70. Allure and Jealousy
Bonny looked up and smiled at her companions and the new visitor.
“Hi, Tamanna. What’s up?”
Tamanna stared, wide eyed. “I, uh, came to take you down to see Brooke and give you your earnings for the night. Uhmmm, can you fuck me like that?”
Bonny laughed and shook her head. “You’re still healing. Besides, I don’t think this’ll fit. It shouldn’t have fit inside her, but she’s weird.”
“She seems very happy.”
“I think that’s just her.” Bonny pulled free of Hyzenth and turned to her companions, willing the monster sized cock to vanish. When it did, she mentally touched the artifact to see that this was a new, third option for the future. Not a great option, but there nonetheless. “Let’s go see Brooke.”
“No, wait. Come back.” Hyzenth called from the bed. She was scooping cum from her cheeks and licking her fingers. “You still need to fuck my ass. Please!”
“No. We’re done for today. One of your men can assist if you need more, can’t they?” Bonny glanced over at the two men, who had never gotten up from the table. She wondered what their stories were.
“We’ll take care of her.” The stag seemed to be the primary spokesperson. He flicked silver coins to Tamanna and Bonny. “Can you send some drinks up? Ale or beer.”
“Yes. I will.” Tamanna caught and looked at the large silver square. “Uhm, this is too much, do you want change?”
“No. Keep it. Thank you.” He smiled at Bonny. “And thank you, Bonny. For both shows.”
After a quick stop to relay the drink orders, they headed down to the bottom floor, which was half filled with water. There was a watery atrium with several rooms opening off to the sides. A walkway extended left and right and circled around to allow entrance to the private rooms via a back door, without getting wet.
Tamanna answered the unspoken question. “Many of our customers are aquatic and quite a few like sex in the water. It’s all filtered and cleaned, of course.”
Bonny looked around as the walked, stopping often to examine the artwork, which covered the walls and primarily featured lake and sea scenes. Most of the paintings had mermaids, beaver kin, or otter kin, either copulating or posing nude. A few were portraits of whales, orca, or dolphins.
She had seen a few upstairs as well, but they hadn’t really registered. Down here, though, almost every wall panel had something decorating it. They passed a photo-realistic nude of Tamanna, who blushed when Bonny stopped to admire it.
Tamanna finally stopped and knocked on a door painted with a mural of a mermaid.
“Come in, please.” The voice was high pitched, musical, and alluring.
The ferret pushed the door open and led them inside. They walked into a large artificial grotto with a deep pool covering about three quarters of the floor. There was a huge clamshell with a bed on one side of the room, above the waterline, and several platforms at different depths in the water. Decorative water plants and structures embellished the walls.
The dry floor was rocky, with a path to the clamshell bed. A mermaid in a baggy t-shirt sat on a shaped rock below the foot of the bed, near steps leading up from the water, with her tail was submerged. An easel stood in front of her and she held a palette in one hand and paintbrush in the other.
“I’m sorry. I’m not taking customers right now.” She lifted the brush and touched up the picture, which was turned so that they couldn't see what she was working on.
The mermaid’s melodic voice pulled at Bonny’s soul and the implied rejection crushed her.
“Brooke, this is Bonny. She’s the healer.” Tamanna explained.
“Oh. I assumed … I’m sorry.” The mermaid set down her tools and turned to face them.
Brooke had light blue skin and scales, with darker blue hair that fell, in waves, halfway down her back. Her large aqua irises and water coloring reminded Bonny of the California beaches on a bright sunny day.
A wave of homesickness swept over her and Bonny stumbled as she closed her eyes and imagined the waves, the breeze, the crowds, and the surfers.
“Are you okay, Bonny?” Freja stepped forward and caught her by the arm. Eloisss grabbed the other and they guided her down to sit on a rock.
“Yes, I’m okay. She just …” Bonny looked at Brooke again. “You remind me of home. I lived near the ocean.”
Brooke smiled. “I have that effect on some people. I hope they were good memories.”
“Yes,” Bonny smiled back. She wanted to dive into Brooke, to feel her cool waters wash over her. She shook her head and got back to business. “You said you weren’t taking customers. Is that because you’re sick?”
“Yes. Sex is painful and I have a rash on my stomach.” Brooke pulled up the t-shirt to mid-abdomen. A rash started at her scale line, which ran around her hips. The rash extended out to her hips on each side and several inches, touching her belly button. The sores were red and a few were open and oozing.
“Triage! Spirit Triage!” The black corrupted lines were there, as expected, but there was something else. A dark center that pulsed in time with Brooke’s heartbeat. Bonny stood and moved closer, but couldn’t make out what it was. “Can you move to the bed? Kanae, I’ll need your help again.”
“Can you cure me?” Brooke’s melodic soprano had a few lower notes mixed in, still beautiful, but almost depressing.
“I think so. It looks worse for you than it did for Nahia, but we shouldn’t have the same complication.”
Brooke pulled herself over near the bed with her arms, then stood on her tail and pulled herself onto the bed. The rest of the group followed, surrounding the bed. Kanae jumped up on it, on the opposite side of Brooke.
“I’m going to try something different this time. If you’re okay with it, I’ll have Kanae to put you to sleep. We’ll wake you when done.”
Brooke seemed hesitant. “I don’t know you or your friends. I am tired though, sleep has been hard with the itching.”
“Tamanna will stay here to make sure we don’t do anything too invasive. Are you okay with that?” Bonny turned to the ferret, who was watching from the other side of the bed. “You can stay, right?”
They both agreed.
Bonny poked Kanae in the nose. “Go ahead, please.”
Kanae yipped and Brooke almost immediately relaxed into sleep. She had a quiet snore that was still melodic, almost like a background soundtrack.
“Pain Management! Demonic Triage!” Bonny reduced Brooke’s pain to zero, hoping to keep her from waking up. “Kanae, how much control do you have? If she starts spasming or bleeding like Nahia, can you keep her asleep?”
The fox nodded.
“Thanks.” She smiled at Kanae, who wagged her tail and gave a foxy grin back.
Bonny then went back to examining Brooke, concentrating on the dark core that beat inside her. It seemed separate from the web of dark lines that everyone else had, but was attached to them. Was it providing energy and making the corruption worse or doing the opposite and pulling power and corruption from the infection? Would everyone have developed a core if they had been sick longer or was the mermaid special?
“Tamanna, uh, can I call you Tammy?”
“You can call me anything, as long as you call me.” She winked at Bonny.
Eloisss groaned. “Not another one. When Miu and I agreed that you could have a harem, we didn’t esxpect you to pull in every unattached woman in the scity. That’ss not even counting your godss and demonesss.”
“Eloisss, are you jealous? You brought up sex in exchange for healing Tammy, then urged me to fuck Hyzenth. What’s up now?”
“Thosse were ssingle encounterss. Tam … anna is changing her classs to imitate you and iss assking to join. With Violet, there are already sseven of uss. That'ss one per weekday, onsce Kanae is cured.”
“No? I don’t think she’s asking to join us.” Bonny turned to the ferret, who seem confused at the sudden change of subject. “Are you? We won’t be staying here after the war.”
“War?” Tamanna shook her head. “No. I don’t mean to come between you two. I like it here, I don’t want to leave.”
“See, Eloisss? I’m sorry to worry you, but this really isn’t the time.” Bonny pointed at Brooke. “I’ve got to get busy.”
“Bonny, you sshould know that Brooke’ss power only workss on the weak willed.”
“What are you implying? I am not weak willed.”
“Yess, Bonny. When it comess to women … jusst, look around.”
“I, uh,” Bonny looked around at other four in the room. She had fucked all of them, not counting Brooke. She thought back over the past few days, of Nellie and the cowgirl twins, of Violet, of the eagerness with which Tammy and Hana had joined her on stage, and of Hyzenth. Had she turned anyone down or had she accepted every girl that seemed interested?
Obviously the latter.
“Uhm, okay. Maybe I am. But we really need to get to work here. Can you keep any further comments to yourself until we get back to the warehouse?”
“Yess. I am oathbound to sserve you. I will keep quiet and asccept your descissionss, ass a sservant sshould.”
Bonny ignored the sarcasm for the moment to describe the condensed corruption that Brooke had. “So, that’s why I wanted Kanae to put her to sleep. One other possibility is that she’s a cultist. Freja and Tammy, can you pull up her shirt and examine her for any marks? I’m going to turn my back so that Eloisss doesn’t get jealous because of me looking at Brooke’s breasts.”
“She wouldn’t be a cultist, she’s really nice.” Tamanna protested.
“Just do it. Please? I’ll be back in a minute.” Bonny grabbed Eloisss’ hand and pulled her to the door.
Once outside, Bonny turned to the lamia. “What’s really the problem? You turned down sex yesterday in the tower and again today. Now, while I’m trying to cure this stupid curse, you’re getting jealous and sarcastic?”
Tears welled up in Eloisss’ green flecked eyes and the vertical pupils softened and rounded out. “It’ss not the healing or ssex. I like that you help people and you’re optimisstic. I lik … I like watching you have ssex. I liked watching that sstuck up bunny choke on your cock. I … just …” Her voice faded and she rubbed at her eyes.
“You just?” Bonny prompted.
“I LOVE you, Bonny!” Eloisss shouted. She crouched in on herself, arms crossed and head down. Her hair fell forward, covering her face.
Bonny stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the lamia and hugged her tight. “I think I love you too, Eloisss. You and Miu are my closest friends. You’ve been with me almost since the beginning, but this isn’t just about love.”
“I … I want you to look at me, like you looked at her. At ... the mermaid.” She sobbed, her chest heaving. “I don … don’t want you to leave me.”
“Eloisss. I’m not going to leave you.” Bonny squeezed her as tight as she could, then let go and cupped the lamia’s cheeks, forcing her head up. “Look at me.”
Eloisss did. Her face was streaked with tears and snot.
This was so unlike the straightforward, plain spoken warrior that Bonny paused, speechless.
“I love you, Bonny. I’ve never loved anyone before. I don’t know what to ssay or do.” Eloisss’ voice was quiet, barely audible.
Bonny pulled Eloisss into another hug. “Neither do I. But we can figure it out. Together.”