Sorcerous Flame (Harem of Sorcery Book 2)

by Lana Ames

“Well, Javier’s room is one of the largest…” I started. I felt strangely reluctant to share my own room; I liked the idea of having a private retreat. The whole four-boyfriends thing was surprisingly easy right now; what would it be like when the novelty wore off and my introvert nature reasserted itself?

  “What about the study across the hall from your room, Grace?” Emma asked. “No one’s using that.”

  “Study?”

  Turned out our little corner of the building housed six rooms (plus three bathrooms). I hadn’t even noticed the doorway across the hall from my bedroom, but there it was, leading into a little library-space: bookcases lined the walls, and there were three cozy reading chairs, one under the window and two in front of a nice fireplace. On the other side of the room was a gaming table set up for chess; a Chesterfield sofa completed the arrangement.

  “Perfect!” I said, standing in the doorway, my men behind me peering over my shoulder. “Grab a few more chairs, guys. We’ll have breakfast in here.”

  They jumped to do my bidding.

  “I suppose I could get used to this,” I said to Emma.

  She smiled at me, that cat-got-the-canary smile that was her trademark. “I suspected as much.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Over breakfast, Emma talked to us of the challenges that lay ahead.

  “You’re stronger already than my cohort and I are,” she said. “And that’s great—it’s not a competition. We’re all in this together, and the more power we can bring to bear in this house, the safer we will all be.”

  “How are we going to truly defeat the demon?” I asked.

  Emma frowned, dabbing a few last croissant crumbs off her plate with a fingertip. “Well, as I mentioned, the lady is out seeking a candidate to form another cohort. I only hope that she can find a better way to bring her on board than either you or I had to deal with.” She gave me an apologetic smile. “This is hard stuff to wrap your brain around, especially since we have to rush through it.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “But do we need another cohort? Isn’t there something we could do right now? Because women with magic are hard to find, right?”

  “I believe the theory is the same as in building the cohorts themselves: the power of five,” Emma said. “We will be strongest and most stable with five cohorts, of five people each.”

  “There’s already four?” I asked. I remembered the ‘sausage party’ from yesterday, with the lady’s men laid out on their cots, and the cohort that was supposed to be mine attending to them. Then there was Emma’s, and my actual one.

  “Yes. There was already one in the house when I established mine. Though they rather keep to themselves.” She said this dryly; it was clearly a sore spot. “The lady keeps promising that we will all work more closely together, but so far, she’s running from crisis to crisis. Which keep getting worse, even though she assures me she’s got it handled.”

  “How much danger are we all in?” I asked. Mundon’s attack in the middle of the night…it had been bad. I’d never felt such pain in all my life.

  “A lot, I’m afraid.” Emma looked grim. “When we had coffee on Monday, I…didn’t get a chance to tell you the whole story.” Because I walked out, I thought, now rueful. “Lady Periwinkle is connected to this demon in ways even I don’t understand fully. She made a deal with it, er, a long time ago, and whether or not that was a good idea at the time, it’s turning out to be a very bad thing right now.”

  “I would imagine so,” I said. I didn’t mean to sound wry, but Jorge gave a soft laugh.

  Emma nodded. “Like she told us,” she said, filling my men in, “she made the deal for herself, in exchange for long life and some powers—I don’t even understand the full extent of them, but they are considerable. Well, the demon has decided that now is the time to call in his side of the bargain—and he’s twisted the agreement considerably, so she just can’t.” She gave us all a helpless look. “If she gives in to him, he’ll kill not only her, but the rest of us as well. Not only that, but she now believes that this will empower him enough to open a channel to the human world.”

  “Meaning…what?” I asked, though I feared I knew.

  “Meaning demons could come through and take over our world. Humankind as we know it could come to an end.”

  “Oh.” An appalled silence fell over the room. I looked around at my men, who had been following the conversation silently, yet intently. Well, this was all even newer to them than it was to me, and it sounded pretty crazy to me. Yet I didn’t see disbelief on anyone’s faces, and I didn’t feel it myself. They had all felt the magic as strongly as I had: its power, and its peril. Amory had been directly attacked by the demon, had felt the threat to magic he hadn’t even known he had.

  We were all just discovering who we really were. And we didn’t want to lose that: now that we knew it was there, it would be unbearable to have it torn away.

  Assuming we even survived the challenge. Assuming humankind did.

  “When we pushed him back yesterday,” Emma went on, “the lady thought we’d be safe for at least a few days. But he came back last night. So we’re clearly running out of time.”

  “He’s really strong,” I said. “But at least we have our cohort now.”

  “That’s true,” Emma said. “I only hope to god it’s enough.”

  There was another uncomfortable silence.

  “Well,” said Emma, pushing back from the table. “I’m sure the lady will be back some time today, and we can go from there. For now, I could use a nap.” She gave me a coy look. “I had a busy night.”

  “You can…do that? Even knowing all this?”

  Emma sobered. “Yes, and you can too. Forming the cohort is just the start of the magic. The way our power is nourished and grown is through sex as well.” She gave me a sad smile. “It’s too bad it can’t be just for pleasure, but I can think of worse labors to be called upon to perform, for the benefit of all mankind.”

  “Um.” I glanced around at my men again. “Yes, I guess I can see that.”

  “Ms. Foster, we are all very happy to do everything we can to help,” Javier said. His words were serious enough, but no one could miss the glimmer in his eye.

  Emma smiled back at him and shook her head as she got to her feet. “Grace, you’ve got good guys here.”

  I got up as well. “Yes. I do.” I pulled her into a quick hug. “Thank you for letting me choose my own.”

  “You’re welcome.” She grinned. “Not that I had much say in the matter. You’re a powerful force, lady.”

  After Emma left, I turned to my men. “I know we need to have a conversation about our own group dynamics, as well as…well, everything else…but a nap doesn’t sound like a half-bad idea. And a shower after that. So if you gentlemen will excuse me…”

  “Of course we will,” Mahlen said, giving me an earnest look. “You’re the boss, remember?”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s one of the things we’ll be talking about. Seriously, guys.”

  Back in my room, I realized that, underslept though I was, sleep was the farthest thing from my capabilities right now. Too much of what Emma had told us was racing through my mind. Were we truly all that stood between humankind and its terrifying end? And was there truly no one else who could help?

  What in the world had Lady Periwinkle promised to the demon? And…how long ago, really? She didn’t seem much older than maybe her mid-forties. Yet there was something in her eyes…I was willing to believe that she was older than she seemed. It was just a small leap to there, from the rest of this.

  I pondered all this under the crashing hot water of a long, long shower, though I came up with no answers. But it was nice to be clean, and into some more of my own comfy clothes.

  ~*~*~*~

  It was early afternoon when the call came. Lady Periwinkle summoned us all to the gallery—the main room downstairs in the mansion, where the costume party had been held. She didn’t summon us by magic; we all got phone calls, on
funny old-fashioned phones connected to the inner workings of the house with wires and everything. Well, they added to the charm of the place.

  I collected my men and we headed downstairs. When we got there, the room had been entirely rearranged yet again; it hardly looked like the same room at all, as either the ballroom or yesterday’s smaller room. Now it was furnished like a very informal, and very comfortable, conference room: a few chairs arranged up front, and an array of seats facing them.

  Emma was already seated with her men in a cluster of chairs, as were Stefano and the other members of what I’d begun to think of as the orphan cohort. And the mysterious first cohort was there: a striking black-haired woman and her four men, the guys again just ridiculously good-looking. They sat a little off to the edge, not chatting with anyone else.

  I did wonder what the story was there.

  Lady Periwinkle sat at the front of the room, surrounded by her own men—all seeming completely returned to health, I was glad to see.

  But it was the redheaded woman seated next to her who gave me a jolt, right in the heart of my magic. Her hair was the color of fire; her green eyes shone like emeralds; and her magic…I could feel its power, assessing and dismissing us as unworthy…or worse. I cringed back a little; beside me, Amory took my hand and led me to a chair.

  As we sat, the rest of my men arranging themselves in chairs near me, Lady Periwinkle rose. “Good, you’re all here. I’ll get right to business.” She turned to look at the redhead, then back at all of us with a pleasant smile. “I would like to introduce Rebekah Stillman. Rebekah, these are my people.”

  Rebekah smiled and got up. “Thank you, Gracious Lady.” It had the sound of a formal title to it; I could almost hear the capital letters.

  As Lady Periwinkle sat back down, Rebekah turned to us, her audience. “I can’t say I’m happy to meet you all, given the circumstances, but I do hope we’ll be able to work together effectively. The lady has explained the situation to me, and it is indeed dire.” She paused, glancing once more at the lady. A beam of sunlight from the window caught the amulet the fiery redhead wore: a silver pentacle, adorned with bright gems. “I wish you had come to me sooner, though I understand your reluctance.

  “Be that as it may,” she went on in a stronger voice, turning back to us. “My coven has agreed to release me from my duties to them for the duration of this campaign, however long it may be. It is good that suitable men have already been selected; that will save us some time.” Her eyes ranged over the orphan cohort; a feral smile tinged the corners of her lips. “I am confident that, once we are all working together, we can get in front of this little demon problem. And I do so look forward to the process. We will start at once.”

  The lady smiled up at her; I don’t think it was my imagination that she looked a little nonplussed at Rebekah’s forthrightness. “Of course, my dear. We shall find you rooms.” She waved a hand in the general direction of the back of the gallery, and I felt a slight shiver. Had the lady just…magically created rooms?

  “I thank you.” Rebekah smiled back at her, and then at the rest of us. “Once my cohort is up and running, we’ll meet again with the group at large and plan our campaign. But I see no reason to delay.” She caught Stefano’s eye, and began striding toward him, holding out a strong, heavily be-ringed hand. “Shall we?”

  Stefano swallowed, but nodded. “Uh, sure.”

  She took his hand and led him from the room. We all watched them go; I know my mouth was hanging open. They never looked back.

  “Well!” Lady Periwinkle said brightly, getting back to her feet after a long moment. “Would anyone like lunch?”

  ~*~*~*~

  I lay alone in my bed that night. Not because I was planning to sleep alone; I had made my first stab at a rotating schedule, and had decided that each evening would begin with a solo hour. Or, at least, I insisted upon one for myself; my men could spend their time together, or with other friends, whatever they wanted.

  I would need my little bit of solitude, just an hour, every day.

  Tonight I had thought I would read, but I’d ended up lounging in the bath nearly the whole time, just thinking. About everything that had happened. Everything that still lay before us.

  And just who was this new woman, anyway? My coven, she’d said. Did she fancy herself some sort of witch? I laughed softly to myself as I lay in bed, still warm from my bath, wearing nothing but the sheets and comforter. Emma had been wrong about the need to carefully explain things to Rebekah, it seemed! She certainly appeared to be on board, and how.

  Poor Stefano.

  Probably.

  Maybe.

  There was a gentle knock on my door. Right on time. “Come in,” I called out.

  The door opened, and Amory slipped in, closing it behind himself. Then he just stood there, looking at me.

  “Get in here,” I said, lifting the sheet and patting the bed.

  He hurried over and slipped in. “Ooh, you’re warm.”

  I giggled as I snuggled into his arms. “And you’re freezing. What did you do, go sit outside for the last hour?”

  “I walked in the garden. It’s beautiful here, you know.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I barely know this place any better than you do.”

  He pulled me close and kissed the top of my head; I ran my hands up and down his back, trying to warm him up.

  “I was surprised you chose me first,” he whispered. “I thought you’d go in order.”

  “I did.” He looked down at me, puzzled. I smiled. “Alphabetical is an order.”

  And then he kissed me, and we needed no more words.

  ~END~

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lana Ames is the pen name for a best-selling editor and writer in a few different genres. She decided to take a chance and explore her…passions…by writing erotic romance, and cannot believe how much fun it is. Sorcerous Flame is the sequel to Sorcerous Heat; look for the trilogy’s final book, Sorcerous Fire, very soon.