This Strange Witchery

by Michele Hauf

  Marveling over him, I was suddenly taken by my own climax and cried out. Surrounded by his innate magic I felt embraced, open and blissful.

  T.J.’s eyes widened. He shoved me onto my back on the sofa, and began to recite a spell.

  I wanted to plead with him to stop. This was not a business transaction. Apparently he hadn’t heard my request to do that later. I couldn’t stop him. I was still riding the high. Words failed me. Sensations swept me from this realm. I had fallen into love, and I couldn’t navigate the surface.

  Why had I allowed myself to fall?

  * * *

  “Advenient nefari.”

  Congratulating myself on maintaining clarity of mind, I huffed from the blissful exhaustion of orgasm while chanting the invocation.

  Star lay writhing on the sofa before me, her body glistening with perspiration and her lips red and open. She was so beautiful. A streetlight beamed through the window and showered her skin with a thousand jewels of light.

  “Ingredi en mundus!”

  We’d done it. She had done it. We’d both done it. We’d…shared something just now. Something beyond business sex. It had been a unique contact between us, filled with unexpected trust.

  She trusted me. And she had specifically asked me to do the summoning later.

  But she was a familiar. That’s what familiars did—conduct demons. They didn’t have sex for pleasure.

  I spoke another line of the spell. Only a few more left. Star’s body relaxed, preparing to open and conduct a demon to this realm.

  In my heart, I knew she’d come here tonight for something else, dressed to seduce as she’d been. We’d shared something I shouldn’t label business, for the connection we’d achieved still battered through my veins. And that claiming pulse commanded me to silence.

  Her twinkling skin shivered. Her mouth parted and she gasped. Her nipples had softened and her entire body was lax beneath me. So gorgeous. So…mine.

  Mine. I’d taken her virginity. I’d perhaps given Star her first taste of pleasure sans business. I’d…

  I think I’d fallen in love with Star.

  “Do it!” she cried. “Finish the spell. It’s what you want.”

  “No.” I knelt on the sofa and drew her into my embrace, her hair spilling over my shoulder as if a silk veil. Our heartbeats collided against one another as skin kissed skin and fingers clasped desperately. “I can’t use you like that, Star. It’s not right.”

  “It’s what I am,” she said, sniffling against me. “We had a deal.”

  Feeling the energy leave the air and the remnants of my spell dissipate, I did not regret not finishing the spell and summoning the demon.

  “We had an unspoken deal,” I said. “When you kissed me, it was made.”

  She pulled away and met my gaze with teary green eyes. “You understood that?”

  I nodded. “I heard you ask for us to try the summons later. I shouldn’t have even tried it now.”

  “But your spell. You wanted to summon the demon for some desperate reason, otherwise you wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of getting me here in the first place. T.J., you need the demon here in this realm. Will you tell me why?”

  I sat back, drawing her onto my lap and against my chest, both of us still panting from the delicious exertion. I didn’t want to talk, I wanted to be inside her again because it felt like the only place I belonged. It felt like a place where I could do only good, no evil.

  “Thoroughly?”

  Her eyes glittered with questions and a startling innocence. She’d been a virgin. Hell. And I’d robbed her of that without knowing. I guess it made sense, in the weirdest way possible. Had she never before had a lover, a boyfriend?

  She wanted to know my truths. I wanted to give them to her. I owed her my truth.

  “The nefari demon holds the key to Daemonia,” I said, “a place where my brother was lost months ago. Or it’s rumored Navicrux knows where the key is kept.”

  “Your brother? Daemonia is a terrible place. Oh, why didn’t you finish the spell?”

  I shook my head and hugged her slender, bliss-warmed frame against me. Our pulses thundered for one another. “Couldn’t do that to someone I care about.”

  “You wouldn’t have hurt me. It’s what I do.”

  “I know, but I don’t think I want our relationship to be that now. Not witch and familiar. Something has happened between us. Did you feel it?”

  She nodded. “Your magic changed the air. Did we make that?”

  I wasn’t sure. “Possibly. Can we be something else?”

  She twirled a fingertip in my hair and wrapped her legs about my hips, snuggling her warm, naked body to mine. “Like lovers?”

  “Can that work for a familiar? Can you do this without…?” Bringing demons to this realm.

  “I just did.”

  “You were a virgin. Star, I don’t know what to say.”

  “You are the first man I’ve trusted. Don’t be mad at me for not telling you.”

  “I could never be mad at you. Surprised, certainly. Do you remember from your other lives?”

  “Not exactly, but I know I’ve never let a man so close to me. A girl does know her body. Why was it so easy to let you in?”

  “Hell if I know. I put you in a cage.”

  “Yes, and I owe you a clawed bedpost for that one. But you won’t do it again, because you, well, you know.”

  “I know.” I’d fallen in love with her. Men in love did not put their girlfriends in cages, even when in cat shape.

  I kissed her then because I was floating on a crazy, lucid, happy bliss, and even though I’d once again foiled my own plans, I couldn’t have been more pleased to be holding Star in my arms—and not to have succeeded.

  She nuzzled her head against my neck and her purrs rumbled against my chest. “I want to help you find your brother.”

  “Summoning the demon is only the beginning. If it has the key, I have to get it from him, and then, well, then I’ve to actually go to Daemonia to find my brother.”

  Daemonia was the place of all demons. Mortals might call it Hell, but it was different than that. It was an actual place, in another realm, locked to keep the baddest of bad demons from escaping.

  “Let’s do it,” she said. “On one condition.”

  “You are the one in control, Star. Name your condition.”

  “I get to be your girlfriend.”

  “Deal.”

  Chapter 6

  For Thoroughly to accept me as his girlfriend required him to let go of some control. I could see how he’d ordered his life to the minutest detail, and how some part of his wanting to cut out the middleman had been an innate need to control every aspect of his life.

  I had gained some control. And I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  I am the one who arrives, lies on the bed and serves as a conduit. I do as I’m told. I leave. I’ve never been in a position, especially during sex, where I could expect more—such as kindness and intimacy and a man who wanted to give as much as he wished to take.

  I liked it when Thoroughly took from me. Because he always gave back.

  I glided along the length of his naked body. We lay in his big, comfy bed cluttered with pillows and soft, kneadable blankets. T.J. had a notebook open on his lap and was writing down things he’d explained he knew about Daemonia and his brother’s last-known words and actions.

  “Certainly is the historian for the Council,” he explained. “He told me he had accessed some sacred demonic scripts and wanted to learn more, even after the Council warned him not to do so.”

  “Demonic magic is evil,” I commented, trailing a finger along the fine black hairs queuing his belly and lower, to tickle about the base of his semi-hard penis. I liked exploring that part of him; it was ever-changing and frankly, fun to play with.

  “It is glamorous evil,” he said reverently.

  I lifted my head to study his face; he was intent on his scribblings. “It’s someth
ing you desire,” I guessed.

  “No.”

  “You claimed it glamorous as if it was a jewel you hoped to possess. Do you practice dark magic, T.J.?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Demon-summoning is as dark as it gets.”

  “Then you answered your own question. As I’ve said, evil is necessary to balance the world.”

  I nodded. It was true. Without evil there could be no good, and vice versa. Most did not understand the value of opposites, and I was no one to protest, demon-conducting familiar that I am.

  “Glamorous, eh?”

  Nodding, he hooked the pen on the notebook cover. He pushed his fingers through my hair and stroked me behind the ear, and I don’t think he realized what he was doing, but he had hit a sweet spot. It felt so good, I curled my body against his and swished my hair across his chest.

  “Kitty wants to play,” I cooed, and batted at his now much-harder penis.

  “You won’t be tired for later?”

  We’d agreed tonight we would summon the demon. All seriousness. No love involved, just work.

  “You could make love to me all day and I’d still beg you for more.”

  I slipped a leg over his hips and straddled him, wriggling down to rub my moist clit against his hardness. Riding him brought me to a delicious hum of pleasure. Licking his nipple, I marveled at the tiny jewel. So small, yet it seemed to give him as much pleasure as when he did the same to mine.

  “What have I gotten myself into?” he said teasingly.

  “Well, not me. Yet.” I shifted my hips and hovered above him. “You regretting this already?”

  “No, but this—us—was unexpected. I never thought I’d fall in love. Ever.”

  I tilted my head, locking onto his beautiful blue eyes. He seriously had not believed he could have love. Much as I hadn’t. And we’d found it quickly and it ran so deeply.

  “You fear the price,” I decided, feeling a cold shiver streak through my veins.

  “With dark magic, there’s always a price.” He pulled me toward him and kissed me deeply. “I would pay any price for you, Star.”

  “Don’t say that,” I whispered, looking about but not seeing the invisible spirits I believed heard everything, and sometimes could grant wishes, for good or for evil. “Just…love me until you no longer can.”

  “I will.”

  I sat back onto his thick, hard shaft, taking him inside me. Together we clung to one another, barely moving on the outside, but grasping, squeezing and pulsing on the inside. This couldn’t be dark magic, this was as light as it came.

  Truly it was glamorous.

  * * *

  As I paced the floor in jeans, my bare feet marked off the circle I intended to use—not to contain the demon, but as a safety barrier for Star once she had brought forth the demon. Everything had to be perfect, or I would not go through with this.

  Days ago, I would have sacrificed the familiar in a heartbeat to get what I wanted. Things had changed. I was in love. Real, head-over-heels, walk-into-walls love. I could not fathom harming one hair on Star’s head to save my brother. C.J. was a strong man. A little out of the times, and a bit of a hermit, but he knew his magic and could certainly endure. That’s why our parents had called him Certainly.

  So I’d come to terms with the fact that should anything go wrong tonight, I would abandon the spell to save Star. C.J. would understand. Hell, who knows, he might be having a grand old time in Daemonia right now.

  No, he wasn’t. I wasn’t that stupid.

  How to save them both?

  Star had left, saying she needed a run, then quickly corrected herself, saying walk. I knew what she meant. She was likely pussyfooting around her neighborhood right now, sniffing out the Camembert the cheese shop owner left for her on the back step.

  My girlfriend was a cat. I wager not many fellows can say that with a straight face.

  I knew a few witches who were in relationships with shape-shifters. They weren’t bothered by it. I guess until Star curled next to me in cat form on the sofa, I wouldn’t have to face those feelings. But seriously, it shouldn’t bother me. It didn’t.

  What should bother me was that I intended to use my girlfriend to raise the worst demon in Daemonia. It could go well. It could be a disaster.

  I should find a different familiar. Someone…disposable.

  T.J., you are a bastard.

  I stopped in the middle of the protection circle, fingers outstretched to release my earth magic. Why did it have to come to this? A choice between my brother and the woman I loved.

  I had never hoped to find love. Guess that’s all part of the glamorous evil in which I dabbled. What you put out, you get back. And for every particle of evil energy put out, good must be returned. And vice versa.

  I had received the good in the form of a gorgeous familiar who loved me.

  I dreaded the evil to come.

  Chapter 7

  In the dark, sheltered in T.J.’s arms, I felt as if I’d found an anchor in this big world that often hosted me, but never embraced me. Here, by my lover’s side, I could feel his breath become mine. His kisses opened me wide to receive the love I felt surround us both.

  Together, on a couple of layers of blankets and pillows, we were curled in the circle he’d bespelled. A bottle of wine lay outside the circle on its side. We hadn’t needed glasses. His tongue licked at a trickle of pinot noir painting my neck, and I slid a leg to hook at his hip.

  He lifted me and then knelt, laying me across the blankets. Jet hair dusted my nipples, and I arched my back to receive the delicious skim. We’d become lost in a realm no one else knew about. In this realm inhabited by the two of us, we could fly, dance and sing without leaving this room.

  I didn’t want to think of the outcome of this coupling. I would not.

  Combing my fingers through his hair, I dragged him down to kiss me. His mouth slicked under my tongue, and he sucked at my lower lip. I giggled, because our intimate familiarity made me happy.

  “Look at me,” he whispered, and I sought his blue gaze in the darkness.

  He was a shadow of this world, so dark, creeping along the edge between right and wrong with a skill that could become unbalanced and teeter him off. I would hold him here. Clasp him to my world, and keep him in my eyes. I felt that powerful. Love gave me strength.

  Our gazes locked, he entered me with his hardness, filling me, claiming me, marking me as his. Owning me. The giddy connection tingled my being and I gripped his face and pulled him in for another long, lush kiss that delved as deeply as his cock. Inside one another, we fashioned a rhythmic blending of souls.

  “After tonight, never again,” he said. “I promise. The two of us will only make love to pleasure one another.”

  “Agreed. I love you, T.J.”

  “I love you,” he gasped.

  My body sang as the slick of his finger found my clitoris. The sensitive jewel hummed and swelled at his direction. He moved back and forth inside me, rapidly, and yet his finger danced a slow, firm challenge to me. And my body accepted the challenge and set me free.

  T.J. cried out harshly. His hand gripped my shoulder and lifted me to him as we both came at the same time. The air lightened and we were surrounded by spectacular lights. I don’t know what it was, but it had to be his magic, joining us, bonding us.

  The light seemed to move through my body, glittering a hot path to every particle of my ultrasensitive skin. My lover glowed, his head bowed over mine, as we took in the magic.

  “Earth and air,” he said. “It’s forging together inside us. Never thought it could happen. So powerful…”

  Rational thought fled. Suspended in ecstasy, I took my lover with me, soaring together.

  Exhausted by the climax, I wilted and spread my arms over the blankets. Too good. But I wasn’t about to linger on this very important night. With but a nod to T.J., I gave him permission.

  The witch knelt, huffing still, yet in grasp of his focus,
and began the spell. He spoke forcefully and in a rhythmic chant which felt like ancient music shimmering along the magical glamour still tingling my skin.

  His intonation rose, as did he to stand directly over me. I felt the immense power we two had created. It squeezed at me, and not gently. Clutching the blankets, I prepared, feeling my senses open and my pores ready to conduct. At once every hair on my body prickled, and I gritted my jaw.

  This was too strong. It had never been so forceful….

  * * *

  I spoke the last word. The summons to the demon Navicrux had been put into the atmosphere. I could feel the air tighten and sense the subtle changes. The glasses in the kitchen cupboards rattled. The wine bottle suddenly rolled across the floor and under the bed. Silverware clinked. The chandelier over the bed clattered.

  This glamorous evil I worked was strong. More so for the direct connection between myself and the familiar.

  Star’s body arched, her hips grinding into the blankets and her breasts lifting to open her chest for conduction. Her arms were outstretched and her hair spilled over her face as she opened her mouth as if to scream.

  She did not scream. Instead, her body put forth an incredible burst of white smoke. It billowed from every pore dotting her skin as if forced steam, and rose into a thick, undulating cloud above and beside the bespelled circle.

  Stepping from the circle, and hastily grabbing a blanket to wrap about my waist, I waited, yet still commanded the atmosphere with my air magic. The demon was incorporeal, yet it could shape the preternatural substance it used to conduct to this realm into a human form.

  A meow from the floor alerted me. A black cat sat on the blankets, looking at me with wide green eyes. Goddess, but I loved that cat. And she was safe inside the circle.

  “Navicrux, make yourself known!”

  At once the white cloud coalesced, then shaded gray, and then darker, until it roiled into a black billow, tightening and bulging as if with muscles, a monstrous amalgam of contained evil.