Homelands Pt. 06 Ch. 06

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Author's note

As ever, if you have questions feel free to email me or leave a comment. Either way, I'll try to respond in a timely manner.

This is primarily an incest story, but it is also sci-fi/fantasy, and supernatural elements are not incidental to the plot. Additionally, many chapters will feature elements of other categories, particularly group sex and anal.

All sexual acts are consensual and involve parties who are at least eighteen years of age.

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"Bull-fucking-shit," Patty said, stomping her foot.

"Pattycakes, this is going to be-"

"Don't you dare tell me it's going to be dangerous," she said, cutting her brother off.

Eric looked to Nick for backup. Much to Patty's satisfaction, he found none.

"We already went over this," Eric continued.

"That was when we were talking about dad," she said. "If there's to be a fight with Kurt and his bitch of a mother, I'm going to be there. No fucking way I'm sitting that one out."

Mike grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. The poor guy had probably never heard her curse so much. And the anger she was expressing towards her cousin wouldn't go unnoticed either. Anyone who vehemently insisted that they were over their ex, who still got mad whenever their name came up, was obviously lying. At least, that was how she'd always understood it to work among mortals. Maybe it was any different for their kind. Or maybe the fact that her cousin planned to kidnap and abuse and brainwash and castrate one of their children made some difference. She wasn't sure. But either way, she doubted that this was easy for him to hear.

Still, her brother and newfound lover said not a word. Just silently offered her his moral support. And for that, she wanted to kiss him.

Her other brother, the one with whom she shared not one but two parents, pressed a hand to the back of his head and heaved a great sigh. "I understand how you feel-"

She punched him right in the gut.

He might have stood more than a foot taller than her, and might have weighed more than two and a half times what she did, but she put a lot of oomph behind the blow, throwing all of her modest weight and most of her considerable energy behind it. Her tiny little fist connected with hard abs that suddenly felt very little like steel.

"You understand nothing," she said to Eric as he doubled over and gasped for air. "And I'm coming with you. That's final."

"Fine," he choked out.

She stared at him, searching for some indication that he was only humoring her. Finding none, she gave herself a satisfied nod.

Patty might not train as hard or as often as Eric, and even Nick had more experience than her putting their powers to use in a fight. Naturally, she couldn't begin to compare to Flori on any relevant dimension. None of the others were pregnant either. Even so, she felt she had something to add, and not just her fury. Though she'd never felt the need to throw it around, she had more raw power than most of her brothers and sisters. Back before they'd entered the Homelands, she and Veronica had practiced using their abilities for all sorts of stupid little things, and she'd always had to hold back, lest she embarrass her sister.

Granted, neither Kurt nor Zoey were weak. Especially the latter. But even so, Patty knew she'd be more useful than her brother was prepared to admit. He kept trying to make it sound like she'd do nothing but get in the way. That they didn't need any more firepower anyway. As if. He might have gone all badass lately, and everyone knew that Flori used to play in the big leagues, but neither Nick nor Mike, who insisted that if she was going then so was he, counted for all that much. And Zoey was hella powerful. If not stronger than Flori, certainly in the same league.

Making a poor attempt to hide his amusement, Nick said, "She could come in handy."

Patty gave him a grateful nod.

"I said okay, didn't I?" Eric said as he stood back up, one hand still pressed to his abdomen as if afraid his viscera would come spilling out otherwise.

"Knew you'd see reason," Patty said, going up on tiptoes to kiss Eric on the cheek.

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled in response.

Mike put a hand on her shoulder, as if to say, "Enough gloating." She was tempted to give him a piece of her mind, but he didn't deserve it. By rights, he should have left with Troy and their mother. Right up until the very last moment, she'd been afraid that he might do just that. Hell, even Annie was abandoning them, and she'd counted them as family her entire life. She and Mike had only just met.

Of course, part of her had known he'd stay. That he was the man for her, as surely as Eric belonged with their mother or Nick with Veronica. That she'd finally found what she'd been looking for, foolishly, in her stupid cousin.

The gesture wasn't welcome, but it was certainly forgivable.

"Are we done then?" Flori asked, finally looking up from her fingernails, which were apparently fascinating. "In my day, these things didn't take all day."

Nick gave her a sly grin. "And you walked to school, uphill both ways?"

"Of course," Flori replied.

"Lead on, wise one," Eric told her, his blue eyes still warily regarding Patty, as if fearing that she might try to sneak in another sucker punch.

And, with that, they were off.

The Temple of the Sun was gone. In place of a squat, beautiful structure, there was now an imposing and hideous fortress. Where once there had been a grassy hill leading up to the temple, there was now row upon row of barbed wire fences and spiked pits.

"I'm guessing they're not interested in chatting calmly over tea," Nick said.

Eric shot him an impatient glare.

In spite of herself, Patty found herself grinning. Her nerves were shot and she was ready for war, but she envied her brother's ability to retain his sense of humor at a moment like this. That it was Nick cracking jokes while Eric chewed a mouthful of nails would once have struck her as incredibly ironic. But for some reason, now, it seemed perfectly fitting.

Beside her, Mike had rediscovered his inner dragon. He looked exactly as he had the day she'd first met him. Part of her that found it hard to think about anything other than how irresistibly sexy her dragon was. Lean and fierce and exotic, green and beautiful, he was a wonder to behold. But she forced herself not to see him not just as her lover, but as a fearsome beast. To realize that his scales and claws might be good for something other than helping otherwise innocent girls feel naughty in bed. That he might just use them to rip her cousin's throat out.

The thought made her feel cold. But not sad.

Perhaps it should have. Kurt had once been a decent guy. He'd just somehow got lost along the way. Corrupted by his grandfather's seductive promises of power and greatness, reinforced as they were by his dear mother. But she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for him. Not now that she knew what he was willing to do to the child growing inside her.

With a thought, Patty prepared herself for battle as well. One moment, she was wearing a simple sundress, the next she looked very much like a Valkyrie. Or what she imagined the mythical warrior women to look like. Unnaturally light yet impossibly strong armor covered her lower legs, forearms, shoulders, and torso. A skirt of chain mail hung about her thighs, the touch of the cool metal feeling strangely soft and weightless against her skin, almost as if it were silk rather than steel. Her breast plate went up to her neck, unlike the absurdly provocative things women always wore on the covers of the fantasy novels Veronica loved so much. Its shaped molded to her figure, accommodating both her full breasts and her baby bulge. Her blonde hair hung down her back in a thick braid and she wore a winged helmet on her head. In one hand, she held a short, thick sword. In the the other, she carried a long, thin spear whose tip was covered in frost.

"Everyone ready?" Eric asked, looking over his shoulder. "Nick, aren't you gonna-"

Fireballs rained down from the sky like hail stones. Some were no bigger than ice pellets, while others rivaled volleyballs. Nick melted into the shadows and rose back up into the light a dozen yards back, out of range of the fiery assault. Eric rushed to Flori's side, as if to protect her, while she in fact sheltered him. With every flick of her wrist, another fireball fizzled away, leaving nothing but a wispy tendril of smoke to mark its passing. She couldn't possibly move fast enough to clear the skies, but none of the flaming missiles landed anywhere near her or Eric.

For his part, Mike wrapped his arms around Patty, crouching over her protectively, and absorbed the onslaught as though it were no more than a light rain. Indeed, from the sound of it, the fireballs didn't scorch his scaly hide so much as patter against it.

Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and a great fissure opened up. As it stretched apart, a stone tunnel rose up from its depths. Only then did Patty realize that it wasn't another attack, but Flori's way of offering them safe passage up to the temple.

The five of them rushed up through the dark passageway, led by Eric and Flori. Long as it had looked from the outside, as only befit the height of the hill they had to climb, it only took them a few seconds to emerge from the far end.

Unfortunately, once they stood at the foot of the fortress, they found that it was impregnable. There were no entrances or windows or openings of any kind. She hadn't expected it to be easy to get inside, but she had assumed that it would be possible.

Meanwhile, the fireballs continued to rain down on them. Flori had little enough trouble neutralizing them, but the effort of keeping four of them safe took all of her attention. Someone else would have to figure out what to do next.

"Allow me," Mike said.

With a swift punch that Patty might have expected to crash through wood, but nothing sturdier, her lover smashed a hole in the wall big enough to drive a Mac truck through.

Inside, the courtyard looked the same as it had before. The sun shone more brightly than it did outside, its rays reflecting strongly off the gold beneath their feet.

Before she had an opportunity to survey the scene, her aunt ran her lover through with one of those huge, flaming swords the sunlit folk were so fond of.

Just ran him right through.

Fire might not be a threat to a dragon, but cold steel was another story entirely. The flaming tip of Zoey's sword burst out Mike's bike, a crimson spray preceding it. Time slowed, and Patty watched the sharp tip climb out her lover's back in slow motion. Her throat seized up and her eyes went wide with terror.

"Nooo!" she yelled.

Zoey whirled, smiled at Patty, and leapt into the air. Great white wings beat against the air, and the wretched beast flew farther and farther out of reach.

For all the good it would do, Patty launched her spear at the bitch. Unsurprisingly, it arced through the air so far abreast of its target that Zoey didn't even need to deflect it, which she no doubt could have done easily anyway.

A quick glance about the courtyard revealed that the woman who had shoved a sword straight through her lover was but one of four Zoeys. Four.

She'd seen her brother split himself in two many times before. Both of her brothers. And though she'd never felt the need to do so, she felt confident that she could manage the feat as well, come to that. But doing so in the bedroom, while surrounded by eager lovers, was very different from dividing your consciousness in the midst of battle. Nonetheless, Eric indeed had split himself in two.

What good was that, anyway, against someone wearing four bodies? How were they to stand any chance?

Turning her back to the carnage, she bent over the father of her unborn child. The blade was still in his chest. He clutched at the handle pitifully. Glassy eyes looked up at Patty, and blood-spattered lips moved wordlessly.

She grabbed his hand. "You'll be okay," she insisted.

Assuming they settled this soon enough, that might even be true. Her dragon's wound was worse than the one she'd heard Flori had healed for Nick. But the woman was practically the goddess all the women of their kind imagined themselves to be. Surely someone as powerful as her could save Mike.

If there was still anything left to save.

If she herself survived that long.

It was no fair. She shouldn't have to keep fighting. To remain strong. Shouldn't have to do anything but hold her lover in her arms, to give him a reason to keep living. Or at least to be there for him in his final moments, should that prove to be his fate.

Fair had no place in the Homelands though. And the only hope her dragon had was for them to put an end to this quickly.

Patty kissed Mike on the forehead, conjured up a shield for her free hand, turned, and studied the chaos surrounding her.

Two Erics squared off against one of the other Zoeys, and Flori lobbed various magical assaults at the others. Every now and then, though, the matron of House Hardt took the opportunity to defuse some attack one of the Zoeys hurled at one of them. She wasn't throwing everything she had against the sunlit woman, because she was too busy trying to keep her grandson and his brother and sister alive.

Nick was at other end of the courtyard, battling Kurt, who also wielded a flame sword. Nick danced about, fading in and out of the shadows, taking the occasional slice at Kurt with an immaterial blade.

Hopeless.

It had been a mistake for them to come here. If Eric and Flori had come alone, the latter wouldn't need to devote so much effort to shielding her young companions. She might have been able to engage Zoey head on, and prove to them all why she had the reputation that she had. As it was, watching the woman toss off, and turn aside, magical attacks so quickly left Patty breathless. But she wasn't doing much more than leveling the playing field. Keeping Zoey preoccupied. It was up to them to finish this.

Patty conjured up a shield for her free hand and charged the nearest angelic she-demon.

Her aunt turned to meet her approach, raising her great sword high above her head.

Pouring as much energy as she could into the shield, Patty raised it high to block the blow. Her aunt was stronger than her in both the physical and metaphysical sense, and her blade itself was nearly as tall as Patty was. But somehow, the shield not only deflected the attack, but did so without jarring Patty numb. If Zoey had been wilding a pen knife, it might not have bothered Patty any less.

A dozen spiked balls suddenly rushed down at Zoey from behind. Or, started to. The sunlit woman drew herself up to her full height and her golden eyes rolled back inside her head. The death spheres came to a dead stop, suspended motionless in midair.

Patty couldn't help but stare in awe for a moment. Not since she'd first set foot in the Eternal Garden of the Sun had Patty been so overwhelmed by the stunning displays of supernatural power surrounding her.

But it was only for a moment. Then she remembered that the woman before her had ruined her hopes of finding happiness with Kurt, and might well have slain her dragon as well. And if she had her way, she'd kidnap Patty's child and turn him into a lifeless abomination.

The sword parted Zoey's flesh so easily.

It almost took Patty by surprise. She'd thrown everything she had left into the blow, but even so, she'd nearly expected to discover that driving her blade into her aunt's gut was no easier than burying it in a golden statue would have been. But, in the end, Zoey proved to be flesh and blood, the same as the rest of them.

That might or might not have been the fatal blow. If nothing else, though, the shock and pain of it distracted Zoey long enough that all of the attacks targeted at the other Zoeys by Flori and the two Erics met with zero resistance. All four Zoeys collapsed at once. Then all but one of them shimmered and faded away, leaving a single bloody heap at Patty's feet. Crimson blood pooled in the cracks of the golden paving stones.

Kurt stared in horror at his mother's body.

A shadowy axe blade, the size of a small car, fell upon him. And passed through him as harmlessly as his mother's fireballs had fizzled against Mike's skin.

He didn't even bother glancing over his shoulder at Nick. Just leapt into the air, flapping his wings furiously, and then shot back down, plummeting towards Patty like a human javelin. His sword was headed straight for Patty's belly. For her unborn child.

She ought to have dove away. Or teleported to safety. But all she did was bring her shield up and pour what little energy she had left, which was next to none, into it.

If Olivia hadn't finally stepped out from the marble column she'd been hiding inside, Kurt no doubt would have taken Patty's life, or the one growing inside her.

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Eric was still stunned by their triumph over Zoey when he saw Kurt lunge at Patty. It happened entirely too fast for him to react. The enraged sunlit youth launched himself through the air like an arrow shot from a bow, determined to avenge his mother's death.

Just as a panicked realization of what was about to happen set in, his cousin showed up.

Or, rather, made her presence known. She'd apparently been there all along, hiding inside one of the marble columns. Probably unbeknownst to even her mother and brother.

Briefly, he'd wondered where she was. Why she'd abandoned him after leaving him with the impression that she'd be there for him. In the heat of battle, though, he'd forgotten all about his beautiful, frightened cousin.

With a sword identical to the ones Zoey and Kurt wielded, Liv cleaved her brother in twain. Cut him right in half, spraying blood and viscera all over the courtyard.

Patty looked up tentatively over the brim of her shield, as if unable to believe that she was still alive. Then her eyes took in the sight of her cousin, or what was left of him, splayed out across the gold floor. She dropped her shield, bent over, and retched.

For his part, Eric was to relieved to see that they'd come through it okay, that they'd not only prevailed but done so without taking any casualties, to let himself be bothered by the sight. He'd never seen a body severed in two before, never considered the way a flaming sword might instantly cauterize even the most grievous of wounds. And he hoped never to do so again. But all of that could sink in later.

He ran across the courtyard and snatched Olivia up in a bone-crushing hug, whirling her around as though she weighed no more than a child.

She didn't laugh in delight the way he somehow expected her to though. In fact, Olivia looked like she too might vomit.

Eric set her down, apologized, and rained kisses on her. She stumbled away, propping a hand against her marble hiding place, and stared at her feet. But she kept the contents of her stomach inside, where they belonged.

Just then, Patty let out a shriek and ran across the courtyard to where Mike lay wounded.

"Shit," Eric said under his breath. He'd forgotten all about their new brother.

No casualties indeed.

"You have to help him!" Patty yelled at Flori, who was already rushing over.

As was Nick, of course, for all the good he'd do. Whenever any of the women he thought of as his were in need, he went running, whether he could help or not.

"He'll be alright, right?" Liv asked, slipping up against Eric's side. A slender hand hooked around his waist and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Tell me he'll be alright."

The repetitive sounds pouring out of his cousin's mouth jarred him. Was she in shock?