Miss Nobody

Chapter 55

CRAFTY CRAFTS

Evening Day 27

"Kinda. We have to share a brain now, so that's been fun."

"Sounds more like a punishment for you. Having to share a brain with a man? I'd rather be dead." She closed another tea bag with a piece of black string. To absorb the negative energies before it entered the herb mixture.

"I've tried that too." I sighed.

"Where's Richie Rich now?"

"He saved me at the club and now he's in the hospital downstairs."

She came closer to me and whispered, "You're dating one of the Zantana brothers and they haven't offed him yet?"

"What happens to him, happens to me."

"I don't think he's the one that should have your loyalty."

"It's not like that. We were bespelled and it went, really, really wrong. If Keiran gets hurt I feel the pain."

Her eyebrows shot up on her forehead. "And what happens to him when you get hurt?"

"Nothing." I sighed. "The connection doesn't work that way."

She was thoughtful for a few moments. "He was the one that helped get your guts back in? He sliced himself open to mimic your wound and when Doc sewed him up it worked on you?" She was quiet again. "Damn."

I nodded.

She sighed. "So...tell me more about these adventures?" She took a hit and set the blunt down in a mini ashtray she pulled from her smoke kit.

Ben and I looked at each other briefly. "I left the Kitty Kat Ranch, got into an accident, lost my memory and four months later ended up here. People died. I died." I closed my eyes briefly to hold back the tears of Chef's boots under the table. "When I first met Jonny. He was the one that triggered my memories." I blushed but kept talking. "When he touched me. I remembered things." I went back to my task. "Then I was kidnapped a couple of times, forced to do spells and it all goes back to my evil cunt of a mother who has flying monkeys that tried to sell me."

"Don't forget the Demon part." Ben reminded me.

I nodded. "That too, you know about the Sex Magic part." I yawned and walked over to Chef's wall of knives. They hung on a nice display. I grabbed a small pointy one and went over to the kitchen island. I cleansed everything with my incense stick to clear the energies. I opened the box of emergency candles and started inscribing the Magic symbols on them. A lesson taught in my dreams, it seemed like lifetimes ago, but the swirls and curves came second hand. I tingled with the Magic energy infusing the white wax.

Destiny looked at the hair raising on her arm. "I never told you this but my Grandmother had the gift." She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "Her Magic didn't feel like this but it made the hairs all over my body raise just like this." She looked over her arm at me. She whispered, "she would tell me things." She cupped her ear like someone was whispering in her ear. "When I was a little girl, she would tell me things about Magic." She dropped her hand and looked at me, smiling. "I didn't remember that until now."

I smiled at her. "Weird things happen around here."

"Not just around here. Around you, girl, you must have forgotten all the...strangeness-" She glanced at Ben. "-at the Ranch."

We worked on the rest of the ingredients in silence. Passing the half blunt around the room again as we concentrated on our tasks. It seemed like no time had passed before Jonny came back.

I looked up and saw the pitch black out the windows behind him as he entered.

"How is everything going?" He asked as he came over to kiss me.

"Just about done." I yawned.

"Thank the Mother." Ben stood from his hunched position. He was too tall for the counter height and had to stoop to roll the inscribed candles in the consecrated oil. If I had been doing this spell on my own I would have used my own...lubrication to consecrate the candles and tie the energies back to me, but I knew someone else would be handling them and added a drop of my blood to the avocado oil instead. Same difference.

I capped the last vegetable glycerin capsule, sealing the licorice root inside, and added it to the organza bag.

Destiny's eyes drooped as she put her jacket on. "Get some rest, Lady. We have a big day tomorrow." She grabbed Ben's hand and they left.

Jonny wrapped his arms around me and kissed me. He pushed me back against the counter and when my ass hit it, he grabbed me and lifted me onto the surface. He pulled back to undo the top button on my dress.

"I can't have sex until the ritual," I whispered.

He dropped his hands to the counter on either side of me and bent his head into my chest. "For real?" Disappointment edged his words.

I ran my fingertips through the short hair on the back of his head and he looked up at me. I nodded and he kissed me again.

"Sleep it is then." He helped me down from the counter and held my hand as we walked to our little apartment behind the bookcases. Both of us stupidly grinning and avoiding the thoughts of tomorrow night.

Morning Day 28

The text sound on my phone woke me up.

Jonny's arms tightened around me as I reached for my phone. I grabbed it and laid down again, unlocking it. A notification from my bank app. Five thousand dollars had been deposited into my bank account. I sat up quickly and looked through the settings to find out who sent it.

"You good?" Jonny asked sleepily next to me.

"Alejandro paid me." I didn't read the note out loud: This is only half of what I owe you, come to my dinner party and I'll give you the rest in cash.

Jonny groaned. "For the bullshit he pulled at his club? He's lucky we're supposed to be on the same side or he'd be at the bottom of the lake by now. It better be a lot after what he offered to pay for you." He got out of bed, pulled on some black shorts and headed out of the bedroom. "I need to go hit something."

I dressed and headed into the Chef's old kitchen to check on our spell work.

Ben and Destiny were already waiting for me. The island had been cleaned off. The spell workings neatly placed in one of the larger wicker baskets. Red tea bags filled with horny goat weed, pills of licorice root, white candles, small boxes of matches, condoms and tiny bottles of lube had been added to the organza bags. Just in case.

I looked at Destiny to ask about the additions but had my answer when the woman from the brothel laughed as they came into the kitchen. The men following them had arms full of platters of food. A cart was pushed in the room full of iced champagne and cold orange juice.

The dishes were placed on the island and I hugged them in greeting as Ben grabbed a bunch of plates from the tall cupboards.

"You've been busy." I looked over the delicious breakfast foods.

One of the women laughed. "This came from the kitchens, we just brought it over."

She grabbed a plate and we all served ourselves from the buffet.

A round table had replaced one of the desks and we sat around it and ate while the woman talked. "We started a fundraiser for Hunies grandmother. She is such a sweet lady, I don't know how she's going to get by without Hunies help. I posted it on the brothels social media accounts but not many people have donated." Destiny said between bites of french toast.

"Hunie was a right bitch but Nan's chocolate chip cookies were the best I've ever had." Crystal stabbed a strawberry and popped it in her mouth.

"Were those the ones Hunie brought in for her birthday?" I remembered the cookies. Thick, a little crunch on the outside and gooey warm on the inside. The cookies had been perfect.

The women nodded.

"Let's toast." Destiny raised her mimosa glass and we all followed her lead. "Hunie may not have been the nicest person but she treated her Grandmother well."

We drank.

Amethyst set her glass down and looked at me. "Ever since we did that ghost banishing ritual-" She hesitated and looked at Destiny. "Strange...um, stranger things have been happening around the Ranch."

"Like what?" I glanced at Destiny.

Destiny sighed. "I wasn't going to say anything till after tonight but." She inhaled deeply. "People have been disappearing, not coming in to work. Clients have been no shows. It started off slow but lately it's been more...more chaos."

"Like disappearing or just quitting and not coming back?" That was fairly common with some of the women that came through.

"I've tried to track some of them down. Anastasia. Astrid." Amethyst said.

Both of those names I knew. Some of the more long-term residents at the brothel, some of the "stars" you would say. The ones who I knew wouldn't just give up decades long careers and fame. Even if it was a bit unconventional.

I nodded. "I'll come by after all this is over and check it out." Maybe the ritual we did to banish the ghosts had something to do with it but I would have to see it in person.

They seemed relieved and the room became brighter. Like their sadness held back the morning sun. They nodded and finished their mimosas.

Crystal refilled their glasses. "So tell us about the ritual tonight. What do we need to do?"

I relayed to them the quick version of what would be needed from them tonight. It would be similar to the ghost banishing ritual, they would have sex to raise the energy and I would direct it to the Portal.

They seemed excited and chattered nervously as they left.