Chapter 3

Preparing for War

The rest of the drive to San Diego was long and uneventful. I planned to stay in Rudy's body until after I'd finished my recon, as it would actually be harder for Merlin to detect me in this body than in a female one radiating Power all over the astral spectrum. While Mr. Wulf did say he'd just been reborn, I know much better than to trust that Merlin will be unguarded.

Mouse had made sure his frat boys did well in Vegas (nothing boosts pride like a good winning streak at a casino), so I had several thousand dollars in cash and didn't care about budgeting. This meant I was going to indulge my body's craving for food.

One of the pleasures I find in male bodies is just how much food I can wolf down. On average, males have faster metabolism, more muscle, and just an overall faster burn rate. It was a little bit like occupying a werewolf body, but not quite in the same league. We'd stopped at a Mexican / Greek / American restaurant on the 101 Coast Highway, and both ordered relatively large meals.

My eyes darted around the restaurant a bit, and kept landing on shapely female bodies. We were near the beach, and the see-through "cover-up" tops the girls wore were frequently sexier than the swimsuits underneath them. It was all I could do not to stare.

I was most of the way through my carne asada burrito, while Argyle was mostly playing with her gyro. She was enjoying herself, though. She'd gotten the attention of a neighboring table full of Marines, and was toying suggestively with a french fry.

She focused on each one in turn, sucking seductively on the french fry while she kept fidgeting with her neckline. When she began to expose areola, I slapped her hand and muttered, "Step it down, slut."

She gave me a pouty look, then swallowed the french fry. "At least I'm getting something salty," she observed suggestively.

I shook my head and went back to my lunch. My last body and its pregnancy had brought with it a strong dislike for Mexican food. I fully intended to enjoy this burrito before switching into yet another pregnant female body, which might or might not share the last one's biases. This meal made me look forward even more to killing Merlin, though. Once he was dead, I could inhabit a female body that wasn't pregnant for a change. For that matter, even if I did get pregnant I 'd still occupy my own body after giving birth. After century upon century of constant body-hopping, getting to stay in one place for a lifetime sounded amazingly good.

Polishing off the last of my burrito, I stretched and turned my attention to Argyle. "Where do we go from here?" I asked.

She closed her eyes and steepled her hands as if she were praying. A very faint purple light emanated from the center of her forehead as she opened her mind's eye and peered around on the astral plane. Moments later, her lips curled in a smirk and stayed there for a few seconds before she opened her eyes again. "About twenty miles south of here. Near the coast, I think."

Five minutes later, we were back on the freeway. We'd drive for a few miles, then stop so Argyle could take a sighting, then get back on the road again. This got us closer and closer to him, until we finally found his neighborhood.

"Something's strange, Morgan", said Argyle after her last sighting.

I sighed. "Decoy?"

She shook her head. "No, you're not going to believe this. This time, he's an infant. And he's in that house right there." She pointed at a nice two-story house with a relatively large, green lawn, probably worth a few million. This time, Merlin had done quite well for himself.

I was puzzled. "An infant? He's never been an infant before."

Argyle nodded her head. "Right. Every time we've chased him down so far, he's been wearing the body of whatever poor soul inherited that dick portal of his. But this time, he's a baby."

I smirked. "In that case, he's pretty much defenseless. You can't cast anything useful until you reach your teens at least."

"Don't you still want to take a female form before you confront him, though?" asked Argyle.

For a minute there, I didn't want to. I was so close, and I could've just walked up to the house, smashed down the door without using an ounce of magic, and struck down my nemesis in his crib. Maybe I'd have Argyle find me a gun first, so it'd look like a crazed home invasion. That tempted me for just a moment, but the temptation didn't last long. I needed to gloat, and I needed Power to show off with. I wanted him to know he'd been beaten thoroughly, and that meant I needed a female body.

I sighed. "Yes, I still need a body. You can eat Rudy once I'm out of him, too. He was an asshole."

Argyle purred. "You're feeding me so much lately, master. I'm going to get fat."

"What can I say? Lately, a lot of people have deserved it."

We drove the car a few blocks east, and parked it over by La Jolla. By now, Rudy may have been reported as missing, so it was time to change identities anyway. Argyle and I got out, took what was left of our cash, and set out to find me a new host body.

I look for different things in a woman than I do in a man. For one thing, to keep Argyle happy, I seek out the worst men so that I don't feel bad if she eats them once I'm done with them. I've mastered the 'wounded bird' act; rapists and various other malcontents think they're in for a touch of heaven when they see me, but I sell them a one-way ticket to hell. Their families may miss the predatory fucks that I feed to my succubus, but the world is better off without them in the long run. It's been demonstrated that children learn how to interact with the opposite sex by watching their fathers, and my goal is to break the chain and keep these men from passing on their values to the next generation.

Women, on the other hand, are a much more complex decision. I have more to think of more than just myself, or even the woman I'm possessing. Any woman I possess is going to wake up somewhere a few months later, and much more pregnant than they should be for having only been missing for a few months. I arrange for each woman to get half a million or so in compensation, but it's still a traumatic experience. And that's just the mother. I'm also creating a life, and have a responsibility to the child to pick a mother who won't screw the kid up too badly.

Until the last twenty years or so, the social stigmas of single motherhood and being born a bastard basically restricted me to married couples. I'd frequently possess a husband, then possess his wife for a while, and then move on to another couple before the baby was due. That era wasn't exactly the most conducive to my living the high life.

Nowadays, I tended to go for a young middle-class college-age girl. Even in California, finding one of them and dropping half a million on her tended to result in a healthy long-term outcome for her and the baby. At any given time, I imagine I had around 150 living direct descendants, just based upon how often I jumped hosts and the average human lifespan.

Those were the things I had on my mind as I scanned the shoreline, looking for my next target. It wasn't long before I found one. She was a sultry dark blonde in denim short shorts, creatively cut to reveal more skin than they covered. Her top was a narrow-cupped string bikini, from which her well-formed C-cup breasts peeked out from either side. They swayed side to side as she walked towards me, hypnotizing me with desire. A hissing gasp sounded at my left side; apparently, Argyle had noticed her as well. I glanced over and saw that she was biting her fingernail appreciatively.

"Stuff it, demon", I muttered. Argyle's only reply was a little whimper. When I let her play with girls as a female, Argyle is gentle and attentive. Lust demons can only suck souls out through sex which could produce children. Still, the risk that she'd switch to her incubus form and fuck their souls right out was more than I wished to risk.

The blonde continued walking in my direction, and I started walking straight towards her. Under my breath, I used my body's limited casting ability to render me irresistible. Under the influence of this glamour spell, Rudy's reasonably built, slender body may as well have belonged to Brad Pitt.

I was now only feet away, and I could see that the spell was taking effect. She couldn't take her eyes off of me, and looked shocked when I turned to her and asked if she had the time. Flustered, she stammered for a second, then realized that she had a cellphone. She fumbled as she pulled it out of her shorts pocket, then held the display up to read. She was centerfold model material, but she was as giddy as a schoolgirl with her first crush. "It's about 5:32pm. The sun will be going down soon."

I raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen an ocean sunset before. Would you like to join me?" I inquired.

I could see a momentary flicker of rational disagreement in her eyes, but it was only a flicker. Moments later, she'd turned around and was walking out to the beach with me.

Argyle tagged along at a discrete distance, letting us have our space. The girl was still carrying her beach towel, so we spread it out on the sand and watched the waves roll in and out as the sun edged ever closer to the horizon. As the bottom edge of the dull orange-red ball touched the ocean, I turned and kissed her on the lips. She looked at me for a moment, not in surprise, but as if she was trying to decide how exactly to reciprocate. That didn't last long, as she replied by leaning in and passionately returning the kiss. I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me, enjoying the sensation of the breasts which would soon be my own against my own chest.

It wasn't long at all until we sank back onto the towel, getting horizontal without disengaging our lips. It was only moments from that point until I was on top of her, squeezing her to me as she ran her arms up and down my back. We cuddled, kissed, held each other, and that was just the warm up. I'd run my fingers over every inch of her body by the time the ocean sunset finished a half hour later, and as soon as darkness fell, we began moving to the next stage. I slipped off my shorts, and she practically tore off hers. "I've never done this before. I mean, with someone I just met."

I shrugged. "Hey, firsts all around. This is my first time on a beach - well, this century anyway. And just so we're not strangers, my name's Morgan."

She grinned. "You're such a character, Morgan! I'm Julie." She reached up and pulled my face back to her lips, and we kissed again. Seconds later, our lips ceased to be the only point of connection between us. My penis was now inside her, thrusting joyfully inside of her moist warmth.

I've said that I prefer being a woman, and that's certainly my professional preference. As a sorceress whose power stems from fertility magic, it's pretty much the only way I can actually wield any significant fraction of the power I held before being cursed. But when my curse is over, I actually am going to miss having sex as a man. I find it very hard to decide which gender I actually prefer fucking as, because they're both awesome.

Julie had begun moaning softly, her voice barely audible over the waves crashing on the beach behind us. "I'm going to cum inside you", I whispered into her ear. She gasped, and I could feel her pussy clench reflexively around my cock as she thought about it.

"Okay," she panted, "I'm on the pill anyway. Just don't stop, ok?"

I chuckled as I thrust harder, burying myself as deep as Rudy's cock was capable. I squeezed her ass, feeling every inch of her body as she pressed herself against me. "You're still gonna get pregnant", I told her.

She bucked her hips harder. "I'll have any baby you can sneak past the pill. I'll name him Lucky", she panted. I was getting close to my climax, and Julie had just given me the closest thing to informed consent I've had in years. A fire built up in my lower body as my erection grew harder and stronger. My breath started to come in ragged gasps, and she squirmed underneath me as her orgasm started, then she shrieked as it reached full blast. "Fuck me", she commanded. "Get me pregnant if you have to, just fuck me! I'll have your baby!"

I couldn't hold out any longer. Her legs were wrapped tightly around me, and her taut hips were pressed against my thrusting groin, straining to pull me inside her just a fraction of an inch deeper. Sperm shot out of me like a cannon, bathing her womb in seed and guaranteeing conception. Julie gasped and panted, then sighed in contentment as I rolled off of her. I've learned the hard way not to stay on top of a woman long after cumming inside of her. After all, the pregnant girl trapped under a disoriented and unconscious man would be me a few minutes later.

Immediately after I rolled over, my back picked up a coating of sand where I'd been sweating.

"Oh my", said Julie as she shifted her hips experimentally. "I can't believe I let you cum in my pussy."

I smirked and ran my finger along her thigh, and then traced a line up to her belly. "I can. I just can't believe you doubt that I got you pregnant."

Julie gave me a saucy look. "You're really sure of yourself, aren't you Morgan? It's almost like you're..." and she trailed off. I started feeling distant and disconnected first, and the world went out of focus. The world went murky for a moment, and then it shifted and slowly came back into focus. I was still looking deep into the eyes of someone I'd just fucked, but now I was in Julie's body, looking back into Rudy's face.

I stretched my legs, feeling the cum ooze out of my pussy as I did so. I finished Julie's sentence for her as, " ... yes, it's almost like we're pregnant, except that we are." I stretched my limbs and yawned, stretching my body experimentally. No hidden pains, no trick joints that I noticed. Next, I flexed my power ever so slightly with a basic vision spell. As expected, Julie was particularly fertile, and would've probably gotten pregnant (just not as quickly) even without my Curse's intervention. She was the perfect body to ride into my final confrontation with Merlin.

I turned my head, and saw that Argyle was already straddling Rudy's unconscious form. She looked at me as if to ask my permission, and I nodded. I may have had a fine time in his body, but it didn't change the fact that Rudy deserved damnation. Argyle snapped her fingers, and Rudy awakened with a start. She'd turned her charm way up, and Rudy's eyes reflected the violet glow from her eyes.

Rudy realized with a start that he wasn't anywhere near when or where he'd last remembered. "Wait a second", he started, "you're not the pregnant bitch that I was about to -", he started to say. A thunderclap of a slap struck his cheek and silenced him completely.

"Never speak of my master that way, human. Now get out your cock. My pussy's not going to fuck itself", Argyle demanded.

Rudy practically jumped, trying to scoot away from beneath Argyle.

"What, don't you want to fuck me?" Argyle grinned, a manic and twisted expression. She let her skin smolder and burn away, revealing her red flesh. She hissed softly, her tongue darting out from her mouthful of needle-sharp fangs.

Rudy's fists slammed into her ineffectually as he tried to get out from under her. Argyle uttered a minor word of Power, and his cock (which I'd never put away after impregnating Julie) stiffened. He let out a shriek of pain as the stiffest erection of his life took hold on his cock.

"Better get that into me, mortal, or your cock will explode", Argyle snarled.

Rudy said nothing, too terrified to move as Argyle shifted position and slipped her pussy over his shaft. He let out a gasp of pain and pleasure, as the succubus lowered her hot pussy over his shaft. "Fuck me, mortal!" Argyle repeated.

Rudy finally gave in and thrust, driving himself into her as tears ran down his eyes. Apparently he didn't enjoy being forced to have sex. The succubus drove up and down, pistoning his cock into stimulation until he let out a plaintive cry and ejaculated into her pussy. There was a whiff of brimstone as the contract for his soul was complete.

"Thank you", the succubus hissed, as she stood up. Rudy stared upwards in horror at her bright-red demonic form standing above his chest. His eyes were drawn to Argyle's bare pussy, which was dribbling out his sperm now. It now had a dull orange glow, though. For a brief moment in time, it dangled from her pussy lips, and Rudy tried to scoot away from beneath her. "No", Argyle sneered.

The words themselves were his restraints; Rudy struggled to move, but his wrists and ankles were shackled now by invisible bonds. He was frozen in place, unable to move as the thick gooey fluid dripped free of her cunt and plummeted down to the center of his chest.

"GAH!", Rudy screamed as his own sperm splashed down his his chest, and then began searing its way through his skin. Another droplet came out, and another, and another. The drops of glowing fluid grew as they consumed his flesh, letting out a reek of sulfur and burning ham as they started to move like caterpillars across his body, and in and out of his skin. "God, please make this stop!" Rudy implored to the heavens as the orange rivulets of altered sperm continued to eat through his flesh like maggots.

Argyle shook her finger at him. "God? If you had anything to do with Him, I couldn't have even touched you. I can only take the corrupt, Rudy." The scorching, burning fluid had now consumed most of his legs and the lower half of his rib cage, leaving a screaming torso with an arm and a half attached. Rudy still found it possible to scream; Argyle's kills always screamed until the last. "I'll go to church, I swear, I'll be goo - AGH!!!!"

That was the last thing Rudy was able to say, as the fluid burned its way up through his esophagus and erupted out of his mouth, consuming his face. We could hear Rudy's faint screams of terror as the fluid finished consuming his body, then coalesced into a ball of glowing orange material, vaguely doughy in appearance. Argyle picked it up with a grin, then spread her legs just a little and popped it up into her pussy.

Argyle purred appreciatively for a moment, then turned towards me and said, "Thank you, master. His eternal suffering shall earn me favor among the damned."

I shrugged and said, "He had it coming. Now get dressed."

Argyle nodded, then spread her legs a little. Within a few seconds her clitoris had grown into a penis, her breasts shrank and then retracted into firm pectoral muscles, and a pasty gray fluid began oozing out of her skin.

A few seconds later, the fluid had hardened into skin and hair, and a hard-bodied nude man stood before me. "Aw, do I have to? Are you afraid you'll end up fucking me this time?" he inquired in a British tough-guy accent.

I smiled and shook my head. "Not a chance, demon. Now put on your clothes."

Argyle grumbled, but picked up Rudy's clothes and hurriedly put them on. After he'd dressed himself, he ran a hand over his close-shaven, bristly hair. "Not sure this is going to be my best work, guv. I always get a bit ... cranky ... in this form."

I half-smiled at Argyle's antics, but didn't say anything. As I stood up, I learned that Julie's right breast had fallen out of her bikini while we were having sex, so I scooped it up and tucked it back into the lightly-padded cup. A little bit of sperm leaked out of my pussy as I first slipped my panties on, then stood up and pulled my shorts up my long legs. I ran my hands through my hair first, shaking my head and admiring how smoothly it flowed through my fingers. Inhaling deeply, I ran my hands down the front of my body, starting off with the soft globes of my tits and running down over my firm belly, then traced the lines of my thighs and ended with my hands on my tightly curved ass. I pressed firmly on my butt and stretched again, relishing the fact that I couldn't feel my pregnancy at all yet. This early, carefree stage with a flat tummy never lasts for long, but I always enjoy it while it lasts.