Moon River

That was news to me. Truth was, I didn’t think anything scared the big oaf. “Why?” I asked.

“They’re unpredictable…and seem to have nature on their side. And after the demonstration I just saw at your house…well, remind me to stay on your good side.”

Allison beamed, but as she did so, I sensed her self-doubt. Yes, this was all new to her. Yes, she could perform some incredible tricks, but, no, she did not feel worthy of her newfound—and growing—powers.

Truth was, I didn’t know much about any of this stuff, either, let alone what a witch could and couldn’t do.

Not true, Samantha, came Allison’s thought, as she picked up on my own. You were once a witch, too. We both were.

Along with Millicent, I added, referring to the spirit that had first broken the news to Allison of her supernatural pedigree.

Yes, Millicent. And we were both supposed to be witches again, except you’ve taken a slightly different path.

A bloodsucking path, I thought grimly.

Well, we’re together again, said Allison, and that’s all that matters.

“Are you two quite done?” asked Kingsley.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Your telepathy crap…it’s kind of rude.”

“How did you know we were doing telepathy?” I asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Because the two of you get all quiet at the exact same time, which is rare enough as it is. Were you two talking about me?”

“Maybe,” I said, and, despite the seriousness of our current situation, and despite knowing my sister was at the hands of forces that would love nothing more than to rip her life away from her, I giggled. So did Allison.

“C’mon. What were you two talking about?”

“Your hair,” said Allison, lying and giggling some more.

“What about my hair?” asked Kingsley defensively. For some reason, the big gorilla was always defensive about his thick locks.

“We think you need a haircut,” said Allison.

“We do?” I asked her.

“Yes, we do,” she said.

“Okay,” I said, laughing some more. “We do.”

“Well, I can’t cut it,” said Kingsley.

This was news to me. Despite having dated the big goof for a while, I hadn’t known this fact.

“Why not?” we both asked at once.

“It just grows right back, within days, and sometimes within hours. And, even worse, it always grows back a little longer.”

I think Kingsley was trying to get our sympathy, but he got the exact opposite reaction. Allison and I burst out laughing. I wasn’t expecting to laugh. I was pissed and ready to take on every fucking vampire in Los Angeles if I had to. But now, I found myself laughing, nearly uncontrollably. The van swerved. Kingsley gripped the dashboard, and I laughed even harder. Truth was, I think I needed to laugh. And hearing Allison’s snorting in the backseat made me totally lose it.

“Are you two quite done?” growled Kingsley, shaking his head.

“When he cuts his hair,” said Allison, sitting forward between us, gasping and wiping her eyes, her voice barely above a squeak, “it just keep growing out even longer…within days…hours…that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard, but it was definitely a tension breaker for me. And as I gasped and fought for my own breath, Kingsley mumbled, “I don’t know why I open up to you two.”

“And now we know why you don’t ask for a free haircut, either,” squealed Allison.

I reached back and put a hand on my friend’s forearm. “Let’s leave him alone,” I said. “We don’t want to piss him—or his hair—off.”

Allison giggled some more, while Kingsley shot me a grumpy look. “It’s really not funny,” he said.

“No,” I said, struggling to keep a straight face. “Excessive hair growth is never funny.”

Allison literally snorted in the back seat, which made Kingsley finally crack a smile. “You two are clowns,” he said. “I think we should get serious.”

“Yes, serious,” Allison and I said together. We stopped laughing almost on cue, even though Allison might have snorted once more for good measure.

I turned left from Sunset and headed up Los Feliz Boulevard, following my recently added navigational device. No, this old van did not come with navigation, but this one worked easily enough…that is, if it would quit falling from its mount, which it did now as I made my left turn. I caught it and returned it to its spot before I had completed the turn.

“If you two are done making fun of my affliction, maybe we should discuss a game plan.”

I turned left into one of the Griffith Park entrances, stopped the van and killed the engine.

“Good idea,” I said. “Oh, and we’re here.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

We sat in the minivan.

Technically, the park was closed, but there was nothing to keep us out either. The park was, after all, an entire hillside…a chain of hillsides, in fact.

“She told me to come alone,” I said.

“And what did you say?” asked Kingsley.

“I told her to go fuck herself.”

“That’s my girl,” said Kingsley. “So, where is this place?”

“The river—which is now an aqueduct—flows not too far from here. It’s popular with bikers and joggers.”

“And vampires,” said Allison.

“And how do we get to their underground lair?” asked Kingsley

I nearly asked the big guy to quit calling it a lair, except that’s exactly what it was. A breeding ground for the undead. A nest, perhaps.

“There’s a cave opening close to here,” I said. “She described it to me.”

In fact, as I spoke those words, I told the gang to hold on while I closed my eyes and cast my thoughts out. Unlike Allison, who needed something personal, I needed no such aid. At any point, in any place, I could close my eyes and cast my mind out, scanning my immediate surroundings within a few hundred feet. And, yes, that net seemed to be growing wider these days, but not by much. Still a couple of hundred feet, give or take.

My sweeping, all-seeing internal eye didn’t have any problems with the dark either. The night was bright and alive and I could have just as easily been a dark demigod looking down at his realm.

Or the world’s weirdest mom trying to save her sister.

Either way, I confirmed that the park was empty of anything human. It was also empty of most things animal, except for a few stray cats and a squirrel that seemed to be dancing the jig on a nearby tree branch. I next searched for the landmark Hanner had described: a red post off to the side of the main river path. There, found it. Next, I mentally hung a left and continued on to a pile of boulders—and found them exactly where Hanner had said they would be. I also found the small opening into the rocks—an opening that might pose a problem for Kingsley, and slipped inside it, but not very far. I had reached the limits of my abilities. One thing was certain, though, the cave entrance was not guarded.