“Am I invited as well, mortal?” Adana materialized behind him and gave his shoulders a soft, and not unpleasant massage.
Jack glanced over his shoulder and made a shooing motion with his head. The onyx-skinned woman grinned at him and disappeared.
CHAPTER 48
The walk back to the mansion seemed to take forever. Though Jack would have never admitted it out loud, he didn’t find Jessie’s suggestion that the mansion might have been destroyed during the chaos to be all that unlikely. If he’d been in Mezolak’s shoes, it would have been the first place he’d checked, and upon not finding him there, it would have made a certain amount of sense to destroy a potential place for his opponent to hide.
The mansion was untouched, and both he and his companions let out noises of relief when they saw it. Jack jogged ahead and did the chivalrous thing, unlocking the door and holding it open for his companions and Reese to enter ahead of him.
“Dibs on the shower,” said Katie.
“There are two showers in the house, if I’m not mistaken,” said Mira.
“Dibs on the second!” said Ryoko with a laugh.
Mira sighed, and then looped an arm through Jack’s. “Fine. I’ll share a shower with dearest Jack after, then, since there will obviously be precious little hot water left.”
“Whoa, don’t bring me into this,” said Jack, smiling at them.
Twenty minutes later, Jack stepped into a still surprisingly hot shower and breathed a massive sigh of relief. He could finally take a rest. He didn’t have to worry about dying. More importantly, he didn’t have to worry about who he’d be ordered to kill next.
He washed his body slowly, taking time to work his fingers into each tired muscle. He was just about done when he felt a presence in the shower with him, and a seductive giggle tickled against his ear.
“You’ve done excellent work, mortal,” whispered Adana. “And now that you’re in private, we finally have a chance to talk.”
Jack rolled his eyes as he turned around to face her. Adana was always naked, but somehow, the context of them being in the shower made him infinitely more aware of the points of her nipples and the flowery, red-accented folds of her lower parts.
“I’m not overly interested in talking with you,” said Jack.
“Are you interested in something else, then?” whispered Adana. “We can always make a deal once we’re done… cleaning off.”
Jack stared into her burning red eyes and shook his head slightly.
“You’re still my thrall,” said Jack. “I order you to abandon any sinister plans you might have of getting me to agree to one of your demonic deals.”
“Fair enough.” Adana’s smile didn’t fade. “Do you order me to do anything else, master?”
Her hand went to his crotch, and Jack felt his knees go a little weak as he felt her touch him in ways that felt supernaturally good. It was warmer, wetter, and all together more engulfing than any hand should have been able to be.
Adana stepped in closer and gave him a hungry, sucking kiss. Jack was surprised by how vividly he could feel her presence. He knew that she wasn’t really there. She was manifesting through him as an anchor, projecting herself into his world from the Other Realms.
But, she’d still managed to turn him on. Jack took her by the shoulders and turned her around, pushing her head forward a little more roughly than he needed to against the wall of the shower.
“Ooh,” hummed Adana. “Are you about to show me what you’re made of, mortal?”
He pinned one of her wrists against the wall, and was more delighted by her teasing laugh than he would have admitted openly. Jack was already hard, and even though the fighting of the day had exhausted him, there was at least one muscle still ready and willing to work as intended.
He pushed into Adana and almost immediately built up to a rhythmic, punishing pace. She let out even, shaky moans, and her back arched as he ran his hand over her large, soft breasts.
They’d been enemies once. They still were, at least in some ways. Admittedly, Jack would have taken any of the women under the roof of the mansion who’d snuck into the shower in a similar manner.
But somehow, it felt appropriate for it to be her. Mezolak’s sister. The demoness who’d tempted him into ruining his life and then been enthralled by his bite. And now he had his full length inside of her, pumping at a steady, pleasured pace.
“You…” Adana could barely breathe, let alone talk. “You’re… feisty… for a mortal.”
Jack pinned her against the wall and let his fangs drag against the spot on her neck where he’d bitten her to enthrall her. Adana gasped, and then squealed.
“And you’re slutty for a demoness,” said Jack. Though, in truth, he didn’t know enough about demons to back that statement up.
He set his hands on her waist and plunged into her harder, enjoying the sensation of her butt serving as padding. Adana lifted one of her legs slightly. Jack seized it and shifted their angle, using every part of her body he could grab onto for purchase.
She came before he did, letting out an almost painfully loud cry of ecstasy. It was like the starting pistol for a race Jack hadn’t realized he’d been running. He seized her with enough strength to leave bruises on a human and pumped into her with rough, relentless strokes.
She was so tight, and so hot. And he’d enthralled her. The dark, evil, depths of his mind got off a little on that. He could use her whenever he pleased, and he wasn’t sure he needed to feel bad about it. She’d been taking advantage of humanity for millennia, and more importantly, she seemed to be enjoying the domination aspect of it as much as he was.
“Oh…” moaned Adana. “Master!”
The way she enunciated the word was too much for him. Jack pushed deep into her and let out a grunt as he unloaded.
“Jack?” called Katie. “Are you okay in there? Ryoko said she heard weird noises.”
Jack blinked. Adana was gone, but his lingering pleasure wasn’t. He leaned his head back against the shower wall and chuckled.
“I’m fine,” he called. “Better than fine.”
***
Jack finished his shower, dried off, and changed into a t-shirt and his most comfortable pair of sweatpants. He couldn’t stop smiling as he made his way downstairs. Ryoko was in the middle of preparing dinner, and Reese was sitting at the table, but Katie and Mira were nowhere to be found.
“Ryoko,” said Jack. “You don’t have to cook for us, you know. You’re just as tired as any of us after all we’ve been through.”
Ryoko had even taken the liberty of changing into one of her old maid uniforms after her shower. She stepped in close to Jack and gave him a long, though still somewhat shy, kiss.
“I want to,” she said. “It feels so right. After all we’ve been through, it’s nice to just fall back into a familiar rhythm, sir.”
She flashed a wicked smile, and Jack rolled his eyes at her.
“I feel like the more I correct you on calling me ‘sir,’ the more you enjoy doing it,” he said.
“You’re only just now noticing, sir?” said Ryoko.
Mira was the next to join them in the dining room. Jack was sitting at the table with Reese, and he suddenly felt a very large and pleasant set of breasts pressing against the back of his head.
“My sweet Jack,” she whispered. “We’ve come so far. I cannot express how proud you’ve made me.”
“I could say the same thing to you.” Jack stood up, kissed her, and then pulled her into an embrace. “When we met, you were basically killing people indiscriminately.”
He tried not to think too much about that. Mira had never killed anyone in front of him that he would have considered to be completely innocent, but he still liked her more as she was, than as she’d been.
“This is still just the beginning,” said Mira. “We’ll be together for longer than I think you know.”
She caressed his cheek, but the gesture only lasted for a couple of seconds before
Katie very deliberately cleared her throat from the hallway.
“Jack,” she said.
“Katie,” he replied.
She nodded to him, smiling a little as she came to stand at his side.
“You did really good, today,” she said. “I think… Peter would have been proud of you, too. Of the man you’ve become.”
“I know he would have,” said Jack. “Thank you, Katie. That means a lot coming from you. I think he would have been just as proud of you.”
They shared a kiss of their own, followed by a hug, and then everyone except for Ryoko sat down at the table. Reese was staring at Jack, Katie, and Mira with a curious expression on her face. Jack felt a little awkward under the intensity of her gaze and tried to engage with her.
“So, Reese,” said Jack. “Where are your cats? Did they run off when the Order took you into custody?”
Reese’s pale hair was still wet from her own shower. She was wearing one of Ryoko’s nightgowns, which was a little small on her, and she shifted in her chair as she looked at him.
“I sent them away into the wilder portions of the island,” she said. “It made more sense than letting the Order kill them or bringing them here with me. This island doesn’t have many natural predators, which makes for plenty of prey.”
“Good thinking,” said Jack. “Well, you’re welcome to stay here for the time being. We certainly have room for you, and the island will need all the help it can get in the coming weeks.”
“Uh-huh,” said Reese. “I feel it’s kind of necessary for me to point out just how weird this all is.”
Jack furrowed his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She pointed a finger at his chest.
“You’re literally a vampire,” said Reese. “Living in a luxurious mansion. With a harem of supernaturally powerful women as thralls.”
“I wouldn’t call it a harem, and none of them are thralls, just to be clear,” said Jack.
“Irrelevant,” said Reese. “You could take over this island in a day, if you wanted to. Probably do more than just that.”
Jack shrugged. Ryoko was bringing the food out, and he whispered a quick thanks to her as she set his plate down in front of him.
“I was close to going down that road once,” he said. “But I think I’d rather save the world than take it over.”
“And you all?” Reese gestured at Katie, Ryoko, and Mira. “You’re just totally content with this situation?”
“Lestaron Island is my home,” said Katie. “This mansion, to be specific, is my home. And Jack is… about as close to family as I’ll ever have.”
Reese glanced at Ryoko, next, who gave a shy shrug.
“I love it here,” said Ryoko, in a quiet voice. “I’m content. I have no plans of leaving, outside of tending to the call of the ocean. This is where I want to come back to, for now and forever.”
Mira was smiling, and she waited for the silence to gain an edge of tension before offering her own thoughts.
“Reese, not everything is about power or control,” said Mira. “I’ve made the mistake of thinking that way, before. Sometimes it’s about the simple things. Love. Community. The bonds we make between each other.”
Reese groaned. “That’s a little cheesy, if you don’t mind me saying.”
“I think you’ll understand, soon enough,” said Jack.
He turned his focus to the food on his plate. Frozen pizza and stale potato chips. He took a few bites and decided that it was, without a doubt, the best meal he’d ever eaten.
THE END
Thanks for reading. Honestly, I can’t thank you guys enough for your support. I’m not a huge author, but I’m at the point where it might make sense to look toward doing this closer to full time (I’m already writing constantly). That’s solely do to the fact that I have such an awesome and content hungry audience.
My next book, Sword Sirens, will be out on January 4th. It’s the first in a new series set in a more traditional fantasy world (sword and sorcery with a survival twist). If you want to read it early, sign up for my newsletter. I’ll probably be looking for beta readers a week or two before release.
For real, thank you, and have a wonderful holiday season. Also, don’t forget to email me if you want a NSFW version of this book cover ([email protected]). I’ve been warned about distributing them through my website because of how it’s connected to my Amazon author page.
Edmund
Heartgem Homestead
CHAPTER 1
And as such, Lady Eletha demanded supreme fealty from Billick. She strode into his palace flanked by her valkyries, wearing the sensual, open cut dress of the elven dawning ceremony. Billick, defeated in both battle and pride, stood naked in his court room. His contemporaries watched on, knowing that their only hope for thriving in the next era lay with the heir about to be conceived.
Before the war, Billick had boasted of his intent to bed Lady Eletha. Perhaps that was part of the irony of her demands, placing the burden of conception into his lap along with complete surrender. Now, she walked toward him with long, languid steps, the horizontal slits in her dress revealing glimpses of pink nipple as they shifted across her bosom.
Billick made a show of sneering openly, but it was clear that he was a defeated man. Even as aroused as he was, there was no confidence left in his eyes. If anything, his expression hinted at self-loathing and annoyance in the deep satisfaction Lady Eletha took in their reversal of roles.
She pushed her hand against his chest, knocking him back into the chair that was once to be his throne. Pulling up her dress from the hem, she lowered herself onto him. He was ready for her, and reached his hands up to feel her body and take control.
Two of Lady Eletha’s valkyries seized his wrists before he could. Lady Eletha nodded to a third, who came up beside her and took hold of Billick’s long ears, rubbing the appendages and teasing the erogenous zones there with soft movements.
Lady Eletha sank lower onto him, and Billick’s mask faded away. He let out a defeated moan and tried to glare at her, only managing a halfhearted effort. Lady Eletha pulled at her plunging neckline and thrust her bare breasts into his face. Slowly, she rocked her hips back and forth. She planned on taking her time with him.
“Halrin Kentar! Are you truly this daft?”
Hal flinched at the sound of his sister’s voice, nearly dropping the translation he’d been studying. Lilith was headed up the hill in his direction, carrying her skirts high as she stepped through the rain speckled grass.
He felt his cheeks reddening as he considered the history he’d been reading. Many of the ancient elven texts that Roth assigned him to translate centered on topics that were less than appropriate for polite discussion. Some of them even veered into explicit detail, giving a raw, unfiltered glimpse into the lurid history of the elder race.
“Do you need something, Lilith?” he asked.
Lilith bounced with each step as she made her way toward the tree Hal was resting against, her strawberry blonde curls falling loose across her freckled, youthful face. Behind her, carriages approached the Kentar Estate in an unbroken line, appearing to flee from the beautiful setting sun and indigo infused clouds in their wake.
“It’s father’s victory party,” she said. “He’s going to be expecting you there.”
Hal shrugged.
Of course he will be. Along with all his sycophants, desperate to win his favor however they can.
“Father is always expecting one thing or another,” said Hal. “I’m sure he’s learned to manage his disappointment over the years.”
Lilith made an annoyed noise and crossed her arms, the motion causing the curls of her hair to pull and bounce like paper spirals. She stomped toward Hal, pouting as her eyes ran over him. For an instant, he feared that she was going to look at his work, and he scrambled to set the stack of paper just out of reach.
“What happened?” asked Lilith. “I know you too well, brother, to think that thi
s morose mood comes naturally to you.”
She sat down next to him, leaning her back against the tree trunk, and took hold of one of his hands. Lilith was only twelve, a full eight years younger than Hal, but she was precocious and surprisingly perceptive for her age. Hal sighed and made a vague gesture, hoping she’d just let it drop.
“Father denied your request for dueling training,” guessed Lilith. “Again?”
Hal slowly nodded.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me,” he said. “The Collected Provinces may be at peace now, but that might not always be the case. And he’s one of the most prominent Voicemen, especially now that he’s been reelected. How does he expect me to protect him or you, should something happen? With a single ball from my pistol, which I also haven’t been trained with?”
“He doesn’t want that kind of life for you,” said Lilith.
Hal scowled, not at her, but at his circumstances.
“Father used those exact same words,” said Hal. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect an element of collusion between the two of you.”
Lilith made an offended noise, and Hal couldn’t keep a tiny smile from betraying his teasing. She was too easy, sometimes. Or perhaps she was just playing along, doing what she could to drag a better mood out of him.
“It’s not just the training though, is it?” asked Lilith. “He must have said something more than that to darken your temper so.”
“It’s not what he said…” Hal ran a hand through his hair. “It’s what he does. Who he favors…”
“You think he favors Mauve over you?” asked Lilith. “Mauve isn’t his son, Hal. And he isn’t your brother, despite how close he’s become to all of us.”
Mauve was the son of Eddard Broven, the Voiceman who’d originally pulled Hal’s father, Karnas Kentar, into politics. When Eddard had passed away, Mauve had still been a young child and the last of his family line. Karnas had taken him into the Kentar household without a second thought.
Loyalty Oath Page 28
