The Problem With Black Magic (10 page)

When she had finished, Cassie made a face. “You’re throwing the rat in live? Ick.”

“We do it to lobsters all the time,” said Jay.

“Yeah, and that’s gross too,” Cassie responded. She’d never been too keen on seafood for just that reason.

Mike stomped away from Jay and Cassie and stood next to Sam, hands balled into fists at his sides. “Okay, now I know this is bull
--“

“Don’t swear,” Sam cautioned.

“-- because how are you going to “dissolve” diamonds just by boiling them for a little while? That doesn’t even make sense.”

Sam put down his spoon and stood back, arms crossed; apparently, he was up to the part of the recipe that called for letting the mixture boil for ten minutes. “That’s why I have to put the demonic essence in first,” he said quietly, like he didn’t really want to discuss it but couldn’t think of a way around it. “It can dissolve anything.”

Mike stared. “What’s demonic essence? And don’t say ‘the essence of a demon’!”

Sam smiled, the first time in a while Cassie remembered him d
oing so. “Fine, I won’t say that.”

Mike looked at the boiling mixture and set his jaw. “I’m going to watch you finish making this, and if I see that stuff actually dissolve, I’ll believe you.
Maybe.”

Sam walked back to the sanitizer and began sorting through the other potion ingredients. “Whatever. You don’t work here, so it’s not like you can do anything useful anyway. You two, on
the other hand,” he gestured toward Cassie and Jay. “Get your aprons on and go up front, where you might accomplish something. And give me some peace and quiet.”

“Yeah, you want it nice and quiet so you can hear the rat scream when you boil it alive,” Cassie said, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. She was bothered by the fact that they w
ere torturing a living creature, even if it was a rat. Unfortunately, she didn’t see what she could do about it; lord knows, she knew she needed all the protection she could get.

Sam turned his eyes to her. “Then get to work, and you won’t have to watch when I kill it.”

Cassie swallowed. “No, I should watch,” she said. “We’re torturing this little thing to death, and I should at least have the guts to watch it. It’s gonna upset me, and I should be upset,” she said, startling herself when she started to feel wetness on her cheeks. It wasn’t the stupid rat; of that she was sure. It was the fact that she was now surrounded by pain and death, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.

Sam looked surprised at the depth of her reaction. “If I knew you liked rats so much, I would have asked
Ser for a ferret.”

***

Washing her tear-stained face in the bathroom after watching Sam unceremoniously drop the rat into the boiling concoction, which had made it shudder and hiss with sickening
sounds, Cassie resolved to lose herself in work for a while. Mike had come up front shortly after she had, looking pale and shaking his head when Jay tried to talk to him. He holed up with his laptop in his usual corner of the shop, barely acknowledging Cassie later when she brought him a cup of his favorite white hot chocolate. She imagined he was scouring the internet, looking for a mundane explanation for how gemstones and a live rodent had melted into liquid in a matter of minutes, with only the amount of heat provided by a cheap hot plate.

Eventually, Sam came out and took Cassie’s place at the bar. Temporarily without much to do, she walked back into the break room to check the progress of the potion. If Sam was back outside, that probably meant he was letting it cool.

To her surprise, it had gone from a dull, dishwater-like liquid to a vivid pinkish purple, with a luminous opalescence. The surface had a pearl-like sheen, and Cassie realized it was probably starting to harden, just like the recipe said. She stared; there was no sign of the rat, or any of the other weird things Sam had tossed in there. Instead, it looked like some kind of gourmet gelatin dessert. She sniffed, surprised when she came away with a vaguely floral impression. How did a rat, some gemstones and herbs suddenly smell like flowers?

“Well, it is magic,” said Sam, suddenly behind her.

Cassie jumped. “You said you couldn’t read my mind,” she said quietly.

He stepped around her and went to open his locker. “Give me some credit, it was obvious.”

Cassie made an effort to act unperturbed and not show her relief; she didn’t want him to know how much that idea scared her. If he knew that the prospect of him knowing her thoughts frightened her more than anything else, he might start trying to read her mind just out of spite.

What Sam removed from his locker appeared to be lanyards with transparent glass cases on the end; the casing for the amulets, she realized. As she watched, he used a teaspoon to portion out the
potion into the 12 cases, shutting them closed when he was finished. When he was done, he handed one to her. Cassie took it cautiously, like it might be hot to the touch. Sam laughed softly at her reticence to take it.

The finished amulet looked like a necklace with a round, purple stone at the bottom. Small enough to fit in the center of Cassie’s palm easily, the pendant, filled with t
he fresh potion, looked like a slice of a vibrant gemstone, with a soft pink glow that she thought she might be imagining.

“It’s…gorgeous,” she said, surprised.

If Sam was proud of what he’d created, he gave no sign. “Put it on. It should harden completely within the hour, and then it’ll be active.”

Cassie slipped the lanyard over her head, blushing slightly when the pendant came to rest on the cleft between her breasts. Since she was wearing a polo shirt and her apron, there was no danger of the amulet falling into her cleavage, but it definitely would when she was in her underwear.

Sam scooped up most of the remaining amulets and gave them to her. “Give these to the guys outside, including your friend, the skeptic. I’ll give Dwight his tomorrow.”

Cassie weighed the amulets in her hand, surprised how light they were. “Can I give them to my
parents, and my little brother too?”

Sam turned his back to her and began cleaning up the leftover ingredients, putting them back into a brown paper shopping bag he’d produced from somewhere. “Of cour
se, that’s why I made the 12-batch.”

Cassie laughed
; it was funny, hearing him talk about crafting items with dark magic like he was whipping up a batch of cupcakes. At his quizzical look, she shook her head that it was nothing and left the room.

Khalil was organizing the money in his cash drawer when Cassie dangled the amulets in front of him. He looked at them she was offering him some giant bugs.

“So not only do I have to wear this stupid thing, but it’s pink?” he said, looking up to meet her eyes. Cassie shrugged and tossed him one.

“Wear it under your shirt; that’s what I’m going to do,” she said, making her way to the café area where Jay was scrubbing down the tables. Before she could hand out any more of the pink pendants,
Serenus walked through the front door.

“How’s our little experiment coming along?” he asked, to which Cassie held up the amulets and twirled them around so they reflected the light from the shop’s lamps.
Serenus grinned at her.

“Fant
astic, because you’ll need them in New York. We all have a convention to attend.”

Apparently, when Sam had asked Serenus to book some plane tickets and a room in New York for his and Cassie’s night in court, Serenus had taken that to mean acquiring seven first-class tickets and a suite at one of the most expensive hotels in the city. While Sam sputtered, Serenus had clarified that the airfare and accommodations had been provided by some of his contacts at court, completely free, and that bringing an “entourage” with him would help Sam create the right impression at the hearing.

No one liked the idea of being part of Sam’s entourage, even just for show, until
Serenus started listing the features and amenities their luxury suite would have. Not only did it offer 24-7 massage service and multiple hot tubs, but it would have one of those mini-bars with all manner of snacks in it that you usually had to pay through the nose to open.

And they didn’t have to do anything; they could attend court if they wanted to, but there main purpose was just t
o show up and be Sam’s “people,” to demonstrate that he had people.

So while the others had spent the last several days psyched for a free weekend trip to New York City, Cassie was stuck looking for a dress for the occasion; she was the only one on display, and
Serenus had made it clear that wearing one of her sale-rack party dresses simply would not do. She had wanted to go to the mall, but Serenus had scoffed at that idea; that’s how she found herself at a boutique across the city, where even the cheapest dress on the rack was over two hundred bucks.

Now, in addition to all the other joys of her new, demon-enriched lifestyle, she had the pleasure of s
hopping for a dress with a 60-something college professor. She’d expected Serenus to stand on the sidelines sheepishly while she examined the wares, and then offer to pay for her selection, but the thin man seemed to be strangely knowledgeable about women’s formal wear. At the very least, he seemed to find some kind of fashion flaw with every dress she looked at.

“No, don’t even try that on; that’s no good with your skin tone,” he said sharply from over her shoulder when she examined a buttercup yellow sheath on the rack.

Cassie sighed; she hadn’t really cared about the color, she’d cared about the fact that the dress was under five hundred dollars. She had about a thousand saved up, a combination of DG paychecks and old birthday money, but she wasn’t keen on blowing it all on a dress for a stupid event she didn’t even want to go to.

Still, she was prepared to slap
Ser’s hand away when he offered to pay; somehow, she didn’t think getting into the habit of accepting lavish presents from demons-- even relatively harmless ones like Ser-- was a good idea.

“Why are we even bothering?” she groused, lowering her voice when a dark-haired mother and daughter pair nearby turned their heads her way. “I mean, they’re not going to decide my fate based on what dress I’m wearing, are they?”

Serenus adjusted the cuffs of his sport jacket. “They’re vain creatures, Cassie. They want to be shown the proper respect. Showing up in any old thing is a sign you don’t respect them. A lot of court is pageantry, for better or for worse.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” said Cassie with a sigh. She pulled a slinky red number off the rack; it was a little flashier than she’d like, but the thought of Annette sputtering incoherently if she ever saw it brought a smile to her face.

“Err, no no no no,” said Ser, leaning forward around his cane. “Red is not the color you want for this occasion. Besides, that looks like it would show cleavage and we don’t want Sam to be completely useless at court.”

Cassie felt hot suddenly and shoved the dress aside, a little harder than she’d meant to. “Don’t worry about that, he doesn’t like me that way,” she said.
And I must be a crazy person, because I kind of wish he did. Even though he’s a monster who kills people.

Serenus
tilted his head and looked at her like she’d suddenly grown a tentacle in the middle of her forehead. “And here I was, thinking you were a clever girl. Well my dear, at least you’re cute enough to get away with being stupid, I suppose.”

Cassie glared at him. What was he getting at all of a sudden? “I’m telling yo
u, he doesn’t like me,” she said quietly. “He always looks at me like he wants to kill me.”

Ser
broke into a grin that made her blush. Frustrated, she tried to camouflage it by turning her attention back to the dresses, but she found they all looked the same to her now.

“Oh Cassie, he’s done everything but dip your proverbial pigtail in the theoretical inkwell. And don’t even consider that color,” he said, gesturing towards a mauve dress she had been touching on the rack.

Cassie took her hands off the dresses, holding them above her head in defeat. “Ser, if everything I pick is no good, why don’t you do something useful and pick something?”

Ser
grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

The professor disappeared in the back of the store for a minute, only to come back with a black dress draped delicately over his arm. No, it wasn’t black, Cassie realized; it was a deep, midnight blue. When
Serenus twirled it in front of the late afternoon light coming through the shop window, Cassie saw tiny, translucent beads in all different shades of blue glinting at the bodice and the hips.
It’s gorgeous,
she thought,
and it’s probably also a million dollars.

Cassie crossed her arms, as though defending herself against the onslaught of silk and baubles. “Nice. How much is it?” she asked.

Serenus continued to twirl the dress on the hanger, feeling the material of the skirt with his thumb and index finger. “No idea; no price on it,” he said. “This would definitely bring out your eyes though.”

“Then go back to the rack and get another one with a price tag, and tell me how much it is.”

“None of them have price tags.”

“You are totally lying.”

“That’s within the realm of possibility.”

“
Serenus!” she yelled, then lowered her voice when the woman at the register gave her a dirty look. She uncrossed her arms and balled her fists at her side. “How. Much. Is. It.”

He pulled her arms forward and folded the dress gently within them. “Try it on, then I’ll tell you,” he said.

Cassie groaned and stomped off to the dressing room. Since Serenus had driven her here, there wasn’t much point in arguing with him; he would probably refuse to drive her home until she tried on the stupid thing.

Looking at the dress, she feared it would be tight and she might pop a seam while trying it on, but it seemed to slide on much more easily than she was expecting. A shiver ran through her at the feeling of being encased in buttery-smooth spider-silk.

She stepped out of the stall tentatively, still wearing her athletic socks under the dress. When she looked in the mirror, her breath caught: she knew she’d never looked this good in her entire life.

The slight corset effect at the waist made her normally plump figure into a perfect hourglass shape. Though she was covered up to the neck, the way the
ocean-hued beads reflected the ambient light seemed to call more attention to her curves than even bare flesh would have. Finally, the midnight blue color of the silk was perfectly reflected in her eyes.

“Oh honey, you have to get that,” said the thin, blond saleswoman organizing the racks in the dressing room. “That looks like it was made for you.”

“Th-thanks,” Cassie sputtered, then she saw the expression in her own eyes harden in the mirror when she made a connection in her mind. “Actually, I’ll bet it was.”

She stomped back to her stall and hurried out of the dress and back into her clothes, pausing when she noticed the glow of her amulet before putting her t-shirt back on. Was that a hint of blue in the center of the pinkish purple stone? She decided she was imagining it, finished dressing and went out to find
Serenus.

“Was this made for me?” she said, holding up the dress on its hanger when she found him right where she’d left him. “Did you special-order this and only pretend to be shopping?”

Serenus smiled and she knew she was right. “So, what did you think? Do you like it?”

“I…” Cassie started,
then changed tack. “It doesn’t matter whether or not I like it, where do you get off special-ordering things for me? What do I owe you now, like a thousand dollars?”

“The dress was three
thousand dollars, but as to what you owe me? Nothing,” he said, and performed an old-fashioned theater bow. “Of course, I suppose I could take it back if it’s not to your liking. After all, it’s not like you’d like your master to see you in it, right?”

“He is NOT my master!” yelled Cassie, ducking her head when the same mother-daughter couple from before looked at her like she had a screw loose. She was really going to have to stop discussing this stuff in public. “And I hate you so much right now.”

Serenus spread his arms. “Hate me today, hate me tomorrow. Want to get going? It’s all paid for, we can leave anytime.”

Cassie seriously considered throwing the garment in his face, but then she thought back to how the dress had looked on her and thought better of it. She turned her back on him without a word and began to head out to the car, furious with herself and
Serenus both.

She was silent for about half the car ride home, trying to tune out the tinny, chipper 1950s pop songs that
Serenus liked to listen to while he drove his VW bug. After she had calmed down, she realized that she was missing a vital opportunity to get information out of him.

“Hey,
Ser?” she said keeping her eyes on the autumn colors on the stretch of trees outside her window.

“Yes my dear?”

“Is a witch a female demon?”

Serenus
paused for a moment, then lowered the volume on the radio. “There are no female demons. A witch is….”

She turned toward him, put her hand on the volume knob and turned it all the way down. “A witch is what?”

Serenus looked tense, as though he was seriously considering every word he spoke. “A witch is a familiar who has learned to use her own magic.”

Cassie leaned back in her seat, considering that information. She wasn’t surprised; she hadn’t consciously given the subject much thought, but on some level, she must have suspected it. “So I could become a witch.”

To her surprise, Serenus took his eyes off the road for a few seconds to look at her; she was glad it was late enough for most of the rush hour traffic to be gone. “That’s what this is all about. As a familiar you’re valuable, but as a witch, you could be a game-changer.”

“So is a witch more powerful than a demon?” Cassie asked, feeling anticipation build in her belly.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, witches have nothing on demons when it comes to raw power.”

Cassie slapped her thigh
and groaned. “Dammit! Why is it always so unfair?”

He chuckled at her reaction. “It’s not a question of who has more power though, Cassie. What’s more important is that demon’s and witches are different. Demons cast black magic. While they can tap into their familiars white magic-
- if they have a good one like you, of course-- the magic they cast will always be at least slightly…gray. Only a witch can cast pure white magic.”

Cassie licked her lips; slowly but surely, this was all beginning to make sense. “There aren’t a lot of strong witches, are there.”

He didn’t answer, his silence saying it all. Cassie pulled her knees up to her chest, thinking; she didn’t think Ser would mind her feet on his seats.

“Let me guess:
just like in the stories, black magic hurts people, white magic helps people. Right?”

Serenus
looked at her again before he turned his blinker on for their exit. “As you’ve no doubt already assumed, it’s a little more complicated than that in practice. But that’s a good basic summary.”

Cassie rubbed her eyes, thinking. She thought of Sam rubbing his eyes when he was stressed, and wondered if she wasn’t copying him subconsciously-
- or maybe, it ran deeper than that. She was bonded to him now, whatever that meant.

“
Serenus…my bond with Sam…” she began, quietly.

Serenus
shook his head as he turned the car into her neighborhood. “It’s not my place to tell you about that; address your questions to Sam.”

“He won’t tell me anything!” she yelled, frustrated.

“He will: give him time,” said Serenus.

“Will you tell me how I can become a witch? Or is that also ‘not your place’?” she said bitterly.

Serenus pulled to a stop a block away from her house; they had agreed not to stop in front of her driveway to avoid Annette’s questions. “Give him time. I’ll answer as many of your questions as I can, but some things-- important things-- really need to stay between you and your master.”

She closed her eyes. “You’re going to keep calling him that, aren’t you?”

She jumped a little when his door slammed. He went around to the backseat and got her dress off the roof hanger. She grabbed her book bag and got out of the car too, ready to be free of him for the day. He handed her the dress carefully.