Random Acts of Sorcery (The Familiar Series Book 3)

by Karen Mead

  “No,” said Sam quickly. He couldn’t prove that it was impossible, but he refused to believe that an angel would use a group of mentally ill vampire victims as tools to commit mass murder.

  Angels attack like Aeka; up close and brutal, with no hesitation whatsoever. Manipulating in the shadows is a demon’s game. Isn’t it?

  They heard the door open, indicating that Miri and Dmitri were back with the luggage. When they also heard a child’s voice that wasn’t Ethan’s, both men exchanged concerned glances.

  “She’d better be here,” the boy said in a serious tone. It sounded almost like he was threatening them.

  Sam was about to ask who the child was, until the boy fixed his blue eyes on him. That must be Cassie’s brother, Hunter. Why would they ever bring him here?

  He looked at Miri with a quizzical expression, but before she could respond, dragging a bunch of suitcases behind her, the boy addressed him. “Are you Cassie’s boyfriend?” he asked. He said ‘boyfriend’ as though it were a dirty word.

  “No, I’m…her friend. What can I do for you, Hunter?”

  The boy was glaring at him. It was strange, seeing that same glare in a face that wasn’t Cassie’s. “What have you done with my sister?”

  “Hunter!” Cassie called, running down the stairs. “Why? Why did you bring him here?”

  Miri dropped a bunch of bags on the carpeting. “Well, we didn’t really have much of a choice.”

  Dmitri walked over to where Sam and Eugene were standing and spoke, his voice so low that only they could hear. “He confronted us. It was either bring him or tamper with his mind, which we would not do.”

  Sam understood, but Eugene looked livid. “Wonderful. Be sure to let me know the next time your arbitrary morals may get in the way of doing the job you were assigned to do,” he said in a furious whisper. Dmitri took the rebuke without expression or comment.

  Cassie, still wearing the dated white dress, grabbed her little brother’s shoulders. “You can’t stay here, okay? You need to go home with Mom and Dad, I have to go somewhere—”

  “Why are you never home anymore?” Hunter interrupted her. “Why does Mom act like I’m not there? What are all these people doing to you?” he asked looking around.

  Cassie seemed at a loss at the depth of her brother’s emotion. “They’re not doing anything to me.”

  “You’re LYING!” he said, yelling in her face. “You’re not the same, you’re not my sister!”

  He went to hit her, but Miri grabbed him before he could belt his sister one. “Whoah, squirt. You’d better get this violence thing under control before you hit puberty.”

  “Lemme go! Lemme go!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Cassie watched him thrash in Miri’s thin arms with all his might. To Sam, it seemed like his familiar was on the verge of tears.

  Sam walked behind her and lowered his head so he could whisper in her ear. “You know, we can take him with us. Seems like he’ll be hysterical if we leave him.”

  Cassie shook her head. “I don’t want him at court, it’s not safe. We should…we should make him forget about me.”

  “Maybe,” said Sam. “But then I have to make one of the Buckleys brainwash a child.”

  Hunter seemed to have exhausted himself in his struggle, and instead lay limp in Miri’s arms.

  “I want him safe,” Cassie snapped, with a demanding tone he was unused to from her.

  Sam had to sigh at that. “Will he be safe here? The Seraph may have more men we haven’t seen yet.”

  At that, Cassie did cry, a single tear running down her face. “You’re right. He’s never safe, just because he’s my brother.”

  With that, she grabbed Hunter out of Miri’s arms (the vampire let go easily) and wrapped him in a fierce hug. The boy’s eyes widened in surprise; apparently, Cassie didn’t show him physical affection too often.

  I know the feeling, Sam couldn’t help thinking.

  He could tell she was crying from the sound of her voice, but still, she spoke clearly and with purpose. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry there were so many things I didn’t tell you all these months. I was just afraid for you, okay? I was so afraid that you were going to get hurt because of me, that I was the worst sister ever. I’m so sorry.”

  Hunter tried to pull a stoic face, but in a moment, his eyes were filling with tears too. “Cassie what happened why is everything so quiet and weird, no one talks to me anymore and—”

  “I’m going to tell you the truth, starting now, okay?” She stood up and took a deep breath. “It’s complicated but…here’s the gist. I’m a witch, see?” she said, pointing to herself. “And he’s a demon.”

  Sam dropped his disguise spell for a moment, and the expression in the boy’s eyes went from sadness to wide-eyed wonder.

  “And these are vampires,” Cassie said, gesturing to Miri and Dmitri. Both smiled and showed their fangs.

  Hunter seemed to consider all that for a moment. He sniffed. “Okay,” he said.

  Cassie didn’t seem to believe what he had said for a moment. “Okay? Really? That’s all you’re going to say?”

  “Mom hasn’t yelled at me since February,” Hunter explained. “I knew it had to be something really, really weird.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Dwight was surprised that Miri and Dmitri had been able find anything in the mess that was his apartment, but everything he’d asked for seemed to be in order. Snippets of conversation wafted around him as he looked through his belongings.

  “You guys can hand in your assignments next week, and if any of your teachers give you crap, I’ll just drop in and straighten them out,” Miri was saying cheerfully. “Don’t be stressed out at court over something as silly as school.”

  Cassie’s voice sounded pained. “Why did I not think of that in the first place?”

  Dwight stood up, satisfied with the contents of his overnight bag. Everyone was gathered in the living room, doing last-minute checks before heading out to Las Vegas. Everything seemed normal, until Dwight caught sight of a boy he didn’t recognize standing next to Ethan by the baby grand piano.

  He pulled at Khalil’s sleeve. “Hey, why do we have another kid all of a sudden?”

  “Cassie’s brother,” said Khalil, throwing his own bag over his shoulder. “This used to be such an exclusive club, now they just let anybody in. It’s outrageous, I say.”

  There do seem to be an awful lot of us now, thought Dwight. Didn’t this all start with just me, Cassie, Sam and Khalil at DG one day?

  Sam was the last to appear downstairs, holding an expensive leather suitcase that Dwight doubted the man owned. He exchanged a few words with Eugene at the bottom of the stairs, but they were too quiet for Dwight to make out what they were saying.

  “Yo, boss man!” Khalil yelled over the din. “When’s our flight?”

  “We’re not taking a plane.”

  “Huh?” said Khalil, along with several others.

  Sam put his hands in his pockets, then seemed to realize that looked wishy-washy and put his hands at his sides instead. “With the Seraph and her people possibly still around, getting on a plane seems like an unnecessary risk; they use suicide bombers. I’m just going to take us all there, through Realm of course.”

  “Wow!” yelled Ethan. “We’re going to the Demon Realm!”

  “What’s the Demon Realm?” asked Hunter.

  “It’s a realm where the demons live.”

  “I knew THAT, stupid.”

  Ethan flushed.

  “I’m not stupid, you’re stupid!”

  “Boys, quiet,” said Eugene in a withering tone, but his face showed some amusement.

  Next to Dwight, Khalil shifted nervously and scratched his earlobe. “Err, Sam, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Demon Realm also known as…Hell?”

  “Well, yes,” said Sam, only sounding a little defensive. “But I won’t take us to any of the dangerous places. I know where it’s safe to pop in.”

 
“The one time I was there, I thought my skin was going to burn off,” said Cassie, looking less than thrilled. Sam gave her an impatient look.

  “That was just because my father was being insufferable. Anyway. Everyone ready to go?”

  “Whoah, whoah, stop this ride, I want to get off,” said Khalil. He took his overnight bag off his shoulder and dropped it on the floor. “I didn’t really plan on going to Hell until after I was dead, thanks. Maybe I’ll sit this one out.”

  “Are you sure you can handle this many people?” Miri asked Sam. Dwight was glad she had asked, because he had wanted to.

  Sam shrugged mildly. “Going to Realm was only hard the first two or three times I did it, now it’s easy. Taking some people with me is just a little bit of extra work.”

  Dwight looked at his employee and frowned. He’s getting so used to this, using greater and greater magic, that he doesn’t even notice it anymore. How long until he can’t show up at the shop and even pretend to be human anymore? Because he can’t keep doing this and stay the same, no one could.

  Khalil’s grand protestations were being ignored, and he was not happy about it. “I see how beside yourselves you all are that I’ve decided not to go,” he muttered.

  “Oh c’mon,” said Miri, walking up to him and hugging his arm. “You’re going.”

  “I’m not going through Hell.”

  “You are. You wouldn’t turn down a free trip to Vegas even if there were seven Hells.”

  Khalil seemed to consider that, then picked up his overnight bag again. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.” Miri kissed his cheek.

  “Everybody, stand in a circle and hold hands. I know it’s a little hard with the luggage, but it’s easier that way.”

  There was a shuffling as everyone changed position to get into the circle. Dwight found himself standing between Khalil and Mike.

  “Shall we sing Kum Ba Ya?” asked Dmitri. Lately, the olive-skinned vampire seemed to be relaxing more, being his true self around them rather than just playing the role of the stoic, professional bodyguard. Dwight found he liked the guy; he was like Khalil, only less…everything.

  “Sing that song, and I really will drop you in a fiery pit,” Sam said. He seemed to realize immediately after he said it that maybe that joke hadn’t been the wisest thing to say, considering they were all nervous about having to cut through Hell anyway, but pressed on. “Ready?”

  “Wait,” said Cassie. “Aeka, come join the circle.”

  The girl was standing back from the group with a sullen expression on her face. However, after looking at Cassie’s face for a moment, she slowly went to join the circle, taking a place between Cassie and Jay.

  “Okay,” said Sam, then his lips moved again, but Dwight couldn’t make out he was saying.

  Dwight felt his vision grey out, like he was about to faint. For a second, everything in the world seemed to go black, causing a moment of panic. But then, multicolored light started to filter in his peripheral vision, and feeling a twitch in his eye, he blinked. When he opened his eyes, he was somewhere new.

  The whole group was staring in awe at their new surroundings. They were all standing on a beach, the kind with fine-grained white sand and abundant palm trees, each tree weighed down with huge coconuts. The sea was that perfect, hybrid blue-green color that was usually only possible near the equator, and there was nothing to see for miles but tropical paradise. Only strange, undulating black and red streaks in the sky marked the area as somewhere out of the ordinary. Dwight had a sudden urge to kick off his shoes and socks and feel the sand between his toes, and it was really difficult to resist.

  For all the beauty of their surroundings, Sam looked puzzled. “That’s…odd….” he started.

  Khalil made a pained sound. “Don’t say things that will give me a heart attack, please. Are we okay or not?”

  “We’re fine,” said Sam, his eyes taking in the scene before him as though he didn’t quite believe it. “It’s just, when I did a test run of this trip earlier today, this place was a meadow, not a beach.”

  Everyone seemed to think about that for a moment, still holding hands in their somewhat messy circle.

  “You mean, terrain in this area can change at a moment’s notice, and you dragged us all here without knowing that?” asked John, but his tone made it clear that it was more of an accusation than a question.

  “We all totally could have been dropped into a pit full of lava,” said Mike.

  “No, I would never have let that happen,” Sam said quickly, but Dwight could tell from his face that he wasn’t so sure Mike wasn’t correct. “A-anyway, this is the halfway mark. Everyone take a deep breath, and I’ll take us the rest of the way.”

  Before Dwight had a chance to breathe though, his vision had greyed out again. He was puzzled by the fact that he didn’t seem to be moving at all; in the blackness, he saw soft lights going by as they passed…something, but he would have sworn he was standing still.

  This time, he had decided not to blink and see just what it looked like when they arrived at their destination, only the itch in his eye grew unendurable and he found that he had to blink. For that reason, he was somewhat disappointed when he opened his eyes and found they were already in their Las Vegas suite.

  If anything, the accommodations were even more impressive than the upscale New York hotel the entourage had stayed at in the fall. The walls were painted dark blue, and all the furniture was in shades of navy, green and grey. Half the surfaces seemed to shimmer with hints of iridescent colors like strips of abalone, and water was everywhere; in the chair cushions (which were like tiny waterbeds), in the walls, and on the tables, where tropical fish in brilliant colors swum in spacious, decorative bowls. The main coffee table was actually a giant fish tank, filled with small fish, starfish and seahorses, and on it were laid all manner of refreshments, including sushi.

  Sam released their hands and gestured to the room. “Welcome to The Laguna, newest hotel on the strip. As you may have already surmised, it has an undersea theme.”

  Khalil backed up and whistled. “I’ll say. It’s like being in one of those fancy castles at the bottom of a fish tank. A really pretty fish tank.”

  Cassie’s brother looked a little pale. “So can you just go wherever you want to like this? Can you go to Disney World?”

  “I hate Disney World,” Sam said reflexively, then looked around. “I’d love to say you’re all free to roam the hotel, but we actually haven’t checked in yet. I’ll pick up all the keys on our way back from court registration. Everyone, just make yourselves comfortable here for a little while.”

  Cassie dropped her overnight bag and groaned. Dwight didn’t know exactly what registration entailed, but he was pretty sure it involved shaking hands with a lot of demons. He didn’t blame her for dreading it; he was secretly thrilled he didn’t have to go. Sometimes, it was nice being unimportant.

  People started filing out of the central living room to explore the suite and find bedrooms, but Ethan hadn’t moved. “Do I have to go to check-in?” he asked.

  Sam hesitated for a moment. “No. Pascal can’t do anything to you, but I don’t see a point to making you go downstairs where you might have to see his ugly face. Go steal a bed before they’re all gone.” Ethan grinned at that and scurried away.

  Dwight dropped his bag in a corner and reached for some of the sushi on the table. Rather than fight with the others over beds, he figured he’d wait for the rush to be over and then grab whatever was left. Curious, he wandered over to the glass doors on the far side of the room as he chewed to see where they led. On the other side was a small balcony, overlooking a swimming pool several stories below. For one playful moment, Dwight thought it would be fun to jump from the balcony straight into the pool far below, then chuckled softly to himself and went back inside.

  Soon he, Sam, Cassie and John were the only ones left in the central room. The teacher was standing around, a little awed and seemingly unsure what to
do with himself.

  “Hey, Mr. G—John,” said Cassie, obviously not used to calling the man by his first name. “Do you want to come with us to check-in?”

  At that, John was startled out of his revelry. “What? I can go with you?”

  “Why?” said Sam with a sour expression. Cassie shrugged.

  “Well, he said he always really wanted to go to court. Someone should be happy doing all the mingling.”

  It was fun, watching the interplay of emotion on John’s face. It was clear he desperately wanted to go, but he didn’t want to make it obvious to Sam that he desperately wanted to go, so he aimed for a tone of nonchalance that may have been convincing to someone, but not very. Dwight was mildly surprised, because he’d figured the teacher for a better liar.

  “If you wouldn’t mind the company, then I suppose I may as well,” he said dully, but his eyes were full of anticipation behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

  Sam shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  The three of them made their way to the front desk of The Laguna. It was, unsurprisingly, positioned in front of a giant aquarium, which featured a dozen varieties of vibrantly colored, glistening fish that Cassie had never seen before. She knew hotel/casinos made a lot of money, but she had to wonder how much this place spent on fish food every day; their commitment to this undersea theme seemed a tad excessive.

  “Hello. Andrews party, reserved for the Dolphin Suite,” said Sam. A woman in a sea green evening gown did some typing on a keyboard, her lacquered nails making delicate clicking noises. “Yes, Mr. Andrews, I have you right here. Here are your keys.”

  “I also need to check in for the dental convention,” Sam continued, taking the bag of keycards off the desk. “Where are they holding registration?”

  “Which dental convention are you here for?” she asked quickly.

  Sam paused for a second at that. “There’s more than one?”

  “Yes.” She took a deep breath, and Cassie could tell that she had repeated what she was about to say at least 20 times before. “There are two organizations holding conventions at The Laguna this weekend: The Greater American Society of Dental Professionals, and the SouthWest Dentists and Orthodontists Association. Which convention are you here for?”