Chrono Inquisitor (Gods Be Damned) (9 page)

According to Kali’s chronometer, I awoke eight seconds later. I was grateful that it hadn’t lasted long, but the fact it happened at all wasn’t good.

When I opened my eyes I found I was a couple meters from where I’d been. So was Thrass, who was still unconscious. When I got knocked out the shock collar had been activated.

I crawled to him and removed the collar. Something I figured I should have done sooner. If I couldn’t trust the man who was supposed to be my new partner, who could I trust?

Kali kicked in and informed me that I hadn’t fired the Maelstrom. We’d been hit with an Overloader before I pulled the trigger.

I searched the area for the Maelstrom and saw it lying on the ground next to the pod. I started to get up to go retrieve it, but the nerves to my legs were still rebooting. So, I crawled, like an insect whose legs had been plucked off by a sadistic child.

As I pulled myself along in the dirt towards it, I heard Thrass moan as he awoke. At the moment though I was more concerned with getting the gun. I was sure he was fine, even though he had suffered a concussion already. And, getting knocked out again so quickly probably wasn’t the best thing.

I was just over a meter away from the weapon when my legs started to go through the symptoms of
paraesthesia. The tingling sensation of a thousand pin pricks accompanied by severe cramping was so excruciating, I couldn’t continue. Clenching my jaw, I flipped over onto my back and started to massage my legs vigorously, trying to get the nerves to return to normal.

“What the fuck happened?” Thrass asked.

Through gritted teeth I said, “Have a good nap?”

“Get back to me in an hour. So, did we smoke the bastards?”

“No such luck, Jackass,” a gravelly voice said from behind me.

It wasn’t a voice I recognized, so I had Kali run it through the Vocal-Register Database.

“It’s Jackson, you
ass
hole,” Thrass said, emphasizing ass.

His response was met with a round of laughter from our assailants. It was apparent that whoever our attackers were, they were there for my newfound partner.

I twisted to see the origin of the voices. There were three men. They were all carrying lightning rods and handguns. The one who’d spoken had a longshot slung over his shoulder.

“Friends of yours?” I asked, looking at Thrass.

My legs were returning to normal so I pushed myself up onto my knees. The man closest to me rushed forward and shoved his rod into my ribs.

I groaned and put a hand to where I’d been shocked. My side felt as if I’d been kicked by a bull. Not that I knew what that actually felt like.

“No sudden movements,” the man said with the voice of an angel, which surprised me.

What’s a guy with a voice like that doing grunt work for? I wondered. He should be serenading the
soundwaves instead.

‹
“Kali, analyze the voices of anyone who speaks. I want to know who these mother fuckers are.”›

I held up my hands. “I’m sure you’ve already run a weapons scan, and I’m positive it came up clean. So how about we ease off a bit, fellas?”

The man with the gravelly voice gave a nod, and the man with the voice of an angel put his rod away.

“Much obliged,” I said with a smile.

The third man, who up until that point had remained largely unimportant, locked eyes on what I’d been going for.

“
Whatta we got here?” he said. His voice was nothing special.

I was surprised they were using their own unadulterated voices. Whoever they were, they weren’t afraid of being identified in that way, or they were complete morons. Either way, it didn’t look good. Reckless idiots could be far more dangerous than intelligent assholes. You could generally get a better grasp on the later, the former, however, were too damn unpredictable.

Before I, or the man in charge, could say or do anything the third man picked up the Maelstrom. Kali automatically instructed the Maelstrom to electrify itself. I could just barely see the blue spider web of energy creep across the man’s face before he fell to the ground, dead.

Two down, I thought. The odds were looking better and better.

“Both of you, on your feet. Nice and slow,” Gravel voice said.

I was more than happy to do so. As I stood I pretended to be brushing the sand and dirt from my jacket. I was actually subtly slipping my hand in the vault and grabbing the condensed shock collar from my pocket. Being in its condensed form it was easy to conceal.

It felt good to be standing after spending so much time on my knees. Which was something I wasn’t used to, unless of course it was in regards to giving sexual satisfaction, but more times than not, I was on the receiving end.

“Pretty piece of hardware you got there, pal,” Gravel voice said. He leaned over just a little to get a better look at the Maelstrom, but knowing better, didn’t touch it.

“Is that a thunder-gun with lightning-strike?” Angel voice asked enthusiastically.

“I know this hardware isn’t yours, Jackass,” Gravel said, “So who’s your friend with the pretty piece of metal?”

I looked at Thrass. Saw fear in his eyes, induced by the men. That was disconcerting.

I needed to show them, and Thrass, that I was the one to fear, and that they didn’t
phase me one bit.

I coughed. “I am right here you know. If you want to know who I am, you could just ask me.”

“I know who you are, you’re a dead man if you’re not careful,” Angel said, which was funny coming from a voice such as his.

I couldn’t hold back the chuckle.

“I can plainly see that you don’t. I’m an Inquisitor, you dumb fucks.”

Gravel laughed. “Of course you are, and I’m the fucking Easter Bunny. Oh, and my partner here is the Tooth Fairy.”

I started to brush my jacket back to expose my badge, but before I could, Angel whipped out his rod faster than a rattlesnake striking, and caught me in the ribs again. The shock knocked me back. I managed to remain standing, but just barely. Getting struck by a lightning rod wasn’t as bad as an Overloader, but it still wasn’t pleasant.

‹
“Kali, set a Priority One recall to get a new vault made that’s even more shock proof. This guy is going to jolt me to death.”›

‹Recall set. Just so you are aware, the likelihood of you dying from a lightning rod is negligible.›

‹“Says the one who doesn’t fucking feel the pain.”›

I righted myself. “It’s so good to finally meet you two,” I said, extending my hand with the collar.

Gravel Bunny and Angel Fairy raised their rods instead.

They got both rods on me now, I thought. For Satan’s sake, make a move Thrass.

He remained motionless next to me.

“You know,” I continued, trying to keep their attention. “I keep telling Santa Claus that we really need to have a family reunion of the Myths & Legends bloodline. There’s just so many of us now that I can’t keep track of all the relatives anymore.”

“Who’s your friend, Jackass?” Gravel Bunny asked. “He’s got a bigger mouth than you.”

“You know what,” Thrass finally said. “Come to think of it, I don’t actually know.”

“The name’s Reaper. Grim Reaper,” I said with a smirk that was now feeling familiar.

“You just don’t quit, do you?” Gravel said.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a tiny flicker of light in Thrass’s hand.

Come on partner, I thought. I see that piece of mirror you managed to pick up, and sooner or later, so will they. Make your move already. I can’t keep these guys distracted all day.

It would have been easier if Thrass had Huginn and Muninn as well, that way I could have shared my thoughts with him over the C-link. But there was no use wishing for what wasn’t the case.

“Ok, you got me,” I said. “My name’s Rex Jester, you know, the comedian. You might have heard of me? Our mutual friend here was looking to make a career change. We were just discussing the terms of his apprenticeship when you fellas so rudely interrupted.”

This time my solar plexus had the pleasure of becoming introduced to the lightning rod. The shock caused my thoracic diaphragm to spasm, making it difficult to breathe.

“Now that’s funny,” Angel Fairy said, leaning down to gloat over me.

Now, Thrass! I thought.

Like a coiled up rattlesnake myself, I sprung upward, knocking the rod away. As I did so I pushed the button on the contracted shock collar. It expanded becoming full sized. It found its new home wrapped around the man’s neck.

Thrass finally took the hint, and while his captor was distracted by my actions, leapt towards Gravel Bunny, tackling him to the ground. He started pummeling the man. Then I watched as he took the shard of broken mirror and began savagely sawing the man’s neck, cutting back-and-forth, back-and-forth.

Gravel’s gun was on the ground next to the dying man. I went for it.

A boom sounded. But not before I yelled in agony, clutched my chest, and fell backwards.

I had forgotten about the sniper.

As I fell, time slowed.

I watched Angel voice man go limp and fall as well, rendered unconscious, possibly even dead, by the collar and Kali.

Overcome with pain, I cursed as I lost consciousness for the second gods damned time within an hour.

I found myself floating on my back high above a forest of white trees topped with a sprinkling of red snow, riding the cold currents of air, circling further and further away from the landscape below.

Something, someone, some-it, had flipped the switch on gravity. That magnetic force was now reversed, taking me down into the sky, a swirling mass composed of shades of dark purple mixed with clouds of silver intermingling within. Blue lightning danced over and around a black sun, a dark abyss of oblivion, into which I was falling.

A blast of warmth pushed me upwards, back towards the forest of blood and purity. Movement caught my eye. I was now on the hunt. The specter of death riding on my wings, pulling my strings, navigating me to do its bidding.

I was the reaper, the raptor, the bird of prey. Peering up on the world. Observing. Reflecting. Casting judgment on the land of the half alive.

I screeched. I cawed. The song of the apocalypse spewing forth from my maw the green flames of destruction and rebirth. The fire fell upon the forest.

I jerked awake, my muscles
spasming as my nervous system rebooted. My senses were temporarily cross-wired and overlapping.

It felt like I was swimming in sand. I could taste/hear the tangy electrolyte solution of Jimmy Hendrix and his electric guitar playing
Rock Me Baby
.

My lungs rapidly expanded and contracted sucking in the precise gaseous mixture of life and respiration.

“Travis, can you hear me?” a soothing female voice said.

I tasted the words and gagged on my own name.

My eyes were sealed shut. I couldn’t get them to open.

“Easy there. Nice and slow,” said that ethereal voice.

“Sam?” I asked, confused.

“Sorry, darling.”

“Damn it, Kali, I told you to quit with the voice alterations.”

“It’s not Kali either. My name is
Hannah. I’m a Lifeguard. You’re at the Peach Pit Methuselah Center in Pueblo, Colorado.”

My mind began to sort itself out.

Now it felt like I was bathing and relaxing in a warm salty sea. The taste of the solution however gave me the sensation of licking a battery.

I finally managed to open my eyes and found a delicate hand brushing aside my, longer than it had been, black hair from in front of my eyes. The hand tucked the strand of hair behind my ear and then proceeded down my cheek in a sweet caress, coming to rest on my chin. The woman stared into my eyes and I stared back into her green orbs of tranquility, losing myself there for a few seconds.

She smiled, and I smiled back.

I tried to remember how I’d gotten there, but couldn’t. My memories hadn’t caught up to me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You were shot. Your jacket stopped the bullet, but the force shattered your badge, which then pierced your chest, collapsing a lung. If it hadn’t been for your friend and his quick thinking, you could have died.”

Thrass. I remembered him then.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“I believe he’s been released and is waiting for you in the lobby.”

“Released?”

“He suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and other injuries.”

Thrass had saved me. No, not Thrass, Paxton. He deserved first name status after what he’d done.

“Do me a favor, will you Hannah?” I said, and then added, “Lovely name by the way. Put my friend’s charges on my bill.”

“I can do that,” she said, and then reached into her medical lab coat and extracted a myte-scanner. “Can you stand up for me please?” she asked.

I pushed myself up. The rejuvenation juice slid down my naked flesh leaving no trace behind. Another part of myself stood at attention as well.

She waved the scanner slowly over my entire body, starting at my head. When she got to my erect member, she said, “Well, you look to be fully functional.”

“Looks can be deceiving, dear. We won’t really know until we give it a test run, now will we?”

The words were out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.

Could I have come at her with a lamer line?

Probably.

She looked me up and down.

Even though I’d just undergone a baptism, and was looking as good as I ever had, for some reason I felt inadequate. I was just waiting for her to see through my façade and laugh at me.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she gave me a mischievous grin and said, “Well then, what are we waiting for?”

She reached out with a single finger and stroked it across my chest. My pectoral muscles twitched. The newly invigorated and repaired nerves being stimulated for the first time.

She giggled and gave me the look of a tigress about to pounce. Leaning forward she licked my nipple. The sensation sent a shockwave through me. My nipples hadn’t ever been sensitive before, but now they were overloading my brain with pleasure.

Is this what it feels like for a woman? I wondered. Because, Damn!

My dick pulsed and throbbed, and was so engorged and ready to burst, it actually hurt a little.

As if sensing what I felt, and wanting to relieve my pain, Hannah got on her knees and took my cock in her mouth.

It felt like I’d stuck my dick in a wall socket, turning me into a pinball machine, and she was that little ball knocking around in the pleasure center of my brain. It took every ounce of will I could wrangle to not release myself too damn soon.

I felt her hands grasp the back of my thighs and then move to my ass. She gave it a squeeze and pulled me towards her, taking all of me into her mouth.

I arched backwards and grabbed the back of her head for support. I ran my hands through her silky hazel hair, and massaged her scalp with every piston motion she made.

Leaving one hand on my ass, she took the other and cupped my balls, gently massaging them. Within seconds I felt the pressure build beyond critical mass. Unable to contain myself any longer, I exploded in her mouth.

She moaned along with me as my body convulsed and rocked.

When my orgasm subsided she released me.

“Wow!” I said.

Even though I’d just exhausted my load, I was far from spent.

I lifted
Hannah to her feet, and pulled her tightly against me. I pressed my lips to hers and pried them open with my tongue. She’d already swallowed. Not that I would have minded. Surprisingly, she tasted delicious. Like a peach.

I spent longer exploring her mouth with my tongue than I had with my dick. During our tongue kata, while her hands explored my skin, I helped release her from the restrictive nature of her clothing in order to freely explore every centimeter of her flesh.

Don’t be hasty. Take your time. Make her mine,
was my mantra.

Reluctantly, but wanting to taste every inch of her, we unlocked lips.

I entwined my fingers in her hair and gently pulled her head back, revealing her neck. I pressed my lips to that sweet spot where the neck and shoulder meet. Kissing my way up her neck, finding my way to her earlobe, which I kissed, nibbled, and suckled, all the while, she moaned and writhed in my arms. I then kissed my way around to the other ear where I repeated the procedure.

I wanted to taste her wellspring, to gorge myself on her juices, to drown in her. I hadn’t felt this way in years. Something primal, yet more so, something spiritual, whipped me into a state of…there wasn’t a word for it. I hadn’t wanted to know a woman this bad since I’d been a real-aged teenager, before I’d actually known a woman.

But there was something more. A desire. A need. I didn’t just want to let myself go, only to feel those fleeting moments of ecstasy come and vanish like it was all an apparition. No, I wanted to capture those moments and prolong them, stretch them out, slow them down.

I firmly grabbed her ass and pulled her up. She wrapped her legs around me and I slid into her. She moaned and started rocking back and forth. I took one of my hands supporting her ass and cupped a breast, it fit perfectly in my palm, and was at the right level for my mouth. I brought her erect nipple to my lips, and flicked it with my tongue. She
shuddered in my arms. Grabbing the back of my neck she pulled me into a kiss of ecstasy.

We stayed like that for a while until my legs began to protest. Then we moved to a chair where she straddled me in many different ways. After that we moved to the floor. At some point we went into the Methuselah pool. I don’t know if it was the rejuvenation juice, or simply the fiery passion that possessed us, but it took a long time before our body’s capacity for pleasure overloaded.

One hour, forty-seven minutes, and twenty-two seconds after we’d started, Hannah and I were dressing after the best sex I’d ever had, and probably ever would. I couldn’t say the same for her though. She hadn’t said it, and I definitely wasn’t going to ask and have my perfect memory tainted.

“So,”
Hannah said hesitantly, while buttoning her blouse, as if she were embarrassed, which was weird considering all the things we’d just done. “Are you really an Inquisitor?”

“Are you really just a mere mortal and not the incarnation of Aphrodite?” I asked in response.

She blushed slightly at that. “You’ve already had me, no need to keep up with the seduction.” She smiled at me like there was nothing that could make her happier. It reminded me of Sam’s smile, and for half a second, the last time I’d made love to her. I felt guilty for some reason, comparing Hannah to Sam.

“Though it is nice,”
Hannah said, bringing my attention back to the amazing woman in front of me.

I put my hand to my chest. “Are you saying this was only a one-shot deal?

“Why, you planning to get yourself shot again anytime soon?”

Hopefully not shot. But it is always a possibility, I thought.

“To see and be with you again, it’d be worth it,” I said.

I wasn’t lying.

She finished putting on her lab coat and came to me. She put her hand on my cheek. Her skin was so soft against my…beard? I’d forgotten that the baptismal process stimulated hair growth. I’d been so caught up in Hannah, it hadn’t donned on me that my hair was over twice as long as it had been earlier that day. Almost long enough to tuck behind my ears.

“I don’t recommend getting yourself nearly killed again just to see me, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if I found you in one of my pools again. Sometime in the future, that is.”

She gave me a look that she was serious.

I smiled. She was damn sexy when serious. I was half hoping she’d send me to her room.

“You know,” she continued. “Most men aren’t able to recover as quickly as you seemed to have.”

“I guess I’m not most men,” I said.

Should’ve known I wasn’t something special. All her clients probably got the full package. Oh, well. Why dwell on something that would only ruin the experience. Jealousy was stupid. There was enough love to go around. I’d learned that since my divorce.

“But, that doesn’t mean you’re fully recovered,” she said. “A baptism can be rough on the system, especially the mind.”

She pulled out her myte-scanner again and gave me another once over, but this time there wasn’t any playful, sexual undertones. She was in lifeguard mode. “You seem completely fine, but I recommend you take it easy for a couple of days. All right?” She gave me one of those motherly/wife looks that meant if I didn’t do what she said, she’d make my life miserable.

With one large step I was in front of her. I grabbed and kissed her, deep and passionately. For a moment she weakened against me and returned the kiss. Then I released her.

“I was actually on my way to the Regency Resort. Maybe you could take some time off and join me?” I asked.

I looked into her eyes. For a nanosecond she looked like she might take me up on the idea, but then said, “Sorry, it sounds lovely and all, I mean, the Regency?” She looked at me like she was trying to gauge if I’d been serious.

I had.

I put all my will into my eyes, trying to convey how much I wanted her to come.

Say you’ll do it. You know you want to. Come with me, I said with my will.

She bit her lower lip.

Say yes.

But then she shook her head. “I can’t. It’s really tempting. God, it’s like a dream come true. Some random, handsome, wealthy, all around great guy, offering to whisk me away to a fancy resort. I’ll probably regret it, but-”

“Then do it. Come away with me.”

I got down on my knees.

“I’m begging you, and let me just say, I don’t beg. I want you to come with me, Hannah, I don’t even know you’re full name.”

I could have probed her Chrono and found out, but it didn’t seem right.

I didn’t need to though, because she gave it to me freely. “Prickett. Hannah Teresia Prickett.”

“Well then,
Hannah Teresia Prickett, come away with me.”