Mia was so upset on the drive back that I immediately regretted not driving. She was gripping the wheel tightly, barely acknowledged any other cars or rules of the road and the only reason why we avoided a car accident was because it was late and there were barely any vehicles on the road. I wanted to tell her to slow down or just let me drive but when I looked at her I saw the redness in her face and that tears were forming in her eyes, so I stayed quiet. Finally we passed the city border and its magic barrier and Mia slowed down by the side of the road. She went outside, biting her lips, her hands forming into fists and just stood there, silently screaming into the moon. I slowly checked the area around us, making sure that the dark and menacing cloud was nowhere in sight, and when I made sure we were alone I joined her outside in the cold.
I never know if Mia and I don't like to express our emotions because our parents taught us to control them because of what we are or because of our culture, but in our house you never laughed too loud, screamed in anger or cried in public. It simply wasn't done. Expressing emotions was frowned upon and only children could do so, and even then we're told to not throw unnecessary tantrums. If you cried in public someone better be newly dead or bleeding, because why else would you cry.
As Mia stood there staring at the moon, screaming silently, her face was not showing any of the emotions inside her. I took her hand in mine and stood next to her in solidarity, waiting for her to explain what happened. It didn't take long.
“They flat out accused me of murdering Martha and sending a demon out to kill them, Sasha.”
The only thing that I managed to say was, “Excuse me?” She turned to me, pulling her hand out of mine.
“Martha got a message from someone and told Delilah that she has to go see them, and she never came back from the meeting. She is gone, missing and no magic can find her and a day later a demon appeared in the countryside killing a smaller coven of witches.” I stood there with my mouth open, not knowing what to say. She continued.
“Because I refuse to help them, they have deduced that it was my fault.” We were both silent for a few minutes and just stood on the side of the road, cooling off our anger and disappointment. Mia turned away from me, caught in her own thoughts and for a second I considered if I should tell her what has happened to me or if I should just keep silent until we come home. But Mia needed to know, since protecting Sarah is something she volunteered to do.
“Something happened while you were in there,” I said quietly. Mia turned around, but she let me continue without interruptions.
“I was called by Sarah.”
“Called?” Mia replied with her eyebrow raised.
“Sarah was being attacked by a shadow who made a hole in the protection of the house and in her panic she sent out a call for help.” My mouth dried up as I was explaining, realizing that this could potentially be a big problem. Mia came to the same conclusion as she looked at the moon and angrily asked:
“Can anything else go wrong today!” She stood there cursing and flailing her arms around and if the situation wasn't as serious as it was, I would have laughed because it was quite funny seeing a witch ranting at a moon. I sighed loudly, drawing her attention again.
“The shadow was wrong Mia. I have never seen a construct such as this and I did something that might be an issue.” She did a rolling sign with her hand, asking me to continue.
“After I defeated it and it was dying, it asked for my help, but it didn’t use words, it was more like a feeling. The witch or warlock or whatever the thing that controlled it was, was calling it back to return to him. It was asking for my help, if I can free it.” It was my turn to turn away and look at the floor. The cold wind blew around us, as if it knew that the situation was weird and mysterious.
“When I inspected the shadow more closely it shared its memories with me and it was bad. The shadow was a soul of a newborn, killed at the moment of its first breath and then twisted into a servant. But the woman that controlled it, wasn't its creator. The creator was extremely powerful and old, or so he seemed, and the one who controlled the shadow was weak. They used the shadow to stalk the young witch children and steal their magic away, but after several years the shadow developed a sense of self and it resented what it was doing. It just wanted to be free and when I hurt it, it thought it would die and it was grateful. But then the woman called it back so the shadow asked for my help to be free.” I blurted fast and in one single breath, trying to summarize the situation. Mia held her hand in front of her mouth, in shock and terror. I didn’t want to call whoever made the shadow a witch or a warlock, because I was unsure what they were. I was pretty sure it was a male creator and a female who controlled it, but I wasn’t sure.
Mia was breathing fast and I could see tears in her eyes again.
“Did you help it?” She whispered so silently I barely heard her. I swallowed hard and replied.
“I found the soul deep within the shadow, raw, hurt and twisted beyond belief. I didn’t know what to do, beyond asking for help.” The silence that followed was palpable and I did not want to continue, but I had to tell her the last bit.
“I called upon Morana to help the soul be reborn, and before my eyes the mark of its creator got overwritten with the mark of Morana. The soul then disappeared and I just know it returned to the proper cycle of rebirth…” Mia suddenly embraced me and held me so tight I could barely breathe.
“So you saved the soul and Sarah?”
“Yes,” I whispered into her ear. We stood there for a while, just holding each other. Finally she let me go and turned toward the almost full moon.
“I don’t know what to do.” She finally said, but I don’t think she was talking to me.
I drove back, because Mia was busy watching the road and thinking. Instead of driving to our apartment I parked in front of the restaurant, hoping that maybe Sebastian had some advice for us. Even if he is a vampire, he is old and he knows magic and how it works. Maybe he could give us an idea of what we are fighting against.
"So to summarize," I told Mia while parking, "We have a sorcerer who is looking for his children to potentially drain their magic and kill them, two unknown magic users who use newborns to make shadow servants and they might be connected to the sorcerer or they might not, we don't know. We have a missing coven leader, potentially dead and a demon killing the witches around town. Anything else?" Mia looked at me wide eyed and a nervous smile.
"Damn, when you put it like that it sounds so much worse, but no I think that is all. Are we asking Sebastian for help? Because I don't know if he will just help us for free. He is a vampire you know." I shrugged at her comments.
"It doesn't hurt to ask his opinion. If there is an actual demon roaming around, I'm sure he would want to know." We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, watching the diner.
The diner reminded me of a classic 1950 restaurant that you see in movies with leather booths and big windows with lacy curtains. The name Mountain View Diner was neon lighted and on top of a little doorway, very bold and inviting. I never understood why Sebastian insisted on naming the area Mountain View since you only see mountains a couple of times a year. Usually all you get to view is dark gloomy forest and fog, but he insisted that when he started developing the land mountains were visible all the time. I took his words with a grain of salt.
Finally we left the car and went inside. Sebastian, as per usual, was the sole staff during the night shift. There aren't that many people so he can handle cooking, serving, charging and cleaning by himself. We both greeted him, and he promised to be with us soon. We sat down in our usual booth, a corner booth with a perfect view of the apartment building. Menu was already on the table, but we didn't look through it as we knew it by heart.
Sebastian was a small man, probably around 5 foot 5, with a strong build. He wasn't fat at all but he was built like someone who worked hard on a farm all his life, before he became the undead. He was quite unremarkable looking, with dark brown hair and brown eyes and no defining feature whatsoever. We often joked that he would be the perfect spy because no one would ever look at him and see danger. Until you look into his empty eyes and predatory smile, you would trust him with your life. And after… Most people run away, but to me he just feels like a predator. I never understood why he would work in a diner in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn't brave enough to ask either.
"What will you two ladies have tonight?" He said with a smile that showed his fangs. Mia ordered raspberry ice tea and when he turned to me I said: "Hot chocolate with a side of information." He stopped writing on the pad and looked at me.
"That might be expensive. Are you sure?" I made a thinking face, smiled and replied.
"Add whipped cream please." He added whipped cream on the pad.
"Anything to eat?" He picked up the menu from the tables and looked at us expectedly. Mia looked up, looking extremely miserable and he finally saw the redness of her eyes and the dark cloud of sadness above her head. His smile faltered as she whispered:
"Surprise us Adam, something that will make this evening better." I nodded to him and he replied.
"I will try ladies, I will try." He turned around and left. I wanted to talk to Mia, but she refused to look at me, so she stared outside instead.
Suddenly our drinks were put down in front of us and as I was trying to say thank you to Adam, I noticed that it wasn't Adam who brought the drinks.
"Ethan!" I exclaimed a little bit too loud. Mia turned around in surprise but smiled as she noticed the vampire human servant.
"May I join you?" He asked politely and Mia scooted over to the window, giving him space. Besides him being a human servant, we didn't really know much about Ethan.
He looked like your typical lawyer, always impeccably dressed, tall, blond and blue eyed with a chiseled chin and dimples in his cheeks. He was quite handsome and the only thing that marred his beautiful face was a nasty scar running from his eyebrow to the left corner of his mouth. Since he is a vampire servant with access to the healing of the vampire blood I always assumed the injury happened when he was younger, although the scar used to be worse. Now it seemed muted, less scary. I wonder if it was Mia's healing cream that helped.
"I've been wanting to talk to you Sasha, but it seems you have been quite busy lately." I didn't reply, mostly because I wasn't busy at all. I've been busy at the bakery during the day but I haven't been helping with Mia's magic business, so he either assumed we were always together therefore me not helping Mia means I've been busy elsewhere, or Mia told him I've been busy. In any case, the fact that I laze around most nights and binge watch TV isn't any of his business, so I simply nodded. He took my nod as a sign to continue.
"I have a business proposal for your cousin and she mentioned anywhere she goes you go with her?" I took a sip of my hot chocolate and nodded again.
"Ethan," Mia suddenly interrupted.
"I've told you I don't want to come work for you. I'm quite happy where I am." Ethan looked at her and waved his hand.
"This is a business proposal for Sasha. It is a separate matter altogether." I chuckled and Ethan looked at me with a bigger grin.
"I don't know if you've heard but Memphis didn't fare well during the wars and most of its supernatural community killed each other resulting in a division that still lasts today. On one side we have a vampire family and on the other we have the shifters. We have been trying to reconcile and present a united front, because our enemies always look for open spots to overtake and destroy us." I leaned back, cup in hand. Mia was quite surprised and she simply watched him explain. We have heard about the vampire wars that ravaged the country 60 to 50 years ago and we knew that the wars were a reason why Sebastian, even though he was neutral, could hold land and a business so close to the daily and yet be apart from it.
"Simply said we need someone neutral, who doesn't work for vampires or shifters to hold our talks of peace and reconciliation."
Mia pouted a bit and I could see that she had no idea what he was talking about.
"That is not what you told me, Ethan." Ethan smiled but didn't say anything as we saw Sebastian moving toward us with food. He brought us the comfort food of America, pancakes. They were his special chocolate chip cookie pancakes that he knows I love.
"Thank you Adam, you always know how to treat a lady." Mia said, and I looked at her with wide eyes and laughed. I think everyone was startled by my laughing, and suddenly I had all of the attention.
"I'm sorry," I said,
"It's just we are as far from ladies as you can go!" Only stunned silence followed. Once Mia recovered, she whispered:
"Speak for yourself dear cousin." I laughed again and took a big bite of my pancake.
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"So Ethan, you need a neutral party to negotiate talks with the shifters?" I asked when Sebastian turned to go away. I pointed my knife toward the vampire.
"Why not ask Sebastian? He is neutral and a vampire?" Ethan looked at me surprised.
"It's true, his name did come up, but Carmen, the alpha werewolf, told us she will not trust any vampire to advocate for her side or to be neutral." I pointed toward Mia.
"Why not a witch?" Ethan sighed.
"Witches are… fragile. A strong vampire can ensnare them with a gaze and a strong shifter can be faster than magic. Witches' power lies in their covens and we simply can't invite a coven to the city." I took a second to think about it.
"What made you think of me?" I asked. Sebastian came back and gave me a look to scoot over so he could sit down. Without batting an eyelash I scooted toward the window, dragging my plate with me. He brought himself a glass of warm blood and sipped it silently while we talked.
"We know you are a bear, Sasha. Bears are notorious and extremely rare, especially in the States. You are strong enough to handle a vampire gaze, even an old one and you can take any shifter in battle." I cocked my head to the side.
"Well now, how would you know that?" I looked at Mia and she blushed. Ethan ignored the interaction and continued.
"Your only weakness is your cousin and we would make sure she is taken care of." I snorted again in disbelief.
"Yeah I can see that happening, it's not like I would rule in your favor since you are holding my cousin hostage?" It was Ethan's turn to sigh.
"I didn't mean it that way. We can provide a shop for her in the middle of the town, making sure she is safe from vampires and you make sure she is safe from everyone else."
"I just love when people talk like I'm not even here or as if I'm incompetent in defending myself." Mia interrupted. She was flushed with anger and I could see her eyes sparkling. It was time for us to be silent.
Sebastian was the one that broke the tension.
"You should refuse." He said to my surprise.
"I don't see how any of this would be good for you. Being in the middle of the shifters and vampires makes you a target of both, not to mention the rising halfling population wouldn’t be happy about a fourth party coming to town and being in charge of peace talk." Ethan glared at Sebastian.
"What would you know of our troubles?" Ethan hissed menacingly at the vampire.
"I've been keeping an ear on the ground. What happens in Memphis affects me as well, you know." Mia decided to jump into the conversation, trying to break up the rising tension.
"Do either of you know what has been going on with the witches in Savannah?" Both men looked at her, surprised by the sudden change in topic. I could smell Ethan's unease, it was coming off him in waves, while Sebastian was simply clueless.
"We don't bother with the witches. They have their own little town and won't deal with us, so we don't care about it." Mia looked at Sebastian to see if he had anything to add, and he did.
"It's been a while since I took an interest as well, I admit." I was still eating my pancake, so I just observed. I was a very good observer. I knew that Ethan was feeling outgunned and Sebastian didn't like Ethan offering us a place to go. There was also unease when Mia mentioned the witches, although I wasn't sure why.
"A smaller coven on the outskirts of town got murdered by what looks like a demon, their coven leader went missing and the town is under the assault of a creature of unknown origin as big as a cloud and as flimsy as a ghost." Ethan's mouth fell open in surprise and Sebastian's face went blank. I added:
"Not to say there is proof of someone using a shade of sorts to suck the witches' children dry of their magic, essentially killing them, and then collecting that magic to do with it as he or she pleases." Ethan cursed under his breath and went pale.
"How sure are you?" I looked at him.
"Of which part?" I asked as emotionlessly as I could.
"Any parts!" He hissed. Mia was the one who answered him.
"About the witches, quite sure. I was accused of kidnapping or killing Martha, their coven leader, and of summoning a demon that killed the coven and whatever that creature is that lurks on the edge of the town."
"And I personally encountered a shadow trying to feed of a five year old witch girl. I destroyed it but its master is still alive and well." Adam drank the blood and got up. He slowly said:
"You came here for the information, right?" I nodded. He closed his eyes.
"I can enquire about the shadow, but witches are beyond me. I can ask around who has dabbled in demon summoning but…" His voice trailed off.
"The shadow would take priority." I told him and Mia added.
"The person affected is our dear friend and honestly the demon can take those witches and be done with them, for all I care." I nodded in agreement.
"One more thing Sebastian," I said before he left.
"Could a sorcerer take a child's soul and twist it to steal magic from other children? Also why would a sorcerer want his children to the point of killing their mother? Would they kill their own children for some purpose?" Sebastian went still. Deadly still.
"I will get back to you, dear Sasha." He said, turned around and walked away.
We sat there in silence until Ethan cleared his throat.
"Please think about what I said and we can talk about it when you have the time. We would like a reply within the month." I smiled as sweetly as I could, knowing well that I look like a serial killer who just found his prey.
"We will get back to you Ethan. Goodbye." Mia said goodbye with her mouth full so it sounded more like a mumble, but Ethan took his cue and left. I sighed.
"Well that didn't go as planned." It was Mia's turn to chuckle.
"No, but I'm tired of games and shadows. I want to be direct and upfront, at least tonight." She sounded tired. I finished my pancake and left her at the table while I went to pay. Sebastian was standing at the register, looking outside as if he was watching someone, but when I looked in the same direction I saw nothing.
"I'm sorry Sebastian, we didn't mean to spring all those questions on you. We are having a bad and very long day today." He smiled but his smile was empty.
"Why do you ask me about sorcerers and their intentions?" His question took me by surprise.
"Because I don't know who else to ask." I answered honestly.
"You seem knowledgeable and wise and you are neutral. To remain neutral in this age you must possess at least enough knowledge to defend yourself. I just assumed that the knowledge would include at least some information about sorcerers and even if you don't know anything about them, you might know someone who does and even if you only share that information it will be more than what we know now." I leaned closer and talked more silently. We were the only one in the diner and yet the topic felt as if we should whisper. His face became more relaxed and he was clearly satisfied with my answer.
"What do you know about sorcerers?" He suddenly asked me.
"Not much," I admitted.
"They are rare, but quite powerful. Their magic is different from witches. Witches borrow their power from the elements and every witch has a personal limit of how much they can borrow, so their magic isn't purely their own. But sorcerers have a magic that comes from within them and it is only as powerful as the person who wields it. It is not limited to earthly logic like witches magic is. Sorcerers are mostly known as evil, they serve only themselves and they don't like to work with others. They are the epitome of a lone powerful mage. I also know that they used to be extremely rare but now they are just rare and apparently they do have families?" I posed that as a question since it was new information to me. Sebastian handed me a bill and I handed him some money. While handing me the change he added:
"Do you know that someone can just be born a sorcerer? Out of nowhere, even if for generations his family is human? They can be born, just like that?" That surprised me.
"No," I finally said, accepting his change.
"I was not aware of that." Sebastian nodded and looked back outside. I took that as a sign that the conversation was over so I motioned to Mia that it's time to leave.
To my surprise Penelope was waiting in front of the apartment, texting on her phone. Mia went to her and gave her a long kiss. I unlocked the doors, leaving them behind.
I was in my room, sending an email to a friend who might have some information on demons and similar beings, when I heard their conversation getting heated. Mia was explaining the situation about something when Penelope gasped. She probably just explained about the ritual she wanted to do and that she would require her help. Only a few minutes went by and just as I finished my email, Penelope knocked on the door. I knew it was her because the knocking was polite and gentle, instead of the brute force knock that my cousin uses.
"Sasha, are you still awake?" I walked to the door and opened it. She stood there surprised at the sudden open door and I realized just how beautiful she was. She told us she was mixed race, that only her mothers side was native American, but you could barely tell by her appearance. I once joked that she looked a lot like Pocahontas from the cartoons with her long black hair, oval shaped brown eyes and the nose that is clearly native American, but Mia told me that could be seen as racist, so I held my tongue. I mean, I found her beautiful regardless but it is funny that her name is Penelope and that she looks like Pocahontas, but maybe it's just my broken sense of humor.
"How can I help?" I said and broke the staring competition. She cleared her throat and stepped aside.
"Would you mind coming to the living room?" There was something wrong. Her whole face was kind of scrunched as if she just had the tartiest of lemons. She looked troubled so of course I followed her to the living room, which was right outside of my doors anyway. I sat on the recliner, while Mia and Penelope sat on the couch, their hands entwined with each other.
We were both looking at Penelope, while she looked on the floor, clearly embarrassed. I finally broke the tension, because I truly was tired and I wanted to get this over with and go to sleep.
"Are you worried about the ceremony? Because I can assure you I will be there only in a protective capacity and I will make sure you two are not disturbed." Her eyes went wide and she waved her hand away.
"I'm not worried about that," she finally said. It took a few more minutes for her to finally ask.
"Do you really shapeshift into a bear?" I backed away in surprise and looked at my cousin.
"I thought you had this conversation with her already?" She shrugged and replied.
"I told her you were a shifter and I was sure I told her you were a bear, but I guess I didn't?" Penelope, now more upset, said.
"I might have misheard, I knew you were a shifter but I just assumed you were a wolf. Most shifters from Europe are wolves and we didn't know bears…" She didn't finish her sentence so I took that as an invitation to explain.
"Well, I am a bear. Most of my family is? We are rare as a species but we have some nice communities out there, although I don't know about any in the States." For some reason Penelope started breathing easier and I was just as confused as before.
"What's wrong sweetie," my cousin finally said, petting the hair of her lover. Penelope looked at Mia and then at me.
"I know currently you seem to have a lot on your plate and I will do anything to help you with your problems. I will." She said with certainty to Mia, before she turned to me.
"But I also need your help." I was too tired for this shit, I thought to myself.
"My family situation is quite complicated and I don't really want to talk about it, but since I am asking for your help you deserve to know." The tension was so high you could hear a pin drop.
"I need you to come meet my uncle." She finally said. My eyebrow very slowly went up, wanting a further explanation. But all she did was look at me hopefully with her big brown eyes. I sighed.
"Of course I'll go meet your uncle if it's that important to you. I don't think it's such a big deal…" she gasped and her whole body relaxed, making me suspicious. It was Mia who asked:
"Is it a big deal, meeting your uncle?" Penelope suddenly blushed.
"Maybe I should explain."
"That would be nice," I said sarcastically. Mia gave me a mean look, but I ignored her. Penelope adjusted her seat and leaned into Mia's embrace.
"I'm going to make a long story short, because I can see you are tired." I wanted to thank her for her consideration but I kept my mouth shut, to speed up her storytelling.
"My great grandmother had a twin sister who went bad. Like black magic bad." She said that with a hushed voice as if she was expecting gasps of horror. When neither me or Mia reacted how she expected us to, Penelope continued.
"She was banished from the tribe and made a new life not far away from here. When my great grandmother was dying she asked me to inform her sister of her passing, so when I was just a teenager I went to search for the infamous Black Crow. I was quite surprised when I found her in good health and good spirits and not some evil shaman poised to kill everyone around her. Anyway, she had a family of her own and one of those was Tim, my uncle. Tim is a dream walker and a spirit quest guide, and if he would have been born in a different family he would have been a great shaman, but he is considered as lesser due to his blood. Unknown to my family I kept in touch with several members of my other side and I have to admit Tim is my favorite." We were enthralled by the story. Penelope was a great storyteller with her hands being animated and her facial expressions telling a story of their own. We were barely breathing, making sure no noise would interrupt her.
"He is currently visiting grandmother because on his last spirit quest something weird has happened and he has been trying to figure stuff out ever since. Apparently he found a huge bear in his vision, and the bear told him that his services are needed and he needs to find the bear's daughter and help her." This is where Mia gasped, but Penelope continued, ignoring Mia's tugging.
"The vision was very brutal and demanding and Uncle Tim was shaken. He went to his grandmother to ask for help, since he doesn't know who the daughter of the bear spirit was. Usually spirits present themselves in a male form, but this spirit was female, so it was a mystery even to grandmother. She told him to go to different tribes, looking for the bear shifter of native descent. It has been months and nothing. He has walked all around the states, visited many tribes and reservations but he has found no one who could be labeled as the daughter of the bear spirit." She finally stopped talking and took a long breath.
"You think I'm the daughter?" I asked.
"I don't know." Penelope admitted.
"But you are the only bear I have ever met. Tomorrow I was supposed to visit the town and ask some friends to spread the word, but my uncle just came to the cottage that my grandmother owns just beyond this woods, and maybe …" I sighed.
"Look Penelope, I don't think," I started but Mia interrupted me.
"She would love to meet your uncle!" I looked at her in surprise, wondering what she was going on about. Mia looked at me sternly.
"Penelope is kind enough to help us, with the ritual and anything else she can, so of course you will take an hour out of your busy schedule and meet her uncle."
"But," I started, but Mia wouldn't let me finish.
"You are most likely not the bear he is looking for anyway." Mia shrugged.
"He is most likely looking for someone of native descent and you are most certainly not Native American." I rolled my eyes but I really was too tired to argue.
"Fine," I said while getting up. "I'll meet your uncle as soon as possible but only because you are dear to me Penelope." There was a look of relief on her face when she thanked me from the bottom of her heart. I waved my hand and retired to my room.
I closed my door slowly, trying not to listen to them whisper about me and fell on the bed, wishing for sleep to take me.