by Lazlo Ferran
“Then Edmund took a wife and I became jealous. Then I truly desired him and gradually became his lover. I only thought to supplant the English Lady but Edmund preferred me for his bed only.
“Edmund’s sign was the dragon; a tale existed in his family of a predecessor killing a dragon and becoming a Knight by this means. Edmund seemed obsessed with this idea and talked constantly of it. I found out a great secret about him; not only was he Knight Templar but he belonged to a secret order called Ordo Lupus. What that means, I am still not quite sure but he would never come to my bed on the Full Moon and I would hear the howl of wolf in the hills that night. Wolves never came to our town at any other time during my life. Later, I discovered that he had started the secret brotherhood with three of his friends.
“Some said he was a werewolf, seeking a Holy order to give his life purpose or perhaps to disguise it. But I only know that he took great interest in any mythical creatures of the Underworld and would set off on missions to destroy them. Some of his knights would also vanish on the Full Moon and they also would go on these trips.
“He became so obsessed by the idea of killing a dragon that I took to dressing up as one to please his fantasy. In this way, I hoped to gain his favour.
“But one night, my plans went astray. There was another girl, Ailene, who loved him also but with an innocence that I had lost. I spied on him as usual and caught him invoking some oath of Ordo Lupus. I grew scared and retreated but he heard me and sought me. I ran back to my apartment where Ailene slept. I convinced her that now would be a good time for her to go to our Master in the dragon costume so she put it on. At that moment, Edmund broke into our apartment, drunk out of his mind and ran his sword right through Ailene, believing her to be me!
“That is why I have been damned to live as a dragon until Judgement Day.”
“It is a sad tale. I know of Ordo Lupus. Most vampires resent being grouped with the Serpents and other demons that work for the Blood Moon Prophesy to come true; the end days as described in the Bible in Acts 2:20 and Revelation 6:12 when Satan will rule Earth. But we are much closer to Ordo Lupus, the Brotherhood of Wolf Angels as we call them, in our philosophy. Your crime was misadventure and not murder. I do not see why you are so damned.”
“Oh John, can you not help me? You certainly need me. She never comes down from the tower to the courtyard but spends most of her time on a mountain top. You will never reach her unless I take you and I will take you if you help me.”
“What can I do?”
“You are a vampire. Your bite can bring eternal life of a sort. Perhaps your bite can restore life to me and I can escape Hades!”
“Well first of all, I have no power here. My bite will do nothing except hurt a little.”
As she talked, she began to unfasten her veil.
“But try! You must! It is an event so unusual that perhaps the Laws here will be overturned or at least part slightly to let me through! Drain all life from me as you would another but here it will be the life of the Undead. Perhaps it will restore true life to me!”
“But if I do that, how will I get to the mountain top?”
Now she unfastened her silk garment and unwound it so that in time, she revealed her breasts to me. They were full round and her nipples were as dark as the cinnamon of her eyes.
“You must bite me as I fly with you on my back and drain the last vestige of life as we land. Can you do that?”
My loins began to strain as they had never strained before. I felt as if my member were twice as long as usual and the blood began to drain from my brain. I felt dizzy in a way that excited me further. I wondered if I might pass out from mere desire. I quickly removed my gloves, mail shirt and boots and lay down. The apparition in front of me removed the last of her vestments and lay down naked beside me. She kissed my finger stub and it seemed to heal. The pain went and the skin lost its lividity. She moved to my leg and healed the wounds there. Then she moved to the wound of desire that she had opened in my loins.
“Your sap needs somewhere to flow other than around your own body,” she murmured. “Do not pay attention to the heightened desire you feel. This is only Lilith’s trick. Simply relax and we will become true lovers.”
“But won’t she punish you for helping me?”
“Yes, but she can do no more than increase my suffering by a fraction. It will be worth that to hope of life again.”
***
We lay together all night. I must admit that I have never found a woman so willing as she. Her every inch became my hunting ground and I hunted out every desire I could have ever had, even in such a long life as mine.
When sun rose, I woke to find her sleeping in my arms. We truly seemed lovers and conspirators. I began to fear for her for I knew her ploy would not work. But I had to remind myself that my only need was to find Lilith.
Nevertheless, when she bade me mount her winged back, I almost refused. The plea caught in my throat when I remembered that my adventures had some purpose, though I could not remember what.
“You must wound me so that Lilith will suspect nothing!” My host cried. “Use your mace on my hips!”
I wished I were back in Bolsover Castle.
“May I not know your name so that I may remember you?”
“It is forbidden to give your real name in Hades.”
“Please. It will cure me of my guilt.”
“Aisha. We are almost there! Hit me and take the first bite!”
We approached the white tip of a mountain so I smashed the mace into her hips will all my might. My finger and leg had both miraculously healed. Perhaps I should not use such a religious term but it seemed a miracle to me. Wielding the weapon seemed easy so I quickly moved to a vein of her shoulder. Not knowing the anatomy of a dragon, I had to remove several scales with a point of the mace to find a vein before I could sink my teeth in her flesh.
“Ah!” she sighed, as her blood left her body. “I feel that it will work.”
I shook my head silently but moved to the other shoulder and took more blood. By the time she landed, the poor Demon looked almost spent. With her last sigh, she said:
“I truly love you.”
I almost wept.
“So once again you arrive for your lesson!” Lilith said.
I stood beside a very large, black dragon. She stood the size of a small ship and her eyes glowed with the coals of fires that would burn for eternity.
“Are you still angry with me darling?” I asked.
“That was eons ago here. I have forgotten. I suppose you forced her with another of your lies?”
“Something like that.”
“You won’t find this hulk so easy.”
She leaped toward me and one of great breasts came crashing down upon me. I lay pinned to the ground with the mace beside me.
What hope have I against this great beast?
But then I remembered that I had not to kill the beast but only to destroy her sexual organ; not so easy with a female dragon!
I lay silent and eventually she had to lift her breast to see if I still lived. At once, I beat the breast with the mace but this only stimulated her. At once I saw my advantage and cooed words of love while smashing her areole with my weapon. Her vast bud became erect and she cooed back her satisfaction, lowering herself upon a sharp rock to satisfy her infernal need
I saw then that she was in the grip of ecstasy and could no longer help herself. I ran to her rear and yelled:
“Let me help you!”
When next her rear came down, I let her orifice fall upon my mace, braced against a rock. The weapon went in and I quickly found out how ideal had been its choice.
“Oh, that is lovely!” she simpered.
I let her enjoy herself for some time, watching without a word the blood from my mace spikes trickling out onto the stone.
Soon the blood became a flood and I began to wrench the mace this way and that to increase the flow.
With a terrible sound, L
ilith screamed, “Tricked again!” and transformed into her usual voluptuous self.
She fell upon me with an ardour unforeseen. I felt powerless against her power to extract from me every juicy spoonful.
For weeks it seemed that I wasted away under her onslaught. My weapon rusted and I became desiccated, like an Egypt Mummy.
At the last, I felt my life slipping from me. I had no power to resist and I almost became trapped within Hades.
With my last gasp, I called for help of some kind and, as if in a dream, I saw a shape, as of a small dragon just like Aisha lift me up and carry me back to the castle.
Lilith screamed her anguish while a gentle voice said, “Remember me!” and something pushed me through a door.
I lay on the floor of the circular chamber for hours. Only the fact that the food and wine I had drunk had come from the hand of a lover saved me from the desiccation of Lilith. Her inflicted wounds seemed to be healed by the former’s sustenance. Slowly I recovered and gathered my wits.
Fearful that the Full Moon had almost passed, I took up the double-headed axe and leaped through the door marked with a centaur.
The second of my mythical foes stood ready to meet me.
I breathed the name Aisha with every step I took and hardly seemed to notice when the beast spoke my name.
“I will race you!” the hoofed beast declared. “The loser will forfeit their legs!”
“That’s not very fair. You move faster than I!”
“Very well. You choose the course.”
I looked around me and deemed that I stood somewhere in ancient Greece. The sea sparkled under a glorious sun though the sky above glowered a menacing black.
I spied a small island, perhaps a mile out to sea, not much more than a rock.
Being a good swimmer and not able to think of any other means of winning as such short notice, I pointed to the island.
“That will be our finishing point!” I declared.
Truly my groin ached with the exertions of the last few Hades days and I feared I could not even run. In haste I added:
“But we must pass through the whole extent of the nearest village, visiting all the brothels before reaching it and you must tell me where the village is!”
“Phew! That is a lot of conditions! Very well. The village is that way. You will reach a road. Turn left and you will find the village.”
I noticed with satisfaction that the centaur was hung very nicely.
“Go!” the centaur added and sped off.
Though my legs seemed much stronger than usual, I could barely walk because of the pain in my loins. I stumbled along under the midday heat. I reached the road but had to sit down before continuing. I began to wish that I had waited until sunset for the start of the race but then I reminded myself that Greeks always take siestas.
My own appendage hung limp as a dead goose’s neck and hurt terribly as I walked. I felt grateful that my adversary this time was a male because I could not have performed for any woman.
When I reached the village, mid-afternoon had arrived and many stores were closed. Almost nobody walked the streets so I had difficulty finding directions to the nearest brothel.
“We only have three!” cackled the old hag.
I entered the premises and found that the centaur had already been and gone. Some of the harlots were receiving medication for their wounds suffered during fornication with the beast. Others were merely receiving smelling salts. They all looked delirious. When they asked to see my manhood, I lifted my mail shirt and they laughed until they almost cried before falling into their own delirium once more.
I moved to the second brothel where the story seemed the same; the beast had been and recently gone and left many lusty maids in a state of delirium. I began to fear that I would be too late.
I hurried on to the last brothel and found to my relief that the centaur still lay abed with four of the lusty maidens. He staggered out for some wine and laughed at me before retiring.
“What have you got?” one of the hags enquired.
I showed her and endured a round of laughter from my audience.
“I must be going,” I told them, “Have you heard? The Persians are coming. Every man over the age of sixteen and under forty will be called away. They say it will last for years. The army will come tonight!”
This sent all the maidens and old hags in a frenzy and they made for the centaur’s room.
I hobbled back to our starting point as fast as I could and made it to the beach in the lead.
I had removed my armour and taken to the water when I heard the thundering of hooves on the cliffs behind me. I did not look back as I swam heartily for the rock. In water, my disability affected my speed not at all.
“I curse you, you cheat!” the centaur bellowed behind me.
His legs pounded the water like a threshing mill but I had almost reached the rock. I touched its green surface just before the hand of the beast.
“I won!” I yelled.
I climbed out, followed by my competitor, who sunk down on the rock, disconsolate.
“I have never lost before!” he cried. “I fear I must keep my honour and give you my legs.”
“Yes!” I replied, satisfied.
“But let’s not be hasty. I think we should fight for it!”
I began to reply but a thundering voice from the heavens drowned me out:
“Fool of a nag!”
It sounded like Lilith and moments later, a great wave came over the horizon and flushed us both from the rock. I struggled to stay afloat and when the wave had crashed against the cliff, I made for the beach.
Alas, the beast did not do so well; I found his broken and twisted body on the sand; his limbs had all been snapped.
Lilith appeared to me, a centaur of unsurpassed size and glory. Its white coat shone like silk in the sun and its mane shimmered like white grass in moonlight.
She stood before a cave and the usual pot of gold lay before her. I struggled to my feet and opened the lid of the pot. Taking out one gold coin, I held it up to the light. I guessed there had to be at least 20,000 guineas in the pot, more than enough to keep me happy for the rest of my life, but not my children. I sighed.
“You cannot leave here until you have resisted me!” Lilith trumpeted.
“But I can’t. I have no desire. I showed her my limp privy member.”
“I tell you what. You can have this one for free, if you can reach it with your member!”
She took the gold coin and inserted it into her Venusian passage. Then she knelt down and proffered her ripe buttocks to me. They were too much of a temptation.
I felt my hardness growing and even the need to insert myself into an adventure for the gold. I placed my feet firmly apart and entered the cavern of delight. For some time I tried to locate the gold. Dampness, of course, doesn’t help one’s purchase when you are exploring a merchant’s cave. I fished and fished and eventually had to admit defeat.
I had just started to withdraw my probe when I lost my balance and trod on something sharp. My stomach muscles convulsed and my bladder jolted, telling me that it had become too full to delay its relief much longer. Thus pressured, my member extended another inch and touched something cold.
“Found it!” I hollered before having to withdraw my member and relieve myself behind some rocks.
“I think we will call that one a draw!” Lilith exclaimed.
***
For once, I had time to catch my breath in the circular chamber. I read again the enchantment and noted again the line about weaving magic between Lilith and Beelzebub. I also noted the next beast I would face; a bear.
A bear is at least a creature of this world though its power is undoubted.
I did not feel the same degree of fear therefore when I stood in a grassy glade with a sword and heard the roar of such a beast.
But confidence turned to confusion when I saw Julia. I had loved Julia when I first took John Wilmot’s character. T
hen he had been aged twelve and what man wouldn’t find love easy in the body of a boy. The more I tried to seduce Julia, the deeper I fell into love with her. Indeed, I have never loved so completely before or since. She died from the dreaded bubonic plague before we could consummate our love and it had remained in me, perfect, like a flower in aspic.
Suddenly she stepped out of aspic and into the glade.
“Julia!” I mouthed.
“Hello John.”
I stepped toward her but tripped over the mail shirt, which hung to my feet. I stood no taller than a boy again. The gloves fell from my hands and I removed the rest, until I stood in just my under breeches.
Julia took my hand and we walked beneath the trees. It must have been May for bluebells were out in their myriad purple motes, making a soft carpet for our feet. Green fern fingers reached for our legs as we walked through a runnel.
“I missed you so much. Is this a dream?”
“I don’t know John. I missed you too. Where have you been? You said to meet you here and I have come here every day since. That must have been months ago. I have been so worried about you!”
“I … I am not sure where I have been.” I thought I remembered getting married and many women but they could have been fantasies. I didn’t care. I only wanted to kiss you again. “Let’s sit down.”
I took her downy arm in my hand and lowered her to a tussock. She splayed her dress hem out and crossed her white legs. I felt a natural reaction in my member for the first time since meeting Aisha. But was that just a nightmare? I pushed the pictures from my mind.
“I love you so much Julia,” I whispered.
I lay beside her and half over her, taking her warm lips in my own.
Perhaps I have no need of arms after all!
Her tiny bodice was laced down the front, forbidden for an adult woman but not uncommon in one so young. I found my fingers playing with the knot but Julia’s delicate fingers settled upon my own.
“Tell me about vampires John.”
“What? Why?”
Her question had shocked me. I never thought she could have guessed what I really was.