“It is apparent that they are your mates, even if you are from a different realm.”
“Mates?”
“No!”
Jolene and Xander’s comments nearly drowned the other out, and they turned to face one another like combatants in the field. Jolene, despite her small stature, resembled one of the avenging furies he recalled from the stories of his childhood. Xander looked desperate.
Sulieman interposed himself between them, giving Xander a look that froze him in his tracks, and put his back to his brother. He reached out again to his witch, and was gratified when she allowed him to rest his hands on her upper arms without burning him with her ire, given her again heightened state. He noticed Xander’s faintly blistered hand, had felt the burn with his brother, just as he had enjoyed the wealth of Jolene’s body, if vicariously, through the twin bond. He couldn’t wait for the real thing.
“There is a belief in our realm that if a witch, a gifted human, can see us for who we truly are, see past the spell, and connect with us, through a touch or, well, through more intimate contact, we can be mated. This will entwine with your magyk and make it more powerful.” He didn’t tell her that until they were mated she could really ruin their day if she so chose. Not even the two of them were a match for a witch, especially one who had just effectively spoiled them for every other female in any realm, whether Xander would admit to it or not.
Jolene pulled away from him, shaking her head, the loose weave of the spell lovingly surrounding her, supporting her, magyk to sympathetic magyk. Sulieman longed to take its place and fiercely envied Arion for his power. He cast a glance at the older Ipotane but saw nothing to indicate he was impossibly drawn to his and Xander’s mate. He would see her as attractive, but it was clear Jolene was marked for him and Xander.
“How much of this crap do you think I can take? I want to get Becky and go home. Maybe I’m not a witch, and even if I am something, I can’t handle thinking about it right now. Arion, please, I need to go.” Jolene’s voice trembled with strong emotions.
“She is not our mate.” Xander’s voice was dark, and Sulieman picked up on the tension and fear in his tone.
Jolene exploded again. “I’m not your anything, you prick! I’m not something to be used and tossed, and have you make excuses about doing me. I’m sorry your brother and his friend saw you with me and embarrassed you. Just chalk it up to a piece of tail and fuck off.”
Arion’s face creased with worry, and the weave of the spell pulsed in concert with Jolene’s assertion and hurt feelings. Xander’s features hardened at Jolene’s words, and he had the grace to look ashamed, which was a damn fine thing because Sulieman was going to kick the shit out of his brother the first chance he got. How could Xander humiliate this little woman? It wasn’t her fault she was a witch and human and not of their realm. She had no more choice than they did in this, and Xander was being an ass. He reached out to soothe her again, but she flung his hands away, turning to walk right through the walls of the covering spell. Arion’s eyes popped in shock, and he instantly began to break it down so they, too, could leave its shelter.
There was no one to be seen in the yard. Jolene, too, had vanished, and Xander pushed past Sulieman at a dead run, muttering about witches and human females and ass paddlings. Sulieman put a move on to catch up. They rounded the house, only to see the front door shut on Jolene’s petite form. Arion tackled them both, and the three of them rolled through the dust to wind up in a heap against the front wall of the building.
“Chiron curse you!” Xander shoved at Arion, who implacably pushed a holding spell at him. Sulieman stared at his brother and then at Arion, who was clearly waiting to see if he, too, needed restraint. Sulieman shook his head.
“We have no idea what waits behind that door, my friend,” Arion said softly. “And I suspect your little witch is more than capable of taking care of herself. We will look inside to be certain, and rescue both her and, er, Becky, if necessary, but let us keep our eye on the mission if you please. Xander?”
Xander’s eyes spit fury and retribution at Arion but signaled his acquiescence as well, and Arion released him.
Sulieman couldn’t resist. “I thought you weren’t interested in her, my brother. So why the concern for her well-being? They would only fuck her and pleasure her senseless.”
“This is not the time, Sulie,” Xander snarled. “We will talk about the female later.”
Sulieman contented himself with a knowing smirk, managing not to put his foot right up Xander’s ass. They moved quietly along the house, looking in each window, relying on Arion’s magyk to shield them from being spotted.
Chapter Nine
Terry raised his eyebrows at her in a parody of his expression of the night before. Jolene somehow smiled back, even if it meant ignoring his incredible eyes and crinkled, silky-looking hair that just begged for a stroke, the horns that would make little handles if one were to…she caught her erotic musings in midthought and easily shut them down and went back to pretending things were just ducky. It was certainly true Caprines had immense sexual pull, although she was simply able to flirt with it, not like what she felt from Xander and Sulieman. Crap, there they were again, front and center in her libido, and she needed to keep her cool. She hoped that she didn’t look as disheveled as she felt, or as grubby. All that rolling around in the dirt, doing the horizontal bop, had to have left its mark, but she powered past it, and Terry didn’t seem to notice anything untoward. She suspected she smelled like sex and Xander as well and wondered if goats had a good sense of smell. Of course they did, so Terry was just being polite. This was so embarrassing and awkward. She found if she looked at Terry wide-eyed, he looked totally human again, and prayed that her eyeballs wouldn’t dry up and pop out of her head with her efforts. She kept her head high and pretended she looked like a friend who had come to pick up Becky and drive her home. No threat to anyone.
“Sorry to come by so early, Terry, but I wondered if Becky might want a ride. I have practice today and thought she might want her car.”
“Jolene?” Becky’s surprised voice from the doorway interrupted whatever Terry was about to say. “Oh, Jolene, you are such a worry wart. I know you had to come and make sure I was okay. I’m sorry I was a bitch last night. I have such a headache this morning!”
Becky was clearly back to her old, sweet, garrulous self, even if she was wearing nothing more than a plaid comforter wrapped around her body toga style.
“C’mon while I get dressed.” Becky turned to head back down the hallway, tossing back a request to Terry. “Terry, sweetie? Could I have some coffee?”
Jolene mutely followed her friend, and Terry’s mumbled agreement filled the silence behind her. Becky wandered into the bedroom Jolene spied upon maybe an hour ago and began to pick up pieces of her clothing. Jolene retreated to a chair and stared at her fingernails while Becky got dressed. The love marks all over Becky’s white skin were hard to miss, and Jolene felt like a voyeur.
“I’ll be back in a second, Jo. The bathroom’s just down the hall.”
Jolene nodded and then stood to look around a little. The place seemed to be just like many other houses, if out in the boonies. Her reflection in the dresser mirror snagged her attention and arrested her movements. She looked amazing. Her hair was smooth and in place, caught up on her head, her makeup pristine, and her clothes clean and unrumpled, if the same ones she had worn the night before. She touched the mirror in wonder and gasped when it rippled back at her. She was doing this. She was projecting an image of someone who hadn’t been out half the night screwing a half horse then looking for her friend before being bowled over by the half horse’s twin brother. Her stomach knotted, and she breathed deeply. She didn’t know how this worked, but she figured she had to stay calm in order to keep everyone from becoming suspicious. A slight movement at the window caught her eye, and she pushed her fist into her mouth to muffle a scream.
Arion’s handsome
, wise face looked back at her, and he smiled. Two identical faces rose on either side of his, one looking fierce, the other, sweet. Not a big stretch to tell who was who! Jolene turned her back on them just as Becky returned. She looked better, her face washed and hair brushed, although her face flushed when her eyes fell on the bed.
“Let’s go have coffee, Jolene. Terry is such a wonderful guy. You should have come with us. Giles is fun, too.”
Jolene looked searchingly at her friend, who blushed harder and looked shocked. “That came out wrong. He lives here with Terry and a couple of other guys, and he’s just nice, is all. Although if Terry doesn’t work out, I might want to date him. Besides, don’t be judgmental.”
Jolene finally found her voice. “Is this a longer term thing, Becky? I mean, you don’t really know Terry.”
Becky’s face was now red with annoyance. “I know him well enough after last night, Jolene. Well enough that it makes me feel I’m going to stay with him for a while. Now, I’m having coffee before we go. I know you have to get to dance by ten, so let’s get to the kitchen.”
Terry and Giles were waiting at the big table in the eat-in kitchen, and there were four other men there. Terry introduced them, and Peter, Joel, Mitchell, and Edgar nodded to her, all the while visibly undressing her with their eyes. All of them were goat men, and they fairly exuded sexual heat and intent. It was freaking insane that someone with half a goat’s body and eyes could be so attractive, when one looked past their sexy human form, and Jolene longed to run screaming out the door until she found the car and drove until she couldn’t drive any longer. Instead, she kept the Betty Boop look on her face until she could stare into her coffee without giving offense. If she didn’t keep up her end of the scintillating conversation, well, those were the breaks. She didn’t need to make eye contact to feel the increasing sexual tension permeating the room, and she knew that the goat men were chomping at the bit to have at both her and Becky. Or would that be horse men who chomped at bits and goats chomped at something else? Either way, her magic, for she had conceded it was indeed magic, was shielding against them somehow, dampening their ardor and keeping them at bay. It was tiring. Jolene gulped her coffee and looked impatiently at Becky, trying to mutely encourage her friend to drink up and get out of Dodge. However, Becky seemed oblivious, gazing at Terry as though he was creation’s gift to women and seeming puzzled that he wasn’t responding. Jolene could see the appeal, even if Xander and Sulieman appealed to her far, far more. She shut that thought down and counted the grounds in the bottom of her cup.
After an eternity, she and Becky were able to take their leave. Terry managed to get a kiss at the door, and Becky promised to go out with him again that very night. Jolene wanted to groan out loud. Maybe there was time to learn a spell to wipe her friend’s brain clean, and they could take a short vacation and Terry and his friends could move onto greener pastures. What was it about the state of California that attracted crazies? And Sacramento was some distance from Los Angeles, far enough away she had hoped it immune to some of the influence!
She stumbled a little in shock when they emerged from the house. She’d forgotten the car had been parked at least a half-mile or more away, but someone pulled it up into the driveway. Jolene didn’t speculate as to who that someone was. She simply fell into the passenger seat and ignored Becky’s whine about being too tired to drive. She didn’t know the extent of Becky’s sexual adventures the previous evening, but hers had been one for the record book and were never going to be repeated. If her stomach clenched and her heart hurt at the thought, it was because she was hungry and experiencing acid reflux.
Becky chattered incessantly the entire, extremely slow drive home, but aside from giving directions, Jolene didn’t respond. It was Terry this, and Terry that, and how wonderful and caring and hot he was. She didn’t dare wish for Becky to shut up or drive faster either, considering she had apparently made the earth open up the last time she got emotional, or so Arion intimated. Her life was turned upside down, and all she would allow herself to think about was getting to practice, the one normal thing she could focus on. Becky dropped her off at the end of the block, rather than go around the one-way street, and Jolene used the opportunity to check to see if anyone followed them, ducking through the green grocers and out the back door to make her way into her building without incident. Of course, that all changed the instant she entered her apartment.
Chapter Ten
Arion and Sulieman sat at her kitchen table. Xander lounged against the far wall by the fridge. She could see only their human forms and wondered if that was better or worse. It was probably her mind protecting itself with the familiar. She again successfully pushed away the urge to scream and run right back out the door. Her thought pattern was becoming that of screaming and running, and it was highly irritating. Instead, she walked through the room and down the little hallway, entering the bathroom and slamming the door shut, refusing to make eye contact with any of them. She threw the lock and leaned against the wooden panels before her legs gave out and she slid down the painted wood to the floor.
“Jolene?” It was Sulieman. Already she recognized the difference between the twins, and she knew intuitively Sulieman would be harder to resist in her present state of mind. He would sweet talk her and appeal to her feminine side. She crawled to the tub and turned on the water until she couldn’t hear anything over the roar as it cascaded into the porcelain-covered iron vessel. It took much of her remaining energy to pull her clothes off, and she left them where they fell. She vaguely noticed it was Xander’s T-shirt on the floor. She realized that while she’d used magic or conjured the clothing she’d worn the whole time in Terry’s kitchen and on the drive home with Becky, there was obviously no further need for it. If she wasn’t so freaking exhausted, she might have been able to marvel at how well she adapted and used her newfound power.
She managed to roll over the furled edge of the tub and into the hot, steaming water. It engulfed her like a lover. Jolene shoved that suggestive thought right out of her head and let herself float, the barnyard dirt and other bodily fluids soaking from her body, and with them some of the residual soreness.
She tentatively felt between her thighs and winced a little. Boy howdy. She hadn’t had sex in a very long time, and Xander was really well-endowed, not to mention her own vigorous efforts under that bedroom window. She had let him take her with no protection, taken his word for being sterile or whatever, free of disease. God. She could hardly think about that. She might have magic powers, but STDs were probably resistant. Stupid. She would make a doctor’s appointment immediately after the one with the psychiatrist. Right. Like she wanted to be admitted to the psych ward. She had to get cleaned up and changed, then get to practice without interference from those studs in her kitchen, even if she had to go down the fire escape to do so.
Jolene sighed and slipped beneath the water to wet her hair. She surfaced and reached for the shampoo, only to find a large hand picking it up. Water sloshed as she instinctively covered her breasts by folding her arm across her chest, the other hand going to shield her pussy.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Shh, Jolene, please. Let me take care of you. We need to talk, and I would beg your pardon.”
Jolene looked past Xander to the door, but it was closed tightly against Arion and Sulieman. She narrowed her eyes, and he waited patiently for her to respond.
“I don’t need you to take care of me. You’ve made yourself clear, more than once. I don’t care to hear you beg. Go away.”
Xander looked extremely irritated for a moment, and then visibly contained himself. He popped open the top of the shampoo container, dumping a considerable amount into his hands and reached to push his fingers through the wet strands of her hair. Jolene made to pull away, but he held her steady simply by dint of tightening his hold on her locks, the little sting making her hiss. Xander worked his strong fingers on her scalp, and almost against he
r will Jolene felt herself relaxing back into his touch. The thing inside her accepted him, too. He had already seen all of her, so there was no need for false modesty, and she was bone tired. She just couldn’t resist anymore. His hands drifted to her neck and shoulders and the steady, deep, massaging movements erased much of the tension and aches and pains still lingering there.
Jolene ducked down to rinse at his mute urging and enjoyed him washing her hair a second time, not objecting when he helped her to stand and turned on the handheld showerhead. He pulled the plug to let the tub water swirl down the drain, and she stood quietly as he rinsed her hair and arched into his questing hands as he soaped her body. Her arousal built, but her brain reminded her that while Xander obviously wanted her sexually, he had no use for her otherwise. Oh, and she had information he needed, too. How could she have been so weak and so stupid? Where was her power when she needed it? She pulled away and grabbed the wand from him, rinsing quickly and then shutting the water off. He backed up, his face startled. Jolene stepped from the tub and reached for a towel.
Xander beat her to it and made to wrap her up. She snatched it from his grasp and did the honors herself, stalking to the door as she swirled the fabric around her. Xander reached past her to place his hand against the door, just above her head, effectively keeping her from opening it.
“Jolene.”
“Move the hand or lose it, buddy.” Jolene made certain he heard every measure of deadly intent in her voice, and his hand dropped away. She pulled the door open and went straight into her bedroom. She didn’t bother with the lock. It hadn’t stopped him before. Tears stung her eyes as she fumbled in her dresser for fresh underwear and a leotard, grabbing an oversized button-up shirt to wear over it. She was going to get dressed, braid her hair, and use a little makeup to cover the excesses of the previous night. Then she was going to have something light to eat and go dance. If those horse men tried to stop her, she was going to do something quite drastic, like wish them out her second-story living room window.
Riding Magyk Page 6