Tre Lloyd Adventures Ch. 06

I leaned back on the chair I had carried into the bathroom and cussed loudly seeing the holes torn in my shirt and the scratches to the skin underneath. I pulled the shirt off and threw it in the trash, adding it to the growing list of clothes destroyed in the past few days. I shook my head at the boldness of the trio of vampires who attacked me around the conveniently dark side of a gas station on Nail Road. In retrospect, I guess it was too convenient and I should have remembered Freyja's threat about the all out attacks. As it was I got careless walking out of the convenience store and got jumped.

The first one I saw was leaning against the viper when I came around the corner. He smiled a fangy smile and I deduced that he was a relatively new turn. "Hello Mage. What a surprise this is. The Duchess removes the restriction against attacking you and here you are. I guess I get to be the one to bring you to her."

"You're welcome to try, fanger." I said, answering his smile with a confident one of my own. "Better than you have tried, and I'm still here." I went through the spells I had in mind to find some that I could use without drawing undue attention to what was about to happen. The spell I had used on Nadia was out of the question. The brightness would attract attention that I didn't want. The same was true for the spells that Arianna and I had come up with before my meeting with Freyja. I quickly sent out a bubble of silence that would keep anybody nearby from getting curious.

As he pushed off of my car, I began to move to circle around him, adjusting my hold on the Mountain Dew bottles in my hand. I had a weapon I could use, one of the surprises I kept in my duster, a wakizashi short sword held in an extra-dimensional pocket of my duster, but I wanted to see what the fanger had in store for me. I kept circling to my left, the vampire turning to watch me with a smile on his face. I thought of a few spells I could use but was very reluctant to use them because of the effects they had on my body.

My back was facing the wall when I caught a slight jerk of his eyes upwards. Without hesitation I threw the two 1-liter bottles of Mountain Dew at the vampire's face and lunged at him. He was able to deflect them with no problem as I knew he would be, but it gave me time to mouth the trigger word to open the extra-dimensional pocket in my duster and draw my wakizashi in my right hand. I cast my spell reluctantly and saw my hand wreathed in a shimmering black aura. The vampire swung his claws at my face and I raised the sword to parry the attack away as I heard two whispers of sound behind me. I felt the sword bite and saw two fingers fall to the ground as I risked a glance over my shoulder, seeing two more vampires walking towards me with evil intentioned smiles on their faces.

I cussed to myself and stepped forward, slapping a claw-like maneuver on the face of the vampire in front of me with my left hand. The last part of the spell finished, it unleashed its power on the vampire, who screamed in pain and tried in vain to pull my hand from his face as my spell, designed just for close in fighting with vampires, began to drain the very essence of his un-life from him. He clawed futilely at my arm but it was protected by the magically reinforced duster. I half spun, dragging the vampire with me as I slashed the sword in an arc out to my right trying to gauge where the vampires behind me were. Only one was in range and he leaped back away from the razors edge of the blade.

Finally the spell released the vampire held by my left hand, having finished draining the vampire of its essence. I fought the surge of nausea as the undead life-force joined with my magic and stepped back away from the two vampires in front of me. As I stepped over the one I had just drained I flipped the wakizashi and stabbed through his ribs into his heart. I leapt back as he exploded into a cloud of dust and drew on the undead essence sending a series of dark darts and dark bolts at the remaining two vampires through the cloud of ash. As they appeared through the cloud, leaping at me as soon as they could see me, I launched straight at one, while he was in midair, aiming the sword for where I assumed his heart would be when I got there. Unfortunately I missed when he landed before I did and immediately leapt to my right. I managed to stab through his right side, leaving a huge gash along his ribs, but I missed the heart and didn't stop him.

"Why don't you two just give up now and save yourselves more pain." I said, gathering up the last of the dark essence into one more spell. As the fanger to my left charged, I used my power, mingled with the dark essence to cast, what I hoped, was a dark fireball. The flickering black ball flew at the vampires head and impacted, exploding with a rush of cold instead of the heat of a fireball. I tried to cover my surprise because I had never tried that before and was almost taken by the last fanger, who leapt in and slashed his claws across my gut. I leapt back in time to avoid being gutted, but I still hissed in pain as the vampires claws raked across my skin. I brought the wakizashi down in a sharp quick block, the razor sharp blade slicing easily through the vampire's wrist and, with a snapping turn I reversed it into his undead heart.

I walked away as he just collapsed in a cloud of ash and rapidly disintegrating bones. I returned the wakizashi to its scabbard in the extra-dimensional pocket and dispelled the bubble of silence. I looked down at the shredded Mountain Dew bottles and shook my head with a sigh. "Oh well. I still have some at the house. That will last me until I can get to the store." I shook the ash from the duster as best I could and climbed into the viper and headed home.

I got out the gauze and the peroxide from the medicine cabinet and started cleaning the scrapes, still shaking my head at being caught like that. I kept soaking gauze and wiping the cuts for a while, giving up on it and grabbing the jar of cotton balls, soaking them and using them to clean the cuts, watching the scrapes foam badly as soon as the peroxide touched them. After nearly 30 minutes of pouring peroxide onto the cuts, wiping it off and pouring more on, I gave up in frustration and just decided to put away the salve and bandages and just use a spell to heal the damn things.

Putting my hands above the scratches, I relaxed and let the Power flow through my hands. It was hard to fight the urge to scratch as I felt the tissues knitting back together and obviously heating up to fight the infection already spreading. I moved my hands and looked at the miniscule scars, muttering to myself "I really wish fuckin vampires would clean under their nails," with a grin. I stood up and carried the stool back into the kitchen and set it down, walking over and flopping down on the couch to see what was on the TiVo tonight. I didn't see anything I was in the mood to watch so I walked back down the hall and unlocked my office and going inside.

I was just getting started on my research into why the fireball I threw at that vamp tonight was cold instead of hot when I mixed the dark essence with a bit of the regular Power when the phone rang. "This is me." I said.

"Mr. Lloyd. This is Chilo at the Villa. You asked us to call when your guests had arrived. They started arriving this morning around 2 and the last, the gentleman from England, just arrived." The voice on the phone paused for a moment, and then continued. "You told us to be ready for six guests for an extended stay, sir. There are eight people here now."

"Eight? That isn't right." I said, thinking.

"Yes sir," the spirit butler said. "There are eight. Mister Akiro, Mister Keio, Mister Jonathon, Mister Tomas, Mister Dave, Mister Dreux, Mister Bobby, and Mister Tomas's friend Lady Heidi."

I thought to myself and mentally slapped my forehead at forgetting about Bobby, the relative newcomer to the team. I had no idea who Heidi was, but I would find out tomorrow. "Ok, Chilo, put them all up and I will come by tomorrow and see what is going on with Tomas bringing an outsider to the Villa. Without waiting on the spirit's reply I hung up the phone and went back to my research. I skimmed through my books on the essence of what made a vampire a vampire. When I took a break from the researching, I sent a couple of search bots into the Order's databases to see if there was anything there to be found.

After a few hours of tedious research, I put all of my books away and checked the search bots roaming the Order's databases. I found many references to "Dark Essence" and to "Fireballs" but none in the same file. I left the bots searching and decided to go to bed. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed the last of my Mountain Dews and walked tiredly to my bedroom not having realized how tired I was until I quit searching.

Just for the fun of it, I put the DVD that Marie had given me along with the video disk of the vampire at her apartment when she had called me to come by earlier in the day, and the reason I was on Nail Road to be jumped by vampires in the first place, into the player and turned it on as I was getting dressed for bed. When I turned back, there was a delightful montage on my TV screen. Marie's smiling face was the focal point and her long blonde hair was blended with various images from her 'videos' and the words "Marie's Sexcapades Greatest Hits" in muted lettering. I chuckled as I climbed into bed.

As I leaned back on a couple of pillows, Marie's face came across the screen again, this time moving. "Hey Tre!" She sounded like she always did, too happy. "As you know I've never done an actual DVD except for special requests. I know you didn't request it, but I wanted to make it for you anyway. These are some of the ones that I recorded, but didn't put up on the site. You're the first besides me to see this and I hope you enjoy it and I REALLY hope it makes you want to come back and help out with another video soon. It is broken up into chapters and everything, just like a professional DVD would be so I hope it's easy to follow. Have fun Tre, but not too much fun unless I'm there" She winked into the camera and stood up slowly. She was wearing a towel at first but quickly dropped it as her breasts came into view of the camera, then stood up fully and walked around her chair and away from the camera, her ass wiggling temptingly. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at the camera. "Quit watching Me, Tre, and watch the DVD, it's what I made it for you for." She reached over her shoulder and pushed a button on a small remote and the camera winked off, the feed replaced with the menu screen of the DVD. I smiled at her ingenuity in that and looked through the varying selections on the disk. Seeing that the first one looked interesting, I just hit the button to play the DVD.

The screen faded in to a still of Marie and a thin blonde laughing together with the words "Marie & Renee" across it. I got comfortable and the video came up with Marie laying Renee back on the bed. She knelt at the foot of the bed and began sliding up Renee's legs, her hands moving up a bit at a time as her lips and teeth followed. She caressed her way lightly up Renee's leg, fingertips brushing slowly along, blazing the trail for her lips and tongue. Renee moaned softly as she leaned up on her elbows to watch Marie's progress. Marie brought one hand down and lifted Renee's leg, licking her way up her calf, soft lips brushing against Renee's skin without seeming to pause but for a second. As she began to nibble around the back of Renee's leg, Marie let her other hand drift down, fingertips slipping along the silken skin of Renee's inner thigh.

Renee's growing excitement was obvious in her quickening breathing as well as in the soft moans and sounds of encouragement she was making. Marie took the cues from Renee and began working her way down the back of her upraised thigh, white teeth shining as she grazed the pale smoothness of Renee's flesh. Renee's moans became louder as Marie's teeth moved at a leisurely pace down the back of her thigh, her free hand sliding down to caress the already moist petals of her sex. Her fingers barely parted the wet lips as they fluttered up and down the hot slit.

Marie paused in her nibbling, licking and kissing and looked up at Renee, a mischievous grin on her face as Renee moaned. Her fingers never stopped in their slow, fleeting caresses of her wet pussy as she smiled at her, leaning down to lightly lick and nibble at her inner thigh, moving down the thigh slowly. Her fingers caressed the smooth flesh lightly, dragging up and down before pushing between the wet folds to stroke Renee's clit, fingertips brushing it, rubbing gently.

Renee reached up to cup her breasts, her thumbs and forefingers tweaking and pulling her hard nipples. She moaned softly as Marie's lips finally reached her drenched sex, the tip of her tongue snaking out between the wet lips of her pussy. She looked down as Marie gave her head a bit of a side to side twist as if she was saying 'no' emphatically, her tongue rubbing steadily against Renee's clit. Renee moaned, "Oh God Marie, yes!" as her fingers plucked at her stiff nipples, rolling them teasingly.

With the hand that had been stroking Renee's clit before, Marie began to slide two fingers in and out of Renee at a slow easy pace as her tongue worked against her clit. The shot went to a split screen of Marie lapping at Renee's pussy around her fingers, the edge brushing her clit, and of Renee's head falling back on the bed as Marie's tongue and fingers brought her ever closer to an orgasm.

I watched as the camera followed Marie's free hand as it slid between her thighs, one fingertip caressing her clit.Marie's fingertip fluttered around her clit as her tongue danced with Renee's, her lips finally catching it as her tongue licked up and down the sensitive flesh. I smiled watching the show, enjoying Marie's pick to start the DVD off with immensely.

The scene on the video suddenly switched to Marie laying prone on the bed and Renee moving to straddle her face. Renee dipped her face between Marie's thighs and began to lick slowly up and down her glistening pussy, moaning softly. The camera feed switched and showed the tip of Marie's tongue dragging firmly up and down. A jaw-popping yawn interrupted the show, the first sign that I had that I was sleepy.

I fell asleep to the sound of the two beauties on the DVD moaning and gasping in pleasure. The dreams brought about by the show I had just watched were very vivid. I woke up early, as always, and sat up; noticing Marie's DVD was back at the title screen. I chuckled and turned it off and ejected the disk. I grabbed the disk and put it back in its case and turned the TV on the 24-hour news channel while I went to take a shower. I walked through the house with my robe on and poured a cup of coffee, heavily laced with vanilla creamer and a bit of sugar. I walked back down the hall sipping the hot strong brew.

I stopped in the library and checked up on my search bots. Once again they had found absolutely nothing that would help me in answering the questions about last night's encounter. I uncovered the small 2 feet diameter circle carved into the wood of my desk and summoned a watcher spirit, a simple spirit that is just intelligent enough to perform simple tasks such as, you guessed it, watching someone or delivering messages between people. "Go to Arianna of New Orleans. Tell her to contact Tre by phone immediately." The spirit bobbed its acknowledgement and I opened the circle. The watcher disappeared immediately. I didn't worry about it taking the message to the wrong Arianna. To most spirits, there was only one Arianna of New Orleans.

I went back out into the living room and watched television while drinking my coffee. I turned on the History Channel again and watched a show talking about the campaigns of Hannibal Barca against the Romans. I watched it and the show after, this one detailing Caesar's rise to glory and I got up and went to get dressed.

While I dressed I listened to the weather, getting the forecast for the next few days. I grabbed my duster and slipped it on, settling it about my shoulders. I checked the wakizashi in its special pocket inside the duster to be close at hand and went to my library. I disarmed the traps and wards around my hidden safe and unlocked it, reaching inside and skimming through the assorted items. I was not expecting trouble but I would be traveling through the Fae Realm and sometimes some of the denizens of that place took it upon themselves to waylay travelers, especially human ones.

I grabbed the ring that Arianna gave me for my trip to see Freyja and slid it on my left middle finger. Looking through the assorted wands and rods I had made, I grabbed a rod of fire darts, a wand of sonic balls, and a wand of lightning darts and slid them into the loops sewn about the inside of the front of the duster. I rounded out the selection with a rod of ice bolts and slid it into a loop as well. After grabbing my Order pendant, a moonstone set at the juncture of a crossroads, Hecate's symbol, I closed the safe and rearmed the wards and traps then turned and grabbed my staff for the trip. Actually it more closely resembles a cane than a staff, but when needed, the magical power within the cane allows it to grow to the size of a staff. It has a number of other powers imbued upon it by the runes and sigils that I carved into it while I was making it, but I won't go into those. A wizard has to keep SOME secrets. I grabbed the disk Marie had made me with the Blue Dragon's first appearance on it and tucked it into a pocket.

I slipped the pendant over my head and turned in the direction of the Villa. I focused my will and raised my staff, moving it in a circle as I slowly released the power to open the portal. Within the circle my staff had defined a shimmering began, and as I watched through the circle, the vision of my library was replaced with a ghostly vision of a forest broken with small clearings. I stepped through the circle and looked around. The perfection of the forest was broken only by the circle of the portal back into my library. I raised my staff again and tapped the portal with the tip of it. The circle slowly began to shrink down until it disappeared, leaving only the unbroken silence of the forest around me.

I felt rather than heard the approach of the Guardian of the Crossroads I had just entered. I turned around and as always I was struck by the size and majesty of the Fae before me. She was easily six and a half feet tall with short brown hair the same color as the twin curling horns sprouting from her forehead making it appear that the horns were merely part of her hair. I bowed out of respect for the Guardian. "Greetings, Guardian of the Crossroads. I am merely traveling from here to the Portal at the Villa."

The Guardian nodded her horned head. "Very well Mage of the Lady, you may travel the road." She moved aside without moving her legs and gestured towards the Villa. I watched as a path appeared out of nowhere. I half bowed in respect to her and began walking down the road. I sent out my senses to keep myself aware of my surroundings but I did not look away from the path. As I walked, I began to feel a powerful presence nearby. I quickly shifted to astral perception to try and see who or what it was, but I couldn't see anything.

After a little while I walked up to what appeared to be walls, but what actually were the wards around the Villa. I raised my staff and manipulated the wards to allow me through, quickly fixing them after me before turning to head up the trail towards the representation of the portal into the Villa. I tapped the portal and looked through as it cleared to show the large library on the other side. Once I made sure that no one was around, I opened the portal and stepped through, quickly wrapping myself in an invisibility spell as I closed the portal.