by D. R. Perry
But Henrietta had kept going and going, like an academic Energizer Bunny, until she had two Ph.Ds. I remember waiting and watching for birth announcements in the paper after Rick exiled me from our social circle, finding nothing. Even though they wanted nothing to do with me, I still cared about them. Back in 1999, hospitals were the only place to get legal blood. When I’d seen Henrietta over at Women and Infants, crying on the shoulder of a nurse with a Maternity Ward badge, I understood. Some things weren’t in the cards for everyone.
The Wickenden Pub smelled like beer, stale beer, and old pizza with a slight hint of bathroom disinfectant that got stronger the closer you sat to the back exit. That’s why the trace of myrrh and jasmine puzzled me. I had to stop thinking about Maddie so much, even though I’d never be able to forget her. I’d been an idiot, making an impression of her like that. I should have known it’d come back to bite me.
The warm hand covering mine was a total surprise. I looked up, so startled I almost knocked over my untouched stout. She steadied the glass, then picked it up and took a sip. She grimaced.
“Ugh. Why do they serve it cold?” Maddie stuck her tongue out, closing one eye.
“Maddie, go back to the cafe.” I closed my eyes. She was still there when I opened them.
“Wow.” The round O of her mouth broadened into a hard smile. “Just so we’re clear, I don’t take orders from baby Alphas or vampires who idolize Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s boyfriends.”
“Are you challenging me?” I raised an eyebrow.
“You think you’re Josh’s Beta or something?” She smirked.
“Ask him.” I shrugged.
“You’ll need this, then.” She pulled what looked like a half-dollar on a string out of her pocket, plunking it on the table between us.
“An alliance amulet?” I’d never seen one before. “Where did you get this?”
“Lab. It was the second thing I fished out of that box. Nice little coincidence, huh?”
“No such thing as a nice coincidence.” The phrase was automatic. I hadn’t intended to lead her on at all, at least not consciously. I recognized the defeatism in that line of thinking.
“Most of the time, you’re wrong.” She rubbed the side of my hand with her thumb. Why hadn’t I shaken off her touch? “Coincidence is the only protection anyone has from a Magus. Resist enough times, you’re safe. What tends to happen the most keeps on happening when magic affects people.”
“I’m not exactly people anymore, Maddie.” I shook my head.
“Magic Theory says you are. So do I.”
I didn’t say anything. I could try to argue with her, but she had the Magic Theory facts right. Coincidence meant that all Extrahumans had more concrete confirmation of sentience than anything the humans had come up with. The Extrahuman Rights trials had set a precedent for using magical tenets to help define our legal rights. A Brownie or a Djinn would fall under those rules, for example. The Grim wouldn’t.
“Listen, Henry, because I’m only going to say this once. I’m falling in love with you. I don’t think there’s a way to stop it, and I don’t want to, anyway. You’ve done a whole world of good here, and I have a feeling you could go on to do even more. I want to be there with you for all of it.”
“I’m a vampire, Maddie. You already have to deal with one person in your life living like a second-class citizen. I don’t want you to have to deal with one more.”
“You’ll make two more, actually. Mom has a license for turning.”
“Then things will already be hard enough for you in the near future.”
“I don’t think so. This right here,” she tapped the medallion, “represents an old traditions of belonging and respect. That tradition went on for ages. The way society treats vampires now will pass, eventually. The world will see that you’re like any other people, with the potential for horror or honor. Honor won most of the time back in the day until technically immortal people had to worry about death. It’ll win again, if only you expect it of yourself and let people appreciate it when they see it on you.”
“That doesn’t happen very often.”
“I think the hostess over at Luxe Burger would disagree.”
“The opinion the two of you share about me is an unpopular one.”
“But it’s not wrong. And if you don’t let people express it, no one with the wrong idea will ever know about the right one.” Maddie’s grin was gentle when I’d expected smug. She had me with that argument. Be the change you want to see.
“And what idea is that?”
“Just the slightly unhinged notion that any type of Extrahuman is part of humanity. It’s right there in the term, after all. We’re all worthy of dignity, respect, belonging. And love.” She squeezed my hand. “Especially that. No one should have to resign themselves to eternity alone. Especially a man who can’t forget.”
“Heady stuff from the woman no one remembers.”
“I’m afraid. Someday, I'll be alone forever and no one will remember me.” Her smile dimmed down, darkening with the loneliness that hounded her as tenaciously as any Grim.
“Look, most people can’t remember you, but you’ve been here just over six months and already found a score who want to.” I took the alliance amulet off the table, pocketing it. After all the decades of change and danger I’d been through, it was time to let my guard down.
“Maddie, you control your actions, how you treat people. You could be awful to the lot of us, lie about what actually happened, hide things we need as a prank. If you were that kind of person, all the memory enhancements and coincidence in the world wouldn’t make any difference. That’s all on you. Only some of your fate gets decided by coincidence. The rest is a choice.”
“Unless it intersects with a contingency.” Her eyes widened suddenly like she’d just had a eureka moment. I watched her shake inspiration off. “Oh!” She blinked at something over my shoulder. “Don’t turn around. Act natural.”
“What is it?” I kept gazing at her.
“Brodsky’s Brownie.”
“What do Russian baked goods have to do with anything?”
“Professor Brodsky.” She leaned close to my ear and lowered her voice. “The Summoner. He had a Brownie guarding his apartment.”
“Wait, you went there?” I murmured back, finally at ease with being this close to her.
“Yeah. With Nox and Josh.” She drummed her fingers on the table.
“Oh. What should we do?”
“Get out of here. Try to shake the Brownie so I can hide us.”
“Why not hide us now?”
“If they see me cast, they’ll track the spell.”
“Okay, then. We walk out through the back. Pretend you’re on the way to the restroom. I’ll follow you in a minute.”
“Fine.” She leaned in and kissed me. This time, it didn’t last nearly long enough.
I watched Maddie walk past the scarred tables, ratty chairs, and long, dark bar to the far end of the room. The narrow hallway had a sign over it that said Restrooms. Her nose wrinkled, then she stepped into the darkened hallway and out of sight. I picked up my stout and chugged it down without worrying. It couldn’t make me drunk or even tipsy. The taste was barely there, like anything a vampire drinks cold. Maybe the next time I tried drinking alcohol for taste, it should be Irish Coffee or something.
I picked up the empty glass and stared into it, letting my shoulders droop to put on a good show for the brownie. Then, I shrugged at no one in particular and brought the glass back over to the bar. By this hour, it was crowded and dark enough for me to blend in. No one else had a jacket with smeared white paint on the back, but that wouldn’t make me stand out in the barroom murk. I set the glass at the far end of the counter, then squeezed past some kids who could only be from the Rhode Island School of Design. They could give Blaine’s hoity a run for its toity. The guys had beards and pompadour hairdos atop tight flannel shirts, suspenders, and skinny jeans. The girls wore a mosh pit of past
el colors screen-printed with birds and feathers.
“Hey, buddy!” One of the guys called out to me. I looked over my shoulder at him. “Haven’t you heard Bela Lugosi’s dead?”
“Yeah. Undead.” I gave him a smile to shame the day-star.
I ignored the surprised noises they made and the air of their backward passage as they all scrambled to avoid me. One of them looked past me and did a double-take. He’d seen the Brownie, but the tilt of his head told me the Faerie was still at the front of the pub.
The hallway was a malodorous new world. People should be full of piss and vinegar, not my nostrils. I didn’t have to breathe, but the ghost of the Wickenden Pub’s bathrooms would haunt me for at least five minutes of outdoor walking. I didn’t have much reason to pray anymore but gave thanks that the Grim couldn’t be summoned for four more days. That beast could smell us from a mile away.
I pushed through the door outside. At first, I didn’t spot Maddie at the back of the courtyard. She stood near the corner where the wall was lowest. I’d forgotten there wasn’t an exit back here. The staff wouldn’t want people using the back patio to skip out on their bills. The wall was an easy jump for me. I could tell right away Maddie didn’t think she’d make it over.
“We’ll have to jump it.”
“I can’t.” Her curls bounced when she shook her head, eyes glimmering with imminent tears.
“Sure, you can.” I glanced over my shoulder.
“Nope, no way.” I noticed her shivering. She shouldn’t have been since it wasn’t too cold for her warm jacket.
“Okay, I get it.” I lifted her in my arms, trying not to get lost in the rush of emotion as her body pressed against mine. It’d been decades since I’d done anything that felt this heroic. “You’re scared of heights.
“Caught me. I’m not perfect.”
“Good. Neither am I.”
I jumped to the top of the wall, planting my feet firmly to absorb the shock with my knees. Here’s where the extra strength and durability from being a vampire helped. Usually, a law-abiding person like me didn’t leap too many walls. At the top, I looked down. Good thing I hadn’t vaulted completely over and into the throng of trash cans behind the Pub.
I trotted along the top of the wall easily. Better balance was another vampiric perk. How had I forgotten I could do all this? Had I really been too scared and miserable to have any simple fun? I jumped down, setting Maddie on her feet. She adjusted her shirt and jacket, then smiled up at me.
“That was kind of cool, but only because I didn’t look down.” She closed her eyes and stepped back into the shadow of the wall, then leaned against it. I joined her, listening while she murmured the same words she’d used in the tunnels under the library. Shadows gathered around us. We’d be hidden now.
“Heh. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime.” I held out my hand, and she took it, walking back toward campus. I didn’t want to drop her off at home. Maybe we should stay out.
Maddie tugged my hand. I stopped, looking down at her face full of fear. She stared across the street. This was a night of firsts for me. The creature peering through the shadows was a Spite.
I’d only seen a sketch of one. When a Sprite displeased the Sidhe Queen, she’d turn them into a hunting hound. Their wings became prehensile spikes with stingers on the ends, which could paralyze even vampires and dragon shifters. Spites could see magic because they ate it. If the Spite caught up with Maddie, they’d drink her magic. She’d only get her power back if she got away before a complete drain.
Spites were summonable like Grims and Brownies, but the Summoner needed a Seelie oath, tithe, or fealty in order to control it accurately. That meant either Brodsky or the Extramagus was hooked up with the Queen’s Court.
“We have to get someplace safe.” I racked my brain, trying to think of something.
“Needs a physical barrier.” Maddie was right. Spites eat wards.
“Yup. Do we run?” As a Psychic, I didn’t have much to fear from them. Unless they'd had been given orders to stake and behead me, of course.
“Not from a Spite. The faster you go when they can see you, the stronger they get. Walk like a normal person.”
We continued up the street and the hill. I couldn’t think. We had to get somewhere fortified. Magi warded places instead of buying good locks, including most buildings on campus. If I got through all this, I’d be having a talk with Josh about the common-sense of mundane locks. There’d be no shelter anywhere on campus with the Nocturnal Lounge still under construction.
I headed for my apartment. If it’d keep Maddie safe long enough for the Spite’s time or energy to run out, I’d take it. My building was old, so I’d risk it trying to dig through the brick. But if the Spite broke through after sunrise that’d be the end of me. It’d take most of the Spite’s time to do it, though, so it couldn’t get Maddie after that. My landlord would be pissed, but I wouldn’t be around to get evicted, anyway.
I bolted the front door and the basement door, then rushed downstairs with Maddie in tow. The Spite must be padding around outside of the building on feet with opposable thumbs. That was one of the creepiest things about them. The Sidhe Queen turned the Sprite into a killing machine, leaving just enough sentience to make victims pity it as they died. Have you ever seen a mastiff in pain? I learned that night that a Spite’s eyes look like that all the time. I turned the key in the deadbolt, then followed Maddie into my tiny apartment.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get the lights after I lock the door.” I threw the deadbolt, then did the chains and latches at the top and bottom of the door.
“Won’t just shutting it work? I mean, it opens out so the Spite can’t batter it down.” Maddie’s voice came from somewhere behind me and to the left. I turned on the lights just in time to stop her from tripping over one of the chairs and into the table.
“They can work latches and doorknobs, but can’t pick locks.” My fangs pricked my lower lip. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was. But how had I used that much energy jumping on and off a silly little wall and doing up locks at Extrahuman speeds?
“I was afraid you’d say that.” She set her satchel on the table, then took her jacket off and hung it on the back of the chair she’d almost tripped over. All I could smell was her blood.
“I have a book on pure Seelie creatures if you want to look at it to pass the time.” I headed straight for the fridge and opened it. Nothing. I couldn’t understand. I’d just stocked up at the Providence Animal Rescue League on Wednesday. I always got a week’s supply. There should be at least five bags in there. Where could they be?
“I can think of other things I’d rather do.” Her voice didn’t sound low, purring, or husky. I had to hope she didn’t have anything physical in mind.
“Um—” Before I could protest, Maddie crossed away from me.
“I haven’t seen this much vinyl ever.” She looked over my music collection with her back to me. I leaned against my empty refrigerator, unsure whether I’d be able to stay on the other side of the room from her. “Is it okay if I play a couple of these? I’ve never seen some of these EPs and imports.”
“Go ahead.” The words came out slightly slurred. Vampires always have fangs, but the hungrier we get, the more they stick out. They were at an awkward length for speaking by then.
Maddie froze with her hand hovering in the air next to a Siouxsie and the Banshees record. She looked over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. Then, she stepped slowly sideways, crossing the short distance between the records to my bookshelf.
Without turning her back to me, Maddie eased out the book on pure Seelies. She checked the index, flipping through some pages. Her eyes flicked from side to side across the pages, slower than her brainiac roommate’s but still respectably quickly. When they stopped, her eyes widened and her eyebrows went up.
“Henry, you’re in trouble.”
“Yeah, I know.” I shut my eyes, trying not to look at her to stop thinking about biting her. I
opened them, realizing that only made it worse. With my eyes closed, all I could hear and smell were her heartbeat and blood. “I don’t know why.”
“The Spite drains all kinds of magical energy. When you feed, the blood you take turns into Unliving magic. That’s why it fuels you. When we walked here, you got between me and it. Must have been just close enough for it to steal a bunch of what keeps you going.”
“I did not know they could do that.” After all the times I’d complained about going back to school, I finally understood why the Licensure Board required it. Too bad I’d be dead in the morning.
“Well, the good news is, it can’t do it until it can see you. So when you get a snack from the fridge, you’ll be all set.”
“It’s empty.”
“Move over.” I stepped in front of the sink, letting Maddie wrinkle her nose and furrow her brow at half my kitchen. She shooed me away from that, too. After looking back and forth a bunch of times between the sink and the refrigerator, she nodded. “Water magic with little tiny foot and hand-prints. I just saw that in the book. Pixie. Looks like Brodsky has quite the crew at his beck and call.”
“I don’t understand.” I shook my head, moving back in front of the sink again. “What’s Brodsky got against PPC or vampires or us in particular?”
“Don’t know. Maybe call Lynn and Blaine about that?” Maddie flipped through the book again. “Pixies. They’re tiny, elemental, and summonable. They could get in through the sinks.” She headed to the bathroom, looking over her shoulder before going in. “I’m warding the faucets.”
“Good idea.” I sat down at the table across from Maddie’s jacket and tried not to think. With the Spite outside, she couldn’t run from the hungry vampire inside. Coming to my apartment had been a bad idea. It was too small for me to get far enough away from my temptation. What made it worse was I felt exactly the same way Maddie did. I was falling in love.
Vampires had the drive to turn people they loved, especially someone who’d be genetically compatible afterward. After Death Magi, Umbral were most likely to be. And Maddie had grown up with a turned dad, meaning she’d been exposed to more than enough of the right kind of magic. Within just a couple of hours, I’d barely be able to control myself. If I turned her without a permit, she’d be lucky to spend eternity in prison. I’d be executed.
