[b][u][center]Perks of Desperation Part 10 For a-lycotonum By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b] One thing was for sure. No matter how open slavery was in Bloodrun – or Cheliax in general – Vitus couldn’t just talk to a naked elf in the middle of the street, particularly one that was just begging to serve him. If Katya saw her, then his teacher would take steps, and that would end badly for one or both of them. He took Shereeza by the arm, pulling her with him towards the tavern. She didn’t say a word, and he realized that it was because she assumed he’d already taken her offer. “This isn’t over,” he muttered. “I serve. As long as I serve, I live.” That was what he was afraid of. The deaths of the slaves just outside the town, speared from behind and stolen away by the devils of the lower planes was still burned into his mind, searing with the smoke of their painful departure. If he could save her – [i]It could cost you. And the pack.[/i] The Hellhound was not against it, however. He was surprised, but there was curiosity there, something that was interested, but only cautiously so. Shaking his head, he focused on the tavern. A kitchen, open to the eyes of customers, was busy cooking the latter meal of the day. One cook poked his head around the corner, narrowing his eyes. “What do you want?” “Traveling food. Meat first, anything else that you can pack up for five people.” He glanced down at the elf and corrected himself. “Six.” “You got money?” “Plenty.” “Right with you.” That was all that mattered, it seemed. So long as you could fulfill your end of the contract, the people of Cheliax would accept damn near anything, even a stranger dragging a naked, mutated elf around behind him. Vitus’s cock jumped despite himself, and he growled deep down in his throat before he could stop himself. He tried to disguise it as a cough, but Shereeza had already started, jumping and staring at him with eyes wide. “Are you –” “Quiet.” The tavern wasn’t busy yet, but there were a few others in the main room. Two dwarves and a human sat together at the far end of the bar, clustered at the bend where it attached to the wall. They had been chatting but had since turned their attention to him and the elf. He gave them a nod, then deliberately walked to the opposite side of the tavern, not wanting them to think that he was trying to listen in. More importantly, he didn’t want them to be too interested in listening in on him and Shereeza. They sat down. He knew that they’d have some time before the food was prepped for departure, and that meant that he had time to talk. Vitus shook his head, turning back to the elf, taking her appearance in. She clearly wasn’t born with the various transformations that had afflicted her. Her tail, little more than a stub that forced her to sit with her ass forward on the chair, looked like something that had grown in partway and then stopped. Her face and upper arms, as well as parts of her breasts, were marked by scales that had no resemblance to the smoother, softer textures that he’d seen on dragons and others, but were rather pebbly and rough, like the bumpy skins of the desert lizards. Her lips were forced back with fangs that would have made an orc sit up and take notice, and between them all, brands. Biting back a wince of pain thinking of how she had suffered many different pains, Vitus deliberately pulled his hands together in as business-like a pose as he could. He sat up straight, cleared his throat, and focused on his personal illusion once more. If that shattered in public – [i]Keep the pack safe. Keep the pack safe.[/i] For once, the Hellhound was of the same opinion as him. For completely different purposes, they wanted to keep Robin, Katya, and the others safe. Discovery would end that. But they still needed information. “You said you needed to serve to live. What do you mean?” Vitus muttered, keeping his voice down. “Why aren’t you at the auction?” “I’ve been bought and sold too many times. Nobody will buy someone with these marks,” she said, pointing to one right between the eyes in the shape of a crossed-out circle, and another between her breasts in the same shape. “I was deemed…unworthy. They tell the buyers and auctioneers that I went without being purchased twice. Once more…” “And you go to the pits.” “I can’t. I can’t.” She shook her head, her voice coming out more like a serpent’s hiss than a woman’s whimper. “But if I can keep – if I can serve, if I can find a master every day, I can stay alive. They just need to see me serving. So let me serve. Please. Please, let me serve!” The desperation in her voice cut him, and Vitus barely kept a wince from pulling his lips back. He looked at the kitchen, then down at the bar, but nobody seemed to have heard her rising voice. Then again, she hadn’t been that loud, but the fear of someone else hearing her desperation, or worse, calling for the guards, was more than strong enough to make him paranoid. She was doomed, he knew that much. Doomed to die if he left her here. The most he could offer her was one day, and was that worth it? [i]Any day is worth it.[/i] Groaning under his breath, he pinched the bridge of his nose. They had time, no matter how much he might try and kid himself. They were not due to leave for at least an hour, and ‘service’ didn’t take that long. The question was whether he could contain himself for that time. It wasn’t that anyone in the wagon would berate him for it, or question him for saving someone’s life for one more day, but – But one more day? Just one more day? He looked at her again. Her eyes glittered in fearful tears, and her breath came ragged and shaky. She looked at him with all the desperation that the men and women on the execution block had, except that she had a way out. She had him. “Nngh…” Vitus shook his head. “If we can find somewhere private –” “They don’t care.” “But I do.” “Why? Why do you care if someone sees you using a whore?” “Because –” That was where he stopped himself. Not out of embarrassment, and not [i]just[/i] because he realized he was about to out himself. No, there was something else in the way that she looked at him, something…intelligent. Something that had picked up on something else. “…You know why.” “You have secrets.” “…” “I know how to keep secrets. You can’t be a whore, or a slave, without knowing how to keep secrets.” Shereeza shook her head. “Please. I won’t tell anyone. Just…please…” “…Under the table.” The much-warped elf breathed out a sigh of relief, dropping beneath the table without a word. He gripped the edge of it as he felt her fingers drawing lines along his thighs, and he allowed her to spread them as she worked her hands toward the drawstrings of his pants. His breath came hard and fast, and not just from the excitement of what was coming. More than anything, this was a test to see if he could hold together against the pleasure of someone else’s touch. If he shifted, if he lost any of the illusion while she was working him over down there, then there would be serious hell to pay. There was no way that anyone would allow a Hellhound to be part of the paying customer base. That was a demon-creature, not a devil-creature. They wouldn’t trust that, not even in Cheliax. [i]Breathe. Breathe. Just let her serve. That’s fine. That’s fine.[/i] She finally undid his pants, and he felt her breath on his cock and balls. She leaned in, breathing in the scent – fuck, why did that feel good? He felt her nose right against his sac, grinding into his balls, pressing back and forth like a dog seeking out the scent of something comforting and familiar. She breathed in, and he bit his lips as she let out a shaky moan afterward. “Mmmph…ah…ah…yes…” She sounded so excited just to be between his legs, and he gripped the table that much tighter. As she dragged her nose up to the base of his cock, one dainty hand gripping him all the tighter, he could feel her lips against his sac. Soft, warm breath blew over his balls, and his cock stiffened as she worked it up little by little. He breathed slowly, trying to focus on the pleasure, but more, on the illusion. [i]Hold…hold…[/i] He was going to break the table, he swore. She hadn’t even started working his tip into her mouth, and the risk of being seen had him harder, more erect, more excited than anything else had in a long, long time. Every breath was a huff and puff, and he knew he was making a spectacle of himself. But as long as they just saw a shaggy human, that was fine. As long as they saw him and an elf slave, that was good. Nobody would be suspicious about that. [i]Breathe…breathe…[/i] She breathed his cock past her lips, sucking it in and letting it rest on her tongue. Vitus punched the table, gritting his teeth as he felt her work him over. Oh, she was good. How the hell she didn’t have a permanent master with a tongue that good – [i]We want her.[/i] “Shit…shit…” The Hellhound was poking through again, and at the worst time. He could feel the beast surging, wanting to take part in this, wanting to feel its canine cock thrusting down the woman’s throat and claiming her. It wanted to take her into the pack, to pull her along and keep her for the pleasures that it was bringing them – [i]No, no, bad. Bad! She is good. She should come with us. No. We can’t. Too much. Too dangerous. We can take her. No! We can fix her![/i] He gasped, and only slightly from the feeling of her deepthroating him. They…they could ‘fix’ her. It wasn’t a true healing, of course, but if he let the Hellhound do what it wanted, they could take her with them, turn her into a member of the pack. Melchiresa would be more than willing to have another mortal worshiping her, and the Demon Lord might even give him the power to turn her into a proper Hellhound, a bitch that served under him, that gave him whatever he wanted. That would probably be a good reward, an enticement that the Mistress of the Hunt would be more than willing to allow him. [i]But…but… She wants it. She wants to live! We can help with that. She lives with us.[/i] He groaned as he leaned over the table, feeling the sucking pressure going right to the base of his cock. Her fangs framed his shaft, pressing against either side as her throat rippled up and down his cock. Each swallow, each little pull along his member made him want to cum right then and there. [i]Fuck…fuck…fuck![/i] “Your food, sir.” One of the cooks had brought it to the table. Vitus noticed that they didn’t bat an eyebrow at the blowjob going on under the table, merely offering the bag. He groaned, nodding, and fumbled for his waist. When he managed to get hold of a piece of gold – almost dropping it three times – the human pocketed it and darted off. He leaned forward, moaning as Shereeza pulled back to the head of his cock once more. The licking, the sucking, the flicking of her tongue right over his urethra was making it almost impossible for him to think. The dwarves and human across the way watched, too, and he could see the human idly stroking himself below the bar. He wanted to growl and barely suppressed the urge. [i]Our bitch. Our female.[/i] No, she was…she was her own…person. She suddenly pushed forward, and Vitus groaned under his breath as he went over the edge. The sudden suck was more than he could take, and he blew his load down her throat, splattering her with it. She swallowed with ease, panting as she did. Her warm breath over his shaft was nice, and – And he realized belatedly that she was sucking and swallowing around his knot, not just his cock. His eyes went wider still as he felt her rubbing furred balls, teasing them, milking them for everything that they had. [i]…Shit…shit, shit, shit…[/i] She pulled back slowly, keeping the pop of the knot leaving her mouth from being too audible, and she was surprisingly skilled at tucking his cock into his pants once more. He was pretty sure that nobody else would have noticed that he had a dog cock down there, that the illusion had slipped that much. At least, he hoped not. The scaly elf sat up again, her face clean. She’d eaten the whole load, and that meant that she was, at least partially, marked with his power. He could feel a connection to her, a warmth that existed between the Hellhound and her, and he… He realized that there was more power than that. There was strength that they could tap, power that they could warp. The skull piercings through her nipples were magical in and of themselves, though what they did, he didn’t know. They were definitely magical, enchanted, though, and that meant that he’d need to deal with that later. But it was the connection that made him interested. It wasn’t a full claim on her, since that wouldn’t come from just one orgasm, and not just one down her throat, either, but it was…something. And he was willing to experiment with that – The sudden thump of the door slamming open drew all eyes to the front of the tavern, and Vitus’s heart sunk. It was an armored knight, one that could be nothing less than a Hellknight. They walked into the room, helmet keeping their identity a secret, and they panned their eyes left and right. Eventually, they spotted him, and the knight walked over, head down and eye-holes glowing. They fixed Shereeza with a brief stare, and then him. “Is this slave serving you?” “…I –” “Is this slave serving you?” “Yes.” “…” “She served me beneath the table now, and I’m considering buying her for the rest of the day,” Vitus added. “…A day of luck for this one, then. Carry on.” His heart leaped up and then sunk back to where it belonged as the armored knight left the tavern. Everyone else took a little longer to get back to their drinks and conversation, but he sagged into his seat as soon as the door closed. “That…that could have gone so much worse,” he muttered. “You saved me. And I thank you,” Shereeza said, bowing her head. “You’re going to do more than that.” “What do you mean?” “You felt…that,” he said, nodding down to his crotch. “You know what that meant. Why didn’t you out me?” “A slave gains nothing from breaking a master. In Cheliax, there is no reward for the slave that betrays the master. The one that replaces the master may or may not keep their word. The authorities don’t care to reward a slave, for a slave is not a person. To give you up means nothing; they would give me nothing.” “…” “I am a slave, and I must serve to live. One more day…” She started to reach up to her chest, only to stop herself from touching the skull piercings through her nipples. “Always one more day.” One more day, indeed. He sighed. For all that he had hoped that this would be a one-time thing, he knew that it was rapidly becoming something else entirely. The fact that this young woman was trapped here was bad enough, but the fact that she could never escape, that she couldn’t even think of stabbing him in the back because this place would only punish her for it, even if those at the top benefited. Even this little service, of letting her ‘serve’ him so that she could live for one more day, felt like nothing more than a pathetic excuse for pleasure if he let it stop there. [i]We can take her,[/i] the Hellhound reminded him. [i]I know. I know. We should. When did you become reasonable? She could be pack. She should be.[/i] And there was no argument that he could muster against that. Vitus rubbed the back of his head in purest annoyance, knowing that, on some level, this was what Melchiresa wanted of him. Despite the fact that it would save the elf from death by devil auction, all it did was give her soul to someone else that had her own purpose for it. He growled again, and Shereeza shrunk back, even as she nodded. “Knew it.” “Stop. Don’t…don’t talk,” he muttered. “Come with me.” # He made the elf stay outside the wagon before climbing in himself. Katya, Robin, Piers, and moaning Neena waited for him inside, the latter of which was still tied up and being ‘distracted’ by the enchanted items pleasuring her. He tuned her moans out, shaking his head at the wordless questions the other three asked with their demanding expressions. “I need…advice,” Vitus muttered. “Advice, or instructions?” Katya asked, the older woman’s eyebrows going up. “Definitely advice. I…I need to make this my decision, not someone else’s. Not this time.” “She is a slave. A whore,” Piers corrected himself. “Why would you bring her back? Don’t you have enough…entertainment?” “I’m not bringing her for that.” “No? You seem to have enough to do with that one [i]and[/i] my wife. Or are you such a dog that you cannot actually restrain yourself around any female that shows any passing interest in your body, hmm?” “…” “Piers. Calm down,” Robin said, shaking her head. “But it’s a good question. Why did you bring her back?” “Because if I leave her here, she’ll die.” “Wha – impossible,” Piers said, shaking his head. “Certainly, there are times when whores should find more gainful employment, but surely she’s not that much at risk. She’s lying.” “She’s not.” “She must be.” “She’s [i]not,[/i]” Vitus said, shaking his head. “I don’t know the whole situation, but the marks…they’re enchanted. And so are the piercings in her chest. And a Hellknight came into the tavern while we were…talking.” The wagon went quiet save for Neena’s continued moans, the dark-skinned redhead moaning as she came again. The interior of the wagon stank of her pussy and sweat, and yet, the smell didn’t seem to bother any of them. They just…ignored it, as best they could, as their bodies responded despite themselves. Piers couldn’t seem to summon another argument, but Katya jumped in, instead. “A Hellknight. What did they want?” “They wanted to see if she was serving me or not.” “And? What did you say?” “I told them that we were negotiating.” “…Sensible. A good move. It bought you time.” “And her.” “Yes, but she’s not part of us. That’s less important.” And there it was. Another reminder that Katya was only interested in their group and their survival. Vitus rubbed his forehead, taking a few deep breaths. “Look. Here’s the situation. I don’t want her to die.” “Clearly,” Robin said. “And I don’t know how to say this any other way but this. If I turn her, if I make her part of the pack, then she can come with us. But…I know what that means.” He breathed out slowly. “It means…it means corrupting her, taking her. It means basically giving her soul to Melchiresa, and giving her a new body and purpose in return.” “Abominable,” Piers grumbled. “But sometimes that’s the only option you have.” Everyone but Katya turned to Robin at that moment, and Piers stared with his mouth agape at the former Guardswoman. Robin shook her head. “Look. I don’t like it either, but there’s reasons to go for a deal like that. There are times when you really don’t have another option.” “There’s always another option. Always. If you give up –” “Sometimes you have to get through today to get the options of tomorrow. If you die before something you’re hoping for happens, it doesn’t really matter if you gave up or not, does it?” Piers opened his mouth, angry stammers and stutters coming free, but he couldn’t find his words. Eventually, Robin turned away from her husband, facing him again. “It’s up to you, honestly. But personally…well, if it were me, I’d take the deal. I’d hate it, I’d be scared as all hell, but I’d take it. Better to live and try and figure out a way to get free than to just be left to die because someone thought it’d save my soul.” “…So…make it her choice, you mean?” Vitus asked. “If that’s the only way you can make yourself comfortable with it, I guess, but when it comes down to it, you still have to choose to take it. Take her, I mean. And…well, that’s going to be something that [i]you[/i] have to live with. She’ll be different, she’ll live, but is that something that you can be okay with?” It was a merciless point, but one that Vitus already had an answer for. He [i]could[/i] live with that, because all he had to do was look at Robin and know that he already had. She might have suffered the were-rat stuff with or without his influence, but she was still his creature, and that…that was his fault. And yet, he could live with it, because she was still alive, and that made all the difference. “Katya?” “Hmm?” “Is there room for one more?” “This is evil, and nothing less,” Piers said. “You’re free to keep saying that, Piers, but keep in mind that your alternative means that she dies,” Robin said. “You don’t know that for sure!” “You don’t know that I’m wrong.” “They wouldn’t – they wouldn’t. They just wouldn’t. That can’t be the law.” “Whatever the law is or isn’t, that’s not my concern right now. Katya, can this thing fit another person?” Vitus asked. “It can.” “Then make it happen. I’ll make the arrangements, and then we’ll get underway.” He turned from the rest of the pack before they could question him further. With Robin’s support and Katya’s constantly implied support, he could make it work. Piers had doubted them again and again, and he didn’t know why the man refused to believe that there was something that they could do. No, that was wrong. He did know why the man refused to think that something could be done here. The guard captain had served the side of the law for who knew how long, and he had never seen any alternative to doing so. Hell, as far as Vitus was aware, the guards were constantly doing things by the book, and that meant that they turned down help from anyone that wasn’t part of their organization. It didn’t matter if it was a thieves’ guild that might be willing to turn on other criminals for the sake of their own business, or some dark sorcerer that wanted to take revenge and needed help that might be able to take down a greater threat with the guards’ help. If it wasn’t something by the book, they wouldn’t take it. And having to deal with the fact that they were allied with a Demon Lord was something that took that by-the-book nature and throttled it. Piers would fight tooth and nail with every implication that someone might be helped more by the dark side of things than by leaving them alone. He would genuinely leave someone to die rather than tarnish their soul with the ‘taint’ of corruption that Melchiresa or someone else on the demon side would offer. [i]Why does he think that the devils are better? Just because they follow rules?[/i] Sometimes, rules were bad. Sometimes, rules were what got people in trouble. If the rules had been the thing to stand, he would have been banished, possibly killed after what happened at the Arcanamirium. The rules had been bent to allow him into the school to begin with, and the rules had been bent again to allow him to pursue any kind of employment rather than see him fall to the gutters and become something worse. Rules were rigid, and while there were times for that, it wasn’t now. Rigidness would get them killed. Vitus poked his head out of the wagon to find Shereeza waiting where he’d asked her to wait, the warped elf sitting with her legs crossed and her body very exposed. He had a perfect view down to her pussy, and he cleared his throat to get her attention before the Hellhound within could get tempted. “Shereeza?” “Hmm?” She looked up. “Yes, sir?” “You’re coming with us.” “…You’re buying me?” “Yes. I am.” “Oh, thank you…thank you.” And as she leapt into his arms, weeping so much that his shirt was instantly soaked, he wondered just what kind of hell she was leaving, and worse, what he would be throwing her into. # The wagon was underway shortly after the decision was made. The elf adapted surprisingly well to the sexual interior of the wagon, and was only somewhat surprised when she was informed that Neena was being punished rather than rewarded. She even indicated that she might be interested in giving that a try, someday. Robin and Piers kept to their end of the wagon, near the back, and it was clear that they were having some sort of spat about things. Vitus didn’t want to listen in, but some of the words that came through – bitch and whore, from Piers, and asshole and monster from Robin – told him that things were not going well in paradise for the two of them. As they left the borders of Bloodrun behind, Vitus let out a soft sigh in the driver’s seat of the wagon. He had hoped that they’d get out more or less free, and they had. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better than it could have been. Katya shook her head, and he didn’t miss the slight concern on her face. He turned. “What?” “I feel like we missed something here.” “What are you talking about? We barely passed through.” “Perhaps, but something happened. Something…something important. And it wasn’t merely you picking up a stray, either. I feel like…” She shook her head. “I haven’t felt like this since before I came to the Arcanamirium, since I was first learning and traveling the world. The last time I felt like this, I missed something that nearly killed me. And I don’t like that feeling coming back.” “Something nearly killed you? What could kill you?” “Many, many things, Vitus. There are so many more deadly things in the world than you know, and magic can only affect the things you’re aware of.” “…You think that we’re in trouble?” “I think that we could be in great danger. Great trouble.” Much as he didn’t want to hear that, he couldn’t take them less than seriously. Vitus looked over his shoulder, gazing back at the town. Bloodrun was an abomination, even by the standards he’d slipped to. Everything there screamed of the evil that could come when devils and demons had true power over the world, when everything was reduced to want, whim, and value. Whatever the people were getting from the deals with the devils, he doubted that it was worth the cost of lives when you stopped thinking of people as numbers and remembered that you were trading [i]people[/i] to those things. But what could they have missed? [i]Was there someone in the tavern? Did I make a mistake bringing her with me? What did I miss?[/i] There had been the three people at the bar, but they’d barely done more than jerk off to the blowjob. The tavern staff had been there, but they’d barely noticed anything that was going on. Shereeza was with them. The Hellknight? But what would the Hellknight have done? He didn’t know, but it was the only thing that he could think of. Perhaps there was something there, something that he needed to figure out. If he’d had some piece of their armor, or something that had lingered from their presence, he could have done a scrying spell to see if they meant anything, but he had nothing. The opportunity to preempt any danger had passed, and there was nothing he could do about that. [i]I’ll just have to keep my eyes open. And nose,[/i] the Hellhound added. [i]The pack will be protected.[/i] Yes. Yes, it would. [b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b] Summary: Vitus talks with the slave girl and learns more about what happens here in Bloodrun, and is given an offer. Tags: M/F, Human, Elf, Hellhound, Nudity, Bondage, Oral, Orgasm, Under the Table, Blowjob, Cum, Piercings, Branding, Slavery, Series, Magic, Corruption,