by Nikki Dean
Right on cue, a chipmunk ran across the wooden porch, flicking its tail at them in annoyance. It leapt over the shadows flowing through the door, saw Dice and ran the other way.
Chapter 21
"What the fuck?" Mallory breathed. She let go of Matt and Nico to snatch at the rodent's mind, but it was too terrified to calm down. Not that she blamed the little thing as Dice rose smoothly to his feet and took off after it.
"So, I was wrong?" Matt asked.
Mallory looked back to see that he still had his eyes closed.
"Yeah, I guess it didn't work," she replied. "Oh, well. You guys will just have to trust me. Whatever magic it is, is still connecting Everett and I."
"Well, you should figure out how to disconnect it, and fast," Matt replied. "He's antisocial enough without your webs stalking him in his sleep."
"I still don't think it's me," Mallory replied. "But whatever. I've never been able to control this, it just comes and goes whenever it wants." But the chipmunk sensed it enough to jump, instead of running through it. I wonder why, when no one else seems affected.
"Sounds like you just need to practice more," Damon taunted.
The shadows finally released Everett, folding back in on themselves as they flowed toward her like smoke rolling through the air. It was almost a physical feeling as they let go, like she had stretched just a little too far, and was coming back to neutral.
"They let go. I don't know who released who, but it's done," Mallory said. The tendrils reached out to her, tickling her skin as they reabsorbed.
Alec shuddered and wiped one hand over his forearm.
Did he just feel that? I can't ask, or they'll think I'm crazier than they already do.
"So, when do we get to meet your parents?" Alec asked. "And who are you going to introduce as your boyfriend?"
Mallory froze, caught between Matt’s and Nico's expectant looks. "Um. Both of them?" Who am I going to say is my boyfriend? Can I really say both of them? My parents would never believe that. So who should I choose?
Damon smirked. "Sure. We'll see how that goes." He got up and walked inside.
"It's okay, you know," Matt said grudgingly. "You've been with Nico longer. Your parents probably wouldn't like me if they knew I was the one that made you come to the academy. You can say he's your official boyfriend."
"Let's just cross that bridge when we get to it," Mallory replied. She leaned her head back against Matt's shoulder and he reached up, lightly wrapping his hand around her throat.
"Picking one would be better than having to mentally hear your parents wonder what we do in bed together, right?" Nico teased. "I'm glad I missed that conversation with your brother."
"Eww! My parents would never think of that!" Mallory protested as she elbowed him in the side.
"Everyone thinks that," Alec said immediately. "Don't be dumb."
"You guys are ridiculous. I'm not having this conversation anymore." She stood, dusting off her shorts. Dice slunk back onto the porch, the chipmunk nowhere to be found. "I'm going to bed. You guys hang out here all you want."
"I'll come with you," Matt said, holding a hand up. She reached down and took it, activating Alec's strength magic enough to haul Matt up off the wooden deck. He bounced on his toes a little in surprise.
Alec grinned and held his hands up as well. Mal took them and pulled hard enough to send him flying with a laugh. "Man, I'm never going to get tired of this."
"Glad it makes you happy," she replied and held out a hand to Nico. Nico just smiled and got up on his own.
"Guess it's bedtime for everyone then?"
Alec shrugged and then stretched, his t-shirt riding up on his sculpted belly as he lifted his arms. The weak light filtering out from between Paul's curtains cast shadows across his muscles, highlighting their bulges. Mallory wondered what it would be like to touch them.
Stop it. Two are more than enough. Don't get greedy, Mallory Serra, or this whole thing will blow up in my face, she lectured herself. Still, she'd never seen anyone like Alec before coming to the academy, or since.
Forcing herself to turn and walk inside, she waved at Damon on the couch. Alec plopped down on the floor beside him to watch TV. Everett was nowhere to be seen.
"See you guys in the morning," she said as she led Dice, Matt and Nico to their room. Once in bed, the guys stretched out on either side of her, allowing her to snuggle against one's chest while her legs tangled with the other's.
It was perfect.
* * *
They had to cross the bridge sooner than she anticipated.
Much sooner.
The sound of clanging pans and the smell of bacon woke her up early the next morning. Mallory stumbled out of bed to find her brother and dad sitting on the couch with cups of coffee in their hands, and Alec in the chair across from them. Damon sat on a stool beside the counter bar. Matt and Nico were still in bed where she'd left them. She didn’t see Everett.
"Mallory!" her mother squealed from beside the stove. "Sweetheart, look at you! I'm so glad you're here!"
Look at me is right, Mal thought as she glanced down at herself. She wore threadbare pajama shorts, and was braless beneath Matt's Defense Department tee-shirt. Her hair was probably a mess, too.
Still, her mom pulled her in for a tight hug. Mallory hugged her back, basking in the warmth that her mother somehow always managed to impart.
"Hey, Mom, I'm happy that I'm here, too. I didn't know you were coming by this morning."
"Oh, you know, we drop by sometimes to check on Paul and make sure he's staying out of trouble," her mother replied.
Paul rolled his eyes.
"At seven thirty in the morning on a Saturday? What did he do to deserve that?" she muttered. Her mom glared and Mallory patted her shoulder. "Not that your breakfasts are a punishment or anything, but it's just really early."
Her mother turned back to the stove with a huff and Mal winced. She poured herself a cup of coffee, then took a seat beside Damon at the bar.
Someone moved on her other side and she looked up to see Everett there, looking as perfect as always. His hair was combed and he wore his usual long-sleeve tee over jeans that emphasized his slender build. They weren't skinny jeans, by any stretch of the imagination, but they definitely didn't swallow him up, either.
Why does he always look so damn organized, or something? For once, couldn't he just look messy? Even early in the morning? She took a gulp of her coffee and had to force herself to swallow the hot liquid before she accidentally coughed it out. "Oh my god, it's hot," she wheezed.
"Coffee usually is," Everett deadpanned as he got a cup too. Mallory's mom took the empty pot as soon as he'd set it down and began to prepare a fresh one.
Mallory waited until her mom turned around before she flipped Everett off. He kicked her barstool in retaliation. Damon's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"So, what brings you and your friends to Winn, dear?" her mom asked.
Matt stumbled into the room, his shirt barely over his head as his nose led him to the pot of coffee brewing on the countertop. Mal's mother's eyes went wide as she took in his wide chest and chiseled abs.
"Oh. Good morning," she said.
Matt froze in the act of pulling his shirt on, then quickly tugged it down.
He met her eyes and smiled. "Um, good morning. I'm Matt."
"It's lovely to meet you, Matt, I'm Anna Serra. Mallory's mother."
Mal felt his surprise, but he didn't show it. A breeze gusted through the living room and Nico appeared in the bedroom doorway an instant later, fully dressed.
As in, definitely not wearing the basketball shorts that he'd gone to sleep in. Mallory sent him a surreptitious thumbs-up. My mom is already ogling one boyfriend, there's no need for her to see Nico's dick print through those ridiculously thin shorts he was wearing, too. Or his piercings, since he wasn't wearing a shirt. Which he definitely owes me for later.
He and Matt had had a great time teasing her last night,
showing off the acres of well-muscled flesh between them, fully aware that she wouldn't do anything risqué in her brother's house. The thought of him possibly overhearing them, or worse, walking in, was too terrifying.
Her mom looked like she was already having a hard time forming coherent thoughts as yet another sexy man walked into the kitchen and grabbed a coffee cup.
"Good morning, Mrs. Serra. I'm Nico." He held out his empty hand and she looked at it, flustered. He finally reached over and patted her on the shoulder.
Anna met her daughter's bemused gaze and blushed. "Mallory, did all of them come in from Helston with you? Or are some of you friends of Paul's?"
"Nope, they're all Mal's harem," Paul volunteered. "She's dating like four of them."
Anna blushed and Mallory's dad jerked his head up with a glare. "Don't tease your sister in front of her friends."
"It's true. Mallory, you want to tell them?" Paul asked with a smirk.
I'm going to kill him. Whatever is in this little box can have him, because he's officially dead to me from now on.
"And that's not even the craziest part," Paul continued. "She has a jaguar. Like a real, live jaguar for a pet. That Academy of the Dark Arts sounds pretty wild."
Anna laughed in only half-hidden relief. "A jaguar and a harem. That's quite a story. What did Mallory promise you boys if you played along with her little joke?"
"Well, to tell you the truth..." Matt began.
The timer went off on the stove and Anna turned back to it. She lifted the lids off of two pans, revealing a steaming batch of scrambled eggs beneath one, and what looked like a mountain of bacon beneath the other. Toast was already buttered and piled high on a plate beside the stove.
"I'll make more toast, but come get your breakfast, everyone. There should be enough for all of you. I apologize that I didn't make more, I didn't realize that two more people were asleep in the room with Mallory," Anna trailed off as she realized what she had said.
Mallory did her best to give her mother a reassuring smile, even though she was slowly dying inside. I'm going to kill Paul.
Nico made two plates and set one down in front of Mal. He pulled the third and final barstool out and sat beside her, leaving Matt to claim a place at the breakfast table with a scowl. Anna watched with the beginnings of a worried frown.
"What the hell is that?" Robert, Mallory's dad, cried out as he jumped to his feet. Dice sniffed the air and ignored him as he padded over to Mallory.
"Hey, baby, you want some eggs?" she crooned as he hopped up, putting his front paws onto her thigh. He licked her fingers with enthusiasm. "Mom, Dad, this is Dice. My jaguar."
"Oh." They both stared at her, speechless. She could basically hear their minds whirling as they each wondered what else about the 'story' had been true.
Paul sat back with a shit-eating grin.
"I'm not dating all of them," Mallory finally blurted out. "Just Matt and Nico. The rest of the guys are just friends."
"Oh," Anna said again.
Robert’s mouth opened and closed, then did it again as he tried to figure out what to say. "Get out."
Chapter 22
"Dad!" Mallory cried out in exasperation.
"Don't you tease them like that," Anna exclaimed. "Our Mallory brought home her boyfriends for the first time and you're going to embarrass her. That's lovely, Mallory, and I'm happy to meet all of you."
She tried to give them her warmest smile, but it faltered when met with Everett's stoic expression and the sight of Dice licking Mallory's fingers again.
"It's nice to meet you too," Nico replied. "I apologize that we weren't more prepared for this. We had no idea you were coming today, or we would have been a little more presentable."
Anna's eyes glazed a little as she thought back to Matt's bare stomach. "Don't worry, Nico, is it?"
He nodded.
"Don't worry about any of that. Like Mallory said, it's early. We don't usually come to Paul's at this time, but when we saw his text last night that Mallory was in town for a surprise visit, we thought we should surprise her, as well."
"Paul didn't mention all of you then, just said that she had some friends along from the academy," Robert finished with a sharp look in Paul's direction.
Paul took a sip of his coffee. Robert turned away in irritation and Mallory glared at her older brother. He winked.
I'm going to kill you. Seriously.
Dice grumbled as he picked up on her thoughts and she put on hand on his broad head. Paul paled a few shades.
"We won't be here long," Everett spoke up. "We just came for the weekend, but we are heading back in the morning."
"Oh? What brought you all the way out here?" Anna asked. She edged around Dice to go back into the kitchen and got busy cleaning up. She jumped when Alec reached over her shoulder and took a dirty pan from her hands.
"Don't worry about this. We'll take care of it," he said.
Robert cleared his throat as Anna took a little longer than necessary to respond, struck dumb by the sheer size of the young man standing in front of her.
"Well, aren't you a tall one," Anna murmured. "Thank you."
"Go sit down and have some coffee," Matt said. He allowed her to walk by before he shouldered past Alec to grab more dirty dishes and dump them into the sink. Anna blushed and obeyed, walking out to take a seat at the table. Robert joined her, and Mallory and Nico moved over there as well.
Dice followed her, jumping up into her lap. He ignored Mal's startled oof as he sat on her legs.
Anna cleared her throat as she fiddled with the gold chain around her neck, her eyes never leaving the jaguar. "So, Mallory, how did you come by your new pet? He's rather unusual."
"He's a rescue. Dice wasn't treated very well by his original owners, and Nico and I helped him out," Mallory replied as she ran her hands over the big cat's sides. His head was level with hers, if not a little taller. He settled down, draping himself over her lap while he braced his back feet against the table.
It was a good thing it was an oversized chair.
"He certainly seems comfortable with you," Robert said. "This is your magic, hmm? How long have you known?"
All of the guys perked up around her, waiting for her response. Nico's hand brushed against hers as he reached over to stroke Dice, too.
"Since I was a teenager," she finally answered. "It kind of snuck up on me. I didn't realize that I could do this," she gestured to Dice, "until Scratch, that old tomcat, insisted on moving in."
"I always did wonder about that," Robert admitted. "So you've known the whole time?" He turned to his wife.
She waved her hand, as though to dispel his words. "I suspected, of course, but that's all. There were too many coincidences."
"Aren't you going to ask Paul how long he's known about his magic, too?" Mallory demanded. Ha, payback is a bitch, big brother.
Both of her parents immediately turned to look at Paul with narrowed eyes, and he choked on the dregs of his coffee.
"Is that true, Paul? Have you been lying to me?" their mother demanded.
Oh, shit, I guess she's already asked him about it and he denied it. I guess he'd have to with the tests coming out negative, but still. That's what he gets for being a jerk.
"No!" he protested, his wide eyes and slack jaw giving off a deer-in-the-headlights look. "All of my screening tests were negative, you saw for yourself!"
"Mallory, explain why you'd say something like that," Robert ordered. "It's illegal to hide magic, you know."
"I know, Dad. The negative test is his magic. He's immune to technology, for all practical purposes." And that's what you get for telling them that I have a harem, and am dating four guys at once. If there's ever anything in life that my dad didn't need to think about, it's that.
Their heads swiveled back to Paul. "That true?"
Paul scowled. "Maybe. I don't really know, because my witch screening test came back negative, and I haven't bothered looking into it. If I do have a
ny magical abilities, they suck."
"Is this because you have no soul?" Anna asked. She shrugged at the barks of surprised laughter that echoed around the room. "What? He always used to tell me that the door sensors wouldn't pick him up because he had no soul. So it's become a family joke."
"Yeah, basically," Paul answered with a nod. "I told you it's annoying."
Mallory could feel the disbelief from each of the guys.
"So, he doesn't show up on any kind of surveillance system or motion sensors, and you all just find it annoying? Do you have any idea what you could do with magic like that?" Damon demanded. "The possibilities are endless."
"You may think so, but it all sounds like breaking into places he shouldn't be, or spying," Anna replied. The ice in her voice even made Damon hesitate for a second. "He doesn't need to be forced into the damned Defense Department if he doesn't want to be. My Mallory shouldn't be there, either."
"It's okay, Mom, I like it now," Mal jumped in. "I didn't at first, and I was really pissed about it, but it's not bad. I wouldn't have ever met my new friends without it, and I wouldn't have gotten Dice. My magic is a lot more powerful now. I couldn't have done it without the Academy of Dark Arts."
"They forced you into it though, baby. You didn't have a choice. People have died defending our rights in this country, and a lot more died in the country it used to be. You should be able to choose your own way, and do what you want with your life, instead of having someone else decide that for you. You shouldn't be put into danger just because of one little part of you that can't be helped. It's not your fault that you're a witch. You shouldn't be penalized for it."
"I know, Mom. I felt that way too, at first. But now..." she paused, thinking about how to best break it to them. "I feel like I have a purpose with these guys. Maybe not with the Defense Department, yet, but with my friends, at least. My boyfriends. If I had known two months ago what I know now, I don't think I'd have been so mad about it."
Her mother sniffed in disdain. "You can try to justify it all you want to, Mallory, but the fact remains that you didn't want to go. You didn't choose to put yourself in danger, and even if you're not yet, you will be soon. The Defense Department doesn't value people for who they are, only what they can do."