Chilling Cadence

Four

The Sizzling Griddle was as packed tonight as it had been the night before. Bands of truckers, families who were just passing through—Cadence couldn’t imagine any of them being foolish enough to stay, even if Eleanor’s cooking was top notch—couples having an outing, clusters of teenagers goofing off. The place was packed to the brim with noise, color, and the scent of comfortingly greasy food made Cadence’s stomach growl.

Lorelei—who apparently heard that growl, even over the noise—turned to Cadence with amusement shining in her unnatural eyes. She turned back around and led a grudging Cadence to the place Chau had led her to the night before.

The residents all nodded to Lorelei and looked Cadence over curiously. With enviable grace and spine-chilling languidness, Lorelei led Cadence to a private booth. The magic barrier placed in this area made it quiet, blocking out the noise from the main area.

Like taking their seat had summoned her, Amahle appeared. Her hair piled atop her head in a neat updo. Nothing could take away from her amazing volume, though, and her hair glimmered with health and vitality. Her dark skin so radiant, it was as if there was a glow from inside out.

“You again,” Amahle observed. Although her words were probably rude, her tone wasn’t. She sounded…curious. As if she didn’t know what to make of Cadence just yet. And then Cadence remembered what Chau had told her yesterday: that Cadence wasn’t the only new resident who had come to Glasskeep, and how some of those residents had taken advantage of the people who lived here.

Cadence cleared her throat. “What’s the special today?”

“The All-American burger with a side of Cajun fries,” Amahle responded quickly.

“I’ll take that, then. And another strawberry lemonade.”

“You got it.” Amahle’s eyes swept over to Lorelei. “The sheriff of Blue Ridge has been looking for you.”

The way Amahle said the words sounded like a kind of warning, and Lorelei’s eyes darkened considerably. Amahle headed off after that, and Cadence watched Lorelei, wondering what that was all about.

Lorelei put on a blank face. “You wanted to know why I wanted your help, don’t you?”

Startled by Lorelei’s readiness to just jump right into it, Cadence could only nod.

“When you entered Glasskeep, you were able to feel it, weren’t you?”

Lorelei didn’t have to specify because Cadence already knew what she meant. “Glasskeep is sitting on a magical leyline,” she said by way of answer.

Lorelei nodded. “Two hundred years ago I…well…I suppose you can say I found Glasskeep. The power here was so overwhelming back then. There were things that lived here, things far older and far terrifying than I. That’s where Alisyn came in.”

Cadence’s ears perked up.

“I traveled back up to Salem after talks of Witches gathering there. By the time I arrived, men had begun trying to root out Witches. Probably by the compulsion of my brethren. Of course, those humans had no idea what they were doing, and they mostly ended up killing more humans than actual Witches, but they had begun to discover Alisyn was a Witch. I told her I would save her if she would grant me a favor. She promised. So, I stole her from Salem and we traveled back here, where Glasskeep now sits.

“I asked her if there was a way to…keep the power in control. She confirmed there was, and she performed a spell. I don’t know much about it, only that it was a powerful one. The magic stemming from the ground calmed and the beings lingering were easily defeated.”

This was news to Cadence. Her Grandmother often told her stories of Alisyn and her exploits. Not once had anyone ever mentioned anything about any Vampire. Cadence would typically assume Lorelei was lying, trying to sway Cadence to her side, but she wasn’t.

There was a spell in Alisyn’s old journal that spoke of calming power in magical leylines. Another spell that spoke of absorbing that power and using it as one’s own. Cadence understood now why Alisyn was such a powerful Witch and why all the Witches in the Blackwood bloodline were like giants among Witches.

Amahle came, then. She sat down Cadence’s drink and straw and didn’t say a word before she headed off again. Cadence gave a nod to Lorelei, urging her to continue.

“Recently, the spell Alisyn placed on Glasskeep has been…fraying, for lack of a better word. Other beings are starting to sense the power that rests here and we’ve started having…problems.”

Cadence snapped her attention from her strawberry lemonade back to Lorelei.

“Problems?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lorelei’s lips tightened into a thin line. “We seem to have some creature killing our visitors. Last Saturday, The Crypt Bangers played a show at Spellbound and, like always, a throng of mortals came gathering to see them play. A group of teenagers who came from the next town over in Blue Ridge decided it would be a good idea to sneak into the church. On their way, they were attacked by…something.”

“You don’t know what it was?” asked Cadence incredulously. Vampires were notorious for their keen senses.

“I investigated, of course, but nothing came out of it. The scent was not one I recognize and therefore, I fear this creature might be one I have yet to encounter.”

Cadence was silent, pondering that. “And the teenagers?” she finally asked.

“They survived, apparently. One of them is in quite critical condition, though. Blue Ridge wants answers, as they should. The children’s parents are demanding justice from whoever harmed them. The sheriff of Blue Ridge seems to think it was one of the locals.”

“Was it?”

“I looked into that first. To my knowledge, the locals here had nothing to do with what happened to those children.”

“How were the kids injured?” Cadence wondered. “Maybe I'll know something.”

Amahle appeared, then. She placed Cadence’s food in front of her and murmured for Cadence to enjoy before she moved on to another table. It all looked mouthwateringly good.

“You’ll want to eat first,” Lorelei told her. “After I describe what happened, you might find yourself losing your appetite.”

Cadence did what Lorelei suggested, she ate her burger and shoveled down her fries. Lorelei watched the entire time in curious amusement, but she said nothing. When Cadence was finished, she decided to indulge even further and ordered a slice of cake that Amahle flounced off to call in.

“For someone so small, you eat like the way a plant guzzles water,” Lorelei said in amusement.

Cadence’s cheeks grew warm. “The kids?” she asked pointedly.

“Ah, right. I was walking home for the night. The sun was close to rising, and my body, as it does, began to experience the effects of the sunlight’s nearness. I was walking back to Bibliophile when I heard the panicked screams. I went to see what was going on and by the time I got there—in the little time it took me to arrive—one of the children was sprawled on the sidewalk, his face as pale as…well, as white and as cold as my own. His eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Yet his heart still beat and his veins still pulsed with blood. I could hear it.

“The other teenagers had scattered, and only one remained. A girl. His girlfriend. She was hysterical, raving about a monster who had…removed his soul from his body. No, that’s not the way she said,” Lorelei murmured to herself, eyes skyward and narrowed as she tried to remember the exact words. “She said… “that monster ate his soul. It ate his soul.’”

Cadence raked her mind, traversing back to the days where her Grandmother made her read books on supernatural beings, the things they could do. There were at least four other beings who ‘ate souls’, but mostly it was just energy draining.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a psychic Vampire?” Cadence asked. “When they feed, observing humans usually thinking they’re eating souls.”

Lorelei was shaking her head before Cadence was even finished.

“It did not smell like one of us,” she said with finality.

The seriousness of Lorelei’s tone and her expression conveyed the truth she was telling. A being that seemed to suck the soul out of its victims. Cadence could think of any number of creatures who could do just that.

“So, what exactly is it you want me to do about it?” Cadence asked a few minutes of thought later.

Amahle had already set down the slice of cake Cadence had ordered and had disappeared again.

“Isn’t that obvious? I want you to help me hunt down our bloodthirsty friend.”

Although Cadence didn’t have a great number of fear for many things—she was a Witch and a damn good one, after all, and most things should fear her rather than the other way around—she still had a healthy sense of self-preservation. And the idea of hunting down a monster she knew nothing about instantly made her wary.

Seeing it on her face, Lorelei placed a white hand on the table and leaned forward, strands of black hair spilling over her shoulder, her unnatural eyes intense. Cadence froze mid-fork raise, staring at those elegant hands and then forcing herself to meet Lorelei’s eyes even though it was difficult to do. Just looking into those icy, bright eyes caused a shiver to run down her spine.

“If you don’t help, you’re just going to die, anyway,” Lorelei told her, her voice non-threatening, soft. Like an adult coaxing a child. “And there will be nothing that I can do to help you if you do not belong to me. You’re young, but I’m sure someone taught you how these things work by now. And you strike me as someone who can’t very well just…pick up and go.”

Cadence glared at Lorelei, but the Vampire ignored her and continued.

“The best thing we can do is utilize our skills to hunt down whatever’s doing this. Even if you don’t help me, even if the others don’t kill you, eventually this thing will crave something more, something stronger. And it will set its eyes on you.”

Cadence felt her lips purse. She couldn’t deny that truth. The truth that she couldn’t leave Glasskeep because going back and living among mortals just made her stand out too much, and she would be easily spotted. And she most certainly couldn’t deny that this thing could very well come after her at any time.

Again, she couldn’t help but see her Grandmother in her mind’s eye. See her mother and father based on the stories her Grandmother told her. See Alisyn bending High Demons to her will and forcing men to submit to her in a time where women were viewed as lesser.

Bitterness. It sprang from the pit of her stomach and rose up to her throat until she could taste it on her tongue.

I could do it, too.

And she could. She knew the spell for absorbing the energy of Glasskeep as her own. She could swallow it all—the good, the bad, the terrible and ugly. She could take all that power for herself, and then no one could stand against her. Not this thing that had preyed on the teenagers, not the Vampires who hated Witches, not Lorelei.

No one.

The image felt so good when she imagined it and she was so tempted…

“It’s getting to you, isn’t it?” asked Lorelei, forcing Cadence out of the beautifully terrifying scenario her mind had conjured up.

When Cadence came to, she was still sitting in The Sizzling Griddle, holding the fork, but now the fork was bent, twisted in and around like a pretzel. Lorelei was watching her, something like pity brewing behind those cool eyes.

Cadence dropped the ruined fork and it landed on the table with a soft thunk. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and her hands were shaking so badly, she had to drop them in her lap so that Lorelei couldn’t see them.

“I told you before, didn’t I? Before Alisyn calmed the energy seeping from the veil, all kinds of creatures lived here, indulging in their darkest desires. And now that the veil has begun to fray and energy has begun to seep out…”

Cadence knew what she was saying: she had been whispered to by the veil. But Cadence still felt disgusted that she had thought those things, even for a moment. After all that had happened with her parents—after what her Grandmother had given for the power to protect her—how could she think those things?

She was ashamed.

“Some people are more susceptible than others,” Lorelei went on. “But we all feel the pull. My thirst has been almost insatiable these days.”

Cadence looked over at Lorelei worriedly. Even in her state of shame, she knew to be wary of a thirsty Vampire.

Lorelei grinned. “Not to worry. I told you. I already have Thralls.”

Cadence cringed a little at that. She didn’t know much about Thralls. Just that they were like blood slaves. A Vampire seduced a creature of their choice, sank their fangs into them, and then that creature became enamored with the Vampire. So enamored that they happily offered up their blood.

Cadence didn’t envy whoever Lorelei got her fangs into.

“So, just to be clear, you want me to essentially be your errand Witch in exchange for protection.”

Lorelei looked amused at the errand Witch part. “I suppose you could say so, yes.”

Cadence probably wouldn’t get a better offer. A Vampire who didn’t ask for blood in exchange for Protection was rare. Her hands underneath the table balled into fists. She knew what choice she would make. She had known the moment Lorelei had offered it to her. She knew because she was trapped and anyone on her side—even someone who terrified her immensely—was welcome.

Because when they came, she’d need all the help she could get.

Cadence blew out a sigh. “Okay,” she whispered, and then louder, she repeated, “Okay. I don’t have much of a choice, and I think you know that.” She glared down at her half-eaten cake and the fork, left in a twisted, misshapen mess beside it.

When Cadence looked up from her partially eaten cake and let her eyes rest on Lorelei, she expected to see triumph or smugness on the Vampire’s face, but she got none of that. Instead, Lorelei was gazing up at the ceiling thoughtfully as Amahle came around the corner.

Amahle’s eyes zeroed in on the twisted fork before she turned her eyes to Cadence in disapproval. Heat rose to Cadence’s cheeks.

Cadence paid for her meal and left a particularly hefty tip in apology. Lorelei stood as soon as the meal was paid for, and Cadence’s eyes followed in surprise.

“Come with me,” Lorelei murmured. “There’s someone we need to see.”