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“Well, I’m not exactly over the moon about all the expectation.” I reply. “It’s too much. Ethan and Marcel are so eager. I don’t like all eyes to be on me like this, I more a wallflower type.”
“I find that hard to believe,” says Gabriel, in a quiet voice.
I wonder at his remark but don’t question it. I’m not lying about having plans for lunch either. I called Rita this morning and organised to meet at a café down the street. I’m curious to ask her about this Sorcerer Theodore character, since she seems to be in the know with magical goings on.
“I’ll let Marcel know you can’t make it then,” Gabriel continues. “But are you sure you can’t put your plans off until tomorrow? Marcel’s excited to make a start, and you know how busy he can be, who knows when he’ll next have the free time to do it.”
That’s what I’m counting on, my mind adds. “Sorry. I’m meeting Rita. It’s important so I can’t put it off.” I tell him.
“You’re meeting Rita?” Gabriel asks in surprise. “I hadn’t realised you two were friends.”
I shrug. “We got talking when she dropped in the other day. She’s actually quite nice underneath it all,” I plaster a smile on my face. “We Goth girls have to stick together you know.”
Gabriel cocks an eyebrow. “What’s that like, some kind of solidarity of the disenfranchised?”
I laugh. “Something like that.”
Gabriel appears as though he wants to say more but is holding back. Perhaps my becoming friends with Rita isn’t something he wants to happen. I’m almost certain Marcel wouldn’t like it if he knew. Nobody wants two clever girls with no proper loyalty to anyone putting their heads together. All sorts of mad hat schemes could be thought up. And that’s precisely why I plan to cultivate the relationship. What can I say, I’m not fond of these men thinking they can control me because I’m young and somewhat ignorant. I’d been dazed by all of the new truths. But now that I’ve finally gotten my head round it all I plan on being a lot less malleable.
Rita’s sitting by the window knocking back a shot of espresso when I get to the café. Coffee and Mexican food, I always thought that was a strange combination. The place is called “The Sombrero Bean” whoever came up with that name deserves a good kicking.
“Aye, Aye Captain,” she calls in a singsong voice when she sees me approach, giving a little hand salute, I sit down as she remarks. “I have to say I am intrigued, if I wasn’t I probably wouldn’t have bothered showing up.”
“You really know how to make a girl feel wanted.” I tell her sarcastically, though I’m not so put off by her rudeness. I’m beginning to understand it’s simply a common aspect of her personality. I don’t think she can help it.
“You’re welcome,” she grins.
I shake my head and a waitress appears a second later to take our order. I go for the quesadillas but decline on combining it with coffee and ask for a coke. Rita gets tacos and another double shot of espresso. I think I might be sick. I’ve never had the stomach for strong coffee, but some people just seem to love it.
“So,” says Rita, after the waitress saunters away. “Hit me. What’s the big scandal?”
I take a deep breath, and then give her an account of what happened last night after I’d left her place. Of course, leaving out the part when Ethan took me home. I finish on the bit where the deranged homeless guy acts out his spiel about the Sorcerer Theodore and then lunges for Herrington with a knife.
Rita appears to be holding her breath. “And – what happened then?” she asks in one rapid swoop.
“Herrington’s guards stopped him,” I tell her. “I don’t know what they did to him after they took him out of the office, and really, I don’t think I want to know.”
She half shudders. “Yeah me neither.”
“So, who is this Theodore character, and why were the vamps so freaked by the mention of his name?” I ask, getting to the crux of it.
Rita’s eyes sparkle with untold knowledge, and I can tell I’m in for a good story. “You want the long version or the – no wait actually there’s only the long version, so sit tight.”
“Go on,” I say.
Rita grins again, sort of mischievously. “I really am becoming your go to girl for information, aren’t I?”
“Whatever. I’ll buy you a new pair of Doc Martens some time, just tell me.” I say on a sigh.
“I want a red pair,” she replies smiling. “Okay, well, it’s a good thing my mum is so big on storytelling, or else I probably wouldn’t know a thing about this guy. So, you know how Tribane is divided these days, into vamp territory and dhamphir/warlock territory?” she asks.
“Yeah.” I answer simply.
“Well, it hasn’t been like that for very long, only since like the late sixties. Before that, I suppose you could say there was a kind of dictatorship under the rule of the Sorcerer Theodore. And before you ask, because I know you will, a sorcerer is a very rare kind of warlock, one who has surpassed an extremely high level of expertise in magical practice to the point of becoming immortal through magic and very near indestructible. I mean, not just a thousand years immortal like the vampires, but immortal immortal. As in they never die.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, I think I got that Rita.”
“Well you are so very in the dark about a lot of things, I just thought I’d drill the point home,” she laughs. “Anyway, Theodore ruled Tribane from 1939 until the sixties, he had this massive estate on Ridley Island.”
