Prologue
The ringing stopped and Kate’s face appeared on Laurel’s laptop monitor. Beside her, her boyfriend Baz tried to maneuver into frame, but Kate refused to share the camera.
“Finally,” Kate said. “I am sooo sorry it’s taken this long to meet up with you. Things have been crazy so far this semester. I’ve got two classes back to back on opposite sides of campus. I swear the campus police are going to give me a speeding ticket!”
Baz managed to get two-thirds of his face on camera. “I’m looking into tricking out her wheelchair with a light bar and siren.”
Kate continued. “But I’m done making excuses. We need to hear why you’re not here with us at college for your sophomore year!”
“Okay, well,” Laurel began, “you know how over the summer I came to Montana to do magic studies with a bunch of other talented people our age?”
Kate nodded. “You went to wizard camp. Yes.”
Laurel giggled and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. Well, there was sex.”
“Wait,” Kate interrupted. “You are not quitting college just because you got a boyfriend!”
“No,” Laurel said, shaking her head. “Still no boyfriend. But I did have really good sex with two great guys. And there was a three-way with another girl, but that’s beside the point. The thing is, I sort of put a couple ideas together and invented a brand new form of divination.”
“And by ‘divination’, you mean...?” Kate asked. By now Baz had pulled up a chair and claimed a decent portion of the screen.
Laurel answered casually. “Discovering secrets through magic. Foretelling the future, finding lost things - stuff like that.”
Kate’s jaw dropped. “You invented predicting the future!?”
Laurel rolled her eyes again. “No! People have been doing that for millennia.”
Baz interjected: “Well, shit! Bring on the lottery numbers!”
Laurel shook her head. She enjoyed educating her mundane friends about magic, but sometimes their misconceptions seemed so silly to her. “You can’t use it like that. The more people who scry for a particular piece of information, the fuzzier it is for everyone. It’s sort of a tragedy of the commons situation.” Baz stroked his chin, trying to look intellectual as she explained. “It’s basically only practical for personal stuff - stuff nobody else would bother with.”
“Okay,” Kate said, “but you invented a new way to do it? And that’s a big deal?”
“Well, yeah!” Laurel said. “The most effective way until now has been to cut open live animals and inspect their guts. It’s ev ... cruel. My new way involves semen. Don’t you think that blowjobs are better than animal torture?”
Baz raised his hand and joked, “I have a strong opinion about this!”
Laurel continued her explanation. “Anyway, there’s still a lot of work to be done before I’m ready to publish it to the magic community. So I decided to stay here with Jennifer and my friend Theo and develop the technique. Probably a semester - maybe two. But I’m definitely coming back to college soon!”
“Huh,” Kate mused. “So you’re spending all day pouring over books and drawing diagrams with pentagrams and Viking runes and stuff?”
“Well, there’s a lot of that,” Laurel explained. “Jennifer is such an amazing mentor, and you should see her library! And she knows so many smart people! Mages from all over the world have helped us piece it all together. But a lot of it right now comes down to lots of experimentation. You know, practice, practice, practice!”
Baz feigned a whisper to Kate. “I think what she’s saying is she’s sucking this Theo guy’s dick twice a day for science.”
Laurel blushed. “I wish. Theo’s gay. He’s my wingman!” She sort of bounced around gleefully, saying it out loud. “He’s helped me meet a couple guys that I’m seeing regularly. We’re trying to gather a couple more. Theo is making me hang out in town a lot, talking to guys while dressed all slutty.”
Kate laughed. “Send pictures. I’d love to see what Laurel Reiser thinks is dressing slutty.” Laurel blushed and grinned.
“But none of these guys are boyfriend material?” Baz asked.
“Not so far. Steve is just, like, a friend. He works the morning shift at the coffee place. When he gets off work, we take sandwiches home to his place, and eat while watching an episode of X-Men - you know, the 90’s cartoon? And then I suck his dick and try to answer whatever questions Jennifer and Theo gave me. He takes a nap after that because he has to drive to a bigger town for community college every evening.”
She bounced her head from side to side before going on. “Another guy, Rick, isn’t even really a friend - he’s just a guy. He’s not even our age: he’s like thirty. He’s the bartender at the pizza place. Whenever I show up, he goes on break and I suck him off in the manager’s office.”
“You said this relies on sperm,” Baz wondered. “Do you, like, put it in a cauldron or something?”
Laurel shook her head and giggled. “They come on my chest or tummy. Anywhere on me, really, as long as I can see it. It’s all about the patterns it makes, like reading tea leaves or molten wax.”
“But stickier!” Baz added.
“Oh my god, so sticky!” Laurel giggled.
“Are you hoping one of these will turn into a romance? Or are you all business?” Kate asked.
“I hope?” Laurel answered. “I really do want a boyfriend. There was one guy who was sooo sexy! And he actually agreed to go out with me! But it turned out we had nothing in common. He’s into heavy metal and those dirt bike races with the mud and the big hills. At the end of the date, he was being a gentleman, saying that we weren’t right for each other and he didn’t want to take advantage of me. I had to beg him to let me give him head. I swore there would be no strings - he wouldn’t have to see me again. I think he thought I was trying to trap him somehow, but he finally let me.”
“And to think,” Kate mused, “a year ago you’d never given head before and were practically a virgin! I’m glad you’re doing something you believe in. Sounds like it’s fulfilling and maybe even fun.”
“Yeah,” Laurel beamed. “Tomorrow’s going to suck though.”
“What’s tomorrow?” Kate asked.
“I’ve got to do a demo for the Rocky Mountain Coven,” Laurel explained. “Jennifer says they’re basically gangsters. I know my mom didn’t like them either.”
“Then why do a demo for them?” Kate asked.
Laurel frowned. “They’ve been putting pressure on our friends. I told you that lots of people have helped us? The coven has been doing little things to screw them over. This really nice guy Benoit? For years he’s been buying medicinal reagents from some of their members - stuff he needs. Now they won’t sell to him. And Nancy’s son was all set to join the Albuquerque chapter, but his application got put on indefinite suspension. They say it’s unrelated, but they’re not very subtle. Jennifer said I had to decide. I just couldn’t let our friends down. It’s a small price to pay.”
“Well they sound like dicks,” Kate remarked.
“Yeah. But after tomorrow we’ll be done with them.”
Kate yawned, followed by Baz. He rubbed her back, conveying some sort of message in the secret touch language of long-term couples.
“I should go,” Laurel volunteered. “Thanks for talking to me.”
Kate leaned in toward the camera. “You are awesome, Laurel. Don’t ever forget it!”
“Seriously,” Baz agreed. They all waved and then ended the call.
Chapter 1
The doorbell rang and Theo went to answer it.
Jennifer watched Laurel squirm while she waited. She felt bad about whatever the young prodigy would soon endure. Laurel possessed both a highly intuitive grasp of the secret mechanisms of the world and a talent for the human constructs used to articulate, manipulate, and bind them. She freely floated from one point of view to another without getting hung up: if metaphor wasn’t useful she would switch to melody or geometry without a second thought. And yet, for all of Laurel’s genius, she was hobbled by her insecurity, anxiety, and naivete.
Laurel rose to her feet when Theo brought the guests into the living room. The crutches leaning against Jennifer’s chair made it clear that her refusal to stand wasn’t a slight.
“Olivia Ripley and Benedict Wilson from the Rocky Mountain Coven,” Theo announced. He gestured and they sat on the couch. Laurel sat back in her chair with her legs folded under her and Theo sat on the floor in front of her.
Olivia couldn’t have been more than a year or two past forty. She was dressed in a smart gray pencil skirt and blazer with a red satin blouse underneath - the kind of outfit one would see in a corporate acquisition meeting. She moved with graceful confidence, and when she sat down, she crossed her legs in a way that seemed calculated to send a message, although Jennifer didn’t know what that message was. The coven hadn’t sent their wisest scholar or a member of their council; they had sent a recruiter.
Benedict, on the other hand, was a honey trap. He was in his mid-twenties, with blue eyes and full golden hair. He was wearing a jacket and slacks, but Jennifer had no doubt that beneath his clothes he had a body that belonged in a Hollywood beach volleyball scene. His face was kind; his demeanor attentive. He looked like an ad agency had been told to invent someone who embodied “benevolent masculinity”. Jennifer wondered if he had been chosen as a result of research on Laurel’s tastes in men.
“I can’t thank you enough for granting us this demonstration,” Olivia said, sweeping her gaze across the room and stopping to make eye contact with each member of Laurel’s team.
“Laurel is generous to a fault,” Jennifer answered and smiled insincerely.
Olivia leaned forward and focused all of her attention on Laurel. “I’m sure you know, but the whole mage community is in awe of what you and your companions are accomplishing here. It’s exciting and inspiring. You are inspiring! And if your Spermamancy lives up to even a fraction of our expectations, you will be changing the world!”
She sat upright once again, addressing the room. “I know that Jennifer here has a fiercely independent nature and a healthy skepticism about our coven. Your mother did too, and I respect that. I’m glad that we all agree that the importance of this development transcends petty philosophical differences.”
“Have you ever noticed,” Jennifer grumbled, “that it’s only ever the dominant party who dismisses differences as ‘petty’?” Olivia gave her a respectful nod of acknowledgment.
“You knew my mom?” Laurel asked.
“I only had the pleasure of meeting her twice,” Olivia said, “but a woman like Clover Monroe-Reiser isn’t quickly forgotten. She talked about you, you know. She was so proud to watch you grow - both as a mage and as a young woman.” She looked around at all the faces watching her. “I could go on and on, but I don’t wish to abuse Jennifer’s hospitality.”
A well-baited hook, Jennifer mused. She wondered whether any of it was true.
“Perhaps now’s a good time to begin the demonstration,” Jennifer suggested.
“Oh, wonderful! Yes!” Olivia said. “If you wish, Benedict here would be happy to participate in whatever in whatever way you require.”
“Um, yes. Thank you,” Laurel said. She walked to the end table, picking up a deck of children’s alphabet flashcards. “Is there something in particular you’d like me to scry on? We’ve been using these. They’ve got colors and shapes and letters.” She timidly handed the deck to Olivia. “You can shuffle them and I can forecast the top card. Or, if you’d like something else...”
Olivia took the cards from Laurel as if being given a precious gift. “These will do wonderfully. Thank you.” She briefly inspected the cards, shuffled them, and set them back on the end table.
Laurel moved to a blanket in the middle of the room and gestured to Benedict. He joined her and they looked at each other. “Hi,” she said and waved with her fingers.
“Miss,” he said, nodding politely.
She looked like a slip of a girl before him. Her body was lean but unathletic, giving an adolescent sheen to her young woman’s shape. Often Jennifer had thought that she would look more natural riding a bike or skipping down a beach rather than burying her head in piles of books or performing fellatio.
She took a scrunchie from her wrist and made a ponytail out of her lustrous hair. It was a lovely auburn: rich reds hidden among the brown, revealed at the whims of light. She never seemed to appreciate how beautiful it was though: she had occasionally lamented not being a “real redhead” like her mother.
She lowered herself to her knees and took off her T-shirt, leaving her bare-chested. After glancing around nervously, her hands moved part-way toward Benedict’s pants, but then she stopped. She asked, “May I?”
“Yes ma’am,” the coven’s man-candy answered.
Laurel took a deep breath and pulled down his pants. His erection wasn’t anything unusual: average-sized, hard, and straight. To Jennifer’s sensibilities, it was quite appealing. Laurel took it in her mouth and began pleasuring him. There were no sounds except the occasional lip-smack or saliva-slurp, and the occasional soft murmur that she probably made unconsciously. She kept one hand on the floor in front of her while the other handled his balls or shaft.
Olivia’s full attention was on the sex-act, and of course, the accompanying magical manifestations. Theo watched just as intently. Laurel’s eyes stayed mostly closed, but she periodically glanced upward to check in with her partner. Sometimes, instead, she would glance nervously at the people watching her. Benedict mostly looked at nothing in particular, but sometimes he smiled at Laurel and occasionally stole a glance at Theo.
In time, Benedict began a series of soft throaty moans. Laurel, working the penis with just her mouth now, held up her hands for Olivia’s benefit, and formed shapes to manipulate the ambient energies. A spell was never exactly the same twice: it was always a puzzle to be solved about how to nudge, convert, amplify, cascade, nullify, or overwhelm a vast collection of ever-changing, mostly invisible circumstances. A spell wasn’t a cookbook: it was a toolbox and the experience of how those tools could be used together to solve a particular kind of problem.
Laurel leaned back and worked Benedict’s cock in her delicate hand. She looks up at him hopefully while she gave his dick well-practiced tugs, and before long he ejaculated on her slender body. “Thank you,” she whispered to her partner, and then, after glancing around again, she lay on her back on the blanket. Theo tucked a pillow under her head.
Olivia knelt beside the young woman and inspected the lines of semen with great interest. Benedict joined once he had his pants on properly. Laurel pointed with her left hand as she explained her interpretations of the various patterns. The top card was the elephant, she concluded. Her right hand flexed - an outlet for the anxiety she was feeling from being at the the center of so much scrutiny. Olivia checked the flashcard deck and confirmed that the top card was, in fact, the elephant.
Olivia’s questions seemed to have no end. Laurel endured while the guests stared at her half-naked body and examined the patterns of energy both upon and within her. Theo gave her his hand and she squeezed tightly while her nervousness built up. After a time, Jennifer suggested that Laurel go clean up. She grabbed her shirt and scampered to the bathroom. When she returned she sat in the easy chair, curled up with her knees to her chest and Theo sat on the floor in front of her with his hand on her bare foot.
“What is your road map from here?” Olivia asked. “What are your immediate goals?”
After realizing that Jennifer wasn’t going to answer, Laurel reluctantly responded. “Well, most of the challenges around producing the forecast are solved. But we need to build a whole new lexicon - figure out how the expressions form for particular problem domains. And that just means lots of trial and error. We figured in a couple months we’ll have enough of the basics worked out that we can hand it off to others and Theo and I can go back to college.”
“And to whom would you be handing it off?” Olivia asked.
“Well,” Laurel puzzled at the question, “to everyone. Anyone who wants it.”
Olivia spoke softly. “Do you think that’s wise?”
Jennifer reluctantly steeled her visage when Laurel looked to her for help. Laurel knew the right answer, but Olivia’s honeyed tongue was a test she needed to face alone. And it was likely just beginning.
“I’m sure you recognize how dangerous this sort of magic could be,” Olivia prodded. Laurel looked to Theo. He gave her a sympathetic look but said nothing. “This is the sort of power that topples empires if used irresponsibly. You might consider whether you have a duty to safeguard it. Put it in the hands of people with the wisdom to use it only for the best reasons. Only to help people.”
Laurel’s eyes looked big and vulnerable. Jennifer screamed at herself to go to the girl’s rescue, even as she told herself that she had already done all she could to prepare her for this.
Laurel looked at the floor while she spoke, almost too softly to hear. “I don’t mean any disrespect ma’am, but I don’t know if I can trust you to be those people.”
Olivia nodded earnestly. “That’s fair. But I would love an opportunity to show you. To introduce you to some of our leaders and sages - and a few people your age who I think you’d find interesting. I’d love to show you around our Denver campus.”
Olivia was moving her head trying to catch Laurel’s eye. “And there is another consideration. I can see that Jennifer would move the earth to support you in every way she can, but she is just one person. Can you honestly say that as your research progresses, you’ll have everything you need? In this house? In this town? We can give you research assistants. We can give you a library that is, to be blunt, better than Jennifer’s. We can give you test subjects - as many beautiful boys as you could possibly want, to use however you see fit.”
Her voice became just a little harder. “And then there’s the issue of safety.”
With great difficulty, Laurel raised her eyes and met with Olivia’s. “Thank you, but I’d like to stay here.”
The tiniest hint of smugness appeared on Jennifer’s face as she stared at Olivia, daring her to make her next play.
Olivia stood up. “Well, I appreciate you hearing me out. It’s obvious that this is something to which you’ve given considerable thought. And I thank you for the demonstration. Everyone back home will be thrilled to hear what you’ve taught us here today.” She pulled a stack of business cards from her pocket and handed one to each of the team. “If there’s ever anything that the coven or I personally can do for you, please call. Or if you’d just like to talk. About your mother, perhaps.”
Theo rose and began ushering the guests to the door. Laurel stood and began to move, but Jennifer held up her hand, bidding her to stay. Once they heard the door close, Jennifer rose, leaving her crutches behind, walked slowly but confidently to Laurel, and threw her arms around her for the first time.
“Why are you crying?” Laurel asked.
“It’s a teacher thing,” Jennifer answered with unmistakable pride.
Chapter 2
Preparing breakfast was a well-rehearsed routine for the three members of the household: Theo cooked eggs and bacon, Laurel set the table and poured juice, and Jennifer made coffee and toast. They called the breakfast table the “war room”, where they prepared each day’s plan.
“Theo will hide the Matchbox car again?” Jennifer asked, referring to the inch-long steel toy car they used for some of their tests.
“Make it a tough one this time!” Laurel requested confidently.
Jennifer nodded as if ticking off a box on a mental checklist. “What about the flashcards? Are they still valuable to practice with?”
Laurel shook her head. “I don’t really feel like I’m learning much from those anymore.”
“Very well. We’ll put those on the shelf for now, and come back to them later when we have more perspective. I’ll start preparing some of our other ideas. For now, your second challenge is to predict tomorrow’s soup of the day at the Shea Hotel.”
Theo laughed. “Soup?”
Jennifer gave him a slight smile. “We’ll do nuclear launch codes later in the week.” To Laurel she asked, “Is two enough for today, or do you need more?”
“I don’t think I’ll meet up with more than two guys today. If I do, there’s always the dice under the cup on the mantel. I still haven’t peeked.”
“Good,” Jennifer said. “Laurel, if you’ve got time after breakfast, I’d like your help clarifying some emails with the Vancouver trio. Theo, you’re planning on working on that cloud storage project? Good.”
As usual, Laurel met Steve at the coffee shop, and they picked up sandwiches on the walk back to his home. His landlady, Mrs. Mercer, looked up from her gardening to smile at the young man and woman as they crossed her yard to the guest house that he rented.
They sat on the couch and ate, watching an episode of the retro cartoon that they both enjoyed. The rule was that they both had to watch all the way through the end of the closing theme, but that didn’t prohibit Laurel’s hand on Steve’s crotch squeezing him hard in anticipation. She very much enjoyed it when she squeezed his cock and it pulsed back. She wondered how much of that was a reflex versus a conscious answer.
The song ended, Steve clicked off the TV, and Laurel began to rise from the couch, but Steve stopped her. “I am really enjoying the routine we’ve got here, but I wonder if we could try something different.”
“Like what?” She asked innocently.
Sitting side by side, Steve slowly tugged at the bottom of her shirt, untucking it until there was enough space to reach inside. She shuddered when his hand touched her belly and glided across her skin. The fingers of his other hand slipped inside her short sleeve and moved in circles over her shoulder. She gave him a coy smile that she meant to be mysterious, but there was no mystery: the answer was yes.
He pulled her shirt up over her head, tossed it aside, and then leaned in to kiss the gentle slopes above her bra. His right hand kept stroking circles on her shoulder, but his left roamed up and down her side. She smiled and made a sound that was something like a satisfied chuckle.
Her bra came loose - her breasts were exposed. He laid her down on the couch and hovered on top of her, preparing to take a bite. Her little stiff nipple exploded with sensation as his mouth descended on it. He was gentle, but the feeling was powerful. Her other breast was surrounded by his hand, treated to a squeezing rolling motion that she found quite comfortable and arousing.
He fingered the button of her jeans. “Is kissing allowed?”
She laughed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
He kissed down to her belly button and then back up to her breasts. He shrugged. “I had a friend who had a rule: she would fool around with a handful of guys, but she insisted that kissing was reserved for serious romantic relationships. Just checking. I didn’t think that’s what we have.”
She pulled him to her face and kissed him. Her legs opened as his body slid across hers, and his hips ground into her thrillingly. “Nope!” She said playfully, ending the kiss. “We’re fuck buddies! Er, well..., I mean I think we’re about to be?”
“In a bit,” he agreed.
He dropped off the couch to his knees and his fingers worked her zipper. He shimmied her pants off her hips, taking her floral-print panties halfway with them. She stretched and closed her legs to allow him to take them all the way off, after first dealing with her boots.
She was sure she had an embarrassingly large wet spot on her panties. When she was aroused she secreted a freakish amount. Normally she hated that about herself, but this time it didn’t bother her. Somehow she knew that Steve wouldn’t care. Anyway, it didn’t take long before her panties were gone, and his face touched her pussy.
It was nice! It was so nice! For all the blowjobs she’d given lately, she’d forgotten what it was like to have someone pamper her with their mouth. Her face went flush and she smiled from ear to ear. She wriggled as the pleasure flowed through her. And then Steve’s brown eyes were looking into hers.
“Hey - indulge me,” he said. She raised an eyebrow. “Play with your tits while I make you come.”
She chuckled but played along. And somehow, because he had asked, it was way more exciting than she expected. She squeezed her breasts with both hands and sometimes tugged her nipples. Meanwhile, his tongue darted at her clit from every possible angle. She moaned, rising in pitch.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he told her.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Tell me what’s going to happen,” he insisted. His tongue increased the ferocity of its onslaught.
“I’m gonna come,” she said, embarrassed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!” She giggled breathlessly. “I’m gonna ... I’m. Ahh. Ahhh. Mmm! Coming! I’m coming!”
When she came down from her high, his eyes were watching hers for a sign. His tongue had slowed to a gentle simmer.
“Inside, please?” She asked playfully.
“Fingers or dick?”
“Dick!”
“My pleasure,” he said. He stood and worked on taking off his pants. “Should I get a condom?” He asked. She shook her head, grinning like a madwoman. “But you want me to come on your stomach, right?”
“Yes!” She answered eagerly.
Naked from the waist down, he climbed on top of her and filled pussy up with his cock. He rolled his hips creating the wonderful moving fullness that she craved. One of her legs was draped across the back of the sofa while the other foot was flat on the floor. One arm was over her head on the armrest while the other stroked the shirt of the man whose weight bore down on her. It didn’t take her long to come again. This time she didn’t use words to announce it: her mouth released unmistakable noises of sexual pleasure.
Even as carnal spasms echoed through her, a part of her mind centered on the Matchbox car, and set about twisting arcane powers to seek its hiding place. She made well-practiced hand symbols out of her partner’s sight and finished her spell, more or less, pending a few final adjustments. He knelt upright, pulled his dick out of her pussy, and spewed jizz all over her torso.
He took a step back and watched her examining his come on her soft pale skin.
“You’re staring at me,” she said bashfully.
“You’re so weird,” he chuckled. “It’s weird how you always look at it after,” he teased.
“I mean, you gave it to me. It’s a gift,” she explained sweetly. She stood up and went to the bathroom, grabbing her phone to snap pictures and record a few notes.
Laurel left Steve to nap and walked out toward the street. As she passed by Mrs. Mercer, the landlady touched her arm. “I’m so glad you two found each other,” she confided.
At first, Laurel was confused, but the old woman gave her a look that seemed to say, “It’s okay - I know.” This was the first time she and Steve had done it, and she had probably been a bit loud.
“Thank you,” Laurel told her.
“You know, I told him: as soon as he meets a nice country girl, he’ll forget all about Houston,” Mrs. Mercer added. Laurel had never thought of herself as a country girl and she had no idea what Houston was about, but she smiled politely and nodded goodbye.
Plans to meet Theo at the crafts store led Laurel on a different path than she normally walked. On the opposite side of the street there was a pet supply store where, outside next to the door, a pen full of puppies were pouncing and rolling around with each other. Above the pen was a sign - “Free to a loving home”. Next to it, a handsome young man in a store apron watched over them.
“Puppies!” Laurel cried as she dashed across the empty street. She knelt and offered her hands to the pups, who assailed them with tongues and wet noses. “You are so cute!”
She looked up at the store employee, who seemed to appreciate her enthusiasm. “Do they have names?” She asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Maybe you should give them some.”
Laurel considered the challenge. She picked up one with brown floppy ears and let it lick her face. “I think we should call this cutie-pie Ochaco,” she declared.
“Does that make the little guy over there chewing on the bars Bakugo?” He joined in. Laurel smiled at him, tickled that he understood her anime reference.
She put the first puppy down and pointed to the remaining ones: “And Kaminari, and Ida!” She finished.
“I think that one’s a girl,” the store boy cautioned.
“Momo, then,” she said with a nod as if they’d just brokered some great deal. She petted them each once more and then stood up.
The boy had a masculine rectangular face. His black hair was neat, except for one lock in front that looked like it always refused to conform. The apron accentuated his build: wide shoulders with narrow hips.
“Will they be here long?” She asked.
“I bet they get adopted quickly,” he replied. “They’re mixes, but they’ve got some good working dog genes.”
She looked at his name tag. “Dylan,” she said, as it trying the name out on her tongue. All of her normal instincts told her to stay and talk: ask if he had a dog; if he had a girlfriend; what other anime he likes; what sort of girls he’s into. Theo would have insisted that all of that was wrong. She had, largely by luck, made a good first impression. Go out on a win; leave him wanting more.
“I guess I’ll have to come visit them again tomorrow!” She turned and walked away. She desperately wanted to look back to see if he was watching her, but she worried it might seem pathetic.
“Don’t I get to know your name?” He called when she was fifteen feet away.
She spun around without stopping. “Laurel,” she said with a smile, walking backward. She stumbled when she turned back around, but covered it with a transition to a jog.
After picking up Jennifer’s craft supplies, Laurel and Theo spent some time working at the library. In the late afternoon, they stopped by Riley’s: the town pizza place and hangout. The bartender Rick poured them two beers without being asked, despite knowing quite well that she was underage. They drank for a little while listening to the music.
When Rick told the waiter he was going on break, Theo took both beers over to a table by the dartboard to wait. Laurel stood by the door to the back room until Rick opened it for her, leading her to a small office.
“New jacket?” He observed, unbuckling his pants.
“Yeah,” she said, setting down her backpack, taking off her jacket, and pulling her hair into a ponytail. “Well, new to me. My aunt Jennifer gave it to me.”
He pulled his pants down and stroked his dick, waiting for her. She got on her knees in front of him. “You don’t have to wait to take your shirt off,” he suggested. “If you want. Be nice to have something to look at,” he shrugged.
“Sure,” she said and stripped her top half naked.
He leaned against the wall and groaned softly while she sucked his dick. “Ahh, I fucking needed this,” he said as he eased into it. After a while, he came on her chest and then patted her head while she looked up at him. After he left, she took a picture, wrote some notes, cleaned up, and left.
When Laurel returned to Theo, one beer was gone and the other was half-empty. He was frowning. “Have you ever checked a guy out and had him react with complete disgust?” He asked. “That just happened to me twice.”
“I’m sorry,” she said with deep empathy. “We’re going to find you a guy. You’ll have a boyfriend and tons of sex and everything in the world you deserve. I know if you were in the city you’d have lots of dates. I’m sorry for needing you so much!”
For the fourth time that evening, Laurel returned to Jennifer’s office. She had been so sure she knew where the Matchbox car was hidden. There were so many indications that all fit: it had to be somewhere near the antique loveseat with the ugly upholstery by the window. She had searched everywhere - under the pillows, between the cushions, underneath, besides the feet. She had even frisked the pillows and cushions in case Theo had somehow hidden it inside. She just couldn’t find it.
When she finally admitted defeat, Jennifer told her, “Good. We can learn from this. Theo, leave it where it is. Laurel will try again tomorrow.”
The soup challenge had been easy: cream of asparagus.
Chapter 3
The next day Steve felt Laurel up during the ending credits. Once the music was ended and the TV clicked off, she was in his lap, topless, grinding against his still-clothed pants while he sucked and kissed her delicate breast tip.
“Your landlady says we make a cute couple,” she mentioned. “I didn’t tell her that I’m just using you for your dick,” she teased. He moved his mouth to her other breast and gave the exposed wet nipple a light pinch with his fingers. “She also said something about you forgetting Houston, which is weird because I thought you said you’d always lived here.”
He undid her jeans and lifted her enough to let her wiggle out of them. “I had a girlfriend last year who moved to Houston,” he explained. “I was tempted to go with her, but, you know, it would have been a disaster.”
Soon, his pants were open enough for his cock to be free, and Laurel rode it, up and down. He tickled her sides while she came, which she told him was horribly, horribly unfair, but she still looked up at him appreciatively when he flipped her onto the couch and let semen fly across her naked body.
The patterns in the jizz regarding the matchbox car were mostly the same, but she noticed a few details that she hadn’t the previous day.
Laurel stopped by the pet food store again, as eager to see Dylan as the puppies.
“Bakugo’s gone!” She observed as she greeted the remaining puppies with her hands.
“Yup!” Dylan told her. “Family of five: Mom, dad, teen girl, ten-year-old boy, and a toddler.”
She stood and faced him. “Are they going to keep his name?” She normally wasn’t this brave with boys, but somehow the puppies gave her confidence.
He shook his head. “Sounded like they had their hearts set on ‘Dodger’.” She made a sour face.
They talked more - at first about animals. Dylan’s dad was a veterinarian for a number of the area’s farms and ranches, and Dylan had often helped him out. Laurel told him that she planned to go to veterinary school after college, but she wasn’t sure what sort of practice she wanted. He told her that he was considering joining the Air Force, but that his parents had insisted he work for a year before making the decision.
Laurel was surprised to receive a text from Tyler - the guy she’d had a disappointing date with, and whom she had then begged to give a blowjob.
Tyler: Hey. I know this sounds really presumptuous, but I can’t get that BJ out of my head. And I sort of got the impression you’d be willing to do it again? No strings?
Laurel: Sure! I’d like that!
Tyler: You’re awesome. Let me send you the address. Think you can come by this afternoon?
The address turned out to be a closed-down auto mechanic shop from which loud harsh music was coming. She opened the door and peered in. Tyler and his band were practicing. He set his guitar down and told the band to take five, and then approached her.
“Hey! What do you think?” He asked.
Laurel shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t really know anything about heavy metal,” she said evasively.
“I get it,” he chuckled. “Pretty much no one around here likes us. But we’re starting to build a video presence.”
“That’s ... cool,” she said, not sure what was going on.
Tyler laid on a sexy smile and brushed back his long hair. He had the looks and charisma to be a band frontman, for sure. “Look, I was sort of hoping you’d be willing to blow me while I sing.”
“What, in front of those other guys?” She asked, stunned.
“They’ll be too busy playing to pay much attention.” He touched her arm seductively. “You give the best head of any girl I know. And you don’t have all the stupid hangups that girls around here have. It’s kind of a rock and roll rite of passage, you know?” She frowned with indecision, so he strengthened his appeal. “Just a one-time thing. Look, I know this sounds like complete bullshit, but I think this is what I need to take my music to the next level.”
Laurel smiled reservedly and shrugged. “I guess I can try.”
Tyler went back in and the band immediately resumed playing loudly. The whole band watched her while she set her things down and took off her jacket. The drummer, it turned out, was a girl, which doubled her nervousness. Guys watching her give head was one thing, but a girl? A girl wouldn’t just be judging her, but also her technique.
She pushed her doubts aside, fought through the wall of noise, and sucked Tyler off. It took a few bumps in the head from his guitar to learn how to position herself safely. As Tyler neared his limit, Laurel took off her shirt but left her bra on. There was nowhere to hide her hand signs as she worked magic, but she figured the band was mostly focusing on playing anyway. The environment presented some new magical challenges - the noise, the intensity, the construction - but they were nothing she couldn’t handle.
Finally, Tyler spewed. She had hoped to catch it all on her belly, but a lot ended up on her bra. She ran to the bathroom to take notes and clean up, and then exited the shop, waving goodbye while the band still played.
After giving Rick head and gathering yet more clues about the location of the Matchbox car, Laurel and Theo decided to stay at Riley’s for trivia night.
In-between rounds, Laurel went to the ladies’ room. “What’s your deal anyway?” A girl washing her hands asked conversationally. It took Laurel a moment to realize that she was the drummer from the band, earlier.
“What do you mean?” Laurel asked uneasily.
The girl finished washing her hands and began drying them. She was pretty - blonde with a pixie cut and blue eyes. She was about Laurel’s age. She was wearing the same ripped jeans as she had been at practice, but she had changed into a nicer top.
“Is it, like, daddy issues?” She asked, seemingly without malice. “Were you abused, or did you used to be fat or something?”
“I don’t ... No. What do you mean?” Laurel struggled.
“I’m just trying to figure out why you don’t respect yourself,” the blonde girl explained.
Laurel froze. She couldn’t think of anything to say. After realizing she wouldn’t get an answer, the girl headed for the door. “Nice job on the trivia,” she said as she left. “You guys are really cleaning up out there.”
Laurel found the Matchbox car. So many of the signs had pointed to the ugly antique loveseat, but there were a few details she’d missed the first time around. Ultimately she found it: not in Jennifer’s office, but in an unused bedroom full of furniture covered by tarps. The car was on the seat of the loveseat’s twin: an antique chair with the same ugly upholstery.
Chapter 4
“I’m curious, Laurel,” Jennifer asked over breakfast, “do you ever adjust your glamour while performing oral on your young men?” Theo smirked and raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, no? Am I supposed to?”
Jennifer tapped her pen to the edge of her teacup. “We’ve established that the greater the sexual chemistry between the participants, the easier the invocation is to manage, right? That’s why Theo isn’t a helpful test partner, for instance. So it stands to reason that it’s worthwhile to take steps to improve your partner’s arousal and excitement.” Laurel nodded, a bit defensively. “Tell me, what sort of glamour do you usually use?”
“Alison taught me to draw attention to my legs, butt, and hair,” Laurel explained. The memory of her former teacher elicited a swirl of conflicting feelings. “She said those were my best qualities.”
Jennifer nodded. “Okay. But if you’re on your knees in front of a man and he’s looking down at you, what does he see?”
“I guess ... my eyes? And my mouth?” Laurel answered.
“Now you’re getting it,” Theo joined in.
“And often your breasts,” Jennifer added.
Laurel shook her head. “Alison told me that emphasizing them would backfire because they’re so small!”
“Laurel,” Jennifer said with a compassionate head tilt, “how old were you when Alison gave you that advice?”
“Fifteen, I think?”
“So you were in your first year of high school - less physically mature than most of the girls around you,” Jennifer speculated. “I’d wager that many of them had lower necklines and tighter shirts than you, too. Alison’s advice was probably good for that point in your life, but you’ve grown up a lot since then.” She chuckled. “And lately your wardrobe has certainly changed.”
“But they’re still small,” Laurel argued.
“They’re small, but you’re far from flat. You have a lovely woman’s figure,” Jennifer told her. “A lot of men like them small, but anyway you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. If you want to, you can tune your glamour to make them look bigger, or just emphasize their shape. When I was your age, my best friend used to regularly win wet T-shirt contests. She had a body like yours. I’m just saying, it’s easy to make adjustments that can have a big effect.”
“Works for fighting, too,” Theo added. “Make them focus on your left hand and then they’ll never see your right coming.”
“Okay,” Laurel said, opening the notes app on her phone. “Anything else I should try?”
Jennifer shrugged. “It’s always surprised me that you’ve never done anything with the color of your hair.” Laurel’s jaw dropped with the revelation.
Only one puppy was left outside the pet supply store.
“Did you do something different with your hair?” Dylan asked Laurel.
“No,” she shook her head casually. “Maybe the light just likes me today,” she said with a playful shrug.
“The light likes you a whole lot,” he answered with a wink.
Laurel picked up the remaining puppy and stood, holding it to her chest while it licked her hands with great determination. Despite all of Dylan’s efforts at chivalry, he could not take his eyes off Laurel’s cleavage.
“So, my dad’s on call tonight. There’s a horse that’s going to give birth any day now.” He explained. “I told him you were going to be a vet. He checked with the ranch and they said it would be okay if you observed. If you want.”
“Really?” She said, bouncing with excitement. She set the puppy down and then started toward him, but then glanced at her hands and stopped. “I would hug you but my hands are covered with puppy drool.”
Dylan patted her hands dry with the end of his apron. They shared a look that acknowledged the hidden intimacy of the moment.
“So, ah, give me your phone number and I’ll let you know if anything happens, okay?”
Just before the practice began, Bruce had watched Tyler typing out a text on his phone and grinning like an idiot. He wondered if it was to that girl again - the girl who’d come in yesterday and sucked Tyler off while they played. Tyler didn’t deserve a girl like that. Tyler didn’t need a girl like that - she wasn’t even his type! Tyler liked girls with big boobs and big hair who were drawn to stripper poles and even living in a small town, he managed to find plenty. Waifish good girls were Bruce’s type. But Tyler had all the blessings that were the gods’ to give, whereas all Bruce had were very fast fingers and a good sense of rhythm.
Sure enough, a little while later, the girl showed up. Nobody stopped playing. She set her backpack and jacket down by the door and took off her button-down shirt, leaving her in a tight gray tank top. Then she put on a pair of earmuffs - hearing protection for shooting ranges or construction sites. Was this girl even a fan? She unhooked her bra and somehow wiggled out of it without removing the shirt.
She was so fucking pretty. The thin fabric of her tank top stretched across her chest - Bruce could basically see everything. The great thing about small breasts, he figured, was that they never sag. There was plenty there to fill up a hand with supple springy girl flesh - why would you need more than that? You couldn’t titty-fuck a girl like this, but what’s the point when she’s got a mouth like that and, well ... He was sure that what she had going on under her skirt was even better.
Her skirt was pretty short too, but she had some black tights or stockings, so he couldn’t admire her legs as much as he wanted to. Still, the skirt tapered toward a narrow waist that just begged for a man’s hands. He wanted to lift up her tank top and kiss her belly button. He wanted to do a lot of things. But it didn’t matter - she was Tyler’s girl.
She moved a sheet of cardboard to the floor in front of Tyler to protect her knees - or maybe her tights - and then she pulled down his pants and began. Her lips were so ... something. Something amazing. Her lips, on Tyler’s cock. Of course, he had a smug smile. To his credit, Tyler kept playing his guitar and singing - although his was the easier guitar part. Bruce could only imagine what it felt like inside her mouth moving slowly back and forth. Sometimes she looked up into Tyler’s eyes like she was telling him she loved him and would do anything for him. So fucking unfair!
She pulled off her shirt and returned to sucking him. Her beautiful perfect breasts jiggled only slightly while she leaned forward and back on his cock. The muscles in her throat were moving, so she was sucking or swallowing or something, even though she was only working on the first two inches. He wondered what her nipples felt like.
She did something with her hands - something like sign language, although he couldn’t imagine why. Then she leaned back and jerked Tyler’s cock until he sprayed all over her. So fucking unfair.
She stood up, covered with come, as if she was about to leave, but Tyler captured her attention. He jerked his head, which seemed like some sort of question. She tossed her head from side to side indecisively. At least Bruce got a good look at her naked come-covered chest as she walked to the bathroom.
A surprisingly long time later, she came back out. She still had her earmuffs on and she was still topless, but now her arms were crossed in front of her breasts. In a way, Bruce pondered, that made her even cuter. She was half-naked but modest. She was shy but had just given a blowjob in front of three strangers. Her eyes sparkled with innocence even as her flat tummy tantalized with thoughts of sex. She was an innocent dirty girl. Fucking hot. She probably had a bedroom full of stuffed animals who had watched her fuck her boyfriends countless times over the years.
She didn’t go to Tyler where her tank top was, or to the door where all of her other stuff was. Instead, she hesitantly walked up to Bruce. As surprised as he was, he kept playing. At first, she smiled, unsure of herself, and then she waved. Then she spoke - probably a dozen words or so - but of course he couldn’t hear her.
He looked at the band to get a feel for whether they would consider a break. Tyler was grinning at him, but the look on Skye’s face was a withering no.
She glanced at Tyler and then tried again: this time a short message mouthed clearly: “May I?” That had to be what she asked because she pointed down at his crotch. Stunned, he nodded enthusiastically. Tyler nodded aggressively and grinned some more.
A girl was taking off Bruce’s pants. A girl whose breasts he could see, now that her hands were busy. He was hard, of course: when her delicate hand closed on his shaft he felt like he was harder than he’d ever been in his life. Her eyes were beautiful. It was like she was looking up at him, asking if this would make him happy. Her lips were wet and colorful - but naturally colorful, not like makeup. She gave him a few modest tugs while her mouth approached his dick. Her breath was warm on his dick. And then...! Oh god, the feeling! Her tongue was so warm and wet and loving. His cock was enveloped by her suckling smooth mouth.
Bruce did his best to keep playing, but he was experiencing pleasure like he’d never known. He watched his dick go in and out of her pretty mouth. He missed a note - lost his rhythm. Her blue eyes glanced up at him and connected with him. She wanted to please him - he could see it in her eyes. He missed more notes. Skye was probably glaring at him but he wouldn’t look up from this angel to see.
He lost it. His arms fell limp at his side and his head rolled back. The tension was building inside him demanding release - totally at odds with her slow sensual strokes and sucks. He could feel himself leaking into her mouth. He touched her cheek and she looked up into his eyes, happy. Then she released his dick from her mouth and jerked him very briefly until he came on her lovely dome-shaped tits.
“Okay, no; fuck no.” Everyone had stopped playing, and Skye stood up from her drum throne. “Look, I was willing to indulge your little groupie fantasy if it didn’t interfere with practice, but this is not okay. We come here to play. Get laid on your own time. Bruce, pull your fucking pants up.”
He watched the girl glide toward the bathroom again while Skye had been ranting. This time her chest was covered with his come, and she looked pretty glad about it.
“Come on, give him a break - he’s never had any before,” Tyler said in his sweet-talking voice. “You know what girls around here are like. You think he can wait until we’re big enough to play real cities?”
Skye chuckled. “Are you like renting her or something?”
“Look, from now on, no more blowjobs during practice - I promise. We just needed it this once, for the good of the band,” Tyler promised.
“Hey, I still get a turn, right?” Kevin asked.
Tyler looked between Skye and Kevin. “You’ll be able to keep it together while you play, right?”
“Of course!”
Skye rolled her eyes. “You guys are pigs,” she said, shaking her head. She sat back down and began banging on the drums harder than normal.
The band resumed. Kevin got his blowjob, and then Bruce’s dream girl left.
“Five today? Really?” Theo asked. He and Laurel were enjoying Karaoke Night at Riley’s.
“Mmm-hmm!” Laurel nodded boastfully. “Steve from the coffee shop, of course. We did it doggy-style. And then blowjobs for Tyler and his bandmates. And then of course Rick in the back room just now.”
“And you had enough challenges for all that?” Theo asked.
“Well, there was the Matchbox car,” she explained. “It’s in the hot tub, right? Or else a sink filled with water?” Theo nodded. “And the dice total six - two threes. After that, I just kind of made stuff up. I knew I’d see Rick, so I predicted which boxers he was wearing. And being in that auto shop I remembered that I need car maintenance soon, and I wondered how much washer fluid I had. And then I tried to see what the first karaoke song would be, but I completely messed that up.”
“Hmm. Sounds like we need to give you more challenges each morning,” Theo concluded.
“Well, maybe,” she told him. “I don’t think I’m going to see the band again. The drummer is a girl and she didn’t like losing out on practice time.”
“If not them, you’ll probably still find others. We should talk to Jennifer about it.”
Laurel had just changed into her pajamas when she got a text from Dylan: the horse birth was beginning. She rushed to get dressed and drove to the ranch. Dylan met her in the driveway and escorted her to the barn.
“Dad - this is Laurel. She’s cool,” He said.
She almost managed to look him in the eye when she greeted him: “Nice to meet you, Doctor Dupree.”
“Always happy to meet a student of medicine,” the middle-aged man said. He had a bag on the ground next to him that was, no doubt, filled with medical tools. He was dressed neatly, in a dress shirt and tie covered by a sweater.
“You’re not wearing scrubs or gloves or anything,” Laurel observed.
“Nah, she knows what to do,” he said, pointing at the mare lying on her side in the barn stall. “I’m just here out of an abundance of caution.”
“But it’s unusual, right? To be giving birth this late in the year?” She asked.
“Indeed. But everything is going perfectly so far,” he answered.
They watched in silence while the mare, in no great distress, pushed the foal out of her body.
“Do you think she’s...,” Laurel searched for the word, “excited? Like, relieved after all this time?”
The doctor answered: “Probably not in the way you’re thinking. I don’t think she recognized that her body was any different all this time. I don’t think she knows that she’ll soon have a baby to nurse, but I don’t think it will surprise her, either. She’s just following what her body tells her.”
“But ... she’ll love him, right?” She asked uneasily.
The doctor smiled with his whole face, but it was Dylan who answered: “Just watch.” Shortly the mare stood up and began licking and nuzzling the foal, cleaning it, and bonding as mother and child.
A woman who was seemingly the ranch owner began speaking to the doctor, so Laurel said her goodbyes. Dylan walked with her to her car. She pondered whether she and Dylan were about to have a kissing moment. She hoped so. When they got to the car he didn’t make any move, so in an act of extraordinary courage, she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before getting in her car and driving away.
Chapter 5
The next day, Laurel did reverse cowgirl with Steve, setting her glamour to emphasize her butt, waist, and shoulders. When he made a comment about her pussy lips gripping his dick, she put some focus on that, too. After he came, he was dumb-struck.
She stopped by the pet supply store, but the puppy pen had been removed, and despite wandering the aisles extensively, she couldn’t find Dylan. Finally, she texted him. He explained that he was going to be working on a stockroom reorganization project for the next several days, but suggested she swing by at the end of his shift for a walk around town.
The reading she had performed with Steve hadn’t given her much to work from for the new location of the Matchbox car, so for a while, after returning home in the afternoon she was searching the house in vain. Then the team had a meeting to strategize about a new challenge: predicting upcoming forest fires in national parks.
In the late afternoon, Laurel went to Riley’s to meet up with Rick. She took her glamour experiments a step further, magically creating the impression of fuller breasts under her low-cut blouse. She also intensified people’s perceptions of the red in her hair even further and subdued the brown quite a lot.
After taking her to the office, Rick dropped his pants and leaned against the wall as usual. Laurel sucked his dick, and he groaned appreciatively as normal, but this time he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.
“Hey, wait a minute,” he said, tugging on her hand to encourage her to stand. She wondered why he had stopped her.
He answered her with a forceful kiss. He held her body tightly and tasted her teeth. Then he grabbed her ass firmly with both hands as if trying to lift her up.
It felt strange to be making out with him. He was an adult - a real adult. Laurel still felt like a kid most of the time, but Rick probably had a mortgage and watched the news. He had more in common with her father than with her. Still, she could feel in his kiss how much he wanted her, and that felt good.
He unsnapped her bra, twirled her around, and reached up under her shirt. The way he massaged her breasts felt like he was doing it for her: it wasn’t a boy grabbing a toy he wanted to play with; it was a man using the secrets of her body to please her. Whatever he was doing, he was welcome to do it for as long as he wanted.
He nuzzled her neck and sniffed her hair. “You are unbelievably sexy today,” he said softly.
“I am?” She asked. His dick was still hard: it was poking her in the back. Without conscious thought, she ground her ass into him.
He grunted an affirmation as he peeled her shirt up, and she lifted her arms to allow him to remove it, and then cast her bra away. His hands were all over her body. His nose swam through her hair. She reached behind and touched his stubbly cheek. He had set aside his gratification to touch her like this. He didn’t just want to get off: he wanted to be with her.
“Are you a virgin?”
“No,” she answered softly.
“Do you like getting fucked?” He pulled up the front of her skirt and rubbed her wet crotch.
“Yes.”
“Do you come when you get fucked?” His hand stroking her pussy was hypnotic.
“Uh-huh.”
“Tell me what you want.”
She knew that she was making a decision, but she also felt like she was powerless. “I want you to fuck me.”
“Anything else?”
“And make me come. Please.”
She expected him to move her over to the desk, but he didn’t. Right there, standing with nothing to lean on, he reached under her skirt, pulled down her panties, adjusted his stance, and penetrated her. She moaned immediately - she had no hope of holding it back.
With an arm wrapped tightly around her chest, he thrust into her, pounding her pussy. Only the balls of her feet had any connection to the ground. It was all so out of her control. But it was in his control, and that was exciting. In her mind, she surrendered to him. She trusted him. She came and howled without any thought for where she was.
“That’s a good girl,” he told her. She was shocked by how much it pleased her to hear.
He set her down on her feet and held her arms behind her, allowing her to lean forward but holding her steady. He grunted, pushing his cock in deeper now. She gasped and wheezed, feeling amazed and confused by everything that was happening.
“I want to come inside you,” he whispered.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, Laurel hesitated. Her body approved of his proposal: it very much wanted his semen inside her. She had to shake off her body’s answer and override it with her mind. “No, please. Outside, okay?
“Alright,” he said warmly. “It’s too bad, though. I’d love to see you walk out of here, come seeping from your cunt, overflowing your panties, and then dripping down your leg, while you wonder who out there knows what we’ve been up to.”
She began whimpering madly and then came again, moaning freely. Too freely: what if the restaurant patrons could actually hear her? But it felt so good! She wanted to tamper with his body: magically enhance him to keep him fucking her for hours. She could do it. It was tempting. But that would interfere with her predictive magic. And anyway, he was on break: he would need to get back to his work soon.
She approached the Matchbox car puzzle differently this time, conceptually rewording the question. He pulled out of her and turned her around. She dropped to her knees, expecting to suck him a few seconds before he finished, but he was already jerking his cock with his hand. He fired it all into her face. Then he helped her up and with a finger under her chin, remarked, “Truly beautiful.”
He went back to work while she used the bathroom to clean up and take her notes. She deliberately took her time, but when she did return to the restaurant, several people watched her exit the back room.
She felt like she was in a daze, so she sat at the bar to collect her thoughts. Rick poured her a beer without being asked. She took a few sips.
A forty-year-old with a beard changed seats to the one next to her. “Is that all it takes to get a little time with you?” He asked. “Because I can buy you beer.”
She looked away and walked out without answering.
Dylan found Laurel waiting for him when he finally left work. She was dressed differently than he’d ever seen her. In the past, she had shown off her looks, but she’d always been a sort of flirty, carefree sexy. Now she had a scoop-neck top and, seemingly a push-up bra. Her skirt was short and her boots were tall. She was sexy - no doubt about that - but it didn’t really fit with who he thought she was. Or maybe it didn’t fit with who he wanted her to be. He cautioned himself against that kind of thinking.
But talking to her was easy and fun, so her new style of dress stopped mattering after just a few steps into their stroll around the town square. Somehow the streetlights brought out the red in her hair as much as the sunlight had the day before.
They held hands for the last five minutes of their walk. When they said goodbye next to her car, he wanted to kiss her. She wanted him to, right? He wasn’t misunderstanding their connection? But they hadn’t really known each other very long, and for some reason, people were staring at them. There was no need to rush.
Back at home in her bedroom, she typed out the body of an email:
I got fucked silly today. And I’m in love. Two different guys.
The body text was easy - it just flowed out of her. But she couldn’t decide on an addressee. Kate? Theo? Her roommate Chelle from the summer?
She typed out her mom’s old email address, but then she thought better of it. If it still existed, it was probably set to forward to her dad’s inbox. She discarded the whole thing.
Chapter 6
Jennifer tasked Laurel with forest-fire prediction the next morning at breakfast. Of course, she still had the most recent Matchbox hiding place to discover, too.
During her liaison with Steve, she tried to picture sex with him being like it had been with Rick, or like she wanted it to be Dylan, but she couldn’t. Sex with Steve was just casual fun, and it didn’t seem like it could be any other way. But that was good - it was simple.
Tyler texted her asking if she would be willing to meet the guys from the band at the auto shop, a half-hour before practice so that “Skye” wouldn’t be upset.
It was cold out, so Laurel had worn a heavy coat and a winter cap, but inside the shop, the guys were just wearing T-shirts and jeans. A quick glance revealed a trio of space heaters keeping the room comfortable.
“Laurel, you’re absolutely fucking awesome,” Tyler told her with a magnetic gaze. “Most girls don’t get that sex can just be sex without all the other complications.”
“You’re officially our muse now,” the bassist told her.
Laurel blushed, but not without a measure of confidence. “I don’t actually know your names.”
“This is Kevin,” Tyler told her, pointing to the bassist who had just spoken. Then he walked up behind the other one and slapped him on the back: this was the one who had stopped playing while she sucked him before. “This is Bruce.”
Kevin added, “Our drummer is Skye, and while we value her as a band member, I think we’re all glad she’s not here right now.” Everyone chuckled.
She took off her coat, hat, and sweater. “So, I guess ... who’s first?” Tyler stepped up, naturally. “Anywhere on my front is okay, but I don’t want to swallow, okay?” She reminded them.
Tyler’s pants were already open, so the moment she was on her knees she had a mouth full of cock. Tyler’s moans were somehow boastful. He stood with his hands on his hips like a superhero. This time she didn’t feel nervous about performing in front of an audience: these guys appreciated her, and she could feel their anticipation in the air.
“Hey, Laurel,” Kevin said, “any chance you’d be willing to do this naked? I would love to check out that body of yours while I wait for my turn.”
“Um, well, I guess,” she answered. She stood up and swiftly pulled off her boots before realizing that watching her strip might be fun for them. Before her jeans came off, she shifted her glamour to her hips and butt. Tyler’s lonely dick dripped while she peeled them down. Then she focused on her legs, and she sat on an amplifier and wrestled the tight denim away. The only sounds were heavy breathing and her little grunts when the fabric fought her.
She drew their attention to her shoulders and breasts as she unbuttoned and removed her shirt. Kevin casually reached out and unhooked her bra. She covered herself with her arms while she took that off before lowering her hands with a bashful smile, revealing her lovely mounds.
Tyler was right, she reflected. This wasn’t about love or passion or even friendship - it was just sex. And a little magic, of course, but they didn’t know that. It could just be fun. Inspired by the realization, she became playful and pranced up to Bruce.
“Do you think you maybe want to hold on to my panties for me for a while?” She asked, blushing considerably. She turned around and thrust her butt at him, and he obediently peeled them from her. As she went back to sucking on Tyler’s dick, she saw Bruce sniffing them out of the corner of her eye.
Laurel hummed and Tyler groaned. The two bystanders whispered to each other and sometimes moved around to get a better view.
“Tell me what you like about what you see,” she mentioned. “Maybe I can learn from it.”
“God damn, you’re a special girl, Laurel,” Kevin said with a chuckle.
Bruce was still clutching her panties tightly. “Sometimes in porn, you can see the guy’s dick moving in the girl’s throat. Can you do that?”
She shrugged. “I can try!”
She was worried that it might come across as freakish rather than sexy, but she adjusted her glamour to draw attention to her jaw and throat before sucking Tyler down, briefly. Twice she made a wet gurgling noise and held his dick deep in her throat for a couple seconds before returning to tip work and catching her breath.
“Jesus! You can actually see her throat bulging!” Bruce muttered.
“That’s ... I’m ... Your face, right?” Tyler stammered. Laurel looked into his eyes and nodded. She cast her spell and pulled back at the perfect time for his semen to coat her forehead, nose, and cheeks.
She got up, smiled at each guy one by one, and then grabbed her phone and said, “Be right back!”
When she came back from the bathroom, Kevin was sitting on an amp, naked from the waist down and hard.
“Hey, what’s the thing you do with your hands?” Bruce asked.
She answered with the truth, knowing they’d think it a joke. “I’m casting a spell on you. Don’t worry, though - I’m not stealing your souls.” She got on her knees in front of Kevin.
“I guess you can do deep throat then?” He asked.
“Only a little,” she said conversationally. “But I’ve been practicing. My friend Theo and I have a tradition where we stream Gilmore Girls and practice on dildos most nights,” she explained.
“Well, I’d love it if you would practice on me,” he told her. She smiled and nodded.
She rubbed Kevin’s dick against the back of her throat as much as she comfortably could, frequently going shallow when she needed to regain control or catch up on her breath. Every time she took it back down he grunted.
She decided to change her position: on her knees with her ass in the air and her arms resting on Kevin’s thighs for support. She started to become more comfortable with holding his cock down her throat and swallowing, making wet humming noises. Kevin held his hands on both sides of her head, but he didn’t try to control her. It felt nice like he was participating more than just receiving.
Tyler and Bruce started moving around behind her. It was no challenge to guess what they wanted to look at. She wasn’t sure exactly how to make her pussy look its best, but she pulled focus there and worked a little on showing off the shape of her butt, too.
“Damn, that is some pussy,” Bruce whispered. Laurel swayed forward and back, fucking Kevin’s dick with her throat.
“Nobody’s even touched her and it’s wet all over!” He whispered again.
Kevin’s hands tightened just a little on Laurel’s head, and she understood. She knelt upright between his legs and jerked him until he ejaculated magically coded secrets onto her belly.
When she came back from the bathroom this time, Bruce was the one without pants. He was looking at her nervously. “Hey, um,” he began, blushing. “Do you think, instead of a blowjob, we could do it? I can’t imagine a girl I’d rather lose my virginity to. Your pussy is irresistible.”
Laurel glanced at her phone, already in hand. “Well, um, there’s not a lot of time before your practice, right?” She asked apologetically. She looked around. “And I’m not really sure where we’d do it here.”
“We can go to your place! Or a hotel or something!” He quickly offered.
She shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t think ... I don’t want to give your drummer any more reason to hate me.”
Tyler looked at his phone. “Yeah, actually I’m not sure there’s even enough time left for a blowjob.” The look of disappointment on Bruce’s face was heartbreaking.
Laurel looked at her phone again. “I can do it, but you’ve got to trust me and not freak out, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
She knelt in front of him and surrounded his dick with her lips. He sighed in great relief. She sucked lovingly on his knob, but also stuck a finger in her pussy, working it in and out. Then her wet hand was between his butt cheeks. She tried to push her pussy-slimed finger inside his butt, but his entire body tensed up.
“Try to relax, okay?” She said and then gave his crown some extra tongue attention.
Bruce looked at his bandmates, seemingly terrified of what they might think of him, but Tyler reassured him. “Dude, it’s okay. You’ll like it.”
She wiggled her finger up into his ass and found the little hard spot. She stroked his prostate, applying a bit of pressure and forcing pre-come to dribble out of his dick into her mouth. He gasped with alarm at the sudden potent sensation. He tensed up but it was too late for his body to protect his vulnerable little gland. She stroked it gently while her mouth gave gentle warm love to his cock. He squirmed but didn’t pull away. Then all of the sudden, he was coming, long and hard, with a look of complete surprise on his face.
It all came out on Laurel’s neck and collar. Tyler looked at Kevin and played a few notes of air guitar. “She want a pearl necklace...,” he sang.
Laurel and Skye passed each other at the auto shop’s entrance. To Laurel’s surprise, the drummer smiled at her as she passed. It wasn’t until she had parked at the library that she saw the drawing, made by finger in the dust on her car windows, of a mouth and three dicks.
“Hey there, little spinner.” Toby, one of the late afternoon bar regulars had just said it. Rick turned to confirm his fear: Laurel was sitting at the bar and had been the target of Toby’s come-on.
“Huh? What’s a spinner?” Laurel asked.
“You know. A small girl with certain interests,” Toby explained with a leer. “One who’s light enough to climb on top of a guy and spin around.” Laurel made a sour face.
“I think too much porn has made you forget your manners, Toby,” Rick said. “Leave the girl alone.” He shot Toby a look that warned him he’d need a new place to drink if he persisted. Toby left, striking up a conversation with a couple men playing pool.
Rick served Laurel a beer. “Sorry about that - he’s been trying that same line for a couple days now,” he lied. Toby should have known better. It was one thing for a girl to be the topic of locker-room talk, but quite another to be subjected to it.
“I’m not that small, you know - I’m five foot three,” Laurel remarked. He gave her an apologetic shrug in answer.
“Let me know when you’re ready for your break?” She began poking at her phone - social media, most likely. She sipped at her beer, as usual, never taking any proper swallows. She probably wouldn’t have ordered them even if she had been old enough, but Rick felt compelled to pour them for her - a small token of appreciation.
Once in the office, she went down on him as if out of habit. He had more in mind, of course, but her pretty peach lips and wet mouth were a good start.
His phone rang. He fished it out of his pants pocket and answered.
“Daddy!”
“Hey, Princess!”
Laurel stopped and looked at him, unsure if she should continue. He nodded to her and, after a brief flicker of reluctance, she resumed giving his dick the lovely warm comfort of her mouth.
“I scored a goal today!”
“You did? That’s great!”
“Uh-huh. The other girls tried to catch me but I was too fast, and then I kicked it hard and it went in!”
“Did your mom get it on video?”
“Uh-huh!”
Rick glanced down at Laurel and touched her hair. She was technically an adult - he had made sure of that when this whole thing began. But god was she young! Too young for the things he thought about her. If he ever met her father, there would be no way he could look the man in the eye.
He continued his phone call. “Good for you, baby. Look, Daddy’s busy right now. Have your mom send me the video, and then we’ll talk about it tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay! Bye Daddy!”
“Love you, Princess!”
Rick ended the call and set the phone aside, and then he just relaxed into Laurel’s skillful sucks for a while. As good as it felt, pretty soon it wasn’t enough. He had a fire burning in him for this girl. He needed his hands on her, his mouth on her. He needed to make her squeal and pant, and feel things that, he liked to imagine, no other man had.
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Kissing her below her ear rewarded him with a shiver through her whole body - the good kind. He pawed at her soft skin under her shirt and sweater and sucked on her neck.
“So you’ve got a kid?” She asked. She was much less in the moment than he had hoped.
He stepped back, giving her space. “I do.”
“Are you married?”
He shook his head. “No. Should have. We were dumb kids. By the time I got my head straight, it was too late. She’s got a guy. He treats both of them right and I get to be in my daughter’s life, so it’s a pretty good situation, all around.”
He watched her, waiting for her to process whatever was going on in her head.
“Okay,” she said, finally.
He wasn’t sure about her enthusiasm. “We don’t have to do this...”
“No, I want to,” she said. Not exactly the do-me-now reaction one hopes for from a partner, but certainly a moral green light.
“So I can kiss you now?” He double-checked. She nodded.
He kissed her and slid a hand down the back of her jeans. She wasn’t wearing underwear. Pretty soon she was feeling it too, kissing him as hard as he was kissing her, and touching his chest greedily. He backed her up until she bumped into the desk. His dick was still out, still mostly hard. She glanced at it with desire but didn’t say anything.
He spun her around, bending her over the desk, and he pulled down her jeans. She murmured approvingly: “Uh-huh!”. He rubbed her cheeks and her pussy dripped. He plunged two fingers into it, getting them nice and wet, and then he began exploring her asshole. She was clearly no stranger to anal. It was tight, of course, but she had control over her reflex and let his fingers in. A tiny moan from a wide-open mouth told him she enjoyed it.
He sawed his fingers in and out, stimulating her - making her pant and wiggle. “Are you going to fuck my ass?” She asked.
“Thinking about it. Are you okay with that?”
“It’s just,” she breathed, “I need you to come on my outside, but I don’t want to touch it after it’s been in my butt.”
“Maybe another time, then.” She nodded very slightly.
With his free hand, he fed his cock into her tight little cunt. He began pumping her two holes in tandem. Her pussy and her sphincter both sometimes contracted when he went deep in one or the other.
She was getting ready to come. Her moans were barely audible - she was trying to stay quiet this time. She tried biting her lip. Her mouth formed words but no sound came out. And then it began. She covered her face with her arms and whined while her body lurched, climaxing out of control. Her face turned red and her ass quivered.
“That’s my girl!” Her eyes lit up at the praise. “My turn, okay?”
A moment later she was on her knees receiving his tribute on her face. He went to the bathroom first and washed his hands like a surgeon while she watched, pants still around her knees. Then he let her have her privacy.
Again, Laurel met up with Dylan after work and they walked around town. They talked about anime at first, and then about his dream of becoming a pilot.
He invited her to have dinner with his family the next night, and she accepted with great excitement.
Chapter 7
Laurel was beginning to associate the smell of coffee with sex, she realized as she waited for the end of Steve’s shift. She wasn’t sure if it was unique to Steve, or the kind of sex she had with Steve, though, so she let herself fantasize about Dylan. Boyfriend sex. Romantic sex, sometimes, but playful others, she guessed. She hoped. Soulmate sex? She told herself to keep her hopes in check, but her hopes refused to be restrained.
“May I join you?” Olivia’s voice brought Laurel back to reality. She didn’t look like a businesswoman as she had at their first meeting. She still looked classy, but now it was more of a New York about-town classy. Laurel nodded.
“How is your networking going?” Olivia asked. Laurel puzzled at the question. “Are you meeting more men? Any more steady appointments?”
“A few,” Laurel explained amicably. “I’m not sure how reliable some of them are, but I’ve been getting lots of practice.
“You’re very brave,” Olivia said, her eyes sparkling with admiration.
“What do you mean?” Laurel asked.
“Taking chances with your safety in pursuit of your goals. It’s admirable.”
“Oh!” Laurel bubbled. “These are all nice guys. I’m not in any danger.”
“Laurel,” Olivia began. She reached across the high-top table and put her hand on Laurel’s. “As much as we wish it weren’t so, in this world, any time a woman is alone with an unfamiliar man, there is some danger. Men are bigger and stronger, and more aggressive than us. Most of them are fine people, but you can’t always spot the ones who have mixed up wiring inside.”
“I’m being careful,” she said with a touch of hesitation.
Olivia withdrew her hand, and her appearance became sunnier. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to worry you. I’m sure that the risk is minimal with a strong capable young man like Theo always within earshot.”
“Um...,” Laurel said.
“Or whatever plans Jennifer devised for your safety. A concealed handgun. Or at least some defensive magic?”
Laurel perked up. “Oh! I’ve got a spell for that! I don’t actually know the name. But if you grab a guy’s crotch and build a quick chakra matrix, you can...” She looked around and spoke more softly. “Give them an instant orgasm that makes them fall asleep.”
Olivia’s face went thin with worry. “Oh.” Laurel’s eyes questioned the sudden change in demeanor. Olivia explained. “I’m not sure that rewarding a man with climax is the best way to stop him from bothering you. Especially if he’s already heard that you’re the girl to go to for a good time. People talk in small towns, and it can sometimes inspire a sense of entitlement in men.”
“I’m being careful,” Laurel reiterated without much conviction.
Again, Olivia’s face became bright. “Okay. I believe you. But please - if you ever feel unsafe, or if you aren’t getting the support you need, talk to Jennifer about it.” She paused and spoke cautiously. “I don’t know if she sees it this way, but she has an obligation: to provide you with every resource and assurance you could want while you perform your very difficult work.”
“Um, yeah. Okay,” Laurel said, still shaken. “She’s taking good care of me. And, I mean, it’s just guys being pushy.”
Olivia frowned and shook her head. “I don’t think you understand. It’s not just libidinous men you need to watch out for. You are being watched. Other covens have quite an interest in you, but most of them aren’t being as forthright with you as we are. I honestly don’t know how far they would go to gain control over your research. Can you really be sure that all of the people you’ve met lately are who they say?”
Laurel didn’t respond - her face was frozen while she pondered the news. Olivia gave her a sad smile, gathered her things, and left.
Whatever worries Laurel had about Steve being a spy were gone from her mind by the time they finished lunch. It was too easy and comfortable with him - he was her friend. And anyway, there were no signs of any enchantments anywhere in his apartment.
Steve wanted to try shower head, so she sucked him off in the tub under the spray of warm water. They turned the water off before he came on her chest, but his semen slipped right off her and down the drain.
It was cold outside and Steve didn’t own a hairdryer, so Laurel decided to wait a while before leaving. She began to wonder what sorts of hair-drying spells existed. She made a mental note to look them up later, and for kicks tried guessing how they might work.
Back at home, she told Jennifer and Theo about her meeting with Olivia. Jennifer’s scowl, Laurel knew, wasn’t directed at her, but it was still intimidating and a little bit painful. The team agreed to think over what extra precautions they should take.
She met with the guys from the band before practice again. With the boys’ permission, she stuck a finger up each of their bums and stroked their prostates while she sucked them off. It went by fast enough that she was gone before Skye showed up.
Once Laurel was in the office with Rick during his break, she immediately took off her dress and tights. “I’ve got plans later and I don’t want to get anything on them,” she explained.
Again he kissed her and made her want to be his. He cast her bra aside and felt up her perky breasts. She melted into him. She lifted one leg and rubbed her thigh against his hip. She was most certainly in the mood.
“I’ve got a present for you,” he said softly.
“You do?” She asked, truly bewildered. Free beer was one thing, but what other sort of gift could possibly be appropriate for their relationship?
He led her to the desk and bent her over it, face-down. He pulled her panties down and they fell to her ankles, and then the floor. His hands enjoyed her smooth taut ass cheeks. And then she felt it: something hard and wet slowly penetrating her butt.
“Ever fucked with one of these?” He asked. She shook her head. It was stretching her wider as it went it: obviously a cone-shaped plug. It felt cold, so she assumed it was metal.
“I think you’re going to like it,” he told her.
Laurel had been fucked in the ass - by fingers, dildos, and cocks - but she’d never experienced anything designed to stay put and fill her up. She began to worry about how big it was. Her body started giving warning signs and she had to fight against the reflex to tense up. Just when it seemed like she was stretched to her limit, all of a sudden it popped into place. It was an alien feeling - unfamiliar pressure - but also sort of comfortable and definitely sexy.
Rick’s left hand roamed her cheeks, sometimes giving her a jolt by pressing on the plug, while his right hand worked on opening up his pants. He was going to fuck her with that thing in her butt. She was going to be filled up by two things at once. She felt a drop of pussy juice run down her thigh.
He penetrated her cunt up and began thrusting. The pressure of the butt plug and his cock together made him feel bigger, or her tighter, or something. Whatever - there was a lot more stuff moving around inside her, making her feel good. She softly moaned while he gave it to her, and she hoped that his break would be an extra long one. She wanted it just like this, indefinitely.
“God I want to cream inside you,” he told her. She looked back at him nervously. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to knock you up,” he said. “But damn, it’s tempting. Fuck, it’s like I can smell your fertility!”
Her panting and moaning became urgent. He stroked her spine with the back of his hand. She came. The contractions in her body gripped his cock greedily even as her spasming butthole made the plug bob.
“Good girl.” He rubbed her hip affectionately and slowed his thrusts. She reached her hand back to touch his, but he had other ideas. He pulled out. “Flip,” he told her.
Once she was properly positioned, face-up in the middle of the desk, he climbed on top of her and re-inserted his cock. Her knees were locked with his elbows, stretching her wide open as he leaned in and thrust. She tensed experimentally, impressed with the strength that the circumstances lent her vagina. She squeezed him intermittently - hard enough for her to ache, but she liked that. She wiggled a hand between their bodies and touched her tummy with her fingertips, feeling her pelvic muscles strain as she came again.
He thrust intensely. “So fucking young and tight,” he mumbled, staring into her eyes. “This is wrong,” he added, but his determination didn’t waiver.
It was clear from his face that he needed her - needed her to complete this epic experience. In that moment, reflected in his face, she felt she understood a little bit more about what it was to be a woman. With a mighty grunt, he pulled out, sprang to his knees on the desk above her, and shot his load across her whole torso.
Even though she had been quiet, people stared when she returned to the restaurant floor.
Callie was interested to see what type of girl this Laurel was. Her brother Dylan had gone moon-eyed over girls before - there was nothing unusual about that. It was the fact that her father seemed nearly as eager to host her that surprised Callie. Laurel had made an impression on him while watching a horse give birth: “a smart and caring individual”, “asked all the right questions”.
Laurel was shy at first, but the family did a good job of making her feel welcome. She was weird, but cool, Callie supposed.
“What do your parents do?” Mrs. Dupree asked Laurel at the dinner table.
“My dad’s a materials engineer,” she answered with a touch of pride. “He gets to work on all kinds of different projects. He really likes that variety.”
“And your mom?” Doctor Dupree asked.
“She was a botany consultant before my brother was born. After I was born she mostly stayed at home teaching me. But she still did a bunch of volunteer consulting - like for parks and schools and stuff. Sometimes she would go on trips and I would watch over her garden. I really liked being able to show her how well I did taking care of her plants when she got home.”
“So you’re a homeschool weirdo!” Callie teased.
“Callie!” Her mother chastised.
Laurel spoke in a soft, pitiful voice: “Yeah, I’m pretty weird.” It wasn’t a deflection or even a confession: it was like she was apologizing for trying to pass as normal.
“Well good!” Callie said, trying to rescue Laurel’s mood. “Dylan doesn’t get along with ordinary girls. He could use some weird.”
At first, Laurel’s smile was gracious but vulnerable, but the family managed to bring her back to her pleasantly excitable self.
At the end of the evening, Dylan walked Laurel outside to her car to say goodnight. When he returned, his whole family stared, as if expecting a report.
“There was a kiss,” he told them. “And we’ve made plans for a proper date on Saturday.”
“I like her,” Callie declared. “I’m going to make it my mission to figure her out.”
In the evening, Laurel finally got around to researching hair-drying spells. She was disappointed with what she found. One method was considered a masterwork of spell theory, but it required an hour and a half in bright light to perform, so it was universally regarded as useless in practice.
The other one required three magicians working together to dry the hair of a fourth person. Historically, it had mostly only been used for the benefit of royalty or highly regarded priestesses.
She found it amusing that her guesses had been so entirely wrong.
Chapter 8
Laurel was running errands the next day after lunch and sex with Steve. She spied Callie going into the drugstore across the street. Laurel rehearsed greetings in her mind as she moved to say hello to someone she hoped she could consider a new friend. But Skye was there, working as a cashier. As much as she wanted to visit with Callie, avoiding Skye was more important.
Later, after giving the band boys their blowjobs, Bruce again asked her out. “We can have a nice dinner and then I’ll get us a hotel room. We can take our time - do it right. I promise I’ll do everything possible to make it amazing for you.”
Laurel knew instantly that the answer was no, but it took her a moment to understand why. It wasn’t that Bruce was unattractive, and she certainly welcomed another chance to perform her research. And a nice stiff fuck would be a bonus, too. But Bruce set off warning bells in her mind. She could fuck Steve and Rick and never worry that they would become clingy. Even if they found out about each other she doubted they’d mind. Bruce, though, would become possessive, and that would cause way too many problems. The only way that would work with him was blowjobs along with his bandmates.
“I’m sorry, but no,” she told him. He was obviously about to ask why not. “That sort of thing is more boyfriend-y, and there’s someone I like.”
Kevin stood up, looking lawyerly: “So giving us blowjobs every day is cool, but going on a date and having sex with just him would be a betrayal of your feelings for some guy?”
Laurel nodded. Kevin patted Bruce on the shoulder. “The four of us have a good thing going here. Don’t fuck it up.”
Dylan had definitely been earning his pay these last few days of storeroom reorganization. That was fair, he supposed, after getting to slack and watch over the puppies before that. Laurel texted him in the late afternoon.
Laurel: Why don’t you come over to my place after work?
Laurel: I can cook for you!
Laurel: I think. I have to check what we have.
Dylan: Love to, but I’m beat. I’ve been using all of my muscles all day carrying boxes.
Laurel: We’ve got a hot tub!
Laurel: What could feel better than all those jets of bubbly hot water?
Laurel: You can borrow Theo’s trunks.
Laurel: And I’d be in a bathing suit too!
Dylan: Well, I can’t say no to that. Just for like 20 minutes, okay?
Laurel: I can’t wait!
Laurel answered the door, practically squealing with excitement. She was wearing a blue frilly bikini that was girly and sexy and suited her perfectly.
Damn, she had a body! Somehow her slim body was packing serious curves. when she turned around, he was truly stunned by the perfection of her ass. It was hard to understand how a girl so beautiful could be so shy.
The house was huge - it wouldn’t have been wrong to call it a mansion. She led him to a guest bedroom where two pairs of men’s swimsuits were laid out on the bed. After giving him privacy to change, she took him to the hot tub on a deck outside. The night air was quite cold but the water was perfect.
The hot water jets did not disappoint. She had been right - they were exactly what his body needed after a day of over-exertion. He put his arm around her and laid back, closing his eyes while she snuggled in close. Her hand made slow circles on his chest.
He felt her face close so he opened his eyes and gave her a lover’s peck on the lips. She smiled, wholesome and happy. But she wanted more, so they made it a dozen.
She couldn’t seem to hold still, and ultimately she swung her leg across his lap and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him passionately. He fell into it, helpless. She slid onto his lap kissing him more; his hands unconsciously found her hips. He felt himself getting hard which, at first, embarrassed him - until she began grinding against it.
“Wait, Laurel,” he said. He pushed enough to wiggle out from under her.
She didn’t relent, clinging to him and kissing his shoulder and neck instead. “You know, I’m ovulating,” she whispered.
“Laurel, stop, please,” he said, gently but firmly putting space between them.
Her eyes went wide for a moment, and then she hid her face. “Oh my god, I did not just say that!” She turned her back to him and it sounded like she was on the verge of crying. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’
“Laurel, relax - I’m not upset.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Look at me?”
She faced him with obvious effort. She was trying to control it, but embarrassment gushed from her.
“It’s okay. I just would prefer to take it slow.”
“Really?” She asked timidly. “But ... you do want to ‘take it’?”
He smiled reassuringly and tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear. “Yes,” he answered. “I do want to take it from you. To you. With you.” He chuckled. “I don’t know how to say that.” Laurel smiled, still embarrassed but now reassured.
She didn’t protest when he declared it was time to go. After drying off and changing back, she led him to the door and he kissed her hand.
She had been smiling and happy but suddenly she looked scared. “We’re still going out Saturday, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he reassured her. Her worry disappeared.
Late at night, Theo awoke to the sound of screeching tires in the driveway. Upon investigating, he found that three of the trees in the front yard were covered with ribbons of toilet paper.
Chapter 9
“It was probably just neighborhood teens causing random trouble,” Theo told Jennifer and Laurel the next morning.
Jennifer didn’t believe it, and she didn’t believe Theo believed it. The house was too remote to be an arbitrary target of mischief - someone had chosen them.
Jennifer responded deliberatively. “Just to be on the safe side, after breakfast, I’d like the three of us to set up a Magpie Siren to protect the house. We’ve got a lot of tall trees with a lot of nests around us. We might as well put them to work.”
Laurel handed the Matchbox car to Theo. “This one was tough!” She explained for Jennifer: “It was buried in the box of granola.”
“Any more luck with the forest fires?” Jennifer asked.
Laurel’s expression fell. “No. I don’t get it. Some of them are so easy, but some I just can’t figure out at all, and I don’t understand why!”
“I did a little research,” Theo explained. “The ones you’ve gotten right were all man-made fires. It’s just the natural ones that haven’t been working.”
“Hmm,” Jennifer mumbled. “Fire plays by its own rules. Still, I would think we could adapt. Do we need to change the casting, or is it a matter of interpretation?”
“I’m not sure,” Laurel said, staring at nothing and pondering.
“Would you like me to send it out to the email group?” Jennifer asked.
Laurel shook her head. “Not yet. I want to think it over.”
Kevin watched, as did his bandmates, while Laurel took off her clothes and transformed from a pretty goody-goody into a badass slut - a groupie who didn’t even care about their music. She seemed happy and determined. He couldn’t begin to guess what went through her mind during meetings like this, or why she insisted on tribute on her tits every time, but he wasn’t going to rock the boat.
Bruce, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to help it. “You’re so damned beautiful. PLEASE, Laurel, let me fuck your pussy! Being a virgin is killing me!”
“I ... I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said, even as she pulled her hair back to prepare for triple blowjobs.
“Please! There’s got to be a way I can convince you!” Bruce pressed. Kevin worried that he was going to push too far and alienate the sexually generous girl.
“What if we triple-teamed you?” Kevin found himself suggesting. Laurel blinked at him in surprise. “Have you ever done it?” She shook her head. “So, new experience for you - new way to come, hopefully. And with three guys stuffing your holes, there’s not much risk of any romantic confusion.”
Bruce looked hopeful. Tyler stuck out his tongue and made a devil’s horns hand sign. To look at Laurel’s face, you’d think she hated the idea, but Kevin was watching her body language. She seemed to rub her thighs together unconsciously. Her nipples stiffened, and she took shallow breaths through her mouth.
Tyler moved behind her and put his arms around her middle. Whether she knew it or not, her body responded by relaxing into his embrace.
“Well, but I need you to come on my skin,” she warned. “That means when one of you is about to come, we have to stop, and then after he comes on me, we take a short break before continuing. That won’t ruin it for you guys?”
Kevin shrugged. “I can deal.”
“Yes! We should do this!” Bruce agreed. Tyler nodded with a toothy grin.
Bruce wanted to get right to it, but Tyler convinced him to take a little time putting Laurel in the mood. So Tyler kissed her while the other two stripped naked. Then Tyler passed her off to kiss Bruce, who was amazed when she put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him back with her eyes closed like a girl in a war movie. She even made a little cooing sound.
Kevin lowered himself in front of her and began kissing as much of her pussy as closed legs would allow. “You know, normally I love a bare pussy like this. But natural redheads are an exception. A little ginger landing strip would look awesome on you.”
Laurel lifted one leg to give Kevin better access to her pussy. Tyler, standing behind her, took it a step further and held her leg up. Kevin wiggled his tongue as deeply into her folds as he could manage, enjoying the taste of the girl and the little moans she made. Bruce stopped kissing her and instead sucked at her nipple. Tyler handed her leg to Bruce and then stepped back to take off his clothes.
She might have come - Kevin wasn’t sure. She didn’t make any sounds, but her thigh muscles twitched for a little while.
“Maybe we should lie down?” Laurel suggested modestly.
Bruce lay on his back on a makeshift bench made out of amplifiers and cardboard. For a little while, Laurel sat beside him, naked, lazily jerking him off while her eyes traveled from one man to another trying to build up her courage. Finally, she climbed on top of him, accepting Tyler’s and Kevin’s hands to help her balance. Bruce let out a great moan when just the tip of his cock was inside her. He moaned again while Laurel wiggled on top of him, trying to find the right angle to let her sink down. Eventually, she managed to screw her body all the way onto his dick. She only made gentle motions with her hips from there. They were all thinking it: if she moved any faster he’d come right away.
Laurel leaned forward, face to face with Bruce, and gave him a shy smirk. Kevin spat into his hand and got her butt hole ready; he also discovered that his dick was coated with more pre-come than he’d ever seen in his life. Tyler tried to find a place to stand or kneel that would allow him to feed his dick to her mouth.
Bruce’s hands were everywhere on her. “Holy crap you feel incredible,” he said. She responded with a big warm smile that, Kevin worried, was sending the wrong message.
She gasped when Kevin spread her butt cheeks and penetrated her ass. She took it - he got his dick in there - but it took some effort. It wasn’t a question of lubrication or positioning; she was just already filled to capacity. And yet, she took it. It was clear from the look on Bruce’s face that he could feel the crowded movements inside her too. Kevin made a few experimental thrusts, causing Laurel to whimper joyfully, and Bruce to groan.
Tyler settled on a position half-kneeling next to Bruce’s face, and she began to suck his dick. Kevin took that as the go signal and began slowly pumping the well-stuffed girl.
She looked so unbelievably cute - and dirty. Cute mouth, round and wet around Tyler’s cock. Cute red hair in a bouncing ponytail. Cute ass, taut from her kneeling position. Cute narrow waist and slender body with perfect skin. Cute sounds from getting banged by three guys. Tyler shivered every time her moans vibrated his cock.
After the first time she came, Tyler held her head and took control of her mouth. Their eyes were connected, constantly telling each other how much she could comfortably take and how much he wanted to give. She swallowed his cock down much of the time and the band leader smiled at her gratefully.
Kevin was the only one in a position to notice when the door opened. Skye and her friend Callie stood there in the doorway, watching. Skye looked amused; Callie looked appalled. But they didn’t leave and they didn’t make a sound.
It was time to come. It would have been nice to take their time, but Skye was a wildcard. Things could end with epic disappointment very quickly with her around, and that wasn’t acceptable.
He grabbed Laurel’s hips tightly and began thrusting harder and faster. She eeped at the shock of it but soon went back to her pleasure whimpers - louder and more urgent now. Bruce had her beat, though. Whatever he was feeling inside her pussy was more than he could take. He groaned out of control.
With Tyler’s dick deep down her throat, Laurel shook her head, but everything happened too fast. Bruce moaned loudly and came, squirting sperm up her unprotected pussy. Kevin was pretty sure he could actually feel Bruce squirting. Kevin upped his game and went for it, pumping her ass vigorously and, a few seconds later, filling her with his giant load.
Tyler’s dick fell out of Laurel’s mouth and she wailed with another orgasm of her own. Kevin could definitely feel that, and he was sure Bruce could, too: every muscle in her body must have been spasming. Tyler took his dick in hand and jerked it, soon spraying all over Laurel’s face as she gasped and moaned.
Then came a slow clap from the doorway. Skye had a there-are-no-words look on her face. Callie shook her head and glared, full of spite.
“Callie!” Laurel cried. She disentangled herself from the men and rushed toward the door, dripping semen, but Callie had turned her back and rushed out, followed by the still-grinning Skye. Laurel stopped when she heard the engine rev and the tires crunch on gravel.
She walked to the bathroom with her head hanging low. When she came out a few minutes later, it was obvious she had been crying.
“I’m really sorry - I meant to pull out like you wanted. It got away from me,” Kevin told her as she began dressing.
“Yeah - me too,” Bruce added. “I can pay for a morning-after pill if you want.”
“No, that’s not a problem,” she said quietly. “You guys were fine.”
Nobody knew what else to say so they just stayed out of her way while she gathered her things and left.
Dylan’s phone had been nagging him at work until he finally silenced it. There were several messages from Laurel, spaced roughly ten minutes apart.
Laurel: Have you thought about where you want to go on Saturday? Maybe Teppanyaki?
Laurel: I keep forgetting to tell you I really liked your dog.
Laurel: Text me when you’re done with work, okay?
Laurel: It’s starting to get cold. But I like it!
Laurel: Do you prefer anime dubbed or with subtitles?
Laurel: There are so many MHA ship memes out there! They’re hilarious!
One was from his sister, with an earlier timestamp.
Callie: Bad news, bro. No joke. I just saw Laurel getting gang-banged by the guys in Skye’s band. Skye says it’s not the first time. I’m so sorry.
The first thing he did after checking his messages after work was call his sister. She was prepared to tell him about it in as much detail as he wanted, but after almost breaking a toe kicking the wall, he decided her word was enough.
Laurel sent another message while Dylan was talking to Callie.
Laurel: I’m really looking forward to Saturday!
He took a few deep breaths and then called her. This wasn’t the sort of thing one does by text.
“Dylan!” She answered the phone. She sounded nervous in a way that set off his crazy-detector.
“Laurel, we’re not going out on Saturday,” he told her firmly.
“Oh.” He could hear her trying to keep her breath steady. “I guess you have to work or something...?”
“Seriously, Laurel?” He heard sniffles but she didn’t say anything. “Please - give me some reason not to think the worst of you.” She still didn’t answer. “Was it blackmail? Did they force you?”
“No,” she said softly. “I was willing.”
“Then what?” He demanded. He knew he shouldn’t lose his cool, but it felt righteous just then. “How did you see this going?”
“I thought...,” she was having trouble finding the words, “you and I could be separate from that.”
“Separate like I’d be cool with it?” He asked viciously. “Or like I’d never find out?”
“If I told you why you wouldn’t believe me!” She blurted. Then, softly, “I really like you.”
He hung up and punched a stack of dog food bags.
Chapter 10
Theo and Jennifer looked at each other over the kitchen table, wondering how long they should wait for Laurel for breakfast.
She crept into the room like a timid animal, with sunken eyes and bed head, wearing sweats. She sat at the table. “It hurts when I pee,” she said softly. Then she bawled. “I think I’ve got an STD.”
Jennifer stood up and moved beside her. With a hand on her shoulder, she said, “It’s probably just a urinary tract infection. You’ve been sleeping with the Diplomat’s Blanket, right? That will have protected you from STDs.”
Laurel’s face was buried in her arms on the table. Jennifer patted her back. “I can teach you a spell to speed up your recovery.” She turned to Theo. “We’ll need some supplies from Salt Lake City.”
“I’ll hit the road after breakfast. You can text me what you need and where to find it,” he said with a nod.
Laurel texted Steve that she wouldn’t be meeting him. Her plan was to stay in bed sulking for at least as long as it took her to recover, but she couldn’t concentrate on videos or reading. She needed a project to keep her distracted - something that had nothing to do with sex.
“Can I use some of your craft supplies?” She asked Jennifer.
“Of course - use whatever you need.”
There was no reason that a hair-drying spell needed to be so complicated. It could actually be quite simple with some material aids. Those would need to be enchanted, of course, but that could be done ahead of time, instead of while rushing to get dressed after taking a shower.
She began picking out materials, laying them out on the table, and trying to imagine how they all might fit into her puzzle. Frequently she ran to the bathroom and soaked her hair so she could test this property or that. A plan started to form in her mind for a simple apparatus and an even simpler spell that could be used together to dry hair.
Jennifer’s craft room was quite well stocked, but it didn’t have everything she needed. There were many types of wood, and various tools for shaping them, although she didn’t know how to use most of those. There were several different types of sand and even dried seaweed. She couldn’t find any natural sponges, and at first, Laurel thought she could use wool as a substitute, but that ended up causing too many complications. Sea salt would be essential, and surprisingly she couldn’t find any of that.
As much as Laurel wanted to avoid people, the puzzle had taken hold of her mind and it wouldn’t let go. She decided to make a trip to the crafts store.
Bruce texted her while she was in the checkout line.
Bruce: The guys said I should leave you alone - that you wouldn’t want to hang with us before practice today. But I figured maybe you and I could meet up somewhere private. What do you say?
Laurel: No thank you.
When she emerged from the store she found her car had been vandalized: written in lipstick on her windshield were the words, “Jizz fetish all cox welcome.”
Bruce texted again while she was staring at the message.
Bruce: It doesn’t have to be about sex. We can just talk or listen to music.
Laurel: OMG! PLEASE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!
After Theo’s return, Jennifer taught Laurel a ritual to speed her recovery from the UTI.
“Why isn’t someone selling this?” Theo asked. “Make a lot of money and help a lot of women out.”
“She has to cast it herself,” Jennifer explained. “So it’s only available to women with proper magic training. It’s pretty well known among our kind though.”
Laurel’s body felt healthy again the following morning, but her mood wasn’t so easily repaired. She decided it was best to take another day off from sex and Spermamancy. In the early afternoon, Theo and Laurel began washing her car. That task evolved into a water fight - albeit a short one due to the cold - that lifted her spirits considerably.
For most of the rest of the day, she refined her magical hairdryer ideas, and in the early evening, she went to Jennifer. “I made you a gift,” she said, handing her mentor a gift bag.
Jennifer removed the item inside and examined it. It was a wooden rod, about eight inches long, with a marshmallow-sized piece of natural sponge glued to the top. The top half was wrapped in fabric that had a coating of rock salt glued to it. There was a hole at the bottom where three strings were tied, each ending in a tiny glass vial containing various things. There were a few symbols drawn in permanent marker on the wood in various places.
“What do we have here?” Jennifer asked cautiously.
“It’s for drying your hair. The spell is really simple - I’ll show you!” Laurel dashed off and returned with wet hair, and then demonstrated her contraption. After fifteen seconds, her hair was dry again.
Jennifer looked at her with penetrating curiosity. “Where did you find this enchantment?” She seemed to be asking something beyond the obvious, but Laurel wasn’t sure what.
“Well, I just...,” she struggled, “there’s this spell for drying your hair but it’s pretty inconvenient, and I figured that it could be made easier with an apparatus.” She looked at the floor. “It’s stupid - nobody would ever need something like this when they could just use an electric dryer.”
Jennifer shrugged. “Unless they were camping. Or at the beach. Or didn’t want to wake up a sleeping partner. No, I think this is useful.” She set the apparatus down. “Show me the book you based this on.”
Jennifer spent a few minutes reading the offered reference. She looked up and smiled. “Laurel, this is a completely different spell.”
Laurel shook her head. “It’s the same basic ideas...”
“No,” Jennifer asserted. “Your approach is completely new. You have invented another new spell. I know you’re a humble person, but it’s time that you recognize that you have a once-in-a-generation talent for innovation. I’ve watched you improvise well outside the conventional boundaries of spells without a second thought.”
“But everybody does that,” Laurel argued.
Jennifer shook her head earnestly. “No, Laurel, we don’t. Not like you.”
Laurel shifted uncomfortably. Jennifer returned her attention to the device, now with her reading glasses on the end of her nose. “The spell might be simple enough that mundanes could use it,” she muttered. “Oh! You know who would love this? Annie! Imagine how much time it would save her after surfing before her job?”
“I could make her one,” Laurel offered.
“That would be lovely!” Jennifer replied. “In fact, we could make a few - give them as gifts to the people who’ve helped us so much with Spermamancy.” Laurel smiled and nodded. Jennifer turned it over in her hands again. “I wonder - would you be offended if I tried refining the physical design? Maybe I could make it a little more durable and easy to carry?”
“Uh, yeah! Of course!” Laurel agreed.
Late that night, the household was awakened by a cacophony of birds. Theo and Laurel went outside to investigate with her clinging to his arm much of the time. Jennifer watched over them from the balcony with her rifle in hand.
“It came from the woods over there, not the road,” Laurel told Jennifer once they had met back up inside. “I don’t think it wasn’t an animal. The grass hated it - like it was something unnatural.”
“It got pretty close before the birds noticed,” Theo remarked, concerned.
“I could summon a hellhound to patrol at night,” Laurel suggested.
Jennifer frowned. “And what orders would you give it? What happens if some more punk teenagers come to throw toilet paper at the house? I don’t think we want a bloodbath on our hands.” She thought for a time. “Laurel, did you ever learn any demon wards?”
Laurel nodded. “Sorta. I remember my mom doing some. I can look them up tomorrow.”
“Good,” Jennifer said, nodding approvingly. “Theo - tomorrow you’ll go to the hunting store and pick up some trail cameras. We’ll set them up in the trees and get a look at whatever comes around in the future.”
Chapter 11
Laurel decided that she was ready to jump back into the saddle with Steve, so she waited with Theo at the coffee shop for his shift to end. Nobody had said it, but it was understood that Laurel should keep Theo close by for safety for her future engagements.
Olivia and Benedict entered the shop and approached. “Good morning! I trust you’re well?” Olivia said in greeting. Benedict offered a friendly smile - as much to Theo as Laurel.
“Hi. Um, yeah, we’re okay,” Laurel replied.
Olivia’s voice shifted to something quieter and more serious. “I wonder if I could have a word with you, Laurel.” She glanced at their companions. “Perhaps you two could give us a moment of privacy?” Theo looked to Laurel for approval, and she shrugged and nodded. Olivia sat down and Theo and Benedict wandered off to a corner of the store.
“Forgive my bluntness, but we’ve been watching you, and we’re concerned,” she said seriously. “There are at least two other covens in town. They might be responsible for some of the inconveniences you’ve experienced.” She waited to see if Laurel had anything to say. The young woman was listening carefully, but not speaking. “We have reason to believe that your friend Steve is deceiving you. Inter-coven politics prevent me from saying anymore.” Again she paused for Laurel’s reaction but got none.
Olivia stood up. “That’s all I wanted to say. Thank you for hearing me out. Call me if there’s ever anything I can do for you.” She tilted a head to signal Benedict and the two of them left.
Once lunch and the X-Men episode were over, Steve and Laurel began a spontaneous wrestling match: one that ended with her face-down on the couch and him laying mostly on top of her. His hips were off-center enough with hers to let him lift her skirt and tease her ass with one hand. Half of her face was pressed into the leather cushion, but she was smiling and giggling as he rubbed between her legs. He took off his pants and pulled her panties to the side.
“Are you cool with this?” He asked.
Laurel wanted it - just like this. Her animal self wanted to be mounted, controlled, and inseminated. She could smell his hard cock even if she couldn’t see it. She knew it was there just behind her - so close. Her primitive nature insisted that this was exactly right. Her higher mind cautioned her that he might not be trustworthy. Perhaps she should be on top, in control. But even if he was a spy, there was no reason to think he’d hurt her now. And damn it, she wanted him to dominate her!
“You better fuck me!” She taunted playfully.
He inserted himself - his throbbing flesh was welcomed by hers. He thrust into her and he weighed her down. She was helpless but it was comfortable - natural. She relaxed and embraced being ridden by him, humming a soft moan, while his thrusts escalated her excitement and prepared her to receive what he had to offer.
The spell. She should cast the spell. But what if he is a spy? Her human and animal brains agreed: there would be no spell, and there would be no pulling out if she could help it.
“Will you come inside me?” She whispered.
“What? Seriously?” He responded.
“I want you to cream-pie me. It’ll be fun! Please?”
“Yeah!”
He grabbed her shoulders and focused on nothing but fucking her. Her moans provoked him and excited him. She came, crying, “Oh god, just like that!” He kept going just like she told him to, and she never stopped wailing in climax, smothered and shaken, until finally his restraint broke loose and he gushed into her pussy.
It was a relief and a joy to feel him coming inside her. After all those times asking her men to pull out, she was suddenly struck by how incomplete and unnatural that had been - even if it was for a good reason. For a time they lay there, connected, him on top of her, both panting.
He began to move but she stopped him. “Wait!” He stopped.
“If we were dogs,” she explained self-consciously, “we’d be stuck together. A big ball at the base of your penis would be swollen up inside me and you wouldn’t be able to pull out. It’s kind of sweet, don’t you think?”
He didn’t answer with words - he just lay on top of her, letting his nose swim through her hair. Most guys would have called her a freak, but she knew Steve would understand. He even played along and licked her neck, which she answered with a happy murmur.
Eventually, they got up. He needed his pre-college nap and she needed to pee and clean up. She tucked him in before leaving, wondering if this was the last time she would spend with him.
Mrs. Mercer once again smiled knowingly at Laurel from her flowerbed.
“Those are beautiful geraniums,” Laurel remarked. Mrs. Mercer’s face lit up at the realization that Laurel shared her interest.
“Say, um, when did Steve move in here?” Laurel asked. “I know it’s a weird question but I want to make him a present and ... I guess it’s complicated. But I can’t just ask him, so...?”
Mrs. Mercer smiled her isn’t-love-wonderful smile. “Second half of August, I believe.”
“Of this year?” Laurel asked.
“Mmm-hmm!”
“And before that, he lived...?” Laurel pressed.
“Houston! You two are close enough that you should know that!” Mrs. Mercer teased.
Laurel blushed. “He likes to tease me with wild stories,” she said with a playful eye-roll. “Sometimes I’m not sure what’s really true. So he’s never lived in Montana before two months ago?”
“No! He’s never had the pleasure until now!” The landlady said with pride.
“Thank you so much!” Laurel exclaimed. She paused for a moment to think. “You know what? I think I need to, um...” she said before heading back into Steve’s guest house. She texted Theo that she needed ten more minutes.
Steve was lying on his back on his bed, with Laurel, naked, bouncing up and down on his dick. He couldn’t remember how long they’d been doing it, but neither of them was in any rush, so it was all good.
The door to his apartment opened and a young woman appeared in the bedroom doorway. It was Carla, his ex. She was wearing her club clothes - the shiny silver tank top that always managed to be just short of scandalous, her black leather miniskirt, and sexy stiletto heels. She sat down at the desk chair and watched him have sex. Laurel didn’t seem to notice.
“She’s not really your type...,” Carla observed.
Come to think of it, Laurel didn’t seem as pretty as usual. Her hair lacked luster and was jagged with split ends. Her teeth were sort of crooked and her breasts, even as small as they were, seemed to sag. Carla, on the other hand, could have come from a magazine photo shoot. Her hair was black and shiny like the ocean on a moonless night.
Another woman entered: Gudrun, another ex. She was wearing low-rise jeans and the barest of tube tops. Her blonde hair was done in two full-bodied pigtails high on the sides of her head. She bent down among the clothes scattered on the ground and picked up Laurel’s overalls. “Steve, honey...,” she said piteously.
“I know, right?” Carla agreed. “Steve, seriously? I know she lets you nut all over her, but what’s the appeal? Why her?”
Laurel was unfazed by the criticism. She just kept riding him, smiling at him warmly and looking ... somewhat cute.
“We’re friends. It’s sex,” Steve said dismissively.
Carla shook her head. “That might explain why you throw her a pity bone or make a drunk booty call, but every single day? Even in a town this size, I’m sure you can find a better ‘friend’.”
“At least here he doesn’t have to worry about what people will say,” Gudrun commented. “Can you imagine his loss of standing if he took her to a Market party?”
He shook his head. “Believe me, if I took her to a Market party, we’d be the it couple. In a couple years, every wizard in the world will know her name.”
Carla laughed dismissively. “Her?”
Steve nodded. “She’s invented something big. Sex magic that’s going to change the world. That’s why we have sex every day: she’s developing her spell, and I’m observing and reporting back to Her Darkness.”
Gudrun chuckled. “So you’re a gigolo for the Market of Shadows. Aren’t you going places?”
Laurel caught his attention. “Should we show them?” She volunteered eagerly. He nodded.
Laurel climbed off of him and lay on her back, with her legs open. He mounted her and began to thrust. Her hands and feet glowed as she moved them through arcane paths. The cameras hidden around the room whirred as they zoomed in. He pulled out, jerked his dick a few times, and then glowing blue come shot out onto her body, forming letters in some alphabet that he knew but couldn’t remember.”
Carla stood up and joined Gudrun at the exit. “As long as it’s for a good cause. I guess we’ll go find a couple local boys and blow their minds.”
Laurel was dressed by the time Carla and Gudrun were gone. She tucked him in under his duvet. “Get some sleep!” She told him. “You’ve got a long drive to school.”
That wasn’t right. Hadn’t he already had sex with Laurel? Hadn’t he already gone to bed?
Back at home, Laurel and Theo met with Jennifer to discuss what she’d learned in Steve’s dream. Her phone chirped with a text from Bruce, but she decided to ignore it for the time being.
“So Steve is a mole with the Louisiana Market of Shadows,” Jennifer frowned. “What about the other men you’ve been sleeping with?”
“The bartender has been working at Riley’s for five years,” Theo mentioned. “If there were another mage in town for that long, I assume you would have known.” Jennifer nodded.
“Callie and Dylan went to high school with the guys from the band,” Laurel said. “So they’ve been here for years.”
Theo stroked his chin. “Is it possible they could be using mundanes for spy work? Money or blackmail or whatever?”
“Mind control?” Laurel added.
Jennifer shook her head. “They couldn’t learn anything useful about the spell itself from mundanes. It wouldn’t surprise me, given what Olivia told us and we’ve now confirmed, if they’re doing old-fashioned surveillance - as much to keep tabs on each other as on us.”
“So what do we do?” Laurel asked.
Jennifer shook her head again. “I’m not sure. I’ll contact some of our allies - get their ideas.”
“What about Steve?” Laurel pressed. “Should I still see him?”
“Tomorrow why don’t we go see him together?” A round of nods sealed the plan.
Theo had a pained look on his face. “There’s something else I need to tell you. I’ve got a date.”
Laurel’s face lit up. “You do? That’s great!”
“It’s with Benedict,” he confessed. “I know he’s an adversary. He feels as awkward about that as I do. But we think we can leave that all outside. I, ah ... I’ve never met someone ... But if you don’t think it’s worth the risk...”
Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. Laurel’s grew wider and locked on her, pleadingly. “It’s Theo - we can trust him! He deserves this! He’s sacrificed so much to stay here and help us with this project!”
Jennifer’s face remained stone for a few heartbeats, and then softened, betraying a hint of a smile. “Just remember that the stakes here are high. Loose lips sink ships. Assume anything you say will be heard by the enemy. Constantly re-assess.”
Laurel bounced and threw herself at Theo for a hug.
Laurel had been eager to get a least one reading in so Theo took her to Riley’s to hook up with Rick. Karaoke Night was just starting, so he sat at a high top and ordered a beer and potato skins while he waited for Laurel and Rick to be finished. Once she was done, Laurel joined him, beer in hand, and began taking uncharacteristically deep swallows.
“I was supposed to go out with Dylan tonight,” she remarked, full of melancholy. “I thought he would be my first boyfriend.”
Bruce’s name was called for karaoke - he began with a monolog. “Some of you know, I’m in a band.” There were boos and a few peanuts thrown. He held up his hand. “I know, I know. I’m not going to try to make you guys appreciate metal. But we have been practicing a lot lately. And there’s a girl who’s been inspiring us a lot lately. I hear she’s been inspiring a lot of you, too. This one’s for her.”
He pointed at the DJ and a funky bass intro began. Seconds later, Bruce began to sing.
She’s a very kinky girl
The kind you don’t take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street
Laurel was looking around nervously. Theo surveyed the room too. There were no outright stares. It was hard to know if the glances in their direction had anything to do with the song.
She likes the boys in the band
She says that I’m her all-time favorite
When I make my move to her room it’s the right time
She’s never hard to please
Theo had seen Laurel overwhelmed with anxiety enough times to know the warning signs. He held her hand and whispered to her: “I know what you’re probably feeling right now, but the best way to handle this is to own it. Smile, be amused. Be above it. You’re in control here.”
When the chorus began, Bruce began pointing right at Laurel with the beat.
She’s a super freak, super freak
She’s super freaky! Yow!
Everybody sing
Super freak, super freak
At least half of the restaurant’s patrons were now looking at her, and many were whispering. It was obvious that she tried to take Theo’s advice to heart: she was wearing the biggest, fakest, most terrified smile he’d ever seen, and she was trembling.
“Come on,” he said, putting his arm around her and leading her to the exit. Theo adjusted his glamour while they crossed the restaurant. He was naturally a tall lean young man, but to anyone who looked at him then, he was big, powerful, and dangerous. He looked back at the diners and dared any of them to meet his eyes.
At his car, he handed Laurel his keys. “You go on ahead,” he told her. “I’ll get a ride.”
She clutched his arm. “Please don’t do anything! Please just come home with me! Please?” It took a while for her pleas to penetrate his anger. He wanted to go back inside and punish that little shit, but supporting her, he eventually decided, was the most important thing.
Before they had closed the door, Skye came running up. “Hey,” she said with a sympathetic voice. “Look, I don’t approve of your lifestyle or whatever, but you didn’t deserve that. I’m sorry.”
Laurel didn’t say anything. She didn’t nod, she didn’t look away. But Theo got the sense that she appreciated the apology. They drove home.
Chapter 12
Going straight to bed had felt like the right decision at the time, but after a few hours of sleep, Laurel found herself wide awake in a big, nearly empty house, alone with her thoughts in the middle of the night. She knew that Kate would be asleep, but she made a video call anyway, trusting her friend would understand.
“Laurel?” Kate said, rubbing her eyes. She was in bed, under the covers, wearing a T-shirt. “Hey - what’s going on?”
“I’m never going to have a boyfriend!” Laurel sobbed.
“Huh? Did something happen?” Kate asked.
Laurel nodded. “There was a boy that I really liked. He wanted to take things slow, but he really did want a relationship with me - I’m almost sure of it, I think!” Her chest heaved with deep breaths. “His sister saw me with some guys. I had to sleep with them! It’s my job - it’s important! I guess ... Well, I suppose I didn’t have to enjoy it. Maybe I am just the slut everyone is saying I am. I didn’t have to let them do the thing they did to me - I could have just stuck with blowjobs. I shouldn’t have enjoyed it.”
Kate turned her head, listening to a male voice that Laurel couldn’t make out. She shook her head and made a stop gesture with her hand. “Baz is going to go to the other room for a while,” she explained.
“The song says I’m the kind of girl ‘you don’t take home to mother’,” Laurel moped.
“What song?” Kate asked, scrunching her eyes trying to wake up.
“Super Freak. Rick James, 1981, Gordy Records.”
“I don’t think Rick James was talking about you, Laur,” Kate protested.
“The karaoke guy was,” Laurel countered.
“Oh.”
“Dylan’s family liked me! And I liked that they liked me. I liked that they approved of me dating their son. I liked that I might someday have in-laws. But now I never will. Now I’m the kind you don’t take home to mother!”
“Explain it to him,” Kate suggested. “Tell him about magic. Tell him about the work you’re doing. Give him a chance to be worthy of you.”
Laurel shook her head. “I can’t. That would mean outing Jennifer to all her neighbors as the crazy lady who thinks she’s a witch. People would hate her and vandalize her property. And when she had guests - you know, people who come to study at her library? - everyone would gossip and stare. Plus it’s too much of a burden to put on Dylan. I mean, did you try to tell anyone after you found out?”
Kate frowned. “Yeah. It didn’t go well.”
Kate took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It sounds like you’ve lost this guy for good. But there will be others.” Laurel shook her head. “Yes, Laurel, there will be! Is this project of yours even worth it?”
“But...,” Laurel struggled, “I’m the only one...”
Kate cut her off. “Yeah, Laurel, you’re the only one. But mankind has gotten by for thousands of years without your spell. Let someone else take over. Or put it on the shelf for another time in your life. Come back to college; go to class; meet some cute guys, and fuck them because you want to share that experience with them, not because your magic cookbook tells you to.”
Kate tugged at her hair in frustration. “Or don’t. Keep doing your magic thing, and accept that you probably can’t have a boyfriend right now. But you will, eventually - in another town and another phase in your life.”
Laurel shook her head as if to deflect Kate’s words. They made sense, but they weren’t what she wanted to hear, and that made them uncomfortable. She knew she shouldn’t be resisting, but she couldn’t help it.
“Thanks for talking to me. I’m sorry I woke you. I’ll let you go,” she said.
“We can keep talking if you want,” Kate offered. “It doesn’t have to be about this. Movies or food or something.”
“No. Thanks. I should go.”
“Okay,” Kate agreed. “But Laurel? You know that Baz and I are grateful every single day for having you as a friend, right?” Laurel smiled through her sadness before hanging up.
The plan was for Laurel to meet up with Steve as usual, and go back with him to his place, where Theo and Jennifer would be waiting.
She sat at the coffee shop sipping her latte waiting for Steve. The store wasn’t especially big, and nobody ever spent much time in the back, and yet she didn’t see him. Even a trash run would have only lasted a couple minutes.
She received a text:
Theo: At Steve’s house - looking suspicious. Looks like he might have packed up and run.
Laurel: He’s not at work, either.
Theo: Hmm. Come here - see if you can get us inside.
“Hi, Mrs. Mercer,” Laurel said when the landlady answered her door. “I guess you know that Steve’s not here right now.”
“Mmm. Such a shame about his sister-in-law. I hope she recovers quickly,” Mrs. Mercer replied.
Laurel nodded. “Would you mind letting us in? These are my friends and they’re going to help me with the surprise I’m planning. I think he’ll really appreciate it, you know, considering.”
“Of course.”
From the looks of it, Steve had packed what he could into his car and left quickly. His clothes, the TV, game console, and computer were gone, but kitchenware, linens, and the like were left behind. The three began poking around.
“Not a single ward or enchantment,” Jennifer observed. “I guess he was worried about tipping you off.”
“No magical paraphernalia, but take a look a this,” Theo added. He pulled out a tiny camera hidden in the spine of a book. “I bet there’s more.”
They found six cameras - three in the bathroom alone. “I’m not seeing any storage devices. Not even a WIFI router. I suppose he took those with him.” They resolved to take the cameras home to investigate.
Theo wasn’t able to learn much from cameras. The damage was done, but Jennifer wrote an email to the Louisiana Market of Shadows condemning their duplicity and warning that if any sex video involving Laurel were ever distributed, it would be treated as a gravely hostile act.
Jennifer and Theo were careful never to put any pressure on Laurel regarding the pace of her work, but well-meaning questions from allies in their chat channel reminded her that she was stalled, having only performed one reading in the last several days.
She took some time to be alone. It was obvious she had been crying. Then she announced that she was going to go visit Rick. Theo offered to drive.
Riley’s was short-staffed. Rick apologized - he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to go on break “to talk”. Theo waited with her, fending off the looks that kept coming. A group of high school boys repeatedly pointed and whispered, occasionally making crude gestures to go with the jokes that they were no doubt telling each other. A twenty-something man with blond spiky hair and cunning eyes kept staring until Theo’s gaze forced him to turn away. Callie and Skye came in but left right away when they saw her.
Theo checked the time on his phone often until Laurel said something. “Wait - tonight’s your date, right? Theo! You’ve got to go!”
“I’d rather not leave you alone,” he shrugged.
“I’ll be okay. I know I freaked out yesterday, but I can put up with the stares.”
“It’s not the stares that trouble me,” Theo explained. “It’s when they start coming up to you once I’m gone.”
“Go! You deserve it! I ... I want to believe that people like us can find love. I’ll get an Uber home.”
Theo shook his head. “No way - you’re taking my car.” He slid the keys over to her. “Hey, Rick! Can Laurel wait in the office until you’re ready?” Rick nodded and let her in.
A replacement server had arrived and Rick was finally ready to take a break. He took a deep break and then entered the office where Laurel was waiting with her laptop open on the desk.
“So, here we go,” he said. “I’m sorry. I shot my mouth off about the thing we had going. I thought it was harmless guy talk, but I put you in a very painful situation, and I should have been smarter than that.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said softly, closing the lid of her laptop and standing up. She was wearing a super-cute black dress over a maroon long-sleeve shirt. “There were other guys, you know? When a pathetic desperate girl goes around begging guys for their sperm, people are bound to talk.” After watching his face for a moment, she asked, “Is it still okay if I give you blowjobs? Please?”
“Laurel, I’ve taken advantage of you enough.”
“No! Please - I want this! For lots of reasons,” she told him. While he thought it out she stepped close to him. She turned her back to him and began rubbing her body up against his. “Please?”
“I don’t deserve to be with you,” he said, but his resolve was cracking. Her ass was rubbing against his crotch. Her back rubbed against his chest. Her hair, just below him, smelled like flowers.
“Please?” She asked again.
His hands moved to her waist and he could feel her sway. He grabbed her firm breasts and he could feel the hard nubs of her nipples, even through the layers of fabric. He found himself squeezing her breasts to the same rhythm that her body was moving against his.
They moved forward to the desk and she bent over it. He lifted up her dress and pulled down her tights and panties. She was wearing the plug he had given her, so it was clear that she had come to fuck. Her cute little pussy was wet and swollen, inviting him. He gave in.
While he took off his pants, she spun around face-up, and quickly got rid of her shoes, tights, and panties. She lay on the desk with her legs spread wide open for him. She was clearly ready for him to fuck her - her eyes told him as clearly as her pussy did. But he couldn’t resist a detour. He leaned in and fixed his mouth on her cunt. Her thighs closed on his head holding it in place even while she squirmed. He licked her little stiff pleasure button. Once he put his fingers inside her she came hard enough to make her legs shake.
Her legs opened, releasing him. “Time to get your dick wet, okay?” She proposed. Rick figured that was an invitation to fuck her, but just in case, he rubbed his head up and down her slit a few times, giving her a chance to object. She whimpered from the anticipation. Then, when he slipped his meat inside her, she sighed dreamily. It was a snug fit but slick and wet, so after a few shallow warm-up strokes, he managed to sink it all the way in.
At first, she had her eyes closed and her hands rubbing her breasts. He held her ankles high and wide and kept giving it to her little pink pussy. Then out of nowhere, she held her arms out, reaching toward him. He let go of her ankles and touched her hands. The next thing he knew, she was clinging to his front, her arms and legs wrapped around him.
He picked her up. It was a good thing she was so light because she didn’t give him any time for balance: as soon as he was standing free of the desk, she was bouncing up and down on his cock, lifting and lowering herself with the strength of her legs and arms. He fell against the wall, his back hitting with a thud, and let her do most of the work.
She spoke quietly and tenderly: “I can feel how much you want to impregnate me. It’s flattering.”
He hadn’t actually given it any conscious thought this time around, but now that she had put the idea there, it wouldn’t leave his mind. He imagined flooding her pussy with come. He imagined fucking her in his bed, over and over as weeks went by and her belly became rounder. He imagined this sweet weird girl as his partner in procreation. No - as a fertility goddess. Her uterus was the holy grail.
It almost seemed like she had read his mind when she began coming. Just then, the night manager Terrance came into the office. He did his best to ignore the copulating couple and dug around in the desk drawer for something. He was only human, though, and a young pretty woman moaning in ecstasy is hard to ignore.
“That’s it, baby - good girl,” Rick told her as her climax faded away. That made her hug him tighter - both with her arms and legs and her pussy.
She was out of energy so he took over, lifting her slowly up and down so she could slide on his cock. He whispered in her ear. “Can I show Terrance there your ass?”
“Okay,” she whispered back.
His hands were supporting her, but his fingers had enough freedom to gather up her skirt. A few seconds later, Terrance was staring at her tight naked pale butt with the bejeweled plug stuck in it. Terrance watched for a short while and then sighed enviously and shook his head before leaving.
“Don’t ever miss your pill even one day because I promise you, that’s all it will take,” he muttered - an insincere threat.
“I don’t take pills,” she replied. “I use magic.”
Rick turned around and pressed her back against the wall. Whatever the hell her bizarre dirty talk was supposed to mean, it had him seeing red. He banged her pussy hard and she grunted with every thrust. He began to moan, too - he was reaching his limit.
“Remember, you have to pull out,” she reminded him. He nodded.
He carried her to the desk, set her down on the edge, and then retreated. He made a point to lift her skirt and push her knees together. Then he stared into her smitten eyes while he stroked himself. He moaned and finished himself off, shooting a semen-y mess into her lap and covering her thighs. When he was done she tilted her head this way and that, staring at his come ponderously.
Laurel stopped at the gas station on the way home. For all of Theo’s excellent qualities, he was far too reckless about filling his gas tank, as far as she was concerned. Her mind drifted to the forest fire problem while the pump ran.
A man was close by, walking toward her purposefully. She glanced in the other direction to see another man approaching. The pumps on one side and the car on the other formed a corridor, and the two men were moving to block both of her exits.
“I’m Nelson,” the first man said in a candy-stranger voice. She considered whether she still had space to run past him, but decided that should wouldn’t be quick enough. “You’re Laurel, right?”
“Please leave me alone,” she said meekly.
“I just want to talk to you,” Nelson told her. “Present an opportunity. The way I hear it, you really like sex.”
“Go away please!” She said, full of panic. Her shoulders folded inward, her head sunk low as if to protect her by curling into a ball.
“No, no - it’s okay. I get it,” Nelson continued to try to sweet-talk her. “A young pretty girl like you with a more-than-healthy sexual appetite. It’s empowering! I respect it! Too few people are honest with themselves when it comes to sex, but you’ve got it figured out!”
She glanced at the man behind her. He had stopped, a respectful distance away, but close enough to pen her in. She glanced around for anyone within screaming distance, but she didn’t see anyone.
Nelson continued. “But I bet you’ve also got a job, huh? One you don’t really like that much, but you do it because you’ve got to pay for rent and gas and stuff. Why not make money doing what you love, instead? I can help. I can introduce you to all the guys you want - sexy guys. And I can take care of all the details - all you have to do is have fun and get paid.”
The gas pump stopped. Laurel took hold of the nozzle, pointed it at Nelson, and squeezed the handle, but the pump refused with a click. Having failed at that, she put the handle back in place at the pump.
“I need to go!” She told him and reached for the driver’s door handle.
Nelson took a step forward, blocking her from the car door, and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not a bad guy,” he said disarmingly.
With a jagged breath, Laurel stepped close to him and grabbed his crotch. She manipulated his body energies. His face became a mask of surprise while he ejaculated in his pants and then crumpled to the ground asleep.
She spun around and pointed at the other man. “You back off or I’ll do worse to you!” She threatened, on the verge of tears. He put his hands in the air and backed away with a bemused smirk.
Laurel quickly got in the car, locked the doors, and drove off.
Chapter 13
Steve was on his bed, tied to the bedposts with silk ribbons. He was naked except for a pair of red satin boxers. Laurel was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing a striped T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He was dreaming. Shit. Laurel had invaded his dreams again.
“I thought we were friends,” she said, sad and disappointed.
“We were,” he argued. “We had fun together - the sex and just hanging out.”
“You used me,” she whined.
“And you used me,” he protested. “Neither of us was completely honest. We both did our jobs, and we had fun doing it. I didn’t work against your interests!”
“I guess that’s true,” she said. “But I still feel betrayed.”
She stood up and walked away. Now she was wearing a full-length white dress like a priestess of some dead religion. She faded from sight.
He was no longer in his bedroom but in a cave. He was bound not to a bed, but to a rock, tied up by entrails instead of silk. His ex Gudrun was there, wearing low-rise jeans and a tiny tube top just like in the last dream, but her face looked soulless. Above him, there was a giant serpent. Venom dripped from its mouth - venom that would bring agony enough to shake the world, he somehow knew. The only thing sparing him from that agony was the bowl Gudrun held over his head.
He prayed that he woke up before the bowl was full.
The next morning, Theo was high on life. His date had obviously been quite a success, and while he didn’t come out and say it, Laurel was sure he’d had sex for the first time. He hadn’t come home until near dawn, so he’d probably had a lot of it.
She didn’t mention the trouble at the gas station to anyone. Theo would blame himself for leaving her to go on his date, and she didn’t want to ruin its memory for him. Nonetheless, it left a stain on her mood.
It was humiliating, but Laurel texted Tyler and asked if she could blow the guys before band practice. She had work to do - she still hadn’t cracked the code for predicting fires. And while one of them had been a giant jerk, she had pretty good chemistry with them and felt safe with them. Theo insisted on coming along, but he waited in the car outside.
“Hey look, Laurel,” Tyler told her while she was taking off her clothes, “I just ... Bruce is an idiot.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Bruce added. “Somehow I got it in my head that you’d take it as a compliment.” He rubbed his neck nervously. She hit him with a doubtful glare; it had sure seemed like he had intended to hurt her.
Tyler went on. “I honestly don’t know why you do this - what you get out of it. But I don’t want you to feel like we take you for granted. We appreciate this. You.”
Laurel managed a smile through her melancholy. She was now completely naked and, thanks to the effort she’d put into her glamour, she looked like an expertly photoshopped version of herself. Her nipples, thighs, shoulders, hair, eyes - everything about her painted a picture of a young woman’s sex appeal.
“I appreciate you guys too,” she said, sounding tired. “This is ... good for me. It’s hard to explain. I’m not really in a talking mood if that’s okay.”
Soon she had her mouth on Tyler’s cock. She let him guide her on how he wanted the experience to go: when to swallow him down, when to work the head; when to jerk his shaft, and when to go light. They didn’t say a word, but they communicated nonetheless like long-time partners.
It wasn’t long before Tyler came on her chest and she took a break to examine the magic hidden in his sperm in the privacy of the bathroom. She sucked Kevin off and likewise analyzed her results.
It wasn’t quite business as usual for Laurel. Smelling the boys, tasting them, and feeling their hands on her head reminded her of her last experience with them: when the three of them had worshiped her body all at once with their hands and lips and pounding cocks. It was an experience she would like to have felt again, but it was too impractical. Asking them to stop when one of them was ready to come, and then studying the semen patterns just wouldn’t work. Nobody had enough self-control to pull that off.
She was fighting her gag reflex and massaging Bruce’s dick with her throat when Skye showed up, early for practice. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” She said. She walked right up to Laurel and Bruce, dodging Tyler who tried to block her path. “You know what? I take it back. You do deserve it. You deserve every little bit of blowback that comes your way from being an indiscriminate whore.”
Laurel did her best to ignore the other girl. She kept sucking his crown and stroking his shaft until he was ready. Then she cast her spell, made Bruce come, and recorded her observations. Once she was dressed, she walked up to Skye who was sitting at her drums. “What is your problem? Why do you even care what I do?”
“You mean apart from fucking with my band cohesion?” Skye answered. She twirled her drumstick as she talked. “You hurt Dylan. He’s a sweet guy and you jerked his heart around.”
Laurel searched her mind for a comeback, but she couldn’t find one. Skye stared at her, waiting, ready to return any volley.
“I could hurt you a lot worse,” she finally said under her breath.
“Oh!” Skye responded excitedly. “Is that where we are now? Pistols at dawn?” She added, “God, you can’t even be honest with yourself - that’s the worst of it. I’m not your problem.”
“Bitch,” Laurel said quietly.
Skye leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “Okay, since we’re talking, I’ve got to know: What does your dad think of you? Does he know that you offer a group discount?” She gestured at her bandmates who were watching nervously. “Is he disgusted? Ashamed? Or - I don’t know - did he like groom you into this?”
“Shut up or I’ll hurt you!” Laurel threatened. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides.
Skye was unfazed by the threat. She sat up straight, drumsticks in hand gesturing ponderously. “I’m really asking. I honestly want to know. Does your dad fuck you?”
Laurel had only ever dabbled in curses during her brief rebellious phase in high school. Back then it had taken hours of work to manifest the simplest effect. Now it was different. She had so much more experience and confidence. She suddenly understood how little she needed the methods from the books. They were a starting point, and that was all. She surveyed the energies around them: the shadows in the ceiling corners, the logo on the cymbals, the electric hum of the heaters, the years-old calendar on the wall, the scent of tobacco on Skye’s breath. They were all weapons for someone clever enough to use them. And she was.
Her hands opened up, ready for her forms. Her breathing shifted out of habit into a versatile ritual pattern. And then she abruptly lowered her eyes, grabbed her things, and ran to the car.
“Go!” She urged Theo. “Get me out of here!”
Theo put the car in gear and drove her away. She began to cry. “Laurel, what’s wrong?” He asked.
“I almost did something terrible,” she answered.
“Hello, Jennifer,” came the voice through the phone.
“Richard...,” Jennifer sighed with relief just at hearing his voice. “I don’t know if I’m doing right by her.”
“You are. I know you are,” answered Richard’s reassuring voice.
“She’s having such a hard time with it all,” she went on. “Today she’s been pacing, hyperventilating, moving from one task to another unable to focus. In the middle of doing the dishes tonight, she stopped for five minutes to cry into the sink.”
Richard grunted in acknowledgment. “But this isn’t about the magic?”
“No - she manages all that marvelously,” Jennifer explained. “It’s the pressure - expectations and social consequences. She’s only a child and this is breaking her. If it was just about the magic I could help her.”
“Not really.”
“Gee, thanks,” Jennifer grumbled.
“Jennifer, I didn’t send her to you to learn magic,” Richard explained. “I sent her to you to learn how to be strong. And you’ve made great strides. You’ll find a way to reach her.”
“I hope so,” Jennifer sighed. “I don’t even know if she could go back to a regular life at this point. She’s drawn so much attention.”
“Laurel,” Jennifer said, catching Laurel in a sullen but calm mood, “there’s a full moon out tonight. Would you mind gathering some moonlight for an enchantment I’m planning?” She gestured to her crutches. “I’m not really mobile enough to do it myself. Do you know the ritual?”
Laurel nodded. “I did it with my mom a couple times. I mostly just take off my clothes and dance, right?” Jennifer nodded.
“Would you rather I do it instead?” Theo offered.
“Well, you can’t,” Laurel said, looking at him quizzically. “But you can keep me company.”
“Why can’t I?” He asked. Laurel looked confused by his ignorance.
“The moon belongs to women,” Jennifer explained.
Jennifer’s home was on twenty-eight acres of largely unspoiled wilderness, so there was no need to fear nosy neighbors. She did watch over the youths, though, from the balcony, just in case there was something out there that meant them harm.
Laurel danced like a child. She clearly had no training, but at least for now, no inhibitions either. Her body moved freely and naturally without any help from her conscious mind. It was exactly what Jennifer had hoped. She would find some spell to justify the request later. What was important was that Laurel was remembering the joy of the craft.
Theo moved like a ballroom dancer. Jennifer had been worried that his presence would be disruptive, forcing Laurel into an adult mindset full of doubts and desires, but it now seemed that he was no impediment to her innocence.
When Laurel returned to the house, her frown was gone.
Chapter 14
Steve had been the anchor for Laurel’s days, she decided. Mornings were about consultations with Jennifer and Theo, but she’d always felt like her day started with lunch and sex with Steve. Now that he was gone, she didn’t know what to do.
She did get a latte at the coffee place at which Steve had worked. Then she walked around for a while. She stood across the street from the pet food store, but she didn’t dare approach any closer for fear that Dylan would see her.
A middle school girl escorted by a high school boy put up fliers outside the pet food store. The girl was taking the matter much more seriously than her brother. Laurel found a flyer that they had already put up on her side of the street: it was about a lost cat - black and white, barely an adult.
She texted Tyler to see if she could meet them before band practice, but he said no: they had a gig out of town.
She shuffled on toward the library. A trio of boys approached her. All were giggling, lending each other courage for the confrontation, but only one spoke. “You’re that girl who likes to party, right?”
She didn’t answer. They looked like they were fifteen. Laurel couldn’t remember ever feeling older than anyone before. One of them reminded her of Billy, her first boyfriend. Except he hadn’t been her boyfriend: she’d never had a boyfriend. Billy had just been the first boy she’d screwed.
“‘Cause, you know, we like to party,” he went on. Then he dug in his pocket and pulled out a three-pack of condoms. He held them out as if they were a holy relic.
Laurel gave them a sad look and then shook her head. “Please don’t be like this.”
The boys stopped laughing and looked at each other, confused, and then scampered off.
Later a policeman watched her suspiciously as if she were about to start selling her body on the street corner at any moment.
At the library, Laurel sat down in front of her laptop and began typing a letter to Jennifer. She explained why she was quitting, leaving the project in Jennifer’s hands. She wished them well and knew that her successor would help the world in all the ways she had failed to. She knew that Jennifer could find someone more capable - someone who wasn’t a screw-up. It was a relief to finally make the decision and release herself from burdens she wasn’t built to carry.
Laurel would, of course, write up some notes to help her successor step into the role. What those notes should contain, once she began writing them, seemed endless. She had so much advice on so many aspects of the research, and everything she wrote seemed to beg for more details. The team had been documenting their findings all through the project, but she now found that everything she had written up until then was worthless - hopelessly out of date or naive compared to her current understanding.
Theo joined her. She couldn’t look at him, but thankfully he didn’t force her.
The specific challenges of dealing with multiple men simultaneously was a tricky topic. She had to keep throwing away what she wrote and starting over, which was stupid because all she had to say was don’t do it - it’s impossible. Except it wasn’t impossible - not in theory. There were probably ways to deal with the inherent challenges. Or at least there should be. And, in fact, in theory, there were certain efficiencies to gain if someone could just ... Well, that was something her successor would have to deal with.
A rain began. Theo looked at the time - it was early evening. “Did you want to stop by Riley’s and see Rick?”
“No - let’s just go home,” Laurel answered.
She would leave Jennifer’s letter on the breakfast table, maybe.
Theo asked if Laurel was planning on going out anymore. She shook her head. She was curled up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of tea listening to the rain. That seemed like a good plan for the rest of the night. She told him to go see his boyfriend and not worry about her.
It was funny - now that she had decided to quit the project, her mind wouldn’t stop coming up with more questions that needed to be asked and tests that needed to be performed. She would amend her notes when she got back home to her dad, far away.
She got a text from Tyler.
Tyler: The gig was fucking awesome! Wish you could have seen us!
Laurel: I’m happy for you.
Laurel: Hey, are you guys free? Could you maybe do me like you did before? All at once?
It would just be one last reading, to clarify her notes on multiple simultaneous partners for the next girl. The next girl might not be comfortable with this sort of thing, after all. And she might have trouble finding three willing partners. Truthfully, though, it was all about the intellectual itch that writing her notes had brought about.
Even that wasn’t entirely true, she realized as she drove to Kevin’s house. The more she thought about it, the more she admitted that the sex act itself was pulling her. Once she was back at college, hopefully, she would have normal college sex. And hopefully, she’d even get a boyfriend - a really good one who cared for her and gave her all the sex she wanted. But back at college, she wouldn’t get the chance to do three guys at once. Even though that was part of what she was running from, she would miss it. So just this once more before she left: she would let the boys team up on her. She would beg them to use her if she had to. And she would surrender to all the wonderful sensations that there were no words for.
She wasn’t dressed sexy, she realized as she pulled into the driveway. She had changed into her comfy clothes when she and Theo came home from the library when she thought she would be staying home: gym shorts and an oversized T-shirt - not even a bra. She did take her time adjusting her glamour though. She had a pretty good idea what these boys responded to by now, and she was going to give it to them, turned up to eleven. When that was done she fished around in the back seat for her umbrella and scampered up to the front door.
“Jesus, Laurel, you are so fucking hot,” Tyler told her once inside. He’d been drinking, but probably not enough to hinder his performance. He reached out and touched her face and it sent a shockwave of good feelings through her body.
Kevin helped her with her coat and umbrella. “Can you believe after his date with you, he described you as, ‘cute, if you’re into that sort of thing’?” Laurel giggled.
“Yeah,” Bruce added. “Cute if you’re into that whole ‘sexiest girl in the entire state’ thing!” She blushed.
“Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Tyler admitted.
“Thanks,” she said graciously. She wondered, though, if they’d be attracted to her all without her glamour.
“You want a beer?” Tyler said, presenting a can to her. “We’ve sort of been celebrating a damned good gig.”
She shook her head. “No thanks - I’m going to have to drive home after.”
“You could stay. All night...” Kevin offered. “My roommates are in Seattle.”
Laurel shook her head. “Skye didn’t want to celebrate with you?” Laurel asked.
Tyler looked like a guilty child. “She was here ... until we got your text.”
Kevin explained, “We tried to get her to stay. Said it could be one hell of a party. I mean, I don’t know what you’re into, but...”
Bruce took over. “Yeah, but she just kept going on about ‘my boyfriend’ this, ‘my boyfriend’ that.”
Tyler took a deep chug. “It is so cool to meet a girl who’s above all that relationship crap. I love that you get it. There’s friendship and sex! Until you’re ready to have kids, there’s no reason to make it any more complicated than that!” He crunched the can he’d just finished in his hand. “I wanna put my dick in your mouth.”
Kevin’s room was uncluttered, with a queen-sized bed. Undressing her went quickly, of course, but it took longer for her to undress the boys. She smiled a little bit more every time she exposed another section of boy-flesh. They were all hers, for the evening. She frequently rubbed her thighs together, responding to the feeling of her dripping pussy.
Laurel ended up on her side giving a warmup blowjob to Kevin while Bruce took a fascination with fingering her pussy. He’d never done it before, he said, and wanted to “figure it out”. And he did. Laurel had to abandon Kevin’s dick and lay on her back while Bruce’s finger inside her made her flop around like a puppet. His bandmates watched approvingly as he teased out a nice long climax accompanied by many soft short girlish moans.
“Can I have your ass this time?” Bruce asked after Laurel retrieved the bottle of lube from her coat. “I’ve never done that.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said with an affable shrug. “I want us all to come together this time. So two of you can come inside me, but whoever’s at my mouth still has to pull out and paint me, okay?”
“Worth a try,” Tyler responded, “but all coming together? Seems like a longshot.”
“We can do it,” Laurel said, full of optimism. “We almost did last time, by accident.”
“Okay, so, where do you want us?”
They began with Laurel on her side. Bruce penetrating her ass produced a squeal and jump alarming enough that they asked if she was okay. She responded with a coy smile and an enthusiastic nod. “Use me as hard as you want, okay? I can take it!” She said to all of them.
Managing her legs so that Tyler could fill up her pussy took some experimentation. Her left leg ended up under his midsection but he tucked her right leg in his armpit and held it there.
“Oh my god, so fucking full!” She muttered. “I’m so glad that you guys have penises!”
“I’m pretty happy about it too!” Bruce said. Tyler gave him a high-five.
“You ready for one more?” Kevin said, standing beside the bed next to Laurel’s head.
“Just, um...,” she instructed. “You guys start moving a little bit, just so I can OH GOD!” The smallest of thrusts from two sides was enough to overwhelm her. She lost her power of speech for a time and could only cry out. Finally, she gained enough composure to explain: “It’s like a rollercoaster but inside-out, making me come!”
Kevin took this as a signal of readiness and presented his dick to her mouth. Her head wasn’t supported and with all the jostling she was having trouble keeping it in her mouth. Kevin looked for ways to hold her head steady, but he couldn’t find a way. It wasn’t until Bruce put his arm around her neck to cradle her head that she could really get to work on Kevin’s dick.
Tyler and Bruce thrust into her from both sides. She was sandwiched between their sweating bodies, and Bruce’s arm around her neck looked more like a choke hold than a pillow. She shrieked and wiggled uncontrollably, coming, certain that she would be sore tomorrow.
“I kinda wish Skye were here just to watch,” Tyler thought out loud. Bruce responded with a zombie groan.
“Wait...,” Laurel said. She wiggled free from her lovers. “This isn’t working for Kevin. We all need to come. Um, maybe like this?”
She made Bruce lie on his back and she sat on his dick, facing his feet. Then she lay back against his chest and spread her legs. Tyler knelt and re-entered her pussy. With her head tilted back against Bruce’s shoulder at the edge of the bed, she waved to Kevin. “Can you fuck my mouth?”
Kevin shoved his cock in her mouth and watched the bulge of his dick in her throat. Tyler fucked her pussy, and watched the bulge of his dick in her over-stuffed belly. She pressed her feet into the bed, lifting her hips enough for Bruce to thrust into her ass with an arm around her ribs.
Her attempts to synchronize their bodies hadn’t quite worked out before, due to Kevin’s relative lack of stimulation. But now things were back on track. A little magic to converge their climaxes would complicate her augury significantly, but if she pulled it off, she could channel all three men’s explosive, creative essence into just one ejaculation stream. One final experiment before she quit.
She hadn’t even considered what question she would ask. For a moment she thought of Dylan, but quickly swept that from her mind. Then she thought about the missing cat.
Bruce squeezed her breasts tightly. Tyler fingered her clit. She cried out urgent instructions to her men. They couldn’t possibly have understood her with Kevin’s cock down her throat, and yet they did as she asked. All three boys drove their cocks into her - it was dick in every direction. She ached and loved it. She made no effort to hide her hand symbols. It must have looked like she was throwing gang signs, some corner of her mind thought.
All of the men were grunting and moaning, on the edge, clutching and pawing at her body. Kevin pulled out; Bruce’s hands retreated from her chest. Laurel’s eyes rolled to the back of her head and she lost her mind as her orgasm began. At the same instant, all three men began to ejaculate, every spurt perfectly synchronized. Just as Kevin launched one stream and then another between her breasts and down to her belly, the other two men flooded her pussy and ass. They all knew it - they could all feel all of it.
Kevin broke the silence first. “Holy crap! What was that!”
Laurel ignored him and looked down the length of her chest, reading the signs. With every passing second she understood more and became more alarmed. She knew where the cat was, and it was in danger.
She dashed to the bathroom and wiped her chest clean. She grabbed a big wad of toilet paper to stuff in her panties - there was no time to clean up properly.
The guys were confused, as much by her rush to leave as by the transcendent experience they’d all just shared. “I’m sorry - I can’t talk,” she told them as she dashed out to her car.
The rain had become a torrent. Laurel wanted to drive faster but she could only see a short distance ahead of her car. The windshield wipers worked at full speed but made little difference.
When Laurel arrived at the construction site - she was sure this was what the semen had told her - she realized that she had left her umbrella at Kevin’s house. There was no time to go back for it. She pointed the car to illuminate as much of the site as she could, buttoned her coat up all the way, and thrust herself into the night.
Storm clouds blocked the moon and stars, and her car’s lights couldn’t penetrate the rain very far. Any sound that a distressed cat might have made would be inaudible over the pounding rain. Searching the grounds on her own seemed impossible. She needed help.
Her summoning tools were at Jennifer’s house. It would have been so easy if she’d had them with her! As it was, she had to improvise a lot. She made a circle out of cinder blocks. She bent some wire into glyphs. She found a couple hearty weeds and tucked them in her shoes. Then she sat in the cold mud in the middle of the circle and set about the challenge of twisting all of these things together - the ideas, the chemical bonds, the unseen vibrations. Once she had everything arranged perfectly for just a moment, she released some of the moonlight inside her. A gateway opened up between her hands and many dozens of pinpoint beings of light flitted into her world.
It took even more magical artistry to contain them and guild them. At Laurel’s command, the wisps scattered across the construction site. Some of them eventually halted and began pulsing. The others drifted toward them - a contracting circle, and as they grew closer they pulsed as well. She rushed toward their center.
It was a giant pit, probably meant to be a basement. There was no ramp or stairs; only a temporary ladder. The ground was a Rorschach card of puddles and mud. The cat had taken refuge in three foot wide section of metal pipe, but it was poor shelter: it was enough to keep the animal out of puddles and break the wind, but no help in keeping it dry and warm. She knew it was alive because she could see it shivering, but it didn’t seem to be conscious.
Laurel tested the ladder and then carefully descended. The cat didn’t react at all when she approached, or when she touched it. She took off her coat and fashioned it into a sling for the animal so her hands were free to climb back out.
There was only one choice on where to take it: Doctor Dupree. She tried to call ahead, but she was shivering so much that she dropped her phone and it slid under the seat. Once she arrived at the home, she laid into the doorbell non-stop until Mrs. Dupree answered the door.
Laurel saw the alarm on the woman’s face. She must have been a mess: Her soaked T-shirt plastered to her skin, her shorts and shoes soaked through with mud, holding a wadded-up coat for no apparent reason, shaking with cold and fear.
Inside, the whole family gathered around as she unwrapped her coat and revealed the sick animal. Doctor Dupree immediately began caring for it.
“Callie, go find a change of clothes for Laurel. Dylan, boil some water for tea,” Mrs. Dupree instructed.
“I don’t want her wearing my clothes!” Callie sneered. “You know she was getting gang-banged like two hours ago?”
That set Mrs. Dupree off. “Callie Dupree! This girl is a neighbor in need and a guest under our roof! You will afford her EVERY hospitality! Am I clear?”
“Yes Mom,” Callie backed down.
“Let’s get you to a shower to warm you up,” Mrs. Dupree told Laurel.
Absorbing the heat of the shower was, at that moment, the most wonderful feeling she could imagine. Once she was finished and freshly dressed, Dylan gave her a cup of tea.
“Is he okay?” She asked.
Dylan nodded. “Dad took him to the office to give him an IV. He said everything would be fine.”
“And the family?”
“His staff will contact them,” Dylan assured her.
“Okay. Thank you,” Laurel said. She began shuffling toward the door. “Tell Callie I’ll get her clothes back to her as soon as I can.”
Dylan stopped her. He put his hand on her forehead. “Laurel, you’re not going out in that rain again. Call whoever you need to - tell them you’re staying here for the night. Or at least until the storm lets up.” Mrs. Dupree nodded approvingly. Now that Laurel thought about it, she was shivering again and she felt a little dizzy.
“I’ll be in the study,” Mrs. Dupree said in an obvious gesture to leave the two young people alone. “Call me if you need anything.”
Dylan fetched a blanket for Laurel and they sat on the couch.
“Skye said I hurt you,” she confessed. “I guess I should have realized that myself. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I just got my hopes up for something that wasn’t meant to be is all.”
“I ... I have a really good reason - for the things I do.” Her eyes reflected the hope in her heart that, even if they couldn’t be together, he would accept her explanation.
Dylan shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to believe that.” She nodded.
After calling Jennifer, Laurel accepted Mrs. Dupree’s suggestion that she go to bed. She fell asleep immediately in the comfortable guest bedroom.
Mrs. Dupree was the only one home when Laurel woke up, later than she normally would have. She took time away from her work to make Laurel pancakes.
“Morgana is back with his family now. You’re a hero,” she told the young woman.
Chapter 15
Laurel decided not to resign from the project. Her mind was ablaze with all sorts of new notes to write and ideas to test. She had genuinely saved a life with Spermamancy. Her talk with Dylan had given her closure of a sort, and had given new focus to Kate’s advice: she can’t have a boyfriend now while she’s doing this work, but she will, someday.
Jennifer presented her with the improved prototype hairdryer apparatus; it was beautiful. It was a wooden comb, smooth and neatly finished, with the necessary glyphs tastefully burned into it. The handle was thick with little windows cut out revealing a series of glass vials in its hollow core. Each vial was filled with a different substance: sand, vegetable oil, sunflower seeds, and a chunk of natural sponge. It looked like the sort of thing that might be sold at a high-end bath store.
“If you’re happy with the design,” Jennifer told her, “let’s make up a half-dozen or so and give them out to our friends. They’ll likely have suggestions for improvements after a few weeks.”
Laurel looked like a child who had just unwrapped the perfect birthday present. It was so simple and elegant - so much better than hers! “Jennifer you’re a genius!”
Jennifer held back a laugh. “I am truly curious, though, whether a mundane could be taught to work it. Maybe your father or brother?”
Laurel rolled her eyes, grinning. “They’re guys: they don’t even notice whether their hair is wet or dry. But I know just the girl!”
Sniffles and coughs plagued Laurel for the next few days so she stayed home. She spent most of her time writing about her research and coming up with new test plans.
The guys in the band kept texting her, wanting to talk about “what had happened.” She dismissed it as just really good sex, but they didn’t seem satisfied with that. She wondered if she had complicated things too much for them to help with further research.
When she did get back to work, she began by sucking off Rick before playing darts with Theo. When they returned to the bar for refills, he made a proposal. “I don’t know how to ask you this, but how would you feel about coming to a bachelor party?”
She smiled innocently. “But I’m not a guy.”
“Yeah, um...,” he began, rubbing his neck. “There are two types of girls who get invited to bachelor parties: one is tomboys who are seen as one of the guys...”
Theo finished for him: “And the other is the entertainment.” Rick nodded.
“You want me to be a stripper?” Laurel asked, full of surprise. “I’m no good at dancing.”
“You wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to do,” Rick explained. “Just let the guys flirt with you. Laugh at jokes that guys can’t normally say in front of girls. Just that would be enough to make it the best bachelor party this town has seen in years. And if you felt like doing more than that, the guys would certainly appreciate that, too.”
She looked at Theo. He was undecided. “But I wouldn’t have to?”
“Definitely not. And I’d be there to make sure nobody pressured you.”
“I’ll be there too,” Theo declared.
“Yeah, sorry man,” Rick said. “It’s one thing to invite a girl the gang doesn’t know ... They’re a pretty tight-knit group.”
“Then no deal,” Theo said.
“No, Theo, it’s okay. If Rick is there,” she said. “You won’t get super drunk or anything, right?”
“Designated driver.”
“How old are these guys? They’re good guys?” She asked.
Rick chuckled. “None of them are bad guys. Twenty-five to thirty-five, about. I would trust any of these guys to look after my daughter.”
She looked to Theo for advice again.
“Up to you,” he said with a shrug. “It could help meeting some new guys. Honestly, if you were in the right mood, I think an evening of zero-consequence flirting might be good practice for you.”
Laurel was gleeful at the thought - more about the flirting and attention than the idea of sex. Then she frowned. “The bride won’t hate me, will she? She might have heard of me.”
“She’s an easy-going chick,” Nick assured her. “I’ll make sure she spells out ahead of time what the groom is allowed to do.”
She smiled and shrugged. “What should I wear?”
Reasoning that the bachelors might want to take pictures, Jennifer put together an elegant but comfortable mask with bunny ears for Laurel. As another precaution for pictures, they dyed her hair strawberry blonde, although her glamour would ensure that it seemed red in person.
The bachelor party took place at someone’s house, in a basement done up as a man cave. At first, Laurel began as a bartender, even though the guys had to walk her through how to make this or that. She constantly had the attention of a few men who rotated in and out, while others played poker or pool, watched football, or improvised drinking games. The conversations surrounding her were always flirty and often crude but sometimes touched on ordinary topics such as college or X-Men. Nearly the whole room gathered around her when they got her talking about how, before she was sexually active, she and her friends would have sleepovers to experiment together with the basket of sex toys her “cool aunt” had given her.
The guys asked Laurel to give the groom, Andy, a lap dance. She said she didn’t know how, but they told her to just dance close to him and touch him a bunch while he sat in a chair. She tried, but she felt too self-conscious dancing in front of the crowd, so instead she sat in his lap with her arms around him, wiggling. All eyes were stuck on her when she removed her cardigan, slowly, smiling at all the party guests while she did it.
“Your fiance said kissing was okay. Do you want to kiss me?” She whispered.
“You talked to Joy?” He asked.
“Mmm-hmm! She wanted you to have fun, within reason. She was nice.”
Their tongues fought mightily. He held her tight ass in greedy hands. He was hard enough for her to get a good grind on. That’s when the pictures started.
Eventually, he stopped kissing her so that he could moan. Her hips made little movements, stroking his dick with her pubic bone. She whispered in his ear again. “I can make you come like this if you want,” she said, pressing her crotch against his dick especially hard. “Your fiance said your dick had to stay in your pants, but I think this is okay.”
The groom closed his eyes, groaned, and then grabbed her hips to stop her. Loud enough for the bystanders to hear, he said, “Best to leave me my dignity, dear. I’d never live it down if I came in my pants at my bachelor party.”
Someone declared that the prize for the next game of pool would be Laurel’s panties. Most of the room watched while the top players battled it out on the green felt. A number of the men sampled Laurel’s lips or gave her breasts over-the-shirt squeezes. Once the game was over, she took off her boots, stood on the pool table, and let the victor reach under her skirt and remove her underwear. He hung them from the neck of his shirt like a tie, as a trophy.
“So Laurel,” Rick said, “the guys were impressed with your sex toys story. And it just so happens that we have a few here with us.” He held out a plain beige shipping box, open at the top with an assortment of sex toys. “Do you think you’d be willing to give us a demonstration?”
“What, here?” She asked, not offended but surprised. Hopeful faces with wagging eyebrows surrounded her. “I, I ... I don’t think I could come with all these people watching.”
“Up to you,” Rick said. “But you could always give us a little tease, and then if you wanted to stop, or finish in private, we’d all understand.”
She smiled bashfully. “You guys actually want to see that?”
The crowd roared “Hell yeah!” And similar affirmations.
Someone spread a beach towel out on the pool table for her. She began unbuttoning her blouse but stopped halfway. “Should I take off everything?” She wasn’t teasing them - it was a genuine question. The consensus was to stay partly clothed, for variety. So she left her blouse on her shoulders, open, revealing a sheer, tight cami that teased everything her body had to offer. She did unbutton her skirt, though, and let it fall to a chorus of cheers. Everyone except Rick was surprised to see that her ass was already full with one toy.
She started - nervously at first - with a six-inch vibrating dildo. She got it wet with a little in-out at first. She looked around at all the men for any signs of disapproval, but there was none - she had no need to be anxious. She pulled it out and touched the vibrating head to her clit. Her mouth hung open but she didn’t make a sound. She alternated between pussy and clit, and she began to sigh happily. There was constant chatter among the men, reminiscing about old girlfriends, porn, or jokes about each others’ mothers and sisters. Her hand moved across her panting chest while the dildo buzzed at her clit.
She changed position, getting on her hands and knees, and reaching behind her to work the dildo in her cunt. She sighed as it reached her deep inside, looking simultaneously lewd and dainty. The bunny ears on her mask and her perky little nipples wobbled while she pumped her pussy with the toy.
One of the guys removed the next toy from its packaging. “Here, try this one!”
It was a replica porn star dick - long and thick. She sat on the towel with her legs crossed and tested the new toy with her mouth, evoking a whole new enthusiasm from the crowd. She shook her head. “That’s way too big for me.”
The guys begged her to try, so she lay on her back again and rubbed it around her pussy. Her pussy had no shortage of lubrication, but she couldn’t get it to go in.
“Let me try,” Andy requested, stepping up. She looked hesitant. “Trust me,” he added.
She lay back. Andy took the big dong in hand but didn’t do anything with it at first. With his free hand, he touched her - knees, hips, thighs, belly. “Just relax,” he told her soothingly. At first, she closed her eyes and murmured. His touch put her at ease and made her feel comfortable. Finally, her eyes opened and locked on his with a look of trust.
He kept moving his hand on her skin and he fed the porn dick to her cunt, working it in and out, just a little deeper each time. She grunted, wide-eyed with astonishment, but still looking deep into his eyes. She moaned, and the pitch of her voice rose as if it were a gauge measuring the volume of fake cock inside her.
Andy fucked her with the dildo - still slowly. Laurel pulled her camisole up to her armpits and brushed her sensitive nipples with her fingers in slow circles. Her labia gripped the fuck toy like a gasket. Girl cream accumulated on it in rings. At its deepest barely more than a quarter of the thing was inside her, but Andy ignored the calls to really cram it in. Then Andy’s thumb found her clit. He rubbed it so casually, so lightly that it seemed accidental, but it drove her wild. Her legs and belly quivered. A half-dozen cellphone cameras focused on the pretty young woman in the bunny mask coming hard on the big dildo.
The blowjobs started soon after that. Laurel stripped completely naked apart from her mask so that she could take their loads on her chest. She astonished the men twice with her “party trick” - guessing which cards they had drawn from the poker deck after sucking their dicks.
Rick asked to take her somewhere private, so they were led to a bedroom. As he took the missionary position over her and penetrated her, she told him sweetly, “This time don’t pull out, okay? I want you to breed me.”
Rick fucked harder than he’d ever fucked in his life, and her orgasmic wails informed the party-goers that he had done a fine job of it. He came for a long time, but when he was finally empty, she looked him in the eyes with a devilish smile and told him, “Good boy”.
Rick was no sooner out the bedroom door than another guy appeared asking if he could take a turn. He did her missionary as well, kissing her even harder than he fucked her. And on and on it went.
After five guys, she took a break, frolicking naked among the men while drinking ginger ale and enjoying many unsolicited kisses and squeezes. She had never felt so welcome and wanted in her life. She called to check in with Jennifer and then she went back to the bedroom to be spit-roasted by two volunteers. Sometimes she informally performed her Spermamancy, but eventually, she let go and allowed the men to come anywhere and everywhere.
Every time she thought she was all fucked out, she mingled and flirted with the men and they put her back in the mood. She took a shower with Andy, who kept his underwear on but explored every inch of her body with his hands.
When she explained to a handful of party-goers the theory that the mushroom shape of the human penis evolved to scoop out rivals’ sperm, Rick picked her up and carried her, kicking and laughing, up to the bedroom to do her again. He pounded her pussy doggy-style, swearing that he was going to be the one while she begged him in jest to knock her up. He filled her pussy with all the sperm he could muster and roared loudly enough to shake the house.
When she finally found that all of her men had reached their limits, she secretly manipulated her favorites’ bodies to make them hard and make them ready so that they could fuck her again. By the time she was done her tits and butt were red from all the squeezing, spanking, and sucking, and parts of her hair were crusty with dried come.
Chapter 16
Sebastian’s lookout texted him - Laurel was leaving the party. He brought up her location on his phone, thanks to the GPS tracker he’d hidden on her car, and he waited. It was a remote road with woods on both sides. There was very little chance of any other traffic here at 4:50 in the morning, but he delayed as long as possible before laying out the police spike strip on the road.
She drove by and there were two pops and then the car veered erratically. He removed the spike strip and ducked into the woods to approach her crippled car unseen.
She had inspected the tires by the time he got close, and no doubt found them suspicious. She didn’t have enough sense to keep her back to the car, though, while she fished in her purse for her phone. He snuck up behind her and plucked the phone from her hand. At the same time, he held his bowie knife for her to see, trying to catch as much light as possible.
She spun around with a look of horror, of course. Then she ran, of course. Finally the fun part. He cut his hand and drew symbols in blood on the car, enchanting it with an aversion ward so that anyone who passed by wouldn’t stop to investigate.
He caught up with her in the woods. The idiot should have stuck to the road where there was at least a slight chance of help showing up, but this was probably her first time being chased by a killer. When he got within arm’s reach, he grabbed her by the sweater and slammed her into a tree. He took position in front of her, holding the knife to her throat, and said, “Hello there, pretty girl!” She didn’t scream, which was disappointing, but the expression on her face was almost as good.
She grabbed his crotch and tried to cast a Cupid’s Knockout, but of course, it didn’t work. Her eyes grew even wider. “You’re not human!” She began frantically looking around - in the trees, on the ground, everywhere except where she should be looking, which was his face. He decided to allow it.
He sniffed her. “Wow. I can’t make them all out. At least seven. How many men did you fuck tonight, little girl?” He cut her sweater open. “I’m jealous. When you look back on tonight, I want to be the one you remember. But with so many?” He lifted her skirt and rubbed the flat of his knife against her thigh. “I guess I’ll just have to be inventive.”
“Please! Why?” She begged, sobbing pathetically. She was making signs with her hands, but Sebastian had been around for a long time. The number of spells that could deter him in a situation like this was limited and he had taken precautions against all of them.
“Why?” He repeated. “Look at you! You wanted attention? Well, you’ve got my attention.” He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “You wanted to get fucked?” He chuckled menacingly instead of finishing the threat. For the hell of it, he grabbed a fist full of her hair and cut it, letting it scatter in the breeze. The amount of tension in her body was delicious - it looked like if he poked her, she’d burst like a water balloon.
She blurted out some words from a pidgin Gaelic tongue that was popular among English-speaking witches. He didn’t recognize the spell. She rushed, fearing he would stop her, but it was always so much more fun to watch their magic fail them. Then a curious thing happened. She reached her arm toward a puddle next to him, and, despite the tree cover, the full moon reflected in it. He lost his balance and fell to his knees. He tried to get up, but gravity seemed to shift and he toppled again. Every shift became more disorienting and more debilitating. It was like being a tiny boat being tossed around on hurricane seas. He glanced at the puddle as his head swam. It was the moon - somehow, in the middle of Montana, she had invoked the tides.
Okay, so Sebastian had underestimated the girl. She had some tricks he’d never seen - something that hadn’t happened in a long time. He had to laugh: captured by a teenager, a cripple, and a fag. They had stuffed him in the trunk of their car and taken him back to their home. Now they would try to dominate him. He hadn’t played this game in a long time, either.
They had tried physical torture first, of course. He laughed.
“It’s not working!” Laurel had whined.
“Like Patrick Swayze says, ‘pain don’t hurt’,” he taunted.
Then the old woman used a turkey baster to inject silver dust into a knife wound. Now that did hurt. But time was on his side.
They had put him in a circle in a shed next to the lake. The old woman and the witch-boy took turns watching over him, bolstering his prison. Every time Laurel came back, it was with a new spell or page full of questions. She looked more frazzled every time: her hair was a mess; her eyes were sunken and dark; she wasn’t sleeping or bathing. They couldn’t keep this up. Twenty-four more hours, tops, and he’d be free to finish his mission with the girl. He’d probably kill the others, too, for fun.
More people arrived - middle-aged or older. There were now six witches taking turns as his jailer, in probably two-hour shifts. This might be a problem. With enough competence and enough time, they might have the juice to banish him. Still, they were human - they had flaws to exploit if he could find them. He probed them each with questions, taunts, and pleas, and despite their intentions, they revealed their secrets bit by bit.
Occasionally they showed up in groups for rituals. They didn’t get flustered when they failed, which struck him as a bad sign. Laurel was rested and clean now, but she still looked beaten down. She wouldn’t look him in the eye. Would she be the one to break? She was quite the curiosity.
Sebastian was looking forward to Nancy’s next shift. He was finally getting somewhere with her: she had divided loyalties, and he needed to learn how strong of a lever that would make. A while before, the seven of them had sat in a circle around him chanting. It was an old Slavic ritual, but they had the words all wrong, so it was unclear what they hoped to accomplish.
Laurel, Jennifer, and Theo arrived and relieved the man standing guard. Laurel was wearing a white dress and a flower crown. Her hair was much shorter now - a pageboy haircut to repair the damage he’d done in the woods. Despite her virginal appearance, she had fresh dick on her breath.
“Love the hair,” he told Laurel with a wink.
Theo responded with smugness. “It’s over. We know your true name.”
Sebastian laughed.
“Nephorizich!” The old woman spoke forcefully.
Fuck.
“Answer truthfully without evasion or omission,” the old woman commanded.
They both looked at Laurel. She started tearing up. “Were you really going to rape me?”
“Well of course I was, you dumb bitch! You needed my true name for that?”
She suddenly wasn’t quite so meek. “Burn.”
Timeless agony. When they finally released him - who knows how long that was - her eyes were dry. The old woman asked, “What, specifically, was your mission?”
He wanted to lie, but it was impossible. “To terrorize the girl. Make her afraid for her life. Permanent physical injuries were forbidden, but a trip to the hospital and lifelong emotional scars were encouraged. I had to work up to that, of course. Suspense is an art form. How’d I do?”
“Who gave you these orders?” The old woman asked.
“I don’t know. Trench coat. Mask. Out of the way place. Very Deep Throat,” he said with a wink at Laurel.
“Tell us the details you know,” the witch-boy demanded.
Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Female. Middle-aged. Probably about five foot six, one twenty pounds. Expensive perfume, although the scent was days old. Carrying an electrum and malachite rod.” The three witches looked at each other conspiratorially.
The old woman spoke again. “Do you have any reason to believe that she or anyone she associates with knows your true name?”
“No.”
“Then how did she control you?” Laurel chipped in.
“Just a regular old bargain.”
“What was the meeting protocol?” the witch-boy asked. “How were you to contact each other?”
“We have email addresses to arrange meetings - usually behind the power substation at night.”
The witch-boy addressed his colleagues. “So what do we do now? Banishment?”
“Is that enough?” Laurel asked, worried. “What if he comes back?”
“We’ll still have his true name,” he said.
“I think we should destroy him. Permanently,” she argued.
“Isn’t that dangerous, though?” He argued. “If we make a mistake we’ll be vulnerable.”
“Laurel, Theo,” the old woman said, “why don’t you go to the kitchen and have a snack? Some juice, maybe.”
“I think we...,” Laurel started before being interrupted.
“I said take a walk.” The old woman spoke with a voice of stern authority that clearly shocked the children. They obeyed and left.
Sebastian grinned at this new twist of fate. The old woman leveled her gaze at him. “Now, here’s what you’re going to do for me.”
Days of nearly ceaseless sex, fear, research, and ritual had taken a toll on Laurel’s body. What sleep she had made time for had been fitful. With the demon now completely subjugated and the emergency past, Jennifer had given Laurel some pills to help her rest.
Her bladder insisted that she wake up. After relieving herself she planned to go straight back to sleep despite the daylight, but Theo was sitting on her bed.
“We need to talk,” he told her. She climbed on the bed and tried to lie down, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Jennifer let the demon go,” he said. Laurel blinked trying to comprehend despite the mushiness of her brain. “She said she gave it orders. Later she gave me a letter to deliver to Benedict. I told her that he wasn’t returning my texts and I didn’t know how to reach him. She told me to try the hospital.”
He sighed. “Olivia lost an arm and a leg. It was like they were ripped off by a strong animal. But the wounds were treated - the arteries were tied shut to stop the bleeding like a combat medic would have done. They found her in an open car trunk in the hospital parking lot.”
Laurel was now awake, but speechless.
“Benedict didn’t know about the demon. In hindsight ... Olivia supported our relationship but always wanted to know when he was going to meet me - which I guess means when you were going to be alone.” He clenched his hands together and ground his teeth before going on. “He let me read the letter. It was like a declaration of war. It said...”
Jennifer pushed the door open and interrupted him. “She can read it for herself.” She pointed to an envelope on Laurel’s dresser. Theo handed it to Laurel.
To the Rocky Mountain Coven:
Retaliation for your attack against Laurel Reiser has begun. It will end only when our mutual acquaintance has been destroyed or captured.
Consider your next actions carefully: any aggression against Laurel will be treated as an act of war. There are many of us - more than you know. We are not organized - formally - but we will rise up to oppose threats to our independence.
We are just as skilled as you are - the Portugal Teleportation Feat a few years back is a testament to that. Spermamancy is proving to be a superlative intelligence-gathering tool. And those of you with long memories might remember The Giggling Hemlock.
And then there’s Laurel herself. She is pure-hearted and innocent. God help you if she ever loses those qualities and turns her prodigious mind to war.
Repent and there will be peace. Take any action against Laurel - whether by demon, hacker, lawyer, banker, or social media troll - and you will bring about your end.
Jennifer Armand
“There’s...,” Laurel began, stammering with shock, “there’s going to be a war because of me?”
Jennifer sat in the desk chair. “You may have been the spark, but the kindling has been piling up for a long time. But don’t worry - I’m confident that it won’t come to that. By the time they resolve the Sebastian situation, they won’t have much fight left in them.”
Continued in Love Spells and Ethical Summoning
Sex and Demons - Spermamancy Theory and Practice
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