A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 28

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

W e let Sim and Madigan get settled and have something to eat before getting down to the heavy. “Can I see the book?” I asked my brother.

He gave a quick nod, unclasping the buckles from the satchel he wore. After unzipping the top, he reached inside, pulling the small, leather-bound book out and setting it on the table. I stood to retrieve my backpack. When I rejoined them at the table, I had the grimoire in hand.

“May I?” Sim asked.

“Please.”

Ever-so-gently, he picked it up like he thought it was fragile, then opened the book. His eyes grew as he read the names of all our cousins, and reverently ran his finger down the page. When he flipped to the next, new pages had been added. They gave detailed diagrams of spells from Grandma Lilith.

Spells for our cousins to try. Ideas for me to manifest.

“Open your book,” I said and Sim opened it. I manifested a pot with dirt. “Touch the plant and touch the dirt.” He did as asked and I told the dried, pressed plant to grow in the pot. A strong stalk shot up out of the pot with vines winding around it like a slithering snake. Beautifully vibrant, blood-red flowers, the likes of which I’d never seen before, blossomed in front of our eyes. Spiky thorns protruded from the stalk.

“What is it?” Madigan asked.

Words appeared over the dried plant in the book: The Death Bloom.

“Death Bloom?” I asked.

My brother read on. “It looks like if the thorns scratch the skin, it poisons the person. Lesions will bubble up over their body and the pain is so intense, it drops the person where they stand.”

“Will it kill them?” I asked.

“In larger doses. But we could use this to quell the uprising of humans out there.”

Exactly my thought.

“The flower can be used to brew an anti-poison.” He turned the page. And with each page he turned, I started seeing a pattern. I absently pulled the amulet from my backpack and for the first time noticed the gem was porous.

“Connor, wasn’t this smooth before?”

His head jerked as he took in the bauble in my hand. “As a baby’s butt,” he replied.

“Extract the poison,” I told my brother. “Make it as potent as possible.” I started manifesting pots for more plants. Sim touched each new leaf, stem, or root and the dirt in the pot to create the plants. Each had a description above the name. As I read them, I understood why she’d chosen those particular plants from the garden. Our witches could use these plants to make the most powerful destructive and healing brews.

“What are you thinking?” Sim asked.

“I’m thinking that we make a brew from all of the poisonous plants and soak this gem in the poison before joining it to the hilt. This is what’s going to kill Beetle. This is what made Lilith’s dagger so lethal. It’s why no one could touch it—because the gem held the poison.”

“What good is a dagger without a blade?” Madigan asked.

“Let’s try this and see what happens.”

Well, there we had the start of a plan at least. As my brother tended to the plants from the Garden of Eden, I walked around the archives to let the witches and Lilium know that we had stronger plants to work with.

Seeing all these people from different walks of life working together for the sake of humanity did my heart good. We spent far too much time at each other’s throats because of this bullshit thing or that bullshit thing. Politics and narrowed points of view had separated us—all of us—for too many years. But now we’d come to a precipice. We stood together or we fell apart. Us against them. Them being demons of the underworld, which probably hadn’t been on anyone ’s bingo card this year. I digress.

But here was the problem: I hated feeling useless and right now, I felt useless. Yes, I walked from group to group checking on witch and Lilium progress and fetching anything they might’ve needed, but all I could do was manifest. Since the moment my powers opened up to me, I’d been practicing and perfecting my manifesting game. So now there was nothing for me to do. I walked—no, strike that—I paced the room growing more and more agitated until Connor snagged my hand, dragging me to the special private room the archives had created for us.

He tossed me down on the purple beanbag chair. “What are you doing?” I asked, irritated.

“What are you doing?” he repeated in a dumb voice. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m calming my mate the best way I know how.” It hardly seemed like the time or place for this, but when his hands found the button of my jeans, I sort of lost all rational thought. He stripped my lower half but kept his pants on, unzipping and unbuttoning his fly and tugging his jeans down around his ass. Connor’s lips found my neck and his fingers, my center. Oh, dear god! As he sucked the skin into his mouth, I squirmed beneath him and his strong hold.

My eyes closed and I stretched my neck to give him more room to roam. “Connor, please,” I begged. He moved his fingers from my center to rub himself against me there. “Connor, please ,” I cried this time. He tore his mouth from my neck to press a heavy kiss to my lips. I’d like to think he just couldn’t resist kissing me, but I felt like he’d done it more to shut me up. Ask me if I cared. In this moment, he had my permission to press his whole hand over my mouth if it meant keeping the ecstatic shivers coming.

Everything but the feel of neurons firing fled my brain as my body took over, reaching to get what it wanted by rocking and rubbing against Connor. He growled low, tearing his mouth from mine, pressing his forehead to mine, and draped each of my legs over his thighs. He plundered the spoils of this battle. A meeting of hearts and bodies and minds. We took off, lips and tongues and teeth. Touching everywhere we could touch. Moving with each other in a way that no other lover could give him or me. Mated sex reached heights that no other sex reached. For the rest of my life, I got this. I got Connor, a partner who read my mood and went out of his way to calm me. As our momentum built, the pulse of culmination reached the breaking point and I lost all sense of space and time. My damn mate drove in one last time and I lost it all over him.

While he came down, he pressed his forehead to mine again, sighing in that heavily contented way he had. I loved that sigh. It meant I gave him exactly what he’d given me. I felt humbled and powerful all at once.

Connor rolled us to drop his butt into the cushioned seat, pulling me onto his lap. Both our chests heaved while we struggled to find reality again. “I can die happy now,” I said, teasing him, but that was not how he took it.

His whole body went rigid. “Don’t ever say that again.”

“Connor—”

“I’m serious, Simone. Don’t say that shit again. You’re not dying now or anytime soon. I will not lose you. Do you hear me?”

Talk about an open mouth, insert foot moment. I tipped up my head to kiss the hinge of his jaw. “Sorry, babe. I won’t joke like that again,” I said, getting the words out over the hard lump in my throat. Joking about death with Connor came easy given our expert level banter. But with facing our impending doom, I needed to make better word choices. “I forget how intense the bond can be sometimes. I’ll get used to it.”

“Babe, even if we lost all our magic, including the mated bond, I couldn’t survive losing you. I’m in it.”

I threw my arms around him, pressing my face against his chest, holding on with everything in me.

Okay, enough of that. I shook my head, letting my arms drop from around him. “So we’re done with vulnerable Simone, then?” he asked.

“I have a reputation as a supreme badass to protect,” I said to his ensuing snicker. “Plus, I wanted to discuss something with you.”

“Shoot,” he replied.

“Adalaide said that Mr. Pooches is my familiar.”

Given how he nodded, I figured he’d come to that conclusion as well. “Does Sim have one? He got a hellhound for a mate, so it seems likely he’d have gotten a familiar, too.”

“Note to self, Baghest, do not bring up my brother when I’m leaning on you with my junk hanging out.”

He barked out a laugh. “Baby, what you got ain’t junk and it’s not just hanging out. My junk is hanging out. I could take you again in any position.”

“Why do you have to be so you and ruin something beautiful?”

“That sounds like a you problem. Nothing’s ruined on my end. Well, except that pu?—”

I slapped my hand over his mouth. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t finish that sentence.”

Removing my hand, he kissed the palm. “I know what’s good for you and you love it when I finish.”

“I think we need to clean up. If I stay in here any longer, the world is gonna burn.”

Connor laughed even harder. “I’m not complaining.”

Oh, lord… I manifested a basin, water, and soap to clean myself up. Yes, it was difficult to do something so common in front of him, but he took pity on me and stepped up next to me to clean himself off rather than keep watching me, and he achieved his goal of settling me.

When we left the room, several sets of eyes found us, crinkling with humor. Okay, so they knew we’d been getting down and dirty in the other room. The fate of the world fell on my shoulders. It was a stressful position to hold. And yeah—it all sounded like excuses to me too. I just had to be okay with people knowing we’d knocked boots at what amounted to a highly inappropriate time. Privacy and leadership didn’t really mesh together.

I wandered over to Simeon and while my brother worked, I asked him, “Do you have a familiar?”

He shook his head slowly. “Had one. Ruby. She died right before Madi and I went underground. We hadn’t… become official yet,” he said, smirking at the memory. “Madi’d been checking something out, so we weren’t together. Ruby threw herself in the path of a demon blade that I’d never seen coming. She sacrificed herself to save me. Stupid thing is, I never knew what she was until she died. I thought she was just a raven that I’d fed and talked to while she ate. Stupid, right?”

“No. I had no idea about Mr. Pooches until a few days ago. But I haven’t seen him in a while and now I’m really worried about him.”

“I’m sure he’ll show up again.”

“He curled up on my lap every night after Jeffery’s death. He took care of me until I could take care of myself.”

“Pooches will show up,” Connor said, startling me. I didn’t realize he’d been listening.

If I’d known he was there, I wouldn’t have mentioned Jeffery. I turned sorry eyes on him. “I was just explaining why Mr. Pooches?—”

“It’s okay.”

My head jerked back. “What?”

“He ever get what we had in there?” Connor pointed back to the room.

Uh… I narrowed my eyes on him not understanding. “Did he ever get sex?”

“No babe. We got deep in there. We had connection. ”

Oh, right. I got it. Jeffery and I had great sex over the years, no doubt. But no. “No,” I replied honestly. The universe gave me Connor and now it appeared that the jealousy portion of our newly mated bond hopped a bus to some other couple’s relationship. Connor draped his arms around me and I couldn’t help but notice the smug, ‘ and that’s how it’s done ’ look he shot to my brother.

“Don’t you love it when they’re docile,” Simeon said and without even lifting my head, I let go of Connor’s waist, rearing my arm back to punch Sim in the gut. Hard.

“You know what’s good for you, Baghest, you won’t answer that,” I taunted Connor, but I taunted him sweetly.

“I ever hear that again, Lamia, you’ll beg for a quick death.” At first, I thought Madigan was talking to me and come on—Sim deserved it. But I realized she’d been talking to my brother when she said, “As useful as it is to me, I will rip your dick from your body, cram it down your throat, and laugh while you choke slowly to death on the impressive meat stick.”

Ew . I didn’t need to know that my brother had an ‘impressive meat stick,’ but good for Madigan. You know, girl camaraderie and all that.

Speaking of meat sticks, though, I decided that my brother and his mate should get one more time to bump uglies before the world completely turned on its head. “Sim, how’s it going?”

He pointed to the pot simmering over the fire at the hearth. “I’m just waiting for the brew to reduce enough.”

“There’s a special room in back. I think you and Madigan should check it out while we have a little downtime.” I pointed my thumb behind me.

Simeon raised his eyebrow. “Sister, I like the way you think.” He grabbed Madigan’s hand, leading her to the back of the archives.

“I know why you did that,” Connor said low.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen. I want them to have what we had.”

Connor held me tighter. “No one will ever have what we had, babe.” I started to sigh, thinking how romantic the big, dummy hellhound could be until he opened his sexy yap again. “Because there’s not a man alive who’s as good a lover as me.”

“I’m sure you need to think that.” I patted his stomach before walking over to the sofa where I plopped down very awkwardly and unladylike, folding my feet under me. Connor’s phone rang from his pocket. He fished it free, answering. “Luc, what’s up?” He paused and then said, “Babe, manifest to hear the call. I don’t want the rest of the room hearing, but Luc says you need to and we can’t go in the private room now.”

Did that bother me? Nope. I regretted nothing. They deserved the slap and tickle. I nodded, closed my eyes, and thought, Let me hear Luc over the phone . Let Luc hear me .

“She’s here now, isn’t she?” Luc asked. “I feel her.”

“Dude.” Connor growled. “You don’t feel my mate.” Okay, so maybe the jealousy only took a day trip. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that.

Luc laughed.

“She’s here,” I said, though I said it in my head. Because I’d joined his pack, if you will, I didn’t have to manifest for Connor to hear me. He already could. “But she prefers to be addressed as ‘Her Excellence, the Exalted Simone’ from now on.”

Both men started laughing.

“Right. We ready?” Luc asked.

“I’ve been ready,” Connor answered.

“Her Excellence the Exalted Simone?” Luc waited for me to answer.

“I’m ready.”

“Great. So after I looked into shit going on at Monnie’s, I took a meeting with Mike.”

“Mike?” I asked.

“Mike— Michael . We’re still close.”

“As in Archangel Michael?”

“You know where I used to live.”

“Right,” I replied sheepishly. “Sometimes I forget. You’re so… so… regular .”

“Sweetheart, I’m anything but regular.”

“Then maybe you need more fiber in your diet. I meant you don’t sound regal.”

He laughed. “Neither are they. I promise.”

Okay, that made me chuckle and I noticed eyes of witches turning to the crazy woman laughing at nothing—and to be clear, I was the crazy woman.

“Focus,” Connor snapped. “What did Mike say?”

“He said they’re out.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Connor muttered.

“He has a point this time. They can’t get involved.”

“ Why ?” I asked, hanging on his words. I found myself totally invested.

“We know a demon is leading this charge, but he’s charging against the Earth plane, not Heaven. If Heaven gets involved, it’s the same as declaring war.”

“Declaring war?” I asked.

“Armageddon,” Connor replied.

Ooh—yeah, the last thing we needed was actual , real life Armageddon, not the esque version that I’d been planning for.

“I’m heading to the union hall, been spreading the word that the hounds need to congregate. Let me know where and when we need to meet.”

“I’ll let you know,” Connor answered him.

As they hung up, I felt a presence approaching the stones outside. Really? A presence? I sighed until I felt with everything in me that the presence was my beloved Mr. Pooches. Finally.

“Pooches,” I cried, springing up from the sofa. I ran up the steps, throwing open the door. Mr. Pooches limped. His tail bent at an unnatural angle. My poor kitty was battered and beaten down. I bent to pick him up and he winced.

Cradling him in my arms, I moved us back inside to safety. “What happened?” I asked.

“I barely got out with my life,” Mr. Pooches said.

“We’ll get you fixed up.” I gently ran my hand down over his back. He closed his eyes, leaving me wondering if it was out of relief or pain. A tear ran down my cheek. I hadn’t realized how much Mr. Pooches meant to me until now. Would Connor, a death hound, be okay living with a cat familiar? Could hounds and cats get along? Well, they’d just have to because I clearly couldn’t get rid of Connor. He was my family, but then again, so was Mr. Pooches. “You’ll be okay,” I whispered. “I’ll take care of you.”

Mr. Pooches snuggled his head down into my arms. Whatever I’d done to have been given him, I once again thanked the universe. I’d spent my early life being alone. Now I had more people/demons/fallen angels to care about than I knew what to do with. Oh, and a mate that I’d die to protect. My family had grown exponentially at a really bad moment in time and I felt the weight of that realization settle in my heart for the long haul.

Shafira met me at the bottom of the stairs. She gasped. “ Mr. Pooches .” Pooches lifted his head, smiling at her as best he could through his pain. “Let me.” She reached out and I bent to kiss my familiar on the head before handing him over.

Connor found me again, nuzzling my ear with his nose and his warm breath tickled. “He’ll be okay. I trust Shafira.”

“I do too.”

After a couple of minutes, Shafira called us over to where she had an IV running into Pooches’ front paw. She had his tail bandaged. He looked pitiful. Smaller than he’d ever looked. “He needs to speak to you,” she said.

“Mr. Pooches?” I asked, in reality asking him what he needed to tell me without saying the words.

“The possessions have begun,” he said low.

“‘Possessions’? As in demon possessions?” Shafira asked, throwing her hand to her mouth. Yeah, I felt that too.

“I know where the demons are amassing. They’ve been called back…” He took a sharp breath. “To receive orders. This is an organized attack. I fear they plan to attack at once.”

“Attack at once. Fuck,” Connor muttered. “So we have to go on the offensive. We have to hit them before they split up. They won’t expect us.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Mr. Pooches agreed.

An offensive attack. We had to plan for every problematic scenario that could arise because this was a dangerous undertaking. Very dangerous. How did we plan for every counterattack? We hardly had time to pee, let alone plan our mobilization. And how did I get all our witches there without the demons knowing?

Lilith help me.