My thanks to PF for his editing handiwork

(There is a great deal of violence in this tale but I promise it will make sense before we are done. The 'hero' is no Conan the Barbarian -- normally. Slapping girls and woman is very abnormal but I hope understanding will come)

"Hey Sally," I caught Sally exiting my final class for the day 'Applied Statistical Theory'.

"Hello Richard," she gave me a pained smile. I caught several of the other students hovering close around -- uncomfortably close.

"What, beyond my kicking the asses of all your pretty little friends and torpedoing their social order, is wrong?" I inquired. Again she came back with a pained smile.

"I'm trying to remember the way we were," she trembled. Old habits die hard and I found myself taking her hand into my own even though it had no immediate effect.

"Listen, if you are trying to get out from under the thumbs of those six, let me know and I'll do what I can," I told her. She squeezed my hand but looked passed me at one of the boys close by.

The guy licked his lips and I knew what that meant.

"Back off," I warned him then spread my warning gaze to the other seven guys and two girls.

"Don't be greedy Bro," The guy sneered. Yes, no one on this campus saw shit or he and the rest would know the real pain that was threatening to come their way.

"I'm not your Bro, last warning before I hurt you -- last chance," I snarled and pushed him slightly back. He rewarded my gentle attempt with a snappy jab with his right and a sneer.

'Oh, he knows how to box' I mused. I imagined that if he was fighting a human being who cared it would suck to be me. As it was, I had nearly exhausted my pittance of human compassion for the day.

I had him by the neck before he could blink, raised him up with that one hand then slammed him back first into the slate floor. His current inability to breath, the concussion I had just given him and his helplessness at my feet all warred across this smuck's face.

"The rest of you scatter," I growled to the rest of the party. The dust was already settling on the scene when I released the jackass and rejoined Sally.

"Sorry about that," I muttered then, "you knew all those people, didn't you?" Her hand quaked, she gulped and nodded.

"They are my four o'clock orgy -- most of them anyway," she stammered. "Most of them -- some were new."

"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked.

"I'm trying to be more like I was," she seemed flustered. "I haven't touched myself, or let someone touch me for...three hours." We both knew how pathetic that sounded, but such was the way of the Witches.

"Can you stay with me a while?" she begged. "I have a study group then dinner."

"I need to make sure your pals haven't crucified Regina," I told her, "but I'll come by at dinner."

"Thanks," Sally squeezed my hand then pushed her body tight against me. "I'll stay strong but...maybe we could do something after dinner -- walk the gardens -- you used to like doing that with me."

"I'd be more than happy to," and why wouldn't I? She was hot, willing and our sex rocked back in the day. The only problem was that I wasn't some romantic fourteen year old anymore and I'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not see that as a trap. Maybe once I'd won against whatever they were tossing my way I could score some victory booty with her.

Why you don't leave the grounds

"You said 'yes'?" Regina stated scornfully.

"I know it is a trap, you know it is a trap," I countered. "We discern their plan then just figure a way to counter them and administer another sharp lesson." Regina looked around the cafeteria before settling her gaze on the corner the Witches ruled.

"Let's go to our sanctuary and talk this through," Regina said as she stood up and took her ornate tray to the designated drop off point. I quickly followed along and made sure the whole evil witch coterie knew Regina and I were still tight.

Sally intercepted us as we walked, "Can you pick me up at the statue at seven?" She asked me.

"Sure," I responded to Sally in my smoothest voice. By the way she trembled I even believed she had been devoted in her efforts to avoid sexual stimulation and her sin of lust. We slipped by Sally and made our way to our room.

"Someone tried to enter our room," Regina cautioned me, "they did not succeed."

"One of the twins?" I worried.

"Ha," she laughed; "if one or one duo tried it they would have shredded my defenses," Regina chortled. "Keep in mind that if I got toe-to-toe one of those wenches I'm probably toast -- any set of twins and I'm dead. If all six fall on me I won't last a minute of their dedicated attention."

"How come I am still alive?" I was coming to hate asking that.

"I don't have the answer to that because you are clearly a free-willed living sentient being yet you are steeped in dark, deadly magic," she shook her head.

"I'm a walking dead man," I summed it up.

"Yes," Regina mocked me, "you have grasped the obvious." I leaned in and licked her nose because it was either that childish play or I was going to give her a truly demonic wedgie.

"Thanks," Regina rubbed her nose dry, "so you are going on your date tonight?"

"Of course, that is how we figure out their next move," I assured Regina.

"Their next move is to kill you, Idiot," Regina rolled her eyes. "More specifically, they want to lure you off of the school grounds so they can annihilate you."

"Why do they want me to lure me off the grounds?" I questioned.

"Oh -- right...you can't see anything magical," Regina sighed, "I mean you can't see the threads of the web of magic. They are constrained on the school grounds because of the old enchantments that Camilla Ravenrook created. If they unleash their full power on campus they unravel all those old wards and protections -- including the ones over their tombs."

"I thought they'd be all for destroying their graves on this island," I postulated. Regina shook her head again.

"You are an utter novice," Regina reminded herself about me. "They were bound here with sacred relics in a cavern somewhere on this island. If they destroy the protections, the cavern could collapse, burying those items. They can't dig up those relics -- only a white witch or a human can and I don't see any earth-moving equipment anywhere around here."

"As long as the items exist they can be re-imprisoned," I reasoned.

"Precisely," Regina smiled at me then hugged me. She patted my hardening cock for good measure. "Right on time because I know what we can do to even-out the odds."

"I'm not sure I like the look in your eyes," I worried.

"Neither you or I can beat them alone but together I think I know how we can," Regina looked terribly clever and even a bit brilliant. "I need a bit of your life -- um -- essence."

"You want to drain my soul?" I stepped back.

"Oh no," she laughed. "I need something a bit more primal and since I don't know how long we will be separated, I need your -- um -- deposit to last a while."

"Huh?" I wondered what the hell she was getting -- then it hit me. "You want me to ejaculate in you -- you want my sperm?"

"Oh, not in my pussy, you silly man," she was truly amused at my distress. "I need to keep it in my mouth. My pussy would simply absorb your power too quickly. As long as I don't swallow your cum down my throat, I can have it last for hours -- oh, but I won't be able to speak."

"I am not even going to go into how wrong that is because the whole past twenty-four hours has clearly removed my psyche's ability to relate to reality as I knew it," I nodded in disbelief. "I'm just going sit on my bed, close my eyes and pray you give a passable blowjob. I'm not going to worry about how many years of therapy this is going to cost me later in life."

"If it is any consolation, we are most likely going to die soon but if we don't, the Laws of Magic dictate we don't tell the world at large what we can do."

"The Laws of Magic can blow me," I joked. "I didn't sign up for any of this."

"Neither does your average werewolf but here you both are," she pointed out.

"Whatever," I groaned. "Listen Regina, I know you can't be ready for this. I'll blow Sally off and the Twins can prance around the scenery until they get bored and come home."

"What are you babbling about?" Regina settled between my legs and looked up at me. "Richard last night was a shock because I damn near died, but I think I'm strong enough to get past this and -- blow you, so to speak."

Regina stared to stroke me to full arousal. After one lick over the spongy helmet she hesitated.

"Richard, I want you to know that I hope you make it out of this alive and not just because this entails my own survival. It has been a lifetime since I've felt that way about anyone, please believe me," she vowed. "Stay alive and I'll find you."

"Thanks," I was both worried and confused by that confession. Her engulfing the top of my penis didn't end my ability to think, though it was proving to be more and more difficult. Reading between the lines Regina was telling me she'd visited death long before she came to the island. At the same time she was telling me my best clue for me to stay alive in case something bad caught up with her -- find the real Ravenrook heir -- Shelby Ravenrook -- is probably the one 'Good Girl' on campus and my best hope to stay alive.

About a minute into the process, Regina let my cock pop out to lean back slightly.

"Aren't you ready to cum yet?" she cross-examined me.

"You don't give many blowjobs do you?" I quizzed her.

"You are my first -- happy now?" she responded snidely.

"How about you show me your breasts and let me play with them while you suck me off?" I suggested.

"Wouldn't you rather be fondling Sally's," Regina continued to be one mouthy bitch.

"No Regina. I'm here with you because while you clearly dangerous and deranged, I like you and we share a leaky little rowboat in the face of a Northeasterly headwind," I reminded her.

"I'm going out with Sally only because she's leading me into a deathtrap created by the beings who have been consistently trying to kill me or kill my patience," I added. Regina agreed in the best possible way -- she unbuttoned her blouse, opened her bra and went back to her best imitation of fellatio. In five minutes, my body was kind enough to surrender its bounty and flooded her mouth with semen.

I stood and drew Regina up as well. I fixed my cock inside my underwear then zipped up my slacks. I was quick enough in the routine I was able to help her button up her shirt after she affixed her bra. By the way her cheeks moved, Regina's tongue was taking a pleasurable taste sample of the cum she had earned.

"Do you like the taste of my seed?" I teased. She looked mildly annoyed but became frantic when I made to tickle her. Perhaps the act of taking a male sexual organ into her wasn't (yet) on her top ten list of favorite things to do, or maybe she didn't want to spew all my hard work over my chest. I stopped advancing and she steadied herself.

Any attempt at conversation was pointless; besides as I readied to go out on my date, Regina busied herself with drawing lines in black and white chalk on the floor and walls. As she did so I could sense a link being created between us. I had a sensation that I could tell if she was alive and okay as long as she kept a portion of me insider her. It was another freaky-weird abnormality to tack on to the truckload I'd been gifted with today.

I could tell Sally was glad to see me the moment I arrived near the female upperclassmen common area in the Library. In fact, she looked ready to crawl out of her over-stuffed seat and take a bite out of any of the people moving about the room.

"Hey Richard," Georgia Norman called out warmly. Sally's ravenous gaze fell upon me and she was on me like a covetous Playboy Playmate.

"Hey Richard, let's go," Sally grabbed my left elbow and bicep, trying to drag me immediately.

"In a second," I warned Sally. "Hi Georgia; I hope you are staying safe," I greeted one of the few students to have remembered me from a year ago and actually been helpful.

"Are you and Sally together again; are you going out on a date?" Georgia inquired cautiously.

"Yes we are and we should be leaving now," Sally growled at Georgia insistently.

"We are going to walk the gardens and then Sally promises we'll leave the grounds for something special," I grinned.

"Bernadette?" Georgia seemed to shrink from Sally's furiously lustful glare. Bernadotte was the 'public' name of Regina Ravenrook.

"She's taken precautions," I pledged to Georgia as I lead Sally away before she began stripping in front of everyone, which she might have done before anyhow considering her overriding lustful madness. Sally settled for clinging tightly to me.

"I am going to do so many wonderful things to you," Sally purred into my ear.

By the strumming of her heartstrings, I felt her capacity to hold back the impulses to rape me on the spot barely kept at bay. Before we got outside we pressed tightly together embracing multiple times. Her mental confusion let me work a little mischief unnoticed. Once we were outside at the entrance of the sculpted gardens, I broke us up, retaining a hold her hand.

"Let's just a walk and talk for a while," I requested with an insistent, dark undercurrent in my voice. Sally jerked as if I'd shocked her with an electric current, calmed herself, lowered her head and nodded. "What have you been going through while I went away?" I asked.

"Many things I've been ashamed of," Sally moped.

"Do you think you can get out from under the influence of the Twins?" I pressed her.

"It isn't that simple," Sally looked up at me with soulful eyes. "I want things now -- important things," she gulped. "It would be like living life without sight, or hearing."

"But you don't look happy," I countered.

"Oh," she giggled, "you don't understand. I see what people lust after and how I can please them, even if they are ignorant of their desires."

"What do I want?" I inquired.

"I -- I don't know," she shivered. "Your eyes are cold and pitiless -- inhuman."

"Why did you go out with me then?" I pushed.

"You are strong and...you can protect me from others who want to hurt me," she confessed partially. She was leading me into a trap were I expected to die. "Some want to take by pain and force what I would freely give."

"You never shied away from a little bit of pain Sally," I coaxed her along, "so we are talking about more than simply pinching and nibbling."

"Sometimes they want to kill me, Richard," she moaned. "No one will save me and sooner or later I'll seek out so much sensation I won't be able to defend myself. Can you defend me, Richard?"

"I can't if I'm dead," I taunted Sally. She looked down at the ground as we walked a little farther. "When did you start losing control and why haven't you tried to break free?"

"We have more power and freedom to do what we want," Sally promised.

"Yeah, like leading your former boyfriend out to be murdered?" I stated deadpan.

"Are you getting anything out of me dying, except making them happy -- not happy with you because I know they don't care for any of you -- but with themselves?" I mocked her. "How is that for freedom and power? You are afraid of them, face it."

"It isn't like that; we have a relationship," she started a decent job of pretending to cry.

Sally turned away in feigned-shame over her tears and rummaged through her pockets and purse.

"Looking for your phone?" I asked ruthlessly. "Oh, you seem to have seven text messages," I scrolled over her personal missives.

"Give that back!" Sally nearly screamed as she snatched up the phone but I failed to comply.

"Bring him," I quoted from her phone, "bring him now", "where are you?", "stop whatever you are doing -- BRING HIM NOW!", "Stop humping him, you cow, and bring him now," "You will pay for this unless he appears before us in ten minutes!"

"Oh God, they are going to kill me," Sally whimpered. "I am so dead." I tossed her the phone and sneered. "There is your freedom and power Sally." I shook my head. "You are afraid they are going to torture and /or kill you. Tell them I'm coming and warn them I'm going to skip their brand-spanking new little asses across the water like they are new bright shiny quarters."

Sally looked mortified so I retrieved her phone, sent off two messages -- the first one claiming I'd tied up and sat on Sally -- and the one concerning their 'brand-spanking new little asses'. I showed Sally each text so she knew I was taking the heat for pissing off the prissy little bitches before turning the phone over.

"Get back inside Sally," I directed. "Once I finish teaching these bitches another lesson I'll have to decide on whether I want to see you again -- I have one too many charity cases on my plate as it is. Now where are they waiting for me?"

"The Great Cleft," Sally murmured, still in shock.

The Cleft was one huge (12 foot tall) rock that was cleft in a 'V'. There were four other large boulders around and it was deep in the forest toward town. It actually was a pretty well-thought out place to murder someone. If I hadn't been the target of said crime I would have been willing to congratulate them on the choice.

The Fight

The cocky me wanted to jump like the Hulk into their midst and bellowed my challenge. The part of me with a functioning brain suggested I try and sneak up on them instead. Stunningly, I got pretty close before I encountered them and it was highly embarrassing. It didn't start with us launching diatribes about what we were here for -- them to kill me and me for non-virgin virgin pussy...not really.

Anyway this one foot tall little snit appeared racing along the forest floor, slashed at my calf and was gone before I could react. Fuck! That hurt. He had a pal coming at me from the front and three much larger cohorts moving through the dark underbrush. I took three more of these painful slashes before two things happened -- I realized I was being poisoned and I couldn't grab them with my hands.

Through the underbrush arrived two oily black wolves and a fuggly looking dwarf who morphed into some nine-foot tall poster-child for steroid abuse -- oddly enough, I think his breed is called a Spriggan. First, I had some gnats to squash. I drove my knife-like hands into the soil before reaching out with my 'darkness' sense (which I had no clue that I had or how it worked).

My sense of touch reached out for several feet around me and when the quick little fucks came within my radius, I snatched them up along a six foot column of earth and slammed the two into one with the result being something similar to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had been out three weeks too long -- oh God, I had just directly murdered two sentient beings.

Three things occurred to me along with that thought; male ballet dancers shouldn't play rugby, my sinus cavity was being pressed into my brain by uber-dwarf and the two wolves were trying to remove an arm a piece. I vowed that if I got a chance at a second grand melee in this lifetime I would maintain my focus and concentration.

The dwarf/giant released my skull but only so his second fist could pummel me harder. I felt like I was going to die and it looked that way too so I lashed out with each wolf attached to my arm and clubbed the steroid-dwarf in the ribs. The cock sucker splintered the bark behind me as his next blow failed to connect. I still felt horrible; I felt so bad I vomited on the three creatures. They howled, screamed and whimpered as my foul sputum burnt away their flesh and bones in a horrifically acidic and malevolent display. For a moment there was silence.

"What did he just do?" Midnight asked her brunette twin Twilight. That didn't make me rejoice -- instead I thought, what gives, I had just unleashed something that could be read as 'lynch nuts momentarily' or 'launch nuclear missiles', and the experts didn't have a clue about which translation was right.

"We must stop playing around," commanded Eden, "and just kill him."

I wanted to scream out, "Bring it you deranged psycho schoolgirls," but they beat me to the punch - quite literally.

Eden and Paradise were engulfed by a mini-tornado, lifted me off the ground and blasted me with enough lightning to short-out any borough in New York -- oh fuck that hurt way more than the razor blade cuts those malicious gremlins gave me. Then I smashed into a big tree.

That blow left an indentation of my body in the tree I'd hit -- upside down -- which added to the joy when I fell face-first to the ground.

"Ouch," I groaned. I didn't have to wait long to feel what was coming next because my body burst into flame courtesy of Spring. As soon as she finished flash-frying me, Autumn dropped a glacier on my chest. It did put out the fire but the price tag was the breaking of half my bones.

Paradise decided that I need a bit more lightning in my life and supercharged the ice. I was rebuilding my body yet again; even as my sensation of touch returned from its pain-overload setting, I felt the ground move beneath my feet. A walking pile of boulders picked me up and proceeded to spike me like a football (American Rules).

This whole 'not dying and healing from all wounds' was appearing to be an unholy form of torture because the pain was way past indescribable. The fucker tossed me up in the air so that Paradise and Spring could use me as target practice. The resulting electric incineration was yet another thing in a long list of sufferings I never wanted to recall.

At the time I came to rest, I realized the vines, branches and bushes were wrapping me up and laid me gently on the leaf-carpeted ground. Regina knelt beside me with a quirky smile and helped me stand.

"Bernadotte -- Regina, whatever we call you; you were dumb to come here," Twilight called down from the group of freaky twins hovering close overhead. Their boulder-buddy was coming along at a lumbering pace. Five of the six lashed out with no more preamble than that. Regina fended off as much of the fury as she could through our link.

It hurt -- it hurt like mad but something inside me mumbled 'is this all they've got?'

"Is this all you've got?" I growled as their power drove me to my knees. My hands drove into the dirt, searching for rocks to throw because jumping when Eden appeared to control the wind seemed idiotic. Rocky got to me first, pummeling me hard with his right upper appendage.

I caught the blow and even though I was pushed three inches into the loam, I was in charge. I stepped inside its reach, twisted its arm and felt the enchantment holding its arm attached explode in sparks. I didn't hit the 'what I was later told was an Earth Elemental'. I had a gift for Eden and used the ape-like arm to swat the Wind-Sorceress to the ground.

The first thing to happen was the other five witches fell to the ground as Eden's concentration was broken. I raised the stone flyswatter and leapt on top of her. Once again I felt this sickening, boiling sensation inside and the urge to vomit pressing forward. Eden sensed something catastrophic was about to happen to her. She struggled madly but her strength was not remotely enough to make a break for freedom.

"Please," she sobbed in terror, "please don't do this to me." I so wanted to upchuck on her.

"Stay down and don't get up until this is over -- CLEAR!" I expelled my darkest rage and frustration with words instead. She nodded rapidly in agreement. As I stood up a lightning bolt blasted into another tree. Coils of water sprouted from the ground and pinned me to the living lumber.

Spring and Autumn battled Regina in a see-saw struggle that Regina, married with my power, seemed to be winning; a development that surprised the twins. Midnight was fixing her elemental and Twilight was weaving the watery restraints. That left Paradise alone to keep the pain coming and her best just wasn't enough.

Three rapid-fire blasts of electricity seared away my skin and painfully repairing muscles but I was now more than capable of keeping up with the wounds being inflicted. I moved my legs up against the tree, flexed my thighs and started to stress the tension inside the chains of water.

"I can't keep him down!" Twilight yelled out a warning to her coven-mates.

I yanked up, whiplashing the fluid as if it was some kind of root system until two of the four ropes of water disintegrated into a massive spray of groundwater. The Boulder-Thing turned my way and took a first tentative step with its new limb.

BANG! A bullet scarred the ancient rock.

"Freeze, FBI!" shouted a woman from on top of the Cleft Rock.

She was wearing a Boston Red Sox cap with a blonde ponytail -- maybe late twenties, white t-shirt with the logo of the local mechanics shop, a green flight jacket and blue service slacks. She was also brandishing a 9 mm. Everyone had turned to look up at her but more like a carnival amusement than any respect for her kind of authority.

The Twins started gravitating toward Twilight so I went over and picked up Eden,

"Here you go," I said softly as I picked some leaves off her shirt and skirt, "Let's not have this discussion again tonight? Agreed?"

"Agreed," she whispered then sort of hung around staring up at me expectantly.

"Yes?" I questioned her near a whisper.

"Alright, I'm here for Regina Ravenrook but I need the rest of you to come down to the mechanic's lock-up for a trip to the mainland," the FBI woman stated.

"Do you require anything else of me?" Eden pressed against me expectantly.

"Tonight, my room at eleven-thirty," I kissed her and any attempt to conceal our words were pretty much undone by her skipping to her crowd with her tiny bit of happiness feeling like fireworks.

"Umm -- officer, that isn't happening for far too many insane reasons to mention but I can promise you that Regina's not leaving for the foreseeable future because any such attempt will kill her," I tried to explain.

"Don't make me shoot you young man," the Law Woman threatened. "I will if I have to."

"Take your best shot," I muttered. "Everybody else has."

"Show me some ID, agent," Regina called out then smiled at me, saying, "By the way, still tastes yummy." At least someone was getting some joy out of my sex life.

"It is the end of the road, Regina," the agent reiterated.

"As I recall one Special Agent Alyssa Monroe was indefinitely suspended by the Bureau after she kept pursuing some crazy case about covens of witches, supernatural magics and a witch who kills other witches to steal their power -- real insane stuff," Regina mocked her foe.

"Now I have proof," the former agent spat back.

"No you don't," Regina chided. "More to the point, the Wonder Twins aren't going to let you leave this island with any proof." Bored with the whole affair, Twilight and Midnight whispered a few words and the agent slumped to her knees then fell over on her side.

"Now that is over, can we get back to the killing?" Paradise regarded Regina and me.

"Sure; let me get the human woman out of the way and we can get back to it," I stated. It was an eerie détente that witnessed me jump up the twelve foot rock face to the 'former' FBI lady.

"You need to go," I insisted as she staggered back up.

Her gun tracked to me but I didn't have time for many more word games. I grabbed her hands holding her gun and drew her forward in one fluid motion.

Predictably the gun went off and if she hadn't grabbed my hand I would have tumbled off the Cleft Rock. The gunshot was painful but by the time her eyes met mine, the wound was gone.

"Only non-humans can stay," I coughed over my damaged windpipe, "now please save your life and run away now." Right as I said that, I felt a twang in the undercurrent of magic across the island. I didn't know what the hell that was but all the Witches and Regina knew and Regina called out to me.

"The tomb!" she screamed, "someone is opening the tomb!" Tomb -- what tomb? The Tomb the Ravenrook's had placed the twin Witches in centuries ago? The one they had escaped from?

The six rose up about ten feet into the air and raced through the trees toward campus on a hurricane wind and toward to the old cemetery southwest of the practice fields. My own mind was racing.

"Do you have a car?" I shouted at the former agent.

"Yes but tell me what the hell is going on?" she shouted over the settling breeze.

"Someone innocent is going to die a gruesome death if we don't get there fast," Regina called up to us.

I hopped down, scooped Regina up, and returned to the woman's position.

"You are still under arrest, Regina," she snapped but she turned and sped down the far side of the rock and through some thick brush. We nearly plowed into her utility van as we ran after her. She raced around driver's side while I pushed Regina up in before me on the passenger's side. The old beast cranked to life and Monroe proceeded to drive pell-mell backwards down the track she'd driven up on.

We swung backwards on the sole road between the village and the campus, backing out toward the village before causing the tires to squeal as she reversed and accelerated, speeding us in the direction of campus and the graveyard on its far side. It was too much to hope we could get there before the six witches but Alyssa made it a close thing.

The cemetery was surrounded with eight-foot barbed wrought-iron fencing. The grounds, I knew, held the remains of every Headmistress, most of the Ravenrook family, numerous faculty, 15 students who died on the grounds over the past 123 years plus certain island residents who had died upon the rocks over an equally long time.

Of more immediate concern was this arcane granite slab monstrosity that bore down on the central Ravenrook crypt -- the graveyard's oldest and biggest structure. Eden was keeping everyone aloft while pummeling the crypt with wind borne headstones. Paradise and Spring directly attacked the heavy bronze doors that normally sealed the crypt, while Twilight's water tendrils slowly tore the ancient doors free.

The van's momentum blew open the cemetery gate then we skidded into a lesser crypt and stopped. Regina and I piled out and ran toward the fighting with no clear game plan or idea of who the person we were coming to help truly was. What was obvious was that Midnight's latest elemental had noticed us and that wasn't good.

Even as we tried to dodge past the construct, a golden dome of light flared around the Ravenrook mausoleum, flared brighter then died down under the assault. We had to watch out for the attacking witches but we had to get to the defender of the crypt too. Strangely it was Alyssa who helped solve our dilemma. Without an ounce of bravado, the former government agent went to one knee, unleashing a cutting edge of 1970's US technology -- a LAW rocket.

I didn't know if a graveyard golem had ever intersected with an armor-killing device before but the results were explosive -- she shattered that thing into a dozen pierces. I hugged Regina tightly and shielded her from the worst of the blast. Being the baddest-ass monster present, I recovered first, pressing up with one arm while hugging a clinging Regina to me.

One great leap brought me down one crypt short of the Ravenrook tomb.

"Work you away around and don't kill whomever we are here to save, damn it!" I insisted. Before I went back for the former-FBI agent Alyssa Monroe, I noted a slender forearm and hand sticking out from under an overturned obelisk.

As I scrambled to get to her; Summer, Eden and Twilight did their level best to rearrange my internal organs and bone structure. The scariest part was that the pain was becoming somewhat 'normal' for me, almost pleasurable. Daggers of darkness tore into Summer, causing her to scream and howl with rage. A golden network of light was woven in a Celtic design also appeared in an aegis over me.

This gave me a chance to pull the obelisk off -- Paradise, who looked like her bones had been pulverized and her flesh squished. The way Paradise looked at me projected her fear at her predicament. Paradise couldn't possibly re-knit herself before I tore her to shreds.

"Eden!" I commanded. "Get down here right now!"

Beyond all reason, Eden immediately floated down beside me and the failing Golden shield. Eden had to duck when a phoenix of smoke and fire finished off the barrier. In the background the angry thunder of an automatic weapon was going off, most-likely keeping Midnight busy.

"Eden, you made a promise to me; you -- me -- eleven thirty tonight," I reminded her; she nodded. "Sit your ass down and let this fight work itself to a conclusion without you."

"Fix my sister please," Eden gently grabbed my arm. I was going to regret this. I poured some of my darkness into Paradise and helped her body repair itself. She rewarded me by pumping two lightning bolts worth of Nature's Wrath through my ribcage. My upward trajectory was halted by the downward arch of the Grave Golem's fist which face-planted me in a serious way.

Even as I pushed up, the whole ground around me froze with an icy, flesh-rending cold. A granite fist drove the razor-sharp grass into my body but the whoosh of a second LAW rocket was a welcome relief; how many of these weapons was the modern day witch-hunter bringing into the battle? The granite fist flew away and again the combat had a hiccup.

Before the chaos could clear up, Regina and I slid into the Ravenrook crypt. Regina began screaming loudly and writhing in agony while I felt a strong static electric charge. Georgia Norman made several intricate hand gestures and a fresh lattice of light appeared.

"Georgia," I whispered, "you are Shelby Ravenrook -- the true heir?"

"Yes and I need your help Richard," she panted. Clearly even with me and Regina she was in an uneven struggle.

"Fine," I began to get my wits about it. "Fix Regina and I'll keep them busy plus bring some more help."

"I'm not going to help her," Shelby/Georgia seethed back. "She murdered my mother and two of my great aunts."

"If you don't do it I'm taking Regina and leaving," I edged toward the door.

"But I'm your ally -- we are on the same side Richard, for generations," Shelby pleaded.

"We'll discuss this when I get back but Regina better be fixed," I growled before bounding out. My problem was all six witches were up and rampaging, trying to break through the crypt's wards and I had to get passed them and get Alyssa. I had zip in firearm vs. undead witch experience but tons of zombie movies had educated me on how tough a fight could be without the added excitement of the zombies throwing fire, electricity, ice, wind, walking parking lots and fire hoses gone berserk.

Eden caught sight of me and flew over to a nearby mausoleum and sat on the roof with her legs dangling off. This gap in the ring hemming us in allowed me to leap to Alyssa.

"I'll get you inside," I told her. As she clutched me I realized her van was a blazing wreck -- whoops. At least she had one final LAW just in case -- well in case of some even weirder shit happening.

"Eden!" Paradise screamed at her sister who really seemed ready to sit this one out. I rolled in mid-air so I took a plethora Autumn's ice shards tearing into my back, sheltering Alyssa. Several tendrils of flame passed close in front me. I prayed my time as an express pony was hopefully over for a while when I rolled back into the crypt.

Regina was no longer screaming but she looked to be the victim of an out of control sauna instead.

"What now?" I looked to Georgia/Shelby.

"I hoped that you and Regina would keep them busy long enough for me to peel back the Witches' mystic locks before they could get back here but they showed up too soon," Shelby sighed.

"That didn't work -- next plan?" I said abruptly.

"We could try to lure the Six down there and take them on using the relics that imprisoned them there," Shelby tried next.

"If these things are of use, why don't we have them right now?" Alyssa seemed on the tipping point of her sanity at the moment.

"Well, if I have the legend right, only you and my cousin Shelby can use them and only one of the items are an actual weapon anyway," Regina snorted derisively. Outside the thunderbolts and lighting ceased.

"Richard, we need to go now," Shelby insistently yanked on my arm. With my free arm I hustled Regina and Alyssa along ahead of me too for what felt like minutes.

"How is this going to make things better?" Regina spat. "Now we'll be in a big chamber and they will kill us all down here." Shelby's answer was short-circuited by our entrance into a big (as big as a 400 person cafeteria) sea cave with seven sarcophagi laid out near where the ocean surges crested. Light came from the photo-luminescence of the sea algae and from slime living on the dripping stalactites.

Shelby led the way toward the stone coffins, six of which had serious fissures on their lids. The seventh was untouched. On the first one she touched was some sort of scabbarded blade. She drew forth the flawless blade and tossed me the blade and baldric. Stunningly I caught them both without cutting off my fingers.

"It is an English Mortuary Sword -- that's the style of the blade -- that was borne by the ship's captain that delivered the witches to this prison," Shelby told me. "Now pierce the heart of each of the Black Witches and they will fall into an enchanted stasis then I can imprison them once more."

"Wait! What the fuck? And how do you know I can do any of that?" I gawked.

"You are a Vandemeyer," Shelby explained. "That's why we've been admitting you and your ancestors all these years -- we knew the witches would break free and we needed someone who would be here or who we would bring in if needed."

"What's wrong with him?" Regina pried.

"Why have those crazy girls upstairs stopped?" Alyssa sounded suddenly calmer, like a doomed soul facing a firing squad. "Why don't they come in guns blazing?"

"They might bring the roof down on us and there is no equipment on the island for digging up the cavern and destroying the six sacred relics and thus being safe," Shelby sighed and tried to propel me back toward the stairs that led us here.

"Richard -- all the Vandemeyer men since 1779 have been under a death curse but the first's mother fed her son corpse milk so he survived when he shouldn't have and this allows all who followed to forestall their doom though it eventually overwhelms you all," Shelby explained somewhat exasperated.

"Oh, you are fucking kidding me," Regina giggled. She had learned more about me in one day than Shelby had figured out in a year. "You mean none of his ancestors are actually dead yet?"

Light started coming down the stairs; we were running out of time.

"Shelby?" I inquired.

"Not really," Shelby hastily said. "They are trapped between life and the afterlife, at the edge of Oblivion." I was righteously pissed as Regina knew I would be. I stalked up to the stair-entrance and nearly ran over Twilight. She blanched which was tough to do with her pale complexion as her eyes fell on the perilous blade.

"Come on in ladies; if you don't start something, I won't feel forced to finish it," I promised them with my temper on edge.

"Richard?" Shelby called to me. "What's going on?"

"They can feel it Shelby, the passage of time, when they are imprisoned," I turned to her giving Twilight a clear opening to attack me.

"So what; there is no alternative to our solution," Shelby pleaded.

"You fight them every day -- you work to keep them in check, damn it," I told her and was unwittingly surrounded by the 'Enemy' witches who seemed pretty willing to let me talk.

"They will only get stronger Richard," Shelby tried again. "They can't be beaten -- eventually they would wear every opposition down."

"Can anyone tell me where my dead -- not dead ancestors are right now?" I was trying to figure out some coherent, workable plan.

"Is everyone totally nuts here?" Alyssa spoke up.

"Yes, yes we are," I confirmed. "These six are immortal undead Frankenstein monsters who wield dark magic. Yes they are three sets of twins and they regularly mind control people. Regina is apparently a cousin of Shelby here and according to you and Shelby, she's a serial killer of witches...and she's the longest, continuous ally I have."

"Check," was all Alyssa answered with.

"Give us the two Ravenrooks," Eden offered. "You can keep the human and we'll pledge not to try and harm you save in self-defense."

"Don't confuse the matter," I chided her. "Tonight -- 11:30 -- my room," and her face nearly cracked from the attempted smile.

"I'm not going to kill anyone else today but I'm presently possessing such a dim view of both the Dark and Light-sides that I'm still open to killing someone tomorrow," I challenged everyone in the room. "The only person who doesn't deserve some level of my hate is former Special Agent of the FBI Alyssa Monroe...but we've just met."

"My desire to do the right thing is at war with my perverse desire to kill everything around me brought on by some Death Curse someone put on my family over two hundred years ago," I snarled. "What do they go through if they are not truly dead -- my family -- my Dad?"

There was a hush until Midnight stood forward and touched my shoulder.

"We cannot see them," she indicated her five sisters, "but most likely they are all around you Richard, giving you their strength and experience in order to keep you alive until Fate claims you as it does all mortal things -- thus you are both immortal creature of darkness and mortal man of light."

"That was well said," I whispered only because to talk normally for me right then was to scream.

"We did not curse you, Richard, but we knew we would need you to save the human world from a great evil," Shelby added. "Your ancestors were already heroic when our paths crossed."

"Did you ask us? Any of us?" I turned to her and growled.

"What would we have told your ancestors? 'Sorry, we know your family is suffering for not being able to pass on to their just afterlife but we need you for a struggle you cannot perceive and can only peripherally understand'?" Shelby pointed out to me.

"Fuck you for making too much sense," I was finally feeling the end of my patience.

"On that note, I'm going upstairs and then to my room and I'm going to fuck somebody," I announced. "I know who is first on the list and I'm going to delve with her into the one part of my life experience you all have not managed to totally screw over. Good night."

Regina was the first one to figure out that remaining behind was bad for her survival ethic so she actually elbowed some of the twins aside in order to keep up. I could hear Shelby dragging Alyssa along behind them.

"My van has been blown up," Alyssa touched base with reality.

"We are witches," Regina groaned in annoyance, "we'll fix it for you."

I was still thinking that when I emerged with the witches back onto the surface where they formed a semi-circle around me facing the still impressive Ravenrook mausoleum.

"We are not sure why, Richard, but -- thank you," Paradise stated.

"I didn't do anything, you Evil Twins -- we are still at war," I shrugged.

"You equated your own curse and the doom of your ancestors to what we have gone through. Like you, we did not know of your curse until just now, but you are right to have sympathy with our plight and we should hold you in the same regard -- sympathetic to your status with life beyond death," as Midnight picked up their argument.

"Are there any 'good guys' here?" Alyssa inquired as she caught up with the discussions.

"I'm a human powered by dozens or even hundreds of my dead ancestors," I met her gaze, "Regina is my closest friend because, while deceptive, she's never lied to me nor made decisions against my presumed best interest."

"Shelby Ravenrook aka Georgia Norman here is a White Witch with some sort of witch's coven helping her, dedicated to the powers of Light," I pointed out. "She and her ancestors have been keeping me and my ancestors on a tight leash to unwittingly be used as hounds against Group One. She's not on my 'friends' list at the moment."

"What about me and Regina? She has multiple deaths to answer for including my mentor's?" Alyssa continued.

"Get her in four years when she graduates or when she leaves the island if sooner," I offered. "I won't get in your way but I owe her enough to give Regina a head start."

"Everyone who has trusted her is dead," Alyssa cautioned me.

"She's been pretty honest about that as well Ms. Monroe," I sighed. "Now I'm going home, taking off...what exactly am I wearing now anyway?"

"Burnt fabric, fallen leaves, dead vines, and bark compressed into something that keeps this misadventure from becoming X-rated," Regina teased me.

"When I dispel the enchantment, it will turn to dust," she added.

"Thanks," I nodded. "I'll scrape it off in the shower if you don't mind. Now, as I was saying, I'm going to strip, take a shower, go back to bed and then I'm going to fuck some girl so hard I'm going to permanently adjust her speech patterns." There was a hush then I turned and walked past the witches and toward the gate that hung loosely open after the van had crashed through them, leaving the cemetery and heading to campus.

"Oh, and fix Alyssa's van first -- and don't kill each other until daybreak," I said over my shoulder. By some miracle, the truce held too.

Evil Witches; can't have just one

I washed a double-handful of crap out of my hair on the road to cleanliness. I didn't know what Tower Services was going to think of the mess I had made of the showers down the hall with their rattling pipes but I was somewhat passed caring. I was finishing drying my hair off when Regina, from her side of the room, called out.

"Two vicious Undead Evil Beings at the door," she said. I swung out of bed, cinched my towel around my waist and took the few steps necessary to open the door. Eden and Paradise, dressed in long white nightshirts, stood waiting but then Paradise edged passed me followed by Eden.

"Okay, this is not happening," I laid down the law. "My bed doesn't hold three and I'm not up to going at you two in tandem."

In their eerie twin-ness, they looked at each other, then at my bed. Paradise touched the post at the foot of the bed, Eden touched the head post and they pulled the bed toward us and the door. The bed stretched longer and longer until it was king-sized.

"Wait, we can't fit this..." I began. The room had grown bigger too and Regina was laughing at me.

"Of course the room got bigger, Richard. We are witches -- okay, they are better at this than me, but essentially creating folds in space and stretching objects is only moderately advanced," Regina explained. I almost said something stupid like 'why didn't we do this last night' but that was really a whole different world back then.

"Eden," I took her gently by the base of the neck in both hands before pushing her gown pasted her shoulders and let it drop to the ground. "Get under the covers and to the middle of the bed," I directed. "Paradise, you can sit at the foot of the bed, but no interfering -- or trying to kill anyone, okay?" Paradise shifted out of her gown as well but did take her place at the bottom of the mattress.

Eden sat in the middle of the bed, trying to stare up at the ceiling but nervously tracking me as I came close. That look was tragic -- a phantom in a human suit with little in the way of an emotional clue of what was to come.

"Stretch out your arms," I requested of her softly. I pulled my towel aside and settled into a push-up position over her. "Now close your eyes."

I was leaning in for her first kiss when I saw her lips pucker up clumsily. I knew what was going on.

"Paradise, no peaking from you either," I demanded. While I imagined it was not true remote viewing, Paradise was cluing her twin in on what was about to happen; upsetting my plans.

I returned to kissing Eden on the right cheek then around her face in a slow gentle progression. She made this little mewling noise as I started kissing and licking her neck and that was when I realized it was the conductivity that was magnifying what excited her. I returned to her face and, sure enough, her hips began to gyrate in tiny movements beneath me and her breathing picked up.

"Let me know how you feel," I breathed upon dampened jugular.

"It's hot -- cold -- I don't know," she choked off her response. "I feel and hear my pulse but now it truly sings to me in a voice I have never heard before Richard." A few more licks and kisses and Eden had spread her legs open, encompassed me and were massaging each of my calves from the outside with her heels.

"Paradise, I need some water -- a big drink of water if I'm going to keep this up," I requested.

"Just ask the other four undead freaks at the door; the eavesdropping little mutants," Regina piped up. I ignored her, initiated my first French kiss with Eden instead. While so engaged, a terribly pale and naked Paradise exited the room, letting in her sisters, and proceeded to conjure some water up from somewhere.

I worked my lips past her shoulder for a second time when Eden wiggled up beneath me, guiding my hungry mouth to her right nipple that my hand had been playing with. Her mewling wasn't at all subdued this time, her bald pussy was welcoming and incredibly moist.

Rhetorically I asked, "Are you enjoying yourself Eden?"

"Yes, yes, yes," she shrilly exclaimed then added her own kind of insanity, "but I can't figure out how to drain a living person's life force to duplicate this passion you are evoking inside of me." Sigh, the wackiness of death magic.

"Give me a chance to pleasure you Eden," I headed her off. "No soul sucking until we've exhausted every other venue please."

"I'm not sure of why," Eden started panting as I took her left breast fully into my mouth and twirled the areola with my tongue, "but your happiness is important to me. I will -- I will try to do so if you keep treating me like this." I stuck two fingers into her virginal slit and wiggled them around. "OR THAT," her voice lilted, "definitely treat me like that!"

The other girls had come in and after some sort of occult rigmarole; they had sat down on the floor beside the bed, heads barely in view. Twilight and Midnight began stimulate one another calling upon sympathetic memories from earlier today. I welcomed the still naked Paradise slipping back into the room with us and the offered a tall bronze drinking horn that came from Gods know where but it was water so I drank it.

I was going to be doing a lot of salivating tonight, not to mention sweating and ejaculating, so I needed to stay as hydrated I could get. I moved back to the top of Eden and a heavy session of dry-humping began. The plan I was still working out in my head took shape when Eden spoke.

"He wants us to become naked," her voice took on a joyous noise that truly appeared to disturb her companions. It didn't stop them from getting naked, that much was sure.

I slipped my cock straight into Eden's vagina in a patient, steady progression that nearly caused her eyes to bug out of her head.

"Don't stop doing this," she whispered to me. Her hands rested on each shoulder, keeping a steady distance between our chests while her legs were dancing around, trying to figure out the best way to drive my pelvis deeper into hers.

"Please, I don't understand any of this but don't stop -- please," she went on softly. Only with the aid of my dark aura was I peripherally aware that all the other girls had their eyes glued on us; the five of the Six didn't move -- didn't blink, while Regina took notes on the whole arcane interaction.

I experimented with various depths and rhythms but everything seemed to drive her wilder and more vocal and that was turning me on too. Three strong thrusts and I suddenly ejaculated all over her sterile womb. I willed some unknowable part of myself into her as well. Eden let out a piercing high note of operatic proportions...and held it and held it.

When she finally ran out of breath her body, that had held me in a vise-like grip, collapsed in exhaustion beneath me. I almost reflexively smacked Paradise in the face, the other blonde twin had come at me so fast to be at her sister's side. Even then her slight, slender hands tried to push me away. I graciously rolled to Eden's far side and let Paradise join us.

"Sister," Paradise's voice had a haunted quality that made me believe she'd lost her telepathic bond with her twin. Eden's eyes fluttered open when she heard Paradise's voice but he eyes remained unfocused and staring upwards. A tiny ball of dark energy snuck up behind me and it took me a moment to realize that Regina was trying to make contact.

When I let that piece of energy enter me a babble of tiny faint echoes came to my mind plus the firmer voices of the Twins. The tiny whispers disturbed them because they couldn't pinpoint it though they knew Eden was the source.

'They are the voices of all the people she was created from, those fractions of life left after those beings had died.'

My first thoughts were 'who said that' then 'how did I know that' and finally, in a very Regina-like voice 'it is your ancestors, moron'.

"I'm fine Sister," Eden recognized her sister and patted her hand.

"How do you feel? Your voice became so loud and," Paradise murmured, "life-like."

"Nothing exists in this realm without the spark or memory of life and we have thought we possessed neither -- making us totally alone," Autumn spoke up. "Eden has discovered her mortal thread." I have never heard of a guy making a girl do that before -- tons of other things have been claimed, but this was a new one as far as my knowledge went.

"I feel...I feel like I want Richard in me again," Eden perked up, grabbed my arm by reaching across her body and tried to pull me on top of her again.

"No, stop," I insisted. "Unlike the rest of you, I can't conjure up good grades and I'm still taking classes."

All seven women stared at me like I had spoken Swahili.

"I need to sleep, get up early and get some of the classwork done I didn't get done tonight," I explained.

"You are serious," Regina sounded shocked. The rest were equally unsure what I 'really' meant by my statement.

"After all that has happened in the past 24 hours you still plan to live a mundane existence? Richard, the witches went nuts tonight -- I've never seen so much magic used in any one incident and we had two such bizarre occurrences in one night," Regina informed me. "Creatures are going to notice."

I dropped my head onto Eden's shoulder and started to sob. There was no end to my insanity and even death wouldn't bring me peace apparently. Eden kept trying to edge her nipple up to my mouth somewhat surreptitiously. I should have recalled; the Six didn't know compassion; it wasn't in them to give.

Eden stopped moving her body and put her free hand onto my head and patted it.

"It's okay Richard," Eden soothed me. "We can stop for tonight." I didn't even know where to start not understanding that gesture. I was far from alone as even Eden seemed taken aback by her kindness. "Please Paradise," she beseeched her twin, "let him rest."

The mental tumult between the Witches grew, crested then subsided. They didn't understand Eden's 'human' impulse but knew it wasn't done out of deception, greed or lust.

"Can I stay?" Eden requested gently.

"Sure, if you promise to not try to kill Regina until after breakfast," I replied.

"Done," she kissed my hair. "Can Paradise stay with us? I can't sleep without her."

"Deal, but she makes the same pledge," I answered. Paradise hesitated nearly a minute.

"Done," Paradise agreed. Eden crawled over me and I was soon wedged between her and Paradise.

Eden settled naturally into the crux of my arm and shoulder but for Paradise it was more of an exercise in mimicking her sister's actions until she got it 'right'.

'Richard, next time make them promise not to kill you too,' Regina thought my way.

'Thanks Regina, I knew I had forgotten something. Good night,' I sent back over the link and if she replied I was too asleep to hear.