Today was the day. I had been studying The Book for months now; and I THOUGHT I had everything down pat. Magic is only as good as the person doing the spell or following instructions; just like engineering. Make one tiny slip, and a spell will not only unravel; but the energy invested and saved-up to make it work could turn around and kill you. That one time I had been caught in a loop until Mandy opened the door and accidentally knocked over the lamp, still gave me shivers. The resulting fire and damage had been a quite minor payment to make for not being careful. Ah well. This was the price I had to pay for not having a proper Teacher in the Arts, only a Book whose instructions were arcane and often indecipherable.

But TODAY, I was certain I'd dotted every 'i' and crossed every 't'. Carefully I gathered up my paraphernalia and headed out the door to the local Burger Barn. I double-checked my list one last time to be sure I had everything. Getting caught THERE, without some vital ingredient, would be disastrous, to say the least.

Getting out the door carrying a small brazier (no, not a woman's support, but a three-legged brass support to hold a fire) six bottles, two sticks of incense, charcoal, fluid, matches, paper with the spells written on it (I didn't trust bringing The Book along, in case of complete disaster) and more plain JUNK necessary for each of the three major spells involved, was quite an operation in itself.

I was almost sabotaged when my landlady slammed her door open almost in my face, and headed up the stairs I had just came down. Thankfully she didn't ask about the junk I was carrying, or I might never have made it out the door. As it was, I almost smashed the bottle of essence I was carrying. If that had hit the floor instead of being grabbed as it dropped, I would have had to start all over. Last time it had take three whole months of capturing and distilling my essence into a potable liquid. Of course, twice the stuff was completely undrinkable; and another time it had turned solid. Hopefully that was all past now; and from this time on I could do better.

By the time I had walked the two blocks to the burger factory, I was panting. Stuff like THIS, trying to hold onto twenty things at once. they never mention in The Book. No wonder mages in stories, movies, and such junk always wore big heavy robes ... they NEEDED something like that to carry their paraphernalia in!

I got to the Burger Barn; and immediately saw I was going to have to change my plans. No way could I hold up or even slow down the traffic coming in to pick up stuff at the take-out window. Somehow I'd have to let that continue.

Gathering a deep breath, I set up the charcoal alongside the table nearest to the entrance, lit it, put the incense on to burn, and was ready. Thankfully, nobody had noticed enough to stop the weird goings-on I made out there. Carefully I brought the burning brazier in the doorway, set it down so the smoke started to curl in the immediate air, and then (glancing around self-concsiously) I spoke the words that impressed the spell of incense into being.

The worst part of doing spells like this, is there isn't the faintest hint of whether they worked, misfired, or did something completely wrong. I'd just have to HOPE I did it right.

Just then another customer (young lady with two little girls) came in, gave me and the burning tripod an incredulous gaze, then suddenly jerked as the smell of incense hit her nostrils. After that, she just gave me a smile, which I returned, and headed into the interior; ignoring the funny man, burning tripod, and funny smell. It had worked!

I gave a sigh of relief. As long as the incense burned and people coming in breathed the stuff, nobody would notice anything strange. For that was what the spell was: The words and effort put into the incense were essentially instructions that, "Everything is normal. You won't notice anything strange. Do what you normally do." or similar words. They didn't exactly translate from the Language of Magic into English ... one of the problems I had with making sure I did the spell right.

"Hey! What are you?" A brusque looking young man came down to accost me; looking annoyed at the funny thing burning in the doorway. Now came the hard part.

"STOP!" I commanded him; touching the boy's chest with the wand of compulsion I had prepared. While not universal like the incense, it's effects were stronger, more immediate, and lasted for several hours. THIS I had tested before ... once disastrously on my then-girlfriend. Ah well ... If I did THIS right, I'd never need HER again.

The person stopped, just like that. I thought for a minute, then told him, "Take me to your supervisor."

Released from the hold, the guy sneered down at me. "I AM the supervisor here, Shithead," he told me. Oops!

I touched him again with the wand before he could pull away. I ALMOST made the mistake of telling him to, "Ignore me," and broke out in a cold sweat when I realized just how close it had been. "Think of me as normal and belonging here," I instructed. Then changing my mind I added, "I'm now your supervisor; and everything I do is none of your business unless I tell you to do something." I removed the wand and waited.

The guy stared back at me until I realized I hadn't instructed him to do anything. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Jim," he replied. I could see the complementary question die on his lips, as the "everything I do is none of your business" line sunk in.

"Well, Jim," I told him, "Take me over to the person handling the take-out counter, introduce me, and then get back to work at whatever you were doing before I came in."

Jim thought it over, it matched his world-view, and did just that.

"From now on," I instructed the guy taking orders; putting the almost exhausted wand on his chest, "you will ignore whatever takes place out in the main or customer area of the store. You will just keep taking orders and filling them, no matter what else happens in back of you."

Again, an order that basically matched what he did every day; so no mental conflicts.

I felt weak, my mind felt weak, and I was certain that the wand was almost exhausted. Still, there was one more thing to do.

Going looking for "Jim", I had him introduce me to each of the four other workers in the place; having HIM tell them to essentially ignore me, as I was doing something on company business. THIS didn't use up the remainder of the wand.

Once verified, the workers ignored me and continued serving customers; the two in the back continuing to make food, while the take-out guy and counter girl continued taking and filling orders.

"Cindy?" I asked. (This time reading the name off her shirt, like I should have read it off the other two.) The girl looked up at me, bright blue eyes and sexy young body ... THIS girl I decided I wanted as well.

"Yes?" she asked, suspiciously.

"Take this bottle, and put ONE drop in the drink of each customer that comes in," I instructed her, while touching her cheek with the wand.

Cindy blinked, and I guess TRIED to resist. "It's a new flavor that management is trying out," I explained, to ease the fight in her mind.

"Oh. Why the fuck didn't you SAY so in the first place?" she snarled; jerking the flask from me and almost spilling several precious drops. Still I didn't argue, as that might have spoiled the whole thing.

Then I vanished myself into the rear corner; not daring to be out in front when the effects took hold.

I watched carefully until I was sure EVERY customer remaining at tables in the place had taken at least a sip, and all had come in since I put the brazier in place. By now the incense had burned down so far I figured I'd better either do something quick, or get the hell out.

"Thanks, Cindy," I told the gal up front as I took the almost empty bottle from her. "That's enough for now. You might want to try a sip yourself though. It's really good, you know."

Her original street-smart personality showing through for a second, Cindy almost sneered up at me. "Why don't YOU take a sip first, Big Guy," she replied.

Grinning, I took one of the adulterated drinks, and did just that. No danger here for ME. I already liked myself a lot. -Big shit-eating grin.-

Seeing me take a big slug, Cindy sighed an "Oh what the fuck," sigh, and then took a big swig herself. "Hey!" she murmured in surprise. "It IS good, isn't it?"

Well, it had BETTER taste good. Enough experimentation time had been spent trying the thing with various drinks until it did. I just acknowledged the praise with a slight bow; bringing my body close enough to her that she could smell me.

Cindy's eyes widened, her nose flared, and suddenly she was almost wrapped around my leg in blatant sexual invitation ... almost as if she was an over-horny dog trying to treat my leg like a bitch in heat.

"Easy girl," I told her. "Wait until we get home. Just follow me out when I leave, OK?"

"Whatever you say, Lover," she purred. I could see she was already panting with sexual frustration.

It WORKED!!!!

With my essence in the drink, all those served would NEED me sexually ... so much so they'd follow almost any reasonable order to get me into bed. Nothing self-destructive, of course, but from now on any previous lover, husband, boyfriend, or male companion of ANY kind would seem pale and insipid in comparison to the slightest indication I would be sexually interested in the person in return. It had taken MONTHS to get this right, and FINALLY I was not only going to get laid (like my so-called girl-friend hadn't) but I was going to have at least (looking around the store here) FIVE women panting to help me with every sexual desire. I was in heaven, and hadn't even started.

Wandering around casually, I stopped by each booth and touched the hand of every woman in the joint ... accompanied or not. My pheromones on their own bodies would get to their noses, and that would be that. "Follow me out," I whispered to each one; stopping the inevitable question or objection to being touched.

"What was THAT?" bellowed one man; starting up out of his seat at my merely touching his wife. I hurriedly left before hearing what she told him; merely knowing that it would be SOMETHING that allowed her to follow me out, while calming the man down so he didn't come after me with a knife or gun or something.

By the time I got to the last table, there was only the girl with her two daughters, so I touched her and motioned to follow me while I gathered up the dying brazier and incense, and prepared to make my escape with my new sexual slaves. I wasn't surprised when the two little darlings also followed ... and began wrapping themselves around me, one on each leg, in sexual heat. While I'm NOT really a pedophile, I can see the attraction little girls have too ... and the essence of my pheromones was NOT specific to grown women. So, if I had to service these two little darlings as well as the other five women (counting Cindy and their mother) well ... It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

I was barely aware of the chain of people following me back to my apartment. By morning, sexually satisfied, Cindy would be back at work, the mother would be home, the wife would be back with her husband, and even the little girls would be at home with pleasant memories. However, from then on all I would have to do is ASK (and sometimes not even that) and any or all of them would be at my beck and call to do anything SEXUAL that I wanted. -Sigh.- So far, (as far as I knew) it was only sexually that they were my slaves. But for now, that was all I needed.

Daydreaming about my new Harem following me home, I got the FIRST hint that not all was well in Paradise. My landlady stopped me at the door, held a hand up, and STARTED to bitch, "Now wat' de fuck is all dat JUNK you got upstairs? I ain't puttn' up wid DIS shit, for the measly rent you pay. I trew out about hal ...."

Oh shit! Probably months of work, down the drain, just because this ugly old biddy ...

Suddenly Mrs. Candoli's nostrils flared ... and the old biddy gave me an almost sickening smile from rotten teeth and chapped lips. "Well now Honey Chile," she now spoke in an incredibly fake Southern accent, "a pretty boy like you shouldn't be all alone up there in that cold apartment. Maybe I should stop up there and help you ... uh ... warm things up?" With this, she batted her huge eyelashes in a parody of seduction that almost had me barfing on the floor.

I made a mad dash for my room; now sickly certain the old bat had tasted some of my essence left in one of the bowls or "stuff" she had thrown out. Thankfully I could see The Book was still there, as several people thundered up the stairs after me.

As five sexy, pretty, and very horny women squeezed into my room (along with two cute and horny little girls) I suddenly realized the full extent of the calamity I had brought on myself.

For there, following the women, was not only my bitch-in-heat of a landlady ... but FOUR big burly men as well! And every single one of the five had that same Magical sparkle of Lust in their eyes that all of the women did. Oh shit!

I groaned; knowing that only by completely, thoroughly, and exhaustively satisfying sexually EVERY SINGLE ONE of the people who had both taken my essence AND smelled my personal pheromones (all TWELVE people, including five oversexed women, the two horny little girls, all four lusty men, and the perverted THING that had been my landlady) would I be able to release them enough to return each one of them to whatever lives they "normally" lived.

Oh shit. I knew that Murphy would eventually get me.

Not only that, but I didn't have a hard-on any more.