The Vampire King's Cage

by T. S. Ryder

  She stepped back to watch him. First, he cast a spell over himself, raising his arms and speaking the magical words. This, Thea knew from what Elise had told her, took care of the tangible physicals, as Elise called them. In other words, it made sure that anything he was wearing at the moment of transformation would be there when he changed back to human form. Shredding your clothes wasn’t necessary when you had magic to take care of that for you.

  He stood tall and then grew taller as the change started. His skin darkened and broke out into diamond-shaped scales as his limbs morphed into dragon shape. He landed on all fours on the floor, his hands and feet now clawed paws. His arms and legs were covered in red-orange scales that led up to his thick chest and body. His neck stretched and his nose and mouth reached forward into a snout. His back rounded, the spikes of his spines popping free and running down to his back and beyond, along with the tail growing out from behind him.

  When the change was complete, he shook like a dog does when getting water from its fur. Even in dragon form, Thea thought he was hot. He was now powerful and strong, and something about his animal side was just as sexy as his human side. She wished she could run her hands along his smooth scales and feel just how sharp his spikes were.

  Elise began her spell, a ball of green energy forming in her hands. She shouted the final word of the spell and threw the ball at Logan. It broke over his chest and was absorbed into his body.

  Logan took a paw and spread herbs from a pile into a small circle in front of him. He tipped over a small bottle of liquid, mixing it with the herbs. Then he bowed his head slightly and the mixture began to smoke, releasing a faint yellow wisp.

  He stood and turned to her.

  “Move more to the middle,”Elise said.“In case you fall.”

  She gulped but took a step forward. She really hoped she didn’t fall. Not that the ceiling was so high in the room that she’d fall far, but it would surely be embarrassing.

  Logan faced her, and after a moment the yellow wisp came and swirled around her feet. She felt the ground slip away. She almost toppled over as she rose into the air a few inches. With nothing to stand on, she was rather unsteady. But her body rose higher and she was floating now, a few feet above the ground. She reached up and touched the ceiling.

  Chapter Two

  Elise clapped and shrieked in excitement. Thea waved down at them. Then her body lowered to the floor and the yellow wisp stopped.

  Logan changed back into human form and Elise ran to hug him.

  “You did it!”she exclaimed.“That was awesome. Wait until everyone hears about this.”

  Logan beamed.“Thanks. Thea, how did it feel?”

  “Weird. It got better when I got higher because I didn’t feel like I should be standing anymore. Then I felt like I was closer to flying.”

  “Awesome. Thanks for your help. Now I just need to be able to do it without the extra spell boost.”

  “You’ll get there,”Elise said.“We’ll keep practicing. Honestly, we all came so far last night. I’m sure that by the end of next week we’ll be pros.”

  “That seemed like a pretty advanced spell,”Thea said. She was genuinely impressed.

  “It was,”Logan said.“A level four.”

  “Whoa.”There were five spell levels in the magical world. Only masters who’d been casting for years could do fives. They wouldn’t be at that level until they were in their thirties or forties most likely. She was just mastering most of the level three spells, and some on the upper end were still too difficult for her. It would be another three or four years at least until she could attempt a level four. But then, Logan was three years older than them, and being dragons gave them more power, so they were both ahead of her. She was ahead of most of the witches her age, in large part due to spending so much time with Logan and Elise, but she always felt a little behind. It wasn’t until she hung out with witches her own age that she felt advanced or powerful in any way.

  “I’d be on level fours, too, if I had the extra years of practice you did,”Elise said.

  “Hey.”He ruffled her hair.“Older brothers gotta have some sort of benefit. I taught you a lot, too. You know more than I did at your age. I didn’t have an amazing big brother to teach me more complicated spells.”

  “But you have an amazing little sister to help you not be a total dork, so it all works out.”Elise tickled him and he jumped.

  Elise dashed up the stairs, screaming and laughing, to get away from him. Thea followed and, by the time they reached the kitchen, they’d reached a tickle truce.

  “I made coffee,”Elise said.

  “Ah.”Logan went to the pot and poured himself a cup.“I guess little sisters are good for something after all.”

  Elise smacked his arm and poured a cup for Thea, then herself. They stood in the kitchen, blowing the steam from their mugs and taking sips.

  This was her chance. Coffee was strong enough to hide any potion taste. She just had to be close enough and stealthy enough that no one would see her do it. She kept her eyes peeled for the perfect moment.

  “What do you guys have going on today?”Logan asked.

  “Calculus studying for Monday,”Thea said.

  Elise nodded in her direction.“Helping her and writing an English paper and maybe some fall shopping. I need more sweaters.”

  “I’ll help you with that,”Thea said.“You know, in exchange for helping me with calculus and all.”

  “Perfect,”Elise said.“What about you?”

  He looked down at his watch.“Not too sure, yet, actually. Sophia is on her way over, then I think we’re getting lunch. I have a paper to write, too, so we might end up at the library. Want to meet there later? We can study and work together.”

  “Yeah,”Elise said.

  Thea nodded and tried to hide her disappointment. Sophia was Logan’s girlfriend, and the newest addition to their small group. They’d started dating several months ago. She was the reason Thea needed to slip Logan the love potion. He was falling for Sophia. She could see it. And she couldn’t let that happen.

  He set down his mug.“Gotta pee.”

  Perfect. Thea put her hand in her pocket and her fingers closed around the thin, glass vial. She just had to distract Elise now.

  Logan left the room and Thea moved closer to where his mug sat on the counter. Elise was looking at her phone, but she could look up at any minute.

  “Hey, do you have any ibuprofen?”Thea said.“I have a headache.”

  “Oh, sure.”Elise set down her phone and went upstairs to her room.

  This couldn’t have gone any better. Thea took the vial from her pocket, popped out the cork stopper and dumped the liquid into Logan’s mug. She stirred with her finger and put the vial back in her pocket as the toilet flushed. Logan walked out a minute later and took a long swig of his coffee before dumping the rest.

  “I should go brush my teeth real quick, I guess,”he said, breathing into his hand.“Where’d Lise go?”

  “Right here.”Elise handed Thea two pills and resumed her place against the counter.

  “Thanks.”Thea popped the pills and washed them down with coffee.

  She tried to calculate. Okay, he had drunk some, but not all of it. Her stomach turned in disappointment. Was it enough? She had brewed a large batch, though. If this didn’t work, she’d just do it again. As many times as it took to make him hers.

  There was a knock on the door and her stomach tightened further. Logan grinned and walked in this super-happy, hopping step to the door. Thea wanted him to be that happy when she showed up.

  A moment later, a smiling Sophia and Logan reentered the kitchen. Logan popped a mint quickly into his mouth, then kissed her. Sophia giggled.

  “Hi,”she said cheerily.

  “Hey,”Thea muttered, forcing a smile.

  “Heya,”Elise said.“Want some coffee? It’s fresh.”

  “I’d love some.”

  Elise poured Sophia a mugful and handed it to her. Sop
hia put her hands around it and sipped, and Logan stood beside her, his arm around her waist.

  Thea hated the way he looked at her like she was the best thing in the world. She was pretty. And skinner than Thea. Usually, Thea didn’t pay attention to that sort of thing. She loved the way she looked and her thick, curvy body. But what if Logan didn’t? What if he thought Sophia was much better looking and that was his type? That wavy blonde hair and those long, stick-like legs. Maybe she could learn a spell to make Sophia uglier.

  Thea sighed. Anything like that was darker magic and she didn’t mess with that. None of them did. It was too risky and too dangerous. Those spells often went wrong and, even when they didn’t, they turned the caster wrong after a while. There had been one boy in their senior year of high school who couldn’t resist. He’d gone into dark magic and the change in him was obvious. They had all known what he was up to when his eyes started to be red all the time and he turned mean. They tried to help him, but he’d fallen for the dark side.

  Of course, as teens, they’d all tried it and been tempted to do more. But she and Elise had done just a little thing. They’d cast a spell to kill a bug. It'd been shocking at first, how powerful they felt. But the residual spell feeling in their souls felt gross, and they quickly regretted killing the spider. Neither of them had been tempted again. Luckily, most magic casters didn’t get into it. But those who did were usually easy to spot for their darkness inside and out.

  Logan leaned forward and kissed Sophia, who then giggled again. Ugh, that giggle was so annoying. She tipped her mug so he could take a sip of her coffee.

  How could he like her? She wasn’t even a witch or a shifter. Which meant, also, that she didn’t know his secret. That couldn’t make for a very strong relationship, or a very healthy one, keeping secrets like that. He would be much better off with someone like Thea, who could share his secret and help him to do magic, and who was already like a part of his family. They were a perfect match.

  And the love potion? Well, it really only worked if there were some feelings there already. It wouldn’t just create something out of nothing. Her magic wasn’t that strong yet. So it wasn’t really anything so wrong. She’d tell him eventually, anyway. He’d probably roll his eyes and think it was cute. Hadn’t they joked about it when they were kids?

  “Just wait until we get old enough,”he’d said when they were something like twelve and nine,“I’m going to give you a love potion and make you fall crazy in love with me!”

  At the time, she and Elise had squealed and made ewww noises. At the time, the thought had disgusted her and that’s why he said it. But then, at the time, the thought of loving anyone like that was so foreign to her. Over the years, they joked about it once in a while.

  “I don’t have a date for prom,”she’d whined in their junior year.

  “Better get working on that love potion,”he’d said.

  “It’s close,”she’d joked.“And don’t worry, you’ll be my first victim when I get it right.”

  “Well, duh.”He’d rolled his eyes.“Who else would put up with your dumb ass forever?”

  And then she’d tickled him and he’d tickled back and they’d laughed. And he had, in the end, taken her to prom. Which was the start of her falling for him for real.

  If they hadn’t been so close for so long, and she hadn’t been so close to Elise for so long, it would be easier. She could tell him. They could fall for each other and have a relationship spring up naturally.

  But it wasn’t so simple with someone who was your best friend’s older brother, who, really, was one of your best friends, too. What if he didn’t feel the same way? How many movies, TV shows, books, whatever, had the whole love-you-like-a-sister thing happen? What if he looked at her like that? Like another little sister to annoy, and not a young woman to love.

  That’s why she didn’t have a problem with the love potion. It wasn’t like he knew nothing about it. They’d all worked on them in high school and used them, though unsuccessfully, on their crushes. They’d joked about it together. They’d flirted once in a while. And if he didn’t have any feelings at all, it would do nothing. It might make him a little friendlier to her, was all. It might make him like her more as a friend or a sister.

  But if he did have feelings, if there was something deep down inside, then it would spring forth and blossom. It would grow and expand and take over any other feelings. And it would last for several months. Plenty long enough for her to drug him again if she needed to. She could maybe see how it went when the potion started to wear off. Maybe it would be long enough that he’d have fallen in love for real and she wouldn’t need it again.

  But, for now, he was with Sophia. So she needed this potion to see how he really felt and to see if something could come of their years of friendship. And if he ended up breaking up with Sophia over it and was with her, then she’d really only sped up something that would have happened anyway. So there was nothing wrong with this. Nothing at all.

  Chapter Three

  Later that day, they did all meet up at the library. Thea and Elise made plans to go out after, so Thea dressed a little nicer. She had a reason to now, a good excuse. Elise was dressed up, too. They walked in to find Logan and Sophia already sitting at a long table.

  There was space between them, Thea was glad to see. They weren’t all cuddled up and holding hands like they usually were.

  She slid into the seat across from Logan and Elise sat beside her. He looked up, blinked twice, then smiled.

  “Wow. You guys going out or what?”he asked.

  “Yeah.”Elise dropped her bag onto the table and took out her books.“Party on Fifth. You guys should come.”

  Logan glanced at Sophia, who raised a shoulder.

  “Maybe,”he said.

  Thea opened her book and stole a glance at Logan. He was looking at her. When their eyes met, he smiled gently and looked back down. Her phone buzzed a few minutes later.

  It was a text from Logan. She played it off like it was nothing, just a notification or text from someone not sitting across from her.

  “You look hot today. For real.”

  She forced her face to stay straight and not react. Her heart was slamming in her chest, though. It was working. It really was. So he had had feelings for her, then. And the potion was working.

  “Can I tell you a secret?”she texted back.

  She picked up her pen and wrote a sentence, like nothing was going on.

  “Like you have any secrets from me. I’ve seen you naked already.”

  She almost chuckled. She had to clamp down on her jaw to keep from even smiling. Sure, he’d seen her naked. Many times. She’d seen him, too. It just happened when you spent so much time together and when you’d been kids together.

  “Well, you haven’t seen me lately. Not with my big boobs.”

  He sent back a winky face.“Feel free to show me anytime.”Then, he said,“The secret?”

  “I was hoping you’d think I looked hot in this outfit.”

  “How is that a secret? Boo.”

  “What?! It is! I never told you that I wanted you to find me hot before.”

  “Right,”he said.“Because first of all, when I have ever not found you hot, and second, what girl doesn’t want guys to think that about them anyway? I call your secret double lame with dork potion on top.”

  She couldn’t help it. A small giggle escaped her lips. Elise looked over at her, then Logan and Sophia did as well.

  “You have to see this stupid video on Facebook,”she said.

  “Are you kidding me?”Elise said.“We are supposed to be studying, not Facebooking.”

  Elise grabbed Thea’s phone and set it on the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Logan stiffen. Her phone was right in Sophia’s eyesight.

  “Whatever.”Thea snatched back her phone and shoved it in her pocket.“See, look, I put it away.”

  But it was killing her. What a time to have to stop messaging. At least he
knew what was going on and why she couldn’t respond. She waited several minutes, then went to the bathroom, phone in hand, of course. As soon as she was closed away behind the stall door, she responded.

  “You really find me hot? I definitely think you are.”Smiley face.“You’re the only one whose opinion I really care about, anyway.”

  Then, for good measure and just for fun, she brought out one of their inside jokes from high school, like he had.“Even if you do drink dork potion every night.”

  It was something the three of them had made up together. Anyone who was being lame must be drinking dork potion. It started as a goofy joke, but they’d kept it up for years, bringing it out whenever it seemed funny again.

  “Pfft. I don’t know about dork potion, but I’m hoping to be drinking with you tonight. This party will be cool?”

  “Will be if you’re there.”

  She returned to the table. She didn’t want to just sit in the bathroom texting him and have everyone wonder where she was. But when she sat back down, it was hard to concentrate. She kept peeking glances at him and, many times, she caught him peeking back. And now this party tonight, which would have been okay, was going to be awesome if he came. And there was the added bonus that alcohol would make her love potion stronger, since he would be even less inhibited. It was all coming together nicely.

  A few hours later, Elise looked at her watch.“I think it’s time to go.”

  “I’m sick of studying anyway,”Thea said.

  Sophia yawned.“I’m kinda tired.”Then she turned to Logan.“Can we just stay in tonight?”

  “Oh, umm.”Logan looked at Thea, then back to Sophia.“I think I’m gonna hang out for a while, actually. I’ll stop by later?”

  “Okay.”She gave him a small smile and stood, then waited.

  He realized she was still standing there and stood to give her a brief kiss and a hug. She held up a hand to wave goodbye and walked away, looking sullen.

  “Alright then,”Elise said.“We ready?”

  “Yup,”Thea said.

  Logan stood between them and put an arm around each of them.“Definitely.”