He didn’t have any time to waste. He took a breath of humid, rainy air and thrust the bottom end of the staff against the ground as he cast Shadow Levitation. The spell normally allowed him to hover rather than fly outright as the name implied. But this time, it was different.
Ryoko’s uncontrolled power still tried to hold him back, pushing at him with a constant surge of water and wind. The staff amplified Jack’s levitation to a degree that let him cut through it, flying through the air with the ease of a superhero.
He headed straight for her as fast as he possibly could. Ryoko was gripping her head in both hands and twisting through the air with tortured movements. He didn’t have a plan other than to pull her into his arms. If he could just make her remember who she was, or even who he was, then he could help her gain control over what she was doing.
Ryoko noticed him as he came near and reacted instantly. She let out a high-pitched, clicking screech and threw her arm in his direction, slamming him with a massive blast of water. It was enough to send Jack tumbling off course, and almost enough to strip the staff from his hands.
Lightning and thunder sounded in unison, the bolt of which came near enough to Jack to momentarily deafen and blind him. He regained control over his direction and immediately started toward Ryoko again. She was moving, now, flying away from the mansion.
Flying away from the mansion and toward Lesser Town.
Jack felt a sudden surge of dread as he considered what would happen if she unleashed herself on the town in her current state. It would be worse than what the water nymph had done, and the fact that the people were still recovering from the first storm only made the situation that much more volatile.
“Ryoko!” he shouted. “Stop!”
He was screaming at the top of his lungs, but he could only barely hear his own voice over the sound of the storm. Ryoko flew amidst the chaos, still gripping her head in obvious distress. Jack could keep pace with her, but even with the staff, his levitation couldn’t bring him up to a speed that would let him close the distance.
He reached the outskirts of Lesser Town a few seconds after she did. The rain was pouring down, and though it was tough to see through the veil of the weather, Jack could just barely make out the flooding in the streets below. He shouted for Ryoko again, feeling more desperate by the second.
She slowed her pace for an instant, and Jack felt himself gaining on her. He drew within twenty feet, and then within ten. And then he was close enough to reach his hand out to her shoulder.
“It’s me!” he shouted. “Ryoko, please! You have to control yourself!”
She whirled around, brushing his arm away, and then swung her hand at him in a clawed strike. Jack felt her fingernails scratching into his face, and the attack was immediately followed up by a blast of water with enough strength to buffet him away. He regained his equilibrium after a few seconds of tumbling through the air, and wiped water and blood off his face in time to see Ryoko flying away from him.
For a moment, Jack thought she was heading for the center of town. It seemed like that was where she could cause the most havoc, if the storm surrounding her stayed centered on where she was. But Ryoko didn’t stop where he’d been expecting her to. Instead, she continued overhead, heading across the beach, and out into the ocean.
Jack took in a sharp breath as he looked further out in the direction she was heading in. What he’d taken to be the horizon was in fact a wall of water. A massive wave heading straight for the town.
No, too massive to be just a wave, he thought. A tsunami.
“No,” Jack muttered. “Not like this.”
She’d come to a stop in the air and was looking away from him, staring intently at the oncoming oceanic disaster her magic had created. Jack knew without a doubt that it would destroy Lesser Town. There would be no survivors, not from that much water moving at that great of a speed.
She didn’t know what she was doing. That didn’t lessen his responsibility to stop her.
Jack shifted his grandfather’s staff into his left hand and summoned his Spectral Sword, grimacing as the pain in his heart became so severe that it felt like it was turning inside out. He blinked and tried to convince himself that the wetness on his cheeks was solely a product of the pounding rain.
What was he supposed to do? It was his fault, and he knew it. Could he really stand back and watch his accumulated mistakes come to fruition with the destruction of the town it was his responsibility to protect? Was this how Katie had felt when she’d realized that she’d inadvertently helped create a monster?
Jack flew forward slowly, letting Ryoko take notice of him as he approached. She launched a blast of water at him. Jack swiped his sword at it in time to deflect it into harmless droplets of rain. She tried again, and he blocked it again. And then he was near enough to do what had to be done. He pulled back his sword and screamed through gritted teeth.
His strike never came. Jack’s eyes met hers, and even transformed as they were, he saw the same shy, timid girl he’d slowly fallen in love with. He let his Spectral Sword dissolve into a puff of smoke and pulled her into a tight hug.
“I love you!” he shouted. “Ryoko, I love you. And I can’t… I can’t do it. Not if it means hurting you.”
“I…” Ryoko’s voice came out in a strained whisper. “I can’t stop it. I’m… not myself, anymore.”
Hearing her speak was enough to rekindle Jack’s hopes. He squeezed her tight, feeling how cold her body was underneath her soaked nightgown.
“Yes you can!” he said. “You’re still you! You can control it, Ryoko, you just have to try!”
“I’m not…” she whispered. “I’ve changed. I’m sorry, sir!”
“Jack,” he said. “Call me Jack.”
Ryoko let out a small gasp, and Jack felt her arms finally tighten around him, responding to his embrace. Thunder boomed overhead, but the rain immediately began to wane. Jack pulled back slightly, holding eye contact with her. She blinked a couple of times, and then forced herself to take a slow, calming breath.
“Jack…” she whispered.
“That’s it,” he said. “That’s all you needed to do.”
He cupped her cheek with his free hand, keeping the other around her body, fist still tightly gripped around the staff. It felt a little strange to focus on levitating in the background of such an intimate moment, but he somehow managed it. He ran his thumb over Ryoko’s cold lips, and then kissed her.
She kissed him back, and it was both familiar and very strange. Ryoko pressed herself against him in the air, her body melding into his. She slid her tongue into his mouth, and Jack was reminded of the same bizarre sensation of when the water nymph had tried to drown him, except on a smaller and much more sensual scale.
He continued holding her close, even as the kiss ended, pressing his forehead against hers. The wave approaching the town spiraled upward and then dissolved into harmless, singular water droplets, its momentum extinguished by the departure of Ryoko’s will.
Jack lifted her in his arms, carrying her as he used the staff to fly both of them home. He didn’t want to let her, or the moment, go. It seemed like a nightmare in retrospect. It had been a nightmare. Ryoko in her bed, unmoving. He’d found a way to bring her back, and from the way his heart seemed to pulse with love and warmth, he’d done the right thing, if at the wrong cost.
CHAPTER 38
They landed in the mansion’s courtyard. Ryoko didn’t say anything to him, but she interlaced her fingers tightly with his and followed him as he headed in through the front door. Mira was waiting in the foyer, still wet from earlier. She glanced back and forth between them, flashing a genuine smile that faded almost as quickly as it arrived.
“Mezolak said he’d be back in the morning,” she said.
Jack nodded to her. Ryoko gave his hand a gentle tug, pulling him toward the stairs. He followed, feeling almost in awe of the new confidence he could see in her posture and movements.
She
was kissing him as soon as his bedroom door closed. The sensation of her lips against his stirred deep emotions within him. His desire for her felt amplified by how close he’d been to losing her forever, and he acted on it.
He ran his hands over the bottom of her nightgown and her taut butt before slipping his fingers under the hem of her nightgown and pulling it up and off her, in a single movement. She was nude underneath, and still a little cold. The nipples of her petite breasts were both pointed, and she had tiny goosebumps along her arms and abdomen.
He’d seen her naked before, but never like this. She watched him watching her, with an expression that was almost challenging. It was as though Ryoko had realized who she was. How cute and beautiful and, in her own right, irresistibly seductive she could be. Her lips twitched upward at the side, as though she was trying to suppress an amused smile at his somewhat bewildered reaction.
“Sir,” she said. “Your clothes are just as wet as mine. You should take them off, too.”
Jack grinned and started to pull his t-shirt off, but Ryoko held up a finger. She pointed her hand toward him, palm out, and a thin tendril of water extended from it with slow, deliberate precision.
“Whoa,” said Jack. “Are you sure that’s something you should be…”
He trailed off as the tendril brushed across the nape of his neck. It was warm, and it actually felt rather good. Ryoko wiggled it under his shirt, which was already soaked, and let it slide across his body.
She lifted her other hand and sent another water tendril toward him, then gestured for him to lift his arms up. Jack did, and with a sudden, spiraling movement, she pulled his shirt up and over his head.
“Why didn’t I ever think of using my magic for this kind of thing?” he said with a smile.
Ryoko’s smile grew a little fainter.
“I think the cost is different for you, sir,” she said. “It’s almost harder for me not to use my water magic than it is to let it out.”
Jack nodded, though he didn’t dismiss the idea completely. Ryoko used her physical hands to take off his pants, and he all but kicked his boxers off as he felt his need for her gaining in momentum.
They kissed again, and Jack pulled her naked body against his. Ryoko grinded into him with active movements, running a hand through his hair and letting her fingers pinch into his shoulder. Her kisses still had that unusual, splashy quality, and as she moved her lips to plant them up the length of his neck, Jack shuddered at the pleasurable, tickling sensation of them.
She was the one who led him to the bed, pulling him by the hand and leaning back on the mattress. She kept her legs daintily crossed, giving off a teasing, chaste impression despite being completely nude. Jack grinned and stalked toward her across the bed on hands and knees, like a tiger approaching a cornered prey.
But Ryoko, as she was now, did not fit that definition. She licked her lips and waved a hand at him. Water tendrils extended from her palm and wrist and slithered over his naked body, like warm, sensual pythons. Jack liked it, but it was really weird. Especially as they found a certain stiff part of his body and began to gently stroke and squeeze.
He let out a low moan as Ryoko used her magic to pleasure him. Against his better judgement, he decided to return the favor. He cast Spectral Hand and extended two shadow tendrils from his upper shoulders, gently wrapping them around Ryoko’s waist before letting them curl around the edges of her breasts, almost in the fashion of a rope harness.
Ryoko let out a little gasp that told him that his tendrils were probably colder than hers were. Jack felt her respond to his magical intrusion with movements through the water. She expanded one of the tendrils, turning it into a warm, wet sheath for his shaft that felt a lot like a woman’s mouth.
Jack let his tendrils brush across her nipples, eliciting another cute little gasp. Then, he let one of them slide down her thigh, and then over her crotch, pausing just outside of its real target. He smiled, finally letting the ridiculousness of the moment catch up with him.
He dismissed his magic and pushed forward with a quick movement that caught Ryoko off guard. She let out a girlish little squeal as he seized her by the waist and manhandled her toward the center of the bed. As soon as their eyes met, however, he could see that she meant business. The confidence he’d noticed in her before was still there, and it had come out to play.
She bit her lip as he slid his length into her, then almost immediately fell in sync with his movements. Her hips bucked upward to meet each of Jack’s thrusts. Her hand slid across his back, tracing the angles of his muscles.
Jack held her tight, cradling her head against his shoulder with his hand as though still afraid that she might disappear. It was a different kind of sex than they’d ever had before. There was something primal and desperate about it. Sex intended to convey a message or make a statement.
He pumped himself into her faster. Ryoko took his face in her hand and shifted it so that they were looking at each other, making direct eye contact. Her slitted irises were haunting in their beauty, but the real difference was in the newfound strength he saw within them.
She loved him. More importantly, she wanted him to know it. She wanted to see him, loving her back. It was as though she was finally demanding what she’d always deserved. Jack thrust faster. Ryoko’s legs curled around him.
Her body finally felt warm against him, hot, even. Her petite breasts jiggled for all they were worth. Jack kissed her and felt an explosion of sensation as she teased her watery tongue into his mouth. He hugged her as tightly as he could while still maintaining that relentless, forceful pace.
“Jack,” Ryoko whispered in a shuddering breath. “Oh… Jack!”
“Ryoko!”
He felt her tensing up as she crossed over her limit into bliss. An instant later, Jack groaned as he reached his own peak and felt himself burst into her. Ryoko’s body fluttered in between forms for a wavering second, becoming warm, sensual water before re-solidifying into a soft, naked woman.
He hugged her tight, and she hugged him back. They took slow breaths, and Jack felt their breathing falling into a similar rhythm.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too,” she said. “So much.”
Those were the only words that were spoken between them for a time. More than an hour passed with both of them lying together on his bed, naked and in love. Ryoko let her fingers toy with his hair and trace the edge of his jaw. Jack let his hands do slightly less sweet things, mostly involving gently groping her breasts.
It was a moment that Jack knew couldn’t last, despite how much he wanted it to. He wished he could spend an eternity with Ryoko, be it in the act of lovemaking or just in her quiet company, or even in their old roles as master of the house and maid. But they couldn’t.
Mezolak had said that he was coming back in the morning. Jack knew what that meant. He wasn’t going to be staying on the island for much longer.
“I had to make a deal to save you,” he said. “I… don’t think I’m going to be able to stay here.”
Ryoko tensed against him, squeezing him into a hug as though she could change the fact just by holding onto him.
“Tell me,” she whispered.
So Jack told her. He told her everything, from when he’d first dug up his father’s grave and found Zack Hoffman’s body inside it. He even told her about how he’d shifted to feeding off Mira because of how worried he was about her, and how close and intimate he’d become with his former broodmother.
He saw Ryoko’s reactions to each revelation. He saw the worry, and the occasional flash of pain as he spoke of confiding in Mira over her. But more than that, he saw the resolve and love in her expression.
“That’s where things are right now,” he said, as he finished. “Mezolak will be back in the morning. He’s going to have plans for me. I know it.”
Jack grimaced, feeling like such an idiot for selling his loyalty to a monster. Ryoko squeezed his hand, and his attention wa
s drawn back to her warm, living body. No, he decided. He’d made the right choice, even if it had come at a dangerously high price.
“Ryoko…” he said, feeling his curiosity push him toward a question he was a little scared to ask. “Why did you do it? Why’d you try to kill yourself?”
Was it because of him? That was what Jack really wanted to know, though he’d never be able to force the specific words out of his mouth. Ryoko contemplated the question for a couple of seconds, blinking her eyes in a way that made it seem like she was trying to keep them from tearing up.
“I can’t explain it,” she whispered. “I’m not sure it would make any sense to you, sir. It was the only option. It wasn’t because of you, or Mira, or any one thing in particular. It was the end of a road I’ve been on for almost my entire adult life.”
Jack ran his fingers across her cheek.
“It’s funny,” she continued. “I had this delusion in my head that I was weighing you down. That I was a burden, and a distraction. That I might even end up hurting you, or getting you killed. When you were feeding off me, it seemed like I was helping you. But then I started getting depressed again, and you stopped… And it felt like it was my fault for being so pathetic. So weak, and so broken.”
“You aren’t any of those things,” said Jack. “You’re strong. Hell, you’re literally strong now. You would have wrecked me if we’d actually ended up fighting.”
Ryoko flashed a sad smile.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t want to do what I did. But I felt like I had to. I couldn’t just stay trapped in my bed, watching you worry about me. I thought you’d start hating me eventually. Or that maybe you already had… and that’s why you’d stopped biting me.”
Hearing her words made him feel the pain of her loss all over again. Jack pulled Ryoko tight against him, hugging her and cradling her head against his shoulder.
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