San Francisco Covens: Crucible

by Manuel Tiger

  He had light brown hair brushed back and over his ears, the ends touching the nape of his neck. His eyes were a hard to place coloring, like an aqua coloring with a hint of amber that could either swing from brown to green in the light and were framed by long lashes. His face still possessed a hint of youthfulness and could at best be described as handsome from straight on. His nose was long and slender, coming to a sharp point.

  He was dressed in a leather jacket, red silk shirt and black slacks. His body was not toned or muscular, more on the slim side. I recalled my late grandmother referring to this body type as being slim as a green bean.

  He overall could be called passingly handsome in that generic knockoff brand way of a Ken doll you found in the dollar or less stores.

  He smirked and rested his hands one atop the other on my desk, nearly knocking over my cup of coffee that I caught and moved closer to me.

  “Funny,” he said in a soft toned voice. “Done appraising me?”

  I blinked. Had he read my mind?

  “All that beauty and dumb as a rock huh? You better hope that it lasts for a while for I do fear that once it goes? No one will have much use for you Henry.”

  I had no name plaque on my desk. How did he know my name?

  “Oh, I know your name,” he said which froze me to the spot. “Henry Sullivan. Grew up on Boston. Old money family. Your father beat you more than that once didn’t he, more than you admitted to Daman in your ever so tragic story.” He reached up and mimed wiping a tear from his eye with a crooked finger. “Just between us boys?” he said dropping his hand down. “You really liked that silver fox fucking you right? I mean, with age comes experience yes? And I’m sure you moaned for all your worth like a whore in heat and just begged for more.”

  I couldn’t say anything for a moment.

  “H-How do you know I told Daman what happened to me?”

  “He told me.”

  “No he wouldn’t!”

  “Oh, but he did Henry! He did and we laughed about it! Had a good chuckle.”

  “He wouldn’t do that!” I whispered.

  “You didn’t let me finish, Henry. Rude of you! Terribly, terribly rude!” he grinned and it was then I realized where I had seen him before. “We laughed and fucked for several hours. Why, we fucked in your shower right there across the street in your townhouse Tuesday afternoon.” He gestured over his shoulder with a hand. “Boring décor by the way. But I guess I can see why Daman entertained himself with you for it sure as hell wasn’t for your decorating skills!” he grinned wider, laughing softly.

  “Get out!” I said coldly, feeling tears streaming down my face. “I don’t know who you are but get the fuck out of this office!”

  “What? Daman did not mention me to you?” he held up his left hand revealing a gold band there. “I guess he left out the part that he was married too?”

  I blinked, staring at the ring. It was…a wedding ring. I shook my head. “W-What? M-Married?”

  “Still don’t know who I am?” he arched a brow and leaned further across my desk.

  “B-Bryan?” I whispered.

  “Bingo! Give the boy a prize!” he said clapping his hands dramatically before ending the gesture so quickly it had ice running down my back. “I’m back now honey,” he said with a smile. “And you’re being tossed to the side like the trash you are that attempted to move in on what is mine.”

  “No, you’re lying!” I said but my voice would get no higher than a whisper. I felt my heart pounding in my chest, felt it starting to fracture. It was a lie! It was lies he was telling me! “Daman would have told me! He would have told me! You…you left him!” I said. “You said you were going to be gone for a week and never came back!”

  “Is that what he told you?” Bryan said arching a brow.

  “F-For twenty years,” I said in that same small voice.

  “Twenty?” he laughed and it was cold and cruel. “It was more like a year and I got held up with personal business matters. We were always in contact,” he said. “I told him to find an amusement since I couldn’t be back in time. I’m not the overly possessive type mind you, Henry. I like to have my fun on the side too but in the end? Daman always and will always come back to me.”

  “No!” I said grabbing for my necklace and the charm with my left hand when Bryan shot his hand out and gripped my hand tightly in his. I cried out as he began applying pressure. I could feel the bones in my fingers rubbing together, felt the pain that shot up through my arm as I fell out of my chair and Bryan leaned over the desk staring down at me while continuing to squeeze my hand.

  “I hear you’re quite the writer and photographer too. I’m something of a writer, perhaps the best in my field,” he bragged. “And I’m writing the end of this dalliance Henry. For that is all you were.”

  I whimpered and struggled to free my hand from his vise-like grip but he gripped it so tight I could not. I watched as blood began to run down my hand and stain the cuff of my shirt, soaking into it.

  “And I don’t think you’ll be needing this hand anymore,” he said twisting it sharply as I heard the bones snap in my wrist. “Let that be a lesson to not play where you shouldn’t boy.”

  Pain like I had only felt once when my father broke my arm flared throughout my body. I stared at my hand that hung limp and bloody at the wrist. Bones jutted out of my fingers, tearing through the skin. It looked as if I had stuck it into a meat grinder.

  I couldn’t even scream because the pain was so intense and could only make pathetic whimpering sounds. I looked up at Bryan as I scrambled backwards, knocking over my satchel and grabbed it with my good hand as I got to my feet, keeping distance between us. I fumbled inside and drew out my car keys, backing away from him and toward the front door.

  “I advise you to leave tonight Henry. If you don’t?” he smiled that chilling smile. “If you don’t leave tonight and remain in Heaven Falls? I and those most loyal to me will make life unbearable for you here,” he said flicking my blood from his fingers. “And you think about going to the police? Well I have friends in high places Henry. We will paint you as crazy, as deranged, a stalker that would not leave Daman alone. Got it?”

  I said nothing but spun around, hitting the door with my shoulder to open it when I felt a hand grab me back the back of my shirt and jerk me back.

  “Get the fuck out of here Henry. You’re not wanted!” Bryan hissed into my ear before shoving me against the door. I bounced off it and nearly fell to the sidewalk. I corrected at the last moment and headed toward my car across the street while clutching my ruined left hand to my chest and somehow, by pure luck, got the key into the lock and climbed into my car.

  I had to go to Daman. The things that Bryan had said could not possibly be true! Could no way be true! Daman wouldn’t play me like that! He would not have gone to such lengths as he had done to insure my safety!

  I put the car in reverse and shot a look through the back window to see Bryan standing outside the office building. A smile on his lips, thumbs hooked casually into his slack pockets. He then lifted a hand and waved at me.

  I shot the car back and then hit the gas with my foot, shooting like a bullet down the road.

  I headed to River Haven, to Daman who would tell me the truth. He would put things right, would say all that Bryan told me was a lie and we would get out of here.

  Only, it wouldn’t be lies.

  And he would hurt me in the cruelest way possible.

  Chapter Seven

  “You know the rest,” I concluded, speaking aloud now. I turned the empty glass in my hand upside down and placed it on the tray in front of me, watching as a teardrop of bourbon slid down the inside of it. “After what was done to me I was brought to Alistair’s attention by Anna and Belle Dawn which led me coming to New York so he could help me adjust to being a vampire.” I sighed. “I don’t know what became of Anna after that or of Belle Dawn. Well, Belle Dawn I’m pretty sure is still in Heaven Falls. It was Anna who found me
at the Daman’s house and she brought me to Belle Dawn. After that? I don’t know where she went, what became of her.”

  “I wished you had stayed longer with us than you did, Henry,” Nicole said resting her hand on mine. “I thought you left too soon.”

  “I sometimes think I did too,” I admitted. “But I had to see if I could even survive on my own, if I could even make it as a vampire on my own.”

  “I know,” she said. “We all need to see what we’re capable of on our own. I’m just glad that you did survive.”

  “It was a rough start there in the beginning,” I said. “I…I did travel to Heaven Falls or attempted to after I left New York City. Only the memories were still too fresh, too painful and I found myself heading west instead. I didn’t stop driving till I had arrived in San Francisco and…well, began living as I did in those first two years.”

  “You shouldn’t feel guilty for how you chose to survive.”

  “Some days I like to think that it was someone else named Henry, an alternate version of me that was not me,” I said. “But I needed to erase all memories of Daman, or attempted to and it was a fast way to make money. For a while my clients consisted of dark headed men with blue eyes. Guess I liked torturing myself.”

  She squeezed my arm.

  “I just realized something that occurred to me in the retelling of our story,” I said looking back at her. “Memories came back to me that I had forgotten, that showed me I knew he was a vampire even before he admitted to it,” I sighed and rubbed my chin. “And that he clouded my memories of that knowledge.”

  “That’s because there are no lies or truths hidden between sire and fledging, Henry. When Daman turned you? All the truths came to you but it would seem you blocked them until now.”

  “Ten years,” I said shaking my head. “Took a long time to receive that truth.”

  “We’re all capable of blocking out things that we do not wish to dwell on, Henry. You locked those memories away and chose not to think on them again till now, when you unlocked that particular chest and drew them out. You embraced the anger of what was done and only stayed on that one event for the last ten years.”

  “It was too painful to think of anything else,” I said looking across the aisle toward Daman. He was curled up in the two seats and asleep. “Just anytime I thought of him or seen something that reminded me of him? I went back to That Night and the anger just boiled over along with the hurt of betrayal.”

  “Now that you have told your story to me? Is there any of that anger still left?”

  “I think it’s too tiring and trying to hang onto it anymore now,” I said looking into her clear blue eyes. “Does that mean I’m finally over it?”

  “That is something only you will know for sure, Henry.” She cupped my cheek. “But I think it has given you a clear head to focus on the mission now.”

  “I think it has too,” I agreed.

  “Good, for by the looks of things?” she said leaning forward and looking out the window. “We’re about to land in Mexico City now.”

  II

  Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México

  Mexico City, Mexico

  “Here, take this,” Nicole said taking my hand and slipping a small envelope into it. “It should cover anything that you need while here and more.”

  I looked at the envelope and felt the weight of it – it was damn heavy with cash. I shook my head and tried to hand it back but she refused it.

  “Nicole, no,” I said. “You and Alistair have already done more than enough for me.”

  “Nonsense Little One,” she said closing my hand around the envelope. “We know you aren’t making that much at your job and Alistair has always helped family. You’re family, Henry. Always will be. Consider this an early birthday gift for the last nine years when you always sent back the checks he sent.”

  I looked at the envelope and nodded then placed it into the inside pocket of my jacket. “Then thank you both.”

  “Make sure you hide it well,” she said. “But if you need our help? At any time during this mission?” she reached into her purse and handed me a cell phone. “You will find a pre-entered number on the phone under the initials AC. Call or even say the letters and it will connect directly. You don’t even have to wait for a pickup. We will know you need immediate help.”

  I looked at the phone. It was a high dollar cell phone. “Is this mine to keep?”

  “Of course. Another gift.”

  “Thanks,” I said placing the phone alongside the envelope into the inside pocket of my jacket. “I wish you were coming with us,” I said looking over to where Daman leaned against the wall typing on his phone. A few feet away stood the witches huddled in a group.

  “I wish I was as well, but we all need to do our parts in this,” she said following my gaze. “Talk to him Little One for you have to work together as a team now. Hopefully all the anger is out of you.”

  I said nothing and embraced her tightly. “Thank you again,” I whispered. “Maybe when all this is over? Heather, Scott and me will visit New York.”

  “Alistair would like that,” she said stepping back. “Now, I must go. Safe journey, Henry.”

  “To you too,” I said as she threw another glance in Daman’s direction. I followed her gaze and he jerked off the wall, frowning and staring at his phone. I looked back at Nicole as she smiled, turned and headed back in the direction we had come from.

  I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair then turned and approached Daman who had his thumbs hooked into his belt loops.

  “Bad news?” I asked.

  “Eh?”

  “You practically leapt off the wall when you were texting on your cell phone.”

  “OH!” he said and shrugged. “No, just confirming the meeting place.” He looked in the direction of where Nicole had been. “Tough woman, yeah?”

  “The toughest I know,” I replied. “So, since we’re now here in Mexico? What do we do next?”

  “I contacted my friends upon landing,” he said turning around as we began walking toward the witches. “We’re to meet someone at the Metropolitan Cathedral.”

  I nodded as he slowed and looked over at me.

  “Do you even know the names of the witches?”

  “No, they have been silent since they joined us and have kept to themselves. I guess we could number them as Witch One, Witch Two, and so forth.”

  He smirked.

  “Better ask them their names, Henry. We’re going to need to be on a familiar bases with them.”

  I agreed and stepped forward waving a hand to get their attention. They turned as one to look at me.

  “Before we leave this airport I’m going to need to know your names. Unless you rather I just number you and refer to you by that number.”

  The looked among themselves and then nodded. I half expected them to speak with one voice when they did speak.

  “Eve,” the red head of the group said.

  “Cass,” the brunette replied.

  “Miranda,” the honey blonde said.

  “Zoe,” the last one said who had a shaved head.

  “Pleased to meet you ladies,” I said nodding. “If you weren’t told? I’m Henry Sullivan and this is –”

  “Daman, his boyfriend,” Daman said as I whipped my head around toward him. “Oops! I mean, his ex-boyfriend. Sorry,” he said sounding everything but. “We are headed to the Metropolitan Cathedral. If you need to stalk up on food, drinks, clothing or what have you?” he gestured to the stores around us. “Do so now for once we meet up with the contact of those who will be helping us? There’s no telling how fast we will have to put boots to the ground.”

  “Understood,” Eve said stepping forward. “But do understand that we are here on behalf of the witch’s council and have our orders. We are to see to the extraction of a fellow witch and she her safely back to San Francisco.”

  “Okay,” Daman said arching a brow. “Understood.”

&n
bsp; “Also understand that you should not assume to order us around as we have never taken orders from vampires and never shall.”

  “Daman has a habit of rubbing the people the wrong way at times,” I said stepping forward. “We are here as a team and we need to work as a team and put aside any differences that may be present.”

  Eve looked at me with a half-smile. “Ms. Oakdale has always held you in high regards, Leech,” she said. “Why? I do not know as your kind has been nothing but the bane of witches. But Miss Samantha has ordered us to work with you and if by doing so secures the safe retrieval of Ms. Oakdale? Very well.”

  I ignored the slur, but it all made sense why they had avoided us until this moment.

  “Then if you are ready? We should get taxis and head to the meeting with Daman’s contact,” I said.

  Eve nodded and the other three women gathered up their duffel bags and headed toward the exit.

  I stood there for a moment watching them as Daman came to stand beside me.

  “Do you trust them, Henry?”

  I looked at him. “Second time I’ve been asked that.”

  “Do you? They have a rather nasty attitude toward vampires it seems.”

  “We need their help and I was told by Miss Samantha that are the strongest witches the council has,” I sighed. “As for their attitude? Do try your best not to rub them the wrong way as you seem fond of doing with me.”

  He looked at me with a grin. “You used to enjoy me rubbing you.”

  I just looked at him. “Why are you saying shit like that for? Just like you making sure everyone we have met today knows we used to be together!”

  He placed his hands behind his head for a moment and stretched, the act lifting his shirt a few inches above the waist of his jeans to reveal a hint of smooth toned flesh. “That one, Miranda, was checking you out. Thought I let her know where your preferences laid so she wouldn’t get her hopes up.” He dropped his hands and shrugged.

  “It sounds to me like you were marking your territory, Daman. Territory you no longer own I remind you!” I said starting forward as he began walking in step with me.