Chapter 11

 

(09/13/19 2300 London, Blue League)

            Street lights spotted the sidewalks with pools of light in a sea of darkness. Figures passing down the street were briefly illuminated in turn before vanishing again into the blackness as if they’d never existed.

            Raven stayed near her tamer. “Why is it so dark here?”

            “After ten they turn most of the lights off to conserve energy. Another reason they do it is because light pollution reflecting from clouds is known to lure night hunting ferals. Before ten the city is a lot brighter. They also close all the window curtains then, for the same reason.” The dim glow lit up his face as Kerrik checked his pokedex’s map function. “We’re supposed to turn left on the street just ahead. The pokegirl center should be three blocks from the turn.”

            “Why don’t we just go to a hotel?” There was a short pause. “Sir.”

            “Hotels usually require pokegirls to stay in their pokeballs.”

            Kerrik could see perfectly well in the low light and so he watched Raven’s eyes narrow to slits as she swung around to face him. “With all due respect, sir, leaving you alone in a city full of horny pokegirls is about the dumbest thing I’ve heard since someone told me I could get by with just a sip of blood every day.”

            He grinned in the darkness. “We’re going to the pokegirl center so I won’t be alone.”

            The archmage relaxed. “Can I summon a light?” Another pause. “Damnit, I forgot again. Sir?”

            “Go ahead.”

            Raven pulled her staff from the pocket of her jeans and lit the end. “Much better. I can see in the dark if I want to, but I’m not sure how well you can.” She looked at him inquiringly. “Well, master?”

            His ears flicked. “I can see as well in darkness as I can in full daylight.”

            “Even in your, um, new state?”

            “Yes. That much I at least thought about beforehand.” He grimaced and muttered softly, “not like a whole raft of other things.”

            Raven stopped and pointed ahead of them. “Is that the pokegirl center?”

            Kerrik nodded. “Yes, it is.” The building she was pointing to was a four story complex with a light glowing over a pair of armored doors. Above the doors hung a three foot pokeball that was lit from within. Lights on the walls of the building were set closely enough together to illuminate the entire outside of the center. A handful of young men, each with a pokegirl nearby, were standing about halfway down the building from the entrance. They were rolling dice against the wall and loud laughter was heard from the group as someone won. One of the pokegirls, some kind of fox type, muttered something to one of the men and heads came around to watch as Raven and Kerrik stepped into the light of the building. Someone produced a bulky pokedex and pointed it in their direction. Suddenly their voices dropped as they whispered amongst each other.

            “You there!” One of the teenagers jogged in their direction. “I challenge you for the archmage.” One of his companions collected the dice as the rest drifted after the challenger.

            Kerrik flattened his ears against his skull to give him a more human looking outline as he pulled a wallet from his front pocket and flipped it open to show a tradesman’s badge. “I’m sorry, tamer, but I am a tradesman.” He actually sounded as if he were disappointed that he couldn’t give the young man the battle he wanted. “I can’t legally accept your challenge for salvage. Is there anything else I can help one of the protectors of the league with?”

            The young man stared at him for a second and then grinned. “Protector of the league, did you say? I like the way that sounds. Yeah, mate, there is something you can do for me. Sell me your archmage.”

            “I’m sorry, tamer, but I cannot in good conscience do that. I need her for my work, you see.” Kerrik stood proudly. “I’m a pokegirl hunter. I catch pokegirls for the ranches and for protectors of the league, like yourself.” He drooped slightly, mouth turning down unhappily. “Sadly, right now I have no pokegirls for sale. I even find myself staying here at this pokegirl center instead of a luxury hotel. Unlike you, sir, I have to pay for my night here. Still, I must seek out the attendant and hope they have an unused room that I might once again be fleeced by the league.”

            The tamer peered closely at him and then spoke in a disgusted tone. “You’re bloody balmy, mate. Go on then.”

            Raven closely followed Kerrik into the pokegirl center. Once inside, she pulled him to a halt. “I was ready to fight his pokegirl. Sir.”

            “He’d have had another one hidden that he’d have used, not that would have helped him against you. Besides,” Kerrik gave her a hard look, “do you even know how to fight without killing?”

            She looked uncertain. “I think so. I guess we’ll have to start training to capture.”

            He nodded. “Until then it’s fortunate that tradesmen can’t fight for salvage. The leagues actually recommend that tradesmen don’t battle at all, but sometimes they do to sharpen up their girls. There are even tradesmen who build their harems to help train teams for the Blue League Championship.”

            “What’s a pokegirl hunter?”

            “They take combat teams out and capture feral pokegirls. While tamers are supposed to do that, they have a nasty tendency to focus only on the pokegirls they’re interested in having for their harem, at least after they’ve built up their bank account a little. Pokegirl hunters go out and catch everything they find and sell them primarily to the ranches, although they do a brisk business with individual tamers and pet owner clubs.” Kerrik stepped over to the empty counter and rang the bell once. “They’re considered a stopgap between tamers and the military. A lot of pokegirl hunters are retired tamers and can have pretty impressive harems, so you’re not all that out of place with me.”

            He broke off as a pokegirl appeared behind the counter, yawning as she stretched. She was a very near human, with shoulder length brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing a tan blouse and short skirt that hugged her trim body. A nametag on her chest said her name was Cecilia. Her eyes fell on Kerrik and the stretch changed, becoming suggestive as she twisted to thrust her chest in his direction. “Morning, can I help you, sir?” Kerrik grabbed Raven’s wrist as her hand moved and the ingénue chuckled. “Don’t worry, sister, I just want to borrow him for a quick romp.”

            Kerrik’s voice was cold. “Stand down, bitch, or should I have a word with your supervisor for being presumptuous?”

            Raven’s mouth dropped as the ingénue’s demeanor instantly changed. The sleepy look vanished and she almost cringed. “I’m sorry, sir, that won’t be necessary. I’m really sorry.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “However, I was at fault, sir. Should I call my supervisor, sir?”

            Kerrik shook his head as his voice warmed to normal. “That won’t be necessary. You do need to be more careful. If Raven had been a dark lady, you’d already be dead.”

            “I don’t have an excuse for my disrespectful behavior, sir.” Nervous eyes flicked in the direction of a camera mounted over the door so that it could cover the entranceway and the counter.

            Kerrik noted her look and glanced that way too before nodding. “You didn’t really do anything, but I forgive you and I don’t think you need further correction. There was no real harm done, I didn’t really take offense and if anyone thinks otherwise they can ask me and I’ll verify that.”

            “Thank you, sir. That should help with my boss in the morning.” She brightened. “Now, how can I help you?”

            He produced his badge and pokedex. “I’m a tradesman and I’d like to know if you have a room available for the night.”

            The ingénue looked at the badge and picked up the pokedex. “Sir, I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize this pokedex model.”

            He smiled. “It’s a new model and you probably won’t find another one like it in London. It does have the standard wireless protocols, however, so you can access my data.”

            The ingénue put the pokedex back down and moved sideways to the computer station built into the counter. She keyed in a few commands. “Tradesman Wolf, from Glasgow,” she read aloud. She changed screens. “I’ve got three rooms that would fit your harem and yourself, sir. If you’ve got something new, however, I don’t have any rooms with heavy restraints available until tomorrow.”

            “A normal room should be just fine. Do you have one with a private bath? As you saw, my archmage is a trifle possessive and I’d prefer to avoid any opportunities for mischief.”

            The ingénue smiled broadly. “Did I ever see that, sir. I’ll set you up with just what you need.” She hesitated. “Sir, as a tradesman, I have to charge you for the room. It’ll be 5000 SLC for the night and if you stay past noon, you will automatically be billed for another day.”

            Kerrik sighed and shook his head. “Five grand? Well, I already knew I needed to go hunting again. It’ll have to do. Please go ahead and set us up with a room, Cecilia.”

            The ingénue worked for a moment and then her head came up. “Sir, your pokedex is locked so that I can’t code it for your room.”

            “Sorry. Let me unlock it.” He took the pokedex and entered a command. “There you go. Do you need it back?”

            Cecilia shook her head. “I uploaded the room code to your pokedex as soon as you unlocked it. Your code will expire at noon sharp. At that point, you will still be able to leave your room, but like I said earlier, if you are still there the computer will automatically bill you another five thousand SLC. I’ve also gone ahead and updated the clock in your dex to local time. You were running about an hour slow, sir.”

            “Thanks. I was out of the league.”

            “It’s no problem, sir. You’re in room 302.” She leaned over the counter and pointed. “The elevators are around that corner.”

            “Thank you again. Good night, Cecilia.”

            “Thank you, sir.”

            Raven waited until they were in the elevator. “What will happen to Cecilia?” Kerrik glanced up and she frowned. “More cameras?”

            “Yeah, they tend to have surveillance everywhere outside the rooms so they have evidence when someone’s pokegirl decides she doesn’t like the décor and starts breaking things. As for Cecilia, the people in charge can do whatever they want to her. They can decide I’m not pissed and let the matter drop or they can go all the way to getting rid of her. She could be beaten, sold, reprimanded or traded off.” He glanced up again. “She’s very competent, however, so I hope they’re smart enough to let her off since I’m not going to mention what happened to anyone. Civil service pokegirls get horny and if they waited for a fifteen year old to figure out what they want, they’d go feral before he clued in. Unfortunately, she came on to me and I wasn’t in the mood to watch you cut her in half.” He waved his pokedex in front of the door and a lock clicked. “Enter, freely and of your own risk.”

            Raven slipped off her pack as the door closed behind them and looked around with an expression of disbelief. “What the fuck is this?”

            “You’ve been spending too much time around me and Misery. It’s a taming room at a pokegirl center.”

            The room was small and was dominated by a bed that was large enough for a small orgy. Next to the bed was a small dresser with a built in refrigerator and mini-bar. Stacked neatly on the top of the cabinet were several bottles of stamina XXX along with some flavored lotions and some of the cheapest healing sprays on the market. A door on the far side of the wall led into a bathroom that held a toilet, sink and a shower stall.

            Next to the door to the bathroom was a five foot metal X with steel cuffs on each leg of the X. A gear driven ratchet drive on each leg of the X could be used to position each one separately for ease of taming. A heavy chain ran from a hand winch on the floor at the right of the X to another steel cuff.

            Raven walked over and swung the cuffs that were built into the bed out of the way before poking the mattress. There was a rustle of plastic underneath the sheet. “Why are there plastic sheets?”

            “Because it means they only have to replace the mattress every month or so instead of every week. Even if you figure a single tamer and pokegirl every day, which is rather unlikely, you’re having at least two or three sex episodes every day on that mattress. Without the plastic sheet, it would eventually become soaked with fluids.”

            Raven shuddered. “That sounds so sick. Can we sleep on the floor?”

            “The carpet can’t be changed out.”

            The archmage raised a hand. “Enough. Right now I don’t want to touch anything in here, but I’ve never tried to fly and sleep at the same time.”

            Kerrik decided to take pity on her. “We’ll flip the mattress and make sure we’ve got the freshest side out and then I’ve got enough blankets in my backpack to make a lower blanket as well as an upper.”

            “That’ll work.” She got up and kicked at the chain that ran to the hand winch on the floor. “Ok, I get the X and the restraints on them, but what is this?” She bent down and picked up the cuff.

            “It’s for tails, so a tamer can drag them out of the way.” Kerrik pointed to a similar setup above the X, only on the ends of these chains were large leather straps interwoven with wire cable. “And those are for wings, in case they become annoying.”

            Raven nodded to a rack of whips and various other implements, including some odd ones that looked like oversized dildos on collapsible poles. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what are those for?”

            “Why, for entertainment, of course. Sometimes they’re for a tamer to entertain himself with a pokegirl and sometimes they’re for a tamer to be entertained by a pokegirl like one of the domina lines. Most tamers like to give, but some like to be the bottom.” He shrugged. “To each his own.”

            “You haven’t shown any sign of being interested in that.” She gave him a wary look. “But if you want, I’d be willing to try it.” It came out sounding defensive and they both knew it. Her face reddened.

            “Raven, if I went that way you’d know it by now. That sort of fetish isn’t something you keep under wraps if you have pokegirls. The funny thing is that because of the way pokegirls adapt to their tamers, if I did like something like that, by now you would too.”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Pokegirls adapt to what their tamer wants them to be. It’s part of the nature that Sukebe put into them to make them more desirable for humans. You have to understand that there is evidence on this world that the entire Revenge War was a sham, although the leagues haven’t really put the facts together yet. It was Cowslip that was the real plan, which, as you know, was to replace human women with the very thing that Linda and the others betrayed and destroyed. His last laugh at humanity, as it were. There’s even evidence that he’s in stasis somewhere and comes out periodically to see how his plans are working.”

            Fury swept across her face. “That bastard! If that’s what he did, that dumb, fucking bastard cost me a lot of friends and lovers that didn’t need to die! If you’re right and we find him, can I kill him?”

            “With the understanding that we are not going to go looking for him, you have my blessing.”

            Raven got up and wandered into the bathroom as Kerrik shrugged out of his pack. She poked her head out the door. “Why is there a timer in the shower?”

            Kerrik followed her inside. “I’ve heard about those but I’ve never seen one. Not having pokegirls, I haven’t stayed in a taming room before this.” There was a large digital display on the wall inside the shower stall that read 15:00. He reached into the shower and turned a knob. Water shot from the showerhead and the display flashed three times before starting to count backwards. Kerrik turned the water off. “It’s a timer to warn people when the hot water runs out. There are some pokegirls that will just stay in there and let the hot water run forever if they could and this prevents that. Depending on how they’ve got it set, either the hot water slowly cuts off or it suddenly goes to icy. The timer is really there to let tamers with volatile pokegirls know so their dark lady doesn’t go berserk when she’s washing her hair and the hot water goes away. From what I understand that the timer refreshes at a rate that’s three times as slow as it runs out, so if you used all the hot water it would take forty five minutes to refresh completely.”

            “Once we get the power set up, we’re not going to have that at our place, are we?”

            “Hell no. Our hot water system will be set just below boiling and we’ll have all the hot water we want.”

            Raven followed him out of the bathroom. “Are we going to have all that crap hooked to our bed?”

            He shook his head. “I’m willing to take some bruised ribs to avoid it.”

            Raven was looking at the bed. On it Kerrik had laid some thick looking bedding that was a soft gray in color that seemed to shimmer in the light. “What’s that?”

            “Our bedding.”

            She lifted the top layer and her eyes widened. “This is so soft. What is it?”

            “Mink fur. I know someone who engineered mink about ten feet long for fur and meat.” He grimaced. “The project to make the meat palatable was a fun one. But now they’re pretty tasty and I get all the fur I want.”

            She was still fondling the fur. “I don’t suppose I can claim maharani exclusivity on this, can I?” She gave him a crafty look. “After all, the others have their own fur and I don’t.”

            “No, you can’t. However, I suppose you could be the only member of the harem to have mink fur blankets.”

            She hugged him. “Thanks. I’m glad I finally get some kind of perk.” When he looked down the length of his nose at her, she giggled. She never giggled in front of anyone else, but when they were alone she seemed to relax a lot of rules she kept for others. “Ok, besides being the one who spends the most time with you here and getting the most sex and all the other perks.”

            “That’s more honest.”

            “I’m not supposed to be more honest. I can lie because you can’t.” She kicked off her shoes before she popped the button on her jeans and shimmied out of them. “I need to get some sleep. Will you join me?”

 

(09/14/19 0600 London, Blue League)

            Raven had fed and then gone back to drowsing on top of him when his pokedex made a hiccupping sound. Kerrik carefully rolled the archmage to the side and slid out of bed. He grabbed his pants and pulled his dex from its holder. He pressed a button on the screen and Elizabeth’s face appeared in the display. She smiled slightly and looked him up and down. “Are you nude? I can’t see below your waist.”

            His ears flicked. “What do you want?”

            “Considering what I’m thinking about you right this instant, I think I need to spend some time with someone in your harem.”

            Raven’s head appeared out of the blankets and she hissed softly before catching the amused look on his face. “If you want to spend time one of my ladies, just ask them. Is that all?”

            She rubbed her eyes. “No, it’s not.” She went back to alertly watching him.

            His tone was curt. “You’ve only been away from Shikarou for a day, so drop that. What?”

            “Sorry. Are you aware of the program that Svetlana and Dorothea have set up?”

            He frowned. “I know about the one where they try to screw me over by getting a celestial into my harem.”

            Elizabeth looked surprised. “You didn’t know they gave that up? I think it had something to do with Raven and Misery’s threats to bathe in their blood.”

            Raven suddenly looked embarrassed and became very interested in the blanket, refusing to meet his eyes. He smiled slightly. “I’m glad to hear that. I’d hate to have to chastise my ladies for killing them.” Raven’s head came up and her amethyst eyes glittered as she gave him a blinding grin.

            Unbeknownst to her, Elizabeth grin almost identically matched the archmage’s. “Yeah, they thought that’s what your response would be. Anyway, I’m talking about their program to rescue pokegirls from Prime and bring them to One.”

            “I didn’t know about that one. Don’t you still have a lot of pokegirls in storage?”

            “We do, but the idea was to look for special cases that might have the right attitude already. We’re trying to break the cycle of pokegirls expecting the rules to be like where they came from. We’re hoping that pokegirls with the right attitude can help train the tamers to think our way before they get set in the ways the leagues want them to think. We’ve already had a small problem with pokegirls from Prime trying to get those kinds of rules put in place in Haven. The Glasgow pokegirls are pretty stubborn about it, too.”

            Kerrik shrugged. “That’s what you get for going after Scots. Even the pokegirls are stubborn and opinionated.”

            Elizabeth clutched at her heart and gasped audibly. “Speaking as a Scottish pokegirl, your words hurt.” She grinned. “That doesn’t make it any less true. Anyways, I’ve got a potential recruit. Can I talk to you about it at Devon’s?”

            “Let me grab a quick bite of breakfast and we’ll be there. We’ll be there in an hour or so. Bye.” Kerrik killed the connection and tossed his pokedex on his clothes. “Care to join me in the shower?”

            “With only fifteen minutes of hot water? I want our first time together in a hot shower to last longer than that, especially if we’re both supposed to be clean when we’re done.” Raven slid out from the blankets, trying hard not to touch the bed with her bare skin. “I’ll release my sisters and let them know what’s going on.”

            In case anyone else wanted to shower, Kerrik turned off the water while washing and only turned it back on to rinse. Because of this, there were still more than twelve minutes on the timer when he got out.

            Misery was leaning against the wall of the bathroom with her arms folded and a truculent look on her face. “I want fur blankets. She doesn’t deserve the only ones.”

            He began wringing out his hair. “You can’t have mink, but otherwise we’ll see what we can find.”

            Misery perked up. “Raven won’t be happy.” She pushed away from the wall and moved behind him to take his hair in her hands. She muttered softly and steam wreathed away from it as it dried.

            “I promised her mink. I didn’t promise her the only fur.”

            “What do you think would be good for me?”

            He glanced back at her as she started weaving his hair into a braid. He’d left himself enough magic to do this without aid, but all three of his pokegirls insisted on doing it themselves and so they took turns according to some schedule he’d never been given. All he knew was that it wasn’t a simple rotation and that nobody seemed unhappy about it. “I think you’d look fantastic framed on ermine blankets. Your black fur against that sea of brilliant white would be very erotic.”

            “Fantastic?” Her black eyes glittered with pleasure. “Then ermine it is. What do you think?” She held up his braid. Kerrik normally just did a three strand weave and that was what she’d done for most of it. The last foot, however, she’d split into nine strands to finish the braid with.

            He eyed it critically. “I like it. I am slightly concerned about something, however. Is this going to presage a new fad of experimenting with my hair?”

            Misery nodded as she laid the hair down the line of his back. “We got some books on braiding, so yes. However, Raven has already laid down the rule of no artificial aids like pins anything else, unless we can get you to you agree to it.”

            He tossed the towel onto the sink. “I’d also prefer nothing taking over fifteen minutes or so.”

            “I’ll pass that along.” She followed him out of the bathroom.

            Kerrik settled down on the blankets and patted them. “Whisper, finding you food will be problematic here in London, so get your knife.” His ears flicked sideways as he offered his arm to her. “Breakfast is me.”

            The cabbit plopped down next to him and drew her tiny knife from her belt. Thank you. It’s always such a treat when you do this. It’s a shame we have to do it here in this dump. She carefully drew the knife up his wrist and plastered her mouth over the wound as blood welled up. What about Celestine?

            Raven finished buttoning her pants. “She’s fine where she is. Letting her out here in London would be a serious mistake.” She glanced at the walls as she idly scratched underneath a breast. “I don’t know if they’re monitoring in here.”

            “They aren’t. I checked during the night. Still, I agree that she’s not going to get released until we get to the Conservatory, and that’s only if Devon agrees and after we make sure that there’s not going be trouble with Ming Die. If there is, please try not to kill her. We can always leave and meet Elizabeth somewhere else. Ming Die is delta bonded to Devon now and he’s my friend.”

            “Ming Die is bonded to Devon?” Raven looked thoughtful for a moment. “It’s your call.” She looked at the other two pokegirls as Whisper reopened Kerrik’s wrist. “You heard him. If she tries anything, Whisper, you get him back to Cobalt Point. We’ll keep her from following us and be right behind you.” She gave Kerrik a defiant look. “Well?”

            “Once again it highlights how pitiful I am right now, but that’ll work.”

            Whisper let go his wrist and sheathed her knife. I would like to establish more random teleport points for us to use as rendezvous points. Devon, and therefore Ming Die, might know about the portal exit points. All three pokegirls turned to look at their tamer.

            Kerrik replied musingly. “I don’t know if they do. We’ll visit a park here in London before we leave and stop off in a couple of places on the trip back to Devon’s. That’ll have to do for now.” His ears flicked backwards. “If Ming Die decides to pursue us, at that point killing her may become necessary. Don’t hesitate to do so.” He grabbed his clothes and quickly dressed. “And now it’s time for breakfast for me and Misery.”

            Cecilia was standing behind the counter as they came around the corner. She nodded to them. “Good morning, Master Wolf.” Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of Misery and widened further at Whisper, but she didn’t otherwise respond. “Will you be checking out?”

            “We will. Do you need my pokedex for that?”

            “No sir. I can do everything I need to without it. I wish you a good day.” She hit a handful of keys. “And you’re all taken care of, sir.”

            Kerrik’s ears flicked. “Have you spoken to your supervisor about last night? I hope you didn’t get in trouble because of our misunderstanding.”

            She smiled. “I have spoken to him, sir, and while he’s agreed that I was an idiot, unless you wish to register a formal complaint I’m not in trouble.”

            “I’m glad to hear that. Good day, Cecilia.”

            “Good day, sir.”

            He paused at the door. “Cecilia, where’s a good place to get breakfast?”

            “Sir, I’d suggest Mulligan’s. You turn left and cut through the alley to the next street over. Mulligan’s is straight across from the alley. Their omelets are incredible.”

            “Thanks. We’ll give it a try.”

            The sun was starting to come up and predawn light showed the street was empty. Misery’s stomach rumbled loudly as they turned into the alley. “An omelet sounds perfect,” she said eagerly.

            Mulligan’s was a pub that opened early for breakfast. The breakfast rush wouldn’t start until later, so the sparse collection of customers was people headed to work. In one corner, two nursejoys were chatting softly over their meal. They stopped and stared briefly at Kerrik’s group before going back to their food, but otherwise their entrance was uneventful.

            The waitress was one of the various Goth breeds and she waved them to a table as she grabbed some menus. “Good morning, master and harem,” she began professionally. “I’m Mandy and I’ll be your waitress for today. I’d like to welcome you to Mulligan’s breakfast service.” She handed out the menus and focused on Kerrik. “Can I get you or your pokegirls something to drink?”

            “I’d like tea for me and the rabbit and water for the other two.”

            Misery twisted around in her seat as the Goth left, looking around the room. “Over half the people have eggs. I’ll have an omelet.” She shoved the menu at Kerrik. “Since it looks like you get to pay, here you go.”

            Raven shook her head and handed hers and Whisper’s menu over to him. “What are you going to order?”

            “I think I’ll have a full breakfast.”

            He tucked his menu with the others just as the waitress appeared with two glasses of water and two cups along with a pot of tea. “Are you ready to order, master?”

            “I’ll have the full breakfast.”

            “Very good, sir. What about your pokegirls?”

            Misery added some sugar to her tea. “What’s your best omelet?”

            “That would be the ultimate omelet. It’s got tomato, mushroom, onion, bell pepper, spicy pepper, garlic and cheese. It’s fried in gitelectic grease and comes with chips and bread. The ultimate can be ordered in one, two, four and six egg sizes.” There was a faint singsong to Mandy’s voice that hinted she got to repeat this often.

            “The six egg omelet sounds perfect.” Misery smiled at the others.

            Raven’s eyes narrowed. “Perfect, sir.”

            “Oh, crap. Sorry.”

            “Your food will be ready in just a little while, sir, and I’ll bring it out. Please note that the bathrooms are down there and your pokegirls aren’t allowed to go to the counter alone. If you need anything, just get my attention.” And with that, Mandy was gone.

            Why wouldn’t pokegirls be welcome at the counter?

            Kerrik leaned back in his chair. “Anyone care to suggest a reason as to why putting unsupervised pokegirls, some of whom might be feralborne and were recently tamed, around food and pokegirls that aren’t part of their harem might be a bad idea?”

            Misery raised her hand and bounced in her seat. “Pick me, sir!”

            Even Whisper softly yowled her amusement as Kerrik pretended to peer slowly around the table before nodding in the mini-top’s direction. “You there, the sexy black bunny in the front row, can you answer the question?”

            Misery got an anxious look like someone who hoped she was right. “Could it be so the pub doesn’t get leveled or burned down?” She grimaced and shook her head. “Fuck. Sir.”

            He chuckled. “That would be correct. If there were a test, you might also mention the bodies that would be scattered around after that fight.”

            Are a lot of conventions based on keeping pokegirls from fighting when they’re not supposed to?

            “That and a bit of common sense. While pokegirls are the weapons that tamers use to keep the feral menace at bay, they’re definitely two edged swords.”

            Raven frowned. “I don’t understand the reference, sir.”

            “It means that a pokegirl’s powers can be just as dangerous to the tamer and other humans as they can be protective.”

            “Oh. That’s true enough, sir.”

            A few minutes later Mandy was back. She put a plate in front of Kerrik that held a small pile of scrambled eggs, some fried strips of kattle, a fried tomato, some sautéed mushrooms and a helping of black pudding. Then she put a platter filled to the brim with omelet in the middle of the table along with another plate full of fried potatoes and a third plate loaded with soda bread that had been sliced and liberally covered with butter. Finally she laid a stack of four plates next to everything else. “Do you need anything else, sir?”

            Kerrik shook his head. “No, we’re good.”

            “Yes, sir. Enjoy your meal.” She headed back towards the kitchen. More people had come in and the place was definitely starting to fill up.

            Misery stared at the omelet and then at Kerrik. “What the fuck is that? Uh, sir?”

            “That’s your breakfast.” Raven gave him a curious look at the faint sound of amusement in his tone.

            She stared at the platter again. “No, I ordered a six egg omelet. That monster has got to have more than a dozen eggs in it.”

            He smiled broadly. “No, that’s a six egg omelet. It’ll feed six people. You did think about the fact that there aren’t that many chickens and most eggs are from chickenlittles, right? Each chickenlittle egg is roughly the equivalent of four chicken eggs, so that’s about two dozen chicken eggs.”

            “I can’t eat all this food. I’d explode. Four witches couldn’t eat all of this.” She looked apologetically at her tamer. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know.”

            “It’s ok.” He reached for one of the plates and began filling it with omelet. “I’m eating for three plus me, so with me eating for four and you eating for yourself, we can probably finish it off.” He looked up at her, his ears neutral. “However, next time please ask us or your twee. Now tuck in.”

 

(09/14/19 0830 Outside the Harris Conservatory, Blue League)

            We have been asked to land here so Ming Die can get your word that we mean her no harm. The construct came to a hover. She’s using a channel that excludes anyone who isn’t psychic. It’s a measure of her arrogance about you and my harem sisters.

            “Not everyone can be reasonable.” Kerrik sighed. “Stay alert, ladies, but you are not to do anything except run unless I call it. Is that clear?”

            Raven nodded. “Yes.”

            Misery shrugged. “You’re the boss. I won’t even get out my subbie.”

            If we have to run, I will do as we discussed earlier. Can Ming Die pick up our twees? Whisper’s eyes widened and a satisfied smile appeared as her twee answered the question in the negative. Excellent. Tactical communication is still possible by using them.

            “You’d better only be figuring out a tactical withdrawal.”

            “Kerrik, you did say that you might call something besides running. Therefore we need to examine all of our options.” Raven smiled at his stony look. “If you say to attack you can expect us to react instantly, but not before that point.”

            “Good. Keep it that way. Put us down, Whisper.”

            Three alaka-wham where waiting for them. Ming Die moved forward slightly as the construct vanished. Devon has told me about what you said. However, I have to hear it from you, Kerrik. I know that you cannot lie and I need to hear that you not only do not intend to attack me or my sisters, but also that you are in control of them. She waved a hand in the direction of his pokegirls, who had carefully not moved into an offensive position.

            Kerrik’s ears flattened for an instant. “They’re not my puppets, Ming Die. However, I have tasted the truth of their words and they will do what I ask of them in this. Raven, Misery and Whisper no longer hunt for Sukebe.” He smiled slightly. “In fact, Raven has asked for and received my blessing to kill Sukebe should we meet and should it be true that her friends died needlessly in the war. As for me, I intend you no ill will at this point in time. I would recommend you acknowledge my harem as people, though, or we’re not going to be friends.”

            Ming Die’s antennae twitched as she conferred with her sisters. Why would her friends have died needlessly in the war?

            “I think Cowslip was his real plan, and the war was just a justification for it. If so, your sisters died for the same stupid reason.”

            I hadn’t heard that suggestion before.

            “I consolidated interviews and research data from during and after the war across league lines. It’s something that nobody has ever done before since the leagues don’t talk to each other much and researchers talk to each other even less. It comes from that institutional arrogance that develops when someone thinks they’re the best in their field.”

            You feel that I have some of that arrogance. It wasn’t a question.

            “While not legendaries in the sense that you’re unique, you and the other Pleiades do seem to think of yourselves at that level. And the truth is that you are unique as a group.” He shrugged. “I’m probably going to have to contact the Ming Die on our new homeworld and see if she’s got the same issues, but I’m not really concerned about any arrogance that your group might have as long as you don’t attack us. I’m just here to see what Elizabeth wants so we can go home and deal with the crap that’s coming from my visit.”

            What happened?

             “Poppet’s son Graeme is dead and Sanctuary was involved.”

            Ming Die’s eyes widened. I have learned to understand sorrow now that I am one with Devon. You have my condolences for his loss. Are you here to exact revenge on Sanctuary?

            “What can be done has already been done.” His ears flicked sideways. “I presume that since neither one of us is still waiting for the other to attack that you accept what I’ve told you? If so, then I do need to find Elizabeth.”

            The alaka-wham nodded. You’ll find her at the guest house. She looked at the other two alaka-wham and all three vanished.

            Whisper made a face. You do know that she can vocalize perfectly well, don’t you? I think she does it just to mock me. She blinked. Well, she does it to mock the other me, who is long dead and immune to such mockery. I have no idea why she does it.

            “Maybe you should ask Stardust or Circe. In the meantime, let’s go find out what my daughter wants.”

            Misery smirked. “Will calling her your daughter keep her out of your bed?”

            Ears went flat for a second before he shrugged. “It has so far. I’ve never bedded one of my daughters and I’m not going to start now.”

            Can we teleport the rest of the way?

            “Now that we know Ming Die isn’t going to jump us, yes.” He slipped his arm around Raven. “Nobody breathe a word of what happened to Elizabeth. Poppet deserves to find out first. Ladies, let’s go.”

            Elizabeth was sitting in a chair on the porch of the guest house. She jumped up and hugged Kerrik. “Hi.” She turned and hugged an astonished Raven before proceeding on to Misery and Whisper. Kerrik and his women exchanged surprised looks as the vampire sank back into her chair. “Please, be seated.” She motioned towards a bell. “If you want, I can ring for some tea.”

            What is the matter, Elizabeth?

            She stared into the distance for a moment before speaking, still looking into the woods. “The reason I came here is because of that program I mentioned to Kerrik. We’re looking at recruiting pokegirls who show the potential to rise above the rules here and help us establish something new in the kingdom. We were working on something similar before we left Prime and Devon was kind enough to take over our collection of agents and keep contact with them in case they found someone who might work out.” She looked at Kerrik. “We’ve actually collected a dozen pokegirls and two tamers who passed our criteria and are working out nicely.”

            Kerrik glanced at Raven, who nodded. “I told Misery and Whisper about it while you were showering.”

            Whisper’s ears flicked uncertainly as her tail slowly twisted behind her. I take it you had another potential recruit?

            “That’s what Devon’s message said. I got here and took off to talk to her in London at a warehouse that we still own. It’s in the name of a company that has no leads back to Caomh Sith.” She reached out and clutched Kerrik’s hand fiercely. “She is just a child, but she is so tough. I don’t think I could have been as tough as she is.”

            “I think we need a bit more back-story.” Raven settled down in the chair next to Elizabeth and looked into her eyes. “When’s the last time you fed?”

            “This morning. I brought some of Shikarou’s blood in a pokepack so it’ll stay fresh.” She looked around at them. “Ok, the story behind why I feel like such a ghoul about this. I was one of nine human girls my mother had. Our father was killed when I was just a baby and I never knew him. None of us thresholded and while that seems like a wonderful thing, it wasn’t, even though there were a lot of men interested in us as wives once we came of age to marry. League law, however, wouldn’t allow them to just buy us and they wouldn’t give mother money in case she didn’t give one of us to them, so life was a struggle. Then I got bit by a vampire and started to become one. Mother was pretty happy since she could sell me for a lot of money. She made the mistake of being exuberant about the windfall coming her way where I could hear and I became a bit unhappy and ran away before she could sell me. I went feral and met Shikarou after they caught me.” She looked around again. “Understand that I didn’t want to be a vampire. I was happy at home, even if we were poor.”

            “What rattled you so much, Elizabeth?”

            “Yesterday I met a girl who is going through threshold. She’s not happy about what she’s becoming and she decided to take her life back as much as she could. She chose to become a vampire. She went to one of our agents, who refused her. She’s a free pokegirl who works as a licensed consort in London. She refused the girl because she knows that if word got out about what happened, even meeting with this girl for such a purpose, she’d get turned into pokepower. However, she sympathized with the girl and called Devon, who called us.” She gave Kerrik a haunted look. “Yesterday, I infected her. I’ve only done that once before, and it was to a completely despicable family who did terrible things to their daughter because she had the gall to threshold after they claimed to be pureblooded. They deserved everything that happened to them. I can’t get this girl out of my head. She’s underage and Shikarou was firm about not accepting children since he feels that they aren’t mature enough to decide with a clear mind. I shouldn’t have done it, but I couldn’t refuse her. It wouldn’t have been right.”

            Kerrik’s ears flicked. “What did you think I could do? I’m not going to argue with him about this. While he’s wrong about maturity being tied to age, I won’t be able to change his mind.”

            “Could you take her for me until she comes of age? I know you’ll take good care of her and you don’t have any prejudices against vampires.”

            He frowned. “I’m not sure that would be a good idea. My harem isn’t exactly normal and I haven’t had any experience with a vampire. Raven isn’t one.”

            “We could take her. While I’m not a vampire, I do know a lot about them and I’m sure Elizabeth would help to work on her training.”

            Kerrik gave his maharani a sour look. “You’re trying to manipulate me. Why?”

            “I think that Elizabeth is so worried because wheels have already been set in motion. I’m right, aren’t I?”

            Elizabeth sighed. “Ming Die has already given the girl’s father the push necessary to sell her at auction instead of sending her to a ranch. They could use the money anyway. He’s a retired tamer who supervises a grocery. If we don’t get her, someone will and we both know her new tamer won’t give a damn about her being a newly thresholded pokekit.” She met his eyes. “Unless he’s you.”

            Kerrik folded his arms. “You want to assuage your guilt for turning this human into a vampire by giving her to me and your justification is she’ll be mistreated by her new owner. That’s thin. Pokegirls are mistreated by their owners all the time.”

            Her voice was small. “I didn’t make them.”

            Misery snorted. “You shouldn’t have made this one.”

            Elizabeth jerked around. “She was becoming a bunnygirl and found a way out. What was I supposed to do, say ‘good plan, but you’re fucked’ to her?” She turned back to Kerrik. “Shikarou taught me to prize that kind of innovative thinking and you taught him to prize it. I know he didn’t learn it from his dam.”

            He smiled slightly. “I think Magdalene had a hand in that, but you’re right.” He met his maharani’s eyes. “What do you three think? If we do take her, it’ll be a group exercise. If you ladies don’t want her around, I should probably kill her now so at least it’ll be quick.”

            Misery laughed. “I wouldn’t want to be a bunnygirl either and I’m their distant cousin. I’ve never had a little sister to teach bad habits to. This could be fun. I say yes.”

            Raven looked at Whisper. “Well?”

            I’m thinking. The cabbit’s ears flicked. She will eventually want tamed. If she’s still part of the harem at that time, she’ll have to be put into the schedule. Still, Kerrik has made it plain that someday we will be blessed with children of our own and, even though they will not be his to tame, this could be considered training for that day. Her eyes swung to Kerrik’s. We will be teaching her, right?

            “She’s still got to finish her education and learn how to battle at the very least, so definitely. You can also teach her anything you think she needs to know as well as whatever she wants to learn.”

            Then the mute says yes.

            Elizabeth frowned as everyone else laughed. Raven patted her on the knee. “It’s an in-joke.” She looked at Kerrik. “I don’t know anything about thresholds, but if you’re right and they are our world’s future, then I need to start learning about them as soon as I can. We’ll take good care of her.”

            Kerrik nodded and turned back to the vampire. “You already have the money?”

            “I do. It’s in an account set up for a tradesman identity by the name of Adam Tomlinson. You’ll pick her up in about ten days, after he puts her up for auction and I purchase her.”

            Kerrik grimaced. “I have to hang around here for that long? I was really hoping to return home soon. I’ve got some news for Poppet.”

            Interest sparked in Elizabeth’s eyes. “What kind of news?”

            “It’s the kind of news that Poppet needs to hear first. Fortunately for you we’ll be arriving a few minutes after we left One.”

            “Thank you for this.”

            He shook his head. “You don’t get this for free, daughter. You will owe me for this huge favor that you’re asking. What I’ll ask for, I don’t know yet, but you do owe me.”

            The vampire nodded. “I accept that debt.”

            Kerrik nodded and leaned down to kiss Elizabeth on the cheek. “When you need tamed, talk to Raven unless you’ve already made other arrangements.”

            She shook her head. “I haven’t. This may sound odd, but I’d rather keep this within the family.”

            It’s safer. You know that Kerrik won’t tame you and we won’t hold you down so he can or pokeball you and present you to him as a gift. She shrugged when Misery gave her a shocked look. I did some sampling of thoughts during your breakfast. That kind of behavior sometimes happens here. Nobody here can be trusted unless you know them very well and Elizabeth is a beautiful woman. Wandering away from your tamer can sometimes get you attacked, too.

            Elizabeth nodded. “She’s right. Any one of us would be very tempting for most tamers. We’re all very rare and sought after pokegirls. I trust Kerrik. I like Devon and he’s a family friend, but I don’t trust anyone any further than I have to when my sweet ass is involved.”

            Kerrik looked at Raven. “We need to find Tess so I can reassure her that she’s beautiful and so you can meet her.”

            The archmage popped to her feet. “Ok. Elizabeth, give me a call and we’ll arrange something. Misery, point.”

            “Raven, I don’t think we’re on a combat patrol.”

            “We need the practice. We’ve got over a week that we’ll be here and from what my twee tells me about ranches, this is the absolute worst place to avoid horny pokegirls who want a piece of my man.”

            Kerrik took her hand. “What did you have in mind?”

            “You’re a pokegirl hunter and we’re all hunters. Let’s hunt.”

            “Catching ferals isn’t going to be all that exciting,” he warned.

            “Oh, I’m sure we’ll find a way to liven things up.”

             

(09/19/19 2330 Ireland, Blue League)

            Rory snuggled into his blankets and poked Lindsay until she slid over to give him more of the pillow. His eyes closed as she began to snore. Neither one of them noticed the knife which cut through the tent flap nor the hand that slowly pulled it open. The hand reached inside the tent and silently lifted out his pants. A moment later the hand reappeared and pointed a pokeball at the sleeping Lindsay. She vanished into the recovery beam as Rory stirred slightly in his sleep. The hand vanished again into the night. When the hand returned, it grabbed Rory by the hair and dragged him out of the tent.

            Rory screeched in pain and grabbed the hand which held his hair as he glared up at the man leaning over him. He froze when Kerrik put the muzzle of his pistol against Rory’s forehead and pressed lightly. “Evening,” the kami said cheerfully. “You really should have put one of your girls on guard. It wouldn’t have stopped us, but it would have at least made it challenging. Now let go my hand. If you grab for the gun, I’ll shoot you before you can pull the pistol away. I really don’t want to do that, but I will.”

            Misery reached over and pulled Rory’s hands down before slipping the handcuffs on him. She glanced down at his groin and a smile appeared. “He doesn’t seem to like this as much as when he’s in control of the situation.”

            Kerrik holstered his pistol. “Most people don’t.”

            Rory finally found his voice. “Who the hell are you? You have no right to do this! I haven’t done anything wrong.”

            Do you notice that he his already protesting his innocence when we haven’t accused him of anything? An innocent man would be worried that we’d kill him, not that we think he’s done something wrong. Whisper’s antennae shifted. It’s him. Rory Doyle of New Avalon, you’ve had a bounty placed on your head by the Blue League for crimes against humanity. And as we both know, you did challenge those tamers to salvage matches, defeat them and take all of their pokegirls, leaving them without any protection while in the middle of the wilderness.

            “I didn’t break any laws! All I did was beat some baby tamers!”

            You left them to die and they did. You forgot to get their pokedexes and they had the recordings of the battles and of the pokegirls you used and took. The league considers what you did to be murder and placed a bounty on you. They couldn’t find you, but we could. Virtue had located him when he used one of his fake bank accounts to buy some potions in a nearby town.

            Raven was using Kerrik’s pokedex to scan the pokeballs. “He’s got a hild, whatever that is, a dark queen pretending to be a demoness, a succubus, a hellcat, a lemure and a sphinx.” She made a face. “It’s the legion in squad form.”

            “If they were out, you’d never have caught me!”

            Misery smacked him on the chest hard enough to make him wheeze. “Shut up, punk. Nothing escapes me when I hunt.” She glanced up. “Except for the sphinx and the hild, which I’m not familiar with, all of them would require me to get body armor to protect my back.”

            He doesn’t really have Hild in his harem, does he? I met her once and that was enough.

            Raven shook her head. “No, it’s not her. This is something else that bears her name.”

            “Hilds are another infernal and we’d all need that armor with a dark queen around.” Kerrik pushed to his feet. “We’ll sell them all.”

            Misery grabbed Doyle and threw him over her shoulder. “What about the sphinx? She’s not an infernal.”

            Raven glared at the mini-top. “She comes with strings to Sexmet. Do you really want that idiot around?”

            Misery bared her fangs in a snarl. “No, I don’t.” She smacked Rory on the ass. “Do we let him get dressed?”

            “I don’t see why we should.” Kerrik glanced at the sky as Whisper finished cramming Rory’s belongings into his pack. “It’ll be dark when we drop him off anyway.” He took Raven’s hand. “It’s off to Limerick.”

           

(09/20/19 0000 Limerick Ireland, Blue League)

            Kerrik opened his pokebay account and went to the sale page. He uploaded the dark queen’s information from Rory’s pokedex along with a current scan from his. Her picture appeared at the top of the sale advertisement. A window opened for commentary from him and he thought for a moment before typing. When he was done, he read it aloud. “This dark queen was previously owned by the serial murderer Rory Doyle of the Blue League. She has not been conditioned or her bond with him broken. This pokegirl should be considered a challenge to even an experienced tamer and only a real man should purchase her. Seller will pay for transport for tradesmen and pet owners.” He smiled slightly. “That should appeal to the collectors and anyone who fancies himself a real man or woman.” He saved the entry and then opened the window for the initial bidding price, where he entered a beginning bid of 750,000 SLC. “That’s a bit low, but I really want to get rid of her more than I want to get rich off of her.” He closed that entry and opened the next one.

            When the sixth sale entry was entered, he printed a sheet of paper before he grabbed his pack and opened the privacy screen to exit the computer kiosk. Then he headed for the pokegirl center counter. A nursejoy in the traditional uniform of Ireland’s service pokegirls watched him approach and smiled when he stopped in front of her. “Good morning, sir. How can I help you?”

            He glanced at her nametag as he held up the sheet of paper. “Good morning to you, Kim. I’ve got these pokegirls for sale on pokebay and I want to go ahead and set them up for automatic transfer when the bidding closes and there’s a verified winner. If a pet owner or tradesman purchases one of them, I’ll go ahead and cover the transfer fee.”

            The nursejoy’s smile broadened. “Then there shouldn’t be any problem. I’ll load them into storage under your name and set everything up so they’ll ship out as soon as the auctions conclude.” She took the pokeballs and the paper he offered. “Thank you, sir, and have a good day.”

            “Thank you, Kim.”

            Once outside in the darkness, he headed straight for where Raven and the others were waiting. Rory lay limply over the mini-top’s shoulder. “What happened?”

            “He tried to get loud, so Whisper put him to sleep.” The archmage pointed down the street. “According to my twee, the closest police station is down that way.”

            Kerrik chuckled. “They’re called An Garda Síochána or Guardians of the Peace, but police works.”

            The officerjenny behind the counter merely raised an eyebrow when they came in through the double doors. “Sir, you’ve got a naked man with you. If you’re drunk, then you’re lost. This is neither your home nor your hotel.”

            “It was a good way to make sure he didn’t have any hidden weapons on him.” Kerrik waved in Misery’s direction. “The man my pokegirl is carrying is Rory Doyle and he’s wanted for several murders in the Blue League. I’m here to collect the bounty on him.”

            The officerjenny’s eyes had lit up at the word murders and she was busy on her computer. “Sir, I’ll have to verify his identity, but if he’s who you say he is, then you’ll get the bounty and my personal thanks for capturing him.”

            Raven’s eyes narrowed. “Personal thanks had better not mean blowjob or taming.”

            The police pokegirl chuckled. “I am perfectly happy with my tamer, alpha.” She came around the counter with a reader and ran a swab through Doyle’s mouth. The swab went into the reader and a moment later a light along the top of the device lit a brilliant red. “Oh, yes, this is Doyle, all right. He’s a right nasty piece of work. If you’re willing to wait until morning, the chief himself would probably want to thank you for catching him.”

            Kerrik shrugged. “I’m a tradesman and hunting is my job. If it’s all the same, I’ll just take the bounty and you can have him.” He motioned to Misery and she dumped the unconscious man in a chair. “Don’t forget the cuffs.”

 

(09/25/19 0700 London, Blue League)

            Misery watched the mouth of the alley as Kerrik finished the illusion spell. Raven frowned. “I thought you had to mimic real people, but I don’t remember seeing him before.”

            Kerrik had become a slender blond man. “It’s Val Kilmer from around the time he did the movie Top Secret.” He turned to his archmage. “You know what you need to do.”

            She grinned. “You are Adam Tomlinson. I call you Adam Tomlinson.”

            Whisper nodded. I call you Adam Tomlinson.

            Misery grinned. “Hey, Adam, your special pokegirl is here.”

            Elizabeth ducked past the mini-top and came to a halt. She was wearing a Metallica t-shirt and shorts. “Nick Rivers! I mean, Adam Tomlinson.” She held out a pokeball. “Here’s my ball, sir. Please be kind.”

            “Kind? Too late for that,” Misery grumbled. “You should have asked for that before we spent the last several days chasing kattle all over the fucking place.”

            We wanted to catch some for home. It may have gotten a bit out of hand. Whisper smiled at Elizabeth’s questioning look. We caught over a thousand of them, but that’s because we were keeping count and running a competition over who could catch the most. Kerrik trusted us not to get too out of hand and so he hadn’t kept a tally until we were already finished. I won.

            The vampire looked surprised. “Where are you keeping them herded up? They’re really hard to keep in large groups.”

            They’re in stasis in Kerrik’s backpack.

            “Oh. I didn’t know his pack could do that. It could have helped us.” She shook her head. “I know, if someone had bothered to ask and see if you could help.”

            “You wanted to do it on your own. Now that I’ve been called Adam Tomlinson, I need to put you all up so I can do this. Elizabeth, you’re still set up to go home as soon as you’ve saddled me with this girl, right?” He frowned when she smiled and nodded. “What is her name?”

            “Oh, sorry, I thought I mentioned it before. Her name is Morwen Davies. Her parents are John and Mary. Mary is an ingénue who evolved from a threshold bunnygirl.”

            Raven folded her arms. “Kerrik, you’re stalling. Just get this over with.”

            “Fine. Return to your pokeballs.” He watched them convert into red clouds and stream into the pokeballs on his belt before he held up Elizabeth’s. “Your turn.”

            Once the vampire was in her pokeball, he put it on his belt with the others and dismissed his backpack before he headed for the Davies home. It was a cozy little two story that looked in need of some repairs. He pushed the doorbell and waited. A powerfully built middle aged man opened the door and looked him over. “Can I help you?”

            “I believe we have an appointment.”

            The man cocked his head. “Mr. Tomlinson?”

            Kerrik smiled slightly. “Call me Adam.”

            “I’m John Davies. Please come inside.” He ushered Kerrik into a neat living room. “Would you like something to drink?”

            “That’s not necessary, Mr. Davies.”

            He broke off as a brunette woman entered the room. She looked at John. “I see we have a guest, sir. Will you be needing refreshments?”

            John shook his head. “Mary, this is Mr. Tomlinson. I didn’t want to bother you with this before now, but I’ve made arrangements for him to take Morwen. We’re to be well compensated for it, enough that I can start that business I’ve always wanted.”

            The blood drained from Mary’s face and she swayed where she stood. “You sold our Morwen,” she said in a mechanical voice. “I thought you said she’d be staying with us until she became a pokegirl and then she’d go to a ranch for training.”

            “Mr. Tomlinson understands she’s a pokekit and he knows the law, Mary. She’ll be fine with him.”

            “Fine with him, you say? Is he one of your friends, then?” When he shook his head, she burst into tears and fled the room.

            John’s face set. “Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Tomlinson.” He pulled open a drawer and removed a pokeball before striding angrily from the room. A moment later he returned, slipping the pokeball into his pocket. “I’m sorry you had to see that. Mary is usually very even tempered.”’

            Kerrik nodded sagely. “I’m sure this has all been a terrible shock for both of you. Threshold is never easy for the family.”

            Davies touched the lump in his pocket with an unreadable expression. “No, no it’s not.” He sighed and his tone became more businesslike. “You understand that she has special needs, right?”

            Kerrik smiled. “Yes, I’ve had experience with them before.”

            “After you called, I looked you up in the tamer database. You’re not listed.” Davies frowned. “What do you do?”

            “I’m in the tradesman listings. Among other things I do specialized investigative work and bounty hunting.”

            John nodded. “What interested you in Morwen?” He paused. “That’s not really her name anymore, since she’s a pokegirl. His shoulders rolled in a shrug. “What interested you in her? I had a lot of good bids, but yours was easily the highest I’ve seen for such an inexperienced pokegirl, even considering her rarity.”

            “A friend of mine recommended I add to my harem. When she comes of age, she’ll be a valuable contributor to it. I actually value her inexperience. Since she’s never had a combat tamer, I don’t expect her to have a lot of bad habits I have to break her of. In the meantime, my alpha can be helping her to learn how things run with us.” Kerrik made a show of looking at his watch. “I don’t suppose I could take custody of her now, could I?”

            Davies looked like he didn’t understand the words for a moment. “Of course. I’m sorry, it’s just been a long time since I had to talk through a sale.” He gave an uneasy smile. “And it doesn’t help that a week ago she was my daughter.”

            Kerrik rose with him and placed a sympathetic hand on John’s shoulder. “It’s ok if you’re uncomfortable with what’s going on. I’d be that way too.” He stared into the distance for a moment. “I know that when I start having children, every daughter is going to be a special nightmare just because of the potential for threshold.”

            “Thanks for understanding. I know she’s not a person anymore, but still...” John shook himself out of his reverie. “I’ll go get her.”

            Kerrik watched Davies leave the room and fought not to scowl at the man’s back. The man was the product of his world and this was what he and Shikarou were working to prevent, even if they weren’t using quite the same paths for their journey.

            When he returned, a young woman was walking in front of him. Morwen had started to develop, but still had a lot of filling out to do. She was wearing a blue short sleeved button down shirt, jeans and hiking boots. Her shoulder length hair was a rich brown and her blue eyes seemed brilliant in her pale face. Kerrik bowed slightly to her.

            John pushed her in Kerrik’s direction. “Here she is.”

            Kerrik noticed unshed tears in the man’s eyes and revised his opinion of him upwards a little. He focused on Morwen. “Do you have anything that they’re allowing you to take that you need to get?”

            She shook her head and replied in a quiet voice. “Master Davies says I need to make a clean break. He says it will be easier for me.”

            Kerrik suppressed a surge of irritation for the man. “I see. Then you’re almost ready to go.” He pulled a small jewelry box from his pocket and removed a pokekit identification pin from it. It was a gold pin with an emerald in the center of it. There was a gold ribbon hanging from the pin and attached to the bottom of the ribbon was an enameled pokeball with an X across it. He’d had this one commissioned after Elizabeth had talked him into taking Morwen and had it done in his colors, green and gold. “This will denote your status as a pokekit until you turn fifteen in six months.” He gave her a wry smile. “It may keep challenges for you to a minimum, but there’ll always be stupid tamers who’ll ignore it that we’ll have to deal with.”

            The young vampire took it and began pinning it to her shirt. “Yes, sir,” she said in a cautious voice.

            Kerrik shook hands with John. “Thank you.” A thought occurred and he turned back to Morwen. “You need to stay at my side as we travel through London. Tamers who scan you will be very interested and I don’t want you to be stolen. I’d have to do something about it and it would reflect poorly on us all.”

            A look of fear flashed across her face. “I will, sir. I don’t want to be stolen either. Anyone who would steal me would treat me like garbage, sir.”

            Kerrik suppressed a growl. It wouldn’t go well with his current look. “That is very true.” He glanced at John. “Good day, Mr. Davies.”

            John nodded, his hands clenched at his sides. “Good day to you, Mr. Tomlinson.”

            Morwen winced at the wan sunrise and shielded her eyes. In the light Kerrik could see that her pallor was much more serious than he’d thought in the house’s illumination. “Did you get breakfast?”

            She gave him a bemused look. “Breakfast, sir? I can’t eat food anymore.”

            “The fact that you drink blood doesn’t mean that the names of the meals change.” He looked around quickly. “Come with me.” They headed down the street at a quick pace and stopped in front of a small shop that sold baked goods. He pulled the door open. “After you.”

            “Thanks.” Morwen ducked inside and stopped, whirling around. “Sorry, sir. I didn’t say sir to you.”

            Kerrik sighed at the worried look on her face. “It’s ok.” He looked at the pokegirl behind the counter. “I’d like a cup of juice and three of those.” He pointed randomly at the collection of pastries on the counter. He paid for his purchase, grabbed a couple of extra napkins and steered Morwen back outside. He handed her the pastries. “Please hold these for a moment.”

            “Yes sir.”

            She watched as he gulped down the juice and carefully wiped down the inside of the cup with the napkins. “How were you being fed at home?”

            “My father, um, Master Davies got me some bottles of blood once he realized what was happening to me, sir. I think it was kattle. There was a picture of one on the bottle, but there wasn’t an ingredient list.”

            Kerrik paused. “The fact that you are now a vampire doesn’t change the fact that he’s your father. If you want to keep calling him that, I won’t mind.” He pulled a knife from his belt and glanced around to make sure nobody was nearby. “This isn’t illegal, but people can get a little funny about this sort of thing.”

            The vampire’s mouth dropped when he used the knife to open a vein in his arm. Blood softly spattered into the cup and she swallowed convulsively as the smell hit her nose and saliva filled her mouth. Her stomach made a loud noise. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

            Kerrik smiled when she didn’t add the sir. “A little, but you need fed.” Blood fell into the cup until the wound closed, leaving it a little over half full. He put the knife away and held out the cup. “Trade you for the pastries.”

            Morwen almost dropped the package in her haste to swap. The blood was warm and rich and nothing like the stuff she’d had before. She made a happy noise as she drained the cup and then licked out what she could before running a finger around the inside of the container and sticking it in her mouth.

            Kerrik watched her with amusement. “You could probably drink more, but right now I want to get somewhere quiet so you can meet your harem sisters.”

            She eyed his arm and nodded. “Yes sir.” She held up the paper cup. “Should I keep this sir? For later, I mean?”

            “No. I’ll get you a better one later.” He led her down to a city park and through the gate. In moments they were among the trees. Kerrik led her to a clearing.

            Inside it a shirtless young man was zipping up his pants. Nearby a nude pidgette watched him with a satisfied look on her face. Morwen suppressed a feeling of revulsion when she realized that a line of liquid was running down the pokegirl’s inner thighs. It surprised her when Kerrik gave them a look that suggested he was feeling the same way she was. His voice was cool. “If you’re quite done, I need this place now.”

            The tamer looked him over and looked Morwen over thoroughly. A smile appeared. “Cool. Want to battle when you’re finished with her?”

            Kerrik’s mouth thinned and he shook his head. “I’m a tradesman and I don’t battle.”

            “Oh. Fine, be that way.” The tamer finished dressing before he and his pokegirl quickly left.

            Morwen wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard her new owner mutter something about idiots as he pulled a pokeball from his belt and activated it. The woman who appeared was very familiar. “You!”

            The woman chuckled. “Yes, me. It’s good to see you again, Morwen.” She looked at the man. “How did it go?”

            “About like I thought it would. Her mother started to have a fit while we were finalizing things and John pokeballed her, the bastard.”

            Elizabeth sighed. “I’m glad Renee called Devon and he decided to call me. I’ll thank Devon the next time I see him.”

            Kerrik nodded. “It’s a good plan. I guess it’s a sign of my prejudice that I’m surprised that it came from Svetlana and Dorothea. I should be better than that.”

            “I’ll give them your love.” Elizabeth turned to Morwen. “We haven’t met before, not really. I’m Elizabeth.”

            “Are you his alpha?” Morwen remembered that she was this man’s now, “mine, I mean.”

            “No. I’m in a different harem, but his harem has good people in it and they’ll take good care of you. I do hope to see you again and I hope we can be friends.” She looked at Kerrik. “I will see her again, right?”

            “Of course you will. You turned her. It’s only fair that you help teach her, unless you think this frees you from your debt to me.” He flashed a smile when she shook her head. “Raven is a wonderful woman, but she’s not a vampire.”

            Elizabeth pulled a controller from her pocket and activated it. “Are you coming?”

            He shook his head. “Morwen needs outfitted and it’ll be easier to do here than on One. Besides, there’s something I want to take care of before we go back.”

            “Ok.” She hugged him and gave him quick kiss on the lips. “You take care of yourself.”

            “Not my harem?”

            “I know you’ll take care of them.” She glanced at Morwen. “Thank you for accepting her into your life.”

            “You still owe me.”

            She laughed. “Kerrik, considering that you made Shikarou, I owe you for my whole, wonderful life, including my perfect daughter.” She turned to Morwen and took the girl’s hands. “The one thing that you can always depend on is Kerrik. He won’t let anyone really hurt you, although you may think otherwise after training with his harem.”

            Kerrik waved a hand in the direction of a blue dot that hung in the air. “Your portal is here.” It quickly spread until it was a blue circle three meters across. “Stop pestering Morwen and go home to your child.”

            Elizabeth hugged Morwen, and looked into her eyes. “In the entire world, Kerrik is the one thing you can trust. I wouldn’t leave you with him if it weren’t true.”

            Morwen glanced at Tomlinson, who was standing with his hands clasped behind his back and rocking on his heels while he hummed a tune that tugged at her memory. “Who is Kerrik?”

            “He’s your tamer. He’s in disguise right now, but you’ll meet him soon enough.” She gave Morwen another hug. “I’ll see you later.” Then she slipped through the glowing circle, which closed and was gone.

            Kerrik settled down on the grass. “Morwen, please sit.” He watched wariness appear in her eyes. “I’m not going to rape you. You won’t come to any man’s bed until you turn fifteen and then only if you decide you want to.”

            Morwen hesitated for another few seconds before deciding that the only guidance she had was Elizabeth’s. She sat down where she was, which just happened to be several feet from him. “What now, sir?”

            “That’s a very good question. How mentally strong are you? Would you feel better if my alpha were out?”

            “Sir, with all due respect, she’d just do what you tell her to.”

            “I’m not sure I completely agree with you on that. Let’s find out.” He pulled a pokeball from his belt and activated it. “Well?”

            Raven appeared and chuckled as she sat down next to him. “I know you wouldn’t rape a girl, so I don’t have to worry about you ordering me to hold her down for you. However, for the record, if you told me to help you rape Morwen, I’d tell you to go to hell. I’m Raven and I’m the maharani for this harem. It’s the same thing as alpha.”

            Kerrik gestured. “Where are my manners? Morwen, meet Raven, my archmage. Raven, this is Morwen the vampire. And my name is not Adam Tomlinson, its Kerrik Wolf.”

            Morwen blinked. “I didn’t know you could hear inside a pokeball.” She blinked again. “Did you just curse at him?”

            Raven nodded. “There’s a trick to it, but I’ll teach it to you if you want. I can also let myself out or enter my pokeball whenever I want. And, yes, I did say hell in front of him. He curses and he doesn’t have a problem with us cursing. Until you’re a pokegirl, however, I’ll have a problem with you cursing.”

            Kerrik frowned. “That’s a double standard. I hope you don’t think I’m going to enforce that when you’re not around.”

            “I was hoping you would.” She gave him a look that Morwen recognized. It was her mother’s ‘let’s have this discussion away from the kid’ look.

            Either Kerrik didn’t recognize it or he didn’t care. “You can hope all you want, but it’s not going to happen. She’s old enough to decide if she wants to curse or not. You will not forbid her and you won’t punish her for it.”

            Raven frowned. “I can’t see your ears to read your emotions with that silly illusion up. Get rid of it.”

            “And make it easier to read me?” Kerrik chuckled. “I’m inclined to say no to that, too.”

            “Please. I like your ears.”

            Morwen stirred. “His ears? I can see them.”

            Kerrik grinned and put a hand on Raven’s knee as she started to snap at the vampire. “She hasn’t seen me without this illusion. Morwen, I’m going to drop this illusion and I ask you not to freak out or run. I have an illusion spell up. In my normal appearance, I have ears like a foxymaiden’s and really long hair. In fact, I look like I have the pokeboy gene blood curse. Raven likes to see my ears because she uses them to gauge my mood.” He cocked his head. “So, will you try not to freak out?”

            Morwen folded her arms in a gesture eerily reminiscent of Raven’s before he went to the Davies house. “I don’t freak out,” she announced haughtily.

            Raven grinned. “Oh, I like her. She has spirit.”

            Morwen paled. “Sorry, sir. I forgot the sir again.” She stared as Kerrik shimmered and assumed his true form. “Bloody hell,” she breathed.

            Raven started to say something and stopped herself. “He’s right, it’s your choice. What’s the plan from here?”

            “Morwen came with the stuff on her back and still needs outfitted with clothes and gear. London is a fine place to do that. Afterwards, you’ve got an errand I want you to run. When those two things are done, I think we’ll shake the dust of this world from our clothing and go home.”

           

(09/25/19 1850 London, Blue League)

            Raven looked around warily before ringing the doorbell. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, but this whole city made her nervous. The way that men and some women looked at her made her feel like the prey she hunted. She had to keep herself from getting aggressive each time they scanned her with a pokedex, but apparently Kerrik’s status as a tradesman had kept her safe so far. She didn’t like counting on it, however, and kept her eyes peeled for trouble.

            The door opened. A brunette woman with a puffy face that looked like she’d just been crying stared at her without curiosity. “Yes?”

            “Mary Davies?”

            “I’m Mary and I’m a pokewoman. I’m not John Davies’ wife. Look, it’s a bad day for me to see a salesman, so please go away.” She started to shut the door.

            Raven used her superior strength to stop it. “Look, I’m not here to try to sell you some bullshit vacuum cleaner. I’m here because my tamer sent me here with an offer for you. We’re going to be leaving soon and we don’t know when or even if we’ll be back, so he asked me to give you the opportunity to say goodbye to Morwen.” The ingénue stopped trying to force the door shut. “He knows you didn’t get to and that you love her.”

            “Who are you?”

            “My name is Raven and I’m his maharani. I mean I’m his alpha.” She sighed. “I keep forgetting to call myself the alpha. Do you want to see your daughter?”

            “Can I bring her some of her things?”

            Raven nodded. “Yes, just as along as you hurry up about it.”

            She was let in and waited in the living room until Mary came back with a bag of stuff. “I’m ready.”

            “Have you ever teleported before?” When Mary nodded, she took the woman’s arm. “Here we go.” The scene shifted and Raven pointed to a picnic table. “She’s over there.”

            Mary ran over and wrapped her arms around her daughter, clinging to her as she cried tears of joy. Morwen held her and looked at Kerrik, who nodded slightly and rose to his feet. “We’ll give you two some privacy. Ladies.”

            Raven and the others followed him a short distance away from the mother and daughter. “What is going on?” Misery was watching the pair.

            “Mary didn’t get a chance to tell her daughter goodbye. It’s very likely that they’ll never see each other in person again, although I don’t see any reason to not let Morwen keep in touch with her by mail.” Kerrik guided the mini-top around to look at him. “Let them be. When you have kids, you’ll understand.” He frowned. “Whenever that happens.”

            Whisper gave him a suspicious look. You know something. What is it?

            “Hunter pokegirls have a low reproductive rate, although they’re supposed to really like children. The only one I know besides you three is Hatsumi and she’s three hundred years old and has never undergone parthenogenesis.” His ears flicked. “That’s the real reason I developed the Earth Mother technique, so you could have kids. Unfortunately, since it’s restricted to pokegirls that are magic and plant, none of you can use it.”

            “Shit.” Misery scowled into the night. “No kids for three hundred years. That blows.”

            Raven cocked her head. “You made that technique for us?”

            “It doesn’t matter, since you can’t use it.”

            She took his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. “I asked you a question. Did I give away to the Nipponese a gift that you made for us?”

            He was still for a moment before nodding. “You did.”

            “Fuck!” Raven put her head in her hands and sighed. “I’m so very sorry. Do you have any of the stones left?”

            “I gave two to Shikarou and you gave one to Naruhito. That leaves a single stone until I get my powers back. Of course, each stone is pretty powerful in its own right.”

            Her head came up and her amethyst eyes glittered in the darkness. “You still have one?”

            “That’s what I said.”

            “Then we’ll find a way to make it work for us.”

            ‘Without my powers, I can’t adapt it any further. It won’t work for us.”

            “I said we’ll find a way, and we fucking well will.”

            “I don’t doubt that, it’s just that I feel like I’ve failed you. I couldn’t make it work beforehand and I shouldn’t have put the project on hold before it was completed.”

            If you had failed us, we wouldn’t be here now and you wouldn’t have rescued Morwen. I’ve looked through her mind and if we don’t scare her too badly in the beginning, she should adapt well to the harem.

            Misery snorted. “She’s that fucked up?”

            She’s that resilient and we’re not really that bad as long as we have Kerrik as our center. You show no signs of going any more insane, and even though you try to hide it, you are happy again for the first time in a long time.

            “Stay out of my head, you fucking bitch.”

            I cannot, any more than you can refrain from reading me or Raven or Kerrik when you touch us. Raven is happier too, and so am I. Kerrik, well, Kerrik has a vast well of the anger that makes him who he is, and it’ll take a lot longer to drain it than it will to empty ours. Still, I think he is better off with us, just as we are with him.

            Kerrik’s ears went flat and he started to say something when Mary stood up. “Master Wolf, may I speak with you?”

            He smoothed his face and turned to her as his ears came up. “Of course you can. May I help you with something?”

            “You don’t look anything like the man who took my daughter today.” She looked at his ears as they rotated and her eyes widened. “Oh, now I understand. You’re from Caomh Sith. I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t place the name until I remembered that the man who ran the place had ears like yours.”

            “That’s not commonly known. How is it that you do?”

            She smiled. “My tamer and I passed through there when John was still active. It was a nice place, but the rules there made him unhappy and we didn’t stay long. I do remember them, though, and I’m glad you have Morwen, sir. I know you’ll take good care of her.”

            “I intend to.” He glanced past her at the table where Morwen waited. “She’s a remarkable girl. Very self assured and rather creative.”

            She cocked her head and then nodded in understanding. “So you understand what she did. She just told me and I wanted to let you know.”

            Kerrik regarded her solemnly. “The vampire who turned your daughter is my daughter in law. According to her, this whole thing was planned because of just how remarkable Morwen is, although I don’t think I’ll tell her that for a couple of years. It was her decision and I want to encourage her personality to grow with that individuality intact. Just remember that and try not to be too mad at your husband for selling her. He was encouraged to do so by outside forces.”

            Misery stepped up and placed a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “We’ll take good care of her, outside of some really strenuous training. I wouldn’t want to be a bunnygirl either and what she did was really smart.”

            Tears glittered in Mary’s eyes. “Thank you. All of you. I just want my girl to have it better than I did and I know she’ll have that chance with you.”

            Raven smiled slightly. “We’ll be far away from here, but be sure and give Morwen your email address. I’ll make sure she keeps in touch. We may be her new family, but there’s no reason for her to forget such a loving mother.”

            Mary dabbed at her eyes. “She already has it and I’m glad to know I’ll be able to correspond with her.”

            Kerrik didn’t know about her love of drawing, but now that I do, he does. She’ll have time to indulge in it and the area around our home is very scenic.

            “I brought her drawing supplies with me.” Mary rubbed her eyes. “My heart is breaking because I’m losing her, but I don’t think she could have gone to a better harem.” She sighed. “I have to return home before John gets back from work. He tries as hard as he can, but he’s a tamer at heart and he wouldn’t understand.” She shrugged as if that explained everything. “Thank you for letting me say farewell to her properly. I’m ready to go now.”

            Raven took her hand. “Let me take you home.” She looked at Kerrik. “I’ll come out near the house in case he came home. See you in a minute.” She vanished.

            Kerrik went over and sat down next to Morwen. “I wish there were a way to do this that would make you happier.”

            “I’m ok. I’d have had to leave home eventually even if I didn’t become a pokegirl, it just turns out that it’s going to happen a bit sooner than anyone expected. Mother said I’m going to have a grand adventure, but I figure that’s just her trying to make things sound good. Are you going to tame me now?”

            “Not until you turn fifteen and only then if you decide you want to be with me. If you find someone else you like more, you can go with him or her.”

            “I’ll still need tamed. I can feel it already.”

            “The ladies of my harem will show you some things that will help.” He looked at her for a moment. “I have been with women younger than you, but not by much and we’re trying to establish a standard so people don’t go around raping pokekits and saying its ok. It does mean that your first taming experiences will be with other pokegirls.”

            “And when I turn fifteen?”

            “Then you’ll have a decision to make.”

            She gave him a curious look. “I haven’t said sir or master to you and you haven’t said a thing about it.”

            “I don’t care what you call me. My name works just fine.”

            “What if I run away? Since you haven’t bonded me, I could do that.”

            “Yes, you could. I’d suggest you wait until you know more about your powers so you’ll at least have a fighting chance to make it to another town or I’ll probably have to catch you once you go feral.”

            “You wouldn’t stop me?”

            He shook his head. “If you don’t want to stay with us, I don’t want you around. We don’t have many rules, but that’s a big one. As long as you’re with us, you’ll work hard, both in training to use your vampire powers and combat. On top of that you’ll have school. However, I’ll make sure that your free time is your own and I’ll take you places where you can draw, if you don’t like drawing the mountains we’ve got around our place. The only other thing I can guarantee is that we’ll be working alongside you and just as hard as we can. Even I’ll be there puffing alongside.”

            “You can’t keep up with a pokegirl. Even I know that.” She looked blank and then vaguely annoyed when everyone laughed.

 

Name:                          Wolf, Kerrik

Age:                             Unlisted

Residence:                    Kingdom of Haven - Currently Texas League

Status:                          Active

Rank:                           NA (5)

HRA rank:                    Colonel

Security Clearance:       Omicron

Licenses

Tamer                          Y

Master Tamer               Y

Breeder                        Y

Watcher                       N

Researcher                   N

Pet Owner                    N

Tradesman                   N

 

Active Harem 

Raven                           Archmage

Whisper                       Cabbit

Misery                          Mini-top

Morwen                       Vampire pokekit