by C. J. Pinard
Turning her face away, she looked at Bill and said, “I’m ready to leave.” She didn’t want Seth to see her own tears glistening in her eyes.
Damn pregnancy hormones.
As she walked away, she called over her shoulder, “I will speak to the council and to Jonathan. Someone will be in touch.”
Chapter 2
∞∞∞
Los Angeles, California – 1918
As she disembarked the train, cardboard hatbox slung over her arm, she put her palm over her eyes to shield them from the sun. The mild climate and warm sun put her in an instant good mood.
Her heels clacked along the railway’s platform as she stood at the end, waiting delivery of her one and only suitcase. Once received, she clumsily dragged it along the platform and into the railway station. She sat on a bench to rest a minute, parking the suitcase next to her.
“Hello,” she heard a voice say.
She looked up to see the most handsome man she had ever seen. His square jaw and straight nose complimented the big smile he wore. Warm brown eyes stared down at her. He was holding his hat to his chest. His brown suit was perfectly pressed. A gold watch chain was slung across the front of it.
“Hello,” she managed to squeak out after she found her voice.
He continued to smile. “I couldn’t help but notice you struggling with your suitcase as you left the train. Did you need some help, or are you waiting for your husband?”
She batted long eyelashes at him and swallowed hard. “No. It’s just me. No husband.”
“May I sit?” he asked, pointing at the empty space next to her on the bench.
She blushed. “Yes, of course.” She moved the hat box to her lap.
“My name is David. Pardon my candor, but you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”
She could feel her cheeks heat up even more. “Oh my. Well, thank you. My name is Kathryn. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
He kissed the hand she had proffered but did not release it right away. “So, are you new to L.A.?”
“Yes, just arrived from Chicago,” she answered.
He looked surprised. “A young woman traveling alone in big cities… wow that seems a bit dangerous.”
As she was just about to respond with a spiel about how she could take care of herself, David whipped his head around as someone called his name. Kathryn turned toward the voice and saw an equally good looking man calling out his name. He had an amused look on his face as he looked from David to Kathryn.
David chagrinned. “I’m sorry, that’s my boss. Will you pardon me for a minute?”
She smiled. “Of course.”
Kathryn watched curiously as her new admirer and his boss conversed. She sensed someone else beside her, but when she turned her head, she saw nothing. But she felt something. A cold breeze passed across her face, and it caused her to shudder. She heard a slight whispering, despite the crowded, loud, bustling train station.
Dammit, not again.
Kathryn was no stranger to the spirits. Those who had already passed on seemed to always find her in a crowded room, or even when she was alone. When she was a child, it had frightened her at first, until she began to talk to them. Her father was told she most likely had “imaginary friends” which were figments of her imagination, the result of being left alone a lot with no mother and no siblings. As she grew older, and the part of her brain that fostered imagination and magic faded, and logic and reason took over, she would mostly ignore them.
It was never something she could ever really see. Feeling, hearing, and sometimes smells were the evidence of a presence; and at the most inopportune times.
The spirit she now felt was whispering, “Go to him” over and over. Kathryn closed her eyes, ignoring the spirit and its voice, and took a deep breath, waiting for it to just go away.
“Is everything all right?” David’s voice caused her eyes to pop open.
She smiled, then stood. “Yes, fine. I’m feeling a bit tired from the trip. I think I will go now. It was nice meeting you, David.”
He grabbed her arm. “Wait!”
She looked at his hand around her arm then up into his pleading brown eyes. She said nothing, just waited for him to continue with her eyebrow raised.
He looked down at his hand and removed it. “I’m sorry. It’s just… where are you staying? I thought maybe I could take you to dinner.”
“Honestly, David, I was just going to take a bus downtown and check into the first hotel I saw.”
He tilted his head at her. “Boy, don’t you live by the seat of your pants.”
“You could say that,” she said, pulling out a cigarette and popping it between her lips.
David immediately pulled out a lighter and assisted her.
“Thanks,” she said, blowing smoke out the side of her mouth.
He studied her for a second. “Would you please stay here for one more minute?”
“Sure,” she replied with a shrug.
David walked over to his boss, who was speaking to the man at the ticket window, and had another brief conversation with him. As he returned, he was smiling.
“Andrew says it would be okay if I escorted you to your hotel,” he beamed.
She looked a bit surprised. She really wasn’t expecting to meet people this quickly upon arriving in Los Angeles, and truthfully, she did not feel like lugging the suitcase around by herself, so she smiled at David and said, “I’d appreciate that.”
“Let’s not take the bus, we can take a taxi instead,” David said, lifting her suitcase with ease. She was a bit surprised at how easily he handled it. It was quite heavy to her, but seemed to weigh next to nothing for him.
“I know a great hotel, the Alexandria, it will be perfect for you, and I know the owners.”
As they exited the train station, somebody shouting caught her attention. “Spanish Influenza claims another one hundred in the greater Los Angeles area. Get your newspapers here!” said the boy, who looked no older than a teen, and was waving a newspaper in the air.
“Excuse me,” Kathryn said to David as she walked to the paper boy. She flicked the cigarette onto the sidewalk, then fished a nickel from her coin purse and handed it to the young boy.
“Here ya go, pretty lady,” he said, flopping the newspaper into her hand.
She smiled. “Thank you.”
She rolled the paper and put it under her arm as she walked back to David, who was whistling with his fingers and waving at a taxi, which was slowing. It pulled up to the curb and the driver got out, opening the back for Kathryn’s large suitcase.
Kathryn and David climbed in the backseat and the driver looked back at them with a smoldering cigar between his teeth. “Where to, folks?”
“The Alexandria,” David answered.
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
Angel was taping up the last box and looked wistfully at it. The war of emotions going on inside of her was going to drive her half-crazy.
She picked up the box with Pascal’s name written on it in black and carried it to Mike’s room. She knocked on the doorframe.
He looked up from the shoe he had been tying. “What?”
“I thought you’d want his stuff,” she said, holding up the box.
Mike scoffed. “Two hundred years old and he only has one box of things to his name?”
Angel sighed as she set the box down. She then sat on the bed next to him. “I think we need to talk about this.”
Mike’s face grew dark. “What do we need to talk about? Those punk kids put a dart in me and drugged me while they killed the only person I’d ever considered a brother. Then as I stumbled into the kitchen, I got to watch you stab him in the heart, while I sat there powerless to help him. Why did you do that, Angel? Did he really deserve the true death?”
Angel looked at him incredulously as tears formed in Mike’s eyes. Mike was one of the most even-keeled, quiet, nicest guys she kn
ew. He was loyal and protective, and was all about business. She had never, in almost thirty years, seen him show much emotion, not even when Darius was… re-humanized.
She put her cold hand on his arm. “Mike, there were a lot of things that Pascal did to me in private. Bad, awful things. I kept them from you, simply because I didn’t feel you needed to know. Pascal was very cruel to me. Do you know he pushed me off a balcony in Aspen?”
He narrowed his blue eyes at her. “No he didn’t.”
She smiled sadly. “Yes, Mike, he did. The snow at the bottom wasn’t quite thick enough and I split my head open on a rock. I also broke my pelvis, my back, and my shoulder. It took me a week before I could get out of bed.”
He turned his head to the side. “I remember that, actually. He said you fell off a ski-lift.”
“Do you see what I mean? No, he lifted me up and pushed me over, simply because I told him to go screw himself. He didn’t like me smoking.”
Mike stared at the floor as if there were something interesting there. He wore a nylon tracksuit and was about to go to the gym to do a few rounds with the punching bag. “I didn’t know that, I’m sorry. But why didn’t you just leave? Why kill him? For that little punk, Brandon? He’s just going to use you and throw you away, don’t you see that? He’s heartless, careless, and stupid. He will be the end of you.”
She laughed, but the humor didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure Pascal would have just let me go free. Yeah, right.” Then she added, “And no, not for Brandon. He thinks things are more serious than they are. He’s a kid. I’m sorry, but I’m forty-eight years old. I don’t look it, but I feel it. I’m old enough to be his mom.”
“Ew, you cougar.”
She laughed, then grew serious again. “Let’s face it, Mike. Pascal didn’t exactly treat you with the most respect, either. You should at least admit that to yourself. Forty years of friendship and he still treated you like the hired help. That used to piss me off, too.”
Mike nodded. “I guess.”
“You know, we want you to stay around here. Brandon wants to take over as the leader, but you know you’re the oldest and have first dibs.”
He immediately shook his head. “I am no leader. I like to be the employee, not the employer.”
Angel figured that would be his answer. “Promise me something.”
He looked at her and rubbed a hand over his goatee. “What?”
“Don’t take any of Brandon’s crap. Sure, he’ll call the shots, and that’s fine; just don’t let him disrespect you. Stand up to him.”
He nodded.
Angel patted him on the back. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Brandon and Bryan have already admitted they need you. You’re great muscle and they don’t want to lose you. But I repeat, do not let them disrespect you. Give respect, get respect, it’s the old code. You teach them that.”
He stood up, the nylon from his tracksuit rustling loudly. He scrubbed a hand over his bald head. “What’s in the box?”
“Just stuff. Some papers, photos, souvenirs he thought he needed. A few relics that look pretty valuable that you might want to keep. You can do what you want with it. The rest of his stuff is going in a bonfire.”
He looked at the box and then grabbed his keys from his nightstand. “I’ll be at Zach’s Gym downtown if you need me.”
∞∞∞
The eighteenth floor of the Murphy Architecture Building in Portland had been converted to more apartment space. While Jonathan, Kathryn, and Tyler occupied the nineteenth floor – the penthouse – Jonathan had cleared out the mostly-vacant offices of the eighteenth floor to create an entire living area for Thomas and Malina. Construction was almost complete and had taken almost three months. With furniture being delivered the following week, Malina was getting excited about all the upcoming changes.
The apartment wasn’t quite inhabitable yet, but Malina often went in to survey the construction. Earlier that day, carpet had been installed in the bedrooms and the hardwood flooring in the rest of the apartment was all done, as was the kitchen. No appliances yet. She was standing in a purple T-shirt and blue jeans, her bare belly showing a little at the bottom of the T-shirt. She had on purple ballet flats to accommodate her swelling feet. Sliding them off, she let her bare feet sink into the new Berber carpeting.
Inside what will be the baby’s room, she stood with her purple thumbnail to her mouth, not quite biting, deep in thought. She looked around and wondered if she should bother painting, or wait until the baby came. The door opened behind her.
“Hi, gorgeous,” Thomas said, wrapping his arms around her from behind, hands resting on her belly.
She leaned her head back onto his strong chest. “What do you think? Neutral paint or wait ‘til baby comes? I worry about the fumes afterward.”
He laid his chin on the top of her head. “We wouldn’t have to worry about that if you would just go get one of those sonogram thingies and find out if it’s a boy or girl.”
She turned around and looked into his crystal blue eyes. “No. I want it to be a surprise. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
He chuckled. “Okay. It’s your call. But as far as the paint, I say we paint it neutral, like white, and you can decorate pink or blue around it.”
“What do you mean ‘me’? You aren’t going to help?”
“I will do whatever you want, but you get to pick out all the girl baby junk. If it’s a boy, we’re doing a Superman theme.”
She laughed at him again and shook her head. “No.”
“Okay, I’m off to the gym with Jonathan. I’ll see you later.”
She frowned. “So late? It’s nearly eight o’clock.”
“I know. Zach couldn’t do our lesson ‘til late tonight for some reason. No worries, Missus O’Malley, we will be back shortly.” He kissed her on the lips and left her standing in the baby’s room.
After he walked out, she pulled a small vial from the pocket of her jeans and yanked off the stopper. It was glowing a faint blue color. She stared at it for a brief second before downing the liquid and shuddering a little.
Thomas met Jonathan and Tyler at the elevators.
“It’s about time, boy,” Jonathan said, punching his arm lightly.
Thomas rubbed his arm. “You do realize you don’t know your own strength, right, Thor?”
Tyler chuckled as he pushed the elevator button for the basement garage. The doors slid shut.
“You’re a wimp,” Jonathan continued.
“Whatever, man. Get a grip,” Thomas replied.
Tyler looked up at Jonathan. “Seriously, boss. You really don’t know your own strength. We should do a weight test with a baseball bat and see how many pounds of pressure your weakest and strongest hits would be. You’d probably be surprised at how much force you exert,” he finished.
Jonathan grinned. “That sounds like fun.”
The elevator pinged and they exited into the parking garage. They chose the white cargo van to go to the gym. It wasn’t in the best part of town and they didn’t need their conspicuous luxury cars getting vandalized.
The gym was a lot less crowded than the last time they were there. Fewer patrons, but the music still pumped loudly through the speakers, and all the TVs were on.
They made their way back to the fighting cages and Zach was waiting for them as before. He shook hands with each of them.
“How’s the nose?” Tyler asked. “May I?” he said, pointing at Zach’s face.
“Sure,” Zach replied.
Grabbing Zach’s jaw with one hand and tilting his face back to inspect his nose, Tyler said, “It seems to have healed pretty straight, as far as I can see.”
Zach smiled. “Yes, in fact, thanks to that sucker punch of yours, I actually got my nose fixed. It had been broken three times before and I couldn’t breathe out of the left side at all anymore, but now I can. Insurance paid for it all. So, thanks for that.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Tyler
quipped.
Jonathan rubbed his hands together. “So what’s on the agenda tonight?”
Zach folded his arms and smiled. “This one shouldn’t leave anyone with any broken noses or necks. We’re going to learn a double-leg takedown. Who’s first?”
Jonathan spoke up first. “I’ll go.”
“Of course,” Zach muttered. “The guy with the longest legs.”
Tyler and Thomas exited the cage and stood outside, watching.
The two put their mouthpieces in and leather open-palm gloves on.
“Ready?” Zach asked awkwardly around the mouth guard.
“Bring it,” Jonathan replied with a wave.
They started circling each other like two hyenas. Zach then suddenly took a quick jab at Jonathan’s face, causing him to close his eyes reflexively, which is what Zach wanted. With the temporary advantage, Zach immediately went down to one knee, placing it right between Jonathan’s legs. Jonathan opened his eyes just in time to see Zach grab his thighs with both hands and sweep him to the side, then slam his shoulder into Jonathan’s chest as he went down. He was easily pinned after that.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Tyler and Thomas applauded.
Jonathan looked annoyed, but shook off the hit and stood. “Well played, my man.”
Since the element of surprise was lost on Tyler and Thomas, they practiced the move over and over in slow-motion for about forty-five minutes. After the session, they said their goodbyes to Zach and decided to hit the treadmills for another thirty minutes.
As they entered the gym floor, Tyler said, “You know, I’d like to get a study done of the effects of exercise on us. I mean, can we really get fat and develop heart disease and all that?” He was mainly talking to himself. “We should get a treadmill for the apartment, then I can hook you guys up to monitors and do a few studies –”
He was cut off when both Jonathan and Thomas stopped abruptly, causing Tyler to bump into the back of Thomas.
“Is that who I think it is?” Jonathan breathed.
“Yes, that’s him,” replied Thomas.