The Blood, Continuing where we left off with The Beasts

[ChrisGibson]

THE BLOOD

A LOVE STORY




There are great puddles of blood on the world
where is it all going? all this spilled blood?
is it the earth that drinks it and gets drunk?
funny kind of drunkography then,
so wise,
so monotonous,
no,
the earth doesn’t get drunk
the earth doesn’t turn askew
it pushes its little car regularly, it’s four seasons,
rain, snow, hail, fair weather,
never is it drunk
it’s with difficulty it permits itself from time to time
an unhappy little volcano
it turns,
the earth,
it turns with its trees, its gardens, its houses
it turns with its great pools of blood
and all living things turn with it and bleed

it doesn’t give a damn the earth
it turns
and all living things set up a howl,
it doesn’t give a damn,
it turns
it doesn’t stop turning
and the blood doesn’t stop running

where’s is it going
all this spilled blood?
murder’s blood, war’s blood,
misery’s blood, and the blood of men tortured in prisons,
and the blood of children calmly tortured by their papa and their mama
and the blood of men whose heads bleed in padded cells
and the roofers blood if the roofer slips and falls from the roof
and the blood that comes and flows and gushes with the newborn
the mother cries,
the baby cries,
the blood flows
the earth turns
the earth doesn’t stop turning,
the blood doesn’t stop flowing

where’s it going all this spilled blood?
blood of the blackjacked,
of the humiliated,
of the suicides
of firing squad victims
of the condemned
and the blood of those that die
just like that
by accident

in the street a living being goes by with all his blood inside
suddenly there he is,
dead
and all his blood outside
and other living beings make the blood disappear
they carry the body away
but it’s stubborn blood
and there where the dead one was, much later
all black
a little blood still stretches
coagulated blood, life’s rust, body’s rust
blood curdled like milk, like milk when it turns, when it turns like the earth like the earth
it turns with its milk, with its cows,
with its living, with its dead,
the earth that turns with its trees, with it’s living beings, with its houses
the earth that turns with marriages, burials,
shells, regiments, the earth that turns and turns and turns
with its great streams of blood.

-Jacques Prevert, translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti



P A R T
O N E

ASSEMBLY






O N E

THE
BLOOD
DRINKERS

He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.

-The Book of the Law



There was a knock on Levy’s door, but before he had a chance to remember it wasn’t his door, it opened and in came the girl from last night. Not Loreal, she was gone. But the girl with the tea colored hair and big eyes. She was pretty. She looked fun and kind of wise. She looked older than she was and smelled good. He was pretty sure she was a vampire.
“What time is it?” Levy blinked into the light.
“You’ve been asleep a while. Kruinh sent to me to wake you up.”
Levy looked around the nicest room he’d ever seen. He could take things in stride, so he didn’t seem terribly impressed, but the white carpet, the huge windows, the huge room, the stereo in the wall, the weird expensive art not to mention the silence, no one screaming on the other side of the wall, no one fucking upstairs, his mother not shouting, it was all more luxury than he’d ever known.
“I though tthis was that guy Laurie’s house.”
“It is,” Anne said, “but Roma est, ubi Caesar est.”
“I don’t speak Italian. No,” Levy snapped his fingers. “That’s Latin.”
Anne nodded.
“And I still don’t speak it.”
“It means Rome is where the emperor is. And Kruinh is the emperor, and so this is his home.”
As Levy climbed out of bed he said, “Kruinh is the little black guy?”
“He doesn’t often get called that, but yes.”
“And he’s your king?”
“King, ruler, father, head of our house.”
“Nice!” Levy said, coming out of the room behind Anne. He was still very much impressed, and when they came down the great hallway, through the living room and dining room and into the kitchen, Levy saw Laurie looking professional and tall and really amazing, and then there was Dan and the blond guy with the big eyes and curly hair, and frying eggs, which seemed most unkingly, was Kruinh.
As Kruinh turned around and began to slide eggs onto a plate, he nodded to Levy, and instantly, the boy went down to one knee, gave a deep bow and intoned, “Your Majesty.”
The blond guy, Sunny, snorted, and Dan murmured, “What the hell?” and when Levy looked up, Kruinh had something like a lopsided smile on his face, though his eyes looked genuinely confused.
“Good morning, Levy.” he said, blandly, while the boy sprang up.
Kruinh looked at the rest of them and said, “Why can’t you ever do that?”
“We could start,” Laurie murmured. “If it please you.”
“It would please me if you didn’t behead any more people and leave their corpses for me to clean up,” Kruinh said.
“Now eat up,” he said to Levy. “I suppose you need to shower, and then we’re about to leave.”
Levy nodded, and when Kruinh perceived that he didn’t understand, he added, “You’re coming with us.”
“Oh!” Levy’s eyes went wide and he reminded himself to stop salting the egg.
“Are you kidnapping me and taking me to your lair?”
“Am I… what?” Kruinh almost spat in disgust.
“We’re babysitting you, kid,” Dan said.
“Baby…”
“It turns out the place where Chris and Lewis went isn’t far from where we live. Is actually where I grew up,” Dan said.
“Lassador, Ohio,” Kruinh pronounced. “So there’s really no need for us to stay in
Chicago when you could be closer to your friends.”
“Well, you know,” Levy said, “I really only met them right before I met you, so technically you’re all my new friends.”
“He’s got a point,” Dan said.
“Is Dan gonna watch me?”
“We’re all going to watch you,” Sunny said.
“I gotta go to work,” Dan said.
“You work?”
“If I want to eat,” Dan said.
“But you don’t even have to eat. None of you do?”
“More pancakes?” Kruinh held out the plate
Anne forked two and put on one Sunny’s plate while he nodded, and then Levy said, “So I’m going to be staying in Dan’s lair?”
“If by layer you mean loft apartment, then yeah,” Sunny said.
“Cool. Are you guys gonna turn me into a vampire too?”
Kruinh looked at the boy coolly and said, “You’re going to be a lot of work, aren’t you?”

When Levy asked Laurie if he had locked his apartment, the tall man replied, distractedly, “Enough.”
“What does that even mean?” Levy whispered.
No one answered. He marched right beside Dan and behind Kruinh. Sunny and Anne were behind him and soon they all entered that silent elevator and it zoomed up, and then stopped. Laurie pushed a button, and the elevator flew higher and now opened, and suddenly Levy was hit by the complete cold. As they stepped out onto the roof, even without looking over the parapet that surrounded them, Levy could sense the largeness of the white sky and city below.
Dan turned around and said, “I need you to not scream or be terrified.”
“That,” Levy began, raising an eyebrow, “is not promising.”
“We’re about to go home.”
“Did you take a helicopter?” Levy looked around.
“Not quite,” Kruinh said, handing Levy a thick face mask and then, while the boy put it on, Anne made sure it was secure and Kruinh took out what he carried with him and began to drape it over Levy, securing it at the boy’s hips and at his shoulder so that it was something like a very thick blanket but tied to his body.
“Keep your face down, in his shoulder. Wrap your hands around Dan’s waist.
“I got you man,” the chocolate haired vampire said.
“Oh,… shit…” Levy realized something.
“Don’t be afraid.”
“I’m gonna throw up.”
Laurie shook his head and touched Levy’s head. “This is going to be so quick, you’re not gonna have time to throw up.”
Kruinh and Anne methodically attached Levy’s legs to the back of Dan’s, his torso to Dans;, his arms around Dan’s, bolted the heavy cloak like thing about them, even fixed Levy’s head to Dan.
“We’ve done this before,” Kruinh said, “Though rarely in such cold air.”
Kruinh said it climbing up to stand on the parapet of the building right beside Sunny, and then, just like that, he fell off. Sunny waved, and then casually fell of the building and both times Levy stopped himself from screaming.
“It’s best if you guys go now,” Laurie said to Dan and Levy, “Instead of being the last ones.”
Levy wanted to ask what had happened to Kruinh and Sunny, why he had not seen them again. He wanted stalling time, a little more instruction, but now he noted that Dan really was strong, that Dan Rawlinson moved, with him strapped to his back, as easily as anything, and now Dan stood on the parapet and turned around facing Laurie and Anne so that Levy was also facing them.
“See you guys in Lassador,” he said, and without turning around, Dan fell back. Laurie nad Anne were replaced by a rapid flight of descending similar stories, and then a rocket rise in the air and a shwish of blue grey and green, and the air whistled past Levy, and then he blanked out into blackness.



Levy Berringer was only half conscious. He heard the air whistling all around him and saw brown white and grey and blue shooting past him. This was the feeling of shooting through a subway tunnel, watching the lights flash in the darkness while the train sped. Only this bore the pelted down the tunnel. The more he tried to say what this was like, the more the wind whistled past him, pulling at him so that now he understood why Kruinh and Sunny had taken such care to strap him to Dan, and to cover him. He would have been frozen, he would have been torn from Dan’s body. There was nothing immortal about him, and even as he was thinking this, trying to understand that he must have been high, very high and hurtling through the sky, things lowered, the wind slowed, grey and white resolved to cloud and blue sky, and still they sped, but it was lower and slower and slower now and for one awful, vomit inducing moment, Levy lifted his head and saw further down below than he ever wanted to see anything, water sparkling, the skyscrapers and massive buildings, the grid patterns of a city. He ducked his head and then he felt a bump and there were hands on his shoulders and he was being peeled down and there was laughter, not unkind, and Kruinh was saying, “Take him gently, gently now,” and Sunny was saying, “We got him, Kruinh,” and a new woman’s voice was saying, “A little boy? What in the…?”
“He’s Chris’s,” Dan was saying, and Levy, held up by Sunny, felt unsteady as he turned around, saw that Anne and Laurie, the first straightening her hair, the second dusting off his expensive patent leather shoes, were standing right there, had apparently traveled right after them.
“You need to sit down,” the new voice said,.
She was chocolate skinned like Kruinh, with a small round faced like Kruinh as well. She reminded Levy of her mother but that her eyes were a bright and amazing blue and her hair was black and thick, flowing down her back like an Indian princess’s. She took him by the hand, though she was shorter, and taking him up the back porch called, “David, David, put on some cocoa.”
“Oh, you must be so cold,” she said as they came up the steps, “and you don’t even know me. I’m Tanitha, Tanitha Tzepesh. I am Kruinh’s daughter.”
“Another vampire?”
She looked at him, bemused.
“You’re a quick study.”
“Ma’am—”
` “Tan,” she said, entering the large kitchen. “Tan, or Tanith, but never ma’am. I’m not old enough for that. Well, come to think of it, that’s a lie, I’m quite old enough for it, but all the same. Sit in that chair, Sit in that chair. You need a rest. I bet you’ve never flown before, not like that.”
“How long did it take?” Levy asked.
“I feel like,” Tanitha said, reaching into high, but ordinary cupboards and pulling down very ordinary cocoa powder, “from my experience, a good three minutes. Maybe five if you’re worried about planes.”
There had been a sort of toneless singing coming down the steps and now, as the others came into the kitchen from the backyard, down the steps came a tall, affable white man even thinner than Laurie, who kissed Tanitha on the cheek and then looked at him and said, “Well you must be Levy.”
Shaking his hand briskly he said, “I’m David Lawry. Tan, put a shot of bourbon and the last of the coffee in that cocoa. You ever had bourbon in your cocoa, Levy?”
“Sir,” Levy said, “Bourbon in my cocoa is actually the least strange thing I’ve known in the last twenty four hours.”

ROSSFORD WILL RESUME TOMORROW NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great start to this new story! It was a nice surprise to see this posted today. I am intrigued by this start and look forward to reading whatever is going to happen next. Kruinh is one interesting character I look forward to getting to know even better. Great writing! I hope you are having a nice weekend!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Matt it was a surprise to me too. I always make sure to post something Saturday, and it was just too much work to post Rossford tonight, so.... we both get surprised. Glad you had fun with these not exactly new, but newish folks.

 

[ChrisGibson]

CHAPTER ONE

THE BLOOD DRINKERS

CONTINUED



“The boy’s asleep upstairs.” Kruinh said.
“Already?” David raised an eyebrow and took a hand through one of the dark wings of hias hair.
“You would be too if you’d had the night he has,” Kruinh said, “and if you had been dragged through the air from Chicago to Lake Erie in five minutes and were still mortal.”
“Fair,” David crossed one leg in front of the other and sipped coffee as he leaned against the counter.
“You work all night, don’t you?” Tanitha said.
“Yup, honey. All night every time you ask.”
“I should go check on him,” Dan said.
“I have other things for you to do,” Kruinh said, though. “You know a Myron Strauss.’
“He’s my friend. In my band.”
“You’re still in that band?” Laurie in fitted dress shirt and tie, crossed his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow.
“Why do you say it like that?” Dan said.
“No reason.”
“And we’re going on tour this summer, so how do you like that?”
“I like I just fine, Daniel.”
“I like it just fine, Daniel,” Dan mimicked.
“Now, what’s that supposed to mean?” Laurie uncrossed his arms.
“It means you’re always really condescending about…”
“Everything,” Anne said, drily.
“I am not condescending abut everything,” Laurie returned. “It’s just, I’m the oldest.”
“Actually Chris is the oldest,” Dan pointed out.
“Actually,” Tanitha said with a quiet smile, “I am the oldest.”
“Actually,” Kruinh said, “I am the oldest, and Daniel, you need to not be so riled up, and Lawrence you need to—”
“Pull the stick out of your ass,” Dan murmured.
“What?” Laurie’s nostrils flared.
“Do you even own a pair of blue jeans?” Dan murmured while Laurie returned, “Do you even have a tie?”
“Children!” Kruinh laid his hand on the table, and though it was done so softly, it was all he needed to do, and they were silenced.
“I need you to bring Myron Strauss to this house as soon as you can,” Kruinh said.
“This house? Or my house?” Dan asked.
“Am I incoherent?”
“This house,” Dan said, nodding his head and flushing.
“Are you going to ask me why?”
“I wasn’t actually,” Dan said. “I assumed you had your reasons.”
“Why can’t you be like that?” Kruinh turned to the blue eyed Tanitha.
“Because I’ve known you too long.”
“Well, then why?” Dan said. “Why am I bringing a band mate here?”
“And childhood friend, don’t forget,” Kruinh continued.
Dan said nothing, but just kept looking at Kruinh.
“So you can tell him what you are,” Kruinh said simply. “So you can tell him what we all are.”
Laurie frowned, but said nothing, and Dan said, “Why in the world would we do that?”
“Because we are about to tell him what he is.”
“He… is?” Dan said. Then, “What is he?”
“Do you remember Kris Strauss?” Kruinh turned to Laurie.
“Yes,” Laurie said, then,
“Myron is his cousin.”
“I’m so confused,” Dan said.
Kruinh continued, “And Myron is also a werewolf.”

“Lawrence Malone,” Tanitha said, heavily.
“Hello Tanitha,” Laurie said with more heaviness.
“As elegant as you look moping in Armani, it’s still moping, and quite frankly you seem even more tightly wound than usual.”
“My mind is occupied,” Laurie said, savagely turning the page of a book. “I am brooding. It’s my right. That’s what vampires do. We brood. It’s in all the novels.”
Tanitha sat down in the chair across from him, wrapping herself up in her shawl.
“In the novels they don’t have older sisters like me, though.”
“No one,” Laurie pronounced, “has an older sister like you.”
“I’m going to interpret that as a compliment. Are you worried about Chris? That can’t be it. Or this Lewis—who sounds most fascinating, but I don’t think that’s it, either. Or…”
“Did your father tell you about Lynn?”
“Not much,” Tanitha shook her head.
“Well, ask him. Or ask Dan. Tell them you’ve got my permission.”
“And she’s your trouble.”
Laurie sat up straighter.
“You know what? No, no. She’s not on my mind. She should be, but she’s not.”
“Then what girl is on your mind?”
“How do you know it’s a girl?”
“What’s her name?” Tanitha asked, ignoring her question.
“Loreal. She’s with Lewis, and the werewolves and… all of them. She’s their cousin. You’ve heard of Augustus Dunharrow.”
“Yes.”
“Who seems to be, if not at the center, then close to the center of all this. Well, She’s his granddaughter.”
“You’re in love with a witch!” Tanitha clapped her hands together.
“Yes.”
“And a Black one at that! Please tell me she’s at least out of high school. Vampires and high school girls is so cliché.”
“She’s a senior in college.”
“Well, that’s better.”
“And…” Laurie shook his head, “all I do is think about her. I just want to be by her side. Make sure she’s safe. Protect her.”
“Do you want to protect her, or do you want to,” Tanitha thrust out her two right fingers, made a loop with her left ones and thrust her finger through them, “her.”
“Tan!” Laurie went red, and Tanitha threw her head back and laughed.
“You’re a horrible old vampirex,” he said, halfway between sulking and something that was almost like laughing.
“You can want both,” Tanitha said. “You know that, right?”
She continued, “But…. I think you want one more than the other.”


“So what’s everyone’s story?” Levy asked while Anne was cooking dinner, “And do you all eat all the time?”
“C’mon,” Dan said, “Food is delicious.”
“But you still kill people, right?”
Dan looked at him in disbelief.
“What?”
“The way you said it was like you’d be disappointed if we didn’t.”
“But you do?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. Then, “Yes, Levy. We kill people.”
“Like, how often?”
“See what you did? You just asked me one question and I’m trying to answer it, and then you ask me another. So which one do you want to know?”
“The first.”
“Alright, well, that’s Laurie, and you know Laurie. He’s friends with Chris and Lewis. Lives in Chicago.”
“Is he really old?”
“He’s about one hundred and seventy.”
“Wow.”
“And her, the one with the big eyes and the tea colored hair who kind of acts like everyone’s mother—”
“I heard that,” Anne said.
“That’s Anne. As a vampire she’s not old. She’s been one pretty much as long as me. But like, she was really old when she was made.”
“Then why isn’t she old now?”
“Because when you are made, you sort of go back to being the full maturity you would be before the body begins to deteriorate.”
“Oh. So like, she was like an actual old person?”
“From what I’ve been told. But really, you’d have to ask Sunny.”
“And Kruinh made all of you.”
“No,” Dan said. “Kruinh made Chris. Kruinh is Tanitha’s actual father. His wife, Elizaveda was her mother. David was made by Tanitha. Laurie was attacked by Evangeline who was made by Rosamunde and Kruinh instructed Chris in making him to save his life.”
“Who is Rosamunde?”
Dan cleared his throat.
“Rosamunde is Kruinh’s niece, and so she belongs to his clan and whoever she makes belong to Kruinh. She made me, and she also made Sunny.”
“Was it to save your lives?”
“That….” Dan began, “is a really long story, and you ask a lot of questions.”
“Questions are good.”
“Yeah, but sometimes they’re annoying.”
“Now you know how it feels,” Laurie remarked coming down the stairs.
“You’re a funny man, Big Brother.”
“I hate when you call me that.”
“He loves it when you call him that,” Anne said, smiling and turning away from where she was stirring sauce and smoking a cigarette.
“Can’t you see how much I love it by the look on my face,” Laurie said, sitting down in one of the ladderback chairs and stretching his long legs.
“Oh,” Dan said, “and like I said, Sunny made Anne. And it really was to save her life.”
“It is hard?” Levy said, “to make a vampire.”
Dan blinked at him.
“What?
“I have never done it,” Dan said. “Most of us haven’t.”
“Sunny, is it hard?”
Sunny had been on the other side of the kitchen with his headphones on and now looked up, raising an eyebrow. He looked suddenly very serious, very, Levy thought, despite his curly hair and surfer looks, like a vampire.
Sunny pulled out an earbud.
“Nevermind,” Levy said, because the question seemed gauche.
“Here’s the thing,” Laurie said, “if you don’t tell him everything, he’s never going to stop asking questions. So you should tell him everything.”
“Me?” Dan said.
“He likes you,” Laurie said, as if Levy wasn’t there.
“You’re weird,” Levy said suddenly.
“Excuse me?” Laurie looked at him. “Do you know what I am?”
“I know exactly what you are,” Levy said. “And aside from being a vampire you’re also kind of a grouch. But I don’t think you kill kids.”
Laurie just stared at Levy because, in fact, he did not kill kids, and he knew that he was being a grouch.
“Laurie’s thinking about where he should really be,” Tanitha said, touching him on the back of the neck.
“With Chris and Lewis?” Levy guessed.
“And some others.”
“Oh,” Levy snapped his fingers. “You mean Loreal. I forgot you like her.”
Laurie frowned and looked more embarrassed than dangerous and Dan said, “Oh, great taste. She’s hot. She’s amazing. She’s like a hundred fifty years younger than you, but you should totally go for that. If she’s into it.”
“She’s into it,” Levy said. “I could tell. You guys got a bond. I can feel it. You should definitely, definitely go to her.”
Anne bursts out laughing as Sunny, earbuds still in, went to open the stove and made an approving noise before pulling out his loaf of bread.
“I can’t tell which one of you I want to kill more,” Laurie said, looking from Levy to Dan.
“Did I tell you about the time he pushed me off a building?” Dan asked Levy.
“You’re vampire, get over it.”
“He felt really bad about it after he did it. I could almost see a tear in his eye.”
“Dan, I hate you so much.”
“You don’t hate us,” Dan said. “You love us. Me the most cause you’ve known me the most and to know me is to love me.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am liking this new part of the story. Lots going on and I am enjoying it so far. Its nice to read how Laurie is going at the moment. Great writing and I look forward to more soon.

 

[ChrisGibson]

There will certainly be more tomorrow and it will not take nearly as long for this part to connect to the others as it did for part two to connect to part one.

 

[ChrisGibson]

“Something’s not right,” Sunny said.
“See,” Kruinh said, “I never like it when you say that.”
“I can’t put my finger on it,” Sunny said, “But something’s not right.”
The young man walking around Kruinh’s study said, “I just can’t put my finger on it.”
“In a world where there is always something not right,” Kruinh said, “you are telling me you sense that something isn’t right, which means—”
“That there is something especially not right. Uncommonly not right.”
Sunny sat down across from Kruinh, knees wide apart and hung his head. He was only a little taller than Kruinh, and when Levy had first seen him he’d assumed that he and Dan were the youngest. But young meant something entirely different to the vampires, and Levy was coming to understand this, and he had noticed that, even though Sunny appeared to be as bright as his name, he, like Anne, stayed out of the squabbles and pretty much kept silence. If Dan was Kruinh’s lieutenant, then Sunny was something else.
“How long have you noticed this… whatever it was?”
“Actually while Dan and Laurie were going back and forth I started to feel it.”
“I’ve told you everything about Laurie.”
“The girl,” Sunny said. “How she’s pregnant.”
“Yes, but not only that.”
“The Evangeline business. And Eve’s. That Augustus’s granddaughter.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think it’s about that?”
Kruinh had always respected Sunny’s senses. What’s more, he respected his intelligence, and now—
“That’s the thing,” he snapped his fingers, and dug his hands into his pockets.
“Kruinh, we don’t really know what that is about, do we? They were trying to make a dark witch? That’s so… That’s like the plot to a stupid TV show. It has to be more.”
“Does it?”Kruinh asked.
“Or has to be less. Has to be Evangeline come to fuck with Laurie.”
“Or with all of us.”
Sunny turned to him.
“We need to place the boy somewhere else.”
“The safest place for him is here,” Kruinh said.
“I feel like things aren’t safe rght now,” Sunny said, “and one thinn you have to ask is, Evangeline was never head of her clan, so was what she did just her, or was she joyfully following someone else’s directions?”
‘Someone like Rosamunde.”
“Yes, Rosamunde,” Sunny waved that off. “But anyone, really. There have always been rival clans. And if they are coming for us, well then, isn’t this the least safe place for a mortal?”
Kruinh nodded.
“I am not completely convinced you are right, but—”
“You’re not completely convinced I’m wrong either.”
Kruinh nodded.
“He likes Dan. Maybe… send him with Dan for the night.”
Sunny nodded.
“I think that would be a wise idea.”

Levy was a boy who had a sense of what to say and what not to say, and he had almost been about to say that being on Bancroft Street was almost like being in a real city, but caught himself, merely looking around at the bright lights of the bars and restaurants as he headed into the club between Sunny and Dan.
“Are you sure they’re gonna let me in?”
“It’s just a pub,” Sunny said, “and a pub is like a restaurant. It is a restaurant, where they serve alcohol. It’s a restaurant with a bar and a band.”
“I feel like you said restaurant three times,” Levy said.
“What he means,” Dan said, “is he’s pretty sure you can get in, but we’re going through the back anyway, and you’re going to be backstage.”
“Where no one can see me.”
“I was going to say where you get an up close look at the band, but it’s about the same thing.”
“We can bring you a burgers and fries,” Sunny said.
“We just ate,” Levy said. “I mean, we just ate,” and then he realized that, being people who didn’t need food, they also might be people who had no concept of not needing it, of when it was enough.
“That is very true,” Sunny said as they stepped away from the noise of the street and into the alley.
“What instrument do you play?”
“Guitar,” Dan said.
Levy looked to Sunny.
“What?” Sunny said. Then, “Ohh! No, I don’t play an instrument. I’m just like… I’m keeping you company.”
Levy did not say, because he knew he was getting too old for it to sound cute when he saw through things, Dan is the official baby sitter, but you’re sort of Dan’s babysitter.
When they were in the back of the pub, coming through the kitchen and into what must have been as close to the dressing room as they had, Dan introduced Levy to who must have been Myron Keller
“Good to meet you, Levy.”
He had a wide red face, big teeth, longish nose, pale brown hair that looked like, it might thin soon.
“All of Dan and Sunny’s friends get younger and younger.”
“I think you’ve got my friends confused with your girlfriends,” Dan countered.
“Ouch, speaking of, you have to see the redhead in the front row.”
Sunny cleared his throat and Dan said, “Hum?”
Sunny cleared his throat again and Dan said, “That’s right.
“You’re invited to… um, requested at our friend’s house, at Kruinh’s house. He’s heard so much about you.”
“He’d love to meet you,” Sunny said. “The whole family’s making dinner and everything.”
“He still got that hot daughter with the crazy blue eyes?”
“Yeah,” Sunny said, smiling stiffly. “Yeah, Tanitha’s still an actual thing.”
“Sign me on,” Myron said, “but are we gonna practice or what?”


“Sunny!” Levy whispered. “Sunny!”
“Actually it wasn’t much of a whisper, and the blond Drinker turned around and said, “What’s up, Levy?”
“I could go for that burger now.”
“I asked you earlier.”
“And I wasn’t hungry earlier, but now that’s sort of changed, And I didn’t want to interrupt you from listening to the last song.”
“So you decided to interrupt me from this one?”
“Well, the nature of bands seems to be they keep singing,” Levy noted.
“Do you know,” Sunny said, “there are people who have been in mortal terror of me?”
“I feel like half of Kruinh’s house is in mortal terror of you, but I’m hungry and I can’t go out there and order for myself, so there isn’t anything else for it, but to tell you I want a burger and fries.”
Sunny could not argue with this logic, sighed and said, “Whaddo you want?”
“A double cheeseburger with onions and fries and a beer. Preferably something light and fizzy.”
“And when you say beer you mean a Sprite.
“I actually meant—”
“A Sprite. Great.”
The serious looking surfer boy in jeans and pullover said, “I’ll be right back.
While Sunny was gone, from backstage, Levy heard the people clapping and then Myron saying, “Thanks. Thank you all. We’re going to switch gears a little bit,” he was putting down his guitar and picking up a, holy shit, that was a violin.
“We’ve rocked you tonight, and now we’re going to get a little bluegrassy.”
Levy stood up to peek behind the curtain just a little and saw that Dan had exchanged his guitar for a banjo and the awkward guy called Ted now had an acoustic guitar, Their fingers began trilling on the strings and Levy wanted to yelp and knew he better not as the three men came to the microphone together and sang fiercely,

“I had a friend named Ramblin Bob
He used to steal gamble and rob
He thought he was the smartest guy around
Well I found out last Monday
That Bob got locked up Sunday
They’ve got him in the jailhouse way downtown!”

By the time Sonny came back, Levy had gone far from curtain and was tapping his foot. He didn’t trust himself not to leapt out and start dancing, and Sonny said, “It’ll be ready in a few minutes.
“That’s great. This is great. I’m surprised.”
“Surprised by what?”
“That they can actually sing. Lot’s of people who think they can can’t.”

“He’s in the jailhouse now
He’s in the jailhouse now
Well, I told him once or twice to
stop playin cards and shootin dice
He’s in the jailhouse now.”

By the time Sunny got up and came back with the burger, which Levy almost ignored but then decided to appreciate, tell Sonny how grateful he was for it, how good it looked, offer to split it, people liked stuff like that, even vampires, and manners counted, Myron was saying, “We’ve got one last song for you tonight, folks. It was old when the country was young. I hope you enjoy, Barbara Allen.”
Myron’s voice had taken on a faint twang but more than that, Levy noticed as he began to sing, that he really could sing, that his voice was pure and clear pure and Dan and Tom did not play instruments. It was all acapella.

In London town where I was born
There lived a fair maid dwellin’
Made every youth cry well away
And her name was Barbara Allen

While Dan and Ted sang along, Levy was conscious that he was happy, not in this moment, but throughout this whole strange and extraordinary time, that he was happy, and somehow life was good ,and heartbreakingly beautiful..

“I sent a servant to your town
Where Barbara she was dwellin’
My master sent and he sent for you
If your name is Barbara Allen
T’was in the merry month of May
When all the flowers were a-bloomin’
A young man on his death bed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen.”

Ted was first to leave, and Dan said, “We’ve gotta get the kid home.”
“But the kid’s not even tired,” Levy said. “I could stay up all night.”
He made an excited shriek and Myron said, “Well, it’s still winter vacation, right? And far be it from me to stop a kid from having a good time. Say, my place is right at the end of the street. Wanna hang out for awhile?”
Sunny looked like he was about to say no, But Dan shrugged and said, “Cool, what could happen?”

 

[CharmedFan28]

I am liking where this story is at the moment and am very interested to read what happens next. The character of Levy was a particular highlight. I am enjoying getting to know him. Great writing and I look forward to more soon! I hope you are having a more relaxed week this week.

 

[ChrisGibson]

I am having a great night, thank you. Even though we're reading about vampires, at the moment they're a lot happier than the people in Rossford. I'm not sure if I will post The Blood tomorrow night. I may wait till Thursday for more. And there will be more surprises.

 

[ChrisGibson]

T W O

AND WITCHES
AND
WOLVES


I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.

-The Book of the Law





Marabeth STRAUSS had retired to her room. After a while she didn’t think she needed to do anything but be by herself. There was no message from Jason, and that almost bugged her. He usually knew the right thing to do, then again, their relationship had been a matter of days and started with a fuck on the floor. Besides, maybe he knew the right thing was to leave her alone. Being alone was, after all, what she really wanted right now.
Downstairs she had played the gracious host, and wasn’t it good enough that she wasn’t going home tonight? It was as if all the misery of the last few days could not overwhelm her, and now she let it. Why must this life be so hard, and with no promise of getting any better. And then she cried till there was nothing else really, until she just lay on her back in the half dark and gathering shadows of a new year that would surely have as little promise as the last. And now she heard something, a hum, rhythm, an almost singing. The tune was familiar, and the words were coming over and over again and she realized, Not in the house. On the street. Christmas carolers. But this was almost Epiphany, that most weary of holidays, that extended and desperate Christmas was the only thing coming, and now she pushed open her window, and the cold air did not bother her at all.
In the gathering darkness, holding lanterns, their voices rising eerily from down below, she heard several people singing, low, and then with high intensity:


“THIS ae nighte, this ae nighte,
—Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
—And Christe receive thy saule.
When thou from hence away art past
To Whinny-muir thou com'st at last
If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon,
Sit thee down and put them on;

And Christe receive thy saule.”

She sprang from the bed as if this were some sort of Christmas gift, and she struggled into shoes, then plodded down the steps, trying not to call attention to herself as her family looked up at her, Amy, putting a hand to her cheek, Peter touching Joyce’s hand. Marabeth came through the living room, and wrapping her grandmother’s shawl about her, that she’d taken from the hook on the wall, she opened the great door and stood there, hearing them sing


“If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
-—Every nighte and alle,
The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane.
—And Christe receive thy saule.
From Whinny-muir when thou may'st pass,
-—Every nighte and alle,
To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last;
—And Christe receive thy saule.
From Brig o' Dread when thou may'st pass,
-—Every nighte and alle,
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last;
—And Christe receive thy saule.”

Their voices had risen and fallen, like an enchantment, and now they rose to their height and then went down to their depths finishing.

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
-—Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
—And Christe receive thy saule.

By now, Kris had come. And Jim and Peter. Cyrus, Joy, Rebecca, too, but they were all behind Marabeth, and from the circle of singers came one, bearing a lantern of cut glass than winked in the night. These people were not like them, because they did not inhabit the normal world, but they were like her, because she, in a way did not inhabit the normal world either, and the Black man in his wool cap and flashing spectacles, stopped singing, extended the lantern and said, “Marabeth Strauss, I have come to bring you greetings and condolences. This is my clan, and I am Lewis Dunharrow.”



Jim Strauss stood behind Kris and Marabeth, and he watched as the visitors came in. He knew so little, hadn’t really even heard of Lewis Dunharrow, whom Marabeth apparently knew. He was related to that Uriah who had come by the house the night after Christmas. Beside him was a man of impossibly pale man with high cheekbones and there was something strange about him, but Jim could not put his finger on it. Beside Lewis Dunharrow was a golden girl with a puff of cinnamon colored hair and fine features, grey green eyes, and she was taking off her coat and handing it to Marabeth’s open arms, and then, with them, was a young man with a thin beard around his jaw, and wavy brown hair, creamy skin. Jim had to see his face, and when he turned around, Jim had to keep looking at it, and then, before Jim could look away, the young man was looking at him with brown eyes he’d dreamed of, and Jim could only smile. He couldn’t turn away. Why was he so nervous? And the young man smiled at him.
“This is my cousin, Loreal,” Lewis was saying.
Loreal was the most forward young woman Jim had ever seen. Well, no, that wasn’t quite true. She shook hands with everyone immediately, and Amy said, “I like you. Would you care for a drink?”
“Do you have Bourbon? the girl asked in her thin voice, and Amy said, “Well, shit, I think we’ll get along just fine.”
“And this is my cousin, Seth,” Lewis said, and Jim thought he was guarding Seth, that Seth, who quickly waved and nodded his head seemed like he was glad the introduction was over. But quickly, before Jim turned, he saw that Seth had sent a glance his way.

The library door wasn’t closed. It was half open, and sometimes children passed in and out, but the family seemed to understand that this was different and some important meeting was happening between the Strausses and Peter and these visitors.
“I wonder if they have something to do with what Marabeth and Peter said the other night,” Cyrus murmured and Deborah looked at her brother and said, “Is that what we’re calling it?”
“That’s what I’m calling it,” Cyrus said.
But in the room, Jim and Seth were in the corners, and Seth kept looking back at the bookshelf.
Jim took a breath, at last, and said, “I’m going to go out and smoke.”
He made a gesture to Seth.
“Yeah,” Seth said. “I’d like that.”
“I’ll grab my coat,” Jim said on their way out of the room.
“Is this a no smoking house?”
“No, not really.” Jim said as they came into the living room and passed into the foyer. “It’s just sometimes I need air.”
Jim turned to him. “We can stay in. If you like. I just thought you might like some air too.”
“Yeah,” Seth shrugged, then said, more clearly “Yes. I would.”
“Don’t make me force you,” Jim said, as he handed Seth his coat and Seth said, “You remembered.”
“Remembered?”
“Which coat was mine.”
“Yeah,” Jim said, pulling on his own green car coat, “Walking in you were hard to forget.”
Jim quickly looked away and opened the door for Seth, and then shut it behind them.




“So, you’re Seth?”
“Yes,” Seth said.
He did not say that Jim had not introduced himself, but Jim realized it and said, “I’m Jim.”
“Jim or James?”
“Well, James is my name, but everyone calls me Jim. I’m named after my grandfather.”
“Was he nice?”
“I don’t know,” Jim shrugged. “He died a long time ago. He died when my dad and his brother and sister were kids.”
“Oh, that’s sad,” Seth said. “I’d say I’m sorry, but you wouldn’t have known him. The man who died, he was your uncle?”
Jim nodded, and exhaled smoke. “Nate raised me. Him and Aunt Rebecca. After my parents died.”
“Nate?” Seth said.
“Yeah,” said Jim. “My Uncle Nathan. You alright, Seth?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Seth said, telling himself to put his eyes back in his head. “My parents died too. My Uncle Owen raised me. He’s not here. He didn’t come with us. I was seven. It was an accident.”
“God, I’m sorry,” Jim said. “My mom killed herself when I was twelve. No one ever says it, but I think my dad did too. My Grandma Natalie had three kids, and they all died, and she’s still here.”
“Oh,” Seth looked so sad that Jim almost laughed.
“You’re a really sweet guy,” Jim said.
“It’s just really sad,” Seth said. “Wanting to die. Feeling that way.”
“My family’s sort of been under a cloud,” Jim said. “And now we’re trying to climb from under it.”
“Because you’re werewolves?” Seth said, plainly.
Jim blinked at him. “Well, well shit.”
Seth turned a little red and he said, “I probably wasn’t supposed to say it just like that. You didn’t even now we were coming. But your cousin, Marabeth I believe, she was coming to see us. And we met your cousin Kris. He came to Chicago when Lewis was… when he was Made.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Jim said, tossing his cigarette and indicating that Seth could do the same. “What are you guys?”
“We’re witches,” Seth said. “Most of us. Most of my family.”
“Fuck,” Jim said. It never occurred to him to doubt it. “Like, honest the fuck witches?”
“Yes,” Seth said. “Lewis is the head of the Clan of the Child and Stag. Everyone in our family isn’t a member of the Clan and everyone in the Clan isn’t a member of our family, but… the lines converge. It seems like my great-great uncle, Augustus, might have known about you, or known one of you. So…. I guess they’re all figuring it out.”
Jim was quiet for a while, and then he said, “So you’re a witch?”
“I guess,” Seth said. “I mean, you’re a werewolf.”
“I can’t remember ever changing,” Jim said. “I’m told that it’s the pills we take that stop us from changing, but I never took those pills. But…. I guess. Yeah.
“What,” Jim started, sounding a little shy, “what can you do? I know that sounds stupid. I’ve just seen movies. I don’t really know what it means, being a witch.”
“I have dreams,” Seth said. “Really, vivid dreams sometimes. Much too vivid. And I can…. I’ll just say it. Dead people. Not all the time. Some times they come to me.”
“What?”
“I… I got shocked because… Can I ask you a question?”
Jim grinned. “Sure, Seth.”
“Was Nathan… Your uncle…. Was he tall, dark haired, dark eyed, sharp faced. Kind of movie star looking?”
Instead of answering, Jim tilted his head and looked at Seth.
“Nathan… someone named Nathan came to me before Christmas. He came for awhile and then he disappeared the same night your cousin Kris showed up. He just told me that… I was about to meet people he loved. That we had to help them do what he wanted to but wasn’t able to. He said, just be there for them.”
Jim bursts into tears right there on the porch, and Seth hugged him. He didn’t think about the fact that it was January in a post industrial city in Ohio and he was standing on the porch hugging a goodlooking guy who smelled wonderful and was sobbing into his shoulder.
Jim sniffed a bit and then wiped his eyes and tried to talk, sobbed and then, tried to talk again, wiping his red eyes.
“What… else do you do?”
Well, okay, that would make sense, trying to be normal again, normal as possible, Seth figured.
“See thoughts. Not all the time. And animals. I can talk to them. A little.”
“You’re really pretty,” Jim said, sniffing. “I mean, handsome. I should of said that or… said nothing, but, that’s how I feel.”
“Yeah,” Seth said. And then he said, “I’m not good at words, and very shy about… feelings and everything, but,I feel the same. And… you smell good.”
Jim burst out laughing and his eyes were still shining with tears. He looked up at the door, but not at the street, because no one on the street concerned him. High on the stoop he said, “Could I kiss you? Would you—”
Seth kissed him quickly, or it was supposed to be quick. But it felt so good, his lips, his mouth, his tongue, being pressed to his face. They stopped and then started again and when they were looking at each other, Jim’s eyes blue under the lamps on either side of the great door, Seth said, “I dreamed about you.”
“I dreamed about you too,” Jim said. “But I wasn’t sure until now.”
They both said, “The day after Christmas,” and stopped, blinking, and then sat side by side saying nothing, looking at the townhouses across from them on the other side of Dimler Street.

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow heaps going on in this portion! I am glad the two stories are coming together this way and its interesting to see how that unfolds. I hope Marabeth gets some positive news soon. Great writing and I look forward to more soon! Thanks for posting parts of both stories tonight!

 

[ChrisGibson]

There will be more tomorrow night from both stories for the weekend portion.In toh tales there are going to be lots of surprises i hope thrill and or touch you from these two very different stories.Till tomorrow, have a great day.

 

[ChrisGibson]

Kris handed Lewis a cigarette and a lighter and as he sat across from him in the library, he said, “What exactly,” turning to Loreal and Chris, “can you guys do? I mean, you all have… abilities, and I was… I saw… I mean… I was at the thing and…”
Marabeth“I think my brother’s trying to say, you are witches, right?”
“My God, this is so crazy!” Peter almost shouted.
“What part of it is crazy, Mr. Keller?” Lewis asked him, “the part where I’m a witch, or the part where you, who have transformed into a wolf every month since you hit puberty, tells me this is crazy.”
Peter stared at him, but had no immediate answer, and Natalie Keller said, “We’re all getting used to this.”
“It was my private madness,” Peter said. “It was something that happened to me, that I knew was happening to others, but that we could put away. It was our family thing. Does that make sense? But now you all show up out of the blue, only not really out of the blue and it’s like…”
“Like the world you thought was the creation of your mad mind is a real one after all,” Loreal said.
Peter, his hands still in his hair, stared at the girl and nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “That’s it, exactly.”
Joyce gently tugged at his jacket, and he sat down beside her, his long legs wide apart. He said nothing else.
“What we can do,” Lewis said, “is a hard question to answer. The truth is, I am not entirely sure what I can do, and most of the time what we do is nothing.”
“Nothing?” Kris said.
“A witch waits.”
“I’m afraid Lewis is a bit of a Taoist,” Chris said, touching his hand.
“Any good witch is,” Lewis said. “There are many poor witchs who are a step above hoodoo doctors, mixing potions, piercing animal hearts, collecting bones and skulls on their altars, walking counterclockwise circles to turn their will against the way of the universe, conjuring up and trying to trap spirits. Some of this, doubtless, works, but a true enchanter joins his will to the will of the universe, for the universe does have a will. You join the God in you to the Gods you serve, see how they are all One. You bring the above to the below. This is all I can say. I’m afraid it’s not very exciting.”
“So you’re a Wiccan,” Peter said.
“In the same way that you’re a German Shepherd,” Lewis returned not missing a beat and not offering a smile.
Peter went red and said, “I didn’t mean to… I simply… don’t understand.”
“None of us does, really,” Loreal said. “It’s only that you’ve seen so much in the movies. In silly books. The Craft is subtle and people don’t understand subtle. The Craft is not against nature. It is nature. It is the most natural thing there is. It is union again. After all the Nine and Three Quarters and Every Flavor Beans, after all the magic wands that shoot fire and Elizabeth Montgomery sitting on a cloud talking to Endorra, it’s hard for people to understand the Craft and, what’s more, people don’t want to. It scares them. But it is part of you. I can see it. It’s part of all of you. You may not be witches, in the same way that my mother and father were not, but you are witch blooded.”
“In our family journal,” Marabeth began, looking to Kris, and then to Peter, “we learned that Grandma’s great-grandmother, and maybe her grandmother were witches. She was just what you are talking about.”
“My grandmother Ada walked in both worlds,” Natalie said, simply, and Rebecca looked at her. “That was what my father said, but he did not say it often. He said that she did it back in Bavaria, as did her mother, and that we gave it up, but that it was in us, and in our children.”
Loreal nodded.
“If you are thinking of a witch as someone who controls things,” Loreal said, “then maybe it is better to think of a witch as an enchanter… who is enchanted, who is entering the enchantment. We do not inflict our magic, we enter into the magic of the world. We are always watching for it, always joining to it,”
“So it really is like the Tao,” Kris’s eyes lit up a little and he half smiled.
“Zauber,” Natalie said.
Marabeth looked to her.
“Magic, enchantment. In German the world is Zauber.”




While they had sat on the steps, several of the family had come out, saying goodnight, grabbing hands and sometimes embracing Jim, speaking kindly to Seth and Jim now said, “I shouldn’t have kept you out in this cold so long. Let’s go in.”
“I’m from Chicago,” Seth shrugged, and smiled. “You gotta do more than this to get me cold.”
The living room was semi empty, and they could hear a haunting singing from the library.

“Come, come with me out to the old churchyard,
I so well know those paths 'neath the soft green sward.
Friends slumber in there that we want to regard;
We will trace out their names in the old churchyard.”

Jim turned and saw that Seth’s lips were moving and he said, “What is that... some kind of folk song?”
“It’s a ballad,” Seth said. “It’s a death ballad.”
Seth could hear Lewis’ voice clear and high, and the alto voice of Loreal:

“Mourn not for them, their trials are o'er,
And why weep for those who will weep no more?
For sweet is their sleep, though cold and hard
Their pillows may be in the old churchyard.”

“They’re singing it in honor of your uncle.”
“Oh.”

“I know that it's vain when our friends depart
To breathe kind words to a broken heart;
And I know that the joy of life is marred
When we follow lost friends to the old churchyard…”

As they sang, Jim said, “You know, he was the only father I ever had.”
Then he turned to Seth and asked, “You wanna ride around with me? Would you like to hang out?”

“Yes,” Seth said. “I would.”



“So, like, this Kruinh guy. He’s like your fosterfather or something?”
“Something,” Sunny said while Dan was in the refrigerator rummaging for beer and food.
“That’s awesome. I wish I had a fosterdad. No, you know what, here’s the thing. I kind of did, and now he’s gone.”
“Nathan?” Dan said.
“Yeah,” Myron said. “He was… he was fucking awesome. I mean, he loved his kids, my cousins, but he loved us all. He was just that kind of guy.”
Dan came back with three beers and Levy said, “Where’s mine?”
“There’s an extra one in the fridge,” Myron said.
“Are you crazy?:” Dan said.
“What’s the harm?” Levy asked.
“What’s harm?” Myron echoed, popping popcorn into his mouth.
“The answer is no,” Sunny said
The red lipped Myron shrugged, and said, “Damn, my cigarette,” as it fell from behind his ear.
He swept it up quickly and stuffed it in his breast pocket.
“That was a joint,” Levy said.
“It was not!” Myron protested a little too loudly.
“I don’t mind,” Levy said. “My mom and her boyfriend used to get high all the time.”
“Well, this isn’t that kind of place,” Myron said, almost pompously, gesturing around his loft. “I’m… going to put this away with my…other cigarettes.”
As Myron walked away, Levy said, “That was totally a joint, right?”
“Anyway,” Sunny said, standing up, “I forgot how huge the windows were in this place. It’s got great light.”
“You know, you guys are kind of funny,” Levy said as Myron came back down the hall whistling, “because even with everything’s that’s happened, you think I need protecting, and I’ve seen a lot of life. My mom never tried to protect me from anything.”
Sunny realized that, even though they had never explicitly sat down and told Levy not to mention to Myron anything about vampires or whatever else he had seen, the boy just knew not to do it, but what he said was, “I don’t know your mom, but that was wrong of her, and I don’t know you that well, either, Levy, I really don’t. But I know you’re still a kid. And kids do deserve to be protect from some things.
“You got kids?” Levy asked Myron.
“I have four. My oldest is about your age. How old are you?”
“Twelve.”
“My oldest is exactly your age,” Myron smiled.
“Wow,” Levy said, “I did not picture you with kids.
“I don’t think my ex wife did, either.
“By the way,” Myron said, loudly, “in my family the kids do get to drink a little liquor now and again. I wasn’t going to give you a whole beer, I’m, that’s crazy—”
“Myre was totally about to give you a whole beer,” Dan said. “You look out that window over there,” he gestured, “and you see those stacks to the southeast. Those are the old beer factories. His family ran that. They used to give their kids beer for breakfast.”
“That,” Myron said, shaking his finger, “is a total exaggeration. Well,” he shook his head a little, “a semi exaggeration.”
“Guys!” Sunny called, turning from the window, but just then, the other window over looking the beer factory imploded, and in jumped a dark faced grim man who made for Myron before Sunny jumped in from of him. He was followed by a girl who leapt, blade out at Dan, and Sunny barked, “Myron. take Levy.”
Myron asked no questions, but pulled the boy back with surprising strength, and the last thing Levy saw was two men on Sunny, one pulling at his throat. Myron put a finger to his lips and gestured for Levy to go into his bedroom, and he was slowly closing the door when Levy shouted, “Myron!”
Myron turned around just in time to see the guy coming for him, and growled, taking the attacker’s throat in vice grip before crushing his windpipe. As the guy died in Myron’s hands, blood bubbling from his mouth, Myron Keller blinked in surprise at his own strength and then, still looking comic, told Levy, “Stay right here.”
Levy could hear the fighting in the room beyond and he struggled between the desire to go there and do something or at least go see, and the voice that said, Don’t be in the way, and don’t be the dumb Black kid that gets killed in the movie.
But now there had to be more than the five people in the room, and was Dan alright? What about Sonny?” He knew, he knew that it was almost impossible to kill them. But was it totally impossible? And what about Myron, what the hell had that been about? But they had said he was a werewolf, didn’t they say that? only he didn’t know it and—
A hand clapped over his mouth. Someone pulled him back, and there was a blade at his neck.
“Kill him and be done with it,” a voice hissed.
Levy spun around, too enraged to be scared.
“Get off of me!” he shouted, and the last thing he saw was a shocked white face hurtling down the hall, its head banging into the wall. The other one beside him, eyes also wide, knife held up, blinked, and Levy said, “Get back,” and he fell back.
Levy ran into the living room and it was filled now, Myron was there beside Anne, who had just arrived with a knife in each hand, her hair whirling around her, fighting a man tall as a tree. Kruinh held a limp body and it fell to the floor, slumped over. Tanitha was standing over an open mouthed corpse and David had vaulted out of the window after someone. Sunny was in the midst of a struggle, and beside him Laurie, his immaculate clothes half ruined, was wrestling with a woman whose long white blond hair whipped about as she fought him.
“Dan watch out!” Laurie bellowed, but just then the man stabbed Dan in the chest, and Dan moved back, stomach covered in blood, face suddenly white. The man, assumedly a vampire, leapt on him until blood bubbled from Dan’s stomach, and when Dan opened his mouth, he took his knife and cut across his throat, black blood shooting out. He staggered to the ground as Levy saw Laurie leave behind the blonde woman who leapt after him but was intercepted by Myron of all people, who must have gotten used to his power and knocked her across the room with great force.
Meanwhile Laurie had leapt on the back of the man who had stabbed Dan, and with a savage roar, torn out his throat, and while David came back in, dark blood on his shirt and on his face, and Laurie pushed the body of the man who had attacked Dan, suddenly, the blond woman came for Myron, and Levy shouted:
“Get back!”
At once everyone in the room looked at him with varying degrees of astonishment. Myron looked on in surprise. Anne, who had deftly snapped the large man’s neck and left his body on the floor, and all of Kruinh’s house, looked on with something like discomfort and surprise, but the blond woman, these other attackers, looked as if they had been slapped.
Levy did not understand, but he advanced into the room repeating, “Get out! Get out! Get out! Leave.”
And just like that, shrieking, five of the attackers left, flipping out of the windows or even slithering out on their half broken backs to Levy’s horror. And because it seemed good, like something Lewis would do, Levy even made a circling arc with his hand and said, “Get out!”
“Except you,” Kruinh stepped forward, and when he did, Levy put down his hand. The woman with the white blond hair was the only one left, and Kruinh said, “It’s time for you to speak.”
But now that the room was quiet, they could hear Laurie whimpering, which was un Laurie like, even Levy knew this, and Kruinh, his hand still over the blond woman, looked over at Dan who was bleeding and breathing shallowly.
“Laurie, you’re losing him.”
“What do you want me to do?” Laurie looked up desperately, and his eyes were shining with tears. He looked down on Dan who was going whiter, blood dripping from his chest and throat. Clearly, if someone was injured they could be saved by becoming a vampire, but if someone already was one, what then?”
“Levy,” Kruinh said, steadily. “I am not a witch, so you have to listen to me carefully. Come here.”
Levy did and Kruinh, still looking at Evangeline, said, “Hold your hand over her like this, and say, “I bind you, Make this gesture, and this gesture and this, to the north and to the east, to the west, and north again. Alright?” Kruinh asked gently.
Levy nodded and moved forward.
“Good man,” Kruinh told him, and touched the back of his neck affectionately before going to Dan. “Do not loose your concentration. Let it flow from you.”
And so Levy could not look, like he wanted to, he could only see from the corner of his eye, Kruinh kneel with Laurie and Dan in the pool of dark blood, and he could only dimly see Kruinh pull off his shirt and then pull Daniel’s head to his chest. Kruinh got on the floor, on his back so that Dan could lay across his chest, and then he guided Dan to his breast.
“Drink,” he said.
It went on for some time before Kruinh said, “Levy, your binding should be set by now, you can release your hand. She isn’t going anywhere. Go sit down, take a break.”
Laurie was still kneeling beside Dan and Kruinh, anxious, and Sunny pulled Levy over and gestured to the couch.
“I wish you’d go to bed, but you’re probably not able to sleep now.”
“No,” Levy said flatly, “and I don’t understand any of what just happened.”
“Even we understand very little of it,” Anne said, going to the sink to wash her hands of blood as if her clothes were not covered in it.
“I don’t… get any of this,” Myron sat down, trembling far more than Levy.
“They’re vampires,” Levy said, flatly. “And you’re a werewolf.”
“Well,” Sunny murmured, “so much for the gradual approach.”
“Gradual died the moment those assholes leapt through the window,” Dan murmured.
“Dan!” Laurie exclaimed.
“Big Brother.”
“Dan!” Laurie took him up in his arms and Kruinh began to button his shirt. Laurie wept on the limp blood drinker, unashamed, and then pulled him away from Kruinh.
“Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Allllrigggght,” Dan said, awkwardly. “I won’t.”
“Master, are you well?” Laurie looked to Kruinh, who was standing up.
“I am very well,” Kruinh said, though he looked a little dizzy as he stood on his feet. “I just… need to sit a bit.”
It was Sunny who, rather than guiding Kruinh to a chair, brought a chair quickly to him and set him down in it. Kruinh touched his hand affectionately, and Sunny glared at the woman still sitting on the floor looking around at them.
“And now, Evangeline,” Kruinh said to her, “for you.”

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow lots going on and lots to think about! Evangeline is causing trouble as usual. I don't know if everyone is going to come out of this ok but I hope they do. I am enjoying this story and look forward to more in a few days. Excellent writing!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, I can tell you now everyone won't come out okay, but who that everyone is you'll have to wait and see. A lot of surprises, or at least a lot more surprises, are about to unfold on the other side of Friday, so you just wait!

 

[ChrisGibson]

T H R E E

LOVE
AND
OTHER REVELATIONS




Sing the rapturous love-song unto me!... Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!

-The Book of the Law



“There are more than enough rooms in this house for you all to stay,” Natalie said, and Rebecca had said nothing, but nodded.
Lewis looked to Loreal and then to Chris and said, “You are kind, but we already have Uri waiting for us. Marabeth, did you say you wanted a ride back to your place?”
“I did, and what happened to your cousin? Seth?”
` “Whatever happened to him is what I think happened to your cousin.” Lewis smiled.
“They’re both grown ups, and if they get into any danger that’s what phones are for.”
“I thought you were staying,” Rebecca said, and Marabeth was about to say, no when she said, “Mother, yes. Yes, I can stay tonight. So don’t worry about it,” she told Lewis. “But I would like you to see the book.”
Lewis nodded and headed up the stairs. The second floor was dim but for one hallway lamp, and Lewis said, “This is a large and lovely house.”
“You don’t see the shadows?” Marabeth said, half jesting.
“I see shadows,” Lewis said, “but not the ones you’re talking about.”
Marabeth stopped and turning to him.
She said, “I understand how Kris feels. And even Peter. You all are like us, and different, and truthfully, I’ve never met anything like us. Except for… your man. Your Christopher. He is different. He is…. I can’t place my finger on it.”
“He is a vampire,” Lewis said simply, and Marabeth dropped the towel she was carrying.
“Shit,” she said, bending to pick it up. “Then everything’s real.”
“I don’t know if everything is real,” Lewis said, “But vampires, werewolves and witches are.

“What a lovely book,” he was saying as Marabeth said, “There’s so much I want to know. Do you really mean that that tall, sweet man is… a real and actual…? But you do. That’s what you said. I want to know so much.”
“I imagine you’ll know a great deal before all of this is over,” Lewis commented, turning over a fragile page and saying, “More. More later. More tomorrow. Goodnight, Marabeth. It’s good to finally meet.you.
Marabeth watched Lewis head down the stairs and stood frozen in her house, thinking that she had sat across from a vampire, and whatever that meant, she was sure it meant more that was frightening than more that was not. She sat down on the bed, with the door open, and turned up the imitation Tiffany lamp to gain as much light as possible, before sitting down to read.




“Why are you here?”
When Evangeline said nothing, Kruinh said, “Do not make me repeat myself. I am too tired to repeat myself. Why are you here?”
Kruinh looked back to Levy and said, “He can compel you. You know he has that power, as Lewis did. What is more, I can too. So tell me.”
“When we saw you all leaving Chicago with a mortal, we assumed you were leaving with Laurie’s woman. His great-grandaughter, you know, the one he—”
“Basta,” Kruinh said lazily, while Laurie was clenching his fist.
“Stick to your point.”
“We thought it was time to take care of everything at once,” Evangeline said.
“Everything includes me?” Kruinh said.
“If we could get rid of all of you,” Evangeline said, “and get rid of you at the same time we got the girl and the child, then so much the better.”
“But,” Sunny interjected, and Kruinh nodded his head, “it was your endgame to get rid of us.”
“To replace you,” Evangeline said, succinctly. “The killings have already begun, In Chicago you can barely tell, but certainly in Lassador you will feel it. The killings according to what we say is allowable.”
“I have to get to Lynn,” Laurie said, though he kept looking at Dan who was pale and tired, and Kruinh, who seemed to be holding himself together after the blood loss of feeding Dan.
“She’s fine,” Evangeline said. “Everyone thinks she’s here. Everyone came here.”
“At my niece’s behest,” Kruinh said.
Now Evangeline laughed.
“For the first time you’ve got it wrong, old man,” she said.
Sunny reached out and punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground.
“Alexander,” Kruinh chided him.
“I won’t let you speak that way to him,” Sunny said. “I won’t”
“It’s alright.” Kruinh said as Evangeline got up off the floor, shaking herself out.
“It’s alright,” Evangeline said. “I remember when we were together in the same clan, before Kruinh made you his catamite. How’s it feel to go from what you were to what you are?”
“It feels great,” Sonny said, acidly. He laid his hand on Kruinh’s and said, “It always feels great.”
Levy did not know what a catamite was, and resolved to ask later.
“Go on, Evangeline,” Kruinh said.
“I left Rosamunde. We left her some time ago. We’ve been gone from her. We turned to other help.”
“Like the Dunharrows.”
“Of course not all of them,. You know that. Lewis would as soon kill me as speak to me, and that bitch, Loreal,”
“You’ve got one more chance—” Laurie began.
“But Augustus. And Eve. And Ethan. Yes.”
“Augustus Dunharrow knows you were trying to kill me?” Kruinh said in disbelief.
“Not exactly,” Evangeline said. Then, “Not at all. But he knows about Laurie’s baby. He knows about me taking my own corner of power, raisng my own house. He even lent me help.”
“Eve knew,” Kruinh said. He looked to Laurie.
“You’ve met Loreal’s sister. Is she young enough and stupid enough to try this?”
“Yes,” Laurie said. “And I don’t know anything about Augustus, but from what I know of Lewis and Owen. And Loreal, he couldn’t know anything about this. He has his concerns, maybe even his own violence. Going after a clan of vampires is not something he would do.”
“No,” Kruinh agreed. “It is not. And it is not for us to touch Eve Moreland. She will be punished, but not by us.”
Kruinh turned to Evangeline.
“Where are the others of your clan, the rest who planned this?”
“The ones who are around are the ones your new witch sent out the door,” Evangeline pointed to Levy.
“I’m not a witch!” he said.
“I’m afraid you are,” Kruinh said, tiredly. “That was by my count, four, one with a broken back that, unless he finds a kill will be healing quite slowly, and a vampire with a broken back will be finding it hard to kill tonight.
“They’re gone,” David said, sitting down and unloosening his tie, He looked to Levy very different from the affable man he’d met this afternoon asking him about cocoa.
“All of them,” David said. “I got three. Tan got the last.”
“He struggled,” Tanitha said, quietly. “But not for long.”
“Daniel,” Kruinh called him over.
Dan came to him so that he and Sonny flanked the sitting head of their house.
“There are two things you must do, explain to your friend Myron quickly what is going on, and then tell him to leave the room and then, yes, there is a third.”
“Okay,” Dan nodded.
“Oh, yes,” Evangeline turned, smiling, her eyes hooded, “the werewolf.”
“What?”
“Myron Keller, a Strauss,” Evangeline said. “You never even knew such strength as you displayed tonight. Never had to, I imagine. How like Henno you were.”
“Lady,” Myron forced all the violence he could into that word, “I don’t like you, and I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I don’t know anything except this kid is some kind of a witch and my friends are vampires and, well, shit, if that’s a thing, and I guess it is, then I’m cool with it. But I know I hate your ass, and I know that at this moment you make no sense.”
“Henno was your great-great grandfather.”
“My great-great grandfather was Hans Keller.”
“He was one of them, you know you have several. I am referring to the father of that fierce old man on the wall of your library at 1948 Dimler Street.”
“You bitch!” Myron jumped up.
“Myre,” Dan said, trying to be forceful, but too weak to be.
“She can’t fuck with my family. I won’t allow that. Don’t you dare talk about my cousin’s house or anyone else.”
“Or your Queen, Marabeth? She’s not my enemy. Eve wanted to make an alliance with her.”
Myron’s eyes went steely. Something had come over him.
“If you’re looking to frighten me, you’re only making me angry. You need to talk right now.”
“That is precisely the look Henno had on his face before I killed him. He was a fierce opponent. We tried to make alliance with the Strausses near the end of the 1800s. almost did. But it didn’t work out. So they had to go. Imagine our surprise when, having killed Henno and his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, that whole clan, we found out little Friederich was alive over the mountains. Imagine the surprise of Vepsema when Friederich killed her and five of her own, when we learned that the Strausses had become stronger than before. When that bitch Inga came after us, and came after us with other witches. We learned our lesson then. And then, I suppose Igna must have known what Kruinh knows, that blood drinkers could not harm witches, and she must have told Pamela, though I doubt Pamela understood everything. So she married her blood to the Inga’s blood, Strausses to Kellers, and from then on the werewolves were witchblooded, and so largely untouchable. Heard enough?”
Dan turned to Myron in a very different voice and said, “Have you heard enough.”
“I think I have,” Myron said, dully.
“Myron,” Kruinh said.
“Whatever happens next,” Myron said, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets, “I’m staying. Okay?”
Kruinh nodded.
“Daniel,” he said.
“Really?” Daniel said, looking to Levy and to Myron.
Kruinh only nodded. “They are part of us now. And she is yours. She tried to kill you. You are my lieutenant. This is how it must be.”
Dan nodded, but he said, “Very well, but let Levy unbind her first. It must be fair.”
Evangeline sneered. “The vampire boy against me. Fair?”
“Are you sure?” Kruinh said.
“Yes,” Dan said.
Kruinh gestured to Levy. “Tell her she’s released, please.”
As he said it, Evangeline leapt up, but Dan caught her throat in his hands, pulled her forward, sank his teeth into her throat with a growl, and there was a moaning groan and then a snap of her back bone as he broke her in two and fell upon her. She trembled under him just a little, and her hands still clawed, but he pulled them down as he sucked the life from her, no blood could be seen he drained her so thoroughly until, at last, he rose from the broken white body with her colorless hair and and dead open eyes.
Dan stood there, glowing, his usually ivory colored face, burning white, his eyes like lamps, a trickle of blood on his red lips, and now he licked it away.
“She was an old one,” Kruinh said. “She lived from the 1600’s. Her blood is strong in you, and you have taken her life. And you have taken life from me. You are strong now, Daniel Rawlinson, stronger than you’ve ever been before.”
To Levy waves of power like heat radiated from Dan who stood there.
“Go out and run it off,” Kruinh instructed, and Dan was in one moment at the broken window, and at the next leaping out of it, then gone.
“That was Chris’s sister,” Sunny said, looking at Evangeline’s graying body while Laurie looked out of the window from which Dan had disappeared.
“So she was,” Kruinh said, but that was all he said.




They sat in Jim’s car, and they had been quiet a while before Seth said, “You can ask me, you know? If you want.”
“Ask you?”
“If you’re just going to pretend, you can take me home,” Seth said.
Jim blinked at him.
“I’m not really a very forward person,” Seth said. “I’ve never been a person who… I’ve always had a hard time speaking, but not right now.”
“Well, usually I’m just the opposite,” Jim said. “You… you’ve got me fucking nervous, Seth.”
Seth waited for him to continue.
“Cause I like you. I hardly know you, but I like you, and… I don;’t want to leave you.”
“Then ask me,” Seth almost pleaded.
“Come home with me tonight?”
“Yeah,” Seth said. “Yes.”


When Dan returned he came through the door like a normal person, and he saw that everyone was still in Myron’s apartment, and Myron was sitting on the sofa.
“Are you okay?” Dan sat down beside him.
“I think so,” Myron said. “My oldest friend tells me he’s a vampire oh, and guess what? I’m a werewolf, who’s also a witch. I don’t know to howl or buy a broomstick.”
“Well, a broomstick would help with clean up better,” Dan said.
“Yeah,” Myron almost laughed.
“Sonny sent a glazier over her in the middle of the night to fix my windows. He keeps on saying this is his fault. I don’t see how it is.”
Dan looked over where Sonny was working with the glazier and said, “Alexander Kominsky is the most efficient motherfucker I’ve ever known, and that’s a fact.
“The two of us were waiting for you,” Myron said. Everyone else headed back to that house. I’m supposed to go.’
“You don’t have to.”
“No, I would like to,” Myron said. “I don’t want to hang here by myself tonight. Really.”

When they got to the house, Dan said, “I’ll show you a spare room., There’s lots of ‘em. And then we’ll have a good talk tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Myron said. “I get the feeling that we need to have lots of talks real soon.”
Dan showed him the room and Myron said, “This is pretty nice.”
“Only the best for one of my oldest friends.”
“I’m so tired,” Myron said. “But you know, I feel good. It’s funny. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.”
They embraced hard for a moment, clapping each other on the backs and it seemed like neither would let the other go, and then Dan headed upstairs. He wound his way to Laurie’s room and thought of tapping on the door, then didn’t. He went right in and closed it shut behind him.
“I thought you might have gone back to Chicago,” Dan said.
Laurie sat up. He had changed into pajama bottoms and a snug sleeveless tee.
“No, Lynn is fine, and doesn’t want me and everything important is happening right here.”
Suddenly Laurie touched Dan on the cheek and said, “Don’t do that to me again.”
“It wasn’t like I intended to almost be killed,” Dan said.
“I think if you hadn’t have fed from Kruinh you would have died.”
“I know I would have,” Dan said. “But now… I feel so strong, You wouldn’t believe it. It’s almost too much. I almost want you to feed from me. I do. I think. A little.”
“You’re almost rambling,” Laurie said, and he sounded solemn, but not gruff.
“I… you know it’s an act. The roughness. I thought I lost you.”
“You didn’t lose me,” Dan said. “I’m right here.
They sat side by side and Laurie, his mouth still a little open, his eyes shining just continued to stroke Dan’s cheek.
“And I know,” Dan said. “I know you don’t mean the stuff you say. You think I don’t get that. It’s just that… sometimes you care for someone so much it would be too much to say it. You know?”
Laurie nodded, and they were still looking at each other seriously.
“I think that I would have died if you hadn’t been holding me,” Dan said, “if you hadn’t… Your love held me. Kruinh saved me, yes, but your love saved me.”
They kissed now and Laurie held Dan’s face in his hands. They pulled together, sitting side by side, and then lay down on the bed and began to undress, Dan, lifting up Laurie shirt, and Laurie unbuckling the belt to Dan’s jeans.
“Do you mind?” Laurie asked while he undressed him, but Dan didn’t answer, they just undressed feverishly until they were naked together, until nothing separated them and then their bodies joined, arms linking, holding each other as closely as possible, moving together like matchsticks to make the fire in the darkness, holding onto each other like nothing else mattered.


MORE MONDAY NIGHT

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a very well done portion! So Evangeline is dead? I hope that is permanent. Looks like Laurie and Dan are getting to know each other better. I am enjoying the way this story is progressing. Great writing and I look forward to more!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Ah, yes, Laurie and Dan are getting to know each other MUCH better! No spoilers here, Evangeiine is gone, so you don't need to look for her coming back. But now a of doors have been opened we'll have to see their consequences. Anything surprise you tonight?

 

[CharmedFan28]

I was very surprised that Evangeline was killed off!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I was a little surprised myself, but Kruinh didn't seem to be the type of person to leave lose ends untied, so once she crossed him, she kind of had to go.