“Can someone… please… finish me?” Avilla pleaded from
somewhere behind me.
Our eyes met, and we both laughed. I moved aside, and Cerise rolled
onto hands and knees.
“Come here, Honeydew,” she said, her affectionate tone completely at
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odds with her still rather demonic appearance. “Kitten has a new toy for you.
I’m sure Daniel can give us a few minutes.”
“Yeah, I think if I come one more time my brain’s going to melt and
run out my ears,” I admitted.
“Same here,” Cerise agreed, to my surprise. “But I can’t leave my girl
hanging.” She pounced on the curvy blonde, and began kissing her thoroughly.
I turned away with a smile. I wanted to tell them not to take too long,
but I didn’t quite have the heart to interrupt their reunion.
The bodies on the floor brought me back to reality. Seven men and a
demon had left huge pools of blood spreading across most of the floor, but it
had long since dried. The remains of my clothes were caked with dried blood,
and so were my hands. How long had we spent mindlessly rutting among the
bodies?
A glance showed that Cerise was spotless. Either blood didn’t stick
to her anymore, or… well, best not to go there for now.
I busied myself examining the books and arcane materials spread
about the room. I found Grinder on the floor under a worktable, and Avilla’s
giant recipe book occupied a high stone podium. A lot of the other books
seemed to be religious in nature, but not all of them.
There was also a scholarly survey of major spellcasting styles, which
looked like interesting reading. One shelf held several books on summoning
and binding rituals, along with a catalog of magical creatures and the realms
they were believed to hail from. One of the larger tomes looked like a book on
air magic and weather control, which could certainly be useful.
I’d just cut the chain off that one and stacked it with the rest when the
girls joined me. Cerise was looking quite pleased with herself, and Avilla was
adorably mussed. I hugged them both.
“Think we can get away with stealing that priest’s bed until
morning?” Cerise asked hopefully.
Avilla giggled. “I wish. But we have to go.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “Too many monsters gathering. The town may
not be here come dawn. Speaking of which, either of you know what time it
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is?”
They both shook their heads.
“Damn. Then we’d better not waste time. We need clothes, and I
suppose we can spare a few minutes to loot this place if there’s anything else
you want. Cerise, we’re supposed to be meeting Oskar’s militia and the people
you and Avilla had recruited over at the granary by the harbor, which is where
what’s left of the 5 Margold is set up.”
“Those bastards?” She protested. “They didn’t lift a finger when we
needed them. Don’t tell me we’re hooking up with them.”
“They were in service to the Baron,” I pointed out. “Captain Rain
takes that seriously, but now that the Baron’s dead he wants to sign on with me
instead. Considering how much loyalty he was willing to give that idiot in the
name of a contract, I think it’s a good deal.”
“I guess. Wait, the Baron’s dead?” She pouted. “Aww. I wanted to
kill him. No one gets to paw my girl like that and get away with it.”
“I took care of it,” Avilla told her. “Daniel pinned him to a wall for
me so I could take my time.”
“Oh. Well, as long as you’re satisfied. That’s the important thing.”
I interrupted before the heated look they were sharing could lead to
another makeout session. “Cerise, are you stuck like that or can you make
yourself look a little more human?”
“Hmm. Let me try.”
She closed her eyes, and after a moment the aura of power that still
lingered about her faded. Her horns vanished, and her claws shrank and
flattened until they could almost be mistaken for fingernails. Her tail remained,
although it seemed a little shorter than before.
“That’ll do,” I nodded approvingly. “We’re done hiding what we are
from our own people, but we’ll have an easier time meeting strangers if you
can look relatively normal. I take it you’re stuck with the tail?”
“I can’t hide it with magic,” she said mischievously. “But if it’s
important I’ve got other options.”
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She curled the slender appendage up to slip the end inside herself
with a naughty grin. Then she flushed, and her eyes fluttered. Somehow she
managed to slide a foot or more of tail into her hidden depths, leaving the
remainder tucked neatly out of the way.
“Whew,” she said. “There. Give me a skirt and no one will suspect a
thing. Plus if I get bored I can just give myself a little thri-ooooohfuck! Wow.
You’re right, honeydew. This thing is wicked hot.”
I facepalmed.
Avilla giggled. “Told you. Careful or you might end up addicted to
yourself.”
“Cute,” I sighed. “But you can play with yourself later. Right now we
need to focus. We all need fresh clothes again, and if there’s anything else you
girls want to steal from this place now’s the time. We won’t be coming back.”
Cerise extracted her tail with a long, sensuous wriggle, and grinned at
me. “Sure thing, Daniel. Totally serious now.”
Avilla smiled at her demented partner indulgently. “I could fix our
clothes, Daniel. But my power is running low, and doing that instantly in this
place would pretty well drain me.”
“That’s easily fixed,” I pointed out. I put my hand on her shoulder, and
poured a modest stream of magic into her body. As usual she sucked it up like
a sponge.
“Warn me if you start feeling high,” I told her. “We all need to keep our
wits sharp right now. But I should be able to give you enough for that kind of
spellcasting without a problem.”
The girls shared one of those looks that was probably a whole
conversation. Avilla sighed, and left her lover’s arms to snuggle up against me.
“Thank you, Daniel. You have no idea how good this feels. But I have
to ask, where are you getting all this power? Cerise stole enough life force
from you to kill a hundred men, and the maids told me you’d barely finished
healing yourself when you left to rescue me. Is it wise to push yourself any
further?”
“I suppose it is about time I let you two in on that,” I mused. “I think I
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mentioned once that one of the elemental sorceries I gained when Hecate
brought to this world is magic itself?”
They both nodded. “Yeah, but I still don’t see how all of magic can be
an element,” Cerise said.
“It’s not ‘every kind of magic’, it’s ‘the stuff that spells are made of’.
Which is an odd way to think about things, I know. But understanding what
spells are made of, how that stuff behaves and where it ultimately comes from,
lets me do some crazy things. Like this.”
I fished my amulet out from under the remnants of my shirt, and held it
up.
“This thing is enchanted to put a barrier against physical attacks around
me when I want it to, and it automatically heals me whenever I get injured.
That last part has saved my life a few times now, because it works even if I’m
not in any condition to think about it. But the most important thing it does is act
as a power source.”
Avilla nodded. “I thought you must have something like that. But what