Monsters and Maidens (001 & 002)(Book 2)

[BOOK 1][BOOK1 FINAL CHAPTER][NEXT]

[Book 2 001] [Raid]

“If someone moves, you will find out how the lady looks inside out!”

The Sorceress spat the words with furious disdain, stomping out of the crowd. With a wave of her crooked staff, purple elemental chains shot out, snapping out towards the finely dressed human atop the podium.

By the time the villagers reacted, it was too late. The Sorceress had snatched the prized trophy, leaving the human shrouded in magical binds, wriggling in the mud, desperately trying to escape.

The bandit leader followed in the script, inwardly sneering at the shock that had rooted the bumpkins in place. She leapt on the creaky podium the human had previously occupied. All attention was on her and the threads of power connecting her staff to the human woman.

“Do not move!” The magic-wielding maiden announced, her weapon pointed at her captive, her hand at the approaching guards. They were Doggirls mostly, and they would pose no threat to her while she held the village head captive.

To remind them of this, and with barely a thought, power crackled through her staff and into the human woman, tightening the ephemeral chains as they dug into flesh. They drove the air out of the hostage and left the human as nothing more than a wheezing bag of useless space.

Just like that, the maiden guards became as still as if they were the ones that had been chained up. It was a wonderful thing, the bond. But things needed to move. The Sorceress put the local militia and turned to the villagers.

It was easy to see how her helpers had made their way through the justifiably distracted crowd.

“The festivities have ended!”

That was the signal.

The bandits moved like clockwork. A hand would yank the nearest human’s head back and they would kick their legs out from behind, forcing them to their knees. Each bandit would then bring their knife against the human’s throat. It was a dance, one where the humans had no say in their participation, and where the maidens would be rendered helpless out of fear of their humans coming to harm.

“If any of you move, they all die!” The Sorceress intoned. It’d been a stroke of genius. The bandit leader laughed. No one would’ve believed her if she’d claimed she’d gained control of an entire village with just a couple dozen Mousegirls.

The crowd frothed, yet the moment any of them tried to move, the others would restrain them the moment the daggers pressed just hard enough to draw blood. The humans tried to fight, to escape, even to shout out commands. But humans were humans, and as weak as Mousegirls were, they were still maidens.

“Now step back!” the bandit leader commanded. “Move away from your humans or they will not make it to the end of the day!”

The effect her words had was more powerful than any spell she could’ve wielded. The crowd simmered in compliance, furious reluctance as they backed away from the hostages, dragging their feet, snarling, growling, barking, yowling, but obedient. And that was all she needed.

The Sorceress raised her staff to the vibrant blue sky, unleashing a minor explosion that left a cloud of white, glittering smoke. The entire crowd of maidens twitched as one, the shock nearly driving them to pounce into action. The instant they realized it had not been an attack but a trick, they turned to glare at the bandit leader.

She smirked. “Humans to the right, maidens to the left. Anyone tries to be a hero, and their human gets a new breathing hole… or gets scattered all over the village square.” Her bandits might not have numbered enough to get to all the humans, but it had been enough.

She made a point of charging the next shot. Her raven hair whipped in an unseen tornado of power, the tip of her staff ready for an aimed explosive release. She pointed at the captive humans, their numbers only a fraction of that of the maidens.

The glares intensified, focusing on her. That was exactly the point. Keep them focused on her and not looking for a way out. The collective hesitation drove each individual into inaction.

“Do not blame me, blame your King for leaving you to fend for yourselves the moment the feral rush came.” The Sorceress sneered, yanking on the chains and forcing the captive to roll to the foot of the podium. “Should’ve sent this little thing in exchange for some knights. Human women are so rare, after all.”

As the distraction and ringleader, it was her job to handle the crowd, to render them blind to how their chances of resistance became slimmer with every breath they took. It made it easier for the rest of the gang to slip into view from amongst the houses in the village. And the more the locals seethed and glared, the further away they would be from being able to rescue their humans.

With any luck, they’d only need to kill a handful of them before they left with their bags full and some new slaves to trade away.

“Boss!”

That was the signal of someone stepping up.

She inwardly sighed. There were always some brave idiots wanting to make a point.

The Sorceress charged her reactive barriers as she mentally went through the list of names they’d scouted out as the likeliest troublemakers. Would it be the village leader’s sister, the Harpy? The Elf in charge of the farmers? She hoped it wasn’t some kit, thinking they had some big boots they had to fit into.

Killing children always left her with an unpleasant taste.

Her inner musings nearly made her miss one of her stronger maidens turn into a shrieking meteor. The Hound flew through the village square as if gifted with wings, crashing through the wall of a nearby house.

A plume of dust rose from the impact, and no sounds followed from within.

There was an abrupt silence, and the Sorceress instantly knew this was no courageous bitch with an overblown ego.

The maiden that had attacked the bandit was a wild creature of power and muscle that loomed nearly three meters in height. Deathly white hair, predatory feline blue eyes, and a body built for violently tearing things limb from limb. White fur covered the maiden’s arms and legs, and wickedly sharp alabaster claws tipped every digit.

“No. Touch. Rick.” The feline creature growled with the force of a rumbling mountain, long silver striped tail angrily lashing back and forth.

If the simplified words hadn’t been clue enough, the black collar upon the feline’s throat marked her as feralborn. For all the Sorceress’ genius, for the life of her, she just could not imagine how a human could survive encountering such a creature while at their most savage, let alone bond with them and break the feral curse.

Not without a small army, one clearly not present.

And yet there was a human right there, almost forgotten and clearly ignorable as he stood next to the maiden. The bandit leader focused on this ‘Rick’ fellow, trying to get the measure of him. He was a man who would’ve been handsome had he been allowed to rest and freshen up. Unfortunately for him, he looked like he’d spent the past month being dragged through every bush, tree, and river in the kingdom. Yet despite the bags under his eyes and slumped shoulders, there was a calmness to him the Sorceress could not understand.

He was surrounded by bandits, any of which could kill him. Yet he was no more tense than if he’d been taking a stroll.

“Monica…” the man whispered, the weariness dripping through every syllable. “I told you to hold back.”

The feline pouted, deflating slightly and turning to look at him in… concern? “Bad maiden not dead. Only sleeping. Held back.”

He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Not the point. You broke the house, the locals won’t-.”

“You!” The Sorceress called out, snapping back to action. “Tell your monster to let herself be chained or I’ll burn your village leader to a crisp!”

Even if the feline was feralborn, they were all taught to obey their partner. And humans always cared about their kind above all others.

Still, out of all the blunders and all the fuck-ups, the worst mistake one could make was not knowing who the strongest bitch around was. Someone’s head would roll for having missed this. If the situation couldn’t fall back under control…

The human looked at the wriggling worm of a woman and shrugged. “Well-.”

“Listen to her, my love! Human blood must not spill!” The overly nasal and shrill voice grated against the Sorceress’ soul.

It was a woman that had stumbled her way out of the crowd of human captives. The face was foreign; her face sculpted out of symmetrical sharp angles and capped with disapproving rosy lips. Her hair was a waterfall, running down her shoulders and framing the profound abyss within her cleavage. It was a woman who’d have fit in finely dressed amongst nobles, or entirely naked within the cheapest whorehouse.

Yet the woman was here, in a dusty hamlet, wearing a crude, cheap wool dress that held onto her lustful body with shame. The Sorceress idly considered tearing the clothes away, if only to relieve them of the sin of staining such perfect curves.

The bandit leader caught herself before she forgot her circumstances further. The human woman was such a powerful distraction the Sorceress would have suspected her to be a maiden.

“Please have mercy!” The woman proclaimed, clasping her hands together and kneeling half-way between the humans and the Sorceress. The blue-haired beauty wore no enchanted collar, and her eyes shone with none of the telltale signs of a maiden fighting against the feral curse.

This could only be a human.

And yet, could she truly be this dumb? Normally, the bandit leader would’ve ignored her. She had the village head under her boot, after all. But that feralborn maiden had stilled the moment this woman had stepped out. Would this aid her in suppressing the monster? A quick glance confirmed the other villagers were tense but complying, most of them eyeing the humans. The bandits closest to the humans were not moving an inch away from the hostages. The others were slowly circling behind the newest threat.

If a fight broke out, the entire hamlet was sure to turn into a bloodbath. She and her maidens would win, but how many would she lose? It could very well prove to be a crippling blow for her.

That sealed her choice.

“Better do what she says.” The bandit leader aimed the charged shot at the blue-haired woman. “Or your wife will get to be in several places at the same time.” The Sorceress kicked away the village leader for one of her maidens to handle.

The feline had locked her gaze with the bandit leader’s, a shiver ran down the Sorceress’ spine. But if the maiden didn’t attack, that would be enough.

“She’s not his wife!” A voice called out from the group of gathered local maidens.

Annoyed, the Sorceress prepared to command silence.

In the split second she’d turned away from the feralborn monster, her shields flared out and shrieked under the strain of the blow that would’ve torn her body to pieces. The taste of static lingered in the air, the shields flared again, and this time they cracked.

Acting on instinct, the Sorceress aimed her charged shot towards the source of danger, putting as much thrusting force into it as she could. The instant she realized it was the feline, she shifted her aim towards the human and let loose.

It was exactly the right move to make. The feline recognized the threat and jumped to block it with the same impossible speed with which she’d reached the Sorceress. The impact may or may not have hurt the monster, but the power within it was enough to blast her off nearly all the way back to the human’s side.

The exchange had happened so quickly there was still dust settling from the spot the feline had burst into her attack. The Sorceress startled as her thoughts caught up to her. She’d seen Tigresses fight and none had moved with such speed and brutal power. Where had this freak come from!?

If she’d not prepared her shields, she’d likely be dead right now.

But that was the difference between a feralborn oaf and a genius like her. Now that she knew what the maiden was capable of, she would not underestimate her. She kept her staff aimed directly at the human, ignoring the unnerving feeling of just how calm the man remained throughout.

There was no need to bother aiming at anything else. No bonded maiden could ever allow their human partner to die. It was as imperative to maidens as breathing. Even now, the Sorceress felt a trickle of concern for the slave they’d stashed away at the edge of the village.

“I warned you.” She growled under her breath.

While her staff was still trained on the human, she used her free hand to aim at the human woman. The dumb lover. The Sorceress let loose a raw blast of elemental fire, quickly moving to strengthen her shields. Another attack would come, she was sure.

Yet nothing happened. The feline tilted her head in apparent confusion and the human… hadn’t even twitched.

It wasn’t until the Sorceress realized she’d never heard the human woman scream that she felt a feverishly hot hand falling onto her shoulder. “It’s really rude to ignore a woman like that.” The voice whispered into the Sorceress’ ear. Heat spread from the point of contact like burning oil, her whole person seizing up in sudden stiffness. The fingers danced lightly up the Sorceress’ shoulder until they wrapped around her throat. “You really hurt my feelings there, not even looking me in the eye…”

Her body was lifted off the ground like she weighed nothing. Her eyes fixed on the golden gaze of the blue-haired woman. She tried to summon her power, but the slick heat running through her body blocked any attempt to pool energy.

“Can’t let you try any more of your tricks.” A cruel smirk spread across the blue-haired maiden’s perfect lips, fingers tightening and choking the air out of the Sorceress.

The bandit leader grasped fruitlessly at the arm, holding her in the air. It was as if her own arms were loose strings, unable to summon any strength. Her eyes bulged further, lungs burning with the strain.

Where were her maidens? Why weren’t they attacking this bitch? But she caught sight of it, a spear being chucked and bouncing off the perfect skin as if it had hit a stone wall.

“MINE!”

Blessed air exploded into the Sorceress’ lungs. She heaved, the heat suddenly gone, but her body left like a puppet without strings, weakened beyond measure. Her knees hit the ground, her brain whirled, confusion, shock. She couldn’t question how or why, but she had to move, fight, get the upper hand back.

The white furry backhand caught her squarely in the shoulder. The world turned into a blur of whirlwind motion. She’d flown across the village square like a doll that a petulant child had tossed aside.

With ragged breaths, the Sorceress challenged the onslaught of pain. But even as she fought to get back up to her feet, she could only stare in bewilderment as the feline clawed at the blue-haired maiden. “You stupid cat!” the other one declared, seething, blocking the claws that should’ve gouged her arms into ribbons and merely getting light scratches instead.

“Rick said my turn!” The feline replied.

“Know your damned place!” Came the response.

The bandit leader hadn’t just been thrown around and toyed with. She was being ignored. But she wasn’t about to distract the two idiots dunking it out with one another. All she would need to concern herself with would be the human. Surely he was the key to solve this quickly. By now, the rest of the gang should have surely gotten hold of him.

But as the world stopped spinning, she saw her maidens were scattering into the wind, shrieking in terror as if chased by the Royal Knights. Even some villagers were desperately scrambling to escape.

The source of the terror was a singular figure, one standing next to the origin of all her troubles. It was undoubtedly another maiden. She wore a very heavy hooded cape, her features hidden within the darkness of the dull brown cloth. The leader of the bandits sensed the influence of dark elemental energy spreading through the village square like an oil stain.

She flinched as the hooded figure turned its focus her way. There were glowing red eyes underneath the hood. Panic, horror, and dread washed over every part of the Sorceress’ sore body.

But she was not some bumpkin farmer raised in the ass end of the kingdom. The maidens that had trained her did far worse things. This was an ability, one only useful against the feebleminded. It took her only a bit of effort to shatter its effects. The recoil alone made the hooded figure stumble back several steps and nearly fall.

A weakling.

“Enough of this!” the Sorceress proclaimed, raising her staff. The elemental energy coalesced into a sphere of violent crimson, purple flames licking at the edges as the air simmered with impossible heat.

With a flick, the power shot at the human.

“Rick!”

“No!”

Four voices screamed out in unison.

With no moment to spare, the spellcaster turned to her two opponents, charging her next attack as heavily as she could push it. With the human dead, their bonds must have snapped. That alone should give her room to breathe while the maidens handled the backlash.

She took aim at the blue-haired one. The brute she could handle easily, but the other one had hampered her powers she could not afford to ignore. But the maiden was durable, so that left her with only one option.

The binding spell shot out, dozens of ethereal chains wrapping the curvaceous maiden in a shower of sparks. Her target rolled across the ground in sudden panic, trying to fight off the spell as it quickly wrapped more and more around her body.

Something caught the Sorceress’ attention. Two shrunken bat-like wings that innocuously lay upon the maiden’s back, now revealed thanks to the torn clothes. “A Succubus!?” What was one doing here!? The kingdom had a kill-on-sight bounty on the breed! “Sister, I am fighting against the kingdom! Help us!”

“I’m not helping anyone but myself!” With a snarl, the Succubus’ body glowed crimson, the chains began sizzling as the spell started crumbling far faster than it should have.

The bandit leader was now certain they’d inadvertently stepped into a Dragoness’ lair.

She could not face a Succubus, it was the most horrible matchup imaginable. The charmer’s power relied on subverting their target’s elemental energy. Even her gang could pose a threat. The Sorceress had heard of how the weak-willed could easily fall under the control of the charmer.

And that was ignoring the monster.

At least the feline beast was preoccupied with fighting off the bandits from whatever remained of the human. Each swipe would down whoever had dared to get close.

She realized the only solution was to retreat, now before the villagers figured out they had the advantage and took it. Now while she-.

“Die, you traitorous whore.”

Pain exploded from the Sorceress’ side, a knife sliding between her ribs like an arrow. She stumbled, turning to face the attacker, breath escaping her in a gasp. She met the eyes of a violently pink-haired maiden with wild purple eyes. The gaze of a woman that held the screams inside rather than letting them out. Untold fury burned within the eyes of the maiden that by any other measure would’ve been forgettable and just one more face in the crowd.

The Sorceress stumbled a step, trying to reel. The pink-haired one lurched.

The knife slid straight back into her chest. A thread of blood followed it as it pulled out and then struck back inside. Everything moved so slowly, again and again, each strike like the blow of a Giantess, sewing her chest with holes. Green light coated the… scalpel?

Panic pushed through the confusion and shock. With not enough focus to prepare a spell, her staff unleashed a burst of raw, uncontrolled elemental power. The explosion tore the pink-haired maiden away from her, and the Sorceress’ instinct to heal herself was immediately superseded by experience.

With trembling, bloodied fingers, she reached into her belt.

She unleashed the contained teleport spell before anyone else could get to her and finish the job.

The world blurred, and she collapsed onto the roof of one of the nearby houses. “Not today.” She wheezed out the words, lungs screaming in agony. The Sorceress struggled to cast the healing spell. Her magic slipped through her fingers like water, and she fought to give it the proper shape.

The flickering light and relief that washed over her told her of her success. Quickly, she focused on the wounds on her chest before she drowned in her own blood.

Flesh knitting itself back together screamed in sensation and pain, and she could do nothing but clench her teeth to suppress the screams. She was no healer. This was not her specialty. But there was no other option.

Every moment was a fight that she was so very close to losing. The roof tiles around her were becoming blurred, the blue sky above spinning slowly, lifeblood pooling and dripping down against the rough masonry.

A shadow covered half the sky, obscuring the sun.

The red-eyed hooded figure, shaking like a leaf. The pale maiden’s body was half-burnt, the tattered cape billowing in the wind, revealing the deep burns covering nearly every inch of exposed skin. She looked upon the prone and bleeding Sorceress with hunger, inhaling the scent of blood, pupils fully dilated.

The maiden licked her lips and opened her mouth, fangs gleamed against the sunlight.

The Sorceress idly wondered if the human had finally died and the maiden had fallen entirely to the feral curse from the shock alone.

With a wheeze, she pulled her energy; the blood proving a better conduit than her bare palm. She unleashed every bit she had left within her in another desperate blast. Even half-dead and nearly empty, it proved an effective task, and she got to watch the maiden stumble and fall from the slanted tile roof, screaming, barely able to slow the crash.

The Sorceress coughed and laughed in triumph, though it was not lost to her how the human had been bonded to not just a Succubus and that monstrous feline, but a vampiric Fledgling as well.

No matter, he was dead. Even if she lost everyone from her gang today, she would rebuild. She would not let herself die in some tiny forgettable village.

With no elemental energy left to her name, the Sorceress tried to draw what she could from the environment. She channeled the scraps of power into continuing a now far weaker healing spell.

With a gasp, she felt her lungs finally close. She coughed, spitting blood. Still bleeding, but at least not about to die as quickly.

She turned to look down at the village square.

Disbelief washed over her.

The male was alive.

He looked as nearly dead as she was, but there was a maiden right next to him tending to his wounds. The pink-haired bitch, it clicked, it was a Rapha, a maiden known for their healing prowess. Anger boiled inside the Sorceress.

She hammered her hand against the roof. No! She couldn’t let them live. But she could do nothing, not like this. She had to live, survive, and inform the others, call for help and finish this human off before he could disrupt their plans further.

The heavy thud interrupted her thoughts.

The frigid chill of death washed over the Sorceress. She looked over her shoulders and found the icy glare of the feralborn maiden as she loomed over the bloodied bandit leader.

“No…” the spellcaster wheezed. “No, please, no!”

A white claw reached down with a slow but unshakeable strength. The feline gripped the Sorceress’ neck, pulling her up into the air, so they were level with one another, so that the bandit leader could stare into a furious snarl murderous beast.

“No. Hurt. Rick.”

With the maiden’s feet dangling from the air, the feline squeezed. In that final moment, she recognized the overgrown fangs, the oversized claws, the deep stripes. This was no mere Tigress but a Sabertooth.

The Sorceress did not even feel her vertebra shatter.

Her corpse was dropped unceremoniously, rolling off the roof with a wet thud.

The Sabertooth looked into the village square. She smelled the blood, fear, anger, and she inhaled deeply, pooling her power into her gut and lungs. Every fiber of her being tensed and she let out an earth-shaking roar.

The fighting stopped dead. Villagers and bandits alike looked up at the maiden in horror.

The bandits were the first to react. They ran.

***

***

Eva raised her head from the still warm corpse of the Sorceress. She cleaned the blood from her lips, fighting against the smooth, bittersweet taste. The maiden had been strong, and now that she’d drank from her, Eva felt her sanity returning.

With it came disgust, but it was more a gesture of propriety than a genuine emotion. Then came hate at herself for succumbing to the thirst again. Yet she could not deny it had been enough sustenance for her wounds to start healing themselves; the burns were receding and her chalky white skin itched.

A shiver ran through her, the sensation of eyes focusing upon her. From the comforting shade the house provided, she peeked at the source: Rick.

The man sat ragged, bruised, and slightly burnt, hurt but not in immediate danger. His tired and half focused eyes were on her as if he could see exactly where she was, even while she hid in the shadows.

The bond had saved him, pushed her to cover him from the worst of the attack faster than she would’ve otherwise been able to react.

Now free of the protective compulsion, bile climbed up her throat. Again, her instincts had gotten the better of her. The hand of the foulest creatures this world had ever seen had reduced her, the former scion of Bavtha, to the form of a maiden.

Trapped inside a body that wasn’t her own, pulled every which way by desires that were just as foreign.

Within her, the Fledgling instincts salivated at the fear and blood that lingered in the air, a delicious meal ready to be feasted upon until she’d burst. The maiden instincts paid close attention to Rick, the one that was bonded to her, a treasure within her pocket, one under constant threat of being stolen. And in the center of it all was what little remained of her humanity, fighting against what she knew was an impossible war.

There were ways for a human to be turned into a maiden, but not the other way around. The only future for her was one of revenge.

Yet, looking at Rick, she could only hesitate. A human able to bond without the collars? Learning this had shocked her beyond measure. An impossible thing.

Eva felt like the first time she’d laid eyes upon a pure elemental dragonstone. The crafting item was infamous for its volatility. Used properly, it would create enchantments of incredible power.

But that same source of wonders could bring unparalleled ruin if one made the tiniest mistake.

And here she stood, with the carving knife, hands shaking in fury.

[Book 2 002] [Road]

Rick Cross sat across from the campfire, looking down at the poorly drawn scribbles that, to anyone who’d grown up without the wonders of GPS technology, might have passed for something that was good enough. It had the names of the larger settlements and some text pointing at landmarks that made for useful reference points.

Unfortunately, the thing was clearly out of proportion. Wildly so. The map maker had prioritized putting down the landmarks and not bothering to show the distances. Or even whether there were roads.

To Rick, the map looked no different to the map you’d quickly put on a napkin to give someone directions. That thought brought him an odd sense of nostalgia, of restaurants and cars and fast food.

To a world he had no plans to return to.

“You still looking at that thing?” Kiara asked. The Succubus hovered to look over his shoulder, pressing her warm body against his back.

“We have nothing better to guide us.” He shooed her off, eyeing her suspiciously as she smirked. “You know something.”

“I know a lot of things.”

“That happens when you’re a two-hundred-year-old hag.” Dia pipped up, not looking away from carefully counting the rations and checking the inventory. It was the Rapha’s self-assigned job to ensure everyone ate healthily. Or at least Rick, what with two of the four maidens in the group having a more… exotic list of nutritional needs.

The Succubus didn’t even react to the jab, shrugging her shoulders, blue hair swinging in the hot summer breeze. “I was going to comment that I’d gathered some information at our last stop, but maybe my wisdom is not wanted.”

“We spent three hours in that village before they kicked us out. We spent two of those hunting bandits.” Rick looked at her, incredulous. “You were with us almost all of that time. How did you get anything from them?”

“A maiden has her secrets.” Kiara replied, idly twirling a lock of hair. “So are you interested, or…?”

Folding and pocketing the map, Rick let out a sigh, ignoring the little bundle of annoyance that was forming at the base of his neck. “Let’s have it.”

“The feral rush started from the east and started moving south shortly before reaching here. What hit these parts was only the stragglers.”

And yet, they’d passed several villages that had been reduced to rubble and corpses.

Rick pondered on this.

Two feral rushes had hit the southern parts of the kingdom within the past six months. A storm had triggered the first shortly after he’d arrived in this world. Intense storms had caused the massive landslides down the foot of the mountains at the eastern edge of the kingdom, and the feral maidens had been displaced, triggering a domino effect.

“Wait, from the east?” He frowned again, using a stick to draw a crude vertical squiggly line on the dry dirt. They represented the Snowy Peaks mountain-range, the small circle he drew in the middle being the village of Astunes. It was roughly the spot he and the others from his world landed on. He then drew a horizontal line to the left, west, to the city of Balet, and then south to their relative current location. “This means there’s been two feral rushes coming from the same place.”

“It’s not uncommon.” Dia answered. “After a rush, the ferals often start killing one another once the resources are depleted. Those that remain are usually highly aggressive and powerful, and they start violently hunting in larger territories. This can trigger a second, bigger rush as the weaker ferals run away.”

“If you want to know more about violent predators, ask the cat.” Kiara said with a snort, rolling her eyes and pointing over her shoulder at Monica.

The Sabertooth was currently preoccupied in sharpening her claws, ears perked at the pointed thumb. She glared at Kiara. “Fat-bat-butt lies.”

Rick didn’t hold back the grin. “She was saying you were strong.”

She blinked, then returned the grin. “Monica strong, but fat-bat-butt still liar.”

“Are you done with your little game?” Kiara kicked the dirt, erasing the drawings Rick had made. “If you want to reach Sinco, then we’d have to hurry before the ferals run out of the easy food and they turn on each other. I doubt even the damn brute would be of much use then.”

“There might be nothing left if the rush is bad enough. It would be better to head west.” Eva spoke for the first time since leaving the village.

The Fledgling had been pretending to nap under the shade of a nearby tree. Rick was slightly impressed. He hadn’t felt her attention on him through the bond. Though maybe it was to be expected. He'd broken her out of the feral state only a week ago. The bond was likely still weak.

“And it’s just pure coincidence that heading west gets us to the dead lands, right? The place where there are rumors of Vampire lords?” Dia declared, crossing her arms and glaring. “Sinco is the better place. They are fortified and have stood for hundreds of years against the feral onslaught with barely any help from the kingdom.”

“I’ll admit she has the right of it,” the Succubus said.

Rick blinked with a bit of surprise. Even Dia was shocked at the proclamation. “What’s in it for you in Sinco?” He asked.

“You seek Sinco as a place to set roots, no? It’s to my understanding they are a small mining city. They are in the middle of a feral rush, with the kingdom unable to send reinforcements.” Kiara yawned, rolling her eyes. “It would be a perfect opportunity to garner fame, maybe even a position of influence.” She shot a glare at Eva. “Besides, there would be plenty of… meals for our cute little blood-sucker.”

“Creatures like you are not welcome in our kingdom.” The Fledgling spoke with acid in her words. “And the moment you try anything, I will see to your execution.”

Dia quickly raised her arm. “I volunteer to help with that.”

Monica glanced at the pink-haired Rapha for a moment before raising her own paw. “Food time?”

With a dramatic snap of her fingers, Kiara’s bat-like wings and horns grew. “All you weaklings can do is bark.” With those parting words, she took to the sky.

Rick put bets she’d gone to scout the area before it got too dark. Then again, it was also likely she’d gone to find some ferals to make a snack out of. With the rush this close to them, the Succubus couldn’t really take her meals out of them. Or, to be more accurate, he doubted they could risk either Monica or Dia not being at their best.

“I still think it’s best to go to Sinco. Though I am definitely not going to play politics.” He finally commented once he’d sensed the maiden was no longer within hearing-range.

“We could kill her in her sleep and claim the bounty.” Eva said.

“And you don’t get a say in things.” Rick added, pointedly glaring at the Fledgling. “As far as you’re concerned, the moment we get to Sinco, we drop you off on the hands of the first willing humans and our business is over.”

Eva looked like she might answer, but shook her head and looked away.

“Speaking of Succubus murder.” Dia broke the silence. “As the resident medical expert, I can confirm that there is no such thing as a maiden wholly devoid of the need for sleep. Even the extreme cases sleep at least an hour a day.” She pointed at the sky and drew circles over her head. “It’s likely why some of her little scouting missions take so long.”

“You’re claiming she’d rather sleep where there could be ferals?”

“I doubt anything short of Monica would be able to both catch her by surprise and harm her. I’ve been trying to figure out some way to get around her durability, I might if-.”

“I’m not sure if I should be concerned.”

“It is purely to be able to heal her. Of course, if she ever got seriously hurt, I might need to make incisions.” The innocent little smile Dia put out was slightly chilling. Rick just shook his head. “Maybe repeatedly, in the heart and kidneys. It’s preventative medicine to protect my human from developing back-stabbed-itis.”

Rick had to groan inwardly. He understood her concern. Kiara was no angel, but it was also clear the Rapha was still working under several very powerful cultural preconceptions. The same Eva appeared to share.

“I didn’t miss that bit where you jumped the bandit leader.” He changed the subject, watching her immediately shrink and turn her gaze down at the food she was heating over the fire.

“She hurt you.” She was petulant.

“And had you gotten hurt, who would’ve put me back together?”

She didn’t contest the point. “At least it wasn’t as much of a fuckup as Monica.”

“Monica do good, Kiara cheat and lie and take Monica prey.”

The feline hadn’t even bothered to look up from her obsidian claws. The words caught Dia by surprise, but it made Rick frown. Nowadays, it was hard to measure how much she could understand. “I think we’ve been putting off your reading lessons for too long.”

“You intend to teach the feralborn mutt how to read?” Eva spoke with disbelief, sneering.

The tone was caught instantly by Monica. The Sabertooth snapped the totality of her blue-eyed focus upon the Fledgling, letting out a bloodcurdling growl, hackles rising and claws glinting menacingly under the evening sun.

And the only thing Eva could do was turn several shades paler than she already was. She froze on the spot and flattened herself against the tree trunk as Monica approached, one step at a time, the growling sound intensifying.

“Stop her!” Eva declared in a shrill voice.

“I think you should apologize.” Was all he’d replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

He knew Monica was mostly just making a point of asserting dominance. Despite how much bloodthirst she was projecting, he could feel through the bond the Sabertooth wasn’t really interested in doing much more than just scaring someone she deemed too weak to pose any serious threat.

It was the exact reason Monica tolerated jabs from Kiara; she saw the Succubus as someone strong enough to merit a moment of pause and consideration. A bully’s perspective, but not something he was going to stop when it was convenient. He’d learnt the hard way that he who has the biggest stick makes the rules, out here in the wilderness more than anywhere else. This was not the world he’d been born into, and that gap in perspective had nearly cost him Monica.

So he watched carefully as Eva went from stiff to shaking, shrinking further and further as Monica stepped closer and closer. Wide red eyes looked up in growing concern, her focus darting at Rick and then back at the Sabertooth, until…

“I’m sorry!” She winced, raising her arms over her head and practically curling into a ball.

Monica leaned closer, fangs large, and the snarl plastered over her face. “Why. Sorry?” She declared with the same tone Rick used when admonishing her. Though with several extra layers of deadly threat weaved into it.

“For… for…”

“For implying she’s stupid.” Rick provided.

“That! That!” Eva nodded enthusiastically. “Sorry! You’re not stupid!”

After a moment of pause, Monica stopped the growling, looking over the Fledgling.

“Good Eva.”

She patted the maiden’s head; the threat evaporating like it was never there. The feline just turned away from the sweating young woman and approached Rick, ignoring the anger that boiled through those ruby red eyes and landing her well toned posterior firmly on the ground next to him.

Without missing a beat, she raised him from the spot and plopped him onto her lap, wrapping her arms around him and laying her head against his shoulder. “Teach time.” She proclaimed, rubbing her cheek against his own. “Then food.”

“And then more teaching.” She pouted at his proclamation, but it was nothing a little ear scratching couldn’t solve.

Inwardly, Rick was weighing the options the future held. On the one hand, there was the road to Sinco and the dangers that would imply. But there were other pressing concerns. The performance against the bandits, though successful, had highlighted several flaws in how the team operated.

Mainly, that they didn’t operate as a team.

Eva’s case was understandable. He was aware she’d been human prior to being turned, likely by Vampires if Dia’s comment was anything to go by, and then forced to go feral. And there was very little else he knew about her past, not that she looked interested in sharing, nor him in prying.

Once he loaded her off to someone else, that’d be that.

But the genuine concern was Kiara and Monica. They were the powerhouses of the group, and he couldn’t let their egos crash again the way it had during the last fight. And he’d taken several needless, stupid risks as well, ones he'd have to learn from.

Yesterday he nearly got killed. He couldn’t trust their luck would hold next time.

He was no fighter, but he needed to think like one.

“Yeah, we’ll go to Sinco.” He reaffirmed, drawing some words for Monica to read out.

“Why? Why Sinco?”

Eva spoke the word cautiously. The glare had been studiously repressed, leaving behind the impassive look of someone who’d practiced the stony expression their whole life. But Rick could still sense it, vaguely, that underlying anger at the humiliation she’d just experienced at the hands of Monica.

“Because they have shiny rocks.” He chuckled.

The chemist in him had marveled at the elemental stones and their ability to hold the strange supernatural energies maidens wielded. Sinco was a source of such rocks, and as good a place as any to settle.

What went unsaid was that, if it was a place at the very edge of where the kingdom’s arm could reach, it would mean Monica and Kiara would be among the biggest sticks around.

And as the guy with one enormous stick, he had one rule he intended to enforce: He would not put up with anyone else’s bullshit.

[BOOK 1][BOOK 1 FINAL CHAPTER][NEXT]

ANOUNCEMENT:

Yes, there was a minor time-skip (for the sake of DRAMA!). 

As mentioned before, the goal of Volume 4 onward will be to streamline the story so that it is more Rick and Rick-adjacent. I will keep alternate PoV's to a minimum if not immediately relevant to Rick (it will be bonus content that I'll pop out every now and then).

The new itinerary/rhythm will be 2 chapters a week of 2K+ words each. My previous approach of 5 chapters a week is just untenable when I want to polish the narrative and improve on plotting/pacing.

Which leads me to the second part.

I have wrapped volumes 1 to 3 up for good, and I will call them "Book 1" henceforth for the sake of my sanity (there's also a ton of grammar/syntax fix suggestions I need to get around to).

Volume 4 will be the start of "Book 2" and part of my intention is for it to be readable/enjoyable on its own (if someone is into that). 

Fingers crossed!

PS: I think book 2 should have a different title, but I can't think of anything. Maybe I should just keep it as is? What do you guys think?

Also, would anyone be interested in a grammar-corrected Book 1 mashed into a singular large pdf/ebook file?