Pernicious | Kai Parker

Chapter 55

"And you are?"

The two Heretics, the vampire, the witch, and the werewolf were staring at the new citizen of the 2018 Prison World with great interest.

"Sebastian," he said slowly, staring back at them. "And you?"

"We'd like to get to know you first," said Amelia. "We don't want things to move too quickly."

He tucked his hands behind his back. "I suppose we're ignoring the fact that introductions are quite proper."

"Yeah, we are," said Kai. "Listen, buddy, we don't have all day. Where'd you come from and how do you know someone with the last name 'Saltzman?'"

Sebastian pursed his lips. "She's just someone I know. I came from the Salvatore School. I assume you're familiar with it?"

Jade's eyes widened. "Would you look at that. Good ol' Dr. Saltzman did eventually punish someone else. Only took ten years. What'd you do?"

Sebastian swallowed hard. "Tried to pursue his daughter."

Wendy giggled. "You mean, you were trying to date Lizzie Saltzman?"

He blushed, and Kai and Amelia both had to laugh. "How wonderful," said Kai. "So, what can you tell us about the world out there? We're big fans of the Saltzmans. Care to explain what they're up to, these days?"

Sebastian wasn't going to fall for it. "I may not very much like the other two members of the family, but I will not let you hurt Elizabeth."

Amelia held her hand up, and Sebastian's body was lifted a foot off the ground. "Now, who said anything about hurting them? That'd be such an awful thing to do. We want out. That's all." She inhaled deeply. "Mm... vampire. That's what you are, isn't it?"

The boy didn't answer, but she knew she'd figured it out. "Wonderful. Well, you're going to take a nice little nap, because we didn't really intend to have another person here, and we'd rather you not muck up our fun." She snapped his neck, and his body fell.

"Something's up," said Diego. "What are the odds that some new kid shows up to this prison world? I'm willing to bet we should expect more visitors."

They did get a second visitor, not long after. It simply wasn't a person.

"What is that?" asked Amelia, who'd sensed something arriving just after she and Kai had finished showering, around two days after Sebastian arrived. "I felt something. Outside."

With barely any clothes on, they'd gone out into the field near their home, and found what appeared to be an hourglass, though it had a crack over the surface, and was filled with a strange black sand that seemed to whirl around its interior.

"That's a Mora Miserium," said Kai. "A Sandclock. When a witch uses dark magic, they can have the bad side effects get bottled up in one of those. Protects them from harm."

Amelia made to touch it, but Kai caught her hand. "Let me do it," he said, moving her arm aside. "If anyone is getting any dark magic, it's gonna be me."

She assumed this was the best way he could say, 'I care too much about you to let you get hurt,' considering his humanity was still off. He put his palm over the surface of the glass and concentrated, before his lips curled into a grin. "This has Gemini magic in it. Something tells me Mr. Sea-Bass and Little Lizzie Saltzman were up to something not so bueno."

"I suppose we just have to wait for them to arrive," said Amelia, pulling him back inside to get dressed before they went to meet the others.

They cleaned as quickly as they could, taking advantage of the fact that Sebastian would be waking up soon in order to do a spell that would make him temporarily forget they existed. Hiding in one of the rooms upstairs, they placed a Cloaking spell that would render them invisible and keep them from making noise.