Warlock: A Nephilim's Wrath: A Shawn Moore Novel 02 Read online

  Hopefully if I lost focus, I wouldn’t lose that one, just the others. I thought it unlikely though, usually I only lost one or two spells if distracted when I held five, so I should be good. I know that probably made me obsessed, but the sooner I put the learning curve behind me, the better off I’d be.

  I closed the book after memorizing a few spells and looked up at Susan, who was sitting on my desk studying me. It was pretty calm between us now, since the sexual tension was down to a simmer. Her presence was comfortable for lack of a better word. I was sure the tension would rise again, but for right now we were both sated, and it was easy to be near her without wanting to ravage her at the moment. Lilliana and Malina were still giving us space at the moment.

  “So, how does the shifter world work, I mean Darren is your alpha?” I asked curiously.

  Susan shook her head, “Actually, my alpha is a female lion shifter, her name is Katie. All the different types have their own alpha in the city. Wolves, cats, bears, rats, snakes, birds, sharks, and dolphins. All the alphas for those shifter types in the city report to a head alpha of sorts. Darren is both head alpha, and alpha for the wolves. The head alpha doesn’t interfere in internal race issues, his job as head alpha is only to represent us to all the other races. A united front.”

  I nodded, that was interesting, “So all cats are under one alpha? Lions, tigers, ocelot?”

  She smiled, “Yes, same with bears, grizzly, brown, polar. Birds too obviously, almost all of us have sub classes below the same alpha.”

  “Hmm, how about when you change, is it still you, or is your animal separate, or is there just a different set of instincts for the same you to deal with?”

  Susan looked thoughtful, “Same mind and personality, but both sets of instincts are always present. In my human form, I still feel the need to touch and be touched by those close to me. But my logic and thinking is still mostly human.

  “When I’m a cat, those instincts are much stronger, to hunt, and be a wild cat, but at the same time, the human ability to reason is still there. So if I changed right now, I wouldn’t attack you or anything. But say, if some asshole bothers me, and I suppress the impulse to punch him in human form, I might maul him as a cat for the same offense. Does that explain it?”

  “Yes, it does. How about mates, cross species I mean, do they still fall under separate alphas, or is one kind of adopted?”

  She giggled and slid off the desk. Then she climbed up and straddled my lap on the chair. Our faces were very close together. I didn’t think this was a pass at me, or an offer for more sex. It seemed more that shifters like to cuddle as much as greater demons do. Or vampires for that matter. At least mine that is. She’d even just got done explaining she liked to touch those she was close too.

  So I supposed this familiarity could be considered a compliment.

  She explained, “No, alphas don’t change, cross species mating is pretty common, and the kids of those are randomly one or the other species, never both. Also, alphas stay out of that aspect of thing, mating is sacrosanct. Curious about anything else?”

  “Many things, you’ll keep teaching me hand to hand right?”

  She looked surprised for a moment, and then nodded and kissed me softly, “Of course. It’s kind of fun throwing you around, though you know you could squash me with magic right?”

  I nodded slowly, “There will be times that I’ll be busy fighting someone else with magic, and need to know how to physically defend myself from one or more other attackers. Either that, or just let them play kick the ball with my shield, which is what I did last time I fought a vampire. It works but it’s rather hard on the ego.”

  She giggled, “Sharon told me about that already, he’d never admit it, but Darren was impressed by you, and so was my sister. Barely two days after getting your magic and you took out an ancient vampire.”

  I smiled, “You make it sound much cooler than it actually was. Point is, that’s why I want your expertise teaching me how to fight. I used to think I was tough, but then I met shifters and vampires.”

  She looked uncomfortable for a second, and then leaned forward and put her nose into my neck. I think she sniffed me. I reached around her sweet body and pinched her butt.

  She jumped a little, and then pulled back and smiled at me, “I love your scent, sorry.”

  I shook my head, “No need to be. Your scent drives me crazy, although right now it’s just calming. Let’s check on dinner? Then maybe we can get out of her for a while? I’d like to search for that warlock, or maybe just do something besides study and get my ass kicked.”

  She raised an eyebrow in question, “What did you have in mind?”

  “I don’t know, something fun. Maybe I’ll let you ladies decide.”

  She grinned and slid off of my lap, “You’re a brave man,” she teased, and then she pulled me up by my hand.

  When she didn’t give it back, I didn’t have a problem with that. We went upstairs and into the kitchen where Malina and Lilliana stood and talked by the stove.

  Susan said with a grin, “We’re going out, and Shawn said we get to decide.”

  Malina tilted her head, “What brought that on?”

  I shrugged, “I’ve been hitting Sal pretty hard, and letting Lilliana beat me up. I haven’t actually done anything to just have fun since this craziness all started. Outside of the bedroom that is. I suppose we could relax at home, but I don’t want to get into lazy habits. When I’m here I want to be productive, learn, and try and figure out new stuff, not be tempted by the couch or a television. You ladies are temptation enough. Plus, we can look for trouble while we’re out too, the warlock I mean, not just any trouble,” I grinned.

  Lilliana asked, “And it’s our choice where to go?”

  I nodded, “It’s all up to you three, I’m up for anything.”

  Susan said challengingly, “Night skydiving?”

  I frowned, “Almost anything.”

  Lilliana laughed, “We’d have to go through a class for that. Is that even legal?”

  Lilliana pulled the food from the oven, and we all sat at the table to eat.

  Susan asked hopefully, “Bungie jumping?” and then moaned in pleasure as she took the first bite of food. I’d forgotten she hadn’t sampled Lilliana’s amazing cooking yet.

  Geez, I’d figured they’d drag me out dancing, or something, Bungie jumping?

  I cleared my throat, “So shifters have a thing for extreme sports then?”

  Susan giggled and then agreed, “You could say that, or anything that goes fast.”

  Lilliana smiled, “That actually sounds fun, is it safe?”

  Susan nodded, “If you pay attention and don’t do anything stupid it is. Of course it’s as safe as a train platform, as long as you don’t step off when a train is coming. Plus, with his magic even if he does something really dumb he should be fine.”

  I wasn’t convinced. Warlock powers against a giant rubber band, the latter made me nervous.

  Malina said, “That sounds kind of fun, I’ve never done it.”

  Oh crap. We had a consensus. Goodbye cruel world.

  Malina giggled, guess she’d heard my thought.

  Chapter 11

  I wanted to jump for joy and scream out yahoo. But I had a reputation to maintain, so when I casted partition on my mind and got four extra instead of three, I just quirked a smile. Technically, I’d be able to hold a maximum of twenty-five spells or abilities, magical threads, at one time. After I casted all of my stuff, plus the extra I was holding for Destiny who was no doubt still rocking John’s world, I only held eleven.

  One in the primary mind, and the rest as evenly distributed as I could get them. I was excited, I’d have to start practicing for six now, and I had a feeling it would be the hardest and take the longest to achieve. Sure, I had tons of stuff to learn from Sal, and about physical fighting with weapons and hand to hand, but I’d also be fairly effective in a mage duel right now, a very complicated one.

/>   I’d also be able to summon a lot more demons than four now if the need came up.

  I was actually dressed in jeans and a shirt, apparently a suit isn’t accepted attire for bungie jumping. The ladies seemed excited, and were all dressed casually too, as we went into the garage and piled in the car. As before, Lilliana drove, with Susan sharing the front seat, and Malina was in the back with me.

  My succubus looked both wrong somehow in jeans and a casual shirt, yet still amazingly hot. I’d never seen her in anything except dresses, or sexy lingerie before.

  The really strange thing was I felt weird in them. I supposed it was really true that you can get used to anything, I’d been wearing suits or casual business for over two weeks. Great, I was one of those weird rich people now.

  As far as Lilliana’s attitude toward Susan, it was better but still a bit standoffish. At least I knew it wasn’t personal between them, it was just her being overprotective of me. How could I be upset about that?

  She took off and we drove off to our doom. Okay, maybe not doom, but seriously, how crazy is it to be catapulted into the air from some kind of modern siege machine, while guest starring as the boulder. It was nuts. It was probably a rush, but then being attacked by mages was a rush too, so maybe it won’t be so bad. Worse comes too worse I could always levitate before I fell to my death.

  Malina took my hand and squeezed it and looked like she was trying not to laugh at me for my internal monologue of worry. Still, a mage hit squad, or maybe a group of demons trying to kill us sounded safer to me.

  Malina giggled, and then cuddled into me as if in apology. I supposed I was laying it on a big thick, even if only internally.

  I wondered what had her in such a good mood again, but as per usual she didn’t bite, until she did.

  Malina said in my mind, “Don’t worry about it, it’s something you did, but if you knew it would just ruin it for next time, so shut up and enjoy it or I’ll be a bitch to make you happy.”

  Understood. Not really, but I’d live with it. It must be a woman thing.

  She bit my shoulder, and I pulled her roughly into my lap and kissed her breathless. She behaved after that, but we still teased each other with caresses and light touches during the ride. I just couldn’t keep my hands of the demoness.

  I felt a few blips on the edges of my magical detection as we left the city, but it was just some vampires. It was easy to tell, the demons that possessed them were on a whole different frequency, or magical signature. It was the difference between an animal and sentience, very simple to tell even for a short contact.

  I nodded when we got close to the place, and I felt shifters. Of course they ran the place. We pulled over, and there was a board with instructions, and also a guy that stood there who was running through the instructions. I supposed they took safety seriously, and I calmed down a bit. While waiting for our turn, he ran through the instructions more than a couple of times.

  I saw a bunch of people ignoring him, either they’d done this before and new the drill, or they’d probably die a horrible death shortly.

  Susan squirmed under my other arm, “You nervous?”

  I shook my head and scoffed, “Nah, it looks like fun.”

  Malina giggled, totally blowing my brave front.

  I cleared my throat, “How high is that anyway?”

  I supposed it wasn’t a true bungie jump with one cord like those nuts who jump off bridges. The bungie device was on a huge tower, two of them actually, and people were put in the contraption and shot into the sky, like a rock from a sling shot, then they came back down, and bounced. There were two cords connected instead of one. It actually did look like fun. Well, I always thought rich people did stupid shit, and now I was one of them.

  Susan shrugged, “You get about three hundred feet up when they shoot you up, and then fall about two hundred and fifty to two seventy-five. Probably get upwards to a hundred miles an hour, so it really feels like you’re going to slam into the ground, it’s awesome.”

  I kissed her forehead, she was adorable when she acted insane.

  For all that I complained about it, inside my mind of course, I projected confidence to the world around me. Women didn’t like men that weren’t confident after all. Only Malina would ever know the true depths of my fear when they strapped me in that crazy thing. It was an adrenaline rush when I flew up into the air, and I kind of got it as the ground rushed toward me. It seemed insanity was catching, because when they unhooked me I wanted to go again.

  Susan loved it of course, but so did Malina and Lilliana. I even got a bunch of kisses out of it, the adrenaline made all of them playful. I also got a few envious looks from the humans around me. I came to the conclusion I’d better start enjoying extreme sports, I had the feeling that Susan had only started to corrupt my succubus and vampire…

  I had to admit, it’s what I’d wanted. We all had fun and were heading back into the city. We hadn’t gone far, when my detect magic ability caught some demons.

  “They’re…”

  I got that far into my they’re here warning, when the whole street was bathed in green fire. Lilliana slammed on the gas, and we took off fast. As soon as we cleared the attack area she pulled the car over which was just fine from the protective wards.

  I could hold up to fourteen more spells, but I used six to cast protection from fire, physical harm, and magic on both Lilliana and Susan. I wasn’t worried about Malina that way, no lesser demon could even touch her. I opened the car door and we all piled out. I could still feel them, ten lesser demons, but no warlock or other greater demon was present.

  I frowned in annoyance, “The warlock’s not here. I guess he’s just starting trouble again?”

  They all ran out as the ladies agreed with me, and I started to chant a banishment spell, and focused on nine of the ten demons. I ignored the balefire, it couldn’t touch any of us. One of them tried to bamboozle Susan, but with my protection spell it just bounced off.

  Lesser demons had pretty much the same skills as vampires, plus balefire and one or two other innate spells. There were types too, like the succubae obviously had different additional powers, but so far so good.

  Two of them gave up on the infernal fire and rushed us, Lilliana and Susan stepped in front of me to meet their physical attack. I was still casting banishment, it was one of the longer ones for combat, and it had only been a few seconds so far.

  Maybe I should see if I can add it to my amulet, or start a new one with the more common longer spells?

  Lilliana pulled a knife, and took the demon’s first hard punch to ensure the kill, the demon died on the end of her blade and turned to smoke. The second one had no better luck with Susan, but what surprised me is she partially shifted, and had a huge claw instead of a hand. It whipped out faster than I could track and slashed the demons throat from ear to ear, while she deflected his punch with her left hand. Then the demon went flying from a hip throw, while gasping for breath through the blood.

  He too, turned to smoke as he landed hard.

  I finished my spell, and seven of the eight left were banished back to hell. The last tried to run, but a simple three-word levitation spell put him in the air. Then I blew him in our direction with an air spell.

  Susan asked, “What now?”

  “We find that jackass, give me a minute. These spells are a little longer.”

  I chanted the spell to identify the lesser demon’s signature, when I got it, I cast the spell to find it, and I passed that over to another mind. I could feel where he was, right in front of me, which was worthless, but I wasn’t done yet.

  Then I brought up a similar spell to banishment, only this one wouldn’t send it to hell, it would send it back to his master, and the active find spell would tell us where he was. I’d been hoping to run into one of his demons, and had prepared accordingly.

  The demon smiled at me as if he knew what I was doing while he hovered in the air helpless to move. He didn’t even bother with m
agic, he’d seen our protections and he was alone. Perhaps he did know what I was doing, he detected magic the same way I did, and was probably more practiced at it. Experienced enough to pick up the subtleties of spell work.

  He said threateningly, “I was instructed to pass on a message if you captured me. You will die warlock, you and your pitiful patron.”

  I heard Malina hiss in rage, and started to cast the final spell in my mind.

  He laughed darkly, “Maybe I’ll see you again, in hell,” and then he reached up with both hands, twisted his head, and snapped his own neck. He disappeared in a swirl of black mist.

  Before I could finish the spell, his essence returned to hell. I clenched my teeth and held in my anger. I wanted to throw fire, but all that would do was prove I couldn’t control myself.

  “Fuck,” I muttered in annoyance.

  Susan asked in a concerned voice, “I don’t get it, what happened?”

  I replied angrily, “I had a tracer on him, I was about to finish a spell that would have returned him to his master, so we could track the location. With his death I can’t find the warlock who summoned him. His signature is useless now, he’s back in hell.”

  Malina said consolingly, “Perhaps the warlock will summon the same demons again, you should check for the signature tomorrow night.”

  I nodded, and dismissed that spell. I’d never forget a signature once it was learned, and could recast the locate spell at any time.

  Lilliana kissed my cheek, “I didn’t know you were going to shield us.”

  I shrugged, “Vampires, shifters, and balefire don’t mix well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Besides, you can both protect me better if you’re stronger in a fight. I might have been a little worried about you too.”

  Susan grinned, “At least we’re all okay.”

  “True, and after losing all his demons the warlock is going to lie low, we might as well skip the city search.”

  Susan asked curiously, “Why don’t you have any? Demons I mean.”

  I smiled and shrugged, “Because they’d be as useless against him as his were against us. Maybe if I was fighting some other supernatural it would make sense.”