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FIFTEEN
When the girls arrived at Alethea's apartment, she couldn't help but stand in the doorway, staring. "Are we going dancing?" she asked, confused. Cafés and restaurants might be open, but nightclubs weren't.
Tacey rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm going to let Callie explain this one. Especially as you'll have to dress up, too. I haven't worn these pants since before Rory was born. I'm surprised they still fit."
"I'm not," Octavia said, pushing past her sister to enter the apartment. "You spent all your time cooking in the café, so most days you forget to eat. After eating camp food for the last few weeks, I'm surprised I haven't gone up a size." She tossed her hair, and Alethea realised she'd changed the colour again – now it had iridescent green streaks slicing through the inky black.
"Yeah, yeah, you're both turning into whales," Callie said. "Next thing you know, the fridge will be full of krill." She winked at Alethia as she sidled inside. "You should probably get changed, by the way. Think warm, but dark and sexy."
Warm, dark and sexy was what she'd wanted, and gotten a stalker instead, Alethia grumbled to herself as she closed the door behind Tacey.
The girls arranged themselves around the lounge room while Alethia dug through her clothes for something suitable. She didn't have leather pants like Octavia or Tacey, or ones with more cutouts than cloth, like Callie's, but she did have a pair of tight black jeans that laced up the sides. She paired it with a see-through silvery top over a lacy black bra that practically begged to be seen.
When Alethea returned to the lounge, Callie raised a glass to her. "Now if you don't look like the perfect package of demon bait, I'll offer myself up instead."
"Wait...what?" Alethea stammered. She couldn't be serious.
"Tell her, Callie," Tacey said tiredly. She handed Alethea a glass. "Have a drink first. You'll need it."
Alethea took a gulp, then nearly choked. That had to be straight vodka, and a strong one, at that. "What's wrong with mixers?" she rasped.
Callie giggled. "You evidently haven't been buying much at the liquor store lately. There are limits on how much you can buy. One carton or two bottles. And no self respecting demon is going to come near a passionfruit premix, so I got the vodka. I want this to have the best chance to work, you see..."
Tacey waved her hand, indicating for Callie to continue.
"Okay. I found a spell book which may or may not be the genuine article. I have it on good authority that one of the spells may have actually worked and if there's any time to test it, it's when we actually need the help. The plan is to summon you a demon protector, who will stick around to scare off your stalker for as long as you need him, and then you just send him back to hell. The demon, I mean."
Alethea opened her mouth to object. This was a terrible idea.
But Callie pulled out a sheaf of papers from her coat pocket and began to pass them out. "I've translated the spell as best I could and printed out copies for all of us. Traditionally, it's done by one really powerful witch, but it also says in the book that a coven of four or more women – yes, it definitely says women and not witches – will have the combined power to perform spells, with the right ingredients." She set a small cooler box on the coffee table. "Now, traditionally, the ritual is done skyclad, which means naked, but I figure seeing as it's winter and we're trying to summon a demon, dressing sexy and showing a bit of skin should be enough."
Tacey set her empty glass on the coffee table, beside the cooler. "I still find it hard to believe you found a spell that worked. You're always the first person to say magic doesn't exist."
Callie blew out a breath. "I know. Magic doesn't exist, or I didn't think it did, but I was talking to someone recently who led me to believe it might. Maybe."
Tacey's eyes narrowed. "Is that what you were talking to Ben about? Seriously, Callie, he's a fantasy artist. He mostly does portraits while he's the artist in residence at the café, but I commissioned him to do a series of cartoons where the Moth Man comes in for coffee or muffins or...he even had him doing the dishes in one, because he'd forgotten his wallet and that was the only way he could pay for his coffee." She shook her head. "If he drew you a demon, he made it up. Much like the Moth Man, demons don't exist. Ask Rochelle. She'll show you the unedited video."
The Shut Up Café had an artist in residence? Wow, Alethea missed all the fun stuff. "I should come down to the café, and see if he can draw me as an elf or a dragon or something."
"He only works evenings, but, sure, come in whenever you like. I should warn you, he has a thing for Rochelle, though, so he's kind of already taken," Tacey said.
Callie laughed. "Pity, because that guy's got to be the epitome of good dick, if you see Rochelle in the mornings. You can tell when she's spent a night with him, because she's practically glowing with best-sex-ever vibes in the morning." When she found the other girls staring at her she shrugged. "What? At least someone's getting some."
Alethea looked down at the printed page in her hands. "We're supposed to find consecrated ground, under the light of the moon, then place a heart still moist with the blood of our kin in a circle of salt and candles and runes, then say the right words to summon the demon, who will then consume the heart. Um, there is absolutely no way I'm going to let you kill someone to cast a spell that probably won't work just to scare off my stalker!"
Callie grinned. "Relax, I didn't have to kill anyone for it. One of the lab techs in the School of Medicine owed me a favour, so I figured it was time to call it in." She opened the cooler with a flourish.
Oh, ew.
"Callie, you didn't!"
"Is that really a...?"
"It's a pig's heart. The first years dissect them, and the abattoir sends them by the bucketload. The rest of the pig's probably already been turned into sausages and steaks, so it's not like we have to dispose of a body or anything."
Alethea wasn't sure how much of an improvement that was. It was bigger than her fist and all covered in blood...
"Yeah, but not even a demon's going to believe that pig was a member of your family," Octavia said.
