Rod of the Heart

by Cebelius

  A weight he didn't know he still carried left him at that. The behemoth had been deceiving him. He had made the right choice. Knowing that much relieved him in ways he would never be able to express, and he silently wished his family well.

  I did my best, Mom, Dad, Lisa ... Sara. I hope it was enough.

  Goodbye.

  The pain had by now subsided into a cold numbness, and he knew he didn't have long. It was getting hard to think, but he managed, Thanks. That's ... all I needed. Is there anything else I can do for you?

  There was a moment of silence before Cecaelia answered, and her voice seemed to come from very far away, though it was warm, and gently amused.

  "You have an unfailingly generous spirit. Hmmm. Have Ross mount my statue in the throne room somewhere prominent. I struck a rather good pose, and while I may not be as vain as the Olympians, I still enjoy it when I am admired.

  "Goodbye for now, Terrence Mack. You have a long journey ahead of you, and I wish you well."

  32

  Worn Out Welcome

  Laina rubbed her eyes and rolled them in their sockets as she waited on the dock at the end of one of the piers in what was rather generously called Florence Bay along with Shy and Euryale. Glancing back, she shook her head at the circle of guards that had been posted to isolate the pier, then glanced around at Commander ... now Viceroy, Ross.

  "Is that really necessary?" she asked.

  The lion man looked as tired as Laina felt, and made no effort to hide a huge yawn. That made her yawn, and she clamped her mouth shut in annoyance as she caught his smirk.

  "You did that on purpose."

  "Prove it. As for them ... better to have and not need than need and not have," he said with a short shrug. "If it makes you feel any better you can presume they're here to guard me. I am in charge of what's left of this city, you know."

  Despite what had essentially been a step up into the nobility, he still wore his full suit of silver armor with gold inlay, and as always he looked extraordinarily impressive in his gear.

  Bet I could still take him though.

  She shook her head and then twisted it until her neck popped with a satisfying release of tension that made her shiver.

  Aaaaah, that's it.

  She'd given all her milk for the last few days to the new Viceroy to help people injured in the dragon assault, and then had gone out to help clear the rubble and look for survivors. They'd found more than a few. Laina was bone weary and irritable as a consequence, but felt satisfied that she'd done all she could.

  Shy had spent the last few days shut up in the keep with Mila, studying magic.

  Euryale — despite Laina's objections — had attached herself to the minotress and followed her around as a bodyguard. She'd tried to insist that she didn't need one, but after Euryale single-handedly broke up a mob coming to demand Laina's milk for their injured, she'd quit complaining. The Madsee's presence in the city was now well-known, and since the only thing most people knew for sure was that no one could survive her attention, she'd been able to disperse the crowd with no combat.

  There was some movement at the entrance to the pier and Laina turned and waved as the Kolenko siblings and Marcus trotted out toward them.

  "Oh good, we did not miss him," Yuri said as he stopped a few feet away.

  "Nope," Laina said, turning back to look out over the small bay. "Cecaelia sure is taking her sweet time bringing him back too."

  Shy glanced over at Laina with a curious expression as she said, "You used to be terrified of her. You do know she has ways of hearing what gets said around open water, right?"

  Laina shrugged, too tired and annoyed at just that moment to be scared of anything. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Gimmie back my man so I can go to bed already!"

  Turning back to Shy, she opened her mouth, but the thought of what she'd intended to say left her mind entirely as — with a rather sizable splash — something man-sized flew out of the water and hit Laina center mass.

  She stumbled backward under the force of the impact, one of her hooves came down on open air, and she fell off the back of the dock into the bay with a very undignified low of surprise.

  Not being exactly good with deep water, she started flailing, only to have something wrap under each armpit and practically fling her back to the surface. Her head and half her body shot out of the water, and in the time it took her to start sinking again she reached out and wrapped her arms around a pylon as she sputtered and choked.

  Dashing the water from her eyes with her free arm still wrapped around the pylon, the first thing she saw was Terry Mack, hanging off the edge of the pier by one hand, soaked to the skin and staring at her with an expression halfway between bemusement and annoyance.

  "Are you serious, Laina?" he asked. "'Gimmie back my man?' Really?"

  As she pieced together the last twenty seconds or so, she realized that what had hit her had been him.

  "Was that ... did she actually—"

  "Yes Laina. She freakin' chucked me at you. Well done, you got your man back. Happy? Do us all a favor and PLEASE don't piss off Cecaelia? Can you promise me you will do your very best not to do that?"

  Boss saw something behind her and reached up, gripped the pier with both hands, then hauled himself out of the water so strongly that his thighs cleared the dock before he caught himself and twisted around to a seat. Looking down at her as he ran a hand over his head and face to clear away the water, he said, "My advice? Turn around, slowly, and apologize like your life depends on it."

  Oooooh shit.

  Dread gripped her as she reached up and hooked a hand over the dock, then let go of the pylon, swinging around on her arm to look at the pale-skinned, raven-haired beauty bobbing in the water behind her. Cecaelia was staring at her with blazing dark eyes. Her arms were folded arrogantly across her naked chest and her lips were twisted in an expectant frown.

  "Um ... really sorry," Laina said, trying to make herself as small as she could, which wasn't very. "I have no excuse."

  The insides of her ears felt like they were about to burn off, and she could swear she felt steam rising from them as Cecaelia considered her for a long moment before reaching out to deliberately flick her nose hard with a forefinger. It was a gesture calculated to humiliate and insult, and Laina's ears flicked down as she lowered her head, taking it without complaint.

  "Don't let it happen again, minotress. You are not so rare a creature that you cannot be replaced at Terrence's side. His feelings for you will only get you so far; I will not be disrespected."

  Cecaelia gestured at Boss as she said, "THAT, is MY man. You just keep him healthy and sexually satisfied while I'm not around ... and that's not an observation, it's an order."

  "Yes Ma'am."

  The Lady of the Waves looked up at Boss and her eyes softened a bit as she said, "Florence owes you a debt, Terrence Mack. Don't forget to collect on it before you go."

  With that, she shot out of the water, her many legs twisting into a spiral as she arched over the dock backward in a perfect dive and slipped under the waves without a trace.

  Laina shivered, reached up to grip the dock with her other hand, and — albeit much less gracefully than the Boss — hauled herself up and out of the water.

  As she groaned and stood back up, she saw Euryale's blank mask turned toward her and the gorgon asked with perfect solicitation, "Are you okay?"

  Laina thought about it for a moment then nodded as she said, "Yeah, think so."

  "Good."

  With that, the little monster fell over, gripping her middle as she cackled madly, barely managing to squeak out between the fits of laughter, "Because that was hysterical!"

  Laina lowed in embarrassment, looking around to see practically everyone on the dock either chuckling at her or giving her smiles that told her the only reason they weren't laughing was out of politeness.

  "Hey hon?"

  She looked at Boss, who seemed to be doing his best
not to join in the laughter as he coughed lightly and said, "That water was pretty cold, yeah? Maybe you should consider a thicker sarashi if you plan to go swimming. One that'll stay on? Just sayin'."

  Her eyes widened and she glanced down, then jerked an arm over her naked chest and lowed again as she blushed from the top of her tits to the top of her head.

  That apparently broke Yuri's composure because his chuckling turned into full-blown howling laughter that doubled him over and didn't stop until Mila thwacked him across the back of his head with her staff.

  "Come on," Boss said, wrapping a hand around her waist as he said, "Let's get off the dock. I'm freezing."

  Euryale only laughed harder as she squeaked, "She is too!"

  Terry started chuckling helplessly then coughed self-consciously as he said, "Stop it, love. You're gonna get me in trouble with my woman."

  Laina took two steps forward, set a hoof against Euryale as she lay at the edge of the pier howling with laughter, gave a little push, then nodded in satisfaction as the laughter turned into a high-pitched screech that ended rather abruptly with a splash.

  "You're right, Boss. It's cold. Let's get off this dock. You hungry?"

  Terry glanced over into the water, apparently satisfied himself that Euryale wouldn't drown, then leaned down and picked up a staff wrapped in black silk that — given it had to have just come out of the water — was impossibly dry. As he lifted it, the wrap came away from the top, revealing it to be the Rod of the Heart. He paused a moment to make sure that his hand wouldn't accidentally touch the staff itself, then shrugged and said, "I could eat. Been a few days."

  Laina smirked at him and said, "Got just the thing."

  "Figured you might."

  Shy fell into step with them as they passed Yuri and Mila — who were now in a heated exchange of whispers about when it was and was not appropriate to laugh at friends — and said, "She's going to make you pay for that, you know."

  "Yeah, probably."

  Laina glanced back to where Euryale was dragging herself awkwardly out of the water, then looked at the smirking dryad and muttered, "May as well make the most of it. Kinda hard to be afraid of her after I just barely got away from Cecaelia."

  Raising her voice she said, "That water's cold and that silky thing you're wearing is ahh, little thin, Euryale! Might want to cover up. Those wings of yours sure are handy, yeah? Just sayin'."

  A chorus of hissing followed them down the pier as Boss pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, "The hell did I get myself into?"

  Shy leaned in and whispered, "At this point, if I were you I'd be more concerned about who you're getting yourself into, and in what order. I hope you're rested, Tee. It's going to be a long night."

  Laina smirked at that, and didn't disagree. After the dunking and with the Boss back in reach, she wasn't tired anymore.

  33

  Three's Company

  As Laina stepped out of the water closet — not having really bothered to do more than take her sopping loincloth off and get dry — she saw Boss leaning against the wall talking in low tones with both Shy and Euryale. The latter turned and brushed past Laina as she headed for the room the minotress had just left, trailing water across the floor. As they passed, one of Euryale's snakes struck Laina's cheek, but its mouth stayed closed and all it did was bump her with its nose.

  That didn't keep Laina from startling and slapping a hand over the spot as Euryale giggled and closed the door behind her.

  I swear I'll NEVER get used to that woman.

  Now that she'd come down from the almost giddy high of not being drowned by one of the Powers, she regretted dumping Euryale in the bay. There was no telling what the gorgon might actually do to her, and the little monster had more than a few rather disturbing options available.

  Her thoughts on the matter fractured as she felt Shy wrap arms around her waist and pillow her head against one of her naked breasts. She looked down at the dryad curiously and was met by a pair of faintly luminescent green eyes as Shy said, "We talked it over. Tee and I are both hungry and we thought, since you've got two of these ..." she trailed off and rather shamelessly kissed the inner slope of one of Laina's tits, "You'd be willing to take care of us at once. Bed?"

  Laina glanced up at Boss and saw his cheeks darkening with embarrassment. He met her eyes steadily though and nodded.

  I swear his hang-up's are so damn cute now that I know he's not going to let them stop him.

  "Sure," she said, reaching around Shy's body and picking her up into an underarm carry that got an indignant squeal out of the dryad but no real resistance. She turned toward one of the bedrooms then glanced back at her man and took a half-step, concentrating on flexing every muscle from her calves to her neck. Her tail flicked once and then froze off-center, locking the pose in.

  His eyes widened and he stared unabashedly for a long second before letting out a long, low whistle. She knew he could see everything, because he wasn't exactly making any effort to hide what his eyes had locked onto. She rolled her flex from her left cheek to the right and back again, watching his eyes follow the movement.

  "Fuck that's hot."

  She chuckled and turned away, hiding her own blush. She was self-aware enough to know that he wasn't the only one with some lingering issues, but in the last few weeks the only people she'd met who had given her the cold stares she still more than half-expected were other tauren she didn't know.

  And who aren't worth knowing. My man's happy, so I'm happy.

  She stepped into the room and tossed Shy onto the bed. She started turning to close the door, but Boss caught her by the hand and pulled her to the mattress. Shy situated herself on the far side and he laid down closer to her and grinned up at her as he said, "I'm sure you can figure out how this works."

  Laina's blush deepened a little bit, but this time it was the sort of embarrassment she could enjoy. She crawled up onto the bed and reached out, pulling Shy closer to him and leaning forward on her hands and knees.

  He lifted one of her pendant breasts with one hand, marveling at the way it pressed into his palm. She watched him do it, eyes glimmering as she said, "Don't make me wait, Boss."

  Shy — who if Laina was being honest — was better than Boss at getting her to start, pressed both hands to the base of her breast and stroked down toward the nipple she was rolling her tongue around. She teased the crown with her teeth and then with her second long stroke of hands encircled it with her lips and pulled strongly.

  Laina's gasp turned into a long, satisfied low as she felt the wash of sensation down through the puckered crown, and Shy's throat worked as she drank, her green eyes brightening a bit as she stared up at Laina's pleasure-flushed face.

  Boss started drinking a moment later, and Laina lost track of time and struggled to stay upright over the top of the both of them as she felt their hands playing all over her body, teasing flesh and hide alike as they explored her.

  It was a purely erotic sensation, having the focused attention of both her lovers, and she groaned as she felt Boss's hand press over her mons, felt his fingers split, felt them start to roll.

  "So not fair," she murmured, not caring about fairness in the least at just that moment, but a part of her wanted nothing more than to drop her hips over her man and get what she knew was coming. Forcing herself to wait until they were finished was only heightening her anticipation, and the lewd, wet sounds that started coming from her sex only heightened the sensual feel of the two of them drinking from her.

  When she felt a cool touch over her bottom, it didn't really register that she had four hands already accounted for. It wasn't until something long, hot, and supple joined Boss's fingers at her sex that she realized what was happening.

  Her eyes widened and she started to turn her head, only to be forced to a stop as Boss wrapped a hand around one of her horns and practically jerked her to a stop. His mouth hadn't left her nipple, but as her eyes met his she saw his smile and knew she'd been set
up. His grip on her horn stirred something in her. It gave her a purely emotional rush like nothing she'd ever experienced. The idea that he was controlling where she looked, how she moved, and what she felt, made her tremble.

  She whimpered at him, and he finally released her nipple, rolling his tongue over the swollen tip to clean it before he said, "Life isn't fair. I'm pretty sure by now that's well established in this group."

  "I didn't ... she's not ... OH!"

  Laina's eyes fluttered as she watched Terry lick her juices off his fingers. She felt the strong, supple muscle working over her sex concentrating on her clit as something else pressed in, and in.

  Then it flexed, curling and writhing inside her, and Laina squeaked in mild terror as it occurred to her what Euryale was actually doing.

  "It's okay, hon," Boss said, reaching up, catching her other horn with his free hand, and using them both to pull her down. His lips brushed hers, but all she could do was pant, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and lust as he said, "She's been wanting to play with you for a while now, trust me. Trust her. Trust us. You are completely safe with her."

  He trailed his kisses across her cheek, over her throat, and she closed her eyes and let him control her head, panting as she felt things below her waist that were genuinely scary ... yet also unmistakably sexy. Hundreds of tiny, whispering touches pressed themselves against her nether lips as the supple length of Euryale's 'hair' twisted and writhed within her.

  Shy had by now managed to get out from under her other breast and she put her mouth next to Laina's ear and whispered, "Besides, I know you cum wet. Just think about where she is, and what you're going to do to her in just, a few, moments ..."