43: The King

“What’s up with you?” Monty asks clearly catching wind of my bad mood.

“Oh, you know, end of the world stuff.” I say with pure honestly, but Monty gives a smirk and brushes it off. End of the world stuff and troubling, unsettling feelings. Gabriel is yet another man that’s bound so tightly to his superior that I’m not sure what’s real and what’s commanded. “I’m going to go track down Jezmin.”

“Why would you do that? She’s been awful lately. The other day she nearly severed a customer’s hand off.” The look of disgust on Monty’s face as she recalls the event only makes me thankful that I wasn’t here.

“Long story.” I shout to her as I make my way to the basement. She brushed off my end-of-the-world stuff just seconds ago, so she’ll either still not believe me or ask questions.

It isn’t odd that I’m seeking Jezmin. At one point in time all of us were seeking out Jezmin, but she was nicer-ish back then, but now she’s becoming a terror, destroying the store and trying to hurt customers. And I have a sick feeling why.

The basement is still the mess it usually is. stacked boxes, mildew stench and dark shadowy patches perfect for things to use as hiding spots.
“Jezmin.” I call out into the space. “Jezmin, I need to talk to you.” My feet pace the floor from one corner to the next to the next making full circles. “It’s important.” Still nothing. “Don’t make me summon you.”

Only after I threaten her, the frigid chill of the dead fills the room. She remains unseen, keeping to those shadowy corners hiding or waiting for the perfect opportunity to scare me.

“I’m here to make a deal.” My words are visibly seen as tiny white puffs of fog.

The second I request a deal she rushes me. I flinch because she gets close, so close that the chill her body radiates is painful. Her hand latches onto my arm and within seconds a dark purple bruising begins to develop on my skin. If she holds on any longer it’ll turn black with frostbite.

I jerk out of her hand surprised when I break free. “Jesus. Are you trying to kill me?”

“Maybe.” She says in a disturbing teasing tone.

“I need a favor.”

“I thought you were here to make a deal. Now it’s a favor?”

“A deal, a favor, whatever.” My shoulders shrug nonchalantly. Tomato, tomAto. “I need protection from...the dead.”

A sound roars out of her mouth. A ear splitting, eerie sound. Laughter. “Protection.” She continues laughing and goosebumps break out across my skin from the horrific oddity that is the sound of her joy.

“It’s not funny. I’m being serious. The dead will walk and I don’t want to-”

Jezmin cuts me off, “die.” She pauses before continuing. “So awful. Not wanting to die. Some don’t get a choice.”

Her statement weighs on me. It’s true. I’m trying to cheat death in a way that she couldn’t. She didn’t get a choice. “I’m sorry.”

“No you’re not.”

I ignore her aggression. “What will it take? There has to be something.”

“The dead are restless. The dead are waiting.” She leans in getting extra close again. The cold air that I was getting used to, now becomes unbearable again. “There is no hiding, only death.” Then she disappears.

Dumbfounded and not surprised at my failure to gain her help, I stand in the middle of the basement speechless. The dead are restless. The dead are waiting. This isn’t good. If Gabriel can’t get Phillip’s coven to corporate we’re all doomed.

I march back upstairs, head low in defeat. As I approach the front counter, I hear the tail end of a conversation that Monty is having with a frantic customer. Like a fly on the wall, I stand and listen. I don’t get much before Monty gives her something and the customer scampers away.

“What was that about?” I ask.

“Apparently, a ghost problem.”

And it won’t be the last, I say to myself. Jezmin’s aggression and her taunting words. The dead are restless, but they’re not waiting patiently. “Really.” I vocalize the one, single word keeping all the others inside my head.

Monty eyeballs me with her all knowing eyes once again, “That’s the third this week and you know something, don’t you?”

“No.” I shrug it off. If I spill now there's a higher risk of her believing me or at least some of it, but the less people that know the better. “But your cards might know something. They also do.”

According to Phillip the oath is still bound and I can’t afford to break it now. Who knows what he’ll do or what he’ll make me do. Killing me would definitely be an option since he already admitted to wanting to that from the very beginning. Joining his coven would be another option. Or having his coven murder me themselves would be an option I’m sure. Brooklyn would put in a vote for that one.

Monty’s eyes light up at the mention of her cards, her finger shoots up to the sky, “great idea.” She quickly scampers away to retrieve her deck.
I pray more than anything that she reads them in her room and doesn’t bring them back here. I don’t need to see what they say. I don’t want to see what they say. Knowing those bloody cards, they’ll bring me into it somehow and that’s the last thing I need.

My ears echo the ring of the bell on the door as it loudly rings from a customer entering. I really need to convince Gretchen to get rid of that thing.
“I have good news.” Gabriel says as sneaks up on me, well, walks up to the front counter where I’m lost in thought.

I give a jolt of startlement, but quickly recover. “You must work fast or they just really like you.”

“It is a time sensitive matter.” He says going dead serious.

“Or they just needed Phillip’s favorite son to give them a push in the right direction.” I snap back.

“I deserved that.”

“You might deserve more than that, but there’s bigger things to bicker about. I need their spell.”

He stares at me, confused.

“The ritual. I need it. Word for word, written down. The whole book if you can get it.”

“That won’t happen. Brooklynn is never without it and she’s not willing to hand it over to a witch that’s not...” He finally answers something.
“On her good side? How about you keep her busy and I’ll steal it.”

“Not an option.” He answers back, quicker this time.

“Anything is an option if it involves saving the world. But if the world doesn’t matter to you, yourself might. Anything is an option to save ourselves.” I huff at my own stupidity. Saving the world from one catastrophe from the next.

I’m positive Phillip won’t kill everyone like the dead plan on doing, but still. Being forced into blood labor isn’t all it's cracked up to be. My annoyance seeps into my voice and I snap my words at Gabriel. “If you can’t get the book and don’t have the ritual, then what’s the great news?”

“I got them to sit down and talk with you. They want you to show them.”

“They want me to prove it.” I slap my hands down on the counter so hard my palms sting from the impact. “And how do you plan on me doing that?”
“Bring them to the dream realm.”

“I can barely walk the dream realm myself let alone bring seven people with me.”

“Then bring one.”

“Oh, let me guess. Brooklynn. Because going to a world that will suck you in and eat you whole with someone you dislike is the best thing to do.” My anger reaches an all time high.

I’ve never called the dream realm for the horror it is. Everyone always thinks it’s all clouds and peaceful quiet that you mold to become all the joyous things one can imagine, but not all dreams are clean. Most tellers of dreams are tormented souls and cursed with nightmares. We decipher what a normal person’s consciousness refuses to understand.

Gretchen knows this, that's why she doesn’t push clients on me. Only those that she thinks are in desperate need of my help. But what happens when I’m the one in desperate need.

“Can’t you just get the page?”

“Prove. Her. Wrong.” Gabriel whispers to me as he leans over the counter. “You're the stronger witch and it would bring me great satisfaction when you rub her failure in her face.” His hand stretches out in my direction. He puts a thick strand of my hair between his fingers.

I look down at his hand and then back up to his eyes, his golden eyes that have always mesmerized me. “I’m sure it would.” I lean back, the hair in his hand slips out. “When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“What? No.” I shout a little too loudly. It catches Monty’s attention and she peeks her head out of her room. I wave in her direction, “it’s nothing. Just me bickering to myself.” She slips back into her room leaving me and Gabriel alone. “I need more time than that.”

“The ritual is set for next week.” Gabriel quickly admits. Before I even take a breath of air to make a retort, he adds, “Phillip is eager and he hadn’t been expecting-”

“I get it.” I cut him off not needing to hear more. “Fine. Tomorrow it is.” We stare at each other, silent. “You can go now.”

“Not before I give you something.” He places a small vial on the counter. The click of the glass stops my heart. “Phillip insists.”

“I’m sure he does.” My eyes are glued on the vial filled with blood. “I’ll play along. Whatever you want just no more blood.”

He slides it across the countertop. “It’s a small dose. Half of what Phillip would make you drink. A fraction of what you were drinking.”

“I hate you.” The words are easy to say, but not so easy to feel.

“So you say.” He gives me that half cocked smile seeing through my lies.

I swipe the vial off the counter and debate about throwing it across the room, but I don’t. Against better judgement, I don’t. Instead I pop the top and down the small mouthful of blood, fully regretting it afterwards.

It hits me hard. The strong metallic after taste nearly causes me to gag. “It’s been awhile.” I say through clenched teeth as I shake myself hard forcing my body to behave and do what it has to do. Ingest. “Why? I blurt out.

“Why what?”

“Why did you drag me into this?” I harshly bite my tongue after I say the words quickly regretting them. What was I thinking? I didn’t want to know, but at the same time it’s the only thing I want to know.

I’ve been refusing to think about Phillip’s leak of information and Gabriel’s confession. It’s all too much, but seeing him staring at me, it just came out.

He leans in extra close, “because the second I saw you I became enthralled. I brought you into this for selfish reasons.” He gives a gruff laugh. “And I messed up, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up. I’ll give up.”

“And what are you two up to?” Monty says sneaking up on us. I frantically jump backwards and pocket the vial in hopes of hiding it from her. Thankfully, she’s immersed into shuffling her cards, but she stops when she notices Gabriel glance at them. “Care for a read?” She offers.

Just like Gabriel and I, never on the same page. He says, “sure,” as I frantically shout, “no.”

“Just ignore her. She tends to overreact.”

“I do not,” I snap back. “I react accordingly and those cards-”

She quickly interjects, “are perfectly safe.” Before I can say anything more she spreads the cards out on the countertop. She shows her fancy magic trick by flipping them over to show all blank sides before flipping them back.

She restacks the deck, has Gabriel cut them and then flips the first one over. It depicts a young man, similar to Gabriel standing on a pile of bodies, dead bodies. His hands dripping with blood.

“Have you really killed that many people Gabriel?” The words slip from my lips. I didn’t mean to say them aloud.

“He is a vampire Hazel." Monty replies. "Most vampires tend to have blood on their hands. His life is also intertwined with the one who made him.”

“Then I’m sure that pile is ten times bigger if his maker is involved in the equation.” I reply thinking about all the people that Phillip has killed over all these years.

She rolls her eyes as she flips the second one. “Oh,” she sucks in a deep breath, here it comes, “the lovers card, which explains Hazel’s torn-”

“Shush. If we are revealing any of my cards it’s the death one.” We are not talking about that particular card of mine or his. Especially his. The one that shows him and me together, side by side in a coffin.

Gabriel’s eyes go from the card to me, no doubt examining every single detail, deciphering any and all meanings. He won’t be getting any details from me and I’ll make sure that Monty keeps her mouth sealed.

Monty brushes off my hostility. “So dramatic that one is.” She flips card number three, “the king.”

It’s a card I’ve seen before, not that I’ve seen a lot, but I’ve never heard Monty discuss this one with anybody. This illustration of Gabriel shows him standing before several kneeling bodies. Who are they? His loyal subjects? His own vampires that he created?

“Well, isn’t that lovely.” I mutter intrigued and curious at its meaning. With a quick glance at Gabriel, he looks bashful, even guilty as if knows what this means.

“The king means change is coming and you will play an important role. A high respectable role, maybe even superseding the ones above you.”

What the hell does that mean? “The cards aren’t set in stone. People’s future changes.” I blurt out. “I mean my future is death,” My eyes go directly to Gabriel as I say my next words, “and I don’t plan on dying any time soon.”

“I don’t plan on you dying either, love. Which reminds me,” Gabriel’s words stop my heart. I didn’t like the ‘love’ part and I’m sure I’m not going to like what he has to say next. “Hazel and I have a meeting tomorrow. It’s very important and she’ll regrettably be missing work. I’ll even help her make it up.”

“An extra pair of hands around the shop wouldn’t hurt. We’ll let Gretchen know.” Monty says with a fluster.

Gabriel winks with gratitude before he walks around the counter at his unfair vampire speed and places a soft kiss to my forehead. I don't even have time to register it before he’s at the door, the bell rattling after his departure.

“He is too good for you.” Monty jokes...or not. For all I know she’s serious. She can see through some things calling out people's lies in an instant, but she's blinded to this particular topic.

“You’re kidding, right?”

She shrugs her shoulders not admitting or denying anything. “What I will say is that I would love to read your cards again.”

“Not happening.”

“All work and no play make Monty very bored.” She whines, but I ignore her, which is easy when I have so many other things on my mind, such as Gabriel’s king card.

What does it mean?