by J. P. Rice
It spun me around until I fell down. With a scorched brain and body, I tried to pick myself up. I stumbled back to my feet, woozy, but ready to quit fucking around.
My opponent was getting close to my car again. I called on a fireball and heaved it before I could fully coalesce it into a perfect sphere. The blaze trailed toward the man’s head, straight and true. At the last moment, the man flicked his neck backward and the ball of fire screeched right past his cheek and into the woods.
When he dodged my fire ball, he threw his hair back. It exposed a third eye in the middle of the man’s forehead. Son of a bitch. That’s how he was peeking into my past.
I called on two more fireballs that developed slowly in my hands. The magician backed away from my car. In a flash, he was standing in front of me, tackling me to the ground. With my arms contained, I dissolved the fire balls so I wouldn’t hurt myself.
I felt a sudden pang in my calf. Oh shit. In an instant, I lost control of my body. The demon implant took control of me.
As I lay still on the gravel parking lot of the comic book store, my opponent rained down fists of fury, crushing my cheek and nose. He connected to the bridge of my nose and blood poured out of my nostrils and down over my lips and cheeks. He continued the assault as I lay there helpless, unable to defend myself.
Perhaps I needed to die before the implant caused me to kill someone innocent.
The distorted sounds of sirens filled my ears and grew louder by the second. The man jumped up and ran for my car again.
My arms started working again. Thank the Gods. I rolled over, did a quick push up and sprinted after the man. He reached in the broken window, snatched the comic and darted toward the fence. I closed in on him quickly. As I got to within a few feet, I dove through the air, hooked my hand over his shoulder and tackled him.
He dropped the comic, and we wrestled around on the gravel. The police sirens reached a fever pitch and a squad car skidded to a stop in the lot. The man bit my forearm. Screaming in pain, I broke the hold.
My opponent jumped up, shot a quick glance at the cops and took off for the woods. He left the comic laying on the ground and sprinted toward the chain-link fence. The man appeared as if he would run directly into the fence.
At the last moment, he crouched and leaped over the fence in a single bound. He hooked his fingers around a low tree branch, dangled for a few seconds and dropped gracefully to the ground. He disappeared quickly, leaving a trail of broken twigs and dead leaves in his path.
I got back up and grabbed the comic. It felt lighter. Had he stolen the map without me noticing? Opening the comic, I feverishly paged through it. Aaahhh. It was still there. I threw it in the car and smiled at the officers.
I always loved explaining supernatural fights to the police. The jaw-dropping looks I received when I mentioned fire balls or a blast of lightning were priceless.
The authorities asked me questions for about an hour before leaving, unsatisfied. They weren’t happy that I couldn’t provide any information about the other suspect. In fact, a few stopped just short of calling me a liar. It came with the territory.
Once the cops left, I grabbed the comic and peeled the map loose. I folded the clear tape over the map so I wouldn’t tear it, and realized there were two maps. The writing on the map was in Japanese, but it appeared to be of a mountain. The second map seemed to be greater detail of the mountain.
Strange. I stashed the maps on the passenger seat and headed for home. I called Felix while driving and asked him to set up another meeting with Fukutama. The mage informed me that Fukutama went on meditation benders for days at a time. Apparently, he wouldn’t be available for a few days.
I had a few other options to help me figure out the map. My best friend Reg and my mentor Alayna could have some pertinent information. With Alayna still watching Dante, I decided to stop by the Purple House of vampires and see if my best friend Reg was around.
Chapter 5
A vampire named Lexis opened the fourteen-foot high doors to the library in the Purple House. Warmth and the smell of a fresh fire hit me as I shuffled my feet down the main walkway. Tall gargoyle statues holding torches lined the path on both sides, leading to the tables for reading.
Bookshelves taller than me surrounded the reading tables and filled out the expansive room. As I passed the gargoyles, the musty smell of old books came to the forefront. It was similar to Fukutama’s house before he’d filled it with herb smoke. I left the corridor behind and saw Reg sitting in his wheelchair at one of the tables.
Reg’s hands were trembling and his normally rich brown skin had taken on a pasty, chalky look especially around his mouth that had foamy spit collecting in both corners. His dark hair, slicked with sweat, had lost all of its gray streaks and his sub-par shaving left patches on his cheeks. Transitioning into a vampire gave him a younger look, albeit much more haggard than his previous appearance.
As I neared the table, Reg stood up from his wheelchair to greet me.
He stood up. Nobody was helping him. And he was taller than me. It was a miracle. I was overwhelmed with emotion. “Holy fuck. Is this for real?”
Reg grinned at me and just nodded. I couldn’t believe he was standing. He took a few steps toward me and wrapped his long arms around me. I squeezed my brother who had been paralyzed for almost sixty years.
As we broke the embrace, I commented, “I guess being an immortal vampire has a few benefits.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t pure. There was pain behind the forced smile. “I’m slowly starting to figure that out. This was a nice benefit. You all right there?” He motioned around his face.
I touched the still raw area and yanked my hand away. “Fine, just a little scrap earlier. I’ll say that’s a nice benefit. Maybe I should rethink Jonathan’s offer to become a vampire.”
“I don’t know. I’m still fighting with the side effects. It’s not really getting any better.” He held up his hand, which was shaking uncontrollably.
“Let’s sit down.” I gestured with an open hand. “Unless you don’t want to. You had me fooled with the wheelchair. I thought I was dreaming at first.”
Reg shoved his wheelchair aside and sat back down in a chair at the table. “I thought the same thing when I took those first few steps.”
“I couldn’t be any happier for you, man. When did this happen?” I asked as I joined him at the table.
“Just yesterday. So don’t be thinking I was holding out on you. I had the urge to stand up, and suddenly, my legs were working again. No crazy ritual or nothing like that.” He leaned back in the chair. “So what brings you by to see me?”
I couldn’t remember. “Sorry, I forgot now. This is blowing my mind. In the best way possible, of course.”
Reg leaned to the side and picked something up that was leaning against the table. In my excitement, I hadn’t realized it was sitting there. Reg set a tapestry on the table and I almost passed out. I pushed the chair back and stood over the piece. Amazing.
It was my family crest that he had been working on for almost a year. The main colors that popped were red and gold, but the intricate details were amazing. Two golden dragons stood sentinel on either side of an escutcheon with an eagle’s head extending from the top. The shield had been quartered. The quadrants contained an overflowing bounty of fruits and vegetables, a mighty oak tree, a lion and a badass, variegated triskele.
The surroundings of the dragons and shield were stitched in brilliant red, dotted with a pattern of gold crowns. At the bottom, the words, Merlino Family, were stitched heavily with golden thread, giving it a high-relief look. Right under that were the words, Vita post mortem. Rarely was I ever speechless, but I stared at the piece with my mouth open.
“So what you think?” Reg asked.
I looked at him with a stupid smile clinging to my face. “Reg. I don’t even know how to put this into words. It’s amazing. Hearing you talk about it was one thing, but seeing it in front of me. Seeing how muc
h work went into it. All I can say is thank you. Thank you so much. What does vita post mortem mean?”
“No problem. I’m glad you like it. It means life after death. You said you were ready to die when Alayna rolled into your life. Now is like your life after death. Make the most of it.” Reg smiled and this time it was pure.
“I’ll make the most of it. And I don’t like it. I love it. This has instantly become my most prized possession.”
“Now you just need to start a family.” He laughed.
“I’m kind of working on that now. We can talk about that later.” I didn’t need to bore him with my mundane daddy duties. “I did want to ask you about something going on right now.”
He pursed his lips and nodded. “All right. Shoot.”
“To cut a long story short, a Native American spirit has been kidnapped. I think the kidnappers are Japanese from a clue they left behind. I’m just wondering if you had heard anything about it?”
“I heard about Cyclone Woman.” He scratched his goatee in thought. “A couple of the other vampires were talking about it yesterday. They didn’t have any idea why she was missing.”
Sounded like word was getting around town. “That makes a few of us. I’m starting to think she’s been kidnapped by some Japanese people. I even got into a fight with a Japanese-looking man earlier today. I found a map pertaining to the case too.” I pulled it out of my back pocket and laid it on the table next to the tapestry.
“I don’t expect you to recognize the writing, but do you recognize these mountains?”
Reg opened the first map and looked at it in silence. He opened the second map and smoothed it out over the table. He started shaking his head and said, “Can’t say as I do. Other than them being mountains, I can’t shed any light on this for you. Sorry.”
It was worth a shot. “Don’t be. It was a long shot, but you are one of my go-to guys with the supernatural.”
“That’s right.” He lowered his head and lifted his eyebrows. “Don’t forget that shit, either. I love when you stop by, even if this place is grinding me into a nub of what I used to be.”
I tried to ignore his last line. “I’m surprised you’re awake right now.” I checked my phone and it was 2:33 p.m. “Haven’t they turned you into a nocturnal creature by now?”
“I can’t sleep for shit.” He rubbed his eyelids and it made the bags underneath puff up and grow in size. “It’s terrible. I don’t need much now that I’m an immortal, but it’s driving me crazy lying awake all night. The stuff going through my head is something I don’t even want to tell you about.”
“Don’t ever hold back on me. I’ve been having issues with that implant I told you about.” I lowered my head in shame. “I almost slit my wrists when that damn thing took over.”
“Have you talked to Alayna or the Gods about it yet?” he asked as he rubbed one of the crowns on the tapestry. “Since they cured you of cancer, an implant removal seems like a breeze.”
“Unfortunately, with the self-destruct mechanism, it won’t be so easy.”
“I’m sure that Dian Cécht could throw you into his healing cauldron and figure it out,” he recommended. Dian Cécht was the Medical and Healing God in the Celtic Pantheon. He had helped me to beat cancer.
“It’s just I’m embarrassed about it. I don’t want the Gods to think I’m stupid for agreeing to this.” I tapped the table with my index and middle finger. “I was backed into a corner and was going to die if I didn’t agree to the implant. I had no choice.”
“You don’t need to explain that to me.” Reg counseled, “You need to tell Alayna and maybe ask her to relay the message to the Gods so it’s not so embarrassing. But bottom line, you need to get rid of that thing. I’m turning into a monster right now so I know how terrible it can be. I can’t even trust myself.”
“I can’t either. I don’t know when it’s going to take over or how long it will last. I’m at the mercy of a devil. Not a great place to be.”
Reg stood up again and I did another double take. My body tingled and chills ran down my spine. I was so happy for my boy I could barely put cohesive words together to express it.
“I want to show you this book over here,” he said, leading me down one of the aisles of book shelves.
I loved being around old books and rubbed my fingers against the spines of the books at waist level. You could feel and smell the musty history sitting at your fingertips. Reg stopped in the middle of the aisle and reached for a book on the shelf.
Instead of a book, he extracted a wooden stake, sharpened to a point at one end. He slammed it flat against my chest. “Take this motherfucking stake and jam it through my fucking heart.”
What the fuck was happening? “I don’t know if...”
“Fucking do it. Now,” Reg growled rabidly and tried to put the stake in my palm.
I backed away but he grabbed my shoulder with his other hand. His vise grip on my black hoodie pulled me closer and fire gleamed in his eyes. “Take this thing and fucking kill me.”
What the fuck was going on? This was insane. I struggled, not accepting the stake from my crazed friend. I turned away, not wanting to look at him. I screamed, “Stop it. What the fuck are you doing?”
He yelled back, “Are you my friend? Are you my fucking friend?”
“I am. You need to stop. You’re scaring the shit out of me.”
I finally wriggled free and the wooden stake fell harmlessly to the carpeted floor. Reg burst into tears and dropped to his knees. He leaned down face first, bawling, and snuggled up in the dark aisle. I sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder.
“You’re going to get through this transition into a vampire, Reg. I promise. You just need to settle down and relax. I’m going to be there for you too. If you’re struggling, call me. I’m pretty much always around. You know that.”
Reg began to settle down with the help of a few deep breaths. He exhaled loudly through his nose, and said, “Thanks. This shit is just so rough sometimes. It just seems easier to...”
I didn’t wait for him to finish the sentiment. “No doubt. Now let’s get up off the floor.”
Reg worked his way up to his knees and grabbed onto the bookshelf to his right. His forearm muscle bulged and he rose to his feet. Using the back of his forearm, he wiped the tears from his cheeks and sniffled.
As he headed back toward the table, I grabbed the stake to keep it away from Reg. We talked for about another hour and his spirits started to rise. I asked, “Is Jonathan around? I wanted to ask him about that map too.”
“He’s sleeping right now. Probably best not to wake him.” Reg wiped away the few remaining tears on his freckled cheeks.
“I agree with that. I got to get going though. There’s no way I can ever repay you for the tapestry.” I stared at it again, entranced. “Bu—uuttt, if you ever think of something, I’m sporting a nice wallet these days. I’d be happy to share.”
He waved me off with his huge hand. “You keep your dough. These vampires got more money than they know what to do with. I just ask, and they give me however much I want. I try not to abuse it, though.”
I folded the maps back up and put them in the belly pocket of the hoodie, grabbed the tapestry, tucked it under my arm and shoved the stake into my back pocket. It wouldn’t be wise to leave it there. Reg came around the table and I hugged him with my free arm.
“Seriously man, hit me up when you need it. You’re never alone. I got your back no matter what. You know that shit, right?” I looked into his eyes.
Reg nodded. “I know it. That’s a two-way street, don’t forget. I know I’m a little crazy now, but I’ll always have your six, brother.”
The valet brought my car around front and I put the tapestry and the wooden stake in the backseat. I tipped the valet, jumped in the car and headed home. As I pulled out of the driveway, I had mixed feelings about Reg. Watching him walk was a moment I’d never forget, but him accosting me with the death request scared th
e Charles Dickens out of me. Seeing that side of Reg had forced me to accept that he could turn into an animal at any time, just like me.
Setting aside my concern for Reg, I couldn’t ignore my own issues anymore. It was time to come clean with the Gods and request some help. Sort of.
Alayna was at my apartment watching Dante. Perhaps I could convince her to relay the message to the Gods for me, since I was so busy.
Chapter 6
Alayna greeted me as I walked into my house, “Hey...oh, what happened to your face?”
“Don’t worry about that. Check this out,” I said, handing her the tapestry.
I kicked off my dirty shoes onto the mat near my door and tossed the comic book and maps onto the coffee table. My living room consisted of a couch and loveseat, a coffee table and a few bookshelves against the walls. And one of my prized possessions hung from the wall near my steps. Mother and Child by Pablo Picasso had been given to me by my vampire friend, Jonathan.
Alayna was mesmerized by the tapestry. She was rarely speechless, and words finally spilled from her lips, “It’s absolutely amazing. Reg has really outdone himself with this.” She set the tapestry on the love seat and pointed at my face.
I rubbed the wounded areas. “Got into a little scrap earlier outside the comic book store. I need to talk to you about that for a few minutes, but where’s Dante?”
“Upstairs reading a book,” she said casually, still intently inspecting my face.
I’d misheard her. “What? Reading a book? Not playing video games on the laptop?”
“I was surprised too. But he seems to be a fan of The Hobbit.” Alayna stopped looking at me with motherly concern and went and sat down.
“Awesome. I’m just shocked you aren’t telling him stories about your favorite wizard from the Midwest.” I slid my socks across the hardwood and joined her on my brown couch, adjusting the pillows behind me for maximum comfort.