The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga

by Taliesin Govannon

  “That sounds cool!” Tiffany said enthusiastically. “I’ve never been to a Druid rite.”

  “I guess I’ll show too.” I grinned.

  * * *

  The band that night was a Grateful Dead tribute band, and it was the perfect thing to kick start the first official night of the festival. We smoked some of Gaia’s potent Fae weed, and then joined others dancing in front of the stage. Vincent and Drucilla had set up our camp chairs near the front, so taking a water break was easy. Gaia and Evelyn had shown up just before us, and we all danced together under a clear night sky.

  Halfway through the set, I sat down in my chair to drink a bottle of water. Vincent joined me, his shirt open from his own dancing.

  “All of the gay guys and half of the straight ones are staring at your abs.” I said as he sat.

  “Only half?” he replied, grinning.

  I smiled, and turned my attention to the people still dancing in front of me. Raina was grinding in between Darla and Cordelia, their arms a tangle of tender caresses. I love seeing Raina coming into her own I thought. She seems so… peaceful. Content. I could see her staying poly-amorous even after meeting a life partner.

  Polyamory. I had run across the term all of my life… I was raised with the internet, after all… but had only recently met people who practiced a polyamorous lifestyle.

  All of the Fae I had met, for example. Both the Wood and Twilight Fae practiced some form of group relationship, mainly because they lived so incredibly long. No matter how fascinated they may be with each other when they first connect, after the fifth or sixth century they want someone new to talk to. While no less sensual than their Twilight cousins, the Wood Fae were a little more conservative in how they did things… they joined into group marriages and didn’t really mess around outside of those unions. The Twilight Fae, on the other hand, well… they considered sexual contact to be just one more level to friendship. Only those with the strongest connections entered into union ceremonies, and even they didn’t restrict sex to that union.

  I honestly saw nothing wrong with polyamory. Yes, my sexual connection with Vincent deepened our emotional connection in unique ways. I didn’t feel any more connected with Vincent than I did, say, with Raina, however. Or Jack. It wasn’t better, it was just different. There were even emotional needs that Vincent couldn’t fulfill for whatever reason… I needed my friends.

  So I have two types of friends I thought, sexual and non sexual. And I need both. So why is it only okay to have one of the former when you can have unlimited of the latter?

  It was, I surmised, bullshit. A tool of the patriarchy to control us through sex.

  If I said that out loud I thought, Raina might change her mind about fucking me. She’s been preaching the campaign against the patriarchy for half of her life!

  I couldn’t start with Raina, however. I knew that I would face little resistance from Vincent if I decided to propose the whole poly-thing… everything written by or about real vampires said that they were never exclusive with their relationships. Even when he and Angelique were at their height of a sexual relationship, they indulged in experiencing a wide array of lovers. That had even included an old affair with Gaia… almost a hundred years prior. Vincent and Angelique had spent an indeterminate amount of time swapping places in her bed.

  I have to hand it to him, he’s really been doing the exclusive thing with me pretty well thus far! If I had even started something with Gaia, I probably would not be able to resist her being around all of the time!

  If I was going to expand my… I don’t know what to call it, my ‘circle of lovers’? Way to sound like an aging hippie… I knew where I should probably start. I had a history with her. A lot of history.

  Fuck no. That’s too scary. Way way WAY too fucking scary! If I wait for that, I’d be the only monogamous poly-person in history!

  What to do?

  I leaned over and started kissing Vincent’s earlobe while running my hand over his chiseled chest. He smiled.

  “Are you trying to tell me something?” he said.

  “I need you.” I breathed into his ear. “Now.”

  I'm sure that it looked like we just disappeared because in under a minute Vincent was carrying me into our tent, into our Tudor bedroom with a four-poster bed. He closed the door and pulled my clothes off.

  * * *

  “So what do you think?”

  We had made love for what seemed like hours, winding up tangled in the sheets and each other’s bodies. I was curled up against Vincent’s chest, playing with his hair while I went over why I thought I’d like to try polyamory. He reacted like how I’d predicted.

  “You know I’m okay with it.” he said, shrugging. “It’s how I’ve lived for the last four hundred and twenty years. I mean, sure I’ve spent years… even a few decades… not having sex for various reasons, but this past year has been the only time I’ve been exclusive for any length of time since becoming a vampire.”

  “And yet you’d stay monogamous for me if I asked?” I said.

  “Sure.” he said.

  “And never be poly again?” I asked further.

  “Now, I don’t want to sound cold, but you’re thinking like a human.” he replied. “Your lifespan is finite, even for a being with extended life like the Sorceress. Vampires, however, aren’t so limited. Once you get to my age, very little can kill a vampire, so I’m looking at possible eternity. Thousands of years, at least. So the question isn’t ‘can I permanently change myself?’, but rather ‘do I love this person enough to limit who I have sex with for the next sixty… or, in your case, hundred, hundred and fifty… years?’. That’s easy. Yes.”

  “And yet you also kept looking for me.” I said, kissing his chest.

  “Me and Angelique both.” he said. “We’ve always wanted a world where you’d be poly again, so we wouldn’t have to compete. It’s been a while, culturally.”

  “Vincent,” I said, swallowing hard, “I hope I don’t sound shallow, but that is WAY too fucking scary for me to even think about right now! I get instantly overwhelmed, and it feels like my stomach is trying to drill through the floor in search of oil. I don’t know when I’ll be able to entertain such a thing any time soon.”

  “Hey hey hey,” he said, kissing my head. “It’s okay. There are no time limits here. You can go at your own pace for everything.”

  “Is Angelique going to hate me for… exploring with someone other than her?” I asked. “I know that it’s probably a dream for her to spend the night with me again. I know this! If I… have fun with someone else first, will I be throwing it in her face?”

  “Annabelle, it’s true that Angelique dreams of being with you. I did, too, before we connected.” he said. “We only chose me to reach out to you first because nothing in your past suggested that you’d even considered being with a woman, so I won via heteronormativity.”

  “So she’s held out hope from the beginning?” I said.

  “She’s found and lost you dozens of times since she’s become a vampire.” he replied softly. “She doesn’t hope, she knows that she’ll find you again. And she knows that, someday, she’ll hold and love you again. She doesn’t worry about when.”

  He moved me so he could look into my eyes. “Whatever path you have to take, she’ll be patient.” he said. “She won’t be jealous if you lay with another first… if doing so brings you even a little closer to returning to her arms someday, she’ll be grateful.”

  “And you?” I asked.

  “Whatever makes you happy makes me happy.” he said.

  “Well then, make me happy.” I said, and kissed him. We eased back on the bed and started exploring each other again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  From the Diaries of Angelique Dupre

  12/11/1589

  Roanoke Colony

  The last few families have fled the settlement, joining with what was left of the local Croatoan tribe and heading North. Sarah won't follow them northwa
rd during the winter, and they hope to disappear into the local tribes before spring. They tried to leave a note, but only got the word 'Croatoan' carved before they had to flee.

  The women are leading what’s left. Sarah has most of the men, and none leave except for when she tires of them and kills them for sport.

  I have one last gambit to try. I may be able to save her. I have a weapon in case I fail. I pray I don’t have to use it.

  * * *

  I returned to the drum circle around three in the morning, and I felt… lighter. I felt like a shackle had been removed from my leg, and that I was free.

  And I am free I thought. Free of arbitrary limits placed on me by a society both obsessed and terrified of me, and my sexuality. I wasn’t looking to jump into bed with anybody, but I could dance and interact with people as sensually as I felt like and not worry about leading them on. I could say yes if I wanted to, and could also take as long to be ready as I wanted to.

  I spent the night dancing around the fire, eventually winding up naked again. I spied Raina making out with the tall brunette woman, eventually going off with her an hour before dawn.

  I almost went back on my 'no extracurricular sex on night number one… almost. There was this one redheaded woman who started to dance close behind me. I felt into it, so I reached behind me and put her hands on my hips. She started grinding on me, and I pulled her arms around me so her breasts rubbed against my back. I was turned on, so I spun around and kissed her.

  It was good… really good. And yet, looking at her made my fires cool instantly. We broke the kiss, and I smiled.

  “You’re really hot.” I said. “But I’ve gotta go.”

  “That’s okay.” she grinned. “Look me up if you change your mind.”

  I walked away from the fire and noticed that the sky was rapidly growing brighter. The blue light of morning dimmed the natural light of the forest life, and soon I found myself at a campsite. Raina and her brunette friend were lounging, naked, in a hammock hung between trees.

  “Hey guys,” I said, “am I interrupting?”

  “You’re twenty minutes too late for that.” Raina replied. “Have a seat.”

  I sat in an empty camp chair and smiled. “I have something to tell you.”

  “What’s that?” she said, playing with her friend’s hair.

  “I talked to Vincent, and we’re going poly!” I said, bouncing slightly.

  “What?!?” she said, surprised. “Okay girl, spill!”

  So I told her about my entire journey… what she knew about my past with Angelique in past lives, with other women in past lives, and lots that she didn’t know. I talked about my interactions with the Fae… I called them ‘our liberated ladies with rainbow hair’ for Raina’s friend’s benefit… and about how it had opened up my ideas about exclusivity, and so on. I even told her about the redhead at the fire.

  “Damn, and you walked away from that?” Raina said. “She and I had some fun last night, and I would never turn her down!”

  “I felt great when I was caught up in the sensuality of the dance,” I said, “but I had nothing when I looked at her. I guess I need a personal connection in order to seal the deal.”

  “Hey, if you two want to explore some things, it’s okay with me.” Raina’s friend said. “You can even use my tent… ”

  “Uh, thanks, but ain’t no way I’m going there anytime soon.” Raina said, cutting her off.

  “Yeah, me neither.” I agreed. “I feel like I need to get past this, I just don’t know with whom.

  “Have fun.” Raina grinned.

  * * *

  I was back looking at Agnetha’s map. I saw hundreds of faces, but then zeroed in on one particular face.

  Gaia I thought. My feelings for her have been different than with other Fae. What kind of history do we have together?

  I looked back, and she was in her Fae form for what looked like all of it. The line finally shifted at the end to another face, and I saw who else was there.

  It’s outside of the ruined city! The first life I remember sharing with Vincent! It was where most of my past life interaction lines started, with only Angelique’s going farther back. It looked like Gaia was the first time her soul reincarnated after our shared beginning, and every interaction between us since has been with her as Fae, in her current form.

  She must be something like ten thousand years old!

  I looked closer. Relationships that were sexual usually had a purple glow around them, and there was lots of purple between us.

  Gaia.

  I woke up, and looked around the ornate bedroom. I was alone, and sleeping naked like I usually did. I got an idea, and picked up my phone.

  I sent the text, and then wrapped myself up in my sheet. Gaia rushed in and closed the door.

  “You said it was urgent.” she said, slipping out of her human glamour.

  “You love me, don’t you?” I said bluntly.

  Gaia froze. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I had a talk with Vincent.” I said. “I know vampires are never exclusive, and I’ve decided that it doesn’t make sense for me, either.”

  “You have?” she asked, still not moving.

  “I have.” I nodded. “But I’m not looking for a bunch of random screwing. I only want to be with people who love me, because then I have a chance of loving them back in a much more meaningful way. So I ask again… do you love me?”

  “I do.” she said, breathing deeply. “I’ve loved you from the beginning… I think you know by now, or else you wouldn’t be asking me this question.”

  I unwrapped the sheet from around me and let it fall. “Then love me.” I said, opening my arms. She rushed into them, and I soon lost myself in her kiss, her hot tongue probing into my mouth.

  My heart and my body told me that I had made the right choice.

  * * *

  “So how was it this time?” I asked.

  “Unbelievable.” Gaia replied. “I mean, it’s always been good with you, whether you were a man or woman. But now, with your Sorceress energy? I’ve never had someone make me come their first time with a woman before.”

  I laid against her, my head on her chest. She had one arm curled around me while the other one traced lazy circles on my arm.

  “I just went with the flow.” I said. “It’s not that hard when you can see energy. Your aura glows purple when you’re close to orgasm, by the way.”

  “Good to know.” she said. “So, are you feeling better about Angelique yet?”

  “Do you always ask your bed partners about who they’re going to fuck next?” I asked, surprised.

  “When they’ve been going through as much grief as you’ve been going through?” she said. “Yes!” She relaxed her voice. “Look, I know we have a past, and I honestly love you.”

  “Is it okay that I’m not ready to say it back yet?” I said, concerned.

  “Take all of the time you need.” she said with a wave. “I’m patient. I’m also a realist. I know that, as much of a past as we have, you have an even deeper past with Vincent. And your past with Angelique must be incredible, the reaction it provokes in you.”

  “That’s not a bad word, incredible.” I said.

  “So there’s no jealousy here.” she continued. “I’ve loved you as a friend, and now I can love you as a lover. I know I’m not the only one, and that’s fine. You’re not my only one, either.”

  “You’ll have to be even more patient with me.” I said, grinning. “I’m new to this non-jealousy thing, too.”

  “How about we try the orgasm thing again?” she asked me, sliding her thigh in between my legs.

  I wrapped my lips around her nipple and lightly sucked. It turned rock hard in my mouth. “What do you think?”

  She moaned, and I started to kiss down her body.

  * * *

  After staying up around the fire all night, sleeping for a while, making love to Gaia for an indeterminate amount of time, and passing out from
exhaustion for another stretch, my Wednesday started sometime around four in the afternoon. I stumbled out of my tent, collapsed in an empty camp chair, and desperately gulped the coffee Gaia brought to me. When she brought me cup number two, I kissed her hand and smiled. That caused her to bend down and kiss me, each of us taking our time and thoroughly enjoying it.

  Jack, who had already been sitting nearby when I got up and who had been watching my attempts at recovery with obvious humor, raised his eyebrows as Gaia walked away.

  “So, what’s new with you?” he said with a grin.

  “I had a talk with Vincent.” I said coyly.

  “And let me guess,” he said, rolling his eyes, “he said ‘I haven’t done monogamy for over four hundred years, so if you want us to go non-monogamous that’s okay with me’… right?”

  “That’s the gist, yes.” I nodded.

  “And your first polyamorous experience is also your first with a woman.” he added.

  “She and I have a serious past life history.” I said. “And we’ve grown really close in this incarnation, too. I definitely think that, as much as I enjoy sex, that orgasms aren’t enough for me. Even as a non-monogamist. There have to be some severe feelings there.”

  “So I’m not just one of two heterosexual people in the house… with me and Trevor… but now Katsu and I are the only two monogamous people as well.” Jack said, grinning. “It’s not too many places in the world where a het-cis-white guy can be a minority twice over.”

  “Ain’t it great?” I replied, smiling.

  “It’s pretty cool, yeah.” Jack lit a joint and passed me another one.

  “Got a third one?” Raina asked as she walked into the campsite. She was wearing her dance skirt from the night before, but was carrying the rest of her clothes. She plopped down in another unoccupied camp chair and took a drink from her water bottle.