* * *
“This is heavenly!”
I took another bite of my chicken saag… boneless white meat in a creamy Indian spinach sauce… that Vincent had fixed for my lunch. We had spent the late morning making love, and my lack of food was starting to wear on me.
“Glad you like it.” He said, sitting on the side of the bed. He was dressed, while I was still naked, sitting up in bed to eat.
“Unfortunately, you should probably keep your clothes on.” I said, disappointed. “I’m going to have to pass out for a while after I eat this.”
“It’s all good.” he said, smiling. “Everyone needs a little time to themselves.”
“You’re not going to be disappointed if I don’t always come to you first for sex, are you?” I asked. “I mean, with three people to be with, it could probably get kind of hectic… “
“Annabelle, I’ve told you… I’m not jealous. I’m overjoyed that you’ve connected with Gaia again, and especially with Angelique.” He cupped my cheek and looked into my eyes. “I had you to myself for a year. I never dreamed it would last so long. Now I’m ready to share you with those I love as well.”
I put my finished plate aside and pulled him over to me. “Maybe you should take those clothes off one more time… “
* * *
I found Tiffany later that afternoon, after a much-needed power nap. She was sitting at the same patio table that Jack and I had been sitting at earlier that morning, rooting around the ashtray. I walked over and saw a small pile of joint-stubs next to her on the glass table-top.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I sat down.
“Recycling.” she said, tearing each roach open and spilling the leftover weed on a sheet of paper. “You guys never smoke your roaches, and that wastes a lot of weed. I just can’t handle that.”
She opened all of the roaches and dumped the empty paper bits back into the ashtray. Tiffany then broke out her own rolling papers, rolling a reasonably fat joint out of the reclaimed weed.
“Besides,” she said, holding the joint up, “this stuff is hella resonated. It is going to be strong.”
“Well then fire it up!” I replied, handing her a lighter.
Tiffany lit the joint, took a big hit, and then handed it to me. I took an equally big hit, held it for a moment, and then erupted in a fit of coughing that lasted five minutes. Tiffany choked the second I started, only she coughed for seven.
“Damn!” I said after it was over. “I don’t know if I’m high from the weed or the oxygen deprivation!”
“I think it’s both.” she replied. Then she took another hit.
Twenty minutes and three coughing fits later, and we were as high as an astronaut’s booster rockets, if you know what I mean.
“You know,” I said, “Even though the lake thing is done, I’d still like you to stay on in my court. I still don’t fully understand just what ‘the Sorceress’s court’ even is, but I’d like to have you on it.”
“I’d be honored to, thank you.” she said, a smile on her face. “Oh wait!” she said, remembering something. “I have something for you!”
Tiffany reached beneath her into a canvas bag she had set there and pulled out a zip-lock bag with a book inside, along with a thumb drive. She handed it to me, and I looked at the handwritten title on a label on the front.
In the Court of the Crimson Cauldron: an account of life within the Court of the Sorceress it read.
“I told you that I didn’t want the original… “ I started to protest, but Tiffany held up her hand.
“It’s not.” she said. “This is my Uncle’s personal copy that he copied by hand before I was born. It’s what he used to make his printouts… he just didn’t feel right giving the Sorceress herself printouts. The flash drive is the scan of my Uncle's copy. The original is still in a very secure location.”
“That’s good.” I said, looking at it through the plastic.
I can’t wait to see what you have to tell me!
* * *
“It’s not always going to be this busy, is it?” I asked, running my hand down Angelique’s thigh.
“Define ‘busy’.” she replied.
“Not that I’m complaining,” I said, “but I spent the early morning making love to Gaia, the late morning making love to Vincent, and now I’ve been making love to you this dinner-hour. I’m loving the orgasms, but there is the risk of chafing… ow!” I winced.
“There might be a little ‘making up on lost time’ thing going on for me.” she admitted.
We laid in bed together, both of us naked, our bodies intertwined in the afterglow. Angelique stroked my hair as we spoke.
“Well, if what I’ve heard is right, then I’m going to have a longer than average life span.” I retorted. “We don’t have to do everything all at once. “
“Very true.” She then did something I’d never heard from her… a contented sigh. Yes, I had heard many an exasperated sigh, but never the sound of… or any sound of… contentment coming from her.
“You don’t get here that much, do you?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“I’ve spent far more nights without you than lying in your arms, yes.” she said. “Since I was turned, I so wanted to just turn you as well, so that we could spend the centuries in each other’s embrace! But I had been warned, warned by Petronia herself, to not interfere in your passing and rebirths. I was told that you… the person you are now, Annabelle… had to be born and become the Sorceress.”
“You tried once.” I said, remembering one of our many lives together. “I almost said yes, as well. But I chickened out at the last minute.”
“You’ve always been… wiser than me.” she said, twisting some of my hair up in her fingers.
“So why?” I asked. “Why me? Why this incarnation?”
“Here is where my knowledge fails me.” Angelique looked genuinely sad. “I do not know. All that was said to me is that you, Annabelle Dupre… and yes, I think you should take our name, to shield your family if nobody else… you have the strength of character needed to survive the tests and trials demanded of this Sorceress, who reigns now, here!”
Annabelle Dupre… I liked it! The other stuff… eh, I could do without.
“The only thing I want to do ‘here, now’ is to make love to you a couple of times more, and then go for the big poignant ending!”
“That sounds splendid!” Angelique had me pinned in an instant. “But you’ve done me twice already… it’s your turn!”
Oh. Shucks and darn, and stuff.
* * *
The sun had just touched the horizon when Raina and I got settled and lit up our evening joints. We sat on the balcony off of one of the collection rooms, comfortable nest-like chairs arranged to watch the sunset.
“So… “ I said, exhaling.
“So.” she replied.
“Life.” I sighed.
“Fuck! Right?” she grinned.
“It’s not too bad now.” I said. “Even for you, right? I mean, you may not have a steady honey, but you’re loved. And you’re not lacking for willing, enthusiastic bed partners.”
“True on all counts.” Raina smiled. “In fact, I have a standing invitation from the Fae sisters to drop by anytime. I may take them up on it.”
“Tiffany might be there.” I said.
“All I can say is ‘hot damn’!” Raina looked off into the distance, watching as the sun sank beneath the horizon. “You and Gaia could probably stop by." she said, breaking the silence. "I know that greenie has a sexual past with the sisters three, anyway."
"Part of me's tempted, but a bigger part is 'Nah, it would be too weird', you know?" I said. “I mean, most of my reasons not to disappeared when I realized that I was both queer and poly, but… it’s too soon.”
Raina looked surprised that I wasn't shutting the door permanently like I had with Jack. That one was mutual, however.
“I’ll take that rain-check!” she said with a wink.
“Oh, you smooth talker, you.” I said, shaking my head. “You think you’re all that and a bag of chips, do you?”
“Annabelle, honey, I am all that, a bag of chips, and a large cherry coke!" Raina said with an exaggerated swagger.
I couldn’t help it, I had to laugh.
Turn the page for a sneak preview of book three of
The Sorceress Saga,
“The Queen”!
The Queen
The Sorceress Saga Book Three
Chapter One
“Notify Queen Aleena that… “
A blast of green energy sent the sentry’s body flying across the clearing in pieces, cutting him off, as I landed in the middle of it. The other two sentries that he had been talking to froze for a minute, which was all I needed.
“Sorry to interrupt guys!” I said, sending green bolts out with both hands. They hit their target, the sentries disappeared in a hail of dried mud, and I was temporarily alone.
Queen Aleena, huh? I thought. I’ll have to remember that.
We had spent the past couple of months both trying to figure out who was attacking me, as well as collecting magickal objects that might help in battling said mystery foe. We were currently on one of the latter efforts, attempting to penetrate the stronghold of Percisos et Elephantus, an ancient magickal order that lived on the unsavory side of paranormal society. We had thought that it would be unguarded on the outside, but had run across some kind of sentry force made up of golems.
Of course, golems are real I thought. Why not? Every other classic film monster had turned out to be real, why not animated clay statues? Granted, most golem films were from the silent era, but that’s what you get when you fill a mansion with geeks.
As usual, the golems that we were facing hardly resembled their counterparts from Jewish folklore. The spells that animated these creatures came from magick thousands of years older than any Western religion, Judaism included.
Two more golems emerged from the surrounding forest ahead of me, carrying the large clubs that I had been dodging since we arrived. I was about to deal with them when one exploded into pieces. I recovered quickly from the surprise and sent the other one back to the earth with a well-placed blast of my own. I turned and saw Raina step out of the forest to my left.
“Nice shot.” I said.
“Thank you.” she replied. “I’m glad this isn’t a Pottery Barn,” she added, “because I’d hate to see the bill for this much-destroyed inventory!"
“As soon as we find out who’s attacking us,” I said with a grin, “then we’ll send him the bill.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Raina said, and we continued our approach to the mountain fortress.
One bit of information that had surprised me was just how many mountain fortresses existed in the world. I knew about the ones ran by Tiffany’s Uncle Jexo, but those were just a few out of a multitude.
Does every single mystical organization or powerful paranormal figure have a mountain stronghold somewhere? I wondered. I hadn’t even heard of ‘Percisos whatever’ before this week, even though they’d been around for centuries. And yet, here we are.
I was beginning to think that I was the only magickal figure that didn’t have some kind of impenetrable mountain fortress. Of course, Angelique and Vincent probably own something similar somewhere. I wonder if even they know everything that they own these days.
A little over a year out from getting my powers as the Sorceress, and I was finally getting a handle on things. It was kind of amazing that I was doing this well because relationship drama had occupied my mind for much of the first year. I had started out the year with a vampire boyfriend and ended it with a vampire and a Fae girlfriend, as well as said undead boyfriend.
I looked over to Raina, one of my best friends since grade school, as she fired a bolt off to destroy one of the video cameras that we were surprised to see when we got there.
She’s doing so good at her Fae magick! I thought. Ever since she had implanted a Fae crystal, the way that humans could wield Fae magick, into her right hand, she had been getting better and better. The extensive time she had spent practicing while visiting her then Fae girlfriend… now ex-girlfriend… in the Fae realm certainly helped. Time doesn’t really exist in those places, and a year there can easily go by in the wink of an eye in the regular world.
Another golem lumbered out of the forest, and it was also destroyed before I could do it. Behind where it had been stood Gaia, her green skin flushed from battle.
Speaking of Fae…
I had never expected to fall in love with a Fae. I hadn’t expected to fall in romantic love with more than one person to begin with, actually, let alone a person from a magickal race that I didn’t know existed for most of my life. We had known and loved each other in past lives, however, and I was finding that the ties that I had formed in past incarnations still had a pull on the present.
It feels just as natural to be with her as it is to be with Vincent. Sometimes at the same time.
As if polyamory wasn't enough, Vincent, Gaia, and I had become something of a semi-permanent trio… including in the bedroom. While it blew my mind at first, it also felt as natural as a spring rain.
Annabelle, if those kids a High School could only see you now! I thought with a grin.
“What’s everything look like?” I asked Gaia, who’s back was to the mountain.
“These clay beasties are no match for any of us.” she replied. “Whoever set this up, they weren’t expecting the kind of magickal firepower that we’ve brought.”
“To say nothing of the brute force brought by two elder vampires.” Tiffany followed Gaia out of the woods, shaking her head. “I just came from Vincent juggling with three golem heads before using them to decapitate another two.”
Tiffany, being both fully human and with no Fae crystals in her anywhere, carried a wicked-looking rifle. She was dressed in camouflage, with a grenade belt strapped around her waist.
I had run into Tiffany the year before, while taking refuge in her Uncle's own mountain stronghold. She had been raised by her Uncle to revere the position of the Sorceress, and so was thrilled to be asked to become a part of my group… or 'court', according to the book that Jexo had lent me. She had also become a friend. Her knowledge of regular arms and explosives added expertise that was lacking otherwise.
“How many more are there?” I asked.
A drone buzzed overhead, as if in answer to my question. I heard Jack's voice crackle over the speaker that he had installed on the flying robot.
“A lot of the perimeter has been cleared.” he said, the drone hovering over our heads. “There might be another couple hiding in the bushes, but your way to the main gate is clear.”
Jack, another best friend since grade school, was sitting in his computer nerve center… what we called ‘Jack’s Playroom’… back in Ohio. His specialty was tech, not weaponry, so he tended to stay far away from conflict. His ‘eyes in the sky’, however, had proven vital on more than one occasion.
“Nothing else is on its way, either." Katsu said next over the speaker.
Katsu, along with her sister Hatsu, were five-thousand-year-old Japanese Witches who had come to help us with a mysterious lake, and the monster living in it, last year. The fact that Katsu had been chosen to be one of my guardians… a mysterious stage mark appearing on her body after a visit from Herne, the Horned God during the past year's Yule ritual… as well as the fact that she and Jack had fallen in love, had meant that the ancient Witches were a part of my 'court' now as well. Katsu had been learning tech stuff from her beau over the past year, so she often stayed home to help with logistics. The fact that her sister could watch over our home when we were away was a bonus.
“Then let’s crack thus damned thing open.” Raina said, and we followed her into the forest.
We emerged from the woods into another clearing, the mountain that we had come to raid towering above us. Iron doors stretched two stories high, a
nd there was no discernable way to open them. Vincent and Angelique were waiting for us.
Yeah, those two vampires are two of the hottest people I’ve ever seen. Vincent, his long black hair freely flowing over his powerful shoulders, didn't bother to dress for a different climate… preferring his usual outfit of tight black pants and a white dress shirt, unbuttoned halfway to allow his well-toned body to move freely in battle.
Angelique was also dressed as she always did, her preference being for skin-tight dresses. She had recently added some color to her wardrobe, dressing in black or white for much of our early interactions, because streaks of her own black hair had turned purple after we made love for the first time. The vampire that had turned both Angelique and Vincent had the side effect of turning his progeny's hair black, but being with a Sorceress had altered that somewhat. Her black dress was streaked with purple, like her hair, to celebrate.
“I would normally ask if we should knock,” I said as we got to where they were standing, “but, seeing the reception that we’ve already gotten, that would probably be a bad idea.”
“So how are we going in?” Tiffany asked, patting her grenade belt. “I could fashion these to blast it if it comes to that.”
“I think that we can avoid any permanent damage to the structure.” Angelique said, turning to Raina. “Go back to basics… look at the door. It’s different. How?”
Raina studied the towering metal door, an intense look on her face.
Here’s another perk to relations with Angelique being less awkward I thought. Ever since our return to each other’s arms was complete, and I could be around her without being driven to distraction, she’s been a Goddess-send to my human friends! Angelique had taken a real interest in my friends’ development, and Raina was at the top of the class.
“I’ve got it!” Raina said, snapping her fingers and snapping me out of my thoughts. “There are exposed hinges on one of the doors, which means that one door opens out while the other opens in.”
The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Page 41
