Demon Blood (Vampire in the City Book 5) (5 page)

Chapter Six

After ingesting an almost inhuman amount of pizza, Tammy and I were ready to leave for the store. Or at least I thought we were ready.

“I’m only telling you this because we’re best friends,” she said, “But you kind of look like crap.”

“Thanks,” I said, frowning and reaching for my jacket.

“No, I mean your hair is sort of frizzy and your skin looks a bit sallow. Are you feeling okay?”

“Not really. Up until a few hours ago, I was a supernatural creature of the night, incapable of aging, breaking out, and having allergies. Plus I had flawless skin. I would say I’m actually feeling kind of awful right now.”

“Sorry,” she said, grabbing her purse. “Maybe you should start wearing make-up.”

While walking to the train, I felt myself start to breathe heavily in an attempt to keep up with Tammy’s quick pace.

“Somehow, I am in worse shape now than when I became a vampire,” I complained.

“Well, it’s like you were dead for the past six months,” Tammy said. “All your muscles are atrophied and weak.”

“Right,” I said, pausing to catch my breath. When I looked around, I realized we were in front of the Starbucks. “I think I could actually use a coffee.”

Finally, we were caffeinated and on the train to Manhattan.

“Other than the things that suck, how do you feel about being human again?” Tammy asked.

“I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.” When I had been human, I had both a job and boyfriend that were going nowhere. Now I only had a freelance job, and as for a boyfriend.... 

“What am I going to do about Alex?” I spouted out.

“That’s a good question. Do vampires and humans ever date?”

I gave her a pathetic look. “Do you mean like Ethan and I are dating? Yes. Or do you mean like a normal relationship with possible cohabitation and marriage in the future? No.”

“So what are you going to tell him?”

I was torn between not wanting to think about it and really not wanting to think about it. “Maybe I can just avoid that talk for the next fifty or so years, and then I’ll be old and withered and it will be obvious I’m no longer a vampire, and he’ll still be incredibly hot.”

Tammy rolled her eyes at me. “If you’re so miserable being human, just ask him to turn you into a vampire again.”

It was a fairly obvious suggestion, but it still took me by surprise.

The look of shock must have been obvious on my face, because Tammy said, “He would do it, wouldn’t he? Especially if it meant you guys could be together?”

“I guess,” I started. “It’s just that when I became a vampire, it wasn’t by choice. I woke up a vampire with no idea of what I was or what had happened to me. Kind of like now, when you think about it. But now I have a choice of becoming a vampire or not, so I don’t want to rush into anything.” I sighed, staring into my almost-empty coffee cup to deliberately avoid looking at Tammy. “Besides, if I went into it like that, it would seem an awful like I was just doing it for a guy.”

“Maybe, but if you were happier, it’s always an option, right? I mean, I was under the impression that you guys were fairly serious. Am I wrong?”

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s complicated.”

“Why is it complicated?”

“The whole nature of vampires being in relationships is weird, I guess.” I tried to take a sip of coffee, only to find an empty cup.

“It’s like, with humans, you might get married and hope to live together for thirty or forty years. You go through various life changes together. You may buy a house, have children, watch them grow up, retire, and grow old together. With vampires, none of that is going to happen, expect maybe the purchasing of property. And it’s hard enough to stay with someone that long as a human, but vampires can stay alive indefinitely, so imagine trying to be together for hundreds of years. It must get, well, old. Plus there is the whole blood doll thing, so that complicates everything even more.”

Tammy looked concerned. “I’ve never heard you talk this much about being a vampire. So what’s the deal with the blood dolls? How do they make it worse?”

“The sucking of blood is very addictive for humans, and they are completely obsessed with the vampire, and even imagine they are in love with them. I think I might have mentioned that before. Anyway, it’s hard to be in a relationship with someone when they have a bunch of other women always hanging around them acting like they are with the person.”

She frowned at me. “And this is what Ethan was to you?”

I nodded, miserably.

“And this was all he was to you?”

I was silent for a few moments, trying to come up with something, but in the end I had to admit the truth. “Yes, he was just a blood doll.”

Tammy covered her eyes with her hand. “That’s disgusting. But he got away, right? He’s no longer under your thrall or whatever anymore, right?”

“No, he’s not under my thrall anymore,” I said carefully.

“What, you mean he’s under someone else’s then?”

“Yeah, I think. I just found out about it the other day.”

“But that’s horrible. At least you didn’t treat him like total crap. We have to find out who this hussy is and help him.”

“There’s not too much I can do about it now. Plus, it’s not a woman.”

“It’s a guy vampire?” she asked. “What does that mean?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think it means anything besides the fact that the mind control is strong enough to overcome any personal preferences.”

“Poor Ethan,” Tammy said. “So the only way for vampires to survive is to have a bunch of people who think they are in love with them and want their blood sucked?”

“Well, it’s not the only way. But to find someone new to feed off of every night is tiring and hard to sustain long-term.”

“Our stop is next, so let’s put this convo at least on a temporary hiatus, especially since it’s not of immediate concern to you anymore.”

I stood up and followed her to the door, happy to put both our discussion, if not my own thoughts, on temporary to permanent hiatus.

We emerged from the subway station at the same stop I had been at the previous night. By then, the sun had set, and I looked down at my phone, which was buzzing with a new text message.

Can I come over?
It was from Alex.

Tammy noticed my look of distress and said, “Don’t answer him.”

“If I don’t he’ll just show up uninvited anyway.”

I wrote back with the truth.
Not tonight—I’m out with Tammy.

The
Magickal Well
was close to the subway station. In fact, I realized that I had passed it the night before on my way to the club. It was the first floor in what looked like an apartment building, and you had to go down three steps to get to the front door. 

We walked down to find a “Closed” sign hanging in the window, which was somewhat tastefully decorated for a pagan shop. Only one pentagram, albeit a rather large one, hung in the shop window. Various colored crystals and herbs, and one very large black cat, completed the look.

Tammy ignored both the sign and the fact that there were no lights on, and began pounding on the door. The cat stood up and hissed at us, but Tammy continued knocking until we saw a door to some back room fling open.

An annoyed looking woman eventually emerged and mouthed the word “Closed” to us, while pointing at the sign.

Tammy made some odd motions in the air, and while the woman continued to look annoyed, she did come over and start unlocking the door.

“What did you do?” I whispered to Tammy.

“I just drew the symbol of the invoking pentacle of earth, just so she’d know we weren’t pedestrians.”

The woman opened the door a few inches and said, “This better not be an urgent mission to get more eye of newt, because we don’t have time for that.” She paused. “Also, I think we’re out.”

“No,” Tammy said. “We’re from the Silver Moon coven. Max and Nina told us what happened to you last night, and a similar thing happened to Emma here as well.”

“Oh!” The woman flung the door open the rest of the way and held it open for us.

 We walked into the dimly lit store, and the woman closed and locked the door behind us. The store itself was small, but organized. Books filled up an entire wall, and herbs and what must be various spell ingredients another. There were also soaps, crystals, incenses, and a case of jewelry and expensive looking items, like a large wand made of crystals, near the counter. 

“Come through the back,” the woman directed us, going around the counter. Another door led to a back room, which held a few couches and chairs and another bookshelf.

“Have a seat,” the woman said. Then she turned to the other two people in the room and said, “They’re from Silver Moon.”

“Hi, I’m Tammy.” My best friend nodded at them.

“Emma,” I mumbled, feeling mildly uncomfortable despite the fairly normal seeming people in the room.

“Marie,” the woman who had let us in said by way of introduction. “And these are Leah and John, also from Silver Leaf.”

The three witches in the room were all older than us, with Marie and John possibly in their mid to late thirties, and Leah being maybe forty or so. Marie was short with auburn hair, and still looked pissed off, which I guess I could understand, given the circumstances. 

John was tall and dark haired, and smiled at us and asked, “Do you guys want some tea?”

Leah, whose long black hair had turned almost entirely prematurely grey, added, “We have cookies, too.”

“No, thanks,” Tammy immediately answered.

I realized then that I hadn’t had a cookie in over six months. “I’ll take a cookie.”

Leah passed over a tray of chocolate chip cookies, and I restrained myself to just taking one. “Thanks.”

Marie had poured herself a cup of tea, but remained standing, which was a bit off-putting. “When I talked to Nina this morning, she said she was unaffected by whatever happened to us. Did something change?”

“No,” Tammy said. “Most of our coven is fine. It’s only Emma here that lost her witch powers.”

“Were you guys together, or were you doing something different than the rest of your coven?” That question was from John.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I was out at a club. But I don’t know what everyone else was doing.”

“Where was the club?” Leah asked.

“Just a few blocks from here.”

“That’s why we were thinking it was maybe an area effect,” Tammy explained. 

“Makes sense.” Leah nodded.

“What time did you notice the change?” Marie asked.

“I only noticed when I woke up the next morning,” I said. “But I was probably at the club from about eleven to one.”

The members of Silver Leaf looked at each other. John said, “Our mediation on the waxing moon ritual was at midnight, so it was around the same time.”

“What exactly happened to you guys during the ritual?” Tammy asked. “Like when and how did you notice something was wrong?”

“It was a simple mediation,” Marie explained. “We were all in a trance state, but when we came out of it, we felt hollow and empty. The same way you feel, I’m sure.”

I guessed that they didn’t know I had also been a vampire, so I didn’t bother to explain that with all the changes involved in going from undead to alive, the loss of my witch potential had been basically unnoticed until it was pointed out to me. 

“Yeah, totally,” I agreed. “But I also was a little drunk, so I didn’t notice it until this morning.”

“What club were you at?” John asked.

“It’s called
The Bank
.”

Marie narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you know what kind of club that is?”

“What do you mean? They were playing sort of 90s goth and industrial music, if that’s what you’re asking about.”

“No, we mean that it’s a vampire club,” Leah said. “You shouldn’t go there. They hypnotize people on their way in and out.”

“Really?” I coughed.

“Yes, and it’s kind of an interesting thing, because people don’t remember that they’ve been fed on while they’re at the club. Afterward, all they remember is they really liked the place and want to go back,” Marie added. “But of course you already know this, since witches aren’t subject to vampire mind control.”

“Oh, was that what that was?” I attempted to say coolly. 

“Did you pretend to be controlled to get in?” John asked. “We did that once, just to see what it was like. Their drinks are very cheap.”

“Yeah, that was it,” I laughed in what I hoped was a casual manner. “I stayed as far away as I could from any vampires, of course.”

“Of course,” Marie said, staring at me intently. I had the sudden desire to leave the store immediately. 

The moment was fortunately broken by a loud thumping at the door. I jumped, but Leah laughed and said, “That’s just Pyewacket, our guard cat.”

Marie opened the door and the large, black cat we had seen earlier bounded into the room. He yowled loudly and pounced on Tammy’s lap.