The Problem With Black Magic by Karen Mead Read Free Book Online

pot of coffee for a meeting like this, but except for Sam, they had all been drinking coffee all night anyway. Instead, the rest of them had herbal tea, just for the sake of having something.
    Sam gestured to her. "Can I borrow your phone?"
    "Sure. You, uh, know how to use it?" she asked. People at the shop made fun of Sam for being virtually the only person in the modern world not to have his own cell phone.
    He narrowed his eyes. "I think I can figure it out," he said, taking it from her. He fiddled with it, apparently sending a short text, then gave it back to her. Cassie put it in her pocket immediately; she was tempted to see what he'd texted, but she could do that later.
    "So time to spill, Harry Potter," said Khalil, leaning back in his chair.
    Sam winced. "I'm not even going to get started on how insulting that is. Anyway, I never wanted any of you involved with this, but now that there's no choice--"
    "You're a demon," said Jay, looking pleased with himself.
    Sam glared at Jay, who smiled broadly. "That's what the vampire guys called you. They also called Cassie a familiar, but I thought that was supposed to be a cat."
    "See, I heard him say that," said Khalil, "But I didn't think he meant it literally. Like, you know, you might say "Oh that manager is such a demon, he gave me six opening shifts this week," to which Dwight rolled his eyes.
    "They were being literal," said Sam, reaching for a cookie. "Although technically, I'm only a half-demon. You almost never see full-blooded demons outside of the Realm; they just come here when summoned. Most of the time, when people say "demon", they mean a half, like me-- they try not to talk about full-blooded demons at all."
    "Speak of the devil and all that," said Khalil quietly.
    "Exactly. And try not to curse from now on, by the way, that gets their attention too."
    There was a brief pause as everyone considered life from now on without the comfort of certain four-letter words. Dwight was the first to emerge from this revelry.
    "So if you're a demon who can freeze time and scare away vampires, what are you doing in my store washing my dishes?" Dwight asked.
    Sam chewed his cookie. "Personal reasons. Not worth going into."
    Khalil stood up. "Hey, you said you were gonna level with us."
    Sam swallowed. "I agree you all have a right to know what I am, not who I am."
    "Sam..."Khalil growled.
    "Let it go," said Dwight. "He's right; we don't need to know everything. Just how this affects the rest of us." Sam nodded.
    Khalil sat down, still looking livid. It was unlike him to be this emotional, and Cassie wasn’t sure what to make of it. She cleared her throat.
    "What about me? You said that I had the most magic out of anyone here. What did that mean? And the stuff you said after in the...make-believe place." Dwight and Khalil both gave her confused looks.
    "This is the coolest freakin' thing that has ever happened," said Jay with reverence.
    "Shut up, Jay," said Cassie. She supposed, from his perspective, it was sort of cool to find out that things like magic and demons existed, but he hadn't just nearly been bitten by a vampire. "Cool" was not the number-one adjective on her list right now.
    "Humans and demons are alike in that they both generate magic, it's just that humans can't really use it," said Sam. "You're like...batteries, just sitting in a pack on the shelf not powering anything. Since I can use magic in general, I can use your magic, even though you can't."
    Jay leaned forward, exci ted. "You can take the triple-A batteries out and put them in a flashlight."
    "I think we all understood the beauty of the metaphor well enough the first time, Jay," said Khalil, not looking at him.
    "Yes, well," Sam continued. "Humans have different amounts of magic; most have very little, but some have a lot. Demons tend to fight over the ones that generate a lot of power."
    Cassie gulped; suddenly, she had a much clearer picture of her current situation. "So, I'm one of the humans that