Submerging Inferno

by Brandon Witt

  Finn’s expression had transformed from concern to one bordering on fear. “Brett, you need to calm down, okay? Breathe.” He was standing now, and he held his hands out to me but didn’t try to touch me.

  “Why should I calm down?” I was screaming now. “We could do something! We could bring Sonia back!”

  Finn’s voice was a whisper. “Brett, look down. Look at yourself.”

  I glanced down. My hands were balled into fists in front of me, shaking. I could feel my entire body trembling. Smoke was wafting up from my arms, causing the room to look blurry in front of me. As I watched, my fists burst into flames, vibrant orange and yellow licking at my skin, flecks of sapphire blue at my knuckles.

  My eyes caught Finn’s, and he gasped.

  “Help me.” My voice was barely audible, even to my ears.

  “Breathe, Brett, breathe. Focus on calming down.” Finn moved half a step closer, but stopped just out of reach. “Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll find the vampire, okay? We’ll make him pay. Sonia will be avenged. I promise. Okay? Breathe.”

  After several deep breaths and letting Finn’s words sink in, the fire on my hands went out, and the smoke gradually drifted away. I couldn’t make my body stop trembling.

  Finn took another step closer. “You should have seen your eyes. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve never heard of a demon with blue eyes like that.”

  “Sorry. I couldn’t help it.”

  He reached out to touch my arm but then jerked his hand back. “Still a little warm.”

  I paced around the room until I was calm enough to sit back on the couch without setting it aflame.

  Finn shoved my plate back in front of me. “Here, I’m not taking no for an answer. You need to eat. So eat! Then let’s go to bed. It’s after eleven, and rest will help.”

  Too spent to argue, I stuffed huge bites of the empanada in my mouth, chewed, and tasted as little as possible until it was gone.

  Finn gave me a little wink as his eyebrow arched. “Good boy. Now, let’s go to bed.”

  Finn’s house had to be the tiniest I had ever seen. Within ten steps we were in his bedroom. I could see the kitchen, living room, a bathroom, another bedroom, and that was it. Although it was tiny, it all seemed to have had the same painstaking care applied to it as the living room.

  “Oh, Finn.” I gawked at the wall above the bed. “I’m so sorry.” There was a six foot charred portion from the top of the bed reaching nearly to the ceiling. In parts, you could see some of the insulation inside the wall. The upper half of the mattress was pitch black and scorched thoroughly. It caused the image of the vampire’s burned, eyeless face to flash into my mind.

  Finn didn’t say anything, just walked calmly over to the bed and laid his hands down near the bottom. His lips didn’t move as the mattress’s fabric began to restitch itself, little threads jumping and then diving from the healthy side, weaving together over the destroyed section. After what seemed like mere seconds, he lifted his hands from the mattress and climbed up to the headboard, which had also been made whole. On his knees, he placed one hand on either side of the scorch mark. Like wisps of smoke, the grayish blue of the wall overtook the fissure, erasing all evidence of my anger.

  Still on his knees, Finn looked over his shoulder and gave me a brilliant smile. “See, all better.”

  It was probably the most amazing thing I had ever seen. No probably about it, actually, it blew away every other amazing thing I had ever witnessed. Between this and the steering wheel, my worldview was definitely being challenged. “Wait a minute, Finn. I just realized something.”

  He flipped around and scooted off the bed. “And what was that?”

  “In the car, I heard you muttering some kind of spell, but here you didn’t say anything at all.”

  “Oh, that.” He waved it off. “Yeah, I don’t have to say the spell out loud, although sometimes I still do without realizing it.”

  “So, witches don’t actually need spells?”

  “Well”—he reddened slightly—“some do. It depends on how much power you have. Everything you call ‘magic’ involves a spell, a request or demand of the elements. If you have enough power, you don’t necessarily even have to say the spell at all, you can just implore the elements, with… with… I don’t actually know with what. I’ve never thought about it. I guess with your heart or mind or something. Sometimes, I slip into saying the spells without thinking, out of habit.”

  The more he spoke, the deeper his blush became. I couldn’t help but grin at him. “It’s kinda a big deal that you don’t have to use spells, isn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “It’s like Mom said, our family is just blessed with more gifts. It all goes back to demon blood. My family just happens to have its roots enmeshed firmly in the bloodlines of several different demons. Pure chance.”

  “For a family that owes its power to demons, I sure did scare you all.”

  “Yeah, I know. Sorry about that, but it’s just not the same thing. I don’t really know how to explain it. Witches and warlocks somehow get the power of their demon ancestry without all the evil that goes along with it. Most of them do, anyway. There are exceptions.”

  “Evil witches, you mean?”

  He nodded, obviously becoming self-conscious with the topic. “So, do you wanna sleep in here with me, or would you be more comfortable in the guest bedroom?” He gestured to the bathroom. “The restroom connects the bedrooms. It’s right through there.”

  My gaze traveled over Finn’s handsome face and down his muscular body. With a twinge of guilt, I realized I really did want to stay in his bed with him. I hated that I felt that way. I shouldn’t even be able to entertain such thoughts after just losing Sonia. “Uh, I should probably sleep in the guest room. I’d hate to have a bad dream and set you on fire during the night.”

  “I’m not worried about that.” Finn tried to give me a flirtatious smile but then faltered, probably thinking the same thing I was. “But, if you would be more comfortable in there, that’s great. The room’s yours as long as you need it.”

  Chapter 21

  “YOU really don’t have to do this.” Finn dragged his fingers through the dark hair falling in his eyes as he turned to look at me. “There’s no reason for you to put yourself through this torture.”

  “Yes, there is. I owe it to them. I owe it to Sonia.” I didn’t face him, just kept my gaze fixed on the cars as we zoomed past them on the freeway.

  “I can see telling her family in person, but Derek? Why put yourself through this when they weren’t even in a relationship? I can call him or something.”

  “Would you want someone to tell you if I’d been killed?” I glanced over to see his skin flush at the reprimand. A twinge of guilt shot through me. He was just trying to cause me less pain.

  “You’re right. I would.” He shifted gears as he changed lanes, getting ready to merge onto the Hillcrest exit. “You don’t really know him, do you? How are you going to know where to find him?”

  I couldn’t help but grin. “Oh, I know where to find him. Sonia had been wanting him to ask her out forever. Derek’s the only guy I’d ever seen her nervous about. He lives pretty close to Rascals, and we’ve met. He’d come in from time to time.”

  “To Rascals?”

  “Yeah. That should have been enough of a sign for Sonia to know he was interested. Straight men don’t like the burgers at Rascals enough to go there without an ulterior motive.”

  Finn let out a quiet snort. “I bet there’s quite a few straight men that go to Rascals with an ulterior motive.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m sure you’re not wrong there. Sonia wasn’t worried about that. I’d mentioned that possibility when he first came in. I swear that girl has better gaydar than I ever… had better gaydar….” Squeezing my eyes shut, I tightened my interlocking fingers until the knuckles hurt.

  I felt Finn’s warm fingers gently brush across my forearm before closing over my hand. I didn’t resp
ond.

  Sonia’s parents had been on my mind the entire night. If I had gotten any sleep at all, it hadn’t been for more than five minutes at a time. Sonia didn’t talk to her family every day, but they were still fairly close. The thought of them going about their lives as if everything were normal, expecting to see or hear from Sonia soon, was too much to bear. Sonia had been dead for four days already. How much longer was her family supposed to wait?

  Derek. I’m not sure why I was so determined to talk to him. I knew Sonia would want me to, but really, I think it was more for practice before I faced her folks.

  I wasn’t really sure what I was going to say to them.

  I couldn’t exactly tell them about the vampire. Sonia’s death would be enough to deal with. They didn’t need to know the world they lived in was so different than they believed. Even if I thought there was a chance they’d need to know about vampires, they’d just think I was crazy. I’d only met them a handful of times—not nearly enough for them to take my word that their daughter was killed by a mythical creature.

  There wasn’t even a plausible explanation I could come up with. How do you explain your best friend being murdered four days ago and not telling her parents, not having her body, not even having a torn-up house as proof?

  “Do you wanna go into Rascals for anything?”

  I looked over at Finn blankly.

  “You know, to grab any of Sonia’s stuff from there?” He shot a glance at the dashboard clock. “It’s about lunchtime. We could get something to eat, if you’d like.”

  The thought made me shudder. “No. I don’t think I’ll be able to go there again. I couldn’t face it without her.” I looked past Finn out the window. The restaurant was already bursting at the seams as the lunch crowd jostled for position on the patio. It seemed irreverent for business to be going on as normal when Sonia wasn’t weaving through the customers, delivering beer and flirting outrageously. “She never kept important stuff there anyway. I’m not gonna bother with them. I’d rather have them think she just up and left and never called in. Better than the gossip that would catch fire in that place if they thought she’d been murdered.”

  “That makes sense.” Finn gestured out the windshield with his chin. “You said over there, right?”

  I followed his gaze to the small stone apartment complex forming a semicircle around a flower-filled courtyard. “Yeah. That’s his Explorer over there, so he’s probably home. He lives in the first apartment. The one with the big arch window.”

  He gave me an inquisitive glance. “Why are you smirking?”

  “Oh, just remembering.” An honest to goodness chuckle escaped. “From time to time, Sonia would swing past here when we were on our way to a movie or something. She was always hoping to catch Derek at the window without his shirt on.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I bet you two were always getting into trouble together.” Finn pulled into one of the angled parking spots, his truck hanging over both sides of the too-narrow space.

  I didn’t reply as I exited the truck, accidentally shoving the door into the Accord in the adjacent space as I tried to squeeze out my shoulders and chest.

  Finn waited for me at the sidewalk as I managed to finish extricating myself from the vehicle. “Sorry, I didn’t realize what a tight squeeze it was.”

  “’S okay. Parking is always a bitch in Hillcrest.”

  “Do you want me to stay out here while you talk to him, or do you want me to come with you?”

  “No, why don’t you come.” I joined him on the sidewalk. “However, I think it’d be best if I talked to Sonia’s folks on my own.”

  He just nodded as we entered the courtyard together.

  I paused to take a couple of deep breaths before I knocked on his door. I could do this. He wouldn’t need as much explanation as Sonia’s parents. Just tell him I’d come home and found the house broken into and Sonia murdered. That her family had decided to have a private ceremony. That she had really liked him.

  “Brett, you don’t have to do this, babe.” Finn snaked his arm across my back, and he pressed into my shoulder.

  I turned to him, only then realizing a solitary tear was making its way down my face.

  He reached up, placed his hand on my cheek, and brushed the tear away with his thumb.

  The gesture made me feel strange.

  I wasn’t used to another guy trying to take care of me. Only Sonia and, before that, Grandma. Somehow the kindness in his handsome face made me want to sit down on the stoop and cry for real.

  “Yes, I do.” Without planning it, I bent down and gave him a firm kiss on his lips, causing his face to instantaneously flush. After turning, I knocked on the door.

  Nothing. After looking for the nonexistent doorbell, I knocked again.

  There was no sound coming from inside. I glanced back at his car in the street and then over at Finn.

  “It doesn’t mean anything, Brett. He could just be out for a walk or sleeping.”

  Without responding, I reached out for the handle, turned it, and opened the door. Unlocked.

  I looked back at Finn. He was beginning to look as nervous as I felt.

  Stepping into the apartment, I expected it to mirror the destruction at my house. Chairs overturned, dishes broken, holes in the walls.

  Nothing. Everything looked normal. “Derek?” Walking through the living room, I peered down the hallway and raised my voice. “Derek?”

  “I don’t think he’s here, Brett.” Finn crossed the room toward me. “I can’t sense anyone alive here.”

  I didn’t call his name again, but I did a quick tour of the house. He definitely wasn’t there, but neither did there appear to have been any kind of struggle. The bed was unmade. There was dark whisker stubble in the bathroom sink, dirty socks beside the toilet. Nothing to indicate violence or anything to hint at being cleaned up to cover any tracks.

  “Hey, Brett?”

  I followed Finn’s tense voice to the kitchen, my heart rate accelerating slightly. “Yeah? What’d you find?”

  He was standing by the sink, an ice cream carton in his hand. He held it out for me to inspect. “Just this. And an empty bowl. The ice cream is melted.”

  I peered into the soupy grayish-brown mixture and then behind Finn at a blue bowl beside an ice cream scoop and a spoon.

  “Whadaya think?”

  Finn shrugged. “I dunno. It looks like he left in a hurry or just got distracted.”

  “Neither of those sounds good.”

  “I know. But there’s no reason to think anything bad happened to him, Brett. How would the vampire know who Derek is, let alone where he lives?”

  “What if he tortured it out of Sonia?”

  Finn looked perplexed as he gave it some thought. “I don’t know. That doesn’t really seem to make any sense. He doesn’t have a grudge against Sonia. It’s you he’s trying to get to, and you don’t care about Derek.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t know that. Maybe he’s just going after anyone I’m connected with at all.” Who next?

  “I don’t think so. Look around. We’ve already seen what this vamp likes to do. There is nothing here to make us think he killed Derek or even took him. Surely Derek could have put up as much of a fight as Sonia.”

  “So, what then? You think he just went out to do errands and left the door unlocked and ice cream on the counter?”

  “I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense either.”

  “Can’t you do some spell that tells you if someone else has been here?”

  Finn looked apologetic. “I could, but it wouldn’t help in this case. It would only tell me if someone alive has been here. There’s no way of knowing if a vampire has been here or not, at least not that I know of.” Helpless frustration passed over his face. “I’m so sorry I don’t know more about these kinds of things. I could be more useful to you.” He looked defeated.

  “Hey, no. Come here.” He took a tentative step toward me, and I pulled him into my arms.
After a few moments, I felt him relax as his arms encircled my back and his body formed to mine. “Without you, I wouldn’t have any idea how to do any of this. Without you, I’d probably be dead myself. It’s me who should be apologizing to you. Without me in the picture, you and your family wouldn’t have to be worrying about vampires right now.”

  He started to protest, but I cut him off. “Let’s get over to Sonia’s parents. Whatever this means, I doubt it’s a good sign. We need to warn them.” How to do that without telling them Sonia was killed by a vampire….

  “Okay.” I felt him nod against my chest.

  “Let me just leave a note here for Derek. Tell him to call me. I still need to tell him about Sonia.”

  Finn pulled back to meet my eyes. “Are you crazy? You can’t leave him a note.”

  “Why not?”

  “Brett, what if something really has happened to Derek? At some point, someone’s going to come looking for him and find him missing. Does his family live here?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know where he’s from.”

  “Well, if they are and they come here, all they will find is a note from you about someone else who is missing.”

  “Okay, that’s true. But what do we do about telling Derek?”

  His lips thinned minutely. “I know it sounds harsh, but we don’t do anything. If Derek is fine, we will come back by and tell him about Sonia. Let’s not jump to any conclusions until we check on Sonia’s parents.”

  Chapter 22

  PIAO and De Liu’s home was in Golden Hill, on the southeast corner of Balboa Park. They called it a home. I’d call it a mansion. The few times I’d been there, I had desperately wanted to bring Grandpa. The lavish decadence of their house would have made him nauseous. All he would have been able to see were all the dollars that could have been piling up in the bank instead of used on such wasteful things as top-scale appliances, elaborate crown molding, and imported lamps and rugs.

  While De was almost uncomfortably shy, she had always been welcoming and warm when I had come with Sonia. On the other hand, I had never really gotten comfortable around Piao. I never figured out if he had a problem with me being gay or just that I lived so cheaply with his daughter. Sonia swore that he liked me. That he just lived as he had in the old country.