Chapter 153 - Dream Team, But Better

I've closed my well again by now, but I still saw the exact moment when JJ dropped his glamour by the sudden change of colour on Panda's face. She looked more than her nickname-sake than ever when face, except for these awful bags under her eyes, was as white as JJ's.

I saw her hand twitching towards that knife under her vest and tensed, but this twitch was all that there was of any possible hostility in her. Instead of fear and anger, Panda looked at JJ in disbelief, then glanced at me.

"Y-you," she rubbed her eyes, looked at the two of us again, "I just… God. This sucks."

"Uh… Sorry." I didn't know what else to say. At Panda's reaction, the humour suddenly left me. "I never thought I would have to spring this on you like that, Panda."

Under the table, I felt a cool, comforting touch of JJ's palm on my thigh. When I raised my eyes at him, he gave me a sympathetic smile. My lips smiled back on their own accord, and I felt a little better as I turned to Panda again.

She nodded, and her eyes glued to mine. "And you knew, right, Diana? About him. You should've, since you are a witch and all." She glanced at JJ, then sighed. "And I thought you were a cool guy, if too smooth for your own good."

"You flatter me with your assessment, Sveta." JJ smiled at Panda with friendliness and a touch of humour still present. "I truly hope that it will still stand after today."

"Just as I said…" Panda suddenly gasped. Her eyes turned wide, and she rose in her seat, planting her palms onto the table for support. "And you two are dating! Diana… you knew he was a vampire!"

"So what?" I leaned back and put my hands over my chest defensively. "You and just about anyone keep saying stuff like that. It gets tiresome, you know."

Panda sat back down. "It's just really weird. I was taught that all vampires are soulless killing machines, thriving on all the worst kind of torture and mad with power, not that I took it close to heart… I was also taught that dying in the line of duty is the best thing could happen to me, too. I guess both were wrong."

I relaxed again. "It couldn't be easy to hunt vampires." Not with all I knew about them. "How do you even find them out?"

"There are special techniques." Panda looked at JJ, but her eyes became unfocused and concentration marred a point between her eyebrows with a crease. JJ inclined his head with a slight smile. 

Curious, I opened my well and saw that he had a veil of glamour over him again, but it was much thinner than usual. A few seconds later, Panda's eyes focused again, and she relaxed. JJ also returned his glamour to normal.

"If you look at everything at once, instead of focusing on a single thing, and think hard about what you see, then you can notice vampire's features even with glamour," Panda explained to me. "Though if you suspect someone is a vampire, it's easy to make a photo of them, and then make a photo of that photo. Glamour weakens a lot through photos."

"Wow." I had a new level of respect for Panda. "That's still not easy, though."

"Yeah. And the only reliable way to kill a vampire is when they are asleep."

"I've heard about very few vampires who died from the hands of vampire hunters," JJ spoke up. "Much more often I've seen unfortunate hunters becoming vampires' meal. Though admittedly, most of these weren't prepared fighters, but simple folk who suspected worst of their neighbours and, by some coincidence or lack of caution from their target, were right. But much more often those were wrong."

"You talk about witch hunts, and you aren't burned by sun though we are outside. Not that there's much sun right now." Panda frowned and glanced at the canvas roof that hid the cloudy sky from us. "You must be old. What do you even do working in a store? Jean-Jacques, you must be rich!"

"As of now, I'm truly not." And not even a hint of embarrassment in him about it. "Though the reason I'm working for Diana isn't money, but because I'm indebted to her with my life." He sent me a smile, grateful enough to make my heart skip a beat.

"And because you have nothing better to do," I murmured to ward off the bashfulness that filled me.

Panda sighed. "Now I don't know what else to say. You two must know more about the demon than I do."

I scoffed. "I just came from a video-meeting where a couple dozen of old hags argued about who knows about it less. You just won't believe how political these covens are, even now."

"Ma chèrie, you just hadn't seen the Circle." JJ chuckled. The hand he had on my thigh rose to my own and began to toy with my fingers. "Keeping grudges is one of the most popular hobbies of my kind, and if a personal meeting ever occurs, it's just impossible for them to not bring them up. All of them. Imagine, decades of petty disputes over a single street or a city block."

"They should've tried knitting instead. I heard it's very calming. Oh well," I turned to Panda. "Since you are here anyway… My coven's headquarters on lockdown—and I had to sneak out of it to meet with you, just so you knew—but you can invite friends and family in for a shelter. I will have to return, JJ… Has a permission to be there, sort of?"

"When I left this morning, I was promised that I would be let back in."

"So, Panda, you can come with us. As a vampire hunter or just as my friend." I chuckled. "But I imagine everyone's faces if you told everyone if you are a hunter. Vampire hunter and a vampire…"

"Working together. Yes," she smiled, huffed. "The irony. Jesus. Well, if this is where you were staying, I won't be against it. Especially if this means my family won't be able to hoard me anymore."