Forced Changes Ch. 05

"As for where we are, that is even more complicated. We are currently in a pocket dimension that's nestled in the space between realities. It's a space I've created over the years that's allowed me to stretch my wings a bit, as my current living arrangements is pretty stifling. You're the first paired priestess that was in a suggestible mental state such that I could bring you here." I stared at her incredulously for a long moment.

"So this is all in my mind. I guess that explains the lack of ice bitch." Surreptitiously, I bit the inside of my cheek until my eyes watered from the pain.

Damn, I guess that won't work.

"Always analyzing and deducing, it's one of the things I like about you Sydney. That property is not a natural instinct to my followers, they tend to be more... passionate and impulsive in their actions."

"Is there any way you can prove the things you're saying?" I asked skeptically allowing her to close the distance between us.

"Not any that you'd believe right at this moment. You'll just have to take it on faith," she said giving me a wink. "However, now that the pathways been forged between us I think that we'll be hearing more of each other in the future. That, however, is a discussion for another day. For now we need to discuss your current predicament and how we're going to get you out of it. You are, at this moment, riding in the back of Sariel's car, aka agent seven, whom you've so lovingly dubbed ice bitch, on the way to their facility. You do not want to get the facility, what they do there is monstrous. I'm not going to get into the details, but, let's just say that even with millennia of life experience under my belt, their actions still make me gag. So here's what we're going to do, in a few minutes I'm going to wake you up, you'll be a little groggy at first, so stay motionless and let it pass without letting her know you're awake. I'll send a distraction your way. When you feel the van stop, jump out of the van, locate the sun, and run as fast as you can towards it. You'll run into help if you go that direction."

"What kind of help?"

"You'll know it when you see it."

"That's very vague and not at all reassuring. Besides, why should I trust you?"

"If you promise to follow my plan, I vow that you will make it out alive," she said holding a hand over her heart, her eyes flashed and an unseen wave of power washed over me. "Also, if you promise, and I believe you, I'll let you talk to Lexi before I send you back to the van."

I knew she was bribing me, I understood that I probably shouldn't make deals with strange beings beings who summon me into dimensional bubbles.

And yet...

The ache in my chest where my heart used to be deepened, throbbing with its lack of Lexi.

Be logical. Don't make deals. Especially when magic is an actual variable to consider. There's so many stories about the folly of bargaining with higher powers. Don't be hasty...

"You've got a deal," I said, letting my worry get the best of me. I wrung my hands, as a sad little smile graced her lovely face, an air of wistful inevitability surrounding her.

"I know you don't truly believe me, but that's enough to get us started for now. Give me a second, this takes a little more oomph than I regularly use. This is a special occasion. It's time to bust out the good stuff." She closed her eyes, her tail wiggling around behind her. Her arms fell to her thighs before they traced their way up the sides of her body, ending with a flourishing circle around her breasts. I was rapt with attention as her nipples hardened under the firm strokes of her fingers. She cocked her hip and I was intensely aware of a warm rush to my nethers I've become accustomed to as Lexi's partner. A cold sweat broke out on my skin as I began to feel quite voyeur-esque watching her performance. Licking my lips, I squirmed a little as I hid my nakedness from her closed eyes, uncomfortable with my arousal of her smooth gesticulations. Her wings fluttered once and the moist air swirled, caressing my flesh with thousands of micro kisses. Their velvet swaths curled around her shoulders, partially obscuring her motions while she continued to tease and touch every inch of her exposed crimson flesh. One of her hands started to crawl towards her pussy, glacier like as it closed in on the promised land. She stiffened and I took a step back, fearful as her muscles peaked in stark relief against her normally smooth curves. Her eyes flashed open and I was startled to see a familiar flashing blue.

"Sydney!" she cried, the sound pained as it ripped it's way out of her throat. She rushed toward, me stumbling, but her eyes locked on me the entire way. Belini's hands shook as they wrapped around me, pulling me into a hug as she sobbed into my shoulder, her wings draping themselves around ass, shutting us off from the world.

"Lexi..." I said gently pulling her away from me, tears on both our faces.

"Syd, tell me where you are?! That seraphim and it's keeper took you and-"

"Lexi, kiss me. I need to know-" she didn't hesitate at all. Belini's lips locked on mine as she caressed my back, one hand sliding down to caress my ass. She played a very familiar tune across my senses as I lost myself in her unique blend of nibbles and probing tongue. A dark almost bitter coffee flavor accompanied her kiss. It wasn't a bad taste just, intense and deep. It tasted like the mariana trench, full of an alien world containing both incredible beauty and dangerous predators.

Without a doubt this is one hundred percent Lexi's kiss... Well, damn. I guess she was telling the truth after all. At least in this instance.

I gave myself a thirty second time limit.

Which expired before our kiss came close to ending. It was probably closer to two minutes before I had to pry my lips from Lexi with a metaphorical crowbar, my chest heaving with lack of oxygen.

"I don't know where I'm at Lexi, but Belini seems to have a plan. I'll find my way back to you."

"I can feel her hold slipping," she said, as her tail skirted across both my buttcheeks as it secured me tighter to her. "I'll be waiting." I watched as the blue slowly bled out of her eyes, leaving them a strange yellow orangish color, similar to that of an unripe peach.

"Please get me back to her," I cried into her chest, unwilling and unable to keep the desperation out of my voice. "I promise I'll do anything. Just get me back to her." Grasping her silky skin, I felt so in her shadow, my fate out of my control.

"I'm doing my best honey. That's all any of us can do. Now a couple parting thoughts to mull over before we're out of time. There will come a time that you'll need to forgive someone. You'll wonder if she's sincere and telling the truth. She is."

"Who-"

She silenced me with a quick kiss, her teeth tugging on my bottom lips before she retreated. "Now's the time for listening, not talking," she said as I gaped at her once again, my lips warm with her breath. She smirked and licked a trail from my chin to the tip of my nose her tongue hot and impossibly soft as it slid effortlessly across my stunned face. She was full of mischievousness as she continued. "A decision is coming for you. Not Lexi's, not mine, and definitely not Sariel's. You'll try to consider each while deciding but in the end it's your life. Choose accordingly." As she spoke she slunk around me without putting and distance between us, her breasts and fingers providing fleeting touches until she draped herself around my back, a hand on the side of my jaw. She pushed a little, nudging my head to looking forward. While my attention had been diverted a full length mirror had materialized in front of us, reflecting my full frontal nakedness and her solemn eyes eyes peeking over my shoulder. The reflection faded to black before slowly returning.

As it returned, I notice a few key differences.

I stared in wonder and walked cautiously toward the mirror, Bel falling away from my back, giving me space.

The right side of the reflection showed me as I was now, eyes wide as I stumbled toward the mirror, looking serious. The other side of the mirror showed a version of me that was barely recognizable. Dusky pink tribal tattoos swirled across every inch of my exposed flesh. Which, at the moment, was a lot of exposed flesh. My doppelganger's tail curled up by her arm and she stroked the head of it like a pet and small ivory horns just barely poked their way from under the skin on her temple.

I have the same smile. That was actually the weirdest thing.

She smiled and it was like looking in a, well, a mirror actually. It was something I recognized every time I psyched myself up in the bathroom before a presentation for a class. The cocky smirk that I used to convince myself and anyone watching that I was ready to take on the world.

Just before I could get well and truly freaked out the mirror vanished. Wasting, no time, and keeping me off balance, Bel spun me around and gave me another quick kiss.

"See you in your dreams," she said, giving me a wink and a hard shove on my shoulders.

I fell over.

And fell.

And fell.

My surroundings disappeared and still I fell.

Until, BAM!

The van jerked around me as it hit a bump in the road. Recalling her instructions just in time I kept myself plastered uncomfortably to the floor as the floor vibrated as it continued across what my hip firmly announced as an extremely rocky road.

"Come in agent seven, report," a radio in the van crackled as a gravelly male voice croaked out of the handset.

There was a short pause before an emotionless voice, cold as it's owner responded. "Agent seven reporting, currently an hour out. The tainted was captured but the primary target managed to discorporate my weapon. Said weapon is currently recharging in the ethereal plane with an estimated time of twenty three minutes before potential retrieval. Faced with the tactically unstable mission, retreat was taken as the wisest course available. Current status is on route with beta target sedated, estimated time is ten hours before the drugs will dilute to a sufficient amount to allow for conscious thought with another five hours for motor function."

Well that doesn't sound very good. I wiggled my toes experimentally and they seemed to move without problem. That's a relief, although it's a little strange that the drugs didn't affect me the way she thought they would.

"Very good, Seven. Under no circumstances are you to engage a corruptor without a viable weapon. Acknowledge and respond?"

"Acknowledged. Will not engage with enemy force."

"Very well. May God's light keep you from sin."

"I'm humbled, your grace. I strive to serve our lord to the best of my meager abilities."

"As do we all," the rough voice intoned before ice bitch hung up the radio, slotting it home with a clatter.

Beginning to grow restless, I let my eyes crack open just a bit to get an idea of my surroundings. Bare boned, the back of the van had few remarkable features besides the plethora of scratches that were etched into the rubber padding and metal sides. Flashes of green passed by the windows let me know I was passing through some sort of forest environment. That, combined with my lack of shoes, had me nervous about my odds of escaping my current predicament unscathed.

At least she was overconfident enough to to keep my hands and feet unrestrained.

"Shoot!" she yelled as she slammed on the brakes. My shoulder slammed into the driver's seat as physics once again proved the universal truth present in the law of inertia. I couldn't quite stop the squeak that snuck out from the pain.

Goddamn objects in motion... I grumbled internally, in too much pain to worry over whether 'agent seven' had heard my outburst..

"What the heck?" she exclaimed annoyedly, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind her. She hadn't been gone for more than ten seconds before the air was filled with a cacophony of unholy screeches.

Wow. When Bel does distractions she goes big.

Wasting little time I eased open the trunk of the van as stealthily as I could. Wincing as my feet hit the rocky gravel road. I jog/hobbled as quietly as I could away from the van, making sure to position myself so that the nondescript white vehicle was between me and whatever was making that unholy racket. Curiosity got the best of me and I couldn't stop from sneaking a quick glance back to see the distraction.

I had to fight to keep from gawking. Spread around in an oblong, thirty foot oval, was a meadow of hopping bunnies. Painted in swathes of brown, grey, white and black, they moved in a strange approximation of a ripple strewn pond during a rainstorm. Each of them had their teeth bared and the weight of their combined voices was as loud as a semi truck air braking. Turning away, I made my way through the woods, rocks and twigs biting painfully into the fleshy undersides of my feet.

As the noise of the crazed bunnies faded into the distance I became more and more aware of each twig cracking as it snapped, obscured under the calf high grass. I made my way towards the setting sun, the orange red rays piercing through the trees like little holy rays from heaven. A scream of rage echoing in the distance triggered my flight response as I took off running through the grass, like a rabbit ironically enough.

For a distance I ran, for the first time since my transformation I found a rhythm of stride that didn't cause my breasts to punch me in the sternum with every step. If I ignored the fact that I was probably being chased by my abductor, it was almost peaceful, running through the forest. The distance fell beneath my feet, which throbbed as they gathered a plethora of nicks and bruises.

Misjudging my step over an embankment, I lost my balance. Stumbling into a stream I couldn't keep my feet underneath me and fell into the icy water. Chilled, in spite of the summer weather, I hoisted myself out of the little trough cut by the stream and continued moving forward.

I take it back. This is no longer any kind of pleasant.

Teeth chattering, exhaustion settled in for a long winter within my bones. My clothes itched as they dried, the exercise and setting sun banishing the cold before too long, my limbs aching as the lactic acid felt like it'd dissolved my muscles.

This fucking ally better show up soon or I'm gonna be dead meat, regardless of where ice bitch was taking me.

Taking a short break, I rested my plush ass on the mossy length of a fallen tree. Trying to stay focused, I couldn't help but worry over what the future held.

Is this going to keep happening? Lexi mentioned these guys, I think, but I didn't really expect them to show up. How many groups like them exist? There's so much about Lexi's world that I don't know.

Slapping my face, I tried to shake off the worry and the fear.

Now isn't the time to freak out. Wait until I'm safe and then I can break down into a tangled bundle of nerves. For now I have no choice but to keep moving and hope that Bel was telling the truth.

When I finally managed to convince myself to keep moving again, my muscles felt brittle, fragile from overuse, as I jogged toward the burnt orange orb disappearing over the horizon. I slowed to a walk, unable to force the aching appendages to keep up the gruelling pace. Rubbing my arms to try to maintain some warmth in the face of the chilling wind true night fell across the forest, severely cutting my visibility. After maybe an hour of stumbling in the dark, I decided I was more likely to hurt myself than find anything useful. At this point I was barely able to think, my vision tunneling to a hazy point. Dim moonlight filtering through the trees revealed a rocky cave entrance cut into the side of a hill. There was a lack of forest debris within the initial ten feet of the soft downhill slope that led deeper into the darkness. There was an odd twang as a thread broke against my shin, the sound echoing into the cave. Curling into a little ball I tried to remain optimistic, exhaustion overcoming my fear as I fell into a restless slumber.

Floating in a haze of pseudo consciousness I had a feeling of solid arms around my knees and shoulders. Bright light alternated with darkness as the hallway was filled with the sharp clacks that sounded like a multitude of high heels hitting the floor in a staccato rhythm. My head lolled and I cuddled deeper into the chest of the person carrying me and fell back asleep.

I awoke in a strange bed, an occurrence that was becoming all too common lately. I was also naked, a not so uncommon occurrence considering I liked to sleep in the buff, but combined with the strange bed still left me feeling uncomfortable. The room looked normal, no scientists waiting to dissect me or aliens looking to probe me.

Or ice bitches looking to fuck up my day.

There was a plush robe hung up on the outside of the closet. Grateful for any sort of coverings, I shrugged it onto my shoulders and cinched up the waist.

Was this thing made for a fucking giant? The hem of the sail masquerading as a robe swished around my ankles as I tested out my mobility.

Now that I'm clothed I need to arm myself something. Searching the apartment gave me little insight into its owner, and even less in the way of weapons.

Although I would probably be even more freaked out if there was a glock just laying around. Eventually I settled on a lamp as my threatening object of choice, taking care to set the head of the lamp down on the nightstand, I was scared but not enough that I wanted to go smashing up someone's belongings.

As stealthily as I could, I eased into the hallway and made my way towards the only source of light and sound I could see, the crack under another nondescript door at the end of the hall. The door was normal in the sense that it had a standard faux wood pattern; it was not normal in the fact that it was sized for a giant, like the robe and bed had also been. Hefting the weighty ceramic makeshift weapon in one hand, I cracked the door open with my other. The light and sound were coming from a bank of televisions on the wall. It was one of those fancy multi-television setups that could be programmed to display multiple programs or a single one as desired. The nine tv's took up the entire expanse of the wall and I was slightly in awe of the high tech setup. A form on the couch stirred and I raised the lamp above my shoulder as it turned to look at me. I stifled a gasp as it began to rise.

It was a fucking giant. Easily seven and a half feet tall the, spindly man looked almost as nervous as I felt, and I was the one standing there in a bathrobe.

"Miss, I'm sorry about the clothes but I sincerely mean you no harm. If you lower the lamp we can talk about how you stumbled with mud caked clothes, onto my doorstep."

It took me a second to get on track with what he was saying, the 'miss' having thrown me for a loop.

That's right. I look like a girl without Lexi around.

"Right. Sorry about that. I'm a little jumpy. An attempted kidnapping tends to do that, in case you were wondering," I said, lowering the lamp to what was hopefully an unthreatening position. He looked stunned by my words.

"Really? A kidnapping? Damn. That's messed up."

I chuckled at his words and responded without thinking, "Did you hear about pluto? That's messed up," using my best Burton Guster impression.

He gaped at me and exclaimed in a similar voice, "C'mon son. You know that's right. Girl, Psyche is my jam. Have you seen Chuck?"

"I love Chuck. It's amazing." We then spent a couple minutes basking in our mutual appreciation of excellent television, bandying quotes back and forth. I felt a strange closeness with him, an almost unnatural trust springing up from our limited interaction.