Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 058

She shook her head and closed her eyes, replaying her memories from the last couple of weeks in fast forward. There was something about a storm, something Quetzalli had said. She could picture them now, standing on the edge of the cliff, the drones in the air. The breeze had caught a tuft of the dragon's hair and pulled it away from her face, and she was staring at a distant thundercloud forming on the horizon.

"They don't like to share their skies, you know?" Quetzalli had said. "They can be very territorial."

"Quetzalli!" Dana grabbed the dragon by the shoulders, startling her. "What controls the weather in the greenhouse?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's very fascinating. The water cycle—"

"No, not the water cycle." Dana thought back to all the drone crashes, the issues with fluctuating EM fields. This whole time, she had thought it was a manifestation related to the fact that the greenhouse defied the laws of physics, but what if the actual problem wasn't a magical phenomenon, but a living one? "What lives in the skies of the greenhouse and makes the thunder clouds?"

Quetzalli's features scrunched up. "Technically, it doesn't make the clouds, they do occur naturally, you know, but it will whip some up to stay hidden. It goes by many names depending on culture, but I believe that you would just call it a thunderbird."

"A thunderbird? As in lightning and thunder?"

Quetzalli rolled her eyes. "Obviously, thunder is just a by product of lightning, therefore—"

Dana ran toward the garage, leaving everyone behind. Once inside, she saw that the whole place had been ransacked like everywhere else, and when she got down to her bedroom, she groaned. The room itself had been torn apart, but below her workbench, she saw the protective case that held the drones was still in place. She pulled it out, then noticed some shadows from the corner of her eyes. Without looking inside, she raced back upstairs, the fire in her body now raging out of control.

"-and technically, ball lightning is it's own event, so—" Quetzalli was cut off again as Dana grabbed her by the hand and pulled her onto her feet.

"I think we've got a power source," Dana said. "I'll take care of the spirits, but it'll take some time. Once we're out of here, the...the spirits will come for you again." It was now getting hard to concentrate.

"Oh, don't worry about the spirits," Lily said. "I can handle them. I eat souls, remember?"

Dana nodded, then left Lily and Beth behind. As they ran toward the greenhouse, spirits tried to block them, but Quetzalli moved ahead and zapped a few. In her freshly fed state, Dana easily tore through them, letting a cry of rage that sent the ghosts running. Though they were ethereal in nature, they had still been regular men and women once, and she assumed were still prone to fear.

Once inside the greenhouse, Dana let out a few ragged breaths as she opened the case with the drones inside. There were four of them, and she pulled out their manual controls and frowned. She didn't have time for a pre-programmed flight path, and definitely didn't want Quetzalli to touch the controls for fear of shorting them out.

"Fuck it," she muttered, then thought about how the controls worked. The drones could do a pre-programmed flight, but when controlled manually, would try to return to the controller if they started to go out of range. With a flash of inspiration, she looked around on the ground and found a stick she could wedge into the joystick. After flying the first drone up about twenty feet, she flew it out over the jungle, then wedged the control stick in place. The drone drifted away from them, then shuddered when it reached the edge of its range and tried to return. Once it regained its connection, it turned around and tried to fly away again.

Satisfied that her plan worked, she repeated the process with the other three drones, then fell to her knees, gasping for air. The whole world felt hot, and she took a few deep breaths, trying to regain control.

"I imagine they won't appreciate that," Quetzalli muttered, her eyes looking out over the darkness. Moonlight streamed through her silver hair, making her look like an angel surrounded by a holy aura. "I thought you knew about the thunderbirds."

Dana slid her arms around Quetzalli's waist, then moved her hands up to cup the dragon's breasts. "I know this isn't the time or place for this," she said, her hands squeezing the soft, fleshy mounds beneath her fingers. "But maybe if we hurry..."

Quetzalli chuckled. "Everything feels so exciting right now. I bet we have a few minutes before it gets here." She turned and kissed Dana, sending a jolt through her body. "Besides, I could use a bit of a charge myself."

Dana groaned, then melted into Quetzalli's arms, allowing her hands to roam down the dragon's back and across her buttocks. They fell to the ground together and became a tangle of arms and legs as the drones buzzed in the distance. Dazzling streamers of electricity created an aura around Quetzalli's horn that illuminated the ground around them, and Dana lost herself in the dragon's flesh.

The frenzied race for an orgasm was interrupted only once by the distant rumbling of thunder.

"Do you really think she knows what she's doing?" Beth asked Lily as the spirits closed in.

"I absolutely do." She winked, then grabbed Beth by her arms and flew them up to the roof. She landed on the undamaged turret and let Beth go. "But I told a bit of a fib. Yes, I do eat souls, but it requires sex. Can't bone a spirit."

"Mike would say that's because you aren't trying hard enough."

Lily laughed. "You'd think so, but Romeo has more style than that. I can't keep those spirits off your back, so remind me what we need to do so I can do it."

Beth pointed at the gate to the Underworld. "I think Cerberus can take out the Jabberwock, but it's just Yuki and Abella taking it on." As if on cue, the Jabberwock was laid out over the roof again, and it scrambled back toward the front yard, its claws shredding the roof. Metal beams were being exposed now, and Beth was fairly certain she could see into somebody's bedroom. "I was hoping we could get Sulyvahn to help Cerberus escape, but he's trapped out front. He's the only one who can hurt the spirits."

"Well, fuck me sideways, then. Guess it's time to improvise." Lily popped her knuckles and then launched herself into the fray. At first, Beth thought Lily was going to attack the Jabberwock, but she instead flew to Yuki first and shouted something that Beth couldn't hear. The kitsune nodded, then summoned ice all along the roof that clamped down on the Jabberwock, pinning it in place.

Puzzled at this development, Beth's confusion deepened when Lily moved next to Abella, gesticulating wildly and then pointing at her tail. Abella's features changed from anger to shock, then embarrassment. Her cheeks were dark as she bent over and pulled her heavy tail to the side.

Lily's tail entered Abella's pussy, then pumped in and out for a few moments before withdrawing. Beth slid against the turret until she was sitting, then pinched herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. What on earth was Lily up to?

Lily blew the gargoyle a kiss, and then leapt into the sky, now headed for Beth.

Abella let out a warcry, and when she charged the Jabberwock this time, her dark eyes glittered with light as she slammed into the beast hard enough to break the ice trapping it apart. She wrapped her tail around the Jabberwock's throat like a hook and yanked hard enough that the beast toppled over and was dragged across the roof, tearing away shingles to reveal bare wood beneath. They fell together into the back garden, and the Jabberwock landed on its back, smashing into the flowerpots that had been set around Naia's fountain and shattering the ice that clogged it.

Abella soared away, and the Jabberwock scrambled to its feet. It let out a hiss and was almost out of the fountain when a blast of water knocked it off its feet. Three powerful jets of water sprayed from the fountain, slicing through its thick hide, and Naia rose up from the fountain, riding a surge of water. The runes on her torso glowed so brightly that they could be seen through her dress, and when the Jabberwock swiped at her, she burst into a spray of liquid, only to reform behind it.

Spirits were bailing out of the Jabberwock and sucking energy out of the water, but they were being crushed by the combatants when they fully manifested, sending spirit shards all across the yard. Yuki joined in, raining ice down on the Jabberwock, and Abella reappeared, hurtling toward the back gate like a meteor.

"It's about to get messy," Lily said when she landed by Beth's side.

There was a roar from inside the gate, and as the Jabberwock broke free of the ice again, Abella tumbled through the gate clutching a diminutive figure in her arms. When they stood, Beth watched in awe as a series of dark chains materialized around the newcomer's necks, linking them back to the Underworld.

Cerberus transformed back into a three-headed dog and howled as it tore its way through the standing army in the yard, determined to get to the Jabberwock. The chains around Cerberus tightened and tried to retract, but the devil dog had too much momentum.

The Jabberwock saw Cerberus coming and tried to scramble away, but three giant sets of jaws clamped down on it, and Cerberus allowed the chains to do most of the work, pulling them free. The two heads on the side maintained their hold on the Jabberwock, and the third head opened its drooling maw to reveal an endless tunnel filled with blazing fire that scorched its way through the beast.

Souls fled the Jabberwock in various states, some of them burning like candles and melting into the lawn with silent screams. Cerberus had no trouble ripping the Jabberwock to shreds, and Abella landed next to Beth with a heavy thud.

"Now that is a good dog," Abella noted.

Yuki joined them, her tails shimmering with a magical aura as she climbed onto the turret. The quartet watched as cerberus turned the Jabberwock to ash and then turned their attention on the army of souls.

"They had her bottle-necked inside, she was trying to get here this whole time," Lily told them.

"Sorry about your Jabberwock," Beth told Yuki.

Yuki shook her head. "This is what I get for turning its brain off while I was out with Tink. It's almost like we were played, and that all of this was planned for."

"That's because it was. The shadow did all of this, he's been watching us for weeks. He knew what he was doing."

Yuki's eyes flashed, and she turned her attention to the castle in the distance. "Well maybe it's time we took the fight to him."

Beth looked at the castle. It was still being bombarded by the demons Lily had brought. "It looks like they've got it under control."

"You know..." Lily looked deep in thought, and a mischievous grin broke across her face. "I bet if we got in there, we could rescue that piece of Emily he has."

Yuki gasped, and the roof went silent. The only sounds now were Cerberus tearing through some spirits and Naia hosing away the Jabberwock's remains with massive spurts of water.

"I think that's a terrible idea," Beth said as she looked over at Yuki. The kitsune's eyes were shimmering now, her mouth open as if she couldn't get enough air.

"Is it, though? I could take the fox with me, we could be in and out in an hour. The demons won't mess with her if we're together, and we promise to come right back." Lily held a hand up as if taking an oath.

"I'm going, with or without Lily." Yuki now stood on the edge of the roof, shuffling through the tarot cards in her hand. "That bastard ruined my life, and I would love to dish out some payback."

"Besides," Lily added. "If we don't do it, you know Romeo is going to dedicate his entire life to it. We've turned the tide here, and we may never get a better chance. It's a phantom castle that floats around in the Underworld, and this is the only time we know for a fact that the shadow isn't home."

Beth let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. There were so many things going on that all she wanted to do was gather everyone up and watch over them until Mike returned. But Lily had a point. If Yuki went by herself, she had no doubts that nothing but trouble would come of the decision.

"In and out," she told them. "I'll keep Abella with me in case I need help of my own, but the two of you need to make it quick. We all know this was coordinated, but to what end? Everything that has happened has been a diversion, so he may have realized the two of you are going in there."

Lily frowned, then looked at the castle. "Shit, now I think it's a terrible idea."

"I don't." Yuki had tucked away the cards and was on the edge of the roof. "He didn't expect the demons, nobody could have. You're completely unpredictable, which makes me think that he wasn't planning on losing his home. That piece of shit took the love of my life and twisted her into a gnarled, ugly thing that killed herself to protect me. So even if this is suicide, I owe it to her to try."

Lily shrugged, then looked at Beth. "She's got a point. Catch you on the flip side."

Her wings extended and she took to the sky, then swung back down to grab Yuki by the arms and flew toward the gateway. When they passed through it, the color vanished from their bodies as the veil between their world and the Underworld shimmered momentarily.

"What now?" Abella asked.

"With the Jabberwock gone, we should probably try to help Sulyvahn," Beth said. "If the shadow is taking something from the house, it makes sense that he's leaving through the front. Cerberus alone would be tough to get by, but the fact that his castle is being attacked by demons should give him pause."

"Are you thinking an ambush?" Abella grinned, then flexed her claws in excitement. "Because I would be more than happy to tear his cute little head off."

Beth nodded. "I absolutely am, but first things first. Can you get me down from here?"

The gargoyle laughed, then grabbed Beth by the hands and leapt into the sky, her wings spread wide as they glided down to the front yard. Suly was spinning his own head in a circle, creating a keening sound that set Beth's nerves on edge and apparently did something similar to the spirits around him. He cracked his whip and tore apart a spirit that tried to stab him with a spear, then smashed his own head into the chest of a barbarian with a giant ax.

Abella landed nearby, and Sulyvahn paused for a moment to look at her, his head dangling from one hand.

"Glad to see ye safe, lass," he told her. "Mind the whip, it'll steal the breath right out o' ye if ye come too close."

"Whoa, okay." She moved back and was relieved when the spirits didn't seem to notice her. Sulyvahn was clearly their target, so she had Abella move to a higher level to keep an eye on the yard. She took her own position along the outer wall, crouching low and pulling her cape around her arms and head to help blend in with the night.

She wasn't sure how long she waited, but she was holding her breath when a dark figure appeared in the door of the home. When Marco stepped out, he had the wand clutched in one hand and the book in the other.

Walking right in front of him was Kisa. She had both arms raised in the air as if she was his prisoner, but Beth noticed right away that her eyes were now a crystalline blue. Kisa wore a smirk on her face.

"If anybody tries to stop us," he began.

"The cat dies," Kisa finished, in a voice that wasn't her own. The pendant around her neck flashed ominously.

When everything goes to hell, try to bring the whole family with you!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, there's a lot of excitement going on, but we are officially in the finale for book four! I am very excited to bring the next couple of chapters to you, and even more excited to begin a new story arc, cause I just have too many ideas in my head and not enough time to hammer them out.

As for the necklace, I'm sure some of you have figured it out, but others may be confused. It is indeed the same necklace dropped by the witch Sarah (once upon a time) and then later dropped by Mike in the icy depths of the Labyrinth. I've been leaving bread crumbs about this for a couple of years now, so have fun finding them all!

Don't forget to leave a rating and check my bio for the release schedule, cause I've been working really hard to stick to that. Also, thank you so much to a couple of you who sent me some really inspiring words in the last couple of weeks, cause times are tough (for lots of us) and I definitely needed to hear them. I hope that the rest of this month brings you great joy, and make sure to be kind to one another and also yourselves.

See you next time!