The Problem With Black Magic Page 7
"I'm telling you Mom, we dropped an entire vat of caramel on the floor! It could take hours to clean up!" Cassie exclaimed into her phone.
"Honey, it's after midnight. They don't pay you enough for this."
"They're paying me extra, and it's not a school night. Also, Jay's here— we'll go home together when we're done."
That seemed to pacify Annette; for a moment, Cassie dwelled on how strange it was that Jay was now considered her protection. When they were little it had always been the other way around. "Alright, but if that manager pulls this again—"
"He won't, Mom. See you tomorrow!" She hung up and put her phone back in her pocket. Ironically, that was one of the least stressful conversations she'd had with Annette lately, and she was lying through her teeth.
Dwight, Khalil, Sam and Jay were all sitting around the table in the break room, a plate of cookies and snacks in the center. Normally, someone would brew a pot of coffee for a meeting like this, but except for Sam, they had all been drinking coffee all night anyway. Instead, the rest of them had herbal tea, just for the sake of having something.
Sam gestured to her. "Can I borrow your phone?"
"Sure. You, uh, know how to use it?" she asked. People at the shop made fun of Sam for being virtually the only person in the modern world not to have his own cell phone.
He narrowed his eyes. "I think I can figure it out," he said, taking it from her. He fiddled with it, apparently sending a short text, then gave it back to her. Cassie put it in her pocket immediately; she was tempted to see what he'd texted, but she could do that later.
"So time to spill, Harry Potter," said Khalil, leaning back in his chair.
Sam winced. "I'm not even going to get started on how insulting that is. Anyway, I never wanted any of you involved with this, but now that there's no choice—"
"You're a demon," said Jay, looking pleased with himself.
Sam glared at Jay, who smiled broadly. "That's what the vampire guys called you. They also called Cassie a familiar, but I thought that was supposed to be a cat."
"See, I heard him say that," said Khalil, "But I didn't think he meant it literally. Like, you know, you might say "Oh that manager is such a demon, he gave me six opening shifts this week."
Dwight rolled his eyes in response.
"They were being literal," said Sam, reaching for a cookie. "Although technically, I'm only a half-demon. You almost never see full-blooded demons outside of the Realm; they just come here when summoned. Most of the time, when people say "demon", they mean a half, like me— they try not to talk about full-blooded demons at all."
"Speak of the devil and all that," said Khalil quietly.
"Exactly. And try not to curse from now on, by the way, that gets their attention too."
There was a brief pause as everyone considered life from now on without the comfort of certain four-letter words. Dwight was the first to emerge from this revelry.
"So if you're a demon who can freeze time and scare away vampires, what are you doing in my store washing my dishes?" Dwight asked.
Sam chewed his cookie. "Personal reasons. Not worth going into."
Khalil stood up. "Hey, you said you were gonna level with us."
Sam swallowed. "I agree you all have a right to know what I am, not who I am."
"Sam...."Khalil growled.
"Let it go," said Dwight. "He's right; we don't need to know everything. Just how this affects the rest of us." Sam nodded.
Khalil sat down, still looking livid. It was unlike him to be this emotional, and Cassie wasn’t sure what to make of it. She cleared her throat.
"What about me? You said that I had the most magic out of anyone here. What did that mean? And the stuff you said after in the...make-believe place." Dwight and Khalil both gave her confused looks.
"This is the coolest freakin' thing that has ever happened," said Jay with reverence.
"Shut up, Jay," said Cassie. She supposed, from his perspective, it was sort of cool to find out that things like magic and demons existed, but he hadn't just nearly been bitten by a vampire. "Cool" was not the number-one adjective on her list right now.
"Humans and demons are alike in that they both generate magic, it's just that humans can't really use it," said Sam. "You're like...batteries, just sitting in a pack on the shelf not powering anything. Since I can use magic in general, I can use your magic, even though you can't."
Jay leaned forward, excited. "You can take the triple-A batteries out and put them in a flashlight."
"I think we all understood the beauty of the metaphor well enough the first time, Jay," said Khalil, not looking at him.
"Yes, well," Sam continued. "Humans have different amounts of magic; most have very little, but some have a lot. Demons tend to fight over the ones that generate a lot of power."
Cassie gulped; suddenly, she had a much clearer picture of her current situation. "So, I'm one of the humans that produce lots of magic."
Sam took a gulp of his coffee and looked at her. It gave her a strange feeling, like he was really looking at her for the first time. "Cassie, when I try to get the magic out of humans it's like...it's like trying to drink out of a clogged water fountain. Just a little trickle bubbles to the surface. With you, I was prepared for that, only to get hit in the face with the force of a fire hose," he said.
Cassie put her hands around her tea to warm herself; she wasn't thirsty at all, but suddenly she felt cold. "So could you tell that from the moment you met me?"
"No," he said, frowning. "I had no idea. I just choose you first because virgin girls usually have the most magic, comparatively speaking."
Cassie's eyes widened. "H-hey!” she sputtered. What did that have to do with anything?
Sam shrugged. "There are a lot of theories as to why that is, but it’s not my area of expertise.”
“But how did you know I was—“
Sam coughed. “Let’s gloss over that, shall we?” he said, taking another sip of his drink.
Cassie looked around at Dwight and Khalil to see them both pointedly avoid her eyes; Khalil seemed to be barely holding back laughter, his temporary mirth fighting with his anger. Jay just looked wide-eyed, confused, and absolutely thrilled. Annoyed, she crossed her arms and sat back in her chair with a harrumph.
“How did those…I can’t believe I’m saying this…vampires know to come after her?” asked Dwight. “I guess they knew the time-skip happened here, but I don’t follow after that.”
“Magic on that scale doesn’t happen very often. Um, at the risk of sounding arrogant, most demons couldn’t freeze time in a ten-mile radius,” said Sam, looking down at his mug. Cassie found it interesting that talking about his demonic powers was the only thing that seemed to make him genuinely uncomfortable. “Either multiple demons were involved— which they knew wasn’t likely since I’m the only one in this general area— or there was a powerful human involved. It wasn’t a huge deductive leap.
“So they sent vampires to go hunting for the human with an abundance of magic,” he said, and Cassie noted that he talked about vampires in the same tone that racist people reserved for ethnic slurs. “I know you probably think of vampires as cool, but they’re usually as subservient to demons as humans are to vampires— more, even. And they’re so primitive they can only feed on magic through blood…it’s disgusting.”
“And you came back to save me from them in just the nick of time,” Cassie said, not even sure if she should sound sarcastic or not. Sam winced briefly.
“Not really; I didn’t just happen to get here before they took you. I came because I sensed your fear.” He looked at the surface of his coffee studiously, like the answers to life’s most mysterious questions could be found at the bottom of his cup.
Taking a page from Khalil’s book, Cassie stood up. Maybe it was stupid, but she felt better looking down at him right then. “You…did…what?” she said.
Sam maintained his death grip on his ceramic mug. “We h
ave a bond now, alright? I didn’t mean for it to happen, but when you do a power transfer on that scale, it’s unavoidable. Technically now you’re my…familiar.”
Cassie pursed her lips and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “What is that,” she said, asking the question with no question mark. She didn’t know what her face looked like, but it must have been scary, because Jay started scooting his chair away from her before he even realized he was doing it.
“Someone a demon shares magic with…a, uh, servant I guess,” he said, very deliberately not meeting her eyes. He jumped almost imperceptibly when she slammed her palms on the table.
“So, let me get this straight. You used my magic, because you ran out, and in the process, you made me your servant, and now you can “sense my fear” and stuff. Can you “sense” how I feel right now?”
“Don’t worry, I can’t read your mind, it doesn’t work that way. It’s just that if you’re threatened, like you were before, I sense it and I can come help you. That’s really all being a familiar means,” Sam said in a poor attempt at nonchalance.
“If that’s all being a familiar meant, a bunch of vampires wouldn’t have tried to kidnap her right out of our store,” said Khalil, giving Sam a look like he didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him. “What else does it involve that you don’t want us to know?”
Sam rubbed his eyes, something Cassie was beginning to realize he did often when he was stressed. “Look, I’ve been running from this culture for pretty much my entire life, and I try not to think about it. I really wasn’t prepared to give you all Demonology 101.”
“And maybe I’d be a lot more sympathetic to that if you hadn’t gone MIA— for days— when we really needed you,” said Khalil. He stood up, but not to glower over Sam; instead, he started pacing the length of the room.
“Do you know what that was like? Waiting for days after you left, thinking you were never going to come back and we were never going to get an explanation for anything? That I would never know what the hell I had even been working next to for months?”
Cassie now understood why Khalil was so pissed. She worked with Sam once or twice a week, tops; Sam opened the shop with Khalil practically every morning. She didn’t know if the two were exactly friends, but they were close, in a way. Cassie hadn’t felt betrayed when Sam ran off because she’d had no expectations for him, but Khalil did.
Sam sighed, and sat back in his chair. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Fu-stuff it,” Khalil said, still pacing. It was obvious he had meant to curse, but changed tack at the last moment.
“I just had no idea what to do…at any job, once someone starts getting suspicious, I usually take off,” Sam said. “I felt like I couldn’t face any of you, but I knew I shouldn’t leave town because someone might come after Cassie. So I waited— afraid to come back, and afraid to leave,” he finished bitterly.
Cassie sat down again, not sure what to make of him. He did seem genuinely regretful that things had turned out this way, but she wasn’t about to let that “servant” thing go so easily.
Dwight looked thoughtful for a moment, then looked at Sam. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you hadn’t been here, wouldn’t everyone here except Jay have probably died when the building next door collapsed? Doesn’t sound to me like you have much to be guilty about.”
“He abandoned us, Dwight!” said Khalil, spinning to face the smaller man. “You heard what the vampires said, she was fair game because he was gone! How can you forgive him for that?”
“But the thing is, he did come back. And I’ll have a bruise on my head for a while where that…thing hit me, but beyond that, we’re all fine.”
Khalil glared at him. “So, you’re just going to let him get away with everything because he saved us once? Excuse me,” he said, turning in Sam’s direction throwing his hands up theatrically. “Thank you, oh great one, for sparing our miserable lives! How dare we puny humans question our demon overlord!”
Sam’s face went redder than Cassie had ever seen it. “Khalil, shut up!” he yelled.
“Or what? You’ll make me go poof?”
“You’re already a poof,” said a voice from behind them.
Cassie turned in her chair and saw Serenus standing at the door to the break room, both hands resting on the head of his cane. “Sorry for busting in on you like this, but the door was unlocked— well, technically, the lock was broken.”
“Dr. Zeitbloom?” said Dwight, looking confused with his red-blond bangs in his face.
“You got here awfully fast,” Sam said, the anger draining from his face.
“You? Explaining the how and why of demons to your friends? Like I would miss that?” he said, striding into the room. It couldn’t be that easy for a man with a cane to swagger, but he managed it.
“What’s the professor got to do with any of this?” asked Khalil, frowning. He looked a little calmer, but he still hadn’t taken his seat.
“You’ll know all momentarily,” said Serenus, dropping into the seat around the table Khalil had vacated. “But first, I’m parched. Sam? Could you make me one of those frothy cinnamon things you do so well? You know what I mean.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “You want me to make you coffee…now?”
“Really, I want you out of the room for five minutes, but I also want a drink; it’s actually one of those fortuitous two birds, one-stone situations,” said Serenus, leaning back in Khalil’s chair comfortably.
To Cassie’s surprise, Sam got up without a word and walked out to the shop. Serenus’ eyes watched his retreating form, then turned to Cassie.
“I’m afraid I have to ask you to be patient with him: most men spend their lives trying to convince the world that they’re far more formidable than they are. Poor Sam seems to have it totally backwards. For him, admitting his power is like confessing that he still wets the bed.”
“So you knew Sam was a demon,” said Cassie.
“Well of course, takes one to know one and all that,” he said, cleaning his glasses with a microfiber cloth.
He snorted when Dwight and Jay inched away from him. “Oh, stop. I’m afraid I’m not a big, grand one like your friend though, just a human with some demon blood in the background somewhere. I can’t do much more magic than any of you,” he said, shrugging. “I can sense magic, and I have a great nose for it, but I don’t generate any more of it than the most average human— less, in fact.”
“So what did you need him out of the room for?” said Khalil quietly, no longer pacing.
Serenus cleared his throat. “Listen, it’s not Sam’s fault— like the good Mr. MacGregor here said, if he hadn’t done what he did, you would probably all be dead anyway. But the fact remains, you’re all in very big trouble.”
“I think the vampire punching Dwight in the face was our first clue,” said Khalil.
Serenus shook his head. “None of you will be safe until Sam successfully defends his claim to Cassie in court. He probably doesn’t realize it yet, but this is more than some undesirables breaking into your shop hoping to snag a quality familiar; right now, all of your lives are in danger. A human like Cassie is a very hot commodity among our kind, and you all will all be seen as potentially valuable by virtue of your connection to her. As well as all her friends, and family.”
Cassie suddenly went cold. Oh my God, she thought, Hunter. He’s only ten….
“When you say court, you mean like…special demon court?” Jay asked, and Serenus nodded.
“The good news is, he can protect you,” said Serenus. “We can protect you. But he’s been running from what he is for so long, it’s not going to be easy for him to do it.”
Cassie looked at Serenus, frowning. Something was bothering her about him, and she wasn’t sure what it was. If only she could remember….
Jay looked as enthusiastic as Cassie felt uneasy. “So, Sam’s a really powerful demon right? He said most other demons can’t freeze time like that.”
Serenus chuckled. “Demons are very patriarchal; half-demons’ powers depend partially on who their father was, partially on luck of the draw. It’s hard to say how strong Sam is per se, since he’s always refused to allow me to do anything to properly test him, but his parentage is…” he seemed to struggle for the right word. “…unimpeachable.”
“So, who’s his father? Is he a named demon, like in the Bible? Could we look him up?” Jay asked rapid-fire questions, his eyes gleaming with keenness.
Serenus gentle chuckle deepened into laughter. “Sorry, I’ll be happy to answer your questions about anything I’m reasonably certain he won’t kill me for telling you.”
Jay laughed weakly, like he wanted to believe the bit about Sam killing the professor was a joke, but wasn’t sure.
The sound of Sam whipping milk in the espresso machine in the other room was suddenly audible over Jay’s outburst. Serenus looked towards the door, as though to confirm that Sam was still out of earshot, and leaned forward conspiratorially. They all found themselves mirroring him.
“Listen, he won’t ask you not to be afraid of him, because he doesn’t want to even put the idea in your heads, so I’m asking; don’t be afraid of him. I won’t say he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he certainly won’t hurt any of you; at least, not more than he already has by involving you in his life.”
There was a silence as they all considered his words. Were they afraid of him? Cassie knew that she was, but on some level she always had been, and hated herself for it. She had thought it was because of a crush, but her intuition has been trying to tell her something, too.
Khalil spoke quietly. “And we know that how? Because you said so?”
Before Serenus could answer, Sam walked back into the room, holding a drink. “Here’s your five pump, half-caf cinnamon latte, shots over foam and steamed to 205 degrees. If I made it wrong, tough,” he said, sliding the wobbling paper cup over to Serenus.
Cassie blinked: of course, that’s what was bothering her: she’d seen Serenus order a non-crazy coffee. Because he’d been there the day of the earthquake. “Dr. Zeitbloom-"
“Please, call me Serenus. Or Ser, if you like.”
“Okay…Ser…” she said, finding it odd to be calling a man his age by a nickname. “…why were you at the shop Sunday morning before the earthquake?”
A flicker of fear moved quickly over Serenus’ face. Before Cassie could ask what was wrong, Sam had moved, picking Serenus up by the neck and slamming him into the employee lockers. The older man gurgled painfully.
“You bastard,” Sam said quietly. “You knew what was going to happen, and you didn’t tell me.” Serenus made a pained sound as Sam squeezed his neck.
Though Khalil was closer, it was the smaller man who got between the two. “Hey man, stop!” said Dwight, separating Sam’s hand from Serenus’ neck. Sam grimaced, but didn’t fight back against Dwight. Khalil stepped back; biting his lip in frustration; Cassie could tell he had wanted to pull Sam off of Serenus himself, but had been afraid to touch him.
Though horrified by the sudden brutality of the attack, Cassie noticed that even when incredibly angry, Sam didn’t reach for magic. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that; she certainly didn’t want to see Serenus hurt, but part of her wanted to know what else Sam could do. She hated herself briefly for the thought when she saw Serenus struggle for breath.
“Well, that was certainly uncalled for,” said Serenus hoarsely. “Sam, I swear, all I knew was that something was going to happen regarding Cassandra that morning. That was the extent of my so-called “precognition.” I came to the store to see if being close to her would trigger any further visions, and it didn’t. If I’d known, I definitely would have warned you,” he said, slowly and evenly.
Sam exhaled and looked down. “I believe you…I shouldn’t have assumed…I’m sorry.” He collapsed back into his chair. “So…is it over? They won’t send more vampires now that I’ve made my claim official, will they?”
Serenus gingerly took a sip of the drink Sam had made for him, rubbing his throat. “You haven’t made your claim official, you’ve only just begun the process. You have to go to court for that.”
Sam’s eyes widened, and Cassie thought for a fraction of a second she saw a flash of red in them. “I am not going to—"
“I’m not having this argument with you now,” said Serenus, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “The important thing is that yes, they might come back, and it’s your responsibility to protect these people now. I can get the ingredients for protection amulets for you, but it’s going to take a few days to prepare them.”
Sam snorted and leaned all the way back in his chair, pitching it so that the front legs were off the floor. “Protection amulets? That’s the kind of game we’re playing now?”
“Yes it is,” said Serenus firmly, “And unless you want to explain to me how you can create and maintain a dozen different protection spells simultaneously, you’re going to craft them. Understood?”
Sam met Serenus’ eyes for several moments. A silent understanding seemed to pass between the two men, and Cassie felt annoyed that there was obviously so much they weren’t sharing. It wasn’t that they were hiding things, exactly; it seemed more like there were entire worlds of knowledge shared between them, and they couldn’t have communicated them to the rest of the group had they wanted to. Not unless they wanted to be there all night, and maybe into next week.
“Fine,” Sam said quietly.
Serenus visibly relaxed, apparently convinced that Sam wasn’t going to pound him into any more walls that evening. “In the meantime, I suggest putting a protection circle around Cassie’s house. Don’t waste any time.”
Sam looked confused. “Her house? I was expecting you to tell me to lay one down here.”
“Do that too just to be safe, but you probably won’t need it. If I were in the business of snatching familiars, I wouldn’t go after them in my rival’s stronghold. Especially not after already failing once. Much safer to try to catch her out of your territory.”
Khalil leaned against the lockers. “So our shop is Sam’s territory right now? What does that make us?”
“It doesn’t make you anything,” Sam snapped back.
Serenus drained his fancy latte before responding. “Like it or not, a class A spell has been done in this building— this place is on the map as far as demons are concerned. There’s no going back.”
There was silence for a moment as they all considered that.
“So,” said Serenus, standing up with the aid of his cane. “I’ll start getting the ingredients you’ll need immediately. Sam, go with Cassie and put a circle around her house. Cassie, stay home this weekend in the circle’s protection until we can get the amulets crafted. The rest of you,” he said, gesturing with his free hand. “I highly doubt anyone’s going to come after you, but it’s not out of the question that some bright light might try to use you as a hostage to try to trade for Cassie. Try not to be alone for a few days until we can get you the amulets. As long as you’re in a group, it’s not worth the risk to snatch you.”
Cassie was torn; on the one hand, it felt good to hear Serenus lay it all out; having a plan made her feel less lost and helpless, even if she didn’t have control over any of this. On the other, she was beginning to get a sick feeling that some of Serenus’ knowledge about snatching people like her wasn’t entirely academic. She didn’t know if she could trust him, but couldn’t see any other choice.
As they all got up to leave, Khalil stirred from his position against the lockers. “Aren’t we missing something? I thought you had to threaten us not to tell anyone your secret upon pain of death, or something like that.”
Serenus smiled broadly. “Au contraire, you have carte blanch! Tell your friends, tell your mother— just don’t blame us when they start proscribing psychiatric medication for you.”
Khalil seemed to consider that. “So we’ve officially moved into ‘too crazy for anyone to believe’ terr
itory, huh.”
Cassie jumped when Sam put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at his solemn face. “I’m coming home with you. We have to put a protection circle around your house, remember?”
Her jaw dropped. “Tonight?”
Sam rolled his eyes. “No, tomorrow afternoon, after a bunch of vampires have carted you away. That’ll be real useful.”
“Oh. Right. Sure.” Somehow, when Serenus had been talking about putting some kind of protection around her house, she hadn’t imagined that would entail taking the bus with Sam at one in the morning. Cassie gulped: she didn’t feel comfortable spending more time with him, but it didn’t look like she had much of a choice.