The Blue Dragon: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

-- CHAPTER 9: Rome --

****

“I can hear you two snogging,” Rae complained bitterly from the seat directly in front of me and Jade. “I’m jetlagged and I have a headache and I really don’t want to deal with this right now.”

Jade giggled and winked at me while I pulled my lips off of hers. She looked so girlishly happy and vibrant that it was easy to forget that she was more than a thousand years old instead of a young woman in her twenties. “Do not be jealous,” she scolded, tapping the top of Rae’s seat. “You of all people should know that true joy is a rare thing for spirits like us, so please let me enjoy this while it lasts.”

“Fine, fine,” Rae grumbled while leaning over to rest her head against the side wall of the train. “Just please don’t mount him right here in front of everyone. It’s bad enough you two snuck into the airplane lavatory on the flight over here.”

I chuckled and waggled my eyebrows at Jade, feeling flush with happy memories of that incredible Mile High hookup we’d enjoyed on the red-eye flight over the Atlantic.

The three of us had been forced to take a few detours to get here. Since our enemies had known we were in Seattle, we’d rented a car to drive across the Canadian border to Vancouver rather than risk being spotted boarding a flight at SeaTac airport. We caught a domestic flight to Montreal without much scrutiny, and from there took an eight-hour overnight flight to Rome where Rae told us we would meet some additional allies to help us find the third relic.

I did manage to catch a little sleep after emptying the contents of balls into both Jade’s sucking mouth and also her sucking pussy in the aircraft lavatory, and we landed at Leonardo da Vinci - Fiumicino Airport just before 10AM local time. Even without any checked luggage, it took us an hour to clear customs and then board the Leonardo Express train.

The train cars reminded me of a city bus: sit anywhere you want on functional but not particularly comfortable blue chairs with yellow handrails. Nothing special, but it was only about a thirty-minute trip. Still, it was a long enough trip for Rae to nod off, and we had to wake her once we arrived at Roma Termini.

At least she couldn’t complain about me and Jade snogging in our seats while she’d been napping.

I expected Rae to hire a taxi to take us to our lodgings for the night, but instead the blue-haired girl handed me and Jade each a bus pass, and we walked outside to find the bus stops. There were quite literally dozens of bus stops identified by capital letters which covered a dizzying array of bus route numbers, and the first time I tried to look at the bus map I got a headache. There were no actual lines on the map. Rather, various bus stops around the city were identified by their route numbers, and you had to sort of visually survey the map looking for your particular bus route number to piece together some semblance of the actual route.

With no idea where we were going, I had to merely follow Rae as she led us out into the field of bus stops while Jade grumbled beneath her breath that we should be able to afford a taxi. Rae then curtly explained that our apartment wasn’t far, and that we’d actually spend more time waiting in a taxi line. She clearly knew exactly where she was going, so when she hopped through the rear double doors of a red Roma ATAC bus marked with route 36, we followed after and then waved our bus passes at the wall-mounted reader.

I found myself gawking out the window for the duration of the brief bus ride. I’d never been to Europe and had never before seen a city where ancient stone ruins stood right alongside modern buildings. Part of me wished I could pull out a tourist map and identify all of the cool architecture and historical monuments that were absolutely everywhere in front of me. But after only a few bus stops, Rae tapped my shoulder and then pulled a bus cord to flash the “Stop Requested” sign so we could get off.

This section of the city felt both more crowded and yet less overwhelming than other urban cities I’d been in. Pedestrians were everywhere on the sidewalks, as expected, but I was used to Los Angeles and San Francisco with its epic, dark-gray concrete skyscrapers that stretched to the heavens and blocked out the sun, yet had walking spaces and alleys between them. In Rome, separate buildings had been constructed side-by-side with no gaps or alleys between them, so they felt like a single wall of sun-bleached white marble with varying designs of Corinthian and Tuscan architecture. But none were taller than six or seven stories, letting plenty of sunshine reflect off their surfaces to illuminate the street.

I was also used to every business in the city displaying massive signage over their doors, on their large plate windows, and sticking out over the sidewalks on posts so that every pedestrian, cyclist, or driver could see the name of the establishment from blocks away. Not so in Rome. The local businesses only featured small signs above their doors that did not project out above the sidewalks at all in any way that would distract from the beauty of the building architecture. A few advertisements were painted on the plate glass windows, but were likewise subtle enough to not overly attract too much attention. So it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between apartment buildings, offices, and retail shops until one was right at the front door.

Rae led us into one such building and into a small lobby with an elaborate marble floor. But I didn’t have time to really look at the pattern as she made an immediate turn and started ascending the stairs. We passed the second floor and continued on to the third. And it was only on our way up to the fourth floor that I realized this ancient urban building did not have an elevator.

Good thing I only had the one small carry-on suitcase. Still, I found myself slightly jealous of the two shapeshifter ladies with me who could change their appearance at will and required only a purse each to carry anything else.

On the fourth floor we walked down a hallway and came to a door with a keypad over the lock. Rae punched in a code, the door opened, and we entered a small but well-furnished apartment. Evidently this was the Italian version of an Airbnb rental unit. And when I set my roller bag aside, I complained, “I thought money was no object. Did you have to get a place on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator?”

Rae rolled her eyes. “You can handle it. With how much sex you’re getting, you should have enough energy to sprint entire marathons.”

Jade and I shared a knowing glance, and she covered her mouth while giggling.

It was true. Through extensive research, we had definitively confirmed that my body built up energy and additional strength from having sex. My body had been quite bruised and battered in Seattle after Rae had dropped a flaming sofa on me. Nothing had been broken, but it had been assumed that I would need significant time and rest for my bruises to fade and torn muscles to knit back together. But after one night spent fucking Jade’s brains out, not only had I been completely healed, but I’d had the strength to pick up Jade in my arms and walk around the room while holding her up to let her pogo on my stick for almost half an hour.

Sex was my superpower, and even though it wasn’t necessarily Jade’s superpower as well, she was doing an amazing job of keeping up with me. One exceptionally nice thing about being a shapeshifter was that Jade’s pussy could expand and mold around my big dick so that she never felt overly stretched out. She could also produce copious amounts of lube on command, so she never felt overly chafed. The end result was that the two of us could keep fucking like bunnies as often as we liked without any of the negative side-effects. And so… well… we kept fucking like bunnies as often as we liked.

We’d fucked in the morning. We’d fucked on the plane. And from the way she was eyeing me right now, Jade and I were about to start fucking again.

Sensing this, Rae crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. “Looks like I won’t have to convince the two of you to stay here. I’ve got some errands to run. Try to keep the volume down so you don’t alarm the neighbors, alright? I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Jade and I looked at each other for a moment and then looked back at Rae.

“See ya later,” I told the blue-haired girl.

Jade merely smiled and waved.

Rae rolled her eyes and left.

As soon as she was gone, the tall, buxom, black-haired bombshell put her hands on her waist and cocked one hip out to the side. “How do you want me? Like this?”

Over the course of a few seconds, all of her clothes melted away, leaving the statuesque Chinese nympho completely in the nude. She was absolutely stunning, the epitome of an incredibly stacked Asian supermodel.

“Or… like this?” Jade continued, slowly morphing into her hybrid form, with her hair gathering into the green snakeskin hood, her fangs elongating, and her scales framing her still quite curvaceous (and still quite naked) figure.

“Definitely like this,” I agreed, gesturing at her half-serpent form. “Simply gorgeous.”

Jade grinned, launched off her coiled tail into my arms, and mashed our lips together while I carried her back towards the bedroom.

****

The previous times Rae had gone to run errands, I’d been left all alone with nothing but my laptop to keep me company. I had purchased a new laptop in Seattle (after promising Rae that I would refrain from logging into any of my personal accounts, including Instagram). Still, having a warm, wet, and willing babe to play with was infinitely more entertaining.

Even though we were both still fully clothed and doing nothing more than making out, my body started charging up for sex and I was able to carry Jade across the apartment with ease. Once we entered the bedroom, I tossed her through the air and onto the queen-size bed as if she were as light as a feather, and then I stripped off my clothes as fast as I could.

I was rock-hard already, but Jade still perched herself on the edge of the bed and ducked her head down to first take my dick into her mouth. I held her snakeskin hood and caressed it, knowing how sensitive it was to her as an erogenous zone, and she moaned around my meat while coiling that extra-long tongue around my shaft and pumping my prick without even needing to bob her head.

But as great as the blowjob was, I was in a hurry to move on to the main event, so I caressed her cheeks with both hands and then tugged upwards to indicate that I wanted her to pull off. She first sat up and wrapped her arms around my neck, kissing me fiercely. I felt the edges of her fangs against my lips, and I jerked back at the brief sensation of pain as they drew blood. But Jade just grinned at me with her long fangs extended and her forked tongue stabbing out as a tease. She knew I would heal, and sure enough, the cuts sealed themselves almost instantly.

My superpower was sex.

As if to make it up to me, Jade then turned around onto all fours and waggled her shapely tushie at me. Well, technically she was on all “threes” since her legs were still merged into a coiled tail at first. But she transformed the tail back into two separate legs and glanced back at me over her shoulder, waiting with anticipation for me to come ravage her. And I stepped forward, eager to do some ravaging.

At first I laid my long, banana-bent prick into the valley of her butt-cleavage, mashing her jiggly globes around my meat and hot-dogging her buns for a bit. She hissed and winked at me, visibly clenching her asscheeks around my rod. A few seconds later, she dropped her chest down onto the mattress and reached back with both hands, grabbing her buttocks and spreading them wide.

“You never did fuck me in the ass, Akserrr…” the horny half-viper crooned.

My eyebrows popped.

Bro, that sounded like an invitation, Dong announced in my mind.

I had to agree.

I sawed my shaft through her butt-cleavage twice more and then retracted my throbbing tool just far enough for my prickhead to probe against her starfish anus. She wriggled her ass as if trying to help me get lined up, and a moment later I felt my mushroom head notch into position while she visibly exhaled and managed to make her sphincter open up quite welcomingly.

Fuck yeah! Better’n Pornhub!

I chuckled and thrust forward.

“NGH!” Jade grunted while pulling her right hand away from her asscheek to hammer her fist against the mattress. The shapeshifter had always been able to stretch out her pussy to accommodate my thick dick, so I’d assumed she’d be able to do the same with her anal canal, and yet she still felt excruciatingly tight, so on that first stab I was only able to sink a few inches through her sphincter.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned, stopping there to catch my breath.

“Keep going,” she moaned, reaching back with her right hand to re-spread her asscheeks for me. “I can take it. I can take it. I can take it.”

“Take it, take it, take it,” I grunted immediately after, getting a firm grip on Jade’s hips while powering my way through. She was steadily stretching out, millimeter by millimeter. But it was still slow progress, more than a minute to get my blunt instrument fully embedded up her butt.

At last I’d pressed my short-and-curlies up snug against Jade’s snow-white ass. Her figure was still more tall and slender, save for her oversized tits, so she didn’t have the kind of bodacious junk-in-the trunk butt that Kayleigh had. Jade’s booty was shapely and yet compact, which made me feel like I was getting an extra inch of depth deep into her rectum. And oh how heavenly it felt for me to be so completely buried in this particular demon’s hellhole.

Dude, seriously?

What? It feels fucking good! Now stop harshing my mellow.

Shutting up. Fuck away.

“Fuck me, Akserrr…” Jade groaned, letting go of her buttcheeks with both hands and instead extending her arms forward across the mattress in total surrender, ass-up and face-down. “Fuck me… Fuck my ass…”

“Nnnngggghhhh…” I grunted after withdrawing a few inches and then pumping forward to reclaim my territory. “Fuuuccckkk… Fuuuccckkk… Fuuuccckkk…”

“它好大… 它好大…” she moaned before immediately translating. “It’s so big… It’s so big…”

I swear my dick swelled up even bigger at the praise.

“更难！更难！更难！” she howled, spurring me to fuck her harder and harder.

“好痛！超好的！” she screamed.

“我的天啊！ 我的天啊！ AH! AH! AAAHHHHHH!” she gasped as I sped up to fuck her even faster.

Raising my left foot, I planted it atop the mattress next to Jade’s knee, changing the angle for a more downward drilling into her derrière while still holding onto her shapely hips.

“UNGH! UNGH! UNGH!” I grunted while plowing my prick into her posterior.

“Yesss! Yesss! Yeeessssss!!!” she hissed, thoroughly happy with my progress.

The more we kept going, the more Jade’s anal chute stretched out to accommodate my cock. I was able to ream out her rectum faster and faster, and as we picked up steam, she pushed herself up onto all fours so that she could bang her butt back to meet my powerful thrusts. And the room started to echo with the sounds of our coarse colon copulation.

“UNGH! UNGH! UNGH! UNGH!”

“YES! YES! YES! YES!”

“FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!”

“AUGH! AUGH! AUGH! AUGH! AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Jade’s sudden orgasm caught me by surprise. It may have even caught HER by surprise, as she suddenly clamped up so tightly around my cock that it might have snapped a lesser man’s dick off. As it was, it merely brought my big dick to a screeching halt, keeping my buried up to my balls in her butt while her entire body went into quaking spasms like a ten-pointer on the Richter scale. Her whole spine shuddered and started gyrating in a roller coaster of waves that no human spine could have ever accomplished without snapping in half. My prick was stuck in the vise, though, which sent my body bucking like I was riding a bull, only this was no bull and if it wasn’t for the supernatural strength running through my veins, she might’ve snapped ME in half.

And then she collapsed.

Her knees buckled, dropped her belly flat down onto the mattress with her legs dangling off the edge. I fell with her, my full weight dropping straight down against her back, not that she seemed to mind. At impact, it felt like my dick managed to drive an extra quarter-inch into her bowls for just a split-second. And then we both came to rest, our bodies pressed flush together with my cheek against the bedsheets so that we were grinning at each other face-to-face.

“Do not stop. Fuck my ass, Akserrr…” Jade crooned before leaning over to peck my lips.

I grinned and contracted my abs, enough to raise my pelvis a few inches off her butt before letting gravity assist me right back down.

Great holy dragon this feels fucking glorious, Dong groaned.

Wait, did you say ‘feels’? You can feel what I feel?

Hell fucking yeah.

Weird but… okay…

Don’t worry about it. Just keeping tapping that ass.

Tapping away. Tapping away.

I tapped away. Looming directly over Jade’s prone body beneath me, I shifted forwards a bit to get my knees firmly planted on the mattress and repeatedly clenched both my legs and my glutes to power my prick downward into the gorgeous girl’s posterior. I braced my forearms in an A-frame above her head, leaving me enough room to tenderly kiss her cheek in stark contrast to the way I was savagely sawing my schlong in through and out of her stretched sphincter. And the hybrid-serpent girl hummed a happy tune while I ravaged her rear end, getting her closer and closer to next orgasm… and mine.

I could tell the moment her pleasure started to climb its final peak by the distinct crooning note in her moans. She started panting out of breath even though she was barely moving, and she reached back with both hands once again to spread her cheeks and help me really ream her out.

“AHHH-AHHH-AHHH-AHHH-AHHH!” she whimpered while I hammered her harder and harder.

“UNGH-UNGH-UNGH-UNGH-UNGH!” I grunted from the exertion of doing that hammering.

“AAAKKKSSSEEERRR! AAAKKKSSSEEERRR! AAAKKKSSSEEERRR!” she began to howl.

“JJJAAADDDEEE!!! JJJAAADDDEEE!!! JJJAAADDDEEE!!!” I called in kind, slipping my knees off the bed to stand flag on the floor and add extra power to my thrusts.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!” she yelled when I grabbed hold of her snakeskin hood and jerked back on it, using it like reins to ride this filly’s rear end and sodomize the shit outta her (not literally). “AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

“UNGH-UNGH-UNGH-UNGH-UUUUUUNNNNNNGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!” I roared, slamming forward one final time to cram my cock up her colon as far as I possibly could. “UUUUNNNNGGGGHHHH!!! UUUUNNNNGGGGHHHH!!! UUUUNNNNGGGGHHHH!!!”

Blast after blast of blazing-hot spunk burst out of me to baste Jade’s bowels in a bath of creamy cum. I spewed semen into the subterranean depths of her derrière, closing my eyes and letting the blissful ecstasy of epic release wash over me while I filled her anal cavity to the brim.

She trembled and quaked beneath me again, crying out in climax as well. But this time my powerful thrust had her pinned in place, so it wasn’t quite as rough a ride as before. And together we thrashed and pushed against the side of the bed until both of our bodies were spent and we opened our eyes to realize we’d shoved the entire bed across the room until it was pressed up against the far wall.

“Did we just…?” I muttered, pointing at the wall while keeping myself fully buried up Jade’s butt, and she merely laughed in amusement.

I finally did a push-up to pull out of Jade’s lewdly stretched anus, observing her gaping hole with traces of my creamy jism dotting the rim. I rolled over onto my back, admiring her sweaty, naked body. And Jade let me have a long, lingering look of appreciation before she rolled over onto her side and winked at me.

“Watch this,” she stated impishly before rolling onto her back and then curling up like an armadillo, tucking her legs behind her ears with ease. A moment later, she ducked her head to her crotch, tightening up enough so that she could rather easily lick her own pussy if she wanted to. But instead she merely extended her forked tongue and slithered the slippery digit into her own gaping asshole, scooping out a glob of creamy white jizz and holding it up as proof before slurping the dollop straight into her open mouth.

My jaw dropped as I exclaimed, “¡Dios mío!”

Jade winked and then said saucily, “Delicious. Let me slurp this all up, and then you can fill my other holes as well.”

****

While sex was definitely my superpower, giving me boosts in energy and strength, Jade was… well… I couldn’t exactly say she was “only human”, but she could still get worn out and tired like one. Eventually.

I did fill up her other holes while we banged like bunnies all over the apartment: on the couch, on the floor, over the dining table, against the wall, and even on the bed. And after nearly two hours of athletic shagging, screaming, and creaming, she passed out sweaty and naked across the bed while I slowly slumped over her unconscious naked form with my throbbing dick slowly deflating inside the viper-girl’s well-used vaginal canal.

I enjoyed a few minutes simply cuddling up behind her, spooning on our sides with her heavy breast in my palm. I’d always bonded quite strongly to my lovers, ever so grateful they were willing to put up with my insatiable libido, and Jade was no exception. She looked unquestionably beautiful in her slumber, her face expressing the very essence of peace. And I kissed her bare shoulder before eventually rolling off the bed and then out of the room.

I was seated on the living room couch surfing the net on my phone, still bare-chested and dressed only in my boxers, when Rae returned. The blue-haired girl took one look at me and rolled her eyes once more. I had my six-pack abs and firm pectorals on full display, but the lesbian chick with the butch haircut didn’t even glance at them before she set a duffle bag on the dining table and then pulled out a two-liter bottle of water.

“I figured you’d be thirsty after all that exercise,” she told me while tossing the bottle of water in my general direction.

I reached out to catch it, replying, “Thank you. Much appreciated.” And then I twisted off the cap and started chugging.

Rae had purchased several such water bottles and a new cell phone for Jade, the latter of which I pointed at, remarking, “Does that mean she’s officially part of the team now?”

“Sure, as the Team Slu--” Rae began before abruptly stopping herself. Then, after taking a deep breath, she shook her head in the negative and muttered, “No, no, I can’t do that to her. Even though she’s a yaoguai and a snake and every fiber of my being tells me not to trust her any farther than I can throw her, she’s still a fellow woman and I can’t call her something like that.”

“But you wanted to call her something like that,” I said with a frown. “You can’t be jealous of Jade, right?”

“Of course not,” Rae groaned with another eyeroll. “At least, I can’t be jealous about that.”

I winced. “But you can still be jealous that I’m spending all my time with her. Yesterday, it was just you and me on this epic adventure. But then Jade showed up and now we’re making you feel like a third wheel.”

“You’re not… I mean, you and I aren’t… I-I’m gay and have zero interest in ever…” she stammered, starting and stopping and finally sighing before going silent with pursed lips and a ruefully shaking head.

“We’re making you feel like a third wheel,” I repeated.

“Yes, you are,” Rae confirmed with a shrug. She walked over to the couch and sat down beside me, adding, “But it’s only been one day and I don’t blame you for it. Neither of you. You’re a hyper-sexual creature. You literally gain energy from fucking; it’s your superpower. Jade’s lived a lonely life and she’s finally found someone who seems to accept her exactly the way she is, scales and all, and she’s excited about that. There’s a part of me that still doesn’t trust her - the tiny mammal spirit inside me will always fear a reptile - and I can’t forget that she’s tried to kill both of us. But I see the way she looks at Dong, and I see the way she looks at you, and my gut instinct tells me she’s telling the truth about being on our side.”

“That’s very gracious of you,” I told her sincerely while reaching up to squeeze her shoulder. “But you shouldn’t have to feel like a third wheel. I’m sorry about that. I’ll try to do a better job of making you feel included.”

Rae snorted and shook her head. “It’s not your job to make me feel included. Fuck Jade whenever you want, as often as you want, so long as you help me find the Faguang Long. That’s the only job I care about. And right now, I’m more frustrated about my inability to do anything about THAT job than about you and Jade smashing every chance you get.”

“It’s not like we’ve been smashing ALL the time. This morning, the plane, just now… that’s only three times.”

“Three separate times since you woke up this morning. Not even counting the middle-of-the-night thing you were doing at 4AM that woke ME up. You know what? Nevermind. Not the point.”

“Right. You said you were frustrated with your inability to get the job done on the Golden Dragon thing. What’s wrong? Did your errands today not go as planned?”

“No they did not. Not at all.” Rae shook her head and sighed.

I took a deep breath and then squeezed Rae’s shoulder again. “What can I do? How can I help?”

“You can’t.”

“Why not?”

Rae blew a raspberry before jutting her lower lip out, the next puff of air blowing her blue-dyed bangs back from her forehead. She raised both eyebrows at me and asked, “Do you happen to know where the next relic is located?”

I blinked. “Me? I thought you had the locations of all four relics.”

Rae made a face and then shook her head in the negative. “I knew about The Zellij Fountain and The Fremont Troll because guarding them both were part of my responsibilities in America. But I was never told where precisely the other two relics had been hidden. Need-to-know basis, you understand. If I was captured, I would not be able to reveal a location I didn’t know.”

“Makes sense.”

“I only knew that they were somewhere in Italy and Japan, and after I reported in that we’d found the first two, I was instructed to bring you here to Rome.”

I sat up, curious. “Instructed by whom?”

Rae opened her mouth to reply before stopping herself. She winced and then said apologetically, “Need-to-know.”

I frowned. “But… what would Jade or I do if something were to happen to you? Not that I want anything to happen to you, but if you have a… a handler or something… wouldn’t we need to contact them in order to continue the quest?”

Rae looked distinctly uncomfortable, but after taking a deep breath, she stated plainly, “Protocol dictates that she would contact you if something were to happen to me.”

“Well at least now I know it’s a ‘she’.” I frowned. “But even if it were a ‘she’, how would I know she’s the right ‘she’ and not some agent of evil sent to trick me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is there a secret passcode she could give me? Do I ask her what your favorite color is so she can prove to me that she knows you? Never mind, it’s obviously blue. But is there anything ELSE we can use as a backup failsafe? Because now that I think about it, that kind of stuff would be pretty important to ensure mission success.”

“I don’t know, Aksel,” Rae exclaimed, throwing out her hands. “I don’t know what I’m doing at all!”

I pulled my head back. “Wait, what?”

Rae sighed, looked down, and rubbed her forehead. She looked visibly distraught, so I didn’t press her at all, merely giving her a minute to collect herself. Keeping her eyes closed, the blue-haired girl took several deep breaths, breathing in through her nose and then letting out long exhalations from her mouth. And when she finally looked up, there were visible sheens of moisture in her eyes.

On instinct, I wrapped my arm around Rae’s lower back. She stiffened at first, and I considered removing it, but a moment later she leaned into my embrace, allowing me to hug her tighter. And when I moved my hand up to her upper arm, giving it a squeeze, she reached up to cover my hand with hers.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” Rae repeated. “All of this is just happening so fast. Two weeks ago I was doing what I’ve always done: monitoring for Cao Wei activity and doing my part to ensure that they don’t gain the upper hand. Then all of a sudden, I got assigned to fly out to Santa Monica and start watching you, without any real explanation why. At first, I didn’t understand what was so important about you. You were just a guy, and a womanizer at that.”

“Hey!”

“You telling me that’s not an accurate statement?”

“Well… I wouldn’t call myself a womanizer.”

“Do you or do you not engage in casual sexual relationships with multiple women at the same time?”

“Well… It’s not like I’m hurting anyone,” I hedged defensively. “And I’m always plain and upfront with the girls about not being monogamous.”

“Didn’t call you a liar. Just called you a womanizer.”

“Fine. Fair enough.” I patted Rae’s upper arm, at which point she rolled her eyes, pried my fingers off her arm, and then slid herself a foot away from me. I didn’t try to resist and wound up interlacing my fingers in my lap.

“Anyways, it was only after I kept asking why I needed to watch you that I was finally told that the Cao Wei murdered your mother and that you might be able to unlock the gates leading to the Faguang Long. Then the Cao Wei sent a viper after you - they sent Jade after you - and all of a sudden a simple observation mission became much more serious.”

“Life-or-death serious.”

“Very, very serious,” Rae agreed. “I feel like I’m in over my head. I’ve never been in a life-or-death situation like this before.”

“Really?”

Rae nodded again. “Jade wasn’t wrong about me not being very experienced. That fight with her in the Presidential Suite last night? That was my first-ever fight with an enemy agent.”

“Really? But you were so good!” I exclaimed, miming kung-fu chops and even kicking my right foot out.

Rae smirked and then shrugged. “I had an excellent teacher, and a good thing too. If not for the skills she taught me, you and I both certainly would have ended up dead.”

“Did she teach you how to make those electric fireballs? Could she teach me?”

“I don’t know. Possibly? Although unlikely.”

“Because I’m not as cool as you?”

Rae shook her head. “Creating those ‘electric fireballs’, as you put it, is about harnessing your chi, your life force. My natural element is fire, but you’ve already exhibited a natural affinity for water, what with the avatar of the Azure Dragon bonding to you, and especially that water shield you created last night. So while you could theoretically make a fireball, it’s more likely you’d create a… well… a water-ball or something.”

“Doesn’t sound quite as cool as a fireball.”

“Well, that water shield you made was pretty cool.”

“Thank you. I didn’t know I had it in me. Literally.”

Rae barked a laugh. “And you were pretty useless in a fight otherwise. Do you have any martial arts training whatsoever?”

“I’ve watched a lot of Jackie Chan movies. Does that count?”

Rae snorted and shook her head. “Any athletic background? Childhood sports?”

“Do E-sports count?”

Rae rolled her eyes and then reached over, slapping my six-pack abs. “Where the hell do you get these?”

“Frequent sex,” I replied with a shrug.

Rae barked another laugh.

“I’m serious,” I insisted.

“I know you are. It’s still funny.” Rae moved to squeeze my pectorals without a hint of sexuality to it. She was really just testing my muscles, and I let her move on to my shoulders and biceps while I tried to not make it obvious that I was flexing on purpose.

“Fair’s fair, right?” I quipped, and then I slowly moved both of my hands closer to Rae’s breasts while she squealed and batted my hands away. We had a good laugh, and then I asked, “What about you? Did you start off a natural athlete or did this ‘excellent teacher’ train you up to this level?”

“I guess you could say I was a natural athlete. Fox spirits have incredible balance and quickness. My parents put me into gymnastics and ballet when I was four.”

“Oh that’s right. You said your father is six feet. Are your parents still around?”

Rae nodded. “They’re still in Manchester, where I grew up. There’s a large Chinese population there. Dad’s a banker. Mum was from Shanghai but had just moved to England when she met Dad.”

I cocked my head. “Wait, how old are you? I’m assuming you’re not over a thousand like Jade.”

“I’m twenty-six.”

“Same age as me.” I furrowed my eyebrows. “But when did you realize you were… well… not a muggle? Is your mom a huli jing?”

Rae shook her head. “Animal spirits aren’t hereditary. If I were to bear offspring, it’s unlikely they would have any supernatural abilities. Chinese animal spirits do seem to be tied to Chinese DNA, so a non-Chinese person would have basically zero chance of being born with one, but I’ve met people of other ethnic races with supernatural spirits tied to their cultures. There was a Greek man with lightning powers, a Mexican woman who could shapeshift into a jaguar, and Tanzanian woman who could summon lava.”

“Oh wow…” I nodded, suitably impressed.

“As for when I found out, my teacher found me when I was thirteen. Huli jing can sense each other when we do magic. Tickles the nose, actually, like we can smell each other.”

“So she’s huli jing too? Are there a lot of you? Jade said that there were perhaps only a hundred hui left in the world, if not less.”

Rae thought about that. “Yes, she’s huli jing, but I don’t actually know how many of us there are; I’ve only met a handful. Much like the Cao Wei, we are powerful, but we aren’t numerous. Anyways, she taught me everything I know. Trained me through secondary school. Got me a scholarship to university. Met my parents and told them I’d be working for a global consulting company. She’s always been there for me, and I really, really wish she were here right now.”

“Because she’d tell you what to do at a moment when you have no idea what to do?”

“Absolutely,” Rae said with a sigh. “I told you: I feel like I’m in over my head. This whole thing with finding the Faguang Long, it’s… It’s huge. It’s legendary. The power it supposedly has… It blows my mind.”

“So I gather.” I sat up straight and thought of something. “So what would you do if you had that kind of power?”

“Me?”

I nodded. “Jade said that the Faguang Long has the power to build bridges between the realms of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. What if it could bring more fox spirits, like you, here to Earth?”

Rae made a face. “I dunno. It seems to me that humanity isn’t ready for a greater influx of supernaturals in the world, whether fox spirits or not. It’s been repeatedly drilled into me how important it is to keep my powers hidden. If the Faguang Long has the power to bridge the realms…” She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Maybe it would be better off not found.”

“Then why ARE we trying to find it?”

“I told you. There’s a great evil coming, and we need the Faguang Long to stop it.”

“So you’ve been told.”

Rae’s eyes narrowed. “I trust my teacher, in case you’re suggesting otherwise.”

“It’s not that. Well, maybe it’s a little bit of that,” I admitted before taking a deep breath. “It’s hard not to be suspicious of people’s motives when you’re on the run trying to not get murdered, especially when I feel like I don’t have the total picture of what’s going on.”

“I know how you feel. Even -I- don’t have the total picture of what’s going on.”

“That’s something else that concerns me. If finding the Faguang Long is so dang important, and if I’m The Chosen One of Qinglong and the only person who can unlock the gates, then why is the only person with me a novice agent who - no offense - doesn’t have the total picture of what’s going on? Why don’t we have an army of supernatural followers of Shu Han to combat the forces of evil arrayed against us?”

Rae winced. “I don’t know, other than to repeat: we are not numerous.”

“Didn’t you say we would gain more allies once we got to Europe? We’re in Rome now, aren’t we? Where’s everyone else?”

Rae now grimaced. “I don’t know.”

“Why is a former enemy from a race of shapeshifting demons the only person who seems to want to help us right now?”

Moisture was forming in Rae’s eyes again. “I don’t know.”

“Ah, shit. I’m sorry,” I apologized. Now it was my turn to grimace as I reached out to touch her leg. “I’m not trying to make you cry.”

“No, no. I’m not crying,” Rae insisted even as she sniffled and then wiped her eyes with both hands.

I gave her a kind look and said gently, “You’re kinda crying, Rae.”

“I’m just feeling overwhelmed right now.”

“And I’m not making it any easier on you. I just…” I sighed. “I’ve been feeling like I’m in over my head since the moment we met. It’s hard not knowing what’s going on, and every time I try to ask I get told, ‘There’s no time to explain’ or ‘You’re on a need-to-know basis’.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You’re my first real assignment and I was SO scared about giving you too much information without knowing whether or not I could trust you and so I’m sorry if I started off a little cold and stand-offish but I was trying to act like I knew exactly what I was doing when I’m just barely keeping my shit together and now we’re here in Rome and it’s my first time being back in Europe in three years and I was expecting to meet my teacher or at least some other agents but nobody’s here and we’re all alone and while I knew exactly where I was going in Chicago and Seattle this is my first time in Rome and I have NO idea what this city is like and--”

“Hold up.” I literally held my hand up. “This is your first time in Rome?”

Rae nodded silently, still wiping her wet eyes.

“But you led the way here to this apartment like you’d been here a hundred times.”

She shrugged. “I did a lot of research on the internet. You’d be amazed at how much travel prep work you can do with Google Maps.”

I blinked twice. “Good to know. But seriously, what was that part about expecting to meet your teacher or some other agents but nobody’s here?”

“That’s why I don’t know what to do. I’m a novice agent who doesn’t have a total picture of what’s going on. I was expecting allies who DO have a total picture of what’s going on, including my teacher. She’s the one who told me to go watch you in Santa Monica. She’s the one who told me to come here to Rome. But now…” Rae winced, took a deep breath, and shook her head while staring out into the distance.

I frowned, waiting her out. But when Rae didn’t continue, I went ahead and led her, “But now what?”

There were tears in Rae’s eyes again. “I can’t get a hold of her! She’s not responding to any of my messages. I’m trying to tell myself it’s nothing to worry about, that we should just sit tight until she reaches out to me, but it’s been hours since we landed and I haven’t heard a word. I went over to a shop in Rome’s Chinatown where we were supposed to meet, but the shop owner there hasn’t seen her either. She’s never been out of contact like this.”

The tears started rolling down Rae’s cheeks, and then she abruptly closed the gap between us, wrapping her arms around my neck and practically sliding into my lap. I held her tightly while stroking her back, whispering soothing sounds as she bawled and bawled into my shoulder.

Rae wailed into my ear, “What if something happened to her? What if she’s dead? What if they’re ALL dead? What are we going to do?!?”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue & Chapter 1: The Ax Effect: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102225387

Chapter 2: Santa Monica: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102437478

Chapter 3: The Zellij Fountain: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102691018

Chapter 4: Euhemerism: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102919819

Chapter 5: The Fremont Troll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103191700

Chapter 6: Jade: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103443053

Chapter 7: The Blue Gecko: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103699709

Chapter 8: Yaoguai: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103978374