“Ah, yes. That makes sense.” Tess gave him a knowing smile. “That’s not the only reason, though, is it?”
Lee scowled at her as he felt a flush of heat come to his cheeks. It had been a while since he’d summoned one of Instructor Escher’s research monster girls, but he clearly remembered just how interested and physical they’d always been upon stepping out of the conjuration portal.
“The other initiates might panic if I summon her out in the open,” he said lamely.
“Panic?” Tess laughed. “Oh, I doubt that. Though Ophelia would certainly generate a reaction, especially from the boys.”
“Can you just be a good ghost and keep watch? Given how busy today has been, I wouldn’t put it past Eliza or one of the others to come looking for me.”
“Of course, of course,” said Tess. “The last thing you’d want is to be interrupted while, ahem, greeting her. I will be poking my head in to siphon some essence, but we’re still quite topped up, so I won’t need much.”
Lee ignored the teasing tone in her voice and pulled out the summoning scroll Instructor Escher had given to him. The spell pattern, along with Ophelia’s name, her true name, was written across the parchment in spidery, cursive script. He exhaled slowly, extending his will to trigger the stored arcane essence within the enchantment.
The scroll gave off a waning flash of white light as a purple conjuration portal opened, hovering in the air in front of him. Nothing else happened for a few seconds, long enough for him to start wondering if perhaps the summoning mark Escher had placed on Ophelia had worn off or the spell had another point of failure.
Then, the mostly human head of an attractive woman with blue hair and long ears poked through the portal. Her yellow eyes went wide as they focused on Lee, and she sniffed the air several times before letting out a celebratory laugh.
Ophelia dove through the portal and into the lounge, flipping once through the air before landing safely on her undulating lower half. She was a lamia, divided into distinct halves like a centaur, her upper half that of a busty blue-haired bombshell with distinctly elfin facial features, and her lower half that of a blue-and-purple-scaled snake.
She wore a small skirt that covered the exact point of division, and Lee ignored a few less than appropriate thoughts about what might be underneath it. Her breasts were covered by a simple purple bikini top, and he was a bit surprised by how well her outfit would have fit into their tropical vacation, had she not been a monster.
“It’s good to see you again, Ophelia,” said Lee. “How have you—”
The end of his question was abruptly cut off as Ophelia slithered forward and wrapped her body around his, forcing the air out of his lungs. Her lower snake half twisted across his stomach and waist, continuing to twist down his thigh where her tail thinned.
It was as terrifying as it was blatantly sexual. Lee heard Ophelia giggle as she undulated slightly, squeezing his thigh and letting her lower half gently pull through his crotch in imitation of the way a normal woman might drape her leg into a man’s lap.
“I haaaaave been quite wellllll,” hissed Ophelia. “I remember you. The one with the delectable smellllll.”
Lee was still struggling to breathe, or even remain on his feet. The lounge had a couch against one wall, and he collapsed down into it, Ophelia still entwined tightly around him and his various parts.
“I’m glad,” he said, tensing his muscles as he took a breath. “I summoned you because…”
He suddenly lost his train of thought as the lamia slid upward across him, mashing her breasts across his chest, chin, and face. They were massive, even compared to Mira, whom Tess still referred to as the busty vampire rather than by her name.
“Oh, I think I knooow,” hissed Ophelia. “I think I can feeeel your reason.”
She let a finger run across Lee’s lips before reaching down and slipping it into his shorts. He was hard, which felt like a small betrayal on behalf of his body, given how compromised he was in his current position.
It would have been simpler for him to make his case to her with words, but that wasn’t how monster girls operated. Lee still wasn’t entirely sure how they operated, or why they wanted the things they wanted, but he’d learned to bargain with them well enough in his time working for Escher.
“I need help in an upcoming battle. That’s why I summoned you. If you’re willing to fight, I’m willing to play.”
He held Ophelia’s gaze and tried to ignore the pleasure of her soft hand as she began stroking him off. How could a snake have such soft hands?
“You smeeeeell so nice,” she repeated, in a strangely sad voice. “I would haaaaate to see you perish.”
She kissed him. Lee felt a long, flat tongue probe into his mouth, almost teasing the back of his throat. He coughed. Ophelia licked his face and kissed him again, sucking on his lower lip as he tried to pull back.
“You’re fun to squeeeeeze.” Ophelia’s snake body tightened around his abdomen, and her hand tightened around his cock. “But I want mooooore.”
She slithered, flowing around him with lithe, effortless motions. Her tail was suddenly around his neck, with her upper half positioned between his legs in the manner a normal woman might lie down doubled up on a couch.
“Lee?” Tess poked her ethereal head in through the door. “I think Eliza is looking for… Oh!”
She flashed him a smirk, eyes darting between his face and Ophelia, who now had both of her soft, stroking hands on his tool.
“Can you distract her for a bit?” asked Lee.
“I think you’re the one who is currently distracted.”
“Tess.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” She furrowed her brow, watching as the lamia opened her mouth and briefly tasted the air with her long tongue.
“Such a good smeeeell,” hissed Ophelia.
Lee stared into her yellow eyes as her tongue flicked out again, this time tasting something much firmer and girthier than the air. He sighed from the pleasure as her thin, wet tongue wrapped around his cock in mimicry of the way her body was currently curled around his.
“Whoa,” he breathed. “I… should summon you more often.”
She made a noise of approval as her lips joined the part, opening and closing against Lee’s length. The experience of getting head from a lamia was every bit as unique as, well, a lamia. Her tongue held his cock firmly, pulling gently at it to guide it and hold it within her mouth. She actively sucked, tightening her cheeks, and pinched her lips together to squeeze and caress him even further.
The pleasure was irresistible. He was ready to blow almost as soon as Ophelia found a rhythm. Which was both incredible, and unfortunate, as a knock came at the door to the study.
“Lee?” said Harper, or rather, Eliza with Harper’s voice. “What’s going on? Why is the door locked, and why was Tess making excuses for you?”
Ophelia let out a humming giggle and began bobbing her head faster.
“I’m just taking care of a little something,” he said. “Should be finished soon.”
“How soon?”
Ophelia’s tongue squeezed, and that was all it took. He unloaded his seed into the back of her throat, feeling her continue to suck, caress, and squeeze in time with each spurt.
“Oh…” he moaned. “It’s done.”
“Then come unlock the door and explain to me what’s going on.”
“There it is,” he said. “Now you’re really starting to get the hang of Harper’s voice.”
CHAPTER 40
A slight bang came from the lounge as Lee quickly slid out the door and closed it behind him. Eliza was waiting for him, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed in a posture that almost matched how Harper might have stood under similar circumstances.
“Why did it take you several minutes to open the door?” she asked.
“Remember the work with summoning monsters I was doing with Escher, back at Primhaven?”
“You summoned one here?” Eli
za’s scowl deepened. “Is that even safe?”
“As long as I’m the only one interacting with her, it should be,” he said. “It’s a lamia named Ophelia. She can be a bit… prickly around other people, but she’ll come in handy tonight.”
“I heard some strange noises through the door. What exactly was going on in there?”
“I was just convincing her of our cause,” he said.
Eliza nodded slowly. The illusion veil gave her Harper’s icy blue eyes and golden braid, but she had none of Lee’s master’s stubbornness when it came to rooting out the truth.
“Anyway, the reason I came to get you is to help me put a stop to the smooth-brained plan that Toma and Kristoff are putting together,” she said. “They want to go rushing off into the jungle to attack the lycanthropes preemptively.”
“Smooth-brained is an apt description of just how stupid that is. Where are they?”
He found them outside, standing with the makeshift weapons Lee had given them in hand. The sun was already starting to set over the ocean, casting a brilliant orange reflection across the gleaming water and lending a pink hue to the surrounding clouds.
“Amaranth, good timing,” said Kristoff. “We can’t just sit here and wait for these bastards to pen us in. We have to go on the offensive.”
Lee crossed his arms. “No.”
“Just hear him out, Lee,” said Toma. “He’s got a point.”
“They won’t be expecting it,” said Kristoff. “We’ll catch them off guard.”
“It’s a bad idea, if only because there’s no way that Instructor Harper would allow it,” said Lee. “Right, Instructor?”
“Oh!” said Eliza. “Um, yes, that’s right.”
“Cut the crap, Lee,” said Toma. “We know that’s Eliza.”
“Dammit,” he muttered. “What gave it away?”
“It was pretty obvious,” said Kristoff. “Instructor Harper’s bust has a certain… fullness to it that Eliza can’t quite match. No offense, Eliza. Your endowments are quite spectacular in their own right.”
Eliza folded her arms across her chest and blushed. Lee scowled, feeling an odd stab of annoyance at Kristoff’s brazen, though accurate, description of bosoms.
“There’s also the fact that she isn’t in her room, and ‘Instructor Harper’ has dodged every question we’ve asked about it,” said Toma. “But seriously, the boobs were the real tell.”
“It’s up to us, Amaranth,” said Kristoff. “We can end this here and now. If our enemy was as strong as they supposedly are, they would have attacked us by now already. They certainly wouldn’t have given us pre-warning and time to prepare.”
“It’s just how Bryan is,” said Lee. “He’s smart, but overconfident. I can tell you one thing for sure, though. He’s not bluffing about having the numbers advantage.”
“Doesn’t it make more sense to attack first, then?” asked Toma. “Our only chance, in that case, is to catch them off guard.”
“That’s exactly what I intend to do.” Lee gestured for them both to lean closer in. “Our plan is to let them come to us, and have them see how scared we are of the big bad lycanthropes. Then we attack. It also gives us time to wait for Harper to arrive with help.”
“He’s right,” said Eliza. “At least this way, we’ll have options. Trying to attack them at sunset, in the jungle, on their turf… Absolute foolishness.”
She was still in character, and her words carried the same biting undercurrent of command as Harper’s, despite all of them knowing who she really was. Toma and Kristoff looked around for a moment before finally nodding in assent.
They spent the next ten minutes lighting the bonfires with the help of a few of the other initiates. It felt like the last final preparation before a sporting event: Friday night football under the lights, the hometown rookies taking on a new team from out of state.
Eliza, still acting as Harper, gathered the initiates inside. True to their plan, there was no need to barricade or even lock the front door. They gathered in the dining room and ate a simple dinner of sandwiches and pretzels, waiting for what came next.
“Everyone, head upstairs and secure the second floor,” said Eliza. “Lee and I will remain down here and monitor the situation.”
Nobody objected. The tension had built, slow and subtle, to a point where even Lee felt as though his confidence was being undercut. He couldn’t shake the growing suspicion that someone might die that night.
“Now we wait,” said Eliza. It sounded as much a question as a statement, even in Harper’s voice.
“Yeah,” he said.
A heavy silence filled the room as they stared out the window. The bonfires had been a good idea, but there were still patches of shadow in between them, places where the flames made nonexistent shapes and phantoms dance in the night.
“Are there any of those pretzels left?” asked Tess. “The ones covered in chocolate?”
Lee flinched, and Eliza hopped a step back, reacting to his surprise.
“What is it?” she hissed.
He forced his nerves down. “Nothing.”
The three of them sat facing the windows, watching the night, Eliza and Tess munching pretzels out of the bag he balanced in his lap. Bryan made no attempt to conceal his eventual approach.
He walked right between the closest bonfires, smoothing out his Hawaiian shirt and kicking sand with his sandals. He was smiling, overconfident, just as Lee had been expecting. Seeing that made him smile, too.
“Here he comes,” said Lee. “Eliza, go let Ophelia out of the study.”
She nodded and hurried down the hallway. Lee kept his eyes on Bryan as he heard the lamia’s hissing words in the background.
“A feeemmmaallle. Such a puuuure smell. But why the mask? What’s underneath?”
“Eek!”
He glanced over his shoulder in time to see Eliza wriggling out from the grasp of the lamia’s tail, which had managed to mess up both her blouse and her hair to an impressive extent.
“Play nice, Ophelia,” he said.
“Of course,” she hissed.
“Just how many of these monsters do you have relationships with, anyway?” asked Eliza.
“Only five. More of an employer-employee type deal, though there are a few, uh, added benefits.”
“Shhh!” whispered Tess. “He’s almost at the door.”
Lee rubbed his hands together, feeling the anticipation through the tips of his fingers. Bryan waited outside a moment, and then a very polite knock echoed through the main chamber.
With Ophelia looming to the left of the entranceway, just out of sight, Lee opened the door and gestured for the guest of honor to come in. Bryan raised an eyebrow, stepping forward, sure of himself and his control over the situation.
It was over almost before it started. Ophelia wrapped herself around him in a single, smooth motion, tail encircling his body, one hand at his neck and the other over his mouth. Eliza shut the door quickly, but without slamming it. Lee folded his arms and flashed his so-called brother a smile.
“Ophelia, keep your hand over his mouth,” he said. “It never seems to end well when I let you talk, Bryan. In this case, you’d probably say something like ‘I’m no good as a hostage. I won’t tell you anything and my minions won’t bargain with you’. Am I right?”
Bryan couldn’t answer with words, but Lee noticed a slight, confirming shrug of the shoulders.
“Fortunately, that’s not what we have in store for you,” he said. “Sorry, this might hurt a bit.”
He punched Bryan in the side of the head. It did hurt, sending jarring reverberations through his knuckles and up his elbow. Bryan grunted and blinked several times in quick succession. He was dazed, and that was their opening.
“Tess,” said Lee.
She nodded to him, pulling her hair back behind her ears before pressing her hands through Bryan’s chest. Bryan let out a surprised gasp as Tess continued forward, pulling herself into him and taking possessio
n of his body.
CHAPTER 41
“You can let him go now, Ophelia,” said Lee.
The lamia quirked an eyebrow at him, but did as commanded. Tess, now in control of Bryan’s body, dropped to one knee on the wood floor and shuddered.
“I can’t imagine what that must feel like,” muttered Eliza.
“About that,” said Lee. “Remember that time at the Frostfire Tavern when you supposedly got way too drunk when we first arrived at Primhaven?”
Eliza stared at him. “Are you seriously saying that I was… possessed?”
“It’s a story for another time,” said Lee. “Tess? Are you in full control?”
“Ew…” she groaned, in Bryan’s voice. “More or less.”
She looked down at her new, temporary body, frowning openly at it.
“Eliza, go bring the rest of the initiates down,” said Lee. “It’s time to play our hand.”
“Should I staaaaaay?” hissed Ophelia.
“Go back to the lounge, for now,” said Lee. “Watch from the window, and if you see a fight break out, feel free to join in.”
She nodded and slithered past him, giving him a parting caress on his cheek as she did. Eliza, still veiled as Harper, returned with everyone else. They stared at Bryan warily, unsure of what to make of the scene they’d walked into.
“It appears that Bryan has had a change of heart,” said Lee. He gave Tess a nod.
“Uh, that’s right.” She chuckled awkwardly. “I just couldn’t bear to hurt any of you after giving it some thought.”
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “Bryan is going to bring us outside, acting as though we’ve surrendered to him. All of you should be ready with your makeshift weapons and magic. We’ll see if Bryan can convince them to let us go, but if he can’t, be ready to fight.”
“There’s no way they’ll simply let us go unless they take his word as gospel,” said Kristoff. “Which I find myself doubting they will.”
“Probably not.” Lee shrugged. “There’s a lot of variables involved here, including Mattis, don’t forget. She might also support letting us go, or even fight with us when the fight breaks out. We’ll watch her, too. Her most recent betrayal might have just been a ruse to put herself in a better position to help from.”
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