by Karen Mead
He was going to have to awaken her as a witch, whether either of them liked it or not.
Chapter Four
The rest of the vampires trickled in over the course of the evening. Liam gave Cassie a curt nod as he entered the shop, taking his favorite seat by the front window. Dmitri followed not much later, joining his friend for a quick game of chess while they waited for the shop to empty out. Though Liam was pale, tall and willowy while Dmitri had an olive complexion and a stocky build, it was obvious to anyone who cared to pay attention that the two were like brothers. Cassie didn’t know whether they had known each other during their human lives or not, but as vampires, they were practically inseparable.
Eugene and Billingsly arrived together, attracting plenty of stares from the customers. Eugene looked like a slightly portly gentleman of about 65, and he liked to wear loud, shabby-looking sport jackets, even though he could afford much better. In contrast, Billingsly only wore expensive sportswear, showing off his imposing frame to good advantage. With his glistening dark skin and huge muscles, he looked like a model for a bodybuilding magazine. Tonight he was clothed in a skin-tight lycra tank top and black jeans, making him look especially photo-ready. The two made an odd pair, but it was obvious from their body language that they had known each other for a long time.
Just a few minutes before closing, Nyesha walked into the café, causing Cassie to do a double-take. The former medical student tended to stay in her apartment, and Cassie barely ever saw her. The few times Nyesha had made an appearance at the shop, she tended to look down a lot and hunch over, as though she was trying to pull her entire body inwards somehow. That’s why, when a confident woman in a trench coat strode through the door, Cassie wasn’t sure for a moment if it was really Nyesha. Clad in a pair of tight white jeans, striking against her ebony skin, her hair done up in a classy French braid, the woman was almost unrecognizable. She had always been beautiful, but now, she looked polished and poised as well.
Cassie looked at Miri with a raised eyebrow, but Miri simply jumped up and embraced her friend.
“You’re late, Ny! What took you so long?”
With Nyesha actually standing at her full height, she towered over the redhead. “I was busy reading. I know that’s an alien concept to you,” she said as she pulled out of the hug.
Miri made a put-upon sound. “Cassie, tell her how much reading I did this week! I read all about the French Revolution and everything.”
Cassie took a final sip of her hot chocolate and thought about that. “Well, considering you only look at the textbook between periods and during lunch, I guess you read a lot.”
“That sounds about right,” said Nyesha, hanging her trench coat on the rack near the door. Miri made a pouty face.
“Traitor,” she said to Cassie with mock-despair.
“Attention, DG is closed for tonight,” Khalil projected cheerfully from behind the counter. “We open again tomorrow at 7 a.m. Have a great weekend, everybody.”
As the last few customers slowly made their way out of the store, Khalil and Sam began to do the final closing rituals, cleaning the floors and wiping down surfaces. Sam disappeared into the back, presumably to finish washing whatever plates were left. Soon, the only customer remaining was a tall man standing at the front counter with a half-empty cup in his right hand. Khalil turned away from the counter he was cleaning and addressed him, a pleasant smile on his face.
“Excuse me, sir, but we’re closed for tonight.”
“Do you know what extra hot means?” the man muttered under his breath. It was barely audible.
“What?”
“Do you KNOW what extra hot MEANS?” the man repeated, this time loudly and slowly as though he were talking to an imbecile.
“Uh…hotter than usual?” said Khalil, his smile becoming slightly strained.
“No, it means the drink is supposed to be steamed to 180 degrees. I can tell THIS—” he said, pointing to the cup in his hand with obvious disdain—“was not steamed past 160.”
Khalil lifted an eyebrow, but kept his tone friendly. “I see. Sorry about that. I can make you another drink right now, if you want.”
“No, I want a refund!” the man said, slamming his cup down on the counter. “I wanted it extra hot, it wasn’t, now I want my money back.”
“Uh…sir, I’m sorry, but we already closed the register, so I’m afraid I can’t….”
“Get me the manager,” said the man, crossing his arms and scrunching up his face at Khalil as though the man smelled bad.
As Khalil stood there formulating a response, Miri pranced in front of the customer, wearing her prettiest smile. “Just FYI? This is maybe the last place on earth you want to pull this sort of thing.”
“Get me the manager!” the man bellowed, ignoring Miri. “And if you can’t get me the manager, then I demand a number where I can reach your superior and—”
“We’re closed, go home,” Sam interjected, coming back into the café from the break room.
The man gritted his teeth, his face red with exertion. “You have to get me the manager! I’m a customer, and I have a—”
The irate customer was interrupted by a crack of thunder. The whole room seemed to vibrate with an unnatural energy.
“Go home NOW!” Sam yelled, dropping his disguise spell for a brief moment. The man gasped, put his hand over his mouth in fright, then turned on his heel and bolted out the door as fast as he could, whimpering all the while. After he was gone, Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes, which had returned to normal.
“I’m sorry, that was childish.”
“We’ll allow it,” said Eugene dryly.
“That guy was mean,” said Ethan, moving over to stand at Eugene’s side.
“Uh….” Sam started, looking over the assembled entourage. With the Buckleys (which now included Ethan), Cassie, Jay, Mike, Khalil and Serenus, it was almost a full gathering of the entourage. The only ones missing were Aeka, who almost never left her apartment, and Dwight, who was playing with his band at some club in Sodatown.
And Vladmira, Cassie supposed, if the little bat even counted as a member.
“Look, everyone sit down for a minute. This is a little complicated and I want to explain what we’re doing.”
As everyone began pulling over chairs, Miri walked up to Sam, hands behind her back with a big smile on her face. “So this is going to be educational, huh? You’re going to be the one educating me for a change?” she said in a mock-whisper.
Sam smiled and swatted her playfully, but she was too fast for him and scampered away. Cassie stopped in the middle of dragging a chair, suddenly feeling sick; something had changed between the two of them. There was an intimacy there, something very familiar about the way he smiled and went to touch her.
“You okay?” Jay asked. “You look all pale.”
“I-I’m fine,” Cassie said, moving her chair the last few feet and then plopping down into it. She looked down, head swimming. Were the two of them as close as they seemed, with everything that entailed? Or was she just reading too much into one tiny little interaction?
When everyone was seated in a semicircle—except for Sam, who was leaning against the counter—he cleared his throat. “So, based on some…information I’ve received, the binding ritual we did a while back was only one way of doing it. And not the most complete way.”
“That’s the only sort of binding ritual I’ve every participated in,” said Eugene.
“This dates back to before your time,” Sam explained.
“Does it now,” said Eugene, his expression unreadable.
“Apparently, back in the day, when demons and vampires formed a contract, it wasn’t just for the standard five years of service. They exchanged powers too.”
“But we already do that,” said Billingsly, his deep voice booming though the room. “When we make the contract, we get the power to alter mortal minds.”
“Yes, but that’s a freebie, so to speak,” Serenus interjec
ted. “To gain the full range of benefits of the contract—the ability to walk in the sun, the ability to eat food like a living creature—you have to renounce your ties to any former master, committing yourself fully to the demon you’ve chosen.”
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed that.
“I don’t get it,” Miri admitted.
“See, when you all contracted to me a month or so ago, you only did it partially,” Sam continued. “You were pledging your service to me for five years, no more and no less. But apparently, when I brought you back from death, Miri, I was claiming you as my own for good. And you received all the benefits associated with that.”
Mike leaned back in his chair. “I think I understand. So, Miri,” he said, turning to the redheaded vampire. “Before you were ‘killed’, you were running Sam’s magic as like, an application. But you were still running on Quentin OS, or the OS of whoever your demon was when you were made a vampire. After you were brought back, you were running pure Sam OS—you got the full upgrade.”
“Everything in the world can’t be explained with computers, Mike,” said Cassie.
“I don’t know about that,” said Serenus, scratching behind his ear. “After all, isn’t technology what humans have done to take the place of magic? Maybe it’s not surprising that the same concepts often apply.”
“In any case, you all have to renounce all of your former masters by name, swear your allegiance to me, and drink a drop of my blood,” Sam continued. “Once that’s done, you all should be able to walk in the sun again.”
“And eat food, don’t forget that part,” Miri chimed in.
“No one’s forgetting that,” Nyesha said.
Miri poked her friend in the arm. “Penne a la vodka. Penne a la vodka. Penne a la vodka.”
“I don’t need you to remind me!”
“Everyone, be careful,” said Eugene, standing up. “Only take the tiniest drop of the blood on the very tip of your tongue. We can’t handle much demon blood.”
“Cassie and Ethan, if you would,” Sam said, motioning for them to come to him.
Cassie took a deep breath, stood up and walked up to Sam. He held out his hand, which she took, and she felt that odd sensation of warmth leaving her body. Now that they’d spent the last month practicing this, the energy transfer didn’t leave her feeling tired like it used to, but it was still disconcerting. After he was done with her, he put his hand on Ethan’s head, and the boy closed his eyes. Cassie was curious why he didn’t use Ethan’s arm to draw magic like he did with her, but it didn’t seem like the time to ask.
After performing a quick cloaking spell to guard the shop’s interior from prying eyes, Sam took out his pocket knife and slit his palm open with a quick motion, making Cassie wince. “Line up, I guess.”
As the vampires lined up for the ritual, Cassie turned to Miri, who had no need to drink Sam’s blood. “I don’t get it. I thought vampires lived on the magic in blood. Why is demon blood so bad for you?”
“Too much of a good thing,” said Miri, watching Nyesha line up behind Billingsly with a worried expression on her face. “It’s like a drug, a little bit makes you feel great but too much and you could OD and die.”
“Do you want to drink it?” Mike asked, curious.
Miri scrunched up her small face. “Yes and no. It’s probably better that I don’t, since I kind of have an addictive personality.”
“Kind of?” Cassie echoed.
“Shut it.”
Before Liam, who was first in line, could kneel before Sam, there was a sound from the back—like someone, or something, was thrashing against the door of the break room. Sam closed his eyes.
“Oh for—could someone please let her in?”
Jay ran to the break room door and opened it, letting in Vladmira, who circled the room for a moment before setting on Sam’s shoulder. The little bat flapped her wings even after she had landed, like she was showing them off. Sam tilted his head to stop her wing from brushing against his ear.
“Couldn’t miss a party, huh?” said Sam, petting the creature gently with his non-bloody hand. Vladmira made a soft squeaking noise in response.
Without further ado, Liam knelt and began the ritual, keeping his light blue eyes fixed on Sam’s shoes.
“I renounce all of my ties with Thomas, son of Belial; Harold, son of Rosekiel; and Quentin, son of Asmodeus. I pledge my service, now and forever, to Samuel, son of Sammael,” he said. At that, Sam lowered his hand and Liam took the smallest drop of blood, using only the tip of his tongue as Eugene had instructed. He shuddered slightly as he swallowed, then stood back up and moved to the side so Eugene could take his place.
“I renounce all of my ties with Crocus, son of Zethiel; Caius, son of Kekul; Julius, son of Matariel; Groth, son of Asceliel; William, son of Zerael; Joseph, son of Belial; Theodore, son of Deomondiel—“
As Eugene continued, listing dozens of demonic masters, Cassie turned to Miri again. “Um, how old is Eugene, exactly?”
Miri shrugged. “I don’t really know either. I know he assumed the name ‘Buckley’ though. Back in his time, people didn’t really use last names.”
“Oh,” said Cassie, swallowing painfully. Just thinking about Eugene’s probable age seemed to hurt her brain.
After Nyesha, Billingsly and Dmitri had also completed the ritual, Sam took a deep breath. “I accept all of your pledges; I am yours, and now you are mine.” He mouthed a word Cassie didn’t recognize and closed his eyes. She was expecting a thunder clap, a vibration, anything, but instead there was silence in the room. The only sign that anything was happening was that Sam seemed unusually tense.
After a few moments, he resumed his normal posture and went behind the counter. It wasn’t until Cassie heard water running that she realized he’d went to go wash off his bloody hand.
The vampires all stood in an informal circle, like they were waiting for something to happen. Khalil, who had been watching the whole thing silently from his chair, addressed the group in general. “So, did it work?”
“Dunno. I don’t feel any different,” said Billingsly, after a pause.
“We won’t know until sunrise,” said Nyesha quietly. “We shouldn’t assume anything until then.”
“Yes, no one jump to any conclusions until we….” Eugene began, then suddenly inhaled and shuddered. The motion surprised Cassie; it seemed so very unlike him. “Good lord, does anyone else smell that?”
“Smell what?” said Nyesha, then her nostrils flared. “Oh, my God. It’s cinnamon. It’s cinnamon, and sugar, and…and.…”
They all began sniffing the air, dumbstruck. Liam staggered back, like he’d just been punched in the gut. “What is it? WHERE IS IT?”
“There,” said Miri, pointing to a tray containing a slice of cinnamon crumb cake on top of the pastry display. “You’re all smelling the cakes and—”
In her time as a demon’s familiar, Cassie had seen a lot of bizarre things. But she had to admit; seeing five vampires converge on the pastry case, ravenously tearing into cakes and tarts with their fangs, was in a class all its own.
***
The Buckleys didn’t stop eating until the pastry case was almost empty. Eventually, they all collapsed, holding their stomachs and sighing contentedly. Finally, Ethan broke the silence.
“Can I have a cookie now?”
Khalil blinked a few times as though waking from a trance. Watching the vampires devour all the food had been captivating. “Sure, buddy. You can pick one from whatever’s left.”
“What was the white one with all those little bits in it?” asked Billingsly from his place on the floor.
“White chocolate macademia nut cookie,” said Cassie.
The muscular vampire chuckled. “We didn’t have those, back when I was eating food.”
“Such a wide variety of strange little dishes you have in this day and age,” Eugene added. “In my day, it was different…you had much fewer things to choose from. A l
eg of mutton, a hunk of simple bread, spiced wine…” he trailed off, a faraway look coming into his eyes.
Billingsly balanced himself on his elbow, looking at his elder with a glint in his eye. “Are you sure they didn't have all those different foods back then? Maybe they had ‘em, and you were just too poor to eat any of it.”
Eugene laughed out loud at that. “It was probably a little of both.”
“It’s strange. Why wouldn’t every vampire want this?” said Dmitri, leaning back in his chair. “I don’t see why such a practice would have fallen out of use.”
“Probably because it doesn’t work, most of the time,” Serenus said. “You have to keep it quiet, too; if word of this gets out….”
“Then vampires from all over the world are going to be knocking down your door,” Nyesha finished.
“And utter bedlam would follow. We understand; we will do whatever is necessary to keep the secret,” said Eugene, standing up with far more grace than his pudgy body seemed capable of. “It is the least we can do to show our appreciation to such a generous master.”
“If you call me that one more time, I swear I’m going to hit you,” said Sam. “I don’t care that you’re my elder.”
“Then what should I call you?”
“Sam.”
“That’s far too casual an address, even if you choose to allow it,” said Buckley. “It would be…very uncomfortable.”
“Well, you’re making me uncomfortable,” said Sam.
Eugene looked downright puzzled at that.
“I…see.”
“Remember everyone, don’t forget to also feed normally, ok?” Miri interjected. “When I started eating food again I felt full for a while and didn’t bother to feed, then I got super-hungry and went on a blood binge. You still need to feed normally two times a week, at least.”
“Yes, Momma,” said Billingsly.
Ethan yawned around his mouthful of cookie, and Eugene extended a hand to him. “Come, boy, it’s past time for you to go to sleep. And I plan to wake you up early so we can watch the sun rise together.”
