“Operator.”
“Yes, I was hoping you could tell me the address of a Nashoba Strongfeather? He lives in Forsan.”
“Excuse me?”
“The address for Nashoba Strongfeather. In Forsan.”
“Sir, could you repeat that?”
“Nashoba Strongfeather. Forsan.” I spoke slowly.
“One second please.”
I heard the clicking of a keyboard as the operator went to work. My eyes and nose moved back to the window when she spoke.
“I'm sorry sir. There is no Nashoba Strongfeather in Forsan-”
I hung up the phone.
“Where in the hell are you?” I spoke out in frustration. Maybe he changed his name and didn't go by “Nashoba” anymore. He had to be somewhere in this town; and if I had to search every home and business in Forsan to find him, I'd do it.
My ears picked up on distant conversations filled with laughter. I heard the sound of car horns, playful screams, and car engines. Something was happening in downtown Forsan.
I opened the screen door and stepped out into an inch of fresh snow. The trees and their branches were caked white with winter. I managed to distinguish the commotion, hearing human conversations overlapping each other. A crowd was gathering and I took off in Deamhan speed, headed in their direction.
I stopped short of a gutted, abandoned two-story building, and moved back into the darkness of its alleyway. Humans, plenty of them, lined the streets, many sitting in lawn chairs. Groups of teenagers stood near the back. A child crossed the street, running into the arms of his mother. Bright yellow signs hung above vendor shops. Some of the humans walked down the street, handing out large yellow balloons, cotton candy, and other treats. The town was so alive.
Everything I saw and smelled reminded me of Minneapolis and I hated it. Immediately, I started to think about the night Selene crashed my Gathering with Silvanus and that horrible human by her side. Selene began to accuse me of all the wrongs I committed. How little and stupid I perceived her to be, thinking that she could threaten me just because she was much older and stronger. I thought I had it all in the bag, but when Lucius walked through the front doors, I knew that my reign was at an end. They took everything away from me.
I thought about my home back in Minneapolis. I chose to live in an old building, which dated back to the early 1900s. I gutted it, replacing the inside with black wallpaper, a large wooden stage, feeding stations, and a huge cauldron where I could watch the humans captured by my followers plead for their lives before we killed them.
I made my way out of the dark alley and walked casually down the street, pushing my way through hordes of humans. I looked up at the clear sky. Although I wasn't one for stargazing, I admired the open dark air of space. With my keen eyesight I easily saw the plethora of stars blanketing the heavens.
A huge, white sign hanging between two lampposts announced "Forsan Winter Festival" in black letters. I joined the crowd, pretending to wait for a parade that I assumed would happen soon.
“Fresh okra. Only a dollar-twenty five!” A man spoke loudly above the crowd. Across from where I stood, another man also spoke the same thing. “Fresh okra! Only a dollar-twenty five at Strongfeather's Bar and Grill!”
Strongfeather's Bar and Grill?
It caught me so off guard, at first I didn't know what to do. It couldn't be Nashoba. He wouldn't own a bar and grill! Well, a vampire owned Dark Sepulcher in Minneapolis, so I guess anything was possible.
I made my way to the end of the block and looked across the street. What I saw angered me to no end. There, with blinking white lights marking its location was Strongfeather Bar and Grill. From where I stood I could hear loud music, clattering glasses, and his voice. I could never forget his deep, slow speech. I heard him laughing loudly, talking to what I assumed to be another human. Our scents must have crossed paths by now, but I didn't hear anything in his voice to prove my theory. Maybe, after all this time, he hadn't developed his Deamhan senses.
I walked across the street, ignoring an oncoming stage float and the car dragging it down the road. I approached the bar and stared through the glass. I saw humans dancing with one another. Some of them sat at large tables, gorging on food. Others stood around a large, square-shaped bar located smack dab in the middle. Near the front, I saw a three-man bar band on stage, playing music.
I slowly opened the door and walked in.
Almost immediately, the heat emanating off all the human bodies blocked my sense of smell. I looked around, watching their faces full of heightened emotion. I caught the attention of the female bartender with short, brown hair, big, brown eyes, and average lips. She gave me an evil glance as I pushed my way through the raucous crowd before approaching the bar. She eyed me as if she wanted to say something.
Standing a little taller than I, she wore a tight-fitting white shirt with the bar's name written across her chest. She leaned her forearms on the counter. “The line starts back there.” She spoke loud enough for me to hear over the noise. I could tell she didn't like my rudeness, but I didn't care in the least.
“I'm not here to order anything.” I turned around for a brief moment, noticing every human in the vicinity had his or her eyes locked onto me. I snickered and faced her again.
“Then I suggest you move aside so I can tend to my customers.”
“I'm looking for Nashoba,” I said. “Nashoba Strongfeather.”
“Nashoba?” She repeated his name as if it sounded foreign to her. “Sorry. Don't know any Nashoba Strongfeather, but I do know a Nash Strongfeather.”
Nash? So he did change his name to something more… idiotic. I bit my tongue and nodded. “Do you know where I can find him?”
We stared at each other for a few seconds and I patiently waited for her to answer. I read her thoughts, but surprisingly, didn't pick up any important information about Nash. The only things I managed to pick up were her name, Carol Saunders, and that she was born right here in Forsan twenty years ago. Her parents recently celebrated their thirtieth wedding anniversary, and tomorrow, she planned to bring them a cake.
She shrugged at my question. “He's somewhere around here.”
“Could you call him? Tell him that Kei is here?”
“Sorry. I have to get back to my customers.” She turned to look at a tall male I pushed out of the way earlier. “What can I get you?”
“I'm not done,” I said to her.
She sighed. “Look. You may be cute and have that boyish charm, but I'm not biting. Either you wait your turn to order, or you go someplace else.”
“You heard her.” The tall male stepped forward. He leaned closer as if I were supposed to shiver at his daunting appearance. “Get back to the end of the line.”
I placed my hand lightly on his chest. “You're in my space.” I pushed gently and he stumbled back into a table, which shook side to side as beer steins tumbled, and hit the ground with a loud, clattering crash.
He regained his footing and his eyes narrowed on me before he charged at me with balled fists. Adrenaline seeped from his pores and when he raised his fist, I felt myself easily prepared to fend off his attack. Human movements are slow compared to ours, regardless of whatever situation we’re in. So I couldn't help but laugh as he approached me in such a ridiculous fashion. Just as I was prepared to take out my frustrations on this human, I caught a familiar Deamhan scent in the air. It was followed by a cold hand wrapping itself around my arm, and yanking me away from the altercation.
Nashoba positioned himself between us and held out his hand to stop the human male from advancing any further. Suddenly, everything and everyone around me became rather uninteresting. I could only stare at him, and admire his physique. He looked somewhat the same as the last time I saw him, but he smelled... different. I wondered why he didn't look at or acknowledge me. His main focus was the human male and ensuring that his guests weren't irritated.
“Let it go, Jack,” Nashoba said to the human. “This is all
just a misunderstanding.”
“Do you know this prick?” Jack pointed at me.
“Look, how about you order whatever you want at the bar? It's on me.” Nashoba lowered his hand as he tapped Jack on his chest, something only a human would do to calm someone down.
When the tension dissipated, he grabbed me by my arm and dragged me toward the back of the bar through a swinging door. I didn't pull away and we walked straight through the kitchen and out a huge metal door to the back alley. He scanned the area to make sure we were alone before he finally made eye contact with me, reached out his hand, and gripped me by the throat.
Without blinking, his body language suggested he wasn't surprised to see me. He wore his long, luxurious brown hair in a ponytail, and was dressed in blue jeans and black cowboy boots. His muscles flexed underneath his white shirt as he pushed me into the wall.
I'd be lying if I said I was surprised at his reaction. Honestly, I expected a little more “lashing out” and a little less “grabbing me by the neck.” His eyes turned stark black, like any angered Deamhan, and he tightened his grip. “What in the hell are you doing here, Malachy!?” he growled.
I grabbed his wrist and applied pressure of my own. He quickly let go and I spun him around, wrapping my arm around his neck. “I came to see you, Nashoba.” I felt a hard object pressing up against my stomach and I reached down, pulling out a small stake he tucked into the right back pocket of his jeans.
I positioned it over his heart. “So this is how you welcome your sire?”
He struggled, but being the older Deamhan, I easily restrained him. He tried twisting his body, but all that did was make the pointy end of the stake dig deeper into his skin. “I can do this all night, Nashoba,” I said to him. “Or we can have a nice little chat, sire to offspring.”
“It's Nash,” he said.
“It is Nash, isn't it? Nash Strongfeather. Owner of Strongfeather's Bar and Grill,” I mocked him. “Are you acting like a human now?”
“It's my establishment and you're not welcome here.”
“Silly Nash, I go wherever I choose to go.” I dropped my arm and stepped back.
He quickly turned around, his eyes still dark.
“So, looks like you're doing all right.” I studied the stake, finding it crudely made, but nonetheless effective.
“With the Decretum hanging over your head, I thought you'd be dead by now,” he said.
I assumed that Deamhan in the surrounding states must’ve heard about the Decretum, but I never imagined that anyone a few states away knew about it. News traveled fast.
“I can say the same for you,” I replied. “Last time I saw you, the vampires were closing in. But somehow, I knew you'd survive. Call it intuition, but you were far too pretty for anyone to kill.”
“What do you want, Malachy?”
“Kei.” I corrected him. “Like I said, I came back to see if you were alive. I'm surprised you're still here in this small, icky town after all this time.” I tossed the stake back and forth in my hands. “You weren't kidding when you said that no white man could push you from your land.”
“This is my home.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get that, but seriously…?” I faced him. “You should have at least moved on by now.”
He exhaled a long breath and turned away. “You haven't changed much. You're still the same psychopathic liar who left me to die.”
“At least, I left you armed.” I raised both my hands up in a gesture of acceptance. He knew me well. That would make any Deamhan sire proud.
“You know what?” He raised his hand in thought. “I don't care. You need to leave Forsan before sunrise.”
“Leave? I just got here,” I said. “And you can't make me leave.” I stood inches from him. “You're not older than me. You can't beat me.” I placed a hand on his shoulder. “You're powerless against me and you know it.”
He shook his head. “You can't stay here.”
“You think I want to stay here?”
“Then what do you want? And don't lie. I know you didn't come all the way here because you care about me, Malachy.”
“I said for you to call me Kei.” I replied sternly.
“What do you want?”
I could see that he wasn't the same Nashoba I left years ago. Back then, he put on an act and tried to pretend he didn't fear me. Now, I knew he didn't fear me.
“I'm not going to be your bait this time.” He moved back. “Whatever you did to cause this Decretum, that's all on you. You are not bringing me into it.”
I took a step forward. “I created you. Therefore, you're part of it.”
“Malachy, I'm begging you.”
“For the last time, my name is Kei.”
“I swore to always avoid any Deamhan, including you. I don't want anything to do with it.”
“Oh, so is this some kind of over-emotional stance you're adopting? Don't tell me you've grown into one of those types of Deamhan.”
Slowly, he tilted his head to the side with a look of confusion plastered on his face. “What?”
“You know. The ones that hate who they are. The ones that hate hunting,” I explained. “Yeah, I see it now. You really don't hunt around here, do you?”
“What do you want?”
“But it's like shopping at a grocery store,” I said, ignoring his question. “So many humans to choose from. That bartender, Carol, smelled pretty nice. What's her deal?”
“No hunting here,” he said.
“So how do you eat? You have to eat some time?”
“There's a bigger town about forty miles away.”
“Forty miles every night just to eat? I didn't create you so that you would spend eternity hiding who and what you are.” I couldn't believe it. “The humans here can't taste that bad, can they?” My thoughts turned to Bobbi. “Well, actually I guess they can. I mean, the one I had earlier…”
“You fed on someone here?”
“Yeah, well not exactly here,” I shrugged. “She didn't taste right. Probably because I killed her before I ate her.”
He grabbed my arm by force. “Who did you eat?” His brown eyes filled with worry and his bottom lip quivered as he spoke.
“What does it matter to you?” I broke my arm free from his grasp.
“Everyone knows everyone here, Kei. It's a small town. That's why it matters. Who did you eat?”
“Some smoker-lady by the name of Bobbi. She lives-”
Placing his hand on his forehead, he sighed. “If it's the Bobbi I'm thinking of, then you're an idiot.”
“What did you call me?”
“Bobbi is the sheriff's daughter!” With both hands, he pushed me violently and I stumbled back, barely regaining my footing. My patience was withering and my senses told me to drive the stake through his heart.
“This isn't your home,” Nash said. “This is Forsan. You can't just go around killing people without causing a scene.” He placed his hands on his lean hips in thought.
“You really do care about these humans,” I said, astonished at what he'd become.
“It's not that I care. It's that I don't want any trouble,” he said. “I'm the only Deamhan in town and two Deamhan is just one too many.”
“Whatever.” I turned to walk away. “Wallow in your misery. Go back to living under a rock. It was a mistake coming here.”
“Good. Go,” he grumbled.
“You know my sire and my sibling will come here, looking for me.” I said while I walked. “Be a good, little boy and tell them that you never saw me.” I didn't know what my next step would be. I didn't plan that far ahead because I thought as an offspring, Nash would naturally come to my aid. I honestly believed he would just forget about our troubled past and stand beside me, like I did with Lucius before I finally broke all ties with him.
Unbeknownst to me, I didn't hide my thoughts well and he picked up on my frustration.
“Malachy - Kei, wait.”
“Why?” I continued to walk.
“Where are you going?”
“I thought you didn't care.”
“I don't, but-” He caught his tongue.
I stopped and looked over my shoulder. “What, Nash?”
Placing his hands in his pockets, he titled his head back, looking at the sky. “Did you at least hide the body?”
“What body?”
“Bobbi’s.”
“No. Why would I?”
“Because that's what we're supposed to do after a meal, right? Hide the body. It's part of the Dictum.”
I chuckled. “Tell that to someone who cares.”
“We have to go there and get rid of it.”
“Not my town, not my concern.”
“Please.”
Intrigued again, I turned around. “Why are you afraid of these humans? They can't harm you. They can't do anything to you. Leave her body to rot. Sit back and watch the humans panic; because in the end, when it's all over and the dust settles, they will never believe creatures like us exist.”
“I'm not afraid of them,” he answered. “I just don't…”
“Don't what?”
“I've spent decades hiding what I am so I could stay here. I don't want anything or anyone to jeopardize that.”
I studied his face closely. I felt that he was trying hard to block his thoughts, even though I wasn't reading them. He only looked me in the eye when he got upset. He was hiding something from me.
I tried to read his thoughts, but he pushed back.
“I'll help you, Kei, but on three conditions,” he said. “One, you won't attempt to read me again. Two, you'll help me get rid of the body; and three while you're here, you must promise not to go around killing people.”
“Oh, so now you'll help me?”
“I'll hide you and if I have to, I'll go with you as far as the next state, but that's it,” he said.
I slowly smiled. The agreement didn't sound fair to me on his end, but what the hell? I wanted to play along.
“Okay,” I said. “I guess so.”
Deamhan Chronicles, Books 1-5: Deamhan, Kei. Family Matters, Dark Curse, Maris. The Brotherhood Files, Ayden. Deamhan Minion Page 27