“You’d be surprised.” Nick thought of Billy and couldn’t help but smile.
They reached the stairs leading up to the channeling chamber, and Nick led Damon right to the top. They talked about their days in school as they climbed, recalling all the guys they’dfucked and the ones they’d convinced to submit to them, arguing over who’d been the most successful hunter.
When they reached the top though, it was time to get down to business.
“So we’re draining all the magic?” Damon asked, looking around the chamber and up at the exposed sky. He looked grudgingly impressed. Nick nodded.
Damon rounded on him. “Okay, you want to channel and I’ll pull?”
Nick shrugged. “Sounds good,” he said, getting ready to act as a bridge between Damon and the castle magic. It was the less taxing job, but since he was going to have to channel magic into the castle afterward, it made sense.
Not wasting any time, Nick reached for the castle magic and grabbed a firm hold of it, channeling it toward Damon. The other alpha started pulling, forcing the magic out of the castle and into the sky.
The sheer amount of magic they were dealing with was staggering, and Nick knew that if he’d been working alone he’d already be exhausted.
“Is this good?” Nick asked, holding the connection steady between them, letting Damon pull the magic out without having to focus on where he was pulling it from.
“It’s fine,” Damon grunted, strained but confident. The minutes passed with nothing but their heavy breathing interrupting the silence. The summoning stone glowed red, the light blinking as though in alarm, before gradually turning pink.
“I think we’re getting there,” Damon said. He was sweating, his hands stretched out in front of him, his feet planted wide apart as he forced more and more magic up into the sky.
Watching the grimace of concentration on the other alpha’s face, Nick felt his cock harden. Damon was powerful—an alpha in his prime—and the idea of making him yield had Nick’s balls pulled up tight.
But Damon was Nick’s guest, and forcing him to submit would be the worst sort of hospitality.
The calibration stone went from pink to white, Damon grunting with effort, until the light blinked out and Nick felt the connection to the castle magic snap shut.
The castle was empty of magic. It felt wrong, the silence in the stones unnatural and cold, and Nick shuddered.
Grabbing the channeling rod, Nick rushed up onto the platform and yanked on the wild magic overhead, pulling it down and sending it into the castle.
Even he knew that having no magic in the castle for any length of time was a bad idea. The enchantments holding it all together might last for days even without any magic in the walls, but that was not something Nick wanted to test.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Nick saw Damon move to the side of the room and lean against the wall. He shifted his gaze to the calibration stone, happy to see that the white light already had a pinkish tint.
As Nick pulled more and more magic into the castle, the energy making his whole body tingle and shudder with pleasure, he couldn’t help but feel Damon’s eyes on him.
It wasn’t a sexual look, but an assessing one. Like Damon was sizing him up to see if he was still a threat.
Nick yanked a huge gust of magic down and into his channeling rod, the ground under his feet shuddering at the massive influx, and forced it into the castle. Damon raised his eyebrow,the gesture both mocking and impressed.
When Nick looked over at the calibration stone, it was a deep, rich pink. He broke the connection and let the channeling rod fall to the floor.
“That’s it?” Damon asked, looking less than impressed. Nick huffed and shook his head.
“Any more and the elves can’t work with it.” He jumped off the platform and walked to the door, gesturing for Damon to follow. He knew that the total amount of magic channeled wasn’t impressive, but what did Damon expect? This was a job normally reserved for a beta, after all.
And Nick’s final show of strength there had been fucking impressive.
Damon nodded thoughtfully. “I guess making toys requires finer control than digging for coal,” he conceded. Nick huffed again and punched him on the arm, making him laugh and speed up down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Nick grinned and followed.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, laughing and out of breath, and for a second Nick was sure that Damon was going to start something—whathe wasn’t sure—but Damon didn’t. He pulled away, brushing a nonexistent speck of dirt off his shoulder, and gave Nick a serious sort of look.
“So that’s it? You don’t need any more help?”
Nick bristled at the reminder that Damon was there to help him. That he’d had toaskfor help. Still, he had to concede that Damon’s assistance had been invaluable. The two of them working together had managed to drain the castle in under an hour, and refilling it had taken even less time. If everything was back to normal, the elves should be able to get in a few hoursof work before dinner, which Nick was sure they’d be ecstatic about.
“No, that was it. Thanks.”
