Cam's Coterie

I turned around at the growl, and I saw my sexy shifter in hybrid form for the first time. She had bright red fur the color of her hair on her arms, legs, and even somewhat on her face. Her face was slightly changed, a little more pushed out with long eye teeth. She actually looked really hot, but it was possible I was biased. I also felt her deeply and fiercely violent devotion for me, and her need to protect her alpha. She'd be faster, stronger, and tougher in that form, but also more animalistic with fifty percent of her instincts leaning that way.

"They probably should have shielded for it then, I'm a bit surprised that worked."

It was kind of a standoff, they were down the hallway, and I was hiding in a room wanting to use a doorway as a choke point. Still, giving them more time to plan seemed like a bad idea. I also didn't want to waste the throwing daggers I had left, they were too far away and would easily deflect them, either with sword or magic.

I tilted my head, and pointed at the wall, and whispered, "Make me a doorway."

Faith grinned ferally, and she attacked the rather inoffensive wall with abandon. It wasn't long before the thin wood wall had a huge hole, and we moved into it.

I pointed at the next wall.

The witch in charge said, "You can't beat us all, give up. One of the apprentices must be halfway to the city guards by now, they'll help us flush you out into the open."

I looked at Cassia in question, and she just rolled her eyes and shook her head. It was a bluff then, surely she'd have known about that part of their security plans, if the apprentices were truly responsible for such a thing.

Still, eleven to one odds was bad enough, I needed to improvise fast, before they did. I knew Cassia's offensive spells wouldn't work at all, not against the circle. The heart and conscious mind was among the very basic in nature of the human body, they'd have no trouble protecting that part of their nature at all. It was probably why they felt comfortable teaching those death spells to apprentices.

We moved into the next room, and we were a good twenty feet closer as I stuck my head and left arm out of the doorway, and I flicked a dagger at the mouthy bitch.

Her sword flashed up, and hit the dagger, but not squarely. It wobbled and flipped to the side as it was knocked off course, but still dug into her upper chest by her shoulder instead of her heart.

A few of them started to cast, but even the shortest spells took a second or two, and I ducked back into room as the woman screamed in pain and anger. Bright blood flew, but I knew she'd have it healed in moments.

I tilted my head, and I stared at the full-sized mirror above the dresser, that was held in a sturdy oak frame for a second. It was a crazy plan, but it certainly counted as improvisation. It was easily eight feet wide, and about three feet tall up and down. I pointed at it, and I gave a significant look at Faith as I mouthed silently, "Battering ram."

She grinned, and walked over to the wall, and ripped the mirror off the hooks, turned it sideways so it was tall, and then raced out of the doorway with it.

I followed quickly as the circle started to chant, and we raced down the hallway together crouched down behind the large mirror.

They weren't standing bunched up, but they were all fairly close together in the large hallway. The witches finished casting, but the spells missed us, either being stopped by the oak backing of the mirror, just like a wall, or flying harmlessly past us.

Of course, they danced out of the way and put their backs to the walls when we reached them, but then I was among them as Faith easily read my feelings and intentions and stopped dead in the hallway, holding up the mirror like a shield before her.

The only witch we were exposed to, was the first witch on the left, and I darted in her direction, parried her swing as I kicked out and slammed my heel against her forehead, which knocked her head into the wall hard stunning her. My sword swung out and parted her head from her shoulders, she didn't even attempt to parry as I stepped back behind the mirror and my fox shifter.

Ten more to go.

Faith took another step forward, and I faked to the right, then spun back left and threw a dagger. It hit the bitch in the throat, and it pinned her to the wall as her lifeblood spilled. Nine left.

They finally adapted, two of them rushed forward, I could feel their magic, as they could no doubt feel my witch magic and location. They both kicked the back of the mirror hard simultaneously, which both caused the wood to crack, and it sent Faith back a few steps. I steadied her as they kicked again, and they rushed around the sides to ambush us.

Faith roared, and swung the mirror to the right, and slammed the bitch back into the wall, as I pivoted to the left and met another with my sword. My quicker speed made the end of that fight inevitable, just as I'd consistently beaten my mother in a straight fight for over two years, as we exchanged a quick flurry of parries and blows, until I cut her wrist and she dropped her sword, and her throat quickly followed.

I spun right, just in time to watch Faith finish off her stunned opponent with a powerful kick to her jaw that snapped her neck. It was a familiar kick, the one that'd almost killed me when I claimed her two nights ago, but the witch had been stunned by the mirror hit and hadn't been fast enough to dodge like I'd done. Seven left.

One of the others had been casting a longer spell through that last skirmish, and when it hit the mirror the thing broke into a million pieces and disintegrated in Faith's hands. Shit, one of them had finally gotten a clue and attacked our cover instead of a spell to hurt one of us. Half of them were dead, but I still didn't like those odds without using tricks to tweak them by a whole lot. I also didn't have much of a choice, and I lunged forward with a sword in my right hand, and a dagger in the other.

None of them were a match for me with the sword, but I had no choice but to fight two of them at once, while the other five started to cast. Fighting two wasn't easy, and it negated a lot of my speed advantage as I had to parry and dodge two sword wielding witches trying to skewer me at once.

To my horror, Faith tackled one of them, taking a slice into her side for her efforts, but I used the opening to quickly put down the other one. I started for the second, but Faith tore the bitch's head off with her claws. She was also bleeding freely as she sluggishly tried to rise.

Then I got hit by five spells at once.

The painful burning sensation of my own magic on my skin rivaled the pain of the crawling feeling of ants with needle legs all over my body that was the enemies' spells. My magic burned through the spells quickly, but it drained me by almost half of my magic to do it, and my skin and head felt raw and stiff.

Then they started to chant again as the last five walked quickly backwards down the hallway, to gain distance.

I charged with a scream, and two more stepped forward to meet me even as they continued to chant their spell. I flicked the dagger in my left hand, and I felt a surge of relief as the bitch took it right under the chin and went down with a gurgle and glassy eyes, I must've severed her spinal cord for her to switch off so fast.

Another came forward to take her place, but not fast enough, as I savagely knocked away the second witch's sword, and then punched forward and slammed the pommel into her face, the blade had been far too wide to bring back in time. That punch dazed her, and by then my left hand had found my last dagger, pulled it, and whipped forward like a cobra strike to slam it into her eye to the hilt.

I stepped back as she collapsed, to meet the first's replacement, even as their spells finally finished and I was hit with three more simultaneously. It hurt like a bitch, but not nearly as badly as five, and I had at least a quarter of my magic left.

The third witch in the back, turned and ran for the stairway as I faced off with the last two.

I couldn't allow that, and threw my last dagger, it sunk into the cowardly bitch's back and impaled her heart.

One of my other knives, in the corpses behind me, suddenly flew past me in a blur. Faith wasn't all that good with throwing knives yet, as far as judging the spin and distance, but despite the fact the pommel of the dagger hit the witch in the chest, and not the blade, it still knocked the witch bitch back on her ass and made her gasp for breath.

That gave me the opening I needed, to finish off the one on the left, before I decapitated the one on the right. I was covered in sweat, my skin still burned in a phantom way from the remembered pain, but all the coven's circle and full sisters were dead.

I turned and looked Faith up and down, she'd stopped bleeding and looked fierce.

She said, "I'm fine, we heal wounds very quickly from non-silver weapons, as long as it's not immediately fatal."

Huh, her naturally sultry bedroom voice coming from her fierce half-shifted battle form was a little startling.

"Good. Daggers."

She nodded, and helped me police up all my daggers, clean them, and get them sheathed.

"Are you both alright?" asked Cassia in a worried voice, having to hide while we fought witches far out of her league had obviously taken its toll on her. She'd be able to help against the apprentices though, if they got in our way.

"We're fine, library?"

She nodded, "End of the hall."

Huh, that made sense, they'd keep it close, and apprentices probably weren't allowed on the third floor without a full-sister as an escort.

I felt a chill as something magical flowed past me.

I shivered, "Did anyone else feel that? It felt like an active spell."

My witch side could feel witches, and their quiescent magic, but my Cambion side could feel any active magic, not just a witch spell. Not so much quiescent magic though, that was just my witch side and just for witches.

They both shook their head, and I shook mine, "Let's go."

We moved to the end of the hall, and the door was locked. I kicked it open, and once again felt the burn of a magical trap against my skin, but just like in the stairway earlier it burned off with only a tiny bit of magic. We moved inside, and Cassia gasped.

"What?"

Cassia pointed at one of the book shelves. It was smaller than the rest in the room, and much more elaborately carved and decorated. It was also empty.

"Is that where..." I trailed off in question.

Cassia nodded, "Yes, the three tomes of knowledge should be there. What the hell?"

"What about the rest of the books?"

Cassia sighed, and shook her head, "General knowledge I read already, most of it isn't even about magic but are examinations of the natural world to help a witch define what they already feel and know, to make the knowledge of the natural world more profound. The spells I learned from the coven were from verbal teaching, just a few of the spells that were inside the missing books. How is this possible?"

I frowned, "I don't know. That spell I felt a minute ago, it felt like someone walking by. I mean, it moved slowly, like a person, it didn't fly by us like a spell would have. Maybe we aren't the only ones that broke in tonight."

Cassia shook her head doubtfully, "What are the chances of that happening, they just happen to break in and steal the most valuable witch knowledge in all of Cyrene on the same night we attack?"

My eyes narrowed, she was right, coincidence was far too unlikely, and that meant there was only once possible answer, even if I didn't like the idea that we hadn't been cautious enough.

"They had to do it that way. Someone must've heard us planning, must've heard how valuable the tomes are. It's the only thing that makes sense of this. A thief would never be able to steal it, not without a hell of a distraction, and someone else setting off the intruder wards first to concentrate the defenses, so they wouldn't be noticed."

Cassia asked in a soft lost voice, "So, what do we do?"

I replied confidently, "We do what the coterie was made for. We track down the son of a bitch and get you the knowledge I promised. What race do you know, that can use magic to cloak themselves in invisibility and silence?"

I knew the answer of course, I was trying to get her to focus on the solution instead of the disappointment that must've been churning in her gut in that moment.

Cassia looked at me gratefully, then tilted her head, "Either a Drow, or possibly a vampire."

Neither were very common in Mythfall.

Cassia asked, "How will we find them?"

I frowned, "We'll start back at the inn, figure out who listened to us, and who they gave the information too. It has to be either another coven that knows a vampire, or maybe the city's thieves' guild. A vampire would make a fantastic thief."

Faith said, "So would a Drow."

I nodded, "But they'd be more likely to be an assassin or spy, enough talk. We still have to get out of here."

Cassia shook her head, "One more thing. I would've felt a listener at our door, but probably not through the walls."

"I'm betting it's one of the maids, or someone else that works there. Or at least, I hope so, because if it was a customer, they'll be long gone by the time we get back."

There was no one to stop us leaving, the apprentices had fled, perhaps sensing the deaths of their mistresses. I was more than fine with that, as long as they never came after me or mine, I had no quarrel with them at all.

Chapter Eleven

Call it the excitement, the danger, the violence, whatever it was the three of us were all keyed up, and our libidos were boiling over by the time we got back to the room. My heart pounded like a jack hammer in anticipatory lust. It added a whole new dimension and need to my normal powerfully driving lust and need, and I was as hard as rock when we got inside the room and I closed the door. Sure, we had things to do, and books to find, but we weren't going to find anything out about anything at three in the morning.

Cassia, my sweet Cassia, looked so vulnerable and sexy as I pulled her against me. Her warm brown eyes both pleased and a little shocked that I'd chosen to take her first. In truth, I was switching back and forth that way to keep things fair, but I wasn't about to explain that to the sexy minx in that moment. Her soft sumptuous body felt good against mine, and her full lips were slightly parted as a breathy moan left her mouth even before my lips crashed down on hers in a possessively intense and passionate kiss.

I stroked her body just the way she liked it, while skillfully stripping her body of her clothes in short order. It wasn't long before she was complete putty in my hands.

My sexy Faith helped Cassia divest me of my clothes, and then stared at us both with a hungry gaze as she started to strip and move toward the table and chairs to watch, and quite possibly diddle herself while doing so. I dismissed Faith from my mind at that point, and focused all my energy, attention, and lust on my sweet witch.

She was so beautiful, truly, with straight light brown hair that fell down her body like a silk curtain, warm and needy brown eyes, and with a breathtaking innocent beauty to her face that softened my heart and hardened my cock, in equal measure.

She was breathy, gasping, and making other needy sounds of pleasure by the time she was naked and wrapped tightly in my arms, and I picked her up by her tight heart-shaped ass cheeks and took her towards the bed. Her toned legs wrapped around my middle tightly, as she ground her satiny liquid arousal-soaked heat along the length of my very thick seven-and-a-half-inch cock that she loved being fucked by so much.

I moaned softly, and said in an inexorable tone of voice, "My sweet witch, my sexy Cassia, I'm going to fuck you now."

She trembled at my commanding tone and words, and then moaned deeply into my mouth as I reclaimed her lips. She squeaked, then melted further as I spanked and then squeezed her ass possessively. She gasped in unison with me as I lifted her slightly, and I dropped her on my cock violently, penetrating her halfway as I impaled her.

The bliss of her hot, soft, and wet pussy gripping my tip and first few inches in a vise of pure pleasure was heavenly.

"Cam," she sighed my name, half in pleasure and half beggingly as she ground down and tightened her legs, taking another inch of me into her youthfully supple and sinfully sexy body.

"You want something, my Cassia?" I asked teasingly as I crawled onto the bed with my knees, and I lowered her gently onto her back as I leaned in and pushed in as far as the movement had taken me out, and then some.

She ground up into me in wanton surrender, as she moaned deeply.

"Yes, please Cam," she said in her sweet breathy pleasure filled voice. She was so sexy, and I played her body like a virtuoso with my hands, raising up her heated need, as I slowly and inexorably moved in and out of her until I was fully buried in her hot and tight heaven.

"Please what?" I asked teasingly.

She blushed up at me, and then squeezed around me tightly, gasped, and arched her back as I violently pinched and twisted her nipples, just how she liked it done when she's that hot and warmed up in my hands. Fuck, she was so sexy, so beautiful, and I needed to fuck her so badly. I needed to hear her scream my name in pleasure, but I waited, made her wait, even as I continued to tease her sensuously sexy body further with my sure and pleasure inducing hands.

She said softly, beggingly, "You know what I want, Cam. Fuck me, claim me, rut in me until you fill me. I need it, Cam, I need you."

"You're mine," I said in a brashly confident tone that made her squeeze around me, then she arched her body and ground up into me, drawing a gasp of pleasure from both our lips.

She bit her lip, and nodded, "I am yours, now take what's yours, please... Cam, fuck me, don't make me beg," she begged.

I started to fuck her with everything I had right out of the gate, full, long, and hard strokes, though she was adjusted it made her gasp and tremble for a moment, but then she arched her back, squeezed me with her legs, and started to fuck me right back with lustful abandon, as she wildly impaled her sweet sex up and onto my cock, as I drilled down into her tight nubile welcoming body with everything I had.

It was wild, unrestrained, and a true animalistic rutting as our bodies slammed into one another's over and over again. My hands were on her hips, waist, tits, and stomach, teasing her body and raising her pleasure, as the mind-boggling pleasure of our heated, soft, and wet friction overwhelmed my own pleasure-addled senses. She was so beautiful, so sexy, so... mine.

All mine.

Fuck if I wasn't hers too, she was a wild sexpot in bed, and my sweet witch.

"Cam!" she screamed as her fingernails dug into my chest, and her legs locked around my body like a vise as her sweet sex did the same to my cock.

She trembled violently, quivered around my cock, and started to explode around me, and flushed my cock, balls, thighs, and even the bed with one of her rare and powerful squirts.

I moaned as my nostrils flared as the scent of her liquid bliss filled and overwhelmed my senses.

"Mine," I growled possessively, as I buried myself hard and a deep wave of ecstasy broke over my body and mind, at the same time my cock expanded and started to pulse inside her quivering hot and tight sex.

When I could move, I started to fuck her again, hard and fast, and her eyes widened in shock and pleasure as I continued to take her without rest. She came around me powerfully, three more times, before I filled her for the second time that night.

I kissed her gently, as she came down from her height for the fourth time, and softly caressed her face. I rose up as I broke the kiss, and I looked deeply into her lovely brown eyes as her legs released me, but her pussy tightened for a moment, as if loath to give up my residence inside of her sexpot body. I wasn't in any hurry to pull out yet either.