The Coven
Copyright© 2026 by Phillip Marks
Part 3: Alignment of Forces
Supernatural Sex Story: Part 3: Alignment of Forces - A young man investigates a mysterious abandoned estate in his hometown and discovers a magical secret.
Caution: This Supernatural Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Fa/Fa Consensual Heterosexual Fiction Magic Light Bond Group Sex Facial Oral Sex
I stared down at Thriza’s corpse. Her face was visible, her eyes were closed, and her skin was the color of alabaster. The rest of her form was covered. She had been laid on a stainless steel table under the anemic lights of the morgue in Albany. I heard Rayven gasp next to me and wrapped my arm around her as she buried her face in my shoulder. I could feel her crying.
Near Rayven, Anna and Coral clung to each other, tears running down their faces as well. “That’s her. That’s Thriza,” I said slowly.
“I’m sorry,” said Detective Mark Kronig.
“What ... what killed her?” wailed Coral.
“We’re still investigating, so we’re not a hundred percent sure on the cause of death. We do know it was related to a warehouse fire on the north side of town,” said Detective Justin Duke.
An intense woman in a lab coat covered Thriza’s face.
“I know this is a difficult time for you all but we do have additional questions,” said Mark.
“We’ll try,” I said, wiping a tear from my cheek.
“Does Ms. Schmadel have any next of kin that we need to notify?” asked Justin.
“No,” I answered quickly. “It’s just us.”
“We found two additional bodies in the warehouse, both were severely burned. We haven’t been able to make a positive identification on either but we are running dental records for them. Do you have any idea who these folks might be?” asked Mark.
“No,” I answered. “Look, can we go somewhere ... else for this?”
The two detectives looked at each other. “Certainly,” began Mark. “Detective Duke here will take the ladies to interrogation room five and make sure they are comfortable. Mr. Renard, please come with me.”
The reality of the situation cut through my sorrow and my mind snapped back on. “Wait, are we being detained or are we free to go?”
Mark looked at me. “You are being detained for questioning right now. Please come with me Mr. Renard.”
Shit.
I looked at Anna. She was upset but Coral and Rayven were overwhelmed – they had known Thriza for a long time. She nodded to me. I hoped my coven-sisters were in good hands. Dutifully, I followed Mark into a small plain room. The intense woman I had seen before was seated at a long table. A laptop computer hummed in front of her and she had a notepad.
“Please have a seat Mr. Renard. This is Shelia Foster, our senior Criminal Investigation Unit technician.” The woman rose and shook my hand with a tight smile as I sat down. “Would you like anything to eat or drink ... coffee, soda, water?”
“No thank you. Michael is fine,” I said.
“Okay,” said Mark. “So we can start-”
“I will not answer any questions without a lawyer present. I invoke my constitutional right to remain silent,” I said flatly.
Mark glanced at the CIU tech. “That’s fine. We can do it that way if you want to, keep in mind though, if my guess as to what is going on is correct, a lawyer isn’t going to believe you. We might.”
Shelia spoke up then: “Detective Kronig, his partner, and I have been working these murder cases since the beginning. We’ve seen the crime scenes. Our first victim was a young man. We found ritual materials at the crime scene. The second victim was a homeless veteran. The third and fourth victims were college students, not that much different than you and your friends. All were dismembered.”
Mark continued: “The fifth victim was a father. He had a wife and young children. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was where we first met your group, outside Jazzara. There are ... inconsistencies with the backgrounds of several of your young lady friends.”
“That’s not a crime,” I spat back.
“Very true,” said Mark.
Shelia jumped back in. “The fifth victim was killed by what I believe was a sword blow. So was your friend Thriza near as I can tell. Please take a look at my computer screen Michael.” I cringed at her words. I couldn’t help it. She turned the computer toward me.
“The top chemical analysis is for human bone and most animal bone. The lower one is from a bone fragment we found at our third crime scene. As you can plainly see they don’t match. There was some flesh attached to this bone. The state crime lab can’t tell me what it is. I’m not a cop; I’m a scientist and science never lies – a person can draw the wrong conclusion from science – but it doesn’t lie. What I found isn’t human bone ... it’s not terrestrial bone either,” said Shelia.
“I am a cop,” said Mark. “We have a total of eight victims, three are associated with a big fire. Two of them are unidentified, and one is a friend of yours, a member of whatever group you are part of. As I said before, the background material on some of your associates is quite interesting to say the least. You all apparently live in a ruined mansion. We know that you are involved in this. Help us help you Michael.”
I took a deep breath. I tried to size up the two people in front of me. It was very hard. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I didn’t believe it at first.”
“Your friend Thriza was wearing some interesting jewelry. I can’t identify some of the stones in the pieces. She also had on a belt pouch that held a whole mess of really odd things ... glass and crystal beads, a piece of silver, various lengths of colored string, and other stuff. She was also wearing what I think was armor. It was a breastplate, a cuirass, like a piece of armor from the seventeenth century,” said Shelia.
“Michael,” said the detective. “We know your group is involved with this. We know that you people understand what’s going on but I’m pretty sure you and your girl friends aren’t killing people. If I had to make a guess you were trying to stop it. Talk to us.”
“The EMT that found your friend Thriza said that she died right at that moment. He heard her say something about ‘Michael and her girls’. She died trying to stop a mass murderer. Please help us Michael,” said Shelia.
I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try us,” said Shelia.
I thought for a long moment. “Thriza was the expert so I’m just guessing but stay with me. Imagine, just for a moment, that a kid made a mistake and let something loose in the world that simply shouldn’t be here. Imagine that thing is just ... a monster in every way that matters. It can’t be controlled, it can’t be stopped by anything that is considered normal, and this thing exists only to kill.”
Mark and Shelia were listening intensely. “This is all just hypothetical correct?” said Mark.
“Absolutely,” I responded. “Just a thought exercise.”
“But ... there are people that can stop it?” said Shelia.
“Yeah. People that know what it is, people that are part of a group that has been around for a very long time,” I said.
“And I’ll take a guess that the people we are imagining don’t want others to know much about them,” commented Mark. His voice was deadly serious.
“Exactly,” I said. “How could ... law enforcement ... have this theoretical group of people that understand the murderer they’re hunting ... help them and not have others know about it? How would the police make sure their helpers remained anonymous? How would the police not break any laws themselves ... serious laws anyway? What would that scenario look like?”
Shelia was lost in thought ... I could tell from her eyes that the forensic technician’s mind was working a mile a minute.
Mark stroked his chin. He was thinking too. “All theoretical,” he said softly.
“Of course,” I added. “This whole thing is just a thought experiment.”
“The first thing there would have to be is trust. They would have to trust each other,” said Mark.
“Agreed,” I said.
“And a plan like the one you’re talking about takes some thought. It takes time,” added Shelia.
I took a deep breath. “Look, my friend is dead and I’ll have to talk to my ... coven-sisters and a coven-brother about-”
“About your thought exercise,” interrupted Shelia.
“Yes. Am I under arrest?”
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