Blood Mage 3

by Logan Jacobs

  “We’ll catch a rabbit and roast it over a fire,” Maaren assured her. “It’ll taste just like chicken.” The hunter shot a sly wink at Ariette and me as Kalista’s violet eyes went wide, her mouth frozen mid-bite.

  “A rabbit?” she questioned through a mouthful of meat. “No way.”

  “It’s survival.” Maaren shrugged as she took a forkful of her own white meat. “It’s not as white as this, though. There’s generally a bunch of blood on the meat, so it looks kind of pink.”

  “I’m sorry, guys, but I think I’ll have to sit this one out,” Kal said, only half-joking.

  “Relax, Kal,” Maaren laughed. “I’ve already stocked the van’s kitchen with a bunch of mission ready food, like elven waybread and even some freeze dried ice cream. We won’t have to eat rabbit meat.”

  “I don’t know if waybread is that much better,” Kal said as she pulled a face.

  The hunter shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  I took in the aroma of the delicious-looking food one more time, savoring it before I dug in. The half chicken Sal had roasted was covered with all sorts of sooty char marks from the hearth, and it oozed clear juice out onto my plate the second I punctured it with my fork. The plump white meat tore away from the bone effortlessly into small ribbons of tender goodness, and I raised it up to my mouth and bit down. An explosion of fire-encrusted deliciousness hit my taste buds as I chewed the delectable morsel. Within another minute or two, the entire half-chicken was resting comfortably in my stomach.

  Then there were the potatoes. The mashed potatoes were perfectly fluffy, with a hint of yellow cheddar cheese mixed into the pillowy side dish. As I placed a scoop of the still-warm dish into my mouth, it nearly melted on my tongue. I almost didn’t have to chew the potatoes, but there were a few pieces of roasted skin left in the concoction that crunched against my teeth satisfyingly. I gulped down the rest of the creamy, buttery mixture and then sat back in my chair and patted my belly.

  Just then, I became acutely aware of a pair of eyes on me. I’d grown pretty used to that over the last week, since I’d become somewhat of a local celebrity. It seemed like everybody wanted to watch the Racmoth do normal things like eat or comb his hair or, well, a hundred other stupid simply things. But this gaze was different. This gaze made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  I turned around to see Arendor, two tables away, as he glared at me with rage in his eyes. He had a death grip on a fork and had pressed the tongs of the utensil so hard into the wooden table below him I was surprised it hadn’t splintered and broken under the force.

  “Hey, Ariette,” I muttered as I nudged the blonde elf next to me. “Do you have any idea why Arendor looks like he wants to murder me, well, more than normal?”

  Kalista and Maaren fell silent as they heard my question, and Ariette cast a sneaky glance over her shoulder to look at Arendor. His gelled-up, slicked black hair jiggled as his entire body nearly vibrated with rage.

  “Um, I have no idea,” the elf replied quietly as if he could hear our conversation over the din of the dining hall. “Did you steal his cologne or something?”

  “Oh, yes, because I just absolutely love smelling like someone dumped me in a sugar bowl and then lit me on fire,” I joked.

  “Seriously, I have no idea,” Ariette whispered back as Arendor’s fork started to vibrate madly in his hand. “Maybe he’s just jealous about you being anointed the Racmoth?”

  “Well, I think I’m going to bed now, where there isn’t a crazy elf ready to murder me,” I said as I pushed my now-empty plate away.

  “Good idea,” Maaren agreed. Her green eyes were dark with confusion as she watched Arendor. Sure, the guy had a problem with me because he had a thing for Ariette, and the blonde had majorly rejected him, but he had never seemed murderous … until tonight.

  I wondered if Ariette was right, and my newfound fame and prophetic destiny had upset him and pushed him over the edge.

  “I’ll escort you,” Kalista piped up, and I looked in surprise and awe to see the dwarf had demolished all three of her plates in the time it had taken me to eat one. “For protection, you know.” She gave me a wink.

  “Oh, of course,” I answered flirtatiously. “Surely this has nothing to do with our conversation in the van earlier, right?”

  The dwarf smacked my butt softly in reply as we made our way out of the dining hall. “You’re about to find out, tiger,” she said through a playful growl.

  As we exited the hall and reached the corridor that led to the sleeping quarters of the guild, loud footsteps echoed behind us. The steps pounded toward us over the marble floor before they skidded to a halt right behind me. I sighed and rolled my eyes in Kal’s direction as I heard Arendor’s voice.

  “You just think you’re so heroic, don’t you?” he sneered. “I think Ariette’s stupid nickname has gone to your head ‘HC.’”

  I turned around calmly and looked him straight in his icy grey eyes. “What do you want, Arendor?” I wasn’t in the mood for his haughty attitude at the moment.

  “I know exactly what you’re planning,” the elf spat as he pointed an accusatory finger at my chest. “You think that just because everyone thinks you’re this Racmouth thing you can go against Hasen’s direct orders, huh? Well, news flash, you can’t.”

  “Um, it’s Racmoth, idiot, read a scroll,” Kalista shot back. The tiny dwarf had one perfect eyebrow quirked and both of her hands planted sassily on her hips.

  “I don’t need to read a scroll,” Arendor sneered. “It’s all over the guild.”

  The elf inched closer to me, and even though he was nearly a foot taller, I stared down my nose at him. The last time we’d had an encounter outside the interrogations rooms, I’d completely decked his pompous ass for being rude to Kalista. I didn’t really want to have to give him a repeat performance tonight, but this guy was about to get it if he didn’t back off.

  “Look, Arendor,” I said calmly as I stepped closer to him and pushed his chest hard enough to force him to stumble backward, “I really don’t want to have to punch you again, but if you don’t shut up, I will, and this time, it’s going to be in front of the whole guild.”

  I motioned with my chin to the small crowd of fairies, satyrs, elves, and nymphs who had gathered around to watch the standoff between Arendor and me. The haughty elf took a look at the crowd, and his chest expanded as he inhaled deeply and tempered his anger. If there was one thing Arendor didn’t want, it was to be embarrassed in front of those he thought of as inferior to him.

  “Whatever,” he spat finally. “You’re not worth the effort, but you better watch your back.”

  With that not-so-ominous warning, the elf swept from the hallway, and the crowd dispersed quickly when they realized there would be no action.

  “That was hot!” Kalista exclaimed when everyone had disappeared. “Now that you’ve got me all hot and bothered with your charming fortitude, it’s only fair you help me solve this situation.” She winked at me as she motioned to the lower half of her body in reference to her “situation.”

  “So this is about what we talked about earlier.” I grinned. “You’ve been looking at me with hungry eyes ever since we met, you know.”

  Kalista pulled me in close, and I could feel her massive breasts pressed against my chest. “I know,” she whispered, “but recently, the others have had all the fun. Now it’s my turn.”

  Without another word, the dwarf snatched my hand and hauled me down the corridor to my room.

  Chapter Three

  I lay wide awake as I gazed through my open window and watched the crescent moon slowly descend through the sky. It faded as the bright sun rose up over Kaul Mountain, and its rays lit the sky a fiery orange-red that made the top of the mountain glow like it burned from the inside out. I lay there, reveled in the early morning quiet, and enjoyed the picturesque sky as it shifted and morphed into its daytime persona.

  The dragon’s voice echoed in my mind as I lay there and
tried to force myself to think of anything but prophecies and danger and the evil Phobos members. But it was no use. All I could think about was that scroll Kalista had shown me, and the dragon’s ominous message on my first day at the guild. And, of course, how my team and I were about to set off on a mission to the nether realm to take down a group of Unseelie terrorists called the Phobos while I fulfilled some prophecy that was written on a scroll long before I was ever born.

  We didn’t have much to go on. We had a very general location, the nether realm, which of course was pretty much a dark forest of doom no one in their right mind would ever want to venture into. Unless they had been prophesied to hunt down villainous elves and stop them from carrying out a plot to take over the entire world, of course.

  The twinkle of the last star had just faded from the clear blue summer sky, and my thoughts had started to spiral toward the point of no return when the dwarf next to me stirred in her sleep. Storm snored lazily on the plush dog bed Maaren had bought her. The Cerberus pup was already so big she’d almost outgrown the bed, and I was going to have to figure out where to keep her pretty soon. My room wasn’t quite big enough to fit a giant, three-headed dog.

  I took in a deep breath and plastered a soft smile on my face before I rolled over on my side and took Kalista in.

  She was a beautiful sight in the morning. Her short silver hair splayed out underneath her head in an angelic sort of way and gave the impression that she wore a halo. Her ivory skin glowed from a good night’s sleep, and her full lips were pink and soft as she stretched slowly.

  “Hi there,” I said softly when she finally fluttered her thick lashes open and looked at me with sleepy violet eyes.

  “Hi,” Kalista whispered back to me as one hand came up to rub my morning scruff playfully. “Did you sleep?”

  “Oh, yeah, like a baby,” I joked. “Best sleep I’ve ever had.”

  I rolled over to rise out of the warm bed, but she placed a gentle hand on my back to stop my progress.

  “Milton,” her voice was soft and worried, and she waited until I finally turned to look at her. The dwarf had a rueful smile on her face as she gazed up at me. The sheet had fallen away and wrapped itself around her hips, and her round breasts were on full display.

  I looked at the soft skin and perfect pink nipples before I finally trailed my eyes up her collarbone to meet her gaze.

  “I’m fine.” My voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, and I cleared my throat before I continued. “Evil elves are no match for the Racmoth. That’s what the prophecy said, and prophecies never lie.”

  “I don’t think it said those exact words,” she teased gently, and I earned a half smile as her pink lips twitched up at the corners for a second. “It’s okay not to be okay.”

  “I am, though,” I insisted. “Okay, I mean. I can do this. I have to do this. Because if I don’t … ”

  I trailed off as I thought about the end of that sentence, and the implications it held. If I didn’t, the Phobos would win. If I didn’t, there would be mass genocide, or at the very least, mass enslavement. If I didn’t, the facade of freedom that kept this world together would fall apart at the seams and we’d all be left to grasp at threads in order to keep ourselves from falling to our deaths.

  There were a million endings to that sentence, but they all lead to the same final thought: “if I don’t” couldn’t exist. I had to do this.

  “You will,” she responded delicately. “Correction, we will. You’ve got a whole team behind you.”

  I didn’t know what it was, but in that moment all of the thoughts that had bothered me were gone. Suddenly, I wasn’t focused on the Racmoth prophecy or the Phobos anymore. I gazed down at Kalista as she sat there, sheet over her waist and torso leaned toward me, with the softest expression of total trust in her eyes. I felt my dick harden as I leaned toward her slowly, until our mouths just barely touched, and I could feel her warm breath against my mouth.

  Her pupils dilated as her violet eyes stared into mine, but she didn’t move.

  I needed to not think for a little while.

  “I think I would like to be behind you,” I breathed. Our lips brushed and made contact, but still, neither of us moved.

  I watched the wheels turn in her head, and I could almost see the thoughts that flew through her violet eyes as she decided if this was really the right moment, but then she tilted her head slightly and came to some sort of decision. Without warning, her full pink lips pressed themselves to mine as her warm tongue traced the inside of my mouth slowly before she pulled back a millimeter.

  “Lie back,” she ordered breathlessly, and I did as she said instantaneously. Her body followed mine as she hovered over me for a moment. Our nipples brushed, and one hand came up to caress my abs before she crawled backward like a jaguar, hunger in her eyes. She dropped her head to press a kiss just above my pelvic bone, but her violet eyes never lost contact with mine.

  I watched in aroused fascination as she slid a hand down to the base of my dick and slowly wrapped her lips around the tip of it. Fire shot up into my belly, and I tilted my head back as I groaned in pleasure. Wet, warm heat and the excitement of my nerves took over my brain, and all the thoughts of our impending mission were now a long lost memory as her red lips moved up and down my penis. I was caught between letting my eyes screw shut in pleasure and watching as my cock disappeared in and out of Kalista’s mouth.

  “Holy fuck,” I grunted as my eyes involuntarily slammed shut, and I gave in to complete pleasure. My hips jerked upwards as a tight heat spread across my dick, and I came in her mouth, still twitching and moaning in absolute ecstacy.

  When I finally came down from my high and opened my eyes, I saw the dwarf lick her lips with a satisfied smirk, and she swallowed hard. I felt my nerves light up with arousal immediately, and my erection returned to regular form as if it had never gone away. I sat up quickly to move the dwarf forward until she was crouched on all fours in front of me.

  “I hope there’s more where that came from,” Kalista muttered as she threw a seductive wink my way and wiggled her exposed behind.

  I moved onto my knees and shuffled forward until the tip of my hard, wet dick was pressed against the lips of her pussy. Her hips rutted backward as she waited for me to slide in, and my cock went slightly into her with her movement. She was warm and wet and tight, and I sighed in satisfaction before I pushed forward.

  “Oh God,” she gasped as my dick slid all the way inside her, and the dwarf fell forward onto her elbows as I paused to let her adjust to my length. After a moment, her hips wiggled slightly in a silent order, and I pulled back and let my cock come nearly the whole way out before I slammed into her roughly, which elicited a satisfied moan from the sexy woman below me.

  Kalista pushed her face further into the mattress as she reached an arm around to grab at my back and pull me on top of her. I continued my rough movements, the sound of our slick skin loud in the otherwise silent room.

  “You feel so fucking good,” I muttered gruffly into her ear, but she didn’t say anything in reply.

  Instead, she turned her head and found my lips in order to press a hard kiss to my mouth. Her hips started to match my movements, and I allowed that to propel me further as I pumped in and out of her at a nearly impossible speed. I was very grateful for my Fae stamina in that moment. When I was human, my muscles would have already been burning and begging for a change in position, but now they were completely fine.

  “I’m going to--oh God!” Kalista all but screamed out as her movements became sloppy and her hips rotated in messy circles around me.

  Just as her walls clenched in and the heat around my dick increased, I felt the inferno of pleasure that whirled through me as my own orgasm took over. I managed to pump in and out of her a few more times as I brought us both down from our high, and then I slipped out of her and threw myself down on the mattress.

  Meanwhile, Kalista had slid even further down into her arched-back position.<
br />
  “How the hell are you so good at that?” I asked breathily as I stared up at my blank white ceiling.

  “Lotsa practice, Milton,” she mumbled into the mattress, “and it helps to have a good partner.”

  Finally, Kalista rolled onto her back and flung out an arm to rest on my stomach. We lay in a comfortable silence as we both stared out the window and watched the blue sky sparkle in the early morning.

  “What do you think is going to happen?” the dwarf asked in an uncharacteristically small voice. “Do you think everything is going to be alright?”

  Instantly, I rolled over to face her. A lone strand of hair was stuck to her forehead, and I brushed it off her face gently as she continued to gaze out the window.

  “Hey,” I said softly. I thumbed her cheek and waited for her to look at me with her wide violet eyes.

  “I’m not scared,” she said, immediately and rather unconvincingly. “It’s just that we don’t know what we’re up against, and even with all of our Hands, what if we’re not strong enough to, well … ”

  She trailed off and drew her bottom lip into her mouth nervously.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked in as I took on a joking tone. “There is not a single Fae in this world that can take us on. ‘Hero Complex’ isn’t just a title, baby!”

  Kalista let out a musical laugh at my joke and rolled her eyes. I thought about her words and something niggled at the back of my mind.

  Professor Limmer.

  “Oh my God!” I exclaimed as I realized why I’d thought of him. “Get dressed.” I bolted from the bed and dashed over to pull out the first pair of pants I could get my hands on.

  “What--” she started, but I cut her off in my excited state.

  “We’re not going to the nether realm today,” I replied as I yanked a grey shirt over my head. “We’re going back to see Professor Limmer.”

  “Professor Limmer?” she questioned. “You mean the old dryad who couldn’t remember where his glasses were if they were sitting right on his nose?”