cold, pointed object pressing into the flesh of his neck. His head was turned, his cheek pressed firmly into the grass. In his peripheral vision he could just make out the glint of the blade.
OwnageTM! D’s getting spanked by the hippie! TermaMix texted.
With a thought, D_Light turned off the feed entirely. It would piss them off, but he wasn’t going to let his family watch this in real time. He could resolve the bet later…that is, if he survived.
He spat out his words as fast as he could. “Don’t! You won’t make it! I’ll help you! Listen to me!” Gasping for breath, he sucked in a mouthful of lush grass.
Smorgeous, who had since recovered from the kick, trotted up to them, his stride uncertain. Lily’s face was flushed and her eyes were wide. She shot an upward glance at the machine, at which point he stopped advancing and sat back on his haunches as though entering feline meditation. She straddled D_Light and bent down over him, close, her legs gripping him tightly-more tightly than seemed possible by her toned but feminine legs.
From D_Light’s vantage point, he could not tell if anyone could see them. Even if one of the spankers in the vicinity was not jacked in, he or she would probably just assume that the two of them were actively engaged in a spanker game-perhaps a social networking game with a sadomasochistic bent.
He could call for his companions, Lyra, Djoser, Amanda, perhaps even Brian, but they would certainly not reach him in time. He cursed himself for being so easily duped by this girl who, only moments before, had seemed so clueless. He relaxed as best he could to show her he meant no harm. She was a demon-he was sure of it-and as such, she probably had nothing to lose by plunging that blade down into his throat. He had to convince her otherwise, and he needed to do it fast.
“I will help you, I swear it.” His voice was softer now and muffled, distorted by the fact that his cheek was being crushed into the soft dro-vine grass.
Lily tightened her grip with her legs, pressed her lips violently against D_Light’s ear, and growled, “You did not help Todget.” The girl was breathing hard, perhaps on the verge of panic, D_Light thought. But there was a steeliness in her tone that told him to speak plainly and as truthfully as possible.
“I was sent here to find him. I had no choice,” he stammered. “But not you. I know how to get you out of here, if you’ll let me help you.”
“Help me? You must really think I’m a fool. Now you’re the one who needs help.” She bit her lip hard and pushed the tip of her blade harder against his neck. Her hands trembled.
“Wait!” D_Light begged. “You’ve got to trust me.”
“Trust you? I have no reason to trust you!” she shouted.
D_Light felt her cutting him.
D_Light collected himself as best he could and spit out his words into the grass like a stream of water. “I don’t want to die! Let’s make a deal. I help you escape, and you let me go. Without me, they will catch you!”
There was a long silence that D_Light could not interpret, an eerie quiet that he felt compelled to fill with additional rushed pleadings. “Listen, you have to blend in. You can’t get away by running. They’ll be looking for runners, and you can’t outrun an angel. They have satellites. They could be watching you now! I know how they do things. I swear, I can help you!”
Suddenly, D_Light felt her weight lift from him and the girl was on her feet. “Don’t bother me with your machine or I’ll kill you,” she said flatly as she pointed to his familiar. D_Light quickly sat up and instinctively clutched his neck where the blade had been only a moment before. He felt the wet of his blood, but the wound did not seem deep.
The woman took a quick look around, including in the air, and then turned as though to resume running. D_Light got to his feet quickly and said loudly but calmly, “Don’t, you need to follow me.”
With this, she suddenly stopped and faced him. Her eyes locked on his as though measuring him. “Stag, I let you go and yet you still persist?”
“I never lie to a pretty girl,” D_Light said with the best smile he could muster. “I said I’d help you if you let me live, and I am.”
He thought about his throwing discs. She was only about five meters away, easily within range. She had no armor on, so he knew he could have two discs in her before she could get to him with that knife. He knew this, but he did not move. There is a much better opportunity here-to match wits with the Divine Authority itself! This would be a contest to remember… It was madness of course, but in the past it had always been his craziest ideas that led to the biggest payoffs.
Lily stared into the eyes of the strange human. She was confused. Seconds before, she had been a motion away from killing him, and yet he wanted to prolong their engagement, indeed, even help her escape? And for what? Because of a pledge he had just made under duress? She was not aware of humans being particularly duty-bound. And if he had honor, was he not bound to his own kind?
On the other hand, she knew about the technologies of the ones who hunted her, or at least Todget had whispered of these things many times. He spoke of their speed, their invulnerability, and their cunning. And he spoke of their eyes-eyes everywhere, even in the darkness of space above. She would be a fool to trust any human, and yet this was their world. This man was most likely lying, but what were her chances alone?
“The angel certainly heard you yell out for your friend. It will come for you. Follow me now!”
She ran at him with sudden ferocity. His eyes widened in surprise, and he took a step back, putting his palm up as though to calm her, as though suggesting peace.
Her knife still drawn, Lily stopped less than a meter from him. He is either very brave or an imbecile, she thought. But she supposed that if he wanted her caught he would have just let her run and then called upon one of those “angels” to take care of her. None of this made sense. She sheathed her knife in the fold of her cloak.
D_Light smiled genuinely and bowed. “Let’s get inside fast! They can see you when you’re outside.” He then jogged off and waved for her to follow.
He led her to the first mound entrance he could find. As usual, he could not get a map of the mound area he was in. Nanosites coated every surface area within the mound, so technically a map could be drawn using software. However, this was not an option here thanks to local spanker-imposed mapping restrictions.
Once inside a hall tube, D_Light asked, “Okay, do you have a chip?”
She looked at him quizzically.
“An MIC-you know, a mind interface chip? Back here?” D_Light tapped the back of his head.
Lily nodded slowly.
A demon with a chip? Interesting, D_Light thought. This was a stroke of luck. D_Light wanted to log her into a spanker game, but without an MIC he would have had to make Smorgeous attempt to beam sensory input directly into her eyes and ears, essentially turning the familiar into primitive virtual reality hardware. It was much better for a computer like Smorgeous to work though an MIC, a chip that was properly hooked up to the subject’s nervous system.
“Great, open a blink channel to me now,” he said.
Master, subject Cave_Girl_123432 has opened a port, Smorgeous informed him.
Connect to her, D_Light commanded.
D_Light heard a ping as he connected to her profile. He skipped her introduction. Maybe he would have time to watch it later.
“Okay, Cave Girl,” he said, suppressing a smile. “I’m going to log us both into a spank game. Just follow me and try to stay alive.” D_Light would have preferred to communicate telepathically, but he was uncertain of her chip’s capabilities.
“Please, call me Lily,” she said. It was not her real name anyway, and although she thought “Cave Girl” was amusing at the time she filled out her profile, she did not want this human calling her by that name.
“I’m Deelight,” he said with a roguish grin. Lily gave him a strange look but said nothing in return.
Another prolonged ring echoed in D_Light’s mind as he began to slide gently into NeverWorld. As usual, his sight momentarily went dark. Then the darkness was replaced by blurs of objects that quickly came into focus. The ringing sound faded, giving way to the game’s audio.
Now inside the game, the hall tube was transformed. The walls were no longer covered with the swirl- patterned exoskeleton of dro-vine. Instead, it was now a wet rock passageway. It would have been pitch-black here if it were not for the fact that Ascara-the name of the witch character D_Light chose to play-carried a wand with a magical light emanating from the tip. The only sounds were those of water dripping on rock.
Lily stood a few meters away. She wore brightly polished armor, fitted perfectly to her body’s curves. As
