Lilliana replied, “Probably a mage, an assassin. Or maybe the one I told you about that Karen texted me on.”

  Shit, the car was enveloped in fire. The containment wards were holding, but they would only hold for so long. Plus, it was getting hot in the car, and I started to sweat. Fuck this.

  “On three, let’s go kill that bastard.”

  I counted to three, and we opened the doors facing away from the mage and crawled out. I casted a quick magic shield, replacing the physical shield spell, and then ran around the car with balefire in my hand. I threw it as soon as I saw the asshole, and my fire was absorbed into his shields.

  I heard a husky sexy voice in my mind, “Hold me master, squeeze me tight, and feed with me.”

  It was as disturbing as it was tempting, but it was worth a try. I threw most of my magic behind the magic shield to keep me safe, and rushed the bastard as Krystal morphed into a saber. Id’ gotten so used to her presence in the back of my head, I’d even forgotten about her until she’d said something.

  I was trying to dodge his magic as I closed with him, but more often than not I took a shot to my spelled shield, and fed it some more power through my link with Malina.

  I threw more fire right before I got there in an attempt to blind him, and then followed it with my blade. Krystal sunk into him without resistance, it was almost as if he was made of air. He gasped and stared at me in disbelief, and then the pleasure hit. Unbelievable pleasure as the sword drank in my attacker’s life force and drained his magic. Not his soul, just his life force. The soul itself was already severed from his body, but still present and in pain.

  I’ll be honest, it was disturbing. I believed in an eye for an eye. Someone tries to kill me, I kill them right back. But this was different, I struggled for a few minutes inside my mind, and sighed in relief as I finally managed to separate the sword’s pleasure from mine, and thank the infernal fires as Lilliana would say, because if I’d orgasmed from stabbing people, I don’t know what I’d have done.

  Still, at the same time, it was kind of hot listening to Krystal have a sword-orgasm in the back of my mind, and I could still feel the intense echoes of it in my mind. Whoever made this sword was twisted, and Krystal’s soul was truly in the throes of orgasmic pleasure. No wonder she was so eager to kill people. It was the only time she could get off.

  Based on what he looked like, I would guess it was that ass Brandon, who Karen warned us about. He tried to blast me with a spell as he slowly died, but my shield took it easily. Then he straight out punched me, and my inherent shield took that physical hit, although it almost made me let go of the sword. Finally, he died, and the scream stopped.

  Krystal shrunk right out of his abdomen and back into a ring, it didn’t seem that blood could stick to her onyx blade at all, like it was magical Teflon or something. I looked around and we were alone on the street. The car actually looked fine, the wards had protected it from physical harm.

  Lilliana and Malina were looking at me with lust in their eyes.

  “What?” I asked curiously, I mean, I didn’t think I did anything quite that cool.

  Liliana smirked, “Nothing mas… Shawn. It’s just that you mastered Krystal is all. It’s impressive for so soon. The first time your uncle used her he went on a killing spree for the obvious reasons, we had to stop him.”

  “Oh, well you ladies can take part of the credit for that, I think it was the concentration and focus necessary to do three and four things at once that tipped the scales on that.”

  I turned and cast balefire from my hand, without a shield it engulfed his corpse in hungry green flames and turned it to ash in seconds.

  “Umm, can you flip the car, we have a date in bed.”

  I knew I still needed a lot of work on multi-tasking, and learning more spells. If Brandon had come with a full circle instead of alone, it would have been a lot harder. Not that it was easy.

  Lilliana asked archly, “Tired Shawn?”

  I looked her in the eyes, “Not even a little bit Lil. But I plan on some sleep after I exhaust you both.”

  Malina raised an eyebrow, but didn’t dispute my comment as Lilliana grabbed a bumper and flipped the car back on its wheels. I wondered just how strong she was as a vampire. The idea that she submitted to me and could do that was a real turn on. I knew some guys were intimidated by stronger women, but that wasn’t me, obviously, since both of mine were very strong women.

  Time to get home, and fulfil my promise.

  Chapter 18

  Karen still wasn’t positive what to do. She was leaning toward accepting Shawn’s pact, but it was a huge decision. A revolution, taking up the huge responsibility to rule, marriage, and having a child, all in the same pact, the same decision. Each of those four things was a life changing proposition on its own, taken together it was simply overwhelming.

  If she loved him, it would be an easier decision, although still not simple by a long shot. Did she really want to marry a man who trucked with demons and had a harem of two? The goddess knows if that number would increase in the future.

  Admittedly, that wasn’t what it was really about. Their marriage would be political, an extension of the treaty. In that case, it wasn’t so bad, they wouldn’t even be living together, and if she never fell in love with him then… she would have to live with it.

  The second one wasn’t really much of an issue, she’d dreamed of ruling the mages and restoring the old laws for years now, and had the ambition to get there. So truly, the real objections that held her back were becoming a revolutionary, and having children to raise.

  She liked kids well enough, but hadn’t given much thought to being a mother, especially not a mostly single one. Sure, he would be there, and she might visit often, but it was implied she’d be the primary caregiver on top of ruling the mages in Chicago.

  Her desire to fix things and to gain power stemmed from her ambition. She had all but given up that possibility, which left being a revolutionary to achieve her goals as her only choice. She tried to identify why that bothered her so much while she sat on the couch drinking another glass of wine. It wasn’t that Clarissa and her cronies didn’t deserve to be toppled, she realized her hesitation stemmed from how history would view her.

  She thought people would welcome her changes, and she’d be popular. If she staged a revolution, a lot of people would not see it that way. They would see a power hungry usurper, who restored the old laws to put the people with the most power in charge. While she truly thought that was for the best, and would root out the corruption, she would be hated by the weak back stabbers, and history might not paint her as the heroine.

  She snorted, and took another sip of wine, wondering if she was drinking too much.

  Now that she understood what held her back, it was easier to dismiss it. Who cared what the weak cringing back stabbing assholes thought? Not her.

  Still, she wasn’t able to so easily dismiss the child rearing concern. She took another sip, three out of four wasn’t bad. Besides, she was pretty sure her ambition would force her to move forward, no matter the price. There was also a small part of her, that suspected once she was a mother, her children would become her world. That perhaps, she only thought of them as a burden because they were theoretical children right now, and not her flesh and blood that she’d carried for nine months.

  Still, she didn’t jump right up and go to Shawn’s, she instead thoughtfully sipped from her wine glass. Then the door banged, making her jump and spill her wine on her hand and wrist.

  “Shit!” she muttered fervently, and jumped up to her feet.

  The door banged again as she washed her hands in the kitchen, “Just a minute!”

  She dried her hands and walked over to the door, and opened it.

  “Tina? What are you doing here?” she asked, although she had a bad feeling she already knew.

  Tina said, “Sorry Karen, all of us low mages think its bullshit, but I have to follow orders. You’re to come with me and appear before the mage council for judgement.”

  She looked down, she was wearing a comfy pair of yoga pants, and an old but soft pink tee.

  “Can I change first?”

  Tina smiled, “Yes.”

  Karen walked toward the back, and realized Tina was following her. So much for jumping out the window. She went to her closet and pulled off her clothes, and pulled on a professional looking yellow dress, pulled on some stockings, and a pair of white high heeled sandals. Then she cast a quick spell to clean up, she hadn’t taken a shower yet today, and doubted Tina would wait that long.

  She opened the closet door and walked out.

  Tina smiled, “Don’t you look fancy miss,” she said with a southern twang.

  She snorted a laugh, “Bitch.”

  Tina snickered, and walked her to the car.

  Karen got in the car without an argument. She knew she could take Tina in a duel, even knock her out without harm, but perhaps seeing the council and hearing what they had to say would finally drive her to accept the pact from Shawn. Really, she was mostly there, she just… needed a final push. She was almost positive the council would provide it.

  Karen held in a sigh as she was escorted into the council room, and was led to the center of the room. There were other mages there today, besides the council there were a number of security mages, and even mage civilians.

  Clarissa folded her hands and looked down at her sternly, “You are here to answer questions for misconduct, negligence, and incompetence. Not only for your most recent mission, but for the death of senior mage Brandon who died in an ill-conceived attempt on the life of Shawn Moore.”

  She was frozen for a moment. How the hell were they going to pin that on her, she wasn’t even working then, she’d been fired!

  Clarissa said, “Let’s begin. Did I, or did I not order you to kill the last Moore?”

  She nodded, “You did.”

  Clarissa asked, “And you then took a nap, instead of immediately following out those orders?”

  She replied in a reasonable tone, “I was exhausted from the previous mission, and you had given me no time limit.”

  Clarissa scowled, “Yes or no?”

  She replied stonily, “Yes, I did.”

  Clarissa added, “And as a result of that incompetent decision, the vampires and shifters stepped in to interfere, did they not? If you had obeyed immediately, you might have completed the mission long before they arrived at the Moore mansion.”

  She fumed, and lowered her eyes out of anger, certainly not respect.

  “Of course, the mission would have gone ahead if it weren’t for Dion and Darren.”

  Clarissa nodded, satisfied, “You are clearly guilty of misconduct and incompetence, but we will hold the vote until after the most damaging charges of negligence is brought up. After Brandon’s death, we reviewed his cases and phone calls. To our surprise he placed a call to you shortly before his death, can you tell me what the conversation was about?”

  She scowled, no longer giving a shit about showing respect, “He told me he missed me as a partner, and that he tried to get me back but failed. He also asked me about what happened at the warlock’s house, and I told him about the treaty.”

  Clarissa nodded, “I’m glad you told the truth, I have a transcription of the phone call here, he recorded it. Let me ask, did you suspect he might go after the warlock, after taking so much injury at the warlock’s house the previous day?”

  She frowned, so this is how the bitch was going to get her?

  “I assumed he was doing research for the council, and you had him contact me because he was my partner. It did occur to me that he might want revenge, but I didn’t suspect he would act on his own either. Regardless, I was fired, I don’t believe you can put me up on charges for that.”

  Clarissa sneered, “Don’t think Karen, apparently you aren’t capable of it. You should have notified someone immediately, as his partner you must have known he wanted revenge.”

  She fired back, her patience and control almost completely gone, “And as his boss, you should have known the same councilor.”

  She heard about ten gasps of air behind her, and then shook her head. There was no point, isn’t that what she came here to learn?

  Clarissa called the vote, and to no one’s surprise, not even her own, she was declared guilty.

  Clarissa added, “Take her to a cell while we discuss the penalty. For charges this grave we may need to strip her powers, and banish her from the city, if not death.”

  She gasped at that cold announcement, strip her powers? Even she hadn’t imagined the old bitch would go that far, and she thought furiously as four guards surrounded her and brought her to a cell. She almost balked at the last, but one of them pushed her from behind, and she felt her magic get cut off. The cells had anti-magic wards on them, and she felt absolutely naked without her magic. She sat down in a huff, and gave the guards a dejected helpless look as they left.

  Her face cleared as they moved out of sight, she hoped her dejected face had looked real. She reached up and pulled two sturdy silver pins out of her hair, and got to work on the jail cell. She’d learned to pick them a while back, just in case this ever happened. She didn’t need magic to pick a lock.

  Thirty seconds later she felt her magic rush back and she took a deep breath. She was so angry she could hardly see straight, that bitch was going down. She’d have Brandon’s kids to kill that bitch now, having Shawn’s would be a pleasure. Actually, she was quite sure of that, the making of them anyway.

  She cast several protection spells, general magic, fire, earth, air, and physical. Then she brought up her mage sight, and made her way silently down the hallway. She examined the two mages there on guard, neither one had a protection against general magic spells on, very sloppy. She nailed them both with two simultaneous sleep spells. Another quick spell to pop the lock and she opened the door.

  She crept down the hallway to the nearest side exit, and slipped outside. She took a deep breath of the cool night air through her nose. Escaping had been easier than she’d expected. One more spell, and she rose up into the air. She couldn’t fly, not exactly, but she could levitate. Once she was about a hundred feet up, she casted another spell, air blast, and went sailing across the street, over some buildings, and then she let herself lose altitude quickly, and landed on the side walk.

  She looked around, there were no humans, so she didn’t need the memory spell. She smiled, and waved down a taxi less than a minute later. She was nervous, but there was also excitement. She was about to join forces with a warlock, a really hot warlock, and cause a shit ton of trouble… Just as soon as she went home and packed.

  Chapter 19

  Shit! Back, head, bang, wall. At least this time my personal shield took some of the hit. I jumped up and glared at a smiling Lilliana. Sometimes I thought she enjoyed kicking my ass more than she did the sex, and this was only our second training session. I snapped out a couple of words and the wooden sword flew to my hand, and I attacked while I pulled hard on my connection with Malina.

  Somehow I blocked her attacks while I muttered another spelled physical shield, and brought my magic detection back online. That was the challenge, fight her with a sword, while maintaining my four core things. The abilities and one shield. Taking a chance, I muttered another spell, a wind attack, and she dove under it perfectly, came up, disarmed me again, and then kicked me in the head.

  Back, head, wall.

  I growled, at least I didn’t lose the shield this time.

  She taunted, “Come now, I’ve been fighting at the side of warlocks for hundreds of years, did you think I wouldn’t recognize a puny wind spell when you spoke it? You’ll never surprise anyone that way.”

  I frowned and held up my hand, she wasn’t happy with the timeout, but I had to ask.

  “How the hell else am I going to do it?”

  She giggled, “Didn’t you read the spell section from the beginning? Or did you start straight with the spells? You don’t have to say the words out loud Shawn, just inside your own mind.”

  She cursed, “You don’t know about partitioning either do you? Fuck, I’m sorry master. I should have said something. Frankly I’m amazed you can hold four things at once like that now.”

  “Shawn,” I said absently correcting her, and then, “Partitioning?”

  She nodded, “It’s another spell, it creates… I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s like multiple personalities. It splits your mind into several parts, but then each part has its own… will to it. Of course, you’ll be in control of all the rest and what they do, through the spell. If that doesn’t make sense, go read the book, from the beginning.”

  I frowned, “I was in a bit of a hurry to move things along, and had to pick and choose what I needed for the situation.”

  She sighed, “Sorry… Shawn. Like I said, I didn’t realize. Why don’t you do that now, and we can do this later.”

  I shrugged and moved to the den downstairs where I kept Sal, and opened him up, this time at the introduction to the spell section, instead of a specific spell.

  First I learned that silent casting wasn’t as easy as it sounded. I couldn’t just run my mind through the words in a rush. I would have to think each word separately, at about the same speed as talking would take. Otherwise the words and intent would get messed up, and the spell would either fizzle, or do something unpleasant.

  The second thing I learned about casting spells, was that it was possible to do two at once, although thinking two spells through and keeping them separate was an exercise in mental juggling that few could master, although most could cast the same spell twice with enough practice. Even partitioning wouldn’t help, because the third thing I learned is all spells and abilities had to be activated or casted in the primary mind, before passing the torch so to speak.

  Next was all about partitioning. Partitioning partitioned the mind anywhere from three to six times. That included the primary mind, so at three it only really added two more. The book was a little vague about why, but I read between the lines, it seemed to be saying it was down to the caster’s innate intelligence, their raw ability to multi-task in the primary mind, and raw experience.