The Thaumaturge [Chapter 14: Too Much]

Author’s Note: Well, this one is exposition-heavy. The next few may be as well. But there’s still smut in there, don’t you worry. :)

Poll going up alongside this – go ahead and vote!

—

Diana: FUCK, dude. You had me so worried. I’m glad you’re ok. Text me when you wake up.

Blearily, I looked at the timestamp on the text. She’d sent it at 5:53am; probably when she’d woken up or noticed the message.

It was now six.

Six in the afternoon. I winced.

It meant I’d slept for about 16 hours straight, give or take. I had missed a day’s worth of summer classes.

I felt a lot better, though. A little drained still, yes, but honestly…I mostly felt unencumbered, in a way I hadn’t expected, but relished. Being out from under the problem that Elana had inflicted was so freeing. 

Of course, now there was fallout to deal with.

I texted Diana a reply letting her know I’d crashed hard but was up now. She replied immediately.

Diana: I figured you might need some sleep. I’m at the gym now. Can we talk? Meet me here?

I agreed, showered quickly, and headed that way. 

On my way out the door I passed Chris, returning from class.

“Dude, you ok? I feel like I haven’t seen you in days.” He gave me a concerned look.

“Uh, yeah. Just getting in the new class routine. Had an event the other night, one last night too…I guess teachers feel like since it’s the summer, we don’t have anything else going on.” I rolled my eyes, as if frustrated.

Internally, I winced. Up to this point it had just been obfuscation and careful avoiding-the-truth with my roommates. This felt like the first baldfaced, outright, completely-bullshit lie.

But what was I going to say? Sorry, my art teacher’s a gorgon and cursed me so that I could only orgasm for her, so I had a few witches summon a succubus to break the curse?

I think what troubled me wasn’t even the lying itself. It was how right it felt. I didn’t want any of my roommates – whether it was Chris, or Alyssa, or Sam – involved in this. 

How easily he bought it just made me feel even worse.

“Yeah, I hear you,” he said, glumly. “I’ve got this comp sci class that’s gonna have me doing a couple hours of homework tonight…and it’s only the first week of classes. Ugh.”

I nodded in sympathy. “Sucks. Well, I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.” Chris turned around, speaking again as I headed out the door past him. “Alyssa thinks we should host a party on Friday at our place. Any issue with that?”

I shrugged. “Nope. Fine by me.” The normalcy of a party had some appeal. Maybe I'd play beer pong. The normalcy of that — after a few days of what felt like a supernatural fever dream — had a lot of appeal.

“Cool. Invite some people, then. Maybe one of those girls you’ve magically convinced to sleep with you, sex wizard.” He winked at me, suggestively, and laughed at his own joke, letting the apartment door close behind him.

I sighed. Normalcy. Right.

What a mess.

—

Diana was in the middle of a set of squats when I found the corner of the gym she was in.

I watched as she finished the set, trying not to leer too directly at the shape of her ass in the tiny gym shorts she was wearing. The way she sank down into the squat, the way her ponytail dangled appealingly down the taut lines of her back, muscles rigid with effort under all the tattoos.

I felt, admittedly, like a creep. But we were…hooking up, right? Friends with benefits. Something like that. The point was, I wasn’t just ogling some stranger. 

So I tried not to be too obvious, to keep my staring surreptitious, but I did watch the way her butt flexed as she smoothly stood up. 

The woman had an ass. And now it was clear why. I was gratified to feel my cock stir at the sight – a welcome reminder that I was back in control of who I had orgasms with. No hypnotic dark eyes clouding my thoughts, no disquieting sense of unease, of something being off. Just arousal at a great view.

I watched another couple of reps, waiting until she’d finished the set and I wouldn’t be interrupting before I walked over towards her. “Hey–”

I had just gotten the word out...when I was interrupted by someone from behind me. “Hey, yourself, buddy. Cool your jets. I saw you watching. She’s not interested, okay? Half a dozen guys like you bother her every workout. Just let her lift in peace, alright?”

I turned around, bemused. There was a man behind me, about my age, face impassive and arms folded. He was short – a few inches shorter than me – but was built with the approximate width of a refrigerator. A wide refrigerator. Arms that lacked muscle definition, but had plenty of mass to them, protruded from his cutoff t-shirt. The man didn’t have a neck, so much as shoulders that just appeared to continue upwards to the vicinity of his jaw. It was even difficult to tell at a glance where his torso ended and his legs began. Everything was just blocky, thick.

“Oh, uh–” I wasn’t exactly sure what to say.

“It’s okay, Reg. He’s a friend.” Diana had turned around. She got the words out between heavy breaths, clearly still recovering from her set. But she was giving me a relieved smile. 

Reg was immediately contrite. “Ah, my bad, man. I misunderstood. I’m Reg.”

Well, I had been staring. I couldn’t exactly blame him. “Hey, I get it. Matt.”

Reg did a bit of a doubletake. “Oh, shit. You’re Matt?”

“Reg is a lion,” Diana managed, still catching her breath. “Kind of their enforcer for the gym.”

“Ah…uh, nice to meet you, Reg.” I smiled at him uncertainly, waiting to see whether he’s a lion meant and he’s going to tear you to pieces for fucking Brooke.

But Reg was instantly affable. “Hey, good to meet you too, man. I heard through the grapevine that you were sparring with Brooke last night. That you made Brooke tap. That’s wild.” 

I nodded, still a little wary.

I needn’t have worried, though; he was all smiles. “She’s even admitting it, which is even more fuckin’ wild. ‘Bout time somebody taught her some manners, though; half the time she walks around like she’s running the pack instead of Clint. I gotta take some jiu jitsu. Tapped out to a human. Holy shit. ”

“I’ve been telling you that, Reg,” Diana said, blandly.

I nodded my agreement. “You’d be good at it. With the neck you’ve got, I wouldn’t wanna try to choke you out, I’ll tell you that much.”

He laughed, a deep belly laugh. “Well, anyway, sorry, didn’t mean to hassle you, Matt. I just try to look out for our friends when I see ‘em. Anybody ever bothers you in here or you need a spot or something, lemme know.” He clapped me on the shoulder. His arm felt like it weighed as much as my entire upper body. I had to consciously brace myself to avoid staggering.

He fistbumped Diana, and then wandered off.

“You were sparring with Brooke last night?” Diana’s voice was curious.

That was not where I wanted to start with Diana. “Uh, long story. Listen, it’s…it’s really good to see you. I need to talk to somebody, and…” 

I trailed off as Diana crushed me into a hug, which was good, because I realized I was at a loss. The relief I felt at seeing her was actually a little overwhelming. She’d always been honest with me, and I needed some straight answers.

It’s good to see you too, Matt. Glad you’re okay.” She gave me that crooked smile of hers. “Although if you needed a sparring partner, I’m a little disappointed you didn’t call me.”

My face heated, the memory of my last roll with Diana still fresh enough in my memory. “Uh…yeah…it, uh…”

She laughed at my expression. “You’re okay? Like, really okay? You look okay, but…”

I nodded. “I’m okay, I, uh…I think. The…the succubus…kind of revealed some things. Can you tell me…” But I trailed off, not sure what to ask or where to begin.

She sighed, leaning against the squat rack and folding her arms. “You know, I expected this kind of shit from Viv, but I thought Lauren had more sense. Why don’t you start with what happened to you, and then I’ll answer questions.”

So over the next twenty minutes, I did just that. 

Diana let me get through the explanation of the last twenty-four hours almost entirely uninterrupted – from what had happened with Elana, to Lauren and I using the Mirror of Misfortune, all the way through Callistryllaxia fixing my problem. She periodically made me stop so she could do a set of squats, before gesturing for me to continue while she caught her breath.

“I cannot believe they summoned the same fucking succubus,” she said, darkly. “And I can’t believe they even tried.”

Now that I was through – and she was evidently through her squat sets – she looked livid.

“Yeah, they were both surprised, too,” I said. “What happened, Diana? You and Viv and Lauren have all alluded to it, but…I didn’t know it involved another thaumaturge.”

“Look,” she said, her expression suddenly vulnerable. “I’m not surprised they haven’t told you. We were all fucking stupid, me included.”

I raised an eyebrow.

She sighed. “I’ll tell you the story. Just…try not to judge us all too harshly, okay?”

—

So. Two years ago, there were six of us: Viv, Lauren, and me…and three others. 

Stephanie, Melissa, and Jade.

Six witches is a big coven, Matt. Powerful. Probably more witches than have ever been working together on this campus at any other point in history. 

We were all still young, inexperienced. But frankly, it was only a matter of time before we were running the show on campus, and Clint knew it. We had the truce – the same truce we’ve got now – but the balance of power was shifted the opposite way. You should’ve seen how the lions tiptoed around us, how polite they were. They weren’t scared – it’s not like we were evil or anything – but there was no question about who was the more powerful partner in our little truce.

Oh – I should say: Stephanie was in charge back then, not Viv. She was confident, smart. Probably a decade older than the rest of us. Powerful. Knew the ropes. Close enough to our age to feel like a friend, more than enough experience to act like a mentor. 

So she organized us, helped each of us grow in power. And it worked. We just had so much going for us, you know? Viv’s natural ability; Lauren’s booksmarts; Melissa’s facility with coming up with spells on the fly. The six of us together were a fucking force, and we all knew it. We felt untouchable; there was nothing we couldn’t solve.

And then we found Liam. 

Well, Stef found him – he was in some class she was teaching, I think. She recognized him as a thaumaturge. One who didn’t know it, yet. So she introduced him to magic.

Liam, well… he wasn’t like you. Didn’t have a ton of his own ideas or want much of his own independence. He was happy to go along with whatever Stephanie wanted; he was completely infatuated with her. He was extremely willing to keep sending magic her way, if you catch my meaning.

And she was all too happy to share it with her coven of friends.

Look, you’ve only been around a few days, so you haven’t really gotten to see the…impact, a thaumaturge makes, over time. Maybe it won’t ever be obvious to you, because you won’t ever really know what it’s like when you’re not around.

But the difference that a steady supply of magic from a thaumaturge is pretty profound, especially for a coven that big. Magic was just suddenly…available, at our fingertips whenever we wanted it. A big spell that would’ve taken us a few months of careful planning was something we could do with a weekend’s worth of effort. If you wanted to cast a spell, you just did it – you didn’t have to think about the cost, worry about how long it would take to accumulate that much magic again, stress over if it’d leave us too vulnerable and weak.

None of that mattered anymore. Now we had a strong coven and a thaumaturge.

Life was good. 

I should also mention that around this time, someone came across a way to summon a succubus. Lauren, I think, but it doesn't really matter who.

We joked about it being a way to solve all our problems. 

Shitty ex-boyfriend needs to get taken down a peg or two? Succubus. 

Professor who grades unfairly? Succubus. 

Stephanie didn’t get the tenure track position she wanted, because the interviewers went with a male candidate instead? Believe it or not, succubus.

We never did any of that, obviously. We weren’t that drunk on power.

…But then Stephanie and Liam had a fight. I don’t even know what it was about, honestly. But it ended with him breaking up with her. 

Overnight, suddenly, the magic was gone. The stuff that had been easy with Liam around fueling us was hard again. 

The rest of us blamed Stef. Why had she fucked things up with him? What had the fight even been about? Why hadn’t she figured out a way to break up less dramatically if she didn’t want to be with him? We were quite certain it was her fault for screwing up a good thing.

And, naturally, she blamed the rest of us. Resented us, for how we took both her relationship with Liam and her generosity with his power for granted. Said that our shitty attitudes had contributed to them breaking up.

...To make matters worse, after that, Viv took a run at Liam. He and Stef were broken up; Viv said he was fair game. It was typical of her, to be honest. 

I don’t know if they slept together or not; it would surprise me if they did, to be honest. Liam wasn’t really like that, and he was so obsessed with Stef. But I don’t know.

Either way, it just soured things with Stephanie even further, made her feel like we didn’t give a shit about her, not really. Just what she could do for us.

…And then Liam and Stef patched things up and got back together a week later. 

The rest of us were relieved, of course. This meant we could just go back to the way things were. 

Except that’s not how life works.

Stephanie remembered the way we’d all reacted once she didn’t have Liam’s power to pass along. Certainly remembered that Viv had tried to get with him. Stef was much more distant. Wasn’t sharing the power like she had been. 

Liam was dutifully taking her side.

There were a few weeks of magic-starved, passive-aggressive, back-and-forth before Viv proposed a solution: 

With Stef and Liam’s help, we summon a succubus. Make a deal with the succubus: the demon helps us find more thaumaturges for the coven, Liam gives her some power.

After that, we’d pursue others and wouldn’t bug Stef or Liam for power anymore.

Stephanie and Liam agreed; I think Stef was happy about a way to get us off her case, to finally have Liam to herself; Liam was happy to make Stef happy.

So we did it. Summoned the succubus.

But Liam freaked out when the demon appeared. He was out of that circle in two seconds flat, calling us all power-hungry assholes. Said this sort of thing was why he broke up with Stef in the first place. He left.

The succubus was pissed, of course. No man in the circle to make a deal with, now. 

And Stef was pissed. Thought our stupid idea had ruined her relationship with Liam. Again.

Obviously, the rest of us were pissed, too. Stephanie hadn’t done a good enough job persuading Liam; the two of them had never been serious about helping us.

And then things took a turn.

While we were all bickering, Callistryllaxia realized there was a flaw in the binding diagram.

I don’t know if one of us made a mistake – Viv and Lauren drew it, but we all looked at it, all thought it was fine – or if maybe Liam accidentally broke it when he stepped through.

Either way, the succubus stepped out of that circle, marched right up to Stephanie, and possessed her on the spot, while the rest of us were still figuring out what was going on.

We reacted, tried to stop her, of course. But it turns out that five young, unprepared witches are no match for an unbound demon inhabiting the body of a more senior witch.

Nobody wanted to throw any spells that might actually hurt Stef, so we were hamstrung.

So we did our best, but we were way overmatched. 

Stephanie, possessed by Callistryllaxia, left to go after Liam.

We were all pissed at Viv, of course. It had been her idea. She was unapologetic, refused to take all the blame. Said that Stephanie could’ve said no, Liam could’ve said no. Said any of us could’ve told her it was a stupid idea. That magic always has risks. All of us went along with it, and then decided to blame her when it went wrong.

She had a point, of course, which made it worse. And now none of us knew what to do to make it right.

But honestly, if it hadn’t been the succubus, it would’ve been something else. Some major hex we put on someone that backfired. Some artifact Lauren created that exploded. A potion one of us drank with unexpected side effects. It could’ve been anything. 

We were way too confident in our own power. Too confident in each other, in our ability to handle anything we came across.

—

“We never heard from Stephanie again.” Diana's voice was quiet, subdued, as she finished the story. “Besides Viv and Lauren, the rest of us just kind of drifted apart. A few weeks after that, Liz got into an argument with Viv; we haven’t heard from her since.”

Diana sniffled a little, and continued, “Then we started hearing from Jade less and less frequently, and eventually, we never heard from her, either. After that, I left. I couldn’t stay. I liked Lauren, if not Viv, but…they both just reminded me of…bad decisions, and arrogance. How good we’d had it, and how badly we had fucked it up.”

She looked up at me, sniffling. About halfway through the story, Diana had gotten emotional – not full-on crying, but I could see that the memories hurt her to talk about.

I’d decided we ought to relocate to someplace less public. I’d led her to the upstairs area – the same place Brooke and I had gone, the night before. And I’d found her some tissues. I sat next to her, sitting next to her against one of the walls of the room, letting her talk until she was finished.

I mulled over everything she’d told me. “So what happened to Liam?”

“We probably got him fucking killed,” Diana said, her voice flat. “Lauren looked into it right afterwards. She said that succubi don’t stop possessing hosts until they collect a soul, so somebody died before the succubus would’ve left Stef’s body. Liam had some magical protections we’d given him – an amulet to hide him from magical scrying and tracking, that kind of thing – but nothing that would protect him from a determined demon with access to all of the powers and knowledge that Stephanie had.”

I was silent for a moment, letting that sink in. “What…what about Stephanie?”

Diana shrugged, sadly. “I looked online a few months later. She survived the possession, at least. She got a posting at another university. But she didn’t reach out, and I figured she probably didn’t want to hear from us, so…” 

I sighed, and rubbed my brow. I had two reactions:

First, that all of them – Lauren, Viv, and Diana – were playing it pretty fucking fast and loose with me for people who had gotten a thaumaturge killed. Even if Diana hadn’t wanted to summon another succubus, she had left me alone with Elana.

This changed everything. That they’d all gone along with this made their judgment so much more suspect in my book.

And even worse than that they’d done it in the first place…“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner, Diana? This is a lot to find out about now.”

Her expression shifted, now uncomfortable instead of sad. “I liked you, but don’t know you…and thaumaturges are rare…”

I stiffened. “You were worried I wouldn’t give you any power if I knew?” Suddenly, I felt that same, familiar wariness I now felt about Viv. Maybe Diana was just another person to whom I was just a means to an end.

She shook her head, vehement. “Look, I can see why you’d think that, after what I just told you. But it’s not that I was worried you wouldn’t give me power. It’s…”

She trailed off, her face darkening, and then continued in a mumbled, broken whisper. “It was stupid of me to go along with it. I didn’t tell you because I’m fucking ashamed, okay? It’s not the sort of thing I want to talk about. Not the sort of thing I want to tell anybody. Least of all another thaumaturge.”

I blinked, surprised. She was crying, now; fitting little sobs in between the words.

I believed her. I could hear the shame in her voice.

“Hey.” I pulled her into a hug. “You fucked up. Badly,” I acknowledged. “But it wasn’t just your fault.”

I didn’t know what to say, not really. Consoling someone whose lapse in judgment had resulted in somebody else’s death was a little outside my realm of expertise.

“I-if I had just…spoken up–” She let out a sob into my shoulder. “It was just such a big fucking mistake,” she said, miserably.

The word brought something to mind that I could say that might help. I stroked my hand through her hair. “Can I make an observation?” I asked, quietly.

She took a shaky breath and looked up at me. She’d been a sweaty mess to begin with after her workout – now, through the tears, she was completely disheveled.

“When the succubus was, um, fixing me,” I said, using the word tentatively, “The feeling of…losing control, in spite of what Elana had done to my mind…well, it was pretty intense. Intense enough that it felt genuinely dangerous. Like I was at risk of getting swept away. I tried to hang onto something – a memory, anything – that would keep me grounded.”

I paused, recalling it. “It was a little odd. I figured the memories that would be most grounding would be big moments in life. The first time I got laid, or, I dunno, when I got accepted to college, something life-defining. That sort of thing. Instead, it was actually a parade of the little moments.”

I looked at Diana. “In the end, I actually found myself thinking of a time just the other night. A friend and I snuck off from some fancy party in an art gallery to drink beers in a bathroom, and she gave me some good advice.”

Diana took a shaky breath. Recognition dawned on her face – I was talking about us – but she still had her brow furrowed in confusion.

I continued. “I was worried because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing, you see. I was pretty sure I was screwing things up badly. But this friend of mine reminded me that we all make mistakes. And that we can come back from them. Even from big ones, like, say, trading your name away in a deal with a faerie. And that the important thing is how we play the hand we’re dealt.”

Diana had a look of astonishment on her face, now.

“Anyway, I thought it was pretty good advice from a pretty good friend. Good enough that the conversation really stood out to me when I was on the cusp of a mind-erasing orgasm,” I said, nonchalantly.

Diana let out a sound that was half-sniffle, half-snort.

And then I reached for the thing I’d brought with me, as a thank-you. Once I'd thought about it a little bit, it hadn’t surprised me that this memory had been the one to ground me. Diana had felt like a bit of a rock in the last few days. The first person to explain magic to me. Someone who had answers. Someone who seemed to care about me, care that I was okay, not just my magic.

The thank-you still felt appropriate, in spite of the story I’d just heard.

“I actually drew a picture of her,” I said, softly. “I thought you might like to have it. It might remind you of the good advice she gave me.”

I pulled the charcoal drawing I’d made of Diana during the sculpture class out of my back pocket, unfolding it for her, continuing to speak quietly. “She’s smart. And strong. And I can tell her heart’s in the right place. So I’m sure whatever mistakes she’s made, she’s going to play the hand she’s been dealt and do a kickass job.”

She was silent. I hoped it was an impressed, thoughtful, silence, as opposed to a horrified one. I thought the sketch was pretty good; Elana’s critique had been positive.

“I don’t look half that badass,” she whispered. She was still staring at the drawing. She sounded like she was teetering between bursting into tears again, and hugging me.

“You do,” I assured her. Then, grinning, I added, “Well, admittedly, not right this second you don’t. But generally speaking...”

It was enough to tip the scales away from tears. “Shut the fuck up, Matt.” She laughed, and hugged me.

—

We sat there for a long time, Diana companionably against my side, studying my drawing. Gradually, her breathing got less shaky. She wiped at her eyes. And, finally, she was composed.

“Do I really look this hot? I don’t think my jawline looks like that…” she said.

I shrugged. “Any misrepresentations are undoubtedly the result of my limited powers of perception. Or my limited ability as a sketch artist.”

She snorted, again. “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure if she meant for the drawing or the pep talk, but I could hear the genuine gratitude in her voice.

I gave her a smile. It felt good to be this close to somebody. “I meant what I said. I really did think back to that conversation we had in the bathroom at the art gallery when my mind was melting away. So thank you.”

“Yeah?” Her composure – and that crooked smile I liked so much – was back. “What happened after that conversation with your friend, anything else?”

I tapped my chin as if pondering. “Hmm…I’m not sure I remember…”

“Oh, really? It was such an important memory but you don’t recall what happened next? Because as I recall, it was pretty memorable…” She wasn’t looking at me, but I could hear the amusement in her voice.

I was suddenly extremely aware of the way her body fit against mine. My arm was wrapped around her, and I could feel the lean muscles of her back underneath the straps of her sports bra. My hand was on her waist; her tattooed skin was smooth and warm underneath it.

Her hip against me – the swell of her thigh pressing into my leg – it all just felt so good. 

I could feel my body reacting, and not just because she was hot. The last few days had been insane. And yes, she’d made mistakes, but I never doubted – for a second – that she was playing it straight with me. Wanted me to be okay. And not just because of my power.

I trusted her.

She looked up at me, smiling that lazy little half-smile. Her brown eyes were lighter than I remembered, almost hazel. Vibrant, and exciting.

I leaned down and kissed her.

Her mouth was sensual; the hard metal of the tongue piercing an unexpected contrast to the soft warmth of her tongue swirling around mine. We kissed long and slow, one of her hands on my chest, and my hands on her sides.

When we pulled apart an inch, she opened her eyes, let out a shaky breath, and said, “Fuck, Matt. I want to go down on you.”

Well, that was tempting. I’d wondered what the piercing would feel like.

But I’d deliberately left something out of my story of what had happened with Elana. I had a surprise for her.

So, slowly, I shook my head, giving her a grin. “Another time. You know, you still haven’t seen my cock yet; I think we should keep up our tradition.”

She looked surprised, but I didn’t give her time to react. I adjusted so she was sitting in front of me between my legs, but facing away from me, and kissed my way from behind her ear down the side of her neck, following a tattoo of some kind of snake. Her skin was clean, a little salty on my mouth in the wake of her workout.

She let out a little moan. “Mmm, fuck. Okay.”

She scooted backwards, pushing against me, and I could feel my erection press against her ass and the small of her back. She made a sound of surprise. “You feel so big.”

I was glad she was facing away from me, because I was sure that I had an enormous, shit-eating grin on my face. “You just have that effect on me,” I murmured in her ear.

The next few moments were a flurry of awkward movements as she struggled out of her gym shorts and I struggled to get my pants down without pulling away from her.

At one point, as she twisted to get her shorts off, she half-turned, as if to face me. I grabbed her by the base of her ponytail and firmly directed her gaze front and upwards. 

“Nuh-uh. Eyes ahead,” I said in her ear. “You haven’t seen it, remember? And you don’t get to this time, either.”

She pulled in a sharp breath at the suddenness of me forcing her to look ahead, almost a whimper. “F-fine, whatever, just…just fuck me.”

Well, that was the plan. 

I had been extraordinarily pleased to see that, while the succubus had undone whatever Elana had done to reshape my mind and control my orgasms, the shape of my cock was still enhanced. Bigger. Thicker.

The slightly strangled, surprised sound Diana made as she sank down onto my cock was immensely satisfying.

“Oh…oh fuck – god, you’re, you’re big –” the words turned into a groan as I sank further inside her.

“You like that?” I murmured in her ear.

“Fuck, Matt, you feel so good…did you…get bigger?” She had the words out before starting to move against me.

I was, admittedly, struggling to focus now. The feel of her ass in my lap, full and round; her tattooed back, my hand on her ponytail, controlling her.

This was so hot. 

Diana was bouncing on me, now. I grabbed her ass, enjoying the feel of it in my hand. “F-fuck,” she managed. “Your dick feels so fucking good, I’m so fucking full. It’s almost too much.”

I just grunted in reply. Her reaction was immensely satisfying.

“You did…how did you get bigger? God, it feels incredible…I love riding it.” Her voice was almost reverent.

The stream of satisfied praise was all making it hard to control myself. I realized, immediately from how I was responding to the sensations, that while my orgasms weren’t in Elana’s control anymore, it hadn’t given me any more control of them.

“How?” Her voice was a moan, if a more confident one, now. “Y-your cock feels perfect, thick…it’s stretching me so good…”

“Magic,” I whispered. “The gorgon did it.” 

“F-fuck, I want to see it,” she moaned, plaintively. She tried to twist, to adjust her angle atop me so that she could look down at it…but I had enough presence of mind to bring my hand back up to her ponytail, using it to direct her gaze forward again.

I was determined to hold on for as long as I could, to try to make this as pleasurable for her as I could. “Oh no you don’t,” I whispered in her ear, grinning. “Another time.”

“Ah,” she gasped again. “God, someone’s feeling – mmph – confident with their big dick, aren’t they?”

And then it was my turn to let out a groan as I felt her add a little sensual grind to the movement of her hips at the bottom of each bounce on top of me.

She spoke softly as she moved. “No looking, then. Just me, riding you. I don’t know what it looks like; all I need to know is how it feels anyway. So fucking big, so fucking thick…”

She sped up, finding a faster rhythm that clearly felt incredible for both of us. Smoothly sliding down my cock, rolling grind, pulling back up its length to repeat the movement.

Slide, grind, repeat. 

Slide, grind, repeat.

God damn. Diana could fuck.

I let my hand fall away from her ponytail, put both hands on her ass, and just enjoyed her movements. It was so hot. Her ass was full and round in my hands, and I could feel it flexing each time she dropped down on to me.

She was going to make me cum. 

Beyond feeling amazing, the view of her butt, her tight waist, the ridged muscles of her back, moving up and down the same way she’d been working out, was speeding me towards a climax. And the way she was talking about my cock was so satisfying.

Admittedly, I felt some amount of helplessness as I felt the orgasm rising in me. I had wanted to make this as good for Diana as possible. The visions of Viv and Brooke writhing underneath me in the throes of orgasms were still fresh in my mind. Lasting longer for Diana would’ve been incredible.

But I wasn't going to.

Why couldn’t I have hung on to some stamina, too, in addition to the size? The thought flickered across my mind. There was no fighting it off, no matter how I tried. “God, Diana…”

There must’ve been something in my voice, maybe the way I said her name. “Oh, fuck, yeah,” she moaned. “You’re gonna cum, aren’t you? That big dick is going to cum, yes, yes…”

And then my dismay at my lack of self control fell away; the orgasm swirled up and over me, the explosion of pleasure leaving no room for anything else. With a grunt, thrusting hard, I started cumming.

Diana’s words became a gasp as she felt the first spray of cum inside her.

I slapped her ass, grabbing hard as I spurted into her again and again. She moaned at the sensation, maintaining her rhythm throughout it all. 

—

A few minutes later, she was nestled up against me again, comfortably.

I was glad I’d decided to go to Diana first. Glad that now that I was able to choose who I was with again, it was with a woman I liked, that I wanted, for completely nonmagical reasons.

“God damn, dude. We had fun before don’t get me wrong, but this, this is gonna be…” Diana’s murmured words trailed off into silence.

Well, lasting longer would’ve been good. But please believe me when I tell you that the look on her face – awe, surprised pleasure, and satisfaction – was an enormous boost to the ego.

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I told you, I’m a bit of a size queen. It’s nice to have a big dick attached to a guy I like. Can I see it now?” Diana was looking at my crotch almost hungrily, I realized. It was enough to make my cock stir again.

I smiled at her – at the promise of more of this – but shook my head. 

I had made her stay facing away while I pulled my shorts on. I liked this little game, the teasing fun we had both made of it. “Maybe you’ll get the big reveal next time.”

She pouted. I had never seen her pout. It was adorable, although I probably wouldn’t have said that to her face.

But then her expression turned serious, reflective. “Matt…with Viv and Lauren...don't be too hard on them. I imagine that you probably don’t trust them; that’s probably fair. But they just made the same mistake I did.”

I frowned. “Not exactly the same mistake though, is it? You didn’t suggest summoning another succubus to help after what happened.” 

She winced. “Yeah. I take your point.” 

Now that I was thinking about it more, I was getting angrier. “...And yeah, the succubus worked, but even so, that was a crazy risk. They didn’t even tell me about it, so I could make an informed choice; they just assumed it would be okay. What if I had freaked out like Liam, maybe broken their diagram, gotten one of them possessed...and they’d killed me?”

Her wince turned into a grimace. “I know, I know. I’m just having trouble condemning them when I was complicit in…y’know, so much of what happened in the first place. It feels a little like they made just one more bad decision than I did.”

“I’ll think about it, Diana." I rubbed at my eyes. Sixteen hours of sleep had not been enough, evidently. "Also…I’m going to have to tell Lauren and Viv about you, you know. The succubus…she knew, somehow, that I’d been with another witch. She mentioned it to them. I can’t ask them to be honest with me if I’m not being honest with them.”

Diana nodded, reluctantly. “I know. It’s long overdue; I'm surprised I've been able to avoid them on campus this long.”

“Do you want to be there when I tell them?”

“No.” Her response was immediate, flat. “I don’t know what kind of reunion the three of us are going to have, but I think your conversation with them will be complicated enough without me being in the room for it. I...still remember how quickly the rest of us turned on Stephanie. I don’t think they’d do that with me, but…”

She trailed off, wincing again. “Y’know, I-I don’t feel so–hnngh–”

And then she doubled over, letting out a groan. “Ah, fuck, Matt…”

“W-what?” I was horrified; the sudden look of visceral pain on her face was awful. I hoped I hadn’t hurt her with my co–

“Fuck, Matt, that’s…that’s a lot of power you just gave me…a lot more than the last time we – agh…” She spasmed, her face contorting into a grimace, and then curled up into a little ball on her side, letting out a low groan. “It’s…it’s too much, i-it hurts…”

My heart sank with horror. Oh no.

She curled up tighter. “Urgh – th-this hasn’t happened before…I-I’m going to need help…” She hissed the words out.

I looked down at her, feeling frantic, but not sure what to do. Calling 911 was obviously not going to be the answer. Should I really go to Viv and Lauren?