Author's notes and warning: This chapter contains sexual material, meaning a scene of consensual sex. If this offends you, then DON'T READ IT! Otherwise, enjoy, and tell me what you think!

CHAPTER 7: Ship of Fools

Creature of air,

Creature of lust,

Flesh of my flesh

Daughter of Darkness,

Come to me this night.

I call you with Fire,

I call you with Pain,

I'll feed you with Blood,

I'll feed you with Semen.

Come to me, now,

Child of the Serpent!

Ancient Incantation for summoning a succubus.

From the "Book of the Dead Gods", Appendix 3

~*~

On the ship's deck, Aurion was staring at the horizon. He appeared lost in his thoughts, but nothing escaped him. Macha was tending to her gear, making small adjustments to her crossbow but mainly working on her tan. Cain was in the cabin below, having some private time since sea voyage had never entered his list of favorite activities.

They were not the only passengers to Kurast. The news of the Dark Wanderer passing through the jungle had caught the attention of the usual mob. Merchants of war supplies, and healers carrying stocks of various potions. Adventurous barbarians, lusting for loot and bloodshed. Dark assassins, keeping their distance from Aurion, aware of his lethal spells. And always present the type of people Aurion could never tolerate: Holier-than-thou paladins, walking about in shiny armors considering themselves saviors of the land.

One of them had really got on Aurion's bad side since the journey begun. He was loud; but not in the way barbarians are, shouting and belching and brawling all the time. At least barbarians were straightforward people. This paladin, like others of his Order, was a phony. He was loud in his morning and evening prayers in a very pharisaic sort of way. He was eager to speak of his deeds of valor to anyone who would listen, preferably to an audience who would look up to him as if he were a myth. And he was loud with the ladies too.

Macha had caught the paladin's eye from the start. After several failed attempts to impress her with his combat skills and stories, he realized he had to use a different aproach to lure her in his cabin. He offered himself as a breeding specimen, the way the amazons are accustomed to choose the fathers of their children. Aurion watched with amusement the emotions that played upon Macha's face when the paladin proposed at her. He had a hard time keeping his face straight when she punched the paladin's face and broke his nose, leaving him disfigured, probably for good. Cursing in a completely unknightly manner the paladin withdrew and kept his distance ever since. Perhaps the humility his order had failed to teach him might arise from a broken nose.

~*~

With renewed respect, Aurion let his guard down just a bit and let Macha reach out to him. During the last night of their journey, seated under a starlit sky and over a bottle of red wine, the amazon told him her story. It was a sad tale, but one Aurion had heard too many times before.

Macha had been born in an amazon camp where she had spent her entire life learning the art of warfare. She was the youngest of seven sisters, of which only two were still alive, apart from her. The rest had fallen during the Times of Darkness that swept over the land when Diablo first came to this realm. But her older sister had gone before her in search of the Dark Wanderer, and her trail was lost in the Jungles of Kurast. With the last sister pregnant, it was up to her to track down her missing relative or avenge her death. Macha had no children of her own; all she left behind, save her pregnant sister, was her lover, her companion in bed and in combat. She too had been in advanced pregnancy and although it broke her heart, she had no choice but to leave her behind.

Behind them, Aurion's golem stood in silence, towering over them as a guarding angel. It appeared inanimate, but if you could look closer, its jeweled eyes were fixed on Macha's face.

~*~

Kurast was worse than they had feared. The townsfolk had retreated at the harbor, crowding in wrecked huts to protect themselves from the elements and the horrors that lurked in the jungle, feeding off mutated fish and fetish meat. Diseases and hunger tormented the once proud people and the horde of aspiring adventurers was adding to their suffering. Thanks to Cain's connections they were settled in a small room at the inn.

Aurion looked at the plate of strange stew the innkeeper placed before him with utter disgust.

"I summon dead things; I don't eat them", he declared and pushed it away. He was feeling very uncomfortable. It was hot and humid he felt little things crawling on his delicate skin. On the other hand, Macha seemed completely unimpressed. She devoured her share of the food, helping it down with gulps of warm ale and then she had Aurion's meal as well.

At least, Aurion thought with a wicked delight, by the end of the week I'll have my own room in this pathetic inn. Most of the other residents will be dead by then.

Macha, finishing the last bits of her meal, raised her eyes from her plate and looked at him.

"What now?" she asked in a low voice.

"Tonight we sleep. And tomorrow we'll enter the jungle", he replied, his eyes burning like pits of hell.

~*~

He had been certain that the humidity and heat would keep him from sleeping. But he slept. And he dreamt.

Aurion found himself venturing the depths of a dusty dungeon, expecting an attack at every corner. He was alone; he had no recollection of how he had ended there, or where his companions, the amazon and the golem, had been. But there was a deafening silence within these walls; as if everything stood still.

He reached a clearing. On closer inspection, this must have been a place of worship, a long forgotten chapel. As he entered the room, the torches on the walls lit up. Before him Aurion saw two bodies, both of them seemingly dead. The first was the paladin from the ship. He knelt beside his bloodied remains and examined the body. He was dead all right. His heart had been ripped off and his ribcage was standing open, offering a nesting place to spiders and maggots. Aurion stood up and proceeded to the other body, the one lying on the altar.

This body belonged to a woman, a very beautiful one. A naked woman. She was lying on her stomach on top of the altar, with a cascade of golden hair falling all the way to the floor. As he reached out to feel his pulse, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. Slowly, she moved upwards, standing on all fours with a feline grace. She leaned back and climbed off the altar, stretching her long, creamy limbs like a white tiger. Then she walked closer to him and her fingers of her left hand brushed his cheek. The right hand, however, had taken a firm grip of his crotch.

Aurion drew a sharp breath as his years of sexual abstinence caused his organ to rise in demand. His mind tried franticly to make an evaluation of the situation he found himself in, but his loins were already in fire. Losing the last of his clear thinking, he pushed the woman back, pressing her soft buttocks against the cold altar. Laughing softly, she raised her legs around his waist, leading his fingers inside her moist opening. With his organ demanding immediate relief, he unbuckled his pants and pushed inside her.

He heard her moan with pleasure, as her tight flesh closed around his organ. Lost in the waves of lust, he could still feel something bothering him in the back of his head. But with this incredible creature moaning and trembling under him, he couldn't grasp the source of his worries. And then he realized how cold was her skin. His organ felt as if it was sucked by a dead, rotting leech and not by a woman's vagina. He looked at her face, and his heart stopped.

Her features changed from the ones he had seen to these of Macha. It was her he was fucking inside a cold tomb, identical to the slightest detail, even the scar across her face. His pulse increased, feeling his climax approaching. And then the woman's features changed once more. She no longer was a human, but a creature from hell, a succubus with sharp teeth seeking his flesh and semen. As he convulsed in orgasm, he felt the creature's teeth sinking in his neck.

~*~

Aurion started from his sleep, drowning his scream at the last moment. The last thing he wanted was his companions to see him drenched in sweat, not to mention his very embarrassing hard-on. He threw away the covers, needing desperately some fresh air. As he stood up, he saw Macha's peaceful face illuminated by a moonbeam. His eyes traveled down her body, feasting on the golden flesh of her naked back. With his organ jerking in protest, Aurion cursed behind his teeth and got out of the room.

He stood over the calm sea, watching the shadows dancing over the water. Slowly, he willed his body to relax, knowing he could not afford such distractions. As he regained control over his heart and loins, he started to walk back to his humble bed. Only then did he realize he was stalked.

Emerging out of the shadows, five assassins closed around him.

An ambush!