Chilling Cadence

Eleven

As Cadence scarfed down her burger, she couldn’t help but wonder if there would ever be a time when The Sizzling Griddle wouldn’t be packed. The main area had been filled with truckers and families from Blue Ridge the moment she and Lorelei had walked in. The group of goth kids, who had come to town for the Crypt Bangers, perked up when Lorelei walked in. They watched her in fascination; her thick black hair, her eyes that—despite their shade—were more akin to fire than ice, and the inhumanly terrifying yet fascinating way her limbs moved when she walked. It was quite common for a Vampire to have human admirers but Cadence couldn’t exactly fathom it.

The Sizzling Griddle often got more guests than any of the other shops around town. Spellbound only got busy when the Crypt Bangers performed—and since today was the last day of their performance, their busy spell would be ending tonight until the next week rolled around—and Bibliophile had a good customer base but it was nowhere near as busy as either Spellbound. Ayami’s shop wasn’t overly busy either. Even her shop, which was frequented by Witches, wasn’t often busy.

The Sizzling Griddle was different, though. Day after day, it seemed like no one could get enough of Eleanor Darkhe’s food. People were so enthralled with her food that they even drove from Blue Ridge just to eat it.

Cadence wondered if it was an effect of being born from two Vampires. Even though Eleanor seemed mostly human—she didn’t have the undead allure that Lorelei had, an allure that exceeded all bounds of rationality—perhaps, this was her allure. Being able to make food that kept people coming back again and again.

Cadence knew for sure she had never tasted anything as delicious as the food Eleanor made and she was certain, if she didn’t come to the Sizzling Griddle, she never would again.

When nearly everyone in town had piled in, including Chau—who waved manically at Cadence—and her parents, Lorelei called everyone’s attention to the subject at hand. As the room where all the locals sat quietened, Cadence couldn’t help but be impressed by whoever had cast the spell here. Even though she could see the people in the main area chatting away, she couldn’t hear a thing. Even though she knew it must have been a lot of noise judging by how many people were there.

“As you’re aware, we’ve begun hunting for the Cyhyraeth.” Lorelei’s voice was businesslike in its coolness. “Today Cadence and her Familiar went with Rev and Jax to the woods and she discovered something quite interesting. It would be better if she explained it herself.”

Everyone looked at her expectantly. She couldn’t help but cringe. Even though she was pretty used to attention—she came from a family that was considered royalty in the Witch world—it didn’t mean she liked the attention she had received. She would have preferred it to live her life quietly, with no one paying more attention to her than what was necessary.

She sighed and walked everyone through what had happened. Her talk with Grimm last night to their journey to the woods this morning. She told them of the markers of the Necromancer she had discovered—she rose-scented air, the trees leaking black sap, the dead grass.

Eleanor, who was sitting next to Lorelei, looked over at her sister suddenly. Cadence noticed she was the only one—except for Chau who seemed to be able to get along with anyone or anything—who didn’t flinch away from or have their guard up around Lorelei. Her posture was perfectly at ease and whenever she made eye contact with her, Cadence couldn’t sense any resemblance of fear in her body.

Cadence was amazed by it but had to remind herself not to be too amazed. After all, Grimm had said Eleanor and Lorelei were actual blood sisters, both of them had been born to two Vampire parents. A Vampire could not have s*x, so she had learned from Lorelei, and their bodies were dead. The body needed to grow to support a fetus, and a Vampire’s body could no longer do that and male Vampire’s no longer had living sperm cells. The idea of two Vampires have one child together let alone two, made absolutely no sense to Cadence.

As she was wondering if Lorelei’s weird creation was the reason her aura was more terrifying than the Darius’ had been, Eleanor spoke, “Is a Necromancer that much more dangerous?”

Lorelei looked at Cadence to answer and Cadence had to suppress a sigh. She knew the answer to this as well as Cadence did. Did Lorelei like to watch her suffer?

“The Necromancer is using the Cyhyraeth to gain power. The process is quite complicated, but if a Necromancer is able to control one, the Cyhyraeth is able to increase their summoners power with every soul they ingest. Necromancy is rare and it’s one of the most powerful forms of magic for a reason. If the Necromancer is able to get as strong as a Nightingale, for instance, they could do unspeakable damage.”

Cadence’s lips tightened. If the Necromancer got to the level of her mother, she knew she would have no choice but to use magic. The very idea rose the hairs on the back of her neck even as the fraying Veil whispered to her that she shouldn’t wait, that she should use a powerful spell now.

Hold your hands to the Earth and drink the power that rests here, it said. Become more powerful than your parents, your Grandmother, Alisyn.

“Then what are we supposed to do about the Cyhyraeth? Do we just kill the Necromancer?” asked Chau’s father.

Amahle, who had appeared seemingly out of nowhere, paused what she had been doing and looked in Cadence’s direction. She seemed to want an answer to this question, too.

Cadence rubbed at her temples. She was glad to be distracted from the Veil’s whispering. It seemed louder today than it had been the day she had agreed to Lorelei’s Protection.

“If we kill the Necromancer, the Cyhyraeth will just go out of control without a master to serve. But things are simpler now that we know it’s a Necromancer and not a Cyhyraeth acting out on its own. My mother was a Necromancer and I know how it works. I have an idea…”

She glanced over at Lorelei pointedly, and the Vampire seemed to get the hint: the Necromancer could be hidden among them and was already aware that they knew he or she was responsible for the Cyhyraeth. Discussing it further in front of all these people wasn’t a good idea.

“We’ll discuss it more later on,” Lorelei said. She really was good at that poker-face of hers. Maybe it was because Vampires had naturally cold looking faces but Lorelei seemed to be better at looking inhumanly serene than most. “For now, continue drinking the potions Cadence gave to you. It should all be over soon.”

CADENCE AND LORELEI left The Sizzling Griddle after Cadence had finished her hefty serving of carrot cake. The air was cold, as was expected for late October weather, and it felt good against Cadence skin. It helped calm down some of the pain in her head and she was thankful for that. In such cold air, she felt like she didn’t have to worry about getting caught up in the sickly sweet whispers of the Veil.

Cadence stretched her arms over her head, watching as people began filing out of Spellbound. Lorelei was already opening the passenger’s side door and slipping inside of the car, so Cadence did the same.

“Should we not have watched Spellbound?” Cadence wondered. She hadn’t thought about it since she had been so busy being surprised at the realization of a Necromancer being behind their problems, but they had watched over things yesterday. Cadence had even liked The Crypt Bangers’ performance last night. If it had been any other weekend, she would have gone to see it today as well.

There had been four of them. A woman who sang, another woman on the drums, one man on guitar, and another on the keyboard. They had all seemed completely unexceptional and Cadence hadn’t been able to understand why everyone was so enamored by them to the point where droves of ordinary people traveled from Blue Ridge and beyond to come to a town that people viewed as haunted just to see them.

Then they sang and Cadence understood. They had done a rendition of Creedence Clearwater’s Bad Moon Rising and when the woman had sung, Cadence had almost forgotten she was there to make sure people didn’t die. She felt like she was being enchanted, drawn into the loveliness of this woman’s voice.

They were Sirens. She had only encountered one other in her whole life, an old friend of her Grandmother’s from back in her young, party girl days. Sirens were not physically appealing like Vampires nor were they as charming. In fact, most of them were quite plain-faced and awkward to be around. But when they sang, they could enchant almost anyone.

Cadence had looked over at Lorelei, then, expecting the Vampire to be enchanted only to discover she looked like she was being tortured more than anything else. When Cadence had asked her about it, she’d said, “A Siren singing is one of the most abysmal things you could ever hear. Your ears are too weak to hear it, but it sounds like nails scraping along a chalkboard. No, even that would be preferable to the sound of her singing. If it weren’t necessary to be here, I would have left as soon as she got on stage.”

Although Cadence had been surprised then, she now knew she shouldn’t have been. Vampires were difficult to enchant. Even the most powerful of Witches and Faeries could succeed in enchanting one. No wonder there were no stories of Vampires falling victim to Sirens. Apparently, they hated to hear them.

At the sound of Spellbound—and the thought of the Crypt Bangers, probably—Lorelei frowned slightly.

“There’s no need for that. Sheriff Clearwater has undercover police there. He also has them staying at Davey Jones’ Locker, too, although he thinks I’m unaware of that. Not only that, but Ruth has been keeping an eye on the situation. If anything changes, she’ll let me know. She sees no death happening tonight.” Cadence thought she could hear relief in the Vampire’s voice.

“Anyway,” Lorelei went on, “what’s most important is getting down a plan to deal with this Necromancer. Head over to the church.”

Cadence started the car, cutting a glance at Lorelei. “Don’t Vampires burst into flames when entering consecrated ground?”

Lorelei’s lips pursed. “I’m not a normal Vampire. That being said, it’s going to hurt like Hell, no pun intended. But we won’t be having our conversation on church grounds.”

Cadence was curious, but from what she’d learned of Lorelei, the Vampire wouldn’t elaborate any further when she started being cryptic. Since the church was so close, it was barely an eight minute walk from The Sizzling Griddle, they arrived there in no time.

The moment Cadence parked on the church grounds, she heard Lorelei let out a hiss. When she looked over at her, the Vampire’s face sent chills down her spine.

Lorelei looked pissed.

Her eyes were narrowed and her lips were pulled back over her white teeth, revealing the fangs that had elongated. Her eyes had slit like a cat’s and her expression was chilling in its cruelty.

Cadence shrunk away from her in spite of herself. If she had thought being around Lorelei when she was her normal self was scary, this was terrifying. Every instinct in her body ordered her to get out of her car and run, but she felt like she couldn’t move. Her heart pounded and sweat beaded across her brow. Involuntarily, a word of power rose to her tongue, ready to be used at a word’s notice, a thousand spells for incapacitating a vampire flowed through her head. If Lorelei decided to kill her, Grimm would be able to feel it through the bond and he would come running just as he had when Hansel and Gretel had attacked her.

But Lorelei didn’t lunge at her as she expected. Instead, the Vampire threw the door open and stepped out.

“Come on,” Lorelei snapped, her voice rough. “Let’s get out of here.” When Cadence hesitated, she added, “Quickly. Before I do something to actually terrify you.”

Cadence kept the word of power on her tongue, tasting its strength before she opened her door and stepped out into the cold night. Lorelei’s eyes were closed, her head turned up to the night sky. Cadence watched as she breathed in and out. In her panicked state, she counted every breath the Vampire took, watched every twitch of her face.

After the tenth breath, Lorelei turned away without looking at her.

“Follow me,” she said.

Even though she was afraid, Lorelei seemed calmer now. The surprising anger that had overtaken her when they had first arrived seemed to have evaporated.

In all of the books she had read on Vampires, she had only ever heard of one who had been able to walk on consecrated ground: the Old One. The first Vampire to have ever been created tens of thousands of years ago, the oldest of all Vampires.

Lorelei was not her. Cadence knew what the Old One looked like; white-haired, with cold silver eyes that struck fear even into other Vampires. In terms of power and that terrifying aura, even Lorelei was not her equal.

And yet, even though the stories said the Old One was the only Vampire able to enter consecrated ground, there Lorelei was, walking toward the church with that eerie languid grace that belongs to Vampires alone.

In the end, it was Cadence’s curiosity that beat out her fear and made her feet move forward, following the Vampire to the graveyard just behind the church.