But the witch was limber and wily. In a moment Scott was on his back. Mia tried to flee, but Scott managed to trip her by the ankle. The two grappled on the ground.
“You used me!” Scott cried.
“You were an idiot!”
“You bewitched me!”
“It’s what I do, jackass!”
“You just wanted me for my boat!”
“It’s a ship,” Erica cried firing a shot into the air.
The Lilith Web lay at her feet in tatters, the frayed ends smoldering like embers. And then Fred understood.
“Mio Dio,” the witch breathed.
She kicked sand into Scott’s face and ran.
“You’re mine bitch!” he shrieked as he took off after her.
Erica raced to Fred.
“We gotta get outta here,” she said. “Her troops will be back and--”
“You were brilliant!” Fred said kissing her full on the lips.
The woman stood stunned. Fred grabbed her arm and pulled her along into the night.
“Fred,” the woman cried. “Fred I gotta tell you— “
“I know,” Fred said.
“But Fred – “
“Scott you stupid twit, you don’t think I recognize my own sister?”
He stopped her short.
“Fred – Fred look at me!”
“I know,” she smiled. “You are very cute.”
“Fred!” he cried hefting his own breasts. “These are really real!”
“I know. No other way to fool the witch. Now let’s go and save the world.”
Scott still had the necklace and with it they found the spot. There were still guards there, but a volley of automatic fire scattered them. Using the stone, she found a place in the sand. They dug, and then Fred felt something warm and round.
“Turtle eggs,” she said. “Be careful.”
By the light of the moon they dug, and then Fred’s fingers touched it. She gingerly drew it from the nest and held it in the moonlight. The jewel was just slightly oblong and decorated with gleaming jasper flowers surrounded by thousands of emerald crystals. The precious pomegranate was crowned in gold with tufts of slender jade leaves.
As she held it in the moonlight, Fred could feel its aura emanating the power reserved for the divine. And yet from its very touch, she knew that she could glean just a little bit for herself.
*****
Mai lay helpless on the bed in the stateroom of the North Korean frigate. She had been stripped to her banal military lingerie. Her hands were bound to the headboard above her head with leather, her thumbs cuffed. Her jaw ached from the rubber ball-gag. She could neither chant nor weave her spells.
In the guise of that rich fool Scott, the wizard had so easily duped her. With her defenses down, Mia had fallen to the woman. After that, Mia’s troops were enchanted by the wizard and the real Commander Zhao had been ‘convinced’ to defect to the West. Now, enraged and humiliated Mia thrashed helplessly.
“You’ve been naughty,” Erica said as she sat on the bed. “It’s time that you were shown the error of your witchy ways.”
Mia shrieked as the woman slid her hand under the ugly bra.
“But I don’t think that you understand,” Erica cooed. “I am not like you. No more tricks. No more magic. Just you and me, woman to woman.”
Mia thrashed and cringed as the wizard’s fingers took her nipple.
***
“Just you and me,” Frederica said. “Girl to girl.”
Scott had never been afraid of a woman in his life – until that moment. He and Fred stood in his dim bedroom on his yacht. She was trying to seduce him. She was unbuttoning his blouse. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move to resist her, and that was no enchantment. He was simply terrified.
The heavy cotton shirt parted and he gazed down at his own breasts in astonishment. He was so beautiful. The delicate lace edging of his bra was tight against the flesh and the skin bulged slightly. Frederica sighed. Her finger traced the place where the flesh met the fabric, down along one breast, across the gap, up the other and then along his cleavage. The sensations were uncanny. He began to quiver inside, and as he quivered he felt an arousal inside the likes of which he could barely understand, but which sent throbbing thrills through him.
Frederica peeled away the silken cup and the cool breeze wafted over his nipple. He was amazed at the chilling delight he felt as the little pebbles began to puff. Frederica giggled and caressed his mounds. Scott gasped as her tongue swirled around one areole and teased the little swollen point with wondrous delight.
“Sooo pretty,” Frederica sighed as she stood back and gazed.
Scott quaked in his confusion. He was torn. His body was alive with breathtaking new sensitivities, and yet there was something about those feelings that were . . .
“Unnatural,” Fred said as if she had read his thoughts.
She gently kissed one, then the other nipple, and then stood away. She made a motion with her arms. The air around Scott began to sparkle.
***
Mia quivered. She felt like jelly inside. The wizard-woman used her mouth and tongue and hands and fingers to surprise and delight her breasts in ways that astounded. Mai was used to lovers who could be like animals with her delicate flesh, but this woman was near savage. It was as if she could tingle and delight every nerve ending on Mai’s breasts and belly and neck and thighs all at once. She wrapped and slathered her body with her tongue and her lips and fingers and tits until Mai felt as though she were enveloped in one long rapture of bliss.
She strained at her bonds. She wanted, she needed to be a part of that bliss, but she was helpless. She was a delighted pawn in the hands of a queen who tortured and tormented her with her own delight.
Erica writhed and wiggled along Mai’s quivering flesh, and Mai began panting as that wonderful, slimy worm of a tongue slid and slathered lower and lower and lower. Mai could feel the heat drawing nearer to her most sensitive flesh, and she thrust herself toward that promise of passion. The tongue tip traced the soft hair around her hood and Mai tensed. Her inner thighs locked as her heels dug into the bed forcing herself up toward joy. And when that slimy muscle flicked her clit she shrieked . . .
***
. . . “ohhh,” Scott moaned as Frederica nestled herself onto him.
They were both naked, and she was a woman and he was most assuredly a man again. He lay back on the bed as the petite wizard straddled him, parted her lips and guided him home. Her elfin body was far more than he had ever imagined. She was small and slender, and yet her form was perfect. Her round hips flowed so naturally from her slender waist. He could see her delicate ribs beneath her creamy skin. Her perky and perfect breasts seemed to flow from her body into delicious curves tipped with delightfully pink nipples.
But as marvelous as she was to behold, she was even more a marvel to experience. She was so warm and so enveloping inside. The word ‘tight’ didn’t apply to this nymph. She was alive. Her muscled rippled and caressed him as they thrust in harmony. She would clutch him and massage him as he plunged and he could feel his knob and his shaft electrifying and delighting her.
She soon went wild as she rammed herself. He moaned as he met that ramming, plowing her like an animal. He grabbed her tender breasts and she groaned. She fell into his arms kissing him madly as the two ravaged one another, shoving and pushing and grinding.
***
Mai clenched her eyes as Erica ground into her. The helpless witch’s back was arched and her mouth gaped open, but no sound came out.
Erica had ravaged her pussy to the edge of insanity. She had lapped and licked and tickled and delighted until Mai was a babbling fool on the edge of oblivion. Erica had wrapped her hood with those wonderful lips and her tongue had become an insane butterfly as it fluttered her clit propelling her closer and closer to that edge.
And then for one awful moment Mai froze in terror. The lips left her. She lay stunned. She thought that this was t
he wizard’s revenge and she wanted to weep for the cruelty.
But then – then she tensed. She clenched her eyes and dared to hope. She felt a soft breast, then a belly glide over her glistening slit. Erica’s thigh slide under her, and then she felt the heat and then she felt the pulse and then she felt a soft mound of fur brush her own. And then wet lips met wet lips and swollen clit met swollen clit and Mai shrieked silently in joy. She pressed herself against her captor turned lover and delighted in being a part of the bliss.
***
“Oh Fred.”
“Oh Scott.”
***
“Mmm Mistress.”
*****
Frederica had no idea what to expect of the Underworld, so she wasn’t surprised.
Pushed by a wizard’s wind and aided by the sacred jewel the wizard sisters, the witch and the rich man found themselves at the southernmost tip of the Greek mainland and the Cape Matapan Caves. Journeying deep into the ancient grotto they slowly passed from the realm of man and onto eerie misty flats. There they found thousands of wandering souls, their eyes hollow and unseeing all drifting deeper and deeper.
They walked for what felt like hours. Frederica held Scott close, soothing the man’s natural fear with a charm of easing. But no mystical spell could quell a spirit that wasn’t willing, and so she looked on him with a new sort of admiration. Erica and Mai held hands. They gathered their skirts and tiptoed around the grime and muck, trading grunts of disgust. After a while the press of deceased blocked their way forward.
“It won’t be long,” a voice kept saying in a reassuring tone. “Won’t be long.”
Fred reached into her pocket, touched the jewel and the crowd parted. At the edge of a shallow bank they say a wizened old man with a long scraggly beard and hair, dressed in filthy rags and looking as old as time.
“You,” he said pointing to them. “You’re not dead yet.”
“Charon,” Fred began, “we’ve come— “
“Oh, I see,” the man nodded. “A couple of wizards, a witch and – and who the hell are you?
“Um,” Scott said. “I’m rich.”
“Oh. Well state your business.”
“I am the Witch Frederica Ramona-Lynda— “
“Oh right,” he nodded. “Right. You’re expected. Come along then. Got your pennies?”
Fred looked to Erica who looked to Mia who looked to Scott.
“Witches,” the man spat. “You go questing all over the globe and in the end you forget a penny for the boatman. Sheesh.”
“Um,” Scott ventured. “I have an AMEX Black Card.”
“That come with points?”
“Sheesh,” Scott said handing the man the card.
“Well, off we go then.”
“Not fair!” one of the dead cried. “We are the ninety-nine percent!”
“Won’t be long,” Charon called back as the boat glided smoothly across the river. “Problem is that it will be,” he muttered.
“How’s that?”
“You’ll see.”
Crossing the river, the mist cleared and the scene before them became idyllic. They saw a rolling pastoral landscape with trees and flowers in the full blush of Spring. The air was warm and bright and scented with roses, but the light came from no sun and it cast no shadows. No birds sang and the quiet was stranger than the flats.
“She’s up there,” Charon said. “That little cottage with the white picket fence.”
“Where is everyone?” Fred asked.
“We’re, um, in mourning. She’ll explain. Off you go.”
The cottage was nestled on the side of a small hill. Flowers and bulbs bloomed everywhere, and the grass and hedges were immaculately trimmed. They followed a white stone walkway to the white painted porch. There, seated on a white rocking was an old woman dressed in black. She was knitting and the threads she wove were gossamer.
“The Arch-Sage sent you,” she said looking up from her work and smiling.
And to each of them the woman looked something akin to their own grandmother.
“Yes,” Fred said taking a breath. “We are— “
“I know who you are,” the woman said. “Why have you come?”
“We have come, oh Mother Goddess,” Fred said kneeling, “to return this.”
And bowing her head, she held forth the bejeweled pomegranate.
Persephone’s wail nearly cracked the sky. The four clutched their heads and fell to the ground as earth shook beneath them, and clouds blotted out the sky. The woman stood and grew young and beautiful and terrible before them.
“Why do you torment me?” the goddess cried.
“B-But Earth Mother— “
“I cast that stone away when he died! I could not bear the memory!”
Thunder began to roll and the goddess’s eyes became ablaze with white fire.
“What?” Fred asked in bewilderment. “Who?”
Persephone flung open her arms and it was as if the air had parted. They saw before them a, stone crypt resting deep underground. On it was carved the word HADES.
“The Lord of the Underworld?” Erica breathed.
“Dead?” Fred said.
“Oh what’s the use,” Persephone said stifling a sob.
The woman collapsed back on her rocking chair. She shrank to her old frail form. The clouds melted and the light that cast no shadows returned.
“When gods die,” the woman sighed, “who cares anymore? Who even notices? Oh, people notice when spring does not arrive right enough. But who cares about a sad old man’s passing?”
“But,” Erica began timidly. “I thought that the Great Hades was immortal?”
“All the more bitter his passing,” the goddess said. “He was old. He was tired. He had a sort of malaise. You might call it an Unter-Weltschmerz. For the last few centuries he had even grown . . . tired of me . . .”
Fred and Erica traded a look, and then Erica hugged Mia. The wizard and witch rested their heads together.
“Forgive an old lady her anger,” Persephone said. “I’m just not myself anymore. Truly, I understand the feats of bravery and times of challenge you must have endured to help ease this aching heart. Please, take the gem as a small reward for your kindness. Now go. Leave me to my loneliness.”
Frederica gathered up the pomegranate. The four turned to go, each feeling their own sorrow for the once proud woman. And then Fred felt a small breeze in the still air, and beyond the roses she thought she smelled the ocean. She looked to her sister.
“You wouldn’t,” Fred breathed.
“Worth a try,” Erica whispered. “I really am thinking about the growing season.”
Erica approached Persephone, her glimmering gown trailing sea-foam. Mai’s robe parted as she took Erica’s hand.
“Dear Earth Mother,” they cooed.
Fred took Scott’s arm and strode quickly down the cobblestone path.
Spring came to the Champs de Mars a little late that year, but when it did it near exploded. People picnicked, children played, their silvery laughter filling the lilac scented air, boys wooed girls, and kites filled the sky while crocuses bloomed on the ground.
Frederica sat on her blanket in her favorite spot, sipping her tea from a styrofoam cup while a wide-eyed Scott told Uncle Jon all about their adventure in the Underworld.
“Well then,” Uncle Jon said. “All is well. Persephone is happy, my niece Erica and that wayward witch Mia have found useful employ, and you my dear Fred have yourself a pomegranate full of power.”
Fred smiled and batted her eyes.
“Now what of you Scottie?” the man chided. “Have your fill of the supernatural yet?”
“Scott,” Fred said taking the man’s arm, “and I are going to sail to the Antipodes.”
“That’s right,” he said. “Never been there.”
But even as Fred and Jon started to giggle, there was a small stir among the people in the park. A woman was walking through and among, handing out a
seemingly endless stream of flowers. She was dressed in a sky-blue gown that flowed from her like sea-foam. Her raven hair bedecked with delicate flowers trailed in no wind. People laughed and danced in her wake. The smiling woman walked to the three on the blanket and scattered them with scented petals.
“Erica,” Frederica said smiling.
“What a gig,” her sister grinned.
THE END
Another bonus story is on the next page.
Bonus Story 44 of 44
Completely Yours
Tatiana Hebert didn’t usually hate Mondays. She knew a lot of people who did, but not her. In fact, she loved Mondays. She saw it as do over day. If she had a problem that she couldn’t solve at work the previous week, or she had an extremely crappy Saturday when nothing just seemed to go right, no matter what she did, she always had Monday.
The first thing that tipped her off that her Monday was going to be on the tail end of ‘What-the-hell’, was the rain.
No, not just rain, she woke up to what sounded like a monsoon taking place outside. She always looked happy while waking up on Mondays but today she was not ready to take in what was happening. She tossed and turned with anger, all her preparations for Monday was going to waste.
Tatiana’s heart dropped. “Nooo.” She groaned, pulling the pillow over her head. She couldn’t sleep; she was used to waking up early on Mondays. She knew something like this could happen, the problem was, she was not prepared for it.
On Saturday morning, bright and early, Tatiana had risen at 6am. Before leaving the house, she’d checked, and then re-checked the five-day forecast, to be sure that she would get a few good days out of her new hairdo, before it went south. Then she’d happily left the house before 7:30, so she’d be one of the first clients in line, and hummed her way to the hairdresser to get a new hairstyle that she’d seen pictured in a magazine and lusted after for several weeks.
She always wanted to look good every Monday because it was her favorite day. She was ready to rock the week with her new hairstyle.
Tatiana would often say that she had the sort of hair that if she looked out the window during a rainy day, glanced at a picture of, or even thought about rain, her curls would go limp. She couldn’t believe everything was going to be spoiled because of the damn rain.
Inextinguishable Love: Firefighter and Interracial Romance Page 138
