Vampire Campfire

by Clare Kauter

  I’d reached the edge of the trees by now and I tried to clear my mind. Now was not time to worry about my relationship with Henry, or lack thereof. That would have to come later. Preferably never. I could suppress my emotions. Of course, whenever I tried that they did tend to burst out at the seams, usually in the form of deadly purple energy streams, but that, too, was a problem for another day.

  I hoped.

  The grass outside the forest crunched underfoot, already covered with frost, but once I was amongst a denser patch of trees, the shelter stopped ice from forming. I moved slowly, carefully, even though I knew exactly where I was headed. I had an orb of light floating in front of me, casting a mauve hue on the area around me, and I was feeling the forest for energy to make sure no one was nearby. I didn’t want anyone to stumble upon me, and I certainly didn’t want anyone to see where I was headed.

  Eventually I reached the tree I was looking for and, satisfied that I was alone, pressed my hand to the bark. I slid my fingers along the surface to a crack that had been all but invisible a moment before and slipped my hand inside. I extinguished the orb of energy, letting it dissipate through the air, and then slipped the rest of my arm through, followed by my head, torso, and finally my legs.

  On the other side of the crack in reality, I found myself in a wardrobe. Ed’s wardrobe, as it happened. I knocked on the inside of the door, and without waiting for an answer I pushed the door open and stepped out of the closet.

  “Sorry to intrude, but –”

  Then I stopped. My jaw fell open. And the demon in bed with Ed started screaming at me.

  “What the hell are you doing, you crazy bitch?” the demon shrieked. She was covered in dull green scales with ram horns curling out the side of her head, and I could see through Ed that she was still clothed – thank goodness.

  “I – I was just –”

  Ed was glaring at me furiously. I could understand why he was unimpressed, but it wasn’t like I’d done this on purpose. Frankly I was a bit disgusted that Ed was stooping to such levels as taking a demon back to his room with him. I was probably doing him a favour by interrupting.

  “You freak!” screamed the demon.

  I ignored her and turned to Ed. “Ed, I didn’t mean to –”

  “You know her?” the demon asked Ed, giving him a look of horror.

  “She, ah – she’s my ex-girlfriend.”

  “I don’t know if I’d go that far,” I snapped. “We only kissed once, and barely even that since Satan decided she hated you and told me I could do better.” I turned back to the demon. “And so could you.”

  “This coming from the girl who is hiding in her ex-boyfriend’s closet,” the demon replied.

  “I wasn’t –”

  That was when I realised what this looked like. This demon thought that I had broken into the house and lain in wait in the cupboard, stepping out just when Ed brought a new girl home. I could see why she was disturbed. I also knew that I couldn’t clarify the situation and explain what had happened without giving away the fact that there was a crack in reality in Ed’s cupboard, which I could not afford to do. So I simply opened and closed my mouth, exhaled exasperatedly, and stormed out of the room in a huff. It wasn’t until I reached the front door that I remembered I needed a ghost escort to get out of this house. There was some sort of spell on the door that meant unless you were accompanied by a ghost, there was no way of passing the threshold in either direction.

  I waited, arms crossed, downstairs for Ed to come and let me out. Eventually he came down, shaking his head at me.

  “I would apologise,” I said, “but I was probably doing you a favour. A demon, Ed? Really?”

  “You jealous?”

  “Not even slightly,” I replied. “You’re disgusting. Even that demon deserves better.”

  “Whatever you say,” said Ed, taking my hand. I glared at him and he simply smiled back as he transported me through the door. It was a repulsive feeling, like I was being squeezed and vomited on all at once. Being transported through the door, I mean, not Ed’s hand on mine. Although that was pretty disgusting too.

  Once outside, I pulled my arm free and walked off without saying goodbye.

  “Nice seeing you too,” Ed called out behind me. I flipped him the middle finger in response.

  Ed lived in one of the dodgier parts of Hell, which is really saying something. His home was located at the end of a dark back alley not too far from the city’s dungeons, where Satan kept the least desirable souls. The streets were cobbled and dimly lit, although the large blood-red moon overhead provided some illumination. I knew my way around the city fairly well, given that I’d grown up here. It was hot outside, a dry heat, and I was still wearing my robes and thick jumper. Once I’d put some distance between myself and Ed’s house, I stopped and took off my outer layers, shoving them in my backpack. I was tempted to head down to the beach in the more touristy area of Hell, but unfortunately I wasn’t here for fun. I needed to get back to the library and do more research.

  I’d been coming here as often as I could, trying to find out more about the King of the Damned. I needed to know who I was and what I was capable of. Trouble was, despite all my efforts, I was still having a hard time finding anything. I wondered again if Satan or Death or Ed or Henry or perhaps all of them were intentionally hiding things from me. What? And why? I already knew that people sacrificed other magical beings in my name. How much worse could it get?

  I climbed the steps at the front of the library and pushed through the large heavy doors that led to the lowest floor. There was nothing down here that could help me, I was sure. I’d already checked. I made my way over to a certain painting and swung it back on its hinges, stroking the wall behind it to open the passage that led up to the restricted section of the library. I stepped through and the door closed behind me. When I emerged from the staircase, I found myself in a large room with a glass dome overhead, red moonlight streaming in. It was a room I’d grown very familiar with over the past few weeks.

  While the lower rooms of the library were almost always busy, this room was usually unoccupied. Most people didn’t know how to get in, although a lot of the tourists spent part of their holiday looking for the secret entrance. Even if they’d found it, it wouldn’t have done them much good – it took the touch of a creature of the night to get in here. Or the touch of whatever I was. A touch of darkness, anyway.

  Given my initial lack of success in my research, I’d developed a new method of looking for information. I’d started working my way through the shelves in order, seeing as pulling out the reference books I thought would help hadn’t been much luck so far. Now I was just going through the shelves one by one, checking each book for anything that might offer me a clue as to who I was and what my abilities were.

  Dumping my bag at my usual table, I headed over to the shelf I was currently working through and pulled out the next few books. I carried the stack back to the table, straining a little under the weight, and plonked them down. Then I selected the first of the bunch and began reading. I started with the table of contents, then I checked the index for any indications that the book would contain information about the king or the Doomstone or any of the companion objects. Of course, not all the books had indices or tables of contents, so some I just had to flick through and skim read.

  After an hour, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Two hours and I was actually starting to nod off. This lack of sleep was starting to get to me. I rested my head on the table and found my mind wandering back to the last time I’d been here with Ed, when Henry and the others had tried to arrest me. Later that night I’d been kidnapped by Dick, who seemed to think I was an idiot for not knowing about the King of the Damned. What was it he’d said? Something along the lines of: Haven’t you ever opened a school textbook?

  I sat up, frowning. Wait. Was that really what he’d said? Yes, as far as I could remember, it was. How had I not thought of this before? Dick had given me a clue
! Maybe I’d just been thinking too complicated. If there was information about the king in this room, I was having a hard time finding it. Maybe instead of starting with the books about rituals and the occult I should have been looking at a history textbook. After all, I was a reincarnation of this king, right? And everyone else seemed to know about him. So it made sense that he was the kind of historical figure that would have appeared somewhere on the magical school syllabus. For whatever reason, Satan hadn’t bothered to teach me about him, but if everyone else knew about the guy, they must have learned the information somewhere. Combined with what Dick had said, it seemed likely that place was school. Which meant I was looking at the wrong books.

  Trouble was, school textbooks weren’t the kind of thing I was going to be able to find here. Hell’s library wasn’t the kind of place that catered to kids. I was going to have to go elsewhere. I pushed myself to my feet, picking up the stack of books and returning them to the shelf. Time to head back home. I needed the sleep, anyway, and I wasn’t making any progress here. A vague plan was forming in my mind, but I would have to work on it tomorrow morning. For now, home time.

  Shuddering, I remembered that Ed had a guest over. Unless she’d already fled his house in horror (which wasn’t completely outside the realm of possibility – Ed was a truly repulsive individual), I was going to have to warn Ed that I was returning. I didn’t want a repeat of the earlier situation, and besides, what would I say to the demon? Don’t mind me, I’m just climbing back into that totally normal cupboard. Nothing to worry about. You just go about your business.

  No chance. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I shot Ed a text, warning him that I was returning.

  No worries. Unsurprisingly, my friend left pretty soon after you emerged from my wardrobe.

  And her life is a million times better for it, I shot back.

  I rubbed my tired eyes and exited the library, mildly annoyed that I hadn’t found anything yet, but happy to be heading home to bed. I needed the sleep. Anyway, tonight hadn’t been a total bust. At least now I had a plan, and with any luck I’d have some answers by nightfall tomorrow.

  And I’d ruined Ed’s evening, which was always a plus.

  Chapter 10

  The next morning I cracked open one eye and glared at the sunlight streaming through my window. How dare it wake me up? I closed my eye and rolled over, trying to get back to sleep, but it was no good. I was awake. I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled to the shower. The warm spray nearly put me to sleep again and I considered just crawling back into bed, but then I heard Henry bustling about downstairs. Maybe he’d made us breakfast!

  After getting dressed and collecting my stuff, I headed downstairs. I looked at the kitchen bench and the dining table, both of which were bare. Henry saw me frowning at the lack of food.

  “We’ll get something at the cafe,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  We’d organised to meet Ravi at Witch’s Brew again, so we headed out the front door and hit the road. It was slow going with me in my current zombified state, so Henry shifted into a horse. “Climb on,” he said. Somehow he’d managed to manifest a saddle when he shifted (magical physics again), and I hooked a foot in the stirrup and tried to pull myself up. No such luck. I swung pitifully from Henry’s side while clutching the saddle, foot caught in the stirrup, screaming. Henry neighed in a way that sounded suspiciously like laughter before shifting into a Shetland pony. I had a much easier time climbing onto his back then.

  Once I was semi-comfortable, Henry shifted into his original horse form. I gulped slightly as he grew, suddenly kind of panicked by how far up I was. I knew Henry wouldn’t buck me off, but it was still nerve racking. He took off at a walk and I did a lot of deep breathing, trying to keep my panic at bay. It was mostly OK, although the saddle did slide around an awful lot. For some reason Henry seemed to find my discomfort amusing, but he knew better than to openly tease me. He probably didn’t want to see me lose my temper.

  We made our way through the forest without talking. I was too busy trying not to have a panic attack (or think about the double meaning of the word ‘riding’) to speak.

  “Oh no,” Henry whispered.

  “What?” I asked, my voice a high soprano.

  “That ghost’s up ahead. Don’t worry; I’ll just canter past him and he won’t be able to stop us.”

  The blood drained from my face. “I don’t think that’s a good ideaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed as Henry took off. He thundered past the very confused pink-aura. I continued to scream as Henry galloped along the forest path, eventually slowing to a walk. I could hear him laughing.

  “What’s your problem?” I snapped.

  “Nothing,” he said. “It’s just a little amusing that big bad Nessa is scared of a little trot.”

  “Firstly, that was far more than a trot, and secondly, I’m neither big nor bad, Henry, you equine nightmare!”

  “Equine nightmare? Wow, that’s an excellent nickname. I should get T-shirts printed up.”

  “Let me off!” I screeched. “I’ve had enough of sitting on you and I’m never going to ride you again, no matter what you say!”

  Thankfully Henry was facing forward and couldn’t see me blush at my own words.

  We went through the shrink-to-Shetland routine and I leapt off as fast as I could. Henry shifted back into his gorilla self and walked alongside me as I stormed along in a huff. We were quiet for a while as we trudged along until eventually Henry spoke.

  “While we’re alone,” said Henry, “I think you and I need to talk.”

  I froze. Oh hell. Was this it? The talk? Argh, why had I made those dumb comments about riding him? I couldn’t handle having that conversation. Talking about feelings and whatnot. I wasn’t ready for this. “About the case, you mean?” I asked, playing dumb. Yes, I was stalling.

  “Not about the case.”

  I swallowed. “Then what?”

  “About what happened last night.”

  I frowned. Oh. Maybe we weren’t about to have that talk. I racked my brain, wondering what he was talking about. “What do you mean? Is this about me questioning those vampires? Because I know I was supposed to let it go, but that just seemed like too good an opportunity to –”

  “You left your house.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You heard me leave?”

  “Yes. It may surprise you to know this, but wolves have pretty sensitive hearing.”

  Damn it. “You did such a good impression of being asleep, though.”

  “Even if I hadn’t heard you leave, I helped you put up the wards over your house, remember? I can feel when someone moves through them. That would have woken me up anyway.”

  Narrowing my eyes, I said, “I knew there was a reason you volunteered to help.”

  “Are you going to tell me where you went?”

  I hesitated.

  “Wow,” said Henry finally. “I thought we were a little past the point of keeping secrets.” He frowned, suddenly concerned. “You haven’t clouded my memory again, have you? Because I really don’t think my mind can take –”

  “No, Henry, I did not cloud you. And I wasn’t the one who clouded you the other times, either.”

  “No, you just lied and made me think I was going crazy when my memory started coming back.”

  I crossed my arms. “You said you were over this.”

  “I was,” he said, “but now that you’re apparently keeping secrets from me again…”

  I gave an exasperated sigh. “Fine, I’ll tell you,” I said.

  “Good. Please go ahead.”

  I hesitated. “Well…”

  “Oh, for Satan’s sake,” said Henry. “Is it that bad? Really? Bearing in mind how many people I’ve seen you kill.”

  “Shut up,” I hissed, glancing around us to make sure no one was nearby, listening in. Glaring, I turned back to Henry. “It’s not that bad. I just didn’t want you to get overwrought about it. It’s really not a big deal.”

&n
bsp; He crossed his arms. “You were meeting up with Ed.” It wasn’t a question.

  I sighed. “Kind of. Not really. I mean, I saw him, but –”

  “Just tell me what you were doing.”

  I sighed again, louder. “I went to Hell.”

  He frowned. “Really? What for?”

  “I wanted to use the library.”

  He nodded. “Doing some more research about your powers?”

  I nodded. “Yep. Not that it did much good. I looked up that ritual Dick was trying to perform, and I tried to look up the ritual Gladys and the werewolves performed, but I didn’t find anything all that illuminating.”

  “Right,” said Henry. “Why didn’t you just tell me? Why would you think I’d care if you went to the library?”

  “Well, like I said, I bumped into Ed, and –”

  “And that’s why you didn’t want to tell me?” He shook his head at me. “Seriously, Ness, if you were worried to tell me that then you must think I’m a total – wait. How did you get to Hell and back so fast?”

  I bit the inside of my lip. I’d kind of been hoping he wouldn’t think to ask.

  “Did Satan or Death pick you up?”

  “Well…”

  Henry frowned, watching me in concern. “Nessa?”

  I bit my lip. “A while ago, Ed showed me a way to get to Hell.”

  “What do you mean?” Henry asked. “You can open portals now?”

  I shook my head. “No. He found an unregulated crack in reality.”

  Henry’s eyes widened. “He what? Where?” he demanded.

  “In the forest,” I replied. “Near my house. It’s hard to find, though. You wouldn’t just stumble across it. We don’t have to worry about anyone else finding it.”

  Henry didn’t seem comforted. “How did Ed find it, then? It can’t be that hard to spot if he managed to see it.”

  “He didn’t find the crack in the forest,” I explained. “He found the other end.”

  “In Hell?”