"I was naked and I still felt overdressed."

"I think you look good draped in your hair, cutie. More to pull." She brushes a long ringlet with a hand and very lightly tugs Basia toward her.

She ignores it. For now. "The coven was larger than I expected. You said there weren't many witches yet, didn't you, boss?"

"Yes. But Marco has his vampire harem, and they all have a couple mortal hangers-on each. It doesn't hurt; the deep magic needs witnesses, and it's good fun. What do you think of him?"

Marco is currently sitting with two women in his lap, flamboyant red cape the only clothing on either of them. He's... egging them into competing for his attention.

He's thin, pale, has the abs of a bodybuilder and the body fat of a professional model, and even at a distance smells intoxicating. And doesn't seem to be interested in much but sex.

Tesera laughs, "Yes, yes, besides the obvious."

Tesera bends down and whispers in her ear, "Oh, clever girl, Basia," and then tugs her around by her hair and pushes her in for a kiss.

"Not that I object, boss, but... Tesera? What?"

"I think we should go get some privacy, don't you, cutie?"

Tesera lets her wisp-thin cloak fall open and pushes close, breasts on breasts.

"Whatever you say, ma'am," Basia says, grinning. Playing along, but with all due enthusiasm for what will certainly be another exceedingly good time.

Tes knows she's playing, but doesn't care. She takes her hand and tugs her along up a short flight of stairs to the coven-mistress's official bedroom, draped in silver, red, and black. It doesn't look very lived-in, but the bed is already slightly rumpled.

"Don't use this room much, boss?"

"It's not as comfortable as my personal rooms. Maybe next time you'll see those."

"Just have to keep being clever to earn a next time?"

"Mmmm."

Tesera gets her arms under Basia and lifts her bodily into bed, shaking both cloaks loose as she does.

"We'll just have to see."

A half-hour later, Basia stretches out languidly, resting her cheek on Tesera's chest.

"Not that this wasn't an utterly delightful excuse, boss. But it would have been more delightful if we'd had the conversation first, so I didn't have to worry about it while we shagged."

Tesera strokes her hair. 

"Nothing for it, unfortunately. I just can't stay in the mood after contemplating murder."

"That bad?"

"Awakening Marco was a mistake," Tes admits, "I thought getting power to back up his confidence would make him chill out, but becoming a vampire went to his head instead."

"And he's going to break the rules and cause harm to the coven, eventually?"

"Sooner or later. Probably sooner. And not just the coven, likely. In any case, I won't be killing him extra-judicially. This ought to be done properly. With warnings and clear signs that he's making himself a liability, bringing down heat I can't and don't want to shield him from. Where it's easy to show the coven they're not in danger."

"Because... you want to stay trustworthy. To protect your people and be clear to them that you're serious about it."

"Yes. I am serious. Very. Even all the vapid hotties he brought in, I'll protect; they're mostly useless but that's not the point."

"He has the whole family of vampires he leads. Can someone lead in his place? Or do we lose them?"

"Should be possible. I've asked an old empusa what happens if the first empusa to mutate into a vampire strain dies, and she said that one of his early turns should take over, but might not. Melissa has the potential for a weak witch, I'm going to offer her that."

"Might help?"

"Seems likely."

"Why tell me?"

"Because I was pretty sure you'd notice. Though you were quicker than I expected. And because I'm sure you can keep a secret."

"...That's not enough reason."

"You have the oracle's power, just like me. You'll see things. You're sharp. And... I am not entirely sure that when I have to confront him, I'll succeed."

"And you're picking me as your... insurance policy."

"Am I wrong? To count on you?"

"I... I feel like you must be."

"But you're already making a plan."

"More 'checking what I need to know to start planning.' But... yes."

"Good girl," Tesera murmurs, and kisses her again, her hands running through the long, messy hair, "I'm not wrong."

"I thought you couldn't stay in the mood?", Basia teased.

"Pretty ladies being dangerously competent gets to me, what can I say?"

"I don't think anyone's ever called me dangerous before. Let alone as flattery."

"Then they've all been very foolish, or you good at hiding it, or both."

"I didn't have much to hide. Just a little hacking. Now... it's a lot of information I can get ahold of."

"And knowledge is power."

"Magic is also proper power."

"And yet I think it's the less dangerous part. ...Will you mind if I treat you as just a favored lover in public, instead of showing you the respect you deserve?"

"I've hardly earned it. If you think I deserve it, that's your lookout." Not that it wasn't endearing to be told so. "To hide your insurance policy?"

"Earned it yet. But pretty much. And... you're dangerous, but fairly fragile."

"True. I've been thinking I should pick up another elementalism anyway. The pearl gives the flexibility... Your plan? So, master psionics, or a new one... Wind?"

"With your chair... Wind seems good. Or Fire, if you'd rather have preemptive offense."

"I'd rather windkeeping than firecalling. Strong winds to blow away attackers seems more reliable than trying to burn them."

"Whatever you think is best, beautiful. I kept the pearl around for this kind of thing. To keep your flexibility, or someone else who needed it."

"...You don't have to practice treating me as your lover in private."

"Basia, sweetie, if I didn't want you in my bed regularly I would have found a different excuse. Unless you don't want to be my lover?"

Basia looks at the beautiful daeva whose bed she's lying in. Smells the reminders of what they were up to minutes ago. Remembers the clever fingers, and tongue.

"I'd be delighted to be back in your bed regularly, gorgeous."

"Oh good."

Tesera kisses her again.

"What should I expect our relationship to look like, boss? I doubt you're looking to be exclusive even outside of coven rituals."

"Mmmh, no, I have several cute lovers I'm not going to give up. ...Including Marco. I'm not sure I can keep control of him if I'm not fucking him frequently, it's way easier to get him to do what I want when he thinks of me as his hot lover who is technically his boss, rather than as the coven mother and awakener who found him in the first place for a reason."

"Even though he's got all those girls hanging on his every word and sucking his dick in the corner when she thinks no one's looking?"

"Oh, absolutely, he thinks of them as practically property. Oh, don't fuck him. Technically it's safe if you don't let him have a bite, but it's not worth the risk without a good reason."

"What's the threat?"

"He can drain you, obviously, but also he can ride on your senses and maybe mess with your head if he's had a bite but left you alive. It wears off eventually and I've got enough psionics that I'm probably immune, but I still make him work hard if he wants to give me any more, in case it stacks up to a threat past my shields."

"Should I worry about any of his turned women?"

"Them I expect to respect it if you tell them no biting. And I've told them no poaching on anyone in the coven without your permission. Him, he's not so polite, and he's got the pheromones that make everyone find him hot. Seriously, he's got like four powers to make him hot."

"Vain much?"

"I have never met anyone as vain as Marco Cavalcante. Seriously, I guided him through the vampire turning like the awakening, and on top of perfecting the little imperfections while becoming a witch, and bothering to spend power on keeping his dick, he spent vampiric power on... directly getting pretty and making all his line be pretty, separately making him and them preposterously fat-less, like-"

She cheerfully gropes Basia as she gripes, "-these lovely little titties you have, have more fat than he has in his whole body, and then on top of that he blows enough power to be practically invincible at night on making everyone who can smell him want his cock."

"Does that work on straight men and lesbians?"

"Almost as well as on straight women. He agitates at me any time I 'let slip' there's a boy I might awaken into the coven who'll stay male, he wasn't expecting it and thinks it's gross."

"God. Insecure vain straight boys, may whatever powers be save us."

"Not the lesbians, of course. He gets off on being their first experience with dick and still getting them to come back to him instead of a girlfriend. ...I'll give him this, though, it's pretty excellent dick. He did, actually, make the effort to improve with experience."

"Oh, you just had to tell me that after saying I shouldn't touch it."

"I promise I can acquire one just as nice with a nice topaz and half an hour."

"...Damn, I should get around to learning hexes past rank one. But I've been waiting on my textbook freebies until the normal learning slows down."

"And you're on the slow and steady path like me."

"Oh, you have to take double time as well?"

"Yep. Worth it, in the long run. I sometimes give a little odd advice to my awakened, but that one's complete and honest."

"I thought you were slanting things a little."

"Oh, I barely slanted things for you at all. You noticed, and that was more important than any advantage."

"But you still tried to distract me aggressively. And I didn't catch that there were awakeners who wouldn't charge favors."

"Well, that was just too much fun. Are you mad?"

"Hmmm, maybe a little annoyed. And, well, less than I was this morning."

"Oh?"

"Well, clearly now I'm paying all my favors back in bed. If I'm your favorite lover immediately, it's the only sensible explanation."

Tesera laughs. Even being slightly outmaneuvered is an amusing surprise.

"As long as you still do favors for the coven with all that alchemy skill, lovely, that just makes me like you more."

"This relationship is going to be fun, isn't it?"

"Looking more and more so every minute. Want to head back out looking very rumpled?"

"I'm not sure how well I can sell it - the cloak's hard to rumple and I can't exactly have more bedhead than usual."

"I'll settle for blushing and staring at me shyly."

"Why the stare?"

"Imagine you're a natural sub who just had a pretty domme explain what BDSM was to you while she shoved your face between her legs."

"Well, when you put it that way I'm not ready to get out of bed yet."

"Oh?"

"I think I want to show you how pretty a domme I can be..."

"Oh, ma'am. Show me. Please."

Basia found it amazing how quickly she got used to it. Meeting in secret most weeks, sex rituals about once a month, having enormously enjoyable sex with her awakener/coven mistress/co-conspirator, plotting how to set up Marco for failure while keeping everyone else confident they were safe and him totally ignorant. It wasn't like she'd ever been a huge plotter before; she'd kept secrets, some of them long-term, but never something that mattered.

She wondered whether she'd have accepted this without having had it broken to her shortly after having enormously hot sex at the end of an evening where she watched a bunch of hot people fuck alongside a bunch more fondling each other, in a room full of pheromones that made her horny for them. In terms of having intense desire to please a new, imposing, charismatic partner, that did seem like a risk factor. But she'd thought he was bad news already, and... okay, she trusted Tesera's judgment too easily. But she did check herself, on what he'd done, risks to the broader veil, general carelessness.

He needed to be dealt with, and if Tesera didn't think she could fix him, it was death or handing him to the ORCs. And the ORCs wouldn't be gentle on him. Hespatians took care of their own, in both senses. If Tesera wanted to stick to that... Basia didn't care enough to gainsay her.