Random Acts of Sorcery (23 page)

Cassie made it to the bar at around the same time the bartender realized that there was a girl floating in the shark tank behind him; he dropped the drink he was preparing, and for a moment, the sound of glass breaking almost drowned out the music. Aeka’s hair was spread around her like a corona, her arms and legs splayed out in a bizarre position that was still strangely graceful. She was scarcely moving, save for the bubbles that issued from her mouth and nose. The sharks were swimming around her, but made no move to attack her; if anything, Cassie
would say they looked confused. Dozens of people at the bar gasped and pointed, clearly wondering if the diving girl was part of the entertainment, or the result of some horrible accident.

“Miri!” she yelled, whipping her head around to try to locate her, but she heard a splash before she even saw the redheaded vampire approach the tank. In a matter of seconds, Miri was swimming towards Aeka, dodging a particularly big shark who had taken offense to her entrance. She grabbed the girl by the waist with one arm and started pulling her back to the surface. Aeka’s eyes were closed; Cassie couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not.

Ignoring an irate employee, Cassie slipped through an opening between the bar and the outside wall of the hotel to loop around the back of the tank. In the back, there was a high metal platform with buckets on it; presumably where the staff stood to feed the sharks. As Cassie climbed up one of the ladders, not easy in her pool shoes, Miri was pulling Aeka out of the tank, over the railing and onto the center of the platform. She smacked the girl on the back, hard, and a stream of water went shooting out of Aeka’s mouth, followed by a string of painful-sounding coughs.

“You loopy little angel!”
Miri snarled, keeping her voice low. “What the hell did you go and do that for?”

Aeka took a moment to get some air into her lungs. “It looked nice,” she said simply. Cassie sat down next to her on the platform, not sure where to even begin.

A few moments of silence passed, then a man in a grey jumpsuit was running towards them from the back of the hotel. “Hey! Get down from there! No guests allowed on the platform!”

“Let me handle this,” said Miri, jumping over the railing to land right in front of the hotel employee, her wet platform shoes making a loud thump as they made contact with the concrete below. The uniformed man jumped back, clearly shocked that he’d just seen a girl drop 20 feet off the platform, only to land on her feet like it was nothing.

“Listen,” said Miri, changing into her calm, hypnotic voice. “You need to calm down….”

As Miri dealt with the employee, Cassie hugged her knees and looked at Aeka. With her thin clothes sticking to her like a second skin and seaweed in her hair, somehow the girl only looked more ethereally beautiful.

“Why did you do that?” she asked finally. “Were you trying to kill yourself?”

She wasn’t really expecting an answer, so it took her by surprise when Aeka responded.

“I cut off my wings for you,” she said softly.

Cassie looked off into the distance, at a loss; she could see other platforms, other areas where the employees were meant to stand and monitor the tanks. They had ended up in some kind of central feeding hub, away from the glittery facade of the hotel and its outdoor patios. The air smelled fishy and strangely stale.

“I never asked you to do that,” she said finally. “I never asked you to do that,” she said again, needing to tell herself as much as Aeka.

The blond girl hugged her knees, mirroring Cassie’s pose. It was strange to see her in such a defensive posture.

“You said we’d go back to the ocean together.”

“I lied,” said Cassie, a strange feeling of calm coming over her. She felt like what she was saying had been a long time coming. “I lied because I needed you to do something, because I’m not perfect like you. I lied, and I feel bad, but I would have done it again, because I needed to save his life.”

Aeka seemed to consider Cassie’s words. “Why do you save him? He’s not like us.”

“No, he isn’t,” Cassie agreed.

“Is it because he’s yours?” Aeka asked, her blue-green eyes looking off into the distance at something Cassie couldn’t see.

“Yeah, I guess he is mine,” said Cassie, dropping her legs. She wasn’t quite sure she understood just how Aeka saw the world, but she could improvise, at least.

“But I thought I was yours,” said Aeka.

“You are,” said Cassie, “but it’s different.”

“No,” said Aeka, shaking her head. Water droplets went everywhere, making Cassie squint. “It’s not different. It’s exactly the same. You protect what’s yours.”

Another moment of silence.
Miri had gotten rid of the employee and was pacing back and forth, keeping her eyes peeled should anyone else from the hotel try to bother them.

“I don’t know what you want from me, Aeka,” Cassie said, finally. “I don’t know how I can help you, if I can help you.”

“I don’t want you to help me,” Aeka said, then turned her mysterious blue-green eyes on Cassie. “I want you to see me.”

“See you?” asked Cassie. She didn’t understand.

Aeka stood up suddenly, rivulets of water coursing down her pale thighs.

“I hope you can see me. I think you can.”

“But what if I can’t see you?” said Cassie, clumsily getting to her feet as well. They were high enough off the ground that she felt a little light-headed, and she grabbed the metal railing.

This is like talking to the Nameless Ones. I don’t understand, but I have to keep
talking, because what else can I do….

Aeka knit her smooth brow, a rare expression for her. “If you can’t see me, then I’ll disappear. I’m not needed anymore.”

Khalil thought slot machines were meant for old ladies, quite beneath the dignity of the virile, canny male card shark. However, after losing his first $200 at the Blackjack tables in less than five minutes, he realized that he had a choice between either playing the cheap slots,
or going back up to the suite early in defeat. Unwilling to face such a depressing prospect as an early retreat, he committed himself to trying to match three cherry symbols on the screen in front of him.

“Don’t sit down at that machine, that one’s the worst,” he said, as he noticed Dwight coming up behind him.

“I’m up $400, I’m gonna quit while I’m ahead,” Dwight said.

Khalil frowned. It was very noisy in the casino, especially at the slots, but somehow he’d heard Dwight perfectly.

“How’d you win?”             

“Blackjack,” Dwight said, sounding unbearably smug to Khalil’s ears. “I’m going to head back to the room, don’t lose all your money.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Khalil muttered. Why was it so hard to line up three little cherries? There weren’t even that many symbols in the damn machine. “Go upstairs and roll in a pile of money, why don’t you?”

“If you’re mad at me, wait until you see Dmitri. I think that guy made $2000,” said Dwight, walking off and leaving Khalil behind. Khalil’s frowned deepened.

What is it about that guy? He’s so annoying, I don’t know why anyone likes him.

Fortunately, he only had to toil in gambling purgatory for a little while longer, since Miri appeared behind him not long after Dwight left. “Hey. Cassie’s safe upstairs for the night, so I’m free.
You hungry?”

“I could eat,” he said, standing up from the machine and turning toward her. “Where do you want to go?”

She started walking towards the main concourse, where the restaurants were, and he easily fell into step with her. She was walking with her hands behind her back, looking girlish and mischievous.

“Well,” she started, “I heard the Asian seafood buffet up top not only has amazing sushi, but they actually have great dessert—like, proper dessert, with layer cakes and stuff. Swimming makes me want sugar.”

“Why were you swimming?”

“You really don’t want to know.”

“Hmmph. Sounds good to me,” Khalil said. He had no idea where Miri hid all the food she ate on her slender frame, but vampire biology was not something he particularly cared about. Of course, it would end up being a moot point if Sam dragged her away again before they even got a table. “Are you sure Fearless Leader doesn’t need you anymore tonight?”

Her smile faltered. “Pretty sure,” she said,
then turned to Khalil. “Hey are you…okay with that? We never really talked about it.”

They had left the casino floor and were walking in the mall area. It wasn’t that late yet and plenty of people were still about, but compared to the almost suffocating noise of the game room, it was delightfully quiet.

“I think so,” said Khalil eventually. “I mean, I get that he needs you to be his Girl Friday, and that’s just how your life is. I was supposed to be a doctor; if I’d gone through with it, I could be on call at any hour of the day or night too,” he said, working it through for himself as he talked to her. “As long as you working for him doesn’t compete with what we have.”

“No, no,” said Miri, quickening her pace. “It’s apples and oranges. He’s my boss, you’re my boyfriend,” she said.

They passed a fountain, featuring a stone mermaid statue and a bottom filled with coins.
If I threw a penny in now, what would I wish for?

“Okay,” said Khalil. “I mean, long as you’re not sleeping with the guy, what does it matter, right?”

Khalil kept walking for a few more steps before he realized that Miri was no longer next to him. With a lump in his throat, he turned around to see that she had stopped dead on the cobblestone path, right next to the fountain.

“Don’t tell me,” he said quietly.

Her already-pale face was even paler, making her skin almost white. “Khalil, I thought you knew.”

I
think I did know. I was just hoping against hope that I was wrong.

He walked back to her, feeling the anger rising. Seeing the look on his face, her hazel eyes widened in alarm.

“Please, try to understand,” she whispered, looking around from side to side furiously to make sure no one was nearby. “He’s a demon, I’m a vampire. It’s expected.”

“Expected?” said Khalil. This was alright; he could ride the anger for a while. It was better than the depression that he knew was coming. “What do you mean it’s expected? Is Nyesha sleeping with him then? Is Dmitri?”

“No, of course not!” she exclaimed. “You don’t understand—”

“I understand better than you think. I know that guy; no way in hell would he ever ask that of you, no matter what other demons do. The only reason it would happen is if you pushed for it,” he said. “You were just going to keep lying to me, letting me think we had something here.”

“Don’t be like this,” she pleaded. “These ideas you have about relationships, they’re outdated, okay? Just because I’m willing to sleep with more than one person, that doesn’t affect who I…who I love,” she said. A couple walking by gave her a curious look, but she ignored them.

He shook his head. “This isn’t about me being a
prude, this is about you being a liar.”

“You are a prude! You think less of me now because you think I’m a slut!” Her eyes filled with tears. Somehow during this conversation, Khalil had stopped feeling angry, and now he just felt sad. He was surprised at himself; he’d expected to be livid for hours. But the sight of Miri’s misery (and she was miserable) seemed to suck all of his energy away.

“I would never call you a slut, and you know what? Screw that word, I don’t even use that word. What you are is a selfish person who lies to make her life easier, and I can’t trust you.”

“No, don’t—”

“I’m going back to the room. Enjoy the cake,” he said, then he left her at the wishing well.

Sam generally wasn’t very big on pampering himself, but since it was entirely possible that this would be his last night on Earth, he decided he may as well live it up. After meeting with Arrigio, he’d returned to the suite, ordered a giant steak from room service for dinner, and received an hour-long massage from one of The Laguna’s on-call masseurs. Now, he was finishing his evening of uncommon decadence by soaking in the hot tub. It was large enough that he could have swum in it, had he wanted to.

After a while, he realized he was staying in the hot tub more for the solitude than anything else. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, didn’t want to hear anyone say “Good luck tomorrow,” before they went to bed. He had a crazy urge to just take off alone without a word, but where would he even go?

I could go to Realm. That’s where most of the court wants to put me anyway, so why not skip the preliminaries and make it easier on everyone? I’ll bet I could find my own apple cart to pull….

When he heard the bathroom door open, at first he thought it was someone’s mistake. “Hey!” he called, but then Miri burst into the room and he realized she had been looking for him specifically. Angrily, she kicked off her chunky shoes and jumped into the hot tub with him, still wearing her short dress and stockings.

“Miri, what’s going on?” he asked as she nestled alongside him. She didn’t answer, instead leaning down to leave a trail of soft kisses on his collarbone. Before she could get too involved, he gently pushed her away.

“What’s gotten into you? There are kids here,” he said.

Also, we shouldn’t even be doing this anymore, since she’s already taught me what I needed to know. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy to stop….

She tried to adopt her usual flirty demeanor, but the fact that her eyes were red from crying ruined the effect somewhat.
“Ohhh. Can’t you do some kind of soundproofing spell or something? That should be easy.”

“You’ve got the wrong guy. Tell me what happened.”

She dropped down so she was sitting in the tub, her small shoulders barely breaking the surface of the foaming water. “Khalil dumped me.”

“Oh,” he said flatly. He was bad at this; he’d avoided relationships for his whole life, and if Miri had come to him for comfort, she really should have known better. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

She seemed to shrink even further. “It was because of us.”

At that, Sam was puzzled.
“Us? There is no us.”

She looked like she was about to burst into tears again, and Sam reconsidered what he’d said. “It’s not romantic, you’ve said so yourself.
Many times. I assumed when you and Khalil started dating, you told him that what we do is…mechanical,” he finished, feeling awkward.

Why would anyone come to me for emotional support? No one should ever be that desperate.

Miri just sat silently, staring off into nothing.

“I see,” he said finally. “You didn’t tell him, just hoped it would never come up. That was the wrong thing to do.”

“You think I don’t know that?” she said in a wavering voice. “I didn’t know how to tell him! I knew he wouldn’t understand.”

Sam got out of the hot tub and wrapped a towel around his waist; the infusion of hysterical vampire had killed the mood of his soak. “You can do one of two things: apologize profusely and ask him for another chance, or let him go.”

She gritted her teeth. “You say that like it’s so easy.”

“I said no such thing,” he said, sitting down on a bench. Naturally, because it was The Laguna, the bench had an image of a leaping dolphin carved into the side of it. “But that’s the choice before you.”

She seemed to calm down then, letting the tips of her red hair get wet as she sank further into the tub. Sam wanted to leave, but he felt awkward just putting on his clothes and leaving Miri alone. So he sat, practicing making small, wafer-thin magic barriers in his right hand. If you squinted, they looked almost exactly like soap bubbles. He blew gently on one, and it took off from his palm.

“There could be another choice,” she said.

“Oh?”

“Do you think you could ever love me?”

The bubble that wasn’t a bubble popped.

“I know what I said at the start,” she said. “I’m a liar.”

There was silence as he struggled with what to say.

“You can’t, because I’m not all pure and innocent like Cassie is,” said Miri, bitterly. “You guys really buy into the whole purity deal.”

“If I love anyone, it’s not for that reason,” Sam said finally. “Don’t project your own personal problems onto me and Cassie.”

But Miri was not so easily deterred. “Would you still love her, if she’d been with other guys? Or would she be all tainted and gross to you then?”

“I really don’t like being asked to guess how I would feel in an alternate universe where things were different,” Sam snapped.
And it seems to be happening an awful lot lately.
Why can’t people, especially women it seems, leave all these miserable hypotheticals alone?

“You know, I bet deep down, you like it…that she was disgusted when she saw you.
Because you’re disgusted with yourself.”

He entertained a brief urge to pull Miri out of the bath by her hair and throw her against the nearest wall, but resisted. He had a strange feeling that was the effect the vampire was going for. “Miri, what do you want from me right now? Want me to beat you up, so you can stop beating yourself up? Would that make you feel better?”

She blinked, a single tear running down her cheek. “I know I’m being really selfish.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, standing up. If she didn’t pull herself together soon, he really was going to simply walk out. Enabling her wouldn’t do either of them any good.

She looked at the ceiling, as though seeking wisdom from the images of porpoises at play. “Hey, Sam. Is the hell that you can go, the one we were in today, the same one that we all go to when we die?”

God in
Heaven, where did that come from?

“No. As far as I know, the only souls in the Demon Realm are those that have contracted with demons, or been tricked into going there in some other way. If there truly is a hell where people go after death, I’ve never seen it.”

“Do you think a hell like that exists?”

“No. I think what awaits us all is like sleep. No better and no worse.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then stood up. “I think I feel a little better now. I’m going to go to bed. Thanks.” She got out of the hot tub, picked up her shoes and left, her wet stockings making odd squelching sounds as she moved.

Sam remained standing by the hot tub for a few moments.

What just happened?