Chapter 15: Playing with Fire

20 September 1974, Minneapolis

FOR THE SECOND MORNING in a row, Paul woke up with a naked Goddess in his arms. Their lovemaking the night before was less energetic, but no less loving than their first night together. Serepte stirred and hugged him tightly.

“There’s a naked man in my bed,” she giggled sleepily. “I think I’ll keep him.”

“He is yours,” Paul whispered.

“Mine. All mine. I love you.”

“I love you. I heard you promise Meaghan that you would be ready for class this morning. How soon do you need to leave?” Paul asked.

“Oh. Can’t I call in lovesick? How did I ever live without you for so long?”

“We muddled through.” The two shared a long and lustful kiss that led to touches of intimate parts. Soon, they had joined and felt the joys of intercourse again. When they had come to their fulfillment and relaxed again next to each other, they continued lightly kissing and nibbling.

“Serepte! An hour till our bus!” Meaghan called from outside their door.

“I’m up!” Serepte called back.

“I was up,” Paul sighed as he flopped back into bed.

“I need to hop in the shower quickly. Need to use the bathroom first?”

“I’ll just be a minute.”

In thirty minutes, the couple had finished dressing and went to the kitchen to find that Elizabeth was cooking.

“You kids need some energy for today,” she said, placing a plate of poached eggs, boiled sausages, and beans in front of each. Toast popped up and she gave each a slice.

“Typical English breakfast,” Serepte sighed. “Would you like butter for your toast or salt and pepper for your eggs? Or Tabasco?” she giggled. “Otherwise your stomach will get full without your mouth having tasted anything.”

“Yes, please,” Paul said. “Uh ... not the Tabasco. Just pepper and butter.”

“Someday I’ll surprise you with a meal of traditional gruel,” Elizabeth said good naturedly. “I just didn’t think about having a guest for breakfast this morning. I’ll do better tomorrow.”

“Oh. Will you be here tomorrow, Paul?” Serepte asked innocently.

“If I’m invited tonight,” he answered.

“You are!”

“What’s this I hear about gruel?” Meaghan asked as she helped herself to the food on the stove. “We’re having oats tomorrow?”

“Jeeze, people are noisy out here,” Wayne said as he entered the room. He laid a hand on Paul’s shoulder while he bent to kiss the top of Serepte’s head. Wayne figured he must be nearly ten years younger than Paul. And the older man was his young charge’s boyfriend.

“What are your plans today, Paul?” Lil asked as she and Judith followed Wayne into the room.

“I’ve been living in the same clothes for a couple of days,” Paul said. “I planned to go back to my hotel and get my wardrobe refreshed. Why?”

“It’s easier to know how to protect you if I know where you are,” she answered.

“Protect?”

“Honey, Meaghan and I have to leave to catch our bus. Kiss me before we leave and then go back to your conversation,” Serepte said as she dragged him to his feet. “Show me how much you love me.”

The two walked to the door behind Meaghan and kissed lovingly until Meaghan poked them.

“We need to go.”

“I’ll see you tonight at the show,” Serepte said. And then she was off to class with Meaghan. Judith brushed past Paul and followed.

“What’s the deal with protecting me?” Paul asked. “I think I can get to the hotel and the show without a bodyguard.”

Wayne sighed. “You really don’t get how dangerous this all is, Paul. Judith and I made some calls to our mentors in England and ... elsewhere last night. We couldn’t directly contact Serepte’s mother, but The Bound has indicated that he believes she is closing in on the gateway in Greece.” Lil pushed away from the table, still unwilling to discuss the magical aspects of what was happening within the group, but determined to physically protect them. Lissa stumbled from her room, poured coffee, frowned at Elizabeth’s offer of breakfast, and flopped in a chair at the table.

“Good morning to you, too, Sunshine,” Wayne said cheerfully.

“Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to get ready for a role like this?” Lissa growled.

“I was just giving Paul a report of what we found out last night. You can fill him in on the trials and tribulations of being an actress later,” Wayne laughed. He turned to Paul and took a deep breath. Paul could tell he was troubled. “The consensus is that The Blade has emerged from his years of captivity and that Serepte is his primary target. Our mentors also agree that he has made a deal with the devil, so to speak, and is possessed by some malevolent being that is driving him to take her.” Paul turned and looked at Lil.

“Why are you here? You should be protecting Serepte!”

“The Swordmaster is with Serepte. What do you call it? You get the second-string defense,” Lil said.

“Why... ?”

“Paul, I faced a demon-man a few years ago,” Wayne said. “He was powerful, but the witch who summoned it was still mostly in control. That’s not the case with The Blade. We believe the demon has taken complete control and the man is more his tool than his master. My ... The Bound had a lot of experience dealing with such phenomena during World War II. He says that the demon is constantly hungry and that it feeds on power. When Serepte is healing, she is an absolute fount of power. If the demon can get close enough, he can feed on her.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you think I’m in danger,” Paul said. He had no difficulty believing there were powers at work here that people might call magic. It seemed natural in his worldview that even gods and goddesses would walk amidst mere mortals. But he still couldn’t see how that affected him.

Lissa sat forward and put her coffee cup down. “You don’t know your own power,” she said. “When Meaghan and I went to your show, we saw you work magic. Stop! I know you call it sleight of hand. You wove a spell in the room that made people believe what they saw. And then when Lil was hurt and Serepte healed her, you supported Serepte and pumped the energy into her that let her recover quickly. That is power, Paul. You could provide a nearly unending source of power for Serepte.”

“Someplace along the line, we believe the demon will try to get you working together in some cataclysmic situation. If it traps you together in a situation where there is an unending flow of injuries, Serepte’s healing and your support will give it an unlimited supply of power to draw on. Think where that would trap you,” Wayne said.

“So, I need to keep from being injured so Serepte doesn’t suffer from helping me.”

“That’s a good summary,” Elizabeth said. The quiet older woman had gone almost unnoticed since serving breakfast. “You need to expect that the demon will somehow attempt to get to you in order to reach Serepte.”

“And you are going to protect me,” Paul said, looking at Lil. She nodded.

“And I’m going to be your girlfriend,” Lissa said.

“What?”

“Within our circle, Lissa is known as The Chameleon,” Wayne said. “When I first met her, she was disguised as a waitress in a doughnut shop.”

“I’ll have you know I was an assistant manager,” she sniffed.

“And when I first met you, you were a waitress at Rudolphs. You were so effectively disguised that I didn’t recognize you at the show or when I came for dinner. Now you are going to play my girlfriend,” Paul sighed.

“Your girlfriend and your onstage assistant,” Lissa said. “All we need is enough to distract and confuse until we can mount an effective attack.”

“When is that?”

“The circle is gathering tomorrow. It’s the quickest they can get word to everyone. My uncle will try to contact Rebecca again. After you close your show Saturday night, we’ll all meet and build a trap for the demon. We just need to keep you and Serepte safe until then,” Wayne said.

“Well, assistant girlfriend, we should get started. I need to go to my hotel and get clothes and a couple new tricks for tonight.”

“You should check out as well,” Elizabeth said. “Bring all your things here where we can better protect you.”

“If Serepte doesn’t want you to live in her room, I’ll move in with Elizabeth and you can have my room for now,” Lissa said. “Let me do my makeup and dress. I’ll be ready in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll call Mark, my taxi driver, and see if he can pick us up,” Paul said. He joined the group in clearing his dishes and made the call.

Mark agreed to wait for Paul, Lil, and Lissa at the hotel while they went in to pack up his trunk and suitcases. Paul was concerned that there would not be enough room in the taxi for all his gear, so Mark joined them to assess whether he would need to call a van.

At the door to his room, Lil took the key and opened the door quickly to scan the room for danger. She was across the room and into the bathroom before Paul realized what she had seen.

The room was a disaster. Drawers had been pulled out, clothes scattered, and Paul’s two trunks were open and empty, the contents scattered in piles around them.

“Either you keep a messy room, or someone has been here,” Lissa said. “Anything, Lil?”

Lil came out of the bathroom to check the closet and under the bed. “Nothing. I’d guess this was done sometime yesterday. Maybe last night if he decided you wouldn’t be back. I wouldn’t use the toothbrush or toothpaste. You never can tell what he might have done to make you sick. Do you want to summon police?”

Paul looked at Lissa and shrugged. She shook her head. “I should let Wayne and Elizabeth know.” She picked up the phone and dialed. Paul didn’t listen to the conversation as he surveyed the room. He needed to inventory and repack everything. It could take all day. Paul did not travel light. He paused when Lissa nudged him and handed the phone to him.

“Listen,” Wayne said over the phone. “He’s trying to find something to use against you. Something that could give him power over you. Check everything you own. Find out what is missing. Don’t let any piece of clothing, any of your notebooks, anything you own, go unaccounted for. He will have tried to find the one thing that is most meaningful to you of everything you own. It could be as simple as a piece of jewelry, a poem, a letter from your mother, or an article of clothing. Something in your possession that speaks to your inmost being. Find what is missing. Then, prepare yourself to see it in the least expected place. First, find out what it is.”

“Thanks, Wayne.” Paul’s voice shattered into fragments of thought as he spoke. He could think of nothing else to say. “Later.” He handed the phone back to Lissa and after a quiet goodbye, she hung up. Paul began shuffling through his clothes and pulled out a clean shirt and slacks. “I need a shower and then I’ll start sorting,” he said.

“I will get us a bigger vehicle,” Mark said. “My friend has a van I think we can use.” Paul didn’t respond and went into the bathroom.

In the shower, Paul turned his face under the water and wept. He had been violated. Someone entered his room and went through his possessions. And did not care that Paul knew about it. He stood, shaking in anger, until the water finally soothed him. All he could do was go on.

When Paul left the bathroom, he found Lissa and Lil had been at work. All of his clothes were folded and neatly stacked on the bed next to his suitcase. Lil sat on the floor, carefully stacking the contents of the trunks. He started to object that it wasn’t in the right order but realized that was foolish. Nothing in his life was in the right order. He would simply need to organize it.

Lissa put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him to her. “We’re trying to help without invading your privacy, Paul. If we’re doing something you don’t want us to, just tell us and we’ll stop.”

“No. I’m sorry for tensing up. I just feel so ... dirty at the moment. Like everything in my life needs to be washed.”

“Her shower is small, but I’m sure Serepte won’t complain if you want to wash her,” Lissa chuckled.

“I didn’t mean ... You know ... I mean...”

“What else would you like us to do?”

“I guess we can put the clothes in the suitcases and then clear the bed to sort my trunks.”

“That will work, but you need to handle each item, then hand it to me and I’ll pack it.” They agreed on the system and as the bed was cleared, Lil moved the contents of the trunks up to the more comfortable working height of the bed. She found a suitcase stand and moved one of the trunks to it.

“You are really good at this, Lil,” Paul said as he began sorting through the tricks, props, and notebooks arrayed on the bed.

“I travel with a case full of weapons,” she said. “I know the importance of having them in an order that takes the least space and still gives me reasonable access to them.”

Paul had a normal routine he used when checking out of a hotel that ensured he did not forget anything. He shuffled through his notebooks until he found the one that contained his packing inventory and began pointing to objects and putting them in order in the trunk.

His experience from many nights alone in a hotel taught him that he must make use of all available time to rehearse and develop new tricks. In a pinch, he could have put together most of a show from the props in his room, not including the ones at the Showbox. Nothing, though, seemed to be missing.

“I can’t figure it out. Everything is here,” he said. Mark walked into the room carrying a tray of paper coffee cups. Everyone gratefully took a beverage. “Are you going to be able to get all my junk in your car, Mark?”

“Not to worry. I talked to my friend Telly. We traded cars for the weekend.”

“That was nice of him. Will you still be able to do your work?”

Mark blushed for a moment and hung his head. “I hope you will forgive me. I told him that I had a chauffeur job for a large group for the weekend. I am at your service.”

“That’s great, Mark. Uh ... How much is this going to cost?”

With everything loaded into the van, Mark began the drive into town. Paul still thought the price of the service was ridiculously low and determined to do something special for Mark. Lil claimed the shotgun seat and Paul sat with Lissa in the center seat. If everyone wanted to go someplace tomorrow, all nine could fit comfortably.

“I can’t figure it out,” Paul said. “Why would he ransack my room and not take anything? It just doesn’t make sense.”