Two weeks ago you read the first part of “The Magic Touch”, a prequel story to Dreaming of How it Was Going to Be. In it, Karen had to fight zombies who were attacking her home, and her husband helped increase her magic powers by spanking her. Last week, the zombies attacked again, and then Joe got a little turned on. Today, the story concludes.

****

The Magic Touch, Part 3

The afternoon was quiet. Joe made a pizza for dinner, and afterward they went to the guest room to watch TV — there wasn’t one in the living room; they wanted that space to be devoted to connecting with their friends and family, not clustering around a screen.

Unsurprisingly, the news had nothing to say about zombies attacking local neighborhoods. Joe turned off the screen and tossed the remote onto the little desk. Karen leaned into him, running her hand over his stomach. “You sure you’re all right?”

He shook his head and sighed. “I knew you were a witch when I married you, and it never bothered me. It still doesn’t,” he added quickly, “and it never will. But when you joined the coven…”

“What is it?” she prompted when he trailed off.

“I just…” He swallowed hard and stroked her hair. “I just never expected to have to be afraid for you. Of things that would come after you, or try to hurt you.”

“Joe, we’re okay–“

“But I’m still scared for you. It’s not only this, either; it’s everything. It seems like every couple of months someone’s trying to destroy the world and you have to help save it. How did I not know any of this was going to happen?”

“I didn’t know either,” Karen said. “I thought strange things happened around me and no one else noticed them.”

“‘Strange things’,” Joe echoed. “Karen, I think some of this goes well beyond strange.”

“I suppose so.” She drew up her legs so she could kneel on the couch, moving her face close to her husband’s. She kissed his cheek, then his jaw. “I love you, Joe. You’re the only person I’ve ever known who accepted everything about me, no questions. I know this is hard, but–“

“It’s not you that’s the problem,” he said. “It’s the stuff that happens around you.” She tried to kiss him again, but he turned his head. “Zombies, Karen!”

She sat back on her haunches — carefully; her ass still hurt — and put her hands on her hips. “There’s nothing I can do about them,” she said, “except protect us. I’m not a combat witch–“

“And the fact remains that you can even use those two words together!” He jumped to his feet and paced the small room. “‘Combat witch’? What does that even mean?” He held up a hand before she could explain. “Yes, I know, you don’t have to tell me.” She watched him control himself, and when he spoke again he sounded more reasonable. “A day will come,” he said, “when you’ll end up on the front line. You won’t want to be there — Graham and Lily won’t want you there — but it will happen.” She saw tears in his eyes. “And I’m afraid I’ll lose you.”

Karen got off the couch and went to him, pushing him gently against the open door. “You’re not going to lose me,” she said, her voice thready, her throat tight. “I love you, and I’m not going to leave you — no matter how many zombies try to eat my brains.”

“But they’re such nice brains.” He tried to smile.

Karen reached up and smoothed her fingers over his eyes, brushing away his tears. Her hands went to his shoulders, then his hips. “I love you,” she said again, pulling him toward the couch. “Let me make love to you. Let me help you forget this. At least for a little while.”

“Karen…”

She put one finger on his lips. “I need you,” she said. Then, after a pause: “I’m scared too. Scared of all these things coming after us. Seems like we stop one and there’s another to deal with. I just…” She ran her hands under the hem of his shirt and over the skin of his sides. “I need something real, right now, with you.” Her hands went to his hips again and she quirked a smile up at him. “Unless you’re too tired.”

In response, he leaned down and caught her lips in a kiss that seared through her just as much as it had when they’d first started dating, over twenty years ago. Then it had been a surprise after dinner and a movie. She didn’t remember the film, but she remembered the kiss, and what it had led to.

These days, she preferred to have sex in their bed, but she could handle the occasional backache if the couch was the only piece of furniture nearby. In the grand scheme of things, it was only a minor pain, especially compared to how good he made her feel the rest of the time.

Of course, when they finally did get to the bedroom, she made sure to prove to him once again that sex got better the longer they were together. Even though it was in the missionary position, her legs on his shoulders, him pounding into her, his cock as hard as ever, she still was more than happy to be there. They fucked in that position until she came, and then she came again, and then he came, pulling out of her and spraying his come over her stomach. She did enjoy when he came inside her, but Joe knew how much she enjoyed feeling his come on her and he was as devoted to her pleasure as she was to his.

Afterward, Joe retrieved a t-shirt from the hamper and Karen used it to clean herself off, and then they held each other in bed, content.

Sex didn’t make everything better, and it wouldn’t protect them from zombies, but it certainly helped things in general.

—

“Joe?”

Joe grumbled and rolled over, pulling the top sheet along with him.

“Joe!” Karen poked his shoulder, hard enough that he groaned. “Joe, do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” he asked into his pillow.

Karen gave up and got out of bed. Neither of them had bothered to put on clothes — even with the air conditioning and the ceiling fan it was too hot in the bedroom. She checked her phone: 4:30. Yuck.

She walked naked to the bedroom window, drew back the curtains, and looked out at the side yard. When they’d been looking for homes, the additional green space outside the master bedroom — there was an empty lot next door — had been one of the nice bonuses. But now it was another place to defend against zombies.

Damn it.

“Joe! Wake up! Zombies!”

That did it. He was out of bed in a heartbeat, across the room and pulling on a pair of shorts before Karen could even think about what to do.

Joe, fortunately, knew what to do. He’d left the hairbrush on the bedside table, and he picked it up. “Let’s do this.”

Karen most emphatically did not want another spanking. She’d forgotten how sore her ass was while they were fucking, but now, as she bent over the bed and clutched a pillow to her chest, all she could think of was that every beat of her heart made her ass throb.

Joe didn’t even bother to warm her up. It was straight to POP! POP! POP! POP!, the hairbrush crashing against her aching backside. Fortunately, the spanking on top of the bruises energized her faster than if Joe had started with his hand. She used a patch of weedy-looking flowers as sense organs, and saw zombies picking their way carefully through the empty lot and toward the side yard. Quickly, she pulled apart the ground, creating a wide pit a few feet away from the side of the house, and just in time — zombies started falling, and they couldn’t scale the other side.

Over the sound of the spanks, Karen thought she could make out more zombies coming toward the front door; she checked through the vines on the trellises and while there were a few they were all getting trapped by the bushes. She could deal with them later.

The backyard, meanwhile, had more zombies in it, pushing against the tree branches. And there were so many of them coming from the side that she was afraid they’d start climbing over each other.

And Joe POP! was POP! still POP! spanking POP! her.

“Stop!” she moaned.

Joe immediately did.

“I’m tapped,” she said. “I can’t…”

“So call for help!” She was pretty sure Joe didn’t mean to sound quite so frantic.

Karen crawled across the bed and grabbed her phone. She dialed the emergency number. “I need help,” she said when Graham picked up.

“We’ll be right there.”

She dropped the phone and closed her eyes, exhausted.

—

Karen heard the sounds of battle outside her house, but muffled, as if her ears were stuffed with cotton. When even a hairbrush spanking couldn’t get the job done, she knew something was wrong.

Then, suddenly, there was quiet.

Joe came back into the bedroom — where had he gone? — and rubbed Karen’s shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “You need to get dressed.”

“Why?”

He helped her up to her feet and then eased a nightgown over her head. Even the gentle fluttering of the fabric against her backside hurt; he must have really gone to town on her that last time. She was almost afraid to look at the damage.

Sarah and Dawn were in the living room again. This time Sarah’s panties were sky-blue, and she was wearing a fitted polo shirt, and she was standing up. Since the bedroom door was behind her, Karen got a look at her deeply-crimson bottom, bruises peeking out below the edges of her underwear. “Lily figured out an anti-zombie spell that works against Gauss’s zombies. You’re good for at least a day.”

“Thank you,” Joe said.

Dawn saw Karen. “You all right?”

Karen managed to sit on the couch beside her husband. “I think I reached my limit.”

“It’s all right,” Sarah said. “We found Gauss, for real this time, and the assault is in…” She checked her phone. “An hour.”

“He has proof against magic,” Dawn said. “We can’t just blast him directly.”

“And I’m about done anyway,” Sarah added. “I don’t think I can take much more spanking.”

Dawn grinned. “Like you have a say in the matter.”

Sarah folded her arms. “Let’s see how you like it for a change, huh?”

That got Dawn to close her mouth. Interesting.

“So if you can’t use magic, what can you do?”

“Actually,” Sarah said, “we got the idea from you: we’re going to wrap the building with plants, and then send tendrils in and force him out the front door, where we’ll capture him.”

“And that’ll work?” Karen asked.

“It should.” Sarah seemed to squirm a bit; she moved back to lean against the doorway to the hall. “Do you want to come watch?”

“Honestly?” Karen shrugged. “I could really use some rest.”

“Fair enough.”

—

Graham sent a group text when it was all over. The plan had gone off without a hitch, for once, and Gauss was in custody. Karen found all of this out when she woke up around noon; she’d gone back to bed after Dawn and Sarah had left.

Joe was already outside, hedge clippers at work, reshaping the bushes into something a little less wall-like. “I would’ve done that,” Karen said when she came out to join him. “You didn’t have to–“

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure. Do you want to do cleanup?”

“Not really, but someone has to.” Karen retrieved the lawn bags from the garage and opened one up to start stuffing branches into it.

It turned out to be a partly-cloudy day, which Karen was thankful for; it meant less sun, and therefore less heat — and there was a nice breeze, too.

Dawn dropped by a couple of hours later and joined Karen in cleaning up the yard. “What are you going to do about that pit on the side?” she asked.

“Haven’t really thought about it.” A pause. “Maybe a vegetable garden? I’ve always wanted one of my own.”

Dawn, though, didn’t seem to be paying attention. She had her eyes on Joe. “He okay?” Her voice was quiet, and it didn’t carry.

Karen shrugged. “I thought he was. I’ll talk to him.”

“He worries because he loves you.” Dawn was very perceptive; it was almost like she had her magic running at a low level all the time, boosting her empathy.

“I know,” Karen said, nodding. “We’ll work it out. We always do.”

—

Joe and Karen had a quiet night in. Joe’s boss had given him a couple of days off after seeing the news — “Escaped mental patients ravage local neighborhood” — and Lily and Graham had told Karen she could come back to the coven “when you’re ready.”

It would be nice to sleep in for a couple of days, and to spend more time on the garden.

If only Joe wasn’t so tense. She’d understood it earlier; they’d been only a few hours removed from the early-morning attack on their home. But now Karen had hoped Joe would have been at least somewhat relaxed.

He wasn’t, though.

Karen cuddled herself up behind him in bed as he faced away from her; she ran her hand up his side and put her arm across his chest, and he took her hand. “Talk to me. Please?”

Joe shook his head and tried to inch away, but Karen wasn’t having any of that. She held him tighter, kissed his bare shoulder. “I…” He swallowed. “Karen, I can’t.”

She sighed. “That’s okay. I’m here for you, and I’ll wait.”

But the vibe she was getting from him said that wasn’t what he meant. “It’s not just the zombies.” He moved her arm and sat up in bed, swinging his legs over the side.

Karen pushed off the top sheet and went to sit next to him, drawing one leg up so she was sideways, facing him. It put pressure on her sore backside, but she could deal. “Joe, tell me what’s wrong, if it’s not the zombies, then–“

“It’s not just the zombies,” he repeated. “It’s… everything.” He looked at her with dark eyes made nearly black by the night-time dimness of their bedroom. “Including the fact that Gauss had a gun.”

Karen sighed again. Joe was vehemently anti-gun — so was Karen, although they didn’t bother her the way they bothered him. “He didn’t get a chance to use it.”

“But he could have. And guns are scarier than magic sometimes.”

She admitted to herself that he was correct in that regard; she could control magic, but she couldn’t control if someone else used a gun on her or someone she loved. “It’s more than that. I know it is. Tell me the truth.”

“The truth?” He put his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. “I can’t.” A pause. “I can’t tell you the truth.”

Karen knew what he was going to say, knew it in the pit of her stomach. She got off the bed to kneel in front of her husband, moving his hands away from his face. He looked broken.

“Say the word,” Karen told him, “and we’ll walk away. Just you and me.”

Joe stared down at her, confused. “Karen, don’t–“

But she was shaking her head. “Don’t get me wrong; I love working with the coven.” She took his face in her hands and rose up on her knees to bring her lips to his. “But I love you more. I’ll give it all up if you ask. You’re more important to me than any job will ever be.”

She could tell he didn’t know how to respond to that. But it was okay, because she did. Karen kissed him then, sweet and gentle, coming up to her feet without releasing him from the kiss, urging him to lie back so she could be on top of him, kissing him, pouring all her love into him. Soon, his arms were around her; soon after, they were making love again.

And, in the afterglow, Joe laughed, breaking the quiet, reflective moment.

“What is it?”

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too.” She turned on her side, rested her hand on his chest to feel it rise and fall. “What’s so funny?”

“No matter where we go, no matter what we do, you’ll always be a witch.”

Karen nodded. “Your witch.”

“My witch.” He put his hand over hers, stroking the back of her wrist. “If we go away, then who will you have to back you up?”

“What?”

“At least here,” Joe said, “if something goes wrong, we can call in the cavalry.”

“We can, yes.” Karen was confused now. “What are you saying, exactly?”

He brought her hand to his mouth, kissed her fingertips. “I don’t want to run. Yes, I’m scared for you, and yes, I sometimes worry that I’m going to lose you, but I don’t want to run.”

He was quiet for a long time. So was she.

And he was the one to break the silence. “I have the most amazing wife on the planet,” he said, his voice hoarse — Karen heard the tears in it and moved closer, propping herself up on her elbow to be nearer to him. “I would never take any of this away from you, and I would never let you give it up just for me.” He drew a long, shuddering breath. “I guess we’ll have to keep dealing with it.”

“Look at the bright side.”

“What’s that?”

Karen ran her hand down Joe’s body, and when she got to his cock she made a small sound deep in her throat.

“After all this time, I still have the magic touch.”

****

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