by Al K. Line
"How long has she been gone, Kate?"
"Two days as far as I can tell, maybe three. But most likely it's two."
"And why does Rikka believe vampires are involved?" I tried not to make it come out nasty. After all, Kate's a vampire too. A young one, three years only, and me and Grandma are the ones that saved her. We have been as close as family ever since. I wanted more the moment I laid eyes on her, and felt the relationship get closer, but me being me I never acted on it, too afraid of rejection, of losing a friend.
"Because they found a human sucked dry in here," said one of the twins.
"What? Where?" I looked around the room but it was the same as usual. Chaotic, dried herbs hanging all over the place, pots and pans on racks, dressers with plates on display—although I have never understood why you would want to show off ordinary plates like that—everything clean and orderly, but too busy for my taste.
The large table was scrubbed and clean as always, all knick-knacks dusted and lined up perfectly. The only thing I could think of that was missing was a rug from the floor. "There?" I nodded at where the rug had been and the twins grunted.
Kate brought over the tea and placed a bowl of sugar and the bottle of milk on the table. I went to grab mine but my hands were shaking. I was losing it, and the ink was itching something terrible.
"Let me do it," said Kate, putting her hand over mine. It would have been a nice intimate moment if it wasn't for the twins and the fact Grandma was missing.
"Thanks." I leaned forward so I could take my jacket off. I was too hot and my skin was ready to erupt. With my arms exposed, veins thick as snakes, skin tight against what muscle I had, tattoos as black as an old vampire's heart practically screamed at me. They wriggled and crawled across my body, full of dark magic that showed no sign of dissipating. I was edgy, nervy, in a real state.
Kate looked at me with concern. Even the twins appeared worried, and they never worried about anything. They were normally as expressive as a pair of trolls in a "show no emotion" competition, but I swear they scraped their chairs back across the floor. Grandma would scold them for that. Lift it boys, lift it.
Sickness bent me forward as I breathed deeply to let the dark magic I'd drawn dissipate back into the Empty. I was too strung out to feel the full effect, wired and ready to rain down dark vengeance on the world.
"Okay, let's take this from the beginning. Kate, you said on the bus that everyone is accusing everyone else. When did this all happen? Who was found dead here? Are there any clues and what—"
"Faz, it's okay. We'll find her. First things first. What are you two doing here?" We both turned our attention to the twins. Kate may be a part of their world, and tied to the most powerful vampire in the UK, Taavi, because her maker, the man I killed, had been his too, but she has no loyalty to him, or them. She is her own woman, a modern gal, and she has done a great job of living a relatively normal life. If you call hanging around with vampires, dark magic enforcers, imps, trolls, shifters, necromancers and the like a normal life.
Nobody's life is perfect, right?
The twins moved their arms in unison, stretching out their backs like they had identical cricks, flexing their lats like they were ready for a workout—something they did enough of already. One went to speak but I interrupted before a word was spoken.
"Okay, look, if we are going to have a conversation then which one is which? It drives me nuts."
They looked at me like I was simple. "I'm Bret," said Bret.
"I'm Bart," said Bart.
"Okay, good. So, why are you here?" I really wanted to smash their faces, but now I'd calmed down I realized what a bad idea it was. These guys are hardcore vampires. You don't become Taavi's men on the street without being seriously old and strong. They could handle the daylight too, rare for those of their age.
"We told you," said Bret, sipping his tea and nodding approvingly at Kate. I thought I caught a slight look of admiration—she has that effect on men. "Taavi sent us."
"Why?" asked Kate.
"To see if we could find any clues."
"Clues! You're goons. Why didn't he send one of his specialists? He has people for things like this."
They both shrugged. "We do as we're told. We came to see if we could find anything. Nobody wants a war. Taavi is not happy though."
"I bet. Well, have you found anything?"
"No," said Bart. "We don't know what to look for."
These guys, they would be the death of me. What was Taavi thinking?
"Who killed the girl? And who was she?"
"Just some girl," said Bret. "Who cares. She was a human."
"It was Matilda, Faz, the witch in training. A sweet girl."
I knew her. She was a good kid. Keen to learn, always asking questions and making herself useful.
"Like I said, just a human," said Bret with a shrug. He didn't care; it wasn't important.
"I'm going to kill you, both of you. Right now." I sank deep in an instant, felt dark and terrible magic engulf me as I called to the air and pounded them back into their chairs as they began to rise.
Just a Human
I may have lost the plot a little. If they were going to be evil then I could be evil too.
Yes, I know vampires survive by feeding off Regulars, and I have taken Kate to locations where the sole intent is for her to feed, but her victims—if you can call them that—are bad people, carefully selected, and even that is such a hard thing to do, never mind that they deserve it.
With most vampires they have no such morals, not those that survive and thrive. They need the blood magic contained within us all to be what they are, and the longer they live the more often they need to feed.
I was in no state to hear such callous words from the twins. I was in no state to hear anything but Grandma telling me off for not eating enough.
Before I knew what I was doing I pushed back my chair, knocked the table hard, spilling tea everywhere—she would definitely tell me off for that—and shot upright, muttering under my breath about what I would do, calling forth the Empty so it surged through my body, tattoos expanding painfully like they were inflated with the power of the entire Empty. My mind turned blank, and black.
My power and control over the Empty pummeled the twins. They fought to stand, but I was lost to my fury and my rage overwhelmed me. I'm not prone to such outbursts, but their offhand remarks pushed me over the edge. I was out of control and didn't care about the consequences.
Magic comes in many forms, but for human beings, or ex human beings, it all comes down to one thing: control. I have mastered many aspects of dark magic, and learned many things from my teachers, Mage Rikka and Grandma. I know secret words and how to move my fingers and arms in interesting and spectacular ways, but the more you learn, the more you realize that is all nonsense—tricks, not the truth at the heart of what it is to become a wizard.
It's what happens inside of you that controls the magic. Words, or clever finger manipulations, are nothing but ways to get you into the zone, to focus your mind and direct your thoughts as energy. A way to control it.
You direct the magic through focus, and once you know what you are doing, really know, then you don't need to say anything, or wiggle your fingers. You think it and then you do it. It happens.
During my long life, spread over two centuries, I have conquered many variants of the dark arts. I can summon spirits of the dead, or demons. I can warp the minds of Regulars, direct the air to protect myself from attack with a bubble of impenetrable magic, and I can crush the bodies of men with a thought, like they are at the bottom of the deepest ocean with the weight of the world above them.
Or, I can make it really nasty.
The twins fought to stand, but my magic swirled and hammered at them in black sparks of evil that danced in the air and scratched at the calloused veneer of reality as energy left my body and pushed at the twins like black hands of death. Their faces contorted and their muscles strained against the weig
ht as they battled the pure rage and hate-filled energy above them
Their hands were on the table, fingers splayed and knuckles white. Normally stoic and pale faces grew red as veins in their foreheads protruded like garden hoses ready to spring a leak.
Then they were up, massive bodies wired by blood magic accumulated over centuries finally breaking free of my fury. I drew the magic back inside of myself, let it swirl and dance through my body, out of control and wild.
My hands clapped together, loud and crisp as a bird cry in an empty sky. The air cracked open, a split in reality with a fractal tear of blackness linking me to the twins. Uncaring, I let my magic pour out of my hands, my eyes, my mouth, converging at their minds and I drew back then breathed deep.
Their blood magic ebbed away, leaking into the Empty, but mostly coming to me, where I gathered it up, ready to leave them as nothing but desiccated corpses. All their accumulated magic would be gone and their bodies would revert to their true age, where they would long ago have died.
They snarled, revealing sharp canines as they fought me, caught my eyes in my overconfidence and I faltered, not glamored but the will was gone, the madness receding. I let go. The world returned, the emptiness faded, and I gave back what I had taken.
The twins were across the table in a flash, moving impossibly fast as all vampires can, now on all fours and inches from my face, one either side of my head, ready to bite into my neck in a double act of revenge for my abuse.
Before I was lost to the sickness, always a result of strong magic use, I shouted, "No," and purged myself of the vestiges of magic inside of me, directed it at the massive frames of the twins, and they slid back across the table and onto their chairs like a video on rewind.
"More tea?" asked Kate, smiling nervously at me then the twins, who seethed but remained seated.
I leaned to the side and coughed up darkness and pain in gobbets of wispy magic that fizzled and sparked as it returned to the Empty. "That... would... be nice," I managed, staring at the twins with eyes I knew were black and flecked with silver sparks of hate.
The twins nodded then glared at me.
"Right, now you boys have got that out of you system, how about we find out WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO GRANDMA!" We all turned at Kate's outburst. She's a lady, she doesn't shout like that. "Good. Now, what else did Taavi tell you to do here?"
She's a clever woman, and I love her. Even if she is a vampire. Maybe even because she is.
A battle of the stares continued for a while across the table, then I sighed and pushed back my chair. The twins were up in a flash, canines bared and ready to fight.
"I'm just getting a cloth for the spilled tea. Calm down." I pulled a blue and white checkered cloth from the drawer, ran it under the tap, then cleaned up the table until Grandma would have been proud.
I rinsed it then hung it over the tap at the sink. Such a strange act of normalcy; it felt entirely surreal. There I was, feeling sick to my stomach from magic use, black tattoos pulsing and writhing across my bare arms, and I was doing chores. I also realized I'd got tea on my white shirt. Note to self: stick to red. It's safer and costs less for dry-cleaning.
My body was too hyped to sit back down so I leaned against the counter, trying not to act like I was about to lose the plot again. "Okay, let's get this into some kind of order. You guys have had a look around, right?" They nodded, their anger still visible. "And have you found anything?" They shook their heads. "Have you moved anything?" Again, they shook. "So, the place hasn't been messed up or anything like that. Kate, when did you first know Grandma was missing?"
Kate sipped on her tea then said, "It was two days ago. I got a call from Aunt Bethel. She wanted to get hold of you but you weren't answering your phone." She looked at me with no accusation but I felt more guilt than I had in my entire life at that moment. Would I have been able to find Grandma, save her, if I'd answered? "She and some of the other witches were supposed to meet here for one of their usual get-togethers, but Grandma was nowhere to be found. She's always here so they tried you, then me."
"And nobody has seen or heard from her since?"
"No. Nobody I've been able to talk to anyway. I went and saw Aunt Bethel, but she said she hadn't seen Grandma for a week or more, and no one else had seen her for a few days before she went missing."
"God, what a nightmare. What the hell is going on here?" People come and go regularly from Grandma's. Clients that pay well for her counsel and her potions, others that get what they need for free. Friends, other witches looking for advice or a chat in-between whatever they do to make ends meet. But sometimes it can be days and days without her seeing another living soul, although I always try to pop in as often as I can.
She likes the peace as much as she likes company. She can potter about, perfecting potions, tending her stunning herb garden, giving the house a clean.
"Okay, who found the body of Matilda?"
"I did," said Kate. "When I began to worry, I used the key under that fake rock she has. Which is a really bad idea."
"I know. I've told her about it countless times. She wouldn't listen though, always saying that if someone wanted to break in it would be better if they used a key rather than smashed a window."
"When I came inside, the place was like this, all clean and tidy, nothing on the stove. Just the body of Matilda and that was it."
"And you called the vampires?"
"What? No! I called Rikka, but before he arrived so did Oliver."
"Oliver. Ugh." I'd had a run-in with Oliver recently. He'd been told to follow me around while I dealt with the Armenian and a little mess I'd inadvertently made, and it hadn't ended well. He was Taavi's right-hand man for a lot of day-to-day business, and I did not like him. "Vampire grapevine, right?"
Kate nodded. "He was here when Rikka arrived, in person, and they didn't get on too well."
"I can imagine. Then what?"
"Oliver dealt with the body, before Rikka arrived, and he wasn't happy."
"Wonder why? So the poor girl's parents have no body to bury. Oliver just took her?"
"Afraid so. Rikka was livid, said he could have got Dancer to do his, you know, and bring her back and find out what happened."
"No chance of that now. I bet Rikka was furious. Those poor parents. That poor girl. Has anyone been to see them?" I couldn't imagine what they were going through, and to not even have her to mourn over would make it even harder.
"Aunt Bethel and a few of the others went around and explained. They're all up in arms, Faz. All the witches are seriously annoyed at what Oliver did, and they know it was under Taavi's instruction. Not to mention the fact they think he is covering up something ordered by him in the first place, or one of us at any rate."
"Okay, well, we can rule out Taavi, I guess. He's not so stupid as to kill a girl then leave her to be found and have the finger pointed at him. So it's a rogue vampire, or someone that lost control and now isn't owning up. But what about Grandma? Any clues at all?"
"It's why we are here," said Bret or Bart. They'd got confused in the row, now I didn't know which was which again.
"And you have nothing. It's time for you to leave." I wasn't joking. They were still in the house I spent much of my adolescence in. These men were not welcome.
The twins stood, angry yet knowing that staying would do no good.
"If you hear anything you are to call Taavi," said one.
"When I find Grandma I will do as I damn well please. Out!"
They zipped up their sweatshirts and with a nod at Kate, but ignoring me, they left.
"Ow. What they hell!?"
"What is wrong with you? They could have ripped you to shreds then how would we find Grandma?"
"Sorry, I lost it a little. But don't worry, I can take them if I have to."
"Ooh, big tough guy aren't we?"
"I'm sorry, I got upset."
"You need to get a grip, Faz. Grandma is missing and... Oh, sorry."
Kate w
rapped her arms around me and whispered in my ear as I cried and my body shook and I felt empty inside like there was nothing left of my life.
Not Grandma. She couldn't be gone. She was the only constant in my life and I could not lose her. Not then. Not ever.
"It's okay. We'll find her. Don't you worry."
"Why didn't you come and get me sooner, Kate? Why didn't Rikka come and tell me straight away?" I wiped my eyes, and stood back from her, even though I wanted to stay held and warm forever.
"Because we knew you'd react like this, Faz. Look, we did all we could, figured she would turn up and she would be fine. She often goes missing for days at a time, off on one of her expeditions. You know how she is. And, well, to be honest we thought maybe it would be better not to tell you and she would turn up."
"What! Even with a dead girl in the house? And why wouldn't you tell me?"
"Because you'd overreact and go nuts, like you just did with the twins. Just because Matilda was found here it doesn't mean anything bad has happened to Grandma. You know what this place is like. People come and go all the time."
"That doesn't include vampires. You know how she feels about them." I saw the anguish, like a slap to the face. Me and my big mouth. "You know she loves you, Kate. I meant the others. Other vampires. Ugh, sorry."
"I know, but it still hurts, Faz. I know what my kind... because they are my kind now, whether I like it or not. I know what they did to your family. I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not your fault. It was a long time ago, and she loves you. I do, too." I stared into those beautiful eyes and saw all the pain, the hurt, the difficulty of her being who, what, she now was. It was no easy thing, but she was brave. Strong. Stronger than me. "Okay, you didn't come see me because you thought I'd interfere and make things worse, right?" She nodded. "But Rikka has managed that on his own, and so have the vampires. So you came to get me."
"Right. We have to fix this, Faz. It's gone too crazy. They're all going to get themselves killed."
"And the rest of us, too."
"Exactly. Come on, I have an idea."
