by Karen Mead
And Nathaniel tells me that I look “radiant.” That guy is such a liar, she thought as she made her way to the gathering of witches.
“I’m glad you joined us,” said Andrea, stooping down to give Cassie a quick peck on the cheek. “I know the hearing is tomorrow, but we witches get so few opportunities to compare notes.” She patted an empty lounge chair next to her. “Come sit down and tell us all about your training.”
Cassie sat, feeling more than a little awkward. All of the other witches were much older than her; even the youngest one looked like she was in at least her mid-twenties. If she had to put an age to Andrea, she would have guessed ten years older than that, even though she was in amazing shape; there was a hardness to her face that spoke of experience.
Cassie felt herself flush when she realized everyone was looking at her. “Um, well, I haven’t really done much training yet. I only just became a witch,” she said.
“Oh really?” said another witch, this one a thirty-something woman with dark hair and a deep tan. She smirked as she played with the straw in her drink. “I’m surprised the Son of Sammael waited so long. He doesn’t strike me as the patient type.”
The women laughed at that, and Cassie felt a knot in her stomach. That was a knowing laugh, the kind of laugh adults used when they were talking about sex, and other things young people weren’t supposed to know about. They were treating her like she was one of them, but she felt like an imposter.
“Um, so yeah, I can’t cast any spells yet or anything. I’m sure we’ll start training really hard once we get back home,” Cassie said, feeling like she was babbling.
“Spells can wait,” said Andrea, gently. “Getting a general sense for magic is far more important. If you can sense the magic while it’s being done around you, transitioning to spells will be so much easier.”
“That is, assuming one isn’t overconfident,” said the dark-haired witch. She was smiling at Cassie, but there was something cold about her expression.
Andrea shuffled in her chair. “Oh, look at me being a ditz, I forgot to introduce you. Cassie, this is Miranda,” she said, indicating the dark-haired witch, “and that’s Leah, Denise and Rashita.” The other three witches smiled politely at Cassie.
But Miranda continued as though Andrea had not spoken. “I worry for you, you know,” said Miranda, looking at Cassie over the rim of her drink with suspicious eyes. “All I know is, if I had demons treating me like I was the greatest thing the world had ever seen at your age, I would have turned into the most arrogant, insufferable little witch,” she said.
Cassie jerked her head back as though she had been smacked. “I.…” she started, at a loss.
Miranda continued, her dark eyes boring into Cassie’s. “Look, you may not want to hear it, but the fact of the matter is, you’re going to have a very rude awakening when it comes to actually learning spellcraft. Demons love getting excited about new girls with potential, but they don’t understand the hard work involved to become a functional witch; talent is the least of it. If you want my advice, dump all that garbage you’ve heard about your supposedly great magic out of your head, and prepare to work your tail off.”
Cassie went from feeling chastened to downright angry. “It’s not my fault what they say about me,” she said, knowing that she sounded defensive and not caring. “I’m just trying to do the best I can.”
Miranda looked at her like she was a small child who had just dumped some Cheerios down the front of her shirt. “But honey, how can you not be affected? All anyone talks about is the great magic in you, the demons have been out of their heads about it for months. By now, you must think you piss pure white magic.”
Any clever comebacks flew out of Cassie’s head, and she just looked at the dark-haired witch in indignation. The hell? What did I ever do to her?
“Miranda, stop it,” Andrea snapped. “You have a point, but go easy on the kid. Like she says, it’s not her fault what they say about her. If you want to blame someone, blame the demons for getting so overexcited. They’re all acting like big kids.”
Miranda made a dismissive sound, and took a big swig of her drink. “Look, I just tell it like it is sweetheart, and not everybody likes that. But if you can’t handle it, you’re going to have a very hard time being a proper witch.”
With that, she stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go take a swim. Good luck with the hearing tomorrow, Cassie.”
Andrea made a pained face as her friend walked away. “Miranda’s not usually like that. I think her master has been going on endlessly about the promising new witch he’s heard all about, and she’s not dealing with it well. I hope you can forgive her.”
Cassie blinked, surprised. The little interaction that she had with Andrea before tonight had led her to believe that the blond witch hated her; for her to defend Cassie was a surprise. Cassie supposed it was possible that Andrea wasn’t crazy about an upstart young witch either, but was embarrassed by her friend’s outright hostility.
“It’s okay,” Cassie lied. “It must be annoying to always be hearing about me. I’m not that interesting.”
Andrea laughed at that. “I don’t know about that,” she said, crossing her smooth legs, “but the truth is Cassie, I’m interested in your demon.” She looked at the other witches and they all smiled conspiratorially.
“Sam?” asked Cassie. “What about him?”
Are they going to ask me what I think they’re going to ask me? Because if they do, not only do I not know the answer, but I think I might die of embarrassment right in this chair.
Rashita spoke for the first time. “Is he as powerful as they say?” she asked with no small amount of wonder. “My master says it’s all hot air, that he got lucky with one or two big spells and now everyone is just falling for the hype.”
Cassie exhaled. Oh good! I can maybe answer that.
“He is really powerful,” she said, seeing no point in lying to the other witches. “But he’s also inexperienced, so it can be really dangerous. He’s gotten loads better lately though.”
“How is he still inexperienced, at his age?” said Andrea, a curious expression on her face.
‘At his age?’ How old is Sam, anyway? I’m pretty sure he’s under 30, but it never seemed like a good time to ask….
“Uh, well, he barely used his powers at all for a long time. He doesn’t like to.”
For a moment, the witches just stared at her like she’d said that grass wasn’t green and the sky wasn’t blue.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Andrea. “He must have another reason.”
“He tends to keep his reasoning to himself,” said a familiar voice behind Cassie. She turned in her chair and very nearly gasped.
“What are you doing here?”
Wearing her usual bland business suit despite the poolside setting, Sam’s mother shrugged. “This is a meeting for witches; I’m a witch.”
Andrea narrowed her eyes; Cassie could immediately tell that there was no love lost between the two witches. “Just because this is a meeting for witches, does not mean that all witches are necessarily invited.” Her tone could have cut glass.
Helen made a contemptuous sound. “Oh, your mastery of Venn diagrams cuts me to the quick,” she snarked as she sat down next to Cassie on the same lounge chair. Andrea fumed with anger, but Helen was no longer paying any attention to her. “But it doesn’t matter, since I’m really here to talk to you anyway.”
“Why?” said Cassie. What’s so important she would track me down and talk to me here? Does Sam even know that she’s in Las Vegas yet?
“It’s your little friend, the one the Leviathan was so fond of,” Helen said, putting an unlit cigarette in her mouth. “She appears to be swimming with the sharks right now; you might want to do something about that.”
Chapter Forty
Cassie made it to the bar at around the same time the bartender realized that there was a girl floating in the shark tank behind him; he dropped the drink he
was preparing, and for a moment, the sound of glass breaking almost drowned out the music. Aeka’s hair was spread around her like a corona, her arms and legs splayed out in a bizarre position that was still strangely graceful. She was scarcely moving, save for the bubbles that issued from her mouth and nose. The sharks were swimming around her, but made no move to attack her; if anything, Cassie would say they looked confused. Dozens of people at the bar gasped and pointed, clearly wondering if the diving girl was part of the entertainment, or the result of some horrible accident.
“Miri!” she yelled, whipping her head around to try to locate her, but she heard a splash before she even saw the redheaded vampire approach the tank. In a matter of seconds, Miri was swimming towards Aeka, dodging a particularly big shark who had taken offense to her entrance. She grabbed the girl by the waist with one arm and started pulling her back to the surface. Aeka’s eyes were closed; Cassie couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not.
Ignoring an irate employee, Cassie slipped through an opening between the bar and the outside wall of the hotel to loop around the back of the tank. In the back, there was a high metal platform with buckets on it; presumably where the staff stood to feed the sharks. As Cassie climbed up one of the ladders, not easy in her pool shoes, Miri was pulling Aeka out of the tank, over the railing and onto the center of the platform. She smacked the girl on the back, hard, and a stream of water went shooting out of Aeka’s mouth, followed by a string of painful-sounding coughs.
“You loopy little angel!” Miri snarled, keeping her voice low. “What the hell did you go and do that for?”
Aeka took a moment to get some air into her lungs. “It looked nice,” she said simply. Cassie sat down next to her on the platform, not sure where to even begin.
A few moments of silence passed, then a man in a grey jumpsuit was running towards them from the back of the hotel. “Hey! Get down from there! No guests allowed on the platform!”
“Let me handle this,” said Miri, jumping over the railing to land right in front of the hotel employee, her wet platform shoes making a loud thump as they made contact with the concrete below. The uniformed man jumped back, clearly shocked that he’d just seen a girl drop 20 feet off the platform, only to land on her feet like it was nothing.
“Listen,” said Miri, changing into her calm, hypnotic voice. “You need to calm down….”
As Miri dealt with the employee, Cassie hugged her knees and looked at Aeka. With her thin clothes sticking to her like a second skin and seaweed in her hair, somehow the girl only looked more ethereally beautiful.
“Why did you do that?” she asked finally. “Were you trying to kill yourself?”
She wasn’t really expecting an answer, so it took her by surprise when Aeka responded.
“I cut off my wings for you,” she said softly.
Cassie looked off into the distance, at a loss; she could see other platforms, other areas where the employees were meant to stand and monitor the tanks. They had ended up in some kind of central feeding hub, away from the glittery facade of the hotel and its outdoor patios. The air smelled fishy and strangely stale.
“I never asked you to do that,” she said finally. “I never asked you to do that,” she said again, needing to tell herself as much as Aeka.
The blond girl hugged her knees, mirroring Cassie’s pose. It was strange to see her in such a defensive posture.
“You said we’d go back to the ocean together.”
“I lied,” said Cassie, a strange feeling of calm coming over her. She felt like what she was saying had been a long time coming. “I lied because I needed you to do something, because I’m not perfect like you. I lied, and I feel bad, but I would have done it again, because I needed to save his life.”
Aeka seemed to consider Cassie’s words. “Why do you save him? He’s not like us.”
“No, he isn’t,” Cassie agreed.
“Is it because he’s yours?” Aeka asked, her blue-green eyes looking off into the distance at something Cassie couldn’t see.
“Yeah, I guess he is mine,” said Cassie, dropping her legs. She wasn’t quite sure she understood just how Aeka saw the world, but she could improvise, at least.
“But I thought I was yours,” said Aeka.
“You are,” said Cassie, “but it’s different.”
“No,” said Aeka, shaking her head. Water droplets went everywhere, making Cassie squint. “It’s not different. It’s exactly the same. You protect what’s yours.”
Another moment of silence. Miri had gotten rid of the employee and was pacing back and forth, keeping her eyes peeled should anyone else from the hotel try to bother them.
“I don’t know what you want from me, Aeka,” Cassie said, finally. “I don’t know how I can help you, if I can help you.”
“I don’t want you to help me,” Aeka said, then turned her mysterious blue-green eyes on Cassie. “I want you to see me.”
“See you?” asked Cassie. She didn’t understand.
Aeka stood up suddenly, rivulets of water coursing down her pale thighs.
“I hope you can see me. I think you can.”
“But what if I can’t see you?” said Cassie, clumsily getting to her feet as well. They were high enough off the ground that she felt a little light-headed, and she grabbed the metal railing.
This is like talking to the Nameless Ones. I don’t understand, but I have to keep talking, because what else can I do….
Aeka knit her smooth brow, a rare expression for her. “If you can’t see me, then I’ll disappear. I’m not needed anymore.”
Chapter Forty-One
Khalil thought slot machines were meant for old ladies, quite beneath the dignity of the virile, canny male card shark. However, after losing his first $200 at the Blackjack tables in less than five minutes, he realized that he had a choice between either playing the cheap slots, or going back up to the suite early in defeat. Unwilling to face such a depressing prospect as an early retreat, he committed himself to trying to match three cherry symbols on the screen in front of him.
“Don’t sit down at that machine, that one’s the worst,” he said, as he noticed Dwight coming up behind him.
“I’m up $400, I’m gonna quit while I’m ahead,” Dwight said.
Khalil frowned. It was very noisy in the casino, especially at the slots, but somehow he’d heard Dwight perfectly.
“How’d you win?”
“Blackjack,” Dwight said, sounding unbearably smug to Khalil’s ears. “I’m going to head back to the room, don’t lose all your money.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Khalil muttered. Why was it so hard to line up three little cherries? There weren’t even that many symbols in the damn machine. “Go upstairs and roll in a pile of money, why don’t you?”
“If you’re mad at me, wait until you see Dmitri. I think that guy made $2000,” said Dwight, walking off and leaving Khalil behind. Khalil’s frowned deepened.
What is it about that guy? He’s so annoying, I don’t know why anyone likes him.
Fortunately, he only had to toil in gambling purgatory for a little while longer, since Miri appeared behind him not long after Dwight left. “Hey. Cassie’s safe upstairs for the night, so I’m free. You hungry?”
“I could eat,” he said, standing up from the machine and turning toward her. “Where do you want to go?”
She started walking towards the main concourse, where the restaurants were, and he easily fell into step with her. She was walking with her hands behind her back, looking girlish and mischievous.
“Well,” she started, “I heard the Asian seafood buffet up top not only has amazing sushi, but they actually have great dessert—like, proper dessert, with layer cakes and stuff. Swimming makes me want sugar.”
“Why were you swimming?”
“You really don’t want to know.”
“Hmmph. Sounds good to me,” Khalil said. He had no idea where Miri hid all the food she ate on her slender frame, but vampire biology w
as not something he particularly cared about. Of course, it would end up being a moot point if Sam dragged her away again before they even got a table. “Are you sure Fearless Leader doesn’t need you anymore tonight?”
Her smile faltered. “Pretty sure,” she said, then turned to Khalil. “Hey are you…okay with that? We never really talked about it.”
They had left the casino floor and were walking in the mall area. It wasn’t that late yet and plenty of people were still about, but compared to the almost suffocating noise of the game room, it was delightfully quiet.
“I think so,” said Khalil eventually. “I mean, I get that he needs you to be his Girl Friday, and that’s just how your life is. I was supposed to be a doctor; if I’d gone through with it, I could be on call at any hour of the day or night too,” he said, working it through for himself as he talked to her. “As long as you working for him doesn’t compete with what we have.”
“No, no,” said Miri, quickening her pace. “It’s apples and oranges. He’s my boss, you’re my boyfriend,” she said.
They passed a fountain, featuring a stone mermaid statue and a bottom filled with coins. If I threw a penny in now, what would I wish for?
“Okay,” said Khalil. “I mean, long as you’re not sleeping with the guy, what does it matter, right?”
Khalil kept walking for a few more steps before he realized that Miri was no longer next to him. With a lump in his throat, he turned around to see that she had stopped dead on the cobblestone path, right next to the fountain.
“Don’t tell me,” he said quietly.
Her already-pale face was even paler, making her skin almost white. “Khalil, I thought you knew.”
I think I did know. I was just hoping against hope that I was wrong.
He walked back to her, feeling the anger rising. Seeing the look on his face, her hazel eyes widened in alarm.
“Please, try to understand,” she whispered, looking around from side to side furiously to make sure no one was nearby. “He’s a demon, I’m a vampire. It’s expected.”