The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga by Taliesin Govannon (important books to read .txt) 📕

                “Hmm., maybe you should find out in a bit.” Darla replied, her voice almost a purr.

                “Please tell me my room isn’t next to hers.” Raina asked Drucilla.  She glanced back at Evelyn.  “No offense, but your brother has told me about how loud you can be, and I’ll need to smoke a lot more of this Fae weed to sleep through that!”

                “I probably could.” I said.

                “You could sleep through a thermonuclear explosion, the amount that you smoke these days.” she replied.

                “I’m the Sorceress.” I shrugged.  “My tolerance is higher than a party at Willie Nelson’s house.’

                Evelyn laugh-snorted so hard, she started coughing.

                “Did you hit her choke button?” Raina asked Darla.

                “Honestly, no...” She replied, though there was a grin on her face as she said it.

                “No, no.” Evelyn said, recovering.  “It’s just… Willie Nelson’s house! That was a great time, and hilarious!”

                “You’ve met Willie Nelson?” Raina asked, dubious.

                “Oh yeah." Evelyn waved her hand.  "Did a job for his tour manager.  Seems that a new roadie that he'd hired had done himself in the weekend before the tour rehearsals started, but he was so drunk when he died that he showed up for work anyway!  We helped the spectral good old boy pass over, and then got to go to a tour kick-off bar-b-que at Willie's house."

                “What was so hilarious about it?” I asked, slightly more awake out of interest.

                “Well,” she continued, “Trevor had been making a right ass out of himself all day, talking about how he could smoke anything that was thrown his way.  So, he takes two hits off of Willie’s joint, and passes out five minutes after.”

                “Serves him right!” Raina exclaimed.

                “No no, that’s not all of it!” Evelyn replied.  “So a couple of Willie’s roadies… living ones… take Trevor, strip him naked, and then laid him out to sleep it off in a horse stall!”

                “Oh my Gods!” Raina laughed.

                “With a horse in there?” I asked.

                “With a bloody donkey in there!” Evelyn was laughing as much as any of us.

                “Nice!” Drucilla grinned.

                “He woke up two hours later, and fucking snuck out!”

                “No way!”

                “He still doesn’t know!”

                It took a minute for the laughter to die out, leaving us somewhat winded.  “You have so many good stories!” I said once I was able.

                “Ah, you’ll get your own great stories.” Evelyn said with another wave.  “Especially if you stay around Vincent and Angelique.  I could tell you stories about them...”

                “That you’ll tell them another time.” Darla said, rubbing her hand over Evelyn’s shoulder and just under the collar of her shirt.

                The grin was gone, replaced with a lusty stare.  “Yes, another time.”  The two got up and left the room, never taking their hands off of each other.

                “You know, I could have Gaia stop by your room later.” Drucilla said, looking at me.  “If you and Vincent want to play with someone new.”

                To tell the truth, being warned didn’t really help me prepare for the offer.  “Uh, no...” I stammered, “No, that’s OK.”

                “Seriously?” Raina asked, her gaze locked on Drucilla.  “Here I am thinking you guys are cool, and now this?”

                “What’s wrong?” Drucilla asked, confused.

                “She,” Raina pointed at me, “is obviously altered all to hell.  You mean you guys are alright with propositioning an impaired person?”

                “My apologies.” Drucilla said, her hands raised.  “I haven’t been around humans in quite a while.  I had forgotten about your culture’s issues over consent.”

                “Are you guys always this horny?” I asked, my own curiosity getting the better of any shared indignation with Raina.

                Drucilla shrugged.  “We enjoy sex.  We indulge in it whenever we feel like it.  But we don’t have the same history as you do regarding sex and gender.”

                “No?” Raina’s voice was softer, her anger ebbing somewhat.

                “No.” Drucilla replied.  “We’re an egalitarian society with no artificial divisions between ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ work.  We judge each other on our abilities, not our biology.  We also can’t get pregnant unless both partners agree beforehand, so ‘no strings attached’ carnal enjoyment is easy for us.”

                “What about falling in love?” Raina asked.

                Drucilla’s voice grew soft, and she looked directly at Raina as she spoke.  “We love freely and unashamedly.  Some of us choose to bond with another individual, but there’s never the expectation of exclusivity.”

                “I don’t know if I could do that.” Raina said.  “Fall in love with someone, then… have sex with someone else?  How can you have sex with love and then a random hookup?”

                “I always have sex with those I love.” Drucilla answered.  “We love our friends as fiercely as we love our mates… sure, it’s a different kind of love, but it’s just as real.  Some of the most special experiences with lovemaking have been with my dearest friends.”

                “And nobody gets jealous?”

                “No.  They’re happy to see the people that they love enjoy themselves.”

                “OK, I can see that.” Raina smiled.

                “We can also love beauty.” Drucilla’s voice dropped slightly, and she ran a finger up Raina’s leg.  “When someone’s beautiful, inside and out, it can stir the heart as well as… other places.”

                “Annie, you chill here?” Raina asked, not looking away from Drucilla’s eyes.

                “Yeah, I’m fine.” I slurred.

                “Good.” Raina smiled.

                They left, and I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                I woke up the next morning in a big four-poster bed with emerald green sheeting.  Vincent was sitting up in bed next to me, reading a massive book written in the strange script of the Fae.

                “Hey.” I yawned, stretching.

                “Hey.” Vincent replied.

                “What ‘cha reading?”

                “The Lord of the Rings.”

                “In Fae?”

                He shook his head.  “You’ll never really understand the story until you read it in it’s original Fae.”

                “Wait.” I said, sitting up.  “Tolkien was Fae?”

                Vincent closed the book and looked at me, grinning.