by Greco, Karen
His face fell and I quickly added, "No offense."
"Yeah, Nina, that was offensive."
He opened the fridge, grabbed a beer and settled at the kitchen table. Dog slinked under and curled up at his feet.
"You're a smart guy, Max. Way smarter than me." I dropped the spell pots in the sink beside that morning's coffee mugs. I felt Casper wind up to yell at me about mixing the spell pots with the dining dishes. "But your alter ego? Not so much."
"I think my low IQ alter ego can handle blowing a little powder," he scoffed. "Did Babe mention if someone specific should blow the powder?"
"It's ash, not powder," I corrected him crankily. "And I can't find Babe. Casper and I did this one ourselves."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked. Then he raised his eyebrows and this time he added, "No offense."
"None taken. Trust me, I know my limitations."
"Then are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Screw him!" Casper was all riled up again. "I am the baddest brujo this mofo ever met."
I cut Casper’s tirade off. "Max, trust us. Casper knows what he's doing. I was just along for the ride in the corporeal form. When's Dr. O meeting up with us?"
Max shook his head. "He's indisposed at the moment."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means we are on our own," Max explained. "He's got more pressing matters to address."
My face flushed with anger. "More pressing than Frankie?"
"Can't be helped," he said.
"Frankie is out there dying. And Dr. O can't be bothered to help us? I don't believe you, Max. What aren't you telling me?" This was an epic betrayal by the one man that I could always count on. There was no way he'd do this to me.
"It's called growing up, Nina." Max said coldly, refusing to meet my eyes. "You have to stand on your own eventually."
"This is not that time," I said through gritted teeth. "First Babe is MIA, and now Dr. O has something more important than Frankie? And you're looking at this as an opportunity to celebrate my independence? This isn't like going away to college, Max. There is a very real life on the line. And it's someone who means an awful lot to me."
Max's face clouded over. "Yes, I know he means the world to you. When he's around, you're inseparable."
"Is he jealous?" Casper interjected.
"Shhh!" I waved my hand past my face, like I was swatting a fly.
"What?" Max looked at me like I was nuts.
I pointed to my head. "Casper."
He sighed. "Right. Being around you is really...unconventional."
"No kidding," I acknowledged flatly, not sure that he meant it as a compliment.
"So, what do we do? Run after Frankie, halfcocked?"
"Yeah, pretty much that is what we do," I responded. "Frankie doesn't have time to wait for Dr. O or for Babe. And I sure as shit care if he dies, even if I am the only one."
"You aren't," Max insisted. "But we have to be smart about this and not take unnecessary chances."
"Max, my entire life is one giant unnecessary chance," I said. "I can handle it."
Dog crawled out from under the kitchen table and growled at the back door, her hair on edge. The back door flew open and Bertrand strolled into Babe's kitchen. "Can you really handle it, Nina? I am not so sure."
"Get out of my house," I sneered. "You weren't invited in."
"That works on him, perhaps," Bertrand said with a smile and wave at Tavio, who was huddled in the doorway, unable to pass. "But not me."
"What do you want?"
Bertrand sniffed. "What is that awful smell?"
"Your mother's..."
Max cut me off. "Nina, don't even go there."
"We had a deal, Nina." Bertrand unbuttoned his camel hair coat and sat at the table with a flourish. "With all that has happened, I want to make sure you remember the concert is tonight."
"Yeah, about that..." I started.
"We had a deal," Bertrand repeated.
"We're down a man, Bertrand. And I can't do the job without Frankie."
"You have no choice, Nina," Bertrand said.
"I don't think you understand," I forced myself to remain calm. "Frankie's in some serious shit, and we need to get to him before it's too late."
"We know, Nina," Tavio said from the doorway. The kitchen was frigid with the door wide open, but I'd be damned if I was going to invite him in. Bertrand in the kitchen was bad enough.
"Be a darling and get me a bourbon, will you Nina? Then we can talk." Bertrand looked so smug.
"Nina," Max said, his voice filled with caution. "Don't be a hothead right now."
"I am not interested in being a darling," I said, not taking my eyes off Bertrand.
"Maybe this will cool you off, then," Bertrand said, but his eyes were devoid of any humor. "I can keep Frankie alive. For a time."
"Can you cure him?" I asked.
"No, I can't cure him," he said, not looking the least bit sorry. "But, first, a bourbon. And, invite Tavio in please. He's pitiful standing out there, really. You can rescind the offer when we are done."
I chewed at my lip, considering it. "Fine, you can come in."
Tavio crossed the threshold and closed the door, removing his jacket as he moved through the kitchen. He seemed so human until he moved. It was kind of unnerving.
I pulled a bottle of Maker’s Mark out from a bottom cabinet and grabbed four mugs. Bertrand stared at them with disgust when I placed them on the table.
"Are the chipped ones in the dishwasher?" he asked as he took the bottle from me and poured out equal measures of the bourbon in each mug.
"Get to it, Bertrand," I replied, ignoring his dig. I threw back the bourbon, but my throat closed immediately, rejecting it. My mouth began to itch, and I spit the liquid back into the cup, coughing.
"Son of a bitch!" I gasped.
Tavio sniffed his cup and snorted. "Babe watered down the booze with Holy Water."
Bertrand cocked an eyebrow. "That aunt of yours really doesn't like vampires. Ironic, isn't it?"
"Certain vampires," I wheezed on my way to the sink to rinse out my mouth. Max looked at me oddly and I shrugged back at him before gulping down clean water straight from the tap.
"That was weird," Casper rattled in my head. He was so quiet, I had almost forgotten that he was there.
"I know," I muttered, drying my face with the bottom of my t-shirt.
"So sorry about that, Tavio," Max said. "Nina and I will get some bourbon from the bar. Babe doesn't water those bottles down."
I opened my mouth to protest, but he was already by my side. He steered me by the elbow to the door leading down to the bar. We walked in silence.
When we reached the landing, he pulled me closer and whispered into my ear. "Are you okay?"
"What are you doing?" I pulled away, mostly from surprise. Our relationship, as it was, went from steamy to splat when the supernatural shit hit the fan. We were in a much more comfortable place now, but had spent the last few months at a pretty safe distance.
"Shhh!" He pointed upstairs. "Let's not make it easy for Tavio to overhear."
"Oh." My heart fell with disappointment. Dammit. That split second of closeness made me keenly aware how much I was still attracted to the man. The past few days had drawn us closer, clearly, even with our disagreements.
"So, what happened?" he pressed.
"I don't know," I whispered back. "My throat just closed up. I react to Holy Water like an allergy. It just kind of itches. I shouldn't have just shut down like that."
"You think it was Frankie?" Casper's voice was so loud, I jumped. Max looked at me oddly.
"Casper thinks it could have been Frankie," I said to Max. "But I don't think he could stop me from drinking Holy Water based on the binding."
Max squeezed my shoulders with his strong hands. "You're okay now?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Good. We'll figure this out later. Right now, let's listen to what those gu
ys have to say and then get them out of here."
Exasperated, I pulled away from him and climbed over the bar to get a clean bottle of Maker’s Mark. I prided myself on having a solid bullshit detector, but Max could be too damn smooth.
From the mirror lining the back wall of the bar, I saw my eyes had the start of that preternatural glow. My teeth were shifting around in my mouth. The vampire was oozing out in my frustration. Bottle in hand, I let my inner vamp take control of my body and jumped on the bar, landing on my feet.
"Frankie comes first," I stared down at Max, reminding him that I was more than human. "Always."
"Want to de-vamp a bit before we go back up?"
"Nope." I jumped off the bar and headed for the stairs.
Max stepped in front of me. "Nina, could you please trust me on this? We have to work with them. For now."
"Whose side are you on, Max?" I asked point blank.
"The right side." He turned and went up the stairs. I followed at his heels. When we pushed open the door to the apartment, Dog was sitting in front of it, her teeth bared, growling at Tavio and Bertrand. Tavio eyed her uneasily, but Bertrand coolly flipped through my grimoire like it was a magazine.
I dropped the bottle of Maker’s on the table and snatched the spell book away from him, slamming it shut and placing it out of reach on the counter. Dog trailed at my heels, her lips raised in a snarl.
"I'd forgotten what a brilliant witch your mother was." Bertrand cracked open the bottle and smiled. "New glasses, please. And perhaps not chipped mugs this time."
Max opened a few cabinets hunting for glasses. He found our stash of Looney Tunes juice glasses and took out four. When he placed them on the table, Elmer Fudd in front of Bertrand, the demon sighed dramatically. Max winked at me.
"Nina, perhaps you could be lovely one more time and find some lowballs downstairs? This is quite uncivilized."
"I am not lovely, and if you can drink it straight from the damn bottle if you don't like my glasses."
"No need for that, Nina," Tavio said, looking pointedly at Bertrand. "The glasses have a certain charm to them."
Max poured out the bourbon into each Looney Tunes glass.
"¡Salud!" Tavio raised his glass, which had a picture of Wile E. Coyote etched on it. I downed my bourbon in Bugs Bunny with one swallow and reached for the bottle for a refill.
Bertrand pulled it away. "You need to keep your wits about you."
I pulled it back. "Vampire metabolism. My wits will be fine."
"So what's this about keeping Frankie alive?" Max interrupted.
Tavio cleared his throat. "I can slow the infected blood down a bit, buy him an extra day or two."
"How?" Getting an assist from these two wasn't sitting well with me.
"While the Plague was sweeping the human population in Europe, the vampires were contending with our own plague. It's effectively a blood transfusion, but with the blood of a healthy vampire."
"Of course. A blood transfusion can cure him." My heart raced with excitement. Why didn't I think of that before?
But Tavio shook his head sadly. "There's only so much blood we can give him. And this infection contaminates the clean blood pretty quickly. There is no way to stop it. Just slow it down."
Bertrand brightened. "But we can delay the inevitable, so you can try your cure. After you deal with Killing Haley's concert tonight."
"We don't even know where Frankie is..." I took a deep breath, holding back tears. Dammit. I would not cry.
"No, but you can find him," Tavio said gently.
"How can I find him? I can't get near him. In case he...you know."
"Oh for fuck's sake," Bertrand's stone-cold facade cracked, and the room filled with the smell of sulfur. Dog growled, her fur on end. "You are a waste of a witch, Nina. You scry for him, of course."
"Can we scry?" I asked Casper.
"Only a witch can scry, Nina," Tavio started.
Max held up his hand. "She's talking to the ghost."
Casper slipped forward in my head. "I don't know. We could try, but Eva could probably do it better than us, since she's a seer."
"I don't think I want to involve her," I said. Eva's gift of sight meant that she would be the better witch to look into the crystal ball — or really, any shiny surface — to try to get a lead on Frankie. But Eva spent so much time as a fraud fortuneteller, scamming people for money, that she embellished her real visions with fakery. Most of the time, witchcraft was pretty banal.
"No," he said slowly and patiently. "But she will do in a pinch, in case we can't. Does your aunt have a ceremonial bowl?"
"A what?" I asked.
"A bowl, a really fancy bowl that she doesn't let you use for food?"
I thought for a moment. "Yeah, she does. And she keeps it in the cabinet under her altar, so that must be it."
"We just have to wash the bowl with salt water to purify it, and then charge it."
"Charge it with what?" I asked.
"With our power." Now his patience was running out.
"Then what?" I asked.
"We fill it with water and ask it to show us where Frankie is."
"That sounds nuts," I said. Casper shrugged, using my arms to show me what he was doing. I cringed at the use of my body.
The three men — Bertrand, Tavio and Max — all stared at me having what appeared to be a one-sided conversation.
"So, can you do it?" Max asked.
I hedged. "Maybe. We think."
"Good," Bertrand said as he pushed himself away from the table.
Dog stepped in front of me defensively.
"Find him and call us with the location," Bertrand said. "We'll pick him up."
Leaving Frankie to these two made me uneasy. "Don't you think I should be there?"
"It's too dangerous for you, Nina," Tavio said, reaching over and touching my hand.
I yanked it away. "I'll be fine."
"Do you want him to die, Nina?" Bertrand's eyes went coal black, and another wave of sulfur hit my nose. "Because that's exactly what will happen."
"I could have a cure," I insisted.
"You have nothing!" Bertrand's face went dark, the human facade breaking slightly, revealing a hint of the malformed demon beneath. He snatched the pill bottle of ash off the counter. "Don't you dare cross me unless you want to lose everyone you've ever cared about? And believe me. I can arrange that."
Dog leaped at him. Reflexes in overdrive, I snatched her mid-leap and pulled her to me, her 100-pound body squirming in my arms.
"Stay," I commanded, putting her down. Bertrand didn't even flinch.
I swallowed hard and stared at the bottle. He tucked it into the inside breast pocket of his coat.
"You will keep your eyes on Matteo tonight and keep him safe. Then I will hand your sick friend over to you. I promise I will keep him alive until you can attempt your cure," Bertrand said, adding sarcasm on the last word.
Max pushed his way past Bertrand and took my arm, drawing me towards him protectively. "Don't worry, we'll hold up our end of the bargain. But you better hold up yours."
"Of course," Bertrand smiled coldly. "Just don't fail."
He swept out the door before I could object, Tavio trailing behind him.
"Why did you do that?" I rounded on Max.
"He'll do as he promised," Max insisted. "The less we fight with him, the safer Frankie is."
"Surfer boy is right," Casper said. "Get the bowl, Nina. It's time to scry."
"Wait," Max stopped us. "We need to deal with Darcy. We're going to need all hands on deck here."
"Right. Crap." I leaned against the hallway wall.
"Can you talk to her?" Max asked.
I shook my head. "The only person who can go in there is a fully dead vampire. The wailing kills everyone living, including witches. And Berserkers," I added quickly, in case he had any ideas of trying himself.
"What if I'm possessing you?" Casper tried hopefully.
"I d
on't really know," I said.
Max looked at me oddly.
I pointed to my head. "Casper asked about possessing me."
"Oh. Right. Well in theory, it could work," Max offered. "He is dead."
I winced. Another reminder to Casper that he was a ghost. Sometimes Casper lived as if he were still alive and human. Often through manipulating my body, but still.
"I really don't know if it will work, and I really don't want to end up dead trying," I explained.
"What about Matty?"
My eyes bugged out at Max. "Are you kidding me? He's the one that put her in this state in the first place!"
"Nina," Casper interjected. "It's a good idea."
"How can you think this is a good idea?" I smacked myself in the head to drive home my point.
"The love spell, Nina!"
"Oh," I calmed down for a second, but then my hackles went up again. "You know what, I changed my mind. I think it's deceitful. We'll figure out another way."
Max looked confused. "Want to let me in on whatever it is that's deceitful?"
"Casper thinks we should put a love spell on Matty and Darcy." If anyone hated the idea of taking away someone's free will, it was definitely Max.
His head nodded in agreement. "I can see where that could be useful."
"Are you really okay with that?" I eyed him suspiciously. "You realize that we are making a choice for her. And she may not want it."
"I don't know. He looked like something she wanted to me."
"Told you," Casper said. He was turning into a fly that I really wanted to swat.
"Lust, maybe," I said. I wasn't going to back off on this. "And what about him? He's a rock star. He doesn't want to be tied down."
"Did you ask him?" Max countered.
"Of course not," I huffed, seeing where he was going with this but not ready to admit defeat.
"And, if it doesn't work out, reverse it," Max said.
"Exactly!" Casper was nodding my head in agreement.
"What if we can't reverse it?" I forced Casper's nod into a shake of the head.
Max shrugged. "Then maybe it was meant to be."
I snorted. Meant to be.
"Nina," Casper said gently. "Are you sure this is about Darcy. Or is it about you?"