Promised By Blood

by Samantha Snow

  “Yeah.” Carmen grabs her arm and pulls her forward. “They are actually kinda cute and really useful. The good ones, that is.”

  “There are good and bad gargoyles?” Holly asks.

  “There are good and bad everythings, Holly,” Carmen answers sharply. “You must remember that every species, without fail, has good and bad. Not all elves are good. Not all vampires are bad. It’s not like the movies, it’s not a joke or a punchline. Now that you know, you will have to be careful.”

  Holly looks at her friend, expression grave. “I have one last, very important question.”

  Carmen nods expectantly. “Okay?”

  “Do vampires really sparkle?” Holly erupts in a fit of laughter.

  Carmen punches her playfully in the arm and they head into the café. Holly doesn’t notice her friend look back and survey the street. She doesn’t notice Carmen whisper an incantation over the door or reach in her bag and withdraw a powder to sprinkle over the mat. Holly is far too busy getting the lowdown from the day shift manager to see Carmen doing the same to the other two café doors.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I can’t stay late,” Holly argues. “I told my mom I’d stop by and you know how she reacts.”

  Carmen frowns. “I don’t like you going out by yourself, Hol.”

  “I’ve been doing it my whole life,” Holly reminds her, “and you said yourself that I’ve got sprites and gargoyles watching me.”

  “But they can’t do much if somebody actually makes an attempt on you,” Carmen argues.

  “I can’t show up at Mom’s at 11:30 at night,” Holly says stubbornly. “What if I take a cab?”

  “It’s not like cabs are safer.” Carmen paces the restaurant that’s been surprisingly empty all evening – again.

  “I will be fine. I promise. I will go straight to Mom’s house and I’ll stay with her all night,” Holly assures her friend. She doesn’t understand the sudden concern. I've been left on my own several times before; no big deal then, why tonight?

  “I don’t know.” Carmen begins muttering to herself in a language Holly doesn’t recognize in the slightest.

  “Carmen, what’s going on? You didn’t freak out when I went home alone last night,” Holly points out.

  “Tonight is different.” Carmen stops to face Holly, her expression grave. “We were followed here today.”

  “What?” Holly leans back against the counter.

  “We’re safe in here and I know your house is safe but nothing has been done at your mom’s house yet.” Carmen keeps going, her words blending into one long warning. “You can’t just go off on your own until we know what followed us.”

  “How do we find that out? Come on, Carmen,” Holly argued, “I can’t just live my life in fear because something is stalking me. What’s the point of living then?”

  “I understand, Holly, I do,” Carmen pleads, “but you have to be smart about it, too. Besides, don’t you have a bunch of essays to grade still? What if you go to your mom’s tomorrow night and I’ll go with you?”

  “I still have to go home tonight, how is it safe for me to go home alone but not to Mom’s alone?” Holly points out.

  “Hang here with me until close, I’ll get you home safe and even help you grade those papers,” Carmen suggests.

  Holly sighs, resigned. She can’t find fault in Carmen’s solution. “I’ll call Mom.” She pulls out her phone and calls her mom, who is clearly disappointed but claims she understands. Holly promises to visit tomorrow evening and says she’ll even be bringing a friend with her. This brightens Mom’s mood substantially, she loves company.

  “Your mom okay?” Carmen asks.

  “Yep.” Holly slips her phone in her back pocket. “So, we’ve got an hour to kill and obviously no customers so how’s about a little supernatural Q and A?”

  Carmen chuckles and nods approvingly. “Fair enough. What do you wanna know?”

  “You didn’t really leave your parents at eighteen, huh?” Holly asks.

  “Yes and no. I did leave my parents so I could experience this world but I was more like one hundred and eighty when I left.” Carmen scrubs the counter as if she didn’t just admit to being more than a century old.

  “So you’re how old, then?” Holly is stunned. “And where do your parents live? And you didn’t really grow up on Queen Anne Hill then?”

  “Slow down, Hol.” Carmen laughs. “I’m two hundred and twelve years old. I didn’t grow up on Queen Anne Hill, I grew up under it. And, my parents still live there.”

  “Wait, what? You live in the sewers?” Holly is regretting ever asking now.

  “No, silly. There’s another world under the Hill. We live next to but apart from humans. It’s hard to explain.” Carmen looks like she’s trying to find the words. “Okay, so you know how there are so many trees on Queen Anne Hill?”

  Holly nods. “Yeah, there are lots of trees all over Seattle.”

  “Yeah, but there are special trees on the Hill and they don’t just grow up, they grow down, too. The ground around Queen Anne Hill is like a mirror and it reflects another world – my world.” Carmen watches her face for signs of understanding. “But our homes look different and everything is more dreamlike, I guess. It’s beautiful but almost too beautiful, if that makes sense.”

  “How can something be too beautiful?” Holly asks, trying to pictures such a place.

  “It just is, Holly. Take my word for it.” Carmen’s mouth forms a tight line. “There are a lot of reasons I left home, but here I feel happy even if I have to wear a glamor most of the time. Where I come from, everyone is beautiful on the outside. It just makes it harder to see what’s on the inside.”

  “And every supernatural species has light and dark, is that what you’re getting at?” Holly thinks she understands.

  “Yes.” Carmen falls quiet, thoughtful. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “Of course.” Holly sifts through her questions for something inane. “Tell me about vampires.”

  “Why?” Carmen sounds truly surprised.

  “I don’t know. It seems as good a place as any to start.” Holly shrugs and leans forward expectantly.

  “Okay.” Carmen is satisfied and begins Holly’s supernatural education. “Vampires, contrary to myth, do not descend from a man bit by a bat or anything of the sort. They are children of the Night Gods, a special race created in their image. Vampires have a special beauty about them, especially the light ones. Most of them are thoroughly amused by human portrayals of their kind. There are so many myths perpetuated by the humans who have tried to make sense of things they can’t possibly understand.”

  “It is the way of humans, isn’t it?” Holly agrees. “Do they drink human blood?”

  “Of course,” Carmen responds, “but they don’t need a lot of it to survive, just a few drops a day, actually.”

  “Really?” Holly is enthralled.

  “Yeah,” Carmen agrees, “and they can’t turn just any human on a whim. There are certain criteria.”

  “I see.” Holly’s mind runs wild with questions. “What are the criteria? Can they have babies like humans? Can they eat real food?”

  “I’m glad you are accepting all of this and it’s good to see you curious,” Carmen frowns, “but you aren’t going to go off and try to become a vampire now, are you?”

  “Of course not!” Holly recoils. “Why would I do that?”

  “You just seem overly interested, that’s all.” Carmen shrugs. “Sorry, I don’t mean to insult you. I just don’t want you thinking it’s all glamorous. You would have to give up all ties to your human life. There is no going back. Your mom, your sisters and brother, Greg, your schooling would all be gone.”

  Holly contemplates the potential repercussions, “I’m not sure why anybody would do that, I mean, maybe if you had nobody and nothing to lose.” Carmen gives her a reproachful look. Holly holds up her hands. “I’m not considering it, Carmen. I’m just curious. Sheesh.
”

  “Okay.” Carmen studies her for a long moment and then continues. “In order for a human to be turned they would have to have some magic in their blood to begin with. That’s more common than you would think, but the more magic in their blood, the more likely they are to make the transition. So, that’s not so common. The kicker is that they have to be on the brink of death – humans got that one right – but it’s not as easy to time as you would think, especially with all the technology these days.”

  “It seems kinda easy.”

  “Not really. There’s more to it and the vampire has to know what to do, it’s not something that happens by accident.” Carmen returns to scrubbing the counter. “I think that a vampire still has to have permission from the elders in order to turn somebody, too, but I’m not as current on my vampire law as I used to be. There aren’t many vamps around these parts since that whole Twilight debacle. It’s a shame really.”

  “It was a shame,” Holly agrees. “People actually read that and thought it was good.”

  Carmen tosses her wet rag at Holly. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. They weren’t that bad.”

  Holly arches an eyebrow at her friend. “Not that bad?”

  “Okay, they were pretty terrible. Sparkling vampires? Please.” Carmen chuckles. “They are pretty, usually, but I’ve never seen one sparkle in the sun, unless you count exploding in flames. But hey, to-may-to, to-mah-to, right?”

  “Indeed.” Holly tosses the rag in the bucket. “How much clean up are you really doing tonight?”

  “Oh, that?” Carmen beams. “You wanna see something really cool?”

  She whispers a couple words in that strange language, pulls something from her pocket, and blows it around the café. A smoky mist fills the room.

  “Carmen? What are you doing?” Holly can’t see through the dense fog-like substance.

  “Hang on, just sit there for a few minutes, it will clear,” Carmen assures her.

  “What is it?” Holly asks. It doesn’t seem to be clearing.

  “Since when are you so impatient. Just give it a few,” Carmen barks irritably.

  The fog begins to clear. Holly’s face feels a bit damp but it gradually dries. As the substance dissipates, she can see Carmen again. But more than that, the café is clean. Like really clean. Holly surveys the space.

  “Seriously? You’ve been able to do that and we’ve wasted how many hours cleaning this place?”

  Carmen shrugs. “You didn’t know about me. Now you do. It comes with perks.”

  “Obviously.” Holly shakes her head, disgusted at the sheer number of hours spent scrubbing this place.

  “C’mon, Hol. Let’s get outta here.” Carmen bounces off to the back room to grab their bags. She’s in a much better mood all of a sudden.

  “Why do you work here? You could do so many things.” Holly surprises herself with the question.

  “I like it,” Carmen responds simply. “I like working with you, I like coffee, I like our customers. And when I don’t feel like having customers, I just put up wards so people go somewhere else.”

  “Must be nice,” Holly says longingly.

  “Hey, you usually benefit from it so don’t act like you don’t.” Carmen flips the lights off. “Stay close, ‘kay?”

  “Yeah, I’m with you.” Holly nods as they slip into the cool Seattle night.

  The street is surprisingly quiet for this time of night. It is definitely unsettling, even if she weren’t already a little spooked by Carmen’s concerns.

  “It’s too quiet tonight, isn’t it?” Carmen whispers. “I don’t suppose the Seahawks are playing a night game?”

  “Yeah, it is,” Holly whispers back, “and no, they aren’t.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” Carmen sighs. She whistles a funny little tune that’s answered moments later and then echoed a few times over. “We aren’t alone. Just act normal, okay?”

  “Sure. Act normal.” Holly answers her out of the corner of her mouth. “This is perfectly normal.”

  Carmen laughs, a loud, fake, almost drunken cackle. “You’re so funny, Holly.” She nudges Holly in the ribs.

  “Oh!” Holly catches on. “No, HE was so funny. I mean, who uses a pick up line like that.”

  “Don’t oversell it,” Carmen cautions under her breath.

  “No, I don’t think I’ll hear from him,” Holly continues more casually. “I didn’t exactly give him my number, did I?”

  “Nice.” Carmen approves. “You gonna tell Greg about him?”

  “Yeah, we’ll have a nice laugh when we get home. Greg will love this one.”

  Holly knows Greg wouldn’t give two shits if some guy hit on her, but whoever is following her might maybe think twice. Or maybe not, who knows?

  “Hey look, the bus is there.” Carmen points toward Westlake, just under a block up. “Run!”

  Holly takes off, feigning an attempt to avoiding missing her bus. She hops on the bus, her strides a touch longer than Carmen’s, scans her bus pass and moves aside just as her friend hits the platform. The bus driver gives them a peculiar look but says nothing. He closes the door as they sit. Nobody else is on the bus, at least nobody who’s awake. Holly notices a pair of feet hanging in the aisle toward the back as she slides into a seat. The bus takes off with a lurch and Carmen practically falls in her lap.

  “Nice acting.” Carmen nods approvingly.

  “Yeah, I guess that semester of high school drama finally paid off.”

  “Let’s just hope we reach your house without incident. I hate not knowing what I’m up against. It chafes me.”

  “It chafes you?” Holly jokes. “Did you really just say that?”

  “Yeah, why?” Carmen is puzzled.

  “You’re killing me, Carmen.” Holly shakes her head in mock disbelief. “You never talk like that.”

  “Sorry, I’m not monitoring my speech for proper vernacular right now,” Carmen grumbles.

  “I just don’t want anything chafing you.” Holly barely gets the sentence out before she starts laughing. She claps a hand over her mouth to hold it in but she can’t contain it. Pretty soon, Carmen is laughing beside her.

  The bus ride passes without incident and the pair are soon in front of Holly’s house. The light in the living room is on but the rest of the house is dark. There’s a rustling in the branches followed by a long, low whistle. Carmen puts a hand on Holly’s arm and sniffs the air. She actually sniffs it. Holly stifles a laugh.

  “It’s just Petey.” Carmen’s body relaxes. “Don’t worry, he’s going to stay put.”

  “I don’t even want to know.” Holly rolls her eyes; she just wants her bed but knows that it’s a few hours off.

  “He’s one of the gargoyles who’s been watching over you,” Carmen explains. She speaks in that strange language again and tilts her head just slightly to await the response. Holly hears a gravelly response in what seems to be a different tongue. Interesting.

  “Petey says that Greg is home but in bed. He says nobody else has come or gone and there don’t seem to be any unexpected guests around.” Carmen takes the steps two at a time and calls out from the top, “You coming or what?”

  Holly sighs and trudges up the steps. She wonders if her life could get any stranger and then regrets even thinking that question because something tells her that it definitely could. She fumbles around with the keys and the lock but eventually pushes into the foyer. They both try to be quiet but it doesn’t work well as they stumble over each other trying to drop their things and lock the door. Eventually, they work it out and make it to the living room.

  A note is set on top of her papers. Holly picks it up and cringes internally.

  Hol ~

  Leftover pizza in the fridge if you’re hungry. Went to bed.

  G

  “Wow, what a romantic,” Carmen remarks. “Can’t imagine why you aren’t running up there to rip his clothes off. Seriously? Not even a little heart?”

 
; “Like I said, roommates more than anything.” Holly tosses the note aside and immediately regrets her reaction. All of the essays are graded. He must have done it for her. “He finished the essays.”

  “What?” Carmen peers at them “Oh, no. That wasn’t him.”

  “How do you know? Who else could have done it?” Holly’s guilt settles in her stomach.

  “One of the sprites,” Carmen replies. “Look, there’s a little bit of residue around the edges.”

  Holly looked closer, indeed a neon greenish powder appeared to dot the edges of the top sheet. She picked up a few more and noticed the same stuff on several of the pages. However, the penmanship was remarkably close to her own. “Wow. Really?”