Den of Iniquity

by J G Jerome

  Josie comments, “I don’t know what you did, Will. It does look like it is slowly improving.”

  I tell her, “Thanks, honey.”

  I shift my attention to the dark spot on his brain. Here I follow the same procedure as I did on Maria’s brain, but in a smaller concentrated area. It looks like the damage is done, so the entropy pulls away fairly easily as I push the growth into it. “I think you had a minor stroke, Dan. It seems to be clearing up, so we’ll check it again shortly. I’ll want to check your entire neck to ensure you don’t have other blockages that can cause TIAs, or ‘mini strokes.’ My grandfather Connor had those, and they didn’t look like any fun.” I actually finish here more quickly than I expected.

  I now focus my attention on his liver. I learned to strike the liver as a martial artist. This problem looks to be down at the bottom of the liver. “You know, this may be something else. Marissa, can you pull up a picture of the liver and organs in its vicinity. This is either the bottom of the liver I’m seeing or something else.” I look up to Dan’s face. “Unfortunately, I don’t see the organs, only the energies. Speaking of which, your knees must hurt like hell.”

  Dan chuckles, “I’ve gotten so used to it that I don’t remember what it feels like to not have them in pain.”

  “Here, Will.” Marissa holds her phone in front of my face, so I drop my second sight for a minute. “Hmm. Not pancreas. Hey, Dan. Stand up and turn around, please.” He does. “Do you get cramps or shooting pain in your stomach?” I look at his back with my sight and see the darkness just below where I think the liver is, just to the right of where I think the stomach is.

  Dan says, “Yeah. The last couple of months. I saw a doctor about it, and he gave me some GERD meds.”

  Marissa says, “Stop taking those, Dad. The side-effects of those are crazy.”

  I nod. “I think your gallbladder is the problem. I’m gonna wash it in growth energy.” I look to my witchy lover. “Rebecca, do you have a tonic for a gallbladder cleanse?” She joins me standing in front of our patient.

  “I have a couple, but I have never used them before,” she says as I start to withdraw the entropy and push in the growth energy.

  Marissa says, “I know a gastroenterologist who uses a cleanse routine to clear the ducts in the gallbladder. I’ll email him and tell him my dad has gallstones.” She starts tapping into her phone.

  Rebecca looks into Dan’s eyes. She frowns. “Breathe normally, she instructs.” She breathes in Dan’s breath. She steps back. “Dad, what color is your urine in the morning? Pale yellow, bright yellow, or kind of brown?”

  He shrugs, “Don’t really know. I usually go in the dark.”

  “Okay,” she tells him. “I’m assuming it’s very dark. Check tomorrow and tell me. No sugar. No alcohol. No coffee. No dairy. At least one gallon of water every day. Lots of green vegetables, beans, plain rice, no meat, and plain oatmeal until you’ve been symptom free for two weeks. Plant oils like olive or sunflower instead of butter.”

  Marissa says, “Oh shit! He was online. I’ve got the formula. I’m sending it to you, baby.”

  “Thanks, love,” Rebecca calls. She nabs Dan’s snifter and hands it to Maria. “I’ll read it while I get Dad a glass of water.” She opens the door of Dan’s office and hustles to the kitchen reading her phone.

  I tell Dan, “You look better in there, but it will require a bit of experimentation to ensure we have it taken care of. I don’t know anywhere close to enough about the internal organs to know for sure what is going on. If we’re right, you have blocked ducts in your gallbladder. If you’re up for it, I’m not tired yet. I’ll work on your knees.”

  “Okay,” he says grumpily. “You want me to sit?”

  “Yeah, Dan. That would be great. I know the news is upsetting, but keeping a good attitude is important to healing. You know that from being a Kenpo martial artist. Don’t you teach that fifty percent of every fight is determined by attitude?” I ask him.

  He sits and chuckles at the irony. “You have no idea how many times I’ve told people that. Thanks for the reminder, son.” He grins at me.

  I respond with a grin of my own, “You bet, Dad.” I am enjoying having a ‘mom and dad’ again. I’ve missed my parents since they died. I chuckle as I open my second sight and suck the entropy from his left knee and push growth into it. When I am satisfied that I have improved it, I switch to the right. Rebecca walks in with two glasses of water.

  She tells Marissa, “Most of that was placebo. It’s no wonder he added the caveat that it only works about twenty-five percent of the time. The lemon juice was the part most likely to help. I whipped up a recipe from Mom’s kitchen.” I turn my second sight to her as she holds out a glass. Green light is visible with in her eyes and hand. “Drink this down quickly, Dad. Then follow it with this glass of water.”

  Dan downs the tonic like he’s chugging a beer. He sighs after finishing. “That wasn’t so bad,” he says.

  “Now this one,” Rebecca says. “Drink one of these every hour.”

  Dan drinks the water down the same way. He gasps out, “Yes, dear.”

  Maria smacks him on the arm with the back of her hand. “Don’t you go getting snippy, Daniel Seamus Tomlinson.”

  He stands at attention. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Maria wraps him in a tight hug. “Silly man.”

  Marissa got Dan an appointment with Marissa’s gastro doctor-client first thing on Monday and a neurologist on Friday. Sadly Friday wasn’t available since the gastro doctor headed out of town for the weekend already. Dan took it easy while Rebecca, Josie, and I monitored his health. Dan saw the neurologist, and they did a CT scan of his brain. The images showed no apparent issue. Dan apparently passed gallstones Saturday morning - he had some painful spasms in his abdomen, and two hours later there was no indication of any entropic energy in his abdomen. He saw the doctor on Monday. He did an ultrasound in the office and declared the issue was apparently blocked bile ducts. However, the doc found no current indication of a problem in the ultrasound and gave Dan a clean bill of health. By Tuesday morning he was joining us on the mat.

  Our routine changed in a variety of ways for the next two weeks. As the cat was out of the bag, I spent every evening with all three of the ladies at Marissa’s guesthouse. There were usually a couple of hours of loud orgasmic activity every night. We would all get up early for a workout in the dojo. Once Dan was cleared by the doctor, he joined us on the mat to beat on me - primarily for giving his three little girls screaming orgasms when he was trying to sleep. Not that we didn’t hear Maria on more than a couple of occasions, too.

  After a morning workout, I would hurry back to the apartment to work. Rebecca would go with me to study and prepare breakfast and lunch for us. Josie would alternate days between working on her master work in Dan’s shop and studying for the GED with Rebecca at the apartment. By the second week, Josie was driving the truck on her own, and was getting very comfortable navigating around town. Marissa would usually work from the guest house at her parents when she had no site visits scheduled.

  Evenings after I finished work, we would generally all meet up at the gym. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we would do the ‘18-minute Workout’ to warm up, and then Marissa would work with us on power lifting technique. Tuesday and Thursday, we would all warm up with yoga or light cardio together. The ladies would take a cardio dance class together, and I would go to the pool for laps. I frequently ran into Gerry, and I introduced him to my ladies. I think he went through two complete cycles from torture to ‘dynamite make-up sex’ with Diane in the two weeks.

  For dinner, Maria would usually cook, but Rebecca and I took turns spelling her with help from Marissa and Josie. Rinse. Repeat.

  We broke the routine a few times by taking Judith out for dinner - once to eat at Dan and Maria’s with them. I met with Zach and his company’s engineer. We agreed to restart the Cortez house renovation on October 14th, and I only had to pay about twelve thousand
in penalties for the delay of the project. We also made some tentative plans for the hotel. Zach joked that maybe we should link into the tunnels. I reminded him that Sharlot Hall museum said the tunnels were an urban myth. We had a good laugh, but I think he’s counting on finding the mythical Prescott Tunnels. We were invited to Bernadette’s for a dinner party on the evening of October 11th. The hotel contract closed on October 9th, the day before I closed on the Cortez house.

  We didn’t hear from Carla the entire time.

  Josie prepared a short crawl-through portal cut from a single length of heavy canvas folded over, and then stretched on a PVC frame. She’s not satisfied with the materials, but we passed all of her painstaking tests. We all took turns crawling through it with no ill effects before she had me practice tearing it down and setting it back up multiple times during the two weeks.

  I finished work early on Friday afternoon, October 11th. Rebecca and I finished packing our bags, including an eight-by-ten portal frame in amongst my clothes. I strapped my weapons onto my person, and Rebecca ensured her Taser flashlight and her knife were easily accessible in her clutch. We jumped into the shower and managed to get clean without more than three orgasms between the two of us.

  I dressed in my ‘business casual’ outfit of grey slacks, striped oxford, and blazer. Rebecca put on short shorts and one of my flannel shirts. I loaded all the bags into my CRV as Rebecca followed with a suit bag, a dress bag, and her clutch. I took a tour of the apartment and grabbed a couple of water bottles before I locked up. Rebecca removed her shorts as I started the vehicle. By the time we were in the country past Mayer, she had also opened her top, too. Once we were on the highway, she lay across the console with her head on my lap, and I caressed her soft skin when I didn’t need both hands to deal with the road.

  22

  Tori makes magic happen

  Rebecca and I get to Bernadette’s about seven in the evening. Rebecca closes the lower buttons on the shirt and stuffs her pants into my pocket before we get out of the CRV.

  Luis greets us as I open Rebecca’s door. I grab the bags from the back and give him the keys.

  I carry the bags in to find Audrey and Viktorija in evening gowns inside the entry rotunda. Audrey is wearing a midnight blue toga-top sheath with silver filigree. Her hair is freshly cut to chin length, and she has an engraved silver hair band to hold it in place. Viktoria is in a pale mint green, classic 40’s cut gown with her blond hair in an intricate updo.

  Audrey said, “I thought Marissa and Josie were coming, too. They are on the seating chart, and…”

  “Patience, Kitten. They will be here,” I tell her.

  We collect kisses, being careful not to muss the ladies’ makeup. Luis arrives, so we follow him through the entry, the salon, the foyer, and up the stairs to the same room we were in before.

  I ask, “Luis, would you ask the Mistress to join us?” He nods and bows out of the suite.

  Audrey sits on the edge of the bed as Rebecca strips off the shirt. She opens her bag and dons a lacy panty and matching strapless bra in rich red. She adds silver stay-up stockings. Once she is done, Viktorija leads her to the closet.

  I drop my blazer on the bed. I open my bag and pull a production version of Josie’s ‘passage’ frame from my bag.

  I attach Command Hook velcro patches on the four corners of the back and attach it to the wall as a knock sounds at the door. Audrey opens it, and Bernadette walks in wearing a forest green velvet gown.

  “You look gorgeous, Bernadette.” I wrap her up and kiss her warmly.

  She lets me go and says, “I am rather partial to these Victorian gown designs. The 1920s through the 1940s also produced some interesting pieces.”

  I tell her, “I want to show you something, Bernadette. I promise I won’t keep you long.”

  “Keep me as long as you need, William Darling.”

  I smirk and pull my phone. I call Josie’s number and tell her, “Ready.”

  A canvas bag comes through the portal. I pull it into the suite, pull out the contents, and unroll it. I assemble the frame as Josie taught me with the loops on top corners. I mount a Command Hook for each upper corner and hang the loops from the frame over the command hooks. It even looks like I got the hooks relatively level.

  I kneel on one knee and stick my right hand into it. When I feel a hand grasp mine, I gently pull the hand forward. Josie's hand emerges followed by her head. She releases my hand and crawls out the frame. She is wearing a sports bra and a pair of the micro boy shorts that the girls like to wear for working out.

  Josie kisses me quickly before reaching back through the frame. Bernadette hovers behind me. Josie pulls a roller bag through the frame and sets it aside. Finally she pulls a second bag out and takes them both back to the closet.

  Marissa emerges through the frame. She is wearing a nude colored lace panty and bra set with straps that cross between their shoulder blades. Her face is made up, but it may be from work - she did have a client visit this afternoon. I collect a kiss from Marissa, before she kisses Audrey and Bernadette.

  Bernadette asks, “What is this?”

  Josie explains as she returns from the closet. “It is an early prototype of what I call a ‘passageway.’ What do you think?

  Bernadette says, “It’s a dimensional portal. It is overcoming the constraints of time and space by means of your construct. Travelers do it differently, but essentially it’s the same idea. Arguably, it’s mostly focused on the dimension of space, but you are overcoming the dimension of time as a by-product.”

  I ask, “Bernadette, if all the traveler races are dimension travelers, why do you require sorcerers to get here?”

  Bernadette pauses. “All of the traveler races are in a specific galaxy in a specific universe. There is debate if the dimensions are many universes, or if the dimensions are just different regions or galaxies in a single universe, or if the dimensions are different phases of a single universe. Regardless, our dimension is close to yours, but we can’t travel to your dimension on our own, only along the dimensions of time and space within our own locale. There are only two known exceptions.” She takes a breath. “We can discuss more later.”

  Bernadette is fairly short with us this evening. I wonder what’s going on.

  Josie says, “Well, I call them passageways.”

  Bernadette hugs her. “That’s fine, darling. The elves do something similar with technomancy. I’ve heard of rigid portals as well as cloth-like material.”

  I tell her, “We plan to leave you a fully tested small passage.”

  Josie hands her a small package. “I can train some of your folks on how to set these up, Bernadette. It’s not difficult. I will eventually have one that looks like a six-foot or seven-foot tall mirror or a door, so you don’t have to crawl through.”

  I break down the cloth portal and roll it up while Josie explains. I stuff it back into its bag and carry it to the closet.

  I hear Josie enthuse, “I am still experimenting with other materials. Cotton canvas and wood are safe and easy to use. Since they are normally used for creating buildings, furniture, clothes, tents, etcetera, I can be confident they will create relationships easily. They are relatively easy to manipulate through thaumaturgy. Honestly, that’s true of most natural substances.”

  I return to see Bernadette hug Josie and kiss her warmly. “I find it very interesting, darling. Please do keep me posted.”

  I tell Bernadette, “Security is my biggest concern. With rollups like this it’s easy to just take them down. For small frames, we don’t have an answer yet, and it’s a valid concern because once they are open, size is the only limit to what can pass through.”

  Josie says, “I’m thinking we make a pretty frame that holds it on the wall. Just turn it around in the frame to block it. You can put a pretty canvas on the wall behind it to make it look like it’s just a painting.”

  Bernadette looks to Viktorija, who is just emerging from the ensuite.

&n
bsp; Viktorija shrugs. ”That should work just fine, Mistress. Simple solutions are generally best. Plus, having immediate support could be useful in case anyone else in my family finds me.”

  Bernadette nods thoughtfully. “Yes, Precious. Mine, too.”

  I mention, “Breaking the frame also works, but then it can never be used again.”

  Bernadette looks at my shirt. “William Darling, you are underdressed. We need to move. Dinner will be served shortly, I need to attend to my other guests. Please arrive in time to mingle over at least one drink.”

  I respond as Bernadette hooks my arm and drags me towards the door. She murmurs to me. “William, pay particular attention to the three couples seated across from Jack and your family. We’ll discuss them after they are gone.”

  Bernadette reaches for the door, so I grab it and hold it open. She kisses my cheek, but pauses to take a look at Rebecca’s outfit as she returns from the ensuite. Bernadette nods her approval and glides out the door. I close the door with a soft click.

  Rebecca is wearing a pink strapless sheath accented with silver filigree and mother-of-pearl beadwork. The dress color contrasts nicely with her slightly swarthy skin tone. She has mother-of-pearl clasp on each side of her short hair to keep it from her face.

  Viktorija checks the fit, pulling on the back while whispering to Rebecca. Rebecca nods in response.

  I strip out of my clothes and hang up my shirt, slacks, and blazer. I pull on a white t-shirt, a pleated tux shirt, tux pants, braces. I put on a tie in an early 1900’s cravat style, waist coat, and tux coat.

  I walk out to the main room of the suite to find Rebecca tying the top of Marissa’s dress behind her neck.

  Marissa is wearing a mustard colored halter neck dress that drapes her tight figure with the neckline plunging between her plump breasts.