"Dang, Sara, you can put away food," Trevor exclaimed, leading the way out of the restaurant.
"Neither Mason nor Kira have leftovers either," I pointed out, "It's not my fault the lot of you can't finish what you start."
A heavy mist had rolled in, dimming our field of view while somehow making the sky a diffuse white. The tops of the taller urban trees obscured when I tried to squint up at them.
"Alright," I interlocked my fingers and rolled out my back in a thorough stretch, "Where-to, Catalina?"
"We're headed to a metaphysical shop, right?" Kira checked.
I neglected to answer, gravitating toward Mason instead. No need to sound overeager about the supernatural.
"O-oh, yes, right," Cat tittered, fishing her phone out of her pocket, "It's a little east of here. Er, about five blocks or so."
"The place that has all the spoooky trinkets," Allie said, wiggling her fingers at Trevor.
Catalina led-on, walking side by side with Will. Allie, ever so subtle, pointed wildly at the pair while Trevor walked just a step ahead of her. Her lapse in holding the boy's attention cost her. He caught up to Will and Cat to begin chattering at Will, oblivious to the little invisible bubble that had formed about the pair of them. Allie was quick to follow.
"Poor Cat," I sympathized.
"Poor Will," Mason countered and I glanced questioningly, "He's been trying find a moment alone to ask her out."
"How can you tell?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kira's hand blur out to prod Mason in the shoulder.
"He seems rather enamored with her," he hedged quickly and I turned away, feigning interest in an abstract metal sculpture. "It's just deductive reasoning."
"Mm."
Kira fell easily into step beside Mason and I with an air of unconcern. I narrowed my eyes at her, but she just rubbed her nose and stared off absently. At least Leo, in his hard-headed pursuit, showed remorse for crossing lines.
Weren't you the one who crossed a property line in the first place?
Mason glanced at the sound of my teeth snapping together.
"Here!" Catalina called, stopping in front of a skinny storefront.
Violet paper with silver-outlined flowers plastered the inside of the small front window. The entirety of the little glass storefront was coated aside from a tiny rectangle of space holding a small display. Catalina peered in, inspecting the little array of crystals, incense sticks, and oils chosen for presentation.
"What's with the weird symbols?" Trevor piped up.
I gravitated forward. Etched over the door were a collection of knot-like symbols in dark brown ink; I didn't quite recognize them by name, but they looked Celtic in origin.
"Creepy, right?" Trevor nudged me with an elbow.
"Superstitious at least," I agreed half-heartedly.
Trevor held open the door.
"We'll wait out here," Kira said in a light voice, already having plopped onto a metal bench opposite the little store, "I've got to cap-off my shopping at some point!"
"Oh c'mon, you seem like you'd be super into this kind of thing," Allie protested, lower lip jutting into a pout.
"Sorry!" Kira said with a ring of finality.
Mason shifted from foot to foot, still staring at the symbols on the doorframe. The jittery unease in his posture said enough; these symbols barred entry to vampires.
Retail and restaurants, while they usually were privately owned, had implied laws of welcome to customers thus vampires could safely enter the premises. These symbols however were a clear sign of unwelcome to certain supernaturals.
I swallowed. It was hard to limit the movement of an occult mutt like me, but not impossible.
"You coming, Sara?" Trevor asked expectantly.
"Yes, that just creeps me out," I confessed, keeping my eyes trained on the symbols.
Trevor followed my gaze, allowing me to put a toe slowly and experimentally over the threshold. It passed uninterrupted.
"It's like it's written in dried blood, right?" he enthused, then chuckled as my expression changed, "Oh c'mon, it's probably just a weird herb-and-dirt paste or something."
I flared my nostrils, trying to pick up a scent from the letters, but they were old. I swallowed again, steeling myself, and entered.
"Man, that ouija board incident has got you as on-edge as the rest of them, huh?" Trevor laughed.
I puckered my lips in mock-chagrin.
"We'll be back in a few," I assured with a wave as the door slowly swung shut.
A long, squeezed hallway led back into the store proper but I already caught the heavy scent of incense. A little line of smoke twirled in a series of loops and curls, tracing back down to the counter. Just behind the counter sat a woman with thin gold hair like thread and bleached-blue eyes set in a snowy-pale face. There weren't any wrinkles on her brow, yet a confident maturity in the way she contentedly perched on the barstool.
Under my watchful eyes, she straightened with a glimmer of interest alighting in hers. My stomach shivered. Trevor shadowed me as I moved toward the shopkeep, but I raised my eyebrows at him.
"What?"
He withered.
"Some privacy?" I asked pointedly, "I'm going to ask her for some advice."
"A stranger?"
"A psychic," I pointed to the framed poster behind the counter stating rates, "I want to ask about my love life."
Trevor stared as if I'd suggested eating my own arm.
I sighed, waving a hand at the trio inspecting essential oils, "Go on with the others, I'll be right with you."
"Sure," he begrudgingly admitted defeat.
When his back was turned, I made for the counter.
"Hello," I greeted.
I smiled gently as I made a quick, cautionary sweep of the countertop with my eyes.
There were more symbols here, more knots that I couldn't remember the meanings of, but written in regular ink at least. A bowl full of the charms sat with a little sign signifying that they were twenty-five cents each. The incense sat on the far side beside a few little organizers full of trinkets, roller ball applicators, and squat dollar-a-piece candles. The shelving unit just beside the counter even held an assortment of familiar-smelling teas.
"What brings you in today?"
"Er, well, my friend thinks she's haunted," I hedged, interlacing my hands in front of myself with an anxious air.
"What is she experiencing?"
"Nightmares," I explained, keeping my gaze low to feign embarrassment, "We, uh, used a ouija board a little while back in her house and now she's been seeing the spirit's memories."
"Quit playing coy."
I let my fingers relax a little, but met her even stare.
"Your energy is off," she restated, her lightly accented voice thick and round on the 'u' sound. "You know what you're about."
Scottish?
"I'm not trying to cause trouble," I assured her, dropping the guise, "But I keep certain company - "
"The vampires can't hear us in here."
Her relaxed posture was heavily antithetical to her interrogative tone. Even her gaze appeared disinterested, as if dealing with a droning customer but I felt cut by her words.
"I'm Sara."
"Why're you in town, Sara?"
"My friend is experiencing death echoes in her dreams," I shrugged, crossing my arms but leaning a hip on the counter.
"Shouldn't've called the spirit into her house."
"I have experience putting spirits to rest; I'm just here for the materials."
"Experience?" she snorted.
A phantom of disdain leaked onto her expression.
"I've got you stumped with the cloaking spell, don't I? To your credit, most don't notice it. You must be well-trained in energy-sense."
She tilted her head back, pondering. Finally, she offered a begrudging smile.
"It's mainly for the other trouble-creatures, ain't it?" she nodded her head back toward the entrance.
"Sure is."
"Where are you from?"
"Homer."
"Originally."
"Los Angeles."
"Bull."
"Oh?" I chuckled, "And you're from Canada, eh?"
"My business is my business."
"Likewise."
I knew better than to take offense at a witch's evasiveness; they were essentially human aside from their magic and often drew unwanted supernatural and human attention.
"You may be smarter than you look," the little half-smirk lingered on her thin, pink lips, "Or at least, you've been brought-up well."
With one hand, she reached below the counter and I took a cautionary step back.
"Relax," she straightened with a little purple card between her fingers, "It's just my number."
"Carmen and Crimson?" I read the looping cursive font beneath another little celtic knot, cocking my head, "Which are you?"
"Carmen," she allowed, her eyes now fixed watchfully upon my friends, "Family business. We've each got a kid or so to our name. So about that haunting..."
"I'll need sage, howlite, and quartz if you've got them."
"Heavy duty," she surmised, then more sarcastically, "It's likely that the death was a supernatural one. On account of the vampires, you know."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?" she echoed incredulously, "No wonder you're keeping vampire company. I take it back: you're an eejit."
I giggled, shaking my head, "No, my instincts are fine, I'm just good at my job. The vampires are a unique breed. I'm studying them."
"Oh?" she cocked her head, leaning in to rest her forearms on the counter, "I've been more interested in the skinchangers myself so I suppose I've overlooked the coven."
With a smirk on my lips and a raise of both brows, I tilted my head expectantly.
"I gave you my number," she said petulantly, "You first."
I huffed good-naturedly.
"They have silver eyes instead of red," I conceded, leaning onto the counter with an elbow, "I'm still looking into it. They maintain a permanent residence, interact with humans even outside of feeding, and appear to have maintained some semblance of humanity.
"While they still require human blood, I suspect that they don't feed directly from humans and even go so far as to quench residual thirst with animal blood. I've never encountered such a phenomenon. I have yet to determine if any of them have extra abilities."
"Silver eyes," Carmen echoed with a low whistle, "Now that is unheard of. Especially given their weakness to the metal itself... is it the animal blood, I wonder? And if one of them was powered on top of that...?"
She whistled under her breath again and her eyes glittered in a way I recognized.
"Whatever would you need an extremely rare creature for?"
The light in her eyes hardened. Her gaze flicked back to me.
"Whatever would you need to study a vampire for?"
"I'm simply a scholar."
"And I'm a collector."
My stomach turned; something about that greed in her eyes was... overwhelming. I swallowed back the unease and gazed with petulant expectance.
She capitulated with a pursed half-smile and a sigh, "The Native village near Homer appears to have genetic shapeshifters."
"Genetic?" I echoed, impressed, "As in, no use of animal-pelts?"
"That's right; I unknowingly contracted with one in order to get lamalis tea," she jerked her chin toward the shelf I'd noticed earlier, "Discovered it upon sensing her energy. They're wary of outsiders and have a strictly-kept tourist pipeline.
"I get the feeling that they edit the stories they tell to visitors; you don't continue to spike your entire water supply with lamalis for generations as 'an organic treatment protocol'. They likely had a nasty run-in with vampires once upon a time. Just like the rest of us."
"I'm going to investigate them next," I mused, leaning more heavily on my elbow as the pair of us surveyed my friends, "How do you know they don't use pelts? What made you think genetics?"
"You understand energy sensing?" she checked.
She perched on the edge of her stool.
"I can define it," I half-lied, covering the fib with an embarrassed shrug of my shoulders.
"A human is one whole energy," she explained shortly, "With your cloaking spell, you're ninety-six to ninety-eight percent whole; very difficult to notice. Demons give off negative energy as evil beings. Vampires generally give off an inverse energy as impure beings. And skinchangers give off vibrant energy since they tend to be more in-tune with nature than the rest of us. Witches without cloaking spells obviously vary depending on the brand of magic they use."
"Then you observed children and elders alike with this 'vibrant' energy and assumed it was genetic?"
"That's what got me; I don't always see the same level of vibrance amongst them. If 'vibrance' is extra percentage, then I sense one hundred and ten percent from some and two hundred percent from others. The extra energy, whether an extra ten percent or two-fold, appears to only be present in those who possess the traditional physical traits of these native people."
I frowned, not following.
"It seems like a one-time activation-type genetic trait. Some people have activated it wholly and have full vibrance. Some only have the potential and have a vibrance slightly above the human baseline."
"Some dormant, some active."
"I've been to their village as a tourist multiple times. Some of the tour guides give off energies that indicate dormant ability, which led me to my genetic conclusion."
"And the animal pelts?"
"They may use them, they may not. It's hard to say. My genetics theory is a hunch... but I can't confirm anything, but that slight-extra energy in certain people doesn't make sense any other way. Either you use a pelt and have two-fold or you don't and you have the standard.
"Occasionally, I'll see a vibrant individual on my visits, but they always manage to evade me. Even my tea-lady now refuses to meet in person; she has errand-boys deliver my restocks now."
"Clearly they're sensing you right back," I accused, noticing Catalina's indecisive glances at us, "Are you a witch or not?"
Carmen snorted, "There are a lot of phonies out here nowadays, but not all magics are the same. We can't all have the high-caliber hiding spells your lot apparently possess. "
"Well, if I can get in with them, I'll let you know."
"Skinchangers tend toward their animal-natures so you ought to be very careful with them. And vampires for that matter."
Shifting my weight casually from one hip to the other as Cat approached, I shared a brief, mischievous smile before resetting my face. Carmen leaned back to sit more squarely on her barstool perch.
"Sorry to interrupt," Catalina apologized softly, holding a little vial, "I was just wondering if this was the sage for purifying a home?"
I narrowed my eyes at the scent of the herb.
"White sage?" I wondered.
Carmen nodded with a grin as I suppressed a scowl. That poor plant had been harvested to death in North America; as spiritual as it was, there were viable alternatives to poaching what little was left.
"I grow my own stock," Carmen clipped when I didn't return the smile. She turned her gaze resolutely back to Cat, "You can use that on a small scale, but I'd recommend smudge sticks if you need a deep cleanse. You'll also want to look at the stones. Go ahead and handle each from that table over there. You'll find that you're drawn to one more than the others; it's likely the one you need."
"I'll buy the smudge sticks, Cat, you can get that and the stones for you and your sister."
"Really?" she asked, relieved, "You know about this stuff more than I do, so..."
"I'm a little 'stitious myself. I'd like some sage on-hand as well. Go ahead and check out the stones; I'll be with you shortly."
She nodded, her brown eyes beginning to glitter with curiosity as she looked between me and the shopkeeper, but she turned away dutifully.
"She's pretty intuitive."
"It's part of the reason why this spirit is giving her so much trouble. I haven't seen any magical aptitude or affinity from any of them though."
"Lambs to the slaughter," Carmen murmured.
"All the more reason they need protection," I insisted.
"At any rate, shoot me a text if you need help with that ghost. You're clearly some kind of magical prodigy but don't let that get to your head. Even if you don't think you need help, you might."
"Will it cost me?" I joked.
"Witches ought to stick together," she shrugged, then smirked, "But if you insist on payment, you can get me a few hairs or fingernail clippings belonging to those silver-eyes. I'd like to test just how unique they really are."
"That would be interesting to know. I'll continue my mode of research and leave the experimentation to you."
"I suppose you do have that luxury," she sighed enviously.
"You can let them in and find out for yourself," I teased, nose wrinkling in amusement.
Carmen rolled her eyes, "Whatever. If you can fly under the vampires' radar, you can probably infiltrate the skinchangers too."
"Perhaps," I allowed, reaching for a box of lamalis tea to set on the countertop, "How long have you been in the area, by the way? Your shop looks pretty new."
"Not long at all; coming up on six months now, I think. There's a great deal of supernatural energies in this area - both natural and unnatural - and I'm in need of ingredients."
"Isn't every witch?" I smirked.
"Me and mine will be here collecting for a little while longer before moving on," she informed, leaning back and rubbing her hands on her thighs as if to wake them up, "Go on then. Your friends keep looking at you funny."
~
Catalina and I emerged from the store with small paper gift-bags slung over our wrists. Even Alissa had found a little tube of chapstick and a small carnelian stone with beautiful orange and ruby waves of color. Will and Trevor, on the other hand, were debating the morality of the shop's existence after viewing the pricer merchandise.
"You were into this stuff, Sara," Will posited, "Clearly you think there's merit to it."
"No way! She just got scammed: plain and simple."
"I do think there's some merit to it," I said with a carefully absent tone as Mason stood to greet us, "Even if there isn't real merit, there's something to be said about the placebo effect of it all."
"The placebo effect should stay in science," Trevor argued, crossing his arms, "Instead of being sold for absorbent amounts to dopey schmucks."
Mason approached my side, eyes glittering with unspoken curiosity. His fingers reached out tentatively to rub my shoulder, when suddenly his nose wrinkled.
"What did you buy?" he asked.
His tone was light, attempting utmost politeness.
"Oh, the shopkeep recommended lamalis tea," I said, trying to stifle the amusement that threatened to bubble up in my voice, "She had a lot of it. That must've been why she was so eager to push it off on me. But I like tea well enough, I don't mind."
"Hm," he hummed crisply.
To his credit, he was resolute at my side albeit a little twitchy at the scent of the vampire-repellent herb.
"Did you enjoy yourselves?" Kira asked, bouncing up from the bench and inspecting Catalina's bag.
"Yes, it was very interesting," Cat confirmed, reaching in to produce the little Howlite gemstone. Kira inspected it curiously, examining from multiple angles like a hummingbird contemplating a flower. "Most of the stuff wasn't for me, but these are alright."
"What's it for?"
"Warding off the ghost that's in her house," Allie said, matter-of-fact.
"Ghost?" Mason echoed, unruffled, "You believe?"
"Only a little," Catalina shrunk a bit.
"Sara's actually the ouija board and ghost expert," Allie chuckled.
"I dabble," I corrected.
Mason shot me an inquisitive stare. I glanced across the street to avoid that probing, melted-gaze.
"Can you read tarot cards?" Kira gushed.
I began to steer the group in the direction of our cars.
"Uh, not really, but I could try."
"Darn," she pouted, "I'm always reading everyone else's so I'd hoped someone could read mine for once."
"Are you good at it?"
"Very!"
"She just stacks the deck," Mason shrugged, "Every time she's done mine she's flipped over the death omen."
Of course a vampire would attract that.
"No, I think she's accurate," I seconded with an impulsive smirk, almost giggling to myself. "Very accurate."
Mason looked over, distracted from his attempts to fend off Kira's pinching fingers. She got him squarely in the cheek.
"Why?" he asked, rubbing the little welt.
I fought the urge to click my tongue as my brain quickly spun for an excuse.
"Because..." I glanced at our company, suddenly embarrassed. But Allie and Trevor had gone off on a tangent conversation of their own. Catalina cocked her head expectantly, having paid more attention than I'd hoped. "Uh, well, because you're drop-dead... gorgeous."
Kira snorted loudly, wheeling back from Mason and nearly collapsing in a fit of giggles.
"It really wasn't that funny," I muttered, my face burning.
"I appreciate it," Mason murmured, though his voice was pinched with the effort of holding his own laughter, "Really."
The blush in my cheeks only deepened.