by Dante Steel
“No.”
“If we’re bitten, what will happen to us?” she demanded. She held up her arm. “I have this in the game. I have a power, but here…” Elena touched the soft, tender skin of her neck. “This can be bitten real easily. This can be ripped to shreds, and I would bleed out in seconds. Did you and your developer friends consider that when you decided to have us square off against vampires?”
Gary gulped. He hadn’t seen Elena this furious in a long while, and he wasn’t about to get into the middle of her argument with Haru. The Japanese man could fend for himself.
“We have considered—”
“Why not shifters instead?” she griped. “That could have been amazing, especially if we would’ve had to fight against awesome ones like wooly mammoths or saber tooth tigers.”
“If all you will do is bitch and complain about everything we are doing to help,” Haru started.
Gary took a single step forward and clamped his hand down hard on the Japanese man’s shoulder. “I think you’re not listening to the lady’s complaint thoroughly enough.”
“I understand that she doesn’t want to face against vampires because they are frightening and terrifying.”
“I’m not afraid of vampires!” Elena shouted. “I can hate a creature and not be afraid of it. But you have to remember this isn’t a video game to us. It’s real. It’s our lives at stake, and vampires won’t be easy prey. We will be the easy prey.”
Haru threw up his hands.
Gary’s stomach tightened with disgust. He shoved the Japanese man back. Although Gary’s power was telekinesis, he had been a strong man even before the game playing started. Since the game, Gary was even more powerful in his body, and he had trained with weapons. With or without his power, he was formidable.
“Hmm,” Haru said.
“You didn’t do the vampires for us,” Gary said slowly, repulsed by the idea that was taking root in his mind. “You and your developers didn’t come up with this issue just for us, did you? No, this was meant for the public. Am I right? You could make something easy for us, something where we wouldn’t have to worry about the monsters. Something where we could wait in relative peace for you all to work out a way home. But, no. You can’t be bothered to come up with two issues. Just the one. It doesn’t matter that it’s dangerous. We’re just expected to survive, aren’t we?”
“Or are we supposed to die?” Elena asked quietly.
“Die?” Haru huffed. “Preposterous. Why would we want that? No. We want very much for you both and for Samuel August to return.”
“Why?” Elena spat out. “So you can sell us to the government? So we can be poked and prodded and studied and examined and treated as an animal on display in a zoo?”
“Because we do not want you to be in the game any longer. We want you to return to your lives.”
“My life?” Gary shook his head.
His life was in shambles. He basically had no life to go back to. Gary had been in the game for so long that he had to have lost his apartment, the apartment he had just moved into. And his job as a garbage collector? Yeah, he was sure to have lost that too.
“Your lives,” Haru repeated. “It will happen. You just have to wait a little longer, but we have done our best to ensure that your wait will be free of danger.”
“Bah,” Elena scoffed.
“Free of danger from Samuel August at least,” Gary said.
“True.” Elena sighed.
“For you two to gain access to the new issue, all you must do is head due north. You will see a blue glowing force field. Walk directly into it. The portal will bring you to Vampire War. I promise you we have taken measures that Samuel August will not be able to follow you there. You will be as safe as can be.”
“With vampire bedfellows,” Elena asked. “Are they at least hot vampires like the Salvatore brothers?”
“Salvatore? Hot? No, my dear. The vampires are like Dracula, blood sucking and thirsty and ugly as the sins that rot their bodies to that of undead corpses.”
“See? That is why I hate vampires,” Elena complained.
Honestly, Gary could understand why she was bitching because this all bites.
Haru nodded to Elena and then to Gary and started to walk away.
“Hey, Haru,” Elena called.
The Japanese man paused in the doorway and turned back around. “Yes?”
“Don’t call me ‘my dear’ ever again,” she said.
“I did not mean any disrespect,” he said.
“Ah, I heard a slightly mocking tone to it,” Gary said.
“I would never,” Haru said.
“Yeah, it definitely sounded condescending,” Gary said. “If I heard it, and I’m a guy, you know it wasn’t right.”
Haru stiffened and bowed to Elena. “My apologizes. What do you wish to be called?”
“Elena because, you know, that’s my name.”
“Very well. I bid you all well, Elena, Gary. I will return once I have news, or should it only be good news?”
Gary glowered at him. “Whichever. Whenever. Don’t make us wait too long to go home.”
“We will do out level best,” Haru assured him.
Elena waited until the Japanese man was out of sight to say, “Yeah, why don’t I believe him?”
Gary shrugged. “He seemed off tonight.”
“Think he’s worried?”
“Maybe. Hey, why did he walk away and not just disappear?”
“Does he normally just disappear?”
Gary considered. “I can’t remember for sure. I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“What matters is that we head due north,” Elena said. “Get dressed. Let’s go.”
“You want to cross over to the place called Vampire War immediately? Without any food in your belly?”
“We can eat there. I’m sure we’ll come to a town there, just like we started this version of the game in a town. We won’t start in the midst of a battle.”
“I don’t know,” he hedged. “I’m hungry.”
Elena rolled her eyes and tossed him his superhero attire. “Come on. We don’t have a reason to dawdle.”
“I don’t think we have to leave this very second,” he said, but he did start to get dressed. Luckily, he had put on boxers before Haru had showed up, but that was all he was wearing.
“Why don’t you want to go right now?” she demanded.
“It’s not that I don’t want to go. In fact, I never said we shouldn’t go.” Gary hesitated and then shrugged. “I just don’t feel the need to go just yet.”
“Why not?” she demanded. “Every moment we’re here is another moment that Samuel August could be hunting us down. We know he’s hunted down other players who had crossed him. Why hang around and wait for him to come after us? I mean, as far as we know, we’re the only ones who have been able to face him and not die. In fact, we struck a terrible blow against him.”
“His dragons.” Gary shuddered.
“Dragon War,” Elena said. “Ugh. You know, you could’ve named yourself Dragon Slayer instead of Dragon Hunter.”
“I could’ve.” Gary grinned. “When we cross over, I’ll see if I can change my superhero moniker to Vampire Hunter.”
“You do that. Now. Come on.”
“I’m not ready yet,” Gary protested.
“Why aren’t you dressing?” Elena had donned her mostly silver superhero attire. Seeing her in her tight get-up had Gary rock hard.
She stomped over to him and began to dress him. Pulling his own super tight clothes on over his bulge proved impossible, and she sighed.
“Really?” She pointed to his hard cock. “You have to do something about that.”
“Oh? And just what am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know.” She waved her hand sarcastically.
“Aw, you won’t do anything?” he asked, hopefully.
“Nope,” she said cheerfully. “Go on. Masturbate and be done with it.”
&nb
sp; “You do know guys can lose an erection without having to masturbate, right?”
“Yes, I realize that, but I also thought you coming would be quicker. Right?”
“Maybe,” he muttered.
“And I also thought that guys wanted to come every time they had an erection.”
“Of course, we do, but that doesn’t mean it always happens.”
“I understand that, but I’m giving you permission—”
“I don’t need your permission,” he said sourly, and his cock started to deflate.
She pursed her lips and shook her head. With a deep sigh that caused her chest to rise up, she said, “Looks like you’re—oh.”
Yeah, the sight of her boobs rising had been enough for him to be hard again.
“Gary, this isn’t funny. We have to go.”
He shrugged and forced his clothes on over his bulge. It was painfully tight, and the rubbing of his suit against his cock made him want to come so badly that he might start to see stars soon.
“There. Good. Off to save another part of the world from vampires?” she asked as she headed toward the door.
“Not yet. Not until after breakfast.”
Elena narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why do we have to eat first?”
“We hardly ate at all yesterday,” he protested. “And not at all if you consider that we only eat in.” His gaze fell to between her legs.
Her cheeks flushed, and she looked so damn hot embarrassed, her face nearly as red as her hair.
“Fine. We’ll eat and then go,” she said.
The two of them went downstairs to the tavern and ate and ate and ate. Elena was shaking her leg, antsy, clearly wanting to jump up and go, but Gary ate every last bit of stew with questionable meat and drank so much water that he had to go and pee five times. Water wasn’t available in every tavern in the game, and normally, he would drink ale, but today, he couldn’t. He needed a clear head. He wasn’t up for going to Vampire War. Not yet. Soon. Soonish. Possibly.
When he returned to the table, Elena jumped up, but he sat down.
“Seriously?” she groaned. “You can’t still be hungry.”
Honestly, Gary wasn’t, but he ordered more stew anyhow.
“We don’t know what we’re going to find on the other side. What if it’s not like this? Hardly any towns? No civilizations? A post-apocalyptic setting? Food might not be easy to come by for all we know.”
“Oh, come on. Haru and the others wouldn’t do that to us.”
“Remember, Vampire War wasn’t designed for you and me but for gamers. Gamers don’t need food and drink.”
“Yes, but… Fine. Whatever.” She sighed and sat back down as a bar wench NPC brought over more food for them.
Gary ate up every last morsel and glanced at the door for the hundredth time.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Elena asked suspiciously.
“Doing what?” he asked, trying to seem and sound innocent.
“Looking at the door. Why? Are you expecting someone?”
“Come on.” He shrugged. “You know we play with Nicoletta and Olivia a lot.”
“Yes, but… Are you serious?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked, confused.
“You. You don’t want to cross over.”
“I never said that,” he protested.
“Oh, excuse me. You don’t want to cross over until you can make sure that your entourage of girls all know about the portal to the new issue. Is that it? You can’t be happy with just me. You have to have them too, am I right?”
“Elena, I—”
“Look.” She slapped her hand onto the table. “I’m not going to play games with you. That’s not who I am, okay? Either we’re together, or we aren’t. Black or white.”
“There’s fifty—”
“If the next words out of your mouth are ‘shades of gray,’ I’m going to find a whip and whip your ass.”
Gary smirked. “I just might like that.”
She blinked a few times, almost laughed, and shook her head. “No. No. You aren’t going to make jokes and make me smile and forget why I’m angry with you in the first place.”
“They’re your friends too,” he protested.
“So you admit they’re the reason why you’re delaying!” she cried.
“No. Well, maybe,” he hedged, “but you can’t deny that we’re a team. The four of us work best together.”
“Look, Gary, maybe this all is a mistake. I honestly… I don’t know what to think or do or feel.”
“I get that. When I first came into the game, I didn’t realize what had happened. I was so afraid and unsure and worried and—”
“Don’t be a fool. This has nothing to do with that. Gary, you better start respecting me or else…” She shook her head and stormed off.
Well, I doubt that could’ve gone much worse.
Chapter Four
Gary stared at Elena’s retreating backside. She was beautiful, front and back, through and through. Even when furious with him, she was all fire and heat and hotness.
And he understood why she was furious with him. Clearly, she wasn’t on board with the idea of sharing him. If he said the word ‘harem’ to her now, she was liable to chop off his balls and shove them down his throat.
He wouldn’t dream of doing anything to her or with her without her consent. If she wasn’t ready to share him, then he couldn’t be with her. Not yet. Maybe ever.
The thought made him want an ale or five.
Elena stormed out. The doors of the tavern slammed open and then shut with a bang. Not a minute later, the doors opened up again, and a black-haired, dark-eyed Hispanic strolled in. Her face might not be quite as heart-shaped as her real face but there was no mistaking Nicoletta ever.
Gary swallowed hard and hoped the two hadn’t crossed paths, not with Elena in such a foul mood. He was so glad to see Nicoletta, and yet, he was also confused. Maybe he shouldn’t be with any of the three. He didn’t want to hurt any of them, and he was afraid he would do just that.
Nicoletta hesitated by the door, spotted him, grinned, and sauntered over. She was curvy with a perfect ass made for grabbing. Although he wanted to reach over and slap that shapely ass as she went to sit next to him, he didn’t, opting to behave for once.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t play yesterday. I was busy. Did you miss me?”
“I didn’t even notice you were gone,” he teased.
“Liar,” she retorted. “You know I’m the reason why you breathe.”
“Maybe.” He bit his lip and glanced away.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing at all,” he said.
“We need to celebrate. Where are the others? I mean, come on. We faced the great Smaug and lived without having any levels stripped! We deserve to be a tier above superheroes. What should we be called? Fanasticoheroes?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
She giggled. “Maybe. Amazingheroes?”
“Nope. Nothing can top superheroes, and you know it.”
“True, true.” She sighed and ducked her head. “Regardless, we need to drink and be merry. If the others aren’t here, well, we can celebrate without them.”
Gary shrugged and then nodded. “Sure. What do you have in mind?”
“What is with you?” she asked. “Come on. Out with it. I know something’s up.”
“Nothing is up but the roof,” he muttered.
“What are you, five? That joke is terrible.” She eyed him. “Did something happen yesterday? Earlier today?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“Were you able to celebrate some with the others?” she asked carefully.
Gary stiffened and wouldn’t look at her. “Why would you ask that? What makes you think that?”
“I think that something happened. I think you need to start talking. Please, Gary, don’t shut me out. I know something is going on.”
“Yeah, well
, maybe the last time I tried to confide in you, you didn’t believe me.”
She jerked back, a hand flying to her chest. “What, are you referring to the time you told me you were in the game? Can you honestly blame me for being suspicious? I mean, seriously, chico. No one would have believed you.”
“You, well, you wouldn’t have believed me enough to…” Realizing his mistake, he shifted away from her.
“Enough to what, Gary?” she demanded, grabbing his chin and turning him to look at her. “Please. Allow me to help you because something is clearly bothering you. Was it Olivia? Did she say something to upset you?”
“It wasn’t either of—”
“Elena then. What happened? She doesn’t want you after all?” Nicoletta pursed her lips and then gave him a tight smile. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t expect all of the women you know to fall at your feet. Some are more desperate than others—”
“You shouldn’t talk about Olivia like that,” he said mildly.
Nicoletta ignored him. “If you can’t tell me the truth, I’ll just have to call Elena and see if she’ll tell me.”
“Call her?” Gary asked.
“Yeah, outside of the game.” Nicoletta winced. “I know you can’t do that, that you’re stuck in the game, that you might consider my calling her cheating, but it’s not since you could just tell me yourself if you wanted to… but you won’t, will you?”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“You’re lying to me,” she said angrily. “There’s nothing I hate more than liars.”
“Not even fire?”
“I don’t hate fire,” she said. “I respect it entirely too much because of my fear. That is an entirely different thing than hate.”
“It’s… Look,” Gary said, glancing around. The last thing he needed was for Elena to show up and for things to become all awkward between the three of them. Even though it already was awkward.
Fuck, how was he going to make this better? Was there a way to make this better?
“Come on. This isn’t a conversation I want other gamers to hear.”
