[2]

The blankness faded and their eyes opened. They rose as one, and as the eye focuses on movement, they stared at each other. It was darker than midnight, and piercing cold enough to risk frostbite, but neither was bothered in the least.

Eyes widened as memories clashed with knowledge and selves adjusted, and they spoke nearly as one, “who are you?”

Nervous laughter. Both were standing on empty air, above the smooth wetness of the cave floor. Though they’d not been obvious about it, neither had missed anything worth of note in their field of vision. Both had carefully noted the ivory scroll tube lying on the floor nearby.

The white feather-winged angel was impossibly, inhumanly beautiful, radiating an overwhelming aura of power. Fair and pale, her hair was liquid gold, eyes glittering sapphires. Her physical form was so perfect that it transcended any thought of sexuality, raising awe instead of lust. At less than a meter sixty, she was surprisingly short and slender, almost thin.

She wore a simple white shift, belted in by means of a wide gem-studded golden sash, a cloak of white embroidered with gold threads in abstract sigils and a pair of white slippers. A golden topaz carved into the shape of a rose broached the cloak at her throat, a diadem of platinum and white diamonds crowned her, thin-woven bracelets of gold and glittering silver covered wrists and anklets, and a pair of thin-skinned gold gloves covered her hands fully.

“Dav… no,” she shook her head, fluffing white feathered wings, “I’m Lyralis. This is impossible. I should be howling at the moon, if there was a moon to be found. David, lawyer… and now,” she bit her lip, “Lyralis. Angel, human, sorceress. What language…?” she wrung her hands in distress, the mere sound of her voice a balm sweet enough to soothe the most savage beast.

The second floating woman was not so overwhelming, on first impression. Nearly a full head taller than the angel, her skin was so white that she seemed a statue of alabaster, her hair a blond so pale as to be nearly white. Full bodied, if not quite voluptuous, she was so still that she did not even seem to be breathing. Next to the frail looking Lyralis, she looked muscular, if not obtrusively so. Though unusually lovely, she would have gone entirely unnoticed beside the supernatural vision facing her. Only her red glowing eyes and her unnaturally pale skin showed her to be something other than merely human.

White her body may have been, but her clothes were all smooth matte black, wrapped tightly enough to emphasize her feminine attributes and provide not a single spot that might snag on anything. A simple rope belt held a dagger, claws of metal clutching a large uncut ruby at its hilt, a sling made of some sort of grayish material, and a pouch of bullets. A jet and obsidian brooch fastened a dark hooded cloak around her, and she wore high, thick-soled boots. A pair of reinforced gloves, almost cesti or gauntlets, a mesh of silver and black metal, left the tips of her fingers free, displaying sharpened black nails. Her otherwise bare arms were protected by a pair of thin war bracers, and silver made a serpentine coil around her upper left arm. A thin, plain circlet of white crystal kept her long, free flowing tresses away from her face.

“Kim. No I suppose it’s Maia now,” she frowned, “and I’m a martial artist and… and a vampire lord,” she stared challengingly at the angel.

Lyralis spread her wings, and her skin turned alight, as though she had pulled a switch. A globe of golden energy appeared in her hand, as she looked back at Maia, crackling arcs of silver-white energy lifting her golden hair with an effect similar to that of a strong breeze. “I…,” her gaze drifted to her hand, eyes widening with surprise. “Sorry, I didn’t even realize I’d done that. It’s… Lyralis is filling my head. I can control it. Were you hijacked here? Sent a character sheet, accepted and bang? Do…,” she frowned, wings twitching. “Do you need blood?” she asked bluntly.

“Nope,” Maia replied, “thank Buddha. Though the vampire in me,” she gave a short snort of a laugh, “is telling me just how tasty you’d be. Don’t worry,” she raised her open hands, “like you, I can control it. For now, anyway. Yes, same method, wham, bang, no thank you ma’am. Just finished highschool, I’m from Korea. Damnation!” she cursed, and swung a fist at nearest wall. Stone shattered, jagged pieces flying in all directions. Maia’s eyes widened in momentary shock, before she withdrew her arm from the cavern wall and brush stonedust from herself. “Were you hurt?” she turned to look at Lyralis, and saw a semi-circular pattern of stone shards on the ground before her. “Forget I asked,” she shrugged.

“As for language, I believe you’re speaking your native tongue, angel-something, and occasionally you’ve segued into English. Something about you is translating things automatically. I can do the same,” she smiled. “So what’s a sex change like, gorgeous?” Kim snickered.

The angel’s face hardened, the glow of her aura intensifying. “Very funny, you undead monstrosity. I’m sure we’re all paying for our choice of ‘dream character’,” she said, her voice heavily laden with sarcasm. “I…,” her voice turned softer, and Maia involuntarily leaned towards her. “It’s like, there was an integration. Or something like that. I’m still me, David, essentially. But there’s all that enormous, heavy weight of power, knowledge, responsibility, instinctive reactions. I feel stretched to the limits inside my own skin,” her hands clutched at her breasts for a moment, outlining the nipples against the thin white fabric. “And this!” her voice rose in anger, “the unfamiliar equipment. Except that it is familiar. Thank heavens I don’t have any bodily needs. Much like you,” David frowned at her. “Lyralis is deeply reluctant to associate with you. That’s why I’m glowing like mad. The automatic reaction is see vampire, kill vampire. She’s a Buffy-clone, that way.”

Maia leaned back and laughed, almost hysterically. Lyralis’ lips tightened, but as the gales of laughter kept coming, she smiled, finally succumbing to an attack of the giggles.

“Yes, yes, very funny,” the angel conceded, biting back a last giggle. “Now let us see what message is in that scroll tube on the floor. There’s no magic on it that I can see. Shall I try to remove any that might be there, regardless?”

Maia, leaning back against the wall, sighed and shook her head. “No need. I’ll have you know that this vampire is unkillable. Destroy this body, and I’ll return when night falls. Another advantage is, no pain, almost impossible to control or mindbend... you know, the usual. So I’ll risk it,” she said, and the ivory scroll tube levitated, flying unerringly into her open hand. The clasp was a clever little metal hinge, she noted, hinting at fairly advanced metal working techniques. Or should that be magical fabrication?

Inside was the anticipated sheet of paper. After a minute of concentration, the vampire shook her head, and tossed the sheet at Lyralis. Obligingly, it floated into her gold wrapped fingers. “Can’t make heads or tails of it. Just glyphs and runes. You’re the sorceress, give it a shot.”

Whilst Lyralis, seated on empty air, pored over the document, Maia amused herself by running all over the walls and ceiling like a scuttling spider, occasionally pausing to search for a secret passage or doorway beyond the small cracks that admitted air and a trickle of water. “Anything?” she asked impatiently after nearly an hour had passed, and she’d covered the entirety of the stone hollow, discovering nary an egress.

“Yes,” Lyralis nodded, shaking her head to dissipate her trance of concentration. “It’s a simple substitution code, but it uses eighteen languages. I wasted an awful lot of power figuring it out, but I have most of it. Give me another fifteen minutes, and I’ll have the rest. Please don’t interrupt,” the angel smiled radiantly, making the order seem more like a gracious request.

Maia couldn’t help but smile back, and turned away. Freezing for a moment to consider, she began to practice katas, reveling in the impossible fluidity of her new body and the incredible skill that came to her without thought. It also helped her not think of her parents, and if she’d ever see them again, and hold on to her self. Kim was a nice girl, while Maia… the vampire was as cold and heartless as they got, with not a trace of humanity. Age, darkness and a fixation on domination, seeing everything and everyone as servants to her will or obstacles in her path. Falling into that trap would be too easy. She wondered idly if Lyralis – she just couldn’t thinking of the angel as David – would turn all sanctimonious, or try to blast her in the back. Certainly, she wasn’t truly trustworthy. At least, not for her.

“I have it,” Lyralis announced, standing near her back. Maia smiled slightly before turning. The angel would have to do a lot better if she truly wanted to sneak up on her. A vampire’s senses were incredibly acute.

“So? Tell, bitch… oops,” Kim put a hand on her mouth. “As I’m sure you’ve figured out, Maia is definitely not a good girl. Lyralis wants to stake the vamp and the vamp wants to eat her,” she licked her lips unconsciously.

“Anyway,” she ignored the raised brow that asked for more information, “what does the almighty demon that grabbed us want, anyway? Where are we? What..”

“If you’ll allow me to get a word in edgewise,” Lyralis cut her off, “I’ll simply read it verbatim. As follows:

Brave adventurer! You have entered a world shrouded in night, the world of Kayliss. You, and others like you, are the only spark of hope. To survive and succeed, you must retrieve the burning shard from the heart of the stone dragoloth at Nansheen. Then make your way to the Brazen Portal, where you will find others like yourself and make plans to free the gods of light from the Triune Prison.

The women exchanged glances and sighed. “I have a bad feeling about this,” Lyralis quipped, “but we might as well get started. You can move through rock, right?”

At Maia’s nod, she stretched out her hand. The two clasped gloved hands and looked up.

“Wait!” Maia pulled away from the angel’s hand.

“What is the problem?” Lyralis asked, puzzlement obvious in her tone.

“The problem is you,” Maia smiled widely and looked at her companion closely, moving her eyes up and down, looking at sideways at the wings.

“What? What do you mean?” Lyralis asked, blushing faintly at such intent and obvious scrutiny.

“What do I mean?” Maia laughed loudly. “Do you have any idea what you look like? Sweetness, you’re the most perfectly magnificent anything I have ever seen. You’d cause a riot anywhere, and folk would notice you even if you were veiled and smothered in clothes. In these skimpy things…,” she reached and clutched at the white shift, lifting.

Laid bare, the cleft of her sex was smooth and hairless, straight thin pussy lips clearly visible on her pudenda. “Why you naughty, naughty girl,” Maia placed her palm where the triangle of a bikini would be, grounding the heel of her hand against the peak of the hairless pussy, fingers reaching and caressing between the small, soft mounds of asscheeks, teasing her perineum.

The angel’s sapphire eyes grew enormous and her mouth opened in shock. It was a bit like a girl you’d just met casually kneeling, taking your cock out, and just giving a blowjob on the spot. Even the melded instincts the merging had granted provided no answer, for Leyralis had no more experience of such than did David. Confused, frightened and shocked to her core, she took a step back.

That step spread her thighs open, and Maia dove right in, the white shift settling down around her head. Red lips glued to the lovely bare cunt, hands spreading around to fondle asscheeks and send fingers teasing in. Her tongue snaked out, licking up and down, eliciting a cry as it touched the hidden nub at the apex and another as it dove in between the thin pink lips and delved into the hidden treasure within.

Kim was both shocked and delighted at her own actions. Riding an emotional high, she vigorously attacked Lyralis’ sex, tongue moving with an expert teasing touch. The expertise was not her own, for she’d never actually thought of other girls that way. Certainly, she’d been aware that there were ‘girls like that’, but the thought of experimenting had never occurred to her. She liked boys well enough, though the three she’d tried out had proven out to be a distinct disappointment.

It was not lust that drove her, or even the terrible urge that pushed at her to dominate and hinted at delightful possibilities. The motive she refused to acknowledge, even to herself, was much starker. It was a simple matter of survival. Undying she might be, but even a vampire lord could be imprisoned. There was little doubt in her mind that Lyralis could accomplish such, and that she could shatter such prisons as well. She needed to break the ice, needed trust and friendship from a being she could then truly trust in turn.

The angel did not take overlong to gather herself.

“Stop it!” Lyralis shouted, and squirmed in an iron grip she could not break, gasping as a finger touched the pinkish-brown rosette of her anus, circling around once, then twice, then slowly inserting itself. That snake of a tongue writhed inside her, awakening new intense feelings that left butterflies swimming in her stomach, and she moaned and moistened as Maia rubbed a nose against her clit.

This was nothing more than rape, and the suddenly angry, embarrassed angel raised a golden hand, glowing with power, and brought it down. At that exact moment, a second finger widened her sphincter as it fought its way into her anal passage, and Maia’s darting tongue lingered on a slightly roughened patch inside her pussy.

Both shuddered, mouths opened and silent in their breathlessness, Maia in pain as golden flames enveloped her, Lyralis in pleasure and slight pain that served to accentuate the pleasure, her juices flowing.

The angel lost her balance, knees weak of a sudden, and only the support of the hands clutching her buttocks kept her upright.

Maia drew back slightly, wincing at the realization that she could, in fact, feel pain. “You taste as sweet as I thought you would,” she said, her voice thick with velvety seduction. The labia before her were engorged and reddish, the clit peeking from out of its hood, and the vagina retained a slight opening. She bowed forward again towards the luscious feast before her, lapping at the gushing sexual fluids. They were truly sweet and slightly oily, with a distinctive quality that added piquancy. Maia licked, lipped and lightly bit at the glistening flesh.

Lyralis groaned loudly, allowing her body to collapse as a doll would with its strings cut, and Maia lowered her to the ground. The white wings cushioned her back, and she nearly screamed out as Maia’s lips fastened on her bud and began suctioning. There was nothing better to do than lie back and enjoy, for the only other choice would be to fight, and that Lyralis did not desire… and the pleasure was so good she did not want it to stop.

The fingers withdrew from the aching tightness of her ass, and played around her mound before entering her. For several minutes, the cave echoed with moist sounds and moans as the vampire finger-fucked the angel enthusiastically, lapping at her juices and playing with her clit. Twice, Maia slowed her assault to prevent Lyralis from exploding in climax.

Withdrawing fluid-drenched fingers, Maia introduced them back to the winking asshole that writhed beneath her, and spread Lyralis’ legs wider yet, before her free hand returned to the smooth pussy and pushed firmly inside. Fingers sawed back and forth, and the vampire could feel her own fingers through the thin membrane. She looked admiringly at the perfection of beauty splayed before her, bringing her to the edge and easing back, again and again. The urge to look at her companion as an object d’art, a possession, was almost overwhelming.

“Take it all off,” she commanded the insensate sorceress, pushing the white shift up slightly, “I want to see all of you.”

It took Lyralis a few moments to comprehend the words, so lost was she in the haze of sensation and pleasure. Once she did all her clothes and jewelry vanished upon the instant.

Maia’s lascivious gaze fastened on the upthrust breasts, pink nipples stiff and proud, and a breath later so did her lips. Her hands returned to their work as she licked, sucked and gently bit at firm tit-flesh.

A third finger slid into the tight, straining ass and a fourth into steaming pussy, as Maia bit down sharply on a nipple. Lyralis’ spine arched, and she screaming hoarsely, shuddering and shaking for nigh a minute as the pain and pleasure combined and fingers continued to move within her. Maia was surprised at the intensity and length of the orgasm she’d elicited.

“So sensitive you are, sweet,” she rose.

Stripping with alacrity, Maia tossed her gear aside. Nude, she was a magnificent vision in her own right, and her arousal was obvious in the puffed lips of her sex and the hardness of her nipples.

Without pause, she settled her rear on Lyralis’ head, and bent down. “Lick me,” she commanded, and proceeded to do the same.

How many hours the two spent 69ed, how many shrieking orgasms, they were uncertain. Time meant little to them, and their endurance was unflagging.

Finally, Lyralis managed to cry out “Enough, please!”

Maia obliged her, drawing back slightly, and collapsing at her side. The feathered wing her back lay on was the softest thing she had ever felt, softer even than the angel’s skin.

She gathered Lyralis’ smaller form to her, kissing her gently and passionately on the lips. When their lips separated, the two paused, examining the taste of their own sexual fluids. Evidently satisfied, they licked their lips clean, Maia’s dainty yet razor sharp fangs showing themselves.

“You wouldn’t want to bite me,” Lyralis whispered.

“And why is that?” Maia asked, brow raised.

“I am living magic,” Lyralis explained, “so there is no blood as such,” she smiled.

“What do you mean, no blood as such?” Maia looked at her inquisitively.

“It would be simpler to show you,” the angel replied.

A small, lethal looking dagger, crystalline rather than metal, dark amber in hue and all of one piece, appeared in her hand. She sliced her own palm, and there was no bloodflow. Instead, a multicoloured stream of pure magical energy fountained forth. In a few seconds, the wound closed, flesh knitting together seamlessly.

Maia licked her lips and nodded slowly, impressed. “Just how powerful are you, anyway?” she hugged Lyralis closer, their breasts mashing together, mouths so close that their breath fell on each other.

“Pray, pray very hard,” the sorceress was not smiling, “that we never have to find out. Now,” she wriggled a hand free from the tight embrace and laid a finger softly on Maia’s white cheek, “perhaps we should be on our way? Rutting in a cave, enjoyable as it may be,” her wide smile showed just how much she’d enjoyed things, “will not get us anywhere.”

Maia pouted, but obliged her once again, slowly drawing her arms away. She gave a last tweak to an upright nipple and a hard, demanding kiss to Lyralis’ yielding lips, and rose.

The sorceress watched as the vampire dressed, putting her clothes oh so slowly on with a display of eroticism that had Lyralis touching herself. With a self-deprecating grin and a beat of her wings, she was up as well. An instant later, she was dressed.

Maia turned, and an unfamiliar woman was looking at her. Skin nearly as pale as her own, raven hair, and those piercing sapphire eyes of the sorceress, slim slick form encased in black robes. “What…?” she took a step back, automatically taking a ready stance.

“You did say that I was too noticeable,” a more earthly voice answered, but the intonation was familiar, “and apparently an angel would not be greeted with chocolate and roses in the here and now. ‘A world shrouded in night’, remember? Is this good enough?”

Maia relaxed and took a more critical look. “Hmmph,” she snorted. “You’re still too gorgeous by half, but you also look like a necromancer, so I suppose it will do. Don’t you have a skull tipped staff or wand or something?” she asked.

Lyralis blinked. “Not really,” she shrugged apologetically, “now shall we?” she stretched out her hand.

Maia reached back to her, and they floated upward, rising through the stone as if it was no less porous than air.