Chapter 12 - Prescott & Preston

----------------------

*Warning*

Nudity, Adult Situation, Calum in bulging undies

----------------------

Careful not to wake him, Val slipped out of bed. Tiptoeing around the room, she found her undies near the fireplace and her pants under the couch. How they got so far under the couch, was beyond to her. She could barely reach them and when she got up, she bumped against the end-table, shaking the candle-holder. She hurriedly glanced at the bed; reassuring Calum’s still resting position. Val stared at him with a smile on her face. She had an auww moment when she noticed he was sleeping in a fetus-position. He was cute when he was asleep and a lot less threatening.

‘And where are you going?’

Val froze. She had turned her back for a micro-second, bending to pick up her blouse and he was already behind her. She picked it up and turned to face him. His eyes had returned to its usual hazel-brown color after feeding from her, replenishing his body. ‘Home! The shop needs to open and I need to check your blades remember. Last night was wonderful and you know it, but the sun came up and I have to get back to my life’ Val said, running her fingers against her neck, stopping at the bite-marks. ‘Now if you’ll please close these’, she pointed at her neck, ‘I can’t go out like this’

Calum slowly moved towards her, caressing her neck, just above the two bite-marks he left on her neck in their throes of passion, before sliding it down her arm. He tightened his grip and before she knew it, he had thrown her blouse onto the couch and she was sitting on the bed, Calum towering over her.

‘Come on, Calum! You’ve already fed last night!’

‘I did, yes! But that was just feeding and some fun; the hunger I feel now is a different kind of hunger’

He caressed her arm, sliding his hand up her shoulder, down to her right breast. Val closed her eyes when he cupped it. Rejection once again shed from her mind. He had a way of doing that… Massaging her breast and rubbing the erect nipple between thumb and index-finger caused her to moan. She didn’t want him to stop, but she needed him to. She opened her mouth to protest, but was silenced when he pressed his lips on hers. His mouth dominated hers, forcing her to open her lips and grant him access. His tongue pushed and sucked on hers, leaving her a bit light headed as his hand released her breast and made its way down to her jeans. He tugged on the button, sending it flying. While sliding down her jeans, his mouth released hers, allowing them a moment to breathe. He pressed a trail of red hot kisses down her neck going south. Val almost flew to the other side when his hot mouth closed over one of her nipples. Biting it softly, making her arch her back. She ran her hand through his hair, pressing herself against him. He released her nipple immediately, teasing her as his fingers played with the cords of her panties.

‘Calum…’ Val whispered with a pout.

‘You whispering my name in my ear last night was cute and……. rather insulting. This time I’ll make you scream it!’

------------------

When Val woke up a while later, she noticed they had slept through an entire day. …shit, the shop… She quickly got out of bed and got dressed. Checking to see if she still looked presentable, she saw no bite-marks on her neck. It their entire very athletic activity, she never noticed Calum healing the marks. When someone thrusts into your body so vigorously, you tend to not notice little things. Val’s cheeks turned red. What was she thinking about… She reached for her beeping phone to see which date it was, just before it died. …perfect… she snapped. She was planning on calling her partner to tell her she was on her way.

This month, 30 days before the Winter Solstice, they decided to keep the shop open until midnight. Some of the reagents needed for the Solstice ceremony could only be sold at night and their shop was the only one with high quality reagents. Every witch in town knew that… she only hoped they wouldn’t run out of ingredients to make them.

With her shoes in one hand, sword in the other she tiptoed to the door. She briefly glanced back at the bed and wanted nothing more than to just cuddle up against him, but she had responsibilities. She been away long enough… and with that thought she closed the door.

In the living room at the end of the hall she found Chase lounging in a high chair. His jaw tensed when he felt her enter the room.

‘Hey head dog! I’d like to go home now’

Chase’s jaw twitched. ‘I failed to see the point where that’s my problem’

‘You rudely abducted me from my home and you will bring me back. End of story! Or shall I use you as my test-subject for trying to find out what the deal is with these blades?’ she turned the sword in her hands.

Chase’s eyes never left her face and a smirk grew on his lips. The fearsome blade was anything but fearsome in her hands. To use it on a vampire like him, she’d need speed. The one thing he knew she didn’t have…

‘Don’t think of my ‘not allowed to touch you’ as fear. I do not fear you. But you should be careful with me. The day master Calum gets tired of you, will be the day I make you feel everything you’ve ever done to me… tenfold. Considering your survival rate… tch’ He gave her a once over. ‘And I always pay my debts’

‘Yes, well, we can wait for that day to come, or you can take me home now! Or will it be more convincing from Calum’s mouth?’

A low growl sounded inside his chest. Now that was a theory he didn’t want to test….

------------------------

Prescott & Preston Alley

10.30 pm

‘What are doing here?’ Alex said, looking around very creeped out, ‘This place looks exactly like one they’d use for a horror movie’

‘That’s because this place is mostly warehouses and old-factories. The perfect cover-up for an occult shop’ Charlotte answered, stopping in front of a very old looking gate. Though old, it didn’t make the ‘criiiiiiiiii’ sound one would expect to hear from such a gate.

‘Enchanted’ Charlotte explained when she saw the confused look on Alex face, ‘Kat told me the last time I was here with her. It looks old and locked, but it’s not…’ She ran her hand through the lock to demonstrate. It was a ghost lock. Her hand just went through it.

‘Cool!’ Alex face lit up a bit. This was her first time visiting an occult shop. A lot of firsts happened for her this week. Being bitten and fed on by a vampire; Learning about a real witch; Kat, and now an occult shop. She didn’t know what to expect when she followed Charlotte down the alley.

The walls of the alley were overgrown with a climbing plant and as soon as they passed through the gate, the hidden lights underneath the plants flipped on, lighting their path. Alex’s mouth fell open. She was in awe about everything. Each light they passed caught her attention, ‘cause whenever they passed it, it turn off by itself…

‘So this shop ‘Prescott & Preston’ is it invisible too?’ Alex murmured when the alley kept on going. Charlotte decided not to answer that until they turned the corner. ‘No, just secluded’ she said when a small red bricked building came into view. Alex noticed it almost saturated with the bricked path they were walking on. Even the roof was made up of red panes, making the entire building blend in perfectly with the red brick factories surrounding it. If viewed from the sky, she’d bet it disappeared completely.

‘I’m curious, why didn’t Kat come to the shop herself? Why’d she ask you?’

‘Well, one because I know where it is and two, Kat’s making new ammunition for us to use. She was waiting for the metal to reach a certain heat level or something like that. In short, she needs a few things, both for whatever she’s working on and the upcoming witch ceremony and she wouldn’t be able to make it in time, so…’

----------------

Prescott & Preston

10.35 pm

The tingle of a wind-chime announced their arrival when they entered the shop. Charlotte recognized one of the owners Preston from when she visited with Kat almost a year ago. Preston was in a discussion with a teenager. Alex took this moment to stare at the wares on the display shelves. There was so much color everywhere. Skinny vials with a blue liquid, Orange egg-like thingies she knew nothing about and… ‘Good God’ she whispered to Charlotte, ‘Are those eyes in that jar?’

‘I think so, yes!’ Charlotte whispered back to Alex. Enjoying the freaked out look on Alex’s face, she kept it to herself that they weren’t human eyes; inwardly smiling.

Alex located the bubbling cauldron in the corner and was drawn to it. There was red smoke coming out of it and she wondered what was in it. She left Charlotte’s side to have a look at it up-close.

‘I don’t have any. It’s half past ten, you’re supposed to be at home!’ Preston argued with the girl.

‘I don’t care! I want some liquorish wands. I know you have them! Give me some or I’ll tell my mom to hex you!’

Preston was getting annoyed at the little brat. ‘Sure, go ahead and tell your mother what you were doing at the shop at this time. I bet she’ll hex you and you’ll learn of a new spell; the ‘stay-at-home-at-night’ one’ Preston countered, crossing her arms as the teen had done.

‘Ugh, I hate you Preston!’ the girl spat and ran out of the shop almost bumping into Charlotte.

Preston turned her attention to Charlotte ‘I’m sorry about that. How may I help you?’

‘It’s fine! I’m here on behalf of Kat Tyson; I believe she called you earlier today?’

‘Yes, I remember Kat. She said you’d be coming to pick up her order. It’s already packed; I put them in this old bag, because some of them are quite heavy’ she handed Charlotte the bag labeled Kat Tyson. When she released the bag it jerked Charlotte’s body forward.

‘Wow, you weren’t kidding’

‘Not quite, no!’ Preston couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Oh, before I forget’ Charlotte reached into her back pocket pulling out a small piece of paper and handing it to Preston, ‘she asked me to pick up these too’

While reading the list, Preston looked up after every item on the list, checking to see if they were available. ‘Hmm, she needs 3 vials of the Essence of Light’ Preston said noticing there was only one vial on the shelf, ‘I’ll check in the back! If she’s lucky, I might have some left. Please wait here… and please don’t touch anything!’

The last part of that sentence was directed at Alex, hunched over the cauldron, looking ready to hurl at any minute.

Preston bumped into Val in the back room. ‘Oh, you’re back? I was wondering if I needed to gather a search party. That must’ve been one hell of a date!’

‘Pff, I’m sure it would’ve been, had I gotten the change to go… Calum needed my help’ she added seeing Preston’s questioning look.

‘You’ve been at… Oh, okay! I take it you both helped each other out then’ she grinned.

‘He needed REAL help, Preston… and yes, as a matter of fact we did’

‘Of course you did, but you could’ve called me to let me know where you were’

Val held up her juiced out phone. ‘Pretty much died on me an hour ago’

‘So, what REAL help did the elite-lover want?’

Val held out the sword. ‘He wants me to check this out. It’s a weapon that slows down their fast-healing abilities’

‘How do you know it slows it down?’ Preston said eyeing the, in her opinion, normal looking sword.

‘I cut him with it yesterday. He healed only moments before I left that place; and he’s an elite. It must be a lot slower on regular vamps. I was so tempted to use it on Chase, to test my theory, but…’

‘Chase huh? He was sent to get you I take it!’ Preston let out with a sigh, ‘How fares my brother?’

‘He looks well enough to me, putting aside the fact that I think he’s still sitting on ice. He’ll think twice the next time he tries to throw me over his shoulder and take me against my will’

Preston said nothing, just smiled. It had been a while since she saw her brother last. 23 years to be exact. Right after she partnered with Val and opened the shop. He saw her cooperation with the witches as a betrayal at that time and stopped speaking to her.

‘Oh, well, he’ll live!’ Preston said retreating into the storage room. She came out with 5 vials of Essence of Light in her hands to restock the shelves. ‘Let me just help the customers with this order and we’ll see about that sword, okay… Oh, and we’re out of Viper’s Essence. Dahlia needs some by tomorrow night. Plus, you’re Extractum Amourus potion has been boiling since yesterday and it’s releasing a really foul stench, so you may want to tend to it before you thin out our customers.

‘Oh, you can just throw it away! It failed any way. I’ll try another batch tomorrow!’ Val said moving towards a second cauldron to start on stocking up the Viper’s Essence.

‘Sorry for the wait’ Preston said returning with the Essence of Light, ‘Alright, let’s see if I got it all. That’s 3 units of Crystalized Moonbeams, 3 vials of Essence of Light, 2 units of Mystic Dust and 1 basket of Dragon Scales’ Preston said checking the list. ‘That’ll be a total of $298 and 40 cents’

Alex, again watched in awe as Preston whispered an incantation and the wares started to pack themselves. Her mouth stayed open even after receiving the plastic bag from Preston.

‘Have a magical evening’ she said as they exited the shop.

‘Come on, let’s get these back to Kat, I’m sure she… What is it?’ Charlotte said eyeing Alex, who stood sideways, looking back at where they came from.

‘I don’t know, I thought I saw something move’ Alex answered without moving. Both girls stood really still, making sure not to make a sound. If there was something or someone there, he would think they’d gone. Alex’s right hand was already lodged inside her jeans; tightly wound around her knife. They waited and waited until a stray dog came into view.

‘God, I hate it when they do that’ Charlotte exclaimed, thinking about the deer on her last gig, ‘I’m gonna start shooting them too if this happens too often. Come on, let’s get back to HQ. I’m sure Kat wants her stuff and I need some long-put-off sleep.’

Alex’s gaze lingered on the spot the dog came from, before following Charlotte. ‘Yeah, let’s go! This place gives me the creeps…’ She looked back once more before turning the corner. Alex was almost certain that what she saw a lot bigger than a dog, but in a place of magic, eyes can be deceiving…

----------------------