Chapter 12

Marie and Rachel were up early like normal to get in an hour of weapons practice before they ate, but they noticed that Dusty and Suzan were no where to be found.

While two of them had spent the night in Suzan's room the two women thought they might still be tired from everything the day before. After Dusty cured Suzan they really didn't get any more rest as they were up the entire day.

They both had hours to recover from Dusty before they started making sure everyone was alright, but Suzan had not, and she had to be exhausted by now.

After they finished with practice Rachel said she would order some breakfast and Marie volunteered to go wake the two of them.

Approaching the door, she didn't want to interrupt them if they were busy, so she put her ear to the door and she heard the two of them softly talking.

"Ok, honey you have to hold the shaft just like that. You don't want to hold it too tight, because you can't move your hand up and down, but you want to have a firm grip because too loose and you won't get what your after," said Dusty

"Like this?" Suzan asked.

"Mmmmmmmmm, yes just like that. Slowly and firmly," said Dusty.

"Ok, now you want to lightly suck on the head for a moment ... mmmmmmm, yes just like that. Ok, try to go as deep as you feel comfortable ... mmmmmm, just like that," said Dusty.

"Wobt abht hbbmming?" mumbled Suzan.

"What was that?" asked Dusty.

"What about this?" Suzan asked softly.

Suddenly Marie could softly hear the deep rich sound of Suzan humming.

"Suzan, no wait, wai ... AAARRRRGGGHHHHHH!" cried out Dusty.

Marie didn't need to have her ear to the door to hear that. You could have heard him from the hallway.

The next sound she heard was what sounded like Suzan gagging.

"Wow! I wasn't expecting that much even though I knew it would happen. Good thing I had it so far down my throat. Dusty are you ok? Dusty, Dusty why are your eyes rolled back like that? Dusty?" asked a worried Suzan.

Marie could hear Dusty lightly groaning so she knew that he was ok, but she had to chuckle at her friends innocence as she turned to leave.

She and Rachel would need to have a talk with her. She was willing to bet that Dusty wouldn't be in any condition to come downstairs for a while and so they would be able to talk to Suzan then.

She would tell Rachel what happened and she was sure they could find a round about way to broach the subject.

Turning she headed back to give them some privacy.

"Oh, so that's why he almost passed out," said Suzan with a smile.

She was talking with Rachel and Marie and they managed to safely cover the topic in question.

Marie told Rachel what happened when she went to get them and Rachel also giggled when told. She was at least happy she wouldn't have to compete with Suzan for any men if that ever got out.

A few minutes later a worried Suzan came downstairs, but she kept looking behind her still worried in the direction of her room. She seemed nervous when she sat at the table

After she was seated Marie and Rachel were able to ask a few questions based on what she was doing and then comment on some of the fun things they liked to do to men and then they of course covered blowjobs and at that point Suzan seemed to be all ears.

Once they were done she mentioned what happened during her first ever one and Rachel and Marie laughed and told her with her voice if she ever wanted it over fast all she had to do was hum and Dusty was finished.

Of course if he wasn't ready for it he might not be able to brace himself if it was too intense. Rachel commented about one man when she did a trick with her mouth on him and he did pass out on her. She said she would teach Suzan that trick later, even though she was sure she would never need it.

Suzan smiled with relief when she realized that she didn't actually hurt Dusty and he would be alright.

As much as they wanted to be with Dusty, the two of them felt happy for her. They had been with a few different men over the seasons, but as they watched her now it looked as if she had been saving herself all this time for just this moment to only be with only him. It made their stepping aside easier for them to handle when they looked at her now.

A few moments later Dusty came down the stairs. He looked a bit more tired and tender than they remembered, but he was trying to play it off and smile.

All of them were shocked at what happened next.

Suzan always had a happy smile for people, a warm smile for some, a sweet smile, and a shy smile when she felt out of her depth, but as Dusty approached her she looked up at him and suddenly gave him a very sultry, sexy, and seductive smile, and they could almost hear his heart now beating faster and louder from where they were.

He stopped moving and looked at her stunned and didn't realize that he was now very obviously tenting his pants for anyone who happened to look his direction. He had never seen her give anyone that look before, and then the look quickly progress into what he always called a 10,000 watt smile when Lori did it and on her it was incredible to see!

Dusty started to really hope she never gave anyone else that look. Ever. That look was his and his alone. He tried to stop it, but he realized he was now becoming jealous of actions that hadn't even taken place yet.

Rachel, while trying to contain her laughter at his reaction called him over to distract him so that his reaction wouldn't be so obvious. Marie was struck by the thought that she had also never seen Suzan do that before. Sex must agree with her she mused.

As he sat next to his wife, she leaned over and mumbled "morning and tried to find his tonsils for a moment before she scooted her chair closer to him and put her head on his shoulder and purred for a moment with her eyes closed.

Dusty knew that they had a busy day ahead of them, and he really did want to let Suzan recover from being so sore from their wedding night, but he was really warring with his good sense to not drag her back to bed right at that moment. He always wanted to have sex with her, but she was now overriding his good sense.

But he was saved, for right at that moment Lori and Mark came into the Inn and had a seat. Well Mark had a seat and Lori sat across his lap and put her head on his shoulder and grinned at everyone.

Mark looked as worn out as he did the day he stumbled out of that room, but at least his smile was huge enough to match Lori's. Dusty couldn't even make himself feel sorry for any man who was slowly being killed with sex by a gorgeous and very willing woman.

"So what are our plans for today?" asked Mark.

"Don't you have to work at the Mill?" asked Dusty in amazement.

"I will later, but my family took one look at Lori and told me to take the day off. I guess they figured I wouldn't let her out of bed. My Dad couldn't quit smiling and asked me where I was hiding her all this time. I may have to lock her away from all my cousins once they get a good look at her," said Mark with a huge smile.

"No, you'll find out she is very capable taking care of herself. I've always felt sorry for any man who couldn't see that she wasn't interested," said Marie with a smile.

Lori leaned up and stuck her tongue out at Marie and went back to putting her head on her new husband's shoulder.

Almost not willing to be out done, Dusty felt a hand on his lap, and when he looked over he saw Suzan smiling as she started to play with him. If he didn't stop her soon he would lose control at the table.

Reaching down he held her hand to make her stop. She was going to kill him! Even with magic he could only go so long.

"Lori, I've been thinking that we need to move soon. There are two things, one I'm sure we didn't ask the right questions when we talked to all the parents and the mayor.

"Those children had to be picked for some reason. There are too many people here in this town, not to mention enough children to go around, but why so few taken in two seasons? What made them special? I think I know, but I want to confirm it and I need you to help me. You need to bring your globe with us today the two of us will revisit the parents.

"And the second one is I'm sure another child has been taken while we were all, uhmm, indisposed. It only makes sense that someone would strike while we were obviously busy. Marie if you and Suzan could check that with the Mayor? If he's not heard about it he soon will.

"Rachel I need you and Mark to go and check with a few people that he knows. Since Mark is from around here you guys can find out if there have been a few new men that have appeared, but always keep to themselves. And Mark do you know of a few caves or something like that where someone might be able to hide in?" asked Dusty.

"Too answer your first question, there have been four or five men who showed up last season but no one knows where they came from. They come to town every once in a while and leave but we have no idea of who they really are or what they do.

"What makes them stand out is that they hardly ever talk to anyone when they greet them. All they seem to do is come into town find a whore or two to sleep with and then leave. So what we really need to do is find out if they are at any of the caves around here in the mountain side," said Mark smiling.

"Based on that you need to be careful. They will more than likely be at one of those caves and they are up to no good," said Dusty as he looked at him.

"Dusty you obviously know what is going on. Care to bring the rest of us up to speed?" asked Marie.

Looking around to insure that no one was close enough to over hear or eavesdrop, Dusty started talking. The women were already used to Dusty figuring things out fast so they weren't surprised, but this was Mark's first time watching him.

"We already have our answer, but what I don't know is the why. It's Chris, but the question now is if he's being protected by the Mage's council or if they are just in the dark as the rest of the people around him," said Dusty.

Looking at their shocked faces Mark spoke, "I can't believe that! Chris is always helpful to everyone. He has been helping everyone with everything he can from crops to sickness since he got here seasons back and he's been working with us for at least eight or nine of them. I can't believe that."

"No Mark Dusty is right and I don't know why I didn't see it either. What is affecting the children is obviously magical in nature and it would take a powerful mage to do that. Then there is the fact of how everyone was poisoned. That is a very rare plant, yet it was used.

"It was something that we wouldn't normally have a defense against unlike other poison's that the attempted killer might have used. People often use what they have close at hand and are familiar with so as to not screw it up, and if I hadn't had some experience with it, then it would have looked like we all screwed ourselves to death for no reason

"But when you throw in the fact that Chris used to be a researcher for the Mage's council, similar to how my teacher was a private one, then it all makes perfect sense," said Lori

Marie, Rachel, and Suzan looked Dusty and Lori in shock. It did make sense when you looked at it like that.

"So like I said all we need to know is the why at this point. I'm really sure based on these facts that it's him," said Dusty grimly.

"But what about those creatures that attack the town after the children go missing?" Rachel asked.

"It's the children isn't it?" asked Lori excitedly to Dusty

"Yep, they are trying to come home and they are attacked because something has changed them. So whatever he's doing to them is failing and either they get away or he releases them as failed experiments. But by the time they are found again they are in the state that they are in. Question is why is he doing it and what does he hope to gain?

Not to mention what really bothers me is the first two children who were found. They were older than the ones who are affected by this. Its one of the pieces that we're missing," said Dusty.

"How can you be so sure?" asked Mark

"Well if you think about it you don't have any other attacks accept when the children go missing. A child goes missing, then a few days later the parents of the child's home is attacked, then later the child is found but in a coma.

"A few children appeared wounded, but only when a creature was reported wounded as well. They had already healed before I could check so I had to base this on reports and not what I've seen. You've have no other attacks but that happen, have you?" asked Dusty.

Mark looked at him for a bit and didn't say anything. It was funny that no one had ever put that together during all of the attacks. But he put that down to parents really wanting their children back and the suddenness of what was going on.

"Everyone knows what to do right?" asked Dusty. "If so let's meet back her at noon regardless of what we find. Don't tell anyone any more than you have too in case I'm wrong."

As they nodded they decided to get a start on the day.

Lori quickly went upstairs to her room to retrieve her globe so that she and Dusty could go talk to the parents. Suzan and Mark hung around until Lori returned before they started off.

Once she had, Suzan gave Dusty a deep kiss and lightly hummed while doing it as she pressed tightly against him. Dusty knew she did it so she could gauge his reaction to her. But this time he didn't mind, he knew she would want to take him right to bed as soon as she could when she got back.

Lori and Mark both got into their kiss as well as Lori draped her arms across his shoulders and just let them hang as she tried to taste what he ate for breakfast and he pulled her close to feel her body against his.

"Don't do anything dangerous," said Lori softly as she looked back Mark.

"And you watch out for yourself too princess," said Mark to her.

Looking at the others with a sidelong glance Lori said "I've been meaning to ask, why do you keep calling me princess?" asked Lori

"Someone once told me that once you warmed up to me you I would be forever grateful to have you, and I am, so I remind myself of that every chance I get by calling you that," said Mark with a smile as he tried not to look Dusty's way.

Lori's second kiss for him seemed to be far more passionate than her first one.

"Hey you two, I'd say get a room but I know you would and Dusty and I would be right behind you, and we'd not get anything done today," said Suzan with a smile.

Separating from their spouses they all headed out to do what Dusty was suggesting to put an end to this.

Marie and Suzan had to wait for just over an hour to meet with the Mayor because of his massive backlog while they were all poisoned.

"So you're saying that a child went missing the night of the party?" asked Marie as the Mayor finished speaking.

"Yes. I just got the report this morning, but I wasn't in any condition to hear it when it happened. We just sent out a search party this morning to look for the child," said the Mayor

"Damn, Dusty was right. I was hoping he wasn't but he was," said Marie almost to herself.

"Do you know what's going on?" asked the Mayor.

"Not completely yet, but we're working on it. Could you tell us where the child was taking from? Also you should get the town ready as you will soon be attacked again," said Suzan, right before they excused themselves and headed back for the Inn.

"Ok, so Jenny had always been able to do strange things? How long had she been able to make her hands grow green?" asked Lori.

Dusty was leaving this questioning up to Lori as he wasn't sure what to ask.

"For as long as I could remember. My husband used to take her with him during harvest time as she could tell him which were the right crops to pull and which ones weren't any good. We never thought anything about it," said Sonja

Placing the globe in Jenny's little hands they could all see it take a pale green color as it swirled around. Sonja looked at Lori and Dusty in question.

"What is that and what is going on?" she asked.

"It's another piece of the puzzle. We're not quite sure, but I think we need to visit all the children quickly," said Dusty as he started to rise.

Mark followed Rachel as they headed for the next cave.

While he was familiar with the general area, he wasn't used to looking for the things Rachel was. She asked him to generally direct her to the caves and once they got close she asked him to stay behind her as she looked around.

"This is the fourth cave that's been used somewhat recently. It's been a while since someone used it, but it had at least five or six people here at the time and one of them was a child," said Rachel.

"You can tell that? How?" asked Mark full of curiosity

"If you look at the fire pit you can see that while there was a fire in it, the burned wood still is flaky and light. It's not had time to either all fall completely away or to harden around what was left of the wood.

"Also if you look around the fire you can see the marks of differently shod feet At least one is a pair of well made boots and one is too small to either be a woman's or a man's footwear," said Rachel as she gestured around the area pointing to different shoe impressions

Mark was suitability impressed. While he could see what she was talking about, it really was faint and hard to see, but she acted as if it was a painting on a wall.

If Lori hadn't been the one he was so interested he realized how easy it would have been to take the beautiful woman up on her offers and sleep with her the few times she asked.

"What is bothering me is what looks to be the sign of a scuffle and then the extremely large feet we keep finding at each cave. And you say there are about twenty or thirty more of them? Well we're almost out of time so if we're going to make it back for lunch we should head back now," said Rachel rising from looking at the ground.

Mark soon followed, but a pair of eyes appeared to also be following them as they left the caves.

"So I was right so far. The kids are all latent mages in some form and they have been taken to the caves," said Dusty as everyone reported to each other what they found.

They moved their conversation to Marie's room as they didn't want anyone to over hear them.

"What I don't get is if Chris is involved why he did this why we were here?" said Marie.

"Either he doesn't feel we're a threat or he didn't know we would survive," said Lori as matter of factly as she could. She was sitting next to Mark on the floor with everyone else and Suzan was next to Dusty.

There wasn't but one chair and one single bed in the room so everyone made do with what they had.

"I'm going with option two, but I believe this will all come to a head tonight one way or the other if the timing is right," said Dusty. Something tells me we'll have all the answers we need by then. Here's what we need to do..."

"THEY'RE ATTACKING!! THEY'RE ATTACKING THE TOWN AGAIN!!" rang a voice and soon Dusty could hear a couple different bells ringing in the background.

Following the sound of the cries Dusty and Lori soon found themselves at the scene of a battle where a grotesque creature was trying to get past various men who were trying to scare it off.

It was naked and it appeared to be female from what he could see. The head was almost twice the size of Dusty's. It stood about six and a half feet tall and had short stubby arms. Shorter than what should have been available to it give its over all body. It had what could have been brown hair but it was scarcely on its head.

As one of the men tried to jab at it with some type of weapon or farm utensil, it moved impossibly quick and dodged out of the way and kept trying to get past. But what caught Dusty's eye was the fact that the creature was moaning and had tears running from its extremely bright red eyes. No one had mentioned that to him before.

"So that's one of the creatures," said Lori in a whisper as she looked at it for the first time.

"STOP IT!!" rang out Dusty's voice "STOP ATTACKING IT. STAND BACK!"

As the men startled by Dusty's outburst turned to look at him, the creature shot past them all and continued on its way.

"What are you doing?! We have to stop it! Who knows what damage it will do!" said one man angry at Dusty.

"No it just wants to go home and it will all be over tonight regardless," said Dusty as he sadly watched the creature heading further into town

As the creature made its way into town it reached a house and started wailing.

Two people first came out of the house. It was a young couple. The woman had long brown hair tied behind her to keep it out of her face and the man had short sandy blonde hair and stood beside her.

Mark and Suzan came out of the house behind them and stayed behind them as they watched the shock on the face of the couple as they tried to face off with the creature.

"Cathy? Is that you? Cathy?" asked the woman haltingly in surprise as she looked at the creature in shock and tried not to bolt.

Turning to the two people behind him the man said "Are you sure this is our Cathy?"

"We're pretty sure. She came right here and so far hasn't attacked anyone long as she was left alone," said Suzan as she sadly looked at the creature.

At hearing this, the woman walked slowly forward with her hand held out in front of her. The creature didn't move but the tears kept falling from its eyes. Suddenly what could have passed for mama passed between its lips and the creature seemed to start glowing.

As they watched it collapsed to the ground and started to shrink in on itself.

Soon they were all looking at the naked form of a six year old girl who was now softly glowing but no longer moving. Lunging for her, both of her parents started to cry as they realized that the town people almost hurt their baby.

"I'll be damned he was right," said Mark quietly as he watched the scene in front of him.

"Let's meet up with the others and finish this," said Suzan grimly.

"Dusty you were right. All I had to do was track backwards from where the creature came from once it attacked the town and Marie and I found the cave they were at. It's eight of them and they are still there around the perimeter of the camp.

"I think they are expecting us, but Chris is inside of the cave doing something I couldn't get close enough to see," said Rachel as Marie and she returned to the town.

"So how are we going to play this?" Suzan asked.

Now that they were all together and Dusty verified a few things they were ready.

"What I'd suggest is this, Suzan, Rachel, Marie, and I should go to the caves. You three will go and take out the eight of them and I'll deal with Chris. Something tells me I will be the only one that can handle him. Besides I've seen you three in action so I have no worries about your safety with the men who aren't mages," smiled Dusty.

The three smiled back, but it was a grim smile that held malice for someone.

"Lori, you and Mark need to round up all the children tonight and take them to a building that can house them all. Get the Mayor to help you. I don't trust Chris and something tells me he's cleaning house tonight. He had to know we were aright and he still went ahead with is plans. We may not get another chance to help those children," said Dusty.

Since this was all Dusty's plan they let him plan what to do next. Everyone set off to do what he requested.

A man took that moment to relieve himself.

He hated guard duty, but he was being paid very well for what he was expected to do, and over the last few seasons he only had to help kidnap a random brat or two and everything was ok. He even got away from time to time to visit a whore himself to relieve some frustrations.

While he was leaning back letting his stream fly he closed his eyes and out of no where a staff hit him very hard in the chest.

It hit him hard enough to break several ribs which kept him from crying out as he found he no longer had any breath to draw to do it with.

As the man started to bend over forward from the intense pain the same staff, which hadn't stopped moving, reversed on itself and as the man dropped to his knees, it hit in him in the back of the head crushing it.

Marie didn't even feel anything as she easily killed this man.

She saw the child on its way into town and any compassion she had was burned out of her by the sight of what she remembered that he helped do to that little girl.

Most of the time she always fought to disable and she always tried to down play how dangerous she really was. But this time she no longer cared because someone was going to t pay for that.

Marie silently moved on looking for the next closest man to her.

The man was twitchy and he kept looking around him as he covered his general area.

Something just felt off to him as he looked around. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt wrong somehow.

As he started quickly walking between two trees a string that was hung about ankle high suddenly sprang up between those trees as he was walking in between them. The man before he could cry out or brace himself dropped his sword as he tried to throw out his hands in front of him to catch his fall.

But that never happened.

Moving swiftly from around behind one of the trees where she had used the rope to trip the man, and while still holding the rope, Rachel never let him hit the ground as she deeply cut him in the back of the neck, almost severing his head, and killing him in one savage strike as he was falling.

The man never saw his death as he died with a gurgling noise spraying blood everywhere.

While this was happening Rachel could still hear the little girl's pitiful moaning in her mind as misshapen little girl desperately tried to leave the woods and head home after what these men put her through.

You could still see the large unshed tears in Rachel's eyes as she went in search of another man to kill for doing that to the child.

Dusty approached the cave alone where he was sure Chris was.

He had seen his wife in action before but the savage way she quickly cut down the man who they surprised tonight had him wondering how dangerous she might be if their children were ever threatened.

The man didn't even make a sound as she made Dusty stand back behind her with a hand gesture and then she quietly went silently out in front of them as she approached the man guarding the cave from behind and stuck.

Dusty forgot that she could be very silent in her armor when she had to be, but as she now swung her sword in a short, but quick over hand chop, suddenly there was a lot of blood everywhere that sprayed all over her as the man silently died and crumpled to the ground.

The lack of outcries of warning around them told him that Marie and Rachel were probably having equal success.

With the way now open, Suzan moved on looking for her next target without looking back at him, and while now covered in the blood of her latest victim.

Without a word either Dusty headed for where Chris was.

As he was now free to approach the cave, Dusty headed straight in and as he did he cast a spell of magic resistance on himself in anticipation of battle.

Since his first magical battle, Dusty had Melkin teach him how to cast on himself spells like Carmichael had done. He wasn't sure if he could cast magic if he was ever stressed out or in a pinch like before where he couldn't really use any, but one thing he was always confident in was his martial arts abilities.

This proved to be the right thing to do, as once he was fully in the cave he noticed some familiar runes on the ground, similar to what Raspin Carmichael used last year on them all to drain his magic.

"I should have stopped my work when you people arrived, but I was too close to figuring out what I needed to know," said Chris as he came from the shadows in the back of the cave.

"Let me guess you're planning to drain my magic from me and make me helpless?" asked Dusty with a smile as he nodded down at the runes.

"Ahh, you're familiar with this then. A colleague passed on the idea to me of how to use it," smiled Chris as he looked at him.

"That wouldn't have been Raspin Carmichael would it?" asked Dusty as he smiled at him.

Startled Chris looked at him for a moment before he asked "How do you know of him?"

"I ran into him during a job for the museum he was at. Shame I had to kill him just like I'm going to do to you," said Dusty quietly as his face now lost all form of the smile it just had.

Chris looked at him for a moment before he laughed, "Good one. I heard he was the victim of his own magic going out of control. You almost had me."