“You’re leaving?” Katarina asked, shifting her body behind me.

  “It’s time,” I responded.

  I was sitting on the edge of the bed, steadily putting my clothes back on. Behind me, Katarina was lying in the bed naked with only the blanket covering her.

  “Kiera?”

  “I’ll be returning her to my world before I go,” I answered.

  She reached out, an arm wrapping around my chest. She pushed her body against my back, and I could feel her warmth of her. It flooded me with all kinds of emotions. However, I didn’t feel any hesitancy or a desire to jump back in bed. Instead, I only felt more determined to move forward and get what I needed to be done so that we could finally have a safe place.

  “Raven?” She asked another question.

  “She’ll likely arrive later today. I’ll unfortunately just miss her.” I gently held her arm before standing up and pulling away from her body.

  “Don’t leave them hanging.” She responded simply.

  I looked back at her, but she had rolled over and put the blankets over herself, hiding her body as well as whatever expression she was wearing. She was a woman I could not understand. She was jealous of anyone else who’d touched me, but almost encouraged me to continue spending time with them. She worried about the other women around me almost as much as she worried about me.

  I shook my head, finished dressing silently, and then headed for the entrance. As soon as I opened my door, I was confronted with another pretty face, causing me to stop in my tracts. I couldn’t see her face at all. Kiera was sitting on her knees in front of my door, her head down in a submissive pose.

  “K-Kiera… you were waiting out here?”

  Kiera looked up. Her eyes were clear and she had a gentle smile on her face. A slight pink tinted her cheeks.

  “I finished early and I didn’t want to disturb Master during his activities.”

  I looked back at Katarina, who looked to be asleep and unmoving. I quickly shut the door behind me and then leaned down at helped Kiera to her feet.

  “Exactly how much of my activities did you hear?”

  “Around the time Master asked Katarina to kneel on all fours. Why did you want her to kneel like a dog?” She asked innocently.

  “Ahem, that’s not… uh… shall we go?” I asked, feeling embarrassed.

  “If Master wishes.”

  I nodded and took Kiera to a new spot. I felt like the museum basement wasn’t the safest place to teleport. I wanted a place where I wasn’t going to run into anyone else and where I could get an idea of how things were going without having to walk somewhere dangerous. I also didn’t want other people to know where I came in, less a trap was created.

  In the end, I went to the highest floor the building allowed. It wasn’t quite the roof, but it did give a good overview of the entire courtyard and adjacent buildings. Since someone would need to pass the ascension headquarters to get up here, it’d be as safe as them. Furthermore, even my girls didn’t know exactly which floor I was teleporting to.

  With a click, we were back on Earth. I couldn’t help but take a deep breath every time I left the apocalyptic world. Part of me wanted to stay there a bit longer, but I knew I didn’t have the time to play around. The night was already setting and I needed to meet with Jacques. This was a plan we had made over a week ago, and although a lot had happened since then, I still had to finish my commitments.

  “You will be returning to Gabriella?” I asked.

  “Yes, Master.” She nodded. “She still needs me to care for her. I will check on Master’s apartment as well if you’d like.”

  “Yeah, that’s fine.” I quickly agreed. “I also got you a ride down below. Take it back to Gabriella and be safe.”

  “Of course, Master. I am always safe.”

  I didn’t need to worry too much about her. Kiera did survive the apocalypse. Although at the time, she had lost the will to live, I didn’t think she was in that state of mind anymore. She had a new lease on life, and she was too careful to get in trouble at night.

  “I’ll be leaving then,” I stated as she got on the elevator.

  She looked back at me and smiled. “I was also joking, Master. I’m familiar with any sexual position if Master ever wants me to show him.”

  “Eh?”

  Before she could answer, the elevator door closed and I heard her giggle. With that, I was on my own again. I quickly world-traveled to avoid embarrassment. Everything I needed was already stashed in my digitizer, so I headed down toward the street. Lilith joined me once again, excitedly bounding beside me. As I left the quarters through a back alley route that had recently been unearthed, I ran into a few posted guards who nodded in my direction, but otherwise said nothing as I left.

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  I wasn’t exactly expecting a celebration or something, but I did feel a bit strange just leaving without any fanfare. At least I had Lilith with me. The pair of us left together, and I felt a bit easier walking down the derelict street with her next to me. I knew that I had already had scouts clear this area of potential threats, but enemies could leave or come in at a moment’s notice, and I didn’t want to find myself caught off guard unexpectedly.

  I wasn’t skilled at the kind of sneaking that Katarina performed, but I did my best to stay low and run from cover to cover. This was made a bit silly considering the murder dragon was walking straight down the path, watching me with interest as I tried to hide. Even if there had been a threat though, none of them challenged the murder dragon, and he moved forward without any concern for his safety. We moved rather quickly, and it was just reaching the point of being too dark to see when I reached the final building.

  “You need to stay behind,” I ordered Lilith.

  She cocked her head as if listening to me, but I wasn’t sure if she understood what I was saying. When I took a few steps forward, she joined me. I let out a sigh, shaking my hands in front of Lilith and gesturing back. It took three or four times, and Lilith looked somewhat unhappy, but she did finally grasp that I was taking the last part alone.

  I felt bad leaving her behind again, but I also didn’t think it was safe to take her. Any raider who saw her would fire upon her immediately. I wasn’t even confident that Jacques would be an exception to this. I knew this needed to happen, but as the distance between us increased, I felt a rising tension in my back. I hadn’t realized how much of my security had come from having the murder dragon along.

  Her red eyes continued to watch me in the distance, growing smaller and smaller until they were gone. By that point, I had reached the meeting spot. I came up to the appropriate door and then gave a knock.

  “It’s me, Daniel,” I whispered, feeling like a million eyes were on me now that it was dark.

  There was a saying, never be out in the wasteland at night. I wasn’t really worried about Lilith. She could handle herself. However, the longer I stayed out in the open, the more danger I was in.

  “What’s the password?” A gruff voice asked from the other side.

  “Uh… there is no password. Jacques?” I frowned, for a second wondering if I didn’t go to the wrong location.

  The location was geolocated on my Perco, so it was hard to mess this up, but the longer I stood out in the dark exposed, the more it started to worry me.

  “Just let him in, imbecile!” I heard Jacques’ familiar voice.

  I let out a sigh a moment later when I heard the door unlatching. It opened a moment later revealing a puggy man with a large nose and aviator goggles on his head.

  “Well, get on in.” He spoke in a nasal voice, stepping to the side. “Quick, before the Revenants eat us.”

  “Are there revenants in this area?” I asked as I entered.

  “Hmph! Are they here? Are you a fool?” The man brought the goggles over his eyes, squinting at me. “I told Jacques I don’t work with fools.”

  “Relax, Pick.” A voice came from the other room. “Daniel here knows what he’s doing.”

  I picked around the corner to find a somewhat comfy room. There was some kind of heater in the middle of the room and an assortment of mismatched furniture around a bear rug.

  “I was worried you wouldn’t show.” Jacques looked up at me with a half-smile.

  “This looks like a kid.” An older woman in armor stated. “We don’t need him to get into those headquarters. There just raiders. I still say I can conquer the entire facility. Give me a half dozen mech soldiers…”

  “You’re no longer part of the Ironside, and none of us had mechs.” A tall wiry man wearing a monocle of all things leaned forward. “Besides, knowing them, they’d likely destroy everything of value.”

  “The Ironside has secured more technology than anyone else post-apocalypse. Certainly more than your so-called brokerage.”

  “Ladies… gentlemen….” Jacques lifted his hands defensively. “Please… please, I’ve already said before. If we’re going to raid the Allco R&D, we’ll need everyone. You will all serve your purpose.”

  I didn’t like how he said that. I was already having doubts, but there was nothing else to do but listen to what he said.