Chapter One - Joseph
The room was dark as I opened my eyes slightly, my magical ward alarm going off evoked a mix of bitter disappointment laced with contempt in my chest as I looked over to my bookshelf. Diaphanous wards and spells, lesser wards, the secret mage craft of the Moore line of mages was something that freaked out most of the mages in Seattle, and also stirred their jealousy and ambition.
Kelly, a water mage that I’d been dating for two weeks now, stood there with one of my spell books in her greedy hands. This was the first time I’d invited her over to spend the night, and she’d screwed me unconscious with passionate exuberance. All apparently, to get her hands on the coveted magic. That was the source of disappointment, I’d really liked her. She’d lied to me very well with her lovely eyes, her sumptuous body, and her sweet tone of voice. Far too well.
The contempt was for myself, I couldn’t believe I was so easily taken in by the whore. Perhaps a harsh word for the cute petite blonde bombshell, but what else was I supposed to call a woman that seduced me and fucked me for my family’s secrets. By definition, she whored herself to me for profit. The contempt of course, was deeper than that, because she was hardly the first female mage to try this.
She really was beautiful, especially with the moonlight through the window, making her light blonde hair glow with a soft silken light, and her curvaceous and alluring silhouette almost made me consider trying to get her back into the bed for another round. Almost. She’d been… fit, nubile, and knew how to please a man.
I’d been falling for her, I’d thought she was different than the rest.
She squeaked alarmingly, as the spell kicked in and she fell asleep. With a thought, I gently caught her body with levitation before it hit the ground. I was angry, but I wasn’t petty. Partition, Telekinesis, Levitation, protection from the four elements, as well as protection from general magic, diaphanous magic, and physical, were the spells I always kept active. I also had a few diaphanous spells of my own making, which bypassed the usual ways of dueling, which is why the sons and daughters of Andrew and Samantha Moore were so feared.
The spells themselves simply mimicked our opponent’s magic, and slowly seeped through the protections by tracing the targets magic and mimicking its signature. I imagine she’d had about ten to fifteen seconds to look through my spell book, and even if she had managed to learn something from its pages, there were no secrets there.
I wasn’t an idiot to leave the family’s secrets out into the open. The spell texts I had up there were from my apprentice years under my mother, my own journals, and basic stuff every mage already knows. Let’s just say that bookshelf was bait, to weed out the mage females that wanted my magic, and not me. Shockingly, that turned out to be all of them, so far, with a few exceptions.
My true spell book was a medallion and not a book at all, and firmly set around my neck. My father was a warlock, and had volunteered to make me a demon spell book. I couldn’t do it, since mages can’t command demons, but in essence all it was, was an enslaved demon to a book. The demon could display any book it read on the pages, and even pull out references from other books. It was basically a magical kindle, except smart. It had sounded like a cool idea, but I’d modified it to, in my opinion, make it even cooler. Why did we need the book? I had him put the demon in an amulet, and had her read all the books for knowledge, but then added my own twist to it, and when I asked for displayed pages it would create an illusionary hologram of the pages or book I asked for. It was also secure, no one but me or my father could command the demon Kiri, and since there was no actual book, no mage would ever think I wore an entire library on my neck. Her real name was much longer, Enkiriliese, I called her Kiri for short.
I muttered a spell, and conjured her clothing back on her body, then sighed and got up and got dressed. Better to use magic, then touch her unconscious body. Never mind the fact she’d just slept with me, I didn’t want to touch her again, and it would have felt wrong with her unconscious.
“Damn it Kelly, I really liked you,” I said to the sleeping blonde, not that I’d have admitted to her face how successful she’d been. My chest was tight, and I felt angry, but also resigned at the same time.
I pulled on a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt that were on the floor, and then cast a spell to clean up my sticky body and the suspect clothes at the same time. Being a mage could be useful at times. I grabbed her purse, and plopped it on her back, like a shelf. I opened the door, and used telekinesis to push her out of the room and toward the elevator. I was nineteen, and still lived at home. My older brother Jason had moved out almost two years ago now, and I was thinking it was time for me too. Maybe I should give Chicago a try?
There was an impeccably dressed man in a suit at the elevator, and I stopped.
“I can take it from here sir.”
Well… that was embarrassing. One of my father’s demons, which meant Lilith knew this was coming and had set up a ride home for her? Whatever. She could have warned me ahead of time, but then again, a greater succubus wouldn’t have ruined a night of sex for me, even if I was one of her sons. Sort of. I had six mothers, Samantha of course was my birth mother, and all the rest were… step mothers? We didn’t really do the step, or half crap in my family though, they were all my mothers, and my brothers and sisters were just that, it didn’t matter which of my father’s mates had them.
“Make sure she gets there safely.”
He looked affronted, “Of course, sir.”
I snorted, and then turned around to head back to my room. Affronted? The demon was just acting of course. Fallen angels could feel regret, love, empathy, and more, as well as hate and destroy, but true demons of the pit had no redeeming characteristics at all, except perhaps being excellent actors. They were all anger, hate, rage, and destruction. I also knew Kelly would be fine, my father wouldn’t make a mistake when binding demons, and if he did Lilith would tell him. Point was, that was why I didn’t feel bad about Kiri being my slave, in fact I was pretty sure she liked being my sentient kindle, it meant she wasn’t in the infernal plane anymore. Demons could feel pain after all, and she was one of the weaker breeds. I’m sure her time in the infernal plane was rather hellish, literally I suppose.
Maybe it was cold getting rid of Kelly while she was unconscious, but it was better this way. I was pissed she used me, she’d be pissed she put out and didn’t get what she wanted, and then do something stupid like try to say it was my fault, or worse, lie and say she was just curious and hadn’t meant to, so she’d get another shot at it. It was just better this way, if she was smart, she wouldn’t call.
She’d wake up at home, in bed safe and sound.
Damn, I’d really liked that one.
She’d been fun, sweet, and flirty in an innocent way. Maybe innocent wasn’t the right word, but there’d been no crude innuendos or heavy-handed seduction. A lady outside the bedroom, and as I’d found out earlier that night, a wild thing in the bedroom. Was it all a lie? An artful presentation? Or were only her intentions a lie?
I supposed in the end, it didn’t matter. Whatever was true or not, she’d also whored herself out for knowledge. Typical mage, only interested in power, led by her ambition. Had she even seen me?
I stripped my clothes back off, and then cast another spell to clean the sheets. No wet spot, and no sweet sexy scent to deepen my regrets, as I got back into the bed and tried to get back to sleep.