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Message-ID: <54764asstr$1161483001@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: Shalon Wood <dstar@pele.cx>
Subject: {ASSM} New Age Dawning 7 (Ff rom fantasy viol blood)
Lines: 526
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 22:10:01 -0400
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Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
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Standard disclaimers apply; this story may or may not contain, in any
given part, graphic depictions of lesbianism, homosexuality, group sex,
bdsm, underage (teen) sex, magic, occultism, violence, and biting 
sarcasm.  If you're underage, or if for any other reason it's illegal 
for you to read this, or you're disturbed by the content, please don't 
read it.

Archived at http://pandora.pele.cx, and we've got a web-forum at
http://playground.pele.cx/forums as well, for discussion of both
Pandora and our other stories. 

Comments *greatly* appreciated.

Enjoy,

Velvet
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had set, so Rhishandri was able to leave off the heavy cloak and
veil, much to her relief. Her nervousness grew during the short, uneventful
walk, though, and she glanced at Adara anxiously several times, only to be
met with a calm, almost anticipatory smile. Conor was no more reassuring,
as he kept raising his hand to brush the hilts of the pair of longswords he
wore crossed on his back.

Approaching the stable, Adara stopped, her nostrils flaring.  She cocked
her head, considering, and turned to whisper, "Men in the stable. Large. At
least four. Conor, do you care if they live? You're known here."

Rhi grabbed her wrist, her green eyes wide and edged in gold. "There are
eight of them," she whispered, and Conor frowned and shook his head firmly.

"Not with those odds," he said, looking at Adara. "Let's not handicap
ourselves by tryin' ta keep em all alive, eh? Though one to question might
be nice."

Adara looked down at Rhi curiously. "Eight? How do you know?"

The girl licked her lips. "I... I can feel them. Feel their heat. And I can
hear their hearts beating."

"Useful," Adara said, smiling down at her. "Feed on them, if you need to."

Rhishandri shivered, and looked for a moment like she wanted to protest,
but her eyes were starting to glow and her growing hunger was almost a
tangible force in the air.

Adara squeezed her shoulder. The girl would have to come to terms with her
nature sooner or later. Now was as good of a time as any. It wouldn't get
any easier, later on, and at least these men weren't innocents. "Let's walk
in like we aren't expecting anything," she suggested. "Surprise them."

Conor nodded and moved around to the other side of Rhishandri, casually
tucking his cloak back over one shoulder and fixing a sociable smile on his
face. The three of them strolled leisurely into the stable, making it about
five feet before the door was firmly closed behind them, the heavy bar
falling into place with a thud.

Large burly thugs faded from the surrounding shadows, clearly having no
intention of _talking_.

Adara swung her staff in a practiced motion, intercepting the nearest
attacker, and stepped in front of Rhishandri. The girl was frozen with fear
and indecision-- it was probably the first violent confrontation she'd ever
witnessed-- and while Adara had no intention of shielding the girl from the
realities of life, she saw no harm in protecting her for the short time it
might take for her to recover from her shock and her new nature to take
over.

Besides, she thought, as the man she'd struck staggered and fell, the
metal-shod staff having crushed the side of his skull, she loved this sort
of thing. No ethical quandaries, just pure adrenaline-fueled carnage. Three
other men moved in to attack her, and three went for Conor, whose drawn
swords flickered through the dim light with a slight glow of their own.

The trio facing Adara moved to surround her, forcing her to step away from
Rhishandri or risk her getting caught by an accidental blow. A fourth man
ran up from the side, a rope slung over his shoulder, and reached for the
girl, but froze when she looked up at him. He seemed to be totally
paralyzed, though beads of sweat started to roll down his brow.

Adara had no time to contemplate the tableau, however. Two of the men
facing her had long daggers in hand, and the other had a wicked looking
spiked club. She ducked the club and dodged one of the daggers, but the
other man darted under her guard and his dagger raked along her side. He
seemed very unhappy when that did nothing to slow her down, and she
laughed, lashing out with her foot and catching him in the stomach.

The men facing Conor, meanwhile, were discovering two important facts.
First, the red-headed rogue was quite, quite ambidextrous. And second...
longswords have a much better reach than shortswords and daggers.

Rhishandri moved suddenly, in a blur too fast to follow, and the man who'd
been facing her ended up on his back, several feet away, with her on top of
him. Further details were obscured by a shower of blood.

Adara ducked another dagger swipe, and swung her staff hard against the
pelvis of the club-wielder. The force of her inhuman strength caused the
blow to split the skin and crush the bone beneath, sending him backwards
into the wall with a piercing scream.

As Adara turned her full attention to the two men holding daggers, one of
them disappeared backwards, his throat torn out, leaving her with only one
opponent. She blocked his desperate, clumsy jab easily, and glanced over to
see if Conor needed help.

He still faced all three of his original opponents, but one of them had
turned to look for his companions as well, and he suddenly went deathly
pale, his eyes wide with horror. The man dropped his sword, not even
seeming to notice that he'd done so, and screamed, running for the door.
Conor let him go, being rather occupied with removing one sword from the
chest of one of the men and using the second to block the attack of the
other.

Making a quick decision, Adara lashed out with her staff, catching the
fleeing man across the thighs, and he screamed and fell, and kept on
screaming as he rolled around on the ground. Her opponent took advantage of
her apparent distraction to lunge at her exposed thigh, but he tripped over
the flailing legs of his fallen comrade and ended up on the ground as well.
She reached for his hair and looked up, just in time to see Conor neatly
dispatch his last challenger with a blow to the head with the flat of his
sword. Then all was still and quiet except for the moans and sobs of the
conquered, and a wet, sucking sound from the shadows.

Adara wrapped her hand tightly in the man's hair, yanking him up and
twisting his head around so that he was forced to look at the rather
impressive carnage.

The middle of the stable was a mess. The first corpse was in the worst
shape; it had been nearly decapitated, the head left hanging by just a bit
of skin. He'd been eviscerated, as well, and not neatly. Ropes and pieces
of round, pink and red intestine were scattered about, and the man's chest
cavity had been violently cracked open, the shattered ribs gaping on either
side of the open, empty torso.

Rhi was still attending to the second body. She straddled it, every inch of
her covered with blood and flesh.  The only part of her not dripping red as
she looked up was her glowing gold eyes. She growled, letting the mangled
heart in her hand drop to the ground, and flowed with liquid, boneless
grace to her feet.

The man Adara held screamed, loud and piteous, and she shook him. "Tell us
what his is about, and I won't let her have you."

Rhishandri stalked towards them, licking the blood from her fingers, and
the man struggled frantically to get away. "No! No no no! Oh gods, please!"
he screamed.

"Well?" Adara asked coldly, but the man seemed suddenly paralyzed in horror
as the blood-soaked girl growled again and moved towards him. Her foot
caught against the man with the crushed pelvis and she stopped, looking
down, then knelt. Blood dripped from her hair and clothes, making a red
puddle around her.

"I'll tell you whatever you want!" Adara's captive screamed. "Please! What
do you want? We didn't know, we didn't know you were magic, I swear!"

"You aren't helping your case," Adara said. "I assume the merchant hired
you?"

Rhishandri rolled the wounded man over, almost gently. He moaned and opened
his eyes, looking up at her. She smiled, and reached out to pet the man's
cheek with one blood-coated little hand, and he started to cry.

The man Adara held watched, unable to look away, his face a study in
horror. "Yes, yes! The merchant, the horse and dala dealer! Said he wanted
the girl, and you were too infatuated with your piece of tail to sell her.
I swear, he said she was just a girl!"

Adara snarled, twisting her hand savagely in his hair. "And you took him up
on his offer. What did he pay you?"

Rhishandri bent, tilting the helpless man's head backwards as he screamed.
He reached up to try to stop her, and she did stop. Briefly. Just long
enough to snap his arms like twigs. Adara's prisoner groaned miserably.
"Ten gold... that's all... a lot for a normal kidnapping. Gods! Please,
please don't let her have me! How can you just _watch_?"

Conor, standing nearby and watching, looked a bit green himself, but made
no move to stop her. He was apparently operating on a 'better them than me'
principle.

"Where were you supposed to deliver her, and when?" Adara asked, but the
man just whimpered.

Rhishandri tilted her victim's head back, then struck. He screamed, as did
the man Adara was holding. Rhi's toy's scream, however, broke off in  a
sudden gurgle as blood sprayed from his throat, part of it splashing across
the face of the captive.

"Well?" Adara asked softly.

"FUCK! The village, lady! The village outside the tower. The inn there. I
swear! Oh gods I swear, please!"

Adara smiled. "When?"

Rhi dropped the corpse, leaving it seeping blood onto the floor, and
resumed her walk towards Adara and her captive. There was a sudden scent of
urine in the air as the man lost control of his bladder and started to sob
helplessly. "As soon as we could get her there. He's waiting. Oh gods,
please, please..."

The girl stopped about a foot away from the man, and just knelt there,
looking at him.

Adara looked at her. "I promised I wouldn't let you have him if he
cooperated," she said, slowly, and waited for any sign of understanding.

Rhishandri turned her head slowly to look up at her, her eyes a solid,
glowing gold and completely unreadable. Slowly, very slowly, she turned
back to the man and leaned forward. She reached out to stroke his hair,
barely touching him as he sobbed with fear. Then she looked back at Adara
and nodded, withdrawing her hands.

He sagged in relief, but Adara looked down at him. "I didn't say I'd let
you live." She reached out and rested her fingertips against his throat,
and Rhi smiled happily at her, and then bent and started licking the blood
from the man's face.

He screamed, but the screams dissolved into weak whimpers as visible
streams of black energy, dark but yet somehow seeming to glow nonetheless,
flowed from his skin to Adara's hand. Rhishandri drew back to watch, her
eyes locked on his as Adara drained the life from his body.

"Please," he whispered hoarsely. "Please don't. I'll do anything..."

"Why should I care?" Adara asked.

"I didn't know, gods, what _are_ you people? Please! Whatever you want,
I'll do it!"

Adara shook her head. "What could you do that would be worth the energy it
would take me to keep you from dying?"

"Oh gods... please... I'll give you everything I own. I'll kill the bastard
that tricked me into this job. Whatever you want, please!"

She tilted her head. "What do you own?"

"Weapons, armor. A horse, I've got a horse! Some coin. And... and... a bag
of stuff I got out of one of those false temples. I haven't even gone
through it yet. Please, gods..."

"I guess another horse would be useful, wouldn't it, Conor?"

Conor shrugged, not entirely able to conceal his discomfort. "We could sell
it, anyway," he said.

Adara was about to withdraw her hand from the man's throat when Rhi
whimpered. "Please... please kill him." She rubbed her cheek against
Adara's wrist like a kitten. "Please..."

The woman froze, looking down at her. Those gold eyes were strangely
compelling, but... something disturbed her. Some odd feeling, a tension she
hadn't realized was there. She knew she should say 'no'; the girl would
have a hard enough time dealing with what she'd already done, once she came
down from the state she was in. But something held her back, made her
wonder.... "Why do you want me to kill him?" she asked, softly.

Rhishandri looked up at her, her face showing only confusion, then she
turned her head and kissed Adara's wrist, her little tongue flicking hotly
along the skin. "Please? I... I need... he's so _warm_."

"But if _I_ kill him, what would you get?" Adara asked insistently, trying
to ignore the shivers the girl's touch had sent down her spine.

Rhi moaned quietly. "I don't know, I don't know! But I can _feel_ it... so
close. So very close! Please, I need it."

Adara stared down at her, and suddenly she could find no reason to refuse.
She'd be strengthened by the man's death, and if it gave the girl something
she needed as well... so much the better. No one had forced the men to
attack them, and what they'd intended deserved no mercy. "All right," she
said, and reached out again.

The man screamed weakly, but was unable to move. Physical strength was the
first thing to go in Adara's victims, conscious thought the last. "For the
love of gods, please!" he begged, and looked up into Rhishandri's eyes.
"Whatever you are, please stop. I'll be your slave, serve you in any and
every way you ask, forever, if only you'll spare me!"

Something almost intangible swirled in the air, and Rhishandri shivered
sensually, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, the gold had
mostly gone, leaving just the faintest swirls in the emerald green. She
looked as confused as Adara had ever seen her, and she shuddered again,
blinking. "I feel... wonderful," she whispered.

Adara's brow wrinkled. "Why?" she asked, more than a bit confused herself.

"I don't _know_!"

The man was sobbing quietly. "Please, Lady, oh please! I'm yours, just
don't kill me. Anything, anyone you want, I'll do it, get it. Please don't
kill me... let me serve you... please..."

Rhishandri blinked dazedly. "Um. All right."

Adara pulled her fingers back, and the man sobbed gratefully, pitifully.
Rhi looked up at her, completely confused and still dripping blood. She
didn't seem hurt by any of it, though. Well-fed, practically glowing with
magical energy, yes. A little bit drunk, maybe, and a little bit scared as
well. "How... odd," Adara said, looking at the girl thoughtfully.

Conor cleared his throat. "Ah. shouldn't we be going now? The remains here
will generate uncomfortable questions. Best be we well away before dawn."

Adara nodded, slowly, and looked back down at the man whose head she still
held. "Looks like I need to heal you, then." She pressed her hand against
his forehead and fed the energy she'd taken back into him, sighing a bit;
it wasn't nearly as pleasant feeling to put it back as it was to take it
out.

After a moment, she withdrew her hand, and the man staggered to his feet
and started for the door. Rhishandri frowned sharply. "Stop!" she cried,
and he froze, then turned back to face her as if he couldn't stop himself.
"_Mine_," she growled, and he whimpered and fell to his knees.

Rhi blinked, staring down at him in shock. "What... why did I do that?"

Adara shrugged one shoulder, and kept her voice neutral. "Don't know."

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do with him, eh?" Conor demanded.

"He's got a horse," Adara said. "He can be a servant."

Conor just stared at her. "And what's to stop him from turning on us?"

She looked over at Rhi oddly. "I'm not sure he _can_."

Rhishandri shook her head, seeming more dazed than anything else. "I... I'm
so confused," she whispered, then looked down at the man who was still
kneeling docilely at her feet. "Get your horse, and anything you want to
take with you. We're leaving tonight. Meet us on the road out of town."

He nodded, his eyes downcast. "Yes, Mistress," he said, then stood and
headed for the door, almost zombielike. Rhishandri swallowed hand, then
turned away, and froze as she caught sight of the savaged corpses. She
moaned, shocked, and then looked down at herself, staring in horror at the
blood that coated her.

Adara lay a hand on her shoulder. How the girl was treated now was
important. If they reacted with horror or disgust, she'd never see herself
as anything but a monster. So Adara smiled gently down at her. "You can
wash off in the trough."

Rhi swallowed hard again. "I... can't believe I did that," she whispered.

"They would have taken you to someone who would have done as bad or worse
to you," Adara said quietly, and relaxed a bit when the girl nodded.

"You're right," she said, and headed rapidly for the trough. Conor turned
his back on the two of them, and went about collecting the mounts as the
girl stripped out of her blood-soaked clothes and actually climbed into the
watering trough,

Adara watched her for a moment, then, confident that the girl wasn't going
to break down, started searching the bodies. The girl had progressed to the
point of struggling to rinse the blood from her hair when she found a live
one.

The kidnapper was unconscious, but breathing strongly. Adara stared down at
him in annoyance. "Shit."

Rhishandri looked up, pinkish water streaming down her face. "Hmm?"

"Another live one."

The girl froze, her arms still raised over her head. "Oh. What are you
going to do?"

Adara looked thoughtful. "I wonder if you can do the same thing to him...."

The girl looked away, embarrassed. "You mean torture him until his mind
snaps? I... I don't think I can."

"I don't think that's what happened," Adara said.

"What else could it be?" Rhi stood up, the water cascading down her body,
and started wringing the water from her mass of wet curls with both hands.

"I think... maybe... you have some sort of power."

"Power to... what?" Rhi asked, bitterly. "Make people into my slaves?"

"Something like that," Adara said with a shrug.

Rhishandri straightened, her wet hair clinging to her and covering most of
her body, and frowned. "That's... I don't know. Disturbing. It seems...
worse than killing them, somehow." She glanced unhappily at the gory mess
in the center of the stable. "Killing them was bad enough."

Adara shrugged again. "Remember what they were going to do to you."

The girl nodded. "I do. I'm not saying I'd rather have given in to them,
it's just... hard to believe that I could do _that_. There's nothing left
but... meat." She shuddered. "And I still feel so... _good_."

Adara looked at her. "And you started feeling that good when you did that
to him," she pointed out.

Rhishandri blushed, but nodded. She picked up her blood-soaked clothes and
dumped them in the trough and tried, without much success, to wash the
blood from the cloth.

"Interesting." Adara watched her thoughtfully, as with a carefully casual
tone, she asked, "So do you want this one, or do I kill him?"

Rhishandri's hands started to shake, and Adara grinned as she noticed the
girl's hips and thighs tighten at the question. "You like the idea, then?"
she asked.

With a moan, Rhishandri dropped the clothes and covered her face with her
hands.

"You do," Adara said, then grabbed the man by the throat and started
draining. The girl turned to watch, almost unwillingly at first, but with
increasing hunger as the man's strength drained steadily into Adara, and
then she groaned, licking her lips and leaning back against the trough,
holding tight to the trough. Seemingly unable to look away.

Adara watched her, not the man who's life she was draining. The girl's
breath came fast and short, and her cheeks were flushed. Adara tightened
her grip on the limp throat, her power flaring and hungrily sucking most of
the life from him in an instant.

Rhi's fists clenched, shattering the wood beneath her hands. Her eyes were
glowing gold again, as she gasped, then gave a little scream, falling
forward onto her hands and knees as Adara dropped the empty corpse.

The woman walked over to her, kneeling beside her. "Was it good?" she asked
softly.

With great effort, Rhishandri managed to roll over onto her back. She lay
there, looking up at Adara with soft, dazed green eyes. The pale skin of
her chest-- what little of it was visible through the concealing strands of
her hair-- was flushed, and her breathing was still heavy. "Wha?" she
murmured, blinking.

Adara smiled down at her, unable to resist reaching out to brush her
fingers along one soft cheek. "You seem to have a... reaction... to death.
Did you enjoy it?"

Rhishandri's face went blood red, and she turned her head away, squeezing
her eyes closed.

Gently grasping her chin to turn her back, Adara bent and gave her a quick
kiss. "It's okay," she said. "Though I do have to wonder what the hell he
was trying to turn you into. It doesn't add up."

A strangled sound drew her attention, and she looked up to find Conor
standing there, frozen for a moment at the sight of them-- Rhi laying there
like she'd just had _really good_ sex, with Adara still bending over her.
He turned immediately and headed back into the depths of the stable at a
near-run.

Beneath her, Rhishandri shivered and arched up towards her. One hand curled
up and around Adara's neck, and the woman couldn't resist kissing her
again, if only briefly. Then she pulled back gently and laughed. "It's
okay, Conor. You can come back out."

"I think I'll wait til yer lass has 'er clothes back on, if ye don't mind,"
came the answer from the far end of the stables.

Adara glanced down, wondering how she'd managed to forget about that. "Ah.
Yes."

Rhi blushed again. "Um. They're soaked in blood. And water, too, now."

"The blood isn't coming out?" Adara asked.

She shook her head. "I don't mind wet, I guess, but... I couldn't get the
blood out. People would panic," she said, as if that was her only concern
about the blood, but Adara could see the tension in her face.

"Hmmm.." Adara sat up, reaching into the trough. Usually she did her
laundry the same as any other mercenary, in whatever river or stream
happened to be handy. But sometimes, especially after a particularly
tiring, messy battle, it was worth risking doing it the more conspicuous
way. She closed her eyes, tightening her fist and letting one claw slide
out to jab into her hand just enough to draw blood, and murmured the words
of her favorite cleansing spell. The clothes fluttered in her hands, the
water flooding from them to leave them clean and dry.

When she opened her eyes, she found Rhi watching her with an innocent,
almost childish delight, and she smiled. "There you go."

The girl accepted the clothes, still warm from the spell, and put them on
gratefully. "That's _amazing!_"

Adara shrugged, a touch uncomfortable; she didn't usually do active magic
in front of anyone. "You pick up a few things," she said.

"Safe to look now?" Conor called.

"Yeah," she said, looking up as he emerged from the depths of the stable,
leading six healthy dalas. He'd selected tall beasts; they were all as tall
as a man at the shoulder, and somewhat wiry. Their long necks craned about,
bobbing as their nostrils flared at the scent of blood, and they tossed
their heads, their oversized gold eyes wild, the short, curved horn set in
the middle of their foreheads glinting in the torchlight, but they didn't
try to bolt. They followed Conor docilely enough, picking their way
fastidiously through the carnage on their clawed feet.

"Since he voided yer deal," Conor said, cheerfully, "I jut picked the six
best, and tack for the four ridin' beasts."

Adara nodded. "Works. Anything else worth getting?"

He grinned at her. "Nah, not really. I checked. It's nice tack, though. Ye
still wan to stop by way of the wizard's?"

She nodded firmly. "Yeah."

"All right, then. Take yer beasties and load em, and I'll meet you on the
road out. We'll go from there."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this, you might want to take a look at Strange Love, an
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Take a look!

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reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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