by Porter, Jack
Poison, I thought.
That spring was poison to gods.
What a sick fuck. Did he make this himself? To look on the memory with fondness, like I’d flip through a scrapbook of my childhood?
With my shoulders shaking in suppressed fury, I did my best to quiet my stomping feet as I searched around. There were many frivolous items. A few more moving pictures showing conquests of ages past. But, other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing I could use against him.
Except that spring water, maybe. I thought.
Just as I was about to turn back, my attention turned to a set of closed doors to my right.
I could hear something from behind them.
Chills curled lazily up my spine. Zavier was in there. I was sure of it.
As stealthily as possible, I cracked the heavy arched door to peer inside, hoping he wouldn’t see me before I spotted him.
A hiss of surprise and delight hit me when I saw what lay inside this room. A victorious smile formed on my lips.
Checkmate, Zavier.
Twenty-Four
The physical body of Zavier slept not three feet from my astral self.
He wasn’t lying on a bed or anything so normal. Instead, his whole godly frame, twenty feet from head to foot, rested on a damn pedestal with his arms crossed across his chest like a vampire.
He was wide open to his enemies. No doubt he was used to having Thornarm act as his alarm and protection. Or maybe he counted on me not coming back to this lawless sector because I was afraid of him.
Goddess, this guy’s ego has its own gravitational pull.
I reduced my awareness, my astral footprint if you will, to the faintest flicker in my chest, as compact and well-hidden as I could.
His physical body was right there.
If I was quiet enough, swift enough, I could kill him.
Every fiber in my being longed to do it. To take my sword and drive it deep into the middle of his skull. And why not? I couldn’t sense him in the spirit realm right now, which meant he was well and truly sleeping.
Kinda like I’d be doing now if not for Yua laying her sexy naked self next to me.
I reminded myself to kiss the lady monk in gratitude when I returned.
Muscles quivering in anticipation, I slowly unsheathed my sword. My child would never have to know the dark being who plagued me and his mother. My wives and goddesses would never have to lay awake next to me, paralyzed by fear of this monster popping out of the shadows.
I didn’t like the thought of killing someone while he was sleeping. It seemed the coward’s way out. But my family’s lives were more important than my squeamishness.
I raised my sword high overhead. Then, with one great thrust, I slammed it down.
It ricocheted off a shimmering, magical barrier directly above him.
Fuck!
Zavier’s astral self sat up, leaving his body behind.
“I thought I smelled a rat,” Zavier growled, eyes and hands glowing with dark energy.
“Probably just the rot from your own self-image percolating throughout this place,” I shot back, leaping away at the same time as Zavier burst toward me.
He lurched into motion again, and I realized he’d managed to get between me and the door.
“You’re bolder than I gave you credit for, but you’re still no match for me. Especially here.”
“Want to put that to the test?” I growled, twirling my sword in my hand and pointing it directly at his chest.
Zavier frowned, a deep concentration in his eyes that I’d never seen before. Was he seriously considering it? Like maybe he’d let me walk away because he knew I might be stronger?
I had a sneaking suspicion that might the case, but kept my face completely neutral. Just because he was weighing the pros and cons didn’t mean I’d come out on top. Killing his sleeping form would have been a freebie, something he wasn’t expecting or able to fight against—but I would not win while he was conscious.
Not yet. I needed all my goddesses around me when this finally ended.
It still surprised me when he answered.
“No, I don’t think I will. I have other plans for you. And I wouldn’t want this to end prematurely and spoil my fun. You’re the first god, false as you may be, other than myself that I’ve encountered in a long time. I’ll take pleasure in killing you slowly.”
A bit of the Zavier puzzle fell into place, and it lined up with what Yua told me about his nature.
“That means your earlier offer was a trick, wasn’t it? You just wanted to see what I’d do?”
Zavier had the audacity to smirk, almost like he was proud of me for figuring it out. “You saw the paintings, didn’t you? What do you think?”
“I think you’re shallow and lonely,” I answered, meaning it. “A pathetic god who will always live in his dead brother’s shadow.”
I didn’t see the blow coming, but fortunately for me, my senses and reflexes were faster than my eyes. My mists gathered closer as black magic erupted from Zavier.
His power was overwhelming, and I realized this attack differed from the first. He was no longer battering me with his will, but was instead overloading me with magic.
Like overfilling a water balloon, my slight crystal headache exploded into a painful migraine. My only salvation was that I couldn’t feel it as much here in the spirit realm as I did in the physical world.
I tuned into my body and could feel Yua stirring.
“Dexter, is something wrong?”
Goddess only knew what she was seeing. I was sure to be in a world of hurt when I reconnected with my physical self.
In a move that was either utter brilliance or unquestionably stupid, I yanked on Zavier’s power, drawing even more into me. Because the more I carried, the weaker he became.
Zavier seemed to realize this too, because he cut off the flow of his magic.
“You’ll die if you take much more. It’s not quite as satisfying that way.”
“Didn’t know you cared so much,” I growled through gritted teeth. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on keeping your magic long before returning it to you.”
I meant it as a threat, but my voice sounded raspy and sick. He was right, I would die from this if I didn’t act quickly.
So I gathered up all the magic I could, let the fire of it burn all along my body for a moment, then punched the air in front of me.
It was a flame-thrower strike that engulfed Zavier before he had a chance to put his defenses up.
He cried out more in frustration than genuine pain. But I took that as my cue. I’d won this little exchange, and I had every intention to let it fester in his mind while I made my escape.
I dashed through a side door, not really knowing where it would lead, but hoping it would circle around to an exit. I passed through darker rooms with the full-sized skeletons of various animals and unearthly creatures I could barely fathom.
There were no footsteps behind me, but I could feel Zavier’s presence in pursuit, trying to follow me.
I ducked into the next room, and the next. Each skeleton got larger, rarer, more exotic, until in one room I found the upright skeleton of one of the largest predators to ever walk the earth.
A dinosaur—a T-Rex, along with more moving photos, this time of Zavier maneuvering an extremely large asteroid, guiding it toward the earth. My lip curled as I paused, wondering if it was true, if Zavier had indeed wiped out the dinosaurs.
Further on, in a corner that looked to be still under construction, lights shone upon twelve raised platforms. One in the center, eleven around it. Upon each platform was a sarcophagus. On the one in the middle, Zavier had engraved the lid with my face, apparently from memory.
Some of the carvings on the lids surrounding mine were familiar. Hannah and Layla’s perfect faces were freshly done in brilliant colors. A few were still in process, but I could make out the beginning of Piper and Yua’s faces.
That’s why he was pe
eping on Piper? He needed to see the model in order to paint her properly?
Fuming, I glanced around at the remaining lids with fully painted faces I didn’t recognize. The sleeping goddesses, perhaps?.
I knew I didn’t have time to wonder at what the mad god had wrought. I needed to get out of there, and I needed to do it before Zavier could catch me.
But there was one more thing that caught my attention.
More of the moving paintings, on the walls behind the sarcophagi.
I studied the first painting, which depicted a bustling, floating city, smallish, but very advanced, with shining glass buildings that stood as tall as New York’s skyscrapers. Yet the painting appeared to be countless centuries old.
In the background, I recognized an island, and something about it suggested that it was the one we had made our home.
It looks so prosperous, I thought. So advanced. What happened to this place?
But I already knew that the other two canvases would tell me.
In the second painting, Zavier hovered at a safe distance over the same skyscrapers, watching with mirth while the floating city crashed into the ocean. Countless people, with clothing that was different from anything I’d ever seen, were falling off the sides of the vertical landscape and drowning under stormy waves.
A numbness took over my soul when I looked at the third and final picture. It was murky, with very little light.
The city’s underwater grave.
“Oh, fuck,” I said, unable to help myself.
I’d just learned Zavier’s greatest secret.
Underneath the ruins of the city, at the very bottom of the ocean, sat six women, with faces that matched those on sarcophagi.
Frozen in time, they were only shielded from the salty depths of the cold ocean water by the shell of the decaying city.
These were the sleeping goddesses I had been hunting for.
Zavier had murdered the entire population of the floating city to hide them.
Twenty-Five
There was no time to think about how I was going to swim to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve the goddesses. Zavier was close. I could sense him. And that meant it was past time to go.
I left the monuments to Zavier’s greatness, the sarcophagi, and everything else behind as I ran through the dark god’s palace, bursting out through a side door that led me back to the poison fountain.
The call to drink the water was stronger now, but after the images I’d seen, I didn’t need to struggle with the temptation to leave it be. Instead, I made my way back to the yellow pathway.
I slipped inside and rode it until it spit me out where I’d entered.
* * *
The sun was just barely up when I finally returned to my body. Still, Megan and Yua hovered over me. Both were fully naked, but their expressions were full of concern.
Damn. It looked like I’d missed something while in the spirit world. Perhaps they were trying to wake me up with a little fun?
“Something’s wrong,” Yua was saying. “I’m going in after him.”
Connecting with my physical body, I sat up and groaned, “No need. I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. My head felt like someone was pounding on it like an anvil.
“What happened?” Megan asked.
I picked up my waterskin, swished some fresh water in my mouth, and swallowed. “Zavier force fed me some of his dark power. Trying to overwhelm me, I think. I got away and discovered where the sleeping goddesses are.”
Both of them stared at me in confusion. “Dexter, maybe you’d better start from the beginning,” Yua said.
Nodding, I caught my breath and told them everything as we lay back down together in the warm sand. Megan had her head positioned on my shoulder, hand on my chest. Yua was trailing a hand up and down my stomach as she lay propped up on her side, the front of her body on full display.
They listened with interest, asking questions about the sarcophagi, the sunken city, and the sleeping goddesses as well, and I answered as best as I could.
But it wasn’t long before the conversation took a different turn. After all, there was little we could do about the sleeping goddesses for the time being, and it was clear that Megan was done waiting.
She was largely healed from the lightning storm, as was I. There didn’t seem to be any reason to wait any longer, so I shrugged out of my cloak and my pants and tossed them aside.
Yua’s cheeks flamed in a wave that cascaded down her neck and chest. Her gaze was fixed on a part of my anatomy that hadn’t eased up overnight.
“D-did we do that?” she asked in awe.
On the other side of me, Megan’s grin was predatory. “Hell yeah we did. Look at us.” She shook her hair over her shoulder and ran her hands down her breasts, stomach and hips.
To the surprise of both myself and Megan, Yua’s fiery gaze raked over us both. “I want to explore this feeling. Will you show me what to do?”
I didn’t trust my voice to not come out as a growl of lust and need, so I let Megan answer for the both of us.
“Of course. Where do you want to learn about first? This?” She leaned in to me and captured my lips in hers, sending her tongue dancing around mine.
“This?” Megan trailed a hand seductively down my neck, muscled chest, and ridged abs.
“Or is what you want, maybe?” Finally, she slid her hand down my shaft, and I did make a noise this time. It was guttural and possessive, and Megan’s legs seemed to go watery as she spread them for me, urging me to take her.
Urgency and crystal magic making me impatient, I grabbed one of Megan’s breasts and ran the pad of my thumb over the sensitive spot of her nipple. She squirmed and let out a high-pitched mewl of desire. From my position, I could see her body growing damp with need.
The lady monk’s cobalt eyes were full of heat now, as she mimicked Megan’s movements. Except, when she broke our kiss to blaze a trail down my body, she did it with her mouth.
There was only the barest of nervousness in her posture as she nuzzled the side of my dick with her flushed cheek.
“You’ll tell me if I get it wrong?” she said.
“Just watch the teeth, and I promise I will be satisfied with whatever you do,” I breathed, my body aching for her.
My hand on Megan slid to the other breast to make sure they were both perfectly stiff with pleasure before I ran my hand down her stomach. She gasped at the direction this was headed and sighed in pleasure when I found her wet pussy.
“Oh goddess, that feels so good,” Megan ground out with her mouth dropping open and her eyebrows lifting as she rolled her eyes back in satisfaction.
Yua kissed little trails up and down my cock before licking the head with a swirling tongue.
“Fuck,” I rumbled, the noise coming deep from my chest. “Come here baby, straddle yourself over my stomach and let me help you feel good too.”
Yua’s thighs were already trembling with need as she did what I asked. God, her ass was amazing. Slightly rounder than Megan’s but not quite as big. Yua tilted her hips in the air so I got a full view of her glistening pink pussy.
“Beautiful,” I murmured, blowing a puff of cool air directly on her clit. Yua moaned and arched her back as if I’d touched her. Her mouth opened wide and, while no human woman could fit me properly in her mouth, Yua was able to take more of me than most.
Yua’s body must be really sensitive, I thought.
I liked that thought a lot. My free hand sought Yua’s full breasts and I gave them attention, flicking the nipples and massaging until her breath was coming in gasps in time with my movements.
My desire was uncoiling itself like a mighty dragon, ready for action. Megan was really grinding herself against me as she watched Yua experiment. I found that watching Megan watch Yua was about one of the hottest things I’d ever seen.
Her full lips opened slightly as if she, too, were tasting me. And the patch of glistening red curls shimmered in the early sunlig
ht as she bounced up and down while I circled her hot clit.
“Please, more. I need more, Dexter,” Megan groaned.
I obliged, placing my middle finger inside of her. She shuddered as she sat down on my finger slowly.
“Soon, this will be your cock,” she said, more to herself than to me. And yes, after she became a goddess, she and I were going to go at it hard. But for now, I took pleasure in coaxing little gasps as I finger fucked her.
Yua spoke up, drawing my attention away from Megan’s sexy body. “M-more for me too. Please?”
Holy fuck. Yua’s thighs were completely soaked. It was so erotic that I nearly thrust myself into her mouth. Luckily, I knew better, and held still instead. I didn’t want to hurt her.
“You sure it’s okay?” I asked.
The lady monk whimpered and shoved her pussy back toward me a little more. “Fuck. Yes, I need this so bad.”
Chuckling at the way she wiggled herself even closer, I lifted my head, almost fully on my elbows to be close enough, and flicked my tongue out to taste her.
Sweet perfection.
Yua’s loud moan rolled through my body. “Mm, do it again. Fuck, please do it again,” she begged.
I was more than happy to continue teasing her until her sentences were no longer coherent. Her entire body quivered with ardent desire.
Megan sped up her pace on my finger, moaning. “Oh my god, that’s so hot. Dex, I’m getting so close.”
Trailing my hand away from Yua’s breasts, I curved my fingers around one of her hips and yanked her back. Hot pleasure spiking through me made my movements a little rougher than I intended.
But Yua seemed to love it.
I wasted no time in exploring Yua’s hot tight core with my mouth. She tasted like honey. Swirling my tongue around her clit had her calling out my name in shuddering moans. Placing my tongue inside her had her screaming it.
As she did, and because Yua seemed to be no longer able to use any of her limbs, Megan leaned over to take my cock in her mouth.
This time I bucked my hips up a little, but Megan knew what to expect. She opened her mouth wider and handled me like a pro. She was the first to give me a blow job with my new size and she really seemed to enjoy them as much as I did.
