“It’s obvious we’re too late, the warlock must have summoned his patron and received his powers. Where going to need a lot more than twelve if we are to get in safely, and take out the target before he learns too much. It wouldn’t’ hurt to have some shifters and vamps either.”

  She thought it wouldn’t hurt to have a fae either, but the fae really didn’t give a shit about the other races. They were insular, and mostly not in the city except a few entertainment clubs that they used to feed off the human population. She knew the sole reason Elissa even bothered to come to council was merely to make sure the other races wouldn’t do anything that would harm the fae.

  He snorted, “Why would we need them? We’re great together, although I think we could be greater.”

  She rolled her eyes, but kept the anger out of her voice, Brandon was an earth mage, earth mages were usually solid individuals who were calm and dependable. Somehow she got partnered with the only one that was a perverted sleaze ball. It hadn’t been his most blatant innuendo to date, but his tone of voice made it obvious what he’d meant by the word greater. Of course, she was a fire mage, her anger was both her greatest strength and greatest weakness, she needed to keep control of herself, always.

  All mages were aligned with an element, they could access that element directly, but besides her ability to manipulate and create fire, elemental fire was also the source of magic that she drew on to power her spells.

  “It’s more than a baby warlock behind those wards, there’s a demon and his pet vampire as well. The vampire will fight to the death, and the demoness can’t be killed, all we can do is destroy her body and send her home temporarily until she builds a new one.”

  Brandon shook his head, “I’m not afraid of a fang, or a spiritual slut.”

  He was an idiot, she just hoped he got himself killed, and not her and the rest of their team. She went back to studying the protections.

  She said as calmly as possible, “Our best bet is to open the protections on a wall of the house, the protections are too well made on the doors and windows, and the backlash of power might just burn us out, if not kill us outright if we aren’t careful. Once a part of the wall is uncovered, we can pass through the wall, if there’s nothing else behind it I mean.”

  Brandon assigned four of the mages to watch from the four corners, and cast a detection circle around the house, so they would know if anyone fled while the rest of them, her, Brandon, and six others could invade the house.

  She sighed, at least he wasn’t truly incompetent, just a perverted braggart. She didn’t even know why he was trying for her so badly. She wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t beautiful either. She had a willowy graceful body, but in her opinion, her tits were way too small, and while her face could be called pixyish, or cute, she would never be called beautiful. Her long blue-black hair, and green eyes were probably her best attributes, and the best her body could be called is graceful.

  She was also very limber, but she was sure he’d never find that out.

  Still, she supposed she had a heartbeat, so met his criteria in the opposite sex. She knew she was being overly critical of herself, she was attractive, she just wasn’t someone who drew looks when she entered a room. Mostly, she just wished he would leave her alone, or maybe die.

  Preferably, that second one.

  The eight of them found a spot on the house that didn’t look as secure as the other areas, and she wondered if it was a trap. They formed a circle, joining all their power, and she reluctantly passed control to Brandon. She had to admit, he could cast pretty damn well as he effortlessly controlled the flow of power from the other seven in the circle, and cast a complicated spell for dispelling magic at that section of the wall.

  There was an immediate backlash of power too large to resist, even for all eight of them to channel safely. The backlash attempted to burn out their minds, but Brandon muttered a few words and grounded that energy, feeding it directly to his element. Without needing to filter and absorb the magic, he didn’t need to channel it through him, but simply redirected the raw energy into the ground. Like a power sink, or lightning rod.

  He turned towards her as he released the circle’s energy and winked. He smirked arrogantly, casted a shadow spell, and stepped through the wall. She took a quick look to make sure there were no more hidden surprises with her mage sight, and then followed, the security mages following behind. It was immediately apparent that they’re target was no longer here, it was also obvious there was so much magic in here it would be very hard to find out exactly how and where they had escaped too.

  She frowned, “It could take days.”

  Brandon shook his head, “Hours certainly, but it’s almost a foregone conclusion they went through an escape tunnel, and that means the basement. We hardly need to search the ground, second, and third floors. Unless you think we should check all the bedrooms upstairs… just in case?”

  She ignored his pathetic attempt at flirting and nodded, “Good point, well let’s get too it then.”

  Chapter 7

  For some reason when she said she was going to fuck me unconscious, I’d thought she was joking. It was about three hours after that comment and apparently sex demons don’t joke about sex, ever. They also don’t ever get sated as far as I could tell, she looked as fresh as ever as her body came tightly around me from above for I don’t know the number of times. I’ve cum about eight times, and I felt drained, and very satisfied, yet I was still as hard as a rock. I didn’t think it was possible for me to go down at all inside the heaven of Malina’s sex.

  Lilliana had already checked out, she was splayed out and unconscious next to us, clearly sated and wiped out, her body was still jumping every once in a while in aftershocks of pleasure and she’d whimper my name in her sleep each time.

  I felt my balls start to tingle again, the intense pleasure of the wet silky soft tight friction as she bounced on my cock was just too good. Not to mention watching the lust and desire in her eyes, and hearing the soft moans of ecstasy that left her slightly parted lips, or her large firm breasts bouncing each time our bodies met.

  I couldn’t even thrust up to meet her anymore, my muscles and the rest of my body felt like mush, except my manhood, which seemed willing to go on forever. Malina didn’t seem to mind doing all the work at this late stage. I watched as she mauled her own breasts, and then pulled one up to her mouth and sucked on the nipple as she looked down at me intensely, her moans of pleasure were muted by her soft succulent flesh as she came again around me. All of that pushed me over the edge, and I exploded in rapturous mindless pleasure once again into her perfect flesh…

  I woke up to a soft kiss on my lips, Malina had a naughty smile on her face.

  “You’re in pretty good shape,” she said smugly, as if that were her doing.

  I wrapped my arms around her and she sighed in contentment, I was snuggling, with a demoness.

  She laughed, “Yes, you are lover. I can be sated by the way, if I allow it. I’ve been using magic to restore myself however, we won’t do this every single time, in fact, I feel pretty sated myself right now after that last one.”

  I smiled, “That’s good Lina.”

  She frowned, “What makes you say that?”

  I shrugged, “If you couldn’t be sated, that would make sex almost torturous, to always want more without end. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, least of all you.”

  Malina smiled like the cat that got the cream and her voice was sultry and trilling, “Oh lover, you are a rare one aren’t you, concerns for a demoness? You should get started on the book, I suggest you concentrate on the protective wards in your house that the amulet connects you to. Learn what they can do besides their default behavior, since you already have a basic offensive weapon and shield. After that, you can learn other spells, and how to make deals and pacts. Every deal and pact your family has made is recorded in that book, so don’t reinvent the wheel, research.”

  I sighed, “What’s the endgame here to get the target off of my back, how will retaking the mansion end anything, won’t it just escalate Clarissa’s response?”

  Malina shook her head, “You’ll always have a target on your back, but it’s a matter of diminishing returns. Clarissa isn’t stupid, or blind, when the cost in life gets too high to take you in the mansion, you’ll have a place of safety to retreat to, and they’ll try and target you only when you leave. She leads the mages with an iron hand, but even she must be wary of asking too many to place themselves on the sacrificial altar of your death, the mages would balk, and she would be removed.

  “Eventually you’ll be strong enough to either make her stop, or kill her. I wouldn’t advise trying it until you have at least a truce with the vampires and wolves to keep them out of it, and a few children around to inherit.”

  I frowned, “So I need to dodge assassins for the next twenty years?”

  Malina grinned, “Probably, at the very least. Don’t sound so down, it’ll be fun. You’ll have the two of us to help protect you, as long as you don’t do anything stupid, like send us away, or ignore our advice.”

  I started laughing, I couldn’t help it. This was insane. I glanced over at Lilliana, and back up at Malina, it also had its compensations. I was surprised I wasn’t a wreck right now, but I was taking it all pretty well. I’d always been pragmatic, but I wondered if I was getting a little magical help to keep calm. Honestly, the last few hours since I’d met Ben had been a runaway train, I wondered how well it would settle when I had time to think and take stock.

  I was freshly showered, and eating some food at the kitchen table. The tunnel had led to a small two-bedroom house that was nicely appointed, but nothing indicated anything more than middle class wealth. I had the book out and was studying.

  Sal was not only a master reference librarian, he was a translator and teacher. I’d have to learn Latin at some point, but the book could help me with that too. I should be looking at wards, but I was curious about the whole spread my seed idea. Why not just get a wife and family? That was the normal way to do things. What I learned quite quickly is it had been tried by others in my family, in the past, and without fail it never turned out good.

  Either enemies had assassinated the family’s heirs, or the wife left because her husband never aged, and she couldn’t deal with the connection her husband had with Lilliana and Malina. Which was completely fair. Others tried a third course, to make a pact or deal to keep the wife young and fit, but that created an imbalance in the relationship that again, had always failed in the past.

  No, I’d have to be satisfied with having Malina and Lilliana as my lovers and surrogate family, and look to a more business like connection to sire children. It was also apparent that fear thing I caused in other people had been a part of the spell that bound my magic. At first I thought that was a cruelty, but then I realized it was a blessing. Outside of my two beauties, any relationships I had would have to be short, and mostly professional. That spell had gotten me used to that idea, and had kept it so that I wouldn’t have close friends and family that my enemies could use to get to me once I took my power. It had made me a loner.

  It was harsh, but true.

  I also discovered the only reason Ben had been able to find me with magic, was because my uncle had died, which meant the enchantments he laid had been unravelling. As long as I didn’t leave an obvious trail in the real world, the children I sired should be safe. It sounded so impersonal though, but as I said, I’d have to be satisfied with two personal connections in my world. It could be worse.

  As for myself, the amulet I was wearing did multiple things, one of the enchantments kept me hidden from seers and other spells of seeking, in addition to connecting me to my wards and enchantments. It could also be used as a battery of sorts, holding extra power for me to draw on if I couldn’t channel fast enough through Malina.

  I’d review the actual pacts, and ways to hide trails in the human world later, I really needed to start focusing on the wards, and what Malina suggested.

  It was both simple, and incredibly complex at the same time. There were four general types of wards. Protection, concealment, traps or offensive, and containment.

  Protection wards were similar to containment wards, both wards would stop magic cast against them. The containment wards however just absorbed the magic, they were the most powerful and could take the most punishment because they didn’t transmute the power it absorbed, and just dissipated it. Protection wards were weaker, but were designed to transmute and channel the power through the person being protected.

  The reason containment wards couldn’t be used as protection was because if I absorbed a fireball spell, without transmuting it to power I could safely absorb, it wouldn’t stop it from burning me into a crispy critter. The containment rooms in my basement however, wouldn’t care if the walls got a little hot. For one, the stone could handle it a lot better than my flesh and blood body, two, the walls were much larger, which meant the spell energy was a lot more spread out.

  There were protection spells, but using wards was more efficient, since each thing would need to be defined. I could block everything with my inherent shield, but it was an inefficient use of magic at best. A last resort. Unfortunately, my amulet was already being used for several things, and if I wanted protection wards for myself I’d need to research it. It seemed odd to me that there wasn’t already something around to do that, surely my predecessors had such warded jewelry. I’d have to ask Lilliana about it later.

  Concealment wards were just that, it’s part of what the amulet did, hiding me from magic and other spells. It could also be used to hide other wards and traps from magical searches, and even turn something invisible. The last one, the traps or offensive wards, could attack a trespasser automatically, based on certain conditions.

  The wards could hold limited amounts of power, and is what I needed to learn how to manage. I could split my power and reinforce the protection, and increase the attack wards from inside the house, evenly, or give more power to one or the other.

  I could even trigger the attack or trap wards at will, overriding whatever triggers were on them. That right there was a big part of it, and why controlled wards were always better, since I could adjust and change tactics.

  I read on some more, trying to understand how they interacted, and looked for examples of what my ancestors had done in the past with them. That’s when I discovered why personal wards weren’t recommended outside of the concealment from scrying. If my basic shield was overpowered, or a basic protection spell, it would simply fail. When a ward is overpowered, it released a large amount of magic in a catastrophic way for something that was alive.

  Okay, no personal wards of protection for me, I’d stick to buildings. I’d have to study and learn those protective spells after all, just not now.

  “You’re kind of boring, let’s go kill something.”

  I startled, and then thought, “Krystal?”

  “Duh, yes Krystal. Now hold me tight in your big strong firm hands and let’s feast on the blood of our enemies,” she said in a disturbingly sexy voice.

  “Umm, maybe later?” I wasn’t really sure what to say.

  She didn’t respond to that, but I could feel her pouting in the back of my mind. I tried to shake off Krystal’s disconcerting idea of a night on the town, and cleared my thoughts.

  Now that I had a basic understanding of the wards, I could look into the ones specifically on the house, and what was done with them in the past. That’s when the amulet on my chest warmed. I focused my thoughts on it, and apparently I’d run out of time to study, the mages had found the tunnel. I jumped up, grabbed the large book and stuffed it back in my backpack. I lamented the fact that it was too bad it couldn’t be jewelry like my sword, and then ran upstairs.

  I barged in without knocking to let them know, and found Malina and Lilliana in the sixty-nine position, they looked so damned sexy. Then a feeling of lust and need washed over me, and I was harder than diamond in seconds. It was three miles… maybe I had time for one quick dip.

  I shook my head to clear my lust, no I didn’t.

  “Get dressed, time to go ladies.”

  They both glared at me, but complied. Malina was in a dark blue casual crop top that showed the bottom of her breasts if she breathed in too deeply, and a pair of short shorts that made daisy dukes look prim and proper by comparison. Lilliana couldn’t dress in a flash of light, so was wearing what she had on earlier, a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and boots. They both looked fantastic and well fucked, and I felt guilty interrupting their fun, not to mention that I couldn’t join them.

  Fucking cock blocking mages.

  Malina snickered, “Later lover, right now we need to go, there’s a car in the garage.”

  It probably should have bothered me that Malina could read my mind, but it really didn’t for some reason I couldn’t put my finger on. More of that magic probably, keeping me a happy baby warlock. We raced down the stairs and through the kitchen into the attached garage. I hit the garage door button, as soon as it was a few feet up I started to move forward when I sensed something.

  Lilliana cursed, “Fuck!” as she grabbed me by the shirt and tugged me back into the house as the garage was filled with fire. It was an ambush.

  Chapter 8

  Karen’s mage sight started to give her a headache. The wards were incredibly complex, and she couldn’t imagine how long it took to carve them all into the stone. She suspected each generation of Moore warlocks had added more and more protections, concealments, containments, and traps over a very long time.

  For goddess’s sake, there were concealment wards hiding other concealment wards.

  She’d been at it for hours. They’d started in the summoning room, she’d carefully moved one ward at a time, to make sure she didn’t miss anything, while the concealment wards tried to mess with her mind and make her look away. She didn’t think she’d missed anything, but they were almost done with the study in the basement as well, and so far nothing had stood out.