Raf with caramel syrup

Chapter 4

   We were sitting in the waiting room. There were only three witch service centres in this town. Fortune-telling, people-finding, hexes, spells, protection. I don't know how much of it was quackery. But I once put up protection when I was a human on my parents' instruction. I also had to pay a monthly fee to protect my house from evil. It was part of the utility bill. And if you don't refuse protection, the amount is many times higher. And every year it went up. Lucky for those who had a domovoi at home. Who loved the households and was ready to protect the flat from evil. In our time, domovois mostly lived in villages and hamlets. Rare specimens moved to the cities, and even more rarely were wound up in flats. That's why the unclean need an invitation to the house. In all other cases, come evil creatures and do what you want at any time.

I could feel Will's heartbeat. How much I wanted to help him. And I blamed myself and apologised to him for not telling him right away about his sister. I didn't want to muddy the waters beforehand. I hadn't recognised the blood so clearly yet that I was 100% sure.

Thankfully it was an emergency and we were admitted without a queue. His mother was already at the police station. I was thinking about calling Rufus to see if he had any information. But if I did, I'm afraid he'd pick on Will. It was Will's turn. I went with him.

At the table sat a girl of about twenty-three. She had blond hair and blue eyes. Will looked at her like he'd seen her before.

"Hello," said the girl with an air of mystery.

"Are you ... Stella? You work at the DOC!" (Document Operations Centre - A multifunctional centre where almost all documents can be ordered)

Stella looked embarrassed.

"Ummm... a part-time job wouldn't hurt! So what's the question?"

"My sister's missing. She was with that vampire on the news!"

"Sibling ?"

"Half."

"Oh, good. Give me your hand."

Will held it out. Stella spread out the chart. And pricked Will's finger with a sterile needle. The smell of blood was pungent and overwhelming. The most delicious thing I'd ever tasted. Saliva filled my mouth. The smell pulled me, beckoned to me, begged me to taste it. I was almost out of my seat. It took a lot of effort to hold on. I looked at the map to distract myself.

"All sides of the world, draw the blood of the bloodline. Show me a sister's location sign!" Stella whispered.

The drops dripped onto the map and flowed towards the distant city, stopping at a single point somewhere at the end of the city.

Stella sighed heavily. Then she threw the needle into the bowl of alcohol.

"Thank you. You can keep in touch! In case they move. I'll pay for it."

Stella nodded and put a band-aid on Will's arm. Then we left.

"You can send me there as soon as possible!" Will said.

"I need to eat!"

Will got angry, but he remained silent.

"Will I need strength. Otherwise we're going to lose!"

We went to the nearest diner. I bought myself a can of blood and a sausage in batter without Will's different sauces, because he didn't like them. He needed food, too. While I ordered Will gave the information to the police.

I held out the food to him. He shook his head.

"Will you need this"

He took it and ate it quickly. I tried to drink the cheap diluted blood just as quickly. It won't give much strength. But it was something. It was already morning. And the clouds were hiding the sun. That made me feel better.