Notes: The first chapter was a bit of a run through, my debut, and it was a bit rough. Thanks to everybody who read, voted, and commented. I would love if you could do it again. This is a transition chapter, lots of teasing but no sex.
A light wind plucked at the thin robe Loro wore as he strode down the long polished stone hall. He looked to his right, out over the open wall that gave him a near birds eyes view of the mountain. The palace was situated high on the mountain, taking advantage of a cavern system that had been expanded and built upon to fully allow the entirety of the Tala clan to live inside of the mountain.
Natural vents had been utilized to build baths and heat the large cavernous halls that had been built. Loro had always been amazed by the engineering feats that made the mountain fortress livable. Loro had been born deep in the forests that bordered the land. He'd only come to the mountain palace when his ability to enter the berserker state became known.
His sandals slapped the polished stone as his long legs carried him further down the pathway. His mind slipped further into the memories of those early days when he had been brought to the palace. The first twenty years were dedicated to strengthening his mind and body. He practiced every day with weapons, sparring with his fellow berserkers, training his muscles to react without conscious thought. Entering the berserker state took away the majority of his conscious thought, but gave him such amazing strength and resilience to pain.
So he trained with the old crowd of berserkers, and watched as his current team had joined him slowly, being pulled from every edge of the massive mountain range that the Tala claimed as their own. He watched as his tutors died, or just simply disappeared until he was given command by the old Chief, Tano, Kano's father. He watched as his team grew, and thinned out, and grew again. His six subordinates had been the most stable group of berserkers in two centuries.
Loro looked up to see himself before the large wooden doors that led to Kano's personal chambers. Loro felt a pang of shock that he had moved across the entire upper level of the palace without noticing it. His hand rose and pounded on the door, rattling it in it's housing. Loro wondered how the doors had survived for so long with giants always banging on it.
"Enter Loro." Kano boomed out from within the chamber. Loro pondered how Kano always knew it was him. He pushed open the door to look at the relaxing chieftain. Kano was bare-chested sitting on his large bed staring at him with an amused look. A female was sitting behind him, kneading his large shoulders with strong looking hands. Loro looked closely at her, recognizing the vampire from around the palace.
Her pale blonde hair fell past her shoulders, the true length hidden by her body. Her angelic features were sharply sculpted to breathtaking beauty. Dark green eyes nearly glowed, Loro could tell she had just finished feeding.
"How do you know it was me?"
"My door was nearly taken off of it's hinges. It was either you, Nic, or my wife finally came home." Kano told him with a straight face.
"Since I didn't tell Nic to come by, and my wife decided she no longer wanted to associate with me at all, I figured it was you."
The vampire cut in, riding a euphoric high from feeding on an elder giant with pure blood lines. "Why did your wife leave you?"
"She didn't like the fact that she caught me in bed with four other women. It wasn't the fact of strange women in our bed. It was the fact that I hadn't invited her to join in. That, and when she found me she was dragging a pair rather lust filled werewolves behind her. The argument was loud, the sex was great, and then she left."
Loro stared at him with a arched eyebrow. Loro had been out on assignment when Kano's wife had left him. He had arrived two weeks after the fact and had learned about the rather scandalous event. Tongues had still been wagging about it, and the fact that there was a new woman in Kano's bed every night since then. That had been over fifty years ago though.
"Oh." the vampire said quietly, not expecting that answer in the least. An awkward silence fell over the group as they stared at each other. Loro pursed his lips and then relaxed his features, it wasn't his place to disturb the peace.
Kano relaxed some more and let the vampire continue her massage. Slight moans were slipping from his mouth as the petite beauty worked the knots out of his back and shoulders, slowly disappearing as she worked lower and lower, until she was completely shielded by the enormity of Kano's upper body.
"You failed me." Kano whispered between groans and grunts as the vampire continued her assault on his muscles.
"I did." Loro accepted the complete responsibility with those two words.
"You have never failed me before. It is good to know you are not perfect. Sometimes I believe that you are invincible, that nothing can best you or your people. It was a rude awakening, but now I know for certain." Kano continued to murmur, his eyes closed, large limbs loose as the vampire appeared again to begin working on one of his arms. Her pale skin against his tanned skin giving a slight contrast.
"It was shocking for myself, I can assure you Kano." Loro murmured.
"I bet it was. No matter, you need to rectify your mistake Loro."
"What do you need me to do?" Loro asked. He was nervous now, he was treading into unknown waters and it was nerve racking.
"We don't have the resources to deal with this mage. It is their third attack in three months, the first on my realm, but each is growing stronger, and sooner or later they will be successful and the mage will be able to establish a permanent portal on our world."
Loro didn't say anything. Inside he was squirming at the thought of that happening. Shadow creatures were fierce opponents and they had barely beaten them back, and to do that they had to summon every last resource of the mountains to push them back.
"There is one whose skill in the arcane could best this unknown mage. You will go and retrieve her."
"I will leave immediately then." Loro stated, relaxing at the rather easy task he had been given.
"Don't get up and leave in such a hurry Loro. You must go to Earth to retrieve her."
"Earth?" Loro groaned out. Exasperation rolled through him mingling with reluctance. He absolutely loathed dimension jumping, and to Earth on top of that was just adding insult to injury.
"Yes, Earth. You will be leaving tomorrow with two of you berserkers, no more than that. I will not have you taking all of my berserkers from me to perform a simple escort mission."
