Chapter 29

Brandi ran. She didn’t even know where she was running to. All she knew was that something was wrong. Something had changed.

Lily was different, that much was certain. Ever since she’d taken Brandi to that college party, something had been wrong. But ... that had been Wednesday night. Three days ago.

Even through her addled brain, Brandi could tell that didn’t make sense. Why had no one done anything? Lily had been running around - clearly hexed - for three days now.

Why hadn’t she done anything?

She’d been so self-obsessed lately. The stuff with Michael, patrol ... Duncan.

And then, Brandi realized. It hit her, all at once.

Of course she hadn’t done anything.

She was a bad Protector.

No, worse than that. She was a bad friend. Slowing down, Brandi became aware of something else odd: her chest hurt. Her duties as the Protector regularly had her running much further, for much longer - she’d never had any issues with her chest hurting before.

Looking down at her sticky cleavage, Brandi frowned. The question from last night arose its head once more: had her boobs grown? No, that didn’t make sense. Maybe it was just that she’d stopped wearing a bra.

Why had she stopped wearing a bra?

Before she could follow that train of thought any further, Brandi noticed that she was standing outside a bar. She was a bad Protector and a worse friend. Her mouth was dry, her chest hurt, and in that moment she could think of nothing that she wanted to do more than to escape the pathetic life that she’d built herself, and avoid thinking about the pathetic situation she’d gotten herself into.

The fact that this was the bar where she’d been picked up by the man in the cowboy hat wasn’t even a factor.

At least, that was what she told herself.

“Kristine? Are you sure?”

“That’s right,” Duncan said. He’d never actually been inside Niles’ house before - in his mind, the middle-aged librarian only really existed inside the school library, or (rarely) on-site at a battle, or a summoning, or a mass dispellment.

Technically he wasn’t currently inside the librarian’s house - to his surprise, Niles had met him at the doorway ... and then not invited him in.

And so Duncan had laid out his suspicions on the Mentor’s stoop, where anyone could hear.

Not that anyone was likely to be eavesdropping ... but still, Duncan knew that there was something odd about the Mentor’s behavior.

“But what makes you think she’s been altered?”

Duncan hesitated. He knew about Mrs. Winter’s past with Brandi’s Mentor - the whole gang did. The six of them spent enough time together that there were very few secrets between them ... although Duncan was pretty sure that no one had yet worked out that he was gay.

Hell, he told himself. I only just figured it out myself. Something about that struck him as odd, but as he opened his mouth to ask Niles’ opinion, the older man repeated the question.

“You’d have to have been in quite an intimate situation in order to see enough to be sure.”

Duncan felt the blood rushing to his cheek - his dark skin-tone meant that it was hard to tell when he was blushing, but Niles was inspecting him closely.

“What are you hiding?” he asked insistently, and Duncan admitted everything. In full view of any Antioch citizen who happened to be passing by, Duncan told the librarian about his hidden feelings for Jeff, the note ... and what he’d found when he’d visited Jeff’s house the previous day.

He was diplomatic enough to leave out the parts of the story that involved sleeping with Brandi or Nicolette, but seeing Kristine naked was vital, and so it was with great shame that the young football player described sleeping with Brandi’s mother.

When his tale was done, he glanced up at the Mentor and his blood ran cold. There was a look in Niles’ eyes unlike anything the black teen had ever encountered before.

No, that wasn’t quite true. Halfway through the previous year, Nicolette had been captured by a Reptilian Sun-God ... or a Reptilian Overlord who had convinced a local cult that he was God of the Sun, at least. As Brandi had slain the Sun-God wannabe, Duncan had rushed in to try to save Nicolette, and run face-first into one of the High Priestesses.

She had that same look in her eyes; a look of utter hatred, of pure fury. Duncan had blanched at the sight of it, but he’d quickly realized that she hadn’t even seen him - her attention had been solely focused on Brandi, who had committed what she clearly considered the ultimate crime - killing her God.

She hadn’t even noticed the collision, but that look had never left his mind - he’d just been thankful that it wasn’t directed at him, but at Brandi: the person whom he was sure, more than anyone, could take whatever wrath came her way.

Now, for the first (and - he hoped - the last) time, Duncan knew what it was to be the recipient of such a glare.

“Come inside,” Niles whispered, his voice trembling with rage, and the idea of disobeying never even crossed Duncan’s mind.

Nicolette stood outside Michael’s house, her foot twisting nervously as she reached up to knock.

Her hand moved back to her side. Then back up to the knocker, then back to her side.

“This is stupid,” she muttered. After they’d fucked last night ... no, that didn’t give it enough weight.

After the most amazing sex that she’d ever encountered, a hot dicking so good that she was 100% sure she was knocked up with the spawn of her gorgeous demon lover, Nicolette and Michael had awkwardly parted ways. They’d finished their patrol and waited at the rendezvous point for Brandi.

And that was when Nicolette had realized - her plan for revenge had simply been to sleep with Michael and gloat about it ... but wouldn’t revenge be so much sweeter if instead of just hearing about her rival’s affair with her boyfriend, she stumbled upon them in the act?

With that in mind, Nicolette had run a finger up Michael’s chest and into his mouth, and the demon had quickly gotten the point.

“Come with me,” he said brusquely, and his firm tone and commanding presence had made Nicolette swoon that she’d immediately forgotten that she wanted to be caught, and followed him behind a crypt.

Unlike the first time, Michael ripped her clothes off (she hadn’t realized the extent of the damage to her shirt until she got home and found her biceps winking at her through the tear), pushed her to the ground, and entered her so quickly it made her breathless.

The encounter lasted no more than five minutes, but with such heat and intensity that it made the previous session feel like a relaxing sea-cruise. Michael pounded into her, twisting her body to his will, pinching and tugging on her sensitive nipples until the fireworks spread throughout her entire body and made her scream with pleasure.

After he erupted inside her, she felt ... she felt fucked, in the best possible way.

“Wow,” she said, grinning up at the demon who’d made her feel better than she could ever remember feeling.

He’d just grinned back, and then he’d gone.

Nicolette had waited around for Brandi for another half-hour, but when it became clear that the Protector wasn’t coming back, she’d walked home, knees trembling.

Maybe Brandi came back and heard my screams, she told herself, but it was hard to focus on thoughts of revenge (what had she been mad about, anyway?) when memories of fast, brutal, passionate love-making filled her mind.

And so as soon as she’d awoken the next morning, she’d known what she had to do. She had to visit Michael.

She had to get fucked again. Her head was swimming with the intensity of it, the raw power of his demon dick.

Would he want to? He’d been holding back the previous night - not when it came to sex ... at least, she couldn’t imagine that what she’d experienced being described by anyone as “holding back”). But there’d been a strange hesitancy, and Nicolette didn’t understand why.

The cheerleader had theories, of course. Perhaps he’d just thrown her a bone. Maybe just like the mortal men she’d been trying to seduce, he too was put off by her new, muscular form. Perhaps if she looked more like she used to - more like Brandi - that hesitancy would have vanished.