by D. R. Rosier
“Sean,” she begged, “Fill me. Please, give me your pleasure. I need it.”
He recognized the hot look in her eyes, and the deep pleasure on her face. She was holding back her own orgasm in that moment, so that she could cum around his cock when he filled her. She struggled to hold herself on that edge, even as she bucked up into him harder, squeezed and ground their bodies together almost desperately in the short split second their bodies met, before rocking their hips apart.
He grunted, “Cass!”
She trembled and shook on the edge, and when the blissful euphoria took his body and mind by storm, and his cock pulsed deep inside of her, she screamed his name and let herself be launched over the edge. Her eyes widened with pleasure and looked up into his while lost in bliss, and the devoted love on her face in that shared moment of vulnerable rapture as always, blew his mind.
He kissed her softly, as they came down, and her arms pulled him down tighter against her as she rubbed herself playfully against him.
“We don’t have time for that.”
She pouted, “More. Please?” she begged in a sultry naughty voice.
He laughed, “Wicked woman, I love you. Shower time. Unless you’ve learned how to slow time?”
She giggled, “Not yet. That’s next week. I’m just teasing anyway, mostly.”
They rolled out of bed and got into the shower. The water was a little chilly, but that was fixed with a quickly muttered spell on Cassie’s part, and they quickly soaped each other up and rinsed off without much play time being involved.
She said, “So, tell me.”
“Kim sent me a list of seven villages, including the one closest to them. The other six are where the eighteen women belong. There’s also a young priestess, a lot of villages could really use a healer that stops by at least once a year.”
Cassie nodded, “I wish I could do more that way, but sorcery is just good for healing broken bones, and some wounds.”
“I know, but we can only do what we can. If we’re lucky, she’ll find a few more among our hundred villages with the potential to wield the magic of the gods. Only another priest could find them.”
Cassie asked, “Is she cute?”
He grunted, “Almost as beautiful as you are, but don’t scare her away. I want her to feel comfortable with the idea of living in this house, without feeling pressured into anything.”
Cassie laughed, “I won’t. Just… figuring out the possibilities. I’ve never watched you fuck a priestess before.”
He spanked her ass, “Behave, woman.”
She bit her lip, then started to giggle rather naughtily.
“If you want me to behave, that’s not the best way to encourage it.”
He snickered, but she had a good point. Spankings only encouraged his Cassie.
They finished up and dried off, then pulled on some nice clothes. He pulled on a pair of dark gray Dockers and a collared dark blue shirt. She slipped on a cute and tightly conforming red sundress, sandals, and a light blue women’s blazer which made her outfit leave some things to the imagination.
One advantage to having zombies was the free to loot in the cities. Zombies were immune to the radiation that killed, though it did put a slightly larger drain on the life force in them. All of the stuff in the cities was contaminated of course, but Cassie’s magic cleansed whatever he’d pulled out of there. Not just clothes, and stuff like medicine, soap, or toothpaste, but a lot of gold, silver, and jewels.
Those latter three weren’t about the riches, it was about Cassie’s experiments in enchanting and magic. Precious metals and gems seemed to hold more magic than more common metals and semi-precious crystalline structures. Her work is what led to him discovering how to enchant swords, so he didn’t have to be at every battle, or be at every criminal execution for the rapists and murderers.
A sorceress could only cast so much magic a day, or their life force would grow too low and they’d prematurely age. One of the serious problems they’d run into was logistics. He was in charge of a hundred farming communities or villages along the entire west coast. His zombies would relay information from Washington, then northern California, then Oregon, and travel took a long time by horse.
Teleportation was possible with sorcery, but it was an extremely magic intensive spell, his Cassie couldn’t cast it safely more than once a day. Except, she’d figured out how to enchant it using a magical language of her own creation. The gold medallion with a precious gem in the center merely needed a tiny influx of magic to activate, then it would draw the magic it needed from the world around them, and teleport them where they needed to go. It took so little magic she could literally teleport them between towns hundreds of times a day before overdoing it.
Of course, the limitation to an enchantment was that it was set and unchangeable, including the destination. That meant Cassie had made over a hundred of those medallions the last four years, one for each settlement. So, after getting dressed they went to the office, and picked out the seven medallions they needed. They were all hung on the wall, that had a large map of the west coast including all two hundred plus known communities, his in blue and the rest in yellow.
Of the six communities only four of them were his, but he had communities near the other two and could send the women there, and then offer them a zombie escort to their final destination. A trip of five to ten miles, instead of over a hundred.
The eighth medallion, the one that would take them home, was always secured by a necklace around Cassie’s neck.
The women had been held in a large house very close to one of his communities, close enough that it annoyed him they weren’t caught sooner. Cassie transported them both there, and they headed out of the village and toward where the women were being held. It’d take them about twenty minutes to walk the two miles. If it’d been much farther, they’d have brought horses.
Cassie said, “I think my experiment in the basement is almost done.”
He smirked, “I’ve heard that before.”
She grinned, “For real this time. It was very complicated, but it’ll be worth it if it works.”
He couldn’t argue with that. He loved southern California in the wintertime, but it got a bit too hot in the summer.
“We can try it later, after we get Mara settled, or back to her community depending on her decision.”
She grinned salaciously, “Mara, is it? Sounds exotic.”
He laughed, “Behave woman.”
She said teasingly, “You keep saying that, but I know you don’t mean it.”
Probably not, he loved that she was a handful, and more than little wicked. Sure, she was insanely loyal, breathlessly obedient to his every desire behind closed doors, and while he loved that about her, it would get boring if she didn’t challenge him and wasn’t stubborn in other ways on occasion. She was a lot of things, and a complicated powerful woman.
He took her hand spontaneously, which earned him a besotted smile from his blonde-haired beauty. He took one look at the nervously assembled women as they arrived, and squeezed Cassie’s hand as he let go. He knew he could be intimidating even under the best of circumstances, between the zombies and his reputation. The last thing these abused women needed was an intimidating man hovering over them.
Kim looked over and smiled as she came his way, while Lin stayed with the ladies as Cassie closed the distance alone and started talking about what would happen.
Kim and Lin were absolutely gorgeous, sexy and trim athletic bodies, except for their generous breasts. Their faces had that exotic and fragile feminine beauty of the east, and they were undeniably tempting, and completely available to him. However, after what happened with Cynthia, he’d refused to sleep with or have a relationship with any of his other zombies.
That was mostly easy, because most of his zombies were male, killed and then transformed from the evil men they were, into protectors with his own morals and respect for women. Men didn’t tempt him in that way. But Kim and Lin
had been two of the corpses he’d raised so long ago on the edges of Los Angeles. The twins had lost their first lives to the alien ships and their deadly beams.
They were mostly free willed, and pursued their own things separate from him, even thought differently on some subjects and had diverse interests. But… his own wants and needs, even a subconscious selfish desire he had no control of, inevitably influenced that free will in some way. They were definitely their own people, but they were also tempting little minxes when it came to him. Cassie had argued on their behalf, that he should welcome them into their bed, allow them to seduce him, but so far he’d stood fast on his decision.
It wasn’t completely about moral compunctions, which he honestly wasn’t completely sure about to begin with. The whole thing was a little sticky. After all, regardless of the cause, if he gave in to the idea then he’d be giving Kim and Lin their fondest desire. That thought was a little twisty, but it also wasn’t wrong. Where that desire sprung from was almost immaterial. Regardless, they were complicated powerful women, who just happened to be his zombies as well. The point is they felt that desire, and it was being unfulfilled.
He just… couldn’t. No matter how stunning he found them, or how intensely loyal and fierce they were, almost a match for Cassie that way, if in a different way.
Besides the dubious morality of it, he also feared the same loss he’d faced with Cynthia would revisit him if he allowed himself to fall for them. They were sweet, caring, and strong women, who were also fiercely protective of those who would be victimized by evil men and women. They were his best team for tracking down abusive communes, but more often than not they were his and Cassie’s personal guards when there were no leads to track down. He had other teams wandering around and looking for trouble. He’d only sent them because they’d been chasing these assholes for two years, cleaning up after their messes.
Kim said, “Hi boss, thanks for giving us the night off.”
He laughed, “Glad you enjoyed yourselves. Anything to report?”
Kim replied, “Nothing you don’t already know. They’re pretty bad off and have a long road ahead of them. But it’s a road to recovery that they wouldn’t have had at all, if it wasn’t for you. I hope you have a good sales pitch prepared, master. I got the impression Mara’s willing to listen but has already decided she needs to get back to the four communities she serves. She seems good though. She wasn’t abused at all, and she kept the other women safe for the last month. She is feeling guilty, and the horror of course, but she should put it behind her fast.”
He nodded, “We’ll see. They look okay? Just a little shock.”
Kim sighed, “That’s post shower, and post healing. Three of them were on death’s door just a half hour ago, the ones she couldn’t protect. She’d also healed the other fifteen a month ago, all with various sprains, broken bones, lacerations, and such.”
He frowned, of course, she was a healer priestess. He was seeing the sanitized end. The only evidence of horror left was in their haunted eyes and stilted stances.
Mara was even lovelier in person. Her face had that soft and exotic beauty that could only exist in a woman of mixed parentage. She also gave off a peaceful and compelling presence in person, even from the thirty feet separating them in that moment. Her life force was a beacon of power, and her body was lithe, petite, and athletic.
He certainly wouldn’t mind if Cassie succeeded into seducing her into their bed, but only if her personality was compatible and it wouldn’t drive her off. He’d rather have her as an ally in the same house, for all the good she could with their assistance and ability to get around so quickly.
Cassie finished up her speech and used the amulets to teleport the first four groups quickly back to their home villages. The last five women from the other two would have a walk ahead of them.
He sent some mental commands, to have two of his security zombies waiting at the teleport point to escort them home. He chose the smallest men possible for the job, it was the best he could do that way. The two communities would be just fine with only eight zombies to protect them and police them for a few hours.
The last two groups went, and he walked over with Kim to join Mara and Lin.
He said, “Can we offer you breakfast? We can talk over our offer to you afterwards.”
Mara looked a little uncomfortable, not afraid exactly, but definitely concerned. He hoped that was just about his infamous reputation, and a little time with him and Cassie would erase it.
Mara said, “That would be welcome, thank you.”
Her voice was dulcetly kind, but a bit strained in that moment.
Cassie teleported them home.
Chapter Two
The breakfast was pleasant, and he noted Mara had been surprised and pleased to find out their cook was human. Not all their servants were of the undead kind, some of the women he’d saved had chosen to stay with him out of loyalty and lived in houses close by. Still, it was a very small community, he’d had to take a step back to do what he needed to, and let the people handle the rest.
Which was the core of his pitch, actually.
The talk over breakfast had been casual and just a little forced in places, as they tried to feel each other out. Mara no doubt had flaws like every other human, but she was also a dedicated healer and woman of faith in her goddess. She had a serenity even in her insecurity about her immediate future. She impressed him, in short, and he wasn’t worried at all about them getting along if she decided to stay.
She had the kind of aura and presence that most would get along with, except those of evil slant or perhaps those that flourished in a negative environment.
“So, what we’d like to offer is this. The people in our villages and farming communities are prospering in many ways under my protection, so they can focus on living and not just surviving. But, there are a number of deaths every year from sickness that Cassie’s sorcery can’t address, or deaths in childbirth, or accidents.
“We’d like to offer you an alliance, a place in our home. You’d be compensated with good food, clothes, servants, all your temporal worries would be taken care of. All so you could focus on your calling as a priestess. I was thinking you could have an official visit with each of my villages once a year. To take care of any non-critical but deadly in the long-term diseases or things like that. You’d also be exposed to a lot more people, increasing the chances of finding an acolyte to study under you, and also aid our people in the way that you do.”
Mara frowned, “One day a year? It’s a full-time job to do what I do for four communities. There’s no way I could take care of a hundred of them.”
He nodded patiently, “That sounded like two concerns, so let me address both of them. One day a year official visits, that’s less than a third of a year with a hundred villages. The rest of the time you’d be putting out proverbial fires, emergency visits. My zombie guards will act as messengers. A birth going bad, someone falls off a roof and breaks their neck, or a bad disease rampages through the town. That’s where we come in and can help you in your mission. We can get you to any of the villages in seconds the same way we brought you here. We’d also guard you, in addition to Kim and Lin, so you wouldn’t have to fear capture again. Think of it like a doctor on emergency call, we’d get you where you were truly needed in moments, in the places where death would follow quickly otherwise.”
He paused for a moment, and he was pleased to see she was really thinking about it. During breakfast she’d seemed a bit… distracted, though he had no idea by what.
“The second problem,” he trailed off thoughtfully and tilted his head, then straightened up and leaned forward slightly, “Alright, let me come at it this way. Right after emergence, I saved a group of women in Walmart, being held and abused by a rape gang. I started a community by one of the reservoirs, quickly adding children and whole families from the area, and I used my undead minions for just about everything. I had them planting crops, gathering mattresses, cl
othes, dry foods, entertainment, boos, medicines, how-to books, and I defended the place from raiders.
“Some of the people helped, a lot actually, with running water and other types of engineering feats without technology. But by and large I was doing far too much. The hardest thing I had to learn was to step back, which is why I live in relative isolation. People flourish and grow in adversity, but they fall apart and become weak when it’s all done for them. It’s a simple truth, that can’t be denied, though the ignorant and the entitled would call it selfish nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a truth of human nature. What’s the saying? Idle hands are the devil’s playground.
“Regardless, it was kind of important at the time to do all that if we wanted to live through that first winter without technology. But then I backed off in a big way when spring came, thanks to Cassie’s wise counsel. The people in my communities now work for themselves, and flourish by doing so. All I do is protect them, enforce the laws, and search the countryside for communes that victimize people. In short, I do what I must, what others can’t do as well, and not one bit more. Which is what allows me to have so many communities under my care.”
Mara frowned, “You’re implying I do too much?”
He shook his head, “Not too much, exactly. Doing what I have in mind will keep you just as busy, but more focused on what others can’t do. You mentioned several things during our meal that doesn’t require the miraculous power of a goddess to accomplish. Non-magical people can build a pretechnological way to purify their water supply, they just haven’t bothered because you do it for them. They can oversee most births with a non-magical mid-wife without a problem. They can also send normal people to set up trade deals, or to open up talks for some kind of other exchange between communities. People also get better from a cold or flu, without magic.
“This isn’t about arrogance, but we are people of power. We can’t save everyone, but to truly save as many as we can, we have to focus on only doing the big things that others can’t. So yes, I’m saying you can save the most people by saving only those that can’t be healed without strong magic from a goddess. That if a birth goes bad, and needs you, you can be summoned to any of the towns within minutes, from here, using my zombies as an alert network. You can also do more by being known in all those places, and in spreading the word of your goddess much farther while searching for others with your potential to wield miracles.”
