Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective

by Amsden, Christine

  She glanced up when I walked in, the frown firmly affixed to her face. “Isn’t it a little late? Angie has work tomorrow.”

  “I won’t bother her long, Mrs. Mueller,” I said. Mrs. Mueller and I had never gotten along well. She’s one of those who judged me for my family before she got to know me. Even after she knew me, the shadow of my last name seemed to obscure every conversation.

  “Go on, then,” Mrs. Mueller said with an impatient wave of her thin, jeweled hand. “I think she’s upstairs.”

  I took the elevator to the third floor, where the doors slid open to reveal a small lobby with a faded yellow paint job and little else worthy of note. The door to the apartment was directly in front of me when I stepped off the elevator. It was remarkable only in that it tried to blend into the ugly yellow around it, making it almost invisible. There was a doorbell just to its right, which filled the hall with muffled chimes when I pressed it.

  A few seconds later, the door opened, and Angie stood inside, wearing a white bathrobe. Her dark hair hung in wet tendrils around her face, as if she’d just come out of the shower.

  “Were you about to go to bed?” I asked, suddenly feeling guilty.

  Angie shook her head. “I was going to go for a swim, actually. Officially, the pool is closed after dark, but I like it there. It’s peaceful.”

  “Is it lit?” I asked.

  “Only by the moon.”

  “There’s no moon tonight,” I pointed out. I had trouble imagining straight-laced Angie doing anything even as daring as taking an after-hours swim. She normally seemed to cling to the rules as though they were a lifeline.

  “Then I guess it’s not lit.” Angie stepped aside. “Would you like to come in?”

  Inside, Angie’s parents had done little more purposeful decorating than they had done outside. The walls featured photographs of their four children, two of whom were now grown and raising children of their own. Angie came in second from the bottom in birth order. The youngest was still in school and living at home, but if he was in, I couldn’t see any sign of him.

  “So what’s up? How was your date tonight?” Angie asked.

  It was the opening I needed, but somehow, the words I needed to say got stuck in my throat.

  Angie took a seat on an old brown sofa, bouncing a bit as she did. She pulled her robe around her a little more tightly. “You don’t look good.”

  “Braden proposed.”

  Her eyes widened. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “I don’t know. He started talking about going to Chicago with him, and then before I had a chance to take it all in, he was down on one knee. How can I make a big decision like that in one night?

  “Do you love him?”

  “I don’t know. How do you know if you’re in love?”

  Angie shrugged. “I’ve never been in love, but I think it takes time.”

  “Honestly, so do I. I’m not into love at first sight or anything. I figure it’s just sexual attraction and it helps, but love is more than that. But this isn’t exactly first sight; we’ve been dating for three years.”

  “I’m sorry, Cassie. I wish I had some answers for you.”

  “I didn’t need answers,” I said, sniffling, “just someone to talk to.”

  “Hey, why don’t we go for a swim?” Angie asked.

  “Right now?”

  “Yes, right now.”

  “I don’t have a suit with me. I could go home and get one, but I don’t think my parents will let me come back.” No, once I got behind their threshold, I would not be going out again tonight. The hotel had a threshold of its own, since it was also the Mueller’s home, but once I left, I would need to go straight home.

  “I’ve got a spare suit,” Angie said.

  I eyed her, though I could not see the outline of her thin body beneath the robe. “I couldn’t squeeze into one of your suits.”

  “No, it’s not mine. Madison left it here the last time she was over.”

  “Oh.” I considered that. “Well, that would probably be too big.”

  “So? There’s no lights and the moon isn’t out.”

  She had a point. What the heck? It might be the diversion I needed. Besides, if Angie was willing to go for a nighttime swim, then who was I to refuse? “All right. Just show me where I can change.”

  * * *

  Madison’s black, one-piece swim suit looked strange on me. I spent a few minutes in the bathroom, pulling at the extra material, especially around my breasts and belly. If it hadn’t been after dark, I never would have worn it, and even so, I decided to wear my regular clothes over it until I got to the pool.

  “What took you so long?” Angie asked when I came out. She handed me a purple beach towel, but she didn’t have one of her own, only the thick white robe.

  “Are you wearing that down to the pool?” I asked.

  “We don’t all have the money for fancy swim suit covers. Come on, let’s go.”

  We took the stairs down to the ground floor, where the doors opened onto the back patio. The only light sources were a faint glow from the hotel’s interior, and the dim orb of an orange porch light. The pool itself was unlit, the water within black as ink.

  I set my purse on a lawn chair at the shallow end of the Olympic-sized pool, and began to strip my shirt and pants. Angie made a bee-line for the low platform diving board at the other end, which I thought went up to twelve feet. The idea of jumping into twelve feet of blackness and having to feel my way up was unsettling.

  Beyond the wrought iron fence surrounding the open-air pool were thick forests as far as the eye could see. I knew they ended at the lake a mile away, but I couldn’t quite make out where the trees ended and the water began.

  Angie flung aside her robe, tossing it carelessly over the back of a lawn chair. She looked oddly frail underneath, and somehow skinnier than I remembered. It was impossible, of course, but in the orange glow of the porch light, it looked as if she were wearing nothing at all.

  Impossible. I shook my head and looked again. Even alone on a moonless night, Angie was the last person in the world who would be skinny dipping.

  She climbed the short ladder to the low platform diving board, pausing before walking to the end to look around, as if in expectation. She revolved on the spot, a full 360 degrees, and even in the orange porch light, I could see for sure that she wore nothing more than she had on the day she was born.

  I clutched at my cross and said a quick prayer.

  A gated swimming pool like that one, set in a patio attached to a home, is protected by a threshold. Not a strong one, but one that should at least have been able to keep a vampire out. The trouble is, even the strongest threshold in the world is utterly useless if you invite a vampire inside.

  Then Angie spoke in a loud, carrying voice. “Luke!”

  Luke? Her boyfriend? I couldn’t see him, but a cold dread washed over me anyway. There was only one reason Angie would have invited me over if she had plans to go skinny dipping with her boyfriend. I suddenly remembered her wearing a turtleneck two days in a row in the middle of June, and I knew what was about to happen.

  “Angie, no!” The force of the words nearly made my throat hoarse. “Don’t invite him in!”

  She acted as if she hadn’t heard me. “Luke! Come on in, the water’s great.” With that she danced out to the end of the board, jumped to activate the spring, and performed a perfect, graceful dive.

  15

  I DIDN’T KNOW LUKE VERY WELL at all. He had been in school with us, a year or two ahead, but had only started dating Angie in the last month or so. Since then, I’d met him just once, and it suddenly occurred to me, it had been rather late in the day. The biggest difference between then and now, aside from the fact that we had been in a brightly lit public place, was his nearly incandescent eyes.

  A vampire’s eyes have the power to hypnotize, if you let them. At least, that’s what I’d been told. You won’t find many firsthand accounts of that power.
<
br />   At that moment, Luke’s eyes looked to me like the brightest and most beautiful stars in the night. They drank me in, and made impossible promises; on the other side of those eyes was life everlasting. Just fall into the eyes....swim into the eyes.

  “That’s it,” came a low, soothing voice. “Just take off the cross and set it aside. You don’t need it with me.”

  I still had one hand clutching the cross, but it was damp with perspiration. All thought was gone. There was nothing in my world but the stars in Luke’s eyes.

  Then he sang. I’m not sure if there were words to the song, but there was power. My heart danced with the notes, and my breathing slowed to help me keep pace. It was a familiar melody, though I’d never heard it before. He sang my heart and my soul, and after a minute or so, my throat opened in an answering tune.

  Beneath my fingers, the cross started to feel warmer. It may have simply been from body heat, but as the song intensified, so did the heat beneath my fingers.

  “That’s it,” came Luke’s voice again. “Set it aside. We don’t need it.”

  The cross burned white hot, searing my already burned fingers.

  “No.” I tore my eyes away from his. Thoughts clunked back into place. My will was my own again.

  Not that will or thought seemed all that useful to me at that moment. I backed into the lawn chair where I’d tossed my clothes and purse, and began digging through the mess for the small bottle of holy water I’d packed that afternoon. My purse seemed bottomless, and as my search grew more frantic, I began tossing items haphazardly to the ground, until finally, my fingers grasped the bottle of salvation.

  When I looked up, the vampire was gone. I spun, turning left and right in jerky movements, trying to find him. One hand clung to the cross around my neck, the other to the bottle of holy water. Then I saw him at the other end of the pool.

  Angie was sitting on the edge of the pool, slowly swirling the water with one foot. Luke knelt behind her. Without the intensity of his eyes getting in the way, I could see him properly now. He had apparently come ready for the pool, because he wore nothing but a dark speedo.

  Not all vampires are alike. They carry a bit of their former personality into their demon-possessed afterlife, but stories told of a great many vampires who enjoyed thralling their victims. Vampire venom turns men and women into slaves, ready to do their master’s bidding for a taste of the drug they crave. In the end, they often beg for death, though it doesn’t always come. The fact that a vampire can so completely thrall a victim means they don’t have to kill every time they need to feed, thus controlling their population.

  At that moment, Angie wasn’t begging, she was giggling. Luke had her hair wound around his fingers and was drawing it slowly away, exposing her neck. He glanced my way for a fraction of a second, as if to make sure I was paying attention, then he plunged his teeth into her throat.

  A vampire’s bite is not a kiss, though Angie made positively indecent noises in response. She groaned and clutched at Luke’s free hand–the one that wasn’t keeping her hair at bay. She brought it down to her bare belly and held it there, gasping for breath.

  My mouth went dry, but not so much from Angie’s reaction. I understood, at least to a certain extent, how the venom worked. What really struck me at that moment was the slurping and swallowing noises. They filled the night like some twisted and magnified version of a baby demon sucking at its mother’s breast.

  The vampire lifted its head and looked at me, but I would not meet its gaze this time. Fool me once, I thought, but not again.

  “You could run,” he hissed, “but I’m awfully thirsty.” As if to demonstrate, he bent down and licked at Angie’s neck.

  She shuddered. “Don’t stop.”

  “It would be a shame to turn her so soon,” Luke said, “she’s been so useful.”

  I should have run. Logic dictated that I had no chance against this vampire. I couldn’t save Angie, only myself. Trouble was, I knew I couldn’t have lived with myself afterward. Luke must have guessed that about me, which was impressive since until that moment, I hadn’t known it about myself.

  I remembered the words Dad had said to me just a short while ago, before I’d gotten angry with him and done everything in my power to hurt him. “Vampires are strong, and some of them are cunning.”

  Thought escaped me again, but not because of his eyes. This time, it was simply a matter of resolve; a decision made that I could not take back. Hesitation was no longer an option. I removed the lid to the bottle of holy water and, rushing forward with speed I hadn’t even known I possessed, I threw it at Luke.

  I got his face, hair, and bare chest, all of which started smoking. He screamed and jumped away so fast that he was at the other end of the pool before I could blink.

  “Let’s go!” I shouted at Angie. I bent forward and tugged her to her feet.

  “Why?” Angie sounded empty inside. I wondered how much of my friend still fought for sanity beneath that drug-induced shell.

  “If we get inside, we’ll be safe. You only invited him into the pool.” I didn’t know if that was true or not, but it was the only hope I had.

  She clutched at my shoulders, using me for support as I tried to lead her away from the pool, and for the space of a few seconds, I thought I had her convinced, or at least, docile enough not to care. Then her fist closed around my necklace, and before I had a chance to react, before I could even flinch, she yanked it off and flung it into the pool. It didn’t even make a sound as it hit the inky waters and sank beyond my reach.

  Angie let go of me and stood on her own power, looking quite whole and sure of herself. She was so in the power of the vampire, she didn’t know where his will ended and hers began. “It’s gone.”

  The icy horror did not have a chance to settle in my heart before Luke was on me. He came up behind me and encircled me in strong, impenetrable arms, almost like a lover. Almost. No blood flowed through his cold, dead veins. It felt to me as if a little bit of January had blown into June. I shuddered, hard, though I don’t know how much the cold had to do with it.

  “Hush,” he said, his mouth so close to my ear that I felt his chill breath on my face.

  I closed my eyes. There were no weapons left to me. The cross was gone. The holy water was gone. In the end, it didn’t matter how powerful my family was. They weren’t there to protect me. There was nothing between me and a fate worse than death except, perhaps, the anti-venom potion I had taken so long ago I could no longer remember. Would it fail me as it had failed Belinda? If not, if his venom could not touch me, then I would die. It was the best outcome I could hope for, the one for which I prayed, silently.

  I tried not to think about the possibility that I would become his thrall, but the fears rushed through my head, unbidden and unstoppable. Would he finish it right there, I wondered, or would he play with me as he was doing with Angie? When it was all over, would he turn me, and send me to attack my family? Would the demon inside me kill any of them before they killed me, as they surely would?

  Christina’s sweet face flashed in my mind, Adam’s charismatic smile, and Elena’s haunted grace. At that moment, I would have given anything to have seen a single one of them, even Isaac, with his taunts, sneers, and attempts to curse me. If Juliana had been there, I would have flung my arms around her and forgiven her for spreading lies about me. In the end, what did it matter?

  “This won’t hurt,” Luke said. “You’ll even enjoy it. Here, let me show you.”

  He raised my left hand up, over my head, to his lips. I couldn’t see, but I imagined a mouth full of jagged razor blades. When he tore into my thumb, the vision turned to truth, and my thumb cried out in pain. It took all my strength not to cry out for real. “That’s better, isn’t it?” he said. He released my thumb and allowed it to fall to my side.

  No, it wasn’t. My thumb still stung where he had tasted it, but I didn’t trust myself to speak, or to show the tiniest hint of emotion. At that instant, tw
o important truths clunked into place.

  First, the anti-venom potion seemed to be working. Whatever had happened to Belinda in the end, it did not seem to be happening to me now. The pain in my thumb, the blood still oozing from the wound where my index finger tried to stem the flow, and the sharpness of my mind all indicated that for now, at any rate, I wasn’t in danger of turning.

  Second, Luke didn’t know about the anti-venom potion. If he did, he would have noticed my sharp intake of breath or the flow of blood. He would not have expected me to respond to him as Angie had. He would have guessed that Cassandra Scot would be immune to him.

  As weapons went, it felt feeble, but it was all I had. For the first time in my life, I appreciated the veil of secrecy that shrouded my family’s most powerful magic. If we had gone through town, shouting about the potion, Luke would have known. He would have given up his bizarre seduction routine and killed me in an instant. Instead, if I could keep the act up convincingly enough, he might let me go, believing he had me as his willing slave.

  All I had to do was keep my mouth shut, to pretend to be in heaven rather than in hell, and to act as though I wanted a blood-sucking vampire to drain me dry.

  He released me, but I stayed put, determined to keep up the ruse that I was under his power. Angie came to stand by my side, and Luke strode in front of us, leering. I avoided looking into his eyes, though he did not make it easy.

  “Angie told me you had a date tonight,” Luke said. “She didn’t think she could get you here until tomorrow.”

  Despite my fear, my first thought was to ask why he wanted me here, but I managed to bite my tongue. It didn’t matter. He had wanted me, and without either of them having to try, I’d walked into their trap.

  Angie took a step forward, and I resisted the urge to pull her back. She flung herself at the vampire and tossed her hair aside, inviting him to bite. From this distance, I could see bruises and scars where she had been bitten half a dozen other times. No wonder she had worn the turtleneck two days in a row.