Author's note: If you skipped ch.22 you didn't miss any sex, but you did miss a fair bit of plot. I recapped the most important points as quickly as I could in this chapter, but if you missed it I'd suggest reading ch.22, which is in the non-erotic section. Unless you really just want to stick to the smut, in which case, read on my friends.
*****
Emily Whitefeld stalked towards me, her hips sashaying as she reached up and began unbuttoning her blouse. Her black lace bra containing compact and very perky breasts popped into view. I grinned as I leaned against the counter in the hotel kitchen watching her sway towards me. I questioned her decision to have unprotected sex in one part of my mind. Sure she said she'd gotten on birth control, and I had no reason to think that she'd lie to me about such a thing. But we were both mages, and while I couldn't ever impregnate a human woman, when two mages got together it was a bit riskier. No riskier than say a human man and a human woman, but I certainly wasn't going to inquire where Emily was in her cycle. I'd just have to take a chance on it. Then I was suddenly struck with the ridiculousness of that thought. Emily was a luck mage, she could influence anything that had random chance involved. Even if she was on a 'risky' day in her cycle, I'm sure a bit of magical altering of chance and she'd be fine. Of course, I thought about Reina Satô and her desire to get pregnant. But I really didn't think Emily was in that same place as Reina.
Then again, maybe she thought that this might be her chance to have a child, and with an archmage as the father. I remembered her shock when she saw me casually and almost effortlessly mimic one of her spells. It had been a long time back, and what had led to her discovering that I was an archmage. Which of course sent me down the current road I was on. My mentor, or master as he would have described himself, Adam Saks had petitioned a secretive group known as 'the Silence' to have me killed. A rogue apprentice, he considered me, little more than a rabid dog. While they'd denied his request, I had no doubt that my troubles with Adam were far from over.
I felt the almost parental care of an archmage who focused on healing the sick and infirm by the name of Hector Todd. An elderly man with a thick accent that seemed to be a blend of caribbean accents. He told me that he saw good in me, and was teaching me how to heal others. I'd been practicing at the spells that I'd seen other mages doing as well, such as Emily's luck magic, the stunning 'glamour' that Ruby had trained me in, and the very tricky body sculpting, changing a person's very form. In addition to the mental magic that was my strong suite, both mind reading and also issuing mental commands, I had been practicing for months now on building up my repertoire of magical abilities. In fact, I realized, it was almost the end of August, and I'd been a mage for nearly three months now. Three months and an entire lifetime, time could play funny tricks.
Magic wasn't easy, for every action, every magical effect, reality pushed back against the changes I made. It was an effect that Adam Saks had called 'the balance'. Magic didn't fit well into our world and the more drastic the effect, or the more people that witnessed its effects, the harsher the backlash. Maybe because the mental magic I was getting so good at was the first kind I learned, or maybe because it was a much more subtle type of magic then healing, but I found that the easiest to do. But not against Emily of course. Mages and other supernatural beings, like the genie I had met or Ruby who was a succubus, were very difficult to read, almost impossible in fact.
Unlike the two women who I knew were in love with me. Erin, the fair skinned ginger prostitute with a very dark past, and Cheyenne, the mixed heritage native american woman who I suspected went into prostitution largely because it allowed her to indulge in what might be a case of nymphomania. No those two women, humans both of them, had fallen in love with me and I didn't need any magical abilities to know that.
Of course, Cheyenne thought that I had died when the two hit men had taken Erin and I hostage, looking for money that Erin's father had stolen. But I'd turned the tables and murdered the both of them, then with some magical duplicity, made it appear that one had fled the country after killing his partner and myself. Erin had been in on the plan, and had taken it a step further. She'd gone back to Adam's brothel, Ruby's Hideaway, and worked there for several weeks, trying to inact a secret plan I'd formulated to get revenge on Adam. But ultimately the plan had backfired, as I should have suspected. Adam had kept her around long enough to break through the mental shielding I'd put on her and scour her mind in secret for every bit of the plan that she knew. Then just to get back at me, had beaten and kicked out the two prostitutes.
"Oh shit," I said just as Emily got to me, her fingers going to the buttons on my shirt.
She looked at me a puzzled look on her face, "Was that a good 'Oh shit,' or a bad one?"
"Well, I forgot about Erin and Cheyenne. They went out to get food but they might be back any time now Emily." I smiled and then slyly added, "Although you know they are both bisexual if you wanted..."
She glared at me and began reaching for her own buttons, "Well I'm not, sorry. But what I said earlier stands. I really have to get you out of my hotel."
I nodded, "I have a place to go, I've got that house in San Dimas that your guy set me up with. I figured I would..."
She cut me off before I could say any more, "No Mike. I feel like I already know too much as it is. My guy set up the new identity and one of my best money managers is handling the accounts for," she coughed gently into her hand and rolled her eyes as she finished buttoning her blouse, "James Michael Wheeler. But that doesn't mean I need to know anything else. I know how to contact you, and I expect you to keep in touch, but I really shouldn't know anything more for right now. I don't want Adam deciding he's going to come after me to get to you. He's no archmage, but that doesn't mean he's not a dangerous person to cross. Besides, he has something far more powerful than magic."
I raised an eyebrow inquisitively and she simply rolled her eyes indicating how stupid I was being before she blew out an exasperated breath and said, "Money Mike, he's got way more money than I do."
I nodded and had to agree with her. While Adam often touted himself as a small business owner of a private brothel, I knew the truth was far more complicated than that. He'd had generations of investments and property holdings, and god knows what else. I'd never gotten a good look at his financial situation, but I knew that he always had exactly as much money to spend on whatever he wanted. It was almost as if he acted like he had just enough, just to maintain the illusion of the brothel owner, and no further. Trying to put that line of thought out of my head I considered Emily again and looked her petite frame up and down and said, "You know, the bedroom door does have a lock and the girls probably won't..."
She cut me off again, "Tell you what kiddo, after you put the children to bed tonight, come up to my office and see me, I'll give you a goodbye kiss."
Then with that, she leaned in and planted a kiss on my cheek and smiled, turning and left me in the hotel room alone again. I went into the bedroom and picked up the dossier that held the details of my new life, the one I'd have to flee to. It wouldn't be too bad, at least I'd be out from under the oppressive thumb of my one time mentor Adam and also out from under the roof of Emily. While I'd appreciated the opportunities she'd given me, and I knew that I should be grateful, it still rankled a little bit knowing I was living in her hotel, by her good will. In a way, a part of me was glad she was kicking me out. I knew that I didn't really want to get her involved in whatever was going down between Adam and myself.
After a little while, I heard the door to the hotel open and went out to confirm that it was Erin and Cheyenne. The two brought in a paper bag, from which I could smell the scent of dinner rising. My stomach growled in appreciation and I realized I hadn't eaten in quite a while. I didn't know if a mage could subsist on mana alone to keep himself alive, or for how long, but I knew that my mana pool was all but empty anyways. Only the drabs that had returned during my nap, certainly not enough for any sort of serious spell casting. I'd blown through all of my mana earlier in the day. The first hit to the mana pool coming when Hector had bade me to cast a rather significant healing spell on a dying man in the critical care ward of the hospital. My first major healing by the way, and something that had taken quite a lot out of me. But then later, when I'd returned to the hotel, I'd found Erin and Cheyenne, both of whom had been beaten and battered. The last of my mana had gone then to healing them and using a glamour on Cheyenne. Plus over the last month I'd barely had any sex at all. Other than the one time with Emily, a week and a half ago, I'd had a hell of a dry spell stretching all the way back to the orgy that culminated in me killing the two hitmen that were going to kill Erin and I.
Cheyenne, the native american beauty, looked angry when she came in. I could see her dark brow knit together and her lips set tightly. Erin on the other hand seemed almost resigned, and tired. Cheyenne was carrying the brown paper bag, which was marked with the logo of the hotel's restaurant, and brought it to the table and set it down. Then she rounded on me and said, "I don't know who you are, but the only reason I didn't walk out of here and never come back is because Kia said you'd give me all the answers."
Erin, who Cheyenne knew by the fake name Kia, nodded and began to remove dishes from the bag. Full meals set in aluminum 'to go' containers with plastic lids on them. I sat down and waited for her to pass me one, not caring what it was as my stomach growled again. I looked at her, "So you haven't told her anything yet...Kia?"
Erin sat down and gestured for Cheyenne to sit as well. The dusky woman hesitated for a moment then nodded once, sitting down and taking a dish for herself. There was a few heartbeats of silence as we opened our dishes and began eating. Erin cracking open bottled waters and passing them out to us. It was Erin who spoke first. "Well Cheyenne, I'm sure you're not too surprised to know that Kia isn't my full name."
Cheyenne shrugged, a lot of prostitutes took fake names. Cheyenne herself used a fake name. It wasn't a fact she shared very often, but I suspected I knew what her real name was. We'd grown very close since I'd first come to Ruby's Hideaway, but before I left and came to Vegas. Erin however continued, "My full name, my real name is Erin Kiandra Solaris."
