“Baal’s lands are in disarray. Your allies here in this city are either dead or scattered in fear, having fled for their very lives.” Lorelei delivered the news in a tired, matter-of-fact tone. “My love walks free. I remain at his side. Alex could claim you as his right now, though I assure you that the prospect would disgust him.”
Lydia spat at her. Utterly unbothered by it, Lorelei wiped the spittle away with a weary smile. “Telling you this brings me every bit of joy that I expected it might.”
“So, uh,” Wade asked, “what do we do with her?”
“I’ve got that covered,” Rachel answered. Her eyes were on the prisoner. “I told you what would happen if you fucked with either of them.”
“You would lick the hand of the Angelic Hosts?” Lydia sneered at Lorelei.
Lorelei tilted her head at the insult, but did not bristle. She calmly reached out to Rachel, taking the angel’s hand in hers. Rachel gasped in unexpected arousal as Lorelei’s tongue slowly, sensuously took one of Rachel’s fingers into her mouth and sucked on it. The succubus kept her unperturbed eyes on Lydia while she worked the finger in and out of her lips, savoring the motion.
Rachel whimpered. Lorelei released her hand, unsurprised when the fingers lingered where she could easily take them up again. “I hope to lick a great deal of this one,” she said.
“Uh,” Drew blinked.
“Wow,” Taylor breathed.
“Can, uh,” Jason mumbled, looking repeatedly back and forth from Lydia to Lorelei and Rachel. “Can I get a replay of that?”
The angel shook herself, forcing her expression back into a scowl before she looked back to Lydia. “I should take care of this. She attacked a mortal under the protection of the Hosts. She has to be judged.”
“Wait a moment more,” Lorelei said. “Alex should be given his say.”
* * *
“I’m not mad at you for not telling me,” Onyx decided. She walked between Molly and Alex as they picked their way through the debris-strewn foyer. “I mean, I kind of am, but I’m irritated by the situation, not by you. We both kept big secrets from one another.”
“It means a lot to me that you thought I was in trouble and wanted to help,” Alex told her. “And then when you saw how bad it was, you dove right in after me. We’d be dead without you. And it’s not like… look, Friday was special, and you’re special, but it’s not like I could expect you to put your neck on the line for me.”
“We like helping people where we can,” Onyx shrugged. “Granted, this is way more than just looking for a lost pet or helping someone get over the flu quick, but it’s something Molly and I agreed we want to do with our lives…just hopefully without all the crazy violence. And anyway, we had to confront these other asshole wizards sooner or later. You don’t have to make it out to be something personal.”
Molly nudged her hard. “Yes, he does,” she grinned.
“Okay,” Onyx sighed, “Alex, I’m kinda hung up on you. There. I’ve said it. I’ve said it in front of both of you. I want to keep seeing you. I don’t want anything serious, but I don’t want to just walk away, either.”
He didn’t know whether to be thrilled or to feel awful. He felt a little bit of both. “Wow. Onyx… I feel the same way. But you see what my life is like.”
“Yeah? So?”
He didn’t know how she could be so mellow about it. “You don’t think it would be amazingly complicated?”
Onyx just snorted. “Have you met Molly?”
“Hi,” Molly waved cheerfully. “Permanent complication. Break her heart and I’ll turn you into a drooling, retarded, leprous mutant.”
“I’ll admit it’s crazy to think you can see anyone else when you’ve already got three girlfriends,” Onyx conceded.
“Uh. Two.”
“Lorelei, Rachel, and that other girl, right? Taylor?”
“Taylor’s not my girlfriend.”
“You’re her best friend and you’ve been sleeping with her. That’s still a complication.” Alex had to grant that. He shrugged while Onyx continued. “But apparently you’ve got the stamina for it with your succubus cooties and all. I just don’t know where you’re going to find the time. But I’m not asking for a deep commitment here. I’m not gonna leave Molly. I don’t want you to leave your woman. Women. Whatever. I just want to keep seeing you. My bet is it’ll be pretty great.”
He considered mentioning that Taylor seemed much more interested in Lorelei than in him, but that seemed tangential. “Onyx, I…god dammit, I want to. But I’m already…I mean this is insane. To top it all off, I can’t be sure if you like me for me or for the things that Lorelei’s done to me, and that’s just not fair to you.”
Again, Onyx smirked. So did Molly. “What?” Alex asked. “Seriously, every time I think a girl is attractive, she looks back at me like she’s going to jump me right there. And half the time I can’t even resist! I’m a pig! I’m probably doing it to you, right now, and I can’t even control it!”
“You’re not a pig,” Molly snickered. “You’re more like a dog. A loving, happy, cuddly, horny, dirty, dirty dawg.”
Alex slapped his hands over his face. “Oh my God, it’s happening right now. You’re giving me a pass on all this because I’m having that effect on you ‘cause I think you’re hot, too.”
Molly and Onyx smiled broadly at one another. “Oh, really now?”
“Yes! Oh my God, Molly, you’re smoking hot! I’ve got a horrible crush on you! Onyx, I told you before, I was in that cemetery taking pictures because I figured it’d give me something to talk about with either of you. I didn’t know you two were a couple. I just figured I’d…oh, man, this sounds so lame, but I seriously would’ve been happy to go out with either one of you.” The witches burst out laughing. “Why is that funny?”
“Alex, your magic sex hormones or whatever don’t work on us,” Onyx managed to tell him. “What you did with the graveyard was kind of juvenile and stalkerish, but it sounds like you weren’t gonna go further than that. But we, um…we’ve been talking about you almost since the semester started weeks ago.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Onyx and I have kind of been open to a dating arrangement for months now,” Molly explained, “but nobody interesting came up. And then there you were, and it’s just been a matter of making sure everyone’s feelings were settled first.”
“Your little ‘effect’ on other women doesn’t work on us. We ward ourselves against things like that,” Onyx said. “I asked you out on Friday because I won a coin toss with Molly before we went to school that morning. Otherwise she would’ve hit on you.”
Alex looked at her with his jaw hanging open.
“In fact, if we’re all coming clean here,” Onyx added, looking at her boots sheepishly, “I, um. I cheated.”
“Huh?”
“I kinda cheated on the coin toss,” Onyx said in a small, guilty yet amused voice. “Magic.”
“You bitch!” Molly exploded.
“I’m sorry,” Onyx offered with utter insincerity.
“What do you mean?” Alex blinked.
Molly looked at Onyx in exasperation as her lover tried not to giggle. Eventually she turned her attention on Alex. “Wow, you are dumb sometimes, aren’t you?” she asked him.
“Yeah, kinda,” Alex shrugged. Molly’s rough, hungry kiss took him completely by surprise. Behind her, Onyx just laughed. When the assertive redhead let him go, Alex just breathed, “Oh.”
“Onyx and I are in love,” Molly explained. “We also love sex. We’ve talked about enjoying some alternative plumbing if we found the right guy.”
“There’s some rituals that work a little differently depending on the equipment,” Onyx added. “But mainly we just thought you’d be fun.”
“You, um,” Alex blinked. “Seriously?”
“I just didn’t expect to get all emotional about you,” Onyx shrugged.
Molly hadn’t let go of him. “I don’t mind. I think I can see how that’d happen”
“You’ll see better once you’ve had a chance to get to know him,” Onyx predicted.