Almost Final Curtain

by Hallaway, Tate

  Mom nodded at my expression. “But the whole thing was a disaster even before you came along,” she admitted. “I wanted to live in a real house, not a cave. I wanted to walk on the beach, in the sunshine, with my husband. Have a backyard barbecue . . .” I sensed she could have continued her litany, but she gave up with a sigh. “I was like you, very nonconformist, and I didn’t think I needed all the trappings of normalcy. Until suddenly they were denied me, you know?”

  I chewed my brownie. The practical considerations of being married to a vampire had never occurred to me.

  Mom laid her hand over mine. “I just don’t want to see you end up like me.”

  “Things aren’t so bad,” I started. There was more I wanted to say, but I felt a sharp buzzing behind my eyes. Either Elias tripped something big or another vampire just crossed the wards. I winced.

  Simultaneously, Mom and I said, “Ow!”

  Mom bolted upright. She looked at me. Now was the time to think of another distraction, but the only thing that came out of me was, “What the hell was that?”

  “One of your friends?”

  Actually, I wondered. Neither Elias nor Dad caused that much of a stir when he crossed the warding line. Something about my blood or spilled blood, I didn’t know which—but it made me more and more certain Elias was in trouble.

  The sound of glass shattering came from upstairs. It sounded like one of the button jars had toppled in the craft room. Mom dashed up the stairs. I followed behind, feeling her power building like steam in a pressure cooker. As I turned the landing, something in the dining room caught my eye. Elias slid out of the shadows to give me a short wave. Then he slunk into the kitchen, still searching.

  I tried to wave in a shooing fashion. He should get out. I wanted to shout for him to run, but I couldn’t hesitate too long at the landing or my mother would wonder what I was up to and I’d risk exposing Elias. I hurried up after Mom.

  Mom stood in the middle of the hall, her energy crackling around her, staring into the darkened craft room. “Show yourself !” she said in a commanding, witchy-echoey voice.

  “Yeah, and stop breaking my stuff!” I added.

  Mom elbowed me. I got the hint. I shouldn’t mouth off; whatever was in the other room could be dangerous.

  The room light flicked on.

  Mom and I both jumped back, startled. A very thick Eastern European accent said, “I’ll have to replace your jar, Amelia.”

  “It was my jar, Mr. Kirov,” I said, stepping out from behind Mom. “And just what are you doing crawling in the window?”

  “Hunting vampire,” he said. He stepped into the light and looked directly at me. His eyes glinted menacingly as he looked down his long, sharp nose, which was like a wolf’s. He chose that moment to unsheathe his psychic blade. Unlike Nikolai’s dagger, his manifested as a glimmering, curved scimitar. Heat radiated from it. Even without it touching me, I felt its burning.

  I’m sure I turned pale. I faltered.

  “There’s no vampire in this house, Ivan,” Mom said. I felt her take my hand, and my heart swelled when she added, “That isn’t welcome.”

  “Is that so?” Mr. Kirov asked. His eyes locked on mine.

  Did he know Elias was snooping around downstairs? Would he bust us? I began to sweat from the heat of his blade.

  “I think I know my own wards,” Mom said with a haughty lift of her chin. “Do you doubt my magic?”

  Mr. Kirov continued to eye me threateningly, but if he knew, he said nothing about Elias.

  “I think I know what you’re really doing breaking into my house, Ivan,” Mom said. “I had a premonition someone would be paying us a visit. That’s why I stayed awake, waiting. But you can take your search elsewhere. It’s not here. I don’t have it.”

  What “it” was seemed pretty obvious to all of us. So Mom didn’t have the talisman, after all, and Mr. Kirov clearly wasn’t the one in charge of guarding it or he wouldn’t be nosing around our craft room trying to locate it.

  “You won’t be able to hide it forever. The Elders will eventually see the wisdom of my suggestion, Amelia. Then they will give it to me freely.”

  “They’ll never give it to you. You’re not a True Witch.”

  Mr. Kirov stiffened, and his grip tightened on his mystical sword. Heat flashed outward, and I felt a bolt hit right in the tender spot where Elias had bitten me. I hissed in pain and pulled my arm protectively against my stomach.

  My reaction brought a cold, slow smile to Mr. Kirov’s face. “Perhaps so, but you’re compromised, Amelia. You have vampire sympathies.”

  Mom’s power was at the bursting point. Mr. Kirov didn’t seem to sense it, but her energy filled the room like a thick fog. “You need to leave,” she told him. “Before I make you.”

  “The Elders will hear about this,” he warned, but he retreated back into the craft room. Glass shards crunched under his boots as he made his way to the window he’d jimmied open.

  Forget wards, we needed better security, period.

  “The Elders will remember exactly why I’m their queen,” Mom said defiantly. “And you’ll replace that jar, damn it.”

  His cold laughter drifted in from the dark maw of the open window.

  Mom’s power released itself in a violent wind that slammed the window shut and snapped the curtains closed. “Argh,” she raged incoherently. “I hate that guy. We should never have agreed to take that bastard in. I mean, I like Illyana and Nikolai, of course, but Ivan! Oooh!”

  Nikolai’s mother, Illyana, had been made an honorary True Witch of the coven. She was a magical practitioner who came from a long line of Romany cunning women. Ivan, I imagine, had been a bonus—a vampire hunter from Russia. I don’t know; it all happened before I was born.

  “Huh, I’ll bet Ivan didn’t like your marriage to Dad much.”

  “No, he didn’t. If you haven’t guessed, we’re old rivals.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know much about Mr. Kirov at all. Nikolai had never brought me home to meet the parents, and his dad wasn’t a regular at the outer-circle coven meetings. We didn’t interact much. And having met him on the job, as it were, I was just as glad we didn’t.

  “What you said before,” I started, but I wasn’t sure where to go. “Anyway, that was cool, about the welcome thing.”

  Mom smiled and did that annoying Mom gesture of smoothing a lock of my hair over my forehead. “You’re my baby, Ana. You always will be. I love you.”

  Why did parents always have to make things extra-special awkward? “I love you too, Mom.”

  After clearing up the broken glass, I told Mom I was headed for bed. It had to be nearly three. I yawned as I closed the door. At least this time I didn’t yelp when I saw Elias sitting on my bed.

  “Did you hear what Mom said?” I asked in a whisper, since I could hear Mom shuffling around in her bedroom. I sat down next to him on my bed.

  He nodded. Following my example, he kept his voice low. “Do you know who the Elders are? Where they might be holding it?”

  I shook my head. “That’s, like, the biggest witch secret ever. Only the Inner Circle knows, and the membership changes all the time.”

  Elias hung his head. “We are lost.”

  I kicked my feet against the bed frame. “Not yet, we aren’t. Bea’s in the Inner Circle. It’s high time you met my best friend, Elias. I’ll make the arrangements. You can meet her tomorrow night.”

  He hesitated. “Is delay wise? We must find the talisman now.”

  “They’re not going to enslave everyone tonight,” I said, stifling another yawn.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because they’re sleeping. Everyone is sleeping.” I couldn’t quite keep the whine from my tone as I added, “I should be sleeping.”

  Elias let out a long, frustrated breath. “All right. I suppose if they decided they wanted to trigger the talisman now, there would be little I could do to stop them. But tomorrow, you’ll introduce me to this
Bea and we can find them?”

  My eyes felt gritty. I flopped back onto the mattress, making the springs squeak. “Yes. I promise.”

  “One more problem,” he said, and the sheepishness in his voice made me open my eyes. “In the morning, I’ll need a place to sleep.”

  “Oh.” I pushed myself up on my elbows. “How dark does it need to be? I mean, would under the bed work?” Actually, that sounded really intimate, so I quickly suggested, “Or there’s a root cellar in the basement.”

  “Do you think I could get to the basement without your mother noticing?”

  “She’s a sound sleeper,” I said, though I kept my voice at a whisper. “But after Mr. Kirov’s surprise visit, she’s going to be hyperaware of the wards. I wouldn’t come and go a lot, if I were you.”

  The prospect didn’t appear to thrill him, but he nodded. “As you wish. I’m not in any shape to do much more tonight, even though it is my desperate wish. I may as well stay here in your room until everyone is asleep.”

  I gathered up my pj’s and took them with me to the bathroom. I changed and brushed my teeth. Under the harsh overhead lights, I sat on the toilet seat and inspected my bruised arm. It looked awful. Out of habit I smeared some antibacterial cream over it and found a bandage big enough to cover it. I had to use medical tape to secure it, and when I was done, it looked like I’d had some major surgery or something.

  When I got back to my room, I found Elias kicked back at my desk reading Hikaru no Go, an old manga series I’d loved in fifth grade. It was only a little strange to notice he didn’t need the lamp to read by.

  He glanced up briefly when I slid past him to crawl under the sheets, but he returned to the book without comment. I no longer felt the least bit sleepy. In fact, I was acutely aware of the fact that I’d dropped my bra in the hamper along with the rest of the clothes I wore all day. The only thing between me and Elias was my pajama top, a sheet, the quilt, and about a half foot. Okay, when I thought through all the details and added his silk shirt on top, I knew it was stupid. But knowing didn’t negate how exposed and naked I felt.

  Clasping my hands over my stomach, I stared at the ceiling.

  He turned a page.

  I twiddled my thumbs.

  He shifted his feet, which he had propped up on the windowsill.

  “What would you normally be doing right now?” I asked, rolling onto my side to face him. “I mean, if there wasn’t a talisman to hunt down or any of that?”

  He rested the book in his lap, a long finger marking his place. “Before or after our exile?”

  “Before.”

  “I would likely be attending the king’s court. Perhaps there would be a dance or we would run.”

  “Run?”

  “Sometimes we gather into packs and run as far and as fast as we can. The deeper into the woods and farther from the city, the better.”

  Remembering the pure joy I experienced the day I’d run home, I could easily imagine joining one of the vampire runs. Like with the dance at Lilydale, bodies would surround me, urging me to quicken my pace, until it was like we were soaring across the landscape.

  “That sounds awesome.”

  Even in the dark, I could sense Elias’s smile in his tone. “It is exactly so, full of awe.”

  I drifted to sleep imagining the ground racing beneath my feet, the stars standing still above, and Elias beside me.

  I would have slept the day away, except my bladder woke me up sometime after noon. The sun filled my bedroom, setting dust motes dancing. Oversleeping made me hot and cranky. I pulled myself stiffly from the bed and padded to the bathroom.

  A splash of cold water on my face inspired me to take a full bath and wash all of last night’s underground adventure from my hair. A lot of soap and a half hour later, I emerged feeling halfway human.

  Which I guessed was just about right.

  Back in my room, I opened up my armoire and picked out a sturdy pair of jeans and a utilitarian black T-shirt. But the white bandage was too obvious, so I tossed it on the floor and reached for a long-sleeve button-up, also black.

  I glanced around for a message from Elias. Finding none, I grabbed my phone from the charger and went in search of something to eat.

  The brownies were still on the kitchen table. I ate three while I poured myself a glass of milk. I peered out the pantry window to see if Mom was puttering in the garden. A skinny tabby dashed along the fence line, but otherwise the backyard was empty. I found the note she left on the answering machine.

  “Council meeting. Don’t worry.”

  Don’t worry? I crumpled the note in my fist. Of course I was worried. They were meeting to talk about the talisman, I was sure. What if they decided to use it while the vampires slept?

  My fingers punched in Bea’s number. She answered on the second ring. “Hey, Ana-chan. What’s up?”

  “Where is everyone meeting? I know your dad is an Elder. Tell me. I have to know.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  Everything was so complicated. I hardly knew where to start. “Can you come over? I’ve got brownies.”

  As I sat on the front porch swing with the rapidly disappearing pan of brownies in my lap, I wondered whether I could really trust Bea. She’d been such a bitch about Nikolai, and she clearly had no love for witch-blood-sucking vampires, as she’d called them. But whom else did I have, really? True Witchcraft was a secret. Though, before my failed Initiation, I knew a few of the other witches my age, Bea was the only one who went to my school. We were kind of stuck with each other.

  I nibbled on the corner of my sixth brownie and watched the neighbor across the street mow his lawn in perfect rows. Bees hummed in the carpet of deep purple creeping Charlie flowers of our yard, and anxiously buzzed the unopened flowers of the stand of bleeding hearts along the fence.

  Yesterday’s clouds had dissipated to mere wisps.

  I hoped Elias had found a safe place in the basement away from all this sunshine.

  Bea’s Buick pulled up to the curb. She very carefully cranked up the windows and locked the car before giving me a broad wave.

  I scooted over to make room on the swing. Soon the brownies were gone, and she asked, “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why do you need to see the Elders?”

  Despite having all the time that it took for Bea to arrive to consider what to say, I still hadn’t quite figured out how to broach the subject. “Do you know about the talisman?”

  “Is that the thing that was stolen from the History Center that Mom and Dad have been whispering about?”

  I listened very carefully to Bea’s words, trying to judge if she was using those formidable acting skills of hers or not. She seemed sincere, so I said, “Yeah. Do you know what it can do?”

  She looked me over and concluded, “I’m going to go out on a limb here, but since you’re all in a tizzy about it, it has something to do with vampires.”

  “Tizzy” seemed a bit unfair, but I let it go. “The talisman has the power to turn vampires into slaves.”

  “Cool,” she breathed.

  I scowled.

  Coughing theatrically into her hand, she said, “I mean, sucks to be you.”

  Okay, that was not helpful. “I’m serious about this. The Elders have the talisman and I heard Nikolai’s dad say that he wants to use it to kill all the vampires. All the vampires, Bea. That means me too.”

  “Where are you getting all this intel? Who says the Elders have this artifact thing? I heard my dad say a vampire stole it.”

  A vampire. Elias had said he’d arrived too late. Had he lied to me? Did he actually steal it, and then manage to lose it to a witch again? He was pretty determined to get the talisman, but I would think if he’d fumbled the ball—again!—he’d be completely racked with guilt. “I kind of doubt that.”

  “Why?”

  “Any vampire loyal to my dad would have presented the court with the talisman immediately.”

  “What about th
e disloyal ones?”

  Of course, Elias had just gotten into a boatload of trouble for being disobedient. But he never denied his treason. I couldn’t see him concealing something this major. It wasn’t in his nature. “I don’t know. I still think that if any vampire had the talisman, there wouldn’t be all this panic in the underground, you know?”

  Bea shook her head. “I don’t know anything about your weird little underground, but I’ll take your word for it.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically.

  The brownie pan sat empty in my lap. Bea twirled a dark curl of her hair around her finger. “You know, I don’t think the Elders have the talisman,” Bea said. She chewed her bottom lip, as if trying to decide what to say next. She sighed. “Before I came over, Mom told me Dad wanted me to ask you about the talisman, see what I could find out.”

  Bea was such a better actor than I could ever hope to be. And a better spy. “I thought you didn’t know anything about the talisman.”

  “I don’t! Not really. I just know that everybody wants to know where it is. And nobody seems to have it.”

  “Yeah, that’s true enough,” I admitted, my fingers absently combing the corners of the pan for chocolaty crumbs. “I thought Mom had it and Mr. Kirov was guarding it, but that turned out to be way wrong. Did you know Nik’s dad broke into my house last night?”

  “No way! Seriously?”

  I recounted the whole story for Bea, especially the parts where I was brave and stood up to him. Okay, so there weren’t very many of those, but I also pointed out how scary he was with the Sparkly Scimitar of Doom.

  “Wow,” she said when I was finished. The sun had come around the house to shine in our eyes. We retreated inside for the shade and a couple of Cokes. I found the bag of potato chips Mom had hidden behind the cartons of whole wheat crackers, and brought out some chip dip from the fridge.

  We sat in the kitchen to devour our feast. Bea’s laughter filled the room when I told her about Mom’s latest diet fad, and after regarding her for a moment I said, “I miss hanging out like this with you.”