Warlock: A Nephilim's Wrath: A Shawn Moore Novel 02 (12 page)

I walked into my office with Lilliana, and then took a seat
behind the desk and put my feet up.

Malina cleared her throat, “So… shouldn’t we be killing her
about now?  You have her helpless right?”

I frowned, “No Lina, you’re still thinking with your fear. 
I’m going to let her stew for a while, and then have a conversation with her.”

Malina didn’t look at all happy that I’d said that, but
looked frustrated as well.

I smiled, “I don’t have a full plan yet, I’m not hiding
anything from you, I need to find out what she really wants first.  It’s what
us warlocks do right?  If it comes to it, and I can’t make a pact with her, I’ll
stick her with Krystal.  I’m not convinced she should die though.  That whole
abomination thing is a cop out, and is part of what caused the problem in the
first place.”

Karen came over and sat on my lap, and kissed me lingeringly
and deeply, and then nibbled my lip teasingly before she said, “I’ll be back
tonight, I need to get back to work before they figure out they don’t need me
there.”

I pulled her in for another kiss, and then watched her
leave.  Not just so I could stare at her cute ass either, but because I already
missed her.  I had it bad for my wife.

I looked over to the door and could still hear Korrina
screaming her head off.

“Why don’t we go upstairs?  I still have that promise to
keep.  And I have a feeling it’ll take a long time for her to calm down.”

I picked up Susan, and carried her upstairs.  She’d already
started on me by kissing my neck, and playing with my hair and neck all the way
there.  This would be a fun challenge, even if I lost…

Several hours later we were a sweaty spent naked tangle of
flesh and entwined legs.  I was almost sure they could walk, but they were
sated, and so was I, for the moment anyway.

Susan was cuddled up against me and I could literally feel
the satisfaction radiating off of her.  She was tracing her fingers along my
chest, and I had my arm around her and played with her hair and back.  It was
very comfortable.  On my other side, Malina and Lilliana were curled up
together, at the end there Susan had ridden me while those two were doing a
sixty-nine.

She asked me softly, “I don’t suppose you’d want me to stay
here, after the warlock is taken care of, if he isn’t already.”

I smiled, “Did you forget already?”

She lifted her head up and looked me in the eyes, “Forget
what?”

I laughed, “I can’t kick you out, or even ask you to leave. 
You live here per our pact until you take your leave.  Remember?”

She frowned at me and I decided to stop teasing her, I knew
she wouldn’t stay if she wasn’t welcome.

I pulled her in for a kiss and then told her, “No, I
wouldn’t mind at all if you stayed.  In fact, you seem to fit right in, and I
value you for much more than your mind blowing talents in bed.  I’d like it
very much if you stayed as both my guard and lover, and who knows what the
future will bring.”

I’d only known her two days, so that was about all I could
offer.  I liked her a lot, she was sweet and kind, quick to laugh and was
playful, but could also be very serious and protective when the time called for
it. 

She was also wild in bed, sexy, and had a killer body.  I’d
be lying if I said that didn’t make a difference.  It wasn’t the only thing, or
even the definitive thing, but it did have an impact.  At the very least, the
sex made me like her that much more.  Maybe in the future I’d care about her
more than that, it certainly hadn’t taken me long to fall in love with Karen,
Lilliana, and Malina.

I was kind of a sucker for beautiful women who kicked ass
and cared about me.  Maybe it was because I’d been basically a loner growing
up, and this would all blow up in my face one day, but I was kind of hoping
not.

She sniffed my neck again, I wasn’t really sure what that
was about, and then she licked and kissed it.  Cat instincts maybe?

She practically purred, “I’ll talk to my alpha, I don’t
think she’ll order me home, but she might.”

Something felt wrong, it was nagging at me, and it wasn’t
the psychotic Nephilim in my basement.  I’d felt it about an hour ago, but was
way too distracted at the time.  Now it was like an itch I couldn’t scratch.

“Malina?  What is that?”

Malina looked over at me like she was looking through me,
and then said, “Pact.  One of them is going wrong which means you need to deal
with it before it defaults.  Do you remember the third spell?”

I frowned in thought.  There were two divination spells I
used for the two different pacts, to identify a person and their situation that
would be receptive to my kind of deal.  There was a third spell as well, divination,
that would identify a pact going wrong.

“I think I remember it, I never casted it before though, and
didn’t bother to memorize it either.  I remember thinking I had to go back and
learn it, we’d been rather busy at the time dodging mages.”

I groaned as I got up, put some clothes on, and headed back
downstairs.  The ritual room was quiet, but at the moment I wasn’t ready to
deal with her.  I looked up the spell, it was about a minute long, and studied
it.  A lot of spells were very close to the same, and there were only a few
differences in the divination spells so it didn’t take me that long.

Then I casted it.

Shit.  Cynthia’s stupid producer went and got himself
killed.  He was supposed to be there another ten years, but free will
introduced random elements in life, and sometimes fate was derailed by
stupidity.  Her new boss, a woman named Christine Edenton, was all set to fire
her in about an hour.

The Nephilim would have to wait. 

I went back upstairs to let them know we had to go out for a
bit, and then grabbed a coffee.  None of them looked even slightly unsteady on
their feet.  Of course, one was a demon who could heal herself and recharge her
libido, the other two were a vampire and shifter, their bodies bounced back
fast.  It was a foolish challenge, but it had still been fun to try…

It wasn’t even that late in the day, maybe three in the
afternoon, when we pulled up to the studio.  Malina had stayed behind to keep
an eye on our guest, after she promised not to kill her until I’d gotten a chance
to speak with her.

I trusted Malina with my life, and her experience was vast,
but I knew in this case she was wrong.  Only because she wasn’t using that
experience in this case, she was simply afraid.  It would be worth it if I
could work out some kind of deal with the being.

“Stay here, this shouldn’t take long.”

I got out and walked into the building.  I used my inherent
command ability on the guard.  It wouldn’t work for anything too complicated,
but it was fine for finding out where Christine’s office was, and for ignoring
the fact I didn’t work there.  I jumped on the elevator and rode it to the
sixth floor.  A few people looked over at me askance, but I was in an expensive
looking suit, and also looked confident.

No one was brave enough to challenge me as I walked across
the floor.

Christine’s office door was closed, but now that I was so
close I could also
feel
Cynthia in there as well.  Maybe because I had a
piece of her soul?  I turned the knob and walked in.

Christine’s face changed from smug and bitchy, to shocked
and bitchy.  I nailed her with sleep spell before she could object to my
entrance.

Cynthia’s face had gone from intimidated, to relieved.

“Thank god you’re here, I thought…” she trailed off.

“Hell, or hell fires.  Or did you forget who I was.”

She looked confused.

I said slowly, “Thank hellfire you’re here, not the other
one,” and then I winked at her playfully.

Her eyes widened, and then she nodded.

I wasn’t sure why I was being such an ass.  I remembered
when we made the deal she’d kept her word and given me a hell of a blowjob. 
She also had a weird fetish, she liked to be degraded and used.  That had been
strange to me, I was used to pleasing the women in my bed.  That what pleased
her was me being a total dick, which had gotten her off, had stuck in my head
for a while.

I supposed it had disturbed me, because she’d made me lose
control and treat her like that.  I’d never known something like that lurked
within me before that moment.  More than that, I wanted to do it again to her right
now.  I knew if I degraded her and ordered her to her knees, she’d do it. 
That’s why I was being an ass, because it really bothered me.  I wasn’t like
that with anyone else, and the thought of doing anything like that with the
four ladies in my life right now hadn’t even occurred to me.

But somehow, through her own actions, this woman was
lessened in my eyes.  A part of me felt it would be reasonable for me to do it
again, just because she would like it.  It was twisted.  Maybe the failing was
just mine.  Dirty and nasty talk turned me on a lot, it was the degrading crap
I couldn’t deal with.  I was even good with submission and domination games,
but not to that point.

Maybe that’s also why the cat shifter thing had annoyed me
so much.  They were strong powerful women with a libido that needed extra
attention.  They didn’t want to be degraded for that, and shouldn’t be, but the
male shifter population did exactly that.  If not by word than at least by their
actions.  Maybe I should send a couple of those guys to Cynthia, that would be
a match both sides would be happy with.

I shook off the dark thoughts.  It wasn’t Cynthia’s problem,
it was mine.  I shouldn’t think of her as less for her particular brand of
fetish.  It was my mental issue, but I just couldn’t adjust my thoughts to wrap
my head around it.

I casted the same memory spell I used on the other producer,
and made it so Christine believed Cynthia was the only possible one to do the
job, everyone else paled in comparison to the sexy young woman who brought in
all those ratings.  I also removed any memory of her planning to sack Cynthia,
and put in something about her calling her in to confirm her anchor position
was secure with her as the new producer.

Cynthia bit her lip and asked, “So, does this count toward
one of my five interventions?”

I shook my head and felt a bit guilty, I needed to get over
it, I was the one with the problem here, and the one doing the judging.

I said gently, “No, that’s only after the initial ten years
which is covered by the original pact.  The first ten years it’s all on me. 
When she wakes up, she’ll congratulate you on what a fine job you’ve been
doing, and assure you that she has no one else in mind for the job.”

Cynthia smiled, and she looked almost sweet, “Thanks.”

I suppressed a sigh, “Good luck, hopefully Christine’s
future is a bit more solid.”

I stepped out of the office, and released the sleep spell as
soon as the door was closed.  No one challenged me as I left, and I got back
into the car.

Susan commented, “That was quick.”

I nodded in agreement, “Just had to tweak the new producer. 
No big deal.”

Lilliana grinned impishly and said rather suggestively, “I’m
surprised you didn’t stay longer too.”

I shook my head.  I wasn’t that bad… was I?

When we got back to the house, I grabbed a couple of bottles
of water and headed downstairs.  Korrina was still silent, so I went into the
room and walked up to the circle, and tossed her the water.

Korrina still looked furious, but she was also in control
now.

“How did you do this?”

I shrugged and opened my water, and sat down on the floor
and waited.

She grudgingly sat, and opened her own drink.

I pointed at the inner ring, “The first and second circle
surround the symbols to both summon and contain a greater demon, or I suppose
an angel as well, if I knew any of their names.  That is what’s stopping you
from pulling power from other realms.  Between the second and third rings, are
the symbols used to cut off a mages power.  It separates them from the magic of
this
plane.

“I had a theory, that your golden energy is actually a
mixture of the two, which seems to have been verified.  Lastly, although Malina
can’t use her full power on this plane to fight you, she can
through
me,
her mortal agent.  Which means my summoning spell trumped your power big time.”

She frowned, “Why haven’t you killed me yet?”

I smiled, “You know, when I summoned Malina in that circle
over there, and we renewed the pact between her and my family line when she
bent over the altar over there, I had a question.  She’d told me all about
infernal power, spells, pacts, and do you know what I asked?”

She narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t speak.

“I said, ‘Malina, what’s the point, what do I do with all
that power’”

“She laughed at me, and said I could do whatever I wanted
to.  I could build riches and have a harem of women, or I could open an
orphanage and serve people all day long.  But most likely it will be somewhere
in between.”

I took a drink of water.

She scowled, “What’s your point?”

I smiled gently, “My point Korrina, is that you need to get
over yourself.”

She looked at me like I’d slapped her.

I asked, “Why do you kill angels?”

She glared, “Because it was an angel that gave me this
pointless existence, I don’t fit anywhere.  I have no purpose.”

“So… you made killing angels your purpose.”

She ground her teeth, “Yes.”

“What is my purpose?”

She frowned, and I went on after she realized she didn’t
have an answer.

“No human has a specific purpose, except to live.  We were
given free will, and so were you.  You aren’t bound to heaven or hell, you were
born here, with more power than most, but still born here with free will.  If
you want a purpose, give yourself one.  That’s why I told you to get over
yourself.  That’s why I told you what Malina told me.  Your purpose is whatever
you want it to be.  Your dad instead of explaining that, was a big dick because
he was afraid of you.

“Do you understand what I’m saying Korrina?  You do belong,
same as everyone else that has a mortal life on this mud ball that circles the
sun, because none of us have a purpose but what we decide.”

She shook her head, “That’s only a part of it, people fear
me, I have more power than any mortal.  Even the fae fear me.”

I shrugged in a blasé manner, “I don’t.  Not right now
anyway.  Angels fear you, but that’s because you are not limited as they are. 
It also doesn’t help that you kill them, perhaps not all would have attacked
you as your father did?  I don’t know.”

I paused for a second, “So you have to ask yourself, what do
you really want in life?  In a little while I’ll come back and give you a
choice.  You can either die, because I can’t let you kill Malina, or me.  Or
you can make a pact with me, so that I don’t have to fear letting you out of
that circle.”

She sneered, “I won’t become your servant or sex slave just
to survive.”

I waved that off with my hand, “Good thing that isn’t
necessary.  No one that shares my bed is a sex slave by the way, they all want
to be there.  That wasn’t what I had in mind.  The question is what do you
want, and then I can tell you what the cost of that is.

“For instance, if you want your freedom back and to simply
leave, I’ll just ask for your word not to harm anyone associated to me either
by pact or treaty, which by the way is just about every supernatural currently
in the city.  The only exception to that is Lilith and that other warlock.

“If you want more than that, a place where you’ll be valued,
respected, and not feared, well I’d need more of an assurance than that, but
it’s all up for discussion.  Most of all though, I hope you give up this
vendetta you have, it’s misplaced and it’s only keeping you from finding the
true purpose of your heart.  If you can think back far enough, you might find
it again.”

I stood up, “I’ll be back soon, give you time to think, or
just give a yell if you want to talk some more.  I promise not to go far.”

I walked out and closed the door, and then sat behind the
desk and started to read Sal.

Malina accused, “You’re insane.”

I smiled and said teasingly, “Already?  Aren’t I too young
for that?  Maybe.  But why?  I thought it was a pretty good plan.  At the very
least we’ll be safe, at best we’ll have an ally of sorts.  I think she’s really
lonely.”

She giggled, “It just never would have occurred to me.”

I nodded, “That abomination thing is just another form of
prejudice.  Prejudice never makes sense.”

She sighed, “Stop with the soap box, you just want to get
into her pants.”

I thought about that for a minute, she was amazingly hot,
but that wasn’t really it at all.  Of course, I wouldn’t say no either.

Malina snickered at me.

I suppose it was all mixed up in my head.  I did feel a
little sorry for her for what she’s gone through because of narrow mindedness,
I had years of that on the street, getting kicked out everywhere I went.  I
wasn’t welcome to stay anywhere, and had been feared by others, it was easy to
relate to her when she was feared too.  Honestly it made me want to accept her
and show her not everyone was like that. 

Then there was also her power, if I could ally with her, or
even have her as a friend, who could possibly screw with me?  She’d flatten
them all.  I wouldn’t use her for just that, and try not to use her at all, but
it was impossible not to consider that angle of things.

And… yes, she was hot.  Really hot.  She was an angel, half
that is, of course she was stunningly beautiful.  The only reason Malina was
more attractive to me was because she’d designed herself to be what I most
desired.  Of course I loved Malina too, so that made an additional impact to
how attractive she was as well.

Malina said in a dangerous voice, “Nice save, maybe you
should stop thinking while you’re ahead?”

Good point, sometimes it was hard being a guy, especially when
one of the woman I loved could read my every thought and desire.  Even the best
of us were total pigs in our thoughts from time to time.

I looked back down at Sal, always had more to learn, and
magic was a safe thing to think about.  Although I wasn’t sure I’d get much
memorized, since Malina just crawled under my desk, I guess I as forgiven…