When they’d all gone their separate ways, Raziel rushed out of the mansion, still feeling frazzled and embarrassed. Part of them wanted to talk to David, to try and explain what was going on, and the other part just wanted to pretend the whole thing had never happened. The angel jogged up the road into the town and headed down into the city centre. They knew exactly where Jack was as it was a pub the Greek god frequented, much to Raziel’s disapproval. Not that anyone knew who Jack really was. There were plenty of haunts he could go to that would have at least known he was a vampire and been filled with other supernatural beings, but Jack had a penchant for mingling with the humans, and that always meant trouble, even if he wasn’t trying.
Though York’s LGBT scene wasn’t as visible as in some of the larger cities, there were still plenty of places to have a good time, and many of them were underground so to speak. Jack had found them all, even founded some of them. He had a favourite though, and it was here that the angel Raziel found themselves, standing in front of a modern building, at least modern for York. Pink lights shone through the windows, and the music could be heard from the street. Raziel sighed and pushed the door open. There were no bouncers, no cover charge, mostly because anyone not interested in what was happening inside would probably quickly turn around and leave.
There were people crowded all that way out to the entrance. Raziel politely pushed past them, looking for their oldest friend. Most of them didn’t mind and those that did quickly found themselves forgetting the incident. The population of the pulsing club was almost exclusively men, most of them scantily dressed in overly suggestive leather outfits. As Raziel rounded a corner and found themselves at the bar, a string of men sitting there, looked the angel over in surprise. Two of them were making out, but they turned away from each other to look at Raziel, giving them flirty looks. They’d run out of the Guild without a jacket, only in their trousers, waistcoat and dress shirt. Apparently, this was something of an attractive novelty. The angel started to grow uncomfortable as the men looked them up and down and muttered invitations. Finally, a large, very hairy man in nothing but a hat and thong moved in front of Raziel’s path.
“We have a dress code in here,” the man informed them. “But I think we might make an exception for you.” He gave the angel a suggestive once over, and then reached up to put a hand on their cheek. The man’s hand stopped halfway there though, and a slightly blank look came onto his face.
“Not today, sweetheart,” Raziel quipped and then stepped around the dumbfounded man. The rest of the men at the bar went back to what they were doing as if Raziel had never been there. The angel continued on until they got to a back room of the pub. Here there were more pink lighting, plush sofas, glass coffee tables, and curtains to separate little cubby holes of privacy. Raziel didn’t have to guess what was going on in some of them, and decided it was best to use their abilities to find the one Jack was in. The last thing they wanted was to barge into the wrong cubby. They slowly stepped forward, passing the closed curtains, until they got to back one. It was larger, and Raziel could make out a couple of sofas behind it.
With a deep breath, Raziel reached up and ripped the curtain back. The first thing they noticed was two more, angry looking men, each the same size as the one they’d encountered at the bar, sitting on one of the sofas. Then the angel looked at the other side of the cubby to see Jack in nothing but a corset, hose, a fur coat, and heels.
Raziel rubbed their brow. “Give me strength,” they muttered.
“Razzle Dazzle!” Jack exclaimed and threw an arm around the angel. The other hand held a martini glass, which he sloshed to his mouth and then took a sip from. “Boys, this is...”
“Please don’t call me that,” the angel mumbled.
“My good friend, Raziel,” Jack finished.
Raziel looked down at the two men, but neither of them gave the angel so much as a nod. “What’s going on?” Raziel asked.
“Ah, well, sex isn’t the only thing that happens back hear, darling,” Jack explained to an ever increasingly annoyed looking angel. “See, the boys and I have been partaking in a spot of gambling.”
“Jack,” Raziel sighed. “Please tell me you didn’t call me down here to bail you out of a gambling debt.”
Jack chuckled nervously. “I’m afraid it’s slightly more complicated than that.”
“He owes us,” one of the bears said.
“Yes, I got that impression,” Raziel answered.
“It’s more than I can really pay. They’re mostly lovers around here,” Jack tried to say graciously. “But not all of them.”
“What? They want their pound of flesh or something like that?” Raziel said, rolling their eyes.
“Um...” Jack shrugged and gave the angel an aww shucks look, and then his eyes widened, and he pulled the angel away just as a large hammy fist swung by them.
As Raziel turned back, the other man’s fist clipped the side of their head, causing the angel’s ears to ring. “Dammit, Jack!” they yelled, ducking the next time.
“Language, Razzy. You’re an angel of the lord, after all,” Jack quipped as he ran to the other side of the cubby hole, hopping onto the sofa to try and avoid the other bear. He skipped over the cushions and jumped off the other end, ripping down the curtain as he did so. A high-pitched screech escaped his lips as the leather-bound bear caught his fur coat in his fist.
“Unhand me fiend,” Jack growled and ripped himself out of the man’s grip.
Raziel yelled out and planted a fist in the big bear’s eye. The man howled in pain and flew back a little further than should have been humanly possible. He was slow getting up and backed off a bit as the angel ran toward him, breathing hard, and a feral look on his face. Raziel kept going as the bear cried out and ran toward them too. The angel returned the cry, but hit the floor as the two came together, punching the back of the big man’s knee as he ran by, sending him crashing to the ground again.
By then, there was a large crowd in the back room, watching the fight, some cheering, some horrified. Suddenly, the music cut off, and sirens could be heard from outside.
“Shit,” Jack hissed, pushing the other bear off of him, and running over to Raziel who was still sitting on the floor. “Come on,” he shouted, grabbing his friend’s arm, and pulling the angel to their feet.
It was too late.
Chapter Eight
Katha watched as David transformed, not so much physically, but mentally. The funny, charming guy she’d met only a few days ago was now turning into an angry and somehow sad creature. He seemed to age, visibly, in front of her, though it was only his features that were changing. He assured her, though, that soon enough, his overall appearance would join his personality.
“I want to stay with you, make sure you’re all right,” she gently soothed.
David shook his head violently and slammed a hand against the bars of the cell. “No, you don’t need to see this part. I might...say things, do things. He doesn’t like having to be locked up in here. At least at home he’d have free rein of the basement. Not that that really satisfies him either.”
“What’s he like?” Katha said, cautiously stepping toward the cell again.
“He’s old,” David answered with a chuckle. He grimaced in pain. “And he doesn’t like being talked about. He’s gaining control, fast. You should go.”
Katha watched in amazement as David’s hair began to thicken, and not just on his head, on his arms and face too. When he opened his mouth, and his teeth began to change to fangs, she brought a hand to her mouth and gasped. Then she turned and ran from the basement as fast as she could. She didn’t know where she was going at first, but when she got to the top of the stairs, she decided it was best to simply go back to her own room and try to work out what she’d seen. It was silly, she thought. She was a supernatural being herself, and she knew there was no way David would ever hurt her, but the thing he was becoming, she couldn’t be so sure.
She never made it t
o her room, though. Instead, she went into the library and looked for all the books on lycans she could find. She sat down at one of the tables, noticing a fire had been built but not thinking much of it, and then opened the first book. She devoured every word, learning all she could, surprised that the species bared little resemblance to what she’d been told and the humans portrayed in their films, apart from being wolf like. The transformation was simply a matter of stretching one’s legs, an agreement made long ago with the first hosts to carry lycan symbiotes. The agreement was for once a month, made on the full moon so the host would always remember when they would need to relinquish their bodies. The symbiote would then emerge, needing to feed, generally disoriented from their long sleeps which made the creatures, who were very strong and quick, rather cranky. For the rest of the month, the symbiote would stay in a mostly dormant state. The lycans could not survive on their own but could not lay dormant permanently either. In exchange, they extended life spans, imparted the wisdom of those that came before, once the host had learned to access it, cured illnesses and healed wounds.
She had no idea how long she’d been there, but long enough that a dozen books had been studied and discarded. She wasn’t really getting anything new from the stories at this point, but she wanted to make sure she didn’t miss anything. Her dark brown eyes were red around the edges, and she kept having to rub them to be able to see clearly. As she picked up the last book, though, she heard the sound of a phone ringing. It echoed vaguely through the huge library, and she glanced around to look for it. When it rang again, she realised it must have been coming from one of the offices, and quickly got up and ran to them. The ringing was coming from Raziel’s office, where she found another old-fashioned phone in a drawer at the desk.
“Who keeps their phone in a drawer?” she muttered, and then answered it. “Hello?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, though she could hear people talking in the background. Finally, she heard Raziel’s voice, soft and hesitant, “Katha?”
“Raziel, is that you?”
“Um, yes...Jack and I need your help. Normally, I wouldn’t ask or... I mean...” They took a deep breath, and then quickly blurted out, “We need you to bail us out of jail.”
Katha’s mouth fell open, and then she burst into laughter.
“Katha, please,” Raziel pleaded. “It’s a long story, and Jack can tell it to you someday, but could you please come down and get us out of here? You’ll find a petty cash drawer in my desk.” A moment later, after a bit more laughter, and getting Katha’s assurance, Raziel hung up the phone and went back to sit down next to Jack in their cell. Luckily, they hadn’t had to share it with the men they’d been fighting, but there were plenty of other sordid looking types.
“You know, you could have just miracled us back to the mansion or something,” Jack pointed out. “I didn’t call you down to the pub to help me out in a fist fight.”
“Well, it all happened rather quickly, didn’t it?” Raziel countered.
Jack looked the angel over and frowned. “I don’t remember you getting punched in the nose. Did I miss it?”
“Oh, no,” Raziel answered, putting a hand to his sore nose. “This was David. He started turning.”
“Oh hell, I’d completely forgotten about that.”
“Yeah, so had the rest of us.”
A little while later, the two of them were signing paperwork and collecting their belongings. Raziel was quiet as Katha looked on and asked Jack questions.
“Will you go to prison?” she asked as they walked out of the police station.
Jack chuckled. “No, I’m sure they’ll just charge us a fine. Interesting use of petty cash though,” he quipped to Raziel. “I’m not sure that’s what it was meant for.”
“Well, it came in handy, didn’t it?” the angel answered, sounding grumpy. They didn’t say anything else on the walk back to the mansion, and as soon as they all walked through the door, Raziel headed for the stairs and quickly took them to the residential wing.
Jack and Katha watched them go, and then the young Valkyrie said, “I think we should check on them.”
“Oh no, trust me, it’s much better to leave them alone at times like this,” Jack countered.
“Well, I’m going,” Katha said with a pout and headed for the stairs.
“Suit yourself,” Jack called after her, and then smiled at people as they passed and gave him strange looks. He wrapped the fur coat tightly around him, and then realised he’d have to follow Katha to get to his own room, so he marched up the spiral staircase after her.
When Katha got to the door at the end of the hall, she paused and then lightly knocked. There was no answer, so she tried the handle, and found the door unlocked. She was starting to think that none of the doors in the Guild mansion were ever locked except for those in the Investigations wing. She slowly pushed the door open and glanced around Raziel’s makeshift living room and study. The room was dark except for a small, lit oil lamp on the angel’s desk. She managed to spot them in the gloom, though, sitting on the love seat, a glass of wine in one hand, and staring absently out the bay windows.
“Raziel?” she said softly. When the angel didn’t answer, she sat down next to them. Raziel still didn’t budge, and she couldn’t tell if they were ignoring her or simply so lost in thought that they didn’t know she was there. She took a deep breath, and whispered, “I’m sorry about David.”
The change was almost imperceptible. Raziel’s eyes slowly closed and they seemed to stop breathing. Then everything in the room began to shake. Dishes rattled in their shelves, threatening to fall to the floor and shatter, and books began to pile up, thudding as they hit the carpet. Katha’s eyes widened and she looked around in surprise. The floor itself shook beneath their feet, and as the oil lamp slowly slid toward the edge of the desk, she hesitantly put a hand on Raziel’s arm.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t know.”
Suddenly, the shaking stopped, and the frown on Raziel’s face deepened. Finally, they opened their eyes, still not looking at the young Valkyrie. “I don’t think he did either.” They leaned forward and set the wine glass down on the desk, then the angel buried their head in their hands.
Katha’s face turned into a mask of concern, and she leaned forward too. “Why didn’t you ever tell him?”
Raziel shook their head and then chuckled. Finally, the angel turned their head and looked at her. For a moment, they simply stared at one another, then Raziel sighed and looked away again.
“It’s not even really about David,” they said.
“What do you mean?”
Raziel rubbed their hands together, not wanting to tell this story. The angel was the Keeper of Secrets, and by default that meant their own as well. It had eaten at them for so long, though, that it threatened to kill the angel if it didn’t come out. Finally, they slowly began with, “The lycan symbiote is passed from person to person and expands the life of whoever carries it.”
“I know,” Katha replied. “I’ve been studying up on it.”
Raziel couldn’t help but smile weakly at how proud she seemed. Then they took a breath and continued. “The last person to carry David’s symbiote lived longer than most. He picked it up in the Victorian age, and of course, immediately came back to the Guild.” The angel paused, grimacing a bit, and avoiding the young woman’s gaze. “The two of us...we slowly developed...something.”
“You were a couple?” Katha said excitedly, like it was a juicy bit of gossip. She leaned forward, trying to get Raziel to look at her.
“It wasn’t some torrid love affair,” Raziel answered, a little harshly. “Angels do not enter into these situations lightly. They aren’t exactly...sanctioned by the powers above, so to speak.”
“You aren’t allowed to be in love?” she said in disbelief.
“It’s complicated. Anyway, his name was Peter. No one ever even knew we were together, at least I don’t think they did.
We were together for almost eighty years, though. I knew, when he died, that it would end, that the symbiote would carry very few of Peter’s memories, and even if it did, David wouldn’t really be able to access them the way you or I would our own. I shouldn’t have had any expectations, but I found myself not being able to let go when there was a small piece of Peter still alive inside him.”
Katha looked sympathetic, and slightly horrified. She couldn’t imagine such a loss, though she knew, being relatively immortal, that she would lose people, some of them very close to her. It almost made her want to keep herself from forming ties with people, but she knew that was no way to live. She shook her head and put an arm around a startled Raziel.
“You should have said something, you know. You shouldn’t have had to carry this for so long.”
Raziel gave her a kind smile and took the hand that was around their shoulder. “Thank you. What I really need is to move on. I never said anything because I knew it would never work between us. David is a very different person than Peter was.” Then the angel looked at her again and said, “Thank you for being such a good friend.”
Katha’s face lit up. “You’re welcome,” she said and then gave the angel a peck on the cheek.
A few days later, a worn and exhausted David stepped out of his cell in the basement of the Investigations wing. Apparently, someone had checked on him that morning and saw that he was changing back to human, because a set of keys had been left hanging in his reach. He closed the door back, returned the keys, and quietly made his way up to his room to change into some less ragged clothes. Considering his condition, he hadn’t been assigned into a dorm, even though he was still considered a junior agent. When people lived for centuries or even forever, thirty years wasn’t considered a very long time. Still, his room was tiny, and spartan, which is why he spent little time living there. Once he’d showered, and put on some decent clothes, he went looking for the next most important thing, coffee.
The Veritas Guild Page 7