A year of blissful relations. It was probably more than I should have hoped for, especially with my dating record. But I’d truly believed Sheila and I were meant to be together. Hell, we’d survived the end of the world – two legendary beings, the Freewill and the Icon. You get past shit like that and you’ve gotta think you’re in it for the long haul.
Turns out the long haul was a bit shorter than I expected.
And the road to that personal hell was entirely paved with good intentions.
I knew that Sheila felt some guilt at the part she’d played in things. Not in stopping the end of the world, mind you. She was perfectly cool with that. But it had come at a price. First there was Tom. He’d sacrificed himself in the end, but Sheila was the one who had to do the sacrificing – running him through to unleash the power contained within his body, combining it with her own energy to close The Source. She’d survived the ensuing explosion – he hadn’t.
But that wasn’t all. Destroying The Source had fulfilled a prophecy hanging over her head, one which proclaimed she’d destroy the Magi. It hadn’t been quite the genocide she’d feared, but it had still effectively neutered them as a people.
It sucked for them, but the vast majority of Magi had been assholes to me during my vamp days, so I couldn’t say it bothered me much. Problem was, Sheila didn’t share my attitude. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the guilt of what she’d done had slowly festered inside her.
It was Christy who’d first suggested she come to one of her support meetings. It was meant to be a way to heal old wounds. Sheila was no longer the Icon and the Magi no longer had their magic. They were all just people now. Christy thought that by talking to one another, it could give both sides some closure.
Maybe that had been the case for some, but it changed something inside Sheila. After that, things weren’t the same between us ... she wasn’t the same.
I didn’t notice at first, mostly because I’m a clueless idiot. It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized she’d internalized the pain she saw in those broken souls. She blamed herself for causing their misery, and it was eating her up inside.
And then she was gone ... leaving behind only a short note, her sword, and my broken heart.
♦ ♦ ♦
I forced myself back to the present. I’d dwelled enough on all of that this past year. Yeah, it had hurt, a lot, but I’d gotten over it ... with a bit of help. Diving back into that cesspool of depression wasn’t something I cared to do again, especially not with vampires kicking down my door.
“So ... did anything strange happen on your end?”
Christy let out a wistful sigh. “Well, the rest of the meeting was definitely not fun. I was trying to pay attention, but all I wanted was to feel the power flowing through me again.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing. By the time we wrapped up, that feeling had passed.”
I had to suppress the urge to laugh. Here I was, worried sick about her, and it turned out she was simply stuck in a stupid meeting with some asshole executives. Not exactly a kind fate, mind you, but it definitely beat my afternoon. “That’s it? Nothing else?”
“Isn’t that enough? I mean, how the hell ... I mean heck,” she corrected, obviously mindful of the sensitive ears listening in, “is that even possible?”
“I was kinda hoping you’d know.”
“No idea.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
There came a brief pause in the line. “At first I thought it had to be a localized phenomenon, maybe residual power in the surrounding earth, something I accidentally tapped into. But then I saw your message. If you were able to feel it, too...”
I was about to say something to that, but she cut me off. “Hold on a second. How did you sense it? I’m attuned to these things, or was anyway. But you’re...”
“Just a garden variety human?” I replied. “Trust me, I’m aware. But two things clued me in. First, was finding Cat playing with a fireball...”
“What?!”
Tina leaned forward in her car seat. “You should have seen it, Mommy. It was cool!”
Oh yeah, I was never gonna be asked to babysit again. “Calm down.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down! She’s only five!” The tone in Christy’s voice was a mix of disbelief and sounding a bit peeved. I could understand that latter. As for the former, she’d once mentioned that witches typically came into their power during their teens, kind of like the magical equivalent of the X-Men.
However, Christy’s pregnancy had been marred by some stressful events, including being captured by Calibra, the White Mother, and having her unborn baby force-fed a shit-ton of magical feedback as way of torture. Tina had survived, apparently no worse for the wear, but even back then Christy had wondered whether the experience had changed her in utero.
With the Strange Days over, it hadn’t seemed a big deal. Now, though ... I guess we finally had an inkling as to the answer.
“It’s a good thing, too,” I quickly replied. “Because she saved my bacon after two vamps kicked in the door and used my face as a punching bag.” Hmm, perhaps I could have worded that a wee bit more delicately.
“Oh my God! Is...”
“Before you freak out, they didn’t lay a finger on her. She’s fine.”
“But ... that’s...”
“Impossible? Way ahead of you on that one.” Oh, yeah. My babysitting card was definitely getting revoked.
I had a feeling Christy wanted to do nothing more than scream at me through the phone, but instead she paused and I heard several deep breaths from her end. “You’re both okay?”
“Five by five.” Fine, maybe that was a stretch, but I figured it might be best to save the details for when she could yell at me in person. “Isn’t that right, Cat?”
“Uncle Bill hit them with a sword. It was great.”
Okay, that probably wasn’t helping much. Before Christy could freak out further, I headed her off at the pass and gave her the rundown on what happened, trying to downplay things as much as I could without the little girl behind me calling me out as a fibber. Christy didn’t sound even remotely pleased by the time I was finished, but at least she was a bit less frantic.
“I ... still don’t understand how that’s possible.”
“Me neither. I’m open for suggestions.”
“And you’re sure you’re both...”
“We’re fine. Seriously. We wouldn’t be heading to JFK for a pickup if we weren’t.”
“Thank goodness.” She let out a sigh. “I’m going to tell my boss I’m not feeling well. I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”
I opened my mouth to argue with her, then abruptly shut it again. She was right to be heading back. Nobody had been seriously injured yet, but this didn’t strike me as something that should be so easily blown off. Strange shit was going on and I, for one, would feel a fuckload better with a badass witch close by.
Mind you, that didn’t mean I couldn’t have a little fun to hopefully lighten the mood.
“You could always...” I grinned at the road ahead, “apparate there.”
“It’s not called that and you know it,” she replied sternly.
“Relax, I’m kidding.”
She let out an annoyed huff, but when she spoke again, she sounded calmer. “I guess if you can crack jokes then it can’t be that bad.”
Well...
“Head over to my place after you pick Ed up. I’ll meet you all there.”
“Will do.”
“And please keep my little girl safe.”
“With my life if need be.”
I meant it, too ... although, for the record, I really hoped it didn’t come to that.
A VAMP BY ANY OTHER NAME
Christy told me she’d make a few calls on the drive home, see if anyone in her circle had any clue what was going on. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was all we had, and it probably gave her something to keep herself occupied with for t
he time being.
On my end of things, the remainder of the drive to the airport was blissfully uneventful ... if slow as fuck.
Go figure – the world might once again be descending back into chaos, but Ed’s flight still arrived on time. Combined with our late start and the traffic, he was already waiting for us in the terminal when we arrived, looking about as pleased as I expected.
“It’s about fucking time.” Despite his gruff greeting, his next act was to bend down and give Tina a big hug before doing the same to me. He looked pretty much the same as the last time I’d seen him: an inch or two shorter than me, thin, with close-cropped brown hair and a perpetual look of apathy tattooed on his face. He’d maybe put on a few pounds in the last year, but otherwise he was still the Ed I remembered.
With the pleasantries out of the way, he stepped back and let out a huff of breath. “You wouldn’t believe the weird-ass flight I just had.”
“Try me.”
♦ ♦ ♦
Ed and I compared notes on the drive back to Brooklyn while Tina played in the back seat with a doll he’d brought for her – suck up.
Turns out his weirdness rivaled mine. He’d been sitting next to some yappy old lady on the flight when suddenly he developed an intense craving for her blood. He got up to use the restroom, thinking maybe the stewardess had given him some bad peanuts, only to see a pair of golden yellow eyes staring back at him from the mirror.
Something like that would have seriously fucked up a regular person. Ed, however, simply locked himself in the bathroom until it passed, then went back to his seat.
“Three hours of nonstop chatter about her fucking cats later and I was kind of wishing I’d given in to that craving.”
“That definitely would have made your trip through airport security a lot more interesting,” I replied, keeping my tone neutral despite being seriously freaked out by the fact that somehow his vampiric powers had returned. It didn’t make sense.
Before we got to that, though, it was my turn to regale him with tales of the supernatural.
Ed listened and, when I was finished, replied, “So what you’re saying is, I should have booked a hotel room.”
“Fuck you.”
“Ooh, Uncle Bill, you...”
“Yes, I know, I said a bad word. You know, Uncle Ed said one, too. How come he doesn’t get the third degree?”
Tina was quiet on that one. Little snitch was apparently only interested in bankrupting me.
Ed swiveled in his seat to face her. “A fireball, eh? Cool. High five!” They slapped hands, then he said, “Your Uncle Bill and I need to talk for a few. Here, play with his phone for a bit.”
“Okay.”
“What’s wrong with your phone?” I asked as he unplugged mine and handed it to her.
“Nothing, but I already gave her yours.”
Dickhead. “Stay out of my browser history.”
Tina occupied for the moment, Ed turned toward me. “You sure they were neo-vamps?”
“Willing to bet on it.”
“But how?”
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “That’s what I was going to ask you.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. But, just in case you were wondering, It’s not like I’ve been able to do any of that stuff since we stopped...” He snapped his fingers. “What was that chick’s name again?”
“Calibra?”
“Yeah, her. And I know for damned sure that – despite the temptation on the flight over – I haven’t bitten anyone, at least not in recent years.”
“Yet the fact remains they were there and far more real than I would have liked.”
♦ ♦ ♦
For a short while, Ed had been hot shit in the vampire world. Sheila had attempted to save him after he’d gotten bitten – infusing him with her faith magic just as he was in the process of turning.
The end result had been unexpected, turning Ed into something never before seen in the entire five-millennia plus history of the vampire-race. Calibra and her minions had referred to him as the pure one, obviously knowing nothing about my ex-roommate’s dating history. He’d become a vampire with all our strengths, yet seemingly few of our weaknesses. Sunlight didn’t burn him, and things like faith magic and silver went from being lethal to merely annoying. Even better, he was capable of biting regular vamps and passing on his infection, revamping them, so to speak.
There were only two downsides as far as her high and mightiness was concerned: Ed was immune to compulsion, and the neo-vamps he created all appeared to be mules, incapable of turning others.
Calibra had been in the process of trying to correct these flaws within him when we finally brought her bullshit to an end.
♦ ♦ ♦
“Are you sure none of Calibra’s guinea pigs survived?”
“Certain of it,” he said. “It was the same thing over and over again. She’d force me to bite one of her followers, try to compel them, then dust their ass when it failed. End of story. I didn’t see any who got away.” He looked out the window, no doubt remembering those dark days. “Except for that psycho girlfriend of yours. But it’s not like she wound up in any better shape than the rest of them when all was said and done,”
I turned and glanced his way for a moment too long, unsure how to break the news about Gan, then had to swerve to avoid rear-ending an asshole who was double-parked. “Fuck! And yes, I know that’s a bad word.”
“You still drive like shit,” Ed remarked.
“Bite me.”
“Poor choice of words, all things considered.”
“You may have a point...”
“Hold on,” he said, interrupting me. “Remember when you finally rescued me from that crazy bitch?”
“Didn’t you say the same thing you said at the airport, about it being fucking time?”
“Not that. I meant later, when shit started to go down and all those prisoners escaped.”
“You’ll have to be specific. I was a bit occupied at the time.”
“There was a group of vampires down there Calibra had been keeping prisoner. Anyway, they saw how I was immune to her compulsions, so they asked me to bite them all so they could fight back.”
I tapped a finger on the steering wheel. “Oh, yeah. I remember now. We found you standing over their bodies, trying and failing to look like you were a badass. Did anything ever come of that?”
“Nothing as far as I know. I bit them. They died ... again, I guess. But we stopped everything before they could rise up and be of any use.”
“How old were they?”
“No idea. Didn’t come up in our conversation. But they seemed to have their shit together, so they couldn’t have been all that young.”
I shook my head. “That means they got dusted when everyone else did.”
“That would be my assumption,” he said. “So where’s that leave us?”
“Same place we started: with two neo-vamp assholes who shouldn’t exist.”
“Sure you didn’t hallucinate them?”
“Doubt it.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you accidentally smoked something laced with Borax.”
“I kinda wish I had, but my living room says otherwise.”
“Hah! Still glad you bought that place?”
“I’ll admit, I’m beginning to reconsider the wisdom of that purchase.”
♦ ♦ ♦
I finally found a parking spot within walking distance of Christy’s apartment. I then texted Dave to let him know where we were. He was likewise due to arrive soon, but in his case there was a car already lined up for him at the airport, courtesy of the Buy Mor Network.
Our plans had been so simple. We were all supposed to hang out tonight, then sit down for a pick-up game of D&D tomorrow. After that, Dave was due in Manhattan to film his infomercial before a live studio audience, leaving me and Ed to putz around on our own.
Of course, that was before the world decided to kick my ass for old time’s
sake. Figuring this shit out and surviving it was now top priority.
That aside, I was still happy as hell to have Ed around, and not just for the scintillating conversation. As strange as it was that he was vamping out again, it would be a good heads up if another magical pulse hit, not to mention a shitload more subtle than Tina conjuring high explosives. Also, as messed up as it was that his powers were back, it could be handy if those other vamps tracked us down again – even if, at the end of the day, Ed was an even worse fighter than me.
Therein lay another potential problem, though. What if he and those two assholes weren’t the only ones this was happening to? That one vamp had mentioned a Last Coven. While covens could technically be witches, too, I couldn’t help but think that wasn’t the case.
Then there was Gan. I hadn’t seen her in two years, but it seemed too much to hope that she’d gotten hit by a bus in that time. Were these pulses affecting her, too? God, I hoped not.
Unlike my former roommate, her sense of restraint wasn’t exactly renowned. Sure, she was older now – around seventeen if my math was right. But that was only physical. Mentally, she was over three hundred. The rules of maturation didn’t necessarily apply in this case. Even if they did, teenaged girls weren’t exactly the most stable bunch.
Either way, she was an X-factor. I didn’t know where she was, had no way of contacting her, and wouldn’t have even if I did. With any luck, the lovesick little psycho wasn’t even aware of any of this.
I pulled out my spare key and let us into Christy’s place. It was smaller than my apartment, but a lot better decorated. It felt like an actual home whereas, even after all these years, mine still kinda screamed crash pad.
Still, homey or not, there were some items there that stood out in contrast to the normalcy. One in particular caught my eye, as it always did – a glass curio off to one side of the living room. Inside, front and center, was a singed and broken Max Adventure doll, an old action figure from the seventies. I doubted it was worth much, especially in its current condition, but it held a special place in our hearts because it had once housed my friend’s soul.
Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1) Page 5