by Noah Layton
Elena was spread out on the bed in her lacy red lingerie, eating from a tub of ice cream.
James had returned in the middle of the night after wandering the city for a little while. After picking up the candy and milk that he had promised them, he returned to the apartment and found the girls fast asleep beneath the covers. Figuring that there was no space on the bed and that he didn’t want to wake them from their slumber, James grabbed a stack of blankets and stretched out on the couch, wrapping himself up for some much-needed sleep.
He told himself that he would deal with the problems his new group faced in the morning, but his goddesses were way ahead of him. Instead of waking up ahead of them, his eyes flickered open around 7am to the sight of two silhouettes looking down at him, arms folded.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Arifa said, a curvy, slender hip arched to one side as her ears waved slightly from side to side.
‘What do you mean?’ He yawned, a little startled by their sudden appearance.
‘You slept by yourself,’ Elena said. ‘A goddess master never sleeps on his own, and he definitely doesn’t just sleep in his own bed. Sleep is sacred, and the bed that a master shares with his goddesses is even more sacred.’
Moments later he was under the covers in his clothes, his goddesses snuggling up, Arifa on his right and Elena on his left. They had been pretty damn insistent about getting into bed with him, but James wasn’t going to argue with that idea – it was the kind of thing that he had fantasised about on more than one occasion in his life. More than a few, actually…
They took no time in pulling off his clothes, and now surrounded him on either side as they escaped the bitter cold of autumn that lurked outside the window.
‘So you two seem to have figured things out pretty quickly,’ James remarked, looking between them. ‘You especially, Arifa. You’ve only been out of your cage for a few hours and now you’re in bed with us. Not that I’m complaining, obviously.’
‘Unification is important,’ Arifa said. ‘And so is sleep. I’m a cat-goddess, obviously. I get cranky when I’m tired.’
‘That figures. Now that you’re here, Arifa, you can confirm something else for me.’
‘Of course, master.’
‘Do all goddesses skimp around in their underwear all the time or is it just you two?’
‘All of them,’ she giggled. ‘All of the goddesses are beautiful creatures, and it would be a terrible thing for us to just cover ourselves up!... But it also helps when we’re trying to get what we want from any unsuspecting men.’
Arifa giggled, running a soft hand up to James’s cheeks and over the stubble on his face. He only realised himself then that hair had begun to grow on his face. He had always had trouble growing a beard before any of this had started with it always coming through in spotty patches, but now it was consistent across his face and growing fast.
Feeling his new cat-goddess running her hands over him and pressing her petite, slender body against his, James found himself already growing harder. That matter wasn’t exactly helped by Elena’s curves pushing up against him as she ran her nails lightly over his toned chest, sliding down the ripples of his abs.
It might’ve been cold outside but the heat from his body was more than enough for the three of them.
‘I definitely need to hear more about this cat-world of yours, Arifa,’ James said, as she giggled once again and ran her hand onto his chest as Elena had done, both of them now sinking their slender, expert fingers down to his waist.
James closed his eyes, finally able to relax for the first time in days, despite the fact that his mind was working overtime to turn his senses up to a 100. A fantasy for years, now literally in the making in his own bed with the two sexiest girls he had ever met – at the same time.
But just as that reality pushed ever closer, he remembered Alerian and Ascevious’s words.
We can see you.
The call of being pleasured by two insanely hot goddesses was one thing, but knowing that there were two gods within him who were watching what he was doing like he was a car and they were the drivers was too much.
‘Uhh…’ James said, sitting up and dragging himself away from the girls. ‘I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but this is too weird.’
‘Master?’ Elena said, looking concerned. ‘What’s the matter? Are we not… Pleasuring you correctly?’
‘No, no, it’s nothing like that,’ James said quickly. ‘You were both doing a great job. It’s just…’
He tried to search for the right words, before realising that the only way to explain the problem was by addressing exactly what had happened last night head on.
He told his goddesses everything – the rooftop running, the meeting with the gods, and the watching from within.
‘We need to get them out of you,’ Arifa said. ‘Ascevious at the very least.’
‘That’s not a possibility,’ Elena said. ‘If we remove the part of Ascevious’s soul from you then two very bad things will happen; first, that part will re-join with his actual self somewhere in the city and tell him everything about our plans and movements, as well as returning his weakened powers to their full ability, giving him the upper hand in stopping us. Second, you risk losing your powers, at which point we will have no way of defeating him.’
Therein lied the problem for James; keep them inside of him and he would always be thinking about how these two perverts were watching his actions from the inside, including his actions with his girls. On the other hand, if they were removed then he would have no powers left, and all would be lost, including the two goddesses who were now serving him.
‘Is there no way to, I don’t know…’ James started. ‘Push them down inside of me, so I can retain their powers and they won’t see anything? You’re the demon here, Elena, I thought exorcisms would be your field of knowledge.’
‘Exorcisms are different. They involve bringing something out of a host entirely. This is the opposite. Although there is something that could work. The Silencer Cast. Exorcisms are sometimes too taxing and exhausting, and performing them sometimes means risking killing the host.’
‘Not our master!’ Arifa cried, almost comically. She crawled over to James and snuggled up to his side again. She had been much more playful than Elena had been, and much more naturally closer and reliant on him – just like a cat, really.
‘It won’t kill him,’ Elena smiled, shaking her head. ‘The Silencer Cast, like you said, quietens any forces within. They are pushed into the quiet depths within the host.’
‘Perfect,’ James replied, running a hand through Arifa’s hair. ‘Let’s just do that.’
‘The spell is complex, and I do not know it from memory. We must seek out the book that contains it.’
‘Another thing to seek out…’ James said. ‘Any idea what this book’s called?’
A few minutes later James was sat on his computer chair, typing in Saritarius IV into the search bar in his browser. Elena was stretched on the bed in her usually hedonistic position with the tub of ice cream while Arifa attempted to sit in the seat with James before finally realising that it wasn’t going to work; reconciling with the problem, she collapsed into his lap.
Whether it was the heat of the gods or this ridiculously sexy goddess wrapping her arms around him James didn’t know, but he couldn’t help the hardness of his cock pressing against Arifa’s behind – all she did was shake her hips, teasing him casually.
‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that,’ James said, wincing with a resisted pleasure as he tried to focus on the screen.
‘Why?’ Arifa said, shuffling again as her ears twitched and her lips pouted just a few inches from his own.
She might have been loyal, but that didn’t mean this cat goddess wasn’t going to mess with him.
So that’s the way she’s gonna be, huh?
James knew that was his own thought.
‘Because,’ he said, leaning clos
er to her and bringing his lips close to one of her ears, ‘Your master is waiting for the right time to bend you over and take you.’
Again, he couldn’t help but wonder where the hell it had come from. The heat of the gods, obviously, but when your words don’t feel like your own, James couldn’t be blamed for questioning himself.
Arifa looked at James with a mocked shock expression before biting her lips and giggling that perfect sound once again.
Returning to the computer screen he scrolled through the results. The Saritarius IV, that’s what Elena had said. It was the alleged spell book that held the enchantment they were looking for, even if James had never heard of it. Finding a directory on available public copies, James scrolled through in an attempt to find a nearby library in the city.
‘Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,’ James smiled.
‘What is it?’ Elena asked.
‘There’s a copy close by. Really close by, actually.’
‘Where?’
‘The Plaza Library… As in the one at the college.’
‘Your college?’
‘The one where I study… I can’t believe an actual text that can perform exorcisms has been in my college building this whole time, sat on a shelf right in the middle of there.’
James studied the cover of the book while Elena flicked through channels on the TV. He had taught her how to use the remote after they had gotten out of bed, although a small part of him was regretting that considering how much channel-hopping she was doing.
‘Oh, no…’
For the first time James heard a tinge of fear in her voice. He looked over in her direction, leaning past Arifa’s figure.
‘Everything okay?’
Elena stared at the TV. Picking up Arifa and moving her to her feet, where she promptly pounced onto the couch, James crossed to the back of it and looked at exactly what had thrown his goddess off.
A news broadcast played, one pushed by one of the seedier news channels that would put anything and everything to play as long as it drew more viewers.
‘If you’ve just joined us, we’re broadcasting some of the most horrifying images that this city has witnessed in recent memory. Police were called to a downtown bar after its doors were closed to patrons in unlikely hours early this morning. After being forced open by friends of the current owner, law enforcement entered the building to find nothing less than a massacre within.’
The narrative of the news reader stopped for a moment because the images spoke for themselves. One of the cameramen had managed to get a little closer than would normally be allowed before being pushed back by the cops, but the horror that lurked within was easy to identify, even with the gorier elements blurred out.
Body parts and pools of blood were everywhere, turning the room into what might as well have been one giant pixelated red mess. James had never seen anything like it.
‘Okay…’ He started. ‘I’m gonna go ahead and guess that this has something to do with Ascevious.’
‘He has unleashed his first minion,’ Elena said flatly. ‘The damage seems to be contained to this single location, so he would have unleashed the monster before recapturing him for a more strategic release.’
‘Like what?’
‘Somewhere with a lot of people,’ Arifa chimed in. ‘But with enough space for it to avoid detection.’
‘We must be on our guard for its appearance,’ Elena said. ‘It could occur at any time.’
James checked his phone – Twitter was already exploding with discussion and debate on the matter. The occasional shooting or stabbing was reported by police and then forgotten about by the public once the next sensationalised story was put in place, but something like this wouldn’t likely go away that easily. This was beyond anything he had ever seen before.
‘Let’s get to the library,’ James said. ‘Arifa, we’ll pick up some clothes for you on the way.’
Chapter Seventeen
Library
Just as with James’s axe, Arifa needed something to hide her sword. On the top of the kitchen cabinets he found what he was looking for; the long plastic cylinder containing his rolled-up graduation photo from when he was 18. He caught sight of himself in the picture. Long hair, braces, acne… All of that was gone now, of course, but James decided against showing it to the girls.
The sword slotted perfectly into the cylinder, the cap screwing on just over the handle for quick use if necessary.
Arifa looked pretty damn good in a similar get-up to Elena – skinny black jeans, sneakers and a band t-shirt, complete with a leather jacket. The only necessary addition was an over-sized beanie hat to hide her ears, which shift every so often with the movement of them.
Despite the temptation to indulge in having a girl on each arm, especially ones that looked like Arifa and Elena, James had to continually remind both of them not to link into his arms.
‘Why not?’ Arifa asked.
‘Because… Harems, I guess we’re calling them now, aren’t acceptable in this society. Well, they are. They’re not illegal or anything. But most people in the world frown upon it.’
‘Who cares what other people think. You’re part god now. Does it really bother you?’
‘It shouldn’t, but I don’t wanna draw any unwanted attention to us. I don’t know who to trust right now, especially considering what’s at stake.’
‘True.’
They arrived onto the college campus just after 10am. Things weren’t too busy considering the cold weather and that classes had just started – including a class that James should have been attending himself in a few hours.
Approaching the five-story library that James had spent countless hours within in the past, he slowed and took the girls to the side.
‘Nothing weird, okay? In the city pretty much everybody is a stranger, but here there are people that I might know. If anything strange happens then the staff will know how to find me.’
‘Nothing weird,’ Arifa said. ‘I promise.’
Elena had already become accustomed to most of the rules and conventions in just a matter of days, but Arifa was the one he was worrying about.
‘And no climbing up bookshelves, either.’
‘Yes, master.’
They headed through the rotating doors and into the lobby together. The book was located in the Archaic Texts section – third floor. The elevator would be the best option.
Or so James thought.
‘You want us to get in there?’ Arifa asked sceptically as the doors pinged open. ‘It’s tiny.’
‘You’ll be fine, trust me.’
James got inside, looking at the two of them with raised eyebrows.
‘See? I’m fine.’
Arifa was evidently more sceptical, but so was Elena. They both eventually shuffled inside.
‘What the hell is this thing?’ Elena asked as the doors closed.
‘It’s an elevator. It takes you up to the floor you want to go in a building.’
‘That’s why we used this world as an in-between,’ Elena said. ‘You humans don’t have magic or the technology that we have on your side, but it can’t be said that you’re not innovative.’
The moment the doors opened Arifa scrambled out, leaning against the railing of the stairs and taking deep breaths.
‘That was awful,’ she panted.
‘We’ll take the stairs when we go,’ James comforted. ‘I promise.’
Leading the girls amongst the shelves, they travelled to a far section of the library that was almost completely unoccupied, save for the occasional student walking past every few minutes. James found the correct aisle, tracing the huge, dusty volumes that hadn’t been touched in years upon the shelves, before-
‘Here.’
He pulled the book from the shelf. It had been there for years, and anybody without his god-strength would have struggled to retrieve it considering how fixed in its position among the other tomes it had become.
It was at least a thousan
d pages in length with a blackened cover and the lettering SARITARIUS IV embossed into the leather front.
Elena took it from James and pored through it, her eyes going wide.
‘This is the one,’ she said. ‘Not an original copy, of course, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the words that count.’
‘Somebody would create a fake version of this?’
‘Not exactly, just more printed versions of it. The Saritarius and the spells within can only be used by goddesses – or gods, for that matter. If a human were to read from this book then nothing in the slightest would happen.’
‘So it’ll work,’ James said, already feeling a little relieved. ‘That’s-… Oh, crap…’
Arifa turned to look at him. ‘What’s wrong, master?’
A sudden terrible nausea had struck James. He keeled over, and that painful, overwhelming heat that he had first felt days ago in the lecture hall came rushing back.
‘You think you can bury me?’
James heard the words in his mind, but they hadn’t just been spoken by Ascevious from within him – they had come out of his own mouth.
The dark god had possessed his ability to speak.
‘Oh, no…’ Elena quickly flicked through the pages of the book as James felt an unspeakable, unknown rage simmer up within him. He wanted to strike out at anything and everything, to punch and kick furiously; fortunately the girls were way ahead of him. ‘Hold him steady,’ Elena said quickly.
In seconds Arifa was on him, but not in the conventional way. She leaped forward, sliding behind him with incredible speed before wrapping her arms around him from behind and pulling him backwards.
They fell into the aisle, James struggling to keep Ascevious from attacking.
‘You think you can fucking bury me?!’ Ascevious yelled from James’s mouth, breaking through the near-silence of the library with no subtlety in the slightest.
‘Elena… Quickly!’
The words came from James’s mouth, but they weren’t his own – he had lost his ability to speak completely with the two gods warring it out within his soul.
His hands began to glow brightly, but he fought to keep them clenched into fists.
