Chapter 20

At first, when I woke up, I thought I was in Sammi’s lingerie store, because the women around me were in various states of dress and undress. However, between the furniture they used and the topics of conversation, I quickly realized that I was actually in my living room. Memories of what I had done with Linda came flooding back and I sat up. Danielle was the first one to notice me.

“Seth, are you okay?” she said, and pushed her way past Dalton to kneel next to me. The rest of the women stopped talking and turned to watch.

I tried to speak but couldn’t. My throat was dry and felt raw, as if I had been screaming a lot. Danielle understood immediately and went to the kitchen.

I felt weak, so I stayed on the floor and looked around at the others. Each one had a different expression, which told me plenty about what had happened since I passed out.

Danielle handed me the glass and our fingers touched in passing. I expected the inevitable longing I always felt when I touched one of my girls, but it wasn’t there. Instead, something else filled me, something I didn’t understand. I could see it affected Danielle differently too because she had the same question on her face that I was thinking, though neither of us spoke it out loud.

I drank the water and felt better instantly. I handed the glass back to her and said, “More, please.” She nodded and went back to the kitchen. I looked around again and ended with Jordan.

“You’ve been out for almost two hours,” she said with a touch of impatience.

I frowned and looked around at the others. Linda looked more confused than anything else. Sammi looked a little frustrated, but I didn’t think it was because she hadn’t received as much attention as Linda while we had sex. Jordan looked angry. I thought I knew why, but when I looked at Dalton I wasn’t so sure. She didn’t look like she’d been arguing. If anything, she stared at me with an expression of confusion.

The Sheriff stepped closer and then sat down in front of me. Before I could say anything, she reached out and pulled my face to hers for a kiss.

I pushed her away. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

“You’ve still got your fetish on,” Sammi said.

I kept Dalton away with one hand and pulled my fetish off with the other. If Linda was any indicator, it was going to be a while before the effects wore off.

Dalton tried to pull me to her again, but I pulled my hand from hers and stood up to put more distance between us.

“Help me,” Sammi said to Linda and the two of them held Dalton back. Jordan looked on impassively behind them, and Danielle watched from the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. I went to the redhead and took the water. “Has she been acting this way the whole time?” I asked.

Danielle shook her head while watching the other three. Jordan shot me a look that said I was crazy. Sammi said, “No, she’s actually been perfectly civil. This only just started.”

I glanced at my fetish in my hand and went to my bedroom to put it back where it had been. When I came back out, Linda and Sammi weren’t struggling with Dalton anymore. The Sheriff stood there with a hand on her head like she was either dizzy or had a headache.

“You okay?” Sammi asked her.

Dalton nodded and looked up at me. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“You’re a woman and obviously not in a relationship,” Jordan said with a level of contempt.

I frowned at her, not understanding where her anger was coming from, and then I looked at Dalton. “It’s the way my fetish is designed.”

Dalton nodded. “You use that to get more Fonti.” Then she looked at the others. “Was it the same for all of you, that overwhelming desire to fuck the shit out of him?”

Except for Jordan, who looked away from everyone else, the others all shared a look that pretty much answered Dalton’s question.

Dalton looked at me again. “You should be careful with that thing. It could cause more problems than you can handle.”

Jordan’s face scrunched up. “Seth already has more problems than he can handle, thanks to you.”

I frowned at Jordan but didn’t say anything to her. “I wasn’t sure how much Tanner told you about why my Fonti know so much about me,” I said to Dalton. “Unfortunately, I didn’t think you would believe me unless you saw it for yourself.”

She shook her head again. “No, I probably wouldn’t.”

I nodded. “Tanner was trying to explain why security was so important and he asked how much I had told them,” I said with a glance at Jordan and Sammi. “Everything I told him led to more questions and it all came out. Besides, to me, telling them the truth was better than allowing them to come up with their own explanations. Leanne actually accused me of drugging her with hallucinogen. The last thing I wanted was to be arrested for something like that only for the blood tests run on her to come back negative.”

“Yeah,” Danielle said. “If the police had become involved, Seth might have been incarcerated for attempted rape, not to mention being labeled a sex offender.” She glanced at me. “I think that would have made his life as a Sex Magus much more difficult.”

Dalton nodded and took a deep breath. She let it out slowly and said, “It’s still not safe for them to know so much.” She turned and looked at everyone else. “No offense, but you could get Seth into a lot of trouble with the wrong people if you were to say anything, even something in passing.”

Jordan’s frown deepened. “We haven’t told anyone anything. Why can’t you understand that?”

Her anger was greater than the situation called for and I knew Jordan didn’t get this upset this easily. No one else said anything, not even Dalton. Everyone stared at Jordan. I stepped closer to her, but Jordan moved away from me, glanced around at everyone, and went for the door.

“Jordan!” I called, trying to catch her.

She stopped after pulling the door open, looked back at me with tears streaming down her face, and then left.

I was confused and looked at the others. “Has she said anything to anyone about why she’s so angry?”

Sammi and Linda glanced at each other and shrugged. Danielle and Dalton both shook their respective heads.

I wanted to go after Jordan, to try to get her to tell me what was wrong, but it occurred to me that she might have been upset with me about this Lockdown mess. She needed someone to talk to that she wasn’t mad at. I looked at Danielle. Most of the tension in my body melted away when I took her hand. It felt good to hold her, not in the crazy, let’s-forget-all-of-this-and-hit-the-sack kind of way, but more like that nothing-could-possibly-go-wrong feeling. It felt really good and I could see the emotion reflected in her eyes. In a very gentle tone, I said, “Please go after her. Try to get her to tell you what’s going on. She’s been so angry over the last few days and I’m worried about her.”

Danielle nodded, moved past me toward the door, and held on to my hand as long as she could before letting go to chase down Jordan. By the time the door was closed again, the good vibes were gone.

Sammi came up behind me and laid a hand on my shoulder. I felt another wave of the same can’t-go-wrong feeling and turned to her.

Sammi’s eyes were large and round. “Wow,” she said softly. “I wondered why Danielle didn’t want to let you go.”

I nodded and took her hand in mine. I looked at Linda. “Whatever they’ve been telling you about what it feels like to touch me...” I shook my head. “It’s changed.” I held out my hand.

Linda glanced at Sammi and Dalton. She moved closer to me and the tailor. She touched my hand lightly, as if she would pull away if she didn’t like what she felt. I didn’t notice anything different but Linda responded with a soft gasp. She gripped my hand and closed the distance between us quickly.

Dalton watched us with a mix of a frown and curiosity. “What’s going on?”

I shook my head and bathed in the feel of their touch. “I don’t know,” I said, not really focusing on Dalton. “Before, touching them would have made me want to drop everything and jump into bed.”

“And now?” she asked.

I looked at her and said the only word to come to mind, “Bliss.”

She smiled. It not only reached her eyes but I could hear it in her voice too. “You’re close. One more Fonte and you’ll feel contentment.”

I smiled and nodded. That sounded like a good idea, but who would be my next Fonte?

For a moment, Dalton stood there watching the three of us touching and blissing out. Then she cleared her throat.

I looked at her. She nodded toward Linda, and I remembered why I had done this in the first place. I led Sammi and Linda around the couch and we sat down together with me in the middle.

Dalton watched us with a small smile, like she was watching children playing at being boyfriend and girlfriend and finding it cute. She sat down on the only chair opposite us. “Linda told us about the dream she had,” she said.

I looked at Dalton and shook my head. “It wasn’t a dream. She experienced some of my memories, and I experienced some of hers.”

Linda looked up at me. “What did you see?”

The small smile I had faded. “The night you were attacked by Miles Gantry.”

Her brow furrowed and she pulled away from me, but kept her hand on my arm. “How much did you see?”

I thought about it and said, “The whole thing.”

Dalton watched us carefully. “So, what she described to us, about what her sister did to you the night you arrived on campus...?”

I nodded. “It really happened. Just like the memories of hers that I experienced.” I held up my right arm. My side was sore but nothing like what Linda really felt the night it happened.

Linda looked down and saw the mark. Her fingers traced the edges of the red, tender area. “I felt what you felt when my sister ... I’m sorry you had to go through this.”

“What happened?” Dalton asked.

I looked at Dalton. “Miles Gantry tried to kill Linda, to make it look like a B&E gone wrong.” Then I looked at Linda with a small smile. “But she fought back.”

Dalton looked at Linda with an expression of approval.

I looked back at Sammi. “Let’s switch around, so Linda can see all of us?”

She nodded and Linda frowned as we moved around, putting her in the middle of the couch. All three of us were looking at her and she shrunk in on herself a little.

“I’ll answer all the questions you have to the best of my abilities,” I said and glanced at Dalton. “Jordan usually helps me with this, but since she’s not here, would you mind?”

Dalton shrugged. “I suppose.”

I smiled and shook my head. “No, not suppose. Yes or no.”

She chuckled and nodded. “Yes.”

I shifted around so I could see all three of them. Linda even turned to see me more than the others. Once we were all comfortable, I didn’t wait for Linda to ask me any questions. I simply launched into the crazy tale of my Initiation, finding more Fonte, being told about the Lockdown and how I was the only one “free” to investigate it as well as its connection to the missing girls. It really didn’t take that long, but Linda had some questions when I was finished.

“So, you’ve ... collected women to help feed your power?” she asked and I nodded. “But why did you do this to me?”

I nodded at Dalton. “Because the Law of Secrecy forbids me to talk to anyone not involved. Now that we’re Magically tied together like this, you’re allowed to know.”

Dalton cleared her throat and said, “On the condition you tell no one else about it.”

Linda frowned and shook her head. “But how would anyone else know that I’m connected to you?”

I glanced at Dalton. “There’re supposed to be spells that allow us to see the connection.” Dalton nodded. “I’m still learning all of this, so I don’t know them.”

Linda shook her head and waved a hand. “Okay, that’s just too crazy. Let’s focus on something else.” She looked at Dalton, “This other case, you call it the Lockdown?”

“Someone cast a spell over the city,” she said. “It covers the primary hubs of Dallas and Fort Worth, and all Magi are affected by it.”

“But not you,” she said, looking and pointing at me.

I nodded. “Correct, and don’t ask why, no one knows.” Then I remembered the conversation I had with Dalton the night before and pointed at her. “She has a theory that I’m related to the person responsible, and as a Sibling Magus, I’m immune to the effects.”