The Blood Groove (Purgatory Wars Book 4) Read online

  “I’d rather not know, honestly,” Liam said, his voice dry. Though, thinking back, he felt a kind of squirming guilt as he realized he knew remarkably little about Meg beyond the simplest facts. Though, part of that was her fault. Every time he asked, she just shifted the topic to Earth.

  Loki chortled. “Now. Purgatory is a hollow sphere, roughly five to six hundred miles in radius. Objects weight the same as on Earth, by Odin's estimation. The sun burns at the same temperature, but as there is no variation between dawn, noon, and dusk, the actual temperature of Purgatory is five or six degrees warmer than Earth’s. Humidity is up, hence all the jungles.” She nodded. “But the most interesting things are legends from the lizardfolk. They claim that Purgatory simply came into being. One moment, there. The next, here.”

  Liam inclined his head. “Not entirely unusual. Genesis says that Earth was made in seven days.”

  Loki waved her hand. “Genesis.” She said the word as if it was a curse. “Here’s where things get interesting. In all his explorations, Odin has never found the hints that there was a Purgatory before we got here. No buried bones. No striations of earth. And more, he once commissioned mortals to dig downward. The deepest mine, situated in the most shallow part of the world. They never got to the bottom.”

  “Why not?” Liam asked.

  “They started freezing to death.”

  Liam shifted in his seat, considering.

  “Now, this is all merely fascinating esoterica,” Loki said. “But it explains why Odin discovered this. He became fascinated with the crystals that naturally occur across Purgatory, and this mine of his discovered that they were growing underground, where great deals of death occurred. Natural death, that is. Rotting jungle would seep into the ground, and making fertile earth. Fertile earth creates crystal. Crystal grows up and out of the ground – fed on by some creatures that then distribute it with their own deaths. Crystalbacks, for instance, will travel after feeding. They die, either from predators or from sickness or old age or from the very crystal they eat. It grows into their bodies, and eventually overcomes them!”

  Liam rubbed his chin slowly, his brow furrowing.

  Loki snapped her fingers. “And that is how crystal comes to areas without the right fertility. Odin came to the only conclusion that makes sense. These creatures were made to move crystal about.”

  Liam shook his head. “So, what you’re saying is that Purgatory was made. By something more powerful, more intelligent, than you gods?” He paused. “Maybe it was named better than we expected.”

  Loki opened her mouth. Then she glared at him. “Stop looking so smug.”

  Liam laughed. “I don’t think my God made this place. I don’t know who does. I honestly do not care. Right now, we need to work on the real issue. Materials. Cannons. Muskets.” He slapped his palm into the desk. “So get to the point: what do you know about magically transmuting crystals?”

  Loki spread her hands. “Odin learned that spell five centuries ago. But it is of only moderate use for most people. It will take a crystal and harden it, making it harder to sheer, shatter, or cut. However, it also surrounds the crystal with a field, so thin that you can barely feel it – but when you swing the crystal at someone, it’ll turn all the energy away. It becomes like striking the enemy with air.”

  “So, Odin shelved it,” Liam said. “Crystal armor?”

  “Possible, but making pieces of crystal armor proved difficult, expensive and time consuming. Thor has full crystal plate that has been treated this way – but you can’t cover an army in it.” She spread her hands again.

  Liam rubbed his hands together. “But now, we can make tubes that won’t shatter.”

  Loki inclined her head.

  “What’s the price?” Liam asked.

  Loki smiled, standing up. Her fingers went to the collar of her shirt. She rolled her shoulders. Her clothes plopped around her ankles, leaving her luminously beautiful form entirely exposed. She put one hand on her shapely hips, her horse-tail of hair trickling along the ground as she walked towards Liam’s desk.

  “You,” she said, casually, putting her finger on the desktop.

  Liam gaped at her.

  Loki’s eyes burned with eldritch green flames as she leaned forward, her breasts pressed together by her palms resting on the desktop, her arms framing her tits wonderfully. Her nipples were hard. Puffy. Her eyes hungry. Liam leaned back in his seat, unable to look away.

  Loki held the pose for just a second – then laughed, throwing her head back. She slapped the desk, stepping away half a foot.

  “Nah, I’m just fucking with you,” she said, giggling again. “We want trade rights, the first shipment of muskets for delivery to the Aesir, with people who can explain how to use them and how to make gunpowder...” She continued to rattle off points.

  And Liam tried to hide his hard on.

  ***

  Tethis grabbed her head in her hands and tugged on her hair as she looked at the paper that Liam had set before her. Liam tried to not look down her dress. Failed. There were some amazing, wondrous advantages to being the tallest man in a world that included curvaceous goblinesses. Doubly so when that world’s most popular piece of clothing was the one piece shift sans anything that Earth would recognize as underwear.

  “This is...” Tethis shook her head, then slapped her palms down to either side of the paper. “And I thought those truth telling designs were complicated.”

  Liam chuckled softly. “You designed those.”

  “And they would have worked,” Tethis said, smiling. Inspired by stories of truth telling magics, Tethis had designed crystal devices that could effectively read someone’s emotional state. Her idea had been to put them at the entrances of the city, to check for smugglers, assassins, spies. Liam had shot the idea down – the last thing he wanted to do was make a magical TSA.

  “This, though?” Tethis waved at the paper. “Where to even begin?”

  Liam sighed. “I don’t even pretend to know what this stuff is about. But you’re the smartest person I know on Purgatory when it comes to magic. And most things.”

  Tethis chuckled. “So, you’re buttering me up so I won’t throw this formula in your face and declare you a madman for even attempting to understand it?”

  “Yup!” Liam put his hands on her shoulders. “Can you figure it out?”

  “Well, the crystallic structure diagrams are accurate, but the somatic components here are...” Tethis started to go into her magi-babble. Sometimes, Liam tried to follow it. But the days where he had the free mental energy to try and grasp esoteric concepts were long gone. Instead, as she talked, Liam considered the angles on the situation in Purgatory. The Aesir were fighting the lizardmen. Sysminor had some nebulous advantage, given to him by the Codec-

  “But I swear, this has to be her fucking with me. Here, it says you need a mixture of a girl’s, ah, juices and a man’s seed. Mixed inside of. Them. To, ah, complete the spell.” Tethis trailed off. “That has to be a joke.”

  That dragged Liam’s attention back. “It what now?”

  “Well, okay,” Tethis said. “The problem with casting spells on crystals, rather than through crystals, is that they channel magic. That’s why I use one as my foci.” She pulled out the crystal baton that she had used for all the time that Liam had known her to cast her spells. “Casting on a spell is like trying to build an aqueduct with water. Even if you do, it doesn’t do anything.”

  Liam nodded.

  Tethis twirled her baton around her hand. “But here, Loki is theorizing that you can get around that by changing the state of the crystal. Since the crystal is a grown object, living sympathy should bring that change. And, well, a man’s, ah-”

  “Cum?” Liam asked.

  Tethis turned red, all the way to her ear tips. Impressive, considering she had been friends with and the occasional lover of Megara and Liam for a year and change. Liam hadn’t thought she would have a shy bone left in her, and yet, here she was, turn
ing red.

  “Yes. Cum,” she said. “It makes children. A very profound change in a woman’s, ah, state. It literally combines the two parts of man and woman, right? And a woman’s juice is how she, ah, accepts... cum...” She trailed off, her nipples thrusting out against her shift.

  Liam snorted. “I’m no mage, but the logic does seem to make sense.”

  Tethis frowned. “Or it is a trickster god playing a trick...”

  “Well, think of it this way,” Liam said. “If it doesn’t work, we’re just down a few hours work and Meg is up two orgasms.”

  “Two?” Tethis asked.

  “Well, I’m not about to let loose inside of her without having her cum twice,” Liam said, rolling his eyes. He stepped to the edge of Tethis’ office, sticking his head out into the corridor. He almost bashed his head into Muttunbaal. The former head slave of the manor house had been among the first freed by Liam when he had killed the god Sysminor. But she had immediately turned around and offered her services for a nominal fee.

  Liam, remembering her talent at managing the manor when he had been infiltrating the place, had doubled the fee and paid it immediately. Since then, Mutt had been a steadfast and vital part of the household.

  “Sir,” she said, bowing to him. “The nightfire merchant is outside again.”

  “Again?” Liam grumbled. He shook his head. “Send him along and tell him that Meg isn’t interested. Not after her last hangover. Also, can you find Meg and bring her here?”

  Mutt craned her head and looked back at Tethis. Tethis had leaned over the table to examine the papers. Her shift, chronically shorter than it should have been, rode up, exposing the green curve of her deliciously jiggly rump.

  Mutt looked at Liam.

  Liam frowned. “Would you believe it is for science?”

  Mutt laughed. And kept laughing as she walked down the corridor.

  When Meg arrived, Tethis had become completely absorbed in reading and checking the formula that Loki had left there. Meg paused in the doorway, her wings closed behind her back. She cocked her head, tilting her whole body ever so slightly to the side, and just spent a few moments admiring Tethis’ ass.

  “Remind me to never correct the tailors here,” she murmured.

  Babylon was in the deserts that spanned the region between two mountain ranges. Because of the lack of vegetation and their favorite foods, goblins tended to stay far away. That explained why the first tailor that Tethis had tapped to make her some fresh clothes had gotten the measurements wrong. But it did nothing to explain why the fourth got it wrong.

  “Meg, we’re here for science,” Liam said.

  “Oooh, kinky!” Meg clapped her hands together. “Does that mean I get to wear one of those strap-ons you told me about?”

  Liam coughed. “Get me drunk first...”

  “Remove consent, got it!”

  Liam snorted, loudly enough that Tethis stood and turned to face them. The gobliness looked utterly distracted, her eyes unfocused, her ears twitching downward in thought. Goblins had amazingly expressive ears. They were nearly as long and pointed as elves, but far more mobile, giving them a whole range of expressions that elves lacked.

  “Oh, hey,” she said. “I think that I’ve found a solution to this problem...”

  “What problem?” Meg asked.

  “We need a mixture of male cum and female pussy juice,” Tethis said, having fallen far enough into working out the problem that she had stopped getting flustered. “But the problem is, if we need to have the artisan fuck every time they make a cannon, we’ll have serious bottlenecks. Not to mention a population problem.”

  “Contraceptive magic does exist, you know,” Liam said. “And you can have a mixture of races – like Meg and me.” He slapped Meg’s rump. Meg opened her mouth, then closed it. The look of thoughtful quiet crossed her face so quickly that Liam might have missed it. Save that he had kissed her neck a million times. He had seen her face go slack with pleasure, her back arch with the movement of his fingers, his tongue, his cock. He had been in her and with her and he could no longer see a life without her in it in some way. Trying to see a future without Meg at his side or over his head with her wings spread and her blonde tresses blowing in the wind was like looking into a city of ghosts and ash.

  So, Liam saw that look.

  And he made a mental note to ask. Later.

  “It’s still a logistic issue. But what if we got a mixture so potent that it can be reused again and again?” Tethis beamed. “Once we have a critical mass, well, we can produce as many muskets and cannons as we want.”

  Liam nodded. The words ‘critical mass’ – words from Earth, taught to Tethis by him - tumbled through his head for a moment, and he wondered at how much he should have changed the world. Bringing in guns. Printing presses. Then he shook his head. He wasn’t part of Starfleet. He didn’t have a Prime Directive of non-interference. He had been a part of Purgatory since he saved Meg and stopped the war between Apollo and Sobek.

  There was no turning back now.

  “How do we get that?” Meg asked.

  “We use a god’s cum,” Tethis said. “Or, ah, a goddess’ juices. But the other partner needs to be mortal. It’ll be the increased level of difference between the two components – the difference between mortal and divine, that is – that will enhance the power of the spell.”

  Liam mimed horror. “Oh no,” he said, voice flat. “However will we possibly manage to do that.”

  “It is such a mystery,” Meg said, her voice matching him for deadpan. “I do not know where on the vastness of Purgatory we can hope to discover a god willing to lay with a mortal.”

  Tethis snorted, softly. “Well, before we seduce Loki-”

  “Dibs!” Meg cut her off, her arm thrusting into the air.

  “We need a girl’s juices and a boy’s cum,” Liam said.

  “She’s a shapeshifter, she can become a boy,” Meg said.

  “Well, yes, but, Free Lord Dibs,” Liam said. “I have veto power.”

  Meg punched his shoulder. “I’m your...” She paused, then settled on: “Lover, fucktoy, bodyguard, head scout, personal messenger, translator, and wife!”

  “Wife?” Liam asked, feeling the room shift under his feet.

  “I was going to ask you at a more dramatic point, but I g-got excited and loosed the arrow too soon,” Meg admitted, her cheeks turning red. She coughed. “Will you marry me, Liam?”

  Liam felt the room shift further. It felt like he was standing on the side of a building. Falling off a mountain. No, not falling. Flying. His heart beat faster and faster and he managed, by sheer bloody minded determination, to throw out his hooks and grab the first glib fucking thing that sprang into his mind and yank it away from his mouth before it burst out and ruined his life.

  The first response was: I don’t know, want to try that again a second time?

  Not a time for crappy jokes, Liam!

  Instead, he opened his mouth and managed to say the word that he needed.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I should have proposed the day I met you.”

  “That would have been dumb and creepy,” Meg said. Her voice sounded funny. She looked funny. It was like she had too many emotions, coming out too fast, too unexpectedly. She grabbed onto Liam’s shirt and she both leaned forward and dragged him inwards. Their mouths met and tongues drove together. It was a heated crush, and her hands grabbed Liam’s back as desperately as if she and he were drowning. They broke the kiss only when the need to air became intense enough to leave Liam dizzy.

  Or maybe it was the sudden change in their lives from the beginning of her arrival to now.

  Or maybe it was both.

  “I love you,” Liam whispered.

  “And now it’s official,” Meg said. “All the times you fucked my brains out didn’t make it clear enough, see.”

  “I can fix that,” he said.

  Tethis knocked over an inkwell. The inkwell hit the ground and clanked
loudly, but the ink stayed inside. Inkwells on Purgatory were built tough, out of metal and stone. It still drew both Liam and Meg’s gaze to Tethis. The gobliness had been trying to back quietly away from them and out of the room without actually turning away. Possibly an atavistic response.

  Meg smirked. “Tethisssss...”

  Tethis squeaked. The atavistic response must have felt very appropriate.

  Meg pounced.

  Tethis kicked her feet weakly as Meg held her against her chest, turning to face Liam. She grinned wickedly over the gobliness’ shoulder.

  “So, she was saying she needed a mixture, husband-to-be,” Meg purred. She was holding Tethis by her thighs, leaving the smaller girl’s knees free to kick. Meg used that grip to spread Tethis wide, which ruffled Tethis’ shift upwards, revealing the hairless mound of her pussy. Slickness glinted there, visible despite the shadows of Tethis’ breasts. Tethis stammered.

  “W-Well, uh, it doesn’t actually have too...” she trialed off as Liam walked forward, his hand going to his kilt. The cloth hit the ground and Liam’s cock silenced Tethis. His member, long and hard, bumped against her thigh as Meg dropped her arms slightly, bringing Tethis’ pussy in line with Liam’s cock. Tethis lifted her knees, whimpering softly.

  “Fuck me,” Tethis breathed.

  Meg grinned slowly. “Come on, Liam. You said I was here for science.”

  “Mmm,” Liam purred. “I was planning to fuck you.”

  “Shut up and dick the goblinness!”

  Liam grinned and then reached down. He took his time gliding his cock up and down Tethis’ sex, feeling the hard nub of her clit. He leaned over Tethis head and found Meg’s lips with his own. He traced the edge of Meg’s tongue, and then felt her take charge. Her tongue and his met and played and she conquered him – and then conquered Tethis. She stepped forward, her wings enfolding him and Tethis. Liam did nothing but take the impact, grunting into her mouth as his cock was held firm.

  And Meg impaled Tethis on Liam.

  They broke the kiss as Tethis kissed Liam’s chest. Her tongue – so small and dark, as compact and cute as the rest of her body – flicked against one of his nipples. Her tongue circled around and around his nub, sending sparks of sensation through Liam. He grunted and started to move. His hips rocked and Meg hissed softly – the faint slap of his balls against Tethis’ green ass seemed to be giving Meg the same amount of pleasure as him fucking her usually did.