Chapter 10

It was late April when we returned to my house in North Charleston. We spent much of the rest of the day cleaning up the clothing, and the gear that we had used on our excursion to the various battle sites. Additionally, Sylvia wanted to move more of her clothing and personal possessions here. She would be giving up her apartment shortly and moving in permanently with Amelia and me. There was certainly more than enough room here for the three of us, although there would be a problem with closet space, but that wasn’t something that we couldn’t work around. There were also rooms for the children who would be along in short order.

The only thing that we really needed was food, so when we had transferred Sylvia’s things to my house, she and Amelia took her car and went grocery shopping while I returned to the house.

I could now continuously feel the presence of those who had been following us, as they were only something over eight miles from my house down in the historic district of Charleston. It was quite easy to follow their individual movements when that close to them, at least the four of them who were close. There was a fifth one who I could just barely sense; his signature was quite different from the others, and I didn’t consider him to be a threat.

Of course, I could have transferred to any of their locations to see what they were doing, but that wasn’t my intention. I just wanted to know if they were still going to pursue either Amelia or me. If they had given up chasing us, I would leave them alone, but if they continued their pursuit of us, I intended to end it with whatever amount of force was necessary.

The women soon returned with the food and began cooking. I started thinking about what I needed to do and decided that I really needed to see the O’Connells again for advice on marrying both Amelia and Sylvia, but first I would need to obtain engagement rings for both of them. This was in addition to Amelia’s studies and Sylvia starting her own clinic plus me dealing with those pursuing us if necessary. There was so much to do, but we needed to see what our pursuers would do first. I decided that I would give them a week to make their move, and we would see what happened.

We had a very quiet four days then. On Monday, the 25th, I called an acquaintance to inquire about the availability of a facility in the vicinity of my house where Sylvia could set up her veterinary clinic. It required several hours, but he eventually called back with an address in North Charleston that was only a few miles away, and that had been used as a doctor’s office previously. It seems that the doctor in question had left the state under questionable circumstances leaving most of his equipment in place. It turned out that the reason for this quick departure was an investigation being conducted by the local District Attorney regarding the doctor’s issuing large numbers of prescriptions for addictive drugs that were not being used for medical conditions but rather for recreational use instead. The owner of the facility had confiscated his equipment in lieu of the rent and still held it. Sylvia left to visit the facility and was gone for several hours before she returned all aglow.

“Yes, it will do very well for a clinic,” she told me and gave me a big kiss. “There is even some of his equipment there that I can use. The owner will work out a plan for us to pay for the equipment that I will need, as well as agreeing to only charging us half the rent when I told him that it would require several weeks before we could be operational. He seemed very anxious to rent the space as it’s a stand-alone building, and he is worried about vandals,” she told me excitedly.

“We can certainly take care of the vandal part with wards, but can you obtain the other necessary equipment and supplies in that time?” I asked when we came up for air.

“Yes, I believe so. I know the people who supplied the clinic where I was working, and I’m sure they will be happy to supply my clinic also. The only problem is all of this could be expensive. I have some money put aside for a clinic, but I’ll still need a lot of equipment and supplies in addition to a receptionist, and I’ll need to set up accounts with a couple of testing facilities,” she told me out of breath and in a worried voice.

“Don’t worry too much about the money. I have a good bit in addition to a number of contacts who are very good at arranging things if it becomes necessary,” I told her, happy to see her so excited.

“I can be your receptionist until you can find a regular one,” Amelia volunteered.

“Yes, that would help a lot. Thanks, Amelia,” Sylvia told her with a big hug, but suddenly she backed away from Amelia with a startled look on her face.

“You’re pregnant!” she exclaimed, before adding, “With twins ... twin girls.” Amelia and I both looked at her in shock.

“You’re sure?” we both asked.

“Oh yes, you’re about a week pregnant, but with twins you will start to show rather quickly,” Sylvia told us, but she was looking at Amelia large breasts, and she had a haunted look on her face for a short time, before smiling again.

“Congratulations,” she said in a choked up voice.

“What about you?” Amelia asked in a concerned voice.

“I can’t read myself, I’ll need another Mage to read me. I can only hope that I’m pregnant too until I see one,” she told us in a very quiet voice.

“When we visit the O’Connells again, they are sure to have one of their Mages at the university with them,” I told her and gave both women a big hug, hoping what I had said was true. Sylvia threw herself into the necessary work to open a clinic and was very busy over the next two days following that contacting various suppliers.

I knew the owner of a jewelry store and on Tuesday, we visited it. Sylvia and I had both seen the type of wedding bands that the O’Connells all wore, and we looked for something similar. It required the store’s owner to go deep into his vault to find the type of rings that we wanted. After making our selections when I was paying for the ring sets, the owner had some questions.

“Doesn’t the fiancee usually purchase the engagement rings,” he asked.

“Yes, they do, and I’m paying for them this time,” I told him with a smile.

“I didn’t know that you had Granddaughters, Greg, you never brought them around for any other jewelry,” he told me quietly in an accusing voice.

“They aren’t my Granddaughters,” I told him to a look of surprise after weighing the decision for a number of seconds, before I leaned in to whisper in his ear, “They’re my future Wives,” He just stared at me in shock, but that didn’t keep him from taking my money to finish the sale.

“Isn’t that illegal, Greg?” he asked quietly after giving me the receipt.

“It is in some places but not in others,” I told him with a smile just before Amelia and Sylvia joined me, and we left the store before I transferred us back to the house.

I was still having sex each night with one of my future Wives, but it was more relaxed now without the wild need to get pregnant of our first few days together. The women had also switched to tea, so I was the only one drinking O’Connell ale now.

Wednesday and most of Thursday were very relaxed, and we did little but eat and make love when we felt like it, though Sylvia was still making arrangements for the delivery of equipment and supplies a part of the time. All of that changed on the evening of Thursday, the 28th.

While Greg and his future Wives were relaxing at home and planning for the new veterinary clinic, those pursuing them weren’t quite as relaxed.

While Chip had been on duty when Greg and the women had returned to Charleston on Sunday, and he noted down the time that they returned, he was unable to contact Gunther or Joey. they had been out partying and having sex with some of the Bosses other captive women on Saturday night, and hadn’t recovered yet. He was also unable to contact the Boss who had left for one of the out-of-town houses that Chip didn’t have the phone number for, plus the Boss had turned off his cell phone.

Because of this, it wasn’t until Sunday evening that Gunther and Joey became aware of Greg’s return to the city, and it wasn’t until Monday afternoon when the Boss arrived that he learned of their return. The Boss was unhappy but realized that it was his own fault, but since Gunther and Joey were both there, and they were both sober, there wasn’t a lot that he could complain about.

“Has he moved since returning?” he demanded instead.

“No, he’s been at his house since he returned,” Chip told him.

“We need to be sure that he is going to stay there, so we’ll give him a couple of days and see if he moves. In the mean time, we need to make preparations for capturing him,” the Boss told his men in a fairly calm and controlled voice.

“Preparations?” Joey asked.

“Yes, I’ll be going with you, and we need to be sure that this is the one and only time that it is necessary,” he told them in a threatening voice.

“What kind of preparations?” Gunther asked, but was soon sorry that he had.

The boss quickly produced a long list of items that he wanted Gunther and Joey to obtain. There were several normal or nearly normal items on the list which included a mortar and pestle, a large metal bowl, large metal spoons, a grater, small plastic bags, and a number of small cotton bags with draw string closure. This list was followed by another list of various herbs that they were to obtain.

“Ginseng, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, and tobacco leaves I can understand, but what are some of these other things on the list?” Gunther asked in confusion.

“They’re for use in mojo bags. The acquaintance who gave me the list and sources assured me that when used together they will prevent Magic spells from working on us, but the ingredients must be in their natural state and not something that has been processed for use,” the Boss assured him.

“Where are we going to find these other things?” Joey asked, as he had taken the list from Gunther and started reading off some of the other more unusual items.

“Hollyhock buds, wild thyme buds, hazel buds, jimsonweed, sassafras, black hellebore, blackberry leaf, and angelica root, is this stuff for real?” he asked, “and where the hell are we supposed to find it in Charleston?”

“Here is a list of the places where you will be able to find the various ingredients,” the Boss told them, handing over another piece of paper with addresses on it. As Joey started reading down the list his face grew more and more startled.

“These places are scattered all over, but mostly they are in the worst parts of the city and the surrounding area. We’ll need to go armed to a lot of these places since they are in the worst ethnic neighborhoods, and we’ll need to lock and set the alarm on the van. How much of all of this stuff do we need?” he finished.

“Just a few ounces of each one. They will probably come in small plastic bags,” the boss told them and was interrupted by Gunther.

“Yeah, just like dope,” the big man said. The Boss gave him a hard stare before continuing.

“We will need to mix them together in the proper amounts to use them. Get more more than you think we will need,” the Boss told them, before adding, “You’ll need to pay cash for everything, since these people won’t take credit cards, and most are probably dishonest at least.” He handed Gunther an envelope with money in it as he finished.

“Just like drug dealers,” Gunther whispered to Joey, as they left the office a moment later. They spent the remainder of that afternoon and all day Tuesday visiting the shops necessary to obtain all of the items on the list. They were very uneasy visiting most of these stores and were viewed with suspicion by those working there who suspected that they were cops. They were very relieved on obtaining the final ingredient, and returned to the familiar area of the historic district, and the office behind the Boss’s club. That was when they learned that the work had just begun.

“Tomorrow we’ll start mixing the ingredients and putting them in the bags. Some of this stuff will need to be mashed up in the mortar before it can be added to the rest. The filled bags will go into sealed plastic bags to keep the contents fresh until we use them,” the Boss told them in a very confident voice, before they knocked off for the night.

Gunther and Joe went to have several beers, as they hadn’t done any drinking on either Monday or so far on Tuesday.

“Does the Boss seem normal to you?” Joey asked after their second beer.

“Normal how?” Gunther asked.

“Like us, dummy. I’ve never seen him all hyped up like he has been lately. It’s something more than that he’s pissed about that broad getting away. He’s lost broads and money before,” Joey told him.

“It is kind of peculiar, all of this shit that we had to get the past two days, but yeah, I don’t remember seeing him like this before,” Gunther agreed, as he drained the next bottle of beer in one long gulp.

The following day Gunther and Joey began processing the various herbs and other ingredients. The Boss was very explicit on how much of each item was to be processed and added to the final mixture. Some of the garlic was crushed in the mortar, and the cinnamon was grated, while other items were shredded or removed from the twigs they were attached to.

When everything for a particular recipe had been added together, the ingredients were thoroughly stirred to distribute everything evenly before the ingredients were put into the individual bags. Each of them would eventually wind up with three bags that he was to carry in a specific location on his person to protect him from various kinds of Magic spells.

As each batch was finished, the cloth bags were placed in individual plastic bags that had been marked with their names and which formula it contained, and each bag was sealed to keep it fresh until they went after the Wizard.

Gunther and Joey were very glad to finally get out of the storeroom where they had been working all day since it smelled strongly of the herbs they had been processing. Their masks had protected them from the effects of the material they had been using, but some of the smell had leaked through causing them to sneeze and others had made their eyes water. They removed and threw away the treated gloves they had worn also.