Her dainty little gloved hand leapt out and grabbed mine in a vicegrip of steel. Typical-you couldn’t date Savannah without learning to deal with being tugged around-but now she had vampire strength I stayed extra close so she didn’t accidentally pull my arm out of its socket.
Cinnamon started actually skipping alongside us, a victorious little smirk on her face as she watched me being dragged along. I reached out and snagged her wrist, and Saffron led us both up onto the gazebo in a little train. Happy happy, joy joy.
“Something to drink?” she asked, releasing me and gesturing towards a wicker table, where a frosted pitcher filled with a green liquid sat precariously close to her laptop. She picked up a heavy-bottomed glass and twirled the green leafy sprig sticking out of it. “Mint juleps?”
“Sure!” Cinnamon said brightly.
“No, and no,” I said. “I’m driving, and she’s underage. And really? Drinking, before one in the afternoon? Isn’t that a bit early-”
“A bit late, actually,” Saffron smirked, sitting down in the table’s matching wicker chair and bumping the mouse on her laptop to bring it to life. “I should have already turned in hours ago, but I’ve been burning the mid day oil working on my thesis.”
“That’s… wonderful,” I said. I couldn’t complain: I’d been on her about her unfinished PhD for years. “But for us it’s too early, in Cinnamon’s case by several years. Sweet tea?”
“ Certainly, Dakota,” she said, tapping the laptop and speaking into its microphone. “Nagli, could you-” There was a curse out of the laptop’s speakers and then the “intercom” went dead. “Well!” Saffron said, mock shocked. “You certainly can’t get good help these days. But no matter, I’m so glad to see you! You never come around anymore. Cinnamon keeping you busy? How is the school shopping going? You must look into a Montessori school-”
This was ridiculous. Whatever Saffron was, she was no Scarlett O’Hara, and the weird bomber goggles made her look more Victorian steampunk than Civil War plantation. Finally I could take it no more, and said sharply, “Kill the Southern belle act, Savannah.”
“Now, Dakota,” Savannah smirked, “I’ve told you never to call me that, not here-”
“You’re right,” I said, remembering my real reason for being here. “My Lady Saffron, I’m here on Consulate business.”
Saffron froze, staring at me with those bizarre goggles; then she lifted them up and squinted at me. “But… I haven’t given you any Consulate responsibilities-”
“No, but wearing the sign of the Consulate means responsibility can fall in my lap,” I said, leaning forward to pat her dress. “Saffron, I have terrible news. You remember Revy?”
“Revenance, from the Oakdale Clan? Of course,” she said… and blanched. “No!”
“Yes,” I said. “He… he’s dead.”
“You’re certain he’s not just… missing?” Saffron said, leaning forward. The wicker arms of the chair creaked under her delicate gloved hands. “Are you absolutely certain? ”
“Yes,” I said. “He died right in front of me, Cinnamon and Rand-”
“Dear God,” she said, crossing herself, her mouth opening in unguarded shock, exposing her cruel fangs for the first time since we’d arrived. “Wait, Rand? You mean, Revenance died in front of Uncle Andy? But why… why was he even there? What happened?”
“It was a magical attack,” I said. “The police’s expert couldn’t handle it, so they called me in. I tried to save him, but… ” My face fell. “But I failed. I’m so sorry.”
“A magical attack?” Saffron asked suspiciously. “You mean a wizard attacked him?”
“No. Not directly,” I said; vamps and wizards didn’t mix. “It was enchanted graffiti.”
Saffron’s eyes widened. “I… didn’t even know that was possible.”
“I didn’t either. Incredibly powerful magic-and fast too,” I said, gesturing at my forehead. “That’s how I got dinged-”
“Fast? The graffiti… moved? ” Saffron said.
“Oh, come on,” I said. “You’ve seen my tattoos move, same principle-”
“Oh, do I remember your tattoos moving,” Saffron said, first lascivious, then embarrassed in the very next moment. Cinnamon sneezed, and Saffron raised a gloved hand to her brow. “I’m sorry, that was inappropriate, given the circumstances and company.”
“Yes, please, thank you,” I snapped. “If you would stop hitting on me every time I came over here I would be much more likely to come over here.”
“Dakota,” Saffron said. “I thought we were going to be friends again-”
“ Friends,” I underlined. “Not girl friends.”
“Dakota,” Saffron said reprovingly. “There’s no need to get snippy-”
“I’m goin’ for a walk,” Cinnamon said, hopping up and leaping over the banister of the gazebo, tail fluidly slipping over the rail. She glared back at me. “The reason I said I hates this place is that you always fights when you comes here.”
In the silence that followed, Saffron and I stared at each other uncomfortably.
“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed. “I thought we’d stopped bringing up reminders of ‘us.’”
“Sorry,” Saffron said, equally embarrassed. “You’ve recently bled. It’s, uh, agitating me-and can we please leave it at that? You were trying to tell me-”
“About a magical attack,” I said. “A giant graffiti tag, all magical, all energized. Revenance was trapped in it. It was tearing him apart-”
“Oh no,” Saffron said, swallowing. “Did it-”
“No,” I said. “But it had him effectively trapped. The police tried to rescue him, then I tried. We all failed. He held on as long as he could-”
“But he wasn’t a daywalker,” she said soberly, putting her goggles back on.
“No,” I said. Watching a vampire die was… horrible. I could still hear his screams. I cast about for anything else to talk about. “What I don’t get is how it worked. It held him there for hours. The mana should have dissipated, but it seemed like it was getting stronger. ”
“Perhaps there was a hidden caster,” Saffron said, “feeding magic to it-”
“There was a guy,” I said, describing the jerk with the hat and skateboard, gloating as Revy died. “But he was hundreds of feet away, and there was no magic flowing off him, like from a classical wizard. I can feel it, with these vines. The tag, on the other hand, was just bleeding mana. It was definitely a power source, or maybe plugged into a power source-”
“Maybe,” she said thoughtfully, “it was feeding off Revy. ”
“Can’t be,” I said. “Magic is derived from life force, and vampires aren’t alive-”
Saffron hissed, quietly but with full fangs. “I’m shocked to hear that from you, Dakota,” she said, and with her eyes behind the goggles I couldn’t tell if she was really angry or just messing with me. “I had to devote a whole chapter in my thesis to debunking that myth.”
“Well, send it to me,” I said gladly. “Prove me wrong.”
“It is a bit technical,” she said smugly.
“ I was a chemistry major,” I replied. “I can handle anything the soft sciences put out.”
“Them’s fightin’ words,” Saffron said, turning her laptop towards her with a vicious smirk. “I’ll email it to you. Maybe you can send me comments.”
“Sure,” I said. Then, again bringing the conversation back to Revy, “But even so… he may have been writhing, but he sure wasn’t dancing.”
Saffron paused her search. “Who cares whether he was dancing? Just because he’s not an official skindancer doesn’t mean his writhing couldn’t generate magical power-”
“Except that normal movements don’t obey skindancing rules,” I said, “so the random surges of magic they generate usually average out to a null effect.”
“Could it have been… a magical capacitor?” Saffron said, resuming her typing. “Powered up slowly over time by sapping Revenance’s life force?”
/>
“I… don’t think so,” I said.
“Don’t think so,” Saffron snapped, “or don’t know? Did you think to check?”
“ Yes, Saffron,” I said. What was wrong with her today? The explanation about the blood wasn’t cutting it-the news about Revy had really put her on edge. “I studied capacitor designs after last year’s incident, and I looked for them while the tag was active. I didn’t see any-”
“Well, now that it isn’t, check again,” she said. My face fell, and she frowned. “What?”
“They’re not going to let me back onto the scene,” I said. “The magical investigators, the Black Hats, seemed to think that some clever defense attorney would make hay of a magician-”
“For the love,” Saffron said. “Well, hopefully they took pictureswhat? ”
“Savannah,” I said softly. “This is me. I did doublecheck. But after the firemen put… put Revy out, the tag was a burnt ruin. There’s nothing left to photograph.”
“ Damn it,” Saffron said. “Sorry. I should have known you would look.”
I shrugged. Yeah, but-”Anyway, a tag with that kind of surface area is usually a magical radiator-any mana Revenance generated would just leak away in the air. I’ve never seen such a large magical mark, except for maybe the Harris Mural at Emory.”
Saffron looked up into the air sharply, sun reflecting off her goggles, remembering. The mural was a striking slow-moving magical pageant in Emory’s Harris Hall, powered by the rays of the sun. No Harris School of Magic alum ever forgot its ever-changing abstract colors.
“You should check that out,” Saffron said slowly. “It’s only about twenty-five years old. The painter might still be alive. There can’t be too many people who could paint a magical painting big enough to kill a person-maybe the painter of the Mural could give you some names that could kick-start your investigation.”
“I’m not really investigating this,” I said, taken aback. “I mean, it’s a police matter, and they practically kicked me off the scene-”
“Dakota, you have to look into this,” Saffron said urgently. “I mean, it would be stupid for them to not ask you after all you did for them last year. Who’s more qualified?”
“Rand said as much,” I said. “He seemed to think Philip would want my help, and he definitely wanted me to talk to you on behalf of the Vampire Consulate, so here I am.”
“Well, that will make things… simpler,” Saffron said, oddly uncomfortable. “So, if you are our representative, Dakota… can you deliver a message to the police for me?”
“What? Has someone else died?” I said, flashing back to Cinnamon’s insight. “Savannah?”
“The Consulate has kept this quiet,” Savannah began, “so we won’t anger the Gentry-”
“The who?”
“Atlanta’s old-school vampires,” Savannah said, clearly irritated. “But now the police are involved, we need the opposite tack. We must show Sir Leopold and his crew of wingnuts we’re doing something,” she said, pulling off her goggles. Behind her squint, I could see that she was pleading. “We need someone who knows vampires, and magic, and has good relations with the police: you. We really need your help, Dakota.”
I swallowed. “Help with what?” My head was buzzing with questions, but I was stuck on the idea that she needed me to be her go-between. “What do you want me to tell the police?”
“Revenance isn’t the first vampire we’ve lost this week. He’s the third.”
Educational Experience
“Thanks for handling this, Rand,” I said, slowing the Prius for the turn into the Clairmont Academy’s drive. “Savannah says to call Nagli, she’ll give you all the details.”
“Why can’t she call me directly?” Rand’s disembodied voice asked. “If vampires really are disappearing, they should have called the police right away-”
“Of course they should have,” I said. “But her high-and-mightiness ‘the Lady Saffron’ got deliberately vague, started talking about the Gentry, about keeping an arm’s length between factions. I gather vampire politics are involved.”
“Jesus. Vampire politics are always involved,” Rand said. “Thanks for passing on the message, Dakota, we’ll handle it. Good luck to you guys today.”
“Thanks.” I hung up and glanced at Cinnamon. “Are you going to be all right?”
Cinnamon nodded, swallowed, just staring.
Clairmont Academy was a modernist structure, nestled into a hillside so cunningly Frank Lloyd Wright would have been proud. The main offices were long straight jet of glass and slate erupting from a stand of magnolias. Classrooms climbed the hill behind the offices in an arc of terraced wedges: the overall effect was of a wave curling over a surfboard. Oh so chic.
I pulled into the visitor spaces angled off the dropoff lane. “Just… try to be nice?”
Cinnamon nodded again, then pulled down the vanity mirror, trying to fix her hair. Then she slipped out a tiny vial of her distinctive cinnamon oil perfume, which I now knew she used to hide her tiger musk, and dabbed it behind her ears and whiskers.
“Just relax,” I said. “You look fine. Better than I do, in fact, my little schoolgirl.”
Cinnamon hissed and swatted. “OK, DaKOta,” she said, fwapping the mirror back up. “But remember, this getup is just to impress the squares that runs the schools. I’m not gonna change on my days off, and don’t you goes all Laura Ashley on me either.”
“How do you know about Laura Ashley?” I asked. “You were, what, two years old?”
“Thrift stores are your friend,” Cinnamon said. “Not that I’d buy one-”
“Hey, don’t go dissing her. I have a Laura Ashley,” I said with a grin. “A big old floral tent feeding the moths back home in Dad’s house in Stratton, South Carolina.”
Cinnamon grinned and unbuckled her seat belt. I did so as well, resisting the urge to check myself in the mirror: she was finally relaxing, and I didn’t want to make her nervous again. Saffron had let me clean the blood off in her bathroom, after insisting that I clean the sink and flush the wipes. I looked as good as I was going to get, and that would have to be good enough.
We got out of the car and walked to the front door, a huge glass slab. In it I could see our distinctive outlines: tall, coated, and deathhawked, hand resting on short, skirted and cat-eared. The door slid smoothly aside on its own, replacing our reflections with a small, mousy brunette, in circa 1980s ecru wool crepe jacket and navy floral dress, who was staring at us in horror.
After a few awkward moments, I broke the ice.
“Dakota Frost,” I said, extending my hand.
“Catherine Fremont,” the woman replied, eyes taking me in from ankles to earrings. Then she seemed to notice my hand and took it gladly, like a lifeline-and I found her tiny hand surprisingly strong in mine. “Catherine Fremont, admissions.”
“And this must be Cinnamon,” I supplied, as she kept pumping my hand.
“What? Oh! Yes. I’m sorry,” Fremont said, letting go of my hand awkwardly as she did a similar double-take at Cinnamon. She pulled a pair of half-rimmed glasses out of her hair and peered at Cinnamon, as if never taught it’s not polite to stare. “And this must be Cinnamon.”
And then her mouth quirked in a skeptical grin, and she raised the glasses to look at me. “Is her name really ‘Cinnamon Frost’?”
“ Yes,” Cinnamon hissed, but I squeezed her shoulder.
“And no,” I said. “Her birth name is-unfortunate. We don’t use it anymore.”
“And so why did you pick Cinnamon?” Fremont said, frowning. “You wanted your daughter to be the butt of jokes?”
“Believe it or not,” I said, “it was a complete accident. I didn’t know I was adopting her when I suggested her name. Actually, I didn’t even know I was suggesting her name-I just called attention to her perfume and it… stuck.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Fremont said. “Well… shall we get started?”
She gestured, then followed her own gesture back
into the lobby, clearly expecting us to follow. Cinnamon and I stared at each other a moment, weighing the unspoken question: should we bail? But neither of us made that first move away, so we followed.
Catherine Fremont was tiny, no taller than Cinnamon, but she carried herself well, the navy dress flaring out widely as she turned the corner. I could now see her outfit was brand new, with retro classic touches; still, there was something familiar about it… and eventually I got it.
“Laura Ashley?” I asked, with a smirk.
“Bramble Brooch,” she replied, with a toss of her long, straight hair. I caught a bit of a smile in her cheek as she leaned her head back at me. “Basically Laura Ashley, remixed.”
Her high-heeled Victorian boots clicked against the slate tile, drawing my attention. Nice. Just then Fremont pulled out a keyfob and clicked it, and what I thought was a glass wall slid aside to open on her office. Fremont’s office had a huge plate window overlooking the courtyard and classrooms. It looked like it could slide open the same way the hallway glass had. Fremont sat behind a dark wood desk and mouse-woke an old-school, blueberry iMac.
“Speaking of dress,” Fremont said, lowering her glasses again, “I appreciate Cinnamon’s efforts to conform to our dress code, but it also extends to makeup and accessories. The henna will have to go-as will the cat ears, I’m afraid.”
Cinnamon flattened her ears, mortified, and I frowned. “Cinnamon’s ears and tail are not ‘accessories,’” I said coldly, sitting and motioning for Cinnamon to do so as well. “They’re a part of her. I thought I was clear that she was an extraordinary needs child.”
Fremont looked up sharply, then seemed to jump. “Oh my goodness,” she said, staring at Cinnamon’s head so hard I thought her gaze would knock it off. Then she sat up a little to get a glimpse of her tail. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize she was a… a compulsory were-cat-”
“Were tiger,” I said, even more coldly, as Cinnamon squirmed, “and I thought you said Clairmont Academy was equipped to deal with extraordinary needs children.”
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