“Alex, take the left. If you see anything at all, whistle.” Leo whispered lightly as we approached a dark maze that I knew would lead us deeper into the heart of the Curser’s home. We had a team put together of Leo, myself, two more male Blessers and Lara, despite the fact that both Leo and I had attempted to get her to remain back in Sky City.
But that didn’t happen and so here she was with us. I growled at the thought of the innocent girl being in danger; no matter how manipulative or scheming she was, I still found that I cared about her. This mission was just a scouting expedition. They would use me as a backup plan if we found ourselves in trouble with the Cursers, but I hoped against hope that would not happen and things went smoothly.
Of course I never get my way, now do I?
“Hold!” A squeaky voice called out as I entered a wide expanse of twisted metal. “What do you think you are doing? This is a restricted area!” The Curser glared at me, hands on his hips. I knew that this close to the main quarters, where they’d possibly hide a Level 5, there would be only Level 3 and Level 4 Cursers. Dangerous stuff, especially for one without any power at all.
Like me.
“Um yeah, I seem to be lost. Looking for my dog. Have you seen him? Little brown thing. Scruffy. Ugly as my face.” I chirped, grinning at the younger man with a devious smile. This one was young, but looked competent enough. I blinked a few times, hoping the flame-ringed contacts we wore were still in place. To him I would look like a Curser. I hoped.
“No and you had better move along or I’ll bring you in for questioning.” He barked at me, pointing to the way I came. I nodded with hands up to show him I meant no harm and turned my back as if I were leaving. But at the last moment, I pulled out my stunner and down he went. I squatted beside his body, resisting the urge to rob him, and patted his coat seeking a card to let me into the deeper part of the complex. As I stood with the card in my hand, alarm bells began to chime.
“Crap.” I muttered and turned on my heel, dashing away. I flicked the card in a trash bin, knowing they’d change the code making it a worthless piece of plastic, and dashed backwards, heading to the rendezvous point. This had been a bust. We all made it back to the meeting point except for one. Can you guess which one did not make it?
Lara.
Right.
The fool girl had gotten herself caught. I grumbled angrily under my breath and then froze when we soon found ourselves approached by three Cursers. There were four of us, which would normally mean victory, but they had me so it was pretty much even.
“You aren’t Cursers.” The ugliest one of the bunch snapped, pointing to each of us, despite the fire-rimmed contacts in our eyes and the black clothing we wore. “Your contacts are burning your eyes.” His command was a curse and I watched in mild alarm as the three Blessers beside me yanked the contacts from their eyes as if they were in pain. When Blessers and Cursers fight, you do NOT want to be within a mile. Things get a little ugly. Especially since Ugly-face was clearly at least a Level 3.
“Tell us what you are doing and we’ll let you go.” A lie of course. It was at that moment when the black bag that was at their feet began to move. What the heck did they have in it? Mumbling from within made me think it was alive. I felt my eyes grow wide when I wondered if they had put Lara inside. The Blessers and Cursers began to hurl words at each other, sharp as barbs and rocks from the street began to fly around, sometimes hitting targets, sometimes missing. Things were getting as ugly as the guys face; this obviously was not their first battle with Blessers. I took time to edge my way around the fighting men, dodging rocks, garbage and anything else that was free and liftable, and carefully slid the zipper back on the bag.
“You jerk! Let me–Alex?” It was Lara. “Get me out of this thing!” I grasped her arms and pulled, letting her legs come free and helped her to her feet. As I did, a chunk of concrete, stray from the fight, smacked her squarely in the head. Ouch! That’ll leave a mark.
I caught her easily and held her unconscious form to my body, running for the shuttle we had used to fall to the earth. It was set to go back up in intervals of hours and I wondered how soon it was due to return. I did not want to wait if it had just returned, but could not think of a better place for Lara. I dashed inside, dodging anything that flew our way and placed her gently upon the padded floor of the shuttle once in it.
“Lara?” I patted her cheek, but she was still out solidly; I wondered if it would be more helpful if I exited to check on the Blessers or just remain inside with the girl. I was resolved of my deliberating when all three Blessers, blood streaming from many wounds, jumped into the shuttle as it began to float up to the sky. It shook a few times as the Cursers hurled their angry words, but held firm and soon we would be back in Sky City as the higher the shuttle got, the faster the speed improved.
“Is she all right?” Leo asked, pointing to Lara’s prone form. All I could do was shrug. I studied the men as they doctored each other and their own wounds and could not help but feel as if I had been a hindrance to them instead of help. Another Blesser would have been much better and they might have won instead of having to make a run for it.
“Well, that was sloppy, but it worked.” Leo stated dryly as he pushed a bandage against one of his arm wounds and blessed himself, “I’ll heal fine. I see that my skin is forming and molding to the wounds so nicely.” Removing the bandage, new skin had begun to grow from his blessing. I wondered if he were a Level 4 and stared as he did the same for the fellow beside him, but watching his subtle movements, I realized he had to make symbols with his hand and it wasn’t truly healed, but more like on the way to being healed fully. That’d mean Level 3. Only a Level 4 could do things with just a word or sentence, like Ugly back on the surface. Or me.
Once upon a time.
“Wait, worked?” I questioned him, looking at him in disbelief. “Last I checked, we had our butts handed to us.” I did not mean to be antagonistic, just honest. I think Leo saw that, as his reply was mild.
“I had a few moments where I gleaned the information we needed. The Level 5 is not in the security of the Cursers.” I blinked at his words. That meant the Level 5 was not in Curser care? There was hope after all then. But how would we find him or her?
“So what’s the next strategy then?” I leaned back, realizing that Lara was resting her head in my lap and her hand had began to press against my crotch, stroking as if my package were her pet. It was probably a good thing I could not get aroused as having her so intimate with me there would have done funny things to my body for sure, causing me serious embarrassment with her brother and the other Blessers with us.
“Yeah,” Leo glanced up to my face, shocked at his sister’s action. “We’re going to have to put subtle rewards out for any information. More so than we are doing now. We have got to find the Level 5. It could mean the world. Literally.”
I nodded, grimacing when Lara began to rub herself between her legs with her second hand while stroking my crotch. I had to wake the poor girl else she suffered an orgasm in front of her kin.
“Lara, wakey wake.” I shook her and the movement shocked her into awareness.
“Huh?” Her eyes darted around fearfully until she realized we were in the shuttle and near Sky City. She began to groan and then collapsed against me, which alarmed me into thinking that perhaps her injury was worse than we thought. I scooped her into my arms and followed the men quickly out of the shuttle and down a long set of white-walled halls until I was led to what looked to be a medical room. I set the girl down as gently as I could on one of the sickbeds and watched as they began to remove her clothes. I did not turn away, having already seen her as such, and knowing it would not do anything to arouse me. But the Blessers tending her shoo’d me away, deeming it improper for me to stick around so I left.
I ambled down a couple of halls until I came upon a large window staring down into a carpet of clouds that extended for miles. I sighed softly, enjoying the beauty. I flinched, startled, when a soft voice chimed behind me.
“Lovely, isn’t it?”
“Yep.” I turned to face the speaker and had to do a double-take. Lara? Well, it looked like Lara, but her hair was twisted into tight brown curls and she was dressed in a different outfit than I had seen before. How did they bless her so quickly? Did they have a Level 4? Still, it was a shock to see her so perky. The girl became self-conscious of my stares and held out a hand. “I’m Luna, Lara and Leo’s sister.”
“Ahhh.” It made sense and I remember someone mentioning the girl to me before, I had just forgotten about her. “Nice to meet you. I’m Alex.”
“Yes, I was told. I’ve been sent to see to you. Do you need food, water, rest?” She looked bored and I felt as if she thought she might be babysitting me. I did not need coddling, well not much, and so I shrugged.
“I’m fine. Thanks.” I tacked on a polite word and turned back to the window, wondering if Lara was all right. I felt a hand on my arm and turned back to Luna with a questioning glance.
“You look happy, your heart full of cheer.” She smiled lightly and then frowned when I did not smile back. “You are happy, Alex.” I felt the power glimmering from her tongue and ignored her shocked look as her hand rose to attempt to create another blessing that would fail soon too. I grasped her wrist gently to stop her.
“I can’t be blessed or cursed, Luna.” I told her, not wanting her to keep wasting her time. “I appreciate your effort to make me feel good, but it won’t work.” I wanted to bang my head against the plated glass, but refrained and instead turned to look her in the eye.
“I’m hungry. Want to take me to get some food?” After a quick nod, I began to follow Luna down the halls and into a large cafeteria-looking room filled with tables. I was relieved to find the place empty and wondered why Luna continued to stare at me so oddly.
“Your eyes. You are still wearing your Curser eyes.” She pointed to her own and I realized I still had my flame-ringed contacts in. Plopping them out of each eye, I fished a napkin and put them in it gently, tucking them into my pocket as I began to eat what the dispenser dropped gently down from above the table. It was some sort of fish meal, which made me smile at the irony. I remembered the wonderful tastes of the Blesser’s food. Each meal was exquisitely blessed and it made the food bursting with flavor.
“Mmmmmm.” I could not help but comment as I finished the last bite. I began to grow homesick for my own section, but knew they’d never let me in again. I couldn’t see the people I had grown up with. I didn’t have a mother or father, per se, but people who had donated their tissue to give me life. The Blessers were not allowed to breed their own children, for fear of a mundane human being born to them (or worse, a Curser), so each baby created was had picked, hand crafted, hand delivered into Blesser perfection. The family of Leo, Luna and Lara really surprised me. They looked very similar and I wondered if there was a true connection between them.
“Luna,” I pushed my empty plate aside and patted my full belly. “Tell me, would you? How you and your brother and sister came to live in the same place and seem to be from the same parents. How is that possible? Are you true siblings?”
“We were created from the same zygote. We’re maternal triplets.” She smiled as if proud of her heritage. “The three of us are one of a kind.” This caused her to giggle charmingly and I could not help but smile back. “It was very risky of the section leaders to let two of us live. But I’m happy they did.” I nodded, wondering which two would have been disposed of and which would have lived. Probably Leo. They never had enough males in Sky City.
“Very interesting.” I commented honestly and then let her lead me to the recreational center to play games while we waited for Lara to heal.
I ended up spending quite a lot of time with Luna and grew fond of her sharp wit and fun sense of humor. It was strange how she and Lara looked so much alike, yet while Lara was sweet, gentle and quiet, Luna was outgoing, fun and funny. The night came and Luna shared her bed with me. Not in that way, of course, since I was incapable, but in a friend way. I had grown so fond of having Lara’s body next to me was about the only way I could sleep, so her sister willingly obliged.
Something woke me in the middle of the night. I realized it was a soft hand stroking my chest and I opened my eyes to stare into Luna’s white luminescent orbs that were slightly lighting up the room. She had shed her nightgown in the course of the night and was pressed against my body naked. I groaned. No! It wasn’t fair! Another beauty to have to subdue and offend? Just my luck, of course.
“What are you doing?” I asked her softly, pressing her hands against my chest.
“I’m touching you.” The answer was of course in a teasing tone, as Luna seemed playful when she was relaxed and at ease with me.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’d rather not have you touch me like that.” I warned her as her hand lowered to my belly, despite knowing she was completely safe with me.
“You don’t want to make love to me?” Her tone suggested offense and I groaned inwardly at her question.
“Der yes. But I wouldn’t want Leo to pummel my hide for touching you back.” I hedged, hoping she’d stay away from the privates. But of course her hand began to stray there despite my hopes. “Look, Luna, I don’t want to hurt you, but your sister has already come onto me. And she’s already told me about her arrangement for mating. Do you have something like that too?” When she heard my words, her hands immediately pulled away from me and I sighed in relief. Perhaps I could manage to keep my dignity after all.
“Yes, but I don’t want to marry someone I do not know.” The girl pouted and I had to stifle a grin at how cute she looked when she did that.
“It won’t be so bad. You’ll grow to enjoy their affections.” I touched her chin as I spoke, forcing her to look at me directly. I was surprised to see tears.
“Hey, come on. They’ll cherish you like you deserve. I promise.” I was not really certain if my words would come true for her, but I could at least cheer her up now. She smiled and leaned in, kissing me lightly, quickly in thanks. But then she brought her lips back to mine and pressed harder. Unable to help myself, I kissed her back, enjoying the taste of mint from her mouth cleanser and the scent of her beautiful body.
“Touch me, Alex.” Her eyes were wide with arousal and need and I groaned. Of course, this had to happen. I had to run into two of the horniest Blessers alive. Figured.
“I can’t Luna. I like your sister.” It was a good excuse and it worked well too as she flopped over, her back to me.
“Fine.” I could sense her anger and so I began to stroke her shoulder.
“Hey come on, it wouldn’t be fair to Lara.” It was as good as I could do. She finally rolled over and kissed me, rolling back with a quick “Good night”. I lay in bed a long time afterwards, her naked body still pressed against mine, pondering why in the world the circumstances of having two beautiful women coming on to me in a matter of a short period of time had to happen when I could not become aroused. It just wasn’t fair!
The next day, Lara was up and about. I was happy to see her back to normal and it was amazing spending the day with both twin girls. They each tried to outdo the other in the attention department to me, which while it was flattering, was a bit unnerving. Men who would pass me revealed a slight jealousy in their features and expressions, which made me want to laugh. All the Blesser men roaming about and I had two of the most beautiful women on my arm. And I couldn’t even bless!
When Lara refused to let me sleep alone in the bed provided that night, claiming she was fearful of her injury making her unconscious so that she would never wake, I had pity on her and slipped into bed with her. When I felt her hands slide around my back and grasp my butt through my underwear, I grimaced. Not again. Please, no. I couldn’t take it!
“Lara,” I warned, using a firm voice. She ignored me and began to kiss my chest, filling it with little touches of her lips lightly brushing against me. It was erotic and enticing, and of course did nothing for me.
“You are safe, Alex. I know you can’t do anything to me, which is fine, but I just want to touch you. Is that all right?” Her voice was almost pleading and I could not help but shrug. Whatever made her feel good. I felt guilty for Luna though, who was sleeping in the next room. I wanted Lara. I wanted Luna. But most of all, I wanted to be able to shag them both, many, many times at that. Her hand pulled mine to where it was between her legs and I was amazed at how wet she was. I hadn’t even done anything! Horny girl, I could not help but think to myself. Why me, oh why me!
The bed shifted and I lifted my head to note two more sets of glowing white eyes slipping in to join us.
“Luna?” I asked, questioning her actions. She was naked and crawled in on the other side of me so that soon I was naked, with two very beautiful and two very nude women sandwiching me between them. I could have cried.
“Alex, make love to me.” Luna’s voice was soft, sensual, and I knew at that point I would have to humiliate myself once again, just like when I had told her sister of my impotence.
“He can’t, Luna.” Lara answered for me. “He has been cursed and cannot get it up.” Her voice was filled with disappointment but something else I could not quite put my finger on. And then it hit me — because I could not have sex with these two, it made me extremely attractive to them.
I was safe.
I was harmless.
I was a toy to them, to use with no side effects.
And what was worse? I was putty in their hands…
And they knew it.
To be continued…