Shadows of Humanity

by J. Armand

  “It’s been handed down for generations in the Brotherhood. I assume one of the founders crafted it centuries ago.”

  “And the weapons?”

  “I made those.” He said it in such a matter-of-fact way, but I would never have guessed this skinny photographer from Canada was involved in all this. “I… have a lot of free time.”

  “I wouldn’t think you had any after fighting the forces of evil and keeping a job. How many have you actually killed?”

  “Seventeen this week. In total, I don’t know, but it isn’t enough. I’m going to run some errands before I have to leave for England, so you can have the room. It’s paid for until Tuesday.” His shift in conversation was a bit awkward and I had a feeling I might have hit a nerve, as I had when I’d mentioned his family. I had to stay optimistic that I could change his mind about the undead being evil.

  “I have no idea what day it even is.” I had only been immortal for a few years and already time had no meaning anymore.

  “It’s Saturday,” he answered and headed out the door.

  “You’re leaving me here with your holy relics?” A bit surprising, but I couldn’t exactly see myself trying to pawn them on the street.

  “I trust you.”

  Chapter Five

  Shedding the remains of the past few days’ adventure felt as refreshing emotionally as it was physically. The hot shower couldn’t have come at a more welcome time. Looking back, I didn’t know if I had accomplished anything at all aside from adding another layer of dirt to my body. I had disarmed the stalking shadow that wielded that odd sword, but wouldn’t he find another weapon with which to continue his extermination? One more Archios had died, even if his death was warranted for killing human witnesses. I myself only had played witness to it despite William’s perspective. And then there was William himself. A potential ally, but I had done nothing to merit his trust except being in the wrong place at the right time. He didn’t even know what I really was but he had already made up his mind. I felt like I was misleading him. None of this was going to sit well with Noah. There needed to be some compromise. I thought if anyone were going to budge it would be William. All I really had to show for myself from the past few days was washing down the drain.

  I had just finished my shower when I heard a commotion from the hall, followed by the sound of a fire alarm. So much for getting any sleep. I threw my clothes back on and left the room. People were evacuating, but one woman was left standing in front of her room looking in and crying at the billowing smoke. I ran over to see what was wrong, but the smoke quickly turned thick and black, making it hard to breathe.

  “It’s my friend Michelle,” she sobbed. I checked the room as flames spread to the bed from a static-displaying TV. There was a lump under the covers. I ran in and pulled off the sheets to find my parents’ bodies, contorted by rigor mortis, staring back up at me. Not again, not here too… This had never happened when I was still in Japan. Why was I seeing all of these things now?

  I turned to leave the room. The sobbing woman was replaced by Minerva, who scowled at me. She was my worst nightmare on two feet. The same Strigoi turned demoness who orchestrated my creation and then abduction was staring me in the face.

  “You can never stop it!” she hissed. The door slammed, trapping me in the fire. I could feel the pain of my skin burning as I went down with the room. It was so real, yet I had to keep telling myself it wasn’t until I blacked out.

  I awoke back in the shower. The water was scalding and the steam choking. Without my regeneration I would have been in the hospital burn unit for sure. Semi-conscious, I dried off and dragged myself to bed. I wasn’t even sure if sleep was what I wanted. Regardless, I succumbed to temptation and drifted off.

  It was dark out when I woke up again. I paced the brown carpet of the small room trying to decide what to do. William would probably be back any minute. Did I really want to enable the insanity of a mortal hunting evil by joining him?

  I left the motel and rushed down the street to the park so I wouldn’t run into William.

  “I’m ready to get out of here.” The voice came from above me the second I passed the park gates. Noah was kicked back in a tree with his arms behind his head, the new katana on his lap.

  “What about the killings?”

  “Who cares?” Noah jumped down to face me. “A swordsman without a sword is merely a man.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. He can get another weapon.”

  “I’ll still have his pride. If he wants it back he’ll have to come get it. Any swordsman worth his weight will follow his blade to the ends of the Earth.”

  Smart. Noah and I would be drawing the killer out and away from any more potential victims in the city.

  “Remember that guy I met who was dressed like King Arthur? I kind of made friends with him.”

  “And now we have to put him down?”

  “No! He’s a… hunter, and I think-”

  “You think?” Noah interrupted. “You never think. You get all needy for a friend like a puppy and then when it goes wrong you can’t understand why. Now it’s not even a normal human, but a hunter. Real smart. Does he have any idea what the hell you are?”

  “No… I mean not yet.”

  “You’re an idiot. First you’re whining about wanting to save every piece of shit this city has to offer, then you buddy up to someone who kills our kind. Pick a side. You either trust me or you don’t.”

  “Why do you have to berate me any time I’m friendly with someone? You keep telling me to trust you, but you never reciprocate that trust. There doesn’t have to be two sides. We can work together. He’s already aware of the supernatural world and how to survive in it. It isn’t like I’m pulling him into something unknown that will get him killed.”

  The more Noah insulted me, the more I was motivated to rebel. He was jaded and refused to see there was still good in the world. It didn’t all have to be loneliness and solitude.

  “You’re pissing me off.” He poked me with his katana in an attempt to be playful. “When are you going to-”

  A blinding flash pierced the dark shroud of night around us in the empty park. Noah grunted in pain. His exposed skin had been charred down to the bone with third- and fourth-degree burns. I had seen that same intense light before. When I looked behind me I saw William in his armor holding out some sort of amulet in Noah’s direction. I put my hands up to stop him, but Noah beat me to it. He dashed into William and punched him clear across the park. William’s body smashed through the door of a car parked on the other end.

  “No!” I shouted. There was no way William could have survived. If his neck hadn’t snapped, the broken ribs puncturing his internal organs would do him in within seconds.

  “It was a mistake ever trying to help you,” Noah snarled. His body looked like a statue made of charcoal. “When your new pets find out what you really are and turn on you, don’t come looking for me. I want you to remember that you did this to yourself.”

  Noah was gone, along with our friendship. I saw the pain in his eyes mixed with anger before he left. I wanted to apologize. He was the last person I had ever thought I would put in danger, and now somehow I had screwed that up, too.

  I ran over to check on William’s body. Nobody even came over to see what happened. The world was cruel and unforgiving. How was anyone supposed to know the right decision before it was made? At every turn something out there was trying to twist the good will of others.

  I kneeled down beside William’s slumped body. He was still breathing. How was that even possible? I knew I shouldn’t move him in case anything was broken, which it surely was. I yelled for help as I checked his pockets for a cell phone.

  “Stop,” he protested weakly. “I’m all right.”

  “How are you alive? How are you conscious?”

  “The armor. I told you. It’s blessed.” He sat up easily for someone who had just been thrown a hundred feet and crumpled like a rag doll. He wasn’t
making it up. He was the real deal. “Do you see now why I want you to come with me?”

  What other option did I have? Stay in the city chasing my tail?

  “I didn’t think we’d be taking a private plane and a limo,” I said as we pulled away from Bristol Airport. I was trying to seem captivated by the novelty, but the flight would have been a lot more enjoyable if William hadn’t read passages from the Bible the whole way. I admired his dedication to his faith, though. Anything that gave someone a sense of direction and inner peace had my respect.

  “It makes travels a lot more simple. Otherwise, I’m not a big fan of luxury in excess.” William still had his nose buried in the Good Book. I, on the other hand, was in complete awe of the scenery Bath offered as we drove through. I could have finished my degree in architecture by now, I thought. Bath was famous for its Roman architecture, which was always my favorite. This trip was turning out to be such a tease. But who was to say I couldn’t return to school when all of this was over? The Archios mingled in human society. William maintained a normal life along with his supernatural one. Noah was angry at the world and dealt with it by hiding, but I didn’t have to. As long as I kept to myself, like I used to, others wouldn’t be in danger. Life wasn’t easy for anyone, but trying to sequester myself wasn’t a solution. The world was meant to be explored, no matter how much I had let myself be convinced otherwise.

  “You said you’d tell me about that amulet.” William had promised to tell me everything once we got to the Brotherhood, but the anticipation was maddening. I was anxious to know what could have done that much damage to Noah and how it had gotten into human hands. Most of all, I wanted to know the details of what I was getting myself into.

  He fished the mysterious trinket from his backpack and held it out for me to see. “I call it the Archangel Amulet.”

  Appropriately named, the amulet comprised angelic feathered wings made of silver that folded over to hold a milky-white teardrop gemstone. Even at rest the gemstone had a soothing ethereal glow and appeared to be moving as if it were made of liquid.

  “Where did you get it?” I asked.

  “It was entrusted to me by the Holy Spirit in a dream one night shortly after I joined the Brotherhood. It’s how I knew my purpose was with them and I was destined to help purge the evil from this world.”

  “No wonder you’re so confident.”

  “It’s my faith that gives the amulet its light, not the other way around. Beings of pure evil don’t stand a chance against Heaven’s wrath.”

  Did that mean Noah was evil? He was a lot of things, but once I’d gotten to know him, it had never occurred to me to think of him as evil. What would this amulet do to someone like Emilia or Octavio? I was sure they weren’t evil.

  “When did you join the Brotherhood?”

  “I was sixteen.” His answers about his personal life were always so abrupt for someone so friendly.

  “That’s pretty young to be out there hunting, isn’t it? What about school? Your parents were okay with that?”

  “I went to school.” Again, another short answer.

  “Are the others like you?” I wasn’t sure quite what I was getting at, but I figured if I left it vague he might be more apt to open up.

  “My age? Some of them. There are only a few of us where we’re going. Chapters in other English counties have more members I’ve heard, but I’ve never visited them personally. You’ll fit in fine, don’t worry. Best of all, you’ll never be cold or hungry again.”

  We continued our drive through Bath in silence until we reached the countryside.

  “Here we are,” William announced more cheerfully as we rolled up to the gatehouse. The road branched off to a collection of moderately sized mansions scattered about the grounds. I was not dressed for this – not that I ever was, but I had been under the impression we’d be going to some monastery or a church.

  “To your place, sir?” the driver asked William.

  “No, we’re stopping by Carter’s first.”

  The limo dropped us off at the second house from the left. Compared to Aurelia’s enormous chateau, these mansions resembled quaint dollhouses that could fit in her ballroom. Still, the stone façade, mahogany doors, and bay windows of the immaculately restored nineteenth-century country villa were magnificent in their own right. Inside was similarly breathtaking. I spent more time eyeing the wood paneling and detailed molding than noticing the rather dapper-looking gentleman in a smoking jacket who had come to greet us.

  “William, my boy! Good to have you back. How was your trip?” He was in his mid-to-late fifties with slicked-back salt-and-pepper hair.

  “Not too good, Carter. New York-”

  “Splendid! And this must be young Daniel,” Carter interrupted, offering me his hand.

  “Dorian.” I corrected and shook his hand. He promptly cleaned it on his velvet jacket. It was almost like he knew I had been swimming in sewage prior to coming here. I didn’t think I had ever seen someone wear a smoking jacket in person.

  “Right then. Well, I won’t keep you boys from… whatever it was you came here for. Just remember the rules, William.” Carter strolled from the foyer. I wanted to find something nice to say about Carter, but it wasn’t in his ability to leave a good first impression.

  “What rules?” I asked William after I was sure Carter was gone.

  “Nothing. House rules. Standard stuff.” That wasn’t convincing. What did Carter think William was going to do, play baseball indoors?

  The earthy smell of scotch wafted in from a room to our right preceding the entrance of a woman William greeted as Amy.

  “Darling! Welcome home!” Amy trotted over sloppily in heels and a sleek cocktail dress. She was at least fifty and desperately clinging to her long-expired image of youth, or plastic, judging by her lack of facial expressions. “Boys! William is back!” she shouted to the rest of the house.

  “Only Micah is home next door,” Carter shouted back from the room to which he had retreated. He didn’t seem thrilled with her presence either. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken our warm reception from him too personally.

  “You are simply precious!” She smiled at me. “How cute! William, you didn’t tell us he would be this cute.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled back, a bit scared.

  “About New York-” William began, but was again interrupted – this time by something truly terrifying.

  The front doors flew open and in walked the very specter of death, dripping with blood from head to toe. The ghastly reaper wore black body armor made of leather that fitted tightly over his muscular frame. The armor, a hybrid of assassin and executioner, concealed everything but his fingertips and a pair of sharp hazel eyes. It wasn’t until he threw off the hood and face mask that I saw his real appearance was far from horrifying. He was handsome, blond, and clean-shaven, and I knew exactly who he was.

  “Back so soon, Owen? How was the hunt?” Amy asked. He was twenty-eight. I knew his exact age because I had been a fan of his for years. Owen Blackbourne was a boxing prodigy turned professional mixed martial arts champion by the age of twenty. My friends and I had been obsessed with MMA in high school, and Owen was my favorite fighter. My junior year, I had even convinced my dad to take me out late on a school night to see one of his matches because it was the first time he had come to the States. He was billed as “England’s Greatest Export.” I saved the ticket stub for years. As a boxer he’d been nicknamed “Pretty Boy” because he looked more like a model than a fighter. I had been called the same thing as a slur because of my youthful appearance and my inability to grow facial hair. Owen beat down every last competitor, and some part of me lived vicariously through his wins. Later when he crossed over to MMA he earned the nickname “Platinum Kid” and “Diamond Fist.” He had had the most consecutive wins at the time and was the youngest pro fighter in the sport. His specialty was striking moves from his boxing career. People said he “punched like his fists were made of diamonds.”
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br />   “I need a bloody smoke.” Owen stormed past us, throwing his blood-soaked gloves to the floor. “I know you have one in here,” he said as he rummaged around in the drawer of a desk in the hall.

  “Clean this up, you little wanker! I’m not your mum!” Amy barked and left the three of us. Owen ignored her outburst, victoriously lighting a cigarette he had found and continuing to peel himself out of his upper-body armor. He wasn’t quite as chiseled as Noah – I didn’t think that was physically possible – but Owen was still impressive.

  “This the fresh meat?” he asked, checking a minor scrape on his cheek in the mirror. I was hoping to keep our interaction at a minimum so I wouldn’t make a fool of myself. I had never been the type to be starstruck by celebrities, but Owen had been my teenage ideal of coolness. Suddenly I felt validated in my decision to go with William.

  “This is Dorian, yes.” William spoke up.

  “Hey.” Owen nodded to me through the reflection. “Hope you’re more fun around here than Willy.”

  “I hope so too,” I said, not even noticing the jab at William.

  “I like this one already,” Owen chuckled. “If you want a word of advice, mate, just do whatever Willy here says not to and you’ll get along famously with the rest of us.”

  “We should talk about going to New York. I think there’s something there you’ll like.” William tried moving the conversation back to business.

  “Oh yeah? What would you know about things I like, Willy? Did they add fanny pictures to the Bible yet like I requested?” Owen asked, still checking himself out in the mirror for damage. By now there was a significant pool of blood at his feet that evidently wasn’t his. “I’m joking around, Willy. We can talk after the party tonight.”

  Owen scooped up his discarded clothing from the floor and made his way up the cantilevered stone staircase. “Good to meet you, mate. Hope to see you tonight,” he called back to me.

  “You too,” I replied, trying to sound casual.