Kalista: The Undead Dating Agency Book 2

by Janet Lee Smith

  “I’m a true immortal? What does that even mean?” That sounds like I can’t be killed or die. How would that even be possible? Everything can die. “It means you’ll never die, Madison. No matter what happens, no matter what anyone tries to do to you, you won’t die.” I have to be dreaming right now. How is this even possible? “I know it’s a lot to take in, and no one expects you to do it right away.”

  “Now for the bags I bought home from your mom’s place. Your mom is going to be staying with us for awhile too. She has unbelievable power and needs to learn how to work it, how to control it. Because now that she knows about it, it will no longer be dormant. Ollie is going to come over here every day to work with her. Since I no longer have my powers, I can’t do it.” “But where will she sleep? Kali and I have the only other bedroom.”

  “We’re going to have my office made into a bedroom for her. Some contractors will be coming tomorrow to make sure she has everything she needs, both in the bedroom and in the apartment, and she’ll be picking out bedroom furniture tonight and it will be delivered tomorrow. She’s going to have everything she needs.” I didn’t even know what to say. This was more than I could handle. Wait, no, I’m not only a vamp, I’m a baddass vamp/witch hybrid. I can handle everything.

  “Can you get that backpack over there, Madison? It has some things for you in it.” “Sure.” I wonder what could be in there for me? I have a feeling it isn’t presents. “Here you go.” “Thanks, now sit down right there.” She wants me to sit right on the side of her. Hmmmm…what is she pulling out of that backpack? Beanies?

  “I know these look just like hats, but there much more than that. They belonged to my family and disappeared at the same time your grandmother did. They’re filled with the magic of the other hybrids in our family and they are very powerful. But their magic can only be used by hybrids. Over the coming days Ollie is also going to be working with you, to help you harness your magic. But these are also yours. The only ones who know how to use them are hybrids. So, one of the other six will be arriving tomorrow. You have magic from being a hybrid that no one but another hybrid will be able to help you with.”

  “Wow. This is a lot to digest. I don’t know what to say. Saying I’m overwhelmed is an understatement.” How am I going to handle all of this? First, I’m turned into a vampire, and now I’m this all-powerful creature who will never die and I come from a family of powerful witches. I know I’m only 16, but I could use a drink right now. Too bad I’m a vampire and it would take an awful lot of alcohol to get me drunk. Plus, I’m pretty sure Janis won’t let me have anything to drink other than blood.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, Madison. I’ll be here with you every step of the way. You’re going to have all of the support that you need, okay?” I don’t really have a choice in any of this, but at least I’ll have support. And I’ll be doing it with my mom. Wait, my mom. “How is my mom taking all of this?” Janis is smiling, that must mean she’s handling it okay. “She’s taking it the way I suspect she has taking things her whole life, like a trooper. But she’ll tell you more once she gets here.”

  As soon as Janis got the last word out of her mouth, the doorbell rang. That must be my mom. I can’t believe she’s going to be staying here. “Wait, before you answer the door, will she be safe with Kali here? If not, I don’t want her staying here.” “She’ll be perfectly safe, I never would have suggested her coming here otherwise. Kali’s bloodlust is under control. I just wanted her to spend a couple more days in the house and getting used to not craving blood before I told her she could go out.”

  That’s a good thing, I would never allow my mom to be in danger for any reason. Janis got up to answer the door, only it wasn’t my mom. It was someone I’d never seen before. Who is that? She’s more beautiful than any of the super models out there. “Madison, this is Tempest. Tempest this is Madison. My mentee and my great niece.” No, this can’t be… “Wait, Tempest as in Satan?” This can’t be Satan. She looks so normal, not like the harbinger of evil.

  “That’s me! I see you’ve heard of me.” Oh my God, that laugh. She sounds as insane as Janis said she was. “Well, I’m pretty everyone has heard of you. Although most people think you’re a man.” This is nuts. I’m standing here talking to Satan. “Yeah, well, I thought people would be more afraid of me if they thought I was a man.” Is Janis really laughing at Satan? Is that really a good idea?

  “Tempest, if they knew that you’re a bat shit crazy female, they would be even more afraid of you.” Janis is really insulting Satan? How did my life become this crazy? “Keep it up, Janis, and I’ll show you how bat shit crazy I am. Now invite me into your home, I’m a guest after all. And I have important information to share with you.” Oh Goddess, can tonight get any worse? If Satan has important information, it can’t be good.

  “Come in and have a seat Tempest and share with me this all-important information. And it better not be something stupid. Like who your latest nerdy concubine in Hell is.” I never though Janis had a death wish before, but she clearly does. How smart is it to be talking to Satan like that? And nerdy concubine’s? What the actual fuck?

  Once we were all sitting, Tempest started telling a story, and as soon as she did, I wished my life was back the way it was. How could things keep getting worse? “Here’s the story. I hope you’re ready for it. There’s a rogue werewolf out there who is tearing apart humans. There are ten dead so far. Whoever is doing it sent a note down to hell telling us what they’re doing. Otherwise we would not know what’s going on. The human authorities haven’t put it on a supe yet, so we had no way of knowing.”

  Even Janis looks nervous. This is bad. I haven’t been a part of the supernatural world for long, but I know this is really, really bad. Human are being killed by a werewolf. There are already a lot of humans who didn’t trust supes, this was going to make things much worse. “Why are you here telling me this? What do you expect me to do?” “Well, Janis, word has gotten down to Hell that your new mentee is a witch/vampire hybrid. Between you and your friends, and little Madison here, we expect you to take care of this little problem.”

  Uh oh. Janis didn’t look nervous anymore. She looked furious. “How. Do. You. Know. About. Madison? I just confirmed it myself. And she just learned it, she has not idea how to use her power. How the ever-loving fuck do you expect us to take care of this? What the hell are you thinking, Tempest?”

  The words were barely out of her mouth before Tempest’s hair started flying around her head. This can’t be good. “I suggest you stop talking to me like that, vampire. Then I suggest you figure out how you’re going to teach Madison how to use her problems. Because you WILL be handling this situation. Am I clear?” Janis seemed to shrink into herself at Satan’s words. “You’re clear. Now can you leave so I can get this started? You know the hybrid’s won’t be near you, and I need at least one of them here, now.”

  I guess Satan didn’t need to use the door after all. She disappeared in a bunch or red and black glitter. Janis sunk down onto the sofa and held her head in her hands, but then she sat up and had a look of determination on her face. She grabbed her phone and made a phone call. “Ollie, I need you, Alex, and Maggie here as soon as possible.” She hung up before he could even answer and made another phone call. “Hey Penelope, it’s Janis, I need you at my apartment, right away.”

  After she finished that call in the same way that she ended the call to Ollie, she looked at me. “Madison, I need you to call Julie and tell her to get here as soon as possible. She’s young like you, but she also has some powerful magick. We’re going to need every advantage possible. If Tempest won’t handle this, it means this is going to be a tough fight. I wish she was as powerful as she pretended to be! Maybe I wouldn’t have Daime the Demon dog here is she had better control over Hell.”

  “Wait, speaking of Daime, where is he? He usually comes running when I come in.” Janis started looking around the apartment before I could even answer her question. “
He’s out with Kali. She loves him and wanted to take him out with her.” “Oh shoot, I forgot about Kali. We need her here too.” Janis immediately called her with the same message as the other calls. “Get home right away, Kali, we have an issue.”

  Then the doorbell rang again. Janis and I had forgotten about my mom coming. “Janis, that’s got to be my mom. Will she still be safe here?” Janis stood up and went to answer the door as she answered me. “It looks like you and your mom are going to get a crash course in magic. She’ll be fine, and she’ll be fighting by our sides.” Oh hell no. That’s unacceptable. “She will not be!” Damn that was loud, where did that voice come from? “Madison, she’ll be fine. She’s going to be fighting with magic, and nothing else.”

  Janis

  I can’t believe this is happening. My life was quiet by vampire standards for hundreds of years and now all hell was breaking out. How was I supposed to make sure Madison and Angela were able to tap into their magic, and know how to use it, in time to take down a rogue werewolf before it killed anymore humans? This is insanity, and when it’s all over Tempest will pay for putting this on me!

  When I got to the door, it was Angela on the other side. “Hey Angela, come on in. Get comfortable because we need to have another talk. Angela went over to the overstuffed recliner, and Madison helped her mom get into it. “Would you like anything to drink, Angela? We have to pick up some food for you, but we have plenty to drink. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic.” “No, I’m fine. I really hope you’re not allowing my daughter to drink.”

  “Mom, really? I’m a vampire now, I think I can drink.” “Really, Madison? What has happened in the last week that makes you think I would allow you to drink in my home, vampire or not? Don’t worry, Angela. She does not, and will not, drink here. She may think she’s all grown up because she’s a vampire, but like you, I don’t agree. And Madison, you know there are more important things to discuss.”

  Damn it, why is someone else ringing the doorbell? Can’t I have a few minutes to let Angela know what’s going on? “Hold on, I’m coming!” “Wow, you all got here fast. I didn’t expect you for at least 15 minutes.” Ollie just laughed at that. “You underestimate me, cousin. I teleported us all here, with Maggie’s help, of course. We didn’t want to just pop into your apartment, so we teleported out here.”

  Were they serious with this? “You do know that someone could have been in the hallway, right? Just because people know that witches exist, it doesn’t mean they want to see witchcraft in front of their face. Come in please, I was just about to tell Angela what’s happening, so I can tell you all at once.” They all looked confused at that. Can’t say that I blame them. “Angela, as in Madison’s mom?” “Yes, just come in and I’ll explain all.

  As son as we walked into my living room two people popped in. “See, you guys could have done that, instead of popping into my hallway.” I had never met one of the newcomers, but anyone who had been any type of supernatural for long enough would recognize them both. They were two of the six hybrids. I hadn’t seen Penelope Cruise in years, so I gave her a quick hug. “Hey Penelope, long time no see. I take it this is Lucas?”

  “Yes, it’s Lucas. Lucas, this is Janis a distance cousin or something of ours.” The man chuckled. “I know who Janis is. She’s the one that got gipped out of being one of us, somehow. Hi Janis, it’s nice to finally meet you.” I introduced everyone quickly, saving the introductions between Madison and her fellow hybrids for last. ‘Penelope, Lucas, this is Madison. She’s now one of you. Angela is her mom, and my sister Agatha is her grandmother. Madison, Penelope and Lucas are two of the other hybrid’s in this world.”

  I need everyone to get comfortable. We have a little problem, and I’m going to need all of your help. We’re waiting for one more person and when she gets here, we’ll get started. It’s a long story and I don’t want to have to tell it twice. As soon as I said that Julie popped into the room. “How is it that even a teenage witch could figure out to pop into my apartment, but two witches from the witch’s council couldn’t figure it out?”

  “Anyway, we don’t really have time for that. Julie, take a seat. I’m about to tell you all a little story. Please no questions or comments from any of you until I’m done. This is important, and we don’t have a lot of time. I’m going to begin at the beginning, since some of you know parts of this, but some of you know none of it. This begins with Madison being turned into a vampire.”

  “My sire brought Madison here a little over a week ago. He had turned her because he saw her dying, and he wanted me to mentor her. I quickly noticed that she didn’t have a problem with bloodlust, then I noticed when we had dinner with Alex and she had Chinese food, the smell of the food didn’t make her sick. As a newly turned vampire, she should have been running to the bathroom to vomit.”

  “At this time, we were also fighting with a witch who had gone power hungry, so there wasn’t a lot of time for me to ponder any of this. But I kept it in the back of my mind. Once it was all over, I noticed that Madison’s control was even better than I had initially thought. I immediately started wondering if she was a witch/vampire hybrid. I didn’t see how it could be anything else.”

  “I finally got a chance to talk to Angela tonight to try and find out if there is a witch someplace in Madison’s family tree. It turns out there is. My sister Agatha is Angela’s mother. She abandoned Angela when she was a baby, so Angela grew up with no clue about her witchy heritage. As we all know, since turned witches in my family are supposed to be hybrid’s, my suspicions were correct. Madison is one of the six existing witch/vampire hybrids.”

  “Our plan was to have Ollie assist Angela with harnessing her magick and learning how to use it and have Penelope help Madison with her powers. It was a great plan too. Until Tempest paid us a visit earlier. It appears that there’s a rogue werewolf on the loose killing humans. The authorities haven’t announced that it is a werewolf doing it, but the werewolf in question sent a note down to Tempest in Hell.”

  “Somehow, word has gotten down to Hell about Madison, and Tempest has asked, well not asked, demanded, that we find this rogue werewolf and handle the situation before any more humans are killed. Penelope and Lucas, you don’t have to be involved in this if you don’t want to be, and neither do you Angela. But we do need you two to teach Madison how to use her powers, and Angela, we need you to learn how to use your magick. If you do help, it will solely be by wielding your magick.”

  “Everyone else, once Madison is prepared, we will all be searching for this werewolf and putting an end to him. Or her. We know nothing about the werewolf in question, other than he or she is a rogue and a killer. For myself, Madison, Ollie and Maggie, there is no choice. We will all be working together on this. As for Alex, Angela, and Julie, if you all want to be involved, you will be. Is everyone clear on this?”

  Everyone spoke up at once and said that they would be involved. I looked at Ollie when Alex said that she would help, and I could tell he wanted to tell her no. I also knew he wouldn’t dare. The love of his life may still be a human, for the time being, she was tough as nails and would never allow him to tell her she couldn’t be involved. I’d never seen Ollie so in love or so whipped as he was with Alex. And I couldn’t be happier for him. Especially now that I had my true mate. Wait.

  “Damn it, I forgot about Constantine. He’s going to kill me. Give me a minute while I call him, and we can discuss where we go from here.” Where the hell did I leave my phone? Oh wait, on the bar. “Constantine, I need you to get over here as soon as possible. In fact, can you just pop over? It’s really important and everyone else has. Okay, see you soon.” I waited anxiously before continuing because I knew it wouldn’t take more than a couple of seconds for him to get here. And I was right. “Hi baby, you sounded stressed on the phone.”

  “Penelope and Lucas, can you start explaining to Madison what her powers are and how she can harness them? And Ollie and Maggie, can you both do the same with Angela whi
le I tell Constantine what’s going on? Alex, Kali should be back soon, once she is can you explain everything to her?” They all started doing as I asked while I pulled my love to the side to explain it all. When this is over, Tempest is going to owe me big. Handling supes who have gone off script is supposed to be her job, not ours.

  Kalista

  When I walked into the apartment, it was crowded with people, well, people and supes of all kinds. I’m not going to lie, between this and Janis’ panicked call to me, I as a more than a little nervous. When a badass like Janis is nervous, a novice like me was in trouble. Now that Alex has explained to me what’s going on, I’m even more nervous. How can I possibly help with this? I’m barely over my bloodlust, now I’m going to have to try and capture a rogue werewolf?

  How did I end up in this mess? Oh wait, I remember. It was because I thought I was cool and that driving while drunk was a good idea. How stupid could I have been? Also, now what do I do about my date with William Sarducci? Mandy called me back while I was out and the date was tomorrow night. I have a feeling that this problem will not be solved by then. “Alex, can you give me a quick minute? I need to make a phone call.”

  As soon as I grabbed my phone I found William’s number in it. I hope he answered. “Sarducci” “Oh hey, William. This is Kalista, we have a date tomorrow night.” I must have 1,000 butterflies in my stomach right now. “Oh yes, my true mate.” Wait what? How do I answer that? “So, I take it you believe Mandy is right? I have to admit, I hope she is.” “Oh, don’t worry about that, my mate. Mandy is always right. I have no doubt that you’re my one true mate.” Wow. Talk Kali, talk. “I’m so sorry, but I need to reschedule our date.”