Old World Magic

Chapter 8 -- per guardare

Adam found me the next day. Technically since Ruby, Cheyenne, and my threesome had happened around ten am that morning, I suppose it was the same day. But after sleeping the sleep of the satisfied for several hours, I thought of my 'mornings' as usually starting around early afternoon.

Regardless, I was running on the treadmill in the exercise room of the spa. Jacqueline was there, chatting with me, telling me about her daughter. I managed to avoid laughing when she described the teenage girl as being "Only a few years younger than me." Jacqueline of course didn't know I was a mage, or that I'd been born almost forty years ago. She simply knew I looked like a man who was in his prime, early twenties according to the new fake ID that Renia had set up for me.

That gave me pause and I almost slid from the treadmill as it occurred to me. The date of birth on my new drivers license, the one linked to my new identity said that I was born June sixth, nineteen ninety eight. I stuttered because I realized that with all the fucking, learning the business, working as a bartender, and learning magic, I'd lost track of the days. Today was June sixth, today was my birthday. In reality I was thirty nine, though according to my ID, I was twenty one today. I couldn't believe I'd almost forgotten that it was my birthday. I felt like it should matter to me, even though I really wasn't sure that it did.

That's when Adam came in. Jacqueline greeted him in her usual friendly way, and Adam returned the greeting, but then asked her, "Jacqueline, could you give Mike and I a little privacy? I want to talk to him."

She waved good bye to me and left the exercise room, the heavy glass door swinging shut and leaving Adam and I alone. He came and stood in front of the treadmill I was jogging on and leaned his back against the mirrors on the wall. "So," he said slowly crossing his arms. "Trying to stay in shape?"

I nodded, and replied barely winded, "Yeah, I'm going to try to take better care of this body than my last one. I was always athletic, but as I got older I kinda let myself go. Not going to happen this time."

Adam pursed his lips and furrowed his brow slightly. I felt a touch on my mind and immediately envisioned a brick wall. Casting the mental spell of defense with a single thought I kept Adam from my mind. Strangely enough he seemed pleased with that. "Good, good, good." he said, though I wasn't sure if he was referring to my workout or the fact that my mental defenses had slammed into play so quickly.

He pushed away from the wall and spoke as he paced, "I noticed that you've been spending a lot of your mornings with Ruby after work. That's fine, I have no problem with it. In fact it saves me a lot of trouble. She needs to feed after all, and if she doesn't get enough during the prime working hours, well, you and I are the only men on the compound. She can feed from the women of course, but it's nothing, a trifle for her. It's the difference between a hamburger with fries and a side salad."

I punched some buttons on the tread mill and felt the machine enter a 'cool down' stretch as Adam continued, "So, since you're feeding her, I don't have too. While she'd be satisfied with a good fuck from a man, from a mage, it's something else. If a normal man could give her a hamburger, you and I give her a prime cut of Kobe beef with all the sides she could want. She drains mana from us when she fucks us, tires us out, uses our power to stay alive." He turned back to face me, "Soooooo... If she's taking your mana, making you weaker, that's one less drain on me."

He shrugged as I felt the treadmill come to a stop. I grabbed my water bottle and squeezed a full drink before wiping my brow. "Yeah, I got it. Don't spend too much time with her."

Adam chuckled, "By all means, spend as much time with her as you think you can take. Just make sure you're getting enough rest. You can skip sleep as long as you're holding a bit of mana in reserve, or you can let her drink your mana pool dry as long as you get enough sleep, but you can't stay awake with no energy and still expect to learn magic."

I frowned, I had gotten a few hours sleep in Ruby's bed, and woken up next to a still snoozing Cheyenne. I'd gotten used to only needing two or three hours sleep at night, but he was right. Any night that I fucked Ruby, I always needed more sleep. That's why after my one pm lesson with Adam I'd gone back to sleep for a few more hours. In fact showering and than hitting the Gym were the only things I'd done all day other than my first lesson. "You're right, I'm sorry."

Adam nodded, mollified by my apology, "Good, well then I suppose we can skip the punishment then if you're sorry. But you're not here to fuck my whores, be they human or demon. You're here to learn how to wield your powers. One pm and five pm, no exceptions because you're busy giving away all your power to a demoness, understand?"

I lowered my head, attempting to look as contrite as possible, "Yes sir, my apologies sir." Internally I started to feel a little bit irritated. His threats of discipline and punishment were only being said to reinforce yesterday's embarrassment. But I remembered what Ruby had said to me about Adam, that a little deception went a long way with him. Adam thought that he was the big bad ass around here, and I suppose, for now he was. But the fact that he was used to that, meant that he was susceptible to flattery and to people behaving the way he expected them too.

"Good," he said sniffing slightly. I hoped that my 'aura' wasn't giving me away to him, and I hoped that he wasn't actively reading my mind through my defenses. "Well, I wanted to let you know that I have a birthday gift for you, as long as you don't mind it being delayed a little bit?"

My head came up, a gift? I quirked an eyebrow and my eagerness wasn't at all fake. He smiled and nodded, "I know it's a bit impersonal, but I'm going to just give you a thousand bucks, cash." I wasn't sure what to say about that. I hadn't had any use for money basically since I'd met Adam. Likewise in the last few weeks id spent here at the compound that Ruby's Hideaway sat on, I'd had no need for money. Obviously I lived rent and utility free, there was no charge to eat anything in the kitchen. I know Adam said I was earning a wage working the bar at night, but I hadn't seen a cent of it yet.

"A thousand bucks cash, and your pay for the last two weeks... but with a stipulation." he said. Ah hah, here came the catch. "Around the first of every month, Ruby goes to Vegas for a few days. She scouts for fresh young new talent that might want to come work for us. It's the only way to keep up with the turnover, we usually lose a girl every two or three months. We're actually down right now, but Ruby said she had a line on some fresh girls that might work out well for us."

"And you want me to go with her and keep an eye on her?" I asked, slightly confused.

Adam laughed, "No, far from it Mike. I want you to go and have fun, enjoy Vegas, if anything I'll ask her to keep one eye on you. But what I do want is for you to set up a bank account, and deposit at least two hundred dollars in it. Bring the information back and I'll set up direct deposit in your name. Also, pick up a cell phone, you need a bill in your name, gotta have you on the tax roles and paying a bill. The only thing worse than bad credit is no credit after all. Maybe even sign up for a Visa or Mastercard, I'm sure you'll be able to find some place to make that happen once you have a bank account in your name."

He moved towards the door, "But also, it's a late birthday gift, so you can have fun too. Go see a show, do some gambling, whatever you like." Pushing open the door he strode out calling behind him, "It's quarter after four, I expect to see you in my office for the five o clock lesson shortly, don't be late."

The door swung shut behind him and I decided that my muscled had cooled down too much to do more working out. Plus I wanted to shower before the lesson, I'd need to be fresh and ready for whatever other surprises he might have for me.

- - -

The next week went by pretty uneventfully as I settled into my new routine. What I considered my 'mornings' went like this; wake up around noon, grab lunch, lesson at one, practice for an hour or two, work out, take a shower and a twenty to forty minute nap. When I woke up from my nap, it was what I considered my 'day' and went like this; five pm lesson followed by a six o clock meal, practice the magical forms I'd been learning from both Adam and Ruby for a while or read if Adam had given me a text to learn. Then at nine I'd either take a short nap or have sex with one of the girls, something to recharge my batteries as it were. After that, I'd get ready for my 'evening' which started at ten with me going to work at the bar. Usually Kelli was already working by ten and had things under control, but she always appreciated the help. Kelli usually left by around one or two in the morning, which left me alone working the bar till we unofficially 'closed down' the brothel around four am. Technically, the brothel was a twenty four hour affair. But we locked the doors up around four and hadn't had a customer between the hours of four am and two pm the entire time I'd been there. But on the off chance that a customer did come around during those hours, there was an intercom that fed into the phones at the house. After the bar was shut down, it was off to Ruby's room. She was teaching me her kind of magic, and I'd practice there in her room with the assistance of either Cheyenne or Jessica for a few hours. Then there was no getting around it, but I had to fuck the succubus until she was satisfied, which usually meant that I passed out on her bed around seven or eight am. Half the time the succubus and whatever girl was sharing her bed that night kept going, even if I was snoring on the bed next to them. A few times the sapphic shenanigans were so vigorous that I'd actually wake up and drag myself to my own bed just to get some sleep.

I found out that Ruby's room was magically shielded and that Adam couldn't scry on her. It had something to do with an agreement they made, and also it protected Adam from the succubus somehow. Ruby never fully explained it other than to say he couldn't know what happened in her room, even if he was standing right outside the door. That was a mild relief, because the rest of the house was far from sound proof.

My schedule seemed to work for me quite well, as the two naps, or one nap and then a good fuck with a human girl, recharged my batteries more than adequately. I managed to keep Adam from finding the need to 'punish' me again, though he expressed displeasure at the fact that I wasn't learning 'fast enough' for him and suggested that I might want to take a few days off from Ruby's ministrations if I was finding her too distracting.

What I found very interesting was when Adam began to teach me about warding an area. I knew that this was the type of thing that would block sounds and prevent scrying, like Ruby's room had upon it. But he was obviously no expert in this field, as it was more pure magic than he was used too. So the learning of this was quite slow and unproductive. But he suggested that when I went on my trip to Vegas, it would be a good idea to ward any area I spent any significant time in, like my hotel room.

- - -

It was the evening of July second, or the morning of the third I suppose, when Ruby came up to me at the bar. Her grin was wide and she asked, "Well Mike, you ready to hit Vegas?"

I looked at the clock on the wall, it was a little after three am, I hadn't heard much about the trip since Adam told me about it more than a week ago on my birthday. "Uh, I'm not really packed or anything, when did you want to leave?"

"Right now, we're going to catch a ride back to the city with Candi," she said hooking a thumb over her shoulder at one of the freelance working girls that was sitting on a couch, watching the news. It was slow tonight, slower than we usually were on Thursday nights (Friday mornings). I think the working girls were feeling a bit bored, and that was rubbing off on Ruby. She practically bounced in anticipation in front of me.

"Should we wait till four?" I asked looking over the bar, which had barely been used tonight.

Ruby shook her head, "No, let's go, I'm eager to get to the town and check into our hotel rooms." She said rooms, a subtle thing, but I caught it. We wouldn't be sharing a single room. I wasn't sure if that made me glad or not.

I turned the key, locking the cash drawer on my register, "Ok, let me go pack up an overnight bag."

She shook her head, her raven tresses flying out as she did so. She reminded me of an excited child, "no no no no, anything you want we can get for you in the city. Lets goooo."

I shrugged, relenting, there was no arguing with her, I knew that now. Ruby bounced off to talk to Malik, probably about closing up a little early. I looked to Candi, a very nice woman who was starting to go past her peak years and was pushing thirty. "All right Candi?"

She simply waved at me without turning from the TV and called out, "Whenever you're ready Mike." Candi's name was actually Candice, but she never liked anyone to use it around here. Apparently she had a part time job during the days at a non-profit organization in the city of Vegas. But it didn't pay very well and she had no benefits, so she worked for Ruby's Hideaway on the side a few nights a week. The money was very good and she appreciated the security we offered. She was a dirty blonde with a great body. Her breasts had started to sag just a little, but modest implants had helped fix that. She claimed she was twenty five, but I suspected that she was padding that number by at least four years, if not more. In any case she was a quiet but bright girl, and didn't have the youthful exuberance that some of the girls did that could occasionally get annoying.

Ruby came bouncing back into the lounge and announced, "Ok girls, we're going to close up a little early tonight. It's my monthly trip to Vegas, so that means I won't be here to watch my little chickadees." The girls in the lounge chuckled and ruby Continued, "As soon as Isabella finishes with her client, Malik will see the guy out, then the rest of you can all leave for the night. I'm taking Mike with me," One of the girls Booed, I think it was Cheyenne, but I couldn't be sure. "I'm taking Mike with me, so that means Kelli is going to be pulling some extra hours. Make sure you're extra nice to her and tip her well. You know how she hates working late."

The girls giggled and then Ruby came and pulled me out from behind the bar. Candi following along behind her. The two women were dressed in lingerie, and pulled me along to the back room where there were literally hundreds of different outfits, including some normal street clothing. It was odd to me to see Ruby dressing in a pair of skin tight jeans and a black silk blouse, but I found it quite amusing that she didn't bother with either panties or a bra. Of course with her control over the shape of her body, she didn't need a bra at all. Though I wondered if anyone else would mind how her pert nipples showed through the dark silk blouse so perfectly.

Candi dressed a little more conservatively, meaning at least she put on undergarments beneath her polo shirt and jeans. But then we were out the side door. Candi had a mid sized Saturn, and I offered to sit in the back seat. My reasons weren't exactly noble, I knew that if I'd taken the front, Ruby would have been teasing and toying with me for the hour long car ride from the back seat. She'd had only one client the whole night, and while it was enough to 'feed' her, I knew she wouldn't be satisfied.

The car trip was interesting, watching as Candi and Ruby giggled and joked around like teenage girls. Candi was one of the older working girls at the brothel at twenty nine, and of course I had no idea how old Ruby was, but the two of them were acting almost like teenagers that had stolen their father's car for a joy ride. I mostly stayed in the back, quiet, and observing. While my new body made me look about twenty, and my hormones matched, mentally I was still almost forty. I never understood the idea of men that were attracted to teenagers or... ugh... god forbid children. Such a thought repulsed me. Obviously I found a younger woman's body much more appealing than an older womans. Tight breasts, a firm ass, flat abs, all of that was visually stimulating. But the attitude that a teenager had was often such a turn off. Immaturity was very off putting for me.

Maybe one of the reasons I liked the girls that worked as prostitutes at Ruby's Hideaway was because even the ones like Cheyenne, who was only twenty, were quite mature. I suppose whatever happened in their lives, whatever circumstances led them to selling their bodies for money, led to some rather sobering attitudes. Cheyenne really never acted like a young girl, though she could play it if the customers wanted that, but instead like a mature woman easily several years older than she actually was.

But the way Candi and Ruby acted in the car, laughing and joking and giggling, it was very interesting. It was almost as if the harder more mature attitude they had to have during their work day, could be put aside for an hour and they could just act like girls. I was thankful that they left me out of it as I sat quietly in the back seat.

It wasn't until we were coming into the City proper that they seemed to calm down. Ruby turned in her seat to look at me and explained what the plan was. "Ok Mike here's the situation. We're staying at the Casino Royale." My eyebrows, now fully regrown by the way, went up. A James Bond reference? James Bond had been my favorite thing to read when I'd been a child. Ruby didn't notice my reaction however and continued, "It used to be known as Nob Hill until twenty years ago, but then it reopened with the new name and a new look. It's one of the lower end casinos on the strip, caters mostly to low rollers. I figured since you don't have a lot of money, it would be a good place to start your Vegas experience. As for me, well, I could conduct my interviews in a run down Motel 6. So it's all the same to me. We've got adjoining rooms, but I'm going to be gone most of the weekend. But on Sunday night I need you in the rooms with me. About ten-ish I'll start having girls come up for final interviews and tryouts. I want you there to do what you do." She tapped the side of her head subtly, so that Candi didn't see her. But I also suspected I might be needed for more than just my mental powers by the way Candi giggled at that comment.

"So you've got all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to yourself." She turned forwards for a moment and pulled her small clutch purse from the floor where she'd set it and dug into it for a moment. Pulling out a business card she handed it to me. It was a card for the brothel, Ruby's Hideaway, but below the business and fax numbers was the number for Ruby's cell phone. "The bottom number's my cell phone. Call me when you get yourself a cell, and make sure you do that this weekend."

I thought about the rather plain, nondescript Visa credit card that had been made out in my name, thanks to Renia when she gave me the new identity. I had no idea what the credit limit was, and had not yet used it. Hopefully it wouldn't give me a problem. Then I realized, "Uh, Ruby, my drivers license is a NY State license. I don't think you can sign up for a contract with an out of state license, can you?"

Ruby rolled her eyes and Candi giggled. I didn't know why but Ruby sighed, "Mike, what, you're going to go get a two year contract with Verizon or something? Don't be dense, go out and get a burner." I had no idea what a burner was, so she let out a second sigh, over exaggerated, "A burner is a pre paid cell phone that you can throw away if you need. There's half a dozen companies that make them, just go into a cell store and buy a pre paid phone with plenty of minutes. You can even pay cash for them."