Nos Faux Ratu Ch. 02

Every one of Nessa's nerves was firing as she waited. "Decide?"

"My family. He tortured them, but he would not kill them. Not until I told him to. He made me choose been them suffering and me losing them. I let them suffer for so long . . . so long." Jenna wanted to scream, but she would not. She wanted to cry, but could not. "They suffered because I was afraid of being alone. I'm not afraid of being alone anymore."

Avery and Anabella returned with the sword. They could tell that something had transpired, but had no idea what. Avery handed the sword to Jenna, while Anabella chanted a few words.

Jenna looked at the sword, then imagined it flying around the room. It did exactly as she imagined. She would have marveled at it in other circumstance, but right then she just wanted to kill something. She knew she had to leave before she did just that.

"If you haven't heard from me within 48 hours, assume that all bets are off and that you're on your own." With that, Jenna got into the lift. She looked at Avery. "I'll find my own way this time," she said somewhat coldly. Then she vanished.

"Sometimes you need help to find your way," Nessa said softly.

----- ------------------------------

Shortly before sunrise . . .

----- ------------------------------

"This is not a good idea," Death said as the Empress strode towards the boss's office. She had not returned his calls all evening and was in the process of ignoring him some more. "Empress, talk to me. Why are you marching into the office of a high-ranking military officer wielding a sword?"

She turned and faced him. "Go away. Go out on a mission, forget you ever talked to me, and then I'm the only one who's ass is on the line."

He stood between her and her destination. "Do not make me out to be the bad guy. Just because I don't want you to commit career and possibly literal suicide does not mean I'm not your friend."

"How many times have I ever actually asked for you help? Ever? The one time I need someone to stand by me, you back off."

"The one time you ever ask, you're wanting me to potentially commit treason. That's kind of a big 'first time' if you ask me."

She shook her head in disgust and tried to walk past, but he moved to get in her way. She stepped the other way, and he mirrored her again.

"Death, either get out of my way right now or we find out who's better, once and for all."

Death looked at the woman who he had tried so hard to befriend, a woman of beauty and mystery. He believed that she had a good heart, but he also believed that she meant what she said. The Empress was in a hurting mood, and he was right in front of her. He made a decision.

"You want me to be your friend? Then I'm going to stop you from making the biggest mistake of your life."

Empress knew that he was not budging. That was why she did not hesitate to send a fist flying at the side of his face.

It was an eerie fight to watch, if anyone had been around to do so. Neither of them uttered a word, and the only sound was the muffled noises of blocked kicks and punches, and the movement of feet on concrete. Death had a reach advantage, strength advantage, and was more experienced. Empress had two things going for her. She was faster, and she was homicidally angry.

She took to the air, performing a triple spin kick, but none of them got through. Death retaliated by grabbing her leg and hurling her at a wall, but she braced herself with her feet and launched backwards. She landed on her feet and rolled forward, then leapt forward with both hands extended, burying them in Death's gut. Death smashed down on his "friend's" back with an elbow, but she dropped to her knees and swing a leg around, taking his legs out from under him. No sooner than he hit the floor, he rolled back onto his shoulders and launched himself back to his feet with nothing but momentum and a strong set of core muscles.

"Stop this madness," he told her, his voice still even.

She sent a couple of quick kicks to his knees, but he blocked one and dodged the other, then Empress was forced to defend against a number of elbow shots. She responded with a knee to the cut and managed to land a roundhouse punch to the side of his face, but he pushed her to gain some separation and landed a breath-stealing front kick to her stomach.

"All you had to do was trust me," she gasped. She managed to dodge three of the next four punches, but the 25 percent that got through was painful. She bought some time by putting her heel into his toe, and she was pretty sure she heard something crack.

"I do trust you," he replied, ignoring the pain of his broken toe and landing an uppercut into the Empress's ribs. "I don't trust the rest of them. I don't trust the DoD to make the right decision if you tell them. I don't trust this woman you've been talking to. I don't trust those other guys that the woman was talking about. How is it that you're willing to stick your neck of for the monsters when you won't even let those around you into your life?"

With blinding speed, the Empress whipped out a gun and pistol-whipped Death in the side of the head, dropping him like a rock. He was still conscious, but incredibly woozy.

"Don't like monsters?" she asked, her voice oddly sad. "Then stay away from me. Make a life with April. Make friends with the other Tarot. Because I am a monster, I promise you." She stepped past him, feeling a knife slide between the ribs of their friendship. The only question was, who had been the one truly holding the hilt?

"I'm sorry," she said, turning to face him one more time. "You deserve a better person to be friends with."

----------- ------------

An hour later . . .

----------- ------------

The Fool was sitting behind his desk, staring with great fascination as the sword danced and twirled around his head. Empress had gotten the hang of it and was making it do tricks. Somehow, the thing still held little fascination for her outside of basic physics. She thought back to her last words to Death. She thought of her words with Nessa, about how she was not afraid to be alone. She had lied about wanting it. She just knew she deserved it.

"Fascinating. A whole race . . . I'm sorry if I still seem skeptical, but this is a lot."

"I understand." She had only told him that she had been made and approached by a vampire representative. She had not mentioned any names, Death's involvement (or lack thereof), Devil's Night, or even any of the races she had seen besides vampires. "It was hard to believe. This is an incredible opportunity, sir."

"I absolutely agree. All the things that we could learn from such a group. Why strive as strenuously to maintain a technological advantage when we could supplement our tactics with magic."

"I do not believe it was their intention to give up all their secrets. They are nervous about their way of life being disrupted by undue attention that WE are creating. I'm sure that they would be willing to negotiate something if we could just change our tactics. Let the vampire gimmick die off."

"Die off? Empress, the Nightwalker campaign has been highly successful, and the DoD is scheduling an entire new batch of bioengineering. Imagine if we could incorporate their DNA."

"Sir, they are not likely to give that up. I have seen their power, and there are an unknown number of them. I believe that number to be far greater than ours. Why pick a fight if we can create an alliance? Or at least a truce."

"Truce? We are not at war with them, so a truce makes no sense."

"If we don't desist, I believe we may have a war," she told him honestly. "And I do not believe that we will win." She had seen demons, werewolves, vampires, a banshee, and a host of other creatures at the club. The Nightwalkers would be wiped out in a straight up fight, and that was just the creatures she had seen in one building. She was sure that such beings populated the entire world.

"The United States Government is one of the last free governing bodies on Earth. We will not be held captive by bogeymen. We would call in the Armed Forces if needed."

"But it is so unnecessary! They do not want to fight us. They just want to live in peace."

"Monsters do not live in peace, Empress. Did you know that the Oil Conglomerate is making noise about dissolving the government again and granting all of its powers to the Chamber of Commerce. We need more weapons and we need them soon. There is no way the Nightwalker program will be scrapped --"

"Then why not meet with them and try and form some kind of alliance?"

"Have you forgotten the Cola Wars? Alliances are easily broken. No, I will need to consult the DoD, but it will help if I have a sample."

Empress did not like the sound of that. "Sample?"

"Yes. I will need one of these vampires for study. I expect your full cooperation in securing one so that --"

"No." For a moment, even Jenna was shocked by that one word. She had already put her career in jeopardy by allowing her identity to be exposed and by consorting with an unknown entity. She had just effectively refused an order from a commanding officer.

"Empress, I strongly advise that you retract that statement. You have been under a great deal of pressure, so I will give some leeway, but I will not tolerate insubordination."

She nodded. "I understand sir."

"Excellent. So as I was saying --"

"But my answer is still no."

He stared at her. "Empress --"

"I will not be party to this. This world has been brought low and made vulnerable to the corporations due to unnecessary wars. This . . . this is madness. And madness is something I understand, sir. As do you."

The Fool stood up, towering over her at six and a half feet tall of solid muscle. He was almost fifty, but he was easily the most dangerous Nightwalker in the deck. "Empress, I find you guilty of disobeying an order from a superior officer. For your sake, I ask that you lay down your arms and surrender to me at once."

The Empress took unusual glee at the fact that the Fool flinched when she stood up. One by one, she put every gun, knife, and grenade in her arsenal onto the table. She even remembered to float the sword back down and lay it to rest. Then, she was stripped of her armor. The Fool had summoned the Rods Corp to escort her to the brig. They all looked confused, as did the few other members of the Major Arcana who showed up for their morning debriefing. She never saw Death, and she was glad. He had been right.

---------- --------------------

At Devil's Night . . .

---------- --------------------

Nessa had needed the feeling of someone underneath her after her conversation earlier. Dealing with Jenna had been disconnecting, and she needed to feel close to someone. Anyone. So she had gotten Ipos to come upstairs and provide a donation, but this time no blood would be involved.

She was straddling the demon's strong thighs, his foot of pure manhood rubbing up against her stomach as she stroked it. There was no way her hand could completely encircle it, but she loved trying. Demons tended to be hung like horses, which is why their legendary encounters with mortal women tended not to end well. Nessa had not been a mortal woman for a very long time. Also, she liked a little pain with her sex from time to time. And the best thing about sex with demons . . . no pillow talk. If she wanted someone to talk to about her problems, she would talk to Anabella.

"You're really not into it tonight, are ya?" Ipos asked.

"I'm in it enough to make sure you leave her a happy man."

"Never a question of that. Of course you could always take a sip of this demon blood to get your motor going."

She grinned at him. "You know that ain't gonna happen every again. That stuff hits like a freight train." Demon blood was incredibly potent, acting to lower a blood vampires inhibitions, give them a serious boost of adrenaline, and give them a god complex.

"They still tell stories of that time back . . . when was it?"

"1958."

"I heard you were in rare form."

She rolled her eyes. "I slept with the entire Northern Ireland National Football team to celebrate their performance in the World Football Cup, and then I tried to invade Belgium. I was naked and the only weapon I had was a badminton racket. I still think I could've taken 'em."

"Why didn't you?"

"Anabella ko'd me with a pry-bar and then locked me in the castle dungeon until I came down."

"She always has looked after you."

"Everyone needs a friend like that. Now are we gonna do this or what?"

"Waiting on you," he told her.

She scooted back to his knees, then leaned over and took the mushroom head between her lips. Even on her best day, she would never be able to deep-throat this monster, but she loved how it stretched her mouth. Dirty sex, the kind that that hurt so good when she woke up, was her favorite thing. Her hands gripped the base of his cock, giving it a double-fisted handjob while she worked the crown. She wanted to get the precum flowing, since demon ejaculate was fairly potent as well. Not that it sent her on a power trip. It was just kind of spicy.

Ipos bucked his hips, thrusting himself up into her mouth, causing her to let out a cough and bit of drool. He and his fellow demons had all been bed mates often enough to know how Nessa liked it. Kobal had once thought it strange that their boss liked to be "taken" in certain respects, but Ipos had reminded him that their boss was always in control, especially when it seemed that she was not. She grunted happily as he grabbed her head and shoved himself up into her mouth over and over, using her hands to tantalize his shaft and testicles. There had been any number of hotties at the club in the last few days, but he had not had an opportunity to entertain them. He had a good load saved up, and she was going to get it all.

"That's it," he said, her mouth straining grotesquely as she made it a third of the way down his rod. "I don't know how you can go back to those puny little human cocks when you could ride this every night."

She pulled her mouth off with a plop. "You demons are kind of like unicycles. You're a lot of fun to ride, but you're not the most practical form of transportation for day to day use."

"You're such a sweet talker," he replied, grabbing her head and pushing it back down onto his throbbing member. "You really are the best."

"I should be," she said between downings of his cock head, "I've been doing this since before most old Christians even believed you existed." She flicked her tongue against the slit, and felt some of his juice sizzle on her tongue. She wanted the hot sauce in the worst way.

She moved forward and crouched over that cock, letting it touch the opening to her sex but not slipping inside. It took pretty good thigh muscles to stay perched there, teasing her lover of the moment, waiting for him.

Ipos growled, grabbed her waist, and pushed her forcefully down, filling her with one fell stroke. She was so tight that he groaned a pleasurable little noise, watching her grin as she adjusted to his girth. She raised herself up, the lowered herself, using only the strength of her legs. Of course she could just as easily fly, but she liked the way this made her muscles burn.

"Now I remember why I hired you," she moaned bouncing harder and harder, letting her pussy throb with delight. She squeezed him with her pussy then stood up a little, stroking him as she went. The head of his member never left the confines of her body, and that suited them both quite well.

"Damn," he said as she stroked him with her entire sex, "Human women just can't do what you do."

She sank as far down as she could and just enjoyed the sensation of being so utterly filled. She twirled her hips, grinding against him before rising up again. Ipos propped himself up on one elbow and grabbed one of Nessa's breasts with his other hand, squeezing it and making the nipple protrude just a little bit more. She hissed in pleasure when his teeth took it and bit every so carefully, grabbing one of his horns and holding him in place. He released that breast and mauled the other one, torturing it for a while before moving back.

Nessa climbed off and knelt beside his body, sucking on his cock again and licking her own special flavors off of him. Then she met his gaze. "You know what I need now."

Ipos was smiling like a cat that was about to eat the canary. Nessa stood on the floor and put her hands on the bed, and he took a position behind her. He toyed with her for a moment, running the tip of his cock up and down the entrance to her pussy but not going in. Just when he was able to sense her delicious desperation, he thrust into her. He also grabbed one handful of her shining red hair and used it leverage as he pounded in and out of her.

This was, for Nessa, the ultimate balance of pain and pleasure. Ever thrust shot a jolt through her that lit up her nerves like lightning. And then Ipos started slapping her ass, and that stinging felt unbelievably good. He would stop slapping her for a moment to just dig his fingernails into the round, firm ass flesh,, then he would slide his thumb between the cheeks and penetrate her anal opening. He knew how much she liked that. If there were not so many outside visitors in town at the moment, she would probably have the other demons up there violating every orifice that she could offer. Nessa was kind of a superfreak that way.

Nessa's orgasm hit her like a grav train, and she dug her hands into her very expensive bedding and let out a high gasping noise over and over again. Her whole body trembled, and her pussy clenched at the object that had brought her so much pleasure.

"Good good," she murmured happily. "I so needed that." She pulled away and then sat on the edge of the bed, taking the head of Ipos's cock into her mouth again and stroking the shaft furiously. She was using both hands, coaxing the bubbling gallon of cum that was brewing in his testicles to the surface.

"Oh yeah, here it comes," Ipos said, grabbing her head and holding it still while waves of demon seed shot into Nessa's mouth.

Demons came a lot, and it was all Nessa could do to avoid it spilling out. She loved the flavor, swallowing it as fast as she could. When the last spurt was in and Ipos gingerly removed his cock, a few drops dribbled out of her lips and down onto her sizable chest, so she pushed her tit up and licked it clean.

"Have I mentioned recently that I love working for you?" Ipos said appreciatively as he watched on.

"See, most applicants don't believe me when I list the benefits on those job sites," she responded happily, cleaning up the last of his load.

"So," he said, reaching for his pants, "feeling any better?"

She shrugged. " A bit. I just wish I knew how Jenna's meeting with her boss went."

------------- ------------------

Back at the TACCP . . .

------------- ------------------

Empress sat perfectly still on the small, wire-frame cot in the holding cell. She still cold not believe the turn her life had taken. Three days earlier, the monsters were all make believe. Three days ago, her career seemed solid. Three days ago, she looked forward to coffee with Death in the middle of the afternoon at that same little shop.

That was before the darkness of night split and revealed the things that lay beyond, complete with teeth and claws and horns . . . and beautiful red hair and green eyes. Three days ago, she had her memories and nightmares under control for the most part. Back then, Death had not dissected her character, making her seem like a creature barely deserving of life. He had been her friend three days ago.

There was a dark, deep chill settling in on Jenna that she thought . . . hoped . . . to never feel again. Her mind went back to the last time, nearly fifteen years prior.