“It was packed full of people,” she whispered. “I was just a teenage sorceress, in over my head. There was a young man standing behind me, and another in front of people. And we were all packed in, so tight…”
Stella’s robe faded into hallucinatory invisibility, exposing her body again for Felix to look upon. It wasn’t real. He knew it wasn’t real. None of it was real, except for Stella’s hands, and her words, and maybe the lust he felt for her in the moment.
“We were pressed against each other,” whispered Stella. “Every movement of the train, a very old train, mind you, made me shake. I was so horny, it was embarrassing.”
She smiled and licked her lips, leaning over Felix’s cock for a moment. Her breasts dangled into view, holding surprisingly tight against her chest for a bosom as large as hers, and unchecked by a bra. Felix wondered if there was magic behind their physics.
“I pushed up against the young man behind me,” whispered Stella. “He was a shy one. It took a while before he realized what I was doing. I needed it bad, Felix. I wanted him to touch me. I made him touch me.”
She brought her face down next to Felix’s cock for the last few words, her breath tickling the head of it. Felix groaned in silence and continued to buck his hips up and down, adding momentum to each stroke of her soft, perfect fingers.
“I didn’t let him do anything more than just touch,” whispered Stella. “But I would have loved to. It would have been so nice… but so bad. Nobody would have noticed. He could have slipped my skirt up, pulled mypanties aside, and…”
Felix shuddered as his orgasm arrived in an explosive storm of pleasure. His seed splashed out, landing on his shirt, Stella’s bed cover, and her robe, which was suddenly around her again, and tied tightly at the waist. Felix felt ecstasy wash over him, and the hallucinations immediately begin to fade.
“There we go,” said Stella. “About time. Just so you know, I exaggerated the story a bit. For my sake and yours.”
Felix blinked. Stella waved her rod, and he felt the invisible bindings of his arms, legs, and throat fade into ether. He sat up, feeling his cheeks heat up as he searched around for his boxers and jeans.
“Stella…” Felix shook his head, finding that he was unable to meet her eye. “Uh, I’m really sorry about-“
Stella slapped him hard across the face, almost knocking him over on the bed. Felix winced and let out a confused gasp.
“What the hell?” He glared at her, and watched as she stood up and folded her arms angrily. “You’re the one who gave me the potion! You can’t be offended by what I did under it!”
“I’m not angry as a woman, for the superficial and petty reasons you’re probably assuming,” said Stella. “Felix, you need to control yourself under pressure. I’m angry as your mentor, as someone who expects you to be able to handle magical adversity.”
“That’s… not really fair,” he said, finding his boxers and pulling them on.
“Life’s not fair,” said Stella. “There are magical threats out there that could take hold of you with control spells far more powerful than what you just endured. You need to toughen up, mentally and emotionally.”
Felix scowled as he pulled on his jeans. He stood up, feeling the groggy aftereffects of the potion.
“Did it work, at least?” he asked. “Am I still wolfbound?”
Stella shrugged.
“Probably,” she said. “But… we can always try again.”
She went silent, and after a moment, Felix took it as his cue to leave. He scratched his head, taking one last look at the room, and noticing a strand of his cum against the top edge of Stella’s robe.
CHAPTER 4
Dani was sitting on the couch in the living room of Stella’s two bedroom apartment, watching TV with blunted enthusiasm. She immediately looked in Felix’s direction when he walked out of Stella’s room, running her eyes across him and frowning.
“What were the two of you working on in there?” she asked.
Felix shrugged. He hesitated for a moment before answering. Dani’s shoulder length brown hair hung loosely against a sleeveless white blouse that stood in stark contrast to the frozen landscape outside the tower.
“Stella was working on a spell,” he said. “Something to help remove whatever attraction the white wolves have to me.”
“Oh…” said Dani. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought.”
She relaxed visibly, smiling in a girlish way that reminded Felix of how young she was. Dani was 18, still in high school, and young enough to make the idea of seeing her as anything other than a stand-in for the little sister he never had incredibly off putting.
“The two of you were just… in there for a while,” said Dani. “It’s hard not to wonder.”
She frowned at Felix, who walked over and sat down on the couch next to her. Dani was well aware about her mother’s magical nature, and essentially her true apprentice, training to cast spells of her own. She was so different from Stella, virtually an open book compared to her mom, who was often incomprehensible in motive.
“It took a while,” said Felix. “And unfortunately, she isn’t sure if it worked.”
Dani’s frown deepened. She pulled her knees in and wrapped her arms around them, forming herself into a ball. She watched Felix for a couple of seconds before speaking.
“I guess that means you’re stuck here for a while longer,” she said. Felix grimaced.
“I don’t see a problem with heading back to civilization as I am now,” he said. “If anything, it would probably lure the wolves out of North Spire. That would be for the greater good, wouldn’t it?”
“You might not see a problem with it, but I’m sure my mother would,” said Dani.
She turned the TV off and stood up from the couch, stretching her arms high enough over her head to lift the bottom edge of her blouse up over her navel. Felix bit his lip and looked away, feeling more excited than he should have after his already eventful morning. It was still early, just after seven. Stella had forcibly dragged Felix out of bed to work on the spell, and he felt a yawn making its way up the length of his back.
“Do you have any plans for today?” he asked.
“Class,” said Dani. “I’m going to walk the children over to the schoolhouse as soon as I’ve eaten breakfast.”
“Right,” said Felix. He scratched the back of his head and sat down on the couch.
A knock came from the door, and Dani diverted from her path toward the kitchen partition in the back of the room to the front of the apartment. She opened it and smiled, allowing Mayor Senhaji inside.
“Good morning, Dani,” said the mayor. “Would your mother happen to be around?”
His eyes passed over the room, lingering on Felix for a moment. It was hard to get a sense of what the man was thinking. Felix felt like he’d gotten along with him well enough in his time in the tower, at least, far better than he’d gotten along with Sheriff Burke. But there was something unsettling in his eyes, hidden knowledge, maybe, like a person very accustomed to forming plots and acting on them secretly.
“She’s in her room,” said Dani. The mayor looked at her expectantly.
“Do you mind… getting her for me?” he asked.
Dani straightened slightly, as though only then understanding his meaning.
“Oh! Right, of course!” She hurried off into Stella’s bedroom, and Mayor Senhaji turned to look at Felix, frowning.
“I know that look,” said Felix. “No need to beat around the bush. Let me hear it.”
The mayor frowned.
“You’re straight to the point,” he said. “I wonder if that’s indicative of you being a straightforward lad, or if you’re just being flippant?”
Felix didn’t say anything, smiling slightly in an attempt to indicate his willingness to play along with the mayor’s wishes. It seemed to sate the older man.
“Good,” said Senhaji. “Now… We’re open to having you here, Felix, but only if you’re cont
ributing to the community in a manner that compensates for the resources it takes to feed and house.”
“I’d be more than happy to,” said Felix. “Once I get a chance to take some photos, I’ll be able to pay you back.”
“Until then,” said the mayor. “I would like you to assist Shane with the repairs to the first floor of the tower.”
Felix chewed on his lip. The Ice Dancer, the magical foe that he’d taken down with the help of Stella and the white wolves, had caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to the tower’s ground floor. It wasn’t anything he could have stopped at the time, and he didn’t view at as his financial responsibility, but the mayor made enough sense in his reasoning for assigning the task.
“Yeah, I can do that,” said Felix.
“Good,” said Senhaji. “You start immediately. Shane is already downstairs.”
Felix scowled. He hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, but there was no use complaining. Stella and Dani came out into the living room and began talking to the mayor. It was clear enough that there wouldn’t be any food on the table for a while longer, so Felix opted to skip breakfast and get to work.
CHAPTER 5
Felix spent a minute pulling on his winter jacket, snow pants, boots, and the pair of pink gloves he’d accepted on loan from Danica. Stella and the Mayor were speaking in hushed tones on the couch, and Dani had gotten back to making breakfast. Felix announced his departure to the room, and headed out.
The third floor of the tower, which contained Stella’s apartment and a few dozen others, was essentially a suburban neighborhood crammed into a hallway. Stella tended toward keeping her door closed for various secretive reasons, but many of the North Spire’s other denizens left theirs open, some mingling outside.
Felix walked passed them, heading down several flights. He still hadn’t taken the time to explore all of the tower yet, with the chaos of the Ice Dancer and his limited time constraints, but it seemed as though many of the floors held different purposes. Some were residential, some were reserved for recreation, or work purposes.
The ground floor was part lobby, part gathering hall, and for the moment, too cold for any regular use. The bottom staircase had been sealed off from the rest of the tower by a thin floor of plastic and insulation. Felix lifted it up and slid under, immediately feeling a gust of Alaskan cold welcoming him down.
The aftermath of the Ice Dancer was still readily apparent. Shards of glass coated sections of the floor. Better than half of the windows were missing, blown out by the creature’s supernatural wind. It had been during the Winter Festival, and the evidence was visible in every direction, with tables covered in frozen plates of perfectly preserved food, and decorations hanging from the ceiling.
Shane was already hard at work. He had a gray hat pulled down over his black hair, and was frowning deeply enough to make the scar on his face look like an extended wrinkle. Felix waved a hand at him and started over to where he stood next to a pile of rectangular slabs.
“About fucking time you fucking got here,” said Shane. “Freezing my fucking ass off trying to do this shit alone.”
“Morning, Shane.” Felix grinned at him. Shane was funny, hardworking, and usually much brighter of spirit than all of his vulgarity would suggest. He and Felix had faced off against the white wolves together in their last work assignment, though in retrospect, Felix could see the encounter for what it was.
“Yeah, morning,” he said. “Sorry, I’m just a bit pissed off. Didn’t have time to grab a coffee before my dad started yelling about how I needed to get down here and get to work.”
“It’s fine,” said Felix.
“Hey, what happened to your face?” asked Shane.
Felix winced, bringing a hand to the spot where Stella had slapped him. It was still rather sore and tender, and he figured that there was probably a mark in the approximate shape of a hand that told enough of the story on its own.
“Just, uh, an accident,” he said. “So… What’s first on the list?”
Shane pointed at a few windows to the side. Some of the glass was still jutting out from their frames, sharp and angular.
“The windows aren’t actually that hard to fix,” said Shane. “But the old glass needs to be cleared out, first. It’s thick stuff, and the frame has to go with it. Make sure you don’t get any cuts through your gloves.”
“Got it,” said Felix.
The two set to work, chatting as they went about pulling out the old window frames and replacing them with new ones. There was more to it than just that, but weather proofing the windows could wait until after they’d set up a basic defense against the cold.
The ground floor of the tower had been abandoned for the past day and a half. It was dangerous for the rest of the tower to have it exposed to the cold. Felix had help set up strategically placed space heaters in a bid to keep the pipes from freezing over and destroying the tower’s water system. It had worked so far, but there was only so much they could do with the floor left open, as it was.
“They always stick me on the shittiest fucking jobs,” muttered Shane.
“Hey, I’m here, too,” said Felix. Shane didn’t seem to hear him.
“And they wonder why I want to get the fuck out of North Spire.” Shane sighed, and shook his head.
“Why don’t you?” asked Felix. “Leave, I mean?”
“You say that like it’s easy,” said Shane. “You’re stuck here, too. It’s not like you can pay your way back to civilization with snowballs.”
Felix frowned. Shane had a point. He’d come to North Spire expecting it to be a decent photography gig, but so far, he’d accomplished little more than cracking a few of his lenses and wasting time.
“I’m not stuck here,” said Felix. “I’m just… temporarily delayed from leaving.”
“Call it whatever you want,” said Shane.
Several hours went by, and the pile of new window panes shrank down until there were only a few left. Felix moved to pick up one of the last ones and turned toward the back of the lobby to see a woman walking toward them. He recognized her as Sister Catherine, the North Spire’s resident nun and holy woman.
Sister Catherine was tall, almost as tall as Felix was. She had long blonde hair, a fair complexion, with blue eyes the color of freshly frozen water. She apparently wasn’t required to wear a habit, but the clothing she wore was always on the modest side, covering up what appeared to be a slim body with a small butt and medium sized breasts.
She wore a thick jacket, along with a pair of puffy white ear muffs, and smiled as she walked over to them. Shane was pulling down a broken window pane and didn’t notice her approaching.
“You’d think they’d make these fucking things out of stronger fucking material,” he said. “For the wind to be able to blow them apart like that… makes no fucking sense.”
Sister Catherine cleared her throat loudly, bobbing up onto her toes and fixing Shane with a reprimanding look. He turned to face her and his mouth tightened into an irritated scowl.
“Language,” said Catherine. “Those words are unbecoming of one under the eyes of the lord.”
Shane rolled his eyes.
“I gotta take a piss,” he said, pushing forward and very nearly banging his shoulder against Sister Catherine as he went by. “Be back in a few.”
Felix raised an eyebrow at that. Sister Catherine waited until Shane had entered the stairwell before nodding to Felix.
“Morning, Sister,” said Felix.
“Good morning Felix.” She had a warm smile, though her lips looked too red for the cold. “I heard from the Mayor that the repairs would continue through the morning, and thought it appropriate to bring some hot soup to the hard workers.”
She pulled a small thermos out from under her jacket and passed it to Felix, who received it in pink gloved hands with a smile.
“Thanks,” he said. “Uh, I’m not sure if Shane’s appetite will be booming when he gets back.”
“He is on
e of many under this singular roof that misunderstands my purpose here,” said Sister Catherine. Felix smiled, feeling a bit awkward.
“What, uh, is your purpose here?” he asked. “I mean, I’m not a believer myself, really, so…”
Catherine’s smile didn’t fade or waver. She stepped in closer, taking the thermos back and opening it. The smell instantly wafted up into the cold air, chicken and noodles.
“To spread the good word,” she said, confidently. “And to help the people here.”
She offered him the open thermos. Felix took it and, after a moment’s hesitation, took a sip. It tasted far better than Stella’s potion, with the promise of nourishment mixed in. Sister Catherine watched him eat with a smile on her face. She reached out her hand after a couple of seconds and gently prodded Felix’s swollen cheek.
“Have you taken anything for that?” she asked, frowning.
“Oh, no,” said Felix. “It’s nothing. Really.”
Sister Catherine’s touch shifted from an exploratory prod into a gentle caress. She cupped Felix’s face for a moment, the intimacy stretching into the way she looked at him, gently examining his eyes and what lay behind them.
“You have a good heart, Felix,” she said.
“Uh, thanks,” said Felix.
“You should get back to work,” said Catherine. “I appreciate what you’re doing.”
She smiled, and then turned to head back upstairs. Felix spent a couple of minutes eating soup, and then returned to the windows.
CHAPTER 6
“Is the evil church lady gone?”
Shane’s voice came from behind Felix, and the irritation in it was real.
“What’s wrong with Sister Catherine?” asked Felix. “She seems nice enough, to me.”
Shane looked at him as though he’d just said something that went against all logic and reason.
“She seems nice to you? Really?”
“Really,” said Felix. “She brought us soup.”
Winter Spire: Den of Desire Page 2
