Succession of Witches (22 page)

The entourage was now large enough that organizing everything was something of a pain. It was decided that Sam, Serenus and Cassie would drive down to North Carolina to meet with Helen, with Miri in tow as Cassie’s personal guard. Aeka would have to come too, because they weren’t sure it was safe for her to be separated from Cassie; besides, it might help for Helen to be able to see her. Everyone else would stay behind in Sterling, over the strong protests of Jay and Mike.

As usual, the Buckleys would be protecting Ethan and the rest of the entourage, which should be fine, but Sam was still worried. Even though they shouldn’t be gone for more than two days, if word got out that Sam had left town, certain parties might try to swoop in and do lord knows what in his absence. When he’d shared his concerns with Eugene Buckley though, he was met with a withering look that made him feel like a small child who had misbehaved.

“Son of Sammael, I am the only remaining scion of my sire, the honorable William of Harts Grove. I have fought in more wars than you have years on this earth. I already failed you once when my subordinate, Miriam, could not protect your Cassandra. Do you think I will tolerate failing you again?”

“Err, no. Forget I mentioned it,” Sam had mumbled, chastened.
And he answers to me? What is going on in the world?

Serenus’ beat-up old Volkswagon wasn’t big enough for five people, and Sam didn’t have his own car, so the professor had rented a van. They could have flown, but Serenus had advised against it; being stuck on a plane allowed for the possibility for them to be trapped in the air, or worse.
So the five of them made an odd party, driving down the highway from New England to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Cassie had complained that it was her second long road trip in a week, but as Sam had pointed out, the first one was entirely her fault.

In the backseat, Miri was looking out at the road with a smile on her face, her red hair streaming in the wind that came in through the partially opened window. She looked way too happy for someone stuck in the car for a ten-hour trip, and that was only if they lucked out with the traffic. Aeka, wearing
a pair of faded denim overalls Cassie had found in the back of her closet, was sleeping with her head on Cassie’s shoulder, which she seemed to do often; the girl spent a large portion of her time asleep. Cassie was reading something on her tablet that made her alternately blush and look sick. Sam thought of asking her what was bothering her so much, but decided against it—it was probably none of his business.

He found himself regretting, for about the millionth time, giving her those earrings that made reading her mind impossible. Giving her privacy was something he’d appreciated a lot more in theory than in practice.

“Can’t we get some of those transportation amulets, like Bennet Marcus had?” Cassie asked after they’d made their first rest stop. “That seems like a much better way to travel.”

“We could, but last I heard, those things cost about $50,000 dollars a pop,” Serenus replied.

“Oh. Never mind then.”

He tried to read a paperback book on the Hundred Years War—could that have been among
the wars Eugene had fought in?- but reading in the car felt strange and he gave up. Tossing the book in the glove compartment, he stretched out in the front passenger seat, trying to relax. Meanwhile, Serenus was frequently driving 80 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone.

“Are you sure you should be going this fast?” he asked.

“I would like to see Helen again before I die of old age,” Serenus replied. “And I’m keeping up with traffic.”

“Fine.
Let me know when you’re getting tired and I’ll take over for you.”

“No, you won’t.”

Sam turned towards the other man slowly. “I’m sorry?”

“When was the last time you drove a car?”

Sam paused and looked away. “I got my license when I was working for Cordon Construction.”

“Yes, and I’m sure you drive very well for someone who drove for about two days five years ago, but this is serious highway driving. Just relax.”

“It was more than two days,” Sam began, then realized he sounded petulant and gave up. “Why is everyone treating me like a child lately?”

“Welcome to my world,” said Cassie from the back.

He scoffed. “The difference is, you are a child.”

“You’re both like little children,” Miri said cheerfully.

Sam scowled. “Aren’t you supposed to be respectful to me?”

“I can’t
lie to you, Master.”

“I already told you, don’t call me that.”

“See? Child,” she said, smiling radiantly. Sam found it hard to look away from her; she looked so incredibly happy and alive, and he had no idea why. She was always unusually vivacious for a vampire, but in the last few days he had really been noticing it.

“Mir, are you feeling okay?” asked Cassie. “It’s
just, the sun is really strong right now, so….”

Sam looked at the pair of them over his shoulder. “What are you talking about? Miri doesn’t have sun sickness.”

“That’s’ right,” said Miri in a dreamy, sing-song voice. “Miri doesn’t have sun sickness.” She closed her eyes, turned her face up toward the sun and sighed happily, as though she were drinking in the light.

Helen’s residence turned out to be a modest, slightly dilapidated white split-level house with black shutters. The only special thing about the neighborhood was that the houses had unusually large yards, which Cassie supposed was useful if you were secretly a witch who used nature magic. The woman had a solid acre of land to herself, bordered by woods behind the house. Maybe the property would have looked nice in the spring, when the trees were in bloom, but now, it was just a lot of barren, spindly trees and mostly dead grass. The whole area looked like it had seen better days.

Cassie got out of the car and stretched; she was expecting to feel uncomfortably stiff, but found she was okay. Maybe she was getting used to stupidly long car trips. Sam leaned against the car next to her, just looking at the house with his hands in his pockets and an unreadable expression on his face.

“Is this the house you grew up in?” She asked.

He met her eyes for a few seconds but didn’t answer. Still silent, he went around her to the trunk to help Serenus unload the car.

I take it that’s a yes, then? Explains a lot.

Seeing Miri get out of the car, Cassie beelined over to her and grabbed the vampire’s arm, whispering in her ear. “Hey you, talk to me! You were in the sun for hours and you ate four pancakes! Did you throw up in the bathroom?”

Miri looked at her triumphantly. “No, I did not.”

“What’s going on?”

Miri looked at Sam and Serenus and lowered her voice to make sure only Cassie could hear. “I don’t really know. But ever since I was…” she seemed to struggle for the right word “…revived, it’s like everything’s been different. The sun doesn’t hurt at all, and I can taste food so much more.”

Cassie took a moment to process that.

“Then that’s great, right? Why are you keeping it a secret?”

Miri’s expression turned grave.
“Because I don’t know if it’s going to last. I can’t let the others find out yet, I can’t get their hopes up for nothing.”

“Well, yeah but
—”

Aeka tugged firmly on Cassie’s other arm, pointing to the men. Sam and Serenus had the car all unpacked and ready to go up to the house, waiting for them.

“Talk more later!” Cassie whispered, then scampered up to Serenus’ side, with Aeka a few steps behind.

When they reached the door, Sam hung a few steps back. Serenus gave him a disgusted look. “She’s not going to eat you, you know.”

“You can never be too sure with an old witch,” Sam said softly. At that moment, the door opened, even though no one had knocked.

Cassie didn’t know what she was expecting Helen to look like, but it certainly wasn’t a slender brunette who barely looked thirty. Wearing a form-fitting brown suit and her dark hair in a prim bun, she looked more like a sophisticated librarian than anything else, and certainly nowhere near old enough to be Sam’s mother.

“Ah, my long-lost son and his harem,” she said in an arch tone. She fixed her brown eyes on Cassie for a moment and Cassie felt a little flip-flop in her stomach: they were Sam’s eyes, dark and penetrating. Seeing them in a woman’s face was unsettling.

Apparently, Serenus hadn’t been expecting her to look that way either. “Helen?” he sputtered. “What happened?”

Helen pointed to her face with one hand, putting her other hand on her hip. “This was the last straw,” she said. “He won’t let me age; he’s made me even younger than when I gave birth to him,” she said, indicating Sam with a dismissive wave. “If he wants me to summon him again, he knows my terms, so whatever you were going to say, you can save your breath.”

Cassie looked at the strange woman with curiosity: Sammael had bestowed eternal youth upon her, and she considered this an affront?

“That’s not the only reason why we’re here,” said Serenus. Cassie couldn’t help but notice that he seemed to address Helen differently from practically everyone else, with none of his usual flippant manner. “Helen, we need your knowledge.”

“You think this is news to me?” she replied, raising an eyebrow, then turned her back to them and walked into the house. “You can come in. I think I have some cookies somewhere, I’ll try to find them.”

Cassie and Miri exchanged incredulous glances and stepped into the house, with the others behind them. Cassie barely suppressed a gasp once she got a good look at Helen’s living room: apparently, her taste in interior decoration was books. The walls were lined with bookshelves, there were crates of books on the floor, and books covered the couch and all other pieces of furniture. In some places, the side tables were made out of books. Only a large glass table in the center of the room was relatively clean, with only a few books on it and an opened notebook filled with tiny script.

“One moment,” said Helen. Moving quickly, she removed stacks of books from the couch and several chairs; some of them, she placed gently on the floor, while others she threw behind the couch with no hesitation. Different books seemed to have a most favorite/least favorite status. “Sit,” she commanded, and the five of them obeyed; it seemed like it would be best to do as she said. Cassie sat down on the couch with Aeka clinging to one arm, and Sam and Serenus on the other side; Miri mounted a nearby stack of books like it was a pony. If Helen minded that, she didn’t say.

Helen disappeared into a book-lined alcove that Cassie assumed led to the kitchen, and came back with a box of fig cookies. “They may or may not be stale…then again, every cookie may or may not be stale,” she said, closing her notebook and tossing the box onto the glass table. Only Miri took a few cookies.

Helen sat down on a battered upholstered chair opposite the couch, staring at her guests. Cassie suppressed a shiver; Helen’s stare made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. There was something demanding about that stare, like she held people to a certain standard and you weren’t meeting it yet.

After a moment’s pause, she addressed her son. “They’re a little young for you, aren’t they? Then again, you’re too emotionally immature to handle a woman your own age.”

Before Cassie could protest, Sam replied in a tone dripping with sarcasm. “I’ve no idea how growing up in this environment could possibly stunt anyone’s emotional development.”

“You’ve been back in my house for less than five minutes, and you’ve already blamed me for your entire personality. Feel better?”

“If you two get started, we won’t get anything done,” Serenus snapped.  “I don’t know how much you already know, but a lot has changed in the last six months.”

“I’ve heard things,” said Helen, crossing her legs. “Granted, most of them don’t make sense.”

Serenus proceeded to recap for Helen the chain of events that had begun with the fall earthquake, and the freak accident that resulted in Cassie’s transformation into Sam’s familiar.  Other than raising an eyebrow at a few points, Helen didn’t show much of a response. As he spoke, Cassie realized there were two things he wasn’t going to recount: her additional bond with Sammael, because it was too dangerous for Sam to know about, and her dream of the Lost Ones, because she had never told anyone about it.

Cassie looked down at her hands: was she ready to talk about that? There had never been a specific reason why she hadn’t told anyone about the dream that was more than a dream. It just felt like a secret that belonged to her alone. She still was inclined to keep it to herself, but if telling Helen everything meant finding out the truth about who, and possibly what, she was….

Serenus concluded his story by explaining all that had happened in the past week, including the rescue of Ethan, Cassie’s latest kidnapping and the discovery of Aeka.

“So that’s where we are,” he said. “A plethora of mysteries large and small and no answers.”

“You missed one,” said Helen, indicating Miri with her chin. “You have a vampire with a sweet tooth.”

Miri froze in the middle of bringing a cookie to her lips. Helen looked at her appraisingly.

“It’s nice, isn’t it? I thought his bloodline might confer special benefits on your kind, but I had no way of knowing for sure. I’m pleased to see I was right.”

Miri’s hazel eyes went wide and she leaned forward on her perch. “You mean, this is permanent?”

Sam looked from Miri to Helen, puzzled. “What is this now? What benefits?”

Helen ignored him and fixed her blistering stare on Cassie. “And then there’s you, the one my son is pining over for some strange reason.”

Cassie’s cheeks burned.

“No one’s pining over anyone,” Sam snapped.

Helen leaned forward and glared at Cassie again, making her wince. “Your face was the picture of guilt while Serenus was telling your story. What happened that you aren’t telling?”

“I…” Cassie started, but the denial died on her lips. It was obvious that lying to Helen was a waste of time. “There is something.”

Serenus and Sam exchanged surprised looks and looked at her. She took a deep breath.

“I had a dream that I know wasn’t really a dream. There were these…monsters, these strange creatures, and they talked like I was one of them, like their descendent or something. They said they had waited 70 generations to see me, and that the daughters of men are clever…something about hiding underwater….”

“Why did you never tell me this?” Sam said next to her, sounding pained.

“Shut up, darling. What else did they say?” Helen probed.

Cassie squinted and looked down, trying to remember. The memory was almost as vivid now as the day she’d had the dream, but remembering their exact words was another matter. “Something about how I must remember, because I’m missing something…and…there is no black or white magic.”

“What?” said Sam and Serenus in unison. Miri just looked at her, transfixed.

“There is no black or white magic, there is only
Magic,” Cassie finished, lifting her head up to look at Helen. Now that she’d said it, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her chest.

“That’s nonsense though,” said Sam. “Of course there’s black and white magic, I’m living proof.”

“There is now,” said Helen with a satisfied smile. “Of course, if you were shut up in Tartarus for a few millennia, you wouldn’t know that.”

“Tartarus?” said Cassie,
then she turned to Aeka, who was tugging on her arm again. “Aeka? Did you see them in your dreams too?”

Aeka nodded. “They said I was broken, and they had to use the spare.”

There was a pause as they all processed that for a moment: both the fact that Aeka had spoken so many words at once, and what they might mean.

“I thought so,” said Helen. “I thought I had an idea of what was going on, but now I’m sure.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, but did not continue.

“Well?” asked Sam.

“Do you know what I am? What we both are?” Cassie asked, feeling breathless with anticipation.

Helen pursed her lips, then turned away. “I feel like getting some fresh air. Let’s all take a walk.”

“Helen…”Serenus began in an irritated voice. Ignoring him, the preternaturally youthful woman bounded to her feet and walked to the closet to get her coat.

“Let’s go to the woods.”