Chapter 4.40 – A Worthwhile Cause

“It’s gloomy today, don’t you think?”

Broof and Lilith had completed the journey in near silence, except for the occasional question from Lilith. Lilith hadn’t known that the bearded former butler could hold such a grudge – he’d always seemed so amicable and even a bit boring. This grumpy man was giving her a lot of mixed feelings. 

“Doesn’t that tree look like a pretzel?”

On the one hand, she was annoyed that he was annoyed. On the other she was sort of pleased that he was annoyed. He’d never seemed particularly passionate about anything but he was definitely passionate about getting this cure right. 

She did like a man with passion for a cause. It was always a nice change to find one so passionate for a worthwhile cause.

“Do you think April and Melinda will ever get married?”

Of course, she knew that it was April he was so keen to cure; she knew that he felt responsible for her being a vampire in the first place. But Lilith hoped on some level that he wanted to cure her, too.

She couldn’t keep pretending that she wasn’t developing real feelings for the witch, despite her efforts to quell them. Maybe if she was cured and not having to dine on him daily they could try and make it work.

Whatever it was.

“Did you know that you’ve got mud up the back of your shorts?”

If he still wanted whatever it was, that is. The way he was stomping on and all but ignoring her was telling her otherwise. In fact, it was reminding her why she’d been single for a century: miserable men were such a turn off.

“Is it mud? Or is it—”

Broof turned to glare at her then down at his shorts. “It’s mud,” he muttered before continuing on.

The forest steadily began to thin and the main road came back into view along with road near where they’d left the car. It felt like years since they’d been there after their argument about absinthe at the petrol station.

“Maybe I’ll go see if that kid is old enough to sell me a drink yet. Do you want anything?”

“No.”

Another response. Devil help her, she really was becoming quite needy. She shrugged it off and stood taller, matching him stride for stride. If he wanted silence, he could have it.

The thought of a tasty mouthful of boozy ash had made Lilith realise that she hadn’t had a drink for ages. And that she really wanted one. She’d be raiding Sage’s liquor cupboard the second they got back to the flower shop apartment, if she couldn’t convince Broof to stop at a local pub on the way back. Which, in his current mood, was unlikely.

He might not even let her in the car.

April had managed to drag Wyatt out of whatever funk he’d been in and Melinda had taken to hanging out with them as they brewed up a potion that smelled like feet and… mystery?

Standing beside the massive cauldron – Melinda still wasn’t sure why they needed such a huge one, but she didn’t question it out loud – she watched as April delicately removed some leaves from a sprig of something and dropped it in, watched as Wyatt stirred the huge spoon without touching it. He was such a show off.

Melinda was thinking back to her research. She’d had marginally more luck tracing Lilith’s family tree once she had a name for her mother – as in, she’d managed to find records for her mother. However, Lilith’s mother appeared to not have ever married nor had any siblings, at least not that Melinda could find. The woman had worked as a prostitute in Windenburg, that much was certain, and she’d had at least two children, possibly more. But there were no records of any of them. As far as Melinda could tell, Caleb had been the only family Lilith had had.

And now, with Caleb dead, Lilith had no one. It hurt Melinda’s heart; it wasn’t only the perpetual loneliness Lilith faced that made Melinda’s insides ache, from what she could gather from Lilith’s text messages and Wyatt’s ramblings, without a living relative it would mean that it was highly unlikely that they could make a cure for Lilith.

All Lilith’s effort. Her centuries of waiting. It may all be in vain.

Poor Lilith.

Although Melinda wondered if she herself had any living blood relatives and how she’d find them. She suspected that her birth mum was deceased, but she wondered if she had grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins. Who her birth dad was. If he’d ever known that she’d existed. If he’d cared. If any of them had cared.

It made her depressed. She had to remind herself that her adoptive parents loved and cherished her and that that she was very lucky. But she could never help but wonder ‘what if?’.

She used to look at people on the street and wonder if they were related to her, until she’d catch herself eyeing up a pretty girl and wondering if she might be her cousin, then it started to creep her out.

At least she and April looked very different to each other. So they couldn’t be related.

Oh god, she hoped they weren’t related.

Maybe a family member had been right under her nose the whole time and she’d never realised. But how would she know? She could access her adoption records now she was officially an adult, but she hadn’t yet. At first, she didn’t want to hurt her parents’ feelings. Now she couldn’t because she was supposed to be in hiding.

Maybe she’d never find her birth family and then she’d never be cured, either.

It was a grim thought but at least she and Lilith would have each other.

Alone.

For eternity.

She was shaken from her thoughts by April’s firm squeeze on her hand.

“Mel… Mel… Earth to Mel. Mel! Ooh good, there you are. We’re going to add the crushed seashells now, Wyatt says it’ll change the colour of the potion. I wonder what colour it’ll go. My money is on pink.”

“Oh. Uh. Then I’ll go for yellow.”

Wyatt made a ‘wrong buzzer’ noise and Melinda watched as April sprinkled in the seashells and the potion went from clear to… clear.

“Huh,” Wyatt scratched his head. “Should’ve gone blue. Apes, check the date on the yeast?”

“October 2001.”

“Oof, yep that’ll be it.”

“Do we need to start over?”

“Nah.” Wyatt flexed his fingers, generating a small ball of light that he shot into the fire beneath the cauldron. The pot bubbled and the liquid turned a milky purple-blue.

“And ta-daa! One illusion potion,” Wyatt announced, dropping the spoon with a loud clatter and dusting off his hands, sending a small shower of sparks to the flagstones.

“Yay!” April squealed and went to dip her finger in, which Wyatt hastily put a stop to.

“Ooh no, Apes, we need to let this sit for a bit. It’ll be ready in the morning,” he added, to cheer up her pouty face. “Then we’ll see if this works.”

“Is it safe? What will happen if it doesn’t work?” Melinda asked, peering into the cauldron.

“Likely nothing, it’s a pretty neutral potion. But it might have some side-effects on your vampy selves, who can say?”

“Side effects?”

“Yeah, just ‘cause we’re gonna be using it on you in conjunction with the sun potion – they might interact. They shouldn’t, but they might. Might mean your disguises become permanent, or that one or both potions don’t work, or you might catch fire again. Y’know, the usual.”

Melinda gulped. She hoped the twinkle in his eye meant that Wyatt was joking. Having been on fire once she could readily say that she didn’t want to go through that ever again.

Above them, the shop bell tinkled and all three froze. Wyatt was about to run up the stairs when a familiar voice called down “It’s only us.”

“Ooh it’s Broof and Lilith!” April gushed as she ran up the stairs. “I hope they brought us souvenirs!”

“Oh, we got you a souvenir,” Broof said bitterly and Lilith gingerly presented a flower on to the counter.

April and Melinda peered at it, but it was Wyatt who spoke. “Dude, what is this thing?”

“That’s a death flower.”

“No way, really?!” Wyatt picked it up then immediately placed it back down. “Err, why is it floppy and slimy?”

“Yes, why is it floppy and slimy, Lilith?” Broof asked sarcastically as he politely pressed past the two girls and headed for the stairs. “I need to take a shower.”

“Hoggy, just scruberoo.”

“I need more than magic to shift this grime and shame,” Broof replied. “Do you have any wire wool?”

“What’s wire wool?”

The group waited in silence until Broof had disappeared into the apartment before Wyatt spoke. “Okay, well you got the flower – admittedly it’s nearly dead – but last time I saw Hoggy in such a huff was when he wet his pants on the ghost train… what the hell happened?”

Lilith heaved a huge sigh. “I let loose a werewolf on the village and stole the flower when no one was looking. No one died!” she added, as Melinda opened her mouth. “Now he’s pissed off at me. He can be quite stroppy, can’t he?”

Wyatt snorted in agreement and poked the poor flower. “You could’ve stolen some ice too – this thing won’t live much longer.”

“Can’t you revive it? You are the plant man.”

Wyatt shrugged. “I deal with cactuses and succulents, not offerings to Grim. But I’ll try some stuff on it, see what I can do.”

“Is a death flower part of the cure?” April asked.

“Could well be,” Wyatt replied. He turned back to Lilith. “Did you find out anything else about what else might be in it?”

“Possibly a plasma fruit – apparently they grow from the remains of murdered witches – did you find anything on those?”

“Yeah, got a few locations on a sticky note in my room. I don’t hold out much hope though.”

“Me neither,’ Lilith concurred. “And also we may need the blood of a relative. April is sorted, Melinda will have someone out there,” She turned to Melinda expectantly. “So that leaves me.”

Melinda hated letting people down, but she really had no good news and relayed this to Lilith, who shrugged.

“I guessed as much. Thanks for looking.”

“I’ll keep searching,” Melinda promised.

“Yes, I know you will.” Lilith smiled but it wasn’t sincere. “Thanks.”

Jessica had spent the day getting settled back at her mum’s house. It felt weird being back in a room that she used to reside in, with the mementos of things she used to like and the memories she’d outgrown.

Still, it was better than being stalked by a ghoul. Unless of course he knew that she’d be here somehow…

Jessica shuddered and turned her attention back to her phone where she was scrolling through the pictures she’d taken of the mysterious tree and fruits and rechecking her emails for the umpteenth time to see if Wyatt at the flower shop had replied. He hadn’t.

She sighed heavily, shifting her weight as she strategised. She knew that Wyatt would be the one to help her figure out what this thing was. The ghost of his mother had told him as much during her visit.

Sage had also told Jessica that her son was brilliant, but would need some nudging. So that’s what she decided to do. Tomorrow she’d revisit the shop and nudge the scrawny man to see if he would help her figure out what this thing was and how it was significant.

Tonight, she’d sleep and hope that there were no monsters under bed.

Or in her wardrobe.

Or in her head.

She had a feeling it was going to be another long night.

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