Warlock 4 - Preview Chapters

Warlock 4 — Preview Chapters

© 2025 Daniel Kensington

Chapter

“Don’t be nervous,” I told Morgan, who was fidgeting with the straps of the backpack in her lap.

Mihai pulled up to a rather nondescript gate in the chainlink fence around the airport.

“Don’t start acting all cool,” Morgan whispered. “You’ve never been in a plane before either … have you?”

I shook my head. “No, but it’s no big deal.”

“It’s a private jet,” Morgan whispered.

“Blackwood,” Mihai said to the guard at the gate who waved us through.

“See?” Morgan asked. “This is not normal — it’s not normal to just drive on the fucking runway.”

“We’re not driving on the runway,” I told her. “The runway’s way over there.”

“Like you know where the runway is.”

I craned my neck a little to look out the back of the van, then pointed — and kept pointing to follow the descending plane as it landed way over there.

“Fuck you.”

Morgan wrapped her arms around her backpack and stared straight ahead.

Making fun of Morgan was good for distracting from my own nervousness, because I wasn’t nearly as calm about the flight to the Conclave as I tried to make her think I was.

The van was pretty full with my coven, Morgan and Priscilla, Mel and Felicity, and the Roma — Mihai was driving, but Stefan and Dragomir were coming along as some sort of porter-security combination. I really wasn’t used to people who acted a lot like servants, and I had to remind myself that it was a partnership — the Roma took care of the physical stuff, like moving our luggage and renovating our cottage on the Willowmere campus, while the witches and I took care of our kumpani’s magical needs. I’d even spent a few hours recharging some of the many, centuries-old magical stuff they had — basically I was their powerbank.

The van came to a stop next to a plane.

I didn’t know enough about planes to know if I should be particularly impressed past what I’d normally be by a private jet.

“Four-fifty?” Priscilla asked.

Cassandra nodded. “It’s smaller, but we don’t need more space yet.”

I’d seen what the girls thought we needed and had to tell them there was no way we were getting something with a seven in the name. That was just too much, even for a rental.

Stefan opened the side door and the girls all stood. I stayed sitting a little longer, because I was at the back — where I could sit with one of the girls on each side of me — and got out of the van last. Because then I had the most time rubbing up against the butt of whichever witch was in front of me.

Today it was Sam’s, and I let my eyes take in the bouncing as she flexed and jiggled, before standing and taking advantage of the flexing and jiggling.

“‘Smaller?’” I whispered in Sam’s ear. The thing seemed pretty big to me.

Apparently I didn’t whisper low enough, because Cassandra heard me — maybe it was the ears.

“There are eleven of us with the Roma and this seats fourteen,” she called back as she stepped out of the van. “Plus we were expecting to pay a lot more to get to Europe, so this is practically free.”

I was pretty sure it wasn’t free, but didn’t argue — mostly because Cassandra was already out of the van and striding toward the plane stairs where she turned to wait for everyone to catch up.

“Okay, listen up!” Cassandra called from the foot of the plane’s stairs.

She held up both hands, palms out.

“Seating — Noah will be on the couch,” Cassandra said.

“Whoa!” a couple voices called out.

“We’re not doing assigned seats where you’re next to Noah on the couch the whole way,” Sam said.

“Of course we’re not!” Cassandra shook her head. “We’re taking turns sitting with Noah.” She raised her voice. “So if you want couch-time with Noah, see me and I’ll put you in the random time assignments. Once we know how many of us are on the list —”

“Like it’s not everybody,” Morgan snorted.

“Once we know how many of us are on the list,” Cassandra went on, “we’ll know how much time each of us gets and then we can each decide whether our time will be in one block, or broken up over the flight.”

Cassandra paused for a moment, waiting for questions.

“Great — so it’s not that long a flight but there’s one bunk on the plane. Sign up for slots if you want to take a nap — after the Noah-times are assigned. Those of us in the coven might want to join a particular club, so get priority on the bunk time —”

“Ahem,” Morgan said. “I have a question, Elsa.”

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “Yes?”

“What makes you think those of us not in the coven wouldn’t want to use the bunk for our Noah-time?”

Cassandra shrugged. “Okay, do you?”

Morgan glanced at me, then ducked her head, blushing. She shared a look with Priscilla.

“Not for … but, well … yeah,” Morgan said.

“Me, too,” Priscilla said.

“Mrowr.”

Cassandra shrugged again, looking around the group. “Melaina?”

I snorted and looked at Mel — but she was grinning.

Fuck.

“Far be it from me to make the boy get up only to be sent back to bed again.”

Great, so all the witches wanted to spend their time cuddling with me … yes, great. I figured Mel just wanted to make me uncomfortable and Felicity wanted a chest to sleep on, but it was nice to be wanted.

“Right, then —”

“We don’t,” Mihai said waving a hand as he wove through our group with Cassandra’s suitcase in tow. “You take our time.”

I chuckled as Mihai gave me a wink while Dragomir and Stefan nodded emphatically.

“Okay,” Cassandra said. “Seating — so I guess Noah’s in the bunk the whole time —”

I stopped listening and concentrated on the feel of Rachel and Sam next to me, my arms around them. The girls would tell me what they decided.

This was my life now.

It was pretty good.

*

I did have to admit there was something to be said for private jets.

It was nice to climb up the steps, knowing we’d missed long lines and waits from commercial travel.

There was also something to be said for spending a flight laying in a comfortable bunk while a series of nubile witches came to … cuddle.

“Raise your butt,” Sam whispered.

I complied, waiting until she’d slid my underwear and pants back up to my waist before settling back to the bunk as she zipped and buckled.

“Time!” Cassandra called from the main cabin.

“Unless Priscilla wants his dick out you need to give me a minute!” Sam yelled back.

“Not yet!” Priscilla yelled. I could pretty well picture her going red and ducking her head. “Fuck.”

“Are you sure?” Sam yelled. “The rest of us are going to get way ahead of you in the club standings!”

Priscilla muttered something I couldn’t make out, but Sam took it for her being sure and tucked my belt into place.

With a long kiss that drew some hurry-up throat-clearing from Cassandra, she slid out of the bunk.

“Next!”

Priscilla, still about as red as I’d pictured her, took Sam’s place and cuddled up to me, pulling the bunk’s curtain closed behind her.

“Yet?”

“Fuck.”

Priscilla buried her face in my chest and I chuckled.

I wrapped my arm around her and kissed the top of her head.

“There’s one way to stop them teasing you about it, you know?”

Priscilla sighed. “They’ll just find something new.”

She did have a point.

“I could ask them to stop if you want?”

The girls all kind of needled each other, but it was almost entirely good-natured — Priscilla was just so susceptible to embarrassment that I was afraid it might become an issue.

Priscilla sighed, then mumbled something into my chest.

“What?”

Another sigh.

“It’s my other resonant,” she said.

“What is?”

“Embarrassment.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “So I’m used to it.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to take their shit all the time.”

Priscilla laid a hand on my chest and patted gently. “It doesn’t really bother me — and it makes thinking about some pretty cringey teen-moments useful.”

“I bet.” I pulled her closer. “Well, if they go too far, tell me.”

“I think we can work things out ourselves without running to SpellDaddy.”

Now it was my turn to flush.

“See?” Priscilla asked, snuggling closer and patting my chest. “Not so bad.”

I broke off my chuckle when she tilted her face toward me for a kiss.

“So what about you?”

“Me?”

Fuck.

“Yeah — your resonants.”

Shit.

I really hadn’t meant to bring up resonants now — or at least talking about them, since Priscilla had started the topic by telling me hers. It’d just come out of my mouth. We did need to talk about it, but … was thirty-thousand feet in the air the right place to tell a witch you had the scariest witch secret there was? Or one of them, at least.

Well … two, I guess.

“Later,” I said. “After we get back from the Conclave, okay?”

“Nuh-uh.” Priscilla poked me in the chest. “You know both mine now, and I don’t know any of yours. Well, physical Strength is most often from Pain?”

I nodded. “There — you have one.”

“And?”

I sighed. “Lust. There — I know two, you know two.”

“Lust? Really?” Priscilla chuckled. “I guess that makes sense. And, no, we’re not even — you know all of mine, I want all of yours. Come on — it literally can’t be more embarrassing than mine.”

I didn’t think there was a way out of this. Maybe I should have listened to the girls and let them tell Priscilla, but I felt like it was my place — I just hadn’t found the right time. Or maybe that was stupid and it would be less stressful coming from the girls when I wasn’t around. Either way, we appeared to be past that decision now.

Felicity?

Yes, Noah?

Um, Priscilla’s asking about resonants and I don’t think there’s a way to put it off any longer. Can you let the others know and … well, I’m open to suggestions here.

A moment.

One of the things I loved about Felicity was how she’d immediately address the problem without giving me shit about it — of course, that came with about three-times the shit later.

A moment later, the bunk’s curtain was stripped aside with a loud swish.

“Hi, kids,” Sam said, grinning.

Priscilla jumped and spun on the mattress, putting her back to me.

“Goddess! What’s that about?”

In fact, all the girls were there, kneeling just outside the bunk. I felt a powerful glamour settling over us all and figured that was either Mel or, more likely, Felicity hiding the conversation from the flight crew.

     “Noah has Control,” Cassandra said, smiling widely. “Command, too, of course.” She held up a hand and Rachel handed her a glass half-full of an amber liquid, then held that out to Priscilla. “Have a drink.”

Chapter

“I wonder how many of those little bottles they had to open for this,” Priscilla mused, looking at her glass — she’d finished about half of what Cassandra gave her and there was still quite a bit left.

We were at opposite ends of the bunk, with the curtain pulled again, but I could still detect the weight of a glamour surrounding us. One of the girls would be keeping it in place so the flight crew didn’t hear the rest of my conversation with Priscilla.

Priscilla had sat up when Cassandra hit her with the Control bomb and I’d scooted down to the other end to give her some space.

Now she was about halfway through her drink, biting her lip and running a finger tip around the lip of the glass.

“It’ll probably be on the bill,” I said.

The corner of her mouth quirked up, much to my relief. She hadn’t jumped out of the plane, hadn’t run from the bunk, and now she was smiling — these were good signs.

“You really haven’t flown Broom Air before.”

“‘Broom Air?’”

She waved a finger around.

“The plane? You didn’t notice the entire flight crew was witches?”

“I didn’t notice,” I admitted.

I suppose I should’ve expected the witches would have their own airline for those who didn’t just buy a plane.

“Really? Didn’t notice they had shields?”

“I … ah, don’t really look for that all the time.”

“Why?”

Could I make up a reason?

I sighed.

“The … ah, the shields don’t have clothes.”

It was bad enough in class when I had to look at mana — surrounded by sexy, glowing silhouettes.

Priscilla’s lips thinned as she sucked them into her mouth to keep from laughing.

“Some of you have nipples!”

Ever try to explain something and immediately realize you just made it orders of magnitude worse?

Priscilla covered her chest with an arm and gasped.

“You look at our shield-nipples?”

“I don’t look at your … that’s the point, I don’t look at them.” I sighed. “So, Broom Air?”

I waited out the laughter.

When she was finished, Priscilla shook her head slowly.

“I think that’s why finding this out doesn’t really bother me. You could make every witch on campus strip for you, but you get uncomfortable about our shields.”

She laughed again.

“Broom Air is run by one of the Independent Families,” Priscilla said finally, then frowned. “The Lanchesters, I think. Anyway, they specialize in our private flights — for Families that don’t have their own plane or not enough — and we could drink everything on the plane and it would still be included. We call it Broom Air, because …”

“Obvious reasons.”

“Yeah.” She bit her lip. “You know, you really should figure out a better way to tell a girl you’re secretly able to make her do anything you want.”

It was on my list. Maybe now that everyone in our group knew, I’d just tell the girls to figure out how I should tell the next one.

“But I can’t make you do anything I want you to.”

Priscilla opened her mouth to reply, then stopped and bit her lip.

“Why do I get the feeling that this just got a lot more personal and specific?”

I shrugged.

“All right. I’ll bite — what do you want from me that you can’t get with, literally, the most powerful and feared Affinity there is?”

“I want everything you do to be because you want to.”

Priscilla’s smile widened and she shook her head slowly.

“You know, there is no other warlock in the world who could say that and make me believe it?”

“So you believe me?”

Priscilla snorted, then threw her head back, draining her glass and letting it slip off the bunk under the curtain. She leaned forward and crawled toward me on all fours. Her top was loose and and I got a couple very pleasant glimpses before Priscilla climbed up my chest and locked her lips on mine.

A couple more very pleasant minutes later she snuggled against my chest.

“Yeah — I believe you.”

“I’m … happy to be believed.”

Priscilla took a deep breath.

“And a third resonant? You got any more secrets I should know about?”

“If there are, I don’t know them either.” I let the last of the tension I’d been feeling relax. “Any thoughts on what you want?”

“Some … do I have to decide now? I mean, is there prep time or something?”

I shook my head. “Just curious.”

“Well … the coven seems to have a lot of Lust already …”

I felt my face heat. Priscilla patted my chest.

“See? Not so bad.” She laughed. “I think Control has some possible Affinities that go well with Proprio.”

“Really? You’d want it?”

“Maybe. I don’t want Command, but … I want to ask Melaina about it. Probably not Lust, though.”

That surprised me — of the three it seemed like Lust was the one with the least negatives.

“Why?” I winced. “Not that I want that — not that I don’t —”

Another chest pat. “I get it — but I’ve also seen how tired you are some mornings and Proprio likes things … active.”

“Um, how’s that?”

Give me a break, you’d be curious too.

“Sshh — a girl has to have some secrets.”

“I just told you all my secrets!”

“I think you think those two things should have something to do with each other … you should stop thinking that.”

I chuckled. “Now I really want to know.”

“Oh, you will. Anyway, Pain? If I could guarantee getting Healing I’d go for that — make the soreness after a workout worth more.”

“But you already have Healing.”

“I have some Healing. Samantha is so much more powerful than I am because hers is an Affinity. I can help her understand how to do things, but there are things I’d never try.”

“Like what?”

“Like what she’s doing with the Roma.”

“Stefan’s sister?”

Priscilla nodded. “Sofiya — and a couple others. That’s why she’s so tired every time she comes back from their camp.”

“Yeah — I figured that out. But … she healed Mihai and he had all kinds of broken bones and shit — she wasn’t that tired after that.”

“That’s different, she’s not fighting against … okay, so there’re three types of things Healing can work on. Injuries are the easiest — the body knows how it’s supposed to be, you’re just providing it the energy to fix things faster, basically. All witches can do that to themselves, with time, and a lot can heal injuries to others if they learn how and practice a little.”

She paused and I nodded. “Okay, I get that.”

“Right — so then there’s infections. Viruses, bacteria, parasites, whatever, understand?”

“So how’s that different?”

“More power and more concentration — the body still knows what it’s supposed to be like, so it’s fighting those things as well, but you have to … focus on them. It’s like sifting through all of somebody’s cells trying to find the ones that don’t belong and zapping them.”

“Individual cells?”

“Not really … that’s just an easy way to think about it. Still, a lot of focus and concentration to find whatever the infection is and get rid of it.”

“Okay.”

“Then there’s shit like cancer and stuff … nasty. It’s … the body knows how it’s supposed to be, but sometimes it gets confused. Cancer and anything else that doesn’t have an external cause are hardest, because the body can’t help as much — so Samantha has to … really, it’s almost like she does have to look at every cell. She has to concentrate and keep the mana she’s using very, very targeted, and a lot of times the body itself is fighting back against her because it sees her power as the invader instead of the disease.”

“Is she … should we get her some help? With the Roma? She’s been so tired when she comes back.”

I kind of felt shitty about thinking she’d been tired from building a sex dungeon when she was really helping people, but she hadn’t said a word about it and, to be fair, she was building a sex dungeon.

Priscilla shook her head. “She has the mana for now — she’s limited by physical exhaustion right now and … well, no one else with Healing has the connection except Melaina.” She shrugged. “Samantha has to do the work if she wants to grow.”

That made sense — so long as Sam learning didn’t put the Roma at any risk. “Connection?”

“Boy, you —”

“Know nothing. It’s been said.”

Priscilla chuckled. “Well, rub my back and I’ll explain more now instead of having Rachel get her ruler.”

That was an easy request to satisfy.

“Aside from what you’re healing, who matters, too. It’s easiest to heal yourself, then a coven member, then Family — someone of your line. So Samantha would have an easier time healing Cassandra or Melaina than a stranger.”

I nodded. “Okay. So the closeness matters? Like she’d be able to heal another Prescott easier than the Roma?”

Not that I expected Sam would bother, but it was interesting to know.

Priscilla raised her head from my chest and stared at me.

“Why would — right, fundamental lack of knowledge.” She laid down on me again. “Samantha hasn’t been a Prescott since you marked her.”

“Well, yeah, but —”

“No buts. Forget what you learned in mundane Science class — well, remember it, because it applies to the actual DNA or whatever, but there’s magic involved here, too, remember? All that mana you pour into one of us when you mark us? It’s not just to create a few moles. As far as the magic is concerned, Samantha is a Blackwood. Cassandra’s a Blackwood. Rachel’s a Blackwood. The Prescotts are strangers as far as Samantha’s magic is concerned.”

I tried to wrap my head around that. I decided to concentrate on understanding what Sam was doing with the Roma instead — magical genetics was probably a deeper topic than I was prepared for right now.

“So Sam’s doing, like, the hardest thing possible? Healing a stranger of —”

Priscilla’s headshake stopped me.

“The kumpani aren’t strangers.”

“Well, yeah, but —”

Priscilla sighed.

“It’s a Blackwood kumpani — their oath to Rachel, a Blackwood? Your Family’s magic affects them.”

She pulled her head back and stared at me, brow furrowed.

“Noah, when Mihai calls you ‘brother?’ He means it.”

I’d need to think about that — the implications were a little scary.

“Anyway,” Priscilla said, “I wouldn’t want to take Pain and not get real Healing from it, so I need to think about it.”

“No problem — um, any thoughts on when?”

“Some.”

I waited.

I waited more.

“And?”

Priscilla laughed. “You are so easy.”

I waited for the second laugh and got it.

“Well,” Priscilla said, “I was sort of waiting for Morgan to decide.”

“That’s … not going well.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty frustrated.”

“Um … any ideas?”

It felt a little weird to be asking a girl something like that about another girl, but I didn’t think it was something a witch would mind.

Priscilla shook her head. “I can’t imagine how hard it all is for her — coming from thinking she was a mundane. She needs —”

“Something to be the same,” I interrupted. “Yeah. I don’t know how to do that — it’s not like I can take us back to the foster home for a month or something.”

“Believe me, if any of us had any ideas, we’d tell you — especially now that we know the scary fucking forest witch is involved.”

“I still don’t understand why Baba Yaga’s such a big deal.”

Priscilla sighed. “You know how all the mundane stories about Melaina are stupid exaggerations and bullshit?”

“Yeah.”

“Some of the ones about Baba Yaga are … toned down.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

I was now feeling a lot more sure that canceling the Europe trip had been the right choice.

We were quiet for a while and I smiled as I realized the patterns I was idly making on Priscilla’s back with my fingertips were being mirrored by her fingers on my chest.

“So, um, we’re … official? Except for when, I mean?”

I’d been assuming that for a while, but thought it would be nice to know for sure. My agreement with the Hearsts was that Priscilla had to actually want to, after all.

Priscilla chuckled and turned her face up for another kiss.

“Yes, Kentrox Blackwood — we have only to set a date and your obligation to the Hearst Family will be fulfilled.”

“Hey!”

Priscilla sat up and swung her leg, straddling my hips and pushing me back. Her lips found mine again before nibbling at my jaw and making their way to my earlobe.

Hot breath teased around my ear.

“And fulfilled and fulfilled and fulfilled … repeatedly and at length.”

Fuck — if she kept this up, my coven was going to grow before we got to the Conclave.

“A pretty good length if Samantha’s not exaggerating.”

I choked and Priscilla laughed.

“So easy,” she whispered, settling back against me.

I spent the time trying to get control of my breathing and heart rate.

“Yeah,” Priscilla whispered. “When — so Lammastide would have been nice, but not with the Conclave.”

What I heard: This weekend … but, nah.

My groin had whiplash, but I had to agree.

We didn’t really know what would happen at the Conclave, but I was pretty sure there’d be something unpleasant going on.

“So maybe figure it out after? I’ll try talking to Morgan again, too.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “Since we’re talking about it, though, is there anything, um, special that you want?”

Please don’t say you want your mother there please don’t say you want your mother there please don’t —

“Maybe — I’ll let you know when the time is right.”