"Like I said, beginner's luck," Sam insisted on the way back to Betsy's car.
"Yeah right Mrs. I-never-got-over-Green-Day, if you had seen what happened in the bathroom you would not be calling it beginner's luck," Brian retorted.
"Ok first of all I'm offended at your interpretation of my taste in music, second, that would not have worked if that girl wasn't a giant slut."
He'd left Stefanie to clean up, but not before she gave him his number. Images of her hair pulled taunt above her stuffed ass still lingered in his mind. He'd gone from watching porn in his room to that in a matter of days.
"Enough fighting you two," Betsy interjected. "Yes, I chose Stefanie because she was an easy target. But Sam, you should be proud of your brother-in-apprenticeship, that was a remarkable first performance." She led the way to her purple VW Beetle. "Impressive as hell. Your aura is more potent than I thought."
He felt renewed and energized in the wake of his adventure in sodomy, and more than a little proud at Betsy's words. Somehow he felt more powerful. He realized it was the aural energy he'd absorbed. When they reached the car he remembered that the passenger's seat was full of glass containers and bones wrapped up in newspapers. He climbed into the back seat with Sam again while Betsy pushed the ignition button.
"Check your spellbook Brian," she said as she adjusted the dashboard mirror.
He pulled the book out of the bag he'd left in the car and flipped it open to page one. It was no longer blank. "Deviance Assessment" was printed at the top in spidery font. Three boxes were underneath, labeled, "Preternatural Magnitude," "Entities Offered, and "Aural Capacity." They each held a number: "0," "1," and "340" respectively. The car pulled out of the parking garage and took to the evening city streets. Betsy spoke from the front.
"I used some of your cum to bind it to you, it'll magically update while you mature as a Warlock."
"What does this stuff mean?"
"PM is essentially shorthand for how powerful and experienced you are. 0 is a nooby, 10 is a grandmaster. There's only one 10 that I know of, my friend Phoebe."
"What are you guys?"
"I'm an 8, Sam is almost a 3."
Sam briefly glanced up from her phone at her name, then got back to it with a bit of a scowl. Her green hair dangled above the glowing screen as she scanned it. He was acutely aware of their knees almost touching in the cozy back of the Beetle.
"EO is just a count of how many you've sexually interacted with and drained energy from," Betsy continued.
"How many people?"
"Not necessarily."
"Why aren't, uh," he cleared his throat, "why isn't it counting two?"
He thought he saw Betsy's lips curl upwards from behind. "Other Lust Magi don't count. In that case it's more of a back and forth exchange of energy. Some other things to remember: virgins count as 5 and people too young or otherwise unable to feel sexual desire don't count at all. They don't have any Lust energy in the first place."
So maybe that had to do with why Betsy wanted him to save his technical virginity? There was one statistic left for her to explain.
"Aural Capacity is what it sounds like, the baseline amount of Lust your aura maintains. PM reflects what you can do with your aura, the spells you can cast and potions you can make. AC reflects how potent the effects will be. If you use enough magic in a short period of time and your reserves run dry, you'll need to renew them with rest, relaxation, and lots of fucking."
"And mine is above average?"
"Well above average for a beginner."
He flipped to the next page and saw that it had filled with technical information about auras. Another page detailed the Siren's Call. The car lurched as Betsy made a turn he wasn't expecting.
"Aren't we going back to your place?" he asked.
"First a detour. We're going shopping."
--xxx--
Two days later Brian was tugging on the sleeves of his new jacket on a green couch that was starting to become familiar. As soon as they had gotten to the mall Sam was off to some store or other. Betsy had led him alone through several specialty clothing shops. He quickly lost count of the number of outfits she had him try on. She would slip into the fitting room with him and nip and tuck at the clothes. He remembered the claustrophobic warmth of her body right behind his in front of the full-length mirrors. She had definitely grabbed his butt a few more times than was necessary, but how much of it was a game to her? How did she want him to respond?
Collaboratively, they decided on a "Warlock style" for him. At the checkout lines Betsy would always pull out a shiny credit card, despite his protest. He now had a closet full of quality t-shirts, hemp jackets, and chino pants with specially lowered inseams for his, what was the word Betsy had used? "Equipment."
They'd also gotten several pairs of fashionable footwear, and a vat of pomade. Oh, and the outfit he was most excited about: a tailored black suit with extended coattails. When they'd been given the price estimate his eyes must have near bugged out of his head. He'd looked over to her, sure she would finally say no. Not even a blink, she handed over her credit card like it was for the week's groceries.
Now, looking around her dingy apartment in the light from the morning sun, he knew she was deceptively loaded. Come to think of it, how old was she really? Some of the artifacts at her place looked like they belonged in museums.
"Hey apprentice," she appeared around the hall in a fuzzy bathrobe. "Sorry, I have a tendency to take long showers."
"No problem, uh, Master?"
"Mistress," she corrected, "But Betsy is fine."
He nodded, involuntarily thinking about how she was completely nude under the bathrobe. She sat down in the recliner and began combing her hair. "Today is lesson two. You get to learn your first spell, and I get to be your practice." She paused as she worked through a knot. "So here are the basics. All spells have two parts. First you say the rights words to 'load' the spell. You'll feel your aura gathering around your fingertips. Then you 'shoot' by pointing your fingers and letting the energy fly out of them. It's kind of like cumming."
"Ok, sounds simple enough, what are the words?"