“No.”

  “No?”

  “You heard me.”

  The woman’s expression hardened for a fraction of a second before breaking into a disarming smile. “I thought you wanted to get to know me.”

  “Lady, I don’t even know who you are.”

  “But… you do.” The woman’s head tilted curiously, sending her midnight black locks tumbling over a shoulder so pale it was practically luminescent. “Of course you do. If you didn’t, you’d have no reason to refuse. It’s a simple request.”

  She was right; I was acting bullheaded. That was not like me… well, no. It was. Just not around profoundly gorgeous strangers approaching me on random street corners. It was one of the more peculiar quirks of my personality. But for some reason, I knew myself justified.

  I folded my hands into my pockets and quickly adjusted my path around her. “You’re just going to use anything I say against me.”

  My steps faltered before I had even gone two steps. How would she do that, exactly? What am I talking about?

  Thunder rumbled in the distance, piercing the momentary fog that had clouded my mind, and I directed my gaze toward the literal clouds above. Not that there was much to see this time of night.

  Typically, I had not thought to bring an umbrella.

  “Damn.” The mild profanity unwillingly pulled at my attention long enough for a single glance back. She was staring up at the clouds as well. “That was fast.”

  I did not want to ask the question. I really felt like I should not be associating with this woman at all, but for some reason, I could tell she was not worrying about the looming threat of a downpour.

  “What is?” I said, even as my feet resumed their forward momentum.

  She hastened after me.

  “Nothing. It’s just… I thought surely after…” She let out a frustrated sigh. “How was she doing this?”

  “How was who doing what?”

  Bing bong!

  The woman jumped with fright at the chime, then stared in wonder as the doors slid open.

  “What in…? Where did… How?” Her surprised stammering trailed away as she peered beyond the glow spilling onto the street, taking in the rows of mostly useless knickknacks it had revealed. “What is this place?”

  I glanced from her to the clearly illuminated sign above and back, quirking an eyebrow. I had thought the suburban sprawl ubiquitous enough that everyone would have at least heard of this chain. But with horns that large, she might have been from Canada.

  “Just a pharmacy, lady.”

  As I made my way inside, she trailed after, eyes twitching about as though fearing an attack—which I had to suppose it was not completely unfounded. Most small-time criminals were smart enough to avoid places with obvious security cameras like this, but you never knew when some coked-out nut job might decide to commit suicide by cop.

  “An apothecary so large?” Her gaze landed on the nearby display of off-season valentines teddy bears, then skipped to the glass wall protecting the condoms with about as much recognition as an ant examining a Warp Core. “You’re looking for Pills? Here?”

  I grunted by way of answer. That was none of her business.

  “How was who doing what?” I repeated.

  “Hmm?” Her eyes were slow to find me again, only staying for the briefest of seconds before skipping to the ceiling, as though searching for the source of the soft jazz coming through the loudspeakers. “Oh, uh… your—” flicker “—roommate.” The pinch of her brow gave me the distinct impression that had not been what she had meant to say, like the name had momentarily slipped her mind. But she shrugged it off. “From your story, I was sure she had discovered—”

  “Oh hey, Donum,” the individual in question called as we rounded the corner of the last aisle.

  I could not help but give my roommate a quick once over. Most women could not pull off a khaki-polo-shirt combo—to say nothing of the store-branded vest. It always looked… ill-fitting. But I suspected Mia must have gotten hers tailored somehow, because she wore the minimum-wage uniform like a superhero wore spandex. If she was conforming to company policy, it was only by the slimmest of technicalities.

  Her easy smile froze on locking eyes with the stranger trailing me, and she rose to her feet. Folding her arms, she stepped over the boxes of generic cough syrup she had been stocking and glared.

  “What are you doing here?”

  I glanced between the two uncertainly as I sneaked past. “You know this chick?”

  “This chick? Don’t you ~nnnha!”

  I waited, blithely ignoring the shivers and gorgeous shape her lips were making, for her to finish her sentence. It was just something you learned to live with when your friend had a medical condition. However, the woman was not so patient.

  “Oho? I’ve never seen this side of you… Mia.” Her eyes went to my roommate’s antlers before snagging on a nearby shelf. She mouthed the words ‘corn removal’ curiously before turning back. “I approve. Though I’m sure your Mother will blame me.”

  “Do not call her that!” Mia snapped. “I have no Mother.”

  I nodded slowly, not quite following, but putting a few things together from context.

  “Right… this is—” shift “—this is one of your relatives.” I extended a hand in apology. “Sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t recognize you earlier. You two look exactly alike.”

  The woman’s gaze jumped up from where she had been examining my hand, as though she had no idea what I expected her to do with it. “I beg your pardon?! Me? Look like some… some cast-off—”

  “Donum!” Mia had flushed scarlet, a true rarity for her. I must have really put my foot in my mouth. Somehow. “What are you doing?” she hissed. “Apologize!”

  “Uh… sorry?” I eyed the two women carefully. Is this some classist thing? “You do, though. In the eyes especially.”

  Mia’s… cousin? Aunt? No, she was far too young for that. Either way, it was clear I had said exactly the wrong thing.

  “How can you think to compare me to this…” The woman stopped as though realizing something, and her hands flew to her face in sudden alarm. Finding a nearby mirror, she scurried over to it. “No… No, no! This can’t be. It’s all wrong! Where is—” flicker “—my makeup?” She looked down at herself. “What are these clothes?!”

  “Everything alright back here, Mia?”

  Mia whirled. “Yeah, Bill. We’re good—jump in traffic! Sorry.”

  The night manager adjusted his glasses and nodded. “Alright. Keep it down, please. And get those shelves stocked. Rachel just called in, so as much as it pains me to say it, I’m going to need you on register two. Just make sure you tell people you have a disability this time?”

  Mia saluted. “Aye, aye, Captain Dickbag!”

  As the man turned away, grumbling the while about the necessity for DEI hires, our eccentric visitor whispered, “What in blazes was that?”

  “You mean Bill? He’s just Mia’s supervisor,” I explained in her stead. There was no need to trigger her again. “He is a bit of a dickbag, but he’s harmless.”

  Mia giggled at my joke, if you could even call it that, drawing a stare from the other woman.

  But she shook the moment away forcefully. “Harmless? That thing didn’t even have a fa—”

  Before she could finish, Mia slapped a palm to her lips, then spun to glare at the woman. “Be quiet!” she hissed.

  And for a brief few seconds, the two began arguing in fierce whispers. I only caught a few words.

  “…his attention… …any idea… …bad it can…”

  “…under control.”

  “…do have it… …both of us. …rest! …here, anyway?”

  “I just wanted to—”

  I cleared my throat, cutting in. “Uh… Mia? Where are those Pills you mentioned?”

  I averted my eyes while she worked the question out of her system. Not that I minded watching her groping herself, per se, but it always made me feel like a bit of a pervert.

  Eventually, she lifted her hand to point. “Over there. Bottom shelf.”

  “Got it.”

  “Pills? What Pills?” the other woman asked after me.

  My back stiffened at the overtly intrusive question. But she had followed me this far, and without explicitly asking her to leave me alone, she was going to find out, anyway. So I snatched the box from the shelf and held them to her face. Let her deal with the embarrassment.

  “Priapism relief?” she read aloud—then grinned, suddenly interested. “Oh, my. Getting a little sore, are we?”

  That was not the reaction I had been looking for.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. I’ve had a rough few days.” I turned, hopefully to leave her behind. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find the protein powder.”

  “Aisle four, Donum,” Mia reminded me as she headed for a nearby door. She gave the other woman a concerned look in passing. “Excuse me, you two. I need to finish up something in the back. I trust you’ll get along without me?”

  “Yeah, go ahead. And thanks,” I sighed, waving. There went my hopes for pawning the two off on each other.

  “Priapism and protein?” the cousin mused aloud, again trailing after me. “It’s almost as if… hmm. Donum, did you notice how informal your—” flicker “—roommate was being?”

  “Compared to what?” I paused. “You’re not suggesting I’m sleeping with her, are you?”

  “And you expect me to believe you’re not? How strange. I may have to visit more often. This has been… illuminating.”

  I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that.

  “And what exactly do you find so interesting about a trip to the pharmacy?” I asked, before escaping down the aisle Mia had directed me to. As promised, the protein was prominently displayed along with other workout and dietary supplements. My eyes widened with dismay at the cost, though. “Eight hundred?! Geez, who are they kidding with these markups?”

  The woman chuckled. “Oh, you would be surprised…”

  I had to assume she was not referring to the prices.

  “Yeah, whatever.” I snatched up one of the smaller sizes. The value-per-ounce was not as good, but I could not afford to buy in bulk. “Look, wouldn’t you rather catch-up with Mia? She’s your cousin.”

  “Oh…” She pouted. “But don’t you like talking to me?”

  “Not especially,” I muttered, heading for the register.

  “Rude… but understandable.” She twirled out in front of me, hands held behind her back. “You really should leverage this blessing, though. I don’t particularly enjoy you seeing me this way either, but without my—” flicker “—face on, I almost feel naked… like you could do anything you wanted to me.”

  I stared, then quickly lowered my voice. There were not that many people in the store tonight, but I could hear some children laughing in the aisle next to us. “I’m sorry. Are you suggesting I take advantage of you?”

  She turned her head to one side, demurely exposing her neck. But she did not avert her eyes for a second. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with it when it was my Sister.”

  Her sister? I had to think for a moment to recall what incident she might have been referring to.

  Shift.

  “That was a completely different situation, Xhinn! I don’t go around… doing that in the middle of convenience stores.”

  Why had I been struggling to remember her name before? Weird.

  “Ah…” She nodded to herself, taking up a position walking beside me. “So atmosphere is also a factor. I thought you said it was all about how well we knew one another.”

  “They’re both important,” I grumbled. “And it depends on what your goals are. You’ll notice I don’t go around professing my love for your sister, either. It was a onetime thing.”

  If only she had gotten the memo.

  “Alright, then.” Xhinn put a hand to my chest, stopping me before I could step up to the register. “What would a girl have to do to get you to profess such a thing?”

  “Well, I…” I glanced around, but other than Bill glaring at us impatiently from the cash register, we were alone. “Normally, we would start by going out on a date of some kind—”

  “A date?”

  “Yeah… you know. Share a meal. Take in a movie. See the sights… Maybe have a regular conversation for once.”

  Her chin lowered. “You mean create memories together.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Exactly.”

  “Aren’t we doing that now?”

  “Good memories!” I exclaimed, gesturing. “Hopefully, somewhere not devoted to robbing us blind.”

  “Perhaps you would be interested in purchasing a membership card, sir?” Bill piped up. “There is a flat discount on select purchases—”

  “Save it, man. I’m not falling for that scam membership crap again.”

  While Bill grumbled, I noticed Xhinn eyeing him. “…and now it has a mustache?”

  “Who, Bill? Yeah, I guess he does. Why?”

  “Never mind.” She turned back to me. “So then, where would you like to go? What sights appeal to you?”

  I blew out a sigh, thinking. Then stopped on realizing we had circled back to where the conversation had begun. “Oh, no! No, no, no. Now you’re the one who’s trying to scam me. I’m not telling you squat.”

  “Oh, come now! I’m serious. How am I to begin an honest relationship with you if you won’t answer the most basic of questions?”

  “That’s a you problem,” I retorted. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

  Her palm slapped against my chest. Hard. “Donum. You’re beginning to upset me.”

  Breathe in. Breathe out. Placate the crazy woman.

  “Look. Maybe if you were to offer something of yourself up first, I wouldn’t be so cautious. Did you ever think of that?”

  A weary sigh puffed from her nose. “Donum… my Gift, please. I know you’re frustrated, but there are some things I simply cannot—”

  “I’m not talking about all that stuff,” I interrupted… then blinked.

  Stuff? What stuff?

  Flicker.

  “Just something simple. Like… what’s your favorite color? Or what do you like to do in your free time?”

  “And then you’ll answer questions?”

  “Only if you won’t attack me with the answers.”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  “There you go, then.”

  “But you might enjoy it more,” she argued—only to hastily stop me again as I tried walking past her. “Okay, um… I like sex!”

  A panicked chill ran up my spine.

  “I know th—” I began before abruptly deciding right in front of the cash register was not the best place to be having this argument.

  “I know that,” I said again once I had pulled the woman to the safety of the cosmetics aisle. “At this point, I’d be surprised if there was a single infant in the womb who didn’t. Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “I don’t get to have it very often?” she offered. “Like… ever.”

  I stared at her. “You’ve never had sex? You?”

  “That is not what I said,” she hissed, flushing. “I used to partake all the time… I think. But that was a very… very long time ago. So I’ve gotten a little…” she waved her hands over her breasts a few times, like she was searching for an appropriate adjective but was coming up far short of the mark, “…pent up.”

  I scrubbed at my forehead. “Well. That certainly explains a few things. But don’t lead with that!” I rattled my Pills in her face. “If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a little overtaxed in that department. So tell me something else. What do you do w-with, uh… with all this free time you apparently have?”

  “You mean besides creating sub-races who can share their memories of intimacy with me?”

  “Creating… creating sub… races?”

  Flicker.

  That was impossible. I staggered back, swaying. Light and sound began to warp around me.

  Flicker.

  The world tried to shift. Shelves blurred. Where was I? What was going on? I needed to do something. I was going somewhere.

  “I like to read!” the woman blurted suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  Everything instantly snapped back into focus. I was standing next to the lipstick display in a dingy corner drugstore. My roommate worked there. I was having a conversation with her creepy stalker of a cousin who had been obsessed with me ever since I had made the mistake of sleeping with her twin sister…

  …but what had we been talking about? For a moment, I simply took in the face of the woman standing before me.

  Then I looked closer. Time lost its meaning as my eyes danced over her features.

  She was… beautiful. Exquisite, really. Young, yet possessing of an ancient wisdom. Flawless skin. Full lips. Full everything! And in the perfect proportions, no matter which way you looked at her.

  Deeper.

  She was wearing a startled expression, but beneath it, just below the surface, I could sense her sadness, the profound loneliness smothering her in its blanket.

  Right… right. Intimacy. She was just telling me…

  Deeper.

  Conflict. A war. Both sides in perpetual stalemate, but the slightest of imbalances could forever tip the scales one way or the other. The rebellious forces of Hope pitched against its oldest, most entrenched of enemies—Fear.

  Fear? Fear of what?

  Deeper.

  Suddenly, there she was again. This time, bound in chains, her perfect lips cracked, her delectable body withered beyond recognition.

  “Don’t leave…” she rasped, over and over. “Don’t leave me. Not again. Please.”

  “I said I like to read.”

  I shook my head, and the strange vision vanished. What was that?

  “Read?” I said, fighting back the sudden urge to gather her into my arms. That would have been the worst thing I could have done. Wouldn’t it? “Like, uh… like what?”

  She shrugged uncertainly, then poked at one of the shelves as though checking to see if it was actually there.

  “Whatever gets swal—I mean… just anything I can get my hands on.” She smiled nervously.

  “Well… if you’re not picky, I think they have a book section here,” I informed her, though I hated to bring it up. A place like this only carried the basest of garbage. “It’s mostly a lot of erotic fiction, though.”

  Abruptly her hands found my shirt, and she jerked me down so that we were face to face.

  “Donum? My Gift. My sweet. I am going to need you to show me these books. Now.”

  *

  I awoke to the sounds of birds chirping in my ears, a summer breeze jostling my hair, and the delicate scent of flowers upon my nose. And then I realized the birds were literally chirping to the tune of Morning Mood from Peer Gynt, and I jolted upright.

  A cursory scan of my surroundings revealed nothing… unduly concerning. As per usual, I had appeared Dungeon-side in a safe-ish area. There were tall hedges all around, a cerulean sky above, and a lawn at my feet that was so perfectly manicured it could have doubled as a golf green. Meanwhile, I was lying on a bed lined with a set of silk sheets in a distinctly reddish hue, at a guess, somewhere between rose and blood.

  But there was something off about everything—beyond waking up in what appeared to be the center of a hedge maze, I mean. It was all too bright, for one. The colors were too vibrant, more a painting than real life. It was like that certain moment that can only come in high summer, where the sun is directly overhead and all the shadows vanish from the world. Except there was no sun, no clouds, nor even a passing bird. The sky above was just that endless dome of blue. I could not explain why, but the sight of it made me nervous.

  It almost felt as if I were still dreaming.

  Wait. I was dreaming. Wasn’t I? No, I’m sure I was.

  It had not been one of those super-clear ones where I had been in control of myself, unfortunately, and that meant the actual content of it was already fading. But Xhinn had been there; I knew that for certain. She had been looking for something.

  Pumping me for information, no doubt. And… books?

  Whatever the case, the goddess had evidently taken inspiration from the flotsam drifting around in my head. There was no way one of the most famous melodies ever composed by Edvard Grieg could have otherwise wound up on the beaks of a bird choir. And disembodied ones at that. I could see no evidence of the creatures anywhere. If I did not know better, I would have said the music was being piped in through hidden loudspeakers.

  And why does that feel familiar?

  Groaning, I sat forward to scrub the rest of the sleep from my eyes. There was no use in worrying about the finer details until I had come to terms with the broad strokes. And that meant reorienting myself and taking stock of the situation. Once that was done, I could set about conquering this Dungeon.

  First off, figuring out where everyone was.

  A quick glance to my right revealed Jax tucked into bed next to me, and still asleep from the looks of things. I noticed immediately that her hair was an exact match for the bedsheets. Whether that was a simple aesthetic choice or a clue for somewhere down the line was yet to be determined, but just beyond her, there was a small nightstand adorned with a bouquet of roses—again in the same color.

  Okay. Bit of a theme developing. And that accounts for the aroma. It was not too bad, either. It even reminded me subtly of the Demon Queen’s scent… in that grasping-at-straws sort of way that high-proof whiskey could taste of caramel.

  But where was everyone else? Had we been separated again?

  I could tell Arx and Lynnria were relatively close by—perhaps a half-hour’s walk as the crow flies—but in opposite directions. Unsurprisingly, I could feel neither of them moving just yet, but that I could sense them at all meant they had not been imprisoned. Or not as completely as the last time.

  Of Fekinell, there was nothing. But she was Jax’s subordinate, not mine.

  “Jax!” I delivered a stinging slap to her backside. “Wake up.”

  “Unha~” she moaned with a startled sort of rapture, then twisted around to pout at me. “Master… to be wakin’ a lass like that. Nay tease me so! Now I’ll be walking the day drookit.”

  As usual, I was not entirely sure what she was on about. But I could guess.

  “As opposed to what?”

  Grumbling prettily, she slid out from under the sheets and straight into my lap. The transit through the Mouth had badly disheveled her dress, so one of her breasts was getting a rather alluring adventure out in the open. And just like that, the reason I had woken her up in the first place had flitted from my mind.

  “As opposed to whether I’ll be spotting me claes again. Me gash might be tighter’n a pair of vicers, but there ain’t no holding a flood like that.”

  Crude as ever. But that was Jax for you.

  Unbidden, my hands found her backside and began kneading the muscular orbs in opposing semi-circles, drawing her heat closer.

  “So you’re saying I need to take responsibility?”

  She sucked in a sharp breath and her lips pulled to within an inch of mine before she could stop herself. “Oh, Master! Now ye be dancing to a tune of cruelty… ‘less ye speak it true? Y’ain’t gonna change yer mind now as ye’ve frothed me to an inch? With fate to the wind and us just got here… y’ain’t gonna pull the rug out?”

  I bobbed my head, acknowledging the point for all that she had unquestionably not intended it as one. This was probably was not the greatest of ideas. But…

  “You should have thought of that before you climbed into my lap. You’re practically serving me breakfast in bed.”

  If she had any other arguments disguised as come-ons prepared, she was too afraid of actually persuading me to make them. For a long… long while, we lost ourselves within the comfort of our joined lips, just enjoying the sensation of being cheek to cheek and tongue to tongue—and at least on my part, her needy little whimpers. Her hips worked at me constantly, like she was attempting to draw Excalibur from its sheath through sheer friction. Or perhaps, to its sheath.

  Eventually, she could take it no longer, and began urging me to lift my hips. I took the hint quickly enough and sacrificed a hated few seconds to wrestle my blasted robe overhead. It was in moments like these that I envied Jax her dress. She barely had to shift the cloth to one side to grant me access.

  But in that moment of darkness, I heard her muttering.

  “Wheesht! Away with ye… Take a hint, ye bloody… …don’t care!”

  “Jax? What are you—”

  Before I could finish, her palm found my mouth through the robe, and she pressed me blind and naked from the waist to the bedsheets. “Pleasure before business, mate.”

  And then she slid home.

  The moment our hips joined, I felt her seizing up around me. Her legs clenched together, trying to sneak under mine through sheer pressure. Her hands gripped at my biceps and jaw while her claws bit gently through what cloth still protected my skin. But she did not moan or squeal. Jax never did when she came. Her breath would simply catch while she quaked in silence. But this time, it would not release her—and she did not release me. On and on it went, while her inner walls trembled and squeezed ever tighter, echoing her pleasure so intensely through my sensitive flesh it was almost painful. I felt as though my cock had been shoved into a vat of electric eels.

  And then Mia was suddenly in my ear.

  “Pull out! Pull out now! The construct is too unstable for—”

  But it was far too late for that. I had unleashed before she had gotten two words out, the midst of which prompted one of the few outbursts of intentional swearing I had ever heard from Mia.

  “Peas and crackers, Jax! You fatherless bun of a s’more! Now look what you’ve done. Ship!”

  Naturally, the both of us fell to giggling… once we got our breaths back, anyway.

  “It isn’t funny! Do you know how flubbing difficult it is to adjust the native upgrade protocols to the ridiculous patchwork of nonsense you’ve got going on in here? I ought to wring Xhinn’s neck for this… Goose feathers!”

  I frowned, struggling to contain my laughter long enough to figure out what she was complaining about. But with my robe over my head…

  “Ubgrane mrodocols?”

  Jax realized her error quickly, and hastened to free me, raining kisses of apology on my cheeks even as she snorted with mirth. Did you know you can feel a woman laughing while you are inside her?

  “Sorry about that, Master. I nay meant to smother ye.”

  “It’s alright, Jax,” I assured her, taking a moment to appreciate the vision of beauty atop me. Jax was gorgeous, of course—more so with the fresh sheen of sex glistening on her body—but there were no differences that I could see. What was this about upgrades? “What are you talking about, Mia? Did something go—” I winced, already knowing what was coming, but there was no use in stopping now. “—wrong?”

  “Yes~! My lord, use me! Bend me over and take me like a broodmare!”

  Jax shook her head, her chuckling finally beginning to subside. “Ach, ye manky Faen. We all ken ye been gagging for it, but ye’d have needed to wait yer turn, anyway. No sense in tossing the bed feathers about just because ye’ve nay body yet.”

  “Tossing bed feathers?! I was trying to keep you from destroying the adapter matrix I spent the night assembling, but of course, you couldn’t take three minutes to choose a few skill upgrades, you… you unkempt mongoose! And now the whole thing is up in smoke!”

  “Wait. Skill upgrades?” I sat up quickly—straight into Jax’s waiting arms, but my mood for aftercare had effectively vanished. “Jax gets skill upgrades? Now?! Why now? It’s been like a week since she passed her Boundary Trial.”

  I waited impatiently for Mia’s involuntary moaning to subside, while Jax nipped unrepentantly at my ear—and her inner queendom worked at fabricating a second casus belli against my kingdom. She was probably trying to provoke me into spanking her again. The minx.

  “Yes, I know that, and I do apologize, my lord. But as you may recall, I’ve spent that time keeping the two of us sane. This was the first opportunity I’ve had to trigger the upgrade protocols. Jax’s kind… such as it is, was never designed with a Core in mind. Lilim do not gain Layers, they do not consume Power, and they certainly never have to worry about the aftereffects of a Boundary Trial. But Dolilim do. Thus, the need for an adapter matrix—which your sudden Life infusion has destroyed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to sift through the wreckage. There may yet be something salvageable.”

  As Mia’s footsteps stomped into the distance, Jax grinned at me wickedly.

  “I’ve been a bad girl.”

  Glaring, I thumped her right on the nipple.