by Aaron Crash
Tessa wondered at how powerful the marriage connection would be. Well, she’d soon learn. She slipped off Steven. They’d been flying for six hours; they’d only taken a couple of breaks because they all wanted to get back together with Steven’s full Escort.
Zoey accidentally knocked the barista over getting to Steven. The big bear girl banged on his scales. “Turn human! Now! I want to hug the shit out of you!”
He agreed by shifting into a very naked Prime. Zoey squeezed him hard, kissed him harder, and then dragged him off to a tent.
Steven called over his shoulder. “I could use the Animus! I’ll be back!”
Paanga was dressing when the twins approached.
“Well, shit, Pru, if it ain’t Paanga Komang.” Both were in pink parkas with tight jeans and hiking boots, normal and brown.
Tessa wondered if she should be worried. The twins looked relatively tame. Were those L.L. Bean hiking boots? She would’ve thought the twins would be allergic to such a well-known brand.
The Asian dragon quirked an eyebrow at them. “Should I know you? I feel like I should know you.”
Chazzie knocked her sister with an elbow. “Toldja he was real. And he’s kind of cute in an older, Asian man sort of way.”
“Yeah, kinda cute. And very grandfatherly. Do we bow? I feel like we should bow.”
Both twins bowed.
Uchiko shook her head at them but kept quiet.
“Handshakes work as well, twins.” Tessa took the sisters and shoved them forward. Chazzie shook Paanga’s hand, then Pru did.
When the Wayne sisters heard that the great Dragonlord was backing Steven, their smiles grew wider, their eyes cooler.
Like Tessa, they weren’t about to trust anyone.
“Oh, really, that certainly is interesting news,” Pru said. “So did you bring your millions of vassals for this fight?”
Paanga grinned. “I thought I would be enough.”
“Uh huh.” Chazzie pierced the Asian dragon with her gaze. “Well, now, it ain’t every day you meet a myth. So, uh, there’s that.”
Pru raised her eyebrows. “Maybe someday we’ll even meet Spider Finger. Do you myths hang out like that?”
“I’ve heard of Spider Finger,” Paanga replied easily, “but he wasn’t at the myths and legends conference. I believe it’s held yearly in Denver.”
The twins glanced at each other. Their eyes spoke volumes. They turned to give Paanga the fakest smiles in the history of pretty girls smiling at men they didn’t trust.
Tessa didn’t think Paanga noticed. At least she’d only tried to kill him. The Wayne sisters would do more diabolical things to the poor guy if he turned out to be a villainous turncoat. He did seem to be a mystery, smiling one minute, serious the next.
Tessa hoped they could trust him. She wasn’t sure she would handle being betrayed very well.
STEVEN LOOKED UP INTO Zoey’s eyes. The blue material of the tent shined from the sunlight. He lay on his back, she straddled him, and both were naked. They’d pushed the sleeping bags and mats away, and so he felt the cold, wet ground on his skin. He’d just finished inside of her, and she was breathing heavily, her face sweaty. Those blue-green eyes, so pretty, bore into him.
They remained there, motionless, both drinking in the other’s face. Steven didn’t feel like he needed to talk at all—they’d grown so comfortable with each other.
Zoey was the first one to crack. “Missed you.” Her grin was lopsided and adorable.
“Missed you, too.” He pulled her down to feel her small breasts flatten against the muscles on his chest. He stroked her back. “You did great going off with Sabina.”
“I did, didn’t I?” she murmured into his ear. She laughed and gave him a nibble, which made him shiver.
They got dressed and left the tent. Tessa was making coffee, frying up bacon, and whipping together eggs. Zoey hurried to help her.
They were waiting on a report from Javier Jones. Savedra and his Willbreakers were running recon in Dodge City, scoping out the landscape. They would relay their communication back to Javier, who would then get in touch with Sabina.
Steven found Uchiko by the river, watching the brown water flowing through the greening grasses and the cottonwoods heavy with buds. He’d gone on his first adventure last spring, and the smells were similar—wet spring scents of mud, rain, and new buds emitting their subtle perfume.
Uchiko was still dressed in her warmest motorcycle gear. She wasn’t wearing her mask. Her face was split down the middle, one side human, the other serpentine. The divide included her scalp. Her black hair on the right side of her head hung to her shoulder.
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I am tired,” she whispered. “And the memories of the past haunt me. Seeing Niwashi... Paanga again, makes me wonder about myself. Who I am. Who I was meant to be. Perhaps I am not meant to live.”
He took her hand. Instead of saying a word, he closed his eyes. The Animus from the sex with Zoey was still fresh inside him. He’d gotten used to feeling the power in his own cells, and so he reached out to feel the energy inside Uchiko. He felt how her flesh had tried to become malleable, to change from human to Dragonsoul, and how it had failed. Her scales, her eyes, her mouth, her body, it could all be changed. He saw that it could.
He and Tessa had linked the illusion spell at the Infinity Ranch to Denise’s and Fimi’s Animus cores. Bud had been relatively quiet lately, probably working overtime on the Australian legal battles as well as keeping his babes full of energy. Good thing he was young. Maybe that was why he’d looked so exhausted on the video call they’d done in Glick’s cabin up in Maine. Denise and Fimi were running him ragged.
Uchiko raised a claw and touched his face. “What is it, my Prime? What are you seeing?”
“A way of adjusting both your Animus and your body. I think Tessa and I can do it.”
“I want you to try, now, before this battle. Nothing would please me more than to walk into this war with you, to show Paanga that I am restored and that I am strong. If I survive, I too want to marry you.” Both of her eyes, round pupil and vertical slit, shined with fire. “I will be your wife. If you will have me.”
Tessa approached them. “Whoa, what’s going on? You two are ultra-serious. I could feel all that seriousness from the camp. Zoey took over cooking. I have a minute. What’s up?”
Steven was speechless. This was the wrong time to try anything like this, but he knew Uchiko wouldn’t back down. He shouldn’t have said anything. Of course she’d jump on the chance to be restored. And that was what he would do: he would return her body to that of a human. She might lose her Pugna abilities, which gave her powers, but he didn’t think so. She’d been accessing her Animus core for a thousand years. That wouldn’t change.
“Now?” Tessa asked in wonder.
Uchiko nodded. “Now. I do not want to wait.”
Tessa thought for a minute. “Hey Steven, remember when I had that bad burn on my leg, but we couldn’t do Magica Cura spells yet? During sex, you got the power to use that spell. Maybe with Uchiko we could do something similar. When our bodies are connected, it feels like our Animus is too. That might make a difference. You’re going to try and link FleshForge to her core, right?”
He nodded.
Uchiko unzipped her thick leather coat. “I will have sex with you both. I’ve been with men and women before. In the Onari guard, we found comfort in each other, to endure the long nights of our lives. My old lovers have been gone a long time. Until Steven touched me, I thought I would never again find solace in the body of another.”
“Are you sure, Uchiko?” Tessa asked.
Uchiko nodded and unzipped another layer, then another. He saw her scales on the left side of her chest and a breast on the right.
He felt a knot of lust tingle in his core. His heart beat a little faster.
Tessa glanced over to the camp. She then pointed to a thick grove of old cottonwoods, their trunks wide enou
gh to hide them.
With the sun rising higher into the sky, the air was getting warm.
Steven liked sex outside; the air on his skin felt good, and he enjoyed the taboo nature of it. Of course, if he got caught by anyone in his Escort, most would simply join in.
Not this time, though. This time, they had to be careful and concentrate.
Steven, Tessa, and Uchiko hurried forward.
Sabina’s voice came to them. I know what you are doing, and I won’t let the others intrude. I wish you luck. Dios mio, this is dangerous business.
That didn’t make Steven feel any better, and yet, Tessa was right. He’d learned how to cast Cura spells in the middle of sex. He could do the same with FleshForge.
The big rough-barked trees closed in and gave them a little space, almost like an enclosed room, on the banks of the river.
Tessa took off her shirt and bra. Her breasts caught the sunlight, and the cool air tightened her nipples. She brushed her arms across her tits, then pressed her thighs together, still in her jeans. “Wow, this is just... wow. I could use the Animus, but doing this with Uchiko is kind of blowing me away.”
Uchiko pulled down her bodysuit. She had it pushed down to her waist when she stopped. “Tessa, I know you cannot find me attractive. You don’t have to pretend.”
Tessa went to her and put her forehead on Uchiko’s. She looked into the Dragonskin’s eyes. “I can look past your looks, Uchiko. I can see your bravery, your gentleness, and your sadness. I can see you. And that is what I’m attracted to.”
Tessa then kissed her mouth.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
STEVEN WATCHED THE two. Tessa had her hand on Uchiko’s left breast while their tongues met. He’d kissed Uchiko before, and he knew she liked him to focus on the right side of her face, where her lips were.
He approached and put a hand on each woman. He had his clothes on, but he knew that wasn’t going to last long.
Uchiko turned. Tessa eased back.
“She likes it like this.” Steven kissed Uchiko, concentrating on keeping his lips on the right side of her face.
Tessa crouched, took hold of Uchiko’s bodysuit, and pulled it the rest of the way off. Now the slender half-Japanese, half-dragon woman stood completely naked. Tessa kissed her left scaled leg and the skin on her right. She brushed a hand down Uchiko’s stomach until she came to the top of Uchiko’s slit. The scales divided her body but scooped out to leave her sex completely human.
“She’s so pretty.” The lust in Tessa’s voice was evident. “Can I get you ready, Uchiko?”
“Hai! I mean, yes.” Uchiko was trembling. Her hand went to Steven’s pants. He undid them and she reached for his erect length with her scaled hand. The claws tickled his belly, and the feel of her scales around him was so alien, so different, and that made it better.
She gripped him hard when Tessa parted her lips and licked her center. Uchiko breathed into his mouth. “Tessa... she wants me. Me.”
Steven nodded. “If this doesn’t work, we will still love you. What you look like doesn’t matter to us. And when I change the world, it won’t matter at all.”
Uchiko let go of him to fill both of her hands with Tessa’s hair. “Both of you here. Both of you. Both of you.” Steven licked the side of her neck and sucked on her ear. He liked the way his spit smelled on her skin.
She was getting closer to her climax. Steven cast AnimusChain and looked into her core. It was spinning, buzzing, drawing in power, and yet it rotated lopsided.
Uchiko cried out as the orgasm took her. Her skin didn’t glow, but she did collect Animus with her off-kilter core.
“I like it in me after I take my pleasure,” Uchiko gasped. “I like it in me right away.”
She grabbed a cottonwood tree and widened her stance, showing him her hairless pink lips. Her wet channel looked snug and inviting.
Tessa had stripped. She led him over. She tsked him. “We always get naked, but you never do. Always the impatient boy.”
Uchiko wiggled her little butt. “Please, I like it in me right away.”
Steven shouldered off his coat and flung off his shirt. He got sandy taking off his shoes, socks, and pants. He didn’t care.
Tessa was by Uchiko, rubbing her hands up and down her skin, her scales, kissing her face, and rubbing her fingers up and down the Dragonskin’s sex. “She’s so ready, Steven. You better hurry before I fuck her myself.”
“I do not want fingers,” Uchiko complained. “I want him. I want Steven inside me.”
Tessa playfully smacked Uchiko’s butt. “I like this side of you, Uchiko. I like it a lot.”
“I like you.” The ninja woman turned her head and suckled on Tessa’s big right breast. The barista kept her left hand on Uchiko’s ass, pulling her cheeks open a bit. Tessa’s other hand went between her legs.
Steven lined himself up to Uchiko and sank himself into her. Then he cast a Divination spell. He synced up with Tessa, who’d also cast Magica Divinatio.
Tessa was loud in his head. Almost there, Steven. I’m so close. She’s so hot. And feeling her body, and feeling her energy, it’s so hot.
Feeling her excitement, he nearly came. Their minds were so close now, so buzzed with sex and energy. If you adjust her Animus core, I’ll link a FleshForge spell to her energy.
We should come first. I won’t be able to think straight until I come. You should too. Then, right after that, okay?
Okay. Steven thought she was making a lot of sense.
Tessa’s mind was insistent. I want to feel you in her. I want to feel what it’s like to fuck her.
He kept their minds connected. And yet, he was also there with Uchiko, his hands around her hips, pulling her back into him even as he thrust forward. The cold of the late morning was gone, and he was sweating. The smells of their sex mingled with the murky river water. The cold breeze caressed their skin. Birds chirped. It felt normal, it felt wild, and it felt right.
Tessa orgasmed first, feeling what Steven was feeling as well as her own ecstasy. It was a brand-new sensation for them both. The power of Tessa’s climax triggered Steven’s own.
“Yes, take me, take me, take me,” Uchiko whined. The uncertain, shy woman with a tragic past had melted into a confident woman, not afraid to tell him what she wanted.
Animus lit up every cell in his body and filled his core. “Okay, Uchiko, we’re going to try it. We’re going to try.”
Uchiko took in a sharp breath.
The mystical energy was swirling around all three of them.
Tessa was still in his mind. I can see how to adjust it. It’s off-center because of her failed Dragonskin rituals. I see that now. She wasn’t focused, and so she was able to draw Animus into her core, but she lost her concentration. I’ll adjust it now.
Steven didn’t think it was a good idea to wait on casting FleshForge. He went on instinct. As Tessa realigned Uchiko’s core, he used the new magic to her adjust her Dragonskin scales as well. He was still inside her, his hands around her slim waist, and he watched as the scales around his left hand turned into smooth brown skin.
He brushed his hand up, and those scales also disappeared. He then crouched. “Stand, Uchiko.”
She did. Tessa had a hand on the ninja’s belly, where her Animus core now spun, a perfect orb of red, yellow, and orange energy.
Meanwhile, Steven turned her talons into toes, removed the scales from her legs, and continued to adjust her, making his way up her body. When he rubbed a hand over the left side of her chest, a breast grew, and a nipple appeared. And then he was at her neck.
Tessa gently turned the ninja to face him. “Kiss him.”
Steven leaned in. He pressed his lips against her face, and he felt the change. At this stage, he only needed to guide the FleshForge skill a little because her body wanted to change back. It had been in an altered state for so long that now that her Animus was a perfectly rotating sphere, the rest of her cells wanted to come into alignment. They wouldn�
��t have to link them together. Tessa and her AnimusChain had solved the problem. She was Merlin’s daughter after all.
Steven felt Uchiko’s scalp grow new hair. If filled his hand and then overflowed.
Uchiko sobbed. She stepped back, away from their touch.
Her hair covered her face. Her hands were outstretched. Her toes were sandy from the riverbank. And yet, she had ten toes now, and two shapely human legs. Her breasts hung from her fully human chest.
When she finally raised her head, her black hair fell back, and it was the Uchiko he’d seen in his visions of that young woman in Japan a thousand years ago. And it was the woman he’d seen in Nye, Montana, at the general store.
She was restored.
She blinked. “I’m... I’m human again.”
Tessa’s laughter was bright and cheery. “No, not quite. You’re a Warling. Otherwise, you’d have become a crone, a thousand years’ worth of time catching up to you in a heartbeat. We’ll have to watch for any kind of aging. Report all gray hairs to us immediately!”
Uchiko closed her eyes. “I can feel my power inside me. I still have my DarkArmor, which allows me to hide in the shadows, and DragonStrength, which allows me to strike and strike hard. And my SerpentGrace, I still have that, to end my prey quickly and then escape.”
When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t crying. She was beside herself with joy. “I wish for Paanga Komang to see me restored. I am Oe Uchiko, and my long exile is over.”
Tessa pulled herself into Steven, and he liked the feel of her skin on his.
He checked the Path of the Mirror-Souled Dragon.
<<<>>>
<<<>>>
HE WAS DOWN ON ANIMUS, and yet, when his eyes went to FleshForge, he had to grin. He’d done it. He’d adjusted Uchiko’s cells, kicking off the healing while Tessa adjusted her core.
“I’m worn out,” Tessa whispered. “How about a little something for me? Or would you rather fight a bit more?”
