A modern mage 2, p.23
A Modern Mage 2, page 23
I shrugged. “I’m an open-minded man.”
“I’ll say,” Bonnie said with a giggle. “No wonder you were so desperate to keep me off him, sugar. I don’t know how you stay off him for longer than a day.”
Something stirred down south to remind me that I was still pent up like a rocket. I reached for sweet-and-sour pork. The grease and glistening rice made my stomach growl, and I dug into the takeout with a nod of thanks.
“It’s tough,” Zoe assured her. “But you know how he gets when there’s things to be done. I think part of it was making sure that I didn’t feel embarrassed, too.”
“Well, now that we’ve both broken in the same stallion—”
“Were you followed?” I interrupted.
Zoe grinned at me. “Getting bashful?”
“Operational,” I countered.
“He’s just upset because you cut in before I could finish him off,” Bonnie confided to Zoe in a stage whisper. “I think he’s a bit frustrated.”
My apprentice winced. “Should’ve known. Zeke’s terrible for that.”
“I’m sitting right here.”
Zoe reached over and patted my knee with a mischievous grin.
“We can see you just fine,” she assured me.
“Hey, I’m the professional smart-ass around here.”
My apprentice laughed.
“And I’m your apprentice wise-ass. Let me have this.”
Zoe looked genuinely delighted for us. I didn’t know a lot about women, but I was pretty sure that this new dynamic was the stuff of dreams for most guys. The girls bantered back and forth while I wolfed down the pork.
“—I still don’t know what I’m going to tell Uncle Clark,” Bonnie said. “Or what you’re going to tell your parents. “It’s not weird, we’ve got an understanding?” I don’t think this is what he had in mind when he told me to make a decision.”
“My parents will be fine,” Zoe assured her. “I mean, Dad is going to raise an eyebrow, but they’ll get used to it. Your family’s a bit more old-school.”
Bonnie acknowledged the point with a half-shrug.
“They’ll adjust. They’ll have to.”
Hoo, boy. I hadn’t even thought about that conversation with Clark or Orlando. I forced myself to relax and breathe through the apprehension. The girls were genuinely getting along, even if I’d wound up between the two of them.
I knew better than to question my reality too closely.
A little of Mick’s old Buddhist wisdom jumped unbidden into my mind.
What will be, will be. No point busting a gasket about it.
I dropped the plastic bowl into the trash, found my bag, and dropped to a knee beside my go-bag. I had fresh clothes that hadn’t been claimed by the girls just yet. The stress and the insanity of the day had caught up to my clothes.
“Where are you going?” Zoe asked.
“You can’t smell me from over there?”
Bonnie giggled.
“You’re right, he’s bashful.”
“And frustrated,” my apprentice murmured in a thoughtful tone.
They exchanged a look and my heart did a little backflip.
“We need him operational,” Bonnie noted.
“And thinking clearly,” Zoe agreed.
They both turned to look down at me.
My jeans felt too small all over again.
“How do you feel about a threesome?” Zoe asked Bonnie.
“Sugar, I just got my cherry popped. I’m on all kinds of drugs right now.” The Blonde Bullet’s eyes sparkled. “I need a timeout. But if you’re okay with me watching?”
Was this really happening?
“He’s got enough in the tank for both of us,” my apprentice assured her. “Even charged up like this.” Zoe grinned at me. “I know it’s fucked-up, but you get better the night before we go to war.”
“That so?”
My voice came out way deeper than I’d meant it to.
“Mmm,” Zoe agreed. “And I’ve got a theory why.”
Bonnie finished her pad-thai and put it down on a side table.
“Enlighten me, sugar.”
“Because he’s reminding himself of why he’s got to survive,” Zoe said. “He’s got us to come back to.” She winked at me. “Care to weigh in?”
I considered the thought.
“Sounds like a solid theory,” I admitted.
“Well, like you told me—hypotheses need testing. Let me finish this.”
I straightened up. I didn’t even know why I was trying to talk them out of anything. The new dynamic was alien. Bonnie and Zoe, both in bed with me. No harsh or sarcastic edges on their jokes. Just clean, straightforward, for-my-own-good jibes.
I liked it.
A lot.
“Come here, darlin’,” Bonnie said. “I want to try something.”
I drifted around the bed, and the Blonde Bullet latched onto my jeans. She smirked up at me as she unlatched my belt a second time. The pressure of her hands, the soft kiss against my waistline—it brought me right back to where I’d been ten minutes earlier.
But now we had an audience.
“Look at her, Zeke,” Bonnie said. “Don’t argue, okay? Just play along.”
I tore my eyes off her blonde curls and beguiling blue eyes. Zoe smirked at me, slid up to her feet, and dropped her empty bowl into the trash. Bonnie’s fingers tugged at my jeans. She hooked her fingers into the elastic of my underwear, and freed me a second time.
It was everything I could do just to keep my eyes on my girlfriend.
Zoe slid out of her jacket and laid it over the flat-screen at the other side of the room. Her eyes locked onto me, and her tongue flickered out over her lips. She slid her hands down over her breasts, slowly, and pulled her top up over her belly.
Slowly. Teasingly.
My apprentice shucked herself out of her top, bared her sports bra, and cupped her stacked chest. She squeezed, hard enough to make her tits almost pop out of her underwear, and then slid her hands down to her jeans. She slid the belt out of its loops.
Something warm and wet engulfed the head of my cock.
My body snarled at me. Zoe saw me stiffen in place, and grinned at me. She turned 180 degrees, bent over, and inched her jeans down over her ass. My brain scrambled to keep with Bonnie’s mouth on my shaft and my girlfriend’s striptease. Zoe straightened up with a little giggle. She kicked her feet out of her jeans and paced across the room with a seductive light in her eyes.
“I fucking love when you look at me like that,” Zoe said quietly.
I didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to say anything coherent.
“How do you like her mouth, Zeke? Does she suck you as well as I do?”
Zoe circled behind me, and my eyes dropped instinctively to Bonnie. The Blonde Bullet sucked me slowly and carefully. She didn’t have the same experience as Zoe, but it didn’t matter—her mouth was incredible. The sight of the badass on her elbows and knees, in my shirt, sucking me?
Perfect. Unbelievable.
Zoe’s arms slid around my bare waist and traced lines up my sides.
It tickled and added to the tidal wave of pleasure.
My girlfriend’s breath tickled my ear.
“You’re doing great, Bonnie,” Zoe murmured.
Bonnie moaned around my tip in reply.
“I can feel it. He’s tense, just ready to let it all go.” Zoe’s voice in my ear was a drug all on its own. “Take it slow. I want him to unleash it all on me once you’ve got him ready.”
“Mmmmmpf.”
“Try taking him a little deeper,” Zoe instructed. “Don’t choke, but—”
A snarl ripped up out of my chest. Bonnie took me deeper and sucked harder. She pulled away for a split second, trailed saliva from her lips, and closed her fingers around me. She stroked me slowly, gently, and grinned up at the two of us.
“You taste amazing,” Bonnie said. “I didn’t know if I’d like it, but—”
Zoe slipped up to my side with a smirk, and stroked Bonnie’s blonde hair.
“Deeper,” Zoe murmured. “You can do it.”
Bonnie nodded, opened her mouth again, and Zoe guided her onto my cock again. My knees felt like water, and I fought the urge to just fold up from the intensity of it all. My girlfriend kissed my shoulder beside the bruises Bonnie had left behind. Her free hand found my ass and pushed me a little more firmly into Bonnie’s mouth.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“Getting close?” Zoe breathed.
“Closer,” I managed.
“She looks so fucking hot taking you,” my girlfriend said.
She slid her fingers out of Bonnie’s hair and down the front of her panties. I reached out, grabbed a handful of Zoe’s ass, and pulled her into a hungry kiss. Zoe’s tongue flickered out into my mouth, and she moaned as she played with herself for a few moments.
Bonnie gagged and pulled her mouth off me.
That deep blush had settled over her face again. She spat onto my shaft, and grinned up at the two of us. Zoe pulled away from me and shooed Bonnie away with a wave of her hand. Bonnie rolled over onto her side, and Zoe edged between the bed and my hips.
She pressed her ass hard against me.
“You wanted a show back at the Farm, right?” Zoe challenged Bonnie. “How do you feel about a close-up view?”
Bonnie let out a hungry little moan at the thought. “Show me.”
Zoe pressed her body up against mine. My hands rolled up her sides, latched onto her sports bra, and hauled it up over her head. She barely had time to get her arms up before I got it to her chin. I shoved her shoulders forward. My girlfriend caught herself on her hands and started to pull her panties down.
I slapped her hand away, yanked them to the side, and plunged into her.
Zoe let out a muted shriek as I took her soaking pussy in a single stroke. She was amazingly tight, but she’d taken me before. I fucked into her, all self-control completely out the window.
I’d been teased long enough.
Bonnie propped herself up on an elbow and watched me try to break Zoe in half. The Blonde Bullet slid a hand down over her panties, and she stroked her clit with bright, feverish eyes.
“Take her, darlin’,” Bonnie murmured. “She hasn’t shut up about how much she likes that cock. And now—mmm—I finally get it. Give it to her.”
That Southern drawl, the sight of her touching herself—I was losing my fucking mind. Dreamlike haze wandered into my brain as I grabbed Zoe’s hips and hauled her back onto me with each stroke. Zoe’s cheeks clapped against my hips, and she lost herself on the bedspread. Bonnie’s own sighs of pleasure joined Zoe’s.
Two of them. Mostly-naked. On a bed.
Zoe came fast, faster than she usually did. She dropped her head into the sheets and bit down on something, and an involuntary scream of pleasure touched the air. Her knees gave out, and I shoved her forward so she didn’t hit the carpet.
I mounted her from behind and didn’t stop.
Bonnie twisted up onto her shaking knees, caught the back of my head, and kissed me. She bit down on my lip again, and her hands caressed my shoulders and back. Zoe’s aftershocks kept her moaning and screaming for me, and I barely managed to pull out of her before I came.
Thick ropes of hot whiteness burst free and covered Zoe’s ass and upper back.
Bonnie’s hand dropped to my shaft, and she kept stroking me. The tidal wave of crashing pleasure didn’t stop for at least ten seconds. My knees finally gave out, and I twisted out of the way so I didn’t crush Zoe.
Bonnie detached herself from me with a grin and dropped back onto her ass beside us. Her spine arched up as she brought herself into another orgasm. She didn’t even try to hide the sounds she made.
“Oh, we’re doing this again,” Zoe moaned beside me.
Bonnie finally relaxed. She took a moment to catch her breath, and her head popped up with that familiar grin on her face.
“Sugar, I’ve never agreed with you more in my life.”
The three of us laid there for a minute or two in quiet, contented silence. Something told me that I wasn’t the only one adjusting to the new dynamic. The two of them had banded together to get me off, and they’d enjoyed themselves just as much.
I had to be dreaming.
“Shower,” I said finally.
“You turned him into a caveman,” Bonnie giggled.
“Oonga boonga,” I agreed. “Shower.”
The motel’s shower wasn’t equipped for three people. But we all bundled in anyway. I lost track of who was pressing against me.
I didn’t care. We somehow navigated through it, got everyone clean and warm, and found our way back out into the hotel room. I swept the parking-lot outside again out of pure reflex.
“I’m wide awake,” Bonnie said. “First watch is mine, darlin’.”
“You sure?”
“More than sure.” She dragged a chair over to the corner of the room, faced the door, and set her pistol down on a small table beside a lamp. “Get horizontal.”
“Thanks, Bonnie,” Zoe murmured.
I fell back against the covers. Sleep came quickly.
Zoe woke me up a few hours before dawn. I took my girlfriend’s place beside the door. My girlfriend curled up beside Bonnie on her bed, and the two of them cuddled into each other for warmth. The sight made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside in the best possible way.
I watched the parking lot and let the early hours of the morning pass me by.
I used the time to process everything that I’d been through in the last week. The Order of the Round and the Chicago goons. The raid against the Chosen. The deal that I’d made with the Order of St. Dismas.
And the incoming fight against a completely new strain of supernatural tweaker.
My fear for Gwen hadn’t faded, but I had a handle on it. The spirit was powerful, strong-willed, and I knew that Kaselyn wasn’t the kind of person to oversell just how strong her servants were.
I was still pissed that the angel hadn’t told Gwen about the Squires.
Or me, for that matter. Access to an old organization with this kind of firepower and knowledge could’ve made my life far easier.
Then again, I hadn’t been ready to accept it.
My paranoia had taken a beating when I’d decided to trust the Clarendons. But they’ve proven themselves over and over again. Bonnie had guarded me with her life, and after last night?
I knew that she was a permanent part of the picture.
It hadn’t just been the sex. It’d been the emotional vulnerability, the way she’d held me after I’d told her about my past. The Blonde Bullet had trusted me with her own past and her life enough times to prove she was here to stay.
I’d never been a big believer in fate.
But I’d landed in something incredible. And as much as I hated to admit it, Cassius had a point. I couldn’t just vanish into obscurity and write off the entire exorcist gig. I’d tried, but the nightmares had gotten worse.
I waited until the sun touched the asphalt outside to wake the girls.
They filed through the shower a second time, and I triple-checked the gear that we’d taken from the Squires’s armory. Tommy-gun, check. Silver-tipped rounds, check. Dagger straight out of a medieval castle, check.
I stepped over the wards and went to find the Squires.
Cassius smiled at me as I approached the table setting outside their room.
“I trust you had a restful evening?”
“I don’t know how much rest they let him have,” Margaret murmured.
Her eyes lingered on my neck for a moment. She smiled at me over the rim of a steaming cup of tea. Both of them had brought their pocket-sized tomes, but they’d had the good sense to leave their bladed weapons inside.
“Anything from Father Sandwell?” I asked.
“We’re awaiting their arrival. Unless you know another means of communication?”
I did, but I wasn’t going to tell a pair of sorcerers that I knew the ritual to speed-dial Lazarus. I settled against the wall beside them and let my eyes drift over the street. A small pocket of trucks slid over the main road. My breath misted in the freezing air of the morning.
“The Order are cagey about how they give out information,” I said. “They’ll probably send someone in person with a sealed envelope. You two ready to start slinging magic again?”
“Ready and willing,” Cassius assured me. “We’ve quite the little army between the five of us. Margaret scouted out the city before dawn.”
“Find anything?”
“The Carthaginians may be completely insane, but they are careful,” Margaret replied. “No traces of tainted rituals that I could sense.”
A truck emblazoned with a local plumbing business pulled in off the street. I kept my hands free, thumbs tucked into my pockets. The truck made a beeline for the three of us. It pulled to a halt, and a young guy with a goatee and an easy grin slid out from behind the wheel.
A manila envelope hung from his fingers.
“Hola,” he greeted us. “Got a delivery for a Mr. Ezekiel Coleman. Can any of you tell me where to find him?”
His eyes settled on me with a spark of humor.
“I think I can,” I replied. “Who’s asking?”
“Hermano, I don’t get paid to find people. I’m just a delivery boy.”
He passed the envelope to me, tipped the three of us an informal salute, and left without another word. The truck joined the early-morning traffic, and I turned to the Squires.
“Your room or ours?”
“I think yours would be best,” Cassius said. “Let’s hunt ourselves some Carthaginians.”
24
The girls were ready and waiting.
St. Dismas hadn’t disappointed. The envelope was filled to the brim with drone photos of a small house on the outskirts of Bellingham. Several pages of local reports and observations from observers who knew what to look for came along with the pictures.
“Suspicious buying patterns, likely demonic ritual coordination,” Bonnie read aloud. “Does the Order watch every city for people buying chalk? How do they get this kind of information?”
“Pretty sure they’ve got people in the NSA,” I replied.
