by Harry Nix
“The question is, how much did the three of you really miss me,” Juno said in a low tone. She held her hands out to Nia and April who seemed to be almost in some kind of hypnotic trance. With a significant look at Alex, she led them down the corridor with him following closely behind. It was only when he got to the bedroom that Alex realized he was still carrying a spoon that was sticky with lemon filling.
Juno had led April and Nia to the end of the bed and was slowly undressing April, who had an apron on over her clothes. Nia seemed to have come out of whatever hypnotic stupor had come over her and was helping, gently pulling April's apron off and then slowly the rest of her clothes. Soon she was naked while the rest of them were still fully dressed. Juno reached behind April’s head and pulled her hair out of its loose ponytail, letting her pink hair fall to her shoulders. As it did, a small piece of dried pastry fell to the floor.
“You smell like a pie,” Juno murmured before kissing April.
Aside from the bed the room was empty entirely of furniture, so Alex had nowhere to put the spoon but on the ground. He gently placed it down and approached his mates, first touching Juno on the back of the neck, and then Nia. Juno turned her attentions to Nia, slowly pulling off her clothes until she too was naked, just like April. Then the three of them turned to Alex, and stripped him out of his clothes slowly and deliberately. Soon there was just Juno fully dressed in amongst the three of them. Occasionally she touched April and then Nia and then Alex.
“I missed all of you so very much. Can you show me how much you missed me?” Juno said.
There was no leaping upon her like the crazy sex of the thrall. Together, the three of them undressed Juno and led her gently to the bed. April lay down beside her and they began kissing, April twining her fingers through Juno's hair. Meanwhile Alex kissed down Juno's body from her collarbone to her breast to the side of her flat stomach. There were the faint bumps of a healing scar there, some new injury Juno had acquired, but it didn't seem to bother her.
Nia had started on the other side of Juno's body, going down past her belly, but then not making it much further. She kissed down to between Juno's legs and soon her kisses turned to licks. In between kissing April, Juno let out a gentle sigh.
“I knew there was a reason I kept you three around,” Juno said in a whisper. Alex lay down and stroked his fingers down Juno's body. She eventually lifted her legs up to give Nia greater access who was licking faster now between kisses. Juno was unable to keep her attention on kissing April, but April kept kissing her on her neck, her earlobe. Alex came to the other side, kissing Juno's neck, nipping her ear, and every now and again, Juno managed to turn and focus enough to kiss him. Between one blink and the next, the first glimmers of red appeared in the air and then there was a sudden flood of them as Juno's breath hitched and she bucked her hips, moaning before eventually pushing Nia away, who retreated to kissing the inside of her thigh before resting her head against it.
“Goddess, that was so good,” Juno breathed. A tear trickled down from the corner of her eye which Alex caught with a kiss on the side of her face. She tasted like salt and smelled like lemon meringue pie.
Time, ever slipping forward, seemed to slow as he and his mates kissed and touched. It was like a repair being done, reacquaintance, a strengthening of the bonds between them after Juno had been gone for so long and they'd feared so greatly for her safety. At some point, the quiet grew noisy, then joking, Juno teasing April about her delicious floor and counter pie, the nymph attempting to give as good as she got before Juno slipped two fingers into her and April lost all of her words with a gasp.
Even in the midst of the sex, Alex finding himself between Juno's legs with her knees pressed to her chest, there was some other part of him witnessing that reconnection. Nia had slept with Juno beside her to keep her safe, and April had cooked, an act of service. Alex had studied, trying to make himself more powerful, but now he could see that was only one of the ways forward. Alone, he was powerful, but with his mates, he could be unstoppable, and with his pack, together they could change the world. There were bursts of green and red as they went round and round, and at some point, Alex found himself laughing, even as Juno pulled him into her, the red shooting out of the air hitting both of them. Eventually, he and his mates were a hot pile of bodies on the bed, gasping for air, warm and safe in their reconnection.
“Dinner is ready now, so stop whatever it is you’re doing down there, like playing chess, and come and eat with us,” Matilda suddenly called from the kitchen and then laughed.
“Okay, I need to see if I can salvage my pie, and you, don’t be gone so long next time,” April said, giving Juno a kiss before lightly slapping her on the cheek. As his mates laughed and talked and got ready, Alex lay back on the bed, knowing that soon he’d be eating and drinking with his pack, and at some point, eating a small piece of lemon meringue pie that had been thrown on the counter.
Today had been a success greater than anything he imagined, but it was still in the back of his mind that he had but one ward on just one home and part of the factory, and surely an attack that killed almost three hundred mages would not go unanswered.
17
The sun was beating down on the empty lot and, as a result, most of the pack were huddled in the scant shade of the trees there, testing the weight of the various lemons, oranges, and rocks that they'd gathered. Alex was standing in the open, regretting his choice to use the empty lot. There hadn’t been much choice though—the factory was like an oven.
He had his spell screens open, going over his newly acquired spells and checking his mana levels. In the three days since Juno had been rescued, Alex had put the empty space in his spell screens to work, learning vertigo, gasp, and also flee, which was given to him by April. They had taken him almost up to his limit, and if he wanted to learn more spells he’d have to work out how to compress others or delete them entirely.
Vertigo he’d studied plenty of times. The best he could see, it screwed with the inner ear, producing stomach-churning nausea and causing the victim to trip. Gasp affected the lungs and throat, cutting off the source of their air and was different than most other spells in that it required a constant charge to continue to work. Since he'd obtained them, Alex had been eagerly studying them, trying to tease out what each section did to see if he could cut it and use it for new spells. The final spell, flee, was one April had used out in their territory after Alex had accidentally set a forest fire. It was mind magic, as April described it, and incredibly dangerous, and the opening lesson to it was her smacking him in the face pre-emptively and telling him not to screw with it, not to experiment with it, and that if she found out he had, the consequences would be severe. Flee was a much larger spell than almost anything else he had, with incredibly complex structures and code Alex had never seen before. Usually, when he read through code, he could get some sense of what it was trying to do or even a vague feeling, but there were huge chunks of the spell that were simply gibberish to him. As April explained it, it worked on the mind and what was the mind but an artifact of the brain? It induced fear, working incredibly well on animals, only about half power on werewolves, and hardly at all on humans.
Today they were in the empty lot so Alex could test out his new spell innovations and get in some training. After finally getting some time alone, Alex had spent it experimenting, merging spells together or intensifying them. He’d managed to throw a ball of electricity out of the factory that had shorted out their homes and blown the power transformer down the road. He'd also had some screw-ups. Curious to see what would happen, he made a copy of his analyze spell and then mixed in a lightning bolt symbol. Then he’d cast it, intending to analyze a ring, and woken up on the floor, his teeth still buzzing, and his muscles twitching from the electric shock he gave himself. Not all spell combinations were useful.
Alex guessed if he put that lightning bolt into other spells like haste, or put the fire symbol into it, it would result in dangerous t
hings like being incredibly fast but being on fire at the same time.
Alex checked through his manas one more time. The sex magic in red was full to the top. His natural mana was about three-quarters full, still recovering after him spending part of the day enchanting rings. Nature in green was full and so was death, as a result of him filling it after they killed the Ignis mages. Pain was about half full, which was frustrating to Alex as he was still unconsciously drawing on his own pain from wounds sustained in battle. The lure of it had decreased in recent weeks, but the urge was still there. Although pain was useful, it wasn't so useful as to risk the addiction.
Alex was doing one last check of everything when Jacob strolled out into the hot sun, tossing a large orange from hand to hand. He was in hybrid form as the empty lot they were in had a high fence. They were hidden, so the Great Barrier left them alone.
“I’m ready,” Alex called out. Jacob grinned and got ready for the windup but then Juno walked out and put her arm around Jacob's shoulders.
“Okay, Jacob, you need to listen to me,” Juno said. Behind her, Alex saw Yvonne screw up her face, a clear look of jealousy on it. It was an incredibly hot day and Juno wasn't wearing much at all; her top incredibly low-cut and her skirt incredibly high. Although Jacob was in hybrid form, Alex thought he saw his face turn slightly red as Juno wrapped her arm around Jacob's shoulders, the werewolf having to hunch down to her level and getting an eyeful of her cleavage.
“I know what you’re thinking. Take that orange and throw it straight at the center mass. That's a good thought. Going to center mass is always good for the kill shot; less chance to miss. But I want to give you some options, something to think about. Look up from that chest to his face. I know, nondescript. It’s tempting to throw the orange at that face of his and there are many reasons to throw the orange at the face. But that head is ninety-five percent bone. You hit him with an orange and he’s gonna get right back up. But go from the middle down, between those legs, you could cripple him. So, think about it, Jacob, go for the head or go for the other head and you might be able to take him down,” Juno said. She winked at Alex and then let Jacob go.
“Thank you, my dear, I love you too,” Alex called out. Nia and April were sitting under the nearest tree, both of them grinning. Alex looked back at Jacob, who was grinning now too.
“Choose whatever you want, Jacob, but remember we’re still going be in the same pack together,” Alex called out.
“Go!” Juno suddenly shouted out. Jacob threw the orange with such blinding speed that Alex wasn't exactly sure which head he had aimed for. Thankfully, he managed to get his shock shield up, the orange hitting it and breaking into pieces and splattering as electricity shot through it.
The shock shield used up more mana than flame shield for some reason, and Alex supposed it was because the offensive backlash of it was greater so he had to be careful to watch it. He didn't have much time to consider things as the rest of the pack suddenly joined in, hurling oranges, lemons, and rocks. His shock shield failed after about five seconds but he managed to get flame shield up, though not before taking a lemon in the face at high speed, the fruit bursting on his forehead and knocking him over in the dust. Alex managed to change the fall into a roll and jumped back up but he now had lemon juice running down to his eyes, and because it was on his skin, flame shield did nothing to get rid of it.
“And the werewolf goes down!” Juno called out. This was just stage one of the training and testing, the rest of the pack grinning as they threw lemons and oranges and rocks, and Alex doing his best to fend them off with a combination of shield, flame shield, and shock shield. After a few moments Juno waved her arm, signaling round two, and the werewolves picked up assorted wooden fence palings they’d gathered from surrounding homes, advancing on Alex from all sides.
“Vertigo,” Alex called out as he cast the spell.
He hit Jeremiah square on, and the werewolf toppled sideways as though he was suddenly walking on the deck of a ship that was being flung about on the high seas. Alex cast it again, noting the chunk of mana it took, taking down Matilda who, although she hit the ground, managed to keep crawling towards him. Alex drew on the nature magic, charging it and flinging vertigo as fast as he could. He hit three werewolves in quick succession, dropping them to the ground before he switched to his next spell, calling out “Gasp.”
Gasp wasn't so good at crowd control as he could only cast it on one werewolf at a time. River had been the brave volunteer for it, and although he didn't fall to the ground, the look on his face showed that he wasn’t enjoying it, even as he continued advancing on Alex. Before the pack could get too close, Alex let gasp go, watching River recover.
This would be the first time he'd cast flee, and he had no idea how much magic it would use, although April had said it was a lot. He got himself ready. Flee had an interesting aspect to it—before casting he could set its duration. April had warned him about exceeding five seconds, as the power usage grew exponentially for novice casters.
Alex set the timer for five seconds and cast the spell. Flee immediately swallowed all of his natural mana in a gulp and then three-quarters of the sex magic, the red bar disappearing.
Alex felt the spell like a great and heavy thing pluming out from him. A water balloon thrown, splashing outwards. The look of panic that he saw come over his pack was both great and terrible. It was good it worked, but bad to see them so scared. A few of the pack took steps away, gritting their teeth through the fear while the others were frozen to the spot, unable to advance closer. Alex saw Nia baring her fangs at him, holding hands with Juno on one side and April on the other. The witch and the nymph seemed relatively unaffected.
The spell canceled when it hit the time limit, and everyone relaxed. It was then, standing in the boiling hot sun, still with lemon juice on his face, that Alex caught the slightest hint of that elusive feeling, the one he’d sensed at the compound. Casting flee on his pack had disrupted some kind of equilibrium or harmony. Spirits had been high since Juno had been recovered and they’d won the battle, but Alex could feel that casting flee on his pack had done some kind of damage.
The feeling was so slight, so weak, compared to at the compound because his pack was small. Alex focused on it, and then, feeling slightly stupid, tried to imagine good things, pushing them down the thin connection. Lemon meringue pie, drinking, eating meat, and hunting. He only had a hold on that feeling for a moment before it slipped out from under him, but it was enough to change the mood of the werewolves, who went from slightly distressed to calm again and feeling happy.
“I think we need another party,” River said aloud. The assembled werewolves cheered. Alex went with it, the mood of the pack happy. They’d just had a party recently to celebrate Juno returning, but why not? He was advancing in leaps and bounds, and besides, feeling the mood of the pack go down like that made him want to push it back up again.
They all got out of the hot sun, Jeremiah and some others leaving to buy air conditioners for their stifling homes.
It was only just past midday, and Alex quickly gathered that by party, River essentially meant let's get inside and drink a lot of cold beer. He was going to join them, but first, he went back out to the factory and to the small office where there was a collection of rings and wands that they'd recovered from the Ignis compound.
Alex was examining a wand with an unknown spell on it when Jeremiah came into the office, back from the shopping trip.
“There’s a pack of werewolves a few streets away. We just came across them. There are at least fifty and they say they want to join you.”
Alex let analyze go and closed up his spell screens.
“To join our pack? You think that's what they’re really doing?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “They’d be stupid wandering the burning hot streets for any other reason. They say they're from a pack that lost their alpha and also some to the blood golem. I told them to stay where they were so they wouldn't trigger t
he house ward. More pack members would be a good thing but it’s also worrying that they knew where to look for us, even roughly.”
“Let's go meet them. We’ll take half the pack,” Alex said. He grabbed the boxes of various rings that sat on the desk and carried them out back to the front of the house where Jeremiah, anticipating Alex's command, had already assembled part of the pack. They passed the new rings out, the shock shields. Now every adult werewolf had healing flame rings, fireball, the ability to throw a shockball, a flame shield, and the electric shield. Alex was starting to wonder how many rings any single werewolf could wear and began to understand why mages had amulets, brooches, and bracelets as well as magic woven into their very clothing. Nia kissed Alex welcome and said she’d be coming along.
There were too many of them to take the car, so they walked in the heat, taking close to an hour to find the pack of werewolves. They'd done exactly as Jeremiah had commanded, staying exactly where they were, which was out in the middle of the street. They were all in human form and some of them looked quite sunburned. Alex saw immediately that they were significantly outnumbered, but of course, these werewolves had no leader and he and his pack had magic on their side.
Alex and his pack came close enough to talk. There was a woman standing at the front of the pack, and Alex guessed she was perhaps the de facto leader, so he looked to her. Her saw her clothes were ragged and stained, and she looked like she’d missed a few good meals.
“I understand you want to join my pack,” Alex said.
“If you're Alex Lowe, yes we do. You’re the werewolf who kills mages and takes their land,” the woman said. Although at first she appeared dirty and hungry, her voice was strong and carried well. Alex glanced over the assembled werewolves, doing a quick count. Jeremiah had been right, exactly fifty on the dot. There were thirty men and twenty women but no children. There were no elderly either. Most of the pack in front of him looked between twenty and forty, and he saw some of them had wounds that were only a day or so old.