Saturday. 2:41 PM

For once, I interrupted my own story. “Don’t you think it’s odd that Garret and Mariah both had their businesses randomly destroyed just before the well could be installed?”

Davis didn’t have an answer for that. If anything, he looked… almost like he believed me.

I doubted that I was reading him correctly. He was too skeptical of the rest of my story.

“Building new businesses to take advantage of the power is one thing,” I continued. “Even if you weren’t supposed to have that information. But undercutting the competition? That’s not just unethical, it’s downright criminal.”

He looked past me. I glanced over my shoulder, watching Murray enter the illusion that covered the gazebo.

“What did I miss?”

“Read the transcript,” Davis shot.

Murray blinked in surprise, looking between him and me. “Davis?”

“He knows… a lot.” Looking up at his partner, he grimaced. “Too much. About the well.”

Sitting down quickly, Murray started flipping through the most recent notes, skimming what I’d said. Concern entered her expression, plain as day.

And my story wasn’t finished yet.

...

Friday. 9:55 PM

Ben paid the driver, tipped him sixty percent, and we stepped out onto the street. I had my backpack on, while Ben carried Agnita’s bag.

“Why are we here?” he asked, looking around at the bright neon signs lighting the block.

“At first it was just a hunch, but then I pulled an address from Andrea’s phone,” I said. “She had Arthur Bryant’s barbeque at her home. It could have been a coincidence, but I guessed that she may have stopped by while she was in the area at work, and I was right.”

“One of the places she surveyed is in the area?”

“It’s just a couple blocks this way,” I confirmed, pointing as I looked at the phone’s GPS map. The address was from one of her contracting emails and, with luck, I’d find all the evidence I needed inside. “A couple blocks up, just past Arthur Bryant’s, and it’ll be on the right.”

As late as it was, the 18th and Vine district wasn’t as busy as it could have been, but there was still plenty of foot traffic so that we didn’t stand out too badly.

“Are we expecting trouble when we get there?” Ben asked. “An alarm system, or a guard?”

“Alarms, probably,” I said, steeling myself for the rule-breaking that was about to happen. “But we’ll be in and out fast, and we’re not taking anything. I—”

Ben suddenly took my hand, pulled me away from the curb, and kissed me.

I made a noise of surprise and my eyes widened, but it wasn’t unpleasant. After a moment of apprehension, I sank into the kiss, pressing my lips into his. It had been a long day, and a little physical comfort was enough to make me melt.

He held it for some twenty seconds before pulling away, keeping our faces close. I smiled at him. “A good luck kiss before the last hurrah?”

It was only then that I noticed the fear in his eyes. “Don’t turn around.”

Naturally, that made me want to turn around more than anything, but I resisted the urge. “What is it?”

“Two people, white robes, across the street. Man and woman. One of ‘em is the guy from the bridge.” He kept his voice low, almost sultry, so that we’d just seem like two people embracing on the sidewalk to anyone not looking too closely.

The window behind him was reflective, and I looked into it, watching for the figures he’d described. They weren’t hard to spot.

“I don’t know how they found me,” I said, shaking my head.

“Maybe they didn’t.” He pulled away, a little. “Maybe they’re just here for the same reason we are, to check on the whatsit.”

“It’s an enchanting workshop.” I shook my head. “Are they gone?”

“A few more moments.”

We stood there, holding each other, my brain racing. The coincidence seemed too implausible, but that begged the question of how they’d found me.

I had an answer, but it wasn’t one that I found all too pleasant.

“The vampire,” I said. “It can track my scent. If it found out that I’m back on the menu…”

“Then it could lead them right to you.”

“It’d make me easier to corner,” I said, thinking out loud. “And easier to eat. I never did ask, are you religious?”

“Eeeeeh…” he said, pursing his lips. “I don’t like the term ‘religious’.”

I understood, a little, how Agnita had felt on the streetcar. “What holy symbol would you use?”

“Is there a Star of David in here?”

I nodded, stepping away. “Should be.”

He fished it out, holding it close to his body as we walked up the road. “What are you going to use?”

“Cross didn’t work for me,” I said, shaking my head. “I could try garlic, I guess, but I don’t see how that would be any better. It’s something I’ve got to believe in. Come on, we should pick up the pace. I don’t see the counsellors behind us, but watch out for the hellspawn.”

“Right.” He scanned the sidewalk, careful for any ambush.

We made it down most of the block, jazz music drifting onto the street from the various bars and showrooms. I kept looking back, which was probably more than a little suspicious, but if the counsellors were coming up behind me, I wanted to know.

Between the two of us, we had eyes on every corner of the street. I kept my breathing level. The vampire had to have tracked me to this general area, but with all the foot traffic, maybe she was having trouble pinpointing me.

As we passed the baseball museum, the protection of the crowd went away. The barbeque restaurant a block ahead was closed, and past that was just warehouses and industrial buildings. We’d be out in the open. Vulnerable.

I scanned the far parking lots, watching for figures. I spotted a couple, but none that resembled my undead predator.

“Which building is it?” Ben asked, as we crossed the street.

I pointed to a warehouse that was at the end of the next block, on the right. “That one, I think.”

He checked the far sidewalk again. “I don’t see it between us and the building. Maybe it’s inside?”

“She’s faster than a human,” I said. “So even if she’s behind us, she could catch up fast once she catches my scent. I don’t know how close the counsellors have to be to lay the whammy on me, but I can’t imagine that they’ll need to get all that close, either.”

“Can it fly?” Ben asked.

“I don’t know, but…” Feeling an itch on the back of my neck, I looked up.

I half expected an ominous silhouette to play against the full moon, but there wasn’t anything so obvious. The sky was dark, and if anything was up there, it was hard to make out, but I didn’t notice anything.

Then Ben tapped my arm and pointed.

I followed his gesture to the roof of the barbeque joint across the street.

Perched, deathly still, a figure was watching us. I could only make out her silhouette, but that was enough.

The vampire had found me.

I swallowed. “Run.”

She jumped. Her silhouette moved unnaturally through the sky, farther, faster than a human body should have gone with the propulsion she had. It wasn’t truly flying, but it was still superhuman, and when she landed on the sidewalk in front of us it was with grace and delicacy that betrayed her inhumanity.

We stumbled to a stop before running straight into her. I didn’t want to be within arm’s reach of a creature like her.

“Cattle,” she said, regarding Ben. “Leave. You can’t stop this.”

Ben raised the star, stepping forward to put his body between me and her. “So you’re the corpse.”

To his credit, she leaned back from the Star of David, but it didn’t seem like she was repelled by it. Her reaction was more akin to someone avoiding something rank and foul than someone in pain. Watching him with curiosity, she said, “Mortals. Faith has always been such a rarity amongst you, I don’t know why you even bother.”

With his other hand, Ben dug into a pocket, producing a pocket knife. Thumbing the blade, he unfolded it. “Step away from Levi, or you’ll never see another sunrise.”

The curiosity vanished, and she raised her eyebrows in amusement. “You’re going to threaten me with a knife?”

“Not at all. I know I can’t hurt you.” Ben shrugged, stepping back and pointing the knife at his own neck. “But this knife’s plenty sharp to hurt me.”

I took my gaze away from the vampire to stare at him. “Huh?”

Ben’s pitch changed, to something more high, scared, shrill, but his expression stayed neutral. “I don’t know what happened! I was just minding my own business, and this goth chick just ran up and bit me! She was in some kind of frenzy! I’m lucky she got scared off by my necklace, or who knows what would have happened?” Returning his tone to normal, he added, “I’m not on your hit list. How long do you think it would take for the counsellors to hunt you down once you’re blacklisted for going feral and attacking me?”

No more amusement, and definitely no curiosity. Now, she was mad. “The wounds would look nothing alike. They’d see through the deception in a heartbeat.”

Ben raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?” Pressing the tip of the knife to his own neck, he drew a little spot of blood. “Bet your not-life on it?”

Her glare deepened, and she spat something dark on the ground in disgust. After a second longer to fume, she leapt into the air, soaring back towards the theater and the bars a block behind us.

There was no time for me to compliment Ben on his quick thinking.

We ran. Terror fueled our speed, neither of us considering anything beyond getting distance between us and that monster. My body ached to keep going, and even adrenaline could only soothe that so much, but panic added fuel to my speed and I kept up with Ben despite his height advantage on me.

The building was fenced in, but it was an easy climb. Ben gave me a leg up and I was over in a moment, with him following only a few seconds later.

“Think the doors will be locked?”

“Don’t care,” I said, panting. “Windows don’t have bars.”

“Right.”

We jogged up, and I put my hand inside my helmet, using it as a glove so I could punch through the window. Glass shattered, and an alarm started blaring, but we had our way in. Like at the fence, Ben helped me up, and I gave him a hand once we were inside.

“She went to get the counsellors,” I said. “Had to. So there’ll be a witness. We don’t have long. They’ll be here any minute, and then… what?”

He wasn’t looking at me, he was looking into the warehouse, eyes wide. I followed his gaze.

I knew what brewing stations looked like, from the one I’d seen at the Reading Room.

Next to this, Mariah’s setup looked like a child’s plastic tea set.

Steel cauldrons towered to the ceiling, the logo of United Potions Manufacturing with catwalks to stand over them and observe progress. The glassware was so large and thick that a human could have climbed through, if they were flexible enough to make it around the turns. Runes, carved into the floor and decorated with golden filigree, were so big that I could have laid down on one and not reached from one end to the other.

Cardboard boxes full of empty glass jars sat by, ready to be filled and labeled. Lining the walls like a server rack were dozens, maybe hundreds, of pathfinding stones, all connected with industrial copper wire to the cauldrons.

“How much do you suppose one of those could hold?” Ben asked, staring up at the massive cauldrons.

“Eh… Five thousand gallons, maybe?” I said, shrugging. “A lot.”

“And how much did that half-pint potion you bought cost?”

“Um… Forty, I think…” I started to do the math. I didn’t have to finish it.

This was going to be a center for worldwide distribution. They weren’t just preventing local competition; they were building monopolies.

And, I had an idea.

I took out my phone, snapping photos of the cauldrons, the pathfinding stones, the runes. With that done, I took my backpack off my shoulder, unzipping the back.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I swallowed. This was going to be hard.

“I need you to do something for me.”

He didn’t hesitate. “Name it.”

That took a weight off my shoulders, but I still felt the need to clarify. “I don’t have any way to pay you back for it. It’ll be dangerous.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to, and that’s fine. Name it.”

I stared at him for a moment, while my thoughts caught up to my plan. “It’s two things, really. First, think really, really hard about what I smell like.”

It was Ben’s turn to stare, though he was probably staring for a different reason. “Huh?”

I took out the cologne potion, holding up the label so he could read it. “Then, drink half of this.”

He got it. “You’re going to send the vampire after me.”

“It’s the only way to lead them away so I can escape,” I said. “You’re not on the hook for anything, and the vampire can’t kill you. They might give you trouble, but I’ll make it up—”

“I’ll do it.” He took the flask, leaned in, and inhaled sharply.

I blushed apologetically. “I haven’t had a chance to shower. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. You don’t smell bad.” Raising the potion to his lips, he swallowed half, passing it back to me.

I focused on smelling like nothing at all, pulled back, and drank. It tasted like cherry cough syrup, and I gagged, but it went down and started to work.

The effect, for me, was like returning to your home after being on a long vacation. A smell I didn’t realize had been around me vanished, replaced with a true absence, while Ben suddenly shifted from smelling of sweat and some kind of pine shampoo to smelling like sweat, blood, and just a hint of something deep and earthy beneath the less pleasant smells. I worried that Ben was editorializing a bit with the odors and it wouldn’t work, but there wasn’t enough potion left for another shot.

“You need to run,” I said. “Get out, I’ll follow once the coast is clear.”

He nodded, looking at the window. “Right. But first.” Stepping forward, he put his hands on my face and kissed me.

This time, he meant it. It only lasted a second, there was no time for more, but I could feel the difference between a kiss meant to hide my face and one meant to say something real.

Pulling away, his voice was soft. “That was for good luck.”

Momentarily speechless, I could only watch as he shrugged off Agnita’s bag so it wouldn’t weigh him down, took a running start towards the window, vaulted it, and bolted away.

As I watched him go, tearing across the parking lot at a blazing speed, I realized something.

When we’d been running before, I hadn’t been keeping up with him at all. He’d been slowing down to match me.

No time to think about it. I had work to do.