Chapter 191: +18 Albedo’s contract.

No questions come. Patricia Gomez holds her ground, Harold Finch grips his cane, Nadia Kowalski's paint-stained fingers fidget at her sides, silence is their only answer. You've heard enough.

Your right hand finds the small of Albedo's back. "Teleport." The Mariner's pool deck is replaced instantly by the familiar expanse of the Icon's bridge - empty, quiet, the teleportation circles on the floor.

Your left hand seizes her horn.

Albedo's gasp dies in your mouth as you pull her into a kiss that has nothing gentle in it. Your fingers close around the base of her wing where membrane meets spine - sensitive, electric - and she shudders against you, a sound caught between surprise and delight vibrating from her throat into yours. Her hands clutch your shoulders, nails biting through fabric. This isn't how you usually handle her. She knows it. Her wings snap wide, then fold tight, pulling herself closer.

A minute. You give her a full minute of teeth and tongue and the relentless pressure of your grip on her horn before you pull back just enough to speak against her lips.

"Dress off. Legs in the air."

Albedo's golden eyes blaze. She opens her mouth, "What did I-" but you tear your shirt overhead and drop to your knees, and she catches herself. Her fingers find the clasps of her white gown with practiced speed, fabric pooling around her feet in a whisper of silk. She settles onto the bridge couch, naked, her pale skin luminous in the morning light filtering through the observation windows, legs spreading as she positions herself.

Your hands close around her ankles and you lift - spreading her into a high V, her thighs taut, her pussy exposed and already glistening. You dive.

Your tongue drives between her folds without preamble, flat and hard, dragging from entrance to clit in a single stroke. Albedo's back arches off the couch, her wings splaying beneath her. You knead her calves, thumbs pressing into the muscle, working upward along her thighs as your mouth seals over her cunt. You suck hard, and her hips buck against your face, a strangled cry escaping her.

Her legs lower onto your shoulders as your hands climb past her hips. One hand finds the joint where wing meets back and pulls - firm, possessive - while the other cups her breast, fingers closing around her nipple and twisting roughly. Albedo moans mix with tiny screams. Her thighs clamp around your head and you don't stop, tongue working her clit in tight circles while you alternate yanking her wings and pinching her nipples.

She comes apart in under three minutes - succubus physiology making her responsive beyond human norms to this surprise treatment, her orgasm rolling through her in waves that make her wings convulse. You don't stop. You keep your mouth on her, working her through the aftershocks, building again, and she comes a second time with her fingers tangled in your hair, pulling you harder against her.

When she's finally limp breathless, trembling, draped over your shoulders with her legs dangling. You flip her. She goes willingly, face-down on the couch, her ass raised. You grab her horn and press her cheek into the cushion, your other hand already working yourself free. It takes less than a minute - her eyes locked on your exposed member, wings spread beneath you, the curve of her spine, the slick mess you made of her - and you jerk yourself across her lower back and the cleft of her ass, groaning through clenched teeth.

Recovery. Breathing. Albedo's voice, muffled against the cushion: "What... what did I do to deserve..."

You tuck yourself away, roll her gently onto her back. Her golden eyes are hazy, satisfied, curious. You lean down and kiss her, soft this time, lips barely touching. Then her neck. The hollow of her throat. Each breast, your lips closing over her nipples with deliberate tenderness, tongue circling where your fingers had been rough.

"I expected their stupid questions," you murmur against her skin. "General stupidity. It's plagued our society by design since its founding." You kiss the valley between her breasts. "Both your stepping forward to answer them in my place, and your beautiful, perfect answer cutting through their stupidity." Another kiss, softer. "I needed you. That you earned a reward for your perfect answer is just the bonus."

Albedo's legs wrap around your waist, your pants back in place, her naked body pressed against you and her arms fold around your neck. You lower your face into her cleavage and simply hold her. Her heartbeat thunders against your cheeks. Her wings curl around you both like a cocoon.

She doesn't speak for a long moment. When she does, her voice is barely audible. "You needed me."

Not a question. A confirmation. Something she's filing away in that strategic mind of hers.

You reach through the Telepathy Web. "Maria. Are you available to slip away from the group conversation and come meet me and Albedo on the Icon's bridge?"

Maria's response comes quickly, tinged with curiosity. "Give me two minutes. I'll tell Asia I need to check something."

You keep your face back in Albedo's cleavage, breathing her in. Her skin is warm, still flushed from what you did to her minutes ago, and her heartbeat has settled into something slower, deeper. Your lips trace the curve of her breast, tongue flicking across the underside where the flesh is softest. Albedo's fingers thread through your hair, her wings still curled around you both like a living blanket.

"You're going to make me late for something," she murmurs, amusement threading her voice. "I can feel it."

You don't answer. You kiss higher, finding her nipple - still swollen from your earlier roughness - and close your lips around it deliberately gentle. A contrast that makes her shiver.

The bridge door opens five minutes later. Maria steps through in her black frilly dress, violet eyes taking in the scene immediately - Albedo naked on the couch, your face buried in her chest, the aftermath of sex written across both of you. She doesn't comment. She simply observes and waits.

Albedo's wings shift slightly. "Maria," she acknowledges, her voice lazy and satisfied.

You kiss your way up Albedo's nipple one final time, then stand. Take a step back. Your mana flows as you trace the contract circle on the bridge floor - the familiar patterns of Maria's framework, glowing silver-white against the deck plating.

"Are you ready for your Master-Servant contract, Albedo?"

Her golden eyes snap wide. The lazy satisfaction drains from her face, replaced by something raw and jittery - confused excitement, disbelief, her lips parting without sound for three full seconds.

"But - the trial -" She sits up straighter, wings folding tight against her back. "This is only fifteen. You said eighteen before-"

"Eighteen before your virginity," you interrupt gently. "You assumed early that the contract and the virginity trial were linked. I hadn't corrected that assumption." You let that settle. "I would have accepted your contract after your sixth oral session, had you brought it up. I considered waiting until your eighteenth to make the contract and your defloration the same event." A pause. "But I decided now is a perfect time."

Albedo's mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. Nothing comes out.

Maria steps forward, her violet eyes bright with understanding and curiosity. She extends her hand toward the contract circle, and pink energy pulses through the lines - changing to the succubus variant, the lust-based power threading through the contract foundation. The silver-white shifts to something deeper, threaded with crimson.

"The lust variant," Maria confirms quietly. "As with the others. I wonder what ability master will get from you Albedo."

Albedo stares at the circle. Then at you. Then back at the circle. Her wings tremble.

You hold out the back of your hand.

"My Albedo. Kneel."

She drops. Not gracefully - her knees hit the deck with a sound that echoes through the empty bridge, her wings splaying behind her, her naked body settling into a position of absolute surrender. Her golden eyes never leave yours as she presses her lips to the back of your hand.

The contract circle pulses.

[MASTER CONTRACT ESTABLISHED: ALBEDO]

[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: LOGISTICAL MASTERY]

[SERVANT SYSTEM STATUS: INITIALIZING...]

Silver light pours upward from the circle, wrapping around Albedo's kneeling form. The contract mark burns itself onto your forearm - sharp, hot, then settling into cool permanence. Albedo gasps as the bond snaps into place, her entire body shuddering, wings convulsing once before folding tight.

When the light fades, she's still kneeling. Tears streak her cheeks. She's smiling.

You kneel beside Albedo and pull her into your arms. She's still trembling, tears drying on her cheeks, her naked body pressed against your chest. You hold her gently, stroking her wings where they fold against her back, murmuring soft words against her hair. The contract connecting your emotions - warm, electric, new.

It takes less than two minutes before you feel it. The subtle shift in her breathing. The way her thighs press together. The arousal curse threading through the fresh contract bond, rebuilding desire with inevitability. Albedo's fingers dig into your shoulders, her golden eyes widening.

"Master - it's - the curse is-"

"I know," you say quietly. You stand, releasing her, and turn to Maria. "Bend over."

Maria's violet eyes flicker. She turns without hesitation, bracing her hands against the bridge console, her black frilly dress riding up as she arches her back. You flip the fabric higher, pull her panties aside - the lace bunching against her thigh - and push into her in one smooth stroke. Maria gasps, her head dropping forward.

"Albedo," you command. "Tease her. Kiss her."

Albedo rises from her knees, still naked, still flushed with the curse's heat. She steps behind Maria and wraps her arms around the smaller woman's waist, pressing her breasts against Maria's back. Her lips find Maria's neck, then her jaw, then her mouth - a deep, hungry kiss that makes Maria moan against Albedo's tongue.

You fuck Maria hard. exactly how she likes it, no gentleness - your hips slamming forward, driving her against the console with each thrust. The wet sound of penetration fills the bridge, Maria's muffled cries swallowed by Albedo's mouth. Albedo's hands roam Maria's body, cupping her breasts through the dress, pinching her nipples through fabric.

Maria comes first - her body clenching around you, her back arching, a broken sound escaping into Albedo's kiss. You follow seconds later, burying yourself deep and spilling inside her with a groan.

You pull out. Step back. "Albedo, back on the couch. Maria, keep kissing her."

Albedo settles onto the bridge couch, her legs spreading automatically, her pussy glistening. Maria crawls over her, still panting, still flushed, and presses her mouth to Albedo's. Two succubi tongues tangle, the kiss deep and desperate.

You kneel between Albedo's thighs and put your mouth on her. She's soaked - the curse driving her arousal to a fever pitch - and you seal your lips over her clit, sucking hard while your tongue works in tight circles. Albedo's hips buck against your face, her fingers tangled in Maria's hair, pulling her deeper into the kiss.

Her orgasm hits in under a minute. Her wings snap wide, her spine arching off the couch, a scream caught in Maria's mouth. You don't stop - working her through the aftershocks until her thighs stop trembling and her breathing evens.

You pull back, wiping your mouth. "Sixteen," you announce.

Albedo's golden eyes find yours through the haze. Two more. Her lips curve into something between exhaustion and anticipation.

Maria lifts her head, her violet eyes glazed, her dress disheveled. "That was... efficient," she manages, a breathless laugh escaping.

You lean down and press your lips to Albedo's shoulder, then trail your mouth along her collarbone while your hand slides across Maria's hip, fingers finding the bunched lace of her panties still pushed aside. Maria shivers, her violet eyes half-lidded, leaning into your touch while Albedo's wings curl possessively around your arm.

"You're definitely late if you had plans," you murmur against Albedo's throat, nipping the soft skin there. Your other hand cups Maria's breast through her dress, thumb circling her nipple through the fabric.

Albedo's golden eyes flutter. "I had... governance documents to review," she manages, her voice catching as your teeth graze her pulse point. "The age-reversal contracts with C.C.-"

"It can wait." You squeeze Maria's breast and Albedo's thigh simultaneously. "Let me know when the Mariner's empty."

"I will," Albedo breathes. Her wings shift, and you feel her awareness of her nakedness settle into something comfortable rather than urgent. She's not going to ask you to look away.

Maria straightens slightly, smoothing her dress where it's ridden up, though she makes no move to fix her panties. "So what's next?" she asks, her voice still carrying that post-orgasmic warmth.

"Vash resurrection," you say, your hand idly tracing the curve of Albedo's hip while your other fingers play along Maria's inner thigh. "I need to grab volunteers from the galley for guard duty. His corpse, suit, and gun from storage. Then find somewhere appropriate, forest or big park, maybe ocean view. Somewhere he can take his time waking up."

Albedo tilts her head, her strategic mind engaging even as your palm slides across her bare stomach. "The Plant-alien physiology. Bulma confirmed regeneration will handle the rest once he's alive again."

"He's from a desert planet. Greenery without rainforest density. In sight of the ocean, he can approach on his own." You kiss Albedo's nipple, then turn your attention to Maria's neck. "I'm thinking somewhere scenic. Give him a proper welcome back."

Maria's breath hitches as your fingers brush higher along her thigh. "You'll want combat-capable guards," she says, her analytical mind working alongside her body's responses. "Esdeath would volunteer instantly. Erza. Mikasa. Musashi if she's awake."

"Esdeath hasn't had her contract ritual yet," you point out.

"She doesn't need a contract to swing a sword at anything that approaches," Maria replies with a faint smile. "And she'd jump at the chance to prove herself."

Albedo stretches beneath your touch, her naked body arching slightly, wings spreading across the couch cushions. "I'll monitor the Mariner's population remotely. The moment the last survivor has left, I'll notify you." Her golden eyes find yours. "Should I accompany you for the resurrection?"

"That depends on how quickly I can get dressed and get moving," you say, glancing down at yourself, still half-undressed, your shirt discarded somewhere on the floor. Albedo's white gown lies in a pool of silk three feet away. Maria looks merely disheveled, her dress wrinkled, panties askew.

Albedo follows your gaze to her dress and laughs softly. "You'll need to either dress me or leave me to it, Master."

You grin, give her breast one final squeeze, and stand. "I’m not sure I could get that dress on you properly, I'll grab my shirt. You handle the rest." You pull your shirt from where it landed near the navigation console, tugging it over your head. "Maria, you want to come help me round up volunteers from the galley?"

Maria adjusts her panties back into place with practiced efficiency, smoothing her dress. "Gladly. I'm curious to see how the new five are settling in anyway."