The Knight of Disks (Villainess Book 4)

by Alana Melos

  All of our fucking built like this, on top of each act, each position. He had a keen mind for remembered pleasure and as his cock throbbed in me and I held him tight with my pussy, he replayed some of our more intense moments, adding them to our ‘quickie’. Being tied up, me on top, him behind me, between my legs as he licked my pussy, me as I sucked him off, wrapping my mouth around him and teasing him until he was on the verge of begging…. All of these things ran through my mind, heightening the intensity as I remembered being fucked and fucking in so many different positions. Each kiss replayed on my skin made me shiver as each touch of my hand made him moan. A thousand different ways of ecstasy melded together as we were locked in an embrace, perfectly still yet soaring untold heights.

  What goes up must eventually come down, and so it was with our fucking. As our pleasure ebbed away, the threads of our emotions unwound and separated. He gave me a final kiss on my shoulder then withdrew. My legs weak from the intensity of coming so hard, I moved backwards and sat hard on Rory’s bed. Gerard straightened himself up and glanced to me.

  “You should get moving,” he said, grinning a little.

  “In a minute, when I can walk,” I said, my voice breathy and low. As he tucked his cock away and zipped himself up, my want for another go-round bloomed. It was so hard to just fuck him once and walk away. Nosferatu might be my dark lover who would deny me nothing, who would let me cut him open and play with him, but Gerard was the only man I’d ever met who could keep up with my endless hunger for sensation. That drive was why I rode my prey’s thoughts into their death, tasting their fear and pain, taking them for my own. The hunger for sensation--any sensation--had dimmed since I’d begun developing emotions of my own, but that was akin to taking a bucket of water out of a swimming pool, or maybe a lake. Perhaps if this trend continued, that hunger would abate. For now, it was still one of my main motivations. Gerard filled that need as no one else could, and he was good at it. Other than a dry hump and a couple of bites, I’d yet to fuck Nosferatu. The real one, that was.

  With effort I stood and finished getting dressed while Ger watched. I felt his eyes on me, which kept my lust at a low boil. Both of us were utterly vain, and it was a turn on to have someone admire me. However, work was at hand. I didn’t agree with Rebekah’s decision to bring Gerard, but she wanted a family so desperately she was willing to overlook just about anything. He was a good fighter, and maybe his brute force with his teke would come in handy here since the trees in the forest were actually alive.

  When I finished dressing, I looked myself over quick to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I wore heavy cargo pants over a thinner liner to keep me warm from the snow and cold. Combat boots graced my feet, heavy and well insulated. On top, I wore a couple of thin shirts as multiple layers kept you warmer than a single thick one, black in color, of course. Over that, I had one of my Kevlar vests. The animated branches of the forest couldn’t pierce a hero’s invulnerability, so I hoped the vest would work just as well since I didn’t want to spend too much energy on trying to maintain shields. Over it all came my dark red trench coat with its strategic armor plating. Any extra protection was good, and it was sort of like my calling card along with my masks. I had already grabbed a mask from one of my hideouts and pulled it out of my inside pocket to study it. Instead of being blank like most of them usually were, or with little decoration, this one had been made to look like a wolf’s face, with lines of fur drawn in black and grey. It was likely the closest we were going to get to Rory all night.

  I put the mask on and looked at Regulus. “Well, come on,” I said. “Let’s go find a dead wolf.”

  Chapter Three

  The five of us stood on the edge of the great overgrown forest which had risen around the crashed disc of Uptown. Adira and Nosferatu stood to the side. Her jaw was set grimly as she stared at the forest with her light red eyes. She’d dressed all in black, as if for mourning, but kept the clothing tighter than she was used to, to prevent snagging on branches or hand holds if the forest wakened around us. Nosferatu crouched precariously on a ruined fire hydrant. I always thought he used his flying ability to sit on things he shouldn’t be able, but it did make for a creepy profile. He licked his lips and waited, silent as the grave. When I looked at the threads of their emotions, I knew he was agitated and she determined.

  Gerard and Rebekah stood by me. Rebekah stood in her Axis uniform instead of the dress, seemingly oblivious to the cold. Gerard stood in his suit, shivering slightly as I did. I knew Rebekah’s mystically enhanced outfit gave her protection from the cold--normal cold anyway--and the vampires didn’t really feel the cold that much, so it was just Ger and I who shivered, despite bundling up as much as we could. He’d put a dark red mask on, sliding it over his head so that it wrapped around his brow and the back of his head. It covered the top part of his face, leaving his jaw and mouth free for speaking, yet concealed his identity enough if I didn’t know him well, I probably wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line up.

  “Everyone clear on the plan?” I asked, looking back to the dark, foreboding trees.

  “Yes!” Rebekah chirped beside me. When I looked over at her and raised a brow at her sunny attitude, she blinked. “I do, unless you changed it? It’s easy.”

  Adira gave her a nasty look for a second, then back to the forest. “We have it,” she said, her voice carried to me on the winds. “He still lives, holding on by a thread.”

  She thinks he’s alive, Gerard said telepathically. She’s very convinced.

  I showed you my memory, Ger, I replied. I felt him die. It’s not him she’s feeling. It can’t be.

  If you say so, he replied in a sing-song voice, taunting me.

  I ignored him as best I could. “If we’re ready, then you two follow me,” I said. “I remember about where we last saw him, and if we’re lucky, we won’t be in that long.”

  Rebekah reached into a pocket and thumbed her phone on. “I have my tracker on,” she said before dropping it back in and buttoning the pocket securely. Of the five of us, she was the only one I wouldn’t be able to find if we got separated, hence the need for the GPS tracker. That way I could find her, or vice versa at least with Regulus and I since Nos didn’t carry a phone and Adira didn’t have her number.

  “Alright, here we go,” I said. With my telekinesis, I lifted Regulus, the Siren, and myself. Adira couldn’t fly, but Nosferatu wrapped her up in his cold embrace and followed after us. I’d tried to reserve as much of my energy as I could, and I’d stuffed myself before. Metapowers had to run off of something and in the case of me and so many other genetic mutations, the power came from our bodies. Magicians used trinkets or earth lines or… willpower… something. I wasn’t too sure on them. Tech heads tended to use electric or nuclear power. The point was that both mages and techies, their power came from outside themselves. Us genetically blessed used what we had. Most of us had whacked metabolisms because of it. The really big ones like Bluecoat or Imperius ate a lot just to keep their bodies moving.

  Regulus didn’t have fine control over his telekinesis like I did. He threw himself place to place, but he had to have line of sight. The Nacht Sirene couldn’t fly. So, it was up to me to drag them in. I’d only expected three of us to begin with, so it worked out just as well that Regulus and Nosferatu joined us. We had more firepower now, and I thought our chances of getting out mostly unscathed increased by a fair margin. The last time I’d been here, the forest had come alive around us. It had killed Mauler. I wasn’t going to let these fucking trees kill me.

  I flew us over the canopy and looked for a particular spot. Now that I was above, looking down, I noticed something really strange which I hadn’t picked up before: the trees below us were still green. They had leaves. They were covered in snow, but beneath that, they flourished. I tried to think of the last time I’d been out here prior to the attack, or if I had ever seen the forest bare. I couldn’t remember.

  Gerard picked up on my thought. I see it to
o, he said. This is the first time I’ve come back since… well, since the Fall of Uptown, so I don’t know if it’s always been like this or not.

  Genetically modified, maybe? I asked. Uptown had been in perpetual spring or summer, so it made sense they’d genemodded their trees.

  It could be, he agreed. But it’s still strange. Keep an eye out.

  No shit, Sherlock, I thought back at him. He laughed, causing Rebekah to ask what was so funny. He waved her off as I found the spot I was looking for: a bald spot in the canopy where a fire meta had burned the trees. Even though it had only been three nights, maybe four, growth showed, almost closing off the spot. Here it is.

  I angled downward and dropped the two of them about ten or so feet off the ground before landing beside them. Both of the vampires stepped out of the shadows, Adira looking intent and serious while Nosferatu appeared amused. Pointing towards the east, I said, “I remember the tree grabbing him from that direction.”

  Adira nodded. “Yes,” she replied, and sniffed the air. “I don’t smell him, but I feel him that way.”

  Alright, you take point, I told her telepathically. I included everyone on that link, except for Rebekah, of course. Gerard maintained a separate link for the two of us, and I partitioned a sliver of my concentration to keep the telepathic conversations apart. Let us know the instant something changes.

  I will do, she replied and melted into the darkness. Nosferatu cocked his head to the side and did the same, but I felt his eyes boring into me even though I wasn’t sure exactly where he was.

  He’s jealous, Gerard said privately to me. When I glanced at him, he was grinning in the moonlight, looking pleased with himself.

  I don’t care if he is, I told him. I’m not his. If anything, he’s mine.

  Gerard snorted in realtime and moved to follow the vampires. Rebekah stayed close to him, pointing and guiding since she had her goggles and could see fine while Regulus and myself were night blind. We moved slowly as the underbrush stood quick thick, and the compact snow didn’t help us either.

  The trees all possessed their green leaves with nary a sign of the decay of autumn. I wondered at that again, trying to remember what stories I’d heard of Uptown before the Fall. Neither of my parents had talked about it at all. My mother had just shrugged it off, no matter how many times I asked. The one time I asked my father, his curt reply to forget about it told me never to ask again. Most of the other people I knew didn’t care as it had fallen many years before. It was just a page in the history books now, a ruined experiment, and a heap of useless waste. When I looked closer, I didn’t see any of the branches disturbed or broken, save for what we were doing right now.

  I don’t think he was brought this way, I said to the group. Everything looks whole.

  He’s this way, Adira replied, insistent. Determination colored her threads grey, like iron. He’s fading. There’s not much time left. We must move faster!

  Slow and steady, Regulus cautioned. We don’t know what else is here, and what is here almost kicked your ass last time.

  So long as we don’t disturb it, we’ll be fine, Adira replied, dismissing him.

  As we moved, the trees grew less dense, though the snow remained perfect and unbroken. We were definitely the first ones on foot through here. I shook my head, but Adira and Nosferatu pulled up. A building… Nosferatu thought-whispered to the group, making me shiver. I stifled my want of him as much as I could, shoving it to the lower depths of my mind. Regulus tsked in realtime, shaking his head at me.

  Forget him, he sent to me.

  If it were only that easy, I replied.

  The three of us who lagged behind came to the clearing they had just found. The vampires stayed shrouded in the shadows, but now that I was close to them, I knew where they were. They flanked the main entrance to a destroyed building. In its heyday, it had probably only been a couple of stories tall, but wide and flat. Now, the doors and windows were all broken, and it looked like that ceiling had caved in. A tall tree, thicker than any I’d ever seen before, grew from the center of it. It must have been a hundred yards around, easily. The tree loomed before us, its roots growing through the path of least resistance through the building so they’d emerged through any opening, making the building look infected with fat brown worms which plunged into the ground. It couldn’t have been any taller than the already tall trees in the ruins here, but it was certainly wider, almost like an huge overgrown shrub than a tree proper.

  Rebekah moved forward while Gerard hung back by me. We picked our way over what must have been a nice grass lawn at some point. Wild growth and bushes had taken over, making it look like a page out of a nature book. A few old cars were here, looking to be mostly stripped of anything valuable, rusted and broken. The Nacht Sirene approached a platform made of cement which stood about fifty feet outside the yawning entrance and hopped up.

  “There’s a sign here,” she said, her voice hushed. “Nox… something. I can’t read the second word, but it’s much longer. Industries?”

  “Laboratories,” Gerard supplied aloud, his voice tight. To me, he sent, This is a bad idea, Reece. They did genetic tinkering back in the day. If that tree’s any indication, some of their experiments might still be alive… and have made more little mutants. We should go. His thoughts were tight and controlled, but stained the faintest bit with the yellow-green of unease.

  Not yet, I sent back. To the group, I sent, Do you still feel him, Adira?

  Yes, she sent. He’s inside. I think… lower than us. I can feel the path out.

  She moved and I lost track of her. Nosferatu sauntered at a slow pace, waiting for Regulus, Sirene, and myself to catch up. As we passed the open mouth of the darkened ruin, Nosferatu’s talon-tipped fingers slid along my side and he moved into place behind me. Right behind me. His presence wore on me like a thick cloak. My desire for him sprang to life… as if it ever really died.

  “Not the time or place, Nos,” I said, then said a little louder for Rebekah. “We’re going in. Adira thinks he might be below us.”

  “Roger,” she said, snapping me a salute with her right arm. Well, it would have been a salute if she still had her hand there.

  “Alwaysss the time,” the vampire whispered into my ear. “Alwaysss the place….”

  I gave him a glare over my shoulder and ignored it the best I could, which wasn’t well. Simply sensing him so close sent my mind running in a circle, wanting to grab him and… and….

  Shoving an elbow back, I hit him in the gut and hissed through my teeth, “Do I have to teach you what no means again?”

  He laughed. Regulus gave us both a nasty look. Stealth, remember? Hit on her through the mindlink.

  I think I see him! Adira sent over the connection, interrupting any further shenanigans. I do!

  We sensed her moving. I pointed for the Siren’s benefit. Nosferatu disappeared from behind my back and moved ahead through the rubble and broken bits of old furniture until he found a stairwell which led down. The floor around it had been broken apart by the big tree, and he dropped down into the hole, out of sight. Regulus moved next, examining it carefully before lowering himself through. Rebekah simply jumped down, heedless as she must have trusted her acrobatic ability to keep her safe. I used my teke to lower myself down and test the floor underneath, ensuring it would hold my weight.

  Although there must have been walls and glass and steel in the room below us before, now it was just an open area for the most part, with bits of rubble and ruin around from where the tree had broken through. Light came from nowhere in particular, almost as if all the vegetation glowed soft green light, which gave the whole room an unsettling ambiance. Looking towards the massive trunk of the tree, I spied roots and tendrils extended from it, supporting the building around it, and covering the floor. The trunk had broken through a floor somewhere beneath us, so it was taller than it appeared from the outside. How far down it went I had no idea, and there was no way to tell from here. Leaves, moss, vi
nes, and other organic material covered what remained of the walls and floor. If anything, we weren’t walking on anything man made. We walked on the wooden, leafy tendrils radiating out from the trunk which made for an uneven floor. When I looked up the hole, I estimated we’d dropped about twenty feet, so we were maybe two or three floors down from the main entrance.

  Motion caught my attention. I looked at the tree again and saw a shadow move to it. I kept myself hovering above the tree parts, and edged closer to the center. Adira climbed the knots and roots at the base of the tree, trying to get close to a big dark spot in it. I narrowed my eyes as Rebekah sucked in her breath.

  “Mein Gott,” she whispered. “That’s him. And he’s breathing!”

  I looked to the middle again as the Sirene took off to race to the tree. In the dim light, I couldn’t see much at all, and drifted closer, uncertain. Reaching out with my mind, I searched for Rory’s presence, abandoning the other telepathic links to concentrate.

  “Don’t,” Regulus said, keeping near the hole. He pulled out his knives. “We should leave. Now.”

  Ignoring him, I looked through Adira’s eyes to confirm what she saw. Everything stood out in crystal clear detail for her, and sure enough… a great, furry body hung from the tree. It wasn’t just hanging though; it looked as though he’d grown into the tree. Vines and tendrils pierced his body almost everywhere, growing under the skin as I’d seen in the fight in the clearing. They raised the skin, giving the fur a weird pattern. At points, his skin had burst and healed over, but not before the vines had run over the top and back in again. Leaves… actual leaves grew from the vines and… and him. His fur wasn’t wholly black anymore either. Instead, much of the thick black fur had taken on a deep forest green color, which spread over half his body, if not more. His head hung down, so Adira couldn’t see his eyes, but she saw in aching detail the tiny vines through his snout and cheeks. A leaf grew from the tip of one of his ears. His mouth lay open, and he was turning green even inside. The pink flesh was mottled with light green like bizarre birth marks on his tongue and gums. The flesh rippled slightly as the wormy vines forced their way through him.