by D. R. Rosier
“Did the coke insult you in some way?” she asked in a playful tone, as she sat on the lawn chair recliner sideways, facing the mage.
Samantha looked over and grinned, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“It isn’t a beer.”
She chuckled, “That bad? Want to talk about it?”
Samantha shook her head, but Julia simply waited, knowing better.
The mage said, “I suppose you can smell it? Might as well ask. How do you deal with it? I feel out of control. I’ve never felt this strongly about… wanting a man before.”
She tilted her head, “Passion? Need, the need to… submit to a man’s pleasure and the needs of your body? The need to feel him take you, and to give him everything while you drown in the pleasure of the joining. I suppose I might know something about that.”
She scented a powerful surge of lust from Samantha at her provoking words.
She shrugged, “Most of the supernatural community calls us genetic sluts, but the truth is we can be choosy, which is the opposite of slutty. What we feel isn’t really all that much different than what all women feel although to a lesser extent. It’s normal what you’re feeling, and it’s okay to give up control and surrender to those desires when you find the man that can… evoke that in you.”
Samantha nodded, “I get that. It’s just… all too much. New job, new friends, and the possibility of a new lover and man better than I’d ever met before? It’s also all tied together, three very major changes in my life all connected to the same four people. I think I just need time to figure it out.”
She tilted her head, “Jealousy isn’t an issue?”
Samantha smirked, “Nope. That’s one problem I don’t have. I’m actually a little… intrigued by that part of things.”
She smiled widely, “Let me know if I can help.”
She thought the mage was sexy, and kind of adorable. She was also enjoying trying to seduce the woman into their bed, it made her feel a bit naughty. She’d never considered bedding a mage before, male or female. It wasn’t just her desire either. She knew Andrew wanted the mage as well, along with Lilith and Katia. There was something about the mage that was very attractive, a lot of subtle things that added up to an attractive graceful sexy package, including the woman’s obvious intelligence. Although she knew she was graceful as well, it was in a different way. When she walked, it was with the grace of a predator, Samantha’s grace was different, more floating than flowing, and it attracted her eye. She also seemed like a good fit with the rest of them, both in personality and power.
Still, it wouldn’t do to rush her or push her too hard, she’d back off and let Samantha process. She’d rather have her skills and friendship available to Andrew, than push her away and lose it all. She also figured Andrew could seduce her just fine without everyone else helping.
She sat back in the chair normally, twisting her body ninety degrees and laying back, as she scented the others coming. She almost giggled when she scented Gina all over Andrew and Katia, and vice versa of course, as they carried a large tray of barbequed chicken, steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. There was some potato salad on there as well. Whatever happened with Samantha, she was sure it would work out, either way. Honestly, it wasn’t any of her business, except that it would make Andrew happy, and she liked the mage too.
“Food smells good,” she commented, rather hungry after her morning hijinks.
She, Lilith, Katia, Gina, Andrew, and Samantha relaxed, as they dug into the food…
Chapter Twenty-One
Study and training the next morning started out a little awkwardly, it was the first time we were alone since… the incident. Every time I looked up into her beautiful piercing green eyes, it reminded me of the moment I’d felt the surge of lust and excitement meeting those eyes yesterday, which had pushed me over the edge hard, and I’d exploded and started to fill Gina’s sex with my essence.
I didn’t know if that made me an exhibitionist, or if it was just because it was her.
Samantha was very attractive to me, more so the longer I knew her, and I could see the same want in her eyes as well. But… as the morning progressed, her passion for magic and perfection in magic, had wiped away most of that awkwardness as she both taught me new spells and techniques.
I could now cast a spell, and freeze it in that split second between speaking the final word, and before the magic rushed out of me. Of course, all twenty of my thought threads, five in each of the four secondary partitions, were full already from all the spells I usually casted, and the three protection spells around Katia. I didn’t even have an empty thread for a demon anymore.
Still, I could do four more things with my primary mind besides hold the partition spell, so I’d been able to practice freezing the spells, if not passing them to another partition, which should be the easy part. In a way having her for a teacher was both less and more frustrating than studying alone. I no longer had to chase down esoteric descriptions by diving in several different books and wasting time, she seemed to know everything and had no trouble explaining the strange terms in ways I clearly understood, but she was an intelligent and demanding woman when it came to her passion for magic. I didn’t dare be sloppy, or waste magic. I didn’t mind, it meant I’d be even stronger and more capable in the long run.
It was also over forty-eight hours since I’d left the partition spell active, and I admitted to myself grudgingly that I was getting used to the cluttered feeling of it in my mind. It was starting to feel normal, and not stressful at all. A lot of information still, but it felt ordered instead of cluttered. In fact, I already didn’t have any trouble focusing on my spells and my teacher’s words despite it. If anything, Samantha herself was a bigger distraction from the learning than my mind being full of twenty-one spells was. She had the kind of sexy voice I could listen to all day long.
She said, “We should start doing practice duels every day. Technically, one mage should never be able to beat you one on one, since you have an unlimited pool of magic through your connection to Lilith, one mage will never be able to outlast you in power. My magic pool is probably ten times yours, but I can’t pull magic constantly from the air, it slowly replenishes as I absorb it.
“That doesn’t mean a mage can’t win though, which is why we need to practice. If they hit you with a nasty counter spell your magic could wind up attacking and overwhelming your own mind, or if they hit you hard enough to overcome a shield before you can reinforce it.
“You should practice to ensure you don’t make either of those mistakes, either holding an offensive spell too long, or misjudging the magic you feed to a shield to keep it running. Anyway, that’s a warlock’s largest advantage, but your inexperience is offsetting that advantage now, and we should work on it.”
I nodded, “Sounds good, how about every afternoon, right after lunch.”
She grinned, “To offset the food coma? I always have trouble studying right after eating too.”
I returned her wide smile, “Exactly. It will also leave you time in the afternoon to critique my performance and teach me how to fix it. So, what’s my greatest weakness then?”
She tilted her head thoughtfully before she answered, “Warlock’s are a lone power. Mages can circle, combine their power, and hit you ten, twenty, or even a hundred times harder to breach your shields. You can draw unlimited power, but the rate is limited, for combining mages the rate is not limited. Having Julia and Lilith can and does offset that weakness to an extent, and I suppose me as well since I work for you. Still, that’s your biggest weakness, all your enemies will be able to bury you in numbers, if you let them.”
“Yeah, a hundred mages in a circle trying to kill me would call for a strategic withdrawal, otherwise known as running the fuck away.”
She snickered, “That would be wise. You’d have similar issues against that many shifters or vampires, you could kill many without impunity, but the rest would eventually overwhelm you with impact shock, get y
ou to drop your shield form lack of concentration, and…” she trailed off meaningfully.
I opened my mouth to agree, but her phone rang.
She pulled it out and answered. After a moment, she put it on speakerphone.
“You’re on speaker Carlos, and he’s here with me now.”
“Mr. Moore, this is high councilor Carlos Antoine.”
I said, “You can call me Andrew.”
He cleared his throat, “Very good, and you must call me Carlos. I feel we’ve found ourselves at odds, and that maybe we shouldn’t have, but we can’t change the past. I’d like to speak with you about working out some kind of compromise and agreement between us, before the situation devolves further and turns to violence.”
“I’m open to that possibility, I never wanted trouble with the mages in Seattle. Our… interests don’t really coincide anyway, I’m more interested in the human population than my fellow supernatural races.”
He said, “That is good to hear. You would be welcome to come in to talk to our council at a time of your choosing?”
I already knew that was a bad idea, going into their center of power would be foolish, but Samantha shook her head violently, with an alarmed look on her face, which further verified to me just how bad an idea it would be.
I replied carefully, “Perhaps councilor, we should meet at a more neutral site? Perhaps for lunch?”
Carlos replied, “Lunch is no good, prior commitments. Dinner?” and he rattled off the name of a restaurant.
Samantha made a face, but nodded. I translated that to, don’t trust his ass, but it’s the best offer you’ll get.
I said cheerfully, “I’d be delighted. What time?”
Carlos replied in an easy tone, “Does seven work for you?”
“It does. I’ll see you then.”
Carlos asked, “Great, how many guests?”
I raised an eyebrow, and Samantha thought for just a moment, and then nodded her head firmly.
“Myself plus three.”
Carlos said, “Excellent, until tonight,” and the call was disconnected.
After a short pause, I asked, “So what can we expect.”
Samantha shrugged, “I’m not sure if I’m the greatest judge. They… betrayed me, and what I thought they stood for, I wouldn’t trust a word they said. Most likely, Carlos will have two other councilors with him, at least two investigators, and quite possibly some quick and dirty wards along with several other mages.”
I asked, “Quick and dirty?”
Samantha nodded, “It took many decades to make the wards so formidable around the council chambers, remember mages are limited to their pool of magic and a much slower absorption rate, so we don’t like expending it all and feeling helpless. You could put up a ward and charge it all afternoon, constantly through Lilith, and still be at full power. For us, we have to build up a wards power slowly over time, spending our magic carefully to do it. I’m not saying it won’t be dangerous, but the wards will be quite a bit weaker than the ones in the council chambers. I also have a few tricks up my sleeve, I can… handle the wards if they attack us.”
I asked, “Are you sure you want to do this? You’ll be placing yourself in an awkward position.”
She frowned and shook her head, “They betrayed me, and pushed me out. I will protect you by the pact I agreed to, and my conscience will be clear.”
I smiled, “Glad to have you along, let’s track down Lilith and Julia and eat lunch early, we need to make a plan.”
We stood up, and left the study and headed down to the kitchen…
We all sat around the kitchen table eating steak that was left over from the barbeque, along with homemade wedge fries and soft rolls. It was fantastic, and I’d cleared my plate.
I said, “I’m hoping we actually talk, and all part good friends tonight, but chances are this is a setup.”
Lilith agreed, “They’re probably frustrated, because of Julia’s ability to get us around they probably haven’t found a way to truly ambush us, and are afraid to attack us here or at the shifter pride house.”
“Exactly,” I continued, “So the first part of the plan will be to run. We’ll go in, play nice and hope we don’t get betrayed, while we also assess the threats against us. Three councilors, the strength of the wards, how many security mages and investigators. No matter what we discover, if we’re attacked, Julia will teleport us out to the closest alleyway. Once we’re in the alley, and have all those other details on what we face, we decide how to proceed, either ambush them right back, or head home.”
Julia said, “What if they block teleportation, can they even do something that? I mean, if they’re aware of my power to do that, won’t they try to neutralize it?”
Lilith shook her head, “When you teleport you actually skip out of this plane, and without access to infernal magic and putting us all in a warlock’s summoning circle, they can’t block it. When we leave the restaurant, we won’t go through their wards, but around them. Most likely though, they’ll strike you first, and as hard as they can. You’ll be the biggest danger to them, both in the damage you can cause, and because you can help everyone escape.”
Samantha said, “I can keep the wards off her, off of all of us, and Andrew shouldn’t have any trouble blocking an assault from the mages for the split second it will take Julia to get us out of there,” she looked at Julia, “Just don’t hesitate at all when the time comes.”
Julia sighed, “I won’t hesitate, but I don’t like it.”
I took her hand, “It’s a calculated risk. If it’s a trap, then what? Even if we just run, we’ll have to start taking more serious steps. I don’t want a war with the mages, but I’m not going to cower in my home behind my wards either.”
Lilith said, “I can go back in, if you want. They’ll have attacked me, which frees me to make a statement. But if I do I want you to do exactly that, hide behind the wards until you can summon me tomorrow night.”
I frowned, “Maybe, we’ll decide when we see exactly what we’re up against. Even if Samantha can neutralize the wards, we may be far too outnumbered to go back in. If that’s the case, we can set up an ambush outside the restaurant. Julia can knock a few into the cement, for me to finish off with a spell when their mind loses a hold on their magic. We can speculate all night, we’ll decide when we know for sure what we’re facing. Either way, we let them attack first, and Julia takes us out of there on the shadow express.”
Julia snickered.
Lilith sighed, “You’re not going to let me play are you.”
I laughed, “Maybe, I’m not thrilled with the idea of you dying, even if it is temporary.”
Lilith leaned over the table, and pulled me into a kiss.
“That’s sweet, but really, I’d quite enjoy it if they were stupid enough to attack me.”
I just nodded, “So what next?”
Samantha smirked, “You’re first mage duel of course, lunch is over.”
I sighed, she looked entirely too excited about this practice duel idea…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lilith, Julia, Samantha, and I stood across the street from the small Italian restaurant. It looked like a cozy place, it was a family type business and not a chain. I could feel the wards with my magic, and as Samantha had said they didn’t feel all that complicated or overwhelmingly powerful, but they were strong enough, and I couldn’t feel anything past them. My detection magic was blocked by the wards, so we couldn’t know what we were facing until we were already inside the place.
That was nothing we hadn’t expected, the plan was to take measure of the threats after we went in, and to flee at the first sign of attack for this very reason. I’ll admit I was a little nervous, I was walking in there with three powerful beings, and new at this or not, I wasn’t a slouch. I had gotten my ass kicked in the practice duels, but I’d be okay if I stuck to defense, for the second or so it took for Julia to get us out of there. I’d done okay defending in practice, afte
r a while, it had just been when I attacked that things seemed to go very wrong.
“We ready?”
Positive thoughts, or at least, I tried. I was so sure this was a setup, that I wasn’t sure why I was even going. Except, it would justify self-defense, wouldn’t it? I didn’t want a war, I wanted to be left alone, but I couldn’t let them hunt me either. I’d grown up human, the supernatural world was a very violent place to me, shockingly so at times. But… even when I’d thought I was a human I believed in self-defense, if they tried to kill me, under a pretense of a meeting to make peace, I had no compunctions about trying to kill them right back. Especially since Katia and Julia would be in constant danger, Samantha too, to a lesser extent.
I’d tried hiding to build up a competency with magic, and I’d tried to be reasonable with Joseph and that hadn’t worked. If it didn’t work with the mages, I wouldn’t regret the outcome if they needed killing. I knew this world would always be dangerous, but it seemed reasonable to me to be able to step outside without worrying about an attack all the time, or even just taking Katia on a date. Hiding in my home was no way to live.
Julia put a hand on my arm, “Let’s go.”
I took silence from the rest as assent, and we moved across the street and in through the door. Julia led at her insistence, then me, followed by Lilith and Samantha. I was a little tensed up, and I half expected an immediate attack as soon as we stepped over the threshold.
The dining area was cozy, not quite romantic, but the room had a warmth to it. There were about fifteen tables of various sizes with seating between two and six. In the back, there were two six seat tables pulled together, with five people all sitting on one side of it. I assumed they were our hosts, and my magic verified it. I also couldn’t help but notice sitting there would put our backs to everyone else in the room, it made me itch between my shoulder blades and we weren’t even sitting yet.