Tortured Silence
Page 6
Pissed off, I turned off the water and stomped back to the pool.
The creature was floating in the center of the water. Her eyes were closed, and she looked almost peaceful. I could hear her humming an old tune.
Three blind mice.
“The other families are all blind and foolish,” she mused, humming to herself. “They think the Tawrets will protect them from the King Who Comes.”
Laughing, she sank under the water.
I watched for her to surface, but after five minutes, I gave up. Either Flea could breathe underwater, or she had somehow slipped away from me.
Fuck it. I was tired. Soaking in a hot bath sounded good.
I slipped into the water. As soon as I was at chest height. The water began to ripple around me, as something--probably Flea--swam around me. Bubbles escaped in its wake. A dark mist rose off of the water, slipping into my senses before I could hold my breath.
My skin began to throb with lust.
I was not fucking Flea, no matter how much my brain pounded to do just that. The little bitch was releasing some sort of pheromone that was messing with my mind.
Hurrying, I rushed out of the water. My mind was throbbing with pain and lust.
It wasn’t just Flea’s scent. My lovers were intensifying their orgy. I could hear them moaning in the back of my mind. And, the constant sound of flesh smacking against flesh was becoming as annoying as nails on a chalkboard.
Flea’s laughter echoed through the room.
“I can be anyone whom you desire,” she mused from my left.
I spun around, but she wasn’t there.
“Any woman… or man…” she giggled from my right.
Turning again, and grabbing, my hands found only more mist.
“You call me… monster,” Flea whispered from behind me. She was so close that I could feel her breath on my neck. This time, I didn’t move. Twisting and turning like prey would only excite her even more.
“But I tell you again… I am yours.”
Her nails touched the sides of my legs.
“Bazal…” she crooned. “Let me be your bitch, and I will burn the world to protect you. Only say the words… and I will make it happen.”
“I don’t trust you,” I rasped out. Her mists were floating on the air all around me. It was intensifying the pounding, throbbing beat of the orgy of blood that my girls were enacting.
“My women are killing your sister,” I spat out.
I felt her mentally shrug.
“She is only flesh,” Flea whispered. Her voice echoed upwards as her hands slid lower. The monster was kneeling behind me. “My parents can make another sister whenever they want.”
“Everyone who I fuck… betrays me,” I ground out. “And… you don’t interest me.”
“Your erection contradicts your words. My blood is your blood. My flesh is your flesh. I am yours.”
“You are a Shole,” I cursed.
“Yes… but I am your Shole.”
- 13 -
I didn’t move.
Should I kill her?
Or, fuck her?
It was such a hard decision. Flea didn’t excite me with her body at all.
But, her scent was intoxicating. And my lovers were swamping my mind with sex. Hana suddenly moaned in my soul, as she climaxed. Flashes of breasts and the scent of a wet female tore through my mind.
Fine.
Fuck it.
I reached behind me and touched her.
Or, tried to.
Nothing was there.
Laughter echoed throughout the mist.
“So… easy…” she whispered. “Magnifying your lust is so simple. You are like a man-child, rutting in the street. Every piece of ass that comes near you, no matter how gruesome… is fair game. You must learn control--My King--or death will rain down upon us all.”
Then, the mist dissipated, and I could see her sitting across the pool, by the fountain.
Her alien appearance, even to my goblin senses, was shocking. Tentacles twined around the fountain’s face, teasing it with their black edges. Flea shuddered, and another tentacle slipped out of her back. The little assholes weren’t for maggots to crawl out of. They were exits for the dozens of black whips that quivered in the air.
Flea’s black talons click on the stone’s surface, as dark steam rose up off of her tentacles.
“I am a Shole,” she whispered. “We are bred to be whatever our masters need. Thieves, courtesans, assassins… monsters. Your blood awakened me and bound me to your service.”
Biting her bottom lip, she arched her back. Dark black hair gushed out of her skull, curving and twisting around her body like a lion’s mane.
Shuddering, Flea groaned again and trembled. Her breasts throbbed and grew more prominent. Flea’s nipples became harder and jutted into the air. Shivering, the Shole moaned, and I could feel the lust that she was emanating from twenty feet away.
“We breathe emotion,” she whispered. “I can make your enemies flee in terror, or cower in awe of you. Women will lose all control and do anything that you desire. Armies will kneel, and villains will repent. All because you demand it.”
Laughing, she pulled her legs up out of the water and spread them wide.
“I am yours.”
I stepped into the water. She wasn’t hideous anymore.
Alien.
Exotic.
And, maybe demonic.
But hideous was gone.
She was a monster. But, apparently, I liked monsters.
“Trust me…” Flea whispered.
I stopped walking.
Her fumes were filling my thoughts. Pressing down on my reservations and doubts.
Stopping, I shook my head again.
Something was wrong.
Trusting her was foolish.
She was fucking with my emotions.
Charming me.
I could hear her still crooning and cajoling me. But, I knew that I didn’t want to fuck her. Shutting my eyes, I focused on my magic. I needed to block her siren call.
This was exactly like what I had done to those tavern girls, for Blister, so many years ago.
And that gave me an idea.
Grabbing onto of my empty sigils, I focused on remembering his charm spell. I had cast it for him dozens, if not hundreds of times. Slowly, I reinscribed it, calling it forth from memory.
Flea’s spell, for that was precisely what it was, twinned around my spirit, squeezing it, as she slowly made my feet move forward.
Her curse actually helped me. I could see the runes that were drawn upon it, as they wrapped around my soul. When I couldn’t remember several key portions, I simply looked at the net that she was expertly weaving around my senses, and used it as an example.
By the time I had reinscribed the whole pattern, I was standing in front of her. Sweat was dripping down my forehead, but not from lust. I had never reinscribed a spell so quickly.
“Kneel, my beautiful Hob,” she ordered. “My little lady needs attention.”
I felt her compulsion rushing through my skin. She wanted me to lather her nether lips with my tongue.
Thankfully… goblin spells don’t need a command phrase.
Smiling, I cast my spell in reverse, negating her charm spell.
Clarity filled my mind.
And, rage.
Surging forward, I grabbed the Shole, picked her up, and then slammed the creature down on the ledge that surrounded the waterfall.
Then, I squeezed that tiny throat of hers.
Flea’s white orbs popped out even further.
Gasping, she lost control of her tentacles, which flopped and thrashed as she panicked. Leaning down, I growled at her. “Never. Ever. Do that again.”
I kept hold of her jugular, not allowing any air to enter her body. Freaking out, she grabbed my wrists and tried to break my grip.
I wanted to break her neck. I was really tired of women fucking with me, and not in a good way.
Then… her tentacles disappeared.
And… she shook and shrank, turning into something… different.
Candace.
The blonde human woman twisted in my hands, trying to breathe. Her blonde hair was still missing on the left side of her face, and her skin was still pasty and nasty. Candace looked like a cadaver who had just returned to life. The center of her chest was dark and barely healed. Mockery’s black stitches still held everything together, but just barely.
I let up on her throat, letting her breathe, just a little.
“You’ve been using illusion magic on me the whole time,” I growled. “You’re not a Shole. But, you are a liar!”
Candace gripped my hands with her human ones.
“Please…” she barely got out.
- 14 -
I squeezed tighter, cutting off her air again. This time, her pale Caucasian skin turned nearly purple before I let go.
Gasping and wheezing, she held onto my wrists but didn’t say another word. Sweat was beading on her forehead, and her face was flushed from nearly being choked to death.
“Was it all a lie?” I asked.
I saw the look in her eyes when she tried to decide if she wanted to lie to me again.
My hands gripped her throat tighter. I could feel our bond thundering in my ears, but I was willing to break it. I couldn’t have a servant who tried to lie, deceive, and mind fuck me whenever she wanted too.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Why?” I asked.
“I…” she tried to clear her throat and failed. Wheezing, she flopped about and tried to get out of my clutches.
I didn’t let go. She would just have to suffer.
“I didn’t want to die or be raped,” she finally gasped.
I scowled at her.
“I’m going to let you go,” I told her, “but, if you try to mind-fuck me again, then I will kill you.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
Letting go of her neck, I stepped back.
Candace leaned back against the stone. Then, she sat up and coughed several times. Finally, after a few minutes, she looked better.
“You swore an oath to me,” I snapped.
Candace shrugged. “Thieves and women are allowed to lie.”
“Kastabal was listening,” I snapped.
Candace tried to laugh and failed. Choking, she rasped out, “I made you think she was listening. The Goddess of Nightmares is dead. No one has felt her presence in centuries.”
“You’re an illusionist,” I growled, finally understanding just how good of a liar she was. “But, Mary harvested offensive war mage spells from your mind.”
Sighing, Candace opened her mouth to lie.
“The truth,” I snapped.
Candace rolled her eyes.
Then, she said, “My brother stores magic within me.”
“Why?”
“Because I can hold more than he can,” she answered. “He prepares spells and then puts them in my mind so that he has more to use. Charles can draw on them when he wants too, or at least, he could in the past.”
“Why can’t he anymore?” I snapped.
“My death nullified our bond,” she answered.
Candace wasn’t a Shole. She was just a professional liar.
Focusing, I prodded our connection.
Poof.
It simply exploded on contact into motes of light. Even our bond was a fake. It had never existed. She had just made me think it had.
“You’re not tied to me,” I growled, sitting down at the edge of the pool.
Candace laughed. “That was easy to fake.”
“Are you infected?” I asked.
Candace grew quiet.
Then, she nodded.
“I swallowed your blood and flesh when I was dead,” she finally replied. “It brought me back to life. So, yes, I’m infected.”
Leaning back, I kept an eye on her. Candace’s neck looked terrible. It was turning black and blue already. Nasty red marks covered its surface.
Seeing my handiwork made me feel horrible. Hurting women… just wasn’t my thing, even though I had enjoyed fucking Mockery.
The hell with this.
Turning, I waded around the edge of the pool. I was done with Candace. She had done terrible things to Brynn and me. Like Mockery, her lies were overwhelming. She had been using illusion magic from the minute that she drew breath as a living woman again.
“I wasn’t lying about…”
I ignored her, walking back into the other room. Then, I ransacked the sealed boxes for clothing. It didn’t take long. The room was set up as a safe room for any number of people of different shapes and sizes.
After slipping on pants, a shirt, and boots, I felt better. Somehow, I needed to find clothing that would grow and shrink with me when I used my stone skin ability. If I could just find some weapons and a grimoire, then I might be able to free Brynn.
“You don’t even know where she is being held,” Candace announced.
I ignored her, searching for a weapon next.
Candace stepped in front of me several times, trying to block my way and force me to talk to her. She was naked and dripping water everywhere, so it was becoming quite difficult to ignore her bare breasts. But, the brutal neck tattoo that I gave her helped me focus, as did the flesh on her chest that was still not quite alive.
“Dammit,” Candace hissed. “I don’t want Brynn executed. Please let me help you.”
I stopped and stared at the naked woman.
“You’ve been lying to me ever since I met you. Why would I let you help me?”
Candace sighed, then she tossed my grimoire on top of the box next to me.
My heart lifted, and I almost did a happy dance.
“Where did you get that?” I asked, grabbing it.
“From Mockery,” she responded.
“How did she get it?” I asked. “I lost it somewhere outside of Columbia.”
Candace shrugged.
Then, I could see her struggling with the lie that she had just told me with her body.
Waiting for the truth, I just stared at her.
Finally, she said, “Felmorna gave it to Mockery.”
I glared at her, struggling to decide if it was the truth or not.
Shaking my head, I moved on. I might never know how Mockery…
“When did she give it to Mockery?” I blurted out.
Sighing again, Candace said. “Felmorna gave it to Mockery when your wife was given James and I for the trip to Ashmouth.”
“Mockery is not my wife,” I snapped at her, as the implications of her words rattled my thoughts.
Fuck.
I hadn’t been thinking at all.
Candace and James had died in Felmorna’s fortress. When they showed up with Mockery, I should have realized that something was up.
Mockery was still working with Felmorna.
I was such an idiot.
- 15 -
I sat and sulked in a corner. I was tired of talking to Candace and thinking about how Mockery had betrayed me yet again.
Women were the bane of my existence.
Especially the bitches who I could still hear chanting in my head.
Closing my eyes, I received a blurry picture of them moving, dancing, and reciting in a circle filled with Margaret’s blood. The sacrifice wasn’t dead yet, but her screams had become shuddering cries of agony.
Above the circle, dark clouds and a storm had begun to churn. Demons--true spirits of Hell--flowed around the outside of the circle, shrieking in glee. The monsters loved every single hedonistic act that was taking place inside the pentagram.
I had no idea what ritual they were performing was, and it was pissing me off.