Messing Up Magic

by Winnie Winkle

  Many in the crowd nodded, and Theo looked at his neighbors, the ones he swore to protect. “What if we lose people or they’re captured? Are you prepared to condemn your neighbor to pain, suffering, or death?”

  “I’m ready to fight for my neighbor,” Topper declared.

  “I will fight as if they were my own,” Zayn said, as Theo watched the crowd. A few looked flabbergasted at Zayn’s words.

  The chorus of “I will fight”, “Me too”, “This is our town”, wafted up from the group. Theo rubbed his forehead. I did not expect them to rally around Zayn. Hell, half of them make it a point to avoid him. It’s like they can feel the change in him. I want, hell, need a vacation after we settle this. Someplace without Djinns.

  In the space between the crowd and where Theo and Topper stood on the little platform, Haseya materialized with Potol and Montu. Topper shot the spell before anyone could react, forming the sand around the aliens as Haseya stepped back, ready to leave them.

  Zayn had her in a flash. “Stay. You need to remain for a moment. Please, Haseya.”

  Haseya pulsed, electric in his touch. I could not leave if I wanted to. Every cell within me calls for him.

  Topper’s newest orb, complete with air holes, bobbed above the crowd who were milling under the orbs pointing and talking.

  Theo motioned to Zayn and Haseya to join him as the citizens settled down. Topper stepped back up onto the little platform with an inquisitive glance at Haseya. Theo stared at her, forcing himself to look away after a moment. She was gorgeous and powerful. Lit from within. No wonder Zayn was a fool about her.

  “Ma’am,” Theo nodded. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “May I speak?” Haseya asked. Theo nodded, hoping he wasn’t making a colossal mistake.

  “Greetings. I am Haseya, the Healer. Many moons ago I heard the call of your council to come to sit by your fire and become one of you. I chose not to heed the call, but I am grateful you sent it.”

  The crowd exchanged glances, and a voice halfway back asked, “What form of magic are you, Haseya?”

  “I am a Navajo Skinwalker, cast away as a darkness from my Nation long ago, to continue as long as I remained on the path of healing the earth and its creatures. In this role, I met your tribal member Zayn, who sustained a head injury at the hands of your captives.” Haseya gestured to the colorful Moku and Andok.

  “These two,” she pointed at Potol and Montu, “revealed their true mission. They are here to capture and steal the ones who shift, for their scientific research, but they have doubts. In their hearts, they fear the entities they steal away must become soldiers or weapons of war against something they call ‘The Coalition’. I have shown them the error of their ways and that their quest for knowledge has pain and consequences. These two have learned. The ones to follow have not. Driven by a lack of respect for creatures and a willingness to hurt them, they consider none but themselves as superior. They see their mission as a noble endeavor. I come to you with a warning. These non-earth beings do not care about your life force; they are incapable of emotion which makes their brutality easy.”

  Haseya stepped back, Zayn’s arms closing around her. What am I doing? Although this feels right, I must choose.

  11

  A plan, of deploying trolls and dwarfs who would not register any kind of unusual energy signature as they patrolled the perimeter, emerged. Werewolves agreed to be the runners, relaying communication from the front, where they planned to fight, to the town,

  “Stay in wolf form,” Theo cautioned. “We need to keep them from coming towards the town, looking for more shifting signatures.”

  “Please, please, please let us help,” Jonah and Joseph wheedled.

  Theo looked at their begging brown eyes, considering. “You can, if your parents approve, but I need you here in town. I need fast runners to relay messages across town,” Theo told them. “Jonah, you run north and south. Joseph, I want you to run east and west. Under no circumstances can you shift, understood? This is important work. I’m counting on you.”

  The boys nodded, suddenly serious. “OK, Theo.”

  “Haseya confirmed that it is the act of changing form that gives off the energy signature they seek. Stay in your form for the duration. Shifting is what they are looking for,” Theo told the werewolves, vampires, and shifters. “Vamps, remain in your human form and guard the children in the new jail. Protect them at all costs.” Theo fixed an eye and saw they received the unspoken message.

  Across the town square, Topper addressed the witches and warlocks. “Unity of spells is important. We don’t need fancy; cast ones that any of us can undo. Shrink spells and orbs.” Topper gestured to the new orbs floating next to her, with tiny enraged Aliens hopping in them. “Don’t forget the air holes. We don’t want to kill them, they are our bargaining chips. The Coalition can sort this out. Remember, if the attacking aliens break or steal the orbs, they won’t be able to return these captives to full size. We’re going for impotency, here.”

  “Having looked at them, they have that sewn up,” one witch laughed.

  “Witches, spread out in pairs, like the spokes of a wheel. Put one of each pair near the front to help the trolls and dwarfs, and one nearer the town as a fallback. Put a sending spell on every orb and send them to me,” Topper smiled. “Leave no unprotected spaces, and have fun, dear sisters.”

  Turning to the warlocks, Topper said, “Gentlemen, the town is yours. If they get this far, you have your discretion. Theo has the vamps inside, protecting our children, you have everything else.”

  The first watch of trolls, dwarfs, and wolves left, and Theo rubbed his eyes. When did I last sleep?

  Topper handed him a cup. “Drink this, it’ll help. Nobody is sleeping for a while.” Their eyes connected, held too long, and Theo smiled.

  Zayn lifted Haseya and carried her up the steps of his porch to the hanging bed he kept there. “I like sleeping under the stars. Being here with you is everything I’ve ever wanted or needed.”

  His finger slid a lock of her long silky hair away from her ear, bending to trace the curves of her ear with his tongue, releasing his warm breath slowly, filling her with heat and pleasure. She turned into him, kissing him fully, then rolling on top of him. Sitting on his growing cock, trapped in his jeans, she smiled down at him.

  “I hate pants," Zayn said, laughing.

  “I love you,” Haseya whispered. “I have honored my vow to the Nation for hundreds of years, but my heart cries out for you.”

  Zayn wanted to pull her in and make her mindless, his hands yearned for her skin, but he stopped, looking into her eyes. “I respect that vow, and you for making it. When your Nation spared your life, this was a respect shown to you. You are more, Haseya. Your life glows with the peace of healing and protection. Even as a young woman, they must have seen you as beyond a darkness to be feared.”

  “I tried to be the light,” Haseya said, her eyes holding Zayn’s. “I am sorrowing, but this desire for you is beyond anything I’ve ever known.”

  “Does your love for me make you crave darkness? Are you swamped in vengeance?” Zayn asked, running his big hands up her bare arms to her shoulders, and sliding them back down with a slow firm sensuousness over each muscle, before loosely circling her wrists.

  “No, I am not. I have been vengeful. I killed in anger when the Nation clashed with the white men and the men of Mexico. I punished them for corralling the Nation, for kidnapping the children, killing the warriors, and raping the women. In their dreams, I screamed, punishing their sanity for their desecration of the land and the animals. Vengeance seethed throughout my body, but I stopped, sick from the sensation of each death stealing my life force. The last one, as I bent to slay him, I paused. He was young, a man-child. I lifted him and created the hut. I saved him and returned him. He was my beginning, and also my end.”

  “You are more than the label ‘Skinwalker’, Haseya. You rose above that.�
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  “In the language of my people, Haseya means, She Rises.”

  Zayn looked at her, seeing the pattern in the Universe, receiving more in one moment than he thought possible. Releasing her wrists, he turned, laying her beside him, kissing her as each cell sparked, connecting, the air humming around them. His hands moved to open her dress, pushing it off her shoulders and freeing her arms to embrace him once more. Each kiss, small nip, and soothing tongue folded him to her.

  Meant. This connection, orchestrated from centuries before, comes to completion now.

  Zayn touched her, devouring each smooth curve of muscle, delighting in her response as his lightest touch raised the downy hair on her skin, chuckling into the softness of her throat as he watched goosebumps of desire rise, then smooth out as a silken sheen of sweat covered her, her body aching for him, each pore of her beautiful skin showing him the way of her.

  Moving his mouth to her nipples, he sucked them in long pulls, finishing with a gentle closing of teeth and frantic tonguing. Haseya’s back arched, and she ground her hips toward his cock, still encased in his jeans. She reached in desperation for his zipper, and Zayn caught her wrists, rolling her onto her back, holding her hands down on either side of her bucking hips. Using his forearms to open her thighs further and hold her still, he lowered his mouth, licking her labia open, savoring her taste, before flicking a firm and quick tongue across her swollen bud, sliding his mouth up and down the stem of her clitoris, and flicking the bud once more, teasing and releasing her again and again, until she shook with desire.

  Zayn held her, watching her orgasm burst across her body, lighting her nerves like wildfire. I can see this electricity tracing along her skin when she alights from pleasure. She truly is lit from within.

  Lifting himself, Zayn shucked his jeans off with a thump, and lay back down beside Haseya, watching the golden lines of electricity slow and fade as she returned to him, unseeing eyes regaining sight, seeking his. I want nothing more than her, forever.

  Haseya touched him, and Zayn groaned, holding himself back to let her explore, curious and growing bold. She examined, gripped and squeezed him, and he coached, gently, to what pleased him. Haseya opened her lips to take his swollen head, sliding her tongue along the shaft as Zayn moaned. She looked at him, mouth full of his throbbing cock and the sight of those eyes nearly tipped him over the edge.

  Flipping her, Zayn entered her from behind, enjoying her surprised cries and moans of pleasure as he angled to hit her G-spot over and over. Haseya’s hips shook as golden lightning raced from her spine, across her back, over her round butt, and down her legs. The tingle of her light as it erupted between his hands and her skin was intense and Zayn felt himself flying past the point of no return. Thrusting hard, he slammed deep into her, balls tight and ready, the world greying out as his seed burst inside her. His hands released their death grip on her hips, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  “I love you, Haseya. You are my reason to be, and to continue.”

  Under the stars, still connected, the lovers slipped into sleep.

  12

  Topper’s eyes roamed over Zayn’s nude back, following the curve from shoulder to narrow hip and an incredible ass. Lucky Haseya.

  “Wake up, Zayn. We’ve got company. No shifting.”

  Vanishing before the Djinn rolled over and showed her more than was appropriate, Topper popped back in front of Theo. “Message delivered. Got my no pants moment.” Topper’s eye crinkled in amusement as she watched a thread of thought cross Theo’s mind. Good. You should worry. Get a move on, Lawman. We could have fun together.

  The sound of a motorcycle rumbled in the distance. Theo and Topper stepped out, watching Zayn and Haseya, their long hair streaming behind them, roll up in a cloud of New Mexico dust. The bike, an old Indian with fringe on the seats and saddlebags, seemed perfect for them.

  “I’d hoped we’d have more time,” Theo told them inside his office, gesturing to a huge map of Magic and the surrounding desert. “The red pins are the original two spaceships. Green pins are the new arrivals. These ships are bigger. Notice how they are flanking us. My guess is that they intend to pin us in town and entrap us.”

  “So far, the witches are watching but aren’t engaging, per instructions. Let the aliens make the first move. That will provide more information on their tactics while hiding our abilities to fight them. I’d hoped we could have you two shift to the interdimensional plane since you seem to be the primary targets, but the window for you to do that without drawing attention to everyone else is closed. So, we run it as per the original plan.”

  Jonah trotted in, panting. “One of the new ships is blasting the glassed-over ship, breaking the glass. Trolls said to tell you, they are almost in and once they see it’s empty, they’ll be on the move.”

  “Good job, kid. Head back, so we can see what they try next," Theo said, giving the cub a rare smile as Jonah showed his toothy grin and loped out.

  Jonah headed out, clearing the town square as Joseph raced in, skidding sideways in his eagerness to give his message.

  “Theo! Dwarf Abraham said there are two kinds of aliens in the second ships and there‘s a bunch.”

  “How many is a bunch, Joseph?”

  “Abraham said maybe forty.”

  Theo, Zayn, and Haseya exchanged looks. Forty was doable.

  “Of each kind! Abraham said they all are carrying the boxes you mentioned, and weapons, too.”

  “Crap,” Theo said. Two kinds? The second ones could be the bosses, or they may be the enforcers. Either way, they were dealing with an unknown threat.

  “Joseph, find your father or one of the other werewolves. Their messages are first, tell Abraham to pull the trolls and dwarfs back to the outer line of witches. And second, tell the witches to start going after them. Get them shrunk and in orbs, but be quiet and quick. Quiet is the key, Joseph. It’s important to avoid being seen for as long as possible. RUN.”

  “I need you to ride to the inner line of witches and bring them up to speed, then get back, Zayn.”

  Zayn nodded, swinging a leg over the Indian, kicking the motor to life, and sliding around in the dust towards the witches.

  Topper materialized in front of Theo.

  “I’m getting orbs.” She vanished, but not before letting her eyes twinkle at him.

  Theo and Haseya stepped outside the office into the street. The air was humming with magic, and Theo’s hair stood on end. He looked at Haseya, dumbstruck. Gone was the beautiful maiden, dark-eyed and silken-haired. In her place stood a creature of death. Haseya looked at him. “Be not afraid, Lawman. They can’t sense this shift. The air changed; it pulled my true form to the surface.”

  Theo looked at her black skin, an infinite matte that absorbed light. Haseya’s eyes were solid gleaming black and her long midnight-black hair brushed the ground. Fingers, tipped with curving claws, hung at her sides. Her fierce teeth flashed in a blood-red mouth when she spoke.

  “Witchcraft?” Theo spoke once he was certain he had control of his voice. And my bowels.

  “Yes," she turned, her voice the sound of death. “Not what they seek.”

  “I’m sure you’ll get their attention.”

  “I am their final vision.”

  Holy crap. Theo cleared his throat. “I’d planned for you and Zayn to be the last resort, to shift and then smoke them if all else failed, to give us cover to flee.”

  “I will be part of that plan if needed. Until then, I join the witches in the inner circle.”

  “Can you do those spells?”

  “I will bring clarity to the lost, restore balance to the earth, and teach truth to the wicked," Haseya intoned, turning her head to look at Theo, her death voice twisting in his ears. She fell through the earth only to rise from it near the inner circle.

  What the hell, Zayn? That woman could make a dragon crap his pants.

  “Toppe…”

  Topper was there before he finished.


  “I heard. She’s powerful, Theo. Let’s let things roll for now. At least she is on our side. We have a new, matte-black gun.”

  Theo held her glance for a moment, then looked over her shoulder at the incoming boil of dust that was Zayn returning, and nodded. “He’s in for a surprise.”

  “Yep.” Topper vanished back to collect the incoming orbs, but the sense of the Skinwalker was everywhere. Stay in the light, Haseya. Stay in the light.

  13

  “Where is she," Zayn sputtered, after a quick glance into the office showed him Haseya was missing.

  “Skinwalkers are witches, Zayn. She wanted to help. I don’t control her, and neither do you,” Theo answered. And believe me, Bud, I doubt there’s a force on earth, including the Djinn, that can. “Besides, I think she’ll be useful.”

  The punch came so fast that Theo barely slid his chin out of the way; it landed hard on his shoulder as he staggered back a few steps.

  “Useful?” Zayn roared. “You let her go to the fighting to be useful?”

  “I don’t have time to fight you, Zayn,” Theo said, setting his feet and squaring off. “I’m dealing with two spaceships containing two kinds of aliens, a town full of targets, and a bunch of little kids stashed in my jail for protection. Get a grip! She wanted to help, she heals people, it’s her decision, and she went. If we need to make a run for it, she’ll return and join you in providing cover for us to escape.”

  Theo watched Zayn decide, dropping his shoulders as Joseph bolted across the town square. Zayn crouched, snatching him up before he hit the building. Joseph was too out of breath to speak, fright screaming out of his eyes.

  “Th-e, the new aliens, n-not the three-eyed ones, are shooting at the witches. They hurt one. A three-eyed a-alien tried to put her in the b-box and then this b-black woman rose up out of the g-g-ground and touched h-him. The alien screamed, Theo! Who was she? She’s s-something else. The hurt witch got away, and the black one s-sank into the g-ground. Like w-water.”