urban fantasy Sightlines (Incomplete)

[bbykimmy]

7 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Which is exactly how one should take out mage. Thinking about I'm really curious to figure out how the witches managed to take over and where the timeline diverged.

5 dead bad guys in 3 chapters, how we doin'?

[YourFNF]

5 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

5 dead bad guys in 3 chapters, how we doin'?

I'd say pretty good especially considering that they're spell casters. A little sloppy letting her guard down at the elevator. But I like this girl. The only real criticism I would say is her face being uncovered but I understand that might be a visibility choice.

[bbykimmy]

Chapter Four

Across town, in a sub-basement of an ancient, crumbling brownstone, a small handful of humans sat together and quietly spoke. This cell wasn't huge - hardly a hub at all, more of a motley collection of rebels who worked loosely together. Once upon a time they'd been larger, more organized, but three years prior there'd been a clean-sweep through the city when the newly elected mayor - beloved by Witches everywhere and in the pocket of the Apex Coven - had taken office.  A large chunk of the best organized and most talented rebel cells had been wiped out. A dozen in one night. It'd been a nightmare.  The Resistance was barely hanging on by a thread.

But the alternative was worse - letting with Witches win.  Mayor Vidal was a blood traitor and Resistance Enemy Number One - the woman had been a rebel once, and traded it all for a cushy seat at the right hand of the Apex.  She had sold them all out.

She’d pay some day.

Claire sat at the table, idly chewing on her thumbnail and trying not to look at the clock. Rachel should've pinged in by now. She wasn't feckless or flighty; Rachel had a plan, she stuck to it, and in the end things generally worked out.

Generally.

"Stop fidgeting, you're making me nervous just looking at you," Sal muttered, passing by and clutching a cup of hot chocolate in both hands. Claire knew that Sal was on hour seventy-three of no sleep and it was beginning to show. The large black circles beneath her eyes extended like a raccoon mask, her lips were white, ragged, and nearly bloodless, and her fingernails were broken and jagged where she cupped the mug. 

The steaming liquid would be too hot for anyone else to hold but Sal was different in a lot of little ways, things not easily noticed outside the basic physicality of her too-thin body, her too-grey skin, her too-sharp teeth. The way she laughed, a beat too long. The way she'd go for days without sleep, or eating, or even drink sometimes. The way she'd watch people move across a room - pupils blown wide and lips slightly parted - with complete and unerring concentration. Sal would've made a great Hunter if she weren't so nervous by her general nature. She was quick enough, for sure, and strong enough, but she didn't have that fearlessness that nearly every decent Hunter had.

Namely, she lacked that crucial ability to walk through a world of Witches and slide within inches of them without losing calm confidence. Rachel was one of the best in that regard - she could hold perfectly pleasant conversations with Witches while undercover, smiling and cozying up, appearing just like any other ambitious blood-traitor, thirsty for power or prestige associating with Witches could grant. A lot of Hunters were capable of killing from a distance but you got them up close and they froze - either out of fear, or their anger would take over and they'd screw up... threaten or glare. And that was all it took. Rachel could divorce her emotions from her actions and that made her the best of the best. She could be flirting with a Witch one moment, batting her huge brown eyes, and then slicing their neck ten minutes later, letting the Witch bleed out in a bathroom stall.

It was a talent, for sure.  Her sister was amazing.

"Shut up," Claire replied with no heat. Rachel was late, but that wasn't worrisome... yet. She'd been late before. Never for frivolous reasons, true, if the reason for her sister walking in the door even a few minutes off schedule was something small Rachel always made a point of messaging ahead. So something had gone sideways on this hunt. Fine. It happened. But how sideways? Would she come back hurt? Ill? Hexed? That had happened a time or two - where a Witch got a hex off before Rachel could dodge or block. Getting a hex removed was always expensive and harder than hell - there were a few sympathetic Witches in the city, ones who didn't approve of the Familiar slave trade, or kidnapping, or the brutality of the higher order Covens.  But when push came to shove a Witch would nearly always side with her sisters rather than the Hunters.

Claire could understand. She would rather side with her sister than the Witches. Funny how that worked.

"She'll be here," Sal sighed, setting the mug of near-boiling liquid down on the table with a distinct click. "Have faith."

"I have faith!" Claire protested hotly, eying the drink. 

She had to very carefully monitor how much liquid she took in during a day - almost always drank out of the same few cups, kept a chart and records. It helped. She was on day seventy-five since her last accident, when she'd been sick with the flu and in bed and hadn't had the energy to track her intake. Dr Gielez, the woman who ran the ex-Familiar support group every Tuesday night in the basement of the Priory of the Prediction, swore that Claire didn't need to be so particular about watching her water, that thinking about it so much was actually making the situation worse, but Claire was terrified of backsliding. 

She'd hated being hollowed out and helpless, hated the fact that she still had a doe-like tendency to freeze under pressure, to fall to her knees and whimper and beg for forgiveness for her perceived sins. Hated being under the "loving boot" of her Mistress. Her Witch hadn't even been that bad in comparison of some of the others. The Witch Rachel was hunting tonight, for example - Sarah Trippoli - was one of the more brutal examples. She looked exquisite and put-together, elegant and regal and alluring - but if the normies had even half a clue of the viciousness the mob boss displayed on a low-key day-to-day basis, Claire wondered if they'd still flock to her the way they did.

When she was feeling cynical, she thought they might.

It was disheartening.

And Sarah? The White Witch of Winchester wasn’t even the worst of the worst. She was up there, sure, no innocent princess in an ivory tower like she pretended to the public - but there were worse Witches out there. Worse Witches by far.

"Of course you do," Sal murmured placatingly, gently patting the back of Claire's hand. "Look, my sleep cycle isn't ready to kick in yet. I've got time. Why don't you just rest your eyes - don't even have to go to bed, just snuggle up right here, put your head on your arms - and I'll keep watch 'till Rach comes in, yeah? You haven't been sleepin’, it's past yer bedtime."

Instinctively, Claire wanted to obey. The urge was intense and immediate. Sal didn't mean anything by it - she was right, actually, it was way past the time Claire normally slipped between her sheets and snuggled down for sleep - but those particular words were triggering and Claire didn't appreciate it. She could feel the ghosts of thin hands tucking her in, long fingers folding blankets over her body, the whisper-hum of a soothing voice ordering her to close her eyes, to rest, to sleep. The sound of crib bars locking into place.  She'd hated it. Hated it. Hated the loss of autonomy, the uncontrollable desire to bend and bend and bend until she was either a pretzel or she broke.

But in times like this, when shit got hard... she wanted to follow. To obey. To bend.

"I'm fine," she replied shortly, fighting the urges as she glanced at the clock again. Less than five minutes had passed since the last time she'd looked. Claire bit back a groan.

She just had to be patient. Her sister was a pro - the monster that the other monsters were afraid of. Rachel would be okay. She was a professional.  The Witchhunter.

Rachel would be okay.

*    *    *

Rachel was so not okay.

Emergency lights blinked deep red and orange above her, highlighting nearly invisible spellwork woven into the wallpaper, painted on the ceiling, and etched into elegant, thread-thin spirals on the floor - sigils and glyphs, traps and hexes. Dancing through this minefield of magic had been exhausting enough - Rachel had likely never been more glad of her years in gymnastics, in dance, and various martial arts - but now, panting by the front door to the White Witch's home, all she wanted to do was scream.

It was locked. That was to be expected. It had been trapped. No big; Rachel had handled the acid, the tripwire, and the spellwork in less than two minutes all told.

No. It was the deadbolt. A fucking human invention. Rachel wasn't a Troll - for all she still had the vile taste lingering on her tongue - and the door was steel-clad around the edges. There was no way she was going to be able to kick it in as she'd planned and there was precisely jack-all in the foyer of the penthouse leading up to Sarah's door that was sturdy enough to batter down the damn thing. There were a few fussy tables and chairs, sure - but they were delicate things and would crunch like kindling with a single good hit.

"Fuck," Rachel muttered. She might've just gotten herself caught. There was no way that she'd gotten this far to be busted by a fucking high-end deadbolt! Unacceptable!

"Think," she muttered. "Think, think, think." Rachel rested her hands on her hips, her fingertips barely grazing her pocket when she realized that she still had her burner.

When in doubt...

She snatched out her phone and dialed. After a moment the proxy line picked up and Claire’s voice came sharply over the line.

"Where the hell are you?!"

"I'm looking a deadbolt," Rachel said instead of answering her frantic sister. "I've got at least three Witches, possibly more, coming my way in the next five or ten minutes. There's nothing to beat the door down with and it's too solid for me to kick it open." She paused. "Oh, and there's a new Familiar and a dead Witch on the other side."

There was such a long pause that Rachel thought the connection had cut out. She was about to curse her shittastic luck and dial Claire again when her sister said, very softly: 

"Knock."

Rachel blinked. 

"You're joking," she said.

"I'm serious," Claire insisted, her voice gaining strength. "Knock. Be sweet." And then, almost as an afterthought. "Don't yell."

"I don't yell," Rachel replied. "Love and hugs."

"Hugs and love," Claire responded. "Walk it off."

"On my way," she promised. "Warm up a bath and a bed."

And with that, she hung up, broke the burner and jammed it back in her pocket just in case, and softly knocked on the door.

"Hello?" she called quietly. "Hello? Excuse me? Is anyone home?"

[Wannatripbaby]

Just knock?

Just knock...

BRILLIANT!

Also I'm loving Claire already. From her near-PTSD at simply being told to go to bed to her adorable "love and hugs" exchange with her sister. I have a feeling the "recovering Familiar" scenes will be my favorites throughout the story. ?

Also I can't wait to find out what the heck Sal is.

[bbykimmy]

18 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Just knock?

Just knock...

BRILLIANT!

Also I'm loving Claire already. From her near-PTSD at simply being told to go to bed to her adorable "love and hugs" exchange with her sister. I have a feeling the "recovering Familiar" scenes will be my favorites throughout the story. ?

Also I can't wait to find out what the heck Sal is.

<3  That's Kachan's brain at work.  I love how badass Rachel thought of a dozen ways to break the door down but couldn't do any of them, and just didn't think of asking the Familiar on the other side of the door for help.

And Sal is wonderful

[YourFNF]

14 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

<3  That's Kachan's brain at work.  I love how badass Rachel thought of a dozen ways to break the door down but couldn't do any of them, and just didn't think of asking the Familiar on the other side of the door for help.

And Sal is wonderful

That's actually a really interesting take. Use the familiars conditioning to get the door open.

[bbykimmy]

14 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

That's actually a really interesting take. Use the familiars conditioning to get the door open.

When you say it like that, it sounds bad and manipulative

[YourFNF]

13 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

When you say it like that, it sounds bad and manipulative

Yeah phrasing could be better. But honestly first priority is to get the person out of that situation and keep them stable, so it may be necessary to work with that framework as you slowly dismantle it.

[ELLIE52]

1 hour ago, YourFNF said:

 Use the familiars conditioning to get the door open.

I thought the same thing.  Claire would know this.

I hope Rachel and the Little familiar can escape unscathed.  What will happen to the familiar whose magic was expended?

[bbykimmy]

31 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

I thought the same thing.  Claire would know this.

I hope Rachel and the Little familiar can escape unscathed.  What will happen to the familiar whose magic was expended?

Things aren't looking good for the crying, bleeding Familiar left alone somewhere in the Tower.  Rachel's got her hands full with one, and while she's now aware of the other... she can't really afford to go searching for them.  She knows the Witches are on her tail.

But knowing the Winchester coven, things aren't looking too good, especially since Serena said the Familiar might not survive already...  The Winchesters aren't exactly compassionate towards Familiars.

[ELLIE52]

I've mostly run across *familiars* being animal types, so a human is a new form to me as a familiar.

One term you used is Whisper being put in the hollow of Faye.   I can't recall this term.  So what is a Whisper?

[bbykimmy]

18 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

I've mostly run across *familiars* being animal types, so a human is a new form to me as a familiar.

One term you used is Whisper being put in the hollow of Faye.   I can't recall this term.  So what is a Whisper?

Yep!  A familiar is almost always an animal (though sometimes it's a homunculus) - having a human for a familiar is new (I'm sure some author has done it somewhere before), which is one of the reasons I capitalize the word in the story.

The Whisper is something new and hasn't been explained yet, so I can't tell you - it's relevant to the plot

[thedman]

1. I don't understand any of this hocus pocus witch stuff so I'm doing my best to keep up at moments in the plot. 

 

2. For some damn reason once I finally binge read the first 4 chapters this morning I am absolutely hooked on the story

[bbykimmy]

16 minutes ago, thedman said:

1. I don't understand any of this hocus pocus witch stuff so I'm doing my best to keep up at moments in the plot. 

 

2. For some damn reason once I finally binge read the first 4 chapters this morning I am absolutely hooked on the story

Well welcome to the party, if anything is unclear feel free to ask - if I can explain without spoilers, I will

When I worldbuild, I like to throw the reader in head-first and then explain what everything is as we go.  I actually did exactly this in "Best of It" and "Little Choices" but the DD was already familiar to most, so the only thing people had to parse were the differences between the "standard" setting and my variation.  "Breaking the Girl" is set in reality, so there wasn't much worldbuilding here.

But Fantasy worldbuilding is one of my favorites, and it's definitely one of Kachan's favorite things too <3

I'm glad you're hooked, I think Sightlines is worth reading even though I wouldn't classify it as erotica like most of my other stories.  I hope some of my other usual fans slowly trickle in, though Ellie, Trip, Ashley, and I are all having a good time either way 

Hopsalot and Billy haven't chimed in for a while, no idea if they're still reading.

[Guilend]

Ok, i must have missed chapter 2, but i am caught up now and gave likes to all 3 chapters. I an really liking this story.

I mean 4 chapters lol

I couldn't give chapter 4 a like, i ran out of likes

[bbykimmy]

On 8/11/2018 at 4:46 PM, Aries said:

Ok, i must have missed chapter 2, but i am caught up now and gave likes to all 3 chapters. I an really liking this story.

I mean 4 chapters lol

I couldn't give chapter 4 a like, i ran out of likes

 

On 8/11/2018 at 6:27 PM, Hopsalot said:

I got you covered @Aries

Aww thanks <3

I'm thankful for the like, and I'm glad to know you two are reading.

I figured there would be a big short-term drop-off in readership on this one, strictly because it's not erotica, but I'm hoping that long-term it's a story that's well-liked.

[bbykimmy]

Chapter Five

Faye was cold, but she wouldn't complain.  Faye was tired, but she wouldn't complain.  Faye ached, but she wouldn't complain.  She waited, kneeling, as the blood had spread, coating her knees, her shins, and her toes.  It was congealing and icky, but she wouldn't complain.

Complaints were punished.  The Whisper liked it when she complained because the Whisper liked it when she was punished.  But Faye didn't like it.  Her last punishment had been scary.  She had dropped an old plate and her Owner had taken her by the ankle and held her out the window, stressing how very important it was not to drop things.  Faye didn't want to drop things now.  Her Mommy had given her lots of cuddles after that, but she still had to clean up the broken pieces with her fingers.  Her Owner, her Mommy, had made her lick the blood off of her own hands when she was done, before she worked her magic to heal the cuts.

Punishments always went that way - she wasn't sure how many days she had been alive, how many days she had belonged to her Owner - life before didn't seem to count, she remembered that she had existed before Mommy owned her, but she couldn't remember what she did or what she was like.  She remembered being taller, she remembered that she had her own home once... but it was all so fuzzy.

"Please Mommy," she whispered after another long moment.  "Please tell me how to serve you."

The wind was cold coming from a hole in the window.  After long, long minutes of kneeling next to her Owner, her stomach growled loudly and she winced.  Her Owner didn't feed her every day - she didn't always earn her food the way she was supposed to, channelling magic as Mommy instructed.  It wasn't easy - controlling magic was like controlling the air with your hands, you couldn't see it but it was everywhere, you could touch it if you moved right but you couldn't make it do what you wanted.

On days that she did a very good job channelling, she got chicken nuggets.  Yesterday she went hungry - the magic just wouldn't cooperate.  She felt a little shaky as she rose, wondering what she was supposed to do next.  Her mommy didn't tell her what to do, wouldn't tell her what to do, but she knew it was time to channel magic - she was hungry.  She focused, feeling the energies around her, feeling the magic in the air...

But her concentration was shattered by an unexpected sound.  A knock at the door.

A fuzzy memory told her that meant someone wanted something, someone outside.

She hadn't been outside the door that she could remember - but she knew she must have, when she was a food-servant.  She hadn't done that here, that was in another place.  She trundled to the door and began unlocking it - she wasn't sure if they were supposed to go in a certain order or not, so she started from the bottom.  She didn't know what was supposed to happen next, but this seemed like the right thing to do.

*    *    *

After the sound of a ridiculous number of locks unlocking, the door opened just enough for Rachel to see the chain - easily at a Witch's shoulder level, much too high for a Familiar - and a single brown eye peering at her through the crack. The chain glowed faintly. It was enchanted not to break and she had precisely zero imp-spit on hand to melt the shitty thing. Figured. Absolutely shit luck!

"Hello," Rachel said soothingly instead of screaming in frustration and rage, which was what she wanted to do.

"Hello," replied the Familiar quietly, shifting so more of her was visible in the opening. Her breath gusted white when she spoke and what flesh Rachel could see was pebbled with gooseflesh.

Gotta grab her clothes too, Rachel thought absently, adding just one more thing to the fucked up to do list for this fucked up night. What kind of bitch doesn't even put her pet in a onesie or something? The AC is cranked, it's frigid in here. Come on, Sarah, couldn't you have been a decent person for even a second?

"May I come in?" Rachel asked. Inwardly she was counting down the seconds until the elevator burst open and a half-dozen Witches descended on her, but for the moment she was in control. Cool and calm and smooth. Slowly, Rachel reached through the open door and prodded the chain. "You have to get a chair and stand on it to undo the chain."

"Can you help me?" the Familiar asked. "Mommy fell and won't move."

"I will absolutely help you, sweet girl," Rachel promised fervently. She hated using those pet names, the Witch-names, but times like these she had to use every tool in her toolbox. "Just get a chair and stand on it, undo the lock and I will come in there and help you right now."  She felt awful using trigger words, she knew the Familiar would have a hard time doing anything other than obeying - she had watched Claire struggle with those urges enough.

The Familiar drew away and walked a couple of steps from the door but then stopped. Rachel bit back her groan and waited patiently. A moment later, the the eye appeared in the crack again. 

"I can't," the Familiar stated, guileless.

"Why not, precious?" Rachel chirped kindly. She tried to make herself look as small and unassuming as possible.

"I'm not supposed to talk to other Witches," the Familiar whispered. "Mommy said if I talked to other Witches they might want to steal me away from her. I belong to Mommy. I can't let you in. I'm sorry."

"You're in luck then,” Rachel smiled with relief.  ”I'm not a Witch. See?"  She backed away slowly so that the girl could see all of her and turned a full circle, making sure she was well away from the edge of the trapped spellcircle behind her. She was positive she'd broken the core component of the axis, but one of the reasons Rachel was alive when so many otherwise talented and hungry Hunters weren't was her absolute refusal to take anything at all for granted. "See? I'm not even six feet tall, sweetheart. I'm barely five-seven. Not even close to being a Witch. You can let me in without your Mommy getting mad, I swear. I will pinky-swear if you need me to."

"Oh." The eye blinked a few times. "Okay."

Rachel gusted a silent sigh of relief as the girl vanished again and, after a few agonizingly slow moments, the door slipped closed, there was the sound of the chain dropping, and then a scrape as the chair the Familiar stood on was dragged away from the door. Then, miracle of miracles, the door opened again.

"Please come in," the girl whispered and Rachel, beaming as if it were a pleasant spring teatime she was walking into instead of a fucking murder scene, pushed the door open wider and strolled into the room.

"My mommy is over- where are you going?" the Familiar turned and followed Rachel as Rachel rushed through Sarah's apartment toward the room at the back, the one where she'd been keeping the girl. "My Mommy isn't in my room," the Familiar said. "She's in the-"

"Wear this," Rachel ordered, yanking open the closet and grabbing the first dress she saw. It was a frivolous thing - blue and green and white, scalloped and layered and beribboned and ugly as sin - but it could be yanked on over the girl's head in one swoop. Then, as the Familiar held the dress in loose hands, Rachel snatched up a pair of mary-jane shoes on the rack beside the door. 

"Foot," she demanded and the girl obliged immediately. Rachel grimaced at the girl’s blood-encrusted toes but pushed on, remembering how she'd had to do this for Claire in both Claire's first childhood and in the months following her captivity. She blinked back tears as she jammed the shoe on and buckled it with an expert tug and twist. "Other foot."

The dress was on, the shoes were on, anything else? Rachel took a bare three seconds to examine the room/torture chamber. Nope, nothing at all anyone would want from this freak show, she decided and took the Familiar by the wrist. The girl was beginning to look distressed, so Rachel gathered her energy for another burst of cheerfulness.

"Come on," she exclaimed brightly, "your mommy had too much to drink. We're going to take a walk and buy ice cream when she wakes up she'll be so happy that we were so big and already ate dinner. Right? Right!"

"I can have ice cream for dinner?" the Familiar asked, confused. "Mommy does drink sometimes but she never lets me have ice cream for dinner."

"You can," Rachel told her firmly. "What's your favorite flavor? It's blue, isn't it? Blue ice cream is your favorite?"

At first she thought the Familiar would balk at the bizarre turn of conversation - the truly fucked up ones couldn't follow quick changes - but the girl blinked a bit and then grinned. 

"Cotton candy is blue," she agreed, seriously. "I like cotton candy ice cream too."

Thank the twists and turns of fucking fate, Rachel thought breathlessly. She's still in there somewhere.

"Okay, kiddo," she said. "Let's get out of here and buy you some blue ice cream!"

Rachel was surprised that the elevator had not begun spewing forth Witches while she was dressing the Familiar.  She expected the attack to come at any moment - the Winchester coven was not a bunch of pushovers, and this was their primary base of operations.   The place was crawling with Witches, but so far she had only run into the one.  The magical and mechanical defenses of this building were good - but they weren't that good.  Not so good that the denizens of the highrise itself wouldn't be able to escape their rooms.

Which meant that the trap was undoubtedly waiting for her on the ground floor, at the exit.

If she were alone, Rachel would simply go to the second floor and jump - a twelve foot drop was survivable and she knew how to tuck and roll to minimize damage... but she wasn't alone.  The Familiar held her hand as they weaved through the spellwork traps, reversing the path that Rachel had used to get to the damned door in the first place.  The girl was docile, as expected... but something wasn't right.  The way the girl looked around, the way she seemed to be actually taking things in, processing information.

Nothing about this job was right.  But Sarah Trippoli was dead - and that meant a power vacuum while the Winchester coven regrouped.  There was a slight risk that Apex would fill the gap before another coven could, but Oliver had run the numbers.  It was worth the risk.  Any other coven rising, Jade Mask, Talon, Golden Dawn - any of them taking some of Winchester's power would tip the scales just enough to give Apex some trouble.

And everyone wanted to see Apex fall.  Apex was the coven responsible for the slave trade - they had developed the transformation magic that allowed the Witches to take any human they wanted, not just a Little.  No one was safe after that particular spell had been discovered.

But their security was also tighter.  Other cells were gathering data, trying to find a weak point so she could do some damage to Apex, but right now the best bet was to get another coven to chink that alpha coven's armor.

The Familiar never once tried to pull away, never once tried to walk at any pace other than the one Rachel set.  She was very obedient, but that light was still in her eyes.  She was still in there somewhere, behind the fuzz, behind the torture.  Claire would be able to reach her, to help her, to shake off the damage that the White Witch had inflicted and help the girl become human again, at least mentally.

"So many Witches are sleeping," the Familiar whispered as they passed the corpse of the Witch who had tried to ambush Rachel not so long ago.

"She had too much to drink, too," Rachel smiled comfortingly.  She doubted the Familiar could comprehend death right now, or she would have realized that Trippoli wasn't just asleep.

"We should help her," the Familiar said, pulling ever so slightly on Rachel's hand as she tried to step closer to the Witch's corpse.

"We have to go," Rachel reminded her, pulling gently at her wrist.  "You're still hungry, aren't you?"

"Yes... " the Familiar stopped in the middle of the hallway.  Rachel was tempted to pick the girl up and carry her, but she didn't want an armful of Familiar if they were attacked.  "I don't know what to call you."  She finished in a dazed, far-off voice.

Shit.  She was going to choose now to start questioning things?

"You can just call me Rachel, pretty pet," her stomach turned as she pushed those common conditioning buttons again.  "Now be a good girl and walk with me, okay?  There we go.  Oh, you are a good girl."  She hated herself for it, but it worked.  They reached the stairwell quickly... hopefully the Witches hadn't figured out which way she had gone - there were three emergency stairwells in this place - with any luck they'd have a smaller guard posted on this one.

The trek down was no more fun than the climb up and she had to give the Familiar a ride on her back around the halfway point.  The feeling of the squishy diaper pressing against her back made her blanch, but the Familiar - expectedly - didn't seem to mind.  When it grew warm again in the small of her back, Rachel minded very much - but now wasn't the time to say anything about it.  It's not like the Familiar had a choice.

They were almost home free.

[YourFNF]

26 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

Chapter Five

Wow the tensions really building on this one.

[Wannatripbaby]

Now THAT was an excellent chapter!

I have NO idea how Rachel will be getting out of this place with Faye in tow. The only thing I can think of is some unexpected assistance via friendly Sniper Rifle. But then, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

[bbykimmy]

31 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Wow the tensions really building on this one.

I'm glad you're enjoying it... the body count did not increase this chapter, though :O

5 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Now THAT was an excellent chapter!

I have NO idea how Rachel will be getting out of this place with Faye in tow. The only thing I can think of is some unexpected assistance via friendly Sniper Rifle. But then, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you!

Kachan and I make beautiful music together, I think.  The story takes 4 chapters before it really grips you, IMO.  After this point, the reader should be reasonably invested.  I'll keep this in mind for future non-erotica stories (if there are any) and give more chapters at the beginning, maybe 2-3 on the first day

3 minutes ago, Hopsalot said:

Alas, nothing is more sacred then a pinky promise 

Truth be told, it was the "pinky promise" that pushed it over the edge for Faye.

[Wannatripbaby]

5 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

Kachan and I make beautiful music together, I think.  The story takes 4 chapters before it really grips you, IMO.  After this point, the reader should be reasonably invested.  I'll keep this in mind for future non-erotica stories (if there are any) and give more chapters at the beginning, maybe 2-3 on the first day

It's not just non-erotica stories. Some stories, tv shows, movies, etc. Just start slow. I agree that this story might've benefited from starting out with multiple chapters. And it didn't help that chapter 4 landed on a Friday. But in the long run it doesn't matter that much. Now we're beyond it and we can really start getting into the meat of the story.

[bbykimmy]

Chapter Six

Bianca waited in the foyer, slowly going crazy.  Serena hadn't checked in - the woman hated protocol and "hand-holding" but this was a real situation, not some drill or test put on by the White Witch.

And where the fuck was Sarah?  She should be front and center, but no one could reach her.  Her private suite was one of the most heavily warded locations in the city, no communication spell could reach her there without her consent - which she wasn't giving, and she wasn't answering her cellphone.

"Aw, Benny," she heard Lorenzo say sadly behind her as Donna carried the imp's corpse back inside.  "He didn't deserve that."

Bianca sighed and laid a hand on Lorenzo's shoulder.  He and the imp were friends, Lorenzo had actually done the binding ceremony that had elevated Benny from the stinking masses of humanity into the family.

"Sorry, Lorenzo," she said as he accepted the tiny corpse from Donna.

"Oh I'm going to kill whoever did this," he swore, his eyes burning red with the magic that trickled out of him as he gave way to his anger.  Lorenzo was an Associate on his way to Soldier - he wasn't the most powerful Witch in the coven, but he was mad.  No Witch would want to be in the Hunter's shoes.  Whoever did this should hope that Lorenzo killed them rather than capturing - and his wrath would be nothing compared to Sarah's.

Suddenly, all eyes went to the eastern stairwell.  The Witches could all smell it - fear mixed with magic.  Someone was coming down those stairs right now.  Lorenzo set Benny's corpse on a table in the lobby and flew across the room to the entrance to the stairs.  Bianca nodded to Donna to take a flanking position.  The fear felt small to her - almost like a Familiar, but the flavor was wrong.  It could be Aurora - but they probably wouldn't be coming down the stairs.  Did someone's pet get lost?

The foyer of the building was two stories tall and the presence wasn't on the ground floor yet... Lorenzo climbed the wall above the door, scrambling on all fours like a beast, his magic adhering him like a spider.  His fist glowed red as he slammed it into the wall and reached through the hole, coming back with a Familiar in a puffy blue dress.  It screamed in fright as he leapt down.  This was definitely the presence, but why was a Familiar wandering the stairs?

He dropped from the wall, landing easily and holding the Familiar aloft.

"Who do you belong to?" he shook it, demanding an answer.

He was overcome with his rage - he wasn't thinking rationally, and the Familiar's response did nothing to soothe his temper.

"I belong to my Owner," the creature squeaked.  Lorenzo roared, holding the girl to his face.  She was a pretty thing, blonde curls and brown eyes... but her ankles were covered in blood.  Something was wrong.

"What is your owner's name," he demanded as Bianca walked over, trying to figure out what was missing here.

"My Owner's name is Mommy," she cried, tears streaming down her face.  

Of course that's her answer, Bianca thought, what did you expect, Lorenzo?

"You stupid girl," the male Witch growled and brought the Familiar's face close to his, baring a mouth full of pointed teeth.

"I'm sorry I'm stupid," the Familiar whimpered.  "I'm sorry, please punish me."

"What were you doing on the stairs?"

*    *    *

When the wall exploded, Rachel reacted instantly - she hadn't been expecting it, but she had been expecting trouble.  The Witches weren't swarming her, which meant they were plotting an ambush.  Bursting through a wall hadn't been the ambush she expected - she had expected another chameleon spell.

Instinctively, she turned her body away from the explosion, debris flying all around her - not even thinking about the fact that the Familiar was on her back.

And then she wasn't.

"Shit," she breathed as she tried to plan her next move.  She moved to get a peek out of the hole in the wall - without exposing herself - as the Witch dropped down, the Familiar in his grip.  Two of them.  A female and a male.  The males tended to have less magic, but that one seemed agitated - he would likely be reckless with his spells, but they would be stronger.

They were distracted, however - and Rachel didn't mind using this Familiar as bait quite as much as she did when it were her own sister.  The girl cried pitifully as Rachel descended the stairs, listening to the idiot Witch's questioning.  He wasn't thinking.

Rachel was so close - the doors that led out into the world were right there, she just had to grab the Familiar, dodge the hexes that would be thrown at her, and get out.  The disgustingly tall Witches all had their attention focused on the Familiar... and they didn't seem to recognize her.  Sarah hadn't told them about her victim.

Why?

"What were you doing on the stairs," the male Witch snarled as Rachel slowly - ever so slowly - pushed the door open.  Shit.  He might actually get something useful out of her on that one.

"I was going to get ice cream," the Familiar blubbered.

Rachel slipped from the stairwell, drawing her knife - there were only two of them, and two dead Witches were better than two live Witches chasing her through the streets.  She stilled her mind as she prepared to strike - there would be no anger, no fury... and the Witch wouldn't see it coming.

"Where is your Owner?" the male Witch asked.  The female's attention was entirely on the Familiar, a puzzled look on her face.  Neither of them had ever seen the girl before, Rachel could tell.

"She's on the floor," the Familiar answered with what undoubtedly made perfect sense to her.  It was obvious that this male Witch didn't have a Familiar of his own.  Good.  One less thing to worry about.

"Where!?" the male Witch roared, shaking the poor confused Familiar.

"She's on the floor," the girl cried.  "She's on the floor and she's asleep and she won't wake up and I don't know what to do and I'm scared and my friend is taking me for ice cream!"

"Friend?" the male asked as Rachel lunged, driving the knife - parallel to the ground so it didn't get stuck in the creature's ribs - into the Witch's back and bowling him to the ground.  The Familiar hit the ground with a thud and a yelp, a six-foot drop was a lot for a small girl like her, but Rachel couldn't worry about that.  With a sick feeling in her heart, she lobbed the talisman at the female Witch, who was flinging green balefire.

The talisman flew true and embedded itself in the Witch's leg, looking strange and golden poking out of the expensive suit the woman wore.  She crumpled, dropping to her knees as the charm cut her off from all her magic.  Rachel had paid a hefty price for that, but there was no sense in hanging on to a precious item when your life was on the line - tools were meant to be used.

She never saw the third Witch coming.  She felt arms slip under hers and before she could react, she was dangling two feet off the ground in nelson hold, dark magics seeping through the skin at the back of her skull where the Witch's hands rested.

"Fuck," Rachel groaned.  It was over.

 

"Where did you even get this?" Bianca demanded as she stood shakily, yanking the ceremonial dagger out of her thigh.  Her mana well was drained, gone, just like that.  A relic left over from when Witches warred openly with each other, after the Great Pact had been broken.  This dagger was old.  How had this Hunter gotten a hold of it?  Why did it still exist?

She stepped over to the crying Familiar, who was laying on the ground in a heap.  Lorenzo was still breathing, but Bianca had no magic to give him for healing and Donna couldn't let go of the Hunter.  He would either hold on, or he would die.  He wasn't that smart or that useful anyway.  Even weakened and shaky from the relic athame, she lifted the Familiar easily, holding her close.

"All this for a single Familiar?" she mused.  "Who does she belong to, Hunter?"

Bianca didn't expect an answer, she was surprised when one came.

"Sarah Trippoli," the Hunter sagged as Donna's exhaustion spell worked its magic.  If Lorenzo could hold on a few more moments, the Hunter would be too weary to move and Donna could heal him.

"The White Witch doesn't have a Familiar," Donna sneered.  "Everyone knows that."

"She doesn't any more," the Hunter laughed weakly.  "She's dead."

The Familiar in Bianca's arms straightened suddenly and stopped crying - the girl was disturbed by the news.  It was true.  Sarah took a Familiar after all these years - the question was why.

"You're going to die for this," Bianca snarled, lifting the athame with her spare hand, holding the Familiar with her other.  The creature had to be valuable or Sarah wouldn't have wanted it.  And this Hunter lost her life trying to save it.  She held the athame to the Hunter's neck, the brazen woman lifted her head higher, exposing her throat.

"Don't hurt my friend," the Familiar's voice was eerily calm... and Familiars didn't make demands, they couldn't.

"I'm not going to hurt your friend," Bianca spat.  "I'm going to kill her."

"No."

Donna laughed harshly as Bianca dug the blade into Rachel's throat.

"You don't get a say, Familiar," Bianca said harshly.  "You are property.  You are a pet.  You exist only to obey and to please your Witch.  Now beg me to kill your friend.  Be a good girl."

Donna's face went white suddenly.  Bianca looked down and there was a faint glow coming from the Familiar's eyes.

"No."

It was the last word Bianca ever heard.  There was a blinding flash, the brilliance coming from the Familiar filled the room and every inch of Bianca burned, as though she had been set ablaze.

[YourFNF]

18 minutes ago, bbykimmy said:

Chapter Six

"No."

Donna laughed harshly as Bianca dug the blade into Rachel's throat.

"You don't get a say, Familiar," Bianca said harshly.  "You are property.  You are a pet.  You exist only to obey and to please your Witch.  Now beg me to kill your friend.  Be a good girl."

Donna's face went white suddenly.  Bianca looked down and there was a faint glow coming from the Familiar's eyes.

"No."

It was the last word Bianca ever heard.  There was a blinding flash, the brilliance coming from the Familiar filled the room and every inch of Bianca burned, as though she had been set ablaze.

Well that was an interesting turn of events.

[Wannatripbaby]

I loved Lorenzo's interrogation! 

Alright, so Faye isn't just any Familiar. Which rules out the theory that Sarah took her just because she was a lonely old lady who wanted companionship. And she seems to have "imprinted" on Rachel, otherwise she wouldn't care about her and disobey the Witch's orders. 

[bbykimmy]

21 minutes ago, YourFNF said:

Well that was an interesting turn of events.

The question is, what happens next? 

Chapter Six marks essentially the ending of "the opening", now we really get to start!

12 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

I loved Lorenzo's interrogation! 

Alright, so Faye isn't just any Familiar. Which rules out the theory that Sarah took her just because she was a lonely old lady who wanted companionship. And she seems to have "imprinted" on Rachel, otherwise she wouldn't care about her and disobey the Witch's orders. 

I loved writing it

It's fun to be in Faye's head for a bit, to wander around that broken landscape.

So what's different about Faye?  Hmm...