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“Both of us,” he said, sounding bored.

Usually people were intimidated by Randy. The looks we got while walking around Salem were downright hilarious sometimes, but this woman, who had to have been in her thirties, didn’t seem afraid in the least. It made me worried for what we might see in here if Randy wasn’t the type to be fearful of.

“So, is he available?” I pressed.

The woman pushed the screen door open and Randy caught it. He gave her a curt thank you and we followed her into the house. It reminded me a little of the small shack I grew up in. Though, mine never had the smell of ass in it before. Though we didn’t have a lot of money, at least we kept up with the place. It wasn’t even the faint trace of rotten meat, which I expected from witches of this sort, it just smelled like people who didn’t know how to put on deodorant and old cigarette smoke.

The woman walked into the living room and plopped herself down on a guy. He had a shaved head, just the fuzz of dark hair peeking out. He looked up at us as we approached and then looked at his lady friend. “They’re here for you,” she said.

Ren, presumably, looked up at us, his gaze guarded. “And who are you?”

Randy seemed to relax a bit. I wasn’t sure if it was a show, or if he’d truly cased the joint and figured there was nothing to be afraid of here. “Enforcers,” he said, his lip tugging up into a full-blown smile.

The woman on his lap’s smile faded until she gaped at us. Ren merely matched Randy’s demeanor. “I was wondering when you guys would show up.”

From a nearby room, a yell pierced the air that sounded suspiciously like the pleasure from a climax. I gazed at the wall close to us and then returned to the pair in front of us. The woman had sat straight up. “She’s done. Is it my turn?”

Ren nodded once, and the woman placed both feet on the floor and got up, her legs separating a little as she did so, which I could only guess was for the benefit of the guys in the room. I watched as she passed. There was something weird going on here. I closed my eyes and felt the flecks and surges of others magic, yet just trace amounts. Specifically, there was a brighter burst coming from the area the girl sauntered off to now.

These guys were witches alright, even Ren. He was the brightest of them all, smelling of spruce and earthy pine. The closer we were to him, the easier it was to breathe in this place. There were other smells as well, just hidden deep under the nasty odors in this place. “I take it you’re the leader around here?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

“You must’ve known that otherwise you wouldn’t have come in here asking for me.”

Randy, who’d gone still after hearing the interruption, now faced Ren again. “My name is Randy Lacone. Ring a bell?”

A small smile spread Ren’s lips apart. “And how is the old man?”

“Wouldn’t know, but I’m assuming he’s off being a douchebag, as ever.”

Ren waved Randy’s comments away. “Ah, your dad wasn’t that bad. I actually liked him. He—”

“I couldn’t really give two shits about what my dad did here,” Randy said, his teeth clenched together. “We’re here for something else.”

This raised the eyebrows on Ren’s forehead nearly up into his non-existent hair line. “You’re here to take part.”

“Fuck no,” Randy said, grabbing my hand. “We don’t want any part of what you got going on here.”

Just then, a girl, only half-dressed fell out of the room the other girl just entered. She straightened up, trying to pull her hair together in a pony tail and pulling her tanktop down to cover her midriff. She blinked a couple times and then turned toward us. Her eyes lit up, and she took two steps toward us as if she was pulled gravitationally.

Ren held his hands up. “Not now, Jessie. Our friends aren’t here for that.”

Randy made a noise at the back of this throat, completely discrediting the fact that he called us friends.

Jessie looked from Randy to me. Her eyes zeroed in and she walked forward. “Are you sure? I like the looks of her, and she has some color, too, doesn’t she?”

Ren patted the couch next to him, and Jessie eyed it with a frown. “Sit,” he demanded, and she did so. He patted her on the shoulder. “Not that I wouldn’t mind watching you two together, but they’re not here to share their magic with us. They actually haven’t gotten to the part about why they’re here yet.”

He eyed both of us, but I wasn’t paying attention to him. I watched as the woman’s eyelids grew heavy. Her blinks got longer and longer until she fell back into the cushions of the couch and fell asleep. I looked from her to Ren. “You’re doing what exactly?” I asked, not liking the looks of this one bit. It looked like a prostitution ring with this guy as the pimp. It wasn’t just about sex though. It was something else, too. Red had mentioned sharing magic.

“These witches,” Randy said, spitting the word out, making sure we all knew exactly what he meant about associating these people with the word witches, “got addicted to using their magic. They used it and abused it until their magic got smart and took it away from them. They’re coming here to get whatever ‘hit’ they can and however they can.”

“Like drugs?”

Randy shrugged. “Basically. Magic is like their drug, and Ren here exploits that.”

Ren chuckled. “I don’t exploit anything. I’m just helping these guys out.”

Bile rose up my throat. He traded magic for sex. That was disgusting.