Beetle Juice

by Piers Anthony

  She wanted to be forced, at least to this extent. Could he do it?

  Do it she repeated urgently.

  He did it. He let his climax come upon him, spurting into her. She felt his orgasm and the ejaculate, then relaxed as she confirmed its insignificant volume. She had no orgasm of her own; that would come only as she literally exploded in the course of real mating. She enjoyed his orgasm instead.

  Phenomenal!

  She had had the experience of sex. Yet she remained virginal. Wetzel continued kissing her, turned on by it.

  I love you.

  “I love you too, in my fashion,” he said. “The way I can love only a virgin.” That was absolutely true.

  Then they sank together into sleep. Veee stayed out of it, though she too had received the broadcast of his orgasm. The two of them agreed that they had not had sex, not even dream sex. LadyBug had been the participant.

  The following three days they explored the world of Refuge, alert for dinosaurs, sloths, and quakes, and slept in their tree nests. They had learned how to deal with the multiple threats of this planet and how to use their associated insects to good advantage.

  LadyBug became a regular dream lover, her tension dissipating with experience, reveling in the romance she could never have on her own. All too soon this mission will be finished, one way or another, and we will separate, she explained. I will revert to my bug self, without much intellect or power or more than the shadow of a memory of my time with you. I want to make the most of my opportunity.

  Veee agreed, and continued to facilitate their vicarious affair. She had strong sympathy for any living thing. That was part of what made her such a good friend, for anyone.

  As for Wetzel, he now had his closest approach to his ideal partner, who remained essentially virginal despite having virtual sex. Their relationship surely could not last long, but that virginity compelled and delighted him. He, too, was making the most of his opportunity. If only she wasn’t a bug!

  On the fourth day they saw the cloud approaching. They were ready. They climbed to the feasible height of the tree, and Vanja as a bat flew up into the fog well before it arrived. She was gone some time, while the cloud kept moving. Had something happened?

  Then she reappeared. Amplify your thoughts! she thought. Become beacons so Wizard can locate you. Now!

  Her urgency was contagious. Wetzel and LadyBug extended their telepathy, encompassing the others, making their locations mentally clear.

  Whoever first finds the chair, grab it.

  Then they were floating up from the tree, into the passing cloud. Tod found the hanging chair and grabbed on. Wetzel and Veee rose on up beside the rope. Soon they emerged from the well, first Veee then Wetzel. They scrambled to the ground as the flotation left them. Vanja hovered, watching the well.

  Wizard was collapsed in a chair, unconscious, supported by Pinkie. What was wrong with him?

  Two girls were winding Tod up in the chair. He appeared, and grabbed the well wall, jumping to the ground. “What happened?” he demanded.

  Vanja transformed to human. “Time!” she said. “Four days passed for us. Less than one minute passed here. They thought we were still getting ready to explore Refuge.”

  “Under a minute?” Tod repeated. “Time dilation?”

  “I don’t know what you call it. But that’s what happened. It took us a moment to realize. Then I dived right back down to alert you, and Wizard revved up his magic. We had to act immediately, before the portal cloud drifted too far off the mountain.”

  “And Wizard is worn out from lifting us,” Veee said, understanding. Now Wetzel saw in her mind how Wizard could lift them magically, but it was a tremendous strain on him. That was why Tod had to grab the chair, relieving Wizard of his weight. Wizard might not have been able to complete the lift for all three at once.

  Wetzel had not doubted that Wizard had magic power, but he had not seen this type in action before. This was impressive. He knew from the minds of the others that Wizard would recover in a few days. He had certainly come through when needed.

  “Does this ruin Refuge for you?” he asked LadyBug. “It would be very difficult for humans to adapt to, because of the time differential.”

  “Which I calculate at a ratio of about ten thousand to one,” Tod said. “Refuge advances ten thousand minutes for one minute here.”

  That explained the seeming speedup of Vanja’s thoughts when she first went out, and her statement that she had flown for fifteen minutes. She had.

  No. We can prosper there.

  “Then we have indeed found our haven.”

  Tod and Veee nodded. This aspect was a success despite its surprises.

  But it was only half of their mission. They still needed to find a male scarab, and a way to get him safely to Refuge. Which could mean tackling the vicious poachers.

  Chapter 8

  Scarabia

  They put Wizard on Wetzel’s unicorn back, and he carried the man back to Pink Pebble Village. They had three days to wait while Wizard recovered. They were bound to need him at full magical strength for the next stage of their mission.

  Pinkie braced them when they got there. “We have cooperated with you and helped you find a suitable refuge for the scarabs,” she said. “Once you get them there, they will leave our vicinity and we will be out of a job.”

  “I suppose that is true,” Tod said. “You should still guard the portal, however.”

  “We will do that. But our source of wealth will be gone, with no more scarabs coming to us to die.”

  “I am not sure what we can do to help in that respect,” Tod said. “As you know, our mission is to save the scarabs from extinction, and this we are bound to do if we can.”

  “We are doing you a significant favor by assisting you in your mission. We feel that a return favor is warranted.”

  Wetzel began to fathom what she had in mind, but let Tod handle it his own way.

  “We have three days to wait until Wizard recovers,” Tod said. “Can we do you that favor in that time?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what is that favor?” Tod was aware that Pinkie feared he would balk, so was being somewhat diffident.

  “We are desperate for male company. Specifically, for the purpose of getting babies. We are in a section of the Amoeba where babies are allowed, as there have not been many recently.”

  “So we have gathered,” Tod said carefully. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Two men. Six women. One woman a day per man for three days. Attempting to get her pregnant.”

  “But such a thing can not be guaranteed! If the woman is not fertile at the moment—”

  “We will provide fertile women. We believe that the chances are that three of the six can get pregnant”

  Tod looked somewhat helplessly at Veee. “Do it,” Veee said. “It’s a fair exchange. We do need their help.”

  Tod looked at her shrewdly. “The men guard the access to Scarabia. They will also lose their source of wealth. They may want a similar exchange.”

  Vanja laughed. “They can’t have it. We’re not getting pregnant by any of them.”

  But Veee understood his meaning. “We may have to buy access by having sex with six men.”

  “If we men have to do it, don’t you women too?” Tod asked.

  “Damn it!” Veee swore.

  Vanja interceded. “I can handle all six, and make them all satisfied. We can make that deal.”

  Veee flashed her a grateful glance. “Then it can be done.”

  Pinkie smiled with admiration. “We could use you in our village, to make up with the men.”

  “How did it go wrong between your two villages?” Tod asked. “I would have thought that you would get along very well, with your common interest in saving the scarabs.”

  “It was our fault, really. It seemed to us that all they wanted was free sex, and we refused to be used. Had we been smarter at the outset we would have used sex to handle them, making t
hem amenable to our will. Men are easy to manage, being creatures of a single desire. As it was, balked, they turned ugly, and it worsened from there. Now we can’t even approach them without risking rape or worse.”

  Tod turned to Vanja. “When you go to RedBrick, why don’t you tell them that the women asked you to negotiate a rapprochement? A new start, let bygones go. That you represent just a passing taste of what contrite PinkPebble offers, if they can come to terms? They should be interested.”

  Vanja smiled. “Pinkie, tell your girls to hoist up their skirts and sharpen their management skills, because they’ll soon have company.”

  Pinkie smiled, understanding perfectly. “I will. If you send Red, tell him I’ll be expecting him personally. He’s a handsome brute.”

  Vanja transformed and flew out of the house. Wetzel was sure it wouldn’t be that easy, but it was certainly a start.

  Pinkie reoriented on Tod. “You’re a savvy leader. You have the touch. Can you handle a virgin?”

  “Handle?”

  “You turned down Pisa before. Remember the bee girl? She’s ripe, and I think you can’t deny her again.”

  “You can’t,” Veee agreed. Given her leave, Tod could not refuse. He nodded.

  Pinkie turned to Wetzel. “Petula is a friend of Paige, and her wasps won’t bother you. You should find her compatible.”

  “I can handle her,” Wetzel agreed.

  “I will tend to Wizard,” Veee said. “While the rest of you are busy.”

  Pinkie led the two men outside. The two young women with the bees and the wasps were there. It seemed that Pinkie was no slouch as a leader herself.

  Pisa took Tod’s hand. “You may have to be firm with me, the first time. But you have to understand that I really do want this.” She led him away. She had evidently learned something from her experience with Wetzel.

  That left Petula, a sultry black-haired wench. “I’m different from Paige. I want the illusion of romance. I want to be cuddled and stroked and kissed and savored. What do you want?”

  “The same,” Wetzel said, smiling.

  She led him to her comfortable apartment. “Would you like anything to eat?”

  He read her mind, and saw that she was trying to put him at ease, thinking he wasn’t. She knew this deal had been forged for reasons that had little to do with actual romance, but nevertheless preferred the illusion. She wanted pleasant interaction before they got to the point.

  “I am not hungry,” he said. “But if it is not too much to ask, how about playing a game of cards?” He had learned that many of the Amoeba residents, having time on their hands, played with cards.

  She was surprised and pleased. “I have cards!” She fetched a deck. “What shall we play for?”

  “Kisses.”

  Soon they were playing a card game she called War, which consisted of laying down one card apiece, together, and the higher one captured the lower one. Petula leaned forward to play her cards, and he saw into her marvelously low décolletage. This was exactly what she intended, but it thrilled him anyway, these supposedly accidental peeks into the cleavage of her breasts. When the two cards matched they had a spot war, piling three cards face down on the first ones, then one more face up, and the higher card took them all.

  Wetzel won the first war. “Ha!” he said gleefully. “You must pay me one kiss!”

  “Oh, darn,” she said with mock reluctance. She yielded gracefully enough and it was a very nice kiss.

  When another war came, she won. “My turn!” she exulted. “Pay up!”

  “Oh, my,” he said, barely feigning his own reluctance. This game was fun. He held her and kissed her.

  He finally won the game. “You know what that means, wench? You are mine!”

  “I am lost,” she agreed, lowering her gaze as she slipped out of her clothing.

  They adjourned to her bed. He kissed and stroked her, finding her nicely responsive, and in due course completed the act. This was far better than it had been with her friend Paige.

  Glorious! That was Ladybug, reveling in his climax.

  Then they cleaned up and played another game of War. “Oh, I wish we could keep you here at PinkPebble Village,” she said. “You are accommodating my foibles so well it is almost as if you are reading my mind.”

  He was doing exactly that, but it was not expedient to say so. “I almost wish I could,” he agreed.

  “Could read my mind, or could stay here?”

  “Both.” That wasn’t actually a lie. “I’m sure your mind is delightful, and a stay at PinkPebble would surely be delightful too. But as you know, I have this thing about virginity.”

  “I do know,” she agreed. “Pisa blames herself.”

  “It’s the way virgins are. If I could stay longer, having time to properly court them, then I could make it with them. But I couldn’t settle down with them. That’s what I mean: I can’t stay with a virgin. Because she doesn’t remain a virgin.”

  I do.

  You are a constant joy to me, LadyBug, he thought sincerely.

  Petula nodded, not being in the mental circuit. “We appreciate your problem. I think Pinkie’s working on it.”

  “Wish her luck,” he said without hope. “It’s an unkind paradox.”

  They continued playing, kissing with each war. Petula won the second game. “Aha! Now you are mine! Get on that bed.”

  I love the way she loves it!

  They played far into the night, both enjoying the game almost as much as the sex. If this was typical of the way PinkPebble treated a man, it would indeed be a nice place to settle. But what about when he ran out of their virgins? He would have to move on.

  In due course they slept together in both the sexual and literal senses. Petula was so eager to get pregnant that she was almost as demanding as Vanja, and almost as pleasant to be with.

  Almost LadyBug agreed.

  Petula kissed him fervently when they parted in the morning. “I think we connected,” she said, meaning conception.

  The second night was with Paula, a blonde dragonfly girl. She was not much for romantic pretense, but did her best to be seductive, and succeeded. The dragonflies hovered, watching the detail of the action. She, too, was pleasant to be with.

  There is something to be said for calculated seduction.

  The third night was with Pearl, who had moths; her hair was almost nacreous, like pearls or special moth wings. She was a virgin.

  “Now don’t get nervous,” she said soothingly. “Not all virgins are touchy. I am not personally attracted to you, and I wouldn’t want to marry you, but I can do this. It’s like a business transaction.”

  “Normally virgins are not at first attracted to me. It’s part of my curse.”

  “But a realistic one can do the necessary with dispatch.” Her mind backed her up. She stripped and showed herself off, and she did have conducive equipment, then gracefully accommodated him when he came to her. “I do lack experience; you will have to take the initiative. I promise to accede without balking.”

  “I appreciate that. I prefer to kiss you first.”

  “That I can do.”

  They kissed, and continued from there. She was tense, as the curse made her dislike this, but her discipline overrode it. Possessing her virginity was glorious, and the appeal did not fade immediately, so they were able to do it several times, thrillingly.

  With each repetition her aversion diminished, and by morning she was beginning to like it. But by then she was of course no longer virginal. The curse had not lost its force.

  “I believe I am getting to like you,” she said as they prepared to rejoin the others. “If you should wish to settle down…”

  “I would have to keep servicing virgins,” he reminded her. “You would not like that.”

  She made a moue. “True.”

  Too bad, LadyBug thought. I liked them all, but there was indeed something special about doing that virgin. I wish I could be her.

  “If we find a ma
le, you can be your own virgin.”

  The intensity of her reaction surprised him. Sex with a male scarab would kill her, but she desperately longed for it. She tried to imagine Wetzel’s little liquid efforts as the hint of the huge fire-hose effort of the male, filling her, distending her to the bursting point so that she could expire in sheer bliss. But that was beyond her power, and she had to settle for the vicarious driblets.

  Wetzel had looked forward to her possible mating and demise with quiet dread, but now he realized that it was indeed her fulfillment. He wanted her to achieve it.

  Thank you.

  Wizard was now recovered enough to travel. It was time to go to Scarabia and search for a male scarab.

  “One other thing,” Pinkie said.

  “You are not satisfied?” Tod asked cautiously.

  “I am satisfied with the deal we made. But I would like to know how it turned out. Please, have Wizard scry my girls to see which of them are pregnant.”

  They all laughed. It made so much sense!

  Scrying was one of the less demanding magics Wizard could do. They brought the six girls in to him one by one, and he confirmed that one of Tod’s, the virgin, was pregnant. And that all three of Wetzel’s girls were pregnant too. They were overjoyed. Their effort of having sex with the two men during their most fertile days was paying off.

  “We have simply got to have you with us,” Pinkie said to Wetzel. “I’d love to have you in my bed for a night, too.” Though she was older, no slender filly, and no virgin, she was breedable and he saw in her mind that she well knew how to please a man. She had a naughty dream of him coming to her wordlessly, throwing her on the bed, and forcefully penetrating her and injecting his seed. The notion turned her on so strongly that the mere thought came close to giving her an orgasm. “I would surely enjoy that,” he said politely, and it was the truth. Rough sex could be fun when both parties wanted it that way.

  “We’re looking for an offer you can’t refuse.” She was serious, but as yet had no such offer in mind. Obviously she couldn’t provide for his ultimate need: a perpetual breedable virgin. He doubted anyone could, though he still foolishly hoped.