Warlock 4 - Preview Chapters

Warlock 4 – Preview Chapter

© 2025 Daniel Kensington

Chapter

After-dark at a convention like this can be pretty intense.

First, Felicity dragged me to the vendor hall, because it was one thing to go into the panel discussions without a costume, but there was no way she was being seen with me that way after dark.

Okay, the vendors were second — first, Felicity dragged me to one of the bars being set up and we got drinks.

I got a bourbon, thinking I’d just sip it while burning off some of the alcohol from dinner. We’d had a bottle of wine with dinner — no, two — and I’d had an Irish coffee with dessert while Felicity got some creamy concoction, so I was feeling a little buzzed.

I wound up with black ears and a clip-on tail, not a full suit or anything, but it was enough for Felicity to let me onto the dance floor.

Through several sessions of dancing with the other girls, I’d nearly perfected the technique of moving just enough to qualify as dancing while pretty girls writhed around me with general abandon.

Felicity was no exception to that, though she did draw more attention.

I’d once danced in a college bar with four of the hottest witches in the world, but Felicity still drew more attention and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the dellaKinki effect.

She also gave off a look-but-don’t-touch vibe when she was dancing that made for a ten foot circle of open space around us, which Felicity took full advantage of.

Or … maybe everybody gave her space because they wanted to give her room while they watched her.

I managed to work my way back to our table and sip my drink before Felicity drained hers and pulled me back toward the dance floor. I waved a hand at the waitress, hoping she’d take it as asking for another round.

I do enjoy this more than VR.

Felicity rubbed her cheek against my chest before spinning away for more dancing.

No matter how many body trackers I use, the movements there are never what I wish — and the straps are awkward and uncomfortable.

“You like people watching you dance?” I asked.

I liked watching Felicity dance … it appeared to be universal.

I like others to know my dance skills are superior to theirs.

She spun, dancing behind me, then rolling with her shoulder on mine to my front again.

I enjoy knowing they desire to pet me.

Well, that was an invitation. I went to slip an arm around her, but she spun again and ducked out of my reach, too far away in the barest moment.

And not allow it.

I laughed at her grin, all sharp fangs.

“Just like a cat.”

I am as the Goddess made me, sir.

“Well, we can come to conventions like this all you want and you can be you.”

I would like to do that.

There was a pause in the dancing while the DJ shifted to something slower.

Felicity slowed her movements, looking down awkwardly, which was really unusual for her — cats in general, I suppose.

Awkward and uncertain wasn’t her usual look — but it was adorable.

I held out a hand. If she didn’t want to slow dance, I wouldn’t make her, but I’d absolutely offer.

Tentatively, she took my hand and I pulled her close, then laid my hands on her hips.

I got a bit of a shock as I felt fur, forgetting the leather dress wasn’t real, and Felicity quickly moved closer, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing against me.

A good thing, because the feeling of fur broke her glamour for me and the dress disappeared from my view. At least others were unaffected.

“Sorry about that,” I whispered. “I forgot it was a glamour and got surprised.”

So you say. Felicity swayed with me. Samantha will say you wished not to wait until we were home to see me without clothing.

“That’s not … do you think she’d give me extra points for trying?”

That seven-point-whatever was really bothering me still.

I think not. Perhaps … if you had been successful.

Now it was my turn to feel awkward — the flirting had been fun so far, but the sleek fur under my palms and lithe, soft body pressed against me took things to another level.

“Felicity, maybe we —”

If you wish me to take this form at home, you will see me. As well, this form does not change my nature — I would not forgo your touch.

“Felicity, I’m not —”

I want that, Felicity interrupted me excitedly, nose twitching.

“What? Want what?”

I had to blink, trying to refocus myself. I’d been about to suggest we were taking the flirting a little too far and I didn’t want Felicity to get embarrassed or take anything the wrong way — she couldn’t have done much flirting over the last three hundred years, so maybe didn’t understand.

On the other hand, with some of the VR and chat sites she frequented … well, that probably gave her some way-too wrong ideas about flirting, too.

Luckily, Felicity’s outburst kept me from having to say anything, and the distraction added to the lack of contact now that she’d stepped away reestablished her glamour.

The that she wanted was the drink in the hand of a passing girl — white, frothy, in a bulbous glass that screamed overpriced alcohol.

“Excuse me,” I said, leaning into their path.

“What?”

“What is that?”

“Oh — it’s a Winter Forest. It’s cream with coffee, chocolate, hazelnut, and raspberry liqueurs and vanilla vodka.” She frowned. “Maybe a couple other things, too.”

I want that.

I laughed. “Okay, let’s find our waitress.”

A quick look found her already at our table, dropping off the round I’d ordered. I hurried over.

“Could she get a Winter Forest?”

“Instead of the White Russian?”

I was about to say not to bring it, but then saw it on her tray — for about two seconds before Felicity slid up to the table and drained half of it.

Do not forget my Winter Forest.

I nodded thanks to the waitress and went back to dancing.

We took another break when Felicity’s new drink came, then resumed dancing again. I burned off a little alcohol, but not enough to lose the comfortably numb feeling.

She seemed to really like the new drink and switched to that for the next couple of rounds, going so far as to keep the glass — really more like a small goldfish bowl — with her while dancing, which might seem a little awkward, but … catgirl. Felicity managed to work the drink into her dancing like it was a deliberate prop.

She was spinning in circles, quarter-full Winter Forest held overhead after her latest gulp, and occasionally spinning toward me to bump into my groin, when her dress disappeared and I was left blinking at bare, pink nipples atop sleekly-furred breasts, before I came to my senses and wrapped her in a glamour of my own — then jumped forward to catch her, because she was stumbling.

It’s a measure of how big the last gulp of her drink had been that it was empty enough not to spill as I managed to scoop her up in my arms and get her, now mostly-empty glass, cradled in her lap.

“Okay, then,” I muttered, trying to maneuver us off the dance floor.

I’d been paying for our rounds one at a time, in case someone took our table while we were dancing, so didn’t need to pay the bill, but I didn’t want to walk out with one of their glasses.

I sat Felicity on one of the stools to free a hand for prying her drink from her paws and setting it on the table.

“Oh, damn!” the girl who’d gone by with the drink was there with her friend. She gestured at Felicity with her own glass. “Did she drink the whole thing?”

I chuckled. “Three.”

“What? Three?”

I shrugged. “Three drinks, right?”

I was a little surprised Felicity hadn’t used her magic to burn off some of the alcohol, but I couldn’t very well say so to a couple mundanes.

The girl’s eyes widened and she held up her own half-empty glass, shaking it to swirl the two straws around, then gestured at her friend.

“We share one. There’s, like, two shots of all those liqueurs in there plus the vodka — the thing’s like six or seven drinks!”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck — hey, um.” The girl’s eyes narrowed. “You two are good, right? I mean, she knows you and — you know.”

I nodded. “She’s my roommate.”

“Okay, cool.” The girl bit her lip. “So … roommate, not girlfriend?”

“Well, no, we’re —”

“Ppppffffttttllllbbblllrrrbbb!!!”

Felicity’s hiss was made a bit less threatening by her eyes rolling the opposite direction of her head’s roll, while the string of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth tried to orbit both — also because of it turning into a sort of wet burble. The paw she swiped at the girl only had two claws extended.

“Roommate,” the girl muttered, rolling her eyes and turning her back. “Right.”

I chuckled and maneuvered Felicity through the crowd to the doors, then to the hotel lobby where I could seat Felicity on a bench while I called Mihai to pick us up. He’d brought the car to the area earlier and was waiting for us to finish.

I wondered why Felicity had let herself get this drunk, because she was clearly past the point where witches could regulate their alcohol levels — once we entered the blackout zone we couldn’t come back with our own magic.

But why hadn’t she caught it earlier and —

Crap.

It wasn’t just Felicity’s first date — it was Felicity’s first real night out.

Except maybe some Salem festival before the Trials — but rowdy as those might have been, I don’t think they were anything like after dark at a convention this nerdy.

So she was … a three-hundred year young witch out for her first night on the town — no wonder she’d let loose.

I’d told her to let loose.

So she’d let loose … and passed out.

I stood, sighing, and picked her up again to meet Mihai outside.

“Felicity,” I whispered. “If you’re in there, sober yourself up. I don’t know if the girls will ever stop teasing you for getting carried home.”

“Mrrrrowwrrrrmmmrrr…”

“Felicity? Can you hear me? Sober up!”

Felicity chuckled.

“I’m serious. If you can, burn the alcohol off.”

Another chuckle. She was apparently so drunk she thought everything was funny.

“It’s really not funny, Felicity, look, I — aw, fuck!”

They weren’t chuckles.

Chapter

“What did you do to your shirt?”

“I go now,” Mihai whispered from behind me where he’d been holding the townhouse door for me since my arms were full of catgirl. “Good luck, brother. Have faith.”

I didn’t know why, but I had a sudden feeling that standing in Mel’s entryway, with a blacked-out Felicity in my arms, both of us covered in alcohol-infused catgirl vomit … this was going to be my fault somehow.

“What did you do to Felicity?” Rachel demanded.

“Felicity had a little too much to drink,” I explained.

“Why did you let her drink so much?” Cassandra asked.

“I see,” Mel said, coming downstairs, but pausing and reversing direction. “Bring her here, I suppose.”

The girls crowded around me as I started up the stairs.

“Why does her skin have all those bumps?” Priscilla asked. “Did you give her hives or something?”

“It’s a glamour,” I explained. “I took her to a convention and she glamoured — well, I’m glamouring now — a dellaKinki suit —”

“A kinky-what?” Sam asked. “And why don’t I know about this?”

“Set her on her bed, dear,” Mel said. “The rest of you may wait outside the room.”

“She’s, um, kind of a mess underneath the glamour,” I said as Mel closed the door on the others. “I tried to clean her up a few times in the car, but —”

“Liquids are difficult to magic,” Mel said. "I hope you didn’t try to dry her? Mihai will never get the smell of singed fur out of his car.”

“Give me the shirt,” Sam called from outside. She cracked the door and reached in, waggling her fingers. “Maybe we can salvage it if we get it in the wash right away.”

“Yeah,” Morgan called. “Take off your shirt.”

Mel took a towel from Felicity’s closet and spread it on the bed, then I set Felicity on her bed and stepped back.

Mel looked at me and sniffed.

“They’ll need your pants, as well, dear.”

I looked down at myself.

“Yeah, I’ll just take a quick shower and get to bed.”

Mel shook her head.

“You will take a very quick shower and return here.”

“Why?”

“You allowed Felicity to get in this state,” Mel said, “so you’ll be ensuring she doesn’t make a mess of her bed in the night.” She nodded at a wastebasket next to Felicity’s desk. “It’s bucket-duty for you, dear.”

“But —”

“Now clean up and get yourself a pillow and blanket while I clean Felicity.”

“Can’t you —” I gestured at my clothes.

It seemed reasonable — if she was able to get Felicity’s fur cleaned with magic, then why did I have to strip?

Mel shook her head. “Fur is different than fabric — there are natural oils that facilitate cleaning and the weaves in fabric interfere. I’ll not even be able to be as thorough as I’d like with Felicity, either. Just enough so that she doesn’t entirely soil her bedding.” She waved her hand at the door.

I slipped through the doorway.

“Why do you still have your shirt on?” Morgan asked.

“Gimmee,” Sam said. “Maybe I can still salvage this one.”

I sighed, unbuttoning as I walked to the bathroom.

“Pants, too,” Morgan said. “Don’t forget the pants.”

“I’ll undress in —”

“Hurry,” Priscilla said as Sam took my shirt between two fingers and held out her other hand for my pants. “Or it’ll set and ruin them.”

I sighed. After steeping for twenty minutes in Mihai’s car, I didn’t think the thirty seconds it would take to get to the bathroom would make much difference, but I just wanted to get cleaned up, so I kicked off my shoes, stripped my pants off and handed them to Sam. With living conditions here so tight, it wasn’t like they hadn’t all seen me in my boxers before.

“Ew,” Morgan said, “it soaked through — we need your —”

I closed the bathroom door on whatever was coming next, because my boxers could wait until I finished my shower.

After a quick but thorough rinse, I dried off and realized I didn’t have anything to change into, so I wrapped the towel around my waist and picked up my boxers between two fingers.

Outside in the hall, the audience hadn’t diminished at all.

“Excuse me?” I said, trying to edge my way through the crowd of grinning girls to my bedroom.

“So what happened?” Sam asked.

I yawned. “I’m not saying anything until morning.” I ignored the protests. “And even then … ask Felicity, because I’m not saying shit.”

I closed the bedroom door on more protests and quickly pulled on new underwear, then some sweat pants and a t-shirt, before grabbing a pillow and blanket from the bed.

“What are you doing?” Rachel asked.

It was her night and I was home relatively early. Relative to when I was able to get to sleep most nights, at least.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “We still need to slip the schedule a day, I guess. Mel said I need to stay with Felicity in case … well, there’s a bucket involved.”

“Ew,” Morgan said.

Rachel sighed, looking around at the others. “I don’t suppose —”

“Nope,” Cassandra said. “His mess.”

“He should be there when she wakes up anyway,” Priscilla said, “so she doesn’t think he’s mad at her or something.”

The others nodded and Rachel sighed again, shoulders slumping.

I gave her a hug and a kiss. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow night. Do you need a quick drain?” I asked

She shook her head. “I’ll be okay.”

I yawned again. “Okay, see you all in the morning.”

I knocked softly on Felicity’s door in case Mel wasn’t done cleaning her up yet.

“Come through, dear.”

The “dear” was a little in opposition to the look on Mel’s face when I entered.

“Are there any mundanes in need of a glamour?” Mel asked as soon as I shut the door.

I shook my head. “There was only a second when she didn’t have her glamour on before I replaced it.”

Felicity was in bed, under the covers and still in catgirl form.

“But this form —”

“We went to a convention with a lot of cosplay,” I explained. “There’re these really lifelike suits and she glamoured herself to add seams and stuff.”

Mel frowned. “She went in public in this form?”

I nodded. “It’s okay, everyone thought it was a costume.”

Mel saved a hand dismissively. “I don’t care about that — it’s just … Felicity let herself be seen? Like this? She interacted with others?”

“She made me do all the talking, but, yeah. There were a lot of people who wanted pictures, and then we went dancing, which … yeah, that drew some attention, but she seemed to be enjoying herself and —” I shrugged.

Mel stared at me for a moment, then bit her lip and looked at Felicity.

“Well, then,” she said, finally. “I suppose there’s no harm done.”

She crossed to the wastebasket, picked it up, then shoved it into my hands so that I had to drop my pillow and blanket to grab it.

“Stay alert — Felicity ordered that bedding from someplace in Japan, so she’ll not thank you if you let her soil it.”

That seemed a little unfair, since I hadn’t exactly made Felicity get that drunk.

“If she starts to be sick again,” Mel said, “It will sound a bit —”

I nodded. “I know the sound, believe me — never going to forget it.”

“No doubt,” Mel said.

She took another long look at me, then Felicity, then nodded.

“Sleep well.”