“Yes, always so rash, so impatient, you kids. You never learn,” the old lady scolded him.
Octavian shrunk in his seat, looking down with his lips pursed. If the situation wasn’t so serious, I would have laughed about it.
“Can you tell us anything about this trifecta? Preferably how to find or destroy it,” I quickly asked to avoid further embarrassment.
The old woman’s gaze landed on me. “Destroy it? Pah, you think we haven’t tried? That’s why we kept it safe, secret and hidden. No, you must find it and split it up. The artifacts cannot be allowed to stay together, or whoever has it will inevitably unleash darkness upon our world like this city has never seen before.”
“Oh,” I muttered and shrank in my seat. “How can we find it, then?”
She sighed, then leaned forward. “We weren’t stupid. We hid them carefully with cloaking spells. They are undetectable by magic. Ironically, now that’s biting us in the ass, it seems.”
My jaw dropped for a moment at her use of a swear word without even flinching. She seemed like a much cooler old lady than the ones I had seen in parks.
“What did the other Elders say about this? They must be in a frenzy by now, concocting reckless plans,” she continued, ignoring my surprise.
“The… other Elders?” I frowned.
The shaman laughed, then turned toward Octavian. “Your girlfriend hasn’t been out of the castle much, has she, Octavian?”
My jaw dropped open again. “Oh no, we’re not—"
“She’s, uh, just a friend,” he quickly replied, looking at me with an awkward smile. “And she’s a rogue, not a vampire, helping the Elders dealing with this whole mess.”
“A rogue? I see.” She smiled knowingly as she inspected me. “She looks as dangerous as she is pretty, but I know your mother. She would probably disown you if you brought home anyone but an influential vampire lady,” she mused as her attention turned back at Octavian.
His mouth twisted into an embarrassed smile as he glanced at me. “She definitely would. And then kill her, probably.”
“A headstrong lady, your mother.” The shaman laughed. “Anyway, yes, I’m one of the shaman Elders, but I prefer to stay away from all the action. I’m here for my people, and only participate in meetings when asked to.”
“I see,” I answered weakly, still blushing and embarrassed from being called his vampire girlfriend.
“Do you… have anything that could help us with the search? Or with the fight we most likely will get into?” Octavian asked quickly when he noticed my discomfort.
Her gaze fell on him again, and the smile disappeared. “I will let my people know to keep their eyes and ears open. I might have something to help you, let me just check.”
She got up, walking slowly out of the living room, until I only heard her footsteps in the distance.
“So, any ideas on how we find the artifacts or the thief?” I asked.
Octavian blinked, then turned to me. “What?”
“A plan. Do we have one?”
“Uhm.” He frowned at me. “No, not yet, I guess.”
“Well, we better come up with something soon.”
He let his gaze wander across the room for a second, then leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. “All right, let’s go over it.”
We changed our seating positions to face each other more easily on the couch, then he continued. “We have an unknown supernatural who most likely possesses all three pieces of this trifecta. They have attacked both vampires, witches, and shamans, so we have no clue about their allegiances. Probably to no one else than themselves. We also have no idea what their plans are. Or what they’re trying to accomplish.” He looked at me with frustration written all over his face.
“Don’t forget that they have the power to raise an army of evil spirits and unleash them on the city,” I joked dryly.
Octavian glared at me. “If we want to deal with this, we have to take back the initiative, take back control of the situation.”
“Oh, is that what you learn as a Crimson Fang, or did you read that in a book somewhere?”
“Both, actually,” he grinned. “Tactics of Riot Control 101, Dealing with Terrorists, and a bit of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.”
“Please tell me those were the actual classes you had in vampire school. I laughed.
“It was part of our Crimson Fang training, yes,” he smiled. “Apparently, our teachers forgot ‘how to deal with annoying rogues’ in the curriculum.”
I gasped playfully and punched his side, both of us erupting in laughter.
When we heard the footsteps return, we quickly calmed down again, turning back to our forward-facing seating positions. The old lady entered the room seconds later with a small necklace hanging from her hand.
“This is the only thing I found that could help you,” she said with a hint of disappointment in her voice. “It was enchanted to ward off spirits with ill intent. It won’t protect you completely, but it should help.”
“Thank you very much, Morrigan,” Octavian answered as he got up. “Shall we keep you updated on our progress?”
“Just focus on getting the artifacts back, son,” she smiled as she put the necklace in his open palm. “And tell those vampires of yours to stop harassing our people. We are holding the peace as well as we can, but if the attacks don’t stop in the next few days, our patience will have run out. And you know what happens when we magicals rise up.”
Her mouth was still smiling, but her eyes were deadly serious. I was guessing she was referring to that uprising that Allard had told me about, where witches, shamans, and elementalists turned against vampires and overthrew their oppression. I could only imagine what that would look like, and the number of casualties such a war would inflict on both sides.
“I will do my best,” he responded solemnly with a small bow. He nodded at her, then looked back at me, gesturing me to follow with his head.
I got up, then stopped next to the shaman on my way out. “Thank you very much for your hospitality and help,” I said, shaking her fragile hand softly.
“And thank you for not remaining on the sidelines in this,” she returned. “I know most rogues are staying out of our conflicts and using the chance to make a profit. What was your name again?” She smiled at me, the sparkle back in her eyes.
I found it fascinating how she could switch back and forth between looking like an old but powerful shaman, and your favorite grandma who just made you your favorite pie so you would come over and spend time with her.
“Raven,” I answered without much hesitation.
My days as a loner are officially over, I thought with a strange sense of melancholy. I was now neck-deep in with the most powerful figures of Darkhaven and on a first name basis with leaders of magicals. But to my surprise, I didn’t hate it.
“It was very nice meeting you, Raven.” The lady smiled.
“You too, Morrigan.” I smiled, bowing my head in respect. Then I followed Octavian out, appreciating her lush front yard one more time, like a bastion of summer in the midst of falling leaves and cold days.
We walked out into the early evening. The sun was just a red sliver over the horizon. It was getting quite chilly, and I was glad I brought the leather jacket in the morning.
“So what now?” Octavian asked beside me.
“You’re the one who read The Art of War. What does your Sun Tzu tell you?” I teased him as we walked along the sidewalk.
The answer shot out of him like it was carefully studied and rehearsed countless times, his body straightening up like a soldier on parade.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” As he finished, he blinked twice, then looked at me and laughed. “That was a reflex, I hadn’t planned to dump the whole quote on you li
ke that.”
I chuckled as I imagined him sitting in a classroom, a teacher asking him about Sun Tzu quotes, with the threat of a letter to his mother if he didn’t know them.
“So, how exactly does that help us?” I replied more seriously.
“We know ourselves… I think. But we don’t know our enemy,” he answered slowly, his eyes gazing into the distance thoughtfully. “We need to figure out what they want, what they’re doing, and then work to control that.”
“Well, if they went to such great lengths to procure this evil trifecta, I assume ill intent?”
Octavian stopped, then turned toward me. “Right, I forgot something.”
I frowned at him as he walked past me. But as I turned to follow his movement, his hand on my shoulder stopped me until he was standing behind me. My eyes were darting left and right, trying to make out what he was doing, but he remained still.
“What are you—"
Then his arms appeared over my shoulder, converging in front of my neck like for a weird hug. Then I saw the delicate necklace in his hands, gently sliding down my neck a moment later.
Shivers ran down my spine as he carefully brushed my hair away with one hand, then again when his fingertips brushed over my naked skin as he closed the necklace. I could feel his warm breath on my neck as he straightened the necklace’s chain carefully.
Then he took a step back, and his hands withdrew from my body. “There you go.” He smiled as he walked around me again, inspecting the necklace dangling down from my neck.
“When did we decide that I would get it?” My heart was still racing from our closeness, his hands on my neck like he was about to gently kiss it.
“I did, just now. You look much prettier with it than I would.”
I snorted at the thought of him running around with the delicate crystal necklace, then shrugged. “Maybe it would accentuate your girly side, you never know.”
He grinned, but then continued walking. “You were right, though. They definitely mean harm, so maybe we can figure out where they are planning to strike first. Another ball, or any other big event would be irresistible if they wanted to kill as many supernaturals as possible.”
“What did you say about taking control again?” I frowned at him.
“That we should try to.” He blinked at me, confusion his eyes. “Why?”
“I just realized this isn’t the first magical artifact stealing thief I’ve encountered. Even if they were nowhere near this omnious and dangerous.” I grinned. “Guess how I’ve always got them.”
“With an angry glare? I would surrender, too, if you caught me red-handed and looked at me like that.” He shuddered.
“No, dumb-dumb, with another magical artifact, of course.” I rolled my eyes.
“But… the trifecta only has three parts, and they got all of them already?”
“Well, they got the whole menu, but maybe they need dessert, too.”
He looked at me like I was crazy.
“They got a set of highly powerful artifacts, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind fetching one more. Something that would make them even more powerful. I always caught my thieves with rumors of an incredibly rare and valuable artifact that was going to be transferred, an easy hit for them.”
“So we just make up something powerful, then set a trap? Sun Tzu would be proud.” He smiled mischievously.
“I’m not sure if making up something would be enough,” I pondered. “We might need a real artifact. I remember reading about a book in the vault, like a lexicon of spirits and demons.”
“You do realize that if they got their hands on that we would’ve totally fucked up?” Octavian flinched. He looked at me critically, with deep lines on his forehead. “I don’t know much about summoning an army of evil spirits, but such a book might amplify their powers even more.”
“We just have to make very sure they can’t get it, then.”
“And we will have to get Allard and the elders to sign off on it.”
“I can talk to him,” I replied with more confidence than I really had. “We aren’t exactly best buddies yet, but I’ve been working my ass off these last couple of days. He owes me.”
“What do you mean? Hasn’t he paid you yet?”
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m not getting paid for any of it.” I shrugged. “Somehow, somewhere between the first attack of the evil spirit, and us retrieving Lazar’s dagger from the demon vampire, I guess I became part of… it. I don’t know, it felt kind of right. I never had a family, maybe this way, at least I belong somewhere.”
This had taken a much more personal turn than I intended. As I looked at Octavian, I could see a mix of sadness and… respect, maybe in his eyes.
“Wow. I guess you really have changed since we first met two years ago,” he muttered, then looked ahead quietly as we continued walking.
I frowned, sensing more meaning to his comment, but I didn’t ask. A few seconds passed before he looked at me again.
“Well, I guess we have a plan then. Convince the Elders to trust us with a magical artifact that would spell certain doom if it fell into the thief’s hands, and then we hand it to them on a silver platter and hope we can catch them in the process. That sounds even stupider when I say it out loud,” he chuckled.
“Crazy, risky, and possibly suicidal,” I joked. “And we don’t even know if they would go for it. But we’re all out of options now. This is it, we catch them or die trying. Quite literally.”
16
My fingers nervously tapped on the fence before I continued pacing up and down the sidewalk. It was morning, around 9 am, and the weird, incomprehensible dreams of last night were still spooking around in my head. I remembered falling into Octavian’s arms, wanting to kiss him, but when I looked up, he was suddenly his mother, looking down on me with disgust on her face. “You will never be good enough for him,” she sneered before letting me drop into an endless void.
I shuddered, pushing my memories away. I had more important matters at hand. Five minutes ago, I had arrived at the Elders’ meeting house, where Allard said he’d be. Since then, I had been wracking my brain, trying to figure out a way to explain the plan without sounding like a nutjob.
Obviously, I had not yet found a way to do that. Which, in turn, didn’t exactly help with my confidence. But it was the best plan we could come up with, and I was half-awake most of the night, trying to find a better one. But we knew barely anything about the thief or the artifacts, and had no other clues.
“Ah, you’re here, good!”
I jerked my head to the side, where I saw Allard standing outside the front door of the house, smiling at me with his hand covering his eyes from the morning sun.
“Uhm, yeah, I’m here,” I replied awkwardly, then opened the gate and walked toward him. I had hoped I’d have more time to come up with a better pitch, but it was time to improvise.
“So, uhm, I have a weird request,” I started as I reached him.
“Slow down, I haven’t had my coffee yet,” he laughed, gesturing for me to come in.
I followed him into the kitchen, where he poured us two cups of coffee from a big French press. Next to us, in the living room, a few Elders and other magicals were sitting around the coffee table, embroiled in a heated argument.
From what I could stitch together, one side wanted to bring together all the covens and families to get everyone ready and organized for the war that was brewing, before the vampires had a chance to overrun them. They wanted to draw a line and retaliate against any vampires who dared attack someone under their protection.
The others felt that such a course of action would only turn their fears into reality, and instead were hoping for a peaceful, diplomatic solution, which could only work by deescalating.
I was torn between the two sides. While it was not my place to say anything anyway, I felt I couldn’t not have an opinion anymore. On one side, I wouldn’t dream of pulling my punches if anyone dared to attack me or s
omeone I cared about, but I couldn’t discard the argument that de-escalation might be necessary to prevent a series of retaliations that ended in an all-out war.
“So, what’s that request you had?” Allard pulled me out of my thoughts.
I sighed deeply and pursed my lips, trying to find the right words as he took a long sip from his coffee mug. My mouth twitched as I saw the print on it–“Grand Potion of Awakeness,” with a cartoony witch stirring in a big pot next to it.
My fingers tapped on the kitchen counter, before my brain decided to ignore my attempts at diplomacy and just spit it all out. “We need a book from the vault to lure the thief out of hiding. They have the whole trifecta, and we need to act fast.”
I blinked after the words left my mouth. My heart was racing, my hands shaking as I watched Allard anxiously.
He looked at me almost expressionlessly, only his eyebrows twitching to a slight frown. After staring at me for a long second, he cleared his throat, then finally opened his mouth. “Uhm…. What? I think I need more coffee for that.”
I put my mug on the kitchen counter, then started wringing my hands. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think it’s the only thing that could draw them out of hiding,” I burst out. “And we talked to, uhm, Morrigan yesterday. She said there was no way we could track the artifacts, so we don’t really have any other options.”
Allard kept staring at me, confusion written clearly on his face.
“Is… that a no?” I asked quietly.
“Alright, from the start,” he chuckled dryly. “I lost you somewhere between this trifecta, the thief, and taking a magical artifact from the vault. What’s going on?”
“Oh, okay.” I took a deep breath. “The ring and the dagger were both stolen, but we don’t know by whom. But we’re sure that—"
“Who’s we?”
“Oh, Octavian. Uh, Mr. Cross, as you called him, I think.”
“Van Cross, the vampire, right.” The confusion on his face was replaced by recognition for a moment, then his frown deepened again. “So why exactly does a vampire need something from our vault again?”
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