Chapter 58: Practitioner Problems...

Moans and whimpers from across the room awakened him. Alex stirred in the big, luxurious bed, rubbing his eyes and turned to look toward the beautiful sound. Gentle daylight filled the room, mitigated by an overcast morning sky. Taylor was on the couch, her head and arms laid against its plush top. With Taylor's voice so clearly overcome with bliss, Alex had no doubt what his succubus was up to or where she might be.

Alex lay in bed for a moment or two, stretching and listening in appreciation. He used to find the sight of Taylor in someone else's arms depressing, even painful. This was the polar opposite of all that. He could watch Taylor and Lorelei together for hours -- except he'd have a hard time resisting the ever-present option to join in.

Quietly, Alex slipped out of the bed and into the bathroom to freshen up. Taylor didn't even notice. Her eyes were closed, and she was somewhere north of Cloud Nine regardless. He took care of business quickly, making a point of brushing his teeth so as to save everyone from morning breath.

When he came back out, Taylor was still in the same position she'd been before. Stepping around the couch, Alex could see Lorelei kneeling before Taylor with her head buried between the brunette's legs. He wondered with a smirk how long it had been since Lorelei came up for air and if Taylor was even capable at the moment of caring. Probably not, he decided. He doubted there was anything to think of other than those lips and that tongue.

For a moment, Alex wondered about the best way to announce his presence. Figuring Taylor wouldn't notice right away, he knelt next to Lorelei, trailing kisses across her back. Lorelei let out a softly audible purr of acknowledgement, but didn't pull back from Taylor's pussy. Smiling, Alex then shifted up to Taylor, his own hands joining with Lorelei's in caressing the younger woman's legs, flat belly and supple breasts. Taylor stirred just enough to encourage more. When Alex came up to kiss her, she kissed back eagerly.

"No. Not me. Her," Taylor breathed out finally. "Give her some attention. She won't let me."

"As you wish," Alex smiled. He pulled away from Taylor to take up a spot on his knees behind Lorelei. Reading his intentions, Lorelei raised up her hips to present herself to him. Taylor's eyes were wide now as she watched Alex sink that phenomenal cock of his into the other woman from behind.

Taking Lorelei like this yesterday had driven Alex wild, and Lorelei with him. The position had struck a chord for them both. They had reveled in fucking as master and slave before collapsing into a warm, intimate afterglow to share their amazement. Now, however, Alex was slow and steady, not wanting to throw off Lorelei's service of Taylor.

It made some difference, but just the same the two quivered with excitement. Taylor could sense the change. They were both trembling, and while Lorelei kept Taylor ecstatically pinned to the couch with her mouth, the older woman's kiss now vibrated with vocal reactions to her lover. Lorelei's attentions quickened. She was less interested in extending Taylor's pleasures now and much more inclined to bring her to climax. Lorelei slipped a couple of fingers inside her, beckoning her to orgasm while her tongue began a relentless assault of rapid, light brushes against her clit.

Taylor's climax came with an audible gasp of excitement. Her whole body contracted with pleasure as she was set off. Lorelei continued her attentions throughout Taylor's long orgasm, giving the sort of long ride of wonderful spasms and tingles that made everything Taylor had ever felt before last night pale in comparison.

When Taylor's eyes fluttered open again, she found Lorelei's head and shoulders in her lap while Alex thrusted into her from behind with greater force and need. The younger woman was more than happy to accommodate them. It was a wonderful sight; both of her partners seemed to really lose themselves in the moment. Lorelei gasped and moaned with a vulnerability that seemed surprising from someone so controlled and experienced, while Alex drove on with a mix of love and instinctive selfishness on his face. For the moment, he seemed to have forgotten Taylor was even there.

What really blew Taylor's mind, though, happened a few long minutes into this entertaining spectacle. Lorelei's cries of pleasure became ever louder, ever more compelling...and finally became a single, coherent word, over and over again: "Master." Taylor looked on with amazement as the woman in her lap gave herself up to Alex, who took her with a fierceness that Taylor never would have expected from him. It was about the hottest thing Taylor had ever seen. She was torn between the desire to see this go on and on and the building need to see them both get off. The whole spectacle enthralled her, as did the uncontrolled calls of, "Master! Yes! Master!"

They came together. Lorelei was wracked with spasms and whimpers on Taylor's lap while Alex stiffened and flooded her. Lorelei's cries filled the room. He grunted and gasped for a long time, too, but his expression finally softened.

Alex released his selfish grip on Lorelei's hips to gather her into a tender, loving embrace. Lorelei buried her face in the curve between his neck and shoulder while she held him tightly. It seemed as if she might be crying as he stroked her hair and tried to calm his own breathing. "Thank you, master," she whispered. "Thank you."

Wide-eyed and amazed, Taylor breathed, "Holy shit."

His eyes turned up toward hers, and he seemed to blush a bit. "There's...there are some things we really need to tell you," he admitted with a self-conscious grin.

************

"We're not joining your Super-Secret Witches' Club. So fuck off."

"It's not --!" he paused, glancing around quickly at their surroundings in the small bookstore. There weren't exactly a whole lot of other customers, or really any at all, but he was a bit paranoid. "It's not a witches' club," he hissed, "and you should be discreet about such things."

Molly glanced over her shoulder at the bald fellow with the naturally sinister -- well, creepy and nerdy -- face. He was a few inches shorter than her, dressed in a black trench coat over an olive drab dress shirt. The guy openly wore a chain with a pentagram and another with an all-seeing eye symbol, and he had an evil eye tattooed on his neck just over his collar, yet he wanted Molly to be quiet about his club in the middle of an occult bookstore. "This is the third time you've bugged me about this," she said.

"You will not get another offer," he pressed.

"Yeah, bullshit. We won't get another offer 'til the next one. I told you the first time, and you were told again after that: fuck off."

"You're only short-changing yourself. A new order is coming to this city," the little man continued on. He spoke with a quiet urgency, still looking this way and that. "You can be on the inside for it or you can be an outsider when it happens. We are trying to be polite."

"Not listening," Molly shrugged.

"Then at least look at this," the man said. He shoved a color print-out of a picture out in front of him, which left him holding it straight in front of Molly from around her left side.

She glanced down at it, blinked, and then promptly bit her tongue. Then she forced a scowl as she took it. "What is this? A picture from hotchickswithdouchebags.com? I've seen a million of them."

"Bring us anything on the guy circled in the picture or the woman in the sketch and you'll be rewarded."

"Would that get you to go away?"

"The guy's name is Alex. He may be mundane, but it's also possible that he's a Practitioner and we just don't know which Practice yet. The woman is Lorelei. She's...not of this world," he said in a lower voice. "Spewed forth from the Pit."

"Something's gonna be spewed forth from my pit all over your snazzy outfit if you don't back the fuck up. You're making me nauseous. When was the last time you brushed?"

Finally, he snapped. "I'm done being patient. You can rule with the rest of us or you can be food. Your choice."

"Food--? Oh, fuck, are you people involved with them? Jesus. You're bigger pansies than I thought. Go away, I don't want anyone seeing me talking to you." She turned away from him to look at the bookshelves again.

"Fucking cunt," he said, reaching out to grab her, but then he suddenly stopped with the sound of a loud, low smack of a hand on fabric. He let out a high-pitched grunt and jerked bolt upright.

"Leave us alone," Onyx said calmly, clutching his groin from behind, "or you and all your future offspring get to enjoy a soul-burning case of hereditary herpes."

He grunted again, then nodded and made a motion as if to show he was leaving. Onyx released him, standing up her full height as he strode away. She walked after him a moment just to be sure that he'd leave without any further trouble. The clerk at the counter hardly looked up from painting his nails.

"Sorry I picked such a bad time to go to the bathroom," Onyx remarked dryly as she turned back to Molly. Then she frowned with concern at the look on her redheaded lover's face. "What is it?" When Molly showed her the picture of Alex at the house party and the sketch of the woman Onyx had seen at his home, she gasped.

"Their little magic club is looking for them. He said her name's Lorelei and she's from Hell, and that Alex might be a Practitioner."

Onyx shook her head. "No way. Not him. I'm telling you."

"I believe you," Molly shrugged, "but I imagine this is the woman you saw at his place, right? Wouldn't that confirm what we thought?"

"Yeah. Wow. What the hell is going on with him?"

"I didn't want to ask Poindexter out there, but clearly something serious. Though why it would involve those buttmunches out there is beyond me. Maybe she's an escapee from one of their pervy summoning orgies?"

Onyx made a face. "Ugh, you think they really do that?"

"Probably. You don't think a guy like that gets laid without using magic, right? It's either summonings or probably date r*pe sorcery. I'd prefer not to think about the latter."

It didn't make Onyx feel any better. She looked up at her hard-hearted girlfriend with eyes full of apology. "This is such a mess," she frowned. "I'm so sorry."

Molly just grinned. "I can think of other ways for you to apologize."

"I'm serious!" Onyx said, swatting her arm while trying to fight off a smile of her own.

"I am, too. If I can get lingerie shows and breakfast in bed every time you get some from a guy, I might have to find a way to arrange some regular Friday afternoon action for you. You're a lot of fun when you feel guilty."

"You're not going to let me live this down, are you?"

"Onyx, I'm trying. I want you to stop feeling guilty about this. Look, if he's bad news, we'll have to end it, but if there's a chance that things are okay or we can make 'em okay, I'm not going to go back on what I said last week. Remember? You remember the 'what would we do with a penis' conversation?" Molly waited for her to blush, and then shrugged. "Hey, I like him, too. He seems like a nice guy. I don't want to see him eaten by demons. So let's get our shit together and figure out our options, okay?"

After a deep breath, Onyx shrugged. She tossed her head to the bookshelf in front of Molly. "Find what we're looking for?"

"Yeah," Molly said as her grin turned to a frown. "But I didn't want to pull it down in front of that tool that was bugging me. Anyway, it's seventy bucks." She glanced back at Onyx. "Think he's worth it?"

Onyx's mouth twisted to match Molly's expression. She sighed. "I guess that's my budget for going out for the next week." She pulled a large, hard-bound book on demonology from the shelf.

"I kinda like staying in with you lately," Molly said, slipping an arm around Onyx's waist and kissing her lightly on the neck. "Hell, I didn't even want to leave the apartment today." She pulled the book from Onyx's hands. "Early birthday present. I'm buying." She planted another kiss, this one on Onyx's lips.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. But take a look outside while I'm paying up. You've got better eyes."

Onyx strolled over to the front of the store, looking out at Broadway Avenue. The morning rain had lessened to a steady Seattle drizzle. Traffic was light; there wasn't that much activity on Capitol Hill at this hour on a wet Sunday. Onyx and Molly both took it for granted that most of the hill's denizens were still sleeping off their hangovers. With the relative lack of human activity, though, Onyx found it even easier to spot the telltale gloom of very malevolent intent.

"Oh wow," Onyx said as Molly got the book rung up by the clerk. "He's out there with friends. I don't think this is just another try at following us home." She cast a concerned look at Molly. "This is really serious."

Molly took a deep breath and let it out. No getting away from this now. She looked at the clerk. "Hey, have you got a back door here? Out to the alley outside?"

The clerk looked up from under his dreadlocks evenly, glancing over at Onyx and back again. He shook his head. "Not that I can let anyone use. Sorry. Owner's instructions. There's runes all over that door, and it's my ass if it gets opened and something comes out of it."

"You got roof access at least?"

"Got that. But I wouldn't try climbing down."

"No, I've just gotta call some friends," Molly nodded.

"And could we use the back room for like ten minutes?" Onyx said, coming over to them.

"Well that depends on what you're going to use it for," the clerk said. "I heard about the last time you two used it."

Both young women blushed at that, looking at one another guiltily. "Um," Onyx said, trying not to laugh in embarrassment, "very serious occult business here today, sir. We swear."

"Mm-hmm," Molly nodded, choking down her own commentary.

The clerk glanced outside again. It was pretty clear that he understood the score. "I don't need to know what you're up to, then," he shrugged with a very practiced noncommittal tone. "Just remember, this is neutral ground. Whatever you've got going on, you need to save it for the street."