by Eve Paludan
“What is it? Tell me, Maximus! A woman’s life depends on it.”
“It won’t do any good to tell you. I need dragon’s blood.”
“Dragon’s blood?”
“That’s right. I’m fresh out.”
The thing was, I knew who had dragon’s blood. I thought of summoning Dracula, but I knew he was in Eastern Europe on business for the Order of the Dragon. So instead, I said, “I recently drank three swallows of dragon’s blood.”
“You did?” Justine said.
I nodded. “For sure.”
“That’s fortuitous.” Maximus scratched his head. “I already have some of your blood and it will now be divided use. I’ll create a serum that will suffice for the dragon’s blood ingredient.”
“Thank you both,” Justine said.
Maximus went back to his mad scientist lab and closed the door. Behind the frosted glass window that read Private, a blue light flashed on and off. It reminded me of the blue light specials at Kmart.
We heard whirring machinery, test tubes clinking, and oddly, hammering.
Chapter 23
Justine and I sat on a vintage blue velvet couch that seemed out of place in a library.
As we sat in silence, a book flew off the shelves and landed at her feet with a soft thump. The title was: Thrice Greatest Hermes: Studies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis.
“I think the book is trying to help us,” Justine said.
“What if the book wants to further an agenda of death, destruction and mayhem?”
“Hermes is the messenger of the Greek gods. He’s one of the good guys.”
“I think you’re reading too much into a book falling off a shelf.”
“I’m just curious about why the book is presenting itself.”
“Remember, Maximus warned us that each book in here is like Pandora’s box.”
“What if I don’t touch it? What if I just ask it for advice?”
I shrugged. “It’s not like books can talk.”
“Be careful, Fang. You’re saying that to an author.”
“Fine. Books speak to us in our heads.”
Justine leaned over the book. “What message do you bring me, Hermes?”
“Hermes isn’t the author of that book.”
“Fang, I repeatedly drank the blood of a witch. I want to try something.”
“Just don’t turn me into a frog prince.”
Justine addressed the book: “O, Hermes, hear my plea. What must I know as truth for my second journey as a mortal?” Justine put her palms high over the book and without her touching it at all, the book opened by itself. Her mouth dropped open in shock. So did mine.
“Magikos, Magikos, Magikos,” she chanted and moved her hands over the book in graceful arcs.
At her call into a world I knew nothing about, a chill rippled through me. The lighting dimmed until the only thing illuminated in the entire room was a small excerpt of text in the book.
She glanced at me, excited. “This is translated from the ancient Greek, but it’s in archaic English, even here. I’ll paraphrase it for you so it makes more sense.”
“How do you know how to do that?”
“I have a master’s in classics and ancient history.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I’m a vampire. It doesn’t come up in conversation too often.” Justine leaned forward and translated it for my less-learned self: “Existent things must endure change, but their intent should never stop. And if they sleep, they must be awakened to exist again, or they will fade away.”
The lighting in the room increased to normal level again and the book slammed shut.
I swallowed. “Okay, that was spooky.”
“It was book magic at its most elegant. To me, the meaning is clear: I’ll live as a mortal for a time, and then I’ll be turned and live as a vampire again.”
“I didn’t get that from what you read,” I said.
“I suppose it’s subject to interpretation, but to me, it feels like profound truth.”
“I’m glad you got something useful out of that ancient text. How did you do that with the book? With your hands and those magic words?”
“The witch’s blood that I drank has done something to me. You should reserve that blood at your club for people you know and trust. It’s too powerful to let just any vampire drink it.”
“I agree. I’ll reserve it for Samantha. So, did you ever have any magical power before?”
“Never, not until I drank Which Witch all night at your club. And then all weekend at your house. I was starting to feel something incredible the minute I drank it, but I chalked it up to the chemistry of you and me.”
I nodded.
Next to me, her body was tense as we waited for Maximus.
“Try to relax.” I massaged her knotted shoulders for a couple of minutes until she began to relax under my hands.
“That feels so good, but you can stop.” She turned toward me and put her cool, soft hands on the sides of my face. “I don’t want to lose you, Fang.”
“Don’t worry about that right now.”
“It’s only one of many things I’m worried about, but after I turn mortal again and help my sister until she’s recovered, I’ll come back and you can turn me to a vampire again.”
“Despite the message from the Hermes book, I don’t think that’s a good idea. You have to stay mortal in case something else goes wrong. What if Celine needs another organ or some tissue?”
Her chin quivered. “It might be months—but I’m coming back. And I hope that you’ll turn me. Since the first moment I saw you, I wanted you to be my creator. It looks like I’m going to get another chance, but I can’t do it without you.”
“You should consider your change to mortality a permanent one. That’s the impression I got from Maximus.”
“Even if I can’t be turned back to a vampire—we should make a pact to stay together.”
“A pact? I can’t make that pact, not even for you, Justine.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Why not?”
“Because, you’ll have a regular pulse, a siren’s song that I’ll be able to hear from across the room. You’ll be different to me when you’re mortal. You’ll be food.”
“You won’t think of me as food. I mean, you own a blood bank.”
“I can’t be trusted with a mortal lover.”
“Of course you can. I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I have a terrible secret. If I tell you, you’ll be horrified and afraid for your life, once you’re mortal again.”
“I have a dark secret, too. I’ll even go first,” she offered.
I shrugged. “Okay.”
“I accidentally killed someone while drinking his blood.”
I felt a sadness rake me.
“I see the look on your face. Is that your terrible secret, too, Fang?”
“Congratulations. You got it in one guess.”
“If it makes you feel any better, this stuff happens to newbie vampires all the time. You go out on the street, looking for a quick meal. You get the jump on some unsuspecting person of the opposite sex, have a little blood snack, and maybe steal a kiss or three if he’s really cute and not wearing a wedding ring.”
“Justine!”
“I’m just being honest about what happens in the wild when we’re out there hunting for blood. So, on the mean streets, you find your mark. He’s kinda hot-looking, like maybe he’s an iron worker or a firefighter or a golf pro.”
I chuckled. “You’re that particular?”
“Yeah, I’m totally a blood snob like you.”
I laughed. “Go on.”
“He’s probably tipsy. He smells good, and most of all, he has a regular pulse, maybe even slower than normal because he’s athletic. So, you corner him outside an upscale restaurant, chat him up so he won’t run away—not like a $20 date, but with some innocent banter.” She pa
used. “Like you’re just waiting for a Uber ride and that’s why you’re standing alone on a dark street and would he please wait with you—and then, bam!”
“Bam?” I echoed.
“Bam! Things go from having a little fun and compelling him to bend over a bit in order to reach his neck for a vertical street-feeding to getting way out of hand with him horizontal on the sidewalk and inert. Self-control becomes a foreign concept. And instead of a quickie blood meal, it’s progressed to accidental manslaughter.”
“Yeah.”
She continued, “Suddenly, you’ve got regret and a big red checkmark next to sin number one on the big stone tablets.”
I sighed heavily. “No vampire ever talks about that last part, but it’s completely true.”
Justine nodded. “You’re in trouble from every possible direction, including from above. And now, your most pressing need is to conceal what you’ve done. You’ve got to shove your victim somewhere where it would be very inconvenient for anyone to find and recover the body. Even after that, you’ll always carry that brain snapchat of the whole debacle, including the aftermath of hiding the evidence.”
“Evidence,” I echoed, thinking of my long-ago trial and sentence to a mental hospital, from which I’d escaped and created a new life for myself in Southern California. “She wasn’t evidence to me. She was a human being. I still have respect for life.”
“As do I, but I’ve forgiven myself for that long-ago slip-up, Fang.”
“Well, I don’t forgive myself. It’s been a long, dark shadow that’s followed me ever since.”
“It was a mistake. I’m sure you didn’t mean to do it any more than I meant to.”
“It was more than a mistake. It proves I’m untrustworthy with mortal women.”
“No, it doesn’t. It was long ago and, I assume, just the one time,” she said, trying to justify what had happened and chalk it up to my lack of experience.
“But your victim was just a random stranger, right?”
“Of course.” She paused uncertainly. “Wasn’t yours?”
“No,” I confessed. “She was my first love. I got carried away. In a deadly mix of passion mixed with bloodlust, I accidentally drained her. I killed the love of my young life.”
“Fang, I’m so sorry!” She looked away for a moment, digesting this new intel about me.
I added, “Killing a random stranger is pretty bad, but killing someone you love is unforgiveable.”
“I don’t believe you!” she said angrily. “You don’t have that in you. You’re just trying to scare me into going away forever.”
“Yes, I am. But what I told you is true. When you become mortal, it can’t work with us anymore. You’ll be day. I’ll still be night. You’ll want a life that I can’t give you and you deserve that mortal life. The night is my time to be me. And I run a blood club for vampires. Is that normal?”
“It’s necessary to your existence and it keeps a lot of other vampires off the streets, too.”
“It’s also my livelihood and I’m not giving it up. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Justine.”
“What?”
“You’re trying to offer me a free pass for redemption, but you don’t have that power.”
She swallowed. “I wish I did. I don’t want you to feel sad about it anymore.”
“But I do. So I’m not going to put myself in that position again. I won’t put you in that position either, wondering if I am going to suck you dry in a moment of weakness fueled by a blood hunger that’s out of control.”
She was silent.
I continued, “I have to put your well-being above my selfish desire to be with you. Please, honor my decision to part.”
“Nothing you can say will ever make me stop loving you—or keep me away.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I was going to have to tell her the worst part. “There’s something I didn’t tell you.”
Justine folded her arms across her chest. “What?”
“When I drained my girlfriend of all of her blood, and accidentally killed her, I wasn’t a vampire yet. I was mortal.”
“What?” She cringed slightly, her eyes wide. “I don’t understand.”
“I was a mortal. And in a moment of a mutual, intense sexual passion—”
“That’s enough, Fang.”
“I’ve finally repulsed you.”
“Oh, Fang!” There was now a note of fear in her voice that had never been there before. I deserved that fear.
I held her for a long time while she sobbed over my heinous confession. “You’re going to be mortal again soon and you’ll be able to start over. It’s a gift to you as well as your sister.”
“I didn’t want a new start. And I’ll be sad to lose my entity, too.”
“Why won’t you tell me Buddy’s real name?”
“Because he told me not to tell anyone or he’d have to kill me.”
I shook my head. “Your entity threatened to kill you and you want to keep him?”
“Yes.”
“You think you can’t do the bestsellers without him?”
“Not like I have been. He talks in my head and I type what he says. He’s the creator. I’m his hands. His worker bee. His writer’s voice comes from beyond the grave. If I lose my entity when I turn mortal, his stories will cease forever.”
I jumped up and knocked frantically on the door to the lab.
“I’m busy!” came the annoyed voice of Archibald Maximus.
“I know, but Justine doesn’t want to lose her entity when she becomes mortal. She wants to keep it.”
Justine ran up to the closed door, too. “I can’t write great books without my entity.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Maximus opened the door. “Who’s your entity?”
She chewed her lip. “If I tell you his name, he’ll take the magic away.”
“I’ve got alchemy going on in here. I don’t have time to play guessing games.”
“His name is top secret.”
Maximus threw up his hands in frustration.
Suddenly, a thick book flew off a sorting cart and toward Justine’s head. She ducked and the book hit me in the head and fell face down on the floor at Justine’s feet.
I rubbed my head. “That’s gonna leave a knot.” I looked in shock at whose picture was on the back cover of the book. A small, slight man with a pinstriped shirt, a sheaf of sun-streaked hair, dark circles under his eyes, a grim expression and a jaunty bow tie.
Maximus said, “Your entity is—”
“He only wants me to call him Buddy. Is there any way I can turn mortal and keep my entity? I would really miss him and he’s fond of me, too. He even loves Fang.”
I smiled, embarrassed.
“If I lose my entity, I might lose my book career. Please help me.”
His nostrils flared and a muscle twitched in his jaw. “You’re such a piece of work, Miss Black.”
She smiled crookedly. “I know, but I’m worth it.”
“All right. I’ll need something from you, though.”
“What?” I asked.
“There’s a 24-hour Starbucks on La Palma. Can you please get me a triple venti, half-sweet, non-fat, caramel macchiato? Hot.”
“You got it,” I said.
“When you come back, don’t disturb me.”
We managed to get his coffee and found our way back. It wasn’t until I set his cup on the counter that I saw what the order taker had written on his cup. I had even spelled it for her: Archibald Maximus. But the cup read: Archie’s Bald Maxi Mess.
Justine giggled when she saw it.
“Shhh. He said not to disturb him.”
Maximus came out and read his name on the cup. “Will they ever get it right?”
“Does the coffee go into the alchemy?” I asked.
“No, I just hate standing in line at Starbucks.” He took a sip. “Perfect. Thanks.”
Justine and I looked at each other.
“Have a seat. I’m nearly done.” He wandered back into his lab with his coffee.
I sat in a wing chair and put my phone on the floor so I could watch the time. “We have two hours before dawn.”
She looked deep into my eyes. “I love you, Fang.”
I pulled Justine into my lap to tell her the same, but what came out of my mouth was: “Did you get your boarding pass for your flight this morning?”
She looked stricken. “I’ll do it now.” She got off my lap and got out her laptop and phone.
I should have told her I loved her, too, but had missed that opportunity. If I said it now, it would just be to save face and she’d know it.
After she got her boarding pass squared away, Archibald Maximus came out. Wearing welder’s gloves, he carried a glowing gem in his hands.
We stood.
“Is that it?” she asked.
“Fresh from the crucible.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“A color-change diaspore gem with some other materials. I used a special molecular compression process to imbue it with Fang’s blood and the dragon serum I made.”
“Why did it have to be Fang’s blood? Why couldn’t you use mine?”
“It needed to be the blood of a vampire who loves you.”
If I could have blushed right then, I would have.
Maximus continued, “After I put the gem against your chest, it’ll go through your skin to become part of you. Once inside you, the gem’s color will change from this yellow to a rich red. When it does, your heart will start beating as a mortal again, and your blood will produce red blood cells and start pumping color into your complexion. No more chalk-white skin. No more cravings to drink blood. You’ll be human again, as you once were, but stronger. Remember this: you’ll be quite strong, but you’ll be mortal, so you won’t be invincible.”
She nodded.
“You’re sure this will work?” I asked.
Maximus looked affronted. “This isn’t my first rodeo.” He fixed his eyes on Justine. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She opened the top button of one of the shirts she’d swiped from my closet. “Do it.”
Maximus held the gem against the skin of her solar plexus and pressed lightly. It went under her skin and she gasped. As we stood watching her, pink bloomed in her cheeks and neck and spread all over the visible skin. I could also hear a very fast heartbeat. A mortal one.
