by Jan Stryvant
"Both of you!" Sean grinned, and reaching out snagged Jolene's hand before she could move out of reach.
"What?" Jolene said, but she was grinning.
"Well, don't you have to make this place protected or something?" Sean purred and walking over to the large bed he pulled the plastic drop cloth off with his free hand as he pulled Jolene along with the other.
"Going to join us, Dear?" Sean asked, smiling at Roxy, who had also shed her clothes.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Roxy purred.
"You know I don't need to have sex to put my protections down, right?" Jolene giggled.
"I just want to make sure you do it right, is all," Sean purred.
Jolene laughed and then got a rather shocked expression as Sean kissed her, still in his hybrid form. This was something she hadn't expected!
"Aren't you going to shift?" Jolene asked him, looking up and down at the size of him, she had slept with some fairly large men, but none had been as big as Sean now was.
"I thought you were supposed to be kinky?" Sean teased.
"You weight enough to crush me!"
"Don't worry, you can be on top!" Sean grinned lying down on the bed.
"I'm not going to get a choice on this, am I?"
"I warned you!" Roxy said, pushing Jolene from behind onto the bed with Sean.
""Warned her, what?" Sean asked, looking up at the two of them as he spread out on his back.
"That sooner or later, if she didn't run while she had the chance, she was gonna end up in your pride," Roxy giggled.
"Oh, guess she wants it then," Sean purred.
"And why do you say that?" Jolene chuckled.
"Because not only didn't you run, but you're taking your clothes off."
Jolene blushed rather fiercely. Yeah, she wanted him alright. Roxy too. They were both brimming with power; with them she really wouldn't need anyone else! And honestly? Anyone who claimed that 'variety is the spice of life' never had a favorite restaurant. She already had an emotional attachment to Roxy, and damned if she wasn't forming one to Sean already. Otherwise, she wouldn't have spent seven hours searching the city today for a place for him to hole up.
"Um, let's just say that your offer brings a lot to the table and I'm... eep!"
Sean dragged her down and kissed her, "I love you Jolene, and you love both of us. Now, how about we make some magic?"
Roxy groaned at the corny line as Sean smiled.
Jolene sighed, but smiled as well.
"Yes, let's."
Thursday - Moving Day
Sean looked at his backpack; he'd gotten several pairs of pants and half of his shirts into it, along with quite a few of his shoes. All of the rest of his clothing, except for one set, he'd stuffed in his duffel bag, which he'd leave in the trunk of his car.
His laptop had gone in his backpack; he'd decided that he would try to finish out the courses of the three professors who had agreed to let him finish up remotely. All of his other courses he'd dropped.
He'd also grabbed a couple of textbooks that he thought might help him.
Then he'd looked around the room for anything important that he just had to take with him. Sadly there wasn't a single thing. He'd gotten the folded box out from under his bed, tossed everything else of his that was left, which other than books, his pillow, and his bed sheets, amounted to a plastic vault-boy statue, and an old Final Fantasy Eleven clock.
"One of these days," Sean sighed, "I'm going to own some actual stuff."
Picking up the box, he took it to Roxy's room.
"Are you sure it's alright to leave this here?" he asked her.
"Sure, Hon. Not like I'm going to be here much anymore myself," Roxy shrugged. She hadn't told him yet, but she'd already dropped two of her classes as well as told the track team coach that she was dealing with family issues and wouldn't be at anymore meets this semester.
Thankfully the coach had been sympathetic instead of a pain, and had already leaned on her instructors to 'go easy on her' so she wouldn't lose her scholarship. Seeing as she was already a good student with good grades, Roxy suspected she'd get passing marks in the rest of her classes even if she didn't show up for the rest of the year.
"When are you telling the landlord you're moving out?" Roxie asked Sean.
"I already sent him an email, telling him I wouldn't be here after Saturday," Sean said and shrugged. "What about your room?"
"My dad pays for it, if we decide we can't come back here, he'll just hire someone to come in here and pack it all up and have it shipped home."
Sean nodded, "Let me get my stuff, and we'll get out of here."
Going back to his room Sean picked up his backpack and his duffel bag and looked around the room. He'd miss it; he'd been living here almost two years now. His first time on his own. It was nice, it was cheap, and it was within walking distance to everything. But it wasn't safe anymore. Sooner or later they'd stop trying to find him with magic, and they'd resort to more mundane means.
He had to be ready for that. The last thing he wanted to do was subject the others living here to the kinds of people who were after him.
Walking out and closing the door behind him, he went back to Roxy's room, and after putting his backpack on, he picked up her duffel bag as well as his, and they went down to his car.
"Moving out?" George, the other guy living on the top floor asked him.
"Yeah, my neighbor died and left me his house," Sean sighed, "I figured it would be cheaper to live there, even with the commute."
"Wow, I don't know if I should offer condolences or congratulations," George said. "Are you going with him too?" he asked Roxy.
"After the semester ends," she smiled. "Enjoy the break!"
"Definitely! You two have fun!" George said and went back into his room.
"How long before everyone hears about that?" Roxy snickered as they walked down the stairs.
"Hopefully long before people start coming around here looking for me," Sean replied.
Going outside to the car, Sean tossed everything into the trunk, and then gave Roxy a kiss.
"I'll see you later tonight," Roxy told him, "after I finish classes."
"Keep your eyes open and be careful," Sean warned her.
"Don't worry. It's you they want, and I doubt they even know about me."
"Yet," Sean said.
"Yet," Roxy agreed and nodded.
Kissing her again, he got into the car, and with a wave he drove off. Everything seemed still outside, almost oppressive. Like a big storm was building, and he wanted to be back inside before whatever was coming let go. Nobody had tried anything in days, and his birthday was only a week away. Sean figured if they had been desperate before, they'd be getting even worse over the next few days.
"Just how safe is this place?" Sean asked Jolene as he looked out the window again over the city. There was a storm brewing, you could see it, and everything about it felt wrong.
"With the amount of magic I dumped into it last night?" Jolene came up behind him and gave Sean a hug. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about."
"Something about that storm isn't right," Sean said, unconsciously moving back from the window as things got darker.
Sean's cell phone rang, opening it up he looked at the number, it was Roxy.
"What's wrong?" Sean asked immediately.
"Someone set the apartment house on fire," Roxy was panting, hard, and there was a lot of wind noise.
"What? Where are you?" Sean demanded.
"I'm running through the streets about as fast as I can. There were people outside, waiting. They didn't stop me or anyone else as we ran out. As soon as I got out of sight I shifted and I think I hit a personal best on my speed for a few minutes there."
"I'll come get you," Sean growled.
"No, this storm doesn't feel right. Stay there. I'm almost there anyways."
"Okay," Sean growled and hung up the phone, then looked at Jolene, who was looking a lit
tle pale. "Did you hear that?"
"I think I better redouble my wards," Jolene said, a bit worriedly, and immediately set to work doing just that.
His phone rung again, looking at it, it was Detective Schumer.
"Yes, Detective?" Sean asked a little nervously.
"You okay, Sean? You sound worried."
"Someone just set my apartment house on fire. Yeah, I'm a little nervous. Why are you calling?"
"Well, I'm afraid I have some more bad news for you," Detective Schumer started.
"Oh god, please don't tell me my mother's dead!"
"No, it's not your mother, Sean."
Sean sighed, "Thank god."
"Your house blew up. So did Sampson's."
"What?" Sean asked, shocked.
"They blew up. Together. About an hour ago. My boss called the sheriff and he's got the State Police over there right now, they've got their boys on it. We've got the city's bomb people checking it out as well, and I think even the BATF might be getting involved."
"Shit," Sean swore, "was anybody hurt?"
"Thankfully no. Whoever blew them up put the bombs underneath and used shaped charges. At least that's what the bomb squad is telling me. It just blew everything straight up, and then set whatever was left on fire."
"I was just over there, yesterday," Sean gulped. "I was thinking of moving back, to keep an eye on things until my mother got home."
Sean looked around and found a couch to sit down on.
"Just what the hell are you involved in, Son?"
"I think the people who murdered my father have decided they want me dead now too," Sean sighed.
"Your father's death was an accident, Sean. I've seen the report."
"Yeah, well, then why the hell are people trying to kill me? Why is my mom missing? Why is Sampson dead and what the hell were those people doing in our homes?"
"Maybe you should come down to the station house, Sean. We can protect you."
"Sorry, but I'm not sure I like the idea of being someplace where just anybody can find me right now. Don't call me, I'll call you."
Sean hung up the phone, shut it off, and then to be extra safe he took the battery out of it.
"Come on," Jolene said, running up and grabbing his arm, "we need to move."
"What? I thought you said it was safe here?"
"From wizards, warlocks, mages, and the rest, yeah. But that's not what's looking for you right now, and we need to get underground, fast!"
"What about Roxy?"
"Well grab her on the way down, now move it, Sean!"
Sean shifted into his hybrid form and just ignored the two buttons that flew off of his shirt. Sticking his phone and the battery in his pocket, he just scooped up Jolene and threw her over his shoulder and made for the fire door at a run as he heard the first crack of lightning. It sounded close, too close.
Running down the stairs, four or five steps at a time he rounded a corner about ten flights down and narrowly avoided crashing into Roxy who was heading up.
"Follow!" He yelled and just continued on down, taking the stairwell past the lobby floor and down into the basement.
"Look for the water mains, we can hide behind them!" Jolene said.
Sean started searching the basement, which seemed to be mostly storage now.
"What are we hiding from?" Roxy asked.
"Lightning elementals. That storm isn't natural."
"Well, yeah, I guessed that! But what does that have to do with lightning?
"Lightning elementals need a storm to survive in our world. That's why the storm was made, so they could summon the elementals and send them off to kill Sean."
"They can do that?" Roxy said, horrified.
"Not easily, this is a pretty major piece of magic. It had to have taken at least twenty people working together and they probably spent all day yesterday preparing and then all day today casting."
Sean kicked in a locked door marked 'Fire Riser Room' and sure enough, the water mains were inside. Running back over to the girls he grabbed them and started pulling them there.
"How do you know so much about regular magic? I thought tantric magic was different?" Roxy asked Jolene.
"Magic is magic, the differences between me and them is their power is more innate, I sacrificed my innate power when I became a tantric mage."
"Why would you do a thing like that?" Sean asked as they got down under the pipes, which ran about four feet off the ground, branching off of an eighteen-inch wide main that came up from the level below.
"Because I can hold a lot more power than they can, so I don't have to depend on magical items or other people."
"You just have to fuck a lot," Sean pointed out.
"Yeah, well I like sex, and I haven't heard any complaints from you!" Jolene smirked. "But, yeah, it's always good to know what the other folks can do. There aren't enough of the higher-level folks in any one coven or council in this town to do this. They had to band several of them together."
"You're sure on that?" Roxy asked.
"Of course I'm sure," she grinned suddenly, "I called Sawyer the moment I noticed something while strengthening the wards. He told me to go to ground and to warn everyone I know."
"Why's that?" Roxy gave Jolene a concerned look.
"Because if you go to all this trouble to raise a bunch of lightning elementals, you're not just going to waste it on one target. You better believe that they made promises to clean up some 'other issues' in order to make this work."
"So," Sean asked, "does a lightning elemental look like a ball of static electricity?"
"Huh?"
Sean pointed down out the doorway and into the area they'd just left. There coming down the staircase was what could only be described as a ball of lighting.
"Shit," Jolene said and pulling out a piece of chalk she started drawing on the floor. "Guys, I know this is rude, but if the two of you could start fucking like bunnies, that would be great."
"What?" Sean said blinking.
"I gotta work fast, or that thing just might kill one of us. Now, get to work!"
Roxy gave a strangled laugh and grabbing her shorts she used her claws to just rip them off, coming over to straddle Sean's lap.
"Umm, talk about your pressure," Sean gulped, pushing his own pants down further and exposing his crotch.
"Oh, don't worry, Sean, I bet I can get you excited," Roxy purred and started to rub her crotch over his.
Sean turned and focused on Roxy, his sexy Roxy, and tried to ignore the crackling death that was slowly coming closer as Jolene started drawing lines and circles like a demented street artist.
"I suggest you hurry!" Jolene called over her shoulder. "It hasn't sensed us yet, but once it does...."
Rosy smiled and leaned in, kissing him slowly, warmly, as she purred. Breaking the kiss she then put her lips to her ears and whispered softly, so only he could hear, "How about putting some cubs in my belly, hmmm? Would my big strong lion like to breed his sexy little cheetah?"
Sean gasped as his lion literally surged into his consciousness with a very positive and strong reaction. Suddenly he was hard as a rock and Roxy was working her way back down onto his lap, driving him up inside her.
"Cubs!" he growled, the idea had never once occurred to him, but apparently this was something very basic to his lion psyche.
"Oh yeah," Roxy whispered, "when this is over, we're going to make lots of cubs, you and me!"
Sean really couldn't help himself he grabbed her hips and just went to work.
"Good!" Jolene called, "Take my hand, Roxy; I need a conduit for the power."
Sean was barely aware of anything beyond Roxy at this point. She was just smiling at him, and kissing him, and of course moving up and down on him, driving him onward. It didn't matter to him that they were in a cold dark dank dirty basement, sitting on a floor under a bunch of pipes. The woman he loved had just unleashed a promise unlike any other, and his lion was enthralled with the idea, which mean
t he was enthralled with it too.
Sean didn't even notice the thin misty wall that suddenly formed around them, going from the floor to the pipes just as the elemental came into the room. The moment it saw them it surged forward, but hitting the thin wall it screamed like an electric motor spinning at its limit, but Sean only paid it half a mind as he was already at his peak, and pulling Roxy down hard, he shuddered through his orgasm, surprised that Roxy joined him even if he'd been rather quick this time, as she collapsed against him, panting as hard as he was.
"Is it dead?" Roxy asked panting as the scream slowly subsided to a whine, and then stopped altogether.
"It is now," Jolene sighed and falling back to sit on her butt she blew out a breath and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead. "Thanks guys, I couldn't have done that without you."
"Does this mean that they know we're here?" Sean asked, panting hard.
"No, they got so many of these things running around, they won't know who they've killed until after the elementals do it and return. I suspect this guy won't be the only one missing, not like these things have a lot of smarts."
Sean just nodded.
"But I think it would be for the best if we just stayed down here for a while. Like say until sunrise?"
Sean nodded again and then giving Roxy a hug, he put a finger under her chin and tipped it up so he could kiss her.
"You know I'm going to hold you to that promise?" he whispered.
"You better!" Roxy mock-growled. "A girl makes a promise like that to her man and she sure as hell expects him to hold her to it!"
"What promise was that?" Jolene asked, absently.
"Children, she promised me children," Sean purred, and then turned to look at Jolene who looked rather shocked.
"What?"
Sean smirked, "Don't worry, your turn will come."
"Thank god that lycans and humans can't breed," Jolene sighed.
"Thank god that I can just bite you and fix that!" Sean growled at Jolene with a wink.
"You know, I think I liked it better when I was afraid of being electrocuted."
Friday - After the Storm
"So, what did you learn?" Sean asked Jolene as he looked out the window across the city. The three of them had spent the day in one of the innermost rooms, doing not a lot more than sleeping, cuddling, and talking. After they'd 'topped off' Jolene's magical reserves of course.