by Harry Nix
Alex nodded, understanding exactly what the kid meant. Out here you could see for miles without a building in front of you, take a breath and not smell car exhaust. The part of him that was wolf wanted to stay forever. Alex rolled this over in his mind as he walked back to the main house. It seemed like some kind of ridiculous dream.
Was that all it took? Run out into the wilderness, kill a random Alpha and take his land and then live there happily ever after? Try to gather more werewolves so next time a blood golem came lumbering over the horizon they could fight together?
As soon as Alex spotted Jasper he wondered if there was any magic to be drawn from his dead body. He squatted down, found a clean patch of skin not stained with the black liquid and touched his palm to it.
There was no buzz but after a moment, Alex felt something else. There was a kind of chill the coolness of the night couldn't explain. Alex closed his eyes and tried to reach out, like they’d done with the binding spell. It felt oddly like Jasper's body was an open door that led to a small tunnel. There was a black string stretched away into the darkness. Alex reached for it and felt tugging as though somewhere distant there was a fish hooked on the line.
“You trying to get some more of that dead magic?” Jacob asked.
Alex ignored him and concentrated on pulling on the string. Whatever was on the end of it was large and strong and Alex got the feeling that the string had been much thicker and stronger in the past, like a heavy rope. Had it decayed overnight? He pulled and felt a brief struggle before there was a snap. The string disappeared and the sensation of the open door went with it, leaving him crouched in the first rays of the morning sun with his hand on a dead body.
Alex stood up, looking at Jasper's body, wondering what would happen if he cast Henry’s spell on it. He assumed it would fail. After all, it was meant for small animals.
Considering they'd been attacked by the dead in the cemetery that meant some spells could revive something the size of a human. In fact, it could revive multiple humans given how many of the dead had attacked them.
There was the question of Mrs. Bronson too – there was only one of her but she’d been unnaturally strong and had torn Alex's hand off. Was that just the same spell folded over itself, made far stronger or something else?
A rooster crowed, the sun now well and truly rising. Alex was standing there in the sunshine pondering spells when Nia came bursting out the front door, closely followed by Juno. Nia was in hybrid form, but Juno was topless with only a small pair of panties on.
“Alex, where have you been? Did you sleepwalk?” Nia asked, grabbing his arm.
“Just went for a walk around,” Alex said. Jacob's mouth had fallen open upon seeing Juno. He suddenly closed it and began studying the ground between his feet.
“You can’t just vanish like that. Argh alphas!” Juno said, throwing her arms up in the air, causing quite a nice jiggle.
“So the two of you saw Jacob last night. Jacob, these are my mate's, Nia and Juno,” Alex said, trying to keep a straight face.
Some sort of automatic politeness kicked in for both the girls, which had been what Alex had been betting on.
“Nice to meet you,” Nia said.
“You’re name is Jacob? Seriously, a young werewolf called Jacob? How annoyed were you when Twilight came out?” Juno said, seemingly completely unaware that she was standing there topless.
Jacob to his credit didn't raise his gaze one inch off his feet. “Well, I was kinda, like, super young when that came out so it didn't really affect me.”
“What? What do you mean super young?” Juno asked. She crossed her arms, now pushing up a lot of cleavage but barely covering anything.
“Well, I was two or three I think maybe. So the fact that I was a Jacob and a toddler werewolf didn’t mean anything to anyone,” Jacob said.
Juno put her hands up to her face. “Oh goddess we’re so old. I’m an old grandma. This is it. I can feel the end coming. My brittle bones,” she wailed.
“Maybe you could put some clothes on before Jacob explodes,” Nia said, laughing.
Juno finally seemed to realize she was barely wearing anything. She quickly cupped her hands, making a hand bra.
“Okay, I’m going to get dressed, but then –” she looked at Alex and then stepped closer, squinting at him.
“Do you have glitter in your eyes? Have your eyes become Twilight vampires?”
“It's silver. Weirdest thing is I touch it with my finger and it burns but doesn't hurt my eyelids or my eyes,” Alex said.
Juno forgot her nakedness again. She stepped over to Alex, gently pulling down his eyelid so she could take a closer look.
“You must have had silver in you when you healed yourself with that homebrew spell. I mean, look at your glitter hand. It's like your body is just deciding to feed on whatever it can to heal. I don’t understand how this silver isn’t burning your eyes out right now.”
With Juno standing so close to him and wearing virtually nothing, ideas began to cross Alex's mind. He could smell the scent of her, too.
“Let me see,” Nia said. Alex held still as she shifted back to human form. Like Juno, she was topless and wearing a small pair of panties.
“Keep your eyes down Jacob,” Alex said, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice. Jacob for his part had shuffled his feet, facing away from them.
“One hundred percent,” he said.
Alex stood still as Nia inspect his eyes. She then carefully touched a finger to his eyeball. Instantly it sizzled and she jerked it away.
“Well, that's definitely silver. Seriously, what the hell? I mean, your hand isn’t silver,” Nia said, grabbing his hand to demonstrate. “So we should just shoot you with silver bullets, cut off your legs and when you grow new ones they’ll be shimmery and immune to silver?”
“Seems like a really painful way to get that immunity,” Alex said.
“Oh my goddess, why is no one wearing clothes?” April said as she emerged from the main house. She at least was fully dressed, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Her pink hair lit up in the morning light, as did the chunky necklace around her neck with the emerald in it. She’d taken to wearing it everywhere, hoping that something would happen to explain its purpose.
“Sheesh, okay, okay,” Juno said covering herself up and heading back inside. Nia switched to hybrid form then followed after Juno, but not before giving Alex a wink and a nudge and stage whispering to him, “She’s yours you know.”
April turned pink but said nothing. Alex hadn’t had time to think about what April had done last night, stepping forward and pledging her land, the so-called elemental lands, whatever that meant, so he could fight Jasper. It seemed an unambiguous sign from her but still something was holding him back.
“Hey Jacob, how about you go inside and wake the others up and get started on making some breakfast?” Alex said.
“Okay, but first are there any other of your naked wives here?” Jacob said.
April snorted with laughter, but then quickly covered her mouth.
“Absolutely no naked wives here right now, I promise,” Alex said with a grin. Jacob turned around and then his eyes went wide when he saw April. The sunlight was highlighting her pink hair and he was obviously mesmerized by her beautiful she was.
“Jacob, breakfast,” Alex said. The young werewolf mumbled something, snapped out of his daze and then went inside. April came over to stand beside Alex.
“Good morning, how are your wounds?” she asked and lightly touched him on the arm. The moment she did she pulled her hand away, as though she was a werewolf who’d just touched silver.
“You've been drawing on the dead,” she said.
“It’s just another power source, right? Plus, I was curious.”
April bit her lip and then reached out a hand again to touch Alex's arm. He became very aware of the scent of her and the touch of her fingers on his body. From April's hand he felt a slight coolness, like a refreshing breeze.
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“Please don't stop but what are you doing?”
“Checking that nothing came back from the dead while you were out there fishing,” April murmured. After a moment she took her hand off his arm and the cool sensation vanished.
She turned to Alex, her face serious. “Really powerful necromancers connecting to death bring spirits of the deceased back themselves. The more powerful they are, the more time it gives them. But you need to be aware there are other things out there that want to get back into life. Some of them are quite sneaky. Good thing I'm around. I'm not going to tell you to stop but always come to me and I can get rid of any stowaways.”
Alex stood there for a moment simply looking at her before April blushed and looked at the ground.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You put up your land last night so I could challenge.”
“Well it wasn’t a big risk. I knew you’d win,” April said. Alex would have said it wasn’t the most romantic of settings. Sure, the sun was rising, chickens were clucking here and there and there was a certain warmth to the scene of the picturesque village around them. But Jasper’s dead body was sitting there too, covered in black liquid. Nevertheless, Alex stepped forward and gently kissed April. The moment their lips met he felt like he'd been given electric jolt. April giggled, pulling apart from the kiss.
“Sorry about that. It’s the earth elemental part,” she said before kissing him back.
Alex had had a vague plan forming in his mind. Firstly, to eat as much food as he could and then to go on a run with Jacob and Nia to discover the boundaries of this new territory. Then it would be time to have a discussion with everyone: does he attempt to hold the area or abandon it? What would happen if they just returned to Baxter?
Those plans vanished the moment he kissed April. He broke apart from her and grabbed her hand.
“Come with me,” he said. He pulled her towards the main house and she willingly followed.
19
They went upstairs and then April skipped past Alex, taking the lead and pulling them into a bedroom with an imposing four-poster bed in the middle. She let go of Alex's hand and went over to the bed, leaving him to close the bedroom door. He could smell her scent in the room. It must’ve been where she'd slept last night. Along one wall was a large antique dresser made of dark mahogany. Considering how far they were from civilization it must have been an epic effort to get it out here.
“Wait, this isn't Jasper's room is it?” Alex asked.
“I searched the cupboards this morning, and they’re full of lingerie, like, really skimpy lingerie so my guess is yes, this is probably his bedroom,” April said with a smile.
Alex laughed and then straightened his face. “Too soon. Is it too soon?”
“Yeah, you're right. We should definitely wait until at least lunchtime to make fun of the guy.”
Although Alex had been pulling April upstairs, now they were in the room he wasn't so sure. It seemed she was possibly feeling the same way. She was standing next to the bed with their hand on one of the posts and although she kept looking at him, she also kept glancing down the floor.
“I know we just came up here and this is a dumb question but are you sure?” April asked.
“Am I sure…? Well, you're adorable with that amazing pink hair and those overalls you sometimes wear. You helped my succulents start growing and helped us rob a grave, you have some great spells and on top of all that you took a risk on me. You believed in me and now look – we suddenly have a farm… or village, whatever you call all this.”
“Maybe a hamlet?”
Alex took a step away from the door but then April held up her hand.
“Stop. Wait a minute. We need to talk about… well, you know I'm half nymph and half earth elemental right?”
“You told me that night in Juno’s yard when you stopped me sleepwalking.”
April nodded. She was chewing her lip and frowning at the floor.
“Remember I said nymphs only live to about forty and earth elementals live practically forever? I'm twenty-seven now so what if I only have thirteen years left? Or what if I have virtually forever to go?”
Alex could see the question was weighing heavily on her mind, although she smiled at him through her worry.
“I don't know… you find love and connection, and you go with it. None of us know the future. You live now, find joy and do your best,” he said.
“I’ll be very sad if I outlive you by thousands of years.”
“It'll be fine. Go full Lord of the Rings – make me a tomb with a sculpture of me carved on top of it. Mourn me for like, a hundred and fifty years. Wear a black veil, become the Dark Lady of the Grove, all that.”
“A hundred and fifty years! No way. You die and I'll give you a good half hour of mourning before I buy myself a big house and get a pool boy named Javier who is so handsome but so stupid. I want a guy so dumb he asks what the Spanish word for tortillas is.”
She was grinning now.
“If his name is Javier, wouldn’t he have a good idea that tortilla is the Spanish word for tortilla?”
“Nope, that's just how dumb and handsome he needs to be.”
“Okay, I’ll make the same promise. If you drop dead at forty I’ll wait at least twenty minutes before finding a new mate,” Alex said.
“Just twenty minutes? I gave you thirty!”
Alex wasn't quite sure what it was about the bantering that made him cross the room, but he suddenly needed to be near April and to wrap his arms around her.
There was a joy and humor to her. He simply couldn't stand on the other side of the room away from her any longer.
He crossed the room in two quick steps and grabbed her. This time when they kissed he felt that jolt again, like a spark, leaping from her lips. They didn’t pull apart this time. Their kisses grew more urgent and soon Alex found himself sitting on the bed, April pushing him down and pulling herself across his lap. His world became kisses, her lips and tongue, her neck, her earlobes and back again. He felt like he wanted to consume her entirely. As they kissed, Alex caught the scent of her magic, damp earth after the rain, wildflowers, the scent of hay drying in the sun.
Although he was absorbed in the kissing, a thought crossed his mind and he blurted it out. “What is my magic like?”
“Pancakes,” April said, straight-faced.
“Pancakes? Are you serious?”
“Pancakes and soap. It’s an intriguing mixture,” April said.
Alex grabbed her around the waist and in one smooth move flipped her around on to the bed, so her legs were wrapped around him. April squealed as she landed back on the soft sheets.
“Tell the truth before I have to tickle you to death,” he said.
“Now I'm definitely not going to tell the truth. You can't make me,” April said with a smirk. Alex started tickling her. Although she tried to push his hands away he was too fast. Soon she was gasping for air and begging for him to stop. He did, looking down at the beautiful girl on the bed, her cheeks flushed and her shirt askew.
“Okay, okay, your magic seems to change,” she gasped. “Sometimes it's like earth, like when you dig into a garden bed. Sometimes it’s food, like cinnamon donuts. Occasionally there is a spice and I swear I'm not lying but one time I definitely caught the scent of soap. Fancy soap, like when you’re really clean getting out of the shower.”
Alex gave her another tickle and she squealed. “Are you sure?” he asked, his hands ready to tickle again.
“Yes, yes, I promise,” she said.
He leaned over and kissed her again, a spark leaping between their lips. April pulled him closer, tightening her legs around his waist. The stayed like that for some time, just kissing. He sometimes broke away to kiss her neck or her earlobes or to run his fingers through her hair.
Eventually the position itself seemed to affect them. Alex started rocking back and forth, pressed up against her. April began moving too, although there
were layers of clothing between them.
“Help me get these off,” April whispered, trying to undo his pants. Her cheeks are almost as flushed pink as her hair now. Alex pulled himself off her and had that awkward moment of trying to remove his jeans and T-shirt without falling over. April pulled off her clothes until she was in her underwear.
The moment he was naked, she sat up and pulled him back to the bed, wrapping her legs around him.
Now there was only the thinnest of fabrics between them. He immediately started kissing her, pushing his body against hers. April started gasping in his ear, urging him on. Alex could feel the heat of her and eventually couldn't take it anymore. He reached down and tore her underwear off, the thin fabric giving way easily.
“Hey, they cost like four dollars you know,” April murmured. Now there was nothing between them. Alex was resting against her, sliding back and forth. With each movement they came closer together, the heat of her slick and wet, not quite connecting, just touching the edge and back again. Each time Alex drew back and moved forward again, April gasped and then bit her lip. She finally reached up to grab his ear, grasping it firmly.
“Put it in before I tear this off,” she threatened. For a girl with small hands she had a strong grip so Alex did as she commanded. He slipped back, adjusted the angle and then slid into her all the way.
“Oh goddess of nature,” April said as he sank into her. Alex moaned before pulling back and doing it again. April was curvier than Juno and Nia, her bra, a black lacy thing, doing its best to hold her In place. As he moved back and forth, her breasts moved in a rhythm Alex found intoxicating. There was something about having that final piece of clothing still on while they were in the bedroom that was driving him wild.
He sped up and between one blink and the next, green shimmers pulled themselves out of the air and began drifting towards them. April didn't notice them at first but then opened her eyes when one hit Alex in the chest and vanished.
“Oh, I see the game now… get access to nature through me huh?” she said, trying to speak clearly between gasps.