Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

lithe body into an arch—like cats did. Then she licked her paw, casting her eyes up to Ben.

He stood stunned as he watched her transformation. What the fuck was going on? He’d never heard of technology that could allow someone to pull off a trick like that, and he couldn’t think what use it would be if it did exist.

“Magic,” he whispered. “You. . . you transformed?!”

“I did,” Melody said with a nod. “And I shall show you yet more magic.”

Then, with a flick of her wrist, Melody swiped the wand at the TV screen. A low boom reverberated through the room, and a burst of bright white light flashed from the tip of the wand to the screen.

With a screech of static, the screen lit up with wild colors, then died.

“What the fuck?” he exclaimed, trying to figure out what the hell she was doing.

Melody looked at me with a proud expression, her furry hands on her hips.

“What the hell did you just do?” he asked.

“I enhanced the picture box’s powers,” Melody declared. “With the combination of my magic and yours, it will be more powerful than ever.”

“You haven’t enhanced the TV.” Ben put his hand to his forehead in frustration. “You broke it.”

Melody’s face fell. She looked at the lifeless screen. She pressed the power button repeatedly. “Oh. It didn’t work.”

“Of course, it didn’t. Did you just zap the TV with lightning? I don’t know what kind of magic they have in your world, but here, electronics don’t tend to respond well to that.” He sighed in frustration. “Now I’m going to have to pay the hotel for damages.” He tried to keep the emotion from his voice, but he was a bit annoyed and still very confused.

If his senses weren’t playing a trick on him, then he had just witnessed magic. He could have still believed this was all an elaborate ruse, or perhaps a hallucination, but this felt way too real. He’d already pinched himself and slapped himself, so it wasn’t a dream either.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Real magic. And a catgirl.

And this crazy business about another fantasy world.

Was this real? It couldn’t have been. But he’d just watched a woman turn into a cat and then blow up a damn TV.

Ben plopped back onto the bed, his mouth hanging open like some kind of stupefied goldfish while his stomach coiled, his intestines wrestling each other.

“You mean the innkeeper will punish you for what I have done?” Melody asked, and it was her turn to look distraught as she stared at the TV. “I only meant to show you the power that awaits in my homeland.” She wrung her free hand and looked around her. “How can I convince you to come with me now?”

Ben couldn’t find the words to answer her, and she continued as though she hadn’t just shocked me into petrification.

“There is one more thing I can try.” She looked concerned. “Archmage Kamila thought this might be risky, but I can see I have no other choice.” She turned to rummage through her pile of clothes once more, her tail flicking nervously back and forth.

Ben shook his head to clear it a little, then took in a few more deep, slow breaths. Then he closed his eyes, the low rumble of the AC blending with the sounds of Melody rustling through her clothes.

This was not a dream.

Not a hallucination.

Not some prank.

It was real.

Now that he’d accepted that this was all real, he couldn’t help but look a little warily at the egg that was still nestled into the bed linen.

“Benjamin?” Melody asked. “Do you wish to be shown what I have? As I have said, it carries risks, but it should give you certainty that this is real, and that you must come with me.”

“What kind of risky? This isn’t something that’s going to blow me up like that TV, is it?” He wasn’t feeling all too trusting after watching Melody fry the thing with what he now believed was a real-life wand.

Melody stood up and turned to face him, a round object clutched in one hand. She fixed him with an intense stare. “This won’t kill you. It’s risky, because it will have one of two outcomes. Either it will utterly convince you to come, or it will make you refuse forever. I can’t make you come with me, I can only hope that this convinces you.”

She was speaking in riddles at this point, but it did get his curiosity piqued. Ben nodded for her to continue.

“Go ahead.”

She stepped forward and held out what appeared to be a crystal ball. It was a transparent, fist-sized glass globe with some sort of mist swirling around inside.

“How many of these kinky toys do you have stowed in those pockets?” he asked in disbelief. Could this woman get any weirder?

“Take this ball, it will show you what you need to see.” Melody held the crystal ball out to him.

He shook his head. “Fuck it,” he muttered. “I’ve already lost my mind, not like things can get any worse.” He took the crystal ball in both hands and held it out in front of him.

As soon as his fingers closed around the glass globe, his vision went dark for the second time that day, and he saw another panorama spreading out in front of his mind’s eye.

This time, the vision was of a world conquered and enslaved by a mighty ruler. Whole kingdoms lay under his command. These civilizations were filled with riches, and, as Melody had said, there were monsters. These monsters, however, didn’t guard treasure, but served the ruler, laboring under his command.

Ben’s vision brought him to focus on the ruler himself. The first thing that came to mind when looking upon the ruler was Sauron. Truth be told, Ben had always had a bit of a thing for Sauron back when he was a kid watching the Lord of the Rings movies for the first time. Sure, Sauron was the bad guy, and Ben wasn’t