Moira smiled and then handed the cup to Poppy. "I knew you would understand." She turned to Will and batted her sparkly eyelashes. "Tea, Mr. Hunter?" And to Poppy's amazement, Will nodded. Will never drank tea.
Poppy took a sip from her cup. She almost purred with pleasure. Cinnamon and spice, and everything nice was the first phrase that came to mind. This was just too weird.
"This doesn't taste like anything I've ever drunk before," remarked Will. Poppy would sure agree with that remark. Then she was even more shocked when she saw Will empty the cup with one swallow.
"More?" asked Moira.
Will held out his cup, a bemused expression on his face, and Moira filled it again. "It's got some bite to it, doesn't it?" And again he gulped the contents of the cup down.
Poppy looked at her own cup. She had to wonder what kind of magic was going on here.
And then the doors opened and a maid dressed formally in black and white entered carrying a silver platter containing a large soup bone that she set before Gray.
"I don't think Gray would enjoy a cup of tea, so I've asked for something a bit more substantial for him." Moira nodded to the maid. "Thank you, Bess."
"Will there be anything else, Madam?"
"No, that's all for now." Bess curtsied and left. Then Moira passed around a plate of blue-iced sugar cookies. After a moment she settled herself back in the chair and folded her hands in her lap. The table holding the silver tea service rolled across the room, apparently moved there by Moira's magic.
"Now shall we get down to business?" Moira asked.
Poppy felt like she was in a pretty fog made up of stars and moonbeams and feeling far too at ease in the company of this Good Witch of the North.
In one word, she felt "bewitched" And unable to do anything about it other than sit and listen to what the beautiful witch had to say.
"Under normal circumstances Ashon is a good, dutiful boy. He's the youngest of my seven sons. Unfortunately, he chose to disobey me and accepted a friend's dare. He crossed the Fantasmic Veil and entered Franceska's kingdom. I didn't realize at the time that one of her nasty goblins was dabbling around with looking glass magick and the damned fool shattered it. I'm told a piece lodged in Ashon's heart, making him all too susceptible to the lustful wiles of Franceska--that cold-hearted bitch. She was trolling her borders apparently at just the wrong moment, and now she's stolen my boy, Ashon. And I know she's done it just to spite me."
Poppy was trying to absorb everything Moira was telling them. Too much, too fast, amidst moonbeams and star magic that seemed to swirl around inside her head. Fantasmic Veil? What the hell was that? Goblins, glass, and magic were about what she got out of the speech.
"And you want us to retrieve him? You can't do it yourself?"
Moira sighed. "There are rules between us. It's a political thing. I don't step on her turf, she doesn't try to wreak havoc on mine. You must understand it is not an easy peace we keep between us. Ashon crossed the veil without permission, then those wicked shards of glass made him even more foolhardy beyond belief. Once on her side of the veil, she could do as she pleased. And I'm just so sure she waited for her moment to pounce. Ashon's timing was terribly unfortunate, I'm afraid."
"Won't our going up there break whatever agreement you have in place?
"Oh no, dear. You have not sworn service to me. Technically you're neutral. Nor are you of my blood or of my house. You are free to roam the countryside at will more or less. And besides, I'm sure you're smart enough not to get caught. It's why I chose you, dear."
Moira obviously had more faith in Poppy's abilities than Poppy did. "So you just want us to get your son and bring him back here?"
"Well, there's just a bit more to it, I'm afraid." Of course there was.
"And that would be?"
"The demon--Delal-- he made the looking glass and he must be destroyed in order to void the magic contained in the glass shards."
"You want me to kill a demon?"
"Not you, love--your man here. Will Hunter has a reputation for gutting evil quite efficiently. He's the courageous man to do the actual slaying. And by doing this you'll be helping the greater good."
"How?"
"The shards from that looking glass have shattered more than one person along the way. You will help to mend them all by destroying him. But Franceska is not to be hurt in any way. Maiming the Ice Queen could have serious implications on the environment of the planet."
"So the queen's not be touched, but the demon's to be killed. And just how do we do that?"
Moira pulled a jeweled chest into her lap that happened to be resting on the table next to her. "You're a clever group so I know you'll figure it out. But I do have several things that will assist to ease your way." She rummaged around inside the chest. "Ah, here we are." She pulled out a bottle of some sort of luminescent green liquid.
"Mixed especially for you, Poppy--and only you. Clarity Drops. One drop and this will allow you to see what is unseen as well as the true nature of things and thus help to protect you from traps which may not at first be obvious."
She twisted the cap and then lifted the dropper. "One drop in each eye is all you will require." She then replaced the stopper and handed it to Poppy.
Then she turned once again to the cask.
"Inside the Aladdin Mirror is where the demon resides along with his consort and guardian to the entrance of the mirror, Narcissa. The mirror resides in Franceska's boudoir in the tower of the castle. You will need to breach that magic mirror and only Narcissa can help."
"Breach the mirror?" This was getting crazier by the minute.
"Yes. Narcissa will guide you to the demon. She has spent a thousand years bound to him and my...connections...indicate she is quite eager to lead you to him."
Then Moira reverently pulled out a leather-sheathed dagger with a jewel-encrusted handle. Carefully she passed it into Will's keeping.
"A dangerous weapon to demons. Honed in the fires of damnation, steeped in the blood of a most vile demon. This will get the job done."
"What demon would give you his blood for something like this?" Poppy asked.
Moira looked at her with a determined, hard glitter in her eyes. "My dear, departed first husband, may his black soul rot in the fires of hell."
Poppy didn't even want to think about the history behind that remark.
Moira set the jeweled casket aside and then rose from her chair. "Well, I think that's about it for now. I've arranged for rooms for you this evening. I've also chartered a plane to take you to Ellesmere Island on the Arctic Archipelago. That's the closest we can get you to the Fantasmic Corridor. You did bring your passports with you as I asked?"
Poppy nodded. "But we don't have papers for Gray. You mentioned on the phone that you would take care of that?"
Moira looked down at Gray who was happily gnawing at his bone. "Yes. All will be handled for his journey. You needn't have cause for concern."
"What is a Fantasmic Corridor? I've never heard of it." Poppy said.
"Oh, the Corridor. Of course. It's not known to many outside of the magical circles. Lou will guide you. He's of Inuit descent and of a family who has been aligned with us for generations. He's one of the guardians to the entrances of the Fantasmic Realms. He'll see that you are well-equipped and that you reach the Corridor safely and pass through the correct portal."
Immediately, as though called, a maid entered the room. Moira turned to her.
"Please show our guests to the rooms that have been prepared for them."
"Yes, Madam."
Poppy, Will, and Gray rose and started toward the door.
"One moment please. Leave the wolf with me. I wish to discuss something of a private nature with him."
"Discuss?" Poppy asked.
Moira laughed, a high, tinkling sound, reminiscent of crystal wind chimes. "You don't think you're the only one who can communicate with animals, do you?"
Poppy felt the hot red flush of embarr
assment rise up to color her cheeks.
"Well, no, but..." She bit her lip. "You aren't going to hurt him are you? No animal sacrifice or anything?"
Moira laughed. "Goodness, no, not even a scratch. I would never harm your familiar. I simply want to converse with him about the importance of this mission and his role. Animals sometimes require a special sort of communication." She smiled and patted Gray on the head. Gray stared up at her adoringly. Poppy thought she was going to be sick. "Go along now. Gray will join you shortly."
Poppy and Will followed the maid up to a very luxurious apartment on the third floor.
"What do you think?" she asked Will once the door was closed and they were alone.
He pulled out the dagger and looked closer at it. It didn't look like anything Poppy had ever seen before.
"What do you think it's made of?" The ornate handle was white, the sharp serrated blade black.
"I almost think the handle is made of some type of bone," Will said as he turned the blade. Twin crystals seemed to be embedded at both the tip of the hilt and near the sharp tip of the blade itself. Precious stones of courage and protection--onyx, aquamarine, garnet, and amber were embedded into the bone-like hilt. "I think this is going to be dangerous. You sure you want to do this?" He slipped the dagger back into its sheath and set it on the table. Immediately, Poppy felt a sense of relief wash over her. She had a feeling that the dagger was a very powerful magical weapon, not to be used lightly.
"No, I'm not," Poppy said as she set the vial of drops beside it. "But something tells me we're going to do it anyway."
Will started to undress and Poppy watched him divest himself of his blue jeans and red-checkered shirt. Just the exposure of that black-furred chest had her burning already. The churning of arousal began to warm her blood. It never took much when she was in Will's company. She walked toward him.
"Why is it you think we've never made the commitment to live together?" She slid a hand over his bicep. She enjoyed his company, she enjoyed sex with him. What was stopping her from making a commitment?
He lifted her into his arms and she anchored her legs around his hips. "Now's a hell of a time to get into a discussion like this." He laid her on the bed and then began removing her clothing. First her sneakers, which he tossed across the room. Then he moved to her black leather pants, drawing them slowly down her rounded hips. And then her white T-shirt. He leaned forward and kissed her, then dropped lower to tug at a nipple. She arched up against him.
"We're good together, Will."
"Yeah, but we both have wandering spirits." He looked up at her from between her spread thighs. "What kind of commitment do you want to make? Monogamous living together? Marriage? Kids? Are you ready for any of that stuff?" Then he leaned down and sucked her clit into his mouth, flicking his tongue over and around.
She cried out. Her hands latched onto his shoulders, her nails digging into his flesh. It wasn't long before her orgasm exploded over her. Will climbed up onto the bed next to her. Balancing his head on a hand, he looked down at her. He trailed his fingers over her breasts, down over her ribcage.
"What is it you want, Red? You and I are good together. But I know you, babe. You aren't ready to settle just yet. I love you, girl, just the way you are, and I don't want to tie you down, sure as heck not before you're ready."
"What if I want to be tied down?"
One of Will's eyebrows shot upward in surprise. "Do you?"
"Would you want to be tied to one woman? Are there other women in your life right now?"
His gaze shot away from her. "Are you asking me if I have other lovers besides you? You've never really wanted to know that before. Why now?"
Is that what she was asking him? Or was she asking something else? Was she really thinking about what Gray had said about men?
"I don't really know what I'm asking. I know I love you, Will, I just don't know if it's enough. I don't know if I'd disappoint you. Or even myself. When I think about the word commitment it just scares me for some reason."
"Are you thinking about your parents? How it didn't end up so happily-ever-after for them?"
"Maybe that's part of it. I don't know. I just know that after the wolf incident anything that smacks of being tied down, being confined, scares the hell out of me. Do you think it's possible to have a happily-ever-after for people like us?"
He sheathed himself with a condom, then shifted over her. "I think everyone's happily-ever-after doesn't have to be the same. For some people it's marriage. For others it's not. Some people just react well to traditional ties. Open relationships are not a bad thing. But if you want to sit down and talk about it when this is over with, we'll do it."
He thrust into her and she arched up to meet him. She wound her arms around him and he pressed close.
"Gray thinks you have sex with men--do you?" She didn't know why she blurted that out, but suddenly she wanted to know the answer. He stopped moving and looked down at her.
"He does, does he?" He stared down at her for a long time. "Have you ever had anal sex, Poppy? With a man? Has any man ever been inside your little bung hole?"
"No." She was breathless as she stared back at him. Suddenly she found the idea intriguing and erotically exciting.
Slowly he pulled from inside her. Something in his eyes burned bright and intense and dark. Something inside her responded to that look. He was right, she was adventurous; so why hadn't she ever tried anal sex? Well, for one thing, no one had ever asked before. Let alone she didn't trust anyone else--not like she trusted Will.
"Let's do it," she said. "Fuck me that way, Will."
"You sure?"
"Do you prefer men to women? Are you gay?"
He smiled. "I like sex--a lot of sex. And I like it with men or women. I like it best with you. But when we're apart...when I'm up on that mountain in the company of other men like me..." He left the rest unsaid. "You and I don't have an exclusivity on each other. You and I agreed about that."
He reached down for his pants and pulled out a different sort of package.
"What's that?"
"Lubricant," he said.
He shrugged. "I spend a lot of time in the woods, Red, not a lot of stores around. Always good to be prepared. You sure about this?"
Her stomach twisted and her pussy juices flowed. "Yeah, I am."
Will opened the package and then slowly he began to prepare her. It seemed he knew exactly what he was doing. His fingers stretched her, the lube slickened her passage. His kisses enflamed her to boiling point. He oiled his prick. At first there was a burning sensation and his touch felt invasive. But slowly as he teased her, penetrated her, added a finger and then another, the dark heat began to spread through her.
Finally, after what seemed like a long time, he moved between her legs and positioned his cock at her entrance. She looked at him, her mind heavy and drenched with lust.
"Is this how you fuck men?"
"Not always," he said as the knob of his cock pressed into her passage, feeling so very big. The bite of the wide stretch was a dark, erotic pain. She gasped when the head of his prick slipped past her tight anal ring. He waited, watching her face, until she adjusted, somehow knowing the moment, perhaps in her body language. Will was very good at reading people. Then he pressed deeper, the heat inside her burned with a friction that spiraled deep beneath her flesh.
"How do you do it with them?" she asked as he gave her another inch.
"From behind, dog-style usually. I like to do it outside--in the woods."
She pictured him fucking another man dog-style and it only increased her lust. She thrust upward and he sank deeper inside her. Her channel felt stretched to capacity and still she wanted more. She felt an orgasm closing in and she reached between their bodies to finger her clit. Oh, God, it felt good, and lustful and exciting.
"How else do you do it with them?" she asked breathlessly.
He began to move inside her. Slow and long and deep.
"Against
a wall." He thrust, then retreated. "Over a table." He thrust again. "Anywhere." He buried himself inside her and rotated his hips. "Everywhere." He withdrew and thrust again. "Hard, sometimes mean, not gentle, not like this--like with you."
Her orgasm pounded powerfully through her. The scream that would have shaken the chandelier was swallowed by Will, his tongue thrusting into her mouth. She sucked. And sucked and sucked. And then she heard his groan as he came.
He looked down at her, his cock still buried inside her.
"Yes," she said. "I want you to do it to me all those ways."
He began to slide from inside her channel when the door burst open. Poppy looked up, her eyes wide with shock, and saw a very sexy young man with long, dreadlocked black hair. He was decked out in black leather pants that just barely clung to his hips, bits of dark curly hair visible above the waistband. He stood on the threshold of the bedroom eyeing them lustfully.
He cracked a lopsided grin, exposing a set of very prominent, pointed incisors. His face was long and narrow with deeply etched high cheekbones. Large brown eyes that seemed alert and assessing with every step he took as he sauntered into the room.
"Wow, have to say things look a little different from this perspective. I think I'm going to like this. So what'd I miss?"
Will scrambled to his knees and wrapped a sheet around his midriff. Poppy grabbed for the blanket.
"Gray? She's made you a shape-shifter?"
"Well, not exactly." He fingered the medallion on the heavy gold necklace that circled his neck. "She's just given me human form for the duration of this expedition. She said it was necessary. When this is over I go back to being a full-blooded wolf."
He turned his head to leer at Will as he fingered his medallion, his eyes taking in Will's semi-nude state and then he stared at Poppy. "And I'm hoping to take full advantage of the opportunity."
What next? Well actually, Poppy was afraid to find out.
Chapter 4
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Fantasmic Tales: Poppy Rider And The Glass Shards Page 3
