The Creators Ch. 16

"I will never bow to an Ofanian," she growled.

"I will never ask you to."

She narrowed her steely eyes at me. "We will stay in Iona."

"You will do whatever the hell I say," I growled. "Now get on your knees before your god."

The lines on her face relaxed somewhat, and something akin to a smile stretched across her lips. She bowed her head, dropped to her knees, and prostrated before me. The rest of the Ionan Guard fluttered from the top of their keep, and one by one, they folded their white wings, descended to their knees, and put their brows to the grass.

"Holy Life Giver, god of flora and fauna; we are not worthy," Nona said, and then the rest chanted along in time with her. "As winged-warriors of Iona, it is our sworn duty to serve you. We have oaths that we must speak to you and hope that you accept them. We are your sword, we are your shield, we are your armor. We are your watchers in the night, we are your wings in the morning, we are your eyes, ears, and mouth when you are not present to see, speak and hear. We will live for you, we will die for you, we will celebrate with you, and we will suffer with you. Your glory is our glory, your triumphs are our triumphs, and your life is our purpose. With these words, we pledge ourselves wholly to you. We will guide you in the ways of Iona, but we will never disobey you. We will show you the paths of righteousness, but we will not falter to enact your will. We will teach you the lessons learned by countless generations, but we will always heed the wisdom of your words. You are our light, you are our salvation, and you are our destiny in this life, and for countless lives to come. Oh Holy Life Giver, will you please accept these oaths?"

I touched Nona on the brow, and she raised her gaze to mine.

"I accept these oaths," I said softly.

ASTRID

Iona was empty. The fires in the hearths had been doused, the lanterns were all extinguished, and the food was all gone. The nursery was empty, the field house was barren, and the keep was desolate. The bells were silent, the bandstand was void of music, and the nightly woodcutters weren't there to add their percussive undertones to the evening song. The only sound left in my beloved home was the persistent winds buffeting against the high mountain walls.

"Where did they go?" Willowbud whispered.

I looked out at the Gratoran Desert. In the distance, we could see the lights of thousands upon thousands of fires glinting in the coming dusk. Some of the fires were black and seemed to absorb the light around them. "Where else?" I whispered.

"Shit," Willowbud muttered.

"They didn't have a choice. They have to serve," I wiped a tear away from my cheek. "We were only hours too late. The lanterns were still warm."

"I'm sorry."

I blinked up at the pointed peak of my mountain, and it blurred in my eyes. "It is every Ionans dream to be the one who brings the Earth Former home. Do not be sorry for this moment, Willowbud." My lips trembled horribly, and I hissed, "It is a dream come true." I collapsed into the grass and wept into my hands. Willowbud wrapped me in her arms and gave me a chest to shed my grief into.

I didn't want to stay another second there, but we had nowhere else to go. Gloria had risked traveling in the sunlight, and at such altitudes, it was doubly risky for her. She needed the night to replenish herself, and hunt without the sweltering cloak she kept on to conceal her flesh. As for me, I didn't feel much like eating. My newly-heightened sense of smell carried the familiar scents of Iona into my mind and played cruelly with my memories. I'd won my first wrestling match in that ring. I was seven, and Mother had pitted me against a twelve-year-old, a big redheaded bruiser named 'Helga Sunscraper.' She was no match for me. I outmaneuvered her at every turn, used her own momentum against her, and tossed her clear out of the ring. Helga hated me after that; in fact, most of the other girls hated me. Mother always told me that was how I would know I was the best. My childhood was a peerless one, and my adolescence was one of fervent competition. I never lost a match; not in wrestling, nor archery, nor dueling, nor racing. I was simply the best. Eventually, toward the latter end of my teens, those who once hated me learned to respect me, but they never learned to like me. Perhaps if I'd had but one true friend, then I wouldn't have done what I did.

I turned my gaze to the dueling ring. It wasn't even three months ago that Mother had berated me for fighting too fiercely against my sparring partner. I remembered vividly how it had enraged me. This was the woman who had always pushed me to be the best, and she dared tell me to hold myself back?! Without thinking, I challenged my mother right then and there. I knew the moment the words had come from my mouth, that I had made a horrible mistake. Each warrior was only allowed one challenge in their lifetime, and Mother was the greatest warrior in the world. I still had so much to learn, but it was too late, and the look of disappointment in Mother's eyes weighed heavy upon me even as she accepted my challenge.

It was right there. She was fast, but I was faster. I was skilled, but she was better. We dueled before the entire enclave from sunup to sundown, our sweat dripping from every pore, our bodies so fatigued that we could barely lift our swords. In the end, it was dumb luck that ended the match. One of the onlooking children had been stacking stones in her boredom. The stack fell over, spilled into the ring, and Mother slipped upon one. I struck the sword from her hand, and that was that; I had won. In my moment of glory, perhaps I had been too boasting—no, I had absolutely been too boasting. I lorded my victory over my mother with a grin on my face, and for the first time in a thousand years, a loser issued an objection. There was a hearing, there was a panel of judges, and it was decided that I had rightfully won the Sword of Iona, but not the seat of High Guard. The next day, I left. The next month, I killed her.

"There are some places you can never go back to," I whispered to Willowbud. "I left myself behind here. That girl is just a ghost in this place of ghosts."

"Seems like all we leave behind are ghosts," she whispered back. "We killed our mothers; we can never go back home."

"I killed my mother, Willowbud. Corruption killed yours."

"No," she smiled ruefully at me, and a tear rolled down her cheek. "It feels like freedom to blame everything on Corruption, but that's how she enslaved me. The only way to take off the shackles is to carry the load."

I looked back at the desert, at the points of black flame. "You told me Julia was stronger than you. How many times did she cast out Corruption when you kissed it into her?"

"Five times."

"She can do it again."

Willowbud shook her head. "The woman out there isn't Julia Gendian. She's the Flame of God."

"You were Night Eyes; you came back twice."

"My mother and father are all it cost. Julia's parents are dead, her daughter is corrupted, and I killed the only person who could've saved her. Maybe Diamond could've done it. I don't know." She chewed on her lip and looked out at the desert. "She saved me, and in return, I destroyed her. I saw it in her eyes when I killed Lucilla. If all it costs the world to save Julia is my life, I'd do it, but there's nothing to save."

I nodded soberly. "She was a good woman."

"That's why she's so evil."

"What do we do now, Willowbud?"

She snuggled into my arms. "Get some sleep."

WILLOWBUD

I woke up and sighed contentedly. There was no better way to wake up than between the robust pillowing tits of a raven-haired beauty. Astrid was already awake, as the half-vampire hardly needed sleep, and so a raise of my gaze greeted me to two sapphire irises with slit pupils. Those pupils shrank to normal circles as the sun crested over the eastern horizon, and cast dazzling sparkles in her eyes.

"Do you put me in this position every night, or do I roll into it?" I asked, collecting my spittle from her pert moist nipple. Apparently, I'd been suckling again.

"I guide you into it; you do the rest," Astrid whispered. "Even when you were Night Eyes, you used to suck your thumb when you slept."

"I wish you hadn't told me that."

"I don't mind," Astrid beamed down at me. "I actually love it."

"You're not supposed to encourage this kind of behavior in a well-adjusted adult."

"You spent your entire time as Night Eyes enabling my worst vices," Astrid stuck her tongue out. "Fair's fair."

"Who's enabling who? Even when you'd lost your goddamn mind, you were still trying to mother me."

"You're just such a cute little baby."

"You're such a crazy bitch."

Astrid smacked me hard across my ass and cackled when I yelped. "You will not talk to me like that anymore, Willowbud Autumnsong!"

"Ow, fuck!"

"No cursing at me!" she giggled and smacked me across the other cheek.

"Goddamn crazy fucking..." I tried to roll out of her hold, but her strength was astounding. She flipped me over, laid me across her lap, and delivered smack after smack across my little bronze ass. She hit me rhythmically, each strike stinging and numbing, sending tingles deep into my nethers, the cadence putting me into a trance until I was humming out a moan that was punctuated by her staccato slaps of flesh. My bronze cheeks became ruby and shiny. My cock swelled between her thighs.

"Huh," Astrid mused, patting my buttocks, "you've suddenly gone very quiet. Did you learn your lesson?"

I looked up at her from over my shoulder and sneered. "Fuck you."

"You're being a very bad girl."

"What are you gonna do about it?"

She wound one hand in my hair and yanked it until my neck was craning. She didn't pull to the point of pain, but to that exquisite mark just short of it. Her face loomed over mine, curious and mischievous, and she studied my features with a little bit too much of her vampiric hunger.

"Willowbud, this is a very strange place for me to be with you," she said softly. "I'm not the huntress anymore."

"I can be a good girl," I whispered back, biting my lip needfully.

"I know," she muttered, stroking my back, raking my spine pleasantly with her long nails, "I watched Julia defeat you. I watched those men take you. It scared me to see you like that." She settled her soft gaze upon me. "It excited me too."

"You'll be gentle?"

"So gentle," she whispered, sliding her hand down the small of my back, pressing fingers into my crack, moving through my delicate pelvic floor until her fingertips rested against my puckered anus. She stared into my eyes. I stared into hers. I pushed against her with my anal muscles, and she accepted my invitation and pushed inside me.

"Oh my god!" I gasped, my neck straining with tension as I savored the surrendering violation. She was infinitely tender, moving torpidly and purposefully through my tight sheath, finding my prostate with practiced ease and massaging with firm, passionate presses. I moaned and mewled for her, and her eyes danced with excitement, her plush lips opening to reveal her long sharp fangs.

"Can I have a taste?" she hissed.

"You're not supposed to ask when you're a domme," I snickered up at her.

She grinned. "Then I shall take what I want from you, Pet."

Carefully, she unknitted her fingers from my hair, wrapped an arm around my chest, and turned me over until I was seated in her lap, my cheeks spreading between her thighs so that her seeking fingers could go deeper, my cock curving backward with engorgement. Her breath was on my throat, and I pulled back my hair and bowed my neck to give her full access to the artery. I didn't feel the pain of her bite; only the entrance of her fangs into my flesh, the puncture of the wound, and the intimate pleasure of being fed from. She sensually sucked from my throat as she painted circles into my rectum, and my hips rotated pathetically with her puppeteer's wrist, moans and cries emanating from my pitiful mouth.

Before I could reach the precipice, she extracted her fingers from my hole and drew both her hands up my body. Her fingertips trailed along my belly on the way to my breasts, then cupped and squeezed my modest chest until I was moaning for her. Her breath quickened against my ear, and she slid her hands up my chest, up my collar, and for a moment, she dared to clasp them around my throat.

"You can choke me," I whispered. "I trust you."

She squeezed gently, and tingling electricity went through my body, rousing my desire once more. I gyrated against her, choking weakly around her gentle strangulation as my cock bobbed and throbbed between my quivering legs, then ejaculated violently without any stimulation. My back arched, and I croaked to the sky with my eyes rolled back.

"Become female for me," Astrid hissed into my ear. I didn't question her. I changed my gender, and let Astrid's free hand wander down my breasts, slide down my belly, and slip through my hairless pubic mound.

"I've never touched this side of you," she whispered heatedly, flattening my petals with her fingers as they ventured further down my blushing sex, "but I learned much from Tera and Justina. Let me show you what they taught me."

She pushed her fingers inside me, passing each wonderful knuckle through my gripping slit, stretching me gradually open, spreading a euphoric lassitude deep into my nethers that compelled me to unclench, to let her inside me, to let her do as she pleased. My feet pressed into the grass, my legs spread out wide, and my slender thighs made a bridge of my body above her molesting hands, opening myself to give her everything. She touched her two hands through the membrane of my channels, drawing a felicitous line, forcing my back to deepen its arch so that I could tilt my pelvis forward. My head rested helplessly upon her breasts, and my mouth expired pitiful whimpers and moans as my hips moved by her compulsion. Slowly and meticulously, she violated me to perfection, her fingers becoming slick and webbed with my secreting nectar, pushing deeper and deeper into me, touching that spot in my center that made my legs quiver. My head fell back, and she took my supplicant kiss into her mouth, drinking of my pleasure as her fingers compelled me into a sobbing orgasm.

"Thank you," she whispered upon my lips when we parted.

"You did all the work, and I got all the fun; what the hell do you have to thank me for?" I laughed against her mouth, gazing into those beautiful blue eyes.

"All the fun?" she asked. "Your pleasure was my pleasure. I came without even being touched." She blushed and tucked her chin insecurely. "Even when you give me control, you have such power over me. I'm sorry."

I touched our noses and brows and smiled into her predatory eyes. "Dommes don't apologize, Astrid."

She smiled back and stroked my face. "My pet likes to play such ponderous games, yes she does."

Unfortunately, Gloria came back from her night of hunting, and she brought the worries of the world with her. The three of us sat in the shade of Iona and ruminated on how to proceed.

"Losing the Ionan Guard is a setback—a huge setback—but it's not the end," Gloria muttered and pulled a squirrel out of one of the metal traps I'd made for her. She casually snapped the rodent's neck and tossed Astrid the carcass.

"It's not like we had much of a plan anyway," I said. "Just... go to Iona, and see what happens."

"You can't fight two gods on your own," Gloria looked gravely at me and pulled a fox out of a trap. "Especially not two that are bound to each other."

I frowned, recalling the vision I had in the astral plane. "Why doesn't Diamond have Julia's patterns if they're bound to each other?"

"I've been thinking about that myself." Gloria puzzled over the thought as she snapped the fox's neck. "Binding is a mutual act of love, so in theory, they should carry each other's mark. I don't know. Something happened when Diamond went behind Corruption's door. Tera and Angela discovered so much, and learned so little." She stuck her fangs into the fox's throat and sucked until the poor beast was but a furry bag of bones.

"Why are Julia's patterns black?"

Gloria shrugged. "Corruption was trying to get you to bind to Brandon. Maybe if you had succeeded, the patterns he put on you would have been black."

"Can a Sentient be bound?"

"Sentients have no souls; believe me." Gloria opened the last trap, where the fattest muskrat I'd ever seen was woefully stuffed between the bars of the contraption. "What you saw in the astral plane was created by your mind. I'm fairly certain the real Corruption would've recognized you after the two of you had such a jolly long time together."

"I suppose."

"Besides that, Corruption doesn't matter anymore," Gloria said as she tried to shake the stuffed beast out. "Right now we've got two gods we have to kill, one of which is a complete mystery to us, the other of which thinks she's preordained by god to burn everyone alive. So, if we could just..." with a mighty tug, Gloria ripped the squealing muskrat out, "...keep our eye on the proverbial ball here, and not get distracted with stupid fantasies like Tera and Justina did, then maybe we have a chance."

"We have more than a chance," Astrid beamed down at me, "it is an absolute certainty. It is destiny."

"It's at least fifty-fifty," I smiled up at her, wishing that I could delude myself into believing I had any chance at all.

"We still have the element of surprise," Gloria said, wringing the muskrat's neck, "In my experience, that is the greatest advantage you can—" The muskrat turned into my cousin.

Gloria screamed and leapt about seven feet in the air, Astrid brandished her sword, and I just blinked stupidly. Justina rubbed her neck, then winced when she lifted her arm. There was a massive contusion on her ribs from where my metal bars had been pressing against her.

"Fuck," she mumbled, "two of them broken. Good thing I didn't try something bigger, or I would've been nothing but splattered goo between the bars. When I felt my rib crack, I knew who must've made the trap." She gritted her teeth, and her rib snapped back into place. The contusion drained back into her body, and she let out a sigh of palpable relief. "Fuck, that was uncomfortable. Hey, did any of you see..." she trailed off when she saw the squirrel carcass between Astrid's feet, and let out another sigh, this one full of melancholy, "... of course. All of my romantic ventures end in heartbreak." She picked the animal up and snuggled it against her breast. "Goodbye, Mister Peanut," she whispered, and a tear ran down her cheek.

Astrid elbowed me, and whispered from the corner of her mouth, "Willowbud, I believe I've just lost my mind."

"Nope," I muttered, "I'm seeing it too."

JUSTINA

Angela and Brandon, get your asses over here right the fuck now! I broadcasted from my mind as I stared fixedly at the point on the horizon where Ofan was. Gloria Titus had extracted herself from the wall she'd climbed up in her fright, and was flanking me on the side. I didn't care. I was much more interested in the woman across from me. Astrid's hair was black, her wings were that of a raven, her incisors had become fangs, and her pupils transitioned from slits to circles as the sun's rays flickered between the conifer tree behind us. Her body was as beautiful and athletic as it had always been, but now it was decorated with intricate glowing markings shaped like geology.

"Jade has your sword," I said after we were done staring at each other.

Astrid nodded. "I have read the papers. I was so saddened to hear what happened to your mom."