Spell Book Ch. 02

Cally sat in the leather love seat that was perpendicular to the couch. Aria sat down next to me on the couch across from their TV, and I sat on the end closest to the love seat.

"I still think we should just kill him," Cally muttered.

I raised an eyebrow at her and then shrugged. She could bitch all she wanted, but I was going to find out what the hell was happening here. "So, when you said Merlin..." I prompted.

"Okay," Aria said, "how much do you know about witches?" She put a hand on my leg and squeezed it, giving me a reassuring smile.

"Mostly whatever pop culture says about them. Fly around on broom sticks, usually have green skin, or they're goddamn terrifying."

"Right, well, it's a bit different than that. Witches--the kind that we are--isn't a term for both men and women. It's not like the TikToks, where we use simple spells that we put into jars. We belong to a coven called The Illuminated Circle. Witches in covens like ours--there are more out there than you think--consist only of women."

"Goddess, Ari, you going to go over the entire charter?" Cally glared at us.

"Fuck off, Cally," Aria met her glare with an even gaze. "If you're not going to help, go get dressed or make some coffee or something."

Cally pressed her lips together in a thin line. She was just as pretty as Aria, though her hair was ash blonde in color. She stood a full head taller than Aria. Her breasts were smaller, maybe a B cup, but her entire body was lithe, long muscle. Both of them were beautiful, and it was hard for me to keep from looking them up and down constantly, especially given their state of undress.

Aria clearly didn't mind me ogling her, but Cally was apparently against me even remaining alive, much less in their home. It kind of hurt, actually. I'd thought we were friends. Good acquaintances, at the least.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain why Captain Bloodthirsty over there thinks I should be killed outright." I nodded at Cally.

"I'm not...excited...about killing you," Cally protested. "It's just the simplest way to make sure that we don't get killed."

"Oh, well," I said. "That makes me feel so much better."

"You know this isn't going to end well," Cally looked at Aria.

"You don't know that," Aria said.

"There hasn't been a Merlin in over four hundred years. Why do you think this guy is going to be one? He's powerful? It's just going to drive him mad even faster."

"Whoa, uh, what?" I said.

"You know what?" Aria stood up, and grabbed my hand. "Come on. Let's finish this conversation at your place."

"That's not a good idea," Cally said. "He could hurt you."

I blinked at her and allowed Aria to pull me to my feet. "Excuse me? I wouldn't! Ever!"

"You better not," Cally growled. "I know curses that would make the last bit of your life feel like a meat grinder."

"Don't wait up!" Aria pulled me out of the apartment before I could respond Cally, heedless of her state of undress and the visibility of the neighbors.

"Nice to see you again, Cally!" I called between gritted teeth as we walked out.

"Ugh, she's completely determined to ruin this." Aria complained.

"What is 'this?' What did she mean, drive me mad?" Aria opened my door and stepped inside, ignoring my question.

"You don't have, like, a girlfriend or anything hiding out in here, do you?" She asked.

"Hah! No. Nobody like that." I followed her into the living room and waved at my bookshelves full of comic books. They took up the entirety of one of my living room walls. "As you can see, not exactly a chick magnet."

She walked over to the wall of shelves and pulled one of the graphic novels down. "Saga? Nice. I never got much further than the third book, though."

"You're welcome to borrow it if you want," I said. "I've got the full series so far."

She smiled at me, and I got suddenly very nervous.

"Thanks," she said. "I just might."

"Awesome. Now, what is this about the power driving me mad and how I might hurt you? Because I'd like to avoid, well, all of that, if I can. Especially the hurting you part."

She looked worried at me for a moment, and then nodded at the couch. "You mind?"

"Yeah, this feels like a sit-down conversation." I followed her to my couch and we sat on opposite sides for a moment.

"Nah, this isn't quite right," she said, and slid over, closing the space between us.

I was well aware of her lack of clothing, and she leaned into me, a hand on my leg. She was close enough that I could smell the shampoo that she used, a sweet scent that I couldn't quite place. Blended with the smell of herself, it was intoxicating nevertheless.

"I'll answer your questions, but talking about this is weird. Well, talking about it with a boy is weird. Our coven has been around for nearly a thousand years. In the beginning, when the coven first formed, there were wizards--druids--well, there were men in the coven."

She took a deep breath. "About five hundred years ago, there was an event that changed some of the fundamental rules about magic. That changed magic, itself. The abilities of women were...reduced. The abilities of men...increased. But the men who wielded the magic, they followed that power into places that they shouldn't have. Dark deals were made, changing the magic even more. Whenever a man gained the gift, through whatever means he acquired it, the magic corrupted him. Drove him insane.

"Two men, over five hundred years ago, nearly destroyed all of the covens completely. We were down to only a handful of members, and if we hadn't killed those two men...well. Many lives would have been made much worse. It's not an exaggeration to say that the two of them almost brought about the apocalypse." She cleared her throat. "You have anything to drink?"

"I have cold water, orange juice, some beer in the fridge. I can make coffee if you want?"

"How about some beer? I need a beer, if I'm going to break coven like this."

I stood and walked into the kitchen. "Break coven?"

"It's basically breaking coven law right now for me to be talking to you. Or associating with you."

"So why are you so willing to break coven," I asked, pulling a pair of beers out of the fridge. I popped the lids off and walked back into the living room. I sat down, handing her the other beer, and took a long drink from mine. "If this magic stuff is supposed to drive men insane, wouldn't killing me now save lives down the road?"

"Maybe," she nodded. "But I'm not interested in maybes. I'm also a big proponent of innocent until proven guilty, and you've already demonstrated a surprising amount of power without hurting anyone." She giggled and shrugged. "I've always had issues with authority. Even with my coven. I'm kinda the black sheep of the group."

"How long did it take the other men to go mad?" I sipped on my beer. This was easily the weirdest conversation I've ever had with anyone, but I couldn't help sneaking glances at Aria's gorgeous body. She leaned in to me again, and her left breast pressed into my arm. Looking down I could see not quite everything, but a hint of areola on her right breast peeked out from time to time.

She put her hand on my leg again, and drank deeply from her beer. "That's kind of the thing. I don't know. I don't know if there's a time limit on this whole craziness, if it works slowly or if one day the men are just supposed to snap and bam! Full dark side." She licked her lips, and smiled at me, her green eyes sparkling. "Besides, I don't think you're one of the bad ones."

"But there hasn't been a Merlin in hundreds of years," I pointed out.

"That's because we're taught to kill any man who shows any talent with magic. Or to report him, which generally ends in the same thing."

"That seems a little intense."

"The last time this happened, well, the last time that we know about...have you ever heard of Roanoke, Virginia?"

"Wasn't that one of the first colonies to the US? Everyone disappeared and nobody could figure out why?"

She nodded, finishing her beer. She stared at it for a moment. "Do you have anything stronger?"

I nodded, and moved back into the kitchen. She followed me, and I pulled a pair of glasses down. "I've got whiskey, tequila, some soju, Kahlua, some peppermint vodka...if you like strong, rich mixed drinks I could make you one."

She smiled. "Sounds perfect." She hopped up onto the counter, sitting and watching as I grabbed everything I needed for the drinks. I mixed Kahlua, the peppermint vodka, and a chocolate liqueur together, sipped it for taste, and nodded.

"Here you go. Let me know if it's too much for you." I handed the cup to her, and she met my eyes with her beautiful green ones and took a large swallow.

"Mmmh," she said. "That's nice. I'm going to have to remember that recipe. Roanoke was one of the first colonies in the Americas, yes, and it's disappearance has been a mystery to most of the world."

"But not to your coven," I said.

She shook her head. "We were on that expedition."

"And let me guess. One of the men figured out how to use magic and became corrupted."

"Good guess," she tapped her glass with mine and we both drank. "Yes, Ananias Dare went crazy. He was apparently not terribly stable to begin with, and the stresses of the journey to the new country, his wife, Eleanor's pregnancy, and the shaky relationships with the locals all tipped him over the edge. Eleanor was a practicing member of the Circle, and Ananias got hold of one of her grimoires. He summoned a demon, and began a, kind of, relationship with her. She slowly drove him mad, through a series of rituals that nobody really knows about. Between his mage madness and the demon's influence, he summoned a small army of demons to protect them from the Spanish and the Native Americans. The demons protected the colony, until they fell out of his control and turned on them.

"Eleanor and Virginia Dare made it out, along with a few others of the coven, but it was a close thing. They established the coven alongside the natives, working closely with them for survival help. We supposedly have detailed records of what happened, but I've never been allowed to see them. It was apparently so horrible that the covens' reaction--the Circle's reaction to any man with magic has been..."

"Swift and merciless?" I supplied.

She took another drink, almost finishing the glass, and nodded. "Not just our coven, either; word spread to all of the covens, and it was agreed upon that if we encountered a warlock again, we were to kill them. No mercy, no trial, no nothing." I was standing a couple of feet away from her, not trying to be in her personal space, but she stretched her feet out and caught me with them. She pulled me closer to her, wrapping her legs around mine as she reeled me in. She looked into my eyes as she finished her glass off.

"Do you know," she said, her words a little slurred, "that I have had a crush on you since Cally and I moved in?" I smiled, and shook my head. "Yup," she said. She set the glass down and put her hands on my hips. "You... are really really hot."

I grinned, and she sighed. "Is that why you don't want Cally to kill me?"

"Yes. No. I mean, not just that," she protested. "I don't want Cally to kill you because you're such a nice guy. I can't imagine you hurting me. Or her. Or anyone, really." Her hands ran up from my hips to my arms, sliding up and under my short sleeves.

"Ah," I said, raising an eyebrow at her. I leaned back slightly. "There it is."

"What?" Her nose wrinkled in confusion, and I thought it was the cutest thing I'd seen her do. She gripped my triceps and pulled me back towards her.

"The curse of the nice guy. Too nice? Usually."

"I like nice guys. I like you." She whispered to me. She leaned in, until our lips were almost touching. Her legs moved higher, wrapping around my lower back, and I could feel her thigh pressing against my cock outside my pants. "You think I act like this around everybody? You have such pretty eyes. Nice smile. Nice..." She squeezed me with her legs "...other parts. I love your arms." She bit her lower lip and sighed. "You made those very nice. These are good arms to have."

"I think you've had enough to drink," I said.

"Maaaaybe. But I have been wanting to do this since we met," she whispered, and pulled me to her, closing the distance between our lips. Her arms went around my neck, and my hands wrapped around her waist, and she squirmed against me, rubbing against my erection. Her tongue slid into my mouth, exploring, finding my tongue and playing with it. She pulled one of my hands from her waist and slid it up to her breast. I quickly found her nipple ring and pulled on it, and she moaned into my mouth.

I lifted her off of the counter and, our lips never breaking contact, walked her back into the living room and onto the couch. I laid her down gently and she pulled me on top of her. My cock was pressed against her entrance, and her hips writhed beneath me. She pushed me up for a moment, pulling her top off and throwing it away.

I moaned at the sight of her pierced nipples, and ground harder against her. She pulled my head down to her breasts, and I took one into my mouth, tongue playing with her nipple ring. My other hand was mauling her free nipple, rolling the piercing between thumb and forefinger, and she moaned again. "Fuck that feels good. You can be...rougher, if you want."

I pulled back some, teeth gently biting down on her nipple, stretching it up as I moved and she moaned again. I let it fall out of my mouth with a pop, and moved up to kiss her. She kissed back, harder, passionately, as if kissing me was the only way she could breathe. Her hips continued to writhe and gyrate against me.

"Oh, shiiiiiiit," she moaned. "You are really good at kissing."

"You are fucking amazing," I said, and bent down to her other breast. I latched onto it and sucked as much as I could into my mouth, my tongue flicking and circling around her nipple and ring while my mouth kept the suction on it.

"Oh my goddess," she moaned. "Yes, yes keep doing that," she suddenly tensed up, her back arching and her face and chest going bright red. Her eyes widened and her hips thrust faster against me. "Oh my goddess oh my fuck I'm coming holy shi--" she ran out of words as she squirmed beneath me and I bit down hard on her nipple and she let out a cry of pleasure, her nails digging into my back as she rode her orgasm out. She fell back, her muscles relaxing and her arms falling to the side. "Wow. Ow. Oh, that hurt so nice."

I grinned at her, and rolled my hips against her. She took in a sharp breath, her flush returning slightly as I moved. "Happy to help," I said, and began kissing and licking her neck and moving downwards. I paid some special attention to her nipples again, but kept it gentle after being so rough, and moved further down, licking a trail to her belly button. She giggled when I pressed my tongue inside and lifted my head up.

"That's not--" She stopped talking when my hand found her nipple again and distracted her. She stopped protesting as I continued to kiss and lick my way down past her belly button and to her panties. "Oh. Okay, you really don't have to...Yeah okay I'll shut up now." She stopped talking as I licked the inside of her thigh and pulled the crotch of her underwear away from her soaking wet lips. I breathed on them for several breaths, enjoying watching her squirm as I teased her. She wasn't completely shaven down there, but her pubic hair was trimmed and I enjoyed watching the short hairs move as I blew onto her mound.

She shivered, moaning, and I brushed my lips against hers then veered off to lick and tease her other thigh. Taking my time, I reached up and squeezed her left breast. She pressed her palm against the back of my hand, adding to the sensations I was giving her. I continued to lick and tease and kiss all around her mound and lips, never quite touching them.

Finally, I pressed my tongue hard between her lips, running my tongue across her entrance and she came again, arching her back as I pulled my tongue out of her. Shuddering, I breathed on her until her orgasm subsided. Her thighs were shaking.

I stopped teasing her then.

I pressed my tongue inside her as deep as it would go, and she gave another scream of pleasure as I worked it in and out and thickened and narrowed it as I went.

"Oh fuck!" She exclaimed. I pushed a finger inside her, pressing down, towards her anus. I looked up and saw her face full of lust and raised my eyebrows at her as my thumb pushed up against her other sphincter. "Okay," she said raggedly. I dipped both thumb and forefinger inside her wetness first, then once satisfied that it was properly lubricated, pushed my thumb just inside her asshole. "Deeper," she said, and I slowly pushed my thumb further inside. I pinched her there, between my forefinger inside her pussy, and my thumb within her ass, and rubbed circles between the two.

Then I attacked her clitoris with my tongue.

Her reaction was immediate. Her back arched again, her thighs squeezed my head, and she lifted up onto her shoulders and toes. I moved with her, tongue swirling and circling and fingers squeezing and gyrating. She screamed so loudly I could hear it through her thighs as orgasm after orgasm ripped through her body.

She went limp after several minutes of this, and I withdrew my hand from her and sat up.

She looked up at me dazedly. "Thank you," she said, and dropped back to the couch with a small smile on her face.

She fell asleep a few seconds later.

I picked her up and brought her to my bed after that. I checked the time--close to midnight. Aria was snoring, clearly done for the night. I thought about taking her back to her apartment. Being right next door, it wouldn't have been hard to bring her over there, but I also wasn't super excited about what Cally was going to do to me while I was over there. What if she did something crazy? Like try to kill me? Was she serious about that? Was that something I was going to have to worry about from now on?

So many questions, so few answers. I stared down at her for a long minute, pushing aside a strand of her green hair that had fallen across her face. She muttered something in her sleep and smiled. She was really beautiful. I hadn't been expecting this to happen at all.

She had flirted with me at their parties, but she and Cally had seemed so close, I couldn't figure out what their relationship was. I hadn't made a move because...well, it usually takes a lot for me to realize that a girl actually is interested in me.

Now that I thought about it, both girls did flirt with me pretty intensely at their parties. I was never sure what to do with it. I would have been happy to just keep on flirting with them both, and leaving them in my fantasies, but this...

This surprised the hell out of me.

I almost got into bed with her, but I wasn't sure that was what she wanted. I walked back out to the living room, and laid down on the couch. I didn't skimp on my couches. I wanted them comfortable enough that if anybody did come over for the night, if they needed to sleep on the couch, it would be like sleeping on a bed.

Being in California, the weather was good enough that I didn't need a blanket to fall asleep, but the day was so crazy that my mind was racing so hard, falling asleep just wasn't going to happen.

I sat up and sighed. I was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age, and while I deal with it pretty well, sleeping is one of those things that I was never good at. My mind just races through so many things, it's hard to make it all quiet down.

I tried video games for a while, then reading, then realized that I was under stimulated. Or was that over stimulated? I could never get the difference between those two straight. I went into the kitchen and took a couple of fish oil pills to try and focus my brain, even if it meant I wasn't going to sleep.