By the time Vivi texted him back, Leo had already wandered out of the church and into the nearest cafe he could find. It had been a bit of a walk too; the church was in an otherwise residential area, all nice houses with their own fenced-off yards. It was just as well. He would have had to do it anyway--- no
way did he want her picking him up near a church--- so he might as well have a little more time to do it.
The sound of the horn outside signaled her arrival, and he sighed as he rose, ignoring the looks from the other patrons. Rolling down the window, Vivi grinned at him from behind her sunglasses. "Get in, loser," she said. Leo slipped obligingly into the passenger seat, setting his coffee in a cupholder.
His cupholder.
"You know, that's the first time I've ever heard the horn. And this is
my car," he said.
"Mhm. What would you ever do without me, Zhu-zhu?" said Vivi, not repentant in the least. "So? What? Did you quit your job? Did some old fart grab your ass or something?"
"No," said Leo, though it wasn't strictly true. It had happened before, but he hadn't seen it as something worth quitting over, and it definitely wasn't what had happened today. "There was a... public disturbance. Teen vandals, maybe. I don't know."
"Ugh," said Vivi. "
You sound like the old fart when you say things like that."
Leo didn't reply, only stared out the window at the passing scenery. It was funny. He'd planned on telling her everything, back when it was happening. He already told her plenty; they were twins, it was just what they did. And she seemed the most likely out of everyone he knew to actually have answers for him, once he figured out the questions he wanted to ask.
But he'd had a lot of time to think while he wandered around looking for a coffee shop, and somewhere along the way, he'd remembered something. He'd recognized one of the faces in the mob he'd faced down in the office earlier. It hadn't registered at first, with everything that was going on, but on the calm suburban sidewalk, with the sun on him and the birds singing in the distance, he'd been able to place it: one of his sister's boy toys of the week.
He hadn't been her type. That was why Leo had remembered him. Vivi cycled through a lot of people, but the chinless balding man with the deep-set eyes had been so uncharacteristic for her that his face had stuck in Leo's memory.
In retrospect, it had been stupid not to think she might have been involved with this. It was no secret between them that Vivi had demon associates. He just didn't think she'd be hiding anything as big as a cult from him.
But then, twins tell each other everything, right?
"Cat got your tongue, Leo?" she said. Leo leaned slowly back, running a hand through his hair and sighing.
"It was a mess at the office," he said. "I think I'm fired, for one. Hell, there might not be an office to go back to tomorrow." After a moment's pause, he said, "I had to use magic."
Magic. That was what they called it when they were kids and practicing together at home. It sounded less malicious than 'demon powers'. Leo himself hadn't referred to it at all in years. He'd stopped practicing as soon as he was sure he could keep them from acting up.
Vivi had gone further, found herself tutors when experimentation didn't take her as far as she'd liked. Now she arched a brow at him. "You?" she said.
"Yes. It was a mob and... Ugh."
Vivi laughed. "Did you have to kiss one of them? Or did you pick one of the old farts? Was it the ass-grabber? Did you make his day?"
"Eyes on the road," said Leo, reaching out with a hand to steer her gaze away from him by force. She didn't stop laughing. "Yeah," he lied, "it was Cranston. He tastes exactly like three-day-old tuna salad." He drummed his fingers on the center console between the seats. "Hey." Beat. "Can you teach me? How to do all the... magic stuff."
That
really earned him a look. It was hard not to squirm. Leo wasn't the squirming type, but Vivi had known him when he was young enough to be. "Look, it's just... Things got out of hand today, and it's not like it's getting any less dangerous in this country," he said. "Some people get guns, right? I just don't want to be caught off guard again."
"Guns, huh?" said Vivi. For a moment he thought she was going to refuse, press him for a better explanation or make a jab at him again. But she didn't. She just shrugged and said, "Alright, but you'd better start figuring out who you're gonna screw. If you pass out while we're doing this, I'm not resuscitating you."
In the intervening three weeks, Leo had become certain about three things. One was that his sister was almost definitely involved with the cult.
He'd watched her more closely since then. He hadn't meant to, but the cultist he'd recognized had unsettled him, and now that he was looking, there were other clues to be found. Mostly it was just the sheer number of unfashionable older men she slept with, the ones with no redeeming qualities besides their wallets. Vivi had never been a gold-digger before, mostly because money just wasn't an issue for them. They lived in a penthouse, and they used to have help. So many of them had been white too, and Vivi hated sleeping with old white guys.
"It's always cheongsam this and qipao that," she'd said.
"Or that I'm some kind of mail-order baby-doll bride. And half of them think I'm Japanese. Ugh."He didn't think she had suddenly developed a hankering for fleshy pink dicks. Not to mention how tired she'd seemed lately. And she'd been bringing some of her demon 'friends' to Leo's practice sessions, and these were a lot sharper than the ones Leo remembered seeing her with before. Leo wasn't an expert on demons, but he was going into law. He knew a viper when he saw one.
Which brought him to the second thing. If he was going to get her out, he couldn't do it alone. Those demons didn't have the same reservations about hurting him that his sister did, and as it turned out, diluted demonic abilities didn't do much against the real thing.
It almost didn't occur to him to call the priest. He'd been so caught up between figuring out his abilities and trying to land a new job--- not that he needed the money either, but the idea of being unemployed and unproductive dug at him like a thorn. It was only when he'd gone through his pockets before sending his suit off for cleaning that he found the scrap of paper he'd tucked away, and stared at it for a long moment, considering.
He dug out his phone, and immediately made a face as he saw the two dozen notifications waiting for him. This was the third thing he'd grown certain of: this whole casual sex thing he was doing wasn't working. He didn't know how Vivi managed these people. He'd tried it, mostly because he had to, but somehow it was never casual and easy, cut-and-dry. His phone was a war zone these days, which wasn't making the job hunt any easier.
He flicked through the notifications and dismissed most of them, then punched in the number he'd been given. He didn't know what he was doing. They were four guys who had indirectly led to the sacking of his old workplace.
Really not the ones he wanted to be calling.
But his sister was being inducted into a satanic cult, and he needed to get her out. This was just the best thing that occurred to him.