“I thought you weren’t going to bother with me, Unraveller?”
He was trying to act tough, but his eyes kept straying back to the monster as it moved. A long stalk with three eyes on the end rose up from the pit, and looked at him hungrily.
Mara turned a malicious grin on him. “Good thing he can’t climb, huh? Don’t worry, asshole, we’re not allowed to mess with each other’s prisoners. Too bad, cause I’d love to get a little payback on you for dad. Come on, elf boy. You’ve got some questions to answer.”
The elves were all securely locked into the barred cells by then. Mara pulled me across to the other side of the room, through a door I hadn’t noticed and down a short hallway into another room. There she slammed the heavy wooden door shut, and threw the bolt.
“There. Mom’s off fighting with Sigyn over who gets to fuck dad, and no one else can spy on us here. Now talk.”
“Well, okay. About what?”
She grabbed me by the front of my leather armor, and slammed me against the stone wall with an inarticulate cry of rage.
“Don’t pull that shit with me, Daniel! What the fuck are you doing here? Do you realize how dangerous this is? Yeah, mom’s kind of dumb, but if she figures out who you are you’re never getting out of here.”
Shit, she was strong. When did she get so violent? Keep it cool, Daniel, if she’s worried about you that’s actually a good sign.
“Yeah, hence the whole being an elf thing. I’m being careful, Mara. You’re the only one here who would recognize me.”
“And I’m supposed to just keep that a secret?” She shot back. “While you blow up mom’s house or something? I have to live here, Daniel.”
“I’m not planning to blow up your mother’s palace, Mara. All that would do is piss her off, and why would I go out of my way to do that? I have enough problems without having an elder goddess specifically out for my blood.”
“Then why are you here?” She growled.
“Your mother keeps sending these crazy ape men to kill me. I got tired of washing the blood off my walls, and decided to find a better way to stop them.”
“Recon?” She stared at me incredulously. She dropped me, and threw up her hands in disgust. “Recon! Don’t you have elves for that shit now? Why are you doing it yourself? Damn it, half the guards are going to think I’m fucking you now.”
“Wait, what? Why would they think that?” I asked, confused.
“Hello! You were calling me by name, and acting like you know me. Besides, this is where I take guys when I get too pent up, and can’t hold out any longer.”
I looked over what was obviously set up as a private torture chamber. There were a couple of thick wooden posts to tie prisoners to, a heavy wooden table with blood gutters around the rim, and a big x-frame in the middle of the room. A set of shelves on the wall held a variety of whips, obsidian knives, ropes and weights of various sizes, and some implements of wood and stone that I couldn’t immediately identify.
“You bring your lovers here for trysts? Kinky.”
She huffed, and sat down on the edge of the table. “I don’t have lovers, dummy. My brothers kill anyone I fuck, so I don’t do it with anyone I actually like.”
“They do? Why would they do that?”
“Because they think the guy with the biggest muscles is supposed to get the girl, and there’s no one here that can fight them? It really pisses them off when I do it with some ‘inferior’ guy instead. I only meant to do it here once. Just to make a point, and get back at the assholes. But then mom got this bright idea about ‘fixing’ me, and now I… well, I can’t hold it back forever, but I can still stick it to them in my own way.”
“Oh. Damn. What does she have against you, anyway?”
She held out her hand, and a tongue of flame sprang up from her palm. “Think about it, Daniel. Mom doesn’t even allow fires in Skogheim. She thought banging Loki would get her a daughter who was like her, only good with magic. Instead I’m practically a living embodiment of everything she hates.”
“That’s it?” I shook my head. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Mara, but your family is profoundly fucked up.”
A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “You have no idea. Why do you think I was so tempted by your crazy offer? Too bad I missed the boat on that.”
“We are kind of busy killing each other’s allies and minions, aren’t we? But you know, we don’t have to hold that against each other if we don’t want to. I mean, would it actually bother you if I blew up one of your brothers at Kozalin?”
“You already have. You should have heard Lorin ranting about that crazy shit you pulled on his army. Mom had to help him reform his body, and he’s still too fucked up to leave Skogheim.”
She was smiling now. A small one, but smiling Mara was definitely better than raging Mara.
“Well, there you go. Feel free to send them over to get blown up again whenever they piss you off. Trust me, I’ve got a plentiful supply of explosions.”
“I just might do that,” she said. She stood, and gave me a speculative look. “You’re really not afraid of my brothers, are you?”
“No, not really. Grinder doesn’t care how big their muscles are.”
“Muscles are overrated,” she agreed. “Real power is mind and magic, working together. I still can’t believe you managed to cut me with a fire weapon when I was in full monster form.”
“It didn’t slow you down much,” I pointed out.
“I healed. I always do,” she said. “But now you’re in my citadel, and you can’t just run out the door to get away. I’ve got an army here, and eight of my brothers, and mom will come right back if any of us call her. I’ve got you right where I want you.”
She took a step towards me, her hips swaying.
“You owe me big time for not ratting you out, you know,” she told me.
“Maybe I’ll have a chance to return the favor someday.”
“No, you’re going to pay me back right now,” she purred.
She pushed me back against the wall, and crushed her lips against mine. Her kiss was a hungry, demanding thing, surging with violence and raw need. Crap, this was not the reaction I was expecting. I didn’t need another complication, but my body was eagerly responding. Her lean, strong curves pressed against me, so hot it almost burned. I kissed her back.
Her hand snaked down into my pants, and roughly groped me.
“Hah! No little elven dick, huh?”
Her firm breasts were crushed against my chest, and her hungry eyes filled my vision.
“Hell, no,” I growled back. “They look stupid.”
She laughed. “Yeah. Silly little pink things. Come here, you. Make me feel good, and maybe I’ll take you for a ride.”
She grabbed me by the damned braid again, and pulled me over to kneel at her feet while she leaned back against the table. There were no panties under her skirt. Just a little tuft of red fur, and a warm center already slick with desire.
Well, hell. I wasn’t getting out of this, so I might as well do it right.
I put my tongue to work. Having my hands tied behind my back was a problem, but I had other options. I reached out through the point of contact with my sorcery, and told her sensitive flesh to become even more sensitive.
She gasped, and pulled me in with both hands in my hair. Good thing my amulet kept me from suffocating, because she didn’t let up either. I could feel the arousal coiling in her belly, already rising towards release. Had she really been that pent up?
No, it was more than that. Her body’s reactions were off, somehow. Warped. Twisted by magic and trauma into a burning knot of frustrated need that was impossible to satisfy, and that was just the physical aspects that my sorcery could read. God only knows what the more psychological effects were like.
That part was beyond my reach, but the physical side was another matter. I insinuated my magic deeper into her body, taking advantage of her growing distraction. Her power made her hard to influence
, but I wasn’t trying to do anything big.
A subtle deflection postponed her impending climax, giving me more time to work. Time to ramp her pleasure higher. Wind her focus tighter. Coax her magic into the same rhythm as her body. A single, unified song of passion instead of a cacophony of discordant notes. All of it leading inexorable up, and up, and higher still.
Mara gasped, and cursed, and whined in pure animal need. Her hands clenched around my head with inhuman strength. I ignored the pain, focused on picking the perfect moment. Right… about… now.
A high-pitched shriek erupted from her lips as Mara went over the edge. Her whole body spasmed, and her feet left the floor. I caught her with my force magic before she could fall, and held her up as she convulsed in rapture.
I let her come down a little, and took her right back up to an even higher peak before she could catch her breath. This time I took advantage of her distraction to cut the rope around my wrists with a blade of force magic, so I could work two fingers inside her and stroke her g-spot. That set her off yet again, and this time I managed to turn her release into a series of rapid-fire orgasms that lasted for minutes.
When that finally faded I let her come back down a little. She sagged, panting for breath, and for a moment I worried that I’d overdone it. A normal woman would probably have been unconscious after that last part. Maybe I should be more careful not to get carried away?
Then Mara grabbed me, and threw me across the table. She paused to pull her top off while I was stunned from the impact, and went for my pants.
“Holy fuck, that was intense,” she growled. “You’d better have a big dick in here for me, because I’m going to kill your ass if I don’t get a good cock stuffing now.”
She pulled my pants out of the way, and threw one leg across my body to straddle me. I reached for her breasts, but she pinned my hands down with hers.
“Ah ah! I’ll say when you can touch them,” she said. “First you’ve got to show me what this bad boy can do.”
She sank down onto me, taking everything I had in one long stroke. Her eyes half closed, and she gave a satisfied sigh.
“Oh, yeah. That’s what I needed. Not the biggest I’ve had, but it’ll get the job done.”
“You really know how to pamper a guy’s ego, Mara,” I said dryly.
She laughed. “You’ve got to earn that shit with me, Daniel. Is this thing as magic as your tongue?”
In reply I renewed the connection, and started feeding her pleasure again. Her sudden intake of breath told me she was feeling it. Her eyes lidded, and she leaned forward to dangle her breasts above my face.
“Yeah, keep it just like that.”
Then she began to move.
I could see that she needed to feel in control, so I let her set the pace. She took full advantage of her inhuman strength to hold me down and have her way with me, but she was so damned sexy I didn’t really mind. She rode me through three more orgasms, before my control finally gave out and I emptied myself inside her.
She laid herself across my chest, and kissed me again.
“Whew. That was pretty good, Daniel. Think you can go again?”
She’d finally let go of my hands, so I was able to run them up her flanks and around to hug her.
“A real wizard can go as many times as he wants to,” I told her. “But first, let me take care of your little complaint.”
“Complaint? What complaint? Oh!”
I focused my flesh magic inward, and made myself grow. That was a relatively simple alteration, just expanding what I had without changing anything else about it, so it worked fast enough to be obvious. Mara looked down, and back up.
A huge grin split her face.
“You can make it bigger? Holy fuck, you can make it bigger. Why didn’t you do that before? How big can you make it?”
“It takes some concentration,” I told her. “You didn’t seem like you wanted to wait, earlier. And what makes you think there’s a limit?”
“Well, at some point you wouldn’t be able to walk because your giant dick would get in the way,” she pointed out.
“I can fly,” I replied.
She sat up with a laugh. “Okay, giant flying dick man, let’s see you put your magic where your mouth is. Fill me up all the way, and I’ll let you do me from behind.”
It turned out that Mara could take a hell of a lot more than any normal woman. I ended up with an organ the size of my arm. Shortly thereafter she ended up completely delirious with pleasure. I kept using my magic whenever I could muster the concentration, enhancing her sensations and working to undo the tangled mess of her body’s responses. Her immense magical power made any lasting change difficult, but as the session went on it gradually stopped resisting me. It was still like sculpting concrete compared to the clay of a normal person, but that was a hell of a lot easier than the battleship armor she’d started with.
I’d been skeptical about Cerise’s assumption that fire powers would somehow make Mara super passionate, but I discovered that she’d been right. Her erogenous zones were already flooded with her own magic, mingling with mine and amplifying both her desires and the sensations she was feeling. Every knot of damage I untangled strengthened that flow, pulling her more and more into the moment. Every climax was more intense than the one before, inexorably narrowing her focus into a private universe of ecstasy. The direct stimulation I was applying with my magic only multiplied the effect.
A normal woman would have been reduced to a puddle of helpless surrender in minutes. But Mara just rode the wave higher and higher, never completely losing herself even when she seemed oblivious to everything but her own pleasure. Just when I thought I’d finally found her limit she’d suddenly manhandle me into a new position, and I’d find that she was the one setting the pace again. Or the incredible heat of her core would rise up, seeping into my tool until my blood boiled and I couldn’t hold back any longer. Or she’d just wrap her arms around my neck and trap my gaze with eyes full of golden fire, wordlessly demanding everything I had to give.
“What are you doing to me?” She asked at one point, when we were lying beside each other panting after a shared release that I’d thought might never end. “I can feel your magic working on me.”
“Helping,” I replied. I rolled onto my side, and ran one hand down her firm belly. “Your mom screwed up all kinds of things in here. I’m working out all that frustration, and making it so it’s actually possible for you to feel satisfied again.”
She snickered. “So you’re unfucking me with fucking?”
“Yeah. You okay with that?”
She pulled me closer, and looked into my eyes.
“Yes,” she decided. “I think I am. You do realize I’m going to have to keep you chained to my bed forever now, right?”
“Sounds like fun,” I admitted. “But I think your mom might have a problem with that. Especially if I start killing your brothers whenever they hassle you, and she has to rez them all the time.”
“I guess. You know, they really aren’t that easy to beat. Otherwise I’d have been doing it myself.”
I shrugged. “You don’t seriously think I’m going to admit to being worried about that, do you? I’d have to turn in my man card. Besides, Cerise and Elin would come looking for me eventually, and the three of us make a pretty good team.”
“Elin does not need to be around my brothers,” she said severely. “I don’t think they’d touch someone who looks like she does, but you don’t take chances with that.”
“Elin has blossomed into a perfectly lovely faerie princess,” I told her. “We’ve gotten her shapeshifting mostly sorted out, and I made her an amulet. She still doesn’t like fighting, but she can be pretty badass when she wants to be. You should see her floating around in a giant ball of conjured water, ripping golems apart and drowning anyone who tries to get at her.”
“Sounds like you’ve really taken a liking to her,” Mara said wistfully.
“She’s part of
my coven,” I replied.
Mara sat up abruptly. “Elin? Elin is part of your coven? You’re kidding me. You went that far? You… you must really like her.”
“Yeah. She’s pretty amazing. But I’m being a jerk, talking about another woman when you’re right here. One more round?”
She bit her lip. “Maybe two. I guess I have to let you go, but I’m going to miss this. I really wish things could be different.”
“Can’t they?” I asked. “One more task and you’re done, right?”
She hung her head. “You don’t understand. Mom and her sons have treated me like shit my whole life, but dad? He’s proud of me. Hel is all excited to have a little sister, talking about teaching me death magic and secret ways to come back from being killed. Jormungandr gets all protective, like a real big brother, and even Sigyn is kind of nice to me. They’re my family, Daniel, and they need me.”
I sighed.
“Alright, Mara. I get it. Do what you need to do then, okay? Just try not to get yourself killed when you’re storming the gates of Asgard. Oh, but that reminds me. I still have to give you your present.”
I reached out with a strand of force magic, and pulled my shirt over from where it had been discarded at some point along the way. Mara watched with an odd expression as I fished out the little loop of gold.
“Here,” I said. “I want you to have this. I figured an amulet like I use would be too easy for people to figure out, so I put the enchantments on an earring instead. It has healing and protection effects like the one you got your hands on in Kozalin, only a lot stronger and with an intent control interface. There are also some wards against mage sight and curses, which automatically adjust themselves to enclose the same area as the physical barrier. The power source on the ring is weaker than my amulets, but considering how strong you are normally that’s not the important part for you anyway.”
“You… but… why are you giving this to me?” She asked.
“Because I like you? Do I need another reason?”
Her hand was trembling slightly as she took it. “You don’t know what this means to me, Daniel. Seriously? No strings attached?”
Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) Page 40