The Witch and the Dragon Ch. 17

I wanted to try my hand at an eclectic mix of fantasy and sci-fi, so this chapter begins to go into that theme. This new world has a bit of everything, from castles, dungeons, dragons, to aliens and space travel. Hope you like and vote and PLEASE comment to tell me what you think about my experiment. If it sucks, then tell me and I'll narrow down the action to Zak getting his chick and ending this story in the next two to three chapters.

Chapter Seventeen

Zak strode down the corridor of the twelfth level of Alpha 7. Devon had assigned this level to the reapers. The design of this level was wider, ceilings higher.

Wingspan—he reminded himself.

He knew the first twelve levels had once belonged to the Seraphs that guarded Edenia, or Eden—as those that dwelled on Earth had called it once. All the planets had been verdant and teeming with life until...

"Until Lucifer and his fallen angels meddled with the minds of the Divine One's children and they destroyed it all with their pithy fights for power and wealth."

Zak looked at Devon. The black of his hair was such a sharp contrast to the almost glowing white of his skin and the soft white lighting brought out bluish highlights in the satiny fall.

"How's Angel and the babe?"

Devon's lips kicked up, the luminescence of his blue eyes intensifying. "They're both doing well, thank you. Angel's ability to provide our son with sustenance has her almost dumbfound." Devon chuckled with a shake of his head. "So much thought to training as a warrior and she didn't even look into all the changes her body would go through after giving birth. You should have seen her face when I put a screaming, hungry Jazriel to her breast for the first time to feed."

Devon's words brought back his hunger for Alluna. He'd fed from her breasts... fed her from his body too.

"Are you okay?"

Zak's eyes snapped back open. He took his fist away from his stomach and straightened, feeling his face grow hot. "I'm..."

"He's not okay," Remien stated popping in next to them with a flash of red-gold fire. He fingered the hoops piercing his lower lip, studying Zak intently. "When Golds impregnate their mates, the female begins to produce first milk. First milk is intended to addict the male to her taste and increase his need to be with her and keep her covered with his scent."

Zak grimaced. "Where the hell do you come up with all this stuff?"

"Google." Remi grinned.

Devon chuckled and they resumed walking. Throwing an arm around Remi's shoulders, he asked, "and what else have you investigated about Golds."

"The female is fed her dragon's..." Remi cleared his throat and slid his green-gold gaze to Zak, " her dragon's semen for three days. The fluids contain chemicals that prep her body to carry the baby dragons for the next twenty-four months."

"What the fuck?" Zak's roar echoed in the corridor.

A few reapers appeared in the doorways to the various rooms on that level.

Zak ignored them and tried to contain his roiling emotions. He forced himself to release the front of Remi's black uniform shirt and took a step back.

One of Remi's tawny brows rose. "Zak, when we breed, our genes are dominant. Our babies will always be dragon. Just be glad the girls aren't dragon too."

When Zak gave him a perplexed glare, Remi rolled his eyes and explained. "A dragoness would lay a clutch of eggs after nine months and guess who'd have to sit on it for the remaining fifteen months?"

Zak spun, spearing his hands through his hair. "Two years? Alluna is going to be pregnant for two years?" He spun back to Remi. "And Row let you get her pregnant knowing that?"

Remi gave him a sheepish grin. "Well I didn't exactly tell her, besides, getting her pregnant just..." he shrugged his shoulders, "happened. Anyway, she isn't really going to be carrying for twenty-four months. Jaz accelerated her up way past that. Quinn is checking her now to figure out how far along she is." Remi pouted. "There's a side effect I'm not too happy with. She's become very irritable and snippy with me."

Devon sighed and signaled them to follow him. "Maybe the upcoming mission will get her out of her funk, Rem. Angel got that way too toward the end."

Remi's knees buckled and Zak gripped him in alarm, as well as Devon.

The red weredragon's face looked pale.

"Fuck," Zak cursed. "What the hell is wrong now?"

"God," Remi croaked. "I'm really going to be a father. I thought I'd have two years to get used to the idea. Holy shit."

He's legs wobbled again and Devon bit his lips to keep from laughing.

Zak snorted, "Oh, for fuck's sake, stupid. Pull it together."

Remi shook his mop of crimson and got his legs braced under himself to wiggle out of their hold. "I'm good," he growled with determination. A grin suddenly stretched across his face, molars glinting as he adjusted his crotch. "Yup. Daddy's equipment works just fine."

Zak rolled his eyes.

Clearing his throat, Remi asked, "Where are we going, by the way?"

"I wanted to see Ash," Zak said.

Remi winced, a look of guilt reddening his cheeks. "I tried to heal him, but my healing powers have absolutely no effect on him." He hung his head. "I don't understand why."

"He's counteracting your powers, Remi."

Zak looked over his shoulder. Natanael followed with a big group of reapers behind them.

Zak slowed and gawked. More were coming out of their rooms. "Geez. How many of you went awol?"

"Three hundred," Devon answered.

Zak's brows shot to his hairline. There were three hundred reapers living on Alpha 7, including one of their most powerful high priests.

"Ex high priest," Natanael said as though reading his mind. "Ashriel was cast out for losing his virginity."

Zak frowned and turned to Devon. "Having all of us in my head all these years wasn't too bad, but I really think my sanity will be extremely compromised with three hundred reapers in my head too, Dev."

Devon swallowed. "We'll think of something. Let's see how Ash is doing this morning and then we'll go about reopening the old mess hall."

Zak winced. Their meals were going to be interesting from now on, to say the least.

***

Pain was the first thing that plowed into her.—not an actual ache in her body, but a deep, gut-twisting grief that instantly had her tears flowing. Her dreams evaporated like smoke on a windy day. She squeezed her eyes tighter hoping to retain the memory of sapphire eyes and full lips bracketed by dimples. She remembered a braid... thick and gold that hung down a wide muscular back to the middle of his tight ass.

"Zak," she whispered.

"Oh, you're good."

She gasped and opened her eyes. Bright grey eyes looked at her from within a thick fringe of black lashes.

Eriel propped his head up on one hand. His hair was a river of sable between their bodies. "You're remembering him." He grinned wide. "He's fucking hot. I'm so jealous he fucked you. He wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole."

Alluna sat up and gasped when the thick quilt covering them pooled to her waist to reveal that Eriel was completely naked beneath the covers.

"You slept with me like that?"

His wings tightened against his back just before he rolled over and stretched lazily. Every muscle and sinew rippled, and his cock looked as if it were stuck on his belly from how rigid it was. Alluna gaped at the long, thick, rose-hued member with its set of heavy balls underneath.

Instinct had her planting her feet against his side and shoving him off the bed. He fell with a swish of black feathers and sable hair to the floor.

"Ow," he wailed. "Oh, my wings. Oh, how it hurts."

Alluna forgot her tears and grief as alarm shot through her. Oh, she'd never forgive herself if she truly hurt the pretty angel. Peering over the edge of the bed, she eyed him lying on his side with his wings limp behind him. He had real tears rolling down his cheeks and his chest heaved with heartfelt sobs.

"Oh-gods," she gasped stepping gingerly over him. "I'm so sorry. Does it really hurt that bad?"

Eriel bowed his head and nodded, with his shiny hair covering his face. "Yes," he sobbed. He rolled onto his belly and gave her an imploring look over his shoulder. "The feathers have become all entangled. I can't bear the agony. Please run your fingers through them to make it feel better." His eyes swam in moisture and his lip quivered making her breath catch with anguish.

Oh, the poor little thing. He lowered his face onto his folded arms to muffle his whimpering. Her eyes ran down his naked length. Muscle knotted his back and his shoulders and arms bulged with them. He really wasn't so little. His body was gorgeous, muscular, yet graceful. She suddenly felt shy about touching him.

Alluna hesitated until he let out another gulping sob onto his folded arms. His whole body shuddered.

"Oooow-it-h-huuurts," he cried in a little squeaky voice that made Alluna pout.

Slowly, she reached down and touched one wing. Her fingers sank into heavenly softness.

"Oh," she gasped not expecting his wings to feel so good beneath her fingers.

Eriel groaned when she stroked, unfurling his wings a bit more. She'd never felt anything as luxurious, she was sure. His black wings spread wider when she used both hands to pet the ruffled feathers. They rose as if to meet her touch and he moved, rolling his hips against the furry blue rug that surrounded the white sleigh bed. He moaned again, his breath starting to come in pants.

"Eriel, have ya no shame?"

Alluna jumped with a start to look at the owner of that gruff voice. Her gaze turned to the little double paned window six paces from the foot of the bed. The blond male from the day before floated there. No. Not floated. A massive pair of gold dragon's wings flapped vigorously behind him. His arms were crossed over his chest and he scowled at Eriel.

Alluna felt her cheeks grow hot and she snatched her hands away from the reapers wings when the weredragon narrowed his eyes at her.

"He hurt his wings," she blurted, and then scowled when one golden brow shot up dubiously.

"Is that so, missy? I guess ya don't realize reapers can pulverize just about anything with those black beauties. The only thing that hurts on that randy bastard is between his legs. Stroking their sensitive wings is almost as good as jacking him off now."

Alluna gasped and gaped at the sullen reaper looking at her over his shoulder.

When she narrowed her eyes at him, he only grinned sheepishly. "I feel much better now. Thank you Alluna."

She snorted, and before she could stop herself, lifted her hand and brought it down on his rump three times. "That's not funny," she yelled.

Now her palm stung and his ass was properly pinkened.

"Nice," Zak the weredragon snorted. "And now ya've made him cum."

Eriel's eyes were closed as he shuddered. When he opened his eyes to look at her again, they glowed with adoration.

Alluna sprang away from him. She wrinkled her nose. "I am not cleaning that up."

The weredragon chuckled.

A soft knock at the door drew their attention. She darted to the door, nervous that someone might come in and misconstrue the scene within. Carefully blocking Eriel, she opened the door a crack.

A young boy just going into puberty stood there with a grin on his face. He had a mop of unruly copper curls and big brown eyes. Behind him stood a handful of other children of varying ages and species. One was completely orange from head to toe with big golden eyes.

"Morning, my lady. I'm Niggit. Mama sent me to fetch you for breakfast. Have you seen the black-winged angel-man?"

Alluna almost snorted. Oh, she'd seen a bit too much of that sneaky angel, actually.

Behind her, he chuckled, making her eyes widen when the boy's brows rose slowly. The other children whispered and giggled behind him.

Alluna grinned, feeling heat creep up from her breasts to the roots of her tangled hair. "If I see him, I'll be sure to tell him your gracious mama has prepared us breakfast."

She stepped back and shut the door in the boy's curious face. When she turned, Eriel was perched on the windowsill with the blue rug tucked under his arm. He winked at her and dropped out of the window.

Alluna rushed to peer out, hearing the sound of thunder rolling. It was only Eriel's wings beating so fast they were a black blur behind his back. He zipped away behind the tree line and she was left regarding the weredragon. Again, the feeling she knew him from before struck her. He came closer until his hands braced the window frame, and sniffed at her. Alluna backed away. He looked like someone she might have known, but... his body was different from how she remembered. This male was not massive in build. The Zak she remembered was built like a starfreighter.

Alluna blinked. Starfreighter. How did she even know what that was? This was so confusing.

She backed away from the window when Zak started to climb in.

"I cannot believe..." He sniffed at her again. "Ya smell like kin. B-but yer not a weredragon. Ya've mated a Gold?"

Alluna shrank away from him. His wings pulled into his skin, disappearing completely. Today he wore woven, fawn-colored leather pants and soft sewn boots. His chest was bare except for the two thick braids that hung to his waist. A golden necklace hung around his neck as well with a dragon pendant. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Has one of my sons bedded ya, lass?"

Alluna stared at the pendant with a frown, her hand going up to her own throat. She wore a similar necklace.

Mama.

With a gasp, she yanked the necklace off him.

"What the devil," he exclaimed rubbing his neck. "What was that? What did ya do?"

"Where did you get this?"

He looked at her hand and she immediately realized he couldn't see tha necklace she held.

"Get what? What are ya talkin' about?"

Alluna tried to lift her necklace off, but found she couldn't. It was as if it weighed a ton. It didn't matter. She needed to dispose of the one Zak had worn in a moving body of water to finish breaking the spell mama obviously had on him.

A low groan from the other side of the bed had them both turning.

"I was wondering what that bastard did with little Luke," the weredragon muttered.

Little Luke?

Alluna watched him saunter over to the other side of the sleigh bed and crouch. "Ouch. Look at the size of that knot on yer head, lad." Zak leaned forward and pulled the red-winged devil into a sitting position making Alluna gasp.

He'd been there the whole time too?

Zak examined him. The blond devil looked disorientated. The weredragon shook his head. "Aw, lad. Why did ya have to go and do this?" Zak's hand smoothed over one wing.

The devil flinched and snarled. "Don't touch me."

Zak's eyes narrowed. "Aye. They abused ya like yer da, didn't they?"

Lucien looked up. "What do you know of my father?"

Zak gave him a sad smile. "Yer da..." He cleared his throat and blinked suddenly bright eyes. "I was one of his followers. Remuel and I were supposed to take care of yer brother and ya, but we were persecuted day and night. We couldn't keep ya safe. Reapers were after us, demons, Greis, Master Guardians. The Seraphian Master Guardians promised us they'd raise ya safe-n-sound, but we needed to make it look as though ya both disappeared. Rem and I left ya both in an orphanage, under government protection. There was so much red tape to get through to get ya out it was the only way. They'd planned on snatching ya both—"

"Well they didn't," Lucien snapped his eyes glowing brighter. "They abandoned me."

"Nay, son—"

"Don't call me son. I am not your son"

Zak scowled at him. "I wiped yer ass and changed yer diapers enough." His gaze softened. "I'm sorry about what happened to ya. We tried to find ya, I swear. Drakken got himself caught and sentenced to prison for treason. Remuel, Seshmel and I were fugitives and had to resort to whoring ourselves out just to be able to eat." Zak straightened, squaring his shoulders. "We never found a trace of ya. The Seraphian Guardians made us leave the solar system to divert attention away from were Devon might possibly be. By the time they realized where he was he'd already grown and was too powerful to destroy."

"Where the hell have all of you been all this time?"

Zak frowned. "I'm not sure. Last I remember, I was working at Heaven's Pearly Gates. Remuel was coming to get me because we'd found out yer brother and ya were together again on Alpha 7 and we wanted to go see ya." Zak raised luminous eyes to Lucien. "I don't remember anything else."

"That was more than three hundred years ago," Lucien told him and the weredragon paled.

"I've been gone a long time, eh?"

Soft knocking sounded at the door again.

Alluna darted to open it, now more afraid of someone catching sight of the golden weredragon and blond devil in the room. She had a feeling Lucien was as stark naked as Eriel had been behind the bed.

She opened the door to a woman with graying hair at her temples and a softly rounded body. She smiled, her blue eyes twinkling with kindness. "Morning, m'lady. I brought you fresh clothes. There's a bath house out back if you'd like to fresh up before breakfast."

Alluna accepted the bundle of clothing and smiled nervously as the woman seemed intent on peering around her. "Oh, yes. Thank you. That would be lovely." Alluna stepped out of the room closing the door behind her.

Two little girls bounced behind the woman.

"I wanna brush her hair," they both exclaimed in unison. One had shaggy red hair and pointed ears with violet eyes that almost took up all of her pixie-like face, the other was grey-skinned with thick coils of hair hanging to her shoulders and big black almond-shaped eyes. Alluna instantly recognized the child as a Grei alien and gaped.

Her moment of distraction cost her not realizing when the woman slipped into the room.

Alluna swung around in dismay and held her breath as the lady went about tidying the rumpled bed. Zakreel and Lucien were nowhere to be seen. Even the window had been discretely closed

She breathed a sigh of relief and let the two grinning girls lead her to a winding staircase.

The hallway walls looked a bit dingy with age, the yellow paint scuffed and chipped in a few places. Pictures lined the walls, hundreds of smiling faces of children of all colors and breeds. This woman couldn't have possibly given birth to all these children. Every level they descended in the multi-layered dwelling more and more of them emerged from rooms and followed her down the steps. Giggling and exclamations over the new visitors made her ears buzz. Her hand slid over the polished wooden banister as she hugged the clothing the lady had given her. Alluna didn't even know her name, but she'd ask at breakfast.

There were more children on the lowest level of the dwelling. On the first floor, the house widened out into a long parlor to the right side of the stairwell, and the left was an enormous bright kitchen with the longest table Alluna had ever seen. There were already other children there eating. One blue-skinned boy had a face full of porridge and a furry girl with lots of colorful beads hanging from her long ears munched on what looked like wiggly worms. Alluna bit her lip and tried not to gag. She hoped they wouldn't give her worms to eat.

The two little girls led her out through a back door. A stone pathway led to a giant duck-shaped building. It looked like a child's toy with its peeling yellow painted body, big black eyes and orange beak.

"This is the bath house?"

The children giggled. Inside the building were shower stalls running up and down either side of the duck's body. They took her clothing for her and led her into one of the stalls. After pulling the curtain closed, Alluna undressed and stood beneath the steaming water. Making use of a large cake of soap, she lathered her hair and body and rinsed off. She winced when she touched her breasts. They felt tender and heavy. She noticed with alarm that her nipples looked much darker too.