That meant, as much as I felt like I was going to collapse into a pile of dust if I said anything, I needed to cast a spell right now. Luckily, the other night Amy had been teaching Sara and I a number of aggressive spells – Sara for use during her next broom competition battle, which was coming up in just a couple of weeks, and me to build up my repertoire of spells.
I don’t think either one of us knew at the time how handy it was going to be.
“Jupiter, God of the Sky, create some water and let it fly!” I shouted. That was one of the new spells I had learned the other day. I braced myself as a torrent of water flew from my wand hit the vampire closest to me. He didn’t have time to let out so much as a sputter before the power of the water knocked him to the floor. I spun around, the water keeping the vampires near us from getting close as I turned in a circle. It must have been a fairly comical sight from the outside. There was me, holding my wand out in front of me, water gushing out of it like I was a human fire hydrant or something, spinning in a circle and trying to keep control of the wand while at the same time doing my best not to hit Ellie or Sara with the burst of water.
Ellie ducked out of the way quickly, and took the opportunity to cast a spell of her own.
She pointed her wand at the door, and I suspected her plan had been to make some sort of spell that would have formed a shield, preventing the vampires from being able to reach us as we made a run for it. Unfortunately, Ellie never got the chance.
A vampire came out of nowhere then, ducking away from the torrent of water gushing from my wand and attacked Ellie. She screamed and fell to the floor as Sara jumped on him, beating away with her fists.
“Ellie!” I shouted, and my momentary lapse in concentration caused my spell to break, the rushing water suddenly stopping. We were in trouble.
The vampire who had attacked threw Sara off him, and she stumbled on the floor, immediately surrounded by more vampires. I looked between my friends, not knowing which one I should try and help first, and the first vampire reached up, baring his fangs, about to bring them down on Ellie.
I let out a cry and rushed forward, when out of nowhere, the entire room filled with light. It was like someone had moved the sun right into the warehouse; even I had to shield my eyes to see what was going on.
The vampires in the room all instantly shrunk away, rushing towards the exits as they cried out, desperate to get away from it.
“I can’t turn it off,” one of the vampires shouted in vain. “Go! Go! Get out while you can! It’s too bright!”
I looked towards the light, curious to see where it had come from. I blinked heavily, squinting my eyes at the source. It looked like it was coming from one of the vampires. But that couldn’t be right, surely? Why on earth would one of the vampires in here be helping us, let alone be able to generate light like that?
The vampires were in full retreat mode now, stampeding towards the exit. A part of me was legitimately worried that a few of them were going to be crushed as they all scrambled to get out of the warehouse as quickly as possible.
The form of the vampire slowly changed, and I let out a cry as I realized I knew who it was.
“Kyran!” I shouted, making my way towards him and enveloping him in a huge hug.
“What on earth?” Ellie said, looking up from where she lay on the floor. Her wand was a few feet away, snapped in half. She looked at it and groaned. “Aww, I liked that wand.”
“Hey, it could be worse, if that vampire had actually bitten you you’d have no use for any wands anymore,” Sara pointed out.
I was just wondering how Kyran had gotten here.
“You saved us,” I said. “But what on earth are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“We’re trying to solve Florin’s murder to get the people in Western Woods off Aquaria’s back, obviously,” Ellie said, getting to her feet, and Kyran raised an eyebrow.
“Obviously? You’d think you would be a bit more polite to someone who just saved your life.”
“Please, we totally had it under control. We weren’t in any real danger.” A smile flittered on Kyran’s lips as Ellie continued. “But I guess thank you for being here and saving us a few minutes faster than we would have managed it ourselves. I’m with Tina, though: what are you doing here?”
“I’m investigating a ring of vampires who have been secretly travelling to the human world, killing people, and drinking their blood,” my boyfriend replied solemnly. “I’ve traced one of them back here to Spokurse.”
“Were you pretending to be a vampire?” I asked. “I had no idea you could do that.”
“Yeah,” Kyran grinned. “It’s an elf ability. It’s not a perfect change, my body doesn’t physically change, but it’s a kind of aura change. Anyone who looks at me thinks I’m a vampire. However, it’s an extremely superficial ability, and if any of the vampires in here tried to have a long conversation with me the aura would eventually disappear and they would see me as an elf once more. It’s handy when I want to hang out in here with all the other vampires and eavesdrop on their conversations, though.”
“How come they couldn’t make the light disappear? Ellie told me not to use a light spell as the vampires could stop them.”
“We elves generate the light from within ourselves. In a way, we’re the opposite of vampires,” Kyran explained. “They’re all about darkness, whereas we are all about the light. So when I decided to cast my light, it’s more powerful than anything you can do with a spell, because it is the light within me, an elf. They cannot quash it the way they would if you had cast a light-emitting spell with your wand.”
“Well, I for one am thrilled you were here,” Sara said. “I’m pretty sure my heart is still pounding at a million beats per minute. I’m completely lost when I don’t have a broom, and those vampires had me surrounded.”
“Glad I could help,” Kyran said with an elaborate bow.
“I want to know more about this human killing ring you’re investigating,” I said. “After all, Florin was from here. If he was involved in that sort of thing, maybe that’s the reason he was killed.”
“It is possible,” Kyran admitted. “Why don’t we head back home before the vampires come back and I’ll tell you what I know.”
I was definitely more than ready to get out of this warehouse.
Chapter 11
“I started noticing more people than usual disappearing without a trace in Spokane a few months ago,” Kyran started when we were back in our house, sitting on the couch. “That was what got my attention. When vampires hunt in the human world, they don’t leave any trace of the bodies. Because they leave the bodies bloodless, it’s too strange for the human world, it makes the news, and invariably Enforcers here find out about it and investigations the vampires don’t want begin.”
“Yeah, I would definitely be freaked out if it turned out a bunch of bodies that had been completely drained of blood showed up in Seattle,” I said with a nod. “So what do they do to hide the bodies?”
“They take them deep into the woods and bury them, generally,” Kyran explained. “They’re usually never found by humans, so we have to figure out that vampires are at work in other ways. This time, it was through the number of missing people reports, and the fact that the victims were all similar: males, generally aged fifteen to twenty-five, with dark hair and eyes. And most importantly, they all had type A-positive blood. That was a huge giveaway that vampires were involved.”
“So you went to the human world to try and find out what was happening?”
“That’s right. In the course of my investigation, I found one human who had seen one of the men being lured by someone that fit the description of a vampire who lives in Spokurse. I knew they would all be meeting at the bar after Florin’s death, and I wondered if I might not get a little bit of information by eavesdropping while I was there. Of course, I didn’t count on you three coming in and spoiling everything,” he added w
ith a good-natured grin.
“Spoiling what?” a voice asked from the kitchen as Amy popped her head in, obviously back.
“Oh, a bunch of vampires tried to kill your roommates, but luckily I was there to save them,” Kyran said, and Amy’s eyebrows rose as she looked between the three of us.
I was suddenly aware of a very, very important spot on the floor I had to look at.
“Alright, which one of you is going to explain to me why vampires want to kill you?” Amy asked, crossing her arms. “This has to do with that Florin getting killed at the market, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe,” Ellie replied, the only one of us bold enough to actually answer Amy.
“Maybe. Right. So it’s obvious you’ve all inserted yourself into yet another murder investigation. Would any of you care to enlighten me as to why, this time? It’s not like any of you are suspects. I hope. Oh, goodness, please don’t tell me one of you is a suspect.”
“No, but everyone thinks Aquaria did it,” Ellie replied.
“So?”
“So, they’re basically calling for her to be locked up now,” I said, recounting the story from the bakery that morning. “And even Aquaria is beating herself up; she thinks she might have done it and forgotten about it.”
“None of that makes it your business,” Amy replied. “Chief Enforcer King is here, she’s on the case, I’m sure she’ll solve it eventually and everything will go back to normal.”
“Yeah, but until then, Aquaria basically has to stay in her house, and she’s lost her job, and everything. If we help, the case can only be solved faster. Besides, it turns out we might also be helping Kyran.”
“Oh yeah, what’s he investigating?”
“A ring of vampires sneaking into the human world and draining people of their blood before hiding the bodies,” my boyfriend replied, and Amy’s face turned white.
“I’m starting to regret coming home. I was going to stay in the library after my shift and do some more reading. Why didn’t I just stay in the library?” Amy said out loud to herself.
“You know you’re going to join us, if only because you’re convinced we’re going to end up dying if you don’t help,” Ellie said. “So you may as well sit down and find out what’s going on.”
“Fine,” Amy said, plonking herself heavily down on the couch. “But I absolutely don’t agree with what you’re doing, for the record.”
“You never do,” Ellie said, sticking her tongue out at Amy. “Anyway, Kyran, you were saying you managed to track one of the vampires to Spokurse?”
“That’s right,” Kyran said with a nod. “I don’t think he was working alone. There have simply been too many victims in the human world for one vampire to have done it all. I’ve been investigating, and I have a few names, but I know there are more. That was why I went to the warehouse; I wanted to see who mingles with who, and see if I can sniff out some more members of the network.”
“Did it work?” I asked, and Kyran shrugged.
“Somewhat. I certainly haven’t managed to figure out who everyone else involved is. But I have a few names. In fact, those three cousins of Florin’s were involved, I believe. Drogin, Flavin and Potrin. The network expanded outside of Spokurse, since they’re from Western Woods. I had no proof, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it turned out Florin was involved.”
I nodded. “It certainly sounded as if they were close. Maybe they were bonding over murder.”
We spoke for a little while longer, but our brainstorming session didn’t lead to any additional insights. None of us really wanted to cook, so I offered to go into town and pick up some pizza. I wanted the walk anyway; being outside in the open air without anyone around was a great way for me to clear my head. Sometimes that was all that was needed to make a couple of connections between facts that could help solve a case.
Leaving the others, I made my way outside and headed down to the main part of town where I knew the local pizzeria had nightly specials. Tonight was pepperoni and pineapple – a strange combination that actually worked incredibly well – so I figured a large one of those, a plain pepperoni and a super supreme would do everyone good. And some garlic bread, of course.
It was already pitch black outside despite it being barely five in the afternoon – the longest day of the year had only been a few weeks earlier, after all – but thanks to the magically-lit old-fashioned lamps that lined the streets I had absolutely no trouble seeing where I was going.
So why did everything suddenly feel creepy? It was like someone was following me. A few hundred feet from the house I stopped, and turned around suddenly. Nope, there was no one there.
“You’re going insane, Tina,” I whispered to myself as I kept going. And yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that someone was following me. Was it vampires? After all, it being nighttime now, these were their prime waking hours. If they wanted to come after Ellie, Sara and I as revenge for what had happened in Spokurse earlier that day, they would presumably wait for the cover of darkness to do it.
My heart began to beat faster in my chest, and when I got to the pizza shop, I practically collapsed with relief into the warm, well-lit building with a friendly fairy manning the counter.
I placed my order, and then briefly considered texting the others to let them know I had a feeling I was being followed. No, that was stupid. They would just make fun of me, and rightfully so, because I was being ridiculous. It was just the events of the day making me feel paranoid.
Instead, I texted Sara, told her it was too cold out to walk the pizzas home, and asked if she’d be willing to fly over and come and get me. That would avoid raising any suspicions, and if there were vampires around who were trying to come after us, they wouldn’t be able to come close to Sara when she was on a broom. Heck, there were barely a dozen witches and wizards in the entire paranormal world who were capable of that. And seeing as Sara was currently third overall in the broom competition standings, the total number was probably even smaller.
Sure, I’ll be there in five, Sara replied a minute later, and as much as I hated to admit it, I was overcome with relief.
I didn’t really think I was the sort of person to freak out at things like that. I had never been the child who was afraid of monsters in the closet, and as an adult I wasn’t afraid of walking in the dark. Working at a bar and heading home in the middle of the night certainly got rid of any sort of apprehension I might have had. So why was my brain being so weird right now?
Was it because I had come so close to death that afternoon and hadn’t really processed it yet? It had to be that. Still, as much as I rationalized away the fact that there couldn’t possibly be anything actually coming after me, I still found myself looking out the window every minute or so, under the guise of looking to see if Sara was coming.
She showed up a couple of minutes later, and I flashed her a smile from the little bar stool at the window I was sitting at while I waited for the pizza.
“Hey, Tina. Are you ok?”
“Yeah, why?” I asked, trying to keep my expression neutral.
“You’re just so pale; you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Oh. Well, don’t worry about me. Maybe it’s just the whole stress of the day catching up to me,” I said with a smile.
“Fair enough. It was a pretty insane day. I still can’t believe it happened. I feel like we’ve earned this pizza.”
“We absolutely have,” I laughed. “Plus, Amy didn’t get nearly as mad as I thought she would when we told her we were going to help prove Aquaria didn’t kill that vampire.”
“I know, right? I was half expecting her to blow a gasket right then and there. I guess she’s so used to us insisting that we get involved that she probably realized it was going to happen anyway.”
“Probably,” I said with a smile. “Given as she’s Amy, she probably picked up on the pattern. Still, I’m glad she’s going to help us. I feel bad for Aquaria, being torment
ed by everyone like she is.”
“It’s really awful,” the fairy behind the counter said, and as Sara and I turned towards her, she blushed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to intrude on your conversation. But I couldn’t help but hear you talking about Aquaria, and how mean everyone is being to her. It’s all just so unfair. She’s worked so hard in the last few years to get her life back on track despite everything that happened, and now this just lands into her lap and it’s like she’s the worst fairy that’s ever lived according to everyone in town.”
“I agree,” I told her. “I don’t know Aquaria well, but in the human world, there’s a principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and no one seems to be waiting for that proof to come in.”
“Besides, Florin was bad news. Half the vampires in town hated him. They come in all the time for pizza, those three cousins of his. They’re local, and they do some work for Florin’s father, from what I’ve heard, up in Spokurse. They’d come in to get pizza every night before they went to the portal and go to work. Up until about two months ago, they were constantly ragging on Florin. Calling him a daddy’s boy, saying he hadn’t worked a day in his life, that he probably couldn’t suck the blood from anyone if he even wanted to.”
Sara and I raised our eyebrows at each other. “That doesn’t jive with what I saw at the coffee stall the other day. Florin’s cousins were waiting for him, they seemed close.”
“Yeah, that’s because a couple months back things suddenly changed. The cousins kept coming in for their pizza slices a couple of times a week, but they weren’t ragging on Florin anymore. They didn’t really talk about him at all. And when they did, it was like he was just a normal vampire instead of the family pariah.”
Six Ways to Spellday Page 6