The Touch Series: Initiation (23 page)

              “From over there.” I pointed behind me.

              “Quinn, that's private. There's a curtain separating that part for a reason.”

              “Well, it's a pretty thin veil. I mean, you can see right through it. Not very private, huh?”

              “Quinn, if Josef found out that you went through his stuff there he would flip.”

                “Sorry but...” I came around to sit next to him on the couch and unrolled the scroll. “What is this? Do you know what it says?”

              His eyes left the scroll to meet mine. “There is a lot of things that have happened and continue to happen in this world that you will never know of.” He looked down at his hands. “Josef's vampire family was the stereotypical type of vampire family that you read in novels. Dark cloaks, the wives and daughters seduced male humans to kill, killed for blood, lurked in the shadows to taunt the living...” He looked back at the scroll and pointed a finger slowly at it, “and they would do anything for power. They hunted  mermaids for decades and kept them secretly.”

              Mermaids existed too? Of course, I shouldn’t have been too surprised. “Why?”

              “Mermaids were thought to hold special magical abilities that no other supernatural entity did, not even a witch. They were also needed for this mythical ritual that was to resurrect dead vampires.” My confused look made Artie turn to me fully and further explain. “See, once a vampire dies,  that's it. You can't feed them vampire blood to try to bring them back. Now, centuries ago, before Josef was even born, there was a huge massacre of vampires all across Romania. The king at the time wanted to wipe them off completely because he feared that they might overpower the mortals. There were some vampire families that survived and blended into the mortal life so well that no one ever suspected anything. Josef's family was one of the survivors. They and the other families vowed to have their vengeance. They sought out witches for help, and the witches told them that there was a way to bring back all of the vampires that ever existed before. It was some hocus-pocus ritual which the vampire families totally believed to be true. Now, the thing is witches couldn't always be trusted so it was mostly taken as some mythical crap by most vampires. I for one, don't trusted witches. Never did. But that didn't stop the others from pursuing it like crazy.”

              “What does this have to do with the mermaids?”

              “I'm getting there.” Artie put his arm on the top part of the couch and leaned back relishing the attention he was getting. I nodded to give him approval to continue. “The so-called ritual involved a few things such as candles, some shitty moonlight, wolfs-bane, yada-yada, and the sacrifice of a mermaid.”

              “But didn't they have more than one mermaid? So it really didn't work, huh.”

              “See here's the thing, they held off on the ritual until the day the Romanian king was to hold a banquet of honor for his war victories. They wanted to put on show along with their vengeance. But they made a mistake by waiting. Not every single vampire was okay with bringing back the dead vampires. And not every one of them wanted to hurt humans.” Artie gave a slight smile before continuing. “There was a small number that secretly got together and got rid of the mermaids so that the ritual would never happen.”

              “What do you mean 'got rid of'?”

              Artie looked to the scroll again. “They burned them. Every single last one of them. That way the vampire families could never attempt the ritual.”

              “That's awful... but couldn't they just go out and find another one?”

              “They tried but no luck. There were very little mermaids to begin with and they apparently had found them all before.” Artie got off the couch and picked up the scroll. “Sucked for them”.

              “Does Josef know about this? And about his family being the way they were?”

              “Of course. The Constane's didn't keep secrets from one another. He eventually grew up to learn about it.”

              I took the scroll from Artie's hand. “But he's nothing like them.” I smiled at him before I walked  to the back of the library to put back the scroll.

              “We should head out now if we want to catch this Perrie person. But I'm gonna go get a quick refreshment before we go. Give me a few minutes.” I knew what he meant by “refreshment” and his disheveled look now made sense; he was weak and needed to drink blood. Even though we were possibly running on a short time limit, I was ready to give Artie the time he needed; nothing's worse then a grumpy and deprived vampire. It could actually be dangerous.

              I watched him walk out the door through the veil and hid the scroll in my tote bag.

                                                                                                  ***

              Walking through the campus of Richmond's community college made me think about how my life had changed and turned completely crazy. I went from being an ordinary student who didn't know where life was taking her to having to solve a supernatural killing case.

Oh, and I'm seeing a vampire.

              Just before me and Artie reached the Psychology department my phone buzzed. It was a text from Josef.

              J: Hey. At work. Bored. Thinking about you...

For the first time in the last few hours, my lips quirked up to smile. Though it didn't last long, it helped me to keep the tears inside that had been wanting to stream out as we made our trip to the school.

              Q: Hey :) Hanging with Artie.

I didn't want to give him any details. I didn't want him to get worried in any way.

              J: I get jealous when you spend time with Artie and not me. Sorry for the honesty :)

              Q: Let me know when you get off work; I'm sure we can arrange something to soothe your               envy.

It was best to act positive and not ignore him.

              J: I'll hold you to it. I'll call you later.

              “Quinn, who are you texting at this time?” Artie stared at me impatiently as he had his hand on the knob of a door in front of us.             

              “Sorry, my bad.”

              He turned and opened the door. It was a big room filled with glass, books and posters of the human brain all over the walls. On the far end on the room was a green chalkboard and a brown-haired girl with black-rimmed glasses looking at a laptop. “Office-hours are over. You can email Professor Higgins if it's urgent.” Her tone indicated that she didn't really like her job that much.

              Artie continued to walk towards her. “Perrie Richards?”

              The girl immediately looked up from her laptop and set her eyes on Artie. “I'm sorry, you have the wrong person.” Her eyes slit into a cat-like way as if he were her prey.

              Artie smiled. “No, I think we have the right person. I know you know what I am and I know what you are which is great. We don't have to go through all of those awkward vampire and witch greetings. And you should be glad to know that we are seeking your amazing fortune-telling skills.”

              The girl was not impressed by Artie and looked insulted. “I'm not a fortune- teller. But if I were, I would say you will likely be dead in the next few minutes. Oops, actually for a vampire, you already are. How ironic.”

              Artie's grin only grew as he turned sideways to me. “This is why I never liked witches.”

              I didn't want her dislike for Artie to get in the way of why we were truly there so I stepped in to take over the conversation. “Perrie, we need help and only a witch can help us. See...my little brother is being followed by some crazy killer whose scent can't be caught even by a vampire. So, obviously it's really bad.” I felt a heaviness in my chest that threatened to arise. “Please... Can you at least help me – even if you don't like vampires?”

              Perrie stepped away from her laptop and came around the tall desk to stand in front of us. “Look, I might be a witch but that doesn't mean I practice it. I was born a witch. I didn't ask for it. So please leave.”

              I looked over at Artie and I knew he felt just as defeated as I. I took one more chance and stepped up closer. Perrie raised her hands, “If you come closer, I swear that I will cause you and your friend immense pain. I just need to snap my fingers.”

              The firing look in her eyes told me that she wasn't lying. I looked over at Artie who was already slowly backing out and  I turned to follow him. Artie would have to find another witch.

              “Hey, what's in your bag?” I turned around to find Perrie eying my tote bag. Somehow I knew exactly what she was asking for.

              “Something that belongs to an old vampire family.”

              Artie hissed at me on my left.

              “Yes, I can feel it. Show it to me.”

              “Only if you help us.”

              A smile appeared on Perrie's face and she laughed. “Fine. But I can't make any promises that I'll succeed in helping you.”

              I walked over to her and took out the scroll from my bag. I caught Artie giving me a dark look.

              When Perrie unrolled it, she looked up at me immediately. “Where did you get this exactly?”

              “Does it really matter?”

              “What's your name?”

              “Quinn Turner.”

              Perrie's eyes opened widely and her mouth fell open slightly. “Well, that's not good.”

                                                                    
 
CHAPTER eighteen

              “Do you know what this is about?” Perrie held up the ancient scroll in front of her as I looked at it nervously.

              “Yeah, Artie told me about how some vampire families secretly kept mermaids, especially for some ritual to bring back dead vampires. And then the mermaids pretty much became extinct.”

              Perrie walked around the desk to stand behind it and gently put the scroll down. She let out a deep sigh. “I can't believe that this is happening.” Me and Artie exchanged confused looks before she continued. “I'm not just a witch. I'm one of the last descendants of the original families of Richmond who resided here centuries ago. And history about this town and its connection to the supernatural world got passed down to generation after generation. A few years ago, I was entrusted with the secret that not all of the mermaids got killed that night of the attack in Romania back in 1416.”

              Artie laughed out loud. “You're high, you know that?”

              “I'm serious. And, trust me, you will want to hear the rest of the story.” Her stone cold stare alone got Artie to take a seat at one of the desks. “As I was saying, one mermaid was able to escape from the secret lake owned by the Constane vampire family. I was not told exactly how. All I know was that she was secretly shipped from country to country until she finally reached the body of water that is now known as Lake Michigan. Whoever put her there was smart because no one would have suspected especially since Illinois was barely inhabited around the time she was brought there in the 17
th
century.”

              “I'm sorry to interrupt but I don't see how that applies to me or anything.” We had been in the office for only fifteen minutes but I was desperate to get back on track on finding a way to help Nicholas. I didn't care for what Perrie had to say to me at that moment if it had nothing to do with helping him.

              “Because you're the last descendant of that very mermaid.”

              “What?” My mind was literally blown. Maybe Artie was right, she must have been high.

              “Just listen. I know that you felt something incredibly powerful when you first found this. And you don't have to lie, I can feel it running in your veins. And well... I can sense you're not entirely human –  And, trust me, my witch senses are near perfect despite the lack of practice.”

              This time I laughed out loud. I turned to Artie who had barely stirred in his seat the whole time. “Artie? Back me up, she's crazy right?”