by Harry Nix
From what they knew, mages followed the coven model, living in enclaves and often dedicating themselves to one form of magic. Most mages were born into their enclaves, following their parents, although some percentage of them switched and moved around.
Mages and witches had spellbooks, but they were precious things, heavily guarded and often locked in deep vaults, not least of all because spellbooks were inherently unstable. A spell written down passively drew magic and would eventually even melt steel, if it were not properly prepared. Some of the more ancient spellbooks were more like ticking timebombs, too unstable to open lest they detonate and wipe out an enclave.
Although Juno and April were excellent and (somewhat) patient teachers, there was a barrier even they couldn’t get past: time.
Magic users worked their whole lives to expand their skills, the mana cost per spell dropping as they improved so they could eventually hold more complex spells in their minds.
Alex was still so green he had that factory fresh “new car smell” about him. Although the space in his mind to hold spells had expanded a little, there was no way he was going to become a powerful mage without some serious hacking and compressed code writing. He didn’t have decades to work on slowly increasing his abilities.
At the thought of it, Alex brought himself back to the here and now. The pack had gathered every bit of jewelry in the village they could find. He now had a pile of rings, necklaces, bracelets and even two tiaras. They were all unenchanted, decorative only.
It had been on this pile that Alex had spent the day so far attempting to make a shield ring.
The concept was simple enough: first, the ring needed a spell to strengthen it so it could hold an enchantment.
The execution of this... not so much.
Alex put down the ring and picked up the shield ring he’d been studying. It had four spells on it. He wasn’t entirely sure but from his reading of it had a strengthening spell, a draining spell that fed off the wearer to slowly recharge it, a trigger spell that monitored the body for anything hitting it, and finally the shield itself that enveloped the body and once triggered, concentrated power in a specific location in fractions of a second.
Alex dropped that ring on the table and picked up another shield ring. Here was where he hit problems: although most of the rings held four separate spells, some only held three, a few six and in two cases, just one large spell that looked like four spells mashed together.
This ring held two spells and nothing in them was recognizable or similar to other rings. He hadn’t even been able to find a number to change in the code to enhance it, so it only held three charges.
It was, as Juno described, a “trash ring” that was only useful short-term.
It had a scent to it, burned sugar and vinegar, which Alex now knew meant it was made by a sloppy enchanter or by one who deliberately wanted to sign their work.
Alex dropped it on the table with a sigh and picked up the unenchanted ring again. He glanced over to his spell-casting screen and the limited space he’d been writing his homebrew strengthening spell. He decided to delete another line from it and saw the execute button remained lit up. It meant that at the very least the spell was castable, although it said nothing about the results.
Steeling himself and moving his stack of three metal mixing bowls stolen from the kitchen closer, Alex cast Analyze on the ring. It opened up a small window above it. As it was a simple unenchanted ring it only showed basic information: weight, metal type, diameter and so on.
Alex then focused on the small window and cast Analyze again, charging it up with a dose of pain to open another window. This one held only a blinking cursor. Moving quickly, he copied his spell across in pieces. He was improving at this at least—now he could copy across about ten percent each time.
The space on the ring was tiny but he managed to fit his spell into it. Although running Analyze like this was draining his mana, he kept the window open, reading over the code again and wondering if there was another way to do this. Each time now had been the same: drop in the code, close it up, feel a jolt as it compiled itself and then toss it under the metal bowls where it would shortly melt, break, or detonate.
It was like the action of strengthening the ring was in fact drawing on it too much and destroying it.
April and Juno couldn’t help him. Although April used rings, she’d never made them herself, their creation feeling antithetical to her natural spirit. Juno was on board with making rings but had never done so either. She was a Chaos Witch and her rising and falling magic level made enchanting impossible.
Alex was staring at the code, wondering if Stephen would have any information for him, when a new button shimmered into existence. It had execute written on it, the same as he saw on his spell screen, but this one was on the ring.
Alex frowned at it but then thought what the hell. He pressed it, tapping a finger on nothing in the air.
This time the code compiled and drew on his mana but the window stayed open. As the code compressed and shrank it became more like a mathematical expression. As usual it blurred through so quickly Alex only got a hint of the final ultra-compressed form before it vanished.
A new panel appeared on the ring.
Active Spells
????
“Strength spell,” Alex said and watched as the question marks changed to reflect his words.
The window where he’d dropped his code was now empty... and much larger, at least four times the size.
“Holy crap it’s not about strengthening the ring, it’s about expanding how much code you can drop on to it!” Alex said.
Then he suddenly remembered what he was doing. Holding a potentially explosive ring near his face was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
He quickly picked up the three mixing bowls, revealing a blackened crater on the tabletop. He dropped the ring near it, covered it over and put his weight on the largest bowl and waited.
As soon as he dropped it, the ring’s spell screen vanished. Alex was happy to let it go, giving his natural mana time to recharge.
This was how Juno found him, holding the bowls down.
“So, whatcha got under there?” she said as she came sauntering into the conference room.
Despite bringing some of her own clothes with her, it appeared she’d raided the clothes left behind by the old pack members who’d left and never returned. The werewolf she’d taken the clothes from must have been tiny because she was bursting out all over the place.
She was wearing a black skirt that could have passed for a belt on a good day. There was no way she could have sat down in it. She’d paired that with a white t-shirt that had been fashionably ripped and was skin-tight. She was barefoot but carrying a pair of glittering red heels in her hand.
“Possible exploding ring,” Alex said, watching her as she walked past him, swinging her hips. She thunked the heels down on the table and Alex winced.
“Little jumpy, aren’t ya?” the witch said. She turned around and Alex saw she was wearing smoky eyeshadow and had found blood-red lipstick somewhere. Contrasting with her blonde hair she looked like a cheerleader turned vampire.
“Why are you so dressed up?” Alex asked, unable to help himself looking up and down her body. Sure, the ring might explode and blow a hole in the table but holy hell, check out that butt.
“This old thing? I was just having a chat with the prisoner. You know, doing the old bad nymph, even badder witch combo thing.”
“Uh-huh,” Alex said, practically drooling before his brain caught up with her words.
“Sorry, what? You were interrogating Stephen? Please tell me it wasn’t like last time.”
When they’d captured Stephen originally, the three girls had put on a show of threatening the mage that had been extremely effective. Alex had played the “good cop” role and had learned later that the girls really had wanted to hurt the necromancer, which meant their threats had had a grain of truth to them.
Juno stalked closer, crossing her arms, which just helped push up the cleavage he could see through her torn t-shirt.
“He’s fine... I mean, mostly. Physically, he’s unharmed,” Juno said.
“That seems suspiciously specific,” Alex said. He’d heard Stephen crying up in his room overnight. He focused his hearing but there was nothing.
Juno suddenly slapped her hand on the mixing bowl.
“Bang!” she shouted, making Alex nearly jump out of his skin. Then she stepped closer and Alex caught her scent. Spice and warm. She came close enough that he could feel the heat radiating from her skin in the cold room.
“It was just. like. that.” she whispered. “Physically, he’s fine. But he may have gotten a little fright.”
“How did that skirt tie into that fright, exactly?”
Juno trailed a finger down his arm and then bumped into him. He was holding the bowl down with both hands and had to move a step to keep his balance.
“It’s all about keeping the suspect... off-balance,” Juno whispered. Then she reached down between Alex’s legs and grabbed him.
“Do you know what I mean? A bit of push, a bit of pull and soon they’ll tell you anything.”
The room was cold, practically freezing but Alex felt his temperature spike. He wanted to grab the little witch and bend her over the conference table. Except there was the problem of the ring—some of the previous explosions had been quite powerful. To let go of the protective bowl would be to risk serious injury or a fire. No matter how sexy little miss skirt was, he wasn’t going to risk her getting hurt.
“Maybe you can wait until the bomb threat here has passed,” Alex said.
Juno gave him a gentle squeeze and then dropped to her knees, her fingers working on his belt.
“You keep doing that. It’s important work. Don’t mind me,” she said.
She had his pants undone and down before he could say another word. A moment later his boxers went and half a second after that her hot mouth engulfed him.
“Damn,” Alex groaned.
Sitting there for so long in the cold room hadn’t been good for him. His feet were that kind of cold where they don’t feel warm all day, no matter what you do. His hands felt the same. Now with his pants down, it was evident other body parts had been cold too... until they were surrounded by what felt like molten heat.
“So how goes the enchanting?” Juno said, pulling off him for a moment before plunging right back in. She squeezed with her hand and swirled her tongue, making Alex’s knees weak.
“Good,” he said, closing his eyes and focusing on holding the mixing bowl down.
“Just good? The class would like to hear your report, Mr. Lowe,” Juno said. She went back to swirling.
Alex opened his eyes just as the first red glints appeared in the air. Sex magic. It was technically sex mana, but he hadn’t changed the label on the red bar he could see on his spell screen. Juno had called it sex magic and so he’d left it that way.
The red glints began drifting towards him, drawn by an unseen current.
“I got that... uh... strength spell to hold,” he gasped.
“Good boy,” Juno said and then licked up and down his length before swallowing him again.
As she went to work on him, Alex screwed up his eyes again and tried to keep his focus on holding the bowl. Behind his eyelids he saw flashes of red as glints hit him, some directly in the face, before being absorbed.
There was something about the situation that made Alex nearly go wild with lust. Was it the potential danger? Maybe that he couldn’t move? Or just the little blonde witch herself looking punk-rock vampire?
Familiar tingles started at the base of his spine.
Even as wild as he felt, Alex knew it was polite to announce.
“I’m going to...”
“Oh, good,” Juno said.
She sucked and pulled her head back and forth, increasing speed. Alex felt his toes curl. He opened his eyes again and saw red swirling, like a glitter tornado.
Alex could feel the rush approaching and with his connection to Juno, could feel the magic around him surging like the sea.
Suddenly, the little witch let go, stood up and turned around, hiking up the little skirt. Alex would never have thought this move worked but somehow, she backed herself on to him. He half slid down to meet her, still trying desperately to hold the bomb containment in place.
Juno bucked her hips, moving back and forth just two more times and then Alex roared as he came. There was a sudden flurry of red that burst out of the air and then swamped him.
It was an awkward position that couldn’t be held for long, but Alex was still disappointed when Juno pulled herself off him and turned around, adjusting her skirt.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you later,” she said, as though they were just friends who’d met for coffee.
“But...”
She gave him a wink, grabbed the red high heels and left Alex leaning against the table, pants and boxers down around his ankles.
He sat there for a moment before deciding he’d held the mixing bowl long enough. Plus, he was half-naked and anyone could walk in.
Alex let go of the bowl and pulled his pants back up. He’d only just tightened his belt when there was a crack from behind him and the bowls shot straight up, hitting the roof. A small ball of flame hit too but dissipated and then the bowls crashed down to the table with an almighty racket.
Alex instinctively shifted to his hybrid form but leaped too, crashing into a padded office chair and going ass over teakettle. He was glad no one was there to see it when he ended up flat on his face with the chair on top of him.
He’d just gotten up when Nia rushed in. She looked at the blackened crater in the table and the small cloud of smoke that was drifting near the ceiling.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
Alex’s heart was pounding from the surprise of the explosion (and everything that had come before that) but wild ideas crossed his mind as he looked Nia up and down. She’d raided someone’s closet too and was wearing a skirt that was very mini indeed.
She saw the look on his face and started backing away.
“No! I have important work I’m doing,” she said, pushing her way out the door.
She took off, laughing, and Alex chased.
4
After leaving Nia an exhausted mess in a bedroom, Alex took a quick detour via the shower for the second time (he had chased Nia but had made sure to go by the shower on the way after being with Juno) and went looking for April.
He quickly discovered she wasn’t guarding Stephen. Juno was sitting outside his door, wearing far more demure clothing than the last time he’d seen her. She gave him a spine-melting deep kiss that made him want to drag her away before telling him that April had gone looking for herbs, and sent him on his way.
Alex was soon outside in hybrid form, sniffing the air. Mostly what he could smell was cleaning products and soap from the efforts to remove the silver. As the only three spellcasters in the village were occupied, no werewolves were currently at work. Someone had used simple yellow twine to block off parts of the village that still required cleaning.
“She went that way Alpha,” Esme called out from over near a chicken coop. She gave him a lascivious wink when he glanced at her and waggled her eyebrows.
“Thanks,” Alex called out and waved to her. He saw Lydia, her equally elderly instigator and general shit-stirrer come out of a nearby cabin. The two old ladies talked, Esme pointed at Alex and then made a hip-thrusting movement that he wished he could scrub from his mind.
Alex got moving, ignoring the cackling behind him. He soon caught April’s scent and sped up, heading out of the village at a light jog.
As he went, Alex laughed to himself. Esme wasn’t entirely wrong about what was on his mind. For some reason he felt like a horny teenager, sex and girls pulling his mind away from what he was meant to be doing.
It wasn’t long before Jacob fell
in beside Alex, silently padding along. Alex glanced at him and saw the young werewolf looked exhausted. It was no wonder—he’d spent the entire night recovering from his injuries. It was just another thing Alex had learned: healing spells could do incredible things but there was still deep healing that often had to occur. Healing took energy and calories and although spells could rebuild bone, it still took time to heal fully.
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Alex asked.
“Can’t sleep in the day, no matter what,” Jacob said.
Alex had no such problem. After rolling in the hay with Nia he could have easily slept in the warm dark room. Given the way Yvonne, a teenage werewolf, looked at Jacob, he’d have no problem doing the same thing... if only he wasn’t utterly oblivious to her and the other teenage girls who watched him like he was a walking meal.
“Esme and Lydia always have some high-proof alcohol on them. That can work.”
“Are you recommending I get drunk to sleep?”
Alex saw Jacob frowning at him, not sure if Alex was joking.
“You’re right. Best leave that to the adults.”
“I mean, you’re the Alpha so if you command it, I’ll have no choice to obey. If you say ‘Jacob, I command you to eat fried chicken and drink whiskey’ well, what can I do?”
Alex laughed as they jogged.
“Your line is ‘Jacob, I command you to eat fried chicken and drink whiskey’, in your own time,” Jacob added after a moment in a whisper, like he was a director giving lines.
“Jacob, I command you to race me to the tallest tree over there, if you’re up to it,” Alex said, still laughing.
“Ready set go!” Jacob said in one breath and shifted to wolf form.
So close to him, the pull of the shift was quite strong. Alex let it take him and shifted quickly, sprinting after the young werewolf who already had a good lead on him.
Outside the village proper were sparse trees and some bushes, plus a nearby creek. Together they sprinted through this, Alex giving it all he had just to catch up. But Jacob was too fast, and he knew this land like the back of his paw. He’d used a hidden rock in the creek to launch himself, clearing a small mud pit. Alex had gone straight through it, splattering himself with mud and slowing him enough for Jacob to reach the tree first.
