Maggie nodded, “She probably tried to betray him after losing the challenge. I wish we could’ve helped the old bitch, but that would just get us a whole lot more enemies. We have to protect our family, and my coven and our allies. If it makes you feel any better, I hope he goes back on his word, and gives us an excuse.”

  Elena cackled, “True.”

  “I get it, I told myself all the same arguments back in that room,” the gates opened as we approached, and I drove through and pulled onto the road, “But it doesn’t help all that much outside of the knowledge I know I’m keeping you all safe. It still feels wrong.”

  Elena said, “Our world can be violent, but it would be constant and never-ending war if we didn’t limit things. Even the gods would get involved, as the various opposing mantels tried to crush and forcibly convert each other to their viewpoint and morality. It’s better this way, and less harm is done in the long run, but nothing is perfect.”

  “If we do fight?”

  Bonnie said, “You’d totally kick his ass. We’re extremely resilient and resistant to magic, and we can bring massive amounts of arcane energy and power to bear. But as I told you yesterday, we’re weak to physical attacks. Not helpless to it with the aid of earth magic, but much less capable of defending against a bullet, or a blade spear made of souls to make the point.

  “I’d totally rather face a hail of lightning bolts from a thunderstorm, or a firestorm of epic proportions, than a single attack from your blade. Anyway, he’ll adjust. I suspect we surprised him, and that he’d expected to walk all over the other covens in the area since no one would’ve been able to challenge him and win a duel of magic. He didn’t show it, but me, Elena, and our cum supply showing up behind Maggie really shook him.”

  “You too?” I asked with a chuckle. Now they were all calling me that.

  “Totally, sir,” she said vibrantly, and teased the back of my neck with her fingernails from the backseat. It was no doubt an attempt at humor to cheer us all a bit, they were more used to things and how they were, but clearly, they weren’t much happier about it than I was.

  Maggie said, “That lines up with my thoughts. If I’d have gone there without you at my backs, he’d have challenged me or forced me to challenge him, then he’d have taken my coven too.”

  “We’ve always got your back. It offers a delightful view, after all.”

  Elena giggled, “Truth.”

  Maggie smiled warmly and took my hand.

  That’s when the world turned to fire, and a huge explosion surrounded us and blew us upwards. My heart seized and then took off like a gazelle, as adrenaline flooded my veins. I didn’t actually see the missile, but I was fairly sure that’s what it was. The drain on my power was surprisingly small, as I tore the four of us straight up out of the burning car and looked around. Apparently demigods hit a lot harder than missiles, even monsters did at that.

  There was a chopper armed with missiles about a quarter mile away. A single soul blade appeared over my shoulder, and then blurred as it shot their way. It could hit anywhere I could see, and I could very much see the tail rotor. The blade didn’t survive the impact, but I hadn’t planned for it to because I didn’t want to waste the power to hold it together, but the tail rotor didn’t survive either. The helicopter started spinning like a top without the counter torque, and I flew us all that way as it went down.

  Maggie said, “I’ve got us invisible to humans.”

  Bonnie chirped, “Fire’s out, and wreckage on side of road.”

  “We need an anti-missile armored car.”

  Maggie giggled, “Insurance is going to be hell on this one. We’re going to need a new family car too. I’ll have the dealership drop something off. Why don’t you shield it next time?”

  “That’s… a really good idea, actually. A single soul would’ve missile proofed it.”

  Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that?

  Bonnie giggled.

  The chopper went down hard, and it flipped onto its side from the twirling momentum as the landing rails hit the ground while it was spinning. Two of the main rotor blades ripped off as the fast-moving blade hit the ground making the whole helicopter jump and flip as metal screeched in protest.

  The blessing told me no one had survived, my eyes verified both the pilot and person in the back were dead, probably from blunt force trauma. I summoned four souls and just ordered them with an act of focus and will to search for men and woman in tactical dress and rifles in the area. They took off in four different directions.

  The search came up empty.

  “We really need to take care of that asshole in L.A. These two clowns were the only ones that were involved this time. No doubt Dane is cowering in a bunker somewhere trying to come up with a new plan.”

  Bonnie said, “Sorry.”

  I pulled her to me with a thought with the shield around her, and then I swatted her ass forcefully and quite hard.

  I said firmly, “Baby, it’s not your fault that Carmine’s a pathetic asshole.”

  She gasped breathily, and said, “Yes, sir.”

  I grinned, and then flew us toward home.

  Maggie giggled, “If it’s not her fault then why’d you spank her?”

  “To reinforce the message of course, and to break her neurotic spiral of guilt with a shock and something else to think about.”

  It was a spontaneous thing, but I thought if I used my dominance to her submissive personality, along with a shock that maybe I could short circuit her tendency to throw herself into negative thought spirals. Since it worked, I knew I’d be doing it again, to guard her heart and to keep her happy. She was already mostly happy on her own. Her vivacious personality running in that direction after all. So it wouldn’t come up much I didn’t think.

  Bonnie blushed, “Totally worked, sir.”

  Dear goddesses, my ladies blew my mind.

  Elena asked curiously, “How did that happen? The sir thing?”

  Bonnie blushed, and she gave Elena the same explanation she gave me earlier in our alone time. Then added that it also totally turned her on to say it. That it made her feel warmly submissive and safe inside, which made me stir below. When Maggie said it did the same for her, but also made her wet to say it besides, and Bonnie admitted it did that to her too, I was at half-mast.

  Elena just cackled, and said, “Truth.”

  They really were going to drive me crazy one of these days.

  Chapter Seven

  A few minor things happened that evening. A brand-new Cadillac CT6-V got dropped off as our replacement vehicle. Not only was it a four-door luxury vehicle that could comfortably fit five, the thing had five hundred and fifty horsepower. Did I mention I loved my Maggie? The gorgeous little minx got the sports luxury vehicle line for me.

  Secondly, a white panel van showed up to cart away the larger sex dungeon machines and props as well as the whips, crops, ball gags and other shit we didn’t want to keep, from some local place in the city. They even took the artwork on the walls, which were of scenes of a lewd and racy nature.

  Some private sex club I’d never heard of.

  Regardless, that left the room empty and ready for the people tomorrow morning that were coming over with office furniture, as well as the laptops she had on order which should arrive tomorrow as well. Maggie had also arranged for one more desk, and she ordered a third laptop for Bonnie which would be coming a day or two later.

  She’d also briefed the coven during dinner and assured them they were safe, and the issue was dealt with. But to call if any more of them were approached by the Oak Circle coven and harassed, in which case it would be dealt with definitively and permanently. From what I could tell the whole thing boosted their confidence and loyalty. It was a highly unlikely turn out for covens in cities when dealing with the children of Hecate, so for the first time there was a true payoff for the coven for Maggie’s ambitious plan for demigod allies.

  Well, a second one, since being freed from the coven that had abused them was significant as well.

  Lastly, I summoned a soul and sent it to find and spy on that asshole Carmine. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but two hundred and fifty miles wasn’t all that far compared to the underworld, so I didn’t see why it wouldn’t. I could still feel the connection to the soul, but so far it hadn’t found Ares’ compound yet for Carmine and his mercenary company.

  It would be useful to know where he was when the time came, plus it might tip us off before the next attack if the soul could overhear something. I couldn’t form the soul into an inanimate object from so far away, but I could look and hear through its senses.

  I also wondered if backing them off yesterday by killing Violet and the sniper hadn’t changed Carmine’s plans from capture and forcefully breed, to kill. Kind of a pathetic. An… if I can’t have her no one can, kind of asshole thing to do. Reason being, the missile was surely meant to kill all of us, not capture Bonnie, they hadn’t even had a team nearby to move in after the strike.

  At the moment I was enjoying a rare moment of time alone, moments which were critical so my mind could catch up to my crazy life. Although after nineteen days there was less and less that my mind had trouble accepting. The whole car blowing up around us had been… hardly boring. It’d startled the shit out of me and electrified my body with adrenaline, but it wasn’t all that hard for my mind to swallow in review. Just another Monday here in my new world kind of thing.

  Maggie was chatting with the coven in the kitchen as they cleaned up after dinner, and I’d left to avoid stultifying the conversation because they were nervous around me. Elena and Bonnie had stayed, the latter wanting to connect as extended family and a friend, as she’d be teaching them. Elena stayed because… herd women instinct? I had no idea.

  Women were a mystery, it could be that she’d simply recognized my need for a few minutes of alone time as well, or maybe she just needed women friends in her life and there was no second motive to it, or… goddesses knew what. I didn’t really have to get it to appreciate it.

  Point being in all of that, was right after dinner was my usual short block of alone time.

  My mind mostly worked on the last two days with Bonnie. I was already crazily in love with the other two, and I had proposed a permanent union just yesterday. I couldn’t imagine life without them. Bonnie was amazing, exuberant and excited, though could be a little neurotic as she put that same powerful passion for life into her worries which could make her spiral. She was attentive, clingy, loved to be touched, and clearly had a submissive streak in her a mile wide if not quite as diverse as my Maggie’s.

  She was also gorgeous, both leggy and busty, with a graceful lissome body, lovely golden blonde hair, and icy blue eyes I’d already been lost in several time. She was like a comet crossing my sky. I suspected she also needed the discipline her submissiveness to me gave to her. Not discipline like punishment, but in self-control. My steady presence, swatting her ass, and giving her clear instruction had cut off and stopped that spiraling, and steadied her to a certain extent. I already enjoyed being that steadying presence for her, so she didn’t spiral or obsess. Or at least, she’d do so less often.

  Lastly, she was a hell of a lot more powerful than she’d showed or even implied. She was exuberant and vivacious, not in a grab life by the horns way like Maggie, but more enjoy and dive into life. Which is why her humbleness wasn’t immediately apparent. Humble people were usually quiet, and she was anything but, she was larger than life. But it was obvious to me in hindsight she was humble about her intelligence, her magic, and her power. She just wanted to be a champion for Aphrodite, bring pleasure to her new mates, and love living life.

  Magic was her passion perhaps, but not the power it gave her. For her, magic was the ends, her passionate hobby, not the means to power. She obviously didn’t beat people over the head with her power. I had no doubt she could handle Carmine and his goons on her own, but only if she was willing to massacre them all before they could open fire.

  She was in short, a hell of a woman, and entirely enthralling.

  “Deep thoughts?” a curiously teasing voice asked.

  I looked up to see Angela standing there. She’d changed from her work clothes, and she was wearing casual and loose light blue cotton shorts and an off the shoulder pink and red flower top that hung loosely, yet clearly defined her generous torpedo shaped B cups. Her nipples were tightened enough to see bumps through the shirt to make it obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. She was home, and she looked pretty good in the casual clothes.

  No… make that she looked pretty damned hot in the clothes. Most of her long and luscious legs were uncovered, and she was barefoot. Her lissome five feet ten-inch height with her toned dancer’s body looked damned good.

  Her straight light blonde hair was up in a ponytail and her light gray eyes watched me curiously with a hint of mischief in them. It wasn’t the first time she’d talked to me, and just yesterday she’d defended me as a good guy to Valerie, but it was the first time she’d looked directly into my eyes, and it was most definitely the first time she’d ever said anything in a teasing way to me.

  I smiled, “Just taking in the day, how about you?”

  She walked into the room gracefully with a lovely swish to her walk, and she sat down in the leather armchair across from the couch I was on.

  “Trying to relax after what happened today. We all appreciate you being here you know, and you looking after us and the matriarch. It’s not common in our world, and we’re still dealing with what came before.”

  “I understand, not what you went through of course, but the results.”

  Angela nodded, “That’s obvious, you never look at us, thank you for that too,” she tilted her head with a slight smile, “I just wanted to say hello and thank you. You haven’t really met the real us I don’t think, but you have me now. Valerie appreciates you too, she really does, but you terrified her that night even as you saved her.”

  “The real you?”

  She grinned and winked, “Half of us aren’t nearly as stolid without you around. I’ll leave you to your thoughts, but I wanted you to know you don’t have to avoid me anymore.”

  She smiled and bit her lip as she got up, and the way she walked out made it clear she was giving me a show.

  I shook my head, a little bemused at the whole interaction. Angela seemed to have a teasing personality, with a good dash of sensuousness to the teasing, but there was no real invitation in it. A crude way to put it, and it wasn’t just the words but her body language, was that she was a bit of a cock tease and enjoyed being looked at. The fact her nipples were far more defined when she left than before she’d arrived, along with her sensually teasing tone had told me that. I suspected we’d be doing a lot of harmless flirting in the future, and it’d be good to get to know one of the witches.

  I pushed it out of my head as my ladies came in to collect me, and we all went upstairs where I happily undertook my stern mate duties and sated them one at a time, though they very much helped each other reach that satiated state as well.

  I fell asleep and woke in that dream world to naughty giggles, surrounded by nine naked nymph goddesses. Including Calliope who was once again cradling my head in her lap and teasing my face and forehead with her fingertips. They were all incredibly beautiful with perfect bodies that weren’t all that different except in subtle ways. They all had perfectly proportioned and lush hourglass bodies similar to my Maggie.

  They all had long hair, and despite their nakedness there was a coy vibrance to them, as they covered their breasts partially with their hair, only showing teasing momentary views of their nipples when they moved their heads. They also had their legs arranged both alluringly but so that their sexes were hidden from my eyes. It wasn’t out of shyness. It was seductive coyness, leaving that bare bit of mystery to further stir my lust.

  The largest variances between the nine were in their faces and hair colors. Three varying shades each of blonde, light and dark brunette as well as Calliope’s blue-black, and three shades of redheads. They may have shared everything, as far as the width and breadth of their mantle, but it was obvious there was some specializing as well. And that was in their appearance and scent.

  Thalia for example, the muse goddess of comedy, had a mischievous beauty to her face, and her scent smelled like laughter and joy. Erato, the muse goddess of love poetry, was exotic and sensual beyond belief, and smelled of affection and lust, arousal. They each had unique scent identifiers within the deep commonalities.

  Needless to say, it was a hell of a night of carousing and as Calliope had called it last night, frolicking. I spent what felt like eight hours with each of them, adoringly and worshipfully ate all their pussies and asses, and also made love to them twice. They were as they say, a handful and then some, but they were goddesses after all.

  Like with Calliope, I took charge during those times and they were all delightfully and coyly submissive when it came to sexual intimacy, but most of the time we talked, danced, and they even had me singing with them with a smile on my face. I’m sure they all would’ve blown me or given me their asses if I but asked for it, but I didn’t. It would’ve felt a little wrong, maybe that was just in my head since they let me take control, but I stuck to worshipping them with my tongue, and only used my cock in their sexes to make love to them. Sometimes roughly, and quite firmly, to their delight, but even with me in control it would’ve felt wrong for them to be adoring me from their knees for some reason.

  Maybe that would change at some point, but I was more than thrilled with just giving them oral pleasure, and neither did they insist on repaying it. They were the goddesses, no matter the illusion of control they gave me in their sensual submission.

  In all, six hours of time spent with each on those lighthearted and inspiring pursuits, while the other two hours with each was the long and languid lovemaking. Even while with them, the other eight weren’t very far from us, and often joined my private time with one during songs or dancing only to giggle and give us a little space during our talks and physical love making.