Mage Rescues The Sworn Virgin

Writer's Note: CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAGE parallels the CARTER BROTHERS series. Pat DeVallera has retired from the New Orleans Police Department and convinced Lucius Carter and Lucius' wife Astrid to tell him the truth about the magic and supernatural events that surrounded the Carters in the Twentieth Century.

Events in this story follow those in MAGE AND SPIRIT and pre-cede the events Lucius told in ESCAPING FROM THE VAMPIRES

All characters are over the age of eighteen.

The people I've called "Kennites" in this series disappeared from Middle Eastern history in the 19th Century. The religion practiced by the Carter-Cartier and MacKenzie families is entirely fictional and not based on any modern faith.

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CONVERSATIONS WITH A MAGE

Chapter (Unspecified)

Astrid's hand gripped Lucius' arm as if to keep him anchored in this universe. Her head rested on his shoulder, her long white hair spilling down the front of his gray suit, her doe-eyes half closed. His hands rested on the silver-handled walking stick that stood between his knees. His eyes could have stared a hole in a wall, but Pat had become accustomed to his inscrutability.

"I can't read your thoughts, Pat," Lucius finally broke the silence.

"Just thinking," said DeVallera. "What you said earlier about Teddy Desmond... you sounded like you knew them before..." his voice trailed off.

"Before my brothers became vampires," Lucius answered. "The Des Monde family and the Cartiers crossed paths... same type of work... things that would embarrass bishops, rabbis and politicians. In the 'Roaring Twenties' Alex expanded into what you now call 'human trafficking.' Back then we called it 'white slavery.' Ironically, they were responsible for my meeting my, uh..." He turned to look at the top of Astrid's head. Pat didn't interrupt.

"Go ahead, Lu," said his wife. "She was my relative by marriage before we met. I want to hear it."

The mage looked back at their guest. "Sorry, Pat, I don't usually talk about my first wife with Astrid."

"You BOUGHT your wife from a white slaver?" Pat gasped.

"Hell no!" Lucius raised his voice and then lowered it to continue. "I had gone to France to try to forget about Elizabeth and stopped at St. Demo, near Monaco, to visit an elderly Cartier relative we called 'Uncle Moe,' Maurice Cartier. While I was there, Yasmine MacKenzie came to him with an urgent plea... You look surprised."

"Sorry," said Pat. "MACKENZIE? I just find that an odd name combination with 'Yasmine.'"

"We Kennites take local names wherever we settle," replied Lu. "Makes us less conspicuous, but you are right. Yasmine's mother was a Shaheen from Beirut. I never asked them how she came to marry a Scotsman. Anyway, I was talking about the Desmonds. Alex had gotten a 'special order' from a man called 'The Turk' in Monaco for a red-headed virgin, so he and Teddy grabbed Yasmine's little sister, Wynda. Maurice was honor-bound to help a fellow Kennite, but he was in his eighties and there was no time to contact his children or grandchildren. I was only twenty-two and my magic abilities had just begun to manifest themselves, but I found that Maurice's revolver was almost as good for the job."

Part One: St. Demo, Southern France, 1929

The inn was shabby, even for a poor village. It was perfect for Alex and Teddy Desmond.

Wynda MacKenzie lay naked on the bed, unable to move. Her knees were drawn up to her shoulders and her hands were tied between her ankles. The gag over her mouth was so tight that she knew no one could hear any noise she might make. The black man who watched over her couldn't resist fondling his helpless victim.

Teddy leaned close to whisper to her as his fingers explored her labia. "I wish Turk hadn't spec'fied a virgin," he whispered. "I sho' would like to bust this." As his fore-finger found her hymen, Wynda sobbed softly.

Knocking at the door interrupted Teddy's advances. "Open up, Teddy! It's Lu Carter! Alex sent me!" called a familiar voice.

"Carter?" Teddy called back. "That the Hell are YOU doing in France?" he said as he went to the door and pulled it open to find himself looking down the barrel of a cocked revolver in the hands of Lucius Carter.

"Keep your hands where I can see them, Teddy," said Lu in a voice so calm that butter wouldn't have melted on his tongue. "Open the door wide and step back."

Teddy obeyed and walked backwards as Carter advanced: Lucius was too far away for Teddy to start a fight without being shot, and too close to miss if the gun was fired. When Lu was fully in the room a woman who could have been Wynda's twin rushed past him to the bed.

As she began to free the prisoner Teddy found his voice.

"What're you doing, Lu? This is no concern of yours!"

"You kidnapped a Kennite virgin, you damned fool!" Lucius snapped back. "Now you think real hard. Is she STILL a virgin?"

"What?" said Teddy, stalling for time.

"You heard me."

"Yeah, she's still a virgin. The Turk ordered..."

"That true, Wynda?" Lu called over his shoulder.

Yasmine had Wyna sitting up on the bed. Wyna wasn't able to speak yet so she only nodded. Lu glanced at the women.

The second Lu's eyes were averted was all the opportunity Teddy wanted and suddenly he was charging across the floor. A knife had appeared as if from nowhere into his hand. Wynda threw her arms around her sister's waist and Yasmine closed her eyes, sure that Lucius would be dead and they would both be Teddy's prisoners.

There was a sound of bodies colliding, a scuffle, a body hitting the floor and an angry, pained moan. 'Mine opened her eyes.

Theodore Desmond was on his knees, his left hand desperately trying to stop the blood spurting from the stump where his right fore-finger had been. Lucius was standing over him with the knife in his left hand and the gun in his right.

"Ya know, Teddy," said Lucius in the same soft tone he had started with, "if your Mamma hadn't been so damned good to us when mine was sick, you would be dead now. You almost ready, Yasmine?"

Yasmine had Wynda on her feet and was pulling a sheet off the bed to wrap around the shivering girl. Before she could, Wynda raised her hand to stop her and took the sheet. She didn't cover herself: She crossed the floor, stepping around Lucius, careful to stay out of the line of fire, knelt and wrapped the cloth around Teddy's hand. He didn't resist.

"Wynda..." Lucius started to say something when Yasmine interrupted him.

"Let her be, Mr. Carter, " said Yasmine. "She's not doing it for him; she has to forgive him. This is her way of starting." Yasmine turned and pulled the blanket off the bed as her sister picked something up from the floor. Lucius realized it was Teddy's finger. As Wyna stood back up Yasmine wrapped the blanket around her and they started for the door.

Lucius began backing toward the door also. "Alex will be along when he recovers consciousness," he muttered to Teddy.

Teddy looked up at Lucius. "This isn't over, Carter!" he snapped.

Without taking his eyes off Teddy, Lucius spun the knife in his left hand and threw it. It missed Teddy's groin by an inch and quivered as it stuck in the floor.

"It had better be over," Lu said as he closed the door.

Part Two: Villa Cartier, Southern France, 1929

Yasmine pulled the covers tighter around her sister when she stopped crying and the potion put the younger woman to sleep. Then she stripped off her clothes and donned the silk robe Madame Cartier had provided.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Her makeup was smeared, her cheeks tear-stained, her hair disheveled. She picked up a comb and began to work on the red tangles. As she combed she tried to push the thoughts of the day's events out of her mind.

As she washed her face in the basin there was a soft knock at the chamber door. She dried her face and opened the door to face Maurice and Madame Cartier, who leaned heavily on their canes, and behind them, Lucius Carter. Yasmine stepped out to speak to her hosts.

"How is she, Mademoiselle?" said the old woman.

"She will sleep until morning, Madame," said Yasmine. "Your potion is as effective as Mamma's." She looked directly at Lucius. "Thank you, Mr. Carter."

"My privilege," said the American, then he turned to Maurice. "I doubt that the Desmonds even know where your villa is, so I see no reason that I shouldn't be on my way."

"I do," said Yasmine. Only Lucius was surprised.

"Mr. Carter," said the Scotswoman, "under the Law of Champions, you have the right to claim Wynda for your wife."

"It is true," said Madame. "It is the WAY ANCIENT," mixing English with French.

"But I ask you NOT to claim her, sir," said Yasmine.

The trio looked at her with questions in their eyes. Yasmine stepped between the Cartiers to within inches from Lu's face.

"Since her initiation," she continued, "Wynda has wanted to be a Sworn Virgin. Do not take that dream away from her; you would be no better than The Turk." She placed her hand on Lu's cheek. "You may claim me in her place."

"It isn't necessary..." Carter began. The hand moved over his mouth.

"No," said the Scotswoman. "It is a request."

"You would never do better, Lucius," said Maurice as he stepped around them to Madame. "We have a stone here at St. Demo, and both the Fraternity and Sorority meet here tomorrow night for the full moon." He wrapped an arm around Madame's waist and added "It has been many years since the blood of a maidenhead stained our stone." Madame glanced at him and smiled.

"Which gives me tonight to please you in all the other ways," said Yasmine, still staring into Lu's eyes.

"You don't know me..." Lu protested. His mind was trying to use memories of his only night with Elizabeth to stop his penis' efforts to drain all the blood from his body for itself.

"I know all I need to know," said Yasmine. "You are of the Brotherhood, you are honorable, and Father would approve."

"He's not here for me to ask permission..." Lu protested feebly.

"His permission is no longer needed," said Madame. "It is our Law of LES CHAMPIONS."

"You do know what it means, Mademoiselle," said Maurice, "to pleasure your husband in the room with a Sworn Virgin, even if she sleeps?"

Yasmine never moved her eyes form Lucius. "Yes, Mage, but she has not yet taken her vows. Not that it matters. We will have those blessings."

Her hands took Lucius' hands and she walked backwards, leading him as her back pushed the door open once again. Maurice let go of his wife long enough to close the door for them then put his arm back around her to direct her to their own chamber.

"Will you want a sleeping potion tonight, cher?" said Madame in French.

"Non, mon cher," said Maurice. "I will be so tired in two hours that I shall sleep until noon in your arms."

Madame placed her head on his shoulder as they walked. "I hope I shall not be too tired to greet the sisters tomorrow night," she grinned.

Behind the door Yasmine was already naked and smothering Lucius' face with kisses while she tried to undress him. He turned his face to stop her. For the first time, he noticed how beautiful she was: A few pounds heavier than Wyna, her breasts fuller, perhaps even unfashionably full for the Roaring Twenties. He forced himself to think instead of doing what his body told him to do: Just because he HAD the right to claim either sister didn't MAKE it right to take a mage's daughter.

"Yasmine," he sputtered, "I, uh, what... what about Wynda...?"

Yasmine looked at him as if he'd told her he was from another planet.

"What about her?" she demanded without taking her hands off him. "That's what Sworn Virgins do. They share the room while the couple mates. Didn't your father teach you the Old Way?"

"But we're not married, yet," he sputtered, still trying to force Lizzy out of his mind.

"And I told you I would do everything except consummate the marriage... and we'll do that on the stone tomorrow." She put both hands on his face to force him to look at her. "I know Elizabeth was your true love," she said, "but she can never be your wife: I will. I have foreseen it."

"How do you..." he still protested.

"Oh, PLEASE!" she let go of him and put her hands on her hips in anger. "You Americans! Mamma taugh' us th' ways o' th' Sisterhood! D'ya think ah'd do 't with a stranger if ah ha'n't seen th' path ahead?" She had dropped her R.P. English for her natural speech, but then she realized that arguing wasn't the way to his heart. She took his hand and directed him to the opposite side of the bed from where her sister lay in her drugged sleep.

"You... can see... our future?" Lu questioned. He had never met anyone with the gift of foresight.

"With some limits, yes." She had regained her composure. "I not only SEE but feel what will happen tomorrow," she looked away, then back to him. "I will be your wife by the second sun rise from now. It might as well be written."

"And you learned this from your mother?" She had reached his curiosity: His loyalty to the Old way was the un-doing of his resistance, as it had been the end of his relationship with Liz. The Old Way was the one thing he could never relinquish for anyone.

"Mamma and her mother as well," said the naked girl. "Your bachelor days are over, ISHI."

Ishi. It meant "husband" in the old tongue. "And you don't care that your little sister is here in the bed next to us?" he asked.

"She's shared my bed since she out-grew her cradle," said Yasmine. "If she had already taken her oath she would bless us tomorrow night. It will be the first time I've shared a bed with anyone but Wynda... a fitting way to start our life together, ISHI?" She turned slightly so her left hand could reach his crotch and rub him through his trousers.

Lu was too preoccupied to realize that Elizabeth had disappeared from his thoughts. The naked Scotswoman was the only thing he could see now: She had succeeded where four New Orleans ladies and a dozen whores had failed. Yasmine's hand was undoing his belt as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to kiss her.

Their bodies pressed together as her tongue explored his mouth. Her skin was milk-white under the incandescent light. He placed the heel of his right shoe against the toe of his left to kick the shoes off without taking his hands off of her body.

Feeling him move Yasmine broke the kiss but not the body-to-body contact and moved down to his feet to pull his shoes and socks off, then returned her attention to his pants as he finished unbuttoning his shirt and pulled it off. As he stood up she pulled his pants and underwear off.

Her eyes were at the same level as his penis, which stood rigidly out from his body. From the expression he could see, she was very much pleased with what she saw. Her right hand came up to fondle him while she moved her smooth cheek against the swollen head of his organ. For a few seconds her eyes focused on his face again as her lips opened and accepted him. Funny, he puzzled, I can't tell what color her eyes are.

Her left hand came up to his chest and she pushed him back onto the bed while she continued to bob her head on his shaft. As he put his hands back to catch himself he felt the bed move as Wynda shifted her body in her sleep. What neither could see, but only Yasmine knew, was that the soon-to-be Sworn Virgin was performing the ancient blessing in her drugged dream: She had moved her hands to begin masturbating under the covers, curled into a position almost like the one in which Lucius had first seen her in the inn. Even if he had seen it, it wouldn't have mattered. Yasmine was a better at felating a man than the last whore he had paid. Their mother had obviously taught the MacKenzie virgins the secrets of the Sisterhood quite well.

Yasmine's head continued to bob as she knelt between his legs. Her hands gently massaged his testicles. He thought she would bring him to ejaculation any second when she suddenly stopped and moved up his body without a word, like a cat stalking a bird, to force her lips against his again, pushing him onto his back with his head resting on the firm pillows.

She surprised him by breaking the kiss and spinning around over him, still cat-like, to push her feet under the pillow so that her vagina was in close proximity to his face. He felt her forearms rest on his hip bones as she resumed her assault on his genitals.

Her milk-white buttocks looked delicious. Pink folds of her inner lips might has well have shouted his name in invitation of his kisses from under the light cloak of red curls. The salty smell of fresh sweat, never washed from the adventures of the day, could have been incense rising to please her hero-god. Lu raised both hands to her butt cheeks to gently pull them apart and touched his tongue to her sweetest spot. In fact, he would latter swear it was the sweetest he had ever tasted. Was this natural, or woman-magic? Potions? Had she cast a spell on him? He didn't care any more; He was hers.

Next to them, Wynda heard their grunting in her drugged slumber. Both of her hands were under her nightgown on her bare cunt, left forefinger inside her to her still intact cherry, right hand massaging her clitoris as her first orgasm drove all memories of Teddy and Alex's actions into oblivion. She didn't stop at the first orgasm, and the second was greater, the third greater still.

Yasmine's first orgasm was simultaneous with her sister's first, as if the blessing of a Sworn Virgin had been given. Somehow she continued to polish Lucius' erection with her mouth despite his assault on her clitoris. As he felt his climax build she felt it also and briefly pressed the underside of his organ to delay it. She took a breath through her nose and relaxed her fingers to feel his muscles spasm and taste the salty spurt against her palate. Mamma was right: It did taste delicious.

Lu felt her relax heavily on him and he let his neck go limp and his head rest on the pillow. Yasmine rubbed his sensitive glans against her cheek again, then against her forehead before raising herself to turn and lie next to him on top of the sheets, pressing her breasts against his curly body hair, enjoying every bristle against her sensitive, virgin skin.

Wynda moaned in her fourth climax, distracting Lucius. Yasmine raised a hand to his cheek and pushed his face to look into his eyes.

"Pay her no heed," Yasmine said. "I promise, Ishi, you will get used to sleeping between your wife and a Sworn Virgin."

As Lucius finished the story Pat had a question:

"I thought you had TWO of Teddy's fingers?" He mumbled. "The way you told it, Wynda only picked up ONE."

"She did," the Mage replied. "I acquired the other one the following year, back here in New Orleans."

Part Three: New Orleans, 1930

Despite the stock market crash the previous year, Alex Desmond was pleased with both himself and his profits. He sat behind his ornate desk translating the latest requests from his Japanese customers out of his agent's code: "Three... Caucasian... women... no... older... than..."

The sound of breaking wood disturbed him. He looked up in time to see the office door explode inward and his manservant sprawl backwards onto the floor.

Alex reached for the gun in his top desk drawer, only to watch it fly through the air into the hand of Lucius Carter. Carter's white linen suit was splattered with blood, a huge spot staining the left pocket of his jacket.

Alex felt himself being lifted out of his chair and thrown backwards against the wall by something he couldn't see. He could barely breathe.

"Carter?" he managed.

"I TOLD YOU TO TIE UP YOUR DOG!" Carter yelled at his helpless prey.

"Teddy?" Alex gasped, worried that Lucius had killed his brother.

"He was alive when I left him at the doctor's office. Don't expect The Turk to place any more orders with you."