“Oh yes,” Firian said. “Glad I decided to hop in and be player two.”
“If you say any more nerd things, you’ll be summarily ejected,” Harris said.
“Summarily ejected…,” Firian repeated. “I might do some ejecting of my own before you can get that far.”
I snorted. “I might summarily eject…both of you…if you don’t shut up…”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Harris said, shoving himself deeper into me.
“Are you going to let him talk to me like that?” I squeaked.
Firian took one of my wrists in his grip and pulled it above his shoulder, tugging me closer to him. “You don’t need to worry about me, Charlotte. See? I am capable of being selfish.”
Even when Firian talked naughty, there was still such affection in his every caress. My pleasure was everything to him. If my breath hitched or if I stiffened with pain, he would easily and immediately adjust until everything felt right. He balanced out Harris, who acted like he didn’t give much of a shit what I thought or felt.
Weird, how damn good it felt to be caught in the middle of that, how much I loved satisfying them both, feeling my self and all my stress melting away until all I could think about was the two stiff cocks that found a perfect rhythm inside me, the hands touching and caressing me anywhere they wanted, the nibbling and kissing.
Pretty soon Harris was covering my mouth while I screamed, my whole body rippling and shuddering. You know how orgasms are referred to as ‘The Big O’? Ha. The Big O is an anime. This was an Epic O. A Cosmic O. A Montage of 1950s Atomic Bomb Test Footage O.
Harris whispered in my ear. “Now you need a bath. I’m not sleeping with you when you’re this much of a mess.”
“And who made me such a mess?” I shot back. “Boys are the ones who are just like bleeeah, look at me, I’m gonna mark my territory!”
Firian turned into a fox and settled down on the bed. I’m staying out of this one, his eyes said.
“You don’t agree that you need a bath?” Harris said.
“You need a bath too. And you can protect me from the ghosts.” I grabbed his crumpled shirt.
“That’s mine,” he said. “I don’t have that many clothes here.”
“Well, I’m wearing it to bed when I get out,” I said. “Your clothes need more wrinkles.” I crumpled his shirt into a ball, held it between my boobs, and ran into the bathroom. Harris chased me down and tore the shirt out of my arms.
“Business shirt, return to me, into my arms where you’ll be free!” I cast a spell to whip the shirt back into my grip.
“Rhyming spells are for kids,” Harris said.
“Okay, well, feel free to get your shirt back with French or Latin. ‘I am Harr-ees, I do not know French, but I will speak like a weezard snob’—“
Harris swept me into his arms and turned on the faucet, which blasted out of the old fixture so hard I hoped it didn’t break. No worries about water pressure here, anyway.
“Hey!” I tried to struggle as he stepped into the tub and sat down. The sleeves and hem of the shirt hit the water gushing out of the faucet. I let go of it and it started to float around us.
He put his arms around me and kissed me.
Some nights, sleep is just overrated.
Chapter Fourteen
Alec
The fallout from Charlotte’s plan occurred the next afternoon. Mr. Coopman called Daisy and me to his office. I rubbed my eyes, praying this plan wasn’t crazy. Last night was hell. Every swish of Charlotte’s hair and flirtatious smile made me wild for her, but if I so much as put a hand on my dick I was greeted with pain like a hot poker. I didn’t want to tell anyone about it because if warlocks made bro comedy movies I’m pretty sure this would be the plot to one of them. Channing Tatum has a hilarious turn as the divorced incubus looking for new love with wedding cake baker Amy Poehler, until he accidentally curses himself with a burning dick spell.
It didn’t help that Daisy was wearing a tight, off-shoulder dress today that showed off her generous curves. My brain was just looking for anything it could work with.
I’d spent all morning working out in the gym here, trying to exhaust myself out of my desire, and it didn’t work, especially since girls kept coming in and smiling at me.
“Daisy,” I growled as we walked behind Mr. Coopman. “I’m not sure what this is about. Charlotte trusts you.”
“I’m not gonna betray my girl,” she said. “It’s just that no one has checked out my ass in weeks. Those vampires were just on about Lisbeth and you know not much is going on in this place. But I know you will.”
“So you’re just using me to give your ego a little boost.”
“I appreciate your sacrifice,” she said, giving me a wicked smile.
“Whoever does end up with you will have their hands full,” I said.
Mr. Coopman had gotten way ahead of us in the hall. He cleared his throat, opening his office door. “Please sit down.”
I wanted to think Mr. Coopman wasn’t a terrible guy, because he had a picture of his kids on his desk, and a nice array of succulents in the window. Not exactly the picture of evil. The council and the warlocks and witches who supported them definitely thought they were doing the right thing. That was how Father Bogdan got to me. He reminded me that I was a demon who could lose control and hurt someone.
And he’s right.
“So, I spoke to your father, and your grandmother,” Mr. Coopman said. “They have consented to this match.”
“Oh, really? That’s wonderful!” Daisy said.
“If Alec can prove himself worthy of control and be welcomed back to Etherium.”
“So you’re not going to do anything about this spell?” I was about the flip his fucking desk over. “How long will it take to prove myself?” I was going to last about three days before I lost my mind.
“Mr. Lyrman, you should be pretty grateful we’re even considering bringing your case before the Ethereal council. Do you know how rare that is?”
“How long?”
Daisy put a hand on my arm like, I got this. “To be honest with you, Mr. Coopman, look, you guys here have been running me ragged already, making me do a very stressful and lonely job. You know how thrilled my grandma would be if I’m pregnant? She’s been so worried that I’m the only heir. But a girl’s gotta have low stress levels to make that happen. I need someone to take care of me. I need a little incubus magic, you know what I’m saying?”
Flustered, Mr. Coopman said, “Well—Father Bogdan really stressed the importance of control, but I suppose…yes, I do understand.”
“Good,” Daisy said, with the snap of a VIP. “I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
In the end, Daisy was the one no one would want to piss off. Monty and I were from good families, but in the end, no one cared. Harris was a step above us, the only male heir to his family. But no one else in the magical world could do what Daisy did once her grandmother was gone.
“I’ll get you a remedy,” he assured us. “In the meantime, you will have a room together. I know nothing would make Mrs. Pendleton happier in her twilight years than a grandchild.”
“Exactly,” Daisy said. “Thank you.” She shook his hand.
As we walked out, she looked at me sideways. “You’re welcome.”
“I’m impressed,” I said. “I hope you and Charlotte stay friends. Between the both of you I think you can talk your way out of anything.”
“If only I could talk my way into something,” she said, nudging me. “I’m kidding. I don’t want to steal Charlotte’s boys. Plenty to go around, I guess. Although where they are, I don’t know…”
“Come on,” I said. “I’m just speaking objectively, but you’re one of the hottest witches around.”
“No one ever seems into me…”
“Maybe you intimidate them, at this age. You’re unapologetic. Most warlocks don’t know how to handle girls like that.”
“Nice try,” she sighe
d. “I know I don’t have a filter and drive everyone nuts. But seriously, Charlotte’s lucky. I don’t know how she puts up with Harris but I’d take the rest of you.” She smiled sadly. “But at least it should be easy for you to sneak out and go visit Charlotte. I’ll try not to be too weird, but I am going to ogle you. I heard you spent all morning in the gym just keeping yourself pretty.”
“I just have energy to burn,” I said, shrugging, like this morning hadn’t been total hell of lifting weights and trying not to imagine fucking Charlotte on an exercise bike, Charlotte on the yoga mats, Charlotte’s hot ass when I came to her in her dreams and gave her the full-on demon treatment…
I took a deep breath. I needed to get back to the room and trace my wand over the spells branded in my skin before I got too turned on.
We were trying to get back to the main common areas from Mr. Coopman’s office, but I was starting to think we had turned the wrong way. “This isn’t the right staircase, is it?” I said.
“I have no idea,” Daisy said. “If you ask me for directions you’re going to end up in the middle of a crime scene.”
I heard a low cry of pain somewhere.
“What was that?” Daisy asked. “Was it behind this door? One of these?” She paused. “We probably shouldn’t mess around with screaming in the towers of the Haven, huh?” Then she pressed an ear to the closest door.
“You aren’t very good at taking your own advice, are you?” I asked, and then I took out my wand.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “Are we doing a detective team thing? ‘Cause I’m down. Let me handle this. Seeking answers is my thing.” She lifted a hand and whispered to herself.
For a brief moment I saw the entire hallway gleam with different colors of lines that were almost, but not quite, invisible. A map of sorts. A magical map that traced the sources of everyone who walked the hall and cast spells here.
One door glowed yellow at the crack under the frame.
“There,” she said. “There is something strange behind that door.” She looked at me, tapping her chin with her wand.
“Oh, so you find the dangerous stuff and I have to open it?”
“You’re the big bad buff demon. Not moi.”
I tried the handle; locked, of course. I heard a man behind the door groan out, “Who’s there…?”
I heard footsteps in the distance and I knew we really shouldn’t be up here poking our noses in the upper offices of the staff, but I’d already been on the bad end of the council’s spells. I didn’t want some other poor bastard to suffer. I quickly cast a spell to break the lock, opened the door, and pulled Daisy inside.
“Oh—god!” Daisy clamped a hand over her mouth.
The sight that greeted us was not a pretty one, and certainly not what I expected.
“Orson?” I said, rushing to the unfortunate faery.
Poor bastard indeed. Orson was chained to the wall by one of the glowing magical chains they used on me, but worse, his skin was wrapped in iron bands that were burning his flesh and weakening him. The room smelled bad, stale and sour, terrible condition for domestic faeries who kept a spotless house. It looked like he had just gotten to his feet when he heard us, but the burly gruagach had clearly lost weight and strength, his skin turned a sickly shade while his hair and beard grew out unkempt.
Iron would kill a faery, eventually. In this case, it would go slow.
“You know him, Alec?” Daisy asked.
“He worked for Stuart,” I said.
“This is terrible! You look like you’re in a lot of pain. We need to get these bands off him. Iron’s poison to faeries!” Daisy grabbed one of the bands and tried to tug at it, which only made Orson hiss as the iron shifted on his skin, burning him in new places.
“Lass, you’re not making it any better. I can handle the pain; it’s Lord Stuart I’m afraid for. I’d rather be here, because it means that I haven’t given in to their demands.”
“Mmhmm, well, I have to say, stoic bullshit is one of my turn-ons, but it’s still stoic bullshit. They’re going to kill you.” She tried tapping the bands with her wand instead but an attempt to break the band only knocked back at her and threw her against the wall.
“So they captured you,” I said, helping her up.
“Aye,” Orson said. “They came for Lord Stuart and I stayed back to fight. At first I eluded them bodily, but they got a bit of my hair and so they were able to wound me from afar. Before long, they had weakened me enough to summon me and here I am. I hate to think my end is to be killed by warlocks, but better me than Stuart. If anyone is going to save Wyrd…well, he’s the better man for the job.” Orson huffed, trying to straighten out his dirty clothes. “I’m sorry I’m such a sight.”
Even in a weakened state, Orson was a large presence. His arms and legs were thick with large bone and muscle, his hair was thick and black as night, and his hands were three times the size of Daisy’s. I’m sure he got stares when Stuart sent him to the grocery store for food, because no human looked like Orson.
Daisy bit her lip. “Well, no wonder. So you’re a faery?”
“Just a low faery, mind. You were probably thinking a faery would be prettier, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, appraising him with her eyelids lowering, but I wasn’t sure she disliked him. She had placed her hand on his arm and suddenly she seemed aware of it, and how small her own hand was against his muscle. She drew it onto her lap, uncharacteristically shy.
“A lord of the gruagach,” he said. “We’re just domestic fae. Keepers of the cows. Even as a lord I don’t have any interest in ruling or court politics, none of my kin do. But I’m practical. Wyrd has become a weak and sickly land and the only way to save it is for a fine lord like Stuart to make alliances with young wizards like you two.” He was sweating. Talking through pain. I was starting to sweat myself out of sympathy, knowing I would be in pain myself if I dared to do what incubi do. Does Mr. Coopman have that antidote yet?
“I hardly know a thing about faeries,” Daisy mused. “I thought they were all cold.”
“Most of them are,” Orson said. “And if we gruagach aren’t, it’s because we spend more time among the beasts. What’s the point of being cold to a cow? They’re not impressed by formalities…” He swayed on his feet and nearly slumped to the ground before I offered him an arm.
“Just let me go,” he said. “I’ve got to lay me back down now. You’ll only get yourselves in trouble.”
“We can’t just leave you like this!”
“I appreciate your concern, lass. Not a damn thing you can do, though.”
The footsteps down the hall came closer and closer and it was obvious we were about to get caught. Daisy tugged me against the wall. “Concealment spell!” she whispered, and we both cast one together. I hoped it would be enough. Concealment spells worked better when you had brush or junk to blend in, and here we just had a few random bits of furniture. The room was pretty spartan.
Two guards walked in, one carrying food and water and the other ready with his wand. The guards at the Haven generally didn’t seem to be the best the magical world had to offer. I got the feeling they had to do some brutal stuff, so they all looked like the sort of men who could find enjoyment out of doing so.
“This is a faery?” the second guard said. “I thought y’all was supposed to be pretty.”
“He’s a cow faery,” the first one said, laughing. “That’s why he needs his milk.” He held the pitcher up to Orson’s face. The faery tried to back off, struggling against his weakness. I could tell that he still wasn’t used to how much the iron had drained his power away. He tried to move away and briefly collapsed.
“I don’t want your poison,” he said.
“Poison?”
“Yeah, he gets super dramatic when I try to give him the cheap stuff. He wants milk from happy cows like a hipster kid.” He tried to force Orson to drink and when Orson wouldn’t drink the milk, he kicked him and then dumped it on h
is head. “How do you like that? At least we’re feeding you.”
Beside me, Daisy trembled with rage.
“Do you know that he’s a lord of the faeries?” the first said mockingly. “But he was the butler to Stuart Jablonsky!”
“What the hell, man!” The second guy started almost giggling with amusement. “You’re a lord? That’s crazy.” He shook his head. “But those iron bands are going to kill him, though, aren’t they?”
“Eventually.”
“That’s brutal. So we come in here one day and he’s just dead?”
“Yeah, well…you get used to it.”
“I mean, I’ve seen people get killed before. My cousin got killed by a demon so I don’t care about a cow faery.”
The door opened again and a man in a suit looked in. “Have you boys been guarding him this whole time?”
“Yes, Mr. Robins.”
“I thought I saw you leave.”
“I went to get him some lunch but Jordan has been here the whole time.”
“All right. I hope so.”
The door shut and the guards immediately started complaining.
“Nobody comes up here anyway. We’re just here so this faery doesn’t die alone.”
“Well, it’s their money to waste.”
“Stinks in here.”
“Because you keep dumping milk on him, stupid.”
We needed to get out of here. Once they sat around bored for too long, our concealment spell would dissolve. Daisy was still trembling, looking like she might take a more aggressive approach any second. I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to convey that she should stay calm.
There had to be wards on this room to keep the faeries from rescuing Orson. “Daisy,” I whispered in her ear. “Can you cast a spell that will show us what wards are in place here?”
She nodded, mouthing a spell, and patterns lit up around us.
The guards looked up. “Hey, why are the wards showing like that?”
Battle of the Hexes: A Paranormal Academy Series (A Witch Among Warlocks Book 4) Page 9