When they skidded to a stop, Jessica lay beneath him—completely naked, her clothes shredded off by the violence of his rescue. Her bare skin glistened with sweat and dust, flushed with adrenaline, her chest heaving beneath him. Her sword had clattered somewhere into the dirt.

  Jessica’s eyes, wide at first, quickly narrowed into that maddening smirk even here, even like this. “Really, Cael? You can’t keep your cock under control even for a moment?” she asked as her hand moved down to his lap. “You know I don’t like men… even if you are cute,” she winked at him.

  “It was an accident,” Cael grumbled. And then wondered why she was touching his cock over his clothes. Wasn’t she a lesbian? And was this really the time to play mind games?

  He yanked himself up, dragging Jessica with him as the Veydrak bellowed again, furious at its missed kill.

  Its massive tail swept through the training ground like a whip, splintering the fence posts into matchsticks. Cael shoved Jessica behind him, bracing his sword just in time to deflect the tail. The impact rattled through his arms and nearly tore his shoulders from their sockets, but he held. The ground ripped beneath his heels, dirt spraying.

  Jessica recovered quickly. She snatched her weapon back from the ground and fought utterly unashamed of her nudity. She darted left, slashing at one of the beast’s wings, green sparks spraying as her blade skidded against scale. The Veydrak roared in pain, rearing its head, it snapped down toward her.

  “Jessica!” Cael shouted, lunging.

  She was trapped, too close to dodge this time.

  His legs burned with speed that startled him and he closed the distance in a heartbeat. Just as the beast’s fangs closed around her, Cael hooked an arm around Jessica’s waist and yanked her out of death’s jaws, spinning them both away in a spray of dirt, her naked body pressed against his as they tumbled together in the dirt.

  And when they came to a halt, he was on top of her once more.

  Jessica laughed breathlessly. “You’re a persistent one, aren’t you? But it’s still a no. I just don't like cock,” she said as her hand once more moved to his cock.

  Cael didn’t respond. There was something seriously wrong with the girl. They were about to be literally eaten alive, yet she still had time to tease? And how many times had her personality changed in the last few minutes? From angry, to scared, to man hating lesbian, to horny lesbian?

  He did not need this right now.

  The Veydrak’s fury was all around them, its claws tearing trenches, its tail smashing posts into dust. Cael knew they couldn’t keep dodging forever.

  He darted forward, sword flashing. This time, he aimed higher. He leapt, his feet kicking off a splintered post, launching him into the air. His blade arced down toward the beast’s eye.

  The Veydrak screeched as the blade bit deep, hot black ichor spraying across Cael’s chest, burning like acid where it touched skin. He ripped his sword free and tumbled to the ground, rolling hard, ribs screaming as he crashed.

  Jessica darted in, her blade slashing at the exposed joint of the wing, cutting deep this time. The beast stumbled, one wing faltering, but its tail lashed out in blind fury, catching her full across the ribs. She went flying, naked body crashing into the dirt with a sickening thud. She groaned but didn’t get up.

  Rage ignited inside Cael. His vision sharpened until he could see every scale, every jagged tooth, every droplet of blood dripping from his blade. His legs burned as he charged faster than he thought possible.

  The Veydrak lunged again, jaws snapping, claws tearing at the ground. Cael ducked, then rolled forward and sprang up with the force of his whole body behind his strike. His blade struck across the thick column of its neck and lodged itself in. The beast shrieked, twisting, blood spraying like fire, it burned Cael.

  But he didn’t let go of the handle as he swung from the beast’s neck.

  Instead, he swung himself up onto the head of the beast and then pulled his sword free. With a guttural roar, Cael swung again, the blade seeming to glow with his will, his rage. The sword cleaved deep. Cael wrenched it free and with every ounce of his strength, he struck again, aiming to decapitate the monster.

  The Veydrak’s scream shattered the sky, then it cut short.

  Its massive head, eyes still burning with molten fury, tumbled free from its body. Cael rolled off its neck as the beast’s corpse collapsed into the dirt with a thunderous crash, shaking the ground so violently Cael stumbled back, breath ragged, chest heaving.

  Silence followed, save for Cael’s heavy breathing and thundering heart beating in his chest.

  He stood over the fallen Veydrak, staring at the sheer monstrosity of what he had just killed.

  Its massive body sprawled across the training ground, crushing posts and churning the dirt beneath its bulk.

  Black, scale-armoured hide gleamed with an unnatural sheen, like obsidian slick with oil, each plate jagged and overlapping like shards of broken stone. Its wings, vast, leathery things, lay twisted and torn, still twitching in the aftermath of death, their span so wide they seemed capable of blotting out the entire sky. The severed head lay several feet away, its maw gaping open, filled with curved fangs longer than Cael’s forearm.

  The silence was cut suddenly by Jessica’s pained groan.

  Cael suddenly remembered she had been smashed by the beast. He dropped his sword, his hand trembling, he ran towards Jessica, his ribs burning from where the monster must have clipped him, though his brain fuzzy, he couldn’t remember the moment.

  She was on her back in the dirt, hair fanned out around her head like dark silk, her legs sprawled, body bare. For a fleeting moment, he caught the sight of her breasts rising and falling with shallow breaths, her skin streaked with dirt and sweat. Relief washed through him. She was alive.

  Reaching her, he dropped to his knees beside her.

  He tore his own shirt off and draped it carefully across her body, covering her chest and hips so she wouldn’t be exposed to the open sky, or to him. Then he slipped one hand beneath her head, cradling it, he lowered it gently onto his lap.

  Her lashes fluttered, and then her eyes opened, bright, hazy, and a little unfocused. She looked up at him, her lips parting slightly, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth even through the exhaustion.

  “Did you kill the Veydrak to impress me?” she asked.

  “I did,” Cael said, deciding to play along. She had almost died. “Did it work?”

  “No,” Jessica said as her hand moved down to his lap and felt for his cock.

  “Can you walk?” Cael asked, deciding to ignore her hand.

  Jessica tried to get up, but grimacing, she shook her head. “I think I might need to rest here awhile.”

  Cael placed one arm under her back and another arm under her knees and scooped her up. He began to walk towards the lake house and made it to the rear door when it opened and Clarissa appeared, a kitchen knife in hand.

  “What was that noise?” she asked.

  Cael couldn’t remember the Aserathi name for the monster. “There was a dragon,” he said. “It’s dead now.”

  “Dragon?” Clarissa asked. “What do you mean dragon? Dragons aren’t real…”

  “Well, it’s not a human dragon. It’s an Aserathi one,” Cael said and judging by the look on Clarissa’s face, it probably wasn’t helpful. “Do you want to see it? It’s in the training field.”

  “Yeah… maybe,” Clarissa said, her knife hand lowering. “It’s definitely dead?” she asked and when Cael nodded, she continued, “An Aserathi dragon, huh? Never seen one of those before…”

  “It’s not a dragon. It’s a Veydrak,” Jessica said. “Now if you’re done chit chatting, I’d like to have a hot bath. Carry me inside, human!”

  Clarissa, who had emerged from the lake house, knife in hand, ready to battle whatever monster was out there, either hadn’t seen Jessica, or hadn’t appreciated the sight before her, too concerned about the monster.

  But now, as she looked at the Aserathi, her jaw tightened. “Why is she always naked?”

  “Her clothes got torn off in the battle,” Cael said quickly.

  “Right,” Clarissa nodded.

  “Where is Asha?” Cael asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “She’s hiding under the bed. You need to train that girl, Cael. It’s a rough world out there and she’s way too soft.”

  “Are you still standing here?!” Jessica snapped.

  Cael was about to walk into the house, Jessica still in his arms, when a portal opened up before him and out stepped Ilaria.

  Jessica, who had been resting in his arms, now pushed him away with haste and dropped to her knees before Ilaria, completely naked, Cael’s shirt having flown off her chest.

  Ilaria looked exhausted, red circles under her eyes, she ignored Jessica and Clarissa completely and walked towards Cael. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest, her body sagging against his.

  “Hey, you alright?” Cael asked as he held her up.

  “Things are bad, babe. Moraine wasn’t trying to go back to the Aserathi home world. She opened a portal to our home world and now hundreds of monsters are flooding through it.”

  Chapter 12

  Ilaria slumped on the dining table chair, red circles around her eyes, her hair a mess, there was a scar on her left cheek. Her normally immaculate clothes were covered in dirt and torn in places.

  Ilaria was an Archon.

  Who on earth had managed to hurt her like that? What on earth had managed to hurt her like that?

  “Moraine wasn’t planning on going back to the Aserathi home world,” Ilaria said as she sipped on the glass of water Jessica had placed before her. “She opened a portal to Drazhenmar that we can’t close from this side.”

  Cael didn’t know what Drazhenmar was, so he asked.

  “Drazhenmar?”

  So Ilaria explained.

  Drazhenmar was a jagged expanse on the Aserathi home world of Virelya where the earth itself seemed sharpened into blades. Black basalt cliffs rose like the teeth of a beast, shrouded in ash storms that never cleared. The air stank of iron and smoke, and every shadow seemed alive.

  Drazhenmar belonged not to the Aserathi, but to another race who rivalled them—creatures known as the Varakthar. Unlike the Aserathi, who possessed elegance and beauty that masked their strength, the Varakthar were brutal and primal in appearance, humanoid but with blue skin and beastly features. Their power equalled the Aserathi in raw strength, and in addition to that, they commanded fearsome beasts known as the Draalhounds.

  The Varakthar fought side by side with their Draalhounds—hulking, four-legged monsters with impenetrable hides, jaws powerful enough to split stone, and a venomous roar that could paralyse foes from hundreds of meters away. In Drazhenmar, packs of these horrors prowled the canyons, loyal only to their Varakthar masters.

  “Now the monsters in Drazhenmar are coming through the portal. It won’t be long before the Varakthar discover the portal and come through themselves,” Ilaria said. “I need to close the portal before that happens.”

  “But you said we can’t close it from this side?” Cael asked.

  Ilaria nodded, exhaustion etched across her pretty face. “I need to go to Drazhenmar and close it from their side.”

  “Will you be able to come back if you close the portal?”

  “There will be a small window for me to jump back before the portal closes completely,” Ilaria said.

  “Should be a piece of cake for an Archon, right?” Cael asked.

  “I wish, babe,” Ilaria said. “I think Thaleira is sending me in as punishment…”

  “What happened to you?” Cael asked, nodding at the scar on her cheek.

  “I got into a fight with one of the monsters that came through the portal,” Ilaria said. “I killed the beast but it did have some talent.”

  It wasn’t easy to break skin on an Aserathi, let alone an Archon. It must have been some monster that had come through. And then, Cael remembered the dragon he had killed in the training field.

  “We fought a dragon today. I think that must have come through the portal too,” Cael said.

  “Dragon?” Ilaria looked at him quizzically.

  “It was a Veydrak, Goddess,” Jessica said. She stood with her bottom resting against a kitchen counter, completely nude, she glared at Cael.

  Ilaria turned to look back at Jessica. “Why are you naked?” she asked with a frown. “What happened to your French maid’s outfit?”

  “Cael tore it off me,” Jessica said accusatorily.

  Ilaria turned to look at him now, confusion in her eyes. “Cael?”

  “You are such a lying shit stirrer,” Cael snapped at Jessica, really annoyed now. “I did not rip her clothes off. Well, I did but…” he stopped and sighed.

  Ilaria waited patiently for Cael to explain. So he did. He told her about the Veydrak that attacked them as they duelled in the training arena, and how, during the battle, when Cael saved Jessica’s life, her dress tore off.

  “Seriously, her dress came off really easily. I barely touched it,” Cael said, feeling his cheeks redden even though he didn’t do anything wrong.

  “There was a Veydrak here and you killed it?” Ilaria asked in awe.

  “It was teamwork,” Cael said.

  “He’s being modest. That human has extraordinary talent… It just doesn’t make sense,” Jessica said grumpily.

  Ilaria turned to look back at her again. “Why are you even here? Go to your room and torture yourself,” she snapped.

  “Yes goddess,” Jessica said without hesitation before she rushed off to obey.

  “Torture yourself?” Cael asked.

  Ilaria shrugged her shoulders. “I’m tired, babe. But I don’t have time to recover. It’s like Thaleira is sending me to my death on purpose which… it’s an extreme reaction even for one of the Seven Sisters.”

  Ilaria went on to explain her concerns. Moraine opening a portal Drazhenmar and making sure it could only be closed from the other side made no sense. The monsters pouring into Thaleria’s domain would not stay there forever. They would spread through the whole world, affecting every single one of the Seven Sisters.

  “Thaleria sending me alone to Drazhenmar makes no sense. It’s a suicide mission. I should either go as part of a group of elite Aserathi to close the portal, or I should hunt down Moraine and seek an answer from her,” Ilaria said as she sighed deeply.

  Cael had already met one of the monsters that came through the portal. It was fearsome, and he got lucky he came out of it relatively unscathed. But ordinary humans would not fare so well. That portal needed to be closed.

  “I’ll come with you,” Cael said.

  “Through the portal to Drazhenmar?” Ilaria asked, and then she shook her head. “No, babe. It’s too dangerous for you.”

  “I killed a Devrak,” Cael said. “And without injury,” he added, taking a dig at the scar on her cheek.

  “Devrak?” Ilaria frowned. “Do you mean the Veydrak?”

  “I mean the dragon,” Cael grumbled. “I’m not going to let you go alone,” he added, determinedly.

  Ilaria stared at him for a long time. And then, she said, “Killing a Veydrak is impressive… you must have gotten very strong, babe. And two of us together, we could maybe pull it off.”

  “Right,” Cael nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  “Okay, babe,” Ilaria smiled. “But… you have to do one thing before we leave.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Cael said. “What is it?”

  “You need to sleep with Jessica,” Ilaria said.

  Chapter 13

  Cael and Ilaria sat at the kitchen table in her large house. Cael was feeling a little groggy from his battle with the dragon. Ilaria was looking much worse for wear.

  So it was entirely possible either she had misspoken, or he had misheard.

  Cael stared at Ilaria for a long time. She stared back at him. The silence dragged on. Finally, he said, “Sorry, what?”

  “I need you to sleep with Jessica,” Ilaria said softly.

  Right. So he hadn’t misheard. “Why exactly do I need to sleep with Jessica?”

  “Babe, you have the power of Maelthor the Undying, right?” Ilaria asked.

  Cael nodded slowly.

  “By sleeping with me, you gained my strength and speed, right?” Ilaria continued, talking slowly as if he were a child.

  “Just get to the point,” Cael grumbled.

  “By sleeping with Jessica, you’ll gain her ability to fly. That would be a very helpful power to have in Drazhenmar,” Ilaria said quickly.

  It made sense, Cael supposed. He had seen Jessica fly. She could move quickly and with precision. That sort of power could be very helpful.

  But sleeping with Jessica? The girl was hot. But crazy. And also.

  “Isn’t she a lesbian?” Cael asked.

  “She’s my slave,” Ilaria said. “If I have to hold her down while you fuck her babe, I’ll do that.”

  “Yeah, I am not doing that!” Cael said, his hands raised.

  “You did it before,” Ilaria said, pouting.

  “That was very different and you know it!” Cael growled.

  “Okay fine. So you won’t do it because you think she’s a lesbian right? And won’t be into it?”

  Cael nodded. That was one of his concerns. Or at least, his main concern. There was also the fact that she was a crazy bitch.

  “Jessica is here voluntarily as my slave. She’s into submission. The more humiliating the act she does for me, the more it turns her on to show me how devoted she is. She will sleep with you and she will hate it, but at the same time, she will enjoy it very much as I will be watching,” Ilaria said.

  Cael still wasn’t sure how he felt about this. He didn’t like the power of Maelthor the Undying. Sleeping with women to replicate their power and make them fall in love with him? It was such a… what was the word? A dirty power?

 

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