Chapter Nine

Damn Amelia’s lessons.

I got a week of peace before my ear caught weird things about town.

Things I’d never noticed before.

Pets disappearing where there’d been no coyote sightings.

Tales of the ‘ghosts’ at Stone Lion Inn being not-so-friendly lately.

The kicker was meeting another vampire on the way home from a friend’s house.

Only this time, I had a stake. “Can’t you guys leave me alone?”

I watched his body crumble to dust.

“It’s about balance, kid.”

I spun around. “You.”

My teacher stepped out from behind a tree. “Good and evil, light and dark…the world is meant to have a balance. When you have a gift, you’re meant to use it.”

“Why are you here?”

He stopped beneath the street lamp. Under a black leather long coat, he wore tactical gear, like a soldier. Silver threads glinted here and there in the light. Combat boots were on his feet, giving him nearly an inch more of height he didn’t need.

“You left before receiving your reward for stage one.”

“Reward? Like a certificate?”

He handed me a small box.

“What’s with the get-up?” I opened the jewelry box. A silver ring lay inside, plain except for the Greek letters alpha and omega engraved in the center. “What’s this?”

He held up his right hand to show an identical ring. “Whether you want to be or not, you’re one of us now, Seven.”

“Oh… I don’t think I can—” He was gone. “—accept this. Yeah, that isn’t weird at all…” I shoved the box in my pocket and continued home.

Thirteen had never been so cryptic before, but I guess he didn’t owe me after I bailed.

Knowing vampires were in my town, even just occasionally, didn’t sit right with me.

I started doing sweeps at night after Mama went to bed. Found one maybe once a week or so…well, they seemed to find me. They were all gross and no one I knew, thank God. Little more than rabid animals. A high-powered crossbow was my friend.

You know, I get why vampires feed on people. Everything needs to eat. But why turn so many humans into vampires, too? Why gain the competition for food? Amelia’s only answer was evil spreads evil, but that seemed too…I don’t know. Simple, maybe.

The assumption from do-gooders who don’t care why, only that it needed to be stopped.

But I’d always wonder.

A week before school was going to start in August, Mama came down with a flu-like bug, feeling really wiped out.

When she was still really fatigued at three weeks, I made her go to the doctor.

Diagnosis: lupus.

For a woman working ten hours a day at her own business, she was not happy to discover a disease requiring her to rest more. Looking at the list of drug, diet, lifestyle, and supplement suggestions, my head spun.

They wanted her to come in for frequent tests until it was in remission. “Mama, can we afford your treatment?”

“Probably.” She kept her eyes on the road. “For a while.”

“A while?”

“Don’t raise your voice in the car, Della Garvison.”

Deep breath. She was mad at the disease, not me.

“I’m sorry, but I’m worried. I know how stubborn and proud you are.”

She stopped at a light and scratched the rash on her arm, another telltale symptom. “You’re my daughter. Don’t need you takin’ care of me until I’m old and gray.”

“You’re going to have to hire more help at the diner or you won’t reach ‘old and gray’.”

“Della!”

“I listened, okay? This can get serious if you don’t take care of yourself.”

People even died.

“I’ll make it work. End of discussion.”

“But—”

“No buts. Zip it.”

I sighed, knowing there was no use when she was in this mood. “Yes, ma’am.”

We didn’t have much extra, I knew that. She had savings, but it wouldn’t last for a life-long disease. It was up to me.

In my room, I pulled out a wrinkled business card and dialed the number.

“Hello?”

I spoke quietly. “Amelia, this is Della… I’ll come to London if we can make a deal.”

“I didn’t expect to hear from you again.” Her voice was measured.

“This agent gig… I get a salary, right?”

“Of course. We support every member of The Agency in all the ways they require.”

Going by her tone, I’d offended her again. “Look, I’ll speak plainly. My mother is ill and I don’t know if we can cover all the medical bills to come. She’s all I’ve got and I want to take care of her.” Needed to do so.

“I understand. School is in session, yes?”

“Yeah. It’s almost October now.”

“Then I will come to you and we’ll begin in earnest and perhaps your mother will allow field trips on your holidays.”

“Field trips?”

“Goodbye, Seven. I’ll see you within a day.” She hung up.

Sighing, I hoped I was doing the right thing.

We all knew about Hell and good intentions.

Amelia wasn’t kiddin’ about arrivin’ quickly.

She was waiting on the curb when class let out.

I took in her blazer, blouse, and slacks, and shook my head. “Lady, you’re as subtle as a gravy sandwich.” She dressed up more than my teachers.

“I beg your pardon.”

“You stick out like a sore thumb.” I began walkin’ home. Needed to finish my homework so I could get to the diner.

“I’m your guide, Della. Not your buddy. My attire is entirely appropriate for my station.”

“Really…you kill demons with your good pearls on?”

Her hand went to her throat. “Well, no. That would be impractical.”

“Well, I’m as practical as you get and this is a small town. People talk, and they’re gonna wonder what I’m doin’ with a fancy-pants British lady.”

“It is none of their concern. We work in secret for a calling that transcends societal norms.” Geesh. And I thought my history teacher had a pole up her butt. “This brings me to my recommendation that we not stay in one place very long.”

I stopped on the sidewalk. “I’m still in high school.”

“You can take the equivalency exam, Della.”

“Oh, no,” I said, shaking my head. “Mama would kill me if I skipped graduation.”

She frowned. “Then I don’t know what you expect me to do with you. This isn’t a part-time job at the shopping mall. We have all committed to a greater cause. You’ve already been hunting, haven’t you? I can assure you, they’ll keep coming.”

How did she know that?

“Are you saying I put the town at risk by being here?”

Her eyes darting away, she said, “Eventually, yes. You and those like you are magnets for demonkind. It’s part of how we find you. The universe always has to balance.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take your word on that. I’m stayin’ until I finish school.”

Almost two years from now.

She sighed. “Very well. You will see for yourself by summer.”

She walked back to her rental car, letting me continue home.

My secret life began the next night.

In the hours between Mama sending me home from the diner and her getting home, Amelia tutored me in the ways of The Agency. Wandering the messy parts of OKC…I felt like I was in a TV show, except without the super strength, blonde hair, and my technique wasn’t nearly so flashy. All that kicky, flippy stuff might look good in the movies, but it wasn’t practical in real life, and quipping with your opponent just got you dead.

Kill quickly and move on.

If it deserved killing. I was not a kill-first-ask-questions-later kind of girl.

Most nights, we didn’t find anything. Suspicious noises usually turned out to be a stray cat, or a raccoon. We did thwart a couple muggings.

“You haven’t told me where this special ability comes from,” I said.

“We don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I glanced at her blank face. “I don’t believe that.”

She’d taken me to the woods outside Guthrie, hoping, I guess, for somethin’ odd out here. “Curiosity killed the cat, Seven.”

I blocked her path. “Don’t play that game with me, Amelia. If you guys made this happen to me and changed me, I deserve to know.”

She glanced up at the stars and stopped. Sighed. Then met my eyes. “I swear we did nothing to you.” And? I nodded for her to continue. “There is speculation about the powers of the agents, but no proof. No substantiated facts. Those of us with faith consider it a blessing. Whatever force for Good is out there chose you to be a thorn in Evil’s side. Maybe you carry the heart of an angel. Maybe it’s a genetic mutation. We don’t know. What’s important is you have a purpose, Seven. How many people can ever say they know exactly what they are meant to do on this earth?” She waited for me to react, face blank and not blinking.

Well, that was more forthright than I usually got out of her, which made it feel like the truth. “Alright…you ever find out definitively, I’m the first to know, deal?”

She clasped my hand. “I swear it. I’m not the enemy, dear. I never will be.”

I nodded. “Let’s hunt some bad guys.”