Always the Vampire

by Nancy Haddock

  “Powers of the East,” Cosmil intoned, his voice suddenly a booming bass in surround sound as he faced Triton. “Illuminate the future and our path in it as you illuminate each day. Let us learn from our experiences and be continually renewed.”

  A shaft of white light shone over Triton for one long second. Then Cosmil turned to Pandora.

  “Powers of the South, aid us in our growth and strength so that we may clear our paths of obstructions and face the challenges before us.”

  In the ball, I saw Pandora’s reflection, but she stood in a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers. Had she teleported? Been beamed away? Or was she still sitting on her haunches on my right? I didn’t have time to sort the images because Cosmil captured my gaze.

  “Powers of the West, knowledge and growth thrive in the womb of introspection, of the waking and sleeping dreamtime. Let our visions birth pure intention and decisive action.”

  Pictures bloomed in my mind, snapshots in a vortex, swirling too fast to identify but vibrating with sound and color and emotion. I tried to slow the slide show, only to feel a cocoon enfold me. Was I still standing? Curled in a cradling cloud? Didn’t matter.

  I thought I heard Saber shout, but Cosmil’s voice boomed over it. “Powers of the North, you wear the mantle of age and experience. Bring us the wisdom to guide our actions for the highest good.”

  In my muzzy vision, Saber’s hair looked snowy white for a millisecond.

  Now Cosmil chanted. Not in a language I knew to speak or read or truly comprehend, but some ancient part of me recognized its cadence. A waterspout of blues and greens and whites lazily rose around Cosmil with each note of the ancestor’s song. I listened and drifted, seeing Cosmil and Pandora, Saber and Triton through a baffle. Seeing the sphere levitate from the wizard’s hands to hover treetop high. Seeing sunshiny rays of light play over our circle. Through it all, I stayed suspended in my cocoon, content to appreciate and wait.

  Full awareness slammed into me when someone shook my shoulder. I blinked up at Saber’s face.

  Up? Why the hell was I flat on the ground?

  I jackknifed into a sitting position so fast that I nearly bumped heads with Saber. Good thing his not-quite-humanness gave him great reflexes.

  “Steady,” Cosmil said from where he hunkered at my feet. “You channeled your direction more than I had imagined possible.”

  “You think?” I snarked. “I’m on my butt in the grass, Cosmil.”

  “Yes, indeed, you are. I have apologized to Saber for the scare. Had I foreseen this, I would have warned you both.”

  Saber shot Cosmil an irritated glance. “Somehow your apology rings hollow.”

  “Perhaps because I cannot regret the outcome.” The wizard speared me with his gaze. “You are indeed ready to make the amulet your own, Francesca. Come. Pandora and Triton are preparing phase two.”

  Cosmil sprang to his feet and strode toward the shack, all but rubbing his hands in glee.

  Saber watched Cosmil go with narrowed eyes.

  “Why are you ticked at him?”

  “Because when Cosmil invoked the West,” he said, giving me a hand up, “you swayed and sank into the grass in a fetal position. Scared the shit out of me, but the old bastard froze me in place until after the ceremony.” He cupped my face with his hands. “You sure you’re not hurt?”

  “Not an ache. Did I fall hard?”

  “You didn’t fall. You floated.”

  “And that freaked hunky you?”

  “No, honey. The ground softened and absorbed your body. You were three-fourths buried. That freaked hunky me.”

  An icy fist seized my gut. Buried? I’d been buried again? Damn it. Why did I have to pull the West power straw? Being beamed by sunlight, basking in a meadow, hell, even turning temporarily gray were all happier choices. Being buried in anything except up to my neck in Saber’s hot tub? That shook me to my little fanged core.

  No more ceremonies for me, I decided as Saber and I entered Cosmil’s shanty. And I’d tell him so after I cleaned up.

  I didn’t acknowledge Cosmil or Pandora or Triton, but marched straight to the bathroom to check my hair and Regency dress. Prepared to see twigs, soil, sand, at least grass stains, I found nary a smudge. Good for me, and better for Cosmil since I’d have slapped him with dry cleaning and hair-appointment bills. Heck, with an entire spa treatment.

  Back in the living area, I found Cosmil alone in the room, standing at the far end of the boat-sized stainless countertop he’d littered with books and bottles and bells. No broomstick in sight, but a massive staff leaned against the fridge, and he tapped a crystal-tipped wand against his cheek.

  “Where are Pandora and the guys? I thought our amulet training was next on the agenda.”

  “Working with the amulet is on your agenda, not theirs. The others are outside awaiting my instructions. Come,” he said with a beckoning wave. “See what I have for you.”

  I followed the sweep of his arm to the coffee table. The amulets weren’t there, but six silver necklaces in white gift boxes were arranged in a neat row. The silver pendant on each chain featured a mermaid poised atop a treasure chest.

  Just like the ones Triton carried in his shop. Just like the one he’d given me as a talisman last month so Pandora could keep track of me, except mine had been pewter. And the chain hadn’t been silver, because silver and vampires generally don’t mix. Just being too near too much of the metal used to make my nose itch and the back of my throat raw.

  Then I’d drained a crazed vampire into submission and absorbed one of his gifts in the process. An immunity to silver. Or perhaps I should say a tolerance for it. I didn’t have allergy symptoms now and could wear the metal for hours at a stretch without being burned or having my energy depleted. Wearing silver near the beach in the salty sea air extended my tolerance time even more. I’d learned that when I’d gone on a four-hour jaunt to the Lowe’s in Palatka wearing silver earrings and come home with red bumps on my lobes. The St. Johns River just didn’t have enough salt content to allay the allergic reaction.

  “Triton donated these for you to give the bachelorette party women,” Cosmil explained as I approach to inspect the pieces.

  I shook my head. “Maggie’s already bought other gifts. Besides, there are nine of us counting Maggie and me.”

  “Yes, well, Saber and Triton are each using one for the moment, and I believe you will find a slight problem with the delivery when you go to retrieve the ordered gifts tomorrow. Not to worry,” he continued, his hand upraised to stop the tirade I had opened my mouth to launch. “The proper items will arrive next week. Meantime, these will aid you in keeping the women safe for the weekend.”

  I gave him the laser look I’d learned from my mother. “They better not give off shocks like my pewter one did.”

  “No, no. Nor will they buzz, light, or otherwise cause an annoyance. They will instead attune to each wearer and transmit a warning to you should anyone be in natural or supernatural danger.”

  “So I’ll have the receiver?”

  “Yes.”

  “And it won’t zap me, either?”

  “Not if I have made the proper adjustments.”

  “You’ve already powered these things up?”

  “Oh, yes.” His eyes twinkled with amusement. “We had an exceptional circle ceremony, you know.”

  “One we will never have again,” I said as I held his blue gray gaze. “I was buried more than two hundred years, Cosmil. I will not repeat that experience.”

  The humor faded under a somber, somehow regretful look. He took a breath, as if to speak, then pulled what had to be the ninth necklace from his wizard cloak.

  “Here,” he said, unfastening the claw latch. “Try your pendant.”

  I lifted the hair from my neck and tensed for a shock, but the chain settled cool and comfy around my neck. The silver pendant was much lighter than the pewter one, too, so I had no fear of conking myself in the nose when I leaned over.


  “How is it?” Cosmil asked.

  “No jolt, no burn.”

  “Good. Now for the test runs.”

  He crossed to the front door and flipped off the light switch. I blinked once so my vampire sight would adjust, and two distinct tones emanated from the pendant, vibrating against my chest and ringing in my ears. A vision swiftly followed, a picture of Pandora in a tree, haunches bunched to pounce with deadly intent. Saber and Triton stood in her line of attack, seemingly oblivious.

  I yelped just as Pandora leaped and sailed far past the guys.

  “Describe what you heard and saw, Francesca?”

  I did and he nodded. “Excellent. We will conduct the second trial.”

  He flipped the lights back on, and I squinted against the brightness as another vision hit. This time, the same two tones resonated through me, and I saw a flash of Saber with Triton in a chokehold. Triton was hamming up the act. I chuckled.

  “You know Saber’s not quite human,” I told Cosmil. “Is his fake assault a fair test?”

  “A mugging is a natural sort of crime.”

  “So are animal attacks like Pandora simulated.”

  “Not quite, my dear. Pandora used magick to make Triton and Saber blind and deaf to her.”

  “You’re kidding. She can do that?”

  Of course, I can. I heard Pandora in my head before something swatted the side of my gown.

  I strangled out, “Aaarrgghh,” as I spun to see panther-sized Pandora parked at my feet.

  She gave me that superior expression that only felines can flaunt.

  I crossed my eyes at her then rubbed my temple. “Great. Now I’m getting a headache.”

  “You have used and absorbed a great deal of psychic energy tonight,” Cosmil said with a pat on my shoulder. “Intense magical energy as well. Lia will teach you to shield better.”

  Peachy.

  “Yes, it is. Now, let us commence a short session with the amulet.”

  He crossed to the kitchen island, moved aside a massive tome, and plucked the amulet from the counter.

  “Catch.”

  He underhanded the disk, and since the guys strolled inside just then, my vampire reflexes faltered. I fumbled the damn amulet.

  Fortunately, it landed on the sofa.

  I glared at Cosmil. “What is with you and Triton throwing this at me like a baseball? What if it goes off?”

  “Francesca, the medallion is not a loaded gun with a hair trigger. It is a highly unusual rutilated quartz with titanium oxide inclusions showing both gold and silver.”

  “Then it’s too valuable to be tossing around, now isn’t it?”

  I snatched the hexagon-shaped disk off the cushion, ready to make another point, but lost it in a gentle waft of energy.

  The size and thickness of a jelly-jar lid, the amulet immediately sent pulses into my right palm, and I curled my fingers around the copper framing the crystal as my heartbeat fell into the rhythm of the disk. Beats of time later, the copper frame rimming the amulet grew warm. A caress on each contact point of my hand.

  I sensed recognition. Homecoming.

  A rightness that unfurled in my heart.

  I opened my hand, letting the medallion rest in my palm, and sucked in a shocked breath. The ancient-looking symbols etched into the amulet’s rim were now stamped into my skin, a reverse imprint that flowed along the inside length of my fingers, along the sides and heel of my hand. I recognized part of a musical note and the Greek letter mu. Nothing else. More, the impressions appeared to glow from within my olive skin rather than riding on the surface.

  Well, crap. What now?

  Cosmil cleared his throat. “The true value of the amulet is not in the beholder, Francesca. It is in the holder. You.”

  I met his gaze. “Does the weirdness ever stop around you, Cosmil?”

  He returned his patient, wise smile. “Tell me what you experienced.”

  I did, glancing at Saber and Triton where they sat in armchairs opposite my stance by the sofa. When I finished, Cosmil nodded.

  “The contact has further opened your fourth chakra,” Cosmil said when I finished. “You are bonded with the medallion.”

  “Like super-duper glue?”

  “More like contact cement,” Triton chimed in. He sat with an ankle propped on his knee, unconsciously jiggling his foot. “The same thing happened to me with the Atlantean amulet.”

  Saber gave him a sharp glance. “Atlantean?”

  “It’s the mate to Cesca’s Lemuria medallion. The one the Hawaiian shaman gave me. I found the Atlantean amulet during my dive trip to Bimini in June.”

  “Lemuria, or Mu, was the sister civilization to Atlantis,” Cosmil explained. “It was before my time, but it is said that because Mu perished first, the Atlantean’s lost their divine feminine balance and thus self-destructed.”

  “I know the mythology,” Saber said to Cosmil, then addressed Triton. “What I don’t believe is that you just happened to stumble across a second disk.”

  “I didn’t stumble. I swam across it. I was led to the amulet by a mermaid.”

  “For pity’s sake, Triton,” I snarled, “I don’t care if Disney characters sang you under the sea to the medallion. Your hands don’t have a single one of these inkless tattoos on them. Why not?”

  “Because I’m not holding my piece.”

  I inclined my head toward Cosmil in silent question.

  “Place the medallion on the table, Francesca.”

  I did, and the imprints faded.

  “Now hold the amulet again,” Triton said.

  This time I scooped the disk into my left hand. The marks glowed on my right hand but looked more like faded scars than fresh ones. I rolled the amulet from palm to palm, absorbing its angles and textures. The symbols waxed with the amulet in my right hand, waned with it in the left.

  Okay, I could live with this. Now to ask the question of the hour. The one I didn’t really want to ask.

  “What are the magick words that make this work?”

  “Beg your pardon?”

  “Triton murmured a string of words when he slapped it on the vampire’s chest, Cosmil. Like an activation code or something.”

  “I see.”

  “Good. So how do I turn this on?”

  Triton snorted. “You could talk dirty to it.”

  I didn’t think I’d heard right, but Triton’s smarmy smirk tripped my temper. Without conscious thought, I closed my hand over the etched copper and smooth crystal.

  “You are so dead,” I snapped.

  A pop, a flash of heat, and blinding beams of light suddenly shot from every facet of the hexagon.

  Triton flew backward out of his chair in an arc and thudded into Cosmil’s front door.

  EIGHT

  I eyed Triton’s crumpled body and the wisp of smoke curling from the charred circle on his shirtfront. Oops was not gonna cover this.

  Saber shot me a sardonic glance as he rose to go to Triton’s aid.

  Cosmil chuckled, and I whirled on him.

  “You told me the amulet wasn’t a loaded gun.”

  “I also told you the medallion responded to intent.” The wizard’s eyes twinkled. “Triton agreed to, I believe the expression is, piss you off.”

  “With the amulet in my hand?” I dropped the still-warm crystal on the sofa. “Cosmil, I could’ve killed Triton.”

  “No, for no matter your words, you had no true intent of murder, manslaughter, or maiming.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about the maiming,” I muttered.

  Cosmil shook his head. “Francesca, it was our way of testing your ability with the medallion. Triton’s crude remark elicited your reaction, and the medallion focused your disgust.”

  “In other words, I got ticked and I went after him.”

  “Precisely. Of course, lashing out is not the way to defeat Starrack and the Void.”

  “Duh,” was on the tip of my tongue, but I got distracted seeing movement from the co
rner of my eye. Triton was on his feet. Wavering but upright, with a hand on Saber’s shoulder.

  “You okay?”

  I started toward him, but his sour expression and “stop right there” gesture halted me.

  “Next time,” he bit out, “Saber gets to bait you.”

  “Like hell,” Saber shot back. Wise man, my honey.

  Triton ignored us both. “Cos, are you still determined to let Cesca take the amulet with her?”

  “I am.”

  “Then you’d better show her some finer points of using that thing before she blasts some bitchy bridesmaid this weekend.”

  “Maggie doesn’t have any bitchy bridesmaids.”

  “No? Look in a mirror.”

  “Get off my case, cretin.”

  “Children, cease,” Cosmil barked. He took two long steps to the sofa, picked up the amulet, and slammed it into my hand. “Francesca, close your eyes and imagine a bubble of peace encasing you. Do it now.”

  The picture that popped to mind was a shower of white light, not a bubble. A narrow waterfall, comfortably warm like the amulet in my hand.

  “Good. Now expand the image to include me.”

  The waterfall widened to splash over and around Cosmil.

  “Enfold Saber in the peace with us.”

  I did, and my heartbeat slowed to match the steady, measured pulse of the disk.

  “Extend the protection to Triton, then see it grow until the peace blankets my property.”

  All right, I admit I had to push for Triton. Once I saw him within the shower, the image exploded. A Niagara Falls of light bathed my vision, brighter sparkles winking like silver and gold glitter.

  “Open your eyes, Francesca.”

  I obeyed, swaying a little as the room came into focus.

  “That, my dear, is how the medallion works. There are words for the banishing ritual, yes, but you will not need them this weekend.”

  I gave him a long, steady stare.

  “You’re sure about the no banishing bit? Wizard’s honor?”

  “As long as you keep yourself out of trouble.”

  I woke at two the next afternoon, an hour earlier than usual, but a quick shower got me fully revved. Saber had left a note on the bathroom deco mirror saying he’d been called to Jacksonville on VPA business but that it was nothing to worry about.