When he reached the tree, he looked around it and up into the branches, but didn’t see anything out of place. Exhaling slowly, he uncocked the hammer, holstered the pistol, and stomped back to the horse. Stupid damned trees... give me the desert any day over this.
Doc still felt the eyes of the invisible watcher on them when he stopped for the night. After eating, he lay in the darkness, looking at the stars. I’ll get back to the road tomorrow, which will let me get back to town faster. Whatever is out there has at least been civil about keeping its distance. Shaking his head, he rolled up in his bedroll and drifted to sleep.
~*~*~
Doc shuddered as Lia rode him, his hands helping drive her onto him with each thrust. “Fucking hell, Lia, you’re insatiable,” Doc panted, gazing up at the elven beauty smiling down at him. She didn’t respond, instead placing a finger against his lips. Acting without thought, he sucked it into his mouth. The taste of lightly-roasted pine nuts took him by surprise.
The room seemed to wobble and Lia’s face shifted briefly into the one he’d caught a glimpse of when he’d first come to this world. Lia’s jade eyes went emerald and her long blonde hair changed to a short tangle of green with hints of blue. Those eyes widened as she realized he was seeing her and not the image she had forced into his mind. The illusion shattered completely and Doc stopped driving her onto him, but she didn’t stop her own gyrations.
“Who? Why?” Doc started to ask, but his body clenched when his orgasm started.
Throwing her head back, the woman gasped in ecstasy as she rode him faster. Doc groaned as an unfamiliar sensation gripped his cock. A gentle but firm rippling from base to tip happened multiple times, making his orgasm continue far longer than he’d ever experienced before.
When the sensation passed, the woman slowed her movements. She stared down at him, her eyes shining with an internal light as her tree bark-colored skin became a touch smoother. “You have elven blood, wonderful.” The words were oddly inflected, but the lust in them was clear. “I hope you can last.”
Doc tried to respond, but his lips were sealed by hers. Not expecting the kiss, he didn’t stop her tongue from invading his mouth. Groaning, Doc felt himself stay completely rigid inside of her as she began to move faster again.
Damn it... it’s not like I’d have refused if she had just asked, Doc thought.
The woman sat up abruptly, her eyes curious, “Truly?”
Wait, are you hearing my thoughts?
“Yes,” the woman moaned as she continued to take him.
“Truly,” Doc managed in a ragged pant. “You’re fucking gorgeous. Have you been stalking me?”
“That excites you?” the woman asked, her hips slowing. “You aren’t afraid of me. Why?”
“I’m not scared of beauties who want me.”
“Even if you die from this coupling?” She stared deep into his eyes as she slammed her hips into his.
“You won’t kill me,” Doc moaned, fighting to keep his eyes open. “If you kill me, I won’t be able to come back.”
“I require your blood, not just your seed,” the woman growled, her eyes flaring brightly for a moment.
“How much?” Doc grunted as he felt another orgasm building.
“At least half of what you have, which is why men die.” She sounded a little sad but also excited by what she said.
“You can have all the cum you want, and even some blood,” Doc panted. “How are you planning on taking my blood?”
The dryad didn’t answer as her hips kept pounding into him.
Grunting as his orgasm was about to hit, Doc tried to put his words into order, “Stupid dryad, answer me! Why kill a meal that will feed you repeatedly?”
The woman gasped when he snapped at her. Her whole body shuddered as she orgasmed again, taking him with her. Doc’s head swam when the second orgasm washed over him, but the moment of pleasure stopped abruptly when sharp pain cut through the euphoria.
Twin points of pain stabbed into his thighs. “Fuck!” Doc shouted, making the animals stir in their sleep.
“Yes... rich, sweet, powerful,” the dryad panted as she slowed her hips, her head tilted back in ecstasy.
“A warning would have been nice,” Doc hissed.
Slamming herself onto him, she leaned down and glared at him. “Food shouldn’t complain.”
“I agree, but a potential partner should,” Doc snapped back at her. He channeled healing hands and touched his legs. The pain faded and Doc shuddered, the pleasure returning and almost making him orgasm again.
The dryad gasped when her ass touched his hands as she kept thrusting atop him. “God-touched?” Her eyes opened wide as she fearfully stared down at him.
Doc growled as he stopped the healing and grabbed her hips. “Now we’ll see who’s in charge here.” Slender waist in hands, Doc began to slam her up and down his cock, the pain in his thighs flaring slightly with each thrust.
“Ngh,” the dryad gasped, leaning back and putting her hands on his knees as he took her. “Voice… a Voice…” she moaned over and over, her eyes shining like stars.
Chapter Twenty-five
Doc groaned as he woke up. The fuck hit me? Blinking against the light of morning, he was startled by the woman asleep next to him until the memories of last night came flooding back.
The dryad stirred, her emerald eyes taking a moment to focus on him. Understanding suddenly dawned on her and her eyes opened wide, much wider than a human’s eyes could. She averted her gaze and started to pull away from him.
Doc grasped her arm, gently but firmly. “Where are you running off to?”
“Voice, I didn’t know. Please…” the dryad whispered, shaking a little.
Doc leaned forward, kissing her nose. “Shh. Like I thought at you last night, if you’d have just asked, I would have agreed to start with.”
Her shaking stopped. Biting her lip, she shot him a quick look before looking away again. “I don’t understand. I can hear your thoughts, but they don’t make sense.”
“The idea of other worlds bothers you?”
“No. The idea that men would sleep with us willingly. Legend says other Voices have come from different worlds before, but even they didn’t consider mating with us.”
“My world has some peculiar notions,” Doc chuckled. “I can understand why normal people would be hesitant to sleep with you if you need blood as well as sperm... Can no one give you what you need and survive?”
“The occasional dwarf could, but they abhor us. We have been allies to the elven tribes and many of us aided them in their wars against the dwarven clans. Even most of them would die trying, though.”
“Good thing you found me then, isn’t it? How did you?”
“I felt power and went to find it. All I saw was a coach on the road, and when you looked out, I wasn’t sure. You didn’t radiate power then. When you came out here, I was determined to find out, but I couldn’t catch you doing anything. I had no idea until you touched me while connected to one of them.”
“Them?”
“The creators. Gods, as you think of them. Mother still recalls them molding her.”
“Mother?”
“The planet. She that births all life. She has been fading over the last few generations of elves... her power has been waning and the end is coming. The rot has started to grow and the Darkness hungers.” Doc thought of the worlds he had seen being destroyed and she nodded, grabbing him tightly. “Yes! You know!”
“I know,” Doc agreed.
Letting go of him, she hunched in, “Will you demand my life, Voice?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Mother has decreed that taking power from a Voice is a serious infraction of nature. When I connect to my tree again, she will be angry with me.”
“I don’t want you dead, though it would be good if you didn’t kill people.”
“We have to. It is the only thing keeping us and Mother alive.”
“Fuck,” Doc sighed. �
��There has to be another way?”
Licking her lips, the dryad spoke slowly, “I can ask her, Voice.”
“Doc. Call me Doc, please.”
“I’m Rosa, Doc.”
“Good. I was hoping you weren’t a nameless spirit bent on killing me.”
“No, never…!”
“You mean not now that you know what I am.”
Her face darkened and she ducked her head so he couldn’t see her blushing. “Yes.”
Snorting a little, he tilted her head back up. “No hiding.”
“Yes, Doc.”
“You’re acting completely different from last night. Where’s the demanding tone now?”
“We are bound to help the Voices in keeping the light strong. When the last one died, we all wept for many cycles. Mother gave voice to her pain, too, darkening the sky in parts of the world and swallowing others.”
“Hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis?”
Once she saw the images in his head, she nodded. “Yes.”
“How are you supposed to help me?”
“In any way we can. My kind will find you if you come into their area of influence.” Rosa looked a bit apprehensive, “Please be kind to them. They won’t attack you like I did. Not now that they know you’re here.”
“Did I hurt you?” Doc asked curiously.
“No. I’m ashamed of doing what I did to you. It takes a lot to seriously hurt us, unlike the mortals.”
“Glad I took healing hands or last night might have gone really bad.”
Rosa shuddered as he pictured what would have happened. “That would have been catastrophic. Mother would have been displeased and raged for years. She would have taken my life, as well.”
“Glad it didn’t come to that. I would like to know what it is you and your… sisters… can do.”
“We are connected to the world. It is only where the Darkness has spread that we can’t help. A follower of the Darkness resides in the town you were staying in, corrupting the entire area. It’s why I couldn’t get closer to you sooner.”
I wonder if the Darkness is the same as the church of Apoc? Doc thought to himself.
“Can you feel the minerals in the ground?”
“Of course.”
Doc’s grin widened, “Well then, my little dryad, you’ll be more than making up for almost killing me.” Leaning in, he kissed her hungrily.
Rosa hesitantly returned the kiss, surprised that he would initiate it outside of sex. When the kiss continued, she moaned and pressed into him, her body starting to heat.
Doc eased back from her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get you started. Just wanted to thank you.”
Rosa panted lightly, her eyes slowly dimming to normal. “Oh. Did you need me to find the minerals for you?”
“You’d be my most favorite person on this planet if you would. It’d be the best help I could get. Two days from here, near the stream, I marked out an area. If you mark the areas along there where gold, silver, gems, and other valuable minerals are, that would help immensely.”
Rosa stared at him for a long moment, clearly looking at his thoughts. “Yes. I can do that. Not too deep, outside of the cavern... I will have to be careful. A corrupted se’sxac walks the nearby woods.”
“Was that the roar?”
“Yes, it was heading toward you. I led it away instead.”
“Thank you,” Doc said, kissing her nose.
Rosa ducked her head, her cheeks darkening again. “You do that so readily. I’m not worthy of that kind of affection, especially not after what I almost did.”
“Maybe. Truthfully, I should be pissed at you for what you did, using Lia’s image to get me in a daze… but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the dream or after, though. You seemed to love it more once I was aware, too.”
Rosa shivered, small bits of green showing against her brown skin. “Yes.”
“As much as I’d like to go for another night with you, it’ll have to wait until I come back,” Doc sighed as he got to his feet. Looking at his naked body, he frowned. “What happened to my clothes?”
“They are next to your horse. I had you remove them last night.”
“How did you manage that and the dream?”
“It was a waking illusion,” Rosa said, rolling onto the earth, watching him. “I can enspell the minds of mortals to see what I wish them to see. Who is she?”
“Lia. She’s the owner of the Lily in the town.”
“Lia… I wonder if it is her…?”
“Huh?”
“It isn’t my place, but I do not think her name is Lia. She looks similar to someone I knew from the tribe that used to inhabit these lands.”
“How long ago?”
“Fifty cycles.”
“Elves,” Doc snorted as he got dressed. “Should’ve figured they’d be long-lived.”
“Yes. They live longer than any of the others, but they don’t create a child as often, either.”
“I was warned about woodfolk. I take it you’re one of them?”
Rosa giggled, “‘Woodfolk’ is their generic term for those of us who are closer to Mother; dryads, se’sxac, and others.”
“Good to know.”
“How long until you come back?” Rosa asked, getting to her feet with a hint of sadness.
“A little over a week, maybe? I have to find people willing to do the hard work.”
“Oh... You won’t be staying out here, then?”
“A dangerous and tempting offer,” Doc smiled over his shoulder at her, “but no. I need to cleanse the town of the Darkness, then move on and find another cluster to do the same to. That is my duty.”
Rosa nodded, “Your mission will only get harder from here.”
“Life is hardship and pain,” Doc shrugged. “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t give up and you can push through it.”
“Not always,” Rosa said softly. “A number of my sisters died, even when struggling to the end.”
“You can die?”
“Yes... we aren’t immortal, we just don’t age. We’ve been hunted by mages since people figured out how to touch Mother, even if in the most oblique way. Pets, parts, and other fates are what waits for us if a mage can capture us.”
Doc shuddered at the idea of Rosa being tortured and sliced apart. “I can’t blame you much for eating people to death if they do the same in turn... How did you get my blood? I wasn’t paying a lot of attention at that point.”
Rosa looked away, “I sent tendrils into your thighs. They found your arteries and siphoned your blood for me.”
“That explains the scars,” Doc chuckled. “Thank you, Rosa, for your help. Keep yourself safe, okay?”
“Of course. I’ll have what you want done by the time you return, Doc.”
“Thank you. I’ll warn my workers about not hurting you, but the same goes for you.”
“I understand. Hurting them hurts you in a way, so I wouldn’t hunt them anyway.”
“Good to know. That se’sxac will have to be dealt with, though.”
“If you can purify him, it would be best, but if you must kill him, we understand.”
“I don’t think I can purify anything yet. I need more faith to gain more abilities or powers from Luck.”
“Sadly, we do not count toward that, as we are part of the world.”
Doc sighed, “Maybe I’ll get another person or three to believe before I come back out.”
“Be careful in showing your powers. The Darkness will try to stop you.”
Finally dressed, he turned to get his camp packed up only to find everything settled already. Rosa was gone, but his bedroll and everything else was packed and waiting for him. “I’ll see you again, Rosa. Tell Mother ‘hi’ for me, and that you’re my favorite.”
“I will,” a light giggle came from all around him. “Travel safely.”
“I intend to.”
Chapter Twenty-six
The sun had nearly set by the t
ime Doc rode into Deep Gulch. Tired, more tired than he’d been since arriving on this new world, Doc managed to get the two animals back to the livery stable. Ringing the bell on the outside of the gate, he waited for someone to come open it.
Suited for Luck Page 19
