“We’ll be careful. The scandal will pass, if the bishops don’t think there’s proof or cause to move forward with it. It’ll just take time. Your parents are okay though?”

  Fiona smiled, “They really are. Mom sends her love, and said… and I quote, ‘You’re doing great, keep a firm hand, she needs it,’” then Fiona blushed.

  Hopefully that will continue, the them doing good part. If someone else comes forward it could make things sticky again quickly. One extra benefit to staying with Fiona would be no nightmare mother-in-law scenario. Deidra really liked me, for some reason.

  Later that night I discovered like mother like daughter on that kink too. Fiona seemed to share exhibitionism and public naughtiness with her mom, as well as talking about sex with others. It drove her crazy when I told her about how intimate it was, as Grace worked me with devoted and teasing decadence. It was also the start of a promise of sorts between us, even if one not spoken out loud.

  No secrets. Secrets could destroy a relationship, if sex even with accepted concubine partners was hidden or sneaky in nature, jealousy could sneak in.

  We’d share everything when it came to sex, even the parts we weren’t both around for.

  The last two days went well on the station, and our departure to New Charity marked the middle of the vacation, the first fourteen days of the twenty-eight-day itinerary was behind us, and we had fourteen more ahead with a two-day buffer for delays. It also meant I was halfway to the time we’d both have to make a decision on whether or not to commit to a lifetime together.

  Unless something drastically changed, I couldn’t imagine being without her, and living in her love as I loved and adored her sounded like heaven. The problems I mentioned could be managed, and besides that they wouldn’t be any better with anyone else anyway, assuming there was anyone else that could counter my passive magic. They were my problems, not hers and mine.

  There was a six-hour delay due to a subspace storm on the way to New Charity, not that we’d noticed. The three of us enjoyed the alone time and inactivity of the three-day trip between New Hope and New Charity. The roleplay was almost constant, and they were growing even more elaborate with build ups and setups, and it usually involved at least one of the following, reluctance, bondage, and domination, and more often than not all three.

  I thought she was doing well with control, she hadn’t slipped up at all since that roleplay over a week ago, and she never objected to my suggestions to do something else, or complained about our long morning routine of work outs, martial arts, breakfast, and swimming.

  That didn’t mean she didn’t try to manipulate me and seduce me into bed, that was a large part of her nature though, and half the time I think she just wanted a swat and for me to set her straight. She’d never done it in public, just in private. I was fairly sure she just enjoyed being dominated and feeling owned, which worked out, because dominating her was one of my favorite things.

  She loved feeling like a toy too, at least in play. Some of her favorite roleplays was when I was playing a womanizing bastard who would use any means necessary to turn her from a reluctant prude to a well-used and eventually wildly willing and submissive fuck toy. Like boss/assistant, guard/prisoner, principle/student, coach/cheerleader, house owner/maid, and other ones where I had all the social power and influence. Even landlord and hot barely legal tenant who couldn’t come up with the rent. As her landlord, I was of course quite willing to work out an alternate payment, using her ass.

  It usually involved some kind of blackmail or unfair threats to her future. It was really wrong, which was probably why it was also so damned hot for both of us.

  As ever, Grace seemed up for anything our perverted thoughts could conjure.

  We both, all of us really, drew the line however, at non-consent and forced, no roleplaying rape. Which was just as well, because I was sure I couldn’t act that out, it’d turn my stomach. I felt guilty enough applying various psychological pressure for consent during our games, even if I enjoyed it too but only because she did and it was just a game.

  Like I said, she loved feeling owned and dominated, controlled and used, and she could safely explore that in roleplay with me because she also knew she was cherished, loved, and protected. More than that, respected.

  We’d also have eight days on just one station in New Charity, instead of four and four, before our three-day trip back to Patience which would end our vacation and her sexual awakening and control training and discovery. There would probably be more to explore, increase the depths and breadth of the options for what she liked, but her sexuality and control, and her preferences, would all be firmly established for her lifetime at that point.

  Obviously since I’d stepped up, there was no need to go to that last station, the nude resort station that was all about sexual vices. It’d been her plan B, if she’d failed to seduce me into taking on the role as her guide and being in charge of her.

  The fourth and now last station was all about entertainment and fine dining. Musicals, concerts, opera, plays, comedians, magic shows, and so on, in addition to five-star restaurants of every kind of food ethnicity imaginable. So there would be plenty to do over those eight days, far too many options to get to it all. Of course, like the proceeding three, there was a small amount of everything else offered as well.

  The morning of our arrival, we took the usual self-guided tour and mapped it out. Our first night we planned to take in a play and eat out at a Japanese steakhouse. Not necessarily in that order.

  Chapter Thirteen

  My golden blonde and green-eyed beauty looked like a goddess in the light blue evening dress, and Grace looked amazing in black. We were about to go out to that Japanese steakhouse before the play, when we’d been called up to the bridge. So we’d turned around and headed deeper into the ship.

  The captain nodded respectfully when we arrived, “There’s been an incident, your grace. Your parents are okay now, but your father was gravely injured in an assassination attempt. The four temple guards gave their lives in protection, and your mother was able to heal the prelate.”

  Fiona said, “The deaths are a tragedy, but why do you look so worried if they’re okay?”

  The captain sighed, “Your mother killed the attackers before healing your father, and it was recorded and is now all over the media in addition to Bishop Price’s comments. We believe the footage was taken by drone. They’d been attending a charity gala. She… well, the reaction hasn’t been good among the Fellowship. Perhaps you should see it for yourself.”

  Fiona nodded, “Play it.”

  The video started on the main screen at the museum that hosted the event, before the action had even started. I recognized the prelate and Deidra leaving the front entrance surrounded by four guards, two flanking slightly in front, and two in the back. They’d made it about halfway to the shuttle when the attack started. Two armed shuttlecraft arrived with alacrity, speeding into the area, one from the front and one from the right flank.

  The two guards in the back grabbed their charges and dove behind a vehicle, and the two in front separated in diving rolls and came up firing lasers that were unlikely to do anything to an armored shuttle.

  At the same time the shuttles launched a small air to ground missile and they both hit near the spot that her parents had just been standing in. Then the combat shuttles’ lasers fired at the two guards fighting back cutting them down instantly. It was bloody, and cut them in half, the lasers were heavy weapons rated for ground or air vehicle destruction, not anti-personnel.

  By that time Deidra’s guard had her on her feet and they started running, presumably for better cover, with the prelate and his guard right on their tail.

  The shuttles shot another missile each. The guard with Deidra acted more quickly, taking her down and covering her with his body as the explosions went off. One was directly behind the guard on the prelate, and he was just ripped apart in the explosion, which also ripped into the prelate and sent him flying his clothes on fire.

  The second missile looked like it had simply missed, but I suspected it’d been deflected by Deidra’s magic. It still hit close enough though, that the guard on top of her was blown off of her and had the bad luck to slam his head into the edge of a hover car parked nearby. It cracked his head open like a lemon.

  That’s when Deidra jumped up and saw her husband was on fire and all the guards were dead.

  She totally lost it. Her blonde hair rose up into the air and her ocean blue eyes looked to be lit from within, as she glared viciously at the shuttles with murderous animalistic insanity in her eyes. Her instincts to protect her husband had obviously triggered a venomous protective response, nymphs could be fiercely and violently protective of what was theirs. Not unlike humans I supposed, but humans didn’t have magic.

  Her mouth opened and she screamed in a multi-tonal and horrifically discordant chord. Not all that much different from what Fiona had done to explode the knife that time. Except on top of that chord was also a polyphonic melody that was anything but melodic. It was as impressive as it was frightening.

  She shuttles were literally ripped from the air, and then torn apart on the ground like two hands had gripped and ripped it apart. Then the two parts of the shuttle were shaken like a saltshaker, dumping the humans to the ground. She didn’t stop there though, another discordant chord sent the shuttles flying away, then she focused her song on the six terrified men on the concrete.

  I could see the problem. She was putting the fear of god into them, but people not used to the supernatural would be terrified by what they were seeing their loving lady of the church do.

  I blew out a breath in amazement, as the men calcified, from the bottom up. She literally turned them to stone, slowly, from foot to head. Then her rabid angry glare searched for another threat, and when she didn’t see one, she ran to her husband’s side. The chord that left her mouth then was as beautiful and awe-inspiring, as the offensive one had been terrorizing. The prelate’s burned and beaten body was restored to perfect health.

  Then the picture was replaced by Bishop Price.

  He said, “That is the true face of your beloved Lady Deidra, not the thin veneer of gentleness and lies she cloaks herself in. Still think I’m wrong now? That she’s just like a human woman except a little kinky and it’s her personal business?” he snorted violently, “Her daughter is the same, will you put such a monstrous creature in command of the Fellowship? My detractors are correct, I have compromised my mind and soul by dealing with evil creatures.

  “But in the face of the evil power we just witnessed what choice did I have? Even our combat shuttles were no match for the supernatural evil of the prelate’s wife. My sacrifice must not be in vain, this evil in our midst must be purged, and if the price of safeguarding the souls of my people and the holy Fellowship is my soul, then that is a price I am prepared to pay on behalf of all of you. God bless you all.”

  The video ended.

  I took Fiona’s hand and squeezed it, no idea what to say. I mean, I’d been kind of turned on by how powerful she was, would Fiona become that powerful when she’d mastered her magic? Of course, I bet most of the Fellowship wouldn’t have been turned on by that vicious display of power.

  Fiona bit her lip, “Take us home, captain. My vacation is over.”

  The captain said, “Yes, your grace.”

  Fiona sighed, “Tell me captain, your opinion?”

  He replied, “She protected herself, your father, and avenged the loss of four of our own with passion. My opinion hasn’t changed, but then I know your mother. I know her kindness and concern toward others is not feigned, and I’ve guarded her personally in the past. Most don’t know her like that, they won’t know that both of those faces are hers in truth.

  “Logic should tell everyone she’s only shown her power once in the sixteen years she’s been a lady, and in the nineteen since she married your father. That she won’t use that power or get angry at anyone that didn’t deserve it, and only in self-defense. But I fear too many will be too frightened by her anger and her magic which they are not accustomed to, to apply any of that logic to the situation.”

  The captain was right. The video logically speaking shouldn’t freak anyone out, if anything it should make them feel safer. But fear of the unknown didn’t follow logic, and while they’d have cheered Lady Deidra if she’d pulled out a rocket launcher and shot them down, doing the same thing with magic was scary for those not accustomed to it.

  Fiona sighed, “Thank you, Captain. We’ll leave you to get us underway, and please let my parents know I’m on the way.”

  He nodded, “Yes, your grace.”

  We left the bridge and headed back to our part of the ship.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  Fiona waved, “I am, my parents need me. Seeing a few shows and skipping work another week would’ve been nice, but you can be in charge of me and the rest of my sexual awakening at home as easily as on a vacation space station getaway. We’ve already covered exhibitionism and anything we’d need privacy or anonymity for, we can finish up in the privacy of my bedchamber. The last eight days after our three-day trip home can be done in my quarters, with you and Grace. You’ll also still be my guard for the duration, so you two or just you can be with me at all times without raising eyebrows.

  “We can still work out in the mornings, the only difference will be I’ll be cooking breakfast, and instead of going out into the station three quarters of the day, we’ll be in the temple.

  “That means we also won’t be forced to make any permanent decisions early.”

  “I’ve already made mine, anyway.”

  Fiona raised an eyebrow.

  I teased, “All the sex is damned annoying, your pussy way too tight, but you’re a master chef, so why not?”

  She giggled, “Wiseass.”

  I winked, “I love you, Fi. Desperately. We’re also compatible in bed and without, at least in all the small ways and our morals. There will be challenges, with my passive power needing yours and us going to college together, but I’m confident we’ll figure it out. You don’t have to tell me what you want yet.”

  She bit her lip, “You know what I want, don’t you, honey?” Her eyes were strangely vulnerable.

  I grinned, “To be tied up and paddled punishingly, while I use and abuse your ass, and threaten that it will continue until you bond me and agree to let me breed you?”

  Her eyes widened in shocked lust at that thought, and she said breathily, “Yes, you bastard. That’s exactly what I want. To be claimed brutally and owned, and to be cherished in your love.”

  I grinned wider, “Love you, baby.”

  She giggled, “Love you too.”

  Grace teased, “That was disturbingly romantic, somehow. But I feel like I’m missing something.”

  Fiona and I chuckled, then she explained to Grace the first time we’d roleplayed the idea, but only trying to forcefully breed her, not bond her.

  I asked, “Would you like to roleplay it, sweetheart?”

  Fiona giggled, and then she skipped to the bedroom. Actually skipped in her excitement.

  I was taking that as a yes, and as disturbing as it was, I was almost wishing she would bond me early during roleplay. I wanted to be sure of her, and I’d never take her for granted. Of course, I could wait another eleven days, and it was probably prudent to do so. Not because I might change my mind, but because for all I knew there were consequences to making the bond during her sexual awakening period.

  I was fairly sure once bonded, she could make me do anything, including being her boy toy for real. After all, one of her basic powers as a nymph was mesmerizing seduction through song, and I had to believe a bond of magic between us would only strengthen her hold on me should she use it.

  I trusted her not to, but if her control wasn’t firmly established yet it might tempt her, or some dark instinct might kick in and overwhelm her. Better to wait and be sure, and to have her mom’s approval first.

  For the second time in eighteen days, I woke to the ship shaking violently instead of to lips wrapped around my cock. My eyes snapped open, and I spanked two naked asses as I lunged out of the bottom of the bed and started getting dressed in my armor and ship suit.

  The ladies also pulled on ship suites and the three of us headed to the bridge. The shaking was getting worse, so we sat down and strapped in first thing, before Fiona even asked for a report.

  “Report.”

  The captain said, “We’ve got two light cruisers on our tail, and three scouts flanking us. We’ve been signaled to drop out of subspace and heave to for boarding. They fired two warning shots so far, both extremely low yield, but the second one almost started a subspace storm anyway. The threat is clear, if we don’t exit, they’d force us too, but firing on us in subspace.”

  I frowned, two light cruisers and three scouts. It couldn’t be, could it? What were the chances Malice and her vampire pirate crew had found us out here? It was consistent with what we knew about her though, the ship numbers and types, as well as the fact she always attacks in the middle of nowhere. We were a good twelve hours out of New Charity on our way towards Patience.

  Still, I didn’t like coincidences, but what if the demon and vampires that Bishop Price were working with, were them. Malice would love destroying the Fellowship from the inside out. It could be her, in a coincidence or by design working with Price. Or it could be someone else altogether, either with or without Price. I just didn’t have enough information yet, but my gut was telling me it was her. The bitch I’d been hunting unsuccessfully for years.

  Except, I wasn’t a hunter right now, I was a guardian, and my job was to keep Fiona safe, not kill demons.

  “I’d advise doing it, captain. If they kick up a subspace storm, assuming we survive long enough to transition, then we’ll be stuck in normal space for hours or days. If we drop out willingly and keep running, we’ll have a better chance to hop back in later.”