Black Crow

by Jen Pretty

  “Nope. The foster home didn’t have one. It still feels weird to turn it on and see the pictures. The first time I watched a movie was when I was eighteen. I took myself to the movie theatre with my first paycheck.”

  “That's crazy,” Nick said.

  “I know.”

  Nick looked at his watch.

  “What time do we have to go?” I asked.

  “Soon, but there is plenty of time for you to eat first,” he said, standing up and opening the door. I was about to ask what he was doing when a serving cart stopped at the door.

  “Oh, thank you!” the woman pushing the cart said as she pushed it into the room. The smell of hot french fries made my stomach growl. I guess watching Nick drink goopy blood hadn’t completely ruined my appetite.

  “Thanks,” I called to the woman as she walked back out into the hall, and Nick shut the door.

  I wolfed down my dinner in five minutes flat, then dug out something to wear to the club. I hadn’t brought much, but a pair of skinny jeans and a tank top with a pair of heels made me look dressed up enough. Nick changed into a cool t-shirt and loose-fitting jeans, then topped it with a black fedora he pulled out of his duffel bag. I remembered him wearing it when he was DJ-ing at the club back home. It made him stand out in the crowd.

  “You ready?” he asked, holding out his arm for me. I locked down my magic and slid my arm into his.

  Outside, a cab was waiting. Nick opened the door and let me in, then climbed into the back seat beside me. Bodies already packed the club when the cab pulled up, and a lineup circled the block. The air was crisp and damp like rain was coming when I stepped out onto the street. Nick took my hand and walked me up to the bouncer. My magic tried to slip out towards the bouncer, and I knew he was a vampire too. He let us in with a smile and Nick led me through the busy dance floor towards the bar.

  The crowd was thick, and the air was stale, but the music was fast and upbeat. People packed the bar, but Nick pulled me through the crowd and yelled towards the bartender, raising a hand in greeting. The man behind the bar set the drinks he was serving down and came over towards us.

  “Nick! Thanks for coming!” The man yelled. My magic pulled and swirled and I knew the bartender was also a vampire. It seemed this city was full of them, or maybe just the bar. “My God! You weren’t kidding!” he yelled, staring at me. Nick slung his arm over my shoulders and smiled.

  “I told you! We have to keep her safe tonight. Tell Tony, no magic pricks.”

  The bartender gave Nick a double thumbs up and then swung over the bar like it was a normal thing to do and shuffled towards the door through the crowd.

  “What does that mean?” I yelled at Nick over the loud music.

  “No witches or warlocks in here tonight. Just humans and vampires,” He smiled. I wasn't sure how much safer I was with vampires and humans, but in Nick I trust.

  He led me up to the DJ booth and motioned to a chair, then plugged in a thumb drive he pulled from his pocket and got to work on a laptop. It was neat to watch him work from this angle. In movies, DJs spun records on turntables. He popped on a set of headphones and flipped a switch on a microphone.

  “Hey, boys and girls. This is Anick, and I am ready to pump you up! You ready for some hot tracks?”

  They yelled their approval, and the music switched to a song that was popular on the radio but it had a different beat and was sped up. The people in the room went crazy, dancing and jumping around.

  It was halfway through the song when I felt my magic surge. I looked around, trying to find the source and then noticed the light, airy look of a risen woman in the far corner. A few blue sparks lingered, but she was just a wraith walking around. I stood up to get a better look and Nick noticed.

  “What is it?” He asked.

  “Do you see that?” I pointed, but the wraith disappeared in the crowd. There was no way she was here. She should be with her body. Unless her body was here too?

  chapter eight

  “Did you see that?” I yelled louder to Nick, but he had headphones on and was staring at the laptop in front of him.

  I slipped out behind him and into the sea of people. As I passed the speakers at the front of the stage, my ears pounded with the music. People swarmed the DJ booth. It was just a wall of bright-coloured clothes and flailing limbs that I had to push through and dodge.

  Lost in the sea of people, I wasn’t even sure which way I was going when a strong arm wrapped around my waist. I thought it was Nick because my magic pulled towards the contact, but when I turned my head, a stranger stood before me. His features were coarse, and he was much taller than Nick. I tried to pull out of his arms, but he was dragging me forward with steady steps. I fought against the restraint of his arm; clawing and digging, tearing flesh with my nails.

  As we cleared the crowd, I realized there was a door ahead, and he was pressing me towards it. I screamed, my voice muffled by the music. My feet kicked, but my heeled shoes didn’t make much of an impact. The door loomed closer, panic making my magic slip, blue sparkles spilled out to splash on the floor ahead of us, and a moment later Nick and two huge men blocked the path. One man was the vampire bouncer we passed on our way in. Nick’s eyes glinted with rage, his mouth was a harsh slash and his fists were balled like he would take the man down.

  The bouncer from the front door reached out and pulled me from the steely arm that held me. In the same moment, Nick and the other large vampire grabbed hold of the stranger and wrestled him out the very door he had been pulling me towards. A few of the nightclub patrons watched the bouncers take him away before returning to their drinks and dancing.

  The music never even faltered.

  The doorman set me on my feet and put one hand on my back, gently leading me to the bar. I had about a million questions, but it was loud in the club, and my mind was running so fast, I kept my mouth shut.

  “What will it be, Princess?” The bartender who spoke to Nick when we came in asked as I slid onto a stool at the bar.

  “Martini,” I said, still stunned from my near abduction.

  He moved down the bar, and I lost sight of him as people crowded in, leaning over the bar to get his attention. He returned with my martini in his hand, ignoring all the other patrons standing at the bar.

  “My name is Joe, by the way.”

  “Selena,” I replied.

  He smiled and leaned in closer. “I’m sorry about the snatcher. Tony can usually pick out the shit heads and leaves them standing outside.”

  I wanted to ask questions about that, but the noise of the place deterred me, and I felt vulnerable without Nick nearby. I scanned the room, hoping to spot him but he was nowhere in sight.

  “He will be back in a moment. Just taking out the trash,” Joe said.

  I spun back to look at him, but he just smiled, slapped the bar and took the order of the guy beside me. I watched him mix drinks, pouring various alcoholic combinations into glasses, mixing and shaking.

  Sighing, I picked up my martini and downed it, holding the little wooden skewer with one finger. As I set the glass down a body moved in beside me. My magic pressed towards it, and I turned my head to find Nick’s eyes tracing my features. His face had lost the angry, tight look and he was looking at me like he wanted to say something. He kept opening and closing his mouth, but no words came out. I looked back at my drink, uncomfortable with the intensity of his gaze. I popped the olive from my drink into my mouth and then downed the last of it before setting the empty glass back on the bar.

  Nick’s hand rested on my knee, and he turned the stool, so I was facing him.

  “I’m sorry,” he yelled. Then he took my hand and led me around the bar and into a back room where the walls muffled the sound. He leaned against the door and looked at me.

  The small room housed an old wooden desk covered with files and folders. I paced around the desk inspecting the photos that covered every square inch of the walls. I tried to focus in on them, but my mind was spinni
ng.

  “Why did you wander off?” he asked in a quiet, inquisitive voice. It wasn’t accusatory, but I felt like I had done something wrong.

  “I thought I saw a wraith,” I said.

  “Where? In the club?” He stepped forward, moving in towards me.

  “Yeah, it was probably just my imagination.”

  He didn’t look convinced, but the more I thought about it, the surer I was that I had seen nothing. I couldn’t have. Only a necromancer could raise the dead.

  “Come on, let's get out of here,” he said, reaching for my hand. Magic sparked as he touched me and I felt my magic want to flow through him. He puffed out a breath, and I clamped down on the magic to keep it from spilling into him.

  Our eyes locked, and I felt a connection to him, like a magical thread tying us together. I wanted to pull on it, but, unsure what it meant or why I felt it, I didn’t dare.

  He turned to open the door, but I stopped him.

  “What did that vampire want with me?” I asked.

  Nick turned back and leaned against the door. He sighed heavily. “Some vampires are assholes. I guess you know nothing about us with your upbringing, but we can bite people and wipe their memories, so they don't know we bit them. Most vampires follow the laws and use bagged blood or bite willing victims, but some don’t care…” He paused and looked up at me. “And Necromancer blood is perfection… so I’m told.”

  Shit.

  “You ready to go?” he asked.

  “Yeah, let's go.”

  The cab ride back to the hotel was silent. I got lost in thoughts of being a snack for a vampire and from the look on Nick's face as I watched him out of the corner of my eye, his own thoughts consumed him.

  Back in the hotel room, I took a shower and changed into the most comfortable clothes I had brought — Fleece pajama pants and a hoodie — then climbed under the starched hotel sheets.

  Nick was sitting in a chair with a glass of not tomato juice, staring at the floor.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, propping up the pillows.

  He looked up at me like I had surprised him with my words. “You aren’t afraid of me now, are you? After what happened tonight?”

  “No, should I be afraid of you? I don’t know what or who to be afraid of anymore. I spent so long keeping my head down and hiding from everyone, I don’t even know why I was hiding in the first place.”

  “You don't have to be afraid of me. I promise.” He got up, leaving his glass behind and sat on the edge of the giant bed. “I would never hurt you. They didn’t tell me it would be like this. They prepared me to help protect a necromancer, but they never said I would feel this way.”

  I was too afraid of his answer to ask him what way he felt. So, I changed the subject.

  “What happened to the vampire who tried to take me away?” Nick looked away, back at his glass of blood and his jaw ticked like he remembered the anger that had splashed across his face in the club.

  “We staked him,” he said.

  All the air whooshed out of my lungs. “Because he tried to drink my blood?” I asked.

  “No, because he would have kept trying to drink your blood. He was an addict, and I didn’t want him chasing us across the continent. You deserve to feel safe.”

  I nodded and squished down into the bed, pulling the blanket up to my chin. Half of me was curious if vampires could be wraiths and the other half of me never wanted to find out.

  “Peran and Kai are back,” he said just before the door joining our room to the next swung open and a laughing Kai walked in with a grumpy-looking Peran hot on his heels.

  “What's up, guys?” Nick asked.

  Peran got one look at me, and his scowl turned on Nick. “What happened?” he asked the vampire.

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle,” he replied. Peran didn’t look convinced. He stared at Nick for several more moments. “How was the morgue?” Nick asked, breaking the stare off. He moved back to his chair beside his glass and took a long sip of the thick red liquid.

  “I have confirmed a witch or warlock is killing people here.”

  I glanced at Kai, who didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the fact they were discussing murderous warlocks. He was parked on the end of the bed, about two feet from the TV, watching the news about the murders. Several women's faces were lined up on the screen. They were all women, but that is where the similarities ended. They were of different ages and appearances.

  “They were witches?” I asked.

  “All from the same coven,” Peran replied from behind me.

  I dragged my eyes away from the photos. “Why would someone do that?”

  “In this case, it seems someone had a grudge. None of the ones I raised today recognized him, but they all saw the same man.”

  I shuttered, imagining raising more than one murdered wraith. Peran was a lot stronger than I was.

  “So, how will you catch him, if you don’t know who he is?” I asked.

  “I sat with a sketch artist who made a drawing of him. That picture is being spread to everyone in the magical community now. We will find him.”

  I nodded, but for some reason, the images on the screen pulled my eyes back.

  “The latest victim, Melanie Carthen, was killed earlier this evening, and the OPP are warning women not to go out alone at night.”

  “I saw her,” I muttered.

  “What?” Peran said.

  “Nothing, I just… I thought I saw a wraith at the nightclub. It couldn’t have been, but it looked like that woman.”

  Everyone was staring at me when I looked away from the TV.

  “Excuse me,” Peran said as he took out his phone and stepped back into the adjoining room, closing the door with a quiet click.

  Kai was still staring at me with a leery look like I might jump up and grab him.

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s just... there is a story the adults tell us as children.” He shook his head. “You can’t be her.”

  “I can’t be who?” I asked, sitting forward. Kai leaned away from me, and I threw myself back at his reaction. It was like he feared me.

  “He thinks you are The Black Crow,” Nick said with a grin. He raised his glass like he was toasting me, then downed the last of his bloody drink.

  chapter nine

  “What is a Black Crow?” I asked.

  Nick stood up and then flopped down on the bed beside me, his hands behind his head. “The Black Crow in mythology can summon the dead with a sweep of her hand. Her power is endless.”

  “I can’t summon the dead with a sweep of my hand,” I said.

  “Can you not? Have you tried?” Nick replied.

  I bit my lip, remembering the magic that flooded the graveyard when I ran from The Sanctuary.

  Peran came back from the other room. “Niri is on his way.”

  “Why?” I asked, not wanting to continue this conversation, but my mouth ran ahead of my brain.

  “Because he thinks you are the Black Crow and if so, you need way more protection until you figure out how to use your magic.”

  “My magic raises wraiths. I know that,” I said stubbornly.

  “For now,” He said with a grin. I was starting to dislike that grin of his.

  I tossed back the blankets and shut myself away in the bathroom. Their voices murmured still, but I ignored them and stared at my reflection in the mirror.

  I tucked my hair into the back of my hoodie, but it shone in the lights of the bathroom. I held out my hand and let a bit of magic seep through my skin. It glittered and flowed like a river that rose to the surface. I had no idea what normal was for a necromancer. Maybe I was weird, different. I pulled the magic back and watched it disappear under my skin. I saw a flicker in the corner of my eye and spun towards it. As I watched, a wraith floated up through the floor to materialize in front of me. The woman's lips moved, but I couldn’t hear her. Her mouth moved so fast. She waved her arms like she was trying to get me to unders
tand, but I shook my head and backed away.

  Her face pleaded, and I watched as she fell to her knees in front of me. A tear rolled down her face, and I took another step back. I hadn’t summoned her. She shouldn’t be here.

  I reached behind me and fumbled for the doorknob. My heart was pounding in my chest.

  “Nick,” I called, trying to get my hand to work on the knob while also keeping my eyes on the woman who was yelling now. There was no sound, but her features were angry and her mouth moved so fast. I closed my eyes and leaned against the door. “NICK!” I yelled. There was a banging on the door behind me, but I couldn’t get it open.

  Suddenly, hands grabbed me. I screamed and fought against them, my eyes still sealed shut.

  “It’s just me,” Kai said, scooping me up like I was a child and flashing me back into the main room. He set me on the bed and then grabbed Peran and disappeared with him.

  I covered my head with my arm and curled up on the bed. Nick reached out, and I felt the connection to him snap into place, and my breathing got a little easier until, from the bathroom, a woman's voice began to scream.

  “He has come! He has come!” I covered my ears and buried my face in Nick's chest. His arms wrapped around me and his hand ran in flat circles on my back. The screaming continued a moment longer and then stopped.

  The sound of my laboured breathing was the only noise in the room. My heaving chest ached, but I forced my shaking hands off my ears and pushed up from Nick's chest.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered between pants. I covered my face as the tears fell. My nose ran too, and suddenly I was a hot mess. I pulled the collar of my hoodie up and wiped my face. Deep breaths hardly helped to slow my breathing, but I kept trying. Each shaky breath was a bit calmer than the one before it. Nick said nothing. He just kept rubbing my back. His strong arms were holding me together.

  The bathroom door clicked open, and Peran stepped out followed by Kai. They looked composed and normal, not hysterical. My heart sank further, and shame washed over me. I was weak. I tried to turn away, but Nick didn’t let go.