Lucia nodded, face pathetically grateful that someone finally knew who she really was and what had been done to her. Picking up the tray and setting it to one side, Lucia took Jonni's hands and began to pull her from the bed. Jonni, confused and frightened by Lucia's revelation, and what it meant for how DeMorrell might punish their own child, began to struggle, protesting as the stronger woman dragged her to a sitting position on the edge of the bed.
"Lucia, what are you - -? Stop, no, I don't want to!" Jonni shrilled, nearly tumbling backward onto the bed as her maid released her just as suddenly as she had grabbed her.
Lucia made an angry humphing noise and stamped her foot, but made no further move to pull Jonni from bed. Jonni didn't know it, but her new husband had already made a wish for Lucia to unhesitatingly obey her mistress in every way. Lucia had no choice but to stop once Jonni told her too. Instead, knowing she could no longer pull Jonni from bed unless requested, Lucia spun on her heel and started carefully searching a nearby shelf decorated with objects of achaeological and artistic significance. Meanwhile the pregnant redhead watched her Hispanic maid with worried eyes. If Lucia really was Lucian DeMorrell, albeit trapped in a new form by his own father, what did she intend toward that father's new wife?
Jonni was pregnant with DeMorrell's child, a child that once would have been Lucian's brother or sister. Now that DeMorrell had disposed of Lucian, Jonni's baby was the sole heir to his incalculable fortune. Was Lucia angry, jealous, out for revenge? There was no way for her to tell Jonni or anyone else. The buxom, black haired maid was mute, another twisted little wrinkle of the wish that had transformed Lucian DeMorrell from spoiled dilettante to skimpily attired domestic.
So, Jonni watched Lucia closely, but the maid didn't seem to be up to anything particularly sinister. She was closely examining a series of built-in shelves crowded with various objects d'art that DeMorrell had plundered from various dig sites over the years. Now and then she would pick one up or turn it side to side. It occurred to Jonni that Lucia was looking for the stone, but the young mother to be knew her husband would not have hidden it in any place so obvious or unsecure. Finally, Lucia picked up a slightly larger fist sized piece of stone containing a perfectly fossilized ammonite. There was a tiny, barely audible click and the entire section of inset shelves swung inward, revealing a close, dark passage leading off into unlit shadows. Lucia made a small noise of satisfaction and turned to Jonni with a smile, beckoning for her to come.
Curious about the secret passage, Jonni gathered her strength to make her awkward way up from the bed. Just as she was about push off from the bed with both hands she stopped. She was in her nightgown and robe, hardly the right gear to go spelunking or cavern crawling or whatever it was poor Lucia had in mind. Besides, Lucius might be up soon and after hours of celebrating with his cronies he might expect Jonni to celebrate with him in a somewhat more intimate manner. It wouldn't matter to him that she was big as a house or ready to sleep. Jonni already knew her new husband well enough to know Lucius would never be denied anything he wanted. He had made one condition of his many wishes that they share a bed as man and wife do. Jonni had seen what Lucius did to his own wayward flesh and blood, Lucian/Lucia. How much worse would he punish a disobedient wife on their wedding night? And even if she did escape through some secret tunnel, where would she escape to, penniless and not even properly dressed? She was going to give birth soon, wouldn't it be better to stay here and do it with all the safety and comfort Lucius's money would provide?
It occurred to Jonni that this line of thinking wasn't even originating inside herself, that the wish Lucius had made, the one about her staying with him to raise their children together, was subtly nudging her thoughts in a direction more in line with that particular compulsion. But she couldn't help it. She was afraid. She was tired. She wanted someone to come and rescue her from all this. Then it wouldn't matter if she wanted to stay with Lucius for her child's sake. Nor would it matter if she desired his well muscled body and hated his blackened heart. Someone could drag her away, kicking and screaming, and keep her captive somewhere, safe from Lucius and safe from her compulsion to stay by his side. A single tear ran down Jonni's cheek. Lucius had taken everything from her. She wasn't the hero of the story anymore. She was a damsel in distress, the captive bride and kidnapped princess rolled into one, Helen of Troy, Rapunzel, Slave Leia, take your pick, except Jonni was her own jailer.
Lucia made an impatient hissing noise, shaking her outstretched hand, imploring with her eyes for Jonni to come with her. The two women, each a victim of the stone's transformative power, shared a long silent look. Jonni dropped her eyes first. She was ashamed. She couldn't hold Lucia's dark, flashing eyes for long. Lucia frowned and shook her head as if to say, "I don't understand you."
Hands craddling her belly, tears coming freely now, Jonni gulped back a sob and tried to explain, "I'm sorry, Lucia, but I can't! I just can't- - I don't know why. Maybe your dad's wish is making me stay, but I can't go. You go without me, get away if you can, try to find some way to help. I'll - - I'll be here."
Not realizing that Lucia's obedience to her was not merely a duty, but compelled by wishes, Jonni was a little surprised by how quickly the taller woman turned and left. A second after she was gone, the row of shelves swung back into place and it was as if the secret doorway had never been. For a long time, Jonni just stared at the shelves, shoulders shaking with silent sobs, hands clutching the bedsheet so hard her long nails left angry, red marks in her palms. Eventually, she laid back down, the book she had been reading forgotten, eyes closed, but not alseep, replaying the events of the escape she had shunned over and over. Eventually, she slept. There were no dreams.
Two hours later, Lucius came to bed, though sleep was far from his mind. Jonni was roused from her light doze by the sudden weight of her husband's body on the other side of the bed and his hand pawing roughly at her breast. At first she was frightened, thinking a stranger had broken into her rooms, until she recognized his scent, a mixture of whiskey, cologne, and pipe smoke. Words came slowly, but Jonni guessed from his quiet she was supposed to break the silence, "Wha - - oh, Lucius. It's you. At first I thought, I don't know what I thought. I was dreaming." The last part was a lie, but he need not know that.
"Hello, wife," there was a hand pawing at each of her breasts now. His touch electrified her as always, but the sensation was not entirely pleasant. Jonni could sense rather than see his smile in the near total dark, "The celebration is done. I have come for what is mine."
"What is - -oh, you mean," Jonni realized her first guess had been correct, Lucius would be pressing his husbandly rights immediately. Still, she tried to put him off, moving one of his hands from her left breast to the dome of her belly, "But I'm so, you know, big. I won't be any good. Let's wait until..."
"No waiting," Lucius interrupted, taking the front of her shimmery nightgown in both hands and tearing it open, tumbling her large breasts free, "Now."
Quickly peeling her out of her robe and the ruined remnants of her nightgown, Lucius had Jonni naked before she fully realized this was really going to happen. Lucius had not touched her sexually since their very first time together, the fucking by which he had induced her magically accelerated pregnancy. He had been gentle, but insistent, inventive and indulgent, taking his time. Now he was urgent and impatient, even rough. He didn't care how pregnant she was, he was going to have her. Jonni just prayed he wouldn't accidentally induce labor with the fucking he was about to give her. Those big hands of his moved from breasts to hips to ass and thighs, then back again, rubbing, squeezing, and groping in a loose drunken pattern. Frustratingly, much as Jonni's mind rebelled at the manhandling those meathooks of his were giving her, the traitorous body Lucius had trapped her in was responding. Soon she was on her side, one leg propped up on his shoulder, her hands kneading her own breasts as he pounded into her. It was heaven, possibly the only thing she had enjoyed since their last time together.
Unfortunately, they didn't climax together. She was close, suprisingly so, considering how little consideration Lucius had given his new wife, when she felt the rhythm of his thrusts change. Lucius ejaculated with a long, feral growl even as Jonni made a small wordless noise of disappointment. Neither of them heard a quiet click in the dark background of their room. They both lay there in the bed, panting, breathing ragged. Lucius laughed once, a short, bitter noise, but he seemed happy, even pleased, which made Jonni happy. Much as she enjoyed sex with him, she was hoping Lucius didn't have a nother bout in him tonight.
"That was good," Lucius stood up beside the bed, naked, his massive tool lazily swinging between his legs, "Better than I had suspected. You are coming along quite nicely, Jonni, quite nicely - - "
Lucius never finished his sentence. There was a swift rush of feet from out of the darkness and a blood-streaked expanse of sharpened steel exploded out of his chest from behind like a missile shooting up from a hidden silo. Just as quickly the blade was retracted and a fountain of gore shot from the suddenly opened wound. The thick jet of blood hit the nightstand and the edge of the bed, splashing Jonni's arm, her exposed belly, and part of her thigh. She screamed, high and loud, a noise of animal panic. She had not loved Lucius, but she had found him very sexually compatible and, if nothing else, she felt safe with him. After all, the stone had made him the most powerful man in the world. Now he was dead and she was alone, trapped in the body of a pregnant woman thousands of miles from home, all in the space of a few seconds.
Lucis's godlike body bonelessly tumbled to one side, sprawling upon the marble floor with a sickening thud. No longer blocked from view by their victim's body, his murderer was revealed. It was...
