Right of Retribution 3 -CH7-

Earlier this morning everyone had left. The house was now significantly quieter now with so many people missing.

Inger and Maya were currently out shopping at the moment. The two had left while laughing and talking the entire time. They planned on picking up Lauren on the way to include her

With Aelia heading south they’d have to take extra measures to make sure that they included Lauren. As her newly adopted daughter she was very likely to become Warner’s “step-daughter” in a way.

Which meant she would also be Maya’s step-sister, which both seemed to find perfectly reasonable. Warner had the distinct impression they’d already talked out most of the possibilities between each other as well.

Warner sat down on the couch and then pulled out his phone.

“Alina’s fine, don’t bother texting her,” Daria said coming into the room. She flopped down hard into the couch next to him. “I’m glad Madison learned how to be gentle with me considering how rough she was with you, but even then, I think I still need her to be a bit more gentle.”

Daria let out a slight groan and then leaned into Warner’s side.

“Don’t bother texting her because she lost her phone in a fight with a Boogieman,” elaborated Daria to Warner’s unspoken question. “It gets found in a few hours from now and given back to her. She won’t be able to respond until that happens anyway given how busy she is. Mark and her and really going through the ranks to find… well… everyone.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much over Alina. Consider her more of a remote asset on loan. She doesn’t really work well with us anyways.

“Realistically, this is more of a lesson that we must learn in regards to your power. That you can forcefully convert someone into becoming part of your forces. Or at least in the case of a vampire. Though I imagine it might be true for other species and Para types, but that’s not something we can prove without testing. Which we won’t be doing.”

Warner slowly nodded his head to that. It all made perfect sense of course. There was rarely a need for him to discuss much with Daria when she was involved. By this point she’d more or less figured out what to say and how to say it to address anything that he might bring up.

“I’m sorry, that’s… kind of rude of me,” muttered Daria, laying her head on his shoulder completely. “It was a two way conversation only for me. You never even got to discuss it. Uhm… I’ll work on that. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Warner with a grin. Turning his head he kissed the top of Daria’s head. “So, why aren’t I going south? I thought the whole point was for me to head down that way.”

“Because if you go, someone always dies,” Daria said with a hand gesture that looked like she was pushing something away. “And that’s just not allowed. For whatever reason, if you go, someone doesn’t come back. But if you don’t go, everyone always comes back.

“Something happens down there that you react to, that they don’t. Your reaction causes someone to not come back. I’m not sure if they die, stay in the south, or something else, but they don’t come back. I can’t see further than that but… yeah, no. Not allowed. No one can take from my family.”

“Your family, huh?” asked Warner with a soft laugh.

“Yes, my family. They all respect me,” Daria said with iron in her voice. “I even have girlfriends as well that love me, for me, as well as you. And it’s always new and surprising. Exciting.

“My life is an experience for me for the first time and I’m enjoying it. So no, no one can take anyone out of my family. They’re mine now, I’ll not give them up. None of them. Not even Dayine as she fights me for every inch of ground.”

“Speaking of, what are she and Ylva up to? I know Inger is with Maya so that’s kind of self explanatory.”

“Ylva and Dayine are talking about her lovestruck infatuation with you,” Daria said, her eyes slowly moving up to the ceiling above them. Likely to the guest room that the two were probably in. “Dayine does a fair impression of a human but she isn’t. She’s a being that was meant to withstand the crush of ages passing.

“As is Ylva and the rest for that matter. They’re not human. Not like us. You, me, Bodil, Aelia. Well… I guess Madison is human, too, in her own way. Trolls are really just a subdivision of giants and the like. Or thats what Bodil told me and I trust her when it comes to things like that.”

“That makes sense,” said Warner slowly, this thoughts chewing on that. When he really thought about it, he knew she wasn’t human. Not at all.

She’d seen the turning and burning of endless years. The literal rise and fall of empires and humans going through their actual infancy.

“Never really thought about it like that till this moment,” mused Warner.

“Right? So yeah, they’re talking about that. Dayine is rather annoyed,” said Daria with a grin. “She’s especially angry at me. Apparently my unheeded warnings are now resonating in her mind with the results. As if I didn’t warn her ‘strongly enough’ against what she was planning to do.

“Now she spends way too much time thinking about you in a sexual way and has put herself in a sexually frustrated rut. No matter how much she tries to take care of it by herself it doesn’t really get rid of it. More elemental than human, after all.

“If you ever find yourself alone with her and sexy-time comes up, best you see if she’s willing. Or at the worst, if she asks you directly, don’t say no. Her ego is incredibly fragile right now that she’s whole. Complete.”

“Surprising it doesn’t effect the Valkyrja in the same way,” murmured Warner, not wanting to talk about Dayine any longer at all.

Daria was already nodding her head before Warner had even spoken. She’d clearly jumped ahead in the conversation but was working to what she’d said previously.

Letting him actually talk.

“It actually is even worse on them, but they all can eliminate most of that feeling by pulling on your power,” explained Daria. “Quite a few of them spend their free time just lounging around while fully holding onto it. Considering how long they went without their powers it isn’t that surprising.

“Inger amusingly is handling it the best and that’s by more or less going full mother-mode on Maya. As you noticed, I’m sure.”

“Maya seems happy and I can’t… I can’t see any malice or that its disingenuous from Inger,” Warner said almost defensively. “Maya never really had a mom and now she’s suddenly got a lot of women who want that title.”

“Yes. She likes it. It may be childish but she really does enjoy so many women all vying to be a mother figure to her,” said Daria with a snort that sounded like a chuckle. “Not that I can blame her given her bio mom’s actual nature.

“Speaking of, I think she got arrested and is in jail. In New Mexico. Sounds like she got arrested in some type of fraud thing.”

“Good. They can keep her,” grumbled Warner who then wrapped an arm around Daria’s shoulders. A sudden thought struck him and it seemed like the perfect moment to do it. “Hey, will you marry me? Ring’s probably in your pocket, knowing you. You probably put it there so that you’d know when I’ll propose because I’d have to go get it first.”

Daria froze up against him, her entire body going stiff.

“I… yes,” she said after several seconds passed. Her body slowly losing its rigidity. Then she started to laugh softly and started to speak again. “I will. And… yeah it’s in my pocket. I did want to know when you’d propose. Saw right through that, huh?”

“Course. Your entire life has been spent knowing what’s coming up,” said Warner, laying his cheek against Daria’s brow again. “You claim it’s exciting to not know what’s coming, but you also take comfort in knowing. So… you’ve probably had the ring since the day I put it in the aluminum foil box. Tucked away on your person at all times.”

Pulling away from him slightly, Daria pulled said ring from her pocket and deftly stuck it on her left hand’s ring finger. Flexing her hand she held it out and spread her fingers wide.

It was a lovely wedding ring and not an engagement ring.

“I don’t need an engagement ring, the wedding ring is fine,” Daria said to his unspoken words. Then she curled up into his side and stuck her head up under his chin. “We can go get it settled with a court clerk so it’s official tomorrow. We’ll have time in the morning I think.”

Warner laid his arm around Daria and held onto her.

Ever since meeting her everything changed.

While his life as the holder of the right of retribution had begun before her, his life hadn’t truly changed till her. Changed in the better and in a way he’d never let go of.

In fact, he wanted to take her upstairs to the bedroom right now. He suddenly wanted to know her intimately again. Last night hadn’t been enough.

“Oh,” said Daria in a surprised but accepting tone and was already getting up. “Okay. I’d like that. Let’s go.”

***

Warner had put this particular visit off for a long while. To the point that he now considered himself incredibly tardy. Tardy and irresponsible.

Standing in front of Tammy’s grave, Warner scratching at his arm.

I really hope she’s not in there. If she’s in there and has been buried away in the dark this whole time… ugh. I’d be no better than the chimera that did it to her the first time.

There’s going to be a nasty piece of work down there if she’s been awake this whole time, too.

Looking around Warner confirmed that no one was nearby.

It was a fairly normal looking cemetery. Graves, headstones that ran from elaborate to simple, overgrown in some areas, cared for in others.

There was no one around in any direction. Nor could Warner see any cameras or anything that could be watching him.

He was alone.

Slowly, Warner got down on his knees and then laid his hands to the grass growing over Tammy’s burial site. He knew that her remains had finally been laid to rest here as he’d kept himself aware of what her sister was doing.

It’d only taken her a few days to get the Tammy buried and blessed by a priest. The site being consecrated quite firmly .

Okay… let’s… hope she’s not down there. That she moved on.

Come on Tammy, don’t be here.

Slowly, Warner began to push his power out of himself. Out through his palms and into the very ground itself. Down through the wormy earth and toward what he assumed was either a box or a coffin.

His power wasn’t able to shift through the ground as easily as he hoped. It took an entire minute before it met something that wasn’t dirt.

She actually had Tammy put in a real coffin.

Your sister really loved you, Tammy.

No sooner than his power touched the coffin than Warner wanted to stop. He was terrified that he’d find her inside and present.

That she hadn’t passed on.

Pushing onward Warner felt it when his power moved past the exterior of the coffin and into the interior. Felt it when it settled over Tammy’s bones and began filling her skull.

And found nothing.

Tammy wasn’t here.

She’d completely moved on and there was nothing left but bones. She truly had passed on and was no longer part of the mortal world.

Relieved, and feeling quite a bit better, Warner began retracting his power back into himself. Out of the coffin, back through the dirt, and into his palms.

Standing up he let out a slow and comfortable breath.

She’s not there. She moved on and… and can’t be troubled any further.

I hope where-ever the judge sent her, brings her peace.

She was somewhat of a bitch at times.

Blinking several times, Warner was surprised how easily Warin’s memories came to him. Memories of the judge, Eugenia, and that she rarely acted in any capacity outside of her domain.

All the memories of the original incarnation of Retribution were with him and available at his disposal. They weren’t actually a part of him though and held no ability to overwhelm or overpower him.

Quite simply, it was like having a library. He could take down any book and read it’s contents, and put it back when done. They held no power over him.

“You look like him, but don’t,” said a voice off to one side.

Turning his head to the speaker, Warner found a woman standing there. She had a fairly normal face with pale-brown hair and bright blue eyes. Her figure and much of her body was covered by a large coat and loose jeans.

Warner didn’t recognize her physically, but knew who she was on another level.

Knew her through Warin’s memories. He could feel the hatred and despair bleeding off his predecessor’s life.

On top of all that was an ancient stink of injustice.

An injustice so great that it was as if everything he’d ever encountered before was nothing. That in comparison to what he saw before him now nothing to ever be weighed against it.

“Hello, War,” Warner said in a flat voice. He could feel his heart start to hammer away inside his chest. Fear began to gnaw at his guts and threaten to take away his wits. “What’s the Traitor doing in a place like this? Looking for your lost honor? Your pride?

“I imagine you’d have to have buried it somewhere since… you know… you killed those. Along with your friends and family. Can’t imagine that they’d be in this graveyard though.”

Smiling back at Warner the woman who was the incarnation of War’s nose wrinkled and her eyes crinkled at the edges. She found his words amusing.

“Ooh! That’s rather feisty coming from you,” said the woman in a warmer tone. Her right hand came up and started to unbutton her coat. “I liked it. Wanna tell me some more? I’ve got a van outside that we could get cozy in. You could fight me more with those words while we do it. I haven’t gotten laid in years.”

“Pass, sorry, the nasty bitch personality doesn’t do it for me,” Warner said, considering his surroundings. He knew from Warin that War had been his equal in combat.

Though that was many thousands of years ago the last time they crossed blades. It was quite likely she’d grown stronger since then.

Warner wasn’t Warin’s equal in combat at all, either. That meant he really couldn’t actually engage her.

“Mmm, yeah, that,” War said in a purr as she pulled her coat open, revealing a rather form fitting top under it. It was pulled in at the right spots to emphasize she had certainly more than the average woman there. “I can change what I look like to match whatever you want. Just give me a hint?

“And while you’re giving me a hint, tell me more. Insult me more. Ridicule me. Fight me with your words.”

Ha.

War.

War is her element, incarnation, and drive. Of course she likes it when I disparage her. To her, it’s a form of fighting.

“You’re not even worth it considering how low you’ve sunk,” hissed Warner.

“Yes! I love it,” War said and bit her lip hard. Hard to the point that blood began to dribble down from her mouth and across her chin. “I’m not even worth it, yes. Oooh, you like blondes. Yes, I see you, Warner James. Blondes, good size chest, some softness in the hips and waist. I can even see the features you’d want to see in their face.”

Almost instantly War’s face shifted until she looked like an odd blend between Bodil, Aelia, and Daria. On top of that, her body had morphed as well. She was now incredibly attractive, full figured in the right way, and a little shorter than him.

“My opponent, Warner James, does this suit you more?” asked War, taking several steps to him. “Come to my van. Let’s have a… a sword fight… in the back. I bet you can really stab me.

“Make sure you insult me more and fight verbally while we do it. I wanna hear more. So much more.”

When she was within two feet of him Warner realized his mistake.

War was being what he considered insane but she was still War. An entity of such extreme power that it radiated and crackled around her as if she were a flame.

In her presence, Warner felt much like a candle sitting near a bonfire.

Pulling on all three aspects of his power Warner called it into himself. Willed it to come into being and to fill him.

Warner felt it when his wings burst free of his back. When a cocoon of force surrounded him and began pushing back at War’s power.

He could feel vengeance, retribution, and redemption, all present and empowering him.

War’s eyes widened but she took another step closer. Her teeth gnawing at her lower lip as blood continued to dribble down and drip from her chin.

“Oooh, Warner!” whimpered War, her hands held out in front of herself and trying to push through his power. Her fingers wriggling against it as she tried to force herself closer. “Yes! Fight me, fight me, Warner. Be my enemy. I want you to war with me.

“I want to kiss you. To lick you. To swallow you with a smile. I need you to fuck me from behind while pulling my hair. Call me by someone else’s name so I can try to buck you off while you just pull harder. Making my head bend and my back arch.”

“War, while I am most certainly your enemy, I am not your partner in war,” Warner said and held up a hand in front of himself. “Know that also I am not simply Retribution. I am also Vengeance and Redemption.

“You are thrice scorned, War. I reject your advances and will sentence you for what you’ve done. For yours is a great betrayal that can never be undone.”

“Yes, sentence me, fight me. Drag me kicking and screaming before Runner,” pleaded War. “Sentence me to be your bound concubine and ravage me against my will. Force my head down into the bed while pinning my hands behind my back and take everything from me.

“If you can, that is. If you can do any of that. Because while you’re mighty, and I want you to do those things, I will of course fight. I’m War, after all. And right now… the world is at War with itself.”

As if to emphasize that point, War began to push her hands through his power. Breaking the cocoon that surrounded him.

Then her hands were on his chest, her fingers sinking into his clothes. She was inches away from him now. Her blood smeared mouth and chin hovering close to his own.

Warner had his own hands on her chest and was trying to push her away but to no avail. Nor could he actually wrestle himself away from her.

She was a physical presence that outstripped him in terms of power.

“Mmm, Warner,” moaned War. “I will mark you as mine now. You’re who I must do battle with. My partner… my partner in war.

“If you win, I’ll be such a good concubine to you. I’ll fight just enough for it to be fun, then give in. That way we can both enjoy it. Conquering me and fighting me.

“If I win, you’ll be such a good concubine to me. I hope you fight me lots. Every time I mount you, I want you to fight me. Fight me till I take what I want.”

Leaning in, she kissed him. Her blood splashing over his lips and mouth. Then her tongue was shoved into his mouth, writhing along his own.

No matter how hard he tried to bite down though he couldn’t even force his mouth closed. His teeth couldn’t actually move her tongue at all.

Moaning, War continued to kiss him, her tongue rolling all through his mouth. Exploring his teeth and the roof of his mouth. Her hands were hard pressed to his back, keeping him against herself.

Suddenly she let him go and leaned back from him.

Blood was liberally smeared all over her chin and cheeks now.

In fact, Warner could actually taste her blood in his mouth.

A bitter and smoke like flavor that was most certainly unlike human blood. It felt like it was lingering around him as well.

“I’ll see you… Warner… soon. We’ll have our fight and then… and then the winner takes the prize,” crooned War, her right hand gently stroking his cheek with the backs of her fingers. “I can’t wait for one of us to become a concubine. I needed a strong parter. You’ll be my partner.”

Laughing deeply for several seconds War abruptly vanished. Leaving behind no trace of her having ever been there.

Warner was released from her hold in the same instant, her body simply no longer existing it seemed.

Left behind was the lingering taste of her blood in his mouth though.

Reaching up he wiped at his face and then glanced at his fingers.

They were smeared liberally with her blood.

That’s just disgusting.