Succubus Ranch Ch. 11

The soft click of the hammer falling on his first ever bad round sounded like cymbals crashing together, and it was a blessing as well. The thud from behind had come from Malaka’s club as she took Adam’s place in the battle. The action moved slowly as he saw the claw tipped hand of a demon swiped at the exposed flesh of Malaka’s side, knocking her aside.

The demon continued forward, receiving the cutting edge of Adam’s blessed silver sword through its head, the entire front half of the skull sheared off like a pad of butter cut by a hot knife. Adam leaped to his feet and rushed to Malaka’s side and saw four giant tears in her flesh, one actually exposing some of her internal organs. Her dark pupils stared, unblinkingly, up at the night sky above.

“Take ‘em down, ladies,” Jason bellowed from nearby, and Adam looked up to see the trap they had set spring. The placid pool of water shot up ward in a geyser, like an explosive had been detonated beneath it. The giant water succubus towered over the battle, her body looking like perfection, just in gargantuan stature.

On her other size, the huge boulder just opened up like a pill bug, and an eight foot tall golem woman stood. The runes on her shoulder glowed red, like blood, as she advanced on the nearest demon. Adam saw her grab it by the tail as it turned to run and yank it back into her arms. She wrapped them around the monster and crushed its body with her own as she rolled back into the form of the boulder.

Adam caught sight of four wispy looking women racing toward the battle with sharpened poles, their hair looking like vines. All four dryads appeared out of the trees that surrounded the pool of water and worked as one as they all surrounded one demon and began to spear it over and over again. It was at this moment when two demons attacked him.

Adam swung his sword once more, lopping the arm off one of the demons reaching for him; but the other’s long snout grabbed Adam’s arm and ripped into his flesh. He felt his shoulder pop out of its socket as the beast yanked backward, and Adam was thrown through the air toward Jason.

The half-demon stopped his spinning just in time to keep from chopping Adam to ribbons, and he caught the soldier in his arms. Three of the remaining four legged demons leaped into the air to attack the two fallen fighters; but the harpies above once again caught the beasts in mid leap and carried them high above the desert. Adam just saw the harpies release the monsters from their claws, but they were caught in the open mouth of the water succubus, who swallowed the monsters whole.

Adam switched the sword to his uninjured hand, and began to fight for his life against the demons that made attacks at him and Jason. They both stood back to back, and he could hear the brothel owner laughing as the demons closed their circle around them. Adam’s calculating mind could tell that their foe was now down to a total of eight; but they still came at them like there was a chance for them to win and still take over the world with such small numbers.

A loud roar from above caught both of their attentions and they both turned their eyes up while swinging at the enemy. A massive dark shape flew overhead, from the mountains, and passed them. Two of the harpies fell from the sky and the water succubus caught them and placed them gently on the ground. Adam saw that their feathers were singed, and their faces filled with total shock and fright at their moment of death in mid-flight.

“DRAGON!” Jason bellowed. As his voice carried over the raucous noise of battle, the demonic dragon somersaulted in mid-air, spinning as it did so and flew very low and near the ground. It shot a breath of flame at the battle, killing one of its own brethren, but torching all four of the wood nymphs. They ran around, shrieking their pain from the fire as the dragon closed its mouth and swooped right through the giant water succubus.

Her body disintegrated into a heavy rain upon the battle field, the water quickly putting out the writhing bodies of the burning wood nymphs. Jason and Adam continued to strike and parry against the grounded demons just as the other underground demon burst out of the dirt close by. Its long serpentine body immediately wrapped around both warriors, and the coils tightened. Adam heard the air being forced out of his lungs as his body was crushed by the black body of the demon that had caught him.

A light as bright as the mid-day sun suddenly flashed on above the fighters. Adam’s eyes immediately shut closed, and his mind likened the sudden flash like someone turning on a light switch in the darkest possible room. Even through his closed eyelids, it penetrated and stung his retinas; and then it was pitch black once more.

Adam opened his eyes and beyond the flashing circles that the sudden light had burned into his optical nerve, he saw that the desert floor that he was lying on was empty of the demons that they had been fighting.

“What the hell was that?” Adam exclaimed, turning his head toward Jason. The man lay flat on his face, his body completely still. Adam stood and dropped his sword, and he moved to Jason’s side. With his good arm, he felt for a pulse and found that there was one. His charge was still alive, but what of the others. Looking about, he saw black dust all around the desert area where the demons had been when the light flashed on. The only thing he could think of to do such a thing would have been direct sunlight. But, it was still several hours before the sun rose again.

Then Adam’s eyes landed on the prone body of Malaka, her dark skin covered by the black soot of one of the demon’s remains. He raced over to her side and saw that there was a deep gash in her shoulder where one of the monsters must have tried to take a bite out of her. He couldn’t tell if she had been bitten before she was nearly eviscerated by the demon he killed earlier.

He kneeled by her side, feeling the hot tears work their ways out of the corners of his eyes. He didn’t know if his question about the ability of demons to have good emotions was possible; but he knew that over the past several days, he had grown used to her constant companionship.

-----

Every morning, she would rouse him from his sleep, offering him breakfast from the house. Every time, he refused on the condition that food from demons was just as bad as anything else they could possibly offer.

They would spend most of the day sparring with each other, their bouts helping to keep their fighting skills honed to a deadly edge. After the small fights, they would sit back to back, talking about one thing or another while they sharpened their weapons, or he cleaned his pistol and reloaded the empty cartridges with new rounds. She always watched this with fascination, and only attempted once to handle one of the new bullets.

He remembered trying to comfort her when she burned her hand on the blessed silver bullet. He had even pulled out his meager first aid kit to try and heal the wound; but she wouldn’t let him waist his medicine on her. At that time, he had forgotten she was a demon and even the bun from the bullet didn’t remind him of that fact, until she caressed Adam’s groin with her good hand and told him what she needed to be healed.

She was fine by that evening when she came back out, without even a single scar on her flesh. Adam had kept in the back, and he could only hear the cars arriving and leaving the brothel; and the talk of those going into the brothel. He never bothered to go inside, or even peer around the side of the building and see what type of clientele that visited this place.

-----

Now, the woman, even if she were a succubus, that he had come to know and, yes, he will admit to himself, love, she now lay dead at his side, never to know his true feelings for her.

“She knows how you feel, soldier,” said a soft voice close by. Adam looked up to see who would have such a soft neutral voice. He could not tell if it were a man or woman that spoke, and now that he looked upon this figure standing before him, he still couldn’t tell.

The long white robe fell from the shoulders all the way to the person’s ankles, and it gave off a warm glowing light. Adam saw that the perfectly clean sandaled feet didn’t even touch the ground. He looked back up and saw the sharp angles of the face peering at him with a look of love and warmth. The eyes, though, were nothing but completely black orbs. They reflected the aura of the light, and even the reflection of Adam kneeling beside Malaka’s body.

“What do you mean ‘she knows’?” Adam asked, knowing that his first question should have been who are you, or what do you want, or even if this entity was friend or foe.

“She is not completely gone, Adam. She resides in sleep until she is healed from her wounds. It will take decades for them to heal at the current rate; but she will be fully healed and back on her feet, and fighting again.”

“Do something,” Adam demanded, looking up at what could only be an angel. “Do something for her so it won’t take that long!”

“I do not have what she needs to heal faster, as does none of those that still remain alive upon this field of battle.” The angle waved its hand and a soft glowing light lit the oasis. The water was once again perfectly still in its pool. The rock golem had either been in the process of closing or opening after another kill when the sudden bright light knocked every one of Jason’s army unconscious.

“You caused the sun to come back,” he said, not asking.

“I am the rarest of Master Jason’s collection,” the angel answered. “I was cast out of heaven, but unwanted in hell. I found refuge from both sides in Jason’s home, and reside there as a truly loving entity. Hardly any of the customers ask for sex with an angel, but a few do and I provide. Plus, Jason and his witch, Salem, were able to foresee a need for me in the future. He called me out to help, knowing I could stop the whole thing with complete destruction of all here.”

“I don’t understand,” Adam said, looking back down at Malaka. “If you’ve been cast out of heaven, then you are a fallen angel, an enemy of God; but if Lucifer will not have you in hell, then you must not be evil enough to be a true demon? But you live in a den full of demonic spirits who siphon off the life force of humans in sexual debauchery, even taking part in that ritual yourself? But how can you command such power of the light as you did just now?”

“My name is Nole, and I am too good to be a demon of hell, but too bad to be an angel of heaven any longer,” Nole said. The angel reached down with his hand and placed it on Adam’s injured shoulder and all of the pain that was there suddenly disappeared. Even a feeling of peace and love filled his heart, but beneath that, Adam still felt sorrow at the loss of Malaka.

“I can heal humans, because I am still more good than I am evil; but I do not control the light as well as I used to,” Nole continued. “Jason sent me word that I may be needed to end this battle, if it was going to come to a bad end for everyone. He told me that if he called upon me, he wanted me to bring out the light and burn the demons. He knew that it would quite possibly kill him and his kind as well.”

Adam looked stunned at the angel standing before him.

“You’re telling me that Jason attempted to sacrifice himself and his ‘collection,’ as you call them, to save me and the planet?” Adam asked, shocked at the thought.

“No, I’m telling you that Jason and the ladies on the field of battle all offered themselves up for sacrifice when they all saw the dragon was bearing down on them,” Nole said with a smile. “You see, Adam, not all demons are evil.”

“And when I learned that, I quit my service with the council and went my separate way,” Jason said from behind Adam. He crawled on his hands and knees over to where the soldier still kneeled next to Malaka and rolled over onto his back and stared at the sky. “They had sent us into a nest of demons that was rumored to be spawning devils; and my soldiers and I charged in and slaughtered the whole lot of them.

“After the killing, I saw movement of one of the demons and went to make sure it was dead. It turned out the movement was coming from inside the belly of the demon. I then understood what my soldiers and I had done. We had destroyed the birthing nest of a demon horde. Yes, they looked like monsters, and they bled a black disgusting smelling substance, but they were still living creatures.

“After the soldiers left, I looked around and found that about a third of those demons were with child. I was only able to save one of the unborn creatures, the one I saw moving inside its parent. I told the council what I had found out after the slaughter, and they told me to come home and make my official report. I demanded to know why we weren’t told it was just a birthing location and why we killed the lives of innocent creatures.

“They broke the connection, and I vowed never to work for them again. I will still defend against an attacking demon on unwilling prey; but I will not attack another demon that was feeding off a human that did not willingly offer itself to that demon, like my customers do. Nor would I attack a demon that didn’t attack first.

“Thankfully, it has been a peaceful experience, and I have heard from the council only once before you showed up to let me know they now understood my ways and would not do anything to put a stop to my brothel.”

Jason fell silent as Adam sat on his bottom next to Malaka and stared at the half-demon. As the silence grew, Adam looked up at Nole and saw the angle was still smiling down at the three of them. Then Jason spoke up without moving from his place.

“Nole, go pass word that the invaders are no more and that we are still alive, but five are severely injured. The two harpies will be carried back by their flying sisters and the nymphs will be brought back by the water, but Malaka will remain here.”

Adam looked at Jason with shock, and while he was looking away, Nole’s light faded away and disappeared into the night. Darkness surrounded them once again.

“Why aren’t you taking Malaka back with you?” he queried. “She needs to be healed and she can only get that back at your Ranch.”

“It is her will,” Jason answered. “She told me that if she were seriously injured in the battle, she did not wish to be healed unless it was her warrior that healed her. I will not force her to come back to the Ranch, be healed and live out her days in perpetual unhappiness because I did not meet her desires.”

“But…,” Adam stammered. “She’ll die if she’s left out here when the sun comes up and no one heals her, right?”

“Quite possibly, yes.”

Adam stared at Malaka, feeling the burning sting of his tears as they began to fall from his eyes. He wiped them away and looked back over at Jason, only to find that the half-demon was no longer there. Looking around, he saw that the mirage of an oasis was no longer there. The pool of water was gone, along with all four of the palm trees. The golem had also disappeared.

The only thing that was there hadn’t been there a moment before. A large tent with white and purple stripes stood near by. The light breeze blowing caused the opening flap to blow back and forth, and Adam caught a glimpse on a lit interior with a large bed of pillows, along with a table set with fresh cooked food. He could smell the roast pheasant and fresh vegetables on the wind that came from near the tent.

With no hesitation, Adam slid his arms beneath Malaka’s knees and neck and very carefully lifted her in his arms. She felt far lighter than the height and muscular of her body looked like it should feel. He ignored this fact as he made his way into the tent and saw that there were two piles of pillows, one larger than the other. He also made note that there was a lit lantern high in the center of the tent, illuminating the tent in a very soft and warm glow.

He laid the fallen Amazon upon the largest of the beds and made her as comfortable as he possibly could. He then rushed outside and found his sword stilly lying in the dirt, along with the .45 magnum that he had dropped when he had been thrown by the beast. Taking the weapons back into the tent, he set them down by the other bed, telling himself that he would clean them and find out why the pistol had misfired. As pleased as he had been that he had not shot and killed Malaka, it bothered him his weapon had failed him.

“It didn’t fail,” a voice whispered near Adam’s ear. He looked around, surprised that he would be contacted now of all times.

“Sir?” he asked the disembodied voice.

“Check the round and you will see that the hammer never fell all the way,” said the masculine voice. “We could not let you kill one you are so close to.”

Adam snatched up the pistol and dropped the clip out of the handle. After counting the three rounds still in it, he pulled the slide back, ejecting the round that had not fired when he pulled the trigger. In mid-flight from the ejection port, Adam caught the silver round and held it up, looking it over. When he got to the base, he noticed there was no indention where the hammer would have struck and fired the round.

“Why?” he asked to ow one.

“Because you are falling in love with the one that has saved your life,” whispered a woman’s voice in his other ear. “I will not have shattered love take away another great warrior in our ranks.”

“But, she’s a demon,” Adam protested, even though he knew that what the female Elder spoke was true.

“All living things are capable of love and compassion, even demons,” said the male Elder.

“It was Jason that taught us that lesson,” said another man’s voice. “We were hard pressed to learn that lesson; but the demon that Jason raised grew quickly to be a very remarkable ambassador for their kind, haven’t you?”

“Thank you for the compliment; but we digress from the subject at hand,” said a very gravelly voice. Adam had never heard it speak to him before; and he could not discern if it was from a male or female; but it was most definitely not the voice of a human. “Adam, you must do what you can to save the succubus Malaka. Your Elders have provided you this shelter and food to give you protection and strength for the task that you must do to save the life of the fallen warrior.”

“It is against the rules for a…,” Adam started before he was interrupted by the woman’s voice.

“You are given direct permission of the Elders, Adam Zero, to ignore this rule from this point forward,” she said, the voice kind, but stern. “As Nadia has become an ambassador for the demons, you and your succubus will become our ambassador to their kind. Now, go to her and heal your comrade’s wounds.”

Adam was shocked to hear that his duties for the Elders had changed so quickly. He looked over at the prone form of a demon that he felt his heart desiring. All this time, he had believed that it was her succubus nature that was affecting him; but the Elders had the power to be able to tell if someone was under the influence of a demon.

Without looking, he placed the unfired round into the clip and seated it the handle. He pulled slide back, chambering the round once more and eased the hammer backing place. Adam then picked up his sword while putting the pistol back into the holster. As he walked over to the bed where Malaka still lay unmoving and staring at the top of the tent, Adam slid the sword into the hidden scabbard under his shirt.

He felt a hot tear run through the dirt that was on his face, knowing it was leaving a strip of clean flesh in the trail. Staring at the mangled body of the woman he loved, he saw the black dust of the demon that must have been atop her when the fallen angel had ended the battle. He couldn’t stand the sight of such ugly dust upon her body and looked around the tent.