I forced myself to relax, then I cast my disguise spell, as I focused on the Wendigo.
Dark Lady, I hoped that this would work.
Slowly, gray covered my skin. My arms grew and extended into claws, and I lost all the hair on my head. Finally, I hunched over, mimicking their stance.
But, it was all a lie, an illusion. If one of the creatures spoke to me or pressed up against my skin, then they would know the truth.
Screwing my courage to the sticking place, I walked out of the woods and approached the prison. The other Wendigo ignored me, as I scampered past them.
Inside the prison yards, the demoralized prisoners cried, shrieked, and moaned, as Wendigo within its walls continued to build the wicker man. It already stretched upwards, at least twenty feet high, but apparently, that wasn’t high enough.
I didn’t see Brynn, Abigail, or Gavin anywhere.
Wait.
Gavin.
He was huddled up against a wall without his goggles on.
I shuffled along, staying away from the other Wendigo until I was near Gavin. He was leaning up against the wall with his knees pulled up to his chest. Tears were streaming from his one remaining eye.
“Gavin,” I whispered.
Immediately he looked around.
“Don’t act like I’m talking to you,” I hissed. “Look to your left, away from me.”
“Bazal?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I’m disguised as a Wendigo.”
“Fuck,” he cursed. “So, that’s what is around us. I can’t see a thing.”
“Do you know where Brynn and Abigail are?”
Gavin shook his head and then stopped.
“No,” he whispered back.
Dammit.
“Don’t react, I’m going to make you look like a Wendigo as well.”
Gavin nodded.
My spell’s bubble had refilled, so I blocked the other Wendigo’s view of Gavin. Then, I cast the spell. In a few seconds, a Wendigo was sitting where he had been.
“Stand up and hold my arm,” I told him. “I’ll lead you.”
Gavin didn’t argue. He stood right up and followed my lead.
We walked across the yard. Two large buildings were in ruins behind me. Walking through the area between them, I saw a large structure that had to be the administration building. Lights were gleaming from its windows and lanterns encircled it.
Not only were Wendigo moving all around the building, but so were black-robed men and women.
And I knew one of them.
- 17 -
“Mary isn’t dead,” I hissed at Gavin. “She’s about twenty feet from me, dressed in a black robe.”
“Where?” he growled.
I pointed at her; with the lantern light, he could now see a little.
“She must have led the caravan here; right into a trap,” he grumbled. “She should be dead, you hit her hard enough.”
I led Gavin into the dark shadows around one of the ruined walls.
“Let’s follow her, she might know where Brynn is being held,” Gavin said.
Before I could argue, he hunched up and stalked forward, mimicking the other Wendigo perfectly.
Sighing, I followed his example.
Mary went into the well-lit building, walking confidently. She pushed back her shoulders and stuck her chin up in the air. Every black-robed priest that I saw bowed to her, as she passed them by.
They all ignored the two of us, which was good.
Especially when I saw that all the priests had the same Church of the Flames tattoo that Mary had. Inside the structure, there were dozens of Wendigo scurrying here and there. It was well-lit by torches that hung on the walls to light the path for the humans. Confederate banners hung everywhere, along with Nazi regalia.
If they caught me here, I would be burned alive for sure.
Mary went up a flight of stairs with Gavin scurrying after her. This was going to get really dicey if they figured out who we were.
“Hello, my dear,” I heard Mary drawl, as she entered a room and then shut the door behind her.
Looking around, I saw that we were alone, so I shuffled up to the door and listened. From the other side, I heard a whip crack.
And, then, Brynn screamed in agony.
I didn’t think, I turned the doorknob and hurried into the room.
Mary turned to the door with a surprised look on her face. Behind her, Brynn was hanging from the ceiling by her arms. Her dress had been yanked down so that it hung from her waist. Bloody red lines dripped blood down her shoulders and back, as Brynn hung and sobbed.
In Mary’s hand was a whip.
“How dare…” was all she got out before I slammed into the bitch, knocking her to the floor. I grabbed Mary’s head and pounded the back of it into the ground.
Again, and again.
Gavin hurtled into me, knocking me off of Mary.
“What in the fuck are you doing?” I shouted at him.
“We need her,” he snapped back. “You were going to kill her.”
Mary moaned on the ground. The bitch had stripped my wife to her waist and ripped three distinct whip marks into Brynn’s back.
“I am going to kill her,” I growled.
“If you tame her, she can walk us right out of this shit show,” he replied. “We need her.”
“I am not taming, Mary,,” I growled, as I moved around him intent on killing the bitch.
“Bazal,” Brynn groaned. “Listen to my father.”
My mind froze.
I glanced over at her, and then at him.
We were going to have a long talk after we got out of here.
“Tame her,” Gavin commanded, pointing at Mary.
“I’d rather eat dirt,” I hissed back at him. “You claim her.”
“I can’t,” he snapped back at me. “My magic is burned out.”
I looked at him in shock. I couldn’t think of anything worse--for a mage--than to lose his magic, especially when it was probably his own fault.
“You have to tame her, or Brynn and Abigail die,” he snarled at me.
I looked at Mary as she stared up at the ceiling in confusion. She looked stunned and in complete shock. Blood was pooling behind her head, covering the floor.
“If I tame her,” I shouted. “I’ll end up fucking her in front of my wife, who I haven’t even fucked yet!”
“Do it,” Gavin insisted, “before company arrives, or she becomes more coherent.”
Pissed, I stomped over to Mary and sat down on top of her, straddling her hips.
She looked up at me with a confused expression, then I saw her eyes starting to focus, as she realized that I wasn’t a Wendigo.
It was now or never.
I put both of my hands on either side of her face and activated the taming spell.
The curse slammed into her mind. In its confused state, taming her was easy. The barbed tip of my spell sliced through every defense that she had until it pierced her soul and punctured it.
Mary gasped, as clarity finally filled her eyes.
My disguise spell collapsed, and she groaned. “Oh, God, not you. Anyone but...”
Then, her eyes glazed over, as the curse invaded her thoughts and desires. I saw the very second she stopped being a racist twat and changed.
It was horrifying.
Her hatred disappeared, along with any semblance of… choice. Mary’s gaze softened, and suddenly, she batted her eyes at me.
And, then the bond snapped shut on us both.
My disguise spell’s bubble quivered and shook. Then, the inscriptions dripped off of it, as a clanging noise filled my mind.
With another crash, the bond wrapped around my arcane sphere and cemented my end of the relationship.
I screamed in agony as her every racist, bigoted thought, and memory poured into my soul, as they dissolved in hers.
I saw Mary burning Goblins in the darkness and smiling while their flesh cooked.
I felt her raise an axe over her head and then bring it down on a lesbian’s face. Blood splattered Mary’s shirt, as the woman’s legs collapsed. Grinning like a maniac, Mary raised her axe again, to cut down the woman’s lover.
And, in the light, I saw her kneeling at the foot of the Virgin Mary, in the very church where I married Brynn. Mary hated herself. She would never, ever be as pure as her idol.
Then, my arcane sphere spat out a barbed connection, piercing my own soul.
Shrieking in pain, I felt it pierce my soul, finishing our bond.
My hands felt hot on her face. The fact that she was fifteen years older than me stopped mattering. Mary wasn’t the only one whose mind was changed by our mystical connection.
The curse made both parties… more attractive to the other.
I began shaking, as my soul resisted and fought the spell. It had only been hours since I had claimed Taesa. My essence was still adjusting to that addition, and now another, just as powerful woman was chained to me.
Until death.
The bond radiated a permanency that made me want to scream in terror.
Uncuttable.
Unbreakable.
Permanent.
“Oh, Fuck,” I growled, as I grew so hard that I thought my dick was going to explode.
I had detested Mary and everything that she stood for. Every bigotted slur. Every racist remark. And, especially that damn tattoo on her neck.
But, now, all I wanted to do was fuck her.
And, she wanted me just as bad. I saw desire flare through her eyes.
And, I wanted her, even though there was blood all over the floor. She was literally laying in a pool of gore, and I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was rip off her clothing, and mine as well, and nail her… again and again.
I fought against the blind, impulsive desire, but the curse had stuck its barbs into me as well. My heartbeat increased, pounding nearly out of control, as I tried to control myself.
“Fight it,” Gavin commanded. “You can fuck her later.”
Brynn’s father yanked me up off of the floor and stared at my eyes.
“Bloodshot and sweating,” he hissed. “You’re acting like you’re…”
- 18 -
Taesa slipped through the wall like it was made of shadows and promises. The witch’s body was even more translucent than when I had first met her. In fact, she seemed to be consisting of only mist and darkness.
“Don’t touch my Master!” she hissed, as her fingers became black talons.
The skin under her eyes was a deep ebony, and the pale witch looked skeletal. Her jaws split open to reveal dark charcoal black fangs that glistened with venom.
Gavin shrieked and threw himself backward, away from me, as my lover wrapped her mist-like tendrils around me. The ground around us was suddenly covered in white fumes that drove the others back...except for Mary.
“Let him go!” she shrieked at Taesa.
A dark black fire erupted around Mary’s hands and thunder peeled in a room too small for a storm. Shadows began dancing all over the place, then, they split off and loomed over us. All I could see were fangs and talons.
“God Dammit,” I hissed, as I fought not to fuck them both simultaneously. “You are BOTH mine!”
Mary’s flames and shadows shuddered.
“That filthy creature is yours, My Love?” she hissed. “She doesn’t deserve your love and attention. Let me burn her.”
“Let me eat her!” Taesa demanded as she wrapped her tendrils around me. “The demon’s whore is a monster.”
Brynn started laughing.
Everyone turned and stared at her, as she hung from her arms, dripping blood onto the floor.
“Bazal didn’t want multiple wives, and now he has three…”
Brynn laughed and laughed, while the other two women glared at one another and gnashed their teeth.
I sank to my knees. My head was pounding, and everything seemed too loud and bright.
Taesa reformed into a woman and sank down next to me. The pale witch felt like she wanted to comfort me, but the Cailleach seemed to have forgotten how. Human emotions were… foreign to her now. It had been decades since she had last drawn breath.
Decades.
My mind chewed on that, as it pounded and thrashed.
Mary growled and moved closer to me, hunching over like a beast with her fingers spread out like claws.
Taesa snarled back at her, hurting my head. Both of their emotions were pouring into me, threatening to overwhelm my mind.
I put my hand on Taesa’s arm.
“Mary is mine,” I hissed at the pale witch. “Be nice.”
Taesa instantly stopped snarling and grew quiet, but Mary’s flames still flickered on her fingers.
“Mary,” I snapped. “I said that Taesa was mine. Knock it off.”
The flames sputtered and died.
“As you wish, My Love,” she purred, as she moved closer to me. Then, she closed the distance and pressed her chest against mine.
I could feel Taesa watching her.
Then, the pale witch mimicked the warlock cultist. Her breasts pushed up against my back, but at the same time, she made sure that she never touched Mary. Somehow, both of their arms were wrapped around me, but neither woman was willing to touch the other.
But, their touch made me feel better, even though my brain wanted to pass out. My body, well, it wanted to fuck so bad that I could scream in frustration.
Taesa glanced at Mary and then slowly moved her hand down my side.
Mary hissed and covered my crotch with her fingers first. “Mine,” she hissed at the witch, sensing her intentions.
Taesa slapped her hand.
Which fucking hurt.
“Stop it, both of you,” I growled.
Then, I leaned over and threw up.
Both women slid back and away from my vomit, as the world twisted and swayed. My brain hurt so bad that I wanted to die.
“You’re bleeding from your nose and ears,” Gavin observed. “You should have told me that you bonded with the witch. Your soul and body are being pulled in too many...”
I shut him out and closed my eyes.
Everything just hurt.
Shuddering, I collapsed to the floor, narrowly missing my vomit.
In my mind, I could see my four arcane bubbles. Two of them had turned gold, and I could feel the connections to both of the women.
But, all around my mind, golden fumes were coming out of my mana vault in a geyser. They swirled and roared with the intensity of a hurricane. I felt my mind spin and twirl, tilting from left to right.
Then… my mana vault opened like an anus with diarrhea. Intense golden flames roared out of it.
I screamed as three more bubbles slid out of it like liquified shit. They floated into the air and wobbled uncertainly. Instead of perfectly circular, they gurgled and kept changing shape from oval, to elongated with dozens of feelers, and then to rectangular. Finally, they returned to oval, but they didn’t solidify.
I groaned in pain as the vault slowly closed, so that only my original stream of mana kept flowing out of it. Well, maybe it was a bit more than usual. The whole had been widened when the three slid out. It would probably take time to repucker.
Slowly, my normal vision returned, as something that felt like spider webs on my face melted away. A weight that I hadn’t know was there suddenly fell apart, leaving my mind clear for the first time in days.
I felt hot and cold at the same time. Shivers of sweat were dripping down my body, while other parts felt so cold that they were numb.
“It’s not normal,” Gavin said to Brynn. Both of them were kneeling a few feet from me.
Both Mary and Taesa were growling at the two of them, making my wife and her father stay away.
“They are my friends,” I told the two women who were bonded to me.
“That is a lie,” Taesa hissed. “They both mean you ill-will.”
Into the Darkness Page 7