,” she says, eyes as wide as the ocean. “They’re so scary. You’ll protect me from them, right?”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe. Mika’s scary as hell. She shoots flames when she’s pissed,” I say, hoping the elf gets the hint.
Instead, she somehow slips my grip and clings to my harder. “Oh, good. I’ve been here a few days and… and… No one’s touched me, but Madam DeVeaux said she would start sending my clients after the celebration and if I didn’t service them she’d–”
“Shh, shh,” I say as her tears wet my neck. I stroke her hair without realizing it, then pull my hand away with a shake and guilty look to Mika. She still stands, observing us with her little half smile, adding more and more ammunition to her stock.
I’m never going to live this down.
“Akalia,” I say, desperate to turn her attention somewhere else. “Mika. Mika, Akalia.”
The elf somehow turns in my arms to take in Mika. “Oh, she’s pretty,” Akalia says. “But I’m only into dudes. Maybe she can watch when I repay you for saving me?”
“Oh, yes,” Mika says, voice merry. “Can I?”
“Sweet Jesus, save me,” I whisper. “Akalia, we have to go right now. If the guards come back, there will be a fight and–”
“Okay,” she breathes, and somehow it sounds like she’s having an orgasm as she says the word. It seems to be the only way she knows how to talk. “Lead the way, hero. Just don’t forget–”
I gasp and leap at least a foot when she squeezes my cock.
“–after,” she finishes with a grin.
“Not… a… word…” I hiss to Mika as we turn to go.
Her only response is an evil laugh.
We peer into the hallway. Coast is still clear. Akalia holds me tight, arms looped around my waist. I adjust the vibrablade so she doesn’t lose a limb. “Hey, little looser? I can’t… I can’t walk…”
Akalia’s only response it to grip me tighter. I can feel every inch of her curves along my back. I sigh inwardly and do a bizarre little hop step down the hall. The elf’s little gasping breaths sound like thunder, but we’re not assaulted by any guards as we skirt the room with the dead guy and make our way to the top of the steps.
“I can’t wait to get you back to Kara’s,” Akalia’s whispering. “When we get there, I’m going to suck your cock so hard you won’t remember your name. I’m going to put that thick thing in your pants inside me and I’m going to–”
I shut her out. It’s getting easier and easier the more she talks, the more she grips me like I’m her lifeline. Every caress of her soft hands, every overdramatic promise just proves how fake she is, how manufactured. She may be young and willing and sexy as hell, but she’s no Mika. She hasn’t fought by my side to hell and back. She may actually be willing to “reward” me as she’s promised, but she doesn’t know me.
“Sam. Sam,” Mika hisses urgently. I give myself a mental shake, realize I’ve worked so hard to ignore Akalia that I didn’t realize Mika was trying to get my attention.
“What is it?” I say, stopping and crouching low. It’s kind of a ridiculous pose with Akalia still attached to me like a second skin. She uses the opportunity to grip my ass, which I ignore.
Mika looks pointedly at Akalia, all humor evaporated. “Can you stop feeling up my boyfriend long enough for us to not die in here? Kay thanks.”
Boyfriend. I like the sound of it, even if I still don’t know how that works in light of the other girls.
Akalia likes it a lot less. She tries to scooch back, staring daggers at Mika, and falls flat on her ass. It exposes everything the scrap of material at her crotch has barely hidden so far. “Ow,” she whines, rubbing her ass.
I can’t help notice that she doesn’t bother covering anything in the front. Once again, I have a moment where I question who the hell these people were before the purge. Who this girl was that, in game, she’s this shameless and uncaring of showing her pussy to a couple strangers. Or of what she’s been promising me. Is it a side effect of what is basically the ultimate form of internet anonymity? Or is the world so fucked and hopeless that people in game just don’t care?
It doesn’t matter right now. But it might later.
I crouch next to Mika. “What’s wrong?”
“That,” she says, shaking her head and pointing down the steps. Toward the front door.
Where the celebration should be occurring. But something’s different.
Outside the doors of the brothel, it’s utterly silent.
“What the hell…” I whisper.
Mika doesn’t rebuke me or even give me a look that says you seriously didn’t notice before now? She should, though. Thousands of people going utterly silent in the five minutes we’ve been inside is a huge red flag and blocking out Akalia isn’t an excuse to have missed it.
I give her a look that I hope says I’m sorry for being a dumbass, now let’s figure out what the hell is going on before starting gingerly down the steps. The creaking from before sounds like thunder now, and I wince with each step.
Akalia’s finger twine with mine. I don’t stop her, but I don’t return her squeeze of fear. “What’s going on?” she whispers.
“Don’t know,” I say. “If this is a trap or we’re attacked, hide.”
“Yeah, you’re only level five, don’t try to be a hero.” Mika can’t hide the sarcasm from her tone.
“Okay.” Akalia trembles, pressing close to me.
I sigh as we reach
the bottom of the steps. I’m going to have to physically detach her again, and if we get jumped…
Something tugs at my memory as we cross the Brothel’s lobby. Something Kara said… “Hey. Kara said all her girls were level fifteen or higher. So, they could protect themselves. But you’re only level five?”
Mika stops cold, piercing the elf with her gaze. “Yeah. What’s up with that?”
“How should I know?” Akalia whines. “Madam hasn’t let me service any clients yet. She just keeps me in her personal study. Maybe she won’t until I level up?”
I firmly hold her in place as I take a step back. Her eyes are huge and shrink wrapped in unshed tears, and it’s impossible to tell by her face or voice if she’s lying or just clueless. She’s too upset to decode.
I turn to Mika. “Thoughts?”
“There’s only one way out of here,” she says, “so I don’t see we have much choice.”
“Shit.” I’m more and more sure that something isn’t right. Have Obsidian caught onto us? Is Kara setting us up? I don’t know. I was skeezed at Kara’s, but between Wick’s assurances and the fact that she didn’t try to take us right then, I decided to go with it. Things have become weirder and weirder as we’ve pursued this, but I realize our mistake too late. Small, strange escalations that felt odd at the time but weren’t enough to put us off. Escalations that have added up to something far weirder. And maybe more sinister.
What comes next? I don’t know. Too many questions I have no way to answer.
Mika’s right about one thing, though. The only way out is through.
Akalia reattaches as we move to the door. Her slim body trembles against my arm, and her panting breaths in my ear are distracting at a time when I need to stay frosty. I work harder to ignore her while still paying attention to our surroundings, but it’s not easy.
I put my palm against the brothel’s door and look to Mika. She mirrors me and takes a deep breath.
“Ready?”
She nods. “Leeroy Jenkins time.”
“That’s not comforting at all.”
“Ready,” Akalia whispers.
I didn’t mean her, but I keep that to myself.
We push through the double doors and I seize my power, ready for anything.
I’m not prepared for nothing.
The city’s deserted. Everyone’s gone.
Signs of them still exist. Discarded bottles, clothes, and masks litter the ground. Churned dirt from the boulevard, stirred up by dancing feet and fights, paints a visual story of a party less than ten minutes old. I can even smell the people we passed on our way in here; the scents of sweat and alcohol and vomit hang heavy in the air.
“How?” I ask. “Like you said, we were in there like five minutes.”
“I don’t know, but this is creepy as hell,” Mika says. “We’ve been transported into a Stephen King book or something.”
“What’s wrong?” Akalia says, burying a sob in my bicep. “Why are we stopping?”
“Just hold on,” I say, trying to watch the street for anything I’ve missed. Movement. Traps. “There was a street party when we came in. Like Mardi Gras or something.”
Mika’s hand pops and crackles with flame. “Now they’re gone.”
“Yeah, it was the same when they brought me here,” Akalia says. “What happened to them?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be standing here talking about it,” Mika snaps. It’s not like her, but Akalia’s helpless whining and the fucked situation give her a pass in my book.
“Come on,” I say, pulling the vibrablade free for the first time. It hums to life in my grip, buzzing like a hundred bumblebees. “Stay close. Be ready for anything.”
“Can I take back the Leeroy thing?” Mika whispers as we descend the brothel’s front steps. “This is feeling a lot more X-Files than Upper Blackrock.”
We step around clothes and bottles, moving slowly but steadily back to the entrance. Akalia’s trembling like a leaf, and though Mika’s far more controlled, her movements and breathing are jerky and scared. “Hey,” I say, forcing confidence. “We’ll be okay. Stick with me and don’t stop.”
“Deal,” Mika says.
Akalia just holds me tighter.
We make our way through the compound, trying to watch everything. Mika’s flames throw dancing light down the little alleys between buildings, lighting up the massive wall that buts up against the backs of the businesses. The only good part about the people disappearing into thin air is that I’m able to get the lay of the land in a way I couldn’t before. The entire place is one long, old west style road with buildings on each side, and behind those are the wall. It’s a bizarre design for what’s basically a small town, but then I remember that someone designed this personally to be their estate and it’s less weird. Don’t need logic when you can create a videogame world for yourself.
Everywhere I look, the signs of the party persist. Beer bottles, steins, and glasses litter the ground. Bras and panties are cast aside in alleys and against trees where they were hastily removed and forgotten. There are even used condoms from time to time, which strikes me as extra weird. Maybe some people just miss the feel of latex.
“I can’t understand how they all just vanished while we were in there,” I say. “I mean, if they’d left… That many people…”
“It would have taken hours to organize,” Mika finishes, affirming my fear. “There must be some kind of videogame explanation. Like, we’re in a different instance, now?”
Akalia chimes in, surprisingly. “The party’s gone on nonstop for days, but I don’t think it’s the same party?”
“I hear a question mark at the end of that sentence,” I prod.
“It’s just… I don’t know how to explain it. I could hear it going on from my room. Music and noise and celebration, and then it would stop. Then, a few moments later, start again… But the music was different. The sound of the people. How drunk they were, if that makes sense?”
“Weird. Maybe this place has multiple instances,” Mika says. “Like… Group one parties in instance one at eight PM. And group two in instance two at midnight?”
“Could explain it,” I say, chewing it over.
“If that’s true, it would make all this far less spooky.”
“And far more convenient,” a new and decidedly male voice interjects.
We stop cold, searching the buildings and alleys around us. We’re close enough to the exit that we can see the door set into the barrier wall. But we’re still alone as far as I can tell.
“Hello?” I call, feeling like an idiot.
“Up here!” A female voice, higher and mocking.
They stand on the top of the wall, a man and a woman. He’s dressed in an elegant suit, cut in and old school style that you might see in a period drama. Short brown hair and handsome features are dulled by his bored expression. An elegant cravat’s tied at his neck, and he carries a long, black cane that’s so polished it glimmers in the torchlight from below.
She’s his polar opposite; her clothes are revealing spandex that bands her chest and ass and nothing else. Long, blazing pink hair’s sticks out in a solid mass behind her like a painter’s brush, and her body’s… Strange. It’s like she has cartoon proportions, but unlike the actual cartoons I’ve met since coming to Lifestream, her body’s real flesh and blood. But her legs and arms and torso are too long and are bent at odd angles like they don’t exist in our reality.
Mika reaches out and pulls me back a step. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
“Mika?”
“Obsidian. Both level 30.”
Shit.
We back up a few more steps, staring up. Akalia stays attached to my arm, and her frightened breaths are warm thunder at my ear. I take hold of my power, wondering if it’ll do any good against two level 30’s. Mika’s arms are aflame up to her shoulders already, and though her eye are wide with exhilarated fear she looks ready to rumble.
It doesn’t put off
the Obsidians. They leap from the top of the wall and fall the thirty feet in a few beats of my heart. When the man lands, he barely bends his legs to take the impact as a ring of dust flies in all directions. The girl just bends and smooshes almost flat before springing back into shape.
For a long moment we just stare at each other across a distance of about twenty feet. My mind races. How the hell are we going to get past them?
The male sighs. “As you are apparently too rude to introduce yourselves, I’ll begin. My name is Ajax. This is Mereta. We’ve come for you, Sam Warner.”
How does he know my last name? I take a slow step forward, dragging Akalia with me. “You already know my name. This is Mika and Akalia.”
“Charmed,” Ajax says. “Now that pleasantries are over, let’s cut to the chase. If you want your beautiful companion to survive the next five minutes, you’ll come with us without a struggle.”
“Why me?” I ask, desperate to buy some time. I have no faith that they’ll let us live no matter what we do. “Whatever Armstrong told you…”
“It does not matter,” Ajax yawns, “and frankly, I do not care. I’ve been pulled from far more intriguing duties to play fetch, and I plan on being finished with this as soon as possible.”
There’s nothing helpful around us. A bar to our left and some kind of restaurant to our right. At their backs, the wall, thick and unforgiving. “I apologize for pulling you from said duties,” I say, backing away another step.
He watches me shrewdly but doesn’t move to follow. “Orders are orders. You know how it is. Some sort of uproar at the borders of Lifestream, a shadow beast that moves from zone to zone, and those it slays do not respawn. All quite fascinating, I assure you.”
“A shadow beast?” I say, mouth suddenly dry. “The Shepherd?”
Mereta leans forward, mouth splitting in a madcap grin. Silent up to this point, she leans forward, mouth splitting in a madcap grin. Her face is as exaggerated as her body; eyes far too big for her head sit above lips that look like a kid that’s snuck off with her mom’s lipstick. “Is that what you call it? Interesting. They’re saying that those it kills die in the real world.” She cackles madly. “Rad, right?” Her expression’s crazed, almost maniacal, and suddenly I’m far more worried about her than I am Ajax.
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 40