LANCELOT

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “That’s pretty damn good,” Vivian replied, not looking up at Merlin. “I’ll be watching Gwen. If she makes a move to go into the bathroom, unless there’s a flood of women in blue jeans and blue windbreakers, I should be able to nab this bitch without any trouble.”

  “Take no chances,” Merlin cautioned as he walked away.

  “At least we won’t be shooting in the dark,” Lancelot commented to Vivian. “I’m impressed with your precognitive abilities, Vicster.”

  “Maybe this deal with Merlin and his info-gathering, body-guarding, detective-type agency might be just the thing to enable me to explore my talents,” Vivian said, leaning into Lancelot. “Of course, we’ll also have to raise the smart-mouthed punk, and protect his Lady Guinevere.”

  “One project at a time, Vicster, one… hey, look in front of the petting zoo.”

  “Oh, yeah! Innocent lady in blue jeans, blue windbreaker, and camera with telescoping lens, taking pictures.” Vivian leaned a little more around Lancelot, to get a better angle at the front of the petting zoo. “She looks inconspicuous. Mousy brown hair cut short. She’s smiling and saying hi to everyone, while standing there as if waiting for her kids to finish up in the zoo. That’s my bitch.”

  Lancelot took out the keys for the Pontiac and handed them to Vivian.

  “My house-key is on the same ring. After we see the take-down through, can you drive her over to my place?”

  “Sure, but… Oh, you want Serge to give me a hand.”

  “Fang and Kara will need to do lunch,” Lancelot stated without emotion. “He’ll be able to find out what we need to know, and we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”

  “Shit, Monte, that dinosaur was around back in the days before birds.” Vivian made fun of Lancelot’s clichéd phrase with a laugh.

  “I’ll have Merlin call Charlie for our pickup. That way, I can stay and guard everyone here, and give them a ride home if they wish.”

  “I agree. It’s better to see this day through from beginning to end, rather than take a chance on missing something. We don’t even know if this woman has a back-up or not.”

  “Good point,” Lancelot acknowledged. “Are you sure you’ll be okay taking the woman over to Serge alone?”

  “We’re about to see. Gwen just left her friend at the swing set, and is heading over to the side of the refreshment building, where I noticed the women’s bathroom is. If the lady in blue follows, I’m on it. Yep, there she goes. You go between the refreshment building and Merry-Go-Round. I’ll go around the front.”

  Lancelot nodded, and hurried between the buildings as ordered. Vivian gave Merlin a hand wave as she went by. He immediately stood up and moved closer to Arthur, in the event of something unforeseen. Vivian jogged around the building, reaching the entrance to the women’s bathroom at the same time as the woman they suspected. Vivian smiled at the woman, who had glanced at her with annoyance. The woman began walking away from the bathroom, only to have Vivian fall in next to her.

  “Hi. Don’t I know you?” Vivian asked, imitating genuine curiosity perfectly. “Janet, right? I never forget a face.”

  “No, I’m not Janet,” the woman answered, her speech clipped and tense. “You have the wrong person.”

  “I don’t think so, girlie.” Vivian grabbed the woman by her upper arm. “Look at me, you bitch! You’ll do exactly as I say.”

  The woman’s first overwhelming urge to flee wilted under Vivian’s power of suggestion. “What…what do you want?”

  “I know you’re here to kidnap the little blonde girl you followed to the bathroom,” Vivian stated, as she noticed Lancelot keeping his distance and watching the bathroom. “Don’t bother with the look of surprise and outrage, bitch. Save it for someone who cares.”

  “You…you can’t hold me. I didn’t do anything.” The woman fought Vivian’s suggestion with all her own willpower. “You’re no cop.”

  “Hey, Monte,” Vivian observed, glanced over at Lancelot, “she’s on someone else’s set of strings. I’m giving her the full dose of ‘come along with me’, and she’s fighting it.”

  “Give her something more,” Lancelot replied, seeing the numbers of people streaming by them. “There are too many eyes around.”

  “Okay. This is going to hurt a little,” Vivian confided, grinning as she channeled a paralyzing blast of raw power into the woman’s arm.

  The woman collapsed against Vivian. Her eyes rolled up in her head. Vivian quickly frisked her while Lancelot watched for unwanted attention. The searcher quickly found the suspected hypodermic needle and the woman’s car keys.

  “C’mon, Mom, let’s get you home,” Vivian said, smiling and hugging the would-be assailant to her, after tossing the woman’s keys to Lancelot. “I think you’ve had enough excitement for today. Watch the kiddies for us, Shrek.”

  “By your command,” Lancelot replied, watching Vivian easily guide the woman to his Pontiac, and load her into the passenger seat.

  Lancelot waited until Gwen exited the women’s bathroom. He stood his ground until she returned to the playground. He then walked to the parking lot, and pressed the unlock button on the woman’s key-ring remote. A Ford Aerostar beeped at the back of the parking lot. Lancelot jogged over to it, and spent the next fifteen minutes checking the nearly empty van, before walking over to where Merlin had been stationed most of the day. Lancelot sat down, and Merlin joined him a moment later.

  “It went well, I take it?”

  “Vivian says someone else has their hooks in her.”

  “Oh boy…” Merlin muttered. “Where’s Vivian taking her?”

  “Over to my house,” Lancelot answered. “I told her to let Serge do the questioning.”

  Merlin winced. “I’m not sure how I feel about you feeding your pet vampires with people.”

  “The taking of the girl would have led to her torture and death. Serge doesn’t torture, and I know he doesn’t kidnap kids. He’ll find out who sent the woman, and then we’ll go get the source. As you’ve already surmised, we can’t get the woman arrested, so unless putting her back on the street to do more of the same is an option, she feeds the vamps. Serge will be able to tell if the woman is being used willingly or unwillingly.”

  “And you trust Vivian to stop him if the woman is an unwilling accomplice?”

  “No…I don’t care,” Lancelot replied, his piercingly direct gaze causing Merlin to look away. “When we play catch-up, things are going to get rough. What do you think of Arthur’s interaction with the young Guinevere?”

  “Highly amusing.” Merlin grinned, thankful to be talking about something else. “They exchange furtive glances most entertainingly.”

  “If Arthur doesn’t take a break from going back and forth on the rings his arms are going to fall off.” Lancelot gestured at the boy swinging smoothly from ring to ring. “Maybe I should talk him into treating the girls to a soda and Nachos.”

  “A splendid idea.”

  Lancelot walked over to the ring set.

  “Arthur, come on over with Merlin and me for a moment.”

  “We aren’t leaving, are we?”

  “Nope,” Lancelot replied, as they left the ring swing together. “I thought maybe you might want to take sodas and Nachos over for the girls. Maybe you could get that friend of Gwen’s, who keeps shooting daggers of death at you, to loosen up a little.”

  “I’m that obvious, huh?”

  “Yeah. We’ve been watching your courtship ritual.”

  “I saw the Vicster leave,” Arthur replied, chuckling at Lancelot’s reference. “You thought you needed to stay?”

  “I’m making sure there aren’t any back-up plans we don’t know about. If you can convince them, I’d like to give your friends a ride home. You might even be able to get them to call home, and ask their parents if they can stay over at Merlin’s place for some video gaming.”

  Arthur’s face brightened significantly as he waved at Merlin before accompanying Lancelot to the refresh
ment window to order.

  “Do you think they’ll go with us?” Arthur asked, trying unsuccessfully to curb the enthusiasm in his voice.

  “If you can charm the friend, it might be a go,” Lancelot replied, ordering the sodas and Nachos. As an afterthought, Lancelot bought three multi-ticket coupons. “Go and ride the train and the Merry-Go-round. They look bored to tears over on the swings.”

  Having paid for the food and drink, Lancelot took the food carton away from the window and the line of people. “Want some help with this?”

  “No, I got it.” Carefully, Arthur took the food container from Lancelot.

  Lancelot sat down once again next to Merlin.

  “A bribe for the boy?”

  “He needs a little boost with Gwen’s less-than-enthused friend,” Lancelot answered, watching Arthur motion for Gwen to follow him over to the lawn bordering the playground.

  When the young Guinevere immediately left the swings to join Arthur, her girlfriend reluctantly followed. Arthur passed out the sodas, after getting the girls to sit on the grass with him. They shared the Nachos, talking amiably enough in Lancelot’s view. Even Gwen’s friend participated, and Lancelot saw her laugh at something the boy said.

  “You really are enjoying all this, aren’t you?” Merlin asked in bemused amazement at Lancelot’s smiling interest.

  “Oh, hell yeah.” Memories of centuries full of death spiked through Lancelot. “I’ve spent a millennia drifting from one war to another, fighting and allying myself with mystical creatures, only to see the same perversions happen over and over. Watching Arthur with Guinevere in this setting gives me hope. Add to it hooking up with a young sarcastic version of a woman I loved, and I am definitely enjoying the hell out of this. Being able to have Modred’s heart ripped out while I was holding him didn’t hurt any either. So, mage, what would it take for you to feel some enjoyment?”

  “Going a lifetime without selling anyone else out for power I neither sought nor wanted.”

  “I’ll give you a hand with your wish, old man,” Lancelot replied, putting a comforting hand on Merlin’s shoulder. “Don’t cross me, and I bet we all do better than we did during the last go-around.”

  “Believe me, Lancelot, crossing you is one thing I will never, ever do. You have all the knowledge and suppositions I have about what is happening with all this. Do you think we can create a scenario where Arthur actually achieves the goals heaven has in store for him, and finds happiness with Guinevere?”

  “We will, or I’ll be dead.”

  “Then it would seem living in the moment works out best for all of us.”

  “Yep. Is it sacrilege to hope that Arthur knocks up young Guinevere before they’re out of high school?” Lancelot asked without smiling.

  “Lancelot, I’m shocked,” Merlin chided, laughing. “Shocked, I tell you.”

  “He’s talked her into a train ride, I’ll wager,” Lancelot pointed out, as Arthur took Gwen’s hand and helped her up. “I’m off to guard his rail trip. Kick back and enjoy the moment.”

  “What?” Merlin looked up questioningly as Lancelot left the bench. “You think there might be some other plot in action here?”

  “Nope, but like I told Arthur, we can’t be too careful. Call Charlie, and get him over here to pick us up. Don’t worry, Mage, if there is a secondary plot, it’ll be the last plot the participants will ever concoct.”

  Merlin watched Lancelot walk away with his hand fingering the hilt on the knife sheathed under the back of his shirt. “I don’t doubt it,” he muttered.

  * * *

  Vivian drove into Lancelot’s garage and closed the door remotely. Walking around to the passenger side, she opened the car door, and reached in to grab the woman by her ear.

  “Come along, my dear, before I zap you again,” Vivian said, pulling the protesting woman out of the Pontiac.

  “You can’t…hold me.” The woman attempted to twist away, but Vivian smashed her across the face with an open hand.

  “Listen, you stupid bitch,” Vivian told the now sobbing woman. “I’ll give you a chance. Tell me everything you know about this attempted kidnapping, and you’ll die quickly. Refuse, and I’ll take you inside for a couple of my companions to question.”

  “You’re bluffing. This is America. You can’t interrogate me. I never kidnapped anyone,” the woman insisted, fighting Vivian weakly.

  “Okay then,” Vivian sighed.

  Vivian started to open the interconnecting door to the house, but stopped, having sensed a presence on the other side of the door.

  “It’s me, Vivian. Lancelot needs you to ask some questions of a guest I’ve brought along. Soup’s on.”

  The door opened, and Serge bowed slightly. “Witch.”

  “Fang.” Vivian nodded, walking by the vampire and dragging the woman with her.

  Serge took the woman’s arm, meeting her startled stare with force of will. He looked toward Vivian with surprise plain on his face. “Did you know someone has traveled this path before you?”

  “Yeah, I know someone else has been in there,” Vivian acknowledged. “We need to know who. She attempted a kidnapping on a good part of our legend-puzzle, and she doesn’t have a single ID on her. Arthur had a vision of it last night, so Lancelot and I broke it up. We need to know how much of this dirty business our guest here has been involved in.”

  “I take it Kara and I can have a snack, then?”

  “As much as you need,” Vivian replied. “If you think she’s salvageable, can she be released safely? What I mean is-”

  “I know what you mean,” Serge interrupted with a smile, as he stared into the woman’s eyes. “If she’s being used, and the link is broken, she’ll be fine. If she was a predator before she received directions, then she will simply be a predator without direction if we release her.”

  “Yeah, I figured. How long will it take? Do you want me to hang around?”

  “You can hang around. Want to watch?”

  “Nope,” Vivian replied, turning away. “I’ll make myself some lunch.”

  “Be back up soon,” Serge said, guiding the mesmerized woman down into Lancelot’s cellar. “Oh, Kara…the Water Witch brought us a happy meal.”

  Chapter Eighteen: Feeding Station

  A more somber Serge walked up the cellar stairs as Vivian stood at the sink and washed the dishes from her lunch. Vivian stopped washing, wiped her hands, and sat down at the kitchen table. Serge sat down facing her.

  “Any luck?” Vivian prompted when Serge remained silent for a moment.

  “Here are the specifics.” Serge handed her a paper. “She has a meeting with her link in about two hours. I am an offspring of the Fallen, as you know. Many consider us monsters, and in some cases, they were and are right. The female in the cellar is a monster, Vivian. Never should she see light of day again. Kara and I will feed her and feed from her.”

  Vivian nodded, looking at the information with weary recognition.

  “It looks as if we’re in for another long night. Want a piece, Serge?”

  “Of course, my lady,” Serge answered. “Kara will make our new guest comfortable.”

  “Serge,” Vivian said, leaning toward the vampire, “did Lancelot ever mention me?”

  “He spoke of you often,” Serge replied, smiling at Vivian’s interest. “Has he not shown you the same interest now as then?”

  “Yes…I… It’s not a matter of trust. I just wondered if-”

  “He loved you, Witch. Stop poking at it with a stick, and enjoy the moment,” Serge lectured Vivian, waving a finger at her while she laughed. “How did the boy do at playing baseball today?”

  “Very well, but the smart-mouth punk really nailed me today,” Vivian acknowledged, sighing.

  “This Arthur is a much different character than he was in the legend, I take it?”

  “So far, he’s living up to his old form. It’s just that he’s acquired a far too familiar command of twenty-first-century-style insults.�
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  “Shall we go over and show my friend Lancelot whom he needs to kill next?” Serge asked.

  “He’s not going to like this,” Vivian nodded, standing up. “I’ll drive, Fang.”

  “You take all the fun from this escapade with three words, woman,” Serge complained.

  Lancelot read over the note with ill-concealed rage. Merlin and Serge sat facing Vivian and Lancelot at the large kitchen table. The sounds of Arthur and his two houseguests came faintly from the room that Merlin had assigned as a game-room. Lancelot glanced toward the room with a faraway look, smiling faintly. He then returned his attention to the people at the table with him.