by Jamie Hawke
“Enemy… coming…” I managed to get out, hands up as I knelt. “I’m on your side.”
“You again,” I heard from one side, and then they had me, all of us running.
“Grab your damn clothes!” the other sort of hissed and shouted at Ebrill, who still stood there nude, staring in confusion. At those words, though, she snapped into action, running from the water and going for a dress nearby.
Only, there wasn’t time to dress, so she ran with us, clutching the garment to her chest and eyeing me with confusion.
“You two, that way,” one of the others said, and then they broke left. We darted right, going along the curve of the hill. I glanced back to see the forms of one horned man and one shorter figure that I took to be the goblin from before, but really had no idea.
“Get down,” Ebrill hissed, pulling me with her so that we slid down the grassy hill, out of sight. As she started to pull the dress on to cover herself, she glared at me. “Avert your gaze.”
“Sorry, I…” I turned, thinking I would peek to ensure that we weren’t being followed. “Will they be okay?”
“They can handle themselves,” she said, and clucked her tongue, motioning me to follow now that she was dressed.
She guided me along a ledge, the two of us leaping down. We ran in a crouch, stopping at a grouping of trees. There in hiding, pressed together to avoid being caught, we stared into each other’s eyes.
“Who are you, sir, and why do you look at me like that?” Ebrill whispered.
“I…” No answer came to mind, only the intense need to lean forward and kiss her. Our lips met, her eyes wide, but then they closed as she got into it, tongue in my mouth, hands moving along my arms.
She pulled back. “What sorcery is this?”
“None,” I replied. “Other than your beauty pulling me, leaving me with little or no will of my own.” Her scoff was accompanied by an eye roll, making me wonder if what I’d said had really been that bad. It didn’t matter though, because it was true. “My name is Jericho.”
Her hands, I noted, were still on my arms. The mocking in her eyes faded to curiosity again. “Very well, Jericho. Would you mind explaining what you were doing with the likes of them?”
“I wasn’t. I had just come out of the shed and spotted you bathing when they arrived.”
Now her hands pulled back. “You were watching me?”
“No. Not like that.”
“You weren’t watching me?”
“I mean, I didn’t mean to. But there was the threat, and then they—”
A hand on my leg. A smile. “It’s nothing to worry about, as long as you… liked what you saw.”
I gulped and then blinked, remembering where we were. “And those two? The goblin-looking one and the other, who are they?”
“Danger,” she replied, fingers moving up my leg. “Are you afraid?”
“Never,” I lied, although the answer was a tricky one—at the moment, I was more afraid she would pull her hand away than anything else.
“Good, because there’s no need to be. I have you.” Her hand went for my zipper, but she stared at it in confusion. “Are you a priest?”
“What?”
“This chastity belt, it’s—”
I caught her meaning and unzipped my pants for her. “Not a chastity belt. Just, something we use where I’m from. Easy access.”
“Easy… access.” She bit her lip to keep from laughing, then indicated that I should kneel as she pulled my pants and underwear down.
Still amped up from running and not totally sure what was happening, I wasn’t exactly hard yet, but not fully limp. The result was that it appeared I was quite well endowed, and the arch in her eyebrow showed she noticed.
“Now you’ve seen mine, and I’ve seen yours,” she said. “We’re even.”
“We’re what?”
“Go ahead, put that monstrosity away.” There was a hint of a smile to her lips, but she was already turning away, scanning the area for trouble.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m sorry, Jericho, but what did you expect? That I would let you take me right here on death’s doorstep?” She shook her head with a chuckle. “Where you’re from, the women must be something else, indeed, if that’s how they behave.”
“Well…” My mind went to the future, to the gargoyle her, and I pursed my lips, to stop from saying anything. ‘Something else’ was right.
I tucked myself away, kind of annoyed by the whole situation, then leaned over to look out at the grassy field and hills beyond. The scent in the air reminded me of honeysuckle, the warm breeze pleasant compared to the humidity of D.C. Having only the night before received a hand job from the future version of this lady, the whole scenario with ‘showing her mine’ didn’t leave me so embarrassed, although technically this had been this Ebrill’s first experience with me in that way.
Glancing over at her, I had to know. “Are you, I mean… do you ever change form?”
Her eyes narrowed as they darted over. “I’m no shifter.”
“Even at night?”
She shook her head, confused. “Do you?”
I chuckled. “No.”
“I have to assume you know some who do, or you wouldn’t be asking such a ridiculous question.”
“In a sense, yes.”
“You seem… decent.” Her eyes lingered on me, weighing. “And yet, you saved me. Or, helped me, anyway, while sneaking a peek.”
I laughed. “Come on, we’re even. You said so.”
“Fair enough. But with your strange style of dress, your odd… accent? You don’t belong here, that’s plain to see. Tell me.”
“You’ll find out more, eventually. The easy version is, I think I’m here to help you, somehow.”
“And how would you help me, exactly? Are you a mage?”
“In training.”
She nodded, eyes moving over me. “But not strong enough to take the likes of those two on, or we wouldn’t have run.”
“Not yet,” I agreed. “Although I have a good trainer.”
“Here they come,” Ebrill said. “Kordelia and Aerona. Act natural, and keep your cock in your pants this time.”
“That’s not fair,” I started, only to feel a splitting headache, followed by everything going blurry.
“Are you feeling well?” she asked and then frowned, eyes roaming over me as I started to fade.
A jolt hit, and then I was back in my room in my aunt’s house.
Ebrill hadn’t left my side—gargoyle Ebrill, that is. As soon as our eyes met, it was clear that she remembered everything that had happened. She was on me in a second, lips pressed against mine, tongue jutting out and toying with my tongue. Her hands moved along my chest and then down, cupping my balls and pulling my hands to her breasts.
You better believe I was into it every bit as much as she was. I moved her armor aside and took her breasts in my hands, playing with her nipples, and then moved from her mouth to take one of those nipples with my lips and nibble on it. I reached down and brushed against the inside of her thigh, about to push her loincloth aside, when a warning went off in my head.
She cringed, apparently feeling it too.
“The wards,” I said, cock throbbing and gut clenching at the thought of stopping now.
Ebrill met my gaze and shook her head. “Fuck it, right? The wards might hold. They should, and we can be fast.”
Again, the shooting warning, this time so hard it was painful.
Fatiha appeared at the doorway, clearly expecting to find us exactly like this, and motioned. “No time for that. They’re breaking through.”
“How long have they been attacking?” Ebrill asked.
“First strike.”
We all shared a look of horror. Then Ebrill and I were up and dressing before running to follow Fatiha to the rooftop. Halfway there, however, the house shook as explosions sounded, and a wall in the room visible down the hall and to the right suddenly cru
mbled.
“Shit,” I shouted, motioning them away from that direction.
“Kordelia,” Ebrill said, pulling my arm back. “We can’t leave her up there, we can’t just…”
“We won’t,” I said, and shouted for Fatiha, who was already moving. “We need to go to the rooftop. Defend from there.”
“It’s too exposed!” she countered.
“We have no choice.”
She saw the determination in our eyes, grunted, and motioned for us to follow her to the roof.
85
“Do what you did before,” Fatiha said, leading us up.
I paused, though, hand on the wall. “Why do I need to go to the roof to do it?”
She blinked, then nodded. “You can do it from here?”
“More than likely.” I glanced over at Ebrill, who was eyeing me with interest. The words I was about to say could be taken wrong, but I was starting to feel comfortable enough around her that I didn’t have a problem telling her what I was thinking. “Before, when you were close, my powers seemed to surge. Especially when you kissed my cheek.”
“You want me to kiss your cheek before you start?” Ebrill smirked. “I can do that.”
With a purse of my lips, I shook my head. “Maybe we should head back to the room.”
“Jericho!” Fatiha chided, folding her arms. “We’re under attack, I hope you aren’t using this as an opportunity to… well, you know.”
I shook my head, all business. “As dumb as it sounds… I felt a difference.”
“Maybe because of my magical past,” Ebrill offered. She was already walking with me, taking my hand in the process to pull me along. The energy soared, and I gave Fatiha a look of excitement. To my surprise, she appeared bothered. Jealous?
Whatever it was, the moment passed, and she called after us, “I’ll just be… hoping it all works out okay. From the… where should I go?”
“With us,” I said over my shoulder.
Ebrill stopped and turned to me. “Wait, you really are serious. Because I’m pretty sure her being in the room will keep us… at least partially decent.”
I nodded, then started walking again as Fatiha caught up. As much as I would have loved to continue what Ebrill and I had started, this was clearly not the time. That said, her little assumption that we couldn’t do much with Fatiha in the room made my mind wander… and fill with images of the two of us fucking like rabbits while the older woman watched. Fatiha wasn’t so old, anyway. Much older than me, sure, but even with her silver hair, I could easily see her hanging out with my mom, sipping wine and being all proper. If my mom had been into that sort of thing, anyway.
Still, I glanced over at Fatiha and the thought of it gave me the tingles. She was beautiful, in an older, elegant way. When she saw me looking, her eyes narrowed—not in a frown, but in a playful, curious way.
Explosions from outside, along with the walls shaking, reminded me why this wasn’t the time for such thoughts.
I turned back to the door, which we had reached, and held it open for the ladies. As soon as we were in, swirling darkness visible outside the window, Ebrill wasted no time wrapping her arms around me.
“Would it help if she tried, too?” Ebrill asked, glancing over at Fatiha, who had been about to sit but froze mid-way.
My mind instantly went to thoughts of this being a trap, but when she motioned Fatiha over and the older woman didn’t fight it, instead embracing me from the opposite side of Ebrill, I blinked, blood rushing to my groin.
“This will be less awkward if we lie down,” I said, and moved for the bed, quickly tucking my rising erection under my waistband so it wouldn’t be noticeable.
“Less awkward?” Fatiha asked, but she shared a look of curiosity with Ebrill, and then they both joined me.
“Maybe skin on skin would help,” Ebrill offered. I thought they were teasing me. But their hands moved under my shirt and found my chest.
“It’s imperative you find that Liahona,” Fatiha said, her mouth next to my ear. “You’ll need it to wake Kordelia, and I don’t think this house can take much more.”
Ebrill seemed less certain, but said, “Fight them off, make sure we’re safe, then… we try. Go to the dream, do whatever you can—I think that’s the answer.”
With a nod, I lay back, closed my eyes, and focused.
One might think two women lying in bed with their hands on my chest, one moving slowly toward my abs, would be distracting. Instead, this was what somehow fueled my power, unleashing floodgates of energy that I pushed into my transmutation magic.
As I started to merge with the house, one of their hands moved south, causing a jolt of energy to run through me. Then the fingers were on my shaft, a moment later gripping my stiffening cock, and I was gone.
Again, I was the house.
Not sure why this intimate act amped up my power, but fully embracing it, I let my consciousness loose to run through the house freely. The attack was indeed at the next level, confirming what Fatiha had said. If we didn’t end this soon, we could be in serious trouble. As witches and demons attacked the house with spells and some dug in, searching for other ways, something long and monstrous moved in the darkness, surrounding the house like a serpent of the night.
While they weren’t in, I wasn’t sure what my options were until the dark form moved to the front, about to attack. It hesitated, giving me what I needed to understand. The shisa statues out front gave off an interesting energy, so I moved into them to see what could be done.
As I hoped, the shisa both came alive, breaking free as Ebrill had, to reveal two dragon-like lions. Not large, but formidable. Their strength radiated off them, the hidden power of protectors pushing them to charge for the shape in the darkness.
They connected, throwing themselves at the beast so that it convulsed and surged back at them, wrapping around and revealing itself to be a serpent like a Chinese dragon, green bursts of energy shooting out of it like lightning bolts. The shisa moved fast to dodge and attack as I did what I could to contain the serpent with roots and flying rocks.
Others amongst the enemy realized what was happening and moved in to join the fight, while a side group managed to get past the wards and into a back entrance of the house. I brought down part of the first floor to crush them, quickly replacing it as the house rumbled. Two managed to push themselves free, red auras glowing and seemingly unharmed.
They shouted threats, but already I had the shisa charging away from the serpent, using my power to raise the ground as barricades to keep it out while the shisa dealt with those already in.
If the shisa could come to life, why not more? Thinking outside the box, I focused on the floors and walls, feeling them morph into humanoid forms that met my enemy in battle. With each push of my power, surges like electricity charged through me to let me know I was getting stronger, better.
Another level increase was coming soon, I could sense it. Two demons met my floor golems in battle. While I took down one by smashing it to blood and pulp, the second demon hit my golems with a fist of vibrating red energy that caused them to shatter at its touch. It seemed to look at me, and I felt its presence inside me, pulsating as if that red energy were going to rip me to shreds.
I pushed back, reaching deeper within and working to bring whatever I could rally in my arsenal to destroy him. The shisa was there, tearing through his leg and then dodging again as the serpent nearly got it, and then I had my focus back. With a surge of energy, I brought wire from the wall, vaguely aware of electricity going off in certain rooms while I zapped the fucker and pulled him into the wall, closing it back up.
More figures appeared, some that I was able to pull into the walls. Others were too strong though, and used their magic to push back and resist. Rumbling sounded, then shaking.
“It’s not enough,” a voice said, and suddenly I was pulled from my focus, back to the room where I lay with them, both now propping themselves up.
I saw why, too. Lines fo
rmed in the walls, splitting, some even showing hints of magic cracking through. As much as I was achieving, the outside forces were too much for me.
“Leave me in there, I can—”
“No,” Fatiha said, already moving for the door. “We get to the panic room, hold in there. More than anything, we’ll need the Liahona.”
Ebrill joined me, my hand on her lower back, guiding her, as we followed Fatiha through the door. I wasn’t as sure as the older woman and Ebrill looked skeptical, but I hadn’t been doing this long, so I didn’t really know. Ebrill had been out of commission for so long that listening to Fatiha seemed the best move.
As we moved through the hall, though, listening to the rumbling throughout the building and a new roaring from outside, Ebrill whispered, “It’s not going to hold,” and then she shouted for Kordelia as part of a nearby wall crumbled in.
Two lanky red demons with long claws and horns charged in. Ebrill felled the first with a flash of claws. I hit the second with a “Hurtio” stunning spell, then an icy fist thanks to my elemental strike. Apparently, I had left the metal from the fence in the room, but it was too late to get it, now. She finished off the bastard, hitting it where my ice had frozen its jaw so that the demon’s head shattered. My level went up again. I quickly adjusted the attributes with the points available, even though I knew this was all somewhat arbitrary, considering it was essentially my transmutational magic giving me a way to regulate my power advancement. When I was done, it read:
Level 2 Witch MAGE
Statistics
Strength: 6
Defense: 6
Speed: 6
Luck: 7
Charisma: 6
Mana: 320
Current Spells
Passive: Situational Alchemy, AKA “Transmutation”
Active: Ddiogelu (protection ward), Elfenol Streic (elemental strike), Tarian (defense boost), Hurtio (stun).