A Fine Necromance

by Lidiya Foxglove

  “Someone expected this, I think,” Harris said, locking eyes with his cousin. He walked up the steps, deftly dodging the spot where Alec had thrown up on the steps. Piers definitely looked calm for what had just happened.

  “Alec Lyrman rejected the purification,” Piers said. “This only proves our methods. His inner nature was corrupt and it seems we were not able to save him. He is lost to Sinistral now.”

  “You drove him to it,” Harris said. “Alec was about the most decent person I know!”

  “He made his choice, and he chose darkness,” Professor Pacetti said. “If he comes back I’d be happy to go a second around and obliterate him.”

  A lot of the students were murmuring nervously about this turn of events.

  “No more questions!” Piers said, throwing up his hands.

  “Hey—cousin,” Harris said. “When you’re considering what to tell the council, don’t forget to lie. Tell them Alec was always trouble, that the purification spell failed because he was the one who was tainted. Don’t mention that you forced him into a spell that wasn’t tested because you wanted to show off. Cover your own ass.”

  “Your friend,” Piers said, “was a demon. I think you just don’t want to face it.” He stormed off, cape fluttering.

  I looked at Montague. “Where did Alec go?”

  “The only place he can go, now,” Montague said. “Sinistral.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Alec

  Where am I?

  Who am I?

  I tore away from the world I knew and landed in a world that was strange and shadowed. My wings were shaky and I hit the ground so hard that I felt bruised and broken even though my body seemed even bigger and stronger than before. I was in a forest, and glowing eyes peered out from the trees.

  I heard a scream.

  “Melanie!”

  My familiar was in her human form, and some kind of slithering dragon-y looking creature was snapping its jaws at her. I clambered to my feet, picked a huge fallen branch off the forest floor, and slammed it into the dragon’s head. Hard headed as it was, the branch cracked, but it seemed stunned and scared, and hauled ass back into the woods.

  Melanie, meanwhile, had collapsed to the ground. Her skin had turned white as a sheet.

  “Melanie?” I scooped her up in my arms.

  “Alec…” She smiled weakly. “You’ve certainly grown up nice and strong. I helped you grow up. Charlotte is waiting for you. I’m not in any pain, so don’t be sad, okay?”

  “What are you talking about? Are you hurt?”

  Melanie brushed her hand across my cheek as her body seemed to get lighter and lighter in my arms. She started fading away. Her body just…vanished.

  “Melanie! Melanie! Where are you?” I screamed, knowing it was futile. Shouldn’t she have just turned Sinistral?

  I looked at my arms, still marked with tattoos, but they were stretched a little thinner across my larger arms.

  Demons didn’t have familiars. I must have…lost what was human, instead of what was dark.

  If that was true…

  It must be true. Melanie was the proof.

  All the discipline and hard work I had put into embracing my warlock side and making my dad proud—gone. The companion who had seen me through my childhood and teenage years, the little spider on my shoulder who was shy and wise, but could also be playful and who once said, “Alec, let me…,” as she brushed a frail human hand over my shoulder, encouraging me to relieve my tensions with her…

  Melanie had never been my lover, despite the fact that we had sex. But I did love her. Every wizard loved their familiar; it was the most private and intimate relationship we would have, shared with no one else.

  Sinistral was my home now, and this was what I was.

  But I didn’t really have a home. I had no place to rest my head.

  I heard crows screeching ominously from the trees. The rustling and movement of disconcertingly large creatures in the dark brush. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that I was watched by scaled and furred creatures.

  A nymph melted from the trees, appearing to me naked, her hair to her knees. “Are you lost?” The sound she made was like a purr as she came to me boldly and trailed her fingertips over my bare chest, making me shiver with need. Her hand dropped to my pants, ripping off the remains of the half-shredded fabric, and wrapped around my cock. It had grown with the rest of me and I thought, this is too much for Charlotte now.

  In the Fixed Plane, I would still take my human form, but I would no longer be able to use my warlock powers in the Fixed Plane. The power of a demon became very limited in the human world.

  “No,” I said, trying to shove the nymph away. “I already have a girl.”

  Her laugh was like a little whispering hiss. “I see no girl here,” she said, her hand gripping me even tighter than before. She opened her mouth wide, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth.

  “Oh fuck!” I tried to shove her back again, and her hand sprouted claws that pricked into my tender skin. I had no choice but to fight her, scraping her arm with my own claws and using the full force of my strength to throw her off. She screeched, jumping onto me and biting my shoulder, tearing out a chunk of flesh.

  I slammed my shoulder into the nearest tree, and then ran back to the clearing where I had landed, spreading my wings and taking shaky flight just to get away from her. My heart was pounding.

  The crows took off from the tree, following me, landing on me to peck at my skin. I dodged, shaking them off, grabbing a few off my head and throwing them, but lost control of my wings, crashing through the trees.

  I lay there, panting. I tried to get back to the Fixed Plane. I didn’t know how to leave this place.

  “Char! Charlotte!” I called her name. She was my anchor. “How do I get out of here…”

  I saw the crows whirling back down toward me.

  Before they could land, a blast of fire scorched them right out of the sky. A woman appeared like she came out of nowhere. For a second, I saw the long brown hair, slightly windswept, and the curve of familiar eyebrows and the particular tilt of a nose, and I thought Charlotte was there, wearing a black dress with long sleeves and a tulle skirt.

  “You stopped pretending,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You stopped pretending to be a nice little college boy,” she said. “I told you this is what you were meant to be. The Ethereals were just holding you back.”

  “You’re…Charlotte’s mom, aren’t you?”

  She nodded and crouched near me. I started to try to move into a more modest position, and she smiled. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “You’re an incubus. Your assets are your magic. You might as well use it.” She smoothed her skirts, looking briefly pensive. “Alec, is it…?”

  “Alec,” I confirmed.

  She made me nervous, Charlotte’s mom. What did it do to a witch to be in Sinistral for so long? I saw sadness in her eyes.

  “She was a baby once, in my arms…newborn. Evan put on music, right away, trying to make a musician out of her. And I marked her with a binding to keep her magic safe. We all try to make our children be what we wish them to be, but you become what you truly are when you are free of us…”

  “What about you?” I asked. “Is that why you’re here? Are you what you truly are?”

  “The Ethereals are like parents who never let you go,” she said. “They tell you what to do until they day you die. I don’t want Charlotte to be a part of that world. Alec…please. Tell her to come here and be with us. Montague and Firian could be here too. I am so proud of her already. I have watched her from afar, and knowing that she has gone for what she wants and ignored the voices that try to oppress her… She would be a wonderful Sinistral witch and no one will ever try to control her again.”

  “So…what about her dad?” I was chilled by the distance in her voice, the yearning in her eyes.

  A little chill passed over her. “I can’t. He’s happi
er without me.”

  “He wouldn’t be happy without her,” I said. “Charlotte loves her dad. I wish I was as close to my dad. And he still loves you, too, from everything I’ve heard.”

  “He doesn’t. He couldn’t.”

  “Sure he could.”

  She shook her head quickly, drawing back. I was scaring her in some way.

  “What about Wyrd?” I asked. “You were trying to get there, right? With Samuel and Ignatius?”

  She looked troubled. “The faeries are impossible,” she said. “They are too cold. They have no passion. They don’t understand humanity—or demons, either. This is the only place where you can be completely free…”

  Alec…

  I felt Charlotte, heard her call my name from some place that had been distant, and suddenly became close enough to touch. My body caught fire at the sound of her voice, and I felt power uncoiling from inside me, reaching out to make her mine. I would be stronger with every taste of her.

  Sinistral melted away, replaced by the sight of Charlotte in her bed. She opened her eyes slowly. “Alec…”

  She was dreaming, but more than dreaming, pushing off the covers to reveal the cotton shirt and underwear clinging to her fertile curves as her eyed widened with a mixture of anticipation and fear at the sight of me.

  I wondered if some of her mother’s words were right, after all.

  This is what you were meant to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Charlotte

  He came to me when I slept.

  Like I thought he would.

  Like I feared he would.

  Like I knew he would.

  There was still some of Alec in his eyes, but also a lot of…something that was not Alec. He stood over my bed, muscular and huge, with dark bat wings spread behind him, his black hair tousled by the newly sprouted horns on his head, and then there was the lashing length of his tail. Plus, he was naked, and he looked like he was meant to be naked. Like, I could hardly imagine dressing him in anything. The tattoos seemed like adornment enough. His cock was the size of a small arm, erect and pulsing.

  His hands were spread, his chest rising and falling with quickened breath. “I need you, Charlotte. I have so much to tell you and I can’t think of a single word.”

  He stepped closer to me and I felt legitimately a little terrified. I mean, it was Alec. But also, this was like—a legit demon. I shied back a little.

  “Don’t be afraid.”

  “I’m—I’m not sure if I can—uh…”

  “You can and you will. If I can’t have you, I will lose myself to Sinistral. I can’t undo this.”

  He pulled me up off my bed and took me onto his lap, holding me tenderly, folding his wings around me. His claws gripped the neck of my t-shirt and tore it off, and then he held my breast, pinching it as he kissed me from shoulder to ear all the way to my eyes.

  “You’re mine,” he said. “I have to have you now.”

  He took control of my body. He gripped my breasts as his powerful thighs moved beneath mine and shoved them open so he could enter me. I screamed as his demon cock drove into me, but this was still a dream.

  There was just enough dream, just enough to bridge reality, and it felt like my entire body was nothing but a place for him to enter. It seemed like I could feel him just a little deeper inside me than any man could go. He lifted my breasts, contorting me back across his arm so he could suckle them as he fucked me. Somehow it seemed like it was his dream and it worked.

  In fact, even as I considered this, I realized the room we were in was full of large mirrors with gilded frames, as if we were a Renaissance painting. I could see myself in the glow and shadow, my spine curved back, my legs spread wide as his cock split me open, my hair spilling across my shoulders, and his body—huge and dark, his wings folded over me. His tail slithered inside my ass like it belonged there, his clawed hand rubbing between my legs, and I was getting fucked so silly I think I drooled a little.

  My first orgasm didn’t even make him pause. He seemed to release some extra scent that kept me aroused, and now he took my small hands in his and lifted them into the air, guiding them behind me to tug on his hair, which I did—hard.

  He grunted like a beast as he switched position—oh god—his cock now sliding into my ass while his tail wormed its way into me.

  “It’s a dream, Charlotte,” he said. “It’s all a dream. So don’t ask me to clean you up.”

  This was one crazy dream. I started almost blacking out, as the second orgasm crashed over me, my entire body spent. I woke drenched in sweat and aching deep inside.

  “Oh god…” My heart was racing. “Oh wow…oh, Alec…”

  Emotion overwhelmed me, and I wanted to cry, but instead I just fell back asleep. When I woke up I found that I had somehow written a note in my sleep to myself from Alec.

  I encountered your mom in Sinistral. She still wants you to come to Sinistral with her, but she seems afraid that you might not accept her in your own world. I think there really is hope for her, Charlotte.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Charlotte

  My dad called that morning. Brandon from the room closest to the house phone came upstairs to tell me.

  I don’t want to talk him!

  That was my first thought. It was the only time I had ever not wanted to hear from my dad, and I was horrified at myself.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said, picking up the heavy old receiver which Brandon had left dangling after walking downstairs on slightly shaky legs.

  “Hey, you must be really busy at school,” he said. “I haven’t heard from you in a while. Just checking in.” I could hear concern between his lightness.

  Guilt pierced me. I clutched my head. My brain was a stew of—Alec—incubus—faeries—Mom—battling demons—

  We were all upset, but none of us knew what to do. Daisy felt like it was her fault because Piers forced her to cast a spell to find the Wyrd tree. And what had been done to Alec couldn’t be taken back.

  “I’m so sorry, Dad, it really has been just like, a heavy workload.”

  “I guess that’s how college should be,” he said.

  There was a weird pause. I think we could both read each other too well.

  “Dad—just to update you—Alec saw Mom. Like, she—uh—she appeared to him and they talked for a sec. She still thinks I should join her in Sinistral and obviously I won’t do that, but Alec said also she seemed…” I didn’t want to say ‘sad’ and worry him. “…open to the idea of…”

  “Where was she?” he asked, as I stammered.

  “Oh, like, one of the magical realms or whatever.”

  “Alec was in Sinistral?” he asked. “I know she can’t go to Etherium.”

  “Wow, you know more about this than I thought! Yeah, he was, since he’s half demon—”

  “I didn’t realize he was half demon.”

  “Yes. I thought I mentioned that! Half demon, yes, so, he can go—anywhere, I guess, so—he goes to other realms, sometimes, for like, business. Warlock business. We all can, so…”

  “Why was he in Sinistral? I thought it was dangerous there.”

  “He was—he was looking for her, so—mission accomplished!”

  “Kiddo, I hate to tell you, but you sound like that Kristen Wiig character who lies about everything.”

  “What!”

  Son of a bitch, I thought. What am I supposed to tell my dad? What? Hey, Dad, actually, we’re all going to fight a demon at the end of this year, but it’s okay, the vampires and old warlocks and faerie lord are going to do most of the work, supposedly. I’ll probably die but I’m doing it anyway, especially now, because Alec said Mom seems sad. And then what? I don’t know. Doesn’t matter because again, we’re probably going to die and you’ll be all alone.

  I cheaped out and just started crying.

  “Char, do I need to come and get you? Are those boys treating you right?”

  “Yeah, no, it’s just college, lots of
stress…”

  When I hung up, I felt terrible. This was what I had turned into. Someone who lied to my dad. It felt like I had traded the person I loved the most for everything else. Professor Adams warned us about making bargains with magical beings, but I didn’t even have to get that far. Just having the magic was a bad bargain already.

  “Your wand, my lady.” Montague walked up to my door and held my wand out to me as I was doing yoga to calm my focus.

  “What? How did you get it back?” I clamored out of my floor twist and wrapped my hands around the wood. Immediately, I felt it hum in synch with me, and I felt centered again. “How did you get it?”

  “Firian deserves equal credit,” Montague said. “He was watching Piers.”

  “Piers took your wand into the woods to use it to find the tree,” Firian said.

  “So I followed him and used my vampire compel skills to demand the wand. It couldn’t have been easier,” Montague said, handing it to me with a flourish. “We’re not so helpless after all.”

  It was nothing compared to Alec being lost to Sinistral, but it did make me feel a teensy bit better. “But I can’t just walk around with the wand or he’ll take it back. We need to get it out of here. Maybe Professor McGuinness could keep it for me.”

  “We’ll take another road trip, then,” Montague said.

  “Before he snaps out of it,” Firian said.

  “He won’t snap out of it,” Montague said. “I’m getting better at compel.”

  “We’ll see,” Firian said.

  I smuggled my wand under my cape into Montague’s car and I sure hope Montague’s compel magic really was working, because he also had to compel the guards to let us leave. The school was operating under ‘high security protocol’ ever since the demonification of Alec.