Coven of Magic

by Leah Silver

  “Fine,” I said. “Meeting adjourned.” Turning to walk out, I didn’t wait for the four men who’d flanked me, or anyone else. I didn’t need to be friendly with them. And the last thing I wanted was a delay that landed me face to face with that son of a motherless gravedigger, Devlin. I wasn’t sure I could behave if we were alone, and killing other vampires was frowned upon. Although I felt like I could make a good case against him, being arrogant and annoying weren’t reasons to off someone, unfortunately for me.

  As I walked out into the cool fall afternoon, I jammed my hands into my coat pockets. The sun warmed my face, and I glanced around at the humans walking by. Vampires disintegrating in the sun was another myth the humans had concocted about my race. I myself quite enjoyed being out in the sun.

  But the afternoon light wasn’t enough to chase away the dark shadows in my mind. The council wasn’t one to overreact. So why this? Somehow, my mind kept circling back to Devlin. He had his lips to someone’s ear. Was it Tempest? Something about that didn’t feel right. She was too wise for the likes of him. Surely she wouldn’t tolerate that level of arrogance. Plus, he looked like a damned troll had been beaten with an ugly stick. She could do better than him.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” I hadn’t seen Levi fall into step next to me, and cursed silently. “Or maybe something else? A hot tea, perhaps?”

  “What do you want?” I asked, needing to get away from him.

  “I’m hungry. And I don’t like to eat alone. I wondered if you might like to join me for some lunch.” He was fearless, I’d give him that.

  As we walked, humans stepped all around us, paying no mind. “Can I ask you something?”

  “I believe you can. You’ve just demonstrated a firm grasp on the skill.”

  I had to restrain myself from wiping his self-satisfied smile right of his face with my fist.

  I stopped walking, and he turned around, facing me. His hands were jammed deep in the pockets of an oversized, black trench coat. “How is it the humans don’t take notice of you? You scream vampire. For demons’ sake, you may as well be sparkling.”

  He burst out laughing. “That’s not something we do and you know it. Along with many of the other things the humans think we do. Like drink their blood.”

  I started walking again, keeping my head down. “Yes, well, we both know there are the rogues.”

  “Like the one who turned you?” he asked.

  “And likely the one who turned you.”

  “A few rogues to create an entire race.” He shrugged as we walked shoulder to … well, mid-bicep. He was half a head taller than me after all. “Believe it or not, I’m quite charming. So the humans assume my eyes are brown, or see what they want to see.”

  “Charming? In that you make them see what they want to see? You do have some siren in you.”

  “Potato, potahtoe.” His stride was a bit longer than mine, and I had to hustle to keep up as he walked easily down the street. He turned right, and stopped in front of a small bar. It just happened to be my favorite place to get a warm cup of demon blood. Night had fallen in earnest, and the humans were making their way home, avoiding the seedier places in favor of more friendly faces. Couldn’t say I blamed them. After all, vampires and ghouls of all shapes and sizes frequented my favorite watering hole.

  “Care for a drink?”

  I was thirsty. And it might clear my head a little, help make sense of all this alarmist talk. But I didn’t want one with him. His eyes roamed over me like little fingers, touching me in all the right places, warming me through my coat. Nope. Definitely a big fat no to that drink.

  So why was I following him inside?

  Yeti piss, and other drinks

  I took a seat at a high table in the back corner while Levi went to the bar. The joint was teaming with supernaturals, and their scents swirled around me while I scanned the room, identifying everyone around me, assessing threats as I went. Sups always had a distinct odor, specific to their race. Vampires, for example, smelled sweet. Attractive. To me, at least. Werewolves smelled musky—not like dogs, per se, but more like outside on a cool day. Wizards often smelled like the potions they brewed. And I couldn’t say I’d gotten close enough to Oscar to pinpoint his scent. Not that I wanted to get closer. Because I didn’t. Not even to feel those rock-hard pecs, or his—

  Levi cut my train of thought short. Probably for the best. “Here we are,” he said as he slid a tall stein my way. “You okay? You look a bit like you just ran a marathon.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked casually as I struggled to hide the fact I’d been fantasizing about any of the men on the team, let alone the one who was obviously the least interested.

  He threw a knowing smile my way and shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “Oh, please, I am not all hot and bothered over you, so get that idea out of your head right now.” At least that was true, for that particular moment.

  His chuckle was very musical, and contagious, but I fought the urge to smile. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Whatever you say.”

  I decided to change the subject. “So, what’s your story?”

  “Which story in particular?” he asked as he sipped from his stein. “Demons’ breath. This tastes like yeti piss.” He nearly spit it out right in front of me.

  The horrified expression on his face did me in. I couldn’t hold my laughter in any longer, and it burst from me long and loud.

  “Oh, sure, laugh at my pain,” he said, but I knew he wasn’t really hurt by the smile on his face he tried to hide by wiping the back of his sleeve across his mouth.

  Tears rolled down my face as I watched him compose himself.

  “Are you quite finished?” he asked, clearly not as amused as I was.

  “If you can’t handle your liquor, I’ll be happy to finish it for you,” I offered.

  He schooled his face into a very serious expression, somehow making the sharp angles of his face even more attractive. “I’m fine, but thank you for your concern. Now, which story would you like to hear specifically?”

  “How about the one in which you tasted yeti piss, since you seem to have a point of reference?”

  His head tilted with his smile, and I knew I had him. “That’s not a tale I like to tell, thank you very much. Perhaps something a bit more relevant.”

  “Relevant means less fun, but whatever. You’re the one talking.” I shrugged as I took a pull from my own drink. What didn’t he like about this? It was delicious and energizing. I felt the demon blood zinging through my body. Suddenly my mind was more focused on solving the problem at hand.

  “Indeed I am. I got into studying pathogens years ago. During the Black Death that killed so many of the humans. It fascinated me that something so small could take down such a huge number of a single race. It also fascinated me that each race seemed immune to the illnesses of the others.”

  I had nothing to contribute, so I sipped my yeti piss.

  “Over the centuries, each race has had its own version of the human plague.”

  “So what makes this one special?” I asked, proud of my intelligent interjection.

  “Because it hasn’t occurred naturally.”

  “Or so Devlin says.”

  “Not quite.”

  That gave me pause, and I set my stein down. Did he have actual evidence? And if he did, why hadn’t he mentioned it in the meeting?

  “All pathogens have some kind of initial host. Some organic origin. In the case of the Black Death, it was foreign rats. This illness, though, it has no origin. As if it just appeared in the original vampire out of thin air.”

  “We are mythical creatures, Levi. One could argue we appeared out of thin air.”

  He snorted as he took another sip of his drink, and then frowned. “I need to stop drinking that. Why waste the stomach space?”

  I reached for his stein. “Well, I won’t let it go to waste. I happen to like it.”

  “You need to refine your tastes.” />
  I shrugged and took another swig, much larger than his little sip to prove my point. I didn’t flinch as I set the cup back down on the table with a satisfying thud.

  He hesitated, but otherwise didn’t react as he eyed me. “At any rate, we all have origins. Except maybe the Fae, who can trace their line back to the beginning.”

  “Do you think Tempest was around for some of the creations?”

  “Probably, but we’re getting off track.”

  “Well, by all means, keep us on this terribly interesting track.” I raised my glass to him, but he ignored my barb.

  “My point was that patient zero got sick out of nowhere.”

  “Most everyone does. They don’t set out to get a plague, Levi.”

  “No. I mean, she hadn’t recently traveled, or been exposed to someone who had. She hadn’t changed her diet or had any recent medical procedures. Nothing. She just came down with this horrible illness and died.”

  Much as I hated to admit it, that little tidbit gave me pause. It made it feel like anyone could be next. Anyone going about their normal everyday routine could be struck down. It was a reality the humans faced head-on. But vampires … we never had to face our mortality, save for those foolish few who got a thrill from fighting with the wrong crowd, and ended up with their heads separated from their shoulders.

  “What, um…” I struggled to formulate my next question. Asking about it would only dig me deeper into this rabbit hole I most certainly did not want to go down. Maybe it was the demon blood giving me more energy than I wanted at the moment, but something about that patient zero tugged at the back of my mind. Levi was patient while I formulated my thoughts into some kind of intelligent inquiry.

  “Levi, vampires don’t have medical procedures or get sick from our food. Unless we get into a particularly rotten demon, which is frankly our own fault. So it’s not unusual she seemed to have gotten sick out of nowhere. Vampires don’t get sick in the first place. What did she present with? Are the rumors accurate there?”

  “For the most part, yes. Some of the more gruesome details have been left out. But the gist of it was quick onset, a black patch appeared on the skin somewhere, and spread, turning the body to ash bit by bit. It’s not a pretty sight. And it claims its victims rapidly. Days. Not weeks like we would need to find or create a cure for it.”

  “What about Ed? Can he whip something up?”

  A frown formed as he looked down. “He’s been trying. No luck.”

  “Yet,” I said. “Besides, how long could he have been trying? That patient zero, as you called her. Emily, I believe her name was, has only been dead for a few days. Not even a week. Plus, all the so-called victims are spread so far apart, geographically. How can they leap to the conclusion they’re related?” I frowned into the empty and set it down on the stable, wishing there were more, but not wanting to spend any extra time with Levi to get another.

  “Because they are, Merry and you know it. Vampires don’t die of illness. That in itself is alarming. But that these victims died in the exact same way so far apart indicates something is up.” He paused for a moment, as if to let the point he was so certain was correct sink in. “The way the council is talking, every moment spent without a cure is a moment closer to it being out of control and eradicating our race.”

  I pushed my stool away from the high table and stood, tossing a few ones on the table for good measure. “Don’t tell me you believe that alarmist demon shit.”

  He stood and followed me out, but didn’t answer. At least not right away. As we stood out on the street, I pulled my coat tighter around me against the crisp night air. He looked at me earnestly, almost pleading with me.

  “We need you, Merry.”

  “Why, exactly? You already have a pretty stellar team of experts. One more will only clutter the inner workings of the machine. Especially a woman. Did you boys ever think of that? Four men and a woman? We’ll never get anything done. We’ll spend the entire time arguing about who wants to sleep with me first, and who’s jealous of whom. It sounds like an absolute nightmare.”

  He raised a dark eyebrow. “You assume we all want to get into your pants.”

  Internally, I slapped myself. Why did I say that? Why did I even go there? Okay, because I thought if I shocked him enough, he would get off my back. But it hadn’t worked. He was still standing there, looking at me expectantly, while I froze my fangs off.

  I decided walking confidently down this road was the best approach. “Yes, I do. But don’t make the same assumption about me.”

  The corners of his mouth twitched, but he maintained a mostly serious expression as he nodded. “Of course. I assure you we will all do our best to protect your…” He cleared his throat. “Um … your virtue.”

  “Oh, please. Do vampires even have virtue anymore?”

  “I’m sure your daughter does.”

  My daughter. I bristled at the mention of her. “How do you know about Sara?” It was unusual for vampires to have children, seeing as we were infertile. Although many covens considered themselves family, genuine blood bonds were rare. It wasn’t something I would ever wish on a child. Sara was trapped in a constant state of adolescence, a perpetual teenager, although she was several centuries old. She was doomed to live with her mother for the rest of her life. Never to be married, like she wanted when we were human, nor have a family of her own.

  But she did well for herself in spite of it. She was currently a scholar, studying the origins and weaknesses of demons. Any information she thought I might find useful, she passed along. A few of her little secrets had come in handy during my hunts.

  “Everyone knows about the world famous demon-hunter’s daughter. You’re a rare pair,” Levi said, trying to disarm me with his charm. His smile faded when he saw it wasn’t working. “All right, the council provided us with information on you the same way you were given information on us.”

  “I wasn’t given information on your family lives,” I pointed out.

  “That’s because none of us have one.”

  “You don’t belong to a coven?” I found that hard to believe. I’d settled into a coven once, but found it hard for both Sara and me to get along with everyone. In the end, I decided being on our own was best. I enjoyed the company of other races too much.

  “I’ve found covens to be rather isolating,” Levi said, as if he were finishing my thought.

  “I never did understand the exclusivity of a coven.”

  He looked over at me, acting like he wanted to reach for my hand. I panicked and took a step to the side, opening a gap between us before he smoothly said, “I never did either.”

  I stopped walking and shifted uncomfortably as he stood facing me. “Well, this is me.” I nodded to my left, pointing out the thin row home jammed between two others as I rested my hand on the iron gate out front.

  “Looks nice,” he said, but he was just being polite. Not much more than the door and a few windows was visible. My yard was covered in brown leaves with the onset of fall, the lone tree stripped of its greenery.

  Sara and I had lived in all kinds of homes over the centuries. This wasn’t my favorite of the lot. Once, we’d had a place in the country, with sprawling woods where we could wander without a care in the world. We’d lived on the beach for a while, and in the mountains. This city life, I wasn’t sure it was for me, but Sara seemed to like it. She’d made quite a few friends, and was furthering her research faster than ever. So, I tucked in my bottom lip and made the best of it.

  “It’s home,” I said as I looked at the dark brown front. No cozy porch with a rocking chair on this one. Just some brick steps leading up to a dark brown door that matched the rest of the house.

  “Indeed.” He held something out to me. It looked like a business card. “Here. Take this. If you have any questions, or just want to chat about finding a better place than that yeti piss spot of yours, call me.”

  I hesitated before taking the card out of obligation. He
must’ve seen my discomfort, because he chuckled a bit. “No need to feel like this is some kind of marriage contract, Ms. Young.”

  I looked up at him. “Merry.”

  His eyes softened. “Merry. It’s more of a lifeline. Should you need it.”

  I nodded. “Thank you. But I haven’t needed a lifeline in a very long time. I am the lifeline.”

  Sadness swept over his face. “Indeed you are.”

  Did he know something? The way he said it made me feel like … I wasn’t sure. Had Devlin told him some lie about my future?

  Before I could ask, he turned and walked away, leaving me alone in front of my dark home.

  A plague upon my house

  “Who was that?” Sara asked the second I came inside. I took my coat off. After I hung it in the closet by the door, I put my keys on the small round table and took my shoes off. While formulating an answer, I rounded the corner to our study.

  “More importantly, what did you think of him?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from an apocalyptic plague.

  “He seemed handsome, and he smiled at you a lot,” she pointed out.

  “That he did,” I said as I sat on the couch by the fire, pulling a blanket over my legs and wishing I had a cup of tea or something warm to sip while I thought about what Levi had said.

  “Mom?”

  “Hmm?” I asked, only half paying attention.

  “Who was that?” She’d turned her chair around and looked at me.

  “He was a vampire.”

  “Obviously. I mean, I’m surprised the humans don’t notice him.”

  “Apparently, he’s a charmer.”

  Mischief spread across her face, and I braced for the coming onslaught of assumptions and innuendos. “And did his charms work on you?”

  “Shockingly, no.”

  She frowned, her shoulders slumping. “Too bad. You could use a good tickle from a charmer.”