The Horned Mage: Books 1-5

by Hayden Harper

  Once I was clean she pulled Jadeite’s legs apart and lowered her mouth to her stepsister’s newly deflowered pussy. Jadeite twitched and gave another little gasp. She looked from me and then up to where Lexus’s thighs were positioned over us. With a determined expression on her face, she grabbed Lexus’s thighs and pulled her over us, then leaned up and dragged her tongue through her younger stepsister’s engorged pussy.

  Lexus’s entire body went stiff and her head snapped up as she let out a scream. Jadeite didn’t stop licking and sucking as fluids gushed from her pussy to drench her chin. Lexus had been on the edge this whole time and careened over it into an orgasmic chasm. She collapsed and then scurried her back end away from us so that we couldn’t reach her suddenly oversensitive sex.

  Grinning up at us with a pleased, feline expression, she slowly continued to lap at Jadeite’s pussy, alternating every now and then to service my cock, as if our genitals were the most delicious ice cream flavors in the world and she wanted to savor every taste.

  I could have fallen asleep right there and died a happy man except that the door at the base of the stairs, and mercifully out of sight, slammed open.

  “Have you boned and bonded her yet or are you still arguing about your teenage bullshit?” my mother called up at us.

  Chapter Thirteen

  We stood in the backyard, in the grassy area right beside where me and the girls had made love after our photoshoot. Lexus, Jadeite, and I had changed clothes but whereas Lexus and me were wearing our own clothing, Jadeite had borrowed a pair of shorts and one of my button up shirts from me. It looked huge on her except across the breasts, where it stretched tantalizingly taught and clearly revealed her nipples. Turns out, girls’ clothing is more nuanced than guys and my other girls’ figures were too different for them to share clothing with her. Not that I minded. My clothes and my eyes looked good on her. At Lexus’s insistence, she hadn’t buttoned the shirt but had instead tied it off below her breasts, completely revealing her figure and the delicious skin of her midriff.

  She was walking a little tenderly but that had done nothing to diminish her post-coitus glow or the determination in her eyes. Nobody said anything about her eyes, except Sable, who grinned when she saw them and said something about good decisions. She was pouring some powdery substance on the ground, connecting each of us together in overlapping lines that created a star within a more complicated geometric pattern.

  She and Jadeite started discussing the ritual itself while Victoria and I exchanged a look. Neither of us were about to understand whatever the hell they were talking about. Lexus just looked too pleased with herself and was clearly not paying attention while Sarah seemed to be making an effort to follow their arcane nerd-jargon.

  That accounted for everyone except… “Where’s Eleanor?”

  That got a round of shrugs in response.

  “She’s keeping an eye on that woman with the issues,” Sable said without pausing her work. “Wants to make sure no foul spirits attack her again while we’re doing this.”

  It took me a moment to realize that she meant Caroline. My mother was kind of a bitch. But that was good of Eleanor. I guess she didn’t think the wards around this place would be enough.

  Jadeite scowled and pointed to a line. “Is that lavender I smell? I’m still getting used to…I can smell and hear so much.”

  Victoria took a sniff. “Definitely lavender.”

  Sable didn’t answer, just started laying out different objects at different intersections. A chrome conch shell, a branch with a ribbon tied on it, a femur belonging to something very, very big…

  “Why would you use lavender?” Jadeite asked. “I mean, that’s usually a component in sleeping spells, not tracking or travel spells.”

  Sable threw her an irritated look. “Academia is bullshit. The fae realm is closer to dreams than our reality; hence lavender. Now be quiet or this won’t work.”

  Jadeite scowled at her and continued to examine the pattern. She looked up at me and said “Caleb, this doesn’t look right. I want to go get my text book and check—”

  Sable hurled something in the air that smelled like burnt cinnamon and burst into sparks. The pattern on the ground lit up, energy crackling out from me, connecting to the girls in the star pattern before surging through the rest of the lines, connecting us with everything. Power burst from the land, into me and then into the pattern. It struggled, like a fish on the line and us the fishing line pulling on the hook, reeling it in.

  I felt like I was being pulled in every direction at once and ready to snap at any moment. “What the hell?”

  “Hang in there,” Sable said. “Just a little bit more.”

  She hurled something else into the pattern overhead and a burst of crimson lightning shot of from the center, a living, thrashing piece of magic. It arced up, high, high, higher still and then came crashing down straight into Sable. She screamed.

  So did we.

  I collapsed to the ground at the same time my girls did and struggled to push myself upright. I couldn’t. My limbs refused to obey. They were too heavy and sore and exhausted. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open.

  I reached for the power in the land, willing it to help me upright.

  There was no answer. The land was empty.

  Sable sat up and brushed the dirt off of herself, grinning. “That worked better than I hoped.”

  She spotted me lying down and her grin turned a little sour. “Damn, you really are strong. Should have put more lavender into that spell. Oh well, you’ll pass out soon.”

  “W-What…” I couldn’t finished the sentence.

  She stood up and walked to stand over me. “Look, kid, I’ve been dealing with Graeme for a lot longer than you have. You go up against him, they’ll kill you and your little harem. Me? With the power you just helped me siphon out of this place I got a real shot at killing them all. Sorry about your girls’ mom, but I mean, come on. That was going to be all kinds of dysfunctional. Imagine what Thanksgiving dinner would have looked like.”

  She stepped over me. I could hear her walking away. I tried to get up, to go and stop her. I couldn’t. The more I resisted the harder sleep pulled on me until my head sank into the grass and everything went black.

  #

  Something hard poked me in the ribs.

  I sat up with a jolt and came face to knee with Eleanor. She stood over me, imperious and glowering in her sundress and leaning on her cane.

  “What have you done?” she demanded.

  I looked around. The girls were still passed out where they’d fallen around the now slightly messy ritual pattern. The wind had scattered the powder about so that all that was left was a vague outline with us fallen at key positions.

  “I-I don’t know,” I said, getting to my feet. The world swayed and my temples throbbed in time with my heartbeat. “My mother—Sable—she was supposed to open a portal or…she knocked us out. Why would she do that?”

  “Because she stole from me and didn’t want you chasing her down,” Eleanor said, and suddenly she seemed exhausted. Her face was always ageless and beautiful but there was weariness within her eyes that made her seem ancient despite her appearance.

  “You weren’t actually looking after Caroline, were you?” I asked.

  “The bitch spelled me. Caught me on my way out of the bathroom, actually.” She shook her head. “Embarrassing. I woke up just a few minutes ago and sensed the wellspring had been drained.”

  With a sigh she began moving around the circle, gently waking up the girls.

  “I still don’t understand,” I said.

  “What’s not to understand?” Eleanor asked. “The woman tricked and betrayed us. She used the opening Graeme created in your life to worm her way in and steal the life out of this land. Do you know how rare magical wellsprings like this are? Now my land is dead and she has all of its magic at her disposal.”

  “You think she’
ll rescue Reagan?” I already knew the answer but I had to ask.

  Eleanor rolled her eyes. I guess I deserved that. “Why would she rescue Reagan? She might—might—go after Graeme, but we really don’t know the first thing about her. Maybe she’s working with him. Maybe this was just a chance to seize more power. Either way, she’s gone and my land is dead.”

  “I am so sorry,” I said. The land…it had felt alive with magic. It had liked me. I kind of liked it too. The yard felt empty without it, like a house devoid of furniture so that it could be demolished.

  “Me too,” Eleanor said and straightened as the last of the girls started to come to. “Find something to do off of my property, Caleb. She tricked us all and it’s not your fault but…I need to be alone for a little while.”

  I helped my girls to their feet. They were blinking sleep out of their eyes.

  “Sarah,” Eleanor said before I could respond. “The hospital called. Your doctor wants you to come in this morning. Maybe you should take Caleb and the others with you.”

  Sarah and I exchanged a look before two torrents of swearwords filled the morning air, streaming from Lexus and Jadeite.

  “That bitch lost us Mom!” Jadeite said when the swearwords died down enough that her English was legible. “That fucking psychotic bitch!”

  I moved over and pulled both of them into me.

  Jadeite let me hold her with Lexus for a minute, and then she pulled away, horror on her face. “Did that mean…was what we did…did we sleep together because of a lie? Did I bind myself for nothing?”

  “It meant something to me,” I said.

  Jadeite flinched.

  I never heard Victoria come up beside us, but suddenly she was there. “He’s been in love with you for as long as I’ve known him. Pretty sure you’ve been in the same boat. It sucks that we all got played but we’re in this together.”

  Jadeite took a deep breath. “You know, I always kind of thought you didn’t like me.”

  Victoria shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it was mutual.”

  Then they both grinned, emerald eyes flashing. Neither was a happy expression. It was more like a pair of sharks opening their mouths to reveal their rows of teeth. When they turned their attention to me it made me stand taller and push out my chest a little.

  Their smiles softened, becoming things more sad than angry.

  “So,” Victoria said. “Hospital?”

  “Wait!” Lexus threw her hand in the air. “Binding—that’s it!”

  We all stared at her.

  She grinned. “You and Victoria take Sarah to the hospital. Jadeite, I need you to come with me. I think I may have a way for us to get Mom back.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We should be helping Lexus and Jadeite,” Sarah said as we sat in the hospital room. The nurse had wanted to draw more blood before anything else and now Sarah, Victoria, and I were all sitting around waiting.

  “No,” I said. “This is exactly where we need to be. Our lives didn’t stop when that bastard took Reagan and neither did your pregnancy. This baby is going to get all the care in the world.”

  And there wasn’t anything else that any of us could do. Lexus had taken Jadeite with her and said that the rest of us might cause problems with her plan and then refused to give us any more information, other than instructions for us to meet them both back at Reagan’s house. Rather than sitting around feeling helpless and generally being useless I could focus on the other important things in my life. Like Sarah’s baby. My other child.

  I’d brought textbook from class to try and study while we inevitably waited on the doctor but so far that wasn’t really working out. That exam I’d needed to study for was suddenly a lot less important and I found myself sitting by Sarah and holding her hand instead of reading. Even if I did manage the grade I needed to meet Eleanor’s requirements, there was no way she would give me an internship after what my mother had done. With my help.

  All I really had were my girls. They were my family and we were actually making a family. Which was so weird to think about. If—when—we got Reagan back, I was going to have not one, but two children to take care of. Maybe I should drop out of school all together. Oil rigs pay good money and we would definitely be needing that. Jadeite and Lexus could get degrees while Victoria and I brought in money. If Sarah could find some work that let her use her degrees and didn’t hold her lycanthropy against her that would be amazing but if not, a part time job would help a lot. The girls could rotate their schedules for taking care of the kids while I was out on the rig….

  The door to the examination room opened and the doctor came in. I didn’t know this one. He looked young. Only a little older than Sarah.

  He came up short when he saw the three of us, eyes darting from Victoria to me and to our hands. Each of us was holding one of Sarah’s hands.

  Something flickered in his eyes. Holding a pregnant friend’s hands seemed like something normal but he understood the intimacy in the act to be more than just friendship. And he had some thoughts about it. Whatever they were though, he kept them to himself. Small town mentality, medical professionalism. That was something at least.

  He made a quick glance at his chart, maybe in an effort to disguise his judgement, and then said, “Sarah Marshal?”

  “What would you do if I said ‘no, you have the wrong room’?” Sarah asked with a soft smile.

  Her grip on my hand tightened. Her nervousness was practically pouring off of her in waves. It was a wonder Victoria and me weren’t washed up against the walls it was coming off of her so heavy.

  The doctor gave a little laugh. “Probably go figure out what happened to the charts and find my patient.”

  “Some of our tests came back from your last visit,” he went on. “Your doctor…” he scowled and flipped through a few pages on his clipboard, then cleared his throat when he apparently couldn’t find what he was looking for. “Uh…test results.” He eyed me and Victoria. “Maybe we should have this talk in private?”

  Did he sound hopeful?

  Sarah’s grip on my hand tightened enough that I felt one of my knuckles pop. “Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of them. They’re going to be helping raise this baby, they need to know everything as much as I do.”

  The doctor did not seem comforted by this fact. He grimaced and kept on. “Alright then. Initially we found your…Caleb’s DNA in the fetus. It was hypothesized…sorry, we thought that his DNA, that is, his genetic material—“

  “For fucks sake she’s been going to medical school,” Victoria snapped. “Spit it out already.”

  The doctor flinched and paled a little. Victoria could have that effect on people. Sarah flashed her a grateful smile.

  “We thought that Caleb’s genetic material was overriding the father’s, that is, your father and the baby’s father’s DNA. We were wrong. Caleb’s unique strand of the lycanthropy virus has in fact infected the fetus, and it carries his genetic signatures, but he has not overridden anything.”

  Sarah stared at him.

  The doctor cleared his throat. “It’s still your father’s baby. It just has your brother’s virus. This is officially a high risk pregnancy. That’s why we wanted you to come in today. So that we could get some more blood samples and monitor your condition more closely.”

  Sarah’s shoulders gave a little shake. “Y-you told me that I wasn’t going to have Albert’s child.”

  The young doctor stared at her. “Uh, no. No I didn’t. That was-um, another doctor. I’m pretty sure that’s not what he said. His name should be here but I can’t find it on your charts.”

  Sarah bared her teeth at the man and rose to stand. I had never—never—seen her look so feral. I thought she might transform and rip the doctor’s head off. “You all told me that I wasn’t going to be having that monster’s baby. That Caleb’s magic had made it his baby. That the incest issues weren’t going to be a problem because
Caleb’s not genetically related to me. That we were going to be okay!”

  The doctor backed away as she spoke, as if the rising pitch of her voice was physically pushing him away. “W-we were wrong. Our staff—some of the signs were misread. We’ve never seen anything like your brother’s strain of the virus. It’s got so many different kinds of magic in it and his genetic markers were so prominent....”

  Sarah visibly reigned herself in, standing erect and proud, face deceptively calm. “I’ll be changing doctors. I’ll call your office to let them know who they need to send my information to.”

  “Ms. Marshal,” the doctor said. “You’re halfway through your second trimester. We are really your best option at this—

  “You’re my best option?” Sarah interrupted. “You are? No. I am not your fucking Guinea pig. Get out.”

  He got and she collapsed back into her chair between us. Victoria and I wrapped our arms around her as she wept, fear and anguish and rage heaving from her with every sob.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s okay.”

  “No it’s not!” she screamed. Sarah flung our arms from her and was upright again, glaring down at me with reddened eyes. “No it’s not! It’s not your baby. It’s his. It’s his and Reagan…Reagan’s going to have your real baby and instead of being out there looking for her you’re here with me, making sure that his baby is okay.”

  She sank to the floor, curling into a ball and burying her face in her knees. I was on her in an instant. I shook her and pulled her tight into me. “Don’t you dare say that’s not my baby. Don’t you dare.”

  “It’s not—”

  “It is! Yeah that would have been cool if my genes had gotten rid of Albert’s but so what if they didn’t? It’s not the baby’s fault and it sure as hell isn’t yours. And what does this change? I’m still with you. I’m not going anywhere. And we’re going to raise this baby, okay? It’s still our son.”

  She pushed her face harder into my chest. “But Reagan’s baby…God I’m such a horrible person. She’s missing and I’m jealous of her.” She pounded a fist into my chest, apparently without realizing it. “I’m so fucking jealous. It was cool when we were both having your baby. It was like—like our kid would have a little brother or sister. We were bringing more of you into the world. Now…she’s bringing more of you and I’m just bringing more of him.”