Nocked Senseless Read online

  She glared at me but didn’t respond.

  We climbed several sets of stone stairs and emerged into a larger, slightly better lit area. The large, wooden door opposite the stairwell was guarded.

  I looked at Nidras and sneered.

  The two gremlins were about three feet tall. They had soft, dark brown fur covering their bodies and a lighter, golden fur on their faces.

  Their brown eyes were enormous and soft, giving them a decidedly squeezable look.

  Nidras shook her head and stepped out, knives in hand.

  The gremlins blinked once, twice and then were suddenly airborne. They hit us in a wash of fur and froth, their tiny little fur faces transformed in the blink of an eye into gaping maws filled with razor-sharp teeth.

  My rabid teddy bear clamped its teeth over the forearm I’d instinctively thrown up to protect my face and worked it with surprising strength. I swung my arm hard in an attempt to dislodge it but the thing held on, its teeth ripping through skin, muscle and even bone as I tried to shake it off me.

  In my panic I momentarily forgot to use my sword.

  Nidras had flung her gremlin to the ground and was plunging a knife into its tiny chest. I couldn’t get my teddy bear off me.

  Finally, in desperation, I grabbed my sword and pulled it free with my left hand, arcing it through the air toward the furry little body.

  The gremlin swung its back legs up and wrapped them around my arm, making itself too small a target for me to reach with my sword. Unless I wanted to lop my own arm off.

  Pain radiated from my torn and bleeding arm. I was pretty sure I’d have a big scar.

  I looked up and saw Nidras standing with her arms crossed, one dark eyebrow lifted in a definite “I told you so” expression. Her knives were back in their sheaths.

  “You could help me here.”

  She shrugged. “It’s just an oversized teddy bear.”

  Okay, I probably deserved that.

  I swung around and slammed the gremlin up against the wall. My elbow screamed from the impact but the thing stopped chewing on my arm and blinked. I slammed it a second and then third time, finally managing to drop it to the ground at my feet.

  Blood ran from my arm as I jammed my sword into the gremlin’s chest, finishing it off.

  I motioned toward the door. “After you.”

  Nidras’ face softened as she looked at my torn arm. “Let me heal that for you.”

  I shook my head. “I’m wearing it as a reminder that I’m an ass.”

  Her perfect, peach tinted lips tipped up slightly at the corners. “How about if I just heal it mostly and leave a little scar as a reminder.”

  I thought about this for a minute. My hand was already going numb and I figured it would be hard to use my sword soon. “Okay.”

  “Watch the door while I work.” Nidras placed exquisitely soft hands over my forearm and closed her eyes.

  Energy and light flooded the area around and under her hands and I gasped as intense heat infused tender, torn flesh. Gritting my teeth against the pain, I kept one eye on the door as pain seared up my arm and made my pulse pound in my temples.

  Finally the pain and heat slid away and Nidras stepped back.

  I looked at my arm. “There’s no scar.”

  She shrugged, pulling her knives. “So I lied. I’m pretty sure you’ll have lots more reminders that you’re an ass.”

  “Demon woman.”

  Nidras tried the doorknob and it was locked. She looked at me and jerked her head toward the door. I reared back and kicked it hard, just inside the knob. To my great satisfaction it swung inward and slammed against the wall behind it.

  Nidras was in the room, both knives drawn, almost before the door hit the wall.

  I drew my sword and had a hell-fire bomb in one hand.

  The room we’d entered was cavernous, with forty-foot-high ceilings. I couldn’t see the walls from where I stood, just inside the door. It was as if the room went on and on, ad infinitum. I knew it had to be an illusion. But it was a powerful one.

  A man in long, brown robes stood with his back to us, his hands lifted over some type of orb. His hair was long, straggly and iron gray. Within the orb I could see a swirling motion, like the ebb and flow of frothy water against a beach.

  He turned slowly and I saw Nidras jerk in surprise. His face was seamed with age and his nose was long, crooked and slightly hooked on the end. It was Greek nasal geography gone bad. His eyes were black, piercing and spun with silver streaks that mirrored the action within his orb. “Nidras. What a pleasant surprise.”

  I watched her stiffen but her grip on the knives never wavered. “Grimsbar. I hardly recognized you.”

  “If I’d known you were coming I’d have put on my pretty face.” The wizard lifted his long, gnarled hands and a flash of light, followed by a cloud of smoke, engulfed him. I stepped forward, sword drawn, ready to protect Nidras if she needed it.

  “It’s okay,” she murmured.

  When the smoke cleared the blond man from the other night was standing there. I leaned down and whispered in Nidras’ ear, “Just so you know, my extreme good looks don’t poof away. What you see is what I got.”

  She widened her eyes in warning. I grinned and turned back to the wizard. His eyes no longer swirled but they were still cold and black. Looking into them was like looking at my own death.

  Death was fixed directly on me at that moment.

  “I see you have a new toy, Nidras.”

  My grip tightened on my sword and I stepped forward. She stopped me with a hand on my arm.

  “He’s playful, Grimsbar. But I wouldn’t recommend trying to play with him. That Jester-like exterior hides a true warrior’s heart.”

  I frowned, oh yeah, the tights. I’d forgotten I was dressed like an idiot. I had my work cut out making the wizard afraid of me.

  In fact I’d already been dismissed by the wizard. “I’m happy to see you, Nidras. I hope you’ve come to stay.”

  Nidras gave the knives she still held ready a meaningful look. “Do I look like I came to snuggle, Grimsbar?”

  The cold, black gaze flashed angrily for just a beat and then softened with amusement. “You look scrumptious as always.”

  My fist tightened around the sword and, before I realized what I was doing I was striding toward him with blood in my eye.

  The wizard spared me a brief glance and lifted a hand negligently. Something that felt like a train hit me in the chest and I flew backward with an undignified “oomph”, the sword clattering to the stone floor a few feet away.

  I hit the wall and slid downward. My stupid hat slid over my eyes.

  “It seems very possessive, Nidras. I’d advise that you rid yourself of it as soon as possible, or I’ll do it for you.”

  “If you harm Hermes you’ll be dealing with me.”

  I pushed myself to my feet, flinging the stupid hat away and kicking off the even more ridiculous shoes. I couldn’t do anything about the tights but I vowed I’d make the evil creature standing across the room recognize the menace beneath the spandex.

  Even if it meant dying in the stupid things.

  I picked up the sword again, deciding it was time to assert myself. “Remove the curse on Nidras, wizard, or I’ll kill you.”

  The man turned shocked, black eyes in my direction. He stared at me for a beat and then chuckled. “It’s not very smart is it?”

  I flew toward him with a growl of outrage. The wizard’s hand came up again but I was ready for him this time. I swung the sword as I lunged toward him and caught the tips of three of his fingers, lopping them off at the first knuckle.

  The wizard screamed in outraged pain and lifted his arms above his head. Silver swirls of power roiled violently in his eyes. The black spread to consume the whites of his eyes, so that he no longer gave even the smallest impression of being human.

  Nidras threw one of her knives and embedded it into his chest.

  The power I’d felt buildi
ng around him sputtered as the knife hit and he doubled over in pain.

  I stepped in, fully intending to lop his head off with the sword I still held. But, amazingly, he stood straight again and looked me full in the eye.

  The power redoubled in strength and Nidras’ knife flew out of his chest, narrowly missing me as it flew past and clanged against the wall thirty feet away.

  The wizard’s head dropped back. The power grew into a physical thing between us.

  Nidras grabbed my hand. “Let’s go!”

  I hesitated. I knew we’d probably never get another shot at killing him. I shook my head and brought the sword up again. “I need to kill him.”

  Nidras swore, grabbed the sword and swung it toward the wizard. It clanged against an invisible wall and bounced back hard. She winced against the jarring pain it had probably caused in her shoulder. “Okay? Now let’s go!”

  We turned and ran, just as the power exploded outward, shattering the door we’d just run through and sending it out in a cloud of splinters.

  We took the stairs at a dead run. Behind us, a wall of fire burned through the stairwell with the force of a runaway train. I could smell the rock melting.

  Whatever was chasing us was as deadly as hell and even hotter.

  We burst from the stairwell and almost impaled ourselves on the sword points from two guards. I parried hard, knocking the nearest guard’s sword from his fist and hitting him with my shoulder as I continued past, sending him to the ground.

  Nidras dispatched her guard just as quickly and we shot through the exterior door back out into the marketplace.

  Behind us, the unearthly screams of the two guards told us the fire had found them.

  We didn’t slow until we were beyond the courtyard and headed back toward our horses.

  “What was that stuff?”

  “Wizard’s fire. It’s extremely deadly, hotter than the lowest circle of Hell and like a heat-seeking missile. Once it is set after you it will burn through anything until it finds you.”

  That would explain the terrified shrieking we’d heard in the courtyard behind us. We turned back to the castle and, sure enough, the fire was visible all along the stone, outer wall.

  “It’ll eat through the wall and come at us if we don’t get out of here. Hopefully, once we’ve cleared the magic barrier Grimsbar put around the castle it will stop.”

  We leapt onto the horses and kicked their sides hard, sending them into a ground-eating gallop that carried us quickly away from the castle.

  Clutching my horse’s mane in sweaty palms, I immediately discovered yet another negative to tights.

  They are as slippery as hell on horseback.

  Chapter Seven

  Monsters

  We hurtled through the dense, white fog. This time, due to Nidras’ bright Jester’s costume, I could still see her bobbing along ahead of me when her horse disappeared. Since I glowed too, I figured anything that was pursuing us could see both of us.

  That was bad.

  Sound was muted in the thick fog. The dense air bore down on us, taking its toll on our ability to breathe and think. My horse’s thick sides labored beyond what you’d expect given the level of energy he was expending. And the cold, heavy air worked on my emotions as well. Terror built in my chest as we travelled farther and farther into the stuff.

  I didn’t remember it taking so long on the way in. I started to worry that we’d lost our direction and were actually riding in circles in the fog. Behind us, orange light flickered in the near distance.

  The fire was gaining on us.

  It seemed even more terrifying under the silence of its approach in the fog. I took deep breaths and forced myself to ride harder, faster, though everything inside me was screaming for me to stop and fight.

  Sweat slid into my eyes, stinging them. I swiped my brow with a sleeve and glanced over my shoulder. The fire looked as if it were only a few yards behind us at that point and the heat had been steadily building for the last several moments.

  My horse glanced around and screamed, picking up speed without my urging him forward. The smell hit me next. Held captive in the thick capsule of fog, the stark stench of evil preceded the fire in a thick rush of sulfurous air.

  My horse’s eyes rolled huge with terror as the fire licked at his heels. The smell of burning hair brought my own terror-filled gaze around. The tip of my horse’s tail was burnt and smoking.

  I kicked his ribs again and prayed he didn’t drop dead beneath me. I knew from his widely flared nostrils and heaving sides that the poor beast was close to dropping.

  The fire was close enough that I could hear it, even beneath the dampening effects of the fog. It moaned and cried and let off a constant keening sound that made the hair all over my body stand on end.

  Heat seared the back of my neck. I risked a glance and saw an arm of fire reaching toward me. In desperation, I grabbed my sword and swung. As the blade hit the wizard’s fire, heat travelled up the sword, through the hilt and into my hand. I swore and dropped the sword, feeling the barest touch of the deadly fire against my neck.

  Intense pain shot through me. My skin melted beneath the featherlight touch, the pain so horrific I couldn’t even draw breath to scream.

  Throwing myself downward, to hover close to my horse’s lathered crest, I kicked him into a final spurt of speed, praying it would be enough.

  Ahead of me, Nidras and her horse disappeared and, seconds later, I shot free of the clogging fog and into clean, fresh air and a soft dusk. The fire’s muted sounds exploded out of the fog behind us. Followed by a burst of sulfurous air.

  Full throated screams assailed us, making our exhausted mounts tremble helplessly too exhausted to run from the terrible sound.

  For the briefest moment in time I panicked, thinking the thing was coming out after us. But nothing burst from the fog.

  It looked as if we’d made it.

  “The fire holds the screams of its victims.” Nidras’ face was pale and covered with a fine sheen of sweat. Glancing at her for the first time since we’d cleared the fog, I could see terror in her beautiful eyes that mirrored mine. She was shivering violently.

  I reached over and grasped her hand. “Let’s keep moving. I need to put some distance between me and that castle.”

  She nodded and we turned away, allowing our poor horses to walk off some of the adrenaline and slow their raging heartbeats.

  We didn’t speak for several moments, content just to have survived. But as the sun dipped farther below the distant horizon, more practical concerns returned. We were tired, cold and hungry. We’d need to find a place to spend the night.

  “There’s a small town not far from here,” Nidras offered. “I think there’s a tavern there that offers rooms.”

  I nodded. “I’d kill for a shower and a hot meal.”

  “Dressed like that you might have to.”

  I looked down and groaned. “Gods I hate spandex.”

  Nidras’ husky laugh almost made it feel all better. Almost.

  Getting a room over the tavern required only minimal bloodletting. A few of the men in the tavern took exception to my tights and, although I agreed wholeheartedly with them, I’d just faced off with something much worse than their meager little human forms and I had very little of my sense of humor left. Nidras’ knives and I made a very persuasive argument against further abuse.

  Nidras grabbed my arm as we climbed the dark, narrow stairs to our dubious quarters on the second floor. “I think I’m starting to like the tights. They’re making me kind of hot.” She grabbed one spandex-clad bun to reinforce her point.

  I groaned. “I’m not sure I could wear them again, even for you, demon princess. Do you know how hard it is to hide my bow and arrows in these?”

  She slid her hand around to the front of the lime green torture devices, cupping my easily reached cock and balls through the thin fabric. A jolt of pure delight swept through me at her heated touch. “Then again…”
r />   Nidras gave me a gentle squeeze. “We’ll continue this inside, Cupid.”

  I pulled on the tights to ease pressure on my expanded cock. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  The bath we’d requested was sitting in front of a roaring fireplace. It looked like an oversized wine barrel. But fragrant steam rose from its top and I almost came on the spot from the thought of immersing myself in its steaming depths.

  I suddenly realized I ached all over.

  Nidras was already stripping off her jester costume.

  “Why didn’t anybody tease you about the little flippy jacket and tights. Not to mention those shoes.”

  Nidras kicked off said shoes, sending them jingling across the room. “I have the legs for tights.”

  I watched, transfixed, as she peeled the red fabric from those leanly muscular legs. My mouth went dry. She bent over to pull them off her toes, giving me a libido-stimulating view of her luscious, white buns and the hot, moist vee at the juncture of her pale thighs. My cock jumped into readiness and my balls pulled up tight against my body. I licked my lips. “You’re not wearing underwear.”

  She straightened, looking at me as if I were nuts. “They gave me panty lines.”

  “But the other guy’s stuff was in there.”

  “Don’t be such a girl, Hermes. He was wearing tighty-whities under them. I checked.” Nidras pulled her jester jacket off over her head. “Are you going to take those clothes off?”

  I licked my lips as the last of her incredible flesh emerged from under the horrible outfit. The soft, white orbs of her voluptuous breasts jiggled happily as the jacket joined the tights and terrible shoes on the floor.

  I reached for her. “I need to do this first.” I yanked her into my arms and lowered my hungry lips to her succulent, peach tinted mouth.

  Her fiery essence swamped me. She tasted of danger and excitement and rowdy sex. I cupped her soft butt cheeks and pulled her into my aching cock, grinding myself into her.

  Nidras tried to slide her hand between us to clasp my cock. I grabbed her wrist. I wasn’t going to let her steal control. Not this time. “Stay still.” Reaching down, I lifted her up and carried her to the wooden tub, settling her inside.