Remnant II

by Randi Darren

  “I… you’re…” Nancy hesitated, pausing mid-sentence. “You’re going to go in all by yourself?”

  “That I am,” Steve confirmed. “Because if I don’t have to risk any of you, I never will again. And honestly, you’re all better at fighting the Creep than you are other living beings.

  “Me? Whatever I did to myself, made me a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus. And I’m going to rain down pain on her like she’s never even considered before.”

  “Alright,” Lucia murmured. “Let’s say you capture Linne without a problem. What should we do? Where should we go? We can’t get back up that wall without you, you realize.”

  “That’s not true at all,” Steve said with a laugh. “All you have to do is use witch-stone to lift yourself up to the top of the wall.

  “Jaina could probably do it on her own without any help at all.”

  “Oh. Oh, yes,” Lucia said, shaking her head. “Honestly, I’m not used to the fact that we have such power available to us.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s what everyone else is going to feel when I ram my Creep Witch, witch-knight forces down their throats,” Steve growled. “Unless, of course… unless, of course, the queen can see reason. If she can do what I want her to and not make me have to crush her skull like a melon.

  “As for you, my sweet butterfly—”

  Steve paused to turn to his side. Reaching over Nancy, and partially leaning into her on purpose, he laid a hand on Lucia’s jaw and pulled at her gently. Meeting her lips with his, he kissed her tenderly for several seconds.

  Breaking the kiss, he patted her cheek and then laid his hand on Nancy’s rear end.

  He had some ideas on how to make Nancy feel miserable going forward. First and foremost was to see if he could get her jealousy engaged.

  If he could do that, he had an easy way to keep her happy.

  “Go get as many supplies as you can. Wagons of them. Then bring them back to this citadel city,” Steve said. “Because regardless of anything else, no matter what happens, my goal will still be to claim the Creep lands.”

  “Mmm. I’ll take care of it,” Lucia said with a chuckle. “Suppose that’ll make me the queen of the Creep lands, if you’ll be its king?”

  “And Lamals. You’ll be the queen of Lamals,” Steve said. Then he squeezed Nancy’s rear end, kissed the side of her face, and stood up.

  Moving forward at a jog, Steve took only two seconds to get to a full-on run.

  Which immediately became leaping strides.

  Getting both his feet under him, he kicked off the ground.

  And flew away into the night. Straight towards Linne’s citadel.

  Thirty-Three

  Slamming into the top of the citadel fortress with far more force than he’d been expecting, Steve grabbed at it with his whole body.

  He needn’t have worried about falling off, though. In fact, he should have been far more concerned with the fact that he wasn’t Human.

  There was a loud crackle as a spiderweb of cracks spread out in a vaguely humanoid shape.

  “Oh, fuck,” Steve grumbled, laying a hand on the stonework. “I’ll have to get that fixed after I stuff Linne’s head up her own ass.”

  Looking down, he could see guards moving around below. They seemed agitated, but they were all looking toward the stream of Creep and zombies going through the open gates of the citadel.

  “Yeah, that’d probably make me rather angry, too,” Steve mumbled. “I’ll need to make sure I use only witch-knights and Creep Witches for the citadel. Loyal to me and no one else.”

  Frowning, Steve looked at the stonework in front of him.

  As far as he could remember, Linne was in this part of the building, though more towards the bottom of the top. He wasn’t quite sure what was actually up here.

  Steve shrugged. This was as good an entry as any.

  Pulling with his fingers, he forcefully dislodged several large stones. He pulled them free one by one and hurled them into the Creep lands.

  The last thing he needed was any of this falling on the soldiers below him.

  After working a number of stones free, he managed to make a hole large enough to get through.

  When he peered into the dark interior, Steve couldn’t see or hear anything. Nothing to tell him if this was actually a room that led down toward Linne’s bedroom.

  Probably a damn sealed-off attic with her “good” twin she’s kept locked away since birth.

  The evil cunt.

  Stepping into the room, Steve scratched at his stomach. Then he looked down at himself when it felt like he couldn’t really reach it.

  He was wearing the armor Airlea had made him.

  Patting the plates over his stomach, Steve knew he needed to thank her. He didn’t need armor, but the effort and craftsmanship she’d put into it was at a master’s level.

  More so than that, it’d been made out of Kassandra’s scales.

  Walking deeper into the room, Steve kept his eyes moving. He needed to find a way out or down from here, but so far he hadn’t seen anything at all. It was starting to look like this really was just a sealed-off room.

  Steve bumped into a pillar he hadn’t seen, then took a few steps back.

  Shit. Okay, yeah. I’m in some type of… load… bearing… ceiling… place.

  Whatever.

  Off to one side, Steve could see a faint bit of light filtering up from the ground.

  Moving that way quickly, he found it wasn’t anything he’d been looking for, but it might do.

  The mortar that was holding the bricks together here seemed to have partially crumbled away.

  Frowning, he looked down at the light that was allowing him to see his boots.

  Okay. Ah… I guess I could break into whatever room that is from he—AHH!

  Steve was caught off guard as the floor fell out from under him, the stones giving way under his weight.

  Steve crashed into a table and ended up splayed out on top of it.

  He didn’t hurt at all, but the wind had been knocked out of him.

  Wheezing softly, he rolled to one side and fell off the table.

  “…was that!?” said a voice from not far off.

  Groaning, Steve scurried forward and slid behind a counter. Pushing his back up against it, he had to grab his pickaxe and shovel as they partially came out of their loops. Their handles wedged into the ground.

  “What…?” asked a second voice.

  “The ceiling?” replied the first voice. “Yeah, the ceiling. Do you think—”

  There was a soft yelp, followed by a clatter. It sounded like more stones were falling.

  “Mortar’s little better than sand,” said the second voice. “Look at this. I can just touch it and—”

  There was another bang as what sounded like a stone fell and slammed into the coffee table.

  “Stop it—are you trying to make it worse? You’re as dumb as the pen soldiers sometimes,” lectured the first.

  “I mean, the masons are going to have to pull it all down anyways. Don’t be such a bitch,” complained the second. “Look at this. It’s just crumbling apart.”

  “Stop it. Whatever. Let’s just… go report this and get it cleaned up,” said the first with a sigh.

  Steve heard the click and tap of boots leaving after that.

  Well. I’m inside… now… so… now what?

  I should have brought Lucia or Nancy with me.

  Standing up, Steve pulled his axe out.

  There was no one in the room with him. The two soldiers really had left.

  Looking around, he got the impression he was in a rarely used guest suite. Bathroom, bedroom, and study included.

  Chewing at his lip, Steve skulked over to the doorway. He needed someone to tell him where Linne was.

  The two soldiers who’d just been in the room were nowhere to be seen when he peeked around the corner.

  Guh. For fuck’s sake.

  When he moved into the hallway, Steve on
ly found a set of stairs. He went down them and eventually came to a small common room with multiple doorways and stairs. A few led up, but many more led down.

  Fortunately, Steve actually recognized this place. He’d been on a never-ending climb upward last time, but he remembered walking through here.

  One of the staircases here led straight to Linne’s private rooms.

  Oh, this isn’t so bad after all.

  Moving up the stairs, Steve nearly ran over two soldiers who were coming down.

  He smashed one with his axe in the chest and grabbed the other around the throat.

  Groaning, the woman who no longer really had a chest went down in a heap and a clatter. Blood and gore splashed all over the stairs as her corpse started to slide down them.

  “Well, fuck,” Steve said, looking to the soldier he had around the throat. Giving her a light squeeze, he smiled at her. “Now… I’m looking for Linne. Is she at the top of these stairs?”

  Nodding her head rapidly, the soldier—who was holding on to Steve’s wrist with both hands—was already starting to turn bright red.

  “Mm, well, alright then,” Steve muttered.

  Holding onto the soldier, he walked down the stairs to find the corpse at the bottom. He grabbed her by a limp arm and started dragging her up the stairs. In his other hand, he held on to the other soldier by the throat. He was being careful not to kill her, though. He might need her, for all he knew.

  “Any other guards up here?” Steve asked, looking at the soldier.

  She shook her head, holding on to his wrist and looking more like a tomato.

  “Huh. Any reason I need to keep you alive?” Steve asked.

  Wincing, the soldier didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. She forced her watering eyes open and looked at Steve.

  Opening her mouth, she tried to say something, but Steve’s grip was too tight.

  He moved his thumb and released his hold on her.

  “Well?” he asked, quirking a brow.

  “No,” said the woman with a sputter.

  Huh.

  Shrugging his shoulders, Steve pressed his thumb back down and put pressure back on the soldier’s throat. Then he started climbing the stairs again.

  He appreciated honesty and blunt responses. He understood them.

  When he reached the top stair, Steve knew exactly where he was. Moving quickly, he entered the study he’d found Linne in last.

  “What is it?” asked a voice from around the corner.

  Steve immediately looked at the soldier still in his hand. Then he motioned with his head toward Linne and let go of her throat.

  Taking a gasping breath, the soldier nodded rapidly as she looked up at Steve.

  “Well?” called Linne, sounding much angrier now.

  “Sorry, Commander, I only came to report that I’ve taken care of the issue per your orders,” said the soldier. Her voice only sounded partially strained. “The chamberlain reports it should be cleaned, cleared, and repaired by tomorrow evening.”

  “Oh. Alright,” Linne replied, sounding much more bored than annoyed now. “Good work. You may go.”

  “Of course, Commander,” said the soldier.

  Nodding his head at that, Steve smiled at the soldier. Then he closed his hand on her throat again and began to squeeze. Her face instantly turned red, and her eyes teared up and closed.

  After dropping the corpse of the other soldier into a chair nearby, Steve turned and closed the door behind him.

  As he walked through the study, he found it was exactly as he remembered it.

  He passed through a doorway to find he was now in what was likely Linne’s bedroom.

  But there was no commander.

  Peering around, he found another doorway off to one side. Now that he was closer, he could hear the soft splash of water.

  Figuring the commander was taking a bath, Steve walked over to the bed and pressed the soldier down into it.

  Slowly, he let go of her. Her strained soft breaths normalized in about a minute. Then her eyes opened.

  Reaching down, Steve tapped her leg.

  “Put your—”

  Before he could finish telling her to put her legs together, the soldier spread her legs wide apart, and her hands moved down to her belt buckle.

  “Uh, no,” Steve denied in a whisper, already realizing what she was doing. “Put your legs together. Going to tie you up.”

  The soldier looked absolutely thrilled at that idea, in comparison to what she’d clearly thought he wanted. Nodding her head, she pressed her hands together in front of her, and then her legs.

  Reaching down to the soldier’s belt, he started to unhitch it.

  “I won’t… I won’t do or say anything,” said the soldier, staring up at him with wide green eyes. “I’ll just lie here. Promise. I’ll just… lie here and… be quiet.”

  “You’ll be quiet?” Steve asked, looking into her face.

  She was cute, much in the way so many lower-class soldiers were. Steve would say she wasn’t to his personal taste, but she wasn’t bad looking.

  “Yes,” declared the soldier. “Yes. If you mount me, leave me here, beat me, I’ll be quiet. Just… ah… just… don’t kill me?”

  Steve wrinkled his nose at that.

  He had no intention of raping the young woman. She wasn’t a champion he was supposed to kill, nor was she his opponent in any way.

  This woman was little better than what a farmhand would be to Steve.

  “Then lie there and be silent,” he said.

  Licking her lips, the soldier smiled shakily at that. “Yes. Lie here, be silent. Ah… I’m… I’m—”

  “Not interesting to me,” Steve said, giving her a weird look. “Shut up.”

  Shaking his head, he moved away from the bed and crept up on the bathroom.

  Linne was indeed bathing. She was casually lying there in the water, unmoving. The beautiful cat-girl was soaked, her hair wet and pulled back across the top of her head.

  Grinning, Steve walked into the bathroom openly. His heart was hammering in his chest. Just looking at this woman made him shiver uncontrollably with rage. His skin felt cold, and his stomach folded in on itself.

  “Weren’t you leaving?” asked Linne, not bothering to open her eyes.

  Reaching the tub, Steve squatted down in front of it, staring hungrily at Linne.

  “Leave. I don’t have any needs right no—”

  Linne’s nose twitched once, and her ears slowly flattened to the top of her head. Suddenly, she let out a slow breath, sinking into the tub, her chin tilting toward her chest.

  “Hello, Steven Bril,” Linne muttered.

  “Evening, dead lady,” Steve purred at her.

  “I… I didn’t know,” Linne said, not opening her eyes. Her hands sank into the tub and moved to cover her womanhood. “I had no idea they were your wives. I truly… truly didn’t know. I had… I didn’t know.”

  “Awfully sweet of you to say that,” Steve said, getting closer to Linne. To the point that his mouth and nose were next to her ear.

  Sniffing at her, he pressed his nose into her ear. Then he proceeded to smell down the side of her head.

  “I… yes. I mean it. If I had known they were yours, I wouldn’t have taken such an ac-ac-action,” Linne said, her words catching as Steve leaned back up to her ear and sniffed it once more.

  “And how do you plan to make it up to me, Linne? You killed four of them. Four of my wives,” Steve whispered, his left hand coming up. “Killing you rather than handing you over to the queen for execution seems ideal to me.”

  Trembling, shaking, and looking more like a claw, his hand hovered in front of Linne’s throat.

  Tear out her throat and fuck her right in the eye as she dies. Right through her pretty eye and into her rotten brain.

  “I-I-I’ll do whatever I must, of course,” Linne said. “I’ll be your wife, your-your-your everything. I’ll bear you as many children as I can. I’ll give you
so many litters that-that you won’t even know what to do with them all.

  “I’ve never been married and my whole—”

  Steve rested his hand on Linne’s throat, his fingers slowly closing into her soft flesh.

  “Do you really think you can take their place?” Steve asked, his lips inside her ear now. He wasn’t squeezing the life out of her, wasn’t even causing her any harm yet, but he had a very firm grip on her throat. “Can you bed me with the ferocity of four women? Cater to my needs as if you were four women? Can you truly give me everything they could have?”

  “Of-of course,” Linne said. “I’ll make your entire life a blissful one. I-I-I can be anything to you. I’ll do anything to you, or for you. You can do anything to-to me.”

  “And what would be your price for all of this? Mmmm? What would you want for me to let you live, Linne?” Steve asked, his breathing becoming almost irregular. He wanted to sink his teeth into Linne’s ear and tear it off her head.

  She smelled like flowers and soap. He wanted to defile her, break her, and then murder her.

  Leave her broken corpse at the bottom of an outhouse.

  He’d rather sleep with a zombie than Linne.

  “Oh, j-just my life. That’s all,” Linne said as if it were the easiest thing in the world. “That’s it. Nothing else. I’ll give you all of m-me in exchange for you letting me live.

  “I’m sure I’m worth more alive than d-dead.”

  Leaning up, Steve sank his teeth into Linne’s ear. Biting down just hard enough that he knew it was probably a slight pain, he pulled at it.

  “Ahhhh, p-please,” Linne said. “Don’t. I can give you so much. I’ll do so much.”

  He pulled harder on her ear, until he got the impression he was just a little way away from breaking the skin.

  Sighing, he let go of her ear.

  A better man would kill her and spare her humiliation. A better man would let her end her life without suffering.

  A better man, Steve was not.

  “No,” Steve said, and started to squeeze just a little harder. “But if you give everything to me in exchange for absolutely nothing, I might accept that.

  “Oh… would you rather drown in the bathtub… or be strangled?”