Courts and Cabals 2

by G. S. D'Moore

  From my limited research, gods were like porn, you knew them when you saw them. Venus Venitas was a god. She was ancient, I’m talking several thousand years old. Older than Via, or anything else I’d ever met on this earth; despite looking barely a decade older than her eighteen-year-old daughter. She was powerful in ways I didn’t understand; just being in her presence was overwhelming. But the most important criteria of my categorization was that she had followers. She was the president, CEO, and chairwoman of the board of the Venetian Cabal. A backwoods cult cutting chicken throats in sacrifice had nothing on the power, conventional and mystical, the cabal could bring to the table.

  Every time I invoked the gods, in thanks or frustration, I was directing it at creatures like her. “And she lives two floors above me.”

  “Master Cam?” Fern stirred.

  The pixie was more than a little intimidated to be living in the heart of the cabal HQ. She’d served a knight of The Lady of Winter’s court, and her liege had never been a fan of this cabal. To suddenly live among people who were once her enemies was a lot to handle, and she insisted on staying with me despite being offered her own space.

  The first night she tried to climb into my bed, so I gave it to her and took the couch. My new home was a suite of three rooms; bedroom-bathroom combo, living room, and a small kitchen. Everything was top of the line, but I’d been given a catalogue to order any furniture I wanted to make the place feel homey. It had a definite hotel vibe at the moment.

  The next day, a roll-away bed arrived, and Fern placed it at the foot of my bed. She’d slept there ever since. I don’t know if she’d felt spurned by me not wanting to sleep with her the first night, but she didn’t try it again. Without a doubt, I was not comfortable with it. The whole master-servant dynamic might be second nature to her, but I was a child of the twenty-first century. Taking advantage of that type of power dynamic just seemed wrong.

  “Yeah,” I answered as I pulled the pillow off my head and looked at her.

  The waif of a creature that had appeared to save me from the horse cock Marcella wanted to shove up my ass was hardly there anymore. She’d taken my command to heart, and presumably, with a little input from Dani, reshaped her glamour to something she believed would be more pleasing to me.

  Her pixie-cut, blue-white hair was gone. It was still short, and only fell about halfway to her shoulders, but it was straw-blonde now. She kept blue tips which gave her a bit of a punk look. She’d darkened her skin to a normal white that you’d see on roughly half of Americans, but otherwise kept her facial features the same. Other features she changed.

  Before, she’d looked like a four-foot, twelve-year-old boy. I don’t know how that pleased the big troll, but I wasn’t going to try and get in the head of a dead man. Now, she had gentle, slender curves to her body; and I’d gotten a full view of them walking out of the bathroom yesterday. It wasn’t on purpose, or at least I think it wasn’t. Fae modesty and privacy standards were different than humans. A prime example, I had to yell at her when she almost walked in on me taking a dump. Doors were closed for a reason. Even now, she was naked underneath the thin sheet covering her perky B-cups.

  “Is it a competition?” the Fae asked.

  “What?” I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “It seems there is a competition going on around us about who can inflict the most pleasure on one another,” she stated, sitting up on an elbow so the sheet slipped down to expose a nipple.

  I looked away. “It’s not a competition. It’s just what these people do.” I reached for the phone on my nightstand.

  The cabal had given me a fancy, secure phone with all kinds of encryption software. I didn’t know how to use most of the apps on it, but I could make calls, sent texts, and surf the web. It was the result of me not getting a smart phone until a few years ago; while most kids now-a-days learned to use them when in diapers. The riches of the cabal were still new to me. At heart, I would always be a poor townie.

  “It sounds like fun,” the pixie frowned, like she was trying to figure out some underlying meaning to my statement, and why I wasn’t one of those people.

  There wasn’t any. The last thing I wanted was for my hot, pixie servant, that slept at the end of my bed, to start acting like a succubus. I was trying to act honorably, but I was still a man.

  “It is, but . . .” I trailed off, distracted as I wrote out a quick text to the only person I knew in a similar situation.

  “What is it with this place? Did you get any sleep at all?” I hit send, and heard the vibration of the phone go off next door.

  There was a momentary pause. My phone vibrated with an incoming text. “You’ll get used to it? Want some company?” Dani replied with a winky face.

  I growled to myself for walking into that one, and replied with a poop emoji. I’d let her try to figure out what that meant as I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Unlike the pixie, I wore a t-shirt and boxers. I wasn’t going to lie, I was at half-mast from the surrounding, all-night fuck marathons and Fern’s nip slip, but I had other things on my mind. A cold shower later, and I started my day.

  Fern was back asleep when I left. The hallways were empty this early, but I’d met some of the other Firsts on my floor. I called them the ABC’s: Alan, Butch, and Charlie. I hadn’t met their succubus’s, but they were all Lilith’s older sisters, and mature succubae.

  Alan was an Aqua mage and liked to spend most of his time around the pool. He was great with kids. They’d come up to him and he’d make animals out of the water. From what I’d heard, it was really cool to see little dolphins made of condensed water leaping around the kids. I hadn’t actually been to the pool yet, and couldn’t go for the foreseeable future.

  Butch was a bear shifter, and she was a big woman. Not as big as Sam Little back at St. Vincent’s, but probably the largest woman I’d ever seen. That she was a woman was a bit of a surprise, but if humans could be attracted to the same sex, who was to say that a succubus didn’t like to munch on some carpet. Most importantly, Butch was a big old teddy bear, and by far the nicest person I’d met so far; except maybe Nicole. Venus’s personal assistant was a fountain of positivity.

  Then there was Charlie. Charlie didn’t say much. His eyes were sunken, always seemed to be staring into the distance, and were bloodshot. If the man didn’t get a good night’s sleep, I was afraid he was going to snap and go postal on everyone; but so far so good over the last few days. He’d only been a First for a few months. Technically, I outranked him if you counted my time at St. Vincent’s. Lilith’s sister had just picked him up to replace a First that retired on her. Neither Alan or Butch was one hundred percent certain what Charlie was, but he was something. All of the other Firsts made an unspoken agreement to keep an eye on him.

  My bare feet on the carpet and the ding of the elevator were the only sound on this calm Christmas morning. I rode it up to PH1. The tech and magical security measures acknowledge my presence and didn’t curse me with warts, boils, and syphilis. The door slid open on PH1 to a winter wonder land. A number of fake evergreens had been erected overnight and sprinkled with fake snow. Tinsel, garland, and lights hung from every conceivable surface in a very classy way. Because this place was ruled by a succubus goddess, there was mistletoe hanging just about everywhere.

  I shouldered open the security door, which was decorated with what looked like a Santa that had flown into it and been smashed flat. I would have chuckled if not for my sour mood. I passed through the security antechamber and acknowledged the guards. They scanned me thoroughly, technologically and magically, until they hit the button that would unlock the door to the inner sanctum. I was still the new guy, and they were still wary of me. I didn’t blame them.

  The tiled art gallery didn’t hold any Christmas decorations like the rest of PH1, but I didn’t stop to check it out. I nervously spun a blue tiffany’s box in my palm before slipping it into my pocket. I knocked on Lilith’s door, but there was no answer.
I knocked again . . . nothing.

  “She’s already up,” Venus’s voice cut through the morning calm like an exploding artillery shell. I froze like a deer in the headlights, and didn’t turn to face her. My cock already strained against my sweatpants; the cold shower totally forgotten. “Try the dining area. I’ll see you later.” I could feel her smirk on the back of my neck, but it quickly vanished with the click of a door being closed.

  I chanced a glance and saw she was gone. “Fuckin’ A,” I fought back a shiver.

  Venus had never been anything but her uber-powerful, normal self around me; but she still made me nervous. Via’s warnings had been tumbling around my head, and I was trying to figure out Venus’s angle. She had to have one. Everyone always did; even if they were a god.

  “Relax, it’s Christmas. Just find Lilith,” a part of my brain told me, and I went to the dining room.

  I stopped in the entryway when I saw her. She was curled up on a chair with her feet tucked under her. She pulled a strand of black hair behind her ear as she took a sip from a steaming mug. She was wearing a baggy sweater with a big imprint of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on the front. Around her belly button, Rudolph’s bright red nose was a ball of fabric that swayed when she moved. It was fucking adorable. Almost as adorable as the loose sweats covering her legs with, “Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal,” written down the side.

  My heart warmed at the image as my brain took a mental picture. This was the way things should be; candid, beautiful, and peaceful. I was smiling when she noticed me.

  “Hey,” her greeting was standoffish.

  It had been that way since she introduced me to her mother. We’d been caught in a cycle the last few days. I couldn’t help how I reacted to her mother. I don’t think anyone was immune to her charms. The way I drooled made Lilith self-conscious and angry. That she was angry about something I couldn’t control made me frustrated, and we both shut down emotionally. We’d spend time apart, and then start right back up where we left off.

  “Hey,” I sighed and approached her. “We need to talk.”

  “Isn’t that supposed to be my line,” she laughed dryly, and I got a good whiff of what was in the cup.

  “I see Christmas morning is an Irish coffee morning,” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my tone.

  Lilith glared at me. “I don’t get drunk as easily as humans, Cam,” her voice was cold and hurt.

  “That’s not what I meant,” I plopped into the chair, utterly exhausted from lack of sleep and the bickering of the last few days. “I was gonna ask if you could pour me a cup.”

  She raised an eyebrow, but got up and poured a cup from the pot she’d made. Then she pulled a flask from her interdimensional pocket and gave me a healthy helping.

  “Thanks,” I lifted the mug to her, “cheers,” I took a sip and had to fight back a coughing spree. She’d made it strong.

  We sat there for a minute, with nothing to say to each other, and nursing our spiked coffee. We were already well on our way around the cycle of pain and frustration we were inflicting on each other, and I was sick of it.

  “We need to cut the crap,” I stated as I set down my mug.

  “I agree,” she mirrored my motions and turned to fully face me. I noticed her eyes were puffy. “In your contract there is a clause for me to give you an out. If you want, I’ll do that.”

  Her words hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. “What the hell?” I tried to respond, but didn’t get a chance.

  “My mother will scoop you up in a nanosecond into her harem. You’ll be trading up from a pre-pubescent succubus to the most powerful one in the world. She will give you everything you always wanted, and being in her harem, not even The Nine themselves would dare fuck with you.”

  It was a truth bomb of nuclear proportions, and I couldn’t help but think of the possibilities. The UN would get off my back. The Fae was stop hunting me. I’d get a new contract, and since I knew more about the cabal’s resources, I’d make bank. Five years from now, I’d be a multimillionaire and could do whatever the hell I wanted.

  But every second I sat there thinking about it, I saw more pain blossom behind her emerald eyes.

  “No,” the word came out with conviction.

  “No?” she seemed genuinely surprised.

  “No,” I repeated, chancing a smile, but she was looking beyond me. I’d legit stunned her.

  “You’d say no to my mother?” there was a bit of reverence in her voice.

  “I say yes to you,” I replied, slowly reaching out to take her hand. “After all that we’ve been through. After you saving my ass under the bleachers. After saving my life with Chloe . . . twice. After getting me the training I needed to defeat the troll knight, and then, getting double penetrated by glamour swords to save all our asses. How could you think that I don’t care about what we have?”

  Shame flashed across Lilith’s face, which she quickly buried in her hands. I reached forward to rub her back for a few seconds until she composed herself. When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes.

  “I hate this fucking place,” she sniffed, and used the cuff of her sweater to clean under her eyes. “It’s all gossip, bickering, political maneuvering, and snide backhand comments. We had a family dinner last night for Christmas Eve, and my sisters were being catty bitches. I’m the youngest by over a century, and haven’t even reached maturity yet. They never let me forget it. They casually brough it up that I wasn’t going to be able to handle you.”

  No offense to the ABC’s, but I already didn’t like the succubae they served.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Now it was my turn to be stunned. She was a half-Fae succubus. I’d seen her true form – all twelve feet and quadruple D’s of it – and seen it do battle with a noble Fae in crusader-knight mode. I was the one that needed to be worried; not the other way around.

  She laughed at my shocked expression. “Cam, you need to get it through that thick skull of yours. You aren’t a normal human. My mother knows something, and I think some of my sisters do as well. They haven’t told me because information is power, and they all love being more powerful; but you’re special.”

  “They’re jealous of you,” I said when I found my tongue. “When you do hit maturity, I think you’re going to be a fucking boss,” she chuckled, blushed, and looked away. “I bet when you go full succubus, they won’t make snide comments at the dinner table. I’d bet you a free feeding.”

  She looked back up at me, and her emerald eyes had a soft glow to them. She slowly extracted her feet from under her, and slid forward. She carefully, and sensually, slid into my lap. There was a slight intake of breath as she felt my hard cock press into her when she straddled me, but then her lips were on mine.

  She tasted of liquor and peppermint. In the middle of the desert, she was an oasis, and I melted into her. I ran my hands up her body, and she groaned as my thumbs brushed against her hard nipples. She wasn’t wearing a bra. She slowly ground her pelvis against my crotch as her tongue darted around my mouth. I gave her ass a squeeze and then moved my hands up under her sweater. Her flesh was hot to the touch as I grabbed her boobs.

  “Yes,” she groaned as she caught my lower lips between her teeth and gave it a playful tug.

  I pinched her nipples, and was going to take off her sweater to get at them with my tongue when there was a sound at the doorway.

  “Ah shit,” Dani coughed in apology. She stood there in the workout clothes that were her normal attire. “I guess I’m the Christmas clam jam.”

  “No,” Lilith’s reply was breathless, but she slowly pulled away from me; which left me with a raging hard-on and the worst case of blue balls. “We need to stop. I still can’t . . . handle you.”

  I knew what she meant. “Stupid super spunk.”

  She returned to her chair, her cheeks flush, and I downed my entire mug of coffee. I savored the burn and the distraction it provided. When I looked up at her, I knew we were in a better place.r />
  “I know it’s early, but do you two want to do Christmas gifts?” Dani suggested, clearly trying to make up for the interruption.

  “I might need some more coffee,” I groaned; having to adjust my pants as I got up to grab some more of the god’s own nectar. I needed it after the sleepless night, and I needed the whiskey Lilith poured in even more.

  Even with my sleep-deprived brain, I saw them share a look as I sat back down. “You both got me something,” I gulped. This could be very good or very bad.

  Dani pulled an envelope from her bra and handed it over. It wasn’t a check, it felt solid, but whatever it was, it was thin. I gave it a rattle to see if it made any noise, but it didn’t.

  “Just open it already,” Dani urged, but she was already smiling.

  “Dani had the idea, but I pulled some strings to make it happen,” Lilith smiled as well as I slipped open the envelope, and pulled out a laminated pass.

  The letters VIP, and underneath it, Very Important Penis, were in a bold yellow font on a backstage, all access pass to the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo starting January second and running through the fourth.

  “I . . .” I wasn’t sure how to respond. No one had ever given me a pass to a porn convention.

  “Dani thought it would be a good idea to get you out to see Vegas,” Lilith explained. Despite everything we’d just gone through with her insecurities, and her mother, she seemed totally cool with me going to see a bunch of porn stars in a VIP setting. She was just awesome like that.

  “Wait,” my brain caught up to what she was saying. Chugging a couple cups of coffee with whiskey, on an empty stomach, was starting to hit me. “How am I supposed to be going out at all? I can’t leave the hotel.” The details on the pass said it wasn’t being held at Caesars.