Chapter 36 - Fire Never Dies Alone
If ever there was a time for me to keep it together, it was there...lost in the dark of Durand's dungeon. As long as I still knew what I was fighting for, it meant there was still a reason to keep fighting.
Even if I made my way free of this dungeon and up to the ritual room above, didn't that just mean throwing myself on the metaphorical altar of sacrifice? If that's what Del was trying to prevent...then why was she waiting?
The fact that she was waiting meant that there had to be more to this plan than I was seeing. It also meant that it was something about which I had to be kept in the dark.
"I swear," I gasped aloud into the darkness between the shuddering swells of pleasure that endlessly assaulted me, "If this somehow works out, I'll never keep anything from Del or any of the women I love ever again."
"Very curious," I heard Durand's voice seemingly whisper back in response. "I was sure you'd be begging the darkness for release by now. You don't read as an incubus and any insulating influence from the presence of the ritual should also no longer be present..."
Snapping back to some semblance of consciousness as I fought through the nearly overwhelming insistent pleasure, I looked up into Durand's eyes and answered, "If that's...the best you've got...you should go talk to Del about getting some...lessons."
I watched her eyes narrow as she seemed to shudder with delight at my continued defiance. "That's good, my little plaything. Please do try to maintain that mindset while I slowly milk out your essence over the next several days. The potency should be perfectly concentrated now and I suspect you're eager for a more hands-on approach as we continue."
In moments I felt myself spinning and wheeling through the emptiness until coming to rest on my back, the chilled stone of the floor beneath me an almost reassuring presence working to counter what I was sure would be coming next.
In the blackness, I saw Durand's two eyes joined by a third that opened above and between the others before the rest of her body came into view, now looking far different than what I had seen before.
From the pale skin of her back had burst six taloned, vaguely chitinous limbs of bone that gleamed with hints of what was likely some type of venom. The rest of her body was almost exactly what I had expected to see hiding beneath her sparse clothing, revealed now in its sinful entirety as it hovered above me like a hungering predator.
Was this also somehow part of Del's plan? As I looked up at the already sodden entrance to Durand's sexual core, the entrance already contracting in expectation of the feast upon which it was about to gorge itself, I had to hope that it was. My mind couldn't have conjured a word of denial in the presence of such an insistent invitation anyway.
Finally coming down from her own high after several minutes, she cursed. "Grey Lamentation...I knew it. I will have to ask Delilah how she managed to mask it so well. It seems fate has other plans for you, boy." She then stood and reached down to spread apart her still-engorged lower lips, a sheen of white now covering them as several thick drops fell to the floor. "A ninety percent absorption rate is more than acceptable but perhaps we can aim for more later."
Still shaking so badly that I had difficulty forming the words, I tried to ask her to release me. If she heard me she made no indication as she turned and left the room. This time I heard the heavy dungeon door close behind her.
"What was I...Del!" I suddenly remembered as I struggled against my bonds, my strength now even further from up to the task of getting me free. Several fruitless minutes passed in similar fashion as I tried everything I could to somehow get loose.
After howling in frustration and unleashing a string of profanity as epic as any I'd ever concocted at my complete inability to move, I saw an unfamiliar light split the darkness, this one borne by a simple lantern.
I'd never been good at remembering people...especially in the short term. I'd also just been through one of the most harrowing sexual experiences this side of humility lessons, so when she spoke...all I knew was that the voice was familiar.
Setting the lantern down beside me as she began to work on releasing my bindings, I saw the succubus maid that I'd spoken with earlier.
"Seriously? Enchanted shackles? She really didn't want you getting loose," the young demon said as she moved the lantern to more closely observe my situation.
"Not to sound ungrateful but could you maybe...hurry?" I restlessly asked.
"Just shut up and drink this so I can think," she spat back at me as she laid a waterskin upon my chest within easy reach of my lips.
Not in a position to doubt the intentions of my rescuer, even if those intentions were entirely less than pure, I sucked at the liquid within. It tasted like holstaur milk with various other unrecognizable things added. While not entirely pleasant, I let my complaint go when I felt my strength quickly returning as the refreshing liquid seemed to pour throughout my entire body.
"I'm Phina by the way. I'm sort of here to prevent something really bad from going down...or at least delay it. If Durand likes to run her mouth anywhere near as much as Medea then you have at least some idea of what's going on, right?" She asked as she began making charcoal marks upon a piece of parchment on the ground beside me.
"Right, I just need to get to the ritual chamber to make sure Del doesn't finish what she's attempting," I answered with certainty.
She angrily turned to me. "Wrong, jackass. I don't know exactly what she's attempting but if you try to do anything, you'll just fuck everything up. What you need to do is get the hell off this mountain and back to Alnor. I'll make sure your family is okay."
"Bullshit! How do I even know I can trust you?"
She turned back to the parchment before answering with an even angrier tone, "So then what are you going to do? Save Azalea and her sister from Durand's elite soldiers? Throw your entire existence away? Think back to what Medea told you!"
"How would you know about that?" I asked, suddenly even more suspicious of this mysterious benefactor.
She sighed heavily before answering. "I'm Medea's...I guess you'd say apprentice. All I'll say is to never make a deal with that woman...she took the life of the last man dumb enough to try and now I have to make a fucking miracle happen to honor his last request or I don't even want to imagine what she'd do to me. There is only one way this can turn out right and you'll have to trust me for that to happen. You get me?"
With her tone as serious as it was, I was pretty sure she wasn't lying, but that didn't mean she was right. She didn't know Del like I did and there was no way I could just run home while the fate of everything I loved was hanging in the balance.
"Fine. If you can get me loose, I'll go to Alnor and wait for this 'miracle'." I lied as casually as I'd ever lied before.
She nodded, distracted as she mumbled to herself. "Threefold-no...fivefold runic enchantment...countermeasure should be…" she trailed off before loudly cursing, "Fuck it!"
As her words echoed through the chamber, her eyes ignited in coruscating blue flames that spread out and down her arms. As the ethereal flames intensified, she grasped the metal rings that held me and grunted as the metal grew warm, then scalding. Before I could cry out, the metal shattered, throwing red-hot shards of broken steel tumbling to every corner of the room.
Finally free, I hopped to my feet. "Wow, what did you do?"
"How would saying anything other than 'magic' even matter? Whatever. Now…" she began as she handed me my weapons and armor. "There's a Teremir guild road that runs down into the mountain and is about as safe as any road on the entire island, but it's better if you're armed so you don't look like an escaped slave. Just take this hall toward the large balcony and head to your right down the stairs. Do not go left at the balcony-that'll put you in the great hall along with Durand's entire force. If you follow the stairs, you should come straight into Teremir proper and from there it's a cake walk."
I nodded as I dressed and armed myself. "What are you going to do?"
"Exactly what Medea told me to do," she answered with a sigh. "Well...get moving. You saw what Durand does to people that break contracts."
"Thanks Phina...I owe you one or two," I said as I dashed out the door toward the balcony.
Maybe running and trusting in Phina was the right answer...it just wasn't the answer I could be happy with. As the entire castle shook, I headed toward the great hall...and where Zee was probably fighting for her life.
-
Nearly a hundred meters across, the great hall was like a massive reception area that quite blatantly impressed upon any observer some small fraction of the sheer wealth that Durand possessed. Pieces of art from across the island from empires both lost and thriving, masterfully carved columns to accent the decadent decor, and the flawless accentuating architecture of the castle itself that had left the west wall completely open to the outside. Or would have. Rather than an open construction, the west wall of the great hall was constructed from magically shaped ice that drew in and bent the light of the sun to illuminate the room better and more fully than a thousand lanterns could have.
Marshal Penelope stared emotionlessly at the pair of advancing salamanders and then at her fortified contingent of well armed and armored members of Durand's private army. It was obvious to her trained eye that this pair had fought together before. Even with her exceptional grasp of tactics it didn't look as though the enemy had much chance of bringing down more than a small handful of her soldiers before they could be overpowered and brought down. She didn't, however, feel that it was prudent to take any risks with her master so close to her most important goal and so she ordered a nearby and nearly invisible maid, "Fetch the coterie."
"Scared of just the two of us, Marshal?" Dahlia called out suddenly, causing nearly every assembled soldier to jump as though she'd leapt to attack them physically.
Penelope advanced to the head of the assembled force and shook her head slowly. "Stand down. There is nothing for you to gain here. Your human will be released unharmed in a few days. If you do not withdraw we will answer with deadly force. Do not throw your lives away on a pointless venture."
Stepping forward, Zee shook her head, "No, he was taken here against his will. I'm not leaving without him."
"Your objection is noted," Penelope answered as she gave a signal with her hand before crossing her arms in expectation.
Informed by hundreds of years of battle experience and instincts screaming that something was very wrong, Zee dove to her left as a blur passed by where she'd been standing only a moment before, her heavy helm clattering across the floor after taking a hit that might have otherwise pierced her skull.
At the same time Dahlia was reeling from a similar strike, her own exceptional speed however having let her score a deep gash upon her attacker at the same time.
Moving so fast as to appear as though they were materializing from nothing or winking in and out of reality, a cadre of five women appeared in a semicircle before Zee and Dahlia. Speaking in whispers and now looking curiously at the wound that the smallest among them had sustained from Dahlia, they turned to regard the two scaled invaders.
Dressed in tight fitting leathers and armed with ornate daggers that looked to have been carved from dragon teeth, the Fang Coterie was a group of obvious vampires.
Wiping away the blood that began to run from the gash on her forehead, Dahlia quickly spoke, "They're too-"
Likely trying to say "fast" before being cut off by the vampiric assault, even Dahlia's exceptional speed was no match for the supernatural quickness that began to rain countless strikes down upon the pair of them.
Despite being a great deal slower than her sister and slower still than her undead attackers, Zee put up a valiant attempt to keep her assailants at bay. After narrowly avoiding or deflecting nearly a dozen attacks that should have killed her, Zee was eventually left unable to respond as a trio of the Coterie fell upon her at once.
Holding off the first two attacks made it impossible for her to avoid having her legs kicked out from under her, sending Zee to the floor. Dahlia took two painful slashes across her back as she dove to support her sister, only to find herself unable to twist away from a kick to her chest that threw her into the air.
Seeming to fall in slow motion, Dahlia sustained three more telling slashes before even getting the chance to hit the ground.
After that exchange, the undead attackers pulled back to regroup and watch the apparently outclassed salamanders roll about on the ground.
Coughing as she tried to catch her breath, Dahlia brought herself up to a knee and extended a hand to Zee. "Got them right where I want them now...how about you, sis?"
"Maybe...what time is it?" Zee asked as she slapped Dahlia's offered hand away and slowly got to her feet.
"Couple hours after noon...why, you think they'll let us break for lunch?" Dahlia teased, the look in her eyes still light despite the deadly situation in which the pair found themselves.
Pulling her kiseru from her pouch, Zee smiled back. "Just curious is all. I've heard smoke is terrible for nice rugs like these. Was thinking of grabbing some air before finishing these girls off. How hard did you hit that one you scratched, by the way?"
As she spoke with a forced air of calm, one of Zee's clawed feet angrily grabbed and scratched at the fancy rug beneath her.
"Hard enough. Damn undead...I swear that's like cheating," Dahlia answered.
Interrupting their conversation, Penelope's voice called out to them from across the hall. "This is your final warning. You are grossly outmatched. Walk away."
"What's in it for us?" Dahlia shouted back with a giggle.
Obvious anger slipping into her voice, Penelope called out the order, "Fine! Finish these trespassers."
"You know, I really missed this, Zee. Still think this man was worth it?"
Zee didn't respond at first as she jammed her spear horizontally into a nearby display cabinet and took a long quick draw upon her kiseru before emptying it and shoving it back into a pouch. "Didn't father always say that there was only one way to deal with a cheater? Oh...and he's still absolutely worth it."
Flinching slightly at Zee's words, Dahlia shook her head as the vampires seemed to wink from sight as they began moving supernaturally fast toward their targets.
Already moving to leap past Zee, Dahlia took two more attacks as she landed on Zee's spear, using it like a springboard to hurl herself diagonally forward over Zee's left shoulder, swinging her blades in a wide strategic arc. Also already on the move in anticipation of any number of things that were transpiring, Zee flexed her scaled toes and fiercely yanked on the fancy rug she'd been playing with as she reached her powerful arm into the empty space before her.
Less than a second later there was a sickening crack of breaking bone and a shower of blood as, at once, Zee endured two blades puncturing her breastplate...and snapped the neck of the off-balance vampire that had found herself pulled right into the Zee's grasp faster than she could react while trying to avoid Dahlia's blade to which her attention had been drawn.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood as the room seemed to freeze, Zee began walking forward with the vampire's body held in one hand and her falchion held in the other. Backing away in momentary shock and possible fear, the remaining vampires looked to Penelope for guidance.
"I've got a better offer," Zee's voice boomed across the hall. "Bring me Joe and you can all walk out of this hall alive...minus this one."
Penelope's answer was already evident in the anger that began twisting her features from those of a calm and serene leader to those of a rage-stricken drunk.
Before she could tender the answer that was obviously coming, Zee spun and hurled the (even more) lifeless vampire at the icy west wall with all of her strength. As Penelope's order rolled across the chamber to signal a full attack, there was a massive shuddering crack as the room shook and the ice wall began to crumble, the great faceted barrier of frost setting off an avalanche as it fell away and opened the room to the biting cold of the air outside.
More than just letting in the chill of the great mountain, the collapsing ice wall sent beams of the unfiltered afternoon sun gleaming into the room. The chunks of ice, snow, and diamond dust made the sunlight dance throughout the room in a kaleidoscopic beauty that not a single soul in the great hall could be bothered to notice.
As those scattered beams of sunlight touched the bewildered Fang Coterie, Dahlia became the fastest woman in the room again, cutting the now powerless undead apart in a matter of seconds as Zee yanked her spear free and moved forward to join her sister to receive the charging soldiers. As she passed near the shattered wall, she ventured a look down to see that the drop to the next landing was two hundred meters or more.
Tearing a large strip from her shirt, Dahlia quickly tied the cloth around her forehead to prevent any more blood from seeping into her eyes as she turned to Zee. "First rank will be light, it's the next three and the marshal we need to worry about. You took a couple bad hits, you sure you're up for this?"
Grunting a bit as she painfully adjusted her breastplate, Zee moved to a wide open stance and smiled. "I'm your huckleberry. I won't die until after I see Joe again, I swear it."
With the enemy coming within range, Zee hurled her spear at the closest girl's head, a timely shield block sending the spear well overhead. With the shield covering her field of vision, however, Zee's low strike severed her foot at the ankle.
The enemy soldier screaming as she stumbled to a knee, Dahlia took three quick steps forward and used the fallen soldier's shield to leap into the air. Quicker than the enemy could respond, she used various heads and shoulders as stepping stones to throw herself clear of the charge, badly wounding a small handful of soldiers with her blades as she passed.
Zee dove forward through the hole in the advancing line and grabbed the shield of the fallen woman before brutally throwing a sweep kick into the legs of the second row of enemies, buying her precious seconds. Her heavy armor and quick movements saved her from any real damage as she donned the shield and pushed to her left. Using the split second she'd earned to breathe, she ducked low and leveled a heavy swing at the soldiers coming from her right to further slow the advance, her falchion ringing out as it was caught upon a pair of shields. The advance slowed regardless, Zee then rose into a shield bash to her left that sent a pair of enemies screaming out into the sky through the hole in the west wall.
With a great yell, Zee then lowered her head behind the shield and charged toward the edge of the enemy formation, her brightly flaming tail grabbing at the ankle of another of the enemy to pull her in front of another small part of the enemy formation.
As she weathered the many blows that fell upon her, none of them telling enough to slow her pace, she approached the edge of the formation as the enemy ranks shifted and gave pursuit. Throwing her shield as a distraction, Zee sank her passing blade deeply into the hip of the dazed enemy, quickly grabbing her shoulder and wheeling about to use her as a piece of improvised cover.
With her new shield of orc flesh, Zee brought down three more opponents before the enemy's surpassing discipline overcame their hesitation to cut down one of their own. Zee, however, had already released her, leaving the orc standing helpless as three of her own allies cut her down.
Clear of the advancing formation and now sprinting, Zee dove into a roll to come up with the spear she'd lost only moments ago, making two quick thrusts to dispatch another pair of enemies as she came to her feet again.
She was doing well so far but Zee knew that unless something changed soon, it was only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed. It also occurred to Zee that the expected magical support was nowhere to be seen. She let that absence shine upon the tiny glimmer of hope that she would get through this.
With her masterfully trained pair of weapons, Zee fell into the well-honed steps of her uncanny instinct as she slipped calmly into the flow of the battle. Like a well-tuned machine built for war, she kept up a rhythm of escalating bloodlust.
One weapon would make an opening while the other quickly moved to exploit it, her steps always making sure that she had the advantage. All the while, Zee allowed herself to be slowly surrounded as she carved a bloody path back toward the chilling air and howling wind that continued to rush in from outside.
Dahlia appeared to be faring much better even while completely surrounded as the enemies were dispatched with lightning quickness as they tried to step over the slippery blood and fallen dead to get to her. Her blindingly quick attacks lopped off the hands and fingers of the soldiers that tried to clear away the dead as well, all while she danced like a candle flame in the wind to avoid even the most skillful attacks of her opponents.
Against any traditional force, the demoralizing inability to land an attack of note on either sister would have likely lead to a rout. Much to the chagrin of the two sisters, however, the force arrayed against them was as disciplined as any they had ever faced and with the skills to match.
The continuing battle and her wounds starting to take a toll on her, Zee finally found herself positioned where she'd been intending as she was surrounded. Finding her goal in the shape of a large ogre, Zee went low as she brought her tail against the floor to act as a feint and then spun as though about to attempt a clearing slash, instead throwing her falchion at the bulky green-skinned girl and then lowering her head as she continued her rotation, grabbing her spear in both hands.
Even as a trio of heavy blows landed on the now blood-covered Azalea, the enemies that had just been standing behind her blinked in horror as they realized what was coming.
Screaming in exertion as her clawed feet dug into the stone of the great hall, Zee held her spear wide and violently pushed with all of her might into the two ranks that stood between her and the open sky. Even as her spear snapped under the strain, a half-dozen enemies were given surprise flying lessons and two more were dragged with them as the stumbling women tried to grab for anything to save themselves from the already blood-covered stone below.
That small victory was won at great cost, however, as Zee suddenly screamed at the pain of her hamstring being almost completely cut by the blade of Marshal Penelope's oversized kusarigama, the chained weapon seeming to almost magically avoid hitting any of the other soldiers despite the amount of room such a weapon would normally take to use effectively.
The moment she took the wound, Zee knew there was little more she'd be able to do, having been robbed of a great deal of her mobility. Hoping beyond hope that Dahlia was faring better, Zee caught sight of her sister covered in blood from head to toe and trying to compensate for a disabled arm and leg, the extended length of this battle now proving to be more than her energetic fighting style could handle when coupled with the wounds she'd already taken.
Breathing heavily with her exertion, Zee used part of her broken shaft to block another attack as she buried the pointed end in the throat of a shieldless lizardman in the confusion. Using her tail to compensate for the loss of her leg, Zee tried to reach for her falchion, still buried in the chest of the now fallen ogre.
Knowing what would happen even before it did was the most upsetting part of this to Zee. Throwing herself off balance and overextending to earn the only chance of survival in that moment saw her left arm broken by the mighty swing of a heavy warhammer.
Having sacrificed her left arm, Zee managed to come away with her falchion in her right quickly enough to bring down one more attacker before a horrible unfamiliar pain in her chest made her falter and fall to a knee.
Looking down, Zee saw the blood covered steel of Penelope's scythe-like blade where it had punched through her breastplate...having torn all the way through her back to get there.
As her great falchion slipped from her numbing fingers to clatter on the stone below, Zee looked up with tears in her eyes to see the man she'd come here to rescue as he crept into the room, thus far unnoticed.
"Huh," Zee said, smiling slightly as her consciousness began to fade to know that she'd kept her oath in seeing her love one last time.
-
I wanted to scream as I saw Zee take what would could only be a mortal blow from that emotionless Dullahan. This was yet another horrible tragedy that was all my fault...a piece of my heart dying before my eyes.
Barely even still standing, Dahlia had dropped her weapons in surrender or from sheer exhaustion as she was roughly thrown to the floor and tightly bound, even as she howled in a sickening cocktail of pain and grief.
As I watched the life as it seemed to flee from Zee like embers from a dying fire, her beautiful steely eyes glassy and unfocused as they closed for likely the final time, she remained upright on her knees. The remaining soldiers still kept their distance, taking extra care to avoid the blood-caked falchion that had sent so many of their comrades screaming to their final destinations.
Hidden from view, I silently blinked away tears as I prayed Zee was somehow still alive. I knew she had a tiny vial of mermaid blood in her pouch that could save her if I could somehow get it to her.
"Orders, Marshal Penelope?" one of the soldiers suddenly asked.
"Get a few of the maids to clean up this mess and throw that one in the dungeon until we find out what Durand wants to do with her," Penelope commanded, adding, "Do not defile the other's body. Our master may have a use for it."
"Permission to claim her falchion, Marshal?" another ogre asked, her attire suggesting she had a higher rank than the other soldiers.
"Granted, I leave it to you to decide who keeps it, Maxine."
Penelope then moved toward the edge of the shattered ice wall and looked down to ascertain the fate of those that had fallen.
I was never going to get a chance to save Zee if the soldiers kept milling around and if she had any chance of surviving, I couldn't waste anymore time.
"We should throw it off the mountain. Not worth keeping a weakling's blade," an elf said as she spat at my fallen lover.
That was the moment that rage overtook reason within me. Only moments ago that girl would have sooner leapt to her likely death than face my Zee alone.
With most attention focused elsewhere, this would be my only chance. Even a miracle wouldn't have made it possible to handle even a fraction of the two dozen soldiers alone so I had to gamble on the longshot I hoped might take the fight out of these mamono.
I pulled my weapons free and began walking across the hall, my only real attempt at being stealthy in keeping columns between me and Durand's forces as much as possible. Coming quietly and quickly upon my first target as she continued to look over the edge of the missing west wall, I felt a spike of adrenaline as she turned to look in my direction right as the flat of my blade sent Penelope's head flying from her shoulders and out into the howling wind.
Her body made one clumsy attempt to grab for me as I tried to leap back, slipping on blood and falling onto my ass in a stroke of luck to avoid her grasp. With my actions thankfully unnoticed and masked by the volume of the wind near the shattered west wall, I was able to get back to cover and start moving toward Zee.
Slipping closer to Zee, I made two final bounding steps and then tried to carry out my three part attack upon the nearby elf as quickly as possible. I made a thrust with my primary weapon at the back of her knee and then another at the back of her shoulder in the hopes of keeping her mostly immobile, finally shoving her feather light body aside as I rifled through Zee's pouch as quickly as I could.
Screaming in pain as my blades connected, several of the soldiers turned and saw me, giving me only seconds to find what I was looking for if Zee had any hope of surviving.
"Please please please," I chanted over and over until my hand seized upon a small vial that I knew was what I was looking for. Opening it to try and quickly force feed it to Zee, I only managed to get the cork stopper free before hands grabbed to restrain me. Tossing the vial at Zee's face as my last desperate attempt to accomplish my goal, I watched in despair as the small splash of blood missed her mouth completely, falling across her nose and closed eyes.
"Marshal!" the ogre Maxine quickly shouted as she approached, "Looks like this one somehow got loose from his-" she stopped suddenly when she saw Penelope's headless body as it stumbled around blindly. "You two, go fetch the marshal's head!" she added with authority to a pair of girls that had been running over toward the commotion.
"What do we do with him until then?" I heard a voice ask from behind me as I was dragged roughly across the hall, my weapons tossed aside.
"Commander...it might do for morale to let us chew this one up a bit. Durand started her ritual early and they probably won't find Penelope's head for hours," I heard another voice suggest.
"Fuck all of you!" I screamed as I struggled to squirm free, succeeding only in having the painful grasp upon me grow even tighter. I turned my attention back to Zee, hoping to see even the slightest movement from her. "Zee! Please...I can't lose you. You came here to rescue me and I'm here...just please reach out and take my hand."
Laying a huge backhanded slap across my face, Maxine scowled down at me. "You assaulted the marshal and one of the girls from my personal unit. So this is your mate? Good. You can look at her while we all have a go with you right here. Strip him and fuck him-Durand already has her ritual so I don't care if you fuck him to death. Be as rough as you want-that's an order. And get a healer up here for the wounded!"
I was slammed face down onto the floor as the soldiers began trying to peel my clothes from me as quickly as possible, many of them licking their lips and stripping off their own clothes in preparation for what they planned to do to me.
For my part, I was beyond caring what they did to me. Perhaps if I died, Del might even stop with her crazy plan anyway. Despite how I felt about Del, Meryl, Risa, and even my girls, the warming thought that they would survive was little consolation in the face of being raped to death over the next few minutes, hours, or days.
I closed my eyes to accept the pain and shame that was to follow. If this was what fate had in store for me from the start, I wish I'd gotten the memo.
As the snickering jeers of my next likely dozen sexual partners began to grow in volume, I picked up the deep hungry breaths of one girl in particular, obviously anxious to get her hands on me before anyone else.
Or so I thought before I heard the slow scrape of steel across stone and then the feral reptilian hiss I'd only heard once before.
"Mine…" the now barely familiar voice rasped as a growing red glow began to penetrate my closed eyelids.
"Oh Lords, t-to arms! She isn't dead!" the woman holding me shrieked before her voice was suddenly silenced as a warm splash poured across my naked back.