Elfhome

The earlier sex had only whetted Tommy’s taste for Jewel Tear. When he was sixteen, he and his cousins had stolen a canister of nitric oxide and spent a blur of days falling into sweet oblivion. Afterwards, he felt he could easily kill to gain another canister, and the feeling made him both scared and angry. Frightened because he already had one master: the oni. He didn’t need one that he willingly served. Angry because he had given himself the weakness.

Now he was feeling the same lingering want, tainted again with fear and anger. He’d never wanted a female like this before — but then he’d never had a female this fine. He avoided humans. Even if the woman was drunk and he had her pinned face down in the bed — the fear of discovery always ruined his pleasure. That cold niggling feeling reached down in him and awoke long buried memories of his own rape. It kept him from the very lush University of Pittsburgh students with their painted on leggings and tight shirts. The half-oni girls were safe but never as fine. Not that it really was their fault: they didn’t get enough to eat and sometimes had literal dogs for fathers.

No, his experiences weren’t with females this beautiful, rounded, soft, clean and wonderfully scented. Even her mouth tasted of some sweetness he couldn’t name. In the quick hard fuck, there hadn’t been time to wallow in it all. The oni army was breathing down his neck and yet he was wondering what it be like to bare her chest and suckle to his heart’s content.

It scared him that he couldn’t keep his mind off her. On Elfhome, more than a dozen nasty plants liked to lure in prey and then pin them helpless to be eaten alive. The plants were all sweet smelling, beautiful things. Did this elf female have him already pinned? Had she used some kind of magic to ensnare him so tightly? Having time to think about it, he couldn’t come up with any sane reason she would spread her legs so willingly for him otherwise.

But if she didn’t use magic, then his weakness was all his fault.

#

Spot couldn’t keep up. They were moving too fast. They needed to keep ahead of the platoon until they could find a place to trap the oni. They needed a gorge or cliff to take out the entire platoon at once. If even one escaped, they would have the entire oni force chasing them.

It was becoming apparent that Tommy had to either carry his cousin or leave him behind. Tommy couldn’t afford to wear himself out; not with the rest of the family depending on him getting the damn elf bitch back to Pittsburgh. They were a hundred miles deep in a forest filled with oni, wargs, and man-eating plants. It would be kinder to kill the boy than to leave him — but Tommy couldn’t bring himself to do it. He put it off even as the boy fell further and further behind. As Tommy hit the top of a tall ridge, he realized Spot was totally out of sight. Sighing, he stopped on the pretense of studying the lay of the land.

As if their situation wasn’t bad enough, the valley beyond was broad and glittered with standing water half-hidden behind dying trees. He growled at the sight, shaking his head.

“What is it?” Jewel’s breasts glistened with sweat and strained her dress with every deep panting breath.

Tommy turned away from the distraction her chest presented. “We’re boxed in. Black willows prefer marshes.” He spotted one of the massive trees stalking through the wetland and pointed it out to her. “My illusions don’t work on creatures like them.”

He glanced back the way that they had come. From their perch on the ridge, he could now see the oni following them. A full platoon of thirty warriors was cresting the last hill and pouring down it at a fast trot.

Spot scrambled up the final bit to the top of the ridge, gasping for breathe between whimpers of distress.

“It’s okay.” Tommy said despite the sick feeling roiling in his stomach. He couldn’t delay his decision any longer. He couldn’t keep both Jewel Tear and Spot safe, and for the sake of the rest of the family, the female had to be the one he saved. He scratched Spot behind each floppy ear. One quick twist and he could break the boy’s neck cleanly.

Spot looked up at him, trusting him completely.

Jewel put a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “I can use the marsh to kill the oni.”

Could he trust her? For Spot’s sake, did he really have a choice?

“Let’s go then.” He hefted Spot onto his back.

#

It went against everything Tommy ever felt or believed to trust Jewel Tear but still he followed her into the swamp. She cast spell after spell as they pushed through way through the underbrush. He could hear the calls of the oni as they hit the top of the ridge and spotted them.

“They’ve seen us,” he warned.

She gestured and he felt the change of air pressure as her shield encircled them. “Good! Let them chase us!”