by Sarah Noffke
“Queen Azure, are you all right?” Ever asked, taking a step forward and leaning into her.
She nodded, although she realized she was shaking, and then found her voice. “I’m fine.” She looked at the old witch. “Where did you get this?”
“I’m not certain. These things just come to me, and I don’t always remember how. But you feel a connection to this one, am I right?” the woman asked.
“More like déjà vu,” Azure admitted.
“I’d say that will work for our purposes. Things that resemble what we used to know are usually trying to present themselves so we trust them,” the woman said.
“But can’t that also be deceiving?” Azure asked.
The woman clacked her fingernails on the glass of the countertop, tilting her head back and forth. “Quite possibly, but in this circumstance I’d go with your instinct.”
Azure was certain that her instincts weren’t unnerved by the necklace. Actually she longed to pick it up and fasten it around her neck, but maybe she was being hasty. Tentatively she reached out, her fingers pausing over the chain, then she squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed it. Nothing happened. Well, no burning or convulsions—that much she knew.
Azure cracked open an eye and stared at the necklace, which twinkled back at her.
“Go on, put it on and see if it fits,” the woman said.
“Why wouldn’t it fit? It’s a necklace,” Azure said.
“If you don’t believe me, have him try to put it on first.” The witch pointed at Ever.
Azure shifted her eyes to Ever, who wore a curiously guarded expression. “Will you?”
He didn’t hesitate to take the necklace from her. Ever arranged the chain around his throat, but stopped abruptly just before his hands would meet at the back of his neck. His eyes bulged in alarm, and he jerked his head to the side.
“Ever, what is it?” Azure asked.
“The chain,” he said, twitching his arms backwards. “It won’t meet in the back. It’s like it’s stuck.”
Azure could see plainly that the chain wasn’t stuck. Maybe Ever was messing with her and pretending that his hands couldn’t join? But this was Ever, and he’d never do such a thing. She turned to the old witch. “Is that what you meant when you said it might not fit?”
“I think you know it is,” the woman said.
Azure put her hand out palm-up, combing her fingers through the air. “May I please have the necklace?”
Ever nodded and dropped the necklace into her palm. Azure found the ends of the chain and brought them around her neck. The stone lay flat on her chest, as cold as ice but not alarming to the touch. She had thought that a barrier would prevent the chain from meeting, but it didn’t. The latch met the hook like they were magnetized. The tiny lock didn’t even catch. Instead, the parts joined and the necklace effortlessly fused around her neck.
“I daresay the necklace fits,” the woman said, giddy excitement in her voice. She wasn’t speaking to Azure, but rather to the basket where the lizard had last been seen.
“I really couldn’t get it around my neck,” Ever admitted, as if he were trying to convince Azure he wasn’t messing with her.
“I believe you,” she said. She felt a bit breathless as she ran her fingers over the stone. Again the déjà vu moment… Why did this all feel so familiar?
“Your cousin, the one you mentioned?” Azure said to the woman.
“Yes, the one I mentioned,” the woman said, finding her shawl and repositioning it over her head. “She’d say that I shouldn’t charge you for the necklace and so I won’t, although I don’t run a charity like my relatives do.”
“I don’t mind paying you. I would prefer it, actually,” Azure said, reaching for her bag.
The witch shook her head and bustled around the counter. She went straight to the door, pulling it open. “I must ask that you leave. It’s getting late, and I need to put the charms into place. Besides, you might be safe in the night, but your companion isn’t.”
This was on a long list of things the woman had said that Azure didn’t understand. “Um, how am I safe?”
The woman shook her head and then shot her black eyes at the basket. “I know, I heard them as well. I’m trying to boot these two out as politely as my manners allow.” She turned and looked at Azure. “Please leave. I must lock my doors.”
Azure nodded, not wanting to overstep her bounds. “Your cousin, though…” she asked, backing out of the shop. “Would you tell me who she is?”
The door slammed shut as soon as Ever and Azure stepped over the threshold, and the old witch’s voice rang from the other side. “She’s the one who gave you your wand.”
Azure stood in the chilly night air, her hand clasped around the ruby. “Mage Lenore,” she said to herself. Then she turned to Ever, who was staring at the shop they’d just been pushed out of. He rarely wore an expression of shock, which was why his face gave Azure a sudden alarm. He looked as though he’d just seen a three-headed ghost or a chimera.
“Ever, what is it?” she asked, her attention on him.
He didn’t answer, only pointed, and Azure turned. The door they’d just come out of was gone. The shop was gone. There was only a brick wall.
CHAPTER TEN
A scream yanked Azure and Ever’s attention from the vanished shop. It had come from the carriage, where the dragons weren’t head-down as usual. Instead they thrashed this way and that as if they were looking for a culprit. Oak had already slid down from his bench and was searching around the carriage.
Azure plunged her hand into her bag to retrieve her wand and simultaneously launched herself in the direction of the carriage. Oak had halted and bending over something at the back of the carriage. Azure and Ever found him bent over a figure.
“What is it? Is that Laurel?” Azure asked. It had been a woman’s scream.
“It is not,” Oak said, shaking his head, “but I fear that whoever this is doesn’t have long. She has been cursed.” He took a step away to reveal the figure lying on the ground—a girl with long brownish-black hair and mocha skin. Like the witch in the shop, her skin bore tattoos which started at her fingertips and reached under the straps of her dress. However, they didn’t go any farther as the witch’s had, just crowded her chest and neck. And it was on her neck that Azure saw them: the punctures. They were bright red and blood snaked down her throat to puddle at her collarbone. The girl’s dark-green eyes fluttered opened.
“Queen Azure…” she whispered, extending her hand, which was covered in gold jewelry, toward Azure. Behind them the flapping of wings drew their attention. Azure spun, expecting to find Manx, but there was only the black of the alleyway.
Azure turned back around. “Put her in the carriage. We must get out of here now.”
“But Queen Azure, she’s been cursed. You know what these marks mean, do you not?” Oak questioned.
“I’ve never seen them in real life, but yes, I absolutely do. As I said before, load her into the carriage.” Azure turned to Ever. “Would you please find Monet, Laurel, and Manx? Tell them we’re leaving very soon.”
He nodded. “I’ll be back in a moment. Don’t worry, I’ll bring them with me.” Ever left and Azure stared at the girl on the brick road. Oak had still not moved her.
“Oak!” Azure snapped as she glanced at him. “I asked you to take her to the carriage. Please do as I said.” Behind her Azure heard the flapping of wings again, and this time she knew for a fact that it wasn’t Manx.
“Queen, you know I will do anything that you say, but this witch has been cursed. We don’t have long,” Oak warned.
“Yes, she’s been bitten by a vampire, which is why we must try and save her before she becomes a Forsaken. Move her to the carriage now.” Azure spun, putting her back to the girl and Oak, her wand at the ready.
~~~
“You’ll be safe from whatever is out there inside the carriage,” Oak said, standing on the ground and looking up at Azure, “but I ca
n’t assure that you’re safe from her inside the carriage.” He pointed to the woman, who was lying across the sofa in the middle of the room.
“I’ll be fine,” Azure reassured him.
“I’ll get the dragons ready to go for when your friends return,” Oak said, tipping his hat to the queen before closing the door.
The girl muttered in her sleep. Was she really sleeping? Was she actually slipping away? Her hair was damp with sweat, and she tossed her head back and forth like she was wrestling a demon in her dreams.
Azure had never seen someone who had been bitten by a vampire, since the epidemic had been eradicated years before she was born. She’d heard rumors of rogue vampires who had escaped imprisonment, but the founder vampires had been wiped out—at least according to the records. They were the dangerous ones. The ones who were truly to be feared. This girl would become a follower, which was what a bite from a founder vampire did. It turned magical beings into followers. Azure suspected the girl had been bitten by a founder, because she’d heard the beating of wings. Bat wings, she suspected. That was one of the many gifts the founders possessed: the ability to transform into bats.
The door to the carriage flew open, making Azure jump. “I heard you lost your damn mind, but now I see it with my own eyes.” Monet raced over, putting himself between Azure and the girl, his wand in the hand pointed at the soon-to-be vampire.
“I couldn’t just leave her there,” Azure argued. “She’d just been bitten.”
“I agree. You shouldn’t have just left her there. You should have killed her.” Monet’s eyes were trained on the girl, but his words had been intended for Azure.
“How can you say that? I know you’re not cruel.”
“No, I’m not. I’m kind, despite what most believe, and a life spent feeding on mammals isn’t an existence I’d wish for the vilest of wizards. That’s the life this girl now has stretching in front of her,” Monet said. He was madder than Azure had ever seen him. His wand-hand was steady, but his voice was shaking.
“Not to mention that she carries the virus,” Laurel interjected. “Her venom will kill whoever she feeds on in time even if she doesn’t.”
“That’s what the books dictate, but I’ve never seen a case of vampirism. Laurel, have you?” Azure asked.
“Well, no. I only also know this from reading,” the werecat said as Ever shut the door behind him. His eyes rested on the figure lying on the couch with a strangely ungallant expression.
“There hasn’t been a case in over a hundred and fifty years,” Ever informed them.
“Exactly, which means that things could have changed. There might be options and solutions we didn’t have before. Maybe this time…” Azure’s voice trailed off as she thought hard.
“Vampires don’t have to be killed or imprisoned,” he finished her sentence.
“Yes. Maybe things can be different. Maybe we can handle vampires differently than our ancestors did,” Azure said.
Monet dared to take a few steps closer to the stranger on the couch. He knelt and picked up her arm, feeling for a pulse.
“Queen Azure, should you really risk helping a vampire? You have a kingdom. I salute your nobility, but shouldn’t someone else champion a cure?” Laurel asked as the carriage took off, nearly knocking them all to the floor from the sudden lurch.
“If not me, who has vast resources and incredible talent at my disposal, then who? What is the point in leading people only to abandon those who truly need help?” Azure asked, sounding genuinely offended.
“I was merely saying that your power could be compromised. The crown,” Laurel said, standing her ground.
And the werecat was right. If Azure’s gran learned she was considering such a thing, she’d advise her against it. This put everyone in danger. A queen should be as far from the follower vampire virus as possible. Being bitten by this stranger would kill Azure and everyone in the carriage. “What is more concerning than the loss of power is that this is the first known case of vampirism in over a century. Where we have a follower vampire, we know that there is a founder.”
“Do you believe they wanted to turn her, this founder?” Ever asked, his voice careful.
“I do, and I intend to learn more, but we’ll have to wait until this girl awakes,” Azure said, her eyes resting thoughtfully on the witch, who stirred more violently now in her comatose state.
“Well, that won’t be long.” Monet dropped the girl’s wrist. “Her pulse has stopped. She’s officially dead now.”
A deep frown wrinkled every part of Azure’s face with sadness. She hadn’t known the girl, but that didn’t mean she was exempt from mourning the death of a fellow witch, or a creature of any sort.
“She’ll have lost all her magic when she rises,” Ever said, his voice clinical.
“But she’ll be immortal. A nice perk of being a follower,” Monet said.
“Not worth losing one’s magic, I’d say.” Ever crossed his arms, and his expression said this was a personal insult.
“Well, as someone without magic, I think that it’s a fair trade. Followers are also granted enhanced speed and agility,” Laurel said, musing on this idea in a scientific tone. Yes, turning a wereanimal into a follower vampire would have few disadvantages, but the historical cases proved that most went rabid, unable to control being fused with magic and bat DNA. Vampirism was a complex virus that not all host bodies handled well. The results among species varied.
“Is there anything you can do to save her at this point?” Azure asked Monet.
“I’m not the one who has a personal genie in my pocket.” Monet pointed to the bag Azure held.
Excitement overwhelmed Azure’s chest. Genie! It was fucking perfect. She stuck her hand in to the bag and withdrew the lamp. “Bob, I have a wish for you to grant.”
Just as before, gray smoke rose a few feet in the air and his round face appeared. Bob sputtered out a cough, clapped himself on the back, and waved his hand to clear the smoke. “I really have to find a different way to make an appearance. This smoke is awful for my lungs, not to mention that it makes me smell like a campfire.”
“You have lungs? I thought you were a—”
Azure cut Monet off with a single look. “We have an issue. I need your help.” She pointed to the passed-out girl. “She’s been bitten by a founder vampire and is about to change. I wish for you to save her, make her a human once more, and prevent her from ever becoming a vampire.”
Bob crossed his thick arms in front of his chest and shook his head. “No can do. Article Six of Section Seven of the Genie Bylaws states that we can’t bring anyone back from the dead.”
“But she just died,” Azure complained.
“’Just’ doesn’t matter. The fact remains that the girl is dead, and I can’t bring her back to life. My hands are tied.”
“Fine, then prevent her from becoming a vampire. You can do that, right?” Azure asked.
Again the genie shook his head. “Vampires are protected in our bylaws under Section Twelve.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Monet scoffed. “Vampires are a protected class in your bylaws?”
“All species are protected. I can’t change you into a Light Elf or turn a canary into a wizard,” Bob explained.
“Why would someone want to turn a canary… Never mind,” Monet said, waving him off.
“You can’t save her or keep her a witch. What can you do?” Azure asked.
“I can serve her a thick juicy steak and a bottle of Chianti when she wakes up,” Bob said, proud of himself. “Just make that wish and it will be done.”
“No deal.” Azure stared intently at the girl, her head clouded by this new situation.
“Would you like a foot rub? Ice cream? A coffin with your initials on it?” Bob held up a gold ringed-finger for each of the things he listed.
“A coffin? For me?” Azure asked, confused.
“Oh,” Bob squeaked, “of course not. I meant for the witch who is abou
t to be a vampire. They hate the sun. I could get her a hat. Just make the wish.”
Monet strolled over and whispered loudly. “I heard him say, ‘coffin with your initials on it.’”
“Yes, my genie is out to get me. That’s just my luck,” Azure muttered as the carriage slowed.
“Master, I only want what’s best for you. You’re my master, who I’m bound to no matter what and must respond to without fail, so why would I want anything but the best for you?” Bob floated up a few inches and then down again with an amused look on his face.
Azure was too far off in thought to be concerned with the sadistic genie. “Monet and Ever, would you please carry the girl up to the room?”
“First off, you want to take a newbie follower vampire up to our room? I don’t have to tell you what a bad idea that is,” Monet stated.
“Fine. Ever, will you do it? I’ll help you.” Azure looked at the Light Elf, who wore a stony expression. He didn’t budge when the carriage came to a halt.
“I actually agree with Monet on this. I know you want to help, but there’s no cure for vampirism. We’ll all be in danger if you take her with us,” Ever said, looking like he was punishing himself for his words.
“See? Even though he’s obsessed with you, Ever still opposes this horrible idea of yours,” Monet said.
“Shut up, Monet,” Azure spat.
Ever gave her a pleading expression. “I appreciate that you want to help this girl, but one bite from her and we will have the virus, which we can’t recover from. It’s deadly. You know that only founders can turn people into vampires, right? Followers just infect.”
“But not if she’s restrained and fed,” Azure stated, having mostly thought it out.
“And second,” Monet said loudly, “how are you going to get a dead girl through the lobby of the citadel to the room?”
Azure pointed her wand at the girl and whirled it. “Anyone draped on you at this hour, Monet, is obviously drunk.” The witch levitated toward Monet horizontally before going vertical. Her arm hung over his shoulder, and her head lolled forward. She just looked like she’d had a bit too much centaur vodka, and her long black hair covered the bitemarks on her neck.
