Wizards Bargain

Below is a teaser from Wizards Bargain, a free short story available on my blog. Check out the full story there if you're interested.

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Lightning charge exploded grenade intense through her body. Lina's fingers dug into the clasped hands holding the Wizards' circuit closed to either side of her. Sweat poured down her naked back, the control needed to stay conscious and connected in their work agonizing times infinity. The Circle swayed together in the shielded room.

Almost done. Keep it together, girl.

The last pulse of charge made a staggering lurch through their eighteen bodies and plummeted cold into the earth like it never existed.

With it, hands fell apart and she and her fellow Wizards dropped to the floor, the cool surface not making a dent in the overheated pulses firing her blood. The groans of her team echoed around her. Full of pain from the Draining and the lovely side effect of arousal that accompanied a Rebalancing. Her skin jumped, raw and needy.

She took several deep breaths and willed her heart to beat in a regular pattern. Damn holiday contract. If Mr. President wanted DC Rebalanced before Thanksgiving just so the average non-magical citizen could sit undisturbed around a stuffed bird and watch football drowsing on couches, he should have called them last week when the riots started. Not wait until two days before the holiday.

Lina raised her head, eyes shooting toward Devon collapsed on the other half of the room. He caught her look. The side of his mouth curved up and mischief sparked his eyes as he lowered his fingers to his cock and fondled the erection common after a Working. He winked at her, his cat green eyes complimenting his nape-long auburn hair, and licked his lips. Fond warmth shuttled through her heart, and that dash of regret she usually felt drifting to sleep each night. The sensation was separate from the sexual heat lingering in her breasts, clit and labia. Devon liked to tease her about detoxing from a Rebalancing together with sweaty sex. They'd hooked up a few times. But really they were too alike to make it work with just the two of them. Or work much beyond a quickie. However Devon's sexual talent was more than enough to make a quickie worth it. He screwed like an angel, though his killer bad boy looks made it clear he was all devil. She'd have to deal with the regret that they couldn't have more.

Holding in her tired laugh, she searched the piles of Wizards for Samuel. There he was propped next to today's Circle leader, Samuel's serious face concentrating on their conversation. He was probably debriefing the Rebalancing effort and evaluating its success. He ignored his own hard-on as always. If she hadn't known him her entire life, she and Devon his constant childhood companions within the creche where they were raised, Lina would have thought he'd been born with a metal rod up his ass. But she distinctly remembered his smile. Even as recently as five years ago.

The man had matured into GQ hot--gorgeous dark brown hair, chiseled facial structure, divot in his chin, and a lean muscled body more than adequate to fuel the daydreams of a nation of women. But from the asexual way he led his life, one would think him unaware of his appeal. She snorted. Samuel was too uptight for his own good. She loved him as much as she loved Devon. But his status as heir presumptive of the Head of the Assembly was killing him in slow measures. She noticed the tic at his shoulder as he continued engrossed in talk with Felix, the Circle leader. Okay, maybe not so slow measures.

Goddess, she was scared for him. A good man, he practiced selfishness to a fault, dedicating his life to Circle work and fighting the good fight against violence and corruption and hatred in their city. The country was a mess, and the workload enough to crush a sexually frustrated rhino. But Samuel never avoided his duty. She loved him for it more. Not that she'd agreed to give away her entire soul to the effort like him. That was just plain stupid. In the end Samuel would be left with nothing.

He needed a caretaker to keep him safe from himself and luckily she and Devon were perfect for that role. She didn't know why they hadn't thought of it years ago. The forest for the trees she guessed.

Lina stretched her aroused body, nipples taut and aching, shaking out the kinks and planning to head downstairs to the club section of Headquarters as soon as she could manage to walk without falling. She'd been mulling this over with Devon for days. It was time they took drastic action and plan an intervention for Samuel. Force him into their own twelve-step program for compulsive magical saviors. He needed to relax or the man would implode.

And who better to take control of the situation than the two sexual dominants he called his best friends? Poor Samuel. He might be one of the strongest Wizards born in generations, but he didn't stand a chance.

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Read the rest at the blog.

Be well this Monday summer day. Stay cool.