A wrenching gasp

Seamus gasped for breath, grabbing blindly in the dark, searching for the lamp switch on his nightstand.

A small whimper from that direction.

Seamus's left hand impacted something soft and squishy, and ow, metallic. Wrong direction.

Seamus's right hand flew out and again impacted something soft and squishy. And warm, and furry. And again, ow, more metal.

Trying to sit up, Seamus realized someone had their head in his lap and was giving him a tongue bath...no that was wrong, not a tongue bath...

A mild, pained yowl from his right was shortly followed by: "My liege, if you are trying to kill me, your claws need to go three inches toward the other breast. If you are trying to initiate sex, it usually works better with a slashing motion instead of a stab."

Seamus withdrew his hand instantly, then paled and turned his head to his left where he had heard the first whimper that was in a voice he now recognized all too well. "Alice! Please...no!"

"I'm fine, honeybear. Don't fret. A few stitches and I'll be all right." Alice said, the tension in her voice not making him worry any less.

"May I, my Queen?" Sireah's voice from further in the darkness asked.

"If it will help, yes." Alice replied. She gasped as she rolled over.

"Please pardon my familiarity, my Queen." Sireah stated.

Seamus heard rustling and felt faint vibrations, with an approaching smell of vanilla and jasmine later, and Alice swiftly sighed in relief.

Seamus sniffed and the tang of copper dissipated, but did not fully disappear. Iron was still very strong. The tongue between his legs grew more insistent and he groaned as he felt the tender ministrations flood his body with chemicals and endorphins. He gasped again and opened his eyes, desperate to see his wife. He held his hand tightly in a fist. Light leaked in around the edges and he strained to resolve the shadows.

"Don't strain yourself, Your Majesty. Relax. A lot of energy was taken out of you." Seamus knew that voice but he couldn't place it for a moment. Then finally he remembered. Elaln.

Wait.

Her sister...

Lal!

"Lal!" Seamus croaked. He sniffed the air, trying to find her, but didn't know her scent well enough. He strained out with his senses...

"My sister is fine, Nazps-Odo sustained her while you were out, Your Majesty." Elaln said. "It's one reason Nazps-Odo is between your legs right now. You both need the energy the act is providing."

"Oh, thank the Lord. Good. How about Mandy and Samantha?" Seamus asked.

"We are here, Mr. Malone." Mandy said from somewhere near the edge of the bed on his left side. "We couldn't leave your side."

"Oh... that's right. I'm sorry about that, permission to leave is one of those rules from the app I needed to explain." Seamus let his head drop back on the pillow and watched the colors swirl nauseatingly. Closing his eyes just made it worse because now his brain told him he shouldn't be seeing anything.

"No...I meant...I meant we saw what you did, Mr. Malone. I mean yes, we couldn't leave when we tried after we realized what Nazps-Odo needed to do for you, but we saw what you did for her." Mandy grew very quiet and Samantha spoke up. "It was heart-wrenching. And beautiful. And we couldn't just leave you when you were in need."

"I see." Seamus felt his fingers relaxing and felt more than heard the soft snicks of his short claws slip back into his fingers. And felt something warm, wet, and sticky on his hands. Tears filled his eyes.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, honey." Alice said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek. "I know you didn't mean to. I didn't even know you had claws."

Seamus drew in a shaky breath. "I didn't either." He turned his head to kiss her. "Someone help Na."

"I don't need help. I'm fine, my liege." Na said stiffly, her voice strained.

"I can smell you wanting to lick. And that is an awkward place to try." Seamus said.

Na froze. "Smell...my liege?" She carefully placed a paw on his chest as he heard faint rustling and noticed the smell of vanilla and jasmine moving to her side of the bed.

"Yes. Now. Roll on your back so Sireah can help you." Seamus ordered. Sireah smelled of jasmine and vanilla. That's nice. He'd have to buy her a jasmine vanilla latte sometime. He sniffed again. The smell of iron was growing stronger. Seamus frowned.

Na rolled on her back and her slightly labored breathing eased a few moments later. Na growled softly and rolled back and put her paw on his chest again. She slipped up to his neck and sniffed, then licked. "You've changed even more since you passed out, my liege."

"I can see outlines again. What happened to my vision?" Seamus asked. He sniffed. The iron was mostly gone. He flexed his fingers gingerly, wincing.

"I don't know, my liege. If you've altered in your abilities to smell, and have claws, your eyesight may have altered as well." Na said.

"Or it's because you just had a massive seizure and your brain is still rebuilding the neuronal pathways." Sarah said from her place by his left leg, a placement Seamus just realized he had already known because of her cherry chapstick and acai shampoo. He could feel the warmth of her skin and suddenly realized he wasn't wearing any clothes at all.

"Why am I naked?" Seamus asked. Then he realized none of the people on the bed with him were wearing clothes.

Alice laughed. "Sireah recommended it. She said you needed as much skin-to-skin contact as possible to recover."

"Uh-huh. And you believed her?" Seamus asked.

"Hey!" Sireah exclaimed.

Seamus thought for a moment. "Is that also why Helen is riding my tail?"

A choked gasp from Helen preceded her response: "S-sorry. When you woke up, I was cuddled up with your tail and it...explored." Her breath hitched and Helen whined. "And then...I felt a stab of pain followed by the most...mmhmm...the most delicious...ow..."

"Are you okay?" Seamus asked, concern filling his voice.

A long pause as Helen let out only gasps and moans, so Sireah replied for her: "She tried to put her arms down on the bed. Her chain doesn't go that far, Your Majesty. But for now, I think she's going to provide us entertainment for a while yet."

Helen started bouncing even faster after Sireah's last comment.

"Okay." Seamus had no idea how to respond to that. A moment more..."What time is it?"

"About 9:15, Your Majesty." Sireah said.

"Okay. AM or PM?" Seamus asked.

"PM, Your Majesty." Sireah responded.

"Same day?" Seamus asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Seamus sighed in relief. "Good. I didn't miss the time for the app."

"Time for the app, Mr. Malone?" Mandy asked.

"Yeah, if I don't use all my app currency by the end of each day the app can use half the remainder randomly." Seamus explained. He growled. "I had color returning and now it's fading again."

Sarah piped up again: "I haven't got too far in the neuro classes yet, but if I remember correctly, that's to be expected while the brain remaps, especially when you are learning a new physical process."

Seamus settled back down on the bed. "So in other words, I'm stuck with a bunch of beautiful, naked women all around me and no eyes to see them with."

"Aaaah." Samantha cooed. "Ahem." She cleared her throat immediately after.

Alice leaned over and placed his hand carefully on her breast. "The better to feel me with, my dear."

A laugh from several of the humans in the room, yet Seamus could smell the confusion on many of the rest.

Nazps-Odo raised her head. "The bigger you are to fill me with, my dear." Nazps-Odo said before returning her mouth to envelop him again.

Alice snorted. "Who would have thought that Nazps-Odo would have known a human nursery tale?"

Nazps-Odo pulled her head up and asked: "human?" At the stunned silence from Alice, Nazps-Odo continued: "kidding." And returned to her ministrations.

Seamus laughed hard. From black miasma fog to white flash to jokes. Nazps-Odo was full of surprises.

"Honey?" Alice asked.

"Yes?" Seamus responded.

"How did you know Nazps-Odo was an Angel of Death?" Alice asked and the room grew quiet and still.

Seamus was quiet. "Because God creates us all for a reason. And he would not have created Lich without a reason. So I thought through who would have been creatures that God would have created that would have been corrupted in the Fall with such power related to death, and the only answer I kept returning to were the Angels of Death."

"But there was one Angel of Death in Egypt." Alice said quietly.

"That I don't know the answer to." Seamus said.

Nazps-Odo raised her head. "It's an office now. An appointment chosen from amongst those in the Host who declined to believe the Prince of Lies and stayed faithful to the Most High." She crawled up to a kneeling position and re-folded her wings behind her.

Seamus finally was making out the outlines of wings and a few of the feathers were swiftly gaining form. More form than he had expected. "Why are your wings very red and very blue?"

Seamus suddenly smelled iris and lemon peel as Na breathed out with a short mewl. An odd combination, to be sure.

Na spoke softly. "sha-tushesh-tenut-em-sha-sishan-aru". She touched her forehead to Seamus's. "A true foreclaw, at last. Welcome." She kissed him gently on the lips. "My liege."

Seamus felt Nazps-Odo slide her thighs on either side of his and then angle him into her with a soft sound from her lips.

Seamus kept his eyes on the dark red splotch that was Na. "Thank you. I think."

Na smiled, her teeth flashing in the light. "It is good. I'll tell you more about my people's unit structure later." He smelled something like apricots and sweet peaches from her. She leaned in close and whispered in his ear. "Where there are fewer ears."

Seamus felt her paw slide up between his legs and his eyebrows raised. And wondered if Na had forgotten about Nazps-Odo. Nope. She was just playing, carefully, with the hair and tender organs below where Nazps-Odo was speeding up with gentle cries. Oh! Oops. "Samantha, Mandy. You have my permission to depart if you wish." He kissed Na on the lips again but then felt a hand on his chin, pulling him the other direction and so he turned to kiss Alice.

Seamus was lost in a haze of pleasure, feeling all his senses come alive, both old and new. His wings were beating quickly. And that was when he realized he was sensing the flow of Erogen. He could feel it gathering in his body, suffusing through every cell, filling like he was about to burst, and with a gasp, he saw stars and cried out as he finished inside Nazps-Odo.

Seamus felt dreamy. And he heard birdsong. Sweet, fantastic birdsong. The twigs under his back were rather sharp though.

Seamus tried to brush the twigs away from his back, the bark scent filling his nostrils, with moss and old growth spruce trees close behind. And he felt cold. Very cold. And wet. His eyes shot open and he rolled over.

And cried out in terror as he watched pounding waves and surf five hundred feet below come rushing up at him. Panicked, Seamus felt his wings snap open and breathed out a sigh of relief as he felt the updraft catch him but then a wind shear sent him sideways, a scream of pain wrenched out of him as his right wing impacted the spindly trunk of a gnarled spruce tree, sending him spiraling headfirst towards the side of the cliff. His hands snapped out, his claws rending the dirt and scree as he flipped downwards and crashed knees first into the rock, his toes scrabbling for purchase. His knees bleeding and torn, his finger claws finally found their grip with a sudden lurch and he trembled as he pulled himself up against the rock.

He looked to the left and saw towering mountains in the distance, glaciers as far as the eye could see in the valleys between. Looking to the right, he saw more mountains falling down to the deep blue waters. Looking over his shoulder, he saw islands dotting the waters of the passage. Looking down, all he could see was that same wind-driven surf still pounding against the black rock. No beaches, no friendly flat rocks jutting out of the water. Nothing safe to land on. And still 75 feet below. Looking up, he saw the cliff face, now with scree rolling down in patches. Carefully pulling back a little, he looked up, and up, and up for thousands of feet, far above the small outcropping he had fallen from.

Seamus shivered in the freezing cold air, huddled back closer to the rock away from the falling scree, and folded his wings around him to block out the wind, his right wing twinging as it folded. He thanked God he could see, and had avoided being dashed against the rocks...but where was he, and how was he going to get down?

From behind him to the left, he heard a horn blast long and loud. Seamus turned his head to the left and peered carefully. To see a cruise ship coming round the bend. Well...at least here now are people, he thought.

Seamus looked again. He recognized that ship. He'd wanted to take Alice for a cruise on her. He'd planned the anniversary trip. And Jill had interfered. Sighing, he readjusted his grip on the rocks and thought: 'How'd I get partway up a cliff in Southeast Alaska?'

Seamus looked back up the rock again and started trying to climb but the scree sent him down the cliff another ten feet until his claws regained purchase. He looked down at the icy cold waters and back at the slowly approaching cruise ship again. Then back up the cliff. He started counting the minutes that he had been on this infernal cliff and looked back at the cruise ship again. He closed his eyes, vibrating with frustration. 'Oh, come on! Lord! Why?! Help! I wanted to come here, yes, but with Alice!!!'

Seamus breathed in, shivered as the icy wind filled his lungs, breathed out. Breathed in, shivered, breathed out. 'Lord. Give me strength. Lift me up with your guiding hands, restoreth my soul, guide me by still waters and help me fly!' He leaped out from the cliff and spun, flapping his wings hard, he gritted his teeth as his right wing cramped but he fought through it and caught the updraft again. Snapping his wings wide and rigid, he felt the wind like a punch in the teeth and he flew across the waters swiftly, trying madly to avoid the cruise ship but the wind was driving him straight past the bridge.

Seamus saw wide eyes of several people on the bridge and pointing fingers as another wind caught him and carried him up the other side of the passage at breathtaking speed. Seriously, breathtaking. Both in beauty, cold, and the sheer velocity of it. He fought to get another gulp of air at every cycle. He offered another prayer of thanks that the only people that appeared to have seen him were the bridge crew. He fought not to laugh hysterically, needing every morsel of air for flying.

Seamus crested the mountain and felt nausea as he did so. He tried flapping his wings again but the pain was too much. So, he glided. With the occasional flap as he needed to. He blew on his fingers and looked down at the countryside. It was beautiful. So...mind-numbingly, soul-achingly beautiful. And deadly. He pulled a knee up to massage it and nearly pitched forward into an uncontrolled dive.

Seamus saw something along a river. He really didn't want to land, because he wasn't certain he would be able to take off again, but he decided to take the chance. If he kept flying, he might get frostbite. Well, he wasn't certain if he could get frostbite anymore, but he didn't want to risk it. He was supposed to be able to fly in space...but he was having trouble flying in an atmosphere right now. He angled down toward the structure he was now certain he'd seen. This was terrifying. And exhilarating. He was actually coming in for a landing, and not in a plane! He giggled.

The wooden structure appeared and disappeared through the treetops as he dipped and soared, trying to get a feel for the process before getting too close. Seamus realized the only good landing place was on the river, and he really wasn't interested in that. The alternative then, was to land on the roof. The incredibly steep roof. Seamus sighed. Swooping down a little to gain speed into a small final altitude gain to stall into his landing, he finally realized at the last second there was a balcony right next to where he was trying to land. Too late. He landed with a thud and slid down to land in a crouch on the balcony. And fell flat on his face as his knees gave out.

It was another five minutes before he could massage life back into them enough to hobble his way into the building. Seamus looked around, seeing food, bedrolls, a radio, binoculars, and a satellite phone. Ha! He swiftly made his way to the phone and called Alice. And gave thanks that the succubi had planned for call forwarding to multiple dimensions when she picked up.

"Hello?" Alice answered.

"Hi honey. You'll never guess where I am." Seamus said.

"Alaska. He's in Alaska!" Alice cried out.

"Darn. How'd you know the area code that well?" Seamus complained.

"Stay right there! We just needed to know what part of the universe you were in!" Alice said.

Seamus blinked. Alaska was huge. How would they...a flash and Nazps-Odo stood in front of him. Seamus shrugged. Oh well.

Another flash and Seamus was still holding the satellite phone, but they were back in the castle again and Alice was launching herself on him. "Oof." He kissed her. "Ow."

Seamus handed the satellite phone back to Nazps-Odo and quirked an eyebrow at her. She nodded and flashed out, then came back without the phone.

"Don't do that to me!" Alice punched his chest. "No one knew where you were! Why Alaska?"

"We didn't get to go before." Seamus smiled tiredly, his eyes glancing over at the clock before returning his focus on Alice. 9:58.

"You're bleeding, Your Majesty." Sireah said.

"Tree." Seamus said, kissing Alice and pulling her in for a hard hug. "I hit a tree after I fell off of a cliff."