“What do you want?” I asked.
“An up-date. I’ve sensed a great deal of your magic being unleashed this morning.”
I ran through my preparation. He sat there, deep in thought, listening, nodding at various points. “Seems sufficient,” he said at last. “Now, what are your plans for me?”
I smiled. “I am so glad you asked. I’m letting you and the dragons open the show. The bridge will be our first contact with the enemy. The dragons will come out of the sun for strafing runs. Lightning attacks on the flank will demoralize the enemy while driving them into an advance that hopeful will divide their forces. Once half their army is committed, you get to play troll under the bridge.”
The Old Man grinned at the image. “I see. That’s why you made a bridge over a new lake; to give me plenty of ammunition.”
“Your Atlantean water magic will turn every drop into a weapon. The dragons make the first cull, you make the second, and then disengage. The were-folk in the river and forest, and my shadow traps, will continue the grind. Whatever manages to reach the keep can entertain the guests. Then we have the coronation.”
“And the part of the enemy that winds up in the wrong valley?”
“I’m kinda torn about that,” I admitted. “I can either eliminate that valley by zipping it closed, crushing them to paste, or I can bring up some magma to incinerate them. I lean toward the first approach, less messy.”
“I approve. Apparently, I’ve taught you well.”
“Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.”
“I’ll be careful,” Lauphram said. “There’s only one potential problem area I see.”
“What’s that?”
“Not going to tell you. You’ll get complacent and make more than the usual mistakes.”
I glared at him. “Fucking thanks a lot.”
I sensed a shadow hand forming above my head. He was fixing to smack me for my language. Anywhere else, he could get away with it, but this was my land, an extension of me. Here, he no longer eclipsed me in power.
A pillar of dirt fountained up beside the pool. Even if he’d been standing, the column would still have dwarfed him. The dirt shaped itself into a giant hand, palm facing him. My intent and ability to retaliate was clear.
He looked at the earthen hand. And looked at me. I felt his shadow hand dissolve. “You’re right,” he said. “The game has gotten old, and you are a man. Dragon. Whatever. Time to put away childish things.”
I willed the hand I’d formed to sink back into the ground.
His shadow hand reformed in an instant and smacked the top of my head.
The earth surrounding the pool became a crater. The Old Man dropped six feet so only his head poked out of the hole. The jarring couldn’t have been good for his tailbone.
I smiled. “Are you sure you don’t want to quit while you’re behind?”
“I could always call a storm. Flash floods aren’t fun,” he said.
I nodded musing. “True, and you’ll need the water—with a volcano under your ass.”
We stared at each other. Silence set in, and dragged out with nothing being done by either of us. Then the water of the pool lifted him out of the crater, putting him on its lip. He nodded at his own thoughts. “I had to be sure.”
I pushed off my chair and stood facing him. “Sure of what?”
“The timing; that letting go now is best for you. I’m satisfied.”
“Don’t expect a hug,” I said.
He nodded again, smiled, and walked away.
I watched his slow departure with a strange sense of having become unanchored in some way. Shit. What just happened?
I looked back and saw that the pillar of water he’d made was still fully erect. Something dark was on top of it. I went closer to see what the Old Man had left behind. With a thought, I touched the land, and the land raised the pool’s basin to where it had been. This had the effect of raising the water pillar, too. What sat on top was at eye level, a black crown. No, the black crown. The demon clan crown, made of obsidian inset with black diamonds.
I reached out and plucked it off the water. At first, the rim was too large for my head, but as I donned it, the crown contracted. Perfect fit.
Fuck yeah!
TWENTY-SEVEN
“One fuck too many is better than no fuck at all.”
—Caine Deathwalker
My brain careened from strategy to stratagem, not the slightest bit dulled by the vast quantities of rum and Coke the party girls had brought into my room. I was tired as fuck, and tired from fucking, but in between bouts of carnal bliss, whirling thoughts of the coming war stirred my mind. I’d gone to bed in the treehouse, settling in with the were-kitties and had let them have their way with me—and each other. There was a point where we sorta lost track of what body part belonged to whom—except I knew I had the only cock present.
I knew there was no such thing as evolution, only natural adaption. Evolution is contradicted by all three laws of thermal dynamics. Still, I was tempted to believe that my proud, manly shaft was the pinnacle of that process, the point of all ambition and striving: perfection achieved by a decaying, dying universe. The girls weren’t complaining, or even awake anymore, filling the air with soft, gentle purrs.
Finally, close to the edge of sleep, the master bedroom door opened. A slab of light fell into the room, onto the hardwood floor and an area rug, slashing across the mega-sized four-poster bed. Guards tramped in. Strange Fey.
I pulled my guns out of nowhere and pushed several arms off me by sitting up. I’d have opened fire, but the guards weren’t brandishing weapons, and had stopped short of the bed. The detail parted for an imperial presence, a woman in midnight-blue, silk robes, and a scarf over her hair. I thought at first glance it was Izumi, but the girl stood a good bit shorter and looked barely legal. She pushed back the scarf and revealed lavender-blue hair, not the black that Izumi’s glamour provided for her. This was Queen Kellyn, her mother, paying me a call. Her electric eyes shone, windows into a soul steeped in ice magic.
“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Privately.”
“You’re the one that brought a guard detail into my bedroom. You don’t need them. Send them away.”
She looked at the PX4 Storm semi-automatics and raised a white eyebrow. “Cold iron? You feel threatened?”
“Just careful.” The guns stayed in my hands. Manners can get you killed as well as the lack of them. I played the razors-edge, between both.
She spoke to her guards. “Escort the, um, ladies elsewhere, then wait out in the hall. If my daughter shows up, ask her to wait until I am done.”
As the guards approached the bed, the were-kitties snapped awake, hissing, teeth bared, claws out, tail-tips flicking in annoyance as their ears laid flat to their skulls.
“It’s all right, girls,” I said. “Run along and let me deal with this.”
They looked at me.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry.” I flicked my guns at them in a shooing gesture.
They slid off the bed, grabbed various pieces of clothing, and walked out naked, their heads and tails held high. The fey guards took the opportunity to ogle the naked girls. Being shifters, and often in situations of public nudity, they didn’t seem to notice. Once the girls were gone, the guards left, closing my door.
“You want to talk?” I tossed the guns and they popped out of view, returning to my Malibu armory.
She looked from the sweaty, cum-stained sheets to my softened dick. Her gaze lingered. I understood why. Between erections, my resting cock was still big enough to club a baby seal.
Hmmm, I wonder if that would really work.
She said, “Perhaps you want to wash the stink of excess from your body first, and then change the sheets.” Kellyn was royalty by birth; that was an order, not a suggestion. Since I was a Lord of Fairy, she couldn’t technically give me orders. Still, I sensed an unscheduled, once in a lifetime fuck coming.
I
graciously consented, sliding of the bed, making my way to a side room where a basin waited. I hit the lights, pressing battery powered LED units that were wall-mounted. The water in the tub was piped in from higher in the tree, from a water tank. Gravity pulled it down when a valve was turned. A little stored fire demon magic in the tub warmed the water to a delightful temperature.
I’d have invited Kellyn to join me for some splashing around, but I was wary of accidentally getting turned into a mini-glacier. That would certainly be embarrassing.
I didn’t hurry cleaning up, needing the heated water to loosen me up and wake me up a little more. I finally dipped under to wash my hair, then stood and stepped out, wrapping a towel around me to sustain warmth. A moment later, I was back in my bedroom—staring. Kellyn had stripped out of her clothes and stood exposed in the light from the bathroom.
I stopped to stare hungrily. She might be hundreds of years old, but she was still hotter than hell on a Saturday night. Not to stare would have been an insult no naked fey lady would have tolerated.
“I see why you’re here,” I said, “and I’m not complaining, but aren’t you risking Izumi growing highly pissed at both of us?”
“I will not be sharing you with her after you’re bonded by the coronation ceremony, so this is my only chance. Before you become family, it is no harm, no foul, as you humans say.”
“You’ve been learning our colloquialisms.”
She cocked her head like her magic was having trouble translating my last, long word. She mouthed the sound a few times, committing it to memory. I could have spoken excellent fey, bounding to the land had enriched my vocabulary tremendously, but I wanted that ability kept in reserve, a surprise, not common knowledge.
“Ko-low-key-al-iz-um. That means the way people talk?”
“Yes.” I stripped the bed and dumped the sheets in a corner. Instead of hunting up fresh replacements, I went to the foot of the bed and found the kicked-off bedspread in the floor, dislodged there by the were-kitties. I picked it up and threw the cover across the bed. “How’s that?”
She glided around an end post of the bed and approached me along the side. “It will do.” Her very cold fingers slid inside the top of the towel, tugging it open. “Do we really need this?”
I let the towel drop and seized her by the arms, swinging her over the bed, letting her fall. Like a stalking beast, I followed, looming over her, walking on fists and knees until I could look straight down into her cold-flame eyes. “All right, but if Izumi asks, I’m going to tell her you overpowered me and I had no choice.”
Her voice turned husky, thick with desire. “What makes you think you do have a choice?” She reached up. Her hands clasped my neck. She pulled my lips down to mesh with hers. Her glossy lips had an odd bitter-sweet flavor. My body lowered, pressing into her rolling hills and valleys. With her abnormally low body temperature, it felt like fucking a zombie. Not that I would know. Honest, well … okay, there was that one time…
Not wanting to be turned into a fuck-cicle, I warmed my Dragon Fire tattoo with a trickle of raw magic. The spell activated at a very low level so I didn’t burst into flame. The price I paid was a nova-blast of pain, as if my spine were revolving inside me, ripping loose every nerve.
Sonuvabitch! I bit my tongue.
Kellyn said, “Murrphf!”
I pulled back a little. Oops, that was her tongue I bit.
She smiled, surging up, rolling me onto my back so she could straddle my hips and press my captive wrists into the bedspread. She said, “So, that’s how you like it? Why didn’t you say so?” She kissed my collar bone and worked her way to my right shoulder where a kiss turned into a bite. I didn’t feel any wetness, so she’d stopped just short of bloodshed—for now. She gnawed me like a hungry were-beast, then moved on, forcing a kiss while grinding her icy wet pussy against my magically heated cock. Sliding higher, she covered my face with her tits, pressing down so I had very little air.
Kellyn’s muted voice sounded sweet and full of magic. “Ah… little one, let me ease you into darkness, into the sweet embrace of death!”
Fuck! Is this sex, role-play, or attempted murder? Okay, play along, can’t have my first queen-fuck hating me from the start.
I pushed to free my hands, but nothing happened. Her soft grip should not be able to pin me, but it did and more; my hands chilled, becoming hard to move while the rest of me stayed heated. She’s messing with my magic. My thoughts unfocused. I felt high, really high.
She pulled back, her tits leaving my face. She said, “Fairy dust mixed with powdered gems: I’ve heard this is the favorite drug of dragons.”
Her lipstick!
I looked at Kellyn, her eyes a blur, the feel of her skin a soft oblivion. I drew a deep breath and felt great. As I exhaled, a laugh emerged. I smiled, content, floating within myself. The feeling took me over.
My inner dragon spoke from a far, far place. This isn’t good. He poured power into me, a sharp bite of electric force. My mouth burned. Testing my teeth with a tongue–tip, I discovered dragon-style fangs had grown in.
Slowly, easily, I lifted Kellyn’s hands while she gripped my wrists. Her expression changed to admiration at the sight of my dragon strength, which fed my pride. Before we both knew it, she was on her back with my fangs nipping her shoulder. The chill taste of her skin got me even higher.
Despite the influx of dragon strength, everything kept blurring. Odd aural hallucination came and went: sounds like distant screams and chirpy laughter. For a while, some of my senses crossed-wired. My ass felt greenish-yellow as she gripped it. I heard the sound of shattering furniture and flying bodies. My senses shifted unpredictably, and my thoughts fragmented into nonsense. I’d remember who I was and where I was, and what I wanted to do next, but clarity fled, fading in an orgy of bliss as fey glamour rode me.
At one point, we were on the floor. Kellyn nails dug into my chest, but I saw Izumi. I licked her tits, and tasted bitter-sweetness again. And waves of bliss hit harder.
Someone yelled my name. An echo blended with the sound, turning it inside out. I looked where the sound came from. Another Izumi stood by the doorway, moving in slow motion, then walking on the celling. The image shattered and reformed.
Damn, I’m high.
I blinked, and it was Kellyn impaled on my cock. Standing next to me, Izumi loomed for a hundred feet. Golden stardust fell around me, trails of magic. “Be in you in just a minute,” I promised Izumi. “Just gotta finish up here first.”
“Get off my mom,” Izumi said. “She and I are going to have words.”
Slowly, I tried to stand, but gravity kept shifting. My face fell on Kellyn’s tits a few times, and I couldn’t stop laughing.
Shit!
The world flipped and I was standing. Izumi clutched my arm and one hip to steady me.
Kellyn climbed to her feet, her tits bouncing nicely.
Izumi’s face turned sky-blue in anger.
It occurred to me that I might be in trouble. I raised a finger for attention. “I’m drugged, but in my defense, I was going to nail her anyway. That makes sense, right?”
Kellyn looked from me to Izumi. “Why are you angry? We didn’t finish. Anyway, sharing is the fey way. Why would you want to keep such endurance and skill all to yourself?”
Izumi glowered. “It’s enough that I do.”
“Living among humans has corrupted your morals.” Kellyn shrugged. “Well, I understand now why you’re willing to marry him.”
That sobered me up. “Who the fuck said anything about marriage.”
Izumi said, “Taking a fey as queen is the same thing. That’s what happens.”
“Shush, fool.” Kellyn’s thumb brushed my lips, a burst of bitter-sweet flavor. And the walls started revolving, glowing a gentle puce. I swayed out of Izumi’s hold and fell on my face.
Kellyn smiled.
Izumi yelled. “Will you stop drugging him? If his father see this, do you really think it will turn out g
ood!”
“If I see what?” The Old Man’s voice came into the room along with his steps, and the clacking of high heels. “Why is my son on the floor, ass-naked, laughing like the idiot he is?”
I paused my maniacal chuckling, and rolled over so I could see everyone. “I love you too, Old Man.”
The woman who’d entered with the Old Man paused in shock. I strained to see who that was.
The Old Man waved his hand. A silver cloth fell on me. It wove around me like toga. The feel of fabric tingled my skin as I watched the golden stardust painting pictures on the ceiling.
Clarity increased. Arm in arm, Kinsey stood with the Old Man. Her eyes danced with gold dragon magic. She lifted her gaze to the ceiling and tightened her grip on Lauphram’s arm before speaking. “He needs to stop playing with the threads of space before there’s a quantum implosion.”
“What do you suggest I do?” Lauphram asked.
Kinsey let him go and walked over to me, staring down much the way you would at a worm that has escaped the tequila bottle. She pulled her foot back and kicked my head. My vison grayed. The golden sparkles on the ceiling went away.
Fuck! That hurt.
“Something like that,” Kinsey said.
Izumi objected. “That’s my job.”
Fortunately for me, I passed out and wings of darkness carried me away.
TWENTY-EIGHT
“I’m terribly sorry, heh-heh, but I’m
going to have to kill you now.”
—Caine Deathwalker
The great circular pavilion I’d build above the falls was something that could have easily come from Shangri-La. A polished granite dais was ringed by slabs of rock that supported a domed ceiling. A central hole in the roof allowed the smoke of a fire pit to escape. Outside that vent was a cover that would keep falling rain from entering, and with the Storm Court attacking, I expected plenty of rain, wind, lightning, hail, and hell.
Demon Lord 5: Silver Crown King Page 21