Metal Mage 6

by Eric Vall

  “Wait a minute,” Shoshanne cut in. “How does paper beat rock? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Aurora nodded. “Yeah, that can’t be right. ”

  I sighed and tried to ignore the heat still pulsing through my center. “Just go with it, my loves. Everyone ready?” I asked, and the three women nodded and held their fists out. “Rock, paper, scissors.”

  Shoshane’s eyes lit up. “I won!”

  “Hell yeah, you did,” I said and pulled the caramel beauty into my arms so her breasts were flush against me. I delved my tongue into her eager mouth while the other two women played to sort out who would get to go second, and Shoshanne held me to her by the scruff of my hair. We stumbled and nearly toppled down the hall, but Aurora caught my arm with a giggle.

  I released the Aer Mage and glanced over to the other two.

  “I won,” Cayla said with a smirk. Heat coursed through me, and I nodded impatiently as I moved in for another taste of Shoshanne, and Cayla had to pull me back from where I’d already pinned her to the wall.

  “I think the waterfall is definitely necessary tonight,” Cayla chuckled.

  Shoshanne unwound her legs from me just in time to catch her robe before it fell to the ground, and I gritted my teeth.

  “You have ten seconds to be at that waterfall before I pin you against a tree, and every damn elf in the forest can deal with it,” I warned the healer, and her cheeks flushed a deep red as she grinned and trotted for the door. Aurora and Cayla quickly followed, and I smirked at their indiscreet giggling.

  Hopefully, Qiran was already asleep.

  I shook my head and took a steadying breath, and then I turned to find a pair of violet eyes glowing with candlelight.

  From her velvet seat in the sitting room, Deya could just see to the end of the hallway we’d ducked into, and from the looks of it, she’d long since forgotten about the book in her lap.

  The elven beauty’s cheeks were pink enough to match her hair, and her eyes flicked toward the shirt I held against my front.

  I quickly looked down to be sure I still held it in place and realized this was still a pretty immodest sight regardless. The violet eyes sparkled as Deya failed to hide her smile, and she didn’t look away.

  Half a grin came to my face, and I bowed as politely as I could before I backed out of the hallway and headed for the door.

  Once the loosened planks of the door were quietly shut behind me, I turned toward the fog and let out the breath I’d been holding since Deya’s eyes had flicked downward. Nothing in her expression looked upset by what she’d witnessed between the four of us, and the glow on her cheeks suggested she liked what she saw.

  “Godsdamnit,” I sighed, and I scruffed my hair to refocus.

  Then I heard a faint silvery giggle and remembered the acute hearing of the elves once more.

  I smirked toward the blackened jungle, but I finally shrugged. “Again … so sorry about that,” I muttered over my shoulder before I hurried to catch up with the women.

  The air had cooled throughout the night, and it did me good to walk a ways and refresh the direction of my thoughts. All I could think of was the cast of Deya’s eyes, and the telling blush on her pixie-like cheeks. I ground my jaw and walked faster, and as I ducked out from under the willowish trees, I could make out the faint glow of a fire near the base of the massive waterfall.

  The water roared louder as I wound my way through the dense growth along the bank of the river, and I let the spray of the wild current cool me another measure. From a short distance, I could make out the shadowy rocks at the waterfall’s base, and Aurora’s fire burned just behind them.

  I dragged the water through my hair as I rounded the edge of the rocks and found my three women naked and waiting for me with their moistened skin glistening in the firelight. The waterfall sent a fine mist down that glittered gold against their breasts and thighs, and the roar of the water thundered against the rocks that surrounded us.

  Suddenly, the image of Deya was ripped from my mind, and I stooped to pull Shoshanne up from where she lay out in the dirt. We tumbled into the wall of rock as I lifted her against me, and I heard the caramel beauty’s husky giggle as she hitched her sleek thighs around my waist. Then I let her sink onto the tip of my cock and found a firm hold on the rockface behind her.

  Shoshanne let out a screech when I drove my full length into her, and I felt her nails pierce the flesh on my shoulders as she braced herself. The sturdy rock at her back kept her right where I wanted her, and she gasped with each thrust as I moved deeper and deeper without restraint. She was wet with arousal and sweat, and as I pounded into her, the spray of the waterfall beside us ran down her neck and the curves of her breasts as they jolted against me.

  Then the healer let out a shriek of ecstasy, but I didn’t stop. I let her shake with pleasure and roughly hitched her leg up higher, and then I kept going until she trembled and bit at me for more. As she sank her teeth into my shoulder and let out another shriek, I emptied myself into her and pinned her hard to her place with the rock clutched in my grip.

  Shoshanne clenched her thighs tightly around me in her orgasm while I throbbed and buried myself in her, and I let her lick along my neck before I delved my tongue into her mouth. She wrestled hungrily with me for a long moment while I continued to pulse inside of her, and when she began to writhe against me once more, I chuckled and finally released her from the rocks.

  “You’ll have to wait your turn for seconds,” I growled against her neck.

  Shoshanne let out a languid moan as I moved to lay her out in the dirt beside the fire, and I stood above her to admire the sheen of her ample, caramel curves in the firelight. A carnal need pulsed through me as she bit her lip and spread her legs to me, and I sent Shoshanne a wink.

  By the time I turned away, Cayla was sauntering toward the wall of rock, and the porcelain beauty looked over her shoulder with her fiercely blue eyes. Then she braced her hands against the sleek surface in front of her, and I cracked my neck as I made my way over to my next woman.

  I dragged my palms around the meat of Cayla’s thighs as she tilted her hips so her back end pressed against me, and when I slid my fingers along the lips of her pussy, she was already wet and waiting.

  And I was definitely ready to go again.

  Chapter 7

  I didn’t know what time it was when we made our way through the blue jungle and back toward House Quyn. The sky had barely begun to lighten, and only a few birds had started to screech in the canopy above. The three women shuffled their bare and spent legs through the stone halls and up to the tiny tower room, and once we’d propped the too small mattress up against the wall, I softened the floor before we collapsed in a naked heap.

  I must have slept like the dead, because I woke to a chorus of bird call so loud, I could hardly think, and the brightness of day streamed through the small window. The floor was empty except for myself, and I gave a loud yawn as I stretched the kinks out of my muscles. My shoulders burned from the exertion of our waterfall activities, and I hoped the women’s backs hadn’t taken too much of a beating from the rockface.

  I grinned as I recalled Aurora smacking her head against the rock during her second climax, but she hadn’t seemed to notice at all. Honestly, I didn’t know how I made it through all three of them twice, but I could feel the effort of the feat in every inch of my body now, and I groaned as I strained to stand up. Of all my endeavors in this realm, pleasing the three women was hands down my most thorough exercise.

  My clothes were crumpled in the corner, and as I shook them out, I heard a strange clicking sound near the door at my back. I pulled my pants on and quickly opened the door, and the wolfish hound lifted her head from where she lay on the landing. Her snout was a clean snowy white again, and I craned my neck to look down the stairwell, but no one else was there.

  Then I slowly crouched down and studied the sharp green eyes of the beast. She looked at me attentively and didn’t move or growl,
so I checked the stairwell once more before I spoke in a low voice.

  “Listen,” I began, “I feel like we didn’t really understand each other too well yesterday. We were both pretty tense and edgy … potentially rude. I guess what I want to say is I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you crazy or accused you of wanting to eat me. Turns out you’re a pretty good dog, but don’t tell the women I said that.”

  Ruela just stared.

  “Anywayyy,” I cleared my throat, “it’s a new day, everyone’s safe and not covered in rotten gut blood anymore. Maybe we should try for a fresh start, yeah?”

  The dog suddenly stood up, and her head was nearly higher than my own. I thought she was coming in for a pet, but as I reached out, she turned her massive body toward the staircase, and her tail smacked me across the face as she left.

  I sighed and pulled a few sable hairs from my mouth. “Good talk,” I muttered.

  A single scratch to the back of my neck sent a searing pain across my skin, and I stood as I carefully felt around my burning flesh. Several deep scratches crisscrossed along my neck and shoulders from the three women’s hold on me, and I winced a little when I slid my shirt on. The fabric rubbed on the tender flesh, but a little pain was always worth it in the name of pleasure.

  I pulled my belt from the corner and left the tower room as I secured the leather, and when I came to the bottom of the staircase, I jumped about three feet.

  Dragir was propped with his back against the stonework of the hall, and Ruela was at his feet.

  I glanced back up the stairs as I recalled my little heart to heart with the wolfish beast. “You didn’t hear that, did you?”

  Dragir cocked a brow. “No, the dog told me about it.”

  His countenance was impossible to read, but I knew his House had many secrets, and with their knowledge of rune magic, anything could be going on in House Quyn. After the things I’d seen in this realm so far, it didn’t seem completely impossible that they might possess some means of communicating with other creatures.

  I eyed Ruela’s intense gaze, and she did seem more aware than any dog I’d ever met. The possibilities of that sort of communication was definitely intriguing, but when I looked back to Dragir, he rolled his eyes.

  “Defender Solana can hear you from twenty feet away,” he said flatly. “Do you think I cannot hear you up a flight of stairs?”

  I sighed as I rubbed the back of my neck. Unfortunately, I’d already forgotten the fresh splices in my skin, and I winced as the burning returned full force. I could have sworn I saw Dragir smirk as he pushed himself from the wall and gestured over my shoulder.

  “Your women are eating breakfast,” he told me.

  I tucked my shirt in and followed him and Ruela to the sitting room, and the sound of laughter echoed down the hallway. When we entered, I found a dining table had been arranged at the center of the open-air room. Deya sat surrounded by my women, and there were several platters of colorful foods laid out for them.

  The three women were back in their bodysuits made from dwarven leather, and they looked like three sexy bodyguards beside the elven beauty in her soft white gown.

  “We were beginning to think you’d sleep through the day,” Shoshanne said, and she sent me a kiss from her place beside Deya.

  “A man needs to rest if he’s gonna be at peak performance.” I winked and settled in across from the two women with Cayla and Aurora on either side of me.

  Cayla grinned. “And they need to eat.”

  I nodded my agreement and pulled an empty plate over as I eyed the wares on the table. There were three different types of meat still steaming in the center, and the other platters glistened with sugary treats and freshly sliced exotic fruits from the jungle. I could smell the alcohol in the pitcher of juice all the way from the opposite end of the table, and I smirked at the light pink cheeks of the women.

  Dragir and his freshly filled goblet sat down beside Shoshanne, and Deya leaned forward.

  She slid a full plate of fruits, bread, and what looked like sausage over to her brother, but Dragir only glanced sidelong at her as he drank from his goblet.

  Deya sighed. “You need to eat breakfast,” she urged. “How many times must I tell you this? You’ll be as wrinkled as a nine hundred year old before long if you keep it up. Breakfast is the most important meal, what will you do if House Kylen shows up and you’re too tired to lead your troops?”

  Dragir lifted a dry lump of bread to his lips and took the smallest possible bite. Then he drained his goblet and pulled the pitcher toward himself for a refill.

  I chuckled at the look on his sister’s face and piled a few more sausage onto my plate. “I honestly wouldn’t worry about House Kylen,” I muttered.

  Aurora leaned in with a devilish grin. “What’d you do?”

  I shrugged. “You remember all those different stairwells?”

  The three women nodded, and I smirked as I took another bite.

  Cayla snorted. “You didn’t.”

  “Of course I did,” I mumbled through my bite.

  “What did you do?” Deya asked.

  “My Terra magic let’s me reform rock,” I explained. “Lucky for us, the whole damn place was made of stone.” I turned toward the entrance of the sitting room and let my magic spark across the surface of my palms before I extended my arm. The stones began to shift, and within a few seconds, the sitting room was sealed as if there were never a doorway there.

  I heard a low chuckle, and when I turned back, Dragir looked well pleased.

  I grinned. “So yeah, I don’t think they’ll be heading over real soon.”

  Deya’s violet eyes glittered as she considered the wall of stone. “Can you all do things like this?”

  “Sort of,” I told her as I reopened the entryway. “Shoshanne’s an Aer Mage, and Aurora’s an Ignis Mage, but I think you kind of get how that one works.”

  Deya smiled sweetly to the half-elf. “Thank you for burning the men alive for me, by the way.”

  Aurora shrugged. “My pleasure.”

  When Dragir raised his brows, she cleared her throat.

  “I mean, not my pleasure, of course,” the half-elf clarified. “It’s just that I don’t mind doing it. Which isn’t to say I like burning people alive, or anything.”

  “You kind of like it, ” I mumbled, and I sent Aurora a wink.

  Deya let out a silvery giggle while Aurora blushed, and then she turned to the healer beside her. “What can an Aer Mage do?”

  Shoshanne turned her palms up toward the sky to oblige the pink-haired elf, and her copper curls began to shift as the fog above us swirled. Then the breeze kicked up, and as we all looked upward, a funnel opened, and the fog was thrown aside. The trees above swayed heavily, and clear sunlight poured into the sitting room.

  Deya let out another silvery laugh as she admired the beauty of it. She looked like an angel with the sun shining down on her, and I had to remind myself not to stare once more.

  Dragir covered his goblet while bugs were thrown around on Shoshanne’s breeze, and she made sure to send them over the stone walls as the wind slowed and the fog settled itself again.

  Then the Aer Mage let out a screech and pushed away from the table.

  The black snake was at least three feet long and must have fallen from the treetops with the wind. Now, it hissed angrily from its place on Shoshanne’s plate as it raised its head and swayed before her.

  Dragir’s hand was on the hilt of his sword in an instant, but a flash of flame burned the snake into a line of ash before he’d unsheathed it. Dragir jolted back so quickly he nearly tipped his seat, and Aurora sent him an apologetic smile.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled. “Just so you know, I wasn’t trying to light you on fire that one time … I was only making a wall. I wouldn’t have burned you alive or anything like that, I only burn people who deserve it or do something seriously fucked u--”

  “That’s probably enough,” I muttered.

  Aur
ora clamped her lips shut with another blush.

  Dragir cleared his throat. “That’s alright,” he told her. “I deserved it, to be honest.”

  I snorted into my goblet as Aurora’s jaw dropped, and the alcohol stung angrily in my throat. Before the half-elf could process Dragir’s honesty, though, Deya and her brother looked toward the hallway.

  Judging by the look on Dragir’s face, I figured their father was about to join us.

  The son stood and swiftly turned for the garden doors, but he didn’t make it before Qiran walked in. Dragir casually turned as if he’d only been pacing, and I could tell the bow he sent to the head of House Quyn took a lot of effort to submit to today.

  Then he settled back into his seat beside Shoshanne and refilled his goblet for the second time.

  Qiran took the seat at the head of the table and shuffled through a few letters he’d brought in with him. “Good morning,” he mumbled half-heartedly.

  “Good morning, father,” Deya returned with a sweet smile. “I hope you slept well.”

  Qiran didn’t respond as his eyes settled on a letter of interest, and he quickly opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of parchment.

  The room was deadly quiet now that the leader had arrived, and we all chewed in awkward silence while he worked through his letter. When he spoke again, Dragir drained the last of his goblet in a single gulp.

  “Aeris has already responded to my letter with regards to your misfortune yesterday,” Qiran informed his daughter happily. “He’s much pleased to know you’re safe at home.”

  Deya bit down hard on a chunk of bread but didn’t respond.

  The weirdness that seemed to revolve around Deya with regards to the elite elves had begun to unnerve me a while ago, but the father’s inability to read the room was just staggering. His loving daughter was seated before him and surrounded with comfort despite being kidnapped, but his happiness was found in a letter from an elf who’d shit all over his ancestors the day before.

  I was beginning to wonder how drunk Dragir would have to be to finally tell his father off, but the conversation suddenly shifted toward me.