The Department's Resident Dead Expert 5
#5 of The Department's Resident Dead Expert
Jaceb ends up going through what's happened, and tries to sort out the feeling of having possessed someone else, and what it means for him.
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The Department's Resident Dead Expert
Chapter 5
By Draconicon
As Aisha dragged the unconscious body of the sheepdog officer out of the motel room, Jaceb dragged himself - with the aid of his shadow - back to the foot of his own bed. He groaned as he settled himself there, shaking his head as he waited for the rest of his body to get put back together.
"Mmmph...N-no hurry...just...make s-s-sure everything is b-b-back w-where it's s-supposed to b-b-be."
His shadow looked at him in bemusement, shaking its head with silent thought as it worked on reassembling him. Blowing his head off to shake off attackers had been a long-learned instinct that he'd had to force himself to unlearn - at least to some degree - in this world. Once he'd learned that there were many that would just find it 'cool' and that they would start messing with him intentionally, hoping to take souvenirs when he eventually exploded, he had forced himself to keep together more and more often.
Of course, that tended to lead to all kinds of other problems, tension being one of them. He finally felt relaxed now that he had let it all out, though he knew that was going to be a short-term relief, at best.
"Mmmph..."
The mole pressed his one good hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose as he remembered the attack. Aisha and Finlay had come in with the devil on their back, metaphorically speaking, and then...
Then it had attacked.
That was no mere mage...that was another necromancer...
Not a very good one, though. Not one that knew how to cover his tracks, or how to stay subtle. Then again, in this world where magic seemed to be completely unknown for the most part, he supposed that their attacker hadn't had to be. From the way that he had reacted to seeing Jaceb's magic, there was the very real possibility that he'd never met someone else that could use this power. Which meant that they had a chance.
His shadow tugged his shredded arm. Jaceb glanced down, and the shadow pointed out the window. Not once, for look, but three times, for go.
"N-no."
His shadow repeated the motion, then cocked its head to the side, questioningly.
"B-because...s-s-she w-won't hurt us."
Finlay would, and still might, but Aisha wouldn't. Not just because of the fact that she'd come back and tried to get answers rather than just blowing his head off, but because he'd been inside of her. He'd seen her, and her driving motivations, and...
Well, he'd seen other things.
Sensual things.
Embarrassing things.
Jaceb rubbed the back of his neck, blushing as his shadow looked more knowingly at him. The dark silhouette leaned back, one hand on its hips as it nodded at him, giving him a thumbs-up.
"N-not like t-t-that!"
It nodded, but he very much got the feeling of an 'mm-hmm' behind it, a 'yeah, sure'. Jaceb covered his face as the reconstruction continued.
She wouldn't want to really...or at least...not...
He groaned. There had been so many thoughts in her head when he had first leaped into her body. Most of them had been completely not suitable for the moment at hand, and while he'd been fighting to keep the hyena safe, that had been easy enough to shove to the back of his head and not notice it. Afterward, however, while they were waiting for his body to come back together...
Well, she didn't really guard her fantasies. And she had a lot of them.
Never knew...someone could like small guys so much...
Rubbing the back of his head, he did his best to push that thought out of his mind. They had other concerns than just the idea that a hyena might find him hot or that she might want to fuck him. Flattering as that was, the case still lay open before them.
A necromancer, someone else with powerful magic over the dead, was out there. There wasn't just a murderer out there, but someone that could bring the dead back.
That would...explain a few things...
Alice had been white-furred in death, and she had been paler in life when she had been picked up by the cops and brought to the mortician. The parents had been forced to return her to her normal colors afterward, which meant that there might have been dye...or she might have been going white, naturally.
Or...unnaturally.
There was the possibility of the body degrading after it was brought back multiple times. He avoided it with strict care of his own body and a great deal of careful magical rituals when he went from dead to living again, but the average necromancer wouldn't take that much care with it. Most didn't mind if the dead started faltering, nor did they take that much care with a full restoration to start with.
If she'd been brought back that many times...
He shivered. The more that a soul was brought back, the more shredded it became. Crossing over was not an easy task, and most necromancers avoided doing it as often as he did. He was just used to the pain, and knew how to fix that. Living souls that were just summoned back to their bodies...well, that didn't get the same sort of care.
No wonder she didn't want to remember.
No wonder she almost couldn't.
Jaceb hissed as the shadow jammed his bones back into his arm and started knitting his hand back to the wrist. It was almost done, thankfully, though the recovery wasn't the most pleasant. Dead flesh coming back to life, particularly when it was already being stabbed and stitched, was not entirely enjoyable.
His shadow shifted slightly, head turning into a shape that mimicked Aisha. The hyena's voice came out in a shadow of its former self, little more than a whisper.
"Going to talk, huh?" 'she' asked.
"Mmm."
"Why?"
"B-because...have t-to."
"Why?"
"...S-s-something's w-wrong here. Have t-to...fix it."
After all, he was a necromancer, too, and if he was going to stay alive - and much as he was able to drag himself in and out of death, he had a bad feeling that someone was going to catch on eventually and make that harder - he needed to do something to both clear his name and make sure that this killer didn't keep doing what he did. The only reason that he would have stopped while Alice could still be summoned back was the fact that he had missed the chance to get her body. Provided that he could find a vessel to put her in again, he could summon the little girl back from death one more time...
And that would mean more torture. More pain. And possibly punishment, if he thought that she'd talked to him.
I can't...I have to protect her...
Jaceb leaned back against the wall. There wasn't much he could do. Not until Aisha came back.
He just hoped that she would come back, and alone, like they'd discussed.
#
She did. The hyena opened the motel door with no hesitation, stepping inside and shutting it behind her. He had finished healing, and was even picking the stitches out of his wrist as she walked in. She blinked.
"You're, uh...more together, than you were."
"Mmm."
"Feeling...okay?"
"Mm-mm."
"...Yeah. Me neither."
"S-sorry. Again."
"For - right. Yes. You, um...you. Inside me. The, uh, non-sexual way."
Jaceb nodded, and the silence stretched out in further awkwardness between them. They both looked down, away, anywhere but at one another. It was easier just to let the quiet continue than to admit what they both knew that the other had seen.
"...Let's talk about the case, first."
"Mm-hmm." Jaceb was good with that. "S-sit?"
She joined him on the bed, and they sat together at the head of it, just staring at the wall. He waited, and eventually, Aisha asked the first question.
"When you...possessed me. That's what it was, right?"
Jaceb nodded.
"Right. Could you always do that?"
"Easier if I'm dead." The mole shook his head. "B-but y-y-yes."
"...Why didn't you just do that earlier?"
"N-not g-g-good. Makes people mad. Doesn't always w-work."
"But it does, sometimes. And you could have just...run off."
"Could have. Didn't. W-w-wouldn't."
"Because of the girl?"
"Mm."
"And...because -"
"Didn't w-want people to die."
He could have just taken over Finlay when they first arrived. The other man had no protections, and had been so angry that there would have been a few hundred holes in his head to just slide in. While it was easier to be a ghost and just slide into a body that way, there were magical means of using necromancy to take control of someone else. To momentarily 'kill' a piece of the brain, and then revive it...
Not many necromancers could pull that off. It took specialize control to kill limited parts of the body and then 'raise' it again, particularly if you wanted to keep the person who was suffering from it alive in the process. Most necromancers would kill someone completely in the attempt.
Jaceb could do it. Sometimes. About half the time. He usually didn't bother. It was easier to let them hurt him, instead.
"Didn't w-want him t-to hurt y-y-you."
"Huh. I guess..."
"S-still th-think I'm a monster?"
Aisha sighed, rubbing the back of her head as she took her turn to look down and away. Somehow, he wasn't surprised about that. It probably had been on her mind for a while, even if she hadn't said anything about it. How couldn't it be? Necromancy was the evil magic, and was in every other place that he'd ever seen.
He looked down.
"W-where did y-you t-t-take Finlay?"
"Back to his place. He's resting. He wanted to come back, but I told him to stay there."
"Mmmph."
"He wants to go to church. Talk about this. Heh. Not sure that'd work out."
"...Probably w-wants me dead."
"Finlay? I...Ugh. Probably. He's not great about this stuff. Don't think that he ever thought it was real, but he's got beliefs that look down on magic."
"Y-you don't."
"I - ugh. Right. You saw...all that."
"Mm-hmm."
"So...fuck. I have to ask. How much did you see?"
He looked up at her, and he remembered everything that he'd seen. He saw memories of a little goth hyena in high school, who carried a fake grimoire from class to class in hopes of it one day having magic. He saw a girl that had been beaten up for believing in fairies and fantasy, and who got stronger to beat them down in return. He saw the many different charms and little fake-magics that she littered her house with.
And he'd seen the other things. The fantasies of making mystic circles in hopes of a little demon imp to fuck. He'd seen the dreams of dominating both incubi and succubi, if they were real, pinning them to her bed and ramming them into submission.
He'd even seen her fantasy of holding him down, shoving his face between her ass cheeks, and riding him while she locked his cock down in a chastity cage and kept it pinned until she was satisfied.
She must have seen that knowledge, or something about it, in his eyes. Aisha looked away, redder than a fire.
"Oh god. You saw everything, didn't you?"
"...Close t-to."
"You weren't supposed to know all that. I...I don't even know how much of that was something I was ever thinking - you know, actually thinking about. But...god...fuck..."
"I'm s-sorry."
"Not like you have anything to apologize for. I was the one thinking it. It's just...you know, you think that you're safe inside of your own head. I didn't think...god...god..."
She wasn't hurting him, at least. That was a step up from the last person that he'd had to possess for their own good and learned things that he shouldn't have. That had ended up with him being buried in a deeper grave for a good six months while he was in and out of dying trying to get out. Not much fun, that. Not much fun at all.
At least she was willing to listen.
At least Aisha was more or less focused.
"Okay...okay, so you know about that. No point in keeping anything secret there. But we're not doing that. Not right now."
"N-never s-s-said we w-were."
"Good. Good."
"Case."
"Right. The case." She nodded, taking a deep breath. "You said that we got a fur color from Alice's ghost. And now...now we got attacked by another ghost that wanted you gone. That means that he's aware you probably got something on him, right?"
"Or might. Y-yes."
"Then that means that we're on the right track. We're doing the right thing. Right?"
"Y-you're the cop."
"...Yes. Yes, I am. Thank you. Thank you." Aisha took another deep breath. "Holy fuck, this is not how I saw my week going."
"Mine, n-neither."
"Heh. Least it's mutual." She chuckled, only to let the sound fade. "Jaceb?"
"W-what?"
"You had him. When you were fighting him, pulling him out of Finlay...you had him. I felt that. Why did you let him go?"
"..."
Jaceb pulled himself into a tighter ball, looking down at his bed. Aisha wasn't going to let him off that easily, though; she pulled him by the chin, making him look at her.
"Jaceb. Tell me."
"...I...I felt...a piece of him. And...w-what he had done."
"Bad?"
"S-s-so b-b-bad."
He shivered. Just knowing the sheer breadth and depravity of what was in that little piece, the rage and the monstrousness that had been inhabiting that tiny piece of the other man's soul that he'd sent along, had told him that they were dealing with the bad kind of necromancer. He was used to feeling mild bits of corruption, things of the dead that had snuck across. He'd dealt with flat-out psychopaths before, had run into those that had been completely drained by their magic and had become empty husks.
That wasn't this person. This person...this person was flat-out insane with power-mad bliss.
Jaceb kept the hollowing-out that could come from necromancy at bay with different things. Purpose, attachment, focus on those that he was helping. That was one reason he did keep in touch with those that he talked to; their happiness helped pay the cost of the magic, filled in the spot that was hollowed out by its use. But there were other ways, darker ways, to fill it, and this man had clearly chosen that. More likely stumbled into it, rather than anything else, but he certainly hadn't regretted it.
"I couldn't...I couldn't hold...t-too much b-bad. It surprised me, and..."
"And you let go."
"Didn't mean t-to."
"Fine. That...I can get that. That makes sense. But, Jaceb?"
"Y-yes?"
"Don't let it happen again."
"...I w-won't."
"Good."
And he wouldn't. There were a great many ways that he could do better next time, and he would. He just...he would be ready for it. Ready for the evil. Ready for the bad. That was all that he could do.
"Alright. First thing's first," Aisha said, tapping her fingers as she ran down the list. "New place for you to stay. They know where you are now, so we need to make sure that you're safe in a different location. Someone staying with you round the clock, preferably me, but we'll see what the station allows. List of suspects. We're going through the people that Alice knew, and we'll -"
"White fur," Jaceb said.
"Huh?"
"White. Fur." He forced himself to say it slowly, making sure that any micro-stutters didn't make their way into his voice. "T-the one th-that did this...had white...fur."
"...Okay. That'll narrow it down. I still want to talk to her parents, just to be sure that neither of them have anything to do with it, but other than that, I'll start making a list. Can't be that many people involved that do."
Jaceb nodded. He doubted that it could be that easy to find them, but at least they'd have a smaller list. And if they moved quickly, they might not need to worry about the body disappearing, or her ghost, either.
But if it does...
"And...Finlay?" he asked.
"I'll see if we can get him reassigned. He'll kick up a stink, but I've put in my paperwork before him, so we should be okay. For a little while, at least."
"Okay...okay."
"Now. One last thing."
"W-what?"
The hyena moved, and she moved swifter than he realized that she could. In the space of half a second, he was shoved further down the bed, pinned on his back, and was staring straight up at the police officer. She had her hands on his chest, one of them sliding up to his neck and pressing down on either side of it. Her hips...slid, for lack of a better term, and ground right against his crotch.
"You...are going to be a good little boy...and do exactly what I say tonight."
"W-nngh!"
He coughed as she pressed down against his throat. There was no danger to him even if she did choke him out; he could keep coming back, but that didn't mean that there wasn't some intimidation from the bigger woman sitting on him and squeezing his throat.
"You jumped into my body. You controlled me. Now, while I'm fucking happy that you saved my life...I'm going to need something back..."
She leaned in, her lips a scant inch from his. She was huffing, puffing; not a bad smell, but not good either. Body smell. Slight sour. Fear scent.
I scared her...this is...making her feel better...safe again...
"You be a good little mole...and I won't squeeze the life out of you...You make me feel good, and I'll make you feel good. Understand?"
"Mmmph...mm-hmm."
"Good. You stay right fucking there. I'm going to sit on your face until I'm good and ready, and then...then we'll see where the night takes us."
It was nothing more than fear. Or at least, he would have thought that if he hadn't been in her head. If he hadn't seen her fantasies. If he hadn't known what she would be thinking right then.
But even with all that, he couldn't bring himself to believe that she'd actually be interested in him. It could have been any smaller guy here...and she would probably have done the same thing.
Didn't keep him from being rock hard as she stood up and started taking her pants off, though.
The End
Summary: Jaceb ends up going through what's happened, and tries to sort out the feeling of having possessed someone else, and what it means for him.
Tags: M/solo, M/F, Post-Possession, Necromancy, Modern Fantasy, Series, Patreon, Mole, Hyena, Femdom, Cop, Slight Trauma, Figuring Things Out, Be Good, Size Difference,