A-Cup Angst Ch. 06

Lilah followed the navigation enchantment on her phone until she could see Alice in the distance. She didn't see her yet, so Lilah sat behind a pair of students that were kissing, and patiently waited for Alice to pass by her. When she did, Lilah stood up to walk beside her.

"Hello, Alice," she said.

Alice turned around and saw Lilah. Her mouth opened for a moment, but then smiled. "Hello, Lilah, how nice to see you again," said Worth. "Let me introduce you to my daughter, Helena." she indicated the tall, tanned, platinum blonde whose face looked like her own.

Lilah nearly fainted with fright as Alice smugly introduced the five young people that had stormed into The Suit's residence this summer and incapacitated Section's elite in a heartbeat. She was shown their yearbook photos, so she knew their faces. Everyone in Section did. She couldn't sense their magic at all and she realized she had, basically, walked into a trap thinking she was going to catch Alice unawares. She swallowed to try and get her voice back as the young people extended their hands to her and shook with a polite greeting.

Jamie pointed to a coffee shop on the other side of the quad. "We were going to get some coffee and pastries," he said. "This is the best place on campus, bar none. Would you like to join us?"

"Um, yeah, sure," she said. They turned around and nonchalantly continued their walk, talking amongst themselves about something. Lilah stood there, in fright, for a few more moments, and then skipped to catch up with them. Running away would do her no good, she guessed, if they turned out to be hostile. She remembered reading a report of them defeating a warlock in the Midwest and bringing closure to almost a hundred families that were being torn apart by not knowing what had happened to their loved ones. She was curious to find out how they could reconcile attacking Section one day, and being a force of justice the next day.

The large coffee shop was full of young people, students mostly, who sat around with open laptops. Jamie and the gang sat at the only empty table and arranged seven chairs around it. Rose waved her hand and a waitress came over, at once, to take their order. Lilah's lips tightened as she saw another instance of unauthorized use of charm magic. It may have been a minor use and ultimately harmless, but Section took a dim view on all mind altering spells.

"So, Lilah," Jamie interrupted her train of thought, "how do you and Alice know each other?"

"We worked together in Section," said Alice.

"Oh, aren't you a little young for that," he asked Lilah.

Alice threw her head back and laughed. "She's turning thirty next month," she said.

Jamie connected the dots and looked at the young adolescent looking girl with wonder. "Oh, wow! You're the third shapeshifter, right?" Lilah mutely nodded. "So, is there a vampire in this city, right now?"

"Yes," she said. "I was sent to evacuate the casters from the city."

"But leave the mundanes to their fate," Jamie asked, accusingly.

"There is nothing we can do to stop a vampire, Mr. Jacobs," she said. "No one can do anything but wait it out. It's a terrible thing that this monster went through with its transformation ritual here, in a major metropolitan area, but there's nothing that can be done about that. We have to wait it out."

"And let the corpses pile up," he said.

"Well, one can always count on fresh vampires to clean up after themselves," she said. She gulped in fright at the way his brow drew down. "Sorry," she said, looking down, "I didn't mean to be glib."

"Honestly, Jamie," Helena complained, "There has to be a more pleasant topic for our conversation."

Jamie, Rose and Sandra started to ask Lilah about the rift spell they had seen when they were attacked. They didn't mention the attack itself. Lilah explained some things about it and many drawings were being traded back and forth as the paradoxes required were explained.

She told them that a particularly strong coven can use magic to open a rift between two locations, even between various plains of existence, if a group had enough power, but that transport through a rift was impossible. Anything that went in was instantly atomized and no one could reassemble it properly on the other end. Jamie and the girls shared a look as they realized that the woman that cleaned up after Eric Johansson had committed suicide when she was finished.

Lilah also told them that Section had tried to use the rifts to enable two way communication in the days before radio, as light can freely cross from one end to the other, but the magical costs of it were prohibitive. It was not applicable as a means of espionage, and scrying was superior to it, so rift spells were largely consigned to musty old books and forgotten.

Alice had already told those things to the group. In the two days they had kept her chained to a bed, they repeatedly brought her to the very edge of orgasm and prevented her from climaxing, until she told them everything she knew about vamps and weres and rifts and enchanted ammo and crystals. She told them everything about Section, shocking them several times by revealing the extent of Section's workload. She could tell they hadn't expected the majority of Section's efforts to be directed towards seemingly mundane things. They surprised her by being especially interested in the Great Enchantments that all the national banks of the world cast upon their currency to prevent it from being magically reproduced. She sat there, mutely sipping her coffee, and observing Lilah giving up the same info at polite prompts.

In less than an hour, everyone had their fill of coffee and danish. Jamie asked, "Do you count as a minor?"

"What do you mean," said Lilah.

"Magically," he said. "Do the laws of magic consider you a minor? Could you attack the vampire and have his repertoire of spells against you severely limited by the protections on the underage?"

Lilah flashed a tight smile and said, "Unfortunately, the laws of magic consider a shapeshifter to be of age as soon as they shift forms for the first time, regardless of age."

"So, you're of age, magically," he asked. Lilah looked uncomfortable with the question. "What can you turn into?"

"Um, I, uh," she said.

"You'll have to excuse Jamie," Helena said, putting her hand on Lilah's forearm. "He sometimes doesn't realize when he's asking very personal questions." Jamie raised his hands and shrugged questioningly. "The four of you have been talking spells so long, we haven't had a chance to ask you what brought you to us in the first place."

"Um, the evacuation," said Lilah.

"So, you want us to leave the city," Jamie asked.

"Yes," Lilah said. "You have to. If the vampire was to get a hold of you, it would be a disaster."

"Does Section know anything about this vampire's identity, or location," he asked.

"No," Lilah shook her head. "All the seers were able to sense was that the ritual was done here, the other day."

"Ah, yes," said Jamie, "seers." Alice had told them about Section's cadre of clairvoyants. They weren't of great practical use, in the end. "Vague fuckers, aren't they?" Jamie admired Lilah's smile. She had such pretty and shapely lips.

"Thank you for your concern," said Jamie. "But I've got a feeling you actually came here, today, to see Alice for some reason. You seemed awfully surprised when she introduced us to you."

"Yes," said Lilah. "I came to arrest her for unauthorized use of charm magic."

Alice snorted a laugh. Jamie shrugged and said to Lilah, "Go ahead." Lilah looked at him questioningly. "You do what you have to do."

Alice giggled and pointed at him while addressing Lilah, "He's kidding."

"No, I'm not," he said.

Alice read the seriousness in his face and voice and looked shocked. "We're family," she complained.

"The fuck we are," he said and waved the waitress over to settle up the tab. "My treat," he told Lilah. Lilah's bright blue eyes were wildly darting between him and Alice. She had feared he was going to interfere with the execution of her duties. She feared he might just be waiting for an excuse to lash out at her, but something in his warm eyes told her it wasn't so. She tentatively pointed a twirling finger towards Alice and began to gather her power.

Jamie cut off Alice's counterspell and smiled at Lilah. He gave her a wink and rose to leave, followed by his girls. Lilah captured Alice with her spell and looked after the departing boy. "We are going to take a nice, long drive back to D.C.," she told Alice, who was squirming in her seat, "and you're going to tell me all about Jamie."

Outside the coffee shop, Helena bumped shoulders with Jamie and smiled suggestively. "What," he asked.

"She wants you," Helena said.

"Who wants me," Jamie asked.

"Lilah," Helena said. "She wants you to fucking mount her and make her your bitch."

"Where the fuck did you get that from," Jamie asked.

Helena looked at him, surprised. "Didn't you see the way she was looking at you?"

"Um, yeah, I did. She looked at me like I might eat her at any minute."

"That she did," Rose said. "Only she wanted you to eat her out, rather than eat her."

"Dude," Jamie said. "What the fuck are you girls on about? That girl in there was scared of me, end of story. And besides, didn't you see her? She looks like she belongs in middle school, not on someone's dick!"

"Jamie, Jamie, Jamie," Helena sighed. "You don't know the first thing about women, do you? She's a virgin! I could see it plain as day, we all could! She's scared of you bending her over the table and turning her into a woman. But she wants it sooo bad, all at the same time."

"She wants your spunk," Sonya said. "I know that feeling myself."

"Bullshit," said Jamie. "First of all, she's turning thirty next month, so there's no way she's still a virgin, and, second of all, she was scared of all five of us."

"She may be older than us, but she is trapped in a body that ages at half our speed," Sandra said. "Her only potential sexual partners so far were pedophiles and ephebophiles, and I can tell you for sure that she didn't go for any of those sickos. She has been waiting for the right man for her, and she's decided you're him!"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Jamie said. "I bet she had gotten plenty of offers from normal people, and took some of them up on it, already. She's got nice, little tits and her hips are all soft and curvy."

"Aha," Helena exclaimed. "So you were checking out her tight, little bod, weren't you!"

"No, I just noticed it," he said.

"Deny it all you want, Jamie," Rose said, "but if we were to lift the wards from Bastion, she'd show up the next night, wearing nothing but chocolate, and beg you to fuck her silly."

"I'm not listening to any of this nonsense any more," Jamie said. He turned to go. "We've all got classes to attend. I'll see you tonight, at home!"

After the day's lectures, they assembled in Bastion. Jamie fingered his rings. He had five power spirits stored up and he was going to store the sixth before he fell asleep that night. In just four more days, he would be able to go after this vampire. The time to find it was running out. He had no intention of sitting on his ass while a monster ran around the city, eating people.

The girls devoted all of their efforts to finding a clue in the dream, while Jamie called Cyrus to see if he couldn't find him a drone for hire.

Helena walked into Jamie's office and noted the displeased look on his face. "Cyrus didn't come through," she asked.

"For once, he didn't," said Jamie. "He said his bosses still insist that they don't want anything to do with me, that they don't have access to drones, anyway, and that he's a little insulted because I haven't called him in a month."

"I'm sure he'll come around," she said.

"I kinda doubt it, he ended our conversation by claiming he was going through a tunnel and that I was breaking up," he said. "And I called him on his landline!"

"Anyway, Sandra thinks she may have made an accidental break in the case," Helena said.

"Well, don't just stand there and let me prattle on," Jamie said and rose up to follow Helena downstairs. Sitting around the coffee table in the center of the floor were Rose and Sandra and their laptops. "What did you find?"

"I accidentally typed in greenwell together instead of apart, and Google spit out the Journal-Bulletin's online edition," Sandra said. Jamie stood over her shoulder and perused the brief article she showed him. It read that a divorced woman named Emma Greenwell went missing from her home in the middle of the night. "The date of the disappearance matches the date of our nightmare."

"Yeah, but I don't think it means anything," he said.

Sandra showed him the next article, of how a woman named Willow Duchamps went missing from her home on the same night, with her family hearing nothing, despite sleeping down the hall. "That's the weeping willow from the dream, and Emma is the well with green water, but what about the others," he said.

Sandra displayed articles on the disappearances of a Jim Butcher, Taggart Price and George Stone, all taken from their homes on the same night, without a trace. "That's the butcher, the bloody price tags and the big, bloody rock," he said. "What about the son of John?"

"That's where things get interesting," Sandra said. "A woman by the name of LaToya Johnson went missing that night, as well. Only she wasn't taken from her home. She just disappeared while walking to work at a bakery."

Jamie's brow drew up in confusion. "Well, it's certainly an anomaly, but I don't see how it helps us find the vampire. We heard it from Alice and Lilah, both. These people have been sacrificed already and the vampire probably already cleaned up the mess. Scrying on their remains would not work, even if we had something of theirs to scry with. We know their identities and that's good, but we can't just call up their families to tell them they're dead, now can we?"

"Ah, but here's the thing," said Sandra. "A sixth person was taken from her bed in the middle of that night." she pulled up an article and Jamie read about a miss Fiona Richmond who was reported missing by her family on that same night. The article listed her age as seventeen. "That's the redhead I dreamed of, Fiona is a Scottish name, right?"

"And I saw her as a Southern Belle, cause of her last name," Rose said.

"She's underage," he said. "The warlock couldn't use her in the ritual, because she's underage! Holy crap! He went out and abducted Johnson off the street at the last minute, or something. We need to scry on this chick. She might still be alive and we might find this monster! What's her address?!"

The gang got in the Cayenne and Subaru and they burned rubber getting to the Richmond residence. Jamie wasted no time in getting the door to open for him and the occupants to ignore him barging into their oldest child and beloved sibling's bedroom. He grabbed her hairbrush and took a single hair from it. He left, closing the door behind himself and ran back to the Cayenne. Rose, Sandra and he scryed on the girl.

They got no hits. Their hopes sank as they realized Fiona was dead and her body destroyed. Jamie punched the steering wheel in frustration. Even by breezing in and out of her home, he saw how much her disappearance hurt her family. "Fuck," he yelled. "This vampire is so going down!" He turned the engine over and pulled into traffic. "If we can't get a drone to do an aerial survey for us, we'll just have to make our own."

Jamie purchased three RC model planes and some miniature cameras. He mounted the cameras under the planes and went to an electronics store where he charmed the clerk to show him how to boost the signal of the remote and camera both, so the planes could fly high enough for a survey of the city to be conducted.

The weekend was spent directing the planes flying overhead, while their computers recorded the cameras' images. It took them the whole week to pour through the fuzzy images and spot five potential locations for the vampire's lair. They used the time to make up for any lost schoolwork and Rose, Sandra and Jamie enchanted rounds for Sonya's gun. Sonya insisted on using latex gloves while handling the ammunition. She didn't want any trace evidence left behind for a C.S.I. team to recover. Having seen the cleaning lady, with the rift spell, clean up after Eric, the casters agreed.

On Saturday night, they got into the X5 and Cayenne and went for a drive. Jamie had all ten power spirits and Sonya had two full magazines of enchanted rounds. The three swords were on hand, to be used to chop the vampire's corpse to bits.

The first three locations turned out to be busts, but just driving up to the fourth gave the casters the willies. It was a small log cabin on the outskirts of a park. Trees and bushes surrounded it on all sides.

"I can't feel anyone or anything inside," Sandra said. "The place must be warded!"

Jamie nodded. "But I can't feel any of the traps we have. Can you?" Rose and Sandra shook their heads. "Ok, here's the plan! I breach the perimeter and enter to find and destroy the vampire. Sonya, you back me up with the enchanted rounds. Helena, guard the cars and keep them running in case we need to make a getaway. Sandra, search the downstairs and check for a cellar and see if there are any people there that we can save. Rose, you do the same upstairs. Everyone clear on the plan?" The girls nodded. "Alright, let's do this shit!"

Jamie got out of the car and walked to the front door, drawing his sword from its scabbard. Sandra and Rose did the same. Sonya released the safety and worked the slide. Their eyes met in silent understanding, one last time. Jamie concentrated, summoned his power and made the door pop off its hinges and go flying off to the side.

He could immediately feel the powerful being inside the shack turn its attention towards him. A middle aged, hispanic woman exited the bathroom and glared at Jamie. His guts churned as his instincts and the stored spirits all agreed that taking over this vampire's magic and using it against her was a no-can-do. Jamie wasted half a thought on regretting the failure of plan A. If this was to be a straight up magical battle, then so be it. He was ready to cheat his ass off.

The vampire snuck a powerful, but insidious charm spell into their minds. Four of Jamie's spirit powers expended themselves to undo the spell and only succeeded by working in conjuncture with the warded jewelry Jamie and the girls were already wearing. Acting on pure instinct, Jamie used his remaining six powers to unleash a prodigious amount of kinetic energy into the woman. She raised shields and conjured a spell to siphon away the heat, but it was too little and too late. Her body burned into a crisp.

"Phew," said Jamie. For a moment there, he thought they were goners. Rose and Sandra ran past him to check the tiny cabin. He gestured to Sonya and she fired three rounds into the vampire's head and three more into the torso. Jamie stood over the corpse and hacked away at its neck with all of his enhanced might. The sword refused to make a clean cut. It caught and Jamie broke the blade trying to wrench it free. Rose and Sandra reported the house clear and then Jamie saw, out of the corner of his eye, that the vampire was regenerating more rapidly with each passing second. His legs nearly gave out in fright. "Out! Go! Run! Escape!"

They ran to the cars and got in. Sonya was behind the wheel of the Cayenne and Jamie sat next to her. Just as they drove off in separate directions, the vampire came out, running after the X5. Jamie spotted her running and ordered Sonya, "Open your window and keep aim at the vampire! Put a bullet in her head on my mark!"