Cassandra- Magic's Hope Read online

  Sure, the borderline rough violent coupling was usually the shortest, but it was also… intense and I loved every second of it. We could be slower and more thorough after dinner. He pulled out slowly, picked me up and placed me in his lap as he sat on the couch.

  I kissed him softly, contentedly, “Hi.”

  He smiled back, “You’re amazing.”

  I blushed, “You’re not so bad yourself. Just wait until later.”

  He crunched his face confused.

  I snickered, “Well, you didn’t do a very thorough job of punishing me,” I said sultrily

  His eyes widened, “Anal?”

  I raised an eyebrow and leaned into him and whispered in his ear in a sexy voice, “Only if you can manage to hold me down long enough to get it in.”

  I felt his body respond to my voice, and suggestion, quite strongly. He picked me up and carried me toward the bedroom as I giggled and tried to squirm away. I wondered why he even bothered moving us, and then remembered the lube was in the night table drawer. Maybe it wouldn’t be after dinner at all…

  The chicken was good despite being a little overcooked. We were both eating naked, since he didn’t want to go home and change, and we both needed a shower before leaving for the bar concert. I was still flying high on endorphins from all the blissful releases I’d just endured, he did manage to hold me down long enough, not that I tried all that hard to get away. It was uncommon for a normal woman to be able to orgasm so hard from sex that way, but I was a succubus and the rules were different.

  Despite that, we didn’t do that all that often, just when he really wanted to, which was rarer than most would believe considering I’d be willing anytime. I think the truth was, regular sex was just better, it felt better for both of us, after all, I could make my core as tight as I wanted to. But occasionally the taboo of it added a certain… spiciness.

  We chatted about normal every day stuff during dinner, then squeezed in one more round in bed before it got late enough that we had to go. We took a quick shower together and got dressed. I just got back in my short jean shorts and picked out a tight clingy red shirt, and a pair of casual sandals. It was a college bar, no reason to get really dressed up, just tried to look good.

  When we got to the bar there were no empty tables left, but we found a table with a bunch of the people from our physics class, and decided to join them. Jim went off to get us a couple of beers while I said hello to Pete, Sam, Danny, Billy, and Jill.

  Jill smiled at me, “Thank god. Another female.”

  Billy spluttered and gave her a look, I was pretty sure they were dating, although that kind of thing changes fast in college most of the time.

  I winked, “Always happy to help balance out all those male hormones.”

  She giggled and nodded while the boys looked slightly offended.

  “Have you seen them yet?”

  Assuming she meant the band I shook my head, “No, Jim told me about them this morning.”

  Sam chimed in, “Yeah, they’re really good.”

  I certainly hope so; I got out of bed with Jim for it after all. I smiled an acknowledgement at Sam while Jim slipped into the booth with two filled cold mugs in one hand, and another two pitchers in the other. The other four guys at the table cheered, and I took a long drink from my mug and stole a kiss, but just a quick one.

  Jill subtly put her hand on Billy’s forearm, so I’d guessed right that they were together. That was her keep off my property sign, and I couldn’t blame her. I had no intentions of going near Billy tonight, or anyone other than Jim, but it was always a good idea for my friends to let me know who was off limits. It helped avoid… mistakes.

  We had a good time and the band was good. They played a few cover songs, but mostly their own stuff. Between sets we’d refill the pitchers, and joke around. I was rolling my eyes with Jill when Pete, Sam, and Danny kept making bets about picking up women around the room, and mostly failed, but sometimes managed to come back with a number. I found it pretty entertaining.

  When it got close to midnight, I gave Jim a lingering kiss that got hoots from the peanut gallery, all except Billy of course who was on his best behavior for Jill. I had a small buzz, and figured I’d leave it there until I went over there. I wanted to eat a quick snack, and maybe fill a travel mug with coffee before I left.

  I’d just taken the first bite of my sandwich when I heard yelling from next door, in Dina’s apartment. I frowned in concern, but I didn’t sense any violent intent, merely anger. I really didn’t want to overhear it, and Dina wouldn’t thank me for interfering. So I ate as quickly as I could, set my status to off world with a smirk, and grabbed my coffee.

  I released my spell that was safe for me and objects, and decided I was a quarter mile outside of Maggie’s town… and I was suddenly there.

  Chapter 5

  Maggie was out and about, and when she saw me she made me feel welcome.

  Maggie asked, “You’re here to study our books? Will you be able to read them?”

  I replied, “I think so, if you’ll allow it I can learn your written language from your mind.”

  She looked startled by this, and a little nervous, “What about everything else?”

  I shrugged, “I won’t look at anything else without permission. The language center is… in a specific spot, I won’t have to rummage around looking for it.”

  She chuckled, “Rummage around? Interesting way to put it. Very well, it is the least I can do after what you did for us.”

  It didn’t take more than a few seconds of real time with my magic embraced and slowing time. She led me to the center building. It seemed really odd to me all the villages were the same, as if… I had no clue what. She led me inside and showed me all the rows that were organized by year, not subject. That would make my job a lot harder without being able to cross reference.

  I asked, “Are all villages the same? I mean the books.”

  She tilted her head, “Mostly. All knowledge is shared when something is discovered. There are the village histories of course, which are different from village to village.”

  She pointed at the second row, “You should be able to read everything past that.”

  I shook my head, “Why not that first row?”

  “The books are written in a language we no longer possess the knowledge to understand, it’s of the history before the Phoenix invaded us and their meaning is lost to us.”

  I sighed and nodded. I suppose that wasn’t too surprising, they probably had famine and a lot of problems rebuilding after a war like that.

  She asked, “Would you join me for the midday meal? I can come retrieve you when it’s time.”

  “Thank you, I’d like that,” I smiled.

  She nodded her head and left, and I picked up a book and got started, embracing my magic. If Dawn was right about the increased time dilation, in those two hours I could read for… two years. That was… probably crazy for one sitting, but I’d get a lot done. Maybe I wouldn’t be spending as much real time as I thought here, I’d be done way before classes next Monday, and after midday meal I could leave and sleep more normal hours. I’d be home by three in the morning.

  The more I read… the more confused I got. Most of the earliest books I could read that dealt with magic were very easy spells. Like… fire. The books discussed the problems with letting magic into their bodies too quickly or too much, and they had elaborate ways to deal with the problem. It was almost like after the war they lost all their abilities and knowledge to do magic. They’d started from scratch.

  Another thing that bothered me was the fact the magic was so dangerous to them. I mean, if I let down my shield and kept absorbing magic, I could see where I’d hit a critical point, almost like radiation poisoning, if I didn’t just explode outright with a badly formed random thought. But these people were born here, they should be like the dragons… this much magic should be… well normal, not such an effort to access and channel.

  It shouldn
’t be a danger to them.

  It just didn’t make sense. Over time I read the third row, and the fourth. I’d spent over a year at it, watching as they developed new ways to throw magic around, but it was like they had to fight the magic, to make it do what they wanted. I was probably spending too much time in this dilated world, it was really… frustrating. I kept reading hoping that I’d find the answer somewhere, and so I read the fifth and sixth row.

  That was… half the knowledge in the room so far. I’d spent a year and a half reading, studying and thinking. And not one bit of it was worth the effort. Yes, they’d come up with some cool ways to do magic, but I could do the same much easier as a witch, and I was no closer to understanding the… absurdity of their situation. I could feel it though, I was making a false assumption somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what it was.

  I decided that had been enough for one day, maybe tomorrow I’d read the other half. I released the magic and took a deep breath, walked over to a table and sat down and simply relaxed. After a half hour of mulling all my new knowledge over and over again, and still not understanding it, Maggie came and brought me to lunch.

  I’d kind of expected the group meal when we walked in the big building a few doors down. I’d remembered that from the memories Dawn had sent us. The villagers all ate together, kind of like one big extended family, or a commune of some kind.

  I asked, “I’m curious, the villages all seem very similar, both in structure, and the way you govern yourselves.”

  She nodded, “It’s what works, we have no reason to change, is that surprising to you?”

  I considered that for a second, “On my world it would be, but I guess not here.”

  Technical advances weren’t really a thing that could ever happen here, and they focused on magical learning, so the architecture would be stagnant… still, how could all the villages be the same? Just one more thing I didn’t understand.

  The food was good, some kind of vegetable dish with chicken, and I tried to turn my mind off and just enjoy it. I was sure I’d figure out this place sooner or later, maybe if I let it just simmer in the back of my mind, not concentrate on it so hard, I’d finally see what I was missing.

  Speaking of missing stuff, it finally became apparent to me that Maggie was interested. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with that. Sure, she was attractive, and from what I could sense a very good person, but did I really want to have a cross world romance? It’s not like I needed to feed here, and that somehow made the thought of being with her more… significant. There were less than a handful of people back on earth I would sleep with if I didn’t need the energy, so it would be significant. Another thing I needed to mull over.

  It was actually pretty quiet in here too, they were all talking to each other, but this world definitely used their indoor voices as mom used to say. When we finished lunch, Maggie looked over and asked me a question.

  “Would you like to see more of the village?”

  I smiled, “I would, thank you.”

  She showed me the other large buildings. The one between the main building with the library and the dining hall was for food storage. There were all the grains from the harvest, corn, meat from various animals, spices, and other various foodstuffs stored with some preservation or stasis spell.

  Maggie noted, “This is our reserve stocks, to get us through winter.”

  She took us back outside and went to the other side of the dining hall.

  “This is another storage building. One is enough to get us through, but we plant enough to makes sure of it, just in case we lose one of the buildings in a dragon attack, or simple accident.”

  She sighed and added, “We also do it in case one of the villages close to us gets completely destroyed, we can take them in without risking our lives.”

  I cringed a little inside; these people didn’t have easy lives. Between the dragons and their own world trying to kill them it’s amazing they do so well. No wonder they stick together in tight knit groups and cooperate with other villages.

  Outside of the small houses, she took us to one more building. We went in and there were a lot of rooms with twin beds and cribs.

  I’m sure I sounded confused when I asked, “What is this place?”

  She smiled at me, “This is where we give birth. It has many protections and enchantments designed to safeguard both parent and newborn. Our successful birth rate has gone up to almost a hundred percent when done here. Out there, it’s more like fifty. We don’t do it in the homes because it’s very difficult and time consuming to set up right, so we do it in one place big enough for multiple births at once.”

  So it was a village nursery and maternity ward. I was curious about the enchantments, but I was getting tired again and needed real sleep. I’d only gotten three hours last night after three days with almost none, and didn’t need to use magic again when I could just look tomorrow, or the next day.

  “Thanks for showing me this, may I come back tomorrow?”

  She smiled shyly, “I would like that.”

  “It may be a little later in the day tomorrow,” I mentioned, since I wasn’t sure how long I’d be at Tammy’s party tomorrow night before I could get away.

  She walked me outside, and it felt more like I’d made a date than gotten permission to read through more of the library. She was tempting but… life was complicated enough. We said our goodbyes and I released my magic, and decided I was home…

  Chapter 6

  My phone synced up, three fifteen in the morning on Thursday. I updated my status to on world, because I guess I was a little bit of a wise ass. My back arched and I stretched my arms out and then raised them high while I let out a yawn, I was really tired. I stripped out of my clothes, slipped under the covers in my birthday suit and reached for sleep.

  Then there was a banging on my door. Crap.

  My magic reached out to check who had a death wish, and it was Dina. I tried to think of why that would be for a second, and then I remembered the fight she was having earlier, which felt like… over a year ago to me. I got up and pulled on the tight red shirt I’d just taken off, and looked down at it.

  Good enough, it mostly covered everything. Well, as long as I didn’t lift my arms anyway. Call me lazy, but I left the shorts on the floor and went to answer the door. All thoughts of dire consequences for my best friend fled when I took in her bloodshot shimmering eyes, and the tear stains on her cheeks. She looked miserable, and had probably been waiting a couple of hours for my status to change.

  And I’d been reading dusty books ranging between two to one millennia old, I felt like a bad friend.

  “What happened sweetie?” I asked with soft concern.

  She shuffled in and hugged me tightly, then started to sob on my shoulder and in the crook of my neck. I held her like that for a long time, softly caressing her back and making soft nonsense noises in her ear. Eventually she calmed down enough to tell me what happened in a low hoarse voice.

  “My boyfriend, Jeremy… he broke up with me. It was… nasty.”

  I led her over to the couch, and grabbed a throw pillow so I wouldn’t flash her when I sat down. She gave me a half amused, half miserable look at my state of dress. Her emotions were all over the place and I couldn’t really make sense of them.

  “Things were going well for a while, I thought so anyway…” she trailed off.

  I broke the silence after a while, as apparently she wasn’t ready to talk quite yet.

  “Do you want a drink?” I asked softly.

  Dina had a very explosive personality. She tended to blow up fast, but also calm down fast, and I’d never seen her quite this way before. I reluctantly used the word… defeated in my mind. I knew she’d get over it, but I wasn’t very happy with her ex just then.

  She shook her head miserably, “I just… didn’t want to be alone, you know?”

  “You can stay here if you want, I can even help you fall asleep.”

 
She looked up at me and nodded slowly.

  We were best friends but this was something new, she was a total mess and I was worried about her. I pulled her up off the couch and led her to the bedroom. I grabbed a pair of panties and slipped them on. I didn’t wear them often but… it seemed appropriate. I slid into the bed gently, it was a king sized so I had no trouble avoiding us touching, but to my surprise she moved over against me.

  Not cuddling exactly, just touching, simple reassurance she wasn’t alone. Whatever had happened last night, she was a damned mess, and I entertained a few dark thoughts about Jeremy for a moment.

  I whispered tenderly, “Sleep well Dina,” as I released a spell to put her to sleep.

  I was hoping a good rest would help. It didn’t take me long to follow.

  I woke up and stretched while glancing at the clock. It was a little after eleven, and I felt much better after a full night’s sleep, but I needed coffee. I was also alone, and confused until I remembered Dina had lab work on Thursdays. I rolled out of bed, got the coffee started and jumped in the shower. I didn’t have to be at Tammy’s for about… nine hours.

  Usually I’d be heading to the library, or working on my new magic theories and practical application, as I didn’t have class again until Monday, but neither appealed to me right now. The mystery of magic world had grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let go. But I couldn’t go there until after Tammy’s party, it was the middle of the night there now and attracted to me or not, I can’t imagine Maggie would be pleased if I showed up and snuck in.

  I wound up going to the library anyway after a quick brunch. It wasn’t the first time I didn’t want to do what I knew I should be doing. I got a little work done, but I was too distracted and left the library at three. Even worse, I wasn’t hungry at all. I’d considered dropping by a frat house in an effort to forget my frustration with magic world, but my inner succubus was quiet.