‘Tiny hint,’ Lorna said. ‘Never try that crap on a dead girl.’ Grabbing the Nightshade’s arm, the vampire pushed up and then clamped her mouth down hard. There was a shriek of pain, and soft gasp, and then a moan. Vampires were immune to heart failure, being dead, but Nightshades were not immune to the chemicals in vampire saliva.
‘Don’t drink too much!’ Kate yelped, unsure what the effect of the tainted blood would be.
Lorna let go, catching the beautiful, dark beauty as she started to collapse limply… And then she was backhanding the Nightshade across the jaw so hard Kate was sure she heard the neck snap. The crumple turned into a collapse but Kate could see the witch’s chest moving. Apparently Lorna was quite a good judge of her own strength.
Kate stood and turned, and froze. There was blood on Lorna’s lips, a delicate dribble down her chin, a splash or two marking her left breast, the red a stark contrast to the white. The heat in the vampire’s eyes was obvious; the Nightshade’s blood must have had some effect. Lorna took a stumbling half-step forward, her eyes on Kate’s throat. Kate felt the tingling in her skin, the first stage of the wave of warm pleasure the vampire’s aura would wash over her to make her want the bite, and not feel the fangs. Lorna was fighting it, her body became taught as she strained to keep herself from feeding. Kate looked at her, her breathing shallow; this was the moment, now. The detective tilted her head again, baring her throat. Lorna’s lips parted, spread wider as she stepped closer, fangs showing…
‘Are you two okay?! Shit! You got her?’ The moment was gone as John yanked the bedroom door open and burst onto the landing.
Kate turned to check on the other witch. ‘Yeah, we got her. Well, Lorna got her…’ She checked the woman’s pulse at her throat. ‘And she’s still alive. You want to call some backup in, get her out of here?’
‘On it,’ John said, turning back into the bedroom and the phone.
Kate turned to look up at Lorna, but the vampire was gone. Bowing her head, the detective mentally kicked herself, but the urge to feel stupid died as she felt a hand pushing something into her hand. She flinched and looked quickly down, but the Nightshade just looked at her for a second, eyelids fluttering and then closing. Kate looked at the thing in her hand; it was a carefully carved silver pendant. Kate frowned at it; the design seemed familiar somehow and, without thinking, she closed her hand around the silver. For whatever reason she did not want John knowing about it just now.
~~~
The click of a mug being placed on the table beside the bed snapped Kate’s eyes open. She looked up to see Lorna standing over her, the vampire’s slim body wrapped in a white silk wrap. ‘Coffee,’ Lorna said, indicating the mug.
Kate struggled upright, blinking. ‘You didn’t have to…’
‘I always bring John up a mug in the morning,’ Lorna replied. ‘Today I made two. I dropped his off and I’ll be going back to our room now that I’ve brought yours.’ The explanation seemed excessively complete, as though the vampire was making it plain that she had thought of her husband first and would be returning to him.
‘Sure,’ Kate said, picking up her mug and sipping from it.
‘Last night…’ Lorna said, her voice soft and hesitant. She was leaning toward Kate, her body tensing.
‘Nightshades can have an effect on your mind,’ Kate said. ‘The imbalance of neurotransmitters can cause hallucination, aberrant behaviour, all sorts of odd effects.’ Kate put on a slight smile, self-deprecating. ‘I know I felt a little odd before you spotted her.’
Lorna’s back straightened. ‘Yes,’ she said. A smile appeared and she gave a small laugh. ‘Yes, I felt a little odd too. Seems like it’s gone now.’ So why was her body still tense? ‘I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast.’
Kate nodded. ‘Yeah, I’ll be down shortly.’ Sipping her drink, she watched Lorna walk out of the room. The white silk shifted over her body, accentuating the movement of hips and legs. With Lorna finally out of the room and the door closed behind her, and the sight of the silk shifting over perfect hips removed, Kate allowed herself a sigh.
Herne Hill, June 25th
Kate checked the roast with a metal probe, first tapping the steel against her lip and then laying it against her tongue. Nodding, she turned up the heat on the oven to make sure the skin was properly cooked; the crackling was the best part of a good pork roast. Putting the spike down on the edge of the sink, she turned and headed out into the lounge where her mother was waiting for her to return from checking Sunday lunch.
‘Where did you get this from?’ her mother said holding up the silver chain with its carved pendant. Kate had left it on the mantelpiece, not willing to part with it, and not sure why.
‘Oh, it… I was given it,’ Kate replied, also not sure why she was not just telling her mother where it had come from. ‘Do you know what it is? I haven’t analysed it yet.’
‘Well, if it’s the same as the one I’ve seen before, it’s a warmth enchantment. Keeps you warm in cold weather.’ She peered at the charm, smiling softly as though at a pleasant memory.
‘You’ve seen it before?’
‘Your grandmother, my mother, had one just like it. Almost exactly the same, in fact.’
Kate frowned. ‘Almost?’
‘It can’t be the same one, dear,’ her mother said. ‘Mother was buried with it.’ She placed the chain back on the mantle. ‘Of course there was a bit of a question over her death. They said it was heart failure, but she had been acting a little strangely. She was a little vain, and concerned her looks were fading. Dad found a lot of Deadly Nightshade in her herb store.’ Her voice went quiet, as though someone might overhear. ‘He thought she might have committed suicide. You’ve gone pale, dear. It was a long time ago and there was no actual proof that she did.’
Kate swallowed. ‘No, no of course,’ she said, but she could not quite shake the feeling that, a week earlier, she had sent her grandmother off to be entombed in the granite of Devon.
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still loved the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by w
ay of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
The Thaumatology Blog: http://thaumatology.wordpress.com
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101 – ASIN: B006IYIESW
Demon’s Moon - ASIN: B006JPN7A0
Legacy - ASIN: B006OKR8PK
Table of Contents
Foreword
Bedtime Story
Birthdays
Black Lily
Redemption
Nightshade
Tales from High Towers' Study Page 5
