Under Her Spell Page 7

  “Drink it all in one sitting, preferably when you won’t be driving anywhere. It will give you a vision of your future, and I hope for your sake it’s a good one. I’m closing for the day now, though, got a lot of filing and the like to do. Thank you again, and you can show yourself out.”

  What a strange, and rather rude, man, Terra thought as she left. And what a sweet, lovely creature Katherine seemed to be. She glanced back at the store once more right before she crossed the street, but the store’s sign was different now. No longer saying YE OLDE MAGICK SHOPPE, it now stated that the store was for rent and listed a number to call for inquiries.

  Admittedly, that didn’t surprise her much. This magic stuff, all of these experiences outside of the Werths’ mansion and its surrounding city, well, she just might be starting to get used to it. Which would hopefully pay off in the long run.

  Back at the car, Onyx asked her why she’d been gone so long. It was only then she realized it was now dusk and, according to her watch, almost five hours after she had finished lunch. “I was…helping someone,” she told him, and refused to tell him any more, no matter how many questions he asked after they began to drive down Main Street. “All I’m willing to tell you is that we need to find somewhere to stay for the night, although I don’t know how affordable it’ll be.”

  “Check your wallet when we get there. You should have somewhere around eight hundred dollars in it, if I’m remembering correctly.”

  “Well, damn! How sweet of Athene…unless you put it there, Onyx.”

  Onyx shook his head, and Terra smiled, thinking about the fact that her lunch had cost about eight dollars. That was an extremely large one-hundredth of what Athene had given her, she thought with a chuckle.

  “What’s so funny, doll?” Onyx glared up at her with narrowed eyes. “Are you laughing at the sorry state of my fur coat? Sitting in this car all day didn’t exactly do wonders for my looks, you know.”

  “No, you’re perfectly pulled together, as usual, Onyx. I’m just…it’s just…never mind. Hey, check it out, there’s an inn right up ahead!”

  Its sign read, RAVEN’S INN AND RESTAURANT. Good, she could probably have dinner there, too. She still had one can of cat food left for Onyx, but she couldn’t eat it with him, of course. Hopefully the restaurant would have decent food.

  Inside the inn’s front door stood an absolutely beautiful desk, with graceful-seeming mermaids as well as waves and seashells carved into its legs. On top of it were some papers and a shiny brass bell, which Terra rang. A voluptuous woman wearing a low-cut T-shirt and a heather-gray pencil skirt came from around a corner behind the desk. “Oh, hello there! Were you hoping to get a room for the night?”

  “Yes, I was. How much would your cheapest room be?”

  “Actually, we’re completely vacant right now, so I can give you our nicest room at a great bargain: eighty including room tax, plus you get a ten-dollar coupon for our restaurant. The clam chowder there is to die for, totally delish. How does that sound?”

  “Great. Especially the clam chowder.”

  The woman giggled, then got a key off the wall behind the desk. “You’ll be in room eight. Now, will you be paying with credit?”

  “Nope, cash. One thing, first, though. Do you allow pets?”

  “Do we allow pets? Ha!” The woman whistled, and moments later, three Shih Tzus tore down the hall to Terra’s left and dashed behind the counter, yipping happily. “What’s your pet’s name?”

  “Onyx, and he’s a cat.”

  “Oh, my dogs love kitties. Maybe they can play together.”

  Terra almost grimaced at the thought. Onyx was a bit of an elitist when it came to dogs, believing they’d only been put on this earth to make cats look better. “He doesn’t really feel safe around dogs, I’m afraid, no matter how nice they are to him.”

  “Well, I’ll make sure Frank, Dean, and Sammy Junior are in the back when you bring him through. Will he be needing dinner too? Our chef, my husband, will be happy to make Onyx something to sup on. Sandy makes a lovely dish he calls Catty Catfish, and we happen to have some fresh from our nearby bay, just in this afternoon.”

  “That would be lovely. Thanks…what’s your name?”

  “Oh!” The woman clasped her hand to her chest. “Silly me. I’m Raven, Raven Thick. A pleasure to meet you. And you are?”

  “It’s Terra.” The woman took her hand, but instead of shaking it, she brought it to her lips and gave it a loud kiss.

  “Well, young lady, go ahead and bring your stuff in, and your darling kitty, and we’ll settle the bill.”

  “Be right back,” Terra told her, walking out the building’s front door. That woman’s a bit of a character, she thought to herself, but a likeable one, for sure. It was nice that Raven was so fond of animals, too, a trait Terra had always appreciated in Magic Ones and humans alike. It was a trait her father and her mother had shared.

  She told Onyx about the inn and warned him about the dogs. “I don’t think they’ll be out and about when we go in, though.”

  “Thank God. You know how I despise those insipid ruffians you people call ‘dogs.’”

  Terra got her bag out of the car and locked it, and Onyx followed her inside the inn. She paid Raven while the innkeeper gave Onyx some attention, and soon he was purring loudly. He continued to purr as they walked down the hall and went into their room, where, once inside, Terra thought she also should start purring.

  The walls were covered in elegant, pale-blue fleur-de-lis wallpaper, and the bed had one large fleur-de-lis on its incredibly thick comforter. A large, claw-footed tub sat to the left of the bed, with gold feet and faucet, and some towels lay beside it that were some of the softest she had ever felt, as she discovered midway through exploring the room. A bidet in the bathroom stood opposite the toilet, and the sink had a blue-and-gold-flecked marble top, with expensive-looking toiletries to its left. A large, glass-enclosed shower stall completed the bathroom’s perfection.

  She was desperate to take a shower, partially because it had been awhile since she’d bathed, and partially because the shower had one of those removable showerheads. The water pressure in a place this fancy would probably be ideal for particular things, like getting a specific area of her body squeaky clean, to begin with. She grabbed the shampoo, the conditioner, and the soap from the sink’s counter, and then shut and locked the bathroom door after telling Onyx she was going to take a quick shower. Locking the door wasn’t exactly necessary, as Onyx was a little short on thumbs and wouldn’t be able to operate the doorknob. But he had a fair bit of magical power buried beneath all that fur, so she figured the click of the lock would be a good-enough indication that she wanted privacy.

  Once the water was the right temperature, she got under the showerhead and sighed, low and deep. Yes, this would do nicely. She washed her body first, teasing herself a little with the occasional splash of water on her mons pubis. Then, once her hair and body were clean, it was time for some fun. She inched the showerhead lower and lower, first over each of her breasts, then down her stomach, until she finally reached her cunt. The water shooting out of the showerhead was exactly where it belonged—hitting her clit good and hard.

  Now it was time to add a little more to the experience. Terra pictured Athene wearing a white satin bra and matching panties. In her fantasy, Athene was starting to walk toward her, and Terra was sitting in a chair, her wrists bound behind it. Athene climbed into her lap, facing her, and slowly dragged her fingers across Terra’s face. Then she brought back her hand and slapped her, good and hard, across her left cheek. In her fantasy, she jumped from the impact, but her body flushed with heat from it as well. Her body was flushed with heat in the shower, too, both from the hot water shooting onto her clit and from the dirty thoughts in her head.

  Next, Athene bent forward, her lips inches away from Terra’s, and cupped Terra’s cunt with a hot, firm hand. She leaned back and moved into a position with more space between the two of them
, and then she climbed off Terra, and, both in her fantasy and in reality, Terra gasped.

  Her fantasy version of Athene stood behind her next, and it was her cunt, and not her cheek, that got a hard smack. Terra almost jumped from the impact in the shower, the fantasy seemed so real. Athene gave her pussy a few good hard smacks, each one making Terra writhe around as much as her constraints allowed. Then Athene untied her, led her over to the bed, and slid her hand into Terra’s panties and began to play with her. Every time she got close, Athene would stop and bite her—a bite on her arm, one on her side, one on her neck. And in between each bite came more pleasure from Athene’s skilled hand, her hand’s touches and caresses replicated by the showerhead held in Terra’s actual hand. And while Terra was being tortured and teased in her fantasy, in reality she was getting closer and closer, too. It almost felt like Athene’s hand was touching her instead of the steady beat of the water, because showerheads didn’t normally feel that good (and Terra had gotten lots and lots of experience with them during her dry spells). She kept picturing Athene touching her, teasing her, pleasuring her, until it was just too much, and she came—hard—and collapsed against the shower’s back wall.

  She took a few moments to catch her breath, panting a little from the orgasm, and then she looked down at her arm, because she noticed it seemed to be hurting a little. There, right near her shoulder, were slight indentations—tooth marks.

  “What the hell?” Apparently, the fantasy Athene had come into reality a bit, it seemed. Was this…had she done this? Well, she wasn’t about to start complaining, because it had been the best fantasy sex of her life. It still didn’t measure up to the real thing, but it had done the trick for the time being—for the space between that moment and when she might next see Athene in the flesh.

  She finished her shower and got out, using the bathroom’s hairdryer and her fingers to style her hair as best as she could without a brush. Of course, she hadn’t thought to bring one, as all she had brought was her wallet (now full of Athene’s money) and the clothes she was planning to wear to dinner this night. Hopefully the restaurant wouldn’t turn her away, although the slacks and shirt she had packed were nice enough. She didn’t really have anything at all in her full wardrobe that was especially fancy. After all, what use did a maid have for gowns and the like?

  Back in her sitting room, she sat down on a plush, dark-brown armchair and put her legs up on its stool. Onyx jumped into her lap and started purring.

  “Feel like you’re in the lap of luxury, Onyx?”

  “Har-dy-har-har. But yes, this room is quite to my liking. If they have anything at the restaurant that is fit for felines, I will be completely satisfied, but until then—”

  “Raven, the innkeeper, said they have a catfish dish they make exclusively for cats, and that the catfish they’d be using just came in this afternoon.”

  “Oh, my goodness!” Onyx’s purrs became even louder, and he leapt off Terra’s lap. “Well, don’t dilly-dally, my dear. I will anxiously look forward to your return.” He nudged her legs off the footstool with his nose, then pushed against her calves after she stood up, guiding her toward the room’s door.

  “Hmm, you’re being subtle for once, my little kitty friend. I get it—you want to have catfish. I’ll be back soon.”

  “You do that,” Onyx said as she shut the door.

  She went to the front desk to ask Raven how to get to the restaurant. “Go out our front door and to the right. You’ll see the restaurant’s entrance right away, two double doors with round, stained-glass windows. Oh! I almost forget.” The innkeeper reached into a drawer in her desk and handed Terra a piece of paper. “Here’s your coupon. Give it to them along with your payment when you get the bill. Enjoy your dinner!”

  “Thanks, Raven.”

  The restaurant was right down from the inn’s front door, just like Raven had said. A male maitre d’ with slicked-back blond hair and a lovely, sonorous voice led her to a table and told her that her waiter would be right over. A few moments later, she was brought a menu and a small basket of bread, which was flecked with rosemary and, she discovered with her first bite, absolutely divine. She did as Raven had suggested and ordered a bowl of clam chowder, as well as a to-go box of the Catty Catfish.

  After she’d ordered, a glass of white wine somehow found its way to her table, despite the fact that she hadn’t ordered one. “Compliments of the gentleman over in the corner,” the waiter told her, but when she looked, no one was there. She decided to stay on the side of caution, so she didn’t touch the wine, instead telling the waiter that she didn’t drink.

  She was more than happy to dig into the clam chowder, though, which was rich, creamy, and, well, perfect. She finished it much faster than she would have liked to, and then the bill came. Terra picked up the paper and saw that it came to around eighteen dollars. Too bad it didn’t come to ten instead, she thought.

  But then the paper began to shake a little, and when it stopped, the total instead said ten dollars, even. That might have been incredibly convenient, but it still managed to startle her. She hadn’t done that, had she? No way could she change it back now, even if it had been her doing, so she gave the waiter her coupon and a fifteen-dollar tip, which she hoped would help to offset her guilt at the total shrinking by so much.

  She was a little shaken as she returned to her room, and Onyx noticed instantly. “You okay, sweetkins?”

  “Oh, yeah. Just…something strange happened back at the restaurant. Two somethings, actually.” She told him about the free wine from the invisible man, and then she told him about the seemingly magical event with her bill.

  “Three things. First, I think it was very smart of you to not touch that wine. One of your competitors might have found you out, and he might have done something to that drink. That’s my guess, at least. Second, I don’t know what changed the bill, but who knows—it really could have been you.”

  “And third?” she asked him, placing the box of Catty Catfish on the floor and popping it open.

  “I was going to ask you what that heavenly scent was, but now I know.” He raced over to the patty of fish and began to attack it, loudly and with a lot of mmms and what almost sounded like growls.

  After he’d finished it and had licked the box completely clean—in what must have only been about a minute—he burped loudly and hopped onto the bed, licking his chops a few times. “Oh. My. God. That was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted in my life. Thank you, Terra, and my compliments to the chef, as well. I’d almost give my firstborn to him in thanks.”

  “You’re never going to have a firstborn, Onyx.”

  “Nor do I want one, of course. I suppose it would be an empty promise.”

  Terra took off her slacks and shirt and placed them on the bed; she thought her girlfriend might appreciate her arriving in only panties and a bra. She sat on the bed for a few minutes, then looked at the hotel room’s bedside clock. It was now five after nine, right when she was supposed to visit her sweetie. She went over to Athene’s jeans and took the doorway rock out of the right pocket, then placed it in front of her room’s door. “Let’s hope it works this time,” she said, turning toward Onyx, “because otherwise I’m about to walk into the inn’s hallway in nothing but my underwear.”

  It did work, though, and instantly, she was in the room of Athene, who grinned lasciviously at her lack of clothing. “Nice panties, and nice tits, too. But do you want to talk about your quest so far, at least a little first, perhaps? I have to admit, I’m dying to know what you’ve been up to all day long.”

  Athene didn’t look half bad to Terra, either, dressed in a short, body-skimming nightgown made of pink lace and nothing else. She could see Athene’s nipples through the fabric, but despite the wetness their sight brought to a now very happy part of her body, she did think Athene deserved to know what she’d accomplished so far.

  She sat next to Athene on the room’s lavender-and-cream checkered couch a
nd began with the most important part. “I’ve already vanquished the foe,” she told Athene with a proud grin.

  “The foe? What do you mean?”

  “Oh! I guess you don’t know what Zeus—or whoever was speaking at the time—told us.” She proceeded to share his words with Athene, and then continued with what had happened in Missiou so far, all about Jeremy and the cave. She got a little choked up as she talked about Katherine, and Athene seemed to notice, placing a gentle hand over Terra’s and squeezing it.

  She decided against telling Athene about the wine and the disappearing man who had sent it to her, but she did mention the part about her check changing.

  “Wow! You know, I may be wrong, but I think it was you. I mean, you do have a touch of magic in you, even if it isn’t a lot. Maybe this quest is giving you more, too…or, maybe, it’s bringing out the magic that was already there.”

  “Who the heck knows? I know one thing for sure, though,” she said, and leaned much closer to Athene and lowered her voice. “I know for sure…absolutely…without a single fucking doubt in my mind…that I want you. Right now. Intensely.”

  “The feeling is more than mutual,” Athene told her with a small, mischievous smile, and then both of them stopped speaking for the time being, as their lips met and talking became impossible…and unnecessary.

  They kissed as their hands worked like mad to strip themselves—and each other—of their clothing. It didn’t take long at all before they were on the bed and entangled, both of them completely naked. They had resumed kissing, and Terra found she loved the tentativeness of Athene’s kisses; as she kissed her back, Terra silently hoped that Athene was enjoying the much more ravenous kisses she gave her in return.