West Coast Witch

by Justen Hunter

  “Um, yea. I’ll tell him I got attacked. Terry will understand.” I stood, a little wobbly on my feet. It took me a few minutes to walk back to the bar, even with Amy’s help. “So, uh, what should I expect? I don’t really read up on vampire bites much.”

  “Your body chemistry will shift subtly. Other vampires can smell a bite, and those who are bitten are noted as such for life.” She put one of my arms around her shoulders, helping me to stand. She was a lot stronger than I would have given her credit for.

  “Oh, fantastic.” I deadpanned. “I’m not going to die and rise again, am I?”

  She laughed. “No. For that, you must be drained, then drink of a vampire’s blood. You will not grow fangs.”

  I furrowed my brow. “Your speech pattern’s changed. You’re more formal than Amy in the book store.”

  “A cover. I have to keep it going. I will explain more when we are off the street.”

  Chapter 5

  Terry was livid when I told him I got bit. But, after telling him that I needed to get to a hospital, he relented. Amy guided me out to the street, and told me to wait while she went off. I leaned against a lamp post as I waited.

  It was about five minutes before Amy pulled up in a green jeep. “Get in.” She said, and I did.

  She started to drive, definitely not towards the hospital. “Where are we going?”

  “A safe haven. Listen, and listen well, Eric. Can you do that?”

  “I don’t have much choice, do I?”

  “Fantastic,” she said. “I am a guardian, Eric, for starters.”

  “Like what, an angel?”

  She laughed, though there was sorrow in that laugh. “If only. In another lifetime, perhaps. But I am an immortal, and through a pact that was made before you were born, it is time for me to assume a role of protection in your life.”

  “A pact?” I asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “There were people who decided that you were worth protecting. Your mother, for one.”

  “My mother?” My voice went quiet. I only had a name to use as reference to my mother. She had lived off the radar, from what inquiries I’d done in high school. The woman had barely existed before my father met her, from what I’d found in government records. Victoria Carpenter nee Torres had married my father five months before I was born, and my father had died in a car crash two months after that. My grandparents, my father's parents, had welcomed Victoria into the family, and for three months, my mother had lived under their roof. But she was private about her past. Hell, it hadn't even seemed like she had one. She was an enigma, one that I had been unable to piece together.

  “Mm, she was interested in your well-being, considering what your lineage would be. Our deal had recently taken effect. Your twenty-fifth birthday was five months ago, and it took some time to track you down. But, here we both are. I just wish I had been able to explain this to you before, well…”

  “Before my colleague’s boyfriend took a bite out of me? What the fuck did he want?” I waited a moment. “And wait, what do you mean ‘my lineage’?”

  “Knowledge. Vampires can read memories when they drink their victim’s blood. He wanted to know something.” She paused as she made a turn, and then continued. “As to your lineage, well, that is something we will discuss in a moment.”

  “Raymond Francis, the PI. Darius, the vampire, mentioned him. Jesus, what the hell was this guy into?”

  “That is the thing. I have a theory.” Amy said as she turned us out of the neighborhood and towards the piers. “Raymond Francis was looking into Samantha Coolidge’s disappearance. I think that whoever killed him is interested in her disappearance not going looked into. Should she stay missing too long, the authorities will simply dismiss her as another disappearance, another statistic.”

  “So what’s so important about her? She wasn’t exactly someone big. Her dad worked for the government, and it's a decent family, but...”

  “That is what we are going to find out.”

  At that, I had to laugh. “Excuse me, we? No, no. I am not going to go gallivanting around San Francisco sticking my head where it doesn’t belong, especially after tonight.”

  “I would think that you would want to help, Eric, especially after tonight.” She gave him a quick glance towards me. Even in the dark of night, her gray eyes flickered with a light I didn’t understand. “Eric, you really have no idea what your life is, do you?”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m a twenty-five year-old with a master’s in English that I’ll probably never use, I tend bar in a college pub, and my big hobby is making my bookshelf more cluttered. Naw, not really. I try to be a good person, but no real long-term plans or anything.”

  “A pity. And, perhaps, a blessing in disguise.” She murmured. She pulled the car to a space and shut off the engine. “Come on, follow me.” She said as she moved from the car with a catlike grace.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Sanctuary. Pax.”

  Pax, as it turned out, was a hole in the wall bar, sitting in a building just near the piers. Neon lights casted the name in pink. The door was a solid wood, with red stained glass cut into it in the shape of a circle. It was quiet outside, but the minute we opened the door, a loud hum of noise reached my ears.

  We went past the door into the bar. It was small, and rather packed. The bar was done mostly in woods and glass, giving it a very timeless feel. There were no televisions in the bar, or anything close to a jukebox or music system. It was just people talking.

  Amy led me to a booth that was unoccupied, and a willowy brunette came to our table. “Hello, Amy. Who’s the morsel?”

  “Sasha,” Amy said, her voice soft and scolding. “The man ran afoul of one of your kind tonight. The last thing he needs is to be looked at like a meal. I will have a glass of water. Eric?”

  I thought for a minute. What were you supposed to do to regain blood? My mind wandered back to blood drives in high school. “Uh, can I have a menu, and a glass of water?”

  “Sure thing…Eric, was it? Be back in a minute.” She walked away, moving swiftly and silently.

  “So, this is a vamp bar? You seriously took me to a vampire bar?” I made sure to keep my voice low.

  She shook her head. “Pax is not a vampire bar. It is an Arcane bar. It is a safe place for us. Where we can be ourselves. Where I do not have to worry much about prying eyes.”

  I shook my head. I seriously didn’t want to do this, after what happened. But I had a feeling that Amy wasn’t going to say no. “Okay, you have until I finish whatever food I order to talk.”

  “Agreed. I will give you a fare for a cab ride home after,” she said. “Firstly, Eric, you are not alone. People have been attacked by vampires before. You are probably scared, angry, and a whole mess of other emotions.”

  “You’re damn right.” I said. I had been violated. It was just…well, it had just felt so wrong. My own blood was gone, taken by another so he could leech my memories and figure out what I knew. “So, what do I do about it?”

  “You have two choices, as I can see it. You can be afraid, or you can fight back. Get a gun, and learn how to use it, metaphorically speaking.”

  My face broke, and I chuckled. “Aw, hell, great. I’ve got a guardian…angel, or whatever, who’s quoting John Wayne.”

  Her eyes rolled. “I am glad you find this amusing.”

  “Hey, you walked into that one.” I remarked. Fear does things to people. It makes them want to latch onto whatever they can to laugh, to remind them that the world may not be just as screwed up as we think it is.

  “Anyways,” Amy said. “Vampires and other folk may seem scary at first, but you have to recognize them for what they are.”

  “Vampires. Undead monsters, feeding off life blood to survive, gifted with superior strength and speed…Oh, and they’ve got more experience, and they’re tougher. Did I miss anything?”

  “You also forgot their powers over the mind, their enhanced
senses, and just the fact that they can be more devious than the average human.” She paused a moment as Sasha came back, depositing the glasses and a menu. When she left, she continued. “But they are still killable, and you can defend yourself from them, if you know how to play their game and win.”

  “Win?” I shook my head. “Hell, most cops won’t go one-on-one with a vampire. I’ve never gotten into a fight out of a school yard, and I’ve never considered doing the Buffy route.”

  “We have some work to do, I can see that.” She said. “Tell me, Eric, do you dream?”

  “Dream?” I furrowed my brow. “I, uh, suppose I do. I don’t remember my dreams, most of the time, if I do dream.”

  “I see. How much did your grandparents tell you about your mother?”

  “Very little. What’s my mother have to do with how I dream?”

  “Dreams are an important part of us, especially in your family. I suspect that this will change.”

  “Can you cut the cryptic shit?” I asked. “I’m not really into it. Who was my mother?”

  “What do you know of her, really?”

  “Victoria Torres? Not a lot. Other than that she was my mother, and that she married my dad a few months before I was born. I couldn’t find much on her, and my grandparents couldn’t tell me anything about her.”

  Amy bit her lip. “As I feared. Well, that was Victoria’s prerogative in life. She chose secrecy and the shadows.”

  “You knew her? You look my age.”

  “In a day of vampires and werewolves in society, you question how someone can appear my age and still have lived to meet your mother? Eric Carpenter, how blissfully ignorant you are. I hope to change that.” She said. “I am the oldest thing in this room. Though by no means am I more powerful. What you saw tonight as the limitations of my power, for the most part. You, however, are young, and with much power.”

  “Power?” I shook my head. “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  “On the contrary, Eric.” She said. “You have a lot of potential.”

  “And pray, how did I come by this?” I asked.

  “Simple, Eric. You are a witch.”

  Chapter 6

  I laughed at that. “A witch? Seriously?” I made a show of looking around the bar. “Okay, where’s the cameras?”

  “I do not follow.” Amy said. “Do you mean to imply this is some sort of prank?”

  “Yea, that’s sorta what I’m implying. A witch? Those don’t exist. Something that people suppose, just because vamps and werewolves came out into the public. No one’s found a witch ever.”

  “Do you really think that they go around broadcasting themselves? There was an Inquisition, Eric. And witches are one of the more reviled stereotypes in popular western culture.”

  “And you’re saying that, what, I somehow got these magic genes?” I crossed my arms. “Is this the part where I get to go to wizard school and find out that some dark wizard without a nose is looking for revenge?”

  “Nothing so melodramatic.” Amy sighed. “You really enjoy pushing my buttons.”

  “Sarcasm is as good a defense as a gun, sometimes.” I said.

  “Oh, Victoria.” Amy looked up to the ceiling. “He is your blood, for sure.”

  “Beg pardon?”

  “Victoria had a habit of driving those around her to insanity with her wit.”

  “Pretty handy, considering I never met her.” I remarked.

  She sighed. “That was beyond her control, I believe. She survived so much. She was, if nothing else, a survivor.”

  Sasha interrupted us again, appearing without a sound. “Hello, Eric. Have you been able to take a look at the menu?”

  I peered down at the menu. “Uh…how’s the tuna melt?” I asked, looking at the first thing I saw with iron.

  “Rather good.” Sasha remarked. “Would you also like some fruit, for your blood sugar?”

  “You…you could tell?” I furrowed my brow. “Uh, right. You’re a vampire.”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry for what happened. We’re not all like whoever attacked you.” She said. “I’ll bring something out for you, kid.” She said, and moved away.

  “So, do I have to keep this secret?” I asked when Sasha was back behind the bar. “You know, being a witch and all this?”

  “I would be careful who you tell. While some will believe you, and some will accept, magic is something that the human race has never fully comprehended.”

  “Yea,” I nodded. “I mean, how am I supposed to learn how to do this? I mean, it’s freaking magic.”

  “Yes, indeed, it is magic.” Amy chuckled. “But I can teach you. You would not be the first witch I have taught magic. I have a strong grasp of the theory.”

  “The theory.” I said, echoing her words. “Great. Okay, so…what do I do?”

  “Open your mind.”

  “Okay, Morpheus? What?”

  She gave me a confused look for a moment. “I am giving you your first lesson, Eric.” She reached across the table, and placed her hand over mine. “Close your eyes, and just listen.”

  I did so. I realized that, if I wanted to learn, I’d have to trust Amy. I didn’t totally relish that prospect, considering I’d known her only a few hours, and that I only had her word to go on. But, on the other hand, she had known my mother. My curiosity got the better of me.

  “Eric, magic is something that flows through all of us. Life is magic.” She said. “Did you ever learn to play music?”

  “No,” I answered. I’d never had much of a creative streak.

  “Think about a sheet of music. You do not know instinctively what it means, since you have never learned what it means. You know it means something, but you can’t understand it. Magic is like that. The world is a symphony, and a witch knows how to listen to the harmonies, tempos, and rules behind the music. A witch, in some small way, can conduct the symphony of the universe, bend it to their own tune.

  “Take a deep breath, and just relax. Listen, let that sense flow through you.”

  I took the deep breath, breathing in my stomach. I had learned from my ex-actor grandfather about how to breathe properly, from the gut, not the chest. I settled in thinking about my room back in Red River, with its bookshelves and the afternoon sun that came in though the large window.

  And suddenly, the world changed in a moment. Beneath the rumble of the crowd, clinking glasses, and sizzle of the grill in the kitchen, I could feel something. It was energy, a vibration of its own. I could feel it surround me, flow through me. It was overwhelming. There was so much of it, that I could feel my head grow light, overwhelmed by the sensations moving through it.

  Before I knew it, I was falling.

  I snapped out of it quick, feeling something push against my shoulders.

  My eyes opened to see that Amy had caught me, as I was about to fall face first into a plate with a tuna melt on it. “What…what was that?”

  Amy smiled. “You were out of focus for over a minute. You were very receptive to the magic, I think.”

  “Yea, uh…I felt it. So much of it. God, I…Hell, that was intense.”

  “Pax has a lot of Arcanes, in a close space. It is a good place to introduce you to your sense, and a bad one as well. There is a lot of energy here. Which, while making it easy for you to sense it, is also easy for you to get overwhelmed.”

  I shook my head, slowly bringing myself back to the physical world. “Yea, no kidding.” I murmured.

  “You will learn how to filter in time.” Amy said. “That was the pure, unadulterated sense of magic. What you want is to be able to take stock, to feel, but not experience. Magic is about drawing that into your body, taking it, and shaping it to do what you want.”

  “So, what, I’ll learn how to blast people with fire?”

  “Everyone finds different specialties in their craft. Your mother was quite adept with illusory magic. Her mother was more adept at divinations.”

  “Divination? Like, seeing t
he future?”

  “Not quite. It is a broad term. She could see links in things quite easily. For instance, if she had someone’s hair, she could tell you exactly where they were. Usually that takes a ritual of some sort.”

  “Wow. Are there any ideas what my specialty lies in?”

  “It will become apparent in time.” Amy promised. “Now, eat your tuna melt and your strawberries.”

  “Yea, Miyagi.” I said, and ate my dinner.

  As I ate, I asked cursory questions, trying to figure out what I could from Amy. She explained that she had connections with my mother’s side of the family. My mother was from a line of witches, the Morris family. They had come to America in the nineteenth century, and had claimed roots in New York at some point.

  Finally, I had to ask. “So, what do witches do?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “What do they do with this power? I mean, vampires tend to live in luxury, and werewolves form packs. What do witches do?”

  She nodded. “A fair question. Witches are the solitary arcane. Their power can be vast, and most, apart from family members, cannot abide sharing power, even when intentions are noble.”

  “You’re saying that ability breeds ambition.”

  “Indeed.” She nodded. “All creatures are one of two things. Creatures of nature, or creatures of choice. The vampire, the werewolf, they are creatures of nature. However, the witch is not bound by instinct. They are, in fact, remarkably close to humans. They nearly are identical, apart from your arcane talent and a very different metabolism. It sets them apart. You are also more vulnerable, in ways. Humans are social creatures, but they do not trust that which they do not understand. And when they do not understand…well, human history is full of examples of what happens. People of different religions, nationalities, and sexualities, were persecuted. And what did they do when they thought that one who looked like them consorted with demons?”

  “Witch hunts, burning, lots of people dead.”