by Harry Nix
I saw a note sitting near the original graveyard. It was the quest marker for Augustus and the Moles. I’d been keeping an eye on it but now was only a day away from failing it entirely.
I didn’t have the six gold I needed but I’d helped successfully save the spiders, so Ebony was going to pay me fifty gold as soon as I found her.
At the thought of the gold, I actually rubbed my hands together and then stopped, taking a moment to wriggle my fingers. They hadn’t been gone long in the scheme of things, but it was still good to have them back. Good to have my ear and the tip of my nose, too.
It sounded like a plan: summon Scarlet and Ori back, find Ebony, get the gold, pay off the Moles, collect my lucky rabbit foot and then... I guess, find another city for now. The Apothecary had definitely seen us, and Wolfe was no fool. We were the last ones to take the elevator up. Now October and his men were butchered, the spiders gone and their venom-milking operation was destroyed.
Not to mention the giant hole in the wall.
We’d probably have to stay clear of Bron for now. Although, with my remaining gold, I’d like to go on a spending spree. Get some kickass boots. Lady Trang would probably have some very cool stuff. Perhaps the actual Boots of Asskicking.
Maybe I could just hang out with the spiders for a little while, see if things cooled off, sneak my way back in to gear up like crazy...
A bird whistled in the trees surrounding the graveyard and broke me out of my reverie. I must have looked crazy—standing in a run-down graveyard staring at nothing.
I hit the button to summon Scarlet. My fingers worked this time, the portal opened and instead of strolling out like the cat who got the cream, Scarlet came running. She crashed into me, wrapping her arms and legs around my body and down we went.
Thankfully there was a patch of soft grass to land on and apparently my staff was clever enough to snap off my back so I didn’t crack myself with it.
These thoughts came and went in a flash of course. Kinda hard to think much at all when a red-hot Demoness is kissing you like her life depended on it.
“Oh Demoness, it’s been so long,” Scarlet said between kisses. She’d had some armor on but was still essentially wearing a graveyard dress. It had ridden up already and the heat of her was pressed against me.
“Too many clothes on,” she murmured, pulling at my armor.
My heart was thudding again, but in a good way now. The graveyard was reasonably warm but Scarlet was hot, as though she’d just stepped out of a shower. Her scent was spice and warmth and I couldn’t get enough.
She just about had my pants down when she suddenly stopped and sat up. She still had her full weight resting on me.
“Wait! I killed both of us so I could recover from that wound and you could grow back that hand,” she said. I had said hand on her hip. She grasped it and brought it up to her lips. She planted a kiss on the palm and then sucked one of my fingers into her mouth.
Heat, almost too much, and I let out a sigh.
“I know you weren’t expecting that, so if you feel I must be punished, we need to do that,” she said.
With that she hopped off me and pulled me up.
She looked perfect, despite our kissing in the grass. I was a mess, clothing and armor askew, my pants almost off and a certain body part with very clear ideas of what I should be doing right now.
I reached for Scarlet but she slipped out of the way, grabbed my hand and pulled me through the graveyard until we came to a stone bench that had been warming in the sun. It had a fading inscription on it. For E—you were the first.
“Now sit, please,” Scarlet said, giving me a gentle push.
Despite my desire to grab the Demoness and fuck her brains out on the nearest patch of grass, I complied. First I adjusted myself however, getting back to some sort of order before sitting down.
Scarlet slipped out of her clothes like she was going for the world record.
I had but a moment to take in her curves before she placed herself over my knee, her perfect bubble butt sticking up in the air. Her tail waved like a curious cat.
“I think ten to start with,” she whispered.
There are moments that sear themselves into memory, like your brain is saving it for later on when you’re old and gray. The first time a girl slips out of her clothing in front of you. The time you get awoken in the middle of the night so your girlfriend can fuck your brains out.
The first time a Demoness with a butt to die for places herself over your knee to be spanked.
I gently stroked a finger over her skin and she sighed. She was still hot, definitely hotter than before. I wasn’t chilled like I’d been in that polished stone corridor. I could even feel the heat of her through my clothes.
“Why are you so hot?” I murmured.
“The Demoness made me that way,” Scarlet replied and gave a little wiggle.
I trailed a finger from her tail upwards, to her lower back. Despite her high temperature, she broke out in goosebumps at my touch.
“Please,” Scarlet whispered.
I gently trailed down again, this time to her tail.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said.
I’m not quite sure what had come over me. Perhaps there was some residual annoyance there. That kind of anger that you let out in furious make-up sex. Right now, she wanted something, and I was making her wait, frustrating her.
“The Hells are hot. Some more than others,” Scarlet said and wriggled her butt again.
I didn’t speak but drew a line down her butt to the back of her thigh. She had her legs parted slightly, and I came close enough to barely graze against her. She tried to move back against my fingers, but with my free hand, I grasped the back of her neck, holding her in place.
The gasp she let out sounded like when she was fooling around, locking the door to our room at the White Glove, but this time it was genuine.
Keeping a firm grasp, I suddenly brought my other hand down.
Smack!
It wasn’t hard... but sure not soft either. Most of her skin was red, but under her clothes tended to a duskier red, almost pink in places. My hand left a slightly redder imprint on her left buttcheek.
“Oh...” Scarlet moaned.
I quickly brushed my fingers across the sore spot, seeing another rush of goosebumps before I spanked her again, this time on the other side.
I could have kept going, but that wild part of me had taken over. It knew this game wasn’t just in the action but the anticipation.
“You’re going to count the rest, and I’m only going to punish you when you say please,” I said.
I tightened my grasp on the back of her neck just enough to show I was holding her in place.
“Yes,” she said, her voice hitching.
I heard her take two long breathes, obviously trying to calm herself.
“Please,” she finally said.
Smack!
This time it was harder, back to the left. Scarlet let out a shocked cry and started panting.
“Three,” she said, trying to count.
“Please,” she managed to say after a moment.
Again, this time on the right. Slightly harder again.
“Four... please,” Scarlet said.
Again. And again.
We got to eight before she was gulping air like she was running. Her butt had turned a deeper shade of red and I saw she’d reached down to clench the side of the stone bench with her hand. She was trying to compose herself but I wasn’t about to let that happen. Not after she hurled both of us off a cliff. Plus I was enjoying this too much.
I stroked between her legs with two fingers, slipping through the wet heat of her.
“You need to keep counting, or I’ll do it and then it’ll be double,” I threatened.
She couldn’t move back, not with my hand on the back of her neck but she tried anyway, trying to push back against my fingers. I began moving them up and down and soon she was gasping.
“Eight... no nine, please!”
The crack of my palm echoed out across the graveyard. Before she could recover I had my fingers between her legs again, sliding up and down.
“Oh... I... nine... ohhh...” Scarlet moaned.
She was trying to count and moan and say please all at once but she was already tipping over the edge. I’d intended to get her to the brink and then pull back, to drive her crazy but I was pulled into the moment. I moved my fingers in just the right way until she let out a cry and shook against me.
I held still as she bucked her hips, still trying to push back but unable too.
After a moment she slowed and then let out a shaky breath.
“Please,” she managed to say.
I spanked her again, easing off a little but still hard enough to leave a mark. I think maybe she was expecting then that I’d take her off my lap, gently ease her to the thick grass in front of us but a wildness had taken over.
I pulled her off me and facedown to the grass, my hand still on the back of her neck. Somehow with my free hand I managed to get my pants off and then with one smooth move, slipped into her from behind, pressing her down into the grass with my weight.
Scarlet let out a shocked gasp that gripped something deep inside of me. I let go of her but quickly looped my arm around her neck, across her collarbone. Not giving her time to rest, to recover, I began plunging back and forth into her.
The heat of her body was incredible. Hotter than the hottest pool of water.
Soon Scarlet was moaning and gasping, begging please, helpless beneath me. She let out another shaky cry and shook but this time I didn’t stop or hold still. The heat from her pooled within me, rushing from someone at the base of my spine. Harder and faster, the Demoness crying out beneath me before finally a moan pulled me along with it.
I swear I saw stars, probably because I’d forgotten to breathe in a while. Scarlet was clenching against me, gulping air as I eventually slowed.
The wildness faded and I relaxed my arm. I was no longer holding her down. Still within the heat of her, I gently kissed her neck, her cheek, her earlobe.
It was like a soporific drug to her. She blinked like she was desperately fighting sleep and then closed her eyes with a happy sigh. I kissed her a few more times and then slipped out of her, to rest by her side.
I was still partially dressed and sweating, but within a few deep breaths, a few gentle kisses, I followed Scarlet into a light snooze, right there on the grass.
16
As night fell and a chill crept into the forest, Ori’s skin was steaming like a lump of hot coal thrown into snow. He’d assured me the heat of the Hells was no problem for the various demons and other creatures who lived there but I wasn’t so sure.
He stepped in a muddy puddle and it let out a hiss, practically boiling around his foot.
“You sure you’re good?” I asked as we followed him through the dark that was getting deeper by the minute.
“Couldn’t be better!” the little ink demon said with a grin. Then he did one of those Irish Leprechaun jumps and kicked his heels together.
He’d been in a great mood since I’d summoned him back. He’d splattered against a tombstone but quickly reformed, standing up on the stone bench so he didn’t burn footprints into the grass.
We talked as we’d made our way to Ebony. As a race that was frequently enslaved for their ink, Ori was happy that the spiders had been freed, seeing it as a victory against the enslavers everywhere.
I was happy about it too... but the problem of the Apothecary and Rax was starting to weigh down more on me. Whatever purpose they were milking those spiders hadn’t vanished just because we’d freed them. Given the infrastructure around it—the tables, the elevator, the hired hands, the whole thing with the red mold to weaken the spiders so they couldn’t fight back—I’d put good money on it starting right back up once they’d patched that hole in the wall.
The spiders could leave their home perhaps, get away from Rax but who knows how far his reach?
There was no quest propelling me, but I was starting to wheel around to the idea that both Rax and the Apothecary had to die.
“Hey, the swan divers return!” Isabel called out of the dark.
Ori tripped in surprise, landed full body in a puddle, which let off a burst of steam like a mushroom cloud. He was up in a moment, the mud drying on his skin before flaking away.
Isabel came out of the dark, closely followed by a giant spider holding a blue flame torch between two legs. She crashed against me in a hug that only didn’t take me down because of her small size. Then she hugged Scarlet and gave a wave to Ori, who was standing in the puddle, boiling it away.
“This is Armando. Armando, Scarlet, James, and Ori.”
“Thank you for saving me, and us,” Armando said. She had a deep raspy voice, like a lounge singer who’d just taken a shot of whiskey.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said, giving the spider a smile.
Yes, they were friends and allies but there was something deep down, primal, that was unnerved by them. Maybe the lack of a face? Or perhaps the two sharp fangs and the knowledge they could kill you in an instant.
“This way,” Isabel said, waving for us to follow her.
We soon passed the blue tree I recognized from the ambush. The memory of it came with a hot flush of guilt. I chased that back twice as fast with a hell no, did you see what they were doing to those spiders?
The dead bodies were gone. I assumed the spiders had taken them away, and that was as far as I wanted to travel down that line of thought as to where they ended up exactly. So long as I didn’t see any human-size cocoons I could live with it.
Still, there was a sore spot left behind. Like William and Mancer driven by poverty to rob to survive, the guards were victims just like the spiders.
Was evil the man hiring others to do his dark bidding or the structure around it all that enabled the evil to thrive in the first place?
We emerged from between some trees into a clearing that had a large bonfire in the middle, the sparks from it drifting up into the sky and the wood popping and crackling. There were spiders everywhere, adults gathered, children running about. The kids were big and scary looking but laughing as they played a complicated chasing game that seemed to be like tag but more spiders were it over time.
There were other fires, cooking ones, on the far side and the delicious smell of roasting pork drifted across.
“That smells good,” I said, my mouth watering. The flour-cakes had gone on the cart-ride back to Bron and I hadn’t eaten in a while.
“And it’s definitely pig pork and not long pig,” Isabel said with a knowing look. I guess she’d seen me looking for the dead guards.
The atmosphere was half joyous, half somber. Children were running and laughing, adults were gathered together but in places around the fire were injured spiders. Some were slowly moving but others appeared still comatose.
I hadn’t seen a spider use tools or weapons so it was strange to see them using their legs to carry bowls, to rotate a spit. A spider with a long blue streak down its back brought me a bowl of white wine.
“Thank you,” I said as I took it.
The spider looked at the ground, blurted out a thank you and then ran off. I looked at Isabel.
“She likes you. She’s still a teenager though, in spider terms,” she explained.
“Aww, she has a crush on you,” Scarlet teased, tickling the back of my neck.
I wisely kept my thoughts to myself and tasted the wine. It was as good as any I’d had and not to get too wine-snob about it, yes there were hints of orange and passionfruit.
We made our way around the far side of the bonfire and as my eyes adjusted from the glare, I saw there were caves in the hill behind. They were webbed over, with strands going in all directions and looked creepy as hell.
“Culture shock?” Isabel
said and elbowed me.
“Ah... yeah,” I said and took another deep gulp of wine. Scarlet had a bowl too now and was drinking from it. Ori had split off and was standing on the edge of the bonfire, enjoying the heat.
I looked around for Ebony but didn’t see her. The wine had hit my empty stomach and was quickly going to my head. I started counting colors, noticing that about half the spiders had streaks down their backs. Red, blue, yellow, a green that practically glowed.
We were given plates of food handed to us by spider chefs and if you think I’m kidding there, I’m not. I’m talking knives being spun between legs with no hands, chopping up meat, fruit and vegetables.
Soon we were sitting on a log warmed by the fire. My plate was rough wood but the food on top was restaurant quality. Melt in your mouth pork, succulent and salty. There was crunchy crackling on the side, along with a salad of wild greens. There was a fruit in it that was halfway between a tomato and watermelon.
We ate with our hands and drank our wine and the night spiraled on from there.
At some point there was music that was made by spiders chanting and drumming. They danced and crashed against each other in moves that were half-artistic poses and half tackles. I drank far more wine than I should have and found myself talking with spiders. Some thanking me, tears in their eyes, others asking about where I was from. I spoke to an old spider who was actually wrapped in a shawl to keep her warm and if I closed my eyes she was pure Grandma, ready to feed you even though you said you weren’t hungry.
Ori must have cooled off eventually because I remember a drunken moment laughing and drinking with the ink demon, both of us stuffing our faces with more salty pork.
I know I kissed Scarlet plenty and she me. We were apart and together again. I’d touch her on the back of the neck and she’d lean back into me. She’d sneak up from behind and plant a kiss on the side of my neck.
At one point I found myself on the edge of the light, pissing out into the darkness, staring up at the stars.
No light pollution so the sky glittered and not all the stars were white. Some were red, others blue. In the distance, the opposite direction of Bron there were streaks of luminescent green, some aurora gently moving.
