by Sarina Dorie
She could try, but he was faster.
He lunged at her ankles. Vega smoothly stepped aside but not quick enough. He would have gotten a good swipe at her if she hadn’t blocked him using a shield that crackled with violet light when he lunged. He bounced off the shield and rolled into the wet grass. Using magic when he had none was fighting dirty as far as he was concerned.
He hadn’t expected anything less from Vega Bloodmire. There was satisfaction in fighting a worthy opponent. Lucifer readied himself to pounce from a different angle.
Vega sauntered toward the oak tree. “If you don’t stop acting like an idiot, I’m not going to reinforce the wards around this house that your magic has burned through.”
He tilted his head to the side, her words arresting him long enough to consider what she was saying.
She gazed upward at the house, rain falling around her but not touching her. Dirt resisted sticking to her pristine black heels, and she didn’t sink into the mud as she made her way to the oak tree.
Vega twisted her wrist, and a wand appeared in her hand. “Really, I shouldn’t reward you with a good deed after your ungrateful behavior just now. I don’t want you to think I’m doing this because you tried to attack me.” She shifted the package of cookies to her other arm. “But Abigail did say the wards must have been broken, and she was right. No thanks to you.”
Him? Lucifer snorted and looked the other way. Vega was the one casting spells in the garden to transform Abigail. That was her magic. Her carelessness.
“Yes, you,” Vega said. “It’s your affinity doing this. Your kitty sex magic might not channel enough power to cure your curse, mostly because you’re out of practice and it’s close to impossible to use magic in the form of an animal, but you have to wonder what happens with the magic when you’re done. It has to go somewhere. It’s burning holes in the wards. Even my superior skills as a Merlin-class Celestor are destroyed.”
Lucifer couldn’t tell if she was being earnest or just trying to slough the blame off on him. Even so, his head dropped between his shoulders as he hunched in guilt. Vega pointed her wand at the roof and waved it around as though she were conducting an orchestra.
The spell was similar to music, each note like that of a lullaby, piling on top of other sounds to complete a melody. Strands of light that tasted of the heavens wove around the house and reinforced the protective magic. Vega’s Celestor affinity meant she had the ability to cast the most difficult spells such as divination, wards, and transformations using starlight. Her Merlin-class status meant she had mastered her own affinity as well as the “lesser” ones like the Elementia affinity that used fire, water, earth, and air and the Amni Plandai magic of plants and animals.
Lucifer had never thought of Abigail’s affinity as being lesser than his, but then, Baba Nata, the hedge witch who had mentored and raised him had welcomed any kind of magic so long as it was useful. She had favored his affinity of touch magic for its healing properties even though it was forbidden by Fae and Witchkin society. It was bad enough being a rare Red affinity with an ability over blood, sex, pain, and touch, but Lucifer had the misfortune of being the son of a succubus, only adding to his secrets.
Vega’s face was serene as she worked, the beauty of the magic banishing the sharp angles of her face and softening her. The calming embrace of magic swirled around her and erased her earlier crabbiness. She moved her hips as she pushed and pulled against the strands of wards with her free hand, her movements like a dance. Intertwined with the violet and silver strings of starlight, she spun another magic into the protective shield. It was disguised as green fertility magic, of spring and newborn plants, but hidden at the core, almost imperceptible, he tasted something else.
The protective magic was familiar, nearly resembling his own, but with a different dash of flavors. Red magic made of electrical signals combined with dance reinforced the spell.
He tasted blood, heard the music of death, and felt the caress of tango in his limbs. His senses became jumbled together as her spell washed over him.
Vega sauntered around the house, examining her handiwork. The wards were now invisible, but Lucifer felt them thrumming above and around the house. He prowled after her, noticing the way she stopped to strengthen other places.
Vega had used Red affinity magic at the core of these new wards. Other affinities weren’t supposed to be able to handle the electrical currents of the Red affinity, but Vega just had. Not that it should have surprised him. If there was a witch who might figure out how to do so, it would be her.
What did that mean about her? She already had demonstrated she understood more of his secret than she’d previously let on.
Was she a friend or foe? She had strengthened the wards around the house that he supposedly had wounded, but she hadn’t wanted Abigail to know she’d performed a favor on her behalf. He didn’t understand Vega. She always jumped at a chance for someone to owe her a favor.
“One piece of advice,” Vega said as she strode under the shadowy boughs of the oak tree. “Practice storing your magic instead of squandering it. Just because Abigail needs to stop trying doesn’t mean you do, but be smart and learn from your mistakes. You would do better saving your magic for a rainy day rather than spending it all at once, trying to break your curse all in one go. If you can save it, that is.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “Maybe you’ll meet the right female someday, and she’ll be able to break cat-erella’s curse.”
The right female? Abigail was the right female, wasn’t she?
She turned back to him. “You’re going to have to get this figured out before it’s too late.”
Too late for what? He meowed and gestured with his paw like he did when he wanted Abigail to keep talking, to fully explain herself. Vega must have understood.
“Isn’t it obvious? The fact that you’ve lasted this long and are capable of intelligent thought is unprecedented. Eventually you’re going to cease being human inside and your soul will be completely cat. When that happens, you’ll be incapable of turning yourself human.”
Lucifer yowled in protest. He was not turning into a cat. Vega was just being cruel and trying to scare him.
A raven flying overhead attempted to sweep down and land on the oak tree. When it met the invisible dome of Vega’s magic, the wards momentarily flashed as the bird bounced off it. The raven screeched in pain, attempting to flap its wings and fly away, but it fell into the neighbor’s yard.
When Lucifer looked to Vega, she was gone.
He jumped to the ledge of the wooden fence to examine the downed Fae enemy. The raven fluttered one wing while the other dragged uselessly across the ground. Lucifer took satisfaction in pouncing on the bird and breaking its neck.
He enjoyed the kill, not because he was a cat and liked to hunt. He was just agitated and needed a distraction.
But even that didn’t erase all the unease Vega’s visit had brought. His soul was most certainly not turning into a cat’s. He was still completely himself. Aside from a penchant for stalking small animals and sometimes eating them.
He couldn’t tell whether Vega knew the secrets of how his magic worked because she was an enemy who would someday use this information against him and Abigail or because she was a Red affinity herself. He feared if she was a Red affinity with an ability to use touch magic, that might have explained how she had temporarily turned him back into a man.
He didn’t particularly relish the idea of coupling with Vega as a cat or as a human again. His heart only wanted Abigail. He didn’t know how he was going to reconcile this problem.
CHAPTER FOUR
Cat’s Cradle
Lucifer yearned to be human again, to once again hold Abigail in his arms and tell her he loved her. He’d dreamed of that day for thirty years, but he wasn’t sure he was desperate enough to couple with Vega Bloodmire again to do so. One thing was certain; he would not allow his soul to atrophy into that of a feline predator. He nee
ded to keep his brain thinking like a human.
Worries induced by Vega’s visit must have been on Abigail’s mind that night as well. She pulled her alphabet board out from under her bed and unfolded the repurposed box she’d made years ago. That meant she wanted to talk.
It meant she wanted him to talk.
He didn’t want to talk. He didn’t want her to know what Vega had told him about his soul changing into that of a cat, and that his time was running out. It would only worry her, and she already had the Raven Court to think about.
She blew off the dust and set the board on the floor between them. It had been too long since they’d used it.
Lucifer swaggered over to her paper and pen on the nightstand, reminding her she would need to write down what he said. He could remember that much, but spelling was becoming more difficult the longer he remained a cat. Human knowledge and patience were being drowned out by the feral body he inhabited. Even paying attention to the television programs she watched were becoming a struggle.
He hated the idea that Vega, wicked witch extraordinaire, might be right about his soul.
Lucifer plopped down beside her and leaned his head against her knee.
Abigail took a deep breath, worry in her face. “Vega had a good point about us wearing down the wards. I don’t want us to do anything that will make this house unsafe for us or Clarissa and her students when they visit at Christmas. That’s only three weeks away. I don’t want our magic to draw the attention of Fae who might harm the neighbors.”
Lucifer nodded. He hadn’t needed the board to communicate that.
“If I ask Vega to turn me into a cat again, we should do it somewhere else. Not in the Morty Realm. We can go to Womby’s School for Wayward Witches and do it there. What do you think? Would you try again if we can do it somewhere it isn’t forbidden?”
He snorted. Her magic was forbidden in the Morty Realm. His magic was forbidden everywhere.
Lucifer slowly spelled out the words by patting each letter with his paw. Abigail wrote each letter he tapped on her notepad before reading the sentence out loud. “Sex magic at a school for teens?”
He gave her a pointed look to tell her that was what she was suggesting, whether she realized it or not.
“Are you concerned about Baba Nata catching you if you return to the Unseen Realm?” She drummed her fingers against the cardboard, completely ignoring his comment. “I don’t think she’ll capture you. She told you she wants you to go back willingly as her apprentice.”
He started tapping the letters, but he had to stop after a few words. “Baba is problem lest of—least of—Baba is the least of—” He struggled to focus on spelling out each word and not jumble them up, but he forgot what he was saying after a couple of words.
He restarted. Abigail read what he’d spelled out after he finished. “If Fae learn I’m Red affinity, they either kill me on the spot or capture enslave me so I make them magic stronger.”
He could barely understand what he was saying. He didn’t know how she did. She scratched him behind the ears.
He lowered himself onto her lap, craving the comfort of her touch. Baba had once told him his magic would endanger Abigail. Even if the Fae found him more desirable alive than dead, they wouldn’t hesitate to dispose of her while capturing him. She would be nothing more than a tasty treat to them.
He tapped the message. “I do not endanger you want.” He realized what she repeated back to him didn’t make sense.
She translated, “You don’t want to endanger me.” She stroked his fur. “I don’t want this to endanger you either. But I don’t want to give up. We have to try something different. We’ve tried this for over a year and still haven’t gotten it down.”
He hid his head against the leg of her pajama pants. He didn’t want to think about this. He didn’t want to think about anything. It was so much easier to be a cat. If his soul did turn feral, and he wasn’t able to return to being human, at least she wouldn’t keep trying to help him and risk her own safety in the process.
“It’s my magic, isn’t it?” Abigail asked. “Amni Plandai magic isn’t strong enough. It doesn’t generate enough power in sex magic.”
He forced himself to rise so he could bop the letters into a sentence. “Together fertility magic and sex magic powerful.”
She lifted his chin to look her in the face. “The problem is my lack of magic, then. I’m not powerful enough to help. I don’t have anything to lend you for this spell.”
He squirmed away. She was intelligent enough to come to the next logical conclusion, but he wished she wouldn’t say it out loud.
Abigail took a deep breath, anguish in her eyes. “Vega is a Merlin-class Celestor. She’s one of the most powerful Witchkin we know. Her magic helped you transform before. We should ask her to spend time with you as a cat again. She might be able to—”
Lucifer swiped a paw at the board, pushing it across the floor to express his vexation.
“Just listen,” she said.
He hurled himself away from her and raced under her bed, but he could still hear her, even though he pretended he couldn’t.
“Which is worse? Returning to Baba and becoming her apprentice so she’ll change you back or enlisting the aid of her granddaughter to have sex with you while you’re both cats to turn you back? Baba wasn’t horrible to you when you were her apprentice. It was me she didn’t like.”
Didn’t Abigail understand, if he returned to Baba, he would be stuck in the Faerie Realm? He would never age, and he’d be bound to serve as her apprentice for years to come while Abigail remained here in the Morty Realm growing old without him.
He would be abandoning her. There was no fate worse than that.
He yowled, his only way to tell her he didn’t want to hear more. He hated this, his inability to express himself as a human would. It was no wonder his soul was atrophying into that of a cat.
She kneeled next to the bed. “According to Vega, you both seemed to mutually enjoy your time together as cats. If that’s what it takes, why not do it on purpose this time and channel the energy mindfully? You can let her help you keep your human form.”
He hadn’t minded coupling as a cat. Baba used to make him transform himself and “sow his wild oats” on nights he needed to fuel his affinity with touch magic, but this instance with Vega had been different. Lucifer had been copulating like a feral animal when the transition to his human form had happened. He and Vega had both changed at the same time, and he hadn’t cared that he was a human or that she was either. It hadn’t mattered that she’d been a stranger.
These details had disturbed him later when he’d been himself. His affinity had craved touch so greatly, he hadn’t wanted to stop. It had overruled his rational mind. He’d been compelled to finish, the incubus in him leaving him a senseless beast.
Afterward, he’d felt guilty. Even when he’d changed back into being a cat, he hadn’t wanted to act like an animal again. He didn’t want to be the kind of person who would fornicate with a woman he didn’t know or like.
All he’d ever wanted was to be with Abigail. He’d wanted their first time together to be special. Instead, she’d been transformed into a cat in heat to try to bring out his affinity. He couldn’t be tender or affectionate or show her how much he loved her in his feline form. She saw the side of him that was a base animal, not who he wanted to be.
If they had succeeded in turning him back into a man this way through animal sex magic, he was certain he would have felt even worse. Yet if they did succeed, at least he would be able to express himself with words and future deeds to demonstrate how much he cared about her.
He resented it even more that he would have to be this base animal and mate with Vega again if he was going to succeed in returning to his former self. All this was rattling around inside him, and he couldn’t even talk about it.
Abigail crouched beside the bed, one hand extended to him in invitatio
n. “You aren’t ready to think about this right now. It’s overwhelming. I understand.” She beckoned to him. “We can talk about this again another time. All right?”
Reluctantly he came out of hiding. She picked him up and hugged him to her chest. He nuzzled against her neck, inhaling her fragrance of homemade cookies and herbs from the garden.
She kissed the top of his head. “I love you.”
Hearing her say those words filled him with even more anguish. He wanted to be human again so that he could be with her. If Vega was correct, he wouldn’t ever be himself again if he didn’t overcome his curse soon, but he needed to feel like he wasn’t trading his soul to the devil in the process.
That meant he was going to need to find another way.
CHAPTER FIVE
Deals with Devils—and Witchkin
Lucifer did as Vega advised. He saved up his magic. Each time he mated with a female cat, he kept that magic in his core where he could store it and it wouldn’t escape to damage wards—not that he mated in Abigail’s yard. He went as far away as possible for that. With each occasion that he sat on Abigail’s lap and snuggled up to her, he saved that soothing touch. He stored the frolicking frenzy brought on by catnip and the thrill of the hunt.
Vega didn’t return at the full moon to transform Abigail as she had previously. He was half-relieved. He didn’t want Abigail to endanger herself, and he didn’t want to damage the wards around the house. Her safety was more important than breaking his curse.
For her part, Abigail was mindful while gardening, not allowing the sliver of returning magic to influence the plants around her. She had been granted a rare gift for her magic to return, even if it was through his influence. It was important she continued to be careful with it.
While abstaining from each other’s company in mutual feline form, the visitations of ravens became less frequent. He had stopped drawing out Abigail’s close-to-dormant powers with passive magic he had no control over, even as he stored more active magic to be used later.
