Spell, Crook and Handle Pt. 02

I fell into the room beyond with Tatiana beneath me. I was bleeding from bites and scratches all over my arms, chest and face. I slowly rolled off of her and she lay there stunned. I checked the back of her head to make sure she wasn't hurt. She wasn't injured but something more profound. The spells that kept Yig from entering had severed his connection with his daughter. She sat up and looked at me. Her eyes were wide with confusion.

"What did you do," she asked. "What the fuck did you do? Where is my father?"

"He is outside that door," I said pointing to the door we had entered. "If I have done something wrong all you have to do is step outside."

"I am free," she asked tilting her head to the side as if listening for something. "Father is truly gone?"

"Yes," I said.

Tatiana sat down on the floor and stared at the half open door. I got up and looked around the small room and saw that it was in fact an antechamber that led into the treasury proper. I pushed the door on the far side and it opened to reveal a chamber I estimated to be a hundred feet square piled high with coins, gems and the occasional artifact or relic. While nothing on the scale of Scrooge McDuck's vault the amount of wealth here was staggering.

This amount of gold alone could buy and sell small countries. I bit back the urge to scream and looked for the Heart. This is why I was here after all. I did pick up a few of the coins to get an idea of their age and was completely shocked by what I found. I turned the newly minted gold Krugerrand in my hand over to check the date. It had been minted only a few years ago. How the fuck was that even possible? If someone had visited here why the hell were they carrying around a coin like this? No wait, Tatiana has never entered this room before so how the hell did it get here?

"What the fuck is going on here?"

I shouted as I found a patch of floor where I could sit and examine the coins and nearby artifacts. I grabbed a handful of coins and many were newly minted and yet in that same group were gold doubloons crafted in the 16th century. This place truly was maddening. I was naked in a treasury with no way of carrying out anything but the damn Heart of Ashurbanipal. I let out a heavy sigh and then laughed.

"Is it safe to come in," Tatiana asked. "You are making some very strange noises in here."

"Just a treasure beyond compare, in a site that would rewrite every history book and I am here to take out a single gem."

"I don't understand," she said sitting down next to me.

"Of course you don't. You have been locked up with a demon king in your noggin and no clue what this is all worth."

The sound she made as she began crying broke my heart. I held her and she shook as she sobbed. No, I was the one that didn't understand. Most of my life had been boring and normal beyond measure. Tatiana couldn't possibly have had a normal moment in her entire life. What must it be like to house an alien god in your head every damn day?

"I am so sorry," I told her as her tears slowed. "I wasn't thinking."

"My ass still hurts," she said punching my arm. "You raped my ass you ignorant prick."

"You had it coming," I replied. "You did get my friends killed."

"I saved your fucking life and repay me by taking my anal cherry," she growled.

"You liked it and you know it," I shot back.

She broke our embrace and slapped me. I slapped her right back. Her kiss was fierce, sudden and stoked my hunger to a volcanic heat. Tatiana climbed into my lap and straddled me. She pressed her tits into my chest as she teased my cock just as her mother had. She rocked her hips and let her pussy lips slide along my length. If she took me inside of her I don't think I could hold back. All those pent up emotions were seeking release.

"Stop," I said breaking our kiss. "If we make love, you are going to die!"

"I don't care anymore," she said shoving me away and getting to her feet.

I watched her pace back and forth and look back towards the door where her old life laid waiting. If she went back she would belong to Yig and I could see her confusion and her anger. Then she smiled and began to tell me all about her childhood before her mother had gone mad. How they spent moonlit nights in the ruins above away from the madness. Anastasia had even told her that one day they would leave this place forever.

"How did she get here," I asked. "Your mother was believed killed along with her family."

"It was Grigori of course," Tatiana said sadly. "It was his dark magic that had spirited her away. He wanted to save her but the spell went wrong. It sent her here instead of wherever he had planned."

"You are talking about Rasputin," I said.

"Yes," she said. "I don't want to go back. I... you have earned your revenge upon me. If you don't kill me I will find a way myself."

"Let's not get carried away," I said but the words sounded hollow even to my ears.

"I killed your friends," she shot back angrily. "I have more blood on my hands than you know or suspect. I deserve to be punished."

How could I fight that kind of logic? But if I took her life I would have another soul on my conscience. She was as much a victim of Yig as the poor bastards she led here to their doom. What would my mom do? I know it sounds crazy but when I am in over my head I throw my mom into the equation. If my mom were here she would and the answer came quickly and easily.

"I forgive you," I blurted out.

"What," Tatiana looked at me like I had hit her between the eyes. "After everything I have done you forgive me?"

"It is what my mom would do," I said and she smiled. "What?"

"So you place yourself in her shoes and that's your answer," she said and I nodded.

"Guilty as charged."

"You are a good man."

"Maybe, but that hard part is still ahead of you," I said and she raised an eyebrow. "You need to forgive yourself."

I stood up and left her with that to chew on. As I looked at the piles of coins I heard a distinctive sound.

'Tink!'

"Did you hear that," I asked and Tatiana nodded.

I scanned the room looking for any sign of movement. There it was a single gold coin spinning on its edge. I raced over and scooped it up. It was another Krugerrand and the date was last year. How the hell did it get in here? I looked around and then I looked up. I felt my brows furrow as I stared at the design on the ceiling. It was twenty or so feet up and appeared to be very intricate. Tatiana moved to stand next to me and looked up.

"Oh, that makes sense," she said as if gold coins materializing out of thin air were commonplace.

"Care to share," I asked.

"Those things are all over the place. You are not going to like it."

"Just tell me," I said bracing myself for the worst.

"As I understand it," she said pointing at the design on the ceiling. "Those things allow for instant transportation through the entire complex."

I lowered my head, pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a long cleansing breath. She clung to my arm and apologized. After a short pause she told how Yig wanted to break my will so I could be manipulated as easily as she had become. I asked her how it worked and she shook her head. She told me how she would awaken in a completely different area with no memory of how she got there. I wanted a better look at it, whatever the hell it was.

I cleared my thoughts and for the first time in weeks cast a very simple but effective levitation spell. I slowly rose towards the ceiling and Tatiana watched in awe. I placed my hands above my head to stop my movement when I got close enough to the design. I looked at it in great detail and smiled. The best way to describe it would be a hybrid of a chemical structure with a circuit board. The runic characters definitely belonged to the builders and were roughly hexagonal in shape. They were connected in a kind of honeycomb pattern. I could read the symbols but how it worked was far beyond me.

There was only one way to find out how it worked. I reached up and touched the center of the design and the effect was instantaneous and horrifying. It was the same as when I touched the alien Rosetta Stone. I couldn't move my hand from the structure etched into the ceiling. The center rune began to glow with a soft blue green light. Then an adjoining rune glowed and so on until the entire structure was ablaze with ever increasing intensity. I closed my eyes and tried and failed to break free.

'Unclean! Polluted! You will be CLEANSED!'

The all-encompassing voice surrounded me and filled my entire being. There was no escape from the presence. The light died and with it came the soul biting darkness that enveloped me. I felt my hand being pulled into the stone ceiling and I tried to scream but I had no voice in that perfect abyss. I was being absorbed completely and the cold was everywhere. I found my scream as my feeble attempts at thwarting the invasive personality failed utterly. I was a mote of dust in the cosmic scale that surrounded me. My ego was smashed, my identity erased and my individuality inconsequential.

'Purge complete,' the voice whispered as I floated in that stygian blackness.

My mind went blissfully blank. I opened my eyes and I could not move. I tried to lift my head but the pain halted that instantly. It wasn't an agony I was familiar with. The closest thing I could compare it to would be as if every muscle in my body were severely bruised. Tatiana sat nearby but feared to touch me. I tried to speak but the pain didn't stop locally. Everything hurt and I do mean everything. When my eyes focused on an object it hurt like hell. Hell closing my eyes felt like a kick in the groin.

"You live," Tatiana asked.

"Yes," I whispered. "Damn that hurts like hell!"

"It hurts to talk? I thought you had been killed when you turned black."

"Tell me what you saw, please."

I could hear her move closer. Her scent was very strong now as she recounted her view of events. She cleared her voice and began. Tatiana told me how shocked she was to see me float upwards towards the ceiling. It was like a magic trick just like the ones her mother told her that Grigori would perform. She watched as I reached out and touched the symbols inscribed on the ceiling. There was a flash of light that blinded her momentarily. This was followed up with an explosion of darkness. She blinked both times and when she could see I was sprawled on a pile of coins. She paused before she continued.

"Your skin, the builder's marks were all over your body and they moved!"

"What do you mean moved," I asked feeling another bout of panic rising in my throat.

"Well, the symbols were about the size of a large coin at first but then as you lay there they got smaller and more symbols appeared. While this happened the characters drifted across your skin."

"What do they symbols look like now?"

"They are gone," she said. "It took a long time but they are gone now."

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"Long enough for me to get hungry nine times," she replied. "I was forced to eat shiny mushrooms again."

"Again, what do you normally eat," I asked.

She fell silent and I lay there waiting for her to reply. Tatiana ran her hands over my chest and made of soft purring sound. Then I felt something soft and silky brush against my groin. It must have been her hair teasing me. I let out a low groan and she continued to let her hair brush against my growing erection. I tried to fight the urge but the pleasure drowned out deep dull ache. It didn't take her long to get me fully aroused. The next phase of her seduction was a singular fingernail tracing the underside of my erection. It was a sharp intense sensation that made my cock twitch. The nail traced the path of a vein and had be gasping for more. The next pleasure was her hot breath on my sensitive skin.

"Do you want me," she moaned in my ear.

"You know I do," I replied as her fingers wrapped around me.

"You are very weak," she whispered as she began stroking me. "You are at my mercy."

I heard her spit and her hand returned slick with saliva. The lewd sound of her hand jacking me off was loud in my ears. I was shaking now and I heard her giggle. Her scent became stronger now as she straddled my face with her damp sex. Tatiana leaned over me and I could feel her breath on my cock as she stroked me. Oh gods how I wanted her tongue on me but she was in control. She kissed the head of my dick and my body shook. She rewarded me with her licking just the tip as her hand moved faster now.

"If you shoot in my mouth I will reward you," she growled. "Be a good boy and shoot that load for me. Oh you are so close I can tell. MMMMMM... here we go!"

She had judged my state perfectly. Her lips wrapped around the head of my cock seconds before her fist drove me over the edge. I could hear her swallow. She let out a satisfied 'ah' as her lips left me. I was still rock hard and true to her word she rewarded me. Tatiana changed her position and once more I heard her spitting as she wrapped her tits around my cock. My yelp of surprise caused her to giggle again. Damn those velvet pillows felt amazing around my dick.

"You do like my reward, good. I can't wait until you're deep inside of me!"

"If you do you will die," I tried to warn her. "I can't fight the hunger!"

"Don't you think I know that? But if you don't feed you will surely die. This is my way of paying for my sins. Please let me have this!"

"Take your time," I said and Tatiana purred.

"I will, I promise you will remember me for a very long time."

She used her tits to perfection. Tatiana teased me until I was close to shooting my second load and stopped. I was panting and shaking with the need to climax. She was able to repeat this process five times before my body betrayed her. She managed to catch most of my second load between her lips but some had to be licked off afterwards. It hurt like hell to gasp and pant but it was worth it. After she had lapped up the last drops of cum off of my skin her hands returned to my cock. As she double fisted me to another erection she began to hum a soft little tune. It was a melancholy melody that made me think of harsh Russian winters and a place by the open hearth.

Tatiana moved again and like her mother had straddled me but used her labia to tease me. Her pussy was soaked now and it easily slid over the shaft of my cock. I clenched my fists and felt a stab of pain that caused me to cry out. I heard her gasp and she abandoned her teasing. Tatiana rose up, took my cock in hand and teased her pussy with the tip.

"I have done some terrible things," she said even as the tip slid between her soaked lips. "You have to help people once you leave this nightmare."

"I promise."

She sunk down impaling herself on my iron hard cock. She sat there savoring the feeling or perhaps she was afraid to die after all. I felt her body begin to move slowly. The first piece of her life was small but the impact was profound. It was a soothing balm that allowed me to breathe without pain. I felt her body shiver as her pleasure built swiftly.

"So big and hard," she whimpered. "She promised me we would be together away from this horrid place. I am glad it was you."

Another chunk of her life broke off and my muscles were freed from their agony ridden paralysis. The climax struck her without warning and she screamed as she came. I opened my eyes and looked up at the woman who was sacrificing herself for me. There were tears flooding down her cheeks. I could see the fear in her eyes but it was her fierce determination that won out. I reached up and cupped her breasts and she smiled.

"You are a quick healer," she moaned. "My body is on fire. I am coming again!"

"Stop, you can stop now," I said but she shook her head.

"I want to see my mom again," she whimpered as her body shook in another powerful climax.

A massive chunk of soul stuff crashed into me. The pain was gone! I sat up and held her close as she shook from the pleasure the demonic magic was pumping into her. Her body was no longer her own. She rode me hard and fast even as a third orgasm struck. I watched her eyes roll up in her skull as the last great piece of her life flowed into me. I wept for this gentle soul and watched her die.

"I love you..."

She perished in my arms and in the end she became only a memory for me to nurture and preserve. I stood up fully recovered from my encounter with the builder's magic. I looked up at the design on the ceiling and could feel it. It was like an extension of my body. I could access it as easily as I could wiggle my toes. All I had to do was to find the Heart and I could use the magic to teleport to the surface. There wasn't a voice or anything but I suddenly knew how to find the jewel. I turned to face the door on the left hand wall and knew the stone was behind it.

I strode over the sliding piles of coins and pushed the door open. The two ton block of black stone pivoted easily. While the treasure room was brimming with riches this chamber was dedicated exclusively to the housing of the Heart of Ashurbanipal. The room was at least twice as big as the chamber behind me. The walls were etched with epic bas reliefs depicting the history of the Heart and the Fire. I found the first panel in the chronological order and followed it through to the end.

I stood there shaking before the Heart of Ashurbanipal. The hologram of the Fire couldn't have prepared me for its unearthly beauty. The fist sized stone was cut to perfection in a style I had never seen before. The radiance at its core pulsed with life that was hypnotic. I reached out to touch it but my hand faltered. If I returned to the outside world without it what was my potential lifespan? The Saudi's had hired me to get this stone. I had to take it back so that I can stop what follows. The bas reliefs were pretty specific about what happens if the Heart and the Fire are united.

I reached out a second time and let my fingers brush the surface of the jewel. The radiance welling up from the stone intensified when I touched it. I looked around to see if anything was going to leap out and attack, nothing did. I snatched up the gem and turned to leave. I waited for the other shoe to drop and it never did. If this was a horror flick the monsters would have appeared screaming or moaning to kill the intruder. I looked down at the pulsing jewel in my hand and made the heart rending realization. I was the monster.

I returned to the treasure chamber and stood beneath the design. Beam me up Scotty! Not a goddamn thing happened so I tried a variety of things until I found the correct mental pattern to use. One moment I was standing in that room the next I was on the surface next to the wreckage that was the two vehicles that had brought me here. I cursed Yig and his entire bloodline for this major setback. I salvaged what I could and found a spare set of clothes. I placed the Heart in one of the military style backpacks and paced around the remnants of the campsite. How the hell was I supposed to get home?

'Do you wish to access the network?'

The voice was loud in my head but it never reached my ears. I spun around thinking that I had finally lost my fucking mind.

"Show yourself!"

'As you wish,' the cold emotionless voice responded.

A sphere of blue-green light rose up from the ground. While the exterior of the shining globe was static and perfect the interior was an ever-changing mass of runic characters. The movement of the runes slowed as it cleared the earth. I walked up to it and around it.

'I am here,' it said. 'Do you wish to access the network?'

"What network?"

'There is no need for vocal communication but if you prefer it I can emulate it as well.'

'No need, what is this network you are talking about?'