The Dark Messiah

by Michael Anderle

  “Well,” Mark flushed red, “It wasn’t only one hickey. And hell, I thought this was it. I was going to stop being the big V!”

  “Vampire?” Jacqueline’s face scrunched up, “That doesn’t make any sense at all. How was her nibbling on your neck going to help you stop being a vampire? Didn’t you just say you were changed because of a hickey?”

  Mark’s head dropped, and he put both hands over his face, “Not V for vampire, V for virgin!”

  Jacqueline’s eyes opened wide, and she looked at the ceiling, I am such a dumbass! she mouthed silently. She looked back at Mark, his face still in his hands. “How many times did she make out with you?”

  “Over a four-day weekend, then she left, and I had the worst sickness ever. It lasted over a week, and it was after that I noticed the changes. I’m something of a history geek, and I searched the New York public library and there were some books on the paranormal.” He shrugged, “It’s been hard.”

  Jacqueline bit back the retort she had on the tip of her tongue. She doubted he would appreciate a double-entendre right now. She was so damned used to Weres and their lack of body modesty, that Mark’s troubles were completely outside of her experience.

  He was nice enough looking, but she didn’t think he would want a pity fuck.

  Oh, Michael spoke in her mind, He certainly would accept one, but that wouldn’t make it right or the best thing for him.

  Jacqueline jerked around to look for him, which got Mark’s attention, “What is it?”

  “Michael is here, somewhere,” her eyes narrowed as she looked around the large room, “Now, how do we find him?”

  Mark shrugged, “I imagine by asking him where he is?”

  “Good choice,” Michael replied from behind them both. They swung around to find him standing there. They both leaned forward slowly and sniffed.

  “Where have you been,” she asked, her nose wrinkling in distaste.

  “Dude, were you fighting?” Mark questioned, noticing the splatters of blood on his clothes.

  “Down at the the airship port and yes, I’ve been fighting.” He answered and walked around them, “Meeting in the kitchen in ten minutes, I’m going to shower.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The two young people were sitting on kitchen barstools, talking to each other.

  When Michael arrived in the kitchen, clean and feeling considerably better, he opened the fridge and found enough food to make himself a lamb and cheese sandwich. He closed the door and placed the food on the counter and grabbed a plate.

  “You DO eat!” Jacqueline called out from behind him.

  Michael turned around, eyebrow raised to see the young woman was pointing at him, eyes afire, like she had just proven where Jimmy Hoffa was buried.

  Michael smiled. Not that she would know who Jimmy Hoffa was, he thought.

  Mark looked at her, confused, “Yeah, he eats. He ate with me.”

  Jacqueline turned her finger on him, “When!”

  Mark’s eyes crossed while looking at her finger so close to his face, “When I got here, right after he did the little hand warmy thing and my desire for blood went away.” He backed his head up a bit to give himself space, “Why so tense?”

  Jacqueline looked at her hand and pulled it back, “Sorry, but I’ve never seen him eat. I was thinking maybe he was always feeding the fat and happy Werewolf and not taking what he needed to eat.”

  Michael was watching the two of them chat back and forth while he chewed on his sandwich.

  Mark, oblivious to how it looked, leaned to the side on his chair to check out Jacqueline’s body, “Fat?”

  Michael snorted, Jacqueline’s eyes darted to him, then back to Mark.

  “Yes, fat!” she stated.

  “Where?” Mark asked,

  Jacqueline’s voice went up an octave, “Where?”

  Mark looked up at her, “Yes, where. It is a common word to mean ‘show me’, ‘tell me’, or in some way provide location information.”

  Jacqueline rolled her eyes, “I know what ‘where’ means!” Then, her eyes altered and her voice changed, going from annoyed, to sounding like how a cat’s might alter when it was about to play with a mouse.

  “Uh oh!” Michael took another bite of his sandwich. This drama was unfolding in real time. Would Mark realize what was about to happen, or was he too hopelessly naive about Werewolves?

  “So, you need me to show you the fat, am I getting this right?” Her voice moved just this side of seductive.

  “Yeah,” Mark agreed, “that was my original question. Where?”

  “One second.” She stood up from her barstool and patted Mark on his shoulder as she stepped around him. Jacqueline turned the corner, and both guys could hear her step into the bathroom that was down the hall.

  Michael chewed on his sandwich, Mark shrugged his shoulders at him. Michael fought to keep the grin off of his face.

  “Mark?” Jacqueline’s sing-song voice called to him from the hallway.

  Mark turned in his chair, leaning out so his voice would be louder then shook his head at his stupidity…He had a Were here! “Yeah?” he called out.

  “Can you come here for a second, I want to show you something.”

  “Yeah,” he stood up, “Sure.” Mark walked around the corner. Michael could just imagine what he was about to see.

  “Nope,” came Mark’s voice, very matter of fact. “Beautiful, not an ounce of unwanted or undesired fat anywhere, I completely fail to see it.”

  “You…fail…to…see…any…fat?” she replied. Michael couldn’t tell if she was astonished, annoyed her prank on Mark was failing so miserably, or realizing he really loved her body just the way it was.

  It wasn’t Michael’s place to tell her most guys would gaze all day at her naked body and never get tired. THAT would be inappropriate.

  “Ok,” she answered contritely, “Uh, thank you.” Michael heard her shut the bathroom door softly.

  When Mark came around the corner, he winked at Michael and mouthed ‘HOT!’ Michael smirked at the young man. He had played his cards very well. The older vampire raised the last bite of his sandwich in salute to Mark before he finished it off and started cleaning up the kitchen.

  A minute later, Jacqueline joined them, and he turned back around all business.

  “So, I’ve learned some things this evening when a small army of vampires came here from Europe to attack New York…”

  “What?” Jacqueline interrupted.

  Yeah, she got over her embarrassment very quickly, he thought. “Yes, I’ll tell you the full story later. However, I need to make plans and want to be gone by the morning if possible. We,” he pointed to the three of them in a circle, “need to understand what you two,” this time, they were the only ones indicated, “are going to do going forward.”

  He put up a hand, “You have options, hear me out before you choose.”

  “Go with you,” Jacqueline announced. Michael looked at her and her face colored. “Uh, if that is an option?”

  “It is an option,” Michael admitted, “but the comment hear me out before you choose generally means hear me out before you choose.”

  “He’s got you there,” Mark whispered before the resounding crack of her slap across his arm put an exclamation mark to the end of his sentence. Mark waited a moment before slowly reaching across with his left hand to rub where she hit him.

  She had never turned from looking at Michael.

  “Mark, let’s start with you,” Michael announced, “I’ll be traveling to Europe, which I haven’t visited in over a hundred and fifty years, to locate a powerful vampire who has dozens, if not hundreds of minions, and thousands of soldiers.”

  “I’m in,” Mark announced.

  “I’m not done,” Michael replied, his voice clipped. “Don’t be taking lessons on how to answer-too-quickly from our resident Were here,” he nodded to Jacqueline. “There is a very good chance you could be killed. There is a group of vampires
, led by an honorable female who could probably use your technology skills, right here in New York. You can find the protection you need, and help a good group fight in your own town.”

  Mark shrugged, “I have nothing that is keeping me here. My parents are dead, my sister turned me into the local Enforcers for what, money? Because she was scared? I was feeding her soup to help her recover from the flu when they crashed down the door. I don’t think I need that kind of family in my life.”

  Jacqueline turned to view Mark, “You were taking care of your sister?” Mark nodded, “God, that sucks.” Mark shrugged.

  “Besides,” Mark worked up a smile, “I’d be working with you, the Dark Messiah himself. Who better to help me figure out how to stop popping the stupid pills?”

  “Let me try this one more time,” Michael looked straight into the young man’s eyes, “You. Could. Die!”

  Mark shrugged, “I’m already dead. I died back in that alley. My sister turned me in. You are the only reason I’m still alive! And, if I’m to have any future where I am not a virgin? It’s with you.”

  Michael tried his damnedest not to snort. Mark would be out of luck if Jacqueline decided to stay. He turned to the young female Were. “And you?”

  This time, it was Jacqueline who turned introspective, “I'm just now starting to like the new me. The temptation to fall back into the old me is still there, with you I'll continue to strive to be the person I want to be.”

  Michael explained it as simply as he could a second time, “You could die.”

  Jacqueline pulled herself together, sat up straighter in her chair and looked Michael straight in the eyes, “Then I'll die respecting myself, and I'll meet my father with my head held high. This new me?” she motioned up and down herself, Mark’s eyes following her finger, “This new me, I respect. And ... more importantly, my father would respect.”

  Michael shrugged, “So be it. You are both old enough to make your own decisions. Mark, I can use the technological support, so don’t think I’m bringing you along just because I’m nice. You will work. Jacqueline, you will train and then train some more. You will be used on operations in the future.”

  “Now, who knows what we need to use for money, and how we should go about getting it?” Michael asked the two of them.

  “Steal it,” Mark answered and then noticed both of them looking annoyed with him. He put up his hands, “No! I don’t mean take it from good people. I’m suggesting that we go to one of the bars that sell vampire blood to the rich and take it back.”

  “Oh?” Michael’s eyes flashed red, “There is a place people go to buy vampire blood?” Mark swallowed and nodded, Michael’s visage had gotten ugly, very quickly. “I’ll be happy to visit them,” he agreed.

  “We need clothes,” Jacqueline mentioned, hoping to bring Michael’s annoyance back down. Note to self, she thought, Don’t talk about people selling vampire blood if you don’t want DM to pop up in the middle of a conversation.

  She’d tell Mark the same thing, later.

  Michael’s head pivoted to her, his eyes losing their I-am-going-to-rip-someone’s-head-clean-off-their body look, and was replaced with a why-do-you-need-more-clothes-now look.

  She pointed to Mark, “Do Europeans dress the same way we do? And, does he have what we need to go overseas?”

  Michael turned back to Mark who looked at them, looking at him, and then looked down at himself, “What? I’ve got two or three pairs of something back at my place.”

  “Are they clean?” she asked. When Mark didn’t reply, she added, “That is my point.”

  Mark tried to be sneaky, and sniff his shirt for smells while he turned and faced the other direction.

  “Mark will need new clothes,” Michael agreed, “but that is because I doubt he will be looking the same.”

  “What? Why, am I changing?” Mark asked.

  “Yes,” Michael answered, “You will be having your nanocytes modified. I imagine they will change your body a little bit, as well.”

  “Why?” Mark looked down at himself.

  Michael nodded, “You will need to be able to walk in the sunlight, and this will accomplish it. The new programming in your nanocytes…”

  “Programming?” Mark interjected, excitement on his face.

  “Focus,” Jacqueline popped him on the arm.

  “Yeah, got it, focus!” Mark rubbed his arm again, “Say, could we find a new way to get your point across?”

  “Yes, but you can’t handle it, trust me.” She told him, her voice a sexy kitten purr.

  Mark looked sideways at her and swallowed. He turned back to Michael, “I’m sorry, nanocytes, sunlight?”

  Jacqueline looked positively pleased with herself. Michael wanted to rub his face, he was too old to be a father to two young people, when killing them wasn’t the only punishment permitted.

  Michael nodded, “Yes, you will have your nanocytes reprogrammed. First thing in the morning, you two will find a place and acquire clothes for the trip. We will need to gain transportation for the three of us.”

  “Ah,” Mark put up a finger, “The winds have been pretty messed up since you were around a hundred and fifty years ago. The airships might or might not have any trips going back right now.”

  “Is that so?” Michael asked, and Mark nodded. “Then I’ll have a talk with one of the Captains that just came across.”

  Mark shrugged. He didn’t know what Captains Michael would talk to, but that wasn’t his concern at the moment.

  “Alright, you two get some sleep, I’ll get the money and work on passage and then we will be leaving,” he turned to Jacqueline, “No dawdling when you shop. Mark, come with me.”

  Her face was a study in innocence.

  Michael walked out of the kitchen, assuming he was going to find that she had pulled a fast one somehow. Mark was screwed, Michael thought, but not in a way Mark was probably hoping for.

  —

  Lucas Brzezicki, bouncer, eyed the two young women, diamond necklaces working to compete with the short... Lucas looked once more, taking in the very short rhinestone dresses they were wearing. One in white, one in black.

  Yin and Yang, Lucas approved. He moved his seven-foot-tall, three-hundred-pound mountain of muscle and reached down to unhook the velvet rope, allowing the two women to cross before reaching back to hook it up again.

  Michael Mysted into the club along with the two women.

  Like clubs he had been in for centuries, it was dark, it was loud, and it smelled of pheromones, smoke, and alcohol.

  The music wasn’t something he recognized, but then he had slept through a few decades so perhaps it was new, something he just missed.

  He searched for the expected door to the back and noticed a large Russian-looking man in a black suit standing beside a blank wall.

  Michael considered his next action and shrugged. He doubted the UnknownWorld was going to be undercover for the general populace for very long after the fight earlier. He made his way around the dance floor. People were still gyrating against each other after midnight. The guard turned towards Michael, taking in the white shirt, dark blue jeans and expensive looking boots he was wearing under his coat.

  He leaned over so Michael could speak to him.

  Michael looked out over the dance floor, ostensibly to check if anyone was watching the two of them before he turned to the guard, “Who would I speak to regarding the blood?”

  “You got the cash?” He asked.

  Michael shrugged and pulled the cost of the blood out of the man’s head. It was incredible what the value of money had become once they dropped it down to strictly coins. “I’ve got it,” he pulled out a handful of change to show him.

  The guard looked down and nodded. He reached over to the wall and pushed on it. Michael heard a click, and it opened up a few inches. He nodded to the guard and walked in.

  Inside, the hallway was poorly lit, and the carpet was worn. While the club had seemed in good shape, back here w
as a mess.

  There were four doors in the hallway, the first on his left was open. He could hear a man talking, so Michael waited and listened. They were talking about the fight earlier.

  “I don’t care, Wyznoski!” he was saying, “There were fucking vampires all over down there. What kind of shit is going on?” Michael heard a few taps of a pen, “Look, screw this. I’m done. No, you said this was a few vampires selling their blood for some money. I heard the rumors, you guys in Enforcement are sucking them dry. Now, those that you were preying on are running around killing your asses.”