The Witch's Cousins

"Cripes, Mom, this may end up actually being a good thing. You know me and Susie are leaving for college in August. It's over three hundred miles from Champaign to here. I know you've talked about it, but no matter how much we may want to, there is no way we can come home every weekend. If this guy turns out to be a decent sort, perhaps he can help keep you guys from going horny-nuts until I can come home.

"And satisfy you the way no other man can." He stood and posed like a muscle builder.

Claire laughed at his silliness. "I think you are taking things a little too far. It's a long road from allowing him to stay with us to taking him to my bed as a surrogate for you." She stood by his chair and ran her fingers softly through his hair. "But I see the Goddess has worked well with you. I don't know how many other men are as completely free from jealousy as you are, darling."

She frowned, remembering the phrase he had just used "Horny-nuts?" she repeated.

"It's my own invention. I just made it up. Feel free to use it if you need to," John said breezily.

"Hmmm. Well, for right now, I don't want to see you back downstairs until your homework is done. If this Steven fellow calls and he seems okay over the phone, I might invite him to a cookout tomorrow with Hilda and the rest of the girls. That way we can get a feel for him and make sure we all approve."

"Gotcha." John finished his meal, washed up his plate and glass, and jogged upstairs.

Just then, her phone rang again. Claire saw that it was a number she was unfamiliar with. "Speak of the devil," she muttered, then answered it.

"Hello?

"Yes, Steven. Hilda told me to expect a call from you." Claire went into the living room and sat on the couch, a pad of notepaper and a pen in hand.

"Well, that depends. Tell me a little bit about yourself and your...situation."

Chapter 6

Susanna pulled into the driveway early that evening. Books she had checked out of the library to help her study in her arms, she opened the front door and breathed in the sweet air of home. Potpourri from the living room mingled with the scent of incense sticks that Claire lit from time to time. She could also smell the vanilla candles from her own bedroom and the cedar that Johnny preferred. On top of it all was the smell of cooking meat and potatoes from the oven.

And underneath, rich and earthy, the musk of sex and her brother. Susanna gave her mom a quick hug and ran upstairs. John's door was closed, so she went into her bedroom to dress for supper.

Or not dress, she thought wickedly. The frantic itch in her pussy was less overwhelming than it had been last night, but she had found herself easing a finger into herself to gently tease her folds and her hot little love-button several times during the day. She took off the short skirt and scallop-neck t-shirt she had worn to the library and tossed them into the hamper. Daintily, she cleaned her thighs with a tissue, then examined herself in the mirror.

Ready for another night of fucking, she thought cheerfully, examining her body with a satisfied smirk. She danced down the stairs, delighting in the feel as her breasts jiggled in the cool air. Glad that her mother had finally succumbed to sanity and turned the AC on, she went into the kitchen to help her out.

Claire was pulling a roasting pan out of the oven. On it, a roast was sitting surrounded by potatoes simmering in gravy. On the stove top green beans were cooking, and a plate of biscuits, left over from the morning, were ready to be warmed.

Claire gave Susanna one look, then said, "Go upstairs to your room, and don't come down until you are properly dressed for supper."

Susanna's mouth hung open. "But Mom," she whined.

"But what?" said Claire with an air of exasperation. "Do you think you are going to be able to prance around naked all the time at home? What if the cable guy was coming by? Or the mailman? Or one of your friends, or, Goddess forbid, one of John's friends? Exactly how do you intend to explain the fact that you are in your birthday suit to one of them? If you are lucky, they'll think you're nuts. If you are unlucky, they'll think you are easy pickings and try to haul you into bed."

Susanna's eyes flashed angrily. "I'd like to see them try!"

Claire nodded grimly. "And what happens after they try? You scream and yell, scratch them up a bit or worse, maybe the police get involved. Word gets around that Susanna Chamberlain was in her kitchen, naked as the day she was born, at six o'clock on a Saturday night.

"We're trying to stay unnoticed, Susie. What part of that don't you understand? Yes, we have the shop. Yes, we worship the Goddess, and not Christ, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Buddha, trees, mushrooms, or the Grateful Dead. But we are safe, and we are quiet, and we don't make waves."

She pointed to Susanna, lovely in her fragrant nudity. "That, my dear, is a very big wave. And we don't need it right now. So go upstairs and get dressed."

Susanna nodded, but her lip trembled. "It's just...I just..."

Claire relented. "You wanted to look attractive for Johnny, right?" She sighed fondly. "Child of mine, do you think that he has forgotten you after just a few hours?" She pointed at the door. "Go."

Susanna went.

@@@

Both of her children were subdued at supper, Claire noticed. Susanna was doubtlessly thinking about her words of just a few moments before, while John was chewing over a niggling thought left over from last night. After a while, though, quiet conversation started. John and Susie talked about their final exams, upcoming in the next week, and then their graduation and one last long summer vacation before they left for college.

John popped the last bite of his biscuit into his mouth, swallowed, and groaned. "Any chance we can convince you to join us in Champaign, Mom? I don't think the dorms serve food this good."

"Not unless they have changed since the days when your father and I were in school," Claire replied with a grin. "However, that's one good thing about you two being in each others' pants. You will be able to guard yourselves against the Freshman Fifteen."

Susanna frowned at the thought, and then again when she thought about the logistics of their relationship on a college campus. She and Johnny had applied to be in the same residence hall, as their college required that all freshmen live on campus. But they hadn't found out where they would be living or who their roommates would be. How would they deal with their mating? Birth control was great, but the fact that she didn't want John's baby (at least right now) didn't mean she didn't want John's lovely cock inside her as much as possible. How much alone time could they possibly grab? Would they be able to hide their relationships? If so, which one? Could she possibly pass off Johnny as her boyfriend, and hide the fact that he was her brother? Hmmmm.

John's voice broke her train of thought. "Did you hear from that guy that Hilda met, Mom?"

"Yes, I did. Poor kid. I wasn't able to get many details out of him, but it seems like he's had a rough time of it. I invited him to a cookout here tomorrow afternoon and invited your sister, and your aunt and the girls." At Susanna's confused look, Claire explained Hilda's meeting with one of the rare men who had the innate ability to alter the world around them. What the coven called 'a man of power'.

"I know I don't have to warn you, John. But Susanna, go easy on him. If he doesn't feel like talking, leave him be." She cast a look of warning at her daughter. "He will affect you sexually, without even meaning to. You will feel his power and want to be with him. It will probably be quite a bit less than it would have been if you and John were unmated, but watch yourself."

She frowned in memory at the memory of the halting, stuttering voice, tinged with hope and panic, that had answered her questions earlier that afternoon. "From all that I can gather, Steven has been treated horribly by this, this Reverend Grant, may the Dark One have his soul," she said, anger thick in her tone. "but you'll have the chance to judge for yourselves tomorrow."

"Mom, can I ask a question?" Susanna asked.

"Certainly, dear."

"What, or who, is the Dark One? I think we should know." John's head snapped around to look at Susanna as she voiced the question which had been nagging at him since the terrible events of the previous evening.

Claire nodded. "I made a mistake, earlier, letting you two stay ignorant. It won't happen again, believe me. Let's clean up and then we can talk about this."

They rapidly cleared the table. The dishes and pans were put in the dishwasher, and the leftovers were thriftily packaged for later use in the refrigerator. In a few minutes Claire and her two youngest children were in the family room, Claire in her favorite armchair, John and Susanna snuggled side by side on the couch.

They used to sit together like that when they were barely out of diapers, Claire thought with a pang of nostalgia. Now when they go upstairs to bed, it'll probably be the same bed. And my only regret is that I can't have John in mine. Not yet, anyway. What happened last night was a one-off. Right now they only have eyes for each other.

Enough blathering, woman! You had your mate. It's not their fault he was stolen from you. And they asked you about the Dark One. If you want to make sure they are not parted like you and Mark were, you have to arm them with knowledge.

"The Dark One," she began softly, "is a name we have given to a spirit of malice which has been the enemy of this coven for centuries. What its true name or origin is we have no idea. Male or female, god, spirit or demon, it is a mystery to us.

"Over the years, various members of the coven have speculated about it. Some seem to think it is the spirit of a man rejected by one of the women of the coven, driven to eternal vengeance by madness, anger and hate. Others think that it is demon, a servant of the Great Adversary himself, maybe even a lesser god, that is drawn to us out of despite for all women that hold power. There were many petty godlings in the old times that saw women as only vessels to be used and discarded.

"What we do know is that it bears a hatred for this coven which is unceasing and eternal. The death of several members, we believe, can be laid at its feet, including that of your grandmother."

"Not Dad's mom. Grandmother Maureen, right?" asked John.

Claire nodded, eyes hot with an anger that would never fade. "She died in a fire when I was in college. It was only good fortune that your Aunt Sybil was visiting me, otherwise he might have gotten her, too. The firefighters couldn't find a cause. The arson investigators came up empty. With nothing to go on, the police never filed charges. And who was I going to suggest they accuse? A faceless demon that could take over people's bodies?"

At that reminder, John shuddered with revulsion, remembering the madness which had overtaken him.

"So," Susanna asked carefully, mindful of John's feelings, "this thing can take over people's minds?"

"With enough time, yes. At first he can only influence, we think. That was why it was relatively easy to drive him out of John. From what you told me, I think he tried to split his power to influence you both. But when John came into the house, he moved solely to John's mind in order to make the act one of anger and hate. But since he had been....melded to John for such a short time..."

"Gah." said John. His face was white, and he was rubbing his mouth like he had tasted something foul.

"Sorry, baby, but it is the best I can do. Since it had lasted such a short time, he was relatively easy to drive out of you.

"But we believe his ability to dominate and eventually conquer a victim's mind is a two-edged sword. The tighter the bond grows, the greater the influence of his victim's mortality is upon him. If that person should die with the Dark One still present in his mind, he may be trapped there forever."

John frowned, considering. "With all due respect, Mom, do we have any proof of this? It helps to have a plan of attack, but I would like to be sure it will work."

Claire grimaced. "Nothing is sure. What do they say about science? That it is the repetition of controlled experiments which provides the proof of a theory? Well, luckily for us, there is only one Dark One stalking this family. But as far as proof goes...I'll show you the diaries of your great-great- grandmother Mabel sometime soon. She was the head of the coven when the family was living in Kansas back at the turn of the last century."

"Kansas? Goddess help them. That's even worse than Iowa," grinned John.

"Now it is, sure. But back then Kansas was a progressive state. They raised a lot of corn and a lot of hell. Well, the Dark One took over the sheriff in the town where the coven was living, and was fixing to bring one of the members up on charge of horse theft. Would have been a long prison sentence, and a good chance your great-great-granduncle Seth would have died mysteriously in jail.

"But Granny Mabel recognized the signs. And being of a scientific bent, she decided to use the weapons which folklore said worked against demons. By the Goddess, she loaded for bear. Water from sacred springs, silver knife, different herbs, you name it. Then she spent a solid two days taunting him. She didn't write down the details of what she did to lure him in, but eventually he snapped and went after her with his bare fists in the middle of the street, in front of a dozen witnesses.

"Well, she took out that silver knife of hers and planted it six inches into the sheriff's guts. That's the only thing she was upset about, afterwards. She was sure she had missed her chance. She thought that if she had killed the vessel immediately, the spirit would have been trapped. It makes for pretty grim reading. She had her inner eye open, and she could see how the Dark One tore himself loose from the mind of a dying man, leaving him terrified, helpless, and alone, with no idea what had happened."

"The silver knife?" asked Susanna.

Claire nodded. "One of the ones I had last night. The other was crafted a few years later to her specifications. We've kept them in the emergency pack ever since.

"And after that incident, it was nearly forty years before he troubled us again. It must have cost him a tremendous amount of power to fight free.

"So we think we know how to kill him, if we ever get the chance. We never have, though."

"If we do, though, we kill him," said John. He looked at each of them, and his face was grim and cold. "I felt him, Mom. I felt his mind and his intent." He swallowed against the bile in his throat. Beside him, Susanna nodded, her face pale. "It was terrible. There was nothing. Nothing but hatred and an, an emptiness that could never be filled. He would see the entire world stripped bare of people, of humanity, and it still wouldn't be enough for him.

"It isn't the coven or women that he hates, at least not more than he hates everyone and everything.

"He hates life itself. And raping and impregnating Susanna was only the first step. That child..." He stopped and groped for Susie's hand. It was trembling and cold in his grip, but it returned his clasp firmly. "That child of rape would have been a monster. One that would have made Hitler or Mao look like saints by comparison.

"If I ever have the chance, I will slit his throat myself, and damn the consequences. Prison would be an easy price to pay for removing him from our world."

"Life itself," breathed Claire. "Of course. We are servants of the Goddess, the great guardian of life. No wonder he hates us so much."

She shook herself. "Well, if and when he returns, you will know enough about him to protect yourselves. I am going upstairs for a soak and then I'll go to bed. For some reason I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night," she said with a smile as they both laughed.

Chapter 7

The evening passed quietly. John had already seen that the Cardinals had lost their ballgame to the Royals that afternoon, so he didn't complain when Susie hogged the remote. After some animal shows, she switched over to National Geographic, where they were running a marathon of the "Cosmos" series. They sat comfortably together on the couch, occasionally trading soft kisses and caresses.

"I wonder what Neil DeGrasse Tyson would say about our coven?" Susanna said.

John thought. "He's a scientist. If someone told him about us, he would probably think it was hilarious, or get angry. You know how much guys like him hate psychics and swindlers who cheat people out of their money.

"But if we showed him proof, then I bet he would accept it. Look at him." He waved at the TV, where Tyson was talking about black holes. "When people first proposed things like that, most people thought it was ridiculous. But they tested and they observed and now we accept that they're real. If we could show proof of the things we can do, I bet he would take a good long look before he said we were full of crap.

"But I doubt that day is coming anytime soon. Mom and Aunt Sybil want us to stay hidden."

"Do you think that's the right thing to do?"

"For now? Definitely. We have the Dark One hunting us. And even a lot of normal people would be scared of things we can do. If we can help them, then obviously we could curse them, too. And people fear what they don't understand." He looked back to the TV, where the host was now extolling on the need for space exploration. The famous "Pale Blue Dot" photo came up, with Carl Sagan's immortal voice-over. By the time it was over, they both had tears on their cheeks.

"Goddess, we're small," said John. His voice was choked with emotion.

"Our love isn't," said Susie. She leaned over and kissed his tears away. She turned off the TV and hauled him to his feet. "Come on, girly-man. Take me to bed. After watching that, I want to prove to the universe that it isn't too big for me."

@@@

At the upstairs landing, John paused. "Mine or yours?" he asked. "I don't think we should keep on using the spare room. I still have to mate with Hilda and Ellie, and I want us to have our own place, not have to share theirs."

Susanna shrugged sweetly, which did entrancing things to her chest, in John's opinion. "Mine or yours, makes no difference to me."

"Yours, then, if you don't mind. Mine is a bit of a mess."

John followed Susie down the hall. When he entered her room behind her, he caught his breath. He had been inside her room many times, though fewer lately. Still, he thought that coming into her room as her mate was quite a bit different than coming in to bitch about all the homework he was getting in calculus and to see if Susie would mind helping him out a bit.

Susanna closed the door, then walked into his arms. She snuggled in close, nose to his neck.

"I can smell them on you, you know," she said huskily. Her hand wandered down to cup his erect dick.

"What? Who?"

"Agatha. Mom. I can smell their scent on you. Even after you showered." Her tongue came out and licked the hollow of his throat delicately. "Taste them, too. Mom tastes...satisfied. Content. Like a cat that is sitting on your lap, purring. Aggie? She tastes....mmmm....she tastes so happy, John. You must have made her come a lot."

John's eyes were slightly wild as he looked at his sister. "How can you do that, Susie? There is no way you should be able to sense emotions by taste! And anyway, there is no way you can smell and taste Mom or Agatha on my skin!"