I found her as I often did those days, in the basement practicing her offensive magick. She was using one hand to hold several soda cans suspended in the air, spinning in a tight circle. She was using the other hand to shoot micro-bursts of energy at the spinning targets, knocking them out of place for a cycle or two before they’d rejoin the other cans in the circle once again.
“Wow.” I said, applauding softly. “That’s really cool.”
“Thanks.” she replied, dropping her hands and letting the cans clank to the ground.
“You can do magick with both hands?” I asked. “Did you have a second crystal implanted?”
She shook her head. She had gotten a blue Fae crystal, the means by which a human could wield Fae magick in the human world, implanted in her right palm just before my ascension. This was, obviously, something different.
“Still just the one crystal.” she said. “It’s more of a ‘feeling the unity of purpose within your own body’ kind of thing.”
“Obtuse.”
“No argument there.”
We chuckled, then I proceeded to tell her about the events of the morning thus far… Hatsu, her intervention with the bullies, and her freshly vexing question about my intentions.
“I mean, what do you do with Sorceress powers?” I asked, my hands flailing comically. “Do I travel around the world, fighting the powerful in the name of the powerless? Do I try to fix global warming with magick? Would that involve destroying polluting industries, with lightening if necessary? Do I declare a ‘pax Annabellica’ and enforce world peace?” I looked at my friend pleadingly, mouthing help!
“Okay, first, hit this.” she said, passing me a fat-rolled joint. I lit it and breathed in the earthy smoke. “And then,” she continued, “how about we figure out how to use these powers safely, and then worry about the future then?” she asked, her smile kind. “You’re the Sorceress, not the Goddess. You’re not Jesus, either… nobody’s expecting you to save the world.”
I breathed the smoke out slowly, feeling my muscles un-clench as I did so. “I could do that.” I said, hitting the joint again. “That, I could do.” I tried to pass it back to her, but she waved me off, lighting another joint.
“Good.” She exhaled her own thick stream of smoke. “I’m busy enough learning how to use Fae magick without support since I fucked up my love life. I don’t need both of us having existential crises.”
“So you two are done? This isn’t some on again-off again lesbian tango, is it?” I’d long ago learned to not take most declarations of relationship drama at face value.
“No, no games.”
“Because you don’t so much fall in love as bungee-jump in and out of couples therapy...”
We both laughed, knowing that it was as much a ‘teenager thing’ as it was ‘lesbian relationship processing’-thing. As the laughter faded, however, she had a bitter-sweet look on her face.
“No, I think I fucked things up good and final this time.” she said, sighing and hitting her joint again. “Yep.”
I could feel my heartbreaking for her! "Oh my Gods, honey..." I said, my arms out. She fell in my arms, and I held her as her body started tensing, sobs rippling through her body.
* * *
“Where are you?”
I heard Angelique’s voice echoing in my head, and I knew that I should answer.
“I’m in the classroom.” I said, annoyed. I had come at night to be alone with Lunaria, and I didn’t want any disembodied voice ruining things. “I’m waiting for Lunaria. Now if you would please stop distracting me?” I could have sworn I heard a soft apology, but then the voice and all memory of it were gone.
I looked towards the door, anxious. I had decided recently that I would have to make the first move. The fact that our society looked kindly towards teachers becoming physically involved with gifted students didn’t help when the object of my desires was so paralyzingly shy.
Please, my beautiful one, come quickly! I implored silently.
My prayers were answered when the door opened and Lunaria herself stepped into the room. The woven-leaf rugs were soft on my feet as I rose and walked to her.
The moonlight traced the contours of her body as I looked at her, my eyes wide with awe. I knew that there couldn’t be any sight more beautiful in the world.
“Faun, what are you doing here at night?” she asked, though she knew the answer. We had been sharing meaningful glances and excuses to touch each other for weeks. Everyone knew that we were soon to be lovers.
She may have been older than me, but her thin frame trembled as I put my hands on her shoulders. “You know what I want.” I said with a wanton smile.
I reached down and grasped her hand, raising it until she was cupping my breast. She tried to look away out of her interminable shyness, but her own desire overwhelmed even that. She squeezed my breast, gently grazing my nipples with her fingers.
I gasped and could hold myself back no longer. I crushed her body to mine as my mouth clamped onto hers, our tongues dancing in and out of each other's mouths as our bodies became inflamed with passion. We fell to the floor and opened each other's dresses, exploring each other's bodies with our hands as our mouths followed close behind.
I was about to trace my way to her core with my tongue when she stopped me. “No, I want to look in your eyes.” she said.
She laid me down and hovered over me. Her hair cascaded down to surround me as she grasped my hand and placed it between her legs. Once my hand had found it’s mark, she touched me at my core, and we started rubbing each other in rhythm.
I felt waves of sheer pleasure start to move through my body, growing with every stroke of her hand. I felt her body respond and knew that she was feeling it as well.
“My beautiful Faun,” she said, her voice breathy, “my beautiful, beautiful Faun...”
Her nipples grazed mine, and I started feeling the orgasm build within me. My body started to jerk as it hit, and Lunaria’s body started twitching as well.
I looked in her eyes as she climaxed, and knew. I knew who she was to me, the part of myself watching this past life memory.
Lunaria had Angelique’s eyes.
* * *
“You know, that’s not the only life we’ve had together in that particular civilization.” Angelique said, standing by and looking out of the kitchen window.
“It’s not?” I replied, my mouth full of ice cream.
“No. We looked at another incarnation there a little while ago, when you were the teacher and I was the amorous student.”
I scooped up another chunk of ice cream. “Wait, were you called ‘Beezu’ in that one?”
“That’s the one.” she affirmed. I nodded and kept eating.
More and more often, I had been following our past-life regressions with a pig-out in the kitchen. Angelique would often trail me, encouraging me to talk about what I had seen, helping me to fit it all into a greater whole.
That night, I just wanted to eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I really didn’t want to talk about this regression, though I had no idea why.
Maybe I just don’t want her to remember the face I make when I come I thought. Or, the face I DID make. Is it the same face? Are o-faces something that transcends time and incarnations? Maybe I should ask Vincent.
“How many incarnations did we have in that society?” I asked, staying in the safe area of general information.
“I’ve counted six with you and I, four with you and Vincent, and five with all three of us.”
“Fifteen? How long did that civilization last?”
“I estimate that it lasted almost a thousand years.”
It never failed to blow my mind, the sheer number of civilizations that had existed over the millennia. This one seemed to be a tree-house community, existing in huts and walkways far above the forest floor. It was a society ruled by women, one that had decided on another way after almost being wiped out in men’s wars. I wasn’t sure how I knew
this, I just did. I also didn’t know where in the world it was supposed to be, memories of racial differences always fading as soon as I awoke, leaving only memories of the feelings stirred by those we knew. I just knew that it was somewhere warm.
“And there’s no record of it? Anywhere?” I asked.
“No surviving records have ever been found by any archaeologists or anthropologists.” she answered. “There are a few things that have been found, but nobody knows their true significance. Most are sitting in collections for other civilizations, mislabeled and their true meaning lost.”
“Have you ever looked?” I asked, knowing.
“Yes.” she said. She smiled, and floated out of the kitchen without another word.
* * *
It was late.
I exhaled what felt like my one millionth hit of Vincent’s potent weed as I looked at my phone. The last time I had looked, it was close to midnight. When I looked the second time, however, it was farther from midnight, only on the other side.
I looked over to where Jack was sitting, looking intently at his computer screen and typing. I didn’t look over to his monitor, however. It seemed like too much work to focus at the moment.
I was hanging out in the basement because Vincent was out of town, and Jack was the only person left awake… well, the only human, anyway. With all of the worries and concerns that I had been fighting that day, being alone with my own thoughts didn’t seem like the best idea at the time. Jack never minded the company as he worked, and kept me up to date as to what he was finding.
“Okay, one thing I found was a Polynesian lake spirit called ‘Taniwha’, which looked promising.” he said, leaning back in his chair. “They can be pretty scary, too… if the legends are to be believed.”
“However…” I prompted him.
“However,” he continued, “they don’t work on a lot of levels. For one thing, they’re insanely local. Their more fearsome stories come from people trying to attack from outside of a tribal area. They’re looked on as guardians by the native inhabitants of an area.”
“Which makes them unlikely to be content with being relocated on the other side of the world.” I surmised.
“Right.” He opened a can of soda and drained half of the can.
I stretched, yawned, and looked at the clock. “Is my boyfriend home?”
“Lemme see.” Jack leaned forward and typed on his keyboard. I looked at the monitor and saw video feeds from all over the house, except the bedrooms and bathrooms. Since Vincent wouldn’t go into the bedroom without me, and he had no need for a toilet, I knew he wasn’t in those areas. He also didn’t appear to be anywhere else in the house, as every camera came up empty.
“Well shit.” I looked over to my friend. “At least I still have you to keep me company.”
Jack squirmed in his seat a bit. “Yeah, about that...” he began.
He was cut off, however, by the door to the stairs opening, and Katsu, the younger of the Botan Doro sisters, walked in.
“Hello Annabelle.” she said to me, a smile on her face. Her entire visage lit up, however, when she saw Jack. “Hello Jack, it is nice to see you!”
I looked at him, and he grinned. “Hi Katsu.” he said, turning to her.
“Can we help you with something?” I asked.
“Well, Jack said that he would show me Vincent and Angelique’s collection of Asian cultural and magickal artifacts.” she replied, looking at Jack again, and again with a wide smile.
“Really?” This was out of character for him. “Jack… showing you… Asian artifacts and antiques?”
“Well, they just came in last night, and I spent the better part of the day cataloging them, so the information’s fresh.” he shrugged.
“You've got a nice computer setup here." Katsu walked closer to the monitor bank, taking it in. "The server farm at Langley Virginia was more powerful, but not nearly this elegant."
“It’s based on schematics I drew up when I was sixteen.” he said.
“You designed this?” she asked, turning her head back towards him.
“Yeah.” There was obvious pride in his voice, along with something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
Katsu practically beamed. “You’re very smart and talented.”
If I lived to be two hundred years old, I doubt that I could have been more surprised by my friend at that moment.
He blushed. He honest-to-Goddess blushed!
“Thanks.” he said.
Katsu turned back to admire the computer displays, and I caught Jack’s eye. You and her? I mouthed to him.
I hope so! He mouthed back.
I had no idea if such a pairing could even work, but I had bigger problems at that moment.
I was on my own.
* * *
I wandered down the main hallway, unsure of what to do. I could have gone into my office to watch some TV, but I knew that concentrating on a show would be next to impossible for me at that moment. I had thoughts encroaching on my consciousness that I really didn’t want to dwell on, and I needed a distraction.
A door opened up ahead and I saw Evelyn walk into the hall. She was dressed more casually than I was used to, having shed her usual skin tight black leather in favor of comfortable jeans and an oversized t-shirt. She looked a bit surprised to see me there.
“Oh! Hello.” she said.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“Sleep? I remember sleep.” she sighed. “Living with my brother means keeping unusual hours.”
“What are you guys working on?”
“A side project.”
“Ahh,” I said, “a confidential one?”
“Is there any other kind?” she answered.
“Hungry?”
“Always.”
We made our way to the kitchen, saying little along the way. Of all of the strange, unique individuals I had met over the past year, Evelyn seemed the most enigmatic. Not as bombastic as her brother, and not as spiritually familiar as my vampire friends, she was a blonde cipher, saying little but ever watchful.
And an incredibly fit enigma, at that. I thought, catching a sideways glance at her. Her clothes may not have been skin-tight, but her figure was obvious nonetheless.
And where in the living fuck did that come from?!? I thought, testy with my unexpected shallowness.
Evelyn made herself comfortable while I popped some apple pie leftover from dinner into the microwave. I poured two glasses of milk and set the warmed pie in front of her.
“Oh, this looks divine!” she said, digging in. As she swallowed, she closed her eyes in ecstasy. “Bloody hell, that’s good.”
I had to agree as I tasted the warm, sugary goodness. “My boyfriend is a hell of a cook for someone who doesn’t have to eat.”
“So,” she said, leaning in, “what’s it like to have sex with a vampire?”
“Hot?” I replied, unsure as to what to say. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’m a good judge of vampiric coital skills.” I said, waving the question away. “I’ve only had sex with one other person in this life, and I have something like ten thousand years of history with Vincent the soul, so… I’m biased.”
“Damn.” she said. “To be completely honest, I’ve always wanted to make it with a vampire. The few older ones I’ve met have been so… mysterious and juicy.”
“Just how rare are older vampires?” I had heard Vincent and Angelique’s version, and I wanted to get another opinion.
“Rare.” she answered firmly. “Ninety-nine percent of the vamps I meet are
fledglings, and the obnoxious ones at that. Old vamps are rare, and vampire queens like Angelique are even rarer."
“Vampire queen?” I asked. The phrase was new to me.
“Any vamp over a thousand years old is called a ‘vampire queen’.” she said. “Men, women, it doesn’t matter. Since the first vampire was a woman, all of the ancient ones are referred to as vampire queens.”
“How many of
them have you met?”
“Including Angelique, three. And one of those was a stone-cold bitch."
“So you didn’t want to jump her bones, right?”
“No, her I really wanted to bang. I have a thing for the ‘bad girl’ type.” she shrugged.
“I wouldn’t imagine that you’d have a hard time succeeding.” I said, leaning back. “I mean, I’ve never been into girls, but a eunuch could see that you’re an attractive woman.”
“Why thank you." she said, grinning. "Though I'm sure that you haven't been a hetero cis-chick in every life, right?"
“That would be correct.” I said, suddenly wanting a joint. “I’ve gotta tell you, remembering being a man? Having sex with a woman? Kinda blew my mind.”
“Being a woman having sex with a woman is pretty mind-blowing as well." she said with raised eyebrows.
I flashed back to my past life regression earlier in the day, with its vivid memories of sex with Angelique as Lunaria. My mind then jumped back to the memories of waiting for Angelique as she was now, my past self intending to give her 'what she wanted'… and my actions after that showing me in no uncertain terms just what that meant.
At that moment, something slid into place. A realization that had yet to occur to me, it seemed so obvious all of a sudden.
What Angelique wanted more than anything else in the world at that time was to be with the woman who I was in that life I thought. She wanted her because she was me. She was longing for me!
“Holy fuck.” I said out loud.
I must have looked stricken because the next thing I knew Evelyn was handing me a freshly lit joint. "Hit this." she ordered, and I complied.
Angelique has loved me before, and not just as the people were then, but the people we were at our center. Does she love me every time, or only some times?
And is now one of those times?
I hit the joint again, and then went to pass it back to her. She just waved it away. “I think you need this more than I do right now.”
“Thank you.” I answered shakily.
“Want to talk about it?” Her face was soft, and something told me I could talk to her.
The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Page 13