Monster Girl in the Monsterverse

  Masters of the Monsterverse Book 5

  Jamie Hawke

  Double Down Press

  Copyright © 2021 by Jamie Hawke

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  And a huge thank you do Aaron DuBose for his support on Patreon. Without people like you, Aaron, none of this could be possible!

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  Contents

  Welcome

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Author Notes

  Book 6 Sample

  About the Author

  Welcome

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  Jamie Hawke

  1

  A dull yellow glow occupied the air around me as I walked with my team of monsters through a heavily fog-covered swamp. I only say “swamp” because of what seemed to be water glistening around us in spots, and the whole area had a sour smell. The more we walked, the more I noticed there was something more to the yellow light. It wasn’t only light, but a thin layer of some yellow substance in the air, that had even alighted on some of the branches. I had to wonder if I was breathing it in, and how bad that might be for me.

  I ran a finger along the totems of my wrist device, thinking of their connection to the monster girls. A few of them, at least.

  The others walked ahead, Devasla taking up the rear. With her fiery glow, I had to keep my eyes on the surrounding area or elsewhere, so my vision wouldn’t require readjustment to the darkness. At least the balls of light from Suiko cast a subtle glow, more like an e-reader with backlight than a computer screen or flame. Devasla and Amabie never wore clothes—the former had rock or fire covering her special areas, the latter was covered with scales like armor—but the rest of us were all still dressed, despite how weird that might have looked here.

  Lizzy had on a cute black skirt with a red overcoat, reminding me of the redhead from that Riverdale show. She wasn’t a redhead, though, so maybe it was her eyes and mouth? Something about her face, for sure. Kinara and Jalee were both wearing slacks with thin blouses, leading me to think Ahlaksiz must have dressed them. Their outfits didn’t fit their personalities at all, giving them the looks of women working in department stores rather than ladies who were bat and thunderbird monster girls, respectively.

  Milrae caught me eyeing her and grinned, slowing to walk side by side with me, and wrapping one of her furry panda paws through my arm to pull me close.

  “It’s not all so cold and dreary,” she insisted.

  “God, I hope not.”

  We walked on and my attention went to a skittering sound above, a motion in the leaves. One of Suiko’s balls of light floated up, casting a lavender glow on the leaves, but revealed nothing.

  “The sooner we find open water, the better,” Amabie said, holding her fish tail to avoid letting it drag along the ground.

  “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of it, soon enough,” Kinara told her. “Swamps, oceans, lakes. We have ’em all, just like on your planet.”

  “What I wonder is, will you be able to travel in them the same way?” Ahlaksiz asked,

  Amabie’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully above her beak. She was curious—one more thing about this world we wanted answers to. Part of me wanted to simply get out of there, but we had Jalee’s sister to find, the situation with Randi and her hunter grandfather, and my little desire to take down the hunters once and for good. That last one wasn’t a must but certainly was on my list of areas to explore.

  I placed my hand on my satchel in a nervous habit to ensure it was still there. Within were the two sun disk halves, food and drink, and the mask that Lizzy had once worn. Keeping it tucked under my jacket at least made it less likely to get snagged on creeping tree branches or taken by thieving monsters. In this type of world, I had no idea what to expect.

  Even with clothes, I was cold and figured some of them were, too—especially the other normal human, Lizzy. She had looked extremely relieved when the others agreed we could keep our clothes on until we figured out where we were and had a plan.

  At one point I tried my spirit sight, but it did nothing externally other than making the ladies around me seem to glow. It did give me a more internal sense of self-awareness, to the point that I even seemed to be able to see Suiko where she rested within me. Basty was in his scarf form around my neck, and while I held my spirit vision, I “saw” him, too, as if looking at myself with thermal vision but from a few feet away. It was a strange sensation, one that I quickly turned off.

  Low hissing sounds reminded me of snakes, but a glance at Randi didn’t reveal anything. She simply slithered along next to Koharu and Bloodsong, Ahlaksiz following close behind. Most likely, she was keeping an eye on Rand—none of us were sure how far the Lamia could be trusted.

  The hissing sound turned into a low howl; I decided I’d be better off not thinking about it.

  “Welcome to our world,” Kinara said, pulling up close to me on the other side, opposite Milrae. I couldn’t help but notice the way she shook. “I hope you’re hating it so far because I sure as fuck do.”

  “You’re going to be okay,” I told her, pushing back the worry that threatened to show in my cracking voice.

  “It’s just that I started to imagine a scenario where I’d never have to come back here. Where you and I could relax on the beaches of your world and make love and have no other worries.”

  “Someday.”

  “You think?”

  I glanced around the strange land, taking note of a small, slithery creature that scampered up a tree then paused to stare at me. It had dark yellow eyes and a series of horns along its back. The thing reminded me of a small dragon, except it didn’t have wings. I had to wonder, then, if they had dragons in this place. Another thought struck me as we passed that tree and I glanced back to see the animal was gone. What about dinosaurs? How crazy would it have been if, many years ago back on Earth, the dinosaurs didn’t go extinct, but somehow managed to escape into this world? I shook my head with a chuckle.

  “Ferris?” Kinara asked, waiting for an answer.

  What was the question? Ah, about someday being able to relax and simply enjoy each other. My honest feeling was in the affirmative if this strange monster land didn’t kill me first. But I didn’t tell her that. Instead, I pulled her tight, gave her a slap on the ass, and said, “Of course. And when that day comes, I’m going to make you forget all about this place. You’ll be too busy screaming my name to ever have another scared or worried thought again.”

  “Are you two seriously talking sex at a time like this?” Jalee asked, glaring as she slowed to walk beside us.

  “Well…” I shrugged.

  “You see any sign of where we are?” Kinara asked, knowing the smart move was to change the subject.

  “No,” Jalee admitted. “That’s why I came back. I was thinking maybe Suiko could go up and get a lay of the land, let us know what she sees.”

  As the ghost lady emerged from my chest, I offered, “Actually, I could do that. With the mask powers, and—”

  “No!” Randi said, spinning on us. She waved her hands, looking worried. “The last thing you want to do here is activate Akame.”

  “Wouldn’t saying her name here be problematic?” I asked.

  “For her, yes,” Milrae explained. “But she’s already trapped in the mask, in a sense. How much worse can it get?”

  “And if we set her free?”

  “You’ve watched too many Disney movies,” Bloodsong said with a scoff.

  “I… might have.” As a child, I’d watched more Studio Ghibli movies than Disney, if you counted the number of rewatches.

  “She can’t be freed,” Ahlaksiz explained, “because she’s not exactly a prisoner.”

  “That’s right,” Randi chimed back in. “It’s more like a transformation. She was merged to it, but in that step, became it. Sort of like a moth or a butterfly in your wor
ld, but not exactly.”

  Considering that, I wondered if there was any way to help her and felt bad about the mask. Eventually, I decided to ask Suiko, and pay attention in the meantime. For now, however, no using the mask or its powers. Except…

  “Why’d we bring it, then?” I asked.

  “Ah.” Randi grinned, giving me a corny thumbs up. “It seems you don’t let anything slip by you. We brought the mask to use, but not yet.”

  “Why don’t you pretend we’re all friends here and tell us why,” Koharu said, playing with her tail. She was fidgeting, likely as nervous as I felt.

  “The mask was made here,” Randi explained. “Meaning, the energy has been storing up out there. If and when you use it here, you’re likely going to be overwhelmed. Her influence will threaten to take over you and Lizzy, though Lizzy isn’t attached anymore. If you did it right away, her chances of taking over the both of you would be even stronger. Like how your eyes don’t adjust immediately when going from darkness to bright light, or vice versa, here your powers, and even mind, haven’t had a full chance to adapt.”

  “Why would we use it, considering the risks?” I asked.

  “As a Joker or wild card,” Randi replied with a wink. “Only if you really, really need it.”

  I shook my head, hoping it didn’t come to that.

  Suiko first went up to scout but said she wasn’t able to see anything in the darkness. Then she moved to scout in different directions as we continued our trajectory forward.

  “How exactly did you come to work for Randi?” Bloodsong asked Lizzy, and I glanced back, curious as well.

  “You know how these things work,” she said with a shrug.

  “Not really, no,” Kinara chimed in.

  Seeing that everyone was looking her way, Lizzy mumbled something to herself, shaking her head.

  “You don’t want to tell us, that’s fine,” I said. “No pressure.”

  “Fuck that,” Milrae said. “Now I’m more curious than ever. Pressure on!”

  Randi laughed. “Go ahead, you can tell them. Or should I?”

  Lizzy turned, slowing her walk as she explained, “A connection invited me to a party, I put on my best smile and talked myself up, catching his—of course, his at the time—attention. But he was a real prick.”

  “I’m standing right here,” Randi protested.

  “But you were. I mean, even now you’re a bit of a bitch.”

  Randi looked around at us as if we would come to her aid. Not a chance.

  “Want to know how I found out about all this monster stuff?” Lizzy asked, looking around at the group, smiling now. “It’s… weird.”

  “Yes,” Kinara blurted out. The rest of us nodded our heads and said we did, as well.

  Randi seemed humored as she said, “Until all this happened, I thought it was a secret.”

  “I know,” Lizzy said with a grin. “My story was kind of boring, actually. For me, but not for the woman I was spying on—Kim.”

  “Oh…” Was Randi blushing?

  “There we were, like three months into working together. I’d just been given my big assignment when I was about to enter the bathroom. Instead, I froze, watching as Kim stood there and Rand came rolling in on his wheelchair, asks her how committed she was, then pulled out his cock. I’m thinking he wants her to go down on him or something, and am about to walk out of there, but she looked horrified and seemed to be about to staple his cock to his nutsack. But as she stood to protest, his cock vanished! I stared in complete disbelief, then practically fell on my ass when he stood and slipped off his pants. When he became she with the lower body of a snake, you can bet I was on the verge of a major breakdown. At that point, I would have loved to be presented with a simple cock to staple. Kim, however, seemed super into it and they… started stuff. So, I had to leave, and never mentioned it.”

  “I didn’t use to be the type to avoid beating around the bush,” Randi said with a frown. “Figured that was the most forward way to show what I was, and see if she could handle my world, but after that, she threatened to reveal everything and… blackmailed me. It was fucked up. Hence, why I never showed Lizzy.”

  “And…?” Jalee asked.

  “That’s so fucked up,” I muttered, but almost wanted to laugh at the image of what she’d just said.

  “He did tell me, though, that there was a whole world of monsters out there, and that he wanted me to help out, on the inside, and that it would greatly propel my writing career. Naturally, I was intrigued, even if Rand and Randi tried to pretend they were two separate beings for a while. A fact I found humorous.”

  “She signed up on the spot,” Randi said with a chuckle.

  “I’m not sure I would’ve,” Koharu said, shaking her head in confusion and disgust.

  “And what about those first monster gatherings you went to?” Milrae asked. “With all the… You know.”

  “No, what?” Lizzy shrugged.

  “Huge schlongs swaying about, is what she means,” Ahlaksiz interjected. “Right?”

  Milrae nodded.

  Lizzy blushed, eyes darting my way, then at the ground. “Honestly, that was disgusting. No offense if any of you are, you know, into monsters. God knows Randi has had her share…”

  “Hey now, no slut-shaming here,” Randi said, but was still smiling.

  “I just don’t find a penis on its own to be a turn-on, especially if it threatens to rip me in half. It’s more about the man it’s attached to.”

  “But with the right man, put that thing in front of your face and you’d go all lollipop on it, right?” Kinara asked.

  Lizzy didn’t voice an answer, but nodded, still avoiding my gaze.

  “This is all well and good,” Suiko said, floating around and appearing at the front of the group. “Heaven forbid I be the one to bring the topic of conversation away from sex and genitalia, as always, but you all might like to know that I’ve spotted a group of monsters.”

  “What did they look like?” Jalee asked. “Describe them.”

  “Small, furry. Long dangling hair.”

  Jalee put a hand to her chin in thought, while Kinara offered up, “Rilandar?”

  “It’s possible,” Milrae chimed in. “But that would put us way off target.”

  “It would also mean we’re at risk of being attacked,” Jalee pointed out. “The alternative would be that they might be Eadrags, but then we’d be in for a whole other shitstorm.”

  “Never been a fan of shitstorms,” I admitted. “But to be clear, what do you mean?”

  “Eadrags are about waist high and like to bite whatever they can, with no warning. They’ll all smiles one minute, piece of your bloody ass or cock in their mouths, torn from your body, the next.”

  “Let’s avoid those ones.” I gulped, feeling my package wanting to recede into my body and hide.

  Half the group was lingering behind, so we waited for them to catch up and explained the predicament.

  “A couple of us could scout them out,” Randi said. “See what we can learn from them, verify which type they are.”

  “Are you volunteering?” Bloodsong asked.

  I was getting a bit dizzy with the whole group around like that, and liked the idea of a few going down.

  “I’ll go,” I said.

  “Didn’t you hear what they said?” Kinara protested. “Out of all of us here, you’re the only one with a cock at risk of being bitten off.” She stepped close, hand cupping my package. “And it’s such a nice one at that.”

  I frowned at that, ignoring the groan Lizzy made at Kinara’s overt sexuality.

  “Right. Fine, but how about this—I get close with Suiko, and she can share what she’s seeing with me. Basty will help with protection if there are any wanderers. So, whoever goes with Suiko gives her a signal, and I’ll see. One finger means we’re good. Then I signal the rest of you. Yeah?”