Crazy Seduction(erotica)

“Am I safe around her like this?” he asked.

Tish looked to Camila. “I’m no expert when it comes to this. Any ideas?”

“I believe it’s perfectly safe, but we could ask Mahati. Get a wielder’s opinion. Is she still with your family in the dining room?” Camila said with a shrug.

Tish nodded. “She and Kali have dropped their glamors, as has Michelle, and they have everyone captivated. It turned out my sister-in-law, Julie, has a touch of Arachnophobia. It’s not extreme, thankfully. Nothing worse than Sandy’s. Jackie’s husband Nick isn’t too comfortable with snakes, but again, it’s manageable. None of the kids are having any issues, so that’s a relief. Speaking of Sandy, Kesini is a huge hit with the kids.”

“Where is Lorelei?” Henry asked.

Tish looked at him. “Uh, I think I saw her in the front sitting room.”NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

Henry gently disengaged from Camila and walked to the front room. He spotted his friend sitting on the middle of the couch with Aadiya and Maliha curled up on either side of her, resting their heads on her legs but facing her. Henry picked up immediately that Lorelei wasn’t happy. The twins were very sensitive to mood, and they were holding her hands and watching her. Henry immediately knelt before Lorelei, and the twins sat up beside her, leaning gently against her shoulders.

“What happened?” he asked.

She tried to shrug it off, but her lip suddenly trembled. Henry stood, reached down, and pulled her from the couch to hold her against his chest. “Talk to me, please.”

She hesitated for a moment, then he felt her relax. “I-I tried to ignore it, but it’s eating at me,” she said quietly against his chest.

Aadiya and Maliha moved to the loveseat, and Henry sat facing Lorelei on the couch with her hands in his. She was looking at his big three fingers and thumb as she ran her much slimmer digits against them. “It was when you lost control, and the energy was in the house. They wanted the two boys to come inside to change, but they only wanted them, and they needed to be prepared. They asked me to sing them into the house.”

“What? Who did?” Henry asked firmly.

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter-”

“It does. Who?” Henry insisted, and Lorelei looked into his eyes.

“Dayshia.”

Henry looked to the twins. “Please bring Dayshia here.” They leapt from the loveseat to race away.

“No, please,” Lorelei began, but Henry held her gaze. “It’s important.”

They heard a squeak and some squawking, but soon the twins returned with Dayshia between them. She didn’t look happy, but she froze when she saw the tears on Lorelei’s cheeks. Her eyes immediately went to Henry and saw his grim expression. Her unhappiness became dread.

“We can’t ask Lorelei to use her abilities to manipulate children,” he stated calmly.

“What? I didn’t-” she began.

Henry pushed. “Did you ask Lorelei to sing to bring your two nephews to the house and prepare them for the transformation?”

“I-I-yes, but how is that different from the music she is creating-”

“Dayshia! It’s completely different! One is a message of peace and love sent out into the world to calm and heal everyone and save lives. The other targeted two children to perform specific actions. It was direct manipulation of these two kids. Not bad manipulation as the actions were in their best interests and I assume had parental approval, but you have to understand how it might feel to Lorelei.”

Dayshia’s bottom lip was trembling, and her eyes were getting glassy. Henry needed to get out in front of that. “We know you didn’t do it maliciously. It likely felt like the simplest solution, but it wasn’t something we should ever ask her to do.”

“I’m sorry,” Dayshia said in a little girl’s voice. Her eyes showed she was almost reaching a state of panic.

Henry stood and held out a hand to Lorelei. She took it and stood to face Dayshia. She nodded to the woman. “Thank you.” Henry leaned in and kissed Lorelei’s temple. Then he immediately pulled Dayshia to his chest to hug her as well. Dayshia was surprised and burst into tears of relief.

He held them both until Lorelei pushed back gently to face Dayshia with a curious expression.

Dayshia glanced to Henry, then back to Lorelei. “I-I’m sorry I asked you to use your abilities without considering how it would make you feel.” Lorelei nodded, so Dayshia looked back at Henry. “You don’t hate me?” The little girl’s voice was back.

He smiled and kissed her forehead tenderly. “Of course not!”

“I thought-I thought I’d ruined another relationship,” she stammered.

Henry shook his head. “I know you didn’t do it intentionally or maliciously. This is all completely new to us, so we need to be vigilant about being aware of each other’s feelings.”

Aadiya and Mahali wanted to be part of the hug, so they joined in and rubbed their faces against Dayshia’s and Lorelei’s.

Henry chuckled and smiled at the ladies. “They’re very affectionate.”

Lorelei smiled at Henry. “I think I’ll go home now and get some sleep. It’s been an emotional day, and I’m feeling a little worn out. I’m not used to being around so many people.”

Dayshia’s eyes were getting glassy again, so Lorelei reached out and took her hand. “It’s okay. Apology accepted.”

“Let me walk you home,” Henry offered, and Dayshia snorted involuntarily, drawing Lorelei’s curious eyes.

“Sorry. The walk home becomes a different level of gesture when a Magic Door or a neighboring condo are involved,” Dayshia explained with a small smile.

Lorelei paused to think about that and chuckled. “I suppose it does!”

“Still, it’s the gentlemanly thing to do, and I’m nothing if not a gentleman,” Henry insisted with a smile.

Lorelei stepped back from the hug to bow slightly to him. “I will graciously take you up on your offer then.”

The twins went back to the loveseat to cuddle together and nap as the hug was breaking up.

Henry dipped down and gave Dayshia a sweet kiss, and she smiled up at him as she turned to head back to the dining room.

“We could take a long route via the stairs or just walk through the door,” he offered.

“The long route,” she immediately said.

That drew a smile from Henry, so he nodded and offered an elbow to her. She slipped her arm through, and they went to the stairs leading down into the earth.

Lorelei was surprised by how long the stairs went. “Where is the vestibule in comparison to the house?”

“The caves are pretty deep underground. I haven’t measured it,” Henry explained.

“Caves?”

“Would you like a quick look?” Henry offered, and she nodded quickly, a little excitement returning to her eyes.

“The previous owner of the mansion was a dragon-”

“Like the one we met outside the theatre!” Lorelei exclaimed.

“Walter was much, much older. He was an evil bastard,” Henry growled slightly.

Lorelei looked over at Henry. “You obviously didn’t care for him.”

Henry smiled weakly and nodded. “He was the one who actually created the curse that wiped out Humanity-with Mab’s help.”

“Oh!” Lorelei gasped.

They finally reached the chamber with the doors, and she looked back at the stairs. “We’re quite a distance underground! The way the stairs turn is deceptive.”

Henry nodded and guided her to the double doors leading into the cave system.

“Can we come too?”

Henry turned to see a group of kids standing behind him. Layla was their designated leader, being the oldest. He looked back at the basket of headlamps and saw they only had eight of them. He turned around, and even more kids had arrived.

“Not enough lights for the kids,” Lorelei realized.

Henry scanned Baba’s spells for something that produced light. He skipped the ones that powered themselves from the user’s life force and the one that exploded the target into light energy.

He found a Will-o’-the-Wisp spell. He reviewed the magic and saw they were designed to lead the unwary to their doom. He made a copy and stripped out all the malevolent code. He replaced this with instructions to be a companion light. Instead of leading their target, they’d remain at fingertip’s reach directly above the head of their target. He added color controls so they could be adjusted but still give enough light to see.

“Okay, I have a better way,” Henry said with a grin. He faced Lorelei and touched the crown of her head as he fed energy into the spell.

The kids excitedly cheered as a ball of slow-burning wispy fire suddenly popped into being above Lorelei’s head. Henry ran his finger through it to show it wasn’t dangerous and gave off no heat.

“Me! Me! Me!” the kids called out, and Lorelei clapped in delight as she looked up to see her own fireball. She reached up to poke it and giggled.

“It’s so pretty!” she said.

“Think of a color as you touch it,” Henry suggested.

She did, and the flames turned a pale blue.

That ramped the kid’s excitement levels to max. “Me!”

He chuckled and saw more of the kids were arriving, and a few parents joined to see what the noise was all about. He gave one to Layla, and she immediately poked it to turn it pale red.

“Thank you!” she said, and he nodded to her.

“I may not be able to throw a snowball very well, but I can make fireballs like no one else,” he told her, and she giggled happily.