Old Magick

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“Pickles? Again?” Morrigan huffed loudly and slumped back in the chair at her desk, staring at the opened wrapper of her bagel. She seemed to glare at it for another long moment, then simply swept it off her desk and into the bin next to it. “How hard is it to understand no goddamn pickles...” She murmured, blowing a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes. Though she had been speaking out loud, there was no one else in the room with her. No one alive at least. It was just her and several cadavers down here in the icy basement morgue. It should have been a little unsettling to be in here alone, but she didn’t mind. It was sort of the family business. Her father had been a coroner, and her mother was an Apothecary like all the women in her bloodline before her. The only downside to the job was how little conversation she did actually get. Morrigan wasn’t an unsociable person, despite what her career of chalice may have people believing.

Morrigan grinned and picked up a sour gummy that was floating in the drink, chewing on it thoughtfully as she watched Brad. “What do you know of what I like, Brad?” She finally asked, still grinning up at him.

The man beside Alister smiled, not out off by the gruff response. “It strikes me as odd.” He mused, though was no longer looking at Alister, he was looking into the mirror behind the bar and watching two witches sat either side of the bar tender several feet away. “For a man who so clearly hates magick... you come to a bar known to be frequented by witches.”

Brad was smiling darkly as he divided his attention between the woman who was picking out the gummies and gingerly placing them on the table and the dark haired woman. He leaned even closer to the latter until their lips almost touched. "It's not hard to guess, my dear." He breathed. 

For one who had seemed drunk moments before, Alister's tone was suddenly clear and razor sharp. "I never said I hated magical, boy. I only hate the users. Besides, this bar has good liquor." 
He leaned back and waved his hand, his eyes on the mirror and the man that was taking far too many liberties with the two women across the room. 
All at once, Tabby was on her feet, knocking the the man to the floor. "Spider!" She shouted. She grabbed Morrigan's drink and doused the table. The poor young woman looked like she was about to cry. Alister chuckled, noting that Morrigan was now covered in the remainder of whatever had been on the table. The mystical spider was still dancing on the table.

Morrigan had had a definite itch that needed tending to, but that was quickly pushed aside now she found herself covered in several different drinks that had an almost sickening aroma. “Tabby!” She wailed, looking down and seeing her black tank top had sticky pieces of candy clinging to it now as well as being wet. Even the ends of her long dark hair dripped with the concoction Brad had made for them.

The man at the bar with Alister smiles when he saw Tabby react to the spider. “My time to shine, old timer.” He teased, moving across the bar and gently steering Tabby away from the commotion. “You know how to get yourself noticed, don’t you?” He asked, right green eyes dancing as he smiled down at her.

"It's not that bad." Alister said as she passed him on the way to the bathroom. He held out his hankerchief to her. "It could be a new look for you." He teased. Perhaps it was the whiskey that was making him feel a bit at ease but he reached over and pulled a bright red gummy off of her chest. "That guy was up to something, Mori." He added softly.

Tabby smiled up at him, laughing sheepishly. "It's not the worst thing I've done to be honest." She blushed. "I really should stay home. With my cat."

Morrigan sighed quietly and accepted the handkerchief offered to her. “I’m sure you’re just loving this, aren’t you?” She asked, her lavender gaze cast downwards slightly, as though ashamed she had been about to ask Brad to come home with her.

“I can’t disagree with that.” The young man replied, leaning in close to breathe the words against her ear. “This is no place for you, you’re friend, yes... but never you. You are so much better than this.”

"The whiskey sure." Alister said gently, reaching over to wipe another gummy off Mori's cheek. "Come have a glass with me and we'll talk shop. That guy is a snake." He offered, holding out a napkin.

Tabby sniffed, his words making her feel sad. Without even telling Morrigan goodbye she headed back to her apartment. She promptly seated herself on the couch and began to cry, feeling sorry for herself.

Morrigan’s gaze flicked up, quite obvious surprise in the lavender depths. She worked under the assumption Alister only tolerated her because he had to, this was quite the opposite of what she had expected him to say. “Yeah... figured as much when when he told me to price of the drinks was a date.” She replied, the ghost of her usual smile returning.

Tabby hadn’t been home more than a few minutes when her sleek ebony cat jumped through the window and straight into her lap. He was purring loudly and rubbing his furry little head against her wet cheek.

"He doesn't seem your type anyway." Alister said as he handed her a pack of wet wipes off the bar and a shot of whiskey. "Want to talk about that corpse?"

"Loki..." Tabitha breathed, reaching out to gently rub the sleek cat along the spine. "Where have you been?" She sniffed. "Did you know there's a thunderstorm coming? Do you ever think of anything but finding females?" She asked beginning to cry again. "I'll bet you don't embarrass yourself in front of everyone."

Morrigan didn’t say anything for a moment, choosing to down the shot first. “That’s your line? To talk about corpses over drinks?” She asked, casting a sideways glance at Alister. “And, how do you know what my type is? Huh? Maybe you’re my type, but too much of a jerk to see it.” She added.

If Tabitha looked closely, she would almost think the cat was smiling at that last comment. Instead, his response was to meow in a way that almost seemed to ask ‘Who, Me?’

"You're too smart for someone like me, Or maybe you're not blind enough." Alister commented as he opened another bottle and toasted to her. 

She got up and busied herself with feeding him and changing. All the while she talked about the strange presence in the house with them. She was worried by the fact that she'd felt as if she recognized it.

“Or maybe you’re just an asshole who needs to regionalise everything instead of living in the moment.” Morrigan countered as she clinked her glass against Alister’s. “I mean, you felt something int hay apartment, I know you did. But instead of talking about it, you did the asshole thing and freaked out, then blamed me!”

Loki wasn’t eating the food she set out for him, he rarely did. The food would always be gone when she got up in a morning, or came home at night, but the cat never ate it. Right then however, he seemed to simply be watching everything, feeling it too. He meowed in agreement with something she had just said. He wanted to tell her it was late. She needed to rest. He would deal with it.

"I did not freak out." Alister's steel eyes flashed with challenge. "I was in complete control. You were the one raving on about a witch being there. That old woman was out of her mind but certainly not a witch." He snorted. 

"I'm not tired." She said after closing the window so he wouldn't be able to get out...or so she thought. "Don't think that sad meow is going to convince me to take you to bed. I'm not one of your girls." She laughed, leaning over to kiss his nose.

Morrigan scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Control... that’s what it’s always about with guys like you. You need to be in control, and if you think you’re losing it...” She turned to face Alister, holding his gaze as she simply opened her grasp and allowed the whiskey glass to slip free and shatter on the floor. “Your fragile little world shatters.”

The cat purred even louder, his bright green eyes slowly closing. He meowed again and ran to her bedroom door. Whatever this feeling was, it was getting stronger and he needed to deal with it.

"You're paying for that." Alister said simply, his eyes never leaving hers. He wasn't sure what had come over him but he found himself leaning close to her, his lips brushing hers. "I saw fire. Is that what you want to hear?" He breathed. "It was so hot I couldn't breathe. It's alot like I'm feeling right now." 

Tabitha sighed and opened the door to her room, thinking the cat wanted to sleep on her bed. She went about what she was doing, trying not to listen to the loud claps of thunder that shook the small apartment, She'd been afraid of storms since she was a child. A flash of lightning finally had her rushing into her room and burying herself under the covers. The heart of the storm had arrived. There would be no sleeping that night.

“Is that my fault too?” Morrigan asked softly, keeping her gaze locked on Alister’s. “Sometimes... hot and breathless is good, right...?”

Loki was still in the living room as the storm got worse. This wasn’t natural, he hadn’t felt it coming as any normal cat would, it had suddenly... appeared. Once he thought he was certain Tabitha wouldn’t be leaving her room again, the cat form was shed and suddenly the dark haired man who had been speaking to Alister in the bar was standing in Tanitha’s living room.

The storm didn't bother Alister. For the first time in years in memory of what the witch had done to him was gone. 
The night was spent in the arms of a woman who made him feel alive again. That was a dangerous thing. He couldn't allow himself to do that. 

"Well hello, Loki." Hades appeared in the small kitchen. He smiled as he looked over Tabitha's fruit basket. He selected the pomegranate and simply tossed it from hand to hand. "I thought I sensed you in the bar..." The storm was getting worse, the apartment shaking as if an earthquake were happening. "I thought we had a deal. Stay with the married ones. What is this?"

Morrigan wasn’t even certain how it had happened. She hadn’t drank that much, had she? Certainly not enough to suddenly find herself in the bed of a man who had spent every waking moment telling her what a disgust she was. At least until tonight. Alister has been different tonight... almost alarmingly so.

Loki sighed heavily and turned to face the other dark haired man. “Hello, brother.” He murmured. “What do you even care? It’s not like I’m following your precious Morrigan.” He growled. “But for the record, I had no choice. Another witch gifted me to Tabitha.” Loki truly hated his elder sibling. Hades was more trouble than anything in any of their worlds was worth, and he constantly put everything at risk for the take of the one woman who had dared reject him.

Alister hadnt allowed himself to rest in a long time. He spent his nights pacing the halls of the precinct, studying old cases, or out in the field. But tonight he slept beside Morrigan, trusting her to keep him safe.

Hades put the pomegranate to his lips and smiled as he looked around the room. "Ah yes. Tabitha. I got a taste of her tonight." He purred. "Such a meek creature." He took a bite of the fruit and left three seeds on the counter before throwing it away. "I think I'll have a taste of her."

And that was what she did. Morrigan was draped across Alister’s chest, the dark waves of her hair slipping off to the side leaving the smooth skin of her back exposed. It looked to be like he was the one doing the protecting, the way his arms curled around her, but she was the more vulnerable of them. If anyone wished to bring harm to Alister as he slumbered, they would need to go through her first. That was assuming they ignored the tiny charm now hanging in his bedpost. Morrigan has put it there without his knowing; a Wiccan charm to warm off invasions into his dreams. Of course, they wouldn’t ward off any thoughts his own mind created. Morrigan was a young woman who lived very much in the present and now. She didn’t dwell on the past, and she certainly didn’t worry about the future.

Loki openly snarled at his older brother, green eyes blazing with jealousy. “Touch her, and you know I have no issue doing worse to Morrigan.” He swore. “Tabitha has nothing to do with whatever it is you’re scheming!”

It wasn't long before Alister had stirred, his fingers sliding along Morrigan's spine. One taste was not enough. He wasn't sure it ever would be. 

"How interesting..." Hades grabbed his brother by the chin, forcing him to meet his eyes. "You're attached to the homely thing. I was going to fuck her out of pity. Now I'm going to do it because you want her..."
"Loki!" Tabitha came hopping into the room, trying to pull on her shoe. "I received a call from the office. I have to go. Are you coming?"

Morrigan murmured softly as she felt the rough fingers slide up her spine. She smiled slightly, though didn’t let her dark lashes flutter open just yet. “I’m not letting you go, detective.” She teased, taking his hands from where they had settled against her bare skin and pinning them to the pillow either side of his head as she finally sat up, still straddled across his hips.

Loki froze, his green gaze fixed only on Hades. Tabitha was the only woman he had ever loved, but his curse prevented him from acting upon it. That same curse however, almost insisted he protect her. Usually he was forced to keep feline form around her, but doing to now would leave her at the mercy of his brother. He only hoped she was in such a hurry she rushed right out the door when she got no answer from him.

For the first time since he'd been injured, Alister smiled. He assumed Morrigan couldn't see him in the darkness and it made him feel better. He didn't want her to stop. His face would change everything. 

"Loki?" Tabby paused, looking around the room in the darkness. The power was out from the storm and she had no way to see  the midnight black cat. "Loki...I need you." She breathed.
"What a weak little witch. So broken." Hades chuckled. "She is nothing like my Nyx...and especially not my Morrigan." He was keeping the two of them hidden from sight, playing on Tabby's fear of being alone.

“Oh, so that’s it? You just wanted my body? Not even an attempt at chit chat?” Morrigan teased, her dark hair tickling against Alister’s shoulder as she leaned down and brushed her full lips against his own. “Although... I did make you call out my name...” She breathed against his ear, giggling quietly as she touched feather light kisses to the scarred side of his face.

Loki’s handsome face contorted in anger when Hades breathed that name. “Fucking Nyx!” He snarled. “The bitch hides like a coward, because she knows as soon as I find her... I’ll rip that shrivelled lump she calls a heart right out of her chest!”

"You have no proof." Alister breathed, pushing his hips up until he was deep inside her. There it was. Morrigan's heat swept over him like a wave. "Morrigan..." He whispered, though there was no way he would admit to having done it.

Tabby sighed shakily, the sound strange in the silence. Hades waved his hand, forcing Loki into silence and back into his feline form as he disappeared. 
"There you are..." Tabby was grabbing for her purse when she saw the sleek black cat. "Do you hate me so much you hide from me?" She whispered, shaking her head. "I don't suppose I blame you."

Morrigan has been about to breathe his name in return when she heard her phone ringing somewhere on the bedroom floor. She wanted to ignore it, truly she did, but it was the ringtone signalling that someone from the Wiccan counsel was trying to contact her. “Oh fuck...” That was all she managed as her crimson nails sank into Alister’s chest.

If possible, the large black cat actually looked quite forlorn as he ran to his mistress. He was meowing loudly and rubbing against her legs. Something was wrong. The storm was fading, it the fact that Tabitha was being called into work out of hours was never good.

Alister's phone began to ring as well, the soft vibration coming from somewhere across the room in his discarded pants. He ignored it. Instead he rested his hands on her hips, keeping their rythum going. 

"You're probably planning to kill me like Mrs. Duffle." Tabby laughed as she'd picked the cat up and dumped him into her expanding purse. "I think I'll give you to Mori. You'd be happier in the drafty house she lives in. Besides, she likes cats."

Morrigan foolishly continued to ignore the call to her phone, finding it second place to the delicious way Alister made her feel. The whole room should have been warm with the body heat they were expending, it somehow it was fresh and crisp, like the first frost of winter. That was until Morrigan suddenly howled in agony, gripping her forehead and shrieking about someone not punishing her. The Counsel did not take kindly to being ignored.

The cat growled low in his throat, in the way most cats did when intensely displeased with something. That something wasn’t being thrust into the purse either. All this because his idiot brother had fallen in love with the wrong sister.

Alister's sat up, kissing Morrigan's forehead. "Go." He whispered gruffly. "I have things of my own to deal with." He said nothing more as he sat Morrigan aside and walked to the bathroom, the door shutting sharply behind him. 

Tabitha hated these meetings. The coven was filled with all kinds of lovely witches who seemed to know how wonderful they were. They all walked with their noses in the air. She assumed it was because of her size and homely looks, not to mention her affinity for gardening over death. 
Gingerly, she pulled Loki from her bag and placed him on her shoulders. "Just wait till you see this lot." She whispered. "If I could turn them into mice...you could eat them." She snorted. "Knowing you they'd probably make lovely cats and you'd be in heaven." She added with a laugh, reaching up to scratch under his ear. "I'm still mad at you, you know."

Morrigan’s vision was still blurred somewhat from the intense pain the Coven had caused her, but that didn’t keep her from scowling hatefully at the bathroom door. The rough way he had closed the door made it feel very much like he had gotten what he wanted from her, and that was that. Feeling cheap and used, the dark haired witch gathered up her clothing and her bag, muttering to herself all the while that she should hex him and be done with it. Hell, she could poison his coffee and he would never even know. Alister would have no question about how Morrigan was feeling, the front door slammed hard enough to crack the glass slightly.

Morrigan had made a quick stop at home to shower and change her clothes before she too swept into the building that was home to the high coven. The young witch had never made it any secret that she had no love for the other witches here, Tabitha not included. She walked with confident strides, knowing they looked down on her because she favoured science over their precious magick.
“You know, anywhere else and they would have you locked away for talking to your cat so much.” Morrigan remarked when she found her friend, pausing to tickle Loki which, as always, earned her a hiss and a swipe.

Tabby laughed at this, leaning her head into Loki's when he head butted her. "He's good company when he wants to be." She said. "So...I hear Beatrice is here. I haven't seen her out of her crypt in years. This has to be serious." 
As if on que the ancient witch passed them, two well built and spellbound bodyguards on either side of her. "Inside ladies. Now." She snapped.