“What happened?” yelled Sam out in the hall.
Heavy footsteps came up the stairs. Sierra guessed Mom since Dad tromped more forcefully. Mom went past the door.
“Uh oh,” whispered Sophia.
After exchanging a ‘what was that / I dunno’ with Sam and a pause long enough to suggest she looked into each bedroom, Mom stepped into the bathroom. Whatever she had planned to say stalled as she regarded the fog rolling out of the tub. Her expression gave off an ‘oh, what now?’ vibe.
Sophia managed a cheesy smile.
“Girls? What are you doing in here? The whole downstairs filled with a blue glow, and a lightning bolt jumped out of the microwave and lit your father’s hair on fire.”
“Eep!” Sophia clamped her hands over her mouth.
“Sorry.” Sierra cringed. “Soph tried to enchant my bath with lavender and kinda overdid it. Is Dad okay?”
“Yes.” Mom pressed a hand to her chest. “Only a small mark. Not much worse than static shock from the carpet. He was more annoyed having to go downstairs to flip the breaker. Sierra?”
“Yeah?”
“Why are you wearing a swimsuit in the bathtub?”
She nodded at Sophia. “Just until she’s out of the room.”
Mom sighed, nodding, then looked at Sophia. “Young lady, you need to be a little more careful with magic or I might have to suspend those tutoring sessions.”
Sophia looked down. “Yes, Mom.”
“She was really careful.” Sierra reached over to squeeze her sister’s hand. “Just never did this before.”
“All right, then. No harm done. Try to be more aware of what else your spells might do.” Mom kissed Sophia on the head, then left, closing the door behind her.
Sierra exhaled in relief.
Mom poked her head back in. “Oh, girls. Please clean the eerie glowing mist out of the bathtub before you leave the room. That better not stain the porcelain.”
“Yes, Mom,” said Sierra and Sophia together.
Mom smiled.
Once the door closed again, Sierra grasped her sister’s hand. “Hey. It’s just Mom being Mom. I know you’ve never been so careful about doing magic before this. You weren’t careless at all.”
“I know,” said Sophia in a soft voice. “I just don’t like lying to Mom.”
“Would you rather tell her you took an expensive ruby and melted it? If she knew, it might get her fired from being a lawyer.”
“Ugh.” Sophia sniffled. “I don’t like that lying to her is the best choice.”
Sierra chuckled. “Depends if you mean ‘best’ as in life continues normally or best as in moral.”
“If this worked and you aren’t gonna die and turn into a vampire, it’s definitely the best.” She picked up the empty Frappuccino bottle. “I should put this back in the recycle bin. Did it work?”
Sierra stood in the tub, stomach-deep in fog. “I don’t feel any different. Let me try something.”
“What?”
She reached out to grasp Sophia under the armpits and lifted her off her feet. Her younger sister felt as light as a hollow plastic mannequin. She set her down, then threw a few punches as fast as she could past Sophia’s face—intentionally missing.
“Eek!” Sophia jumped away a second or two after Sierra stopped moving.
“Ooh! I think it worked.” Sierra bounced on her toes. “It’s just like when Sarah first boosted me. Umm, you’re sure there aren’t going to be any bad effects?”
“Yeah. I mega-tuple checked.” She held up the bottle. “Might’ve been some side effects if you drank it, but the water made it safe. Gave up some power for safety.”
“How much power?” Sierra climbed out of the tub and stuck her face in the mirror to check herself. No fangs. Win.
“Umm, if you drank it, you would’ve been like Terminator strong… but the magic wouldn’t have lasted long and might’ve killed you. Moderating it with water traded power for permanence.”
Sierra did a few push-ups, feeling weightless. A good shove threw her up to her feet. “This is about perfect. I don’t need to be stupid strong. Especially if it could kill me. Just enough to have a chance. Wow. So, no death.”
“Nope. This has nothing to do with vampires. I basically enchanted you to boost strength and agility.”
“Hah.” Sierra snickered. “We’re not D&D characters.”
Sophia shrugged. “It’s the easiest way to explain it in a way you’ll understand without talking for two hours. According to my calculations, factoring in the water, you should now be about as strong as an adult man. Once you grow up, you’ll probably be a teeny bit superhuman. Umm, speed’s already kinda superhuman, so you’ll have to be careful and not show off.”
“Cool.” Sierra choked up. “Thank you.”
“Why are you crying?”
“Because you saved me from having to be scared.” Sierra hugged her.
“You’re welcome. I can be scared enough for both of us.”
Sierra laughed.
“Oh… I also asked the book about the blood.”
“Uh oh.” Sierra leaned back from the hug to make eye contact. “You’re about to tell me there is a side effect.”
“Umm, I’m talking about what would’ve happened if you kept drinking blood. Being a thrall stops you from aging. It’s not a big deal if a person doesn’t particularly care about power, but since you’re so worried about someone hurting you, or us, eventually, you’d get like addicted and stuff and go crazy if you didn’t have it.”
“Yeah.” Sierra looked down, then resumed the hug. “I noticed. Thanks.”
28
Unstable Fiends
Ever get that weird feeling something just isn’t right, but you can’t tell what?
I’m regretting my promise to not eavesdrop on my family’s minds. So, I wake up Tuesday, right? No big deal. The Oblivare are most likely no longer a problem anymore. Ladonna’s still out there, but after witnessing Aziz mash the curator into pudding, it’s unlikely she is going to come back for revenge, at least not soon. Still have the babymaker vampire—wow, that totally sounds bad, doesn’t it? Whatever, he or she is out there and it’s a problem, but hardly a scary one.
Ordinary innocent Tuesday in late June. So why does it feel wrong?
Mostly due to my sisters. Sierra is visibly happy. Nothing, as far as I know, has happened to cheer her up so much. Maybe Dad promised to buy her a PlayStation 5 when it comes out next year. Sophia’s totally acting like she did something slightly wrong and is waiting to get caught and in trouble. Then again, to her, ‘doing something wrong’ is like arriving at class five minutes late without being noticed. She probably forgot to do some chore Mom assigned her or maybe got into an argument with Nicole. Soph keeps looking at me like she wants to say something, but doesn’t.
Ugh. So tempting to look, but I gave them my word.
I don’t have an obvious imminent emergency to justify breaking the promise. If whatever’s going on is bad enough, they will eventually come clean. Sophia can’t hold in a lie forever.
Maybe it’s the sheer mundanity of the day bothering me. One doesn’t go from cops having their bodies stolen by dark soul energy and getting into a giant vampire claw fight one day, then spend the next playing board games with the family on a rainy summer Tuesday. Oh, yeah. Another thing bothering me. Sierra hugged me three times. Randomly. Like just walking past me to go to the bathroom or get snacks, she gave me a brief hug. Completely out of character for her. She’s like a cat who won’t let you pick her up, but sometimes sits next to you and leans against you.
So… so… tempting to see what’s going on in that devious little brain of hers.
Really don’t know what vampires did with themselves before video games, television, and movies became a thing. Summer break has freed me from homework for a few months, so unless Wolent throws random jobs at me, I’m left to myself. My goal hasn’t changed. I still want to be as normal as possible and pretend—in
sofar as I am able to—none of the crazy vampire stuff ever happened. It’s a little difficult to keep up the illusion when unnatural biology keeps me awake to sunrise every day. I’m merely a night owl. Really. Umm, not buying it? Okay, fine. An extreme night owl.
T’was the night after Monday and all through the house, not a Little was stirring, not even the kitten. The parents were snug in their bed with care, in hopes no one to mischief would dare. Blix on Sam’s PlayStation, Max in the yard, I’ve nothing else to rhyme here, so I’ll say bard.
Seriously though, everything’s quiet. The hellhound is snoring outside. Or maybe breathing. Hard to tell.
“Hey, Siri, do I have a scheduled attempt on my life today?”
“I don’t understand,” replies my phone.
Heh.
Oh, hey, in better news, the last bits of phantom stinging from the claw marks are gone. And on that note, I’m hungry. It’s kinda difficult to enjoy a bowl of blood while watching a movie. Vampire society really needs to put some resources into developing portable movie-friendly snacks. For now, I’m stuck doing it the traditional way. On the upside, it’s an excuse to fly.
Ever since I stumbled on the one bastard who abused his little stepdaughter, feeding has made me nervous.
I dread the sort of nonsense I’m going to see inside people’s minds. Got lucky tonight. The dude I picked for a snack had to be the single most wholesome man on all of the West Coast. Usually, someone roving at night in a white cargo van is up to no good. This guy’s driving around a portable shower for homeless people and giving out free meals. I almost felt guilty for feeding on him. Also been a really long time since I had a cheese steak. Or at least the flavor of one.
No weird, disgusting creeps, no vampires trying to rip my head off, nothing odd at all.
A feeding trip going so smoothly only tells me something is about to go wrong. Do I qualify as a pessimist or a realist?
On the way home, I notice an odd scene playing out on the ground at a small gas station. It’s not ‘Fuzzydoom escaped from the mirrorworld’ odd or even ‘Sierra wearing a dress’ odd, merely ordinary odd. The sort of odd people watch on TV shows like COPS. A small crowd has formed on the side of the convenience store attached to the gas station, near the bathrooms. They’re horseshoed around a young guy—early twenties—in a wool hat and grunge couture. Someone needs to tell him the Nirvana era is over. I can practically smell those jeans from up here.
Curious, I glide to the right and descend for a better look.
“Go look if you don’t believe me,” says the guy in a manic, freaked out voice. “I’m telling you, some dude jumped me. Soon as I started kicking his ass, he totally exploded into dust and bones.”
Ack!
I’m intending to do mind surgery on the guy anyway, so I swoop in to land behind the crowd, not caring if he can see me flying. Grunge Boy promptly gawks. No one pays little ol’ me any attention as I round the edge of the group and walk up to the guy. Two seconds of eye contact and he’s cruising to Derptown. With him on pause, I look over the crowd, one by one giving everyone a light mental nudge to think this guy’s high and rambling nonsense. Doesn’t take much. His story sounded pretty wild. Most of them already thought the dude got a hold of some tainted weed.
The crowd disperses back to their cars, about a third going into the convenience store.
I take the dude by the hand and lead him around behind the convenience store. An entire human skeleton’s worth of bones lays atop a spread of pale grey ash not far from a pair of dumpsters. Still towing Grunge Boy, I approach the bones and crouch to examine the skull. Obvious fangs.
Crap.
Great. Now what? Is this a case of SVC? Spontaneous vampiric combustion? The bones show no signs of charring or fire. Ground’s concrete, so any blackening from a burn would be obvious. Okay, here’s the weird moment I’d been expecting. Right. First things first.
I stand back up, go nose to nose with Grunge Boy, and plunge into his head. In his memory, he’d come back here in search of an air pump for his tire. Someone pounced on him from behind, shoving him into the wall. This guy fought back, believing he’d been targeted for a garden variety mugging. It took him only a few seconds to get the upper hand and start beating the snot out of a slightly smaller guy. The attacker definitely fits the profile of the ‘baby vamp’ problem, looking about eighteen or so. He makes a ‘think you can kick my ass?’ face… then bursts apart into a cloud of ash and bones.
Something tells me he hadn’t intended to do that.
All his meaty bits dried out and became dust in two seconds. The bones simply fell to the ground. Either someone’s given the Transference to Ashton Kutcher and there’s now a vampire version of Pranked, or something entirely weird and messed up is going on.
I alter Grunge Boy’s memory to having a drunk guy bump into him and walk off. Plausible alterations take less effort to make permanent than straight up deleting stuff. I also insert knowledge: this gas station’s air pump is out front. No clue how the guy missed it.
Problem one dealt with.
I tow Grunge Boy with me around the building again and leave him standing in the well-lit area before going into the convenience store to buy a small box of trash bags. Humming innocently to myself, I open it and pull a bag out while heading around behind the building again. Even at vampire speed, it takes me a while to gather all the little individual bones into the Hefty bag. I pause, holding the fanged skull up, making eye-to-socket contact. Yeah, I can’t let anyone find this. Hmm… what to do.
Having no better ideas, I finish bagging the bones and take off into the night sky.
The idea of bringing these home for the moment doesn’t bother me like the reliquary. Beyond the simple morbidity of keeping someone’s bones around, they’re not going to hurt anyone. Spontaneously disintegrating vampires sounds like an issue the powers that be might want to know about. However, I’m also kinda curious. I generally trust Wolent, but he might not always give me every scrap of information about a situation. Also, the more I know going into a meeting with him, the better. He’s also not the first guy I think of in terms of having vast obscure knowledge. He’s way more Godfather than Einstein.
Idea…
I swing around and head for Seattle Central College.
The building’s closed for the night, but I use my alternate ID badge to get in.
My very alternate ID badge. It’s so alternate, in fact, it belongs to a security guard.
I didn’t hurt him. Merely ‘asked’ him to let me in. He also didn’t question the clattering plastic bag. This is, after all, a college. People bring bizarre things here all the time. Most people looking at a partially yellowed skeleton with a fanged skull would assume it to be fake. Amazing how easy it is to hide the truth right in the open sometimes. I go straight to the building where my philosophy class was, down to the basement, and to the cabinet containing the secret button.
Professor Heath is pulling a Laszlo from Real Genius. He lives in a secret area under the school. He doesn’t have a long train car to get to his place, merely a disused elevator shaft. The man also lacks a doorbell, so I’ve no choice but to barge in. He is, of course, waiting for me in his ‘living room.’ To a vampire’s hearing, opening this door is louder than dropping a bucket of forks down three flights of stairs.
“Oh, hello, Sarah. Wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.” Professor Heath offers a warm ‘young grandfatherly’ smile that masterfully hides the elder vampire lurking beneath.
He’s basically the grown man version of me: looks totally harmless on the outside, but reality is way different. Imagine a vampire story where the king of all undead is like a British version of Mr. Rogers with bushy eyebrows, played by an actor somewhere between Michael Caine and John Cleese. To be fair, I’m more harmless on the inside than he is. Not only am I a baby by comparison age wise, I’m also generally too nice for my own good. Heath’s an awesome dude, but I doubt he’d feel any guilt whatsoever for k
illing someone who tried to destroy him.
“Sorry to bother you, but you’re like the smartest person I know with fangs. Can you look at this?” I hold up the bag. “Need to understand what happened.”
“It appears to be a trash bag.”
“Hah. Everyone’s a comedian. It’s bones. Vampire bones.” I hand him the bag.
He takes it over to a table mostly covered in stacks of books. One by one, he removes some of the larger bones from the bag, glances at them, then sets them on the table. I wait patiently until all the major arm and leg bones, skull, and pelvis are on the table. He left all the little stuff in the bag. Don’t blame him. Picking that crap up was tedious as hell.
“So… what do you think?”
He continues examining a femur. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. These bones don’t appear to have been chemically treated to strip the flesh, nor have they disintegrated. Typically, if a vampire is consumed by fire, our bones turn to ash except for the largest pieces. Vampirism does make certain changes to the structure. You see here the whiter parts… still mortal. Yet there is yellowing, too. Some of the bone surface resembles an ancient skeleton one might find in an archeological tomb. The blending is quite bizarre.”
“Any idea what it means?”
“Somewhat, yes. The man had only been a vampire for a few days. Not enough time for his bones to fully change.”
I fidget. No doubt my bones have ‘fully changed,’ whatever it means. Yeah, I am happy being a vampire, but still not fond of reminders about death. “I kinda figured he was pretty new. You’re out of the loop, so…” I explain the situation of someone running around imparting the Transference to multiple people, then leaving them to fend for themselves. “Any idea why he disintegrated? He tried to attack some rando at a gas station. They got into a fight and the mortal turned out to be a much bigger threat than he expected. The vamp made this ‘I got you now’ face, then poof!”
“Hmm.” Professor Heath picked up the skull, turning it over in his hands.
Vampire Innocent | Book 12 | Ancient Vampire Death Cults & Other Annoyances Page 24