Old World Magic

Chapter 6 -- castigo.

I learned a lot over the next few weeks. Thankfully Adam gave me a few days to settle into my new home before asking me to get started on training and working tending bar at 'the hideaway' as they called it. I learned that Ruby was indeed a demoness, though the term demon and succubus meant less then I'd originally thought they had. Her kind was extra planar entities, what we thought of as demons simply existed in a different way then us. As we ate food and drank water, they consumed mana. On the plane that they came from, mana was as free and common as water on our world. Magic was a given and the world was constantly in flux. But when they were brought through to our world, mana was rare. They would literally starve had these demons not found an alternate sustenance; the emotions of mortals.

Ruby, and summoned demons of her ilk, could draw on the mana that mages like Adam and myself held to sustain their life force on this world. Without that sustenance they would slowly wither, losing their powers, losing their willpower, losing the very drive to exist. Demons that went too long without feeding eventually went mad, turning into little more than insane mortals, trapped, unable to even remember what they were. Ruby even whispered the name of a well known mass murder into my ear, shocking me when she told me that the dead eyed psycho was actually one of these. "Husks" she called them, burnt out demons, totally soulless and without any emotion other than one or two which drove them.

But the ability to feed from mana, they would draw forth energy from strong emotions. But not any emotions, each demon was tied to a specific type of feeling. Ruby and demons, both male and female, like her were known as succubi or incubi. They fed off lust, passion, sexual desire. The old tales of a succubus stealing a man's soul weren't exactly true. Ruby had no interest in souls, but fucking, oh now there was a stereotype that held. She told me others from her world consumed fear, hate, anger, always the primal emotions.

She said I'd be lucky if I never met one of those other kinds. Thankfully demons usually couldn't stay on the mortal realm for long, as they were 'tethered' to their own plane, just as humans were to our world. It was with a detached, angry look in her eyes, when she explained how she was not one of those demons any longer. She'd been trapped on our realm for over forty years. The mage who'd summoned her had skillfully woven a trap for her and bound her into a short term contract.

Yes, demons could be bound by contract to a mortal. She never explained what her side of the contract was, and I was too scared to ask. According to her, she was a relatively young demon, though I had a sense that her plane may judge time differently than ours. The mage that had trapped her had been only the second mortal to ever summon her. So her understanding of the binding nature of the contracts was a little light, much to her dismay.

Most contracts included a death clause as a standard. That being that if the binding mage died, the demon was freed of the contract. However Ruby's contract did not have that clause, and in her ignorance, she signed the contract without it. The contract had been that Ruby, using her powers would help the mage win back the love of her life. The mage even had a plan in place, and it would be a simple matter for Ruby's seductive powers and shape changing ability, to convince the lost love to return to the mage's side. Once the mage was reunited with her love, she would free Ruby. The plan was quick, simple, and should have gone off without a hitch.

However on the very night that Ruby signed the contract with the mage, her love died in an accident. When she heard of her love's death, the mage selfishly took her own life. Ruby found that she could not, upon the death of the mage, return home. She was stuck, trapped on the mortal realm, but without contract, master, or any sort of guide.

Adam had found Ruby, working as a common street walker in Las Vegas some time later, and recognized what she was, even through her disguise. Ruby likewise recognized the tang of powerful mana about Adam. The two decided to work together for their own mutual gain. With Adam's capital and business sense, they went into business, opening a brothel in Nevada. It was the early seventies, and Las Vegas was booming. They had no problem getting 'Ruby's Hideaway' up and running, using the succubus as their mascot, and acting head madam.

The rest was history, Ruby would change her form every few years, and Adam would 'suggest' to any working girls living on the compound that Ruby had always looked as her new form did. Most girls never stayed more than a few years, so the fact that Ruby always seemed to be somewhere vaguely in her mid to upper twenties never was an issue. There was even a cover story, about how whenever a 'new girl' would get promoted to the position of madam, she would drop her old name and take on the Ruby moniker. I laughed as I saw the line of pictures in one hallway that showed the various incarnations Ruby had taken on over the years.

But there was so much more to learn other than about the succubus that lived in the house with Adam. I learned how the brothel and spa itself worked. Ruby's Hideaway claimed to be a spa that would gladly service women or men in addition to the standard services that one would expect from a brothel. However in reality I learned that in reality it was more of a billing shell that Adam had set up about fifteen years after originally founding the brothel. It allowed people to bill their credit cards for food, drinks, and services that they'd purchase at the Hideaway to the spa portion. Then the billing name on their card statements would read R.H. Spa and Salon. There was also a shell company set up for the brothel with the name R.H. Gambling Services, for clients who felt it would be much easier to explain a charge to something associated with gambling than a spa. In either case, the company names allowed a much more discreet way of billing customers, and one that no doubt kept nosy wives off husband's backs.

There was a spa of sorts. Jacqueline, a black woman about my age, somewhere around forty, was the spa manager and official head masseuse. She was no prostitute, but a free wheeling, easy going spirit. Divorced, she lived in Pahrump, and would show up for Spa hours, which were ten am till four pm, Monday through Saturday. She kept the steam room, massage tables, and beauty salon section of the Hideaway all squared away. On the off chance that a customer did actually want a little pampering, she was quite qualified. However it became obvious that her most common clients were the working girls of the Hideaway.

An outsourced cleaning crew came in four times a week at eight am. Wednesday, and then every morning Friday through Sunday, a crew of six to eight women, usually Hispanic, came in and cleaned the building. On Friday and Sunday a man accompanied them and took care of the grounds as well, including the pool and jacuzzi.

The kitchen was quite well equipped, but with the exception of a serving staff. It turned out that in the mid eighties Adam had expanded the kitchen to be full service, but that not enough customers ever ate in the lounge to justify the additional cost of all the extra food and a cooking staff. So the full menu was axed, and the kitchen just remained for special orders. That's where Kelli came in. Kelli, a pretty woman in her early thirties was the cook and bartender. I worked under her technically as her backup bartender. She'd been a prostitute for Ruby a few years ago, but then she and her then boyfriend had gotten pregnant. They got married and kept the child, and Adam offered her the job as bartender and bar-cook. I liked Kelli, she had a genuinely bright and active personality, never complaining about much. She certainly never spoke ill of her time as a prostitute at the hideaway, though she did sometimes sigh and wish that the hours she worked were better.

Then there was Malik. Malik was a scary looking guy, short, maybe five five at most, but strong and muscular. His skin was as black as coal and his face was very pockmarked. But most of all Malik had this gaze that could bore right through you, as if he was reading your soul. I even asked Adam if Malik was a mage of some sort, but Adam just laughed and shook his head no. Malik was just a very intense man. In his mid thirties, Malik was the night time bouncer and security guard for the Hideaway. He sat at a desk inside the entrance for hours at a time, drinking nothing more than bottled water, reading a book, and watching security cameras that were fed by cameras about the compound. I knew he had a sawed off shot gun loaded with bean bag rounds in his desk, but he swore he'd never had to fire it even once. Pull it out a few times and wave it at drunk or unruly patrons, but never use it. Of course, he said that his presence was the reason there was never any problems with customers, and I believed him.

The last member of the staff that wasn't a working girl, I'd already met. Estefano was only just 22, and filled a few roles at the hideaway. Like the other staff, he didn't live on the compound, but instead with his mother in Pahrump. His mother had been a working girl for a few years, and Estefano sometimes joked that since he'd never known his dad, it was quite likely he was conceived at Ruby's Hideaway. Estefano was one of the most polite, well mannered young men I'd met in quite a while, so I was surprised to learn that he'd spent 18 months in prison. He'd apparently been headed down a bad path with a gang, and been picked up for aggravated assault and possession of an illegal firearm. He was sentenced to three years, but made parole after 18 months for good behavior.

That's when his mother contacted Adam and asked if Estefano could work for us. She knew that Adam and Ruby would keep her son in line. For the last few years, they had, and Estefano had turned into a model citizen. The fact of which actually gave Ruby's Hideaway a bit of prestige, hiring and helping to reform a convicted felon. But Estefano was, as I mentioned, a very well behaved young man. In addition to being the compound's driver, he also took a turn at any sort of handiwork that the place needed, saving Adam untold hundreds in small repairs, and also helped Malik cover security on his nights off.

Estefano, like the others lived off compound, though he tended to spend a lot of time there, even when he wasn't working. He had free run to come and go, and as such, Adam paid him a salary and never kept track of his hours. If Adam or Ruby needed him, and he wasn't about, they'd page him. He proudly admitted that he never let a page go more than a minute before he'd be on the phone with them.

But other than Ruby, Adam, and Myself, there were two others that lived on the compound. Working prostitutes, or as they preferred to be called 'girls' or 'party girls' came in three varieties at Ruby's Hideaway. The first type of girl was the most connected to the brothel, we called them 'contract girls.' Because they literally got a salary and were on schedule to be at the hideaway for 5 nights a week. They could keep tips, but they earned the largest pay of all the girls. Two of these contract girls also lived in the house. The first, a woman barely out of her teen years, Cheyenne had a mixed heritage, and claimed she was one half native American. Her mother was a full blooded Cheyenne, which is where she took her working name from. If she had another name, she never gave it. Nor did Adam, who cut paychecks, share it. The other contract girl who lived in the house was a few years older in her early twenties, a blonde with blue eyes and very large fake breasts named Jessica. That was her real name and she had no problem sharing it. Apparently Jessica had come to Vegas as an exotic dancer and gotten caught up with a bad crowd. Ruby had pulled her out of it, and she lived on the compound as much for convenience as she did to keep her away from her old life.

There were three other contract girls, but they lived off compound, all three making the hour commute from the outskirts of Vegas where they lived. After the contract girls we had several 'freelancers' on retainer. These were girls that worked as prostitutes, but didn't want to have a contract with Ruby and Adam. So they were given days to work, and would be expected to show up on those days. Three missed days in a quarter and they were let go, no exceptions. It was a bit harsh, but it protected the company and encouraged girls to go onto contract. The freelancers also got paid by the client, though they had to turn all the money they made over to Ruby, they were cut a check based on the number of clients and types of acts they had preformed during the week.

Finally there were the 'featured acts.' These girls didn't follow the same rules as the freelancers or contract girls. They were usually negotiated on a week by week basis, or quite often for a three day run, Friday through Sunday. Their contracts varied greatly, depending on the demand for them. Most often these were well known or popular strippers or even porn starlets. Their contracts might allow them to keep as much as seventy percent of their fees to the johns they partied with. In addition, sometimes they could set their own prices, though Ruby tried to discourage that, as she felt it took away from the other girls. Featured acts would sometimes stay for the weekend, maybe taking a bungalow, but just as often didn't, making the commute from Vegas instead.

When I'd arrived at Ruby's Hideaway in early June there were four girls under contract, the two who lived on the compound and two who didn't. But then shortly after one of our freelancers signed up as a dedicated contract girl. A fact which seemed to make everyone quite happy. Over the next two weeks I saw three featured acts come through the brothel. They seemed for the most part standoffish, not really fitting in with the sisterly vibe that the other girls shared.

The method that the johns would pay was pretty standardized, and I was impressed with how clean the payment and negotiation process worked. You first had to understand that every room in the brothel had security cameras, a factor that was clearly stated to anyone who came into the building. Adam said it did cost us some business, that people weren't comfortable being filmed, but surprisingly, not that much. Most johns understood that it was all about the safety of the girls, and that if the girls were safe, they were safe. Plus they said the recordings were destroyed after two weeks as a security measure. We did have one or two VIP clients, politicians and the like, who couldn't risk being taped. We had a special system in play for those few VIP clients where we'd turn off the cameras, but that was a very rare exception, one I didn't see in my first two weeks at the brothel.

But the basics of payment were fairly smooth. If we had a walk in customer, they would come into the lounge and talk with any of the girls working that they liked the look of. It was set up like a bar, so it almost felt natural for a john to approach one of the girls, usually dressed in lingerie, and start talking to them. If the john liked the girl, or sometimes girls, they would go to a small private room and discuss what the john wanted. This is where he'd tell her what he wanted, and if he wasn't sure, well, we had 'menus' for them to look over. The prices for any act, or any length of time was clearly marked, and prices could vary depending on if they wanted combinations. For example it was one price for an hour with a girl, and that included 50/50 standard (oral and vaginal sex). But if the client wanted to add greek (anal sex), that was an additional cost. Likewise pretty much anything else could be negotiated in, like an in room massage, use of a bungalow, GFE, rimming, or even a video tape of the experience. If it was something that our menu didn't cover, the girls were trusted to negotiate a price they felt was fair. Though the menu itself was pretty comprehensive, things like dressing the john up in a dog costume and then letting him eat out the girl's ass while jerking off while a second girl watched and yelled at them both... well... that simply fell out of the range of standard pricing. There were things that were forbidden at the hideaway, and I'd rather not dwell on what those might be.

Once the john, or in some cases multiple clients, had come to a decision on what they wanted, the girl would tap the choices into a touch screen, and if the client was satisfied, he'd tap the OK button. Then they'd come back to the lounge and the john would head to the bar. He'd pay for the services with either credit card or cash (sorry no checks accepted), and then head to a room with the girl or girls of his choice.

The rooms were videoed for two reasons, first to make sure that the girls were safe, as Malik could see on his security screen what was going on in the rooms. But the second reason was to make sure that neither the client tried to force the girl to do something she hadn't agreed, or that the girl didn't try to skimp out on something the client had paid for. Once or twice a client would pay for an act then in the moment, change his mind. The girls did their best to try to accommodate the clients, but there were no refunds if the client decided he didn't want something. Not that they ever asked for refunds. The girls were all very friendly and accommodating.

Most clients simply paid for the 'platinum' package with a girl, which was sold as a 'skys the limit' sort of thing. Anything listed on the menu was fair game and the price was fairly reasonable. One or two of our girls wouldn't do everything on the list however. For example one of our freelancers absolutely refused to do anal, ever. So if during the negotiation that came up, she'd have to tell the client, and then he'd have to decide if he wanted to skip anal, or pick a new more agreeable girl.

The clients could tip the girls with cash while in the room, and that was allowed but not necessary. Or they could add a tip on their credit card to specific girls at the bar. Most customers tipped, in cash. Especially any client who was a repeat guest. But other than tips, the girls would be paid every Thursday for the work they'd done on the previous two weeks. It was a good system once the girl got her first paycheck, but the first three weeks a girl worked for us was a little rough. Adam usually paid a girl after her first week for that weeks work, then 2 weeks later for the second week. It meant that cash was a little tight for them at first, but the upshot was that if they had a slow week they wouldn't suffer overly much. The girls would be paid based partially on how much they brought in by their clients, unless they were contract girls, in which case they also drew a standard salary. It was only a few dollars an hour, but it was in addition to the 'commission' they earned per client. Being on contract seemed like the way to go in my eyes, but some girls seemed wary about it, as there was a no compete clause in it. Any contract girl who ever got caught working on the side, either for herself, a pimp, or another brothel, was immediately fired.

There was a system set up in place to take reservations. Customers could call Adam's office, request a certain girl, a certain time, etc, and pay over the phone, or on the internet. Apparently Ruby's Hideaway had a pretty nice little website. It was fairly simple compared to a high end retailer, but it got the job done. It had directions to the compound, non nude pictures of the girls, with little messages they had written personally. There was a section that talked about the 'history' of the brothel, and even showed pictures of the various women that had worn the name Rubyand run the brothel over the years. I always found that funny since I knew that it was actually the same woman. Well, demoness I suppose if you were to get technical. I don't know how much traffic the website generated, but I guessed that the advertisements on the top and left that linked to well established sex toy sites paid for the site's upkeep. As far as I knew, the girls didn't get any cut of any money generated from the website. Unless of course it brought in a customer and they serviced him.