by Rachel Angel
She knelt before Tar’s limp body and looked at his ashen skin. He looked dead. She touched his hand. It was cold. Dead.
“Tar,” she whispered as she leaned in close to him, her tears blending with Drago’s as they splashed onto Tar’s cheek.
Though certain he was dead, she leaned in to kiss him.
He stirred and, startled, Ally looked up at Drago.
“He’s not dead,” she said with a smile.
“Kiss him again,” Drago urged.
She did and there was a slight response from Tar’s lips.
“All the pansies of the village,” Tar muttered, his eyes still closed.
Drago and Ally looked at each other and shrugged.
“Bring the posies back to the castle,” Tar went on. “There are no… already too many… no, not that… No! No!”
“He’s delirious,” Drago said. “Kiss him again!”
She kissed him.
“Ally,” Tar said, still half asleep. “Oh, beauty of the rainbow. The hair spun straight from the pot of gold. Gold… gold. No more gold. Too stingy to give up the gold.”
“Tar,” Ally said. “Snap out of it. You’re in a dream. Come on.”
“No dream,” he said with an eerie grin. “There is too much gold in the kingdom, but not enough to save the boy,” he sing-songed. “Not enough to save the boy.”
Drago’s face reddened and he opened his mouth to speak, but Ally shushed him with a finger to her lips. In silence, he continued to cradle Tar’s head in his lap, his fingers lazily wiping his brother’s damp brow.
“You’re safe now, Tar,” Ally said. “You’re with me.” She kissed him again and this time his response was stronger.
“Come on, Tar. Wake up.”
He opened his eyes for the first time and looked up at her. For a full minute there was a complete lack of recognition, but then his eyes lit up and his lips curled into the smile she’d come to know so well.
A fresh flow of tears, tears of relief, spilled down her cheeks. “Damn, you had me scared,” she whispered.
“You were scared? Imagine me.” He glanced up at his brother then and bolted out of Drago’s hold. “What the hell is he doing here?”
“He saved you, Tar. He’s the one who found you and brought you back to me.”
Tar tried to stand, but his legs were still too weak.
“Stay, Tar,” Drago said, his voice sad and solemn as he stood. “Let Ally help you. I’ll go.”
“Stay, Drago,” Ally said. “Don’t go too far.”
He nodded, crossed his massive arms over his chest and stood a few paces behind Tar.
“You were bitten, Tar, and you now have a parasite inside you. It’s taking over you,” Ally said.
He shook his head. “Yes, I was bitten, but it wasn’t by an ordinary monster.”
“What do you mean?”
“The monster that caught me was huge; three times bigger than all the other ones we’ve seen. Maybe even more.”
Perplexed, Ally looked at Drago.
“It was smarter, too,” Tar went on.
“How could you tell?”
“It seemed to communicate with the other monsters. They all reacted to her, as if they were taking orders from her.”
Maybe, it was just a coincidence, Ally thought hopefully. If the monsters were to become smart, it could change everything.
“That’s not all,” Tar said. “She communicated with me, too.”
Ally narrowed her eyes in confusion. “How? Did it speak to you?”
“No, not really. It’s was more like I just knew what she was thinking.”
“You read her mind?”
“In a vague sort of way.”
“What did she say?”
“The monsters,” he said. “They’re her offsprings.”
Ally gasped. “All of them?”
“Every single one,” Tar said. “She uses humans to deposit her offspring into who will live off of and grow inside the humans before killing them. They grow up to do the same, and so on and so on.”
“Why? What do they want?”
He shrugged. “To take over and destroy humans.” He looked pointedly at her, his expression strange. “They also want to destroy all shifters, that is any shifter who can take human form.”
“So, this isn’t just an attack on other beings just for the sake of food. They really want to…”
“Obliterate us,” Tar finished with a nod. “She wants revenge.”
Ally frowned. “Revenge? Revenge for what?”
“What we’ve done to this world.”
Confused, Ally glanced at Drago who shrugged.
“What have we done?” she asked.
“Our life here, our way of life, our desire to be comfortable, to have nice things, convenient things, pretty shiny things… it all comes at a cost. Certain items, like the tomato you grow in your garden may not have any effect, but the farmer out in the field who sprays his crops with insecticide, or fungicide, or pesticide, or herbicide, or any other toxic chemical isn’t doing the planet any good. Then you have the smelters for various metals that also use toxic chemicals, either in the extraction process, the production process or the clean up after all is done.”
“You make us sound so awful, Tar. Like we’re heartless and cruel.”
“Maybe not intentionally, but ultimately, I guess we are. When we do certain things, and produce certain things, we don’t realize what we’re really doing to the world around us, but they do. It’s the blend of so many toxins over so many years that turned them into monsters to begin with.”
Again, Ally frowned and pointed to where they’d waged the battle of the lives for so many days and nights. “Are you saying that this is all our fault?”
He looked at her, his lips set in a grim line. “Do you remember when you were a little girl seeing little insects flying around or crawling around your garden? Do you remember the tiny ants and the small flies?”
Ally nodded.
“They ingested huge amounts of those toxins, whether from directly out in the field or from feeding on an animal who’d ingested the toxins. Do you remember a time when we’d see huge infestations of various flies, days when it seemed there were ants everywhere?”
Again, she nodded.
“A dozen years ago, people noticed ants that were the size of a mouse and flies the size of hummingbirds. No one really thought much about it. No one questioned it. It was just a curious oddity. Then a few years ago, some reported ants the size of a small dog and flies the size of an eagle. They were called crazy, or imaginative, or drunk, and no one really took it seriously.”
Ally vaguely remembered hearing about the mouse-sized ants, but nothing about an eagle-sized fly.
“Two years ago, an old man who lived out in the desert between The Borders and Wyvern, claimed to have seen an ant the size of an elephant. He was almost stoned to death for daring to spread such idiocy.”
“We ignored all the signs,” Ally said.
“By then it was too late. Not only were they huge, but they’d mutated into something ugly, deformed, but also raging with anger and an insatiable need to kill. This female is the queen and she knows what we’ve done. She knows that we’re responsible and she wants to make us pay for it.”
Ally nodded, unhappy with the thought of fighting an evil, demonic and protective mother. Instinctively, she knew that fighting a mother would be savage and violent. Their fight wasn’t over.
“At this point, that queen mother seems ready to just ruin everything in her path; us dragons, the humans and everything else that lives in these lands. Everything.”
Ally looked beyond Tar to Drago. “The fight isn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought,” she said. “Go back to the front, warn the guys and join the ongoing fight.”
Drago shot a glance at Tar then looked back up at her. He opened his mouth to argue, but Ally silently glared at him, making her order clear. He flew off, leaving them alone, and leaving Ally to ten
d to Tar.
She kissed him again, easing the tension that had gripped him as he’d told her about the queen monster.
“I’m too weak to be of any help to you now, Ally,” Tar said as he looked lovingly into her eyes. “I want to be there for you, but this infection has ravaged me.”
Ally smiled and kissed him again. “Haven’t you noticed? My kiss woke you up. My touch gave you the strength to tell me about the monsters. And now, I’m going to make love to you.”
He cocked a surprised brow at her words.
“I’m going to take off my clothes, take off yours, and I’m going to lie over you and share the power and strength that I have.” She smiled, almost laughing at the startled expression on his face. Certain the mere mention of making love to him had aroused him, she gingerly ran her hand over his crotch and confirmed his arousal.
She stood and took off her clothes while he watched her, mesmerized by her every movement. She then took off his clothes, exposing the weakened and frail body that beckoned her aid.
“I’m not the man I used to be,” Tar said, suddenly embarrassed by his emaciated state.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered as she got down and straddled him. “You will be.” Holding his gaze, she guided his erection to her crotch and settled her moisten warmth over him.
He sighed, and groaned, and closed his eyes as the pleasure of her motions took over him. And as more of her strength and power were transmitted to him, he opened his eyes and smiled.
He grabbed her suddenly, holding her to him as he sat up, then stood, his hands cradling her ass as he kept her tightly again him. Rocking his hips back and forth, he thrust his cock deep inside her and when it wasn’t enough, he gripped her by the hips and lifted her off him until his cock was about to emerge, only to settle her down on him again and again.
Ally clung to him, her ankles hooked together behind his back and her fingers raking through his hair as she kissed him. As her climax built up, she felt suddenly light and otherworldly.
She’d felt the increase of power during her encounters with the other princes and the king, but this was different. There was an intensity that was almost dizzying.
She saw it in Tar as well, even before climaxing, he had the power of ten men, easily holding her up and fucking her without even breaking a sweat.
Smiling as the swell of her orgasm swept over her, she leaned back until she was completely perpendicular to him and with a gentle hand, Tar held her aloft while he continued to pump her to nirvana.
She screamed her orgasm was so strong. And a second later, Tar screamed as well. A halo of bright light surrounded them for a startling moment and Tar smiled as he looked at her.
“No denying that we’ve just had a very illuminating moment together,” he said.
Ally laughed as she unhooked her ankles and Tar set her gently on the ground. Their encounter had been like no other and she wondered if it was because of her heightened emotional state. Was her concern about the queen monster making her so much stronger?
She hoped so, because they would need all the strength they could muster.
Tar stopped smiling suddenly and coughed, but unlike the others he didn’t cough for long and didn’t choke at all. He simply spit out the already dead and shriveled up parasite.
“You’re rid of him now,” Ally said.
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Ally grabbed her clothes and quickly dressed while Tar just looked at her. “Now that you’re cured, we need to get back to the battlefield, Tar.” She glanced down at his clothes and back up at him.
He nodded but didn’t move. “I love you, Ally. I just had to let you know that before we head back. I love you.”
She suddenly felt guilty once more for having lain with Drago.
“Don’t worry about that,” Tar said.
Startled by his knowing statement, she looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I know,” he said matter-of-factly. “I know about you and Drago.”
“How?” Could he read her mind?
“I saw it in his eyes, that possessiveness. He already thinks he owns you.”
“I’m sorry, Tar, but I had…”
“I know. I know. I’m not angry. And I don’t want you to feel guilty about it. Of course, in a perfect world I would have preferred to have you all to myself, but I know I’m not the only one to love you. If I must share you with the other princes I will, and if I must share you with my brother, I will. The important thing is, what do you want? If you’re happy loving us all, I’ll be happy loving you.”
Ally smiled and the tension of that guilt left her. “Thank you, Tar. I think I needed to hear that.” She looked at his clothes still on the ground. “Now get dressed and let’s get out of here. We have work to do.”
Smiling, he dressed, leaned in to give her an affection kiss, then shifted to dragon form. “Let’s go.”
Ally deployed her wings and they flew up. “With a new batch of potion,” she said. “The princes pushed the monsters back toward the southern border. Go join them there.”
“What about you?”
“Kate should have more potion ready by now. I’m going to go into town to get some and bring it back to the front.”
Tar nodded and jetted off to the south while she headed to town.
Chapter 8
“What’s going on?” Ally said to herself when she arrived at her home to find Bilbo on the front porch arguing with a group of angry people. She then noticed William, also arguing with a group of angry people. “What’s going on?” she shouted, squeezing through the crowd to get to Bilbo and William.
“Who are you to decide?” one man shouted to Bilbo.
“These are my children we’re talking about!” a woman cried to William.
“Just one bottle! Just one!” another woman begged.
Ally finally reached the front porch and stood between Bilbo and William, looking down at the angry mob.
“Ally,” an older woman said. “Talk some sense into them. Tell them to give us some of that medicine. We need it.”
Ally nodded and held her hands up in an attempt to quiet them down. Some stopped shouted, but many still groaned and complained.
“Please!” she shouted over them. “Please, can we quiet down a moment?”
The last of them finally quieted down.
“I know you are all worried about this situation and we’ll try to tend to all of you.”
She looked at William who looked bewildered by the angry mob.
“We need it now, Ally,” a young man yelled. “We don’t want to be tended to. We want our medicine.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” the crowd chanted. “You have no right to deny us.”
Ally scanned the crowd. Most of them looked completely uninfected, but a few of them were showing signs. Then she spotted a dozen of them, clustered together to the right. Their eyes were red and their grins inhuman.
“Okay!” Ally shouted, quieting them down again. “You, you and all of you there,” she said pointing to the uninfected. “Go with William.”
She turned to Will and said softly, “Bring them to the garden. Have Kate bring you sweetened water just to appease them. They’re not infected.”
“How do you know?”
“They show no signs. If once back there you see anything that contradicts my assessment, send them to me.”
William headed off with his group of patients and Ally turned to the crowd again.
“You, you, you and you,” she said, pointing to the newly infected. “Go with Bilbo.”
She turned to him. “Bring them to the infirmary. They’re going to need treatment, but it’s not urgent. I’ll bring the necessary potion in a bit.”
He looked at the obviously infected. “What about them?” he said quietly. “They look even worse.”
“I’ll deal with them.”
“You sure? They look like a nasty bunch, even if I do know a few of them.”
“Do
n’t worry. I know how to handle them. Go.”
Nodding, he waved his group over and they obediently followed him.
The remaining group looked at Ally, their eyes now filled with rage and the need to kill. One of them, a man she’d known since she was a little girl, a kindly man who’d always given her pony rides and the occasional candy, now looked at her as if the devil himself had taken over him.
He stepped closer to her and the others followed. Their intent was clear. They wanted to kill her. Reluctant to show her newfound strength, she hesitated a moment, but when they stepped closer still, she knew she had no choice.
She charged them, hitting them in the face one after the other, knocking them down and knocking them out. She didn’t want to kill them, but she wanted them subdued, and within seconds they all lay on the ground.
With her hands on her hips she looked down at them. “I can’t just leave you people lying here.” She looked around and remembered the vacant house across the street. “It’ll have to do,” she muttered.
She stooped down, threw a man over each shoulder and headed to the vacant house, kicked the door open and set them down on the dusty wooden floor. She made several such trips until all were in the house, then she inspected their wounds.
All would live by her assessment, but she had to find Kate and a bit of potion fast.
She ran back to the house, almost running straight into William. “How’d it go?” she said.
“Like a charm. They all took the placebo and headed home happy.”
“No signs of infection?”
“None. You were right on all counts.”
“Good. The people in there, however,” she said, pointing to the vacant house. “They are fully infected and pretty far gone, but we should be able to bring them back with a bit of potion.”
“Okay, I’ll go keep an eye on them while you get that potion.”
Ally nodded. “They’re all unconscious for now. Just make sure none of them wake up before I get back.”
He creased his brow. “Why are they all unconscious?”
Ally smiled but didn’t answer him. How could she explain that she’d knocked them all out and carried them there? He’d never believe her.