San Francisco Covens: Crucible

by Manuel Tiger

  “No,” Bryan whispered. “No!” he screamed looking down at me. “I will not be denied!” he screamed louder as he jerked me up and reached for the knife that had been dropped by the solider that had been standing behind Daman. Said soldier had toppled over Daman and his blood was spreading across the floor and into the circular indention.

  “NO!” Daman yelled getting to his feet. “Leave him alone!”

  Bryan dragged me backwards, pressing the blade against my neck which kept Daman from coming any closer.

  Anger burned in Daman’s eyes that were now so dark blue they looked nearly black, soulless.

  “Kill me instead Bryan! Kill me and not Henry!” he said. “It’s me you’re angry at isn’t it? For dumping your ass? Kill me! Leave Henry alone!”

  “Oh! It would give me great delight to do so Daman! You have no idea! But killing your boy? Oh! That is the pain that will never go away!” he yelled back. “To see the look on your face as I slit his throat from ear to ear?” he began laughing like a maniac. “I will not be denied what was promised! I will see him die!”

  Bryan drew back his arm.

  “Henry!” Daman screamed as he began running toward us but Bryan looked at him and sent him flying backwards, striking the base of the tower with a loud crunch.

  “Daman!” I cried out.

  “Die you son of a bitch!” Bryan yelled as he brought the knife down to my throat.

  But it never made it.

  The blade of a sword stopped the knife inches from my throat, the point of it nearly touching my flesh.

  The sword blade rested under the knife’s guard. Just inches for if Bryan applied even the slightest pressure? The knife would still pierce my throat, but like me, he too was stunned by the sudden appearance of the sword.

  I looked down the length of the sword to the hand holding it and the owner of that hand, my eyes practically falling out of my head.

  Alistair Crane.

  Savior. Devil. Aristocrat. Outcast. Warrior. Sinner more than saint. A prince among vampires for kings, as he said once, are ruled, and should be at all times, by morals and his morals were often in shades of gray. He made no apologies for his behavior, nor did he ever need to.

  Six foot five and five and twenty when he was made into a vampire when at the height of youthful beauty, he was the very erotic image conjured when one thought of blood drinkers. The Dark Seducer. The embodiment of enthralling masculine beauty, the very source of those two words when they were first written down and used.

  Silken raven hair that fell past his shoulders shimmered as if spun from threads of onyx. That hair framed a face set with gray-blue eyes, strong lines, a square jaw, noble nose and lips meant for sin.

  It was as if the creator of him had broken the mold after his entry into the world for his face and body was what any sculptor or artist would love to cast in stone and paint, yet dash their creation to pieces for it would pale in comparison to the living subject. Only one other he said had caused such reactions as that, the king of vampires, the vanished from the world King Vesta, the only vampire older than him, the only time he was modest and humble when comparing himself to another.

  Other than longer hair since last I saw him, he now sported a neatly trimmed full beard that followed his jawline and chin, the mustache above his lips joining it and presenting forth the very image of a devil come to play.

  And apt description that was of Alistair.

  As always he was dressed in attire that hinted at his past as a Romanian nobleman; a leather knee length jacket that hugged his trim muscular body, a silk blue shirt with gold buttons, leather pants fitted to his long sculptured legs, and calf high leather boots, the noble attire of a new century. On anyone else such an attire might look more costume than everyday wear but Alistair possessed a confidence to be envied, to imitate, but never succeed at carrying off as only he could. He was a man of great intellect, a man that could look you in the eyes and read you in that single gaze, knowing your life without having to tell him anything.

  “I do not show mercy to any that harm my family,” he said in his silken, deep voice that caressed the ears pleasantly and could send a racing warmth throughout your body. I could see the effect it had on Bryan as he stared at Alistair dumbfounded. With a subtle motion of his wrist Alistair sent the knife flying out of Bryan’s hand and pulled me forward all in the same motion while snapping the chains on my wrists with a casual press of his fingers on them. “Go to your friends Little One,” he instructed. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Who the fuck are you?” Bryan retorted finally. Even as he said that he was taking steps back for anyone that spent even the briefest of moments in Alistair’s presence could feel the ages, the centuries that draped itself upon him, this witness to events in the world that would become known as history. And it most often unnerved them to come face to face with a vampire so old.

  Bryan was also no doubt feeling Alistair’s anger which he now emitted without so much as showing it on his face. It was this unexpressed anger that I had witness cower even the most powerful supernatural beings when they had crossed him.

  “Let me tell you who you are,” Alistair said stepping toward Bryan who continued to step back. “You are a seeker of attention, of desiring to be adored, bowed down to. You collect around yourself sycophants that will feed your insatiable ego that will do anything for you without question. You will paint any who you believe has offended you as a threat or use the one word that will destroy any one it is applied to – crazy. And these toadies without brains will spread the word to see that person humiliated and torn down when you no doubt are responsible for them behaving, reacting, lashing out in a way that you designed. All so you could prove your false words true while you paint yourself as the victim, the saint who can do no wrong.

  “You lie and do it well enough that you often are caught up in your own web. When confronted? You throw a fit, cuss and stomp your feet like a petulant child or threaten the most drastic action in order to bring to kneel those you desire to make use of. You latch yourself onto others tightly, claim you love them dearly and cannot be without them,” he smiled. “For you know the power of that word don’t you? For when that word is uttered it tightens the noose around the person for you are quite convincing in your supposed declaration of adoration, yet? You have others you whisper such saccharine words to hidden among a sea of faces or in plain sight.

  “I suspect in your mortal life that you were no different than how you are now as a vampire for a bitch is always a bitch,” Alistair said. “You like to fuck with others, to play your games and see what the outcome will be while you believe yourself safe on the sidelines, witnessing the fires you let grow wild. You thrive on drama, you live for it though claim you do not, and even believe yourself a great master of the game.

  “Only this time you have fucked with the wrong person. You have now met the lord and creator of the game you think you so cleverly play.”

  Bryan just stared at Alistair, his mouth opening then closing, unable to find any retort, any smart comeback to what Alistair had said.

  He had been read well.

  “Alistair, forget him,” I said. “We need to stop the witch at the top of the tower. She’s about to unleash a very dark and ancient power into the world that will have great consequences.”

  “Tiberius is already upon it,” he said not taking his eyes, or his sword, off Bryan.

  “Ti is here?” I looked up toward the top of the tower where a commotion was taking place. I heard grunts, shouts and a few choice words before there came the report of an automatic weapon. It came in several quick bursts, the last ending abruptly and followed by the gun itself plummeting from the top of the tower as well as the soldier, both striking the ground at the same time.

  Tiberius, or Little Bird as he was affectionately called, came into view for a brief moment before slipping out of sight. When he next appeared he was leaping off the top of the tower with Heather in his arms.


  I felt my toes curl in my boots watching as he made his way down, leaping off the sides of the stairs like some trained circus performer before landing in a crouch on the cavern floor.

  I let out the breath I had been holding as he stood up and placed Heather on the ground, his auburn hair mussed.

  “You okay?” I heard him ask her. She nodded, simply staring at him and I couldn’t blame her.

  If Alistair was the night personified then his son Tiberius was the day: auburn hair, a complexion that could range from peaches and cream to a tan, bright glittering blue eyes and he stood at the same height and possessed the same build as his father.

  I had always wondered where Ti got his looks from for yes, there was hints of Alistair in his features, but the rest surely belonged to the other whom Alistair never named, never mentioned. Nicole had told me once to never ask and I never did, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t help but wonder.

  Like Alistair, Tiberius was also a vampire-witch, something extremely rare in the supernatural world given the animosity between the two races, yet I had once been told by Alistair that there was an old witch-vampire family in Savannah, Georgia that was said to exist.

  I looked around to see that there was now not a single soldier left. Nicole, Kingston and Kyle stood among their crumpled bodies, Nicole removing her sword from the chest of a soldier she kicked away.

  The only group now left was Miss Samantha and the witches that stood with their backs to her, weapons drawn and ready to attack any that approached.

  “Stand back!” Eve shouted as Nicole turned toward them.

  “No!” Heather said stepping away from Ti, her features twisted in a mask of anger. “As a member of the witch council of San Francisco I declare Samantha Von Dorn charged with the crime of murder of the Elders of the council! For murdering fellow witches! And I charge those that serve her with being accomplices!”

  Miss Samantha merely smiled at these accusations.

  “Maybe you should focus your attention elsewhere, girl,” she said as she drifted her eyes up toward the top of the tower. “For this disruption in the ceremony is about to have dire consequences.”

  All eyes moved toward the top of the tower where the red glow that engulfed it had now changed to a crackling static wave of magic that began to tear at the tower. From above I could hear Aadya screaming.

  “No! No! NO!” she screamed. “This is not how it was supposed to be!” she shouted. I briefly saw her appear at the edge. One side of her face was streaked with blood, the arrow still buried in her right hand. “You all will pay for this!” she screamed down toward us. “You will –”

  Her threat was drowned out by a loud boom as the top of the tower exploded, raining down large chunks of stone that had us all diving for cover.

  I dove toward Daman and snapped his cuffs, pressing us against the base of the tower where the crackling magic had not reached while debris fell down around us.

  “You okay?” he asked looking into my eyes.

  “Fine, just a nick on my throat that is already healing,” I replied. “You?”

  “Better now that you’re with me,” he said reaching down and squeezing my hand.

  Just then there came a tremendous roar from above as the ceiling started to fall down around us, large boulders hitting the tower, knocking large chunks off.

  “We better get out of here,” he said as we pushed away from the tower and headed toward where Carmen was trying to pull a hopefully unconscious Luis from the circular indention. A puddle of his blood filled it which was worrisome. Daman ran over and snapped the cuffs off her hands and then picked up Luis and placed him over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing more than a feather. I hurried over to Sophia and Scott, freeing them and urging them to head toward the entrance.

  “Come on!” Daman yelled to the others. “Head toward the entrance! This place is coming down!”

  I glanced over to see Alistair advancing on Bryan who threw his hands out toward him, no doubt attempting to knock him back as he had Daman moments ago, while both expertly dodged the falling rocks from above that struck the floor with loud booms.

  No matter what Bryan threw at Alistair it would not work for Alistair merely smiled and kept walking toward him, his sword still pointed at him, flicking away falling rocks with little motions of the sword.

  But we had to get out of here for the damn place was falling down around us.

  “Forget him!” I shouted at Alistair above the din of rumbling just as there came another explosion from the tower. This time the explosion caused a large section of the tower to dislodge, to split away, as a large boulder from the ceiling of the cavern came down at the same time.

  Several things happened at once – the section of tower smashed through the floor near us which created a rather sizable hole that knocked us off our feet due to the force of the impact, like an earthquake rippling across the floor but just as we were getting back to our feet the second thing happened. It was the boulder from above which slammed with greater force – due to the height it was coming from – near that hole that caused the floor to finally give up and begin to quickly dip downward making it hard to find any footing at all as I fell forward and began sliding toward that section that was caving in. Then a third and final thing happened. Just like puzzle pieces that I had thought it resembled the floor began falling away beneath me, us, piece by piece with no chance to leap clear of it, to grab onto anything.

  And into darkness we fell.

  II

  I hit earth with a hard impact that knocked the wind out of me as I went tumbling ass over head down a steep incline, slamming into one of several stalagmites that broke upon impact yet didn’t slow my fall. I felt a piercing burning sensation in my side as I passed over them. I kept sliding hitting several more stalagmites then one that shot me up into the air and I came back down, hitting the edge of a ledge that I tumbled over.

  At the last second my hands grabbed the lip of the ledge, nails biting into the rock and splintering as I winced against the pain but held on for dear life.

  “Fuck!” I let out as I banged against the face of the ledge. I dared a look down to see a massive meteor impact crater from which the tower emerged. This lower portion was also coated in that crackling magic now that was tearing off pieces that plummeted down into that hole from which it emerged.

  Weathering on the sides of the crater reminded me of…

  “The asshole of Hell,” I muttered pulling myself up and onto the ledge. I laid on my back and stared upward. Only the side of the floor that I, Alistair and Bryan had been standing on had collapsed but the remaining left hand side was starting to tip downward under the assault from the cavern ceiling above. I watched as a large chunk of rock tore through the remaining floor and vanished into the depths of the crater. I counted and had reached thirty before I heard a soft thump sound echo back. “Gotta get out of here,” I said sitting up, dust thick as fog surrounded me as well as pebbles that hit me in the head.

  Something heavy landed a few feet from me and I watched as a shadowy figure began moving toward me slowly.

  “D-Daman?” I said. Had he still been on the section of floor with us? Everything happened so fast I wasn’t sure. “Alistair?”

  “Guess again boy,” Bryan said stepping from the cloud of dust around us. He held up a knife. I had no idea where he got it from nor did it matter.

  I quickly got to my feet, feeling the ledge tilt downward as another deep rumbling shook the cavern, causing more rocks to fall around us.

  “I was this fucking close to getting everything I wanted,” he said as we circled each other. “Killing you, receiving immense power, taking over the vampire council. Then just like that?” he snapped his fingers. “It was all taken away from me!”

  “Seriously? Here and now? Save it for when we’re out of here and above on stable ground!” I shouted above the next round of rumbling. I felt the ground beneath us start to shift further downward, pebbles sliding toward me which mad
e my footing unstable.

  “Oh, only one of us is emerging out of this place, Henry,” he said grinning. “And it won’t be you!”

  He lunged at me swinging the knife rapidly with those fast vampire reflexes that had me barely dodging in time. I felt the front of my jacket and shirt tear followed by a fiery burning sensation right across my chest. I sidestepped his next assault and went around him, but he moved with me, his face a mask of rage.

  “Hold fucking still Henry!” he shouted. “I want the last sight that Daman sees, that your precious god damn friends to see is to be your head in my hand as I make my way out of here!”

  He lunged at me and there was nowhere to go. I shot my hands out, catching his hand but he had momentum behind him and shoved the knife into my stomach. I let out a grunt as he grinned. He began twisting and turning the knife, cutting deeper into my stomach as I gripped his wrist in both my hands, feeling my blood flowing out of my stomach, soaking the front of my pants.

  He jerked the knife upward then out and I let his hand go. I stared at him as I sunk to my knees and brought my hands to the wound, blood flowing hot and thick between my fingers.

  He gripped the top of my head, fingers latching into my hair as he jerked my head back.

  “Your death will give me great satisfaction!” he screamed, drawing his arm back.

  “Couldn’t have said it better.”

  I looked to Bryan’s right as Alistair stood there swinging his sword. I shook my head, mouthing the word ‘No’ but it was too late.

  Bryan’s right arm and head departed from his body as steel flashed, slicing smoothly through flesh, muscle and bone. Both went sailing out into the crater.

  I felt Bryan’s fingers slacken, then pull away as his headless body tittered back and forth for a moment before toppling by me and over the side of the ledge. I closed my eyes, clutching my stomach, aware of his blood running down my face.

  “No one harms family,” Alistair said wiping the blood off of the blade before sheathing the sword. “Henry,” he said dropping to one knee before me. “You’re seriously injured.”