Mages in Manhattan

by Phil Gabriel

  I drank the last of my cold coffee and set the cup down.

  As the cup hit the saucer, I asked, “Kitty-Sue, would you pour me another cup of coffee?”

  Kitty-Sue leaned forward, only to be stopped by a comment in Japanese from Akiko. Her ears perked up, then she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “What’s in it for me?”

  The office stereo started playing a Kenny Roger’s tune. Something about gambling and timing.

  “A new Deal,” I said. “Excellent! I will offer you one percent of this company, to be taken from my shares, if you will pour me a cup of this exquisite coffee.”

  Glancing at the monitor on the wall, Kitty-Sue made a rapid-fire calculation about the estimated value of one percent of Selene Select. I saw her eyes widen; then she gave her mischievous grin before reaching over and pouring me a cup of coffee.

  “Akiko-san,” I said, “it appears that I need cream and sugar. Would you like to make a Deal?”

  “Hai, Scott-Sensei,” she said.

  “I would like to offer you one percent of Selene Select, taken from my shares, if you would do me the service of adding two lumps of sugar and cream to my coffee.”

  Akiko popped up and added the cream and sugar to my coffee.

  After stirring and savoring the aroma of the world’s most expensive cup of coffee, I took a sip. “Ahh, that’s good coffee. Our Deal is done.”

  “Now,” I continued, “as I was saying before—no, you’re not just bodyguards, not just employees. You’re my friends. You’re my family. No more Deals. I don’t make Deals with family.”

  Kitty-Sue whispered something that I had never expected to hear from her. “You’re crazier than a kitsune.”

  Thirty-Two

  Honeymoon in Niagara Falls

  After wrapping up tons of paperwork to transfer my shares to Kitty-Sue and Akiko (who was amused to learn that she had to “incorporate” herself to own the shares), we left the mystified Brock and headed out for dinner.

  After a sumptuous celebratory meal, we headed back to the Ritz-Carlton. There was a moment of hesitation as we stood in the hallway outside our adjoining doors. “Do you want to come into my room?” I asked.

  Akiko gave a slight nod and started to drift closer, but was stopped by Kitty-Sue’s upraised hand. The girls exchanged one of those looks that I couldn’t decipher before Kitty-Sue spoke. “We’re still waiting for the Niagara Falls trip. Then we can spend time together.”

  “Niagara Falls,” I said. “But that was part of the old ‘bodyguard’ Deal. The ten-thousand-dollar bonus was to wrap up the Deal.”

  “No more Deals, you said,” responded Kitty-Sue. At my nod, she continued, “So this isn’t a Deal; it’s just something we both want. We’ll join you in Niagara Falls.” Once again, they exchanged a glance and a nod. My supernatural team was ganging up on me.

  “OK,” I said with resignation, “we’ll schedule a trip to Niagara Falls, in the fanciest hotel they have. We can go tomorrow.”

  Another glance, then a synchronized headshake. “Oh, no!” said Kitty-Sue. “Make it for, umm, three days from now?”

  “Three days?” I asked. “What do you have to do?”

  “Shopping!” said the girls in unison.

  “All right,” I said, “I’ll make the reservations tomorrow morning. Meet for breakfast?”

  The next morning, over breakfast, we finalized our plans. As I finished my third omelet, I said, “We have our reservation at the The Giacomo in Niagara Falls. I booked us a Fireplace Suite.”

  Their faces lit up with excitement, and Kitty-Sue said, “Great! We’ll have so much fun!”

  “So,” I said, “today is shopping day?”

  “Hai, and you?”

  “Central Park for meditation. I’m still not attuned to New York,” I said. “Even though I don’t plan on staying here, I still need to work at attuning.”

  Another shared glance, then Kitty-Sue said, “So you don’t plan on staying in New York?”

  “Of course not,” I scoffed, “I want to go back to Tokyo.”

  “But here you’re rich.”

  “I’ll be just as rich in Tokyo,” I said.

  “You can have many girlfriends here,” said Akiko.

  “And a secretary that dresses like a French maid,” said Kitty-Sue, before muttering, “without panties.”

  “Lots of girlfriends,” said Akiko.

  “Like Red,” said Kitty-Sue, “and Jackie, and Terri, and those others.”

  “No,” I said firmly. “New York has women; Tokyo has my family.”

  Another exchanged look and a synchronized nod, and both girls smiled at me.

  “Good,” said Kitty-Sue, before changing the subject. “Before we go shopping, we have a question.”

  “OK,” I said.

  Gesturing at my dragonskin satchel, Kitty-Sue asked, “Just how many suitcases can you stuff into your magic purse?”

  Three days later, we were sitting in front of a fireplace in the Honeymoon Suite of the hotel. A fresh bottle of champagne was cooling in the ice bucket.

  I popped the cork and filled glasses for all of us, glad that we were finally in the room together. Kitty-Sue and Akiko were in extremely revealing outfits. Even though kitsune didn’t have much use for modesty, Kitty-Sue knew how to dress to entice. Akiko was wearing a see-through negligee that both concealed and revealed interesting things.

  Kitty-Sue sipped her champagne. “Before we continue,” she said, “We have to talk about protection. Especially if the rumor is true.”

  “What rumor?” I asked.

  “The story is that every woman that sleeps with you ends up trying to kill you,” she said. “It must be some kind of curse.”

  “No!” I exclaimed. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

  “Well,” said Kitty-Sue while counting on her fingers, “there’s Jackie, then Terri the tattoo artist, then Red...”

  “And that’s just in New York,” added Akiko. “In Las Vegas, you told us about that fae girl. And you told me stories of your witch exes.”

  “There are a lot of killer exes in your past,” said Kitty-Sue. “We just wondered why.”

  Akiko said, “What about Euterpe? Doesn’t her curse put you in a lot of danger?”

  Kitty-Sue didn’t like talking about Euterpe, as she was the cause of our first fight. “I’m sure the famous magician has a long list of exes who want him dead,” she said coldly.

  “Oh,” continued Akiko, “then there was Jorōgumo! Does she count?”

  “That’s right,” said Kitty-Sue. “There was a time I was separated from Scott. Time is funny, there. It could have been long enough, especially for Scott. Minutes, at best.”

  I slapped my hand down on the table. “I did not have sex with the spider-goddess!”

  “Welllll,” said Kitty-Sue, “if you say so. You always tell the truth, right?”

  At Akiko’s nod, Kitty-Sue looked momentarily disappointed, but her face brightened up like she had just gotten the Final Jeopardy answer. “Unless the rules are different because it was another dimension!”

  “Oh,” added Akiko, smiling in agreement, “like the rule about Las Vegas, ‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.’ What happens in the realm of the spider-goddess, stays in the realm of the spider-goddess.”

  For a moment, I was nonplussed, wondering how I had come to a point where I had to deny screwing a man-eating spider-goddess. Wasn’t the fact that I was still alive proof enough?

  “It’s not a curse,” I said, touching my fingers one by one. “Red was coerced by the pack; Jackie threw me to the wolves as part of her plan for a regime change in New York; the tattoo artist wanted to steal my ink; my strega ex, who shall not be named, was insanely jealous...” I trailed off with the realization that over half of my bedmates had tried to kill me. Hell, and Kitty-Sue and Akiko didn’t even know about the djinn and the dragon.

  They were watching my hands closely as I counted on my fingers the number of exes
I had. I had unconsciously continued the tally. Not wanting them to know my number, I hid my hands under the table, resulting in disappointed looks on both of their faces.

  “So,” I continued after a long pause, “probably not more than half of my partners have tried to kill me.”

  “Soooo,” responded Kitty-Sue with a thoughtful expression, “does that mean the odds I will try to kill you afterward are fifty-fifty?”

  “No!” I interjected as Kitty-Sue nodded to herself.

  “You may die,” said Kitty-Sue as she rose to come and sit on my lap. Nuzzling my ear, she whispered, “But that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.” The stereo suddenly started playing Smash Mouth’s “All Star.”

  Damn, she had to quote one of my favorite movies. How could I resist? I leaned in to taste her champagne scented lips, softer than a whisper. A moment of enjoyment, then I had to back off.

  “Akiko-san,” I said, “I’m sorry. This must be difficult for you to watch. I wish you could feel a kiss again.”

  “Well,” whispered Kitty-Sue as she nuzzled my ear, “we have been talking. Do you remember that old Patrick Swayze movie, Ghost?”

  The room’s stereo system suddenly started playing the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody.”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “Do you remember that scene where the medium lets the ghost possess her so he can touch his wife again?”

  “What are you getting at?” I asked.

  “Well,” said Kitty-Sue as she wiggled her bushy-tailed butt into my erection, “since we both wanted to be first with you, we came up with this plan.” Looking at me through heavy-lidded eyes, she smiled that crazy kitsune grin.

  “So, you’re proposing a threesome,” I said, “but only with two people?”

  They nodded at the same time, Kitty-Sue’s fuzzy ear tickling my cheek.

  “I don’t know...” I trailed off. “There are too many variables. I can’t predict what will happen.”

  “You just leave the magic up to someone else for a change,” said Kitty-Sue as she rose from my lap and walked over to Akiko. Extending a hand to the ghost, Kitty-Sue said, “Akiko-san, do you want to do this?”

  At Akiko’s enthusiastic nod, Kitty-Sue continued, “Then I will wear your ring.”

  Akiko’s shintai, the ring that housed her spirit, levitated and slid onto Kitty-Sue’s ring finger. Akiko stood, then stepped into Kitty-Sue’s body.

  For a few moments, nothing happened, then Kitty-Sue’s shapeshifter form changed until she was a duplicate of my former student. Only her glasses were missing.

  She took a deep breath. “Oh, my goodness, this is so different. I can’t see the magic anymore, but I can feel it, smell it, taste it.” She licked her lips and ran her hands down her sides, stroking herself.

  She stepped over to my chair and held out a hand. “Scott,” she said, “you smell so good. Could you show me what your kiss tastes like?”

  The touch of my hand on hers made her close her eyes. I pulled her into my lap, marveling at the sheer pleasure I felt at feeling her weight in my lap. I leaned in for the kiss, touching lips that were so very different than Kitty-Sue’s, but equally sweet.

  I found my hands fondling her large breasts, marveling at the smoothness of her skin and the quickness with which her nipples leaped up. At every stroke, she moaned.

  I put my head in the crook of her shoulder and inhaled deeply, expecting a trace of Kitty-Sue. But no, this was all the sweet scent of Akiko, magnified one hundred times from the traces of her that crossed over from the ghost plane.

  She leaned her head back, raising her breasts, allowing me to suckle at her nipples. Each lick caused her to tense up and clench her fists. A glance at the ring showed it pulsing in time with her increased heartbeat.

  The music changed, now the theme from Ghostbusters: I ain’t afraid of no ghost. Euterpe’s joke. Then Akiko surprised me by quoting, “I want you inside me.”

  “How can I resist when you quote one of my favorite movies?” I said, standing with her in my arms and carrying her to the bed.

  The next few hours were intense, and I thanked the defunct Frost for giving me enough energy to endure. Akiko had enough passion for two women, which was only fair.

  What was surprising was how vocal my sweet, demure, composed Akiko could be. When she screamed, “DON’T STOP, YOU BASTARD, DON’T STOP!” I had to erect a sound baffling barrier to keep from waking up the rest of the hotel.

  We stopped several times to drink more champagne and nibble on snacks. Akiko marveled at the sensitivity of Kitty-Sue’s senses and enjoyed every bite.

  Finally, exhausted and sated, we lay together on the rumpled bed. I heard her breathing slow, matching mine, and she murmured, “Wow, I think I’m going to sleep. I haven’t slept since I died...” Her voice trailed off as she drifted into slumber.

  Almost asleep myself, I just watched her peaceful features. Fully sated, she had a secret smile on her lips and contentment in her dreams.

  Suddenly her eyes popped open, and she said in a sensual whisper, “Scott-Sensei, can we do it again?”

  Only this was a trick. Instead of Akiko’s brown eyes, Kitty-Sue’s peeked out from Akiko’s features. With a smile, I said, “You can’t fool me, Kitty-Sue. You sound like her. But I know it’s you.”

  With that mischievous grin, looking strange on Akiko’s face, Kitty-Sue’s form shivered, and she transformed into her ninety percent human form. She sat up on her knees at my side, her tail reaching around to stroke my arm. I welcomed the return of her scent, only now realizing I had missed it.

  “So,” she murmured, “is it my turn now?”

  “But where is Akiko?” I asked.

  “She’s asleep.” Kitty-Sue touched a hand to her breast. “In here. Let’s give her some sweet dreams.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m pretty drained.”

  She responded by turning so her tail, softer than a mink stole, was in my face. Then with her lips and her hips, she convinced me that I did have the energy.

  Turning her head to look back at me, she said, “No more blue balls.”

  I had expected my crazy kitsune lover to also require a sound deadening spell. Instead, she surprised me with the gentleness she required. The ninja-acrobat-warrior woman liked it sweet and slow, very slow. Enthusiastic, yes, very. But not loud. Her simple whispered “Ahhhhh...” of release was accompanied by full-body shivers each time.

  How many times? A gentleman never tells.

  The dawn was peeking through the curtains when she finally drifted off to sleep. With a muffled groan, I turned over on my face and pulled a pillow over my head. Finally able to rest, I was just starting to doze when I felt the bed move as she rose. I felt every one of my decades and was determined to sleep.

  I heard her moving around the room. Unwilling to look to see if it was Akiko or Kitty-Sue driving, I kept my head under the pillow.

  I felt the bed move again as she climbed in. Ahh, great, she was going to sleep some more, too.

  “Scott,” she asked in a whisper.

  “Yes,” I responded through the fog of dreams. Only to be shocked awake at her next words. The question a man never wants to answer.

  “Was I better than her?”

  The End

  Also by Phil Gabriel

  Other Tokyo Supernatural Books by Phil Gabriel

  The Haunted Onsen

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  Keep reading to sample the next book in the series…

  Chapter One of - The Haunted Onsen

  Onryō Problems

  The arrow released by the ghost samurai bowman hissed as it passed my left ear. I took a deep breath and slowed down time. The next arrow came towards my chest and would have pierced my heart if I had not sidestepped and turned. The third arrow floated towards my head. I reached up to grab the shaft, anxious to show m
y contempt for his weapon. I was surprised when the arrow sent a high-voltage shock through my hand and down my left side, before fading away. Shit, I’m supposed to be immune to shocks.

  Now my left arm hung limply from my shoulder. Obviously, his arrows had something extra going for them. Keeping the speed increase, I decided that retreating was in order.

  I backed up to the edge of the clearing as he tracked my movement with his nocked arrow. Damn, he was fast enough to track me even at my highest speed. Goddamn ghosts and their refusal to follow the laws of physics.

  Upon reaching the edge of the clearing, but still inside the onsen’s wards, I quickly ducked behind a large cedar hoping to catch my breath and wake up my dormant arm. A few deep breaths, inhaling the aroma of cedar, helped immensely. I saw the spiny needles of cedar leaves hanging in the air, knocked from the tree by my passage. I let go of time, and the world sped up around me and the cedar needles dropped to the ground. As I started to feel pins and needles in my arm, I heard the voice of my ghost apprentice: “Scott-sensei, those arrows will go through the trees.”

  Crap. I dropped quickly to the ground. Three ectoplasmic arrows flew through the tree in a vertical line. Head, heart, and balls would have been hit if not for the warning from Akiko. Lying on the ground, breathing deeply, I found myself nose-to-nose with a red-haired fox. The fox stared at me with her slit eyes, seeming to enjoy my discomfort. On her white chest fur was a heart-shaped patch of red fur. Around her neck was a small black leather collar embedded with jewels.

  “Go find your own hiding place,” I whispered to the fox while scrambling backward on hands and knees. The fox scampered away, wagging her two tails.

  Akiko wisely stayed invisible as I scrambled, still hampered by a weak arm, putting more distance between me and the bowman. After another dozen arrows had been sent my way, I muttered, “When is this asshole going to run out of arrows?”