Courts and Cabals 2

by G. S. D'Moore

  “It’s just the adrenaline talking,” I convinced myself. I’d been hyped up for days, and was about to face my next challenge.

  At last, the door opposite the one we entered opened up and three people entered; two women and a man. First off, I could tell the man was Fae. His glamour gave him an average height and build. He wore a tailored suit, nothing off the rack, but nothing too expensive. His brown hair was plain, as were his brown eyes. If the Fae was shooting for a forgetful face, he hit the nail on the head; except, there was no way anyone could ignore the power. It radiated off him. The new Fae mojo in me felt it, and knew instinctually he was a noble born of a powerful House.

  “Friend or foe?” was the only question I wanted answered.

  The man was on the right, and on the far left was a tall, mature woman. I didn’t say old, because calling a lady old was a good way to get slapped. Her hair was dyed blond, but I could see silver at the roots. Her face showed she’d lived a hard life; frown lines, laugh lines, and stress lines dominated high cheek bones and a proud nose that would be beautiful on a younger woman.

  She was dressed like a gypsy, or Romani if you wanted to be politically correct. Some type of mismatched fabric covered nearly every inch of her body, a scarf tied back her hair, and she wore enough rings, bracelets, and pendants to weight down an elephant. Despite the attempt to look like she belonged in a traveling circus, I could tell all the fabrics were of the highest quality material. I’d spent a lot of time shopping at Walmart, and she didn’t buy her shit retail. Her bling was also real, and I bet it ran nearly a quarter million dollars when all was said and done.

  “That pentagram is made of solid silver,” I zeroed in on the five-point star that was the human symbol for magic.

  Despite what some people might say, the pentagram wasn’t the mark of some devil or black magic cult. It was a very old symbol with lots of interpretations, but the most common one since the Revelation was that it referred to the five elements championed by elemental mages.

  “One Fae, one mage, so that makes her . . .” my thoughts devolved into gibberish when I finally paid attention to the woman in the center.

  She resembled the woman in the paintings in the tiled art gallery, but they didn’t do her justice. As I looked upon Lilith’s mother for the first time, I wasn’t sure what to think. From what people had told me in reverence, and also in fear, I expected some cross between Caligula and Attila the Hun . . . but a chick. She was above and beyond my expectations, but at the same time fell short. My brain continued to have an epileptic fit as I gazed on the leader of the Venetian Cabal.

  She was short, nearly half a foot shorter than her daughter. In the three-inch, red stilettos she strode in on, she was maybe five-five. Her hair was the color of warm, dark chocolate; somewhere between black and brown. She shared the same Mediterranean, sun-kissed skin as Lilith, but her face drew me in like a black hole. It was breathtakingly beautiful, even more so than Lilith; as much as my brain fought me on that point. Unlike my succubus, there was something more to her features, and it went way beyond natural maturity. It wasn’t just the sensual lips, the high cheekbones, the perfect feminine jaw, the long lashes, or the slight smirk that lifted her lips when she saw me staring. She had an element of other to her. It felt like a hug from her would brighten my day, and a kind word would lighten my spirits. It felt like I was home when her eyes locked with mine; and for an orphan, that complete acceptance made my heart soar.

  “Her eyes,” they rooted me to the floor like I was an ancient sycamore.

  Where Lilith’s eyes were sparkling emeralds, her mothers were rubies. Gleaming red stared into the depths of my soul and sought to bring out the best in me. It wasn’t the demonic, blood red of the dead and vanquished on the mosaic outside. It was the red you saw on candy boxes on Valentine’s Day. Warmth and love flooded me when she gazed into my soul

  I was so transfixed I didn’t even ogle her bangin’ bod. After all, she was a succubus, built for the pleasure of men, and full of preternatural strength, speed, toughness, and magic; but she was different than her daughter. Lilith was powerful curves that highlighted her otherworld attractiveness. Her mother was more feminine, sleek, and while she still had curves that left me a in a metaphysical puddle on the floor, her curves were less a feature than Lilith, Xamira, and definitely less than Dani.

  She wore a white blouse that toed the line between tight and loose, and a pair of black pants that stopped just above the ankle and highlighted the heels that matched her eyes. As far as sexy outfits went, it wasn’t one. This was business casual at its most basic, but somehow, she made it incredibly alluring. I’d take my chances with HR to hit on her . . . and then some.

  Then, there was her power. I thought the Fae guy had it, but she easily topped him. Again, like everything about her, she subverted expectations. She didn’t radiate power. She contained it. So, instead of feeling like I was getting pummeled by a constant shockwave, it was like staring into the heart of a star about to go super nova. If I stared too long, I’d burn up.

  I locked eyes with the leader of the cabal for maybe half a second, but it felt like an eternity. It left me winded, depleted, and sagging against Lilith. Don’t get me wrong; I was the hardest I’d ever been in my life, and I would give my left nut to fuck her hard in every hole before blowing an extra-strength load all over her titties. It was my deepest desire, but also the last thing on my mind. Miss Venitas fucked with my mind like that without even trying. She gave me a soul boner.

  “Enough, mother,” Lilith snapped, and I felt the supernova glare rescind to more manageable levels.

  “Forgive me, Cameron,” she gave me an apologetic smile that received my instant forgiveness. “I’m not usually in the company of people I have to regulate my abilities with.” She walked around the table, embraced me, and gave me two pecks on either cheek.

  I giggled, actually giggled like a little schoolgirl, when she pulled away. Lilith’s jaw tightened, and I felt bad about the way I was acting. The kiss between us felt light-years away, but I couldn’t help it. Thankfully, the Fae came to my rescue.

  “If that is your way of saying I’m immune to your charms, I’m greatly offended,” the man mocked being grievously wounded.

  Miss Venitas laughed, which didn’t do anything for my current state of mind, and I could already feel my boxers damp with precum.

  “Cameron Dupree, be known to Ser Lark Cottonclove, Seelie Fae, friend, ally . . .”

  “Occasional lover, and formerly of the Queen’s Court,” he finished as he closed the distance to shake my hand. It felt like grabbing hold of a solid, gnarled oak. Whoever Lark was, he was old with a capital O.

  “The Queen’s Court?” I tried to dig up what Miller had said about the Faerie Queen.

  “Queen Maeve,” the Fae’s voice was wistful, and he said the name with no small amount of love and adoration attached to it. “I was her right hand when we discovered the mortal realm . . . I mean this realm,” he quickly corrected himself. “I was the first emissary here, and promised a spot on The Nine for my good work. I should have been the Satyr Prince, but many felt I was corrupted by the humans, and my younger brother ascended instead of me. I was banished here, but I’ve made the best of my situation,” he explained like he was talking about ancient history.

  It took me a half-second to understand that he was. This definitely happened before humans started drawing stick figures on cave walls.

  “Don’t be coy, Lark, you were absolutely corrupted by this realm. Your dick led you astray more than once. You have no one to blame but yourself,” the mature woman replied as Lark moved aside. Despite the barb, the Fae just grinned.

  “Cameron Dupree, be known to Morgan le Fay. Where Mr. Cottonclove was elected to the board to handle the affairs of our members of former allegiance, Morgan represents our mages,” Miss Venitas had just dropped key information on the organization’s structure of the cabal, but I couldn’t get past the mage’s name.

&nb
sp; “No . . . can’t be . . . not possible . . .” I floundered, as the mage just stood there with her hand outstretched.

  Her dark eyes twinkled with mischief as I slowly extended my hand. If she was the Morgan le Fey, history did not speak kindly of her. As I grasped her hand, Lark chuckled.

  “You owe me twenty bucks,” he elbowed Miss Venitas playfully. With a mock glare, she coughed over the dough. I was still completely focused on Morgan.

  “I told my mother you are a little bit of a history buff, but she didn’t know if you’d notice the name?” Lilith supplied with a roll of her eyes. She clearly didn’t like her mother gambling with her First.

  “It’s Morgan fucking le Fey, how could I not know who she is?” I kept that to myself.

  “I’ve heard of you,” I answered diplomatically instead.

  “All lies and propaganda,” she claimed theatrically as she released my hand. “That old grump across the pond has had it out for me for centuries.”

  I had a feeling who the old grump was, but I couldn’t handle that right now. I started taking deep breaths in, and slowly exhaling. I was in the presence of some very famous, very strong magical beings. I was just human, maybe a tad extra; how could I mean anything to these people?

  “You’re going to be Lilith’s first,” Morgan continued, “so you better be ready to play in the big leagues. The old grump is indeed Merlin, and he’s been disguising himself as a middling mage in the EU for the last twenty-five years,” she dropped the bomb, and I felt Lilith adding her support to me by propping me up with her shoulder.

  “How?” I struggled to get out. “You’re mortal.”

  “As mortal as you . . . or as you were,” I felt a sudden breeze whip through the room – although not a single hair on my head was disturbed – as the sorceress of Arthurian legend gave me a penetrating look.

  “As you were,” she confirmed with a nod and a grin.

  I had no idea what the fuck she was talking about.

  “Anywho, it’s a simple matter of soul transference,” she offered, like she wasn’t divulging the holy grail of magical study: eternal life. “But don’t worry, the old wizard and I agreed on one thing long ago, and we locked away that specific magic. Only we can perform it, and if we’re killed, we’re just as dead as the next man or woman. We’re just very hard to kill,” the smile she gave me made my asshole pucker.

  “Stop scaring the kid,” Lark frowned at Morgan. “He might belong to my group.”

  “The group of misfit toys,” she shot back, in what seemed like an old argument.

  “Misfit toys, those banished and tossed aside by others,” he added, and I didn’t like to think he might include me in that group.

  “It makes sense,” my mind stubbornly agreed with him. I been tossed aside by my absentee father. I hadn’t been intentionally banished by my mother, but death achieved the same result. I was definitely a misfit, and without a clue what I really was. “Yep, I’ll be throwing my lot in with the would-be Satyr Prince.”

  “We value all members of our cabal,” Miss Venitas stepped in and ended the argument with a sharp look. “We have eight members on the board,” she explained to me. “I represent the ruling family, Morgan the mages, and Lark the members of former allegiance. You don’t know my grandson Jeremiah, but he wields the vote for the imps. You will meet Jennifer at some point, who represents our human interests. Victor lives and works out of Bangkok and controls the vampire vote, while Gustav shuttles between Vancouver and Seattle. He’s in a nasty political fight to remain the voice of the shifters. Last, but certainly not least, Via looks after the inactive or retired members.”

  “So; the succubus, an Arthurian witch, a Fae that was slated to be one of The Nine, an honest-to-gods dragon, an imp that has to be a total badass if he has the allegiance of people like Xamira, a vampire that probably makes Marcella look pathetic, a shifter who shares a name with the most famous Swedish king in history, and some chick named Jennifer,” I recapped everything I’d heard, and realized Lilith was completely supporting my weight at this point, while trying to look like she wasn’t holding me up.

  I breathed deep, found my center, and got my footing as Lilith and her mother shared a look.

  “My apologies,” Lilith said between gritted teeth. “Cam, be known to my mother, Venus Venitas; although everyone simply calls her Venus,” Lilith made the final introductions.

  “Miss Venitas to the common rabble,” Morgan added with an air of superiority, but I’d already met Venus’s ruby reds, and fallen under her spell.

  I wasn’t bespelled. She wasn’t a vampire elder, and I twitched my fingers to make sure I still had full control of my faculties. I did, but I still felt completely helpless under her gaze. She knew it, I knew it, Lilith knew it, and she dug her fingers into the pressure point inside my elbow to snap me out of it.

  “Ow . . . uh . . .” I realized everyone was waiting for me to say something. “Venus, like the planet,” was my brilliant response.

  Venus looked at me, and then barked a single laugh. I made sure to avert my eyes so she didn’t liquify me like a Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark with her smile.

  “Oh, honey,” I could feel the pity in her eyes; like a mother looking at her child trying to take its first steps and falling on its face. “I’m not named after the planet. The planet is named after me.”

  I was floored . . . literally. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in a chair with no memory of how I got there.

  “Venus, Roman goddess of love, sex, beauty, fertility . . .” that explained the whole Rome angle, but it led me down a rabbit hole. “Was she Aphrodite of Greece, Freyja of the Norse, or The Morrigan of Celtic mythology.” I had no idea how old she even was. “She could be Ishtar,” worshiped in the fertile crescent, “or Hathor, Bastet . . .” there were half a dozen Egyptian goddesses of love and other things.

  Thinking about it all gave me a pounding headache. “Oh, my gods, is Lark Pan?

  I looked behind me to find Lilith, but saw her face was completely neutral. From the moment I’d laid eyes on Venus, I was comparing her to her daughter. That wasn’t fair to my succubus, but in my defense, I only knew two of the species. Those comparisons had solidly placed Lilith second in all categories, and now I knew why. Lilith was someone I wanted to fuck. I wanted to fuck her long, I wanted to fuck her hard, and I would never want the fucking to end. Venus was not someone you wanted to fuck. Venus was someone you wanted to worship. That was the difference, and now I understood why Lilith was nervous to be here. She didn’t want to be seen as less than.

  “I think that’s enough for today,” Venus saw the toll this was taking on me. “Our schedule is pretty light until after the holiday season, so take the next two weeks to settle in. Peter may have some light training and introductions scheduled, but spend the time to make yourself at home. Unfortunately, you can’t leave the cabal-controlled areas at this time. There is a warrant out for your arrest, and if they see you here, they can apply for a search warrant and come take you. Without that probable cause, they won’t dare enter my home,” she gave me a comforting smile. “If it makes you feel any better; Lilith, Dani, and Xamira are in the same boat.”

  “I might be able to help with that,” Lark offered, but shut up when Venus made a swift motion with her hand.

  “Go, relax, Cameron, we’ll talk again soon,” she turned her back on me, and walked away.

  I was mesmerized by the motion of her ass. Each step made her hips roll, and shoulders sway, with an ease that Lilith just hadn’t mastered. With an audible huff, Lilith led me out of the room. Once we were outside, I felt her mother’s influence lessen, but Lilith also moved away from me. For a second, I thought she looked hurt, but then her expression shifted back to neutral.

  “I’ll show you too your room,” she started walking back toward the elevators.

  “Wondering what could go wrong now, Cam?” Dani whispered as she fell in step behind me.

  “Fuck. Yep, she’s pissed,”
I concluded. “What did she expect would happen when I met the Venus?” it was a stupid thing to get pissed about, but that didn’t stop me.

  By the time I got to my room I wasn’t in a talking mood. Seeing Fern there, safe and sound, didn’t even help. The cabal assured me I was safe as long as I didn’t leave, but now I felt cornered. Two weeks of this was going to wear me down, I knew that.

  “I’ll have to take Lark up on his offer,” I concluded, and just hoped it was enough to stay sane.

  Chapter 9

  Christmas morning. All over the world, children were heading downstairs to drink hot coco and open their presents under the tree. Some might have even gotten up a little early to sneak a peek while their parents were still asleep. It was a truly magical time of year, and all over the world, mages harnessed the power that came from the belief of the masses. I had no doubt Morgan was up to something. If I’d been asleep, I probably would have missed the slight tingling sensation that spread through my bones; but I wasn’t. I was wide awake.

  I don’t know what I was thinking. Actually, I knew exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking this would be like any other hotel and I would be able to sleep like a normal human being. Alas, I was at the center of succubus power. Literal sex gods and goddesses inhabited the rooms all around me. The sounds I heard last night sure as shit weren’t Santa’s reindeer stopping buy to drop off the big man. Not unless Santa was into different types of toys and butt stuff.

  “Enough already,” I groaned, rolled over, and slammed a pillow down on my head. Those kids who couldn’t sleep because they were so excited for Christmas morning got more sleep than me.

  I’d heard more than one exclamation to a higher power yelled in the last eight hours. That thought had a lot more context now. I was in the presence of gods. I’d spent my last few days of confinement in the penthouse floors researching just what that meant. My results were inconclusive. Gods, with a lower-case G, was an unclassified term the UN and WRA didn’t recognize or approve of. I could understand why. There were enough cults worshipping things before the Revelation. Now that people knew those ancient entities were legit, it could lead to all kinds of problems.