T W E N T Y ~ T W O

Oblivion wasn't what I expected it would be. Lying in non-Brooklyn soil didn't destroy me, there was peace within the Earth. A little, buzzing part inside my head began to understand some of what Absinthe had been saying. Native soil wasn't the tiny three-by-six plot of dirt a body was buried in, it wasn't the town or county where said-bod happened to suck in that first breath of life. Native Soil was the land, the continent, the whole shebang. It made sense. Man's boundaries and landmarks are constantly changing but the land remains constant.

I was learning more of that from the Earth, from Gaea, and, what a surprise s/he turned out to be, man and woman in one, double-sexed. Yes. All of creation, seed and womb, ever-changing, always constant. There is nothing like the smell of it, the touch. There aren't any words down there — just... living.

Damn, I don't know what to call it. "Living" does come close, like breathing all over your body. Time passed in a firm and flowing current and I was tuned into it. The sun was warm during the day and I could feel things shifting around, struggling and frenzied most times, but not in a bad way. Busy. Night was strictly female, a raunchy kind of lady, always trying to rouse me up. I kept myself buried and told her, "not now."

I didn't think about anything down there. I didn't forget anything either.

One night, the Moon started singing songs to me. I'd been hearing them for some time but at this point, resistance, as they say, became futile. Well, I've always been a sucker for the really old tunes so I drifted up towards them. Found that, although I'd dug in deep, I didn't have any trouble gliding out. It was like floating or drifting, but very focused. Soon, I felt myself boiling up out of the ground, mixing in with the deep, thick fog, and gazing at the true, luminous Moon. She had a black velvet wrap draped down over one shoulder and was giving me a starry-eyed, big-hello. I beamed back at her, feeling very good, and heard a shout, a faint, far off voice, crying, "Tony!"

It was Rick and my first response was that I was glad to hear him and looked around for him. Didn't see anybody. No one. I looked down.

Way.

Down.

Discovered I was closer to the Moon than I'd thought, hovering far above the buildings and treetops. With that realization, I started to drop. Then a hand latched onto my wrist and slowed me down somewhat. Absinthe. But I didn't like her anymore and tried to jerk away.

<Do not fight me> she sent.

I sent back a few choice phrases. Shadow-speak is more intimate than human talk and it packs a lot of personal punch. Her face registered sincere shock and surprise like she had never heard that combination of words before but she didn't let go.

<I did not 'set you up'> she returned, a little less cool than usual. <Let me help you>

<Get bit!>

<See for yourself ... Look!>

She was inviting me inside her head, opening up, and I plunged in like I was chased by — and bringing along — six Hell Bats. Thought to rip some mental ass before we smash-landed. But there wasn't anything there. Well, I discovered quite a few things but betrayal wasn't one of them. Absinthe hadn't known about David's movie festival. She hadn't sent me out on stage as the punch line of a Gemelo burlesque. She did want to help me — had decided to help that night at the Grimoire before all the chaos had set in. All the Madame tried to hide was the regret of her previous inaction.

Absinthe placed her hand along my skull. Her fingers slipped into the thick of my hair.

<... like this....> she sent, softly, a fragrant breeze. <You have the ability — Know it>

And I did.

She released me and we settled quietly back on Earth under the cover of a spit of a city park where Rick, Snake and Archie were waiting for us to touch down. Karma was there, too, and almost knocked me over jumping up to greet me. I hugged her while she covered my face with sloppy Karma kisses. Was easier to focus on her than the others. I'd been glad to hear Rick's voice and responded to that. Now I couldn't even look him in the eye remembering what had gone down the last time we'd all been together.

Archie put his hand on my shoulder and I had to glance up at him. He wouldn't let me look away. Next thing I knew, he'd pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me. Being held by someone as big as Archie Stutz was like being hugged over every square inch of your body. He was the kindest, most perceptive and gentle man I'd ever known. He had the kind of strength that came from such complete self-assurance, nothing threatened him. How I envied that. Wanted to be able to just relax against him, let him ease me away like he had so many times in the past. But I couldn't. Just disentangled myself and rooted awkwardly apart from them, Karma panting happy by my side.

I brushed the hair out of my eyes and said, blunt, "I thought you'd be long gone by now. What are you doing here?"

"Damned if I know," Rick snapped out. "Ask her."

He meant Snake but she wasn't talking. Her face was a mixed-up combination of resignation and defiance. Nobody except Absinthe and Archie seemed to be feeling anything other than miserably embarrassed.

Then Absinthe said, "You have been blocked."

And I said, brilliantly, "Huh?"

"Someone has placed a barrier inside your mind. Something that prevents you from using your natural abilities. The gifts are there.... You have used them before. Shock and anger sets them free." Absinthe hesitated, briefly, then went on. "You have been afraid that you were crippled, weren't you?"

"Yes." I was too surprised not to confess. Next question I blurted out was, "Why?"

"You are very powerful, Tony. I would guess that someone wants to control that power."

"You're talking about Tasia again, aren't you? What do you mean by control?"

"You are the first of your kind, American. Tasia Gemelo made you Blood of her Blood and acknowledged you as her own. You have been thinking, she is Regent and can 'get away with it.' That is somewhat true. However, it is her blood that gave you the Change as it is your land that gives you its strength. You are much more than a 'pet' to her. You are a true king of the Blood, the great king."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"The legend of the one king has become more than David's fantasy," Absinthe told us.

I scowled, waiting for it. "You're going to tell me there's some kind of curse, aren't you?"

"That depends on how you look at it. I would call it more a prophesy."

"I think I'll stick with curse."

"As you wish. Actually, it was Auberon who set the charm in motion. After the plague, he predicted that one 'Western born and bred, reborn on foreign ground, shall purge the madness from the land and unite all Blood beneath one hand.' There was quite a bit more but the basics that concern you would be the physical description — man and woman in one, old but young, hair of sun, eyes green as grass. That sort of thing."

"No joke."

"Absolutely not. Do you have any idea how many red haired mortals have perished by Fae hands in the past few centuries just to keep that prophesy from coming true? Many of those assassins were sponsored by one we both know." Absinthe paused to let her words sink in.

"Tasia sent them." They didn't have to sink far.

"You are thinking of Touraine. Yes — I know about him. Touraine is what made you such a surprise to us." Absinthe had the grace to look somewhat baffled. "All throughout the years, Tasia has surrounded herself with such creatures. They do not think far beyond themselves, not even too far beyond the moment. So many of them have been vicious, clever in cruelty, yet always with some talent for the arts. They are the sort who seek out power and use it in the worst ways. They come and they go but no one misses them afterwards. They are difficult to love."

I didn't argue with her. Touraine was not a dearly-departed type in my opinion either.

"There are others who have dedicated themselves to finding the one king," Absinthe said with a significant pause and an acute look in my direction.

"Don't look at me." I backed away from her like I'd duck a fist. "It doesn't make any sense — in so many ways I can't begin to start. Why would any of the Blood want another king after David?"

"If he were bound — literally — to protect instead of kill, might that not be a good thing for all, both mortal and Fae?"

"And if your new king finished off David for you in the process, that would be okay, too," Snake said. "Wouldn't it?"

"How astute you are, my dear." Absinthe beamed at Snake as if she might have just discovered a long lost daughter.

I didn't like the sound of any of it. Karma twitched to run, she flattened her ears and growled. I smoothed her fur, trying to settle her down. Trying to think.

"Tasia has kept everything from you, hasn't she?" Absinthe frowned. "There have always been wars between the Fae, between Order and Chaos, Dark and Light. It was never planned the one should overcome the other but that balance be maintained between the two. The Blood are birthed from mortal flesh while the legions of Fae are ... Fae. We inspire the poet, we keep the songs alive and in the hearts of mortal kind. There is evil and good among us. We balance. We connect the human world to Faery and the Fae despise us for that. Most would do anything they could to be rid of the Blood forever. Who planted the seed of ambition in David Gemelo's soul and seduced his madness to their own end?"

"Are you trying to tell us the fucking fairies made him do it? The elves?" Rick demanded. His blue eyes were as hot as the jet on a gas flame.

"Essentially, yes," Absinthe said.

"That's a crock. You should be smart enough to know it, Abby," Rick said. "David's responsible for what he did. We are liable for our own actions. You can't push something like that off on somebody else."

But Rick was glaring at me when he said that.

"Wait — let's get this other thing straight." Snake interrupted. "You think Tasia is planning to make Tony king of the vampires?"

"Oh, I think so." Absinthe nodded. "I believe it is what she had in mind all along. If she could not destroy our new king, she would control him."

"Talk about your basic crocks." I had just found some new pieces to my puzzle but it still didn't fit together. If anything, it was a bigger mess than before. Some of what Absinthe said sparked sense. Tasia had always been a queen of many faces. But even at her worst — at our worst, together, I had never gotten the impression she meant any harm to me, that she meant to use me in the ways Absinthe was saying. I'd spent a lifetime being used by the worst. I just didn't pick up that kind of vibe from Tasia.

But that didn't mean I couldn't be wrong. I didn't know what to think. It was a major shock to find out Tasia had been messing in my head — on a real and literal basis, keeping me from my gifts as one of the Blood. If she didn't mean to hurt me, could it be she was protecting someone else? Was she still protecting David?

"Does it make any more sense for David to rule here?" Archie spoke up, breaking into my confusion. "Gemelo's insane, Firehair. Crazy, mean and dangerous. Abby told you the truth. Blood are supposed to protect the land. David's done everything he could to destroy it."

"I'm the destroyer," I said, bitter. "You were there. You saw what I did."

"I saw raw, untrained, undisciplined power," Absinthe said. "I felt your anger, we all did."

"I killed, didn't I?"

"Yes." She answered me straight, unflinching. "You killed those who fed off you unasked. I do not tell you this to lessen their deaths but so you will understand you performed no indiscriminate execution."

"Gee. Thanks." But my sarcasm was distorted by a sob of breath.

"You take your anger too much to heart. Those who died culled the consequence of their own actions. I wonder if you realize how powerful the Gemelo's are and how they have used others to achieve their own ambitions?" Absinthe went on, almost desperate. "Their shrouds cover more land than you could ever guess. Their allies and servants are everywhere. Is it too impossible to imagine Tasia would want her own, special ally ruling at her side in this rich, new world?"

"It's my understanding that people who need allies usually have a lot of enemies," Rick observed, grim.

"Nonsense!" David Gemelo stepped out from a path in the shrubbery. "Enemies? Enemies among the Blood? Ridiculous. We're all one, big, happy family here."

Cordially sinister, David walked towards us flanked by twin ghouls. They were very tall, slim-muscled and blond like their master. One was dressed in the height of female executive chic from her no-nonsense, Sassoon cut to her Perry Ellis glasses, Calvin Klein suit and Gucci pumps. The other was decked out in cyberpunk drag, stiletto vinyl and a black, enameled mask that covered one side of her face and throat like a molten-lace scar. Wondered if the delicate hardware riveted to the side of her skull actually worked or was just special effects. The twins were an eye-catching pair, still, there wasn't any doubt as to who was the star of the show.

"Allow me to present my aides, Marlene and Dietrich. They're a tribute, you know. The great lady was almost one of us." David gleefully spread his hands, all encompassing. "How festive. We're all together. Now, I know you've heard an ear full about me and most of it is — probably true. Still, we haven't been formally introduced. I am David of Gemelo House, Colony Regent, Blood of Bloods, Dragonrider, Natasia's own, dearest kin. I am king here. The one and only king. You know that, Absinthe."

The Madame inclined her head, balanced on eggshells. "Everyone knows that, m'lord."

"So don't forget it," he snarled. Then smiled again. "Forgive me, but I've been listening for a little while. Let's face it, darlings, we all have a past — something back there in our own, personal histories we're not proud of. Something that, if we had a second chance, we might choose another path." He leered. "Then again — maybe not."

David spared a glance in my direction. "I tricked you into saying my name a few nights ago. You're not very clever at all, are you?"

"Not very," I agreed, dry.

"And you didn't care for my other little tribute at the Grimoire, did you?"

"No."

He sighed, so distressed, but his eyes were hop-skip-jump-up bugfuck. Crazy.

The topiary and shrubs were transforming around us. Various beings uncurled or burst from their illusions with a momentary eruption of dark brilliance, David's personal horde. Heard more than one voice stifling a giggle. This was such fun for them. They minced, pranced, slithered and staggered towards us.

Crap. We were trapped in a Michael Jackson video.

Suddenly, I was thinking to myself, Gaea — give me a break.

This was just the sort of campy, exaggerated performance that always alternatively cracked me up (at the wrong times) or pissed me off (at the wrong times) when I traveled with Tasia and her crowd. Everybody else was deeply affected by David's scare tactics. Silence smothered our little group like a glass dome. Absinthe was going rigid as stone caught up in David's wanky eyes. Archie was preparing to leap to her defense which would have been suicidal, man against vamp. Seriously.

David fixed on Absinthe's apprehension and zeroed in. "My dear, I am so very disappointed in you."

Oh. Right.

"You're really Tasia's brother?" I broke in loud. All eyes turned my way. "You sure fooled me. Wouldn't have figured you two to come out of the same gene pool at all."

I wasn't following the established game plan but David had the upper hand. It put him in a humoring mood.

"We are not twins by birth," he said, very superior. "But we are as one in all else."

"Okay. Well, then that explains the drag routine. You know, there are clinics now that can help with that," I told him, so-helpful. "It's simple stuff, really, even the cosmetic parts. Then you and Tasia can be just like Marlene and Dietrich there."

"Well, that was an amusing little bon mot," David said, tight-lipped, looking anything but. "Who do you think you are, to speak to me like that?"

"For starters, I'm the guy who fucked your sister. Here's another flash, Bozo. She fucked me back."

Rick and Snake were looking at me like I'd ripped a fart the size of Wyoming in the middle of the Russian Tea Room. Absinthe went into a form of terminal shock. Archie laughed. He roared out loud and some of the half-wits in Gemelo's little army echoed him, shrill and high. David didn't like being laughed at. He slapped me. Not a little slap either, it was like being smacked with a nuclear-charged two-by-four.

I decked him.

That tore it. It was all going down faster than anyone expected but I didn't care about that. Nobody cared. We just mixed into it — David and his swarm against the rest of us. I closed in with him and followed him down, remembering instructions Archie had given me in the not-so-long ago past. "Get tight," he told me. "Don't run. That's what they expect."

Theory was, normally, a big guy could take a little guy like me apart should I try my escape artist tricks on him. The thought was that if I closed in hard and fast, my opponent wouldn't get a grip on me, couldn't reach around and pop me out. I remember wondering back then if Archie was gearing me up for a match to come — but not too hard. I wasn't that slow on the uptake.

The truth was, David wasn't that much bigger than me. He liked to fight, too, although this kind of common, scrapping around on the ground wasn't his style. Regardless, he was more experienced. I got that right away. But there was a lot inside me that had been aching for this for a long time.

David's fist exploded against my jaw with a lot more effect than his routine. You really do see lights and colors flashing around when you get hit hard in the head like that. But a glass jaw wasn't my problem. There was more than David Gemelo closing in. Too soon, there were other hands on me, tearing me off him. Tried to break free and get back to business. Then something looped around my neck and I was dragged away.

Cold Iron, rune-carved and be-spelled — it tore into my throat, freezing and burning at the same time. David's ghouls tore me from their master. Hated screaming like that even though it was as much in rage as pain. Dietrich twisted the chain behind me. Too late, I reached for the anger, for the power I'd controlled so easily only nights before but it was like grabbing onto air. I sensed the dregs of it hovering just beyond my reach — as if it were looking for me, too. I tried to pull it together but it wouldn't shape, it wouldn't flow. It snubbed my efforts and burst in my eyes and skull in a spray of sparks.

David and I had been the first — and last scrappers. As David dusted himself off, I got a look around. Found myself thinking, hoping, Maybe they ran....

No such luck. It was bad. Snake was down, hurt — out. Rick restrained, bruised, a deep, bloody gash over one eye that leaked down into his face. Karma was whining, dying — but trying to get up. She was all broken up but she was still trying to get to me.

Absinthe was kneeling down by Archie. He was dead. Blood looks black under moonlight and carries the sheen of satin. She was gloved in it to the shoulders, it splattered her cheek and breasts bringing color to her bleached out skin.

There were other bodies, other deaths scattered across the ground but Archie's was the one that mattered. He'd tried to keep them off me, fought to give me a chance. How they'd torn him before he dropped. Heat from massive, open wounds steamed the frigid air, ghosts rising up to the Lady Moon. In a blink, they were gone.

About a foot away, Karma gave a final, puzzled whine and lay still.

I reached back behind me and grabbed the chain — almost pulled free. Lunged up. Didn't get far before they hauled me back again. One of the twins whacked me a few times with a loose end and I almost passed out.

David stood over me. He cleaned up fast and well. "Does that hurt you?" he asked, meaning Archie.

The chain was too tight to talk and shadow-speak didn't allow for much creative dodging. Can you gamble pride against lives? Would he off someone else just to see if I flinched?

<Yes> sent out, sharp, true. <It hurts>

David laughed. Rubbed his palms together and laughed! Found I was actually waiting for that response, he was so predictable. But that didn't make anything less terrible. Couldn't believe I could go on speculating and planning and feeling — anything.

It was going to get worse — I knew it. Just didn't know how. David was keyed up for something more. There were so many of them, shuffling and stirring around. Such a butchered few of us. Then movement came from this one spot in a wave, someone pushing through the crowd to get through. And she did, crashing out with that single-minded determination only the fractionally cognizant have.

Linda. I'd put her so completely out of my head. Tried to put her out. Why couldn't she have done the same with me?

There are all kinds of different vampires, I told you that before. Most of them think and feel and live in their own special way. Others simply exist, the walking-dead — Nosferatu. Graveyard skinned, rotting, mindless except for the instinct that drives them. They're the ones who died of the bite but never took the Blood Gift. They shamble and lurch through the dark, seeking any cover at dawn, staggering back and forth over the same, old, familiar grounds they knew in life, straining to ease a hunger that can never end for them. They'll kill anything they can catch, drain it dry. Thing is, they can't catch much.

But Linda wasn't supposed to be dead. She wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't possible. I hadn't taken that much from her ... had I? It was months ago, I couldn't have.

But I'd been starving then. Now, so was she. She would always Hunger.

Her face worked as she came towards us, barefoot in winter, clad in the rags of her last summer's dress, impossibly pleased to have found me at last. "I. Wait. Ed. For. You."

Swaying to a stop before me, Linda glowed beatific, a triumph of elocution. Me, I gaped, kneeling in the dirt, speechless. Then she hunkered down and began tearing, greedy, at Karma's warm corpse.

I'm going to lose it, now, I told myself. I'm going to lose it and I'm never coming back. Please.

A disgusted snarl caught my ear and I gazed up and over at Tasia's brother.

"You tiny tragedy," David lashed out. "It's impossible. Tasia must have been so utterly desperate to have indulged herself in you. You perversion, you accident of death. She will come, now. Then we'll see. You'll see."

Tasia coming here...? Something new to gawk about.

"In the meanwhile," David concluded. "You have something that belongs to me!"

He reached down and seized my arm, half-lifting me from the ground. He was going for Tasia's ring, of course. David pried open my hand, grabbed the ring finger and the small finger next to it. The bones cracked sharp and loud. He twisted through skin, muscle and gristle. Retrieved his prize, slipped it onto his own hand and dropped my offending digits in the dirt. I was doubled over, clutching my mangled hand, bellowing into the dust when they fell. The twins cut me a little slack with the chain.

Gazing down, David heaved a sigh and raised his eyes to the Moon in a less than silent appeal.

"King indeed," he declared, scornfully.

And shook his head.

Next
Back
Home