Jake's Women (Wizards) (4 page)

6.
          
The Matrix

I’ve watched The Matrix so I wasn’t surprised to wake up in a coffin shaped box. Floating in some sort of sticky liquid was more of a surprise, as was discovering tubes stuck into my lower orifices. Somehow, I expected the Progenitors to be above all that sort of poking. There were traces of blood in the liquid near the arm that had been slashed, but it seemed I had managed to save both it and me before I fainted.

There was light outside the box shining through its opaque sides. Wherever this place was, there was plenty of magic in the air, but none in my reserves. That didn’t make any sense so I shelved the matter for later. The important thing was to gather enough energy to get out of the box as hopping home was out of the question.

I never quite knew what the phrased
drowned rat
meant before that moment. I oozed gel on the floor, dripping from the hose connected to the face mask and the two pipes connected to my nether regions. The gravity felt higher than on Earth and the pipes pulled in places I didn’t want to be pulled. What they dripped from their severed ends wasn’t particularly nice either. I pulled at the mask and found there was an extra tube down my nose. It hurt and I had to heal myself as I dragged it out.

Did I mention it was cold? I was shivering and mustering enough magic to get the gel off me was proving difficult. It hadn’t hurt when I was in the coffin, but now the gel dripping from my hair into my eyes stung like shampoo. Being naked didn’t make things easier.

I pulled enough magic from the air to make the gel on my head vanish. That gave me the composure to hop the pipes out that were connected below the waist. I cannot tell you the relief I felt when that was accomplished.

Normally my magical reserves build quickly, but not in this place. The multiverse is filled with magic and those of us who are able to tap it hold magic inside us. The magic was flowing into me and then straight out again. This meant I could only use a limited amount to accomplish anything. I concentrated and forced the gel from my skin. I was still cold, but without the gel’s cooling effect I was far from freezing.

For the first time I was able to take in my surroundings. More factory than hospital was my first thought, though there was no dust. It was fortunate that the air was breathable, or my time outside the coffin would have been limited. I couldn’t hold enough magic to either hop any distance or create air. I was lucky to be alive. There was a fogginess to the air that made it impossible to see very far.

My coffin was one of many on the floor. It was heavy engineering cast in the form of a metal box. Supporting girders and other boxes were interspersed above the coffins. The roof must have been at least a 100 feet above me; the fog made it difficult to be sure, and it was made of the same ubiquitous dull grey metal as everything else. There was a hum of power and my bare feet tingled on the floor.

Clothes would be nice, but I didn’t have the time or magic to spare. I had to get to a place where magic would accumulate inside me so I could hop home. The Progenitors must have some kind of monitoring system and I suspected they already knew I had escaped.

As if in answer to that thought, I heard a cry above me. Someone or something was looking at me from what must be a walkway. All I saw of them was a dark smudge close to the ceiling. There followed a string of incomprehensible words, of which all I got from the exchange was that the person shouting was angry. I ran.

As I passed through magic I used it to make the fog denser behind me. A narrow beam of light cut through the fog, missing me but hitting the floor to my side. I was flung into the air as electricity flowed through the floor and hit me. Landing in a crouch, I made the skin of my feet non-conductive.

That was just in the nick of time as another beam cut through the fog and sparks danced over my toes. There was a gap in the machinery to the left and I took it. One direction is as good as another when you have no idea where you’re going.

“Representative Jake Morrissey, please stop. You are in no danger. You need to be returned to the Conference immediately.”

The message came from every direction at once and echoed after it finished. I continued running. If they didn’t want to kill me they had chosen a strange way to show it. There was a door in front of me. Bigger than your typical door, but a rectangular shape with a handle is a door anywhere in the multiverse, right?

Wrong. Opening this one proved that many things can lie behind an opening. In this case it appeared to be about a million gallons of water. The ensuing flood resulted in my head colliding with something behind me and the world went dark.

Hands lifted me onto something soft. I opened my eyes but they wouldn’t focus and all I could see were three fuzzy shapes in a sea of white. Something pressed against my arm and I felt a sharp sting. Then the world vanished into a warm friendly sea of dark.

 
“Wakey, wakey,” Alisandra said softly and I was instantly awake. I was standing spread-eagled in front of her, my legs and arms forming an X. Whatever was holding me in place was invisible and I tried to imagine it gone with no luck at all. At least I was clothed.

She stood inches from me, our faces level. Moving closer she blew gently on my face, her breath sweet, warm, and intoxicating. Then she licked me from the bottom of my jaw to the middle of my right cheek. I felt a familiar tingle as certain parts of my body responded on automatic pilot.

“You taste wonderful.” She laughed and stepped back.

She wore a toga which she undid and let drop to the floor. “It’s our time, Jake; time to fulfil our darkest fantasies.”

“Let me go.” I am not particularly good at being faithful, but I’m trying to be.

“You can get out of here simply by wanting to, Jake.”

She waited expectantly, but my best efforts to get free came to nothing.

“But you’re still here, I see. Let’s play a game where you’re my captive and I can do whatever I want to you.”

I struggled against my bonds and imagined walking free, but nothing happened. The rules of the Conference seemed to have changed, at least as far as I was concerned.

She put a finger to her lower lip and tilted her head, contemplating her next move. I closed my eyes and willed myself to Fluffy. When I opened them she was still there and I was still bound.

I was suddenly naked. A large cube of ice appeared in her hand and she rested it against my chest. It was surprisingly cold and I gritted my teeth.

“Is it cold, my lovely?” she murmured softly as she slid the cube down my chest to my belly button. “But we must quench the heat below, now mustn’t we?”

I grunted as she held the ice against the family jewels. They drew up into my abdomen in response. Strangely, this didn’t stop another part of my body from remaining as hard as stone.

“I can’t stop you. Let me go.”

“Of course you can’t,” she giggled. “I knew you really wanted me.”

She shuffled even closer and our lips met. I closed my eyes and imagined being alone somewhere else, but she pulled at my lips with her teeth and I continued to be trapped. Then she reached forward and moments later she had me inside her. Using me like a dog in heat. I closed my eyes and thought of England, but it didn’t stop her and my arms and legs remained pinned. There was no way to resist.

7.
          
Raped

Why couldn’t I get away? Even in the aftermath when all possible lust had faded I was still trapped. No matter how many times I wished myself away I was still there when I opened my eyes. How could this have happened? My wives were going to kill me for this. Well Esmeralda was; Jenny would give me that hurt look of hers, which was so much worse.

Alisandra snuggled against me. She appeared to have fallen asleep and was making little snorking sounds against my chest. What was keeping her upright, I couldn’t imagine. The previous contestant for that title had shrunk at the end of our tryst and was no longer playing any part in the proceedings.

“I see you have wasted no time getting into trouble,” my dragon said, with more than a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

“I couldn’t get away.” That sounded like a thin excuse, even to me.

Alisandra stirred against my chest. “Jake wanted it or he wouldn’t be here,” she said sleepily. Her fingernails dug into my flesh and I fought to avoid giving out a girly scream.

“Not in this case,” Fluffy said, almost regretfully, “Though it is in his character as a rule.”

“Wha..?” Alisandra and I said with perfect synchronicity.

“The Progenitors have deprived Jake of the ability to control and adjust this reality. It is punishment for his attempt to escape. They waited until I was… available to let me know. They have given me the role of Jake’s protector while we remain here.”

Alisandra looked at me in shock. “I honestly thought you wanted…”

I shrugged as well as my invisible bonds would allow. “Not all of me was against it.” In reality, some of me had been downright traitorous.

The ginger haired youth who was also my dragon looked at certain of my body parts in a critical manner. “I could remove the problem easily. Now you have procreated, you do not need them anymore.”

Some of the parts in question tried to retreat into my body again.

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Are you sure?” Fluffy enquired. “They get you into so much trouble.”

“Can one of you release me?”

Alisandra waved a hand and I fell backwards as the bonds vanished. Nothing materialized beneath me and I hit the hard white floor with a bump. It hurt.

“I shall raise a formal complaint with our hosts,” Alisandra said. “My honor has been compromised and I will not take responsibility for my earlier actions. Rape is not rape if you believe the man really wanted it.”

“Don’t try that argument in Wales. Not these days.”

Dragon and woman looked at me in confusion.

I shook my head. I had no intention of trying to explain current British mating rules to people from other universes, especially as I wasn’t sure how you could stay on the right side of them without telepathy, or by taking a contracts lawyer with you on a date.

“I don’t hold you responsible,” I said to Alisandra. “Let us never talk of it again, especially not within the hearing of my wives.”

“Agreed,” Alisandra said, to my great relief.

“Would you like clothes, or is that a waste of time?” my dragon enquired.

“You never used to be this cynical.”

“That was before you brought me along on your adventures,” Fluffy said, a broad grin/grimace on his face.

“Clothes.” My fists clenched and he got the message.

“Done”

Clothes appeared around me and my dragon and I moved somewhere else.

“Chair?” I suggested. A comfortable armchair appeared behind me. I collapsed into its arms with relief. It was good to have my limbs in any position that wasn’t stretched out.

“What happened?” Fluffy asked.

“That’s a long story.”

Fluffy sat crossed legged on the floor. I suppose a dragon feels uncomfortable sitting on a chair, even if to me he looked human. Thinking about it, I assumed I looked particularly stupid as a dragon lolling in a human chair. He had listened carefully to my story without a single interruption.

“While it stretches credulity, it would be wise for us to assume that the Progenitors are listening to our every word,” he said after many minutes of silence.

“I think we have to carry on as though they can’t.”

He nodded. “Yes, but be aware and tell me nothing I do not need to know.”

“I nearly got away. All I needed was to get out of that room. They can’t have everywhere blocked from storing magic.”

“You should think carefully on what that means.”

I understood. Fluffy was telling me that the Progenitors were not gods. They used technology and magic together. There were limits to their ability to control things. They had not responded instantaneously to my waking up, for example. If I got another chance to escape, I would not mess it up.

Time to change the subject and find out what Fluffy had been up to.

“What were you up to that was so important the Progenitors decided not to interrupt?”

Blow me if Fluffy didn’t blush. His face turned a darker red than his hair.

“I was cementing the relationship between dragons and the Zelphi.”

“You were having sex with Issus?” My eyebrows rose higher. Fluffy was barely ten human years old. I wondered out loud if there were laws against it.

“Maturity is not measured in years among dragons,” Fluffy looked offended at my suggestion. “Once we are capable, we are old enough.”

He had a point, and I wisely shut up about it.