7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The main house was definitely starting to come alive in a way it never had before her father's death. Sure, he'd thrown frequent huge parties, but the people who attended had never felt like part of the household. A number of guards had moved from the barracks into the main house over the last few days, taking over rooms that had long stood empty, and some of the folks who Mari had thought were temporary additions simply never left, like Willow.

Rio and Willow frequently had breakfast together, their heads bent to look at Willow's notes as they discussed some plan for the club or the coming party. Willow had an extraordinary head for logistics and organization, and that all made so much more sense once Mari discovered that they were a sphinx. There was nothing a sphinx loved more than data. Spreadsheets and lists were positively catnip to them.

Pricilla and Dante were new additions who both seemed to fit into the evolving dynamic seamlessly, becoming friendly with the house witches and guards almost at once. Giselle already gave Dante an extra serving of dessert every night, and she didn't do that for anyone.

Nerves nearly overwhelmed Mari every time she thought too much about how her relationship with Dante was going to progress. It had seemed so simple when she asked Dante to come work for them as a submissive, but every time he sent one of his panty-melting smiles her way she wanted to run into a different room. What exactly was she supposed to do to kick things off?

Cisco strolled into the dining room with a tablet in his hand. He glanced up at Mari and grinned when he saw her expression. "Dante, be ready tonight at eight. I'll send Rio for you. Don't bother wearing a shirt."

Dante blinked up at him, and then his lips curled in a slow smile. "Sounds like a good time."

Mari was still blushing when Pricilla came in a while later, looking at all of them like she was trying to figure out what had everyone on edge.

The conversation around the table centered on the renovations. Their designer, Clovis, was working overtime, collecting requirements and hiring workers to do the jobs. He and Willow had disappeared into the grand ballroom and spent an entire day there before closing off the area and telling anyone who inquired that it was a surprise.

As far as Mari was concerned, they could tear those rooms down to the studs, especially the room her father had held his private parties in. Willow had assured that when they were done it would be unrecognizable, and that they were having someone come in and scrub every bit of magical residue that might be lingering, and that was good enough for Mari.

"How soon will we be doing the first party?" Mari asked when Willow came to her office for a meeting after breakfast wrapped up.

"Clovis says he can have the modifications to the ballroom done in two more weeks, so I'm planning on the last Thursday of the month. Is that okay?"

Mari raised an eyebrow. Just in time for Halloween. She didn't know if that was perfect or ominous. "Do I even want to know the price tag on getting that done so quickly?"

"Cisco cleared it already, but I can pull up the numbers if you want to see them." Willow turned their binder to a page with a bright blue tab. "He and I have been working on the timing for the renovations to make sure everything with high priority gets done first."

Mari waved her hand. "No, that's okay, as long as Cisco is on it I don't need to know the details." Honestly, all those numbers just made her head spin if she started thinking about them, especially when she started thinking about things that wouldn't happen for months.

"So, the last Thursday of the month. How is the caterer that Giselle suggested?"

"Perfect. I just did a tasting yesterday and I'm working with them on the menu. We'll have samples for the three of you to try probably next week."

"Great. And you're working with Bren for the entertainment list. I know Rio has opinions on the DJ. What else have we got to talk about?"

Willow cleared their throat. "Are you going to want to do an orgy?"

Mari laughed. "Of all the questions I never thought I'd get asked. No, this isn't going to be an event to gather magic the way it was for my father."

Willow nodded. "I just wanted to make sure. Some sex witches enjoy them. Others are more private."

"I don't mind a little voyeurism, but I really don't want to plan it as part of the entertainment if that makes sense. Could we set it up like the first floor of the club? Where people can partake if they want or they can retire to private areas if that's what they prefer."

"Yeah, that's doable." Willow made a few notes. They looked at their watch. "Okay, that's all I've got. I'm on my way to a meeting with Clovis."

"Tell him I said hi."

"Will do." Willow reached the door just as Rio was coming in with Mari's second cup of coffee. They shared a smile and a brief word before going their separate ways.

Rio put her coffee on the desk. "Do you want me to stay for the training or would you rather I leave the two of you alone?"

Mari thanked him with a nod as she lifted her cup for a sip. As always, it was perfect. The deep and complex aroma calmed her a little. "I think stay? I'm not sure. I have no idea how terrible I'm going to be at this. Maybe I'll be too embarrassed for you to watch me fail."

"I don't think that's likely," Pricilla said as she entered, pausing to close the door behind her. "Today is mostly going to be for me to figure out where you are."

Mari let out a sigh. "I'm mostly nowhere."

"I don't believe that for a second. I've felt the wards and your ambient magic." She tilted her head graciously toward Rio as he brought a chair around for her so she could sit beside Mari.

After taking her seat, she crossed her ankles. "Okay, let's start with something simple just to get the jitters out. Can you make a privacy shield?"

"No, he never wanted me to learn any kind of shielding."

"We hate him." Pricilla's lips thinned into a scowl. "Well, that's a great place to start because it's unlikely you'll blow anything up doing that."

Pricilla spent the next two hours teaching Mari how to shield herself with her magic in various ways, acoustically, magically, and visually. It was slow work because Mari didn't understand how to make her magic cooperate with the delicate weaves Pricilla tried to show her. Brute force didn't work at all, which is how she'd mostly gotten along to this point, it was more like an exercise in coaxing.

"It's interesting. Your magic isn't like anything I've ever felt," Pricilla commented, her eyes closed. Mari could see them flicking back and forth behind her lids as though she were reading. "It's wilder." She took a slow, deep breath.

Mari felt Pricilla's magic swell until it started to invade her space.

"See how mine is smooth?"

Mari let her awareness glide over the edge of the bubble around Pricilla. "Yeah, like a marble. There's a very defined edge. Mine is…" She didn't know what hers was, aside from not at all like the other sex witch's.

"Not like that at all," Pricilla said, echoing Mari's thoughts. "The edges are rough, not really jagged but textured somehow." Pricilla made a face as she tried to find the right words. "It's like the edges are fuzzy."

"Do you think that's because of what Dohal told me? Am I not a sex witch?"

"Oh, you definitely are. I think you might not just be a sex witch though." Pricilla opened her eyes. "So, are you ready to start the awkward part? I want to see something." She grinned.

"Yeah," Mari said with caution. "What do you have in mind?"

"I want to see what it's like when you're aroused. Second date and all." Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "Pick your poison."

Mari looked over her shoulder to where Rio sat in the sun. He watched them from his lounge with interest, his book forgotten in his lap. When she beckoned him with a wave, he got up right away and moved toward her.

He stood behind her quietly for a moment, as if he was deciding what to do, then he reached down to tip her chin up, angling her head back so she could see him looking down at her. With a heart-melting smile, he let his fingers slide down over the column of her throat. Her magic stretched out into the room before she could even try to contain it. His hand kept moving, drifting down over her collarbone and then her sternum.

"Holy shit," Pricilla said, her voice unsteady. "Is it always like that?"

Rio chuckled. "That's nothing." He leaned down to favor her with a chaste kiss.

Her power strained for him. She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss her properly. His lips parted easily at her insistence, a slight purr rising from his throat.

"Woah, okay." Pricilla laughed. "Stop."

Mari straightened in her chair, leveling her gaze at the other sex witch. A part of her was irritated with the interruption. She wanted this. Needed this. Her magic wrapped around Pricilla, hungry and aching.

Pricilla groaned, her eyes dropping to the floor between them. "I know you're not doing it on purpose but I need you to dial that back." Her voice sounded the slightest bit strained, worried even.

That brought Mari back to herself with a start. She tried to claw back the magic, but it was so wild, so unruly, that she couldn't quite get hold of it as it spiraled away from her.

"Through the focus," Pricilla said through clenched teeth.

Mari tried to channel the power, and thought for a heart-stopping moment that drew out forever that she wouldn't be able to wrangle it, but then she forced the tangled mass of it through the necklace. The magic that flowed out from her now was more docile, more biddable. She pulled it back into herself and sighed with relief as it settled under her skin. Across the way she saw Pricilla do the same.

Rio crouched next to her. "Did something happen?"

Pricilla shifted a little in her seat. "Her magic didn't appreciate being interrupted. It was like being caught in a riptide." She shook her head. "My power wanted to join with yours. That's not something that generally happens so easily."

"Or without your consent?" Mari reached out to Rio for comfort. He took her hand with a smile, the contact soothing in a way Mari would never be able to articulate. She didn't like what her power was doing of its own accord recently. Maybe encouraging it was a terrible idea.

"Well, it's not that simple. My magic did consent, enthusiastically and wholeheartedly." The wry twist to her voice made it seem like that was something she did not appreciate. "The force of your desire is…" She trailed off as if she didn't want to say what she was thinking and then continued after a moment, "Formidable. I've never felt anything like it."

Mari tightened her fingers around Rio's. "Dohal said I couldn't be controlled. Is that what he meant? Am I dangerous?"

Pricilla gestured absently. "I don't know that I would say dangerous. I wasn't expecting what happened so I got swept up in it. I was also already flexing my magic and it wanted to play. I'll be more cautious next time."

Mari appraised the other witch again, more slowly this time. The halo of her power was still there, but smaller. "Did I take some of your magic?"

Pricilla wrinkled her nose. "Not exactly. More like it went running to you, as if it was filling a void. This is what I was talking about when I said I'd be vulnerable to you. Denying you hurt. I could do it when I focused, but I didn't want to."

Mari pulled her hand away from Rio. He looked concerned, but didn't reach out to her again. "That sounds like I'm some kind of monster. Like I could suck you dry without even meaning to."

"That's a bit dramatic. First, our kind of magic regenerates, so even if you took it all I might be exhausted for a while but I'd be fine by tomorrow. Second, like I said, I wasn't ready for it to be like that. Once I figured out what was happening I could exert some control." Pricilla straightened her skirt and smiled. "And third, I'm a pretty great teacher. We'll get you sorted out and hopefully once we do your magic will be a little less grabby."

Mari must have looked as skeptical as she felt about that, because Pricilla continued, "When I told you to run the magic through the focus you did, and everything calmed down quickly. The fact that you don't want to harm or take advantage of anyone is what keeps you from being a monster, not what you can do."

Rio dragged her into his arms again, as if to prove he wasn't afraid of her. He kissed her temple and then nuzzled in. "I don't believe for a second you're some kind of monster, Mari."

She squeezed him tight and hoped he was right.

* * *

Mari relaxed in the waning autumn sunshine following a lovely picnic meal that Giselle had prepared for the entire household. She was stretched out alongside Pricilla on a blanket watching the guards playing the most disorganized game of soccer that Mari had ever seen. There didn't seem to be any real rules, aside from showboating and grandstanding seeming to be worth extra points, at least judging by the way they were all behaving.

There also didn't seem to be actual teams. Rather than shirts and skins, everyone was skins because all of the shirts had come off once things started heating up.

A chorus of jeers rose up as Tilly performed a particularly thrilling flying tackle and drove Kima into the ground.

Pricilla watched the game with a puzzled expression. "I feel like I no longer understand who's winning."

Kima's resounding growl shook the air around them, but she didn't move to unseat Tilly who held her pinned, though she clearly had the strength to do so if she wished.

"I think there are no real losers here," Mari murmured as her eyes roamed from them to take in the golden form of Rio who stood watching them with the ball under his foot and a wide grin.

Karma pounced on Rio out of nowhere and while he was trying to dislodge her from his back, Dasher stole the ball to a roar of laughter from those around them. Kima used Tilly's momentary distraction to flip her onto her back. Tilly struggled to get out from under her until Kima leaned close and licked up the side of her face slowly. Tilly froze, and then tilted her head toward Kima, her eyes drifting closed.

Dasher was running straight at Mari and Pricilla, though his attention was behind him on his pursuers. He was half a dozen strides from bowling them over and closing fast. A fast-moving furry form interposed itself at the last moment, shouldering Dasher off his path so that he darted around them rather than crashing through.

The gray-gold stare of a large spotted cat panned their way, first over Pricilla and the Mari, and then Samar hissed in Dasher's direction.

As if that was a signal that all of them had been waiting for, every shifter shucked their clothes and transformed. What had been a chaotic game turned over to a whole new level. Furry bodies clashed all around them. None of the fights were serious, and no blood was shed, but it was now a much more violent and feral game.

Samar grumbled with annoyance and positioned himself between Pricilla and Mari, glaring around him in a challenge. His long, fuzzy tail curled around Pricilla protectively. The other sex witch didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were wide, taking in the growling play fights happening all around them.

Mari smiled to herself and wondered if there was something going on there that she didn't know about.

Rio batted Karma alongside her wide wolf head with one paw to encourage her to release him and then slinked over to Mari, laying his front paws and head across her legs and yowling a warning when anyone got too close.

She stroked him between his velvety soft ears. "You can go play if you want. I'm not worried."

He rolled his golden eyes in her direction and huffed, as if the idea that he would leave her defenseless with all of the antics going on around her was ridiculous.

One of the hellhounds—she absolutely could not tell the difference between them when they were shifted—crossed in front of them, batting the ball between his enormous paws. He was a vicious-looking black dog nearly the size of horse, his impossibly long fangs showing when he snarled at the other hellhound who prowled close. A scuffle broke out between them when the second hellhound tried to steal the ball, and they rolled over each other on the ground, snapping their teeth.

Karma dashed by them in wolf form, swatting them both with her tail as she snatched the ball away while they continued to fight. They both snapped to attention when she ran away at top speed and scrambled to chase her, kicking each other and yipping wildly.

While they continued to roughhouse, Tilly began to struggle from her position on the ground, shoving Kima away. Kima rolled aside and then came back up on her feet with a roar that made every hair on Mari's arms stand on end. Her shifted form was an impressively huge male lion with a mane so dark it was nearly black.

"Fuck off," Tilly snapped before heading back toward the main house.

Kima's tail swished with irritation as she stared after the harpy's retreating back. A fox who Mari didn't recognize in their shifted form shoulder checked Kima and drew her attention back to the game. The huge lion dashed back into the fray.

Mari couldn't even tell who had the ball anymore among the tumbling furry bodies that spilled across the lawn. For some reason she couldn't identify, she suddenly felt anxious. This has started out fun, but it seemed more serious now.

Rio and Samar began growling at the same moment, their eyes turning to regard someone behind Mari. She glanced over her shoulder, surprised that the person approaching was Cisco.

The gargoyle stopped several feet away. "Relax. I'm no threat to them." They both stopped growling immediately. He took in the game happening beyond them. "Unless you two are eager to be a part of what is shaping up to be a particularly bloody shifter orgy, I think you should slowly head back toward me."

"Really?" Mari looked over the group again. She had noticed that several of the guards who weren't shifters had left the game earlier, but didn't think anything of it. Her magic hadn't perked up at all. "Why am I not picking up on any sexy vibes?"

"Different kind of sexy when they're shifted," Pricilla explained as she stood. "Plus the shifter you are attuned with is more concerned with your safety than taking part."

"I don't mind if you want to go have some fun." Mari scratched his chin. "I'll go back with Cisco."

Rio wrinkled his feline nose and made a chirping noise of irritation.

Cisco shook his head. "Even I couldn't make him leave your side without a fight at this point."

Mari hugged the puma and then rubbed her face into the side of his neck. "Okay, gorgeous. Let's get out of here." She let Rio help her to her feet.

She walked toward Cisco slowly, trying not to move in a way that would attract the attention of the predators all around them. Pricilla was already beside him, Samar circling anxiously around their legs with his tail swishing.

Mari reached to take Cisco's hand when he held his arm out to her. At the same moment, Rio snarled viciously in Samar's direction. Samar dropped into a crouch and laid his ears back, baring his teeth in a hiss but not moving from Pricilla's side.

"Take it easy, mi amor," Cisco said in a soft voice. "He's no threat to Mari."

Rio tilted an irritable feline look his way, but didn't press the issue. Instead, he rubbed against Mari's legs as if to shoo her from the area.

"Let's go, both of them will calm down as soon as we get away from all the pheromones that are flying around here." Cisco led them toward the house with an unhurried stride, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to make sure none of the other shifters were following.

With each step they got away from the impending orgy, the two cats relaxed further. By the time they were at the pool, they might have been out for a stroll rather than retreating. In the distance, she heard one of the shifters yowling a challenge and several of the others answering back. The sounds drove a shiver up her spine.

"Not a moment too soon," Pricilla said, hugging herself.

"What was that about?" Mari asked as she eased into one of the poolside lounges. "I don't remember that ever happening before." Rio jumped up beside her and lay with his side against her legs.

"Kima got riled up and because she's so dominant she drove the others into a frenzy," Cisco said. "It has happened before, but not for a while. It was one of the reasons your father sent her to the club."

Mari had never heard about that. "Were we in danger?"

"I don't think so, shifters don't usually involve the non-shifted in their orgies, but Rio and Samar were both feeling very protective." Cisco glanced back in the direction they had come from when the noise picked up again. "I thought it was wise to remove you from the situation before a fight broke out."

Pricilla crouched down and took Samar's broad head into her hands. "I'm not sure why you decided to protect me, but thank you." She rested her forehead against his when he started to purr.

They practiced magic for the next little while by the pool, until the sun started to set and it was time for Mari to head to her appointment with Dante.