Chapter 3


The sun was high in the sky, the six of them were standing at the flagpole, and Blake and Astrid were absolutely miserable.

“Where is she?” demanded Blake.

“She’ll be here.” assured Astrid, “She has a soft mind, I made sure she would be.”

Then Christina gestured from where she was lounging, “She’s almost here, I
can hear her. You would have too if you weren’t so bent on arguing about
everything under the sun.” She said matter-of-factly. “Oops, bad choice of
words!” she added with a grin when the vampires glared at her.

And sure enough, Cecilia came into view looking decidedly flustered. Her
befuddled state was an extraordinary contrast to the cool unruffledness of
the preterhumans, and it left them positively abashed.

“Now I remember why I don’t like humans,” muttered Edan.

“I don’t like human *females* anyway,” teased Evelyn.

Cecilia tentatively approached them, she had had her doubts about coming
again, but she finally decided, Why not? Only Leigh greeted her with a smile,
and all she said was, “Let’s go.” The seven of them started out, going
through the suburban streets, then a few back alleys that Cecilia was sure
she wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t pointed them out to her. After 10
minutes or so, they came to a seedy neighborhood that she had never seen
before. A tiny cafe was across the street, the word ‘Samhael’ hand lettered
on a small piece of sheet metal tacked up above the door. The cafe was
strangely situated between a tattoo parlor and some kind of punk jewelry
shop. ‘Oh god,’ she thought to herself, ‘What the hell have I gotten myself
into now?’

As they entered the cafe, she noticed that the door was intricately carved
with strange symbols, some of which matched the tattoos on Blake’s bicep
and Astrid’s shoulder.

“Weird,” she muttered to herself, as she looked around the small room. It
was completely normal, it could have been any dingy cafe in the country. All
in all, it was a bit of a let down. She’d expected something a bit more
dramatic.

“Oh well,” Cecilia thought, “It’s probably better this way anyhow.”

A bored looking young woman stood behind the counter, giving them a sharp
look before Astrid murmured something unintelligible and the woman gave a
stiff, almost imperceptible nod. Then, instead of sitting down in one of the
booths, they continued walking past the counter and through the strangely
empty kitchen, until they came to another door, marked as a broom closet.
Astrid opened the door slowly, almost as if she couldn’t believe what her arm
was doing, and walked in.

“This is unbelievable!” Cecilia thought cynically, “How amazingly stupid.” It
was dark in the closet, and she couldn’t see anything inside it, nor the others
as they walked in. She steadied herself, though she didn’t know what she
was nervous about, and walked in.

It was pitch black, but she took one more step forward and felt a wave of
static electricity wash over her, before she found herself in another room.
She saw the others looking back at her, somewhat expectantly, but all she
could do was gasp, “What the hell was that?”

The preterhumans met each other’s eyes with uncomfortable looks. Finally
Evan spoke up, “It’s a form of security,” he said slowly, carefully choosing
every word, “It does away with all... illusions.” She raised an eyebrow in
disbelief, “Illusions?” But even as she said the words, she noticed that the
others had changed, albeit subtly.