Chapter 7
Callie jumped when she heard Sam's key turn in the door; she'd been so lost in thought, she hadn't heard him come up the fire escape.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
She nodded. "Sure, why wouldn't it be?"
"No problems while I was gone?"
She shook her head.
"Good. So, do you have your list ready? Gill's waiting downstairs to go and retrieve your things. We'll be leaving this evening to visit a witch who may be able to help with your amulet."
"Witches? Seriously? What's next? Werewolves, fairies, and leprechauns?" Callie scoffed, snorting in disbelief.
Sam chuckled at the snort, finding it cute. "Seamus is the last of the true leprechauns," he said seriously, "but there are plenty of half-bloods scattered around Ireland. A lot of pure bloods died during the great storm, many of those remaining moved to America when the potato famine struck so soon after." She stood with her mouth hanging open and Sam continued, "Werewolves on the other hand don't live here as wolves aren't native to Ireland. We do get the occasional visiting wolf. There are, however, plenty of other were-animals. Gill for example is a were-fox. Now, may I have your list please?"
"Don't need one. Adie packed a bag for me and left it by the front door," Callie confessed. "She knows about this by the way, we have like this bond thing and she can tell when I'm lying, feels my pain and knows when I'm happy or sad, stuff like that... and when I'm dead too, apparently."
Sam groaned and went to give Gill the key for Callie's house so she could retrieve the bag. Knowing Gill she'll keep me to the bonus and day off anyway.
When he came back in, he was carrying the box containing the blood and Callie could smell it from the other side of the flat. She followed him into the kitchen, colliding with his back when he stopped to get a 12-volt travel fridge from the cupboard. It was at that moment they both felt it, a magnetic pull, an undeniable compulsion for one to touch the other. Sam set the box down on the counter and turned slowly to face an enraptured Callie. He raised his hand to push a strand of her ebony hair behind her ear, caressing her jawline with the back of his fingers as he did. Her skin felt as smooth as porcelain and her hair, despite her recent death, shone with vitality and health.
Callie raised her hands to his chest and closed her eyes, savouring the feel of his touch.
He drew her head forward to place his lips gently on hers. The hand not cupping her head moved to her waist, pulling her closer still. A flame of passion took her as he deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue across her lips, seeking entrance to her moist depths.
Her legs wrapped around his waist when he lifted her onto the worktop. Moaning in ecstasy as her tongue danced and stroked his, their passion flared, the evidence of his excitement pressed against her core, exciting her more.
His taste changed suddenly, becoming intoxicating. Her fangs extended in anticipation of what her mind had not yet registered as blood. He pulled away gasping for breath and stepped back a couple of paces.
Callie groaned in disappointment, her eyes shooting open to search his face for any evidence that he had felt the connection too. That the passion she felt was real and shared.
A trickle of crimson dripped from his lip where she bit him in her enthusiasm.
Sam kept his eyes closed trying to show no emotion until he felt he had control again. An inner battle raged between his hormones and conscience. It was a close call, and next time his hormones might not give up so easily. Using the back of his hand, he wiped the trace of blood from his lip as he turned away, opening his eyes.
Callie briefly saw them swirl from their normal deep-blue to black and back again.
"We have too much to do before the sun sets for a roll in the sack," he said, feigning nonchalance, hoping that a disparaging attitude would dampen their ardour. He poked about the box for a moment, then, handing her the printout Stephan had given him, asked, "That contains the witch's details. Would you give her a ring and ask what, if anything, we need to bring with us for her to make the amulet? Also the cost? You can be guaranteed it won't be money. It never is."
Callie grabbed a bag from the box, pouring the contents into a fresh glass she got from the cupboard, and retired to the sitting room. With her phone in one hand, a notebook in her other, she made herself comfortable on the sofa, popping her feet onto the coffee table. The sheet of paper Sam had given her stuck to her lips, tugging against their passion swollen tenderness when she pulled it from the temporary clamp between them. Her tongue darted out to moisten them again.
She looked up from typing the number onto the keypad, catching Sam staring at her. "Close your mouth you're attracting flies," she snapped, frustration evident in her tone.
"You seem to have accepted this whole vampire thing very well," he observed, attempting to change the subject. "What gives? Less than two hours ago you find out you've become something you didn't believe existed. Now you're drinking blood from a glass like you've been doing it for centuries."
"You can thank Adie for that, she has this gift for making me calm down and see things from another perspective. The way we see it is, if you hadn't changed me I'd be dead and Adie would be alone. Better to have me as a blood sucker than not have me at all." She shrugged. "No point in being hung up about a little blood bag right? It's not like I actually have to hunt victims and suck on their necks. Kind of like eating a burger I guess, as long you don't see the cow being killed, eating the meat is no big deal."
"Commendable attitude." He nodded at the phone in her hand indicating she should continue.
"Good morning, Mystic Potions and Lotions. How may I help you?" a young female voice answered after three rings.
"Hi, I'm looking for Irene McIlroy, would she be available please?"
"Speaking." The voice sounded suspicious at being asked for by name.
Callie continued. "My name is Callie Williams. I've been told you're the witch to see about an amulet."
"That would depend on the type you're looking for?" Irene replied, again with suspicion.
"Preferably something that will let me walk around in daylight without burning to a crisp?" Callie laughed nervously. "I'll be honest with you, I'm new at this whole supernatural stuff." She started rambling. "I'm almost 21 years old, or was, my twin and I were orphaned at twelve and it was either suffer abuse from a paedophile uncle for five years or be split from my sister and put in foster care. Sometimes I think the fostering might have been... Anyway, I was stabbed on the first day of my new job and turned into a vampire without prior knowledge they even existed. In the past couple of hours, I've discovered that everything I believed about the world has been a lie. Not a great life so far and I know I'm going to forget about the burning thing." She paused to take a breath. "Sorry, don't know why I just spilled my guts." She finally finished.
Irene laughed quietly. "It's a normal thing for me. Most people just want to tell me stuff. It's both a blessing and a curse. Yes, I can do an amulet for you. You'll need to bring the following things with you." She listed a few things, which Callie wrote into the notebook. "Lastly my payment will be a dragon's tooth, if you can find me one of those the amulet will be no bother at all."
"Are you telling me dragons exist now too?"
"Not anymore I'm afraid. The last one in Europe died around 300 years ago. The teeth are extremely hard to come by," Irene stated factually.
"Oh. I don't suppose there's anything else I can pay you with instead then?"
"Don't give up so easily, Callie Williams. I've been told by a very reliable source, that you have access to a dragon's tooth but you must search your memories to find its whereabouts. You'll arrive in my home by first light tomorrow. I'll make arrangements for your stay during daylight hours."
Irene hung up without as much as a goodbye, leaving Callie listening to the dial tone. She ambled over to where Sam was setting up his laptop at the breakfast bar and pushed the list under his nose.
After a brief scan, Sam nodded. "Our combined blood will be no problem; we can do that bit when we get there. Stephan can provide the silver jewellery for enchanting. I'd suggest a ring - chains are too easily broken. But what is with the dragon's tooth?"
"That's the payment she wants. Apparently I know where to get it but it's locked up somewhere in my memory and we need to find it tonight because we'll be arriving at Irene's by first light tomorrow. I don't even know where to start looking!"
"Here," he said, handing her his laptop. "Take your mind off it for the moment. You can have a look over some stories for me. They're supposed to go to print in a couple of hours."
She spent the next hour or so torn between watching Sam make calls and potter about the room, and speed reading the screen in front of her, hiding her scrutiny behind her hair.
"Why don't you go have a lie down for a bit, get some rest for an hour?" he suggested, looking directly into her eyes. "Maybe things will be clearer about the dragon tooth when you wake." He motioned to the adjoining bedroom. She felt compelled to do as he said. Even in a trance, her hips swung seductively.
After about fifteen minutes he could hear soft snores coming from the room and went to do what he had to in order to help her find the memory. He placed his hands on either side of her temples and closed his eyes in concentration. He could feel the pull from her sister's mind - the bond there was stronger than he anticipated. He swept it aside and moved deeper into her subconscious.
Coming across a vision of a handsome young man, he paused, curious about this person Callie had felt strongly for. He watched a broken replay of her life involving him and jealousy spiked within him as he saw the brief flickers of his seduction of her. He was just about to pull from that memory when he caught the next image; it was the same young man with a pretty blonde girl in his arms. He felt Callie's heartbreak, then witnessed her pouring beer in the man's hair and felt her resolve to not let another 'player' win her heart.
He skipped back several more years to the time she spent with her uncle - he was a slime ball if ever there was one. Callie had cried herself to sleep the night following her parents' funeral. She had woken to find the creep touching her in places no man should ever touch a child, telling her that it was what happened to little girls who didn't have parents. That if she told anyone she would be taken to foster homes where she would be beaten and raped over, and over, and over again. Sam heard the repulsive reptile describe in detail what rape was then proceeded to show her. Witnessing the evidence of the torture he inflicted on both these young girls for years, Sam vowed to find and persecute him... violently.
It was as he was retreating from that segment of her mind that he caught a glimpse of the dragon's tooth. It was on a leather cord tied around the paedophile's neck. He tagged just that flash of her memory so she would remember when she woke. He left her with a pleasant dream of a holiday she had recently taken with her sister.
Not a bit of wonder he's gotten away with such atrocities, that dragon tooth had the power to make any lie that came from his disgusting mouth believed by all. Even seeing what I have I would have had to believe him, Sam thought, creeping from the room.
Twenty minutes later Callie sprang from the bed and rushed into the sitting room. She collided with Gill, who had just set the duffel bag with her clothes by the bedroom door.
"Um hi," Callie stammered, taking in the sprawled form of the middle-aged redhead on the floor by her feet. "Sorry, I didn't see you there."
Gill scrambled to her feet and cowered behind Sam.
Sam regarded Callie with distrust. "Just stay calm Gill, and walk behind me towards the door."
Callie knelt down to her bag and started rummaging through it. She leant sideways so she could see around Sam to address Gill. "Thanks for getting my stuff. Did you happen to notice if my hairdryer was in there?"
Gill stepped out from behind Sam, looking dumbfounded. "I think I felt the plug poking at the side. D...don't you feel the urge to attack me? Rip my throat open and drink my blood?"
"How about no, ewh! I am getting kind of hungry again though. Sam? Can I have some more juice?" she asked, her eyes flicking between the two in front of the door and the box on the counter.
"Sure, the rest of your bag from earlier is in the fridge."
Callie walked past both of them, giving no regard whatsoever to either, and poured herself another juice. "I think I know where the tooth is and I'll admit that recent developments mean I can't wait to go get it. Someone is going to be surprised by my visit, seeing as I swore the next time I laid eyes on him I'd rip his head off." She rubbed her hands together, almost jumping up and down on the spot with eagerness. "Oh can Adie come too? I think she'd love to see Uncle George pee his pants when he gets a load of these babies." She pointed at her teeth, making them extend to an inch in length so she could run her tongue from root to tip.
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