My whistle earns a reply a moment later by a low double-whistle, and I approach the group.
Seeing Cerena emerge from the shadows of the bush they’re hiding behind fills my heart with an unexpected surge of gladness, and I give her a quick hug before following her back into the glade they’ve found.
Inside, Lance is still out on the ground, so exhausted that they’ve been unable to wake him, while Brandon rearranges the bags so that the load’s better distributed.
“What did you see?” Cerena asks in a whisper as I take my weapons and prepare to heave Lance onto my shoulder again. It’s not so much the weight. His hundred and seventy or so pounds is light for me. It’s the balance required. I can’t carry him like a backpack, and carrying him across both shoulders is impossible without hurting him. So I have to sling him over one shoulder while carrying my weapons in my hand and across my back. But maybe I can improve things for this next leg of our flight.
“Hunters?” Cerena asks, pulling on her now heavier pack. She’s a great leader and team member that way, never shirking her fair share of the load just because she’s smaller than the rest of us.
If anything, she’s tougher than we are.
“A dozen,” I reply, keeping my voice low. “Ten normal ones, a woman who reminds me of you . . . and Elizabeth.”
Cerena’s hand falters on her shoulder strap, and even Brandon looks up, his eyes going wide. “Elizabeth?” he asks, looking between us. “You mean like the Elder chick you were talking about the other day?”
Cerena nods, taking a deep breath. “What about the others?”
“Your standard Hunters, I think,” I reply, trying to remember. “Five were armed with swords, five with Gauss rifles. The Huntress with Elizabeth was short, compact . . . wore twin Gauss pistols—”
“Slung across her hips like an old-fashioned gunfighter,” Cerena finishes for me, and I nod, the image fitting what I saw. “Cursed fucking dammit. Lily.”
“Who?” I ask, and Cerena sighs, running a hand through her hair. “She’s obviously good.”
“She’s the best . . . and my mentor,” Cerena says quietly. “She’s led more teams, completed more Hunts, and kicked more ass than perhaps any Hunter active today. She’s smart and was taking time off field duty to work as Headmistress of the Academy. If she’s leading the team and working with Elizabeth, we’re in deep shit. Lily taught me more about fieldcraft, tactics, and how to be a Huntress than the Academy ever did. And if she’s been taken out of the classroom, the other ten are all crack Hunters as well.”
“Explain,” Brandon says quietly, half order, half request.
“Like I said, Lily’s spent the past year and some change as the Headmistress of the Hunter Academy,” Cerena explains. “She took the job when Thomas was wrapping up his time as Elder, as he felt the young Hunters were slipping. There’d been a spike in young Hunters getting themselves killed on their first hunts, and their mistakes were costing Solace experienced Hunters as well because of it. He wanted someone in there who could push the Initiates and Younglings to their limits, stemming the losses, and making sure that all Hunters came out ready to do the job. Lily was the obvious choice. She really is the best, and those twin pistols . . . I’ve seen her take down half a dozen wendigo in just as many seconds without even disturbing her ponytail.”
I look over at Lance, who’s still snoring away on the ground. “If we’re going to get away at all, we need to get Lance up.”
Brandon snorts. “Yeah, well, that’s not going to be easy, big man. I tried splashing water in his face, jostling him . . . I was going to pinch his balls but Cerena said no, it wouldn’t work.”
“Then we have to do something for him,” I reply, looking at Cerena and then Brandon. “Use your magic.”
Brandon’s face goes tight, and he shakes his head. “I . . . I can’t do that.”
“Why?” Cerena asks, going over and taking his hand. “Brandon, I know you’re not an expert with it—”
“But that’s why I can’t do it,” Brandon finishes. “Cerena, Tym, I’d love to wake Lance up. Honestly, it’s harder for me to carry two bags than it is for Tym to carry Lance’s deadweight ass. But all I’ve been able to muster up is dark magic, and I can’t control it. If I hit Lance with that, I could . . . fuck, it’d be like the tree.”
“The what?” Cerena asks. “What tree?”
Quickly, Brandon tells us about his ‘punching’ a hole through a tree and the other instances where his powers have started to manifest. “I can’t help him.”
“You can,” Cerena says. “I know you have light magic in you. You’ve used it already.”
“When?” Brandon asks, and Cerena smiles, cupping his face.
“When you came back to life,” she reminds him. “I don’t think my washing your balls was that good.”
Brandon chuckles and takes a deep breath. “Okay . . . okay, I can try. But do we really need him?”
I can tell he’s joking, but maybe only half joking. There’s a ruthless side to Brandon that I think is more than just the product of growing up within Bane. There, you learn to cut and run like your life depends on it because it usually does. But with the chafing between Lance and Brandon, I cannot be sure Brandon would be all that upset if Lance did have to be left behind.
“If we want to be able to get away, his entanglement power could be essential,” I offer up just in case, and Brandon nods. “Just one piece of advice.”
“What’s that?” Brandon asks, and I smirk.
“I don’t think you’ll wake him up the way Cerena helped you. He won’t enjoy your playing with his balls.”
“Good point,” Brandon says, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. “Okay . . . let’s try.”
Chapter 5
Brandon
Looking down at Lance, I don’t know what to do.
Since coming back, every use of my natural abilities has been at a time that I haven’t been expecting it. I haven’t been making rocks float or whatever while staring at them . . . I’ve been punching holes in trees when I’ve lost my temper.
Once, when I got angry while scrounging for food, I ended up obliterating a rabbit into something spread over a ten-yard circle. I came back to the group’s campsite with nothing more than a handful of ground nuts and some leaves to supplement the few remaining ration pellets we had.
Now, I’m kneeling in the middle of a ring of bushes, looking down at the one member of this group who’s annoyed me more than anyone else . . . and I’m supposed to use light powers to rejuvenate him?
It’s not like my paranormal partners have been much help. Tym’s strength is something that he always has except when he goes berserk, and that’s triggered by fear. It’s also a power that renders him out of control, as much a weakness as it is a strength.
Meanwhile, his lockpicking skills are something that are inherent, like all of his other abilities, he says. From the moment he was born, he’s found locks easy to manipulate and pick, which I’m sure led to quite a few interesting situations when he was a child, but that doesn’t help me now.
Lance is just as unhelpful, when he hasn’t been pissing me off. I’ve asked him what he does when he uses his time stopping ability, or this entanglement that I’ve only seen once, and all he can tell me is that he just does it.
“It’s like a centipede, man,” he told me. “They don’t think about how to coordinate all those damn legs, they just walk. They don’t plan. They do.”
But how am I supposed to do anything when I don’t even know what to do? And if I screw up, I could kill him.
“Brandon,” Cerena says, laying a hand on my shoulder and turning my chin up to look her in the eyes, “I trust you. I know you can do this.”
“But what am I supposed to do?” I ask, unsure. I hate being unsure, and right now, we don’t have time for any emotional bullshit.
Tym, who probably understands more than Cerena, lays his hand on my other shoulder. “Don’t think about the pow
er or the source. Think about . . . energizing Lance. He’s tired, so just think about how you’d wake him up.”
“Uhm . . .”
“Or how you’d like to be woken up,” Cerena offers with a smile. “That way, you don’t punch him in the balls.”
I laugh softly, nodding. More than once, I’ve thought about kicking Lance right in the root, just for stress relief. “Okay. But if you guys don’t mind . . . some good thoughts right now? I don’t know if it’ll help, but . . . well, it can’t hurt.”
Cerena smiles, and even Tym looks supportive as I reach out toward Lance, placing my hands on his chest and closing my eyes.
It’s hard. After everything that I’ve been through, all the anger and hatred, I have to set that aside. I can’t let it distract me, and I have to focus.
Suddenly, I feel a hand on my cheek and I open my eyes to see Cerena looking at me in the moonlight. “I believe in you,” she whispers, smiling. “You’re a good man. Light and dark don’t matter. You are you.”
She leans in and kisses me, her velvety lips teasing me until I open up to her and our tongues wrap around each other. We snake around each other, Cerena never letting go of my head until we have to pull back simply to breathe. “Mmm . . . what are you doing?” I ask, my heart hammering and my cock stiffening in my pants. “I thought I was supposed to be focused.”
“And doesn’t this give you good feelings?” Cerena asks, her hand tracing down my chest. She scratches me lightly, and inside my pants my cock is now painfully trapped inside a cloth prison, screaming to be let free. Good feelings? All I feel right now is an intense hunger for the good feelings Cerena can provide. “I know that I’ve wanted it. I want you so much it hurts sometimes.”
I don’t know what happens. I don’t move my hands, but suddenly, Lance seems to fade away, Tym’s hand on my shoulder fades . . . everything around me seems to disappear. The entire world shimmers into an ephemeral nowhere, just me and Cerena, her green eyes gleaming in the soft light surrounding us. It’s just the two of us in what I can only call paradise.
I lean in, kissing her deeply as her hand continues to stroke my chest, stoking the fire within me. Unable to resist, I push her back into what appears to be a soft cushion, my hands finding the closure on her shirt and tearing it in half, the cotton purring as it rips from her body.
Cerena’s an angel exposed to me, her soft, perfect tits already pebbled and her nipples diamonds in the soft light. Hungry to taste her creamy pale skin, I dive in, sucking hard on her left nipple, and she cries out, arching her back as we turn and roll, hands pulling at the rest of our clothes until we’re both naked, our bodies pressed together and our legs entwined with each other.
“Where are the others?” I ask, my eyes feasting on her perfect body. Every curve, every dip and swell . . . even the scars that I see on her legs or arms cause my cock to pulse thicker and harder.
She’s sexual perfection, everything I can ever want in a woman . . . and we’re not going to stop until we’re both satisfied. She smiles, reaching down to stroke my manhood in her soft but strong hand. “It’s a kind of magic,” she purrs, pumping me. “Why argue with it?”
Her touch drives all questions of reality, magic, or fantasy from my brain, and I nod, kissing her hard as her hand speeds up. My cock throbs, and she almost pushes me over the edge until I pull back, pushing her back down into the cushions, shaking my head and grinning wolfishly. “Uh-uh . . . you’re not in control this time.”
I grab Cerena’s breast, pulling and pinching her nipple as she cries out, her legs falling open to me in utter want and surrender. I grin, thrusting two fingers hard into her wet, needy pussy, laughing as she cries out in the combination of pain and pleasure. “Fuck, Brandon!”
“That’s right. We are going to fuck . . . but first, you’re going to cream all over my fucking hand.”
My fingers pump relentlessly in and out of Cerena’s pussy, my body thrilling to the music of her cries and the wet, squelching sounds my touch is causing between her legs. Lowering my mouth to her tits again, I ravish the pillowy mounds, sucking and biting her skin and marking her with pink puckers with my teeth.
“That’s it,” I encourage her when I feel her start to clench around my hand. “Come for me.”
Cerena tightens, and I slip my thumb over the pink nub of her clit in a quick stroke, shattering her instantly. She thrashes, her long black hair flying in every direction as she comes hard on my hand, and I watch her, waiting for my moment to strike.
I watch her head fall back, her mind overwhelmed, but before she can finish coming, I pull my hand out and lift her legs, thrusting my cock balls-deep into her with a single savage thrust.
“Fuck!” she cries, her green eyes opening wide as she stares at me in shock and rapture. “What—”
“Call my name,” I rasp, pulling back and thrusting into her again. Her pussy’s so tight, quivering and clenching around my iron-hard shaft, and I can feel her body wanting more. “Call my name and I’ll let you come again.”
Cerena grins, hooking her hands behind my neck, her fingers digging into my shoulders. “You . . . ugh . . . gotta earn it.”
She squeezes me, tightening her pussy around me as I thrust into her again, the two of us challenging each other. Her smile is enchanting, and she takes me in deeper and deeper, my balls slapping against her upturned ass with every thrust.
I know what she wants.
I know what she needs, and I know I’ll give it to her.
But first, I grind deep in her silken tunnel, taking every ounce of pleasure I can from her. My dick pulses deep inside her, our bodies rubbing against each other as Cerena pulls me in for a deep, soulful kiss. She meets my power with her softness, not giving in but giving it back to me.
I feel the words form in her throat as I pound her harder, my lungs aching for air we’re going so hard.
“Brandon!” Cerena moans, and her word triggers my release. My dick slams as hard as it can into her, my body erupting as I cry out her name in return, coming deep inside her.
She cries out, screaming my name again, but this time it sounds different, like there’s four voices calling out at once, three men calling her name while she somehow calls out our names in return. I don’t care, I just feel the energy filling me, and as I fill Cerena, I know it’s where I want to be.
“Cerena!”
The world snaps back, and I blink, realizing that I’m actually still clothed and that my hands have never left Lance’s chest. Cerena, for her part, is blushing deeply, her brow dotted with sweat, her lip captured between her teeth. “Whoa.”
“Whoa is right,” I whisper, feeling the dampness between my legs. I’m not sure what happened, but I do know that I’ve come inside my pants, and glancing over at Tym, he looks like he’s just come too. “What was that?”
“That . . . was fucking awesome,” Lance whispers, smirking as his eyes flutter open. “Although, Brandon . . . I’d much rather wake up to feeling Cerena’s hands on my chest, if you don’t mind?”
I pull my hands back, nodding as I fall back onto my butt. “It felt like—”
“Like all three of you,” Cerena says, blushing deeply. “I mean, it was like three times at once.”
“Ah, the famed triple stuff,” Lance says, sitting up. “Many have claimed it, few have accomplished it. Although I have to admit, I don’t remember seeing you two in there. It was all sweet cheeks and me.”
“Me too,” Tym says, blinking. “And while I’d love to compare memories and figure out what the fuck just happened . . . we really should get moving.”
“You got that right,” Cerena says, getting to her feet. She shakes out her legs and grins. “That’s a great side effect.”
“What’s that?” I ask as I get up and realize what she means. The sex was intense, mind blowing, and if we’d really just done that, I’d be worn out. Instead, I feel energized, fresh as if we’d just slept eight straight hours. “Well . . . I’m not sure I can pull t
his off every night, but I’ll take it.”
“Yeah, well, be careful,” Lance says as he gets to his feet and, without even asking, picks up the heavier bag I’ve been preparing. “We just blended minds, I’m guessing. You never know, though. Next time, you could be sharing Cerena’s point of view while Tym ravages your body.”
“Why can’t you be the one doing the ravaging?” Cerena asks with a chuckle, pulling her backpack on.
“Because I have better taste in lovers,” Lance says with a chuckle. “Sorry, Brandon, you’re totally not my type. Come on, let’s go.”
Chapter 6
Lance
We push through the night until noon the next day, when both Cerena and Brandon’s energy gives out on them. Finding a relatively hidden spot in the middle of a thicket of dense trees and bushes, we hunker down to catch a rest.
“Get a few hours’ sleep,” I reassure Cerena, adjusting the packs so that she has a comfortable place to put her head. “Big man and I will keep an eye out.”
“No using your powers unless you have to,” Cerena says before giving a jaw-cracking yawn. “Promise?”
“Promise,” I reassure her, not upset at all as she curls against Brandon for sleep. That ad-hoc cloak we have for her isn’t enough for this mountain environment, and besides, it’s always better to snuggle up with a warm body than just grab a chunk of dirt and snooze.
In a total change from usual, I feel warmed and touched to watch the way that Brandon wraps his arms around her, using his own cloak to envelop them both as they quickly drop off to a deep sleep. Even in his slumber, he’s intent on keeping Cerena safe. And that’s the most important thing in the world to all of us.
I watch them for a bit, then look over at Tym, who’s quietly adjusting the bags back to their previous more equitable weight configuration. “You’ve been quiet.”
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