Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (7 page)

“I’m heading back to Central Isle,” Alice said. “I need to check on the radio reports.”

Silvario gave her a pleading look with his old purple eyes. “We have a favour to ask of you, but please have a little rest first. Jonathan will bring you to us when you are ready.”

He walked off before Alice could even argue. She scowled, for she had business to attend to back on Central Isle. Following the death of General Wallace, General Azalea had been communicating less and less, and over the past fortnight she had not received one single report from Tropica. Alice needed to know what was going on.

“Come on, let’s get you out of that armour,” Jonathan said helpfully. “You’ve got dried blood all over the back of your head.”

Alice grumbled but allowed herself be led to one of the adjoining rooms. There were corridors filled with little rooms intended for Supernatural habitation. Some were permanently occupied and others were just for temporary stays, and standing at one end they seemed to go on forever. She had stayed in one of these rooms before on an extended mission and she had to admit that they were quite cosy for an underground dwelling.

The room inside had floral light blue tapestries hanging over the stone walls, a comfy looking green double bed, and an assortment of brown and beige rugs on the floor. The furnishings were very old fashioned but quaint, and there was a wooden door that led to a bathroom.

Alice placed her hammer on the bed alongside her submachine gun and began fiddling with the armour’s auto-catches. She felt a lot better since the Bloodmage had healed her head, but she was still completely exhausted. She hadn’t been sleeping well and her missions assisting the resistance movement were ever so taxing, but it still beat sitting around doing nothing. She hated the feeling of being powerless.

“Here, let me help,” Jonathan said, standing behind her.

“What do they want me to do?” Alice asked, as his hands fumbled for the catches that would automatically release sections of her power armour.

“They need you to cross over into the Gloom,” he said as the little catches by her shoulder plates whirred. He detached them and put them delicately on the floor before moving onto her torso armour.

“The Gloom?” she asked, feeling confused.

“Our potions are probably running low.” He pressed on the catches hidden underneath her spine panels they all spun, causing the armour to baulk outwards before separating in half.

Alice placed the front half down by the shoulder plates and Jonathan put the back section next to it. After that, it wasn’t difficult to get her arms and legs free. She sat down on the bed and sighed tiredly.

Jonathan stood in front of her, placing his hands delicately upon her bare shoulders and caressing them gently. She reached up and placed her hands on top of his; whatever he was doing was so relaxing. Suddenly, she realised with a jolt that she was only in a strapless white bra and underpants. Alice looked up and saw the desire in Jonathan’s handsome purple eyes. She flinched away, blushing heavily.

“A little privacy please?!” she shouted.

He blushed as deeply as Alice was, and moved away. Cleary embarrassed, he apologised thoroughly and left the room.

Alone, Alice sighed again. She couldn’t believe how easily she’d forgotten herself. It was like she had been caught up in a current and drifted naturally along without thinking.

The bathroom was antiquated but had all the regular comforts of a modern one. The bathtub was big and copper coloured, and being used to showers she felt like baths were a nice treat, so she turned the taps on full pelt and let it fill up with very hot water. Dealing with the Freaks always made her feel dirty, not to mention what had almost just happened with Jonathan.

Alice sank in the pleasant bath and exhaled happily before lowering her face beneath the hot water. She scrubbed the blood off the back of her head and emerged again, resting her head against the tub.

As she washed, she thought about Jonathan. How could she be so careless as to let a Supernatural of all people get so close? Alice prided herself on being a virgin – her duty and her faith had always come first – but then her Twin Goddesses had turned out to be twin Archmages who’d resisted Omniosis back in the times before time. She often had to remind herself that her religion wasn’t entirely correct. Her upbringing had been so devout and pious, and it seemed like madness to question or doubt it, but the facts were the facts. She wondered how many other things she could be mistaken about.

Her thoughts wandered back to Jonathan. The way he looked at her, the look of longing and passionate desire clear on his handsome face… how could he look at her like that? Alice knew she was far from ugly, but she wasn’t anything special either. She was definitely no Cherriesa; that was for sure. She looked down at her naked body and cupped her breasts after she’d washed them. They were a good handful in size, and she thought that her dark brown nipples were quite pretty. Maybe that was what he liked about her? But then there were plenty of girls with bigger busts out there. Alice kept in very good shape, a drilled in habit of a militaristic upbringing, so her stomach, legs and backside were well toned. Was that what he liked?

Alice slammed her fists into the water, sending splashes out of the sides of the bath and onto the bare stone floor. She was so angry at herself. Why was she so obsessed with this line of thought? It seemed odd now, but she had never really thought of herself as a woman before, except for the butterflies she used to get in her tummy when she’d talk to the old Autocrat Edgar Aurelius II, Goddesses bless and guide his soul. And now she was picking apart her looks because some half sophisticated, half cheeky Mage wanted to bed her? Alice shook her head. No more. She wouldn’t let herself think a second longer about the matter.

Scrubbing herself harshly, she forced her mind onto what the Trinity wanted. A trip to the Gloom spelled great danger for her, what with Winston’s crafty alliance with the evil puppet-things. Why the hell couldn’t they send one of the other Book Wielders? Flicking through her book every now and then and being able to negate the powers of others surely couldn’t put her ahead of the ones that had been doing it for years, decades, and maybe even centuries. She would have to try and get a hold of Azalea afterwards. As much as she cringed at the fact, the Inquisition needed the alliance with the Trinity if they ever hoped to defeat Omniosis, though she hated to admit it.

Satisfied with her cleanliness, she treated herself to a moment’s rest in the hot steaming water. Alice closed her eyes, and there he was again. She was angry with herself, but at the same time so relaxed that she couldn’t even be bothered to fight it. In her mind she was back on the bed, with Jonathan looking so intently down into her white eyes. She imagined his hands moving down from her shoulders and undoing her unflattering bra. Alice’s chest rose and fell as her breathing increased, and the surface of the water bobbed in gentle waves as she guessed what his hands would feel like on her skin, or squeezing her breasts, or playing with her nipples. Without registering it, she was already pulling on them herself. Her legs rubbed together as she pictured their long and passionate kiss.

With a jolt, she realised that her fingers had run through her wet black pubic hair and down into her pussy. It felt so good and she wanted to so badly, but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t. Alice sat up and splashed the water against her face, running her fingers through her soaking brown hair. What had gotten a hold of her?

She was just about to get out when the thought of him pushing her down on the bed crept slyly into her imagination. He eagerly pulled her bland underwear down her legs and rubbed her hair-covered pussy lovingly. His clothes vanished and she thought of him climbing on top of her, imagining his long hard kisses and what it would feel like to have his manhood inside of her.

Before Alice knew it she had slunk back into the bathtub, her legs parting as she gave into temptation and buried herself within her fantasy. Her fingers rubbed against her clit, delicately at first and then with increasing speed and pressure as the pleasure surged throughout her body. Finally, she slipped her fingers in and out of her pussy as she screamed in climax. Alice’s body convulsed violently as she came; she’d never known a feeling like it before.

Alice got out of the bath and wrapped a big white towel around her body. She felt filthy and ashamed with herself. What the hell was happening to her?

She walked back into the main room and saw that a pretty black dress with golden patterns and a pair of black slip-on shoes had been laid out on the bed for her. Alice’s heart fluttered; Jonathan must have left them out for her. Then she got mad. He’d come back in the living quarters after she’d asked for privacy. She decided to focus on the anger and go with that.

Alice got dressed but felt a bit silly in the nice black dress. The last time she’d worn a dress was when she was a little girl. She dried her hair with the towel as best she could and quickly brushed it. Staring into the room’s mirror, she was amazed at how different she looked. Alice went to tie her hair up in a ponytail like normal but in the end she decided that it looked better down, and she left the room.

Jonathan was waiting for her outside of the door, leaning casually against the wall. “About what happened…”

Alice blushed, thinking of her fantasy and what she’d done to herself in the bath. “It’s fine,” she snapped quickly.

Jonathan looked hurt but quickly composed himself. “I brought you something to help with how you’re feeling.” He pulled a small glass bottle filled with oddly coloured fluid out of his pocket, similar to the one Silvario had in the dockyard, and put it in the palm of her hand.

“I’m not interested in your potions,” she said in a disgusted voice. If she just kept focusing on the anger then the feelings would stay away.

“You should be,” Jonathan said, walking off back towards the common room. “If you’re going into the Gloom then you need to be fully charged.”

Alice had started following him without even noticing. “What is it, then?”

“An energy potion. A pretty basic one, but it will fix you up nicely.”

“I said I’m not going to drink it,” Alice stated defiantly.

“Fine, be stubborn, but you’ll probably end up dead in the Gloom. I’ve known plenty of Book Wielders who went in there overconfident and never came back. Some were even Supernaturals.”

“Did they have a spell-forged hammer and a suit of state-of-the-art power armour?” Alice sneered.

“No, just magic and skill that they’d honed for decades. Does your hammer and armour give you the speed of a Werewolf Swiftpaw or the strength of a Vampire Ironfang?  Do you have a mastery of all the arcane arts at your disposal like a Mage does?” Jonathan asked, imitating her tone of voice.

Alice made a face at him. It was getting easier to dislike him, but ultimately she gave in. She only knew little snippets of information about the Gloom and the Freaks and Demons within it. The only time she had been there was when the Twins had pulled her high above into the sky to reveal the truth of things to her, and that lack of experience put her at an obvious disadvantage. She cringed and drank the potion quickly, expecting it to taste vile, but in truth the liquid was sweet and tingly, tasting almost like a strong mint. She could feel it slithering down her throat, and then it seemed to spread a jolt of energy through her body. Even her stressed out weary mind became cool and refreshed.

“Told you,” Jonathan said after measuring her reaction.

Alice gave him a fake smile as a retort. He was right and she didn’t want to admit it. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so full of life.

“So, are we going to see the Trinity now?” Alice asked quickly, trying to slow her pace to match that of Jonathan’s.

“Not just yet. I’ve got us some food on the way,”

“Oh, okay,” Alice said in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that, but then it had a long time since her last meal. “Thanks...”

“It’s fine, it’s not like I’ve taken you anywhere fancy or anything,” Jonathan joked.

Alice bit the inside of her lip. He was kidding but she really did want to go somewhere nice with him, and then she started thinking of her fantasy again. She started hoping that a trip to the Gloom would actually clear her head of the filthy and loved-up thoughts.

They got back to the main common room, and sat down at the end of one of the long rectangular tables on comfortable padded antique chairs. At the far end of the room was a long bar, just opposite to where they were sitting, and behind that was a kitchen area. Jonathan gestured to one of the Supernatural staff and they walked into the kitchen, emerging shortly after with a big tray of food.

“I ordered when you were in the bath,” Jonathan said, wriggling out of the way of the waiter. “You were in there so long that it was ready before we walked in, so it worked out quite well.”

Alice went bright red, nodded and kept her eyes focused on the food.

They both had a big plate of sliced roast chicken, roast beef, pork sausages, sage and onion stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, an assortment of boiled vegetables and a large silver jug each filled with thick creamy gravy. Jonathan had a glass of red wine with his dinner and Alice stuck with water.

Alice’s stomach rumbled. “Thank you again for this,” she said politely.

“Hope you enjoy it. I know I will,” Jonathan said with a smile.