The Beasts: A Winter Tale, continuing the story begun in The Old

[CharmedFan28]

I am not sure if I could make it to 3 sentences. She just seems a bit lost, calculating and sneaky. Maybe I don't know her well enough yet, ill have to wait and see what happens next.

 

[ChrisGibson]

lost, calculating, sneaky. I hadn't thought of lost, but yes. I would say lustful and assertive, which is a nice way to say calculating. But I think Kris is lost too. Maybe they'll find each other,

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER SEVEN CONTINUED


“I really like having sex with you,” Joyce said.
Peter laughed outloud.
“No, I do,” Joyce said. “You’re… very good at this.”
“I feel like I should roll my hand and say, ‘Thank you m’lady’ in a British accent.”
Now Joyce laughed and she said, “I just… I’m a forthright person.”
“You sure in the fuck are.”
Peter turned over in bed and said, “You wanna cigarette or what?”
“I do,” Joyce said,
“I don’t smoke in front of other people, but I feel like…”
He stopped, shrugging, “I just feel like we know each other. Does that make sense?”
As he passed her a cigarette Joyce said, “Yes. Considering that we keep on getting into bed.”
“Say,” Peter said as he leaned forward and lit her cigarette, “Do you want to go on a date? Cause I feel like we’re seeing each other, and the whole third date sex thing is out of the way.”
“Do you know,” Joyce said, “if we do that, then we wil actually reverse the order.”
Peter smiled stupidly and pushed his hair out of his eyes.
“I’m just not going to say anything right now.”
“Any why is that?”
“Because I’m turning into one of those guys who says the wrong thing. Starts talking about you meeting the kids and us going on vacations and… all that.”
Peter waved it off as he flicked his cigarette in the ashtray he’d put in the bed between them.
“Well, then let’s just forget you said anything about that.”
“I’m serious,” Peter said, “Let’s.forget what I said and just enjoy each other. Mind if I get morose for a moment.”
“I feel like you’re ose enough.”
Peter frowned at her.
“That was a terrible joke.”
“What? Oh… more… ose. Wow, that was bad.”
“Don’t I know it. And sorry I interrupted you with an awful joke.”
“It’s just good to meet someone,” Peter said.
“You get divorced and suddenly you’re either undesirable or you’re thinking the next woman you meet has to be the mother of your children. But just… fuck all that… to meet someone. To meet you. Whatever the fuck this is, I like it.
“And now,” Peter said.
“And now what?”
“And now what are the thoughts in your head?” Peter said in his best German accent. “What are you trying not to say, trying to keep out of your mind?”
“That is… You’re an interesting man, Peter Keller.”
“I’m an alright guy,” Peter amened.
“No,” Joyce said. “No man ever laid next to me and asked me what was on my mind?”
“Well, you’ve been dating a bunch of assholes, then.” and Peter added, “M’lady.”
“I could tell you my bills are on my mind, and they are. I could tell you I wonder if I look fatter lying on my back, and that’s true too. There’s a lot of shit on my mind, but the reporter in me is curious.”
“About?”
“You?”
Peter grinned at her childishly and said, “I’m on your mind?”
“Well, Pamela Strauss is on my mind.”
“Oh,” Peter almost frowned. “I haven’t thought about her in years.”
“Or at least in a night.” Joyce turned over. “Marabeth got her journal.”
“Yes,” Peter said, his tone changing a little, though Joyce couldn’t quite say how.
“Aren’t you curious about it?”
“Not especially.”
And then Joyce said, “Marabeth hadd me read it. Well, some of it.”
“She did.”
Peter was saying small phrases, but he was changing with each phrase and Joyce wondered if she was afraid, but realize she wasn’t. She trusted him.
“She thinks she’s a werewolf,” Joyce said quickly. “She… I thought I shouldn’t say anything. Thought, maybe I shouldn’t bring it up to you, but I’ve been thinking about that since you asked me to come walking with you. Since, really since I’ve met you.”
“Marabeth is your friend.”
“She’s my best friend.”
“Right,” Peter said, turning to lie on his back. “You wouldn’t just… tell your best friend’s crazy business. Not even to her cousin you’d just started sleeping with. Especially,” Peter amended, “not to her cousin you just started sleeping with. Not for the hell of it. Not unless you thought there was a possibility that it was true.”
Peter turned slowly to her, his blue eyes were tilted. He was looking, suddenly, wolfish, “not unless you were looking for confirmation.”
“Well,” Joyce said, “when you put it that way… I wish you’d stop looking at me that way.”
“Joyce,” Peter sighed, lying on his back again, “I’ve never gone to bed with a woman who asked me if I was a werewolf. This is kind of a first time discussion.”
“I get it,” Joyce said, “and I feel nuts discussing it, as nuts as I felt terrified a moment before and—”
“And I’ve never had to think about seriously answering,” Peter continued.
“Well, why would you? I mean—”
“And I hate liars, and I hate lying, so I’ll just tell you straight up, yes. Yes, I am.”
Joyce dropped the bed sheet before her breast.
“What the fuck?”




“I stole your ID,” Jenean said when they both lay on the floor of her apartment, naked and looking up at the ceiling. “I’m crazy that way. I didn’t take your credit card, but I wanted some excuse to get a hold of you again.”
Kris’s eyes searched the ceiling for words.
“That is…”
“The most fucked up thing you’ve ever heard.”
“No,” Kris waved that away with his index finger. “It is definitely not the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard. It’s actually kind of a compliment. Truth is, usually women tend to not want to see me more than a few times.”
“Well, we’ve made it to two, so is a few three? That means one more time before I hate you.”
“Well,” Kris turned over on his side, “we better make the most of tonight, then.”
“You know,” Jenean said, pushing the curtain of ash blond hiar out of her eyes, “it really doesn’t matter that much. When you think of the number of men I’ve hated that I seemed to not mind having sex with. And I totally shouldn’t have said that because it makes me sound like a huge slut.”
“I don’t think I’m in a position to talk,” Kris said. “What’s more, I don’t think it really matters.”
“That’s very renaissance of you.”
“Is it,” Kris said. “I feel like since we just had sex in the backseat of your car on Christmas in an I-Hop parkinlg lot, any other feeling would be hypocritical.”
“What were you doing in I-Hop?” Jenean said, “On Christmas night?”
Kris instantly thought of lying, but then he said, “I had just learned my Dad was dead.”
“Oh, shit.”
“I mean, he went missing half a year ago, so we assumed.”
“But still.”
“Yeah,” Kris said. “But now it’s certain, and then tonight we went to get him, his remains and…. It’s just kind of fucked up, but… fuck it, I don’t want to talk about this!”
He stretched out on the floor.
“I get it. Sorry.”
“No,” Kris said, “You don’t have anything to apologize for. We’re having a good time, and I like having a good time, and tomorrow morning I’m going to go back to all that. All that family stuff. But for tonight… This.”
“Well, my pussy hurts so we need to come up with a different kind of fun for a bit.”
“Fuck!” Kris laughed. “Well, then. Howabout you tell me about yourself.”
“That is as much fun as your story,” Jenean said. “The men in my family are weird and crazy and disappear. They have serious depression.”
“Sounds like the men in my family. Except for the disappearing thing.”
“My dad left when I was about five. My mom could never make ends meet. We were always being evicted, and getting our lights turned off. She turned into a total slut. She married my stepfather who molested me. Uh… there are a lot of real nuggets in my adolescence. It would make some interesting books. Maybe not books you’d want to read, but, still. I left home when I was seventeen, and went in search of my father.”
“Did you find him?”
“Yes.”
“And was that a good thing?”
“Not entirely. But that’s a whole set of stories too. Ends in me narrowly escaping a gang rape in Vegas and making my way back across the country On The Road style, except for the boring white male self pity of Jack Kerouac.”

Kris said, “I always did think that was kind of a whiney book.”
“I fucking hate it, and I’m pretty sure Kerouac was homosexual.”
“Some people say bisexual.”
“Bisexual is what you say when you don’t want to admit you’re gay. The only people who are bisexual are vampires and those assholes don’t exist.”
When she said this a look passed over Kris’s face, and suddenly he thought of being in the chamber underneath the church in Chicago, of the moment when Lawrence tha vampire had stood beside him and Eve Moreland had handed Kris the letter and then Laurie had handed her the bag and the human head had fallen out of it.
“At least,” Jenean amended, “they’d better not be real.”
“I’m glad I met you, Jenean,” Kris said.
“Why, cause my life is more fucked up than yours.”
“No,” Kris said, “because you’re strong, and when I listen to you I think, well hell, maybe I can be strong too. Maybe.”



Jim Strauss blinked and realized he was in a dark room in Ohio, which should not have been strange except he had thought he was somewhere else, in a house full of light. He was lying in bed with his lover, and this was not Ryan. He was a handsome man about the same size as him, young, tender. Jim felt tender to him even though he had no idea who he was, even though he was clearly a figment of his imagination. He had a short dark beard running along his jaw and soft dark hair, a rounded face that was quiet and peaceful and he had lain in the bed beside him, on his back, mouth open and palms up, breathing softly.
But now Jim was here, and alone, and the house was chilly the way it got this time before the furnace came back on early in the morning. There was a vague light down the hall, and Jim climbed out of bed, put on his shirt, smoothed his hair out of his face and went into the hallway to see Marabeth’s door half open. When he went to tap on her door, he pushed it open a little. She was not there. He left the room and went downstairs. The light was on in the kitchen and Jim walked through the house and down the hall toward where Marabeth was sitting up with… the Detective from the other night?
“Is this a party?” he asked.
“It could be,” Marabeth said.
“Can I get you guys something?”
Marabeth shook her head.
“I’m good on tea,” she said.
Then she said, “I couldn’t sleep, and lucky for me—or unlucky—Detective McCord had a pair of father’s cuff links to bring over.”
The long tall redheaded man with the broad face nodded.
“Thank you for that,” Jim nodded to him. Then he said to his cousin, “What kept you up? Uncle Nate?”
“No,” Marabeth shook her head.
“You should tell him,” the detective said.
Jim looked at this man. Why would he know anything? What had she told him?”
“It’s the journal,” Marabeth said.
“You can’t read too much of what Pamela Strauss said,” Jim said, “At least, not from what I know of her.”
“You should read the book,” Marabeth said.
“When?” said Jim, closing the microwave and turning it on.
“Now.”
“But…” Jim began, “what about you?’
“I can’t read it all,” Marabeth shook her head. “In fact, truthfully, I can’t read any of it. Not now. It’s becoming too real.”
Jim raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
“I can’t explain it,” she said. “Not now. But… ”
“Okay,” Jim nodded. “I’ll read it. Where is it?’
“On my bed.”
Jim nodded again. “I’ve been having strange dreams too. I’ll take it to my room and read it with my tea. See if it gets me to sleep.”
“Yeah,” Marabeth shook her head, “I don’t think it’ll do that.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

This whole werewolf business is getting very interesting. I look forward to reading what happens next with that, whether or not any of the characters transform in the present. I am beginning to like Jenean, I think I misunderstood her intentions with the last portion. Great writing and I look forward to more soon! I hope you had a nice night.

 

[ChrisGibson]

I did have a nice night, thank you. Jenean's just a slut trying to make her way through the world, and at the end of the day, isn't that a lot of us? Peter will have more to say and Marabeth will have more to do and everyone is going to be really surprising really soon.

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT, LONGINGS ARE AROUSED

When Jim left, Marabeth said, “Detective—”
“Call me Jason.”
“Well, alright. Jason, I really should probably be getting to bed too.”
“You sure?” Jason said.
“Well, I mean, I guess I’m a cunt,” Marabeth realized. “having you come over in the middle of the night and then here I am sort of like saying, see you, and you’re a guest in my home, Well, my family’s home.”
“No, No,” Jason McCord stood up, smoothing down his trousers.. “I just mean, you seemed pretty shaken.”
“I was pretty shaken.” Marabeth had not said anything about the dream of Hagano or Hagano making love to her. She had not said anything about waking up and… no, best not to think about that now.”
“I could sit up with you for a little while,” he said.
“That’s good. I mean, I shouldn’t ask you to do that, but—”
“But I would like to.”
“And I would like you to.”
“We can go to the parlor. Or to the library.”
“I’d like to see the library,” Jason said.
“You know,” Marabeth said as they entered the library and Jason closed the door, “A few days ago I would have never imagined any of this. I mean, how could you? And yet, right now it all seems like it makes perfect sense, like, of course this shit is true. What to do with it all, I don’t know, though.”
“I feel like we’re talking about more than finding your missing father,” Jason said.
“We may be.”
They sat down on either side of the fireplace. She wondered how bad she looked at this time of night. He was the kind of man who, like her cousins, was in trousers, shirt and tie even this late. It went well with his sort of longish red hair.
“I know how you feel, though.” He said. “Maybe. I mean, that’s the way I felt about my family. I always heard things, but when I knew… certain things, it made sense. Everything just made more sense. Even if I wasn’t really part of it.”
“Do you wish you were?”
“Not really,” Jason said. “Do you?”
“I think I am,” Marabeth said after an uncertain moment. “I think I am only I don’t know how to unlock it. Which I guess is better than not knowing how to control something that just happens to me.”
Jason tilted his head, and then he said, “Well... if you are able to do it, unlock whatever you’re trying to unlock, will you do it?”
“Yes,” Marabeth said more quickly than she’d meant to. “My Aunt Pamela did, and if I can do it the way she did, I definitely will.”
Then she said, “But why am I so afraid?”
And then she said, “Fuck it!”
“What?” Jason almost laughed.
“I… the book is making me feel strange.”
“What kind of strange?”
“What I didn’t say…”
But still, she could not say it, and she simply said, “I haven’t had sex n a year. I vowed I would never let that happen to me. It’s making me strange.”
“That isn’t right,” Jason said. “You’re a beautiful woman.”
“I…” Marabeth began, and then she laughed.
“I don’t even have the energy to deny it.”
“And sexy.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
“No,” Jason admitted, laughing, “I don’t suppose I am.”
His shirt fit him. She could see the outlines of a fit body through it, and his trousers fit well. She had to stop herself from looking at the bulge between his legs.
What’s wrong with me?
The lust rose in her. Her mouth watered as she felt herself getting wet.
Neither one of them said anything, and there was simply the sticatto ticking of the clock above them, the portrait of Friederich looking over them to Pamela over their heads.
“Do you think I’m some kind of slut?” Marabeth said.
“What?” Jason said, almost sleepily.
“Women never know how to ask for what they want.”
“That’s a… this conversation has…” everything Jason started to say, he seemd too sleepy to say. It didn’t seem quite honest.
“What do you want, Marabeth?”
“You have to not judge me.”
“No.”
She could still feel the ghostly lands of Hagano on her body, his knee pressing her thighs open, his body, lying between her legs. She slid down to her knees, and unzipped Jason’s trousers.
“Goddamn,” he said.
His dick popped up, thick and darker than the rest of him, and she took it in her mouth, down, down to the back of her throat, almost gagging, rising up, taking it it in again. while his hands gripped the sides of the chair. She pulled down his Jockeys and worked at his trousers.
“Do you want to fuck me?” she demanded.
“I want to fuck you,” Jason’s voice was thick as he climbed out of the chair and put her down on the floor. “I wanna fuck you so bad right now.”

THE BEASTS WILL RETURN THURSDAY NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow Marabeth and Jason probably hooking up? Good for them. Marabeth seems like she needs this at the moment. I don't really have much more to say sorry other then that I enjoyed this portion and I look forward to more in a few days.

 

[ChrisGibson]

It's not really much more to be said. It's sort of unlike Marabeth, but goddamn it does seem like she needs this. We'll see what happens, and there will be even more surprises and probably more sex when the next part comes on Thursday.

 

[ChrisGibson]

E I G H T

NIGHT
WORK


Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

-Friedrich Nietzsche



Seth Moore woke up from the strangest dream he’d had in a long time. It was not about Nathan, indeed, Nathan had stopped appearing to him since Christmas. It wasn’t an unpleasant dream at all, not like the monstrous fantasies he’d had before. He was in a great house with high walls and high ceilings, and he was walking through it with a man with golden hair and a scruffy face. Seth knew he loved him, and when the man turned to him, he kissed him on the mouth.
“You’re like me,” he said. “You have secrets.”
“I don’t have any secrets,” Seth told him. “Not anymore, and not from you.”
He knew he and the man had made love, and calling him the man didn’t seem right because in that dream he had known him, that man had been part of him. They had been lovers from long ago, and in the dream this was not their first time. They had spent a life together, He remembered them laying together and the man, the boy, his lover’s chest almost like something cut from marble, with lovely golden brown hair up the center of his stomach and on his breast, and his deep blue eyes were pale, his lips pink, his mouth red.
“You know I will always take care of you,” he said.
“But that’s perfect,” Seth smiled at him, “Because you know I’ll take care of you too.”
Nothing supernatural had taken place in that dream, certainly nothing like the strangeness that had taken place all through December up until Christmas, but it gave the early morning a sense of sweetness to Seth, and then, after that, a bit of sadness as he moved through his breakfast with Owen, and Lewis, with Christopher Ashby who looked half asleep, and with his cousin, Loreal, whose cinnamon colored poofs of hair were touched by red as she sat before the open window.
“Where did Uri go?” Loreal asked.
“He went back home,” Owen.
“But it’s still Christmas.” And Loreal added, “and I have no intentions of going home.”
“He went back largely for Kris Strauss,” Lewis said. “Eve gave him some letter.”
“Did you look at it?’
“No,” Lewis said.
“Why not?”
Lewis furrowed his eyebrows because Loreal had furrowed her eyebrows and he said, “It really wasn’t my business.”
“Pardon me for saying it,” his cousin told him, “but these days everything is your business. Especially whatever Eve is up to.”
“Fine,” Lewis said, while Chris, who had still not spoken looked from him to Loreal, “since we are a family, since we are all in the know, I’ll be frank.”
“You should be,” the pretty girl said.
“You accept that there are wonders in this world.”
“I know there are wonders in this world,” Loreal said. “Us for one thing. And Christopher is a vampire.”
“And Laurie,” Seth added.
“Why did you bring him up?” Loreal asked.
Seth shrugged.
“Just because.”
Loreal opened her mouth, then closed it.
“There are all sorts of things in this world,” Lewis said. “Kris Strauss is a werewolf from a family of werewolves. And Eve’s letter is to the head of that family, for the werewolf clans are headed by women. Apparently Eve was the last person to see Kris’s father. Kris talked to Uri on Christmas Night, and it turns out that his father is dead. If what I know is right, he had visited Augustus and Eve before he died.”
“Do you think Grandfather killed him?” Loreal demanded.
“I don’t know why he would,” Lewis said. “He’s certainly not above killing, but he always has a reason.”
“Well, being a werewolf would be a reason,” Chris said.
“Did you know there were werewolves?” Lewis asked him.
“No,” Chris shook his head. “I assumed they were made up, and they probably thought we were made up too.”
“Then you don’t know… how they work? What’s true about them, what’s from the movies and fiction and folktales.”
Chris shook his head.
“Here’s the thing,” Lewis said, “I’m not sure they do either. They aren’t like us. Or like you either, like the Drinkers. This family, it seems, lives like ordinary human beings.”
“Well, but they’d have to know,” Owen said. “I mean, if you turned into a wolf once a month, you would know.”
“Unless,” Chris said, “that’s not the way it works. I mean, I can walk in the daylight. I don’t have to constantly feed on blood. I don’t sleep in a coffin. Who knows how it really works? And apparently, if they are a family of werewolves then it’s not just being bitten that makes you one. You can inherit it. So… who knows?”
“If they don’t know who they are, and we don’t,” Loreal said, “then how in the world are we going to find out?”
“Who says it’s for us to find out?” Owen said. “We can’t assume that we are the ones who are supposed to figure out everything.”
“Only, Uncle,” Lewis said, “I have a feeling that it is.”
“I have a feeling that everything that took place before Christmas, at Yule, was all about that. That this was why Kris Strauss was here, and Eve, and the vampires. It is the beginning of something. I don’t know how long that something will last or what that something is, but I know that in some way or another we are connected to them.”
Owen nodded slowly.
“Your reign has begun, Lewis. During mine I sought to keep the clan out of strange matters and let people seek us out rather than interfere in their affairs. Would you go to them, or wait till they come to you?”
Lewis shook his head.
“Vasilisa came to Baba Yaga, not the other way around. Always the witch’s place was in the wood and the quest was to find her. It was ever the way of the witch to maintain council and be found by the seeker, not to seek being heard. But maybe things have changed.”


“They’re going to go down and talk to Augustus,” Chris said while the were sitting on the bed in Lewis’s apartment.
“Yes,” Lewis said. “They probably are.”
“But think of all the things Augustus could really know,” Chris said, “and not about them, but possibly about me?”
“You?”
“Augustus is old,” Christopher said, “Very old, and apparently someone who hung out with werewolves. Someone who is not surpsied by vampires. He knows my sister.”
“You think we should travel down there and see him.”
“At least get out of this shitty winter weather.”
Lewis laughed.
“Besides, you’ve become the Master of your clan, and some people weren’t there. Some people haven’t paid you honor.”
“Paid me honor.”
“I know how it goes. I am in a clan too, don’t forget,” Chris said. “And even though Augustus ins’t in your clan, he should have been there. The fact that he wasn’t—”
“Could be meant to irk, meant to make me pay a visit.”
“Or he doesn’t think you will,” Chris said. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“I was…” Lewis rolled his tongue about in his mouth. “I might have actually been a teenager.”
“Well, there’s the thing,” Chris said. “Maybe he thinks that’s still what you are. Maybe he thinks Owen is still the real head of things and he simply doesn’t respect you.”
“Are you just saying these things to make me go down and see him?”
“I am saying them because I’ve been around a long time and I know how power works.”
“But, Christopher, you’re forgetting, I’ve been around a long time too,”
And when Lewis said it, there was a look in his eyes and Chris instantly saw the Malachy he had been separated from for so long, whom he had longed for.
“And yet, knowing all that, I have fallen in love with you as Lewis.”
Lewis nodded.
“I longed for you to come back to me for so long and when you did, you were Lewis for so long that Lewis is what I know. Funny, isn’t it?”
“Well, not that funny,” Lewis shrugged. “After all, Lewis is who I am. That’s not untrue. I’m just a lot of other people too.”
Lewis stirred his coffee and then he said, “I think we should pay a visit down south.”
Chris looked at him.
“After all, as you said, the weather in Chicago is awfully shitty.”


“What’s that you’re writing in?”
“You know you could have scared the shit out of me?” Loreal demanded.
“Not you,” Laurie said.
“You can’t just come flying in through windows,” Loreal reprimanded, not turning form her desk where she was still writing.
“I didn’t exactly—”
“You flew, at an incredibly high speed and you came in through the window like a bat. Not as a bat, but like a bat. I’ve seen you do it before,”
Loreal turned around, thumping her pen on the desk, “Or rather, I’ve failed to see since my seeing isn’t as quick as your moving.”
“You are full of sharp words and little charm for your Laurie.”
“This is a grimoire,” Loreal said, gesturing to the ledger. “A grammery.”
“That’s a thing?”
“Of course it’s a thing. You see it’s a thing.”
“I thought that was just like… you know, me sleeping in a coffin.”
“No, grammaries are real, and I’m updating mine before I go with Lewis.”
“Oh,” Laurie frowned. “Lewis didn’t tell me you were going.”
“No,” Loreal nodded, “That’s because I didn’t tell him I was going either.”
“What about college?”
“We don’t start back for a while and anyway, this is more important. By the way, why did you come?”
Laurie started to speak, and Loreal said, “I know the question sounds rude, but it is a serious one. You have business with Lewis?”
“I thought that, possibly, I might have business with you.”
“Oh,” Loreal said.
“May I sit?”
Loreal gestured to her bed.
Smoothing his dark trousers, Laurie sat down and Loreal swiveled in her chair to sit across from him.
“Was I wrong in thinking we were becoming friends?”
“If in becoming friends you mean we made out and almost had sex at my grandmother’s funeral, then… yes.”
Laurie took a breath and stroked his chin.
“Um… yes.”
“I thought vampires were more eloquent.”
“I thought witches were more silent.”
Loreal raised an eyebrow.
Then she said, “Look, I just don’t really know what’s going on. Where we are. Or if we are a we. Or why I’m kind of ticked off about that question. I mean, I was pretty sure you were into me, which I hate to use that term. Only you’ve got this Lynn, and she’s having your baby and—”
“I don’t think I’m going to be staying with Lynn.”
“Don’t think?” Loreal said.
“I will not be staying with Lynn.”
“Oh,” Loreal said.
“She does not like the idea of what I am. To her.”
“Being her great-great grandfather?”
Laurie nodded.
“And that twice over,” he said.
“And she did not sign on to being with a vampire. Believe it or not, some people find it offputting.”
Loreal sat back in the chair as far as she could, nodding.
“Let me ask you this?” she said.
“Alright?”
“If she was okay with it—?”
“She isn’t.”
“So you said, but if she was? Would you still want to be with her?”
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters.”
Laurie did not answer her, and Loreal waited for him to say something, but nothing came. So, she simply swung around in her chair and picked up her pen.
“When you have something to say, I’ll be here.”
“It couldn’t have worked out,” Laurie said.
Loreal turned to look at him.
“You know me for exactly what I am, and that is how you… if you are keen on me at all, it’s because you know who I am. And I think you are keen. On me. A little.”
“Is this when we go to the malt shop?”
“What?”
“The last time I heard the word keen was on The Donna Reed Show.”
“Well,” Laurie shrugged, looking a little embarrassed, It’s hard to keep up with the lingo.”
“Just stop using slang.”
Laurie nodded.
“And I feel like no matter what century you’re in, telling a girl that she wants you and not at least admitting you want her a little is…. Tacky. Tacky. You can use that bit of slang. It’s not going anywhere.”
“I am keen—” Laurie began. Then said, “I love you.”
Loreal blinked at him, her eyes wide.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I mean—”
“No,” Loreal waved him away. “I love you too. That’s the main bit we have to sort out. Now…. You should go back to work.”
“Go back to work?”
“Go back to work and I’ll finish keeping my grammary.”
“May I… come calling tonight?”
“Come call…. Uh, sure,” Loreal said. “But for now, I need to sort out my head. So go to work.”
Laurie stood more uncertain than she had ever seen him, and then suddenly he kissed her on he cheek.
She turned to speak to him, but there was a streak of color, and then he was gone.
As Loreal sat looking at the blank space in the room before her, and the open door to the hallway she murmured, “We’re gonna have to have a talk about that.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a well done portion and great to finally see the connections between the two stories! I look forward to reading more about that too. Its also nice to hear more about some of the characters from The Old. Laurie and Loreal seem like a good match, I hope they get together. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days! Have a great weekend!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yeah, it is nice to see people I've held off on for several chapters come back into the story. All the links aren't tied up yet, but slowly things are coming together, and a very much love Loreal and Laurie, but even more is going to happen on the other side of the weekend. Thank you for your kind wishes and I wish the same for you.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THE BEASTS


“Even though it’s cold as hell outside, at least it’s warm in here,” Lewis said.
Chris, lying nude while Lewis ran his fingers over his back, laughed into his pillow and said, “It is more than warm in here. This is the hottest apartment in the world.”
“Well, we’re always naked in it,” Lewis turned over on his side contentedly and looked out of the sunlit window. “So does it matter?”
“We need to get our sleep,” Chris pressed his face into Lewis’ back. “You and me. Tonight we meet with Kruinh. Tonight you meet the Family.”
“More than I’ve already met?”
“Yes. And Kruinh wants to discuss things with you.”
“It has been a long while.”
“Then you remember?”
“I do. It came back to me little by little, and maybe he wishes to discuss old things. It has been centuries since I spoke with him last. In fact, it was before I died the first time, as Melek. Before he made you. I have not seen him since then.”
“Something is going on in our world too,” Chris said, “The vampire world. Something going on with us the way it is going on with Kris Strauss and his werewolves.”
“Well,” Lewis rolled over on his back, “not that I want to discuss this when we could be sleeping or having sex, but we’ve said, already, that things are happening, things we do not completely understand.”
“Only,” Christopher said, turning to him and touching his cheek, “I feel that now that you are who you are, there will be many questions from many people, and the one who will be expected to have the answers will be you.”




Jim had left his door open and was raising himself up to stand on his head when Marabeth entered.
“You and that Jason guy have a good time last night?” he asked offhandedly.
“Yeah,” Marabeth said with equal carelessness. “We had a decent night.
“Morning yoga?” she said as he lowered himself to his shoulders and then lay on his back and curled into a sitting position.
“It stops me from being crazy,” Jim said.
It also makes you fit as fuck, Marabeth observed, but thought this would embrass her cousin.
“And,” Jim said, going into a downward facing dog, and then drawing his feet to his hands, “reading that woman’s book definitely made me need to do yoga.”
“Are you going to read more of it now?”
“I don’t think so,” Jim said. “I got to when they’re in America and—”
“I only got her leaving Germany,” Marabeth said. “I was going to give it a go again. I think I can stand it. I think I actually, … want to know what happens. I feel stronger now.’
“Well. You are strong. You’re always strong,” Jim told her.
Stretching himself up on his toes he said, as he reached for the sky, “You’re the strongest Strauss I know.”
Marabeth made for the book on the bed and said, “I don’t know that that’s true.”
Jim settled onto the bed in his shorts and tee shirt, his chest wet with sweat, and moved the back of his hand over his forehead.
“If I went to meet this woman named Eve Moreland, a woman who I think knows a lot about our family, would you go with me?”
“Sure.”
“I didn’t even tell you where.”
Jim shrugged.
“Does it matter?”




She went down the hall. Marabeth didn’t really wish to think about anything else that had happened the night before. She would have to deal with it all, obviously, but for the moment the most important thing was to press on, and she was sure that there would be no real pressing on until she read the book. Or at least read more. She placed the book on the bed and and then went downstairs. She thought about going upstairs, but then imagined that Kris probably wasn’t there anyway..
She could hear the house waking up, and she wished she’d kept a coffee maker in her room like she used to. Before she had been afraid to go back to her lonely apartment, and now she wished she was there, didn’t really wish to be with her family at the moment. Joyce had brought her here, and right now Joyce was probably in bed with Peter, something Marabeth refused to think about.
But… Jason.
Not that Jason wasn’t worth it, but this wasn’t like her, and she suspected it wasn’t like him. Still, thinking about him and last night was a distraction from thinking about the book, which, as she sat, not on her bed, but in the old chair in the corner, she resolved to read now.




“I wished we’d flown,” Lewis commented.
“That wouldn’t even be practical,” Chris noted as they walked down Ogden Avenue.
“But it’s so exhilarating. I have to say,” Lewis told him, “out of all the boyfriends I’ve ever had, and all the rides I’ve ever taken, riding on your back over the city of Chicago at the speed of… well, not light, I guess you’d call it the speed of vampire, is the greatest.”
“It’s a cold snap. You would be cold as fuck if we did that tonight.”
“I’m cold as fuck now,” Lewis noted, and then Christopher stopped.
Lewis did not ask what the matter was, because now Chris walked differently, quicker, his senses obviously turned on, and Lewis thought, “He is on the hunt,” and then Lewis knew that the reason they had not flown was because, in one way, Chris knew he would be on the hunt.
“Did you hear that?” Chris asked unnecessarily, Lewis thought, because of course he hadn’t. He followed Chris for a moment, but then Chris raised a finger, and he went down the street and through an alley.

He was getting used to this. He told himself that every time after it happened. Being beaten was getting to be commonplace. But Willis must have known that, because he wouldn’t let it be boring. He wouldn’t let it be the same. He always changed it up with some variation of torture. Lately he’d figured out that the cold was a good place for a beating, the cold and the threat that you just might not be allowed to come back in, so here he was, out by the trash cans throwing his hands up as a shield, with no coat, in tee shirt and jeans, almost burning with the cold. He didn’t pray anymore. He had been prayed out.
“Don’t you goddamn put your hands up. Don’t put your hands up . You gon feel this! You gon”—hit—“fuckin’”—hit—“feel this. You little worthless motherfucker. Who do you think you are? You ain’t shit. You black, you ugly, you ain’t got shit to piss in or lay down on but what I give your ungrateful—”
And then it was gone. It seemed like absolute silence, being sucked into soundlessness for a moment, and so it took a bit to realize that there were sounds, the sounds of the street, cars passing, the wind blowing, the sound of feet coming down the street and down the alley, but it was the sound of Willis that had stopped.
And then the boy looked up, Willis was pressed against the wall, the studded belt hanging from his hand, and most certainly there was a white man, with pale blond spiked hair in a leather who was, by all indications a vampire, quietly sucking the life out of Willis’s throat.
As he released Willis, and the dead man slumped to the ground, Chris turned to him, his mouth red.
“I hope you weren’t too attached to him.”
Now Lewis had come down the street, and his eyes went from the boy to his boyfriend to the dead body.
“He won’t kill you,” Lewis said, “though he probably shouldn’t have killed your… whatever he was in front of you.”
“He was my mom’s boyfriend,” the boy said. “He was motherfucker.”
“Kids shouldn’t swear,” Chris said in genuine shock as he wiped his mouth.
“Dude,” the boy said, “you just killed somebody.”
“Do you want to go back to your mother?” Lewis said.
“She’ll just beat me too. And then find someone else like Willis.”
“Well,” Chris murmured.
“I guess you’re coming with us.”
“For real?”
Chris looked to Lewis.
“Are you sure?”
“You just killed his mother’s meal ticket right in front of him.”
Chris said, “Lewis, you’re not exactly… into children.”
“I’m not a child.”
“You are,” Lewis said. “Do you have a name?”
“L’varion.”
“Is that one of those names with the apostrophe where it shouldn’t be?” Lewis asked. “Never mind. I’ll call you Levy. Come with us.”
L’varion, now called Levy, nodded, and then Lewis said, “You need a coat. Should we go back ot your house?”
Then Christopher said, “If we’re doing this, we’re doing this.”
He bent over Willis’s dead body, and without much care, wrested his coat, his gloves and his hat from him and then handed them to the boy who was a little too small for them.
“Now, let’s go.”
Chris headed up the alley first, and the boy walked beside Lewis.
“Are you going to turn me into a vampire?”
“Not tonight,” Chris shouted as they headed back onto Ogden.


THE BOOK OF PAMELA STRAUSS

It was in Dusseldorf that I finally understood Germany. Far away from even Wurzburg, I never knew we were part of a large country, a country which had, in all fairness, simply been an idea and a territory until very recently. But in the great cities I understood what people meant by a nation that was separate from the land of mountains, hills and trees, of fresh and frozen lakes for wolf feet to run upon.
In Berlin I learned something even more important. It was there, first in my dreams, and then in the flesh, walking, and walking in the form of any other man in a suit, Hagano.
“Did you follow me?” I asked him.
“I am you,” he said. “I am part of you. “Wherever you go, wherever your blood goes, I go.”
Friederich and I traveled in wagons and spent nights in crowded hostels, saving all of our money for the trip from Hamburg. And from Hamburg we sailed around Denmark and through the North Sea, around England to Liverpool, the city of the two cathedrals, a wondrous port I shall never forget. There, all the nations of the earth seemed to be passing through this city, the main artery of the earth, and from that ship, with a letter sent ahead to Frau Inga’s daughter, we set sail on the Mary Jane, a word so strange and sharp and British in my mouth, for America. By now I was in a state of constantly being dazzled, for I had thought Wurzburg the end of the world only to come across the great empire of Germany which itself had seemed unending. The sea had taken us further, to England, and now the ship left Liverpool and, in time and was on an expanse of blue far greater than any journey I had yet taken.
“We are going ot a new country,” Friederich said, “Where no one knows anything of us.”
“Yes.”
“In America,” he said, “you could be my wife, and we could have children.”
And now I will explain, and you will probably know, that there was nothing in me that found this morally repulsive. Friederich was my lover, and though I enjoyed Hagano, I enjoyed Friederich’s touched, thrilled to run my hands over the hair of his chest and be enfolded his his arms, to have him inside of me. But I realized I would have that no matter what.
“You need a well off wife,” I decided. “We will do better if we are as we are.”
I still believe this was the most practical decision. We would be coming to America poor, and Friederich was still an attractive man. He would do better single and perhaps so would I, a young woman with opportunities.
Or maybe I simply did not wish to be married to my father.

I did not love New York.
I did not love Ellis Island, which seemed less like the gateway to the Land of Opportunity and more like an humiliating rite of passage to get to the place we were headed. The less I say about delousings and check ups on things I was not at all sure about, the better. We were entered into the books as Pamela and Friederich Strauss, a father and daughter from Wurzburg, and from there we journeyed by train, through New York and Pennsylvania into Columbus, which had a large German population. We stayed there in an inn, waiting for word from Frau Inga’s daughter. While there, Father went to work in the tannery. I thought he might work in the beer factory, but Friederich said the tanners was the closest he could get to the honest work he had done before. Meanwhile, I went to work in the inn as a maid, awaiting a letter from the daughter of Frau Inga. I thought that, at least for a time, we could make a home. Everyone spoke German. There were good schools, prosperous people, and we were respected. Everywhere you could see the homes of those who had come here more humble than ourselves and, in the end, done well.
But then one morning a letter came.





My dear Pamela, the child I held to my breast, can it be true you are a woman grown? Mama has sent me word that you are coming with your father. The house has been readied, and if you would like, I have room for an assistant, for I am a midwife and a healer as was Mama. Gregory, my good husband is a woodsman, and would love to have your father at his side. All is in readiness. Enclosed are two tickets and a train from Columbus to Lassador. I eagerly await your arrival.
Yours sincerely,
Ada Keller

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion! I am liking how these complicated stories are linking together. As always I like reading about Chris and Lewis together. I eagerly anticipate reading the next part of The Book Of Pamela Strauss. Now that they are in America I bet things are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Excellent writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Things really are starting to come together, and think it's really going to do something. I think you're going to enjoy it. It was nice to return to our original friends and now that Pamela is in America, you are right. Things are about to get very, very interesting. I hope the rest of your day is good and forgive me for post Rossford so late.... I had a companion over.

 

[ChrisGibson]

THE BEASTS: CONTINUED


THE JOURNAL OF PAMELA STRAUSS


AND SO IT WAS THAT WE LEFT Columbus. We took the train which was a much longer trip than it is these days, and at last we arrived in Lassador. We came to Williams Street, as it is called now, which was then called Kaiser Wilhelm, and arrived at the largest house I had ever seen, Painted in many colors, it was a many roofed and turreted old Queen Anne, that place which came to be called Keller House, but at the time was stilled called Nueberghaus, and a servant let us into the parlor. There a woman dressed severely, but kind in face, received us.
“Pamela, Friederich, welcome.”
And so Ada Keller brought us into her home, and out new life as the Strausses of Germantown began.

Meine liebe Pamela, das Kind, das ich an meiner Brust hielt, kann es wahr sein, dass Sie eine erwachsene Frau sind? Mama hat mir eine Nachricht geschickt, dass du mit deinem Vater kommst. Das Haus ist hergerichtet, und wenn Sie möchten, habe ich Platz für eine Assistentin, denn ich bin Hebamme und Heilerin wie Mama. Gregory, mein guter Ehemann ist ein Waldarbeiter und würde gerne Ihren Vater an seiner Seite haben. Alles ist in Bereitschaft. Anbei zwei Fahrkarten und ein Zug von Columbus nach Lassador. Ich freue mich sehr auf Ihre Ankunft.
Dein,
Ada Keller




IN THE DAYS FATHER went out with Ada’s husband. He was an American. His parents had come from Bavaria, but his whole life was here. He was, as they say, close to the earth, a woodsman and a hunter. You must not imagine the city as it is now. Germantown was the edge of downtown, and east of it there were woods and wildness. Among the rivers and streams there were animals to trap, and Friederich worked by day alongside Albert. At night, he did his own wook, soon making Albert very rich. I had thought I would work as a maid, but Ada soon said, “I only want to you studying. You have a quick mind, and you could be a teacher in one of the schools.”
She showed me to a great room filled with books, high ceilinged, like the library I would possess one day. There was an old globe in it, and Ada said, “My husband’s father was from Bavaria, but his mother was a Schiller. They were one of the great families here. They held this house for three generations. Old man Schiller owned two beer factories. Their fumes built this house. Enjoy their wealth.”
There was always a great blazing fireplace, and in the library was a massive bearskin rug. The bear stared at me fiercely, and firelight shone on its teeth, and here Ada would make me lock myself away with tea and cakes and read.
One evening she said to me, “My Pamela, this is for you.”
They were red, leatherbound books, and I asked, “What are they?”
“Stories of us.”
There was Kant, and Goethe. There was Nietzsche even, and scores of Wagner and thick old records for their phonography. There was Parzifal and Siegfried, and Ada took three slim books down for me and said, “Begin here.”
And so I looked on their simple spines and read one word.


VOLSUNGASAGA






“This was a long walk,” the boy now called Levi said,
“Well, the moment you showed up, flying ceased to be an option.”
“You can fly?” Levy said.
“He can,” Lewis pointed to Chris who was walking ahead of them, touching the security door to the apartment building Laurie lived in, and then pushing it open and holding it for them.
“Why is that?”
“He’s a vampire. I’m not.”
“Really? How did he meet you?”
“I’m actually right here, guys,” Chris said.
“The lobby was covered by black flagstones and shining under modern chandeliers. There was someone at the front desk who ignored them as they went to the elevators.
“Yeah,” Levy said, turning to Lewis, “but how did you guys meet?”
“At a club,” Lewis said.
“A vampire club.”
Chris, touched the elevator button and hands folded behind him, watched the lights play up and down each floor.
“A regular club.”
“Well, a gay night club,” Lewis said. “But as gay night clubs go, a pretty tame one.”
“You all are…” Levy put a hand over his mouth.
“I thought it might be a bit much for him,” Chris noted, still observing the light descending down the numbers.
As the elevator doors opened, Lewis shrugged. “He just saw you kill someone and knows you’re a vampire, how could us being a couple be too much?”
“It’s cool,” the boy assured him. “I’ve just never seen that.”
“No one was asking your permission,” Lewis told him as they entered the lift. “And I’m sure you have seen it, even if you didn’t know it.”
The elevator raced up quickly, and Chris turned to Levy and, nodding at Lewis said, “He’s a witch.”
“What?” Levy’s eyes popped put.
“Really?” Lewis looked at Chris.
“Well,” Chris shrugged, “I’m tired of him just staring at me. Now he can stare at you too.”
“So you can fly?” Levy said.
“It doesn’t even work like that.”
“He did ride the back of a giant wolf, though,” Chris said.
“You’re not helping.”
“Wasn’t trying to,” Chris gave him a sickening smile as the elevator slowed and the doors began to open.
“I thought a male witch was called a warlock. Or a wizard,” Levy asked.
“I’m a witch,” Lewis said.
“Is that because you’re gay?”
“No,” Lewis said, patiently. “It’s because all witches are called witches. Warlocks are nonsense and bullshit and a wizard is. Well, not real. Well, sort of real, but it’s a long story.”
Christopher rapped on the plain door, but didn not wait for an answer before enteromg :auries apartment and as the boy said, “Wow!” Lewis murmured, “Why were we always having him over to our place if his place looked like this?”
But his place was full of people, all men and sleepy eyed woman with hair down her back, and they looked from Chris to Lewis to the boy and finally the one at the front of them with chocolate colored hair and wide brown eyes said, “Guys, what’s up with the kid?”
Lewis shrugged. “Christopher killed his stepfather, so he’s sort of ours now.”
“What the fuck?”
Levy stepped forward, grinning and extended his hand.
“I used to be L’varion, but now I’m Levy Matthews.”
Dan stared at him, and then shook his hand.
“Hey, kid.”
“This is Dan Rawlinson, Lewis said, placing his hand on Levy’s shoulder,” and as an older man came behind Dan, he said, “and this is the Lord Kruinh, head of the House of the Kertesz.”
“Pleased,” the boy held out his hand.
Kruinh seemd unfazed and shook it, nodding, “Pleased to meet you Levi. Levi, you seem to have not eaten or rested. Daniel is my lieutenant,” which Lewis noted Kruinh pronounced leftenant, “he can escort you to more comfortable places while our meeting is underway.”
“Oh,” Levy observed, nodding, “Grown folks business. I get it.”
“I gotta watch him?” Dan said.
“You have to watch him,” Kruinh insisted, mildly.
“Are you all witches too?” Levy asked.
“You don’t believe in keeping secrets do you?” Kruinh looked from Chris to Lewis.
“Under the circumstances it was sort of impossible,” Chris said.
“What were the circumstances?”
“He killed the boy’s stepfather in front of him,” Lewis said.
Kruinh looked sharply at Chris, but Lewis said, “In all fairness, the man was about to murder the boy. He saved his life.”
“Well, that’s different,” Kruinh noted. “Inconvenient. But different.”
Kruinh told Levy, “We are nosferatu.”
“What’s that?”
“Vampires,” Lewis said.
Even Kruinh looked taked aback by Lewis’s baldness, and the boy looked at Dan Rawlinson.
“You’re vampire?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “How’d you liked that?”
“I dunno,” Levy shrugged. “You seem too goofy looking to be a vampire.”
Dan frowned and said, “Com’on, kid.”
The rest of them came into the living room, and Laurie walked forward and embraced them. There were others Lewis had never met, Stanley, and Kirk, which seemed awfully ordinary names, and then Rommel and Lemuel and, among them a woman called Alexandra, and Laurie said, “Now we can finally begin.”
But just then there was a knock at the door.
“Was there another?”
Laurie frowned and looked around the room, and the one called Stanley said, “I’ll get it.”
He moved to the door and opened it, and a moment later a new figure came in and it was Lewis and Laurie who said at the same time, “Loreal!”
“What are you doing here?” Laurie demanded.
“I’m here to be part of this,” Loreal said. “From now on,” gesturing to a chair which, to Lewis’s surprise, one of the vampires brought her. “From now on I’m here to be part of everything.”
Laurie kept staring at her.
“It’s alright for you to fly across the city into my room, but I can’t come here? It’s alright for you be part of my family meetings, but I’m not part of yours? Either I’m part of you or I’m not. Make the decision now.”
Laurie kept looking at her, and then he turned to look at Kruinh, who was still seated in a high wingbacked chiar. The Drinker lord nodded regally and said, “Lady Loreal, welcome into our number. Long have we been absent of witchly council, and now we have two.”
He gestured to Loreal and then to Lewis before saying, “Let the council begin.”




“So whaddo you do?” Levy asked, lying on his back, bouncing the glass ball up in the air as he lay on the bed in the guest room..
“Me?” Dan said.
“There’s no one else in this room,” Levi said. “Unless there are ghosts too, and I can’t see them.”
“Uh, no,” Dan said, “to my knowledge there are no ghosts.”
“Well,” the boy said, “it seems like there’s everything else.”
Dan reached out and caught the ball Levy was negligently tossing. Because Dan was clear on the other side of the room, it looked like his hand had stretched all the way out and Levy sat up and blinked at him.
“Just quick movements,” Dan explained. “And you can’t walk into someone’s house and use their expensive shit as toys. Especially when they’re vampires.”
“But you guys are like… nice vampires.”
“Did Chris seem nice when he did what he did?’
“When he offed my mom’s boyfriend? Yeah. That was pretty nice for me.
“So, “ Levy said, “are you all like in the movies? Nice, friendly. Misunderstood, But… you know?”
“We have a code,” Dan said. “All Drinker clans have a code. For how and who is allowable to kill. Or else everyone would be dead ,and there would be no morality.”
“There’d also be no food,” Levy said.
“Huh?”
“It’s not all just you being nice. If every vampire killed every person, then all the food would be gone. Or can you all drink other stuff, but you just like humans?”
“A drinker can only take human blood,” Dan said, straddling his chair.
“I never thought of that. What you said. About the rules.”
“Well,” the boy shrugged. “People never make up rules just to protect other people.”
And then Levy said, “So what did you say it is you do?”
“I’m Kruinh’s Lieutenant. Or, as he calls it, leftenant.”
“I still don’t know what that means.”
“I’m his right hand man.”
“Right hand vampire.”
“I’m still a man. I’m just a man who’s a vampire.”
“It’s probably wrong to ask people how they became vampires.”
“Yes, Kid, it is.”
“But you weren’t always one. Were you?”
“No, I was just a normal guy. And I met Kruinh years ago. And then, later, when it happened to me, Kruinh and his family stepped in and took care of me.”
“And now here you are,” Levy turned on his side, looking at Dan.
“Here I am,” Dan agreed.
“Babysitting me.”
“Well, I guess so.”
“What are they all talking about?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“I thought you said you were the Lieutenant.”
“I’m the Lieutenant, not the secretary.”
“I think Kruinh just calls you that cause he knows you wanted a title. You don’t seem like a Lieutenant.”
Dan raised an eyebrow.
“I’m just saying. You seem like a nice guy who happens to be a vampire.”
“I can be tough when I need to be.”
“I bet,” Levy said. “So can I. But that’s not really the same thing as being a monster.”
Levy lay on his back and said, “I’m hungry. Can the Lieutenatnt take us to get something to eat?”
“Oh, yeah. Food.”
“I guess you all don’t eat.”
“I eat, but because it’s fun. Not because… I mean, I can forget about it for a long time. I’ll take you to McDonalds.”
“Is that the only thing in Chicago that’s open now?”
“That I’m willing to go to?” Dan said. “Yeah.”
Levy got off the bed and Dan stood up.
“So,” Levy said. “What’s more powerful? A vampire or a witch?”
“Honestly, Kid? Until a few weeks ago I thought witches were just teenage girls in tight uniforms who hated Catholic school and sat in their room wearing black and reading Tarot cards.”
“Then you didn’t know… about Lewis?”
“I think that’s what the meeting is about,” Dan said, at last.
Levy looked at him as Dan handed him his coat.
“I think there are a lot of things out there, that people believe are just stories, and I think that up until now we all just thought we were the only story that was real, and now we’re sort of…. Matching up the lines.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was an interesting portion! The Book of Pamela Strauss is making me curious to see what happens next in the journal of her life. I am liking this new character Levy. This story just gets better and better! Keep it up! Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Yeag, I'm actually sorry there wasn't that much Pamela, because her section is going to get more crazy,not less. However I am glad to introduce Levy and bring back some old friends who have been sitting out for the majority of this story. I'm so glad yo're enjoying it.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER SEVEN

NIGHT WORK

CONTINUED

“My Lord, Kruinh,” Lewis said as they were sitting in the great room. “the person I am most curious about is Evangeline.”
“That’s interesting, Mr Dunharrow,” Kruinh said, “because I would have thought the person you would be most curious about is your cousin Eve and how she knows Evangeline.”
Loreal did not speak, but Kruinh said, “This Eve is your sisyter, is she not?”
“Half sister,” Loreal said. “And if she knows anything, she knows it because of my grandfather, Augustus.”
“Augustus Dunharrow,” Kruoinh murmured, “Now, that is a name I have often heard.”
“But you have never met him,” Lewis guessed by Kruinh’s tone.
“No,” Kruinh said. “I have never had that distinct pleasure.”
“But,” Laurie said, “he seems to know everything.”
“Yes, he does,” Kruinh noted. “And I am eager to know how. He traffics with Drinkers. Apparently he knows werewolves as well. You should pay him a visit as soon as you can Mr Dunahrrow.”
“Lewis will suffice,” Lewis said. “And I remember him more and more, not in this life, but in others. I remember him as a boy, scheming and crafty, though this was centuries ago, for he is centuries old. How he made the acquaintance of vampires, maybe you can tell me, and how he came to know of the werewolves is beyond my reckoning. Lord Kruinh—”
“If Lewis will suffice for you, then Kruinh will suffice for me.”
“Very well. Kruinh, where did Evangeline come from?”
“She’s my sister,” Chris said. “you know that.”
Lewis put up a silencing hand.
“But you were not made at the same time. You did not even know she was made for two hundred years. How was she made?”
“Christopher was young when he was made,” Kruinh said. “In those days he said he had no knowledge of his family. I asked if he cared for any of them, to see any of them. He said… Or,” Kruinh turned to Chris, “would you rather?”
“I said I had too many brothers and sisters,” Chris said. “That I cared for none. And then I remembered Evangeline.”
“So you made her?” Lewis said. “For Chris.”
“No,” Kruinh said. “I sent others to find her, to find living members of Christopher’s family, to see how they faired. Not only the Drinkers I have made, but all who are of the blood of my household are part of our clan. I asked all family members to find her. And so it was a niece of mine, Rosamunde, an English lady, found Evangeline. Either because she truly desired her or to spite me, she made Evangeline for herself. She knew that being my niece, but not one of my progeny, I could not truly harm her.”
Kruinh did not speak immediately, and then he said, “I harmed her enough, though. But she had separated herself from us, established her own clan, not of her blood, not a true clan, and she was already making Drinkers. Evangeline was the first of them. How she came to know your family only you can answer, and you must answer it, for it is beyond us.”
“I have asked it before,” Loreal said. “But not here.”
“Yes?” Kruinh turned to her.
“Is it possible my grandfather has some scheme, some plot, and that all of this knowledge he is building up is to do some final thing?”
“My dear lady,” Kruinh said, “he has already done the something. The knowledge itself is the power. He has, through the Struass family, come back into contact with the wolf kind again, a kind which, though I have known it, I have not seen in many years.
“It used to be,”.Kruinh said, “that shapeshifters were not rare. And not only of the wolf kind. In the north there were several such as the werebear, and it is said that the northern warriors, from whom your Strausses would be descended, in their dreadful battles could transform into their totems, bears, boars. Wolves. How it ceased, or where it went I do not know. Nor do I know from whence it came. The stories have been different, and they have been in all places. The powerful of the Changers could change at will, but many I hear, are victim to the three nights of the full moon. Some maintain wits fully and others not at all. I imagine that your Strauss family is of this kind. Or maybe of several. If you could keep me informed, I would be grateful.”
“If I could keep you informed then your knowledge might just match to my knowledge,” Lewis said.
“This is what I was thinking.”
“I was thinking something else,” Loreal said.
“Yes?” Laurie turned to her.
“I have to go down south and see my grandfather. I have to figure out what is going on, but when this is all done, I think I want to go find the Maid.”
“Onnalee?’
“Yes,” Loreal said. “she must know something, and I think that in the end, I am meant to succeed her.”

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“This is a very old house,” Joyce realized as they walked through the basement.
“Oh, it’s a very old house,” Peter told her. “Not just one of those vintagy things. This was the Keller house the way that where Mara and Kris live is the Strauss house. This was where Aunt Natalie and my grandfather grew up, and their mother grew up here too. It goes…” Peter walked from the first great room filled with boxes, to the next one, very far back.”
Now they headed down a hallway off to the side, and there was a metal door which Peter unlocked. It was painted grey, and Joyce tried to guess at the age, surely not as old as the rest of the house. And then they went down the hall and she said, “It’s a good thing I trust you, cause this place is scary as hell.”
Peter turned back to her, smiling. “It’s a good thing you trust me because… It’s good to be trusted.”
He stood before the last door and Joyce murmured, “Now, I’m scared.”
Peter said nothing as he took out another key and twisted it into the lock of a beveled steel door.
“This is some Frankenstein shit,” Joyce decided, and Peter dragged the heavy door open and then set the latch.
“I’ve got my phone,” Peter clapped his thigh, “and Statler, Jim’s granddad, has extra keys.”
“For?’
“In case the door slides shut,” Peter said. “It doesn’t open from the inside.”
“And that’s your inducement for me to go in?”
“You’re right,” Peter said. “How about, I’ll just show you and you stand at the opening of the door?”
Peter flipped on a light switch, and the room was plain and white. There was a high shelf to the right of the door, but the room was empty save for a metal dish in the middle of the floor and a darkened rubber mat beside.
Bloodstained, Joyce noted, and moved into the room despite what Peter had said.
But the foreboding part of the room was directly across from her. Hanging from the wall was a harness.
“What is that?”
“It’s what it looks like,” Peter, in his jeans and sweatshirt said. The tall man bent down and he picked up the harness and he strapped himself into it. There was a metal chain connected to it, rattling across the ground as he moved forward, and Joyce thought, I’m going to sound like an idiot if I try to be clever.
“What is it? I mean, I know I just asked you that, but…”
“You know what it is,” Peter said, setting the clasps home. “It is the harness for when I go through the Change. There,” he pointed ot the dish, “is water. And there,” he pointed to the mat, “is where there is meat.”
He added, “There have been times when I was able to have a living animal in here with me. So that I could make the kill. I don’t remember what it was like ,but I have seen the evidence.”
“But… There’s a way to stop it.”
“Yes,” Peter said. “The pills. They’re all on the pills. So am I, by the way, but sometimes I don’t want to be on the pills. That’s what this room is for.”
“You like becoming a wolf.”
“The Wolf,” Peter pronounced.
“I wish I could do it better, be relatively sane, control it. Do it whenever. I know the others are afraid of it. But in this house there have been precautions for it. Do you know Nate transformed? Mara and Kris’s dad. And so did mine. And… there is nothing like it.”
“I want to see it.”
“No,” Peter almost snapped.
Joyce blinked at him.
“It’s dangerous. You see those two metal doors. It’s dangerous. I only do it during the months when I don’t have the boys, and still I’m scared, but… I have to do it. The first time someone told me I could withstand the change… I wanted to. And… when I can do it, I do it.”
“Even if it means being chained up here?”
“Yes.” Peter jangled the harness. He began to unlock it, and he let the heavy harness fall to the ground.
“I suppose that would work if you where a wolf or a man,” Joyce discovered. “Handcuffs.. manacles…”
“Would be useless to a wolf. Would be painful. Dogs are not built like people. A pinioned dog would be tortured. And the manacles would not be enough for paws and animal ankles.”
I can’t believe were calmly discussing this.
“But even before the Wolf freed himself, he might hurt himself.”
Joyce said, “But… the Wolf is you.”
“Now,” Peter said. “But it could be Jim or Kris. It was my dad.”
Joyce nodded.
“If it’s all the same to you,” she said, at last, “I would love to go upstairs.”
“Yes,” Peter said, As they moved to the door he reached up and pulled down his keys and his phone.
“You must think I’m beyond strange.”
“I think you’re a werewolf,” Joyce said. “And I think you didn’t have to tell me.”
Peter cocked his head.
“I kind of did. Your best friend is my cousin, and she already knows. You are part of us, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Are you being sarcastic?”
“No. I’m sorry for you, glad for me. Because I like you being a part of us. And you’re the first woman in my who ever knew this.”
“Your ex wife?”
“I never got around to telling her.”
“But your sons…”
“I know,” Peter said.
“I keep on imagining this scene where you tell me that if I tell anyone you’ll kill me.”
Peter shrugged and said, “You can tell anyone you want. You won’t do that cause that’s not you, and also no one would really believe it. People are… thick. If I turned into a wolf in plain sight they would deny it because people don’t like their world to be too huge.”
“I get it,” Joyce said as they came out of the hallway into the first of the large basement rooms. “Why you like the Change.”
“I am so… calm all the time. I have to be so buttoned down. I handle all the legal business for this family,” Peter said. “I’m always… on. And when the Change comes that all slips away and I’m free. And it’s who I am, you know. It’s my inheritance. It’s a strange inheritance. But I am the Wolf. I wasn’t born a lawyer, or even the single father of three kids. But the Wolf… even though I can’t totally remember it when it’s over, when it’s happening ,and when I’m coming out of it, I feel more myself than most of the time, when I’m just putting on suits. And pretending.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a well done portion! I think Eve is going to be even more trouble. It was interesting to hear from Peter about what he does when he transforms into a wolf. I hope Kris finds out what he is getting into if he decides to stay off his pills. Great writing and I look forward to more soon!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Tomorrow, I think we learn a little more about our friend Pamela Strauss. I'm glad you enjoyed.