Over the next several days we practiced almost constantly, and Karen consistently kicked my ass, but it took her longer every time, except when I was getting tired and did something sloppy.

  When we weren’t training, I was sleeping with all three of them. Sometimes together, sometimes not. Our group sex was fun, and exciting, but believe it or not I enjoyed the higher intimacy of a one on one sexual encounter, and could focus better on pleasing one woman.

  Karen and I never really talked about where we were going with this, or at least we hadn’t yet, but it was clear to me that I was falling for the cute pixie-like mage who was neatly wrapping me around her finger. I hoped she felt the same, I believed she did, but I think we were both reluctant to plan for the future with the present so uncertain.

  Once we’d completed the pact, and both had what we wanted, and we were relatively safer, perhaps we’d talk then. Right now, I think we were both a little afraid to admit the depth of our feelings. Or maybe it was just me. If the sex was any indication, I had nothing to worry about there. She sought me out as much as I did her, and at night we all shared the same bed.

  Chapter 34

  Goddess, she was a fool.

  Karen stared at his face, he was sleeping, and she’d woken first. She felt Lilliana’s thigh against her naked ass and smiled. It was strange how natural it felt to sleep in a bed with Shawn and two other women. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he put her under a spell. She’d have laughed at anyone if they told her this would happen, never in a million years would she have believed it.

  He was a warlock, with a damned harem, and would probably be fucking random strangers to knock up in the future regardless of what happened between them.

  It was insane, she was insane, but clearly, she loved him, and not just a little bit. It had snuck up on her as they trained over this last week. He was so strong, and confident, yet he played off his achievements like it was no big deal. Intense, confident, yet not arrogant at all. He truly had no idea how amazing he was to advance so quickly with magic, she thought he was ready now to face Clarissa’s spell casting, they were all ready.

  What had done her in though, and stolen her heart, was he didn’t seem to mind she was stronger than he was, or better. He just… thought it was hot, and had pride in her ability. Most men would feel threatened, or get angry and frustrated. He just… kept going, and had gotten much better. Earlier he’d held her off for almost ten whole minutes, which was more than long enough.

  If she didn’t take Clarissa in less time than that, they were all dead anyway. Lilliana would be holding the doors, but she couldn’t hold back a contingent of security mages forever.

  She also loved the way he made her feel. She’d always known she was cute, never sexy or beautiful, and she’d been perfectly okay with that. But she couldn’t feel anything less than beautiful when he loved her in bed, it was so apparent in his eyes that she believed it to. She felt safe, protected, and cherished when he held her in his arms. She felt incredibly sexy when she caught his intense eyes caressing her body, when he thought she wouldn’t notice.

  She’d never had that before, and had never felt like that before.

  All she knew was, if he died on her, she’d kill him. She was actually looking forward to marrying him, and having his child. The one thing she wasn’t happy about is that they’d live apart, she’d only be able to visit, and with her leading the mages she had no idea how often that would be. At least until she could be sure the mages would honor the treaty she signed, and he’d be safe visiting her as well.

  She feared that would change things, too much time apart, but life went on, and she hoped that somehow things changed for the better instead. Absence would either make the heart grow fonder, or it would kill what they had, and obviously she hoped for the former.

  She grinned. It was time to get up, and she was hungry for some breakfast. She decided to give him a delightful wakeup call and slithered down the bed underneath the covers…

  Chapter 35

  It was time, we were ready to do this. I just hoped we were all alive when it was finished. We were headed toward the mage building. Lilliana was up front driving the BMW with Malina riding shotgun. I was in the backseat with Karen, and she was snuggled up against me, as if worried it might be the last time.

  We had planned well though, and unless we’re surprised in a major way, we were pretty sure we’d pull it out. At least, I was pretty sure. I had the four demons I’d raised in the trunk, as smoke, and was pretty much at my limit for holding spells. Honestly, it would be a relief when they sacrificed themselves to take out the wards and I could drop the spells.

  If that sounded a little heartless, it helped that they were pure evil, and wouldn’t really die anyway. Hell was full of evil, but the fallen angels, the greater demons, had the potential to be both. I counted myself lucky my patron was one of those.

  Not that she couldn’t be scary as hell when she wanted to be, no pun intended.

  Since I had all the defensive crap going, Karen had taken care of the car itself. It was hard to notice right now at least for humans, mages as well unless they had their mage sight active, and it couldn’t be found with magic at all. Someone would have to eyeball it to see us coming.

  Lilliana asked, “We ready?” as she pulled the car over, a half block away.

  Karen didn’t sound nervous at all, “Let’s get this done,” and opened the car door.

  Karen took the lead, with me practically stepping on her heels. It was to keep close enough to cover us both with one spell, though I have to say it was also nice to be able to hover to keep her safe, without being called an overprotective asshole.

  There were a couple of mages outside the side door smoking, Karen just stared at them for a couple of seconds and they fell to the ground out cold.

  She muttered, “Pathetic, I’ll have to fix that.”

  Malina chuckled, “It’s just as well for right now.”

  Karen smiled at her, and then we approached the door. Still no alarm, but that was about to change. I called one of the demons to me.

  “Take down the wards around here.”

  The demon didn’t look happy, but he turned and sent balefire at the wards, and the wards struck back. As was the plan, the demon did a reversal spell, but not a safe one, a modified one. It grabbed the magic of the wards and instead of grounding it safely outside of his mind and straight into the infernal, the demon filtered it through his own mind and body.

  That enabled him to pull the magic from the wards very quickly. It also burned out his brain, and his body started to steam. The demon held on as long as he could, but eventually his body went up like a bonfire soaked in gasoline, and turned to smoke. One spell down, the only problem is, the wards by the entrance were still up and running.

  Shit, it was going wrong already.

  I summoned another demon to me, and had him finish off the wards, which he did quickly. Still, that was two for the outer weaker wards. We all exchanged glances, and wondered if two demons would be enough for the inner wards? I couldn’t summon another replacement either, not without a circle and the correct arcane symbols available, and the mages wouldn’t wait patiently while I drew one out in the damned alley.

  “Let’s go.”

  The three women nodded grimly, the last two demons simply glared, and we moved into the building and up the stairwell just a few feet down the hallway.

  We went up five floors and stopped at the level with the council chambers.

  “Is this too easy?”

  Lilliana remarked, “It’s part of the plan, but I expected to see some of the security mages on the way up.”

  I frowned, “Alright, assume they know we’re coming, and they strengthened the wards on that outer door because they knew we’d enter there. If I’m wrong, you can make fun of me later.”

  Karen laughed nervously, “Should we abort?”

  I shook my head, “Let’s see what we’re facing, we can always run after that.”

  We slipped into the hallway and there was no one there, at all. Granted, it was the middle of the night, but shouldn’t there have been a guard or two by now, outside of the smokers I mean.

  We edged down the hallway and the council room double doors came into view, just like Karen described. The quicker we got in the better.

  I ordered, “Alright you two, go take down those wards, now.”

  The demons moved forward and attacked in concert, the wards attacked back. Karen’s eyes were glued to the doors.

  Karen sighed, “Clarissa is actively controlling them, and based on how hard she’s resisting the demons, the whole council is there.”

  The demons went up like a couple of bonfires, and I could still feel the magic of the wards, and I was sure Karen was seeing it. They were still strong. I wasn’t sure how, but Clarissa had known we were coming, and had set a trap.

  I suggested, “Maybe we should get out of here, and come up with a new plan.”

  But it was too late, the stairwell door opened and security mages ran out. Doors along the hallway were thrown open, and even more filed out, and completely filled the hallway. There must have been… all of them, how many that was I wasn’t sure.

  Lilliana reacted first. She ran forward and started to pummel them around, most just flew off, obviously shielded, some few screamed in pain before they hit one of the walls, or the ceiling, and got knocked out. Many spells came at us, and I took it on the shields the best I could and pulled power as fast as I could from Malina.

  Karen was on the defensive as well, capturing spells with reversals and taking them out the mages one at a time, but there were so many. If it wasn’t for Lilliana going crazy and treating them like bowling pins, we’d probably be dead already.

  Then, of course it had to get even worse, Clarissa attacked us from behind through the council room wards which according to the plan should have been down by now.

  We were fucked, nothing had gone right, and I felt my spells failing from the two pronged assault. Karen and Lilliana could only do so much.

  We were dead, it was a matter of moments.

  Malina’s voice was surprisingly calm, “Close your eyes. See you soon lover.”

  Of course, I looked instead of closing my eyes like a dumb fuck.

  Her body started to glow with a bright white light, and I saw wings. Beautiful shining white wings that stretched almost the full length of the hallway. Tears came to my eyes and I shut them, she was getting too bright. I felt her infernal magic reach out like a tidal wave.

  Me powerful? Karen powerful?

  I didn’t even understand what true power was, not until that moment.

  The hallway was filled with screams as the security mages were no doubt being blinded as badly as I was, but at the same time they were still being pummeled by a pissed off and desperate Lilliana.

  No, Malina said killing others was a last resort, and those mages weren’t the true danger, although they were formidable.

  All of Malina’s power went out like a tidal wave, and rolled over the mage’s wards, drowning them in her own power, and then she pulled it all back, and took the mages magic with her own. The wards blinked out.

  A moment later the bright light blinked out as well, and I opened my eyes only to find Malina was gone, and where she had stood was a black spot on the ground, the waves of heat rising from it were so hot they were visible, like looking through the exhaust of a jet engine, creating the illusion the wall behind it was wavering.

  I grabbed Karen’s hand, turned, and kicked in the fucking door to the council room. That bitch needed to die now.

  Karen said, “I’m too low, we have to get out of here.”

  I said, “Fuck that, defend with me, they get to die the hard way now.”

  I knew it was insane, Malina would be back tomorrow, when I called her back from hell, if I was alive to do so that is. But I was too pissed off to run now. She’d immolated herself to save me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let it be for nothing.

  Karen opened her mouth to ask how, but I held up my hand, Krystal was already a sword in my hand, a blade of Onyx. Krystal’s breathy voice was excited as she whispered sweet nothings of death and blood in my mind, and for the first time I wasn’t even slightly disturbed by it. I figured the old girl deserved an orgasm or two… or maybe nine…

  Chapter 36

  Karen looked up into his burning eyes.

  She not only thought she was crazy, but apparently she was damaged too, not right in the head, because instead of being scared by his intense anger and the incredible danger they were in, she was getting more than a little wet. This so wasn’t the time for that.

  She finally nodded in agreement, “I have enough magic for defense, that sword can get passed their shields?”

  He nodded grimly, “Their physical shield might cause a brief delay, but as you taught me, those shields are the hardest to maintain and eat up power, and Krystal has magic of her own.”

  She followed him through the doors, taking a quick look back into the hallway. Lilliana seemed to be holding her own just fine. She was moving so fast the mages were having trouble hitting her, and quite often hit one of their own as she dodged and struck from among them. She was glad to see the vampire was showing restraint, just punching and throwing until their shields failed and they were knocked out.

  Karen didn’t want to start her first day with a massacre, killing the council and declaring herself as ruler would be hard enough for mage society to swallow.

  She held his left hand tightly as they moved into the room, the council was in the center of the room away from their dais and long table that they usually sat behind, and had formed a circle of nine mages. They grimly moved straight toward Clarissa.

  She decided Clarissa must have been frightened by the look of implacable anger on Shawn’s face, because she panicked. Instead of a spell casting duel, Clarissa gathered the power of all nine there, and used her inherent ability of fire, and shot it at them as she screamed.

  “Die traitor!”

  Traitor? Perhaps of the council, but the council had betrayed their own people. The accusation rolled off her back and found no hold in her mind.

  They had another problem though.

  Shawn stopped, and struggled as he fed just one shield, the spell shield against fire, with all the power he could muster. There was no spell for her to counter since it was inherent magic, so she wasn’t sure what to do. Her skin felt hot as they heated up, and she knew they would slowly burn to death if she didn’t do something fast.

  She couldn’t defend, so she attacked instead, not really being able to see her targets. She got an idea and chose air, and cast a double spell that started to blow some of the fire back into Clarissa’s face, though not nearly all of it.

  But enough it seemed, to make the difference.

  Shawn’s shield stabilized, and she kept up the double spell as he once more started walking forward. She had no idea how he knew where he was going, all her mage sight could see was the magical fire, and his shields which wrapped around them both. She knew warlocks detected magic in a different way, so she trusted he knew what he was doing.

  Then he struck with the sword, once, twice, and a third time right into the fire. The third time the sword kept going as he extended his arm, and the flames cut off like a spigot had been closed.

  Clarissa screamed in a way that just might haunt her dreams forever, as her life force was drained into Krystal. She shuddered, that was one scary sword.

  The rest of the council were almost defenseless at the shock of being circled with someone being drained of their life. She wondered for a moment if the sword was draining them all of life through that connection somehow. She decided to use her inherent ability, and raised them with fire. It was horrible, the way they went up in flames, their blackened bodies falling to the ground, completely absent of life.

  It was horrible, but she knew it was a mercy compared to what the love of her life had planned for them. Clarissa’s scream finally cut off, and Shawn kicked her off his sword. Clarissa’s blood just… ran off the sword, as if it couldn’t find purchase, and then Krystal morphed, shrunk, and turned into the ring he always wore. She shuddered.

  They turned without a word and went back toward the doors.

  She yelled, “Enough, stand down. The council is dead.”

  They all stopped, and Lilliana looked a little beat up, but over half the mages were on the ground. Really it was embarrassing, she’d have to increase their training regimen. To be fair, Lilliana had Shawn’s magic protecting her the whole time… which made a huge difference.

  She looked around and sighed, she had a lot of work to do. But first, she had something else to do. She pulled down Shawn into a hot kiss.

  “Now we just have to get married,” she whispered in his ear, a smile pulling at her lips because of the secret she’d been keeping from him.

  Shawn raised an eyebrow but was smiling now, all the anger gone, “Aren’t you forgetting something? A small detail perhaps?”

  She smiled mysteriously and whispered in his ear, “Haven’t forgotten a thing, I removed that spell days ago… I decided I couldn’t wait anymore.”

  She smiled wider as understanding lit his face… She couldn’t wait to see how he’d respond when he found out it was a girl. Well, they could always have another, even if it wasn’t part of the pact. Actually, she was kind of counting on it, and had no plans to ever let him get away.

  Epilogue

  The last twenty-four hours had been insane. I’d stayed by her side as she took over the mages, for some reason not one of them protested.

  Karen hadn’t wasted any time, she declared herself high councilor, threw out all the laws made in the last thirty years, and declared a tournament to start immediately at dawn, the winners to take the other eight council positions. She also declared that once that was completed, she was subject to the laws and could be challenged for her position, as it should be.