My Vampire Assistant

It was much later that I had an opportunity to talk with Alexandra privately. By that time, the general gathering of witches had separated into groups between two and six people. Someone played a board game, someone blasted music, and someone tried to emulate moving magic chess from Harry Potter with varying degrees of failure. Someone left the party entirely by now.

The kitchen, though, was mostly quiet at the moment, and this is where I pulled Alexandra at. Not that she resisted—the woman looked about as tired from the company as I was. The first thing she did was making herself a cup of tea and letting out a deep, long-suffering breath. Then, as if by magic—ha!—she became my bore of a teacher again.

Except, even now, her eyes weren't as sharp as they usually were, and weariness showed in the downward curve of her shoulders.

"Did you want to tell me something, Diana?"

I sat down opposite of her, propping my chin on my hands. I was tired too.

"Well, I was wondering… The stuff you told me about spells and magic… It's all very simple things, right? Not simple to do, I mean, but they give simple effect. It's all essentially transmutation, right? Taking properties from one thing and giving it to other… tweaking them, at most."

Alexandra nodded, humming in agreement. I continued to speak. The words left me in a stream, and I could barely think about not mentioning anything vampire-related. "But I have a strangest item in my shop… I didn't think about it much until recently, but it's magic, but it doesn't look like any magic you described."

"Oh? What is it?"

"It's a metal box… a big one, I'd say, almost like a coffin. Its surface is covered in drawings, almost like magic runes and lines and other stuff from fantasy movies. And when I looked at it through my well, it felt like a net of sort, except that one was broken. What sort of magic is this, Alexandra? Can witches do something like that, or is it someone else's work?"

Alexandra pursed her lips, looking pensive. "I've heard about things like you talk about, Diana, but… I've never seen one. In fact, I wasn't sure if they existed at all, such spells. If you seek enlightenment from me on their nature, I can only disappoint you, because I have no idea how something like this can be possible. I will tell you truth—I tried to form aspects into something more than they were simply by shaping them, but all my experiments didn't bring me much results."

"I see." I pursed my lips, indeed, disappointed. There was a complexity in the seal on JJ's coffin that made me think it wasn't a simple thing to replicate, but Alexandra's words ruined my hopes completely. I guess now I knew why this thing was so expensive, even when it was broken.

"I have something to ask you too, Diana," Alexandra said, making me lift my eyes at her again. When I did, her brows were furrowed and the look she was giving me was somewhere between concerned and suspicion. I tensed. It wasn't a good combination.

"Yeah?.."

"Please, don't take it too personally, but as a founder of Orion Coven I feel that it's my responsibility to care for all its members. You know I don't have a husband or children—my coven is my family. You are my family, Diana. And I can't help but be concerned… You've mentioned before that it was another supernatural that helped you find out about your powers after you Awakened, right?"

The talk about family should've been heartwarming, and looking at Alexandra's face, I felt she was sincere in her words; but everything I could think about was that I HAD family, and now I didn't. Now, the only person to make my home not just a place to live was a vampire who was immortal and yet more ephemeral than a house of cards. I knew he won't leave me today, or tomorrow, or after tomorrow, but until I succeeded, eventually…

"Diana?"

I blinked, realising that I stayed silent for too long. I scrambled for Alexandra's question and my answer. "Yes, I said that. What's wrong, Alexandra?"

And even if I found a secret to immortality, wasn't it just too arrogant of me to presume that I would be the best person to accompany JJ into eternity? He was a great man. I was… just a witch. Too thoughtless, too greedy, too selfish and too ordinary in all the worst ways, especially when compared with him.

"Diana? Are you listening?"

I blinked drowsily. This time I was so out of it that I couldn't remember what Alexandra was saying at all. "Sorry, I'm just tired."

As if to confirm my words, my body forced me into a jaw-breaking yawn. When I blinked myself more awake again, Alexandra sat with her lips pinched together, but without a trace of suspicion in her eyes anymore.

"Oh, this isn't a time and place for this conversation, anyway. We should talk about it again later, but I we all will be busy with preparations for Ivana-Kupala, so I don't even know when a time will come. Until then, know that you can always—"

"Ivana-Kupala?" I frowned. "You celebrate it?"

Alexandra's eyes widened. "Oh! I just assumed that you knew, but of course you didn't, since no one told you… All witches celebrate it, around the world, though for our European kin it's called just Solstice. All witches from the region will come to the celebration. From Petersburg, Moscow and every place between. Solstices and Equinox are the only times in a year when we can meet witches from bigger covens. It's an exciting opportunity, especially for someone new like you!"

I nodded, feeling more dreadful than excited. Well, of course I would NEED to come and look and talk with other witches and search for more information about magic, but… "Uh-huh. So, if it's like traditional Ivana-Kupala, it will be outdoors? And with jumping over bonfires?"

Alexandra's uncharacteristically enthusiastic smile was my answer.