Heaven and Hole

We now sat in her office. It had a double aspect, with two large, floor to ceiling windows occupying adjacent walls. It looked more likely to be occupied by a CEO than a House Manager.

Perhaps sensing this, Miss Shapiro spoke. "I should explain that I am Mr Raine's Executive Assistant, his factotum, you might say. House Manager is just a position that I fill when he is at this residence."

As she addressed us, she was reading from the screen of a laptop; we presumed revisiting our references, wholly counterfeit, of course, and crested with Oúriēl's assistance.

Seemingly satisfied, she turned to us. "It is a little irregular the two of you being willing to work for half pay. But Mr Raine has decided that he will consider your application. However, he has stipulated that he would like to see you first. Mr Raine is away today, but has asked if you mind FaceTiming. You will not see Mr Raine and there is no need for you to speak at this point."

Lily and I looked at each other and then nodded.

"Please stand over there then, thank you."

We stood on a rug closer to one of the windows. Miss Shapiro inserted an ear piece, pressed the screen of her phone and then walked slowly around us, holding the camera up. I felt like some form of livestock being assessed.

Returning to her starting position, Miss Shapiro looked intently into the screen for a few seconds more, before saying, "yes, Mr Raine."

Putting down the phone, and removing her ear piece, she smiled tautly at the two of us. "Sorry about that, it's a habit of his. You are hired. Can you start tomorrow at, say, 8am?"

We agreed to this, of course. I guessed that our physical appearance had not been totally abhorrent to our new employer.

"Mr Raine has graciously agreed to pay you both the full salary. He is..." the House Manager seemed to be searching for the right word, "...fond, yes fond, of sisters, twins in particular. So, you perhaps located his heretofore mythical soft spot."

Miss Shapiro appeared to be highly amused by something, but said nothing more to us on the way out.

She didn't really need to. As often with men, appetite seemed to have trumped prudence. Maybe Raine just felt very secure. Maybe Raine just felt very horny.

"Oh, and I did mention the uniforms when we first spoke, right?"

We replied in unison: "Yes, we like uniforms. See you tomorrow, Miss Shapiro."

We arrived promptly, mostly due to Lily. Time keeping was never my strong suit, it's not really a demon thing. Miss Shapiro showed us our quarters, and we gratefully deposited our suitcases. We had two adjacent rooms, with a connecting door. She explained it was up to us whether or not this was locked. The rooms were pleasingly spacious and had the same floor-to-ceiling windows that seemed to be the signature of the house. The House Manager showed us how to use a slider to turn them from transparent, to translucent, to opaque. It was all very hi-tech.

Laid out on each of our beds was a uniform. Miss Shapiro showed us where spare clothes were housed in closets and dressers. She requested we change before touring the house and meeting the other staff.

I had half expected a Halloween "sexy" maid outfit, but the uniforms were relatively demure. Sure the black, silk dresses were a little short, then so were Lily and I; and they weren't quite stripper length. Over these were tied white aprons, with lace edging. The large bow at the back verged on caricature, but it was bearable. We had already been told that thigh high, sheer, black stockings were de rigueur. Given Raine's reputation, this was not exactly surprising. I'd packed a few black garter belts and matching lingerie; Lily had stuck to her preferred white. We each had two pairs of identical black heels.

Fully attired, and with hair pulled back into ponytails, we rejoined Miss Shapiro, who had been waiting in the hallway. She led us down two flights of stairs. I realized we were now below ground level.

In quick succession she introduced us to the chef, M. Lefebvre, his assistant, Miss Ramirez, and two maintenance men, Tom and Bobby, who looked after both the house and grounds. All seemed welcoming and most wished us luck in our new job. Bobby had used the phrase "better luck than the last girl," which earned him a rebuke from the House Manager.

Given our identical attire, and close to identical looks, we caused a little confusion. It was finally agreed that I was the platinum blonde and Lily the dirty blonde (if only they knew how apt an epithet that was).

Miss Shapiro reiterated our duties. There was some general cleaning and dealing with bed linen, but two cleaners came in once a week to do a lot of the heavier work. We would also be expected to serve at mealtimes, and to provide assistance to the other staff as required.

The House Manager then took us around the property. In the underground level was the kitchen, a gymnasium, a movie theater seating ten people, and the security and power rooms; the last both Tom and Bobby's area. Almost in passing, Miss Shapiro mentioned that the men were ex-Marines and also attended to Mr Raine's safety.

Tom smiled warmly at us. "You'll need access cards for your rooms and the bits of the house that Miss Shapiro will let you get into. Come round later and I'll see to you."

His final innuendo was brutally clear, but it was delivered with such charm that I reciprocated. "Sure, you can fill me in later."

Miss Shapiro was less impressed. "That's quite enough of that, you two. May I remind you of the contracts you signed, and specifically their provisos about staff relations?"

"Yes, Ma'am," replied Tom, still grinning.

In the vicinity of Tom and Bobby's domain was also a utility room. It housed cleaning materials, a washing machine, and a dryer. Moving back to the first floor. There was an indoor swimming pool, a regular dining room, a larger room used for entertaining, two substantial living rooms, and the offices used by Mr Raine and Miss Shapiro. The second floor housed mostly bedrooms, along with a room that the House Manager described as The Observatory.

Now oriented, Miss Shapiro suggested we spend a little time with the other staff members to better understand their expectations of us. As she left, her parting words were that Mr Raine and his ward would probably like to meet us after lunch.

Lily and I looked at each other. The ward was no doubt Freya, the objective of our mission.

The staff were as friendly as the initial impressions they gave.

M. Lefebvre, Jean Michel was his name, was a little, well Gallic, but this was only to be expected. Traces of gray ran through his immaculately slicked-back hair.

Elena Ramirez was -- almost literally -- a doll. Young, petite, pretty, doe-eyed, and outgoing.

Tom was the older, and taller, of the two maintenance guys; lanky, and a little more serious.

Bobby was a black guy, and a little puppy-like (at least for a trained killer). He was full of jokes and rather flirty.

Indeed, as we had found earlier, both Tom and Bobby were flirty, Bobby was just less subtle about it. He dropped a reference to "assessing" new employees into the conversation. It could have been inappropriate, invasive even, but he made it cute.

I was maybe a little flirty back. Lily was just her normal self. Her other-worldly innocence and shyness seemed to be catnip for most men, without her even trying.

Tom printed our access cards, making notes in a register as he did. I inquired as to what he was doing. He explained that the pass machine allocated a unique sequential number to each card printed. Apparently, Miss Shapiro was religious about matching the numbers up. If -- as we planned to do -- we wanted to explore off-limits parts of the house, this might not be so straightforward.

We weren't required to serve at lunch, and instead ate with the others in a room off the kitchen. If Elena could make sandwiches this good, her formal food must be amazing. We chatted and gossiped, us sticking to our invented résumés.

Miss Shapiro seemed to be liked. She could be demanding, but was normally reasonable, and sometimes kind. The Master of the house was more of an enigma. He and his assistant seldom spent more than a few months at the property each year. He had houses around the world; The Caribbean, France, Thailand, maybe others the staff didn't know about.

Talk turned to his charge. She was new. Bobby made a rather crude comment about her being more than a ward, and Elena called him out on it. The burly ex-marine got flustered and apologized. It was pretty obvious that he liked the trainee chef. The young lady, who we assumed to be Freya, seemed even more of a mystery to the staff, down to no one knowing her name. She had arrived with Raine about a month and a half ago. None of our colleagues had exchanged more than a few words with her. She was seen as aloof. I assumed this was as a result of Raine's magic.

Talk turned to our predecessor, April. She had been liked by everyone; Tom, in particular, seemed to have more than liked her. She had only been in position for about three weeks, when she disappeared. She had left a note, but it had been laconic. The general opinion seemed to be that she had met a guy. Lily and I knew that she had met the wrong guy. April had been a human, but a disciple of Lucy, who had helped her Mistress on multiple occasions. Thinking of her life being snuffed out made me angry. But I had a job to do and tried to focus on that. Extracting Freya would be some sort of revenge for April.

We had just finished when the House Manager appeared and said that Mr Raine would like to see us. We followed her, smoothing our uniforms down as we walked. She paused in front of the heavy double doors leading to Raine's office and knocked. A voice bade us enter.

Raine was seated behind a large, antique desk. Even in this position, it was obvious that he was tall. Tall and thin, almost cadaverous, an effect accentuated by his long, gray hair, and aquiline features. Maybe he had a Gandalf fetish. But his face seemed younger than the rest of his body; plastic surgery, or perhaps a spell, but something.

However, neither Lily nor I had much time to take in our employer's appearance. We were both focussed on the girl standing next to him. Red hair, pulled back from her open, freckled face.

Lily began to speak."Whi..."

I trod heavily on Lily's toes, trying to not be completely obvious. "What Lily means is that we are pleased to meet you both."

Raine acknowledged my words with a slight inclination of his head. Whitney stared at us blankly, and without the least shred of recognition.

The meeting with Raine and Whitney / Freya had been brief. Raine welcomed us, trusted that we would be happy in our new positions, and encouraged us to work hard. He also informed us, with no change in facial expression, that -- from time to time -- he might call on us to perform other services. His meaning could not have been more clear had he accompanied the words with a lascivious leer. But Lily and I were very used to the peccadilloes of human males.

He didn't reference his ward at all, as she stood silently, more interested in the view out of the window than us. I decided that I was going to keep calling her Whitney; it was how she had introduced herself.

I tried to press the issue. "We will be good employees, Sir. But I had a question; will your friend, Miss..., require anything from us?"

If I had hoped to elicit a name, I was to be disappointed by Raine's reply. "It may be that my ward has need of you on occasion, but either I or Miss Shapiro will advise you at the time. Now I have a busy day and will let you get back to your duties."

Miss Shapiro ushered us out.

When the door had closed, I picked up on my line of inquiry. "So, Mr Raine's ward, she doesn't speak a lot. Does she have a name?"

"She does. It's Whitney, but she should be none of your concern, unless you are asked otherwise. Understood?"

"Yes, Miss Shapiro."

I left it at that.

Lily and I served the evening meal to Raine and his assistant, but there was no sign of Whitney.

Angels and demons don't really need to sleep. But, since Lily had been banished to Earth, and I had decided to join her, we found ourselves at least somewhat subject to this aspect of the human world. It had been a busy first day, and we were both tired. So we retired to our rooms at the first opportunity.

The two of us sat together on my bed as the sun went down. We were both rather confused about Whitney. Not so much her current behavior, which was pretty consistent with someone being under a spell. More how she had been so different when we first met.

Lily said that she had been asked to drive into town to pick up some supplies for Jean Michel. We agreed to go together, and to use the opportunity to try to get some answers.

I began to find being in the Raine mansion a little oppressive, and craved the warmth and softness of my partner's body next to me. But we had agreed to not raise too many suspicions, and so Lily kissed me goodnight before retiring to her own room. We left the connecting door open.

I lay awake for a while, first thinking about making love to Lily, and then Whitney. Part of me wondered what Lucy's reaction might be to the latter. I guessed that I would find out soon enough.

Lily and I served breakfast -- again no sign of Whitney -- ate ourselves, and then headed in to the nearby town. We had of course changed out of our uniforms. About a mile out from our destination, I turned into a side road. It was more of a dirt track really, heavily overgrown. Perfect for our purposes.

We had no real idea about the scope of Raine's powers and so had been wary of doing what we were about to do while in the house. Eight or so miles away felt safer. Having checked our surroundings, we began. There were words to be chanted, words from the ancient language. My voice and Lily's intertwined as we sang the invocation.

The interior of the car dimmed and an oval of light spiraled into existence in the vicinity of the dash. In a few seconds, Lucy and Oúriēl appeared in the portal. It's not really my nature to get nervous, but the prospect of explaining to Freya's parents that we had fucked her without knowing, and failed to rescue her, was a little daunting.

Lily's naïve, matter of fact approach saved the day. It seemed that we hadn't screwed up. Lucy and Oúriēl -- true to their earlier words -- didn't seem to care at all about what we had done with their daughter. More importantly, they were relieved that we had not attempted to flee with her when we first met.

Lucy explained. "I wouldn't expect the lower echelons to understand the deeper magics. A powerful spell, such as we assume Raine has cast on my little girl, can consume the victim in time. If they are to survive, even in the medium term, the subject needs to have short periods when the potency of the magic is dialed down to a minimum."

Oúriēl took over from his paramour. "Which presents a problem, of course. How to not have the person escape when the spell's efficacy is reduced? Well the common approach is to give them false memories, of who they are, of their lives, and so on. The subject can then quite happily spend their recuperative period doing whatever it is that the thaumaturge has imprinted on them before returning to their full bewitchment."

Lucy spoke again. "But crucially, they are not free from the spell during this period of recovery. If you had attempted to escape with Freya, you would have likely severely injured her, if not killed her."

I had been silent during the discussions. Not my customary way.

Lucy seemed aware of my discomfort. "If you are worried about having sex with my daughter, worm, don't be. Do you really understand the demon code so poorly? Sex is a wonderful gift. I'm glad my little girl was able to have consensual fun with you both. It is of some comfort to me that she had this playful interlude, when I think of the abomination wrought by that man Raine."

As she spoke, the fire in Lucy's eyes raged. I could almost begin to feel sorry for Raine, given what my Mistress might do to him once Freya was free. Almost...

Oúriēl patted Lucy's shoulder. "Anyway, dear, disaster has been avoided. And also, we now know that Raine intends Freya no harm in the short-term, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to let her recharge. It seems his plans are more medium to long term."

Now with a clearer idea of the situation, we signed off. What neither of us had was any clue about was how to address Whitney's predicament. In silence, I drove on to the town to complete our errand.

It was nearly lunchtime when we returned to the house, and we had to quickly change in order to serve the meal. Whitney was at table, but she blanked us both. This was not going to be easy.

As we cleared away the plates and glasses, Miss Shapiro mentioned that she, Mr Raine, and his ward would be away that night and so we could have the evening off, along with the other staff. It had been Thursday when we started and so we now had a free Friday evening.

When we returned to the kitchen, bearing crockery, Tom and Bobby were there, already starting their meal.

Bobby spoke. "So, girls, how about you join us for a drink this evening. There's a bar with a pool table. Me and Tom could teach you how to play."

We had already determined that it might be advantageous to know more about the other people on Raine's staff, and so Lily and I agreed.

"8pm, we'll meet you in the employee parking lot, OK?"

"OK," we chimed in unison.

We walked into the parking lot a little early. Lily was her normal reserved self in jeans and a white shirt, with all but the top button fastened. Me?

Bobby greeted us. "Hey, girls! Fuck Emma, those are short shorts, how are you going to play pool in them?"

"I'm sure I'll find a way, Bobby."

I'd also selected some stupidly high heels and my ass gyrated wildly as I walked. The guys were leaning against a large, black Toyota Tundra. Bobby opened the rear doors and appeared to enjoy watching us clamber inside. Though, a little to my chagrin, he seemed to spend much longer looking at Lily's butt than mine.

Tom drove. The bar was half way between the house and the town we had visited earlier. As we pulled off the main road, I saw a neon sign pulsing. The blue outline of a large fish, big teeth shining white, and S-H-A-R-K-E-Y-'-S being spelled out sequentially in red letters. It was nicer than I had expected. No smell of urine in the parking lot. Clean and well-maintained inside. Friendly barkeeps. It wasn't so busy, even for a Friday. Bobby bought us drinks. Beer for him, bourbon for me and Tom, and a white wine for Lily.

Tom seemed impressed with my choice of beverage. "I like a girl who drinks whiskey."

"I feel the same about guys who do, honey."

Demons are flirty, it's in our nature. Also, Lily and I both had this, shall we say, effect, on humans. We could dial this up, when the situation called for it, but we couldn't ever turn it completely off. Even with our engines idling, it was often enough to have people get interested. Tom and Bobby seemed super interested.

The pool table was in a side room with an opening, that had once housed a door, connecting it to the main bar. An actual door, in another wall, opened onto the parking lot. I knocked my drink back. Tom smiled and did the same. Seeing this as some sort of challenge, Bobby chugged his bottle of beer, before saying he'd get us more drinks.