Warlock: A Nephilim's Wrath: A Shawn Moore Novel 02 (4 page)

She giggled again, which squeezed my still half hard cock,
and then said, “Are you sure I can’t see you again?”

I kissed her before I answered, “Yes, it’s safer that way. 
Plus, you have a life to get back to.  My life is too… weird and dangerous,
trust me.”

She sighed, “All it took was this once?”

“Magic,” I said softly.

She rolled off of me, and laid on her back, “What now?”

“The keys are on the night table, you’ll get all the
paperwork in the mail in a couple of days, including your accounts, debit card
and all that.  I have a prepaid visa for five hundred, that should get you
through a few days.”

She nodded and frowned, “To be honest I’m not sure whether to
thank you, or hate you for all of this.”

“I get that,” I said softly, and I did.  I’d taken advantage
of her situation to get another kid out of it.  But I’d also given her a lot,
so there was that.

I got up and started to get dressed while she studied me.  I
guessed I wasn’t getting another for the road this time, but that was okay.  It
was a pact, business, not a relationship.  Still, I don’t remember the first
time being this awkward at the end.  Maybe she thought me not coming back was a
rejection of some kind?  I wasn’t a mind reader, so wasn’t sure.

Maybe because I’d rode in and saved her, seduced her into
sex and made her feel safe, and now I was abandoning her?  I kind of felt like
an asshole.

“Good luck Dana, I wish you the best,” I said softly, and
then I got out of there, she didn’t return the sentiment, or say goodbye.

Lilliana asked curiously as I slipped into the back seat,
“How’d it go, you were in there a while.”

I sighed, “It went.  She was nervous, it took time to get
there.”

Malina gave me a kiss, “Cheer up.  She’ll be alright, and
happier in the long run than being stuck in jail for something she didn’t do.”

I smiled, of course she knew I felt ambivalent about it,
she’d read my mind.

Lilliana asked, “What’s the plan now?”

I shrugged, “I’m going to cast for another soul pact
opportunity, but let’s drive around, go past all the hotels in downtown, maybe
we’ll get lucky and I’ll feel the other warlock, or his demon, with my detect
magic.”

Lilliana nodded and started the car, “Will do.”

Lilliana drove off as I started the spell in my mind,
clearly thinking one word completely before I started the next.  A half a
minute later, and new information entered my mind.

I frowned, “I’ll do the other pact tomorrow, it’s going to
take some prep time as well, and I want to search for the warlock.”

Malina kissed my cheek and snuggled up against me.  I have
to admit, I kind of needed it.  Once again I’d just fucked another woman, yet
felt closer to and needed the ones around me even more.  I decided not to
analyze that too much, and just went with it.  Malina’s hand stroked my leg
while the other played with my hair, and it calmed me.

We searched around the city for a little over an hour, and
passed all the hotels.  The problem was that my inherent ability to detect
magic only worked for about thirty yards, maybe a little more, a hundred feet
or so.  That meant the guy could be up on one of the higher floors, or even
just toward the back of the hotel and I wouldn’t find him.  Really, it was a
matter of luck and timing, and for right now it wasn’t paying off.  Still, I
supposed that was better than having a corpse to examine for a demonic magical
signature, so far the new warlock had only been a pest.

“Let’s head home, grab some dinner?”

Lilliana said slyly, “Yes master,” and grinned at me
impudently as she turned the car toward home...

I wasn’t in the mood to be alone, so I grabbed Sal and
headed up to the kitchen.  I grabbed a drink, slapped Lilliana on her cute ass
while she was busy preparing dinner, and then took a seat at the kitchen table.

At first I’d thought Lilliana’s and Malina’s explanation of
group tactics in a fight was simplistic, but as I read through Sal to see what
my predecessors thought about it, I discovered they’d been right.  Simple was
better when fighting in four disparate groups, getting too creative would just
cause problems and lead to friendly fire.

Next I requested from Sal anything on magical detection
spells and Sal came up blank.  I’d been hoping he had a spell in there that was
like my inherent ability but covered a larger area.  Either it was impossible,
or my ancestors had decided there was no point making a spell that did
something they could already do. 

I found it hard to believe they never ran into a similar problem,
but I filed it away in my mind anyway, with teleporting for when I had a better
clue about magic and might develop my own spells.

I realized the list might get really long before I was
ready, so with a thought I had Al start another section.  I grabbed a pen and named
it
wish list
, and then added numbers one and two.  Then I got back to my
spells.  Although it was easier to focus and study downstairs.  I kept looking
up at Lilliana, and the scent of her cooking was fabulous.

Lilliana asked, “What is it?”

I grinned and looked her up and down quite deliberately,
“You’re very distracting, and that smells wonderful, what are you so sexily
cooking over there.”

She shook her head as if I were helpless, but she was also
fighting a smile, “I’m making a mushroom sauce, for the pork chops which I’m
brazing.  Then I’ll stuff it into a pie crust and finish them up in the oven.”

“Sounds good.”

I tried to get back to the book, but Malina snuck up behind
me and started to give me a massage.

Malina said carefully, “It’s normal you know, the way you
felt, the way you feel.  Ironically it’s easier to make deals for souls than
the other.  Your ancestors found it the hardest part as well.”

I frowned, “Damn, so the evil laughter when I take advantage
of a woman isn’t going to kick in soon?”

Malina chuckled throatily and kissed the top of my head,
“I’d say once you get five or so going, once every five years will be enough
for that.  Same with soul deals, though I wouldn’t complain if you did more of
those.”

I shook my head, “It just feels shitty, with the soul deals
the targets are greedy, and although the transaction is somewhat unequal, I
don’t feel bad about it.  They’re dumb shmucks who are probably headed for hell
anyway.”

I grinned at the irony of that, my whole family line was a
bunch of dumb shmucks by that line of thinking, “It’s different for the other,
I’m taking advantage of a woman’s desperate situation.  Maybe that’s why the
first one seemed easier, because her greatest wish had been wanting a child.”

Malina agreed, “It’s necessary, and more complicated because
the sex also creates a temporary connection and brings out that hero complex
I’ve mentioned before.  There’s no easy answer.  At least you can take comfort
in Karen, that’s something your predecessors never had.”

I smiled at that thought, I also had Malina and Lilliana of
course.

One of my spells had slipped, I recast protection from
physical harm and was back up to five.  Then I started to study Sal some more. 
It was hard, now I had Lilliana, the scent of good food, Malina’s wonderful
scent, and her hands busily kneading my shoulders.  After trying to memorize a
spell that would double my speed and strength, and having to start over fifteen
times because I’d lost my train of thought, I gave up on it and closed up Sal.

The spell was intended to level the playing field in a fight
against something very fast like a vampire.  Between the spell, and the
enhancements from pulling infernal magic through Malina, it should be enough to
make me as fast as Lilliana, or any other ancient vampire.  Although, I’d read
any spell that enhanced the body was inherently dangerous, and if done
incorrectly at all could harm the body if not kill me outright.

Maybe it was just better to use magic in those fights, and
not worry about being a vampire’s equal physically.

I pushed out my chair slightly, and grabbed Malina’s hand
and pulled her around and into my lap.  She wiggled a bit to get settled.

We talked a little about what was going on.  The warlock, my
training both in magic, and physically with Lilliana.  It wasn’t too long until
dinner was served, and our conversation moved to day to day stuff, long term
planning, and just small talk.

They dragged me up to the master bedroom around eight, not
that I struggled, or even objected.  Then they took control and both of them had
their way with me for about four hours.  I was completely wiped out by
midnight, but they were both very well sated and cuddled up on either side of
me as I fell asleep…

Karen listened carefully to the mage that was droning on
about the latest search results for the warlock.  She reminded herself that she
wanted this, to be in charge of these people and to restore the old laws. 
She’d done it, and now she was stuck with it.  Still, how hard was it to say
that they hadn’t found the warlock yet?  The man clearly loved to hear his own
voice as he went on in a block by block search of finding nothing but other
search parties from the vampires and shifters.

She looked around, and the eight other councilors’ attention
were obviously wandering, including her old friend Tina.

She looked back at the man when the droning stopped, and
said, “Thank you for your report, keep up the search.”

It wasn’t all boring of course, there was true day to day
business like stopping mages from doing idiotic things and exposing their world
to the human population.  Though her biggest problem right now were the eight
families of the eight councilors she had killed during the takeover. 
Ironically, Clarissa’s family, who had actual real power, weren’t among those
causing issues, just the other eight.

The whiners and backstabbers.

Still, free speech was a thing, even in the mage world, and
she had to be careful how she dealt with it.  So far they’d treaded the line
carefully, and hadn’t crossed the line from dissent to outright sedition, but
they were close.  The largest issue they parroted was about Shawn. 
Specifically, that the evil usurper, which would be her, had betrayed the mages
by creating a treaty with the evil Moore line.

She looked down at her ring and held in a sigh of longing.  The
ring as far as most knew, represented a business deal, a pact, but the truth
was she loved Shawn and the thought of being married to him made her smile.  She
hadn’t gotten to see him for a couple of days, not since their one-day
honeymoon sex marathon.  She really wanted to see him, maybe she could go
tonight?  Once the building calmed down anyway.  Right now, she was stuck in
this throne like chair and had to reassure her people by making level headed
decisions.

Which was hard, being a fire mage she wanted to just burn
all the assholes out.  Her temper wasn’t being helped by her condition either. 
Her hormones felt out of whack, but she wondered how much of that was
psychosomatic, since she’d only been pregnant a week.  Wasn’t it too early for
that?

She tried not to frown as she surveyed the room, there
weren’t that many people in attendance, and she worried that meant they were
listening to the families that were busy stirring up trouble.  Then again, most
were probably just living their lives, and didn’t care about government as long
as it didn’t affect them.

The guard at the door announced Terrance Johnson.  She
looked over in surprise, he was one of the instigators from the eight old
families.  He wore a three-piece gray suit with a red tie and had a pinched
look on his face.  She slipped into her mage sight for a brief moment, his
power wasn’t even half of hers, but that didn’t mean everything.

Sometimes cleverness beat strength, but she was an excellent
duelist as well as powerful, so wasn’t too worried.  Plus, he hadn’t even
challenged her yet, she was just chomping at the bit with impatience.

“Terrance, what brings you here today?” she asked politely.

Terrance looked up at her, “This treaty does.  It was
foolishness to make a treaty with a warlock who consorts with demons.  Now
you’ve got half of our forces sweeping the city, instead of protecting our
people, and for what?  To hunt down
another
damned warlock?  We should
let them fight it out!”

She almost blushed but managed to calm herself.  She
couldn’t help but remember eating out the very demoness he complained about the
warlock consorting with.  She was almost positive she’d be doing it again,
hopefully while Shawn was… she shook her head and got back to the matter at
hand.

“It’s a treaty Terrance,” she said patiently, “That means we
no longer need fear the warlock interfering with us.  It also means he’ll
assist us if a hostile group of mages invade our city.  What exactly are you
suggesting we do?”

Terrance frowned, “Do?  I want you to put a treaty that
aligns us with evil to a vote.  Surely all of mage society deserves a say in
this.  Your high handed actions…” he cut off as she raised her hand.

“The council around me already voted, and accepted the
treaty.  They are the votes that count, we lead mage society.  We’ll certainly
listen to opposing points of view, but we won’t be bullied by a very small, yet
very vocal, part of the population.  If you want a vote Terrance, you know how
to get one.”

Terrance turned red faced and growled out, “Very well, I
challenge you to a duel to determine who leads us.”

She stood up and rounded the raised table on the dais and
walked out into the center of the room with Terrance.  With a thought, the
wards in the room brought up a barrier that would keep anyone else in the room
safe from their duel.  As for her spelled protections, she wore them constantly
to guard from treachery.

“Anytime you’re ready Terrance, but when you lose, you’ll
leave and stop stirring up trouble.”

He sneered, and sent a sleep spell her way, she reversed it
and hit him with two of her own.

He grounded her counter and cut off the spell causing the
feedback and sent a blast of air that her shields absorbed.

She added magic to her air shields and narrowed her eyes. 
Usually in duels not involving death they didn’t use elemental spells.  It cut
down on accidents.  She tried to counter it, but it wasn’t a spell, he was an
air mage.  She narrowed her eyes, but didn’t use her inherent fire.

She double casted sleep again, then double casted a spell
that would freeze all his muscles, then hit him with two more spells.  She
moved from spell to spell quickly, to drain his magic through his general magic
protection shield, and to prevent him from having enough time to cast a
counter.

Power counted, but so did speed.  His inherent ability of
air drained her as well, through her air shield, but she had much more power,
and his attacks lacked her punch.

It was only a matter of time.

Her eyes widened as he pulled out a gun, and started to
empty the clip at her.  Each one that hit her protection from physical harm
spell drained her magic alarmingly.  The bastard intended to try and kill her. 
A gun also violated the rules of a duel for leadership.  Even if he did kill
her, the council would put him down, not award him the head council’s seat.  It
was insanely stupid.

She sent a concentrated stream of fire his way, as fast and
hard as she could channel.  She was no longer sure she had enough magic to win. 

A few moments later, his shield against fire fell, and her
fire burned into him.  She didn’t stop, but let her magic consume him utterly.

She frowned at the black spot on the floor, and casted a
spell to clean that away, and then she returned to the dais with a look of
calm, but on the inside she was roiling with emotion.

When she sat she said, “Let it be shown that Terrance
Johnson violated the rules of the duel, and attempted to assassinate me.  I
killed him in self-defense.  Vote?”

The rest of the council voted that the death was legal, and
she felt herself calm.  At least she was surrounded by competent mages that saw
and voted the truth.  She missed Shawn though, maybe she could sneak away
tonight?

She turned toward the door as the next person with council
business was announced.

Korrina had a smile on her face as she appeared in Chicago. 
She hadn’t meant it to take a whole day, but the scared mage and his friend
Stan had turned out to be quite the distraction.  Once she’d stoked his lust
the fear had fallen away, and he’d been a man of stamina if not the greatest in
bed.  However, Stan had taken up the slack and between the two of them had
managed to pleasure her quite well.

Plus, it had been a long time since she’d hunted down and
destroyed an angel, fallen or otherwise, she wasn’t in a hurry to go back to a
purposeless existence, and decided to make this feeling last as long as
possible.

She willed herself invisible, and spread her golden wings
and took off into the air.  There was no need to panic the mortals.  She searched,
but not very hard in that moment.  Her whole body was tingly and pleasantly
sore, and she took a moment to stretch her body and sore muscles as she soared
above the city and gazed down upon it.

She flew around the city for several hours, but didn’t find
the fallen angel.  She wasn’t alarmed, she knew they hid their power these
days.  There was something odd however, she’d been in many cities in her time,
and the supernaturals always had their sections and stayed in them to minimize
cross species fighting.

She’d run across groups of mages, shifters, and vampires all
roving the city.  Several groups had even seen each other, and done nothing
more than acknowledge each other.  She came to the conclusion they searched for
something, and it peaked her curiosity.  This was not typical behavior.

She located a place she’d likely hear something interesting,
and landed a block away.  There was a line of humans waiting outside a club
with many shifters in it.  She took in some of the dress the female humans
wore, and with a flash of magic dressed herself appropriately.

She looked down and took in the slinky black dress that
hugged every curve, and appeared to barely contain her assets.  She walked up
to the front door, prepared to bamboozle the shifter there that guarded the
entrance, but it was unnecessary.  She’d barely arrived when he looked her
over, and motioned her inside.

The music was so loud it was ridiculous, how could anyone
talk in this?  She used some magic to filter that down to a manageable level,
and then walked over to the bar and sat down.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

She smiled alluringly, “Surprise me, a shot of something
please.”

The place was packed with loud music, dim lights, and barely
dressed people dancing.  She had to admit this century was fascinating,
although a few hundred years ago these people would have been the ones dancing
naked around a bonfire most likely.  Still, the advances in technology
fascinated her.

The bartender put a shot glass down and she held it up to
him before slamming it back.  It burned a little going down, but had a pleasant
after taste.

She smiled, “Another please.”

He winked and got her another, while she listened to the
conversations in the club.  As she’d hoped, the city wide search was the major
topic of conversation, at least by the shifters.

She felt the pleasure of excitement run down her spine as
she realized the truth.  There were two warlocks in this town right now, did
that mean two greater demons?  She couldn’t imagine the one that was invading
would go after a rival that had a greater demon if he didn’t also have one. 
Otherwise it would be suicide.

She shivered at the thought, it was like her birthday came
twice on the same day.

She pondered what her next move should be.  She could search
the city until she found them, or, she could let the shifters, vampires, and
mages do it for her.  Then she could simply follow the locals.  She smiled
lasciviously at the thought, she hadn’t fought two angels at once in almost fifteen
hundred years.

The bartender put her shot down, and she slammed it back.  Her
path decided, she got up from the bar, and decided to dance…

Elissa flicked her finger and the slave cried out in pain.

“Careful with that, it’s fragile.”

Her slaves were jumping and extremely busy as they packed up
her most prized possessions.  She had them packing as quickly as possible, a
few minutes ago she’d felt death pass above.  A creature she hadn’t felt since
her youth, one that she could not possibly match.

She loved a little shakeup, a little excitement in life was
so rare these days.  She’d even had plans to seduce the new Moore, she’d been
shocked when she learned he’d actually managed a treaty with the mages and
needed to do something about it.  Right now he was too wary for that, and too
enamored of his succubus slut, but that would change in the future. 

It always did. 

But she wasn’t suicidal, she was leaving town to watch the
fallout of this newest development from far away.  Perhaps California, she
hadn’t seen her sister in millennia.  She’d also spread the word to the rest of
the fae in the city.  By sunrise tomorrow, she doubted there’d be a single fae
left in Chicago. 

She considered warning the others of the Nephilim
abomination, but she owed them nothing and dismissed the idea.  She did briefly
regret that she wouldn’t have a chance to seduce the newest Moore as she’d
planned.

He was already a dead man.  He just didn’t know it yet.  Him
and his slut Malina.