Chapter 13

"I'd like to show you some things that can help you if you ever get shot up again."

"What sort of things?" Jolene asked, not having the slightest idea of Béla's erotic fascination with guns.

"Well, for starters," Béla began, "I want you to watch what I do when I get injured."

She showed Jolene an image of herself being shot, and how she could convince her nervous system to dissipate the pain more evenly so that it didn't all hurt in one spot.

"The dissipation makes you tingle all over," Béla explained, smiling sheepishly. "That can actually be pretty arousing."

Image of Jake shooting her in the belly button with a twenty-two rifle, and Béla having an orgasm because of that. Then she was lying on a rotting log and hugging it tightly as one searing bullet after another splashed into her sexy thighs and pussy, each one sending an unbelievable orgasmic sensation up to electrify her entire body.

"Whoa!" Jolene exclaimed. "You can do that?"

"Sure!" Béla laughed. "Once you get used to it, it feels great! And your body will just digest the bullets. It's not like you'd die, or anything..."

"I don't know..." Jolene murmured, not really convinced.

"That's all right," Béla replied, sitting up to look around the room. "Let's see what we can find..." then smiled as she spotted the glassed-in gun rack standing against the wall. "Well. What do we have here?"

Jolene watched Béla hop off the bed and trot barefoot over to the gun rack. In addition to the long rifles, there were two exquisitely carved Bowie Knives displayed, as well. The rack wasn't locked, but the rifles weren't loaded, and Béla was soon examining one of the old Spanish knives with a keen and avaricious look on her face.

"Whoa!" Jolene exclaimed when she saw what Béla was thinking. "You are not gonna stick me in the ass with that rusty old thing!"

"Well, no..." Béla replied, grinning at the image in Jolene's mind. "I was going to poke you in the tummy with it – just as an exercise in pain control, you see."

"I'm pretty sure I don't want you to," Jolene replied, scooting back slightly and holding her hands in front of her bare torso in a protective gesture. "Teeth and nails is one thing, but hardware is something else entirely!"

"Look, we'll go slow and easy, okay?" Béla implored her. "I'm not upset about you biting me like you did – I actually really liked it, and I'm sorry that you didn't like being bitten on the neck. I promise I won't do anything until you say it's okay. Okay?"

"Um, well ... Béla," Jolene stammered. "I know that, uh, you have ... you know. You can do what you want. But ... I really don't want you to stick that thing in me. It's old, it's rusty, and ... well ... it's here! I really want ... All I want is to leave this place. There might be other people like those two around, and I feel a lot safer when there're a lot of different people around. They sort of keep each other in check, you know?"

"Jolene, there's no one else around for several miles," Béla sighed, and Jolene stretched forward, interrupting whatever Béla was going to say.

"I haven't ... I don't really..." Jolene stammered as her face, neck, shoulders and breasts darkened in embarrassment. "I..." she sighed, then forced the words out. "I watched you while you slept ... while you healed. After ... you know ... what we did. I know it's wrong, but I was angry with you, and I was glad I hurt you. I...

"It's hard not to hurt people, Béla," Jolene continued, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm a Justice. And I don't have a presiding... human... someone to keep me in check when I make a decision ... not like you do with that bard. No one sits with me and shares my responsibility."

"Let me help, then," Béla replied, and hugged Jolene, though she resisted, stiffening her back and trying to pull away. "There may be something blocking your ability to handle decisions."

"I can handle..." Jolene began, then realized that she was contradicting herself. "Well, maybe I can't ... not as well as I need to, anyway."

"It's alright," Béla promised. "No one will hurt you here. Especially not me ... so just relax, and try to feel ... comfortable."

Sitting down next to her naked sister, Béla let her mind brush against Jolene's, careful of any resistance she might encounter. Jolene was unshielded – probably didn't even know about shields – and was looking at an image of herself watching Béla sleep after their sexual feeding earlier, her own limited training telling her that this was where they needed to start.

'What are you looking at?' Béla wanted to know, letting her vampiric sister know she was in her mind.

'You... ' Jolene whispered back, seeming unsurprised at the intrusion.

'Don't apologize. My considerations are not important here, ' Béla assured her half-dreaming sister. 'Just tell me what's happening in the image.'

'I'm looking around for... ' Jolene continued, assured that she wasn't upsetting Béla, 'for ... there's a ... an obsidian dagger and I pick it up.'

"No, I didn't do that!" Jolene suddenly insisted, her eyes snapping open.

She blinked several times at Béla's soft eyes only inches away, gazing intently into her own.

'It's alright. Tell me what happened, ' Béla thought softly into Jolene's unsettled mind, willing her sister to close her eyes again.

Almost without realizing it, Jolene was staring down at the image of Béla sleeping on the bed through her closed eyelids. Hands held the dagger steady, its gleaming point aimed at the already bleeding softness between the sacrificial girl's trembling legs.

'But, Béla... ' Jolene interjected, confused but concerned at this discrepancy. 'You were asleep. I was just watching you sleeping. I didn't really have a knife ... and your legs weren't trembling. I get the idea that ... Those aren't your legs!'

'Not my legs?' Béla asked, aware of what was really happening. 'If not mine, then ... Whose?'

'What?'

'Whose legs are you looking at?' Béla asked. 'What do you see?'

'I ... I'm ... Oh my God! There's people fighting!' Jolene thought, then concentrated harder to see more. 'The wall is breached. There are women dying everywhere. Men in armor and swinging swords are invading and killing us all! Arista – our queen – is rallying those of us and giving us swords to fight with.