Message-ID: <16527eli$9810150723@qz.little-neck.ny.us> X-Archived-At: From: tigger@alices.com (Tigger) Subject: RP TG: A Change of Direction (19/22) (Magic, TG) Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Reply-To: tigger@alices.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Path: qz!not-for-mail Organization: The Committee To Thwart Spam Approved: X-Moderator-Contact: Eli the Bearded X-Story-Submission: X-Original-Message-ID: <36254b62.11373799@news.erols.com> A Change of Direction Part 19 by Tigger Copyright 1997, all rights reserved. Archiving/publication of this author's work on any system that requires payment in any form is prohibited by the author and is in violation of my copyright to Chapters 7 and beyond. No archiving or redistribution of this work is permitted without this copyright attribution included, intact and complete, in the posting/archiving. A Change of Direction Chapter 25 The phone in Laurie's bedroom rang. Fumbling in the dark, she reached over to answer it. An excited voice stumbled over the words, and had to repeat them twice. Whoever it was, wanted to speak to Bronwyn - *immediately*. She shook her lover awake and handed over the receiver before padding off to the bathroom. When she returned, the bedroom was ablaze with light, and a tear-stricken Bronwyn was furiously pulling on her clothes. "Bronwyn, what is the matter?" Laurie asked moving to her friend's side. "It's Bobbie." she sobbed, dashing away a tear. "She had the child tonight, but no sooner had they taken the child from the birth canal, then armed men stormed the birthing room. The nurse midwife and the attending doctor were killed. The baby and Bobbie have disappeared. I am leaving on the next flight to Austin to help the Sisters search." "Do...do we know if the rites were performed?" Laurie asked. "No, but it would seem that they weren't. An intern watching on closed circuit television told the first Sister on the scene that the men took the child from the midwife's hands before she had even straightened up from catching him." A cold chill ran down Laurie's spine. "That sounds terribly like whoever did this was trying to prevent the Birth Rites. That means it is probably the Brotherhood behind this." Grimly, Bronwyn nodded. "I agree. That is why I want you to alert the Sisterhood. I want a search team in Austin as soon as we can possibly get them there. And I want you to be standing by to come if we need . . . if we need a healer." Laurie nodded and helped Bronwyn into her jacket. "I will call as soon as I know anything. Take care of Jacqui, luv." And with that, she was out the door. Alone and afraid, Laurie stood there in the center of the room, at a loss about what to do next. Then she knew. Getting her robe, she went out of her room and down the hall to Jacqui's room where she crawled into bed beside her child. Someone she knew may well have lost a child this night. May the Goddess have mercy on anyone who tried to take or to harm *her* child. Laurel Donovan, gentle healer and high adept of the peace loving Sisterhood, would have none. ********************** Lancaster was well pleased with this evening's work. The woman and the child had been kept separate since their capture. Gloating, he examined the small woman more closely. She had some Asian blood in her with those small bones and that long, straight, black hair. Contemptuously, he asked himself how anyone could think that this puny female, this un- manned creature, could possibly be someone that he, the High Leader of the Brotherhood, First in the Power of the Dark One, should have to fear? It was laughable. The child chose that moment to awaken and to announce that fact loudly in the way of all newborns. Not accustomed to children, the noise angered Lancaster who reacted as he always did when upset. He struck out at the nearest being to him. His back hand brought Roberta out of the half conscious state she had been in since the birth of her child. Dazed, she looked up at Lancaster's furious face. "Shut that child up, woman. Now!" He was bellowing. "He's hungry." She said in a thready whisper. "He won't stop until he's been fed." The noise was more than the Lancaster could stand. Without thinking, he snatched the bawling child up and nearly threw him at the woman. "Then FEED him." Roberta did not expect to survive this, but she feared her child might. Quickly, she bared her breast and put the child to her nipple, all the while mumbling the words of the Birth Rites that been taught to her by the High Priestess. She had just completed the silently spoken spell when her child found and clamped onto her puckered nipple. As he began to suck furiously at her, she felt something start to build inside her. It grew and became stronger, until it was like her nipple was connected to an electrical circuit. And then, she knew it all. The full power of the Transformation Spell was now hers to command. Holding her child tightly against her breast, she sang the song of power, felt the power come to her, felt it enfold her, and finally, felt it change her. The men in the room saw it, too. Suddenly, the tiny woman was over seven feet tall and still growing. Huge muscles bulged on her limbs, and hard shell-like armor seemed to appear about her body. The first of the Brothers to recover hurled himself at her and was flung aside like a doll, crumpling against the wall. A melee ensued, with the Brothers trying to subdue the huge monster-woman, but their weapons, bodies and powers were unequal to the task. Grimly, Roberta started moving toward the door and freedom, determined to escape this place and to warn her Sisters. Lancaster had stood apart during the free-for-all, partly because he was furious with himself for having been the one to give the child to the woman, and partly to ascertain the full extent of the woman's power. His inaction ended when he saw her make a break for the door. With great deliberation, he raised both of his hands above his head. His lips moved, making soundless words in a language known only to the followers of the Dark One. The raised hands turned black and began to shimmer and pulse with a strange glow that heralded the total absence of light rather than its presence. The glow coalesced into a writhing mass that was contained between his two hands for just a moment, and then it reached out to the fleeing Transformed Sister and her child. The instant the lightlessness touched her, Roberta screamed in hellish agony. The dark hole enveloped her, surrounded her and blotted her from the view of those Brothers still awake to see it. Suddenly, the screams stopped, and Lancaster lowered his hands. Without his will to hold it contained, the lightlessness gave way to light and revealed the bodies of a dead woman and a dead child. Interestingly to Lancaster, the spell that had changed the woman into that amazon monster had not died with her. It was too bad she had died before he could have learned everything he wanted to know, and even worse that the child had died. Still, he had learned something tonight. Whatever had happened to the woman, it had happened to her after she had begun feeding the brat. Was that some type of rite of passage for these women who had once been men? Did they only come into their full power after suckling their infant? That had to be it, thought Lancaster triumphantly. Now he had them. Now he could turn their very rites against them. He, Lancaster, had the means to finally destroy the Sisterhood. He looked at the injured men he'd brought with him. All alive, he thought. She could not even kill to protect her whelp. How hopelessly weak they are. "Dispose of the bodies in the acid tank. I want nothing left of them." he ordered his Investigations Chief as he strode to the door. This called for a drink. ~-------~ "She's gone, Laurie. I felt her die. She's dead and her child with her." came the sobbing voice on the other end of the phone line. "You are sure? There is no doubt?" She heard Bronwyn blow her nose and take a deep cleansing breath. "We don't have the bodies, if that's what you mean, but I felt her use the Transformation Spell, Laurie." Another deep breath. "And I felt the Dark Power take her. She died at the hands of a member of the Brotherhood, Laurie. An incredibly powerful member, perhaps even the High Leader, himself." "Then we are at war, High Priestess. What are your immediate plans?" "I am coming home, luv. I need to rest and to think. We don't even know who he is, yet, so we don't know how to attack him. He is way ahead of us, now, and moving too quickly will hurt us more than help us. I will see you in a few hours. May I stay with you tonight?" "Just you try to stay any place else, lover, and all hell will break loose. Now get off the phone and get on home to people who love you." Laurie hung up the phone, and wished that her daughter was home where she could protect her and keep her safe. If there was such a thing as safety, anymore. ******************* Lancaster relaxed, sipping the aged cognac and reviewing the night's revelations one more time. The woman had come into her power after she'd given birth and after she'd nursed the child. The key, then, was to prevent the child from suckling his mother, but that was not a problem. Lancaster smiled. A dead woman cannot nurse a child. As if he, the High Leader, would let one of those bitches feed *his* son. What a coup, he mused. The next High Leader of the Brotherhood, the son of the current High Leader and one of the damnable Sisters. A child born of the power of their Goddess and of his Dark One; a child in whom the ages-old schism between the power of light and the power of darkness would be breached. A child that would be his son and who would serve the Brotherhood, while destroying the Sisterhood. All he needed was a Sister to plant his seed in; a Sister who had not yet given birth and thus, had not yet come into the fullness of her powers. A powerless Sister who would not be a threat to him. How he'd make her suffer. He would give her the full benefit of her new female state by forcing her to experience, completely unaided by any modern medical convenience, natural child birth before he killed her. After all, he could always take the child if he needed to since she was not going to survive more than a few moments after the child's birth, anyway. It would be so . . . .sublime. Fortunately, he knew exactly where to find such a member of the cursed Sisterhood. Her college advisor still reported weekly to his Chief of Investigations about her activities and whereabouts. He'd increase the surveillance on her again, all the same. She was too important a piece of the puzzle to be careless with. All he needed was a little more time to finish his final preparations. He was almost ready. Soon, very soon, he would strike and take what was rightfully his. ~----------~ Excerpt from the Journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan 1 Year 8 Months 21 days A. T. The death of Mom's and Bronwyn's friend, Bobbie in childbirth has cast quite a pall about the house. The baby died, too, so it is just a bad thing all around. I did not know her, but Mum and Bronwyn liked her, so she must have been good people. I suspect she was a member of their Sisterhood, but I have not asked and they had not volunteered the information. It has reminded me, quite forcefully, however, of my own mortality and my newfound femininity. Women still die in childbirth. I am a woman. Those two facts, taken in combination, are rather daunting. I am a woman. I can get pregnant. I look at those two sentences I just wrote, and I get chills. They actually have the power to frighten me. They also are beginning to intrigue me. On a not unrelated topic, Marcus arrives home today from his college up north to begin his mid-semester break. We won't have much time together since his folks are expecting him at their mountain cabin in the Sierras. It is some kind of family shindig that everyone goes to every year. He is going to drive up there tomorrow, but first, he is going to spend the day *and* the night with me. Mom and Bronwyn are going to be out of town until tomorrow about noon. Which, oh by the way, is when Marcus has to leave. So I went and started planning our little get together for here. I cannot *wait* to get him into Mom's *HUGE* bathtub all filled with bubbles and hot water. Now for the strange part. This morning, Mom calls me in and tells me that she knows what I am planning, and that she approves of Marcus. Not only that, but that she wants us to feel "safe" when we do "whatever it is that you are going to do". She gave me a box of *condoms*. Condoms for goodness sake. This is my *MOTHER* and she is giving me *condoms*?? I was afraid to say the word in her presence when I was still Jack. Guess I have her blessing to go all the way. Amazing. And I have been *so* very careful these past weeks with my birth control pills. Well, better doubly safe than sorry, I guess. I did promise to use the condoms. I wonder if it as wonderful as those romance novels say it is? Guess I am going to find out. That's all for now. I have to go pick up Marcus at the airport. End Journal Entry **************** In a hotel room overlooking the ocean, Bronwyn took a sip of her wine and then turned to look at her preoccupied friend. Shaking her head in exasperation, she snorted. "It was going to happen anyway, Laurel. All we did was make it more comfortable for them, and make sure they had the time to do it properly." And cast a few spells on young Marcus to make sure he would do it well, often and potently. Smiling wanly at herself, Laurie sighed. "I know. We all do it for the first time once in our lives. And we had to get the first step of the final experience learning done, too." That reminded Bronwyn. "So, why did you give her those condoms? I thought the whole idea was to get her preggers, not increase the difficulty for those little wigglers of Mark's." That did make Laurie smile - a very self satisfied, conspiratorial smile. "I did it to make sure she or Marcus were completely uninhibited. You know as well as I do that no birth control will protect a Sister who, at the critical moment, wants the baby of the man making love to her. The power of her desire will cause the condom to leak or break. Just like the birth control pills will also fail." Laurel grinned mischievously. "Ever stop to wonder how many of those mothers who fall into that 10% failure rate attributed to modern birth control tools are Sisters? No, I think we surmise that our Jacqui is now primed - prospective motherhood on the hoof. Especially since I am sure," and here her voice became saccharine sweet, "that you have probably ensured that Marcus is a human sperm factory for the next day or so?" Bronwyn blushed a bit, then grinned a bit. "Well, I might have given production a little help. Guess she's gonna be a Mom, eh?" "Yes, she is. Goddess, but I am too young to be a grandmother." Laurie wailed. "Ah, love," soothed Bronwyn as she came over to cuddle her friend on the bed, "but you will be so good at it." And then proceeded to distract her friend, lovingly. **************** The feelings that Jacqui was dealing with as she stood in the airline terminal awaiting Marcus were just as mixed as her Mother's were. On one hand, she missed him terribly and wanted to be with him all the time. On the other hand, his attentions reminded her of what she had lost when she had been Transformed. Jack had never gotten to as close to a girl as she was permitting Marcus to get to her. He was going to get very close, today, too. All the way, and where nature expected him to be when he made love to a woman. Even with the double barreled birth control she was planning to use, it still felt like playing Russian Roulette, except that instead of putting a loaded gun to her head, she was aiming a loaded penis at her uterus and ovaries. She'd reminded herself of all the potential dangers of this decision over and over again. Especially since the girl in Austin had died, but in the end, it made no difference. She was going to make love with Marcus because she *needed* to make love with him. She still had not quite figured out why that was such an imperative, but she had finally accepted that it was. She simply had no other choice in the matter. A moving mass of humanity approached the main terminal from the arrival gate. A shout that sounded like her name got her attention and Jacqui turned toward the voice. It was Marcus. Suddenly, she was running toward him and ended up jumping into his arms. The moment his arms closed around her and his lips met hers were a revelation. Everything became clear. Jacqui Donovan loved Marcus Arnold. Jacqui Donovan was *in love* with Marcus Arnold. The truth of it all scared the hell out of her, and she did what frightened women have done since cave days. She held on tighter to the man she loved. "Oh shit" she thought amid the wild whirl of emotions swirling through her, "What am I going to do, now???" Marcus ended even that limited thinking by kissing her again. Somehow, they made it to the house without having an accident or being stopped for speeding. They were barely through the door before they were tearing at each other's clothes, trying to get skin to skin. Marcus was ready to consummate their passion right there on the floor when the memory of Bobbie gave Jacqui a moment of rational thought. Scrambling to her discarded purse, she found the box her Mother had given her and returned with the plastic packet. She tore it open, and then reverently and lovingly smoothed the condom over her lover's erection, making him groan in painful, delighted anticipation. Then, she went back into his arms, and they made love on the living room rug. Excerpt from the Journal of Miss Jacqui Donovan 1 Year 8 Months 22 days A. T. The words to an old rock and roll song that Mom loves keeps playing in my mind. "This girl is a woman, now. She's found out what its all about and she's learnin'... learnin' to live....." Who sang that thing...Plunket? No, he was a quarterback. Oh yeah...the name was Puckett - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. What a weird name for a rock group. Only in my case, maybe the song should go "This boy is a woman, now..". Hey, Bronwyn. I just made a joke about it. How about that? It is strange, though, while he was inside me? All I could think of was that *if* I was going to have a baby, I would want it to be his. When he nuzzled my breast and suckled my nipple, an image of his child sucking there was flashed across my mind's eye. Cripes, what is with me? These female hormones are really getting out of hand, here. Still . . . A baby. Hmmmmmmm. And I even managed to be submissively passive for him. Once. Sort of. But it was _damned hard_!!! Anyway, Marcus just left in a cab. He is going to his house to pick up a few things and to get his car. I wanted to drive him, but he said he wanted the last thing he remembers of this wonderful day and night is me, lying naked and tousled on Mum's rumpled bed. What woman could resist a request like that? How could any man resist the appeal I made to him when he walked out that door??? Maybe he could resist my somewhat blatant offer because of all the times we did it in the past eighteen hours. Good thing Mom gave me a full dozen of those things. We almost needed most of them. And it *is* wonderful like those romance novels Mom made me read said it could be. Marcus is very, very good at it, and he listens to me while we are making love, so he is always doing *something* that feels good. I miss him already. Well, he is going to come back before returning to school. I will need more condoms. I'll get some more today. It will make me feel like a loose woman. Then I am going to take a nap. I have not had much sleep in the past few hours. End Journal Entry. ********************** The Chief of Investigations demanded to see the High Leader. He was so frightened, he did not bother to worry about hurting the feelings of the toad who guarded the High Leader's office. After being shown in, he moved quickly to the large desk and began without waiting to be given leave to speak. "High Leader, you ordered that you be informed immediately if something came to light with regard to the woman you have selected as the Mother of your Son." He handed the Leader a packet of surveillance photographs. "The young male is Marcus Arnold. He is the young man that she dated towards the end of her high school senior year. He attends college up in Oregon or Washington. We have not had him under surveillance since he has not had prior contact with the girl since you ordered her watched again." "Until now." growled the High Leader as he shuffled through the packet of photos. "Until now," agreed the Chief. "Yesterday, she met him at the airport where they kissed quite passionately before returning to the girl's house. There was no sign of either of them until noon today when the male left by taxi. I ordered a surveillance team on him and they are now following him. The girl left the house shortly after that and went to a nearby drug store where she purchased two large boxes of condoms." All color drained from Lancaster's face. "What did you say?" he growled in whispered tones. "Condoms, High Leader. She purchased condoms." The Chief was fighting to maintain his dignity and professionalism, but it was damned hard when he knew his next word could be his last. Lancaster was killing furious, now. "She made the purchase and returned to her home. She has not left since, although her Mother and Llewellyn have returned from the hotel they stayed at last night." "She is going to fuck that boy???" Lancaster roared. "She is the Chosen One. The Mother of my Son, and she is going to give herself to a boy???" Lancaster's fist smashed into the desk top. His eyes burned with anger tinged with madness. The Chief silently steeled himself for the killing blow he felt sure was coming. The only reason he had delivered the report himself was in the hope that the High Leader would kill him out of hand, in a fit of fury. The alternative was to die as his predecessor had, slowly and in great pain. However, Lancaster seemed to regain control of himself. Slowly, with great deliberation, he reseated himself at his desk and brought his hands together to clasp them on the desktop. "I won't have it, Chief." he said soberly. "Where is the boy, now?" "Our followers reported in just before I came in here, sir. He is heading into the mountains. Evidently his family has a large vacation home up in the high country." "He does not arrive at his destination, Chief. Have the followers arrange an accident - a fatal accident. I want him dead within the hour or you and the followers will die sometime next month. Do you understand me?" The eyes were cold now, but it was a mad cold. The Chief lost control of his bladder and wet his pants. "Ye. . ye . .yessir. I understand. It will be as you say, sir." and he ran from the room without being given leave to depart. ~-----------~ ******************* Jacqui stretched in her bed. She felt marvelous. Even the twinges in her belly, where muscles she never knew she had and Jack never did have, ached from the unusual exercise of the day before. Idly, she replayed the lovemaking in her mind. It had been so great. Whether it could have been so good for her as Jack, she did not know, but it no longer seemed to matter. She loved Marcus. Marcus loved Jacqui. She would be a fool to give that up for a penis in a poke. Jacqui Donovan was not any kind of a fool. The key question in her mind now was how to break the news that she was a witch to her chosen male. She had a really neat idea, too. Bronwyn had said she could use the shape shifting spell on others as well as on herself. As long as they were close by, anyway. Well, Marcus would be very close when she played her prank. She wondered how he'd react when he woke up after one of their love making sessions and found himself looking like Jacqui and lying next to a body that looked like Marcus? He'd freak, she thought happily. But, then he'd see the male genitals on "Jacqui" and the female genitals on "Marcus". It would be awkward, but Jacqui figured they'd make it work, somehow. "Jacqui?" Her mother was calling from downstairs. "You have a phone call. It is Mrs. Arnold." Getting up, she padded to her door. "I'll take it in your room, Mum." she called down. Laurie went back to her library to work on the logistics plan she was developing for the Sisterhood. With the Brotherhood was becoming so open in their attacks, they would need supplies and safe houses in the coming months. She had just begun to analyze the next set of requirements when Jacqui's scream of anguish tore through her. She was up the stairs and at Jacqui's side in seconds. Jacqui flew to her Mother and nearly strangled her with her embrace. "He's dead, Mum. Oh sweet lord, Marcus is dead." Stunned, Laurie simply held her daughter for long moments before she could even ask. "Marcus is dead? How, child?" Jacqui fought for control and eased her death grip on her Mother. "His... his brakes failed. Up in the mountains near his parents' cottage. He could not control the car on one of the bends in the road. He crashed into a rail guard which broke and the car dropped into a canyon." "Goddess." Laurie whispered. The man who had taken her daughter's virginity, and who, according to Laurie's healer senses, was the father of her grandson. Jacqui had gotten pregnant. She would not know it herself for a few weeks, but Laurie knew, and she would have to make sure her daughter did not lose that child in her grief. Maternally bullying the girl into bed, Laurie made her a special tea that would calm her without harming the tiny fetus. It worked quickly, and Jacqui started to doze. "You know what hurts so much, Mum? I was thinking of marriage when the call came. I was dreaming of how I would tell him about......about the magic. I was going to shift our shapes into images of each other while he slept, and then make fantastic love to him before he could freak out on me. Now, he's gone." She was quiet for a moment. "Now, he's gone." was the last thing she said before drifting into sleep. Laurie went into her room to get her cordless phone. She made a quick call to Bronwyn, and then took the phone into Jacqui's room and settled in a chair to watch over her daughter. *********************** "It is done, High Leader, as you ordered." the Chief was back in Lancaster's office. He had not even taken the time to change is urine stained trousers. "They used the Dark Power to sever his brake line and to accelerate the draining of the hydraulic fluid. The brakes failed on a particularly steep part of the road and he could not slow enough to control the car." The High Leader said nothing, but stared pointedly at the large circular stain near the Chief's fly, a smile playing on his lips. Then he spoke. "Very well. Now, I want the preparations for taking the girl accelerated. I don't want her meeting another boy and using him to assuage her female lusts. When will the sanctuary be ready?" "We can have everything ready to hold her indefinitely in a few weeks. The only reason we can't have it in two weeks time is the security system. You ordered the best one available, and the supplier cannot install for another three weeks. We are already paying premiums to have them that early." Lancaster nodded. He wanted the girl, but he wanted to *keep* the girl. He would wait for the sanctuary to be fully ready. "Keep an eye on her. Don't let her get close to any other males. Now get out here and change those pants. You foul my air." The humiliation in the man's face was a delight to Lancaster. Grinning, he admitted that fear was not the only emotion he enjoyed invoking in others. ~--------------~ End Part 19 - Continued in Part 20 -- +----------------' Story submission `-+-' Moderator contact `--------------+ | | | | Archive site +----------------------+--------------------+ Newsgroup FAQ | ----