by Noah Barnett
"You're at lunch early," a small voice replied.
"I was hungry. Sorry, I missed you last night." Jennifer responded in a perfectly modulated tone. The pause was very slight.
"I was stuck in a clan meeting."
"You should have called me. I'm your second," Jennifer replied quietly. Charlie knew her, and noticed the subtle change in her voice. The bloodhound caught the scent of prey.
"It was informal," Stephan said quickly.
Jen’s manicured fingers tightened on the smart phone as she asked, "How informal?"
"What?"
"How informal are we talking. Was there a lack of clothes involved?" She asked as her voice turned hard.
"Camile, I don't know what you're talking abo—"
"You know precisely what I'm saying," Jennifer snapped cutting him off.
"No, I was…"
"Don't… Don't even try and deny it, Stephan."
"Look, whatever you've heard, it's a pack of lies," Stephan said in a hurried voice.
"I have the fucking video! You had a goddamn foursome with a group of fledglings." She hissed loudly showing a break in her hardened exterior. All the noise in the cafe ceased as ears turned in her direction. Shit, Charlie felt embarrassed for the girl.
"Now you aren't going to deny it?" She asked in the silence.
"Camile… They meant nothing," he stated.
"Apparently, I don't mean anything either," she answered in a colder voice. The edge in her tone sharpened her words like a serrated razor blade. Up until now, she'd been carefully controlling her tone.
"Bloody hell, if they have video it was a setup. They're trying to come between us." Stephan said trying to reason with her.
"Well it worked, we had a promise to each other." She said raising her voice.
"This is rich, especially since you cheated on me first." He spit acidly. Jennifer wiped at the black mascara running down her face.
"With an NPC and I told you about it. I cried in your arms, poured out my heart, and you said it wasn't even a thing." Jen said fumbling for her purse. She pulled a tissue from inside and tried to dab at her eyes. There was a long pause, and silence suffused the entire cafe. "You've done this before, haven't you? That's why you forgave me so quickly. You were already cheating on me." She accused crushing the tissue in her fingers with the realization.
"Camile, don't come to the club tonight." He said at last.
"Fuck you, Stephan. You don't ever get to tell me what to do." Jennifer hissed.
"You're unstable, so I'm going to reset your permissions. You're rogue to the clan until further notice." He said in a hollow voice.
"You self-centered asshole. You're offended that I found out, and you have the audacity to kick me to the curb like a common whore. What did you think was going to happen?" She retorted.
"Camile… You're trying to make this about your feelings, I can see it in your reaction. When you've calmed down, we can talk about this." He said, and her back stiffened.
The tremble in her hand was gone, and she stared into the infinite distance. Charlie could imagine the cafe wall vaporizing from her expression, and it was a look, he hoped, was never aimed at him.
"I am calm, because ‘Stefawn’—you just made me an enemy." Jennifer said in a chilling voice.
She hung up and slammed the phone down with a screen splitting crack. Jen cursed under her breath, and Charlie carefully raised the cool coffee to his lips and drank. Like the rest of the cafe, he had been caught up in Jennifer’s drama. She glanced around finally, and saw Charlie seated a few tables away.
"Great, I've made a fool of myself." She said stuffing the tissue and cracked phone into her purse. Jennifer snatched her cold latte and stumbled towards the door. Charlie raced after.
"Don't say that. I feel horrible for making the situation worse by inviting you into Gun Meister. I honestly didn't think it would be a big deal." He said stepping forward. Charlie grabbed the door and opened it for Jennifer. "So I'm sorry," he added. The rest of the patrons were looking on with a mixture of pity and amusement.
Jennifer walked past him, into the afternoon sun. It was a cloudless summer sky, which was an affront to the raging storm inside her heart. Charlie caught up but for the first hundred feet, Jennifer said nothing as she wallowed in her grief. She stopped at the intersection and glared at the sky.
At the light, they crossed while she continued to struggle with her emotions. For a second Jennifer considered throwing herself under a passing delivery truck. She finally spit out, "The worst part is, that I have to see him if I want to play Blood and Pride."
"You could start over?" Charlie tentatively suggested.
Her laugh was like sulfuric acid, but she caught herself before saying, "It took hundreds of hours to become a mature vampire. I can barely remember what it was like being a fledgling. Besides, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of leaving."
"Maybe that's why I like Gun Meister. It's entirely skill based.”
"You still play that?"
"Of course. I'm getting closer to gold which will mean my third weapon. I have a few friends now, and we play together almost every day." He said pressing the intersection button. Charlie dared not comfort her more than standing nearby. She sniffed again and turned to him.
"I'm going home early. Tell them I'm not feeling well." Jen said as they neared the car dealership.
"I can do that."
"There are some things I need to check. If Stephan has labeled me as a rogue, I won't be able to leave my sanctuary, but I can still mobilize my forces. No matter what though, I need a break from Blood and Pride. Would you help me?" She asked pausing near her car.
"I would love to. I have a phone number in game, so you can use any pay-phone to call me." Charlie said digging around his pockets. He found a spare pen and wrote his character’s contact information on the back of her hand. Jen climbed into her car and quickly peeled out of the parking lot.
Charlie spent the next three hours working over a tight lipped old man. The geezer drove onto the lot with a failing Dodge Valiant but kept hemming about the interest rates. In the end, he got back into his sputtering, aging car and drove away. Charlie was left with nothing to show for the wasted time.
He clocked out and drove home more than a little annoyed. Despite surviving the culling last month, there was still a guillotine hanging over his neck. He'd be cut if he didn't get his sales figures up. Once home he kicked off his shoes and pulled the dive helmet over his head. It started up with a hum.
Gun Meister Online Loading…
Connection Established…
Network shaking Socially Acceptable Appendages…
Logging into Character…
A teenage punk-rock girl was straddling his chest, and a second bustier blond lay next to Charlie on the bed. While he was distracted, his hands were seized and pulled over his head. A pair of cold handcuffs closed around his wrists chaining him to the headboard. Fara straightened and tossed the key across the room.
"Hot damn, this is more like it!" He said looking between the pair. Elva was beaming like a girl who'd just gotten a pony for Christmas. Fara however, was glaring down at him.
"Shut up," Fara said pulling her torn t-shirt over her head.
"Oh my, what sass. Next time we go shopping, I'm going to get you a whip and some black leather pants." He said with a grin.
Fara was just as he remembered. Red and green hair with a steel stud in her lip. She had on a plain white bra that she unhooked and removed. Her breasts popped free, which were bigger than he first thought. She had pretty pink nipples and he noticed one was pierced. Charlie was about to comment on the hotness of that fact when she interrupted him.
"I said shut up," Fara growled shoving the bra into his open mouth.
"Thmt iz phfumm huwt," he mumbled through the cotton and soft padding.
"And don't look at me," she said grabbing her shirt and used it as a makeshift blindfold.
As his vision went dar
k, he thought, "This is getting better and better."
Charlie was already so hard his pants were cutting off his circulation. He'd been secretly hoping the girl would come around. Over the last couple of days, he'd dropped a dozen compliments about her lightweight, and comfortable shooting nature. It didn't hurt that he'd been extra thorough when cleaning her too.
The blindfold and handcuffs seemed to sharpened his senses, so he could feel Fara's body heat through her torn jeans. Powerful fingers curled into the collar of his gray t-shirt tearing the fabric down the center. Her nails scratched furrows across his chest. Then Fara leaned forward, and a pair of grapefruit sized mounds pressed to his chest. Her nipple ring was warm from her body heat, and it dug roughly into his scratches.
"I haven't changed my mind entirely, but you get another month," she whispered next to his ear.
Fara growled like a feral cat as she bit down on his earlobe. His erection was like a twitchy caged lion, and it was straining against the bars. Teeth bit his neck and shoulder, before traveling slowly downward. All the while, Fara’s crotch ground back and forth over his groin. She was teasing his beast, and Charlie groaned around a mouthful of bra. The weight shifted down his legs, and a hand squeezed the bulge in his pants. Petite fingers stroked the length of his fabric covered shaft as a tongue licked in and around his navel.
A second set of hands touched his face. Elva caressed his cheek with a soft touch as she said, "This is going to sting a little."
He was just wondering what was going to sting when a set of teeth sank into the flesh of his stomach. Charlie tried to kick his legs, but they were pinned to the bed by a pair of teenage thighs. He yelped and struggled against the handcuffs. Sting?! That hurt like a bitch. Lips closed over his wound as a tongue hungrily licked back and forth. In contrast to the pain, petite fingers kept stroking his groin. Elva's hands coaxed his face at the same time. His mind was getting the mother-load of mixed messages, and Charlie struggled against his restraints.
"It'll be over soon," Elva said in a soothing voice. Now he was glad Fara hadn't taken his pants off. Charlie's manhood would have made a tempting target for the sadist. The weight disappeared off his legs and climbed from the bed. Elva removed the blindfold, and he saw Fara leaving the room with a mouth covered in his blood. She was, however, wearing a black collar with glowing numbers. Charlie spit the bra out finally.
"What the fuck was that?" Charlie asked looking down. He was missing a hunk of flesh and the wound was still bleeding. Elva snatched the torn shirt and pressed it to his stomach.
"We weapons don't necessarily need semen to contract with a Meister. With girls, for example, it's their lubricant," she said after the blood had stopped. "The Meister's DNA is what we need."
"So you can drink blood?" He asked.
"That's a third method, not often employed," Elva admitted with pity in her voice.
"Why the heck didn't you do that before I logged online? That might have spared me the pain." He said in annoyance. His monstrous erection was finally fading.
"We can't register with a Meister that isn't active. That part is hard coded into us."
"Why did it hurt so much? I've been shot, blown up, and crushed to death, but that was way worse." He admitted looking down at the bandage. The pain was nearly gone, but there was still a dull reminder.
"Pain tolerances are considerably higher with weapons because of the contracting we do," Elva said with pity. The blond ran a hand over the scratches on his chest. "I could help take the edge off." She suggested toying with the button on his jeans.
"Not in the mood now," he said and shook the handcuffs. Elva sighed, climbed off the bed, and went to fetch the key. She came back and unlocked him. Charlie lifted the rag to examine the wound, and found teeth marks were visible.
Charlie walked out into the living room with Fara's bra in hand, and thankfully, she hadn't returned to weapon form yet. The teenager had cleaned her face with a kitchen towel and was sitting on the couch. When they'd first met Fara had glared hateful daggers at him. Today's glance wasn't exactly friendly, but it was much better than he remembered. He was still angry about getting worked up into a fury and bitten. Fara had purposely toyed with him. The only silver lining was that he didn't have to go looking for another weapon. Despite that he was going to lay down some new rules. Charlie held out the white bra, which she took and slipped her arms inside.
"You don't get everything your way," he announced. Fara paused with the bra half on, and her piercing blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You're going to sleep with Elva and me in bed." He said in a flat, serious tone. Fara’s mouth opened as her pupils sparkled dangerously. Before she could say anything he added, "I said sleep, not fuck."
The girl closed her mouth with a snap and sat back. Charlie held up a hand with two fingers and said, "Second, stop hiding in weapon form. You're cute, and I like seeing you." For once she actually blushed. The young woman crossed her arms over her chest and glanced away, but after a few seconds, she nodded.
"Fara…" He said and waited for her to look at him. "I'm glad you're staying," he stated which elicited a tiny imperceptible smile.
"If we're laying down ground rules, I have some as well," Fara said holding up her hand. "No excessive touching, stop trying to goad me with cleaning, and don't under any circumstances call me snookums." She said extending a finger as she ticked off each item.
Charlie smirked a little at the second point. He had been overly meticulous in Fara's daily cleaning, but he'd never called any girl snookums. It was probably a pet name her former Meister had used.
They weren't atrociously bad rules. Aside from touching Fara too often the others were easy, so he nodded. Elva squealed and ran forward. She leaped onto the couch and hugged her batch sister.
"I'm so happy!" Elva said pressing herself to the young teen.
"You need a new shirt," He said and was reminded that his was ruined too. "Well, we're both in need of new clothes. At the same time, why don't we pick up a few gun mods."
"Elva, would you mind dressing in your business suit today," Charlie asked, and her demeanor changed immediately. She stood and walked elegantly into the bedroom. He followed the 1911 inside. The tall blonde disappeared into the closet to change. Charlie went over to the night stand where he left his extra clothes. He removed the remnants of his torn shirt and tossed it into the wastebasket. Then he pulled on the form fitting armor and picked up his jacket. He was straightening the sheet covers when Elva came out of the closet in her business dress. Elva ignored his hungry stare and went over to the mirror to pin her hair into a severe bun. Charlie admired the gorgeous woman, but forced himself from the bedroom.
He stopped before Fara. The teenager looked much younger wearing just a white bra, and Charlie held out the patched army jacket. "You'll need this until we buy you another shirt." A strange mix of emotions crossed her face as Fara took the garment. She stood and pulled it on.
They followed him out into the garage. Charlie opened the driver-side door, and Elva took the passenger seat while Fara slid into the rear. The car roared to life, and he backed out more modestly than usual. With the girls in the car, his trip into town was positively stately.
The mall wasn't quite so busy, but it was a weekday. Charlie already knew what he wanted to buy. For a month he'd been secretly compiling a list of mods that he wanted. He liked Fara's handiness, so he was going to make her lighter, and more compact. Inside the parts store, there was an odor of machined metal and freshly molded plastic. It wasn’t as good as a coffee shop, but close enough. He shook himself from the stupor and quickly gathered the mods from his mental list.
Three Position Collapsible Buttstock - 800c
10.5 Inch, 1:7 Twist - Cold Hammer Forged Barrel - 2300c
Yankee Hill Advanced Phantom Compensator - 1200c
M16A4 Upper Receiver with Picatinny rail - 3000c
Low Profile Trijicon 3 MOA Red Dot - 1500c
1911 - Ported Barrel Compensator - 1200c
Flared Pistol Magwell - 800c
— Total - 10,800c
Fara took his purchases into the back changing room, and after a long minute of yellow flashes, stepped out with a healthy glow to her skin. She immediately changed forms and Charlie caught the altered weapon. The original M16 had a barrel length of twenty inches. Now she was just over ten, which reduced her weight and made her easier to point. It would, however, increase her recoil with less mass. He'd compensated for that with… well, the tactical compensator. Charlie stroked the assault rifle feeling the change in weight, then shortened the butt stock and shouldered the weapon. Fara slid into position like she was made just for him. His eyes naturally focused on the red dot mounted to the Picatinny rail. Charlie turned aiming the weapon at a nearby mannequin, then he spun and focused on a promotional stand. Finally, he lowered the rifle with a satisfied smile. Fara was a dependable gun even in her original state. He'd gotten to Silver Four with her over the past month, but now he felt like he could take on the world. Charlie still wanted a better grip, a new trigger, and a quad rail for mounting accessories, but for now, he was happy with his choices.
