She looked down at the one she’d struck, as he seemed caught by a seizure of some kind before going still. She’d hit him rather hard in the temple. She’d never killed anyone before, and her hands were shaking. She knew it was the right thing to do, there were no police, or courts, or anything to deal with people like that anymore. The man was a rabid animal preying on others, and had to be put down. She looked around, they were all dead, the battle was over. None of them looked hurt.
She leaned far to the side, away her horse, and lost what remained of her lunch.
Hendricks asked compassionately, “Are you alright? The first time is…”
She nodded but still felt unsteady when she straightened up in the saddle. She had a job to do, and was determined to do it, although a small part of her died in that moment, and she missed it keenly.
“We should go,” she said softly, and started her horse moving…
Chapter 22 – Sean
Sean stared up at the ceiling, a sleeping Cassie burrowed into his left side. Her body was warm and soft, but he felt nothing but a burning anger inside of him. The last day hadn’t been good for him, and he’d had several nightmares, as he watched Cynthia die again and again, and he was helpless to stop it. If only he’d known magic could destroy that bond, he could have guarded against it somehow.
He hadn’t been able to really grieve yet, each time that emotion started to rise within him, the anger consumed it, and grew like a ball of acid in his chest, eating away at him.
He hadn’t wanted much, he’d just wanted to live his life in peace with Cynthia, but one thing after another and he found himself the guardian of others. Simply because he hadn’t had the heart to turn them away, or leave them to such a horrible fate as the women in Walmart had faced. He didn’t blame Cassie for Cynthia’s final death, no, the perpetrator of that crime had already died, painfully. Just not painfully enough.
Right at the moment he didn’t feel anything for Cassie at all. He knew he’d been starting to like her, and getting used to her presence, but now he felt nothing but anger. Worse, it was anger without a target, an impotent anger. His enemies were dead, and so was his love. He wondered if he would ever be safe, simply allowed to live his life. He’d been… happy, but not any longer.
He’d started to believe it might be the three of them, now it was him and Cassie. He wasn’t even sure what she was thinking, would she stay with him now? Did he even care? Would he ever get used to Cynthia being gone?
He closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, but each time his eyes shut, all he could see was her face. Her tanned skin, dark brown hair, and large doe eyes. Those full lips that felt… he cut off that line of thinking, he tried to turn his heart to stone, but it burned.
Cassie sighed and he felt her waken. She kissed his chest and caressed it. He felt his body respond as she moved her hand down his torso and between his legs, wrapping him in her soft hand. She made a soft noise of approval as he grew at her soft touch, and started to kiss her way down. He felt… a biological response, his body was responding to the input, but the tenderness and lust that he would normally feel wasn’t there. He also felt angry because Cynthia wasn’t there to join them.
That… made the anger grow even more. Frustrated and impotent anger. He reached down and grabbed her by the hair, and pulled up and to the side.
He got up as he growled, “Hands and knees.”
The old him would have been surprised by her immediate obedience, just like when he’d ordered her to burn the mansion, she got on her hands and knees and arched her back, and invited him to take her by lifting her ass up high and swaying it alluringly as he moved up behind her. There’d been no hesitation in her movements. He reached down and touched her, she was hot, moist, and her labia were puffy, ready to be taken.
He rubbed himself up and down her wet silken pleasure, and then thrust in hard. She cried out as he grunted, and her core tightened around him, fluttered, stretched, and conformed to his shape. The intense pleasure of it incited his bodies reactions, but still had not evoked any emotions.
Still, he could feel nothing but anger.
He started to take her fast then, sliding in and out while holding her hips firmly. He did full long hard strokes, punishingly hard, as he used her for an outlet for his impotent anger. He fucked her without thought to her pleasure or comfort. Not that it mattered, she took pleasure in it, pushing back and bucking against him, fucking back against him just as hard as she gasped his name.
She encouraged him to take her harder, and he did. He spanked her ass hard, and she asked for more, and when he reached forward and violently pulled her head back by her beautiful light blonde hair she came hard around his invader. She screamed out his name and then trembled under his continued and unabated assault.
He would have felt grateful, if he had been capable of the emotion in that moment. The one thing he didn’t want to do was truly hurt her, and she was so into it, that it was easy to allow himself to get out his anger in this way. She seemed to welcome it, enjoy it, and get off on it.
Her body milked his past his endurance, and he slammed into her three more times, and emptied himself into her with a growl. For a blessed moment, his mind and body were overcome with bliss, the anger completely gone in that short eternal moment of pleasure, but then he came down, and the anger, grief, and now guilt for how he’d used Cassie, crashed into him mercilessly.
The power of the grief and guilt scared him, paralyzed his mind with regret, he couldn’t deal with it, so the anger rose up from deep within him and took over once more.
He pulled out and laid on his back. Cassie put her arms around him and kissed his shoulder. He knew what she was saying without words, she was saying she was here for him, and that she wasn’t mad at him, but he also didn’t care at the moment, he couldn’t care. He knew he should be ashamed, Cassie deserved better, but he was broken.
His own voice disturbed him, it was frighteningly empty, “You need to be careful with magic.”
Cassie frowned, “What do you mean?”
He sighed, “I should have told you right away, but you don’t use it much so… Nathaniel, he wasn’t fifty, when I read him I learned he was only twenty-six.”
“How is that possible?”
He shrugged, “Do you remember you telling me you could sense my magic, even though to me it’s only the forces of life and death? Well for me it’s the other way around. His life force was bright, but not as bright as yours. I think when you use magic, it consumes your life force, which recovers after a time. The lower your life force, the faster you’ll age. It’s kind of ironic, because as a sorceress you have an amazingly large life force, which means you’ll probably live for hundreds of years, unless you abuse your magic that is, then…”
She nodded against his arm and said in a thoughtful voice, “Okay, I’ll be careful.”
“I think your fine doing what you’ve been doing. He used magic constantly to control the people around him. He also used it to create the armor, shields, and swords. A thin layer of iron was added to it at the end, he had a metallurgist do that.”
They both looked at each other when they heard a scream of pain. He got up, and felt the tingles of her magic, cleaning their combined juices off of their bodies. He grunted in thanks and pulled on his pants and a shirt. He walked out as two zombies from outside reached his door and he started searching in the direction of the scream, although the sound acoustics in the old school made that difficult.
As they moved deeper into the school they heard a berating man’s voice, he grimaced as he heard the man deride and yell at his wife, dropping a few choice curse words better left unsaid in the process. When they barged in the room, the man turned with an angry red face, a woman was on the floor, a bruise growing on her right cheek with tears in her eyes.
The man growled, “This is none of your business, get…”
He didn’t wait for him to finish his pathetic macho act, and merely reached out and squ
eezed the man’s life force, doing no true damage, but imparting pain. It was a good trick, now killing wasn’t the only way he had to stop someone. The screams were rather horrible though, and he released the man after a couple of seconds.
The man’s wife looked at him in horror. Right, of course, because that made sense. He held up his hand to prevent her from talking, if he heard her defend the asshole, or say it was her fault, he might just kill both of them.
“You are banished, get your stuff, get the fuck out, and don’t come back,” he turned toward the woman, “You can stay, or go, I don’t care. But if you want to stay with this fuck who will one-day kill you, you can do it away from me. I didn’t start this safe haven so wife beaters could do it in safety.”
The man growled, “Fuck you, what gives you the right to…”
The man’s words cut off as he was lifted into the air and slammed against the concrete wall. He winced, that had looked painful. He guessed Cassie felt about the same as he did then.
He shook his head as the woman got up and checked on him and looked up at them with tears in her eyes.
“The zombies will guard him, and escort him out in one hour and keep him away from here. You have that long to decide to be free of his abuse, or go pack up your things, and join him. You will be welcomed back if you change your mind later, he can never come back.”
Cassie added, “He’s not worth it, you should stay.”
He turned around and walked out with Cassie in his wake.
Word of the confrontation got out fast, and some few seemed disturbed by his judgment but no one objected. He didn’t care, the one group that seemed grateful for it were the Walmart victims, and those ladies didn’t bother trying to hide their opinion.
It was after lunch when he got another outside warning from his zombie guards. He went outside warily, and had to stop himself from ordering Cassie back inside. There was a man coming up in a sheriff’s uniform, he was alone.
He asked, “What can I do for you?”
The Sheriff said, “I’m Sheriff Todd Daniels. You can’t squat here, this is government property.”
He gaped.
Cassie chuckled, “Are you serious? The government is gone, dead in the cities.”
Todd shook his head, “Yes, but there are plenty of city workers and police left in the suburbs, we got a council going, and were trying to get things organized.”
He frowned, “Good, go after the raiders, and organize other farms. Why are you messing with us? We’re peaceful, we gathered for protection, we planted fields for food. Is it your intention to break up the only functional and long term viable group in the L.A. area? Isn’t that kind of insane?”
Todd cleared his throat, “Listen here boy, the law is the law. Why didn’t you set up in some houses? This land belongs…”
Cassie’s sharp tongue cut him off as she accused, “You just want our work, you want our food, and the farm that’s starting to grow. Just another raider group, except you’re cloaking yourselves in the mantle of legitimate government. Your actions make no sense otherwise, you should be assisting and defending the people who need it, not prosecuting the peaceful people that don’t need your help. I’d advise you move along, and find a more likely target Sheriff.”
Todd narrowed his eyes, but seemed to take notice of the men gathering behind him and Cassie. It seemed unclear if the sheriff knew those men were unnatural or not, but Sean kind of doubted it.
Todd drawled, “We are organizing many things, and going after the raiders. That doesn’t mean we can ignore your flagrant violation of the laws.”
He snorted and said angrily, “I see, so when will you be by to collect taxes, and where can we sign up for welfare, and all the other government programs. Seems to me we have a new world, a new older kind of world. We need to watch out for each other, and depend on each other. The old laws don’t mean shit right now. We need to focus on survival, farming, how were going to make clothes, soap, candles, and many other items. Squatting? The one thing this new world has in abundance is old empty buildings and shelters, so leave now. When you’re ready to talk sense, come back.
Todd shook his head as if he were the crazy one, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you boy,” and turned to leave.
When he was out of sight Cassie said, “He’ll be back, with others.”
He frowned, his anger burning, and said coldly, “We’ll be ready, we are ready, and we warned him too. I’m sorry I’m being so cold, it’s not you.”
She took his hand, it felt warm, “I know, it will take time.”
They went back inside to grab a bite to eat.
Cassie seduced him again that night. She laid out for him, her legs spread invitingly, a look of absolute trust and burning lust in her eyes. He took her hard and fast again, pouring his anger into the actions, but this time he wasn’t looking at the back of her head, they were face to face. The look in Cassie’s eyes as he fucked her mercilessly was one of acceptance, and pleasure. She more than didn’t mind being used like he was doing, she wanted to be used, wanted to be needed by him… for something, anything.
He could see it in her eyes, she felt safe in the middle of his raging storm of anger, giving herself to it, to him, because she loved him. It was so clear on her face, that his rage faltered. A mixture of tenderness and grief rose over him like a tidal wave. He drowned in it and it tore a sob from deep inside as he finally let the grief out.
Cynthia was gone, and he’d never see her again.
Cassie held him as he collapsed on top of her, and caressed his back and hair, whispering nonsense phrases in his ear as he broke into pieces, and she held him together. When he could draw a steady breath again, after he wasn’t sure how long, he started to grow inside of her again, and this time, he moved gently and teasingly inside Cassie. The grief and anger were still there, he felt fragile, and wrung out, but he also felt warmed by her body, her smile, and the look in her eyes as they moved against each other in soft loving movements.
They made love for a long time. He kissed her softly, and filled her when she reached blissful completion beneath him, her body demanding his seed in a way he could no longer resist. Her orgasms had been getting stronger and stronger, and this last one just set him off. They kissed for a while, and then cuddled, and she slowly fell asleep in his arms as he looked up at the ceiling, this time with curiosity, and light feelings.
He wondered why she loved him, or felt safe with him when he’d failed so badly to keep Cynthia safe, but he had no doubt at all, that she did love and feel safe with him. He cared for her as well, her young nubile body was incredibly sexy, but he found that wasn’t very important to him, and really had nothing to do with his feelings for Cassie.
An insight perhaps made because of Cynthia, he missed her so much it hurt, but her hot little body was the last thing that came to mind, it was her presence he longed for. It made him feel a little scared, the grief and anger were still there, and though Cassie’s love now evoked his other emotions, he knew if he ever lost her, he’d lose his mind as well. She was his last link to his own tenuous sanity, he didn’t think he’d survive another loss like Cynthia’s. He wondered if there was anything he wouldn’t do to keep Cassie safe, and decided there wasn’t…
Chapter 23 – Kurien
Kurien sighed in relief when the mountains started to be sharply defined on the horizon. It would take them most of the day, and possibly into tomorrow, before they reached his home. The mission had gone on a lot longer than he’d expected, and he’d had a lot of surprises.
He glanced over his shoulder at Arielle and Katie, who were chatting together comfortably like old friends. When they’d been attacked two days ago, and had a little skirmish with those raiders, he’d been worried about Katie’s reactions. Obviously the woman had never needed to kill someone before, and she’d taken it rather hard.
Not that it had slowed her down, she’d been pushing them to increase the pace, and they’d be arriving home in half the time it
took to ride out, on the other hand they weren’t sneaking around either, and quite often cantering down the road at a good clip. More than once Arielle had needed to restore the horses’ stamina with her priestess magic so they could endure the punishing pace.
It was just that he’d just noticed a tightness in Katie’s eyes, and her usual open smile had been strained. Still, she seemed to be bouncing back from it. It was strange, she was here to help them, but she was also… untried.
Bria had come back later that day, and had looked slightly disappointed she’d missed the skirmish. She’d also taken over the staff training for Katie, and he’d been working with John along with Hendricks. They were both… pretty bad actually, but Nim had given them a solid start, all they lacked now was experience, something that he and Bria had over a century of.
He stole another look over his shoulder when he heard Arielle’s sweet laughter, he was hoping they would have time to be bonded before the aliens returned, but he wasn’t sure if that would work out or not, timewise.
Bria rode up beside him, “So what do you think, how screwed are we?”
He laughed, “As far as what? Humanity is in flux, we have aliens running around making trouble, and the new bearer is a baby. Very screwed?”
“I heard that!” declared Katie.
He blushed and turned, Katie was riding double with John, and Arielle were a lot closer than they were last time he checked.
“Well…”
Katie made a face, “I suppose it’s true, we’ll figure it out though. Even if I have to knock some heads together.”
Bria snickered, “Good job Kurien. Accurate, but not very politically said.”
Katie gasped, “You too?”
Bria shrugged, “Dragons aren’t very political. That said, I’ll listen to what you say, you may be new and inexperienced, but you have excellent instincts and can feel the balance.”
Nim sighed, “She is doing exceptionally well with magic, and has the right attitude. Young or not, it would be foolish to underestimate the servant of Gaea.”
Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 Page 15