Dark Overlord New Horizon

by I. T. Lucas

  The thing was, he hadn’t sensed it from her before.

  When her struggles became frantic, he realized that she’d run out of air and let go of her mouth.

  “Get off me!” She tried to buck up, but he was too strong for her.

  “Why? You seem to be enjoying this.”

  “You’re a pig!” She followed her curse with raising her knee to his groin.

  For a brief moment, he contemplated letting Jacki have her revenge, but it just wasn’t in his nature to seek punishment as a way to ease his guilty conscience, and he stopped her by shifting his weight.

  Was this enough to enrage Kian? Or should he pretend to go for more?

  Gripping both of her hands with one of his, he pulled them over her head and snaked his other one under her sweatshirt.

  “Stop! Why are you doing this?”

  As he caught the sheen of tears glistening in her eyes, and instead of the sweet scent of arousal, he smelled the acrid smell of fear, Kalugal stopped just short of touching her breast.

  11

  Jacki

  When Kalugal had fisted Jacki’s hair and kissed her, she had been surprised, but not scared. She’d encountered enough idiots to be able to spot those who wouldn’t hesitate to rape a woman if they thought they could get away with it, and those who just thought that every woman they put their sights on should feel blessed and that there was no need to ask her permission before making unsolicited advances.

  The best strategy to deal with the first type was to never get caught alone with them, and the best strategy to deal with the second was to make it absolutely clear in words and actions that she wasn’t interested.

  Kalugal wasn’t a rapist, so she hadn’t been afraid to be caught alone with him, but apparently he was the second type, and she hadn’t made it clear enough that his advances were not welcome.

  And that was because she herself wasn’t convinced of that, or rather her traitorous body wasn’t.

  Logically, she knew that nothing good could come from letting Kalugal get close. He was immortal royalty, and she was a human nobody.

  He would have his fun, discard her, and never look back, while she would never be able to forget him and move on. But that wasn’t even the main issue. Jacki would never willingly get intimate with a man who didn’t love her, cherish her, and vow to stick by her side for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

  For some people, the scarcest and most expensive commodity was time, for others it was money, and for many of her generation it was sex.

  But for Jacki, it was love because she’d never had it.

  There had been no parents or grandparents, no siblings, and no romantic love either. She’d had friends, and some of the foster parents had been kind to her and had cared for her, but no one had ever loved her.

  Men loved her looks, though, which meant that they never bothered to get to know the person inside the pretty shell.

  Except, she was a healthy young woman, and as much as she’d suppressed her sexual urges, they were still there, and Kalugal had reawakened them with gusto.

  The best she could do was to pretend that the kiss was doing nothing to her and wait for him to get a clue.

  But he didn’t, and instead of letting go, he pushed her down on the couch and got on top of her.

  Had she read him all wrong, and he intended to rape her?

  Did Kalugal have an evil twin who he’d switched places with while in his office?

  This was getting scary, and Jacki’s fight or flight response finally kicked in. Since he was lying on top of her and pinning her down with his body, flight wasn’t an option, which left only fight.

  She wasn’t a small woman, or weak, but pushing Kalugal off her was like trying to push on a concrete wall. He didn’t budge, and she was running out of air.

  The moment he let go of her mouth, the first thing she did was to suck in a big gulp of air. The next was to yell at the top of her lungs, “Get off me!” She tried to push him off, but it was just as ineffectual as her previous efforts.

  ‘Why?” He smirked down at her. “You seem to be enjoying this.”

  Ugh, talk about the most conceited, arrogant, self-absorbed, egotistical jerk.

  “You are a pig!”

  She wanted to emphasize her words by spitting in his face but decided that a knee to the nuts would deliver a clearer message. Except, she should have known that Kalugal would anticipate her move.

  As he shifted to block her knee though, she managed to free her hands, which until then had been trapped between their bodies, and reached for his face with the intention of scratching that smug smirk off.

  But once again, he was too fast for her. Gripping her hands with just one of his, he pulled them over her head and pushed his other hand under her shirt.

  Crap. He was going to rape her, and no one in the damn house would come to her rescue.

  Tears pooling in her eyes, she resorted to pleading. “Stop! Why are you doing this?”

  As a guilty look flitted across Kalugal’s eyes, the library doors burst open, and Rufsur ran in.

  His face a terrifying mask of rage, he bellowed, “Get off her right now!”

  “Get out of here, Rufsur.” Kalugal didn’t even raise his voice. “Close the door behind you, go down to the bunker, and wait for me in my office.”

  He must have imbued his command with compulsion because Rufsur obeyed, walking out like a robot who was fighting every step.

  Jacki was doomed.

  No one was going to help her even if they wanted to.

  But then Kalugal did the unexpected again.

  He got off her and even offered her a hand up. “You need to rethink your attitude.”

  “Like hell!” She batted his hand away and jumped to her feet. The urge to punch him in the face was so strong that she almost succumbed to it, but that would have been stupid.

  What was she going to do after that?

  There was nowhere to run, and besides, he would catch her before she even made it to the door.

  Where was she going to go? She didn’t even have a room to lock herself in, and even if she had, no lock would keep Kalugal out if he wished to enter.

  When dealing with a dangerous and much stronger predator, the best option was to play dead. Maybe she should pretend to faint?

  It had worked for Jin.

  He solved the dilemma for her. Walking up to the library doors, he opened them and stepped out. “Shamash, please take Jacki back to the room in the bunker.”

  12

  Rufsur

  Rufsur’s feet obeyed his boss’s command, but his mind was free to plot revenge. He was going to attack the son of a bitch in his sleep, shut his mouth with one powerful blow that would knock his teeth out so he couldn’t use his damn compulsion, and then turn him into hamburger meat.

  Physical strength was the one advantage Rufsur had over his boss.

  Lately, Kalugal had been neglecting his training and was relying mainly on his mental tricks for defense as well as offense. Rufsur had no doubt that he could overpower his boss once the fucking compulsion ability was taken care of.

  What had gotten into him, though?

  He’d been with Kalugal since the very beginning, and the guy had never acted like that with a woman before. He even kept his men in check, drilling into their heads the importance of consensual sex.

  So what was his deal?

  Thralling a woman into having sex was not allowed, but forcing her physically was okay?

  Perhaps he’d misinterpreted the situation?

  Impossible.

  Jacki hadn’t been playing when she’d yelled for Kalugal to stop and get off her. And the scent of her fear was not an act either.

  Was he raping her right at that moment?

  Rufsur managed to walk up to the door, but his hand refused to obey and reach for the handle, and he was still standing there when Kalugal opened it from the other side.

  Without leaving the boundary of the offi
ce, Rufsur swung his fist at Kalugal, smiling as he heard the bone crack.

  “Freeze.” Kalugal stopped him from swinging with his other fist.

  His feet glued to the floor and his arm pulled back and ready to swing, Rufsur was at his boss’s mercy, but he didn’t regret what he had done.

  “Did you rape her?”

  “No.” Kalugal rubbed his injured jaw.

  “Where is she?”

  “Back in her room.”

  “What has gotten into you?”

  Kalugal tilted his head. “Can I unfreeze you now? Or are you going to swing at me again?”

  “That depends on what you have done to Jacki.”

  His boss cast him a glare that would have frozen the blood in his veins if it hadn’t been running so hot. “You’d better get your priorities straight, Rufsur. On account of our friendship, I will let this time slide, but if you swing at me again, I’m going to throw you in the brig. Are we clear?”

  “Yes.”

  “You can move.” Kalugal waved a hand. “Now get out of my face.”

  Rufsur didn’t need to be told twice. Casting one last glare at his boss, he marched straight to Jacki’s room.

  He found Shamash sitting across from her door, a guilty expression spread over his face. “I didn’t know what to do. I don’t know why he did that, either. One moment they were talking about books, and the next she was yelling at him to get off her.”

  Rufsur clapped him on the back. “There was nothing you could’ve done. I tried to stop him, and he just compelled me out of there. Is Jacki okay?”

  “She’s been crying ever since she closed the door in my face. I can still hear her sniffling.”

  “Yeah, I can hear it too.” Rufsur knocked on the door. “May I come in? It’s me, Rufsur. I just want to make sure that you are okay.”

  “Go away! You are all perverts.”

  “I’m not. I swear on my honor that I will never touch you without your permission.” He tried the handle, but the door barely budged.

  Had she blocked it with something?

  Pushing harder, he managed to open it while shoving forward the couch that Jacki had used to barricade the door.

  “That’s not going to stop any of us.” He walked into the room.

  Jacki was sitting on the floor, wedged between the nightstand and the wall, with a pile of used tissue paper in front of her.

  “I see that you’ve erected an impromptu shield.”

  “Yeah. No germaphobe will dare to pass.”

  He was glad that she still had her sense of humor.

  “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

  Jacki shook her head. “Not physically, but he hurt my pride. Why did he do that? Have I given him any misleading signs without being aware of doing it?”

  “No.” Rufsur sat on the bed. “And even if you did, that didn’t give him the right to force himself upon you. I don’t understand what possessed him. He’s never acted like that before.”

  She reached for another tissue and blew her nose. “It’s me. I have this effect on men.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? It’s not your fault that you are beautiful.”

  Jacki shook her head. “I don’t think it’s about my looks. I must emit some freaking pheromones or something. Shit like that keeps happening to me, no matter how careful I am or how uninterested I appear. Kalugal was not the first, but he was the hardest to fight off. If he hadn’t let go…” she shook her head again. “I can’t believe that he did that to me.”

  13

  Jacki

  It had happened so many times before.

  Jacki had been lucky so far, and none of the assaults had ended in rape, but she’d been groped and fondled ever since she’d grown boobs, which had been at the very young age of twelve.

  Living in the same house with a bunch of people who hadn’t been her real relatives was like an open invitation for any male with predatory inclinations.

  She’d had to fight off a couple of foster dads, half a dozen or so older foster brothers, and several of her employers and coworkers at the various jobs she’d worked.

  What had saved her time and again was her size and her loud mouth. Jacki had never hesitated to scream murder and fight with everything she had. She also tried her best never to be left alone with the pervy types, always refusing to have a room of her own and preferring to share it with at least one more girl. But sometimes all of that hadn’t been enough, and a creep had managed to corner her alone. Then she had yelled, scratched, kicked, and usually that was enough.

  None of that had worked with Kalugal, though, and that had been scary. All that he'd ended up taking without permission was a kiss, but the unexpected violence and the violation of trust left behind a deep sense of disappointment and emotional pain that was not going to abate anytime soon.

  “I punched Kalugal in the jaw,” Rufsur admitted sheepishly. “That was the first time I ever raised a hand against him. Outside of training, that is.”

  Jacki gasped. “What did he do to you?”

  “Nothing. He just warned me to never do it again. If I do, I’m going to be sent on a long vacation to the lovely cell you and Arwel shared before Jin insisted that we move you to a better room.”

  She was touched. No one had ever fought for her before or avenged her honor, so to speak.

  “Thank you.” She pushed away from the corner that she’d tucked herself into and moved to sit next to Rufsur. “I should tell you that you shouldn’t have, but I’m glad you did. Your arrogant asshole of a boss deserved it.”

  He smirked. “Yeah, I’m glad too. Though to be perfectly frank, I thought that he’d raped you. That’s why I punched him before he had a chance to say a single word in his defense.”

  “Did he?”

  Stupidly, she hoped for some sort of explanation. A temporary psychosis, Kalugal’s body having been overtaken by malevolent spirits, anything that would explain the sudden attack.

  “No. But then Kalugal never apologizes for anything. He thinks that he is always right.”

  “How can you work for him?”

  Rufsur sighed. “Because usually he is right, and he has never steered me or the others who followed him wrong. If not for Kalugal, I wouldn’t be here. I would still be serving in the Brotherhood, a mercenary soldier going out on missions to kill humans I had no beef with, for reasons that didn’t make any sense to me. I hated that life.”

  “This must be tough for you. But the good news is that by tomorrow I’ll be gone, and things will return to normal. I hope that you and Kalugal will go back to being friends.”

  Rufsur shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do that. I respected Kalugal. Hell, I worshiped him. But in one stupid move, he has shattered my belief in him. I can’t follow a man who would force himself on a woman.”

  Jacki grimaced. “He didn’t go through with it.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He intended to.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She took in a long, steadying breath. “He wasn’t excited, if you know what I mean. It was as if he wanted to prove a point or something.” She looked down at the tissues bunched up in her hand. “Why would he want to hurt me, though? What have I done to him?”

  “I don’t know, Jacki. I wish I had an explanation that made sense. Right now, I’m not sure I want to stay with Kalugal. After this is over, and you are back with your people, I think I’m going to say goodbye to him.” He cast her a sidelong glance. “Do you think your boss will take me in?”

  “Kian?”

  He nodded.

  “I don’t know him well, but if I were in his shoes, I would welcome you with open arms. You are a good man, and you can provide him with insight on Kalugal, which was the purpose of this entire clusterfuck. Kian wanted to know what Kalugal was up to before approaching him.”

  Rufsur grinned. “If I switch sides, we could go on the date that I’ve asked you out on before.”
<
br />   She smiled and nodded. “I owe you for punching Kalugal. But it will be just one date. You are still an immortal, and I’m still a human. There is no future for us.”

  “Maybe not. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy each other’s company.”

  If he meant sex, then the answer was no. But if he wanted to be her friend, she would gladly accept his offer.

  “Friends?” She extended her hand.

  “Friends.” He took it gently and shook it. “To start with.”

  14

  Vlad

  After Jackson left, Vlad had thought that he was done with well-intended but annoying relationship advice.

  He was wrong.

  Two hours later there was a knock on the door, and when he opened it, he found Bhathian standing on his front porch.

  “Good afternoon, Vlad. Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” He opened the door all the way and motioned for the Guardian to come inside.

  “Who is it?” his mother called out from her craft room.

  “It’s Bhathian, Mom. He is here to see me.” He looked at the Guardian. “You are not here to commission a costume from my mother, right?”

  “No. I came to talk to you. Would you like to join me on a walk?”

  Vlad cringed. “I’m not in the mood for meeting anyone and seeing more pitying looks.”

  “No one knows anything.”

  “Jackson does, and apparently you do too.”

  “I’m a head Guardian. There isn’t much I don’t know. But as you wish. We can talk over a cup of coffee.”

  “I’ll start the coffeemaker.”

  As Bhathian sat down, the couch sank under his bulk. The guy must weigh nearly three hundred pounds, and all of it was muscle. He was a mountain of a man, but he had a gentle soul.

  Perhaps talking to him could actually help.