Dead and Horny Ch. 19

"Feel free to resist," Dana said, then pinned Tasia down by pressing her palm against Tasia's sternum. "Use the safeword if you're uncomfortable."

The blonde lifted Tasia's pelvis from the inside, all while pistoning her fingers. Tasia gasped and moaned as she tried to push Dana away, but her arm was like steel. Dana's talents with her hand had Tasia gasping for air, and she let out a cry of delight as she fought back, unable to break free.

Dana was clearly stronger than she was, and Tasia didn't know why. Short of transforming, she was unable to escape. The heat was building throughout her entire body now, her nails elongating as the beast within struggled to break free. The wolf didn't crave a fight, nor did it fear for Tasia's safety. Instead, it wanted to join in the fun.

Tasia cried out as her muscles tightened up, her body struggling to contain the wolf while crying out for sweet release. Her hips jerked up and down, fully out of her control, as Dana power-fingered her closer to orgasm. The back seat was shredded by her flailing hands, and hair was sprouting along her forearms.

When Dana slid a finger into Tasia's ass, she came so hard she howled. The sound was magnified inside the interior of the Kia, causing Tasia to become disoriented as she reached for the nearest headrest and ripped it free by accident. The tension in her entire body melted away all at once and she went limp, whimpering in pleasure as Dana continued fucking both of her holes. Through bleary eyes, she could see the smirk of satisfaction on Dana's face. She slowed her movements and started kissing her way up Tasia's belly.

By the time Dana's lips met Tasia's, the wolf had receded, but the damage to their stolen car was done. The two of them held each other for several minutes, Dana's skin cool against Tasia's warm flesh. Tasia had wondered more than once if she would ever get to experience this again, the closeness of another person. Nobody in their right mind was likely to hook up with a werewolf, and the damaged interior of the car was a perfect example why.

Yet Dana didn't seem to care. This woman that Tasia had hated for so long was now a source of comfort, and she leaned into it. While her own feelings might be complicated, the wolf was satisfied that Dana wasn't just safe, she was a friend, maybe even something more. Though it was temporary, Tasia felt like she was part of a pack again, experiencing a connection far greater than what the Order could give her.

The Order.

They were likely already making efforts to track her down. Sitting up, she pushed Dana away and gestured out the back door. "We should probably get going," she said, sad to break the spell that had fallen over her. "It's... we're... I don't want to get caught."

As if remembering where she was, Dana nodded and got out of the car. It took a minute for the two of them to get dressed and put the seats back up. When Dana shut the trunk of the hatchback, It didn't quite latch all the way. She slammed it into place, and Tasia wondered if it could ever be reopened.

Dana paused long enough to pick up the discarded sex toy, and then they got into the car. The cabin smelled of sex and sweat, and Tasia inhaled both scents deeply. This was something she would remember, a memory to cling to.

When they pulled back out onto the road, the wind whistled through the new gaps in the trunk of the car and the broken side window. Despite the noise, a sense of calm descended over the cabin of the vehicle, and Tasia looked over at Dana. It was like a switch had been flipped, the woman now entirely focused on the road ahead.

After nearly twenty minutes, Dana broke the silence. "So libraries have witches."

Tasia looked over at Dana, pondering. All the lust and excitement of earlier had passed. What had happened to that moment of passion? To that connection? Was Dana a master at putting her feelings away or was there something else at play?

"They do. It should make sense that libraries are a natural place to find magic users. It's where knowledge is collected."

"That makes sense, but you made it sound like all libraries had a witch running them." Dana looked over at Tasia. "In hindsight, librarians seem like they know everything already, so maybe it's been magic this whole time."

"To clarify, not all librarians are witches. It's pretty rare to find a branch that doesn't have one, though. After World War II, the Order did some lobbying and got the federal government to fund public libraries. The US was woefully unprepared for some of the magical atrocities they saw over in Europe, and this was a natural way to seed witches across the country without anyone being the wiser. Naturally, this was a secret buried so deep that I doubt the current government even knows about it, but that's kind of the point." Tasia's stomach growled, and she chewed at her fingernail in response. Her finger still tasted of Dana, and she started salivating. She would need to eat some actual food real soon.

"So a nationwide cell of magic users, ready at a moment's notice." Dana chuckled. "Imagine that."

"A majority of them aren't fighters at all. It's all about what most of them call white magic, and acting as a neighborhood watch of sorts. When they encounter something they don't understand or can't handle, they call the Order in to handle it."

"And you think one of them can undo the demon's tracking spell?"

Tasia nodded. "It should be within their skillset. Where are we, anyway?"

"Georgia, actually. Had to take a straight shot north on 95 to keep Count Dracula off our tail." Dana sighed. "I actually saw him a couple of times. Bastard would be a couple of miles back."

"Was he flying?" Tasia felt a chill run up her spine.

"Maybe. Looked more like he was jumping to catch up, but I couldn't be sure. I would see him pop up above the treeline for a moment. He had to stay off the road to avoid being seen, but there was an empty stretch for a bit where he just sprinted after us T-1000 style. Kept worrying that he would turn into a bat or whatever and catch up to us." Dana frowned. "I'm guessing vampires don't do that."

"Not all of them, no. The best way to think of vampirism is like a virus that mutates whenever it gets passed on. Some new vampires become shapeshifters, others become insanely strong, lucky ones might get both. I came across a nest of them once where their supernatural abilities were almost non-existent, save for being very attractive. The only thing they all share is a hunger for lifeforce in one form or another, which gives them strength."

"Lifeforce?" Dana touched her neck. "So not just blood?"

"Blood happens to be the easiest conduit. When you get bitten, they can drain you of your lifeforce without making too big of a mess. If it doesn't kill you, it leaves your body weak to vampirism, which is how you might become one, or even a thrall. A thrall is like a vampire's slave."

"Good to know. So this guy may have servants."

Tasia nodded. "Perhaps, but thralls are usually just humans, so he would have to be stupid to sic them on us. What are the odds we can stop for breakfast? I'm fucking starving."

"There's food near the library, which doesn't open until 9 anyway. We're almost there." As if elaborating her point, Dana pulled the car off of the highway and drove a few miles into town. They passed a couple of gas stations and a Wal-mart, then pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant. Mama's Diner had a picture of a breakfast skillet that made Tasia's mouth water.

"I'm afraid we can't split the bill," Tasia said.

"Don't worry about it. You earned it already." Dana winked at her, then jogged ahead to open the door. Tasia found it a little unsettling to see how quick the switch was flipped. It was almost like Dana was acting, but she couldn't see any seams in the performance.

Her smell had also changed. Earlier, Dana had smelled largely of blood and sweat, but also the pack. It was as if she had temporarily become a werewolf. Now, however, she carried the faint smell of death all around her. The only times Tasia had smelled something similar was when she was standing over a body or tracking a predator.

What kind of predator are you? she wondered.

Dana led them inside and asked the hostess for a booth. They were taken to the back of the restaurant where Dana requested to be sat by the window. The hostess obliged, and they sat down across from each other, giving both of them a view of the road.

"I'm so fucking hungry," Tasia muttered, going over the menu. "That shouldn't be a surprise, given my... condition."

"Order what you need." Dana looked over the top of her menu. "Seriously."

"Are you sure? It might draw attention. There's a reason why it's called wolfing down your food."

Dana shrugged. "I'll think of something."

When the server came, Tasia took Dana's advice to heart and ordered most of the special menu. There were three different skillet meals that were meat based, but she also ordered a ham-steak, three sides of bacon, and the chocolate chip waffle stack. Dana put in a similar order, which caused the server to pause and look up from his tablet.

"Are y'all ordering for someone who isn't here yet?" he asked.

"We're food vloggers," Dana said. "If you don't mind, we're planning on recording content for a mukbang video. Go ahead and bring the plates as they are finished instead of all at once."

"Ah, gotcha." He finished writing down their order. "What do you want to drink?"

"Water is fine for me. You?" Dana looked at Tasia.

"Do you have tea?"

The server nodded, then took their menus and left. Once he was gone, Tasia leaned across the table.

"What the fuck is a mukbang?" she asked.

"New streaming trend. You watch someone eat a shit ton of food, question their life choices, but can't look away." Dana used the condiment tray to prop up her phone. "When he drops stuff off, talk to the camera about what food means to you, or whatever. We'll eat off of each other's plates to help sell it, like we're sampling everything."

They spent the next several minutes discussing potential plans. If everything went well, they would head back down to Florida in the afternoon. Tasia was worried about running into the vampire again, but Dana kept brushing it off. She was under the impression that they would have plenty of time to return before nightfall.

When their food arrived, Tasia wasted no time digging into the first skillet. It was called the Meat Feast, and had three different kinds of sausage. Each skillet came with a stack of pancakes, so their table was soon packed with dishes.

Halfway through devouring her third plate, Tasia realized that Dana wasn't eating at all. Instead, she would sometimes move the food around or shift it to a different plate. Dana drank from her water a couple of times, but it seemed more out of habit than anything else.

"Are you going to eat?" asked Tasia around a mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"Not hungry. Ate last night." Dana glanced out the window and smirked. "And this morning."

"Bullshit. Hair pie has no calories, and I was with you last night. Only thing I saw you eat was..." Tasia made a face. "I don't think you ate anything. No, wait. I saw you eat yogurt or something."

Dana kept staring out the window. "See? I ate something."

Tasia swallowed her food and scowled. "No, hold on. I know that something's up with you." She lowered her voice below the din of the diner. "I saw you get stabbed and shot, but you were fine afterward. You're almost as strong as me--"

"Maybe even stronger than," Dana corrected.

"Fuck you, don't interrupt." Tasia held up her fork, which had a pierced sausage on the end. "I thought you were a witch, the worst kind, but I've never seen you do magic, other than that trick where you don't die. Your hair color is brighter this morning, which I just noticed. If I didn't know any better, I would think you're...you're..."

Dana lifted an eyebrow.

"Some kind of machine," Tasia finished. "But you bleed and are definitely human, or human-shaped. I understand this partnership is... unconventional. You saved my life when you didn't have to, and that means something. This morning meant something."

Dana shook her head. "Let me correct you. This morning was fun, but don't get the wrong idea. That was... something you wouldn't understand. Lily usually helps me with it."

Tasia licked her lips, a grin spreading across her face. "Now you have my attention."

The blonde sighed and leaned way forward in her seat. "Here's the thing. What we have right now is fine. You've agreed to help, and that's exactly what I need. But I don't want to rock the boat. Telling you is a leap of faith, and I'm not sure I'm ready to do it yet."

Tasia grunted, then let out a sigh. "That's just it. It's not just about curiosity. It's about establishing a deeper sense of trust. When you become a knight at the Order, they pair you with a mage based on psychological testing, but that doesn't always work out. They make us do counseling together, to make sure we can read each other like an open book. My old partner, he..." She took a deep breath. "Amida and I were close. He was my friend, and that's not common. There are knight-mage pairs that hate each other as people, but the bond is strong. Amida knew to stand to my left, 'cause I was better at covering my right. We knew each other's favorite foods, shared our fears with each other. Unlike the others, I came from a well connected family, yet I knew Amida better than my own mother. That's just how it is in the Order."

"Really?" Dana made a face. "To me, you all seem so disorganized. You jump to assumptions, that's how we managed to trick you so many times. Well, how Lily did, anyway."

"I was still in training." Tasia raised her voice. "She was way out of our league, I'll admit that now. It's part of why I--" She looked around the diner, then made a pair of canines with her fingers in front of her face.

"Now that, I'm curious about." Dana stared hard at Tasia for several long moments. She was so still that it looked like she wasn't breathing, and when she did move, it startled Tasia. "Okay, then. A mutual exchange. I'll talk about myself, but only if you tell me about how you leveled up. We have about forty minutes before the library opens, so you might want to cut right to the point."

"It was an attempt at an old experiment." Tasia shoveled some more food in her mouth. "The Order has been working for centuries to maintain the balance between the natural and the supernatural. We've even gone so far as to work directly with supernatural entities. This works well sometimes, but we needed an edge. It is very difficult to find a cryptid who is willing to work with us on a larger scale."

"Explain that part." Dana held up a hand for silence, then politely smiled as their server took away a couple of plates. "Okay, continue."

"Imagine trying to convince a 700-year-old spirit to help you hunt down a demon who is abducting children in their woods. The spirit doesn't care. It might care only if we accuse it of the deed. Once you transcend the bounds of mortality, how do you gaze on the world of the living in a favorable light? For example, the Order works with a couple of dragons. Immensely powerful beings who could turn the tide of a war, just like that." She snapped her fingers for emphasis. "But they don't care. We can't kill them because they'll fight back. So we appease them in exchange for whatever help they're willing to give. In one case, it's just a massive beast we feed snacks to so that it doesn't wake all the way up and obliterate the northwestern United States."

"Okay, so trouble recruiting monsters, continue."

"In over a thousand years, only a handful of werewolves were willing to work with the Order. On most of those occasions, it was sort of like us. Common enemy, short-term goal. They are immensely powerful beings, and what makes them so special is they started as regular humans. Could we harness that power for ourselves by transforming our own people?"

Dana nodded. "I'm willing to bet this is the part where you tell me how it all went wrong."

She was right. Tasia explained how the first experiment had failed, how lycanthropy wasn't just about a human who could tap into a primal strength. All magic had a price, and becoming a werewolf meant becoming one with the very nature of the wolf itself. Some in the pack had wondered if they had become part of some fundamental truth, others thought it was a long-lost deity, but Tasia believed it was little more than instinct.

Still, it felt silly speaking of the wolf like a separate entity, but Tasia was surprised to see Dana accept it as gospel. There was an understanding in her eyes when Tasia talked about how the wolf would take control, how higher thinking took a back seat and she was just along for the ride. She explained how the first experiment had ended badly because the wolf had been too strong, causing the pack to tear itself apart. The Order had spent years figuring out ways to dilute its influence and allow the humans to maintain control.

In the end, the most recent experiment had been a success, but only barely. The wolf was strong in Tasia, and she had bluffed her way through some of the final tests, determined to survive. For the longest time, her sole motivation had been to become strong enough that nobody could ever control her again. While it was true that she couldn't be controlled by others, she now struggled with controlling herself. She was easily worth five knights now, if not more, but when she and the wolf worked together, she was a one-woman army.

Wrapping up her tale, she sighed and leaned back in her seat, patting her now full belly. The server came over to check on them, and Dana asked him for the check and some boxes to pack everything up. When they were alone again, she leaned forward across the table and spoke.

"Tell me more about diluting the wolf's influence. How did the Order control it?"

Tasia waved a hand dismissively. "Started with psychological profiling. Couldn't do the experiment on anyone with anger management issues."

"Then how did you get in?"

Tasia snorted. "That's cute. Before crossing paths with you, I was known for being good at my job. A little intense, maybe, but I didn't lose my temper."

"So what else?" Dana's eyes were shining with curiosity.

"Lycanthropy is magical in nature, but it communicates like a virus. The Order actually built their own version of a vaccine. If you're ever bitten or harmed by a werewolf, there's a chance your body fights it off naturally. They made a cocktail that strengthened the mind while weakening the werewolf blood they had harvested. The idea was to give us just enough to push us over the edge. During the transformation stage, they regularly pumped us with all sorts of drugs to keep the changes to the brain minimal."

"But why? I thought werewolves were normal people during the day."

Tasia nodded. "That's just it. They typically change only at night, or when threatened. The wolf is almost completely separate, like Jekyll and Hyde. A full-blown werewolf will absolutely slaughter without rhyme or reason, hunting to appease their hunger or even their rage. The Order needed people who could force the transformation and maintain themselves while in wolf form. It was extremely rare to meet a werewolf who could do this naturally, but we met them and studied their origins. Replicating that was... difficult."

"So what happened to them? The ones who didn't meet the Order's standard?"

When Dana asked, Tasia felt her stomach drop. "That was a primary downside to the experiment. We had to hunt our own," she replied, dropping her gaze. "And I don't mean that casually. When we were all turned, we formed a familial bond and became a pack. Those first few days were... I wish I could describe it. It was like walking into a room and meeting family you didn't know you had, but somehow instantly knew they loved you and would always have your back. You became part of something so massive, so... complete.