Part 2: Desire and Business

I stepped into Thriza’s office at about eight the next morning with my laptop in a bag over my shoulder. The pretty brunette looked up at me and smiled slightly, taking her attention away from her own laptop. It was always hard for me to remember that Thriza wasn’t a twenty year old college girl – she had been born before the Revolutionary War and magic spells kept her alive and looking young.

I fired up my laptop and got a cup of coffee before sitting at the corner of Thriza’s desk.

“Morning Michael,” began Thriza. “How did things go with Anna?”

“Great,” I responded. “My spell worked fine.”

“Excellent. I know that you used a difficult spell and that you are pretty new so this is really good news.”

“Yeah,” Anna has some pretty unique fantasies. I texted Sabrine to come by shortly. I’ll need her help on this one. If Anna works out she’ll make a great addition to our little group.”

“That is good to hear,” said Thriza.

“Yeah,” I said taking a drink of coffee. It was pretty good this morning with a rich dark taste, exactly how I liked it. “I have a question.”

“State your question,” answered Thriza.

“I checked the Coven accounts this morning and I saw a $7,000 deposit-”

“We’ll have to move that,” said Thriza, cutting me off with a nod of her head.

“Yeah, obviously. It looks like an electronic transfer from TLN (LLC) which frankly, just screams ‘holding company’ at me. Where did this deposit come from?”

Thriza smiled knowingly at me. Her dark hair was tied back loosely and she pushed a stray strand off her face. “Very perceptive Michael,” she began.

“I assume the deposit has something to do with the ritual you tapped Rayven, Ella Rose, and Arabella for over the last few days.”

Thriza nodded. “It was a binding ritual. Magically it’s not that complex but physically demanding. The transfer is for services rendered.”

“And I need to shut up and send the money off to the general investment account,” I said, smiling.

“No. I’ll explain some things to you now. I do have to ask you though, Michael – did I hear singing from upstairs last night?”

“Yeah you did. It was the girls. I bought them some loaded nachos and margaritas. They were pretty tired after the ritual and just needed some extra attention.”

“But singing?” asked Thriza.

“Rayven, Arabella, and Ella Rose got what the outside world sometimes calls ‘white girl drunk’ last night.”

“And the three of them sang?”

“Well, they tried to,” I continued. “They also danced at one point, Ella Rose cried a little, and all three of them had some sort of crisis. Like I said, they were white girl drunk.”