The Magician's Blood

by Linda G. Hill

  “It’s okay.” Nina sniffled. “I know the hysterectomy needs to be done. It’s for the best, for everyone.”

  “Nina, you don’t need to say any more about it. You only need to let Dr. Fletcher know that you agree to it, and that I’m not forcing you to have it done.”

  She shook her head. “No one is forcing me.” Her hand moved to her stomach. “This is the only baby I will ever have. I’m just thankful it is yours, Master,” she sobbed.

  His instinct to protect her pulled at him, demanding that he hold her, even though it felt like a betrayal of Herman’s trust. Charlie saw him hesitate and she nodded to him. “It won’t hurt,” she said quietly.

  Rather than try to analyze it any further, he gave in to the urge. Nina clutched him hard; his body reacted uncomfortably. Pressed against his servant, he wondered abstractedly if his creeping desire was a symptom tied to the family’s curse. Whatever it was, it annoyed him to feel weak against it.

  He released her with no small amount of force, both on his own part and Nina’s.

  “I want to keep you in the hospital for a day or two for observation.” Charlie to the rescue again. It wasn’t medically necessary for Nina to stay; he knew she’d suggested it as much for Stephen as to make sure Nina was stable enough to look after herself. She waited until Nina’s crying had subsided to the occasional hiccup before she continued. “I’d also like to see you once a week for a while, to make sure you have your anger under control, at least until I can set up some sessions with someone you can talk to. In the meantime, I’ll visit you at home if you prefer that to coming here.”

  “That would be nice, thank you,” Nina said.

  “All right then. You can get dressed now. Come out when you’re ready.”

  Charlie followed Stephen out and down the hallway, away from the room so Nina wouldn’t hear.

  “Thank you for that,” Stephen said. “Your support.”

  “That girl in there needs all the support she can get. I don’t think she’s suicidal, but she is angry, and it’s good you and Herman are getting out of town. Make sure I know when you’re coming back.”

  “Margaret or I will keep in touch,” he said.

  “Speaking of Margaret, we’d better get going so I can take her to the airport. I have to make arrangements for Nina. Can you stay here and make sure she gets back down to emergency?”

  “Sure, go ahead. I’ll meet you down there.”

  A few minutes later Nina emerged from the examination room. “Are you ready to go?” Stephen asked.

  “Yes. Are we alone?”

  “Dr. Fletcher has gone to get the paperwork ready for your stay.”

  “Oh,” Nina said. They started toward the elevators. “Master, I’m going to miss you while you’re gone. When you come back I’ll be so big.” She smiled. “You will be able to feel our daughter move inside me.”

  “That’s true,” Stephen said, not wanting to commit to coming into physical contact with her. He looked down at the tiny woman he had impregnated and imagined her swollen with his child; a vision which again stirred him into arousal. He checked himself by changing the topic.

  “Be sure to pay close attention to the relaxation techniques Dr. Fletcher gives you. It will be better for the baby if you’re calm.”

  “I will, Master, thank you. You’ve been very kind to me today.” She looked up at him and smiled.

  He felt a sense of hopelessness for the poor girl. His frustration was almost more than he could bear. He closed his eyes and raked his hand through his hair in a futile attempt to brush his thoughts from his brain.

  “Please, just take care of yourself,” he said to her for the umpteenth time since he discovered she was pregnant.

  “Yes, Master,” she said. She stared at the floor as she walked.

  He left her in the emergency room with her father and went to wait for Charlie by the car. They drove home in silence.

  CHAPTER 8

  When Stephen and Charlie arrived at the house, Margaret came out of the dining room with Herman in tow, saying she needed to see Stephen right away in the office. They left Charlie and Herman standing at the bottom of the stairs and went up, closing the door behind them.

  Margaret turned to him as soon as the latch clicked shut. “I’m missing the coven pictures. I found a whole stack of pictures and CDs yesterday after we came back from the hospital, before my date with Charlie. I left them in the guest room and now they’re gone.”

  “Were they all there?”

  “Yes, including the one you took of the five of us. I didn’t get a chance to watch the CDs, but I think they were all there, too.”

  “Shit. Do you think Nina took them?”

  “Who else would have?”

  “We’re going to have to tell Herman right away that Charlie was in the coven. If Nina took them, then she’s probably put them somewhere for Herman to find.”

  “Nina strikes again,” Margaret growled. “Do you want to tell Herman on your own or do you want me there?”

  “I’ll tell her alone,” he said, opening the door.

  At the foot of the stairs they turned toward the living room, hearing Herman’s voice coming from that direction. Together, Stephen and Margaret halted in the doorway. Herman and Charlie sat gazing at the very picture they had just been discussing. Poster-sized, it curled at the edges as Herman and Charlie held it down on the coffee table.

  Herman looked up at Stephen. “I have to say, it’s beautifully done. Charlie tells me you climbed a tree to take it?”

  “Yes,” he said. He expected her to be angry, but she seemed more in awe. In the photo, the five female members of the coven sat on the grass, back-to-back with their shoulders touching and their heads together in a circle, all looking up. They held hands and their legs were splayed so they touched at the toes; together they formed a perfect pentacle. They were all nude.

  “Charlie was telling me who everyone is. I recognize three of course. You didn’t tell me Bryce was in the coven.”

  He swallowed, feeling disappointed in himself. “I didn’t think it was important.”

  “And Charlie?” Herman said, staring him down. “Am I ever going to meet anyone that you haven’t had sex with?”

  He opened his mouth to say they needed to talk but she spoke before he could.

  “Any guys you want to tell me about now? Or do I have to wait to see the pictures?”

  He hung his head then.

  “Oh my God,” Herman said. “You’re not going to tell me you …”

  “It was about a month before the coven broke up,” Stephen said. “One of the girls left and we needed a sixth person.”

  “It was only one time,” Margaret chimed in quickly. Stephen wondered if Herman had picked up on Margaret’s defensiveness—it was at her urging that he took part.

  “Are you … bisexual?” Herman asked him.

  “No. I can promise you it will never ever happen again.”

  “So why did you even bother telling me? Are there pictures?”

  “There’s a video,” Margaret said. “And I think Nina stole it.”

  “Nice,” Herman said sarcastically. “Is she ever going to give up trying to make me hate you?”

  “I hope so,” Stephen said, forcing the disaster of Nina telling Herman about the baby from his mind. “I was going to tell you about Charlie being in the coven.”

  “She told me.” Herman turned back to the picture. “Are there more of these?”

  “There are a lot more pictures,” he said.

  “I’ll probably find one under my pillow. But this is a work of art.”

  “It is,” Charlie said, smiling.

  “If you find any of the videos,” Margaret said to Herman, “don’t watch them without Stephen there.”

  “They should have been destroyed,” Stephen said.

  “I wouldn’t mind seeing them again,” Margaret intoned.

  Charlie reac
hed for Margaret’s hand. “Neither would I.” The two women gazed into each other’s eyes.

  “I think that’s our cue to leave,” Herman said to Stephen.

  Upstairs, she dropped onto the bed. Stephen stood before her and cupped her cheek. “How do you feel about what you’ve found out?”

  “You mean do I feel any different about you? No,” she said without hesitation. “I think all the things you’ve done put me more in awe of you, if anything. You’ve had so many experiences that most people only dream about. Okay, not all people dream about them, but still, you’ve lived such an amazing life, and you’re only twenty-three. It makes me wonder what’s in store for me.”

  “An amazing life, obviously.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her. She lay back on the bed and there they stayed, side by side, until Margaret called up to say she was about to leave.

  CHAPTER 9

  So much had been made of the playroom—how forbidden it was, and how important that Stephen was the first to take her there—that Herman shivered with nerves as she ascended the circular staircase ahead of him that evening. The Jacuzzi was there and across the room, the futon on the floor, as they had been the night of her precognitive nightmare when she’d poked her head up to talk to Margaret. The bed took up almost half of the available floor space, with a dozen assorted pillows in shades of burgundy at one end and a beige cotton spread covering it. Candles burned in sconces on the walls, on the floor, in the chandelier hanging in the middle of the round room, and in candelabras that were part of the banisters around the top of the staircase. At the foot of the futon rested a pirate-style treasure chest with a rounded lid and a heavy brass lock. The stained-glass windows that surrounded the turret were dark.

  “It’s so romantic,” Herman sighed.

  “Do you want to see the rest?”

  “There’s more?”

  Stephen smiled as he stepped over to the chest and reached down to pull it. It moved easily, and with it came a small door that opened to the height of Herman’s collarbone.

  “Follow me.” He crouched and walked through the hole in the wall. Beyond it was a tunnel, about ten feet long; at the other end, Stephen stood to his full height and reached for a dimmer switch that raised spotlights high in the slanted roof of the attic. There was only one window on the far wall; it matched the stained-glass window at the back of the house in the landing, with a similar pattern to the one in the turret. A high swing set with white ropes holding the seats sat in the middle of the room, facing the tunnel. There was a small merry-go-round off to the left, and another large bed, this one more conventional with an ornamental cast iron head- and foot-board. Tied to the rails were dozens of silk scarves in reds, purples, and yellows. Tables on both sides of the bed held unlit candelabras. At the foot of the bed, a large flat-screen television hung on the wall; another chest sat below it.

  “Wow,” Herman said. “It looks like a playroom all right.”

  “Look closely at the seats.”

  “OH!” she said. Each of the horses on the merry-go-round, and each of the swings but one had large erect phalluses built onto them.

  “The majority of this room was made for the women,” he said.

  “So I’m guessing you haven’t spent a lot of time up here alone, then.”

  “There is one swing without a dildo. And there are a lot of erotic videos …” He nodded in the direction of the TV. “But no, I haven’t been up here much since the coven broke up. Except for the Jacuzzi, there’s not much here for me.

  “What is up here for us, though, are all the herbs and incense and candles for the perfect ritual bath, if you’re interested,” he said. The look in his eyes told her that that was very much what he wanted.

  “First, I have to ask you.” She didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. “Do you miss coming up here with a bunch of beautiful women?”

  “No. Not at all. I admit I miss their friendship sometimes. But the sex,” he shook his head, “not at all.”

  Another question came to mind, this one more embarrassing.

  “When you say there’s not much here for you, do you mean to say you don’t use these … things … for your own pleasure?”

  “No.” A slight, almost embarrassed smile crossed his features. “I’m a virgin where that part of me is concerned.”

  She looked at him closer. “So you didn’t …” She wasn’t sure how to finish the sentence.

  “No, Ethan didn’t touch me there. That’s where I drew the line.”

  “What did you do then?”

  He started to say something, but she quickly raised her palm to stop him.

  “Wait!” she said. “I don’t think I want to know.”

  He took her hand away. “If you change your mind, just ask.”

  “Was it really horrible?”

  He stared at a spot on the floor for a moment before he answered. “It was an experience. Kind of like bungee jumping: something you either try once and say ‘It was the experience of a lifetime, but I never want to do it again,’ or you say ‘I enjoyed that, and I’m going to do it as often as I can from now on.’ For me, being with another man was definitely the former.”

  “Have you ever been bungee jumping?”

  Stephen laughed. “Yes, I have.”

  “Would you do it again?”

  “It was the experience of a lifetime, but I never want to do it again,” he said, smiling. “Would you like to try it?”

  “Maybe one day,” she said. “Maybe one day I’ll want to try being with another woman.” She glanced at him to gauge his response. He looked at her evenly. He’d had a lot of experience in the matter of lesbianism, and he was likely going through many scenarios in his mind. What he said wasn’t what she expected at all.

  “I’m not sure how I would feel about you being with someone else. I don’t want to deny you any experience you want to have, but at the same time, I can’t say I wouldn’t feel jealous.”

  “I wouldn’t do it without you anyway. I couldn’t fool around on you behind your back, just like I don’t expect you to.”

  “All the same.” He looked down at the same spot on the floor. “I don’t really have any right to say I object to it, not after what I’ve put you through.” He met her gaze. “But there’s another thing to consider. You say you wouldn’t do it without me, so what about my reaction to it? Watching you with another woman would be incredibly exciting for me. As much as my heart may not like it, my body would. How would you feel about that part of it?”

  “That is something to think about,” she said, wondering if simply tossing the idea out into the air had somehow changed their relationship already.

  “For now, why don’t we just concentrate on the two of us,” he said, taking her hands in his.

  “What, with all the ghosts in here of witches past?”

  “Come back into the other room for a while,” he said. “If you still feel the same way, we’ll go downstairs.”

  He turned off the lights and closed the door behind him when they reached the room with the Jacuzzi.

  “What’s in the treasure chest?” she asked. “Like I couldn’t guess.”

  “Herbs and incense and different colored candles for rituals, a few talismans and other witches’ tools. And yes, there are sex toys in there as well. Please, come and sit down with me,” he said, leading her to the futon. As he sat on it cross-legged, Herman heard a crunching sound. He patted the space in front of him, asking her to sit. She pressed down on the bed with her fingertips.

  “It’s a rubber sheet. So the bed doesn’t get wet if someone gets out of the Jacuzzi without drying off.”

  “Ah,” she said.

  He undid one of the buttons on his shirt.

  “What are you doing? I thought we were just going to sit and talk.”

  “I’m going to go one step toward getting undressed for every good reason I think of for us to stay here and make love tonight
.”

  “And what did you come up with?”

  He smiled. “We’re already here.”

  “Are you confident you can find so many reasons that you can get undressed one button at a time?” she asked, eying the five buttons on the fly of his jeans.

  “Would you rather I take off my shirt?” he asked.

  “No, that’s okay. I want to see how many reasons there really are.”

  He undid another button.

  “What was that for?”

  “You want to make love to me.”

  “What gives you that idea?”

  “Herman. I know you.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that one.” She snarled at him because he was right. “So, if I came up with a reason, would I have to start getting undressed too?”

  “You can take something off right now in fact.”

  She raised her eyebrows, waiting for an explanation.

  “You’re getting into the game. I think that’s an excellent reason to stay.”

  “A game?”

  “It is a playroom,” he said, but the smile left his face.

  “Okay, Herman,” he relented. “Here’s the truth. It’s not something I’ve ever come out and told anyone before.” He took a deep breath and taking her hands in his, looked down at them.

  “It took me a long time to get into the rituals that the girls wanted to perform. At first all I did was watch. When I did finally join in, I felt … uncomfortable. It was a learning experience for all of us when it came to respecting and realizing the beauty of nature. But the rituals eventually became the means to an end. That was the main reason I built this place the way I did. I’ll admit, it was fun for me too, when I did participate. But it always left me feeling afterward as though I was a sex toy.

  “All I ever really wanted was someone who I loved, who loved me in return. Which is why having you here is so special for me. Even when I was up here with five women, I fantasized about being here with only one. The One.” He looked her directly in the eyes, and there, within the candlelit glow of his magical gaze, she saw sincerity when he whispered, “You.”