Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbing July 3)

“All right, I’m wearing the blindfold, can I at least get a hint?”

Tybalt was being guided to his birthday party by his fiancees. Mariella, Vidalia, Dero, Victoria, and Kistana were all there. The others had suggested Kistana should be off-duty so that she could enjoy the festivities properly, too, so there was also Harald the wight knight, following in stoic silence, as his bodyguard.

“No hints,” Vidalia said firmly. “You’ll find out where you’re going when we get there. Just try to walk straight and not trip over things, darling. I know how devious you are, so if I have to, I’ll walk covering your eyes the whole time just so you can’t slip off the blindfold.”

The necromancer shook his head but smiled.

It’s nice that we can act frivolously like this. It’s good to be in control of our situation for a change. Until the next surprise dragon attack or sudden clash with armed forces.

The corner of one eye twitched with the memories.

But mostly, he relaxed. He trusted the women around him, they guided him so that he didn’t have to worry about falling into an open sewer, and engaging with their chatter kept him from thinking about how far they were walking or which way they were going.

Until finally, they stopped and sharply rapped on a door. Tybalt heard it open, and then a pair of soft hands clamped over his ears.

When the hands were pulled away, he was guided into a space that felt darker. Even through the blindfold, he could tell that rather than being lit by sunlight, there was a flickering firelight that provided all illumination.

The light grew brighter as the hands around him guided him down a hallway.

Finally, they pulled him into a room and closed a door behind him.

“So, are we here?” Tybalt asked.

“Yep, we brought you to a fortuneteller!” Dero announced, pulling the cloth away from Tybalt’s eyes with a flourish. “Happy birthday!”

“It’s a sort of combined birthday and pre-marriage celebration,” Mariella said, giving Tybalt a slightly suggestive look.

The necromancer took in his surroundings for a split second, eyes adjusting to the dimness, before he said anything. The lighting in the room came mainly from a brazier with a burning fire surrounded by stones with runes etched into them.

Magic. Old magic that someone had preserved. He wanted to analyze the runes, but he was distracted by the only person present in the room besides his fiancees.

In front of them stood a tall, olive-toned woman with the lower half of a green snake, her hair long and dark - Is that black or dark green? He couldn’t tell in the firelight - and an exaggerated hourglass figure. Large breasts barely contained by her tight top, a narrow waist with a bare, toned midriff, a dangling belly button piercing that tinkled gently when she moved, and wide, child-bearing hips right where her body became that of a snake. The exact point where woman shifted into snake was concealed by a short skirt, and against his will, Tybalt found himself immediately curious what lay beneath it. Men sang songs and told tales of bedding snake women and mermaids, but the mechanics of that were a mystery to him… unless the snake parts were like human parts in some specific ways.

The necromancer shot a glance at Vidalia, who self-consciously looked away, trying so hard to be inconspicuous that she might as well have been whistling.

I definitely don’t need to see a fortuneteller while I have a seer in my bed, Tybalt thought. He looked back at the snake woman. Everything about her presence oozed sensuality. Even if she does tell fortunes, I’m guessing they actually hired her for… something else.

It was a thoughtful gift idea, but one he felt he ought to turn down.

He looked the snake woman in the eyes.

“Do you mind if I step back and speak privately with the ladies for a moment, ma’am?” he asked, trying to be polite.

“We have all night, my lord,” she said, speaking for the first time. Her voice was low, sultry, and confident. Every syllable sent shivers running down his spine. “My ship came in a few days ago, and we don’t leave until the end of next week. My friends and I are traveling performers, you see. I’m a professional… fortune teller. Have no fear. I’ll take good care of you. My name is Andrea.”

“Right, nice to meet you, Andrea,” the necromancer said, nodding distractedly, trying to keep his gaze from wandering below her neck. He felt his body responding to her voice alone, blood rushing to a certain lower extremity instantly. He moved backward, and his fiancees obediently drew back with him. He lowered his volume. “While I appreciate the thought, I don’t think I should accept… what I think this gift is. The snakewoman. Also, I don’t know how to tell you guys this, but I’m pretty sure we were planning to celebrate my birthday, not the end of my single years. Those are typically two very different kinds of celebrations.”

“You’re trying to sound like you don’t want to be here, but I can see where your eyes keep going,” Dero observed.

Tybalt flushed slightly. He had been occasionally stealing glances at the curvy snakewoman.

The dark elf ran her hand up his crotch and then gave his shaft two rough pumps, up and down. He went instantly to full mast.

“Yeah, I think your other head approves of these arrangements,” Dero said with a wink. “He definitely wants some attention.”

“Events like these are usually planned by other men,” Tybalt said. “But I would have told Andric or any male friend of mine not to bother with something like this. And even if I might be looking a little, that doesn’t mean I want to touch. Or, I mean, it doesn’t mean I’m thinking about screwing around on you guys. I promised not to sleep with random women, and I actually meant it.” He looked at Andrea, who was gazing at them with an expression of amusement. He guessed she could hear every word.

Fuck it.

He raised his voice. “No offense to you, I’m sure you’re a great lay!”

“None taken,” she said. She slithered forward until she was right in front of Tybalt - she moved surprisingly quickly on that tail - and leaned in close to his ear. He felt her tongue flick out and lick his earlobe, and goosebumps rose along his skin. “My race is called lamia, by the way.”

That’s… sensitive.

He resisted showing any visible signs of pleasure. This couldn’t be any kind of test from his women, but he had genuinely resolved not to screw random whores. It was an easy rabbit hole to fall down if he let himself get into the habit. He knew that.

“You’re someone important, they told me that much,” she whispered. “Just lay down your burdens for one evening and listen to me tell your fortune. Watch me dance. Your… friends here will be the ones to decide how much happens this evening, and between whom. Powerful men often need to give up control for a little while.”

“That’s right, Tybalt,” said Victoria on his opposite side, her breath cool against his other ear. “Let us do what we want with you. And you… just enjoy it.”

He felt Victoria’s small hand drop to his waist, lift his shirt, slip under his pants, and began tentatively, uncertainly squeezing and caressing his manhood.

This was something he’d never expected. Even the women in his harem who were still virgins were getting into this act.

“If we’re on board with this, you should just say thank you and try to satisfy as many of us as you can,” Dero said, whispering into the nape of Tybalt’s neck. She ran her fingers down his back as if she wanted to tear his shirt off.

When did she get so close?

“She’s right, my - I mean, Tybalt,” Kistana said, stepping in front of the necromancer’s line of sight. “All of us, together.” She lowered her gaze, flushed, and swallowed. “We all want to please you, even if you haven’t had time for us yet. We wanted to do something special. If you like us, you should enjoy this. It is purely for your sake that Victoria and I are overcoming our natural shyness...” She stepped forward, put a hand on Tybalt’s waist, leaned in, and kissed him on the lips. Their tongues tangled, their lips pressed hard against each other, and she even grabbed a handful of his ass.

As Kistana pulled away, studying his expression with a cautious smile, Tybalt’s head spun.

Behind him, a large pair of breasts pressed against his back, and Mariella spoke into his neck just beside Dero.

“Maybe we’ll do this for you every year,” she said. “Give the children to someone else to look after for the night, tell all the people who count on you to go somewhere else for a while, and just… spend some quality time expressing our feelings.”

“So, this is… um, you guys…?” Tybalt asked, having trouble forming coherent words for some reason.

“You and Andrea can look and touch each other as much as you want,” said Vidalia’s voice. Tybalt looked down and saw the foxgirl suddenly kneeling in front of him. Victoria’s hand was still visible under the necromancer’s pants as she stroked his shaft up and down with a look of quiet fascination on her face. “The only rule is that you can only finish inside of us. Any of us that you want. All of us, if you want. In us, on us, both…”

All of you… sounds like a lot, even for me.

“You see how much these women love you?” whispered Andrea in his ear, long tongue flicking out again to tickle his earlobe. “It would be, um, quite rude to decline their generosity, would it not?”

“I guess so,” Tybalt said.

“Just give up a bit of control and open yourself up to a world of pleasure.”

Well…

He sighed and relaxed into the hands that stroked him, the breasts that pressed themselves against him, the mouths that kissed and lightly bit him on the neck and collarbone.

Then Tybalt felt the prickle of a pair of sharp fangs as they bit into the side of his neck.