A Way With Words - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kale strode out into the dim streets of Oromikalis, grinning like a madman. The cola lift surged through his core, thick with the rush of exposing his feelings so fully and making good his escape. He twirled dramatically in the middle of the street with arms wide open, then leapt into the air and clicked his heels together before breaking out in laughter. A middle-aged couple, up and walking down the street for some unknown reason at this hour, stopped and shook their heads.

"Those cola fiends are all alike," the woman muttered to the man.

"No we're not," Kale said, turning to them with a too-friendly grin. "Some of us are even worse than the others."

Muttering disapproval, the couple quickened their pace.

It was just as well; as much as Kale would have happily engaged a pair of complete strangers in superficial banter thanks to the cola lift, what he really wanted was to go back to his room, lick his wounds, and forget. Well, even that wasn't what he really wanted, but it would do. He walked down the street, swinging his arms in a silly power walk that just felt right in his altered state, and had reached the end of the block when Hannah's voice called out behind him. "Kale!" she cried out.

"You know," he said loudly, without looking back, "after what I've just told you, it's a good idea to stay away from me. I'm feeling rather prone to being impulsive."

"No, Kale," Hannah said as she caught up to him. "There's something else. It's about something completely different, but still very important." In her voice there was a tone of concern that sounded real, not merely the protest of a failed first date who wanted the last word. It was that tone that gave him pause.

Kale turned to face her, keeping his demeanor calm with effort, still half-expecting some bizarre argument or utter nonsense. "What is it?" he asked. "And speak plainly. I'm not quite myself at the moment."

"This sinister-looking man stopped me today, after our meeting in the alley," Hannah said. "He made me follow him to a private place, then said he was an Overhand, and he owed you some payback. He offered me a fortune to go on this 'date' and lead you into an ambush. Then he said if I refused, he'd make me disappear and I'd wind up in a discount whorehouse or a harem-slave to some petty thug boss somewhere."

Kale stopped and blinked, stunned by this cold splash of genuine danger in the midst of his giddy outing. "And now you're warning me at great personal risk, instead of collecting the payout of a lifetime for ridding the world of a spoiled, sarcastic jerk," he said. He moved closer to her.

Hannah nodded.

"Excuse me," Kale said, and he dusted himself off and squared his shoulders. "Everything I just said earlier still stands, and this is only the cola's influence acting."

Before Hannah could protest, he swept her up in his arms and kissed her. He noticed then just how thin she was, felt the bumps of her spine beneath the fabric of the dress, even as her warmth and the cloying sweetness of the cola lingering on her breath overwhelmed his senses. She returned the kiss, her soft, sweet lips and tongue hungrily exploring his, and he wanted to hold her like that forever, warm and vital in his arms, small but powerful, strong where he was weak. The kiss lingered for a moment of eternity in the haze of the cola lift, until when he withdrew, their lips were slick with each other's saliva.

Hannah stared at him with a breathless, open-mouthed smile. "Kale," she said, her brown eyes holding him with an unnatural intensity. "You know, never mind. Let's go back to your room and fuck."

Kale laughed. "That's definitely the cola talking," he said, giving her waist a little squeeze.

Hannah laughed too, a bit too loudly. "Damn," she said. "This stuff really does get a hold on you." She looked at him and forced a serious expression, but her eyes still had that look to them. "So, then, what are you planning?"

Kale's eyes traveled up and down her thin body, then met hers, and a ripple of warmth shot through him again. "I was only making an observation, just now," he said. "I wasn't saying 'no' or anything."

They were both giggling like maniacs by the time they made it back to Kale's room at the inn. Kale had an erection even before he started fumbling with Hannah's dress. She dropped her hook and slipped out of the dress, leaving her thin body in dark blue high cut panties and a plunge bra that pushed up and emphasized her smallish breasts. Like her dress, they were clean, new, well-made clothing, but presently they were just in the way. He wanted to take in the view, but she eagerly leapt into his arms without giving him much of a chance and kissed him again.

When their lips parted with a rush of warm breath, Kale summoned a final rush of willpower and drew back a bit. "The dwindling rational part of my mind tells me to consider that I've taken you out and gotten you intoxicated, when you're in desperate circumstances and I come from a position of privilege, and now we're about-"

Hannah rolled her eyes. "If you're still so very worried about taking advantage of me," she said with a scowl, "and if the way I sucked your cock earlier didn't convince you, what do you need? How can I persuade you that I thought you were irresistibly charming, handsome, and witty even before you practically forced that fiendish sweet nectar down my poor innocent throat?"

Kale stared at her flatly. "Now you're just fucking with me," he said.

"That's what I want to be doing," Hannah said with a smirk. "But instead, I'm just mocking you. And no, you don't get to complain after how you've behaved all evening. The fact that I wanted to jump on your cock enough to stick around through all that must tell you something."

Desire echoed through Kale's brain, and he fought to keep hold of his last sliver of clarity. "We need to think responsibly about all this-" he started.

"An excellent point," Hannah said with an arched eyebrow, "which we should address. Let's speak of responsibility. You know I have something of a cash flow problem right now. So if I should fall pregnant from what's about to happen, can I trust that you'll do the right thing?"

"Absolutely," Kale said at once, a surge of strange emotion coming over him at the thought. "I'd provide you with anything that you, and our child, could ever want for. Family is a serious-"

Hannah's snorting laughter cut him off. "Shit, Kale, I was just talking about footing the bill for some blightwomb tonic at the apothecary," she said. Her eyes and smile grew very large. "But that works too. I'll hold onto that thought. Now, if it's all right, I need to satisfy this maddening lust that's gripping me one way or another, and I'd prefer to have your help. The missing hand was the one I used to get myself off with, and this remaining one still feels clumsy down there even after all this time."

"If you put it that way, it seems like the only noble course is to come to your aid," Kale said, and he placed his hands on her thin shoulders.

"About fucking time," Hannah murmured sharply. "Hook release." The hook came off in her other hand, and she set it aside on the dresser and leaned into Kale's embrace.

She felt so thin in his arms, but resilient, not fragile. His raging cock poked into her skinny belly as he kissed her softly, again and again, and his hands drifted over her shoulderblades and the bony ridges of her spine to the clasp of her bra. With no hesitation, he unfastened it and slid the garment off of her thin frame.

Free from the confines of the bra, Hannah's small breasts hung lower and further apart than they had seemed, two pointy little sloping cones with bright pink nipples. A nervous tremor flashed across her face, as if worried he would think they were too small or funny-looking, as a younger, shallower Kale might have. But here and now, they were perfect. He moved her back to the bed and peppered her collarbone with fluttery kisses bearing just a hint of wetness, and felt her chest contract and vibrate lightly as she sighed happily. His lips drifted down next to her breasts, taking first one nipple into his mouth with a gentle sucking kiss, then the other sighs gave way to sharper cries of pleasure.

"Kale," Hannah gasped, breathing raggedly. "No more teasing, please. I'm already about to go crazy. Just fuck me now." She sat up, and her hand fumbled with the buttons at his shirt. He saw that her panties already had a slightly damp spot at the crotch, and she was squirming with anticipation.

Kale slid his shirt off when she had it unbuttoned, then moved down to pull Hannah's dampened panties away, revealing a cute little pussy blanketed by thick, wiry brown curls, just below her two visible hip bones. She glistened with wetness as he spread her outer lips to reveal the delicate pink petals within. Despite her pleas, Kale knelt down between her legs to taste her, and when his tongue drifted into her folds, her legs stiffened on his shoulders as she let out a sharp hiss, then a long moan of pleasure. She squirmed in maddened anticipation as he lapped at her folds, enjoying her response until, with an exasperated groan, she reached down to roll her fingertips around over her clit, seeking more direct relief.

Kale caught her hand and pulled it away, then met her frustrated stare by kissing her fingertips softly. "Not yet, Hannah," he whispered. "I'll do that for you."

Hannah snorted in dismay. "Even in bed, Kale, I swear you're the most teasing, infuriating- mmmph!! Ooh!" Her protests ended in a cry of pleasure when he went down and danced around her clit with thick swirls and strokes of this tongue, then sucked it lightly between his lips and bathed it in his full attention. He slid a single finger into her, curling up and probing her upper wall, and before too long she was crying out and writhing in ecstasy as a powerful orgasm overtook her.

When Hannah's orgasm at last subsided and she was left gasping and sweating on the bed, Kale rose above her and removed his trousers. His cock had long been hard and eager, its tip glistening with fluid, and he wasted little time in climbing into position and lining it up at her opening. Hannah groaned happily through a contented smile, eyes closed as he filled her. She embraced him, her hand stroking his hair and shoulders as the maimed arm rested at the back of his neck, holding his body close to hers while his hips rose and fell.

Surging with energy and lust, Kale blocked out all signs of fatigue as he trusted into her, again and again filling her with his cock as pleasure trembled through its core. Sweat fell from a few damp locks of his hair, dripping onto Hannah and making her writhe with momentary annoyance before the surging pleasure distracted her once again. She came at least one more time, her back arched and hips raised to meet him, and it was a few minutes beyond that when he finally buried his cock inside her to the hilt and exploded, powerful contractions in his cock sending thick streams of cum into her depths amidst a storm of pleasure as they shuddered together.

Kale smiled fondly at Hannah as he eased himself down onto the bed next to her, and she looked back at him with giddy disbelief, and a trace of wistfulness. "I can at least stay here in bed with you tonight, can't I?" Hannah said. "I'll bet someone else has claimed my usual shipping crate full of moldy blankets." She laughed with a touch of sadness as she traced a hand over a stray lock of his hair, brushing it away to look clearly into his eyes.

"No," Kale said with a sigh, "I'm afraid that tonight of all nights, that won't do." He saw her face fall, and he quickly added, "If memory serves, you've got some work to do that should pay well indeed. I believe there's an ambush out there tonight that you were to be very well-compensated for leading me into, isn't there?"

His cunning smile held as she saw her pained shock give way, first to dread and confusion, then to a smile of understanding that matched his own.

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Less than an hour later, Kale stumbled with mostly-feigned drunkenness down a poorly lit road among the Industry Point, walking past refineries and manufactories that were still clanging and grinding in an awful cacophony even at this late hour. His arm was around Hannah, who giggled and purred lewd and vivid enticements into his ear. Though his mind knew better, the cola believed them, and soon he had an iron-hard, throbbing erection tenting the fabric of his trousers despite having already had two intense, draining orgasms tonight.

"This way," Hannah said, and she led him into the labor yard behind an abandoned textiles plant. She giggled fetchingly. "Come behind these crates with me." She passed a tall row of stacked crates perpendicular to the metal wall of the manufactory.

"With you?" Kale slurred. "These crates? We're gonna come behind these crates?" He followed her behind the crates where there was a little corner that could not be seen from the road.

"Oh yeah," Hannah said with a giggle. "Come on, get those trousers open. You've got two hands, you're better for it than me."

Kale fumbled with his trousers uselessly for a second before pulling his straining erection out, then he flung himself into Hannah's embrace, lifting at the edges of her skirt to raise it as he also tried to lift her to his groin and pin her against the wall.

"Fuck it, Kale, just put me against the wall and put it in me," Hannah gasped. "Oh God, I'm so wet for you right now, baby." Her hand stroked and caressed his neck and shoulders, and she punctuated her words with little feathery kisses.

Kale fought against every cola-drenched nerve in his body to abstain from doing exactly as she asked. Instead, he fumbled with her skirts for a few seconds more, then stopped when he heard the expected scrape behind him. He spun around, erection jutting straight out from his open trousers, and saw a dozen shadowy figures, led by a tall man in a hooded black cloak. Most of them held improvised weapons: chains, pipes, knives, and other such items, but he distinctly saw four crossbowmen crouched behind crates nearby.

"Oh, this is pathetic," the hooded man said. "Is this really an end for an Adelcot Guardian? Killed in the midst of a drunken hookup in an industrial alley, with his cock hanging out?"

"Yeah?" Kale slurred, feigning drunkenness for a moment longer. "I dunno who you think you're gonna kill, but I'm the only 'un here and 's not me!" He gave them a dismissive, drunken wave. "Now get outta here, I'm tryin'a fuck this hot li'l slunt." He turned back to Hannah, feigning some incoherent drunken babble, from which he segued seamlessly into the Ancient Speech words needed for a magic spell: slow.

Before their assailants knew what had happened, a powerful wave of energy burst forth from their midst, causing those who succumbed to its forces to move clumsily at half speed. Kale was unimpressed as several of them hefted their improvised weapons and bellowed at him in slow motion, but three of them were unaffected: the tall hooded man, as well as a woman with a chain and a man with a metal pipe.

The crossbows now let loose their bolts, but Kale had enchanted himself with a protection from normal missiles spell prior to coming here, and they all bounced harmlessly from his body. He laughed defiantly at them, openly dropping the drunken charade, only to be reduced to yelping in fear as the tall hooded man charged him and swung a wicked spiked morning star at his head. Kale ducked just in time, and the weapon bounced off of the metal building with a resounding gong.

"You must have guessed it was an ambush," the hooded man snarled. "No matter. I had the foresight to bring a truly overwhelming-AACHHK!!" His boasts became a strangled cry as Hannah chuckled behind him, leaving the poisoned dagger she had drawn in the shadows stuck between his shoulder blades.

"He didn't guess," Hannah said. "I told him about it. And he's not the only one I told. Surrender now, and maybe there will yet be time to treat the poison on that knife before it takes effect."

"Backstabbing one-handed bitch!" the tall, hooded man roared. "I'll shove that ugly hook straight up your ass!" He raised his morning star to strike her.

Kale cast another spell: ray of enfeeblement. A blast of energy hit the tall man in the back, sapping his strength and foiling his swing so that Hannah could dodge it.

"Are you ready to give up now?" Kale demanded, but he was interrupted by the attacks of the man and woman unaffected by the spell. The woman's chain bounced harmlessly off of the protection afforded by the armor spell he wore constantly on his person, but the swung pipe struck through, hitting him in the side and sending him sprawling to the ground in an explosion of pain. His cheek and the foreskin of his still-erect cock both struck the gritty, filthy stone of the alley, scraping painfully, and abruptly he wished he'd taken the time to put it back in his trousers before the fighting broke out.

"Kale!" Hannah screamed, then her thrown dagger was deflected by the gauntleted arm of one of his assailants, just before she was surrounded by the encroaching circle of slow-moving henchmen, her back to the wall.

"Pick him up," the tall, hooded man ordered.

Hands grabbed Kale roughly by the arms and dragged him to his feet. He saw Hannah turn and try to climb the side of the building, but her hook couldn't gain any purchase on the metal siding, and four pairs of slowed hands grabbed her and pulled her back down, kicking and struggling.

"I've had my dick knocked in the dirt before a few times," Kale muttered, "but never quite so literally." He struggled against the two men holding him, but they were actually quite strong, and he got an elbow to the ribs for his troubles.

"Funny," the hooded man said. "Now then: the antidote to your poison. Or you will be in two pieces and a lot of pain very shortly." His grayish, exposed hands were now trembling and slick with sweat."

"All right," Kale gasped. "All right, you win, just don't hurt us."

"Antidote!" the hooded man snarled. "Now!!"

"There's a sheathed needle in my belt on the left side, attached to a glass vial with white fluid in it and a rubber plunger on top," Kale said quickly. "Stick yourself with the needle as close to the original wound as possible, and press the plunger in."

The hooded man reached to his belt and drew the vial, held it up the light for a second, and then handed it off to one of the slowed thugs. "Do it," he said, and turned his back on him. The thug with the needle pressed it into his back, then depressed the stopper.

In the grasp of the thugs, Hannah stopped struggling and sighed, scowling defiantly.

Kale met her eyes, and let one of the corners of his mouth turn up.

"Mmm, yes," the tall hooded man said, "I believe it's working already." He took one step forward, then another. "I... I can feel my strength coming back! I feel alive! Better than ever!" He threw his arms up in triumph, but then let out a strange whimper and keeled over onto the ground.

"That was just the euphoric feeling spreading before it hits your brain," Kale said. The 'antidote,' was a powerful sedative used as a kicker to the first poison, just to be safe. "Pleasant dreams, idiot." He looked around at the assembled thugs who were staring in shock. "I believe this is the part where I make the rest you a better offer. You might be interested to know that not only am I personally rich, but I'm in an excellent position to embezzle hundreds, even thousands of eagles in coin from the Adelcot Guardians' treasury."

As one, the thugs all looked to the woman who had wielded the chain, now holding onto his left arm. Kale felt her laugh slightly at his side, and turned his head to look at her expression. The half-scowl, half-smirk he saw was not reassuring.

"You must think we're really stupid," the Overhand woman said. "Don't you know that the entire reason we're here is because some idiot group of Overhands was gullible enough to think you were on our side? We have a firm chain of command, and a clear mission, and I'm sure your money's every bit as real as your antidote." She glanced down at the fallen hooded man and kicked him, then smirked. "But thanks for the promotion anyway." Her face hardened again as she looked back up at the thugs in front of her. "Cut his cock off and shove it down his girlfriend's throat."

Continued in Chapter 5...

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