Chapter Eleven
“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Keon commented.
Saul shrugged and said, “When in Rome,” before throwing back the last of his beer.
"Please tell me you have kept a close watch on the girl," Keon said.
"What does it look like?" Saul asked sarcastically.
Keon thought of a thousand things to say, but shook his head after thinking better of it. Besides, the more his lieutenant looked like a drunken fool, the better he’d blend at the high school party.
“Report,” Keon commanded.
“She gets around,” he replied.
“Around?”
“Socially,” Saul explained. “Recently she’s been dancing with the dog there for a while now, and that one,” he nodded in Dax’s direction, “has taken an interest.”
Keon digested that information. “What else have you learned?”
“She’s a courageous one, gotta respect that.”
“Courageous how?” Keon asked suspiciously.
“I tailed her here,” Saul replied. “Did my best monster-in-the-woods routine. Thought I could provoke her into revealing what she was.”
“And you did not engage her directly, right?”
“Right, just like you said,” Saul replied defensively. “Just a little growling and shaking bushes is all. She strode right up to where I was like she was going to take me on. She seemed to just get more curious, the scarier I got. She didn’t see me though. She is very interesting.”
Keon was less than thrilled at the report. Saul was right though, at least, about Aradia being of interest.
“Anyway,” he said, leaning against the wall next to Saul and doing his best to look like a normal, human teenager. “I reported our findings to our Sovereign.”
Saul's ears perked up. “And?” he finally prompted, just as Keon knew he would.
“He wants us to get a sample from her,” said Keon. He went on to describe the particular requirements.
“As the Sovereign commands,” Saul replied with perfect, stilted formality. More casually, he added, “Though that’s a pretty weird command.” Seeing his Solo cup empty, Saul grabbed a half-full cup of beer off the beer pong table. He smirked at the protesting players.
Keon scowled. “Well, according to the Sovereign's demon Seer, that,” he tipped his head in Aradia's direction, “scrawny, smelly little girl might actually be a witch.”
Saul spat his beer out.
Not bothering to compose himself, he asked, “What?”
“You heard me,” was all Keon said in response.
Saul looked from Keon to Aradia. He let his eyes linger for a while on the girl before turning them back to his superior.
“Yeah, I heard you, but… you’re kidding!” Keon did not respond. “A witch? A hidden witch? That is impossible! They were wiped out centuries ago.”
“Apparently we missed one,” Keon said sarcastically.
Saul stared again at Aradia. “But how?”
“They don't know,” Keon said. “The Sovereign and Morgan, that is. Either way, it matters not. What does matter is obeying our Sovereign's order: acquire the item to prove her identity.”
“This is big news,” Saul said. “Every hidden in the world would want to know about this.”
“I can think of three in particular,” Keon mused. “But for now we will remain silent on the matter. Understood?”
Saul stared silently at Aradia, looking awestruck, until finally he said, “Understood. If she is truly a witch, then wouldn’t that mean that she’s...”
“The last of her kind?” Keon finished for him then turned to look at Aradia as well.
After a while, he finally answered his own question by saying, “Yes.”
Aradia clutched her forehead. Her frontal lobe exploded into excruciating, mind-searing pain. Images danced and swam before her eyes of cops rapping on the door, panic, confusion, disorder, and drunken teens either taking off into the night or being handcuffed and shoved into the back of a squad car.
"Hey Aradia, are you alright?" asked Roy.
Aradia opened her eyes to see Roy staring at her with concern in his eyes. She didn’t know how long she’d been catatonic.
"Yeah Roy, I am alright," she croaked. "This is going to sound random. Do your parents know you’re at this party?"
Roy shook his head and said, "Course not."
"Would they be ticked if they found out you were here?"
Roy laughed. "Yeah, my dad would probably put me on dishwasher duty at the diner for about a month!"
"Yeah, that’s about what I thought,” Aradia replied. “Where is your car parked?"
Roy raised an eyebrow.
"If you brought your own car, I suggest you get to it like about five minutes ago."
"Aradia, what’s this about?"
"In about twenty seconds, cops are going be at Jayce's door, and neither of us wants to be here when they start arresting people."
Roy looked utterly amused. He was still getting used to her odd sense of humor. Thinking he was playing along, he grinned and asked, "Now Aradia, how could you possibly know that?"
“Enough of this,” she threw her hands up, exasperated. Grabbing his wrist Aradia yanked Roy toward the back yard. She was careful to avoid the route through the kitchen, where Dax was still being creepy.
Over the noise of the party, Aradia picked out the sound of a police baton tapping against the front door. Suddenly the door was open and blue uniformed Salem Police Department officers swarmed into the house.
It looked like three officers were present, and Aradia suspected there might be at least one more outside the house. That was actually a fairly impressive turnout, considering the Salem PD consisted of a full complement of 97 employees, 81 of whom were full-time officers. They must have considered Jayce’s party to be pretty big news to devote at least four percent of their personnel to it.
Slow night for crime, Aradia mused. Good for Salem. Bad for Jayce and us.
"See?" Aradia said, somewhere between panicked and smug.
Roy, who had been running along with Aradia, stopped for a moment and stood stunned. Gathering his wits, this time he grabbed Aradia's hand.
"C'mon Rai, we got to get out of here!" He insisted once they’d reached the pool again.
“You’re coming with me,” she replied.
He shook his head. “I have to find my brothers. I can’t leave without them. I just wanted to make sure you got out safely.”
She thought for a moment then nodded her assent. "Find your brothers and get home."
Roy stood looking at her. "What about you?"
Aradia smiled and said, "I’ll be fine. Now go!"
He turned and ran against the crush of his peers. He was certainly the only one trying to get back into the house. He peeked over his shoulder as he ran, obviously feeling a little guilty at having left Aradia. Then he was back inside.
She quickly scaled the fence in the backyard. She did not much fancy running through unfamiliar woods at night, but she also knew running around the house in the open was a surefire way to get picked up. She compromised and cut through a small chunk of forest on her way back to Fletcher Street which would lead her straight back to Rhonda’s.
Unfortunately it looked like Salem’s finest had anticipated that type of response. From the top of Broomstick Hill, the same hill from which Jayce had earlier spied her, as it happened, she could see a police cruiser parked about half a mile off.
She made a snap decision.
In the direction of Rhonda’s house, Fletcher was straight, and the police would have a clear view of her from where they were parked if she left the woods at any point.
Normally that wouldn’t have bothered her. She was very comfortable amid trees and nature, and under other circumstances might have even preferred that path to the road. However, whatever she’d sensed earlier had her spooked. Until she knew more, she wanted to play it safe.
In the othe
r direction, toward town, Fletcher was a positive zig zag of a road as it meandered around small hills and other obstructions. It would be relatively easy for her to evade capture in that direction. It would take a while, but she could even just walk home.
That was the play.
I’ll need a cover story, Aradia thought glumly as she doubled back past Jayce’s house and snuck toward town. It’s a shame I can’t turn invisible.
After committing to her plan Aradia couldn’t help but question the wisdom of her decision. Wandering around in the middle of the night in what was still an unfamiliar place seemed, at the very least, ill-conceived. At least Salem has a low rate of violent crimes, Aradia noted, remembering her father’s statistics lesson.
Before too long she found herself back in the city proper. Not sure exactly how to proceed, she decided to at least let her partner-in-crime know where she was. She took a seat at a well lit bench beneath a street light on Cauldron Avenue and pulled out her cell.
she texted Rhonda.
Almost immediately, Rhonda replied:
Feeling more responsible after letting Rhonda know she was okay, Aradia got to pondering how she’d spend the next few hours. “At least it’s peaceful,” she said to herself, just before another head-crushing vision hit her.
She saw herself and, of all people, Tristan running together down Cauldron. From around the corner at Cauldron and 3rd Street came a police patrol vehicle. In her mind the lights flashed and the siren whooped. Two officers stepped out. Her hands were in the air. Tristan was cuffed. She was left alone.
“Anybody home?” Tristan said. Aradia came back to the here-and-now. She got the feeling that he was repeating himself.
“Pleasure to see you,” she said, voice laced with sarcasm.
“I’m sure it is,” he replied cockily. For good measure he gave her a dirty look. He reeked of booze. He seemed to hesitate a moment, then said, “Come on. I saw cops around the corner. This way.” He started heading north toward 3rd Street.
She gave a hard look at Tristan, debating what to do. After only a short delay, Aradia sighed, heaved herself up, and grabbed him from behind by the left shoulder.
“Problem?” he asked, confused and curious.
"Okay, Tristan," she said to him. "This is how it is going to be. We’re going to split up, and you are going to go that way."
She pointed to her right, toward 4th Street.
"And I am going to go this way."
She pointed in the direction he’d been heading.
Tristan scoffed. "You can't tell me what to do."
I really don’t feel like dealing with this. Aradia grabbed the front of his shirt, brought his face to meet hers, and growled, "Wanna bet?"
Tristan struggled to free himself. After letting him squirm vainly for a few seconds, she released her grip. With one solid look into Aradia's eyes, he nodded. “You are curious,” he said before he took off in the direction she’d instructed.
Aradia then turned, sighed, and jogged the opposite way. She got to the corner just in time to intercept the inevitable.
She only had a few seconds before the cruiser would arrive. She knew that from her vision. Those few seconds were enough for her to catch something very odd out of the corner of her eye.
A couple was making out in an alleyway across Cauldron from her. Salem was a clean town, so it wasn’t as gross as it would have been most places. Still, Aradia felt they should probably get a room. At least it’s a dark alley, she thought, giving the couple some semblance of privacy.
They seemed to be about her age, maybe a little older, and were pressed against a brick wall, the rear wall of the Salem Visitor’s Center. The girl's head was tipped and it seemed that the boy was giving her a hickey.
None of that was terribly unusual.
Beyond those first few details, she didn’t pay them much mind. She was really more focused on intercepting the police car she knew was coming.
She wished she’d spent a little more time watching them. Just as she turned away from the couple, the boy raised his head. It was very dark, very late, and not much of the glow from the street lights made it into the alleyway. On top of that, she wasn’t really focusing on them. There was no way Aradia could be sure of what she was seeing.
And yet, she felt sure of what she was seeing. The boy’s face, from his lips to his chin, was dripping with blood. Just as frightening, his two long fangs glistened in the moonlight.
Fangs! Aradia thought, like a vampire!
Then she heard the whoop of the police car rolling around from 3rd, just as she’d predicted. The car pulled to a stop. They left the lights flashing as the two officers emerged.
Aradia almost immediately turned back to where the vampire was draining his prey. Of course they were both gone. Oh come on, Aradia griped mentally. What a friggin cliché.
"Evening, miss," one of the policemen greeted politely. He was a little shorter than average, maybe 5’ 7”. He wore wire-framed glasses and had a kind voice.
Aradia threw her hands up just as she’d seen herself do in the vision. She stood very still as the cops moved towards her.
“Uh, you can put your hands down,” the same officer, Officer Soft Voice, instructed. She felt silly and put them down, but still kept her hands where they could see them. She’d watched a lot of CSI.
"What's your name, kid?" the other officer asked. He looked older than Officer Soft Voice, had a goatee, and sounded bored.
"Aradia," she responded in a polite tone. “Aradia Preston.”
Aradia caught a spark of recognition in Officer Soft Voice’s eye when she spoke her full name. She hadn’t meant to name drop, and she hoped she wasn’t getting her father into hot water.
Officer Goat Chin didn’t seem to think anything of her surname. Still sounding bored, he asked, "Were you at Jayce Chapman's party tonight?”
"Yes."
Both officers were taken aback by her candid response. They exchanged a brief, puzzled look.
Aradia just shrugged and said, "It's not like you don't already know I was there."
Soft Voice shrugged as well and said, "We just weren’t expecting you to confirm it."
"What he means," Goat Chin interrupted, "is that in our experience, most teenagers are not as honest as we wish them to be."
"Same here!" Aradia exclaimed. "Fortunately, I’m not like most teenagers."
“Were you aware,” Goat Chin asked, largely ignoring her response, “that large amounts of liquor and other illicit substances were present at the party?" At least he sounded a little less bored.
“Pretty hard to miss,” she smiled. After a moment, she caught herself, and very politely added, “Yes, officer.”
“Miss, have you been drinking?” Soft Voice asked carefully.
“No, sir. Well, Fanta. And a Mountain Dew. But no beer or rum mixers or anything.” She decided to go ahead and answer the next question as well, “I didn’t smoke anything either.”
“Miss, I’m going to have to ask you to submit to a PAS, a preliminary alcohol screening,” Soft Voice said, almost wincing.
Goat Chin started to say, “If you refuse, we’ll have to take you in to the station,” but he was cut off almost immediately by Aradia.
“Sure!” she exclaimed with surprising enthusiasm. She’d never even seen a breathalyzer before. It sounded fun.
One prolonged exhale later, Aradia could no longer say she’d never taken a breathalyzer test. She also could no longer say it sounded fun.
“Zero point zero,” Soft Voice read, sounding obviously relieved. He had clearly been much more nervous about the results than Aradia.
Goat Chin went back to being bored.
“It’s awfully late for you to be out alone, miss,” Officer Soft Voice said. “We’ll give you a ride home now.”
Aradia thought the situation through. She didn’t see that she had much choice. Hopefully her folks hadn’t set the alarm.
"Thanks," she s
aid. "These shoes aren’t very comfortable to walk in. But before we go anywhere, I saw a woman being attacked right over there."
Drats, I should have mentioned that sooner, she chastised herself.
"What woman?" Goat Chin asked.
Aradia tipped her head and pointed to the alley behind the Visitor’s Center. "Well, they’re gone now. They were right over there though. Could you check for blood?"
They exchanged another glance. It was wordless, but Aradia interpreted it fairly easily. Goat Chin was saying, This is boring, let’s go get some pizza or something, and Soft Voice replied, We need to at least check it out.
Soft Voice won.
Goat Chin escorted Aradia to the back of the cruiser. Once he was confident she was locked up and not going anywhere, he joined his partner. Goat Chin’s hand hovered near his holster; Soft Voice held a Maglite at about his ear level. The team carefully investigated the alley.
Not too surprisingly, they found no trace of the man and woman. Vampire and woman, Aradia corrected. She’d hoped at least for some blood spatter. He’d been practically dripping.
“Could you describe the incident?” Soft Voice asked.
She thought for a moment, then decided to be honest.
“The Vampire Murderer,” Goat Chin said. “Not even the first tip we’ve gotten tonight.”
Even Soft Voice seemed to lose interest once she’d described his fangs. At first she got angry, but then Aradia realized how it must have sounded to them. Would she have acted any differently if she hadn’t seen it herself?
Well, I can create fireballs and see the future, so maybe I’d have given the claim some credit. She couldn’t really blame them though.
Seeing their reaction, Aradia had to wonder. They’d found no blood, she was tired, and with the Vampire Murderer hunt going on, she did have vampires on the brain. Maybe I should chalk it up as my imagination.
Putting the vehicle into drive, Soft Voice said, “I’m sorry that we did not introduce ourselves sooner. I’m Officer Ortega. My partner is Officer Manheim.”
“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she said. She decided to have some fun. “That was against procedure, wasn’t it? Not declaring yourselves?”
Soft Voice, or Ortega, rather, winced again. “As I said, miss, you have our apologies for that.”
Aradia chuckled at the situation.
“Where can we take you?”
She gave her home address.
While they were on the way, Aradia could not help but ask, "Hey, can I ask you guys something?"
Manheim went ahead and replied, "Yes, you need a high school diploma to be a cop. No, I’ve never killed anyone. Yes, we do sometimes get free donuts. No, you can’t come in for police training after school."
"Um, what?" Aradia said.
"Sorry little lady," Ortega said. "In fairness, those are the most common questions, but aside from that, my partner has got some issues."
"I do not," Manheim replied defensively.
"Issues?" said Aradia. "Dude, it sounds like he's got a whole magazine subscription."
Ortega and Aradia shared a solid laugh. Manheim did not join them.
As they rounded a turn, she said, "But hey, like I was saying, can I ask you guys a question?"
Ortega said, "Sure kid, shoot, no pun intended."
"I don’t know what it meant, but I know what I saw tonight. Do you believe in vampires?" asked Aradia.
Neither of them replied right away.
After an awkward silence, Manheim replied, "No. Why? Do you?"
Aradia did not respond, but after a few minutes of quiet pondering, she muttered, "I don't want to."
She turned to look through the window and caught a glance of Tristan with his perfect body, perfect good looks, and perfect...everything.
For a moment they made eye contact. If her cops had seen him, they did not react, which she suspected meant they had not. He was staring at her in disbelief as she was driven away in the back of a cop car.
Aradia added to herself, But I’m starting to think that I don't have a choice.