Love As The Darker Binding Ch. 05

Reed sighed. He looked like a recruiting poster for the Marine Corps without even trying, and not the handsomely rugged kind.

Just rugged - the nothing but mean-looking and rugged kind.

And it was worse when he smiled. Because then, he just looked nuts, if not downright goofy.

He could have saved himself thousands in loans if he'd just learned to be an electrician and spent half of the rest on cosmetic surgery.

The only current bright spot in his life was the strange female back at the lodge.

He didn't know what he was going to do with her, but she liked him, as odd as she was. They'd met one day on the trail back up from the lake and that had been it. He couldn't get over it. She was built like a slightly small but lovely woman, but she looked like someone who was into the 'furry' lifestyle so much that the zipper to her costume couldn't open anymore.

He'd checked and seen no zipper.

She looked like a woman in a dog suit, though the holes were in the right places.

And she talked funny.

But being the virgin that he'd been until he'd met her, he was infatuated with her anyway.

She'd said that she thought that being tied up might be a little fun after he'd mentioned it. At least, that was what he'd thought that he'd heard.

So that was the way that he'd left her and gone to town to get groceries for the week. By the time that he got back, he figured that she'd have been like that for a little over two hours, so she'd probably be pretty hot for it by then.

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She was hot long before he had his thought.

She was pissed.

Since he'd been not bad as a lover after the first long bit where she'd had to convince him that it was alright if he wanted to fuck her, she'd decided to spend a few days with him before moving on.

But it had turned into almost three weeks now. He was good for her, since she seldom found human males to be worth much more than a little fun, but he wasn't good enough for this long. She'd been trying to think of ways to break the news to him that she was leaving, but he'd come up with this stupid idea and left!

Now she wasn't wondering about what to tell him. She was wondering if she ought to kill him.

She'd chewed through the gag in her mouth not thirty minutes after she'd heard him drive away, and she'd been talking to herself ever since, trying to figure out this odd turn in his mating habits.

"Ooooh," she grumbled, "Zele did not want this. She cannot understand why she is tied with ropes while he is gone. What for?

And why can't she be on a bed? Zele does not like lying on the floor in the corner. Reed does not make Zele's little place feel that good so that she wants to lie in the corner. Nothing feels that good to her."

She tried to break the ropes, but found instead that it hurt her to strain against them like that. "If Zele has to chew through the ropes also, ... "she fumed.

But that was what it had taken.

With the last rope off and spitting repeatedly from the mouthful of fibers, Zele got to her feet and stepped to the door just as the truck crested the last rise. Reed slammed the selector into park and ran over.

"Zele, where are you going?"

She was walking, obviously angry and she ignored him for his own good.

"Zele wait!" he cried, "Don't go."

He reached out for her arm, "I thought we had something."

He wasn't sure what happened after that. She'd spun around and then he was looking at some huge dog-thing who looked to be made out of stone, but the pieces were quivering a little. He stared, but that was how he knew that she was pissed at him.

That, and the way that her hot breath was uncomfortable enough where it hit his stomach to almost burn his shirt off. He stepped back. He'd never seen an animal whose eyes glowed red before in his life.

"Reed had nothing with Zele," the creature hissed hotly in a low, rasping monotone, "Zele has been trying to think of ways to tell Reed that she wanted to leave. Reed tied her up. Reed is lucky that she didn't kill him then when he did not listen to her.

Zele leaves now."

The creature turned and walked off around the corner of the building out of his sight, furious and wondering to herself why she just hadn't killed him. There was the older, original building back there thirty feet away which had been turned into a garage and storage building a few years ago.

Between her and that building was a grizzly bear who'd been snooping for food.

Seeing only that it was in her way and not knowing what it was or what it wanted, Zele's paw flashed out as she walked past and knocked the bear hard enough so that he landed inside the dark, open door of the garage, stunning him. She walked around the building and along the ridge, glad to be on her way once more.

She looked up after a minute, out across the valley below and up at the sky. The sunny afternoon was quite obviously over. Down below, the large expanse of tall, lush green grass blew fitfully in rippling waves from the sudden wind. The sky had gone completely overcast, and from the deepening gloom, it looked like rain very soon.

Zele didn't care as she walked on, her temper beginning to cool a little.

She stopped then, looking out once more as something came to her.

It looked like rain, but it didn't feel like rain coming. It didn't smell like that either, and the wind was wrong in it's direction and strength.

She saw the flickering in the clouds and heard the threatening rumble, but overall, it just didn't feel right to her. She suddenly didn't care if it did rain right now. This didn't feel right somehow.

She turned the corner in the path which took her around the edge of the ridge into the next valley – where it was still sunny, and only looking a little dark from the way that whatever it had been back there seemed to cast everything into darkness.

Reed stood rooted to the spot for another moment, wondering what he'd just seen. Fuck that, he thought, what have I been doing with that thing for all this time?

He looked up, feeling the wind and wondering about the sudden shift in the weather for a moment. After that, he stepped around the corner and seeing no one there, he was about to go back for his groceries in the truck when he heard a low grunt from the direction of the garage.

He spun back and tried to see into the darkness of the open door. "Zele?"

What stepped out of the doorway then was plainly annoyed, though the thought of eating this weak-looking thing was a little pleasing.

Reed even knew somehow, right then, that his day had just tanked and that this was not that strange girl. He turned to run for his life.

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"I see him!" the sensor suite operator called out, "He is being attacked by a large creature!"

Abi wanted to slap his forehead. He couldn't land anywhere close by. He wondered why, if he was such an accomplished lord, that it had never occurred to him to equip this great big thing with a way to rappel his people down from a hover at times like this.

The grass in the valley rippled even more as a long swath of it was flattened under something very large and long. There were no human inhabitants anywhere in the valley or on the two mountainous slopes which overlooked it.

If there had been, and if they'd been watching, they'd have seen the grass spring back up to continue waving in the wind a moment later.

They'd have seen the two beings who were left behind as whatever they hadn't seen departed with a muted roar.

Pob flew away, headed for the slope up as fast as she could go while Ouna slogged through the tall grass as quickly as she could. Pob could fly like this. Pob could fly in anything because she weighed little in comparison. Ouna was looking at a tailwind and she was in soft dirt.

By then, Reed was on his back, beaten, bleeding and unconscious as the bear paced around him a few steps away, thinking in his slow and bruin-ish way about the best place to begin his dining experience.

Reed opened his eyes and groaned quietly.

There was a whistling screech then, growing louder very quickly and the bear looked up.

Which was what Pob had wanted him to do.

She didn't have any weapons, other than her claws, but she made use of them as she raked his face for him, in and gone long before he swung at her in pain and rage. She flew off through the trees, looking for a way into the clearing from another direction.

When she came back, the bear was thinking of trying to eat again, but before he got more than a step closer, she sailed in silently and ripped the back of his neck and the top of his head open, tearing one ear most of the way off.

Demons don't understand bears and it goes both ways. The bear's pain level had gone beyond what he felt that the meal was worth to him. He ran toward the crest of the slope down, shaking his head to try to clear some of the blood from his eye which ran freely from his forehead.

Reed was only beginning to have the thought that he might live, though he hadn't tried to move yet. He'd seen some of what had happened, but he had no idea what the other thing was which had attacked. He was too messed up to even wonder about that.

Ouna didn't know it, but as she reached the crest, she was blocking the bear's planned exit. They almost collided and after this sort of day, the animal was much more inclined to strike first than try to observe anything more.

So that was what he did, knocking Ouna partially over and into the branches of a low tree fifteen feet away.

By now, Reed was in the first stages of his coming agony, but he was still with the program enough at this point to stare at the third being which he didn't recognize as she looked around and saw her ruined weapon.

But Ouna had been a trooper once and she still had her armor, so she'd worn it today. The chest plate fit a little poorly now with a grooved dent in it near enough to one of her breasts to make it uncomfortable. It came to her that a couple more belts to her armor like that last one and she'd have trouble breathing.

Reed stared as she got to her uh, hooves – which just couldn't be anything other than the effect of the slight dizziness that he felt.

He'd never seen anyone or anything like this.

As the bear sidestepped a little, wondering about whether to run off or beat the fuck out of something for all of the searing pain that he felt, Reed kept staring at his opponent. Whatever it was – and a female, unless he was completely delirious now – had horns. She looked like some dark, insane Viking without a sword.

The bear made his decision and reared up, bellowing loudly.

Reed's eyes nearly left his head as he watched the strange being pull off her helmet – which until that point, he hadn't recognized as one. The horns remained and he looked at her dark skin for a second.

Her eyes looked odd, all of her looked strange, but by then, he'd guessed that he was pretty badly fucked up. He had to be, to be seeing things like this.

She had teeth herself. He saw that because she smiled for a second, tilting her head in an almost playful way – before she roared right back at him.

The animal lunged then, but from Reed's view of things, he looked as though he'd been yanked back by a cable to land almost on his back a few yards away. He was back up in a second though, but she'd closed the distance and he saw her plough him again. He tried to run back in Reed's direction, reaching the conclusion for the first time in his adult life that he wasn't the king of the world.

But she was already there in front of him again and she hit him four more times faster than he could follow, other than by the sounds of the impacts. Reed saw the breeze ripple the fur on the bear's back for a moment. He didn't know how he knew it, but he knew that the bear was dead.

The smaller one was back, he noticed and this time, she was motionless for long enough so that he could get a better look at her – since by the little boobs on her chest when the wind blew her hair away for a second, it was obvious to him.

Then he saw the other one as she walked up, holding her broken weapon. He heard them growl and screech to each other. He thought that he ought to be pissing himself about here. But then he remembered that he'd already done that when the bear knocked him flying the first time.

After a moment, he began to understand them in his head. From what he gathered – if he wasn't wrong, they were concerned for him and his current state. Just another thing in this insane day which didn't make any sense.

The smaller one was over him then, looking down at him and speaking to him.

"You have been injured," she said as he blinked at her, "My friend will take you to where we can ride to a place where you can be seen to. We have nothing here for that."

He looked into her strangely shaped and completely black eyes. "Are you aliens?"

It came out weakly, but she heard it. She looked at the other one, "What does he mean to say?"

"He means strangers from another place," the big one said, putting her helmet on again.

The smaller one looked at Reed, "I'm not sure what you mean, but I think that to you, we must be."

He felt a little fear as the other one stepped into his view so that she took almost all of it as she spoke to the other one. "I'm sad that this happened Pob, but this was what I meant. They're weak and they tend to die if you're not careful.

He's a mess. I don't know if even Evaine can help him. We'll have to hope he lives at least that long."

She looked down at Reed for a moment.

"To complete your confusion, Reed," she said, "I will carry you now. There is no other way to get you down from here to the flat place below. We will travel to another place then where there will be help for you. We would prefer it if you could try not to perish, if possible."

As he tried to consider it, she picked him up carefully, but she didn't look to be straining that much. She hefted him very gently only once and she dipped a little as she changed her hold on him, and then she began to walk.

As she neared the crest of the rise, the wind had picked up again and the sky was darkening once more. Reed watched as the smaller one flew past him, carrying the wrecked weapon. The next thing that he knew, he was flying too, borne in the arms of the large one as she glided down toward the valley floor.

"Who are you?" he asked, though the rush of air past him seemed to steal his weak words from him. He watched the little that he could see of her wings above them. She heard him, but she didn't look down.

"It doesn't matter," she said, "We came to pick you up. My lord had thoughts of work for you with us. But that was before."

She almost looked down at him, thought she didn't, changing her mind. "Now, I ... I don't know. I don't know much about humans. I only repair things, not beings.

If you have any control over your own life or death, my advice to you now, ... "

She did look down at him then, though it only lasted for a second. She looked ahead then, and he felt them slowing.

"Try not to die."

He was in a maelstrom of wind then, as they moved to get him inside of something which he couldn't really see much of at all. Nothing around him really had anything other than a strange, rippling shape besides the two females. He was being carried along a long passageway then, still in the arms of the larger being. The maelstrom caught up to him then and Reed closed his eyes.

It had been a challenge to do this way, especially given that he was so far away at the controls, but Reed's life was 'suspended' for the moment. Abi's eyes scanned the instrument panel in front of him and turned the craft for the quick return to the abbey.

He needed speed now, so to get that in this atmosphere meant that you had to get above it. He waited until his wide and gentle turn brought him back to the path which had led him here. Nearing it, he turned to parallel it and then he pushed the throttles forward and pointed the nose higher.

There would be atmospheric disturbances and phenomena from this, but Abi didn't care now.

There was trouble near the abbey.

Outside, the lightning flashed and the thunder of it rolled as the rain began to pelt down on everything. The grass found it's freedom once again as the weight of the invisible mass lifted away. Moments later, the wind began to ease off and the rain continued, but more gently now, without the wind to drive it.

Miles away on another mountainside and just beginning to have thoughts of trying to find a place to bed down for the night, Zele the walking mystery inside the guise of a hell hound heard the thunder and looked back for a moment and moved on.

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He saw the pyre on his way in. A probing raid from somebody. Abi didn't recognize the name in the report he'd heard during the descent . He just needed to see how bad this was. As he saw the opening begin to widen for them, Abi shifted things to slow them and they descended straight down inside.

Reed was taken off, but would have to wait until the wounded had been assessed. There wasn't much to it, but somebody looked at you and it was lights out if you were too far below standards – assuming that you healed quickly as well. The more that he saw, the more the little smouldering spark in his heart grew for somebody, whoever it had been.

"What happened here?" he asked one of his legates.

"Makes no sense, lord," the demon replied, "they showed up, wiped out the sentries and stood down as we came out to respond. We're holding them."

Abi looked over, "Why?"

"They said that they came to meet you. Said that they had matters of mutual interest to discuss with you, my lord."

Abi looked around for a moment, "What has this cost me?"

The legate thought for a moment and replied "Forty-eight, my lord; twenty-nine dead, nineteen who can fight again in a time."

"Legate," Abi said quietly as he looked down, "I was elsewhere and busy. Your job is to keep things stable here and above all, quiet and unremarkable. Please tell me that the effects of this have been hidden from the humans."

With the legate's nervous assurances that nothing had been seen, Abi looked up with a reddish gaze and thought for a moment as the legate held his gaze steadily and did not look away.

"There are other ways to try to arrange a meeting with me. Killing my sentries is not one which I favor. Do not make a misstep like this again. Take me to them."

As Abi approached, the obvious leader looked up, young and full of himself. He began to walk over with an obvious swagger as Abi tried to place him, wondering who he might work for and why this had been done. The leader bowed low and introduced himself. He was nobody.

Mercenaries. And not one known to Abi by reputation.

After he'd learned what he'd sought to know, Abi looked at them as their leader showed the poor judgement of not seeming to be able to shut up. He pointed to one or another and spoke a little of how good they were and what they'd done.

"So you did this to get my attention?" Abi asked, "You didn't think of maybe a pair of you showing up at the gate to ask about service?"

"We're not interested in service, the demon said, "We're here to offer to work for you. Imagine what we might do to your enemies, lord."

"Besides please them by doing as you have?" Abi asked, "No, thank you."

That shut him up.

"You did all of this, and the covert approach alone must have taken a week for it not to have been noticed by the sentries whose blindness has now cost them. All of this to ask me for work?"

The young demon nodded with a smile, "Fortune rewards the bold."

His face registered surprise and then it shifted through pain and then reached agony as Abi stood before him. Two of the mercenaries gripped their weapons and disappeared in a red mist as they screamed. The rest stood motionless.