Kane's Fate 5 Chapter 2

I pulled Charlotte into me again as the coffee pot chimed happily behind me, but the promise of caffeine was long forgotten in the presence of a far more addictive substance.

Charlotte smelled like floral perfume, tequila, and the coconut scented hair mask I knew that she liked to use every Sunday, and her bright green eyes danced with anticipation as she looked up at me. I wound my arm around her slight waist and used my other hand to caress her jawline, until my thumb gently tilted her heart shaped face up enough for me to kiss her.

Her plump rose colored lips dutifully opened for me the moment they met my mouth, and she wound her tongue around mine as we kissed against the kitchen counter. She tasted even better than she smelled, and the animalistic thoughts of my fera started to taint my human thoughts.

I wanted to take her, mark her again, possess her… I wanted to coax those unimaginably sexy sounds out of her mouth as I tasted the sweet wetness between her legs that I could already smell in the air around her.

“Wow…” I heard Penny’s suddenly breathless voice coming from somewhere by the couches, and I pulled away from Charlotte’s eager mouth with a wet sucking sound so I could glance across at my newest girlfriend.

The dark-haired seer had been staring longingly as I’d made out in the kitchen with Charlotte, and Demi just giggled to herself when she noticed Penny’s expression.

“I think we should probably get behind the safety of Kane’s bedroom door,” Demi murmured as she pulled Penny up from the couch. “Come on.”

The four of us made our way across the common room and down the corridor, but the familiar buzz of hot electricity had already started to burn at the base of my neck as my desire for the three of them built within me.

We bundled our way through the threshold, and then finally my bedroom door clicked shut behind me.

“Mmm, much better.” Demi slowly walked over and placed a long, lingering kiss on me.

I felt her plump lips smile against my mouth when she felt the low rumble in my chest, and I wound my arms around her tight waist to press closer to her.

Charlotte had already dragged Penny across the room, and Demi pulled away from our kiss as she ran her hand down my arm. She wound her fingers through mine and slowly pulled at me until I started to move away from the door, and I could follow her across the room and to the bed.

“You’re up, Penny,” Demi purred as she sank into the mattress and immediately curled up with Charlotte.

“I am?” Penny asked in a tight voice, and her eyes suddenly found mine.

Her expression was a mixture of excitement and nerves but fueled by the same burning desire that the rest of us felt, and the dark-haired seer slowly climbed to her feet while my other two girlfriends remained on the bed together.

I watched Penny in silence as she approached me, but I made sure to keep my eyes fixed on hers, and she stopped when she was in front of me.

Then she blinked up at me, and I just nodded ever so slightly, barely an inclination of my neck, but she knew what it meant.

Penny’s hands traveled over my shoulders and down my chest, past my stomach, until her fingers could hook into the hem of my shirt. She pulled it off over my head and flung it unceremoniously on the floor somewhere to the left, and then she hooked a thumb into the waistband of my jeans.

My breath hitched in my throat the moment her knuckles grazed the skin of my hip, and the seer looked up at me to fix me with a knowing smirk. Then, suddenly, it was like all of her nerves melted into nothing more than a hungry desire.

She pulled me back toward the bed as her hands quickly grappled with my belt buckle, and he pushed my jeans down far enough so that they fell at my feet.

“God, Kane…” she whispered as her eyes marveled at the sight of rock hard erection, and she gently pushed me down to sit on the edge of the bed.

I couldn’t see Demi and Charlotte behind me, but I could hear their rapid heartbeats and their jagged breathing as they watched us, and I knew they were giving Penny her moment, almost like an induction.

That was even hotter to me, the fact my girls were waiting their turn but eager to see how Penny fared, and my cock twitched at the thought of them all.

Penny dropped fluidly to her knees in front of me and opened my legs so she could position herself between them. She began to softly kiss my naked skin, from the side of my neck right where my pulse jumped, to the dip in my collarbones, across my chest, and down the centerline of my stomach, until her head hovered between my legs.

I could feel her soft breath against my dick, I could sense the wet heat between her own legs, and I resisted the urge to grab her by the hair there and then. I wanted this on her terms.

She ran the show. For now.

Penny ran her hands against my thighs, and then, finally, she ran her tongue across the entire length of my erection in one wet motion, and I felt a moan escape me at her touch. She slowly took me in her mouth and wrapped her plump lips around the tip so I could feel her tongue against the head of my cock, and the sensation made the pit of my stomach swirl and twist in pleasure.

“Oh, fuck… That feels good,” I breathed, and Penny didn’t need telling twice.

“Mmmmm…” She immediately took my entire cock into her mouth, and I groaned again at the wet heat as the tip of my dick hit the back of her throat.

“It looks good, too…” I heard Demi breathe from somewhere behind me.

Penny’s head moved up and down over me, and this time I couldn’t resist winding a hand up into her dark so I could watch her work.

Then I heard the soft wet sounds of kisses behind me, and I knew Demi and Charlotte were just as turned on at the sight of Penny with my dick in her mouth.

“She knows how good you taste,” Charlotte purred as she shifted behind me and pressed her already naked breasts against my back.

The redhead pusher bent down to kiss at my neck as Penny continued to suck my cock, and I could sense Demi touching herself somewhere behind me, and it was all I could do not to unleash my first load down the seer’s throat there and then.

“I’m not the only one that tastes good,” I replied with a growl as Penny’s mouth left my dick with a satisfyingly wet pop.

I pulled the seer up to me and kissed her hungrily, and I twisted her around so she was flush against the bed. She looked up at me with hooded eyes and parted, swollen lips, and I had to just look at her for a moment.

She was gorgeous, with blue eyes that blazed with desire, and I watched as her chest heaved while she caught her breath. I slowly pulled her clothes off her until finally she was naked beneath me, and I brought a hand up to caress one of her breasts as I leaned down to kiss her again.

The dark-haired seer moaned into my mouth, and she instinctively spread her legs a little wider so I could push up against her.

The moment my dick brushed against her soaking wet pussy, she let out a shuddering gasp that was the hottest thing I’d ever heard.

“Oh, she’s so ready for you, Kane,” Charlotte whispered in awe. “Look how wet she is…”

“Fuck her,” Demi muttered. “I wanna watch.”

I stopped kissing Penny for just a brief moment, but I made sure to keep one hand on her perky breasts so I could gently pinch her nipple between my thumb and forefinger. Then, with my other hand, I wrapped my fingers around the back of Demi’s neck and pulled her in for a kiss of her own. Her breath became immediately ragged in her throat as I got a taste of her tongue, but it just wasn’t enough.

“God, I need all of you,” I whispered against Demi’s plump lips.

“Penny first,” Charlotte reminded me softly, and I glanced up to see her on the opposite side of my bed with her legs spread and her hand stroking her clit.

“I’m yours, Kane.” Penny murmured with her hands in my hair, and I squeezed her nipple again to make her jump beneath me. “Take me. Please.”

I ground my hips down at just the right angle so the tip of my cock pushed against the soft folds of Penny’s opening, and she gasped at the feel of my dick against her pussy lips. I slowly slid my entire length inside my newest lover, as deep as I could possibly get myself, and then I stopped there for a second as I bottomed out inside of her.

She’d held her breath up to this point, and when I was fully inside of her, Penny let out a long shuddering groan.

“Does that feel good, baby?” I asked her as Demi and Charlotte continued to watch us.

“Y-Yes…” Penny whimpered and bit her lip. “You feel so good inside of me. So hard and deep inside me…”

She felt good around me, too, and I started to slide in and out of her soft velvety wetness as I gripped the tender skin of her inner thighs. Penny instinctively arched her back up, so every thrust forward, I was forced deeper and deeper inside of her, and I started to pick up the pace as I pounded in and out of her with satisfyingly slick wet sounds. I could feel her tunnel constrict around my cock as we rocked together on the bed, and I buried my head into her voluptuous cleavage as I fucked her.

“O-Oh, Kane…” Penny gasped as her hands wound themselves into my hair, and her legs tightened around my waist. “You’re s-so big, fuck, Kane!”

I could see Demi and Charlotte touching themselves in my peripheral vision, and neither one of them could stop watching the sight of Penny and I fucking in front of them.

“Kaneeeee…” Penny whined my name, and her grip on my hair tightened. “Kane, I… I’m…”

“Are you close for me, baby?” I growled as I continued to roll my hips and slide in and out of her. “Are you gonna cum for me?”

“Oh, make her cum…” Demi cooed from beside us.

“Make her take it,” Charlotte moaned softly with her fingers still on her own pussy.

I felt the sudden spasms within Penny as the tip of my cock found that magic spot deep inside of her, and the seer began to writhe beneath me as I pounded it over and over again.

“Ohhh, f-fuck!” Penny cried out helplessly. “Kane!”

Her head hit the pillow as every muscle in her body tightened, so I instinctively sped up my rhythm, and Penny bucked her hips up toward me as her orgasm finally hit her.

She squeezed against my cock as her juices rushed over me, and I kept thrusting in and out of her even as she came, until she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Oh my fucking god, Kane, fuck, that… T-That feels soooo gooooood!” Penny screamed beneath me as I drew her orgasm out for as long as I possibly could, and she squeezed even tighter around my cock until I felt the swirling pleasure in the pit of my stomach hit its peak.

“Fuck!” I groaned as the tension inside of me finally released, and my load exploded inside of my newest girlfriend.

My orgasm shot hot spurts of my seed deep inside of Penny, and we both gasped and shuddered against the onslaught of pleasure. I collapsed on top of the dark haired seer as I tried to catch my breath, and she wrapped her legs around my waist to hold me there.

“Fuck…” she giggled breathlessly. “That was…”

“Something,” Charlotte finished the sentence for her. “Have we finally found someone who can wear Kane out?”

“Not likely,” I growled as I slid out of Penny’s dripping pussy and pulled Charlotte toward me by the ankle.

The redhead pusher squealed as I yanked at her leg, but the sound dissolved into a giggle by the time my lips found her neck, and eventually a low moan came out of her mouth as I nibbled at her earlobe.

“You want me, too?” Charlotte asked as she spread her legs around me.

“I always want you,” I replied as I continued to kiss her neck. “I wanna taste you…”

“O-Oh…” Charlotte gasped as I pushed a hand between our bodies and explored her chest and stomach until I brushed past her hips and found her leaking wetness.

I slowly slid a finger into my pusher girlfriend as I continued to kiss her, and she shuddered beneath me.

“Oh, you really are ready for me, huh?” I grinned into her lips as I curled my finger inside of her. “Look at how wet you are for me.”

“I’m all yours,” she insisted in a hoarse voice.

“I know…” I promised Charlotte as my lips left hers and went to kiss at her neck again. “I know you are…”

I kissed my way down the pusher’s throat where the heat of her pulse was warm against her skin, across her collarbones and the soft curve of her pert breasts, and I quickly circled my tongue around one of her nipples as a preview of what was to come.

Charlotte gasped as my teeth grazed her nipple, and I let my hands travel down her body so I could push her legs open. Then I kissed my way down past her breasts and over her stomach, until eventually I hovered over her hips.

“Kane…” she whispered hoarsely, and I didn’t reply, just kissed the soft flesh of her inner thigh.

I gently pushed her legs even further apart so her feet ended up planted on the bed on either side of me, and finally I ran my tongue across her sweet wetness.

Charlotte let out a shuddering moan as I lapped up her already leaking juices, and I kept my hands on her thighs as she arched her back into me.

“So hot…” I heard Penny mumble from somewhere above me, and I let out a singular laugh.

The vibration of my chuckle against Charlotte’s pussy made her hands clench into fists, and she gripped onto the bed sheets as I swirled my tongue hungrily around her clitoris. I stopped for a second and lightly sucked, and she almost let out a wail of pleasure.

“Oh!” Charlotte panted. “Oh my god, don’t stop that…”

I carried on sucking and licking at the pusher’s wet clitoris as she ground her hips in the same rhythm, and as her breathing started to become tight little gasps, I could tell she was starting to get close.

“You’re so damn good at that, Kane,” Demi muttered in an approving tone.

I opened my eyes and looked across the bed, still with my tongue inside of Charlotte, and I saw Demi and Penny were still completely naked and curled up on the bed beside us while they stared at me with my head between Charlotte’s legs.

I could feel how much closer Charlotte was, and I swirled and licked my tongue across her until she started to pant helplessly.

“Oh, fuck Kane!” the redhead pusher gasped, and her hands came down to tangle in my hair and press my face deeper into her pussy. “Right there, p-please don’t stop, that feels so good, please Kane, please…”

I held Charlotte’s thighs down with both hands as her orgasm rocked through her body, and she came so hard that she shook and screamed beneath me. I let her ride it out against my face until eventually her hands tugged at my hair, and she pulled me up to her so she could kiss me.

“I do taste good, huh?” She giggled breathlessly as she wound her tongue around mine.

“Yes, you do.” I smirked into her kiss, and then I quickly moved one hand from her leg across to her still quivering pussy.

I edged my middle and index fingers into the soft heat of her and curved the digits upward toward that special spot inside of her, and I chuckled in satisfaction when Charlotte let out a long guttural moan.

“Does that feel good, baby?” I asked her quietly, and she nodded with her eyes clamped shut with pleasure.

“Feels so good…” she groaned. “I need you. Kane, I need you right now.”

I didn’t need telling twice, and I pulled my fingers out of her until I could line the tip of my dick up against the velvet folds of her pussy. I pushed her lips apart and then slowly slid my length inside of her, and Charlotte immediately clamped down around me like a vise.

“Oh, fuck…” I hissed as I started to immediately pound in and out of her. “Fuck, you feel so good, too.”

Charlotte didn’t have any coherent words, just rhythmic gasps and moans as I slipped in and out of her tightness. I couldn’t help myself and picked up speed, and her spasming hole constricted around my cock as we rocked together on the bed sheets. She grappled desperately at my back and wrapped her legs around mine as we pushed and pulled at each other, and I could feel Charlotte’s soaking wet pussy tighten up around me as I found that sweet spot inside of her again. I hit it again and again until Charlotte could only whimper beneath me.

“Fuck, I love it when you tighten up around me, baby,” I growled. “God, it feels so good.”

“Kane, I’m gonna cum!” Charlotte suddenly moaned and threw back her head. “Kane, I… I-- fuck, please…”

“Together,” I commanded in a hoarse voice as her words made my second orgasm start to swirl inside of me. “Oh, fuck… Now!”

My dick erupted deep inside of my redhead pusher girlfriend, and I could feel the hot ripples of my sperm fill her up as Charlotte’s own orgasm rocked through her again. I held her there as my cock continued to empty inside her, and she kissed me between her racked gasps of pleasure.

But I was far from done.

“Demi…” I panted breathlessly as I lifted my head. “Your turn.”

“This is why I like going last to begin with.” Demi smirked as she lifted my head up from between Charlotte’s still heaving breasts. “It’s like you got a point to prove.”

“You want me to prove how well I can fuck you, even after Penny and Charlotte?” I grinned as I slid my dick out of Charlotte’s still pulsating pussy, and a trickle of my seed leaked down into the crack of her ass.

Charlotte giggled as she crawled up the bed toward where Penny was sprawled on the bed sheets.

“You’re gonna wanna watch this,” Charlotte told Penny. “Demi always puts on a show.”

“Damn right.” The shifter grinned.

I leaned back on my knees, with my cock still rock hard and soaking wet, and pulled Demi toward me by her waist. Then I gave her one swift, enticingly hard kiss before I flipped her over so she was on all fours and facing away from me.

“I see what you mean,” Penny murmured as she locked eyes with me, with Demi between us.

I pushed Demi’s knees apart and lined myself up against her, and I could already see how wet she was before I even touched her. The moment the tip of my cock spread her pussy lips apart, she arched her back and groaned into it, and she took every single inch of me until I was completely bottomed out inside of her.

I gripped my shifter girlfriend’s waist as I stretched out her warm, wet pussy, and I let out a long moan as my hips touched the soft flesh of her ass.

“Fuck, Kane…” Demi groaned as she arched her back even higher, and I gripped my fingers into her plump ass cheeks. “Fuck me… Please.”

I didn’t reply with words, I just slid my cock almost all the way out of her before I slammed back into her again. Demi’s soft walls stretched to accommodate every inch of my dick, and she shuddered beneath me with her face pressed into the bed sheets as I gripped onto her ass even harder.

I looked up to see Charlotte and Penny on the bed opposite us, both still naked, both with my juices still spilling out of their pussies, and both with their hands on each other while they watched me fuck Demi.

It was one of the hottest images I’d ever seen, and it just made me pummel in and out of Demi hard enough to make our skin slap together with each thrust.

“Fuck, Kane!” Demi screamed as I slid in and out of her.

“Oh, you’re really stretching her out, Kane…” Penny murmured as she softly circled her clitoris with her middle finger and watched with hungry, hooded eyes.

“Oh my god, Kane, you’re so… So big…” Demi whimpered beneath me with her hands balled up in the bed sheets, and I just pounded into her faster and faster until the sound of her soft moans became loud screams of pleasure.

“You like that?” I growled hungrily.

“Oh, she definitely does,” Charlotte cooed from opposite us. “She looks so good like that.”

“Fill her up, Kane,” Penny said in a low voice as she finally slid one of her own fingers inside of herself, and some of the cum I’d left in her oozed out of her pussy lips like frosting.

I felt the familiar sensation of swirling heat in the pit of my stomach as I watched Penny and Charlotte touch themselves, and as Demi’s perfect pussy tightened and spasmed around my dick, I couldn’t resist giving Demi’s round ass a light smack. It jiggled beneath me with every hard thrust, and my shifter girlfriend’s yelp of pleasure brought my orgasm close to the surface.

“You gonna cum for me, baby?” I snarled as I gripped onto Demi’s tight waist.

“I was waiting for you,” Demi gasped with her face almost flush to the mattress. “I… I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

“That’s hot,” I groaned in a strained voice.

“He’s close…” Charlotte whispered to Penny, and when the dark haired seer locked eyes with me, it was over.

“Yeah, I’m close,” I growled, and then the pleasure washed over me in sudden waves. “Fuck… Now!”

I let out a literal roar as I came and came hard, and my dick exploded deep within Demi’s welcoming pussy. Her legs shook as her own orgasm rippled through her body, and I kept my grip on her caramel colored skin as I filled her up with my sperm.

“Oh my god…” I muttered with a light laugh as I finally softened my grip on Demi’s hips and pulled out of her with a wet pop. More of my seed spilled out of her and onto the sheets, and my fera purred with satisfaction.

“You were right…” Penny said in awe as Demi collapsed beneath me in a fit of endorphin fueled giggles. “That really was something.”

The four of us spent the rest of the night putting Dax’s soundproofing charm to good use, though we thankfully managed to fall asleep in a tangle of naked limbs and rumpled bedding long before the sun started to come up.

I woke up the next morning with a new invigorated sense of purpose, and although it was incredibly difficult not to bundle into the shower together and spend the rest of the new day in bed with my girlfriends, we eventually made it out of the shifter dorms alive.

We met Indira and Auden in the cafeteria, where my first girlfriend was waiting for me with a knowing smile and a large cup of coffee in a takeout cup, and I took the drink from her with a grateful smirk.

“So… Did you guys have fun last night?” she asked innocently, and Auden choked on a bite of his bacon and kept his head down.

“Yes.” Penny grinned. “We did. Lots of fun.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Indira blew our newest pack member a kiss. “What’s on the agenda today, then?”

“Business,” I said firmly as I took a long sip of my coffee. “I wanna do some research, maybe get our hands on some of Mr. Weaver’s books.”

“Library it is, then,” Auden piped up once the conversation had steered away from me making love to my multiple girlfriends. “Let’s go.”

We finished up breakfast, though I made sure we all grabbed another cup of coffee to go, and then we headed across the quad toward the library.

After having a day off, I wanted to soak up as much information as possible. Every time Philo Geralds thought he’d be one step ahead of us, I wanted to make sure we were two steps ahead of him. I’d had enough of his taunting, and even Mr. Weaver himself had called his adversary a know-it-all.

So I wanted to beat Philo at his own game.

We each pulled one of Mr. Weaver’s books from the shelves, settled ourselves at our favorite table in the library, and got to work.

The book I’d chosen was titled Old Gods: The First Harbingers Of Magic, and it was one of Mr. Weaver’s earliest published works. It was a massive tome, with almost a thousand pages and quite sadly no pictures.

I flicked through the index until I saw something that stuck out to me, and I found the chapter marked under the name ‘Frida.’

“And she carved her story into the stars themselves, to warn every magical being across the entirety of time…” I muttered as I read.

“What’s that?” Indira asked as she looked up from her own book with squinted eyes.

“I’m just reading about Frida…” I replied slowly with my eyes still fixated on the words. “About how she forged the runes on the asteroids, so we’d be warned.”

“Across the entirety of time…” Auden quoted. “Does that mean this’ll happen again?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “We know there must’ve been a white tiger before me. Maybe there’ll be another one after me.”

“That’s a depressing thought,” Demi said and then giggled at my raised eyebrow. “Not because there’d be another one like you, that part sounds kinda fun. I just meant how this apparently is always destined to happen.”

“Not necessarily,” Penny suddenly piped up. “My book covers the magic of doppelgangers… I thought it’d be useful, since Philo is always so keen on using that particular charm. But it says something here about how the old gods will always be the old gods.”

“I had a dream that Premier Weaver looked identical to Frida…” I frowned.

“I mean, maybe, but I feel like it might be too much of a coincidence.” Indira said softly and put her hand across mine. “You had both of them on your mind so much, you were haunted by Reid Rivers in your dreams… It’s understandable things got a little jumbled in your subconscious.”

“It felt so real, though.” I sighed. “But I guess, like with literally everything, we need proof. Otherwise, it’s just a theory.”

“A long shot, too.” Charlotte said quietly, and her green eyes were apologetic when they met mine.

“There’s still a possibility,” I insisted. “Even if it’s slight. And it makes me question Mr. Weaver’s relationship with the Premier. What if he knows who she is? What if that’s why he married her in the first place?”

“You think Mr. Weaver also has suspicions that Premier Weaver is the goddess Frida herself?” Auden snickered. “That is definitely far-fetched.”

“Well, he didn’t seem to care too much about getting home to his wife,” I said pointedly. “Just about how much information he’d given up to Philo Geralds.”

“And he was super indifferent toward Seth, too.” Demi pursed her lips.

“That just sounds like typical white collar family stuff.” Penny smirked knowingly. “I see it all the time at my parent’s fundraisers.”

“Wait, you’re white collar?” Demi turned to Penny with a raised eyebrow and the beginnings of her own smirk. “For real?”

“How d’you think they can afford a Malibu beach house?” the dark-haired seer chuckled.

“Oh, I definitely need a wine night with your mom.” Demi grinned.

I let the girls’ conversation descend into appreciation for Penny’s wine cellar and instead continued to flick through the pages of Mr. Weaver’s book. I was intent on finding something that could potentially back my theory.

After a few more pages, and once the conversation had moved onto political fundraisers and how good I’d look in a tuxedo, I came across a particular chapter that somewhat played into my theory.

Mr. Weaver’s book discussed the potential of magical ancestors looking almost identical to their modern day counterparts, and how that particular phenomenon would further strengthen prophecies crafted by seers, and I eagerly pushed the book toward the center of the table just as Auden was telling the group about how his dad gatecrashed one of Penny’s parents’ fundraisers years ago.

“There!” I smacked the open page triumphantly. “Doppelgangers.”

“It does sorta make sense…” Indira admitted as she read the paragraph I had jabbed my index finger toward. “Magical ancestors being identical.”

“If doppelgangers are a phenomenon, like Dean Canmore’s ancestor, do you remember?” I asked eagerly. “Then what’s to say the goddess herself, the first ‘harbinger’ of magic, what’s to say she didn’t form her own doppelganger to live for her?”

“And you think that’s Premier Weaver?” Charlotte furrowed her brow thoughtfully. “You might have a point.”

“Premier Weaver is Frida’s ancestor,” I said firmly. “I’d bet any money on it.”

“Well, we need to figure out a way to prove it,” Indira said with a determined expression. “Hey, is Dax coming back to the school?”

“Why?” Auden asked and cocked his head curiously.

“If there’s any sort of potion or spell or hex, legal or not, that can look past deceptions… Dax’ll know it. Right?” Indira turned to me with an eager smile.

“I’ll text him.” I grinned across at my shift girlfriend. “I love your brain.”

“Just my brain?” Indira pouted.

“Everything.” I blew her a kiss and pulled my cell phone out.

Dax, I quickly started to type the message out. Are you planning on coming back and escaping your parents? We might need your help.

My cell buzzed on the table almost immediately after I’d sent my tattooed friend the text message, and I eagerly opened his reply.

I can do you one better, he retorted. I’m coming back, with Adi in tow. See you in the morning.

“Adi’s coming to Meloria?” Penny asked once I’d relayed the message to the others. “How come?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted with a shrug. “But I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

The day passed with more and more library research until eventually everyone’s bellies started to rumble with hunger, and we finally called it.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out, and by the time I woke up the following morning with either Indira or Charlotte’s face pressed against my neck and my other girlfriends sprawled in a mess on my bed with me, I was eager for Dax to arrive back at the school.

His younger sister, Adi, was perhaps even more eager, though, and she almost barreled me over with a hug when we met them in the quad.

“Woah!” I laughed as I used her momentum to pick her feet up off the ground. “You nearly took me out, Adi.”

“Ahh, I could do that with words.” Adi shrugged as I set her back down, and she whacked me in the shoulder, though her touch felt more like a feather than a sucker punch.

“How come you’re here, Adi?” Penny asked curiously as she gave the teenager a tight hug.

Adi looked every part her brother’s sister in a black high collared dress paired with fishnet pantyhose and clunky leather boots, and she had the same leather choker wrapped around her pale neck.

“I persuaded her to enroll.” Dax smirked smugly as he gave me a one armed hug.

“I chose to enroll,” Adi corrected him with a roll of her heavily smudged eyes. “But he said you guys needed my help?”

“Our help,” Dax corrected his younger sister with a very similar look on his face, and he turned to me with an exasperated sigh as we headed toward the cafeteria to grab coffee. “What do you need?”

I quickly explained what had gone down in his absence, and the research we’d gone through yesterday.

“So, you need a deception potion, focused specifically on that family?” Dax confirmed, and he let out a low whistle. “I mean, it’s doable. I think.”

“You think?” Indira asked.

“He means it’s not exactly legal,” Adi explained matter-of-factly as her brother shrugged. “Not that that’s stopped him before.”

“I’ve tried to steer clear of that line of work, remember?” Dax rolled his eyes as we grabbed our coffee and found a table to sit at. “But… being at Imperium came with such knowledge, and to be honest, it’s helped us out before.”

“You don’t have to justify yourself, Dax,” Indira said with a kind smile. “We know you’re doing it to help us.”

“Please don’t feel bad.” Penny nodded. “It’s for the greater good.”

“Yeah, I know…” Dax sighed. “There’s just one hiccup, though.”

“What is it?” I pressed as I took a sip of coffee.

“To brew a successful deception potion…” Dax began and then petered off in a sigh.

“There’s a certain ingredient even our father can’t stock,” Adi jumped in. “Cursed snowstone, powdered.”

“So, if your father doesn’t stock it…” I sighed. “How are we supposed to get a hold of it?”

“My dad,” Auden suddenly said, and we all turned to him. “Well, my dad himself won’t physically have it, he’s a pusher like me, but… this may come as some surprise, but he has a number of contacts on the black market.”

“That is… No surprise at all.” I chuckled and slapped Auden on the shoulder. “Good plan, though. Let him know we’re coming?”

“I’m not going,” Auden snorted and shook his head. “The less contact I have with my dad, the better. But I’ll still be your man in a chair back here if you need anything.”

“Well, looks like we’re in for another trip to San Francisco,” I told the girls with a smirk.