The Way to a Man's Heart

"Gotta share, Nadi," he said.

She pushed her ass to the edge of the chair again and shifted so he had a clear view as she worked the vibrator through her landing strip and ran her fingers along her labia.

"I uh," Nadi nodded her head at the screen, "can guys really stick it up our butts? Do you stick that thing up Jane's cute, round ass?"

"Yeah," he grunted, "but lots of chicks don't like it."

"I wanna see. I wanna see you fuck my roommate's cute ass," Nadi said, while some part of her expressed utter and complete surprise. It felt like she'd pushed past... something.

Jane appeared alongside the sofa and turned her vibrator on. She tossed a small, plastic bottle that Iain caught with his left hand. Nadi looked up.

"You wanna see my ass get plowed, roomie? Oh... you just wait until this bill comes due. What I'm going to make you do."

She pushed Iain to stand up then got onto the soft on her knees. She turned and tapped the bottle.

"You get my ass, use lots of that," Jane said and looked at Nadi, "make sure they use lots and lots of lube. And use the toilet first."

Nadi nodded. Was this going to happen? Could she REALLY do this? She watched Iain pop the bottle cap and not only did he rub it on his prick, but he used it and pushed a finger into Jane's ass.

"Ooohhh, cold," Jane snapped, "jack your cock, warm it up a bit."

She held up the buzzing vibrator. "If Chantal can handle two at once, so can I. I'll just have a fake one."

Nadi stared. The vibrator against her own clit kept her twitching. Jane's tits were so much prettier in that position than Chantal's, so she hoped anyone seeing her would think the same.

Iain snapped the bottle closed and set it on the little table next to the beer can and Nadi's half-full wine glass. He nudged Jane's feet apart as he set himself on his knees behind her and held his erect shaft with his right hand.

"Watch and learn, little girl," Jane said as she held Nadi's eyes. The blonde's hand with the buzzing toy went between her legs.

Nadi shifted to get a clear view as Iain pushed the swollen glans past his girlfriend's back door and paused as her mouth opened and went to a smile but her eyes fluttered as the sound between her legs suddenly softened. With a deliberate pace, Iain pushed the rest of his prick into Jane's body. Her hand worked the vibrator.

Nadi thumbed her vibrator to its highest speed and increased the speed and pressure against her clit as intensely as she'd ever done as Iain's prick and Jane's hand likewise upped their pace with each stroke. No fucking wonder her roommate spent so many nights screaming, some part of Nadi's brain managed. It was the only thought she could manage that wasn't tied directly to the waves of pleasure between her legs or the sight of her roommate being DP'd on the sofa.

*****

"She's missing."

The seated figure let out a long, low growl, followed by a hiss. "Who is missing?"

The speaker and a second stooped creature with him looked at each other. Both rubbed their hands together in tight, fast circles and bobbed their bodies in repeated bows.

"I... I explained that to your clerk, Highness, one of our vorocks... she is known as Sartara, is gone."

"Such low creatures disappear all the time, they come, go, are eaten... find another. Why bring this to me?"

Both figures jumped back at the question and this time dropped to their bellies on the hard obsidian surface.

"We... uh..."

"SPEAK!"

"She crossed, Highness. She crossed!"

They both arched their necks and looked up at the sudden silence. They caught the frozen expression on the craggy, fiery red face topped by backward swept horns. The sudden laughter shook the very stone that made up the large hall. Two of the half dozen soldiers who stood with vertical spears in alcoves around the semi-circular hall strode forward toward the prostrate pair.

"We beg of you, Highness, let us show our case," the prone figure on the right said as the laughter lightened, without moving or lifting his head, "we beg of you."

The seated figure stopped laughing and raised a hand. The soldiers stopped, set their spears on the floor and stood at attention.

"How may you do that?"

"We... have a sorcerer."

"You have such?"

"Um, he is... a client. But he was powerful."

"If you amuse me sufficiently, I will not rend both of you and spread the bits so far and wide your parts may never find each other. You, go."

A soldier quick-stepped forward, bent and grabbed the prone figure on the right and he yelped as he was jerked upright. He stumbled as he was spun and pushed toward the exit.

"Come," he gestured to the side with his left hand. A naked blue succubus stepped forward with a silver goblet. Black hair flowed around her head and silver horns and ebony wings gleamed in the light of the fire pits. She stood alongside the throne and the seated figure grabbed the goblet and let out audible glugs as he drank while she caressed his shoulders and chest.

He stopped as the supplicant and the soldier returned, the former stooped and bowed with each step. The soldier held a pale figure by the back of the neck, ragged clothes covered from neck to upper thighs, sores across visible skin oozed thready white and pink fluids. A loud belch forced the rheumy gaze onto the seated figure. His body stiffened and his eyes widened and grunts and moaned screams forced their way past his frozen jaw. The soldier pushed him forward to stand a few steps from the throne.

The seated figure handed the goblet back before he touched the blue chin and pulled her mouth toward his. Forked tongues emerged and engaged in an intricate dance as his eyes gazed at the shivering prisoner and his fingers toyed with hugely erect black nipples before those clawed fingers snapped. The succubus turned and with exaggerated shakes of her hips disappeared behind reddish-black curtains.

"He is not impressive," said the seated figure, "I am so far not amused."

"Speak, worm," the standing supplicant slapped the man's face, his eyes spun but the clawed hand that held his neck didn't allow his head to move, "tell of your treachery."

The fingers that fell one after the next on the iron armrest of the throne were drumbeats in the hall. The exaggerated yawn caused the supplicant to scream and jump and punch the man, whose sores burst and gushed foul goo. But his body flowed with the blows, his head and neck held and he remained silent.

"I tire of this charade," a growl followed the words. The nearest soldier and a second one approached the scene in front of the throne.

The supplicant screamed and fell to the floor, alongside his shivering companion.

"Rend them all," he bellowed, "take them from my sight!"

As the guard dragged the standing man, he began to laugh. It was an unclean sound, raspy, mixed with coughs and gasps.

"Hold," came from the throne, before the great figure stood and climbed down the two steps to the floor. The two additional soldiers grabbed the supplicants and pulled them to stand, powerful hands at each neck. At a gesture, they dragged their burdens back to offer their boss room with his target.

"Your insolence amuses me," he said as he reached out and put a yellow claw under the man's chin, "what is your secret?"

A thumb joined the first finger and they slid, palm side up either side of the man's throat. His eyes bugged out and his mouth locked open.

"Not all our methods are brutality. It's so rare that such as you have thoughts that might be of interest to me, so it's rare that I simply take them. But if you part freely I may take your case into consideration. And, if you so share, I shall rend these two even more finely than I promised."

Screams morphed into moans as grips tightened.

"Hmm?" Finger and thumb caressed under the man's jaw. Claws pressed just under each ear.

"She is beyond you, Lord," the man's voice passed over jagged rocks, "I have seen her gone."

"I sense you believe that," the great head nodded, "continue."

"I loved the one called Sartara. She loved me. But there is no hope for us here."

"One such as her is incapable of love. Nevermind. This is the land beyond hope. You've taken at least that lesson, even if no others."

"She was capable. Unique. I was a great sorcerer. I've... I... used the last shards of my power. There was... an opening. A perfect vessel waited. It was a split-second as the planes spun. Perfect timing." The man's body shook and for a few moments he managed only racking coughs.

"Where?"

"I know it not of the million worlds... only as... Earth. It held the... urgh... vessel."

"Unlike you, I know it. One such as this Sartara loosed might indeed be amusing. But it might be inconvenient for me as well. Where on Earth?" The finger and thumb tightened slightly and claws made shallow penetration into the skin.

"I... urgh... ah, know not."

"You know, even if you do not know you do so."

Claws pushed into the skull with grinding sounds. The man's eyes bugged further and his body spasmed. After an instant, the hall shook with the great bellow, followed by the crunched pop as the man's skull exploded. The body sagged and went limp. He gave a small wave and the soldier dragged it toward the door. The angry beast turned and grabbed the chin of one of the supplicants.

"I have projects on that plane. Interference is not amusing. What was this Sartara's skill?"

"Hearts, Highness. She could smell the deserving of the newly arrived and pulled their hearts from their chests."

The other supplicant screamed as a second head sprayed blood and brains when it popped like an overripe melon.

*****

"Wilma McKenzie," Malden read from the paper and looked up, "we sure?"

"As we can be," Ambrose said and Shep behind him nodded, "our perp WAS as thorough as fuck with VINs, but even with the acid he'd used we got decent partials. It matches to a few possibilities nationwide, but to only four silver Corollas in the state, and we've accounted for three of them. Two still on the road, the other totaled two years back and in a junkyard downstate. Wanta see the picture?"

"I'll take your word," Malden said, "what's the deal with this McKenzie?"

"Uh, well, she IS a local, lived close by her whole life, which is, uh, seventy-eight years. The last six of them in Countryside Care Home."

"Dementia?"

"That and been totally blind for twenty years."

"So she hasn't been driving the car. But the registration, insurance all in her name?"

"Yup. And payments always been from her checking account, even though her driver's license was canceled over a decade ago. Address on it all is a vacant lot on the east side of town, house that burned down quarter-century ago, the Baker family."

"Mother, daughter died while the husband and son were off hunting," Malden said, "Billy took the boy and left town. Virginia or somewhere. I'd just joined the force. No one from the insurance company ever checked?"

"National firm, no local agent. Switched to it before she went into the home. The bank account, she's got a decent bundle, no, I should say, she HAD a decent bundle. Medicare covers fair amount, but the Home's eating into the balance."

"So who's managing it?" Malden said with a tone of irritation.

"Good question. Home says she hasn't had anyone since she arrived, beyond the Gold Hat ladies who visit around the various homes. When her sight hit the skids, before the brain rot set in she'd made arrangements with them and went in before it got too bad. Never married, no kids, no siblings anymore."

"And no posse of tight girlfriends like our Nadi," Malden said with a sigh.

"We've asked at the local bank branch," Shep read from his notebook, "but they got absorbed by a big national bank years ago. Say you could do everything online now, so long as nothing went wrong you'd never need to walk into the branch. Manager moaned once the older folks 'round here die off, they'll likely get shut down."

"Fuckin' internet," Malden snapped. Then she closed her eyes and pinched her nose between them.

"Okay," she said slowly, "get a court order and freeze the account, suspicious activity or whatever the fuck. Whatever you can get to stick, Artie. Talk to the commies. They've gotta have IT wizards who can find who's been logging in."

"They can probably get locations," Shep said, "maybe not more."

Malden glared at him and he nodded and scribbled furiously in his notebook.

"There is one more thing," Ambrose said "McKenzi—."

"What?"

He skipped a beat at the force of the question. "She has a second car."

"Goddammit, Artie, you might be my favorite detective, but that doesn't mean I won't bust your ass back to parking enforcement. A second fucking car?"

"A 2008 red Chevrolet Aveo, hatch—."

"Little shit boxes, you mean," Malden snapped, "do we—."

"Have an APB? Already out."

Malden nodded. "Okay. So our perp seems to not only be a local, but he's been planning this for a long time. He'd been smart to roam, wonder why he suddenly decided to hunt so close to home?"

*****

Nadi carried her bags from the little boutique that sat near the campus among a variety of other businesses that also catered to students. The prior Nadi had liked cute, but hadn't focused on 'sexy' clothes and styles, and had generally followed her posse's advice but always torqued it to 'sedate.'

That Nadi was gone.

She'd thought that the cute, little skirts and dresses that Jane and Sherry wore, and the even littler skirts that Val favored, weren't good options until spring. Especially Val's, that Nadi planned to match. Well, beat with what was in the bag. Not that she was all that sensitive to cold anymore, but people reacted less to an individual than to an individual that deviated from the mean.

She liked that phrase. Deviated from the mean. She'd found it, but without enough context to understand it. Her instructors had been kind, like so many others, and had arranged 'catch up' sessions since she'd missed the early weeks of the semester. She'd left such a session just before her little shopping trip and had 'deviated' from a direct path home.

A cute girl in one of the movies she'd watched with Jane and Iain had given her the idea. The weather had suddenly teased springtime that convinced most to 'pretend' for the Valentine's party. Besides, it would all be indoors and with so many students there, 'dressing to impress' would be important in establishing the social hierarchies for the rest of the semester.

She'd not found exactly what she'd wanted, but close enough. And even though the girls at the shop were locals, not fellow students working side jobs, they'd been friendly to her.

With the vagaries of more traditional industries having caused them to trend downwards, the College and its student body had become important linchpins in the local economy. Nadi mused about the resentment that sometimes caused in the locals, despite her early life being as shitty as any local's here, she'd tried to be polite in the past but it hadn't always been easy. But being the 'miracle girl' smoothed feelings, especially, she'd found, when she was shy and tried to dismiss any attention. Apparently, denying the attention made them more determined to give it.

She'd liked the extra discount, though. So long as she kept a tight reign on her spending, she could make it without needing a side job just on her scholarship plus her sliver of a trust set up for fosters like her to continue their education by an elderly woman who'd been a foster and made her fortune and who'd died a decade ago. This had to be her last splurge for a while, but she needed only a single additional item.

The heart.

She paused to look through a window. Balloon hearts floated, pillow hearts sat on shelves, alongside cardboard heart boxes of candy.

She snorted.

Surely she needed a proper heart, especially for an occasion so auspicious as this party. These were for normal, boring people. Yes, she knew the heart she needed.

It was just a matter of locating it.

She'd had whiffs. She'd known. But only the merest whiffs. She'd told that nice lady police chief and the others what she'd been able to. She'd known they'd been disappointed. She truly hadn't been able to dredge up the image they'd wanted, had begged for, had even tried hypnosis for. She'd told of her arms and legs tied, a blindfold, and fuzzy, fuzzy brain after a scent she'd never forget.

They'd nodded at all that. It almost matched the feeling of passing a test in a class, of pleasing your instructor. But the image. She'd been disappointed in herself because the Chief had been unhappy.

She'd told the Chief she only had the scent. The scent from the clearing. She'd recognize it easily, but words didn't exist to pass it on to that woman and the others. But that scent had been around. In the little town. On the campus. It was fresh. But not strong.

She turned away from the heart shop to walk to the nearest shuttle stop. She'd promised, not only Jane but also the Chief, she'd have her mobile phone at hand and all of them on speed dial, twenty-four by seven. She had it. And that, unlike before, she'd use the little shuttles that ran regularly between the town and the campus. It was sometimes more annoying to catch them than walk, they were regular but not often, but at least at the stop there was recourse. Shops to duck into, bystanders to notice, should an ill fate approach.

Besides, she DID know the danger possible on that short walk. It'd found her. Although, the days had lengthened slightly, so there was a longer window. But not yet 'long.'

Then she froze. She pulled air in with a deep, slow breath. At the same time, a car just behind and to her left accelerated. She kept her face forward but swiveled her eyes.

A little, red car. She could see there was only a driver, no one else, and the passenger door window rose as she watched it. At the next cross street, it turned right and accelerated. She had little visual sense of anything beyond brown hair and pale skin.

They'd never told her why, but when she'd answered a question with "it was silver, black seats, nothing unusual," the Chief and the others had practically wet their pants. The Chief likely wore panties, most women, especially her age, did, so not likely a problem for her. Despite the night of the party, Nadi had stuck with HER decision on that matter. But she'd made them very happy.

But now, the scent. It was strong and trailed in the direction of the car.

She walked quickly and stopped just before the corner. The shuttle stop was in the middle of the next block, but the scent had lessened so she edged forward and looked to the right. No red car. Well, there was one, parked three spots up, but it wasn't the right kind. And a different red. She looked at the shuttle stop, then to the right again. She tapped the inside of her left calf with her right foot.

She nodded and turned right.

Past the second block, there were as many derelict buildings as those in productive use. Nadi walked and sniffed. She hadn't seen the car again, but unless he'd sped straight, there was nowhere else to go, except the alleys she'd already passed. This area hadn't prospered with the change in economic fortunes like the boutiques area she'd visited, it was a sign that 'better times' weren't exactly the present ones for the whole town.

Then she stopped at the next alley. She turned to face right.

The little red car was about fifty yards ahead, between old and apparently unused buildings. A slight breeze was in her face and the scent was strong. There didn't seem to be anyone in the car. Nor were there any other people around. She did see a couple of rats scurry.

She liked rats. Creatures such as they, well, ones related to these, had been her only friends once... until. But that for later.