deadly night shade 7

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The Invasion
“You mean to tell me that we’re under attack from demons of the nether world?” Frostgem asked.
“It shouldn’t be that hard to believe seeing how you’re a white witch,” Shade said dryly.
“No, it’s just hard to believe that you’re not behind it,” Shadowstorm said darkly.
“Damn it all to hell!” Ravenwater slammed his fist onto the kitchen table.
“What is it, Master Raven?” Roy asked.
“I looked through the entire book and none of them say anything about repairing the barrier between worlds,” Ravenwater said, sighing. “Did you just call me Master?”
“Yes, you are a mighty caster, and thus a great master,” Roy grinned.
“You know, it says that all warlocks slowly trade their soul for more power,” Emberstrike muttered, looking among the three warlocks in the room.
“I wouldn’t know because your book won’t let evil near it,” Shade said, rocking back on his chair.
“Even when you were a white witch you didn’t think you should touch it,” Frostgem reminded him.
“I have my superstitions, you have yours,” Shade shrugged.
“And you want to help us, why?” Shadowstorm asked, readjusting her glasses.
“I have a blood oath, don’t I?” Shade asked, flashing his vampyric smile.
Windfire melted, blushing badly. “Would your tome have the ‘how to’ about the barrier shatter?”
“Definitely, but that doesn’t help us restore it,” Shade said, setting the chair back on four legs.
“It might,” Windfire said desperately.
“Alright, we can go get it,” he shrugged, not catching the subtle hints Windfire was giving.
“We’ll keep looking,” Frostgem muttered, pulling her chair next to Ravenwater’s. She also began flipping through the book with her dexterous fingertips.
“So what can we do?” Rich asked, hoping to have a major role.
“Those two are yours to do whatever you want to,” Shade said as he stood, taking Windfire’s hand.
They teleported into Shade’s room which was decorated darkly to the warlock’s liking—very dark and obviously hinting at magical interest. He ran over to his desk and procured the book, slipping between his arm and his hip. “Should I get my robes and the sword…”
Windfire was settled on his bed, laying down and running her hands up her body. “I haven’t been here for a while.”
“I know you haven’t,” Shade said, a sudden playfulness in his tone. Why did he have to be addicted to sex of all things? Damn it! He bit his lower lip, staring at her and wanting to fulfill her lusty thoughts right then and there. It never took him long to get in the mood to be intimate with Windfire, and God did he want to act out her every thought!
“Any chance we can repeat last night?” she asked with a seductive tone.
“Definitely,” Shade blushed, trying to keep a clear mind. “You know, the only thing that could make me worse off than now is if I could hear your thoughts.”
“I can look into a spell if you’d like,” Windfire offered, glancing lustily into Shade’s deep eyes.
“Will I like what I hear?” Shade asked, smirking.
“Do you like thoughts of me and you giving you a reason or two to wash your sheets?”
“Oh my God…” Shade glanced away from her, “You’re not fair.”
“Just letting you know where my mind is,” she said as she crawled forward and slipped off the edge of the bed. “And if you’d like to get your spell casting attire for safe measure or just to look cool…”
“Good point, I do look bad ass,” Shade said quickly, trying to get his mind away from sex. He knew she wasn’t aroused, she just wanted to give him incentive for later. He grabbed the tight fitting robes and cloak, wrapping them around the tome.
“Ready to go back?” Windfire asked, standing up quickly.
“Yes,” Shade said, respecting her ability to use her looks as a deadly weapon. “I love my incentive, by the way.”
“What incentive?” Windfire asked as she took his hand, ready to go back to her house.
He licked his lips, “Back to company where you’ll feel less inclined to arouse me,” Shade blushed.
They reappeared in the kitchen, noticing little change in the others except Roy and Rich staring out the window at the now blackened sky. “Demonic possession sounds scary,” Frostgem shuddered.
“It warps your mind making you have to fight for control of your own body and mind. It is scary,” Shade said, referring to his own situation with himself as a warlock and the demon the warlock.
“S-sorry,” Frostgem muttered.
“It’s fine,” Shade said quickly, taking no offense to her comment. “It’s living hell, really. You’d be willing to do anything to make it stop,” Shade said, staring at Windfire.
“I figured you’d tell us what fighting with the warlock is like,” Emberstrike whispered to Shade.
Shade threw the dark tome on the table and began flipping through it, “It’s hell as I said. I want to be in control of everything, but the cost of my foolishness was high and now I don’t have many options to overpower the demon warlock. If feels like somebody else is gaining control of me and I suddenly have the urge to slaughter everything.”
“Wow,” Ravenwater muttered. “How do you feel now?”
“Worried because he’s only spoken to me once since yesterday,” Shade said, not looking up from the grimoire.
“What does he tell you to do?” Shadowstorm asked, engrossed in Shade’s tale.
“To kill all of you and make it look like a demon did it so my blood oath isn’t broken,” he replied flatly.
“I’m sleeping with my door locked from now on,” Ravenwater said with a look of horror on his face.
“If I wanted to kill you I would have let the elemental witch go that those two accidentally released. You couldn’t have hoped to kill her without shadow or light magic,” Shade looked up from his reading, holding his finger to the page. He frowned, looking around suspiciously as he felt the presence of a powerful demon enter the room.
“They did that?” Windfire asked.
“Yup, and I had to fix it,” he agreed, taking a pen mindlessly from the table and circling a passage in his book. “Read this,” he suggested to anybody who would listen to him.
Windfire leaned over his shoulder, “Demonic possession…” she uttered.
“I believe this is a good window of opportunity for the demons to get to people, no?” he asked, glancing around the table at the horrified faces, save his fellow warlocks who were not susceptible to possession.
He cringed a little when he turned his head toward Windfire who was smirking. “You know I love you, right, babe?” he asked with a sheepish grin.
“Huh?” Windfire asked.
“Can you say my witch given name again? I love hearing you say it, Windy,” Shade prodded.
“Witch given name?” she asked.
“Alright, what’s the name I went by as a human?” Shade asked, standing up from the table.
“Why are you prodding Windy with questions?” Ravenwater asked.
“That’s not Mistress Windfire!” Roy brandished a finger at Windfire.
“She doesn’t know basic things Windfire wouldn’t forget. Windfire is fighting for control of her body,” Rich said quickly.
“One last chance,” Shade ripped a necklace from under his shirt, an upside down black cross with a circle around it on a chain. “How many times have we had sex since I was fighting with the warlock?” he asked.
“TMI…” Shadowstorm frowned.
A silken voice that wasn’t Windfire’s spoke, “I’ll have your warlock powers all to myself, boy,” she said, reaching for Shade’s neck.
“I’m convinced, kill her,” Ravenwater said, standing from his seat and drawing his hand back with a ball of ice forming above his palm.
“If you attack the body, the soul will have nowhere left to go,” Shade scolded, more harshly than he intended.
“You really do care about your blood oath, don’t you?” Emberstrike asked.
Shade blushed and nodded, ripping the necklace from around his neck. “Restrain her!” Shade ordered and instantly Frostgem and Emberstrike were hugging her forcibly, keeping her hands at her sides harmlessly struggling. Shade slipped the mysterious necklace around her neck, though she tried biting him and was thrashing about.
“What is that necklace?” Rich asked, remembering that he had seen it before. He couldn’t quite remember where the symbol was from.
“Nothing major,” Shade said, gritting his teeth. He could feel the warlock stirring again as Frostgem and Emberstrike were losing their grip on Windfire’s body.
“What is it?” Ravenwater demanded.
“Demons don’t have souls. That necklace will preserve Windfire’s soul so attack her now!” Shade ordered as the demon’s hands gripped at Shade’s throat.
“At what expense?” Shadowstorm asked.
“Stop worrying about that and go!” Shade choked as the woman lifted him into the air.
“Do your swear Windy will live?”Frostgem asked.
“On my blood oath and love for the white witch!” he gagged.
All of Windfire’s cousins began throwing an elemental assault at the intruder. She slowly let go of Shade’s throat, the warlock inside his mind subsided with the pain of the demon’s grasp. The necklace began to glow a bright white as the demon died, it’s black energy leaving Windfire’s body like she was a living fire and its evil was smoke.
Shade collapsed to the ground coughing as his body began to glow white. He could feel his soul leaving his body, taking the warlock with it. His soul would be destroyed in order to save his beloved. With everything he had left, Shade jumped to his feet and caught Windfire before she hit the ground. He was breathing heavily, and he could feel the immortality settling into his body.
“What did you do?” Roy asked, staring down at his master who was between and kneel and a crouch. Shade was cradling Windfire’s unconscious body against his.
“Nothing worth saying,” Shade said as tears welled in his bottomless eyes.
“Shade, I’ve seen that necklace before. It disappears after its usage and there are only a handful of them in existence on the mortal plane,” Rich said, telling Shade that he had remembered where the symbol was from.
“It’s not worth saying,” Shade said, feeling the relief of not being forced into submission by the possessing warlock demon.
“What do you mean it’s not worth saying?” Roy asked, his memory likewise jogged about the discussion. “That was noble and beautiful, Shade.”
Shade shook his head, “No, it was stupid, desperate and somehow successful.”
“What did he do?” Shadowstorm demanded.
“I’m not telling you what I did. All you need to know is that Windfire is safe and can’t be possessed succubi or any other demon any longer.”
“What of the demons outside?” Ravenwater asked, looking at the increasing number of imps and trolls that darted around the region from the window alone.
“We’ll have to do the world’s largest ever exorcism, eh?” Shade said with a smirk.

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deadly night shade 9