by J. P. Rice
Time to be a family man for a while. I wasn’t sure how the Gods would take it, but I was prepared to argue my case.
I snagged my drink off the back porch and stopped in my tracks as I hit the backyard. As I stared at the tribute, the amethyst fairy wings began to beat with my heart. Slowly. Steadily. Perpetually. In the background, Burn and Dante, the woman carrying my child and adopted demon son, were playing carelessly, blowing bubbles at each other and simply enjoying life.
I looked around our acre and a half of land behind the house. Straight ahead, there were steady plains of dull green winter grass. Both sides of the open field were flanked by a heavy forest of ancient trees with branches towering high into the clouds.
I noticed some movement in the woods and shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand to get a better look. I expected to see an animal. Instead, two upright creatures were peeking through the branches of a small tree.
Roydell and Timson. My vampire nemeses.
I tossed my drink aside and took off at a dead sprint. The two cowards turned and ran as I neared the tree line. I jumped over a small bush and landed on some fallen twigs that crunched under my weight and almost caused me to turn my ankle.
There wasn’t a beaten path so Roydell and Timson ran in a zig zag pattern, trying to avoid the small brush. It made it easier for me to follow them, although they were lightning quick. They seemed to be jumping from foot to foot rather than running.
They were pulling away from me until Roydell tripped over a fallen branch. He tumbled forward and rolled over on his shoulder, landing on his right side.
I veered left to avoid a tree trunk and jumped over the branches. Roydell scrambled as his hands and feet moved wildly, tossing leaves in the air as he tried to get back up. I crouched down, bending my knees, and dove into his back. My shoulder crunched into him and he bent backward before his upper body sprang forward, his face smashing into the ground. While he was disoriented, I turned him over.
I drew back my right hand, curled it into a fist, and brought it down on Roydell’s right cheek. “Don’t set foot on my land, motherfucker.” I hit him four more times.
He cried out, “We know Reg is here. He told us to come get him.”
“Wrong answer.” I rained down three more punches and a stream of blood poured out of his nose.
At the last second, I caught a blurry black smear coming from the left. A solid object crashed into my ear, disrupting my equilibrium. I braced my hand on the ground so that I wouldn’t fall down, but my bell had been rung. While I was out of it, Roydell slipped out from under me.
He and Timson ran off into the woods, disappearing from my sight within seconds. I realized that Timson had kicked me in the side of the head and checked my jaw for structural damage. When I pressed gently with my fingers and thumb, it seemed all right. Nothing out of place. Just a whole heap of pain.
This certainly amped up the situation. Reviving a dead body wasn’t as easy as I had expected. Every technique I’d tried had failed miserably. I hadn’t been able to get Reg to open his eyes once.
The vampires practiced modern necromancy and Reg apparently had loose lips. I walked back into my back yard and my phone buzzed in my pocket. Incoming call from Jonathan.
Just so happened I wanted to talk to him. “Hello.”
Jonathan spoke with a raspy voice, “Micheal, I just got back in town. Listened to the message about Alayna and that’s quite a shame. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I won’t. I need to talk to you about something else.”
“Okay.”
I explained, “Two of your flunkies, Roydell and Timson were just hiding out on my property. You tell those fucks that if they ever set foot on my land and accuse me wrongly again, I’ll fucking kill them. You need to get your boys under control.”
“Take it easy. I’ll talk to them. Have you heard any news on Reginald?”
Fuck. I hoped he wasn’t going to ask about that. “No. You know I’d tell you first, though. I wouldn’t hold out on you.”
“Sometimes I wonder. Sometimes. I. Wonder,” he said, slowly and steadily.
“Excuse me?” I asked, annoyed.
He cleared his throat and said, “Oh, nothing. Just wanted to send my condolences. If there is anything I can do to ease the pain, let me know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take a twelve-hour nap after a sleepless trip to Romania.”
“Warn Roydell and Timson. I’m not messing around. I will kill them and not think twice about it. Keep your dogs on a leash.”
He laughed. “Will do, Micheal. You take care of yourself now.”
“Yeah, you do the same.”
I pressed end call and stuffed the phone back into my pocket.
This was normal. This was what my life had become. A few years ago I couldn’t have imagined any of this. Now, this was a Tuesday. That was why I wanted out of this shit.
As I walked back to my house, I stared at my new little family. Would they ever really be safe with me around? It seemed like I attracted the worst of the worst. The dregs of the demon and supernatural societies.
Chapter 2
I slid into the booth at Primanti Brothers and the waitress with the platinum blond hair pulled into a bun slapped two menus on the table. “You fellas want something to drink?”
“I actually know what I want to eat,” I said and looked at Felix.
“I’m just going to get a large Diet Coke,” Felix said, winking at the server.
I smirked, trying to hide it. I hadn’t pegged Felix as a Diet Coke drinker.
“Okay. And what did you want, sir?” asked the woman with Tara written across her nametag.
I looked at her, smiling and ordered, “I’m going to get a ginger ale. And I would like the Pitts-Burger. No tomatoes, please.”
“No problem. Be right back with your drinks, boys.” She swiped up the menus, shoved her pen into her apron, and as she turned, she ripped our order off the little notebook, and headed for the kitchen.
We sat in a booth in the corner of the room and I wondered why Felix had asked to meet up. “So what’s going on?”
“I have an idea.” A crazy look ran through his dark eyes as he moved his head closer.
“Uh oh.”
He shook his head and held his finger in the air. “Just listen. It’s a good idea, but I need a little help. I want to bust in to Sleepy Willow and do a little looting to pad our pockets.”
I rolled my eyes hoping this wasn’t his entire plan. “That is a horrible idea.”
The server dropped off our drinks and tossed two straws in the middle of the table. “Your food should be ready in a few minutes, honey.”
Felix grabbed a straw, busted it out of the white paper covering and jammed it into his diet coke. He got right back on point. “It’s a terrible place that is full of gold.” His eyes widened, gold fever flecks dancing in his brown irises. I didn’t like it one bit. He added, “If we take out the king and get revenge for Alayna, then people would be forced to obey us.”
I had no urge whatsoever to rule over anyone. “See, right there you are talking about a regime takeover. Not just a little looting. Even if I wanted to go to Sleepy Willow, I can’t gain entry without one of Cerberus’s teeth.”
He slid his back against the wall, seemingly annoyed, and kicked his leg up on the bench seat. “Not if we just bust in, kicking ass and taking names.” He turned back to me. His gold fever eyes were losing their brilliance. “Look what we did in Japan.”
“Very different situations.” I looked around the room, hoping my food was on the way so I could end this nonsensical conversation. “That was one demon in a secluded castle. This involves supernatural armies that are loyal to their king. Besides, all the bouncer has to do is hit me with an enchanted scepter and I’ll turn to mush. There’s no way to avoid Primero’s shack.”
He took a drink through his straw and his eyes widened as if a thought had struck him. “What if I find another portal that will get u
s into another area of Sleepy Willow?”
I hoped this wouldn’t turn into a spitballing, brainstorming session. I tried to shift the conversation. “Look, this actually ties into something I need to talk to you about. The next time I see the Celtic Gods, I’m going to tell them I am taking a step back from magical guardianship of Pittsburgh.”
“Why?” he asked, his face turning sour. He nervously bit his thumbnail, sending a loud crunch across the dining room.
I explained, “Because it can just be too much sometimes. I have a family now and I need to spend some time with them. I need to be there for Dante. I can’t be running around like a maniac anymore.”
Felix stared at me, squinting in confusion. “You think they’ll go for it?”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. If I told them you could be the go-to-guy around Pittsburgh, would you be interested?” Hopefully, I could appeal to his vanity.
“How much does it pay?” he asked bluntly, and pulled a little piece of his thumbnail out of his mouth. He stuffed it inside his napkin and looked back to me.
I’d forgotten that money sat at the top of Felix’s totem pole of priorities. I told him, “The Celtic Gods aren’t going to pay you anything. I’ve made money off the jobs, but none of it has ever come from the Gods themselves. It will open a lot of doors and with me out of the way, you’ll have your pick of the litter if you want to make some money.”
“I don’t know...” He scratched the peach fuzz on his chin, as if it were some sort of negotiating tactic, waiting for me to say something.
I finally gave in. “It would be a lot easier than busting into Sleepy Willow. That I am certain of. You’ll be the premier practitioner in Pittsburgh. You’d be backed by the Celtic Gods too. They’ve helped me get rid of cancer, removed that implant and stopped my drinking habit.”
He shook his head and took another sip of Diet Coke. At least he was entertaining the idea. “You’re selling this pretty hard. This Alayna shit is really fucking with you, isn’t it?”
I lifted my head up and met his dark eyes. Nodding slowly, I confirmed his question in silence.
Felix said, “You have to let it go in this biz. We just need to worry about ourselves. Shit isn’t always going to work out.”
“She was like a mother to me. At a time when I really needed one. She was my mentor. And I fucking handed her right over to her death. Who’s to say that will be the last time? If I do something like this again, I would have to eliminate myself for the good of the whole.” I hated getting heavy on people, but this shit was weighing on me.
He squinted, and his facial features wrinkled into a serious look. “Don’t talk like that. I can see this is rocking you, and I understand. When the sorcerers kidnapped Fukutama, I was all torn up on the inside. He’s more of a father to me than my dad ever was. The only reason he got kidnapped was because I’d involved him in our case.”
“At least Fukutama is still alive. Alayna is dead because of me.”
Felix tilted his head to the side and spoke softly, “She’s not with us anymore because of the demon implant in your calf, not because you willingly betrayed her.”
“But I let Montidore put the implant in me. By extension...”
He cut me off, “You said it was either that or die. Listen, you can tell the Celtic Gods I’ll take the lead on the Pittsburgh front until you can clear your head of all this. Maybe that’s a year. Maybe that’s five. But this isn’t permanent. And if I need your help, you better be there.”
I smiled and couldn’t believe he’d finally gone for it. “Absolutely. I’m not turning my back on Pittsburgh, I just need a little rest from it all. Sounds crazy since I’m not even twenty-four yet.”
The server dropped off my sandwich and a smile enveloped my mouth. A burger patty, sweet and sour coleslaw, French fries and some provolone cheese had been slapped between two slices of soft Italian bread. I lifted the top piece of bread on the split sandwich, grabbed the hot sauce off the table and doused the coleslaw. Mmmmmm.
I picked up half of the sandwich, and said, “Thanks Felix. I knew I could count on you.” I sank my teeth into the goodness of the Pittsburgh classic.
Gazing out the big window to my right, I noticed a blurry white object racing toward the window. Expecting a thud, I turned away at the last moment. But the thud never came. I turned back to the window and noticed a white owl hovering, beating her wings and beckoning me. What did Blodeuwedd want now?
Chapter 3
Arriving in Clara Spiritus at night was always a treat. The red roses lit up the landscape like bright Christmas lights, leading the way through the green valley between the two mountains. I went over my spiel in my head. Nervous energy danced around my body as I wondered how the Gods would react to my proposition.
When I’d taken the oath, they had never specified a particular term of duty. Alayna had led me to believe that it was a lifetime appointment, but nothing was ever said. My palms and underarms leaked perspiration as I entered the cave of the Gods.
Walking in with Blodeuwedd, I noticed Cernunnos, the Dagda and Cerridwen. Lurking in the corner was a God I’d never been introduced to. It wasn’t necessary, though. I recognized the Morrigan. And she scared the shit out of me.
All the Gods except the Morrigan were smiling and seemed happy. This was strange. The whole scene was strange.
The room had been cut out of the base of the mountain. There were a few circular stone tables, several cauldrons that Cerridwen was stirring and torches ensconced in the walls, illuminating the scene. The Gods were sitting down at one of the tables. Cerridwen continued mixing her cauldrons and the Morrigan lurked in the corner.
The Goddess of Death in attendance did not bode well for me. It could only mean one thing. This was it. They were going to kill me for allowing Alayna to die. The Morrigan could claim my soul once the job was finished and they could assign a new guardian for Pittsburgh.
The Morrigan sported a goth look with a gaunt, pale face and red eyeshadow streaking back to her ears. She had wild obsidian hair and wore silver hoop earrings and black lipstick. Her body was wrapped in a cloak fashioned from raven feathers. The cloak hung to her knees where it met her black leather boots with red laces.
From across the room, her light blue eyes appeared to have red irises. The flickering firelight illuminating the room seemed to gather in the whites of her eyes and made them utterly entrancing. Her gaunt face would lead you to believe that she had a skinny body, but it was solid, like a gymnast’s. The taller woman looked like she could kick some serious ass.
I decided to go through with my plan. Perhaps if they knew I was stepping back from the magic game, they would take some mercy on me. Long shot, but my only shot right now. “I really need to talk to you all about something important.”
The God of the Wild scratched his scalp, his long hair moving around in reaction. Cernunnos had baby chicks peeping out of his wild beard. He selectively fed them sunflower seeds and said, “It just so happens that we need to speak to you about something extremely important too.”
No reason to delay the inevitable. “All right. Why don’t you all go first?”
Cernunnos pushed his little friends back into the depths of his beard and set the rest of his seeds on the table. His serious gaze landed on me and he said, “We were given some faulty intelligence in regards to Alayna.”
“Faulty intelligence. What are you talking about?” A minute spark flashed in my damaged soul.
The God of Power said, “We’ve received word from several sources that Alayna is still alive.” The Dagda rubbed his chin and his exposed biceps bulged. The shorter God with orange hair and freckles was dressed in tight robes, which exposed his massive frame.
A reparative lightning bolt zapped into my shattered heart, putting all the broken pieces back together. My chest heaved with excitement and a warm buzzing surrounded my heart. Redemption was still available. “That’s great news.”
Blodeuwedd smiled in
a motherly way. Her soothing voice rang off the stone wall, “We thought you would like it. You must begin your journey to save her now. We can’t waste time.”
Before I jumped right in like I normally would, I felt a pang in my shoulder. It felt like Burn pinching me, reminding me of something important that I’d forgotten. I actually had more than just myself to think about for the first time. “I just need to go home to my family and tell them what is going on. I’ll come right back.”
The Dagda drank his fortified wine and before he set his glass back down, he spoke in his soft voice, which clashed with his professional bodybuilder appearance, “I’m afraid we can’t do that. What we can do is send a message that Blodeuwedd will take to your family for you. You can even dictate it if you wish.”
Cernunnos picked up the seeds again and the peeps popped back out of his beard, begging for a treat. He fed them while staring at me. “Did you read up on the material we gave you about your choices?”
“I did. I think I’ll go with the one that had the highest success rate of revival.”
Blodeuwedd announced, “Death by freezing it shall be. We will take you down to a special chamber for that procedure soon.”
The Gods experimented on bringing back bodies that had died in numerous ways. Bringing someone back from freezing to death had an 82% success rate. The next closest method was asphyxiation, which carried a 52% success rate. So the decision wasn’t exactly a difficult one.
The Dagda stood up and stretched out. “Before you undergo the procedure, we will give you some help on your journey to Hell. A trusty guide would be nice, but we thought two guides would be even better. I believe you know this man,” he said, pointing at the opening of the cave.
In walked my convivial guardian angel, garbed in burgundy robes and appearing stone cold sober. So he straightened his act out for the Gods, not for me. “At your service, Micheal,” he said regally and bowed his head slightly.
“Good to see you again.” I wasn’t sure if Artoise was the perfect guide to take me through Hell. He did well when he could stop time, but he seemed a bit skittish when it came to blood and guts.