Warlock 3 Preview Chapters

Chapter

Our walk to the Willowmere grove was slow and stately, befitting the solemn occasion of binding a new witch to our coven.

“Come on, guys, hurry up!” Rachel called from where she was, about twenty feet ahead of us.

She dashed back, grinning, and I could swear I saw little sparks flying off her in the moonlit night.

I shivered. It was late-March — still pretty cold, especially at night, and I didn’t think the ritual robes we carried were going to be very warm. Yeah, we could use a little mana to warm ourselves up, but it was still below freezing some nights.

“Do we really have to do this in these robes and barefoot?” I asked.

We hadn’t had robes when I bound Sam or Cassandra, after all.

“You’ll be fine,” Sam said.

“I just don’t want to lose a toe to frostbite or something,” I muttered.

Sam cocked her head. “You worry about lost toes a lot — are you sure you’re not a foot-guy?”

“I am not a foot-guy,” I stated clearly.

“What’s a foot-guy?” Rachel asked, rushing back to us.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Is it dirty?” Rachel asked. “I haven’t been able to learn about dirty things ever. I want to know all the dirty things!”

Sam pulled the other witch close and whispered in her ear.

“Ew!” Rachel stared at me.

“I’m not!”

“Better not be,” Rachel said. “I’m ticklish and I’d probably kick you in the face.”

“Ticklish?” Sam asked, grinning.

“Eep!” Rachel dashed on ahead of us again.

I chuckled and looked up at the moon.

Waning crescent, the new moon’s Saturday.

Rachel dashed past Sam and I, got behind Cassandra, who was following us, and gave her back a little push.

“Come on!” she said, before rushing past us up the trail again.

I turned to look at Cassandra, who was still rolling her eyes, but she’d closed some of the distance between us and was keeping up.

“Hey,” I whispered. “Is doing this a couple days before the new moon going to be a problem?”

Cassandra cocked her head at me. “You were listening?”

I was a little shocked about that myself, mostly that I actually knew what the moon’s state was. When Cassandra and I had been captured by the Patriarchy, we’d talked about what joining a coven was supposed to have been like for her, and apparently the day after a new moon was super-auspicious, so I was suddenly worried that before the new moon might be a bad time.

“I guess I was — so, is it?”

I wanted Rachel in the coven, but if there was any truth to how the witches felt about the moon’s effect on things, I didn’t want to do this at an inauspicious time.

Cassandra shook her head. “It’s a major standstill, so our intent will drive things even more than usual and offset the actual phase.”

“A major standstill?”

“The moon’s at extreme positions,” Rachel explained, circling us again like a dog herding sheep, then dashing ahead. “It lasts a year or two, but the peak was December!” she called back over her shoulder.

“Extreme?” I asked Cassandra, since Rachel was out of earshot again, down the path to the Grove.

Cassandra shared a look with Sam and they both sighed.

“Every eighteen years the moon reaches the extremes of its orbit — it rises and sets at its most northern and southern points.”

“So is that good or bad?”

“It’s … volatile,” Cassandra said. “Right now it’s close to the equinox — so things are balanced by that, things can go either way from there. So we need to keep a clear intent as to the type of coven we’re building.”

“So the last one of these was eighteen years ago?”

“Eighteen point six,” Rachel said, looping around us again. “The peak was at my birthday!” She stopped in front of Sam and me. “It’s in June — you can get me Banshees’ tickets for next season, since I won’t be able to use the Family box until Grandma can —” Finger quotes. “— ‘forgive me.’”

Rachel dashed off again, but I nearly stumbled, numbers running through my head.

“This thing happens every eighteen and a half years?”

“Point six!” Rachel cried, coming back to grab my hands and get me walking again, before hurrying away. “Hurry up! I’m leaking!”

“She’s talking about mana, right?” I whispered to Sam.

Sam shrugged. “Maybe? It is the first time she’s been allowed to think about sex without worrying about blowing up, so…”

“Great,” Cassandra muttered. “Two fuck monkeys.”

“I am not a monkey.”

“Whatever.”

I was still too stuck on the numbers to worry about Sam and Cassandra sniping at each other about sex.

I’d been born in June — so had Sam. We’d thought that was a funny coincidence, especially since Morgan’s birthday was the day after mine, so all three of us. Now Rachel, too?

“Cassandra? When’s your birthday?”

Considering that Cassandra and I were now bound together for life, it was something I probably should have asked before.

We’d been a little busy.

“June seventeenth, why?”

I slowed again. “We were all born in June? And this whole standstill thing is eighteen and a half years and we’re forming our coven now? Come on — are you telling me there’s no witch-shit around that?”

“That … is a little weird,” Sam said, but Cassandra shook her head.

“Yeah, I was born in June, but I’m older, remember?”

“What day?” Rachel asked skidding to a stop next to us.

“The seventeenth.”

“Huh,” Rachel said. She cocked her head to one side. “Four years before us — too bad you weren’t born in —”

“I was,” Cassandra interrupted her. “My mom … mother…” She glanced at Sam. “Sororix Blake was negotiating with a leyak so she was in Jakarta.”

“Oh,” Rachel said.

“What?” Sam asked.

“She’s a bracket baby.”

Cassandra nodded.

“Oh,” Sam said.

I sighed. “What’s a bracket baby?”

“She was born in the middle of an eclipse season,” Sam said.

I waited, but the girls were silent as we walked on.

“I’m not asking again,” I told Sam. “You know full well I don’t know what that is either and you just want to make me ask again.”

“Hmph.”

Cassandra chuckled. “An eclipse season is when things align so there are both lunar and solar eclipses within a short period of time — I was born between two that month.”

“That’s a big deal?”

Cassandra shrugged. “Not really, they happen a couple times a year someplace — location matters. I was born in Jakarta when both were visible there. Anywhere else and it wouldn’t mean anything at all.”

“So is that —”

“Really?” Rachel demanded, skidding to a halt in front of me. “You’re on your way to mark me and you want to talk about eclipses?”

I blinked at the little witch glaring at me.

“I just thought it’s weird we were all born in June and there’s this standstill thing and —”

Rachel groaned. “Look,” she said, pointing at the sky. “There’s a lot going on up there. Everybody’s got signs and portents and they usually don’t amount to anything.”

I nodded. “Okay, I get it. Sort of like astrology and how —”

I broke off, because there were suddenly six witch-eyes glaring at me and, despite the cold, I was suddenly sweating from the heat of their gaze.

We don’t have enough tails to drop for this! My lizard brain screamed at me. We’re doomed!

“It is not astrology,” Cassandra said.

“Yeah, nothing like astrology,” Sam said, “there’re thousands of years of study around this.”

I was pretty sure astrology had been around for thousands of years, too, but wasn’t about to mention that.

“Okay, okay.” I held up my hands. “I just thought it was weird and wanted to know if it meant something.”

“Everything means something,” Rachel said. “It’s just influence, not set in stone or anything. Like, what day were you born?”

“June fourth, but not for sure — they sort of had to guess.”

Rachel thought for a moment. “Okay, so you were in between the Arietids and Tauric meteor showers, so that should influence you with determination, leadership, and renewal, along with strength, stability, and, um, fertility, but that doesn’t mean you —”

She broke off and stared at me.

“Never mind.”

She spun around and dashed off.

“Come on!”

Chapter

Rachel managed to herd us to the Grove without anyone getting lost.

There was a less-traveled path that branched off the main one and she led us down that to a much smaller clearing about thirty feet from the edge of the main one. This had log benches similar to those that ringed the main Grove, where we’d sat to watch the Samhain ritual last semester, only these had boxes worked out of the wood, complete with wooden lids. Fourteen of the boxes, divided amongst seven benches.

It seemed like there should be more people here for the ceremony, but the girls told me it was more of a Family thing than a friend thing, and we couldn’t invite any of Rachel’s Family. Besides, Rachel seemed to think the idea of being stolen was cool and we shouldn’t have any witnesses to the crime.

Sam pulled one of the lids off and set her robe on the bench beside it — Cassandra and Rachel did the same, then the three girls started undressing while I watched.

“Turn around,” Cassandra told me. “You can’t see Rachel out of her clothes until we’re in the Grove.”

I quickly complied while Rachel giggled.

The lid on the box nearest me came off easily, with just the slightest friction between it and the wood of the box. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised — it wasn’t like the witches were some kind of heathens who’d just dump their clothes on the forest floor while they performed a ritual. The workmanship of the box and bench were really nice, though, something I hadn’t noticed on Samhain, being caught up in seeing my first ritual — and with Sam and Rachel’s budding relationship that had mostly started that night.

I shivered as I stripped my clothes off and hurriedly donned the ritual robe, not that it was going to do anything against the cold, since it was open to the armpit on both sides. A little mana warmed me enough to stop the shivering, but it was still pretty cold out.

“Okay,” I said, when Sam told me it was safe to turn around, adjusting my robe a little — which did absolutely no good, because it was basically two sheets attached at my shoulders. Magistra Hennessy had grumbled a bit when we’d asked her for ritual robes from the school supplies, but she’d handed them over. “What do we do?”

“What do you mean, ‘what do we do?’” Sam asked.

“The whole ritual thing.”

“Well, first of all, it’s not a ritual,” Sam told me. “It’s a plea — we’re not really working magic, just asking the Goddess to bless our coven.” She raised her eyebrows. “And, second, you didn’t learn the ceremony?”

“I … thought you guys would tell me what to do?”

It is disturbing to be glared at by three witches wearing ceremonial robes in the middle of a forest at midnight — it’s the sort of thing that makes you wonder if you’ll make it home untoaded.

“Seriously?” Sam asked. “I literally handed you your Rituals textbook yesterday.”

“I … I thought that was for, you know, something else.”

Robes weren’t used for all rituals, and the book had pictures. Sam liked me to be ready.

“You can get more than one thing out of a book, you know. Did you really think you were just here for your dick?”

“No! I just thought —”

“I don’t think you did, really.”

I huffed at that — it wasn’t like my bindings of Sam and Cassandra had adhered to some orthodox witchery and I’d never seen a binding, so how was I supposed to know?

Cassandra sighed, opening her box and reaching inside. “I know the plea, I’ll type it in my phone and you can read it from that.”

“The high priestess is supposed to make the plea,” Rachel said.

“We don’t have one of those, so Noah will have to do,” Sam said.

“Yeah,” Cassandra said, “we’re a warlock-led coven. He’s the warlock.”

I nodded. “Okay, I guess … type it up and I’ll —” I broke off, thinking — maybe more like feeling, because it didn’t feel right. Something else did. I met Cassandra’s eyes. “It’s you.”

“What’d I do?” she asked, looking nervous.

“We’re a warlock-led coven,” I said, “that means any one of you can act as high priestess for a ritual — it’s got to be the same for a plea, right? Mel said that’s our strength — to be able to pick the best witch for the job.”

“Me?”

I nodded. “You’re the only one of us who showed up knowing the words. I think that means something.”

“But —” Cassandra looked around at the rest of us, but we were all nodding.

“He’s right,” Sam said, then looked at Cassandra seriously. “Cassandra, we might fight each other, but that … it ends when we face someone else, even the Goddess. A coven acts as one.”

Cassandra’s eyes were wide. “You’re sure?”

Sam exchanged a glance with Rachel, then nodded at the path to the Grove. “Lead us out, sister.”

“I … okay.” Cassandra squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Okay. This is a binding, not a formation, so we don’t have to do the whole challenge thing. Samantha, you follow me out, then Rachel, then Noah.” She looked at me. “Remember to go deosil, that’s … never mind, just follow Rachel.” She cleared her throat. “Keep your minds on the intent we want. We’re welcoming Rachel to join us. Think about how much you … care about her, and want her to be happy, and … all that stuff.”

She turned away from us and squared her shoulders again. “Okay, let’s go.”

Cassandra stepped onto the path, then Sam followed. Rachel gave me a grin and went next, then I followed her a few steps later, trying to think only of how much I loved Rachel, wanted her in our coven, and hoping, praying, that I could make her half as happy as I knew she was going to make me.

It would have been easier if I hadn’t also been wondering if the ancient warlocks had arranged to go last just so they could watch all their witches walk in the ceremonial robes, because when the things weren’t clinging, they were flowing open, and —

It is good to be the warlock.

Before I knew it, we’d circled the Grove and arrived back at the path where Cassandra made a turn to enter the clearing and go to the stone altar.

Chapter

The grove itself was a lot warmer than the surrounding forest and campus, and I was able to stop the mana I’d been using to keep myself from shivering.

That had pluses and minuses.

Yeah, I wasn’t shivering, but now that we were all gathered around the altar, all the girls were facing me, and the ritual robes were pretty thin and clingy, so a little chill would have been welcome before I overheated.

“Okay,” Cassandra said. “Everybody touch the altar.”

Sam and Rachel, along with Cassandra, already were, so that was for me. I laid a hand on the smooth, yet slightly irregular, top of the stone.

That was still chilly … and hard. I started to think even a cot in a Patriarchy basement would be more comfortable.

“Now put just a little mana into the stone and think about the Grove’s wards. Not a lot, the Grove itself will power the wards, we’re just waking them up.”

I concentrated on forming just a little of my mana into a stream that flowed down my arm and into the altar. The stone immediately felt warmer and, oddly, not as hard as it had been. It wasn’t soft, but it definitely felt different under my hand.

The Grove’s wards sprang to life and I could sense them at the edges of the clearing, a lot stronger than any of the circles I’d invoked myself in class or at Mel’s.

“Rachel,” Cassandra said, “you should drop your shields now, so Noah doesn’t have to fight through — Crone’s Piles! What the actual hell?”

We all jumped and looked at Cassandra, who I was sure was flushing red at her outburst.

“What?” Rachel asked.

“Sorry, but … but … how the hell is she bigger than me?” Cassandra demanded.

I looked at Rachel. Without her shields up I could see her resonant and it was … bigger than I expected. Not as big as mine, or even Sam’s, but probably twice the size of Cassandra’s Malice resonant and definitely full. Glowing the bright purple of Passion, and looking like an overfull balloon that was about to pop, with more and more of the purple threads being generated every second — and that Passion was binding with … nearly every other type of mana Rachel was generating, stretching her resonant even more.

“I mean … it’s just,” Cassandra stammered, then gestured at me and Sam. “I mean, yeah, you’re some freakish Blackwood warlock or something, and she drank some stupid potion that almost killed us all … but how does she have a resonant bigger than mine? I made four years’ worth of girls here miserable to grow this fucking thing and she hasn’t even had her power for a year!”

“Um … sorry?” Rachel said.

I almost felt sorry for Cassandra. She’d spent so much time and effort belittling the onesies, and now the two whose power she sees exceeded her own. I chuckled.

“No, I’m sorry,” Cassandra said, sighing and shaking her head. “This is your time … I was just surprised.” She frowned. “And confused.”

Rachel smiled. “It’s okay.”

Cassandra sighed. “I can’t believe I’m the smallest of us — I wonder if my Family credit card is still active,” she muttered.

“Check with me before you subscribe,” Sam told her. “I didn’t show you everything I already have an account for.”

“Subscribe to what?” Rachel asked and before I could suggest that this might not be the best time to tell Rachel how porn sites worked, Sam was whispering in her ear and Rachel’s eyes were going wide.

“They have whole websites of dirty-things?” Rachel whispered.

“Have you … not been on the internet before?” I asked.

Yeah, we’d watched spellstick games on her laptop, but how could someone use the internet at all without having a porn site pop up?

“We — the Winthrops, I mean — have a lot of filters on our computers to avoid seeing anything that might … you know —” Rachel put her fingers together then flung them apart. “— boom. I thought it was to keep from seeing R-rated movies and stuff.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Sam said, putting her arm around the other girl and pulling her close. “You have so much to learn."

Rachel grinned, but Cassandra let out a low groan. “Do you really have to corrupt her?”

“Maybe she wants some corruption,” Sam said, squeezing Rachel’s shoulders.

“Girls,” I said, before Sam and Cassandra started arguing about whether Rachel was allowed to watch porn — because that was exactly where the conversation was going.

“Right,” Cassandra said, then shook her head and sighed. “Rachel, you lay down on the altar — you can keep your robe on or off.”

Rachel stripped off her robe immediately and I couldn’t help but stare — hell, she was about to become mine forever, so I was allowed to stare. I could stare at all three of my witches as much as I wanted to.

It is good to be the warlock.

Rachel’s body was slim and athletic, her breasts falling neatly between Sam’s and Cassandra’s in size. Her areola were small and dark, with tiny nubs, and the hair between her legs was dark and straight.

“Am I okay?” Rachel asked, ducking her head.

“Okay? You are —”

Danger! my inner-lizard warned.

“— one of the three sexiest witches I know.”

Rachel grinned.

“Robe off,” Cassandra said, looking at me.

I wondered why Rachel got the choice and I didn’t — maybe because she had to lie down on the stone altar?

Or, I thought seeing where Cassandra was staring and that her Lust generation was in overdrive, she just wants to see me naked.

I grinned at her.

“Shut up,” Cassandra said, but not taking her eyes off me as I pulled the robe over my head.

I heard an audible gulp before I could see the girls again.

“Are they all that big?” Rachel whispered.

“No,” Sam said. “We’re just lucky.”

“That’s lucky?”

“You’ll see.” She looked up at me. “It’s still ugly.”

“Fair.”

“Rachel,” Cassandra said, “now you lay down on the altar.”

“Okay,” Rachel said, drawing it out a bit, then turned her back to the altar, put her hands on the edge, and hopped up to sit.

Now it was my turn to be surprised, because Rachel was ripped. Not body-builder ripped, and just standing it didn’t really show, but when she flexed her arms and abdomen to hop up onto the altar her muscles became clearly defined.

I need to spend more time in the gym, I thought.

“Lay back,” Cassandra said.

Rachel did, and bumped her head on the stone surface.

“Ow.”

“Do you want to put your head on my lap, sweetie?” Sam asked.

Rachel nodded and raised her head up a little. Sam hopped up to sit on the edge of the altar and Rachel laid her head back on Sam’s thigh, reaching back to take one of Sam’s hands in hers. Cassandra moved closer to the altar, reaching tentatively for Rachel’s other hand, and Rachel met her, squeezing her hand lightly and smiling at her.

“Noah, you don’t touch her yet, but repeat what I say along with Rachel and Samantha.”

I nodded.

Cassandra closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then sniffed and frowned. Her brow furrowed and she opened her eyes to look around the clearing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Cassandra shook her head and shrugged. “Nothing, I just … never mind.” She took another deep breath and closed her eyes. “Repeat after me and remember to focus on Rachel and … the stuff I said before.”

She paused briefly, then went on.

“We beseech the Crone, She who guards the threads of life and fate, that Her insight may guide us and bind us together, wisely and as one.

“We call upon the Mother, She who grants life and strength, to bless this gathering and make strong our bond as sisters, coven, and family.

“We invoke the Maiden, closest to our sister, She who dances with the dawn, to fill our hearts with the ever-brightening light of joy.

“We offer up this plea to the Child, She who loves, steadfast, even through discord and strife, that we may know unity and compassion in all those trials yet to come.

“In the name of the Goddess, in all Her aspects, we offer our vow, each to the others. Bless us, bind us, and make us one — sisters eternal, bound by love, under Her grace.

“Eulogēménaí estōmen adelphaí, kai hē agápē hēmōn, hōs hen[1].

“By my Power, by my Grove, and by the Goddess,” Cassandra finished.

We repeated each line along with her, ending with our own oaths.

It seemed kind of exclusionary for the warlocks, I thought, but we were outnumbered.

Cassandra stared at me for a moment and I realized Sam and Rachel were as well.

“You’re supposed to mark me now,” Rachel whispered.

“Oh.” I didn’t ask how I was supposed to know that, it being a solemn occasion and all.

I took a deep breath — I was nervous for some reason.

It’s not like I hadn’t done it before, and rather successfully if Sam’s comments were to be believed, and it wasn’t even like I hadn’t done it with an audience before, a vampire probably being a harsher critic than either Sam or Cassandra would be, but I was still nervous. As I thought about what to start with, I realized none of what I was thinking of would work with Rachel — her Passion resonant was just too full.

With Sam and Cassandra I’d worked up to the marking, getting them, and me, enjoying things before beginning the painful marking process — but Rachel’s resonant was already causing her discomfort.

The bulging, purple thing was already so full that Rachel was wincing even as she looked up at me with anticipation. Anything I did to try and give her any kind of pleasure would probably have the opposite effect at this point.

“Um, Rachel, I think we have to go right to the marking and skip anything else until I’ve drained some of that mana, otherwise —”

“Yes, please, now, quick,” Rachel muttered, nodding.

I nodded too. “Okay, we can do that with just a touch, then, and —” I reached out and laid fingertips on the outside of Rachel’s thigh, but stopped talking. Maybe I had a little bit of Brittany’s Precog going on, but I swear I felt the heat of the glares before I saw them.

Does tangible displeasure travel faster than light?

“What?” I asked. “I just don’t want her to explode or something.”

“Explode?” Cassandra asked.

“It’s a Winthrop-thing,” Sam told her.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes at me. “What is it with you and exploding witches?” She shook her head. “Just so you know, I’m not going to explode over you.”

“That’s not what your old roommate told me,” Sam muttered.

Cassandra gasped.

“I’m just saying,” Sam went on, “she said that time you’re spending in the bathroom over there while Noah and I … do things? A name is called out. Loudly, and often.”

Cassandra groaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Um, guys?” Rachel prompted.

“Right,” Sam said, turning back to me. “Think about it for a second? Witches? Grove? Altar? Symbology?”

“Sex on the altar is a thing?” I asked.

Sam nodded.

“Especially a deflowering during a binding,” Cassandra said.

I nodded, “So —”

“Either drain me or someone’s getting flamed!” Rachel demanded.

Maybe one day I could have sex for the first time with a girl like a normal person? Probably Morgan would like the normal sort of thing? Romantic dinner, flowers, some inappropriate groping in the back row of a movie theater?

I was struck by two things.

First, that I’d become so complacent about binding beautiful witches to me for life that I could whine about how it happened; second … that I’d so thoroughly accepted that Morgan was going to be part of my coven, and … wanted it.

“Bind or burn!” Rachel growled. “Pick one!”

I shook myself, struck by a third thing — that I could possibly have room in my head to think about anything other than having Rachel literally laid out on an altar waiting for me.

I moved closer to the altar, then hesitated. “Do we both have to be on top of the altar?”

Yep, totally normal life where you ask two of your girls how you’re supposed to have sex with a third.

Cassandra shook her head. “Just her — she’s sort of, um, the offering here.”

I nodded and moved to the end of the altar, where Rachel’s knees were hanging over the side. I took a moment there, explosions or not, to run my eyes over her again. Rachel bit her lower lip and gulped, then jumped when I placed my hands lightly on her hips.

“Scoot this way,” I said, guiding her hips to the edge of the altar — I had a feeling I was going to want stability and leverage for this, rather than rolling around on the relatively narrow altar top. The last memory Rachel and I needed from this was rolling off and falling to the forest floor. I’d probably land awkwardly and wind up with a stick up my butt or something.

I moved my hands to caress her sides just a little and Rachel groaned — and not the good kind, either, because my touch set off a flood of mana generation, most of it binding with Passion and heading straight for her already full resonant store.

I cupped Rachel’s cheek with one hand, meeting her eyes.

“I really do lov —”

“Yeah yeah I love you too, put it in already. This hurts.”

I suppressed a chuckle, not that it could have done anything more to harm whatever solemnity the occasion had left, and reached a hand between Rachel’s legs, watching her face.

She gasped as I touched her and I let my fingers examine what I couldn’t see well in the moonlight.

Though I couldn’t imagine Rachel spending the time or mana — not that conserving mana was something she generally had to worry about with her Passion resonant — to use body magic to keep things trimmed down there, her skin was smooth and bare until the sparse triangle of thin, dark hair began just above her slit. Below that patch was smooth skin disrupted only by the faintest groove that hid her depths.

I gently ran a fingertip along that, drawing an indecipherable groan from Rachel.

Yes, I sort of needed to hurry before she exploded, but I also didn’t want to rush and maybe hurt her more. It was her first time, and maybe her first time even thinking about sex, so it might take some effort to get her aroused enough to —

As though my finger had parted some seal, Rachel’s lower lips opened to the pressure and moisture practically gushed over my hand, running down my fingers to cover them as though I’d already reached deep inside her — my fingertip slid along her opening lips and over the little bump above them.

“Grrnngggrrgg,” Rachel groaned.

“Nails, sweetie,” Sam whispered.

“Sorry,” Rachel muttered, adjusting her grip on Sam’s hand.

Now that there was no doubt Rachel was ready — and there certainly hadn’t been any about me being ready, because the sight of Rachel, naked in the moonlight, with Sam and Cassandra in their thin, clinging ritual robes on either side of her, would have made anything less than fully-erect impossible — I gently raised Rachel’s legs and hooked her knees over my shoulders, drawing another gasp and groan from her.

I didn’t even need to reach between my legs, because my cock was already perfectly aligned with her, as though the altar had been designed for just this purpose, and its head slipped inside eagerly with the barest touch.

“Oh,” Rachel breathed.

I agreed. I might have slipped in easily, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t tight — very much the opposite. Rachel’s walls closed around me like she was grabbing me tightly and pulling me into her — wet and slick, but with a grip like she was trying to keep me from escaping her grasp. Not that there’d be any risk of that, because I wanted nothing less than to get every bit of me that I could inside her and never leave.

I paused as I felt resistance, then aligned our resonants and pushed, fully entering her, both physically and magically — slowly, both to ease it for Rachel and to savor the moment.

Rachel winced briefly, then her eyes and mouth went wide.

“Oh,” she breathed, then, “Oh? Oh. Ooooohhhhh.”

I waited for us both to adjust, noticing that, tight as she was, I was able to get fully inside her and the feel of her wrapped around the full length of my cock and pressing firmly against me was incredible. It was that way with Cassandra, too, but there’d been so many other things to think about then that I hadn’t been able to fully enjoy it.

I withdrew just a bit, then pressed forward even more firmly, groaning.

“Oh!”

“Told you we were lucky,” Sam whispered.

Rachel nodded, but winced again, so I readied myself to start drawing off her mana and meet any resistance — I was a little worried about how much mana I was going to have to take in and how Rachel’s Passion resonant might affect things — I’d say it had maybe two or three times the mana either Sam or Cassandra had when I marked them. I knew I could refine and hold it all, that wasn’t the problem, it was that in order to mark her, I’d have to take it all and that would take time. Time in which Rachel would be resisting me and trying to draw it all back. With her having so much more than Cassandra, I figured that meant she’d be fighting me for longer, too, maybe fight harder, even if she didn’t mean to, and I prepared myself for a long struggle.

“Remember to try not to resist,” Sam whispered, echoing my own thoughts. “Unless you want to wind up high priestess.”

Rachel shook her head. “Uh uh. I don’t like telling people what to do.”

“Ready?” I asked.

Rachel nodded and I started slowly drawing on her stored mana, feeling the rush of pleasure that set off in me, tempered by the knowledge that it was going to be painful for her.

Rachel gasped and winced again, but then her eyes widened.

“Oh.” She took a deep breath as I pulled harder. “Oh? Ooohh. Oooooohhhh, yeeeaaahhh!”

Her voice trailed off in a guttural moan and I felt the flow of mana between us change … but not back into Rachel and not more resistance.

Instead, the flow increased, then increased more, flooding me with mana and, for a moment, overwhelming my ability to refine it so that the pressure started becoming painful until I adjusted — then adjusted again, because, as Rachel’s face contorted in a grimace and her body tensed to the point that I had to brace myself to keep her legs from pushing me away, the flow only increased more.

“Oh, Maiden’s moist muffin, take it!” Rachel ripped her hands from Sam’s and Cassandra’s, reaching out to dig her nails into my sides and pull me closer. “Take it! Take it, take it, take it, take it!”

Rachel’s grip on me tightened — her hands and nails on my sides grasped firmer, her pussy tightened around me until I thought I should worry about constricted blood flow, and her resonant gripped me like she wanted us to become one and never separate.

Mana flooded me through our link, rapidly draining from Rachel’s resonant store even as she generated more and more mana to refill it.

“Oh, Goddess, yes!” Rachel screamed as her body tensed once more, then relaxed as she went limp, her eyes closed, and a soft smile formed. “I’ve never been so empty.”

The flow of mana slowed as Rachel’s store emptied. She was still generating just as much as she had been, but I was able to keep up with it now and we’d reached the point where Rachel wasn’t able to resist any more … even if she’d been inclined to at all.

“Empty, empty, empty, empty,” Rachel whispered, head lolling to one side, but with a peaceful smile on her face.

“Rachel,” I whispered, resisting the growing, aching urge in my jaw to bend and mark her as mine. “I’m going to mark you now and it’s —”

“No,” Rachel whined.

“What?”

“Wait.” She took a deep breath and her smile widened. “Empty.”

I shared a quick glance with Cassandra and Sam — the former looking bewildered and the latter shaking with suppressed laughter.

“She’s down to nothing,” Cassandra whispered. “That was the scariest moment of my life — worse than the vampire chasing me, even — how is she grinning?”

Sam shrugged. “She seems happy.”

“Happy,” Rachel muttered. “Empty. Empty-happy. Happy-empty.” Rachel’s mana generation suddenly increased, doubling or more, and it all flowed into me, leaving just the barest bit behind in her. The witch giggled. “I can think about things.”

Rachel’s grin dropped and she straightened her head, eyes opening to stare at me with a frightening intensity. “I can think about things,” she growled.

The witch’s grip on me tightened, everywhere, again, and her hips ground against me as she squirmed on the altar’s top.

“How is she able to even move?” Cassandra whispered. “I couldn’t move at this point — could you move?”

Sam shook her head. “I couldn’t have moved even if Noah hadn’t bound my hands with Command.” She snorted at Cassandra’s look. “Try it sometime — it’s very liberating.”

“I want to try it,” Rachel whispered. “What is it?” Her eyes locked with mine. “I want to try everything.”

Yeah … I was having second thoughts about giving Rachel Lust, no matter what she’d decided, because I wasn’t sure I could survive it. On the other hand, that look made me scared to give her Control, either, because I had a feeling she’d happily use Command on me to try “everything” all in one night. Probably multiple times.

“How about we get you marked first, sweetie?” Sam asked. “Then you can try everything.”

I shot Sam a warning glare as Rachel groaned, “Yeeeaaahhh.”

“Over time,” Sam amended. “Everything over time, not all at once.”

Rachel whined and pouted. “Okay.”

The growing urge to mark her wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it had been with Cassandra, or even Sam, maybe due to Rachel not fighting back at all, but it was time. If Rachel wanted to spend more time in this nearly-drained state, then we could do it later — every day if she wanted.

“It’s going to hurt when I open your resonants,” I told her, “but it’ll be quick.”

Rachel nodded and I worked my jaw, looking down at her breasts and having a sudden fear that I’d fuck it up and mark her in the same place I had Sam instead of mirroring that as Rachel had asked.

“This one,” Sam prompted, pointing at Rachel’s right breast.

She was being snarky, but she’d hit a little close to home, so I said nothing — I just let the marking urge overwhelm me, keeping my eyes fixed on the spot.

Chapter

Rachel screamed.

For me, it was intensely pleasurable — mana poured from me into all three of her resonants, as well as through the hold I had on her breast with my teeth. It was like having multiple, simultaneous, full-body orgasms.

For Rachel, it was different — the marking itself and the refined mana I was pushing back into her Passion store would be pleasurable, but the opening of her two dormant resonants hurt like hell.

The witch under me screamed again, locking her ankles behind my back to pull me closer and her hands found my head to lock it in place against her breast.

I managed to get Rachel’s new resonants to about a tenth the size of her Passion resonant before I stopped. I could tell by how it felt as the mana flowed that any more would have been too much, too fast — sort of like blowing up a balloon and being able to tell by feel that it was close to popping.

Her Passion resonant was now about a quarter full of refined mana, which wouldn’t have as strong an effect on her as what she generated. That should let her balance a little bit by using mostly the mana from her Passion resonant for any magic and leave the other two full to offset it.

I released her breast from my teeth and trailed a couple kisses along the soft flesh before giving her nipple a little lick, since I was there.

Rachel had the smallest nipples of my three witches, but also the hardest. It felt like there was a rock underneath a thin layer of soft flesh, and they must have also been pretty sensitive, because even the light brush of my tongue made her moan and dig her fingers into my scalp, pulling me hard against her.

I obliged by opening my mouth wide and sucking in as much of her breast as I could, running my tongue rapidly over the little nub at its tip.

“Oh, Maiden’s curling toes, yes! What else can you do? Do more!”

I chuckled, which set off another round of moans, followed by more when I started slowly withdrawing and thrusting back into her.

Rachel’s heels started drumming against my ass like she was urging a horse to gallop.

“Faster, faster,” she breathed, huskily.

I picked up my pace, thrusting harder and faster as Rachel’s arousal and pleasure grew, continuing to work on her nipple until I had to finally pull my head back and concentrate on both the rhythm and keeping Rachel in place at the edge of the altar.

I half expected her to complain about my mouth leaving her nipple, but she seemed lost in other sensations.

Rachel’s head was lolling back on Sam’s lap, her eyes half-lidded and lashes fluttering. Little sounds, a sort of “ngh-ngh-ngh” came from her in time with my thrusts.

Her mana generation was astounding — Passion really did bind with nearly everything — and I decided to add our resonants to the mix, pulling mana back into me through all three.

“Ngh ngh ngh!” Rachel’s volume increased as she thrust her hips up to meet mine.

I realized I needed better leverage — and my thrusting had been pushing Rachel gradually back from the very edge of the altar — so I quickly grabbed her hips, pulling her toward me forcefully with the next thrust.

“Ngh ngh ngh!”

I leaned over and put my palms flat on the altar to either side of Rachel’s head, both to keep her in place with pressure against her shoulders and to adjust my angle to what seemed to be working the best — my adjustments had pulled her a little off Sam’s lap so there was room.

The harder thrusts at the new angle seemed to really do it for her, and I could tell Rachel was right on the very edge, so I slid one hand between us for her clit — I couldn’t really rub it, since the energetic thrusting, and copious fluids Rachel was producing, made my fingers slip all over the place, so I settled for trying to keep them in one place and letting our movements do the rubbing.

That was enough to send Rachel over the edge and she tensed under me.

Her lips pulled back from gritted teeth and the muscles of her neck and abdomen stood out, straining.

Yeah, I was going to have to hit the gym more often.

Her legs straining to straighten forced me to pull my hand from between us to brace myself again, but she was too far gone for that to matter and the sounds she was making changed as I pushed her into an orgasm.

“Ngh ngh ngh nom nom nom!”

“Aarggh!” I growled as Rachel turned her head to the side and latched her teeth onto my forearm, biting hard.

“Nnnnooommmm!” Rachel growled around the flesh of my arm.

I wanted to scream and jerk my arm away from her — or maybe shove a thumb up her butt like they say you should do when a dog latches on and won’t let go. I don’t know if that’s true — I just heard it somewhere.

On the other hand, the way Rachel was reacting to everything a thumb in her butt might just make her rip my throat out.

I endured, though, because despite the pain, this was not only Rachel’s binding, not only the first time she’d had sex, but also her first orgasm, and I didn’t want to ruin that … even if she was trying to take a chunk of my flesh to commemorate the occasion. Fuck this up for her, and even if Rachel forgave me, which she almost certainly would, Cassandra and Sam would never let me forget it.

So I clenched my teeth and ignored the pain, keeping up the thrusting rhythm I’d established.

Okay, I didn’t keep going and draw out her orgasm as long as I could have, but we had all night and I was pretty sure I felt blood dripping down my wrist — maybe it was just drool leaking from Rachel’s mouth, but there were a lot of veins and stuff in a wrist. Why take chances?

I shifted my angle again, this time to something better for me, and thrust hard. Rachel groaned a few more times, but her orgasm was winding down and she released my arm, rolling her head back upright looking up at me through half-lidded eyes and with a soft smile curving her lips.

In the moonlight, I couldn’t tell if I really was bleeding, but at least most of the pain was gone and that let me finish. I let out a long, low groan of my own and thrust deep into Rachel, meeting her lidded gaze with my own as I came.

“Fuck have I gotten myself into?” Cassandra murmured.

*

“Will it mark him back?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t think so,” Sam said, examining my forearm in the moonlight. “Probably won’t even scar — just broke the skin a little right there.”

“Hmph,” Rachel snorted.

“You want me to scar?” I asked.

“No,” Rachel said, running a fingertip over the small, brown moles that were forming on her right breast. “It’s just … we all have marks. You should have one too. It’s fair.”

“Scars are a mark,” Sam said. “Just bite him harder next time.”

“No,” I said, using the firm tone I’d decided would be my warlock-in-charge voice. “No more biting.”

“Why not?” Rachel asked. “It felt good to bite something.”

“Yeah,” Cassandra said with a grin. “You bit all of us, why can’t we bite you back?”

“Because I said so,” I said in the same voice, hoping it would work the second time.

“Ooo,” Sam said, taking my arm. “He’s getting bossy. I like it.”

“I don’t,” Cassandra said, “but I do like the idea of biting him.”

“No biting.”

“If I promise not to bite you,” Rachel asked, “can we do the thing again?”

I chuckled. “Which one?”

Rachel’s face grew serious as though she really was pondering it and I struggled not to laugh.

“All of it,” she said finally, nodding. “You can’t do the part that hurt again, so, yeah, all of it. Can we?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised.

Rachel giggled and hurried to the path back to where we’d left our clothes.

“You did good, sister,” Sam said, giving Cassandra a hip nudge before following Rachel … since they were wearing the ritual robes open on the sides, I’m pretty sure she had an ulterior motive, but, still, it seemed like a nice gesture.

“You did,” I echoed, picking up my own robe from where I’d dropped it and brushing it off, hoping there were no dirt stains Magistra Hennessy might comment on if she ever saw me in them. “Thank you.”

Cassandra bit her lip, brow furrowed, but she nodded.

“Come on, guys!” Rachel called.

I chuckled and offered Cassandra my hand so we could go and get dressed, but she wasn’t looking at me, she was staring at the altar. “Cassandra?”

The blonde witch didn’t look up, she was still staring at the altar stone, brow furrowed and running her fingertips over the rock’s top.

“I’ll catch up,” she said. “Okay?”

“Okay, sure,” I said. She and Sam were planning to go upstairs to the cottage’s private rooms for most of the night, anyway, since Rachel and I would be busy downstairs — or maybe back to the dorms, I wasn’t sure what the two had decided.

I followed Sam out of the clearing, finding her about halfway to where we’d left our clothes.

“You know,” Sam whispered, “I don’t remember all the words, but I’ve been to binding ceremonies before.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, and those weren’t the words they used. Not these days, anyway. I think those were older … really old.”

I paused and looked back to the grove. Cassandra was still standing where we’d left her, unmoving.

I shrugged. “Maybe she looked up something different for us? But they sounded like good words to me.”

“Yeah. Yeah, they did.”

[1]. Let us be blessed, sisters and our love, as one.