Heretic Spellblade 2 Read online

  “What’s going on?” Sen mumbled. She shifted against his body as she awoke. Then she squawked. “Fei!”

  It took only moments for Sen to scramble for a place at the table, her tongue fighting for a share of the prize. Her sex hovered in front of Nathan’s face as she straddled his torso. The two women assaulted him from both sides. The magic that Kadria had used to remove his refractory period was still active.

  “You’re not supposed to do this on my night,” Sen muttered, pushing at Fei.

  The catgirl ignored the other Champion and continued fighting for licks of Nathan’s shaft. He held back groans as they fought over him. Or over a specific part of his body, really.

  “She’s rutting, Sen,” Nathan groaned out.

  Sen paused and looked back at Nathan. “I thought you had pills for that.”

  “Not until she started. Like she has right now.” He groaned again as Fei took the opportunity to swallow his tip again.

  “Hey!” Sen squawked as Fei stole a march on her. She pushed Fei off Nathan’s length, before immediately swallowing it to the hilt.

  Realizing that she needed to lick something else, Fei moved to Nathan’s balls. He groaned again, pleasure rapidly rising within him as they jointly enjoyed themselves.

  His fingers found Sen’s sex, and she squirted as he entered her. A muffled scream rumbled around his length as he tried to match her rhythm with his fingers.

  Nobody said anything as the room filled with squelching, squishy noises. Sen’s juices poured over his chest. He reached his climax from her bobbing along his length and shot rope after rope down her throat. When she pulled off him, gasping for air, Fei slurped up the remains that dribbled down his shaft.

  Both women kept lapping at him without rest. He realized this could go on forever. Fei had nearly infinite stamina, and the rutting would only make it worse. Sen tired easily, but she had been training herself and was competitive.

  He needed to switch things up.

  A small scream escaped Sen as he picked her up. Fei simply smiled as Nathan pushed her down on the bed, her fingers continuing to explore her own nether regions.

  Soon, the two women pressed against one another. Their glistening lower entrances faced him, and their chests rubbed together. Fei’s hefty breasts stood out more, swallowing Sen’s buds in their mass.

  Sen glowered up at him. She was no stranger to this position. “You’re not expecting me to kiss her, are you? I do that with Choe, but you realize that’s different, right?” She was referring to Sunstorm using her true name.

  “If you try to kiss Fei right now, she’ll bite your tongue off,” Nathan said.

  Sen blinked and stared at the catgirl beneath her. Fei made no motions and simply stared dreamily up at Nathan with glazed-over eyes.

  “Right, the rutting. She’s hyper-focused on you, isn’t she? Wants those kittens.” Sen giggled. “Going to give her them?”

  “Not anytime soon,” Nathan muttered.

  “How cruel,” Sen said. “So, why sandwich us together?”

  “Because it keeps her in check, and gives me better access to this place,” Nathan said, reaching out with his fingers.

  Sen gasped as Nathan’s fingers pried open her ass. Light flared around his fingers as he used magic to lube up. Although his shaft was fairly slick, it was far from enough for vigorous exploration of Sen’s depths.

  “You enjoy this way too much,” Sen gasped. She lay flat against Fei, staring up at him with lidded eyes.

  “I don’t hear you complaining.”

  “You’ve been stretching me out for weeks now. Plus, I cleaned myself out for last night’s session. Double-dipping should be fine,” Sen said, refusing to admit that she wanted it.

  Nathan pressed his tip against her rear entrance. Sen pursed her lips, her body pressed against Fei’s and slick with sweat.

  Then he slid inside her tight ass and she moaned, low and long. Her eyes rolled back as he bottomed out in her and reached a point of hard resistance fairly deep. As he slid back out, she let out shuddering breaths.

  “Good?” Fei mumbled.

  “So good,” Sen said. “Fuck, you need him to do this to you, Fei.”

  “She’ll kill me if I do it right now,” Nathan said with a laugh. Rutting was about mating, after all.

  He kept his pace to long, slow movements at first, but started to speed up whenever Sen urged him. By the time he approached climax, her face was buried in Fei’s tits, and her voice was reduced to a constant, muffled moan of pleasure. Nathan filled her stomach from the other end than he had earlier, his voice echoing within the room as he climaxed.

  Sen’s rear gaped as he popped out of her. It gave him a great view of the creamy filling he left inside her. She stared up at him with glazed eyes and a half-open mouth drooling onto Fei’s breasts.

  “Another round?” he teased.

  “No,” she murmured. “I won’t be able to close back up if you go again too soon.”

  He chuckled and cleaned himself off with magic. Fei began to whine, so he attended to her as well. By the time she came back to her senses, both women were drooling pools of his seed all over the bed.

  “That was great,” Fei said as they toweled off after the shower. Sen was taking a little longer, given she had more to clean out.

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it, and appear to remember it,” Nathan said. “But I think you need to take some medicine now.”

  Fei pouted. “But it was fun. Can’t I keep doing this?”

  He ruffled her hair, and she snapped her teeth at him.

  “Your first rutting will be erratic. Once you’ve settled into a routine, it can be planned around, but if we don’t give you the medicine, I’ll never know if I can rely on you as a Champion for months.” Nathan gave her a serious look. “And as much as I love you, Fei, I also need you as my Champion. So, take the medicine and we’ll find a way to settle this naturally once things calm down.”

  Fei nodded slowly. “Okay, I get it. But I really want the natural solution. Sex has never felt that good.” Then she grinned. “Plus, I learned that you’re doing something to Sen that you’re not doing to me.”

  Given the way Fei’s hands were wandering across his crotch again, Nathan suspected this might be a sleepless night.

  Chapter 11

  “I’m impressed you managed to organize all of this so quickly,” Narime said, waving a letter in one hand as she spoke. “I expected more bureaucratic issues, given what I’ve heard about the inner workings of the Empire.”

  “I am the right hand of the Emperor. And if the Empire couldn’t organize negotiations with a major power at short notice, then it would have ceased to exist long ago,” Leopold said drily.

  They were sitting in a meeting hall and going over the current state of the negotiations. Narime sat next to Nathan, and her tails often brushed his shoulder as she waved them about absentmindedly. As her tails were sensitive, he wondered if she was doing it intentionally.

  Seraph and Leopold sat opposite them. The other dozen or so seats were empty.

  A map of the region was stretched out on the table between them, and a few sheafs of paper lined its sides. Pots of coffee and tea were kept at a distance. Servants darted in to fill cups as necessary, and they occasionally stared in terror when somebody topped up their own cup.

  Nathan found that deeply amusing. During their first week of work, most of the beastkin tended to be lackadaisical when it came to attendance duties. Most beastkin villages and tribes didn’t have any form of hierarchy, with even the elders being expected to take care of themselves. Only the old and infirm could expect care, and even that wasn’t guaranteed. Horse beastkin especially had a rather harsh view of old age, which made sense given their nomadic roots. An old beastkin was a slow beastkin, and a tribe couldn’t afford to constantly slow itself down for the sake of a few sacks of ancient bones.

  But beastkin were incredibly competitive, and that’s how the heads of staff learned to push them
and train them. If a beastkin thought that Nathan was being lazy because he didn’t get his own food, then Nathan would have to get his own food. But if a beastkin thought that it was a point of pride that she was bringing Nathan his food, and that she was underperforming the other servants if she didn’t, then the game changed.

  Although that made them pushy. One of the wolfgirl servants stepped up and grabbed a pot of coffee a moment before Seraph did.

  The Champion smiled up at the wolfgirl. “I’m quite capable of pouring it myself.”

  “Allow me, Champion,” the wolfgirl said, undeterred. She pulled the pot from Seraph’s hands and filled her cup.

  Seraph gave Nathan an annoyed look as the wolfgirl trotted back to her position. The guards held their hands over their faces and tried not to laugh.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they ran the castle,” Narime murmured.

  “They do,” Nathan said. “I simply live here.”

  The fox gave him a curious look, before placing a letter on the table.

  “We have an agreed location to meet, and arrangements are being made to ensure an adequate supply of food and water in advance. But we’re missing the most important part,” Nathan said, moving the topic back to the main event.

  “Torneus,” Seraph said.

  “He hasn’t bitten, even after the letter from Anna,” Nathan said.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Narime shrugged. “Every regent other than him and Korvell have agreed and are either sending a representative or have nominated another regent as proxy. That letter from Countess von Clair tipped the tables. The signature of an archduke and the authority of Emperor Gorthal cannot be ignored.”

  “You say that, but Torneus is doing exactly that.” Seraph’s cup splashed as she gestured at Narime. “And given he arranged this war, we can’t really rely on any negotiations without him. He’ll stall anything we agree on and launch an assault the moment spring ends.”

  “Agreed,” Leopold said. “We need to push more aggressively.”

  Narime’s tails curled around her, and she opened her mouth to reply. Whatever she was going to say was lost as a series of loud noises echoed from outside.

  All attention turned to the doors that led to the exterior hallway. The guards looked at each other, before slipping out of the room.

  Raised voices made themselves heard through the gap in the doors, before vanishing once they closed.

  Leopold and Nathan looked at each other. The old man nodded at Nathan.

  Standing up, Nathan gripped his sword and walked toward the door closest to the noises. The servants crept toward the far side of the room. There were only two doors leading out of the room, and that left a safer side of the room for the unarmed beastkin to huddle.

  A few steps away from the door, Nathan paused. The shouting was right outside the door. He couldn’t hear sounds of fighting.

  What was going on out there?

  The door burst open and a woman rushed in. Nathan didn’t recognize her. Thick blonde tresses that fell below her shoulders, a lean but curvy figure, and dark brown eyes that locked onto Nathan’s.

  The woman narrowed her eyes at him, as if trying to work out if she should recognize him. Funny that Nathan wondered the same thing about her.

  She wore tight-fitting pants, a frilly red top that left nothing to the imagination about her less-than-impressive bust, traveling shoes, and an elegant jacket that could probably pay all of Nathan’s guards for the week. This was a standard traveling outfit for young noble women. No noble would be caught dead wearing it in public.

  “Your Imperial Highness!” Leopold said. His chair clattered to the ground as he shot to his feet. A moment later, he dropped to one knee and lowered his head. “What are you doing here?”

  Nathan’s eyes widened in shock.

  This was Princess Alice Arangar, the granddaughter of Emperor Gorthal, and Charlotte’s old friend?

  A moment later, Nathan realized what was happening and dropped to one knee like Leopold.

  “Stand up,” Alice said, waving a hand in the air. Her beautiful face formed a scowl. “I thought there’d be more of you here. Where’s Grandpa?”

  Leopold rose to his feet. He nodded at Nathan, who then followed suit.

  “Your Majesty is in the capital, as always. Archduke von Milgar is presently busy with preparations for the war with Trafaumh,” Leopold said.

  “I thought we weren’t continuing that.” Alice’s scowl deepened. “And I heard that Grandpa was involved in this.”

  “Did you now?” Leopold asked.

  “I did. No thanks to you. Although I never would have poked into what you’re doing if you hadn’t sent your Champion to Falmir randomly,” Alice said, smirking. “I’m not sure if you’re getting old, but you kind of gave yourself away.”

  Leopold had done what?

  Wait, did that have something to do with Nathan telling Leopold that he knew about Alice? Was he the cause of the princess’s sudden arrival?

  “I am, in fact, old, Your Imperial Highness,” Leopold said, his voice laced with amusement. “I imagine it’s quite noticeable.”

  Alice looked between Nathan and Leopold. “Really? Because I don’t see much difference between the two of you. Does that make both of you old men?”

  Nathan tried, and failed, to hide his wince. At the table, both Seraph and Narime giggled.

  Alice smiled at him. “You’re Tharban’s son, aren’t you? I believe we met many years ago, when you were still Nathan von Straub.” Alice curtsied. “I am Princess Alice Arangar, although I’d prefer if you called me Alice.”

  “Yes, Your Imperial Highness,” Nathan said automatically.

  “Hmm? I’m afraid I didn’t hear you correctly?” Alice said, her smile brittle.

  Nathan remained silent, but looked at Leopold, who shrugged.

  “Well, now I know why you like him, Uncle,” Alice muttered, glaring at Leopold. “At least Nurevia calls me by my name. She’s been a treat while I’ve been visiting Falmir.”

  Several things hit Nathan one after another.

  The first was the realization that Alice was the complete opposite of what he expected from a princess. He had met a few in his travels, and Charlotte had been one of the more aggressive ones. But Alice’s attitude made even Anna appear meek.

  Next, Nathan twigged to the fact that Alice had been negotiating with Falmir. That explained why Leopold had been concerned that Nathan knew about her. The Emperor had few people he could trust with something so important, and his granddaughter was his secret weapon. Furthermore, Nathan knew that Alice was close friends with Princess Charlotte of Falmir.

  Finally, Nathan’s face paled and his eyes widened as the other name sank in.

  “Nurevia?” he croaked out.

  Alice tilted her head, placing it in a white-gloved hand. “She’s my personal bodyguard while I’m the appointed ambassador to Falmir. I left her with the carriages to oversee the unpacking, although I did see a Champion come out to greet her. A monogem cat beastkin with a sapphire. One of yours?”

  Nathan ran a hand down his face and held back a groan. Today was rapidly worsening.

  “Is something wrong?” Alice asked, confused.

  “Nurevia’s one of Tharban’s duogem Champions,” Leopold said, his tone flat. “I would have preferred that you didn’t bring her here.”

  Alice blinked. “Oh. Oh! My apologies, Nathan. I forgot that there may be some issues between you and anybody under your father. But Nurevia’s fantastic. Surely you won’t have any problems with her?” She smiled beatifically.

  “Seraph, could you please head out to the courtyard,” Nathan ground out now that he had regained his senses. “Prevent any fights breaking out for any reason. Between anyone.”

  Seraph stared at him, then lowered her cup. She rose and swiftly left the room, albeit with her usual grace.

  “Um,” Alice said, her smile frizzled.

  “I don’t think things will go that p
oorly,” Leopold said.

  “I’ve spent quite a few years around Nurevia. I know exactly what’s happening between her and Fei right now.” Nathan tried not to imagine the catfight building up outside, and whether any weapons had been drawn.

  Leopold continued, undeterred, “In any case, you should let the servants escort you to a room. We can talk about what you’re here for later—”

  “Don’t you dare,” Alice said. “I brought Charlotte here, and I’m still an appointed diplomat by Grandpa. I outrank you.”

  “I’m a Bastion. You do not,” Leopold said. “And I believe I heard something quite ridiculous.”

  “I do. I am both Imperial Princess and a diplomat appointed by His Majesty, Emperor Gorthal. You’re negotiating with a foreign power. Therefore, it is within my authority to tell you to let me help.” Alice grinned.

  Silence fell. The servants looked at each other, and a few ducked out of the room. Presumably to bring more food and drink, and probably the best they could find on short notice.

  Meanwhile, Nathan tried to right himself.

  Charlotte was here. That’s what Alice had said.

  This was an opportunity that Nathan had thought would take years.

  Scratching his cheek, Leopold sighed. “Very well. But you will accept my directions when it comes to your safety. I will send you back to the capital at a moment’s notice if you put a toe out of line and put yourself in danger. The Federation is an enemy, unlike the Kingdom of Falmir.”

  Alice nodded dutifully, then bounced to the far side of the table. She gave Narime a curtsy, although the effect was muted by her clothing.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Princess Alice,” the minx said, pretending that Narime hadn’t watched her force her way into the meeting. “It’s a delight to meet a mystic fox for the first time, and especially one as experienced as you. I hope it’s not impolite to say that your tails look astoundingly luxurious. You must take intricate care of them.”

  Narime allowed herself a small smile, but Nathan could tell she was trying not to laugh. “Thank you, Your Highness.” Alice’s smile waned, but Narime continued, “I am not one for formalities, so I am happy to call you Alice, if you’d prefer.”