San Francisco Covens: Crucible

by Manuel Tiger

  “Or a warning from those still loyal to Bryan,” Daman said. “I haven’t received any of his typical announcements then again I stopped owning pets for that very reason.”

  I looked at him. “He killed your pets?”

  “I don’t believe we explored all of River Haven’s grounds together,” he said. “But a little ways off from the greenhouse is the remains of where I used to keep the descendants of my mother’s messenger pigeons. We got into a fight once when I walked in on him with one his brothers and –”

  “Wait, he was sleeping with one of his brothers? And you still remained with him?” I said arching a brow.

  “I do not know for sure if it was his actual brother or brother in the blood of being a vampire,” Daman said. “And as I said, he was always doing things like that to me to strike back at me, to get under my skin so I would behave in the way he wanted and desired. He enjoyed nothing more than having me in a blind rage to appease his particular desires. He was always found of pushing my buttons, of striking back at me through various ways, sex being one such common way.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I said squeezing his hand back. “As you were saying?”

  “He killed all the pigeons that were housed in that pigeonnier when I refused to join him and his brother in bed together. After that I simply showed no interest in owning other pets.”

  Anna sighed. “The man was deranged yet those types always garner a large and loyal following that will always believe the person over common sense, if there was any there to begin with. He would sic them on others or have them spread lies and slander so that the victim was never believed.”

  “And if he is returning? Or his loyal stooges are going to be coming out due to the articles appearing in the Gazette? I want Henry protected,” Daman said. “I have a feeling that they will be coming out of the shadows further.”

  “The articles that Helen has written,” I said. “That was what I heard the man attacking Helen was raging about.”

  “They don’t want people to know about them,” Anna said. “We all don’t, but witches are easier to hide and Daman is as well due to his tattoo.”

  “Are you really a witch then?”

  “Yes,” she said pushing off from the stairs and coming over toward us. “We just don’t show our age, typically.”

  “Then how will I be protected?” I asked looking at the both of them.

  “I can create a charm that will virtually put you off the radar of notice to other supernatural beings,” she said. “You must keep it on you at all times and,” she looking to Daman. “You might want to start giving him your blood. If he has your blood in his system? It will solidify that he is yours. Not many wish to tangle with you.”

  I stared at her with one cocked brow and wide eye. “I have to start drinking his blood?”

  “Don’t worry,” Daman said cupping my cheek. “I’ll ease you into it.”

  Anna placed a hand on my arm. “It’s a measure that we have to take to insure that nothing will happen to you, Hen.” She gave a lopsided smile. “At best? The recent murders in the forest were a onetime thing, just some wolf being careless.”

  “You all seem to be taken the deaths pretty…I don’t know, casually?” I said. “People died, were basically slaughtered in the forest.”

  “The supernatural realm opens your eyes pretty quickly to how brutal the world really is,” Daman said. “As evident by this crypt coupled with things I have seen or done to insure my own survival through the years.”

  “If you’re going to be with Daman, Hen? You’re going to need a crash course in learning that while the human world around us is fucked up at times? The supernatural world is just as fucked up and hardens those that come into it rather quickly. There is no path of roses to thread upon when you become part of it, it’s more a path of thorns. Half the time you are crawling before you are walking to survive it, and even then? You may find yourself crawling more times than not.”

  “We aren’t being cold about the deaths that occurred, Tesoro,” Daman said. “There are warnings given about what areas of the town and the surrounding areas to not venture into. The best one can hope for is that people obey them.”

  “Like going into a war zone knowing there’s a fifty-fifty chance you’re taking your own life into your hands,” I said.

  “Like that,” Daman said. “But I will tell you everything that you need to know and I’m sure Anna will as well.”

  “I will,” she said. “But let’s get that charm made so that Daman can rest easy tonight.”

  “I’m not letting anything or anyone ever harm him,” Daman vowed as he pulled me closer and placed a kiss on the top of my head. “And thank you for doing this, Anna.”

  The charm that Anna created for me that night was a necklace I was to wear at all times and never take off. Also that night, after we returned to River Haven, Daman began to give me his blood.

  “Will taking your blood eventually turn me into a vampire?”

  I was seated on the edge of the bed pulling off my shoes and socks. The events of the night were still playing in my head, but were settling in more firmly. One part of my mind still wanted to rebel, to protest against the notion of the supernatural, but another part knew otherwise now.

  “No,” Daman said coming over to me, placing himself between my spread legs. He was wearing only his jeans that now rode low on his hips. My eyes moved down from his face to his broad muscular chest, down to those washboard abs and that of his Adonis Lines that vanished beneath the waist of his jeans. My eyes lingered on the hint of dark curling hair that peeked over the waist before I traveled my gaze back up.

  Everything about him seemed human, looked human.

  “It requires one bite, the taking of all your blood and then giving you my blood. The transformation process ranges sometimes from thirty minutes to an hour or twenty-four.”

  “The stories then about the rapid healing abilities, great strength, leaping and flying I won’t be doing?”

  He smiled and it was beautiful, like the brightness of the sun. “You may find cuts healing faster yes, but the other gifts, the abilities that come with being a vampire, will not be yours. However, taking my blood, having it flowing through you, will connect us, link us more. I will be even more aware of you and you off me, Tesoro.” He placed a hand on my chest and gently pushed me back onto the bed. He brought his hands down as he leaned over me and began undoing my belt, the button on my slacks. “You will notice once you’ve been steadily taking my blood? Our fucking will be heightened, so the lore says.”

  My interest was further piqued.

  “So,” I said as he pulled off my slacks and ran his hands between my legs, caressing the inside of my thighs as I groaned softly. I reached up and pulled him down onto me. “How will this taking of your blood occur? Will I’ll be having a glass of it every morning to start the day?”

  He grinned and kissed the underside of my jaw as he settled between my legs more firmly, his arousal straining the front of his jeans. “No, in the most intimate way possible,” he said brushing his lips over my ear, his breath warm, his voice deep and penetrating as I pressed upward, his hands moving up to undo the buttons on my shirt and I dropped my arms as he removed my shirt. Only my tie was all I was wearing and he wrapped it around his hand and pulled me up as he kissed me. “The very most intimate of ways.”

  “Sex,” I whispered against his lips.

  “Mmhmm,” he replied kissing me as he undid his jeans and worked them off. He pushed me up onto the bed and joined me, moving against me as I groaned and encircled my arms around him, wrapping and scissoring my legs around his waist.

  He leaned up, spitted into the palm of his hand and coated his cock with it then drove himself into me, taking me in a single hard thrust. I gasped and arched upward while pressing my ass into his crotch as he began to move inside of me, spreading me around that thick girth with slow thrusts.

  “Mine,” he whispered, moan
ed, as we moved together as one upon the bed. That one word like a mantra to drive him onward, to increase his thrusting into me.

  I drew my hands down his back, my nails leaving red furrows as he began to hammer my ass steadily, pushing, driving himself deeper and deeper into my core hitting that spot, teasing it before he drew back, nearly pulling out of me.

  He went still, panting heavily as he stared down at me, sweat glistening on his face, clinging to the ringlets of his hair, coating his body.

  “Daman, fuck! Don’t!” I cried out pressing the heels of my feet against his ass, trying to push back into me, back deeper as he grinned and he continued to wait, my hands moving down to grip his firm ass, pushing, pulling on it as he groaned loudly.

  “Fuck yes,” he moaned as he slammed his hips forward, spearing me deeply as he began that hard and frantic thrusting. The bed beneath us began creaking and groaning.

  “Yes! Harder!” I moaned pulling him down to me, kissing him hard, panting against his lips as I looked between us to see his cock rising and falling into me over and over. “Harder Daman, please, fuck!”

  He complied and I felt us both reaching that release together when I heard his husky voice at my ear.

  “Drink, Henry! Drink from me!” he whispered as I looked up at him, his motions slowing. I watched as he drew a finger down the side of his neck, cutting the flesh with his nail. Blood bloomed to the surface in a straight line as he then cupped the back of my head and directed my mouth to that flow of blood.

  I latched my mouth firmly to the area, pulling at it, tasting that rich, fiery blood flow into me and it was the sweetest thing I ever tasted on my tongue. My arms wrapped around him as picked up the rhythm again, my body jerking back and forth beneath him as I felt myself taken to a far greater height of pleasure with the consumption of his blood.

  It burned through me like fire, igniting all my senses. I was aware of every inch of his body from the way his taut flesh felt like marble, the flexing of his muscles that rubbed against my body, the scent and taste of his sweat upon my lips and tongue and the salty, musky perfume of sex that hung in the air between us rich as roses in the heat of summer.

  I didn’t even know when I came, only aware of his hot cum filling me, flowing into me, marking me within as his.

  My head fell back as my body thrummed in a way I never thought possible. It was like a warm pulsing sensation that just flowed through me in one unending wave after another as I reached up and pulled Daman down toward me. “Drink,” I whispered as he grinned, revealing his fangs sliding into place as I arched my head back and felt his warm breath against my neck followed by the familiar piercing sensation I had always felt before and thought I had imagined.

  I groaned and clenched my body around him, holding onto him tightly as he started to move again inside of me, sliding slickly back and forth as he claimed me again and again throughout the remainder of the night.

  Any hesitations I may have had about the taking of Daman’s blood went out the window after that experience. It became part of our sex life, uniting us further, binding us together even more as lovers. With the taking of his blood I became more aware of him, of his moods, and vice versa. If I was becoming aroused, even a slight hint of it, Daman was there drawing it out further till it became all-consuming, a fire burning out of control that only he could tame.

  He also told me that with the taking of his blood on a regular bases it may bring out certain abilities, namely that of possibly seeing spirits. This had been something I had possessed as a child, not a strong gift mind you, but living in Back Bay I had from time to time glimpsed spirits from the area’s historical origins. Only this gift, this ability, I had thought died away for after what had happened to me I had been shown that there were scarier things in the world than ghosts of the past.

  And the first spirit I believed I saw was the one that would set in motion the undoing of everything, the ending of Daman and I.

  It was November. No more bizarre deaths had occurred for three months, or at least no bodies had yet to be found. There was a few missing people cases that found themselves on the front pages of the Gazette, but life seemed to go on in Heaven Falls uninterrupted.

  With no further deaths occurring we all seemed to breathe easier. Daman felt that nothing else would occur, or hoping that nothing else would occur. He believed that the attack by the werewolf pack was a onetime thing, a foolish mistake, but a onetime thing.

  Daman talked more frequently of selling River Haven now, and I did not try to dissuade him for as he said, he felt that it was time to leave Heaven Falls behind. Even Anna spoke of shucking off the town and heading to Richmond or that of New York City.

  These decisions were discussed more frequently as the year began to near its end. Daman mentioned that we would spend one last Fourth of July in Heaven Falls and afterwards? We would begin our lives in Richmond, possibly even traveling the world.

  I had no disagreement about these plans for I was ready for this next chapter in my life despite the success I was having at the Gazette. My articles, as well as that of my photos, was bringing attention to me, not only in Heaven Falls but from requests from other newspapers in the county and surrounding ones to have me serve as a guest writer or photographer.

  Life was going well for me and I was finally in a good place. I had everything I wanted that I never thought I would have.

  Then that mid-January evening in two thousand and six occurred.

  Daman and I were staying at my townhouse that night. I had gone out to my car to retrieve something I had left. I think it was the pen that Daman had given me or my notes for an article I was writing on. It doesn’t matter what I was going out for it was quickly forgotten when I suddenly felt compelled to look in the direction of the entrance to the park.

  The park entrance was washed in the glow of the street lamp in front of it. I simply stared, wondering why I had felt the need to look in that direction when out of the darkness and into the yellow glow of the light stepped a figure wearing a long trench coat and a hat pulled low over their face. Yet, somehow, I knew this figure was male despite the bulky shapeless fit of the coat they wore.

  I watched as the figure came further into the light lifting their head ever so slightly. The lower portion of their face was revealed which only confirmed my first assumption that they were male correctly. They had a square jaw, small lips, nothing remarkable until they stretched into a smile that revealed gleaming white teeth.

  And the lips kept stretching in a psychotic smile.

  I stumbled backwards, fear striking me full force as I gasped. A cruel, mocking laughter filled my ears even though the figure’s mouth did not open, just continued grinning. I shook my head, walking backwards and that overwhelming fear took firmer hold of me, sending ice shooting through my veins as I tripped and began to fall backwards.

  “Henry?”

  I felt Daman’s arms around me suddenly which prevented me from hitting the ground.

  “I sensed, no, felt your fear. What’s wrong?” he asked with concern in his tone.

  I looked up at him and back toward the entrance of the park.

  The figure was gone.

  “I…I think I saw a ghost,” I whispered pulling myself up and clinging to him. The laughter was still ringing inside my head but fading. “I think.”

  “There’s many ghosts that roam Heaven Falls,” he said wrapping his arms around me. “I’ll show you how to block them out,” he said kissing the side of my neck.

  “You see them?” I said as I let him guide me back inside the townhouse.

  “When I allow myself to,” he said. “I’ll show you how to shut off the ability if you want.”

  I glanced back over my shoulder toward the park entrance. I nodded my head quickly. “I think I would like that.”

  A few weeks later I was working late at the Gazette finishing up an article. There was only me, another co-worker who was in the basement below working in the archives and that of the j
anitor that had just gone into the back offices to start cleaning up. I had told Daman that I would bring home supper that night as it was our weekly movie night and he would have pick of what we would watch.

  I hoped that this movie night would put him in a better mood. Since the beginning of the week when he picked me up on Monday after work he had been quiet, distant and seemed lost in thought which wasn’t like him at all. He wasn’t his typical talkative self that night either and had been extremely aggressive in his lovemaking, barely giving me a moment to catch my breath before he started again.

  This had been occurring since Monday and it was now Thursday. I hoped that our weekend trip to Richmond would put him in a better mood.

  I tried not to let dark thoughts enter my mind, to whisper that he may be changing his mind about us.

  Drawing me from my thoughts and work I felt my necklace suddenly move on my neck followed by the sound of the chain breaking as it slipped down my chest. I arched a brow and untucked my shirt drawing the chain out, staring at the broken chain as I picked up the charm from my lap.

  “Odd,” I said setting the chain and charm on my desk when my jar of pens just tipped over like it had been pushed by an invisible hand. The pens spilled across the desk and onto the floor. “The hell?” I said bending down and retrieving the pens, even having to reach under my desk for a few that had rolled under there.

  When I sat up I jumped back in my seat.

  Seated across from me was an older male, at least in his mid-forties if I had to take a guess right off the back. There was something vaguely familiar about him, yet I could not place where I could have seen him since I now knew about everyone in town.

  I had not heard anyone come in, had not even heard the chime above the front door go off or even heard him place the chair before my desk. And I knew that while looking under my desk for the stray pens I would have noticed a person seated in front of my desk since I had no cubicle wall like the other workstations did.