“Yeah. This doesn’t exactly change my mind. Threats aren’t exactly my thing.” I said dryly.

Apep hissed and pulled her tail out of Lauren, whose begging cries were muffled as Apep’s tail shoved itself in her mouth. “You would refuse me?”

“That’s about the size of it.” I squared myself off against her.

She charged me and I brought my knee up, catching her in the chest before she sent me flying back. “You can’t win, not down here.”

“I’m not about to go without a fight.” I tried to summon a pillar of stone, but the ground beneath me didn’t budge.

“That won’t work.” Apep swayed as she brought her own magic to bear. Green globs of energy shot out from her outstretched hand.

I rolled, the acid splashing against the floor and rapidly eating out a hole in the ground. Meanwhile, a few small flecks touched my skin and burned. I threw blades of wind at her, while using the force to push myself back and gain some distance between us.

Despite any improvements I might have had to my body, I wasn’t a physical match for Apep. Lamias were known for their physical strength and Apep was the largest one I’d ever seen.

The blades of wind bounced off Apep’s minuscule armor coverage. No doubt they were enchanted and protected her more than they otherwise might look like they did.

“Your earth magic is sealed down here. Wind can only be so effective, especially against certain enchantments. Tell me, Colonel Ridden, where would you like to be bitten?” Apep gloated as she wound around the pillar.

“How about you bite my ass?”

“Perfect.” Apep didn’t take it as an insult, but rather instructions. She lobbed another green bolt of acid, but this time I was ready, using a burst of wind to redirect it away from me and into the torture devices.

I was about to follow up when something caught my attention. Diving to the side as an inky black tendril of shadow tried to latch onto my leg.

Shadows, she had freaking shadow magic. And here we were in a dark basement.

Apep raised her arms and dozens of shadow appendages rose from the dungeon floor, coiling out like an army of whips trying to lash onto me.

I flung wind magic left and right, cutting through the shadows, only for them to reform moments later.

One managed to catch my arm, and I sliced through it, only for two more to get my leg.

Screaming, I threw a flurry of wind blades in every direction, cutting apart everything I could. Torture devices fell to the ground as my wind blades filled the dungeon. I tried to pull them in around me, protect myself with a whirling storm of wind blades, but a tendril wrapped around my neck and hauled me up.

Cutting that one, I fell back to the floor, my concentration broken as the shadow tendrils closed in, pulling at my limbs trying to stretch me out like a helpless starfish.

The shadows won and Apep slithered forward, a smile that said she was more than ready to gloat upon her face. “It seems you are all tied up.”

Hesat’s head rose from my chest and she screamed. A visible cone of rippling air shot out, catching Apep in the chest and flinging the queen cobra across the room.

Her concentration was broken and the shadow tendrils melted off of me.

I didn’t hesitate, getting to my feet and running for the door. Chopping at it with a blade of wind riding on the side of my hand, it took three strikes to break the lock and push the door open.

“Get him.” Apep screamed, having already recovered.

But I didn’t dare look back. Ahead of me was an open room, like a lounge in the dungeon, and ahead of me was the stairs and another door.

Lamia guards on the other side of the door dropped their weapons. Both were using the tonged mancatchers I’d seen Peladonis use before.

While they weren’t trying to be lethal, I had fewer qualms. The wind blade on my hand lashed out, opening the chest of the one on the right with a spray of blood.

I darted around them, using their body to block and tangle up the other guard. Wind gathered around me and pushed me forward as I hit the second door at a full charge.

The door crackled with my impact, but held.

Hesat dove out of my chest, through the door, and it clicked open only a moment later.

“Thank you.” I ran through her, and she joined my body once again.

I was out of the dungeon now, in Esther’s manor. My head darted left and right, trying to remember the way out.

“You won’t get away.” Apep was right behind me.

No time. I picked left and ran.

Crashing sounded behind me as Apep knocked over decorations and tables, trying to catch me.

But that also alerted Esther’s guards, who came pouring in.

Dozens of lamia surrounded me, lowing those mancatchers and trying to corral me.

I surged against their line, but they worked as a coordinated team, those tongs of the mancatcher catching me around the waist, then another on the neck. First one, then a second, and then a third.

They piled on me, using the mancatchers to immobilize me at the neck.

It didn’t matter how I struggled, there were just too many of them jostling me around yet pinning me down at the same time.

Apep panted as she slithered up to me. “How dare you run.”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t?” I asked sarcastically. “Not like I’m some broken house pet.”

“You will be soon. Guards, bring him to my room and then bar the door.”

I planted my feet, trying to call on the earth below me. It rumbled, but as soon as that happened, I was jostled by the lamia guards and my concentration broken.

Together they worked to push and pull me down the wide corridor and into a large plush looking room. Apep joined me, before the door slammed closed and I heard several heavy thuds behind it.

Shadowy tendrils snaked out from between a pile of cushions, wrapping my limbs up and pulling me into the cushions spread eagle.

Apep gave a sad shake of her head. “I wanted it to be easier. But don’t worry, you’ll love me soon enough.”

Like a trapped mouse, she played with me, coiling onto the pile of cushion, kissing along my neck and brushing her fangs against me.

“Get it over already.” I spat.

Her fangs sank in, like two massive needles, before I felt the delicious agony spread from my shoulder. It radiated a hot pleasure, like something that was just on the painful side of warmth.

The heat spread from the bite, rapidly consuming my consciousness.

Apep turned my head to face her. She was so beautiful. The way her dark lips pouted ever so slightly and her eyes tilted up at the edges gave her a sinister beauty that melted my heart and hardened my shaft. “Come. Savor me.”

Rather than force herself on me, she laid back in the cushions, comfortable that I would come to her.

But I didn’t.

Despite the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen laid out before me and the searing lust that was burning through my veins, I did not devour her.

The tip of her tail played along my thigh as she took my hand and pulled me closer. “Don’t you want to. I’m all ready for you.” She pushed aside the sash that most lamia wore to keep themselves modest in public.

I had no clothes, save for the tattered slime armor around me. It contained my erection as I grew painfully hard.

Her sex looked like a cool dip of water amid a desert of desire that was slowly drowning out all other thoughts. I wanted it so bad. To sink myself into her sex and enjoy the bliss that it no doubt promised.

“Why do you hesitate?” Apep caressed my arm and tried to pull me close, but I rooted myself as best as I could amid the cushions. That beautiful face of hers frown and I felt the urge to do whatever I could to smooth out that frown.

“I can’t.”

“Of course you can. Command that slime off of you.” Apep pulled me closer and the warmth of her body was overwhelming. Her scent flooded my nostrils, and it was like I’d finally found what I’d been looking for all my life. Right here. Her.

I cupped her chest, my fingers sinking into the soft purple mounds, and I kneaded them. It was like a drug, as she smiled and my whole body relaxed. I now knew what Bubbles felt like when I turned her into a puddle.

Because I felt like I was becoming a puddle in the hands of Apep, who pulled me closer. “Yes. Mmm, pinch them.”

I did, rolling her dark nipples between two fingers, squeezing them tight.

Her heady scent hit me again like a punch to the gut, and I could almost feel myself trying to poke through Bubbles’ armor. But something tickled the back of my mind and pulled me out of the moment.

I felt a cold disconnection for a moment and knew it was Hesat’s doing. A shiver ran through me as I realized how close I’d come.

Apep’s lust venom even now burned through my veins, turning me inside out and making my mind discard everything I’d ever known or cared about, replacing it all with the insatiable desire to please Apep.

“No.” I said, pulling my hands off her chest as if I were lifting hundred pound weights. “No. No. No.”

Apep’s face contorted. “You have such a strong will.”

While I was doing my best to just thrust myself forward and suck on her tits, Apep wound around me. I was paralyzed as I tried to fight the venom.

Her fangs caressed my neck once more, and she kissed along my neck, around my jaw and her snake-like tongue flicked out, playing with my ear. “You will.”

It was sudden as pain blossomed once again in my next and that delicious agony flooded my system. Like being burned from the inside out.

That only thing that kept looping through my head was what it would be like to fuck Apep. How amazing she’d feel and how lucky I’d be to feel it.

My mind went blank in a pink haze for a moment and I came back to myself sucking and kneading on Apep’s chest as she threw her head back moaning.

Thankfully, Bubbles was still wrapped around me like a chastity belt. Though at this point even she could barely contain my cock as it felt like it was larger than normal, straining the skin with how hard it was.

I let out a roar of frustration and pulled away. “No. Never. I love monster girls. I love Cleo. But you will never have my love for what you’ve done. Not physical or emotional. You get none of me.” That was about all the resistance I had.

My body sagged, and I knew that if she bit me again, I might lose my mind entirely. Drown myself in her pussy and never come back up for air.

No. I couldn’t let that happen.

Even as she bit me again, I did all I could to shut it out as I curled up on myself to keep from doing anything.

Apep could rot in hell for all I cared. After this, I needed to grow stronger.

Never again could I let myself fall into this sort of position.

I needed to gain power, and I knew exactly how I could do that. Power would come later, though. For now, I just needed to survive with my dignity intact.