Samantha Moon Phantasm, page 129
part #9 of Vampire for Hire Series
Equally confused, I could only stare back at everyone… until I noticed faint white energy lines wisping out of their foreheads, which I inhaled like a desperate pothead trying to catch a secondary buzz off someone else’s joint. My hunger ebbed from a freak out starvation level to ‘damn I want a burger.’
“What the hell?” I asked no one in particular.
Allison snapped out of her mind fog and raised both hands at me in a gesture like a cop trying to stop traffic. A circle of white light drew itself in midair, as if a five-foot-wide pane of glass stuck to her palms. The wispy trails connecting everyone’s heads to me vanished at once with a sensation like someone grabbed my blood bottle away from me before I’d finished eating.
“Sam… what the hell?” rasped Allison, a hint of anger in her voice.
“Sorry. I have no idea.” I grabbed the Momvan and pulled myself up to stand. “Lot of weird shit just happened to me.”
“Holy fuck!” shouted Tammy. “Elizabeth’s gone!”
I pointed at her, ready to yell. Instead, I nodded weakly. “Ehh. You know what. I’m gonna let that f-bomb slide. This moment kinda deserves it.”
Anthony folded his arms. “Can I bank one f-bomb for later use?”
I had more important things to care about than my kids swearing, so I halfheartedly nodded at him before hugging them both tight. Tammy swam around my thoughts, shivering at my memory of Elizabeth’s conversation.
“What?” Allison ran over and stared into my eyes. “Oh, whoa. What the hell has happened to you, Sam? You like… have color in your cheeks.”
“As soon as I figure it out, I’ll let you all know.” I pressed my face into Tammy’s shoulder, squeezed her, then did the same with Anthony. He hugged me back with surprising strength, though it shouldn’t have caught me off guard. He, too, had become something more than mortal.
“Sam, you were feeding on us,” said Allison.
“What?” I let go of the hug to gawk at her. “But I didn’t touch…”
“You were draining our mental energy. I think… you’ve. Hmm.” Allison rubbed her chin. “You ever hear of a ‘psychic vampire?’”
“Isn’t that the dude at work that makes everyone tired just by being around them because he’s so obnoxious?” asked Kingsley, chuckling.
“That’s not the same thing.” Allison grasped my face in both hands and stared into my eyes. “You’ve changed.”
“Yeah. J.C. said I was going to…” I held up my hands, wiggling my fingers. “Check it out. No more manicurist nightmare.”
“Mom! Where’s your ring?” shouted Tammy. “You’re gonna…” She blinked. “Not burn.”
“Whoa,” said Anthony.
Kingsley sniffed at me. “You’re still an immortal. I don’t see an aura. And I can’t read your mind.”
I nodded. “Do you still have a dark master lurking in there?” I asked, tapping his meaty chest. “Elizabeth said something about them exploding out of people…”
He nodded. “Yeah. Nothing’s changed. He’s still here.”
“Mine’s gone.” I explained what happened with Elizabeth, something Tammy had already picked up on.
“It had to be because you were at like ground zero when the Red Rider went off like a Roman candle.” Allison shivered.
“And what happened to you guys?” I swiped my hair off my face and neatened it as best I could with my hands.
“Wanna go inside and sit or something?” asked Kingsley. “And we’ll tell you.”
I gazed up. “Actually… I want to enjoy the sun if you don’t mind… at least for a moment.”
“So, psychic vampire.” Allison kept prodding me. “They feed on mental energy. In extreme cases, they can drain someone’s psyche to the point they wind up PVS.”
“Pretentious Vegan Syndrome?” asked Tammy.
Kingsley laughed, as did Anthony.
“No.” Allison smirked. “Persistent vegetative state. They’d basically had their personalities and mental strength devoured.”
“Eek.” I blinked. “That’s almost worse than draining someone’s blood to the point of death.”
“Well, the good news is, like with traditional vampires, you don’t have to go that far. You could walk through a crowd and nip a little from everyone. They wouldn’t notice and you’d be stuffed. You could do the same with animals. Anything living, really. Maybe even plants.” Allison grinned. “This is actually pretty cool.”
I couldn’t help but look at her and think… Elizabeth is gone, do I still need to be exiled from your head?
Her eyes widened. “Oh, shit, Sam. You feel different…”
“Duh.” I flared my eyebrows.
“No, I mean… you feel like a... baby witch.”
My hands trembled as the realization of that dawned on me. I’d wanted my magic back. Had I seized on it when all that energy flowed through me on its way back to the third dimension? Or had my desire to send it all back where it belonged somehow restored it?
“You have a scent now, Sam.” Kingsley sniffed at my neck—and couldn’t help but kiss me. “And a pulse. And body heat.” He looked at me like he couldn’t wait to be alone together later.
“Lalalalalalala,” said Tammy, sticking her fingers in her ears. “Please stop thinking about Mom that way near me.”
“I’m not undead anymore… but not human either.”
“Werewolves and mermaids are immortal but not undead. Hmm. There is something else, too.” He leaned back scratching his chin. “Maybe those angel wings are going deeper than we ever thought possible.”
“Hah. Me? An angel? Don’t be silly.”
“Not an angel, perhaps just a trace of it.” Allison walked around me.
“Okay, if that’s true and I’m not an undead anymore and maybe like a quarter angel or whatever the fraction is… where’d the psychic vampire stuff come from?”
“Mom.” Tammy stared into my eyes. “You never liked drinking blood. It always made you feel like a freak. But… you also spent so long as a vampire, you couldn’t help but think of yourself that way. What if Talos was right about you having the ability to make stuff you want happen, just like real slow. Maybe you drink mental energy now because you thought of yourself as a vampire but hated the whole blood thing?”
Allison shrugged. “That makes about as much sense as anything else. The kid’s got a good idea there. You’d gotten so used to being a vampire, some aspect of that is still present in whatever you’ve become now.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, careful of my nails... okay, no longer worried about those sharp suckers. Score one for me. “So what happened to you guys? Were you really there? The fiend exploded and everything turned into white light.”
“Yeah… you disappeared in a flash,” said Kingsley. “A column of white light that shot straight up.”
“Like the beams from Ghostbusters,” added Anthony.
“More beams shot out from the corpse and hit the girls in robes. They all went from blank-faced mannequins to like actual people. But they only remained for a couple seconds each before their bodies disappeared and all the robes fell.” Allison looked down, near to tears.
“Don’t cry. They weren’t real ghosts… magical echoes or something,” I said.
“But they still represented all his victims.” Allison sniffled.
“And they’re all reincarnated. No point being sad about stuff we can’t do anything to change. I got the son of a bitch, so at least no more innocent little witches will ever be… killed.”
“Speaking of little witches,” said Tammy in a bit of a sheepish tone. “I think you need to visit that big-ass tree by that kid’s house again.”
“Where’d that come from?” I asked.
“Her boyfriend called.” Anthony grinned.
“Stuff it, Ant!” snapped Tammy, blushing, using a new nickname for her brother. Apparently, it was supposed to be ironic, considering Anthony could turn into something massive indeed.
Oh, yeah. She’s definitely got a boyfriend.
Allison giggled, finding my daughter’s embarrassment cute.
That aside, what possible connection could this theoretical boyfriend have to Annie the witch and her magical tree?
Tammy narrowed her eyes at me. Not Annie or the tree. The fairies. They asked to see you. And, yeah. I wanna go, too.
“Why don’t we all go?” I asked with a smile.
“Huh?” Kingsley looked at me.
“We need to make a quick trip,” I said, patting his cheek.
“Aren’t you worn out and exhausted?” he asked.
“Yeah, but I feel better now. I’m still tired and hungry, but you guys took the edge off. Sorry. I didn’t even mean to absorb energy from you like that.”
Allison put an arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t know you did it. But, we’re going to need to work on your control.”
“Just like learning how to feed for the first time…” I chuckled. “I’ve obviously got some ability to control it. Just need to work out the details.”
“And that’s beyond messed up.” Tammy pointed at Kingsley. “You fed off another immortal. I didn’t think vampires could do that?”
“I’m not your everyday vampire.” I wagged my eyebrows.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I parked the Momvan as near to the field as I could get without damaging any plant life.
We all hopped out and started the trek to the eucalyptus tree, no one much in the mood for more conversation. On the ride up here, we’d talked about Elizabeth being free—and alive again—though Kingsley thought she had become something else. Definitely not an ordinary human. Some kind of immortal with a fully-contained soul. Though, exactly what she was or what she could do, we could only guess… but one thing we all agreed on: it wouldn’t be good.
Elizabeth had offered a truce with me out of some twisted sense of gratitude for doing her bidding and setting her loose upon the world. She also knew how to hurt me if she wanted to: harming my children. Though the woman promised to leave me alone if I didn’t mess with her, and I damn sure knew if I pissed her off, she’d go straight for where it hurt me the most, I didn’t fully trust her to actually leave me alone. Since her plan came to fruition and my destruction meant nothing to her anymore, the threat that I’d destroy myself with a sun bath if she ever hurt my children held no more weight.
Well, that and a sun bath wouldn’t really bother me.
I spent the rest of the walk out to the tree having mixed thoughts about all the ways I tried to deal with the sun after becoming a vampire. Everything from when I still tried to keep my HUD job to that time I dropped Tammy off at school and nearly roasted myself in the parking lot.
My daughter’s random blush told me she saw my memory of her going to preschool and how much I cried that day.
We found Annie sitting in the shade of the giant tree in a cute white sundress, a crown of pink flowers in her blonde hair, and a flower anklet on each leg. A dozen or more tiny people sat around her, some on her, others hovering nearby. Some wore skirts made of leaves, some merely glowed. All chattered merrily with the little girl, who looked so cute, happy, and normal I could almost forget what had happened to her.
Kingsley and Anthony hung back, my son being too ‘macho’ to go anywhere near fairies and the big werewolf not wanting to freak them out.
Annie looked up as I approached with Tammy and Allison beside me. Her smile turned into an expression of elation at seeing me.
“Hey there,” I said.
“Hi.” Annie waved. “Maple wanted to talk to you.”
“Oooh,” cooed Allison, gazing in awe at the fairies like she’d gone back to being twelve.
When Tammy didn’t make fun of her, I glanced over. My kid appeared to be simultaneously thrilled at meeting a cloud of faeries as much as she tried to project ambivalence toward them. Miss Cool couldn’t let anyone see her gushing inside. Yeah, okay, my kid had a goth streak, but she still evidently loved cute. And hey… fairies, right?
The fairies also glanced in my direction… and it hit me then that I saw them for what they were, not little balls of light. One glided up to me, the woman with the crown, Maple. I’m sure she’d been the one who allowed me a small glimpse of herself before, and had likely followed Annie back to the house when we returned.
Their queen, princess, or whatever, drifted up to my eye level on a trail of sparkling dust. I can’t say I’d ever seen anyone give off so much happiness, except maybe Annie’s parents. Though, this fairy appeared even happier than them. Probably because she knew exactly what the Red Rider would have done to Annie. Her parents had only thought killing her would’ve been the worst part. Little did they know….
I got the feeling Maple had pseudo-adopted Annie. Maybe witches have familiars or something and this kid won the lottery to get a fairy willing to be her companion. I had a fascination with owls. In fact, there’d been one that hung around my childhood home that I swore liked me, but I hadn’t seen him since I went off to college.
The way Maple looked at me gave me the feeling she wanted to reward me for helping Annie. Before I could even think to tell her she didn’t have to, that I would’ve busted my ass to save any innocent in that situation, she nodded at me as if in response to something, then glided over to Tammy, who dropped her too cool for school affect and let the little woman land on her arm. The fairy walked back and forth from elbow to wrist, lost in thought for a few seconds before she rather cartoonishly snapped her fingers as if getting an idea. In a blast of sparkling light, she zoomed like an arrow into the eucalyptus tree—I swear going straight into the trunk like a ghost.
I sat beside Annie, as did Tammy. Allison plopped down cross-legged facing the kid, basically forming a circle with us.
“The monster is gone,” I said.
Annie looked up at me, a crack of worry breaking past her happiness.
“No need to be scared.” I patted her on the head. “I destroyed him. He can’t ever hurt you again… or anyone else.”
She beamed. “Miss Maple told me already. Thank you!”
Other fairies landed on my shoulders. One tap-danced on my head. I shifted my eyes upward as my kids laughed. Oh, this is too strange. I was never the sort of kid who played with dolls, though maybe that happened because I didn’t have any. And not to call the fairies dolls, but they do kinda tweak the same sort of impulse. As weird as it was, I found myself adoring their company. Tammy, too, seemed to slide out from under her shell of surliness, acting more like the Tammy from ten years ago.
Though he had zero interest in fairies, Anthony, standing some twenty feet away, still smiled at seeing his sister in good spirits.
Maple reappeared with a loud fizzling pop, emerging from the tree trunk. She and two other fairies lugged an amulet over to me. A cabochon of amber a bit bigger than my thumbprint sat in an oval of woven twigs and tiny leaves, suspended by a plain leather cord.
“Thank you…” I accepted the amulet and spent a moment staring at it. Somehow, I could tell it carried a strong fairy enchantment, but couldn’t discern its purpose.
When I started to put it on, Maple rapidly shook her head and pointed at Tammy.
Oh? I handed it to my daughter. She gave it a dubious look, as if to say ‘what’s up with this cheap costume jewelry,’ but put it on anyway. Two seconds later, she covered her mouth with both hands and looked around at us all before bursting into sobs. Maple floated over to her. Tammy forced a “Thank you” past her tears and gingerly hugged the little woman. Since she couldn’t really hug the fairy, she clamped herself to my arm instead.
Annie and Allison peered quizzically at her.
Maple landed on Annie’s shoulder and chattered away too fast for me to understand, perhaps not even in English.
“Oh…” Annie smiled, then looked at me.
Tammy continued blubbing into my shoulder and neck.
“What…?” I rubbed my daughter’s back, trying to comfort her.
“You really do have to learn how to talk to fairies someday.” Annie grinned. “Maple wanted to do something nice for you because you helped me. She knew what you wanted most and made the necklace for Tammy.”
Maple chattered away.
Annie nodded at her, then looked back to me. “When Tammy wears it, it stops her from hearing all those crazy voices.”
My eyes widened in shock.
“I forgot what quiet sounded like,” sniffled Tammy.
I squeezed her tight, both of us shaking with emotion. Somehow, Maple had read my deepest want… for my daughter to be safe from her own demons, not to harm herself or lose her mind. The fairy picked that moment to glide closer to me. She hugged my cheek, then nuzzled against the side of my head like an affectionate mouse.
Words failed me as I was too choked up to speak. It didn’t matter though, since Maple sensed my gratitude for her wonderful gift.
Eventually, both Tammy and I regained our composure. We spent a little while longer talking to Annie. She explained, basically translating for Maple, that my daughter could overpower the amulet to use her telepathy on a single person close enough to see. However, she’d have to take it off to do any beyond-line-of-sight stuff or hear/affect multiple minds at once.
Tammy jokingly commented about getting the amulet remade into a collar with a lock so it would never come off, though she sighed and admitted she might need to use her more far-reaching abilities… especially with Elizabeth still out there. However, since the amulet offered her a reprieve from the constant barrage of information, opening herself to the chaos on purpose here and there in small bursts wouldn’t bother her at all.
At Annie’s parents calling for her, our little fairy conclave meeting broke up. We walked with the girl back to the house and spent a few minutes telling Rita and Gene about the destruction of the Red Rider.
And… it was time to go home.
Once we piled back into the Momvan, I glanced over my shoulder at Allison and the kids. “You guys wanna swing by the mall real quick on the way? I’m still a bit hungry.”
