The Duelist 3, page 34
All of it reminded me of a Van Gogh painting because it was like I was seeing the ordinary world bursting with wonder when I looked at her.
Her eyes held the universe, and I pushed everything out of my head that wasn’t those eyes, that face, or her toned waist between my rough palms.
My hands were like grasping beggars as I molded them up her supple body like I was a sculptor molding clay, and I was close enough to admire the subtle goosebumps that erupted after every caress.
“Ah!” she gasped when I finally focused my massaging on her beautiful breasts. “Ohhh.”
“Mmm,” I hummed in encouragement and brushed the callused pads of my thumbs over her peaking nipples.
Each broad stroke had her flinching and juddering with sensation, and I watched how she unabashedly felt every spark of pleasure with abandon.
Zoie came alive under my touch in the way she bit her plush lower lip, threw her head back, and circled her hips against my groin. Her shivery breaths came out in pretty pants, and her hands traveled sensually up her own body like she was now comfortable with making her body feel good just as much as I was.
We really did fit together like two halves of a whole, and we read each other without needing words.
“Yes, my loveee,” she rumbled in her sultry voice like warm drops of honey.
She swirled her hips faster, and I groaned when the friction rubbed me just right and flexed my hips upward as that lovely molten arousal pooled in my lower belly. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I finally switched our positions and took care to cradle Zoie’s head as I flipped us faster than she had time to prepare for.
“Alex!” she gasped, and I immediately pulled her skin-tight pants down just enough for me to reach my prize.
“Suck,” I ordered as I offered her three of my fingers.
Her eyes blew so wide they looked black under dim light, and her tongue came out to curl around the pads of my fingers. After I felt they were wet enough, I removed them from her hot mouth and drifted my hand between her long legs.
“Oohh-- huhh!” She squirmed when I breached the moist folds of her pussy lips with my questing fingers.
“That’s it, kitten,” I murmured as I placed sucking kisses on the tops of her luscious breasts right before sucking one of those succulent rosebuds into my mouth.
“Aleeeexxx,” the cat-woman moaned. Her thighs trembled when I circled around that hard little nub, and I was surprised when it only took a few rubs before she was coming.
“God, you’re gorgeous,” I commented as I eased her through the aftershocks with minute movements of my hand until the cat-woman gripped my wrist due to over-sensitivity.
“Husband, I need you,” she whined and pawed at my waistband again.
“Yes, baby, hold on,” I said and pulled my throbbing cock out of my pants.
Zoie arched her hips and went to take her pants the rest of the way off, but I stopped her with my hand on hers.
Then I wiggled the offending garment down a little more until it was around her knees, pushed her legs up so I could sink inside the shell of her pussy, and then gently twisted both of her legs to the side.
The squeeze around my shaft was incredible, and we both hissed when I attempted to draw myself out just before shoving myself back in.
“Oh!” Zoie yelped as one of her hands flew up to clutch at her dark hair. “Alex! You feel so big, uhhhh! Please. Move. Take your pleasure from me.”
“Fuck, Zoie,” I groaned as I slowly thrust in and out of her crazy-tight channel. “You feel incredible like this.”
“I can feel everything,” she hissed and clawed at where my hand was supporting her legs so she could urge me on. “Faster, Alex. Please, give me your passion-- ooh, Goddess.”
In this position, I could only go so fast, but I tried to comply as best as I could.
Each drag set my nerves on fire, and I swore I saw the Goddess every time her tight inner muscles flexed around my hard cock.
The intensity of our lovemaking had me on a hair trigger, but I was determined to make my wife come one more time before I allowed myself to let my foot off the gas.
“Zoie,” I ground out and pushed up harder.
“Ahh!” she yelped again, and I knew I had found that spot inside her that made her wild with pleasure, so I tried to hit it again and again until she was finally mewling and coming around my cock like a masterpiece.
“Fuuuuckk,” I said as my climax wrung out of me long and slow, and I moved my hips to prolong the feeling as best as I could.
“Yes, husband, pour your seed inside meeee,” Zoie growled and bucked through the last waves of her second orgasm.
Finally, things were too sensitive to move anymore, and I carefully slid out of my sated cat-wife so I could sidle up behind her.
She sighed and undulated sensuously against me as I held her through the effervescent after-glow.
My brain felt like CTRL + ALT + DEL had been hit, and the thoughts coming online felt organized and objectified with clean cut rationale.
I was sure things would work out all the way down to my toes.
“I’m going to get her back, Zoie,” I said. “I’m--”
Grrrrrlllg.
Zoie kissed my nose as I frowned down at my traitorous stomach for interrupting.
“I know you are, my love,” she said and sat up so she could start putting on her clothing. “But let me take care of you first. Come.”
After we both set ourselves to rights and were finishing off a delicious semi-cold helping of Arvid’s awesome stew, Zoie and I were finishing the remains of ‘hot-cocoa’ prepared by a familiar someone out of clay jars.
“So, Rylan made this for us, huh?” I commented as I drained the last of my lumpy and a little sour attempt of pappa-sweet cocoa. “He hasn’t come by to say goodbye or even argue he be allowed to come along. Is… is he okay?”
“I think he knows you are going to tell him to stay behind,” she said and paused for a beat. “Just like I am curious as to when you are going to ask me the same.”
I froze but then exhaled a moment later. “I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind. But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t make it farther than the end of the road without you.”
“Correct,” she said and rubbed her nose against mine.
“Mr. Alex!”
My eyes flashed to the west where the much-welcomed sight of the white canterfly filly flashed in the twilight.
The raccoon-brothers waved at me, and the adrenaline thundered through my veins. Zoie and I bolted down to meet them in the front of the barn so Victory could take a much-deserved drink while Mel tended to her tack and iron shoes so she would be ready to take off again.
Bodin filled me in as it was suddenly all hands on deck to prep Zoie and me on Prosper, followed by Horus on Victory, but I was only halfway listening to the raccoon-man due to how loud the pulse of vengeance was hammering in my ears.
Apparently, Mec and Redburn were both on board with rallying as many Ashers who were willing to rise up against Gatetown’s corrupt Magistrate, and they promised to bring forces in droves.
Also, there had been no word from Ambassador Sskern after the Tithing Ceremony, and that was just another worrying thing I just had to shove to the back of my brain for now.
“Take care, Mr. Alex,” Jenner said with a fist over his heart.
“We’re right behind you, boss,” Mel said in his gruff voice and thumped his fist over his breast bone as well.
Bodin and even Vel-Rala nodded solemnly, and I made sure to make eye contact with each one of them.
“Ready?” I asked my Second.
“If Dark takes me,” Horus growled. “Let’s do this.”
“And as long as you don’t mind, I would also like to accompany you,” Amaya’s pan-flute voice floated from my left where the oryx-woman had just come from the forest bordering the western side of Ithaca. She flipped the hood of her brown cloak up and smiled her sage yet dreamy smile. “I’m afraid the explanation as to my presence is obscured even from my Knowledge. I only feel as if I must go.”
“Hop on,” Horus said, and I felt like it was a good call to have her along as well.
Then the four of us took to the violet skies on a tailwind as if the Goddess Herself was urging us relentlessly onward.
Time seemed to go both fast and slow at the same time, and my breathing quickened as my senses sharpened the closer we flew to Gatetown.
“Do you hear that?” Horus shouted over the wind just as the sun sank below the horizon.
Before I could answer, a hellish shrieking rose above the lake as bloated winged creatures flapped toward us and slung their oozing sludge from their dripping mouth tentacles.
Minions.
The battle for Monger Estate had officially begun.
Chapter 24
“Horus, bank left!” I ordered as I reached for the crossbow slung across my back, hooked it over my booted toe, and cocked it.
Zoie was a great help because she was already handing me the bolt she got from the case on my hip, so when the flying hell-beast chased after the falcon-man on the back of the white canterfly filly, I was already firing my shot just as it flew into my direct path.
“Reeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrccccchhhh!” it screamed and then slammed into Gatetown’s large lakeshore with a tidal wave of a splash.
“Circle around, there are four more!” I shouted at the falcon-man as he readied his longbow. “Lead them away from the water if you can!”
I looked down into the surface of the lake as the felled minion’s drool oozed into the crystal waters. The people in Gatetown relied on the lake for various things, so I figured making sure these blimp-like minions weren’t destroying the ecosystem should be a bit of a priority.
Prosper? I tugged on the mental reins of my bond with the majestic canterfly.
Is here! he beamed across the connection. These beasts is poison.
I know, I don’t want any more of them to end up anywhere near the water. I cocked my crossbow as we came out of our lean and guided us even higher for a better vantage point, even though the light of the half-moon was poor. Any ideas?
Pastures! Prosper said.
Good idea, partner.
As one, we flew and dodged two more of the flying minions in order to reach Horus and Victory again.
“Horus, veer east!” I shouted and then banked sharply left so one of the minion’s lashing mouth tentacles wouldn’t slime us. “Prosper spotted some fields we can drop these fuckers in!”
“Sound’s good, chief!” the falcon-man hollered back and loosed one of his jet-black arrows at the closest minion’s eye.
It squalled to the heavens again and careened off to the left until it crashed into its brother like a flying puffer-fish the size of a taxi. When they hit, they were knocked off course in an uncoordinated swerving that reminded me a little of croquet.
“Zoie, bolt!” I said, and she slipped it into place like the Hephaestus to my Zeus before I fired into the Creature that Horus just shot at.
“Reeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrccccchhhh!” Toxic Blimp Number Two went down with a screech and a shower of dirt.
Three more to go.
One of the flying minions tried to double back toward the lake again, and I circled us around in order to head it off.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” I yelled and aimed another efficiently-loaded bolt at one of its scaly wings.
The minion jerked in the direction of the tree line and smashed through the forest with a roar.
We need to make sure it’s dead, I telegraphed to Prosper as I glanced over where Horus and Victory were keeping another flying minion busy running in circles.
Prosper follow smelly smell of Poison-Beast. The canterfly uncoiled his butterfly muzzle and stuck it up in the air like a periscope, and after a few moments of sniffing, he beelined into the dense forest.
“Zoie, can you see?” I asked over my shoulder as I pushed my toe through the cocking stirrup once more.
“Listen,” she murmured against my ear as she loaded another bolt for me. “The Creature’s labored breaths are ahead. It tried to find someplace where it may lick its wounds, but it was only able to wedge itself between those two trees there, do you see?”
I was able to see the outline of the two trees limned in the pale moonlight, and I maneuvered my mount to hover what I guessed was only about twenty-five feet away.
“Help me aim for its eye,” I whispered as I brought my weapon to rest against my shoulder. “That seems to be the most vulnerable place to kill it.”
Zoie only made minor adjustments to my position before she gave me the go-ahead to shoot.
The powerful twang of the expertly-crafted mechanism made the resulting shriek of the beast extra satisfying, and the resulting triumph was shared over the bond.
“Woohoo!” I cheered as we flew up and out of the pitch-black forest just in time to see Amaya take Victory’s reins while Horus actually stood up on the saddle to fire two arrows into the remaining beast’s skull.
“Roooooorrrrcccccchhhh!” The minion gurgled and croaked as it spiraled to the field next to the other one and was still.
“Where’s the last one?” Zoie asked. “There were five.”
I glanced around and realized she was right.
“Look!” Amaya shouted and pointed to the bloated shape of Toxic Blimp Number Five flapping toward the backdrop of Monger Estate against the starlit sky. “It’s heading back to its master.”
“Let’s go!” I ordered and tore after it.
When we all got closer, I armed my crossbow again and aimed for its wing like I did the last guy.
My bolt ripped through the main knuckle of the minion’s wing and shredded it so badly the Creature crashed against the side of Gella Vane’s imposing mountain estate and fell over the lip of the main balcony.
“Reeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr!” it squealed, and I urged my mount and I up and over.
The beast had fallen into the water of the tithe fountain where the Ceremony was held only days earlier.
But that wasn’t the only addition to the place.
“Alex, it’s Shay!” Zoie gasped as she pointed to the limp figure dangling by their wrists between two stocks. The whole suspension apparatus was jutting up from the center of the fountain now frothing with sick greenish waters as the toxins from the hell-beast seeped into the pool.
“Shay!” I bellowed, but she remained unmoving with her red head bowed to her chest.
“Right on time, Brightwood!” A maniacal cackle reverberated from the top of the steps looming over the tithe fountain. “Minions! Away!”
Before we even had a chance to come in for a landing, hundreds of winged gator-beasts just like Igoric exploded out of Monger Manor like a swarm of bats vacating a cave.
“Shit!” I yelled and pulled us sharply upwards in order to get above the chaotic mass of flapping things all about the size of an albatross.
“Amaya!” Horus screamed as the oryx-woman leaped off the back of Victory’s saddle and caught herself on one of the gator-bats.
“Get Shay!” she shouted back and managed to crash-land the minion at the base of the estate.
I tried to keep an eye on her white-blonde head for as long as possible, but the swarm forced me to circle higher, and I eventually lost sight of the oryx-woman.
Dodge, Props, dodge! I encouraged my steed as I stowed my crossbow and pulled out my Roman-like Herald Blade.
“Reeeeeeoooowwwwwl!” Zoie yelled and launched one of her deadly throwing stars right in the craw of a minion who snapped its jaws too closely to Prosper’s wing.
“Keep going, Zoie!” I said as I slashed two minions out of the sky in rapid succession.
“There’s too many!” she growled and took down three more.
She was right.
Like a Hydra with the power of flight, the second one was down, five more seemed to take its place.
“Fuck!” I sliced my blade through the snapping jaws of another minion, and I twisted my other hand in Prosper’s reins as he whiplashed us in the other direction.
“I’ve lost Horus!” Zoie shouted over the din of the flapping, and I tried to look around for the falcon-man, but the swarm was forcing us ever upward, and I could feel the air getting thinner and thinner.
Just when things seemed to be at their grimmest, a hail of arrows suddenly rained down from the sky and caused a solid fifty or sixty gator-bats to plummet from the sky.
“What--?” I swiveled my head around for the source.
‘Forcements! Prosper beamed and zig-zagged in a furious pattern as he attempted to get us out of the center of the swarm.
“Hold your fire!” Mec’s powerful voice could be heard booming through the night air as he led an army of Ashers on the backs of their own canterflies. “Our brother is caught in the horde, hold your arrows!”
Up and out, Props. I slashed another minion out of the sky and kicked a second one in the snout when it got too friendly with wanting a taste of Prosper’s leg. Up and out.
“Hee-oo-hee!” My steed trumpeted a fierce battle cry before he did a series of moves that made Zoie’s claws dig into my sides as we wove our way up and out of the swarm.
“He’s clear!” someone shouted.
“Fire!” the ram-lord bellowed, and the next wave of arrows thinned the hoard enough for us to make a break for Gella’s.
“Alex, look!” Zoie pointed down to the winding switchbacks leading up to Monger Manor.
Below I was just able to make out an angry mob of people racing up the road to Vane’s estate. The only thing they were missing were torches and pitchforks, but I was pleased to see the whole thing was being led by Asher Redburn.
The Duelist was on the back of a stout manapillar brandishing a sword and finishing off any minions stupid enough to get within reach of his lightning-fast reflexes.
When we flew overhead, the jackrabbit-man waved at us, and Zoie and I were just able to spot Mel and Bodin right behind him each on the back of one of Ithaca’s poracks.
“It’s time to finish this,” I said and mentally tugged on Prosper’s mental reins.
