Night Moves
I hope you see this as a Halloween treat, or trick--KS
"He was the oddball ultimate of those people who are enthralled by nonhuman living things and pursue them like lovers." – Anne Perry
"If I were home," Amelia said with a sigh, "I'd be greeting trick-or-treaters outside the place gates. Did you ever go trick-or-treating at Halloween, Miss Lina?"
Lina and Zelgadiss stopped their whispering and moved apart.
"Huh?" Lina grunted. She had caught the "treat" part quite clearly, but had missed the gist of what Amelia had been saying.
I couldn't miss an opportunity to embarrass the chimera man, so I said, "I'm afraid Zelgadiss has been monopolizing her attention again, princess. I wonder what she finds about him that is so fascinating."
To my satisfaction, I embarrassed them both. Zelgadiss, choking with stinging words unsaid, tossed a stick angrily into the fire. The flames roared to life and spit a cinder back. The hot ember died on the bare skin of his exposed fingers without burning or even leaving a scorch mark on the stone-like surface. That seemed to infuriate him more.
"Dammit all, Xelloss," he growled.
Lina blushed and fumed in silence. Both sent out shockwaves of alarm mixed with a little fear- an ample snack for me. I wondered why my mild teasing disturbed them so deeply. It made me curious to learn what they had been keeping secret.
"Ah, she wants to know if you went for candy on Halloween," Gourry explained. "I sure did, but that was when I was real young. After that I got to do all the carving, seeing as I was good with a blade," he added proudly.
Lina recovered her composure after that. "Oh, yeah, sure. I did that. I got lots of great junk, after I proved I'd play a nasty trick on those that held back, heh, heh."
"How about you, Mr. Zelgadiss?" Amelia asked.
"No, I hadn't time for such foolishness," he grumbled.
"He means he didn't have a costume," Gourry said nodding. "I know how that was. I had that problem too, until I thought of the Sack of Potatoes."
"What are you talking about?" Lina snapped.
"My costume!" Gourry said, grinning. "I put an old potato sack over my head, with holes for my arms and head to go through. Stuffed old socks and rags inside to look like potatoes and tied a rope above my knees so they wouldn't fall out. Worked good."
"Wouldn't it be hard to walk that way?" Zelgadiss asked.
"Well, yeah, guess it was," Gourry mused.
"I never got to do the carving," Amelia continued. "That would be fun, I think."
I grinned. "Carving?"
Lina caught my widening smile and cut in. "Before his imagination gets away from him, Amelia, better tell Xelloss you meant carving on pumpkins."
My face must have betrayed my disappointment. "You want to carve on vegetables? For fun?"
"Oh yes, Mr. Xelloss. Big orange pumpkins! The servants would use knives to cut out frightening faces, after hollowing them out, of course. Then we'd light them with candles. At night the palace gates were decorated with them, glowing on spikes atop the iron posts. Very scary," she emphasized, since I didn't look at all convinced that squash could be anything but dull, even lit up.
Well, blazing on fire, a whole mountain of them, maybe. "So, tell me more about this Halloween celebration, would you?" I asked. I knew about the holiday. I had lived through its many reincarnations in many different lands, but a scheme was coalescing in my mind. An evil thought. I needed a few meaningful props to make it fun.
I listened politely while the princess elaborated. Lina pitched in with remembrances of her own, as did Gourry. Even Zelgadiss loosened up with a tale or two. Lina announced that the pot of stew was ready to eat, and the topic was dropped. It didn't matter. I had accumulated all the ammunition I needed, although I could use more motivation to make my night moves.
My evil trick might break up our little party for good, and I wasn't certain that would help me complete my real mission. I had to take my orders into consideration, you know. Work before pleasure and all that. My position in the group was quasi-secure. You see, our quintet of loosely aligned comrades had been traveling together for several weeks. I am considered to be one of them, although my presence is largely unwelcome, but not completely.
Gourry is indebted to me for returning his Sword of Light, and since the dolt has a sense of honor that drives him like spurs, he tolerates my presence without complaint. Amelia wishes to convert me from my natural demon state to some human ideal with all the tenacity of a zealot, but otherwise prefers me to leave them all alone. Lina Inverse tells the others that she prefers me close at hand for emergencies, rather than to wonder what I'm up to when I'm out of sight. Zelgadiss reminds them "to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."
Before knowing them so well, I would have taken them at their word and believed their reasons for tolerating my presence, but for the last few days I've sensed their deeper motivations. Tonight Lina and Zelgadiss puzzled me, and so evolved my scheme.
As the last remnants of a tasty meal were being picked over, the conversation returned. Now, not all conversation was verbal; in fact, much of it was unspoken-- communication passed with an expression, a wink, blink, or a nod. This could have been any night, but chance movement in the astral plane sparked this particular Mazouku imagination.
I was certain I was being watched off and on most of the day. I was certainly being studied now by the two seated on either side of me. Zelgadiss would watch me from beneath his bangs thinking I wouldn't notice his glittering eyes through the shining wires. Lina would look at me directly, say something, and then, when my eyes were directed at one of the others, her glance would furtively flitter over me.
It was disconcerting, to say the least. I wondered if the two were plotting to attack me and were waiting for me to let down my guard. If that were so, then they were doing a fabulous job of masking their intentions emotionally. I felt no anger or hatred discharging from either of them sufficient to fuel an assault. What did I feel?
I interrupted my other thought processes and concentrated on the emotional content around me. Pent up passion flowing from both Lina and Zelgadiss threatened to spill over their defenses and flood my senses. Dear, me. Were these two in love but afraid to act? Was I in their way, somehow preventing the further transmission of pertinent information?
Of course, Amelia and Gourry must have been obstacles as well, thwarting their love from bursting out. How sad. What if the two were drawn apart and left alone for awhile? I imagined all sorts of fun I might have with this situation, narrowed the options down to two, and then selected one act to follow. Without pondering the question of right or wrong for an instant, I repaired to the heights of a tree, after offering most generously to take the first watch. With the necessary privacy to carry out my plan, I whipped out a sheaf of notepaper and a pen, and began to write.
( o )
Zelgadiss let out a sigh and scuffed his feet at the edge of the fire. He wasn't the least bit tired, but he considered retiring in order to avoid further frustration, when a folded note fluttered into his lap.
"Where did this come from?" he wondered, looking askance to see if anyone else had moved or seen what had just happened. No one seemed to notice. He ran his fingers over the paper– heavy, good quality paper with no watermark or seal– and stuffed the note under his tunic. "'S'use me," he muttered, standing.
He put some distance between himself and the others. Stepping into the shadows he listened to make certain no one had followed him, and, satisfied that he was alone, cast a faint "lighting" spell and opened the note.
"My gods!" He choked back his outcry and scanned the note again, and again. Waves of alternating heat and chill raged across his torso nearly causing him collapse.
With a shaking hand he held the note under the light and read: "Zel, I want you so bad. Let's not waste any more time. If you feel the same way, meet me tonight. Here's where..."
There was no signature, but he was absolutely certain that he knew whose sentiments had been expressed so bluntly. He had the directions burned into his brain, and what parts weren't incinerated with his casting—"Fire!"- were throbbing in time with his heartbeat. He had every word of the note permanently emblazoned in all their glory in his special memory core.
Xelloss wanted him.
Whatever that meant.
"Dear, gods... What might love mean to a demon?" he wondered aloud. "Or lust at any rate. Yes, more like lust. Cephied protect me, if possible. I imagined but I never suspected anything like this could really happen."
He wiped his palms on his tunic and licked his lips. Sure, he'd imagined running his hands over that near-perfect body, but how anatomically correct was he? How did a creature like Xelloss perceive sex? He had been created by his master for the purpose of serving her, or it. Did demons even distinguish one another as sexual beings?
Well, the note implied that Xelloss craved him for something and it sounded like sex to him, not that Zelgadiss could understand why. Self doubt flooded his mind, now, extinguishing his internal fires. How could anything love a creature like him, a mockery of humankind? A rock-tastic monument to stupidity.
Maybe Xelloss would kill him in his attempt? Death by sex with a demon. Zelgadiss smiled as he ran through all the defensive spells he knew, then strode off, determined to face his future. "Beware priests promising you your heart's desire," his brain reminded him.
"He's not a priest. Not like Rezo."
"Both have been controlled by demon lords," his conscience pushed.
"I'm not listening!"
(o)
Lina brushed the annoying leaf from her air, only to discover that it wasn't a leaf at all. It was a folded paper. Oooh... a mystery! She loved mysteries, but not all of the time. She wanted her spells to go off as planned. No surprises. She also liked her meals straightforward with no spoiled meat cloaked in gravy to disguise the foulness. In other ways, at other times, she liked the extraordinary to break up the routines of life, and this card promised a surprise.
"Gotta go," she said rapidly. "Be right back!"
"'S'use me," Zelgadiss muttered at the same time.
Lina scampered off just as Zelgadiss parted, going in opposite directions, leaving Gourry and Amelia to clean up and guard the camp.
"Lighting," Lina said, casting a dim light over the note as she unfolded its crisp creases. "Whaa...?"
She had to read it twice to get the sense of it: "Lina-dear, I want you so bad. Let's not waste any more time. If you feel the same way, meet me tonight. Here's where..."
"Xelloss," she said with a quick intake of air. She couldn't believe he noticed, finally, how she felt about him. His allure was unavoidable, since he grew looking better with time and was always close at hand. He was ageless, handsome, and powerful. If she could control him, wield his power with her will and enjoy the physical benefits of a bed partner, well, what could be better?
But he wasn't real, not in a human substantial way. Of course, wasn't her body just a shell for her personality? How much different was that from a demon's human visage? Not enough to count, she determined as she jammed the note under her belt. And if he wanted, he could form his body to suit her.
"Hmmm," she purred, imagining him splayed out, absolutely naked, and intensely eager. The pleasure of his touch, his moist lips parted, panting, his length filling her, and pulsing with need caused her to shudder in anticipation. "Pull yourself together, girl," she admonished herself.
For an instant, she envisioned him standing at her side teaching her the mysteries of demon castings, acknowledging her superior strength of character, bowing to her will. Oh, yeah. A high level demon at her beck and call. "Now you're thinking straight!"
Lina crammed the note into her glove, then strode in the direction the note indicated, eager to discover what he had in mind.
(o)
Zelgadiss looked for the first landmark to tell him he was on the right path. "There's the rock," he muttered to himself, passing the boulder shaped like skull.
The next rock rested at the turn in the path, this one sporting a Jack-o-lantern.
"Xelloss, when did you have time to set this up?" he wondered, more amused than curious. "You must have been planning this for some time." That was gratifying!
He continued to follow the eerily-lit path as it led him further away from camp. As he was about to give up and go back, he stepped into a clearing, encircled with more of the carved pumpkins.
(o)
"This is amazing!" Lina whispered. "I'm impressed, Xelloss. You really know how to get my attention."
Each pumpkin lighting her way was more intricately carved than the one previous, and more horrific. It was unsettling, or could be if she thought about it. Lina was so caught up in the romance of the situation, the cleverness, that she didn't ponder the circumstances as she trod along. Still, the trail stretched longer than her patience after a few too many twists and turns.
"Okay, enough is enough! I get that you can do pumpkins, now show yourself." She said this while pushing a branch out of her face. "Oh! This is more like it."
Lina stepped into a clearing, the lights from many pumpkins temporarily blinding her.
(o)
"Lina!" Zelgadiss gasped, shocked to the core. He had been expecting Xelloss, not her. What could this mean? Had he misunderstood the author of the note to be Xelloss, and it had been written by Lina in urgent supplication, instead? "Oh..." he moaned in unguarded disappointment.
"Zelgadiss?" Lina croaked. She shielded her eyes, squinting in the glare of the hundreds of flaming pumpkins. "Is that your voice? What in hell are you doing here?" It occurred to her that it must have been Zelgadiss who had sent her the note, inviting her to this secret tryst. "I mean, I can't see with all these candles burning, after the dark and all."
They both walked hesitantly forwards, meeting in the center.
"Ah..." Zelgadiss did not want to be here.
"Er..." Lina was so uncomfortable she lost her voice.
So they stood there avoiding eye contact, nearly tongue-tied, and perfectly miserable.
"Oh, gods, Lina... this isn't... I mean, you are beautiful and..." he cleared his throat, "desirable, but..."
"Zel... it's not...I'm not... I mean, like, you're pretty cool and all, but..."
They were the picture of wretchedness and regret, when out of the depths of the darkness beyond came I, laughing. Not a loud, overt kind of laugh. Ore of a self-satisfied, sneery sound, I'd say. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. My trick had worked marvelously, and I was satisfied, so very pleased.
"Ha, ha, haaaa. You two are a sight. Pathetic! You can't bring yourselves to admit how you feel. How in loooove you are. How rich!"
I materialized at the edge of the circle, heedless of what was to come. "I go to all the trouble to arrange this entire rendezvous for your benefit, and all you can do is quaver, hemming and hawing to each other! Ha, ha, haaaa!"
"So that was how it was! You sent me the note and not Lina..." Zelgadiss surmised.
"I certainly didn't send any note. I got one from..." Lina's glare shot over to me. She was incensed. I could tell. "It was from you, Xelloss, but you wanted me to think it was from Zelgadiss and not you," Lina said.
"Bingo!" I chortled, yes, with glee. "Lure them with the promise of dreams unfulfilled and they will come. You've been lusting after one another. I noticed."
"What?" Zelgadiss squawked. "I've done nothing of the sort!"
"Xelloss, you're an idiot!" Lina summarized. "A thick-skulled, lame-brained, high-order ass. I took you for something more...evolved. Fat chance."
Well, she was both right and wrong, but I understood and forgave her confusion at the moment. Both she and Zelgadiss were stung by shame and disappointment. Rejection. I hadn't wanted her. I hadn't wanted him. The same conclusion could be drawn by both humans simultaneously: (s)he thought the note was from me, and (s)he came looking for me, meaning (s)he desires me. Oh, come now, that's ridiculous!
( o )
At some point I felt the tide changing. The warm, emotional current of pain and sorrow- so gratifying, so sweet- chilled and dried up. What had happened? They knew something I didn't, that was what. How disturbing. Well, damn. This was my prank, so why wasn't I in control of it? What was amiss? Could the two humiliated humans suddenly metamorphose into forgiving friends? Had they recovered so quickly and absolutely already? Too bad. It had been a mean trick to play on them, it had rewarded me well, and now it was all over. Hmmm. "Well, I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone to work things ooooouuu...!"
"Astral..." Zelgadiss said, casting his spell just as Lina shouted her power words, which were, surprisingly, the same as his.
"Transfix!"
Invisible pins shot from Zelgadiss' finger tips, fastening my arms to the ground. Lina flung hers like knives, effectively fixing me in place. I squirmed then gasped. I was unable to disappear! Both my human form and non-corporeal, astral body were held as if bolted in place!
"It looks like it worked," Lina said to Zel.
"Indeed it does," he said, smiling. "It bodes well for those other spells, doesn't it?"
"Erk?" I may have made a sound like that. "What have you done here? What spells? What are you talking about?"
Lina and Zelgadiss exchanged knowing looks.
"Oh, don't tell me. You're keeping secrets from me?"
"Looks like it," Lina said. "I was afraid you'd caught on once. A couple times you saw us comparing notes, right?"
"No, Lina, I have no idea what you are talking about. Illuminate me."
"We found this cache of magic books, and one contained astral attack spells the like of which we'd never seen." Zelgadiss leaned closer and tugged at a lank of my hair. "We weren't sure when we'd get a chance to test them out."
I jerked and nearly wrenched my back out, had such a thing been possible, but I remained firmly anchored to the ground. The spells secured both my astral and physical forms to the earth, against which any amount of struggling seemed useless. Panic threatened to disable my ability to reason. They might not be able to kill me, but those devious humans might harm me!
This was no longer fun. I felt Zelgadiss' fingers trail though my hair, perhaps in preparation of a scalping. I bared my teeth, just to show him.
"Uh, so," Lina stuttered. "How do we do this? Take turns?"
Turns could be good, I thought. I might possibly fight back and defeat them one at a time. I fought to control my expression carefully so as not to giveaway my thoughts.
"For modesty-sake, I'd agree, but I'm not completely sure we'd be safe. If a spell failed, we'd have no chance alone."
Modesty-sake? What the hell has modesty to do with anything? My imagination did a u-turn. What were their intentions, anyway? I must admit that I might have allowed my eyes to open wider unintentionally. Zelgadiss' fingers in my hair took on a different significance, particularly when I felt a rough fingertip trail across my jaw line.
"Oh, now you've got him all excited," Lina said a smile turning up at the corners of her lips.
And speaking of lips, that roving finger just brushed my lips! I parted them and bit the offending digit in a flash.
"Ouch! Hey!" Zelgadiss cried out.
"He didn't draw blood," Lina noted. "Your hide's too tough."
"He might have, if I hadn't moved away so fast," Zelgadiss retorted. He drew his sword, and embedded the point past my cloak.
That was unexpected! I sucked in my breath. With a rip, Zelgadiss slit the front of my yellow tunic and cut away my sash. The cloth slithered to the ground.
"Does that hurt?" Zelgadiss asked. "Your clothes are a part of you, right?"
I winced with each move of the blade and battled against his invisible bond, expecting to be impaled. I wouldn't share my feelings. Not at all. Nothing pierced me, though. Instead, two pairs of hands found my bared chest. They touched me as fingers pulled and tugged at the cloth fragments, exposing my entire upper torso, inch by inch.
"Just superficial wounds, right" Lina said, answering for him. "We'll make it all better..."
I admit, I was unable to resist shuddering and moaning when both Lina and Zelgadiss' warm lips touched my cool skin. Sensual, tactile sensations were uncommon to me. Mostly I avoided humans and their need for contact. I take little pleasure in it, or so I believed. Lina, however, was adding tingling astral attacks to her strokes, and Zelgadiss knew how to scrape his stony chin over my most tender, most sensitive spots. Both offered me a combination of pain and pleasure that was driving me mad, especially with the intoxicating rush of their lustful feelings edged with fear, anxiety, hatred, and adoration.
By Shabranigdo! It was me both were sexually attracted to! What a shock that was! I squeezed my eyes shut when I nearly lost consciousness, then grappled for my astral powers. I knew I must escape, conquer my failings, and stop this at once!
"Give me a sec to get this last boot, then we'll each take a pant leg," Lina said.
My eyes flew open. "What!"
Zelgadiss unlatched the clasp at my neck, and then removed my heavy black cloak. It remained pinned to the ground beneath me. "There. That was a tricky closure."
"You won't try to get free if we release a few of these spells, will you?" Lina asked him. "Otherwise, we'll have to shred your pants to remove them. Up to you."
I smiled, a taut, strained smile, perhaps, but a smile. "I'll be good."
"Shred them," Zelgadiss said. "It will intensify the stimulation."
Damn you, you cruel, cold-blooded creature, you! As if I needed the sensations kicked up a notch or two! "Hedonists!" I hissed through gritted teeth, unable to fend off their attack.
After that, I was lost in a wild, incomprehensible tumult of carnal sensations. Strong, delicate fingers fondled me. Warm, soft tongues lapped over my private parts. A tight warm tunnel surrounded my manhood as one slim body impaled itself upon me, surrounding me with moist heat, squeezing, and wringing everything possible from me. A throbbing shaft entered me, urgent, driving, abrasive, pounding me relentlessly. I was a receptacle for the humans' rampaging sexual desire.
I confess that I caved in. I kissed back, returning the caresses, joining in, and matching passion with zeal of my own, unaware at what point the spells grounding me had dissipated. Or caring, if truth be told. I was not interested in attacking my lovers, not mortally. I had, instead, become a full participant in the orgy of lovemaking. I discovered I was not, however, inexhaustible. None of us were.
My eyes flew open, wide awake but with the full realization that I had been asleep, or unconscious, and that I was alone, surrounded by magically illuminated pumpkins carved with garish and macabre expressions. There was no sign of Lina and Zelgadiss.
"Well, for the love of... How long have I been here?" I sat up abruptly. "I'm dressed!"
I marveled at that a moment even admiring the clean, unworn cuff of my sleeve. "And a damned handsome figure I am. I don't remember repairing myself on the astral plain."
I snatched at my cloak with its attractive red and gold decorative border, freeing it from a clinging twig and discovered that my arms and legs were free; the astral holding spells spent. "Well, if this isn't the most damnable..."
I summoned my staff and smoothed my hair. I didn't know what had happened, and I didn't like that. I was confused and yet oddly content. My body was thrumming with satisfaction. I nearly screamed aloud I was so angry and pleased at the same time. Naturally, I didn't. That would have been a sign of weakness; a human thing to do. Instead, I transported to the camp to find the culprits.
I wasn't disappointed. Gourry and Amelia were deep in their blankets, sleeping, having celebrated Halloween, I suppose, throughout the night, chasing the evil spirits away successfully. Apparently. Lina and Zelgadiss were also snuggled under wraps, but they were awake, talking in low voices. I moved close enough to overhear their whispers and not be seen.
"So the illusionary spells worked," Zelgadiss said.
"As did the astral pinning spells," Lina added. She held back her next words when Zel raised a finger to his lips.
"Xelloss? You back?"
I stepped into view. "Yes." I looked back and forth at the two. "Well? Are you going to sexplain...er...explain what happened back there?"
Lina and Zelgadiss laughed at my faux pas. Seeing the humor in what I'd said and being a fairly amiable creature, I joined in with a dry chuckle of my own, just to prove I could take a hit as well as the next guy.
"Those astral illusion spells work then?" Lina managed to ask through her guffaws.
"Illusion..." I said, sucking in air rather than screaming. "All that didn't really happen? That wasn't real?"
I must say, I was certainly taken aback. What I had seen and felt and how my body had responded seemed so real; no, my body's reaction had been real, all right. A man would know a thing like that, wouldn't he? For the love of Shabranigdo, those spells were dangerous!
"I should kill the both of you instantly," I said conclusively.
"But?" Zelgadiss prodded. His mood serious, the set of his jaw, tense.
I just shrugged. For no good reason I could think of, I had no intention of hurting either of them. It was like an epiphany, if demon-kind could experience one. "But for the darnedest reason I can't bring myself to do that." I smiled at both Lina and Zelgadiss and shook my head.
"Want to make it real?" Lina dared him. "To really celebrate Halloween?"
"What? Oh, you mean...the three of us...again, I mean, not in my head, no spells?" I shut up. I was starting to babble, which is undignified.
"If you want," Zelgadiss said, his eyes glittering with anticipation.
"No spells," I repeated.
"Fine," Zel agreed. He rolled up his blanket, ready to carry it. "Lead the way."
As they marched in single file back into the forest clearing, Lina whispered in a voice so low only Zel could hear her, but I, of course, could hear also, "At least no additional spells, right?"
"Right," Zel muttered. "Can't have him thinking he's just an illusion."
Illusion? Me? Right. They were still trying to trick me, or was that my treat? How I love this Halloween trick or treat thing!
Happy Halloween everyone!
The End, Night Moves.