by A. B. Marie
Everyone is asleep around me, and I lay awake staring at the ceiling making plans for the future and thinking about everything that has transpired in the last few years. Daydreaming about the Strom’s, I start to get tears in my eyes. They made all of these choices and accepted their fate – even sending their own children to another country, to protect a realm they would never be able to visit, and a baby girl they didn’t have to take in or protect. I’ll have to see what my birth parents know about the afterlife for humans, witches, and warlocks.
I can access my own spirit, and speak to random spirits… but all that we’ve learned in the academies, is that when someone passes on, their spirit can stay in the mortal realm; but once they pass over, it takes a lot of magic to bring a spirit back to speak to, and the magic can backfire. It can keep a spirit here forever instead of letting them rest in peace.
Huffing out a breath, I close my eyes and try to dream about my adoptive parents. They were fucking amazing. So damn kind. I’ve been told a few different versions of what happened when I was a baby: my birth parents kept getting attacked by the council they trusted, so they took me to a family they had met a few times while we lived in Seattle. They left me with the Strom’s and told them that they would have new neighbors when I turned five and to make sure I eventually make it to London after bonding with their son, Markus. They came up with a plan to send their other three children, Ross, Troy, and Amelie, to London when I turned five, so that I would have a family there; their aunt and uncle were to help them keep the city safe. Too bad they moved away as soon as the twins turned eighteen. No one has heard from them.
Apparently one hundred years before getting pregnant with me, my parents were told of my prophesy. They eventually made it to the mortal plane to prepare for my birth and to make sure the prophesy came to pass. After the council kept attacking us, they knew that the council were turned and controlled by Lucifer.
I wake up in the middle of the night to someone picking me up and I sleepily open my eyes. “What’s going on?”
I hear a chuckle and we move down the hall and into a bedroom. From the soft fairy lights on the ceiling, I know I’m in the BDSM room. I look up and see that it’s Collins carrying me. “Seriously?”
He nods and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “I didn’t get you at all in Paris. It’s my time now.” I nod at him and start undressing.
“Well, since you woke me up, you can take the reins.” I shake my hair out of my braid and sit on the bed and wait. I watch him slowly remove his gray sweatpants and long-sleeved black shirt and moan at loud. Collins is the type of man you can stare at for hours and never blink, just to make sure he’s real. He’s six-foot-five, has long, lean muscles coiled along his entire body, perfect auburn hair, and deep, navy-blue eyes. Even his long, straight nose and plump lips are fucking perfect, like he’s been carved out of marble just for me. His looks remind me a lot of Mark, both of them are just remarkable creatures.
He stalks toward me and slowly massages the entire front of my body, adding little nips and licks here and there. I’m writhing on the bed waiting for him to actually touch my pussy and start to groan.
“Don’t be a tease like Mark, you know what his punishments entail.”
He smirks at me and continues teasing for a few moments before he leans down and gives me a long kiss. He checks to make sure I’m ready and stretches out my walls to fit his damn monster cock. “Mmm, you feel ready for me. Do I let you come?”
“Mmm.” I moan and nod. He kisses down my body and licks my clit while he continues to finger me and curls his fingers inward as he bites down on my clit. I arch up and groan as I come and as soon as I open my eyes again, he plunges into me and starts pounding in and out. “Fuck, Collins!” There’s a bite of pain for several thrusts before my body catches up to the pleasure. I scratch down his back and bite onto his shoulder as I start to tingle and orgasm again. He rides me through my next orgasm as I continue groaning and moaning, then he finally releases with a shout.
Panting for breath he looks over to me and moves my hair from my sweaty face. “I love you, Maya.” I smile at him and mumble it back. I’m too tired to move so we end up falling asleep in the massive bed in the playroom for the rest of the night.
Chapter 2
Markus
_________
Two months into the second term of our second year as Master’s students, our magic shop is finally complete. We just need to unload all of the boxes and organize the store. Brant and his crew did another amazing job; the Strom house that they fixed up for us before this project finally sold last month. I wonder if Maya has anything else lined up for them. Graham, Maya, Luna, and I park in front of the shop and make our way in.
“Holy shit, it’s perfect!” Exclaims Maya as she runs around the first floor and runs up the stairs. It’s a brand-new building that’s mostly glass and steel. The first floor will be the shop, and the second floor will be for us, equipped with a kitchen, play area for Luna, a nursing station for Maya, a restroom, and a magic room where we will make all of the magical products and store the stocks. Everything is all set up for us to place everything on the shelves and behind the tea bar, so we get to work while Maya entertains Luna upstairs with all the play mats and toys that Brant put together.
Looking over to Graham, “You glad you’re doing your course work from home now?”
“Fuck yeah, this was always my dream.” He has a wide smile on his face and continues to organize the crystals, charmed candles and bath bombs, and places several decks of tarot cards on a table. We finish up the “human” portion of the store and head to the back where the real magic happens.
Maya comes down when we’re halfway done, with a video monitor in her hand that shows a sleeping Luna in her bassinet. “What can I help with?” I hand her a box and point her to the shelf I was working on for all of the potions. She smiles at me and we finish up within another two hours. “This place is amazing. Should we open next week?”
“Yeah, Ross was just finishing the website last week when I asked.” I take out my phone to text him about it. “Let’s set the wards and head home for dinner.” Maya walks over to where we want the wards placed that separates the front of the store from the back from behind the cash register area. When humans come in, they’ll see a full store, but when they try to get close to the back, they’ll get confused and turn back around.
“All set!” She scurries back upstairs to grab Luna and the diaper bag, and we head home.
We spend the weekend in the magic room stocking up on everything we need for our opening week. The rest of the guys and I are heading to the club tonight with Maya, while Penny watches Luna for us for a few hours.
Maya walks down the stairs wearing an almost see-through red laced dress that falls mid-thigh with sky high, clear stilettos. I stare at her wide-eyed. “Fuck, Maya. I don’t think we can leave the house without one of us ripping that off you.” She smiles at me and gives me a twirl.
“Collins bought this while they shopped in Paris.” I’ll have to make sure to buy his drinks for him tonight. Damn.
I grab her around her waist and lead her outside to where the rest of the guys are waiting in her car. “Is Luna settled?”
“Yeah, Penny is with her and I pumped a bunch of milk this morning. I have everything set up for them in the master. The milk is in a cooler, and I placed the bottles next to the bottle warmer on the nightstand. That way she doesn’t have to walk all the way downstairs.”
“Smart.” After the guys all groan and give her a quick kiss, we make our way to our club. This is the first time Maya is actually going to see her BDSM club in action. The guys and I have gone several times to enjoy the shows, her ideas are amazing. We walk into the club and grab drinks from the downstairs bar.
Troy walks up to Maya from behind her and bites her neck. “You ready for tonight, baby? I put us on to perform at midnight.” She squeals and orders some shots.
“I’m so excited! I can’t w
ait!” After she has a few drinks, we head up to the third floor. I stand against the wall and watch her in amusement as she flits around and checks everything out.
“I never imagined it would be this big of a hit! It’s packed in here and all of the private rooms are occupied. This is amazing.” I smile at her and look around. All along the walls are shelves filled with toys. By the elevator, there’s a shop where you can buy various outfits, toys, and shoes. In the back of the room is the performance stage, and to the sides of the stage are several private rooms that are set up like bedrooms. In the middle of the floor there are couches, lounges, a fully stocked bar with a bartender, tables, and chairs to relax. Waitresses dressed in anything from bunnies to dominatrix are walking around taking drink orders.
She takes a seat on a nearby couch and straddles Graham. She starts kissing him and rubbing her pussy around his groin. He grabs hard onto her hips and gyrates up and groans low. “Just another half hour and we can have our fun. Want to go watch the end of the current show?” She nods her head, and he leads her to the back where the stage is. In front of the stage are a bunch of couches that face forward for viewers. I take a seat next to the twins, and we watch in rapt attention as a man is dominating another man and a woman. He’s whipping them with a leather flogger when they don’t follow commands.
The woman starts sucking the dom’s cock, and the man is waiting, not so patiently, to fuck the woman. Maya moans when they both start double teaming her and the dom chokes out the other man and growls at him for spanking the woman without permission.
Maya gets impatient and pulls out Graham’s cock to deep throat him while she moves his hand to her pussy. He rips off her panties and throws them over to Ross who’s sitting on his right. He drags her onto his lap, and he guides her down onto him, and slams up into her while they both moan and groan. Looks like we’re having our own show right here. The other members of the club are taking seats closer to Maya and Graham to watch while looking back to the stage every few minutes.
When the performers are done and it’s cleaned and ready, Graham and Maya are still going at it. He now has her bent over the couch and is pounding her as hard as he can. They finally finish with both of them moaning out loud and collapse on to the couch. Collins stalks over to her and drags her to the stage and chains her to the wall. A waitress comes up and hands him a glass case filled with brand-new, sterilized toys and he starts pulling everything out that he wants to use. He rips her dress off of her and throws it behind him, while Troy, Ross, and Nolan make their way on the stage. I decide to sit back and watch for tonight and smirk over to Graham who is still recovering and slowly putting his dick away.
They take turns using a flogger on her, then using a vibrator to get her close to coming, then Troy prepares her ass. He finally lets her come with the vibrator that’s on her clit, as he plunges in. Collins lifts her up and he slams his cock into her pussy and they both take her while holding her up. Her head is thrown back, her massive breasts are bouncing, and there’s not a man or woman here who isn’t riveted by the show. After they finish, Nolan and Ross shove her to her hands and knees. She sucks Ross’s cock while Nolan slams into her pussy over and over. I finally pull out my cock when I can’t take it anymore and furiously pump up and down until I come along with them. I grab some tissues from the table in front of me and clean myself up.
I walk over to the shop by the elevator and buy Maya a robe and some slip-on shoes so she’s more comfortable. When I get back, Troy is cleaning her up and walking her off the stage for it to be cleaned up by a waitress. Ross picks up all of the toys they used and places everything in the glass box to take home.
All of Maya’s ideas for this place are just mind-blowing. No toys are ever reused. Everything is brand new, sterilized, and you take them home with you, it’s all a part of the membership. We’re all too worn out to do any dancing, so we decide to call it a night. A few men try to walk up to Maya and exchange information with her, but Collins picks her up and growls at them. I crack up and watch in amusement as she riles him up more by smiling and waving to her admirers.
Chapter 3
Markus
________
After a relaxing weekend after the club on Friday night, we’re at the store getting it ready for opening in a few hours. Everything is set up, cash is in the register, and Graham is reorganizing the tea at the bar for the fourth time.
“We will be just fine, relax. No other shops are like ours, and Ross said the traffic on our website was amazing for just being online for a few days.” He nods and walks around the shop again to move things around. I roll my eyes and leave him to it, and I head upstairs to sit in the kitchen to have a snack that Malek packed for us this morning. Maya and Luna stayed home until closer to opening time so that she could sleep in. I might have kept her up until three AM in our playroom since I didn’t have her at the club.
Maya walks through the doors with Luna in her baby carrier that’s strapped to her chest. “We ready?!” She flips the sign on the door to ‘open’ and walks to the back to the stairs to take the baby bag up.
“I’ll take that. Need anything from upstairs?”
“Yeah, can you bring down her bassinet? I’ll work the register today.” I wink at her and bring it down for her and help her get settled.
“I’ll order another one, so we have one for upstairs and downstairs.”
“Whatever you want, Mark.” She rolls her eyes and scrolls through her phone. “I keep getting weird ass emails from Amelie. Has anyone else heard from her the past few months? I thought she was supposed to be out of treatments by now.”
“Yeah, according to her. Not the actual staff and therapists.” I chuckle. “According to the twins, until she actually actively takes her medications, goes to the therapy appointments, and proves she’s not a psychopath, they won’t let her leave, no matter what manipulations she tries.”
“Thank fuck, that crazy bitch should not be in public.” I smile at her. Amelie has put our family through the ringer. She was jealous of Maya, so she contacted the very council that the Strom’s worked so hard to drive away from London and lured them closer to our family. They almost killed Maya, Troy, and Graham in their schemes.
We get a good number of shoppers coming in throughout the day. At least a quarter of the patrons were humans, shockingly, and they went crazy buying up the charmed items and crystals. The supernaturals all stocked up on our spells, potions, and a couple of them asked for specialized runes. Luna was an angel for most of the day but got sick of being held. I told Maya to take care of her upstairs while Graham and I took turns checking people out, making tea, and restocking the shelves. Our opening day was a success.
The rest of the week is much of the same. The three of us with Luna running the store, heading home to eat, relax, then spend a few hours in the magic room stocking up what we need for the next day. Maya takes some time to decompress and tries to contact Penny to go to lunch, but either Penny doesn’t answer, or she is with her family. Ever since her and Danika split up, she hasn’t been around much at all.
“I don’t know what her problem is, and I get the feeling she hasn’t been at home. Do you think she’s drinking a lot or at least trying to date other people?”
I shrug, “Who knows, babe. Just keep trying. She knows you’re there for her.” I give her a kiss and decide I’ll take my girls out tonight. We can go to the park and walk around since it’s not raining today, finally.
I cover up Luna’s stroller with a light blanket, and make sure she’s warm. She’s wearing warmer clothes and I have a pink fuzzy blanket that’s wrapped around her arms, legs, and torso. I look over to Maya, “Do you ever miss Seattle?”
She glares at me. “Hell no. Too many memories, the academy there is a joke, and we don’t have any friends or family there. Well, I didn’t have friends there.” She chuckles and shoulder checks me. “You had plenty of friends. Always getting invited to parties and shit.”
I wink at h
er, “And who would I drag with me to those parties?” She starts laughing.
“Remember that one summer we went on a hiking trip with some of your ‘friends’ and they freaked out and wanted to leave after they heard us having sex?”
I laugh with her. “I had no idea they were a Christian group!” I hold up my hands in surrender and we reminisce for the rest of the night about our lives in Seattle. We have been inseparable since we met on her fifth birthday. Always at each other’s houses, terrorizing our parents and professors, and the other kids in class pretty much stayed away from Maya, so I always had her to myself.
For the next two months, all four of us are in the shop from Monday through Friday. On the weekends we spend time as a big, crazy family and split time going to the clubs, having dates with Maya, shopping in town, and watching Luna grow like a weed. She’s crawling all over the place now and is a troublemaker, just like her mama. We end up taking our familiars to work every day, and at least fifty percent of our conversations with the humans is talking about Maya’s lemur, Polly, and Graham’s otter, Ollie. They stay away from Marie, my skunk, because they think she’s going to spray them. She just huffs and stays in the supernatural area or upstairs with Luna and Maya when they’re up there.
Time flies by with all of us staying busy, and we need to start hunkering down and studying for our exams. “Nolan?” Maya is looking around the estate for him, while I am in the backyard watching Luna crawl around with the familiars. She’s giggling and trying to keep up with them as they chase each other.
“He still acting off?” I ask her when she starts walking to the gym.
She’s scowling and narrows her eyes at me, “I don’t know what his problem is. He’s gone all week and spends the weekends at the clubs.”
I groan. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” Keeping my tone light. There’re only a few weeks left of the semester, and Nolan is going to be leaving his teaching position at the academy. He’s mentioned that he feels lost and doesn’t know what to do about the career change. When he brought it up, he seemed ecstatic about spending more time with us.
