Thaumatology 06 - Hammer of Witches Read online

‘Then you tell people you’re mated,’ Alec went on. ‘It’s customary to seek the blessing of your Alphas for in-pack matings, but not necessary. Werewolves are big on tradition, but not really big on ceremony. If two wolves want to be together, that’s their business.’

  ‘There’s been a trend to getting civil partnerships done these days,’ Michael added. ‘Even marriages in some cases. It’s mostly because it helps with legal stuff though.’

  ‘I’m never going to be a bridesmaid,’ Cheryl commented, mock-sadly.

  ‘Sorry,’ Ceri said. ‘I think my unconventional lifestyle is ill-disposed to conventional ritual. Not that you should complain, you’re just as bad.’

  ‘Cheryl is a sweet, innocent young woman,’ Carter said. And then gave exactly the right amount of pause before adding, ‘Who is wearing no underwear and a dress you can see her nipples through.’

  Cheryl’s cheeks flushed and she did, indeed, squirm a little. Alec came to her rescue. ‘You bought it for her.’

  ‘Are you complaining, old friend?’ Carter asked blandly.

  Alec grunted a laugh. ‘I’m not that stupid.’

  Ceri giggled. ‘I need to go and mingle,’ she said. ‘I’ll catch up with you all later.’

  She found the police contingent in the kitchen with Twill who was warming a bottle of Syn, the synthetic blood used in drinks, for Lorna. The vampire was dressed in a mini-skirt and loose, cropped top which showed her midriff. One of the advantages of being undead was not feeling the cold on the way to the party. John looked more casual than usual, somehow, though he was still in a well-pressed shirt. It took Ceri a few seconds to realise that there were more buttons undone on it than she had ever seen on him. Kate’s jersey-dress was close fitting and looked good, but Ceri suspected she was going to be warm in it after a while.

  ‘Well,’ Kate said, ‘knowing the way these parties go, I just made sure I was wearing suitable underwear.’

  Ceri giggled. ‘What about you, Lorna? Does it match this time?’

  ‘Sort of,’ the vampire replied. ‘I’m not wearing a bra.’

  John raised an eyebrow. ‘You didn’t mention that,’ he said and then, surprising everyone, especially his wife, he reached under her shirt. Lorna gasped. ‘She isn’t,’ John confirmed, smirking.

  ‘You’ve loosened up,’ Ceri commented.

  ‘I’ve… decided I could be more flexible when it matters,’ John said. ‘Don’t expect me to be all soft when I’m working, but a young woman drummed some hard facts into me recently. It wasn’t easy to hear, but having someone sit down and tell me I was being a stubborn fool was what I needed. You were right. Both of you were right.’ He nodded to Lily as she walked in with Michael. ‘I’ve got a gorgeous wife, but it won’t do me any good if I’m dead, or I don’t enjoy it. If I have friends willing to help then I should take advantage of the fact.’

  ‘Damn right,’ Lily said.

  ‘You’ve made us up a bed in the dungeon again?’ Lorna asked.

  ‘All ready for you,’ Twill said. A glass with a thick, reddish cocktail floated into the vampire’s hand. ‘Nice and dark. The spare key is in the usual place when you want to come up.’

  ‘Great and thanks for the drink,’ Lorna said. She took a sip. ‘John?’

  ‘Yes, love.’

  ‘You can let go of my boob now.’

  ~~~

  Ceri found Tawni, Jenny, and Lee chatting to Jasmine and Naira. All the girls from the Collar Club had come in what could best be described as “working clothes.” In Naira’s case this was a two-piece swimsuit which largely consisted of string, while Jasmine was wearing a pink and white schoolgirl outfit. Jenny had on the same mini-dress she had worn to the Jade Dragon while her boyfriend was in jeans and a T-shirt; the Battersea wolves tended to have relatively little clothing.

  ‘I’m over-dressed,’ Tawni said as Ceri walked over. Her large breasts were trying to climb out of a very solid-looking corset and while her skirt was long, it was split up the front to show her stocking-clad legs.

  ‘Give it an hour or two and you won’t be,’ Ceri replied.

  Jenny giggled. ‘We were catching up. We haven’t seen each other in years! And an actress now! I mean, wow!’

  ‘Yeah, right,’ Tawni replied. ‘Most of my acting involves faking orgasms, but I’m an actress.’

  ‘Well, you were always the confident one,’ Jenny said. ‘You remember it was always you scrounging candy on Halloween?’

  ‘Huh, yeah,’ the dark-skinned woman’s eyes drifted to the door. ‘I doubt there was much of that going on tonight. Have you looked out? There’s actually some yellowish streaks in the sky and the wards are glowing like crazy along the fence.’

  ‘I reinforced everything at the start of the week,’ Ceri said. Her attention drawn to it, she could feel the house holding back the night outside. It really was getting quite harsh. ‘We’re quite safe in here, even with all these supernaturals.’

  ‘I hope the pack’s all right,’ Lee said. ‘Alexandra was starting to set up the defences as I left to pick up Jenny.’

  ‘They’ll be fine,’ Ceri said. ‘Luperca wouldn’t let anything happen to them and Alexandra knows what she’s doing.’

  ‘Luperca?’ Tawni asked.

  ‘The goddess of werewolves,’ Jenny told her.

  ‘We haven’t spoken since before the last Winter Solstice,’ Ceri said, ‘but she’s showed up a couple of times for special occasions.’

  Tawni blinked. ‘You spoke to her?’

  ‘What can I say? I get around.’ Ceri grinned. ‘Actually, we summoned her into Alexandra in the dungeon. You know that big cross we had you strapped to? We used that and silver-iron shackles to restrain her.’

  ‘Oh wow,’ Tawni breathed, ‘I got munched by a Dutch girl on the same cross a goddess hung from.’ She grinned. ‘Oh, I left your present beside the TV. You might want to open it tomorrow when people have gone.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ceri said, ‘worried now.’

  ‘What have you two been up to?’ Jenny asked.

  ‘Rescuing my retirement plans,’ Tawni said. ‘I’ve never had so much fun securing a pension.’

  November 1st

  The sky visible through the bedroom window was an incandescent green shot with bursts of yellow. The wards along the fence line at the rear of the house were flaring orange and red. It looked like a vision of Hell and Ceri had never seen anything that bad.

  Something caught her eye and she looked across at the park. A huge figure walked through the night toward the house. The light from the sky turned the iridescent purple skin some strange, scary colours, but the fifteen foot tall demon was quite frightening enough without that. Tall horns crowned his head, and he was definitely a he. Muscles bulged in his arms and hooved legs. He was massive… and somehow familiar.

  The demon stopped near the back fence and looked at Ceri. From the outside there was no window there; the illusion which made the house look like something off a horror movie set masked the real windows. But he was definitely looking at Ceri. He made a terribly formal bow, his lips curling into a wide grin. The sharp teeth were not really visible at this distance, but Ceri knew they were there. She had met this demon before, in person, on another birthday.

  She had been eighteen and her parents had died that year. On a night almost as bad as this one she had walked out into the park. Deep down she had known that the enchantment she had still worn back then would protect her, but what she had hoped was that something would come along to end her misery. Then this demon had walked up to her.

  ‘You don’t seem scared,’ he had said.

  ‘Maybe I just don’t care,’ she had replied.

  ‘Perhaps I will see you again when you do,’ had been his parting remark, and there he was. Something had come along to make her care. She had friends, a life, and most of all there was Lily and Michael. And there he was. She had no idea how powerful he was. Could he break the wards? She realised she was holding her breath.

  Howe
ver, the demon just straightened up and turned away, walking back into the park without even trying to get to her. Ceri frowned. She felt like he was waiting, like he had known back then they would be meeting again and this moment was not the time.

  Shaking herself she headed back out of the room and down the stairs. There were happier things to think about, and to get done.

  Down in the hall things had gone from music and dancing, to music and dancing with less and less clothes, to the music being just a backdrop for rather more intimate forms of rhythmic movement. Lily was standing on the small landing above the hall, smiling as werewolves, were-foxes, and various human shapes coupled in a few couples, but more often in threes and a few larger groups. Twill was sat on the half-demon’s shoulder.

  ‘Twill,’ Ceri said as she came up behind them, ‘would you just hop down and land on the carpet for me.’ The tiny woman looked back at her, bemused, but she lifted easily from Lily’s shoulder and flew down to land beside Lily’s leg. Ceri grinned and reached out to take her pet’s hand. ‘Remember what we said we’d do when the pack was next here?’ Ceri asked.

  Twill looked up at the two women, frowning as Lily stepped back a little. Ceri was already drawing power through Lily as remembrance dawned in a flush across Twill’s cheeks. ‘Oh no,’ the fairy said. ‘You wouldn’t…’

  Lily let out a little whimper as Ceri pulled more energy through her. ‘We so would,’ Ceri said. ‘Cynyddu!’ Light danced around Ceri’s fingers and Twill’s body, and Twill’s eyes widened as the world around her seemed to shrink.

  When it was finished, Twill was a little over four feet in height and the differences in her physiology from a human were far more apparent. The most obvious thing was her legs which were disproportionately long for her body. She looked like an old, wartime, Vargas pin-up with a bob of purple hair and a pair of feathery butterfly wings sticking out between her shoulder blades. She also looked very sexy and a little shocked.

  ‘All right, boys,’ Ceri called out, ‘we have a new player. Be careful with her wings and only two at a time… at first.’

  Twill gave out a little squeak, pink light flickering around her body, as Jasmine and Naira emerged from below to grab a hand each to pull the fairy down onto the floor of the hall. They vanished into the throng with Twill squirming as hands reached out for various parts of her anatomy.

  ‘Think she’ll be okay?’ Ceri asked.

  ‘Twill?’ Lily replied. ‘She’ll be fine. She might kill a couple of werewolves, but they’ll die smiling.’ Giggling, Ceri turned back up the stairs. ‘We’re not joining in?’ Lily asked plaintively.

  ‘Not yet,’ Ceri replied. ‘I’m the hostess, I’m going to socialise with the non-combatants first. Chat now, orgy later.’

  Lily nodded and followed Ceri up the stairs to the lounge. ‘I can live with that.’

  The fire was burning and the lounge was warm and welcoming. The chaise longue had been carried in from the study and Dane and Aleena were sprawled on it. Carter was sat in the guest wing-back with Cheryl sprawled in his lap. Her skirt had ridden up to almost indecent levels and her legs were hung over the chair arm to rest in Alec’s lap. The werewolf was massaging her toes. In front of the fire there was a bit of a bundle. Catherine and Stefan, her Captain, were sprawled on one side. The Alpha was naked and human while her mate-by-any-other-name was in fur, cuddled up against her. On the other side, Lorna had lost her top and skirt and was snuggled up against her husband. Between the two couples was Kate. As predicted, her dress was gone and the black satin push-up bra and thong did, indeed, look “suitable.” She was laid on one side, Lorna playing absently with her hair and Catherine stroking her calf.

  In Ceri’s chair, Michael was sitting comfortably and made no move to rise. Lily took her customary place on the foot stool and Ceri sat down in Michael’s lap. ‘It’s pretty bad out there,’ Ceri commented. ‘There’s some nasty stuff walking around.’

  ‘I saw at least one lord,’ Carter said. His hand was playing over Cheryl’s neck; she looked like she was in heaven. ‘A Devos, I believe, or some offshoot.’

  ‘He likes the area,’ Ceri said. ‘I’ve seen him on other years when it’s been bad.’ She could have said she had met him once, but that might have entailed explaining why she had been out of the house that night. ‘I don’t think he can get through the wards or he would have by now.’

  ‘If he did, he’d be partying in the hall before he knew what was happening,’ Lily said.

  ‘Getting hot down there?’ Dane asked.

  ‘It’s got hot,’ Ceri replied. ‘Especially after we dropped a four-foot fairy in the mix.’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’ Carter said, surprised and a little confused.

  ‘We told Twill,’ Lily said, ‘that the next time the North Hills wolves were staying here we would grow her to four feet tall and set three of them on her at once. So we did.’

  ‘I told them two at a time,’ Ceri said.

  ‘To start with,’ Lily added.

  ‘True, and I doubt they listened.’

  ‘I doubt she listened,’ Lily replied. ‘I told you, she’s a total slut when she gets started.’

  ‘I find that slightly difficult to believe,’ Carter said.

  ‘She is fae,’ Ceri supplied. ‘She says their reputation for debauchery is undeserved, but I’ve met Belvedere.’

  ‘A finer example of a complete and utter degenerate I cannot think of,’ Carter said. ‘When did you meet him?

  ‘When we were hunting down that ghost in August,’ Lily said. ‘We needed information I thought he’d probably have.’

  ‘What did he want in return?’ Carter said. ‘The man does nothing for free.’

  ‘He was paid,’ Ceri replied. ‘Lily thinks he was hoping if he asked for little now he might get more in the future.’

  Carter raised an eyebrow. ‘More?’

  ‘He wants Ceri,’ Lily said. ‘In bed. It’s kind of odd, actually. When he wants someone, he usually just… takes them. Try to at the very least. He was trying to persuade Ceri.’

  ‘Ceri’s special,’ Michael commented. ‘Even degenerates know it.’

  ~~~

  Ceri opened her eyes, smiled, and closed them again. It was daylight outside, though she could not tell exactly when it was. She would use the excuse to lie in bed a while longer, warm and comfortable between Lily and Michael.

  They had not gone to sleep until well after dawn. Partially it had been to avoid hearing the sounds from outside. If you strayed too close to the windows, you could hear things battering against the wards and it was likely that if the house had gone quiet you would be able to hear them more clearly.

  So Ceri, Lily, and Michael had joined the activity in the hall. Ceri could only really remember parts of it now; all the bodies seemed to mesh together into a continuous stream of sensuality. She remembered looking down at some point to see a dark face and purple hair between her legs, and a werewolf behind that. The wild look on Twill’s face had been like nothing Ceri had ever seen the fairy show before. She had seen Lily taking three wolves at once, one of them Michael. Lily had the same sort of look on her face as Twill, wild, lost in the moment. Lying in bed, feeling warm and happy, Ceri wondered whether she had looked the same.

  Eventually the three of them had left the slowing orgy and gone up to their bedroom. The lovemaking had been calmer there but no less intense and Ceri could remember it far more clearly. The memories did their work and the little groan which escaped her throat woke Lily.

  ‘Mmmm… you’re awake,’ the half-succubus said, her voice half groan. ‘You were incredible last night. I never thought I’d see you taking three at once.’

  ‘I did? Three men?’

  ‘Mmhmm… Michael, Kort, and Stefan, I think.’ Lily sounded sleepy and really proud. Ceri had a flash of memory; of feeling very, very filled. ‘Amazing feeling, isn’t it?’ Lily said.

  ‘I barely remember half of what happened after we went downstairs,’ Ceri said. �
��I never thought I’d let anyone take me… like that. Not after Stonehenge.’

  ‘You were gone,’ Lily replied. ‘Totally out of your body. I could see it in your face. You were just a bundle of senses.’ She gave a soft giggle. ‘I love it when it’s like that. It happens so rarely. Just… giving up your body to whatever happens. You were almost there at full moon with the pack. I’ve never seen you go all the way before.’

  More memories were starting to drift back. It was almost like Ceri was watching herself from the outside. Feeling everything, but observing it at the same time. Lily was right, Ceri had been just as wild as her housemates. She had been something elemental.

  ‘If you think you’re getting more of the same this morning,’ Michael mumbled, ‘you’re not. I’m not sure I can walk, never mind anything else.’

  ‘I’m afraid you won’t anyway,’ Twill said from the doorway. She floated over and landed on Michael’s shoulder, having shrunk back to her normal size at some point when the spell wore off. ‘John and Kate left about two hours ago. Lorna’s still down in the dungeon, but they came up in a bit of a hurry.’

  ‘All three were down there?’ Lily asked. ‘Damn, who won the bet?’

  ‘Why did they leave, Twill?’ Ceri asked, focussing on the important part. ‘They were supposed to be off work today.’

  ‘I think everyone got called in,’ the fairy replied. ‘Last night was very bad. John asked that you call when you woke up in case they needed help.’

  Ceri grimaced. ‘That bad? Okay, since my mate is too worn out anyway… Michael, perhaps you should head over to Battersea and check on the pack. Lil, perhaps you should take that chain off in case we have to go out. Let’s move before I decide to go back to bed.’

  ~~~

  Ceri waited on the phone while the switchboard at Greycoat Street tried to connect her with anyone free to talk to her. Lily had put the TV on and it was readily apparent why John had suggested they might be needed.

  ‘…relatively little damage south of the Thames,’ the presenter was saying, ‘but on the north side emergency services are still dealing with the aftermath of the worst Samhain since the Shattering.’