Chade

by Montana Ash

  “Excuse me?” Max’s eyes narrowed dangerously and somehow served to help Cali relax.

  “Yeah, it’s pretty messed up. Years ago, vitality exchanges through sex was commonplace and readily accepted as the thing to do in society. It wasn’t really that big of a deal; paladins weren’t allowed to fraternise that much so at least they were getting laid somehow. And most wardens engaged in sex with other wardens for the express purpose of creating more wardens, so this kind of sex within Orders was the closest to recreational as it tended to get. Don’t get me wrong, not all wardens did this and most paladins didn’t much care. They considered themselves lucky their wardens wanted to sleep with them. But …”

  “But you didn’t consider yourself lucky.” Max guessed.

  Cali snorted, “Absolutely not. Well, in the beginning it didn’t bother me. As I said, he was very handsome and could be extremely charming. I actually thought I liked him early on and sex with him wasn’t a hardship. But after a while … I began to feel cheap. Like I was being used for nothing more than what was between my legs. Oh, and my vitality too of course.”

  “And this was just accepted?”

  “Yep.” She nodded.

  “That’s insane! And completely disgusting! Who is this arsehole anyway?” Max demanded.

  “His name is Stefan. He’s from a family that almost exclusively produces water warden heirs. Very highly thought of.”

  “Highly thought of? A rapist is highly thought of?!” Max yelled.

  “Whoa there. Stefan wasn’t a rapist, Max. If you were a part of his Order, then sex was just one of your duties. We all knew that, hell, everybody knew that. He didn’t exactly keep it a secret.”

  Max’s lips were pursed in a thin line and Cali was beginning to think this was a bad idea. “When someone in a position of power over you asks you to follow their orders it is essentially emotional blackmail. You feel honour-bound to say yes even if you don’t want to.”

  “But when it’s your boss, it’s just a part of the job Max.” Cali tried to explain, not liking Max’s conclusions. But Max was shaking her head;

  “What do you think statutory rape laws are for? It’s the exact same thing. Underage girls and boys don’t have the emotional or cognitive ability to make such important decisions as informed consent. Even when they think they know what they’re agreeing to, there’s usually some degree of pressure or feeling of obligation from the older, more experienced person. That person is in the position of power and the younger person feels they have very little choice if they want to continue to be accepted and liked.”

  Cali swallowed past the dryness in her throat as she listened to Max’s self-assured but gentle spoken words. “It’s not as bad as all that, Max. I was a piece of arse, that’s all. It’s why I vowed to never have a male liege ever again.”

  “No Cali. You weren’t just a piece of arse. You were abused. That is abuse.” Max’s voice was vehement and Cali felt tears sting her eyes. Given her past she knew just what a gift it was to have someone in your corner you could count on. Thirty seconds of talk with Max was more cathartic than a hundred years of inner debate. Cali knew it was wrong – on a plethora of levels – that’s why she had gotten the hell out of dodge. But the rest of society hadn’t seemed to catch up yet and that made it hard to garner any kind of acceptance or empathy.

  “I wish there were more people like you, Max.” She smiled at the sickly-looking but clearly enraged woman.

  Max’s eyebrows rose comically, “Really? You think the world could handle more me’s?”

  Cali thought about that for a moment and barely repressed a shudder, “Maybe not. Anyway, that’s pretty much why I’m not that interested in men too much and I restrict myself to short flings; I like to choose the who and the when and the how long. I don’t like to be pursued; I like to be the pursuer.”

  “I get that. Cali, The Scandinavian Sex Predator.” Max said, making them both laugh.

  “Yep. That’s me. I also wanted you to know, it’s one of the reasons why I respect you so much. You just accept us for who we are and how we act. You allow us to be who we need to be; you don’t care that Ryker is a cranky bastard, or that Diana and Darius are a unit. Freedom, Max. You give us freedom. And I’ve learnt that without it, I would wither and die. So … thank you.”

  “Well, jeez. Now I’m going to blubber.” Max’s laughter was a little watery. “But I still want Stefan’s balls in a sling.” She added.

  Before she could respond to that, Diana’s mass of black springs preceded the rest of her body clad in her usual classy but causal clothes. “Hi girls! I’ve come for some girl talk.” Cali coughed hastily, clearing her raw throat as Max seemed to give herself a shake to let go of her anger. Diana, being an astute female, paused halfway across the room. “Unless this is a bad time …?”

  “No. You have perfect timing, as always.” Cali assured her friend. And it was true. Pretty much everything about Diana was perfect from her gorgeous face to her sexy body to her personality. If Cali didn’t love her like a sister she probably would have shaved her head in her sleep before now.

  Diana hesitated for a moment more before taking her at her word and moving forward to settle herself on the other side of Max. “Anything I can help with?” She asked, obviously picking up on the remnants of tension in the room.

  “Yes.” Max replied. “We’re going to go kill Stefan.”

  Diana’s flawlessly shaped eyebrows rose sharply. “Are we just? Awesome! I’ve been wanting a shot at that man’s scrotum for years now. I figure it would sit perfectly in the palm of my hand for all of one second before I ripped it from his body in a bloody but oh so satisfying display of justice.”

  Cali merely rolled her eyes as she watched Max silently raise her palm for a high five and for Diana to deliver. They were a blood-thirsty, crass bunch of women. Was it any wonder she adored them? “We’re not killing Stefan.” Cali asserted.

  “We are.” Max’s reply was short and to the point.

  “Not.” Cali added.

  Max’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Fine. We’ll just maim him. A person doesn’t need a nut sack to live. See, I can compromise.” She ended smiling winningly.

  Cali blew out a breath and looked to Diana for assistance. This had the potential to go back and forth all day if she let it and although Max’s words were perky, her voice was thinning and she was looking exhausted. Diana gave her a small nod, understanding perfectly; girl talk would be put on the backburner. They each placed a hand on Max who had actually closed her eyes. Cali thought she was asleep but then she spoke;

  “I can feel you both pushing your go-juice at me.”

  “I really wish you wouldn’t call it that, Max.” Cali sighed. “It sounds skeevy.”

  “I agree. Especially the way you just worded it. Sounds like we’re ejaculating on you or something.” Diana added. Nope, Diana was anything but the lady of the manor she looked like.

  SEVEN

  Dex smirked as he watched the rangers, wardens and paladins hunt his cursed brethren. The group was fairly effective and quite skilled he had to admit, knowing that over a handful of chades had already been put out of their misery. But they weren’t that good. Otherwise they would have noticed him hovering in the dense shadows of the leaves high above them in the trees. After his reckless thievery of Max’s vitality, his newfound humanity with all the bells and whistles like an appetite, the need for sleep, and the need to piss – among other things – had slowly begun to wane. At first he had been able to track the days and nights as he once had but over the span of a couple of weeks he was slowly losing his humanity again and he could feel the desires of the chade creeping callously back. He was starving, cold, in constant pain and he no longer bled. The feeling of fresh air brushing over his face was becoming a foreign concept once again. His element was deserting him for a second time and his heart was damn sure breaking – if he even had one left.

  He shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed, he rem
inded himself. His lot in life had been decided decades ago when he had first given in to his desires for more energy … for more power. He’d had eleven paladins pledged in his Order, a number not heard of in history before or since. He had been an extremely powerful Air Warden and had needed the constant recharging. But eleven paladins? That was a lot of vitality at his disposal. Had he really needed it? Or had he been predisposed to becoming a chade from the beginning?

  After the Great Massacre his need to recharge had grown exponentially and he had become power hungry, drunk on the energy flowing through his veins. Many of his paladins had voiced their concerns and his second in command after his Captain had even been bold enough to call him out on it. Dex smiled a little at that. The little shit had never been afraid of him, not that he would ever want his paladins to feel that way. He had shrugged it off. After all, what was there to say; ‘I think I’m turning into an abomination?’. Then one morning he had woken, sheer starvation pounding in his gut. Splashing cold water on his face to snap his stupid arse out of it, he had raised his eyes to the mirror – and damn near passed out.

  His eyes had been black.

  They had been black ever since. Other than those miraculous few days from weeks ago when he had almost killed his little friend and unwitting saviour. He always felt so much better whenever he took from her. He had taken from other wardens over the years too – he couldn’t help it. At least he had never killed one … he didn’t think. He certainly didn’t remember ever killing anyone other than full chades.

  But then, his mind declined into a certain madness and chaos whenever he went too long without stealing vitality, so could he ever be really certain? The energy from the curvy redhead with the swirling turquoise eyes was always different somehow. It was far more powerful to start with and always sustained him longer but it also felt different. Almost as if she wasn’t a warden. He never could place what her domain was either. She seemed to be able to draw on all the elements so he assumed she was bound to life. And it was a constant source of aggravation and even fear to him that she appeared to be Orderless and completely clueless on top of that. He couldn’t fathom how a warden as strong as her could be out in the world without knights but that’s how it seemed. Well, until recently anyway.

  He rubbed his arm where the angry paladin had sliced him with his scythe. The mark was actually still there – faint – but he could still make it out about an inch long on his bicep. Wardens rarely scarred because their paladins provided them with vitality, healing most small wounds and even most big ones. But he didn’t have anyone to heal him so a small scar remained. He loved it. It was proof that he had been substance, that he had bled, even for a few days. He hoped it stayed forever so he could use it as a talisman of sorts when the hunger got to be too great.

  He found himself curious as the smallest of the cloaked figures stopped almost directly beneath his hiding place. The figure looked this way and that and he saw a decidedly feminine hand grip her weapon more tightly.

  “What is it Ivy?” He heard a bigger male ask.

  “Do you guys feel that?” She queried.

  “Feel what?” All four cloaked figures pushed their hoods back revealing their features and Dex saw that the short ranger was indeed female. Small and delicate with lovely features hinting at her Asian ancestry. Could she feel him? Perhaps they weren’t all as inept as he had thought.

  The woman glanced around, even peering into the leaves where he was currently as insubstantial as the wind. He saw her dark eyes narrow in an attractive but expressionless face before she lifted her hood back into place and responded, “It’s nothing.”

  “If there was a chade here, we’d know it Ivy. We have two wardens with us. No chade could resist the allure of all that energy.” One of her comrades commented.

  No, Dex thought, none other than himself anyway. But that didn’t make him special. It just made him even more of a freak of nature than the other chades. He really should just jump down and place himself directly in the path of the four-man Ranger Unit. One swift swipe of their sickles – the rangers carried the long handled version of the traditional paladin’s scythe – and his endless misery would be over. So why didn’t he? It was a question he had asked himself many times over the years. He’d had plenty of opportunities to allow himself to be killed. But he just couldn’t do it. There was enough of his old self remaining that he couldn’t give up. It just wasn’t in him.

  But where did that leave him? He was a half man-half chade living a half-life. He hadn’t made his way back to the large log cabin by the ocean where he knew Max still was. Firstly, is was too dangerous; her paladins would be slicing necks now and asking questions later. Secondly, given the large number of troops on the ground slaughtering chades left and right he felt confident that the council would be informed of the increase in numbers amassing in this area. That had been his primary purpose in seeking out Max – mostly; the chades were slowly but surely making their way in this direction. Dex knew in his gut that it had something to do with the powerful little warden. With the numbers thinning more and more thanks to the rangers here, surely Max would be safer now. So really there was no reason to put himself back into the path of temptation. What if he were to hurt Max again?

  And what was worse … what if he begged her to let him?

  EIGHT

  Three weeks, Cali thought. It had been three weeks since the chade had attacked Max in this very garden and it had taken more than half that time for Max to recover fully. The IDC had not been impressed when Ryker had informed them Max wouldn’t be attending any more council meetings for the foreseeable future. They were pissed off of course. The only reason they were all still in the area was to try and sort out the whole ‘custodian thing’ and reconcile some of Max’s more interesting theories. They had insisted on coming to the house where they had been suitably taken aback at the sight of Max pale, listless, and so thin you could count the blue veins running under her skin. Lark and Beyden had remained with Max while Darius had politely offered refreshments in the formal dining area. They’d had no choice but to explain Max had been attacked in her own home – a horrible blight on their honour, as if they needed more. They received condemning looks from most but, Mordecai, Blu and Garrett seemed far more concerned in learning what had happened.

  After a description of the events from Ryker the council had promptly called the local branch of rangers and ordered them to search the area with instructions to execute all chades on sight. They reported killing over a dozen chades – something that distressed Max greatly. It didn’t really distress the rest of them, especially Ryker. He had been a bear to live with the past few weeks – almost as bad as when she had first moved in. Not that she blamed him; Max’s prolonged recovery had scared all of them. But what had distressed Cali more was the fact that there were over a dozen chades in the surrounding region to begin with. There was no way chades should be this close to a warden headquarters and never in such great numbers. Reports had been coming in for months at the Lodge regarding increased numbers of chade sightings. Cali knew from sitting in on so many council meetings recently that the number of chade conversions was also on the rise again. She knew it made Ryker and Darius nervous. It was very reminiscent of the years and months preceding the Great Massacre; wardens changing, chades amassing in large numbers.

  The rest of her Order was inside the kitchen under the pretence of making lunch. And a pretence it was, Cali knew, for she could still hear their very loud and passionate discussions ringing in her head. Pretty much as soon as Max had regained consciousness she had been trying to convince all of them of the merits of finding her pet chade and bringing it here. She had been excited rather than angry to learn that the chade had appeared to be at full strength when Ryker had launched his blades at it. To her, it cemented her idea that chades could be fixed – they just needed some ‘juice’. Of course, the rest of them were stridently opposed to seeking out the chade for anything other than taking its head. Max was
stubborn, raising the subject over and over again at every opportunity and it was beginning to wear on everyone’s nerves – especially Ryker’s. Cali hated seeing the two at odds and although Ry had been giving Max some leeway due to how ill she had been, Cali knew his patience was wearing thin.

  Thus, the passionate discussion – aka the argument – currently taking place inside the house. They were arguing about how best to proceed and how to get Max to give up on her fantasies. To most, the chade almost killing her was proof of its irredeemable qualities, not its redeemable ones. On the one hand, Cali was fully supportive of her Order but on the other, she trusted Max implicitly. Plus, there was that little nugget of evidence practically burning a hole in her pocket.

  Clearing her thoughts so Max wouldn’t catch a glimpse of anything untoward, she smiled as she saw her liege sitting cross-legged on the grass with Zombie and Bert. Zombie was the first to spot her, yipping in welcome before tripping over his feet in his delighted rush to get to her. She laughed as she watched his antics – he was still so darn clumsy that he reminded her of a baby giraffe.

  “Hey little man. You keeping an eye on our Max for us?” She gave him a few slow strokes to curb his excitement as she parked her butt next to Max on the grass. It was one of the first times everyone had allowed Max to venture anywhere alone in weeks. After lapping up the affection like the spoiled pup he was, Zombie returned to his tattered rope.

  Max rolled her eyes. “I can take care of myself.”

  Cali barely refrained from telling Max she sounded like a broken record – one with ample evidence to the contrary as well. “So what’s up?” She asked instead. Max had used their telepathic link to ask her to join her outside.

  “I need you to do something for me.” Max told her without taking her eyes from the game of tug she was now engaged in with Zombie.

  “Of course. Anything.” Was her immediate response.

  Max sighed, the sound resonating with fatigue and … disappointment? Zombie must have picked up on the same vibes for he released his end of the filthy rope and climbed into Max’s lap. “Do you really mean that? Do any of you?” She asked.