Heart's Darkness

by H D A Roberts

  "Do we have to? That sounds like good dirt to me!" I said with a grin.

  "Get to your cushion, or does his majesty need a red carpet these days?" she asked sweetly.

  I muttered mutinously, but did as I was told.

  "I love her," Cassandra whispered in my ear after introducing herself to Porter and having a quiet word while I sat down.

  "Me too, she's a great teacher," I said warmly.

  "I was thinking more along the lines that she makes you her bitch."

  "The other Archons have nice Wardens," I said acidly.

  "That's enough of your back talk!" she said with a faux-growl.

  "Yes, Ma'am," I replied, which made her snort.

  The lesson got underway; this time it was all about practicing mental manipulations with a view to healing mental trauma.

  Generally those classes had been about defence, but now were moving towards treatment. This part of the module covered repairing damage done to a person's mind; from excising painful memories to healing mental scars. I had already been pretty good at both, but the methods Porter been teaching had been elegant and refined, not to mention far simpler.

  I loved learning that stuff.

  Now, as you might imagine, finding volunteers to let unqualified Magicians poke around inside their heads wasn't easy. So Porter had a workaround.

  Each of us was given a blue crystal about the size and shape of a human brain, into which Porter had implanted a basic mental structure that we had to examine and probe to find the damage, which we then had to repair. It was an impressive construct, and I enjoyed using it. It was almost like the real thing.

  I was at that for the majority of the day, followed by shielding practice for the last two hours of the afternoon. Porter had produced some challenging defences that had nearly gotten the better of me. I chatted with her for a while afterwards, smiling most of the time.

  Thanks to her, I hadn't had the spare attention to think about Jones and Aldwich, for which I would always be grateful.

  At the end of the day I went home to Blackhold. I felt the need for security that night.

  Tethys met me at the front door (obviously informed by Demise about what had happened) and shook her head before taking me by the hand to her study so I could explain myself.

  She sat me down on a sofa, an antique originally from the Palace at Versailles. Sitting on it made me very uncomfortable for fear of breaking something both steeped in history and worth six figures. Naturally, this just made it more fun for her, and she draped her legs over my lap before laying her head on my shoulder.

  I told her what had happened. She just listened, holding me a bit tighter when I described the deaths, which weren't sitting well with me, now that I was forced to think about them. I knew that it was likely them or me, but... I still felt awful.

  She was quiet for a time after I was done.

  "Demise told me about how you talked to the Witches," she said softly, "did you mean what you said?"

  It was a loaded question.

  "I did... once," I said, turning to look at her, "Cathy was my first real love. I would have given anything to stay with her... right up until the moment she broke my heart into tiny pieces just in time for several nights of fever-induced night terrors which featured her, prominently, as a result. I didn't lie to the Witches so much as I recounted a previous version of myself. One that doesn't matter anymore."

  "That simple? Demise said you sounded pretty sincere."

  "Maybe I was, just not about Cathy, and maybe not for a while. Decades, did you say?" I said with a smirk, looking at her.

  She actually blushed, "You're a very odd Magician, Graves," she said before planting a very tender kiss on my cheek, "You really don't give a crap about power, do you?"

  "Why would I?" I asked with a naughty grin, "I'm an Archon."

  She laughed and leant her head against mine.

  "Cheeky bastard," she said. She kissed my cheek over and over before settling back against my shoulder.

  We sat like that for a while, but I couldn't completely relax.

  "The sofa's still scaring you isn't it?" she said with a giggle.

  "It's just so fragile!"

  She smiled and stood, holding out her hand, "Nap before dinner?" she offered.

  "With pleasure," I said, taking it and letting her draw me to my feet.

  I showered, changed into tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt, and crawled into bed with my Succubus, which sounds strange, I know, and was a million times stranger when you think that all we ever did was sleep with one another (no, really, I swear!). But I didn't sleep better with anyone else.

  We generally slept on our sides, facing one another, arms and legs entwined, our chests and thighs close, usually touching. Even so, I never felt any tension. It's always peaceful and wonderful. Right, in fact.

  Yep, if I ever do manage to keep a girlfriend, she was probably going to have some problems with that...

  And that doesn't even take into account Kandi, who was wrapped around my other side when I woke up. Yes, no way I was ever going to be able to explain my situation, not well, anyway.

  And... I wasn't sure I cared about that anymore. If there was one thing that seemed to be a constant for me, it was that romantic relationships crashed and burned. But my friendships... they lasted (the important ones, anyway).

  The landline buzzed with the intercom tone, which likely meant dinner, but I was warm, and Kandi was moving in a rather interesting way, so I cast a Muffling Spell on the wretched thing. But I was too late, Tethys was awake.

  "Nice try, Mathew, but I'm feeding you back up if it's the last thing I do," Tethys said, turning those eyes of hers on me as she reached behind her for the phone.

  "Hello?" she said, still staring at me, "Thank you Miss Jenkins, he'll be down presently."

  She smiled, replacing the phone, "Now, are you going to be good, or must I employ my wiles upon you?"

  "Knowing how I feel about your wiles, will that really encourage the right behaviour?"

  She glared, and while I was distracted, staring into those lovely eyes of hers, she got her hands under the covers and tickled me until I fell out of the bed, which woke me up quite thoroughly. I tried to hold it against her, but her smile prevented that.

  Dinner was fun and relaxed, and I started to decompress after my day. I eventually found myself back where I'd started the evening, sandwiched between Tethys and Kandi. They made sure that the last thing I was likely to think about was death and blood.

  It was in much the same condition that Hopkins found me the next morning, having shown up for our tutorial. I'd normally have been waiting for her in my library or in the garden, but I'd forgotten to set my alarm the night before.

  "My, my, what have we here?" Hopkins said in a rather over-satisfied tone, waking me up.

  "Wha?" I managed, my bleary eyes opening to see her smirking from the foot of my bed, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt.

  "What ever would your mother think?" she said, shaking her head as she gestured at my bed.

  I looked around and blushed as I discovered both Tethys and Kandi in states of almost complete undress, draped on top of my chest, my arms around both and my legs tangled with theirs.

  "I'd point out that I'm fully dressed," I said, attempting to salvage some of my dignity.

  "Doesn't count, look where their hands are!" Hopkins said, her grin growing wider.

  Finally I did notice, and... well, I was losing the moral high ground.

  "Can I meet you downstairs?" I asked levelly.

  "Of course, I wouldn't want to interfere with your morning... intimacies," she said with a leer.

  I called my Will and three spare pillows pursued her laughter out the bedroom door.

  I tried to shift myself, but two warm bodies wrapped themselves around me just that little bit tighter.

  "Ten more minutes," Kandi muttered sleepily.

  "At least," Tethys agreed, burying her head deeper into the crook of my neck.<
br />
  "If I don't get up now, Hopkins will sulk for the rest of the day, and you'll have to explain to her why," I said, through I was having real trouble mustering up the will to move.

  Kandi ran the tip of her nose along my earlobe and I shivered. This was followed by a trio of little kisses down my neck before a nuzzling of my cheek.

  "Kandi, that's just not fair," I protested weakly.

  "Comfy pillow," she said patting my chest, "shush, comfy pillow."

  Tethys snorted, and right up against my neck, which produced all sorts of interesting sensations.

  "I need to go," I said.

  Tethys slid further over, so that she and Kandi were covering even more of me. I wasn't going anywhere. Okay, I could work with that...

  It took a minute to craft the spell, quite a few minutes, actually. But finally, I was able to cast a remote viewing construct and wrap an Illusion of myself around it before guiding the combination to the kitchen, where Hopkins was eating toast.

  She took one look at my projection and burst out laughing.

  "Alright, so they won't let me out of bed, get it all out of your system."

  She stopped for a second... and then just continued laughing.

  "Oh, that is priceless!" she said, yanking out her phone, "I'm telling Lucille, she'll love this."

  "Jen, don't you dare!" I said, darting forward before I remembered that I wasn't actually there, and couldn't do a damn thing.

  "And... send!" she said evilly.

  "Nooo!"

  "Yep, you let your Succubus boss you around, you must suffer."

  "But... why Lucille? Doesn't she torture me enough?"

  "What's this about Matty being more whipped than Indiana Jones' secretary?" Palmyra said, darting through a Portal and making me jump (sort of).

  "Seriously? How little do you have to do that you can come and mock me this quickly?" I asked.

  "I thought you said he was trapped under a Succubus?" Palmyra said with a glare at Hopkins.

  "I know, isn't it terrible how she lies?" I asked.

  "Look again," Hopkins said.

  Palmyra looked at my Illusion, and her face broke out in a wide grin.

  "Oh, that's lovely," Palmyra said, smiling evilly, "just... lovely. The Archon of the Deep, can't get away from two girls."

  "If I were here, I'd get you," I grumbled, but before I could elaborate, I felt something...

  Something rather intimate.

  "Oh good grief! Got to go! Be right back," I said, and released the Spells.

  I found both Tethys and Kandi atop me, their lips and hands in some places which you don't need to know about, my t-shirt pulled up to my neck and Tethys fingers on the drawstring of my bottoms.

  "I'm back, I'm back! Damn, I can't turn my back on you two for a second!"

  "You should have come back sooner, don't want to stop now," Kandi said, tickling my chest. I shivered and tried to capture her fingers, but Tethys caught one of my hands, and trapped it between her knees, and the other was under Kandi's hindquarters.

  "I'll soon teach you to leave your body unattended within reach of a Succubus, Love," Tethys whispered in my ear before biting down gently on the lobe, "did you really think I wouldn't notice you were absent?"

  More lips, more teeth, more warm skin. But then Kandi shifted, and I was able to get my hand free and to her ribs, which I tickled. She squealed and leapt for my arm, pinning it down and squeezing it between her thighs.

  I called my Shadows, but Tethys saw them coming, pulled my head around and planted one on me. They vanished as quickly as they appeared, my focus completely gone. Tethys pulled back only after a while, her eyes dazzling as she looked down at me.

  "Your resistance fails, Love," she purred.

  I laughed and smiled warmly at her again, and she immediately clapped her hands over her eyes.

  "Oh no, not again," she said, "You're not getting me with that trick a second time!"

  "What's the trick?" Kandi asked, "Something dirty?"

  "The opposite!" Tethys said, "He gave me this look, and just killed the mood completely! And then he used his wicked words, and I couldn't do anything, don't look at his eyes!"

  "Aw, I think it's really sweet," Kandi said, kissing my cheek, "Oh! I get it now! He's cute-ing his way out of naughtiness! That's... well actually a bit brilliant, but hey!"

  She swatted at my chest and I turned my smile on her, which she returned.

  "Tethys, I think he's doing it to me," Kandi said, her eyes on mine as we smiled at each other. She relaxed a little, and I got my hand free so I could cup her cheek. She kissed my palm, and held my fingers.

  "He got you, didn't he?" Tethys said.

  "Little bit," Kandi said.

  I grinned at Kandi and gestured at Tethys' sides. Kandi smirked back and held up three fingers, then two, then one... then we went for her ribs and feet.

  Tethys shrieked and dropped to the bed, Kandi quickly jumping on top of her.

  "Oh, you wicked pair!" Tethys yelped before slithering around Kandi's grip, and twisting to pin the redhead down in her place. She fastened her lips to Kandi's neck and kissed her mercilessly as the girl giggled and squealed happily.

  I used the opportunity to throw an Illusion around myself and sneak out the door, grabbing a jumper and my slippers on the way.

  "I'll teach you to form an alliance with the Magician," I heard Tethys whisper right before I heard some rather... intimate sounds that need not concern us here.

  "Ooh," Kandi moaned, "I'm not sure I'm learning my lesson, perhaps you could try again?"

  I covered my ears, none of my business. I wished it were... but it wasn't.

  I returned to the kitchen to find my sisters still chuckling (and raiding my biscuit cupboard).

  "All... finished up there?" Palmyra asked with a smirk.

  "You know what, you live with a Succubus and let's see how well established your morning routine gets," I replied.

  Palmyra stuck out her tongue, which made her look ten years younger (and she maybe looked five minutes older than me to begin with).

  "Such witty repartee, do you do town hall meetings?" I asked.

  "I'll cry," Palmyra said with a theatrical sniff.

  Damn it. I couldn't beat that...

  "Why do I never win one?" I asked with a sigh.

  "That 'whipped' thing darts back to mind," Hopkins muttered.

  "Have some pity, I haven't had breakfast yet," I said (alright, whined).

  "Aww, poor baby," Palmyra said evilly.

  "There are Shadows under your clothes, you know," I said as menacingly as I could.

  "You meant that to sound threatening, right?" Palmyra asked, "Because it came out more as a proposition."

  I went bright red and muttered as I went rooting around for cereal.

  "It's nice that he still blushes, you'd think living with the Succubus would have broken him of that," Palmyra said in a stage-whisper.

  "I'm begging you, now..."

  Chapter 28

  Naturally Wednesday was a wash. My sisters started trying to teach me, but when one wasn't mocking me, the other would take up the slack and I learned nothing. It was a fun day, though. It was a shame that it had to end, but I had a 'date' with Maggie that evening. We were going to the opening of a new wing in the Waystone Museum of the Arts.

  Cassandra and I had taken a taxi as close as we could, but the traffic that night was bad, so we got out to walk the rest of the way. I was in a good mood after my day, happy to be seeing Maggie, and glad that the threats to my person seemed to be diminishing.

  We were walking across a moderately sized park, just to the east of the museum. It was just after nine, and the area was empty and quiet, lit only by a couple of street lights often hidden by trees or bushes. It had started to rain, and I put up a Will shield to keep us dry.

  Cassandra's phone rang and she picked up, nudging my arm to slow me down.

  "What?!" she snapped, "When?!"

  She had my
attention now, her posture was rigid and worried. Cassandra didn't generally look like that without a very good reason.

  "You'd better find them, and you'd better find them now, or so help me-" she said, still on the phone.

  "Yes."

  "No, we haven't seen them. Keep me updated."

  She hung up, scowling.

  "Dare I ask?"

  "The Warlock escaped. He took the Werebear with him."

  "How in the hell did that happen?!"

  "He gnawed off his own thumbs to get out of the manacles, waited until they came to get him for a meeting with his lawyer, and then... you can guess what happened."

  "His own thumbs?! Why didn't he just break them, like a normal person?!"

  "Because we ordered them kept tight. Breaking his thumbs wouldn't have done it."

  "Jesus," I said with a grimace, "When was this?"

  "Day before yesterday."

  "And we're only hearing about it now?!"

  "Bureaucracy," Cassandra commented with a shrug, "We should probably go home."

  "I don't think we need go that far. Those two are still relatively... relatively..."

  My speech slowed to a halt as I felt it, just off to my left. Getting closer.

  Black Magic. I was certain of it.

  Solomon?

  "Something's wrong," I said.

  Cassandra instantly armed herself, aiming where I was looking.

  I relaxed a little when Maggie appeared from an alley in that direction, moving towards us. That was odd, because we were supposed to meet her at the museum, but maybe she'd heard about the jailbreak, too, and wanted to make sure we were okay?

  In any event, I had to get her out of the line of fire, as whatever Black Magic was about, it was coming from the same direction she was.

  "Maggie, we've got trouble, I can feel Black Magic coming this... way?"

  Oh no...

  The night lit up with lightning, illuminating the park for a long moment, showing me the parts of Maggie that had been hidden in the dark. I hadn't been linked to my Shadows, so I hadn't seen.

  Maggie wore heavy black motorcycle leathers, pitted and torn as if by battle. She was carrying weapons, but many of them were broken or nicked. Her skin was corpse-pale, her eyes black from side to side.