The Darkest Vampire

Chapter 3

3

I barely slept last night. In fact, I didn’t think I slept at all. And it wasn’t because of the fear the demon had brought with him. I mean, a demon was in my house. More people knew I was a witch. So, that meant I wasn’t safe here.

No, that was nothing compared with the sudden hope blooming in my chest. The demon knew about my parents’ killers. At least, that was what he said. Well, he had known where I lived, where I worked, where I had been that evening, and more stuff about my past that no one else but Delia knew, and Delia would never tell anyone.

If he said he knew who the murderer was, then I believed him. I had to. It was the only clue I had, and I hadn’t even started actively looking yet.

This was too good to be true, but I couldn't take the chance that he was lying. I held on to this with both hands and teeth.

Of course, I agreed to steal for him. I would do it tonight. But for now, I got ready and went to work. I had started working at Suzie’s Brew shortly after I moved to Forest Creek, almost four years ago. I had just turned sixteen and had stopped by longer than my usual stints because of Delia. And then I met Suzie and I happened to help her with one of her famous tea flavors. I enhanced it with more herbs. Since my magic was weak and blocked, I had learned all I could about herbs and potions. There wasn’t a lot of information available, but I had met a witch here and there who had shared their knowledge with me.

The best teacher had been Delia, of course. She didn’t really like using magic, but she still relied on potions for many things.

Anyway, Suzie had loved the improvement I had made on her tea and promptly invited me to work with her. In a month, I had created three new flavors and the number of customers had doubled. Six months later, it had tripled. Then, nine months later, when I convinced her to add Delia’s baked goods to sell with the tea, it quadrupled. Suzie called me her lucky charm.

Suzie’s Brew Tea House opened at six in the morning for the early birds, but I never arrived before eight, and Suzie was okay with that. But today, I didn’t arrive until nine because I was moving slower than usual, both from the number of thoughts in my mind and from the lack of sleep. I had sent a text to Suzie, letting her know, and she didn’t care.

But when I got there, the place was packed. As I walked in, everyone greeted me—perks of a small town and also from being a celebrity in the tea house. Suzie always told anyone that her success was because of me.

I greeted Beth at the register and headed to the back, where I put on my apron, pulled my long hair in a ponytail, and started preparing the herbs for the afternoon batch.

It didn’t take long for Suzie sidle up to me. She leaned her ample bosom on the counter beside me and smiled at me, her blue eyes twinkling. She was definitely up to something. “So, what do you think about creating a new, special tea flavor for the festival?”

Oh, the festival. If not for her tea house, Suzie lived for the small festivals the town held every couple of months. The next one was the Fall Festival, when the townspeople celebrated the first weekend of fall. The green in the center of town was transformed with stands, tents, games, and more. It was a whole ordeal that got the entire town busy. Suzie always had a big stand and made a lot of extra money there.

I understood her enthusiasm.

I stopped crunching the herbs with the mortar and pestle and turned to her. “I like that. I can try to create something woodsy and cozy to go with fall.”

She chuckled. “Try to create? Always so modest. That’s why I like you so much.” She adjusted the cap on her graying hair and skipped back to the main room, where she took orders and chatted with the townspeople. The customers might love my teas, but I was a hermit who didn’t socialize much. They definitely loved talking to Suzie too.

I helped with serving tea, though. I didn’t like it, but sometimes there wasn’t much to be done in the back, not once I had prepared the herbs and brewed them, and the main room was always crowded.

I was finishing up my last brew of the moment when I saw Mrs. O’Conner coming into the shop. She was a fifty-something widow, with too much money and makeup. Though she seemed naive to me—word was that her husband had been in charge of their lives, and now that he was gone, she was lost—she was also kind and generous with her tips.

She also dripped from earlobe to fingers with jewelry I was sure she didn’t need.

I prepared her favorite tea, grabbed one of Delia’s cinnamon scones, and took it to her as she sat down at a table.

“Oh, dear Lavinia,” she said with a smile. “You know how to make one old woman’s heart happy.”

“You’re not old.” She really wasn’t, and she didn’t even look a day over forty, but she behaved as if she was eighty.

Red tinted her cheeks, and she splayed her hands on the table. “You flatter me.”

I rested my hand on top of hers. This was how I usually did it. I kept her attention on me, using the little magic I had to slip one of her many rings or bracelets off, then she drank her tea—the one which I had put a few drops of a special forgetfulness potion, so she would forget all about this jewel. If she wasn’t a millionaire who didn’t have anything better to do with her money, I would feel bad about stealing from her, but as I saw it, it was charity.

A big ring with multiple diamonds started slipping down her finger and—

“Lav!” a voice called out, breaking my focus.

I pulled my hand back, sans ring, and turned to face Adrian, Suzie’s son and my former boyfriend. “H-hey,” I said, taken by surprise. I glanced at Mrs. O’Conner. “Excuse me for a second.”

She winked at me. “Of course, dear.”

Everyone in town knew Adrian and I had dated. If they had their way, we would be engaged by now and soon to be married.

I faced Adrian again. He looked good in his college’s jacket, and his shaggy blond hair in need of a trim, but his blue eyes, so like his mother’s, shone as he smiled at me.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in college?” I thought about the day. It was Thursday, first week of September … I couldn’t remember anything important going on.

“I was homesick.” He approached me. “Come on. I want to say hi to my mom.” In a few long strides, Adrian rounded the counter at the back and disappeared into the kitchen.

It took me a moment to follow him to the back. When I got to the kitchen, Adrian was hugging his mother.

“You should have told me you were coming!” She slapped his back lovingly. “I could have prepared your favorite for lunch.” She glanced at the big digital clock above the door. “I still have time. Can you help Lav and Beth?” She took off her apron, shoved it in Adrian’s hands, and raced out the backdoor.

Good thing they lived only two blocks from here, in a cute white and blue townhouse that meshed well with the rest of town.

I stared as Adrian put on the apron and army-saluted me. “I’m all yours. Your wish is my command.”

Oh, s**t.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Adrian, I know you, what is going on? It’s the end of the term. Why are you home?”

That was the excuse I had given him when we broke up three summers ago. Adrian was a year older than me and he had started college in Seattle, approximately three hours from here. He had gotten a full scholarship for football, so it wasn’t like he could say no. His mother had been proud of him. His father, who barely saw Adrian since the divorce eight years ago, had called and told him he was proud of him. But when it came time for him to leave for school, I noticed how confused he was. He had asked me several times if I wanted him to stay. So, I broke up with him; I couldn’t do the whole long-distance thing.

Well, the thing was, I had never loved Adrian the way he loved me. He was cute, hot, fun, a good guy all around, but he didn’t make my heart flutter. He didn’t take my breath away with one look. Maybe I was expecting too much, but there was another reason for our break-up.

My main goal in life was to recover my magic and avenge my parents. I wanted to break the blood promise, then hunt down my parents’ killers. I couldn’t involve a human guy, because once the time came, I wouldn't look back.

My goal was closer than ever. All I had to do was steal whatever that demon wanted, and he would tell me all I wanted to know.

Adrian’s amused face fell a little. “I flunked one of my big projects a few days ago, and the coach is mad at me for it.” Oh, that wasn’t good. He had to keep his grades up or he would be kicked from the team and lose his scholarship. “I needed time to decompress, so I decided to come spend the weekend home.” He took a step closer. “And seeing you always brightens my mood too.”

Shit. I had hoped that by now, Adrian would have met another girl he liked and started dating her. But according to his football buddies, who had come visited during winter and summer break, Adrian was still hung up on me. He barely looked at other girls, never partied, never got drunk, and talked about me nonstop.

Once more, the idea of giving him a forgetfulness potion crossed my mind. Or if only I found out how to make a fall-out-of-love potion …

“Adrian,” I started, matching his stride and putting some distance between us. “Please, don’t do this.”

“Lav, I can’t not do this.” His eyes pleaded. “I lov—“

I stuck my finger out. “Do not say that word!” He had said it to me once and it had freaked me out. “Adrian, you’re mistaken. You don’t love me. What you need is to be a real twenty-one-year-old guy. Go back to college, get drunk, party hard, kiss a lot of girls, sleep with them, and then find one who makes your heart race and be with her.”

“You’re that girl.”

I shook my head. “Please, Adrian. If you keep doing this, I’ll have to leave. I adore your mother, I love working here. Please, don’t make me move.”

His face hardened. We had had this conversation at least four other times since he started college last year. I wondered how many more times I could endure it before actually leaving.

Beth stuck her head in the door. “Hm, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” She looked from Adrian to me. She knew she was, but she also knew I was grateful for it. “But Mr. Crowe is here, Lav.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I promptly started moving. I turned my back to Adrian and grabbed my special herbs box. I kept a weak healing potion in there that I had made just for Mr. Crowe. The old man suffered from chronic pain and sometimes he couldn’t even get out of bed. Since he started drinking my tea, he had improved a lot, and the pain was a faint memory.

“We’re not done here,” Adrian said to my back.

I added a drop of the potion to Mr. Crowe’s tea. To humans, that was a special brew I had made with some herbs, nothing more. No one ever questioned if I was doing more than serving tea here.

I picked up a tray with the tea and faced Adrian. “If you don’t want me to give your mother my notice, yes, we are.”

With that, I marched away from him.