The Magician's Blood

by Linda G. Hill

  Herman leaned on Stephen’s shoulder and hugged his arm as they returned to the front desk.

  “I’m lucky to have had that much time with her,” Herman said, sniffing and wiping her nose on a tissue she found in her pocket.

  “Did you have a good visit?” Nurse Holloman asked as they approached the desk.

  “Yes.” Herman nodded, wiping a stray tear from her eye.

  “Come back any time,” she said and whisked off down the hall.

  Herman and Stephen strolled back to their rental car.

  “What do you think my mom meant when she said my dad knew?”

  “Maybe one of his gifts is seeing into the future. That would certainly explain the dream you had,” he said, referring to Herman’s precognitive dream that he would impregnate Nina. He chewed on a nail, as if he knew the moment he’d said it that he shouldn’t have brought it up.

  “Why then was he so surprised that you knew where I was?”

  “I have no idea. Could be that he didn’t think we’d meet for a long time.”

  “Hmm. I always thought my mother knew as little as I did about what my father does for a living. I guess it goes to show how much she loves him and respected his wishes that Chad and I were kept in the dark.”

  “Maybe that’s why he’s been acting the part of the assistant all this time as well,” Stephen suggested.

  “That’s a long way to go, dressing up like a woman just to make sure we didn’t know he was a magician, especially since he rarely performs in Canada.”

  “But if Paul had made it big, at least you wouldn’t have recognized your dad.”

  “Not at all?”

  “I doubt it. He makes a very convincing woman.” They reached the car and Stephen held the door open for Herman.

  “So where to now?” he asked once he was settled into the driver’s seat. “We don’t have to be at the train station for at least an hour.”

  “How about some lunch?”

  “Sure.”

  As they pulled out of the parking lot, she stared out the window at the cloudy sky and contemplated what she’d learned. If she did have powers of her own that only needed to be brought to the surface, perhaps it would be best to find out directly from her father exactly what her gifts might be. It could be dangerous to delve into that aspect of herself with only Stephen to help her. She wasn’t ready to stumble upon another curse; the one on Stephen’s family was more than enough to deal with. She told Stephen what she was thinking, and he agreed that it might be a good idea to wait.

  “Then again,” Stephen said, “I don’t think he’ll be up-front about the nature of his real powers when he knows you’ll tell me what they are.”

  “He might when I mention that if he doesn’t tell me, you’ll figure it out anyway.”

  “If that’s just a bluff, he’ll know right away.”

  “I think what I want to know more than anything is why he considers his powers a curse. Especially if it was enough to call me ‘Herman,’ whatever that means.”

  “So, ask him,” Stephen said. “Maybe he’ll be able to tell you that much.”

  “Hmm, maybe,” she agreed. She looked forward to seeing her father in Edmonton more now than before.

  * * *

  The train pulled into Kingston’s Via Rail station in the midst of a rainfall, the likes of which Stephen hadn’t seen since his trip to the island with Nina, when he discovered she was pregnant. The memory, combined with the plan to go there with Herman as soon as they arrived home, made him squirm with both unease and anticipation.

  In the muffled confines of the limo, they discussed the upcoming tour. Margaret had arranged for a truck filled with props, followed by a bus with a crew of nine men, to start the journey west to British Columbia in three days’ time. The tour would begin in Vancouver and work eastward, with two or three shows a week, leaving them time to travel by train and relax between venues. Their final show was scheduled for Toronto in early December, after which they would take a break and go to Antigua to visit Stephen’s parents. They planned to head east to St. John’s, Newfoundland in January and again, work their way back home. Their final show was to be the one in Ottawa, in March.

  Margaret planned to travel ahead of them for most of the tour, making sure everything was ready when they arrived in the next city. She’d already arranged for their stop in Edmonton to be lengthier, in order for them to spend time with Chad. She had confirmation from George’s agent that he would be there. Margaret said she wouldn’t miss that meeting for the world.

  As the limo pulled up at the front door of the house, Stephen watched Herman look up at the old Victorian mansion. He followed her gaze, through the distortion made by the rain on the window, to the turret above the front door. They’d been too busy rehearsing and doing shows in and around Kingston to explore the playroom in the attic. He wanted time enough to fully enjoy it when he did finally show it to Herman. Soon, he thought.

  Hawkins, the Dagmar’s administrator cum butler, met them at the car. After a quick goodbye to Margaret, Stephen waved off the offer of the umbrella the man had brought, and he and Herman ran to get out of the rain, letting the driver and Hawkins deal with the bags. Stephen and Herman stood in the doorway, the wide staircase in the grand, dark-paneled foyer behind them.

  “You don’t really want to go out to the island in this weather, do you?” Herman asked Stephen as they watched the heavy rain obscure the tail lights of the departing limo.

  “No,” he said, relieved, as he turned her to face him. “I’d like to spend a nice warm dry night in our own bed upstairs,” he kissed her lips, “in our bedroom,” he kissed her again, “only us.”

  “Who else would there be?” she asked him, smiling.

  “No one: just all that nature crap. Sleeping under the stars.” He kissed her.

  “We couldn’t have seen them tonight anyway,” she said and kissed him.

  “They’re overrated,” he agreed as he kissed her.

  “Want to hit the sack now?” she asked.

  “It’s only six o’clock.” He kissed her. “Why don’t we have a bath first? I could use a little warming up.”

  “Good idea.”

  He lifted her, cradled in his arms, and carried her through the living room door to their right. He stopped facing a bookcase that spanned the interior wall. Focusing on a black book with a gold clover leaf on the spine, he lifted it gently, magically, off the shelf. It floated onto Herman’s lap. A section of the bookcase fell back and slid away, revealing a room tiled in rust-colored ceramic.

  Herman craned her neck to kiss him. She breathed, “Show-off,” on his lips.

  He kissed her deeply as he stepped through the door, and the book flew off her lap and onto the wardrobe to his left. The door slid shut behind them as Stephen walked past the showers and the wardrobe to their left, past the greenhouse attached to the right side of the room, and up two steps to the large wooden Japanese-style bathtub where he dumped Herman, fully clothed.

  “You ass!” she exclaimed, laughing.

  “That’s what you get for calling me a show-off.”

  She stood up, rib-deep in warm water, and pulled Stephen in on top of her, kissing him as she went under. With her limbs wrapped around him she managed to twist around and get him beneath her. She squeezed with her legs, pressing against his hard cock, which was uncomfortably trapped down the leg of his jeans. Before he ran out of air, he found the floor of the tub and stood, lifting her with him.

  The moment they surfaced, she ended their kiss and said, “Don’t you dare magic our clothes off. If you want to get us naked, you’re going to have to remove them the hard way.”

  “Torturess,” he growled, taking her hand and placing it on his straining penis.

  “Oooh, that’s got to be painful.” She rubbed the length of it from the base down to the tip, squeezing it and pressing it against his leg, making him squirm.

  While he st
ruggled with the swollen leather of his belt, Herman took off her t-shirt and bra and brought a nipple up to tease the corner of his mouth, pulling away when he tried to do more than lick it. By the time he had stripped, he was ready to burst. All the while, Herman laughed at him.

  Her jeans were no easier to get off than his own. He ducked under the water and peeled them off her hips and down her legs. The moment they were floating inside out beside her, he opened his arms and she drifted toward him, pulled by an unseen force.

  “Hey,” she protested weakly. “I said no magic.”

  “You said I had to get our clothes off without magic. Now it’s my turn to set the rules.”

  He spread her legs and she wrapped them around his waist.

  “I like your rules,” she whispered as he entered her. “So much for keeping our clothes dry.”

  By the time they emerged and showered, they were well-wrinkled.

  CHAPTER 5

  It rained on and off for the next two days, but they decided to go out to the island anyway and sleep in the larger of the island’s two houses until the weather cleared. They took enough food and drink to keep them satiated for the full twelve days, and they only cheated by keeping the frozen food in the freezer instead of coolers, which were a necessity at a public campsite.

  Herman had been on birth control pills for a full month, so they were happy to celebrate the fact that they no longer needed extra protection. They celebrated extensively. The remainder of each day was spent reading paperbacks, relaxing, skinny dipping, and enjoying the calm of the island. The only things that penetrated their peaceful existence were the birds, the swish of the water tickling the shore in bubbly waves, the breeze gently brushing the leaves in the trees, and the occasional speed boat going by in the distance. At night the crickets and frogs and the pop and crackle of their campfire lulled them as they drank wine and gazed skyward, whispering about how perhaps nature wasn’t really overrated after all.

  It was difficult for Stephen to resist asking Herman if she wanted to explore her potential magic powers. He remembered childhood days spent with his father on the island, learning his own magical gifts. Apart from the madness of his great-great-grandmother and the spell she had placed on the family, he couldn’t imagine considering them a curse. Putting power in the wrong hands could surely lead to destruction, but he knew Herman, and knew she would take care of whatever powers she had. Why, then, did George consider his powers a curse? The man was disagreeable, but Stephen didn’t think he was particularly evil, or even crazy for that matter.

  So Stephen settled for asking Herman if she wanted to learn how he did some of his card tricks, but she refused to allow him even that, stating that if she was going to know, she’d rather figure it out for herself. Frustrated, he offered to show her some of the magic he once practiced with his coven, which she agreed to. He explained to her the basis of his beliefs before they began any rituals. It was easy to describe what being a witch meant to him while immersed in the very foundation of his faith: nature. He was thrilled to show her his favorite ritual—one that he had practiced many times with the five women in the coven, but never with one woman alone—which was the ritual bath, followed by ritual sex. This led, inevitably, to what became a nightly ritual while they were on the island.

  CHAPTER 6

  Stephen and Herman rowed to the mainland under the pleasant heat of the early summer sun. The humidity became thicker as they traveled inland, away from the lake breeze to which they’d become accustomed. It was noon already and, having skipped a real breakfast in lieu of one last romp on the island, they were famished. Despite the soupy air and their hunger, they were content. Their time alone, with no distractions, had been nothing short of a Utopian vacation from the world.

  Their mood was abruptly frozen when they walked through the back door directly into the air-conditioned kitchen and found Margaret at the heavy chopping-block table, eating lunch with Nina. Stephen watched Herman and Nina regard each other. Nina’s large, fawn-like eyes narrowed. Both snarled.

  Margaret looked up. “Nina has a doctor’s appointment,” she told Stephen. “She wants you to go with her.”

  Nina’s scowl at Herman turned to a smile as she looked at him expectantly. Rather than stop to reply, he followed Herman as she left through the door to the foyer. He trailed behind her without a word until she reached the living room on the opposite side. He closed the door behind them.

  “Do you want to come with us?” he asked.

  She turned in a huff. “You’re going to go?”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  Herman paced around the room, trying to come to terms with his decision. She halted in front of him. “Don’t I even have any say in the matter?” she asked, swiping at her eyes.

  “You can choose to come with me. But I am going to go.” He didn’t want to hurt her, but he knew it might be his only opportunity to have direct news about his baby.

  “It doesn’t have anything to do with me,” she snapped back. “And anyway, I can’t stand to be in the same room as her. I swear to God, every time she smiles at you, I want to hit her.” He was graced with a glimpse of jealousy—the same emotion that had initiated his family’s curse—in Herman’s expression. A chill ran through him that was half-anger and half-regret as he thought maybe it would be better that she not learn of her own magical powers after all. He reached out to her but she stepped back, refusing his touch.

  “I can’t wait to get out of here,” she said, her tears returning. “Why did she have to ruin everything?”

  It wasn’t Nina’s fault, but he couldn’t say that. He was torn between the truth of the matter and what Herman wanted to hear. She must have seen it in his eyes because she relented a little.

  “I understand how you feel about the baby,” she said, crossing her arms, “but that doesn’t make me feel any better about the fact that she has you by the balls.”

  “She doesn’t have—”

  “Of course she does! ‘Master, come and see me, I’m having cramps. Master, look at my naked body while I stand and scream ridiculous things in public. Master, I’m going to the doctor …’”

  It was true: Nina had been manipulating the situation from the beginning. Stephen stepped forward and took Herman by the shoulders before she could move away. The pain and anger in her eyes stung his heart.

  “Herman, the only thing that concerns me is the baby. It has nothing to do with Nina apart from the fact that she’s carrying it. I know how hard this is for you.”

  “Do you?”

  “I do. Because it breaks my heart as well. I won’t go alone with her. If I don’t take you with me, I’ll take Margaret.”

  “Do you want me to go?”

  “Yes. It’ll show Nina that you and I are united.”

  Herman stared into his eyes for a moment. He didn’t know what she found there, but whatever it was must have reassured her. “In that case, I’ll go. Just don’t make me sit where I’ll have to look at that smirk on her face.” She scowled, but her expression had relaxed a little.

  “We’ll take Margaret too. She makes a good referee.”

  He pulled her toward him and she held him tight. When he released her, he looked into her eyes. “We’ll get through this.”

  She nodded and they left the room with their arms around each other. They found Margaret in the foyer.

  “Nina just left with Hawkins. You can still make it to the appointment if you want to go,” Margaret said to Stephen.

  “Will you come too?”

  “Sure. I’ll drive.”

  “Good, ‘cause I haven’t seen my wallet in over a week,” Stephen said.

  * * *

  From the back seat of the car, Herman listened to Stephen and Margaret talk about things that had nothing to do with where they were going: to attend a doctor’s appointment for Nina’s—scratch that—Stephen’s baby. She wasn’t happy to go, but she knew she’d be even more unhapp
y waiting at home and having to wonder how everything had gone; it would kill her to ask.

  They parked in the underground garage opposite Kingston General Hospital and walked together across the street. Inside the building, Margaret guided them, seeming to know already which wing, which floor, and which doctor they needed to see. Nina was already in the waiting room with her father. Seeing them side by side, Herman realized they barely looked anything alike. It was unlikely that Hawkins’s salt-and-pepper hair had ever been the same golden color as his daughter’s. Perhaps his rheumy blue eyes had once been as bright as Nina’s.

  “You arranged the appointment I see,” Stephen said, smiling at Margaret.

  “Charlie was available,” she said with a shrug and a look that conveyed an untranslatable message.

  “You know the doctor?” Herman asked Stephen as he sat beside Nina. Having a boyfriend who was a child prodigy with friends in high places would still take some getting used to.

  “We were good friends in university,” Stephen confirmed. He turned to Margaret. “I didn’t know she was back in town.”

  “I just found out yesterday. We were lucky to get the appointment. There was a cancellation.”

  “Charlie’s a woman?” Herman asked.

  “Her real name is Charlene,” Stephen explained.

  Probably one of Stephen’s many ex-girlfriends, Herman thought morosely, knowing she had to get herself out of her mood.

  A nurse with a round, flushed face who was dressed in a fawn-print shirt appeared in the doorway and called Nina’s name.

  All five of them stood and the nurse’s eyes went wide. “I can only let two people in with the patient.”

  They all looked at Stephen.

  “I’ll stay here,” Herman said.

  “No, I want you to come in,” he said, reaching for her hand.

  “If there’s enough space in the room, I’ll come too,” Margaret piped up. “Dr. Fletcher is an old friend, and I’d really like to surprise her.”