Chapter 17

Raymond did a double take when the cuttails emerged from under the table the group had been sitting at.

He wasn’t sure how Vera would feel when she saw them but Kat reassured him they were babies and well behaved. He just hoped his very pregnant wife didn’t freak out when she saw them. He was amused to watch them prance along happily on their leads as if they were out for a walk with their owners.

Kat had him sit in the front of the flatbed and the cubs piled into the back with the de Vaals. It was a tighter squeeze, but they and the cuttails didn’t mind. After two days in each other’s company, they had become fast friends.

They all piled out, and Deirdre took Kat to show her the apartment while the boys started unloading the baggage. Trae got the trollies for his produce out and this made the loading go a lot faster. He explained to Raymond, as they worked, how he had adapted the dimensional space to build the mobile apartment.

Raymond was amazed and bombarded Trae with questions. Edward was amused at the Master’s enthusiasm and side-tracked him when he told him about Trae and Kat’s bridge building. Raymond was like a kid in a candy store and the possibilities of what they were telling him had his mind running like a hundred metre sprinter.

Meanwhile, Kat and Deirdre entered a disaster zone. The sitting room had crap piled up everywhere in it. Chests had been opened, and clothing and accessories were piled on every available surface and left wherever it had been dropped. The kitchen was a shambles of dirty dishes and old Kaboo and beer bottles.

“Stone the bloody eagles!” exclaimed Deirdre. She was not a happy camper. She stormed into her bedroom to find two bodies in her bed. She walked up to the bare arse of the female and slapped it hard. “Get out of my bed,” she screeched at her.

The woman squealed but didn’t flip over in time to save her arse from receiving the second slap. “Who the fuck are you?” she growled at Deidre, as she tried to get the long white-blonde hair off her face.

“The owner of this apartment. This is not your room Francine. Now get out of my bed and get your lover out of here, as we have some serious talking to do if you’re to stay in this apartment with Edward and me,” Deirdre scolded her.

“Piss-off, this is the biggest room and I’m not giving it up. I may have to stay here since I was ordered to but I don’t have to put up with you or your wimpy brother’s shit. Just stay out of my way, you stupid bitch,” Francine spat back as she flipped over.

“You could always join us, Deirdre,” The male said as he sat up and gave her a lecherous look.

Deirdre put her hands on her hips, “What are you doing here Collin? You were expelled.”

“That may be but I’m still Francine’s boyfriend,” he replied as he pulled himself up and lent against the back of the bed.

“Be that as it may, I want you out of here. I don’t care where you meet up with Francine but it will not be here. I was told she wasn’t to have male visitors while in this flat and she has to be home by ten every night unless she is with Edward or me, so get out,” Deirdre told him in a cold voice.

Collin chuckled, “And how pray are you going to force me to leave?” The smug expression on his face changed when Sampson jumped up on the bed and growled at him. Collin squealed as he pulled his legs back and huddled into the back of the bed.

Kitty joined him at about the same time and she growled at Francine. Francine screamed and in her haste to get away, she tumbled from the bed into a naked heap on the floor before scurrying into the corner of the room. Kitty plopped down on the edge of the bed to watch Francine.

Deirdre couldn’t help laughing. “Sampson, don’t bite him just yet,” she said. “Collin, please leave now.”

Collin scrambled from the bed and grabbed his clothes from the floor. As he went to hurry out, he smacked into an immovable object and bounced back to land on his arse on the floor near the end of the bed. Cussing, he looked up into Trae’s face.

Trae watched as the man’s eyes bulged from his face. “Put your pants on man,” he said in his soft drawl.

Sampson padded down the bed, and when Collin pressed against it, Sampson growled softly into his ear. Collin shrieked and scuttled out of the room and past Trae’s legs on his hands and knees. Edward and Raymond watched as the young man gained his feet. He crashed his way to the front door tripping over the obstacles and finally made his way out through it.

Raymond looked at Edward, “He’s not going to be happy when he gains his sensibilities. He is a nasty piece of work that boy.”

Edward sighed, “Don’t I know it. I had to live with him last year. After the first two months, I stopped buying food and only came home to sleep if I could get any, or to get a change of clothes. I spent more time sleeping at my friend Jake’s place in the end.”

“Ah, why didn’t you complain sooner?” Raymond asked him. He had never thought to ask Edward if he knew what had happened at the infamous party that got his girls suspended from the University.

Edward shrugged, “Who to? These aren’t dorm rooms and his father never bothered to answer any of my letters. I wasn’t allowed to kick him out. It was only when the building superintendent sent mum a heap of bills for our utilities and cleaning up the messes that Collin and his friends made, that Mother finally realised that I wasn’t joking.”

“Then all that mess with Francine and your daughters happened. I was just lucky that party was in Francine’s apartment or else it would have happened in mine. It wasn’t the first time they had drunken orgies. I stayed well clear of the place if I came home and found them here.”

“Had you seen my daughters at these parties?” Raymond had to ask.

Edward looked thoughtful, “Yeah, they were at one that happened a few weeks before the bust. I think they had not long joined that group. It surprised me to see them at the party, as I didn’t think they were into that sort of thing. I did remind Collin that the Shields were watching my apartment thanks to him.”

“I don’t know if they participated willingly or not. Other than seeing them kissing Sven and Dylan they were clothed when I came home. A few of the others were doing a lot of heavy petting. I just grabbed some clean clothes and went to Jake’s room to get some sleep.”

“Why did you say willing or not?” Raymond asked.

Edward blushed and said, “Like I said, I didn’t hang around if Francine, Collin and their friends were here. But a couple of months before the bust I found a girl in my bed after one of their parties. She didn’t seem to have any idea why she was in my bed, and it was obvious that she’d had rough sex with several people.”

“I helped get her cleaned up and took her to Sister Boil. The Sister wasn’t happy with me, thinking I had been involved. I’m still not sure if she believed me or not. Collin wasn’t happy when two Shields turned up a week later and said they were following up a complaint.”

“He got shitty with me but I warned him that if anything happened to me, his father had to deal with my mother. His dad owes my mother a lot of coin. I think that was the only reason he left me alone. He was a bastard to live with but he wasn’t game enough to hurt me.”

“Thank you, Edward. I’ve learnt more from you than what anyone else would tell me. I think the girls were drugged in some way. They won’t tell me what happened,” Raymond said.

“I’m sorry about that, but I’ve never found any drugs in my apartment. Plus they moved most of the heavy party fun to Francine or Dylan’s apartment after the Shields visited us. I know your girls hang around with them but I can’t tell you anything more as I wasn’t here most of the time,” Edward told him.

The men were distracted when Trae joined them and said, “I believe they used a coercion spell on them. When I went to help Francine up, I could feel something was wrong with her. I had Deirdre and Kat, touch her with me, and we lifted the spell. They are trying to soothe her.”

“She is very upset at how she has been used. I can’t guarantee she won’t be a bitch to live with but at least it will be her being a bitch and not someone else controlling her. Raymond, I suspect that your daughters and that girl you mentioned Edward, have been similarly affected.”

“Edward, if you can remember them, I’ll need a list of the people that you know of, that have been at the parties. We will have to check them all and report our findings to the Shields and the High Mage. I’m sorry Raymond, but it’s probably going to cause a bit of a stir for the University.”

Raymond grimaced, “The Board is not going to be happy, and I’ll probably lose my job but if we can help those that have been affected I will be a happier man. At least Vera and I’ll know if the girls were being coerced or just being adventuresome and bit off more than they could chew.”

Edward agreed to compile a list of names so Raymond could obtain their current addresses. They agreed that it was a job for the morrow. In the meantime, they needed to get the apartment liveable. Edward showed Trae Francine’s room.

The room was big enough with a large bed. It had been Edwards, but he had agreed to take the smaller room that had been used as a study. He would still have to share the main bathroom with Francine, something he wasn’t looking forward to.

The problem was that Francine’s possessions had no hope of fitting into the cupboard space she had. Trae had Edward help him empty the cupboard. He then had Edward and Raymond touch him, and he demonstrated his favourite dimensional space spell. He had kept the same height, since it was a floor to ceiling closet space but had made it four times as wide and deep.

He explained that he needed some materials to make her shelves and hanging space. Edward grinned and opened the doors to the small balcony. It wasn’t the best view as it was to the side of the building and the industrial bins used by the residences were situated two stories below where they stood.

One of the residences was in the process of opening one of the big bins to make a deposit. Trae could see a lot of bottles in the bin and decided he had a very good use for them. He yelled at the man to leave the lid open.

Edward and the others all gaped as a stream of bottles lifted out of the bin and flew up to Trae. The bottles then passed him and headed into the cupboard. Once Trae had emptied the bin of bottles, he asked the man to close it again and thanked him.

Back in the cupboard, he had the others touch him again and transformed most of the bottles into square sheets of glass. Using the sheets of glass, he built the shelves. He turned several more into thick rods and provided hanging space. He then placed several crystals and spelled them to act as lights if anyone entered the space.