Demon's Doorway (19 page)

"Well," Bradley said. "Maybe if he—"

"And you, quiet." She glared at Bradley. "I'll be back. You boys try not to kill each other while I'm gone."

Jack shrugged. "He can't kill me."

"I wish I could," Bradley said.

"A year ago, I would have said the same thing."

*****

Kevin sat on the same couch on Victoria's deck where he was only ten minutes ago. What a difference ten minutes made. Alicia was long gone, probably on her way back to her apartment. Any sense of normalcy floated away like one of his magic feathers.

He didn't know how he felt. The most overwhelming single emotion that kept coming to him was fear. He was afraid of Jack, afraid of Bradley, afraid of the demons that nearly killed him. Most of all, he was afraid of himself.

He tried to focus on Alicia, because of the simple fact that she made him feel good. She knew nothing about him, but liked what she saw across the dining room. She was the one who approached him. He tried to take comfort in that, and pictured her smiling at him.

Then Jack rushed in to replace her.

Immortal.

"Can you cure my immortality?" Kevin whispered to no one, doing his best impression of the gruff Jack. "Sure, no problem. Let's just a take a little blood sample here. Are you allergic to anything? Like, maybe, snake blood, goat's milk, or the tail of a donkey?"

The door opened, and Victoria stepped onto the deck. She smiled, not saying a word, and gestured to the spot next to him. Kevin nodded and scooted over, making room for her.

"I know I'm not as pretty as Leese, but hopefully you don't mind my company."

They were quiet for a moment. Victoria put an arm around his shoulders, giving him a squeeze. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. The wind had a cold chill to it as it blew through his shirt. Victoria wasn't bothered at all.

"So," he said. "You brought me here to remove an old spell from Jack."

"No. I brought you here to relax." Victoria laughed quietly. "Although I think I've failed miserably. I'm really sorry, Kevin."

He managed a small smile and nod of the head. "Will I ever have a normal life?"

"Normal is overrated. Who wants normal?"

"It's just that…." Kevin had trouble forming thoughts into words. "Has it ever seemed too big for you? I mean
all
this. Vampires, witches, ghosts."

"Of course."

"When?"

"The day after I was made into a vampire."

Kevin held Victoria's gaze, and she could tell he was waiting for more.

"It's actually pure luck I'm even alive," she began. "I woke up in the middle of the day, among what was left of my family. The sunlight came in through a window and a hole in the roof, but never found me. I tried to leave, but got a few third degree burns for my trouble. I thought I was in Hell. I didn't know what I was. I tried to eat food, and threw it all up."

"How did you get through that?"

"A family friend finally came to visit. I was almost at bloodlust at that point. I attacked him without even thinking, but thankfully I didn't kill him. It's safe to say I thought the world was a little big then."

"A witch can make people immortal? As in not dying? I never thought I'd say this, but I can see why Bradley wanted me dead."

"Hey!" Victoria's face twisted with anger. "I never want to hear you say anything like that again."

"Come on, Victoria. You thought the same way, not too long ago."

"And I was wrong. The world is a better place with you in it. My life is better with you a part of it. I'm not speaking for every witch. I'm sure a few are out there that need to be dealt with, Anatol being one of them. But you're not it. You're my friend. Period."

Kevin leaned back at Victoria's passion, and was humbled. She made him feel better, but there was one more thing he had to say.

"I'm sorry I let you down today."

"What the hell are you on about now?"

"I kept second-guessing you, and I hesitated at the office. I just…panicked."

She hugged him and kissed his cheek. He shied away like a young child, and the vampire laughed.

"Kevin, forget Jack, forget Bradley. Let me try to put what happened today in perspective for you. We got lucky, I won't argue that. Demons don't like to kill quick. They like to maim, to torture. But you saved
everyone
. We didn't lose a single mortal. When it came time to step up, you did exactly that. Today would have went much differently if you weren't there."

Kevin sighed, trying to hang onto her words. Victoria was a four-hundred-year-old creature. She'd seen and done it all, and everything she said carried weight.

"Do you feel better?" she asked.

"I think I'm getting there."

"Good. Let's go back inside. We're getting ready to call it a night."

"I'm sure Alex is ready to go."

"You should have seen the look Cindy gave me walking out here."

*****

Kevin took a deep breath as he walked down the basement steps once again, trying to prepare himself for whatever waited for him. Jack waited in the corner next to the TV, standing in the shadows with his hands in his pockets. Bradley was on a phone call near the office desk.

"Hey, Alex," Victoria said. "Cindy's upstairs waiting—"

Jack quickly stepped forward, a finger to his lips. "Shhh. Our little pet bat is sleeping."

Victoria laughed as she looked over the back of the couch at Alex. Cindy and he had both fallen asleep on that same couch many times. He turned on his side, dead to the world.

"Victoria," Bradley said. "Can I talk to you in private?"

She glanced at Jack and Kevin, pointing a menacing finger at Jack. He smiled and held his hands up, preemptively proclaiming innocence. Victoria and Bradley disappeared up the stairs.

Kevin said nothing, just watching Jack. He felt uncomfortable knowing that Jack had probably dissected everything about him, just by looking at him. Watching Jack's observational skills at the reception was impressive, but now that he was the subject he didn't feel quite so good.

"Glinda, I'm saying this to honestly try to help you. You're a good-looking kid, you seem okay, with a good head on your shoulders. Alicia wants you, but she isn't gonna fall for a crybaby."

Kevin nodded and sat down in the chair across from Alex. "Can we talk? No sarcasm, no weird shit?"

"I'll…try."

"So, immortality."

Jack took a deep breath. "Yup. I let this woman stay at my home. She was rumored to be a witch, but I didn't believe it. It turned out she was rather obsessed with me. She made me drink this potion, told me we'd both live together forever. Before she could drink it herself, my town tried to hang us. They…didn't succeed, at least with me. I'm not just immortal, but I can't be killed."

Kevin frowned in confusion. "Is that a bad thing? I mean…vampires live forever, right? They seem to enjoy it."

He sighed, visibly irritated. "It's not living forever that's terrible. I haven't
slept
since the curse, Glinda."

Kevin said nothing, trying to imagine what that was like. Jack held up a hand.

"Here. Let me demonstrate, give you a peek into my world," he said.

He walked up to Alex and slapped him across the face. Alex jumped on the couch. Kevin sucked in a breath as Alex's eyes turned red, and his face turned a light shade of brown, looking like he belonged in a horror movie.

"Would you stop waking me up, you dickhead!"

Jack laughed, and Alex's features went back to normal. He was embarrassed that he'd lost control.

"There. Did you see that?" Jack asked.

Kevin blinked. "Uh, a jerk doing a jerk thing?"

"No. Alex here is angry. He's angry because he wants to sleep, and he can't. Something is stopping him from resting. Sleep is almost magical by itself. The body recharges, the mind refreshes, problems go away, fresh starts happen. That's all been taken away from me. Try to imagine what that's like. Imagine what happens when you take a mind, and keep it active longer than it was meant to. You get something twisted, unnatural—"

"You get you," Kevin said.

"Exactly. You get me. I haven't even
rested
in so long. I can't sleep, can't rest."

"Are we done here?" Alex asked. "Victoria, and that other vampire guy. Where are they?"

"We're done here," Jack said. "Let them argue it out. You're free to go make love to your beautiful bride, who happens to like the wings."

Alex blushed. "Shut up. Kevin, I'll catch you later."

He left, and Kevin walked across the basement, heading for his suitcase. Jack watched him curiously.

"What are you doing?"

"No rest," Kevin said. "You said you can't rest."

"Yeah, only about fifty times."

Kevin pulled out his spell-book and set it on the desk. He flipped through the pages, trying to remember a spell he'd read many times, but didn't truly understand.

"Do you…have something in that book of yours? A cure?"

"I don't know. I just thought I remember seeing something about…."

"About what?" Jack nearly shouted.

Kevin barely heard him as his fingers found the page. It was an older recipe, recorded by his grandfather on his mother's side, with some very strange ingredients. The blood of a goat, grave-dust from someone who had been buried at least a month, a single potato, a nail clipping from a dead wolf, along with a few other disgusting items.

What unnerved Kevin was the fact that there was no warning about the potion, no interpretation of what
no rest
meant. He would have thought any witch would stay far away from such a potion.

He instinctively knew, by the very nature of the potion, it would only work on humans. The witch that cursed Jack didn't have that knowledge, or perhaps didn't care. He thought it best to keep that from him.

"Do you have a cure?" Jack asked. "I can't believe you can actually read that chicken-scratch."

"And I can't believe you actually drank this." Kevin felt his stomach churn. "Disgusting."

Jack's eyes went wide as he grabbed the book from the table, looking at it from all angles. "You found something? What did you find?"

Kevin calmly took the book from Jack's hands. "Jack, don't ever grab my spell-book like that. And no, I didn't find a cure. I just found the original potion for immortality. I must have read it a hundred times, but didn't really know what it meant, until you."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, can we forget about what I drank, and focus on what I need now? Is there a cure in there, or not?"

"No, there isn't. I'm sorry."

He clenched and opened his fists as he paced near the couch. His face seemed to be twisting in pain and rage. He looked like a caged animal, and Kevin had to wonder how Victoria and he met.

"Okay," Jack said, forcing calm. "There has to be a witch Wikipedia page you can look up, right? Or you have to know other witches."

"I do know one, but she's only a half-witch. And she's the one who gave me this book. So, I'm not sure she knows anything I don't."

"Do we have to call Margaret Hamilton?"

"Who?"

"What is it with you young people?" Jack said, scowling. "Haven't you ever watched
Wizard of Oz
?"

Kevin shook his head, forcing Jack's ranting aside. "Look, the cure might come to me."

Jack stopped pacing and let out an angry laugh. "Oh, it
might
? Maybe? Possibly? I've waited two centuries to find a witch like you, only to be told
maybe
. I'm better off just staring at a weather report. You're useless."

"That's just how it works. I know about you now, and if I focus on this disgusting potion here, the ingredients to the cure might pop in my head. You just have to wait—"

"Wait." He nearly spit out the word. "Wait, wait. Hell, sure, why not? I've waited this long. I can wait for a young idiot to pull his head out of his ass."

"Hey, look—"

"Did you even seal the deal with Alicia?"

"Uh, seal the deal—?"

"You were with her for over an hour. Now, I can tell just by looking at you that you didn't get in her dress. Did you get a phone number, an email address, a Skype name? Did you set up the hotel for the one-nighter? Did you feel her ass? Did you do
anything
?"

Kevin wanted to laugh, but was afraid of Jack's reaction. "Well, we talked. We had a real nice time just talking. And I can tell she's interested."

"Talking and interested. Oh, well, never mind then. I mean, hell, if you're talking, and she's interested…Glinda, let me tell you something. Do you see that couch? It's an interesting couch, and I can talk to it. But it's not gonna get me off."