Succession of Witches (13 page)

At Jay’s words, Sam moved l
ike a shot, springing out of his chair and pushing past Jay to get to the front of the shop. Cassie gave Ethan one more comforting hug, then motioned Jay to come over and take her place.

“Is he okay?” asked Jay, kneeling down on the floor next to her. “Did the bond not work?”

“Oh, it worked,” said Cassie. “Look, I’ll explain later, just stay with him for a little while, okay?”

When she got to the front of the shop, Sam was arguing
in the middle of the cafe with a tiny redheaded girl wearing a skimpy outfit, careful to keep his voice down so as not to alarm the few remaining customers.

“I told you to bring them to my apartment, not here!” he hissed as Cassie approached. “What did you do this for?”

If the redhead was intimidated, she didn’t show it. She crossed her arms in front of her low-cut top and shrugged. “Hey, when you said to bring them here, I thought you meant your territory, not your bedroom. It would be a little tight for this many people in a motel room, don’t you think?”

“This many people?” muttered Cassie, then she noticed a new group of customers sitting at the old oak table in the front window. There were no drinks on the table and the group was watching Sam’s conversation with the girl intently.

“I didn’t know how many of you there were,” Sam whispered, then sighed; he was doing a lot of that tonight. “Look, the shop closes in half an hour, can you all just sit tight until then? I can’t discuss this while we’re open.”

The redhead smiled, showing off her pointy incisors. Vampire’s teeth were funny, Cassie mused; they didn’t usually appear sharp and elongated enough to arouse suspicion, but once you knew someone was a vampire, suddenly it seemed incredibly obvious that they had fangs.

“No problem, we have plenty of time. Nothing but time, right now,” she said, looking back towards her group at the table with a frown.             

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The next 30 minutes seemed to crawl. Even though they weren’t on the clock, Cassie, Jay and Khalil put on their aprons and helped Sam and Dwight with the pre-close cleaning and preparations for the next morning; with five people
working, it was easy to check everything off. After all, they couldn’t have the vampires waiting because a blender hadn’t been wiped down.

Mike kept Ethan busy by showing him some of the games on his netbook. The boy had puffy eyes and still looked upset, but he brightened slightly when Cassie brought him half of a giant chocolate chip cookie. The vampires talked quietly among themselves, but Cassie didn’t know the topic; they quieted down whenever she came near. They did steal glances at Ethan from time to time, which made her nervous.

At midnight, the last non-vampiric customers left the shop; by 12:10, all the cleaning was finished. Instead of putting the chairs on the tables, Sam put a bunch of them out in rows. Finished, he sat in the center chair in front of the register and motioned for Cassie to come sit next to him. Cassie bit her lip, but obeyed; this was obviously official entourage business, and they had to go through the motions. She only grimaced slightly when Sam put his hand on the small of her back.

“Mike, can you take Ethan into the back with you please?” said Sam, his eyes not leaving the group of vampires. Mike closed his netbook and showed the boy into the break room as Dwight, Khalil and Jay took their seats on either side of Cassie and Sam. Ethan looked over his shoulder at the vampires with wide-eyed wonder as the door closed behind him.

Gracefully, the vampires got up from their place at the corner table and approached the row of six chairs Sam had set up for them. There was the redhead
with the pageboy haircut, an older gentleman in a tweed jacket, a tall, dark-haired man with a mustache and goatee, a bald man in a leather jacket, a young black woman who kept looking down at the floor, and a large man who looked like a body builder. Cassie noticed that the redhead was staying next to the other woman with a protective air, even though the latter towered over her.

“I suppose there’s no need to offer your group
drinks?” Sam began.

The older man in the tweed jacket smiled a sad little smile. “No need, thank you.”

Khalil leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Are they what I think they are?”

“Yup.”

“God, we’re doing this now? What changed?”

At that, the redhead lau
ghed, a pleasant sound.

“Sorry, wasn’t trying to listen in, but you know, keen hearing. I’m Miri by the way.” She smiled brightly at Khalil.

“I’m Khalil, actual living person,” he responded coldly. Miri’s smile disappeared, and the vampire men glared at Khalil.

Sam spoke, still looking at the vampires. “Khalil, I meant what I said before. You know that. But right now, you will listen to me, and you will treat our guests with respect. Is that clear?”

“Yessir,” said Khalil, answering the vampires’ glares with one of his own. “I just don’t know why we’re entertaining vampires now, when months ago, you would have never—”

“The situation has chang
ed,” said Sam, cutting him off.

“May I speak?” said the one in the tweed jacket. When Sam nodded, he continued. “I’m Eugene Buckley, and this is my clan: Miriam, Dmitri, Liam, Billingsly, and Nyesha. For decades, we’ve lived in New York City.”

“And now you want to come here,” said Sam. “Tell me why.”

“Our contract with
the demon we serve just ran out, and we don’t want to renew with him. It came to my attention that you did not yet have a clan in your service, so it seemed like a good possible match—”

“I know all this already,” said Sam, leaning forward. “I need to know what makes your current master so bad that you’re willing to risk making a contract with me. You don’t know me from a hole in the wall.”

There was a pause as Eugene considered. “It is not my place to say.”

Sam groaned. “Well, whose is it?”

Cassie looked at the vampires, confused. The one called Liam had an angry glow in his blue eyes, probably still smarting that Khalil had insulted Miriam, but he didn’t seem to want to talk. The other men kept their expressions blank. Miriam’s attention seemed to be split between looking at Sam, and looking at Nyesha, who had her eyes trained on her shoes.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Cassie softly. “She won’t look up.”

“Leave Nyesha alone,” growled Billingsly, the body builder.

“She’s fine, she’s just having a bad night,” said Miriam, putting her arm around the other woman’s shoulders. “
It’s okay, Ny,” she said softly.

Cassie turned to Sam. “She’s the reason, Sam. They want to leave because of something to do with Nyesha.”

The vampires went completely still.

“I think you’re right,” said Sam after a pause. “Can she talk to me
? Or will I need to—”

“I can speak for myself.”

Nyesha’s head snapped up, and Cassie very nearly gasped. Though the woman had the darkest skin tone Cassie had ever seen, her eyes were vividly, shockingly green, with flecks of gold. Between her startling eyes, her full lips, and her lithe yet shapely figure, she was one of the most beautiful women Cassie had ever seen.

Oh my God
, she thought,
no wonder someone wanted to make her a vampire. Now she’ll look like that forever.

“Quentin Rhodes. Our master,” Nyesha began. Despite her timid body language, she had a strong, intelligent voice. “He won’t leave me alone. I try to say no, only he’s our master, so I can’t say no. It never ends,” she said. At that she looked down again, apparently spent.

“And now she’s getting the sun sickness,” said Miri softly.

Next to her, Cassie felt Khalil shift in his chair. “Sun sickness? I thought all vampires had to stay out of the sun,” he said.

“Like many of the common beliefs about vampires, that’s only partially true,” said Eugene. “Old ones, like me for example—we can’t go out in the sun at all. But it takes years to develop the sun sickness, sometimes as long as 60 years. I had hoped, when I turned them, that both Miri and Nyesha would have decades of daywalking to look forward to. Now, I’m not so sure.” Miriam winced noticeably.

“When you say you turned them both, you mean you killed them, right?”

“Khalil. I won’t ask you again,” said Sam with a warning edge in his voice.

“No, no it’s a fair question,” said Eugene. “Technically yes, but they were dying at the time. It’s a point of principle that I only turn those who are terminally ill.”

“I had lymphoma at 16, and let me tell you, that sucks,” said Miriam. “I’m just glad Eugene didn’t turn me during chemo, because then I’d have no hair forever.”

Jay started to laugh,
then caught himself, horrified. “Oh my God, I’m sorry, I know it’s not funny, but the way you said it—”

Miriam smiled at him. “It’s okay, it is kind of funny.”

“If you got turned at 16, how old are you now?” asked Cassie. She hadn’t planned on interjecting, but simple curiosity won out.

“Hmm, let’s see. Well that was over 20 years ago, so I guess that would make me about 38, technically.”

Cassie stared. A woman who looked 16 who was really 500 made sense, in a strange, mystic kind of way. A woman who looked 16 when she was really getting close to 40 just seemed like cheating.

“And this is the real reason you want to leave your current master?” said Sam.

“Yes. To save our sister,” said Miriam solemnly.

“How do I know that?” asked Sam. “It’s very noble that you want to protect her. But perhaps a little…convenient?”

For the first time, Eugene narrowed his eyes. “I swear on the blood of my sire, William of Harts Grove, that I speak the truth.”

Sam nodded.
“Alright. I believe you. Now, the question becomes, can you provide what I need?”

“Name it.”

“I need protection for the members of my entourage, night and day. Especially my familiars.”

“What?” asked
Cassie. “Sam, what are you talking about?”

“Yeah, come again?” said Khalil. “You’re making a deal with bloodsuckers to protect us?”

“Yes. Which wouldn’t be necessary, if I hadn’t just stolen another demon’s familiar, opening myself up to revenge and jeopardizing everyone’s safety,” Sam answered, not looking at them. “Or did you think there would be no consequences for that?”

Cassie felt a wave of nausea. Vampires were going to settle in her city, feeding on people, and it was all her fault.

“We can do that. Depending on how many people you need covered at any given time I may need to bring in some vampires from nearby territories, but it shouldn’t be a problem. There are many who are in my debt.”

“Now, Miri told me that your clan doesn’t hunt; instead you pay blood donors. Is this true?”

“Yes. For those of us who can afford it, it’s much more convenient than hunting.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“Khalil, get in the back,” Sam said through gritted teeth.

“You know I’m right!” said Khalil, standing up. “They only
turn sick people, that’s nice. Maybe it’s even true. But you expect me to believe they never, ever feed on anyone who doesn’t want it? Don’t be so naïve, Sam! They—”

Khalil’s tirade was cut off by a loud banging on the front door.

“Quentin?” said Nyesha in a scared voice, still looking down.

“No,” said Dwight. “Cassie, it’s your mom.”

“Oh, my God,” said Cassie putting her head in her hands. “I’m so embarrassed right now, I want to die.”

“No, actually, you don’t,” said Miriam.

“I’ll let her in, I guess,” said Khalil. He gave the vampires a wide berth as he approached the door. Sam quickly removed his hand from Cassie’s back as Khalil opened the door.

“Mrs. Tremblay! Always a
—” began Khalil.

“Cassie!” Annette shrieked, moving past Khalil like he wasn’t there. “What are you doing? You last texted me three hours ago, and you never said you were coming here!”

Billingsly snickered, but quieted down when Annette glared at him. “And what is this, an AA meeting?”

“Mom, calm down,” said Cassie, standing up. “I’m sorry I forgot to text you. But Sam told me that he had a meeting with his, with his
prayer group
, and I just wanted to see it.”

“Prayer group?” said Annette.
“After midnight? Oh, give me a break—”

“But we are a prayer group, Ma’am,” said Eugene, not missing a beat. “We have to meet late at night because of conflicting schedules, I’m afraid. We may look a motley crew, but I assure you; we are all united in our love for Jesus.”

“Praise be his name,” added Khalil.

Annette pointed at Khalil. “I thought you were a Muslim!”

“I was, but that’s in the past now,” said Khalil, solemnly. “I’ve seen the light.”

“And you,” she said, pointing at Jay, “you’re Jewish!”