by Dante Steel
As he glanced around, trying to locate the girls, Gary attempted to figure out how to broach the subject of loving all of them. He did not want to say the word ‘harem,’ and he sure as hell hoped Olivia wouldn’t mention it either. Neither Nicoletta or Elena would appreciate that word.
Over there. Just past that sand dune. Gary rushed over to them, his feet sinking into the sand slightly with each step.
“You’re all okay?” he asked as he hugged Nicoletta and Olivia at the same time.
“I did what I could for the volcano. It didn’t erupt, but the pressure had to be released in other spots,” Nicoletta said. “I couldn’t stop all of it, and when the geysers started to gush, I figured I couldn’t do more and left.”
“One of the geysers hit me,” Olivia said. “Nearly burned me to death. I had to rebuy my outfit, and I had to drink a crap ton of the burn-cure potions to get rid of the burns. That hurt like a mother. I can’t imagine how it would’ve felt in real life.” She glanced at Nicoletta. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”
“It’s fine.” Nicoletta waved her hand. “You took off then?”
“Yes.”
“I already told you my story,” Elena said. “This guy was the real hero.”
“Me?” Gary pointed at himself. “All I did was—look alive, ladies. We have company.”
Gary settled into a fighting stance, but inwardly, he was cursing himself. He should’ve had them all go back underground. He could’ve been telling them about his love. Instead, they had to deal with twenty or so vampires.
“Don’t worry,” Nicoletta said. “It’s only about a half hour until dawn. We might not have to kill them all.”
“I wouldn’t mind killing them all,” Elena said.
“Let’s get ready to rumble!” Olivia shouted.
Gary shook his head. He wasn’t as thrilled as them to be fighting again. Honestly, it was wearing on him a little, the constant battle, the fight for survival. If it were only a game, that would be different, but for him, this was his life now. He had to fight to survive. He was living underground. The land above was a barren wasteland. Not exactly ideal at all.
The first of the vampires headed straight for Nicoletta. She burned his face, and Olivia flew the burning vampire as it smoldered to ashes into the next two vampires. They also caught on fire.
Elena rushed forward and smashed into them, one fist, the other, one-two punches, on and on.
Gary cleared his throat. “Set up a fire line again,” he told Nicoletta. “That way, I can help.”
Either she didn’t hear him or she was too busy sending out small fireballs. Maybe she hadn’t recovered enough from the night before to be able to.
Gary grimaced. He wasn’t sure he could hit the vampires with enough force to kill them, not unless he had something metallic to use as a weapon. He had donated everything metal he had to the Kill Smaug fund.
The three of them seemed to have matters under control, so Gary rushed away only long enough to find a thin metal rod. It was lying on the ground. Strange. Maybe an enemy had dropped it earlier, but for the most part, the enemies here hadn’t been dropping loot like they had in the first issue.
Not wasting time worrying about it, Gary telekinetically controlled the rod so it went through one vampire’s brain and then another’s, in one ear and out the other again and again and again. The vampires dropped like flies, and the experience points were adding up, but the vampires were still coming. They had dropped the initial twenty already, maybe even more, but the swarm had doubled that, and more were heading their way.
“Has to only be about five minutes until dawn now,” Nicoletta shouted.
Gary nodded. “This battle’s gone on long enough,” he grumbled. He wasn’t in the mood for this.
But those five minutes passed, and the sky lightened ever so slightly, the only indication above ground that it was daytime.
Did the vampires burn to a crisp?
Did they flee?
Did they continue to rush them, even more intent on biting them, killing them?
No, no, and an emphatic yes.
How could it be that the vampires were still trying to destroy them? Vampires being around during the day hadn’t ever been an issue before. Granted, the issue always had a short window for the day, but Gary couldn’t help wondering if something was off.
Not that he could worry about that for long. The vampire horde was so fierce and powerful that they were pressing the team back.
“That fire line sure would help as backup,” Elena called.
Nicoletta nodded. “I’m trying!”
She held out her hand, which sputtered and sparked before turning a weak yellow-orange. By the time she was able to get the color to that of the red-orange she needed for the fire, a huge number of vampires had gotten through. Gary had to use a blast to keep them back. The sand wouldn’t have been enough, so he just telekinetically held as many of the vampires back as he could.
“Elena!” he called as two broke through and were heading for Olivia.
She crushed a vampire’s skull and then turned, holding out her fist. Gary hadn’t needed to worry because Olivia grabbed the vampires by their hair and threw them over one, two, at Elena, who punched the one and kicked the other to end them.
“Now that’s what I call teamwork!” Olivia called.
Gary skittered back a step. Holding back so many vampires at once wasn’t easy. “Are you okay?” he asked Nicoletta.
“I… I’m fine.”
He risked glancing at her. She was pale and shaking. Her fire was sputtering out. A mental thing? Was she having too many memories resurge from when she had been burned? Or was it a physical thing? They all weren’t nearly at full power, and vampires were fierce and powerful. They were stronger than the supervillains in the previous issue.
“I can do this,” Nicoletta muttered.
The fire line finally appeared. Shit. It was behind Gary.
He released his hold on the vampires and just before they could converge on him as they raced forward, he flew into the air. The vampires collided with the fire and died, melting to ashes.
The vampires who tried to jump over, Olivia forced back down into the flames. The ones who tried to go around to the right met Elena. The ones to the left Gary handled by throwing them back into the fire wall.
They just might be able to survive this. Maybe. Just maybe.
Gary took back to the sky, flying high, and he slowly sank back down. “Uh, guys, we got this.”
“We totally do!” Olivia agreed.
He gulped. He wasn’t so sure actually because the line of darkness that marched toward them seemed endless. This particular horde of vampires wasn’t going to end any time soon. They had their work cut out for them, that much was for sure.
“Any other day,” he muttered. “Any other day, we could handle this, no problem.”
But on the heels of a stalemate against Smaug? Yeah, this was a problem. A big one.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gary shifted back over to Nicoletta. “Do you need a potion?” he murmured.
“I’m fine. I told you.”
“Your fire looks a little weak. No offense.”
It really was. The fire line was sputtering in places, and she was having a hard time reforging life into it. She collapsed, falling to one knee before standing again.
“Okay, you need a potion.”
“It’s not the potion,” she murmured. “I… It’s too much.”
“Then go.”
She gritted her teeth. “I’m not leaving you.”
Elena was fighting, but even her punches seemed to be slower. Her one arm, the one he had reattached, locked up once as she was fighting and then again. Shit.
At least Olivia seemed to be holding her own, but unless she had fire to toss the vampires into, she couldn’t do more than fly away to safety. At least she could bring Nicoletta with her if it came down to that.
“We ne
ed more fire,” he told the Hispanic. “I’ll get it. If you need to, have Olivia fly you and Elena out of here.”
Nicoletta nodded. “That won’t happen,” she said fiercely, but her body did not lend credence to her words. “Elena will have us as backup. We won’t leave her.”
“I know you won’t. I trust you.”
Gary took off, flying toward the nearest lava geysers. Who knew they would be a blessing in disguise? He used his telekinesis to spiral the fire and snapped it like a fire whip toward the horde of vampires. All along its length, vampires transformed to ash.
In all, Gary was able to use the fire whip two more times before the fire was too embedded in the ground and became a second fire line.
Undeterred, he flew back and this time claimed the lava from two of the geysers. He snapped one, two against the vampiric horde, and he killed a great deal more. Great, right? But the number of vampires advancing against them never seemed to diminish.
“Where are they all coming from?” Elena asked between grunts as she killed some more. She staggered back a step before settling in to throw more punches.
“I don’t know,” Gary said. “We might need to retreat.”
“We can handle them,” Nicoletta said. Her fire line was looking a little stronger.
“There’s at least five hundred more,” he said.
“You’re exaggerating,” Olivia accused with narrowed eyes.
“Maybe fifty.” He shrugged. “Go check yourself.”
The flier did, and when she landed, she turned to the ladies.
“Yeah, we better beat a retreat.”
“I’ll hold them back,” Gary said. “Get to the tavern. I’ll meet you there.”
“But—” Nicoletta started.
“No way.” Elena went to throw a punch, but her arm locked up.
“Take them,” he growled to Olivia.
“Please, ladies?” Olivia asked.
Gary didn’t bother to wait around to find out if they gave permission. He shoved five vampires at a time back into the fires, the four fire lines. He did that a few more times before he beat a retreat himself. The vampires dashed forward, trying to stay beneath him. They even climbed onto each other’s back, but he flew too high for them to reach him, and then he even ducked into the darkness of the sky. He could see them, but they couldn’t see him, and they took off after another group of gamers.
“Good luck,” Gary muttered to them as he dashed back to the entrance of the underground tavern.
The ladies were sitting at the tavern, and he plopped down beside them.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“That was insane,” Olivia said. “How many levels did you go up?”
“Seventy-six,” Elena said.
“Eighty-two,” Nicoletta said.
“Ladies,” Gary said, “I have something I need to say.”
Elena held up her hand. “Not now. I need a drink. A ton of them. Between yesterday and today, yeah.”
“Hear, hear!” Olivia cheered.
It didn’t take long for them all to get drunk. Nicoletta and Olivia too. They had to be drinking back at Nicoletta’s. Soon enough, they had to get going, and it was just Gary and Elena.
“We’re two peas in a pod,” Elena said, laying her head on his shoulder.
“Oh, yeah? Why do you say that?”
“We both lost our parents. We can’t find them.” She giggled.
His chest grew tight. “Elena…”
“Yeah?” She pulled back to stare up at him.
“One time, my parents wanted to take me to the zoo. I was so excited. They asked me what animal was my favorite. I had never been to the zoo before, so I didn’t know how many animals you could go see. In case you could only see one, I said the monkeys, no, the lions, no, the tigers, no the flamingos, no…”
“You mentioned all of them.”
“Even some of the animals the zoo didn’t have.” He laughed. “Mom and Dad took me around to see all of the animals, every single one of them. When we got home, Dad hopped onto the computer and showed me pictures of the ones the zoo didn’t have.”
“Which ones?”
“Oh, you know, dragons, griffons, unicorns… stuff like that.”
She burst out laughing. “You honestly thought the zoo had them?”
“Hey, I was five,” he said defensively. “And besides, I did say a few others too like woolly mammoth and the dodo bird.”
“They’re both extinct.” Elena smirked.
“I didn’t know that at the time! I thought the dodo bird sounded hilarious, and a woolly mammoth? It would have been so cool to ride on one. Better than an elephant. Have you ever ridden an elephant?”
She shook her head. “No. Have you?”
“No. The zoo offered rides but not on the day we went. We never made it back to the zoo. Just that one time.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. I don’t think I’m deprived because I never rode one.” He smiled. “Did you ever go to the zoo?”
“Once. With my mom. Dad had to work that day. My mom kept yelling at me the entire time to not run ahead, but she was walking so slow. It was painful. I always like to go and explore. I had a ton of questions for any of the keepers that I saw.”
“You loved animals?”
“Even then I was curious mostly about their food. What they ate, how often. My mom liked when I was talking with the keepers, but she freaked out when one was willing to let me feed the tigers.” Elena scowled. “It took me a long time to forgive her.”
“I’m sorry. If I had a pet tiger, I would let you feed it.”
She giggled. “You don’t have a pet tiger.”
“No, but you can have me as a pet. You can pet me all you want.”
“Hmm. Not here in the tavern. We’d have to go back to our room for that.”
He grabbed her hand. “Not right now,” he said, growing more serious.
“Uh oh. Someone is acting all important and stuff.” Elena sat up tall, giggling all the while.
“Elena, please. I need to talk to you about something important.”
She waved over a bar wench and asked for two waters. After she received hers and drank half, she turned to him. “Go ahead.”
“You’ll remember this?”
Elena nodded, her fiery red hair bouncing.
God, she was beautiful.
“Okay.” He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “Elena, I have to make a confession.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“I love you,” he said in a rush.
Her lips twisted into a perfect “O” shape.
“And I love Nicoletta and Olivia too,” he added in a rush.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He stared at the table. There was a nick in it, maybe from a bar fight.
When she didn’t say anything, he risked looking over. She hadn’t moved except to blink.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt any of you. That’s the last thing I want.”
“I… I might have resented you a little,” she confessed.
“Because of my feelings for the others.”
She nodded. “I don’t think it’s right or fair or anything like that. To not pick and choose? This may be a video game, but that’s not real. That’s not how it goes.”
“I know. Do you think I want to feel like this? That I want to love you all?” He glanced around, suddenly mindful of how many others were in here. “Can we talk in the room?”
“Sure.”
They left their trash to be disposed of by a bar wench NPC and retired to their room.
Elena sat on the bed. “I get why you love Nicoletta. She is pretty amazing, and you did know her before you played. That makes sense.”
“Olivia does, too. She’s a lot of fun, and she’s been through a lot. Not the same of us but still.”
“I know. I talked to her a little. It’s just… It’s too much.”
/>
“I understand. I don’t want you to resent me.”
“It’s not so much that I resent you as much as I resent me not being enough.”
“It’s not that. It’s not like that at all.”
“That’s how it feels,” she whispered.
Neither of them spoke for a while, and after a bit, they settled down and fell asleep. At one point, in his dreams, Elena started to undress him. He wasn’t about to turn her down. As he reached to undress her, Nicoletta was there, and Elena allowed her to strip her. Gary watched as the two ladies stripped each other, and he grew so hard that he had to start stroking himself as Nicoletta guided Elena’s hand to her breast. Elena seemed to fumble a bit, and Nicoletta wasn’t the surest herself as she touched Elena between her legs. Gary groaned, loving everything about this.
The two turned to him as if realizing he was there for the first time. Nicoletta came over and caressed his face, kissing him, running her hands over his chest, lying him down on the bed.
Elena came over. As she liked to do, she started to ride him, and Nicoletta settled on his face, and he ate her out. When he reached up to touch her breasts, he realized Elena was already doing that, and the realization that he was having them both at once, that all three of them were pleasuring each other at once was enough to have him explode. When Elena was done, Nicoletta had Gary turn over, and he entered her from behind. Elena wiggled beneath them, and the two girls made out as he pumped deep inside of Nicoletta, whose fingers were buried in Elena’s curls down below and on her head.
It was fucking magical.
It felt so fucking real.
Gary wanted it to be real and not just a dream.
He woke up and stretched. Elena was curled up against him on his left side, but on his right side was Nicoletta. Now, all three of them were fully clothed, but maybe it hadn’t been a dream after all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gary did his best not to breathe, not to move, relishing the sensation of having two of the women he loved with him in bed. The heat from their bodies, them lying against him, had him so rock hard that their blanket tented over him.
