6

The drive over to Chris’ place gave me some quiet time in which I could do little but think. Instead of Christine, I found myself thinking about the nature of power. My ambitions had always been remarkably narrow, in a sense. Power, to me, had always meant what I could do and accomplish, all by myself. That was a large part of what made wizardry so very precious to me, because my personal power now had almost limitless potential.

Most people seemed, for a reason I just did not understand, to equate power with the influence they had over other people. It was simply foreign to my nature. Oh, certainly, I was not blind to what you could do through others, and I’d felt a heady sense of triumph when I manipulated things my way. But to me, such feelings were a direct reflection upon a personal accomplishment of mine. Taking pride in dominating or ordering other people about, or having the authority to do so, meant nothing to me. I had absolutely no ambition to rule anyone. Ergo, I was not going to become corrupted by having thousands of loyal and obedient servants who were also wizards.

Yeah, right. I worked on quieting my conscience, and it did do some good. Besides, it would be decades before I had more than a few wizards at my side. The book’s advice, to avoid binding a large number of wizards before I became an archwizard and could reasonably expect to hold my own in most arenas, was cogent.

Reasonably reassured that I wasn’t going over to the dark side anytime soon, I made the turn to her street, and stopped near the entrance to her apartment complex. There was no parking space, and losing the car for the evening would be extremely awkward. Since I didn’t really need to ‘meet the parents’, I called her on the cellphone, dialing her mobile number. I always secured telecommunication and detailed personal information on the people I knew. It was all freely available in the computer networks, and the habit served me well.

“Hello?” her voice asked.

“Hi Chris, it’s me. I’m just outside, with no place to park. Can you come out?”

“Sure, I’m already downstairs. Somehow, I didn’t figure on you being late,” I could almost hear her smile.

I could see her stepping out, and beeped the horn to attract her attention. As I’d guessed, she was indeed wearing a dress, a clingy bright green number that was a wonderful match for her complexion and hair. As she walked closer, I stared.

Christine looked wonderful. She’s not drop dead gorgeous, as her face is just the slightest bit too narrow, but she is quite lovely. Her hair is bright copper and has the slightest curl. She kept it cut… no, styled short, not quite reaching her shoulders. Her knee length dress showed her assets to advantage, and she had a lot to show off. Very pale and lightly freckled skin showed a munificent amount of cleavage. Tastefully, she wore very little makeup, and packed a little red purse to match her low red heels and the red gem or crystal at the heart of the gold pendant she wore around her neck.

“So, what do you think?” she grinned.

I smirked and made a little circle in the air with a finger, and she obediently spun around, shook her ass at me, and completed the twirl. I only just managed to raise my eyes from her very nice ass before she stood facing me again.

“Come in, come in, said the spider…” I opened the door for her, movie fashion.

“Hey,” she said as I took my own seat, “so, where are we going? You didn’t even ask what my favorite foods are like, which isn’t like you,” she pursed her lips in puzzlement.

“Now, dear, I’m not entirely predictable, you know,” I was driving, so I couldn’t look at her.

“Well?” Chris demanded.

“Well, it’s been a few days since I had the leisure to do so, so I decided to take you in rather than out, and cook,” I explained.

“You can cook?!” her utter astonishment was obvious, even without looking at her face. “God! So what did you cook? Isn’t it sort of burning as we speak?” she asked.

“Everything I prepared can be heated up at need, and I timed things carefully. Don’t worry about it, just be sure to bring an appetite. Can you cook?”

“Ahem,” she quibbled, “well, not really. A few simple things, I suppose. Saturday has been the high culinary spotlight of the week for the last year, really.”

“Well, I hope I can give you a new appreciation for food and broaden your horizons. It is one of life’s delights, to be savoured. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”

“Somehow, I don’t think so either,” she said in a low tone.

After driving for a few minutes in silence, I asked, “The pendant is lovely. Where did you get it?”

“It was a birthday gift, last year, from my best friend. We’ve been together since kinder-garden. Her name is Kristen, and everyone’s called us Chris and Cross for years now.”

“So, what does she say?”

“You mean, about us? Well, she’s happy I’m dating, for once. And she really wants to meet you. You know, you never told me where you live. So where are we going?”

Ahem, quick subject change. “Near the south end of Stetting Park, abutting the bridge. Another five minutes or so. Did you bring a bathing suit?”

“What? Are you kidding?”

“Hardly. We’ve got a pool and a very nice jacuzzi. You can swim, right?”

“Oh yes, I love to swim. How big is the pool, anyway?”

We exchanged some more small talk, and then we were there. The headlights highlighted the vine-enwrapped walls, and the gate began to retract when I pressed the remote.

“This is very nice,” Chris said. “Is this your dad’s car? It’s awfully fancy,” she’d noticed the instrumentation, and begun to poke about.

“Well, it was his car,” I replied as I reversed into the garage, “but he sold it to me when he got a new one, a few months ago. The gadgets are all mine.”

“Your car, huh,” I caught her shaking her head in my peripheral vision.

“Well lady, your chariot has arrived. Grand Central Station. Off we go,” I mangled a few expressions.

She opened the door, stepped out and froze. She looked about, sniffed, and then audibly inhaled air through her nose. The expression on her face was just too cute for words. “That smell!” she looked at me wide eyed, “If I wasn’t hungry, I bloody well would be now! My god. What did you make? You have got to show me!”

“Follow me,” I led her to the kitchen, a very spacious kitchen now that I looked at it for a moment through a stranger’s eyes. There was seating for eight, though this was where we, the family, ate. The formal dining room had sufficient space, and a very large table, for more than thirty people.

I’d kept one of the ovens on a low temperature, enough to keep some of everything hot for us. It was a very large oven. I opened it, put on a pair of gloves, and began pulling things out and laying them down on the counter by one of the sinks.

“The first bit here is Mexican. Those are tortillas filled with chilli con carne and rice, a bit spicy. The wok is chicken, cashew nuts, and tofu with a large selection of vegetables, in soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and a few other things. That one is sweet potatoes, potatoes, cheese, and garlic. Not a main entrée. And that one’s my version of your basic curry, which is also quite spicy. That bowl is shrimp, noodles, and tofu, plus veggies. The yellow rice is for the Indian food, the one with tofu, mushrooms, and green bits goes well with everything. Roasted mushrooms with peppers, onions, lettuce, tomato and raspberry vinaigrette. Baked, breaded chicken breast filled with cheese and topped with a lemon-lime butter. That one over there is sautéed …”

“Enough!” she demanded. “I wanna taste. Now! If you keep mouthing off, it’ll get cold.”

“Think of it as a buffet,” I grinned and offered her an extra large plate and utensils from the table I’d set earlier. “Oh, no fish, and no dessert. I didn’t want to kill you,” I semi-apologized.

“Uhmmm,” she tried to respond, but her mouth was full. I offered her a glass of water. She was making contented noises while chewing slowly, and I mimed ‘drink’, to which she waved ‘later’.

We heaped our plates, and while she made a lot of appreciative noises and murmured “this is great” and “uhm, I like this one even better,” we didn’t actually talk. Our mouths were otherwise engaged. I steered her away from the hotter dishes after she had trouble with the curry. I was even crass enough to cast a few spells surreptitiously, just so I could eat more.

We took our time, eating steadily for more than half an hour, heating whatever had cooled in the microwave. I was impressed by the amount Chris managed to cram in, and she managed to at least taste most everything. When I judged the time right, I excused myself to the bathroom, and cast the wizard sight spell.

This time, I managed to orient myself, focusing determinedly and forcing the perception into focus. It was still somewhat painful, but I could function. Two minutes, and I was back at the table, eating like mad.

The book had told me exactly what to look for. Chris had high potential, for a girl, which was not surprising, but did relieve my anxiety. A girlfriend I could not introduce into my world, or one who could not accept it, was just impossible.

“Wow…” Chris finally leaned back in her chair, overcome. “Well, I admit that a dessert would be a bit much, after this. But really, did you cook all of this for me? For us? It seems… well, an awful lot too much.”

Chris was looking over the havoc we’d wreaked, and for all our work, we’d not made much of a dent in the buffet.

“You’re right, of course, and it has to do with that thing I was going to tell you about…”

“I remember,” she cut me off in mid-speech. “So, what was it all about? No, wait, I have to visit the bathroom, give me a minute,” she snatched her little purse and rose heavily, clutching her stomach and groaning theatrically. I gave her precise directions, and started to pack the food into containers, preparatory to putting it in the fridge or the freezer.

Some of it I left, for the night was young, and we’d both need more nourishment. Such was a student wizard’s lot.

When she returned, looking much refreshed, she asked, “Say, you’re all alone here, right? So why no wine, or alcohol?”

I blinked, blindsided by this. “Well, quite simply, I abhor the taste. Beer, wine, ninety proof, they all taste like distilled muck. Disgusting. There’s also the fact that I find the very idea of losing control of myself, be it with drink or drugs, to be completely intolerable. It’s just not me.”

She mulled that over for a moment. “Yeah, I see what you mean. It’s definitely not you,” she adjusted her dress, pulling it a bit lower, and smirked as my eyes descended from her face to her bosom. “Now then, what was it you wanted to show and tell?”

“Here, let’s go to the porch,” I led her over and offered her a seat. It was rather dark inside, and the glass offered a wonderful view of the sky. The pale crescent of the moon was visible, and we could see the wind brushing the leaves outside. With my wizard sight spell still active, there was so much more to this that I was dazzled at first.

“I’m going to show you a magic trick,” I smiled tightly, “and I want you to repeat it if you can.” Without further ado, I repeated the very first spell I’d cast, and having learned some refinement, directed less power into it.

I uttered the words of the incantation clearly, loudly and precisely. A small jet of blue flame rose from the tip of my index finger.

For a few seconds, she just stared at it. I lowered my finger, and the fire faded away. “Now you try it.”

She was moving her head slightly back and forth in a ‘no’, likely without even realizing what she was doing, and shaking like a leaf.

“I know that you can do it. Try,” I encouraged her.

Chris breathed sharply in, and straightened her back. Her first few attempts were marred by a nervous stammer, but soon she was making a credible effort. It wasn’t long before a spell conjured fired adorned her up-thrust finger.

“To stop it, just lower the finger,” I instructed her. “A spell drains all of its energy from you, and then you need to eat like an entire herd of starving elephants. Break it,” I told her, and she did.

I rose from my seat, stepped forward, and took her limp hands in mine. I raised her to me, and hugged her tightly. She was soon hugging me back, a very comfortable softness pressing against me. After about a minute of this, I drew back slightly, caught her on the chin, and gently raised her head so that her green eyes met mine. Her eyes were wide and wondering, her lips slightly parted.

“This is what changed me, and now you. Magic, real magic. An entire world we didn’t know was there.”

I leaned forward, and touched my lips to hers in a kiss.

With a sharp burst of sound, glass shattered, and a windstorm dove into the porch.

I could see it over her shoulder, as the wizard sight was still hanging in the back of my mind and superimposed over my vision.

It was beautiful, grace incarnate, sharp edged, and surprisingly small. A living, breathing current of air, an elemental, and it was not friendly. It must have been pure chance, that it was so close as to immediately note the little spark of magic we’d raised, and I was instantly thankful that the stupid thing had chosen to investigate, instead of going back to report the incident to the nearest elemental court.

Ordinary people would not have connected the shattering glass with an elemental invasion, attributing it to accident or bad luck. The living section of the breeze that now permeated my porch had even tossed a fist sized bit of rock in, or had actually used that to break the glass instead of its own strength.

Chris stiffened against me, but I shushed her and kept hold of her, not letting her turn around. I used her body as a sight shield, casting one of the only two offensive spells I had, and cut.

The lifequench spell that I’d used to kill ants was not a spell anyone could use in a real fight, so there were only two. The firefinger spell, and the lifecutter, both unimpressive first order spells. I channeled more power into the tiny spell framework, but not as much as I could have, because I might well have need of a second string to my bow.

A pity the book had not instructed me on the vital spots of elementals, for wizard sight granted me an excellent view of the tangled connections that afforded life to what should not, by any scientific principle, be capable of such.

A section of its essence unraveled, and the wind shrieked its agony, burning our ears.

As it lunged towards me, a solid lance of air, I tossed Chris at a sofa outside the line of strike and jumped back and sideways, trying to garner enough precious seconds to launch another attack.

It was frightfully fast, but the surprise and shock, and the pain it had suffered, granted me the second’s reprieve that allowed me to finish a second spell.

A hot torch of blue spellflames shot from my pointed finger, and it desperately aborted its charge, changing directions and slipping aside – fortunately, away from Chris.

It was blindingly quick, but that advantage of speed was not enough to save it completely. A large section of it burned away, leaving not much more than a third of it intact. I could see the unraveled threads of life fading away. The elemental was finished, dying.

But it had no intention of perishing alone, and it spun around and tossed a chair at me. That was so unexpected, I didn’t react in time. I dodged, but it caught me on the side, and I fell against the wall, losing my breath.

With adrenaline pulsing through my system, I didn’t feel the pain or any spellcasting fatigue, and I was trained to absorb damage and fight on. But I just wasn’t fast enough. Nothing human could be.

No longer a lance, it was now a slender javelin, a visible concentration of near solid air. Everything assumed slow motion play, as I raised my hand to point at it, far too slow. It was flying at me, and would impale me like a stuck butterfly.

Chris moved into my line of vision, and a ray of wavering blue flame struck it, leaping from her pointed finger. I left off trying my own spell, and used the distraction to dodge aside.

Pain! A line of blazing lava spread along my side, and I channeled all of that agony and my rising anger into one last spell, slicing the remnants of the elemental apart.

The roaring in my ears subsided, and the sudden silence was deafening. I stared blankly straight ahead, in shock. The pain was gone, as if the wound had disappeared with the attacker.

Something touched me, and I reacted without thinking, grabbing the hand and twisting. It took less than a second to realize that it was Christine, the same Chris who’d just save my life, and halt the maneuver.

I gasped in pain as she fell on me, and caught her, hugging her close. With the fight apparently over, the reaction was bleeding in, and I was too close to hyperventilating. I took in a deep breath, and looked Christine in the eyes, smiling weakly.

She leaned down, and kissed me. Her lips touched mine, and I opened my mouth, more surprised than anything. Chris’ mouth pressed insistently, her tongue snaking out, and I began to respond. We breathed through our nostrils, and kissed, and kissed. It was a very prolonged and passionate tongue dueling session. It was wonderful. My hands, seemingly of their own accord, went down and began to squeeze and caress her ass, and she moaned into my mouth.

Our lips and tongues danced against each other, and I raised her dress, reaching directly for the soft skin of her buttocks, kneading and pressing. Chris spread her legs and ground herself harder into me.

I could feel her soft breasts digging into me, and the raised nubs of her nipples. Her crotch dug into mine, but I was only half erect. While my mind was feeling all heady and stimulated, my body could not catch up.

I bit her lower lip, chewing on it, and she squealed as my fingers reached beneath her panties, cradling her asscheeks. Her breathing quickened, and the light was bright enough for me to see that she was quite flushed. I could not see more, for I’d abandoned concentration on wizard sight the moment the elemental died.

I dug in further, rolling her soft behind in my hands, and she kissed me harder. Then Chris struggled, drawing back, and sat straddling me. The light from the house shone on her, painting her ghostly white, green, and scarlet, her breasts visibly rising and falling. My hands were still planted on her ass, and I couldn’t stop playing with her rear end.

She seemed to steel herself, then she closed her eyes and grabbed the hem of her green dress, and lifted. She struggled a bit, then got it off, tossing it aside.

In lacy panties and bra, a white only slightly paler than her skin, Chris took my breath away. I reached back with one hand, caressing the smoothness of her stomach, rising slowly.

After a moment, she reached behind her, unclasped her bra, and sent it after the dress. For a moment, I just stared at her breasts, proud pink nipples jutting splendidly. They were magnificent, full, high, and large on her frame, and some buried animalistic instinct had me burning up.

I withdrew my hands and rolled sideways, catching her and cushioning her fall, laying her down gently on the floor. I pinned her to the ground with a kiss, and then rose and tore my shirt off. Skin against silk smooth skin, we kissed and caressed each other with a will, growing hotter and hotter as her nipples burned holes in my chest and our lower bodies mashed together.

I put a hand on her forehead, pushing her head down and breaking our fervid lip-lock, and began trailing kisses down her neck, playing ‘connect the freckles’.

“Yesss,” Chris hissed, as my lips and tongue, with occasional and judicious application of teeth, left her throat to visit a collarbone and trailed slowly down. I nibbled on the upper slopes of her breasts, and then licked down between them, holding each in one hand, hefting them from beneath. This raised them sharply up, and I couldn’t but squeeze my fingers rhythmically, producing a delightful jiggle.

“God!” she shouted, arching her back and raising the pale cones yet higher. I fasten my mouth upon her right breast, locking the lips around her areola and tonguing all around it, leaving a trail of saliva. I raised a hand, and spiraled fingers on the delightful, yielding softness of a breast, driving inward.

I bit down on her right nipple and pinched her left simultaneously, and she bucked beneath me.

“God, yes! Bite my titties, pinch them, lick them,” she started calling out, and her hands, formerly clenched at her sides, rose to direct the movement of my mouth and fingers.

Chris started telling me what she wanted done in a loud, excited voice, pausing frequently for gasps and the occasional moan. It was incredibly arousing, hearing her words.

“Yes, yes! Swallow it all! Pinch it harder, ahh!”

I’m not sure how long I was lost in her bountiful mammaries, before her hips began to thrust against me sharply enough to remind me of another bounty.

When my mouth began its travels downward, she seemed to lose the ability to speak, grunting loudly and breathing up a storm. Such vocal enthusiasm spurred me admirably, and I didn’t spend too much time licking and probing her smooth white belly or her inward turned navel.

When I reached her panty line, I bit down on the delectable, trembling flesh just above, and rose, looking down on her. I laid a single finger at the hollow of her throat, and retraced the journey down, slowly, teasingly.

By now, my cock was trying to burn its way out, and it was growing more than slightly uncomfortable. With my other hand, I wrestled my shoes and pants away, and awkwardly tore down my underwear. By that time, my finger had reached its destination, and I was playing all around her panties, caressing the skin around and then darting beneath, and back outside.

The white material was drenched, and I drew them off slowly, leaving Chris in her red heels. She’d taken the pendant off with the dress.

There was a neatly trimmed bush of reddish curls, darker than her hair, but her sex was utterly bare. Her lips were puffed and reddish, her clit peeking out, and the aroma of sexually excited girl carried a unique tang.

“Come on, god! Eat me, already!” Chris showed that she’d managed to regain coherence, and actually raised herself on her elbows, watching, eyes dilated with passion. “Are you waiting for a written invitation?” she asked plaintively, spreading her legs wider.

“Do you know that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body?” I asked Chris. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

I dove right in. I licked and sucked, devouring her with relish, and her answer dissolved into a long, drawn out, wordless exclamation. I licked along the lips of her cunt, slid in and out, slurping and sloshing in her juices.

Then I raised my head and laid the bottom of my tongue against the nerve bundle of her clit. Chris’ head came up off the floor, her back arched, her eyes grew as big as milk saucers, and her mouth hung wide open. She gasped for air in great gulping lungfuls as though she couldn't breathe. Her hips rose, and her thighs clamped about my head, nearly smothering me.

I grabbed her ankles, and managed to spread her legs again with a great deal of effort. Splayed open, she was even more vulnerable and accessible, and I focused on her clit, closing my lips on it and sucking, lashing it with my tongue at unpredictable intervals.

“OH GOD! FUCK! YES!” Chris screamed as she bucked and twisted, shuddered and yelled loud enough to bring the rafters down. If we’d had any neighbours, they’d have called the police to report a multiple homocide.

I loved the way Chris reacted so vocally, and allowed her thighs to clamp about my head, slightly muffling the painfully loud sounds she was making. I continued to abuse her cunt and clit as she wailed away and vibrated, alternately tongue fucking her, plunging inside as deep as my tongue could reach and flailing all about her hot, moist interior, and concentrating on her clit.

Her screaming peaked and faded, then her shuddering spasms renewed and the volume rose.

“Enough, please, enough, too, much,” she finally managed to gasp out, and I left off her oversensitive parts, playing with the remarkably soft hair of her pubes.

“Fuck,” she sighed after she’d recovered a bit, “but you really know how to show a girl a good time. Great food, real magic, monsters and mayhem, and this. I’ve never come like that. Where did you learn how to do that?”

“Which one? Just kidding,” I hastened to add. “Well, you know me. I research things. Do you really think I’ve looked at sex any more casually than at anything else I consider important?”

“Of course,” Chris gave me a weak smile, “must be the result of all that terribly boring work with instruction manuals. But aren’t you supposed to come, too?” she looked a trifle concerned. “I don’t think I can take more orgasms. I’d just die.”

“Come now, Chris, surely you’re not that innocent,” I shot her a raunchy leer. “We can’t fuck yet, as much as we might want to, but there are other things we can do.”

“CAN’T fuck?” she asked, looking stunned. “What do you mean? Are you…?”

“No, no,” I hurried, “nothing bad. It’s just, there’s a magical ritual that will make us true wizards, and we need to maintain technical virginity for that. In less than a month, I promise. I’ll show you the book of wizardry, and you can learn everything directly from it. Later.”

“Ok,” she said weakly. “Ahem, you said other things. Oh! You want a blowjob, you cad you. And on our first official date. I’m such a slut,” she seemed to revel in the word, rather than showing shame.

“I’ve never… you know. You’ll have to tell me what to do.”

“With pleasure,” I said, face composed. “I was just wondering, why are you so smooth down there? I’ll be the first to admit that it makes oral sex more comfortable, but…”

“Oh,” she blushed simply scarlet, “that.”

“Yes, that.”

“It was a dare, with Kris. She dared me. Kristen, I mean,” she added, realizing that there was ample room for confusion.

“You know, I get the strangest feeling,” I paused for dramatic effect, “that you’re very… ‘interested’ in your best friend.”

Chris turned red enough to match her hair, and looked aside. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “I know it’s wrong. Utterly perverted. I’m not a lesbian. But…”

“No, no, I didn’t mean anything negative by it. You’re obviously not lesbian, or you wouldn’t have jumped me. Bisexuality is common enough, and you need to acknowledge it or you’ll just hurt yourself. Perversity is the heart of human sexuality, for some perverse reason. The fact that it’s ‘wrong’ or ‘dirty’ just makes it more exciting. Doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, I suppose, if you say so, Dr. Ruth,” she mumbled.

“Who?”

She actually rolled her eyes at me, “Never mind. I think I owe you a blowjob? And then you’ll tell me all about magic? Do we have a bargain?”

“Signed, annotated and sealed,” I nodded solemnly. “Now, the thing to remember is, gentle. Watch for the teeth, use lots of tongue, and suction. There are many of tricks to it, but you can work your way up to them.”

“Oh?” she stuck her tongue out, “It was ONE blowjob for the secrets of magic, oh not so great bargainer of a wizard.”

“Right, so we’ll start with one. And please do my fragile male ego one favor, and try to swallow the first time?” I entreated.

“We’ll see. Now sit down, and let mama Chris take care of you, baby,” she sighed as she got up, coming to kneel at my feet.

I sat down and leaned back, after placing my discarded clothes beneath where her knees would go, and pondered just how much influence the bound loyalty of wizard to archwizard had on her behaviour. An awful lot was my instant conclusion, but I had no regrets, or room for them. Certainly, she’d never have admitted anything about her feelings for Kristen without the loyalty bond. I could obsess over this forever, always asking myself if this or that was the result of compulsion, or simply ignore it. There was only one sensible choice.

Chris placed her mouth on the head of my cock, just holding it there for a minute. Then her tongue came out to join in the fun. She began licking the tip, going around and around. Slowly, steadily, she began encompassing more and more of it. My breathing was getting heavier, my grip on the chair tightening. I groaned as she began to apply suction, thinking ‘damn, but she’s a natural’, before beginning to thrust out at her.

“Oh, put your hand on the part that’s not in your mouth,” I gasped out, “that’ll stop me from plunging in. The thrusting is not voluntary,” I breathed in deeply in an attempt to regain composure, and utterly lost it when she began humming and reached out to play with my balls.

‘The bitch lied!’ was my foremost thought as I erupted and exploded, an attempt to warn her drowned in a loud groan.

I collapsed back in the chair, and it was a short while before my eyes could focus. Chris was using a finger to wipe the dribble of my last spurt of cum, and taking it into her mouth.

When she saw that I’d returned to the world and was watching her, she tilted her head back and said, defensively, “It’s not that bad.”

“Whoa, love, that’s not something I’d ever complain about. Let me guess, you’ve been doing your own reading? Or did Kristen tell you all about it?”

“Well,” she seemed a bit embarrassed, “not really Kristen. She’s more of a tomboy, mad about soccer of all things. But girls do talk, and I can read and have internet access. You know how that goes,” she fairly squirmed.

“Come here,” I reached out and brought her up, her shapely, bare behind settling on me.

For a few minutes we just cuddled, and I nibbled on her ear and neck. I don’t know how she felt, but I was crashing and burning. Spells and sex are a deadly combination.

“The food,” I said.

“Fuel for magic?” she asked.

“Right. Told you you’re smart. There’s a lot more to discuss. Let’s take a shower, and talk over some more food. Lots more food.”

The shower was very pleasant, but I kept it short. Rubbing soap all over a naked Chris was quite a treat, but I was too close to collapse. In retrospect, I was amazed that I’d managed an erection. I’d always read that danger heightened the sex drive, and supposed that, plus age sixteen resiliency (read: unending lust) were to account for it.

Over a second enormous and excellent meal, I introduced Chris to the book, which also deigned to inform me that once I managed to enhance myself with the ritual, I’d be able to enhance my wizards, even if they had yet to master the third circle of life. This ability, fortunately, was limited to archwizards. Ordinary lone wizards had to do things the hard way, which probably meant that there weren’t many powerful wizards. The spells were terribly difficult, and innate talent alone was not enough.

I would have had severe doubts concerning my own chances of breaking the second circle, were it not for the book’s blasé attitude and utter certainty.

Chris was astounded and excited by the revelations, and took my need for binding more wizards with sex with surprising equanimity. The loyalty compulsion? Or perhaps it just didn’t seem real, amidst all the fantastic revelations.

Chris also showed her worth. “Say, Logan, this Conclave. If they were great powerful archwizards, wouldn’t they have golems and spell driven machines and such?”

Each archwizard and the Conclave as a whole kept war and utility machines, both semi-intelligent golems and the creations you would refer to as ‘mechas’ or ‘warstriders’, great enhancement suits of armor built for mortals. The Conclave did not possess your sense of morality, and these suits feed on a mortal’s life force, killing any user after a single battle or prolonged period of use.

It is likely that a few storehouses of such machines remain hidden, particularly in the area you know as Siberia, but they require authorization codes that cannot be found outside the archives of the Archimagical College.

“Chris? It’s getting late. Am I correct in assuming there’s no way in hell you can spend the night?”

“Unfortunately,” she smiled sadly.

“I can pick you up tomorrow at ten in the morning. We’ll spend the day studying magic,” I smiled at her.

“I work tomorrow,” Chris protested.

“So? Quit your job. With magic, eventually money will be meaningless. If you need something, just ask, and you can repay me or not, at your will. We wizards must stick together, or we’ll hang apart. You saw, well… almost saw, very graphic evidence of that just this evening. A passing Zephyr, one of the least of the air elementals, noticed our existence, and came very close to killing us. We need to grow stronger, we need to stay together. Hell, invite your friend Kris. If she has the talent, we’ll have us another wizard. And maybe,” I smiled at her, “you’ll get to have some fun with her. I’ll see what I can do,” I twisted away from another kick aimed at my shin.

“Whatever you do,” I stared Chris in the eyes, completely serious for once, “Don’t ever teach anyone magic. You mustn’t. It would have lethal results. The book is required to initiate my talent, and only I have the proper connection to it,” I lied to her by telling the literate, absolute truth. Lethal results, because I’d probably, eventually, kill any unbound wizard. The book had called me obsessive, suspicious and uncompromising, and I couldn’t argue. I was a true maniac.

I drove her home in silence, but it was a warm, contented silence. She had a lot of information to digest, and I left her to it.

We parted with a kiss that starting growing into something more, before we drew apart with a sheepish exchange of looks.

“I’ll talk to Kris,” Chris promised me, “see you tomorrow. I’ll give my notice tomorrow, too. Good night, Logan!”

The first thing I did once I returned home was secure all of Kristen’s details. It was a simple matter, as I had a routine ready and all I needed was her basic personal information. Since she went to Christine’s high school, and was in the same grade since they’d gone to kinder-garden together, the information was quickly available via the school’s computer. I entered the information and activated the program, and went to bed. This time, I managed the ‘good sleep’ ritual.