Chapter 7 – Cassini
CASSINI
“How’s your head?” I ask.
Lily glances up from her burger, a smear of blood-red ketchup pooling on her bottom lip. It glistens when it catches the light, and I can’t stop thinking about reaching across the table and swiping it off with the pad of my thumb.
A pang of hunger gnaws at me. If that were blood and not ketchup, I don’t know if I’d be able to stop myself from pulling her face to mine and licking it from the corner of her mouth like a feral dog.
She’s lost in thought, considering the question, but then she smiles.
“Actually…I’m feeling kinda great.” She prods her temple tentatively, like she’s testing for pain that isn’t there.
“For the first time in months, I’m not in agony.
It’s like someone turned off a TV that’s been playing static in the background.
I’d gotten so used to it that I didn’t even realize it was such a constant. ”
I nod. “That’s good. I hate to say I told you so, but—”
“All right, all right.” She laughs as she dangles a limp fry in front of me. “I’ll admit it—this woo-woo hippie stuff works. You were right. Paloma was great, too.” She takes another bite and chases it with a sip of her pink milkshake. “So, how much did it cost? What do I owe you?”
I wave my hand. “No charge. Me and the witch go way back, so I get a deep discount.”
Back at the laundromat, I told Lily I forgot something inside and had to run back. When I burst into Paloma’s office, she wasn’t surprised to see me, but she was irritated.
“Si la lastimas, te mato, cabrón,” she warned, waving a wooden saint with a sharp point carved in the bottom toward the direction of my chest, but there was no real threat in it.
“Be careful with that girl. I’m serious—she’s powerful, and if she pushes too hard, too fast…
she’ll break. Go slowly, or you’ll put her in danger. ”
“Got it. Proceed with caution,” I said, holding my hands up in mock surrender. “So it’s real? She’s a medium? A real one?”
Paloma confirmed it. Lily is a medium, and she’s the most powerful kind. The kind that can cross the veil and walk the line between the living and the dead. That’s why she can sometimes hear inside my head—tune into the unholy thoughts of an abominable creature like me.
“Can I stop her from hearing me?” I’d asked.
Paloma had rolled her eyes before reluctantly scribbling some instructions onto a scrap of paper. “Not that you deserve it,” she chided as she stuffed it into my jacket pocket.
Yes, there were incantations I could use, protection stones I could carry. Ways I could learn to hold Lily out of my head and push back against the intrusion. For now.
“As she gets more powerful, this may not work…but you can try,” she said. “If you care about her, I suggest you do. It will help her become stronger. If she meets resistance, she can learn to overcome it. Like training a muscle.”
“The other thing,” I’d asked, rolling up my sleeve to expose the swelling black vein underneath. “You’re positive nothing can be done?”
She shook her head. “No, Cassini. It’s a bloodbinding. That’s magic even I can’t touch, you know that. The only way to end it is to fulfill your promise.” Her finger mapped the black line of my vein, dancing up my forearm before stopping at my elbow. “And I suggest you do soon.”
As I left, she told me one final time to go easy with Lily.
“You have to protect her, Cassini. You know what will happen to her if anyone else finds out about this. Your dead little friends at the Hollow give me enough trouble as it is. Always asking for love spells and curses. I don’t want them sniffing around here asking questions about her. You were never here, okay?”
Lily swipes an onion ring through some repulsive condiment and studies me across the table, raising an eyebrow as she bites it. “You’re not eating.”
“Not hungry.” The deceit comes easily. I’m suddenly very, very hungry. My fangs are throbbing against my gums with each word she speaks, and the scent of her blood is making it increasingly hard to concentrate.
She shrugs. “Suit yourself. This burger is bomb. I can’t believe this place exists. I’d never even heard of it.”
Molly’s Diner is one of those extraordinary liminal spaces where time has no meaning.
The vibe shifts subtly from day to night, but the steady heartbeat of the place pulses twenty-four hours a day.
It’s the consistency I like. A steady stream of truckers and out-of-towners meeting and mixing with locals, making late-night conversation over free coffee refills poured by warm southern women.
Some sit in silence, locked in their own private melodramas, dotted in the warm sanctuary of a booth.
Faces lit by the glow of the red neon that burns beyond the windows.
“I’m good.” I take a mock sip of the coffee I ordered to keep up appearances. A drop of the bitter liquid touches my tongue, and I suppress a gag. Human food won’t kill vampires, but it is repulsive.
It’s been a long time since I was human, but I would guess that asking me to taste a strawberry milkshake like the one Lily is currently enjoying would garner the same reaction as asking a living person to chug a pint of fetid pus.
Sure, you could do it. You’d even survive. But why would you want to?
“Did Paloma say anything else?” I ask, keeping my tone casual.
Her shoulders sag slightly. “She just said this thing is a gift, but it feels more like a curse. Hearing dead people is bad enough, but risking a broken brain if I don’t learn to control it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
” She shakes her head as she processes her new reality.
“It’s just so weird. I’m not a psychic. I’m just a nurse, Cassini.
I hand out medications. I check vitals. I look after people on their worst day.
I don’t run around town talking to ghosts, and if I did, I’d end up fifty-one-fiftied before you could say Nurse Ratched. ”
“What if I told you that you could do both?” I lean forward. “What if this ability could help you find out what happened to your mom and save a life in the process?”
“How’s that possible?” she asks.
I have to play this right. Make her think this is her idea, so I keep my tone light.
“There’s a girl I’m looking for. She has the same tattoo you showed me. I wasn’t sure if I should say anything. Not until I was certain. You should know better than anyone, after what happened back at the shop. These people are unpredictable.”
“Oh,” she says. It could be my imagination, but I swear her shoulders drop. “So, who’s the girl?”
“She’s a friend’s daughter. I’m just helping him find her. He’s been going out of his mind with worry.” I study her face, tracing the rim of the coffee cup with my thumb. “She’s an addict.”
Lily sets down the remainder of her burger and sits up straighter. Watching her pulse flutter at her throat as she swallows sends sharp pangs through my jaw. “She is? Unfortunately I know a little something about that. Tell me about her.”
“She was having a hard time at college, got into partying hard, and fell in with the wrong crowd. One day she just upped and vanished. Her dad, Beau, helped me out when I was new in town. His daughter Megan—that’s her name—went missing right before he found me, and I kind of made a promise to him to help find her and get her back. ”
“What about the authorities? Can’t they help?” she quizzes.
I shake my head. “Beau was a cop before all this. Twenty years on the force. When this happened, a lot of people didn’t take it seriously.
They acted like it was no big loss—another junkie gets what’s coming to them.
” I lean back, trying to seem relaxed despite the fact that I’m essentially recruiting her for the most dangerous thing she could possibly do.
“That’s disgusting,” she says. “She’s still a human being. How could they just disregard her life like that?”
“A lot of people go missing in Austin. It doesn’t make it right, but the cops have their hands full.” I can see her processing this. Time to apply a little pressure. “He’s been going crazy trying to find her. Someone with a gift like yours could be the answer.”
“And you think…what? That I could talk to her spirit?” Lily’s voice drops to a whisper. “You think she’s dead?”
“No, I think she’s still alive, but I think there’s a way to use your gift to find her,” I say, watching her expression. “In exchange, I’ll help you hone your abilities and find out the truth about your mom.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I’m a sucker for a pretty girl with a problem.”
She blushes, and I see her fighting a smile. “Yeah, sure. I’m the pretty one.”
I swallow back a hunger pang that feels like razor blades in my throat as a rush of warm blood flushes her cheeks.
“So, how do we do this?”
“I could come by your place for a few nights, and we could practice the technique Paloma taught you. Work on strengthening your connection while keeping you safe.” I pause, then add, “And once you’re ready, maybe you can help me find Megan.”
She nods slowly. “Okay. It’s a deal. I’ve always had a thing for broken things. If this talking-to-the-dead thing is going to be part of my life regardless, I might as well use it for good.”
“Great.” I signal the waitress for the check, eager to get out of here before my hunger becomes too obvious—or worse still, too uncontrollable. “I’ll swing by tomorrow night around the same time.”
Her heart speeds up, and I close my eyes to take in the unmistakable sound of blood pulsing through her veins. Her cheeks flush and I can practically smell her nerves mixed with excitement. It would be cute if it weren’t so painful for me.
We have to get out of this place.
I need to get her home.
I need to feed. Now.
The underground corridors beneath Sixth Street are a maze of tunnels that snake through Austin’s underbelly like veins through a body. Most humans have no idea they exist, but they’ve been here for over a century. Some nights they feel more dangerous than usual.