4. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
Bressen let the thought hang in the air, and Samhail grimaced.
“Ajax would certainly fight for us,” Samhail said, mentioning the gargoyle they’d recently met when Cyra had freed him from four hundred years of imprisonment in a magical necklace. “He feels he owes Cyra, so she could call in that favor.”
“And your family?” Bressen pressed.
Samhail sat for a moment, willing the cold dread in his bones to ease.
“They might fight, but I’m not sure how much I’d trust them,” he said finally. “The twins aren’t completely right in the head, Sadira enjoys cruelty a little too much, and Soldier…well, he’s a vicious bastard on a good day. He might decide to fight for Sandrian just to spite me.”
“This is your family?” Axenus asked incredulously.
Samhail shrugged. “My siblings, yes.”
“You have four siblings?” Axenus pressed. “That’s a huge number of children for a perimortal family.”
Samhail shrugged again. “My parents did a lot of fucking, and they were apparently the exception to the rule in terms of fertility.”
Axenus’s eyes widened in shock.
“Speaking of your parents, would they fight?” Bressen asked.
“They might,” Samhail said. “My father is getting old and hasn’t been in a battle for centuries, but he could be talked into it if I can impress on him the severity of the situation. My mother will be far easier to recruit.”
Bressen nodded. “Would we have better odds of convincing them to help if I reached out or if you did?” he asked.
Samhail thought for a moment. “Your chances are even either way.”
“I’ll reach out then,” Bressen said. “The request should come from me if it doesn’t matter.”
“Remember the symbionts were once human, and many, if not most, will have been turned against their will,” Axenus cut in. “We need to look for a way to separate the creatures from them safely or we’ll just be killing a lot of innocent people.”
Samhail and Bressen looked at each other again.
“You’re just full of fun reminders today, Axe,” Samhail grumbled.
How in the name of the Trinity was he supposed to plan for a war where they couldn’t hurt the other side?
Bressen sighed. “We’ll see what we can do,” he said, “but in the meantime, we need to find people who can fight the symbionts without being injured, or we need to protect our soldiers from head to toe so they don’t leave the creatures an opening to take over their bodies.”
“Do you want me to do some research?” Axenus asked. “I can see if there’s any record of these things and any information on how to separate them from their human hosts.”
“I’ll put Phaedrus on it,” Bressen said. “I may need you to take a trip soon. We need to start recruiting allies.”
“Where do you need me to go?” Axenus asked.
“Kern,” Bressen said. “They stayed out of the war with Sandrian the first time, but I’m hoping they’ll be more willing to help, given the higher stakes, especially since they share a border with us.
The Primus who rules there is getting old, but I’m told his eldest son has started preparing for the transition of power.
Perhaps the son will be more open to joining our cause and can convince his father. ”
Axenus nodded. “When do I need to leave?”
“Not yet. I’m still negotiating a visit for you. Until then, we’ll have to come up with the best way for you to approach the situation.”
Bressen paused, and Samhail could tell something was eating at him.
“What is it?” Samhail asked.
Bressen exhaled deeply. “I have a proposal for Kern that may sway them to our side, but it won’t go over well with everyone.”
Both Samhail and Axenus waited for the lord to go on, but Bressen only said, “I’m not at liberty to say more just yet.”
“Whatever you need me to do,” Axenus said with an acquiescent nod.
Samhail almost rolled his eyes. Even after a quarter century of friendship, Axenus hadn’t let go of the deference he had for Bressen.
Samhail showed Bressen the respect befitting his title in public, but when it was just the two of them and Cyra, that all fell away, and they were like normal friends.
There was no yes-my-lording or anything that suggested Bressen was in any way above him in station, and that only made Samhail respect Bressen all the more.
They’d seen each other in too many ridiculous situations – most of them drunken – for either of them to stand on protocol when they were alone or just among friends.
Axenus had never quite reached that level of comfort with Bressen, so the merman still balanced the few liberties he took with a lingering formality.
Bressen suddenly arched back against his chair and gripped the armrests until his knuckles went white. He sucked in a hard breath through his teeth, and Samhail shot forward in his chair, searching for a sign of what was wrong.
“Bressen? Are you alright?” he asked.
Bressen closed his eyes as his breathing became labored.
“Bressen!” Samhail said. He launched himself out of his chair, looking for an enemy to fight.
“Bressen?” Axenus pressed as he stood as well.
Bressen swallowed. “I’m fine,” he said, his voice carefully restrained. “I just need to speak with my wife about appropriate times to practice her mind powers.”
Samhail and Axenus just looked at him before understanding dawned on Samhail and he grinned.
“She’s got your cock hard right now, doesn’t she,” he said with a chuckle. His body relaxed as his gaze dipped to Bressen’s groin to confirm his suspicion. The lord was definitely aroused.
Bressen only groaned.
“I’m not sure whether to be impressed or terrified,” Axenus said as he studied the mask of erotic torment on Bressen’s face.
“It’s like she’s under the desk with her lips wrapped around my cock,” Bressen ground out.
Axenus’s expression shifted toward terrified, but Samhail chuckled.
“You can’t push her out?” Samhail asked.
“Fuck!” Bressen swore loudly as his head kicked back. “Not without hurting her. You both should leave. You don’t want to see how this ends.”
Axenus headed immediately for the door, but Samhail only crossed his arms in amusement. “On the contrary, I definitely want to see how this ends,” he said.
“Out!” Bressen yelled before his eyes rolled back in his head.
Samhail sighed but turned to follow Axenus out. Bressen was already tearing at the fastenings of his pants to free his cock, and the thought of what Cyra was doing to his friend made him a little hard himself.
Cyra was a beautiful, effortlessly sensuous creature, and remembering the couple times he’d fucked her always aroused him.
He rarely fucked women more than once, but if Bressen ever allowed it again, he’d be happy to take Cyra whenever he could.
She was the only woman he’d met so far that had kept his interest, and he loved the feel of her writhing in pleasure beneath him.
She belonged to Bressen, though, and as disappointing as that was, he accepted it.
The strange thing was that seeing Bressen and Cyra together almost – almost – made him want something similar.
Or at least it made him want to find a woman he found alluring enough to fuck regularly.
He generally enjoyed the hunt, as Bressen once had, but it was becoming tiring.
There was a process to choosing a companion for the night, of getting to know her just enough that he didn’t feel like a cad taking her to bed, and then of hoping she was able to even take his large cock.
The appendage between Samhail’s legs wasn’t monstrous, but it was big enough that once in a while the woman he had for the night couldn’t take him without pain.
In those cases, he pleasured her with his tongue and hoped she’d return the favor.
Generally she did, but there were a few times he’d had to get himself off.
He had a secret when it came to his tongue that he’d never told anyone else, not even Bressen. The women he pleasured were often spent when he was done with them, so in those cases, he took care of himself.
Samhail closed the door to the study behind him as he left and smiled as he heard Bressen roar with pleasure on the other side.
His own groin ached now, but it was too early in the day to head into the city.
He’d find his own release now to take the edge off, then go into Solandis tonight to find a woman – or maybe two – to finish him properly.
It was the one thing he still had that Bressen didn’t.
Options.