The Witch and Her Second Chance

5 | Connecting

"This feels too soon," Jo mumbled.

Jackie looked up from her phone. "Oh. Okay. If you say so.”

They were snuggled up on their sofa, a glass of wine each and listening to music. Jackie had suggested they start looking for their new casual third. It had been days since Jo had spoken with Bruce and they hadn't been with him for weeks before that. Jackie knew her woman and she'd be itching before too long and Jackie would rather have more time than less to get to know someone before diving in again.

Jo responded to Jackie's tone immediately, sighing in admittance that she did indeed want to so soon as well. "It doesn't hurt to look."

Jackie kissed her quickly and opened the app.

"I feel like we've seen all these…" Jackie mumbled after a few minutes of nothing of interest.

Jo had taken over, swiping left swiftly. "Maybe we should try another app."

"Or you could be less picky."

Jo just rolled her eyes and continued swiping through the options.

"Hold the phone," Jo breathed. She lingered on the profile pic. It looked almost like a prop photo, something old world about it. The man had clear almond shaped rich light brown eyes, like honey, his dark hair floppy. Jo bit her lip as she took him in. His natural brown skin was only slightly darker than Jackie's. His wide lips were parted slightly and the heat in which his eyes looked directly into the camera had her clenching already.

"Don't get too excited, sweetness," Jackie cautioned, knowing the look on her beloved's face.

Jo nodded and swiped right, but every other profile seemed uninspiring after that.

~*~

Paper everywhere, scattered and stacked. Verin sat with his head in his hands, gripping his hair in frustration and torment. He'd had his new assignment for three days now and wasn't any closer to working it out. What they needed was impossible.

Two bronze machines about the size of a toaster each sat before him. It was dragon tech–the only other species known to make artifices. Their magic so beyond what Warlocks could collect, trying to reverse engineer it was like trying to explain how to walk to a species that didn't know what legs were.

The devices were communicators. They knew it worked, the whirling of the gears and the hum of magic around it obvious–but no one knew how it worked.

He had three of them in total, one was kept in pieces and two he'd kept intact so he could try to use them but as yet he hadn't worked out how they could transmit a communication.

It didn't work like their own devices–the warlocks used the same energy waves as the internet to project sound spells into the channels to be transformed to sound again. But this… it defied reason and logic.

It didn't help that his anxiety was high again, now not based just on shame but fear. If he couldn't work this out… the Book of Boden were not forgiving and the likelihood of punishment high, no matter his impeccable track record. He paused at the thought. He had time. He knew he was catastrophizing but knowing a thing was different to being able to control it.

He needed a break. Almost on queue, Celeste barged into his office. "There you are!"

He glanced at the time, seeing it was very late in the evening.

She thrust her human device into his hand, "You've got a bunch of matches you s****l deviant."

"What?" His voice was harsh. He brushed his hair back, trying to look less disheveled.

"Human matches," she explained with an exasperated tone. She continued to bulldoze her way in, pushing his work away from in front of him and sliding her butt on his desk so she sat on his desk before him. She was wearing a suit dress, bunching the skirt so she could sit with her legs spread.

He couldn't help but enjoy the image of her on his desk. He still didn't know what she was talking about so gave her a ‘get to the point' look.

She rolled her eyes. "The app, you tit. A bunch of people matched with you, now you can talk to them–which I took the liberty to do to whittle out unsuitable suitors."

"Oh right," he'd almost forgotten about it. He'd locked himself away for days and had thought of little else than his assignment.

She turned the device around and showed him his options.

"These guys are super cute and buff and s**t. But… they're like… I don't know, sappy?"

Verin just nodded as she refreshed his memory of the profile. Two very muscular white men, traditionally handsome.

"These guys, I think for sure, get in it. It's apparently for the boyfriend–who has wanted to try some guy on guy action." She showed the man and woman in the photo, he looked nice enough, the woman with a cheeky look on her face. "I've been chatting mainly to the girl. She has a massive hard on for this–I think you'll have fun."

She wiggled closer and triumphantly brought up another profile, "and the grand finale, these two gorgeous women. You'll remember this one." And he did. "The redhead's the bi one, but it sounds like the other woman does what needs doing too."

"Okay…?" Verin didn't know what to do with this info.

"Now you woo them, you d**k," Celeste slapped his shoulder. "I warmed them up, read through the messages and continue with them. I'm going to the human realm in two days, come with me and you can have your fun."

He shook his head, "I've got too much work to do."

"Huh?" She looked around, her eyes falling on the dragon communication devices.

"I have to work out how these work so I can develop a way to break in and listen."

She made a face, "Dragon tech? Dude, it's just magic…"

"Everything is magic, Celeste," he picked her up, earning him a steamy look from her as his hands gripped her ass, and he set her on her feet. A tickle at what he'd said made him pause, but he couldn't grasp it. "The deadline is looming and I've gotten nowhere."

She shifted from foot to foot, looking between him and the machines. "What if I can hook you up with a dragon in the human realm?"

"Seriously?" He was guarded. There were very few dragons outside Therein and the likelihood of her as a warlock knowing one that would be willing to work with them was slim. They were allied, but in a cagey way–him being charged to break into their comms tech enough explanation of how strained the alliance was. They didn't hate each other like the warlocks and werewolves–even the werecats weren't as hated as the wolves.

She nodded, "I promise."

After a few moments pause, "Okay–" he raised his hands to calm her down as she screamed with glee. "But I have to meet them first thing, fun after."

She nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow and we can plan. Have fun chatting." With that she fairly skipped out of his office, leaving her mobile with him.

~*~

The first thing he did was properly re-secure the time bubble artifice onto the device.

A time bubble did have limitations. A small amount of time and space captured was possible when attached to such a small object but anything larger or contained a longer period of time would need too great a source of power. It would be like draining the sun. You could capture magic, similar to how Celeste had captured a time loop of access to the human world and its Wi-Fi but magic would still dissipate over time. It was a fascinating occurrence, magic. Verin would love to have dedicated more of his time to the study of its origin and limitations but instead he just worked within what was known, pushing the boundaries as often as possible.

His level of skill meant he didn't disrupt the hold as he shifted the bubble back into place. Order set, he settled into his solitary armchair in his home with two fingers of bourbon.

He'd read through the messages Celeste had already sent on his behalf. She'd been fairly on track with his tone but she'd been far more direct than he probably would have been. He didn't know what humans liked in that department. They knew a fair amount about the inhabitants in their neighbouring world, so he knew they were more conservative sexually. Probably equal or higher in violence than his people, from what he had read of their history.

While the ruling structure and general manner of warlocks was cruel there was little crime and in fighting almost unheard of–and if so only ever rumoured. Wizards knew how to keep damaging information under wraps. It was not a democratic society, it was hierarchical and oddly still socially supportive but in a utilitarian way. Medical care and education was free. Education, harshly so, mandatory to pass a university level before you could start your allocated occupation. With jobs assigned based on skill and ability, they were always assured the most efficient workforce. Verin was lucky his skill also aligned to what he had passion for.

He committed to a meet up with the male and female couple but hadn't finalised a time. Celeste had been right, the woman was thirsty for this. She'd wanted to talk in great detail about what she wanted Verin to do to her boyfriend. He'd shared a couple of his own thoughts which she'd seemed beyond excited for.

The two women couple were more toned down, it was very officious. They used their names at the beginning of each message to show who was communicating.

"Jo: Hi. So glad we matched."

"Me too. You're both beautiful."

"Jackie: thank you. I had to close Jo's mouth when we came across you. You been a third before?"

"Oh yes." He frowned and Celeste's choice of response.

"Jo: we like to be upfront. We're not looking for anything other than sex."

"Sounds good."

"Jackie: we have rules. Jo likes men, I'm not fussed. We only have s*x all together. We don't do dates. We don't do dinner. No gifts. Any s*x toys are discussed ahead of time and agreed to. If we want to end it, it ends."

"I like rules. My friend Celeste often says there isn't a rule I can't follow."

Verin rolled his eyes at that.

"Jackie: you can sleep with other people, but while you do, and until a clean test after months of no one else, you have to wear protection."

He didn't know what that meant but Celeste had responded with a, "Sure."

"Jo: We'd like to meet. Just meet first, then we decide. If we choose not to go ahead we all just forget our paths ever crossed."

"Name the time and place."

Celeste had agreed to a meeting on the second day they would be in the human realm.

He wasn't sure if he should message the two women, they had seemed to have wrapped up the conversation. He toyed with the idea for a bit and then bit the bullet.

"What do you like?" Considering their direct messaged earlier he didn't think they wanted quite the direct messaging as with the other couple.

He wasn't sure how long it would take to get a reply so he'd played around on some of the other apps Celeste had, a very eye opening pornographic app kept him preoccupied for a while. My word, he thought. Maybe humans weren't quite the wilting flowers he'd thought.

"Jo: Jackie is a no to penetration. I love anal."

He breathed out. Okay then. He decided to be bold.

"I like giving anal. Can I go down on Jackie?"

"Jo: yes. But you watch me first. We're very serious about this."

"Of course. Will both of you or only you give me head?"

"Jo: mainly me but sometimes Jackie can get into it."

He felt at a loss again. He shook his head then looked around. How did Celeste do this?

"Jo: this is for me. Jackie is just the most loving partner. Without her I'd be dead in a ditch."

"It sounds like you love each other very much." He couldn't help the sad feeling that washed over him, here as he sat alone.

"Jo: we do. She's the love of my life."

He smiled at that, wondering what being in love felt like.

~*~