by Randi Darren
“Alright, come on Sam. I’ll be the appetizer while the others get ready,” Stacia said, holding her hands out to him. “I’ll just have a few sips from you as we go at it.”
Not hesitating, he got down on Stacia, and immediately plunged himself into her.
“Damnit, I wanna be part of a good ol’ fashioned orgy,” complained Aster.
Ten - The Front Fell Off -
“And you’re sure?” Sam asked, pulling at his vest. It felt rather strange to put such a thing back on after having a naked sweaty orgy.
“Course, I’m sure. I’m not permanently stuck here,” Alisa said, adjusting her dress as she sat in the seat of the Judge. “I’ll sort through as many as I can, put aside anyone I can’t figure out, and leave when I’m done.”
“I mean… yeah,” said Sam. He couldn’t fault or argue with her logic. It made sense and was more or less what he’d do himself.
Alisa nodded and then looked at the long line in front of her.
“Suppose I’ll get to work,” she murmured. “You all should get moving.”
“Right,” Decima muttered. She’d been decidedly uncomfortable when Sam started feeding. Looking toward the Witch-hunter, he knew there were some ugly feelings likely boiling away inside her. He could tell just at a glance that she was at war with herself, her mind, and her beliefs. It’d likely take a lot more time than they had now for her to really work through things. “We know which way we’re going then?”
“Apparently, right here,” Alisa said. Standing in front of her was an ethereal blue silhouette. “She says the Judge simply got up and left with the visitor. A young man in his twenties. Brown hair, blue eyes, handsome.”
“Here?” Sam asked. He hadn’t felt anything here that’d lend itself to a portal being open.
Then again, considering how long ago it was, that’s not surprising.
“Hmph. Time for me to flex,” Aster said, sounding just as annoyed as Decima did. She’d spent the entire time the orgy was going on laying patterns down on the ground around the Judge’s chair. “I’m going to flex so hard, Sam that you’re going to set up an orgy with me and you at the center. Stupid Incubus. Stupid Judge. Stupid everything.”
Aster turned into a being of pure electricity. Screeching, whirling, twisting, blue strands of lightning in combat gear with a rifle in one hand.
Holding a hand up in front of his face, Sam turned his head away from Aster’s true form. She was simply too bright to look at directly.
There was a high pitched whining that accompanied her moving into the purest form of herself. One that continued to build up in volume and pitch.
When it felt like his eardrums would rupture, Aster held a lightning-formed limb up and a bolt of lightning streaked out from it. It smashed into nothing.
Striking the thin air itself.
There was a pop of what sounded like a soda can opening, which was followed by a massive yellow portal opening up like a monstrous creature yawning.
Then the lightning lord herself shifted back into her Human version. Sweat was pouring down her face, she looked incredibly pale, and she was panting hard.
“S-s-see? That’s what I can do,” Aster wheezed. “Worship me sex-demon, and know me as your Branded. Your partner.”
Taking in shuddering breaths, Aster was staring hard at him.
“I… recognize you as my partner, and my Branded. You didn’t have to prove anything, though,” Sam said. Moving over to where his pack was, he started to rifle through it. “Get everyone through Decima.”
Decima immediately nodded her head.
“By twos, Sam and Aster will take the rear, go,” Decima called out.
He’d packed a number of batteries and this seemed like an opportune time to feed Aster.
“You want some D, C, A, or triple A?” Sam asked.
“Of course I want your D, that’s why I flexed,” Aster quipped.
“Branded, answer me please?” Sam asked. He wasn’t in the mood for playfulness. He could tell Aster wasn’t just a little winded. She was on the verge of exhaustion.
“I’ll… you really packed me batteries?” Aster asked.
“Course, I did. Well? We could probably pack a few D’s in you but I can’t imagine that’d be comfortable in a fight,” Sam said. He knew that Aster had mentioned that she inserted batteries into herself if she wasn’t doing much.
“Yeah… no. Not right now. Triple A’s, please. Those are easy to just keep on the side of my mouth,” Aster said.
Nodding his head, Sam pulled his hand out of the pack. He’d been holding onto those batteries, already having figured that’d be her answer.
Giving her the three batteries, he closed his pack, threw it over his shoulder, and grabbed his weapon.
“After you, Branded,” Sam said, giving the Torment a smile.
Aster was watching him, the batteries in her hand seemingly forgotten.
“You’re too good to me,” Aster said suddenly, her brows coming down and pressing together. “Why are you so good to me? We never… we never had a thing. We flirted, teased, and made jokes but… never got it on. So… why?”
“Because I want to,” Sam said simply. “It isn’t like I asked you to be my Branded for no reason.”
Nodding slowly, Aster’s face cleared of worry.
“Okay. I’m going to treat you real good, my Branded,” Aster said, then slowly slid the batteries between her lips. Making a show of doing it.
Finishing off the third, her cheek bulged on one side.
“So good… that you really do give up your others for me and the Succubus. We’ll tag team you forever,” Aster promised. “Thank you, Branded.”
Lifting her rifle, Aster went through the portal.
“You’ve changed, Sameerixis,” Alisa said from her seat. She was already judging another soul. “And I’m rather happy to see how well you’ve been treating Abigail. She looks very happy.”
Sam bobbed his head toward Alisa and chased after his team through the portal.
“Where the fuck are we now?” Tiffany growled.
“Looks like,” Wren said and paused. “Looks like ruins of a battlefield. Skeletons. Did we end up where we were earlier?”
“No, these are different,” Abigail said, bending over a skeleton nearby. She was touching around the shoulders and head of the individual. “Very different. These look like… feathers and what would be… wing bones?”
Behind them, there was a shrieking noise followed by the portal slamming shut as it ran out of power.
“We’re at The End,” Aster murmured. “This is, was, the last stand. We fought here against the Silent One. Fought here, and won, then lost.”
Hillary picked up a tattered banner and held it up. Upon it was a black and red shield with a fiery center.
“Ru… Originator’s Shield,” Aster said, pointing at the banner. “They held the center. We’re… right in the middle.”
Carissa had lifted up a silver sword that glowed with an inner light. There wasn’t a speck of dirt, blood, or anything upon it.
“I… I don’t… this… no,” Decima said, her weapon pointed at the ground. She was shaking her head slowly back and forth. “No. This isn’t real. This isn’t.”
“It very much is real,” Jes said, her wings sliding out behind her and stretching in an oddly nervous way. “And I feel like this is probably the most dangerous place we’ve been.”
“Because the Silent One is here,” Aster said, peering around their group. “He never left. At the center of this plane, he sits. He waits. He… does nothing. He took the Originator’s home, made it his own, and then did nothing.”
Irene and Stacia were standing side by side and both of them shivered at that.
A millisecond later and Sam felt a wall of alien thoughts wash over him. It left him with a static-like feeling inside and outside of himself.
“You don’t belong here,” stated a voice from above. It sounded decidedly male.
“Ah�
� didn’t mean to come here,” Sam said before anyone else could interject. “We’re just trying to chase down a thief.”
“Hm. A thief,” said the voice. “Fine.”
There was an odd crackling noise and a man appeared in front of them.
He was dressed in what looked like a military uniform. It was blue and white, and tailored in a very modern way.
The man had oddly gray hair that didn’t quite match his youthful looks. His brown eyes were hard. Eyes that’d had to do things he didn’t wish to, but would do again.
“Don’t take anything, don’t use any power, and keep your voices down,” commanded the man. “And what thief are you tracking? And why?”
“Don’t know. Just paid to find them,” Sam said. “Inter-planar PMC.”
“Right,” said the man with a slow and lazy blink. “There is nowhere to go from here that would be of any relevance to you. And no thief would ever come here willingly.”
“They had the Judge with them,” Jes said, taking a step forward toward the man.
Glancing at her, the man inspected her, and then casually dismissed her. As if beautiful women were a dime a dozen and meant nothing to him.
“The Judge,” said the man. He looked to one side, as if he saw something there. Then he nodded and looked back at Sam.
“So it would seem. Your thief is a pain my ass,” said the man. “I’ll happily push you through to the plane they’re on. I do hope you manage to kill them for me. And don’t come back here unless you’d like to lose your lives. I’ve already kept… him… from doing anything so far. That doesn’t mean he won’t if you return.”
“We understand,” Stacia said warmly with a wide smile. “Thank you ever so much.”
The man flicked his eyes to Stacia, then back to Sam.
“Do it,” he said.
There was a whump like noise as a portal simply dropped over them from above.
Spending a few seconds in utter darkness, the light of the world came back.
“What the fuck was that?” Wren asked.
“Seville,” Aster murmured from behind the big Cambion. She’d ducked out of sight the moment the man appeared. “And we’re really damn lucky he didn’t see me, or decided I wasn’t worth noticing. He’s practically the right hand of the Silent One.”
That was him? Huh.
He seemed a lot more subdued than people made him out to be.
“Okay, and where the fuck are we now? I’m getting really tired of this. I don’t like all this plane hopping,” Tiffany complained. “It makes my sense of smell go crazy and it all just feels like one horrible nightmare. Never-ending and full of—”
“Monsters,” Carissa called, pulling her rifle up to her shoulder.
Before anyone could react, she’d pulled the trigger. Her big scoped rifle booming and rocking back her shoulder.
“Aster, where are we? You’ve done more of the sub-plane surfing than I have,” Sam called, lifting his rifle and turning the same direction Carissa was.
Streaming toward them was a tide of black and gray monsters.
“I don’t know!” Aster said, then she spat out a battery. “But it doesn’t matter. Let’s just get in that fort.”
Fort?
Aster was already running away, her long legs propelling her along.
“Tiffany, Stacia, hold the rear with me!” Decima yelled, stepping up next to Carissa. “Everyone else bolt!”
Decima, Tiffany, and Stacia began firing in short bursts at the incoming horde.
Letting his weapon drop to his side without firing a round, Sam turned and went after Aster. Up ahead of them was a gray stone fort which was the only thing for as far as the eye could see in any direction.
Empty plains of green grasslands, and a single stone fort that looked as if it’d been made in the medieval ages.
Not far ahead of him, Wren spun and went down on a knee, facing backward. Irene joined her, her soul floating above the Witch and looking angry.
What? I don’t even—
Not questioning it, Sam moved beside Irene and stood there.
Decima noticed what Wren had done while reloading a new magazine into her rifle and then patted Tiffany on the shoulder, who tapped Stacia in turn. The trio broke off from their attack and sprinted away.
No sooner than they’d run past, then Wren opened fire. Irene held her hands out in front of herself and black bolts of nasty started to whip out from her palms.
Sam pulled his rifle up to his shoulder, leaned in slightly, and began to squeeze the trigger in short bursts.
Unfortunately, the monsters didn’t seem to actually die. They’d go down for a time, roll around for a while, then get up and start running again.
Well, this isn’t good.
Irene smacked Sam on the shoulder and he took that as their turn to run.
Standing up Sam found Wren in mid turn. She then started running back towards the fort. Irene was a short step behind her.
Sam did the same, dropping into a full sprint to catch up.
There was an odd tingling sensation in his legs before he realized Irene was pushing them on with her power.
Considerably further up was Abigail, Jes, and Hillary. They were crouched down, waiting for them to pass, just as he, Wren, and Irene had done for Decima, Tiffany, and Stacia.
Beyond all that, he could see the tail end of his company moving into the strange fort.
Soon as Carissa gets up into one of those towers this might get easier.
Breezing past Abigail on his right, he was still surprised to see the young Human woman here. She’d grown considerably since he’d met her.
After what felt like a run that lasted forever, Sam watched Irene and Wren pass through the gate of the fort. Above them, rifle fire began to sound as the rest of the team worked to cover Abigail, Jes, and Hillary on their own retreat.
Stepping to one side of the large gates that made the entrance of the fort, Sam began to build small spikes of Essence. At this distance, he didn’t trust the rifle to perform perfectly and not put a stray round too close to his people.
Essence was another matter entirely.
Flinging them out like they were small arrows Sam began to skewer the creatures that were in the lead of their chase.
He wasn’t expecting to kill them, or stop the horde, but he was going to slow down the ones that were gaining on the girls.
“Get in, Sam!” Jes yelled at him even as she ran toward him.
Briefly contemplating not listening to her, he decided against it. Jes had long since earned his trust.
Moving into the fort just ahead of the trio, Sam went to the crank that’d lower the portcullis.
Jes was the last in the line having run past him. Behind her were monsters that were awfully close.
Leaping forward back toward Sam, the Succubus flapped her wings, spun in mid-air, and let lose a wave of absolute lust Essence at everything chasing her.
It knocked most of the things flat, sent a number of them tumbling, and just kept rolling through their ranks.
Sam knocked the large wooden locking mechanism to one side and the portcullis began to rapidly descend.
With a boom, it hit the ground and settled into place.
Everyone on his team was safe in the fort.
“Whew,” Jes said, getting up off the ground and dusting herself. “You know. That was actually rather effective. Not as good as feeding, and it took a little Essence, but I don’t feel as horny now. Sorry, I had to try it.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Sam smiled at Jes but felt rather annoyed.
“Are you trying to tell me you were that pent up or were you trying to kill yourself. Because we just had an orgy not long ago,” Sam said, trying to break some of his stress off.
Or at least tone down the anger in his tone.
They’d just dealt with someone who could speak with an entity that could snuff them out as if they were nothing, they were now stranded in a fort in the middle of nowhere, s
urrounded by monsters that modern weaponry couldn’t put down, and with no discernible way back.
Sam still couldn’t feel his plane from here, nor could he feel any of the other planes. They were effectively—and literally—cut off from all support and assistance.
“Baby, you just don’t understand,” Jes said, giving herself a once-over. Then she sighed and met his eyes directly. There was a heat there that he hadn’t seen previously. “I always… want more. Always. There isn’t a moment that I’m not actively contemplating dragging you off, tying you up, and having my way with you.
“All day. Every day. Every night. I dream about it. It’s all I can think about more often than not. You’re my food source, my Brand, my baby, my confidant, my savior. You’re… so much to me. The minute I can teach you how to feed from me… I’m going to steal you away for at least a week onto a private plane. Where all we do is feed, feed…”
Jes gave him a wide smile, her hand trailing up along the front of her vest.
“And feed,” she purred at him. “But… that’s for another time.”
Pulling her rifle around to the front of her body, Jes turned and walked toward the portcullis, and put the barrel up against a monster’s misshapen featureless head.
Then she pulled the trigger for a short burst.
“Let’s see if they actually can be killed, or if this is just a waste of ammo,” she said, as she watched the gross creature hit the ground.
It rolled around for several seconds, then got back to its feet as if nothing at all was wrong.
“Waste of ammo then,” Jes said, letting her rifle slide down to her hip, the shoulder strap holding it there. “About as useful as you putting a dry load into Wren.”
Grinning at that, Sam found the comment rather amusing.
His anger had rapidly cooled as well.
He and Wren had come to a deal. She’d always be at his disposal for anything he wanted, no matter how twisted, as long as she had a chance to catch a pregnancy whenever he finished in her. Even if it was a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction of a chance.
