The Cursed Tattoo Pt. 07

The Librarian

Over time, Eleftheria's literary demands for her research had gotten more and more obscure. Eventually the university library could not supply Ryan with what he was looking for anymore. This led to Ellie seeking out an actual occult society for him to visit. It's amazing what you can find if you live in a big enough city. She had somehow gotten Ryan fast-tracked into a full membership. This gave him access to a surprisingly large secret library and their research reached new levels.

Better yet, the library was located in an underground cavern. Most of the walls were carved in a Gothic style but a few sections kept their natural rock look. Ryan had been very impressed the first time he saw the whole thing. It was like a movie set.

Out of sorts with her surroundings was the head librarian. She did wear mostly black but other than that she didn't look like an occultist, to Ryan. She was a tiny woman, as short as Lizzy, but even more petite. She was young, gorgeous, and very, very blonde. Bright snow white. To Ryan, she looked more like a saleswoman at a perfume counter or a women's clothing boutique. Maybe a goth one, though. Definitely not a librarian, occult or otherwise, except that she handled her job with great care and dedication. She did wear glasses and she seemed a bit shy and mousy, but that didn't negate the blondness, or the beauty. A pocket-sized demonology barbie, evil Ryan would have thought.

The first time Ryan met her he was too distracted by the library itself to be nervous. Plus, having a harem had done a lot for his self esteem. He was practically half evil-Ryan now. Who knows, he could have been charming, but with the curse and all, he didn't really get to do much dating. He shook her hand, with his gloves on of course. She didn't ask, but Ryan told her he had some burns anyway. The girl seemed intrigued. It hadn't occurred to Ryan that in the occult world having burns on your hands carried different connotations than in normal life. Usually, people assumed he was clumsy in the kitchen. Who knew what she imagined.

Ryan visited the library often, over the next few months. They got to talking. Her name was Erica. It was mostly normal small talk, sometimes occult small talk. Ryan didn't even realize he was flirting. He had some knowledge of occult topics by now. Most of the books were the kind you could not check out so Ryan spent hours at a time there. It was his only free time, a relaxing break from the endless fucking.

Sometimes when he was reading he could see Erica hovering or stealing peeks from between the shelves. She always blushed and squirmed when he caught her looking. One time, she asked him about the gloves again. Ryan told her he was mostly okay now but had just gotten used to wearing them. "They're good for the books, too, right?" he said.

What Ryan didn't realize was that Erica could keep track of what he was reading about. Eventually, she started to form her own ideas on the subject matter of his research. First, she skimmed some of the books he had read, and then all of them. She casually asked what he was into but he told her nothing, only that he was doing some kind of research with a partner. Most of his books were old Mesopotamian stuff so Erica started to look into that on her own time, too.

One hot summer night Ryan came around again. He had been wearing suits when he first started, like most new members, but was now dressed more casually. He was wearing black jeans and a short leather jacket, and carried a motorcycle helmet on his elbow. His hair was disheveled, as always, and his body was tight and trimmed. He must do a lot of exercise. Very sexy, Erica thought. There was an ease to the way he carried himself. He looked like someone who should be arrogant but wasn't, at least not in an asshole kind of way. He was mostly just neutral toward her.

"Good evening, Erica, how are you?"

"Ha. Same old, same old."

"Is the Nabu-Tammuz treatise still on the table? I don't think I'm finished with it yet."

"It should be where you left it."

"Nice. See you around. Might I say, you are looking very beautiful today."

Before she could answer, he turned away.

Typical. Does he even know he's doing it? she thought. Erica was peeved by how well the nonchalance was working on her.

Ryan seemed oblivious. Sometimes people with newfound confidence can be dismissive by accident. In the occult world, newfound confidence was especially alluring, and it was definitely Erica's favorite flavor. She'd always been attracted to moderately bad boys, but usually from afar. Ryan might have just defined her new weakness: the unintentional-bad-boy book-nerd.

Erica almost swallowed her own tongue when she saw it. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Ryan had stopped before rounding the corner, and had stretched as high as he could, with a big yawn. Erica had seen his tattoo. The glimpse had been quick and by the time she recovered Ryan was gone. But the tattoo had looked very much like an actual ancient curse.

Erica's stomach twisted with fear and excitement as she peeked around the corner. There he was, sitting in the same chair as always. The tattoo must be fake, a real tattoo but a fake curse, Erica thought.

It did make sense, however. Someone with a curse like that would wear gloves. It could all be a pretentious affectation, but Ryan was so sincere in his efforts, genuinely interested in finding answers. Could he really be affected by actual magic?

Erica had a lifelong love of the occult but she'd never witnessed anything undeniably supernatural. If Ryan was for real it would be her first, and maybe only, chance to talk to someone involved with the real thing.

He noticed her again. The tingles almost made her piss her skirts. Come on girl. For once, you can do this, it's now or never, she thought. Erica forced herself to move, slowly at first, but then she couldn't stop. "Hey Ryan, I noticed your tattoo. It's a Sumerian design, right, or is it Greek? Can I see it? I think it looks really nice."

"Um... Sure, I guess, just don't touch it."

"Why?" Butterflies ripped through her stomach.

"Uh, because, it's sore, from the, uh, gym?"

Oh my god, this looks real, she thought. Ryan got up and raised his jacket and shirt. The tattoo looked perfectly authentic. "Nice," she said, and made a hasty escape.

Ryan almost got the sense that the girl might be interested in him. He let the idea go later, though. He wasn't used to women being interested in him, at least not hot ones like Erica. Ryan's harem at home was an exception, of course, but they were a huge exception in everything else, too. Ryan also later considered the sense of showing the tattoo to Erica at all. But since nothing came of it, he soon forgot about the whole incident.

Erica, however, did not forget. She paid even closer attention to Ryan, and the books he read. That carried her into doing her own research and a few weeks later she found a certain diagram in an ancient book of spells. She ran her fingers over the image with trembling hands. There it was. The design was identical. A curse of... lust. Carnal servitude. Her knees gave way. This is like a bad romance novel. If this is just a trick to pick up girls, it seems awfully tailor-made toward me, specifically.

She spent hours staring at that picture of the symbol in the book. Her whole life ran through her mind: all the teenage embarrassments, all the failed relationships. She was desperate to find a reality beyond the mundane and this could be her chance. So what if she had to do some carnal lusting with Ryan? That sounded sexy to her, in theory. But what if he is some kind of a serial killer? This is real life, and fantasies are often best left as fantasies.

There was a chance she could end up battered and bruised but she couldn't believe that of Ryan. They were friends, kind of. No, the worst thing that could happen to her was that she just embarrassed herself once again by being a creep and alienating yet another hot guy. Been there, done that. It was easily worth the risk because the best thing that could happen was almost unimaginable.

From then on, she waited for the right moment to approach him. Time went by. Erica soon realized there might not be a "the right moment" for something like this. She even considered following Ryan home but found the idea hard to do in practice. An unintended side effect of all this was that she started acting weird when Ryan was around. That made approaching him even harder.

One night, she saw her chance. Ryan had fallen asleep. He was actually drooling on a five hundred year old manuscript. Erica made her way toward him slowly, trembling, and almost wheezing. She had taken her shoes off to make less sound. She was right next to him now. As far as she knew, she could touch him anywhere and the curse should just work.

This was the moment of truth, and she froze. In a split second, with one hasty touch, she might change her whole life forever. Her mind was a storm but her curiosity got the better of her.

She grabbed one of his gloves and tried to peel it off, carefully. She wanted to see if he actually had any burns or if he had been lying. Ryan snapped awake. He grabbed her by the wrists, his eyes furious.

"What are you doing?" he shouted. "Don't touch me!" He was grabbing her hard and Erica had been a mental mess to begin with so she fell to her knees and started crying.

"Oh, no. No no no. Don't cry. I mean, it's not a don't-touch-me like that. You're fine. It's just that it might be dangerous to... I can't explain it, but just don't..."

"I know what you are!"

"What do you mean? If you think you know what's going on, then you why would you try to touch me?"

"I don't care! I want it. I want to see something real, for once in my life."

Ryan loosened his grip, a little bit, and let her calm down.

After a while, he let her go and sat back down. He'd instinctively clamped down on his flow when he'd woken up, but now, as he relaxed, the flow came back. He was used to letting it be on all the time now. In the beginning, he had held back a lot, but now that his girls had all gotten acclimated he had no reason to regulate the flow. "Look," he started, but before he could finish he felt a warm palm on his tattoo.

The jolt of ecstasy was magnificent. Erica had never felt anything like it. It was like being embraced by the goddess of love, but on the inside. Every atom of her body was embraced and accepted in a way only a god could grant. This was home, this was love, this was life. This was Magic. She knew she had made the right choice. She cried again, but this time, it was tears of joy.

Ryan tried to push her back, and clamp the flow, but she begged for more.

The damage had already been done so he let her hold him. He knew he was in trouble. Ellie would kill him for this. He would never be allowed to leave the apartment again. He had been rigorous in dividing his life into home and away for months now. It felt like he was cheating, letting an outsider touch him while the girls were waiting for him at home.

Ryan felt his body heat up. Fucking Erica right now would be wrong, but she was his now, and eventually it would have to happen anyway. Her fate was already sealed. How about a quick blowjob from a hot librarian, in a fancy library, that sounds hot. He could feel a lumbering erection in his pants. No. No more mistakes. He had done enough mistakes for one night.

"Come on, you're coming with me. You can hold me while we're on the bike," he said. He felt taking her home with him was the safest option. There, he could beg Ellie for help.

"Whatever you say, Master. Your wish is my command," the mousy hottie said, in her cute voice.

Here we go again, Ryan thought.

The motorcycle was a new purchase. Ryan wondered if Ellie even knew how dangerous it could be. If he got into a crash, who knows who could touch him. Then again, you could have an accident in a car, or just walking. At least the bike was cool. Or what if he died? How would the girls get their cum, then?

Erica was holding on to him like an Olympic wrestler. Her shift wasn't even over. The clear air cooled Ryan's mind and he focused on riding. No words were said as they spliced through the evening traffic.

Ryan opened the door and let Erica into his apartment. Just as he had thought, there were naked women everywhere.

Erica had been in a daze since she'd touched Ryan's tattoo but her mind had started to clear in the elevator. Ryan had had let go of her hand to dig out his keys. She was suitably shocked, and impressed, by what she saw now.

There was an elegant and voluptuous blonde cooking in the kitchen area, wearing nothing but a smile, an apron, and stiletto heels. Were it not for the outfit, she could have been a doctor or something -- a sexy doctor, though.

Two goth girls were giggling and pillow fighting around the sofas in the middle of the open plan living space. They were both in nothing but their panties. Actually, only one of them looked like a "real" punk-goth-whatever. She had more tattoos and piercings than the other, even her nipples were pierced. She also had purple hair and wore a collar. And wow was she a magazine perfect beauty. The other girl was beautiful, too. Shorter, but even shapelier. She didn't have any piercings, only earrings, and much less tattoos. One of hers seemed to say "property of Ryan," however, or something to that effect. She was very attractive, too, even next to the taller one.

Then there was a fourth woman, in the other end of the room, sitting in a chair with a book. Her hair was a natural shade of ginger and her body like that of Venus. She was just as beautiful as the purple punk girl, but in a different way. She wasn't as skinny but all the difference was where it mattered. Those boobs had to be perfect. She was one of those one in a million girls, who have those boobs that are so full and round and firm it's almost impossible to believe they're not fake.

Way to go, Master, Erica thought, even though she felt a pang of jealousy.

Right now, the redhead was looking at Erica with a very worried expression on her kind face.

Erica had been in the occult scene long enough to have seen a bit of weird stuff, such as gratuitous nudity for example. Usually, the people into that kind of stuff took themselves way too seriously. This didn't feel at all like one of those pretentious fake orgies. This felt more like a home, where people were happy.

Then everyone stopped, and the giggling stopped. To Erica, it felt like even the sound of the boiling water faded. The silence lasted until Ryan broke it.

"Hey girls. This is Erica. There's been a bit of a situation. There was a thing and a thing, and long story short, I might have touched her, accidentally."

There was a shared gasp.

That's not how I remember it going, Erica thought.

"Uh, hi. I assume you are also..." she said, but the room didn't feel receptive. Erica shut up, taking in more of the scenery. Everyone had turned to look at a statue in the corner. It was a very realistic depiction of some ancient angelic figure, or something. Then, the statue came alive, and came straight for Erica and Ryan.

"Oh shit! Is that Eleftheria the R..."

"Silence! Ryan, why have you brought a stranger into our home? How have I not made clear the basic rules of your situation?"

"Look, Ellie, I touched her. It was an accident, just kill me now. Then help her."

Eleftheria looked at Ryan with real hate, and then at Erica, with measured coldness. "Why do you speak my name, stranger?" she asked her.

"I recognize you from a book about the..."

"That's enough. You are the keeper of the society library, are you not?"

"Yes."

"I recognize you now. Do not presume to know truth from legend, and do not speculate on my history. I can see why Ryan failed you, though. You are just as picturesque as the others."

"Oh, come on, I didn't choose anyone. I didn't even know I had any powers when I met the others. It was all an accident," Ryan said.

"Come now fallen soul, look around you. Do these ladies look like ordinary women?"

Ryan had no answer. There was a silence.

"A... actually, it was all my fault," Erica confessed.

"What?" Ellie asked.

"Ryan didn't do anything to me. He didn't fall or fail, or anything. I saw his tattoo and recognized it, and I touched it on purpose, even though he tried to stop me."

"Why in the heavens would you do something like that, girl?"

"Because it's Magic. It's all I ever wanted, and I know I made the right choice. I've already felt it, and I wouldn't give it away."

"Ryan. Is this true?" Ellie said.

"Oh, come on Ellie. She's not an enemy. Your job is to protect the girls, right? So that includes her now, too. In your mind it's always me that's the bad guy. And even though what she said is kind of true, I'll still take the blame on this one. I could have avoided this if I'd been more cautious. So, I'm going to be on indefinite house arrest from now on, as part of my punishment, and you can start by explaining Erica here the basics of this whole curse thing. And hey, I don't even need to run your errands anymore, since we have a librarian now."

"Wait, Eleftheria is your research partner? You're collaborating with an..." Erica said.

"Silence, lady. Did I not tell you to stop the speculation? Whatever you think you have read about me is false. Ryan, I accept your terms. You are still my assistant, but are not allowed to leave the home anymore."

Ryan laughed.

"Pray tell me, what amuses you so?" Ellie said.

"Claudia is going to have a field day with this. As soon as she hears I made a new slave girl and I'm on house arrest, she going to rip me a new one. Ha. And.. uh, sorry, I didn't mean like a slave slave, just, that's how she would see it, or, see me seeing it, so... I'm just going to shut up now."

"Wait, there's more? How many girls are there?" Erica said.

"Oh? No, just five. Well, six now, with you. If you ask Ellie, I'm sure she will tell you that she is not one of you, she is just here to protect you."

"I'm sure when Claudia shows up, it'll be you ripping her a new one, as always," Remy quipped, joining the conversation. She was the first of the others to start recovering from her shock.

Ellie explained the most essential features of the curse to Erica in a very concise and elegant manner.

The other girls were somewhat embarrassed about their casual nudity, except for Remy, but they all got over it quickly. They got on with their evening, although in a slightly more reserved manner. Eleftheria's lessons had gone through to them and there was very little "unnecessary bashfulness" in the house these days. Ryan never understood what Ellie was after with that. Maybe she really believed it was somehow "efficient."

As Ryan should have guessed, Erica seemed to know a lot about the curse already.

Ryan went around and apologized to the girls, but they all agreed that Erica's motivations made their own kind of sense, and that she had been brave to confess the truth. There was all kinds of hugging, that then turned into all kinds of kissing and groping, but Ryan tried his best to keep things low key, for now, though, so as not to scare the new girl.

Ellie was eventually done with Erica and she went back to her post in the corner.

"That is actual, real magic," Ryan said, pointing to Ellie, "I'm just a guy with a curse."

"No, I felt it. Your magic is real and I'm still glad I was brave enough to do it, but I now realize I was selfish to force myself on you. This is your home and this is your life, and I'm an intruder here. You didn't invite me. I invited myself into your home and that was wrong of me."