Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbed)

As Victoria and Tybalt stepped onto the street, the necromancer took her hand and began to lead her.

She smiled and went with him.

“What do you want to do?” she asked, her voice light.

“I’m thinking about it,” he said. He looked at her, and she recognized what he was feeling.

Despite all his power and achievements, despite the fact that they were already engaged and that he had multiple women irresistibly infatuated with him, he was nervous.

It was strange to think that when they had their first outing together, she’d been a little afraid of him. Now she could see this more vulnerable side of him, and it was nothing but endearing.

“We could go visit your fortress,” Victoria said quietly.

That would be helpful to him, undoubtedly, and he would appreciate her helping resolve the apparent uncertainty about what to do.

“What?” he asked.

“You’ve been spending a lot of time there lately, preparing for our future challenges, while I only visited once to pray over the body of the chaplain,” she said. “Maybe if I go again, I can do something else to help you. I remember you can Teleport, like Dero, now, and my connection to Lord Mudo—”

“Vicky, I don’t want to take you there. It’s true that I can Teleport. I even finally gained the skill for it while I was pursuing Chad and Aoife. It certainly took long enough. But there are two important reasons we’re not going there: first, I don’t want to bring you to the Charnel Fortress, ever, if I can avoid it. That place is haunted by the spirits and congealed negative feelings of all those who ever died defending it, permanently stamped into every brick of the place by Lord Mudo’s power. It gives me an uneasy feeling being there, and I made it. One day, I’ll have another place of power that isn’t suffused with such negative feelings.” He squeezed her hand. “Maybe you’ll help me create it.”

She smiled. He knew what to say. “What was the second reason?”

“Oh, that’s obvious. We’re spending time together romantically. It’s free time. We’re not working today.”

I don’t… think I even know what to do with free time, she realized.

“You know, I never had ‘free time’ before I met you.” She said it without thinking, then flushed slightly. Every time she thought about how Tybalt had changed her life, it felt the same way. Like she was some princess from a story, found by her prince.

“You don’t use it much,” he said.

“What?”

“The free time. You’re always working. Not that I’m complaining. I know you help me out a lot… running a religion.”

Hardly running it. Our people know the rituals and the scripture by heart, and they look to you whenever they need more direct leadership. I provide occasional guidance when you’re busy.

“I don’t really know what to do with it,” she said. “Like I said, it never used to be an issue. Whatever time I stole from farming and other labor, I would spend it on my garden or daydreaming - and feel guilty the whole time.”

“Let’s walk,” he said, starting to pull her again.

“Where are we going?” she asked, following.

“For now, to the water.”

He led her to the docks. As they passed down Whadesgart streets, Victoria felt eyes on her - not hostile. Maybe admiring. Probably not admiring her specifically as much as the man she was with.

Tybalt had now twice fended off dragons to protect the town, after all. Even among the humans, he was a hero whose legend would only grow.

Victoria entwined her fingers with Tybalt’s and simply basked in the feeling of being with someone special.

***

When they reached the water, Tybalt found a smooth stone lying on the ground and raised it to eye level, noting the shape and balance.

You’ll do just fine.

He pulled his arm back.

“What are you—”

Tybalt flung his hand forward, flicking his wrist just so as he released his hold on the rock.

It touched the water, skated forward, bounced three times, and then sank.

“Why don’t you try?” he said. “You haven’t spent much time by the water, right?”

He knew her people’s mountains weren’t far from the beach, but he also knew that leisure time had been a bit of a luxury for them, and spending any significant time at ground level risked the possibility of unwanted contact with humans.

I was trying to think of something I haven’t done with any or all of you in Whadesgart, Tybalt thought. But the town’s attractions are fairly limited. Even though it’s a port, it’s still a port in the Salt Waste, the Kingdom’s barely populated desert.

Victoria picked up a stone of her own, felt the weight in her fingers, and threw.

It struck the water and instantly sank.

She frowned. “Why didn’t it do that for me? Really, I guess the question was why it bounced for you. I would imagine rocks usually sink.”

“Let me help you…”

Tybalt picked up another rock for Victoria, placed it in her hand, then put his arms around her, adjusting her wrist, her fingers, and her posture to try and optimize her throwing stance. She didn’t seem to mind his hands on her at all by this point. A lot of that early shyness between them was gone, especially after what she’d done for him on his birthday. So he took a few liberties that made her blush - and lean into his touch.

But a part of his mind moved elsewhere despite those pleasures.

Victoria was happy enough right now, learning to skim stones for the first time. Frankly, she was probably happy enough just that Tybalt was spending time one on one with her and they weren’t being interrupted.

He knew that skimming stones wasn’t much of an outing, though.

“Baldwin, are you busy?”

“Never too busy to be of service to you, master,” the revenant replied, tone teetering as it so often did between genuine subservience and ironic mockery. “Just on guard duty around your residence right now. Protecting from… would-be trespassers. Kind of pointless without your ladies here, but I do what I’m told without complaint. That’s what a good soldier is like. Anyway, what’s up?”

Was that not a complaint?

“I’m out courting Vicky, but I think I’ve exhausted most of what’s interesting to do in this backwater port. The last few outings with my fiancees have taken us all over the town. I even took Dero to the hot springs.”

Or maybe ‘took Dero in the hot springs’ would be more appropriate phrasing, he thought silently. ‘Took Dero in the hot springs several times’ would be more accurate. A very steamy evening…

“So, what did you need from me, master?” Baldwin asked. “Ideas? Or did you just want to brag? Shouldn’t you be paying attention to your woman right now?”

Tybalt ignored the little jibes. His mind had worked quickly, despite slight distractions, and he already had an idea for what he wanted to do and how Baldwin could help make it happen.

“I need you to organize something for me in Central Square…”

The necromancer and the foxgirl spent the next fifteen minutes skimming stones. Victoria never quite mastered it, though she did improve. Tybalt, for his part, was always happy to provide little physical corrections. Fixing her posture in a way that required grabbing her waist and pressing on her ass. ‘Accidentally’ caressing the undersides of her breasts. Holding her from behind as she prepared to throw.

The nuzzling against her ears was probably a little bit too distracting, he had to admit to himself. But she didn’t seem to be complaining.

“We should - we should probably do something else,” she whispered after she managed to make a stone skip three times despite Tybalt’s slowly escalating sexual harassment.

“It does strike me that this might be our last outing alone together before we’re married,” Tybalt said softly. “We should make the most of this time and do a variety of things.” He caressed her bare arm, brought his fingers down along her back, and then stepped slightly to the side and took her other hand again.

She shuddered and looked at him almost accusingly, with an air of, You know what you’re doing to me.

“I just noticed,” Victoria said as they began to walk away, “we had started to get a little attention from some passing parents with children.”

Oh. I guess I completely missed that.

“Were you embarrassed?” he asked.

“No.”

They walked hand in hand, fingers rubbing and caressing each other in a chaster version of what Tybalt wanted to do to Victoria’s entire body.

He took her through the town, mostly to places they had already been in days past, but this time, he tried to stop and smell the roses more, take things more slowly.

They grabbed some street food at a couple of stands - gyros for their meal, followed by honey cakes for dessert.

“You have a little something there,” Tybalt said right before he kissed a sweet crumb from the corner of her lips.

“Oh!” She let out a little surprised noise as they kissed, lips slightly parted, surroundings forgotten.

When they separated a minute later, she was slightly flushed. She looked up and down the street. It wasn’t crowded, but a couple of people averted their gazes as if they’d just been caught staring.

“Tybalt,” she whispered.

“What?” he asked in his normal speaking volume.

“We’re in public…”

“If we were in private, I’d do far more,” he replied in a devilish whisper. “I’m restraining myself because of our surroundings, but you’re mine and I’m not ashamed for everyone to see.”

She shook her head but looked not at all displeased.

He took her into an antique store next and just enjoyed the way Victoria marveled at all the things she could never have afforded in a previous life.

It’s a little sad how easy it is to impress her, he thought. She and Vidalia… It’s been a rough life for their family.

Tybalt made a conscious choice to buy everything she liked. He had plenty of gold in his storage ring from all the towns they had looted on the way to Whadesgart, and contrary to his usual pattern in ports like this one, he even repressed his natural instinct to bargain.

He could tell Victoria got a thrill out of being spoiled in that way.

So he ran with that and took her to more stores, consciously leading her in a gradual spiral. Their path slowly but surely took them in ever tightening circles closer to Central Square.

The necromancer paused as he saw Victoria frowning up at the sky.

“It’s almost sunset,” she said. “We’ve been at this for hours. I can’t believe I stole your whole day.”

There she goes talking about time like it’s a crime for her to waste it again, he thought.

“What are you saying?” he asked.

“I mean, I’m having a good time, but we’d better get back, right? Before…”

“Before what?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “Before it’s too much time, I guess. You’re busy. You’re literally a king now. You don’t have that much time to waste.”

Tybalt pulled Victoria closer and took her in his arms.

“Vicky, I want to spend the whole night with you, and I’d be wasting my time if I spent it anywhere else,” he said, looking her straight in the eyes as he spoke.

She turned a deep shade of red and shook her head, turning her gaze away.

“You ought to think about your choice of words before you say something like that,” she muttered after a moment.

“I did.”

She looked up at him, and her eyes smouldered with the same passion he had already repeatedly experienced from her twin sister.

“We’ll take the night as it goes,” Victoria said slowly.

“Master, the preparations are all made.” Baldwin’s voice cut the tension Tybalt felt running through every fiber of his body.

Tybalt kissed Victoria lightly on the lips and took her by the hand again.

“Follow me.”

***

Tybalt took Victoria down a few streets that were familiar to her.

She’d been down every street in this town, it sometimes seemed, over the last several weeks.

She knew everything to expect.

But she hadn’t anticipated what she saw as they reached the outlet for the last narrow side street they walked down.

“This is…”

“Central Square,” Tybalt finished.

But it wasn’t. Not the Central Square that Victoria and the others had passed through almost thoughtlessly, shopping for groceries or trying to cut through to get somewhere else. The Central Square that buzzed like an angry hive of bees on market days, full of merchants hawking their wares and loudly negotiating their prices.

That Central Square filled Victoria’s little country girl heart with a mild anxiety whenever she passed through. She was still used to the quiet mountain air and the grim, deathly stillness of the desert.

As the moon rose over it, though, the Central Square she saw now was different. Every corner was illuminated with torchlight, flames that hung from mounts around where the stands stood, now shuttered for the evening.

Everywhere there weren’t torches, it seemed, there were flowers.

Flowers in multiple colors and shapes.

Beautiful.

As she looked from fire to flowers, Victoria realized there was music playing. It was quiet, a familiar melody but one she couldn’t quite place.

“Is there a festival?” Victoria asked, looking at her fiance for answers.

A festival that Tybalt found out about and somehow kept secret from me even though he was gone for days and we were here on our own?

“There is,” he said, smiling. “A festival just for you and me.”

“What?”

“May I have this dance?”

That’s right, this music was a dancing tune. Where do I remember it from?

She allowed Tybalt to guide her into the middle of the Square, and they began slowly dancing. Her mind gradually stopped thinking much about the fact that she remembered the music from somewhere as she focused completely on the man across from her.

He looked into her eyes, held her close, and slowly maneuvered her around, back and forth through the Square, dancing to the song that she felt increasingly certain really was being played only for them.

She expected him to make it sexual. On some level, she was looking forward to that. The flirting, the touching, the sensual way he had whispered in her ears when she rebuked him for his public displays of affection. None of that had gone unnoticed.

She was ready. He had courted her before, and now she felt he had also seduced her.

She wanted to truly belong to him, finally, completely.

But he was, uncharacteristically for him, it seemed to her, a perfect gentleman.

As they moved, his hands never left her waist or her own hands. He never even glanced at the small amount of cleavage her dress showed. His green eyes locked onto her blues and stared so deep into them that she thought he might be looking into her soul.

He had pulled out all the stops, and all he wanted was to gaze into her eyes and dance with her.

They exchanged words - they had been talking all day - but she would never be able to remember the conversations later.

She would only remember how the night made her feel.

How he made her feel.

The moment she recognized the flowers she kept noticing around the Square matched the floral pattern on her dress. It really was a sort of festival just for the two of them. Organized just for her.

The moment she saw the musicians playing and realized it was all beastfolk. This wasn’t some tune Tybalt had thought would be nice, some common Kingdom song that the beastfolk had picked up from the miners. That wasn’t where she’d heard it. No, it was one of her people’s folk dancing tunes. A piece her mother had hummed back when she was alive.

Vidalia must have told him about it.

She darted her eyes around, expecting her twin and the others to be somewhere.

Then she realized that, no, even if Tybalt had gotten this song from Vidalia, none of her future co-wives were there to hear. It was just for her.

“Eyes on me,” he whispered in her ear.

As he pulled back, she realized she had tears in her eyes.

So many memories with this song…

Her mother digging in the soil. Her mother swaying from side to side, tail moving back and forth like a pendulum, as she stood in front of a heavy pot.

Tybalt wiped Victoria’s tears away, cupped her cheek, and spoke again, in a low voice.

“Don’t do that to me,” he said. “You look too beautiful when you cry. I feel…” He trailed off, but his hand pulled away from her to gently clutch at his chest.

He felt something deep in his heart at seeing her cry.

That was when Victoria consciously realized she wanted this night to never end.

She rose on her tiptoes and kissed Tybalt deeply.

The world seemed to explode with sensations that stretched from the tips of her ears down to her toes. Her heart felt full, her every cell wanted to embrace him. A kiss was the closest she could manage.

Her mind raced with things she wanted to say.

Thank you for tonight. I made the right choice, agreeing to marry you. You’re an amazing man. We’re so lucky. I love you.

But words seemed inadequate to match the moment. It needed action.

“Take me home,” Victoria said as their lips separated. “Take me to bed.”