Natural Consequences (21 page)

“We talked about that already,” Onyx reminded her.

“Yeah, I know. I wasn’t thinking about it until we got here.” Molly gestured to the costumed partygoers passing by them in different directions. “We haven’t been able to spend money on anything fun in a long time.”

“That’s not true. We go out.”

“Yeah, to cheap stuff,” Molly rolled her eyes.

Onyx shook her head. “Spending money on it doesn’t make it better.” She heard her lover snort, and then sighed. “Okay, that’s totally not true. But still. It’s not like I haven’t been happy, right? Or you? So we’ve been poor. Fuck it. Maybe that taught us discipline.”

“It held us back,” Molly countered.

“No,” Onyx replied with a much lower voice, “competing with the influence of a single giant group of other sorcerers held us back.”

Molly let out another long breath. Onyx was right. Working magic was easier with fewer Practitioners in the city. “Point,” she conceded.

Onyx took her hands. “Things are turning around for us,” she predicted. “This is just the beginning. We’re gonna be livin’ the dream, Molly. Working witches, you and I. Now are we good? Because me feeling carefree and you being wound up like we’re in Bizarro-world hurts my head.”

“I’m good,” Molly relaxed. “I’m good. I want a drink or something, but I’m good. Let’s go.”

Check-in turned out to be much as they expected. Both women were patted down and had to open their bags—or, in Onyx’s case, her belt pouches—but none of the security staff raised any objections. It wasn’t as if they knew legitimate magic wands when they saw them.

“Think the main dance floor is this one,” Molly said, guiding Onyx along through the crowd. They slipped inside the ballroom, quickly immersed in booming bass and flashing lights. “You wanna look for him the old fashioned way?”

“Hell no,” Onyx snorted. “Why would I do that?” From her belt pouch, she produced a tiny vial—plastic and modern, rather than a period piece—and wet her fingers with the water inside. Then she gently placed a drop on the side of each eye, murmuring a spell in Greek.

Solely in Onyx’s vision, the crowd shifted to grey and then began to gently fade. Silhouettes and faint features remained, but she saw through people and obstacles as her
gaze swept the room. Her eyes disregarded unimportant details, helping her see through all distractions until she located the subject of her thoughts. Magical perception had always been a particular talent for her. She read auras with almost casual effort. Even formidable illusions rarely fooled the young witch.

She stopped. Gasped. Clamped a hand down on Molly’s, looking on with wide eyes and a slight
choke.

“What?” asked
Molly.

Onyx pulled her in close, whispering another enchantment into the redhead’s ear: “
Share this with me
.”

Molly watched as the spell woven by her lover took over her vision. She turned her attention in the direction indicated by Onyx and watched with a surprised grin.

Alex stood on the dance floor in an open bathrobe, with an angel hanging from his shoulders. Her legs, wrapped around his hips, helped her grind up and down against him. The succubus lingered at his back. The witches saw all the colors and lights of their emotions. They read the trio’s body language. There was simply no mistaking what they saw.

Neither looked away. Silence held between them as Rachel slid
off Alex and the two women brought him back down to Earth once more.

“Wow,” Molly breathed.

“I know, right?” Onyx agreed loudly enough for Molly to hear over the music.

Molly frowned. She squeezed Onyx by the arm. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I just… didn’t expect to see that.”

“Are you bothered?”

“I can’t decide if I should be or not. That’s the problem.”

“Like you said. It’s complicated. We don’t have to be anything but friends,” Molly reminded her. “Or is this a competition thing?”

Onyx shook her head. “It’s not that,” she frowned, making sure she was honest with herself as she spoke. “It’s just… they were fucking in public.”

“Yeah.”

“All three of them,” Onyx said, waving her hands. “I mean it’s not like we didn’t know, but we hadn’t actually seen it.”

“I don’t think we were meant to, love,” Molly pointed out. “I don’t think anyone was reasonably supposed to see that.
You’ve got better eyes than anyone I’ve ever heard of.”

“
I suppose so.”

“We knew they had to be pretty kinky,” added Molly. “Let’s face it:
succubus. For all we know, that was tame.” She waited for Onyx to respond, and found she couldn’t get a read on her partner’s thoughts. “He’ll tell us if we ask him. He’ll tell us everything. Those are the rules, right?”

“They are.”

“And he’ll play by the rules. We know that.”

Onyx nodded without an answer.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Onyx shrugged. “I just want to make sure I know how I feel about all this before it goes further.”

Molly waited to hear more, and finally gave her a tug. “They’re still friends and it’s still his birthday. We can do that much without the complications, right?”

“Yeah. I’m good. We’re fine.”

Molly led her girlfriend through the crowd and then stopped. “So are you gonna be weirded out if I still go for it?” she joked.

Onyx
swatted Molly’s arm, laughing in spite of herself. Alex sorted his clothes out again by the time the witches made it to him. He and his lovers looked calmer, though Onyx saw plenty of swirling colors of passion in their auras. Lorelei’s enchantment faded. Onyx allowed her spell to lapse.

His arms still around Rachel, Alex opened his eyes to find the witches standing behind her. “Hey!” he blinked, smiling at them. Rachel released him to allow for welcoming hugs. “You both look awesome.” He had to fairly shout to be heard over the music, but at least no one in the crowd jostled them.

“Thanks,” Molly chuckled. “We like your costume, too.”

“Yeah,” agreed Onyx
with a grin. “Very practical.”

“Well, it’s comfortable enough, but originally I was gonna… um… oh.” The smile on his face faded as the one shared by Molly and Onyx grew. “Oh no.”

“Yeah, we didn’t know there would be a floor show,” Molly pressed before she and Onyx stopped holding back their laughter.

“Oh god,” Alex groaned.

“You sounded differently when you were yelling that a second ago. Hi, Rachel. Lorelei,” Onyx smiled.

“Lorelei,” Alex asked, “I thought—?”

“They are quite skilled,” shrugged the demon. She gestured to the dancing partiers surrounding them on all sides. “No one else noticed.”

“Yeah, but… I just... wow,” he sighed, looking at the ceiling and smiling in spite of himself. “Just kinda feel like there’s egg on my face now.”

“Aw, there’s nothin’ on your face, lover,” Rachel consoled him. “I didn’t think you’d be okay with getting oral on me here.”

His eyes went wide. Molly and Onyx burst out laughing all over again. Lorelei slipped in and took his arm to offer a rescue. “Ladies, I’m going to be selfish and claim him for a dance
before the night runs away with us. We’ve got a table reserved over by the wall there if you like. Wade wanted to have a toast.”

“Gotcha,” Onyx nodded.

“Toodles,” grinned Molly, who slapped Alex on the ass as he moved into the crowd. Then she turned back to see the angel staring at her, and her grin faded. “Uh. Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Rachel nodded.

“So.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s nice to see you again?” offered Onyx, hoping to sound more genuine than awkward.

“You two kidnapped me a month ago and now you wanna ride my boyfriend like a rodeo bull,” Rachel deadpanned. She waited while the witches shared a glance filled with trepidation. Then she jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “
Buy me a drink and we’ll call it even? I don’t carry cash.”

* * *

“So you should know that I have to stick to certain rules on dealing with mortals,” Rachel said over her drink. She stood at the corner of their bar, cradling her whiskey and coke in her hand. “You’ll probably think it’s patronizing as fuck, and anything I could say in defense against that would also be patronizing as fuck, so the hell with it.

“
Anyway. There’s a whole list of no-go topics. Me and Alex and Lorelei being together is a giant case of special dispensation and mitigating circumstances. I’m on a need-to-know basis with all of you, twenty-four-seven. I can only even tell you this much ‘cause me meeting you wasn’t my fault.”

“Okay,” nodded Molly. She, too, had a drink in hand. Onyx stood close at her back, easily within earshot but still waiting at the bar for her
s.

“
Mortals need to work shit out for themselves. Angels aren’t supposed to give you the answers. I can’t tell you what God’s like at dinner. I can say God exists, but so could that asshole over there in the cow outfit, right? I can’t tell you which religion is right or if they’re all wrong. I can’t even tell you if you’re living your lives well, and I’m absolutely not allowed to tell you whether or not witchcraft stains your soul and damns you to hell for all eternity or if that’s just hysterical, misogynistic Satanic-panic bullshit.”

“That makes sense,” said Molly as she brought her drink to her mouth.

Rachel leaned in. “It
is
all hysterical, misogynistic Satanic-panic bullshit,” she said, and barely cracked a grin as Molly choked on her drink. “Seriously. I think you two are great.”

Molly had to pause to wipe her mouth. Onyx looked over her shoulder. “So you’re not mad at us?”

“Well you
did
pull a massive cock-block on one of the best nights of my life,” Rachel smirked. “But it all worked out better than I could’ve wished for, honestly. And you meant well. You stuck your necks out for someone you barely knew. ‘Greater love hath no man’ and all that, right? So we’re good there.”

Her drink finally in hand, Onyx stepped around Molly to take her place by her side. “You’re sure?” she asked.

“Yeah. Hey, I’m an angel,” Rachel shrugged. “I’m practically made of forgiveness and benevolence.”

Before her sentence had concluded, a third party joined the conversation. The stranger slipped around Rachel’s store-bought fake wings, clad in
a pirate outfit and flashing his most charming grin. “Baby, you’re also made of—“

Rachel put her hand on his face and pushed him away without even looking. The stranger stumbled and fell into the crowd with his pick-up line unfinished. “Ask Alex,” she continued, “I get wet every time he gives money to a panhandler.”

The shriek from the pirate on the floor interrupted whatever reply Molly or Onyx might have offered. “My hand!” he shouted. “You’re stepping on my hand!”

“OhmygodI’msosorry!” blurted Snow White as she lifted her foot.

“Aw, fuckin’ Christ I think it’s broken,” whimpered the pirate.

“Don’t blaspheme,” grunted Rachel. She raised her cup to her lips, then brought it back down and looked to her side. “Hey! Don’t give me any shit,” she fairly snarled, seemingly at nobody. “He
’s insured! You were gonna have to stop him from driving home drunk and mowing down some trick-or-treating kids, anyway, and you know it! Now he’ll dry out in the ER all safe-like, so get off my ass!”

The fratboy in the Starfleet uniform directly in front of her held his hands up innocently. “Woah, why you yellin’ at me?” he asked.

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Rachel snapped at Starfleet guy. She glanced at his date. “Wow, you are seriously ovulating, chica,” she warned Snow White. “I’m not sayin’ you shouldn’t take this guy home, but do some family plannin’ shit before you get nasty, ‘kay?” Then she looked back at the Starfleet guy—or rather at the air right in front of him. “What?” she asked indignantly. “I’m helping people!”

“Uh, Rachel,” Molly broke in, daring to put a hand on the angel’s shoulder, “who are you talking to?”

“Co-workers,” Rachel grumbled. “Anyway, we all got our drink on? We should bounce. C’mon,” she gestured, leading the witches away from the bar and moving toward their table.

“So
, look, I know what you wanna talk about, and there’s nothing to it,” Rachel explained as they moved. “I don’t suffer from jealousy. I can see right into his heart, and yours. I’m not worried about losing him. I knew going into this that he’s doomed to freaky sexcapades. I’m not even bothered. Honestly, if my responsibilities didn’t keep me here, I’d say he and Lorelei and I should move to LA so he could get a job making porn. He’d be great at that.”

Her audience glanced at one another and burst into laughter. The suggestion itself was one thing, but Rachel’s utter sincerity was another.

The angel was not bothered. “I can already tell looking at you how committed you are to one another. I’m not worried about either of you deciding that he’s your One and Only True Love and you have to have him for yourself.”