I do. I will. Just later. Colt’s with everyone. I imagine he’ll call if he needs us.”
“That’s certainly true.”
“Selene, about that feather duster dildo…”
“Yes, my love?”
“We won’t need it to give you a double penetration. I’m a god now. I ought to be able to grow a second cock, or what’s the use of having divine power?”
“You would do that for me?”
“Well, don’t expect me to sport it around all the time. One is a lot to manage—and I only have so much blood. We’ll save this ability for special occasions.”
“This is a special occasion?”
“The second time in my life I’ll be using a virgin cock. I think that counts. Besides, if I time it right, I can come twice at the same time. As far as I know, it’s never been done.”
“So, it’s all about you?” Selene asked.
“Isn’t everything?”
TWENTY-FIVE
“Incredibly, there are twists
of fate even I have never seen.”
—Caine Deathwalker
Breaking the kiss, she pushed me back toward the bed. Soft invitation became hard insistence; she had a schedule: seduction, foreplay, violent orgasms with intermittent rests, followed by more of the same. It was a familiar pattern to us both. She kept clothes for me on the Red Moon, so saw no reason why those on my body shouldn’t be ripped off as she all but devoured me.
She snapped my belt and tore off my pants. I kicked my steel-toed boots off my feet. They double-thudded to the yellow-and-lime sabretooth rug on the hardwood floor. My engorged cock thrust up into her hand like a scepter as her stare raked me. Her other hand reached out and clawed away the dress shirt, my jacket already shed on the stairs coming here, along with her crimson dress which had melted off her delightful curves like melted butter.
The air still smelled of singed sheets and bed curtains from my last visit. The curtain around the bed had burned away and not been replaced. At least the golden trapeze still hung over the bed. Solid gold with chains anchored to the high, vaulted ceiling, it invited games of excess requiring true athletic prowess. This came from one of the lesser known pages of the Kama Sutra.
Selene’s shadow on the sidewall flickered, darkness inside a red wash of light from a couple of iron braisers on tripods. Positioned around the huge room, they took the cold out of the air. Her shadow had a bestial quality, revealing her dragon nature.
What is it about gods and braisers? Splurge for the indoor heating, damn it!
Staring at my punctured side, she grew still, as if time had fallen off its tracks. There was darkness, a swirl of shadow, in the crystal depths of her goddess eyes.
Time picked up again as if it dared not defy her long. The hand that didn’t have a painful death-grip on my cock touched the swollen, inflamed tissues over my ribs. Soft as a mother’s kiss, her fingertips slid back to examine the puckered exit wounds where a white-hot skewer had been hammered through my tough skin and the muscle underneath.
I don’t know if it was the hormonal changes of her becoming a mother and my child growing in her womb, or a passing mood of sentiment from her savage, often insane personality, but tears brimmed her eyes like rims of blood. A crystal bead trickled down one cheek, then the other.
But her grip on my cock threatened to crush him.
I gasped. “Please, don’t break that off; I’d like to keep it. A penis makes peeing so much easier. And you can write your name in the snow.”
“Too good to sit down like a girl?” She muttered as she eased up on my cock, letting go. Both hands were now sliding along my side, a feathery caress. Rather than sitting on my legs, she floated, turning me under her to see the wounds better. She was a gene-splicer, surgeon, and a monster maker, dissecting people among other things.
I don’t understand this shock.
Reading my thought, she frowned and glowered at me.
Because it’s you, idiot! You wear flesh that is mine to scar in the furnace heat of our passion. No one else has the right to mark you, even if it will fade in time. You are mine! And besides, it was badly done, brutality for its own sake. You don’t torture dragons with pain. You take them to vaults where they can delight their senses in the finest of treasures, then you let them go with a penny to remember you by—an old, tarnished penny, no longer shiny. That is how you torture a dragon.
Visualizing what she described, I winced, cut to the depths of my soul.
She rolled me onto my back and eased her naked flesh around me, taking me into her hot, wet depths. Say what she would, the evidence of my torture had excited her. She kissed my ribs. “Later, I’ll want to look at that again. There’s little chance you’ve picked up some unknown, alien infection, but I’ll want to be sure.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“First time through, I’ll take it easy on you. Just lay there and let me ride. Enjoy. Then, when you’re ready to go again, we’ll see if you can manage two cocks at the same time. You may need much practice, but I will help you perfect this skill, I promise.”
“Kind of you.”
“It is what lovers do.”
I was her lover; my dragon was her mate. For some reason, that irked me.
She shrugged and her full breasts bounced, taunting me, calling up my inner beast. I reached and mauled them, loving the way they yielded to my groping. I thumbed both nipples, feeling them swell and harden even more.
She bared teeth in pleasure, hissing. “Oh, fuck, yesssss!” Crimson light beamed from her eyes, washing away the shadows on the sidewall. I felt her muscles tightening on my shaft already.
So much for our first time being mine to enjoy. I could tell I’d be working very hard, very soon. Her face came down to mine. Her lips crushed mine, but she didn’t close her eyes, savoring my image. And in the depths of those gemstone eyes, despite the power of a goddess, a flicker of darkness coiled—her inner dragon. I had a feeling that at some point, parts of her were not going to remain human.
Golden eyes opened in the back shadows of my mind. My inner dragon, looked out of my eyes. I sensed an air of petulance from him. He was still upset with Selene for sharing blood with Kain.
I sent my dragon a thought: If you’re going to ruin things for me go away.
She enjoyed me better, last time, Villager. All you’re getting is a pity fuck.
I’ll take it. Now, shut the fuck up and go away.
He did.
Selene forced my mouth open and her tongue invaded. Our tongues writhed like dragons.
I reached around her and squeezed her magnificent ass as she resumed riding my cock to hell and back. Her head fell back and all I saw were her tits. She screamed as more convulsion shook her, tightening her internal death-grip on my cock. Once more, it felt close to being torn off—but in a good way.
And then I exploded, a hot geyser scalding her channel.
Her scream became a dragon’s fierce roar, then she went silent, slumping forward to lie limp on top of me. Overhead, the swinging gold of the trapeze reflected the orange of the more distant braziers. It had a hypnotic effect on me. I slid into a light somnolence that I knew wouldn’t last; one orgasm per bedding could never be enough for either of us.
“You broke the bed and set it on fire, again,” Selene complained, no real heat in her sultry voice.
The headboard was cracked and one of the fancy lion-footed legs had snapped. I shrugged. “You are forever my inspiration.” I slid off the bed, dislodging the empty whiskey bottle. It fell and thunked on the floor, lying there spent, much like Selene.
I drew upon my fey power, creating an illusion of chinos and a black tee. I stepped into my steel-toed boots. Illusions weren’t going to give actual protection for my feet. True, they’re dragon-tough like all of me, but there is satisfaction in a well-worn pair of 5.11 tactical speed-dry boots with water-wicking and air vent panels. For the demon lord who has to conquer the known and unknown universe, these are what
I recommend.
Maybe I should see if they want to pay me for my endorsement.
“Where are you going?” Selene asked. “That was only five times, followed by a lick and a promise.”
“Two of those times employed both of joysticks.”
Note to self: while sporting an extra cock, take care about sudden erections. Too much blood taken out of circulation causes dizziness. If zombie-ninja-space-clowns had broken in at the wrong moment, I’d have been in trouble.
“Sorry, Selene. I do need to check on the troops. The burden of responsibility.”
“You, responsible; who’d ever have thought that day would come?”
“Who, indeed? Where is the Red Moon right now?”
“In the sky of Earth. We’ve halfway materialized over Shreveport.”
“That ought to scare the natives. Okay, I’m going down. Coming with me?”
“No, I’ll linger here a bit longer. Oh, I’ve brought us back in time to the night you were kidnapped. Make a point of telling Kain how to get to Anubis’ death world or the vampire might not be there for backup.”
“I don’t know if I know how to tell him the coordinates so he’ll understand.”
“Just let him peek into your memories. He’ll give your impressions of Anubis’ world to his spirit army. One of them will find the place. He’ll want to take pictures. You know he’ll find you because he did find you.”
Damn temporal paradoxes. They’ll be the death of me yet.
I paused, looking back at the artful spill of her crimson hair cross the pillows, the way the smoldering sheets wreathed her pale, dangerous curves with smoke. Her half-closed eyes showed glutted passion, but I knew it would take little to fan the flames back into a fresh holocaust of lust.
Later. For sure.
I heard an ominous groan and creak from under the bed. “I wouldn’t linger too long. The floor boards sound like they might have taken some damage.”
“A word of warning, luv. You haven’t got a personal god-zone that can regenerate you. Except Fairy. You may feel like you have power to burn, but you can crash and burn. Just because we call ourselves gods and goddesses, doesn’t mean we are free of limits. We use such terms loosely.”
“Fine. I’ll keep an eye on my energy expenditures.”
I shifted into my new “god” form—a core of golden light with a man-like outer wrapping of shadow—and sank through the floor, into a dark lower room. I settled like a floating leaf and dropped through another floor, to the ground level. I walked through a wall and reached the foyer where my Mustang waited. I climbed in the driver’s door and settled in place, buckling up from habit. A stray thought caused the engine to roar with power.
I can get used to this.
I drove the Mustang through the front door and part of the front wall, shifting the vehicle to be as immaterial as I was until clear of the building. I honked up at the gargoyles. They stared down as I drove toward the stairs. One of them whipped his iron dick out, preparing to piss acid on my car, but I went too fast for him and he lost his chance.
I flipped him off without looking back.
It’s a game we play.
The car reached the stairs but didn’t descend. If Anubis could fly a Mustang, I knew I could. I drove straight ahead, wheels spinning, touching nothing as we flew over the red dust of the moon and its dense patches of thorns. The sky was dark, strewn with blue-white stars, like sparks of electric fire. I figured the Earth was underneath, where I couldn’t see it.
I rose higher, making sure I’d clear the tangling forest of red thorn. The Mustang went faster, causing the thorns to streak and blur. Like a thrown spear, the car sliced the winds. Mountains rose up, red crystal canyons, gorges, and sudden abysses choked with shadows. I supposed I could have orbited the Red Moon until Earth came into sight but I felt an odd need to get where I wanted without a scenic detour.
Godly intuition? Is there such a thing?
The Mustang nosed down into one of those deep, dark pockets of shadow, and became a shadow as we hit it full on. Perfect darkness passed where even a dragon or werecat couldn’t have seen a thing, but the surrounding darkness touched my darkness and whispered to me of fault lines, stresses, mineral veins, and the deep winding gurgle of buried rivers. It wasn’t a way of sensing familiar to me yet felt utterly natural. I didn’t even bother turning on the headlights for whatever good they might do.
I communed with the darkness, feeling no need to breathe. Without warning, red jungle and dusty rock formations surrounded me. My immaterial car had emerged from the underside of the Red Moon, and I had the bloated night face of Earth spread below. The major cities of the United States were easy to see, blobs of light on the continent. The Midwest was mostly darkness.
Taking Selene at her word—that we hung directly over Shreveport—I kept the nose of the Mustang straight down. A fleck of light expanded as I fell, becoming two cities divided by a river. I made a few adjustments as I got closer, angling toward Cross Lake, slowing my speed down as air pressure and wind increased. It seemed to be late, but I saw no sign of false dawn’s gray haze to the east.
By now, I was stabbed and carried off by Anubis. There was no danger I’d run into myself and break timelines. I dropped down out of the sky, pulling the nose of the car up, and landed on a barren stretch of road. I willed the Mustang become solid—just another classic car.
I put away the trappings of godly power and returned to my usual look while guiding the vehicle toward the cabins. There were no police, no crime scene tape, or reporters taking pictures. Kain’s people had doubtless rolled minds into amnesia to eliminate witnesses and had fed the werebodies to the kraken.
Monsters do have their uses.
My inner dragon stirred in my mind, checking in. Don’t go making him into a pet. That will just make it harder on everyone when I have to eat him later.
Selene’s still pissed at you. You want to get Colt to take her side? It’s his kraken. We need to respect that—and make sure your culinary adventure can’t be traced back to us. And remember, he can jump around in time. Makes it harder to hide things from him.
Hmmmm. Hadn’t thought of that.
I parked the car and headed across blood-scented dirt toward the buildings we rented. The night was quiet except for the sound of quarreling voices from both cabins. There appeared to be two summit meeting in progress.
I assumed Kat and Josh were back from the raid on Anubis’ camp, and were worried as hell about what had happened to me. I decided to stop by the Pride cabin first to let them know I was back and alive. Approaching the back door, I saw a werecat and werebear on guard duty. The lady cat was all flirty and seductive. She seemed to have the old grizzly under her spell. It took him too long to see and smell me coming.
Sloppy.
The werecat smiled. “Caine! You’re back!”
All the voices in the building went dead silent. Feet pounded the floorboards. The door to the porch opened and a wave of shifters came pouring out, not all of them smiling with joy.
TWENTY-SIX
“Ignorance can be both
a comfort and a curse.”
—Caine Deathwalker
Kat ran close, then dug in her heels, braking. She stared. “You’re all right? We found blood where Anubis took you.”
“I have dealt with him.”
With more to follow.
“He shouldn’t be much bother for a while. And I stole back my car.”
Josh loomed behind Kat. He looked grim and relieved. “Good to have you back. So, these werejackals won’t be hitting us again?”
“Doubtful,” I said. “What happened when you guys went in across the lake?”
“Killed a lot of Anubis’ people, then they just retreated to a portal and gave up the fight.”
Big Tom—with a bunch of his bears and some of Shreveport’s rogue shifters—came around Joshua. Tom looked blustery as ever, but I smelled fear underneath. “Then there’s no need for all of you
to hang around.”
I gave him my special #5 well-practiced expression of shocked dismay. “You’re running us off without a victory parade? I’m staggered by your ingratitude.”
Tom growled deep in his throat. “The sooner you go, the sooner the vampires will settle down and leave us alone.”
“Your ill-considered hope is in vain,” I said. “We had to save you. The local vamps read that as weakness. The New Orleans vamps know the Bossier vamps don’t have control of you, or much of anything. A vamp war will break out if Kat’s Pride and I go. The vamps that win will then turn on the shifter clans. This won’t long remain a shifter territory.”
This was the moment when Tom would either let everything fly apart or rise above himself and act like a leader for the good of his people. I wondered how he’d go.
Tom turned mean eyes on Kat. “This is your fault. You led the jackals here.” His mostly human form was shaggy, with a bear’s fur. His feet were clawed, but his head remained human. I didn’t think it would take much for his inner bear to escape control.
I decided to draw his anger toward me.
“If you let go of your beast, I’ll kill him. We need someone intelligent here to make decisions for your people.”
He swung toward me, his face fuzzing up, his bear snout forming. His voice went gruff. “Are you challenging me?” Caught up in his animal’s rage, he’d forgot I’d beaten him once and could do so again—with my hands tied behind my back.
I used a mellow tone to answer. “You’re going to make a fine appetizer if you keep this up.”
His hand morphed into a paw with razor-sharp claws. He took a swipe at me, all power and no finesse.
I ducked under the blow and hopped backwards with dragon strength, landing six feet away.
He fueled himself with more than his own power; I caught the woodsy berry smell of bruin pack magic. He drew power from all the bear shifters across the city. Cheating.
I didn’t need to cheat, nor use divine power. My dragon was pissed. He needed something to kill. I kicked off my steel-toed boots and released the illusion of clothing I’d been wearing as I thrust bloody bone from my shoulder blades, letting muscles, tendons, struts, and a circulatory system develop. In a moment, leathery skin covered my wings and my neck and tail bones were popping, multiplying, growing longer.
Crimson Sword Stalker Page 22