Chapter 54: Arc IX – The Exit – Chapter 54 – The Gigue with the Giraffe

Chapter 54 - The Gigue with the Giraffe

“Now that’s… something,” Hess commented, staring down at Jax’s prostrate form before glancing up at me. “I hope you’re not expecting me to make an oath like that.”

“U-uhm… I wasn’t… I don’t…” I began before Jax sprang to her feet. Rushing forward, she swept me into a bone-crushing hug, giddy as a child. There was a bit of dirt clinging to her forehead, I noticed. Busying my hands with brushing it away, mostly to give myself a bit of space to think, I began, “Jax… what was that? Some kind of…? You never talk like that.”

She bobbed her head to the side, slightly embarrassed, “Aye, well… I dunno, really. Felt like I needed to. But for the thees and thous, one does hear the priestly talk on occasion, and I wanted it to sound formal-like, it being me vow eternal to ye. Seemed proper.” Then, her mass falling away from her in dark streamers, she wrapping her leg around my waist and hoisted herself up so as to be face to face with me, “Now would be when ye kiss me?”

“…Okay?”

As was so very typical, I was about as smooth as a lava field. Which is to say, not even remotely. But her own character was composed of plenty of jagged obsidian edges, so she did not care.

So we kissed. It was long and deep. Passionate and… loving.

And as it went on, I realized that there was something new here. Something more than we had been. I could not put my finger on precisely what it was, but I could sense our connection more significantly than ever before. Perhaps it was the nearness of our bodies pressed against one another, but in that moment, I could feel her. The profound love she felt. The passion. And the ever-present lust that was increasingly becoming the center of her being.

But it was all for me. Every ounce of it. It was… overwhelming.

I almost felt ashamed, such was its magnitude. She loved me more than I could even comprehend, and it made the paltry emotion that I felt seem like a grain of sand next to the stars in the sky. I did not deserve so much love as that. No one did. It could not be lived up to.

Eventually, she pulled away tearfully, and the connection dampened once more, “Ye felt it, did ye nay? I know ye did.”

“Jax, I… How?” I whispered, my heart hammering in my chest. “It’s too much. I don’t deserve…”

She quieted me with a touch to my lips, “A single drop of yer affection…” She shook her head, “Master, I wish I could describe it. I… I can scarce breathe from it..”

I took a breath of my own, “If it’s anything like what I just felt, then I can imagine.”

Hess abruptly cleared her throat, and I glanced at her furtively, flushing from embarrassment. In the moment, I had forgotten that she had been standing there, “Yes. Right. Sorry.” And I made to set Jax down, but she was quite content to remain exactly where she was.

“No,” she said out of nowhere, addressing Hess. “Not yet. Y’ain’t ready to hear it.”

Hess crossed her arms defiantly, “I beg to differ.”

Jax sighed, “Trust me on this, near-sister. Please? Wait until ye can feel him proper. Wait for yer connection to form.”

Her gaze shifted to me, “I don’t see how it could possibly make a difference. He knows. I know. We all know.”

I nodded slightly, understanding a bit of what Jax was talking about, “I’m not… certain, Hess. But I think it does matter. For some reason, once your Loyalty is high enough, something… clicks. I’m sorry if this is all sounding really vague, but… she’s right. There is something more to it.”

Jax’s head swiveled to look at me, “Oh… that be the right of it. I had forgotten about that Loyalty business. What be mine at now?”

“It maxed out the moment you took your vow,” I explained. “Now you are on something the Lady is calling Devotion.”

She smiled proudly, “I thought it might have. What be me Devotion at then? I bet it’s high.”

I shook my head, “No, that’s at zero, I’m afraid.”

Jax inhaled, incensed, “Then She be mistaken! I be utterly devoted to ye! How can…” She growled and hopped down, shouting into the air, “Here now! Ye and I need have words, we do!”

Hess approached me while Jax carried on with her one-sided argument. I was not sure if the Lady was listening, but Jax was certainly doing her part to provoke divine retribution in as characteristically ear-blistering a manner as she possibly could.

“What’s all this about Loyalty and Devotion?” she asked. “Something to do with your class, I’m assuming?”

I nodded, “Right. Another of those mechanics that have been left unexplained. For the most part, anyway. I think I understand Loyalty a bit. It’s to do with… Well, I’m guessing, but it seems like the higher it is, the more… willing she is. There’s less push-back. More eagerness to be… well, mine, I guess. There’s other stuff, as well, but… Honestly, I’m not sure if they’re Loyalty things or lilim things.”

“Mmm… makes sense,” she bobbed her head. “What did hers start at? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Like… ten? Fifteen percent?” I responded uncertainly. Then chuckling a bit, I added, “It feels like an age ago, but it has scarcely been a month.”

“A single month and she’s ready to go to battle with the Lady herself for you?” she shook her head, wonderingly. “What about this other thing? Devotion, you said?”

“No clue,” I stated shortly. “That one is brand new, I’m afraid.”

She grunted, “I know what that’s like.”

I glanced up at her, smiling a bit, and wrapped an arm around her waist, “Well then. I guess we’ll have to find out together.”

She hesitated for a moment before resting her own over my shoulder, “Yes, I suppose we will.” We stood like that for a little while longer, just watching Jax’s theatrics, before she asked, “Can you really feel her emotions now?”

“No, not now,” I replied. “It’s… Maybe it’s a proximity thing? Or… I dunno. We’ll have to experiment.”

She nodded uncertainly, “It must be nice, being able to sense what other people are feeling. You know… So that you could know? Without having to hear? Or say?” Her hand tightened briefly on my shoulder.

I squeezed her in return, “Maybe. But we have our ways, don’t we?”

She glanced at me then, with a secretive little smile. It was enough. For now.

---

“So how do we go about letting loose this ‘jeeruf’ thing?” Jax asked.

“We could just wait until nightfall,” I suggested. “We know it comes out then.”

“I’d rather not, if we can help it,” Hess chimed in. “I don’t have the patience to wait anymore.”

“Then… I guess we look around?” I hedged. “Maybe there’s a… um… well, something like a lever or a switch?” Those were things in early civilizations, right? I was not sure. I mean… surely they would understand the concept. Catapults had quick releases of some kind. But when were those invented? I had no idea. And did it matter? This was an entirely different world! They might not even have those.

“Or one of them pedestals from before?” Jax asked, stating the obvious.

“Right,” I nodded, feeling silly. “Something like that.”

We spread out, first circling the perimeter of the forcefield, and then out into the town in general. We did not find anything, however. The place had pretty much been decimated by the fire, so there was no real way to explore the burned out buildings without risking something collapsing on us. And what open areas we could find were absent of anything that might connect to the central installation.

The only exception to this was a building just a little off the square that had miraculously survived the fire completely untouched. It was two stories tall, brown and without a single door for entry. And what windows there were had been restricted to the second story, but they were boarded up.

“I’ll bet that’s where the safe room is,” Hess said confidently, coming to stand next to me.

“You figure?” I returned. Then, thinking it over for a moment, I nodded, “Right. That makes sense. It wouldn’t be much of a safe room if a little… blazing inferno was a problem.”

“I nay recall aught inside that might control yon barrier,” Jax mused, “Save maybe… there were that crystal inside it, right?”

“No,” Hess shook her head, “That’ll just be the standard regeneration trigger. They all have one of those if you need one. But, thanks to Donum here…” grinning, she swatted my bare bottom, and I jumped.

Rubbing the spot sourly, I grumbled, “Well, there’s nothing on the outside. On the ground level, anyway. I guess we could try the roof?” It was hard to tell from here, but it looked like one of those flat-roofed numbers that you might see in a Berber village. I had never been to one myself, of course, but I had seen plenty of spy movies, and they were always having chases over top of them.

“I’ll go take a look,” Jax volunteered. “Hess? If you’d nay mind?”

Shrugging, Hess folded her hands into a stirrup and knelt down while Jax casually placed a foot inside. Then, heaving mightily, she sent Jax sailing through the air, shadowy streams trailing behind her… and overshot the roof by just a fraction.

“Ack! Hess, ye bloody cow!” Jax squawked out as she sailed out of sight.

Wincing as we heard the thud, we hurried to the other side, but fortunately, Jax had just managed to catch the lip of the building with one hand and was limply hanging there. Fiercely scowling down at us, she continued muttering about ‘useless wank stains’ and other less savory appellations as she scrambled back up.

“Sorry, Jax,” Hess called, “I wasn’t expecting that ability to make you so light.”

“What did ye expect, ye twally?” she yelled back. “A boulder?”

I grimaced, “Jax… If you’re going to get so upset, then maybe next time, instead of showing off, suggest something sane? Like the rope, perhaps?”

She stood up straight, fidgeting a bit. Contritely, she mumbled, “Yes, Master,” before shifting out of sight.

“Sticking up for me now?” Hess murmured quietly, shooting me a slight grin.

I smiled back, “Just trying to keep the peace. Besides, she needs to learn to be more forgiving. It’s not like you did it on purpose.”

“Right,” she agreed. “That would be far too great a coincidence. Imagine, both of us trying to impress you?” She huffed dismissively.

I turned to look at her, quirking an eyebrow. From the way her mouth was twitching, I could tell that she was struggling mightily to keep a straight face.

“There be something up here, Master,” Jax called from out of sight. “But I nay can figure the working of it.”

“We’ll come up, then,” I called back, not breaking my gaze. “Hess will throw you up the rope.” Then, more quietly, I added, “And I would be thrilled if that were done accurately.”

She snorted and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth.

---

“Just tie the rope about yer waist, Master,” Jax called down to me. “I don’t want ye to fall…”

“I’m not that damned weak,” I grumbled. Honestly, just because I could not climb a rope… Besides, I was a leg strength guy. “I can hold on. Just haul me up.”

“But… Master…” Jax fretted.

“Oh, don’t be such a child,” Hess said, swatting the back of her head. “If he says he can do it, then he can do it.” Then, ignoring Jax’s scowl, she called down, “Wrap your hands tightly, dear. It doesn’t have as much traction as a hemp rope.”

I sighed, “Yes, okay.” The way these two carried on, you would think I was a delicate set of china they had to cart around the Dungeon. Winding the rope several times around my right arm, I took a firm grip. “Ready.”

The word had scarcely escaped my lips when the rope snapped taut. Simply standing on the edge of the building, Hess began to pull me up like I was a six-year-old kid, with her arms outstretched over the side and not using the slightest bit of leverage or mechanical action. Meanwhile, I had been expecting to help by walking up the side of the building. Instead, I was reduced to holding on for dear life as I was yanked off my feet, and when I was finally pulled even with the pair, I dangled there like a dead fish, my face smushed between my arms.

“I thought you said you were ready?” Hess said before swinging me over the side and setting me to my feet.

“I was ready,” I groused as I unwrapped the rope again. “If you had done it normally.”

“Oh, Master, look at yerself,” Jax said in distress, pushing past Hess when she saw the bit of redness the ropes had caused. Beginning to rub them soothingly, she murmured, “Ye should have just let her carry ye up.”

I smirked. Maybe things had not gone down quite like I had envisioned, but I was not about to let Hess André-the-giant my ass up here if I could help it. I had my pride after all, slim though it was, and it was only a two-story building. “I’m fine, sweet. I’m tough enough to handle a little rope burn. Now, show us where this thing is.”

Jax shivered in delight at the little pet name, and forgetting her concerns, she leaned forward to rub her cheek lightly against my chest. “Over here,” she indicated after a moment, “I nay be certain it be worth the fuss, but I can’t make heads of it.”

Just off center of the roof, there was a smallish scepter-looking thing installed upright and immobile. It seemed to be made of some sort of brassy metal and was topped with a thumb-sized, clear bit of quartz. It was otherwise undecorated and rather plain in appearance.

Hess made to grab the thing, but it was stuck fast. Even the crystal was quite immovable. “It’s no lever,” she pronounced before glancing at me, “What do you think?”

Ruminating over it for a few seconds, I asked, “Does this remind you of anything you’ve come across before?”

“Maybe,” she admitted. “But usually there’s some kind of clue next to installations like this, so I’m not sure.”

“Well… in fairness, there might have been at one point,” I said, glancing significantly at the ruins around us.

Jax shifted uncomfortably. We all knew whose idea it had been, but there was no point in playing the blame game. We had all gone along with it, after all.

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“What do we do now?” she asked.

“Now, we try things until something works or the sun goes down,” I sighed. “It’s not like we have anywhere else to go.”

---

I am ashamed to say that the solution eluded us for well over an hour. And not just because of how we figured it out. Okay, yes. A lot of it is because of that.

Almost entirely, in point of fact.

We pushed and prodded, dug around it, tried to break it, and all sorts of things. We even experimented with reflecting the sun’s rays off of Jax’s axe through it, but with nowhere to really aim the result, we quickly discarded the idea. But what finally made the proverbial light-bulb go off was when we were cycling through our various spells and abilities at it, just trying to get it to react to us in any way.

None of Hess’ abilities made it do anything at all, and I could not even target the thing to cast my spells at it. As for Jax, the only ability she had that even made sense to try were her shadow clones. However, by that point, she had long since lost patience, so predictably, her attempt at using them had edged more toward goading me into doing something else instead of actually trying.

The shadow swayed over to the scepter like an exotic dancer might approach her pole and began gyrating about it in similar fashion, running its hands up its thighs, over its hips, undulating in slow circles. All it lacked were a few bell attachments and a bit of appropriate music.

I cleared my throat, struggling not to otherwise react, “Just have it touch the thing, Jax.”

She was staring at me raptly, “Do ye not enjoy the dancing? Or would ye rather me do it, meself?” Lightly, she began running her hand in small circles over my knee.

“I think it’s pretty sexy,” Hess chimed in, bemusedly.

I glanced at her, “Oh? Starting to appreciate Jax’s charms now, are we?” The shadow looked exactly like her, after all. At least in profile.

“Mmm… her tongue, maybe…” she mused, grinning.

Jax smiled in return, “What if I did something like… this?”

Abruptly, the shadow twirled around and began to seductively descend upon the scepter, as if it were some gem-encrusted dildo that was only there to tease us.

“Oh, now, Jax…” I started to protest, “that’s just…”

Whatever else I was going to say was lost when the clone impaled itself. Of course, it did not long survive the contact, but for a couple of moments, the entire Dungeon seemed to react. Scarecrows began disappearing back into the ground all around us in ones and twos and most importantly, the forcefield flickered and died. For a scant second anyway. Just as the giraffe began to surge to its feet, the clone popped out of existence, and everything returned to normal, trapping the animal once more.

It did not seem particularly happy about it either and began making some kind of awful, reverberating gurgling noise deep in its throat. I had no idea what sounds giraffes actually made, but I sure as hell was not expecting that.

Hess looked back and forth between the beast and the scepter, contemplatively. Finally, she looked at me, “Surely not? There’s no way one of us has to… do that? Right? I don’t think I even could.”

“I think I might could,” Jax admitted. Then licking her lips a bit in anticipation, she muttered, “I bet it’d hurt, though.”

I flushed crimson, knowing exactly where her head was at. She probably would, too, if I asked.

“No!” I blurted out, my voice cracking. Closing my eyes, I cleared my throat into my fist and continued in a more sedate tone, “No, uh… No. Not that at all. I think it’s probably just a simple daylight sensor.”

“Sensor?” Hess asked, glancing back at me before nodding. “Right. I think I understand. You’re saying it’s some kind of magical device that controls the cycles around here. And when Jax’s shadow shoved it into its…”

“Correct,” I interrupted quickly before she could finish. “The darkness triggered the change in the Dungeon’s configuration.”

Jax lightly poked me in the side, “Ye ain’t gotta be so embarrassed about it. Lest ye don’t like the idea of me sticking something other than ye up me…”

“Jax!”

She winked at me as I groaned. Was it too much to ask for the conversation to remain polite?

Finally having teased me enough, she asked, “So, what do we do about it then? Me shadows don’t work for long.”

I hesitated for a moment, still a bit unsure whether she was done, but I answered anyway, “I’m sure all it would take would be to cover it or wrap it with something to keep the light out.”

“We ain’t got much left such as that,” she mused before glancing significantly at Hess and quirking an eyebrow. “Save one thing, anyway.”

Hess’ eyes widened and she crossed her arms over her chest defensively, “No! Absolutely not!”

“Come on, hen,” Jax grinned, “Yer the only one what ain’t naked. Don’t ye feel left out?”

“Not at all,” she retorted. “Very much included.”

I shook my head, “I doubt the wrap would work, anyhow. That cloth is too porous to keep light out.”

At my words, Hess sagged a bit in relief.

Jax just folded her arms and huffed, “Blast.” Then giving a little sniff, she glanced up at me, “Well… what then? Shove a boot over it?”

I blinked. “Actually? Yeah. That should work beautifully!”

---

We decided to flip a coin to see whose boot would be sacrificed. And because the set I was wearing was found in a chest and thus magical, it was decided that I would be excluded from consideration. Most likely, there should be no reason that the footwear in question could not be retrieved after the fact, but one never knew for certain. After all, we had never found out what had happened to my damned underwear.

“Yes!” Hess shouted, pumping her fist when the gold coin in my palm came up horns.

Jax tsked and spat to the side, “That’s me luck, then. Ah, well. Bloody things ain’t been fitting right for long while.”

Plopping down onto her backside, she began undoing the leather straps that held them in place. Kicking them off, she sighed in relief at having her toes exposed to the cool air and wiggled them happily. They were clawed, I noticed. Each of them was now sporting a little black barb, identical to the ones on her hands.

I was unsurprised, quite frankly. “No wonder they were fitting weird. I’m sure those things were catching in the leather.”

“A little,” she admitted. “Mostly, it were the cut, though. Something about the straps did nay let me stand like I wanted.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

Twirling, she agilely skipped back to her feet and hopped in place a few times. And as she settled, I could see that she had remained on the balls of her feet, with her heels elevated a couple of finger-widths above the ground. “See? Like this. Me straps were pulling at me. Uncomfortable like.”

I glanced up at her, “So… what? Do we need to buy you some high-heeled shoes now?”

“Them useless poof-wear?” she spat. “Nah. Just need something more flexible, be all.” Then clicking her toe-claws on the hard roof, she amended, “Maybe some sandals.”

By that point, I was fairly used to the oddness of Jax’s continuing transformation. And the fact that she now wanted to stand on tiptoe was probably the least of them. Still, it sounded quite uncomfortable to me. My calves would be burning within minutes if I were to attempt something like that. But then, I was not a lilim.

And, I had to admit, the fact that she kept gently bouncing on her toes had a certain way of drawing the eyes. To things. A fact that she took note of practically the same instant that I did.

I sucked in a breath and tore my eyes away from the enticing swaying in front of me, and the lascivious grin that came with it, “Yes. Right. Uhm… So, I guess we’re ready then?”

---

Within minutes, the two of them had descended and were signaling for me to drop the boot. Before they went, I had buffed them as fully as I possibly could. They were each sporting a few coats of Detonating Sap Varnish on their various weapons, and I had experimented a bit with the new version of Renewal of Consumption.

By changing up the pronunciation of the first few syllables, I was able to alter the spell in such a way as to make it into an Armament attachment, but it seemed to work slightly differently than the Varnish. This one required me to maintain concentration on the spell until it successfully triggered. Or that was what I was assuming. All I knew for certain was that if I dropped it, the spell would simply fizzle and nothing would happen.

I will admit that I was a little disappointed. I had hoped that I could cast it and forget about it, but I suppose there had to be a cost paid from somewhere. Most of mine worked off of spell endurance or Life Energy. The fact that the cost was now the opponent’s Life Energy was an improvement, for certain, but until it triggered, I had to pay in endurance.

And that was fine. It was not all that heavy to keep it up, and I could recast it in a snap. Either way, it was a damn sight better than paying the Life Energy cost.

“All right, here goes!” I called, waving down at them before turning to slip Jax’s old boot over top of the sensor.

I had absolutely no idea what a couple of people could do against a giraffe in single combat, but I was about to find out. I was just glad I was the healer. Personally, I would never have tried something like that without a shotgun powerful enough jerk itself out of my hands. Giraffes are huge!

And this one was no different. As soon as the shield went down and it lurched to its feet, I could see that it stood eye-level with me. And I was on top of a two-story building!

Unfortunately, things went south pretty quickly.

Hess immediately charged the animal, flinging her Sap enhanced arrow at its too-big-to-miss torso, and it thudded home solidly. The giraffe did not care much for that, though. At all.

Making another of those awful burbling noises, it lifted itself up onto its hind legs and lashed out with its hooves. Hess managed to just duck under them, but she was unprepared for the thing’s head swinging down at her like an I-beam sized baseball bat. The resultant collision sent her sailing through the air and into the interior of one of the nearby burned out houses. Which proceeded to immediately collapse down on her.

It gave chase for half a second until it realized that it could no longer see her. That was when things got weird.

Apparently, it was more than a little pissed at having acidic goop introduced into its body at the crack of noon and none too pleased that the object of its hatred now seemed to be hiding. And that was expected. What was not was when the entire length of its neck opened up, revealing a crocodile-like mouth every bit as long Hess herself, and began bellowing its outrage.

“Okay, yeah…” I said aloud, chuckling despite the situation, “That is not a giraffe.”

It was no wonder the thing had looked strange. I had been seeing its teeth jutting out all along its neck, and now that its mouth had been revealed, I now realized that it did not have a neck at all. It was all head. But its eyes were still up top? There was nothing in nature that looked like that! Not on Earth, anyway.

Just then, I noticed Jax running forward to assist, and I hastily attached my heal to her axe, anticipating the worst. And it was a good thing I did.

She leapt forward, utilizing her new ability to gain some altitude, and chopped down on the thing’s hind end. The axe landed solidly, sinking deeply into flesh, and began greedily sucking Life Energy away from the beast, even as it introduced a fresh batch of Sap into it. Some of it even flowed up to me, and I took an involuntary gulp of air as renewed Energy seeped into my bones. Her own ability must have triggered at the same time, and the effect was noticeable.

The monster stumbled briefly as weakness overcame it, but it was not enough to take it down outright. And its retaliation was swift.

Lashing out with its enormous back legs, Jax barely had the time to bring her hands up before being kicked to the other side of the square. It was just fortunate that she had those new arm guards, or her wrists would have probably been shattered. Even so, she left plenty of skin behind as she skidded across the sparsely spaced cobblestones.

Gone mad with pain, the creature charged her, even as Hess started to emerge — covered in soot and clutching her ribs awkwardly — from the collapsed building. But now that I could see her, I could actually do something about that. Popping off a quick heal, this time from my own stores, I began the mending process, and ignoring her squeal at the unexpected surge of pleasure, I quickly shifted my focus to getting some shadows working for Jax. There was plenty of cover. If she could break the thing’s line of sight for a moment, that should be enough to at least confuse it a little.

The ‘giraffe’ arrived at Jax’s prostrate form within seconds, however just as it was about trample her, it hesitated for just a moment, staring at her as if transfixed. It was enough. The instant my spell took hold, Jax — already mostly put back together from the triggered regeneration — exploded into a confusing hive of shadows darting about everywhere. Not expecting this, reasonably enough, the giraffe jerked back and began to flail about as best it could, quickly taking out several of the clones with great sweeps of its enormous jaws.

Even so, she still managed to get in a few swipes with her claws before scurrying for cover. And of course, they too were liberally coated with Sap.

Shivering now from the accumulated pain, the giraffe stood in place, indecisively looking about the square turned battlefield. No matter what it seemed to do, new Jax’s kept spawning and running all over the place. Meanwhile, Hess — standing a bit straighter from the regeneration though still clutching at her ribs — was stalking ever closer. Screaming in frustration, the beast began spinning about, kicking and sweeping its head about wildly.

Standing well clear, Hess began making little flashes of light as she peppered it with arrow after arrow. However, at that distance, most of her throws went wide or turned in the air, bouncing harmlessly off its tough hide. Seeing this, I quickly remedied the situation by adding my accuracy buff to the mix. That helped considerably. I was not sure how the spell did what it did, but the arrows did not just start correcting midair or anything. It was more like Hess simply stopped making mistakes. Each throw was timed and aimed almost perfectly, landing fairly close to where she wanted. Not particularly deep, of course. Hess was a strong woman, but even so, throwing an arrow has certain limitations.

But she was not going for the kill yet. This was just a low endurance, harrying tactic meant to weaken it from blood loss so that she could engage it without getting hammered into another building. I could sympathize. And I could help.

Holding my other two buffs in place, I began attaching heals to her shots. It was a bit heavy to do all of that at once, but I could just barely manage. Even so, it was a little slap-dash. It was a brand new application, and we had never practiced the timing of it before. So, I could only manage to successfully fit in a cast every three to four throws.

However, the effect was dramatic. Each time that one of the enhanced arrows struck home, the beast would scream anew as more of its Life was sucked away, feeding and hastening the regeneration of Hess’ body. It had another effect, as well.

My heals always delivered pleasure, and just because the source of its fuel had changed, that made little difference. And pleasure fed more than a few of Hess’ abilities.

Howling in delight as wave after wave of orgasm washed over her, Hess abruptly blurred, smashing headlong into the side of the beast, and it crashed to the ground, too weak from having so much of its Life drained away to withstand the blow. Even so, it’s flexible neck-mouth managed to catch Hess in its fangs, and it began to jerk her bodily from side to side, trying to rip her apart.

At least until Jax rushed in.

Appearing unseen at its side, she reached overhead and smashed down, summoning her axe mid-swing, sinking the blade deeply into the base of its head.

Once. Twice.

And with the third blow, the neck was severed.

The ‘giraffe’ was dead.

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