The Sin Collector

by Fortunato, Jessica

  I pulled away, and as I stood up found myself unsteady on my feet. Billy caught my arm and lowered me down onto the bed.

  “I think you should rest.”

  I didn’t argue with him, I pulled myself back on the pillows and couldn’t complain when Billy settled in next to me.

  “So what are we going to watch?” He said smiling and pulling the remote from the nightstand.

  “Anything but horror, I think I’ve had enough of that today.”

  He pulled me closer to him and we settled on reruns of the Dean Martin Show. I closed my eyes, and I was happy to find myself not alone again on the porch of my teal green house.

  I was in the shower when Billy had gotten the call from Clara. She heard rumors of another Collector in the area. He called himself Anthony, but that was all the information she had gathered. She heard he would be in the city and wanted to warn me. It was clear that Billy thought this was my attacker by the way the blood had drained from his face. He got ready quickly and kissed me on the cheek before making sure his phone was with him this time. He looked at me wearily for a moment with his hand on the doorknob, a faint red glow around his gold edges.

  “I promise I will stay in this room.” The memory of the last time I’d run into another Collector was still far too vivid for me to disobey. He nodded and I heard the click of the door as it swung shut behind him. I was up and dressed in a dark pair of jeans, a black turtleneck, and once again wanting for something to do in the large hotel room. I walked around leisurely towel drying my hair wishing I could be with Billy. I didn’t like the thought of him going off to find Anthony alone. The knock at the door startled me out of my gnawing worry. I answered it without thinking, without looking, and I felt my blood run cold when I looked into his dark brown eyes.

  Chapter 7

  I braced myself for the pain. Holding my breath, I was grateful that at least there was nothing in the foyer for my head to bounce off when I fell, which undoubtedly I would. I counted to ten in my head, and the pain never came. I could feel my face frozen in fear. Olexander stood in my doorway staring at me with deep brown eyes. He wore the same expression I remembered so often from my childhood. The expression he had when he was trying to teach me something and I was taking too long to understand.

  He looked the same of course, and yet seeing him was like a new experience. His 6’5 frame towered over me and he looked very striking in his white button down shirt worn underneath a tight fitting black vest that complimented his athletic body. He wore a pressed pair of black slacks and black men’s dress shoes. He removed the black fedora he was wearing and I took in the rest of his features. His black hair was long as I remembered but with a slightly more modern cut. His pale features seemed almost menacing compared to his dark eyes. He was nearly clean-shaven, just a bit of stubble, which only added to his attraction. Despite that, he wore a kind but hesitant smile and a soft green glow. The color reminded me of beautiful spring grass. Olexander was 460 years old, the oldest Collector I had ever known, he was standing a foot away from me, and I wasn’t crumpled on the floor in agony.

  “Liliana, are you in any pain?”

  “None” I whispered. This seemed to relax him immediately. I reached out automatically to touch him. I was having trouble believing he was even real. He took my hand and kissed it lightly.

  “May I come in?”

  I nodded absentmindedly. He walked into the room slowly sitting his hat down on the coffee table and turning to face me.

  “You look like you need a moment to collect your thoughts.” He sat down on the edge of the sofa and I sat across from him mesmerized.

  “I suppose you are wondering why you aren’t in pain?”

  As he spoke, he unbuttoned the top four buttons of his white shirt. He pulled the fabric to the side revealing a tattoo, about the size of my hand, over his heart. It was a very ornate spade. It was inside a circle of letters, no, not letters, runes perhaps. It was black and it’s point faced up. Two intricate birds flanked it, I couldn’t be certain but they appeared to be sparrows. It didn’t make sense, I would have to get closer to sort out the symbols, but still no symbol would hold this kind of power, would it?

  “That’s what’s stopping the pain? I’m not on the floor in agony because of an unspectacular looking tattoo?” I couldn’t hide the skepticism in my voice.

  “It’s not just a tattoo Liliana. There is a ritual of protection. Sacrifices make it culminate in success. It’s a process, but alas in the end I get to move about the world without fear. It has been so refreshing these past dozen years. And then, it means I get to see you.”

  “If you’ve had the tattoo for a dozen years,” my brain was finally starting to work “then it wasn’t you at the pub last night?” The fact that Billy was off meeting a stranger still bothered me.

  “I only got into town this morning. There is another Collector here?” His voice rose as he spoke his words, he was starting to look, and glow, angry. “Did another Collector attack you?”

  “Billy thinks it was intentional but I’m not so sure. He will be happy to have someone who thinks the same thing he does.”

  Olexander looked at me with complete perplexity. “Who is Billy?”

  “Oh maybe he was trying to find you using an alias, Christopher Owens?”

  Olexander began to get even more anxious.

  “Liliana, no one has contacted me, I came to find you, to warn you.”

  “To warn me? What are you coming to warn me about?”

  “I met a Mystic in Prague years ago, Nela, she was very kind and she had the Sight. She could see what was about to happen at times. I hadn’t even spoken with her in six years or so when she tracked me down. She said someone I loved was in danger, and when she described the girl from her vision, of course I knew it was you.”

  I was suddenly trying to remember all I’d been taught about Mystics. Mystics were hard to find. I was shocked one cared enough for Olexander to contact him. Some referred to them as witches, which was a name they abhorred. They wanted no association to cauldrons, black cats, or pointy hats. Mystics usually practiced their magic in Covens. A Coven consisted of a group of women that never exceeded seven members. Mystics were human. Essentially, they just had a little something extra. Every Mystic was different. I’d heard some could speak to the dead, others could predict the future. Once I had even heard a rumor that a powerful Mystic could throw you across the room with a single thought. They kept to themselves, and stayed among their fellow practitioners. Therefore, even as a Collector I didn’t know the extent of their powers. I had never even met one in real life. Olexander had told me once that Mystics stayed out of wars, and politics. Whether they were concerning humans or Collectors. Above all, Mystics were peaceful. They simply lead their own lives, and rarely made allegiances. They strove to keep a balance in a world that was constantly shifting.

  “Why would this Nela Mystic care about what happened to me?”

  He didn’t answer and stood up walking toward the bedroom.

  “So you came to warn me and…where are you going?” I was beginning to think I was surely a pulsating red aura by now. I got up to follow him. Olexander however never changed from his pleasant green.

  “Liliana, I think you misunderstand. We have to leave here, right now. Which bag is yours?”

  Yes, definitely a pulsating blood red by now.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I screeched. All shock had worn off and I was purely pissed now. “I haven’t seen you in literally one hundred years. You come here with some vague threat and I am supposed to leave with you? Are you completely insane?”

  “Liliana there is no time. I need to have the protection ritual performed so you are at least safe from other Collectors. It will be easier to hide you, then we need to get you far away. An island by the Americas seems like the safest place.”

  As he spoke, he was rooting through the closet pulling out my clothes and tossing them toward the bed. I was now oddly calm,
pacifying.

  “The tattoo ritual thing sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think it’s necessary to panic, Olexander. I have managed to stay safe from other Sin-Eaters for a long time.”

  “I’m not worried about other Collectors harming you. Other Collectors are just a mere inconvenience.” He stopped his rummaging and took both my shoulders as if to push the very slow intensity of his words through to my very core.

  “We aren’t running from our kind Liliana, we are running from the Castus.”

  It didn’t make any sense. The Castus didn’t exist anymore. Why would they want to start something now? Hardly anyone even knew about us.

  “You’ll have to say goodbye to your friend Billy in a letter or call him. We can’t have a human tag-a-long despite you already telling him all about us. Which was not smart Liliana, I thought I taught you better than that.”

  “Billy isn’t human. It’s William, from so many years ago. His Mentor Clara, surely you remember her…”

  I saw the spark of recognition in his eyes. He was a blinding pulsating red and I was ready to scream from the cloak and dagger routine. I heard the click in the door and sighed in relief, finally Billy was home. The next click I heard wasn’t as familiar, but I did recognize it. I turned around to see Billy pointing a large silver gun at Olexander. My eyes widened in fear, not that a bullet would kill anyone in this room, but it was stupid and unnecessary and would seriously ruin the décor. I jumped between them holding my hands up in front of me to stop the onslaught. We would all sit down and figure this out as rational adults. We’d been adults for a century at least, and it should not be a problem.

  It appeared to be a problem.

  Billy finally lowered his gun when I explained Olexander was here to help, but it never left his hand. It also didn’t escape my notice that over his tight grey t-shirt and concealed under his jacket was a shoulder holster. They now sat across from each other, one on either side of the coffee table. Both of them were ready to lunge at the other’s throat and they glared at one another.

  “So this is the man running all over the world trying to find out everything there is to know about Collectors, I am at least pleased to know you aren’t human, although I’d hardly call you a Collector.” He stared at Billy disgusted.

  “So this is the man who raised LiLi and then abandoned her, never seeking her out to give her any answers. I’m disappointed to see the Castus hasn’t gotten you yet.” He stared at Olexander smug.

  Billy’s words hung in the air.

  “You knew about the Castus?” I said as I walked back to the front of the room. However, I was conscious of my body gravitating toward Olexander. “How could you keep that from me?”

  “I only just found out from Clara this morning, I was coming to tell you right away of course.”

  Olexander’s eyes narrowed even more and his words came out laced in accusation, “Of course you were.”

  “Both of you stop it. Act your ages for once will you,” I hissed. They both jumped slightly, as if they had forgotten my presence all together.

  “Billy I thought you were meeting with Anthony?”

  “He never showed, so I went back to Clara. It seems from her further research he may not have existed at all.”

  “Then who attacked her?” Olexander said snidely.

  “I wasn’t attacked, another Collector stumbled into the same bar as us, it happens, stop overreacting both of you.”

  “Liliana, don’t you find it strange that 5, well really 4 ½ Collectors are possibly in Dublin at the same time?” He shot the evil eye at Billy.

  I was pleased that Billy let the rub go and spoke now with more intensity for the situation instead of just hatred for Olexander. “Just because some descendants have the Castus ritual, that doesn’t mean we should go into hiding.”

  “You’ve got it all wrong” Olexander slammed his fist down on the glass table and I was happy it didn’t break. “The mystic she predicted exactly this. She said Collectors would try to hide, but they would try to hide in the open. There are more of us walking the streets at one time than ever before. Our kind is coming to large cities where they can blend in. We must get Liliana hidden away.”

  “Lily isn’t going anywhere with anyone until she regains the ability to think straight,” I screamed. I stormed into the bedroom slamming the door and locking it behind me. I sat on the edge of the bed. I reasoned with myself that both Billy and Olexander cared, and they were both overreacting. I had so many questions, and I sat there until I had the right question. I walked back out into the living room to see neither party had moved an inch in my absence. I sat on the other armchair and faced Olexander.

  “I understand the threat of the Castus, and I’m not taking it lightly, but why are you so scared? There is information the mystic gave you that you are not giving me, I can see it in your eyes.” His chocolate brown eyes, with just a few amber flecks, softened and were overwhelmed with new emotion.

  “The mystic said she’d seen you die, you specifically. It was hard for her to be sure of when. I was terrified I was already too late. This quest you are on with him is dangerous and attracting too much attention.”

  My voice was barely a whisper now. “She saw the Castus ritual being performed on me?”

  “She was only receiving flashes, but she saw the dagger being shoved into your side, and your eyes close.” His eyes welled up with emotion at the words.

  Billy was shaking his head the entire time Olexander spoke. “Mystics are hacks, you know this as well as I, there was no need to come here and frighten her. “

  Olexander glared at him with new animosity. “Oh so I am supposed to entrust her safety to you. Can you even sense another Collector?”

  “Of course.” Billy sounded indignant, which was stupid because I knew what was coming next.

  “If that’s true, then how was she attacked last night?”

  Billy’s face dropped. I couldn’t let this go on any further.

  “Olexander I think you should go now.”

  He looked at me annoyed but not surprised. He smoothed out his shirt, refastening the four buttons and picked his hat off the table.

  “Liliana I am not leaving you here unprotected. I am staying down the hall. Come see me when you are ready.”

  He nodded at me once and didn’t even bother looking at Billy as he left the hotel room. I expected Billy to have a deep red glow and I was surprised when he emanated a soft purple.

  “He’s right LiLi, I should have been able to help you last night. I wasn’t looking for any danger. It was so stupid.”

  “It’s not your job to protect me Billy, and I’m still not convinced there is some horrific danger. Olexander was always prone to overreaction.”

  He rose up to give me a tight hug around the waist.

  I smiled but I was far from content. Despite my best efforts, every part of my soul felt pulled to the room down the hall.

  Chapter 8

  The night passed by slowly. Billy was pretending to watch TV but he hardly took his eyes off of me as I lazily surfed the internet. I leisurely showered and got dressed. It’s amazing how a death threat will change your wardrobe outlook. I made sure to wear heavy jeans and a dark green turtle neck and sturdy black boots. Not that I expected to have to run away from anyone, but just in case, I wasn’t betting my life on wedge sandals. I was milling around the hotel room, peeking at Billy every few minutes. We didn’t speak but the tension was excruciating. Finally, I squared my shoulders and walked back into the living room.

  “I am going to talk to Olexander.” I stated matter-of-factly. Billy jumped up. This had been what he was waiting for all night.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  He moved for the door but I didn’t budge.

  “I’m going alone. I will only be down the hall.” He opened his mouth to protest but something in my eyes made him bite his tongue. I walked slowly down the hall and tapped gently on Olexanders door.

  “Come in L
iliana.”

  I felt my eyes tighten. Naturally, he was expecting me; he knew all along that I would come here. I opened the door and walked into the living room. His room was exactly like mine only everything was in shades of red. I didn’t see him and I walked toward the bedroom when he popped out of the kitchen door.

  “Good morning.”

  I jumped about ten feet in the air at the sound of his voice coming from behind me. I turned to look at him. His appearance still caught me off guard. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and white button down collared shirt. He looked so much different in his casual clothing. However, something about his hair being almost the same as the last time I saw him a hundred years ago filled me with warmth.