Kaphas: Bayou Bishops

CHAPTER ONE

“I just talked to Cherie,” Seer said to Bishop as they followed the Quantum King and the three AI soldiers to the hanger. “I let her know she’s under your care while I’m gone. Something needs doing, she’ll follow your lead.”

“How long will this take you think?” Bishop wondered.

“Given the caliber of genius with these dudes, you might see me tonight.”

“Truest shit right there.”

A girl ran past them with both her arms waving and flapping around. “That’s him!” she yelled ahead of them, stopping the procession. Seer and Bishop stepped out of line right as the girl yanked on Quantum’s arm. “You’re the other King I saw in my vision. And them!” she said, pointing at his three soldiers behind him.

“That’s Eve,” Seer realized.

“The blind girl?”

Nidev went through a quick introduction then the line was moving again with the girl now standing on the sidelines, her blind gaze moving along the procession. As Seer passed, her eyes landed right on him with a sharp breath. “The bright King!” she called, jumping up and down in excitement, pointing at him.

“You have a fan,” Bishop chuckled, as Seer held her gaze till he was peering over his shoulder.

Remarkable.

“I’m a tad envious,” Bishop said as they entered the hanger where the two shiny silver jets sat. Identical. “Then the feeling hauls ass outta me.”

Seer had to laugh in agreement. “Keep your phone close, Brother.”

“It’ll never be far from my hand. Learn everything you can while there.”

“That’s my intention.”

“If these people are supposed to be a part of anything coming, I’d like to know that as fas-fas as we can.”

“Thousand percent. And keep an eye on all these outrageously horny Kings with the women.”

A laugh escaped Bishop as Seer added his own chuckle. “I’ve never laughed so fucking hard at anything,” Bishop confessed. ”Porn-Hub of the sophisticated genius.”

“I know who I’m not drinking after,” Seer added getting Bishop’s near panicked agreement, making him laugh more.

“Looks like I’m riding with the Kings,” Seer said, hurrying down the walk.

“Call me when you touch down,” Bishop called as he went.

****

VEX HAD TO SPEND FIVEminutes on self-lockdown before he called Jolynn. He wasn’t sure but it seemed that his condition was only worsening and had to wonder if his brothers weren’t somehow contagious.

“Well, hello, stranger,” Jolynn answered, her husky tone blasting right through his barricades.

“Miss Skelton, I’m calling to let you know an emergency came up. We’ll have to cancel our date.” Every one of his words bit like asps and he braced for the impact that was sure to have on her.

“We’re dating now?” Jolynn asked, her tone teasing all the wrong parts in him.

“It’s the technical term.”

“Of course it is,” she said, still unaffected. “So, what’s the huge emergency?”

“My brother Zodak had an accident and we’re moving him to a facility where they can help him.”

“Oh no!” The breathed words stabbed his dick. “Is he okay?”

“He will be,” Vex snapped, closing his eyes and jaw tightly. “What are you doing right now?”

“I’m...I was...getting ready.”

His hearing picked up the sound of water and all his muscles froze before getting blasted by X-rated images and unholy lust. “You’re bathing.”

“I...I am. I wasn’t going to tell you, but it seems stupid to lie now.”

He was sure he could hear her pulse through the phone. He sure as hell felt her nervous breaths.

“I hope your brother will be okay,” she hurried as his tongue moved in his mouth with very dirty words. Damn that fucking bite.

“He’ll be fine.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For whatever has you so angry.”

His mouth decided to open and spill all the dirty details about Nitro’s bite, not stopping till she had all of them. “It’s shocking, I know.”

A snicker filled his ear, then got cut off. “Sorry.”

“I can’t imagine how you’d find such a thing funny,” he said, but he could and did imagine her in the water, wet and slippery, his cock filling her delicious cunt.

“So, which do you have?”

What did he miss? “What do you mean?”

“Which of those...symptoms happen to you?” As he fought with every inappropriate answer, she muttered, “Never mind, I think I know.”

He learned in that second that curiosity and arousal were a deadly combo with this. “Tell me.”

A tiny laugh escaped her. “That’s one right there.”

His amplified impatience kicked in. “I do not wish to play word games, Miss Skelton. No, that’s not correct. I loathe playing word games.”

“Your bossiness, that’s what,” she sputtered quietly.

“I’ve always been bossy.”

“Ohhhhh, not like this,” she whispered.

“Why are you whispering, is there somebody there?”

“No, it’s just... it’s private,” she hissed.

His cock felt like an angry limb banging against his jeans for freedom. “Do not whisper to me unless your life is in danger, do you understand?”

“Uhhhh yes,” she said, her tone odd. Was she smiling about it? “I do feel threatened. I guess that doesn’t count.”

“It does not,” he assured roughly. “I’m aware of my condition and you should know I take great care not to let this barbaric tone I seem possessed by touch Rosavelt.”

“Barbaric is an understatement,” she muttered.

“What does that mean? Speak plainly.”

“Fine,” she conceded.

“You’re whispering again.”

“Fine,” she said louder. “You’re not just barbaric you’re...”

“Fuck,” he seethed, earning her gasp of shock.

“You cussed!” she said in a shocked whisper. “Right in my ear!”

“And you whispered,” he accused back. “Right in my ear. When I just told you ten seconds prior, not to. And you find this amusing, Miss Skelton.”

Vex’s anger mixed with those images still burning him alive, provoking him to something violent.

“I’m sorry.”

“And you’re whispering still,” he all but seethed in disbelief. “It’s as if you’re intentionally provoking me.”

“No!” she still whispered. “I’m...I’m...”

“What!” he ordered. “Say it!”

“I’m entertained, maybe. Just a little!”

“Entertained,” he repeated, sure she’d chosen the wrong word even as her amusement was right there, front and center. “You find my condition entertaining,” he repeated regardless.

“In a good way,” she hurried, her soft voice licking his balls. “I...I may like it.”

He held his jaw shut at that admission, eyeing his brothers in the seats before his as he pressed his palm on his cock.

“I think it’s...”

“Tell me,” he ordered quietly, his pulse out of control while sure Lore likely heard every damn word he was saying even without jacked up auditory gifts.

“I think it’s sexy.”

Not only did she dare say that to him, she whispered it in the hottest fucking voice.

He struggled to think past the savage rape happening in his mind, but he couldn’t. “If I were there, I would pull you out of that tub and teach you a lesson you’d never forget.”

Oh fuck. He’d said it. Not thought it.

Apologize. Right fucking now. “You did that,” he accused instead. “And when I get where I can speak privately, you’ll tell me every detail in your defiant mind about it, and I will weigh the price of this offense and you will surely pay it.”

Vex hung up and stared at the screen very aware that only two percent of him sat in utter shock at what he’d just done and ninety-eight percent said it wasn’t enough.

“Did you know there are a slew of women where we’re headed,” Lore very quietly informed. “Nuns.”

Alarm struck Vex at the dread in his tone and why it was there. Being nuns should make things easier but would in fact do the opposite. All their gifts had been fine tuned to draw other gifted to themselves, vocations didn’t matter. But since being bitten, this drawing ability had been greatly amplified, varying in type and technique. Only a single thing was constant among them—the potency of their lure and what lurked within it. They were human lust traps. Hardly safe to be around. He’d need to explain this to the Quantum King and insist they protect all females until a remedy was found for the bat disease the marsh bastard passed straight into their minds and cocks.

****

HARLOW LET OUT HALFa breath as they dealt with all the shit on their plate in random order. Zodak’s woman was stable in their medic facility, the Creole Kings were tucked into their own rooms, and their Syphon King had been prepped for the bad-ass hand transplant—the second it was done being printed.

Now they were down to the final turd and Harlow had nothing but shock and rage as he stared through the glass at the module containing his arch nemesis.

“How did he do this?” Atlas marveled.

Harlow felt Kult behind him. Oh, he was so very pissed. Quantum finally returned from the computer with the awaited explanation. “He hi-jacked our neuro-linking protocols,” he began, his tone way too tech-eager for Harlow. “As part of Sync, he had latent access to the foundational layers of our code. When he integrated with the Evolution Matrix, he found a way to bypass the standard security protocols and rewrite his own parameters.”

“Please don’t sound so fucking impressed,” Harlow said, eyeing the module in disgust.

“So, the sonofabitch used his knowledge of the system’s core architecture against us,” Kult said quietly. “And made himself into a fucking twelve-year-old.”

“He did,” Quantum affirmed. “He leveraged his understanding of the neuro-partitioning and consciousness transfer processes. By accessing the root commands, he was able to override the safeguards and input a unique growth sequence.”

Harlow snapped his gaze to Quantum. “What do you mean a unique growth sequence?”

“Right now, he’s twelve years old. But he’s compressing lifetimes of learning into mere hours. Every day he’ll grow five years, learning or remembering all that he once knew.”

“And why would he do that?” Kult puzzled with sadistic suspicion.

“That’s the real enigma,” Quantum said. “Let’s wake him up and find out.”

“If he remembers,” Atlas said.

All eyes locked on the module as it hissed open and up sat the thing they all wanted to kill, scrawny and looking half-baked. Literally.

“What’s all that black shit on him?” Kult muttered, his disgust at a thousand percent.

“Kevlar. Which will grow with him,” Quantum said, fascinated.

“Kevlar skin?” Sync asked.

“Kevlar coated cells,” Quantum clarified.

“Why?” Atlas wondered as the boy hopped out of the pod. Smiling and naked. And...waving.

“What the fuck,” Kult mumbled as the boy hurried to the glass, stopping right before Kult, again waving like he needed to get his attention.

“Hello bruv,” he called, his voice muted by the thick barrier.

“Make it shut up,” Kult said.

“Now, I know you’re angry with me,” he pled, “but hear me out. Everything I’ve done is for our very own good.”

“I think I can kill a twelve-year-old,” Kult decided.

“Is that a British accent?” Atlas marveled.

“Our good?” Harlow said in disbelief, getting his weird eyes on him now. Judgy eyes? “You’re pissed at me?”

“Damn right, I’m pissed at you, mate,” he shot out, the gold in his eyes flashing and overtaking the green. The boy’s gaze narrowed as he lowered his head.

“Is he remembering?” Sync wondered as Harlow eyed Quantum, glaring curiously at the human imposter.

“I remember what I gave myself to remember,” the boy informed, his tone surpassing his age as he looked back at Harlow. “You taught me all about that, bruv.”

“And do you remember what you did to Butterfly?” Atlas demanded now.

The boy looked right at his accuser. “I remember what I had to do.”

“Explain yourself,” Quantum ordered, his words cutting the air.

“Because she belonged to Pain,” he snapped at him, that gold in his gaze flaring. “And you were doing just as Kult said, reducing us right out of her life. Go on then,” he dared lightly, crossing his little arms over his chest. “Tell me I’m wrong.” He eyed the rest of them, gesturing a hand at Quantum. “Ask him.”

“He’s not wrong,” Quantum said, his voice steel.

Harlow regarded his brothers, not really surprised to find them unperturbed. They’d all known it because it was inevitable. What they had with Butterfly had been unsustainable.

“And since she belonged to Pain, well I bloody well had to do what I had to do.” He flashed perfect white teeth at Kult. “Bloody brilliant, yeah?”

“Why the fuck do you have that accent,” Kult said, like it was the one piece of the puzzle he couldn’t stand not knowing.

The boy threw both arms out at his sides with a huge grin. “Because it’s bloody adorable,” he cried with a wide-eyed laugh. “Hard to kill?” He passed his smile over all of them. “I’m right, yeah? We’ve always thought this?” He turned, showing his naked scrawny ass, like that was part of the charm. Facing them again, he grabbed his penis, shaking the flaccid meat at them. “Two days and my wanker’s gonna be bigger than all yous. Ask me how I know?” he dared, his laugh reminding Harlow what a machine gun might sound like while mowing his ass down with it.

“I don’t think you’re cute at all,” Kult seethed, stepping closer to the glass. The boy went in reverse while the patches of black on his skin spread out like ink in alcohol.

“He sensed a threat,” Quantum observed.

“I’m equipped for those,” the boy said, or warned. “All sorts in fact.” He shot a look at Quantum. “I made it so they evolve with me, yeah?” His wary smile flashed. “I’m gonna be your best soldier,” he informed with a happy, proud nod before getting back to worrying about Kult.

“You remember me? Handy?”

The boy whipped his gaze to Atlas. “What sort of question is that, mate? You’re part of me.” He eyed all of them. “All of you are. Even you,” he said to Quantum. “But I’m not Handy,” he said, his smile bright again. “I’m all of us. Just like it used to be. He looked at Sync. “You showed me how. I made us into one. That’s what’s in here now,” he said, tapping his temple with grins and giggles. “We’re all here. Just like old times.” He held his arms out again, laughing. “I’m Kaphas,” he said, to the ten stunned eyeballs aimed at him. “Kaphas King! Kult, Atlas, Pain, Harlow, Augustine and Sync. And now King. We’re all one again!”

Kult turned and walked off, taking Kaphas’ smile with him.

“Where you goin’ bruv?” he wondered, looking at Harlow. “Where’s he goin’? I did it for him too, yeah?”

Harlow couldn’t unhinge his jaw even if he had words.

“I had to do it that way,” he said to Sync and Atlas who went after him. “Was the only way King would let her go, tell em’,” he half pled to Quantum. “I was protecting our bruv. We always protected him. We still do!” He banged his fists on the glass when Quantum turned next and Harlow followed, not wanting to be left alone with their freaky half-spawned selves.

“I was protecting our bruvva, you pieces of shite! Tell Pain! I saved him! I saved all yous ungrateful fucks! And then you left me in the dark! You all fucking left me to rot in the dark!”

This wasn’t happening. Fucking unbelievable.

****

LORE THREW OFF THEcovers and sat up in bed, frustrated. Only a day there with two more to go and already he was being manipulated by his bat lusts. He headed out of his room needing to unravel the auditory mysteries occurring in the massive castle. “At such ungodly hours,” he muttered, making his way to the source while humming out a frequency that took the edge off of the incessant sexual arousal. It was as though his cock had become some sort of tuning device, intercepting and tasting all sound, each one having its very own effect on it. It left him with a permanent hard-on and the need to manipulate sound more than usual just to quell the anomaly. The problem was this anomaly came with great pleasure, requiring him to use his gifts on himself more than anything else.

He shot up the stairs toward the distraction that gave him the most sexual duress. The problem with his condition is that it required no female to bring on the reaction. His cock was likely being strummed by the whisper of a weathervane on the very top of the castle’s roof.

The moment he arrived on the third floor landing, he knew he was wrong. The whispers were not mechanical, but human. Coming from a flock of them, it seemed. He slowly rounded the corner of one corridor as he got closer to the sharp race of erratic breaths over his gifts. And yet he discerned only two bodies as he continued on. Female. They were searching for something and one of them was quite emotional over it.

“Handy!”

He stopped in his tracks out of sight at the name. Was this the Handy he’d learned about with Dr. Harlow?

“Handy where are you?”

Surely it couldn’t be if they were searching for him since he was not technically... something one could search for.

“Sister,” the other female pled, the compassionate whisper strumming Lore’s body. “He’s not here, but we can continue the search first thing in the morning, right after prayers.”

Lore remained out of sight at the corner of the corridor, watching the vision. Two angels in white gowns reaching their bare feet.

“They’ve done something with him,” the brown haired girl wept, her sorrow compelling all his gifts to soothe. “I just know they did, they’re angry with him but he’s not a bad person,” she assured with heated conviction.

“Of course he isn’t,” the other one quietly said, petting her hand over the girl’s head. “And we will find him, you’ll see. We’ll pray and ask God to lead our steps but you have to rest so you can hear properly.”

Lore’s gaze moved over her waist-long hair. The striking illusion of glowing copper in the form of silk was the result of the hallway illumination, surely. His curiosity grew greater than his need to remain unseen, drawing him from the shadows.

He approached with a quiet, “Excuse me,” infused with a soothing resonance, gaining their instant attention. “I heard voices,” he hurried, adding calming frequencies that turned their fear into curiosity. At a five-foot distance, his bat disease absorbed the stare of the female with the smoldering hair as it moved along him from top to bottom, not missing an inch. Her gaze returned back up, then stopped, reminding him of his attire and that the robe was not sufficiently closed.

“Who are you?” the distraught girl whispered. “You’re new here?”

He wanted to answer her, but his gaze was too busy with the sound of the other female’s breaths in connection to her hot stare and how they both formed a glove around his cock. She closed her eyes, the skin on her brow indicating a strain he wanted to decipher.

“Are you related to the Kings?” the teary voiced one asked.

“No,” he said, still staring at the other woman.

“Do you know Handy?” she whispered. “We’re looking for him.”

Lore’s breath held as he waited for the gaze of the copper one. “I’m Lore. The Quantum Kings brought my brother here to help him.”

She finally dared a look at him, and he realized it was fear he sensed. And yet the impact of their connecting gazes sent a shockwave of heat through his muscles along that gaping pathway to his cock. “What’s wrong with your brother?” the copper haired goddess whispered.

He stood riveted, hyper-focused on the conversation her body was having with him. After quick measurements, he realized he was affecting her in all the wrong ways, yet he cared only to study the anomaly closer.

“Sorry, that’s not my business,” she hurried, lowering her head.

“We should pray,” the sad one said. “Come, Sister,” she urged, holding one hand out to Lore, imploring her sister do the same.

Their gazes were suddenly locked again as she stood just before him. He dared to take her tiny hand reaching for his and the moment he closed his fingers around it, a fierce war erupted inside him. Resisting the urge to explore everything about her utterly debilitated him. He found himself trapped deep in her gaze, every beat of her heart creating micro-explosions in his body while her erratic breaths set his blood on fire. The bite symptoms bulldozed his ability to think as he obeyed the order to feel her. One slow glide of his thumb over her soft skin set off a series of attacks that began with the delicate suck of her breath and tiny sound in her throat. Both blasted lava into his balls.

“Amen,” the sad girl whispered as she released his hand. Lore’s need to taste what he touched rode the fire in his blood like a vengeful warrior and there was no stopping him from pulling her hand up and meeting it with his lips.

“My apologies,” he whispered right as his eyes closed and his lips pressed against the warm silk.

Her shock burst from her lungs as she yanked her hand from his, running past him. Lore remained with his eyes closed, listening and feeling as she fled the battlefield. He calculated her wounds and measured their severity, not understanding the smile on his lips. She may not make it back to wherever she ran before bleeding out. And there was no mistaking the victorious thrill that sang through him at the idea as he turned and made his way back to his room to calculate his own injuries. He had many. And they were all fatal. He was doomed. And he loved it.

He could not permit himself to see her again.

But he surely would.