“Why would you help us?” I blurted out.

  “I wouldn’t,” she countered. “But I’d work with you to help myself.”

  “Go on,” Ahlaksiz said.

  The lamia eyed her guards, then made a quick hissing sound before waving them off. Both hesitated, but the fact that they then exited out of a side-door without a single word of defiance spoke wonders of this woman. On that thought, though, the fact that Ahlaksiz had gotten the best of her had to say something, too. Basically, they were both badasses.

  “I thought you were a demi-monster,” Ahlaksiz said as soon as the others were gone.

  “Do I not look half-human to you?” the lamia replied, then laughed before Ahlaksiz could reply. “What you don’t know, is that human blood is in many of us. Clearly not those trolls I sent away, but I’d be willing to bet every one of us in this room now has some human DNA, dating back thousands of years.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Jalee spat out the words, not hiding her disgust. She instantly blushed and looked my way.

  “What the fuck?” I said, only then realizing I should take offense.

  “I didn’t mean it that way. We basically have it beaten into us that humans are disgusting, vile creatures. You don’t count.”

  I wasn’t sure what to think of that, but turned back to our host and nodded for her to continue.

  “None of that is important,” the lamia said. “What matters is that many of us have been trapped here for too long. Some find ways to return, others get pulled through via dimensional slips. Whatever the reason, we have been searching for the other half of the disc for too long. Yes, I have half, and you could attempt to overpower me. With her,” she nodded at Ahlaksiz, “you might have a chance. But not me and my guards. You certainly wouldn’t be able to figure out my security systems, my curses and wards, not without my help, and most definitely not with me dead.”

  “What’re you suggesting?” Ahlaksiz asked.

  “You want to open the way, as do I. There’s no reason we can’t open it together. Find the other half of the disc, your boy there cooperates, and together we have a gateway.”

  “Only, you’d go back there to support the so-called queen,” Kinara growled. “You’d ally yourself with hunters, make it worse for my kind.”

  “Would I?” The lamia smiled, making it quite clear that she would and that she didn’t give a damn. “It seems we’re at an impasse, except for the little fact that you need me, but I hardly need you. I have teams out there searching, and I believe one is close. Very close.”

  “We have this,” I said, holding up my wrist with the device on it.

  “And I could take it off of you right now, along with your arm.” She held up her hands as the ladies started to react. “I won’t, because I believe you all will be smart enough to make this deal.”

  The others were hesitant, though Ahlaksiz seemed eager to get this over with and accept.

  “Why us?” I asked.

  “Because you have her.” She indicated Ahlaksiz. “Her tracking skills are known, as is her intellect. That, and I believe there’s more about you than one would glean from a simple glance. You summoned them, yes?”

  I grunted, not sure I should answer that.

  “Either way,” she continued, “I believe you have or they wouldn’t be here with you today. You’re brave, as not many humans would walk into a house of monsters, and even less would do so completely exposed as you have. But in addition to your bravery, legend has it that one who summons has ways of, how shall I say, finding his own magic.”

  “Linking with them?” I asked, noting the cringe from Ahlaksiz. Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to give away that I knew of this.

  The lamia grinned, and nodded. “They have tasted you, and you of their forbidden fruit. Wonderful. You, then, must be the one to find the disc.”

  At my confusion, Ahlaksiz explained, “More legends. One being that the original bearer of the sun disc was himself a summoner, a beast master, or however you want to label what you now are.”

  “Meaning,” the lamia took over, “that you might have some sort of connection to it. Something that, when close, draws you to it—as with the mirror and you finding your way first.”

  “An accident,” I pointed out.

  “Ah, but who’s to say that wasn’t a purposeful accident?”

  I didn’t even know how to begin arguing with that. Maybe she was right?

  “It’s agreed then,” Ahlaksiz said, ignoring the glare from Kinara. “We work together on this, but once the gate is opened… our connection is severed. I have some information on where it might be, but I assume you have more intel to share?”

  “I do,” the lamia said, standing tall. She glanced down, removed the spiderweb to show that she was practically done healing, and slithered over to her fancy wall again. Fuck, it was hard to think of beautiful, nude women as an enemy. How people lived on nudist colonies was beyond me—unless maybe everyone was ugly there? Hey, maybe now that I was getting so used to my dick hanging out for all to see, I could try one sometime. Or maybe a nude beach, to start, since they had those in California for sure. Easier access, except who was I kidding? At least in the near term, it sounded like I was going to be quite busy.

  The lamia returned with a small coin, one that was a hexagon and had a worn-down face of what looked like a Roman emperor, maybe. She handed it to me, pressing it into my palm, and then closing my hand around it. For a moment she lingered, holding my hands like that, eyes staring into mine. When I felt uncomfortable and tried to avert my gaze, I focused on her cute little tits, then caught myself and looked over at Kinara instead. She had the left side of her lip curled up, brow furrowed.

  “Yes?” I finally said, making eye contact with the lamia again.

  “I entrust this coin to you. As I am no monster, it won’t be able to summon or control me, but it will work as a limited communicator. When you’ve found the other half of the disc, use it and we will come to you. In the meantime, you’ll find a monster who goes by Tooth—you’ll see why—out back, likely in the lake. Go to him and show him this. He’ll tell your team all you need to know. Or all the relevant information we know, anyway.”

  “Got it.” I went to pull my hand back. She resisted slightly, then let go.

  “I look forward to your return,” she said, then purposefully not looking at the others, slid off to one of the doorways, opened it, and stood aside. The perverted side of me had to glance at her golden bush before leaving, just once more wondering how it was a human and lamia would mate. I had many more questions—for example, how she managed to spread her legs and walk when in human form, but when I walked past her and saw a bedroom complete with wheelchair, I got my answer. In fact, now that I thought about it, I’d never seen any pictures of the producer version of her standing.

  We exited without another word or directions, on our way to find some monster by the name of Tooth.

  14

  We passed two more guards on our way to find a staircase that led to the backyard. By this point, seeing crazy monsters and beautiful nude hotties was starting to become a bit commonplace, like when you’re watching a movie and there are nude models galore. At first it’s boner city, but after a bit of the show, you’re kind of like ‘Huh, another pair of perfect breasts. Awesome.’ Maybe not to that extreme, but you get what I mean. That was, until we made it to the bottom of the stairs and turned the corner to see an octopus woman with all her tentacles and legs or arms—I couldn’t really tell what was what—wrapped around some sort of dragon-looking dude while he plowed her good from behind. Holy fuck, that nearly blew my brain. Her blue tits were shaking like Jell-O in an earthquake, one of his fingers in her mouth as she bit down on it to avoid shouting out.

  “Fuck, get a camera while you’re at it,” the guy growled, nodding his head for us to get lost. Apparently, I hadn’t been the only one there to be caught off guard by the show.

  We quickly apologized and kept moving, turning then to see the lake. Empty. Not only that, something registered in my mind, and it wasn’t good. The dragon guy, when he’d spoken, had one, long sharp tooth in the middle of his mouth.

  “Dammit,” I said, turning back in their direction. At least a small tree hid most of them from view at this angle.

  “That was him,” Jalee said, nodding.

  “How long do you think we have to wait?”

  Kinara laughed. “Judging by the way they were going at it, not long.”

  “Are you serious?” Ahlaksiz scoffed. “His kind, they have scales in odd places which, unfortunately for us, take down their sensitivity a notch. Not comfortable for women, either.”

  I didn’t want to ask how she knew this, so instead motioned to the arched bridge over the lake, which led to a small island and some ducks. “Let’s hang out there. We won’t have to see them, but can… be aware… of when they finish.”

  They agreed, so we headed over, taking our time to enjoy how beautiful that place was, with the tall trees all around, blocking out views from nearby and mostly from above. Sunlight trickled in, peppering the lake in gleaming lines of light, and the ducks took their time enjoying the shade and cool water.

  Jalee glanced over at me, before kneeling near one of the ducks and holding out a hand. Her eyes went to my cock, causing me to kneel, too, so that I wouldn’t be so exposed.

  “Didn’t mean to stare,” she said. “I’m just surprised—other than a slight semi when we came in here, I noticed you haven’t been erect once.”

  I gulped, wondering how much they were paying attention. “No?”

  “Considering the fact that you’re a man surrounded by beautiful monsters, in addition to ourselves, it’s strange, that’s all.”

  The others watched me, too, waiting for an explanation it seemed. I shrugged. “Maybe the life-or-death part of it all threw me for a loop? I mean, it’s one thing when I’m around you all only, and there’s a chance of something happening. This place? I’m as likely to lose it as use it.”

  She laughed, the others joining in.

  “And maybe you’re comparing yourself?” Ahlaksiz asked. “Because I have to say right now, don’t.”

  “We’ve had this discussion,” I said, waving her comment off. “I’m good, trust me.”

  Awkward silence followed, during which I glanced over to see that, yes, Mr. Tooth and Mrs. Octopussy were still going at it. I would’ve loved to relax on the grass or sit on a rock, but on my bare ass? I wasn’t so sure. Kneeling would have to do, for now.

  “You have family here, no?” Kinara asked.

  “I do.” The change in topic was an interesting one, but now that she brought them up, I found myself missing my parents. It had to have been at least a week since I’d last called either my mom or dad, and I wondered how they were doing. Considering that all I did really was work on my visual novels and hang out, calling them more often should’ve been easier. At least before, they could call me, too. But now I was using Ahlaksiz’s spare cell, which left me without their numbers. Since they didn’t have hers, either, I would have to make sure to send them an email or stop by soon.

  “We can go visit sometime,” I said. “Maybe after this trip.”

  “You want to stop by on the way?” Ahlaksiz asked.

  I frowned, wanting to kick myself for not thinking of that. “We could die, huh? Might not be a bad idea to at least poke my head in. Depending on the time, though, they might be working.”

  “It’s the weekend.”

  “Week-what?” Jalee asked.

  “Weekend. These humans have assigned days and a week to their concept of time, and two days out of every seven, they don’t work. It’s very weird.”

  “But you don’t work at all,” Milkshake said to me.

  I grunted, half in argument, half in agreement. “The work I do is more fun, more whenever I want. Assuming it sells, anyway.”

  “Everyone should do that.”

  “No argument here, though it might be harder to make a living at it if everyone did.” I eyed each of them. “And you all? How do you survive back home?”

  “Monsters sometimes have jobs,” Jalee said. “More often, we’re enslaved and forced to work for someone, but they feed and shelter us. Others work as bounty hunters, or great warriors might swear their service to warlords in some battle or another.”

  “Farmers?” I asked.

  They looked at me with confusion, but Ahlaksiz said, “No, considering that most of the monster diet consists of meat, that wouldn’t make a lot of sense.”

  “Ah, right.” I scratched my chin, wondering about their world. “When we get the gate open, will I be… going in with you?”

  They all gave each other nervous glances, but it was Jalee who spoke up. “In the monster world, you’d get eaten alive. Most likely, literally.”

  “You all survived.”

  “Yes, but you would be a target the moment you went through. Most monsters who saw you would try to claim you as a slave, and only then let you live until they grew bored and decided to feast on your corpse instead.”

  I gulped, not liking the sound of that. Still, I was curious, and felt a sense of duty. “If I could become powerful enough? What then?”

  “We’re not saying no, or not exactly,” Ahlaksiz interjected. “But… we’re saying you’re not ready.”

  I took that as a sign that there was a chance I could go through. Honestly, I needed to. If Jalee was going to go back to try and rescue her sister, there was no way I wouldn’t help her. As far as I was concerned, these women were my lovers now. We were linked, after all.

  A loud grunt carried across the water, and we turned to see Mrs. Octopussy go flying away from the dragon man, hitting the ground with a roll. She cursed at him, then slid along back into the lake, vanishing beneath its surface.

  “That wasn’t as long as we’d thought,” I said, already up and heading back. I jogged to catch up, while the guy started walking away. “Wait, Mr. Tooth.”

  He turned to me, and to my disgust still had a bit of cum hanging from the tip of his disgusting, massive, scale-covered cock. A bit of bile rose up in my throat.

  “The fuck you interrupting me for?” he said. “I need a rinse and a snack.”

  With that, he took two long strides and was in the water, dipping down to rinse his lower-half off. I was about to attempt to continue the conversation, when he lunged at a duck halfway out. Flying to catch it, he captured his prey and swirled back around. Landing next to me, he bit off the head. There, chewing that head and holding the bloody corpse, he said in a muffled way, “Out with it.”

  “This,” I said, and held out the coin that the lamia had given me. “We’re on a mission.”

  He swallowed, eyed it, then nodded. “You should’ve said something before. Come along.”

  Taking another bite of the duck, he turned, nearly knocked me over with his tail, and led the way. We all followed, entering the mansion again and finding ourselves in a lounge area where two more like him—though one had black scales and another green, while his were red—sat about watching a football game and drinking beers. That they were into this humored me. On the other hand, I had never really been close to the kind of guys who sat around watching football. Was it possible they were all monsters in disguise?

  “Here’s the thing,” Tooth said, strolling up to the television and opening a side panel. One click of a button caused the football game to vanish, a map to appear instead. Blue digital lines focused on certain zones, including several over by Greece and Turkey.

  “This spot right here,” he said, “but we haven’t been able to narrow it down from there. We’re scouring the place.”

  “Got it,” Ahlaksiz said, holding up her wrist with a metal bracelet. Scanning the screen, her bracelet then made a small holo-map. She quickly dismissed it, then nodded my way. It was enough to go on, and more narrowed down, I guessed based on her look, more than we’d had before.

  “And one more thing,” Tooth said, eyeing me with a weighing stare. “She might have faith in you, but that doesn’t mean I do. You? You’re supposed to go in there and do what we all failed to accomplish?”

  I turned to my team. “Not me. Us.”

  He grunted. “Sure, them. You… Not likely.” His two buddies stood, then. These fucking dragon-wannabes, staring me down. As tough as I wanted to be right then, I had to admit they were a bit intimidating. Then again, the hunter had been as well. We all knew how that ended.

  “Test me then,” I said, hands out and trying to consider my options here. “What you gonna do?”

  Tooth stepped up to me, snake-eyes narrowing. This close, he stood at least a foot over me and I could still smell the octo-sex on him. I was ready for whatever might come my way, when he spun, tail swiping at me. Strangely, I saw a bit of a blur to him, moving ahead of the tail. Not sure what to do with this, I took a step away and it swung an inch in front of my face.

  Confused but glad to not be hit, I stepped into it and threw a fist at his jaw. My fist cracked and it hurt like hell, causing me to stumble back and shake it out, howling. More than the pain, though, I was focused on what had happened with the blur. Was that the power that sleeping with Milkshake had given me? Some sort of ability to see an attack coming.

  Tooth stared at me, the whole room frozen to see what would happen next. Finally, he started laughing. “You can’t punch worth a damn. But as far as humans go, I kind of like you. Good luck out there.”

  The others backed off, too. One went for beers, the other switched the T.V. back to the game. As for us, we headed out of there, ready to get our mission going. We stopped by for our garments, then made a B-line for the gate.

  As soon as we were out of there and almost to the car, Ahlaksiz turned to us, eyes settling on Jalee and Milkshake. “It’s time to ask yourself how badly you want to go home.”