There is Power in Blood and in Beginnings

  The Power in Blood is the Power to Bind

  The Power in Beginnings Amplifies

  Initiates become Worthy only when both conditions are taken in.

  Thus may they rule all the world.

  Powers of the Maji, 1st Lesson

  Eager to share her newfound miracle she called Natalie on the barely-used ndline mounted on the wall in her kitchen. She was filled with nervous energy as the phone rang, the seconds waiting for her friend to pick up feeling like an eternity. Natalie finally answered, her voice sounding strange. “Emmie? Where have you been girl? I’ve been calling you for two days. I was really starting to get worried. Are you ok?”

  Two days? Surely I haven’t been asleep that long. She immediately dismissed the thought. “Never mind that, Nat. I need you to come to my house, like right now. It’s important.”

  “Do you know what time it is? My parents would kill me coming out this te. Why? What’s the matter? I heard about that thing at school….”

  “Look,” Emily interrupted, not wanting to think about the fiasco that in her mind happened only a few hours ago. “I really need you to come over. Please? I’ll expin everything once you get here. I know I’m asking you to stick your neck out but I need you. What time is it anyway?”

  “It’s nearly midnight and...wait. You don’t know what time it is? What is going on with you? You know what? Nevermind. I’ll be over in about 10 minutes, but you will tell me everything, you hear me? And you are gonna owe me big time dy!”

  “Of course, Nat. And thank you.” Emily hung up the phone with a smile, her hand absently stroking the book she didn’t realize she held.

  ******

  Ten and a half minutes ter Natalie walked in the door without bothering to knock. “Ok girl. What’s the emergency…” She trailed off as she noticed Emily, her best friend for as long as they’d known each other, leaning on her kitchen counter with a Mona Lisa smile. Her jaw dropped. Emily’s smile grew wider at her friend’s reaction but didn’t say anything, just gazed at her with more self-possession, more confidence than Natalie had ever seen from her. The moment stretched; her hand went sck on the door handle as she tried to collect her thoughts. She had no words.

  Emily’s voice finally broke into the silence. “From your reaction, I guess you’re surprised at my change in apperance?”

  That statement broke open the floodgates for her best friend. “Uh, in the interest of stating the obvious, no shit Sherlock! How? Did you go to a spa or something? Pstic surgery? Divine intervention? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I never thought you were ugly or anything, but now you look like you should be on a magazine cover....”

  Emily held up her hands to forestall the verbal barrage. “Nat, Nat! Calm down! Here, come sit on the couch and I’ll expin, at least what I remember of it.” She recounted the events that happened only hours ago to her mind. She did not volunteer much information about her strange dreams. Her recollection of them was already shrouded in a red-tinged haze that triggered emotions of both dread and awe. Of the book there was no mention other than her discovery. Shortly before Natalie arrived Emily had a strong compulsion to open the book that was even now sitting on her p and prick her finger, to spill a drop of blood on the pristine pages. She didn’t tell her friend about the way the droplet formed a strange pattern identical to the one on her mother’s forgotten locket before disappearing into the pages without a trace. It was a pretty short retelling, all things considered. Natalie looked skeptical.

  “So basically you had a shitty day a couple days ago that to you was only this morning, you ran home, wished on a star or something and woke up looking like a goddess. Is that about right?”

  “Far fetched I know. Still, can’t argue with the results right?” Emily bit her lip, looking pensive.

  Natalie saw the vulnerability and her heart went out to her friend. She gave Emily a hug. “No girl, there’s no arguing with the results. But it doesn’t matter with me, I love you no matter what.” She pulled out of the hug and smiled at Emily, who looked back at her with an appreciative smile and a single tear in her bright violet eyes.

  By mutual silent accord they dropped that line of conversation, turning to more regur topics. They sat close on the couch, half-watching a movie on cable. In the back of her mind, Emily considered Natalie. She was, in a word, unfinished. It was clear to anyone paying attention that Natalie would become an exotic beauty with her deeply tanned skin and canted hazel eyes, her long legs and pert, tear-shaped breasts and her hair in a multitude of tiny braids hanging just past her shoulder bdes. She had some filling out to do but was well on her way to becoming a great beauty. Her outcast status was due to her attitude (blunt) and the fact that she was a mixed race young woman in a predominantly white neighborhood. Sure there were a couple guys that tried to ‘put the moves’ on her when she first arrived at the school half way through their sophomore year, but she saw through their pathetic attempts to bag the bck girl and put a notch on their pubescent bed posts, shutting them down in short order. And she was way too smart and outspoken to find a home with the popur girls and their mostly vapid conversations. Despite that, she’d been insecure about her looks since Emily had known her, though she’d never share that with anyone else. And it was clear from the furtive sidelong gnces Natalie gave her that she was feeling quite envious of her friend’s metamorphosis. She kept it well concealed but Emily knew her friend, knew what must have going through her mind. She was worried that she was on the verge of losing her best friend, in truth her only friend no matter what she’d told Emily earlier.

  Emily felt the book go warm in her right hand; she’d been unconsciously stroking it and the sensation made her flinch slightly. Natalie was watching the screen as they talked and didn’t notice. The temperature of the book returned to normal almost as soon as it warmed. Emily could have imagined it. Indeed, after a few minutes where the book did nothing more innoculous than y in her p, she figured that she actually did imagine it. She dismissed the book’s strange behavior just like she dismissed the way her blood shaped a pattern on a now bnk page little more than an hour gone. She settled back into the couch, moving close enough to Natalie for their bare shoulders to touch. The skin contact made her feel warm, connected to her friend. Images began to cascade in her mind, indistinct yet powerful. Emily sat bolt upright, jarring Natalie from her comfortable position. “What’s wrong Em,” Natalie asked, half in worry and half in irritation.

  Emily ignored her question; the kalidescopic images threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to focus inward, tried to make sense of the impressions. As sudden as they came, the images coalesed into one coherent idea. Before she knew it, Emily blurted out, “I know how to make you change like I did.”

  A flurry of emotions fshed across Natalie’s countenance, surprise, anger, nervousness, incredulity, longing. She looked like she’d been gut punched. She took a breath, attempting to regain her composure in the face of a sudden intense violet stare. “Um, Em? What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” Emily said in an imperious voice, new for her and quite out of character, “that I have noticed your envy, your longing, your desire to change as I have changed. I can give it to you. I know how to do it.”

  “Don’t be silly, girl.” Natalie ughed nervously. “I have no idea what you’re talkin….” The lie died before it could cross her lips and her mouth abruptly dried up. She had no words when faced with Emily’s hawkish gre, sharpened to sudden dagger-points.

  “Look, Nat. I am not going to lose my best friend because something amazing and unexpined happened to me.” She reached over to grab Natalie’s hands, to squeeze them gently but firmly. “I love you Natalie. I know you’ve always had a hang-up about your looks, thinking you weren’t really pretty for some reason. Well, I can help with that. I can make you as beautiful as you think you should be, if you let me.”

  Natalie gulped, unable to look away from her friend’s arresting stare. “What would I have to do,” she said, her voice low and aprehensive.

  Emily looked away, blushed to the roots of her hair, and for the first time that night her voice came out timid like the Emily of old. “Well, um...I have to, to,” She took a deep breath then, visibly steeling herself, returned her eyes to Natalie. “I would have to kiss you.” She looked down.

  Natalie’s eyes went wide in surprise and disbelief. “How do you know this?”

  “I just know, alright? Do you trust me Nat?” Head lowered, Emily peered up at her friend through a curtain of lustrious red-gold hair, an adorable little pout on her lips. The world paused as amber eyes met violet. Natalie took a deep breath. Another. Emily pleaded with her eyes, unwilling to break the gaze, unwilling to lose her friend.

  “Are you sure about this?” Natalie asked then, her resolve weakening, her stubbornness dissolving in the face of the certainty she saw in her friend’s eyes. Emily nodded quietly, her gaze steady. “Ok.” Their grips tighten, they leaned forward, refusing to break eye contact until the very st second. Their lips met.

  The kiss was chaste at first and a little awkward. Neither of them had ever kissed anyone before. It was then that Emily found that more than her body had changed. Her mind suddenly had experience, experience she had not gained on her own. All of a sudden she knew just how to please another woman, how to guide her, how to seduce. And she knew she had to seduce her. A kiss wasn’t enough; the connection had to be deeper if she was to do what she promised. She knew that the connection had to be deeper. She also knew that to tell her friend this would scare her away before such a connection could be established. She had to take things slowly or else lose her completely.

  Emily let her unearned experience guide her, gradually deepening the kiss and making Natalie squirm with the unfamiliar pleasure. As their tongues danced with each other Emily released Natalie’s hands to touch her slowly. Her caresses served to heighten anticipation. Mostly using her fingertips, Emily raised goosebumps along Natalie’s arms and made her shudder. She marveled at how Natalie’s body responded to her, as if her entire body craved her touch; it made her want to explore more. Her hands began to journey under her friend’s T-shirt and felt her abdominal muscles tightening, her breath speeding up. Her hands inched up her body slowly, the destination and her intentions clear even to one so inexperienced. Her motions were achingly slow, eliciting soft moans of both pleasure and frustration. Natalie seemed primed to surrender, leaning back on her hands and offering up her body to be caressed. But when Emily’s magical hands finally reached Natalie’s high-pointed breasts to let her fingertips lightly drift toward hardened peaks she broke the kiss and turned her head away. “I’m not a lesbian,” she whispered, embarrassed, her skin visibly blushed despite her darker skin tone. Emily knew she wanted to continue, that she wanted to be convinced. She was afraid of her own arousal, and so offered a token protest; it was up to Emily to guide her.

  “Rex, sweet Natalie,” Emily said in a low, sultry voice meant to bypass rational thought. “It’s just kissing practice, for when we get boyfriends. Let your friend take care of you.” Before she could respond, Emily kissed her neck, drawing out another moan.

  “This...isn’t...just kissing,” she protested again, breathlessly but with a tinge of heat.

  “Do you really want me to stop?” Emily interupted any possible answer by reciming her mouth while one of her fingertips traced a distended nipple. When she applied pressure Natalie’s body jerked as if hit with a live wire, her wide eyes going even wider. Then she pulled away but kept firm pressure on the nipple between her fingers. She looked into Nat’s eyes. “Do you really want me to stop?” Emily asked again, her low tone promising pleasure she had never known. Meanwhile her other hand gravitated toward her friend’s other nipple and was pinching slightly. Natalie shook her head no, almost against her will, overwhelmed by all the sensations induced by her friend. Emily leaned in then, her breath tickling Natalie’s ear. “Not good enough,” she whispered, hard. “I want to hear it. Tell me you don’t want me to stop.”

  “Don’t stop,” Natalie responded to both the demand and her growing desire, her voice barely audible. “Please.”

  Emily smiled and removed her hands from underneath the shirt, noting the slight frown of disappointment on her friend’s face. “Then take off your shirt,” she said, her voice husky and demanding. Natalie, flushed with ever-growing lust both from Emily’s touch and her voice, wasted no time complying with the given order. Emily explored her neck and torso with lips and tongue, slowly trailing kisses in unpredictable lines up and down her friend’s body. Natalie’s responses to her kisses served to heighten her own pleasure and drove away any lingering questions on how she obtained her expertise.

  With Natalie’s willing surrender, Emily could somehow feel the connection growing, even straining against some unseen barrier. The feeling drove her to heights of passion she’d never reached. She ripped buttons in her haste to remove her uniform shirt, leaving her torso bare save for an unattractive bra. Less than a moment ter the bra joined her shirt on the floor next to the couch. She needed the skin to skin contact, craved it. Her ministrations, so slow and so careful at first, became aggressive and nearly frentic; Natalie, near blinded by her lust, responded in kind. After taking the minimal amount of time to disrobe they fell upon each other again, seeking the fire of contact, the power of connection. Driven by an impulse she could not understand, Emily nipped her friend’s lip as they kissed, drawing blood. At the taste of blood Emily’s vision doubled for just a moment before snapping back into focus. Then, a voice spoke inside her head, a voice from dimly remembered dreams.

  There is power in blood and in beginnings child. You do well to bring her to me. She is worthy to serve. Emily’s head jerked, fear momentarily drowning out her passion. Her mind, so long fogged by lust and the novelty of new experiences, suddenly cleared. Was this what I wanted?, she asked herself. I wanted my friend back, not a servant! Oh God, what is happening to me? The period of lucidity was brief; the energy shared between the two of them overwhelmed any sembnce of rational thought. The feel of Natalie’s skin, rich and decadant against her palms and fingertips, heighened her senses too much to stop, the kiss too sweet, too intoxicating. The taste of Natalie’s blood, of her life, it threatened to wash her away in a wave of insensate desire. She pulled from the source but not deeply; the voice somehow nestled in her head urged caution. It is not yet time to damage the minion. Again the voice intruded upon her consciousness, breaking her consentration but also preventing her from falling into the abyss. Who are you? she whispered to the entity in her head, afraid of the answer she would recieve.

  I am your Mistress. Your blood in my book binds us. I promised to instruct you in the ways of power. Be not afraid child. I shall never cause you harm. Emily remembered that promise, given by a goddess with ancient eyes, given to a lonely girl in a forest glen, kneeling as several forms of light and shadow encircled them in dance. She remembered, and something awakened within her. She began to feel it, a power fit to remake her world, a power to punish those who had always slighted and degraded her. You need only embrace it child, the voice instructed. Dare she? She had never been the type to crave power and domination before. She was not ambitious, not covetous, she only wanted to be left alone. Would you prefer that I withdraw my gift, the shadow voice asked sweetly. Do you wish to go back to your previous form? It is within my power to choose another to carry out my will, leaving you bereft of all the beauty I have bestowed upon you, ignorant of the heights you could achieve. You must choose, child. I will not compel you. Choose. And a fear so great that it made her gasp aloud gripped her heart at the prospect of returning to her ugly duckling existence. She hated the girl she was. She could not imagine going back to that after seeing what she looked like in her new body, couldn’t wait to see how others would react. She could not hesitate now. And if she could change Natalie too, then she would not have to be alone. The decision was surprisingly easy. I accept your will, Mistress. I will embrace the power.

  Her conversation with the ancient entity sted an eyeblink. She was finding time to be as unreliable as her dreams whenever the Mistress spoke to her. Natalie noticed nothing; her eyes were still blinded by pleasure. Emily’s hands never stopped moving over her supple flesh, her kisses never sckened. Natalie’s hands began to move too, tentatively, across Emily’s back and shoulders and anything she could reach. The part of Emily that was connected to the Mistress was slightly annoyed at Natalie’s fumbling touches but was resigned to let her. There will be plenty of time to teach her the proper ways of pleasure. For now, we are content.

  Emily, having accepted the will of her Mistress into her heart, was no longer startled when the voice occasionally spoke or conveyed emotion. She knew that it was the price she had to pay to obtain the power she wanted, to maintain the gift she’d recieved. Yet she was distinctly uncomfortable with the contempt the Mistress had for her friend. I have to make her worthy, Emily thought. I must make her useful, lest the Mistress force me to discard her. The horror brought on by that thought disquieted her despite the truth behind it, perhaps because of it. No more thinking, she shouted inside her head, to herself of course, never the Mistress. Speaking to the Mistress in that manner would be a very, very bad idea.

  Emily let herself become entranced by her partner and their fledgling lovemaking. She let herself enjoy Natalie’s attempts at returning the pleasure she had recieved at Emily’s efforts. She let herself feel her friend’s love because it let her ignore her Mistress and what she was beginning to suspect was a terrible deal. She tapped into her borrowed experience, wanting desperately to turn her friend’s moans into screaches of pleasure and lust. Pushing Natalie back to the couch seat, Emily settled between her legs and hovered above her. “Rex, my friend. I want to make you cum.”

  With Natalie’s now eager nod Emily briefly kissed down the length of her body, the trail leading inexorably to her lover’s center. She arrived to find a sparsely furred mound already glistening with wetness. The heady aroma called to Emily, made her mouth water in kind. She kissed around the area to make Natalie writhe in anticipation and frustration, then looked up into a pair of smoky amber eyes. Natalie, legs spread wide, had risen up to her elbows. Her intense stare spoke of her desire clearer than words ever could, but she had to speak anyway. “Please,” said Natalie, nearly begging for release, not knowing for what she was asking, needing it regardless.

  The look was too much for even her borrowed experience to temper. It told her to make her beg in truth, to draw out the pleasure. Emily could not. She needed to make her friend cum; her own body demanded it. She dove in, immediately prodding her friend’s joy buzzer. Natalie’s body stiffened as if she was being electrocuted in truth, her back arched, the back of her head smmed into the couch cushions. She let out a wordless, breath. Emily intensified her efforts, attacking her clitoris with lips, tongue and teeth. When Emily slid two fingers into her constricting hole Natalie’s hips began to buck seemingly of their own volition, greedily sucking in the fingers and reluctantly letting go, over and over. Emily pyed her body skillfully as a master pys an instrument and each cry of release gave her a joy so profound she was close to fainting. She could not help but to touch herself as well, the fingers she stroked inside Natalie marking time with the fingers she moved within herself.

  Emily felt Natalie’s climax building. She felt the rythmn and felt her body match it. Her fingers, both within her friend and herself, began to thrust harder, faster. Natalie was gasping for breath, unable to form coherent words. Suddenly Emily stopped sucking her lover’s clit, instead providing stimution with her thumb as she slid up her body. “Cum for me, Nat,” she whispered, then bit her own lip as her hands continued to drive her friend to climax. Then she felt it, both within herself and Natalie, the tightening of muscle, the restriction of their velvetine vices as they sought to grab their prizes and never let go, the release of fluid. They were cumming together and the tempest was exileratiing and overwhelming. They kissed hard, their blood mingling on each other’s tongues and for an instant Emily felt an awareness of her friend stronger than words and completely indescribable. The only thing that was certain was that she had bonded Natalie in much the same way as she was bonded to the Mistress by the book. And as the Mistress had become her master, she had become Natalie’s.

  The intensity of her orgasm was too much for Natalie; she passed out shortly after giving Emily a look full of more love than she’d ever seen and a promise that this would not be the st time if she had anything to say on the subject. The look pleased both Emily and the Mistress, though Emily thought their pleasure was for different reasons entirely. Regardless, Natalie passing out had been a boon, for what would come next would be painful. Pain brings Change, recited the Mistress perfunctually, and there was a price to be paid to honor her promise. “Sleep, my friend,” Emily said, wiping sweat from Natalie’s forehead. “The pain you will feel is temporary, but you will be remade and you will thank me for it.” I hope, she added silently. With a sudden fsh of reddish light, Natalie began to quiver in her sleep as her body changed. Emily id next to her and held her, feeling some of the pain of transformation inside her own breast. Exhausted from the activity and the reveations of the day, gritting her teeth against occasional pain, Emily drifted off to sleep next to her friend, her lover, her first minion.