Dark Magic

by Cali Mann

  Greer

  When we’d gotten far enough away last night, the guys had called a cab and we’d gone back to their apartment. I couldn’t believe that they’d somehow broken through the barrier between them and now knew about each other. They took turns talking, and it was clear to me from the tone and style, who said what. The curse was still there. I could see the tendrils of magic clinging to them, but somehow they were cohabiting peacefully.

  I scooted up and leaned against the headboard, enjoying the feel of the still-warm sheets around me. They’d taken their time washing me last night, and then they’d taken me to bed. The combination of Seb’s careful gentleness and Bash’s command had given me more orgasms than I’d ever imagined. Then I’d donned Bash’s tee shirt and fell asleep snuggled against him.

  I was torn about whether I wanted them to break the curse and remerge. Would they be different? Would the combined Sebastion care about me less? I’d miss Bash’s winks and Seb’s lectures equally, but it couldn’t be good for me to stay around so much dark magic all the time. But also, it wasn’t really my decision. Seb and Bash had lived as separate people for more than twenty years. They definitely had their own opinions on everything and I had no right to take that choice away from them.

  “Breakfast in bed?” Seb said, sliding the tray across my knees. It was laden with fresh-squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.

  I grinned at him. “It looks amazing.”

  With a Bash-like wink, he pulled a mug of coffee from behind him and set it in my hands. The smell of hot milk and dark coffee met my nose and I sighed. I took a sip and groaned. “Delicious.”

  “I’m sure it’s not your dads’ quality,” Seb said, ducking his head.

  I grabbed his hand and interlaced our fingers. “Thank you.”

  He beamed.

  For too long, both of them had been missing love and companionship. They’d each been lonely without knowing what or who they were lonely for. “Have you thought about the curse removal?”

  They settled in next to me on the bed. “We have been apart for a long time.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “Do you have an opinion? Would it be easier to love only one of us?” I could hear a note of Bash’s insecurity in the question.

  I took their hands in mine. “I love you both equally.” I met their eyes. “But it’s not a decision I can make.”

  “How would we do it?” Seb asked. “Would you have to handle dark magic?”

  The worry in his voice warmed my heart. To think that we’d been strangers a few short weeks ago, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without him. “I called my mom.”

  Bash squeezed my hand.

  “She said she knows how to do it and she’ll help.” I nibbled on my lip, looking at our entwined hands. “But it can be done only once.”

  “But we’ll be safe from people like Fiona and her master,” Seb asked. “Because Bash will be integrated?”

  I nodded.

  “Then we should do it,” he said. “We’ll all be safer—you from the dark magic and Bash from corruption.”

  “It has to be done on Halloween night,” I said.

  “That’s soon,” Bash said, the undercurrent of unease still in his voice.

  “Bash, what’s worrying you?” I asked.

  His red-rimmed vampire eyes took on an almost puppy dog look. He grimaced as if it pained him to speak of it, but eventually he murmured, “I . . . don’t want to be erased.”

  “You won’t be,” I said, hugging him. “You’ll be whole.”

  * * *

  We met my mother in a clearing in the woods. My mother said she knew just the spot for the ceremony since she’d gone to college here. We’d taken a cab to the nearest intersection, and then hiked in, our backpacks full of the candles and herbs she said we needed.

  I wiped a hand across my brow. As much as I worried about Seb and Bash and whether this ceremony would go the right way, I was also nervous about seeing my mom. I’d been twelve the last time we had connected, and our phone conversations since then had been brief and perfunctory. We entered the clearing and she turned from the stump she’d been facing. She didn’t look evil; she just looked like me. Same dark hair, when I hadn’t dyed it green, same full lips and gray eyes; even our heights were similar. She wore a long dress, plain and purple in the darkening light.

  “Hi, Greer,” she said, her voice softer than mine. “And boys.”

  “Mom,” I said, but I didn’t know what else to say and blurted, “Nice to see you.”

  She smiled. “I’ve missed you.”

  My heart squeezed. Truth be told, I’d missed her too. It’d been hard to go from having someone at my side my whole childhood to never seeing them again. My dads said it was for the best, that dark magic was too dangerous, but I’d just been a little girl who missed her mom. “Me too.”

  Mom opened her arms and I moved toward her, wanting to hug her, but as soon as I got close, I saw them. Her whole being was covered in dark magic fuzzies. They coated her like a spider attack or something. I didn’t even have to open my third eye to see them. Even the pure vampires hadn’t been as bad as this, and they were made of dark magic. I stopped a few feet from her.

  Seb came forward and took my hand again in his, being my strength. I smiled at him gratefully. I opened my mouth, ready to ask her about the spell and what we needed to do, but instead, I asked, “Why dark? Why’d you get involved with it?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Power.”

  I scowled at her. “You lost me and dad and our life together.”

  “Your dad left me long before I embraced the dark,” she said, pacing in front of us. “And I’ve always been too ambitious for a quiet little life like that.”

  “And me?”

  Sadness infused her face. “I didn’t want to abandon you. I tried to be there for you, but they wouldn’t let me.”

  “Because of all this?” I waved my hand at the darkness coating her dress.

  She lifted her chin. “If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to help you now. The light magic would never have enough strength to undo a curse like this.”

  I sighed. I had come to her, not Dad or Papa, when I’d realized what needed to be done and we were here, making a sacrifice on Halloween night, to save my men. “What needs to be done?”

  She gestured to some wood that needed to be built into a fire and some items that needed to be arranged at the four corners. The guys and I set to work.

  My feelings were all mixed up. Worry for the guys, and a kind of mourning for Seb and Bash as individuals, combined with disgust and sadness for my mother, who’d given up everything to chase power. And was she really that much stronger? While I could see the darkness, I didn’t feel her power the way I could from Dad or Papa or any of the other witches I knew.

  Mom murmured some words over the herbs on the stump and they brightened, letting out their pungent scents—sage, mugwort, and lavender. She’d set a white candle in the middle of the stump and in the grass nearby was a ring of salt. I nibbled on my lip as I set out the handful of dirt for earth and Seb lit the flame for fire nearby. Nothing so far looked very different from the way that I would have done the spell, but she’d insisted that we both needed to be present, to represent the two sides of Seb and Bash, the light and the dark.

  I jerked my head up when something moved in the brush near me, but when I peered closer, I couldn’t see anything. The sun had sunk, and the clearing was lit only by the stars above and the fire we’d built. I still shivered, and Seb wrapped his arms around me.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I’m scared, worried, and a little sad,” I said as honestly as I could. “But yeah, I’m okay.”

  He squeezed me, and I let myself sink into his arms.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “And Bash?”

  “No,” Bash whispered in my ear. “But we trust you.”

  I glanced over to where my mother was working. “And
my mom?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  She looked up at us and nodded. “It’s time. Are you ready?”

  We moved over next to the stump.

  She reached out and took Bash’s hand. Meeting his eyes, she asked, “Are you sure this is what you want, vampire?”

  He glanced at me, grimacing. “Yes.”

  “Okay, let me speak to the other one.”

  Seb came forward and his whole demeanor changed.

  “And you, human, do you also wish this?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Seb said firmly.

  “Then stand over there in the circle of salt,” she said with a gesture.

  He followed her commands.

  She beckoned me, and I went to her. Handing me the sage, she said, “Cleanse the circle.”

  I did so, lighting the sage, and walking around Seb and Bash’s circle.

  Mother began to chant. The energy began to rise around us. Unlike when I cast spells, it didn’t come from her body, her essence, it came from the trees and the woods and the earth below us. A hawk cried out in the distance, but she didn’t stop.

  I started my part of the verse, my eyes going to Seb and Bash in the circle. This had been their choice; they wanted it. I would have happily lived with them as two beings sharing one body, but I understood wanting to merge. No more exhaustion for Seb, when Bash went on his nightly jaunts. No more boredom for Bash when Seb spent hours studying and grading papers. And even if Fiona had said anything to the master, he would no longer be a threat because Sebastian as a whole would have too much good in him.

  The energy rose around us, and the guys stood perfectly still in their circle. I didn’t know what it would look like when it happened. Would there be some explosion or would they be in pain? I couldn’t believe in all my concern, I hadn’t even thought to ask. The storm of power grew and grew, with Mom and I pouring our energies into it. I chanted louder, unable to even hear my words above the whirling wind. My hair whipped around me, and my voice grew hoarse, but I knew that I couldn’t stop. This was their one chance to be whole again.

  The bleat of a goat echoed in the wind, and I looked around, careful not to stop chanting. The wind battered me, but I could see my mother bend down, something white in her arms.

  Her words carried on the breeze. “A life for a life is harvested. A deal struck and spirit tied to form.”

  That wasn’t the chant we were supposed to be doing. The one I dared not stop repeating. She was doing something else, something dark. The goat’s blood spilled over her hands and she raised them in the air, yelling, “Accept my sacrifice!”

  My vision blurred and I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. The wind died down, and my chant slowed to a stop. When I looked again, two men stood in salt circles on the ground. Identical twins except that one had dark eyes rimmed in red, and the other, cobalt blue eyes. I gasped, not sure what to think. Swinging toward my mother, I saw that her spot was empty. Where she’d stood, a white goat lay on the ground, dead. The candle on the stump had gone out and my mother was nowhere to be seen.

  I said the words, parting the salt circles, and Seb and Bash came immediately to my side.

  “Are you okay?” Seb asked while Bash inspected me for any injury.

  I stared at them, and then glanced at the goat, and back to them. “What happened?”

  Bash looked a little guilty, rubbing his toe in the dirt. “She asked me, before when we were setting up, if I really wanted to be merged and if I loved you.”

  “And you said yes,” Seb said.

  Bash shook his dark head. “I do love Greer, but I didn’t want to be part of you, Seb. We’d been separated for over twenty years. We’re different people now.”

  “But you’ll be a vampire forever,” I said.

  He shrugged. “Not so bad really.”

  “And the master?” Seb asked.

  “If he comes,” I said, reaching for their hands. “Then we will face him together.”

  Bash smiled. “And anyone else who challenges us.”

  I looked over at the goat again. Blood poured out onto the grass, and its eyes were closed. It was a clean cut, unlike Fiona’s presents that had been meant to cause pain to the animal and to Bash. “What did she do?”

  “A sacrifice,” Seb said, swallowing. “The ancient Celts would do them to receive great power.”

  “So she sacrificed the goat for a second body,” I said slowly, “but where did she go?”

  “Go?” Bash asked. “I expect she fled, knowing you wouldn’t want to be involved in dark magic. And if anything is dark magic, ritual sacrifice is.”

  “Darker than dark,” Seb said. “It’s been said to tear away a part of your soul.”

  I stared at him. “How do you know that?”

  A blush rose in his cheeks. “She asked me too.”

  “If you wanted to be merged?” Bash asked.

  Seb nodded.

  “And you said yes?” I asked.

  He looked down at his feet and shook his head. “No. I have my own life to lead. I’d be a different person if I were half Bash.”

  I gaped at both of them. “You both told her that you really didn’t want the merge?”

  “Yes,” they said.

  “And she told you she’d do this?” I asked.

  They both looked at their feet, as guilty as a couple of schoolboys who’d been caught pulling a prank.

  “Sort of,” Seb said. “She mentioned how it might be done. How it took a great deal of dark magic and a sacrifice.”

  “Yeah,” Bash said. “But she wasn’t in any danger.”

  “She said it wasn’t any worse than anything she’d done before,” Seb said. “She said it was a gift for you.”

  I blinked. “A gift for me?”

  “She said that she loves you very much and even though you have to be apart, she wanted you to know it was never her choice. She didn’t choose dark magic over you. She just chose dark magic, and lost you anyway.”

  I frowned, wrapping my arms around myself. Was that any better? I hadn’t been abandoned, not on purpose anyway. She would have continued to visit and see me if my dads hadn’t banned her. And after the way I’d reacted to the magic tome, they probably had reason to. Would the dark magic from the spell linger? I inspected the guys from head to toe, but I didn’t see any more dark magic fuzzies on them. They seemed normal, well, as normal as a human and a vampire brother could be. We could live in peace without worrying about my exposure to dark magic. She really had given me a gift.

  “Do you forgive us?” Bash asked, studying my face.

  I wanted to blame them for my mother doing even more dark magic, corrupting her soul even more, but they’d only been honest. Could I blame my mother for doing what came naturally to her? Or my lovers for wanting their own lives after being cursed for so long? I couldn’t.

  “I forgive you,” I said solemnly.

  They pulled me into their arms and took turns kissing me senseless.

  When I could catch my breath, I said, “Hold on. Let’s get out of here because I don’t want to have sex next to a dead goat.” My lips twisted, my heart torn between sadness that the goat had lost his life, and happiness that Bash still lived as himself. We definitely needed to bury the goat and thank it for its sacrifice.

  Bash laughed, and Seb looked embarrassed. We gathered up the leftovers and cleared the space. Bash buried the goat in the woods, and Seb and I put the candles in a backpack and put the herbs out into the woods. We burned some sage to cleanse the ritual area and grounded the leftover energy.

  Then we hiked back through the woods to the main road and called a cab. Glancing back at the woods one last time, I whispered, “Thank you, Mom, for our gift.” and then climbed in the car.

  Greer

  Despite the crowded streets with revelers, the ride home was uneventful. Seb ordered Chinese and we all showered like it was any other night. Like the miracle of having both my men in their own bodies hadn’t ha
ppened. I kept touching them as if I didn’t believe that they were real, and I almost didn’t. I’d been around magic my whole life, but I’d never even heard of a whole body being created, a house for a soul.

  I traced Bash’s neck and found the same mole I’d seen on Seb’s. Reaching for his shirt, I pulled it over his head and surveyed his muscled chest.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Inspecting you,” I said. “Come here, Seb, and take off your shirt.”

  He didn’t argue, just dropped down next to us on the couch and presented me his naked chest.

  I traced the scar that ran along his bicep. “Where did this one come from?”

  “Biking accident,” Seb said.

  “And yours is the same,” I said to Bash.

  He lifted me into his lap, and I straddled his body, feeling his hardness press against me as I continued my survey.

  Seb lifted my hair and kissed my neck.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “My own inspection,” he said huskily. He kissed his way down my spine and I shivered. He stroked the top of my ass and stopped at a small spot on my hip. “What’s this from?”

  “Kitchen spell,” I said.

  Bash slid his hands up my front, sliding off the tee shirt I’d pulled on after my shower. His hands curved around my breasts and flicked the nipples into peaks. Leaning forward, he took one in his mouth and sucked on it with just a hint of teeth.

  My breath came in little gasps. I’d thought making love to them as one body with two souls was incredible, but now two hands were exploring me, two hard lengths pressed against me.

  Seb kissed along the edge of my underwear, pulling it off bit by bit, and I rose to let him peel it down. Bash used the opportunity to do some exploring of my folds, finding my sensitive clit and rubbing it, and chasing away my thoughts.

  Tugging at my underwear trapped at my knees, Seb swore.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t wear underwear anymore,” Bash said as he helped get me untangled. Then he lay me down on the couch and slid between my legs. When he put his mouth on me, I lost it, flailing back and forth. He tended my sensitive nub as he had my nipples, flick, suck, blow, and I cried out.