LAGOS, NIGERIA
"Oyinda!", Osas who has been trying to get the girl's attention for the past few minutes shouted her name, adding a pinch to it for more effect. Oyinda jerked and snatched her assaulted arm with a scowl on her face.
"Where did you go in that head of yours?", Osas gave her a side eye while she mixed roasted potatoes and beans for a customer as Oyinda was currently unavailable.
"Nowhere. I'm just thinking", Oyinda shrugged and went around her empty shop to pick up used plates for washing.
"You've been doing that since I met you. What is it about this time?", Osas asked, handing the customer a food pack and stuffing the money into Oyinda's apron.
"Have you been having those dreams again?", She whispered conspiratorially and the girl's sigh answered her suspicions.
"Don't you think it's time to visit Alfa Bambam?", Osas asked gently.
"I am not visiting anyone. It's a recurring dream, yes, but I'm not possessed Osas", Oyinda answered her.
"Really? So seeing yourself on a throne surrounded by blood with weird looking creatures bowing at your feet, every once in a year, does not spell possessed?", Osas sassed.
"Keep it down will you?", Oyinda snapped in a hushed voice.
"I'm worried, Oyinda. I don't want you to lose your mind"
"I've already done that since living with you and your constitutional sections", Oyinda chuckled.
"Hey! You're living with the most intelligent lawyer in the whole Nigeria, I would call that a blessing", Osas slapped her arm.
That would explain her formal cream blouse tucked into dark blue slacks, finished off with black heels. It's obvious she just came back from work and decided to help out with the shop.
"Hear hear. What's in the bag barrister?", Oyinda gestured at the polythene bag Osas brought in with her.
"Soup stuff. That Nurudeen boy almost gave me all his Oga's meat when he heard you're cooking", Osas chuckled and got up to attend to another customer.
"Cooking? I never agreed"
"You will honey. Now, lose that dirty scowl and put on your brightest smile for your boyfriend", Osas said, her eyes on an approaching Bolanle.
"For the love of God", Oyinda groaned.
"Barrister hot stuff", Bolanle greeted Osas when he got to the shop, a grin on both their faces.
"Chocolate thunder", Osas replied, both of them ignoring a frowning Oyinda.
"How's my favorite barrister?", Bolanle asked.
"Just peachy. How's Oyinda's favorite thug?", Osas asked, knowing it would get a rise out of the other girl.
Oyinda gave the two her attention, a deadly sneer on her face while Osas finished attending to the customer and turned to watch the couple with amusement swirling in her eyes. She calls them a couple and nothing Oyinda has done or will do can stop her from insisting that they are a couple.
"She said that?" Bolanle asked, a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
"I'm the only person in the whole wide world that tolerates the girl. Of course I know things she don't say, isn't she always… excited seeing you?", She eyed the both of them with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"I guess you're right. Her colorful vocabulary around me pleases my cold heart. Oyi baby, what's up?", Bolanle turned her attention to the scowling beauty while a chuckling Osas was left to attend to more customers.
The day was slow. Owing to the fact that it was in the middle of a work day so office workers and school children were yet to troop out of their various places that they spend their week days.
Deep in the seas of people casually strolling around the motorpark, hawkers selling their goods, thugs shouting their next destinations while standing beside their old buses, a blood red eyes shone from the hood of a dark hoodie, their pale faces hidden away from sight.
One could trace their line of sight towards the girl's food shop, the sneer on their faces evident and their irises swirling with a blood red color. The sweet smell that came from the shop had nothing to do with the enticing smell of roasted yam and onions sizzling in warm red oil. To the vampire, it had everything to do with the red liquid that ran through the veins of the frowning girl, her blood so rich, it took physical efforts for the vampire to remain still.
The little spying session was harshly cut off when the vampire's body slammed on the wall behind him with so much force that could kill a human being. His eyes turned to dangerous slits when he tried to pry himself out of the chokehold he found himself in but couldn't.
"Your intentions stinks from a million miles away. What are you unto, you vile creature?", Ona sneered at the vampire, using his natural witchery talent to hold the foreign creature down.
The vampire trashed around, sinking his talons on the side of Ona who hissed sharply before enchanting him the more, trying to choke him both magically and physically. That did the trick.
"I could kill you in a matter of seconds", the vampire sneered, his throat closing in on him.
"Yet you're the one pinned to the wall. Out with it. What are you?", Ona snapped, quickly losing his patience.
"Think first. Leap later. You are not only a messy eater Ona. This thing, is undead", Pere made a sound with his tongue behind them, coming up and swiftly surging his hand inside the vampire's chest and grabbing a hold of the one organ that should be working but it felt, unmoving. Liquid black as tar trickled onto the floor, oozing from the vampire's chest as his eyes widened comically.
"And that's how you have him. Forgive our manners. This hotheaded one is my brother, unfortunately and between the both of us, he is the impatient one and I am the one without an ounce of mercy for foul smelling creatures like you so I will ask just one time", Pere emphasized by squeezing the vampire's heart painfully, making the creature squirm pathetically.
"What are you and most importantly, what's your deal with her?", Pere jerked his head towards the unsuspecting shop where the trio of Oyinda, Bolanle and Osas bantered half heartedly.
"A vampire", the vampire choked out, still surprised that his newborn strength which can overpower even older vampires has failed him against two witches.
"We're getting somewhere", Pere sang condescendingly, squeezing some more while Ona closed up the vampire's throat the more.
"She's the price", the vampire started but didn't get to finish because Pere considered it wise to rip it's heart out, black blood spurting at their faces as the creature visibly darkened before their eyes, the veins in it's body and eyes filling with the black liquid as it gradually burned up before them.
"I guess I'm a messier eater than you brother dearest", Pere shrugged, eyeing the blood coated non-functional heart in his grip.
"Jesus Christ, Pere, you could have waited for more information", Ona snapped.
"Twenty hours in this damned world and you're already a convert", Pere eyed his brother, packaging the heart in a bag of some sort.
"We are supposed to blend in Pere and killing whatever that was in cold blood wasn't the best way to blend with humans who would freak the hell out at the show you just put on", Ona snapped again, looking around to make sure no one witnessed what just happened.
"The air is dirty and dense here. What do you say brother? We grab the Ajekèr and go home right now, give Ibuzo their new Ajekèr and deliver a little present for Ebime. Whatever this vampire is, she will figure it out", Pere shook the packaged heart at his brother, enjoying the evident anger on his face.
"I swear to the gods, I will send you to Heja myself to atone for your sins if you do anything more stupid than killing a source of information before we get the gist, Pere. I don't care if the air is dirtier than Nan's garden or denser than you but we are not going to get attention on ourselves by stealing the Ajekèr", Ona brushed past his chuckling brother and headed straight for the shop, forgetting the black blood smeared on his whole upper body.
His eyes set on the beautiful woman that sold food for customers, he sauntered towards her. It wouldn't hurt to have a sinful taste of a human woman, he thought.
"Hello there"
A loud, shrill sound erupted from Osas' belly at the sight of a man with black blood running down his face.
Of course, attention followed Egichi's children wherever they went, it didn matter if they sought it or not.