Author's Note:

This story takes place in my Atlantis Unleashed Universe.  The same universe as the story: Cattin' Around and A Gathering of Gatherings.  It is a one shot telling of the events that led to the Dragonwar.  There will be other one shots to begin to tie Cattin' Around, A Gathering of Gatherings and the rest of the universe together.  It is a frank story dealing with sex, violence, love, hate, and religion.  It involves sex between teenagers, between siblings, between males and females, males and males, and my first ever scene of females and females, and between the scion of Gods.  It deals with racial prejudice, with rape, torture, and war.  It also deals with the difference between men of words and men of action.  If these themes bother you, please don't read.  Please take time to review on your way out.

Also, this is a work of fiction.  I do not suggest that you try to cast spells from gaming books nor do I suggest you try to sleep with your sibling. They'll put you in jail for the later and you'll look silly for trying the former.


GATES MURPHY AKA MURPHY'S LAW

"Ms. Murphy, my name is Witchcat and I realize you don't know me from Freyja's house cat, but I sure as Hel, know you and your reputation with Murphy's Law," the young male voice said over the phone. I noted that the number was not delivered.

"Go ahead," I said. Actually, I did know a Witchcat, or at least I knew of a Witchcat. He was one of the up and coming powers in the nocturnal community. Rumor had it that he had connections to about half the vampire chancellors in the country, including Nicolai LeCroix- the chancellor of the Southeast. He and his friends were also involved in stopping a group of radical witches from seizing control of a small southern town and using its nexus point to summon some really nasty extra-planar beings. Last time I heard of him was at the Battle of Wolf Creek, where he led an assault on Shadu's flank that left about half the UN forces desiccated husks. He was a graduate of the Academy there- that is before Shadu's forces blew it to Kingdom Come.

"Look, I know you don't like to play politics; neither do I. But something has to be done about the situation out in Bodego Bay. The government isn't going to step in and free those people, and if they won't then somebody else has to. Like I said, I know you don't know me, and have no reason to trust me, but I was wondering if you had any contacts on what's left of the West Coast that could help me out. It won't do any good if we go in and chase the Blasters out if there is nobody to step in and keep them out," the voice said.

"Well, Witchcat, it so happens that I'm on the West Coast right now; and yes, I know somebody who might be able to help us." Actually, I was out here supposedly to survey the damage done by the earthquake and tidal wave that hit in late January of this year sinking most of California and a good chunk of Oregon and leaving Las Vegas as beachfront property. What I was really doing was looking for a way to do just what Witchcat was suggesting.

"Us?" he asked. "I don't want to get you in any trouble ma'am. You're too valuable as a spokesperson for transhuman and nocturnal rights."

"Yes, us," I told him. "Murphy's Law is in the process of setting up a facility here, we would of course be willing to take yourself and your teammates on as transhuman advisers." He was just what I was looking for. A team of transhumans or even nocturnals that could dish out a lot of damage, but nobody knew much about. I needed someone who'd been under the radar for a while.

"Sounds like we need to talk ma'am," he said.

"Well, I've got a facility at 9555 Iron Mountain Road in Las Vegas. You can't miss it; it's right on the beach. When can we meet?" I asked.

"How soon can you be there?" he asked in return.

"Half an hour?"

"We'll be there." the voice had said.

And he had been. My first official meeting with one of the most unusual groups of transhumans in the world: Witchcat, Lifeforce, Magelight, and Coldfire. They looked young, but I already knew that looks didn't mean a lot when it came to experience. Most transhumans had seen and done a whole lot more during the recent Transhuman Wars with the UN than any kid had a right to. Of course, those in the nocturnal community and most class 15s or above tended to age much slower than usual anyway. Dancer of the Lords of Atlantis looked like he was still in his early teens, and the rest of that team looked to be barely twenty.

Witchcat was tall, broad, and built like a wall of muscle. He reminded me rather pleasantly of another magecat of my acquaintance, Runeclaw. But whereas Trey had rich coppery red hair and green eyes, Leif was a platinum blonde with ice blue eyes. Also unlike Trey, his ears were very pointed, suggesting more than the half alfar blood that Trey had. He also wore his long hair pulled back in a pony tail with two braids running down each side. I could literally feel the cat under the surface sizing me up as either a meal or a piece of tail.

Magelight on the other hand was shorter, slimmer, with jet black hair cut in a page-boy style and an olive complexion that bespoke his and his twin sister's Greek heritage. In a lot of ways, he reminded me of Kevin with his lanky build. There was just the hint of dark hair on his upper lip, but no real sign of a beard. Of course since he looked like he was in his mid-teens, that may have had a lot to do with it. He had dark blue eyes that seemed to be pools of water you could get lost in. There was a constant smile threatening to break out on his lips.

His sister, Lifeforce had matching hair and eyes, except her hair was long and straight. She was the same height as him, with a very athletic build. She seemed to be looking right through me when we spoke; as if she was studying my very DNA. Which may well have been the case.

Lastly, was Coldfire. Tall, fair skinned, and another red-head. I don't know what it about the transhuman gene, but it loves red-heads and blondes, especially in the females. Coldfire's red hair had frosty white tips running along the ends at her waist. She was built like Valkyrie, and not the motorcycle. She was taller than Corbin and Lorna, but shorter than Leif. Her long hair cascaded down her back in a single sheet of fire and ice. Every now and again, I could see the hint of icy flames in her eyes and along her skin.

Standing in the lobby of Murphy's Law Las Vegas, they were all dressed casually; in jeans, boots, and button downs. I did notice that all of them except for Leif were wearing lightweight jackets against the cool breeze that was coming off the Pacific. The changes in the climate caused by the January Catastrophe were threatening to be profound. The loss of the Tehachapi Mountains to block the moisture coming off the ocean had radically changed the climate in Las Vegas. The increased rain was causing the damn place to turn green and flooding was starting to be a major problem.

I walked up and introduced myself, "Hi, I'm Gate's Murphy. I understand we have a common interest."

Leif nodded to me and said, "I'm Leif Hunter, this is Lorna and Corbin Grimwauld, and Aerin Snowdottir, my pride." He looked around and then asked, "Is there somewhere we talk in private?"

"My office is upstairs," I told them. "I have someone waiting to meet you."

He nodded and said, "Lead the way, ma'am."

I took them upstairs and to the office my assistant Mark had set up for me. We were all quite as we walked down the hall. I got the feeling they were nervous about dealing with someone as well known as myself- nocturnals tended to be that way; and although Mark had vetted everyone in the building, I hadn't yet had a chance to read their files. To be honest, outside of my adopted sons, Adam and Steve, the only person in Nevada I trusted right now was in my office.

As we entered the well appointed room, one that I knew I'd come to hate eventually, I smiled at the dark eyed handsome man sitting in a Naval Captain's uniform. Next to him was painfully handsome young man with long purple hair, looking very uncomfortable in the dark blue navy duties he was wearing. "Leif, Lorna, Corbin, Aerin, this Captain Jake Lee of the USS Constellation, and Def'n of the Shan Confederation." I smiled at Jake and asked, "Jake, why are we torturing the Shan with a jump suit?"

Jake smiled and said, "Because I wasn't about to lead a naked Shan through your office. Some of your people are pinchers. I didn't want any misunderstandings."

"The Captain Lee?" Leif asked. "The one who put two nuclear reactors on San Diego Island?"

"Only if I don't I owe you money," Jake said with a smile. Then turning to me he asked, "This your task force?"

"For now," I told him.

"Task force?" Aerin asked. I could see the flames begin to dance in her eyes.

I nodded, but Jake answered, "If we call you a task force, then that gives you some legal backing, and the ability to call for back-up if you need it."

"I thought the navy had been told hands off, Bodego Bay," Leif said.

Jake shrugged and replied, 'Yeah. But the administration hasn't yet changed the fleet's standing orders about engagement. I'm not sure that they are aware of them. I've been given a large leeway in my patrol area. As a submersible carrier, Constellation is one of the few warships in port that survived the catastrophe. Since I used what was left of the Halsey's reactors to supply San Diego with electricity, I've been given a little more leeway in my orders. I intend to take the Constellation out and surface her in the middle of Bodago Harbor. Hardcase can't let that go unchallenged. She'll attack, then my standing orders are to defend my ship. While I launch a flight of F-9.1 Stormwings to engage her forces, you're going to slip up from behind and we'll use a standard pincer tactic."

I noticed Leif raise and eyebrow. "They're likely to court-martial you," he said. "Bodego Harbor is supposed to be hands off. It's too valuable to the administration as an object lesson in the evils of transhumans, while at the same time, they are pushing a collectivist black liberation philosophy."

I held up my orders, "I have direct orders from the President telling me to deal with the transhuman threat on the West Coast. Of course he isn't sending me any forces to do it with, but he's basically ordering me to handle the situation."

"What about posse comitatus? The use of military force for law enforcement is illegal," Leif said.

"This isn't law enforcement," Jake said. "I'm dealing with a paramilitary insurrection that has seized control of an American city. I just happen to be cooperating with the local marshal. Besides, the Navy and the Coast Guard are not covered under posse comitatus. We enforce maritime law." He gave me a quick wink. I always did appreciate how his mind worked. Jake wasn't quite one of my lost gay puppies. He had been Kevin's lover when they were teenagers. He'd also been Kevin's partner as Champion before Kevin was murdered. The loss of my only son, had hit him as hard as it had hit me thirteen years ago. I buried myself in my work, he buried himself in the Navy becoming the youngest man to ever command a carrier.

"They'll still court martial you," Aerin said. "Doing what's right and what's legal aren't always a priority for this administration."

"That's okay. I know where I can find a job when I get out of Leavenworth," Jake said looking at me.

I could have argued the point about going to Leavenworth, but I let slide for now. "Are you four willing to come to work for Murphy's Law?"

Aerin was the first of the four to take a seat. She smiled and asked, "You are willing to pay us to do the job our mothers sent us to do?"

"Yep," I said.

"How much?" Leif asked.

"Standard salary for a Class 15 plus year-end bonus," I told them.

The four looked at each other as they all took seats. I could sense something unspoken passing between them. Finally, Leif leaned forward and asked, "Can we do the first mission on a probationary status? If things work out well, we'll consider making it permanent."

I looked over at Jake who smiled and shrugged. Turning back I told them, "Sounds good. What kind of equipment do you need?"

Corbin smiled and said, "We have our own equipment. We can be inside the city whenever the Constellation is ready to appear. I am curious however, in knowing how you will get a submersible the size of an aircraft carrier past the debris Hardcase has dumped in the mouth of the harbor."

Jake smiled, "That's what Def'n is for. He's going to plow the road for us."

The four nodded and stood. Leif offered me his hand, "Then count us in."

DEF'N AKA DEFENDER


I was still nervous dealing with humans. I'd been chosen for this particular assignment because I'd worked so well with the local surface authorities when the Catastrophe first struck. In reality, I was one of the first Defenders to come out of the birthing chambers after Ship crash landed. Commander K'hori is First Generation Shan Defender, but he alone could not defend the whole of the colony against the combined forces of the United Nations. They'd already hurt Ship far past his ability to heal in a reasonable amount of time as well as killed Defender Jarrissa by hitting him with a thermonuclear device as the Commander was attempting an emergency re-entry.

Only K'hori's skill, determination, and quick thinking saved Ship at that point. He managed to bring him into a controlled crash off the coast of what is called Texas. The water was deep enough to keep most of the planet's submersibles from being able to reach it. That was when it was decided to ignore Ilian protocols and use First Generation Defender genetics to increase the number of Defenders in the first batch to come out of the chambers. I am one of those Defenders.

At first I'd only been implanted with one basic human language, and the general skills needed to operate the equipment for setting up the colony. It had been a difficult time. Many times I'd found himself outside of my implanted parameters, and had to make my own judgements on who to trust and who not to.

After the initial crisis was resolved, I was able to go back into the chambers for further cultural knowledge implantation, and for skill upgrades, but to be honest, I've spent most of the six years of my life dealing with humans. They can be a difficult species, in many ways like the Sselkian's who had developed a civilization on Earth's ancient land mass. But the Sselkians were a reptilian species who'd reached a similar level of civilization as the humans were at now. The were violent, aggressive, and territorial, and managed to wipe out much of the life on the planet, by the time the first Shan colony ships had left in a vain attempt to get away from their madness.

We didn't then have star drive. We do now- we got it from the Atlanteans, but then our ships were sent out at high relativistic speeds with two Defenders, and enough genetic materials, birthing chambers and colonization equipment to start a new home on another planet. The problem was that it never found another planet capable of supporting life. When Ship became ill, K'hori decided to return home. But what had been about sixty years for him and Ship, had been sixty-five million years on Homeworld.. The Shan and Sselkians were no more. Now Homeworld belonged to the descendants of- well never mind what they descended from; it would upset them to know.

Still, I had had more time among the humans than most of my brothers and sisters, and since I had yet to become part of a pod, it was decided that I would be best for this mission. My teammates appeared to be quite confident in their abilities, and I looked forward to working close with them. I was amused by Ms. Murphy's comment about torturing the Shan with a jumpsuit. We are after all an aquatic species, and don't normally wear clothing. It is a cultural difference that has caused some consternation among certain humans. I agreed to wear clothing when on the land as a concession to better inter-species understanding. However, when I have to go to work, the clothes come off. They just get in the way.

I also had to be careful about using my Defender gifts; humans were even more susceptible to the pheromones we generate than baseline Shan. It was a problem for many humans with their suppressed sexualities. When hit with a force as powerful as the pheromones we generate, they tend to become distracted and flustered.

Of course at this point in the mission, I didn't have to worry about that. As soon as Leif and his friends- I was developing a theory about that- had agreed to come aboard, Ms. Murphy whisked us off to the waiting Constellation which was anchored in shallow water, not far from the beach where the team's facility sits. She said that she didn't want any chance of our meeting getting leaked to the wrong people. I was starting to develop the impression that although she frequently insisted that she did not play the game of politics, that in reality she was a master general of the art.

It didn't take the Constellation long to reach our insertion point. For a human built ship, she was actually an impressive vessel. And before you ask: yes, we Shan refer to our vessels with a gender as well. Actually, since our vessels are living beings grown from our bio-technology they really do have a gender. Constellation had very little Shan or Atlantean technology aboard her however. Her reactor was Atlantean design, and her lasers and sonar system were Shan. Beyond that, she was pure human.

She was over a four hundred meters long, and had a beam of one hundred eighty meters across. She was long, and flat, and tapered at the stern where two compression drives propelled her through the water at a maximum speed of one hundred fifty kilometers per hour. She carried a complement of seventy-five fighters and support craft, that included forty Stromwing 9.1 joint tactical fighters, twenty 9.1A submersible fighters, and 15 support aircraft.

Right now, she was behind me waiting for me to finish clearing the debris that the Blasters had dropped into the harbor to keep larger military style craft out. Most of it was junk; old automobiles, tankers, construction equipment and building debris. The problem was that the whole West Coast was now littered with what was essentially toxic waste from basically having a civilization sunk beneath waves.

The Cold California Current had shifted its course eastward so that it was now diverted through the chain of hundreds of islands that used to be cities and mountains. Some of the wildlife was starting to adapt. Various pinnipeds had flourished in the increased cover the buildings now offered them. With the increase in their populations, had come an increase in the populations of great white sharks, or as we called them, "little deaths". It was something for which I had to be on the look-out as I glided through the dark waters.

My sonar gave a good "picture" of the surrounding area, but I didn't dare use it too much because I was unsure if the Blasters had rigged the bay with microphones to detect such activity. Their leader, Hardcase was very clever. She'd developed her own power armor over the past decade or so, and had put together this particular group of transhuman terrorists. They'd seized the opportunity that the Catastrophe had created and conquered this small isolated city that was now an island of only two thousand square kilometers, and set up their own rogue government.

With the help of three hundred criminal gang members, they'd turned an exercise in what they called social justice into social revenge. Fear was the force that kept them in power, and violence, rape, and murder were their tools for eliciting it. The new administration however, was currently turning a blind eye to the situation. I did not understand the reasons for this, so was glad for the opportunity to set things right.

Of course most of what Hardcase was saying about the Shan didn't make any sense either. I had no idea how the pigment of our skin made us evil oppressors. We haven't even been on the planet since they evolved. We weren't attacked by the so-called evil capitalist, but by a collectivist country who wanted to steal our technology. I assumed that my involvement in this mission was going to reinforce her views on the evil of the Shan. Oh well, that was her problem, not mine.

My problem was moving the last of these barriers to clear a way for the Constellation. It was a difficult endeavor, trying make a path big enough for a warship, but not so big as to give away the fact to anyone on shore that I was moving several hundred tons of debris. I could feel the current from the tide coming in flow around me. This was good; it meant that the water depth would increase giving the Constellation more maneuvering room.

As I moved the final piece, some kind of crane, I signaled the ship it was all clear to pass. I knew the sonar operator on her was good enough get through. I floated above as she glided beneath me, her great black hull almost disappearing into the murky water below. I could see the eddies and currents around her diving planes, and watched as fish and smaller sharks got out of her way.

I had one more job to do. We knew that Hardcase had baseline human forces on the island. These were the forces she was using to keep the local population in line. We also knew that certain supplies were running low, and that the Constellation would be too good of a target for her to pass up. As soon as she surfaced, Hardcase would try and take her. She'd leave a token force behind and use most of her followers to try and take the sub after she and the rest of the Blasters softened her up. Those men had to get to the Constellation, and the only way to do that would be via the boats that were anchored along the pier.

My job was to wait until they were well out into the harbor, and then disable the boats, and make sure the men on them didn't swim ashore to interfere in the fight that was going to be there. That was where my own sonar was going to come in handy. I began to send out sonar blips. First the sounds of orcas hunting seals. That would be sure to get the attention I wanted. In a short while, I was going to switch over and use my hydrokinesis to send out pressure waves to mimic the sounds of floundering seals. With a little luck, I should end up with eight or ten "little deaths" in the water. They weren't a threat to me, but they would be enough to the men in the boats to make sure they thought long and hard before they tried to swim ashore.

I watched as she entered the harbor and then began to surface. I could feel the backwash as three quarters of a million tons of water was displaced. I maintained my position by jetting water down my legs. I surfaced as she did and watched as her airtight hangar bays opened, water still running down their fronts. With the roar conventional jet engines, two squadrons of fighters raced into the night sky and out over the mountains of the island. The sounds of the conventional engines was more than enough to wake anyone in the town a few kilometers away. Smiling, I submerged and waited on the sharks to arrive.



COLDFIRE AKA AERIN SNOWDOTTIR


I stood in CiC of the Constellation and watched the two squadrons launch into the night. "Why are they using their conventional jets and not their stealth mode?" I asked Captain Lee. The man was an enigma to me. I could sense a highly disciplined mind, but resisted the temptation to read it. He was almost as big as Leif, with black hair and eyes- an odd combination for someone so clearly of European descent. There was a sadness shared between him and Ms. Murphy that left me wondering at its source.

He smiled at me and replied,"Because I want the island to hear us. As soon as we detect anything else in the air, they've got orders to switch over to their magnetic-drives and go to stealth mode. I want the Blasters to focus on the Constellation not the fighters."

I nodded my understanding of his strategy at this point and keeping my mouth shut. I was here to deal with Hardcase when she showed up. We knew that her armor had its own stealth capabilities, and we didn't want her to do too much damage. We needed her to fire on the ship at least once. Then the captain could legally engage her forces. Corbin and Lorna were below decks with two hundred of Murphy's people she'd pulled onto special assignment from her other offices across the country. Leif was already on the island acting as an on-the-scene observer.

"Captain, we've got radar contact. A single form, less than two meters in length, non-metallic," the radar operator announced. "Switching to J-Star for confirmation."

"Who is it, OS-1" Captain Lee asked, his midnight eyes narrowing at the screen.

On the screen a flapping red cape and a garish blue and red costume along with a bushy "Afro" style hairstyle appeared flying out toward the Harbor. He was literally pulling his boots on he flew. "Looks like Da Man," the radar operator said.

"I'd say she's sending him to reconnoiter," Captain Lee said. Then reaching over he hit a button on a panel and said, "Gates, tell your people to get ready. I suspect that Hardcase will be on the scene in a few moments. Da Man has come to see what all that noise was about."

"We're ready, Jake."

Captain Lee took something from his pocket and ran his fingers along its edge. It was red and blue, and looked like some kind of toy. "Back to action," he said softly and then put the object back in his pocket. Turning to me he said, "Get ready, Coldfire. I suspect that you'll be needed rather soon."

"We're picking up a radio signal, Captain," another member of the CiC crew said.

"Put it on the speaker, RM-1."

"Looks like some kinda big-ass ship in the harbor, Mal." a male voice crackled.

"What kind of ship?" a woman's voice answered.

"How d' hell should I know? It's got US Navy on it, and it's huge!"

"Is it a battleship, a boat, or a submarine?" the woman demanded, her irritation evident in her voice.

"It's low in the water, and looks kinda weird. I think it's that ship you been worried 'bout: uh the Constesome'tin'or'anot'er." he snapped back.

"Get back here. I'm suiting up. Go tell Stretch to wake the men. Leave fifty of them them to guard the compound, and get the rest to the boats. If that ship is what I think it is, then the supplies on there will go a long way. And, Derrick- no prisoners- no matter how pretty they are. You can make do with what you've got. I don't want anybody with military training among the prisoners after that last revolt."

"Gotcha, Hardcase," he said. "You want me to wake Sister Slice and Firefury, or you goin' to send someone else to do it?"

"You'd better do it. No use in losing any more men."

"On my way," he said.

Captain Lee turned and said, "That's it. They're on their way. You want to go up on deck and wait, or to the hangar?"

I smiled at him, "The deck is fine. There's no use in exposing any more of the ship than necessary. When I leave are you submerging?"

The captain shook his head, "Not unless I have to. I want to see what's going on out there while I've got ships in the air."

I nodded to my guide. His job was to make sure I didn't get lost in this submersible city. He led me out the hatchway and down several passageways. I didn't like what I'd heard on the radio. Hardcase's words set off memories of those frightening hours I spent at Riyadh before we were rescued. It reminded me of the stories the other refugees told of their time in that Gods-forsaken place.

I never knew my mother, and until recently I did not know why. My father was a member of one of Ms. Murphy's fist Murphy's Law teams working out of New York City. He died when the first plane hit the Twin Towers. I was sent to live with my aunt in Eastern Kentucky afterward. There I lived with her and her kindred, and learned to live in frith with our Gods. When I was sixteen the kindred was raided by UNIPACT Prime. People were standing their ground with rifles, shotguns, and even the occasional broad sword, but for the most part we were baselines and didn't stand a chance. Thirty five people died that night, and I was captured and sent to Riyadh for re-education.

I never made it through their processing though. I literally awoke in a pair of stirrups being "examined" by a doctor, when suddenly Moonwind appeared in the room. The next thing I remember I was on transport back to the States. I lived three months in a shelter with the real victims of the UN's breeding and re-education program. There were thirteen and fourteen year old girls carrying twins, triplets, and quints from the UN's attempt to forcibly breed and indoctrinate transhumans. The stories I heard, the memories I picked up from their thoughts were horrific. I would never wish that one anyone- baseline or transhuman. Those girls were sent to the Atlantean City of Thule in the North Sea. Since I had not yet been "bred" I was fortunately, chosen for the Wolf Creek Academy. That's where I met Leif, Lorna, and Corbin. We forged what was first a friendship, then more, much more. It was there that I learned who my mother truly was, and what the plan was for the four of us was. We've been together since, and probably will be for the rest of our unnatural lives.

As we exited the hatch on the main deck of the Constellation, I felt a cool breeze blow in off the Pacific. The moon hadn't yet risen, and the only light was from the stars. There were no lights from a city in the distance; few of the California Islands had any way of supplying electricity to them. Most of the state's infrastructure had been totally destroyed by either the quake or the resulting tsunami. The only areas that were really functional were the ones near Naval bases, where Captain Lee's example of using nuclear reactors from various vessels to power the cities had been copied. That was a situation that was driving Green Peace and the other environmentalist groups crazy. The hatch itself was more of a sliding door mechanism than a true hatch as the Constellation had no conning tower. It was instead a long sleek flat design that functioned perfectly for high speeds underwater. My escort smiled over at me and said, "Be careful on the deck ma'am; it's still wet."

I nodded to him and said, "Thank you seaman, I will." I couldn't help but notice him studying the way my bodysuit clung to my form. I'll admit it, I'm good looking and I know it, and I won't apologize for it, and I won't be falsely modest either. I smiled at him and then turned to look up in the sky.

Casting my mind out, I could hear the thoughts of the so-called soldiers being roused from their beds. About half of them were drunk, and the other half were not where they were supposed to be. I couldn't believe that Hardcase thought these people could actually capture a US warship, even with transhuman help. What I was detecting from the "prisoners" was enough to make my blood boil. There were very few residents left, and most of them were women. The men had been either shot, or worked to death on the fields, or used in various ways to amuse the guards. This place wasn't a rogue government, it was thugocracy. The only law was that of the strong dominating the weak.

I pulled myself back into my own mind and noted that the cold fire that manifested itself when I used my powers was dancing along my skin. There was already ice forming on the deck around my feet. I smiled ruefully and calmed myself. If ever there was something that fit Leif's commission from his Goddess, from his mother, this was it.

I thought back to my first impression of him and the twins and even of Wolf Creek Academy itself. Originally it had been a private school ran by and for the local werewolf pack. It was started right after Runeclaw and his wife, Avalon resigned from the Department of Nocturnal Affairs and from Shadowforce. The next year, the school upgraded to accepting other shifters, psis and mages. For some of us- those who weren't locals- it was also a boarding school. I was there because it was felt that they could offer me the best training for my powers.

It hadn't taken me long to figure out who the movers and shakers in the school were. James Williams, or Junior as most people called him, was one. He pretty much was following in his father's footsteps and dominated most of the werewolves. Leif, Lorna, and Corbin were the another. Even Junior gave Leif a wide berth- not that they were rivals or anything, on the contrary, they were pretty good friends, it was just that dogs may chase cats, but werewolves do not chase werecats, not if they want to live. Unless it was in a furball game, and then you sold tickets.

From first sight of the three of them lounging around under a huge oak tree in the middle of the campus quad, I could tell that they were a package deal. You got all of them nor none of them. I immediately felt something different in them. Most people around me felt hollow and banal. There was a fire and a passion coursing through all of them them that called out to the ice I felt in my own blood.

I had been assigned to their wing of the dorm- away from the wolves. You have no idea how complicated life among nocturnals can be, and a whole school of shifters posed its own special brand of problems. Full moons can be a real hassle. Most of the boys turn into aggressive jerks, and the girls, well let's just say that it's a good thing that the pack wasn't housed on grounds. Toss in at least one wereleopard, a shifter kid who defied categorizing, one damphir, four mages, one psi, a magcat, and whatever Lorna is; mix well with the usual teenage hormones, and angst, and you've got a recipe for drama that would make prime time soap operas look like a game show.

I took one look at them and felt at home. When I saw the hammer around Leif's neck, I knew things were going to be all right. I'd come home, and I would be safe with them in our wing. It consisted of four small bedrooms around a central common room. Two Jack and Jill bathrooms separated each of the two bedrooms on either side of the common room. I shared a bath with Lorna, and Leif and Corbin shared one as well. It was set up in a way to give us a certain amount of privacy while at the same time encouraging us to work to become study partners. I was surprised at the lack of concern over co-ed arrangements however.

Up until that point, I'd had little experience with other nocturnals, and didn't understand the different social mores that were involved. Many of the practices involved dated back thousands of years to cultures that had long since passed away, but were still represented by individuals who'd lived in them. In some ways, there really was an concept of that there were certain laws that the nocturnals were not so much above, as they were applied to differently. Sexuality was one of them. With the return of the Prides, the practice of werecats gathering around them a family of lovers had started to come back into vogue. Of course the arrival of the Shan with their polyspousal pods, and then the Atlanteans with their polyspousal marriages, and it was starting be more common.

Leif had gathered to himself the beginnings of his pride, and that had so far consisted as a set of twins. When I first met the three of them, there was an immediate attraction, and I didn't need my telepathy to know that it cut across all four of us. We spent several weeks dancing around each other, hinting, flirting, and sometimes outright suggesting that things should go to the next level.

Leif may be the big, brave, Nordic mage warrior and son of battle Goddess but it was the daughter of the moon Titaness who actually made the first move. It was about a month after I had been enrolled in the Academy and for the most part things were going well. Yeah, there were some jerks at the school- nocturnals are just like regular folks when it comes to personalities- but for the most part things were going well. I really was starting to open up with my powers. My telepathy was still on the weak side, but my telekinesis was threatening to go off the scale. Doctor Greenbough was very helpful with that. She was very patient, and her own teaching techniques- mind-to-mind so to speak- made learning and practicing the new skills much easier. I was sitting at the window sill of our common room looking out over the furball practice field when Lorna came in.

Lorna and Corbin were very good at shielding themselves. Leif no so much, he didn't have the rudimentary link that the twins shared. I didn't feel her coming up the stairs and was so distracted by trying to figure out the rules of the game I was watching that she surprised when she spoke. "You know we don't bite," she said as she sat across the window sill from me.

I shrugged and then pointed where Leif and Junior were not so gently taking chunks out of each other on the practice field. It really wasn't a fair fight. Leif outweighed by over half a ton. Junior however just kept coming back for more, and was giving as good as he got. "You sure about that?"

"Ah those are just friendly play between those two. When it comes to shifters, there's a lot of who can piss higher on the tree. Junior and Leif right now are marking a whole forest. Most people haven't figured it out yet, but Junior is a true-breed."

"True breed?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's what among werecats is called a primal. Junior never had to learn to control the wolf in him because it has been integrated in him since the day he was born. He was born shifting, he didn't have to wait until puberty."

"I've heard of those types. Your sponsor, Mr. LeCroix- his husbands are true-breeds."

"Uncle Romulus and Uncle Remus," she told me.

"And LeCroix, really is Dracula?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, and their wife really is the first Damned. But that's not what I came to talk to you about."

"And what was that?" I asked.

"The boys don't have the balls to do what needs to be done," she said with a smile.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"This," she leaned over and gently kissed me on the lips. She tasted of wild roses, and apples, and I felt something spark between us. I don't know how long the kiss lasted, a couple of seconds, or a couple of decades. All I know, is that I'd never been kissed like that before.

"Wow," I said and swallowed hard. "Uh do the boys know you're doing this?"

"What? They want video," she joked. "Seriously, yes they know- or at least they know it's eventually going to happen. They just are afraid of hurting me by making the first move with you. So I"m pre-empting them. Do you mind?"

"No," I shook my head and said. "Only surprised. I thought you three were exclusive."

"What? You don't want to be exclusive with us?" she asked.

I leaned back over and kissed her this time. "I didn't say that. I just thought that you didn't want anyone else."

"But you're not just anyone else," she said as she kissed down the side of my neck. I could feel a spark of cold fire run through my veins with each kiss. "You're one of us."

"And what is one of you?" I asked running my hands down her smooth arms.

"Can't you feel it? Something deep inside you calling to us; something wrought by the Gods themselves?" she asked as her hands began to roam up inside my blouse. Her touch was like fire on my skin. I didn't understand what was happening to me. In the past, the few boys I'd been out with had seemed like cold fish to me. Their touch was almost mechanical, and did nothing for me. But Lorna was like something entirely different, she was a fire that was drawing me to her.

I pulled back from her and said, "Do you want to get out of the window before someone sees us, or we go tumbling through it?" I asked.

She took me by hand the hand and said, "My bed or yours?"

I shrugged and quoted one of my favorite television shows, "A woman prefers her own bed."

"But we're both women," she said.

"There's always the floor," I replied playfully.

"Do you really want those bruises on your back?" she asked.

"No," I said. "How about yours then?"

Lorna smiled and led me into her room. I remember undressing her slowly. Her olive skin showed no tan lines, and seemed to glow with my touch. Her breasts were on the smallish size, a large A cup or a small B cup with nut brown nipples that stood out in cooling autumn air. They were in stark contrast to my own peach colored double Cs. Her stomach was flat and and smooth. There was just a hint of fine black hair above the mound and slit of her pubes, giving her very young appearance.

I could see a smile on her face as she rolled my panties down revealing the stark white curls of my own pubes. She looked up at me and asked, "Which is your natural color?"

I chuckled and said, "Both. When my powers began to manifest, the white tips came in on my hair and those turned white."

She smiled up at me and kissed the top of my pussy, sending a shudder through my body. I took a slightly wider stance to give her better access, and she didn't disappoint me. With a long languorous caress of her tongue she opened up my sex and sent chills through my body. Continuing to lick upwards she slowly rose, running her tongue up my stomach, across my ribs, and finally locking her lips around the hardness of my left nipple. Finally she let go and pressed her body up against my own and kissed me on the lips. I opened my mouth to invite her tongue in and as it gently probed inward, I could taste just slight remnant of myself on her.

I wrapped her in my arms, and pulled her against me. With a simple flick of my mind, I turned back the covers on her bed, and lifted us onto it. I could feel the cold fire that accompanied any use of my telekinesis dance along my body and hers as well. The temperature of the room suddenly dropped, but it was masked by the warm hearth fire of her body against mine.

As I lay us gently on the softness of her bed, I slipped my hand between her legs and felt a slickness around the puffy outer lips of her sex. I slipped a finger down along the slit and dipped it into the opening I found. She quivered and moaned in my arms as she began to kiss across my collar bone and then nibble on my throat. I felt her fingers begin to probe at my own virgin opening. That sent a rush of pleasure through me as I felt a warm wetness spread from deep inside my sex.

I'd never had a lover before; never even gotten felt-up. Like I said, most of the boys I had ever been out with had not interested me enough to let things get that far. But this was different. I'd never before seriously considered sex with another girl either, but suddenly found the idea with Lorna to be more than exciting, but totally exhilarating.

For a long time we lay there, one hand gently stroking each others pussy while our other was caressing the our lover's skin, nipples, and hair.. As her fingers would dip into my opening and then spread the wetness there around the hard nub of my clit I began to feel something building deep in my body. A series of contractions started somewhere at the top of my opening and rushed out through my pussy and up my spine. I suddenly arched my back and thrust myself against her hand, trembling all over. It was the most intense orgasm I'd ever felt.

She kissed over to my ear and asked, "I take it you liked that?"

I pulled her to me and kissed her fiercely. I rolled her over and covered her with my own body and began kissing my way down her throat. I nibbled on her pert little breast and I continued to stroke her wet slit. Her hips began to arch up to meet me, pressing my hand hard against her mound.

I continued to kiss my way down. I wanted to taste her. I was excited by the smells that were starting to waft up from the "v" at her legs. I ran a tongue around her belly-button and then down over the fine black hairs above her sex. Pushing her thighs apart, I could see the puffy lips of her pussy; the long slit hiding the smaller inner lips and just the tip of the nub of her clit peeking out. I gently reached in and tasted her with my tongue. It wasn't what I was expecting. It was different, but it wasn't unpleasant, on the contrary, it was exciting. I took another long lick up one side around the top, briefly dipping in to touch the nub that was peeking out at the top, and then back down the other side. Finally, I dove my tongue in and found her opening. Suddenly the thought of having my mouth inside the very opening that both Leif and Corbin had plowed with their maleness sent a shiver down my spine. I licked inside her hole and the sucked her clit into my mouth. I nibbled and sucked on it rather carefully remember how sensitive my own was. She started bucking her hips into my mouth and before long a shudder ran through her body. I smiled to myself tasting the mixture of my own saliva and her moistness, as I climbed back up her body. Kissing her I asked, "Like that did you?"

"Coldfire, Captain reports that we have a J-Star lock on Hardcase. She's on her way here," the seaman's voice brought me out of my reverie. I realized that I had gone and gotten myself all hot and bothered for nothing. It would be a long time before I could get any of the others alone to do something about it.

I looked over at the young man and smiled. He seemed so hollow, so lifeless. There was no fire inside him. I pitied him for what he could never know, what he could never have. With a wink and a smile, I pushed off the deck and into the air. I could feel the white cold fire start to dance along my body and trail behind me, leaving little snow flakes to fall in my wake.

I raised my arms to my side and flattened my force field out along my body, bowing it at the top and flattening it at the bottom. My wing of force danced with the icy fire that accompanied it and gave me an eerie glow as I rose into the sky. I knew that Hardcase would be able to spot me easily.

In the distance I could see the fire from her jets, and the flaming form Firefury beside her. I smiled to myself as I scanned them. Firefury was fit to be tied for being awakened. She was letting her anger fuel her power. I could sense a very faint glow of the fire that burned so brightly in my consorts, but it was barely a spark in the darkness of her soul. Hardcase had none of it; she was simply a bitter woman who could not see past her failures that she blamed on others. The color of her skin had become a prison in her own mind that she could not escape. Since she couldn't escape it, she had decided to imprison others as well.

Firefury began to close with me as four micro-missiles streaked out from Hardcase's shoulders and targeted the Constellation. Keeping one eye on Firefury's flaming form as she closed, I watched the missiles as they flew toward the great ship below us. When they were about a hundred yards from the deck, I lashed out with my mind, and slammed them together, making them explode before they could do any damage to the ship. That was all we needed, she'd fired on a US Naval vessel. It had begun.

We're in the thick of it guys! She's fired on the ship. You can move now! I mentally sent Corbin, Lorna, and Leif. I sensed that Leif, ever a man of action, was already on the move.

Firefury slung a ball of hot plasma my way but I climbed to get away from it and banked toward Hardcase. The ball hit where I had been a second before and silently exploded, lighting up the night sky. By its light I could see in the distance the long sleek forms of the Stormwings closing with us. I smiled to myself trying maneuver so that Hardcase's armored form was between me and Firefury. Through the connection I shared with Corbin, I felt his teleport spell go off, but something was wrong. I've never known him to be that clumsy with a spell.

Before I could ask what had happened, Hardcase fired at me. I'd read the file on her and knew that blaster rifle she carried could punch a hole in an armored car. I wasn't about to wait and see if it could penetrate my force field. I ducked and angled my field. I could feel the physical punch the energy it projected trying to dig in but the angle I'd put on it, bounced the bolt away in an oblique trajectory. I realized that the damn thing was powerful, and could possibly do me serious damage.

I quickly glanced around to judge my situation. I didn't have the advantage of a battle computer projecting the dogfight in front of me. I had to rely on my own senses. In the distance I could see the cannons in the nose of the Stormwings flash as they began to spew depleted uranium rounds into the air. That was my cue to cut out.

I reached out telekinetically and grabbed the wings on the back of Hardcase's jet pack. With a thought I twisted them inward toward each other. I could hear the poly-ceramic reinforced alloy scream in protest as the leading edge of one gave way and cracked. "Time to turn down the heat," I said to myself and headed toward Firefury.

Accelerating, at the last moment, I slammed into her, throwing her aim off as she fired a jet of flame toward one of the Stormwings. We went tumbling toward the water below, and I smiled. Steam was rising around us as the cold flame of my force field interacted with the hot plasma that made up her body.

She fired a jet of flame point-blank into my stomach, and I felt my field begin to fail. As the jet burned through and I began to feel the heat, I twisted and wrapped the field all the way around her. Suddenly a searing pain shot across my hip bone that told me that her jet had penetrated. I cried out in agony as the hot plasma penetrated the very bone.. I accelerated toward the water below and at the last moment, I telekinetically slammed her down and pushed myself upward.

With her own scream of surprise and pain she slammed into the water at almost a hundred miles an hour. I fought my forward momentum and glided along the water's surface, leaving a trail of ice and snow in the air below me. Looking down, I could see an angry line of scorched and burnt material along the outside of my hip where her jet had burned away the cloth and skin all the way down to the bone. It hurt like Hel.

Holding my side, I turned on my back and watched as the Stormwings chased Hardcase toward the island in the distance.

LIFEFORCE AKA LORNA GRIMWAULD


Corbin and I waited along with Ms. Murphy's troops in one of the hangar bays for Aerin to tell us when the fighting had started. It wasn't an easy thing to do: to send Aerin and Leif out into a fight while we waited, but we knew it was necessary. If anything our years of association with Mr. LeCroix had taught us, it was the value of a good battle plan.

Corbin and I had grown up knowing that we were different, and had grown up among the nocturnal population of Hidden Falls, Alabama- a small town just North East of Birmingham, near Cullman. It was right next to Walker County, the hometown of Runeclaw and Avalon. It sits on a magical nexus point, and that makes things around there a little weird. The nexus point and its magical bleed-over attracted all kinds of people who understand what it really is and how to use it. That’s mainly wizards and witches along with the occasional ghost, as well as one vampire- Nicholai LeCroix, who we later found out was none other than Dracula. He lived in the only new house in town up by the old cotton mill. He was kind of nice and actually worked with mom and the other witches and wizards to keep the town quiet.

For the longest time Corbin and I thought mom was simply a very witch named, Selene Grimwauld. We later found out exactly who she was, and what she and Leif's, and Aerin's moms were trying to do. But when we were growing up we thought she was just a very powerful witch that everyone gave a lot of deference to. Then again that part might simply have been from the fact that she also owns and runs Bard Publishing Company- you know, the one that publishes all those romance novels that are really just erotica and rape fantasy hidden under what passes for a formulaic plot. So we were kind of well off. We lived in a restored old plantation style house just outside of town. It was really nice with all hardwoods and paneling, but updated with all the modern conveniences. Corbin and I shared a whole floor to ourselves, because mom’s room was on the main floor. We still use the house occasionally, although Mother seldom does.

But you know something, I knew there’s something different about us than even the other witches and wizards and such in town. You see both my brother and I have abilities of our own. Everybody called my brother, “That Strange Kid Corbin” because to the naturals he’s just weird with all his Dungeons and Dragons manuals and stuff like that- sort of a nerd, but a cute one. To the unnaturals he’s even more bizarre. Mom still says that she can’t figure out how his spells work. He just opens up one of his gaming manuals and can cast the spell right out of it. No formalized magic, no rituals, and nothing else except the book. Mr. Anderson the mage next door said it was just weird, but a nice kind of weird.

Me? I’m a little easier to figure out. I can’t cast spells or anything like that, but what I can do is pretty amazing. Mom calls me a biomancer, but I don’t cast spells. I can make plants grow, or shrink, I can talk to and control animals, and I can heal or hurt almost anything. If it lives I can change it, manipulate, or control it. Some of it I just think about and it happens, but some of it have to touch the person or thing. I can also look at someone and tell his or her exact nature. I knew Mr. Lecroix was a vampire before mom ever told me. He just had this dead looking light around him.

And that brings me to why I always suspected something was different about Mom, Corbin, and me. I could see something different about us that I didn't see in any of the other unnaturals in Hidden Falls. I could look at a natural person and I can tell if they’re sick, usually what kind of sick, or if they’re healthy or even pregnant. In an unnatural I could usually see sparkles and pulses in their bodies that told me what kind of unnatural they are. But we didn’t look like the others. There’s an internal glow when I use my “special” sight on us that is almost blinding. I’ve never met anyone else like it- well that’s not quite true. When Dad died, Mom left us with a sitter for a while, her name was Brunhilde-actually we later found out it was Leif's Brunhilde and she had that same glow. It wasn’t as bright as ours, but she had it. Mom had said she was a friend of a friend and that she would look out for us while she dealt with things.

Anyway, Corbin and I have always been close. Part of it is the little mind link we share. It’s not very reliable and most of the time it’s annoying but it did keep us pretty tight. We’ve always done everything together, and up until we were about nine, just before Dad died, we even bathed together. I used to giggle at his little thing as we splashed and played in the water. It looked kind of funny with its hood that he always had to push back to wash- funny, but neat too. He used to sometimes let me wash it for him and it would get all stiff and hard. I’d let him wash me down there too, and would really like it when he’d rub until my nub would poke out about half an inch from my outer lips.

We never let on with our parents about what we were doing, but I always got the feeling that Mom knew. If Corbin had rubbed me down there until I got all tingly inside, then when we got out of the bath and got dressed, Mom would always give me this neat little smile and tell Corbin what a nice little boy he was.

Just before Dad died, I got my first period and the baths ended. Mom took me aside and explained all about sex to me, and told me that now that I was a young woman, it was time I bathed by myself. I think she was afraid things might start to go further. I know I still wanted to play with Corbin’s little thing.

One Saturday morning when we were about twelve, and I understood a little more about such things I felt something strange come through the link I shared with Corbin. It reminded of the feeling I used to get when he’d rub me in the bath- I now knew why it felt that way- but it seemed to be coming from his room. So, I slipped out of bed and made my way through the bathroom we shared to listen at the door leading to his bedroom. I was surprised to find it cracked open about eight inches so I peeked through to his room.

Corbin was lying flat on his back on his bed. The covers were thrown back and his eyes were closed. He was slowly stroking his dick that was pointed up at about a forty-five degree angle from his stomach. I could see the tip of the purple head engulfed and then emerge from the thick folds of foreskin. His hand, the slightly lighter shade of tan of his foreskin, and the purple head were all glistening with some clear liquid.

I felt something rush through my pussy as I realized I was soaking my panties at the sight of my brother slowly stroking himself. I kept getting flashes of images over the link we shared. Kathy Sue Anderson with her cheerleading top pulled back behind her shoulders, displaying her milk-white breasts. Suddenly the image changed and it was Billy Neal in the bathroom at school goofing off and showing his dick. That surprised me. I never realized that Corbin might swing both ways. I could tell this was part memory, because unlike the image of Kathy Sue, it was much more detailed.

I could feel my pussy starting to heat up at the double assault of images from my brother’s masturbatory fantasies and the sight of him pleasuring himself. I reached down and began to rub the hard little nub of my clit that was sticking out about half and inch from my outer lips, tenting my panties slightly. I could feel his orgasm beginning to build and wanted him to slow down so I could catch up.

As if he sensed my need, I noticed he slowed down and the fantasy in his mind changed again. This time there was a strong undertone of guilt as the fantasy changed again. I saw memories from his point of view our times in the tub together as he reached out and stroked me. I was relieved that he remembered and what he remembered was so pleasant. I have to admit too, that I was flattered that he considered it something to bring himself pleasure.

You have to understand, I was just beginning to realize how sexy my brother was. I think it had something to do with what I was talking about earlier. Other boys just didn’t have the same spark that Corbin did, there was no connection of power, even with boys I knew were beginning to come into their power as mages. The thought of sex with them left me feeling sort of cold, like they could never touch something deep in my spirit, but the thoughts of my brother touching me like that again were exciting.

It was then and there that I made a decision. I reached down and pulled the hem of my nightshirt up over my head and dropped it to the floor. Then shucking my panties, I moved silently into Corbin’s room as he continued to stroke the hardness in his hand. Without a word, I knelt beside his bed and with a single slurp took the head of his dick in my mouth.

I’d heard of blow jobs before- hell, by that age, what girl hadn’t- but I really didn’t know anything about it. Looking up, I saw Corbin’s eyes fly open as he looked down to see me taking about half his cock between my lips.

“Huh… Lorna!” he whispered at me. “What the hell are you doing?”

I took his dick out of my mouth and stroked it gently as I smiled up at him. “Hopefully, what you want me to do…?”

“But…,”

“Shhhh, Bro,” I said as I climbed up in bed with him and stretched out facing his feet. “I want to do this, you were so sexy lying there playing with this, I couldn’t resist myself.”

With a sigh, he dropped his head back and closed his eyes again. I turned to look at the dick in my hand and smiled to myself. I just had to taste it again. Gently, I pulled the foreskin back and began to lick around it’s head. The taste of the clear liquid coming from the tip was slightly salty, but very pleasant. I wanted more.

Corbin groaned and then I felt his hand slide gently up the inside of my left thigh until I came to the sopping wetness there. He guided me around so that as I bobbed up and down on his dick my pussy was right over his face. With what were first tentative touches, I felt his tongue play along my outer lips, sending small sizzles of electricity from the small of my back to the base of my skull. I could feel his hot breath on my clit as it grew even larger. Then he gently sucked it between his lips and lapped at the end with is tongue.

THAT sent me into squeals of pleasure, and I’m honestly surprised that I didn’t bite down on him. It might have been just a reaction to being with my brother, or it may have been something about the link we shared, but usually when I masturbate, it takes between twenty minutes to half an hour to reach this point, but he took me from zero to there in nothing flat.

I could feel him gently sucking on my clit as his fingers slowly entered my wet hole. It was a glorious feeling and I wanted more so I pushed back until I could feel my hymen against his fingers. Taking more my brother’s dick in my mouth, I gently rolled my tongue up and down its length and around its head. I pulled my mouth back and increased the suction feeling the foreskin roll up over the head again. I could feel the effect this had on him echoed through our link as wiggled against his fingers.

Letting go of him, I sat up and swung my legs around. I knew what I wanted, and how I wanted it. Bending down and kissing the confusion from his face, I said, “I know what we both want.” Then I reached behind me and grabbed his dick and rubbed it against my pussy. I could feel its hard, hot wetness part my outer and inner lips as it passed my entrance to rub against my clit.

“What about…?,” he began to ask.

I smiled again and said, “Shhh… I can make sure I don’t “catch”. I have enough control over my powers to do that at least.” I smiled at him and positioned the head of his dick at my hole and asked, “Ready?” He nodded and I sat back on his shaft.

I can’t really say it hurt. There was a brief stab of pain, and then this glorious feeling of fullness. It echoed through my body, and the halls of my mind as our lovemaking somehow strengthened the link between us.

I could feel his cock stretching me wide, and filling me up like nothing I’d ever experienced before. At the same time, I could feel how the hot wetness of my sex was engulfing him and sending shivers up and down his spine. I sat there staring into his deep blue eyes, as we rocked back and forth. I whispered, “I love you Corbin.”

“I love you too, Lorna,” he said as he began to massage my breasts. I realized that this was the first time another person had touched them since they began to grow. It felt good. “Hmmmm these are nice,” he said.

“Better than Kathy Sue Anderson’s?” I asked. I know it wasn’t fair, but I’ll admit to feeling just a little jealous of her.

He nodded in enthusiastic agreement. “Actually hers are really too big for my taste.”

I smiled. “Really?”

“Yeah, I like these better,” he said as he reached up and began to suck on one of them.

“Oh?” I asked fishing for compliments.

“Yeah, they’re attached to you,” he said as his thrust began to become stronger. I could feel his passion building as he once again buried his face in my breasts.

I reached back and began to gently stroke his hairless balls as he pounded up against me harder. I could feel them begin to pull up against his body and craved what I knew was coming. Suddenly he went stiff and I could feel his dick tremble and vibrate inside me. That was all it took as wave after wave of pleasure swept over me, then through us.

I think I must have blacked out, because the next thing I knew, I was laying with my head on his chest, and his dick still buried inside me. I grinned up to see him gently stroking my hair. “That was fun,” he said.

I nodded and snuggled in close to him. I could feel his heart beating under his chest as I ran my fingers along his skin. Corbin was really on the thin side, but it was sexy in a waif-ish sort of way. I could feel his hands slowly massaging my bottom and moving up and down the small of my back. It was then I realized that the dick buried in my pussy was still hard. I know he’d cum, I could feel it, but I thought boys were supposed to lose their erections after cumming.

He smiled over at me then rolled me over onto my back without ever dislodging himself. I pulled my legs up and wrapped them around his hips as he began to long languid strokes in and out of me. I could feel the head of his dick pulling almost completely out before sinking back into me. I could feel his balls as the pressed against and then away from my ass.

He kissed me deeply and our tongues danced against each other. Occasionally he would pull back and look down our bodies to where we were joined and smiled. At this point I knew that no matter how many if any other lovers I ever had, that Corbin, my brother, would always be the most special. Together we moved against each other until once again our passions began to build. I reached back and pulled greedily at his ass, and felt my fingers slip between the crack to brush against the sphincter there. Suddenly he groaned in pleasure at the touch and I remembered the image of Billy Neal. Smiling to myself, I pushed against his entrance and he groaned again and picked up the pace of his thrusts.

Before not too long we were frantically pulling and pushing at each other and then I felt another wave of pleasure boil over me. As I clamped my legs tightly and tried to pull him deep inside me, I felt him shudder again and he filled me up with his cum.

That was when we were twelve. We've been lovers ever since then. When we were thirteen, Leif arrived in Hidden Falls, and we could sense the same light and fire inside him as was in us. It didn't take long for him to end up in our bed, but that's a different story. Eventually, we added Aerin, and while at the Wolf Creek Academy we discovered our true birthright, and the truth about our mothers.

Over the years, we've all become very close. We helped stop Shadu from summoning the Kheltians when he destroyed our school. Actually, Shadu was winning for most of that fight. It wasn't until the sun set and the nocturnals came out that the tide of that battle shifted. That was two years ago. In January, we felt something horrible happen out west. Something terrible and very powerful entered our world, and in doing so, California became an island chain and Las Vegas beachfront property. We've been living out here ever since; attending UNLV, and helping with the reconstruction efforts while trying to figure out what happened.

When Leif got word about what was happening here in Bodego Bay, we knew we had to do something. So we turned to Mr. LeCroix. He suggested contacting Ms. Murphy and that was how we ended up in the belly of the US Navy's most powerful ship waiting to teleport to the island.

Suddenly, I heard Aerin's voice in my head, We're in the thick of it guys! She's fired on the ship. You can move now!

"You heard her, Corbin. Let's go," I told him.

My brother turned his dark blue eyes to the strike force waiting his signal and asked, "Is everyone ready?"

"Whenever you are, Magelight," Anderson, the team leader said.

He pulled a well-worn copy of a gaming manual out of his satchel and turned to the marked page. Winking over at me, he smiled and drew some lines in the air with his fingers. I knew he didn't have to do it, but sometimes he likes to show off. Strange golden symbols began to glow in the air around us, as a circle appeared in the floor. Suddenly the world lurched sideways with us and there was a sense of reeling speed. It wasn't his usual teleport spell, and it left me felling just a sick to mys stomach. I felt something else too. A great force of mind and power seemed to be tearing at the world around us.

I looked up into a lightning filled sky to see great reptilian forms with bat-like wings coursing through black and purple clouds. Suddenly the image of a sad faced golden-eyed boy who seemed to blazing with fire like Aerin's flashed in front of me. He was wearing some kind of stylized organic armor that looked like it did less to cover his modesty than it protected his body.

Then it was all gone and we were standing outside a building. Leif was there, in all fourteen foot of his battle form leaning against the wall casually picking at one of his claws. As we got our bearings, Anderson looked at his men and and then backed up from Leif. fourteen foot of anthropomorphic white tiger is enough to make anyone nervous. From inside the building I heard the sounds of men screaming.

Anderson made to lead his men into the door, but Witchcat stepped in front of him and shook his head. "I wouldn't do that just now," he growled.

"Why not?"

Leif flowed back down into his human form. I could see several gunshot wounds healing along his well-muscled chest. "Because the women who were prisoners on this island are still getting things under control inside."

"What do you mean?" Anderson asked.

"Well, all the guards' guns are over there," he pointed to a pile of twisted metal and wood. "Except for their bayonets and knifes, and a few axes, and one very cheap and dull katana. Those the women have."

"Where are the guards?" Anderson asked.

Leif looked inside and and listened as the blood curdling scream of a man echoed out of the building. He turned back to Anderson and said, "They're inside with the women. I really wouldn't go in there right now."

"We're supposed to protect those women!" Anderson argued.

"The women have everything in hand, Mr. Anderson," Leif told him as another scream echoed out of the building. "They have spent the last nine months being repeatedly beaten, raped, tortured, and used as slaves. They've seen their husbands, brothers, sons, and fathers degraded, tortured, and murdered while our government did nothing but try to talk to Hardcase as if she was going to suddenly listen to reason. They know what the government will do to their captors, and prefer to handle justice their own way. Who am I to stop them?" He leaned forward and asked, "Who are we to stop them?"

Before Anderson could say anything, the door opened and a bedraggled young woman with a black eye poked her head out the door. Her belly was big with child and I could sense that she would give birth within a few days. She looked at Leif and said, "It's done."

Leif stepped back from the door and said, "You can go in now, Mr. Anderson. This Ms. Grey, she was a freshman at Bodego High School this last year. She's in charge of the women's movement."

As Anderson and his men carefully entered the building, I looked at Leif and asked, "How long did you wait before you moved in to neutralize the guards left behind?"

He smiled at me and asked, "I was supposed to wait?"

I hit him with my open hand across the shoulder, and felt him wince, then I melted in against his broad chest. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Right now, I'd appreciate it if you'd dig the silver out of shoulder. It's not really hurting, I'm not as susceptible to it as werecat, but it is uncomfortable.

"I'll get it," Corbin said and went around behind him to gently probe at the wound. "He shot you from behind?"

"I didn't make sure he was out cold when I passed him," he said.

"Why did they have silver weapons?" I asked.

"I think Hardcase was expecting Runeclaw and Shadowforce," he said wincing as Corbin did something behind him. "That's who the women thought I was, when the gunfire started."

A few moments later, Corbin came back around and handed the slug to me saying, "Looks like a 9mm round." Then looking around he said, "We're wasting time. We need to get to the beach so we can be there catch Hardcase and crew in that pincer maneuver."

"Can we go by regular teleport this time?" I asked.

He nodded and said, "Sure. I'm not sure what happened with that mass teleport spell. I won't use it again until I am."


MAGELIGHT AKA CORBIN GREENWAULD AKA "THAT STRANGE KID CORBIN"


This spell went off a lot better than the first one. At the time I had no idea why the other one went crazy. But now I do, and our world is a much more dangerous place for it today. As we arrived on the beach, I asked Leif, "What happened to the Blaster they left behind?"

Leif grinned at me and said, "He suddenly remembered he had to be somewhere else."

"Where was that?" Lorna asked him.

Leif shook his head and said, "Anywhere there wasn't a weretiger trying to eat him. One of these days I'm going to have to do something nice for Trey Greenbough. He's got half the world scared shitless anytime one of us shows up. Between he and Feral, may her Gods hold her in their arms, werecats are getting quite the reputation. Stretch decided that there was safety in numbers." Feral had died in her brother, Moonwind's arms at the Battle of Wolf Creek. She'd been shot from behind by a UN replicant Soldier using a stolen Atlantean disruptor. Moonwind had gone berserk after that. Challenger had finally had to pull him out of the fight, to keep him from taking on Shadu by himself. I'm sometimes amazed that the person who finally took that ancient sorcerer out was Cyberstar- with nothing more than boot knife.

"Did you try to eat him?" Lorna asked.

"Not really. He didn't know that though," Leif said looking out over the beach. Suddenly he started laughing with that thick throaty laugh of his that echoed across the water. He pointed out where there were thirty or forty boats sitting idly on the surface, not moving. Every now and again, a large fin would break the surface. "Looks like our Defender found a way to stop the rest of Hardcase's forces from getting to the Constellation."

I smiled to myself. Leave it to Leif to find something amusing just before we go into battle. Lorna's favorite nickname for him is "Our Norse Party-boi", and he lives up to it. He fights hard, he plays hard, and he always takes whatever life throws at him head on. That's one of the things that we love about him so much. He's a simple man with simple tastes, and a simple outlook on life- not something you'd expect from the son of a Goddess of Magic.

I remember that when we first met him outside Mr. LeCroix's house on that warm October day, he seemed like a lost little kitten. But there was something about him that caught our attention in ways that nobody we'd met up to that point ever had. It took us weeks to wring the whole story out of him of how he ended up in Hidden Falls, only to find out that the whole thing had been a ruse to hide the fact that his mother and ours had thrown us together to stop Cretienne and his bunch from summoning the Khetian dragon gods.

He'd been convinced by his teacher at Folksvang that he'd failed in his lessons of magic, and was being sent to Earth to study under LeCroix as a last chance to redeem himself. Of course there was another alf-boy who'd been sleeping both with his teacher and with Leif and Leif was convinced that he'd been sent to get him out of the teacher's way. In reality, the whole tale about him not learning his lessons well had been made up to deflect away any scrutiny of why Freyja had sent her agent to Hidden Falls- to give him a modicum of safety. Just nobody told Leif that. When Ridivari had discovered the truth he came to Earth to tell Leif and had wandered into the fight with Cretienne and had been killed. To this day, he has not spoken to his former teacher over the incident.

It shattered the young magecat, and Lorna and I were left to pick up the pieces. At first he was just angry, but then he slowly sank into a deep depression. He'd been offered any boon his mother could grant for his actions in that fight. He'd asked for nothing and simply began to sulk. Nothing seemed to matter to him. The light in his eyes had gone out.

It took us six months after that final fight, to finally manage to coax him out of his funk. Actually, it had been LeCroix's and Mother's idea. We got tired of waiting for him to come to our bed, so we drug him there.

Mother was out of town for a few days and we were being trusted on our own. Of course, Janos, Mr. LeCroix's personal assistant was supposed to check in on us occasionally. For that he'd sent Leif over one warm May day toward the end of the school year. We were waiting on him. Actually Janos had kicked him out of the house for the day, telling him he was tired of the sulking and not return before supper. He'd wandered over to our house and found us in the backyard skinny-dipping in the pool.

Sulking he might have been, but he was still fourteen years old, and Lorna and I aren't exactly chopped liver. When he came through the back gate to find Lorna walking around the edge of the pool in all her naked glory, he'd stopped in his tracks. I had been standing on the low diving board and watched as his eyes roamed up and down her naked form. My sister was then and still is very beautiful. Her long black hair hung down her back in a single cascade of polished ebony. Her bright blue eyes always carried just a hint of mystery to them- like she could see parts of you that nobody else could. Her skin was well tanned and toned without being overly dark, a mark of our Greek heritage. She like myself, with the exception of a very small and thin patch of pubes just above her sex was almost completely hairless from the neck down.

I noticed Leif swallow hard as he looked her up and down. Then he turned and saw me standing on the board. I gave him just a second to realize that I too was naked and to get a bit of a glimpse of anything that might interest him, then I dove in and swam the length of pool. Finally climbing out next to them I heard him say to Lorna, "I'd offer the excuse that I didn't bring any trunks, but that would be kind of silly wouldn't it."

"So you'll join us?" she asked hopefully.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked carefully as I came up beside him.

"Nothing that you don't want to do," Lorna said, reaching up and kissing him lightly on the lips. I could see the beginning of a stirring behind his eyes. She'd definitely gotten his attention.

It was my turn to reel him him in so to speak. I knew that he'd been lovers with Ridivari, so I knew that he had at least some interested in male on male sex. I stepped around and repeated Lorna's performance. It was soft and lingering kiss, and I pressed my naked body against his. He didn't seem to complain, and after the initial shock actually began to return the kiss. I could feel the hardness of his chest against mine, as his hand dropped to squeeze my butt slightly. When I pulled away, I looked down at him and said, "You might as well go swimming now. I got you all wet."

He looked down to where his white muscle shirt and the board shorts he was wearing were soaked through. I could also see the outline of his dick in his shorts, and it looked like it was starting to get hard. "You did more than that," he said. Looking over at Lorna he asked, "You don't have a problem with this?"

"Why should I?" she asked. "Corbin and I have been lovers for over a year now. I've know that he's interested in boys as well since the beginning. We just haven't found anyone who really interests us both until now."

He looked back and forth at both of us and finally said, "I'm not sure about this. I don't want to come between you two."

It was Lorna's turn to turn up the heat. She stepped up to him and said, "But we want you between us: naked. We could just about have our choice of the other boys and girls at our school, and we chose you. Do you know why?"

He shook his head and said, "No."

Her body was against his now as she ran a finger down his well-muscled shoulders and across the nipple poking up hard from under the fabric of his tank-top; then running her finger around it.. Two years of practice with me combined with her own gifts, and Lorna knew exactly how to get a boy's motor kicked out of idle. "Because, there is something alive inside you that they don't have. Something special. It may be because of who your mother is and who our mother is. It calls to us in ways that we can't understand. We want to answer it, not just because it's there, but because it's you. Corbin has wanted you since the first day he met you." She paused a moment and then reached up and gently stroked his strong jaw line with her finger before drawing him into a kiss. "And so have I." Just watching that kiss made my dick jump.

Finally, she stepped back and looked at the prodigious lump in his shorts that was beginning to rise and tent the red material. He blushed deeply, his fair skin turning a rather interesting shade of blood-red. He looked over at me, his eyes darting downward to where my five and half inch dick was starting to harden. "You like this idea too, huh?" he asked.

I was tired of the flirting. I was tired of the sulking. I wanted him then, and I wanted him there. I marched purposefully over to him, smiled into his eyes and winked. Then without any warning, I dropped to my knees pulled his shorts and his boxers down and over the spike that was his dick. I only took a short moment to note that like myself he was uncircumcised and about two inches longer than me, and had about twice my girth. Without even thinking about it, I gently slid the foreskin back to reveal the deep red head of his dick that was starting to leak clear beads of pre-cum. In the same motion, I took the head of that cock into my mouth and began to gently run my tongue around it.

From this close I could see the curly white-blond hair at the base of his dick that tapered into a fine passion trail up to his navel. He groaned and grabbed my head and gently thrust deep into my mouth. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lorna step up close to him, she was probably kissing him. With one hand, I began to gently stroke the large set of balls that hung below his dick, and with the other I ran a finger along the opening of Lorna's conveniently positioned sex.

She rewarded my actions with a slight moan of her own. I continued to bob my head up and down on the long pillar of flesh in my mouth as I moved my hand on his balls up to grasp his dick. As I worked my mouth further down, I began to jack him. I'd never done this before. I've wanted to do it, I've read about it all over the internet, and I'd seen it done on various porn sites, but I'd never actually gotten to do it. I was enjoying the hell out of myself.

After a few moments I could feel his balls begin to contract up against his body and knew I was soon going to taste him in a way that I'd wanted to for the last six months. Lorna too was beginning to thrust against my hand, and I felt it slip deep into the folds of her sex as the two twisted toward each other. I was in a state of pure bliss.

Suddenly I felt the fingers on my head tighten, and Leif drove his dick deep into my mouth. I fought back my gag reflex as it hit the back of my throat suddenly coated it with a musky tasting liquid. I could feel his cock jerk in my mouth several times before the weight on my head increased. I realized that he'd become somewhat weak in the knees. Without missing a beat, I slipped Leif's cock from my mouth, gently kissed the head and pulled the foreskin forward, and then turned, and buried my tongue in Lorna's slit.

I could taste her juices mixing with Leif's in my mouth and as I spread my legs further to lower my body and arched my neck backwards to get a good angle. This wasn't the most comfortable position from which to try and do this, but I was young and flexible. Slowly her knees started to sink to the hardwood deck. I slid my body under hers so that as she folded herself down on top of my face, my body was stretched out on my back. I twisted my feet out from under me and felt them slip into the pool until the back of my knees hit its tiled edge.

Lorna began to work her opening back and forth across my mouth as I alternated digging my tongue into her hole and then sucking on her clit. I felt a hot breath across my rock hard dick and then felt it engulfed in a hot moist mouth. Since Lorna was not facing my feet, I knew it had to be Leif whose mouth was bobbing up and down on my dick. Damn he was good.

He would push back my foreskin and lick around the head of my dick paying close attention to where the head split at the front, and then engulf it in one long stroke until his nose was buried in my pubes. He would then hold it there slowly contracting the muscles at the back of his throat like he was milking it. It wasn't long before I was on the edge of one of the most powerful orgasms of my life. When Lorna began shaking above me and filling my mouth with her juices, it sent me screaming over the edge as I blasted a thick load down Leif's throat.

We spent the rest of that afternoon making love. At one point or another we each had the other as a partner, and we finished with both Leif and I inside Lorna at the same time. As our bodies moved against each other, something inside of each of us grew and reached out for the others. I don't know if that was what our mothers had in mind when they threw us together, but it's what happened. A bond forged between us that even almost five years later, is still growing stronger, especially with the addition of Aerin.

Incoming! suddenly echoed through our heads and yanked me back to the reality of the situation.. We looked up to see Hardcase coming in for what looked like a controlled crash on the beach.

Suddenly I felt Leif slam into me forcing me to the ground as a scarlet streak raced past us. As he rolled off, of me I could see a deep gash running from his right hip, up across his back and ending at his shoulder. Blood was pouring out of the wound as he turned his head to face us. "Time to kick some speedster butt," he growled to us as the round pupils of his ice blue eyes narrowed to a vertical slit. His ears flowed up the side of his head, as short white fur sprouted on his body. A long white tail slipped out of his breeches and lashed back and forth. He'd gone to his natural form, the form in which he'd been born; the form where he could use his strength, claws, and magic all at the same time.

I rolled to the side as I saw Stretch stride onto the beach with those long rubbery ground eating strides of his. Beyond him, Da Man was landing looking just a little out of sorts. I don't know what he'd seen, but what ever it was had sure the hell spooked him. In the distance I could see Sister Slice making her turn. She'd be back in a few seconds. I yelled at Leif, "Choose quickly Witchcat. You want the speedster, the brick, or the rubber band?"

He sighed, "I'll take brick," he said. "You take the speedster." He turned to face Lorna and said, "The rubber band is all yours Lifeforce."

"I guess, that means Hardcase belongs to Aerin." Lorna said.

"Got 'er!" Aerin yelled.

I pulled out my handy-dandy trusty gaming manual, and turned to a couple of well-worn spells, and one that I hadn't used very often. But I knew how to use it. I released the first spell, and -blink: I was several yards away from the empty space Sister Slice's knife slashed through. What most people don't understand about speedsters is that they still have to turn, and at nearly supersonic speeds, that takes a lot of area.

As she arced around for another pass, my second spell went off. Suddenly there eight copies of me scattered around the beach. I'd staggered in them in such a way to keep them out of any straight line attempt at hitting us all in one pass. She was going to have to work at figuring out which one was the real me. I raised an eyebrow at the implications of the fact that there were eight copies.

As her knife passed through two of my copies I quickly flipped to the new spell. Like I said, it was one that I hadn't had much experience with. A third copy was eliminated by the time I found it. The casting time was a little longer than I was used to, but I usually wasn't limited to what the books say. I summoned the power of the spell to me and released it as two more of my copies went down. The last one she hit was uncomfortably close to me.

The beach suddenly extended out about a hundred yards into the water. I ran two of my images out onto it and waited. Aerin love, please tell Def'n to stay away from the surface for the next several seconds. I sent to Coldfire down our link.

Sure thing Corbin. That you playin' with the terrain? You're running out of doppelgangers pretty quick, she sent back.

I just smiled and sent, Watch.

Sister Slice took my bait. When her foot hit the water, she slipped and slowed down for a fraction of a second before she began racing out over the false beach, literally running on water toward my duplicates.

BOOM!!!! One lightning bolt struck from the clear sky and slammed into the illusionary terrain right next to her. The salt water crackled and steamed, and she suddenly stiffened as several thousand volts of electricity ran through her body. For just an instant I could see blue arcs dance between the knives she held in each hand; just before she began to sink into the water.

I released my spells and watched my doppelgangers and the illusionary terrain disappear. Impressive, Aerin said to me over the link. I'll ask Def'n to pick her up and bring her ashore.

I turned and cringed as Stetch was closing with Lorna. I knew his favorite technique was to wrap someone up in his body and then break their neck like some sort of human anaconda. I raced to intercept him, flipping through my spell book looking for the right spell, when I was suddenly swept up in a vice like grip.

The stench coming from Da Man was horrific! Did this guy never take a bath? He smelled like old sweat, urine, and sex. I felt my last meal start to rise in my throat. "Come any closer Runeclaw and I'll twist your little friend's head clean off," he said to Leif while holding me tight against his chest, his vice-like han at my rebelling throat.

"Runeclaw?" I said. "You think he's Runeclaw? Man, are you stupid or what? Don't you watch the news? Runeclaw is an orange tiger. Witchcat is white!" I said trying to think of a quick cantrip I could cast.

Leif shook his head. "You just made a major mistake, Da Man. I might have let you live; might've. Magelight'll fry you in your boots."

I was glad to know that Leif at least respected me. I felt Da Man loosen his grip a little as if he was looking down at me. I immediately dropped in to a split turned around and grabbed him by the balls as I released a quick first level spell that came to mind. Electricity arched from my fingers to his most sensitive spot. It wouldn't seriously hurt him, but it sure the hell made him jump back. I knew what was coming. I did the only thing I could do. I threw myself forward and hugged the sand as Leif went flying over my head into Da Man.

I rolled to my feet quickly, grabbed my book and headed toward my sister. I shouldn't have worried though. She'd shrunk down to the size of a six year old and was slowly extricating herself from Stretch's now paralyzed coils. He however, looked to be in severe pain. "What have you done to me you bitch!" he screamed.

My sister daintily stepped over his left foot and began to grow back to her normal age and size. She shrugged and patted him on the shoulder. He winced again. "First off, I took control of your nervous system, that way, you couldn't crush me. Then I hardened your highly flexible bones and completely calcified them. Then I blocked the portion of your brain that lets you access your powers." She grinned wickedly. "And after seeing what you let your men do to the women of this island. Now, I've removed your manhood." I could see where he was beginning to turn an ashy gray. "By the way, I gave you your control of your muscles back and left your strength. You can move if you want."

Suddenly there was loud cracking noise running through his body, and he screamed in pain. She smiled and said, "But I wouldn't recommend it. It'll snap all those overly calcified bones like twigs." He collapsed into a pile on the ground. She smiled over at me and asked, "Don't tell me you were worried about me, Bro."

"Nah, " I lied. Then I pointed to where Leif was going all medieval on Da Man. "But I am going to need someone to help me calm him down."


WITCHCAT AKA LEIF HUNTER AKA "THE NORSE PARTY-BOI"


Da Man's real mistake was trying to take a hostage. Threatening Corbin took it from a friendly little fight to one of dead seriousness. You don't threaten my family; that will get you killed. I won't lose anyone else the way I lost Ridivari. Granted, as he just proved, Corbin can more than take care of himself, but he just hasn't figured out yet that I LIKE to take care of him.

When he dropped into those splits and let Da Man have it with that spell, I knew it was time to act. I recognized which spell he used. It's one of the most common spells a magic user can have in that particular game. When Da Man reached to protect his privates I leaped and shifted at the same time. What left the ground was two hundred ten pounds of magecat; what hit Da Man was fourteen feet and seventeen hundred pounds of raging white weretiger.

I caught him with a right hook that slashed my claws deep into his shoulder. It dug into the edges of his cape at the shoulders and tore them away with it, pulling the long piece of cloth over his head and temporarily blinding him. As I landed, I took advantage of that, twisted around and caught him with a back fist up side the head with the other hand.

His head went sideways and he spun in place. I twisted around and crouched low waiting for another opening. I could see where my claws had opened him up good- four long deep gashes were pouring blood from his right shoulder to his left floating rib. He turned back around and shook his head. "I'm gonna pound you inta d' sand motha fucka!" he said clenching his fists and walking toward me.

I was taught to fight by the finest brawlers and swordsmen in Folksvang; men and women who lived their lives on the battlefield and who had died on the battlefield. This guy was a rank amateur. He was a brawler yes, but not a very good one. He'd gone soft, let his powers do his fighting for him. His first punch was broadcast long before he threw it and I blocked it easily. He didn't broadcast his second one. It caught me hard in the kidneys, and he danced away. Maybe he wasn't as dumb as he acted.

I countered with a few feints with a right and then a left. He dodged and weaved to one side and then the other. Then I feinted with a right hook. He ducked his head and my left foot claw raked him right in mouth. I felt it slice deep into his lip, then his chin and finally a long ragged journey down his chest.

He danced back out of my way, his lip bleeding bright red blood. I smelled the iron in it and licked my lips. He brought his fists up like a boxer. He went through a series of foot shuffles offering me first one side and then another. With a cat's patience I watched him move, waiting for my moment. Then it came. The fist he threw out was just a couple of inches too far, just a couple of pounds too much force. I pounced.

I hit sand. When I had leapt, so had he. He went straight up, using his flight power- one that I didn't have. While I was trying to recover, he came straight down on my shoulders and began to pummel my ears and head with massively powerful blows. I began to see stars from their force.

I threw my head back roared into the night, trying to shake him off. Instead he locked his arms around my neck and began to try and twist head sideways. I think he was trying to break my neck. When he leaned forward, his tiny head against the side of my massive one, he whispered, "When I'm finished with you,do you think your bitches'll wanna' play with me? Don't matter, we'll play anyway."

There's an old saying about the dangers of having a tiger by the tail. In this case he had me by the neck, and his shoulders were within easy reach. I lashed out: right claw to left side, left claw to right. I felt them bite deep into the flesh of his shoulders and as I raked forward, I felt their hinges snap into place. I growled knowing that as long as I pulled forward, they would not retract. Either they'd come out of their moorings in my hands, or they'd tear his skin away. I curled my fingers inward and began a long slow rake forward, bringing his vile smelling face and neck against the back of my scruff. I felt them dig into his iron hard skin and hold. As I pulled, the skin tore, and the sockets rotated forward. "Crack. Snap." I felt the ball and socket joints give way.

He screamed in pain and his hands unlocked themselves from around my neck. I lifted him up and over my head and then slammed him down into the ground in front of me, rolling my hands away so as to tear the flesh away from his skin. I felt his arm bones rotate back behind his shoulders as he screamed in pain again while writhing on the sand at my feet. With a a grim growl, I reached down and grabbed him by the throat. "Witchcat! No!" Lorna screamed at me.

I looked up and growled. I don't know what she may have seen in my eyes, but she actually stopped in her tracks and back pedaled a moment. My cat could smell her fear. But deeper inside, I could smell the love we shared. "Don't do it. He's done for. You don't have to kill him."

"You saw what he he and his men did to the people of this island," I growled. "He deserves to die."

"It was no different than what white folks did to us in the slave days!" he spat at me through the pain in his shoulders.

I leaned down into his face and said, "Did any of those people own slaves? Did any of them do it to you?"

"No! But they are just as guilty. They built this country on the backs of people of color. They deserved what they got!"

"You're not winning any converts, here Da Man," Lorna said. "Keep yapping your trap, and I'll let him eat you. The next time anybody'll see you will be when he flushes the toilet."

I could see the blood drain from his face; but that may have been from the fact that I'd torn huge chunks of muscles out of the triceps and biceps of each of his arms. "I surrender!" he said.

I raised my fist back and clocked him good across the jaw. I felt it shatter as his head went sideways and his eyes rolled back into his head. "I've had enough of your mouth," I growled to myself and stood up.

In the distance I could see Hardcase's retreating form. She was flying very wobbly but she was getting away. There was no way any of us could catch her. Aerin couldn't fly that fast, and the rest of us couldn't fly at all. Well, we won't talk about Corbin and the broom. I looked around. Def'n was dragging Sister Slice up on the shore. I have to admit, he was quite a sight coming naked out of the water, his long wine colored hair streaming down behind him. The water wings running from his wrists to the small of his back, left saltwater dripping onto the villainess' face as dropped her in the sand. He looked over at me and said, "I had to fight off two little deaths for this one."

"She's the one that blew up that bus load of kids in Vegas last month. I'm not sure you did us any favors." I smiled at him and added, "But you do good work."

I smiled over at Corbin. "You do good work too."

He grinned, shrugged and said, "It's a gift."

"What happened with Hardcase?" I asked Aerin.

"She fired on her own men," Aerin said. "I could either have stopped her and let them die, or let her go and have a few people for prosecution." She indicated two halves of a fishing trawler, sinking beneath waves.

"What did you do with the men?" I asked.

"I dropped them in the middle of a squad of Captain Lee's Marines on the deck of the Constellation," she said with a smile.

"Good work," I told her.

Looking at Lorna I asked, "Is Stretch neutralized?"

"Oh yeah," she said. "He managed to break most of the bones in his back. He's not going anywhere until I decide otherwise."

Suddenly I felt something hum against my mage senses. It felt like someone had just really screwed up the spell to summon the Rainbow Bridge. Corbin seemed to sense it too. We both began to look around. Suddenly he called, "Incoming!"

Looking in the direction he was pointing I could see a flaming ball of something arcing through the night sky. It was on direct course for the beach. I shouted, "Scatter!"

"No!" Lorna yelled. "He's alive! Get Murphy and the medics out here now. Aerin, catch him."

With a nod the red head took the skies. I smiled watching her red hair slowly turn snow white as she rose and the white flames began to dance around her. And I'll admit to taking a moment to admire her butt. It was a nice butt. It reminded me of a time several years ago, when I first gained the right to admire it.


It was about seven thirty, eight o'clock and it had been a long and hard furball practice. It was our first year of actually playing other schools. Since the Academy had gone from being an open secret in town to a known quantity over the last few years, Mr. Greenbough our principal, decided to organize an official furball league with the other reopened transhuman schools in the country. There were only twelve in the whole United States, and that included the re-opened Pacifica and Homeguard schools. Since the schools were backed by both the Shan and the Atlantean governments, we all had access to to transportation that made the long travel for games possible.

The season was supposed to open next Friday and we'd all been practicing hard. Of course this last practice had been a little distracting, and I'd gotten my butt creamed a couple of times- and not in the good way. I could feel what had been happening between Lorna and Aerin over the link we'd all shared. We'd been discussing how to invite Aerin into the group. We all found her attractive, we all liked her personally, and we all felt that call that Lorna is so keen on pointing out. Lorna just decided to make the first move while I was busy with furball practice and Corbin was busy as equipment manager.

After showering and heading back to the dorm it was all Corbin and I could do to keep our hands of f each other. Walking into the common room of the suite and finding Lorna and Aerin both dressed in mine and and Corbin's other practice jersey's was a little distracting- especially since that was all they were wearing. I could smell the scent of their lovemaking throughout the suite. I looked over at Corbin, and I think I growled. I know he did.

Without a word, he walked over to his sister, and kissed her firmly on the lips. I shrugged and followed suit. He then turned around and kissed Aerin the same way. Without a word, so did I. I wasn't about to be left out.

"So did you have fun today?" Corbin asked them with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Yes," Aerin said. "Yes I did."

I sniffed her shoulder, and then Lorna's before saying, "I'd say so."

"Is he always like this?" Aerin asked.

"No," Corbin said. "Sometimes he growls. But right now he's just horny, and wondering which one of our bones, he wants to jump first."

"Ahhhh," Aerin said. "And what makes him think he's not going to get jumped first?"

"You calling dibs?' Corbin asked.

"Flip you for him," she said.

"I got more sense than to answer that question to a telekintic on your level. I'm just offering you first chance." He still had that grin. "I got to open Lorna first, so I thought it might be appropriate to give you first shot at him."

"Yeah, I thought about that, but I was kind of hoping for a three for one sale," she said reaching down and stroking the front of both our jeans. Lorna came up behind her and wrapped one arm around Aerin's waist and ran the other down the side of her head, along her breast and down to her hips. I could smell the excitement beginning to flow in both girls.

I stepped forward and took the hem of my jersey that pretty much engulfed her and lifted it up over her head. She was beautiful. Creamy white flawless skin stretched taut over well toned muscles. Rich red hair, the tips of which were snow white fell down her back in a long straight curtain. Her ice blue eyes that matched my own. Her breasts were large, double cs I'd say, and her shape was very curvaceous. The thin hair above her sex was snow white- the same color as the tips of her hair. Beside me, Corbin whistled his appreciation. "You are amazing," I said.

"See?" Lorna whispered in her ear. "I told you so."

"And you are too," I gently kissed her and then removed Corbin's smaller jersey from her frame. It really had hidden little below the waist. Every time she moved, it would pull back to show her bare slit and just a hint of black hair above it.

I turned to see Corbin shucking his jeans, his shirt already on the floor beside him. "As for you," I said. "You're just one of a kind."

"I told you he had the tongue of a poet," Lorna said.

"I thought you were talking about for other things," she said with a wink.

"Oh, he's good at that too. Corbin, though is the master cunning linguist."

I smiled over at Corbin as he grinned and stood there with a good six inches of hard dripping cock standing at a forty five degree angle. I know I growled. Somehow everyone around me had gotten naked but me.

I reached up and pulled my muscle tee over my head and dropped it on the floor. It was Aerin's turn to whistle. "Toned skin or hard muscle? What a choice?" she said with a grin. I was a little concerned about that though. I didn't think Corbin was self conscious about his size. He wasn't small, mind you, he just wasn't massive. I recognized that I was a big guy. At six two, and two hundred ten pounds, I wasn't the biggest guy on campus, but I was up there. Years of being on the practice field with the warriors of Folksvang, of hard work physical training to be what I am had given me a very muscular form.

"You don't have to choose," I told her. "You can have both."

She walked over and kissed Corbin seriously and began stroking his cock. He looked over at me and grinned. Then looking around the room he shook his head.

"This may not be the best setting for this." He went to his books and pulled out his favorite gaming manual and opened it to a marked page about two thirds through. Shucking the rest of my clothing, I watches as he walked over to the door to his bedroom and traced the outline of the door's frame. As he did a golden line appeared and followed his finger, until it completely framed the door. Then the space between it wavered and and through the door, I could see what looked like a marble-floored foyer. He turned and said, "At least inside here, we'll have some privacy and won't have to worry about breaking the furniture."

"What the hell?" Lorna asked.

"Just a little spell I've been working on mastering," he grinned.

"That's a sixth level spell!" I said.

"So?" he replied.

"I'm impressed," I told him.

"So am I," he said staring down at my eight inches of hard cock.

"It's nothing you haven't seen or had before," I told him. "Or had."

"I know, but I'm still impressed every time I see it."
"If we're going to take this somewhere else, let's do it," Aerin said taking me by the hand and leading into the foyer beyond the door.

Five minutes later we were all in a large warm room with one of the biggest beds I'd ever seen. There were marble floors, expensive wall paper, gilded moldings and a huge fireplace on the wall opposite the bed. It was opulence to rival the that of Lois XIV's Palace of Versaille.

He smiled over to me and asked, "Now isn't this better than trying to squeeze all of us onto one of those little single beds in the dorm?"

"I'm not complaining," Aerin said as she snuggled up against Lorna. "Now if you two are finished being impressed with each other, why don't you come over here and impress us?"

I smiled and crawled onto bed, stretched out atop her and kissed first her and then Lorna. She reached down and grasped my dick and began to stroke it. A strange look came over her as if she thought of something. She looked over at where Corbin was climbing onto the bed. She looked down at his cock and then reached over and began to stroke it too. Something was bothering her and I wasn't sure what it was. She looked back down at mine and then leaned up and whispered in my ear. "Do you mind if I take Corbin first?"

I raised an eyebrow and then looked down and then said, "Nobody here will ever make you do anything you don't want to do. This is about sharing, not about competing." I will admit that was a little hurt that she wanted him first.

I rolled off her and nodded to Corbin. He gave me a strange look and then shook his head. I looked at him and said, "She wants you."

"You big dummy," Lorna sat up saying, "She's afraid it's going to hurt. She's a virgin. This isn't about wanting one of you or the other. She's like me, she wants both of you."

I shrugged, "It's cool with me." I realized that I was on the large size for a sixteen year old. It wasn't that I was exceptionally long- eight inches on a good day, it was the girth. My dick was a good three and a half inches across. Personally, I liked Corbin's better. He was about six and half inches long and about two inches across, but he had this huge head that was shaped like bifurcated mushroom. It was awesome.

"No, it's not," Aerin said sitting up. "It's not about which of you I like better." She reached down and began to stroke my softening dick. "I like both of you the same." She took my hand and guided it to the entrance of her body. I could feel the hot wetness there.

I smiled and said, "I can wait. Watching is fun too. Besides, there's always Lorna to keep me occupied."

She looked at me, and said, "Don't ever think that you can lie to me Lief Hunter. You're a little hurt by what you think is a rejection. But your also too much of a gentleman to show it."

"I'm not going to do anything that's going to hurt you, Aerin," I told her. "If you think I'm too big for your first time, I'll gladly defer to Corbin." I thought about that and how Corbin might have taken it and shook my head, "I mean, not that he's little or anything."

"Oh shut up and just fuck her all ready," Corbin said. "I'm not offended and I'm not hurt." He looked down at my dick and said, "And if I can take that thing up my ass, then I'm sure she won't have any problems accommodating it with her pussy."

"I hadn't thought of that," Aerin said. "I'd like to see that some time."

"Don't worry, you'll get a chance," Lorna said sitting up and straddling her brother. "You two play. I'm claiming this particular piece of meat." She reached back and guided his dick to her opening and slowly sat down on it. "Ah that hits exactly the right spot."

Aerin looked at me and said, "Lay back. I've got an idea."

I raised an eyebrow and leaned back against the headboard next to Corbin. We looked over at each other and then scooted closer. He kissed me on the lips as I felt Aerin take hold of my dick and guide it to her entrance. She was wet and tight. I turned to look up where she was straddling me. She slowly scooted back until she'd taken me all the way down and her pubes were grinding against mine. She had a surprised look on her face.

"What?" Lorna chuckled. "Do you think I was going to let that thing hurt you? I'm a biomancer, I can change your body as easily as I can mine. It was an easy manipulation." She leaned crossways and kissed me. "And do you think I would let anyone hurt you, even emotionally, and even unintentionally.?"

Aerin just smiled and started to rock back and forth, raising her body up until only the head of my dick was inside her and the sitting back down. Beside her, Lorna had stretched her body out along Corbin's her legs splayed out along the outside of his as she ground herself against him.

I reached up and began to rub my palms against her nipples and then gently roll them between my finger and thumb. She squealed in delight and began to bounce harder against me. I grabbed her hips to keep her from coming off and simply began lifting and then lowering her onto my dick. When you can lift a tank, a hundred and ten pounds of girl is nothing.

We continued to make love all night long. After that first round, we traded off partners. After that, Aerin got her wish as Corbin and I made love, and then we watched her and Lorna. It was a night for discoveries, and a night for firsts for all of us.

I remember waking somewhere around midnight to nature's call. When I came out of the bathroom- something I was surprised to find in this particular mansion- I went out onto the balcony to watch the fog of Corbin's pocket realm roll across lawn outside. Beyond the wall of the garden, I could see nothing. "I'm sorry," Aerin said from behind me.

"What for?" I asked as she came out to join me. She too was naked.

"I hadn't considered how my own fears might have been misinterpreted by you. That's mistake no telepath should make."

"I was being over-sensitive," I said.

"No you weren't," she said. "And don't ever apologize for being who you are, Leif Hunter. We are the people of ash and elm. We don't engage in false modesty. You are beautiful, and you are kind and gentle lover. I almost missed discovering that for my first time. We shouldn't play the Christian game of false modesty. It's not becoming of either of us."

"I am glad that is a lesson you've finally learned my daughter," a voice said from behind us.

We both turned in all our naked glory to find a woman dressed white fur standing at the door. The very force of her personality was almost overwhelming. I immediately recognized her, and dropped to one knee. Son of the First Chooser of the Battleslain I may be, but I have been taught to honor all of the Gods and Goddesses, even those by marriage. "My Lady," I said.

She smiled at me, and then over at Aerin who looked at her and asked, "Daughter?"

Skadi nodded and said, "Od's wife is not the only one who can join in this mission between our people and the those of Mount Olympus. I have been waiting for you to accept what you are."

"And what am I," she asked looking down at me in confusion.

"The granddaughter of Thiazi," she said. "And I am well pleased with those you've chosen as consort." She looked at me and said, "Oh do stand up, Leif. I am not going to blast you into nothingness for making my daughter a woman. This is as we expected it. Even the relationship between those two asleep in there, is something that does not surprise us. Remember, my husband's first wife; remember what Skytreader accused your mother and your uncle of? You are of the Vanir, these things are accepted, understood."

I rose and she turned back to Aerin and added, "The fate the Norns have woven for you is just beginning. Something horrible is coming to the Midgarth from outside Yggdrassil's limbs. Jormandigar's cousins are awaiting to be summoned to Midgarth. There is nothing that can prevent this. The Olympian Queen has seen this. The Allmother has seen this. Leif's mother has seen it as has the twins' mother You will stand between humanity and those that would the free enchain. Leif's commission now binds all of you together."

"What do we do now, My Lady?" I asked.

"What you have been doing; learning your lessons, training in your gifts, and sharpening your swords." She smiled at me and said, "And take care and love each other."

I nodded and said, "As you command."

She smiled and winked at me as she faded away.

"Well your mother did sort of order us to love each other," I said as I pulled her to me.

She grinned and said, "Let's go wake the others and start round two."


I shook my head out of old memories and watched as Aerin intercepted the flaming form in the sky. It took only a few moments before she was landing on the beach cradling in her arms the flaming form of a boy of about fourteen. He was dressed in a strange organic-looking armor that covered his shoulders, his torso, his groin, forearms, and legs and nothing else. It was a strange mixture of an iridescent blues and purples. There was a nasty looking hand and a half sword strapped to his back. His blond hair was longish and he had a smattering of freckles across his slightly upturned nose. His body appeared to be hard, like that of an athlete or considering his dress, more likely a warrior.

Corbin pulled a silver thermal blanket from the bag at his side and lay it on the ground. "Put him on this," he said.

As Aerin lay him down, I noticed the nasty scratches and burn marks all over his body. It looked like he'd been hit by thousand tiny cigarette burns, and he smelled of scorched ozone. Aerin looked at me and said, "His mind is being assaulted. He's in some kind of trance, cleansing and absorbing something. I can't get a clear picture." She shook her head helplessly.

"Look at this," Lorna said, pointing to what looked like part of a burn scar shaped like a dragon's tail disappearing into the bracers on the inside of his wrists.

"Dragons coming," he moaned tossing his head from side to side. "Fathers!" he screamed into the night and sat straight up, his eyes flashing open show the golden orbs behind the lids.

Thus came to us Dragonphyre, and began the Dragonwar.