Page 6 of Castings & Curses

“Hosty?” Fabian asked, but Jan waved him off.

“Thank you so much for helping me yesterday. I had a little too much sun, but thanks to you, I avoided a ride in the ambulance,” Hanne said.

“Do you mind if we have a quick chat?” Lucille asked, always getting straight to the point.

Hanne seemed surprised, then pointed at an empty set of benches. “Sure. Do you want to sit?”

Mika rubbed Hanne’s shoulder. “I’ll get us something to drink, okay?” She kissed her girlfriend on the cheek and wandered off.

Lucille poked Fabian’s rips and gave him a pointed look. With a sigh, he handed her his Mai Tai and followed Mika. “I’ll help you carry them.”

The girl frowned. “Do I look that weak to you?” When he shrugged, lost for a clever reply, she snorted. “Whatever.”

“I’m Fabian, by the way,” he introduced himself as they walked over to the booths. It always paid to be nice to a potential monster, right?

Mika smiled faintly. “Mikaela.”

“What are you getting for drinks?” Please don’t let it be blood.

“Uhm, coke.”

Coke sounded nice and normal. “Cool. I thought your friend was only into… tomato juice.” Why couldn’t it have been tomato juice?

Mikaela chuckled softly. “Not only, no.”

“What do you drink?”

“It’s going to be two glasses of coke.” Her voice started to sound strained.

“Good to know.”

“Small talk really isn’t your thing, is it?”

It truly wasn’t. Fabian cleared his throat. “Yeah, I only wanted…” Lucille would be so disappointed with him if he didn’t get at least some information out of Mikaela. Nervously, he tried to be a bit more forward. “Well, you could’ve been drinking blood or something crazy like that.”

Mikaela scowled. “I may be from Finland, but we’re not all serial killers.”

“Oh, I wasn’t going… You’re from Finland? That’s cool.” Greenvalley was such a small city that they didn’t get international visitors often. “What brings you to Greenvalley?”

“It was Hanne’s idea. She wanted to travel Europe while we’re still young. Not the big cities, but the secret places. Like Greenvalley.”

“Have you been together for long?” Fabian knew he was supposed to push for more supernatural intel, but he found himself strangely invested now.

Especially since those kinds of questions brought a smile to Mikaela’s lips. “Four years soon. I’m actually planning to ask her if she wants to marry me.”

“Marry? Aren’t you still young?” If they were human, they would be at least.

“We’re twenty. And yes, that’s young, but I love her more than anyone in the whole wide world, and it feels right. As if we belong together.”

Fabian held back a sigh. The two were sweet. Too bad he couldn’t just roll with it and leave them be. “I suppose you don’t know anything about the severed head, then?”

LUCILLE

The bench Hannehad pointed at was almost stolen from them, but Jan rushed forwards and blocked it in an astounding act of callousness, causing the other festival-goers to back away. Sometimes, it was good to be friends with an asshole. It would definitely come in handy when dealing with a vampire.

“So, Hanne, was it? Where are you from?” Lucille asked with fake cheerfulness as she sat down. If Jan was volunteering for the bad cop, she’d gladly take the good cop role.

“Finland,” Hanne replied, her eyes downcast.

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