Feature Writer: Phineas
Feature Title: WIZARD 13
Published: 22.08.2021
Story Codes: Erotic Horror
Synopsis: Will John’s Mistress betray him or does she prefer to watch?
Author’s Notes: The battle of Highpass against the demons while John battles for his soul.
Wizard 13
John pushed off the ground and slammed his hands under the leaping demon’s jaw. The fanged maw snapped shut and was driven upwards. John’s face was spared but the creature still slammed into him, yanking him away from Helleen and sending him tumbling onto his back. The beast rolled free of him and landed on its feet like a cat. A very large, terrifying, horned cat.
Nude save for his dagger, amulet and boots, John knew he couldn’t call his spear to him in time and his dagger would be all but useless against such a monster. The demon hopped to the side, rotating to turn and face him, and gathered itself to pounce a second time. Helleen was seconds away from making sense of it all. That left him with one choice.
He traced the spell form and guided the magic into existence. His right hand constructed a new pattern, one that required John speak arcane words to tie the spells together and give him the control he needed. He flung his right hand at the creature, gathering the magical flames in the process and projecting them in a cone of flames into the leaping monster.
The demon ducked its head away and curled in mid air to protect itself. Already in mid-air, the monster’s acrobatics served to drop it to the ground beside John and it stumbled and rolled onto him. John’s spells was knocked aside and he found himself staring up at the smoking and stinking hard leathery skin of the monster.
It flipped and rolled on him, driving the air from John’s lungs even as it twisted itself and landed one clawed paw on John’s chest. The monster stared down at him, mouth opening and a foul reeking hiss coming out of it. John gagged and swooned from the beast’s horrendous breath.
The demon snapped its mouth shut and looked down at John’s chest where it’s claw lay. It pushed and flexed its claws, trying to drive them down. John’s skin bent under the vicious claws but his dark magic reacted and formed a shield that reinforced his flesh even beyond the protection is amulet gave him. For now the claws did not pierce through… yet.
John caught the beast under its reptilian jaw again and fought to push it up and away. He kept the creature’s mouth shut but that only caused it to snort and rumble deep in its chest. The claw on his chest dug and scraped, scratching flesh drawing blood. The demons’ hind legs straddled him, gaining purchase by digging into the ground.
John traced the frantic form of a spell with his right hand and guided the magic into his hand. He let it build and was about to unleash it when the creature shifted its head and shoulders to the left. John had already begun to swing hand, however, so the glowing nimbus of magic in his palm slapped the creature’s left shoulder at the same time the monster struck. The demon’s spear-tipped tail snapped down into the space it had vacated and stabbed into the left side of John’s chest where his magic was not focused.
John’s spell burned eldritch lines across the beast’s upper back. It leapt back off of him, ripping the bone-like blade of its tail out of John’s chest. Blood spurted into the air while the demon staggered on its feet and shook its head, snapping at the air as though it could make the burning do away. Its left forelimb was slow to respond and dragged as it side stepped and tried to recover.
Helleen howled and charged. The beast snapped its head around but not in time to see the berserking gladiatrix. Her hand and a half sword smashed down between the short horns that ran along its back and hacked through charred hide and bone John’s spell had left behind. The demon collapsed, its rear legs losing life in an instant.
The demon saw her clearly then and snapped at her, but Helleen ignore the fiend and kicked her foot onto its shoulder. She wrenched her sword free and drew it back, reversing her grip. John stretched out his hand toward her, his mouth open but no sound coming from his lips. Helleen only saw the demon and a field of red surrounding it. She drove the blade down, the point guided by rage into the cleft she’d already cloven into its back. The point went deep, slicing the muscles and tissues in the demon’s chest and insuring it would never rise again.
Helleen stared down at the dead creature, reason rushing back. She blinked and saw John, his arm stretched out for her. A bloody froth coated his chest and his hand that covered the wound.
“Milord!” Helleen hissed. She staggered to him and fell to her knees. She stared at him and shook her head. Tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She put her hands on his and shook her head, refusing to believe the man she had just realized was what she yearned for was about to be taken away.
John’s mouth opened and shut but the noises he made were less than breathy whispers. Blood speckled his lips and every breath caused more bloody bubbles to run down his chest. John reached up with his free hand and grabbed Helleen’s shoulder. He squeezed her arm and then closed his eyes.
“No!” Helleen howled. She shook him, knocking his head against the ground and forcing him to open his eyes again. “I’ll get Sadie! Don’t close your eyes, damn you! Stay with me.”
John tried to talk again and then sagged back down when he found he couldn’t. He grimaced and tried to focus on what magic remained to heal himself. Preventing the monster from tearing his chest apart and surviving the wrestling they’d done had drained what power that remained. He’d been low before bedding Roxanne and then he’d had to give her so much back to create the contract that he wasn’t much better off.
Panic began to tickle the edges of John’s mind. Was he going to die? He’d been so engrossed in making Helleen his he’d made one foolish risk after another. Now this… his just rewards?
John focused his magic inside his chest and struggled to block the ragged hole in his lung. For a moment his breathing eased. He wasn’t healed though, he was only prolonging the inevitable. He needed more… he needed…
“Sadie! Fetch Sadie, John’s hurt!” Helleen shouted.
John glanced around and realized she was dragging him back into the village. He hadn’t even felt her hands grab under his shoulders and hoist him up, yet here they were.
John looked around and recognized Artesia and some of the other villagers. He struggled to put names to faces. Mostly he stared at the shocked and angry look on Artesia’s face. Was she going to hit him because he got hurt? She looked like she might. The thought almost made John smile.
Something tickled his throat and made him gag. He coughed and retched, spewing blood down his cheek and onto the ground. The magic slipped and his next breath bubbled out his chest. John winced and struggled to refocus the dark powers inside of him. Some demons could regenerate, he knew. Why couldn’t he do that?
“Put him down!”
John found himself staring up at Zynga, of all people. That was funny too. Zynga used the form of a halfling and he was looking up at her. Did that make him a quarterling?
Zynga looked at John’s chest and scowled. She shoved her fingers inside of it, making his chest burned like a burning torch had been shoved inside. He stared at her, paralyzed in agony and feeling the anger burn away the silly thoughts in his head.
“Use your magic to mend your wounds,” she said. “It hurts and it will hurt again when I tear my fingers out of your mended flesh, but you must do it!”
John nodded and closed his eyes to focus.
“No! Milord, don’t close your eyes! Don’t sleep!” Helleen shouted at him and slapped his face.
“You stupid cow!” Zynga snarled at her. “He has to focus, he’s not sleeping.”
Helleen stared at Zynga and then looked back down at John. John gave her a nod and closed his eyes.
John called on the magic again. He thought to block the hole again but stopped. There was two holes, one in the front and one in the back. That creature’s tail had the strength of a ballista behind it! He focused on mending his flesh instead and coaxed the magic into weaving the ragged flesh back together.
“Oh… oh, that’s bad,” John heard a woman say in the distance.
“Heal him!” Another woman retorted. Jennaca? Yes, that sounded like Jennaca.
“I can’t,” the first woman said. It had to be Sadie.
John sagged as he ran out of magic. The tendrils of dark nether within him were too faint to grasp anymore. He could breathe a little easier, but he’d barely begun to mend the exit wound and hadn’t begun to repair the flesh Zynga’s fingers plugged.
“I saw what you did to the runner! You can heal him, I know you can!” Jennaca argued.
“Were he a good man, yes, I could.”
Jennaca gaped at her and then shook her head. “I don’t know what you’ve got in your head, but this man is a good man. He is the best man I’ve ever known, and I’ve known paladins and the Patriarch of Leander!”
“There is darkness in him,” Sadie said. “He is in league with–”
Jenna clenched her fists at her side to keep from strangling the priestess. “Isn’t that up to your saint to determine? That’s what I was taught. The servants of the saints are just that, servants. The judgment comes from above… or below, depending on the saint.”
“It’s not that simple,” Sadie said. “They judge us, but we are to use our wisdom to know what is right and what is not.”
“Hellfire,” Zynga muttered. “He’s not going to make it… Jennaca!”
Jennaca spun and then spun again, turning back to Sadie. “Please… just try. If you try and Eile says no… well, Eile’s a fool. I can’t argue the will of a saint though.”
“Beytrixxa,” John whispered. His voice was so soft only Artesia, Zynga, and Jennaca heard him.
“What was that?” Jennaca asked.
Zynga shook her head. “He’s calling on our Mistress. She frowned. And shook her head. “She won’t help, Master. Not yet.”
“Sadie,” Jennaca whined.
Sadie clutched her holy symbol in both hands. Tears ran down her cheeks as she agonized with herself over John’s state. She took a quick breath and nodded. “I’ll try.”
Sadie dropped to her knees beside John and held her holy symbol away from his chest and over them. He stared at it, trying to make sense of the odd amulet. Why was it so fuzzy? And glowing. Why was it getting brighter and brighter? Did that mean it was hot? Was Sadie going to burn her hand?
“Take your hands off of him,” Sadie demanded.
“Sorry, Master,” Zynga said before she tore her fingers free of his chest.
John jerked, the pain making his back arch and a breathy groan slip from his lips even as fresh blood poured from his chest. A cool hand replaced Zynga’s, pressing him back down onto the trampled grass. Sadie’s hand.
Her hand was glowing too.
Somebody shouted in the distance. John heard the shout but didn’t know what it meant. He didn’t know why the people standing above him were moving and talking either. He could hear them, but they didn’t make sense. Attack? Defense? Demons? They’d killed one already, why were they worried about it?
John looked to Artesia and saw her ignoring him. She was shouting and pointing. It reminded of her drilling the villagers earlier, except she wasn’t teaching this time. She wasn’t being mean… she was… she was leading?
A numbing coolness spread through John’s chest. The darkness inside of him recoiled and tried to retreat, but it had nowhere to go. It bristled and fought back, spitting and hissing like a cat trapped in an alley by a pack of hungry hounds. That’s all it could do, the cat has no claws or teeth left to it.
The hounds let it be, or rather the soothing magic Sadie poured into him drew back and left the darkness where it was. It focused on John’s chest and smothered the fires inside of him. The agony was soothed and his breathing began to grow easier. With each breath he took he felt more and more the tickle in his chest and throat. He gagged and coughed again, thick wetness choking him until his next convulsion forced it out.
John felt his hot fluids on his face, neck, and chest, but once his throat and chest were clear he didn’t care. He sagged onto the ground and struggled to lift his head. Something held it down… was Sadie sitting on his face? Another time and place and that might be fun… but not now. No, now he needed to get up. He needed to figure out what was happening. If they needed help, he had to get up and help. He…
He was so damn tired. He could get up, but maybe after a short rest first. Yes, something to get his strength back, then he’d be more use to them. Except… why? Why did they need him? He’d killed the demon. Well, Helleen had killed it, but he’d played a part in it. If it was dead, maybe they didn’t need him.
John’s lips twisted up into a blood speckled smile. He’d done his part. He could rest… just for a little while.
“You’ve slept long enough, I think.”
John opened his eyes and found himself on a bed in a strange room. Zynga, Jennaca, Helleen, and Roxanne surrounded the bed. It was Zynga that had spoken and it was Zynga who drew his eye. “What? Why? What’s going on?”
“You’re a very, very stupid man… Master,” Zynga said.
John frowned. He sat up and saw the three mortal women tense as he shifted position in bed and let the blanket covering him drop to his waist. John followed their eyes to his chest, frowning, and then sucked in a quick breath when he saw the four claw marks on the right side of his chest.
He looked up slowly and found Helleen without even trying. He knew where to look. He felt her as much as he saw her. She felt like Jennaca. Well, far from feeling like Jennaca, he knew how to feel her the same way though. “Lace and Whiskey, did that really happen?”
“You remember?” Helleen asked.
John nodded and smiled at her. “I remember the important parts.”
Helleen blushed but the blush couldn’t dampen the grin on her face.
“I’m with Zynga,” Jennaca said. “That was dumb.”
“Helleen told you?”
“She did,” Jennaca said. “I’m happy it turned out well, but I’m not happy about how you risked your life. Risked all our lives.”
“All of us?” John asked. He frowned and took in his visitors again. “Where’s Artesia?”
“Helping with clean up and constructing defenses. The villagers did better than we expected.”
“The villagers… what happened, exactly?”
“They attacked us,” Roxanne said.
“The villagers attacked us?”
Roxanne laughed. “No, silly, the… demons. Or whatever they are,” she said.
“Oh! I… wait, I thought it was just the one? Helleen killed that one.”
Helleen smiled at him. “You saved my life, milord. Saved my life and kept it busy until I could get my sword. Then you weakened it with your magic or else I might not have been able to. The others took three or four people to weaken and kill and even then, they exacted a toll.”
John noticed Jennaca had some bandages on her arms, legs, and even one across her belly. She had scratches and cuts that weren’t covered by bandages too. He frowned before noting the other three women fared far better. Only Roxanne bore a torn rage as a bandage across her thigh.
“You’re hurt,” John said.
Jennaca waved it away. “Scratches, mostly. Sadie had to tend to more serious wounds before I’ll let her look to mine. I’m fine.”
“Jennaca,” John muttered.
She smiled. “I promise. If you’d like, you can kiss them later to make them feel better.”
John rolled his eyes and turned his head to look at Roxanne’s bandage. “How are you?”
“I’m okay,” she said. “One of their tails caught me. It was straight up and down, not a cross cut. It’s been washed and tended and Helleen put a few stitches in it.”
John frowned. “If you two have been hurt, the villagers can’t have fared well at all.”
“Roxanne and Helleen wouldn’t leave you to join the defenses,” Zynga said. “They guarded the front door in case any made it past the villagers. A few did.”
John looked to Jennaca. “And you?”
“Oh, Sasha and I were about. We served as reinforcements and stopped flanking maneuvers. That’s what Artesia called it, anyhow.”
“Is Sasha all right?”
Jennaca grinned. “She is. A few scratches, but she fared better than I did.”
“To look at your bandages I fared better than you did!” John said.
Jennaca laughed. “That’s nonsense. The demon that stuck you ran you through, front to back. You’ve got no right to still be drawing breath. Missed your heart but punched clean through your lung and snapped a few ribs like twigs on the way.”
John’s eyes widened. He looked down at his chest and then back up at her. “And there’s not even a scar to show for it?”
“It seems Saint Eile favors you,” Helleen said with a grin. “She’s a smart saint, if you ask me.”
Zynga snorted.
John looked at her. “What? I remember calling on Mistress, I think…”
“You did,” Zynga said.
“Wait, she couldn’t help?” Jennaca asked.
“Wouldn’t,” Zynga said. “Not yet, anyhow. John was too far gone to make a deal if he wanted to.”
“Another contract,” John sighed.
“There was more to it,” Zynga said. She licked her lips before adding, “Mistress was curious.”
“Curious if he would die?” Jennaca cried.
“Not… exactly,” Zynga said. “More like curious if a priestess of Eile could help him.”
“She did,” Jennaca stated.
Zynga nodded. “So she did.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” Roxanne asked.
“I never doubted,” Helleen said.
Jennaca shared her smug grin and added, “Neither did I.”
“So, um, why would she wonder?” Roxanne asked.
John looked at her. “Roxanne, my Mistress is the most powerful Succubus to have ever existed.”
Zynga confirmed his statement with a nod.
“She’s a demon,” he continued. “And I’m her champion.”
Roxanne’s eyes widened. Her lips parted in a gasp. “But… you… but…”
“He’s not a demon,” Helleen said and turned to take her sister’s hands in hers. “Master is a good man. He cares about people and… and… well, he would never be like these creatures attacking us.”
“These aren’t demons,” John said. “In fact… I’d like to see one now that we’ve killed a few.”
“Killed more like a dozen of them,” Jennaca said.
John stared at her. “That many?”
“And no villagers lost?”
Jennaca winced. “Two. Dean, the mayor, lost his foot and another man, Easton, lost a couple of fingers. Oh, and Matthew…he lost an eye and his arm at the elbow. Left arm, so he can still fight.”
John winced.
“See,” Helleen told her sister. “If John was a bad person, he wouldn’t be upset about the villagers dying.”
Roxanne nodded slowly. “I… ok, yes, I suppose you’re right. But how is that possible? How can you serve a demon and not be like them?”
“It’s convenient to think of infernal beings as out to wreak havoc, sew discord, and champion evil purely for the sake of it,” John said. “The truth is, they are as varied as the people of this world. They all crave power, but beyond that constant there is little they share. My– our Mistress– has considerable power. Naturally, she wants more and has plans in motion to get it. Plans I am not privy to, I should add.
“However, her cornerstones of power involve lust and, well… lust. Sin too, I suppose, but mostly the lustful and hedonistic sort.”
“Decadence excites her too,” Zynga pointed out.
John smirked. “Yes, well, my job is to bring her power, and I gain that power by, ahem, sleeping around.”
Roxanne’s mouth fell open a little wider.
“Every time I lay with a woman I take some power from her.”
“I’ve heard of a succubus draining a man dry… are you going to kill my sister?”
John winced. He hesitated instead of reacting and shouting out that he’d never do such a thing when he was reminded of Little Red. The same soul he still nurtured and protected safely inside of him. “I will never harm her,” John vowed. “And the only time I would ever kill her would be if that was a mercy on her that saved her from greater peril.”
“That’s… not encouraging,” Roxanne said as she tried to make sense of his words.
Helleen smiled. “Oh, it’s a very good thing. He means if I were being tortured or eaten alive or having some real demon feasting on my soul, he’d spare me the agony.”
“Yay?” Roxanne said with a wince. “I’d rather it didn’t come to that though.”
“Well, of course!” John chuckled. “None of us wants that, least of all me. But it is my responsibility to take care of those I care for. Those I am committed to.”
“Committed to?” Roxanne asked.
Helleen grinned. “I told you, we struck a deal. A contract.”
“Sweet Leander, I didn’t…. you really meant you made a deal with a demon? Well, John, who isn’t a demon but serves one. And… do those deals work? Are they binding?”
John held out his hands to slow her down. He nodded. “Yes, they are binding and yes, Helleen and I have struck an accord. For a year, unless we both with it to go longer, she is bound to me and I am bound to her.”
“Ahem,” Jennaca cleared her throat. “He’s been bound to me for a while now.”
John chuckled. “I am. Jennaca and I kind of stumbled into it but, well, we have no regrets.”
“Damn right we don’t,” Jennaca said.
“Wow,” Roxanne said. “I need to think– wait, what about Matthew? The show? You’re not going to travel with us, are you John?”
John winced. “I doubt that very much. When we’re done here I’m not sure what I’ll do, but it must be something I can use to further Mistress’s goals.”
Roxanne nodded and looked at her sister. “You’re going to leave with him, aren’t you?”
Helleen bit her lip and nodded.
Roxanne sighed. She pulled her hands out of Helleen’s and said. “I need to speak with Artesia.”
Helleen’s face fell. “Wh– why?”
“I need her to train me better on how to handle myself in a real fight. All I know is show moves and fighting defensively,” Roxanne said.
Helleen’s face brightened.
“You want to come with us too?” Jennaca asked.
“Of course,” Roxanne said. “I won’t leave my sister… or let her leave me, in this case. And I’m not about to let her have that cock to herself when I had it first!”
Zynga cackled while Jennaca and Helleen’s mouths fell open. Jennaca recovered first and said, “Actually, I had it before either of you. Just, you know, for the record.”
John shook his head. “There’s enough to go around… Roxanne, that’s something we’ll need to decide between us. You are welcome to join us, of course, but whether you travel with me as a companion or as one of my bonded we’ll need to decide.”
“There is more than enough to go around,” Helleen agreed. She held her hand just below her sternum and winked at Roxanne.
Zynga laughed louder.
“Come on, I want to see how the town is faring… how long has it been, anyhow?” John asked as he threw back the sheet and exposed himself.
“It’s nearing mid day,” Jennaca said while handing him his robe. “I found this out there. Brought your spear back too.”
“Don’t know what I’d do without you,” John told her.
Jennaca beamed while he dressed. They led him out of the bedroom and across the house and out the door. John took in his surroundings and saw they were next to the smithy. He’d been put up in Brodrick’s house. He looked around and saw signs of torn up earth and, at the outer edges of town glimpsed trenches filled with sharpened sticks being constructed. He also saw a dirty path in the grass where it looked like a great many animals had been dragged.
The villagers stopped working as they saw him and watched as the women led him after the bloody path to where a pile of demons had been gathered on top of dried grass and cut branches.
“Why is everyone staring at me?” John asked.
“Same reason the women are all blushing,” Zynga happily replied.
John’s eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
“Don’t you remember, Helleen dragged you into town in naught but your boots and that medallion,” Jennaca said.
John glanced down at himself. He’d been naked and the entire town had seen him… or most of them. He shook his head and sighed.
Zynga’s grin stretched wider as she said, “After what they saw you’ll be lucky if you can leave Highpass with only the four of us and Artesia!”
THE END OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN