by brett hicks
He looked down and away for a moment, it confirmed my own feelings about pressing charges. I added, “Besides I could have taken him, if he did not have about twelve wolves close on my heels and my friend at his mercy. Sups handle their own shit detective, so just let me deal with the fallout of my own betrayal ok?”
“Why would they do that to you after you bleed all over that bar for them?” I laughed and it was mirthless. “Like I said, I am just a freak of nature detective. Don’t concern yourself with me, I am not the one dropping victims in the city.”
“Would you tell me if you knew who was?” I thought about that for a moment and nodded. “I would, since I have no reason not to let you get your collars. I would have told you about the Coffin and Nail last night, but I did not want humans walking into the middle of a vamp and wolf war.” I did remember one detail that I could give him now, since the wolves were basically refusing me now.
“I did have one murderer escape last night, because of the sword wielding maniac of a Scott. His name is James of Whales. He is the son of the Vampire king of New Orleans. He was the one who murdered the she-wolf two mornings ago. He is now hiding behind daddy’s skirt, because the mean little blonde girl almost got him.”
The look he gave me was one that you see on a kid at Christmas. I suppose that is the look I have when I know who to direct my ire at too. He now had a lead to walk away with, so he let my arm go and said, “How did you come by this information?”
“Remember the red headed vamp I made the deal with?” He nodded and said, “Yeah hard to forget the first time I go tomb raiding with Buffy in the flesh.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “She came back with two names, one the murderer James of Whales and the other is one of the bodies you had to clean up. He was planning to target she-wolves, like James. James is apparently stirring up shit among the younger blood suckers.”
“So, what like a KKK, but for vamps?” I shrugged and said, “I suppose that is about the best way you can describe it, just no white sheets so far.”
He smiled warmly at me now and I was fighting back a slight blush on my cheeks, I really had trouble with handsome men. “You really are something Kayla. You have given me more real information in the past two days, than I can generally find in a few months of investigations into supernatural crime sometimes.”
I shrugged and said, “I am a freak, thus I know things about other things.”
He raked my body with his eyes once and said, “Trust me you are no freak.” I snorted and began to walk away. “Don’t let the pretty face fool you detective, I am a monster.”
“I will be in touch again Kayla. Thanks for the tips.” I waved without looking back and power-walked to my car. I was cursing to myself the whole way, because I was worried that I had just made the detective too interested in me now. I did not need him poking around in my life, because I am not sure what will happen to my future, if he puts my exact supernatural classification on file. That could actually be worse than explaining an assault charge against a man I have known my whole life.
Chapter: 12
I had pulled in to the house after a full day out on the town. The bruise had faded to a light green now. Once I drank some blood it should clear up very quickly. I walked into the house and I felt a strange twinge of magic around the doorway. It knocked me on my butt. I tried to knock on the door, but I landed back on my butt again.
“Mom!” I yelled at her, sure she could hear me. About a minute later she opened the door and said, “Oh Styxx I forgot that it would block you too. I formally invite you into my home freely, you may enter anytime you like.”
I raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged and said, “New wards honey, since I am trying to wolf proof this house and vampire proof it.” I gave her a look and said, “I thought the whole invitation thing was just a myth?” She gave me a cheeky smile and said, “Honey I may be living on the down low, as you kids call it, but I am the best there is.”
I walked into the kitchen and spoke over my shoulder to her, “You know that modesty you use to pretend you had? You might want to bring some of it back, because your head is swelling.”
I reached into the fridge and pulled out a bag of my type A blood and poured a tall glass. “I guess I am going to need to stock up more frequent, now that you are over your starvation kick.”
I blinked half a dozen times and gave her a stern look. “You are telling me that you knew I was starving myself and said nothing?”
She had the good sense to go sheepish and said, “Well I could not pretend to be normal and know that much about vampires now could I?”
I rolled my eyes and I chugged my blood down in one tall draft. I felt a slight tingle as my face finished healing. Well everyone was right. I was healing correctly, every time I ate properly. My mom cleared her throat and said, “Well come along Kayla I have my ritual all set up.” I looked at her and followed very reluctantly.
“What ritual?”
“The one to unbind your witch half honey. It will break on its own soon, maybe, but I prefer to know it is done right. Knowing your grandmother, I might expect side effects if her spells are allowed to break on their own, or if she does it. Come sit on my floor across from the small alter.”
I sat down, but I would be lying if I said I was ok with this. I think I liked the thought of having a trip to the dentist each day of the week more, than knowingly sitting down for a Wiccan ritual. I saw a wooden carving of the goddess sitting on the alter. There was a mixture of very potent herbs and some of my mother’s blood. She sat opposite me and began to speak in Latin, and then she took my hand after a few minutes of chanting. She picked up a small and skinny dagger with her free hand, and then she sliced my palm. My blood dropped into the bowl and the contents began to dissolve and mist filled the air. It was blood red mist, and then as the chanting changed, the mist turned green.
The last thing she said was, “Blessed be.” The mist filled my lungs, my eyes, my ears and my nose. I felt the power surge into me, like a refreshing wave after an endless drought. I felt so many locks clicking open in the magical mind’s eye in my head. I could feel and see the magic in the air around me. I could see my mother’s magic hanging around her like a thick aura, or a storm cloud. She was not kidding when she said she had a lot of power.
I could feel the intentions behind the magic that had just been binding me. I cursed out loud and said, “That binding was going to kill me wasn’t it?” She looked shocked and nodded reluctantly.
“I would have broken it long ago, if I had checked it closer back then. Your grandmother never had any intention of allowing you to live, more or less, join the covens. How did you see it that fast, not to mention the spell should be nearly faded from detection now.”
“I donno maybe being half vampire improves my witchy senses too?” She actually seemed to pounder that for a moment, then said, “Yes that might actually make more sense than you think. You are of the old blood line and you are a natural. You add in the vampire half of your DNA and you get…” I cut in with, “A super witch?”
She turned her button nose up at the term. “Well it makes you unique, maybe that is why the pack had a shit fit today.” I felt my world dropping around me now. “Are you implying that they knew about this, or that they might have helped with it?”
She gave me a dire look and said, “I’m so sorry honey and I know how much you loved them.” I scream at the top of my lungs and my mother’s bedside lap shatters. I look and the drapes are now on fire too.
Mom flicks her wrist and the drapes extinguish. She looked amazed and said, “I would have thought you a water type like me, but fire is great too!” I look down at her pile of lap and say, “Sorry, you loved that lamp.” She pulls out an old leather bound book and sits it on her bed. She flips to a page and points at it. I bend over to look at it.
“Repair and restoration spell,” I read out loud to her. She nodded and said, pour some salt in a circle around the item you wish to mend,
and then start the chant.” I looked at her and said, “Don’t I have to do some kind of equivalent exchange, like in Full Metal Alchemist?”
She snorted and said, “Maybe if you were actually doing alchemy and not a simple Wiccan restoration spell.” I give her a quizzical look. “What’s the difference in this case?”
“Well this has more limitations, but fewer ingredients. Alchemy is a hell of a lot more science, but it works on much more complicated items, even on living beings.”
“Like the chimeras in Full Metal Alchemist.” She rolled her eyes and said, “Like on every living thing, including humans or sups.”
I arched my eyebrow and said, “Maybe I should be learning alchemy then?”
She snorted and sarcastically said, “You would insist on flying before you even crawl. Just do this simple spell and get the hang of it. When you begin chanting the words, make sure you are pulling on your power. It is not the words, or the power, but the combination of the two, plus any activation substances needed. That is what makes a magic spell work in most forms of the practice. Give it a try Kayla.”
I nod and I reach into that newly opened witch space, next to the space I draw my vampire type magic from, and I pull on the power and begin to stumble over the Latin words, until I find confidence and clarity. I keep repeating it, I feel that my power is being tugged by the chanting, but I feel like it is asking for a little more of my magic, so I open up and pour just a little more into it and I repeat the chant once more.
I feel the warmth of my power and words mold, with some of the salt and know that the spell worked. I felt goose bumps on my goose bumps. It was a thrilling sensation, much cleaner than casting glamor feels to me. I felt no ill intent behind anything I just did. I actually felt pretty clean. I had not felt so good about myself in, well, ever.
I hear my mom’s phone snap off a picture and I look up and roll my eyes. “Really mom?” She smiles at me with a proud motherly satisfaction and says, “Hell if I am going to miss this chance! My baby girl’s first spell! You did amazing honey, you really are a natural, you even figured out how to adjust the flow of power without any tips.”
I looked up again and I felt like a deer in head lights. “You really don’t miss anything do you?” She shook her head and said, “You had to get all those brains somewhere honey.”
I snorted and said, “Well I thought it was just the hybrid genes all this time, with your whole human act and all.”
She gave me one stern look and said, “Whatever you are Kayla you ARE MY daughter.” I nodded and accepted that, because it just seemed pointless to fight her on this one.
Chapter: 13
A knock came to our door in the middle of the night, followed by the sound of a crash on the front porch. My keen ears could hear Sally’s voice muttering curses to herself outside. I threw on a long sleeve tee shirt and strapped my blades to my wrists. I walked down the steps that faced the front door and I swung it open. I saw Sally standing there trying to poke the invisible wall around my house.
She gave me a weary smile and said, “Hey can I come in?” I just eyed her, as if for the first time. “Kay common I need to get the hell in, please.” I let out a calming breath and said, “Did you father send you to twist a knife in my back too?” She flinched at the accusation and huffed out a long, tired breath.
“No dammit, I left the pack, now can I come the fuck in before his damn trackers catch up to me?” I blinked a few times in shock and said, “Give me the quick version, or just go home.”
She looked really scared now, but I did not see any trace of shock in her at all. I just saw a very understanding pair of eyes looking back at me steady. “Kayla I heard about this morning and my father stripped Dylan of his rank. He basically made him an omega in pack status, for stepping in front of his Apex and siding with a pack enemy.”
I felt electric shock hit my nerves and more anger than I would have expected. “She is telling the truth hun.” I whipped my head around to see my mom leaning in the doorway between the kitchen and the hall. “I invite you in Sally Early and welcome you to this house.” My mom spoke at a booming volume. I saw the buzzing magic around the house slide away from Sally and she stepped in.
“Hey Miss Mac, sorry to drop in on ya like this and all.” Sally looked a little sheepish now and my mom started for the kitchen. She spoke without turning around and said, “You girls go chill in the den. I will make us some tea.”
Sally walked past me into the living room and back to the next room, full of our DVDs and a huge flat screen on the wall. She plopped onto the sofa and let out a sigh of relief. I realized I did not see Sally’s car in the driveway now.
“Damn Sally did you run all the way from the pack grounds?” She nodded and said, “No choice, because my dad has his fucking spies crawling up my ass. I renounced my bound with the pack after what happened with you and Dylan. He locked me up for the rest of the day, said I could see what it was like to be a stray in his cells. He told me all this shit about how you had to die, because you’re not half human. He told me about your mom’s true bloodline and all the other shit. He was going on and on about how you needed to die, that it could not wait another week for you to turn eighteen. Something about you being too damn strong to die or something like that.”
“He must have feared that the hidden death spell in Kayla’s bound magic would not destroy her properly. I had much the same thought, but it is better safe than sorry, so I lifted the spell today Sally.”
My mom was standing in the doorway now, she was so damn quite. I almost jumped from the random entrance, but I was use to church mouse routine now.
“So it is true then? You are a witch who happens to be a day walker?” I shrugged and plopped down beside her. I could not scent any hostility in her aura and I could actually see her magical aura now. It was like shades of hunter green and multi toned forest colors. I could really feel the true extent of her apex blood humming in her veins now. She had just turned eighteen, thus she was coming into her mature power level. I had always known that sups gain massive power on their eighteenth, but my witch blood was showing me just how much I had never been able to sense now.
“You wanna kill me now Sally? I am a witch and a vampire, you regretting stepping away from your Apex role now?” I had much more anger in my tone, than I had ever expected. I truly feared her answer to this question. She eyed me in true shock and her jaw hung half open for a few more moments.
“No skank, God like I could hurt my own best friend. Hell Dylan is, was third. I am pretty sure he knew you were a witchpire or whatever the hell the PC term for your type of hybrid is.” I arched one eyebrow and said, “Witchpire, Really Sally? I see that your father trying to maul me, stripping Dylan of his rank and locking you up—has not impacted your sense of humor any.”
She rolled her eyes at me, then looked to my mom and said, “So you use to screw my dad huh?”
“That’s one word for what we did…” I threw up both hands and said, “I do not want to hear this, any of it!” Sally laughed her ass off, like my sensitivity to sexual topics in involving my mother, was the most entertaining thing on the planet.
“Kinda shocked he mentioned that to you.” Sally gave her a devious grin and said, “Oh no my kind jailor told me all about it. I was using very subtle apex commands in my conversation with him. He was an old wolf, so he knew things, for all that he was a lower rung pack member.”
I snapped my attention back to Sally fully now and said, “Wait; how the hell did you escape the pack cells? I have been down there plenty, not exactly an easy feat.” She rolled her eyes and grinned wickedly.
“Oh you just have not seen what I can do now that I am over age little sister!” I heard my mom chuckle and say, “Oh I bet you tore the whole damn wall out, or the door. They were not meant to hold an apex, which is not in silver chains.”
“Daddy just expected me to sit in that stinky ass cell and wait for him like a good little pup. Who exactly did he think his
daughter ways?” She gave a very sassy, self-satisfied smile. My mom walked back to the kitchen to get the tea, or so I assumed.
“Wait Sally where is Dylan now?” She shrugged and said, “Donno, he was supposed to be cleaning out the bathrooms all evening. I half expected him to be here, since he does wanna poke you with his…” I smacked her and said, “I swear all you wolves ever think about is fucking, or killing. Remind me how you guys differ from the vamps again.”
She snorted and feigned annoyance with me. “Well I hunt wild game thank you and I cannot help it that I am horny all the time. I mean shit; you are like a ball of sexual tension waiting to explode of some poor man. We need to get you laid Kay!”
I heard the clatter of tea cups and my mom walked in and handed us each a cup of tea. She always had these flower printed tea cups. Most modern Americans just use coffee mugs; I guess I was missing the signs of her true age for a long time. Now that I think about it, she did have a bunch of dresses that came straight out of the forties in her closet.
After we were all seated with our fresh herbal tea, my mother spoke again, “So Sally tell me more about what is happening with your father. I want to try to understand why the hell he would turn on us like this.”
Sally shook her head and her eyes were racked with confusion. “I honestly have no idea what happened. It is like he is suddenly a different person. I have never seen him so obsessed with anything in all my life. He has most of the pack firmly behind him, but some like Dylan, are not getting on board. Most however, have lost enough to vampires, thus they will justify killing an innocent half-breed.”
My mom just sipped her tea and studied Sally like a hawk. She was clearly taking in every detail of her expressions and body language. I felt like I was noticing this predatory side of my mom for the first time now. I could feel that she was not only neutral, but slightly loving to Sally. She was not going to flay or alive or anything, but I noticed how defensive she was now. I have never noticed it before now. I had bought this whole human act hook, line and sinker.