by Chris Cannon
Zelda laughed. “Yes you did. Give me a moment to move and we’ll go again.”
I found Zelda three more times and then I was ready to be back in my body. I dove back in, hoping the snapback wouldn’t be so bad, but it still felt like a smack in the back of the head. I sat up and rubbed the base of my skull.
“I think I’m done for now.”
“What’s next?” Jake asked.
“I practice until I’m comfortable, and then I visit my mom and figure out if I can wake her up.”
“What about breaking your contract? Have you found anything on that?” Jake asked.
“Everything I’ve read so far requires someone to die. I kind of like Carol, so that’s not an option.”
…
Jake
Over the next few weeks, Meena practiced astral projection between her collection runs for Bane. In between jobs for Mr. Dale, I worked on the truck. We didn’t see as much of each other as I’d like, and that sucked.
I’d sanded the paint off the truck and wiped it down with an acetone cleaner that A.J. insisted I needed. I let it dry for twenty-four hours and then taped off the windows and mirrors. No point in taping off the bumpers because the paint would only improve them. I painted the truck using slow even sprays, building up the color.
When I was finally done, the result wasn’t bad. The hood still fit funny, but the paint had some shine to it. It looked a hell of a lot better than it had.
I was admiring my handiwork and taking the paper off the windows when Sybil came walking around the side of the house.
“That looks much better,” she said.
“Thanks.” I didn’t know why she was here, but I was sure she’d tell me.
“Violet is oddly happy,” Sybil said. “I feel bad that I didn’t turn her earlier.”
“Before I asked, did you know vampirism could cure mental conditions?” I used my thumbnail to remove a bit of tape stuck to the door handle.
“It never occurred to me. Now I’m wondering if I should go raid the nursing home.”
I froze. “That’s not funny.”
“I’m not joking,” she said. “We could always use new recruits. Those people are miserable. Half of them want to die. I’m giving them a better option.”
“What about Bane?” I hoped that might scare her off.
“He’s probably made offers to any of them that would be interested.”
“Do you want a bunch of geriatric vamps running around?”
“Violet is happy and sharp as a tack.”
“But you guys preach the stay young and beautiful forever line. Sorry to say, most of the people in the nursing home haven’t been concerned with their looks for a long time.”
“True. But I could take the younger patients, like Meena’s mom.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“You’re the one who brought it up,” she countered.
“I know. And it’s not your decision to make. It’s Meena’s and her mom’s. You can’t just surprise-change someone into a vampire.”
“You can actually.” Sybil moved close and leaned her hip against the truck. When she inhaled her chest brushed against me. She reached up and touched my hair. “Have you thought about it, Jake?”
Time to play dumb while I figured out an escape plan. “About what?”
“About us.” She moved closer until she was pressed against me. “About becoming a vampire.” She traced her finger from my jaw to my neck and stopped at the carotid artery.
“I…” Nothing logical was going to come out of my mouth at this point. I tried to avoid her gaze, but it felt like she was pulling me in.
She traced her fingers back up my jaw and brushed my hair back off my face. “Meena hasn’t been around much lately, has she?”
“We’re still together,” I said.
“Are you?” She rolled her hips against me and then leaned closer and whispered in my ear. “It doesn’t feel like you are.”
It would be so easy to go with this feeling…and wrong…it would be wrong. “Sybil.”
“Yes?” She smiled up at me, completely aware of the effect she had on my body.
“You are amazingly hot. If you keep doing this, I’ll cave. But then I’ll feel terrible so I’ll confess to Meena. Then she’ll be mad and I’ll be unhappy so there’s no way this works out in your favor unless you’re just trying to make me miserable.”
She chuckled and backed up a step. “I have all the time in the world to wait for you, Jake. This puppy love you have with Meena will fade. Just hope I haven’t moved on to someone else by the time it does.”
“Maybe you could move on to someone else now?” I suggested. “That would be better for both of us.”
“But it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.” She turned and sauntered back toward the house, and idiot that I am, I watched every swaying step she took until she came to the corner and turned back to give me a knowing smile. This was bad. I grabbed my phone and dialed Meena.
“Hello, Jake. Meena’s not in at the moment. Do you want her to call when she’s back in her body?”
“Yes.” Funny how I didn’t even flinch at that description anymore.
I focused on getting the last bits of painter’s tape off the truck and then I cleaned the garage. While I worked my mind wandered. Why did Bane keep exposing Meena to disturbing situations? Was that how demons flirted? That thought had me grinding my teeth.
Meena had said that maybe he was trying to teach her something and she hadn’t figured it out yet. Did he want her to move up the ranks in his company? Did he expect her to recruit people and make deals? It’s not like she was the super social type who had a lot of friends to bring into some demonic pyramid scheme.
My cell buzzed with a text that said, Call me when you’re done with truck stuff.
I dialed and waited for her to answer.
“Hello, is this the owner of a shiny new silver truck?”
“It’s shiny and silver, but I wouldn’t call it new.”
“Come see me. You can stay for dinner if you want. I’m making tacos.”
“Sounds good.”
I went into the house to clean up. I left a note on the kitchen table for Aunt Zelda because she was working a séance somewhere. Twenty minutes later I pulled up at Meena’s house.
She must have been watching out the window because she came running outside. “It looks so much better.”
“Thank you.” I shoved the keys in my jeans pocket. “I’m happy with it.”
She grabbed my hand. “Come on. Food’s almost ready.”
Instead of following her, I pulled her toward me and wrapped my arms around her. “Hey.” I smiled at her.
“Hey, yourself.”
Leaning down, I kissed her. And it felt right. There was heat and a craving for more. The heat Sybil produced felt like an out of control forest fire. Things with Meena were more like a slow burn…like a campfire…something that would last if I took care of it. I would take care of it. No matter how aggressive Sybil was, Meena would always come first.
Meena pulled away from me. Her face was flushed. “The neighbors are going to talk if we don’t take this inside.”
“My truck is closer,” I joked.
She laughed and the guilt I’d been carrying around lightened. We entered the house. I pulled her toward the couch. She didn’t seem to mind.
Chapter Seventeen
Meena
I’d been worried that Jake hadn’t missed me as much as I missed him. If the way he was kissing me was any indication, he had. One minute we were sitting on the couch and the next minute we were lying down kind of tangled up together and all I wanted to do was block out the world.
“Meena,” Sage yelled.
“What?” I felt disoriented, like I’d forgotten there was an
other part of the world besides my happy bubble with Jake.
“Curb your hormones because your father is about to pull in the driveway.”
Jake stood up and grinned at me. “You should brush your hair.”
“Thought I was going to have to turn the hose on you two,” Sage muttered as he went back into the kitchen.
I ran to the bathroom and saw that my messy bun was way too messy. I twisted it around to flatten it and added some bobby pins to hold it in place.
I heard my dad pull in the driveway. I walked out into the hall and Jake slipped into the bathroom.
I ran into the kitchen and made sure the taco meat was still warm. It was. I scanned the table as my dad came in the door. Lettuce, tomato, shells, cheese…all looked good.
“Dinner is ready.” I turned to him with a smile.
“Is Jake here?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Jake came walking back from the bathroom. “Hello, Mr. Holland.”
“Get out of my house.”
“What?” Could he tell we’d been kissing? “Dad, what are you doing?”
“Sybil came to see me today.” He walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. “She’s going to turn a bunch of the patients at the nursing home into vampires.” He took a swig of beer. “If they agree.” He took another drink. “Since your mom can’t give permission she asked if I was okay with it. Said it was his idea.”
He pointed at Jake. “What gives you the right—”
“She lied. I asked if it would work. I didn’t tell her to do it,” Jake said.
I tried to smooth things over. “Dad, Jake and I talked about this, theoretically. As a last-ditch option to wake Mom up. No one gave Sybil the go-ahead.”
My dad sank down into a chair at the kitchen table. “Sybil didn’t care that I was opposed to the idea. She laughed it off, saying that Emma would be a new person.” He looked at me. “Your mom wouldn’t want this.”
If Mom was trapped inside her body and vaguely aware of what was going on around her, would she want the option? I think I would. I doubt my dad wanted to hear that. Maybe I could make him feel better. “I’ve been learning how to do astral projection.”
My dad rubbed his forehead. “What does that mean?”
“I meditate, and then I can float out of my body. I can visit other people’s minds.”
“Like your mother’s? Have you visited her?”
“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you about it first.” That hadn’t been the plan, but maybe he’d feel better if he had some input into this bizarre situation.
“What do you think you’ll find in your mother’s head?” he asked. “Kittens and rainbows?”
“No. I want to see if she’s at peace. I’d feel better knowing that she is.”
My dad finished his beer and went to get another one, slamming the refrigerator door in the process. “Why should she be at peace when we’re not?”
I ignored that remark. “She could be stressed out, or lost, or she could just be gone and completely unaware of anything. I’d like to know.”
“Fine. Visit her mind. See what it’s like. Make sure you’re prepared for the worst-case scenario.” He slumped in his seat. “If you can talk to her, tell her to move on…to let go…because until she does I’m stuck…we’re both stuck, dealing with her mess.”
My eyes burned. I couldn’t say anything without crying so I cleared my throat and then sat and filled my plate. I saw Jake edging toward the door.
“Stay and eat, Jake,” I said.
“Mr. Holland?” Jake seemed to be asking my dad’s permission.
“Fine. Eat.” He piled food on his plate. “I’m going to watch television.”
Jake sat next to me. “Sorry about that.”
“Why are you apologizing?” I asked. “My dad is the one who was rude.”
“I think Sybil was going for maximum fall-out for your family because I turned her down today.”
I set my taco on my plate. “What does that mean, exactly?”
“She came on to me, and I said I was with you. Told her to find someone else to hit on.”
My face heated. Partially from embarrassment and partly from anger. “So she threw herself at you. You turned her down. And she goes after my dad to make my life miserable?”
“Probably.”
“That bitch.” I wanted to find Sybil and…what? There was nothing I could do to her. “There are times where I wish I was some sort of supernatural so I could squash Sybil like the irritating mosquito she is.”
After dinner, Jake and I sat out in the backyard on the porch swing. The temperature had dropped and there was a nice cool breeze. “I don’t normally sit out here because my dad made this for my mom.”
“He did?”
I ran my fingers over the smooth wood of the curved armrest. “It was an anniversary present. It’s a replica of the one that used to be on her grandparents’ back porch.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
I pushed the swing into motion. There was something I needed to know, and I wasn’t sure how to ask. “Us earlier on the couch…that wasn’t because you were…” Good lord, how did I say this… “Because Sybil made you…needy?”
“Needy?” He seemed confused and then he laughed. “No. Sybil is not the one that makes me needy.” He leaned in and kissed me. “And this is about more than being needy. I missed you. My day doesn’t feel right unless I spend time with you.”
“I missed you, too,” I said. “Maybe we need to plan non-supernatural time. No talk of vampires or astral projection or anything other than normal boyfriend, girlfriend stuff.” As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, I had a tiny moment of panic. Did he think of himself as my boyfriend?
“Sounds good to me.” He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close.
For the moment, all was right in my world.
…
Jake
Meena thought of me as her boyfriend. I’d never been big on relationships. We’d moved too much for me to become attached to anyone. Aunt Zelda had said I could stay with her for my senior year. Now, it felt like I was where I was supposed to be with the person I was meant to be with. It was like the pieces of a puzzle were clicking into place.
“You’re being kind of quiet,” Meena said as the swing moved back and forth. “Everything okay?”
I pulled her close. “Everything is great.”
“Meena?” Sage called from the back door. “Your father is mumbling something about Jake needing to leave. He’s a bit incoherent, but I think he said something about a shotgun.”
“Thanks, Sage.” Meena stopped the swing’s motion and gave me an apologetic smile. “It might be time for you to go home.”
“Sounds like it.” I stood and held out my hand. “Walk me to my truck?”
We kissed goodbye at my truck. As I drove home, I thought about what Meena had said. Avoiding supernatural topics would be easier if Sybil and Bane would butt out of our lives. But that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
I pondered the puzzle that was Sybil. Did she go to Mr. Holland just to cause problems for Meena? Was she actually excited about finding recruits at the nursing home? How did other vamps feel about her plan? Would she even discuss it with them or just turn an army of geriatrics and show up with them at the tattoo shop?
I couldn’t imagine other vamps being okay with this idea. Their food supply was limited. They competed with demons for humans. More fangy mouths to feed didn’t sound like a great idea for the humans in this town. Maybe Sybil had been messing with me.
I found a note from Aunt Zelda saying she was doing readings for a bachelorette party and she’d be home later. Since she was gone, I decided to hit the books. There had to be a way to kill a demon. No matter how strong a creature was in the movies, there was
always one thing that would take them down. I needed to find Bane’s weakness.
I headed for the bookshelves in the living room and scanned all of the titles. If the word demon was mentioned, I grabbed it. I checked the index at the back of the book, hoping to find something under death. Of course it wasn’t that easy. I changed tactics and checked under lifespan. A few of the books said demons could live for hundreds of years. They had few natural predators. Great.
If we could cancel Bane’s contract with Carol, then Meena would be free. I checked every mention of contracts and they all claimed that demon contracts were unbreakable unless the demon died…so I was right back where I started with the unkillable demon problem.
I kept scanning anything I could find on contracts and came across subcontracts. There wasn’t anything about cancelling subcontracts but it was noted that if the human bound to the demon contract died, anyone who’d been peripherally bound to the demon through that human would be released.
I reread the passage a few times hoping to find something helpful. When I heard Aunt Zelda come in I took the book with me to ask her about it.
“I’m still looking to find a way to break Carol’s contract with Meena.” I presented her with the open book. “Does this mean the only way Meena can be free from the contract is if Carol dies?”
She scanned the page. “That’s the gist of it. Please tell me you aren’t going to put a hit out on my oldest friend.”
“No. Just looking for loopholes.”
“Come with me,” Zelda said. I followed her into the living room. She went straight to the bookshelf and trailed her fingers along their spines like she was reading them and looking for a certain one.
“I have a stack on the coffee table if what you’re looking for isn’t there,” I said.
“No.” She plucked a slim gray book from the top shelf. “This is the one I want.” She hustled over and sat on the couch. After turning several pages, she pointed at one with the title: Contract Revocation Spells.
“You can revoke everyone’s contracts, and you’re just now telling me about this?” I couldn’t believe it.
“Not exactly. All magic costs. This spell would have a steep price. To undo a demon’s contracts, his lifework, is no small feat. It’s more the stuff of witch legends.”
