The Dying Art of Magic

by Natalie Gibson

  Eiran’s wing cupped her, holding her weight while caressing every inch of her back. The prehensile tip snaked around and up between her legs to tickle and touch the soft smooth space of her inner thigh. Nathalia’s breath hitched and she opened her legs up for him. That same tip of the wing under her, wrapped around her leg and tugged it, forcing her outer thigh down against it. It moved in a circular motion sending alternate chills and heat waves, up and down her spine.

  Nathalia made a small protective move with her free leg when she saw the heat in Eiran’s eyes. He easily pushed her legs open further, clamping them apart against the ground. He knelt between her feet.

  “Touch yourself. I want to watch.”

  Nathalia had never been shy, but she felt a little resistant to this order. She wanted him to take her hard and fast like an animal. They were outside on the ground after all. A low deep growl emanated from Eiran. It was similar to the growls of warning he had given, but slightly different. It made Nathalia’s nipples harden and her womb clench to hear it.

  “I will give you ‘hard and fast,’ and then we can get to work, but first you have to give me what I want. I want to see you touch yourself.”

  Nathalia’s eyes went to half-mast at his words. She caressed her already aroused breasts, stroking her areolas, pulling and teasing her nipples more and more erect. Then she slid both hands down slowly over her ribcage and tight tan stomach. Over her thin inner thighs, she moved agonizingly slow toward her blossom.

  Another groan escaped Eiran when she finally touched herself. With one hand she slipped up and down her folds, exploring each area as if it was brand new. Indeed that was what it felt like. Her body and mind were so changed that she had to figure out what she liked all over again.

  Nathalia used that exploring hand to part her labia and expose her tight newly deflowered opening. The movement also effectively pulled back the hood of her clit, leaving that nodule throbbing in the warm air. She began to rub it with her forefinger. She slipped her ring finger of the other hand inside herself, pushing in and out, stroking the front inside of her vagina as Eiran had done.

  “Is that where you want me?”

  She strained and pushed further inside herself. No, I can’t reach as deep as I want you to go. Her breath came in gasps as she approached an orgasm. It had never been this fast before her conversion, at least not manually. Toys could do wonderful things.

  “Toys?” Eiran’s question came out gravelly.

  Nathalia sent him images of her pleasuring herself with some of her favorite vibrators. She never penetrated herself with them, focusing their pleasure giving abilities on providing her clitoral orgasms. She hadn’t realized her eyes were closed, until she heard a slight buzzing noise and they popped open. She stopped masturbating.

  You can make it vibrate?!

  He eased his now buzzing member down to press on her exactly as she had done with the toys in her memories. “There is no limit to what I can do to delight you, my love.”

  Bringing herself so close to orgasm manually but stopping primed her for a more massive one now. Eiran moved his hips, rubbing his humming dick up and down over her sensitive nerve bundle. She felt heavy, like she had G-force pressing her back against the ground. She wanted to buck, to move her hips and force him to slip inside her, but the pending climax glued her down.

  There was a great force building inside her but she was determined not to send her feelings out to every woman here on the compound. She focused on building her own dam for the tingling current that coursed through her body looking for a conduit. Finding none, it built off itself, charging up her whole body. The electricity of her orgasm started on his lightening rod and exploded through her body.

  Nathalia ceased to have any thought except, Fuck me, Eiran, though it came out in jumbled waves.

  Eiran got the order none the less. He flipped her over as if she weighed nothing at all and set her up on all fours. Her arms and legs were little more than limp, but he held her there easily with an arm around her waist. He leaned over her back and took her shoulder in his teeth.

  He bit soft enough not to draw blood but hard enough that she knew she should be still. He growled deeper than she heard before and it sent a throbbing need deep in her cunt. Nathalia’s brain was still hazy but she knew better than challenge the beast when it sounded like that.

  He pulled back his hips and plunged root deep into her aching vagina. He pulled almost all the way out and then surged forward again and again. It was so hard and rough that Nathalia knew if she wasn’t as wet as she was, it would have hurt. She was sure the slapping sounds of his body hitting her ass would be heard by someone, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was that he didn’t stop.

  When she told him that, Eiran said nothing but increased both his speed and depth. The head of him touched a part of her so deep that she would have cried out if she had a voice. As he pounded her A-spot at the innermost point of her vagina just above her cervix, she felt such a violent orgasmic contraction that she almost begged him to stop. They continued and her whole body tightened with each compression. Nathalia felt a rush of liquid and would have collapsed, but Eiran lifted her up, and leaning back on his feet, pressed her down hard on his lap.

  Spearing her and holding her still, Eiran let her feel the full force of his orgasm. The pressure of his hot seed against her newly found A-spot almost made her come again. It, apparently, did not suffer from post-orgasmic over-sensitivity.

  Nathalia’s senses were so heightened now that she was aware of all kinds of things. She could hear the grass growing and smell the nearby highway. She could taste the oxygen-rich moist air of central Texas. She could feel, not only the human minds with a sprinkling of Guardians around her, but also the owls asleep in the trees above them, the squirrels running around searching for nuts, and even the worms feasting on the rich earth beneath her feet. She could pinpoint each of her friends living out their lives just yards away.

  Maeve.

  Nathalia could feel her in what used to be Nathalia’s office, worrying. Her Guardian, Harith Samsiel, was with her. There was someone else there too. A tiny, but complex mind so close to Maeve.

  The One.

  As soon as Nathalia touched that mind, she knew the ancient prophecy was true. That girl’s mind was more like a Guardian than a human even at this early stage. Nathalia could feel the ancient power that she and every Nephilim used, coursing through the baby.

  “He Who is for the One’s special ability is the transfer of power. He can share his power with anyone, enhancing their own or giving abilities. That is why he belongs to the One.”

  Eiran stood, lifting Nathalia up as he went. He steadied her for a few seconds until a young girl, maybe a new initiate since Nathalia didn’t recognize her, came into view. She looked around and, not seeing anything, left a bundle on a nearby rock.

  When Nathalia was steady, Eiran went and brought back the dark bundle. He shook it out and held it up for Nathalia. The girl had been compelled to bring a robe. Nathalia turned her back so that Eiran could slip the long black cape on her shoulders. He reached around to fasten the clasp at her neck, grazing the birthmark again. It sent an immediate rush of power to her head, like it was prepping her for an elaborate spell.

  When she turned back to Eiran, he had camouflaged his massive but flexible wings down and appeared to don the same robe. He reached out and cupped her face with both hands. He leaned in for a tender kiss on her lips and when he pulled back, brought her hood up to cover her head.

  “It is better if you are not seen. There are many Nephilim here searching for their mates.” They had both witnessed how little resistance Eitan, and even Eilam, had to her. The former was ruled by nothing and he took what he wanted, but even the latter had difficulty not taking her.

  Nathalia could clearly see how a little secrecy would serve her. She might be the warrior, but she was without her weapon, the DakuAhu. Even with it she would be no match for a squad of highly experi
enced hunters.

  “You lead the way. I will follow closely, protecting the rear and cloaking our details.”

  There’s one more thing… I’m nervous about seeing Maeve. I’ve been having thoughts about hurting her…and biting her…and doing other bad things to her.

  “Maeve is the Holy Mother of the One? It is only natural that you should feel the hunger for her. Her baby holds the same pull for our beast as you do. You have nothing to fear. I will hold both portions of the monster within myself so that you do not feel the hunger toward your friend and her unborn.”

  As soon as he said it, Nathalia felt the ease of burden lift from her. She should have known he could alleviate her suffering and told him sooner. She felt so much better that she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. This brought their bodies back in close contact and the heat instantly rose between them. She whispered a thank you into his mind and laid a kiss on his cheek.

  Nathalia headed confidently toward the main building, having located Maeve in the Abbess quarters. Eiran would, no doubt, be a little uncomfortable in the room where Nathalia died, but it was where the Abbess did business. Maeve was now the Abbess. It was what Nathalia always wanted, for Maeve to be her successor.

  She went around the major courtyard where so many children played and Nephilim watched protectively. She would have to speak to her brethren soon enough. Right now she had to see Maeve and then Alisha. Nathalia entered the sanctuary from a side door.

  She stopped for a minute, admiring the beauty of the familiar space with her new found senses.

  The skeleton of the main building for the Daughters of Women was an old Catholic church and monastery. All the walls and floors were original stone here in the sanctuary and in the adjoining rooms. Nathalia could see the cracks and chips with more detail than before. The place smelled of dry earth and human traffic, first all men and now mostly women.

  The ceiling had long ago caved in, but the Sisterhood took advantage of that. They installed a modern clear plexiglass roof. There was no electricity in this room. It was lit by only celestial luminescence. The sun in the day, like now, and the moon and stars at night. It was beautiful and reassuring in its familiarity. The thing that Nathalia was unprepared for were the stone female forms edging the room.

  There were thirty-two marble statues lining those walls. Standing, seated, lounging, cuddled; each one in a different position. Some were alone and some paired. All female with a pleasant expression. There was no stoic visage here; happy, elated, or a sort of beautiful agony.

  They were what remained of the holy ones. They were women who had sacrificed everything, their very life, to serve as Capacitors, human storage for the power generated by pairs matched by the matchmaker. Their exposure to such high and constant levels of white energy turned their bodies slowly to stone, or it had until Nathalia found Camilla.

  Camilla was a very specialized Panacea Primo. Her healing ability was in removing that which didn’t belong. It made her especially useful down in the storage room. The Sisterhood had not lost one capacitor to the petrification since Camilla’s ascension to Primo.

  The women in this room, solidified before Camilla’s arrival, were very much alive. Camilla and others had told Nathalia they were, but being unable to sense a consciousness, Nathalia had doubted. Not anymore. She could see that they glowed ever so lightly with prana and could feel a mind there, though she was certain she could not push her thoughts into it.

  Leaving this revelation to be explored at another time, she headed toward the Abbess chambers. She almost walked right in as she would have when she ruled here but remembered herself in time. She knocked.

  Harith opened the door for them. Nathalia could feel the hunger radiating off him. She had no desire to start a war so she kept her head down, skin out of sight, but she knew he could smell her. Eiran distrusted the other’s control and placed himself between Nathalia and He Who is for the One.

  “Welcome. We’re so glad to have a new Representative. With no other way to contact the Council of Esteemed Elders we’ve been feeling a little isolated. Please do sit down. Can I offer you anything to drink?”

  Nathalia refused with a shake of the head. She had been speaking only Sumerian for so long now, it was most familiar to her. She struggled, the English words feeling alien to her and they came out much too formal. The grandson of heaven has found the daughter of man and their joining has brought the One to earth.

  Rejoice, for you are highly favored. The One is within you; blessed are you among women. You, Maeve, are chosen by fate to mother the savior of mankind and to be this chapter’s Abbess Primo. You have steerage of their course; Direct their sails onward, lusty gentlewoman.

  Nathalia had always been prone to quote Shakespeare and quickly warmed back up to the modern (well, modernish) language. Apparently that didn’t change in death or rebirth or a second or third life and served to identify her to Maeve more than her face or voice.

  “Nathalia?” Maeve’s question was barely a whisper. Human ears might not have heard it.

  Deny it. You will not enjoy revealing yourself. She will see the difference in you and fear it. Eiran discouraged her from doing what he could see in her mind.

  Nathalia heard his warning and decided against it. She needed Maeve. She needed all the help the Daughters could give her. She answered, Yes and no. The Nathalia you knew died but was born anew in me. I am Ereshkigal of the Kafziel family line.

  Nathalia pushed back the hood of her cloak revealing her face to everyone in the room and getting her first good look at Maeve. She was very pregnant and stunned but happy to see Nathalia again. Maeve waddled around the desk, her arms extended for an embrace.

  She will recoil at your touch. Again, only Nathalia heard Eiran’s warning, but this time she took the advice. She remembered how Maeve had disliked touching the Guardian when he came to bless her matchmaking. Maeve told her it felt like being touched by a live wire. Experiencing that same sensation through Nathalia would surely make Maeve notice the change and fear.

  Nathalia didn’t want that so she held her hand up quickly in a motion for Maeve to stop.

  It’s better if we don’t touch, she said. I love you too much to handle seeing the look of disgust that would surely follow an embrace. A look of hurt on Maeve’s face gave Nathalia pause. Please be satisfied in knowing that I’m alive and happy with the second chance to sit together. Maeve’s smile wasn’t convincing but careful optimism sparked in her eyes. Nathalia continued. Maeve, I have decided that because of my death, you’ve learned a valuable and much needed lessen.

  “And what lessen is that?”

  The value of our secrets. Look at the damage that Michael was able to do to us. He was just one man in possession of our secrets. Imagine the damage that could be done if our enemies were organized or zealous about wiping us out. We must remain a secret society. The knowledge of our organization is power over us. You must now see that secrets are to be kept just that. But you aren’t the only one who had a lessen to learn. We learned from you.

  Now seeing the danger, the outside world is to our existence, we agree with you that this organization should go on the offensive. We can no longer live carefree, believing that if we do no harm then no harm will be done to us. There’s much evil in this world and we must do more to protect ourselves from it. We’ll continue to practice as we always have and increase the good and love in the world, but we’ll also hunt down and destroy the evil in it too. We can no longer sit by and wait for danger to come to us.

  Maeve, we were foolish to think we alone had found power in this world. There are others out there collecting power, for less noble reasons. We’re in the midst of a battle and didn’t know it.

  Nathalia feared that the battle was about to be brought to light all across the globe. No good could come of Eitan having the weapon. She really must find it first. That’s why she had come here.

  Maeve jolted her out of her thoughts. “Your mouth isn’t moving, Nathali
a. How can your ability be so much improved after only a few months? It took you years to reach the level you were when you died.”

  I have no idea how long ago it was that I last stood in this room. Time is perceived differently by us. My ability is changed because we have a different power source. I can still access the capacitor’s power, but if I were to power my voice with their collected supply you’d be very sick by now and they’d be completely drained. Telepathy is not the only current draw on our attentions and abilities. We’re in a constant battle for control of our thoughts and it consumes energy in abundance.

  “Who is ‘us’ and what are you talking about?” Maeve’s voice cracked ever so slightly. If Nathalia had not been so intimately acquainted with Maeve, she would not have heard her anxiety.

  Immediately danger filled the room. Nathalia planned to tell her about the Nephilim, but Harith and Eiran were against it. Eiran would support her no matter what she decided, but Harith would see certain revelations to the mother of his Sinnis as a breach in the very concept of their laws.

  Nathalia looked at Maeve’s Guardian and said, I swear I will not to reveal another’s name or true identity. Then she turned back to Maeve. Be not afraid. You’ll find me much changed since our life here together. So much so, that I now consider myself one of the Guardian kind.

  Maeve’s laugh.

  Nathalia forgot how beautiful it was. Her laugh made everyone smile. It broke the danger that was now almost a physical thing in the room.

  “You consider yourself one of them!? Just minutes before you came in, I was thinking that you would roll over in your grave if you knew that there were so many men walking around the compound.”

  I’ve come to understand many things. One of which, is that I misjudged and mistreated men. They’re tortured creatures, wholly unaware that they’re being influenced by evil. I deeply regret my old attitudes, but nothing can be done concerning my past life. The second of which, is that these Guardians are not men.