“That’s why I wanted to subtly recruit from the Twilight Flame coven for a while, because all the women have to be dying for an alternative, and I would be the only one holding out my hand. In the end, it was always my intention to destroy their coven and end Michael Grant’s life. He’s a bastard, and he deserves it. If we do it tonight though, most will go to the already established coven with a good reputation for keeping their witches safe, instead of taking their chances on me and a brand-new coven, even if we just freed them. Michael, if we let him live, will also make it harder to recruit while we’re at war, but it will still be doable.”

  “No argument there, sounds like a bump in the road either way, so what’s the plan. Extract Valerie, or kill all the rapists and extract Valerie which will destroy their coven?”

  She typed in the number pad next to the central garage door, and the door started to open. The vehicle in that bay was a top of the line Cadillac CTS. The other four bays had a Maserati, a BMW roadster, A McLaren 570S, and an Aston Martin DB11 Coupe. The sixth bay was empty, presumably where her brother used to park his car.

  I was fairly sure in that moment, that I was in love with the woman. I jest of course, but damn.

  “Mags?”

  She scowled, “I’m thinking. You drive,” and she gave me the key.

  I got what she was struggling with. Clearly what was going on was bad enough, but it would get worse if all we did was extract Valerie. Her recruiting would be slowed down by Michael locking down, but she’d still get more people in her coven that way than if she just took the coven down tonight and all the witches went running in different directions. Thing was, the obvious moral thing to do was to put an end to it now, that night, and try to recruit the women in mass with a speech.

  She had a heart, and wanted to save them, but at the same time she had to look after her own interests. No one could save everyone, but once we were there, we were involved which would make it stickier.

  I got in, and the engine purred as I started it up, it was the only four door luxury car. The rest were luxury sports cars and coupes, which would fit a whole lot less amount of people.

  She gave me the address before I could ask, and I programmed it in the navigation system, and got going. The twilight Flame coven lived on an estate too, but not North of the city, they were east and outside the city limits, in a rural area that was still pretty close to the city.

  She gave me a warm look when I took her hand in mine and squeezed it in support. I had my own idea of what needed to happen, but I was content leaving it in her hands. It seemed obvious the fuckers needed to die, Grant and probably every other man in there, though I wondered if some of them were just as trapped as the ladies were. Probably not.

  Point was, she knew the supernatural world, all the players, and the realities of our world that I didn’t have a full handle on yet. I was fully prepared for her to make the call, and even rather sanguine about massacring the men in the coven even if I’d never killed before. She wasn’t wrong about that, rape was pathetic, and adding magic coercion so they couldn’t even say no or leave was both illegal imprisonment and rape in my books.

  It seemed clear the human police and courts had no jurisdiction or ability when it came to our world, so it was up to us to bring justice if we chose to.

  What I didn’t know was how common it was, just how many covens like Michael’s there were, and on the flip side the kind of coven she wanted to build, and what the Oak Circle was which was close to her ideal but a little more… controlling, if not with spells.

  Chapter Seven

  “Would a demigod backing you up make your mass recruitment speech more effective. I am your bitch after all, when it comes to the business world, you’re mine only in the bedroom.”

  She giggled, “Partial truth, and only while the second part lasts, but I appreciate the thought. Actually, it might hurt a little, by reflex witches tend to avoid demigods and their dangerous shenanigans. Remember, I was desperate when I formed our deal, and didn’t have much choice. In hindsight, it was the best decision of my life, so far, but we’ll see what happens.

  “Anyway, your presence means we’re safer from other covens. But we can handle other covens on our own for the most part, what we can’t handle at all is your enemies. So it’s kind of a wash that way. That’s one of the reasons I want to recruit those demigoddesses if I can, the more we have, the more magic we’ll have, and the less your demigod enemies will want to attack us.”

  “So, Levi’s overly ambitious comment?”

  She blushed, “True in a way. I had no choice with you, but my ambitions are steering in me in a path most fear to tread, in the hopes of being safer and stronger than anyone else in the long run. We’ll also be the strongest coven ever.”

  I nodded, “Sounds like fun to me.”

  She sighed, “We end the Twilight Flame tonight. After going there, I’m not going to be able to walk away letting that bastard live, knowing what’s likely to happen. We take down Michael, and his goons, there’s four of them from what Angela and Valerie told me during our negotiations. I don’t know what other men deserve to die, so the plan after that is to have them cowed. Any that attack you or me, kill them, otherwise let them cower and wait to see what happens.

  “Then I’ll give my speech, as I remove the coercion spells from the women. They can decide to bring justice to the men they feel deserve it, so after that all you have to do is protect them. I’ll tell you what to do, and of course I’ll be helping too, since you can’t feel magic at all.”

  I nodded, “That sounds… ambitious. What if he orders all the girl witches to kill us before I end him?”

  She giggled, “Girl witches?”

  I blushed, and she leaned over and kissed my cheek.

  “Female witches?”

  She nodded, “That works, if that happens just defend us from their magic. I’ll stand close, you should be able to armor us both, and I can focus on freeing them. Once that happens, we’ll be good, they’ll stop attacking.”

  I asked, “You don’t have to touch them?”

  She said, “I do, to permanently remove the coercion spells, but the temporary fix like I did for Angela and Valerie I just have to see them. If I could set a spell to free them from across town, I can do it while in the same room.”

  “Good point. Any other advice?”

  She replied, “Unlike my fireballs in training, and fighting demigods will be obvious like that too, fighting witches you won’t see or feel it coming. Some might toss physical elements, but a lot of them will send pure magic, curses and such that you can’t see. So don’t bother with your shield, just use the armor and a bladed spike. Finish it quickly, since every spell that hits you will drain your demigod power. You’re… okay with the idea?”

  I nodded, “Mind controlling rapists deserve to die, and I get there’s no way to send them to court, witches are above human law. Mentally I’m fine with the idea, and get it, emotionally I’m not sure yet. I’ve never taken a life before.”

  She smiled, “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, you’ve not fully accepted our world yet.”

  “Not your fault, and I trust your judgement. How common is this, by the way, it was one of the things I wondered about.”

  She said, “It varies. I’d say one out of four covens are like Michael’s, though his is the only one in this city. Very controlling, kidnap and spell people into the coven, use the women for power and pleasure both. The rest will align with mine or Danielle’s, to varying degrees. Mine will be one of the most permissive that way, but I won’t brook betrayal or ambition to replace me either.”

  “Danielle?”

  She replied, “Danielle Frost is the matriarch of the Oak Circle coven. She’s been trying to recruit me for almost nine months now. Got a little pushy six months back, but she backed off to merely annoying. She won’t be happy to learn I’m building my own, and that’s inevitable after tonight.”

  “Demigods?”

  She asked, “What about them?”

  I said, “Ones like Michael?”

  She tilted her head, “They fight all the time because of their god’s mantels, which tends to polarize them to an extreme point of view. If you ever choose to champion or worship one of the gods that will happen to you to a certain extent as well. It isn’t any rarer for a demigod to worship and champion their godly parent’s opposite as it is for them to serve that parent directly.

  “They really don’t do slavery though, outside of monsters. Monsters are the disposable creatures of our world, but my grandmother doesn’t have them. Only some gods have monster stables.”

  “And that’s… bad?”

  She grinned, “Levi would say so, four of his mates are monsters. Don’t forget monsters are born of the gods through animals, and they’re half gods just like you and intelligent. Demigods are the children of humans and gods. But War, the queen and king of the gods, Wisdom, your father, the god of the sea, and the huntress all keep monsters. A few others as well, but not many others. Like Hestia, Aphrodite, and the muses all don’t. It really depends on their mantel. Non-violent gods don’t keep monsters because they don’t need or want an army.”

  “Four of his mates, that sounded like he had more.”

  She laughed, “He has seven, three demigoddesses too, nervous yet?”

  I shook my head, “I can’t even imagine how that would work.”

  She patted my hand, “You just need to focus on keeping us sated and feeling cherished. Leave the small stuff to us ladies to work out, and we’ll support each other as well.”

  “Small stuff?”

  She said, “Yeah, sharing you, schedules, stuff like that, to avoid even the illusion of favoritism or neglect. Will you dress all of us?” she asked cheekily.

  I shook my head, “Not unless they’re all as submissive as you are when it comes to personal relationships, which is doubtful. I’ll give them what they need, just like I do you.”

  She bit her lip, “Gods, I wish I had time to blow you right now,” her warm voice soft and wistfully seductive.

  I laughed, “I said the right thing then?”

  She nodded and bit her lip, “It was the one thing I was unsure of between us. I love how it makes me feel, cooking what you want, wearing what you want, how delicious it feels when you’re so firm and decisive with me. I had no idea my need to be controlled existed outside the bed. It makes me feel cherished and safe, like you care for me, and I know you do. But I wasn’t entirely sure if that was all it was, or if you weren’t also a bit of a control freak and on a power trip. That you’re only doing it for me because you discerned that need in me, finding that out, just got me a little wetter.”

  “Well, I’m a little harder after that speech.”

  She smiled my way, “I promise to make it worth the wait,” with such seductive promise in her tone, as well as affection, that I twitched hard, and the confinement of my pants grew uncomfortable.

  “Damn, now I’m all the way hard,” I said lightly, as I winked her way, “And I never doubted you would, saucy nymph.”

  She nodded, and sighed, “We’re almost there. I’ll point out Michael if it’s not obvious. We’ll announce ourselves.”

  I said, “Works for me,” as I pulled off into the driveway and stopped at the gate. It’d work for me because they’d attack us, I think it’d be easier that way to do what I had to do.

  Maggie and my personal relationship couldn’t have been going better, despite Maggie’s attempts to avoid it that first day. But this was the first real test of our alliance, and in being the muscle for a coven matriarch filled with ruthless ambition, though not one that lacked compassion. I’d seen that clearly enough, in how she’d greeted and calmed Angela.

  I hit the button.

  “What do you want, and who are you?”

  “Matriarch Maggie Addison and Jack Thorn, here to see patriarch Michael Grant. Our business involves Valerie and Angela. I’m sure your patriarch is reasonable, and will allow us to leave with Valerie? Her knew matriarch is concerned for her wellbeing.”

  Maggie covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.

  The speaker said, “Fuck off. She belongs to the Twilight Flame coven, and we’ll get that bitch Angela back too.”

  That was all I needed to hear. I formed a soul into a metal tube around the gate railing, and then gave it a good mental shove. Metal protested, then bent and snapped as the gate broke off the hinges, and I tossed it to the side as I retrieved the soul.

  I had five souls around me, and five around Maggie, set up as skintight armor. Another five souls in the spike, and a sixteenth soul to… manipulate things like I had the gate, if needed. It gave me the illusion and practical aspect of the ability of telekinesis, which could come in damned handy in a fight to my way of thinking.

  I drove through the broken gate, and I headed toward the house. On balance, I though it prudent to pull over halfway down the driveway, and then get out of the car. I wasn’t entirely sure what witches were capable of, but the car was full of gasoline.

  Maggie got out and rounded the car, then took my hand and stood close. On balance, I decided not to tell her she could walk five miles away from me right now, and I could still keep her armored. I liked having her where she was. Hell, she could be on the other side of the world. It was only when creating the armor initially that she had to be within my sight.

  Several men and women, five each, rushed out of the mansion before we reached it. I didn’t think the patriarch and his top assholes would be in the first wave, so I knocked down the men with a hard hit of the flat of my large spear point blade thing. I needed a name for it, it really looked like a two-foot-long sword blade about two inches wide and maybe a centimeter thick at its widest, it just didn’t have a pommel, grip, or guard so sword didn’t fit. Just a very sharp two-edged blade.

  Maybe sword blade would do, since that’s what it really was.

  Intent mattered in my focus I knew, so I was hoping by focusing on hitting hard enough to knock them out that it would work, and I wasn’t killing them as I sent them to the ground in quick succession. The soul blade took more magic than I was expecting it to, probably from ripping through their own witch protections or shields, whatever witches had. So, the strike and moving the sword, plus a little more to power through their weak protections in comparison to me.

  While I did that, and felt several spells strike my armor shields, Maggie freed the five women with a spell. It took a second or two each, but I still had over ninety five percent of my power when she was done.

  Maggie said, “Stick around, that freedom is only temporary. I can fully remove the coercions, after we deal with your asshole patriarch. I’ll also be accepting you into my coven if you so choose, and I’ll be telling you about what my coven is about once you’re free. If you run now, you’ll only be forced back here against your will when my spell runs out. Either way, I won’t be forcing you to do anything.”

  None of the women looked trusting, as if any hope was gone from them and Maggie’s promise was worthless, and two of them looked like they were about to throw up.

  They didn’t attack any more though, and we walked past them and inside the large mansion. The mansion itself was old, colonial in style, and at a guess by its size we’d just taken down a tenth of the coven. I didn’t think there could be more than that, and only that much if they were mostly doubled up in the rooms as rapists and victims.

  I took that back almost immediately, as there were close to thirty women in the vast entryway, and no men at all. Coven count at that point was thirty-six women and five men, a seven to one ratio, but I guessed other men including the patriarch were hiding in the house somewhere.

  Perhaps they had the women doubled up in the rooms, and they were passed among the men who got the choice every night. I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t really want to think on it too hard, but it helped steel my mind for the inevitable executions that was coming.

  Regardless, all I did was stand there and feed the shields my power, as every moment or two one of the woman’s eyes cleared and they stopped fighting. A couple of them even started helping, freeing others temporarily in the room.

  Maggie asked, “You all heard my short speech?”

  A few of the women nodded.

  She said, “Good, stay here then, and after we deal with your patriarch we can talk while I completely remove the coercion spells. You can also deal with the five unconscious men outside and bring in those five ladies, not sure if the men deserve death or not.”

  One of the women pointed at the double doors at the end of the hall, “He’s in there, with the core coven, and Valerie. Twelve more men plus himself. They all deserve to die, we were used by them all, several times, often two at a time, while the patriarch had three of us. We are in number one more than twice the number of men.”

  Maggie looked disgusted, and it was obvious Angela and Valerie hadn’t been brave enough to reveal the true depths of the horror that had been going on there. Thirty-seven women, eighteen men, made a coven of fifty-five.

  She told me, “The door is heavily warded.”

  I nodded, turned my spare soul into a battering ram, and then I hit the door hard with it. I had to draw it back three times, but on the fourth blow the part of the door with the doorknobs splintered and the doors swung in.

  My Maggie walked in like she owned the place.

  Michael threatened, “Stop, or I’ll slit her throat,” but before he was even done talking my spare soul became a suit of protection and wrapped itself around Valerie.

  Valerie was the opposite of Angela, very petite at five feet and two inches. She had reddish brown hair the color of chestnut, and lovely green eyes. She had a pixy beauty to her, with a naturally thin face, prominent cheekbones and freckles. Her tits were anything but petite however, and fully rounded and quite pert C cups that were easily a match for my curvaceously sumptuous Maggie’s heart shaped C cups. She also had an amazingly perfect bubbled ass.

  The reason I knew that, was because the assholes had her naked, and her body was twisted and her green eyes were full of fear with that assholes athame to her throat.