by P. Mattern
Kimbra looked up from the amulet she had been fingering. Although it was not glowing as brightly as it had when it was beaming out from Looz’s face, it still retained an unmistakable incandescent glow. If she put her hand around it she could see that it still projected tiny rainbows onto the skin of her palm, like sprays of multicolored stars. Looking up she smiled at Looz.
“Oh Looz, thank you for being willing to do this. Everything that you said-predicted-I felt in my soul. And this gift is phenomenal!”
Behind Kimbra Carey, Fress, and Looz’s daughters clapped delightedly. The one named Nastina ran up to Kimbra to admire her amulet.
“Oh Momma has given you a most special gift!!I wish I had such a gift-can I have one when I get married?” she asked, turning her huge beautiful eyes imploringly to her mother’s.
Looz smiled indulgently at her bubbly offspring and cocked her head to one side.
“Nastina, my precious, every gift is unique, and when it is your time, your gift will be as uniquely suited to you as Kimbra’s is, my darling!”
Looz seemed somewhat spent, and Carey thought that she might be too fatigued to give him a similar benediction. But after snacking on a few grapes and drinking from a carafe filled with a phosphorescent yellow liquid she motioned for him to take the seat across from her.
Carey was embarrassed to find that he was sweating profusely. Under the gaze of the Mage he felt somehow ultraexposed, as though he were buck naked and being xrayed simultaneously.
A smiled curved up from the corners of Looz’s lips.
“You want your wife so badly,” she said,”As badly as a male energy ever wanted a female energy. You will not have to wait too long, Carey. Do not be disheartened.”
Around them Carey could hear Nastina’s daughters tittering and whispering, and he found himself blushing. Being intimate with Kimbra was 90% of all he ever thought about these days.
Clearing her throat, Looz withdrew a deck of ornately decorated cards from her pocket. Carey was sort of shocked-after the over the top exposition Looz had put on for Kimbra he hadn’t been prepared for the more routine trappings of a Fortune Teller to be presented. It seemed more than a little anticlimactic.
Looz seemed to be able to read his thoughts.
“Don’t be disappointed, Carey.” She reassured him with a wink. ”These are no ordinary cards!”
There seemed to be between 25 and 30 cards in the deck. The images on them seemed to be holographic, almost three dimensional, as if they’d been bas relief carvings, in spite of the fact that they lay flush against each other just as ordinary playing cards would. Looz handed the cards to Carey.
“Shuffle through these,” she said.
Carey did so and then placed them back in the center of the table. Looz picked them up adroitly and placed them back down in a perfectly circular fan formation.
“Pick three,” she said. ”Hold your hand over them-you will feel the energy in little shocks on your fingertips when you are over the ones you are to choose.” She added encouragingly.
Carey did as she suggested, and very soon discovered what the Mage was talking about. First a card with picture of a sun, or a sungod, since the sun had anthropomorphic features, stung the tips of his fingers as they hovered over it, then one with a treasure chest full of jewels seemed to emanate an electrical charge upward, then finally one with a tempest pictured on it actually gave him a slight static shock as his hand neared it from above. He looked at Looz and silently handed the cards to her. She flipped all the extra cards from their fan formation back into a pile and almost reverently placed the three selected cards face up in between Carey and herself. There was a pregnant silence for a minute. Then she reached forward and pointed to the Tempest card which was centered in the middle of the other two. Up close, Carey could see that it had the image of the North wind with two faces, one frowning and blowing to the left , the other profiled visage smiling and blowing to the right. The faces seemed to hover over a sea, and Carey thought he saw the sea sparkling and moving, tossing a small ship with multiple sails across it’s swirling surface with each cresting wave.
“You were born into the wrong family,” Looz said quietly,” and you have always felt this. Some part of you was promised to the darkness long before you were born, and this part of you will always attract danger. There are two female energies searching for you now, and also a powerful male energy. Your loyalties are clear to you , and you ARE with your one, true, destined love. But danger surrounds you both.”
As Looz pointed with the long shiny deeply blue fingernail of her index finger to the card depicting the treasure chest, Carey could have sworn that the chest seemed to spring up from the center of the card until it was three dimensional, and as it did the treasures that it contained-broaches of gold and diamond, cabochon ruby rings, silver bejeweled flacons and daggers as well as heavy ropes of gold chain necklaces and bracelets-spilled over the sides.
“This is not as it seems to the eye, Carey. It is part of a temptation that will come to you, in which you will be offered all the treasures of the world for the one thing you would never consider parting with. How this resolves will depend on the choices you make.”
Finally, and with fatigue creeping into her usually cheery and pleasant voice, the Mage pointed to the final card: the picture of the Sungod.
“This is early fertility, and great blessing in battle. But with this caution-choose your battles wisely, and never be the first to attack, or you will lose even the immortality with which you have been most recently blessed.”
Suddenly Looz reached out and plucked a gold and silver ring from the very top of the overflowing pile of treasure in the second card. It should have been tiny, but as she drew it upward it became the normal size of a man’s ring, and she slipped it onto the middle finger of Carey’s right hand which had raised up from the table’s edge of its own volition without his having realized it.
“Wear this always, as a protection,” she said thoughtfully, ”It will alert you when danger is near, and you will know.”
With that, two of Looz’s daughters, the tall willowy Damaris and the smaller but just as beautiful Kristina Marie got up, and gently supporting Looz up on either side, guided her back gently to one of the couches to rest. It was obvious that the session for the newlyweds had taken much energy from the powerful Mage.
Without even consulting with each other, Carey and Kimbra rose up as one and knelt on either side of Looz and kissed her hands, thanking her profusely for their gifts and forewarnings. Fress also embraced the Mage, whispered something in Looz’s ear that made her laugh, and after hugging the girls, the three departed the Mausoleum.
Standing outside, looking back at the smallish marble structure that had seemed immense once he and Kimbra and Fress were inside it, he shook his head. A glint caught his eye and he looked down and saw the ring the Mage had given to him, the gold and silver diamond cut metal glistening in the afternoon sun.
Once inside the SUV he looked down and saw the small round jewel-like stone shining through the golden cage of the pendant that was hanging around Kimbra’s neck. Together they closed their hands around it, and , sure enough, it still gave a light and projected tiny colorful dancing star sparkles against their palms. They gazed into each others eyes in wonderment.
“MAGIC,” they both whispered, their foreheads touching as they shared the moment.
A dozen days passed quietly and without incident. Carey and Kimbra spent time nesting and began taking internet courses. Avi became friendly with a young vampire friend of Fress’s , who also worked at the library part time, and it was rumored that they were sleeping together. Avi certainly seemed to be in a wonderful carefree mood most of the time and carried himself with a newly acquired air of confidence. Mitzi was now ridiculously pregnant and stayed at the farm most of the time.Dr. Caligare had moved to the farm, convinced that Mitzi could go into labor at any moment. Cass , happy to have the doctor living with them, continued teaching at the Un
iversity. Lux and Pierre were a serious couple. Charley and Merilee were practically inseperable. Daniel had tried to distance himself from Fress to no avail and hooked up with her several times a week. Everything was quiet. Everyone had settled into a routine.
Until Fress showed up after patrol one weekend with a blonde, tangled haired feral child that she and Charley Rabbit had found one night while on patrol together , searching for signs of further hybrid activity in the area.
The young woman was wild, and seemingly incapable of speech. Fress had to give her a calming potion just to get her to cooperate enough to be bathed and shampooed. She looked to be about 14-16 years of age and had a scarified deeply pronounced double set of puncture marks in the hollow of her delicate neck. Not wanting to disturb Dr. Caligare as he awatched over Mitzi, Fress called Nurse Sephla over to examine the feral girl as she slept. Sephla’s examination confirmed her worst fears.
“She was human-newly twice bitten now, and seemingly by two different parties.” Sephla confirmed, then added grimly, ”And raped. Repeatedly. Either by humans or vamps-I expect both, on at least two occasions. She is in shock. And she needs blood…lots of it. If ther is any way to get Buttercup here to nurse her, that is what I would recommend.”
It wasn’t until the following morning ,when Buttercup had been summoned and Fress was explaining the small girl upstairs to Carey, Kimbra and Avi before she was to take off for work that Kimbra’s face went completely white, and without saying a word, she ran up the stairs.
Fress flew after her immediately, followed by Carey, and was just in time to clap her hand over Kimbra’s mouth, cutting off her scream as she pushed open the door to the spare bedroom and saw Channing lying in the bed, her long wavy blonde hair spread out upon the pink and white flowered coverlet. She was cradled in the arms of Buttercup, who put a finger to her lips. Channing looked as if she were sleeping peacefully.
Fress and Carey gently guided Kimbra back downstairs. Tears were running down her cheeks, and she abandoned herself to Carey’s arms.
“Channing,” she wept, ”Oh Channing! We shouldn’t have left you!!!” she wailed.
Carey stroked her hair.
“But she’s safe now, K- and she’s here with us! “ he said, desperate to reassure her.”She’ll come back,especially after she sees you! It’s actually an insanely fortuitous coincidence that Fress and Charley found her.”
Kimbra nodded. “I know.” Adding contemplatively,” Almost TOO fortuitous, as though it’s a picked up thread of a story that someone is writing while we’re living it!” Throwing her arms around Fress she added, ”We’re making you late for work-please know how grateful I am!!! I’m sorry I freaked like that! It was such a shock-I thought she was still safe in Cassis, I had no idea…”.
Kimbra’s voice trailed off . She turned and hugged Avi also, causing Carey to throw Avi a possessive warning glare. Avi smiled back guilessly at Carey-he had grown to enjoy pissing Carey off immensely in their time together-to him it was like getting back at your bossy know-it-all older brother and he welcomed every opportunity for it.
Channing continued to convalesce at the cottage, growing more amenable and stronger every day. She was still on tranquilizers, and seemed most at peace when her sister was with her. Although her progress was slow, even her speech was beginning to return, and Nurse Sephla suggested that she and Channing be moved to the Farm due to the Hybrid threat ,and also because Dr. Caligare would be staying there and could follow her progress . Although she hated to be separated from Channing at all, Kimbra reluctantly agreed that , for safety’s sake, Channing should be moved to the Farm.
Several weeks passed. The cool, sulky spring finally relented and gave way to summer. Carey and Kimbra were enjoying a day alone in their attractive quarters at the cottage. Avi had started working at a small bookstore in town on weekends and the young married couple were always thrilled to be able to enjoy some alone time together. The retractable back wall of the great room had been raised to open the quarters up to a view of the fenced in private yard in the back of the cottage. Designed originally by Fress, the center of the yard was roughly modeled after a Roman Courtyard, surrounded on all sides by tall poplar trees forming a sylvan screen between the yard and the prying eyes of their neighbors. At the bottom of the yard, through an open gazebo could be seen a triple-tiered verdigris fountain ,with three fairies dancing at the top of it ,pouring streams of water through their hands , palms held together to create a sluice . The water trickled from up above down over the ornately scalloped bowls below with almost a chiming sound. In various beds spring flowers were planted: bobbing white, blue and violet blossoms moved in the gentle breeze.
Just being able to sit quietly without talking and view the garden together from their high ceilinged room was an immense pleasure, and the pleasant garden views were relaxing. Kimbra was curled into Carey’s side, her leg over his,and his arm thrown over her shoulder. He began rubbing his fingers over her upper arm in a light caress,then suddenly gave an exclamation.
“Whoa! Kimbra-have you been working out? Your arms are so …BUFF!”
Kimbra returned his gaze with a self satisfied smirk.
“You know when you’re working at the library with Fress? Fress has been having a tutor come to the cottage to tutor me in Warfare Arts…with real weapons too! My instructor is a Third Lieutenant with the V-Corps, a beautiful blonde named Fallon Lunel. She’s been part of the Corps since she was 13. She’s just a little older than I am now. And the best part is-she’s a shapeshifter!”
Carey tried to digest this newest bit of information. At that point he couldn’t understand why Kimbra was so psyched that Fallon Lunel was a shapeshifter…. Avi was a shapeshifter too. Seemed that shapeshifters were pretty common in their new environment and frankly he was finding that he himself was personally bored to tears with shapeshifters.
“But Avi is a shapeshifter. Seems like we’re surrounded, K! Maybe we should expand our social circles, get out more. Expand our circle of acquaintances with freaky abilities.”
Kimbra grabbed his chin so that he was looking right at her.
“I’m EXCITED because THAT’S my extra gift-the Virgin gift-I can shapeshift now Carey!!”
Carey wasn’t feeling her enthusiasm.
“Are you sure it’s a gift? Maybe it’s something you inadvertently caught from Avi-like an STD.”
Kimbra stood up, offended.
“Of course not!” she answered, frowning.”And shapeshifting has made me appreciate Avi more. It’s my gift-my Bloodvirgin Bonus Gift, from when we were turned!”
Many impure thoughts began to flood Carey’s mind, some of them bordering on crimes against nature. Realizing where Carey’s mind would go, Kimbra quickly followed up by adding,
“And NO Carey-there is no creature that I can shapeshift into where losing my virginity somehow wouldn’t count…I KNOW YOU CAREY!”
Even though she’d raised her voice to make a point, Carey could see that she wasn’t really pissed at him, just annoyed-the kind of annoyed that couples get with each other after they get familiarized with each other’s thinking patterns. Carey’s face reddened slightly and he sighed.
“Sorry K-you know me too well I think. I’m happy for you, and proud of you too. If you’re not too irritated I really would like to see a demonstration…please?”
“Thought you’d never ask!” Kimbra returned with a smile. “I haven’t practiced too many yet. “ then she giggled and said, ”Oh I have the perfect one. Close your eyes.”
“Why do I have to close my eyes?” he complained. He had to grudgingly admit to himself that the most impressive part of shapeshifting in his mind was the way Avi seemed to telescope inward or outward, just before he actually became another shape. For some reason Kimbra wanted him to miss the best part, but he closed his eyes and sighed…and waited.
Carey jumped, startled, as something soft landed on his lap. Opening his eyes he saw a white longhaired cat, with gorgeous green eyes, loo
king up at him and purring. And no collar.
It was Kimbra, he was sure of it.
“You realize,” he told the cat, stroking it’s delightfully soft fur and warm body with his long hands,”This is metaphorical, don’t you? An inside joke as it were. Because you know I’m crazy for your p-“
Suddenly, the cat began to morph, becoming a patchy anthropomorphic blur of soft white tufts of angora fur and perfectly firm and nubile flesh. Carey got just a momentary glimpse of Kimbra naked before she replaced her halter top and shorts with vampire quickness.
She plopped down beside him breathlessly.
“Well, what do you think, Mr. Carey Floyd? Impressed?”
“’Impressed’ doesn’t really seem to cover it!” he answered. “Can you do that again-only a little more slowly this time?”
Kimbra smiled animatedly, glowing with an air of personal accomplishment.
“You just want to see me naked.” she replied, a saucy tone in her voice. “And that will happen soon enough. Just be patient.”
Carey groaned, ”I AM patient. Like the sphinx I’ve been patient. How much longer Kimbra-is anybody saying?”
“Well Fress said the time is close-and there will be a gathering of the Local Congregation of V-net vampires tonight, so we can organize fighting squads and patrols. Somewhere downtown. I guess we’ll find out then.”
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
The two hours before the influx of the Hybrid Army were eerily calm. Outside of the cottage there wasn’t even a hint of wind. It seemed the perfect denouement to what had been a placid and temperate summer day.
Mitzi, Buttercup, Channing, Sephla and Dr. Caligare were safely ensconced in the underground villa at Sunnyside Farm. Lux and Pierre had had their second real quarrel-Lux wanted Pierre to wait at the Farm rather than fight, and Pierre, even though he was a neophyte vampire and not at all well schooled in his fighting skills, absolutely refused to leave Lux’s side. Lux’s ire, out of concern for Pierre’s “stupidity in the guise of devotion” (as Lux termed it while shouting at Pierre at the top of his lungs), failed to dissuade Pierre, and after much high volume yelling, Lux relented-but only after insisting that Pierre put on so much protective gear that he could hardly move.