nancy werlocks diary s02e12 (2 page)

“So Max couldn’t be swayed?”

“I offered him money. Told him he could just summon another succubus. But you know how men get when their pride is bruised.”

“Yeah, which is why this entire thing is so bizarre. No offense, but in his mental state shouldn’t she be actively wanting to get back to him now that he is vulnerable. I don’t mean to encourage possession or anything, but for a succubus this seems like a no-brainer.”

“Toranala is aspiring to something more.”

“She’s hoping to evolve into a more powerful demon form?”

“Honestly, Nancy, I’m thinking of retiring. I’m grooming her to take over the club.”

“Retire? What are you going to do if you aren’t running the Hellsmouth?”

“I have some…opportunities that have opened up.”

“Maybe you can talk to this Max guy?” says Houston. I roll my eyes at him. “Seriously. A call from you would probably scare the crap out of him.”

“You do have something of a…reputation,” says Toranala.

“What is that supposed to mean? I ‘have a reputation’?”

Vash interrupts for the save. “Well, you do have training as a counselor. I’m sure you’ve dealt with possessive ex-boyfriends and such before.”

Toranala’s body spasms again against the summoning. Houston resumes concentrating his energies to shield her.

“That little bastard is getting through
my
anchor? Give me his number.”

Vash gives me Max’s phone number and I call him from my phone.

“Max Tarken,” he says. He sounds like he just finished running a marathon, but that should be expected considering he has spent the last couple of hours trying to summon Toranala against her will.

“Warlock Tarken,” I say in my ‘
yes, I am pulling rank’
voice, “This is Rank Two Warlock Nancy Werlock of the Philadelphia Evocation Academy.”

“Madame Warlock!” he exclaims. “I…I am honored.” I hear him fumbling with something. “This is an…unexpected surprise.” I hear the faint sound of a keyboard. “The
Philadelphia
Academy, you say? Still early in the day there on the east coast, yes?”

“Brunch time around here. You know why I am calling, don’t you?”

“Um…” I hear more furious typing at a keyboard. “I can’t imagine what a warlock of your stature would want with a humble practitioner like me.”

“Just stop.” I say. “I’m assuming you have my WitchNet profile pulled up on your laptop by now to try to figure out who I am.”

“Ah, yeah. Yeah I do. I have it…right here. This is about my succubus, isn’t it?”

“As a matter of fact, it is.”

“If she is causing you trouble, just send her home and I’ll deal with her.”

“When you dismissed her she stopped being yours. And now she wants you to leave her alone.”

“I didn’t exactly
dismiss
her. I told her we needed some time apart.”

“You dumped a succubus for a Hooters girl, and now you’ve been dumped by the Hooters girl and you want the succubus back.”

“You say it like that makes me sound shallow.”

“Look, your confused and frustrated because of your break up. That is a perfectly normal, healthy response. What is neither normal nor healthy is trying to overcome that confusion by summoning Taranala and attempting to forcibly rekindle…whatever you think the two of you had. You are looking backwards instead of moving forward. That isn’t good for either of you.”

“I just…I just miss her. I was stupid for dismissing her for Connie. I didn’t have to hide my powers around Tora. She was supportive of my career. And the sex—”

“Yeah. Succubus. I get it.”

“I was stupid. I didn’t realize how good I had it until it was gone. And now I wish everything was back the way it was.”

“And do you think forcibly dragging her away from her friends and life is going to make everything okay?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“Let’s be honest. If this was just about an obedient sex servant to fawn over you, you could just summon another succubus. But if you genuinely care about Taranala, you have to consider her needs in this relationship, too.”

“
That
would be a switch,” says Toranala. She leans forward and raises her voice so Max can hear her. “I went above and beyond for him, Nancy. I learned how to cook so I could make meals the way he liked them. Like those little homemade egg rolls with the chicken that he loved. I cleaned his apartment. I did his laundry. I took care of his dog. I read scripts with him so he could rehearse his lines.”

“Tell her Rocky died last week,” says Max. “He got off his leash and ran into traffic.”

“He wants me to let you know that Rocky passed on last week. It was an accident apparently.”

Toranala’s eyes widen and glass over with tears. “Oh no! Poor Rocky. He was Max’s little buddy. He got him when he was a puppy. That bitch
left him
while he was mourning Rocky? I’ll kill her!” She stands up and almost knocks Houston over.

“Wow,” is all Houston can manage before having to turn away to hide his laughing.

“It sounds like you still care about Max,” I say.

“I do. Even if he is an ass. But I don’t want to just go back to L.A. I’ve got my own life now.”

“Max, would you be willing to stop trying to summon Toranala and maybe just…talk to her? I think it might do the two of you some good to just have a long talk about your feelings. Maybe spend some time getting to know each other outside of the master/servant dynamic and just talk to each other as people.”

“If…if she’ll talk to me. She didn’t return any of my texts.”

“If he called you would you talk to him?” I ask Toranala.

“If he wants to Skype me later...I just got a new webcam.”

“Ask her if she still has that pink and black nightie I bought her.”

“How about you ask her that later?”

“Okay, yeah. I got an audition in a couple of hours, but I’ll call her like six your time.”

“He said he has an audition but he’ll call you around six.”

“Okay. Yeah. That will be good.” She says. “Good luck with the audition!” she shouts toward my phone.

After Toranala leaves the shop, Houston leans on the front counter and says, “You used to do that for a living? All…day?”

“That was actually one of my simpler couples counseling. But yeah.”

“You subjected yourself to that voluntarily?”

“So says the guy I found straddled over the succubus.”

“Hey, there is a difference between helping someone who comes to you and going out looking for trouble. It’s not like I’m stalking the streets of Gotham saving random succubi from overbearing masters. You actually advertised for married couples to come subject you to that.”

“Just go clean up the anchor before Anastasia gets here,” I say.

“I wanted to show it to Eric when he got in. I thought…” I fold my arms in front of me. Houston’s shoulders droop. “Fine. I got pictures anyway.”

“Of course you do.” I walk over to the door and flip the
Closed
sign over to
Open
. “And I don’t want to see those photos on WitchNet!” I yell.

Interview with the Vampire

October 24
^th

Lee wraps his fingers in my hair and gently pulls my head back. I let him pull me back down on the bed. “I should be there,” he says. “I can protect you.”

Samhain is only a few days away, which means either the trap we’ve set for Vivika will snap shut or it will blow up in our faces. For months, we thought that Vivika had been the victim of a murder plot perpetuated by the Lord Advocate of the Eight of the Nine. The truth turned out to be something far worse. In the late 18th century, a powerful Haemomancer named Chana Magus discovered the first official case of a psychic vampire, a vampire that fed off of psychic energy instead of blood. She captured and tortured several of the creatures in order to develope magic that would allow her to drain life from other living things so that she could extend her own. After her secret was discovered and the ritual made Forbidden, Chana Magus “fell off the grid” as they say. But in reality, she had simply been using even more dangerous magic to jump from body to body. The woman the modern world knew as Grande Madame Vivika Marchan was simply the latest incarnation of Chana Magus.

Houston and I have been working with the Lord Advocate to turn Vivika’s plot against her. Everything needs to be very precise for this plan to work. A single thing out of place could allow her to escape justice again.

“I know you want to help,” I say to Lee as I roll over onto my side. “But we need to be extremely careful and you actually being at the cairn would just complicate things. Besides, most of your abilities won’t work on her anyway. And frankly I’m not sure what being so close to the cairn on Samhain would do to
you
.”

“Don’t worry about me,
Mistress
,” he says with a smirk. “I live to serve.”

I kiss him. “You’re ridiculous. But I love you, anyway.”

I find the wherewithal to get myself out of bed and get dressed. “So when do your parents come back from their vacation?”

“Next week,” he replies. He sits up and stretches. “You know, my mother has gone out of her way to assure me that she ‘respects my privacy,’” he makes little quote marks with his fingers.

“Your mother also made it a point to tell me I should feel free to ‘keep you company’ while they were gone.”

Lee chuckles. “My parents like you. We’re not teenagers. They wouldn’t mind you spending the night.”

“I know. But I have to get up early in the morning.”

“No you don’t. You have a Houston and an Eric that can open the shop.”

“The last time I left Houston to open the shop, I found a succubus in my storeroom.”

“But that all worked out.”

“I don’t have a change of clothes.”

“Start packing an overnight bag.”

“You are becoming quite the pushy salesman.”

“Just trying to close the deal.” He gets out of bed and walks over to me. He wraps his arms around my waist and leans into me. “I love you. You mean everything to me. I want to make you happy. And I know your mother doesn’t exactly approve.”

“Don’t worry about my mother.”

“I’m a demon. Pretty sure I should maintain a healthy level of fear when it comes to your mother.”

“You’re my servitor. She won’t do anything to you.”

“As you say, Mistress,” he kisses me. “I just wish there was something I could do to put her mind at ease so she would get off your case.”

“Don’t worry about my mother. Besides, once all this with Vivika is done, she won’t be around as much. She accepted some Overseer position with an archdemon.”

“Isn’t that a conflict of interests for a warlock?”

“Oh, no. She won’t be helping him access the material world or anything. She’ll be like the secret police. Going after rogue demons trying to overthrow her boss. It will keep her busy. And she can set her own schedule.”

It’s almost 11 PM by the time I leave Lee’s place. I decide to stop at a Wawa to get a cup of decaf. As I come out of the store, there is a man who looks to be in his mid-thirties leaning against a cobalt blue Ford Focus parked next to my car. He’s wearing a beige leather long coat over a plain black t-shirt and denim jeans. He’s also wearing sunglasses at this time of night. “Dr. Werlock? You are a difficult woman to get alone.”

“Nothing ominous about that,” I say and activate Third Eye. No heat signature. No spirit aura. “Shouldn’t you be bothering someone at Lansfield?”

“Sorry. Let’s start over. Lord Palatine Christopher Ross,” he offers a slight bow. “Believe it or not, it wasn’t my intention to startle you. Your kind is just always hard to read. I meant to call the shop, but didn’t know how many of your employees were mundane or not and didn’t want to risk it. And I didn’t want to deal with your apprentice. I make it a point to avoid psions like sunlight.”

“Have you been following me?”

“Not in a stalker kind of way, if that is your worry. This was more a matter of opportunity. I saw you driving down Browning and figured I’d follow and see if you stopped. I got lucky.”

“I’m a demonologist, not a necromancer, Lord Palatine.”

“I’m not looking for either. I’m looking for a psychologist.”

“A psychologist? I was a marriage and family counselor.”

“I know. I know.” He removes his sunglasses to reveal a pair of attractive hazel eyes. I immediately activate Iron Wall. Besides blocking mind reading, it also protects against vampire domination abilities.

“What is this all about? I don’t need Blood Court drama right now. I’ve lived in the Delaware Valley my entire life and never once had any interaction with your people. Now all of the sudden the Palatine is following me to Wawa?”

“I need a professional to review some files and give me a professional opinion. I need a professional who already knows about the supernatural and thus can be trusted to review sensitive information that would otherwise constitute a breach. And I need that person to be someone…beyond the game.”

“I can’t diagnose someone from a file.”

“I’m not looking for a full diagnosis. Just a professional opinion. I need to narrow down my field of focus on something and need an outside, unbiased opinion. You’ll be compensated well.”

“And if I refuse?”

He shrugs. “What do you expect me to say? If I was a Ban I might prattle on with a bunch of empty threats. Make some veiled reference to your family to try to intimidate you. But I haven’t survived all of these centuries by antagonizing people who can set me on fire with a flick of the wrist. If you refuse my offer, I move on to Plan C.”

“Plan
C
?”

“Plan A already failed.”

“Lord Palatine—”

“Chris. My title doesn’t mean anything beyond the Blood Court.”

“Chris, this has been a very trying year for me. I have a lot of personal issues I am still dealing with and the last thing I need is Blood Court drama.”

“I’m not asking you to get involved. That is one of the reasons I came to you, in fact. You don’t have any ties to any of my kind. That means you can look at things with an open mind and no undue influence. The very last thing I want is to get a warlock with your reputation knee-deep in vampire business. That doesn’t end well for anyone.”