Random Acts of Sorcery (3 page)

Sam dropped his eyes. All at once, it had all fallen into place. He knew what he would have done if Serenus had suggested going to the Liddell vampires for help: demanded to know where to find them, paid them a visit and scared them within an inch of their undead lives, maybe cursed one with something vile just to set an example. Then he would have made sure they passed on the message to all of their little vampire friends that Sam and his familiars were not to be touched.

It would have been satisfying, probably even deserved, but it also would have quashed any chance of obtaining something delicate like specific information on ancient vampire rituals. By leaving Sam out of the loop, Serenus had allowed for a peaceful coexistence moving forward. Instead of being mad at Serenus for the breach of trust, Sam found he just felt ashamed.

“I shouldn’t be the head of this, whatever this is. I’m still the little kid throwing blocks whenever someone touches my toys,” he said bitterly.

Serenus gave him a small smile. “All demons are; you’re just one of the few who knows it.”

They heard the door open a crack, and Khalil poked his head in. “Cassie and Miri are here, plus I could use some help.”

“Okay,” said Sam, taking the apron he had thrown over a chair and tying it around his waist. “Back to the salt mines. Ser, you want anything?”

“I haven’t had coffee in an entire hour; make me a doppio,” said Serenus, following him out of the break room. “I’ll be at my usual table…or maybe not.”

Somehow, over the last few weeks, The Daily Grind had become a place to see and be seen. On a Friday night, all of the tables were taken, and some guests were even leaning against the walls, holding their hot drinks in gloved hands while they chatted with friends. Khalil hadn’t been lying—there were about a dozen marked cups on the espresso bar, all drinks that needed to be made.

Sam didn’t know for sure, but he thought the increase in business was due to the shop’s notoriety on the internet. Some conspiracy theorists had figured out that The Daily Grind was at the epicenter of the time skip back in the fall, and there were rumors that strange things occurred in the shop after hours. Considering the fact that they were planning a vampire binding ritual for after the close of business tonight, Sam was going to have to make especially careful that the place was properly cloaked from outside observers. Fortunately, Cassie’s magic would help with that.

He nodded at Cassie as he went to take his usual position on the espresso bar. Cassie and Miri were waiting in line for drinks, the latter wearing a particularly daring see-through shirt, but it was Cassie who commanded his attention. She was wearing one of those blue sweaters that he liked, and her form-fitting jeans showed off her curvy figure admirably. He had always disliked it when women wore obvious makeup (although he had no idea why), but for some reason, seeing Cassie’s lips berry red with some product made him smile; she was partial to fruit-scented lip gloss. Upon their first meeting, it had taken him days to realize why he associated her with the smell of strawberries.

She tasted like strawberries, too.

He swallowed and tried to bury
himself in the monotony of making the same drinks he made day in and day out, trying to push the memory of kissing Cassie from his mind. It had been a bad, wrong thing to do, grabbing her and kissing her without her permission, but he had thought at the time that he was probably going to die, so he had suspended his normal rules of conduct. Now that he had somehow survived (and it had been a close thing), he had no idea what to say to her about it.

Yes, I kissed you without permission because I’m horribly selfish like that. I’d like to do a lot more than kiss, but it’s wrong, since everything about our relationship is forced and horrible and wrong and unfair to both of us, quite frankly, but especially you. You’re young, you shouldn’t have to deal with men yet, and I’m everything that’s bad about men only worse in every possible way….

It didn’t sound very romantic.

“Large Cinnamon Latte, extra foam. Medium Vanilla Latte, extra hot. Small Hazelnut Mocha, no whip,” he said, putting the finished drinks on the ledge. Stealing another look at Cassie out of the corner of his eye, he clenched his jaw; it didn’t matter how he felt about the situation. Court was in a week, and he was out of time.

He was going to have to awaken her as a witch, whether either of them liked it or not.

The rest of the vampires trickled in over the course of the evening. Liam gave Cassie a curt nod as he entered the shop, taking his favorite seat by the front window. Dmitri followed not much later, joining his friend for a quick game of chess while they waited for the shop to empty out. Though Liam was pale, tall and willowy while Dmitri had an olive complexion and a stocky build, it was obvious to anyone who cared to pay attention that the two were like brothers. Cassie didn’t know whether they had known each other during their human lives or not, but as vampires, they were practically inseparable.

Eugene and Billingsly arrived together, attracting plenty of stares from the customers. Eugene looked like a slightly portly gentleman of about 65, and he liked to wear loud, shabby-looking sport jackets, even though he could afford much better. In contrast, Billingsly only wore expensive sportswear, showing off his imposing frame to good advantage. With his glistening dark skin and huge muscles, he looked like a model for a bodybuilding magazine. Tonight he was clothed in a skin-tight
lycra tank top and black jeans, making him look especially photo-ready. The two made an odd pair, but it was obvious from their body language that they had known each other for a long time.

Just a few minutes before closing, Nyesha walked into the café, causing Cassie to do a double-take. The former medical student tended to stay in her apartment, and Cassie barely ever saw her. The few times Nyesha had made an appearance at the shop, she tended to look down a lot and hunch over, as though she was trying to pull her entire body inwards somehow. That’s why, when a confident woman in a trench
coat strode through the door, Cassie wasn’t sure for a moment if it was really Nyesha. Clad in a pair of tight white jeans, striking against her ebony skin, her hair done up in a classy French braid, the woman was almost unrecognizable. She had always been beautiful, but now, she looked polished and poised as well.

Cassie looked at Miri with a raised eyebrow, but Miri simply jumped up and embraced her friend.

“You’re late, Ny! What took you so long?”

With Nyesha actually standing at her full height, she towered over the redhead. “I was busy reading. I know that’s an alien concept to you,” she said as she pulled out of the hug.

Miri made a put-upon sound. “Cassie, tell her how much reading I did this week! I read all about the French Revolution and everything.”

Cassie took a final sip of her hot chocolate and thought about that. “Well, considering you only look at the textbook between periods and during lunch, I guess you read a lot.”

“That sounds about right,” said Nyesha, hanging her trench coat on the rack near the door. Miri made a pouty face.

“Traitor,” she said to Cassie with mock-despair.

“Attention, DG is closed for tonight,” Khalil projected cheerfully from behind the counter. “We open again tomorrow at 7 a.m. Have a great weekend, everybody.”

As the last few customers slowly made their way out of the store, Khalil and Sam began to do the final closing rituals, cleaning the floors and wiping down surfaces. Sam disappeared into the back, presumably to finish washing whatever plates were left. Soon, the only customer remaining was a tall man standing at the front counter with a half-empty cup in his right hand. Khalil turned away from the counter he was cleaning and addressed him, a pleasant smile on his face.

“Excuse me, sir, but we’re closed for tonight.”

“Do you
know what extra hot means?” the man muttered under his breath. It was barely audible.

“What?”

“Do you KNOW what extra hot MEANS?” the man repeated, this time loudly and slowly as though he were talking to an imbecile.

“Uh…hotter than usual?” said Khalil, his smile becoming slightly strained.

“No, it means the drink is supposed to be steamed to 180 degrees. I can tell THIS—” he said, pointing to the cup in his hand with obvious disdain—“was not steamed past 160.”

Khalil lifted an eyebrow, but kept his tone friendly. “I see.  Sorry about that. I can make you another drink right now, if you want.”

“No, I want a refund!” the man said, slamming his cup down on the counter. “I wanted it extra hot, it wasn’t, now I want my money back.”

“Uh…sir, I’m sorry, but we already closed the register, so I’m afraid I can’t….”

“Get me the manager,” said the man, crossing his arms and scrunching up his face at Khalil as though the man smelled bad.

As Khalil stood there formulating a response, Miri pranced in front of the customer, wearing her prettiest smile.
“Just FYI? This is maybe the last place on earth you want to pull this sort of thing.”

“Get me the manager!” the man bellowed, ignoring Miri. “And if you can’t get me the manager, then I demand a number where
I can reach your superior and—”

“We’re closed, go home,” Sam interjected, coming back into the café from the break room.

The man gritted his teeth, his face red with exertion. “You have to get me the manager! I’m a customer, and I have a—”

The irate customer was interrupted by a crack of thunder. The whole room seemed to vibrate with an unnatural energy.

“Go home NOW!” Sam yelled, dropping his disguise spell for a brief moment. The man gasped, put his hand over his mouth in fright, then turned on his heel and bolted out the door as fast as he could, whimpering all the while. After he was gone, Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes, which had returned to normal.

“I’m sorry, that was childish.”

“We’ll allow it,” said Eugene dryly.

“That guy was mean,” said Ethan, moving over to stand at Eugene’s side.

“Uh….” Sam started, looking over the assembled entourage. With the Buckleys (which now included Ethan), Cassie, Jay, Mike, Khalil and Serenus, it was almost a full gathering of the entourage. The only ones missing were Aeka, who almost never left her apartment, and Dwight, who was playing with his band at some club in Sodatown.

And Vladmira, Cassie supposed, if the little bat even counted as a member.

“Look, everyone sit down for a minute. This is a little complicated and I want to explain what we’re doing.”

As everyone began pulling over chairs, Miri walked up to Sam, hands behind her back with a big smile on her face. “So this is going to be educational, huh? You’re going to be the one educating me for a change?” she said in a mock-whisper.

Sam smiled and swatted her playfully, but she was too fast for him and scampered away. Cassie stopped in the middle of dragging a chair, suddenly feeling sick; something had changed between the two of them. There was an intimacy there, something very familiar about the way he smiled and went to touch her.

“You okay?” Jay asked. “You look all pale.”

“I-I’m fine,” Cassie said, moving her chair the last few feet and then plopping down into it. She looked down, head swimming. Were the two of them as close as they seemed, with everything that entailed? Or was she just reading too much into one tiny little interaction?

When ever
yone was seated in a semicircle—except for Sam, who was leaning against the counter—he cleared his throat. “So, based on some…information I’ve received, the binding ritual we did a while back was only one way of doing it. And not the most complete way.”

“That’s the only sort of binding ritual I’ve every participated in,” said Eugene.

“This dates back to before your time,” Sam explained.

“Does it now,” said Eugene, his expression unreadable.

“Apparently, back in the day, when demons and vampires formed a contract, it wasn’t just for the standard five years of service. They exchanged powers too.”

“But we already do that,” said Billingsly, his deep voice booming though the room. “When we make the contract, we get the power to alter mortal minds.”

“Yes, but that’s a freebie, so to speak,” Serenus interjected. “To gain the full range of benefits of the contract—the ability to walk in the sun, the ability to eat food like a living creature—you have to renounce your ties to any former master, committing yourself fully to the demon you’ve chosen.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone processed that.

“I don’t get it,” Miri admitted.

“See, when you all contracted to me a month or so ago, you only did it partially,” Sam continued. “You were pledging your service to me for five years, no more and no less. But apparently, when I brought you back from death, Miri, I was claiming you as my own for good. And you received all the benefits associated with that.”

Mike leaned back in his chair. “I think I understand. So, Miri,” he said, turning to the redheaded vampire. “Before you were ‘killed’, you were running Sam’s magic as like, an application. But you were still running on Quentin OS, or the OS of whoever your demon was when you were made a vampire. After you were brought back, you were running pure Sam OS—you got the full upgrade.”

“Everything in the world can’t be explained with computers, Mike,” said Cassie.

“I don’t know about that,” said Serenus, scratching behind his ear. “After all, isn’t technology what humans have done to take the place of magic? Maybe it’s not surprising that the same concepts often apply.”

“In any case, you all have to renounce all of your former masters by name, swear your allegiance to me, and drink a drop of my blood,” Sam continued. “Once that’s done, you all should be able to walk in the sun again.”

“And eat food, don’t forget that part,” Miri chimed in.

“No one’s forgetting that,” Nyesha said.

Miri poked her friend in the arm. “Penne a la vodka. Penne a la vodka. Penne a la vodka.”

“I don’t need you to remind me!”

“Everyone, be careful,” said Eugene, standing up. “Only take the tiniest drop of the blood on the very tip of your tongue. We can’t handle much demon blood.”

“Cassie and Ethan, if you would,” Sam said, motioning for them to come to him.

Cassie took a deep breath, stood up and walked up to Sam. He held out his hand, which she took, and she felt that odd sensation of warmth leaving her body. Now that they’d spent the last month practicing this, the energy transfer didn’t leave her feeling tired like it used to, but it was still disconcerting. After he was done with her, he put his hand on Ethan’s head, and the boy closed his eyes. Cassie was curious why he didn’t use Ethan’s arm to draw magic like he did with her, but it didn’t seem like the time to ask.

After
performing a quick cloaking spell to guard the shop’s interior from prying eyes, Sam took out his pocket knife and slit his palm open with a quick motion, making Cassie wince. “Line up, I guess.”

As the vampires lined up for the ritual, Cassie turned to Miri, who had no need to drink Sam’s blood. “I don’t get it. I thought vampires lived on the magic in blood. Why is demon blood so bad for you?”

“Too much of a good thing,” said Miri, watching Nyesha line up behind Billingsly with a worried expression on her face. “It’s like a drug, a little bit makes you feel great but too much and you could OD and die.”

“Do you want to drink it?” Mike asked, curious.

Miri scrunched up her small face. “Yes and no. It’s probably better that I don’t, since I kind of have an addictive personality.”

“Kind of?”
Cassie echoed.

“Shut it.”

Before Liam, who was first in line, could kneel before Sam, there was a sound from the back—like someone, or something, was thrashing against the door of the break room. Sam closed his eyes.

“Oh for—could someone please let her in?”

Jay ran to the break room door and opened it, letting in Vladmira, who circled the room for a moment before setting on Sam’s shoulder. The little bat flapped her wings even after she had landed, like she was showing them off. Sam tilted his head to stop her wing from brushing against his ear.

“Couldn’t miss a party, huh?” said Sam, petting the creature gently with his non-bloody hand. Vladmira made a soft squeaking noise in response.

Without further ado, Liam knelt and began the ritual, keeping his light blue eyes fixed on Sam’s shoes.

“I renounce all of my ties with Thomas, son of Belial; Harold, son of Rosekiel; and Quentin, son of Asmodeus. I pledge my service, now and forever, to Samuel, son of Sammael,” he said. At that, Sam lowered his hand and Liam took the smallest drop of blood, using only the tip of his tongue as Eugene had instructed. He shuddered slightly as he swallowed, then stood back up and moved to the side so Eugene could take his place.

“I renounce all of my ties with Crocus, son of Zethiel; Caius, son of Kekul; Julius, son of Matariel; Groth, son of Asceliel; William, son of Zerael; Joseph, son of Belial; Theodore, son of Deomondiel—“

As Eugene continued, listing dozens of demonic masters, Cassie turned to Miri again. “Um, how old is Eugene, exactly?”

Miri shrugged. “I don’t really know either. I know he assumed the name ‘Buckley’ though. Back in his time, people didn’t really use last names.”

“Oh,” said Cassie, swallowing painfully. Just thinking about Eugene’s probable age seemed to hurt her brain.

After Nyesha, Billingsly and Dmitri had also completed the ritual, Sam took a deep breath. “I accept all of your pledges; I am yours, and now you are mine.” He mouthed a word Cassie didn’t recognize and closed his eyes. She was expecting a thunder clap, a vibration, anything, but instead there was silence in the room. The only sign that anything was happening was that Sam seemed unusually tense.