Magic & Memory

by Larsen, A. L.

  Alastair crossed the graveyard and slid behind the wheel of the Impala. He didn’t start the engine, though. Instead he sat there tracking his maker’s progress.

  Augustine drove directly to a nice hotel called the Chaminade Resort, someplace the vampire had visited in the past. Alastair monitored his maker’s thoughts as he got a room and instructed the person at the front desk to send housekeeping to him immediately.

  Ordering room service, Alastair thought. He started the engine and drove toward Augustine’s hotel, just in case things were about to get out of hand.

  Alastair watched the situation closely, but his maker was careful not to harm the young woman that came to his room. He compelled her and drank from her, then sent her on her way. It was quick, efficient.

  Nothing to worry about.

  Alastair closed his eyes and sighed with relief. Then he pulled the red cell phone from his pocket and speed-dialed Bryn.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Joey’s hands were on his hips, and he was staring at his maker. He’d just been told that Augustine was going to be coming to their motel soon, to help them find the person that had bespelled Alastair.

  “Try not to kill him when he gets here,” Alastair said, trying to keep his tone light. He wondered if he’d done the right thing in asking Augustine to stay and help them.

  But with their new connection his maker could easily track him now, he could find Alastair on his own any time he wanted to. Given that, it made sense to try to make peace and cooperate with Augustine.

  “Were you not listening at all when I told you this person is a monster?” Joey asked. “When I told you he’s done horrible things to you?”

  “I know exactly what he is. I can hear every one of his thoughts, and I can see his memories when he thinks of them. He even showed me some of my past, so I know exactly what he’s done.”

  Joey shuddered slightly. “I can only imagine the twisted, demented pit of darkness in his mind.”

  Alastair said, “It’s not like that. It’s amazing to see how fast his mind works, actually.”

  Joey stared at him for a long moment, then said, “You’re defending him.”

  “I’m not saying I condone what he’s done. I’m just saying…well, I think I kind of understand him.”

  “Oh my God. Sympathy for the Devil,” Joey said, shaking his head.

  “What?”

  “It’s an old song by the Rolling Stones that my dad used to play over and over,” Joey told him. “Seemed appropriate.”

  “Look, whether or not I feel any sympathy for Augustine is irrelevant. I just know he can’t hurt us now, and I think he can probably help us,” Alastair said. “Plus, I’d know if he was planning anything, Joey. I can see every thought as he has it.”

  “Great. So know if he’s planning anything while he’s back in L.A. We don’t need his help with this.”

  “We do need his help, actually,” Alastair said as he crossed the room to sit at Lu’s feet. “We need this thing that was done to me resolved as soon as possible so you two aren’t in constant danger. And with his help it’ll go that much faster.” Lu had been watching the exchange silently, and now she stroked Alastair’s dark hair.

  Joey’s voice rose as he said, “You want us out of constant danger? Try not inviting one of the most evil creatures on this planet to our hotel room.”

  “You know he can find me any time he wants to now, as long as the connection between us remains open,” Alastair said. “So yes, I invited him to come here, but obviously he could have just tracked me down on his own. I think it makes sense to cooperate with Augustine. We can’t run from him, so maybe the best we can do is try to make peace with him and not antagonize him.”

  “Or, here’s a thought: we could kill him,” Joey said, his voice rising.

  But Alastair was shaking his head. “I just can’t do that, Joey. And I can’t let you do it, either.”

  “Aren’t you going to call Bryn? Try to get him to close the connection again?” Lu asked.

  “I did call him,” Alastair said, “before I came back to the motel. He was totally at a loss, he said he couldn’t imagine what he’d done to open this connection with Augustine. He’s going to try to figure out what happened, but said it would take some time.”

  Joey sighed in frustration and knocked the back of his head against the wall he was leaning on.

  “So what was Augustine like when you met him?” Lu asked.

  Alastair shrugged and said simply, “He was apologetic.”

  Joey rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right! In order to be apologetic, he’d have to have a conscience. And his, along with his humanity, was buried so deeply and so long ago that not even a bulldozer could dig it out of him. It has to be an act. He’s manipulating you.”

  “There’s no way,” Alastair persisted. “No one’s that good an actor.”

  “Not unless they’ve had over a thousand years of practice. It’s a huge mistake to trust him!” Joey exclaimed.

  “I didn’t say I trust him. But I really don’t think we have any choice but to cooperate with him. There’s no place we can run that he can’t follow. And any time he feels like it, he can call in his own personal army and do whatever he wants to us,” Alastair said. “The thing is, though, I believe he really is sorry for what he’s done in the past, and he wants to make amends. I’m still reading his every thought, and I know he feels incredibly guilty. I also know he’s not planning to hurt us.”

  “He doesn’t have to plan anything,” Joey sighed. “He probably doesn’t even need to think about it. He’ll just take one look at how cozy you and Lu are and he’ll tear her head off, acting on pure insanely jealous instinct! It’ll be over and done in a split second.”

  Lu’s hand froze in place on Alastair’s head. “Super comforting thought, Joe,” she said.

  “It’s not meant to be comforting!” Joey exclaimed. “It’s meant to remind Alastair that this person -- this thing -- is a remorseless killer and a brutal sadist, one we should be running from no matter how futile that seems. Augustine’s a monster, he’s pure evil!”

  “You left out the fact that I’m a snappy dresser.”

  Joey gasped and took a stumbling step sideways, away from the door. Lu turned her head in the direction of the unfamiliar voice and saw a tall, thin boy leaning casually against the doorframe. He was dressed all in black, his clothes obviously expensive and a strong contrast to the low budget motel room. He reached up and tucked a strand of long platinum blonde hair behind his ear and smiled pleasantly.

  Alastair stood and placed himself subtly between Lu and Augustine, thinking about what Joey had said, and of course Augustine immediately picked up on what he was doing. He said gently, “I’m not going to harm her, Alastair. You know that.”

  “Just out of curiosity, how’d you get in?” Lu asked, leaning back in her chair and peering around Alastair at the newcomer.

  Augustine crossed the room and sat in the chair across the table from Lu, his movements slow and purposeful so as not to convey any sort of threat. He looked at her closely, the smile still playing on his full lips. “I’d like to claim it was some impressive feat of cunning. But actually, Alastair left the door ajar for me.”

  Joey clicked his tongue and said, “Awesome.”

  “I knew you were on your way,” Alastair told him.

  “Please let me kill him,” Joey begged. “Please?”

  “If you’re a good boy maybe he’ll let you kill me later, Joey. For now, we have work to do,” Augustine said lightly. “We need to go out and catch a werewolf.”

  “Why? You need a new throw rug for your entryway and wolf pelt is all the rage this season?” Joey shot back.

  “No. Although that’s not a bad idea…but no. All the werewolves around here are going to be wired into the wolves you encountered in San Francisco. We’re still in the greater bay area pack’s territory. Any wolf we find will know who hired the
pack members that were outside Bryn’s house,” Augustine said. His mood was upbeat, happy, Alastair noted, as if all of this was exhilarating for him.

  “We don’t need your help catching a single werewolf. Why don’t you crawl back under your rock and leave us alone?” Joey’s voice was low, menacing.

  Augustine sighed and stood, and immediately Joey tensed up. “Let’s leave him here, Alastair. He’ll be of no use if all he’s doing is quibbling. Besides, someone should probably stay here and keep an eye on the girl.”

  Joey swore under his breath, and looked like he really wanted to lunge at Augustine. “No! Don’t play into his hands, Alastair. Don’t do anything he asks.”

  “Actually,” said Lu, rising to her feet, “No one needs to ‘keep an eye on the girl.’ I’ll come with you, we’ll all go.”

  “Good, Lu,” Joey said sarcastically. “Then Augustine can use you as werewolf bait.”

  “That’s a good idea, actually,” Augustine said cheerfully, but Alastair saw there was no malice behind it.

  “So, Joey,” Lu said, “Are you saying you want to stay here and babysit me?”

  “What I want,” Joey said through clenched teeth, “is for Satan over there to die a painful, horrible death, preferably in the next three seconds. But since Alastair has apparently lost his mind and is actually cooperating with that psychopath instead of ripping his head off, I guess we do have to drag you out into harm’s way so I can watch his back.”

  Alastair ignored that and said, “Joey, take Lu and go get the car. I want to speak to Augustine for a moment, then we’ll meet you downstairs.” His voice radiated quiet authority.

  Joey grabbed a wooden stake from the waistband of his jeans and drove it through the wall of the motel room with incredible force, then stormed out the door. Lu followed him.

  Joey was furiously pacing at one end of the parking lot when she got downstairs. He pushed his short hair back with both interlaced hands. “I should just kill him,” he was muttering. “I should just stake him and let Alastair be angry with me. If I don’t, something terrible is going to happen to Alastair. To all of us.”

  Lu went and sat on the hood of the Impala and let him rant.

  Meanwhile upstairs, Alastair plucked the stake from the wall and tossed it into Joey’s duffle bag. Then he turned to his maker. “Am I wrong to trust you around Lu? Are you going to hurt her?”

  Augustine said, “I won’t hurt her, I swear,” and Alastair could see he was telling the truth. “I’m done trying to control your life, Alastair. If that human girl is what you want, then by all means, enjoy.” Besides, she’ll be dead in a few decades because you’ll never turn her into a vampire. But I’ll still be here. Alastair of course heard the thought as clearly as if Augustine had spoken it.

  “Don’t kill Joey either,” Alastair said, and Augustine sighed.

  “I won’t. He’s incredibly annoying, but I know he means a lot to you.”

  Alastair studied his maker for a long moment. The blonde vampire’s mind was quiet, calm, resigned. And he looked utterly harmless. Alastair knew this was a false perception -- Augustine was dangerous. He knew he shouldn’t trust this person. But trusting his maker came as naturally as trusting Joey, with whom he’d immediately felt at ease.

  Then Augustine said, “We’re burning moonlight, Alastair. Let’s go catch a werewolf.” And he headed out the door.

  Chapter Twenty

  The four of them loitered at the back of a crowded bar on Pacific Avenue. Augustine had compelled the bouncer to let them in, since they all appeared under age.

  “So we’re here because this place reeks of werewolf,” Lu said after a while, swirling the ice in her soda glass. “And yet there are no werewolves. How long were we going to wait for one to show up, exactly?”

  “Patience,” Augustine said, his blue eyes scanning the bar patrons. “It’s still early.”

  “And if you can smell them, doesn’t that mean they can also smell you, too? Maybe they’ll steer clear if they catch the scent of vampires,” Lu said.

  “You’re right about that,” Augustine told her. “Which is why I worked a little spell to obscure our scents.”

  “You can do that?” Lu asked suspiciously.

  “Sure, that’s relatively easy. I’m woefully inept at most magic, though. Unless you’re born a witch or warlock, you can never really excel at it. But over the centuries I have picked up a little trick or two.” Augustine levelly met her gaze. “I just can’t do anything too complicated. I couldn’t, for example, ever master a spell to wipe a vampire’s memories.”

  Lu raised an eyebrow at him, then went back to fidgeting. After another few minutes she asked, “Is it really going to take four of us to capture one werewolf?” as she shifted impatiently from one foot to another.

  Augustine smiled at her, his eyes sparkling. “I like how you include yourself in that number, Lulu. Are you going to pull his tail while we wrestle him into the trunk of the car?”

  “No, I’m bait, remember?” Lu’s tone was sarcastic. “And by the way, it’s Lu, not Lulu.”

  I see what you like about her. She’s a feisty little thing, Augustine thought with amusement, and Alastair glanced at him.

  Alastair remained silent, watching the crowd and subtly sniffing the air. Joey meanwhile stood fuming nearby with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, grinding his teeth.

  A few minutes later Augustine said quietly, “Incoming. Seven of them, far end of the bar.”

  “Seven of them?” Lu asked.

  “Werewolves are such predictable pack animals. They never do anything alone. Lu, go see if you can cull one from the herd,” Augustine said, eyeing the group of men across the room.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Alastair shifted nervously.

  “Well, you could do it,” Augustine told Alastair, “but you’re probably not their type. Then again, maybe you are. You just never know these days.”

  “I can do it,” Lu insisted. “I’ll try to get one outside.”

  “I’ll be in the parking lot.” Augustine headed toward the door.

  “Well, ok. But I’ll be close by,” Alastair said. “If I think there’s any danger I’ll move in immediately.”

  Lu took a deep breath and made her way, she hoped casually, toward the group of men. They were all in their mid-twenties, dressed in sneakers, jeans, and flannel shirts, and appeared to be perfectly ordinary at first glance. But on closer inspection she noticed the way their nostrils flared slightly as they took in the room.

  She pushed up beside the youngest looking one in the group and loudly ordered a large black coffee in a to-go cup from the pretty blonde bartender, then made up a quick lie and said to the werewolf, “Scary crowd tonight. Some jerk kept looking at me like I was dinner.”

  The man turned to her with a grin. His eyes were dull, animalistic, his teeth slightly elongated and yellowed, and he said, “You can never be too careful. Lots of real monsters out there.” He chuckled to himself as if he’d just said something hilarious.

  Ha ha, thought Lu. Real funny, werewolf.

  Lu thought about flirting with him -- but she actually had no idea how to flirt. So instead she said, “I’m just on my way out. Not to sound paranoid or anything, but would you mind walking me to my car? I’m kind of worried about that guy lurking around outside.”

  The bartender gave her the coffee and Lu handed over a couple bills, then took the lid off the cup and left it on the bar.

  Meanwhile the werewolf, obviously thinking it was his lucky night, said with a lecherous grin, “No problem, babe. I’ll make sure the big bad wolf isn’t waiting to eat you up.”

  Oh yeah, thought Lu, this guy’s a riot.

  “Be back in a few minutes,” he told his companions, who eyed Lu up and down before grinning at their pack mate. He steered her through the crowd with a palm on her back, then slid his hand lower and copped a quick feel as they reached the door.

  Lu’s hackles raised, but she
said nothing as she led him to the parking lot at the back of the building.

  “Which one’s your car?” the werewolf asked as they rounded the corner into the lot.

  “The blue one,” she lied, stopping and pretending to adjust the zipper on her boot.

  The werewolf took a few more steps into the parking lot, saying, “Which blue--”

  He stopped talking abruptly as something alerted him. Realizing it was a trap, he spun on his heel.

  The werewolf intended to run right past Lu. But she flung her steaming hot coffee directly onto the front of his jeans and he went down like a sack of bricks, curling up in a ball as he cried out.

  “That’s for grabbing my ass, you jerk,” she told him, then stepped back and let the three vampires that were suddenly at her side haul him off the ground. He remained curled up in a fetal position as Joey and Alastair stuffed him in the trunk of the Impala and Augustine doubled over with laughter.

  As they quickly piled into the car, Augustine was saying, “That was classic. I will never underestimate you again, Lu, I swear. Nor will I ever try to cop a feel. Scout’s honor.” He continued to chuckle as he dabbed his eyes with one hand and flashed a perfect Boy Scout hand signal with the other.

  “I’m glad I amuse you,” Lu said. “And when were you ever a scout?”

  “Just a few years ago, actually,” Augustine grinned. “Funny story.”

  “Never tell it to me,” she frowned.

  Joey swung the big Chevy out of the parking space and gunned the engine, launching right past the rest of the pack. The werewolves were seconds too late, since all of them had doubled over and taken a few moments to recover when they’d felt their pack mate get taken down by that cup of coffee.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  They pulled up in front of the motel a few minutes later to drop Lu off. The werewolf was going to be taken somewhere secluded and questioned to find out who’d hired the weres outside Bryn’s house, and they’d all decided that Lu really didn’t need to be a part of that.