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The Witches of Ravenrook 01

By: FinalStand



 (For Talenwolf; the editor who shows that anger builds as well as destroys and has been an insane level of support with this story - and a few others)

(Note: the start of this story is gory, involving a tale of torture and genocide. It is not too graphic but it is rough)

(There is a great deal of violence in this tale but I promise it will make sense before we are done. The 'hero' is no Conan the Barbarian – normally. Slapping girls and woman is very abnormal but I hope understanding will come)

(This is a VERY sex lite story. Other chapters will have more but this one is about introductions and conflict)

Why Am I Not Dead

To understand what happened with the Witches of Ravenrook I need to go back before the beginning; back to the Winter of 1778/9 when the American Revolution was raging in full force. Back then my family lived in the far western edge of the Crown Colony of New York, or for what had been the past two years, the Sovereign State of New York. 

It was rebellion against the British Crown and a civil war that pitted frontiersmen vs. frontiersman and Iroquois vs. Iroquois. In late 1776, my ancestor with a party of his fellow farmers met with a group of Iroquois leaders and pledged an Oath. We agreed that no matter what our Great Leaders declared those in that one valley would not spill the blood of our neighbors. We swore on our oldest Bible, the souls of our children and by the sacred fires of our homes and lodges.

Until the spring of 1778, the pact held and both sides felt safe. In that spring the British and Colonials both sent out runners calling for men to fight. My ancestor called up a small militia and captained it; those who wouldn't fight for the Colonial cause stayed home to protect all the families, thus keeping the bonds of friendship with their fellows but also keeping their oaths to the Crown.

My ancestor met with the Iroquois chiefs. They would go north to fight along Lake Eerie beside their British allies while he would march east to fight with General Gates and his Colonials. That fall, the British lost in the North and General Burgoyne surrendered his British/loyalist forces to General Gate's Continental bluecoats in the East. As was the way of things; news traveled faster than the feet of soldiers.

When the loyalist and Iroquois learned of their twin defeats they became fearful of what my ancestor and his men would do upon their return. Fear led to betrayal as a small band of loyalists convinced the local indigenous people to rise up against the patriot families but, they were stymied by the Oath. A clever loyalist found a way around it. He and his companions went to the patriot households cloaked in friendship and seized the weapons then letting the Indians take the patriot families away.

They rounded up everyone in the settlement and herded them to a high cliff a few miles away. Until the first rush of Iroquois came at them, the patriot families had no idea they were all going to die. They were pushed off the cliff and fell to their deaths thus the Iroquois were able to stay true to the word of the Oath, if not the spirit, by not spilling patriot blood. Then they fired the village and farms as they left.

Their thinking seemed to have been that the patriots would bury their dead and, having nothing left, my ancestor and his men would return east to the Hudson River Valley and never come back. Nothing was left for patriots in the settlements and the Iroquois had kept to the Oath after all; only madmen would break it. None the less, few loyalists risked remaining; they moved their families to Canada in what they thought would be a temporary stay. When the British Crown finally prevailed they would return. Those were the ones escaped the hell that was to come.

When my ancestor's troops came home they were indeed gripped with a terrible fatalism but it wasn't one of surrender; it was a deathless rage. A small few who chose to grieve over, and bury the dead, turned away from vengeance. They stayed to bury all their dead including their leader's wife and infant son. What followed for the rest was not war and was barely vengeance – it was pure evil.

His men fell on the first few Seneca villages late at night, using only knives and tomahawks to avoid raising the alarm until it was too late. The Seneca warned them of the price of breaking the Oath then they pleaded for slavery (it meant something different to the tribes back then) and finally they pleaded for their families' lives. My ancestor killed the men by hacking them apart or tying them to poles and burning them alive.

They were the lucky ones; my ancestor became demonically creative with the women and children but his favorite thing was tying children to their mother and then tying heavy stones to their children's legs. Finally he forced the mothers to swim across rivers. They could save themselves if they untied themselves from their children. In the lore of the Seneca and Fox (the other tribe he waged his campaign on) no woman severed her bonds – they all were sucked under the icy flows, dragged down by the one's they truly loved more than life itself.

No good deed or great evil goes unpunished and eventually a small contingent of British irregulars, loyalists and Iroquois tribesmen ran my ancestor and his men to ground. To his credit, that man was not a coward. If anything he was insanely brave. Buying time for of few of his fittest men to escape – which is how I know this tale for one escaped then doubled back – he rushed his pursuers and killed so many that in the end what followed was inevitable.

They hated him; they hated him so much they attempted to repay him tenfold for the misery he had caused, for the Oath he had broken and for all their dead that would never find peace because of the way he knowingly killed them.. They fed him pieces of his own men, forcing the flesh down his throat with scalding water. They skinned him alive but his hate refused to let him pass out from the pain, which must have been beyond imagining.

In the end they shattered every bone in his body, starting with his toes and they uttered horrific curses upon his spirit that they would never cast upon a living man for they did not believe any descendant was still alive. When they crushed his skull, they knew they were damned forever but they also knew that the curses would die with them because the line of my ancestor died with the Bastard.

The problem was they did not know his wife, the ancestor of all the Vandemeyer that where to come. She knew she was going to die and she knew that even if she shielded her son from the fall with her body they would smother her infant when they heard his cries of cold and hunger. She tore open her blouse and shoved her tit into that little boy's mouth and when the press of bodies pushed her off the cliff (suicide was a terrible sin so she could not jump), she pressed the infant tight.

When the loyalists searched the bodies at the base of the cliff the child remained silent because he still fed from her corpse milk. The bodies the loyalist rolled onto him by accident kept him warm enough that he was found alive by the small band of patriots that had come down the cliff to bury their dead. They assumed initially that the others would return, their vengeance quenched but it was late winter before a pitiful few staggered back home. The one patriot who had stolen back and witnessed the infant's father's death told the others of the madness, savagery and final eradication.

That man took the boy to his Great Uncle who was childless and chose to raise the boy as his own. The boy grew up rich and strong and had a family of his own but he ended up brutally perishing to brigands in Ohio at the age of 43. His son died at 40 in the Civil War when a cannon ball tore off his leg. His last sights were of so many men of his regiment dead or dying around him. Even as he was dying, he ordered his men to take him, place him on a litter and together they took a place called the Bloody Angle at the Battle of Antietam. 

The sons died and they died and they died; all between the ages of 39 and 45, all in violence and usually in anguish. It was the family curse. If there was an upside, the Vandemeyer's lived fully and richly in the short time allotted, they did notable things, gathered wealth, engaged in dangerous dalliances, feuds and were often heroic in their own way. Nothing – no act of contrition – would save them so they made the most of what they had.

I was told this story and the litany of my many mangled ancestors on my tenth birthday. We didn't believe in mystic curses, but like the first one to bear that foul taint, we grew fatalistic about the seemingly random chances that haunted us all and that gave me a fearlessness that my father carried and he told me his father carried as well in his time. There was going to be no Happy Endings for me, only a painful one; so why not live freely while I could?

What I didn't know was that a hundred dead Vandemeyer and several hundred dead Seneca and Fox Indians were all sitting around me, waiting for me to die without an heir because, I was the last of my line and none of them could cross over to whatever waited in the afterlife while I drew breath. Oh, those Indians were regretting curing the Bastard now because their curse had followed their sons as well. Even the Bastard was getting awful tired of waiting for Hell's flames. The edge of Oblivion, were all lost souls gather, had long lost its appeal.

The moral that came to me at the end was if you're going to put a Death Curse on somebody make damn sure every last one of the sons-of-bitches' relatives are dead. Your children will not forgive your sloppiness; believe me, I know. And the biggest bitch of a Death Curse; the dead can't do anything directly or indirectly, to end the curse. 

They originally entered it willingly, by their actions, or by the crushing evil that led them to that end; so they actually had to help me stay alive. See, Lost Souls have power and while they would happily let me meet my preordained fate, they had to keep me alive until then. How wrong is that? In retrospect, Death Curses are stupid; just kill your enemy and walk away.

The Story Itself

My name is Richard Vandemeyer – a twenty year old not-quite-a-man who probably is the victim of too much snobbery inspired inbreeding and a Blue Blood's sense of social and civic responsibility. I base much of my actions and plans on what I think I'm obligated to do as opposed to what is in my own self-interest or something akin to common sense. 

In other words, I don't keep my head down and I don't run away from trouble. My cultured veneer encased a rather savage primal core it seemed.

Ravenrook is an exclusive college situated on an isolated island off the coast of Maine. It was founded in 1890 as a school for concentrated study for Masters Programs for the leading universities at the time. The island was large, scenic, rocky, and tree covered but only had one small cove for egress and exit. 

The rest surrounded by majestic cliffs. The ferry ride to the closest town took over two hours depending on the waves and the tides. In bad weather, we are alone and when you talk about the North Bank in the fall; you think of bad weather. If you don't believe me, they made a movie about it titled The Perfect Storm.

During my freshman year I had a ball, made great grades and a good many friends. Halfway through my sophomore year I scored a coveted internship with the School of Economics in England. When I returned for the start of my junior year I had high hopes of picking up where I left off. I was considered smarter than most, clouded with thoughts of bravery and honor, and had ego enough to consider myself handsome, tall and in good physical shape.

What matters to the story is that in that fall I returned to Ravenrook to start my junior year and how I met the witches, and the struggle, passion and betrayals that followed. I screwed up. It was revealed to me that my polite exterior was a sham; that I was as brutal, savage and ruthless as any of the monsters we faced. In some ways I was worse.

Arrival

I spent an extra day with some friends in New York then missed my flight to Bangor Maine so I was on the last ferry to the island before the first day of classes. I shared the voyage with three freshmen who were in a similar predicament. I regaled them with tales of my first year, clarified the maps of campus in their heads. I also enlightened them that there was no cell service on the island and that all internet service went through the campus servers.

We were generally subdued in our conversation as our luggage was loaded on the bus and during the ride from the small cove where the ferry docked on the north side of the island to Ravenrook which sat on the southern portion. Even though it was pictured in the brochures and on-line videography, the first time you gaze upon Ravenrook it really takes your breath away.

It had a Victorian-Gothic appeal to it, with the main structure rising up five stories and several of the towers rising up over eight stories and the spires higher than that. The windows were tall, tinted blue and narrow; the stone was black basalt with stonework ravens taking the place of gargoyles. It was frighteningly imposing but it was also a quiet, safe haven from the harried pace of the outside world.

The bus driver helped Bernadette, Jacob, Wallace and I unload our baggage on the gates to the central hall before making his clunky way back to the village. Being rich, pampered idiots we all had more luggage than we could carry to our rooms in one trip. There were other students close by but oddly none come to help us unlike the assistance I had received every other time I had arrived.

My Father didn't raise a bashful son so I immediately corralled three students I knew to be sophomores and one I assumed was a freshman and dragooned them to help me and my companions carry our stuff and directed them to our rooms. The reaction I was getting left me a bit peeved and confused by the fearful/resentful attitude I was getting. Unfortunately, I had to take the freshman with me because my group of freshmen needed the sophomores to guide them.

My freshmen did have one tidbit of knowledge to share. According to him, all incoming freshmen had to report to the main library before being escorted to their rooms. I thought it was an idiotic policy; it wasn't like strangers could sneak into a student body that barely numbered 400.

My roommate from last year, Daniel Taggert had already moved in but wasn't around to enlighten me. Daniel and I had shared a room since the beginning and I was sure I could rely on him for some information when the time came. I unpacked my stuff, checked my secret hiding place in the wall, storing some contraband (my radio and bottle of Jack Daniels) there and checked my other hidey hole in the ceiling (for my satellite phone).

I made my way to the main library because it sat across the hall from the main entry and was the main transit point for the rest of the building. See, Ravenrook was one massive building with all of its parts going off in different directions but joined by the area around the library. So if I wanted figure out what was going on, the library was the logical place to start.

What I learned did not make me a happy camper. Right off the bat I could tell the whole mood was subdued with the only serious activity centered about the periodicals section. I recognized a few of the men and women there so I approached. I noticed that my ex-girlfriend, Sally Fabian, was among them.

"Hey Sally," I called out. We hadn't parted on bad terms. I was going to London and we didn't feel it was right for her to 'wait' for me – or so I thought. She and several others in this group of about twenty students turned and looked my way and that's when I saw them. At the core of this group were three sets of twins. I had no clue who they were so they must have arrived in my absence.

The six girls, a pair of red-heads, blondes, and black haired ladies regarded me impassively which was a sight better than the hostility I was getting from the people I thought I knew.

"Sally, do you know this person?" one of the blondes addressed her. Not asking me came across as a bit rude.

"That's Richard Vandemeyer," Sally identified me snidely. "He is a junior but missed last semester." What? No mention of our relationship?

"Oh," was all the first blonde twin remarked.

"He's nobody," Sally added with a glance full of maliciousness. That seemed to be that as their little clique closed ranks and returned to whatever discussions they were having before I intruded.

I took my dismissal for what it was and settled down alone in the 'stacks' to prep for some of my upcoming classes. At dinner time I tried to catch up with Daniel but he was even less commutative than the others. It was with that chilly reception in my mind that I laid down to sleep that night.

The Girl's Bathroom After Midnight

An annoying fact about the boy's bathroom on my floor was that the pipes made a hellish rattling noise when you flushed. Since I wasn't a fan of leaving your business in the toilet for the next guy to deal with, I had been taught the polite practice by an upper classman my freshman year which was to use the girl's washroom on the next floor down after 'lights out'.

It is after one o'clock when the urge to urinate overcomes me. Daniel was sleeping away in his bed, not that I really cared at the moment. There was no helping it so I slipped out of my room and padded quietly downstairs to the girl's bathroom. Had I given it much thought I would have worn more than my pajama bottoms but I had every reason to believe that I would be alone.

The last thing I expected to hear as I approached the door was some guy's voice growling from inside saying 'Open your mouth you little bitch' followed by sobbing and muted laughter. This pretty much dictated what I was going to do. I threw the door open; quickly take in the scene and snarl out my response.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" I was not really ready for what I was seeing but frankly my anger bit down on any of my doubts about intervening. Closest to me are the red-haired twins who also happen to be the only ones fully dressed. The one to my left is holding up a camera phone and recording the other events of the room even as she looks over her shoulder at me. Her sister did likewise though I didn't see a phone.

Against the far wall, down the row of stalls, stands the source of my concern. Close to the back stall are two male students, one I know to be a senior named Bradley something-or-other, who was a total douche and now seem about ready to graduate to rape. I can't make out the guy behind him. There is a sophomore girl who I know from swimming laps in the pool named Janet Reynolds who is on the far side of Bradley, resting with her ass against the sinks.

The thing is, the unknown guy and Janet are holding Bernadette down on her knees while Bradley prepares to ram his cock down her throat.

"Get the fuck out of here you prick," Bradley mocks me. This seals all their fates because a red haze descends over me.

The red-haired twin on my left is still turning slowly toward me when my palm slams into her chest (and her small breasts), propelling her through the door of the closest stall. My hand feels like I've stuck it in a red ant hill. She squeals. I ignore the one on my left for the moment because Bradley is coming at me, his cock still hanging out. He draws back his fist but I hit him first and harder. I later recall hearing his jaw pop out of joint and him chocking on the three teeth I must have knocked loose.

Anyway, he is flying into the second guy causing them both to stumble. I think Janet is trying to maneuver clear of Bernadette when I my right had connect with her stomach followed by a left to her cheek. Her head bounces off marble counter top and she slumps to the ground. Brad is still trying to figure out why blood is flooding his mouth when I turn back on him.


The Witches of Ravenrook 01



I smash his cheek then his nose, knocking two more of his teeth right out of their settings. As his eyes roll back in his head it is the second guy's turn. His first blow pounds the left side of my ribcage, his second glances off my forearm; there is no third blow. The guy, I now recognize as Paul Bernstein, deflects my left to his chest but catches my right to his throat.

Belatedly he tries to cover up; I palm his face in my right hand and slam the back of his head against the bathroom wall three times. I might have splattered his brains out but Bernadette grabs my knee. She looks terrified and this desire to protect her brings me back to my normal self. This is when the pain sets in but I know I can't let it slow me down yet.

I spin around to see the red-hair twin I had ignored moving to the stall to help her sister that had been thrown in there less than 30 seconds ago. I stride over, grab that one by her elbow, my heart feels like it is gripped by a fist of ice and I have to fight through that to yank her aside. I grab the first one, getting reacquainted with those fire ants, fling her across the room then glare at the second one.

"Give me the damn phone," I snap.

"No," she says softly, devoid of any fear. "You need to sleep," she states clearly, "Go now." 

At this moment a description of the six twins may be in order because they are eerily similar except for their hair color. They were around five-three or five-four, very slender with beautiful, if somewhat dispassionate, faces and long hair that reaches their asses – enough to throttle them with. I am much bigger than they are after all.

Anyway, I have no clue why this chick is saying something so patently stupid. If the other twin proves equally nutty I am going to slam their heads together before shaking them like a pair of maracas.

I pull Ms. Negativity into the recently vacated bathroom stall, grab her by the back of her head and despite some feeble resistance, shove her face into the commode down deep. Now she finally shows some emotion – mostly fear. Her sister comes over and is obviously trying to figure out her next move. On the plus side, I'm getting used to this near-crippling pain in both my arms.

Attacking me doesn't seem wise, I have demolished all her accomplices and Bernadette isn't likely to run and get help for her. I raise the one in the toilet up enough so she can gulp some air.

"Give me the damn phone," I repeat. She tries to say something but does manage to shake her head. Back down she goes. This time I hold her there for much longer.

"You are going to kill her," the other twin cautions me as the girl I am holding down begins to thrash around violently.

"Then I'll search her dead body," I snarled at the bitch. Apparently she believed me because she wedges in beside me and retrieves her twin's phone and presses it into my hand.

I let the drowning one up. She collapses onto her knees while her wobbly arms hold her head out of the water.

"Give me your phone too," I order the dry twin.

"I didn't do anything with it," she informs me but I clearly am not interested in what she has to say. She hands her phone over too.

I give one last hate-filled glare to them both then angle back to scoop up Bernadette. She is clearly still in shock but is cognizant enough to cling tightly to me as opposed to trying to push me away. As I pass the twins one last time I grab a towel off the rack and toss it to the drowned rat. "Bernadette, how did they jump you?" I ask once we were away. I know her dorm number because I heard her tell the student I'd gotten to help her move in.

"I...they didn't. They were in my room," Bernadette sobs. "Janet is my roommate. She told me this was some sort of initiation ritual but once I was in the bathroom...they were all there and wanted me to...then you showed up."

I have to come up with a plan quickly.

"Bernadette, we are going to go to your room quickly and let you gather some things before we go to see the Dean of Students and file charges," I explained. "Can you do that?"

"Okay...Richard, do you know why this happened to me?" Bernadette mumbles.

"No clue, but I'm going help you find out," I promise. We raid her room for clothes, toiletries and a few things she says she can't live without before heading down to the first floor to the distant portion reserved for faculty. It takes some insistent knocking to get the Dean of Students, Natalie Harper, to come to the door. Her face flashes form sleepy annoyance to earnest concern.

The first time Bernadette goes through the story, Ms. Harper looks furious then things change. She has the scared freshman repeat her story several times then has me go back over my part in things a few more times. It begins dawning on me that we are well past the point where other educators should be involved and on their way. There is a soft knock at the door, the other four twins glide in sans permission.

"We heard there was a problem so we came to see what we could do to help," the lead blonde twin speaks up.

"That will be all, Richard," Ms. Harper orders me; "you may leave now. I'll deal with this." I look from her to the four other girls then to Bernadette who knows she is in the lion's den.

"Are you mental?" I shout at Harper. "Bernadette just told you that those four's best buddies engineered the attempted rape and you want me to leave her in a room with you and these freaks?"

"That's enough," Harper snaps. "Leave or face disciplinary measures." I am pretty sure Bernadette is going to lose it; the tears are already pooling in her eyes.

"Okay," I nod. "We are going. You five do whatever it is you do." I start heading out hand in hand with my new best friend.

"Don't you dare," Natalie thunders as she strides toward me.

"Bitch," I round on her. "Your authority ended with me the moment you refused to defend one of your students. Do you see the blood on my hands and pants? I'm willing to add a little more if that's what you want."

"Very well," she seethes. "You are expelled. Get out." She doesn't come any closer though.

"Cool," I shrug. "Bernadette and I will be out on the next ferry."

"Ms. Reardon (Bernadette) is not expelled; only you," Harper clarifies.

"I'm going with him," Bernadette insists desperately. I nod then head once more for the door.

One of the black-haired twins gets in my way, baring the door. At least these four have the decency to dress in support of the illusion they've been asleep, attired in night shirts plus bathrobes and cute slippers. Several options are available to me but the only real asset I have at the moment is strength. There are six of them plus at least twenty other students I'd seen in their orbit and now one member of the faculty.

I can see the wheels spinning behind their eyes, those evil twins. There is this absolute confidence about them, as if the rules of physic have changed and only I am ignorant of the fact. They are still working things out when I backhand the obstacle so hard she bounces off the wall next to the door. For a split second I feel an incredible hot flash but then it is gone. The others blink in shock. I lead Bernadette out of the room with Ms. Harper shouting my name.

"What do we do now?" Bernadette asks as we race back up the stairs to my room.

"I'm working on it," I mutter. We deviate from our normal path to swing by the East Tower. I pop a window and confine the two red-haired twins' cell phones to the crashing waves far below. My arm is good enough to clear the narrow bit of the grounds that separate the tower from the cliff side.

I am careful on my final approach to my room because there is every reason to believe that my foes of the evening know where I sleep. I creep into the room, Bernadette behind me, and look around. Two things quickly come to mind; my side of the room has been ransacked and Daniel, my roommate, is pretending to be asleep. I still bring Bernadette in with me because leaving her in the hallway is an even worse option.

I check around to see what is missing – like my phone – and if they have found my secret hiding place – found and looted. This last part is the most disturbing. I sit Bernadette down on the bed and put my hands on her shoulders; she is hanging onto the last threads of her bravery and I admire her for hanging on this long.

"Daniel, you snore when you sleep," I sigh as I turn around to face his bed, his back turned toward me. "Stop playing – who did this?" After ten seconds Daniel rolls over and gives me a rather blank look.

"I don't know," he lies.

"Bullshit; they knew about my hiding place," I accuse. "The only person besides me who knew was you." I walk over to him. "Tell me why? We were friends and now you are acting like I don't exist, or don't matter. What the fuck is going on?"

"You don't matter Richard," Daniel sits up. "If you had two brain cells in your thick skull you would be shutting up and keeping your head down before your turn comes up."

"I'm not sure what that means and I'm arriving at the point where I don't care. Start talking," I demand.

"What are you going to do Richard?" Daniel snorts in amusement. "They have the whole school and you have what; some freshman girl already scared out of her mind? Get over yourself."

"Pack up your shit, give me your key and get out of this room," I state evenly.

"No," Daniel defies me. I shrug, leap on him and we begin to wrestle. It takes about twenty seconds to lock his arm and drag him over to the dresser. I open the drawer, pry his fist open and place it on the open drawer and get ready to slam it shut. The irony is I stopped an upperclassmen from doing this to Daniel our freshman year.

"Your choice Daniel," I growl. "You can haul your shit with two hands or one; either way you are leaving this room." Daniel gives one final effort.

"Okay – okay," he gasps fearfully. I let go of his arm and watch him pack. I even throw out the few pieces he can't carry himself.

"Key," I demand. When he hands it over, I add this final warning. "Don't come back. If I find you in my room I will deal with how fucked up your betrayal is. Dude we were friends and I can't imagine what would make you ignore the fact that a girl was nearly raped, much less help the people who did it."

"They will get you too," Daniel spits back. I hardly care. I re-arrange our dressers so that there is a barrier between Bernadette and I; I feel she needs to be able to change clothing without me gawking. Finally I have to change the sheets on what has been Daniel's bed so she can sleep on clean smelling sheets.

Before I crash I race to the bathroom – the original purpose for me starting on this misadventure is has reasserted its urgency. This time I use the boy's bathroom, pipe squealing be damned. I had drifted off to sleep when I felt a disturbance beside me. Bernadette slipped under my covers, curls up and faces me. It isn't like I haven't broken so many other rules this night anyway. If letting her sleep next to me means she can keep the nightmares at bay, who am I to deny her?

Flames Licking At My Toes

I wake up to Bernadette sucking her thumb and mumbling against me. She is still asleep. I am about to check for my official expulsion notice on-line but someone stole my phone last night. I imagined that some official will hand me a written notice this morning. I nudge Bernadette awake and wait to see what her reaction will be. She starts crying and all I can do is hold her and pat her back.

"It really happened," she weeps. "Oh God, she must be dead and I'm stuck here."

"Well, I think we are getting out of here today," I point out. "That is if you still want to head out with me when I am officially expelled."

"I don't know what I can do," she stiffened. "This place is going to get nuts." Going to get?

"I swear it wasn't like this," I assure her. "How about we go to the bathroom and get cleaned up. I'll stand watch over you while you shower then you do the same for me. It's the men's room but I don't think we want to go back to your restroom, do we?" 

"No – no I don't," she nods. Her stomach grumbles. "Maybe we can get some breakfast."

"Yes," I chuckle. "It would be positively rude to deny us food before tossing us out." It is a pretty bad joke but it still is rewarded with Bernadette's smile. We get cleaned up without drama though a few fellas give me odd looks for having girl in the men's showers this early in the semester – this is a college not a monastery after all.

I stop by the Office to get my Expulsion Notice but there is nothing.

"What's the plan now?" Bernadette whispers to me as we leave.

"We get a bite to eat, go back to the office and call for the bus around nine when the station opens," I suggest. "If we are careful we can be out of this madhouse by noon."

Events and conspiracy collided to make an easy exit impossible. As we enter the dining hall the most obvious thing is two male students tied back to back, blindfolded and wearing only their underwear set up on one of the dining tables closest to the door. A sign hangs around their necks which read: 'Insulted the Student Council'.

My first reaction was that the whole school had taken PCP; no one, not even the few instructors in the room, were doing anything to help these two. I have personally always considered the Student Council to be somewhat of a joke. I also considered most of my fellow students to be basically decent people. I also considered violence a poor excuse for conflict resolution until last night at least.

"Order has broken down," Bernadette mutters.

"No, it has been corrupted into something perverse and evil," I countered. "I know most of these people, or thought I did, and I can't imagine them not intervening in this."

"You are going to get involved, aren't you?" Bernadette asked me.

"I'm afraid so," I groan. With Bernadette close behind, I approach the two guys being made an example of.

"Don't," a fearful girl grabs my arm and warns me. "They are waiting for this." Her name is Georgia Norman; she has thin, shoulder cropped black hair; a bit overweight but she was much heavier last year. She is terrified for the three of us, which is more than most people were showing.

"Thanks Georgia," I mouth. I think she is surprised I even know her name – the whole Popular Kid/Geek thing. "Bernadette, jump under the closest table when the fight start and crawl for them." She nods. I don't want her crawling anywhere but I figure she'd try something like that anyway so the least I can do is take away those seconds of indecision so I'm know precisely where she is as she crawls about.

Sure enough, six students rise up from different compass points; all big strong guys and I know all but one of them. Two I would have considered friends yesterday. This morning, I didn't care what their fucking excuse is. 

"There are four of them," Bernadette whispers as she tries to give me some space. She doesn't see the two coming up behind us.

"Six; but their general is Mickey Mouse," I sneer. My peripheral vision catches the six bitches scowl my way – they are way too far to have heard my hushed words to Bernadette with the unaided human ear so I am wondering what is going on. As for the whole MM- thing; my Father graduated third in his class at Annapolis – Dad was a renegade; when Vandemeyer men went into service, they went to West Point. Real men fought with mud between their toes, or so I was told.

Dad did a lot of stuff, most of which I knew not to ask about - we are quiet that way. I do know that when his helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan, he wasn't doing a late night grocery run. An unknown compatriot in the Pentagon slipped me the tape the Taliban made of his death. I watch it every few months. 

My favorite part is when they cut his middle finger off half way up. While they were laughing at him, he stabbed the jagged bone into the chief interrogator's face. He missed the cocksucker's eye by 'this' much. 

They killed him seconds later, which I know was his goal all along. I doubt a physiatrist would have anything good to say about me watching that, but it makes me proud. He got his slice of payback at the end. The only thing that makes me just as proud is a note an old Academy friend of his sent me. 'I went to Arlington to visit your Father's grave. I asked the Captain in charge to see the Vandemeyer grave site to which he responded 'From which war?'

It wouldn't feel natural to a Vandemeyer if we weren't forced to work for it, but military thinkers for millennia have being saying that numbers alone provide no advantage. Mickey Mouse has set things up so that they cannot easily support each other. Sure, I'm surrounded but I was expecting to be surrounded so that provides them no advantage.

I charge, not because I'm some berserker who has lost his mind. I'm running because I want them to run and we are in a cluttered cafeteria with only the guy behind me (the farthest) and the one directly in front (the closest) having an direct line of approach. That boy is expecting a punch; I put a shoulder to his diaphragm, pick him off the ground, spin and hurl him into the next closest guy who thought that jumping up onto the table to get at me is the smartest thing to do.

The guy I've thrown flies sideways into the shins of the guy on the table. Table guy gets flipped so violently forward that he can't get his arms up fast enough to stop his chin from impacting the 110 years old polished mahogany table top with a thunderous strum-thump they hear clear down to the Headmaster's office. The guy I threw can't be in that bad of shape but apparently he's had enough because I don't see him anymore when he falls off the far side of the table.

In armored warfare tactics this is where I turn back and smash another guy and even the odds out some more, but I'm not a tank. Likewise, when I put a foot on a chair and the next on the table to rescue those guys, I haven't lost sight on what's really going on here – they still have a twisted desire to grab Bernadette. 

Mickey Mouse should have told everyone to go for Bernadette but she/they didn't. Two go for Bernadette and two come for me. They might as well put lambskin on their heads and bleat like little lambs. I'm not bragging and I'm not Billy Bad-ass. What I am is tough enough to walk into a gay bar on New Year's Eve wearing a ballerina's costume and come out unmolested.

I am not 'Jet Li' enough to take that same tutu, go into a biker bar and expect to face anything but a coroner or major reconstructive surgery by sunrise. The difference is? Know what the hell I can and can't do. I can take the pain and I can dish it out and all too often the fear of the former stops you from doing the latter.

In the balance, I wasn't afraid of them and they were afraid what I could do to them. The only thing that might have helped was massing those people they had left so that they could take courage in their numbers...thus their general was being Mickey Mouse yet again. I caught the third guy on the table top. 

I faked a kick; he flinched then tried a kick of his own. I caught his leg mid-calf and before he could recover spun him head over heels off the table and onto the floor. You have to be a stuntman or Action Hero to get up after that.

I had only enough time to rip off the blindfolds, and undo the knot before events overtook me.

"This is all I can do right now," I slid off the table, "Some people here have an appointment with the Sandman." Overly dramatic; sure but right now those two need any thread of hope to hang on to. I take two steps toward the 'last to the last' guy coming my way when I slip on a wet spot on the floor I've totally missed.

Bernadette starts screaming while the dick-head attacking me appears above. I block two kicks with my shins so the guy moves forward and falls on me, fist ready to strike. I block the first strike and hit him as hard as I can in his sternum. I knock him off me – about fifteen feet into the air above me! WTF! He is so high up in the air I am able to spin up to my knees before the dummy hits face-first on the ground where I was on my back only seconds ago.




The Witches of Ravenrook 01



I will have to worry about whether I've killed him later. I'm up and running at the fifth guy who has Bernadette by the leg and is trying to drag her out from under a table. The sixth guy has crawled under the table on the other side and is starting to pry Bernadette's fingers from around the table leg she's clinging to.

Guy number five barely has the time stand before I'm on him. I take his hit to the shoulder to get my hand around the back of his head. I quick-step him the four feet to the table opposite Bernadette and pound the boy's face into the closest plate of food – twice. 

The owner of the plate – recall, there are students all over the place either dispassionately watching or simply ignoring the beatings and humiliations that have been going on. Only the freshmen seem suitably horrified, though they don't know who any of the combatants are.

The owner of the food, Vicky Lennox, looks offended – with me! And there was a girl screaming her head off right behind her and she's offended by me spilling her fruit and candied rice all over the table. I'm reacquainting number five into the plate when Vicky puts her hand on the bicep that is attached to the arm slamming the douche.

I release the guy and backhand Vicky to the ground. I'm angry with her but really I just need her out of the way and to be sure she's not going to get on my back when I retrieve Bernadette. I rush to the only person here who is making any sense to me. If I am going to be forced to fight the whole way to the harbor; I am going to have to think of another plan to get us out of here – something more immediate and doable. 

"Bernadette," I call out. "Grab my hand," I call out to my gal pal – fuck, maybe my only pal anymore.

"Vandemeyer!" hollers Ms. Janice Richman, our school's swim and yachting coach. I am a bit busy pulling Bernadette out from under the table and to my side. "Vandemeyer, put her down," she thunders next. 

"What the hell is this?" I scream back, fueled by a sudden splitting headache. I'm pointing at those two poor freshmen who are only now succeeding in removing the rope that binds them back to back.

"That's not your problem," Richman furiously snaps. My headache graduates to a migraine so fast I think I might be having an aneurism. Bernadette is muttering something...in some language I've never heard before – Albanian maybe. I'm completely powerless to resist Coach Richman from grabbing me; it hurts so badly – then Bernadette says something loudly that sounds like 'dentate', touches me and the pain vanishes.

Coach Richman takes me by the arm.

"Come with me," she commands. Before she can move me, everything becomes crystal clear once more.

"Bitch," boils up from deep within me. Richman has half turned away when my curse causes her head to track back to my face.

I really don't care – again. My fist balls up and I hit her twice, rapidly in the stomach. I am way, way past losing my mind. I'm going to prison, I have no doubt. I shake my arm free from Janice's feeble grip. I grab a handful of her hair and drag her to the two freshmen on the table as tears start streaming down her face from the pain of my hair-pulling.

"Why aren't you angry about this?" I cry out. I'm about to slam her face into the table top when she goes 'Huh...'

"What?" I pull her head up to mine and her eyes are highly dilated and she looks stoned. I give a little 'huh' myself. I catch a flicker to my right – it is Bernadette and she looks like she's donated two too many pints of blood; she's so pale and swaying – barely able to stand. She's also looking over at those six wack-jobs.

I quick-step to her side once more and catch her as she collapses against my chest. A hodgepodge of disjointed visions floods my mind and I can now tell everyone what it feels like to have hot needles jammed into every joint of my body. Holy fucking hell...then the pain is gone. The world swirls and for a second I see looks of utter surprise on the three sets of twin's faces as they look at me.

"Let's get you out of here," I tell Bernadette. The sounds of the rest of the students returning to normal business as if nothing bloody, violent and uncalled for has happened in the past two minutes. Only the freshmen, Georgia and maybe a dozen other upperclassmen give me furtive, frightened glances.

"No, Richard," Bernadette rubs my upper arm, "let us stay and get some breakfast."

"Okay, did you also miss me beating five guys up and gut-punching a teacher?" I blink. Oddly, she looks totally fine now, even somewhat rejuvenated. 

"No, but most of the students won't remember exactly what happened," she whispers.

"Excuse me," I growl under my breath. "What is going on? My old friends are with my new enemies and I'm being forced to use physical threats and violence to deal with teachers. Where I come from in Sanity Land, this is nuts. We need to leave this island and tell something about what's going on."

"What would you tell them?" she smiles with a sense of dark tragedy; "your friends are trying to hurt you so that they can kill me, and you don't even know me, really. That is all rhetorical because once we get on the boat I can't protect either of us – not from all six – and they will kill us both."

"You mean those six Kate Moss rejects?" I glare at the six and their court which has swelled to over thirty students now. "Let me go set them straight right then I'll be right back."

"Please don't," she tells me softly. "You can't fight them all, here - in the open. For that matter, do not let them touch you – ever." I'm starting to think that I'm that one in a million who isn't affected by whatever toxin or poison that is rotting the mind of everyone else on the island.

"Tell me what is going on; are they terrorists or is this some bad medical experiment?" I fight for understanding.

"I can't tell you anything that would make sense to you yet," she tells me. "I have not even figured out how we are still alive."

"They should have sent more people," I joke with desperate energy. She gives me a curious look.

"Do you often fight five guys...after the five you beat up for me last night?" she questions. Yes, I'm a raging asshole who constantly beats up anyone who steps on my blue suede shoes.

"I think I've been in five fights since kindergarten but my Dad taught me how to defend myself," I inform her then realize that doesn't explain anything.

"Have you ever kicked anyone half way to the ceiling before?" she keeps going.

"That was new," I admit. "But what does all of this mean?"

"I don't know," she nods. "Had they not been so invested in giving me a long and torturous death, none of this would have happened to you and for that, I apologize."

"You would be dead and that isn't an option for me," I confirm.

"You don't know me at all," she points out. "What if I told you that all this would stop if you let them kill me?"

"Do you deserve death at their hands?" I counter.

"I don't think so but I believe they would disagree," I can see Bernadette think things over. We've walked to a table and sit side by side when she continues. "They would think I deserved death for what was done to them to whit I would counter that they earned their punishments honestly."

"None of what you just said makes sense," I shake my head.

"It is not supposed to," Bernadotte sighs. We eat a few more bite-fills then Bernadotte stiffens and looks over her shoulder. It is the blonde Wonder Twins. I take my butter knife as well as Bernadette's then stand up.

"Don't," Bernadette cautions me. She's not touching me though. I don't 'know' most of the crap going on around me but I'm putting a few things together – I have to play to their delusions.

"Whatever you are doing – stop it," I demand. As far as I know there is a voodoo thing going on here and the Sextet has got poor Bernadette believing they have power over her.

I want to pinch myself because I suddenly feel as if hundreds worms are crawling around in my brain...and dying...I can almost hear their death rattles.

"Please," I plead through clenched teeth. I'm not begging and, if they are smart, they will know it. They don't. I give them five seconds then I hope that either touching their hair doesn't count or that I don't send Bernadette into some kind of psychotic break by touching them.

I introduce Blonde #1's left ear to Blonde #2's right by the simple expedient of pounding their heads together. I feel like my palms and fingers are on fire, but it passes.

"Ow!" they both gasp as they stumble back. Seven more guys and two girls are coming my way from their not so little pack.

"They take five more steps and I'm ramming the handles of these two knives into both your rectums," I seethe to the blondes. Fucking fantastic – the minions stop. If I could see any ear pieces on these chicks, or had I spoken above a seething whisper, or had either blonde said a word, I would be ecstatic. "Bernadette, what's going on here?"

"They have a Sympathetic mental understanding with one another which certain...rituals allow them to expand over...those they have subverted," she informs me.

"They have telepathy?" I shorten the bullshit. "Next time just tell me they have telepathy."

"Not precise but apt," Bernadette agrees. Okay, I'm going to play along with this fantasy environment because though this makes no sense it still makes more sense than anything I can think of.

"You don't understand this situation?" the blonde's go all-freaky girl-like. Oh, it gets better. Each twin looks at their opposite then back at me. The blonde's extend their left hands.

"Hello, I am Paradise/Eden," they greet me. I'm thinking about defusing the situation then I recall Bernadette's warning about touching these – witches. I rap their knuckles instead. I swear to God the metal sparks as the knife-handles hit flesh.

I'm starting to figure something else out and surprise, it makes as much nonsense as everything else. They don't think I can touch them, despite copious evidence to the contrary.

"If I have to touch any of you it will be to punch my hand through your skulls and walk you around like meat puppets," I threaten them. "Are we clear?"

They don't speak and I realize that Bernadette is remarkably silent as well. I know how this fantasy works.

"You have to a count of five before I kill one of you by ripping off your arms and legs then reducing your skull to pulp with one of those," I threaten softly. "5-4-3..."

"They are not really alive Richard," Bernadette breathes heavily. "You can't really kill them; nothing mortal can."

"They also didn't think I could touch them, or hurt them either," I grin evilly at the blondes.

"Point taken," Bernadette contemplates with a certain distant yet serene quality.

"What were they doing to you?" I play along. They have telepathy after all. Dr. Spock will be so pleased – or is that Mr. Spock; I am starting to get them confused.

"They were simply saying hello in the way of our people," Bernadette relates, "which means they were trying to get inside my mind. They caught me off-guard yesterday with my guard down. This was a trap meant to...umm...do things to me."

"What part of them being three sets of twins a la Children of the Damned did you miss?" I joked weakly.

"Richard," Bernadette laughs, "most people can't see what they really look like. They masked their taint from me by design. I can't explain you."



The Witches of Ravenrook 02



*Our shadow is always with us, thou we cannot always see it*

(Thanks to Talenwolf for ideas story ideas and Shawhollow for editing.)

(There is a great deal of violence in this tale but I promise it will make sense before we are done. The 'hero' is no Conan the Barbarian – normally. Slapping girls and woman is very abnormal but I hope understanding will come)




The rest of breakfast is sort of stand-off which we mutually break for our first course of the day . Bernadotte and I agree to touch base between each class. Actually going to class at my actual college is mind-numbingly surreal after the bizarre activity of the last eight hours. 

My second class kicks me back to reality. I have one of the raven-haired twins in class with me, two chairs behind me – Coincidence?; I don't think so. Before class begins, I bolt into the hall and look for something to use as a weapon but there isn't even an umbrella to be found in the hall and the janitor's closet is locked – which is normal, damn it. I return to my classroom in despair.

Roughly half way through class the girl behind me taps my shoulder with a small note. The last time I got one of these was 5th grade. The girl taps me again.

"My religion requires a token of blood to be placed upon it before I can receive it," I blatantly lie. You would have to be an alien to buy that. The girl seems confused for thirty seconds or so then retrieves her nail clippers and cuts her finger and bleeds on the note.

I've taken the time to tear out a piece of paper from a binder so when she hands me the missive the third time I have her drop it in the folded sheet, wrap up the message most likely from the kook – says the guy taking a note on a piece of paper to avoid contact. I fold up the larger paper and put it in the back pack for Bernadette to look over at lunch. Why am I being so cautious? All I can think is that I have lost my mind like everyone else.

Dispassionate Blackie tries to slip close to me while we are exiting the class and I see her making her move to touch my hand. I pick up a school chair and slam her with it because she knows about my No Touching Rule. I am not expecting what I get. The chair hits her alright but turns into ashes; not bursts into flames but literally incinerates. I'm left with partial portions of the chair's back with glowing embers at the base.

The Black haired girl slams against the wall, smudges the chalkboard and slides down as if truly hurt. Everyone is staring and more than half the class seems confused by the presence of the witch/alien/telepath. I come across as some kind of crazed animal and she's the bizarre damsel in distress – but they all look at her funny too. They see the real her. Their power is not limitless and that realization makes me want to summersault.

More to my current situation; I see everyone staring at us – me with my charred chair pieces and her, the weird chick who has suddenly appeared among them. I take three steps over to her and extend one piece of wood her way.

"Take it and I'll help you up," I whisper. "Try and touch me and I'll gut you with the other one; are we clear." She nods slowly.

There is no deception on either of our parts and slowly the drug that everyone else is on kicks in and no one sees, or at least assigns any importance to, what had just transpired. She lets my stick go once she's standing so I go retrieve my bag and am ready to leave. She's standing where I left her.

"If you don't touch me, I'm not going to fight you right now," I relate then motion her to go ahead but she seems reluctant. "You sat behind me during class so I get to stand behind you when we leave; besides, I just told you I am not going to fight you." She nods, turns and leaves though she's nervous the entire time .

Once we are in the hallway, I speed up so that we are side by side.

"If I talk to you about stuff, are people around us going to get weirded out or are they going to ignore us?" I question.

"They don't ignore us," she suddenly speaks up, "We are weaving magics we put upon the school grounds themself to alter perception into a form more useful to us; in this case we want to be ignored right now."

"And I broke that in the classroom...because you had to defend yourself?" I theorize.

"Yes," she answers. "My name is Midnight and my sister is Twilight."

"I am Richard Vandemeyer, but you've already been told that I am of no account," I sneer.

"That was a tragic and sloppy mistake on our part," Midnight admits. "We won't make that one again."

"As long as we understand I will put down you and the rest of your minions if you come after Bernadette or me again," I tell her, "we can be okay."

"Minions will always be coming for you both as long as you shield her, Richard," Midnight threatens. "We will expend everyone on the island if that is what it takes."

"Even the ones who are your boyfriends?" I question.

"They are tools, nothing more," she answers. "Humans hold no interest for us except as extensions of our power."

"What does that make me?" I ponder.

"We don't know. Let me run my hands over your naked body and we will find out," she promises. Now I've been cautioned about this but I'm starting to think that I'm succumbing to the mental collapse affecting everyone else because I am thinking that I might know better. Also, while she's no Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, she's very physically attractive and all this violence has made me terribly horny.

"Over there," I direct her to a stone buttress that shields us from most snooping. It also leaves her mostly at my mercy if I turn hostile.

"How do I know you won't try to hurt me?" she hesitates. "Recreating this form would be time consuming." I shudder because a teeny-tiny bit of this makes sense.

"What makes you think that I won't kill you here in the open?" I remind her. It takes her a moment to nod and head into the shadows provided by the buttress and the tall, blue-tinted glass Gothic window .

When she gets there, Midnight places her back against the stone.

"Okay," she whispers. "Take my hand." She starts whispering in something akin to Bernadette's Basque with a healthy sprinkling of habanero to the eardrums just for listening to it. I'm thinking Acid or LSD or if Acid is LSD then...fuck if I know. 

I grab the wrist of the hand, making sure to keep her shirt sleeve in between our flesh. She flinches slightly but is incapable of resisting my pull. I place her hand over my heart which surprises her; she thinks I've acquiesced.  I step into her and I'm 1 cm from her face when she finally realizes what I am about to do. Panic fills her eyes as I plant my first kiss.

"I told you I would touch you, just not how," I say softly. Then I kiss her again; this time she is trembling like a leaf, her eyes flutter, and her breathing is coming in gulps. For almost two more minutes I rape this girl's virgin mouth with my tongue and lips. I pull away and smile.

"Well, you touched me," I inquire. "Did you learn what you wanted?"

"I – what – wait – I didn't," she mumbles. "You tricked me!"



"Yes I did," I acknowledge, "but you earned it by treating me like dirt beneath your heel since we first met. Now, if you want to actually meet and talk, contact me at lunch and I'll see what we can do. I want to hear your side of the story. By God, Bernadette hasn't told me a damn thing I can understand." That seems to make Midnight secretly happy.

The Power In My Hands

Bernadette and I met for lunch as we had previously agreed. After getting our lunch, we sat down for a discussion. Bernadette is a bit alarmed about the confrontation, illumination and the kiss in particular. I honestly tell her that I don't know whose side I am on – and she understands. I ask her why.

"There are two possibilities that explain why you can do what you do; you are a creature of Light or Darkness," she waits for my laughter. I'm not laughing. I have people popping in and out of people's perceptions, I'm kicking more than serious ass – I'm acting psychotic.

When Option A is smacking a girl half my size with a chair because I'm afraid I've lost my grip on reality. And beating up girls is unlikely to make me one of the good guys.

"I'm a Monster," I whisper.

"To make an over-generalization – yes, you are a power of darkness," Bernadette nods.

"What are you? What are they?" I worry.

"I am a mortal and we dedicate our lives to either the Darkness or the Light, as have the women in my family for centuries," Bernadotte confesses. "The Twins were never like us mortals, their existences were dedicated to the Dark Forces of the Universe – no, it is not the Force out of Star Wars."

"Keep going," I prod her. She takes a deep sigh that sounds like she's about to jump off a steep cliff.

"There was a coven of witches that dates back to the 15th century in Scotland," she stares at me. I'm still not laughing so she continues. "Every coven needs thirteen members – no more and less means you are not a true coven."

"When the New World was discovered, that coven decided to leave the Homeland and come here to the area you know as New England, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Unfortunately, an English coven had the same plans and while the Scots were of the Light, the English were Dark. They both came over two or three at a time and soon were sniping at each other, but neither side had a complete coven on this side of the Atlantic to decide the manner," she seems happy that I'm being so attentive.

"The first coven was winning, countering the dark influence, and their librarian, the last member of that coven, was coming over when the English struck," Bernadotte seems more animated sort of the way I remember feeling when Father was telling me about my ancestors. "They killed one of the Scottish members – witches killing witches is normally forbidden – but in doing so revealed that they were rushing the last six members of their coven to end the struggle once and for all."

"The Scottish leader – my great-grandmother – came up with a desperate plan. She found a Sacred Woman of Passamaquoddy People. She saw the vile taint coming her people's way and agreed to remake the World to trap those six witches before they could lay foot on the Continent proper. The ritual tore their bodies apart and trapped them on this island. It was never meant to be a permanent solution though," she expresses some regret.

"But it was and they are pissed," I state the obvious. "Is there anything short of fatality that will end this feud?"

"The head of the Scottish coven was murdered four days ago," Bernadette trembles. "That was what they told me this morning and I know it to be true."

"Do you want me to make them tell you who did the deed so we can, once we get off the island, make them pay. I'll help as long as I can," I promise.

"That's the bizarre thing Richard; you should have succumbed to them by now. Being a Monster doesn't make your more resistant; it makes you more compliant," Bernadette explains.

"How does any of that make sense? I'm kicking their asses," I counter.

"Darkness creatures are hierarchal Richard," she states. Since I'm not getting it, she adds, "You are the stronger Monster. When they figure this out, they are going to be terrified because then the whole 'stronger creature dominates the weaker' is going to be working against them."

"Okay – downside: when do I lose it? When do you have to put me down, or do I have to put myself down," I convey to her.

"Please understand Richard, we shouldn't even be talking to one another," she looks totally flummoxed. "You shouldn't have come to my aid. Hell, you should have joined in on my rape and murder."

"I'm not like that, Bernadette," I shake my head. "My family never gives in."

"What do you mean – your family?" she becomes laser-intensive.

"Since the Revolutionary War, Vandemeyer men have been fighting and meeting grizzly ends," I inform her. "My Father was captured, tortured and killed by the Taliban." 

"My Grandfather's Bradley APC hit a mine. He was last seen jumping back into his burning vehicle to get his driver out. He was burned alive. I had an ancestor killed at Antietam; his legs were blown off but he still was borne by his men to victory before he died. I can keep going down the list of my honored dead if you want."

"Richard, that sort of suffering should make you more evil, not less," Bernadette shakes her head. "My real name is Regina Ravenrook, by the way. I used a pseudonym to come here because I really am a student here as well . Being a witch these days doesn't pay all that much so it helps to have a career to fall back on," she jokes weakly.

"Ravenrook as Camilla Ravenrook's..." I guess.

"My grandmother," Bernadette, now Regina, tells me. "She founded this school to reinforce the positive, hopeful, youthful energies here thus decreasing the degradation of the ritual and hopefully finding a replacement for her dead 13th member."

"But they got out," I reexamine the obvious.

"I'm not – you Richard, you did it," she tries to study my soul. "You inadvertently tipped the balance; your Dark energies are what cracked the mystic wards the witches wiggled through and the rest is history."

"And it was simply convenient that I happened to be gone," and I'm not an idiot, "to London. You said they were English damn it." I had hoped I'd earned internship on my own merits.

"Covens of the same aspect support one another, with the added difficulty that Darkness does not trust Darkness," Regina states, "but they didn't know your name though or the Twins would know you."

"So a power of Light lured me away?" I imagine. "A power we haven't seen yet. A power like what all the students here are subjected to?"

"How so?" Regina questions me. "Most students are infected with the background of dark energy which makes them give into their darker impulses. A special few are actually infused with the Witches' energy, but they are still themselves. As far as I can tell, you and I are immune."

"Had I stayed and met the Witches without you being around Regina, I would be working for them now."

"Good guess, but 'no'," Regina corrects. "A white coven would have warned a White Coven where a Black coven would not necessarily inform either one. It could be third faction; some other kind of Darkness creature could be involved."

"This is getting nuts – how much is out there?" I groan.

"It took the entire summer of my 12th year to get a broad view," Regina gives a sympathetic grin. "But usually the organized monotheistic religions are opposed to us, both Light and Dark. Truly, they are opposed to the Darkness but over time the Dark had painted White with the same brush in order to hurt the White." 

"Basically, a White Witch will help a village from behind the scenes while a Dark Witch will poison wells and cause diseases. It is safer for the humans to simply hunt down all witches."

"Monsters are easier to understand," I exhale in frustration. "Hell, I'm a psycho. I hurt people. It is easy to see why I would be exiled or hunted...but I only seem to be psycho here."

"No, you are a controlled psycho all the time," Regina presses me. "People don't do what your family does; jumping into a burning tank (she means APC), charge enemy entrenchments with your legs blown off, or attack your enemy with the stump of your fingers."

"I still don't – Twilight and Midnight coming," I warn Regina. I stand up and put my body in a position to guard Regina. They can see one another but the Witches will have to get passed me.

"We would like to talk with you, Richard Vandemeyer," the two sing-song their message. There was a long pause as I waiting for them to start talking. "Please; alone – away from 'Bernadotte'."

"She has told me her real name and her relationship to you – her version," I say. I notice a bruise on Twilight's cheek were I back-handed her last night in Ms. Harper's room. I feel a tiny bit bad – she is still guilty of conspiracy to rape Regina – about it. She flinches when I stroke the wound with the back of my hand and shudders when I will part of my courage to her.

"Sorry," I say. I'm a Vandemeyer after all. The damage fades until it vanishes. Twilight reaches up and traces a finger along the non-existent wound.

"You healed the wound," the Twins and Regina all whisper at once. I start to think that I've learned a few things in London even if I wasn't the top pick of candidates; today, beyond all expectations or imaginings the lessons are interconnectivity and sympathetic reaction .

"You are awake because you siphoned off some of my energy when I was here my freshmen and sophomore years," I blindly toss out there. "My dark energies are inside each of you. You are in my domain, so be warned. I'm not expecting obedience and servitude, but you had better stay out of my way because that same tie that has prevented you from hurting me allows me to end you; you have been warned."

They say nothing for a full minute and Regina says nothing to me so I hear just the babble of normal conversation, the clatter of plates and silverware and the movement of bodies all around us.

"What do you want for Regina s and Shelby Ravenrook's lives?" the Twins request of me. I'm wondering if they buy, then strangle puppies. Shelby? Who the fuck is Shelby?

"Well, you had your chance," I shrug. "Regina, can you hold off those other four for twenty or so minutes?"

"Yes, I think so. Besides, I have both the note you gave me from Midnight and your book bag so I can get a rapid warning to you, if necessary ," she replies. "The book bag is personal to you and the note is an enchantment of hers. Will you be safe?"

"We are about to find out," I take a deep breath. "Come on you two," I say as I grab the two raven-haired beauties by the upper arms, spin them around and head for the exit. Bradley and six of the biggest guys in school intercept us.

"Vander-chump," Bradley mumbles through a busted lip, missing teeth and a swollen jaw, "you are going to get yours now. Spread out," his directs his cohorts. I gently put 'my' twins to one side.

"Bradley, I meant to catch up with you earlier but this will do – whoa!" I interrupt the rush to beat down on me. My blood is starting to boil but I feel obliged to make a futile gesture. They give me just enough time to get these words out, "Bradley, get your belongings and walk your ass down to the ferry because if I catch you here after nightfall, I am going to beat you until you cannot stand – okay, let's go."

I'm lucky to get the first two blows off. I punch the guy coming in on my left as hard as I can and my blood boils over. My body enters a state that isn't what I thought it would feel like; it is the removal of any sensation of from my body, the editing of superfluous sights and sounds, and an absolute clarity of the things that matter; namely the seven guys I am fighting, the Witches and Regina, though they are dozens of yards apart in different directions.

I kick one of the guys in front and he is gone; then I am born to the ground. It takes everything the guys holding my arms can bring to bear to hold me down. It doesn't really help. I scissor-kick one guy – hitting his ankle from one side and knee on the other – his Fibula and Tibia snap like dry twigs and the Tibia actually pokes through the skin and his pants.

His howling screams disrupt the survivors. One man gets a kick in to my hip, Bradley pushes the screaming guy aside and the last one takes my shoe to his knee, snapping it back to a reverse angle. He yowls and flies away. When Bradley tries to kick me in the crotch, I catch the tip of his shoe on the soul of my foot while I suddenly find the strength to hurl the man on my right arm off – way away from the fight.

I take another hit to the hip and it is dawning on me that I register the hit but not the damage. I know my hip is in pain from a clinical point of view but I am still totally functional. I push off from Bradley, sending him sprawling away before whipping the man on my left arm into the guy kicking my hip, splaying them both on the ground. Bradley and I regain our feet at the same time.




The Witches of Ravenrook 02



The six witches start moving their hands and chanting in that warped gibberish of theirs. Regina stands and I see three upper-class women start to swing around in her direction.

"Don't worry about this," I wave her off. Instead I grab two random book bags, hurling one then the other at the two lead attacking girl-minions. 

With the first, I hit the lead girl in the shoulder, smacking her into the closest table. I get the hang of this bag-throwing thing and nail the second girl in the head and she's lights-out. The third girl freezes and looks my way.

"Back your ass up," I growl and the girl flees back to the Witches' dwindling cliché.

When I turn back, the Witches have finished with Bradley; his body looks the same but he is infused with a lethal charisma and an animalistic menace.

"I am going to bathe in your blood," Bradley hisses. He's barely human anymore – his flesh is only a shell for the power of the witches and his own wickedness. The Witches don't create evil; they build upon what is already in you – how nice.

I wait; I'm monster but not like him. Bradley has surrendered that portion of the human persona that mastered fire and nurtured his family and clan by dint of personal sacrifice, multiple millennia ago. He's probably feeling no pain, but he hasn't healed either. I know what that means.

"Die," he froths at the mouth as he charges, hand's outstretched; this might hurt.

I bring my hands up over my head and step forward. I bring my balled fists down as his hands are grabbing my shirt, connecting hard with his collarbones resulting in a resounding snap. My fists drive into the top rib and that almost snaps too. His nervous system to each arm collapses and suddenly he is a head and limbless torso in a fist fight. My head butt finishes him off.

It takes me a moment due to my 'super power' to figure out what has happened. No one in the lunchtime crowd is saying a word and they are all looking at us. Somewhere their little monkey brains have been finally allowed to kick the civilized thought centers in the gonads and wake the body up. The Witches have suffered their first significant defeat. My earlier encounter with Midnight was a tiny ripple where this is a huge wave crashing onto the rocks.

No longer will students be drug off in the night while all the rest can do is put their pillows over their heads and be thankful it isn't them – this time . The witches gambled and lost. My only problem is I have no idea what to do with this victory. I hoist Bradley up and shake him.

"Walk the fuck out of here and never come back," I snarl.

"Help...help me," Bradley pleads to the lead blonde. She turns away and the rest follow suit. The human clique does the same over the next few seconds. Only Sally spares me a look and it is one of fear – fear of me or for me, I'm not certain.

"Spring and Autumn, come over here," I command. It appears that arrogance is a trait us Dark folk share. "Spring and Autumn, get your derrieres over here. I am not asking a third time." I reach down and feel one of the flagstones on the floor and sense the chill that gushes like oily water through the floor that I had felt a dozen times before but never understood. It is the lines of magic that crisscross the island.

I feel that energy solidify in the rock then I pry the flagstone up and take it over to the table where I have left the twins, Midnight and Twilight. I begin scrawling with my fingernail the names of Spring and Autumn and, lacking anything resembling knowledge of the occult, I etch an Omega under each name. I heft the stone, snap it in two and get ready to nail them in the same way I hit the two girls going for Regina a minute ago.

I look at the two red-heads. Before I can look down one last time to my impromptu missiles they are walking my way. Apparently scrawling Omega on the stone is the right thing because Midnight and her sister have been right at my shoulder, reading my work.

"Take Brad outside the gates," I don't even look at them. "Once he's beyond school grounds you may do with him as you please – be creative."

The Witches seem confused then they remember my true nature . All six of the little freaks get these sneaky, rather creepy smiles before the red-heads get to work. Four of Bradley's former allies take him by the knees and under the arms. He's whimpering, pleading and crying in fear and pain; before the doors shut out his noise, Bradley is even screaming out my name.

"Bernadette," I use her 'public' name, "I'm going off with these two," I put an arm around Midnight and Twilight, "so where can we catch up?"

"I'll be studying near the Founder's statue," she sings out. I give her a nod and steer the raven-haired twins out of the hall in search of an unoccupied class room.

I know the six are still going to try and kill me and Regina. Darkness hungers for more than death after all, but there are thresholds and how I approach them is my only hope for the Happy Ending getting caught up in this madness the rest of us seem to have thrown away. I find the empty room they suggest and steer my two willing victims inside.

You would think they would be more afraid, but Midnight keeps touching her lips with the tip of her tongue, remembering our kiss, and Twilight is starting to mimic her reactions to an encounter she's never had. I push them up against a wall that, poetically, has a wall-sized map of the world in 1491.

"Take off your panties – all the way off, open your shirts and push up your bras over your breasts," I demand.

"What are you going to do to us," they combine their question with desperate anticipation and lingering fear.

"I'm going to sexually abuse you for my own pleasure," I grumble.

"Oh, sexual relations have no interest to us but we will submit to your basest urges," Midnight and Twilight agree then begin to work off each other's clothes rapidly. Real people don't talk like this. Watching a twin strip down their double while being similarly undressed is an erotic pleasure I never anticipated in my life, much less happening at this college.

"What's next?" they turn and address me. I have totally shut down my upper brain functions while they flash me their...goodies.  I draw a blank for a second then,

"Lift up your skirts – both hands and right below the bell – you don't have belly buttons," I stammer through trying, and failing, to sound ferocious. I must sound sexually needy because they give me these tiny, creepy smiles that express their belief they are gaining an edge.

"I am going to have to mark you two so I can tell you apart," I stand close to them. Any hope that my superior size would be intimidating is quickly dispelled by their curiosity.

"No scar will last," Twilight (I'm pretty sure) says decisively and terribly smug.

"You are showing far less imagination and creativity than lovely Midnight here," I chastise one and gently caress the cheek of the other.

I have the twins confused though Midnight is blushing at my touch.

"Braid your front locks; you – Twilight to the right and Midnight to the left," I instruct them. "You may think you can trick me, but you can't."

"How would you tell?" Midnight is honestly curious. I respond by placing my middle fingers on top of my forefingers and rub them along their bald pussies.

Them being hairless, not bald, is plainly freaking me out. It is like,

"You aren't virgins, are you?" I counter-inquire. They give a little sexy breath then giggle.

"We can't be virgins – we've never had souls, so we can't be virginal," they smile at me as if I was a well-meaning toddler they were about to lovingly shove into a pie to cook. I am now back to thinking this whole world has gone insane.

No belly buttons, no pubic hair and no souls. I'd re-examine my mission if I had any other plan in the wings – I don't. Their bodies are nice and smoothly formed; not 'beating down the door to the gym' tight but built slender, warm and compact.

"A little touch of sunlight wouldn't kill you two," I murmur. Twilight's right hand grabs my arm stroking her cunt to steady herself.

"We...we don't do that," Midnight moans. "We are the way we were made; this way forever." I still think I can change that. I have to fight the urgent impulse to ram my fingers in as deep and as hard as I can go. I want to hurt them; make them cry and scream for all the horrible things they've done.

Midnight slumps into me by the time their juices are both flowing freely. Despite their claims, they respond differently. Midnight is a total slut, gyrating against me and trying to hump my hand deeper inside her. Twilight is all about sensitivity, trying to control my movements by trapping my fingers with her thighs where it feels the best for her.

I go down to one knee. The girls lean in to give me access to their tits and I start off by sampling and suckling on each of the four in progression. They may never be mothers or have a mothering instinct but there is nothing wrong with their nipple response. Twilight tries to move her right hand through my hair and hold my head in place but I bite down hard on her nipple and give her a sharp 'No!' Her cunt squeezes my fingertips as I bite down.

Midnight moans lustfully a moment later.

"Please, please," Midnight eggs me on. I reward her by sucking in most of her right breast and twirl around her areola with the thick part of my tongue. My taste buds must be driving her mad the way she's hiccupping her breath.

"Midnight," Twilight nearly sobs, "stop it...I can't take it – stop feeling that way." She reaches out and rests a hand on the back of Midnight's neck, releasing her skirt to fall onto my arm. Her touch is a tender gesture, not angry. I see a rout in the making; I pressure my two fingers up until I can pinch her precious, roaring pink clitoris between my thumb and forefinger.

In one final desperate effort, Twilight's body rockets upward until she's on her tip toes. Her thighs are clenched tight, trying to retard my progress and her body is so tense she can't breathe. I ram my two fingers deep inside her to the last knuckle. Too late I recall the hymen. Twilight is free of obstruction so I jab Midnight as well. They are right and I am wrong – they aren't virgins.

Twilight gives off this high-pitched wail that is half unearthly keening; half steaming hiss of air. As Twilight is twisting on my fingertips, Midnight is pushing down on my fingers so hard that each up-thrust resounds in a painful slapping of my drenched fingers, my thumb dragging rapidly along her clit and the rest of the fingers pushing in her peritoneum and cunt lips.

I wiggle, twirl and pump my fingers deeper into Twilight keeping her going and going on and on. Midnight looks down at me and I see that tiny smile from earlier in the day struggle for its own creation as it ignites across her face. I half-doubted those muscles have ever been flexed before. Now they are coming alive. Her eyes screw shut and she lowers her head on top of mine.

Midnight surges into a series of violent vibrations; her vagina flowing copious amounts of fluid down my palm and arm, soaking the cuff of my shirt. Twilight, having held her muscles tighter, drenches my other arm several second later. What surprises me are the chilling sensations rushing from my heart into the twats of my two raven-haired nightmare-creatures.

It is a conflicted morass of my living self and the vast darkness that engulfs me. This drives the girls out of their minds in some sort of dark magic endorphin rush that is a constant blossoming of orgasmic energy, lust and need. I'm merely getting this as a backlash. The pure effect is for them alone and my tenuous sanity is grateful.

I finally cut the connection and remove my fingers from their pussies. The girls collapse against me; panting, weeping, and doing something to each other and myself. It takes me a second to figure out that they are kissing each other and the hair on my head.  My legs slowly propel me to stand once more. I think about making them clean my arms up then another thought comes to mind.

"Clean me," I direct my two dire enemies and immediate lovers.

"But, that's hers..." Midnight struggles for words. See, I've switched arms so that each is cleaning the others mess. Twilight doesn't even pretend to protest. She takes on the first proffered finger, licks it to the knuckle before going for the next. Midnight is right behind her, clearly inspired by her sister's enthusiasm.

"Do you ladies – go at each other a lot?" I say with some suspicion.

"Do you mean sex?" Midnight asks. I nod. "With each other?" I nod again.

"No, we never knew we could feel this way," Twilight pants. "We are made from dead bodies Richard. We never knew we could feel this way." Dead bodies – serious turn-off.

"This is my school and if you go against my wishes I will be even harder on you; are we clear." They nod energetically as the lick their way down my wrists. When they finish licking me 'clean' the look up at me expectantly. I have this bizarre urge to put little chocolate mints on their tongues as a reward for a job well done – then giggle insanely as I throw myself off a cliff.

"And because you've made this campus your personal horror playhouse, from now on, none of you will wear underwear," I command, "because you will be available for sex on demand – whenever and where ever I want; any or all of you." The two stare at me, neither agreeing nor challenging me. Suddenly Twilight collapses.

"I can't stand up," she states with wonderment. "My legs have gone numb."

"Make sure the others understand my intentions," I glare with as much menace at Midnight as I can fake. I should be furious with these poor inhuman – not souls but Damned Ones. No Soul means no salvation – ever. I turn and walk out of the room.

"I don't want to kill him," I hear Twilight whisper in despair.

"I agree sister," I imagine Midnight comforting her twin, "maybe if we remove his brain we can enchant his body to react with muscle memory."

"We will have to experiment to see to the validity of this choice," Twilight murmurs happily.

Part of me wants to run for what remains of my hellish life; part of me wants to go back there and keep snapping their freakish little necks until they understand that sentient beings shouldn't destroy their fellow sentient beings. This only reminds me of how screwed up the World outside this island is too. At least the Witches have something resembling an excuse. Fuck.

Walking Into a Trap

I catch up with Regina at the statue of Camille Ravenrook, with the Blondes sitting close by and in definite danger of earning my ire. I close with Regina and give her a kiss on the cheek; she gives me a kiss on the other cheek and a knowing smile.

"You actually broke those two in," she teases me.

"Maybe," I prevaricate.

"And maybe those two twitched and squirmed so much I'm betting their granite seats are soaked and slick," she teases me even more. "I admit I am a bit jealous."

"Are the red-twins back yet," I change the subject.

"You told them to be creative," Regina shakes her head. She stops talking as I strip off my shirt – it smells of way too much female sexiness. Regina and the witches staring at me is bad enough; the unsolicited 'regular' female attention is surprising. 

"Your body has gained...definition as your power has increased," Regina smiles in appraisement of what is so close for to her touch.

"I have dark, death-like energy," I grouse. "How is that attractive? I just broke two near-virgins down and made them cry." I am filled with self-loathing.  I hated Brad but did I have to do what I did; no.

"Bad boys, dangerous boys – girls are drawn to the strength and violence a la the Minotaur, satyrs, dragons, and pro-wrestling villains," Regina still is taking amusement at my expense.

"Fine, what happened to Brad?" I grumble.

"I'll let you talk to the red-heads when they get back and cleaned up," Regina arches an eyebrow.

"What about Shelby Ravenrook?" I dodge that barb for a few seconds.

"She's the other Ravenrook heir, but no one has seen her in some time," Regina tells me but I knew she was holding something back.

"Who is the top dog?" I pursue.

"We haven't decided yet; we need to meet to figure that out," Regina evades. "I can tell you about that script Midnight tried to slip you – the blood actually made it too weak to work on you. The woman bled poorly – for Midnight," Regina grins. "It was an Ocular deflection ward; meant to move the creator to your peripheral vision."

"I'm going to have roll that up and stick that paper up her butt," I sigh with some amusement.

"I'd like to see that," Regina grins.

"I'm turning into a sadistic cretin; there is no need to cheer me on down that road," I grouse.

"You are what you need to be," Regina comforted me by placing her hand over mine.

"I'd rather be the man I'm supposed to be," I remained morose. I was missing something and I had little clue as to what it was.

"Girl coming at 3 o'clock," Regina interrupts my meanderings. "Russet hair, leading with her breasts though she's good enough looking."

"I know her – knew her," I turn and face my ex-girlfriend.

"Hello Sally," I mutter angrily. "Regina Ravenrook," I use my friend's true name because Sally is sequestered in the Witches' cliché, "this is Sally Fabian, my very ex-girlfriend." That last bit seems to drive the barb deep into Sally.

"I – just wanted," Sally gulps, "that I apologize for my unwarranted cruelty earlier." Regina and I stare at her; Regina with cruel amusement and me with more anger and distrust. "Um – okay." She turns and walks off.

"She'll be back," Regina whispers to me. "Her sin is Lust; that is how they got their hooks into her. You are the biggest lust-magnet on campus so she's homing in on you."

That sucks to hear because Sally and I had truly hit it off. Sure she is beautiful, with a wondrous body, fun to be with and with the right social connections but we'd been emotionally serious too. I'd never gone so far as to propose marriage but we'd talked about vacationing together and shared a few weeks away together too .

"She liked having sex with me," I snarl, "but that doesn't make her a slut or our sex sinful," I counter.

"She seeks out sexual intercourse for the sake of sexual gratification devoid of any emotional context and leaving a void once the rush is gone," Regina regales me with her understanding of the condition. "The only way out of the emotional crash is to have more sex – a vicious cycle."

"That's not the girl I remember," I furrow my brow.

"The Witches bring out that darkness we all hide inside; in her case a desire to take sexual pleasure from another, uncaring about the price paid by either participant," Regina relates.

"What is your darkness?" I regard Regina.

"I have an insatiable hunger for power," she smiles playfully. Seeing my unease, she adds, "Would you rather I lie to you, Richard?"

"No, and it is time for my next class," I get up and retrieve my backpack.

"Unless you are planning to impress the girls with the aroma of your manly conquests, and your 'fuck me hard all night long' body, you might want to change your shirt before arriving," Regina teases. I would hug the statue of Camilla Ravenrook for comfort but I'm afraid of what effect my tears might have on the stone.

"Crap-cakes," I groan then I see salvation.

"Hey Blondie," I call one of the two witches menacing Regina. Both look my way. 

"Eden, get you skanky ass over here," I bark. Reluctantly they both walk my way.

"Do you have to antagonize them so?" Regina hisses to me.

"Every time I feel sorry for them  I remember you in the bathroom, those two boys tied up on the table at breakfast and them I'm good with treating them this way. I'm not the 'Better Guy'," I promise. "I'm the guy who makes you regret not being better yourself."




The Witches of Ravenrook 02



"Gotchya Batman," Regina winks at me as she stands. The Blondes are clearly looking for a chance to strike.

"Eden, go get me a shirt from the laundry" I toss her my shirt with the cum-splattered sleeves. The moment they don't look peeved I see my screw up. Eden is scanning around for some poor smuck to bend to their will. I grab the top of her ear and pull her back around so she faces me.

"No," I waggle my finger in her face, "you go do it yourself. I'll meet you at the third floor – west wing's men's bathroom."

"I am not your body servant," Eden explains as if I'm some kind of dullard.

"You stop treating all the other students and faculty like the shit beneath your shoes, and I'll give you more of the respect you deserve," I lecture. "Now hop to it," I reach around and smack her butt.

Eden looks to Paradise and Paradise shrugs her uncertainty with the situation. They walk off together, Eden rubbing her sore tush.

"Thank you for pissing them off so expertly," Regina taps my upper arm, "I'll enjoy those extra few seconds of life I get by them taking joy in killing you first."

"Why am I your friend again?" I taunt her.

"You have a fetish for women's water closets after lights-out," Regina beams. I throw up my hands in surrender and start my way to class.



The Witches of Ravenrook 03



My thanks to PF for his editing handiwork

*Imagine a life without Love; no Hate, Pride, or Passion*

(There is a great deal of violence in this tale but I promise it will make sense before we are done. The 'hero' is no Conan the Barbarian -- normally. Slapping girls and woman is very abnormal but I hope understanding will come) 

"Hey Sally," I caught Sally exiting my final class for the day 'Applied Statistical Theory'.

"Hello Richard," she gave me a pained smile. I caught several of the other students hovering close around -- uncomfortably close.

"What, beyond my kicking the asses of all your pretty little friends and torpedoing their social order, is wrong?" I inquired. Again she came back with a pained smile.

"I'm trying to remember the way we were," she trembled. Old habits die hard and I found myself taking her hand into my own even though it had no immediate effect.

"Listen, if you are trying to get out from under the thumbs of those six, let me know and I'll do what I can," I told her. She squeezed my hand but looked passed me at one of the boys close by.

The guy licked his lips and I knew what that meant.

"Back off," I warned him then spread my warning gaze to the other seven guys and two girls.

"Don't be greedy Bro," The guy sneered. Yes, no one on this campus saw shit or he and the rest would know the real pain that was threatening to come their way.

"I'm not your Bro, last warning before I hurt you -- last chance," I snarled and pushed him slightly back. He rewarded my gentle attempt with a snappy jab with his right and a sneer.

'Oh, he knows how to box' I mused. I imagined that if he was fighting a human being who cared it would suck to be me. As it was, I had nearly exhausted my pittance of human compassion for the day.

I had him by the neck before he could blink, raised him up with that one hand then slammed him back first into the slate floor. His current inability to breath, the concussion I had just given him and his helplessness at my feet all warred across this smuck's face.

"The rest of you scatter," I growled to the rest of the party. The dust was already settling on the scene when I released the jackass and rejoined Sally.

"Sorry about that," I muttered then, "you knew all those people, didn't you?" Her hand quaked, she gulped and nodded.

"They are my four o'clock orgy -- most of them anyway," she stammered. "Most of them -- some were new."

"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked.

"I'm trying to be more like I was," she seemed flustered. "I haven't touched myself, or let someone touch me for...three hours." We both knew how pathetic that sounded, but such was the way of the Witches.

"Can you stay with me a while?" she begged. "I have a study group then dinner."

"I need to make sure your pals haven't crucified Regina," I told her, "but I'll come by at dinner."

"Thanks," Sally squeezed my hand then pushed her body tight against me. "I'll stay strong but...maybe we could do something after dinner -- walk the gardens -- you used to like doing that with me."

"I'd be more than happy to," and why wouldn't I? She was hot, willing and our sex rocked back in the day. The only problem was that I wasn't some romantic fourteen year old anymore and I'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not see that as a trap. Maybe once I'd won against whatever they were tossing my way I could score some victory booty with her.

Why you don't leave the grounds

"You said 'yes'?" Regina stated scornfully.

"I know it is a trap, you know it is a trap," I countered. "We discern their plan then just figure a way to counter them and administer another sharp lesson." Regina looked around the cafeteria before settling her gaze on the corner the Witches ruled.

"Let's go to our sanctuary and talk this through," Regina said as she stood up and took her ornate tray to the designated drop off point. I quickly followed along and made sure the whole evil witch coterie knew Regina and I were still tight.

Sally intercepted us as we walked, "Can you pick me up at the statue at seven?" She asked me.

"Sure," I responded to Sally in my smoothest voice. By the way she trembled I even believed she had been devoted in her efforts to avoid sexual stimulation and her sin of lust. We slipped by Sally and made our way to our room.

"Someone tried to enter our room," Regina cautioned me, "they did not succeed."

"One of the twins?" I worried.

"Ha," she laughed; "if one or one duo tried it they would have shredded my defenses," Regina chortled. "Keep in mind that if I got toe-to-toe one of those wenches I'm probably toast -- any set of twins and I'm dead. If all six fall on me I won't last a minute of their dedicated attention."

"How come I am still alive?" I was coming to hate asking that.

"I don't have the answer to that because you are clearly a free-willed living sentient being yet you are steeped in dark, deadly magic," she shook her head.

"I'm a walking dead man," I summed it up.

"Yes," Regina mocked me, "you have grasped the obvious." I leaned in and licked her nose because it was either that childish play or I was going to give her a truly demonic wedgie.

"Thanks," Regina rubbed her nose dry, "so you are going on your date tonight?"

"Of course, that is how we figure out their next move," I assured Regina.

"Their next move is to kill you, Idiot," Regina rolled her eyes. "More specifically, they want to lure you off of the school grounds so they can annihilate you."

"Why do they want me to lure me off the grounds?" I questioned.

"Oh -- right...you can't see anything magical," Regina sighed, "I mean you can't see the threads of the web of magic. They are constrained on the school grounds because of the old enchantments that Camilla Ravenrook created. If they unleash their full power on campus they unravel all those old wards and protections -- including the ones over their tombs."

"I thought they'd be all for destroying their graves on this island," I postulated. Regina shook her head again.

"You are an utter novice," Regina reminded herself about me. "They were bound here with sacred relics in a cavern somewhere on this island. If they destroy the protections, the cavern could collapse, burying those items. They can't dig up those relics -- only a white witch or a human can and I don't see any earth-moving equipment anywhere around here."

"As long as the items exist they can be re-imprisoned," I reasoned.

"Precisely," Regina smiled at me then hugged me. She patted my hardening cock for good measure. "Right on time because I know what we can do to even-out the odds."

"I'm not sure I like the look in your eyes," I worried.

"Neither you or I can beat them alone but together I think I know how we can," Regina looked terribly clever and even a bit brilliant. "I need a bit of your life -- um -- essence."

"You want to drain my soul?" I stepped back.

"Oh no," she laughed. "I need something a bit more primal and since I don't know how long we will be separated, I need your -- um -- deposit to last a while."

"Huh?" I wondered what the hell she was getting -- then it hit me. "You want me to ejaculate in you -- you want my sperm?"

"Oh, not in my pussy, you silly man," she was truly amused at my distress. "I need to keep it in my mouth. My pussy would simply absorb your power too quickly. As long as I don't swallow your cum down my throat, I can have it last for hours -- oh, but I won't be able to speak."

"I am not even going to go into how wrong that is because the whole past twenty-four hours has clearly removed my psyche's ability to relate to reality as I knew it," I nodded in disbelief. "I'm just going sit on my bed, close my eyes and pray you give a passable blowjob. I'm not going to worry about how many years of therapy this is going to cost me later in life."

"If it is any consolation, we are most likely going to die soon but if we don't, the Laws of Magic dictate we don't tell the world at large what we can do."

"The Laws of Magic can blow me," I joked. "I didn't sign up for any of this."

"Neither does your average werewolf but here you both are," she pointed out.

"Whatever," I groaned. "Listen Regina, I know you can't be ready for this. I'll blow Sally off and the Twins can prance around the scenery until they get bored and come home."

"What are you babbling about?" Regina settled between my legs and looked up at me. "Richard last night was a shock because I damn near died, but I think I'm strong enough to get past this and -- blow you, so to speak."

Regina stared to stroke me to full arousal. After one lick over the spongy helmet she hesitated.

"Richard, I want you to know that I hope you make it out of this alive and not just because this entails my own survival. It has been a lifetime since I've felt that way about anyone, please believe me," she vowed. "Stay alive and I'll find you."

"Thanks," I was both worried and confused by that confession. Her engulfing the top of my penis didn't end my ability to think, though it was proving to be more and more difficult. Reading between the lines Regina was telling me she'd visited death long before she came to the island. At the same time she was telling me my best clue for me to stay alive in case something bad caught up with her -- find the real Ravenrook heir -- Shelby Ravenrook -- is probably the one 'Good Girl' on campus and my best hope to stay alive.

About a minute into the process, Regina let my cock pop out to lean back slightly.

"Aren't you ready to cum yet?" she cross-examined me.

"You don't give many blowjobs do you?" I quizzed her.

"You are my first -- happy now?" she responded snidely.

"How about you show me your breasts and let me play with them while you suck me off?" I suggested.

"Wouldn't you rather be fondling Sally's," Regina continued to be one mouthy bitch.

"No Regina. I'm here with you because while you clearly dangerous and deranged, I like you and we share a leaky little rowboat in the face of a Northeasterly headwind," I reminded her.

"I'm going out with Sally only because she's leading me into a deathtrap created by the beings who have been consistently trying to kill me or kill my patience," I added. Regina agreed in the best possible way -- she unbuttoned her blouse, opened her bra and went back to her best imitation of fellatio. In five minutes, my body was kind enough to surrender its bounty and flooded her mouth with semen.

I stood and drew Regina up as well. I fixed my cock inside my underwear then zipped up my slacks. I was quick enough in the routine I was able to help her button up her shirt after she affixed her bra. By the way her cheeks moved, Regina's tongue was taking a pleasurable taste sample of the cum she had earned.

"Do you like the taste of my seed?" I teased. She looked mildly annoyed but became frantic when I made to tickle her. Perhaps the act of taking a male sexual organ into her wasn't (yet) on her top ten list of favorite things to do, or maybe she didn't want to spew all my hard work over my chest. I stopped advancing and she steadied herself.

Any attempt at conversation was pointless; besides as I readied to go out on my date, Regina busied herself with drawing lines in black and white chalk on the floor and walls. As she did so I could sense a link being created between us. I had a sensation that I could tell if she was alive and okay as long as she kept a portion of me insider her. It was another freaky-weird abnormality to tack on to the truckload I'd been gifted with today.

I could tell Sally was glad to see me the moment I arrived near the female upperclassmen common area in the Library. In fact, she looked ready to crawl out of her over-stuffed seat and take a bite out of any of the people moving about the room.

"Hey Richard," Georgia Norman called out warmly. Sally's ravenous gaze fell upon me and she was on me like a covetous Playboy Playmate.

"Hey Richard, let's go," Sally grabbed my left elbow and bicep, trying to drag me immediately.

"In a second," I warned Sally. "Hi Georgia; I hope you are staying safe," I greeted one of the few students to have remembered me from a year ago and actually been helpful.

"Are you and Sally together again; are you going out on a date?" Georgia inquired cautiously.

"Yes we are and we should be leaving now," Sally growled at Georgia insistently.

"We are going to walk the gardens and then Sally promises we'll leave the grounds for something special," I grinned.

"Bernadette?" Georgia seemed to shrink from Sally's furiously lustful glare. Bernadotte was the 'public' name of Regina Ravenrook.

"She's taken precautions," I pledged to Georgia as I lead Sally away before she began stripping in front of everyone, which she might have done before anyhow considering her overriding lustful madness. Sally settled for clinging tightly to me.

"I am going to do so many wonderful things to you," Sally purred into my ear. 

By the strumming of her heartstrings, I felt her capacity to hold back the impulses to rape me on the spot barely kept at bay. Before we got outside we pressed tightly together embracing multiple times. Her mental confusion let me work a little mischief unnoticed. Once we were outside at the entrance of the sculpted gardens, I broke us up, retaining a hold her hand.

"Let's just a walk and talk for a while," I requested with an insistent, dark undercurrent in my voice. Sally jerked as if I'd shocked her with an electric current, calmed herself, lowered her head and nodded. "What have you been going through while I went away?" I asked.

"Many things I've been ashamed of," Sally moped.

"Do you think you can get out from under the influence of the Twins?" I pressed her.

"It isn't that simple," Sally looked up at me with soulful eyes. "I want things now -- important things," she gulped. "It would be like living life without sight, or hearing."

"But you don't look happy," I countered.

"Oh," she giggled, "you don't understand. I see what people lust after and how I can please them, even if they are ignorant of their desires."

"What do I want?" I inquired.

"I -- I don't know," she shivered. "Your eyes are cold and pitiless -- inhuman."

"Why did you go out with me then?" I pushed.

"You are strong and...you can protect me from others who want to hurt me," she confessed partially. She was leading me into a trap were I expected to die. "Some want to take by pain and force what I would freely give."

"You never shied away from a little bit of pain Sally," I coaxed her along, "so we are talking about more than simply pinching and nibbling."

"Sometimes they want to kill me, Richard," she moaned. "No one will save me and sooner or later I'll seek out so much sensation I won't be able to defend myself. Can you defend me, Richard?"

"I can't if I'm dead," I taunted Sally. She looked down at the ground as we walked a little farther. "When did you start losing control and why haven't you tried to break free?"

"We have more power and freedom to do what we want," Sally promised.

"Yeah, like leading your former boyfriend out to be murdered?" I stated deadpan.

"Are you getting anything out of me dying, except making them happy -- not happy with you because I know they don't care for any of you -- but with themselves?" I mocked her. "How is that for freedom and power? You are afraid of them, face it."

"It isn't like that; we have a relationship," she started a decent job of pretending to cry.

Sally turned away in feigned-shame over her tears and rummaged through her pockets and purse.

"Looking for your phone?" I asked ruthlessly. "Oh, you seem to have seven text messages," I scrolled over her personal missives.

"Give that back!" Sally nearly screamed as she snatched up the phone but I failed to comply.

"Bring him," I quoted from her phone, "bring him now", "where are you?", "stop whatever you are doing -- BRING HIM NOW!", "Stop humping him, you cow, and bring him now," "You will pay for this unless he appears before us in ten minutes!"

"Oh God, they are going to kill me," Sally whimpered. "I am so dead." I tossed her the phone and sneered. "There is your freedom and power Sally." I shook my head. "You are afraid they are going to torture and /or kill you. Tell them I'm coming and warn them I'm going to skip their brand-spanking new little asses across the water like they are new bright shiny quarters."

Sally looked mortified so I retrieved her phone, sent off two messages -- the first one claiming I'd tied up and sat on Sally -- and the one concerning their 'brand-spanking new little asses'. I showed Sally each text so she knew I was taking the heat for pissing off the prissy little bitches before turning the phone over.

"Get back inside Sally," I directed. "Once I finish teaching these bitches another lesson I'll have to decide on whether I want to see you again -- I have one too many charity cases on my plate as it is. Now where are they waiting for me?"

"The Great Cleft," Sally murmured, still in shock.

The Cleft was one huge (12 foot tall) rock that was cleft in a 'V'. There were four other large boulders around and it was deep in the forest toward town. It actually was a pretty well-thought out place to murder someone. If I hadn't been the target of said crime I would have been willing to congratulate them on the choice.

The Fight

The cocky me wanted to jump like the Hulk into their midst and bellowed my challenge. The part of me with a functioning brain suggested I try and sneak up on them instead. Stunningly, I got pretty close before I encountered them and it was highly embarrassing. It didn't start with us launching diatribes about what we were here for -- them to kill me and me for non-virgin virgin pussy...not really.

Anyway this one foot tall little snit appeared racing along the forest floor, slashed at my calf and was gone before I could react. Fuck! That hurt. He had a pal coming at me from the front and three much larger cohorts moving through the dark underbrush. I took three more of these painful slashes before two things happened -- I realized I was being poisoned and I couldn't grab them with my hands.

Through the underbrush arrived two oily black wolves and a fuggly looking dwarf who morphed into some nine-foot tall poster-child for steroid abuse -- oddly enough, I think his breed is called a Spriggan. First, I had some gnats to squash. I drove my knife-like hands into the soil before reaching out with my 'darkness' sense (which I had no clue that I had or how it worked).

My sense of touch reached out for several feet around me and when the quick little fucks came within my radius, I snatched them up along a six foot column of earth and slammed the two into one with the result being something similar to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been out three weeks too long -- oh God, I had just directly murdered two sentient beings.

Three things occurred to me along with that thought; male ballet dancers shouldn't play rugby, my sinus cavity was being pressed into my brain by uber-dwarf and the two wolves were trying to remove an arm a piece. I vowed that if I got a chance at a second grand melee in this lifetime I would maintain my focus and concentration.

The dwarf/giant released my skull but only so his second fist could pummel me harder. I felt like I was going to die and it looked that way too so I lashed out with each wolf attached to my arm and clubbed the steroid-dwarf in the ribs. The cock sucker splintered the bark behind me as his next blow failed to connect. I still felt horrible; I felt so bad I vomited on the three creatures. They howled, screamed and whimpered as my foul sputum burnt away their flesh and bones in a horrifically acidic and malevolent display. For a moment there was silence.




The Witches of Ravenrook 03



"What did he just do?" Midnight asked her brunette twin Twilight. That didn't make me rejoice -- instead I thought, what gives, I had just unleashed something that could be read as 'lynch nuts momentarily' or 'launch nuclear missiles', and the experts didn't have a clue about which translation was right.

"We must stop playing around," commanded Eden, "and just kill him."

I wanted to scream out, "Bring it you deranged psycho schoolgirls," but they beat me to the punch - quite literally.

Eden and Paradise were engulfed by a mini-tornado, lifted me off the ground and blasted me with enough lightning to short-out any borough in New York -- oh fuck that hurt way more than the razor blade cuts those malicious gremlins gave me. Then I smashed into a big tree.

That blow left an indentation of my body in the tree I'd hit -- upside down -- which added to the joy when I fell face-first to the ground.

"Ouch," I groaned. I didn't have to wait long to feel what was coming next because my body burst into flame courtesy of Spring. As soon as she finished flash-frying me, Autumn dropped a glacier on my chest. It did put out the fire but the price tag was the breaking of half my bones.

Paradise decided that I need a bit more lightning in my life and supercharged the ice. I was rebuilding my body yet again; even as my sensation of touch returned from its pain-overload setting, I felt the ground move beneath my feet. A walking pile of boulders picked me up and proceeded to spike me like a football (American Rules).

This whole 'not dying and healing from all wounds' was appearing to be an unholy form of torture because the pain was way past indescribable. The fucker tossed me up in the air so that Paradise and Spring could use me as target practice. The resulting electric incineration was yet another thing in a long list of sufferings I never wanted to recall.

At the time I came to rest, I realized the vines, branches and bushes were wrapping me up and laid me gently on the leaf-carpeted ground. Regina knelt beside me with a quirky smile and helped me stand.

"Bernadotte -- Regina, whatever we call you; you were dumb to come here," Twilight called down from the group of freaky twins hovering close overhead. Their boulder-buddy was coming along at a lumbering pace. Five of the six lashed out with no more preamble than that. Regina fended off as much of the fury as she could through our link.

It hurt -- it hurt like mad but something inside me mumbled 'is this all they've got?'

"Is this all you've got?" I growled as their power drove me to my knees. My hands drove into the dirt, searching for rocks to throw because jumping when Eden appeared to control the wind seemed idiotic. Rocky got to me first, pummeling me hard with his right upper appendage.

I caught the blow and even though I was pushed three inches into the loam, I was in charge. I stepped inside its reach, twisted its arm and felt the enchantment holding its arm attached explode in sparks. I didn't hit the 'what I was later told was an Earth Elemental'. I had a gift for Eden and used the ape-like arm to swat the Wind-Sorceress to the ground.

The first thing to happen was the other five witches fell to the ground as Eden's concentration was broken. I raised the stone flyswatter and leapt on top of her. Once again I felt this sickening, boiling sensation inside and the urge to vomit pressing forward. Eden sensed something catastrophic was about to happen to her. She struggled madly but her strength was not remotely enough to make a break for freedom.

"Please," she sobbed in terror, "please don't do this to me." I so wanted to upchuck on her.

"Stay down and don't get up until this is over -- CLEAR!" I expelled my darkest rage and frustration with words instead. She nodded rapidly in agreement. As I stood up a lightning bolt blasted into another tree. Coils of water sprouted from the ground and pinned me to the living lumber.

Spring and Autumn battled Regina in a see-saw struggle that Regina, married with my power, seemed to be winning; a development that surprised the twins. Midnight was fixing her elemental and Twilight was weaving the watery restraints. That left Paradise alone to keep the pain coming and her best just wasn't enough.

Three rapid-fire blasts of electricity seared away my skin and painfully repairing muscles but I was now more than capable of keeping up with the wounds being inflicted. I moved my legs up against the tree, flexed my thighs and started to stress the tension inside the chains of water.

"I can't keep him down!" Twilight yelled out a warning to her coven-mates. 

I yanked up, whiplashing the fluid as if it was some kind of root system until two of the four ropes of water disintegrated into a massive spray of groundwater. The Boulder-Thing turned my way and took a first tentative step with its new limb.

BANG! A bullet scarred the ancient rock.

"Freeze, FBI!" shouted a woman from on top of the Cleft Rock.

She was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap with a blonde ponytail -- maybe late twenties, white t-shirt with the logo of the local mechanics shop, a green flight jacket and blue service slacks. She was also brandishing a 9 mm. Everyone had turned to look up at her but more like a carnival amusement than any respect for her kind of authority.

The Twins started gravitating toward Twilight so I went over and picked up Eden,

"Here you go," I said softly as I picked some leaves off her shirt and skirt, "Let's not have this discussion again tonight? Agreed?"

"Agreed," she whispered then sort of hung around staring up at me expectantly.

"Yes?" I questioned her near a whisper.

"Alright, I'm here for Regina Ravenrook but I need the rest of you to come down to the mechanic's lock-up for a trip to the mainland," the FBI woman stated.

"Do you require anything else of me?" Eden pressed against me expectantly.

"Tonight, my room at eleven-thirty," I kissed her and any attempt to conceal our words were pretty much undone by her skipping to her crowd with her tiny bit of happiness feeling like fireworks.

"Umm -- officer, that isn't happening for far too many insane reasons to mention but I can promise you that Regina's not leaving for the foreseeable future because any such attempt will kill her," I tried to explain.

"Don't make me shoot you young man," the Law Woman threatened. "I will if I have to."

"Take your best shot," I muttered. "Everybody else has."

"Show me some ID, agent," Regina called out then smiled at me, saying, "By the way, still tastes yummy." At least someone was getting some joy out of my sex life.

"It is the end of the road, Regina," the agent reiterated.

"As I recall one Special Agent Alyssa Monroe was indefinitely suspended by the Bureau after she kept pursuing some crazy case about covens of witches, supernatural magics and a witch who kills other witches to steal their power -- real insane stuff," Regina mocked her foe.

"Now I have proof," the former agent spat back.

"No you don't," Regina chided. "More to the point, the Wonder Twins aren't going to let you leave this island with any proof." Bored with the whole affair, Twilight and Midnight whispered a few words and the agent slumped to her knees then fell over on her side.

"Now that is over, can we get back to the killing?" Paradise regarded Regina and me.

"Sure; let me get the human woman out of the way and we can get back to it," I stated. It was an eerie détente that witnessed me jump up the twelve foot rock face to the 'former' FBI lady.

"You need to go," I insisted as she staggered back up. 

Her gun tracked to me but I didn't have time for many more word games. I grabbed her hands holding her gun and drew her forward in one fluid motion.

Predictably the gun went off and if she hadn't grabbed my hand I would have tumbled off the Cleft Rock. The gunshot was painful but by the time her eyes met mine, the wound was gone.

"Only non-humans can stay," I coughed over my damaged windpipe, "now please save your life and run away now." Right as I said that, I felt a twang in the undercurrent of magic across the island. I didn't know what the hell that was but all the Witches and Regina knew and Regina called out to me.

"The tomb!" she screamed, "someone is opening the tomb!" Tomb -- what tomb? The Tomb the Ravenrook's had placed the twin Witches in centuries ago? The one they had escaped from?

The six rose up about ten feet into the air and raced through the trees toward campus on a hurricane wind and toward to the old cemetery southwest of the practice fields. My own mind was racing.

"Do you have a car?" I shouted at the former agent.

"Yes but tell me what the hell is going on?" she shouted over the settling breeze.

"Someone innocent is going to die a gruesome death if we don't get there fast," Regina called up to us.

I hopped down, scooped Regina up, and returned to the woman's position.

"You are still under arrest, Regina," she snapped but she turned and sped down the far side of the rock and through some thick brush. We nearly plowed into her utility van as we ran after her. She raced around driver's side while I pushed Regina up in before me on the passenger's side. The old beast cranked to life and Monroe proceeded to drive pell-mell backwards down the track she'd driven up on.

We swung backwards on the sole road between the village and the campus, backing out toward the village before causing the tires to squeal as she reversed and accelerated, speeding us in the direction of campus and the graveyard on its far side. It was too much to hope we could get there before the six witches but Alyssa made it a close thing.

The cemetery was surrounded with eight-foot barbed wrought-iron fencing. The grounds, I knew, held the remains of every Headmistress, most of the Ravenrook family, numerous faculty, 15 students who died on the grounds over the past 123 years plus certain island residents who had died upon the rocks over an equally long time.

Of more immediate concern was this arcane granite slab monstrosity that bore down on the central Ravenrook crypt -- the graveyard's oldest and biggest structure. Eden was keeping everyone aloft while pummeling the crypt with wind borne headstones. Paradise and Spring directly attacked the heavy bronze doors that normally sealed the crypt, while Twilight's water tendrils slowly tore the ancient doors free.

The van's momentum blew open the cemetery gate then we skidded into a lesser crypt and stopped. Regina and I piled out and ran toward the fighting with no clear game plan or idea of who the person we were coming to help truly was. What was obvious was that Midnight's latest elemental had noticed us and that wasn't good. 

Even as we tried to dodge past the construct, a golden dome of light flared around the Ravenrook mausoleum, flared brighter then died down under the assault. We had to watch out for the attacking witches but we had to get to the defender of the crypt too. Strangely it was Alyssa who helped solve our dilemma. Without an ounce of bravado, the former government agent went to one knee, unleashing a cutting edge of 1970's US technology -- a LAW rocket. 

I didn't know if a graveyard golem had ever intersected with an armor-killing device before but the results were explosive -- she shattered that thing into a dozen pierces. I hugged Regina tightly and shielded her from the worst of the blast. Being the baddest-ass monster present, I recovered first, pressing up with one arm while hugging a clinging Regina to me.

One great leap brought me down one crypt short of the Ravenrook tomb.

"Work you away around and don't kill whomever we are here to save, damn it!" I insisted. Before I went back for the former-FBI agent Alyssa Monroe, I noted a slender forearm and hand sticking out from under an overturned obelisk.

As I scrambled to get to her; Summer, Eden and Twilight did their level best to rearrange my internal organs and bone structure. The scariest part was that the pain was becoming somewhat 'normal' for me, almost pleasurable. Daggers of darkness tore into Summer, causing her to scream and howl with rage. A golden network of light was woven in a Celtic design also appeared in an aegis over me. 

This gave me a chance to pull the obelisk off -- Paradise, who looked like her bones had been pulverized and her flesh squished. The way Paradise looked at me projected her fear at her predicament. Paradise couldn't possibly re-knit herself before I tore her to shreds.

"Eden!" I commanded. "Get down here right now!"

Beyond all reason, Eden immediately floated down beside me and the failing Golden shield. Eden had to duck when a phoenix of smoke and fire finished off the barrier. In the background the angry thunder of an automatic weapon was going off, most-likely keeping Midnight busy.

"Eden, you made a promise to me; you -- me -- eleven thirty tonight," I reminded her; she nodded. "Sit your ass down and let this fight work itself to a conclusion without you."

"Fix my sister please," Eden gently grabbed my arm. I was going to regret this. I poured some of my darkness into Paradise and helped her body repair itself. She rewarded me by pumping two lightning bolts worth of Nature's Wrath through my ribcage. My upward trajectory was halted by the downward arch of the Grave Golem's fist which face-planted me in a serious way.

Even as I pushed up, the whole ground around me froze with an icy, flesh-rending cold. A granite fist drove the razor-sharp grass into my body but the whoosh of a second LAW rocket was a welcome relief; how many of these weapons was the modern day witch-hunter bringing into the battle? The granite fist flew away and again the combat had a hiccup.

Before the chaos could clear up, Regina and I slid into the Ravenrook crypt. Regina began screaming loudly and writhing in agony while I felt a strong static electric charge. Georgia Norman made several intricate hand gestures and a fresh lattice of light appeared.

"Georgia," I whispered, "you are Shelby Ravenrook -- the true heir?"

"Yes and I need your help Richard," she panted. Clearly even with me and Regina she was in an uneven struggle.

"Fine," I began to get my wits about it. "Fix Regina and I'll keep them busy plus bring some more help."

"I'm not going to help her," Shelby/Georgia seethed back. "She murdered my mother and two of my great aunts."

"If you don't do it I'm taking Regina and leaving," I edged toward the door.

"But I'm your ally -- we are on the same side Richard, for generations," Shelby pleaded.

"We'll discuss this when I get back but Regina better be fixed," I growled before bounding out. My problem was all six witches were up and rampaging, trying to break through the crypt's wards and I had to get passed them and get Alyssa. I had zip in firearm vs. undead witch experience but tons of zombie movies had educated me on how tough a fight could be without the added excitement of the zombies throwing fire, electricity, ice, wind, walking parking lots and fire hoses gone berserk.

Eden caught sight of me and flew over to a nearby mausoleum and sat on the roof with her legs dangling off. This gap in the ring hemming us in allowed me to leap to Alyssa.

"I'll get you inside," I told her. As she clutched me I realized her van was a blazing wreck -- whoops. At least she had one final LAW just in case -- well in case of some even weirder shit happening.

"Eden!" Paradise screamed at her sister who really seemed ready to sit this one out. I rolled in mid-air so I took a plethora Autumn's ice shards tearing into my back, sheltering Alyssa. Several tendrils of flame passed close in front me. I prayed my time as an express pony was hopefully over for a while when I rolled back into the crypt.

Regina was no longer screaming but she looked to be the victim of an out of control sauna instead.

"What now?" I looked to Georgia/Shelby.

"I hoped that you and Regina would keep them busy long enough for me to peel back the Witches' mystic locks before they could get back here but they showed up too soon," Shelby sighed. 

"That didn't work -- next plan?" I said abruptly.

"We could try to lure the Six down there and take them on using the relics that imprisoned them there," Shelby tried next.

"If these things are of use, why don't we have them right now?" Alyssa seemed on the tipping point of her sanity at the moment.

"Well, if I have the legend right, only you and my cousin Shelby can use them and only one of the items are an actual weapon anyway," Regina snorted derisively. Outside the thunderbolts and lighting ceased.

"Richard, we need to go now," Shelby insistently yanked on my arm. With my free arm I hustled Regina and Alyssa along ahead of me too for what felt like minutes.

"How is this going to make things better?" Regina spat. "Now we'll be in a big chamber and they will kill us all down here." Shelby's answer was short-circuited by our entrance into a big (as big as a 400 person cafeteria) sea cave with seven sarcophagi laid out near where the ocean surges crested. Light came from the photo-luminescence of the sea algae and from slime living on the dripping stalactites.

Shelby led the way toward the stone coffins, six of which had serious fissures on their lids. The seventh was untouched. On the first one she touched was some sort of scabbarded blade. She drew forth the flawless blade and tossed me the blade and baldric. Stunningly I caught them both without cutting off my fingers.

"It is an English Mortuary Sword -- that's the style of the blade -- that was borne by the ship's captain that delivered the witches to this prison," Shelby told me. "Now pierce the heart of each of the Black Witches and they will fall into an enchanted stasis then I can imprison them once more."

"Wait! What the fuck? And how do you know I can do any of that?" I gawked.

"You are a Vandemeyer," Shelby explained. "That's why we've been admitting you and your ancestors all these years -- we knew the witches would break free and we needed someone who would be here or who we would bring in if needed."

"What's wrong with him?" Regina pried.

"Why have those crazy girls upstairs stopped?" Alyssa sounded suddenly calmer, like a doomed soul facing a firing squad. "Why don't they come in guns blazing?"

"They might bring the roof down on us and there is no equipment on the island for digging up the cavern and destroying the six sacred relics and thus being safe," Shelby sighed and tried to propel me back toward the stairs that led us here.

"Richard -- all the Vandemeyer men since 1779 have been under a death curse but the first's mother fed her son corpse milk so he survived when he shouldn't have and this allows all who followed to forestall their doom though it eventually overwhelms you all," Shelby explained somewhat exasperated.

"Oh, you are fucking kidding me," Regina giggled. She had learned more about me in one day than Shelby had figured out in a year. "You mean none of his ancestors are actually dead yet?"

Light started coming down the stairs; we were running out of time.

"Shelby?" I inquired.

"Not really," Shelby hastily said. "They are trapped between life and the afterlife, at the edge of Oblivion." I was righteously pissed as Regina knew I would be. I stalked up to the stair-entrance and nearly ran over Twilight. She blanched which was tough to do with her pale complexion as her eyes fell on the perilous blade.

"Come on in ladies; if you don't start something, I won't feel forced to finish it," I promised them with my temper on edge.

"Richard?" Shelby called to me. "What's going on?"

"They can feel it Shelby, the passage of time, when they are imprisoned," I turned to her giving Twilight a clear opening to attack me.

"So what; there is no alternative to our solution," Shelby pleaded.




The Witches of Ravenrook 03



"You fight them every day -- you work to keep them in check, damn it," I told her and was unwittingly surrounded by the 'Enemy' witches who seemed pretty willing to let me talk.

"They will only get stronger Richard," Shelby tried again. "They can't be beaten -- eventually they would wear every opposition down."

"Can anyone tell me where my dead -- not dead ancestors are right now?" I was trying to figure out some coherent, workable plan.

"Is everyone totally nuts here?" Alyssa spoke up.

"Yes, yes we are," I confirmed. "These six are immortal undead Frankenstein monsters who wield dark magic. Yes they are three sets of twins and they regularly mind control people. Regina is apparently a cousin of Shelby here and according to you and Shelby, she's a serial killer of witches...and she's the longest, continuous ally I have."

"Check," was all Alyssa answered with.

"Give us the two Ravenrooks," Eden offered. "You can keep the human and we'll pledge not to try and harm you save in self-defense."

"Don't confuse the matter," I chided her. "Tonight -- 11:30 -- my room," and her face nearly cracked from the attempted smile.

"I'm not going to kill anyone else today but I'm presently possessing such a dim view of both the Dark and Light-sides that I'm still open to killing someone tomorrow," I challenged everyone in the room. "The only person who doesn't deserve some level of my hate is former Special Agent of the FBI Alyssa Monroe...but we've just met."

"My desire to do the right thing is at war with my perverse desire to kill everything around me brought on by some Death Curse someone put on my family over two hundred years ago," I snarled. "What do they go through if they are not truly dead -- my family -- my Dad?"

There was a hush until Midnight stood forward and touched my shoulder.

"We cannot see them," she indicated her five sisters, "but most likely they are all around you Richard, giving you their strength and experience in order to keep you alive until Fate claims you as it does all mortal things -- thus you are both immortal creature of darkness and mortal man of light."

"That was well said," I whispered only because to talk normally for me right then was to scream.

"We did not curse you, Richard, but we knew we would need you to save the human world from a great evil," Shelby added. "Your ancestors were already heroic when our paths crossed."

"Did you ask us? Any of us?" I turned to her and growled.

"What would we have told your ancestors? 'Sorry, we know your family is suffering for not being able to pass on to their just afterlife but we need you for a struggle you cannot perceive and can only peripherally understand'?" Shelby pointed out to me.

"Fuck you for making too much sense," I was finally feeling the end of my patience.

"On that note, I'm going upstairs and then to my room and I'm going to fuck somebody," I announced. "I know who is first on the list and I'm going to delve with her into the one part of my life experience you all have not managed to totally screw over. Good night."

Regina was the first one to figure out that remaining behind was bad for her survival ethic so she actually elbowed some of the twins aside in order to keep up. I could hear Shelby dragging Alyssa along behind them.

"My van has been blown up," Alyssa touched base with reality.

"We are witches," Regina groaned in annoyance, "we'll fix it for you." 

I was still thinking that when I emerged with the witches back onto the surface where they formed a semi-circle around me facing the still impressive Ravenrook mausoleum.

"We are not sure why, Richard, but -- thank you," Paradise stated.

"I didn't do anything, you Evil Twins -- we are still at war," I shrugged.

"You equated your own curse and the doom of your ancestors to what we have gone through. Like you, we did not know of your curse until just now, but you are right to have sympathy with our plight and we should hold you in the same regard -- sympathetic to your status with life beyond death," as Midnight picked up their argument.

"Are there any 'good guys' here?" Alyssa inquired as she caught up with the discussions.

"I'm a human powered by dozens or even hundreds of my dead ancestors," I met her gaze, "Regina is my closest friend because, while deceptive, she's never lied to me nor made decisions against my presumed best interest."

"Shelby Ravenrook aka Georgia Norman here is a White Witch with some sort of witch's coven helping her, dedicated to the powers of Light," I pointed out. "She and her ancestors have been keeping me and my ancestors on a tight leash to unwittingly be used as hounds against Group One. She's not on my 'friends' list at the moment."

"What about me and Regina? She has multiple deaths to answer for including my mentor's?" Alyssa continued.

"Get her in four years when she graduates or when she leaves the island if sooner," I offered. "I won't get in your way but I owe her enough to give Regina a head start."

"Everyone who has trusted her is dead," Alyssa cautioned me.

"She's been pretty honest about that as well Ms. Monroe," I sighed. "Now I'm going home, taking off...what exactly am I wearing now anyway?"

"Burnt fabric, fallen leaves, dead vines, and bark compressed into something that keeps this misadventure from becoming X-rated," Regina teased me.

"When I dispel the enchantment, it will turn to dust," she added.

"Thanks," I nodded. "I'll scrape it off in the shower if you don't mind. Now, as I was saying, I'm going to strip, take a shower, go back to bed and then I'm going to fuck some girl so hard I'm going to permanently adjust her speech patterns." There was a hush then I turned and walked past the witches and toward the gate that hung loosely open after the van had crashed through them, leaving the cemetery and heading to campus.

"Oh, and fix Alyssa's van first -- and don't kill each other until daybreak," I said over my shoulder. By some miracle, the truce held too.

Evil Witches; can't have just one

I washed a double-handful of crap out of my hair on the road to cleanliness. I didn't know what Tower Services was going to think of the mess I had made of the showers down the hall with their rattling pipes but I was somewhat passed caring. I was finishing drying my hair off when Regina, from her side of the room, called out.

"Two vicious Undead Evil Beings at the door," she said. I swung out of bed, cinched my towel around my waist and took the few steps necessary to open the door. Eden and Paradise, dressed in long white nightshirts, stood waiting but then Paradise edged passed me followed by Eden.

"Okay, this is not happening," I laid down the law. "My bed doesn't hold three and I'm not up to going at you two in tandem."

In their eerie twin-ness, they looked at each other, then at my bed. Paradise touched the post at the foot of the bed, Eden touched the head post and they pulled the bed toward us and the door. The bed stretched longer and longer until it was king-sized.

"Wait, we can't fit this..." I began. The room had grown bigger too and Regina was laughing at me.

"Of course the room got bigger, Richard. We are witches -- okay, they are better at this than me, but essentially creating folds in space and stretching objects is only moderately advanced," Regina explained. I almost said something stupid like 'why didn't we do this last night' but that was really a whole different world back then.

"Eden," I took her gently by the base of the neck in both hands before pushing her gown pasted her shoulders and let it drop to the ground. "Get under the covers and to the middle of the bed," I directed. "Paradise, you can sit at the foot of the bed, but no interfering -- or trying to kill anyone, okay?" Paradise shifted out of her gown as well but did take her place at the bottom of the mattress.

Eden sat in the middle of the bed, trying to stare up at the ceiling but nervously tracking me as I came close. That look was tragic -- a phantom in a human suit with little in the way of an emotional clue of what was to come.

"Stretch out your arms," I requested of her softly. I pulled my towel aside and settled into a push-up position over her. "Now close your eyes."

I was leaning in for her first kiss when I saw her lips pucker up clumsily. I knew what was going on.

"Paradise, no peaking from you either," I demanded. While I imagined it was not true remote viewing, Paradise was cluing her twin in on what was about to happen; upsetting my plans. 

I returned to kissing Eden on the right cheek then around her face in a slow gentle progression. She made this little mewling noise as I started kissing and licking her neck and that was when I realized it was the conductivity that was magnifying what excited her. I returned to her face and, sure enough, her hips began to gyrate in tiny movements beneath me and her breathing picked up.

"Let me know how you feel," I breathed upon dampened jugular.

"It's hot -- cold -- I don't know," she choked off her response. "I feel and hear my pulse but now it truly sings to me in a voice I have never heard before Richard." A few more licks and kisses and Eden had spread her legs open, encompassed me and were massaging each of my calves from the outside with her heels.

"Paradise, I need some water -- a big drink of water if I'm going to keep this up," I requested.

"Just ask the other four undead freaks at the door; the eavesdropping little mutants," Regina piped up. I ignored her, initiated my first French kiss with Eden instead. While so engaged, a terribly pale and naked Paradise exited the room, letting in her sisters, and proceeded to conjure some water up from somewhere.

I worked my lips past her shoulder for a second time when Eden wiggled up beneath me, guiding my hungry mouth to her right nipple that my hand had been playing with. Her mewling wasn't at all subdued this time, her bald pussy was welcoming and incredibly moist.

Rhetorically I asked, "Are you enjoying yourself Eden?"

"Yes, yes, yes," she shrilly exclaimed then added her own kind of insanity, "but I can't figure out how to drain a living person's life force to duplicate this passion you are evoking inside of me." Sigh, the wackiness of death magic.

"Give me a chance to pleasure you Eden," I headed her off. "No soul sucking until we've exhausted every other venue please."

"I'm not sure of why," Eden started panting as I took her left breast fully into my mouth and twirled the areola with my tongue, "but your happiness is important to me. I will -- I will try to do so if you keep treating me like this." I stuck two fingers into her virginal slit and wiggled them around. "OR THAT," her voice lilted, "definitely treat me like that!"

The other girls had come in and after some sort of occult rigmarole; they had sat down on the floor beside the bed, heads barely in view. Twilight and Midnight began stimulate one another calling upon sympathetic memories from earlier today. I welcomed the still naked Paradise slipping back into the room with us and the offered a tall bronze drinking horn that came from Gods know where but it was water so I drank it.

I was going to be doing a lot of salivating tonight, not to mention sweating and ejaculating, so I needed to stay as hydrated I could get. I moved back to the top of Eden and a heavy session of dry-humping began. The plan I was still working out in my head took shape when Eden spoke.

"He wants us to become naked," her voice took on a joyous noise that truly appeared to disturb her companions. It didn't stop them from getting naked, that much was sure.

I slipped my cock straight into Eden's vagina in a patient, steady progression that nearly caused her eyes to bug out of her head.

"Don't stop doing this," she whispered to me. Her hands rested on each shoulder, keeping a steady distance between our chests while her legs were dancing around, trying to figure out the best way to drive my pelvis deeper into hers.

"Please, I don't understand any of this but don't stop -- please," she went on softly. Only with the aid of my dark aura was I peripherally aware that all the other girls had their eyes glued on us; the five of the Six didn't move -- didn't blink, while Regina took notes on the whole arcane interaction.

I experimented with various depths and rhythms but everything seemed to drive her wilder and more vocal and that was turning me on too. Three strong thrusts and I suddenly ejaculated all over her sterile womb. I willed some unknowable part of myself into her as well. Eden let out a piercing high note of operatic proportions...and held it and held it.

When she finally ran out of breath her body, that had held me in a vise-like grip, collapsed in exhaustion beneath me. I almost reflexively smacked Paradise in the face, the other blonde twin had come at me so fast to be at her sister's side. Even then her slight, slender hands tried to push me away. I graciously rolled to Eden's far side and let Paradise join us.

"Sister," Paradise's voice had a haunted quality that made me believe she'd lost her telepathic bond with her twin. Eden's eyes fluttered open when she heard Paradise's voice but he eyes remained unfocused and staring upwards. A tiny ball of dark energy snuck up behind me and it took me a moment to realize that Regina was trying to make contact.

When I let that piece of energy enter me a babble of tiny faint echoes came to my mind plus the firmer voices of the Twins. The tiny whispers disturbed them because they couldn't pinpoint it though they knew Eden was the source.

'They are the voices of all the people she was created from, those fractions of life left after those beings had died.'

My first thoughts were 'who said that' then 'how did I know that' and finally, in a very Regina-like voice 'it is your ancestors, moron'.

"I'm fine Sister," Eden recognized her sister and patted her hand.

"How do you feel? Your voice became so loud and," Paradise murmured, "life-like."

"Nothing exists in this realm without the spark or memory of life and we have thought we possessed neither -- making us totally alone," Autumn spoke up. "Eden has discovered her mortal thread." I have never heard of a guy making a girl do that before -- tons of other things have been claimed, but this was a new one as far as my knowledge went.

"I feel...I feel like I want Richard in me again," Eden perked up, grabbed my arm by reaching across her body and tried to pull me on top of her again.

"No, stop," I insisted. "Unlike the rest of you, I can't conjure up good grades and I'm still taking classes."

All seven women stared at me like I had spoken Swahili.

"I need to sleep, get up early and get some of the classwork done I didn't get done tonight," I explained.

"You are serious," Regina sounded shocked. The rest were equally unsure what I 'really' meant by my statement.

"After all that has happened in the past 24 hours you still plan to live a mundane existence? Richard, the witches went nuts tonight -- I've never seen so much magic used in any one incident and we had two such bizarre occurrences in one night," Regina informed me. "Creatures are going to notice."

I dropped my head onto Eden's shoulder and started to sob. There was no end to my insanity and even death wouldn't bring me peace apparently. Eden kept trying to edge her nipple up to my mouth somewhat surreptitiously. I should have recalled; the Six didn't know compassion; it wasn't in them to give.

Eden stopped moving her body and put her free hand onto my head and patted it.

"It's okay Richard," Eden soothed me. "We can stop for tonight." I didn't even know where to start not understanding that gesture. I was far from alone as even Eden seemed taken aback by her kindness. "Please Paradise," she beseeched her twin, "let him rest."

The mental tumult between the Witches grew, crested then subsided. They didn't understand Eden's 'human' impulse but knew it wasn't done out of deception, greed or lust.

"Can I stay?" Eden requested gently.

"Sure, if you promise to not try to kill Regina until after breakfast," I replied.

"Done," she kissed my hair. "Can Paradise stay with us? I can't sleep without her."

"Deal, but she makes the same pledge," I answered. Paradise hesitated nearly a minute.

"Done," Paradise agreed. Eden crawled over me and I was soon wedged between her and Paradise.

Eden settled naturally into the crux of my arm and shoulder but for Paradise it was more of an exercise in mimicking her sister's actions until she got it 'right'.

'Richard, next time make them promise not to kill you too,' Regina thought my way.

'Thanks Regina, I knew I had forgotten something. Good night,' I sent back over the link and if she replied I was too asleep to hear.



The Witches of Ravenrook 04



*Purity is the skeleton we hang our sins upon*

Thanks to Shawhollow for editing the first half of this story - I forgot to send him the second half. Thanks to Talonwolf for helping with the idea.

(One month later)

I stood on the main roof ridge that ran down the length of the school. Thanks to the founder's flair for the exaggerated, I was over ninety feet above the rather rocky ground. I had the enchanted (I hoped) Mortuary Sword pointed in the correct direction with a stance that was, according to the internet, supposed to be the proper one.

Eden stood about ten feet away, farther down the ridge with a matching blade and a smile on her face. I would have been more worried about the smile except I had placed that there after some accidental contact climbing up the ladder to the highest attic had led to some serious making out and given her that facial signal of pleasure.

"Why do we keep doing this?" I shouted over the brisk breeze that constantly tried to pull me into a possibly fatal plunge.

"Because you need to know how to use a gentleman's blade, we needed some privacy to practice violence, space which this place provides, you won't leave Regina alone on campus and finally because I excel in enchantments of the wind which can save us both should we tumble down," Eden kept that eerie, yet familiar smile.

"Besides, I'm the one facing a sword meant to bind my essence in torpor; you will most likely survive a fall with a horrible mangling," Eden winked, "but don't worry about that - I'll catch you."

"Fine, this is my fault," I grumbled. "Give me a kiss for luck?" Eden walked carefully along the roof ridge to me, the lack of wind whipping at her skirt reminding me of her mastery of the air.

She used the flat of her blade to turn mine aside and stood before me. I wrapped an arm around her waist with my left arm, pulled her tight and kissed her lips. In the past month all the Witches had learned the sacred art of giving the appropriate kiss and Eden didn't disappoint me. She eventually smiled once more then back-stepped to her starting position.

"En garde!" I shouted and precarious battle was joined. I was by far the better combatant; a gift from my many ancestors no doubt. Our environment balanced us out somewhat; I took three spills down to the iron gutters that saved me a near-fatal fall and she stabbed me five times. I got even though – I cut her skirt off her body in three strokes. I had to place my hand on the hip so she could transfer the energy to heal her one wound that ran deep.

"There you are, damn it!" Regina yelled at me as she came up through the attic hatch. "For the love of all that's Arcane, Richard, would you stop making it so easy for these bitches to kill you?"

"What gave me away?" I sighed.

"Paradise is down on the 6th floor, pacing back and forth generating so much static electricity that dust bunnies are starting to stampede around her," Regina mocked.

"Where are the others?" I teased.

"Yeah, like I have the magical energy to keep track of any of the four just to have them block my divinations," Regina shouted over the wind from the attic entryway. Unlike Eden and me, Regina couldn't survive the fall nor fly and Eden was unlikely to spare the effort to save – both being dark witches didn't imply any sort of sisterhood.

In fact, there were tiny fissures in the relationship amongst the three sets of twins. Eden appeared truly to like me while Paradise was conflicted between powerful, raw and angry sex and simply being angry with me. Midnight was all into love-making; slow caresses, kissing and making the moment last while Twilight was driven by deep eye contact and matching intensity.

Outside the bedroom, Midnight was a coequal and, if not kind, at least considerate of me. Twilight treated me like a moronic one-trick pony and constantly was annoyed by my lack of an occult education. Spring was easy; she constantly advocated for the removal of my brain except for the motor cortex; she liked the sex - especially scarring me with fingernails and threads of fire (Ow!).

Autumn, aka Ice Maiden, had settled into being a passive lover and making me work for every orgasm but she paid me back by being patient and not condescending when I either missed, or didn't know, key pieces of information. So basically, I could count on Eden and Autumn to keep me alive and Spring, Twilight, and Paradise to want me dead – brain dead anyway. Midnight would remain indifferent.

"Let's go down," I sighed. "I wouldn't want Paradise's erratic electrical dust bunnies curling the hairs of some poor co-ed." Regina snorted while Eden floated to my side - show off. I sheathed my blade, wrapped an arm around and walked the balance beam style edge. Regina crawled out of sight and when she was clear, I followed suit.

I caught Eden studying me oddly, or more oddly than the soulless monster usually did, and she was searching the right words to some question.

"Do you think – if it is possible – we could have children together?" she inquired. My hands went numb and slipped from the ladder rung, my mind blanked out and we fell.

At the last second I had enough sense to rotate so that I landed on my back and Eden landed on top of me. Regina was conjuring a dagger of smoke and shadow in a flash.

"Richard, what did she do to you?" Regina seethed with menace toward Eden.

"I asked him if we could have children together," Eden answered for me.

"You freakish Undead Nitwit," Regina grumbled. "We don't even know if you have wombs, but that doesn't matter because you don't have souls so there is no anchor for a child's soul to latch on to."

"But, if we could overcome that, would Richard want to lend his energy and – genetic material – for us to have offspring?" Eden persisted.

"I – um," I stammered as I helped us up. Eden kept looking for an answer. Her lower lip trembled slightly, her resolved cracked and then the tears started coming.

"I'm sorry," Eden blubbered, "I thought..."

"Wait and listen please," I called out as Eden ran for the attic stairs leading down.

"I'm a monster – I know it," she sobbed. 'Ah fuck'.

"No, that's not it," I walked her way. She moved a few steps farther away as I tried to get to her side. She finally relented but I could tell she'd been kicked emotionally in a place she didn't even know she had.

"Eden, I'm afraid of passing on my curse to another generation of Vandemeyer men," I looked into her red-rimmed eyes. "It isn't you, it is me," I said the words that were the death knell of far too many relationships but here I was saying them.

"So if you and I were sure the child would be a daughter, you would consent?" Eden hiccupped.

"I don't know," I tried to look concerned, "It would require lots of lots of hot steamy sex and I'm not sure you are up for it."

"I'm adamant about this Richard," Eden looked fiercely serious.

"I would need to give this careful consideration but for now I'll say 'yes'," I replied.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Oh Goddess," Regina groaned and rolled her eyes.

"There are hundreds of thousands of parents who are monsters and don't acknowledge it. At least any offspring of ours will have that up on the rest of the world," I pointed out.

"I was raised by two warm, loving people and look how I turned out," Regina countered. Regina's inspiration for murder was being a 'normal' girl in an extended family of witches.

"Parents can't make you perfect but they can fuck you up royally," I said as we went down the stairs

When we got down to the sixth level, Paradise was waiting. She looked balefully at me and Regina and annoyed with Eden. Eden short-circuited a rebuke by running up to her sister.

"He said yes," Eden grinned.

"I know Sister," Paradise lectured, "I felt bombarded by your heart leaping with – joy."

"Yeah, that would be a positive passion your tiny little, lump-of-coal heart wouldn't understand, Lich-witch," Regina taunted her rival.

"He's not always going to be there to protect you Regina," Paradise threatened.

"So," I changed the subject, "who wants to be in the school play?" Paradise and Eden looked at me as if I had just switched to speaking in Dorian Greek.

"Oh, come on," Regina tapped my elbow, "You can play the Devil – you are a natural." At this point and time some sexual banter and innuendo would arrive but the twins fell flat and Regina was clearly not up further bearding the lionesses in less than well-traveled paths.

"He's the new teacher with a new play for us to take a crack at," I shrugged. "I might audition and see if participating fits into my class schedule."

"So, what is the Witches of Eastwick about?" Eden inquired. Paradise shook her head in dismay at her sister's continuing efforts to create her humanity on such sterile ground. The rest of us looked around only to find no one had the answer.

"Let's ask Shelby," I suggested. "She tends to know stuff like this."

"Are you implying the rest of us don't study?" Paradise accused me.

"Yes – yes that is pretty much what I've implied," I replied. "After all, I caught you and Midnight conjuring up some brain leeches to use on Ms. Turnblatt – not cool."

"The talentless read books – the powerful draw knowledge form the source," Paradise snapped back.

"Paradise, I'm still waiting for you to e-mail me that formula," Regina grinned hopefully.

"Come on now," I sighed, "when you drain the knowledge from somebody they lose it forever and that is devastating if you are an educator. Besides you are only getting the teachers opinions."

"When I read the book all I'm getting the author's opinions," Paradise countered. I had no pat answer for that argument.

"You've promised not to steal bodies and body parts," I tried. "Destroying her memory counts as a part of her being."

"Blah," scoffed Paradise. "What you really mean is that you will pummel me if I do this."

"No," I said after a deep breath. "No more. If I can't argue the peaceful course of action, I'm going to sit back and let karma take its course, Paradise, I swear."

"You are lying," Paradise growled.

"No..." I reached out and patted Eden's tummy, "I'm certainly not going to be beating Eden up and you are her twin sister – any trauma you go through will transfer into Eden, so I can't think like that anymore."

"You really believe she can do it," Paradise paled fearfully (which was hard for her wane complexion), "you really think she has a chance – why?"

"Of course I hold out a small hope," I explained. "By Shelby's explanation you six are some of the toughest witches in New England, I'm a freak beyond natural reason, Regina is one of the most creative magical types any of you have seen, life magic is Shelby's purview and Alyssa Monroe can tell us all kinds of medical labs we can go to get all kinds of reproductive help."

There was a long silence before Eden grappled with my right arm and began weeping. The weeping, plus my declaration, seemed to put Paradise in a whirlwind of conflicting emotion. Her sister was so happy she was crying and Paradise's mind with its atrophied receptors for positive emotional input was causing her to jerk and flutter.

"This is the part of the play were the Vandemeyer male mocks those who are burning him at the stake?" Regina laughed. "We keep forgetting you are stupidly unafraid of death."

"I don't need to be afraid Regina," I steered Eden for the stairs, "I know you've got my back." The other two women glided along beside us as we trundled down to the 1st level for a late afternoon snack.

I check the school on-line site for the drama sign-up. I was far from the only male applicant for the five male roles. I could only convince Regina to give the play a shot as well. We were passing the Central Library's main door when a voice called my name.

"ello Richard," flowed forth this refined, feminine London accent that I knew well.

"Lady Everest Marlowe," I turned and did a half-bow. It took me a second to realize that the only one happy and stress-free was me. My witches glared at Everest and she had this frozen smile aimed their way.

"Who is this – woman?" Eden dug her fingernails deeper into my shirtsleeve.

"Lady Everest was the daughter of my host and mentor at the School of Economics last semester," I clarified. "She was my guide around town and they pretty much treated me like family."

"She's a witch," Regina enlightened me. "Now what are the odds of that being a coincidence?"

"I'm not a pathetic little witch, scrawling on cave walls and tree bark in order to invoke some infantile cantrip – I'm a Theran," Marlowe declared.

What the fuck? What was the fuck was a Theran and what was that ego trip running down the women I knew? Hell, Everest had always been kind to me – treating me like family. 

The girls were not impressed by Everest's proclamation. In fact, it really seemed to piss them off.

"Let's see what will be scrawled on the tree bark once you step beyond the school bounds, you malevolent corpse-weevil," Paradise hissed. 

Wow, what does one have to do to an undead witch to rate the term 'corpse-weevil? Everest shifted her weight onto left hip and placed her other hand on the hip there meaningfully. I knew this one.

"Okay girls – remember, I can't see shit," I whispered.

"Oh please, Lilith, Mother of Monsters give us strength of will amongst the witless," Paradise said before weaving a secretive enchantment over my senses.

"Oh Hell's Belles," I groaned. I had thought Everest had a wand or something. Lady Marlowe had on an elaborate set of forest green armor inlayed with gold, some sort of pistol-like object on her right hip, half-made of glass and a medieval style sword sheathed on her left hip.

"Everest, do you normally go about so armed and dangerous?" I questioned.

"Don't worry about this little SNAFU, dear Richard," Everest patted my left bicep and causing Regina to flinch back. "I'm not here for you; quite the opposite, you'll see."

"You should leave this school," Eden growled, "before we make you leave."

"Everest, these are my school friends if you want to get at them you will have to go through me," I stated in the nicest way possible.

"Eden, Paradise and Regina, Lady Marlowe was a good friend to me in England. Our relationship was platonic but she took me to her London flat and her father's country home and a cottage they had in Northern Scotland," I declared. "Can't there be peace?"

"Does it occur to you 'dumb Richard', that Marlowe may have known what you are?" Paradise snipped.

"Of course I know what Richard is," Everest surprised me. "His Mother is an ancestral ally of my household."

"Wait – what – Richard is half-Theran?" Eden perked up with renewed hope.

"Whoa, what's a Theran?" I sputtered. "My Mom died in a car wreck when I was ten for those who don't know it yet. My Father and I buried her and did everything else that goes with a funeral."

"So that she still exists must be excellent news," Eden smiled up at me and pulled me in for a kiss. "Mythological, Therans are known as Atlanteans – Thera being the island that held the city of Atlantis."

"So suddenly my Mom is/was an Atlantean? No way in hell – certainly she could have told me something before she died," I shook my head. "You just fucking with my head, aren't you?"

"Richard, I'm not messing with you – over that. Father and I wanted to see matters work out differently here but we could hardly keep you without causing a stir – your Mom still being alive and all."

"My Mom can't be an Atlantean – she's from Westchester for the love of God!" I nearly screamed. "Take it as fact – they don't like immigrants in Westchester and by immigrant I mean anyone not in the US before 1800?"

"Of course she is still alive," Marlowe pampered my confusion. "Therans are highly spiritual and are essentially immortal. Even half-Therans are long lived."

"What? Is everyone freaking immortal now, damn it!" I was getting way off my center.

"I'm not immortal," Regina smirked. "In about twenty years you will be facing your Maker too."

"Thanks for putting me on an even keel," I growled to Regina.

"I'm not sure about that," Everest hinted. "His Mother's quest for that answer to Richard's – dilemma - is what drew my Father's notice."

"He's ours," Eden snapped. Paradise stood close by her sister, showing her support.

"How about you telling us what you are doing on this side of the Atlantic?" Regina patted my lower back to reassure me.

"Nothing I want to discuss in front of those not of the spirit," Everest informed them. "Richard, we can talk over dinner, or maybe, afterwards?"

"The Six are under my protection," I bluffed, "and Regina goes where I go."

"We are not under your protection," Paradise hissed. "At best we are unsteady allies."

"That's right you Nutty Nim-nuts," Regina gave a dry chuckle, "he was only trying to offer you some help against a freaking Theran. Good luck going it alone."

"Interesting," Everest remarked, "I'm going to the theater to check things out. Richard can tag along if he likes but the rest of you are inconvenient distractions."

"Thanks Lady Marlowe," I said carefully; I would have liked to let the anger take over but something was telling me that my English friend was only showing the placid surface of a very deep lake,

"But I feel obliged to stay with my current company."

"Of course Richard," Everest sounded incredibly polite without being condescending though the looks she shared with the other witches was without the warmth she shared with me.

(Dinner Talk)

Gathering all six of 'my' witches was normally difficult but Eden and Twilight were surprisingly supportive. I concentrated on getting Shelby Ravenrook to sit down with seven dark witches including the one, Regina, who killed her mother. She came the moment I broke down and mentioned the word 'Theran', then she was eager – over eager as it turned out because there was already another Theran on the island; one the rest of us didn't even realize we knew about.

"Listen, I can't believe I'm asking this because I still feel it is my duty here to keep the six of you from killing and abusing Regina, Shelby and the human inhabitants, but what are you eight going to do about Marlowe?" I started off our conversation.

"Therans aren't – necessarily – more powerful than true witches," Midnight lectured, "but they can be hundreds if not thousands of years old. 

"That's a lot of magical lore they could have absorbed. Also, they are all born 'in-between' – you know, the region where your ancestors and other bound by your curse, are trapped. This allows all true Therans to freely travel between worlds with a thought. Half-Therans can't do it innately but they have a talent for Apportations," Midnight concluded.

"Translation; the Six can take Ms. Marlowe," Regina explained, "but that doesn't tell us why she's here."

"And we do need to know," Shelby grudgingly agreed with her Mother's murder. "I'll send to my coven to get more information on her."

"Well, are there other tombs besides the one for the Six? I have the Mortuary Blade and Alyssa has the Grimoire, but the other four remain down there, right?" I questioned.

"There is the Seventh Tomb," Midnight stared at Shelby. "Who is in it?" Shelby seemed evasive but the rest of us were intense.

"I don't know everything but the 13th member of the coven volunteered to be the anchored to the sight to keep the rest of you trapped," Shelby became defensive. There was a moment of contemplative silence.

"You mean the female Abenaki shaman," Regina said.

I was getting a feeling for how Shelby's buddies operated and what terms they misused.

"When you say volunteered you really mean she got suckered into the deal, right?" I quizzed Shelby.

"I wasn't quite like that," she sniffed, "it was because she was the oldest and her people were failing so she was the natural choice."




The Witches of Ravenrook 04



"Unless she was a Theran, you Nut," Regina grumbled. "You did know she was a Theran, didn't you?"

"Well...not initially," Shelby looked embarrassed. "She deceived us to her true nature so our deception toward her made more sense. When she tried to make contact beyond the tomb, we realized our mistake."

"Since you clearly didn't let her go, what did the thirteen of you do?" I glared at Shelby.

"We couldn't kill her – that would have been unjust...so we tapped into her spiritual form and siphoned off her healing powers into the Six," Shelby related. "That would keep her weak and we didn't think giving the Six back their forms would disrupt things that much."

"And the past year when the Six haven't been around in their crypt to be regenerated, where do you think all that siphoned energy has gone?" I drilled the question home.

"I don't know," joked Regina. "I'd find some jack-ass of a half-Theran just wandering around campus and put some subliminal suggestions into his head before he was lured to – say London, where two Therans just happen to be hanging around."

"So she's here to release the 13th Witch? Or kill her?" Spring posed to the rest of us.

"She'd have to break the seal," Shelby volunteered, "and that wouldn't be easy."

"What are we talking about? An old scroll, a coven...what?" I asked.

"There is a thirteenth century enchanted German chisel and hammer that can open most tombs," Twilight offered.

"Osteophyte's Tombs and Wards might have something," Regina put out there.

"Well, how did the six of you defeat the similar design," I queried. 

"We drew on the residual energy of you to complete ourselves. Once our bodies were complete we dismantled the wards from within," Eden answered with a grin.

"Then she should finds out where the tomb is and finds a way to help her dig out," I suggested. "After all, if she brought a library or a ton of luggage, you eight could find it and she had to know seven of you would be here – Regina being the added complication. "I suggest Spring, Autumn and I keep an eye on her, Shelby, Midnight and Twilight figure out how she is planning to break the Abenaki out and Eden, Paradise, and Regina go through her room and the places she spends time."

"So you are now in charge?" Spring challenged me.

"If it means I'm putting our mutual existence ahead of my individual desire to survive – then yes, I'm the leader," I narrowed my eyes as I stared at Spring. I could sense Autumn bristling as well, but the other four were abnormally calm.

"That's right," snorted Regina, "It isn't like you Six want to kill me or Shelby here – oh wait, you do."

"Fine," grumbled Spring, "but when the time comes we will finish off the Theran." All would have gone off like gangbusters if Everest had been at all in a hurry – she wasn't.

***

The next night, after study hall, Everest and I found time to talk to one another.

"How's Lord Harper?" I inquired about her Father.

"He is well within his own space and mind, Richard," she snorted playfully. There was a pregnant pause.

"Is there another Lady Marlowe – as in your Mother?" I pressed on.

"Yes and no," Everest was leading me outside. "You see, my birth was a contract between my Father and the woman who birthed me. Father delivered up some bit of obscure lore that only he had to her family and they gave him the offspring of their joining – very business-like."

"That sounds a bit sad actually," I countered. "I didn't know my Mother for long but she was in my life. The same goes for my Father."

"Oh, we Therans are all about gaining favors and then collecting on them," Everest informed me. "Land, possessions and money don't mean much for us. Acquiring such things is too easy – a decade or two of work at most before return to our real pursuits – power."

"And here I thought you came here to visit me," I joked. Neither one of us thought that.

"It is not a task easy to judge the morals on, Richard," Everest sighed. "Some of the debts we collect on are the wrongs done to our houses and we pursue those just as vigorously as boons."

"Don't make it one of my ladies," I stated firmly. I was the monster after all and these maidens were my treasure hoard.

"It is not that simply," Ms. Marlowe replied. "Some people owe debts and some people have done bad things that need to be addressed."

"Everest, do you have any respect for me whatsoever?" I queried 

"Yes, you have an army of deathless followers who course through your body, psyche and soul," Everest described, "but your power comes from the cusp of Oblivion and that is where I was born. No Richard, you hold no particular fear for me or any true Theran."

"Have you ever considered that Mom left us because she discovered the monsters within us," I postulated, "or that she found the Monster in Dad and he killed her."

"That's not very likely," Everest was a bit condescending.

"Why? Because when you ran away and crossed over to Oblivion's edge – you ran straight into us? It is where you are born, but it is where my ancestors exist every day," I explained.

"Enchanting idea and if I was twenty, I would be worried – but I'm not Richard. I'm far past twenty but since you have such a strong chivalrous and romantic streak, I'll allow you to protect one of your ladies; one I won't touch," Lady Everest bargained. That was a hellish proposition for me; Eden who might bare my child some day and Regina who was all alone in the world.

"I won't put one above the others," I responded.

"Ah, now true leadership is being able to make the hard choices in difficult times," Marlowe tsked me.

"No, true leadership is finding a way to save them all," I glared.

"Very well Richard, I'll spare you because I like you and you intrigue me but I'm going to get rid of the rest," Everest smiled. "It is what needs to be done and while you have an inflated sense of your own capabilities, you are not powerless in the world. This will be a fun game."

"Please don't force me into a position where it is you or one of my Witch's lives at stake," I sighed. "I really like you."

"Thank you for that," Everest smiled. "I can tell you value their lives dearly."

"They need it more than normal people," I countered.

"We will see what you can do when I come for all of you," she answered with a slight nod.

"We'll be ready," I gave a curt nod. We weren't.

(Two Months Later)

Alyssa Monroe was finishing giving Eden an injection of one of the popular fertility cocktails. The drugs had been cloaked in a protective charm that would stop her body from rejecting the foreign substance.

"I keep telling you I'm not a paramedic, much less a doctor," Alyssa reminded us – as she juggled the serum bottle and the needle with her own telekinetic incantation from her book.

Sure she could only cast spells from her book, while the book was in her possession. Compared to a real witch, she wasn't much, but she'd thrown her sharp mind and imagination to mastering as many manifestations as possible. She'd also worked as the island's electrician, our personal obstetrician, and honed her FBI Agent/Monster Hunter skills.

"I doubt anyone will report you, Ms. Monroe," I suggested.

"I doubt anyone can report you," Eden corrected. "Our condition does that much for you."

"Twilight and Shelby worked out the Rote for the medicine," Monroe smirked, "and I'm sure Richard is pumping you full of...well pumping you full."

"Don't get above yourself Human," Paradise growled. "You help us but we are not creatures who enjoy being mocked."

"Sorry about that, I keep forgetting you ladies aren't human," Alyssa rolled her eyes. She also kept her pistol close by. 

"Richard, Mr. Wendell is probably waiting on you. You have your dress rehearsal this afternoon and tonight is the big night," FBI-Girl reminded me of practice for the play. Playing to character; I was the Devil in deed if not in name for the production. We were doing the George Miller version of the Witches of Eastwick and to complicate matters, Lady Everest was my Alexa, Sally Fabian was Jane, and Regina was Sukie.

Our romantic scenes had either an air of hilarity about them or comedic tragedy. I had not 'hooked up' with Sally since the night she had helped the Six in trying to kill me but we'd kept talking. I'd accidently walked in on her having sex a few times. I wasn't sure how often it was truly accidental. Unfortunately for her efforts, I was busy keeping the Six carnally amused.

I felt the play was beyond adequate for our school. Mr. Wendell had a wicked wit and a clever way of working wonderful special effects with mechanical ingenuity. The actors had a faded sense of raw violence to their production that was a holdover of the Six's reign but it had diminished over the months and gave peripheral characters a greater energy.

The greatest thing was how well Mr. Wendell directed the production. If any angry impulses threatened him he didn't show it – that should have been our greatest clue that something was fucked up. Mr. Wendell glided through our seas of depression and despair with hardly gaff or down moment.

In our defense, he was human; just a strange branch of humanity that was aware of the arcane and was capable of taking up arms against it. Ross Wendell was a witch-hunter and a damn good one. Worse, he had been informed of the eight. Worse yet, he had suborned one of our number to his side. Worst of all...

The last scene was done and my face, up on a projection screen, faded to black as the 'witches' banished me from my conversation with my children. There was the applause, the cast coming out and doing a final bow then tending to the debris of the show. The Six gathered near the dressing room where they always gathered.

Regina and Lady Everest where with me in the changing room where I was wiping the make-up off. Regina had begged for a little 'deposit' before the show as a precaution. She was licking her lips as she came up to me. Her touch was like fire as I went from standing, to my knees and finally onto my face – totally paralyzed by my own energy.

"Hush now Richard," Everest breathed into my ear. "This will simply close your portal for a few hours at which point we'll reexamine your position here in this school and in the greater world." A cold bolt slammed through my heart. At the edge of my hearing I heard Twilight scream and the strumming of running feet. 

One voice, Paradise's I thought, attempted a casting only to be countered by the louder, shriller voice of Lady Marlowe. A third voice, definitely Twilight, howled a curse and Regina screamed in pain. There was a powerful thump then nothing.

"The ladies think you'll stay in place but I'd like to make sure," Ross stated matter of factly. 

He'd shown me his crossbow on occasion but I'd never thought how much one of those damn bolts would hurt. I got that painful less four times – through each shoulder and above each knee, pinning me to the floor and my face in the dust. Away from me, toward the Six, the voices of Shelby, Regina, and Everest were chanting what I recalled to be a levitation charm. 

The voices faded away and the silence of all things nearby grew out of all proportions to my location. A few voices were still in the auditorium but I couldn't call out. The helplessness of my situation grew inside of me and that was part of the flaw in the plan because it would have taken a far greater Mistress of the Arcane Arts to really shut down my connection to my ancestors and the rest of my death curse.

The well-prepared dart Everest had pierced my soul with metaphysically narrowed the contribution my ancestors could make to me to just one. Beyond the wall, my guardian spirits were in turmoil; on my side their carefully crafted power was dissipating. Two things happened together, messing up my perception of either event.

"Regina said you would be in trouble," Alyssa hissed into my ear as she wrenched up the bolt on my left shoulder. I was vaguely aware of the pain of the act because on the other side, a choice had been made – or forced. As the second shoulder bolt was worked loose, hate and evil washed over me. Unadulterated, the Bastard had come through; the being responsible for all my family's ills.

My legs thrust up, tearing flesh on the thigh free in blood chunks. The will driving me didn't care for physical infirmity or discomfort. I rose up to a crouching position with a terribly wary Alyssa regarding me.

"Richard?" she whispered. I nodded because speech was too much to expect of me.

"They are heading out the back way," Alyssa continued. She placed the wrench in her tool box and double-checked her pistol before leading me out. As I padded off after her, my scents of my hell-beast nature. I recognized two scents – Regina who had my seed still powering her and Eden who was engrossed in my aura.

We caught them as they exited the rear gardens and passed into the graveyard.

"We should wait for Regina to make her move," Alyssa hissed. I choked down a feral growl and my desire to kill anyone I identified as an enemy. What she wanted made sense because we couldn't enter the crypt until Shelby unlocked the protective wards.

The Bastard wanted to attack but he felt my desperate need to know what Everest and Mr. Wendell had planned. Watching Regina and Shelby was also unsettling but somehow I knew why – Regina was the consummate survivor. The doors swung open ending my dimly thought-out revelry.

A few second later, Alyssa motioned me to follow. I had a low to the ground gait, circling around with stronger bounds while Monroe took the straight approach. No scent or sound revealed to us anyone's lingering presence and the sound of the surf booming below drew us down.

"Help me get the bodies in the sarcophagi, Ms. Ravenrook," Ross ordered with a steady voice.

"We need the Grimoire too," Everest requested politely. 

"Move the bodies – give you the book – I already gave you the sword; how about I get paid first?" Regina challenged.

"Oh yes," Everest's tone turned hard as stone, "you joined us so you could kill Shelby and take her power. All you had to do was lie and betray your only real friend, Richard."

We were at the entrance to the cavern. The Six were laid out just outside the circle created by the six burial tombs, their bodies encrusted with salt and flickering items of what I thought was consecrated silver. 

Ross faced Regina down the length of an encased Witch.

"Well," Shelby said somewhat sadly, "Ross was sent by my coven to put the Witches back after Richard failed. Everest needs your soul to pry the Shaman out of her crypt." Regina looked back and forth between Ross, who had a grim look to him, and Everest, who looked like she was the Mistress of events.

"Shelby, you are an idiot," Regina turned on her fellow fledgling arcanist, "they need the soul of a White Witch to finish sealing in the Six and you are the only one here tonight." The reality came crashing in for Shelby along with a sharp, curved knife that Everest punched between her shoulder blades and out the base of her throat.

Blood fountained out of Shelby's mouth and slumped to her knees. Everest grabbed Shelby's hair and uses it to gently guide her to the floor of the cave.

"Don't try and die too quickly, Shelby. I need you," Everest purred to her. Now that was what I called a casual disregard for human life.

At the same moment as the knife blow pierced Shelby, Ross had dipped down to the far side of the salt coffin and pulled out a whip and a knife.

"Help me!" Regina called out desperately. 

"Girl, you've run through all your allies," Ross snapped, apparently annoyed at the disruption to his business-like procedure. 

The whip lashed out and encircled her throat. Where the leather touched Regina's flesh, it burned and blistered – salt; his whip was soaked in pure salt. Regina was screaming, her hands smoking from trying to unravel the weapon around her windpipe.

"Let's go," Alyssa hissed then she broke from cover. "Back the fuck up, both of you!" she screamed at Everest and Ross.

Ross spun the whip around, flipping Regina to the ground. Marlowe waved her hand over her face but that was more than enough movement for Alyssa. She put three bullets into Everest, knocking her down. I charged Ross, he lashed out with his whip but I caught it around the arm. The sight and scent of my own flesh burning meant nothing.

Behind me, a massively unfair duel was going on between Everest and Alyssa. One blow of rock shrapnel crumbled Alyssa's occult protection. The next had Alyssa give out a bitter cry as she fell down. The gun had negligible effect against Everest's armor. In seconds she was stalking toward her fallen opponent.

I yanked Ross toward me, he intended to stab my abdomen with his knife and we locked grips with barely a wound. He grunted with the exertion as I began to push him back.

"This one is still too strong, Lady Marlowe," he called out. My response was to bite his shoulder and by that I mean, my teeth tore through his shirt, skin and muscle straight down to the bone.

Ross twisted in my grip and broke free. His left arm was torn up sluggish but his right dropped the whip, snatched up a vial from his face and through it at my face. The mercury splashed over my cheek but missed the eyes. He backpedalled and the Bastard pursued right up until I felt my soul being blasted out of my body, causing me to collapse on the ground.

The problem with the hand-canon Everest shot me with was that it was a weapon called a Soul Caliber and it could blow the soul out of a person for a period of time. It didn't actually kill you. My/Her problem was that left only one soul in my body – The Bastard's and all restraint I'd been showing up until then was about four feet away my physical form.

To her credit, Marlowe knew she fucked up when the creature that had been me flew at her. Her blade and armor stood her well. Closer to my soul I sensed two forms struggling before one made a final effort then burned down. I figured that Ross had finished off Regina. I could feel my own flesh beginning to fail and the Bastard with it.

"Stay down Richard," Everest said with some compassion. My soul snapped back to my body to hear those words. I had one option left and everything told me it was a dangerous one.

"Leave and I won't kill you, Lady Everest Marlow," I croaked through a battered vocal cords.

"You can't hurt –"she started to say before I vomited on her with every bit of bile me and my first Vandemeyer ancestor had. Her armor and sword melted underneath the corruption and her screams were the last thing I heard and saw.

(Sometime Later)

My sensation that my ancestors were around me once more was the first thing that came to my cloudy mind. The next thing was the unique and familiar scent of Eden's hair. I opened my eyes and looked up at her face.

"Eden, are you okay?" I rasped – vomiting the filth of existence was hard on the pipes. "All of you?"

Her worried face went from fragile grin to a full-blown smile.

"Yes...if there is a 'we' then we are fine," she laughed. "He's awake," she announced to the cavern.

"It is about time," Paradise called out.

"Regina?" I worried. "Alyssa?"

"They both are fine," Eden related. "After Regina killed the witch-hunter with his own knife, she produced an antidote she's prepared once she knew how he planned to entomb us in salt. She doused Midnight before that Theran bitched recovered enough to blast her to unconsciousness." 

"By the time Midnight recovered, Shelby was dead and the 7th tomb had been emptied," Eden answered. "The other two sets of twins are out hunting for them. We stayed to make sure you and Alyssa were okay."

"I'm alive," groaned Regina as she weaved her way toward me. "I feel like I have a rhino running around my head."




The Witches of Ravenrook 04



"I thought my essence would have helped you more," I noted. I would have sat up but I liked my head lying in Eden's lap too much.

"Clearly none of us had an understanding of how tough that bitch Marlowe was," Regina chuckled painfully. "After that cock-sucker poisoned and stabbed me, I was lucky to last as long as I did. Be happy any of us are still alive."

I finally felt compelled to sit up but a remembered scent came to my occult mind. I turned and looked Eden in the eyes.

"You smell differently," I mused. At first Eden seemed confused then her eyes opened up and a hand caressed her abdomen.

"You think?" she whispered. Paradise came ghosting over as well but her expression was more pensive. She knelt by her sister and touched her stomach and tilted her head as if listening for something. Paradise gave Eden a cautious look then shrugged.

"Relax everybody," Regina ruffled my hair. "Most of the ways of detecting life – which none of us are good at – wouldn't show anything right now...but maybe a scent change would be noted."

"So what was going on?" I moved to getting a handle on current events.

"The Six began gathering at one stop Ross had clearly left aside for them. He placed a huge number of salt jars above them along with honey balloons. He dosed them in honey and then salt to entomb them and bind in their powers," Alyssa came staggering over.

"Since he was doing so many mechanical things, no one noticed his latest trick. Regina figured out that Shelby had betrayed us and went to the one person she could count on – me," Alyssa groaned. "Stupid as hell, but I verified what she suspected and no one noticed me because of my job at school. She started piecing together their plan but wanted to know what would happen to Shelby," Monroe sighed.

"Her coven sold her out to take the 7th Tomb's occupant's place since that was what Everest wanted, so she was doomed," Regina said.

"Her soul is trapped in the 7th tomb but her body is dead so there is no bringing her back," Paradise stated matter of factly.

"So Everest kept her deal with the White Coven by sacrificing Shelby?" Alyssa growled. "I'm liking these white types less and less."

"Ditto," I agreed then, "Damn it. I can't stand that woman getting one up on me."

"From the way Midnight described Everest, she didn't get much on you at all – you tore her up good," Eden still looked please. "You did that – thing you did out in the forest, didn't you?"

"I'm afraid so Eden. It was all I had left," I finished with a deep breath.

"You would miss me?" Eden touched my cheek.

"Actually, I would miss those cute little morning scowls from Paradise; the ones that tell me I'm lucky to have lived another night," I teased the twins.

Finally, when we had all regained our feet and Regina restored my sword, I turned to leave with the four women when Paradise reached out and spanked me.

"Be more respectful of the female receptacle of your procreative joy," Paradise added.

"Oh, call it like it is; he's your Baloney Pony, X-rated Hobby Horse of Love, Pantomime Horse of Hijinks," Regina smirked.

"I don't want to live without him," Eden said out of the blue and it hurt, her love, so child-like and new to her heart.

"You, me and Paradise are going to be just fine," I grabbed Eden's hand. The look Paradise gave me was stunned acceptance.

Regina coughed then spoke up, "Well, considering your utter lack of male friends Richard, I'll have to be your Best Man."

"Who is going to reset the wards on the Ravenrook crypt?" Alyssa broke up the happy yet awkward moment.

"As the last, closest heir to old Camilla, I'll give it a shot," Regina began once we'd exited the mausoleum. For whatever reason, the wards respected her status and one by one the wards rose back up and became infused with the magic of the island once more.

"Now?" Regina looked to me. I knew I wasn't going to graduate here. That hope was gone.

"We hunt her down by finding out about the 7th tomb and the Abenaki woman trapped their and maybe we can find out where Everest took her," I decided. "Paradise and Eden gather your sisters. Alyssa, figure out what goods you need and we'll get the money. Regina, I need a moment. The group scattered until there were just the two of us.

"You betrayed us," I pointed out. "Had they given you Shelby, you would have gone along with it."

"Oh, I thought about it, but no, Richard. If I let something happen to the Six, you would have never forgiven me. " 

"I know I'd get my shot eventually but big hulking brutes who will smash down dimensional barriers to save me? Those are priceless," she smiled.

"Thanks because when the Six get together and decide to do something to pay you back for the betrayal, I'm going to need some excuses to keep them at bay."

"Just bang Eden and watch the little maggots gape in awe like they always do," Regina chortled.

"They do not," I defended them.

"Richard, I once braided Spring's hair when you were really tearing up on Eden and fingering Paradise – they were totally out of it.

"When are we ever going to have sex?" I changed course.

"Oh boy," laughed Regina as we moved toward campus, "you may be real proud of that dick, but I think six girls are more than enough for your libido."

"I don't want you feeling left out – relationship wise," I told her.

"Richard, you fought the witches for me and tamed their little asses. I think we are okay on the 'friends' status," Regina smiled. "You also aren't blowing up on me for doing the right thing and almost getting us killed anyway."

"Why didn't you tell me, anyway?" I questioned.

"I couldn't see you putting Eden in harm's way," Regina explained. "You two are crazy-obsessed with the idea of having a kid and that would eat at your mind if you risked her and something happened, as unlikely as that was."

"I concede the point," I sighed.

The news fifteen minutes later killed any attempt at levity; Marlow and the Abenaki had made their escape though the Abenaki woman seemed old and frail. They knew Everest would be spending most of the night and tomorrow morning traveling through the death zone. Alone, Everest could make it in half the night – Therans were immune to the live-draining effects of the zone, but half-Therans were not and the old lady would die of Everest didn't take breaks.

That still left us with the quandary of what to do. The Witches took a vote, in anger, for the rest of us.

"We will pursue the two Therans at daybreak born on Eden's winds," Midnight announced. "We won't need the rest of you." Oh really?

"The bonding items or have you forgotten them," I reminded the faction that wanted us left behind. Twilight and Spring seemed the main movers behind this argument.

"That's right," Regina snapped, "I can carry one because I'm the Ravenrook heir, Richard can carry one as can Alyssa."

"My life has gone to shit," the former FBI agent muttered. Now she was going on a man-hunt with the serial killer who had drawn her here.

"We would still need three other humans we will have to protect," growled Spring.

"Two," I declared. I walked to Regina and presented the blade just returned to me. "Give this to Eden's child," I gambled. Regina blinked then smiled.

"Eden, hold this for your child," Regina offered the scabbarded blade to the Undead Witch.

Touching it would scald her; keeping it would burn her flesh to the bone unless...

Eden hesitantly took the blade in in both hands. The warding magic that bound the items and tombs had been constructed by a true Mistress of the Craft. Eden held the blade painlessly.

Five of the Six gave a collective 'Oh' and everything changed for them.

They had been created to be unique and they destroyed their creators because of that onerous fate foisted on them. They were perfectly positive that they were always going to be lone – until something kept Eden safe. Whatever form of life it was, it didn't have a heart to beat or a brain to sing inside their gestalt but it had the most important thing to them – a soul.

Eden rushed up to Paradise, directing Eden's package into my hands before hugging her sister.

"What are we going to name her?" Eden sniffed.

"Well fuck a duck," Regina shook her head. "Knocking her through the headboard for three straight months while she cried like an angel did something besides keep me awake."

"I like the name Utopia," I said mostly praying this was not a son.

"Who says you get a say?" Twilight questioned.

"Your opportunity to separate our fates has passed Twilight," I glared.

"Peace!" Autumn jumped into the equation. "We need two more humans to volunteer to go with us."

They had to have non-coerced, by them, humans to bear their items off the island.

"We could use Sally Fabian," Regina sneered my way.

"Wallace Bozeman," I refused to take the bait, "that freshman we arrived with. I've run across him multiple times and he looks like he might be someone to throw his life away for a pretty face."

Regina looked at the Six, snorted and groaned.

"Fine, I'll do it, but don't expect me to put out for the rug rat," Regina mocked a boy her own age.

"Actually, I was thinking that Alyssa could ask him since she's the one he's been taking furtive looks at," I smiled at her. 

The female former officer eyed us all then lowered her head. There was something grim we were neglecting.

"Regina, we'll need to bury Shelby in the crypt and say some words over her," I said.

"Forget that – she screwed us all over and her soul powered freeing the 7th Tomb," Regina declared.

"You betrayed us as well," Paradise pointed out angrily to Regina.

"Yes but that was only so I could betray them," Regina grinned. "Because of me, Richard and Alyssa were able to rescue us."

"You could have simply told us the plot before we walked into the trap," Eden countered.

"Then we wouldn't have known what they were truly up to and who was behind this," Alyssa admitted ruggedly.

"Besides Regina, you take care of your family, even in death. We take a bit of time and bury Shelby because she was aiming at a better world," I sighed. "She simply lost her way."

"Family," Eden murmured. "We will help you bury your cousin, Regina. But we have to make it quick because we need to be gone at first light." It was interesting to see Eden take the initiative.

"Regina, Richard, Eden and Paradise, take care of the White Witch. Her soul may be damned but she was one of us even at the end," Spring declared. "Autumn and I will get Sally while Ms. Monroe, Twilight and Midnight will get this Wallace kid who," Spring pointed at me, "better not be a waste of time."

Spring was righteously pissed about being entombed in salt and silver with the added shame that Regina, the traitor, killed the Witch Hunter that nearly caught them all. When that bitch, Everest, got away at well, her rage was about to overwhelm her.

"Calm the fuck down," I addressed Spring. "It is a good plan but don't bite our heads off."

Spring looked ready to jump when Eden touched my arm.

"Little Utopia," she cautioned me. Spring blinked as well because for a moment she thought Eden was appealing to her, not me. I stepped back from the confrontation.

"Sure thing Babe," I smiled at Eden.

The Witches were taken aback as well. It had not occurred to any of them but Eden that her unborn child could be used as a tool to keep me in check and even exert control concerning my behavior. In a detached fashion, they knew you could use an offspring to coerce a parent but they had never seen me in that light.

A few seconds later, I'm was sure that the felt the shoe on the other foot – Eden's child was one of them – if she was a spell-wielding woman. If the child was a male, a whole new set of twists and turns would appear. I still felt Eden would see herself as a mother; I wasn't sure about the rest. Four witches and Alyssa took off quickly because there was much to do before dawn.

"Paradise would you please – pretty please – help me get Shelby to her sconce in the family crypt?" Regina asked respectively. Paradise was about to get snippy when she caught Regina gazing toward Eden and I. 

"Yes, let the two of us do that," Paradise responded. She not too rudely pushed Regina ahead of her down the short gravel road to the graveyard.

"I should put in a good word about Regina," Eden moved until she stood before me, "from time to time." She twisted slightly so she could hike her dress up to her waist. She hooked her panties and pulled them down.

"Shouldn't we be worried about me having too much sex with you?" I whispered.

Here I was having sex and now a baby with an older woman and not 'closer to 40 than 30' but closer to 400 than 300 years of age. I leaned against a rock outcrop, pulling her with me. Eden's face glowed as she unbuckled my belt and began opening my pants. Three months ago she would simply lay there and wait on me because that was all she knew.

I slid a half foot down the rock and Eden mounted me. She guided my cock inside her as my hands were supporting my precarious position. My cock slid straight in as she dropped her body on me.

"Someone has been looking forward to this – besides me," I teased Eden because she was so wet and ready.

"Oh," Eden exhaled through her teeth, "that feels so great. I worried about you, you know?"

"Not really," I pressed forward and kissed the underside of her chin. "You don't normally worry about any not in the Six."

"I know and it was weird," she smiled down at me as she kept rising and falling.

"I don't think too much sex will be a problem my Richard," Eden kissed me. "If anything, the spirit of our child will require even more of your sexual essence to grow strong."

"I think you are looking at more than one night of love-making a week," I protested.

"No," Eden pouted, "I still can't always tell when you are teasing me. Are you teasing me?"

"Yes, but I think if we do it every day some of the other witches might complain," I corrected myself. "Every other day maybe?" The way her vaginal muscles began clamping down on my penis suggested some level of expectance.

"Yes – yes," Eden sang out with a joyous high note. "Insert your gold rod inside of me every other day – yes." She panted harder and harder and I knew she was close. "Yes – and teach me how to drain your semen with my mouth the way Regina does tooooooo!!!!"

The image of Eden's sweet lips engulfing my sex was too much and too from left field for me.

My seed shot upwards in great gobs and strands into her womb but now I had the most bizarre sensation I was sharing my energy with something else. My semen and her fluids coated the top of my cock and cockhead, her muscles were still keeping a tight seal on her vagina. Eden nestled her head into my shoulder and I rested a hand over her shirt and thin bra to coddle her pert nipple and gentle breast.

I would have felt better if we weren't hunting another, smarter monster (Lady Everest Marlowe) with only a hint of what awaited on the continent. I was taking my lover and child into danger as well as three humans, two unprepared, along with us.

"We may not have another chance for the next few days," Eden whispered in my ear.

'What the hell,' I mused. 'She is probably right.' I took her hips in each hand and began lifting her up. Something about thinking that I nearly died and may soon be pressing my luck again made it seem like the best thing to do and Eden felt the same way.