Wizard Unleashed Read online

  "Want to stop by your apartment first and get some clothing?"

  She gave me a sweet smile. "That'd be good."

  "Do you mind if I ask why you still live above Mrs. Willoughby? Junior partner or not, you have to be making a pretty good income."

  "School debt," she said. "Dad died when I was young and we barely scraped by, so I didn't get any help from my family. I had scholarships, but they didn't cover everything and they didn't follow me into law school."

  "How bad?" I asked.

  "You really want to get into this? Eighty-five thousand. And no, you can't pay them off and save me," she said. "I borrowed the money; I'll pay it back on my terms."

  "I can respect that." I changed the subject. "Pretty, don't you think?" It was about midnight so there was light traffic and we found ourselves driving on a pristine white blanket of snow.

  "What were those things?" Gabriella asked. "And why wasn't Dukats more interested in them?"

  "Some sort of giant," I said. "They were obviously looking for something. I'll see if they're in one of my taxonomy books. I didn't get a sense they were extra bright."

  "Your fire didn't affect them," Gabriella said. "At least your shield held."

  "You're getting pretty good at those hexes," I said. "They sting like a mother."

  "Did I get you?" Gabriella asked.

  "On my neck. Just under the chin," I said.

  Gabriella sat up in her seat and turned on the interior lights of the truck. "I did that? It looks horrible." Her cold fingers prodded at a sensitive spot beneath my chin.

  "You did that while fending off a giant who was trying to squish my head like a grape," I said. "Let's keep things in perspective."

  "I'm a witch, Felix. I'm sworn to do no harm," she admonished.

  "Penance," I said.

  "What?"

  I grinned at her. "I'll come up with an appropriate penance so you don't have to feel guilty. Should work for the witch and the Catholic in you."

  "Don't tease," she said as the truck crunched to a stop in the gravel drive behind Katherine Willoughby's home.

  "I figure we could take care of the penance right now," I said. "Your apartment is empty, after all."

  "Only if you truly believe it would make you feel better," she responded; a mischievous glint in her eyes.

  I slid my hands along Gabriella's perfectly formed bottom and up to her waist, following the natural curve of her body. She threw her head back, her long black hair tickling my legs as it draped over me.

  "You're so beautiful," I said as we rocked together, enjoying the stolen moment.

  She picked up my hands and placed them over her petite breasts. I enjoyed the intimacy as she pushed forward, leaning in to kiss me. I closed my eyes, with no intention of moving my hands.

  "Do you really like my body?" she asked huskily as she released me for a breath.

  "You know I how I feel," I said.

  "Do I?" she asked. "It's not like I'm model quality and I'm pretty small up there." Gabriella motioned to where my hands rested.

  "I don't see it that way." I pushed her back into a seated position. "I think you're perfect."

  "You say that to all the girls," she said. "Wouldn't you like it if I had just a little more?"

  I frowned while brushing hair from her face. "No. Don't talk like that."

  "You're saying you would like it if I were more like Amak?" she asked, and as she did her breasts swelled slowly to more than a handful.

  "It's not about that," I said slowly, confused by the turn of events.

  "Sure it is... or maybe you'd prefer the ever sultry Willow?" Her breasts once again expanded into much more than a handful. The sight was both confusing and exciting all at once.

  "Take me, Felix," Willow's sultry voice begged. Dirty blonde hair flowed down her back as she arched in pleasure. Grabbing my shoulders, Willow flipped us over so she was on her back, beneath me. I pushed into her as she grabbed my neck and drew my face to hers.

  My tongue ran across a tusk and I jerked back. Instead of Willow, I was looking at Rose, Amak's curvy sister.

  "No! I can't do this." I tried to pull back from the voluptuous troll. I knew I should stop, but I couldn't.

  She rolled over on top of me. "But you want to." She'd completely transformed into the image of Rose, complete with wide hips, heavy chest and troll tusks. "And I want to." She ground into me as I fought against desire.

  "Get off!" I pushed her away and tried half-heartedly to slide out from underneath.

  "You'll have to work harder than that," she said, grabbing my wrists and pinning them to the bed. "Your mouth says no, but the little-man says yes." She rocked against me expertly and I fought to tamp down the growing lust. I wanted her to ride me for hours.

  "I can't. I don't do this," I said weakly. The thought of hurting Gabriella with my actions made me feel a sadness I couldn't escape.

  "That's it lover. Give in." She released my wrists so that she could stroke my forehead with her... clawed hand.

  "What the fuck?" I cried out as the glamour dropped away, revealing a sensuous female with gray-blue skin and rounded horns curling up from her scalp. Her hair was red close to the horns but changed to blue as it cascaded around her shoulders. A ridge of short barbs lined the edge of a long tail that flicked in the dim light.

  "Well, what have we here?" she asked.

  "Seriously, get off me!" This time when I pushed she pulled back easily and stepped onto the floor next to the bed. As I looked around, I realized I was no longer in Gabriella's apartment but a dungeon cell.

  "Oh Felix, I had no idea," she said. From between the spiny ridges running down her upper back, wings unfolded and she stretched like a cat waking from a long nap. She paced in front of me, flexing the leathery appendages out to full width before folding them back to hang behind her.

  "No idea about what? How did I get here? Where's Gabriella?" I asked.

  "It has been several centuries since I've been outed by a mortal," she said. "I thought I had you with Rose. She's a bit chunky for my taste, but I say, different strokes and all."

  I swung around and sat on the edge of the bed. I was definitely naked and none of my clothing was in sight. "Are you a succubus?"

  "What was your first clue, genius?" She pulled a bustier from a side table, looped it around her waist, and shimmied it up under her breasts. "Help me with my cords?"

  "What?"

  "These things don't put themselves on," she said. "Pull the strings toward you, not down. You'll bind if you do that." She backed up to where I sat, still naked on the bed. I didn't see a good reason why I wouldn't help her with her clothing, so I pulled on the cords. "Harder. You'll have to put your foot on my bum."

  "Are you serious?"

  "Dead," she said. "Look, it's not like I invented these, but I have to admit, I like the way they hold up the girls."

  "Why didn't you… You know…" I said.

  "Finish you off? I had you. But it's like you were raised by a preacher; guilt was knocking at the door and you were about to fold like a card table. I could hear it coming; how you were letting poor Gabriella down... blah, blah, blah. And really, I don't get it. She's pretty and all, but you could do better. So much baggage. You should ask her about her uncle Tomás Alarcón. Now there’s a man I could work with.”

  She sat on the bed next to me and slid on a pair of leather shorts. Her tail, warm to the touch, wrapped around my back and over my shoulder, its triangular shaped end caressing my chest.

  "Are you Syndicate?" I asked.

  "Syndicate? What a stupid human name," she said. "What did dear mother tell you? That you had to hold on to Gester or the Syndicate would get you?" She paused as she looked at my face. "Oh, she did. The classic lies never do go out of style. Let's see if your little brain can work with this. We're not looking for Gester. We know he's in the basement of your house."

  "And you're not trying to free him?" I said.

  "Uh, no," she said. "Gester ca
n go home anytime he wants. He's just waiting to see if you screw up."

  "What do you mean he can go home?"

  "Hate to be talking out of turn, but you did tighten my corset," she said. "And I did catch you looking at my bum. It's not that unusual for human men to fall for me in my natural form. Moth to flame and all."

  "You had a point?"

  "Vanquished. Exorcised. Purified. Driven out. They're all the same words for return to sender, no postage necessary."

  "Return to where?" I asked.

  "Mommy didn't spend much time educating Junior, did she? Makes me think she might be hiding something. Oh right. She is," she said. "Gester could return to Kaelstan any time he wants, dummy. Look it up. It's where demons come from."

  "Why were you attacking me?"

  "Sorry. That's past your pay grade," she said. "And I wouldn't particularly classify that as an attack."

  "I've read about your kind," I said. "You pull the essence from a man by ensnaring him with sex. Eventually they shrivel up and die."

  "I like to think of it as fucking them up."

  "You can take the girl out of the trailer park."

  "Touché."

  "What was the play here?" I asked. "Were you going to do that to me?"

  "It's a chess match. Someone was measuring you, checking out the competition. I'm sure they're done now," she said unconvincingly. She turned away and walked through the iron bars that surrounded the entire bed. For some reason, I hadn't seen them before, but as she approached they'd appeared.

  "You're just going to leave me here?" I asked. "What's your name?"

  "I couldn't take you with me if I wanted. And everyone calls me Fannie."

  Chapter 4

  Prior Bad Acts

  Sitting on the edge of the bed, I considered my predicament. First, I had no memory of arriving in the cell. The last thing I remembered was Gabriella turning the corner on the way to the bathroom for a shower. She'd been naked and I anticipated spending a few stolen moments with her before we headed home. Call it what you want, but I found the anticipation to be almost meditative in that it allowed me to push away the concerns of the night.

  The room I was in was a cell, but oddly ostentatious. The bed was topped with dark purple silk sheets and the frame was thick carved wood in the shape of a sleigh. The night stand had a book on it titled Open Relationships – A Guide to Mental Health. Its cover was a picture of me with Gabriella kissing one cheek and Amak the other.

  "Seriously, Fannie?" I tossed the book. It slid across the floor, coming to stop at the iron bars that surrounded the bed. I searched for my pants, found them puddled at the end of the bed, and slid them on. It was unlike me to take off my jewelry. I opened the drawer of the night stand and found the three items: a simply carved stick about the size of a half-used pencil, an opaque crystal, and a silver oak leaf, held together with a leather cord.

  The cell had no door but stood inside a much larger room with nothing else in it. The walls of the outer room were large rectangular blocks of dry stacked stone. Calcium stains and the smell of mildew suggested I was likely in a basement. A hallway exited on one end, curving so I could only see a few feet into it.

  The iron bars were cold to the touch and embedded into the floor and ceiling. When I pulled on them they didn't give.

  "Enjoying your new home?" The booming voice startled me and I jerked back from the bars. The demon who'd nearly killed me a year ago, and now lived trapped in my lab (or so I thought), emerged from the hallway. "Fannie says you're a quick study. I said it couldn't be. The baby wizard Slade I know needs his mommy for the simplest of tasks."

  "Is this your doing?" I asked.

  "You know, Fannie's way is so much more pleasant. It's a poor choice you've made." Gester snapped his fingers and an inclined wooden bench with straps for ankles, waist, wrists, neck and forehead, appeared next to him. "I do so prefer my methods, however."

  Gester strode toward me, unaffected by the cell's bars. I backed away until I could go no further, grasping the silver oak leaf around my neck.

  "Not tonight, dear boy." He snapped his fingers and a ball gag appeared, strapped around my mouth.

  Pain coursed through my body as his outstretched claw entered my chest. I must have passed out as the next thing I knew, I was strapped to the bench. Blood trickled down my forehead where the sharp studs on the clamp bit into my skin. I tried to talk, but the ball-gag stopped me.

  "You were saying?" he asked, roughly removing the gag.

  "What do you want from me?"

  "Pain. Suffering. Anguish. Did you believe you could keep me locked in your basement without my permission? I've been watching you and your pathetic friends, observing how you pine for that anemic witch. You're a disgrace to your family name." His hot breath smelled of anise. I couldn't see him, but his voice was directly behind me. The vibration of mechanical gears ratcheted as the straps around my body tightened.

  "She'll kill you," I said.

  "The Emira Atronia Baltazoss? I think not. We have an agreement. She leaves me alone and I don’t spill the beans about you. She’s not exactly the motherly type. I especially like that trap she left behind for your dear brother, Geoff. What a pantywaist; to die, hiding inside of a spell circle instead of facing the ghosts in the room. She must be so disappointed."

  "Get on with it," I said.

  "As you wish." A clunk reverberated through the bench and I felt pressure on the straps as the wood beneath my waist separated a few centimeters. A second and third clunk and the nature of the bench became clear; Gester was pulling me apart. "A wonderful invention, the rack, both simple and effective. I recall keeping a woman alive for nearly a week. I swear she had elastic joints."

  Two more clunks and the pain at my shoulders increased significantly. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to drive my spirit into the earth below. I was immediately rewarded with another clunk and howled in pain as my right shoulder dislocated.

  "Now, now, Dorothy," Gester said. "No reason to go anywhere. You'll not be finding any help from your dear Mother Earth. We just ain't in Kansas anymore."

  I continued to reach for the power I could feel was there, but the swirl of energy around me was nothing I recognized. Dark purple bolts coursed jaggedly through volcanic flows. A dark green blob seemed to recognize my presence and moved in my direction. Somehow, I knew better than to let it catch up to me and I moved away through the turbulent underworld. Unlike the mountains of North Carolina or the placid bedrock beneath my home, Tenebrius Manerium, Kaelstan was absolute churning chaos.

  I was oddly disconnected and felt split between the two realities. I could feel the pain of my joints being dislocated and I could even hear my own voice as I screamed in agony, but at the same time it seemed like I was watching from a distance. It wasn't like I was safe from the physical discomfort, but that I could both feel it and not at the same moment.

  "Tut. Tut," Gester said, drawing a claw across my bare stomach opening my skin. The pain was too much and my eyes flew open. "No place for an earth wizard down there. You're like a virgin in a vampire's nest."

  "What do you want from me?" I asked again.

  "Oh? Do I have your full attention now?"

  "Tell me," I said.

  "Where's the Key, Felix?" he asked.

  "What key?"

  Gester jumped on top of me, straddling my body. His weight pushed me down and caused a popping sound as a ligament in my leg stretched or gave way.

  "Don't be coy, wizard; your time is coming to an end. You were sent to Rosen's home for the Key. Who are you working for? Mac'IlleRuaidh? Georgiy?"

  "We were just there for artwork," I said. Tears ran down my face. "There were giants in the house."

  "Giants? What kind of giants?"

  "Big," I said and felt my grip on consciousness fade.

  "Stay with me, Slade," he said and drew a claw down the center of my chest. Fresh pain caused my eyes to flutter open and he jumped off. "You've given me good inform
ation. I'll reward that." For a moment, the pain increased and then the bench slid back, reducing some of the tension on my joints.

  "The giants, Slade. Describe them."

  "Gray. Angry. Deep voices. Destroyed the room until cops showed up," I said. The pain was still so intense I was more than willing to share any detail that would stop it.

  "Ogres. They must have been sent by someone and they don't normally do angry. Artifacts are a bit above their pay-grade. Did they find it?"

  "No," I said. "Cops came."

  The smell of rosemary and sandalwood slipped through my consciousness and for a moment I focused on Gabriella, as it was her perfume wafting across my nose.

  "Whatever you're doing," Gester said. "Stop it." A clunk on the bench and the pain in my joints returned tenfold.

  "Come back to me." Gabriella's wispy voice was like a cool breeze on a muggy summer's night.

  I focused on her and drove my spirit downward once again. I'd always shied away from the dark purple essence of my spirit. I felt it was dangerous, a cancer in my being. Here, in the underworld of Kaelstan, Gester was surely about to end me and no idea for escape was too crazy.

  Clunk. Clunk. My left arm dislocated to the pops and cracks of ligaments tearing. I reached for a fast-moving lightning bolt of purple and gold energy and drew it to me. The exhilaration of power surged through my spirit and I lashed out all at once, sending energy in every direction.

  "No!" Gester screamed as he was thrown into the far wall of the dungeon, just as searing pain lanced through my consciousness.

  I pushed through the pain and demolished the bench beneath me, flaying it with the purple and gold energy. Relief and pain in equal measure poured over me as I fell to the ground. Gester struggled to get up and I directed a final wave with the reserve I'd pulled from the underworld. He'd started to run for the hallway when the force of my attack tossed him like a rag doll caught in a breaker at the beach.