by J. Armand
“I was trying to protect them! They were already dead when I got there.” I knew Noah was right. It was time to let Lyle and the Outsiders go, if any of them were still alive.
“Because whoever did this was faster than you. You knew that already when you thought it was me. And there was nothing left at their place? No footprint in the ashes or anything?”
“Not that I could tell. There was this weird human dressed like King Arthur sniffing around, but he didn’t know anything.”
Noah squinted at me questioningly without a word.
“He was going on about God and demons and then gave me money because I said I was homeless.” I pulled out the eight Euros to show him. “I think he was just some weirdo who likes to dress up and go to haunted houses. He probably saw a lot of strange things going on in that building.”
Noah snatched the money out of my hand. “This’ll go to the new pair of sunglasses you owe me. So, did you kill this guy?”
“No, why would I? He was harmless.”
“I don’t know, why not?”
“Because you taught me not to kill without purpose and there’s no honor in killing the weak,” I said, and shoved more pizza crust in my mouth.
“Oh, you actually bought that?”
“Of course I did!” Hearing him say that made my heart sink. It was those teachings that had given some much-needed serenity in this bloodthirsty world.
“I’m kidding. Calm down. I’m surprised you paid attention. It isn’t easy to tell with you.” Noah laughed from the shadows. “I already have a plan for luring out this wannabe. All we need is bait.”
“Ooh, I have the perfect person.”
Chapter Four
“This was your big plan?”
“Eh.” Noah shrugged. “I felt like keeping it simple.”
He dropped the body of the jeweler I had had the pleasure of dealing with earlier to the floor and removed the wakizashi embedded in the man’s heart.
“You can’t do this! Do you know who I am?” The Archios sputtered and looked around in disgust at his surroundings.
“I hate it when people ask that. Obviously I know who you are: you’re bait.” Noah cleaned his sword and sheathed it at his hip. “Now, either you stay here or I cut something off for every attempt you make to escape.”
“What is this place? Why bring me here? You’re an Archios too, you lunatic!” The man continued to complain.
“It’s the Outsiders’ old hideout, from before they were all killed. Which is what we’re trying to keep from happening to the Archios,” I explained. “The imposter is more likely to come back to a place he already knows.”
“I can’t be the bait if the killer is impersonating me, dumbass,” Noah added. “They’re not going to want to blow their cover by letting us be seen together.”
“I thought you were the killer! And why are you helping him? Weren’t you here to save us?” The jeweler turned to me from where he cowered in the debris. His arrogance had melted away to expose the sniveling coward he was, and it was so satisfying.
“The needs of the many outweigh those of the few, right? Think of it this way; your sacrifice will serve a greater cause.” I smiled down at him and walked out with Noah, who slammed the door, locking the man inside.
“We’re not really going to let him die though, right?” I had to ask to be sure.
“I don’t know, whatever.” Noah dismissed my concern flippantly. “I’m gonna take off. You got this. Don’t forget to get me that sword.”
“Where are you going? You were supposed to be hiding out with me to ambush the imposter!” I panicked at being sent back to square one again. “I can’t do this alone.”
“About that, I’m not really the patient type. Just get a vantage point and wait to disarm him like we practiced in Japan.”
“Don’t you think if I could do that I would have in the first place?” I shouted at nothing. Noah was already gone. He wanted me to do what I knew I had to from the start. No excuses.
I sat around for hours watching from the rooftop next door as the jeweler nervously paced the rooms of the apartment building, occasionally checking to see if I was still on duty. And then it happened, right as night turned to day. The jeweler strayed further from the windows to avoid the first beams of sunlight and find a spot to sleep. I saw a tiny glint of light in one of the windows. It was reflecting off the sword I was looking for.
I flew down in a hurry and crashed through the window with my focus on the sword. Wielded by a shadowy figure, the blade pierced the jeweler’s chest. I tackled the shadow and grabbed the hilt of the sword to pull it from the jeweler, but it was too late. The man’s wide-eyed expression of pain and fear as he was reduced to ash would be burned into my memory. It was one evil taking out another, but I felt the weight of guilt in my heart. I had failed and doomed this man through cruelty, not justice.
It didn’t make sense. The undead could take far more punishment than that and walk away from it. Why had a single stab wound finished him off?
Up close, I could see the blade wasn’t exactly like Noah’s. It was a full-length katana that seemed to pulse with energy although there were no visual effects to confirm this. The shadow dispersed into nothingness and I had been holding the katana for only a few seconds when Noah appeared. He stayed just out of reach of the sunlight coming in from the window behind me.
“Good job. I’ll be back tonight,” was all he said before disappearing again and taking the katana with him. “Good job” was not something I was used to hearing from him and it was even more rare when it wasn’t laced with sarcasm. Normally, his praise would have excited me – a mark of progress or skill. However, all I could see was the man’s face as he died.
I left the apartment building, now in broad daylight, and took refuge beside the dumpster in the adjacent alley. I was tired again, more mentally than physically this time. I curled up on the cold concrete, hugging myself as my stomach growled. I listened to pedestrians’ conversations to take my mind off everything.
“Call me tomorrow?” a woman’s voice asked from the sidewalk. “It would be nice if you’d call me for a change.”
She was probably on a cell phone since I couldn’t hear a response. Footsteps came down the alley in my direction. I was in a huge city and yet someone had to invade my miniscule piece of it when I was trying to sleep.
“Oh.” She was standing over me and I could hear her much more clearly. “Your father and I have a surprise for you when you come back for the Fourth of July.”
I knew that voice and yet I didn’t want to look up. It was my mother’s voice, repeating the last conversation I’d ever had with her. I squeezed my eyes shut until they hurt, but I felt someone nearby put something on me. There was a nudge. The intruder shook me until I opened my eyes. When I did, I saw a familiar pair of leather boots in my face and a blanket wrapped around me.
“Oh no,” I moaned, instantly recognizing who they belonged to.
“I think you were having a nightmare.”
“I’m fine,” I muttered and pulled my hood over my face as far as I could.
“I saw what you did.”
Crap. Like the jeweler said, humans were everywhere and saw everything. But why did it have to be this human again?
“What are you talking about?” I asked, hoping he meant he’d seen me take from the clothes donation box.
“You killed that creature.”
I closed my eyes again to see if I’d get lucky. Maybe this was another dream. How much had he seen? I was worried.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” I said and looked up at him. Except for the boots, he wasn’t wearing his medieval getup – just blue jeans, a white button-down, and a parka. I would never have picked him out of a crowd as the type to dress up and pretend to be a fantasy hero.
“I know your secret. You don’t have to hide it from me.”
“What secret is that?” I was
starting to get a little nervous.
“You’re the one who cleansed this building the other night. I knew it when I saw you hadn’t moved the barricade. You were in there the whole time, before me.”
“I told you I don’t know anything about that.” If only I could tell this guy the truth. It would blow his mind. He was persistent, but I’d be out of the city by tonight, and with no way to erase his memories all I could do was deny it.
“I know you’re troubled because you’ve seen things that others wouldn’t believe, but I do. You’re doing the Lord’s work and I’m here to help you.”
My conscience was making me feel bad for pretending this guy was crazy, but I couldn’t confirm anything that would motivate him to get involved. “What exactly did you see?”
“I wasn’t far when I heard glass shatter. When I got there you were holding your sword in the creature as it died, then another came and stole the sword.” I didn’t know if it was because he seemed to be in awe of finding someone he thought was like him, or if it was just that he wasn’t in his costume, but he came off meeker than he had before – like he didn’t have much of a presence to him. “It’s no coincidence that we met. I prayed for a way to fight these demons and the Lord answered with an ally.”
“I wasn’t there to kill anybody or fight any demons. I was trying to score drugs, okay?”
“Then where are they?”
“I ate them. I don’t know! Just leave me alone.”
“Then it’s a miracle you’re still alive,” he half-joked. “You can lie to me, but you can’t lie to God. You don’t have to fight alone. We’re brothers, after all.”
“Brothers…?” I didn’t know why, but that word struck something in me.
“We’re all God’s children. Those chosen to enact his will, like us, are closest of all.”
I remained silent. This guy wasn’t going to give up and I’d never be able to change his mind. He was going to get himself killed, but I didn’t want it to be my fault. It was amazing he wasn’t dead already. Part of me wanted to tell him the truth so at least he’d have a fighting chance.
“What’s your name?” he asked. I still didn’t answer, so he held out his hand in greeting and introduced himself. “William.”
“Thanks for the blanket,” I mumbled, and curled tighter into a ball under it to avoid shaking hands.
“You’re welcome. If you won’t tell me your name, at least let me take you somewhere to get a hot meal and a shower.”
“No. I’m fine.” My stomach growled and completely blew my cover. “Do you do this with every homeless person you see?”
“Whenever I can. I didn’t think you were really homeless at first until I saw you sleeping here.”
All this talking, especially about food, was making me feel weak with hunger. My eyelids felt heavier by the second and the cold wasn’t helping. I wanted to fall asleep, but William wasn’t letting me.
“Are you okay?” I heard him ask, followed by something else I didn’t catch. Everything went dark for a brief moment. William was still there when I opened my eyes, only now he was holding a paper bag.
“Since you won’t come with me so I can help you, this will have to do.” He held out the bag, which contained something that smelled delicious. I hesitated taking it from him, but it smelled too good to resist and he probably wouldn’t give up anyway.
“Why are you so insistent on helping me?” My eyes lit up when I saw the cheeseburger, fries, and bottled water inside the bag. Best of all, he didn’t throw it at my face.
“I know what I saw and I know what’s out there.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” I repeated.
“Okay, I believe you.”
“You do?” I asked between bites.
“That thing wasn’t technically alive, so you couldn’t have killed it. But you did save plenty of lives by banishing it from this world. You’re going to be in danger now that the one who took your sword saw you kill one of its brethren. That must be their leader. It was a good thing the sun came up when it did. Assuming it is the master of that nest, you won’t be able to fight it by yourself should it come back for you. Together we can banish the creature back to Hell.”
It was a good thing Noah didn’t believe in killing the weak or this guy would be screwed.
“I’m not going to be here much longer. I’m just passing through.”
“So am I. I need to get back to my brothers soon. It might be best to have them help us. There are more of the damned in this city than I thought.”
“You travel with your family to go looking for monsters?”
“They aren’t my birth family. We’re hunters that operate as a brotherhood.”
“What does your real family think about you doing this?” Every shred of common sense was telling me not to get involved any more than I already was. But if this guy wasn’t just some crazy roleplaying geek that meant that there were humans out there surviving in the supernatural and mortal worlds simultaneously. How long could they really last before ending up on the backs of milk cartons or in a grave marked “John” or “Jane Doe?” I remembered being told about how hunters helped with the anarchy left by the Carpathians during the Black Plague. Had a new generation of hunters taken up the mantle of their ancestors in the wake of the Carpathians’ most recent plot?
“They don’t,” he answered abruptly with a hint of spite in his voice, but he immediately returned to his amiable demeanor. “If I get you a place to stay for a few days, will you wait for me to return with my brothers?”
This was the nicest anyone had been to me in a while, and yet I knew the kindest thing I could do in return was keep my distance. What if he and his “brothers” truly did know how to take care of themselves? They could be allies, friends… family. But what about Noah? How open would they be to the idea that not all of the undead were bad – just most of them? And what would they think of me and my powers?
“I can’t promise that,” I said after some consideration. “Let’s just say these monsters you’re talking about are real. How do you fight them if they have magical powers? Do you have your own?”
“No, not exactly. We use our God-given ingenuity. Sorcery defies the Lord’s will. If He wanted us to have it, we all would. It is a temptation of the Devil to take the easy path through our trials on Earth. Those who turn to magic corrupt their mortal souls and may never reach the gates of Heaven because we did not live as God intended us to.”
This was going to be a problem. Maybe he just hadn’t met anyone supernatural who wasn’t evil yet and would change his mind if he found out.
“Where are these brothers of yours?”
“England.” He seemed to perk up at my interest.
“That explains the Euros.”
“Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t realize when I handed them over. I’ve only been here a few days. Were you able to use them anywhere?”
“No. Someone took them.”
“Oh,” he said dejectedly. “Then let me get you that room to make it up to you.”
I was cold, dirty, and exhausted, and I knew what was coming once Noah returned. He’d throw me in the ice-cold river to clean me off so he wouldn’t have to smell me on our flight.
“One night.” I agreed to compromise.
“At least two,” he bargained.
We walked to a motel near Highbridge Park where I had been earlier. “How come you don’t have an accent if you’re from England?” I asked on our way there.
“I’m from Canada originally.”
“Don’t you have a job? How can you take time off to go fight the forces of Hell?”
“You have a lot of questions for someone who won’t tell me his name.”
He had a point. “I’m Dorian.” Immediately I realized I should have used a fake name, but it felt like lying to a priest. It was bad enough I was deceiving him about what I really was, but the truth would come out when I was ready.
“I’m a photographer, so I can
set my own schedule. Money isn’t really a problem. We all help each other out and there’s enough of it to go around.”
“That must be nice. Do you ever take pictures of supernatural stuff? You could make a lot of money, I bet.” I was hoping he would be smart enough not to paint an even bigger target on his back.
“No. No one credible would believe it. Photography is my escape so I like to keep it separate. Nature is my favorite subject matter. I love the beauty in all of God’s creations and always find something new to capture.”
I expected us to stop at the motel’s front desk to check in, but William already had a room. I was under the impression that someone who was so free with his money would spend more lavishly on himself. The room was small, with only a single bed and fading décor that probably hadn’t been thoroughly dusted or updated since the motel opened for business thirty or so years ago. That was also about how old the matching TV and VCR set was. Everything about the room was sad. Even the moth-eaten pastel curtains made the windows look like they were crying. If I thought the stale, recirculated air in the room was hard to breathe, the bathroom was worse. Running water was all I really cared about, though, and the thought of a hot shower was as exciting as Christmas morning for a kid.
William’s costume was laid out on the dresser next to the TV. He probably didn’t have to worry about room service coming through and asking questions here.
“Does dressing like King Arthur really help you fight crime or is it just to look cool?” I motioned to the outfit.
“It’s blessed.” He smiled admiringly at the clothes. I still wasn’t convinced how serious he was. “I’m serious. The armor has magical properties that protect whoever wears it from evil.”
“I thought you said magic was a no-no.”
“I’m not the one using magic. The divine enchantment was a gift from God.”
“Who made the armor in the first place to be enchanted then?” I wasn’t sure I bought all this, but after seeing what the Strigoi could do, anything was possible.