Old World Magic Ch. 08

I nodded, I'd had a cell phone before, in my old life. It always seemed to me like I was under contract. The thought of a prepaid phone never occurred to me. Then I was taken by the lights of Vegas. We passed the airport, and were quickly at the Casino Royale Hotel & Casino. It was almost practically in the middle of the strip, so I got to see quite a few of the famous casinos as we drove past; The Luxor, the MGM Grand, The Bellagio, Ceasers Palace, and it was right across the street from The Mirage. We thanked Candi for the ride as we got out, no luggage other than Ruby's clutch.

"See you two on Sunday," she called as she drove off.

Ruby turned to me, "Let's check in and then you can get some sleep. First thing in the morning, you need to go get a haircut and some clothing."

I nodded, following the sexy succubus in human form into the Hotel Lobby. Check in was fairly standard, and one of the bellhops came running over to ask 'Miss Ruby' if she had any luggage today. The gleam in the young man's eyes told me that not only had Ruby been here before, but she'd likely taken advantage of the young bellhop's supple body in the past.

Shortly later we were in our rooms. They were nice, very clean and elegant, if a touch drab. Each had their own full bathroom with a shower and a separate jacuzzi tub. They were also connected by an adjoining doorway, and ruby pushed her door all the way open, encouraging me to do likewise. I guessed I wouldn't likely be getting much privacy this trip.

She began undressing as she walked around my room, looking around, even though both rooms were obviously the same. "Look," I said holding my hands out, "I know you're probably hoping for a fuck, but I want to have mana about me tomorrow and you have a tendency to drain me a bit much. You'll be ok for one night, won't you?"

She raised one eyebrow and stuck her bottom lip out pouting, "Not even a little taste Mike?"

I sighed, knowing I'd not change her mind if she didn't get a little something. She was after all a demoness. Sex was to her what food was to me, to deny that would be to deny the reality of what she was. Of course she saw my sigh and my shoulders slump and giggled and clapped her hands together. She quickly went to her knees in front of me as I unbuckled my belt.

- - -

I woke some time later, early morning, but light was streaming through my pulled curtains. I heard the unmistakeable sound of Ruby's orgasm as someone fucked her in the bedroom next door to me. I thought about getting up and closing the door separating our two rooms, but rolled over and pulled a pillow over my head instead. I was asleep before they finished.

- - -

When I woke up the next morning... well... close to ten am, which was about as early in the morning as I usually woke. Ruby truly hadn't drained much mana from me last night when she'd sucked me off, and a good night's sleep left me feeling very refreshed and relaxed. I was getting to the point where I could almost feel when my body was brimming with mana, asking to be used. This morning was one of those mornings.

I got up, and not bothering to dress went through to Ruby's room. I figured that I should ask her if she had any good places in town to go for a haircut. I think one part of me also thought maybe I'd put my morning wood to use too. But to my surprise, her room was empty. I poked my head into her bathroom, but she wasn't there either. The bed was a shambles, and there were several empty condoms in the garbage pail. I shuddered slightly, that was one of her more vile habits in my opinion. As a prostitute, she used condoms with almost every client. Not with her regular lovers like me of course, and it was physically impossible for her to catch a 'human' disease. But appearances needed to be kept up, and the working girls at Ruby's Hideaway used condoms, therefore when Ruby had a client, she had to use one.

But of course, as a demented succubus, she enjoyed ingesting cum. So often she'd wait for the client to leave the room and then empty the condoms into her mouth the way a human might tip a sleeve of trail mix, nuts, or candy into our mouths. She even referred to condoms quite often as 'snack packs' which was, to say the least, disturbing to me. A quick mental count put it at four condoms in the garbage, and I wondered if it was just the one young man from earlier, or if she'd had more than one man up last night while I slept.

I found my wallet in the pocket of my jeans, my cash and cards still all in place, so I decided not to worry about Ruby's activities last night. I sat down on my bed and picked up the room service menu and glanced it over. They offered several services, including tickets to the in house movie ciniplex. I grinned as my eyes spotted a particular item on the list. I called down and asked to charge my room for a personal concierge for the morning. I agreed to a six hour charge, and was informed that my man would be up shortly. I smiled, I could charge most of this to the compound's charge account without having to touch my small savings. I ducked into the shower and took a quick shower with the bathroom door open. I wasn't in there for but a few minutes when I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," I yelled, knowing that if it was my hired concierge he'd have a key, if it wasn't then they'd have to wait. But a moment later the door opened and a trim man who looked to be about thirty or so entered. He wasn't dressed formally as I imagined he might be, but wore the hotel's livery. Immediately upon entering, he must have heard the shower, and turned his back to the open bathroom door.

"Hello, I am your personal concierge. I can wait in the hallway if you prefer?" He called loudly so that I could hear him even though his back was turned and I was in the shower.

"No no," I yelled, "It's fine come into the bathroom so I can talk to you please."

The man stepped backwards a few steps into the bathroom, and I opened the door into my mind to allow my thoughts to touch his. To say I could read his mind is not accurate, but what I gleaned from him in an instant was that he was a straight man, and while he wasn't uncomfortable with being around other men, he didn't like coming into the room without that foreknowledge. He was professional and took his job very seriously, especially since the Casino Royale only employed two other men in this position. I had just finished washing up and I reached for a towel, wrapping it about my waist. Using another to begin drying off I started the conversation, "Sorry for springing that on you, but I've a busy day ahead of me and didn't want to wait to shower."

I felt his thoughts again and knew that my apology mollified him. He also could smell that the room had the unmistakeable scent of sex in the air. He incorrectly assumed that I'd been having sex all night. He of course wouldn't have known what a very wet squirter Ruby was, and how her musk often lingered for several hours. It made me pause as I realized that I hadn't even smelled it this morning, I must be becoming immune to it, being surrounded by sex all day and all night.

"That's ok Mr. Naughton," he said, "my name is Michelle Beauxmont. How may I assist you today?"

I didn't detect a hint of a french accent despite his name, and another quick touch to his mind told me that he'd been an American from birth, though his parents were both French immigrants. I finished drying off and said, "I've a laundry list of tasks that need to be accomplished before I can enjoy gambling today." I held out my hand and ticked off a short list, "I came here on a whim and have nothing with me other than my wallet. So I need personal grooming items, tooth brush, shave kit, etc. I'll need a suit, nothing too fancy, but something that will fit me well, also a change of casual clothing, khakis and a polo for example, and of course undergarments. I'll need a prepaid cell phone. Then I'd also like some breakfast, a barber to come up and give me a good haircut, and finally a massage before I go out." I grinned widely as he nodded and made mental notes of everything. I felt rather pleased with myself. Adam had told me to enjoy myself, why shouldn't I charge this all to the brothel's charge card? If Ruby hadn't dragged me out of the bar by my ears, I could have packed most of this stuff.

Michelle nodded his head and waited for a beat or two to see if I had anything else to add. But when I didn't he pulled out a PDA from his breast pocket in his jacket. It looked a bit like a tablet, but smaller. Larger than a cell phone however. He looked at me and asked, "For breakfast sir? What would you like?" I shrugged, I wasn't really even very hungry, but figured if I ate something then my body wouldn't draw on it's mana reserve to keep going. He nodded and then fished a stylus from the side of the pda, he made several notes and then tucked it away. He then left me in the bathroom and I heard him rummaging in the room. I finished drying and with the towel still about my waist went to see what he was about. He'd picked up my clothes where they'd fallen last night and was folding them neatly and setting them on the dresser. Then I watched as he adjusted the table and chairs near the bed, and pulled one out, gesturing for me to sit down. I took him up on it and he even slid the chair in a bit as I sat.

With a TV remote he turned on the hotel room's TV, and noticed it was turned to the hotel's in house channel. Advertising on the screen was the movie playing in the ciniplex as well as several features of the in house casino. He set the remote next to me and then moved to open the heavy blinds in front of the windows. There was a patio beyond, but it was small and unfurnished. He cracked the sliding glass doors open just a few inches and then turned back to me and said, "I find a little fresh air before noon to be best. Before the heat really begins."

I nodded, but could already feel a blast of scorching hot and dry air coming in through the crack. I wondered if the smell of sex was so strong in here that he was trying to quickly air it out before anyone came. But after only a minute or two I said, "actually Michelle, would you please close it? I find the air a bit too warm for my liking."

"Of course sir," he said shutting the glass door and latching it, then moving to the temperature control panel and engaging the AC. I flipped through the channels on the TV for a few minutes before there was a knock at the door. A young man wheeled in a cart and then served me breakfast where I sat, steak and eggs with a cup of fruit, juice, and coffee.

As I watched the young man set up breakfast, I wondered something to myself. Why had the butler, Michelle, suggested opening the door to the patio? He had to have known that even this early in the morning, the Las Vegas air would be uncomfortably hot. I decided to use this time to practice touching another mind. Adam was always telling me that practice would make the images and senses I got from a person's mind, easier to interpret.

I got a sense of who Michelle was, hard working, but he'd made a mistake in his life. Somewhere, some time, he did something he still regretted. I didn't know what it was, but it was something so large that it shaped his persona, it shaped every thought and action. This wasn't what I was looking for and I closed my eyes and bowed my head over my breakfast. I'm sure Michelle would simply think I was saying a silent prayer. But I was probing deeper into his thoughts.

The images I gathered from him, the senses, the feelings, they didn't make much sense. I began eating my breakfast as I thought about what I saw in him. It was like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle in your head. If you took a jigsaw puzzle, dumped all the pieces onto a table, and then tried to figure out what the image was without touching any of the pieces. Something about me being in the shower, the image of his PDA, the smell of sex in the other room.

I worked the puzzle quietly as I ate my breakfast and Michelle quietly stood by. Then I realized the most basic part of the puzzle, the one thing that I missed that was so obvious, the one thing I should never miss; sex. All of the pieces came together then. Michelle had ordered a masseuse to come up to my room, and he had feelings for her. Strong sexual feelings if nothing more, but at least that. He also suspected that she might take money to give her clients happy endings, and he was torn about that. Most of all, he feared the smell of sex in the room might mean that I'd make a pass at her, or suggest that she jerk me off. Underlying all of this was a sense of jealousy and anger, somehow tied to that big mistake in his life.

After breakfast I had a a meeting with a tailor, or at the least, a man who came in and measured me and made notes in a little pocket notebook, then asked me about my 'taste in suits.' Since I knew next to nothing about suits I told him to keep it simple and classic. I didn't know if that meant anything, but he nodded his head as if I was offering sagely advice. After that a barber came in, and dragging a chair into the bathroom, draped me with a towel and gave me possibly the best shave and haircut I'd ever had, finishing with a scalp massage. I took a shower again after the barber left, to wash off any little hairs that might have clung to my neck. When I was done with that, I found a young man, who looked to be about the same age as me (well, the same age I appeared to be) about twenty standing in the bedroom handing Michelle several bags with the name of a very well known store on the side.

I finished toweling off as the young man left and Michelle unpacked the bags. Everything I'd need for shaving and bathroom ablutions. I raised an eyebrow at the fact that there were condoms in the bag as well. I hadn't specified that, but I wasn't going to complain or nit pick about it. The bags also held some underwear, boxer briefs, which I'd never worn before. There was socks and under shirts, and even a pair of track pants and a few plain colored t shirts. No khakis or polo shirt, but then again those things would need to be closer fitted then track pants that had a very stretchy waist I guessed.

Then, to my surprise, he pulled a 'tracphone' out of one of the bags. The prepaid cell phone also had a time card with it, and I was pleased to see that it was one of those smart phones. I of course, had no clue how to use a smart phone, but was still excited to play with it. It looked like one of those blackberry phones, though I noticed that it was made by a different company. He took it out of the mylar packaging and plugged it into the wall just as a knock at the door drew my attention.

The room had cooled back off, and the smell of sex wafting in from Ruby's room had seemed to lessen, though I could still scent it. I finished toweling off and stood there with a second towel wrapped about my waist as a woman wheeled a folded massage table into the room. She was cute in a somewhat plain way. With the right makeup and outfit she could easily turn tricks, I knew that. But she'd never be looked at as a real beauty. But when she turned and looked at me, she smiled and I suddenly realized Michelle's attraction. This woman had a purely beautiful soul. "Hello sir, my name is Tina, I'll be your masseuse today. If you'd like to lay down on the table?"

I did so and I let my mind touch hers. Her name wasn't Tina, but that didn't really matter, we all have secrets. I probed deeper. She was happy to see Michelle. There was more and I dug as her hands began to work my back. She had a child, no, not just a child, a disabled child. Deeper I went. Her daughter was autistic and she had trouble getting the state to pony up with help. Deeper, I needed to know more. She did turn tricks once in a great while; handjobs if the customer didn't seem like trouble or a cop. Deeper I probed her memories. It was getting tougher, like swimming through seaweed. She liked Michelle, no... not just liked. But her daughter came first in her life. There was more... I could almost sense....

"Roll over sir," she said with a friendly lilt in her voice. How long had I been probing this woman's mind? Long enough that a pair of suits was hanging on the back of the open closet door. I hadn't even heard the tailor return with the clothing I'd been so distracted. Well, no one ever said that probing someone's deepest darkest recess of the mind would be easy or quick. I didn't give any thought to the fact that I smelled something like roasted peanuts in the room. If I had, I might have realized that I was pushing my luck with feedback.

But I wasn't paying attention, I rolled over, I needed to know more. There, that hidden spot. Her daughter's father had fucked her and then left her when she got pregnant. She never had trusted men after that. It was the only reason she never accepted any of Michelle's friendly advances. I wondered if I could do something about that? I found that memory... I thought about my training, about how I could manipulate people's minds. All of the training I'd been doing under Adam seemed so far away now. Now I wasn't just tinkering with simple things like a person's favorite color or if they preferred bangs or not. This was deep, this was a core belief. But if I never tried...

I took that memory, that thought, that part of 'Tinas' mind and mentally held it up to examine it. Like all memories it was both good and bad, sweet and sour, dark and light. I visualized myself holding it as if it were a tchotchke, a porcelain figurine that my grandmother might have had on a shelf on her wall. I took it and turned it, looking at it from all angles. Slowly it began to even look like one of those porcelain figures. I imagined myself holding a very soft damp cloth. I began brushing the dust off it, polishing it so that it sparkled and shone. I took care to get into the cracks of it and wipe away the dirt and lovingly and carefully make it look more beautiful, more precious, more tender. Then I took the figurine and put it back on the shelf where I'd taken it from. It sparkled and glowed and looked wonderful. There was still shadows behind it and in the crooks of it, you could never get rid of all of the darkness in something like that. But it wasn't ugly and horrible anymore, it was a joy to look upon.

I mentally stepped back, the figurine became again a shapeless formless memory. But where before there had been guilt and pain, now there was love for her daughter and joy over the man that had been in her life and given her the blessing of her daughter's presence. The other memories of that man were still tainted, but this one was clean.

I drew back and took a breath. I realized that Tina's hands had stopped on my thighs. I opened my eyes and she was looking off into the distance, a tear unshed in her eyes. I also realized, somewhat to my dismay that I wasn't seeing anything in color. The entire world had gone black and white. I managed to retain a sigh, I knew that this was reality backlash, and was the price of my magic. Adam assured me that as I grew in power, it would lessen in severity.

"Is everything ok Tina?" I asked.

She started and looked down, "Oh sorry, I ..." She was flustered and I told her that everything was ok. I gave her a slight mental nudge reinforcing that point. Everything was ok after all. She smiled at me, then at Michelle. "I'm sorry, I don't normally wool gather like that. I was just thinking about my daughter."

"How is she?" Michelle jumped in and asked.

I suddenly saw a chance to practice another skill I'd wanted to try out. I announced, "well, I'll be leaving you two alone then. You both stay here and talk for a while, enjoy yourselves." But with that statement I pushed a thought forcefully into both of their minds. I was gone, they should stay and talk and see what happens.