The Generator: The Succubae Seduction (95 page)

As if in slow motion, I watch Alloria move to replace the glasses, but a bolt of light from Aldol strikes Sheila in the chest, knocking her back and away from the elf.

“No!” I scream, super-speeding to her, but I fear it’s already too late. I’ve been hit with that attack before, and even with clothing to slow it down, it still hurt like hell. Sheila was topless.

Her chest is a blackened crisp when I reach her. I hear screaming around me, but I ignore it as I lift my one-time boss into my arms.

“Ly. . .den?” Her voice comes out as a gasp. I stare down at her, surprised she’s still alive. I can hear air bubbling out of her fried chest. I can’t imagine the pain she must be in.

“You’re not the least of my women!” I tell her, trying to see through the tears forming up in my eyes. “Hold on!” I lean forward, pressing my lips against hers and willing her to be whole again. White light explodes beyond my closed eyes and I feel myself growing weaker. I don’t stop. I won’t stop! I pour all of my feelings into our connection. Feelings that only a few months ago were resentment, but have grown to so much more.

“I love you, too,” I gasp, when I sense that I’m almost completely drained.

“Lyden?” Sheila says above me, but she sounds distant. “What have you done?” Hands shake me, but all I want to do is sleep. I’m so tired. “Just a little nap, and then I’ll be ready to go.” Did I say that out loud, or only in my head? Who cares?

I feel lips pressed against mine, and a modicum of power seeps into me. Opening my eyes, I see I’m surrounded by flames.
Did Aldol destroy everything?
I wonder. The image of everyone I love and care about going up in flames sends a jolt through my system and I try to sit up.

Angela pulls away from me. I gasp as I look around. Jennifer and Jewkes are standing between Aldol and Alloria. The elf is down on the ground, groaning, and I can see that her leg has been fried. Emmet is leaning over her, mumbling a spell.

Where’s Sheila? I look around for her and find her covering her bare chest and looking at me with fear filled eyes. When she sees that I’m going to live, she rushes to my side, careful of Angela’s flames.

“Don’t you dare die, bitch,” I hear Emmet mutter. “You’re
my
little slut, and I’m not going to fucking let you die.” His voice returns to the singsong that I’ve come to associate with spell casting.

“I’m not yours,
Emmet
,” I hear the elf groan. The fact that she used his name tells me she’s going to be all right.

“We need to get you out of here. Their army is still holding back, letting Aldol fight for them, but we can’t hold out against them,” Angela says, helping me to my feet. “Wait, where’s your sword? Where’s Shemhazau?”

I don’t have time to answer her and don’t think I can right now. Already I can see Jennifer and Jewkes slowly stepping back as they deflect Aldol’s laser attacks with their swords. How are they even doing that? From the way they’re defending and not attacking, I know their weapons are useless against the monster. Even the rifle on Jewkes’s back and the shotgun on Jennifer’s won’t harm the creature made of light. The only weapon that could has been destroyed.

Destroyed as everything else will be, unless I can stop the Outsider right here and now.

I know what I have to do. Even with that certainty in me, I hesitate. Fear replaces the blood in my veins and the two women next to me have to hold me upright as my knees give way.

“Get back,” I order them. They stare at me in confusion. “Get back!” I yell, trying to shrug them off me.

They step away uncertainly. I have to lock my knees to keep myself upright. Neither one is happy about my order, but at least they listen.

“Leave them alone!” I bellow at Aldol. Somehow I sense its attention turn to me.

“Lyden, watch out!” Jennifer screams, but this time I don’t hesitate.

Lifting my right hand, palm facing out, I begin to draw in the power and energy around Aldol. It tries to turn and run, but Blue is right there. She blows a thin stream of fire at it. The fire passes harmlessly through the light creature and it retaliates with an attack of its own. The laser bounces off her scales, harmlessly striking the ground next to her.

I can sense desperation in the thing now as I continue to draw the creature and its essence into me.

It turns and charges, but I’m prepared for this. I place my left hand against my chest, seeking the last four remaining talismans. In my mind, I create a cage of pure light surrounding Aldol and me. I see it become reality. I line the bars of our prison in molten flame, and feed them with air. The heat grows intense, but I don’t let up. Earth rises up around us on all sides, except for the area between Angela, Sheila, Jewkes, Jennifer, and me, leaving us in a brightly lit cocoon-like cave, open on the end where my friends and companions stand watching. Water and darkness were depleted. I stand between Aldol and its escape.

Aldol slams against once side of our prison and is flung back. Despite my colorblindness, I hear the creature howl in rage at being trapped. It only has one escape: to join with me. It can’t even use its only weapon against me, as that will feed me even faster.

I continue to draw its essence, slowly sucking its soul if it has one, into me. As I do, I feel myself growing stronger. Light begins to break away from the creature and slip into my outstretched hand, like the light of a fiery sun as it gets drawn into a black hole.

“Lyden, what are you doing?” Angela yells at me, but I keep my eyes locked on Aldol. I can’t break my concentration for a minute, or I might change my mind. Terror fills me at what I’m doing, but I force it down, willing the power filling me to increase faster.

“He’s absorbing the Outsider’s essence into himself,” Alloria says. From her voice I can tell that she’s weak, but at least she’s alive.

“What will that do to him?” the Pillar of Fire demands. I can hear the fear in her voice, but I can’t stop what I’m doing. It’s the only way left to stop this monster. I wasn’t supposed to survive past this anyway.

I’m so very sorry, Father,
I think.
Angela, Brooke, Becky, Sheila, Areth and Lysa, please forgive me, but I must do this to save you all. Lisa, I will be with you again soon if there is an afterlife.

“Most likely, it’ll destroy them both.” I’m surprised to hear how solemn the elf sounds.

“Lyden,
NO
! You can’t. I need you. Please!” Angela screams.

“Why, Master? Why would you bring me back, if you’re going to make me live without you?”

Their pain isn’t lost on me and my heart aches to hear it, but I can’t stop. If I do, I may never get another chance.

Aldol’s light begins to flicker and weaken as my women cry and wail at the mouth of the cave.

“Captain Jewkes,” I call out. “I need you to do your duty. I need you to protect the people of Earth. Emmet, I need you to help contain me if I can’t.” I have to swallow, before I can continue speaking. I can already feel Aldol trying to take over my body, seeping his fingers into my mind and every corner of my being. “Let everyone know I love them. I’m sorry.” Aldol is almost completely gone. “I knew I couldn’t survive past this last. . . battle. I . . . L-love . . . You . . . A—DIE! I will destroy you. Nothing can survive the chaos that I will bring to this world. Chaos is the only true form of the cosmos.” My body begins to laugh without me willing it to.

As my consciousness begins to fade, I hear Emmet begin singing a spell. The report of a rifle echoes around inside the prison I’d made for the Outsider and me. Pain rips through my chest as my heart explodes, but it feels like it’s happening to someone else. To something else.

Die you evil fucker!
I think. My father was right. Sometimes a well-placed swear word really does work.

Oblivion takes me.

*     *     *

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Prologue

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A white room, lit only with candles and torches, sat empty of all life. Even the body that lay prostrate upon a table didn’t draw breath. The man was revered as a hero. There was even a monument erected over the cocoon-like cave he’d died in. He was the reason that the two worlds remained separate. He was the reason that life on Earth could continue, mostly ignorant of what had even transpired.

And he’d paid the ultimate price to do it.

The Chaos War had ended months ago, the Outsider’s army fleeing as soon as their commander was defeated. Despite the passing of time, no rot or decomposition touched the pristine body. Gaia, the Pillar of Earth, had made sure of that. She had even closed the hole in his chest, where the bullet had shattered his heart and ribs. She made sure no one entered this room, not even her. She had to be certain that the Outsider was truly gone. The wait had been to ensure that no vestiges of the Outsider remained within him.

But that was about to change. It was finally time.

A door opened and for the first time in months, a living person entered. Another followed, and yet more, until eleven people stood in a circle around the unmoving body.

Two separated themselves, stepping forward. One a very pregnant elf. The other, a man that had once been her mortal enemy.

The man began to sing softly, laying his hands on the body. His spell delved deep into the tissues of the corpse, looking for anything amiss. “He is whole,” the man intoned after a few tense moments. “But he is still dead,” he added unnecessarily.

An older man, a veteran of two wars now, spoke up and broke the solemn silence. “He has been for months. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen magic do some incredible stuff, but bring him back? Why didn’t we do that for Lisa? Or any of the others that died fighting the Outsider?”

“Because only he partook of my essence. It is my milk that has supported his body since his death.” The Pillar of Earth glared at the insolent man. She was the only Pillar in the room. A fact that was noticed by almost everyone there.

“Well why does Ondine or I need to be here?” he continued undaunted. “We never had sex with him. Our souls, or whatever, haven’t mixed.”

“You were in his Mens Mundi,” a very short brunette broke in, trying to placate the man. Over the last few months, she had delved into the world of magic, studying with the Paladonic Healer, with the Pillars of Air and Earth—almost no one ever saw the Pillar of Fire—and understood what was to come. “That small exposure transferred part of his soul to you. You are here, Thomas, to return it.” She also knew the truth about Ondine and her boyfriend.

“But not everyone he shared his soul with is here. And what about the part of his soul that died with him?” The man was obviously nervous about what was to come. Some in the room knew why, but most felt he was being incredibly rude and inconsiderate. The man on the table had sacrificed himself for all of them. How could he be so selfish? It wasn’t as though what was being asked of him would be painful or even hard. Well, not hard as in a difficult way. There would be some things that should be, ‘hard.’

“Those portions are forever lost,” Gaia answered. “He will not be the man he once was. Only the parts of him that you hold most dear will remain. He will no longer be a generator, either. That part of him was destroyed, along with all of his abilities. For all intents and purposes, he will be human.”

“We loved him for who he was. Not what he was,” the only redhead and one of the pregnant women stated.

“I didn’t love him,” Thomas muttered, but he was quiet enough that only Ondine and Gaia heard him.

“We all know what is needed, then?” Gaia asked, looking around the room. Thomas’s cheeks turned a deep crimson, but he nodded.

“This is the part I’ve been waiting for,” an incredibly large breasted woman cried with glee.

“Only because you’re as much of a pervert as he was,” the only woman with wings said with a smile.

“I’m a married man,” a hook-nosed man spoke up. He was standing next to the woman with the impressive chest. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Don’t give me that, Richard. You’ve been wanting to see my big bongos since you laid eyes on me.” She dropped her voice, though it was still loud enough to carry. “And I want to see what’s been creating that large bulge in your pants when you look.”

Thomas shifted uncomfortably, readjusting his own pants. Gaia approached him. The older man backed away from her formidable gaze. She had grown in height until she towered over him. Her hand shot out, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and with strong arms lifted him off his feet. To his credit, he didn’t shriek or otherwise call out in shock. Their eyes met for only a moment before the Earth Mother brought his face to hers. Their lips met, and Thomas’s eyes went wide in shock. The shock only lasted for a moment, before his body went into convulsions. Gaia continued to kiss him for a full minute before finally letting him drop to the ground.

“Wha—“ Thomas gasped as his girlfriend caught him and held him upright. “Why?”

Gaia ignored him, grabbing the mermaid next and kissing her just as scrupulously. Ondine tried to respond, to kiss back, but her body also went into convulsion. She was helpless to stop the changes Gaia was making in her body.

Of those watching the odd performance, only one knew what was transpiring. She had yet to speak, but she had grown close to Ondine since her master’s demise. Ondine was a puzzle to Sheila. Strong and confident, yet submissive to her boyfriend at times. Ondine had confided Thomas’s fears to her, and she in turn had taken them to Gaia. Sheila had once been a ruthless and unforgiving boss. Thomas, one of her employees. His work had shown an extreme lack of confidence, and was rarely satisfactory. Apparently his performance in the bedroom was similar. Gaia had refused to endow the man with a larger penis, his biggest hang-up. Together, they’d worked up another plan, but kept it secret from Thomas. Even Ondine was kept in the dark.

From this day forward, Ondine would be the only woman that could please Thomas. By the same token, Thomas would never have a problem pleasing his girlfriend again. Not because of any special skills either had, but because they had just been remade for each other.