Rod of the Heart

by Cebelius

  "Mamma Moo talks too much," she grumbled.

  "Oh, you bet she does. Did she tell you how much she talked up your record while promoting me? To hear her tell it, you're a man-crushing, ball-busting titan."

  She crawled up onto the bed and settled her hips down on his thighs, keeping her hands on his shoulders. She leaned in until her nose was only an inch from his as she said, "That reminds me of something else we need to talk about. Mamma Moo says you promised her another fight."

  He nodded slightly, his eyebrows lifting a bit as he smirked. "Why, you want a rematch? I might break your streak."

  "She offered, but I said no," Laina huffed. "I'm done with pit fights. The only reason I ever stepped into the ring was to find a man I could respect. Now I've got you. You should pay her off. I've got enough to satisfy her."

  "Not a chance," he said. "Fighting is the only thing I do well. Now that I'm back in town, I intend to make good on my promise. With the stake from Monsoon, I can finally make some real money."

  Laina settled, her breasts ballooning against his chest as she gave him a frustrated look. "Really? You know what you are will come out now that the Vicereine is statuary in her own throne room. People will come from miles around to take a shot at you, and whoever she lines up will make me look like a walk in the park. She's in it for the money, Boss. She likes you, but she's never let 'like' come between her and a profit. You step into the ring again, and it'll be life and death."

  His expression flickered to one of uncertainty as he said, "She said there was no killing last time."

  "That was an unranked bout to settle a scuffle over a table. Two scrubs. When you fight next, it'll be your debut in the open division, that's a promise. And do you know why they call it the 'open' division? As long as there's no weapons, potions, or spellcraft, anything goes."

  "What other divisions are there then?" he asked.

  "Doesn't matter. You're too strong, and everyone already knows it. No one in any of the other divisions would take you on, and the odds would be too long to be worth it for Mamma to set up even if they would. I had this conversation with her while you were off killing goblins. You need to pay her off and back out."

  Laina shifted, and as she did she felt something prodding her belly that made her look at him in exasperation. "I'm telling you that you've agreed to a death match, and you're getting hard?"

  He shrugged, grinning. "The death match is sometime in the indeterminate future. Your boobs are now, and pretty much impossible to ignore."

  He wrapped his hands up around her shoulders and then trailed them down, exploring her hide. The light sensations seemed to whisper through Laina, and she lowered her head and kissed him. Her breathing deepened as the arousal he'd stirred in her earlier came rushing back, and it was an effort to break the kiss and murmur, "We aren't done talking about this."

  "Sure, later," he whispered, leaning up to kiss her throat. She let him, closing her eyes as she concentrated on the sensation of his lips playing across her. His hands drifted down her sides, across her hips, and then over her belly. She was a foot taller than he was, and it made things a bit awkward with her on top.

  Realizing this, he shifted, and she turned with him, putting herself on her back. She was ready, and he knew it. He slipped down, set himself against her, and pressed.

  She let out a low moan as she felt him fill her, reminded again that while he might be shorter than she was, there was nothing small about his cock.

  Then again, since he was my first I've got no basis for comparison.

  She smirked as she looked up at him. The look of intense pleasure on his face filled her with a sense of satisfaction. He made it perfectly obvious that he enjoyed what she had to give him, and her smirk turned into a grin as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tilted her hips up. He was going slow, but she was way past wanting slow.

  "Show me what you got, Boss," she murmured, eyes smoldering as she watched him. "Save that gentle shit for Shy."

  He grinned at her and shifted his knees for a better angle and picked up his pace. Wet sounds filled the room as she clutched at him, the feel of his shaft filling her again and again touched chords inside her that had lain dormant too long. He'd been her first, but he'd made more than a passing impression. She gasped, nodding at him as she said, "Better ... more!"

  He leaned up, caught her spread thighs and wrapped his hands around her calves, then used them to practically bend her in half as he thrust almost straight down.

  "Oooh! Deep! That's ... sooooo deep!"

  Every time his hips slammed into her she felt it as a pulse of sensation that went straight to the core of her and throbbed. Her sex tightened reflexively every time he pulled out of her, and the sensations building up inside her as he repeatedly impaled her were making it hard to breathe.

  "I'm close," he growled, panting as he aggressively fucked her. His sweat splashed across her belly and breasts, and she tightened her hold around his neck as she said, "Sssooo ... am ... I ... oh FUCK ME BOSS! MORE! JUST LIKE THAT!"

  She was bellowing now, but couldn't have cared less who heard her as the pleasure building inside her began to spike. Her sex began to flutter, then started clenching as she cried out, her orgasm robbing her of every thought beyond the feel of his shaft inside her and the rhythm of his stroke. Just as her climax peaked, she felt a hot flood of sensation fill her as he buried himself in her and flexed hard.

  He pinned her to the bed that way, practically bent double as his hips pressed tight to hers, giving her every proof of his pleasure.

  She looked at his face and saw his eyes shut tight, expression locked in a grimace of concentration. Then he gasped and his head rolled back, giving her the impression that he'd forgotten how to breathe, and was just now remembering he needed to.

  "Aaah, fuck that's good," he murmured, slowly lowering her legs and shifting back to let her relax.

  "Mmmhm."

  Laina wasn't in the mood to say much else. A sated lassitude crept through her and she didn't want to move. She felt his seed slipping out of her and couldn't muster up the energy at just that moment to care.

  She opened eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed and found him staring at her in open appreciation. He caught her eye and said, "I've said it before, but you are one sexy beast. Can't get enough of you."

  "Good," she murmured, shifting up on her elbows. "I'm gonna be around for a while. Pass me that towel?"

  The next few minutes were taken up getting decent. Once Boss had his trunks back on, Laina sent him out to get Shy. He nodded and left.

  A few moments later Shy came in and found Laina sitting on the bed, still rolling her hips a bit and wondering if she'd be able to walk straight.

  When the boss goes hard, he goes HARD.

  Shy smirked at her as she came in and started pulling bottles from one of the crates stacked in a corner. They'd done this often enough that it had become routine.

  "Should I be jealous?" she asked as she settled onto the stool and got to work.

  "You'd be broken," Laina said with a smirk as she stood, then winced. "Damn, he's strong."

  "Yeah, well, you asked for it."

  "You were listening?"

  Laina knew she'd been loud, but the idea still filled her ears with heat, and Shy didn't help when she laughed and said, "Oh, yeah, Euryale and I had to really strain to hear you. Next time just leave the door open so we can watch."

  The minotress glanced reflexively at the door and said, "Can she hear us now?"

  "Doubt it," Shy replied, not looking up from the bottles she was carefully filling. "She jumped 'Master' as soon as he came out and dragged him into the other room."

  "What do you think of her?" Laina asked as she moved over and sat down with a soft grunt, pulling a bag of corks over and sealing the bottles Shy had ready for her.

  Shy hesitated, then shrugged slightly. "I'm rethinking what I think about her, if that makes any sense. You were right. She's very, very dangerous."
<
br />   They worked for a few minutes in silence, then she added, "I think she really does love Tee though. I mean truly, madly, deeply loves him."

  "Yeah," Laina said. "That's kinda what worries me."

  "You don't love him?" Shy asked.

  "Not the way you two do, no. I mean, I l... It's hard to explain. I feel like I'm justified in how I feel for him. He's earned it."

  Shy paused and tilted her head a bit as she glanced over at Laina, and the two shared a long look. Then Shy went back to work as she said, "I feel the same way. If it makes any sense, he did the same thing for Euryale. She and I spent some time talking last night. In between all the gushing, I pieced together some of what she went through before Tee showed up. He literally granted every wish she ever had when he accepted her and brought her back with him. Think about how you'd feel about him if he'd done what he did for you after thousands of years of waiting, instead of just twenty-something."

  Laina did think about that, and gradually found herself nodding as she said, "Yeah ... okay. I guess I'd be head over hooves for him too."

  "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Shy said quietly. "I waited fifty years for nothing in particular, soaking in my regrets. Then he shows up and reminds me all at once I have a life to live, and gives me someone to live it with. He agrees to work to accomplish something for me that I could never do on my own, and he didn't ask for anything in return but my company. He's earned my love too. It's just ... what he does. I can't speak for any other templates because even as old as I am he's the first one I've ever seen, but I can't imagine going back to a life without him now."

  "Yeah, I suppose. Is it bad that I just wish I didn't have to share him?" Laina asked, thumping her palm into one cork and setting the bottle aside as she picked up the next. "Don't get me wrong, I like you and all, but I know as time goes on he's just going to keep getting involved with other women."

  "I think most people are like that," Shy said. She filled the last bottle almost to the top with what was left in the second pail, then shrugged and drank it off herself. Laina smiled as she saw the color in Shy's wood-grain flesh darken and the dryad let out a satisfied sigh.

  "Still, he is what he is. In a way, these other women he meets and conquers are going to help you. Most templates don't last long because just like you, the eldritch don't generally like to share. Think about what would have happened if Volai had gotten hold of him. Do you think she'd have let either of us near him ever again? She was going to give him to the Locutors. If you want him to stick around, he's going to need more like us, like Euryale, to keep him alive and available."

  "Now that we have Euryale though ..."

  Laina trailed off as she realized the dark place her thoughts had wound up in. Shy gave her a knowing look and said, "That's what jealousy does. You're a really good woman, Laina. Don't let jealousy turn you into a user. Tee loves you. He really, truly does. Put your faith in that, help him as best you can, and all the rest will turn out right in the end."

  "You're not the least bit jealous?" Laina asked, finishing with the last cork and moving to load the bottles into the crate.

  "Maybe a little. But I know that when I need him, Tee will be there for me. Reality is what it is. If I don't share him, I know I'll lose him. I can't protect him on my own."

  The minotress nodded thoughtfully as she finished crating up the full bottles. She took in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. "I guess this is just going to take some getting used to."

  "Thanks to Euryale, you'll have that time. Now that your concerns have been addressed, maybe you should address mine."

  Laina quirked a brow as she turned to face Shy, who had her hands on her hips. Her flesh had a greenish cast, with dark brown whorls and lines throughout, like fresh-cut lumber. Her nipples were the same color brown, and her long, leafy hair was a darker, healthy green that framed her face perfectly. She had an hourglass figure that Laina could only envy, with full breasts and flaring hips. She was built like a sex-goddess. Her eyes were vibrant green and filled with a soft inner glow, and her face was simply beautiful.

  "What's that?" Laina asked.

  "I want you to try and accept Euryale. She is a true immortal, which means she has been around for thousands of years, and will still be here a hundred generations from now when pretty much everyone — perhaps even the Powers of today — are gone. Her love of Tee, and his compassion for her, have given her a chance to live a loving, happy life, even if only for a little while. If you can add to that happiness, she will return your efforts a thousandfold. There are no limits to her affection. If you can find it in your heart to love her, she will adore you. I promise."

  Shy gathered up the buckets and stepped out to wash them while Laina gathered the rest of the bottles she'd be bringing to market in a crate. Her thoughts were conflicted, but she felt better than she had this morning.

  Her stomach chose that moment to rumble, and she chuckled.

  I've fed my family, now it's time to feed myself.

  She stepped out into the main room, and when she put her hoof down the entire keep shook as the earth trembled.

  6

  Asturial

  The earthquake subsided and seconds later Terry rushed into the room wearing nothing but the ruby-red sash that was his new familiar, Euryale hot on his heels. He looked around and spotted Laina, eyes wide as she stared back.

  "I didn't do it!" she blurted.

  Euryale choked, then fell back against the wall as she started cackling. Terry straightened as some of the tension left him. He grinned and shook his head.

  "Good to know," he said as he watched the color rising in Laina's cheeks and the insides of her ears. Shy was standing near the window, looking out at the courtyard some distance below. She turned to catch Terry's eye, and tilted her head at the window.

  "I'm pretty sure this one is for you, Tee. Have a look."

  He stepped over and set a hand on the stone as he looked out. The window Terry stood at was at least a hundred and fifty feet up the side of the mountain from the plaza in front of the keep, and a hundred feet above the top of the curtain wall that protected the inner bailey. That wall was now the perch of a creature so large that when it tilted its head to look at him — attention apparently caught by his movement — they were almost eye to eye. Its eyes were slitted, brilliant gold, and the one turned to regard him was bigger than the window at which he stood.

  "Oh my god," he whispered, primal, animal terror locking him in place. "It's a dragon."

  "Ah, there you are. Well, perhaps this will go smoothly after all. Template, greetings. I am — ow, stop that! Ow, OW!"

  It paused as a rain of arrows, spears, crossbow and ballista bolts, and more than a few rays of brilliant magic streaked from the wall all around the perching behemoth and from other windows throughout the keep to strike it from almost every angle.

  "-distracted. Excuse me a moment, if you please. VOLAIIII! VOLAI HART! You petty little creature! You stop this nonsense, RIGHT NOW!"

  Terry could only stare as the long, serpentine neck of the dragon twisted as it turned to regard those nearest it. The creature's scales were a brilliant red, save for its chest and the front of its neck, which were successive, overlapping bands of pale cream. Its head was bigger than a pair of double-parked eighteen wheelers. A pair of spiraling, black, ram-like horns curled out the back of the head and down around a pair of almost elfin ears, each the size of a sail. The body was even more massive, and as it spread its wings in annoyance at the continued fire it was taking, it blotted out the sun for the entire bailey and virtually all of the keep beneath Terry's own window.

  "For Celestine's sake. I've had it with this."

  The creature drew back a fist the size of a train car, and — with a thunderous crash that sent tremors through the keep — rammed it through the rock wall of the mountain about thirty yards to the left of Terry's window. It paused a moment as though considering something, then launched itself skyward and flew away.


  Rocks displaced by the impact whistled down from higher up, and cracks ran through the walls and ceiling as Terry gaped in wide-eyed disbelief.

  "Tee? We need to go."

  Shy grabbed his arm and started tugging him toward the suite's only exit.

  "Yeah," he drawled. "I think you're right."

  Turning, he dashed across the room only to be forced backward as the door splintered under the back of one of the guards as the intruder used his body to batter it down.

  She was about six feet tall and had the proportions of a normal sized person, if there was such a thing as normal on Celestine. She stepped almost daintily over the guard and the spreading pool of blood underneath him on plantigrade feet, a thick tail elevated behind her and swinging in counterpoint to her hips. Her flanks and the outsides of her arms were ruby scaled while the front of her had overlapping scales of pale cream.

  Aaaand she's naked. Because of course she is. Why wouldn't she be.

  Red nipples the same color as the scales on her hips stood arrogantly out from modest breasts, and she had flaming-red hair so wild it made her look like she was wearing a kabuki mask, an image furthered by the lines of ruby scales that traced her cheeks and descended from her hairline into points at several angles from her head.

  "As I was saying," the dragon lady said, her voice somewhat higher than he'd expected, "Greetings, template. My name is Asturial, and I'll be taking you from this place."

  "You will not!"

  Shy had the iron staff she'd taken from the body of the Locutor, and its lightning-charged tip began to brighten exponentially with green-tinged electrical force. Knowing better than to watch, Terry turned his head away as she aimed her rod and a lightning bolt thundered through the room.

  The dragon lady caught it on her palm. The bolt fed into itself and she wound up with what looked like ball lightning playing between her caged fingertips. The lightning lost its green tint in favor of reddish hue, and it seemed obvious to Terry what she would do next. The dragon lady's golden eyes, identical to those of the dragon that had just flown away, were focused intently on Shy.