"You will never reach–"
Crunch.
The last of the Proioxis hit the wall, denting volcanic rock with his head. He slid to the floor trailing yellow blood, joining the rest of his brothers.
"Now!" I said happily. "Let's get going!"
Lelantos gazed around us at the well-equipped spirits of war decorating the ground. Shards of their armor and weapons lay scattered across them. There were ten in the first group, and another five that rushed out when they heard commotion. Now, not a single one was moving. The entire 'fight' lasted less than a minute.
Lelantos stepped gingerly over the bodies. "By all means, lead the way."
We didn't run into any more Proioxis. All the guards must have been posted by the entrance. Soon it stopped feeling like we were in Menoetius's palace at all. The walls became marble. The floor turned into carpet. Banners with gold trim ran along the walls. I heard voices coming from further up, and… running water?
Soon I smelled steam. Lelantos sighed happily.
"Watering holes," he said. "Always good for fresh prey!"
An arch came into view, painted green and gold. The voices we could hear — all female and strangely similar — were coming from just on the other side. I went to step it through, but Lelantos held a hand over my chest.
"There's a trap."
He pointed at the top of the arch. Right in the center was an illustration of an apple, painted bright gold. I couldn't see anything special about it. But when I focused on it with the same sixth sense that reacted to Calypso's spells, a sharp pang shot through my head.
"Thanks," I said, surprised. "I would've thought you'd let me walk right into it."
"The thought crossed my mind," Lelantos admitted. "However, that trap is an alarm. Setting it off would only bring whoever set it straight to you. Meaning straight to me, as well."
"An alarm, huh?"
I pushed past his arm, stepping straight under the golden apple.
There was no outward reaction, but I was sure the alarm served its purpose. Someone, somewhere, had just gotten an urgent summons. And I was pretty sure I knew who.
"I should've seen that coming." Lelantos sighed. "I suppose that either whoever shows up will be destroyed, or you will be. A silver lining no matter what."
I laughed. A second later, as I took in the room, any good mood died faster than Icarus hitting the sea.
"Wait here," I commanded.
Lelantos listened without complaint, trodding to one wall and slumping against it. His eyes were dull as he said, "You have anywhere from five minutes to an hour before Menoetius arrives. Do with that what you will."
The room I stepped into was basically a five star spa. Terraced pools fed each other across carefully designed slopes. A jacuzzi bubbled in the corner. Fountains ran along the walls, feeding never-ending streams of water into the different basins. Identical white togas were folded neatly by the door as three girls splashed around the largest of the pools, completely naked.
They had copper skin and long dark hair that matched their eyes. Their figures were lithe and slim, without any muscle. Their faces were perfect and their bodies eye-catching. One laughed, swimming to one end of the pool.
"Not enough bubbles!" she declared. "Don't worry, sisters. I'll fix this tragedy."
She plunged her hand into one of the many buckets scattered around the room, the same buckets that ruined my mood the moment I spotted them. She pulled out a white token of condensed souls and fed it into a hole beside the pool. Moments later, fresh bubbles poured out.
They giggled to each other. My hands clenched. How many people died— no, how many souls were consigned to destruction just to power their bubble bath?
Not that I expected these nymphs to care. We'd met once before. They were the reason I lost a close friend.
I marched into the room.
"Oh!" said one, pointing at me.
The others quickly twisted around. Whispers slipped from their lips, the same words repeated over and over. Boy? Boy? Boy?
"You're not supposed to be here," giggled one.
"No men," said another. "That's Uncle's rule. Not even his little Proioxis are allowed to see us. But here you are…"
The sisters had come together, all swimming to the side of the pool closest to me. As they spoke, they eyed me head to toe. When they finished they looked back at each other, giggling.
I was hardly listening.
"Bubbles," I said disbelievingly. "You're using those things to fuel luxury pool jets. Don't you know where they come from?"
"Forget about all that," said the sister on the right. "Who are you?"
"Are you going to marry one of us?" asked the one on the left. "That's what uncle said he's keeping us for. The best governors will each get one of us as his wife!"
"And we'll live forever in his mansion, with even nicer things than this!"
I shook my head. "You Hesperides haven't changed."
Their giggles intensified, certain that my knowing who they were confirmed my status as a suitor. But all I could do was remember the first time I met them, 400 miles north near the peak of Mt. Tam.
The Hesperides had always been cold. It was what made Zoë Nightshade different from her sisters. Zoë might've been brusque, but there had been real warmth in her if you earned her loyalty. Her sisters were barren to their core. Arrogant in the worst ways, cruel for the sake of it, it didn't surprise me one bit to find them here, using up souls to keep themselves comfortable.
The old me would've been livid meeting them again like this. The new me was still mad, but there was something else to it. Menoetius had gone through so much trouble sequestering his nieces to use as bargaining chips. It made me want to ruin all that work, and leave a surprise for him that would dig a dagger into his cold heart.
I walked to the pool's edge, dragging my shirt off.
"You know, I'm not a suitor," I said.
The Hesperides watched me undress. "You aren't?" asked one.
"No. I fought my way in here, crushing any Proioxis that got in the way. That's not a problem, is it?".
As I asked the question I stripped the rest of my clothes off.
"Not at all," they said in unison, eyes fixed between my legs.
"That's what I thought." Entering the pool, I settled onto one of the steps like a seat. The Hesperides swam closer. They floated nearly in arm's reach, just too far to touch, still giggling.
"We could report you," one said.
"Tell on you to Uncle," said another.
"He'd be very angry," said the last of them. "Uncle's always angry."
"You could do that," I said. "But you won't."
"Why not?" they asked.
"Because you're unrepentant little sluts, and I'm going to fuck you like you've never been fucked before."
My arm transformed. It nearly teleported, moving faster than eyes could track as it grabbed the one in the middle, wrapping around the back of her head and pulling her to me.
I watched her throat bulge as she swallowed, a lustful smile warping her lips. Then I shoved her face against the floor.
I bent her over the lip of the pool. Her skin glistened as it was pushed out of the water. Beads of water trailed off her darkly tanned ass. I gave it a good smack, watching ripples move through the flesh and water droplets soar off.
Her bare shaven pussy was just above the water, and while one arm continued holding her flat against the ground, I jammed three fingers inside and scraped them across her insides.
"Ahhh!" she squealed. "Ah! Ah!"
Her sisters swam closer, darting around the sides of me to get a better look at what I was doing to her. Both were giggling the entire time. They knew that they were next.
My fingers were merciless. They squelched and sunk through the Hesperide as they pleased. She came quickly, mewling and shaking.
"Slut," I snorted, yanking my fingers free and giving her ass another slap.
Her sisters went on giggling. "What next, what next?" they asked.
"What do you think?"
I was rock hard already, so I wasted no time in slamming my cock inside her as deep as it would go. Her sisters gasped at the meaty clap that resounded through the room. Her ass recoiled, jiggling in place as her body jerked forward.
More claps joined the first, deep and resounding like the beat of a drum. I filled her completely. No, I stretched her to new lengths. She wasn't a virgin, but she was extremely tight, a result of all the work first Atlas and later Menoetius had put into sheltering her and her sisters. She'd never feel that way again after I was through with her.
"Give it to her!" the other Hesperides chanted while their sister wailed. Which was redundant, because I had no plans of stopping. I plowed through her like I was trying to pound a hole in her womb. She screamed, and yowled, and came again and again. Her thighs were stuck between me and the wall of the pool without any give. Every time my cock plunged forward, there was nowhere for her body to run.
"Ladon's lovely apples!" she wailed. "Gods yes! Don't stop! Huhrk!"
The last noise was a result of my thumb jamming firmly in her backside. I continued to fuck her, fingers and hips working in tandem, until I was certain she'd faint from a single more thrust.
Then I gave her that thrust, as hard and intense as I could manage, spewing my cum deep inside of her.
The Hesperide groaned. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she stayed slumped against the floor long after I pulled away the hand holding her down.
Her sisters swam closer, poking and prodding her sides. The longer they went without getting a reaction, the harder they poked. Soon it became a game of how much they could get away with, leaving red marks on their sister's body with their nails just because they could.
"What are you doing?"
I grabbed both by their long dark hair, pulling them away from their sister.
Both pouted. "We were only having fun," said one.
"But it isn't playtime. You have work to do."
I dragged them out of the pool with me. One I yanked so that she landed between my legs, face colliding with my glistening erection. The other one I grabbed around the neck, hoisting her into the air.
"Stay there a second," I said.
There was enough of a height difference for her toes from not to touch the ground. I held her tightly enough to keep my grip, enough that she could feel the pressure at her throat, but not so hard that she'd choke. Her body shone in the room's light. Water dripped from her toes and off the dark nipples of her perky breasts.
I felt something moist against my cock. Looking down, the Hesperide between my legs had started to trail her tongue along my shaft, lapping at leftover pool water and the juices of her sister.
She looked up at me, cross-eyed, settling naturally into her role as a submissive slut.
"Good enthusiasm," I said. "But that's not right."
I grabbed the back of her head, fingers digging into her wet dark hair. Jerking her head up, I jammed her mouth straight down the length of my cock.
She choked instantly. Her spit mixed with the moisture already dripping off my balls. I heard her gag, watched her flinch, but also watched her body tense. As I repeatedly dragged her head back and forth along my length her eyes closed completely, and her pussy began dripping onto the tile.
Meanwhile, the sister I was holding in the air watched everything. She was treated to a front-row view of her identical twin gagging relentlessly. Her right hand rose, grabbing her left breast and pinching the nipple between two fingers. At the same time her left dipped down to her crotch. She fingered herself almost as forcefully as I had her first sister, unable to peel her eyes away from the show in my crotch.
I was setting the pace of the blowjob – if it could even be called that – and I saw no reason to take things slow. I ravaged her mouth and the throat behind it. Wet strands of hair hung over her face. Watching her gag and service me, a sudden tightness gripped my balls.
It had nothing to do with the (admittedly fantastic) sensation of her mouth. It was about the view. The Hesperides were truly identical. All of them— including the one they disowned.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to Zoë Nightshade. The former Lieutenant of the hunters had been gorgeous, powerful, and reliable. We started off badly, but by the end I was proud to call her a friend. She was never a potential lover, but well… I'd be lying if I said she didn't feature in more than a few of my fantasies as I went through puberty.
Now I had a girl that looked exactly like her at my mercy, one who also happened to be an unrepentant bitch I had no reason to feel guilty about manhandling. I mashed her down one final time, thrusting into forward at the same time until her nose was completely flattened and her forehead was glued to my abs.
I held her there, not letting her up as the seconds ticked by. I felt my balls contract. I felt a second load spurt deep in her throat. It kept coming, flowing out thickly and freely. When I finally released my grip, she slid back and dropped to the floor, as unconscious as the first sister. Cum trailed out her mouth and dribbled from her nose as she fell back. That sight pushed the one in my hands over the edge. With a shriek, she came to the feeling of her own fingers and the sight of my work.
Before she had a chance to recover I had carried her across the room, shoving her against the wall.
She was breathing heavily. She was wet and ready between her legs, but her body was extra sensitive, having just orgasmed. I let go of her throat, and she looked confused for a moment, until I grabbed her ankles instead.
Without her back leaving the wall, I lifted both her legs up. She was folded in half with her ankles over her head and her body totally trapped. If these sisters were anything to go by, flexibility was something Zoe was born with, not something she gained as a hunter, and I couldn't be happier about that.
There was no audience now with the room's other occupants passed out. It was just us. In her contorted position, the Hesperide's pussy was the furthest-forward part of her body. I thrusted inside her hard enough to shake the stone wall.
She was just as tight as her first sister. She made the same noises, too. She pulled the same faces. It was like having the same gorgeous girl three times in a row.
"You know," I said as I fucked her, "I'm glad it was you guys here. I'm glad you haven't improved as people. If there was the slightest bit of decency in you, I would've had to feel bad ravaging you like this. But there's nothing. You're empty inside— unless you've got my cock to fill you."
I slammed her body with even greater force. Fissures spread in the wall behind her. All the strength that let me punch a Laistrygonian into dust was being put toward pummeling this bitch's puss. Her immortal body could take it… barely. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth, and she was pulling a truly stupid expression that somehow urged me to fuck her even harder.
By the time I came, seeding her slutty pussy, dust was falling over our naked bodies from cracks in the ceiling. Somehow, she was still conscious. Groggy, sure, but awake.
That wouldn't do. I pulled her away from the wall, dropping her on the ground. She lay flat on her face, to weak to push her way into a more comfortable position. I descended on her backside.
My fingers dug into the supple dark skin, finding a firm grip as I slammed my cock straight into her ass.
The only sound in the room was my body colliding with her receptive backdoor. It was twice as tight as their pussies, so much so that I couldn't fit my entire length. But that didn't stop me from repeatedly smashing in as much as I could.
If these girls let us pass back then, if they hadn't confronted us and made Zoë wake Ladon…
All of that was ancient history. There was nothing to be done about it, no way to change what the Fates had written.
But I'd be lying if I said tearing up her ass wasn't a little bit cathartic.
Plus, they were all sexy as hell. And they were Menoetius's prized nieces. Really, this was a win-win-win. Just the kind of plan (and girl) I could get behind.
I growled, emptying another load deep inside the Hesperide. This time, as I pulled up off of her, I knew she'd joined her sisters in dreamland. Just as I was reaching my feet, somebody cleared his throat.
"Having fun?" Lelantos asked emotionlessly, standing just inside the door.
"Do you need something?" I asked.
"Me? No, not really." He looked toward the entrance. "I just thought you might like to know that he's about to arrive."
"How kind of you."
"Well, if he sees you first, I figure he'll be too distracted to take his anger out on me."
Footsteps resounded from down the hall. I wondered what he'd look like— would he be huge? Part animal? As handsome as Zeus or intimidating as Hades?
A man erupted out of the doorway, slamming his feet flat on the floor and literally skidding to a stop. He'd been running faster than a car. When he slowed down enough to come into focus, I found myself staring at a wiry man with a thick mustache and a head of messy brown hair.
"Good timing," I told Menoetius. "Do you like my surprise?"