Chapter Ten

Yawning, I reach for my coffee only to remember it’s empty. Blinking to try to focus my hazy vision, I stand, pacing back and forth behind the counter in order to keep myself awake. Betty was on the schedule to open this morning, with Kristy coming in a bit later. I haven’t filled Kristy in on what happened last night, not wanting to wake her up and worry her. One of us needed to get a decent amount of sleep last night.

I sit back down, mind drifting to Lucas. He was in my dreams, however fleeting they were with the two hours of sleep I’m running on. And in my dreams, he fulfilled his promise of making it worth the wait. Multiple times, actually.

Thunder crackles from the clouds above, adding to the pittering of rain that’s been hitting the window all morning. I really wish I was back in my bed right now. Thunderstorms lull me to sleep like a baby.

And will make the next hour or two go by slower than usual. I ring up two customers, and then the store is empty. The storm picks up in intensity, and I go to the window, watching the clouds swirl above.

Going back to the counter, I get out a map of northwest Indiana, spreading it out on the counter. I fill a black bowl with water and hold up a quartz crystal, invoking the powers before dropping it in the water.

I suck at any sort of divination, but if I can get even the smallest bit of insight to this Gatekeeper thing, I’ll give it a try. Clearing my mind, I look into the bowl, knowing the next person to come through the door will break my concentration.

“Where are you, motherfucker?” I mutter, looking into the water. My vision gets fuzzy, but it’s from being tired, not from channeling something. With a sigh, I sit up, stretching out the muscles in my back. Kristy comes through the front door, shaking off her umbrella and holding two coffees, thank the stars.

“Are you scrying at work?” she asks, coming over to the counter.

“More like falling asleep at work.”

She sets the coffees down and starts to head to the back to take off her raincoat. “Wait, you’re not supposed to be here today. Is Betty sick?”

“In a sense. She was drugged last night at a bar.”

“What?” Kristy’s blue eyes widen. “Is she okay? Oh my God.”

“She’ll be fine. And I tracked down the asshole who drugged her, taught him a little lesson, and then had him turn himself in to the police.”

Kristy gapes at me for a moment. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“One of us needs to be well-rested. You know…in case Zuul shows up in my fridge or something.”

“Good point. You’re sure Betty’s going to be okay?”

“Yeah. I checked on her at the hospital after we took care of—”

“We?” She raises her eyebrows.

I make a face. “Lucas was with me.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but her eyebrows go up even higher. “Hold that thought.” She hurries into the back to take off her coat and put her purse away. I’m saved by a customer who needs help picking out a book for her sister’s birthday, but I can’t avoid this conversation all together.

“Lucas?” Kristy says the second the woman walks out the door. “Did you guys hook up?”

“Almost. We were interrupted by the hospital calling. He came with me to check on Betty, and then to Mike’s house.”

“Mike? That guy from her apartment complex who’s been asking her out?”

I nod. “Yep. Him. Such a fucking maggot.” I shake my head, feeling angry all over again. “But back to your question. I went back after Lucas left and she was alert and awake. Her parents were there with her, and she was happy to hear Mike confessed.”

“Shit.” Kristy looks at me, mouth slightly open. “Just…shit.” She lets out a heavy breath. “You’ve been up all night?”

“I crashed when I got home and slept for maybe two hours.”

“Go home. Get some sleep.”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

She purses her lips and thinks for a moment. “You know we really should hire another person or two to help with this place. If Betty can’t cover for us and we’re both otherwise occupied, we’ll lose business.”

“True. It would be nice to have a few others to call on.”

She pulls out a notebook and starts writing down everything she wants in an employee, and then prints off a “help wanted” sign to hang in the window. I watch her hang it, muttering an incantation as she tapes it to the window.

“I got this for Betty,” she says and slides the coffee over to me. “I know you like yours black, but it looks like you could use the caffeine.”

“I need an IV of it.” I yawn again and take a sip of the sugary coffee. The storm starts to wind down, and more customers come in. A middle-aged woman who I recognize as a regular grabs a few books and comes up to the counter.

“You’re hiring?” she asks.

“We are,” Kristy tells her. “Part-time with flexible hours.”

“Can I have an application please?”

“Of course!” Kristy hands her one, and the woman takes it to the end of the counter to fill it out. Kristy looks it over when she hands it back. “What’s your availability?”

“Pretty much any day,” the woman says. “I was a caretaker for my great aunt, but she recently passed.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Kristy tells her.

“Thanks. We weren’t close,” she adds, letting us know she’s not torn up over the death. “I thought I’d like being a housewife again, but I’m going stir crazy sitting at home.”

Kristy beams and I smile too. Her spell worked.  “When can you start?”

*

I roll over, pulling the blankets up to my chin. It’s going on noon, and I just woke up from a two-hour nap. I could roll back over and sleep for the rest of the day, but I need to do more research on Gatekeepers. Binx is stretched out next to me, half tucked under the blankets. I swear he likes being a cat better than being a spirit sometimes.

Not that I can blame him, of course. I might spoil all my familiars…just a bit. Wrapping my arm around him, I close my eyes and fall back asleep. An hour and a half later, I wake up, feeling much better. I get out of bed, shower, and then go downstairs to get something to eat.

I make myself teriyaki chicken and rice, with steamed veggies and a side salad. I cook up lightly seasoned chicken for my familiars and we all go out onto the covered front porch. It’s still raining with thunder rumbling in the distance.

“I should probably exercise,” I tell the cats, finishing off my last bit of rice. “But I kind of want to take a nap too.” Staying in shape is important, since I never know what a night of demon hunting will bring.

“Maybe I’ll run a few miles and then nap. But I already showered.”

As I’m coming up with the most legitimate excuses I can not to work out, a car pulls into my driveway. I set my empty bowl down and stand, watching the car. I’m not a trusting person, and the very real fact that nons once openly hunted us down, hung us, and burned us at the stake makes me a little paranoid.

But then I see the driver and relax. It’s Monica, the girl who came over before to bring my Jeep home. She puts the little Toyota in park and gets out, running through the rain.

“Hey, Callie,” she calls cheerfully and dodges up onto the porch.

“Hi.” She’s holding a large leather-bound book. “How are you?”

“Pretty good. And you?”

“Same.” I motion toward the door. The wind is picking up and blowing misty rain in at us. “Come in and dry off.”

“Thanks.”

I open the door, letting my familiars in first. “What brings you out to Indiana again?” I close the door, eyeing the book again.

“This.” She holds it out and I take it. The book is heavy, and judging by the cracking leather, it’s old and valuable as well. “I hope you can read Greek.”

“No,” I say with a laugh. “I can’t.”

“Lucas wanted me to give it to you. I have no idea why. Someone dropped it off this morning with a note from him saying to bring it here. Oh, and he won’t be back until tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow?” I repeat even though I heard her correctly. I’m more disappointed than I want to admit. I was looking forward to seeing him tonight…and having him make good on his promise to take his time.

Maybe a little distance is a good thing.

“Yeah. I got the feeling he’s out of state or something.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

She meets my eyes, smiling. “So, are you still gonna deny that you’re hooking up with a vampire?” In a deliberate move, she sweeps her hair back, showing off fang marks in her neck. Right. She’s dating a vampire.

“If there was something to deny, I might. But there’s nothing.” I set the book down on the coffee table. “Do you want anything to drink? Coffee? Tea?”

“Coffee would be great, actually. I have a long drive back to Chicago.”

“Follow me,” I say and go into the kitchen.

Monica takes off her shoes and looks around as she walks. “Your house is really pretty.”

“Thanks.” I plug in the coffee pot. “It took years to do the restorations.”

“I love old houses. But the upkeep is too much for me.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “There’s a big white house a few miles from here that goes up for sale every few years and I’m low-key obsessed with it. But the renovations alone for something that big will easily cost a million bucks or more. It has foundation issues.”

“That’s a shame.” She sits at the kitchen table and takes off her jacket. She has bruises on her bicep as if someone grabbed her hard. “And then it’s a matter of time before they get knocked down.”

“Right. I might cry if that happens.”

I add water to the coffee pot and grab two mugs. “How do you like your coffee?”

“Cream and sugar, if you have it.”

“I have sugar. I don’t add cream to mine.”

“Then just sugar is fine.” She smiles.

“I don’t mean to be nosey,” I start, even though I very much do mean to be nosey. “But what is the nature of the relationship between your boyfriend and Lucas to have you doing these errands all the time?”

“I wouldn’t really say they’re friend-friends, more like…like working acquaintances who’ve known and tolerated each other for a hundred or so years.”

“Oddly, I could describe some of my friends in the same way. Well, other than the hundred years part.”

She laughs. “I suppose I can too.”

“Do you know Lucas well?”

She shakes her head, and her hair falls into her face. “Not really. He’s pretty mysterious. I was scared of him for a long time if I’m being honest. I still am a bit. I can’t decide if he’s protective about people close to him because he cares about them or because it’s easier to keep us alive than to replace us and have to start over fresh, ya know?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“I know he’s well-respected among vampires. Because of his age. You do know how old he is, right?”

I nod. “He told me. Sixteen hundred years. Give or take, I’m assuming.”

“Give. Dom told me Lucas is like sixteen hundred and thirty years old or something crazy like that. I can’t even imagine.”

“And what about Eliza?”

“Oh, this I do know a bit about!” She leans forward, eyes lighting up. “Lucas turned her around the Revolutionary War. She was the daughter of a British general who killed a bunch of vampires, and I guess he made her a vampire to get back at the general for something. She’s the only vampire he’s ever turned, and he didn’t want anything to do with her after he turned her, but there’s a whole weird thing with sires and offspring. I know he loves her. Not like in love, but loves her like a daughter. Or a sister. Or both.” She wrinkles her nose and shrugs. “It sounds so weird when I say it out loud.”

“It does. But hey, vampires are weird enough, right?”

“Right.” She looks at Pandora. “Your calico is really pretty.” Upon hearing herself get complimented, Pandora jumps up into Monica’s lap, purring. Monica smiles and runs her hand over Pandora’s fur. “Eliza’s kind of stuck up, if you ask me. She thinks she’s special to have such an old sire and will be the first to tell anyone who listens about her powerful maker. But don’t tell her I said that.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” I give her a smile and then turn around to attend to the coffee, pouring two cups. “Did a vampire do that to you?” I look at the bruises on her arm.

“Oh.” Her cheeks flush. “Yeah, but it wasn’t Dom.”

“Are you in any sort of trouble?” I ask softly.

“No, no, I’m not,” she says quickly. “Dom was dealing with some vampire drama last night and I just happened to get in the way. I think sometimes the other vamps forget how fragile we humans are, ya know?”

“I guess.” I sip my coffee, feeling uneasy. I grab the book Lucas had Monica deliver. “He didn’t say anything about it?” I ask as I carefully lift the cover.

“No. All I was told was to give it to you. I think it’s about mythology. Or maybe it’s that one Greek novel. The famous one with Homer and the dog that remembered him years later.”

“The Odyssey.”

“Yeah, that one. I read it in school, though I don’t remember it being that long.” She takes another drink of coffee. “I thought maybe you were Greek or something.”

“Nope. I’ve never even been to Greece.”

“That’s weird then.” She shrugs, finishes her coffee, and uses the bathroom before she takes off. “See ya later,” she says.

“Thanks for bringing the book by.”

“No problem. I’m sure I’ll see you again. Bye!”

I see her out the door and then go back to the book. “I have no idea what he’s trying to tell me. If anything,” I say to Binx. “For all I know this is random and meant to distract me while he comes up with a master plan to massacre my family.”

Binx doesn’t believe me.

“Okay, fine. I don’t think that he is, but isn’t that an issue? I shouldn’t trust him, should I? He’s a vampire.”

All three of my familiars look at me at the same time. Never trust a vampire.

I open the book, carefully flipping through page after page for some sort of clue. I’m getting bored and I’m probably only fifty pages into the book. I’m about to stop when I get the feeling to keep going but to skip a few pages. I hold my hand over the book, close my eyes, and use magic to flip through it. The pages fall and I find a piece of paper stuck inside.

It’s a translated section about Charon, the son of Erebus and Nyx, who ferried souls into the underworld.

“I don’t get it. Why would Lucas—” I cut off as the realization hits me. “He was like a Gatekeeper to the underworld.”