Road Trip with Vampires: one star, would not recommend.

Weavers and shady dealings (no, ma, I haven't been doing drugs)

'We're about a hundred miles north of France,' said Ilya sleepily.

'Yep.'

'Which means I'm a train ticket away from the exact spot where I stabbed a mime artist with a baguette.'

'What?'

Ilya took a sip of coffee. 'I don't remember clearly. It might have never happened at all. The coffee is making me see things.'

'That's what you get when you consume psychedelics as a creature without a circulatory system.'

'Coffee doesn't qualify as a psychedelic,' he muttered, taking another sip.

Tethis carefully shoved another packet of sugar towards him. 'So, do we have a deal?'

Ilya eyed the packet of sugar. 'I'm raising my price to ten more of those.'

Tethis groaned. Ilya eyed her over the rim of his cup.

'Ilya.'

'No, Tethis, I am not handing you my entire vocabulary of Russian swear words.'

She crossed her arms and huffed. 'So, where next?'

'I don't know at this point,' he said. 'It's been cloudy these few days, even a newly turned vampire could survive the sunlight in here. The only place they definitely stopped at was the library. And that was two days ago.'

Tethis nodded gloomily. Her hopes of yelling at Nix were dwindling. She twirled a spoon between her fingers, half-heartedly brandishing it. She was bored. So, so bored. Maybe if she met Nix again, she could teach her some sword tricks.

Tethis didn't want to admit it, but she missed Nix. Their trip around the world seemed out of the question at this point.

Well, she'd be grateful if they ever saw each other again. Tethis stretched, rolling her head, letting her gaze wander.

It stopped on a bright flash of colour by the cafe doors, terribly out of place in a London morning. Tethis looked closer.

Unless she was mistaken, that was a shirt floating in mid-air. She turned, wanting to point it out to Ilya, but he was already looking at the same spot. A look like revulsion came over him, then determination. He got up from his chair and strode in the direction of the shirt, his steps purposeful.

Tethis decided to sit back. She had a feeling it was going to get ugly.

Ilya slid into the chair opposite the floating shirt, making sure to show his displeasure by spilling a bit of the invisible occupant's drink.

That was it. Tethis had to know. Making sure the gazes of the few humans in the cafe were turned away from her, she transformed into a puddle, slithered into a empty seat near the two, and changed back. To complete the charade, she held two sugar packets in a hand. Ripping one open, she ate the sugar grain by grain, keeping her eyes on the next table.

Ilya hadn't noticed her. Probably because he was too engrossed in staring into the invisible person's non-existent eyes.

'Hey. Asshole.'

The invisible person seemed to turn, ever-so-slightly. 'Yes?'

'The deal. We upheld our end of it. Give it back.'

The invisible person shrugged. 'Nah.'

'Well, then what else do you want? Three more lifelines?'

The red shirt moved, as if the person wearing it was turning to look at Ilya better. 'Hmm. Is that an offer I hear?'

'No!'