The Magi's Daughter

by Danielle Austen

Genres: Fantasy

Synopsis

Twenty years have passed since the events of The Magician's Lover, and Lindsey Mikhailov now lives in rural Italy with her husband and their daughter. But when a mysterious and violent event shatters the serenity of their life together, it sets off a chain of events which will alter the lives of the magi and those around them for ever. In a dramatic, explicit tale packed with shocking plot twists and lust-filled encounters, the family must work together to protect themselves from the words of an ancient prophecy. Along the way they will encounter enemies old and new, relationships will be tested, and the true ancestry of the magi will be revealed.

Release date: July 11, 2013

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 203

Sample

Chapter One

Lindsey pulled the drapes aside and let in the early morning Italian sunshine. Her huge bedroom looked even more beautiful in the daylight. The pale walls reflected the brightness all around the expanse, and a shaft of sunlight fell across her soft, luxurious bed. As she opened the tall glass doors that led to a large balcony, harmonious birdsong put a smile on her face.

She stepped out, the stone of the floor pleasantly cold to her bare feet, and leant forward. Resting her arms on the ledge, she looked out over the clear blue lake that lay at the edge of her beautiful gardens. The privacy was incredible. She could stand on her balcony completely naked, her long, blonde hair a complete mess, and not have to worry about anyone seeing her. She idly fingered her wedding ring as she took in several deep breaths of the clean country air, filling her lungs, exhaling each time with a sound of satisfaction. Life was good.

So engrossed in her relaxation was Lindsey that she didn’t notice the man silently approaching her from behind. It was only when she felt his hand stroking the naked skin of her buttocks that she realised she wasn’t alone.

‘Good morning,’ he said as his hand roved across her arse.

Lindsey giggled and turned her head to kiss her gorgeous husband, who barely looked 30 despite being in his late 40s. He kissed her a little more passionately than she had been expecting. After briefly indulging him, she pulled her lips away from his and asked, ‘Horny, Dmitri? Wasn’t last night enough for you?’

‘I can’t help it,’ he replied with a lopsided grin. ‘It’s simple genetics. Besides, you’re the one parading around naked on our balcony. How do you expect me to react?’ His slightly gravelly voice still carried the wandering accent he’d had when Lindsey had first met him.

Lindsey bit her bottom lip. What Dmitri had said about genetics applied to her as well; she and her husband were two of the world’s few remaining magi, and the side-effects of having strong supernatural abilities included a dramatically slowed aging process, as well as a freakishly heightened libido. The glimpse she had of her husband’s huge, wonderfully curved cock gave her an irresistible tingle between her thighs.

Dmitri seemed to sense her hesitation; standing to her side, he slowly placed his hand between her buttocks and began to move it down. His bright green eyes locked into hers as he touched her.

‘What – what about Cereza?’ asked Lindsey, pushing her arse against Dmitri’s palm unconsciously.

He laughed. ‘She’s 18, and it’s eight in the morning, Linds. She’s not going to be awake for a while.’

Lindsey paused, mentally weighing up the element of risk. It didn’t take long before she turned around, her back now facing the lake. She rested her arms along the ledge and allowed her feet to slide outwards, opening herself for her husband.

‘Just be quiet,’ she whispered with a grin on her lips.

She watched as Dmitri dropped to his knees, his eyes all over her body, and she groaned with anticipation as he leant his face towards her sex. As his skilled tongue teasingly, gently licked at her soft, pink folds, a quiet gasp slipped from her parted lips and her head lolled back, the morning sunlight warming her face.

He looked up at her lovingly as he increased the pressure, kissing her pussy like he would kiss her mouth, his tongue probing every cell of her. He grunted lustfully and breathed heavily through his nose as his hands gripped her pert, round buttocks. Lindsey clutched his messy brown hair with one hand and held him close against her, and she moaned as quietly as she could while the tip of his tongue flicked hard and fast over her stiff clitoris.

Dmitri worked her expertly. One of his hands moved from his wife’s arse to his own swollen cock, and he stroked himself slowly while Lindsey came closer and closer to orgasm. She looked down at him to see his beautiful eyes looking deep into hers, then caught a glimpse of the muscles of his right arm swiftly tensing and releasing as he stroked himself; suddenly her eyebrows arched upwards as if in surprise, her entire body went rigid, and the fingers in her husband’s hair clamped forcefully as she released her silent orgasm.

His tongue slowed down on her, easing out every convulsion and contraction until he closed his lips on her and softly kissed her wet flesh. Lindsey watched blissfully as he returned to his feet. She had never grown tired of him, and she had certainly never tired of looking at the sleek, toned muscles of his slim, sexy body. Her head swam with desire, and she purred loudly as she saw the full, exquisite length of his circumcised cock.

‘Coming inside?’ he asked in a softly spoken voice.

‘No,’ replied Lindsey, smiling. She slowly lay down, easing herself onto her front, her body pressing against the stone floor of the balcony. Her firm nipples tingled pleasantly against the rough, cold material. She arched her hips very slightly and parted her legs, exposing the eager, wet hole that was desperate for her husband’s manhood. She innocently looked over her shoulder to see Dmitri returning to his knees behind her, and she smiled sweetly as he softly pressed his lips against her skin. He kissed from her buttocks to her lower back, her spine to her shoulders, until he suckled her neck and simultaneously slid the bulbous head of his prick inside her.

Lindsey gasped loudly and Dmitri chuckled quietly as he pressed his whole body against hers, easing himself inside her. He rested one arm on the stone floor, his other hand pressing firmly over Lindsey’s mouth. She made a muffled, questioning noise through his palm.

‘You said “Be quiet”, and you’re not being quiet,’ he answered huskily.

Lindsey moaned softly into his strong hand, secretly aroused even further by being silenced like this, and wriggled slightly, savouring the sublime chafe of the floor on her sensitive nipples. Dmitri lay on top of her, making love to her slowly, deeply; his full, thick length pushing against her walls of pleasure. He continued to kiss and lick her delicate, milky neck as the soft skin of her buttocks rubbed gloriously against the defined ridges of his rock-solid abdomen.

Her hips moved slightly in tandem with Dmitri’s and she whimpered, barely making any audible noise against his hand. Her tongue flicked over the contours of his fingers and he parted them unconsciously. She capitalised on his reaction, grabbing his hand, separating two of his fingers from the rest and taking them into her mouth. Dmitri grunted with excitement and began to accelerate the motion of his hips.

Lindsey gasped in delight and gripped Dmitri’s wrist, plunging her mouth down onto his fingers, flicking her tongue over them like she would his cock. She pushed her arse up slightly and her breathing accelerated. She tried to keep quiet but his hard, heavy breathing right against her ear was pushing her to climax. She pushed her mouth forward, taking Dmitri’s fingers knuckle-deep as she came; the sounds of her orgasm stifled. Her muffled, girlish yelps seem to make Dmitri lose all concentration and he quickly pounded the convulsing muscles of her slit until he flooded her with his come, his orgasm coming a lot louder than Lindsey had expected.

The girl left her en suite bathroom after performing her usual morning routine. She pulled her long, soft, bizarrely white hair into a ponytail and looked in the full-length mirror next to her dresser. She looked scornfully at the pair of baggy pink pyjamas she wore that encased her too-tall, gawky body. She sighed heavily. She looked like an oversized five-year-old.

She shot an angry look at the white satin gloves that lay on her bedside cabinet as if they’d just said something horrible about her, and was about to head downstairs when she suddenly blacked out. As her body crumpled, her head almost hit the large bronze telescope that pointed out of her bedroom window, instead landing on the carpeted floor with a thud.

Moments later, she awoke, woozy and disorientated. The back of her head hurt. Her eyes felt puffy. Her cheeks felt wet. In her heart she felt an overwhelming sense of loss. She slowly opened her eyes as she began to realise what had happened.

‘Mother?’ she asked in a soft, timid voice as she saw the face above her.

‘It’s OK, Cereza. You’re all right,’ soothed Lindsey, gently holding her child. ‘Is this the same thing as …?’

‘Yes,’ Cereza said through sniffles. ‘But this was more painful than the last time. This was … This was a violent one.’

‘Oh baby,’ said Lindsey, softly stroking her daughter’s snow-white hair. ‘It’s OK. You’re all right now. Can I get you anything?’

‘May I please have a coffee?’

‘Of course you can. Come down when you’re ready.’

‘Thanks.’

Lindsey hesitated before leaving, looking at her with concern for a moment before she left Cereza in her room.

Dmitri turned to Lindsey with a smile as she entered the kitchen. The smile fell away as he saw her expression.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Cereza collapsed again.’

Dmitri’s face crumpled with worry. Cereza had only collapsed once before, when she was very young, and when she had awoken she seemed to be talking crazy. Her babbling hadn’t made much sense to begin with, but when he spent some time researching it he found that an old magus – “a magic man”, as Cereza had called him – had indeed died of natural causes in Canada. Cereza had never met the man, but she had somehow felt him die.

‘What did she say?’ Dmitri eventually asked.

‘Not much,’ Lindsey said as she walked over to Dmitri and rested her head on his shoulder in an affectionate gesture. ‘She said it was a violent death. Not natural causes this time.’

Dmitri didn’t know what to say. He held Lindsey close to him and thought about what had happened while the room filled with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

‘Can you try and find out who he was?’ Lindsey asked.

‘Of course,’ Dmitri replied in a distant voice, lost in his own thoughts. He kissed Lindsey on the top of her head and stared into space as he pondered and worried. He suspected that, like him, Lindsey also wondered whether their old enemy, Angelito Tarrago, had anything to do with the dead man. Nothing had been heard about the former stage magician in a long, long time; not since he had overthrown the magi of the Solus Invictus, losing one of his eyes to Dmitri and attempting to kill Lindsey in the process – almost 20 years ago, now. But Dmitri was convinced that Angelito was still alive and very much a threat. The violent death of one of the world’s few remaining magi only added credence to that theory.

On the other hand, it was more likely that it was just a random occurrence. Not all of the remaining magi were nice people – far from it. It was entirely possible that someone like Frank or Tengu had started an ill-advised fight with someone and lost.

‘Mother, is my coffee ready?’

Cereza’s appearance took her parents by surprise – they had both been lost in contemplative thought. They snapped out of their trances quickly, and Dmitri returned to his cooking. The eggs were about to burn.

‘Coming, baby,’ replied Lindsey.

Dmitri gently stroked his daughter’s back as she settled down and shakily drank her morning coffee: two sugars and milk, just like her mother. He returned to the stove to serve breakfast, and then brought it over to the table; “eggie in the basket”, which he had made for Cereza at least every other day for the past decade.

‘Are you looking forward to your sleepover tonight?’ Dmitri asked his daughter in an effort to take her mind off her frightening experience.

‘Yeah,’ she replied, visibly perking up. ‘Bella came back yesterday and I haven’t had a chance to see her yet.’

‘So, what happens at these things?’ he asked, feigning ignorance.

‘We’ll probably watch a movie, have a little wine, chat a bit. I could put it off until tomorrow, though,’ she said in between bites of her food. ‘It’d be a shame if I missed Auntie Cammie and Uncle Jason’s visit. The girls won’t mind, I’m sure.’

‘No, no,’ Lindsey interjected a little too hurriedly, her mouth still full of food. She paused and gesticulated with her hands while she chewed quickly. ‘We’ll only get drunk and embarrassing. Besides,’ she continued, gently stroking Cereza’s shoulder, ‘don’t you think you deserve a little fun?’

Out of Cereza’s field of vision, Dmitri smirked to himself, amused by Lindsey’s desperate attempt to keep their privacy for the evening. He knew exactly why she was doing it – leaving her old life in Deptford as abruptly as she had had left her a little isolated. As both she and Cammie were now busy parents, chances to see her best friend and occasional lover came infrequently at best.

After a couple of minutes where the only sound heard was the gentle scraping of cutlery, Cereza piped up again. ‘Do I have to wear my gloves tonight?’

‘No, sweetie, you don’t,’ Lindsey replied after a moment’s consideration. ‘But pack them anyway, in case you change your mind or want them for the morning. Just be careful, yeah?’

‘Of course I will! Thank you so much!’ Cereza replied with a beaming grin. She abandoned her food and leapt off her chair, catching her mother unawares with an impromptu, loving hug.

The rest of the day passed without incident. The family idled the time away in their gardens, aside from half an hour where Dmitri retreated to the study and could be heard making several phone calls in at least four different languages.

A knock on the front door at six o’clock heralded the predictably prompt arrival of Mrs Alighieri to pick Cereza up. For all their supposedly overprotective behaviour, Dmitri and Lindsey had no fears when it came to Mrs Alighieri – she ran a tighter ship than they did, and Cereza would be a fool if she brought attention to herself by abusing her powers.

‘Have a great time!’ Lindsey said, speaking in Italian so as not to offend Mrs Alighieri.

‘You too!’ Cereza returned. ‘Say hi to Auntie Cammie and Uncle Jason for me!’

Dmitri and Lindsey smiled and waved their daughter off, looking the very picture of domestic normality as Cereza was escorted the short distance to the Alighieri house.

‘Any luck?’ Lindsey asked as the door closed.

‘Sort of,’ Dmitri replied. ‘Do you remember the first conversation we ever had?’

‘When you’d kidnapped me?’ Lindsey replied in a mocking tone.

Dmitri pouted playfully. ‘No need for that.’

‘Well, you had!’ She grinned. ‘Yes, I remember. You told me all about the Solus Invictus and what Angelito truly was. Is that what you mean?’

‘I also told you about the handful of people who had refused to be part of the Solus. Now the only magi left after what happened to the Solus. Well, I’ve tracked one of them down; Morden de Selby. We used to know each other, a long, long time ago. He’s a geologist these days, apparently. Anyway, he says he has information – he’ll be here tomorrow.’

‘He’s coming here? Can’t you just ask him over the phone?’

‘I tried; he’s incredibly paranoid. Always was, from what I remember of him. He’s convinced that people are tapping his phones. So yeah, he’ll be here tomorrow.’

‘Is he – you know – dangerous?’

‘No,’ Dmitri replied with a derisory chuckle. ‘The worst he could do would be to interfere with the weather a little bit. He’s eccentric, and a bit of an arsehole, but he’s not dangerous. Anyway, we’ve got –’ Dmitri checked his watch ‘– less than an hour before Cam and Jase get here. We need to get ready!’

Lindsey grinned conspiratorially.

Cereza sat in Cristina’s bedroom, chatting with her three friends. They had spent the last few hours downstairs with Mrs Alighieri, snacking and watching a movie about a bumbling single father getting back on the dating scene. Now they all sat in their pyjamas and gossiped as the sky blackened. Cereza wished she owned some better-looking PJs; she looked ridiculous in comparison to her friends.

‘So, what happened with your boyfriend?’ Cereza asked Bella. ‘I thought you guys were living together and were going to get married and stuff?’

‘So did I,’ Bella replied with a wry laugh. ‘He didn’t cheat on me or anything. Just, one day I saw the light, I guess. He was treating me like crap.’ At 23 years old, Cristina’s sister, Bella, was the eldest of the group. She was a slim girl with luscious brown hair and twinkling eyes, her skin strangely pale for sunny Italy.

‘What was he doing?’ Cereza continued, as interested in the general inner workings of a real-life relationship as much as her friend’s wellbeing.

‘Little things, really. He’d always criticise my driving. He hated every single one of my friends. Everything had to be perfect every time we had sex. Like, one time, we were having really, really hot sex. Everything was great. In the heat of the moment I said, “Fuck me,” and he just stopped and got off me. Said, “That’s not ladylike,” and left me alone to finish myself off. Everything always had to be his way. Like, he’d …’ She tailed off into silence, visibly irritated.

‘Forget him. You had to live in a cold place with hardly any sunlight,’ Anastasia interjected. At 19, she was a year older than Cereza, but was still in the midst of a rebellious period. Her naturally blonde hair had been dyed jet black and her make-up was equally dark. Short and curvy, Anastasia frequently wore inappropriate clothing. She even managed to make her pyjamas seem slutty. Naturally, they were black. Anastasia had crudely cut the trousers into tiny shorts that didn’t completely cover the lower curve of her buttocks, and the shirt was almost completely open.

Ana was one of Cristina’s old friends from outside of school and Cereza had only met her a few times over the years. There was something about her that reminded Cereza of something she had once seen when she’d laid her bare hand on her mother, before the glove rule had been implemented, but she couldn’t recall what the exact memory was.

‘And he was ginger anyway,’ Anastasia added.

Bella and Cristina laughed at Ana’s cruel comment. Cereza didn’t – she couldn’t understand Bella’s problem. She thought the boyfriend sounded quite classy and respectable. Her mind silently taunted her. Maybe it’s because you’ve never had a boyfriend before. Maybe you’re just jealous, and you’re annoyed because you would gladly have taken him as your boyfriend.

‘What’s up?’ Cristina asked, lightly prodding Cereza in her side.

‘Hmm? Oh, nothing.’

‘Come on, Rez, it’s obvious something’s bothering you,’ Cristina said, using the nickname Cereza’s friends had given her years ago. Cristina looked like a younger, more stereotypically Italian version of her sister. Her skin had a beautiful, permanent sun-kissed tan, and her flowing brown hair clashed beautifully with her striking blue eyes.

‘I just wish I was allowed to have boyfriends. It’s not fair,’ Cereza replied. ‘I’ve never even been kissed,’ she admitted, as much to her own surprise as anyone else’s. ‘Stupid wine,’ she cursed quietly.

‘I’ll kiss you,’ Anastasia said. The Alighieri sisters giggled quietly.

‘No, thank you.’ Cereza awkwardly gazed at her feet, not really getting the joke and still feeling mortified from blurting out her little secret.

Encouraged by Cristina and Bella’s laughter, Anastasia persisted in pushing Cereza’s buttons. ‘Hey, Cereza?’

As Cereza looked up to meet Ana’s gaze, the girl pulled her shirt open, exposing the long, thin points of her dark nipples. ‘You want to kiss these?’ she taunted, flicking them with her fingertips.

‘No, I don’t!’ Cereza squealed, her face reddening with embarrassment. Cristina and her sister rolled around, stifling laughs that would otherwise wake the whole house.

Anastasia looked at the girls and smiled to herself, obviously pleased that her performance was proving so popular. She turned it up another notch and began to crawl on her hands and knees towards Cereza, who was slowly shuffling herse. . .