50. Brody
Brody
I’ve made my decision. It’s the only way. If I can get to Victor I can make a counter deal and then Ari won’t have to marry Benedict. That’s the most important thing. Saving her from him.
“I was using you”. No. I can’t think about that. The things she said weren’t real. They weren’t her. She was only saying them to help save me.
“It was all a lie.” I shake my head to try to rid myself of the image of her, the look on her face as she said that. She didn’t mean it.
Besides, I haven’t got time to fall apart. I need to figure out how to bring Victor here. There must be some kind of manual, some kind of guide for these kinds of things. If only I could access r/VampireLife on Reddit, I bet that would tell me, but they restrict access to keep out the tourists.
Hang on. How would Ari have known what to do? She certainly wasn’t scouring social media; she thought she knew tech but she was pretty much still stuck in the noughties.
In the end, the internet does kind of come to my rescue.
Apparently, although my source does appear to be the website of a group called the “Sexy Slayers And Devilish Demon Hunters”, there’s an ancient book called the Arcana that details how to summon a demon.
Is it possible Ari has a copy? I mean, I suppose I could ask the SSADDH; they have a local branch just outside Newton Abbot, although I think they’re probably really into swinging along with the whole monster vanquishing thing and it’s not exactly my style.
I’m in desperate need of caffeine, my brain feels like mulch.
Perhaps I should pop to Sangers for coffee and bacon and then go and see what I can find at Ari’s.
I know she won’t be there, Ivan said she’s gone to Scotland to spend some time with her dad.
I feel like I’ve been stabbed through the heart.
I wanted us to go to Aberdeen together, I was going to take her for her next birthday.
Ari is still living in the 1950s and keeps a spare key under the plant pot in front of her door.
At least I don’t have to wait to be invited in.
The flat smells of her perfume and I’m thrown back to those stolen moments in my room before everything went wrong.
Was that really only yesterday? It feels like aeons ago, like it happened in a whole other lifetime.
I allow myself a moment, breathing her in, imagining what could have been.
But I’m being self-indulgent. None of it matters, not right now. There will be time for day dreams and what ifs and what could have beens later. For now I need to figure out how to conjure Victor. That’s the only thing that matters.
I stand in the centre of her living room and turn in a slow circle as I scan the space.
Would Ari have hidden it away where no one would ever find it?
Or is it kind of a common item, something you’d find on most vampire’s bookshelves, even if they don’t seem the type.
Like my aunt and her dog-eared copy of Fifty Shades, presented without shame as if the rest of the world doesn’t know she’s basically reading porn.
The Arcana is being used, rather irreverently, to prop up a shelf inside one of Ari’s kitchen cupboards.
I have to empty all the mugs out before I remove the book to stop the whole thing from crashing down.
The demon summoning incantation is on page fifty-nine, sandwiched between a guide to werewolf pelt maintenance and a detailed series of drawings on the preparation of magic mushrooms.
It’s all really rather easy, in a way that is kind of terrifying. It shouldn’t be as simple as whispering a few lines and then saying the full name of the demon you wish to summon.
Victor appears before me. He’s huge and broad, like a professional American football player, with long hair and dressed all in black.
He looks like he’s in fancy dress until you notice his horns and that his eyes are silver, shining with all the promise of a being from another world.
Oh, and he’s wielding a mace. So that’s good.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asks, looking at me as if I’m a piece of dogshit on his shoe.
“My name is Brody and I wish to make a deal,” I say, trying to inject some authority into my voice and failing miserably.
The demon tilts his dead back and laughs, the sound reverberating through the room. “You?” He points the mace towards me and it takes all my resolve not to step backwards. This guy is fucking terrifying.
“Yes.”
“Hang on. This is Arianna’s flat.” He stares at the painting of her and Clara on the mantlepiece. “How the hell do you know Ari?”
I clear my throat. “Ari and I are…” what are we? “Um… friends.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Oh. Oh.” He jabs the mace towards me a few times. “I know you. You’re the one she was with last night.”
“Yes.”
“You seem alright actually. Like maybe you could have made her happy. Not that it matters now, I suppose.” He sounds sanguine, like it’s all a done deal.
“That’s why you need to help me. You need to break off the deal with Andrei and make a deal with me instead.” I hate how hopeful I sound, like a puppy desperately asking for someone to love him.
“Andrei’s deal was to buy Ari’s debt with the offer of my sanctuary in return.”
“I know. But I want you make a deal with me instead.”
He stares at me for a few seconds. “Why should I make a deal with you?” Victor asks, narrowing his eyes as he looks me up and down.
“Because I can give you something that Andrei can’t.”
“Really? You know who Andrei is, don’t you?”
“I’ve heard the rumours, if that’s what you mean.”
“Andrei Hele is one the most powerful vampires in the world. Some even say he’s the first of his kind. He can offer me protection.” Victor can barely conceal his excitement at the kind of life he may live within the confines of Hele House.
“You know I’m human.” I say it like a statement, but the flicker across his features suggests I should have phrased it like a question.
“You’re human?”
I nod.
“But you were there. At Hele House. In a fucking tux.”
“We thought no one would realise.”
“Fool.”
“You’re not wrong. But that’s not important right now. I’m human and you know what that means. You wouldn’t need Andrei’s protection. You could be free. Forever.”
He stares at me, mouth slightly open. I can see the dance of emotions across his features as he thinks through the layers of possibility I’m presenting him with.
“What do you want in return?”
“I want a loan. Enough to cover Ari’s debt and then enough to kickstart an investment. I’m assuming if I repay Ari’s debt then you can’t make her Andrei’s ward?”
“You’re right about Andrei. But—”
“Will you accept the terms?” I ask.
“You’re a fool for even contemplating this,” he says.
“Yes. But I’m a fool with a brilliant business plan and a woman to win back.”
Victor looks at me with thinly veiled pity in his eyes. “You know I can’t decline a legitimate deal.”
“That’s what I was counting on,” I reply.
“Well, eternity with Andrei Hele was going to be hideous anyway. And for what it’s worth, I hated what I was doing to Ari, throwing her to the wolves like that. She’s always been nice to my kind.”
“She’s a pretty amazing person.”
“You know that I’m meant to be rooting for you to lose?” His tone sounds serious and a frown forms on his face.
I nod in reply.
But then his expression starts to soften, almost as if he’s remembering something, something good.
“I was in love once,” he whispers. He looks behind him almost furtively.
“I’ll give you nine months, OK? That should give you time.
” Then he straightens himself up to his full height.
“Do we have a deal?” he booms, the words echoing around the small room.
“Yes.” I reach my hand out to shake his. He’s warm to the touch, almost hot. “Thank you,” I whisper, meeting his gaze for a moment, just long enough to see the red flames flicker behind his pupils.