Chapter 8 – Pussyfooting Around
“Now I get why Sassy never wants to leave the Sanctum,” Liz thought as she sauntered through the streets of Sentinel City during the pre-dawn hours. She’d spent the better part of the day and the night exploring, her first time outside the Order’s sanctum in about forty years. To say that things had changed would have been one helluva understatement: the cars for the most part looked terrible, no personality to them at all, the bits of music she’d heard sounded just as terrible, and she couldn’t find a mall anywhere, to say nothing of a record store. Then there were all of those ‘cell phone’ things that everyone seemed to have glued to their heads or stuck in front of their faces; a car phone was one thing, but something that made zombies out of people without necromancy was something else. She could only imagine how her mentor felt, having left the world at large sometime after the Civil War in the late 1800s. Guess it made some amount of sense now how all of the members of the Order never wanted to actually go out into the world anymore, focusing their sight on things beyond the real world.
She paused on her path down the street, cocking her head at the police tape that blocked her from going forward, and then regarded the burnt and deformed panel truck that lay on its roof that the rest of the tape encircled. “Gnarly,” she said, looking at the caved in grill and wrecked engine visible through the deformed side door. She walked out onto the street and looked on, seeing the wrecked jewelry store a hundred feet or so away, and noted the half dozen or so people around it, at least two cops, and others that seemed to be examining the crime scene in detail.
Liz’s right ear twitched atop her head, and her tail instinctually reacted, swaying cautiously behind her. She sniffed the air, and sure enough, caught the scent.
There was magic about!
Closing her eyes for a moment, then reopening them, Liz saw the world around her in a drastically different way. The buildings, cars, even the people were now muted as she tapped into her arcane arts, peering through the veil at the raw magical currents flowing through the world. She was close to a leyline, she noted, just down the adjoining street that intersected at the jewelry store in fact, its intense glow brightening the skyline of the dimmed world like a beacon. But more interesting were the residual magical energies that were splattered around the crime scene. The traces were fading rapidly, very raw and unrefined in nature, almost like someone had only just begun to understand the power they could tap and had wound up with shooting their load early, as it were.
The burnt truck had signs of it, as did the other truck that seemed to be missing its engine on the curb by the store. Splashes of it were around the inside of the store that she could see, but there was something much brighter on the inside that she couldn’t make out at this distance, appearing as just an oddly shaped glowing blotch behind one of the walls.
Curious, Liz reached for the tape, intending to go through it, but froze when someone shouted “Hey, don’t cross the line!” Coming from an alley on the opposite side of the street was a cop, pointing at her while his other hand rested on a pouch on his duty belt. He approached her. “Can’t you see this is a crime scene?!”
Liz held her hands up and took a step back. “Hey, just chill, dude. I was just trying to cross the street is all.”
The cop shook his head, pointing down the street behind her. “It’s still off limits until the scene is cleared. You’ll have to take the next street down and circle the block.”
“Alright, fine, whatever,” Liz replied, turning away before she started back the way she had come. It might have been a little dumb to try and cross a police line, yeah, but there was just something about that store she had to investigate. If she couldn’t go there directly, then she’d have to try a more subtle route.
Letting her magical vision fade, Liz blinked her eyes again and saw the world as it had appeared before, and looked for a proper spot to work the spell that would get her inside that store. She didn’t want to be too close to that leyline, as the power flowing from it could be distracting, and perhaps dangerous if something not of this world happened to be traversing it while she was nearby; she wasn’t familiar with it, and didn’t even know if it had been mapped properly. She continued on down the street, and walked a couple blocks back the way she had come, to the small park that she had walked through earlier in the night. Seeing not a soul about, she took a seat on the bench beneath a broken street light and held her hands in front of her with her index fingers and thumbs touching, forming a triangle shape.
Chanting the arcane words of the spell she desired, Liz saw the magic energy growing in her hands, and within moments the world within the area of the triangle her hand had formed shimmered and distorted, not unlike a heat distortion. She brought her hands toward her face, and with a sudden rush, the shimmering field washed over her.
She found herself standing, though when she turned her head to look at the bench, she saw herself still sitting there, head back, eyes closed, hands at her sides like she had fallen asleep. With a thought, the world rushed by in a dizzying swirl of color, and LIz found herself standing on the street with the wrecked truck again, hearing the conversations of the cops only as distant echoes as she approached the ruined building. The magical residues were clearly visible in her astral form, and nobody gave the slightest indication that they could sense her.
Which of course, was perfectly normal; unless they were trained in the art, there was really no chance of them seeing her. She was technically traversing another plane of existence, after all.
Inside, the store was just as wrecked as the outside, with several more splashes of unrefined magical energies dotting the main room, even peppering the ceiling. She raised her eyebrow as she looked at the panels above her, noting that the splotches of magic lined up with bullet holes. Had someone made rudimentary magic bullets? Thinking that was more in line with Sassy’s way of magic, but seeing none of her mentor’s well-honed talents on display, Liz ignored it and went to the dislodged vault door.
Upon its surface was a distinct magical aura that still glowed brightly, the sign of an actual spell or stored magic from an item of power, not random bursts and sprinkles like the rest of the room. She crouched and studied the residue intently with her arcane sight, looking at how the various energies had been applied; it seemed a jumble, nothing quite lining up into a workable spell. After a couple of minutes, she snapped her fingers.
“Two auras combined…two spells at once!” Liz said. Not the hardest thing to do, but it did take some amount of trained skill, or someone capable of storing such spells in items to be activated later, like a potion or a wand, perhaps. Now that she had identified the two auras, she started breaking each one down, and after a few moments determined them to be spells of illusion and transmutation. Though the auras had faded, she could work them out well enough, but couldn’t quite make out what the spells actually were.
Turning her gaze from the door, Liz focused on the very faint trail leading in from the far side of the building, from the area of a now shattered window. Though it was much weaker than that of the aura on the vault door, a little more time concentrating on it revealed the auras to be the same. Following the trail, she went into the back, and sure enough, saw more signs of the same mingled magics, along a certain set of drawers, the drawers that happened to be the focus of a pair of cops.
Though muted, their conversation became clear as she focused on them. The one wearing the more fancy-looking clothes and standing aside while the other dusted the shelves spoke up. “Let me guess…no prints?”
“‘No pussy prints?’ is what you’re really asking,” replied the other fellow. “And no, just like the other times, she didn’t leave any prints. So far I haven’t seen any signs of fur either.”
“Well, we can always hope, huh? I’m still trying to work out how she got in here. The access records show nobody unlocked the safe since the store closed, nothing on the security cameras outside, and the ones on the inside glitched out when she was apparently in here. So that just gives us a timeframe, a couple hours before the maids showed up.”
“Pussy prints? What does that mean?” Liz wandered, her mind momentarily trying to figure out how someone could use their nether regions for opening a jewelry drawer. Getting her mind out of the gutter, she quickly figured they were talking about someone with feline features, maybe like her own. She’d seen more than a few people with animalistic features during her foray, which was certainly a change from when she was last in the world. She’d yet to see signs that they were full-on familiar bonds like she had, and there had been a handful of people who much more closely resembled lycanthropes in the midst of a transformation.
“That’s why you detectives make the big bucks, I’m sure,” said the one checking the drawers. “So Walsh…how well do you know Detective Conway outside of work?”
The detective, Walsh, raised an eyebrow. “Not very; I’ve only been her partner a few months now…why do you ask?”
“She uh…seeing anyone?”
“Think she’s got a girlfriend, maybe. Some blond chick, really built-”
“Nah, that’s her roommate, does the MMA thing, I reckon. You’re not aware of anyone else?”
Walsh paused for a moment. “What? You thinking of trying to ask her out or something, Dixon?”
“Might be, yeah. I happened to catch her out jogging the other day as I was driving by. Don’t let that suit she wears fool you, man; she’s got legs to die for! They just keep going, you know?”
“Hey, hey, I don’t need to be hearing this; if you think you’ve got a shot, go for it. I don’t think she’s interested, but what do I know? Not like I’ve been trained to read people or anything…” Walsh shook his head, opening his leather-bound folder, scribbling a note.
Liz leaned forward, through Walsh, quickly looking over what she could see of the folder’s contents. His handwriting was atrocious, to the point that she doubted she could read it even with more time to study it back at the Sanctum. What drew her attention was a photo he had clipped inside, of a very shapely woman covered in pink fur and with wild, pink hair, not to mention big paws and claws. This one was different from the others with animal features she’d seen thus far; she was firmly in the middle of the ‘transformation’, still showing plenty of darkly tanned skin in addition to the fur. The way she was laying was provocative as well, curled up on a bed, giving a ‘come hither’ motion with one of her clawed fingers. The autograph read ‘Pink Pussy’, and looked like it had been written with red lipstick.
Walsh snapped the notebook shut and waved at Dixon. “I’m getting out of here. I can’t do any more damage here toni-this morning. Just had a chill, too…hope I’m not coming down with something,” he added as he left the vault room.
Liz chuckled, knowing that his reaction was typical when an astral form interacted with a corporeal one, or at least a corporeal form not familiar with that aspect of the arcane, anyway. It was the same effect that ghosts had on a person when they manifested and touched one another.
Unlike with ghosts, however, an astral body had ties back to its actual body, and things done to that body could certainly transfer to the astral form in some fashion or another. In this case, Liz suddenly felt her nipples go hard, and felt a similar feeling of arousal between her legs.
“What the hell?” she stammered, grabbing at her breasts as she let out a shuddering breath. The sensation of lips upon her own came a moment later as she turned her attention back to her body, as did the sensation of hands that weren’t her own upon her chest and between her legs. With a thought, she closed the distance back to the park bench, the scene not something she had expected to say the least. “Ugh, gag me with a spoon already,” Liz spat.
She had company on the bench, someone to either side of her. To her left was a scrawny looking guy, skin on the pale side with a scraggly goatee and long, greasy hair, looking nervous as his bloodshot eyes darted around, though he had a handful of her breast nonetheless. To her right was a black woman, on the large side, but with definite muscle to her, with ears that told Liz she had taken on bear features. She had hold of Liz’s other breast, as well as a hand down her pants, and had just pulled away from kissing Liz’s lips. Liz noted that her eyes were just as bloodshot as the guy’s, so her first thought was drugs. “Guess that war was lost…” she thought wryly.
Before the two got any other ideas, Liz settled back against her body and ended the astral projection. She immediately stirred, eyes snapping open. “Okay, put on the brakes, guys! Hands off!” Her lips curled into a grimace as she tasted something in her mouth, something that tasted both sweet like honey and stung like a hot pepper.
“Ohhhh, hey there kitten!” said the big woman.giving Liz’s nipple a tweak as her fingers continued exploring her crotch. “So glad you woke up, cause I was beginning to think this stuff was no good!”
“Stuff, what stuff?!” Liz nearly shouted, slapping at the groping hands and pulling herself away from the pair, stumbling as she turned to face them from a few feet away. Her heart raced in her chest, but she felt even hornier than she had a few moments ago. Her hand went to her mouth, and she quickly spat on the ground several times.
“Calm down, puddin’!” said the woman, groping her own large breasts as she shot a wide hungry grin at Liz. “It’s just a little bit of Succu-Lust; you’ll like it! In fact, I got some more we can all share. Dougie here may not look it, but he’s got a massive cock.”
Liz’s brain ground to a halt for a moment as she looked at the guy, saw him reaching for his pants and the sizeable bulge that lay behind the zipper. The way her nipples ached and her pussy suddenly felt wet, she could guess what the apparent drug did. “What is wrong with you?! You find someone asleep on a park bench and you start feeding them drugs?!”
The big woman waved her hand dismissively, while the other hand reached into her cleavage, fishing for something. “Hey, babe, chill out, would ya? You looked like you could use a little pick me up, so Mamma Bear here gave you one. Come on, let’s go find a room somewhere and enjoy the rest of this stuff! It’ll be the best sex you’ve ever had!” She had pulled a small vial from inside her cleavage, the contents some kind of pink-colored powder.
Though she was certainly feeling the effects of the drug, Liz’s outrage quickly overcame her horniness. “You want wild sex? Fine, you can have it!” Her ears laid back and she growled as she brought up her hands, beginning to chant a spell as she worked the arcane signs. Her eyes had no doubt taken on a predatory feline look, and were probably glowing as she drew out a lot more power for the spell than she normally would have. A wind had even picked up, swirling around her.
“Momma…I don’t think she’s down for this…” Dougie said in a scratchy voice, picking himself up from the bench before he started to shuffle backward away from Liz.
The woman who had called herself Momma Bear had picked herself up as well, and tried to make a run for it, but Liz had already finished the spell’s chant. She ended the arcane chant by yelling out the spell’s name, adding additional power to the already enhanced casting.
“Bands of Arrnor!”
In a chaotic moment, the two who had accosted Liz were swept up by the spell’s power. Clothing ripped and blew away in the localized gale, and as the pair lifted off the ground, more magical energies materialized around them, transforming from midnight blue energy tendrils to thick, black leather straps and cuffs. The bondage gear slapped against the two, eliciting squeals as they wrapped around limbs and torso alike, pulling tight against their flesh. Their cries were quickly muffled as huge ball gags filled their mouths, a web of straps securing them to their heads. Narrower bands wrapped around Momma Bear’s tits, causing them to bulge, while Dougie’s admittedly large cock and balls were similarly bound. More magical energies swirled around them, and then large dildos formed. Their eyes went wide as they saw them, but were soon wrapped by thick blindfolds as the intruders flew at their waiting orifices. The two squealed as the large phallic objects pushed inside the two, and were quickly held in place by more straps. As the spell waned, a pair of alligator clamps snapped onto their nipples, and the pair were brought together, face to face and strapped together, falling to the ground with a grunt, whimpering as the dildos buzzed away.
Liz breathed heavily as she looked upon her handiwork, wiping sweat from her brow. Her nipples still ached, and her pussy was still feeling like it needed attention, but the sight of the two severely bound forms brought her little joy. She’d lost her temper, and used a spell that the Order had kept out of the standard curriculum for its students. Rumors got around, she’d gone snooping into the archives, and had found the details after a few months of trying, but this was the first time she’d actually cast it on actual people and not just magical constructs…well, except for those one times she’d been practicing, but that was something she didn’t dwell on too much. She couldn’t deny the effectiveness, certainly, but was it right, what she’d just done? On the one hand, they had been asking for wild sex…but on the other, it was a spell that called out the name of a demon…
The sound of sirens in the distance snapped her out of her frozen state, and she left the spell as it was; without her concentrating on it, it would dissipate within a minute. She ran quickly from the park, heading back the way she had come earlier that day. The sky was already starting to brighten as the sun rose, so she was more than a little late getting back to the Sanctum.
At a jog, Liz made it back to the leyline she had stepped out of earlier that day, the one closest to the Sanctum’s entrance, in about twenty minutes. She took one last look at the awakening city and held her hand out toward the normally invisible leyline. A doorway of bluish-white light shimmered into existence for a moment, long enough for her to step into it and catch the magical current. Forming the route to her destination in her mind, Liz soon felt the current shift and in the next moment she shot along the leyline, and appeared through a similar doorway in the travel room of the Sanctum.
She sucked in a deep breath as the magical energy faded along the multitude of sigils inscribed in the stone. Not long before she had reached the leyline, LIz had noted that the effects of that drug, Succu-Lust, as it had been named, had mostly faded. Though she couldn’t be sure how much of it she’d been given, she couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else to it. With a name like that, she couldn’t leave anything to chance. Mentally kicking herself for not grabbing that vial of the stuff to take to the alchemy lab, Liz hurried out of the travel chamber and toward her room; maybe she could grab at least an hour or so of sleep before classes started.
A figure stepped around the corner in front of her, the jingling of spurs immediately telling her who it was. She slid to a halt on the stone floor, biting her lower lip. “Oh shit…”
“Mornin’, buttercup. Now just where have you been all night?” asked Sassy in her southern drawl, her finger lifting the brim of her wide cowboy hat that sat atop her long golden hair. Her mentor’s blue eyes sparkled with a cheerful, yet very threatening light.
“I uh…um…well uh…”
Sassy shook her head, pointing her finger at Liz. “Oh, don’t you even try lyin’ to me, Elizabeth Powell! Tappin’ that leyline ain’t exactly the most subtle thing there is, you know? The whole damn place knew you’d slipped out the first time you used it!”
“Oh, come on, Sassy, I was just wanting to check out the city! Everyone knows there’s magic spilling out into the world again and I was just curious!”
Sassy’s fists went to her hips, just above the pair of Schofield revolvers she wore there as she leaned forward, inches from Liz’s face. “Just checkin’ out the city, were ya? Not scootin’ yer slender keister all over tha’ place castin’ one spell or another when you thought nobody was lookin’? Not spyin’ on a crime scene? Not castin’ a FORBIDDEN spell?”
Liz gulped. “Y-you were watching me?”
“You think I’m not gonna keep an eye on my apprentice the first time she slips out in’ta the World in like forty years? You’re dang right I was watchin’ you! I was worried about ya, youngin’.” Sassy crossed her arms and stood straight, her lips curling into a grin. “Course, just cause I was worried about ya don’t mean I ain’t mad at ya. You just had ta ask and we could’a worked out somethin’ for you goin’ out there, but no, you just up and decided on slippin’ out all sneaky-like!”
“But Sassy, there’s crazy stuff happening out there! There’s people who look like they’ve bonded a familiar but haven’t, there’s some kind of magical thief out there, and there was this drug-!”
“Whoa, whoa, hold yer horses, darlin’,” Sassy said, putting her finger on Liz’s lips to silence her. She stepped over to Liz’s side and put an arm around her shoulders. “Now, you can tell me all about it…after we take a trip to the punishment room.”
“But Sassy!” Liz started, but Sassy’s finger again silenced her. Liz wasn’t entirely sure of the nature of that magic that Sassy used to do that, but all of the arcanists who taught at the Sanctum could do it without fail to their students. Must have been a perk of the position…
“No buts, Elizabeth…’cept yourn getting a good tannin’! Now come on, stop draggin’ yer feet and just accept it like a big girl. And, I wanna hyear all about just how you learnt that spell.”
Ears drooping, Liz nodded and sighed, following Sassy’s lead; it wasn’t the first time she’d been in the punishment room, and probably wouldn’t be the last…though it was the first time she’d be going there for the use of forbidden magic. Just how tan would her backside be after Sassy had finished with her this time?
Another character joins the story, and a whole new group, too! Magical hijinks are now officially in play as Liz’s curiosity has gotten the better of her!
Be sure to check out next week’s story to see just how tan her backside gets!
Hope you’re all enjoying the story so far. Would love to hear from you! Hit me up on DeviantArt or on my Discord!
