The Best Medicine Ch. 06

"-- or a young, politically inexperienced woman who seems to lack the character or personality required to maintain the throne. Well, how about a third option?" And here came the big part. "I have decided to return to Europe immediately after this transmission and request of our courts that I be accelerated to the Crown. After that, it is my intention to dissolve the monarchy and make way for an elvish democracy."

Behind her, someone was making choking sounds, and she could hear someone else grinding their teeth.

"Furthermore, I believe that in this new democracy, we will have a chance for a truly blank slate if, and only if, we start from a level playing field. Therefore, I will insist that ALL nobles forfeit their titles in preparation for --"

And that's when it happened. Baron Montain glanced at Torris, who in turn leaped into action. In less than a heartbeat, he had taken a step forward and drawn a knife, pointing the barbed tip at Vanesse's back. He took another step and pulled his arm back. Then, he plunged the wicked weapon in the Princess's defenseless back.

Well, not quite. The iron blade punctured flesh, but not the smooth skin of the Princess. Torris looked up and found himself looking into the eyes of a very, very angry vampire.

"Torris," Trina said, her voice cold with rage and pain, "you and your master have some explaining to do."

"Baron Montain, what has gotten into your man?" the King said, looking utterly bewildered and more than a little angry himself. Rather than receive a response, he heard the Baron muttering a spell and gathering his will. "Baron? What are you --"

But before the Baron could finish, Farmer got into his face and grabbed his hands.

"Don't . . . move."

Torris was back-pedaling and pulling out another dagger, this one silver. Unlike some, he was not easily intimidated or unnerved, and he had already failed his master once. He would not fail him again.

Trina felt a burning pain in her stomach where the knife had punctured her, and there was a poison flowing through her system as well. But the wound, which would have killed an elf, only hurt her new vampiric body, and the poison was no concern. Her eyes closed, the time measuring less than a single blink, but it was all she needed to hear the music.

First came the violins, with the sound of violin bows pulled screechingly across taut strings, while the deeper cello played somberly in the background. Then her feet began to move, each a cymbal clanging against the floor, followed by the high pitch of the flutes as her arms swung forward in search of their prey.

Torris was no fool or pushover, and rolled backward, kicking his feet up to the bleeding spot of Trina's stomach, letting the music come to him as well. He had twice the battle-dancer training that Trina did, and he was comfortable in his own body. Trina was still learning to use hers.

Trina grunted as the boots struck her, and the instruments tumbled over each other's notes as she righted her frame of mind. She heard the whistling of Torris's dagger coming for her throat, and she stepped back just far enough that it passed her throat with only millimeters to spare. She stepped and threw a spin kick at the back of the elf's head, but Torris felt it coming and wheeled away.

"Baron, I order you to stop your man now!" the King shouted, waving his guards forward to break up the scuffle.

The Baron, whose wrists were still gripped by a pissed-off werehyena, looked almost sad as he addressed his King. "I am sorry your Majesty, but I cannot. Your whore of a niece cannot be allowed to reach the throne, especially now. I knew that you would not be able to look past your own compassion, so I ordered what I knew needed to be done."

Suddenly, the Baron's hand began to glow blue, and Farmer released him with a snarl of pain. The Baron stepped back, and Farmer followed. Then the Baron finished a quick spell, and he, Farmer, Torris, and Trina were surrounded by a force wall that no one was able to penetrate. He had used the very circle used for the far-speak spell to accommodate his own plans. Of course, he was surprised that Farmer was still standing. Mage-fire should have roasted her arms off.

The King looked on helplessly as the fight in the circle continued. Around him, every available spell-caster was attempting to breach the wall, but Baron Montain was no lightweight. He had more than one mage duel in his life, and for good reason.

"I will not allow the elvish people to be further tainted by a monster such as you," Montain growled, preparing a force bolt that would blast his opponent into tiny bits.

"Taint her? All I did was bend her over and fuck her brains out," the werehyena replied, beginning to shift into her half-form. Before she could finish, a blast of energy sent her barreling into the force wall with such velocity that her bones should have been turned to jelly.

"Farmer!" Vanesse screeched outside the wall, moving around so that she could see her friend through the glowing barrier. Then she saw Jack and Alani nearby, and they were grinning. "What are you --"

"Just watch," Jack said gleefully.

Slowly, Farmer sat up. Rather than being obliterated, she looked . . . irritated? "Pointy-eared rat fucker," she growled from her hyena head. She stood up and flexed her now massive muscles.

Montain was astounded. "What the --"

That was when Vanesse remembered something. Even in her half-form, there were tribal tattoos that covered most of Farmer's body . . . her skin glyphs. All the werehyenas had them, and the longer you were a member of Joker's Wild, the more of them were given magical protections. Farmer was immune, or close to immune, to almost every spell that the Baron was likely to throw.

As Farmer approached the Baron, Trina and Torris were putting on a display, a lethal dance where one would take a bow, and it would simply be curtains for the other.

"You are magnificent," Torris said, skipping back and managing a small cut to Trina's forearm.

Trina ignored the pain and the silver-poisoning. It would not be enough by itself to do anything more than make her sick, but it still hurt like hell. "I wish I could say the same."

Torris smiled, but it was not a warm or friendly gesture. It was condescending and evil. "You are also an abomination, unworthy of the love of a true noble. Or even a whore posing as one." He ducked as Trina sent a wild punch at his head, then nicked that arm with his knife as well. "It is a shame that you are too stubborn simply to remain dead. If you had not already dispatched them, I would be forced to take issue with the wolf-pack that I sent to kill the Princess. You know, the one that killed you instead?"

For a moment, the only sound Trina heard was the cracking of her own neck. Then she jumped straight up and barely missed the stab that had been homing in on her heart. It was a blow that would have killed her new body instantly.

Torris had the advantage, and slowly pushed Trina back towards the wall. She was unable to make sense of the music now, the sounds overwriting and conflicting with one another like a elementary school band and orchestra trying to play the classics on their first night of practice. She was cut again on one arm, then her ear was nicked. She was losing. She was going to die. Again.

"Trina!"

That one voice penetrated the darkening fog that had been settling in on Trina's vision. Vanesse's voice. It was beautiful and clear, ringing through Trina's very being like church bells on a warm Sunday morning. She had almost died to goblin bullets, causing the Princess to hurt. And Vanesse knew how her friend had felt in her soul when she thought Trina lost forever.

'I'm not going to die,' Trina thought. 'She needs me. I won't put her through that again.'

Torris saw confusion in his opponent's face, then tried to ram his dagger through the girl's eye.

Trina saw the blade coming almost as if it were slow motion. She slipped to the side, and she heard the ivory keys of a piano punctuating he steps. She spun past the thrusting blade until she was behind Torris's body. She grabbed the iron knife from his belt, pulled it out, and then --

*BONG*

At the same time, both Torris and Trina heard the death bell tolling. Trina smiled, and even cried tears of blood as she aimed her captured weapon. This time, the bell did not toll for her. Faster than light could travel, the iron blade punctured the back of Torris's skull and sunk into his brain. As the elvish assassin's body sank to the ground, Trina's eyes met Vanesse's and the Princess had such a look of relief, joy, and . . . love? If not love, it was something so close that Trina would accept it with all the heart she could spare.

Montain was desperately trying to evade the monstrous claws and powerful jaws of the werehyena matriarch, casting spell after spell to keep distance between the two. Many people mistakenly saw hyenas as scavengers, when in fact they were among the most dangerous predators in Africa. True, they sometimes ate carrion, but they also brought big game down with those powerful jaws. Compared to some animals, Baron Montain was not that big.

"You brought pain and fear to one under my protection," Farmer growled. "You caused pain to my pack." She reared her head back and laughed. Her bark echoed through the hall, and the barking laughter of Joker's Wild responded. Vanesse had heard this sound before, and it held no good intentions here for Baron Montain.

"Would you just --" the Baron started to say, but he was cut off when he was bum-rushed by the slavering nightmare of a beast that led Joker's Wild. She hit him so hard that he crashed into his own force wall, and the bystanders on the other side heard the crackling of bones. But Farmer did not play with him for long. Hunters that did not finish their prey off quickly often did not eat, and Farmer's mind was ruled by her hyena. She grabbed Baron Montain and crushed his throat with her trap-like jaws, letting the last of his life's blood trickle between her teeth and onto the floor.

The room went quiet, and the force wall ended as its caster breathed his last.

"What have you done?" the King asked, looking at Farmer while in a state of shock. "You --"

"Ate one of your nobles?" She actually licked her teeth clean, then shifted back to her human form. "I just solved a problem."

"I should have you --"

Vanesse stepped up and glowered at him. "Do not blame Farmer for seeing the snake in the grass that you were almost standing on top of. The Baron all but confessed to the plot against me, and he certainly meant to kill me tonight."

The King's eyebrows furrowed. "You meant for this to happen, didn't you?"

Vanesse breathed a sigh. "Yes. I suspected the Baron. We knew from the poisoning that my would-be assassin was desperate, so I simply pushed the envelope and created a situation that would be too hard for him to resist."

"So you drew him out and aired the dirty laundry of our entire kingdom --"

"Good grief!" Vanesse said, throwing her hands up. "After all this, you're still more concerned with appearances than with the fact that your 'trusted advisor' was trying to kill me?! Well if it makes you feel any better, I'll let you know that Lillian," she said, waving at the necromancer, "messed with the spell."

Clara looked at her fellow spell caster. "You what?"

Lillian looked sheepish. "I changed a rune or two. The only ones who heard that message were a group of militant were-penguins in Antarctica. And they're kind of stand-offish."

The King let out a deep breath. "So all those things you said were lies? And this form of dress --" he started to say, indicating her less-than-conservative clothing.

She looked him dead in the eye. "I am not going to ask to be made Queen, and will wait until my fiftieth birthday, as is tradition. But know this, your Majesty. I am giving you twenty years to remind our people why they once revered their royalty and its crown. Because when I become Queen, I will ask if they want to remain a monarchy or become a democracy."

"And if they choose the monarchy?"

She nodded. "Then I will step aside and allow you to remain King, and my only claim to the throne will be if you die without an heir."

The room was so quiet that the crickets were afraid to chirp.

"Come again?" the King asked.

Vanesse looked at the few elves present. "Our people deserve a good monarch. That means someone who is both capable and willing to lead them. I have realized that I do not have the strength of character nor, if truth be told, the desire to be Queen. My parents were good monarchs because they possessed all the necessary qualities, but blood is simply a poor substitute for actual ability. You have shown the desire to lead, so I will give you the opportunity to prove that you deserve to lead." She looked over to where Trina was struggling to remain standing. The former battle-dancer was too stubborn to ask or even allow herself to be helped, but she looked hurt and tired.

"I do not yet know my place in the world," she said, her smile perking Trina up a bit. Then Vanesse looked at Farmer. "I have had an offer to see part of it, which I intend to take up in the not to distant future." This made Farmer smile, but the Princess was not done. "But for now, I intend to stay here in Georgia and hopefully be taken on as Lillian's apprentice. There is much about my own magic that I do not even remotely understand, and it would be careless and dangerous for me to continue living in ignorance. If Lord Stapleton would allow it --"

"Of course," the powerful vampire said from the high dais. "You are welcome to enjoy the hospitality and protection of my House, though I would prefer you not spring any more surprises like this on me." He glanced at Shamira out of the corner of his eye. "I have HER for that."

Shamira tried to glare at him, but it broke into a grin that was returned by her Lord.

Vanesse moved to Shamira's side. "If you insist on getting me a new battle-dancer," she said softly, "then I insist that all candidates be interviewed by the new head of my personal-security. Trina will be given final say."

"But --" the King started to protest, then simply sighed. "Very well." He looked at his niece as if this were the first time he had ever seen her. "This is really what you want?"

She smiled at her Uncle. "I don't know exactly what I want," she said, then looked at her best friend, then at the members of Joker's Wild, then on to Lillian and Bunny, "but I'm beginning to get a good idea."

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A week later . . .

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"It's good seeing you!" Vanesse said, throwing her arms around Farmer's body in a flying hug. Joker's Wild had been flown back up to Canada and had retrieved their bikes, then promptly decided to road-trip all the way back down to Atlanta. Vanesse and Trina had moved up to Atlanta from Savannah so that the Princess could stay near her new mentor, and she was pleased as punch at the progress she was already making. Trina had recovered from her wounds, and was being trained in the vampiric arts and ways of life by the Representative herself, who had taken an interest in the one-of-a-kind elf-turned-vampire.

"It's only been seven days," Farmer growled. "I know you can't get enough of all this," she added looking down at her athletic body, "but still --"

"I have, in fact, very much looked forward to getting some of this," Vanesse purred into Farmer's ear while her hand stroked Farmer's crotch through her jeans.

"Good grief, when did you get so good at that?"

Vanesse grinned. "You started it. But hanging around this House? Some of Lord Stapleton's people make you guys look puritans. Of course, most of them do the bondage thing, which I'm not into, but --"

"What about Trina?" Farmer asked, looking around for the woman who was normally acting as the Princess's shadow.

Vanesse almost instantly began to pout. "She's being difficult. At first, she wanted time to recover from the silver wounds. Then, she wanted to concentrate on moving up here, and then . . . ooh, it's like she's avoiding sex with me, but not avoiding me personally! I know she's interested, so why --"

"Because she's nervous," Alani interrupted, stealing a hug from Vanesse.

"Of what?"

Farmer grinned. "She's got you all to herself, and now she actually has to think about what might happen and how things are going to work. It's not like she's hopped up on adrenaline these days."

"You think that she's worried about losing me? How completely --"

"Reasonable," came the vampire's voice.

"Hubba hubba!" Jack said as Trina slipped into the room. He immediately picked her up, hugged her, and fondled her ass. She responded by headbutting him, causing him to let go, then grabbing HIS ass.

"Not bad," she said, then turned to Vanesse. "Sorry, I just woke up. Stupid vampire sleep schedule," she grumbled.

"Trina, are you really still afraid of what might happen? With us?"

Trina actually looked a bit embarrassed. "A little. I know we talked about this, but I just found myself realizing that my life might actually turn out okay, and that's scary. It's kind of like winning the lottery. I don't know what to do with it."

Vanesse's smile returned, and it resembled the one she had given Farmer earlier. "I think you know what to do, if the time we spent in my dreams is any indicator."

Trina actually grinned, then looked at Farmer. "See? She's impossible to live with now. She's pretty much horny all the time, and --"

"Well I might not be if you would just DO something about it," Vanesse interjected.

"-- and she's been talking about what she would do when you all got down here."

Farmer's grin was so wicked that it would have made the devil blush. "What would that be? Exactly?"

Vanesse bit her bottom lip, then caressed the outline of Farmer's cock through her pants again. "I want you."

"And that's new . . . when?"

The Princess smiled and actually blushed. "All of you," she added, looking around at the gang. "At once."

All the members of Joker's Wild began letting out excited, laughing barks. "You want to be gangbanged by the whole squad? That'll cure what ails ya?"

Vanesse nodded, kissing the side of Farmer's neck. Trina hadn't been kidding. Now that she understood her powers a little better and had experienced what sex was and had come to grips with her own desires, she was almost constantly aroused. She had been masturbating like a fiend for the last week, and she wanted more. "Now."

Farmer's grin didn't break when she calmly said, "No."

Vanesse's eyes shot open. "WHAT?!" Behind her, the gang of werehyenas began to whimper. They could smell Vanesse's desire, and they wanted a damn good reason why they couldn't have her after she had

"Not until you two take care of some unfinished business," the matriarch said, glancing from Vanesse to Trina.

"You're not serious? In a garage?" the vampire asked, her eyes on her best friend. Watching her dry hump Farmer had gotten Trina a bit excited herself.

"Not only am I serious," Farmer replied, "I think that the gang should get to watch. Just to make sure that you go through with it."

Vanesse practically mugged Trina as she wrapped her arms around the vampire's body. "Being watched? Sex with you? Don't you dare say no."

The last of Trina's resistance crumbled. She was not exactly a prude herself, and seeing this side of Vanesse, this uninhibited and life-enjoying side --

Trina lifted Vanesse off the ground and pressed her mouth against that of her dearest friend. She wanted to kiss the Princess so much that it hurt. This was her flesh . . . well, her new flesh . . . against Vanesse's. It was no dream, but it was turning into one. She gripped the elf's soft round ass and held her closer than her own skin. She wanted to be closer, slipping Vanesse some tongue just to get inside.