Stephan, Natalie and the Mandingos formed a formidable group, weaker than his 100 man vampire team, but surprisingly not by much. 

Stephan had recovered his full strength, and will only get stronger if he ate the hearts of more powerful beings. 

Natalie on the other hand had absorbed a Valheru and Stephan's powers. But like with Stephan's absorption abilities, she could only have the top limit of the top being she absorbed, it naturally was the Valheru's strength, speed and durability, which was higher than Stephan's

However, she shared her strength with the 4 Mandingos. Although she was the host of the Orb of Lust, she somehow split the Valheru's physical abilities 5 ways equally, with her and the Mandingos getting 20% of the Valheru's physical abilities each.

Unfortunately, while Stephan managed to eat Apollo's heart, he didn't manage to gain anything from Apollo as Apollo had already cum into Natalie and that point, leaving the tiniest scraps of his lifeforce for Stephan, which only helped him reattach his penis didn't increase his physical abilities at all. 

As the Valheru was roughly 4 times as powerful as a vampire, and Stephan was marginally more powerful than an average vampire, this made Apollo roughly around 3 times of Stephan's physical abilities.

So using Apollo as a benchmark, a typical vampire will be 25% of a Valheru's power, Stephan would be roughly 33.3% of a Valheru, while Natalie, Luke, Lemar, Elwin and Eliot would each be 20% of a Valheru's power!

Vampires were considered one of the more powerful races, while Natalie and the Mandingos were slightly weaker. But they had an unlimited ability to grow beyond the vampires, just like Stephan. 

Although they newly acquired their abilities, they seemed to adapt to their new powers easily, each with their own style. 

Luke was a thug before, a convicted criminal put in prison for armed robbery, battery and manslaughter. He was especially brutal and enjoyed killing. He also did anything for power, even fucking all sorts of creatures just to gain power, even male ones!

Lemar was a police officer, and was the complete opposite of Luke. His was disciplined and tactical, and he did everything methodically. He also served in the army before joining the police force and so was well versed in military tactics.

Lemar, like the other Mandingos, lived in Houston. Because of this, he was familiar with many of the surrounding towns and formed all the plans and strategies before hitting enemies. 

He wasn't very fond of Luke, as not only was Luke rude to Stephan, he also disregarded his strategies and did his own thing during their attacks, sometimes even ruining the plan. But after a year of living together and sharing Natalie, they formed some sort of understanding between them. 

Elwin was a college athlete and his style was athletic. He liked showboating, showing off as he charged at enemies and enjoyed showing off by tearing apart opponents limb from limb, or taking several down with a tackle and spiking them into the ground.  

As for Eliot, as a construction worker, in fact he was a foreman, he seemed to like using his strength to throw huge objects, and using them as weapons. He didn't seem to like using his bare hands for fighting. 

Natalie was a reluctant fighter. She was a romantic language teacher, so her natural disposition was to the arts and wasn't particularly aggressive or warlike. Although her time as a sex slave made her tougher and more streetwise, she never gave in to savagery like Stephan did. 

Maybe that was because Stephan had to fight for survival in the Staging Ground and among the vampires. Although Natalie and the rest were sex slaves, they were ultimately safe and protected by the powerful Valheru and didn't have to worry about their lives as long as they performed for him. 

Stephan was in a difficult position. Natalie in the daytime as as loving and dedicated to him as he remembered, giving him her full attention like the loving wife that she was and is. 

But at night, when she became horny, as she rubbed herself on him and her clothes started to get loose, she had to force herself away from him, knowing that she could kill him. 

She kissed him goodbye as she selected one of the Mandingos, or all of them that didn't find a victim to fuck, and disappeared into a room wherever they stopped at. Sometimes Stephan watched them fuck, but most times he didn't

Lemar would sit next to Stephan and put his hand on his shoulder, giving him moral support though this. After all, Lemar was very grateful for Stephan rescuing them. 

But on some nights, when Lemar didn't find any prey, or the humanoid opponents were not compatible or too disgusting, he would give Stephan a pat on his shoulder and walked to the room be one of the men loudly fucking Natalie. 

Eliot was quiet and a decent person. He was the one who tried to find victims the hardest, so that he didn't have to fuck Natalie. It wasn't that he wasn't attracted to her, but he respected Stephan as Natalie's husband. But Natalie and himself had been transformed by the Orb of Lust. They needed to have sex once a day. If he could not find another victim, he would still join the others in taking turns fucking Natalie.  

Elwin was the youngest, being a college student. As such, the other men would mostly be the ones looking for other women, while he was the most frequent person left behind to fuck Natalie. Because of that, he felt weird towards Stephan and they barely talked. Stephan could see that Elwin was completely in love with Natalie and seemed to act like a puppy when he was around her. 

As for Luke, he was the most ambitious. He found the most victims among the alien races and was even willing to fuck the unappealing and ugly creatures just to gain power. Because of that, he was the one whose power was growing the fastest. Stephan felt some hostility from him, and didn't like the way Luke looked at him. It was as if he was being looked down on for being a cuckold. 

Natalie was the link between the Mandingos. If any of them gained a new ability or got stronger, part of it would be shared with her, but not with the others. As such, she had the potential to gain the most. 

Having his wife regularly fuck other guys in his presence made it uncomfortable and painful for Stephan. 

He could have angrily dumped Natalie. But in the day time, she was the perfect loving wife! She would wash up after her nightly sessions with the Mandingos, and even dress up nicely to act as the pure wife for Stephan.

He knew she was behaving like this for his benefit, and he knew she still loved him as much as before. 

Besides, he sacrificed everything to find her, so he couldn't dump her now, especially since her sexual condition was caused by him giving her the orb!

Because of that, he didn't really free her but put new chains on her, but bound her to the Mandingos by Valheru magic, and forced to have sex with them or they might possibly go mad. 

Not only that, the relationship of Stephan with some of the Mandingos were strained at best, but it was getting worse. 

Lemar and Eliot were alright, and had become friends with Stephan. Well, friends that fucked his wife regularly. But otherwise, they were decent and reliable. 

However, Luke and Elwin were hostile towards him. Luke was getting more and more powerful, outstripping all the other 3, and had become the default boss of the Mandingos. 

It got uncomfortable when one day during the day time, Luke wanted to fuck Natalie. Stephan replied that in the day, she was his wife, and at night she could sleep with whoever she wanted. But Luke scoffed at him and they nearly came to blows, only for Natalie to calm them down. Since then, Stephan felt daggers aimed at his back, even though Natalie told him his fears were unfounded. 

As for Elwin, he seemed to behave like the jealous boyfriend, trying to get Natalie's attention and affection during the day. And most nights, he was one of them who fucked her the most, even taking a second round after the rest finished with Natalie, which didn't please Stephan. 

They were supposed to have sex with her only because they were forced to due to the orb, but Elwin flaunted it and did it more than needed just to piss Stephan off. 

Natalie said that Elwin was just a sweet young man, who was very gentle with her, but Stephan wasn't so sure.

However, whatever concerns Stephan had, he had to admit that they made a good team

By the time they reached Austin, he found the team of Natalie and the mandingos as reliable as a 100 vampire team. 

--

They arrived at a checkpoint, discovering that the city of Austin were controlled by humans!

The military from all around Texas had barricaded up the city and used it as their headquarters, stockpiling all their weapons and equipment. 

"Halt! Identify yourselves!" a soldier said as multiple soldiers pointed their guns at them. 

By now, Stephan, Natalie and the Mandingos had been travelling through several towns and had salvaged normal clothes. 

Stephan didn't want to be identified with the vampires by their goth looking clothes, and the others didn't want to be in their togas anymore. 

"We're humans! We come in peace" Stephan said as they approached with their hands in the air

"Stay where you are! Where did you come from?" the soldier asked again

"We came from Houston. The alien was overthrown and we are all free now. There are more people there waiting to be rescued" Natalie answered instead

"Wait! Let me call it in" the soldier said, sounding unsure whether to believe them or not

"Let me try. My name is Sgt Lemar Johnson! I am an officer in the Houston Police Department in Downtown Houston" Lemar said as he stepped forwards

"Lemar! Is that you?" a voice came from behind

Lemar looked and saw someone he recognized

"Jason! You're still alive you son of a gun!" Lamar said

"Hold! I can vouch for them. Lemar was my partner before I transferred here" the older man said, wearing military uniform instead of a police uniform. 

"We'll have to search them first" the first soldier said

The group was searched, but of course they weren't carrying any weapons. 

But they weren't trusted immediately and were handcuffed to be questioned

Stephan could see that the military that was guarding this city was very cautious, which he thought was good. 

It would take great discipline and caution to hold on to a human city, in the midst of civilization collapsing around them with multiple invasions from many different alien races. 

They were brought into the city to the military headquarters . Stephan looked around and was glad to see that the city he grew up in was fully intact and functional. He couldn't wait to look for his parents.