Lesbian Vampire Ch. 07 - That Which Haunts You

"Nope," said Rhea in a And I couldn't have broken it either. Not alone." Rhea took in the sorry door, still locked in place with a massive gouge, big enough to step through. "Wood doesn't even break like this, I don't think." It looked cartoonish, as if someone removed a section with a massive, oblong cookie cutter.

Lucy shot him an irritated glance as she handed Rhea the tape. The witch wasn't sure if the vampire was irritable from drink, grief, or if he suspected something between her and his sister. She was too tired to engage him.

"And if we wanted to break open a door," added Rhea, "We would target the door knob, not try to blow through the middle. There's no reason to squander energy like that."

"I just don't see how you have a chance against Janice's teacher if you can't match her," said Patrick.

"No one should have that much power," said Rhea.

"But Lara does! See, that's what drove Janice into all this." said Patrick. He shifted side to side. "She tried it your way. There was always someone-- you can't do this, you can't do that. Never any interest in pushing what magick could be."

Rhea looked at him. "Everyone said Janice was talented. She didn't deserve what happened. But magick is dangerous and someone used it against her." Rhea pulled a length of tape from the roll and it made an unpleasant squak. She stretched the length over the hole, the ends stuck to either side. She pulled another strip of tape and affixed it to the wall like she did the first but just below it.

"So what are you doing?" asked Patrick.

"I'm going to tape over the hole as much as possible and place an illusion spell," said Rhea. It would be weak because she was tired.

"Janice wasn't lazy, you know," said Patrick. "She was trying. Nothing worked. And none of the other witches made her feel welcome. She wanted a solitary witch to teach her."

"That's not uncommon," said Rhea. She continued covering the hole with long strips of duct tape. "Covens aren't for everyone." She paused and looked at him. "It sounds like Janice was frustrated. It makes sense-- to be told you have potential but make no progress."

A shadow crossed Patrick's face. His face crumpled to hard lines of sorrow. "Janice wouldn't tell me anything, just that her teacher was good. Once Janice told me they all went to dinner and Lara showed up with a houseplant. Picked it up from the market on the way. When the bill came, Lara started whispering over the plant. It withered right before their eyes. Then she took a napkin and wrote 'money' on it. Just the word 'money.' And the waiter just lets them go, no problem. And that was not a cheap meal."

Rhea had finished covering the gouge with tape. She opened the door to begin on the other side. "That's a consuming spell; it comes from necromancy," said Rhea. "There's lots of versions of it. They are rarely that effective, so that is impressive I guess. The problem with consuming spells is the diminishing returns. After a while, one small plant isn't enough. Before long there wouldn't be enough plants she could gather in a day. She'd have to move on to something more kinetic."

And that's why she'll continue killing; Rhea knew it. The power of one soon wouldn't be enough. The cyclone was hungry and could hold more.

"Not to mention," added Rhea, "a consuming spell doesn't account for video surveillance. They can't go back to that restaurant ever again and maybe were reported to the cops. Because later that night, the manager tallied up the profits and saw a table that didn't pay. So the waiter was probably fired."

"But they helped her-- I saw myself how much better she was getting," said Patrick.

"It was an illusion," answered Rhea. "She was using a spell that took the life force of something else. Pushing magick beyond what it could be is one thing. But magick is more complicated than instant results."

Patrick looked crestfallen; it panged Rhea's heart. She finished taping the outside of the door. The tape strips were haphazard compared to the interior. Rhea was too tired to bother fixing them. She touched the door and whispered the words. She felt her eyes start to burn as if she had sliced a pungent onion. Rhea hated spells that affected the eyes. Hot tears only sharpened their burn. She held her hands steady until she felt the magick settle over the tape on the door.

And when it went she was drained. Her eyes and arms grew heavy with fatigue and her face hot. She stepped back inside and shut the door then walked to the sink to wash her face with cold water. Lucy's face twisted into one of concern when she saw Rhea's tears.

"Did it not work?" asked Lucy as she stared at the door that still looked like it had a giant hole covered in duct tape.

"It did," answered Rhea. "You see the hole and the tape because you know it's there. But the only ones who know that are you, Patrick, and me. And Lara, I guess. The human mind has a tendency to filter out details if they're deemed unimportant. The spell on the tape heightens that tendency. Anyone who walks by expecting to see only a door will see a door and not a door with a hole in the middle of it."

"All that for a spell you can only assume is working?" asked Patrick.

Rhea rolled her eyes and walked towards Lucy's fridge, where she thought she had a remaining coffee drink. There was no assuming-- she could feel the magick in the tape from where she stood. But letting him bait her would only make her more tired and she needed her wits about her.

"Did you know she was working with Braga?" Lucy interjected.

Patrick looked down. "No. I knew she met him a few times. When I told her who he was, she stopped talking about him. I thought he went back to that castle." Lucy put her hands on her hips and shook her head. Her jaw was hard.

"She wouldn't listen," argued Patrick.

"What really happened that night?" Lucy's voice was angry.

"Everything I told you!" said Patrick. "I was supposed to meet her in a room at the hotel. She left me a keycard at the front desk. But when I got to the room Janice was dead. She was lying on the bed. I tried to shake her and she was cold. Her eyes were open." Patrick shook his head. "After our break up I'd been feeding on drunks more often than I should. The details are fuzzy."

"You always do this when some girl dumps you," said Lucy.

"I was only sober when it mattered!" he answered. Lucy scoffed and asked "What next?"

"I went a little crazy. I blacked out and I, uh, jumped through a window. From the third floor."

Lucy looked at him incredulous. "Through the glass?"

Patrick nodded.

"That's probably why they abandoned the body," said Rhea. Both siblings looked at her. "Patrick drew too much attention for them to remove it unnoticed. They weren't expecting him."

"So they desecrate it with a fake vampire bite," said Lucy. "It throws the attention of witches towards her boyfriend and away from them. And it forces humans to house the body for a pending investigation. Instead of a large county morgue, it went to a small specialist lab."

Patrick stood. "I can't hear anymore of this."

"You should have told me. Everything," said Lucy.

"There's heaps of things that should've been different," retorted Patrick. Lucy closed her eyes and exhaled in frustration. He pulled a single key from a ring of many and tossed Lucy the rest. "I can go to her apartment. There has to be something there that might be useful. I'll probably have to stay there during daylight, but you can stay at my place." He strode towards the shattered window. His legs were long and would have been called spindly on a happier man. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the jagged glass remains of the window as if the sill had grown teeth.

"You'll want to put a sheet or something over this. Keep out birds." said Patrick.

Then without a word, he jumped out the window into the cool air of the night.