by J. P. Rice
I could tell she wasn’t happy that a vampire was staying with me by the tone of her voice. I answered, “Not much. I’m going into the office and hopefully find out more information about those Dybbuk Boxes I was telling you about. Then, I am going to call and apologize to Satoku for something I shouldn’t even be apologizing for.”
Reg laughed. “Ha ha. That’s what a relationship is most of the time. Saying sorry for stuff you don’t understand.”
I continued, “That’s not the worst of it. Gretchen told me the stone men that are being raised from the dead are murdering young Japanese women. Satoku is probably more worried about that than being mad at me.”
Alayna said, “No, we can stay mad at someone during high stress periods. Most times it will only amplify it.”
Such soothing words from my mentor. “Great, so what should I do?”
Reg recommended a traditional solution, “Flowers and candy usually work. Sweet talking too.”
I said, “I wish I were as smooth as you. I guess I could buy her something. She’s not the flowers and candy type girl though.”
Carolyn blurted out, “Tell her that you will take care of her. Women love security. Tell her that you’ve heard about the killings and you want to protect her. Pledge to her that you would do anything to protect her life, and I’ll bet she forgives you.”
The young vampire seemed to be sage beyond her years. “That is a good idea.”
Reg said, “Yeah, I’m a little mad I didn’t come up with that one myself.”
“I’ll be right back,” I said, and went up to my room to make the call. Due to my social anxiety, my hands started to sweat, and my heart raced out of control. I stared at her name on the phone list for almost a minute before pressing send.
She picked up on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hey...hell...hello, how are you?”
“How am I?” The sharp tone in her voice indicated that she wasn’t happy. “How am I, you want to know? Let’s see, my boyfriend is acting like a jerk right now, and, oh by the way, there’s a pack of zombie murderers out there targeting women like me. I’m not doing very well right now, Mike.”
“I totally understand and that’s why I am calling. I want to apologize for last night.” Even though nothing was my fault. “I’m sorry for what happened.”
“I just don’t understand why the two men I like most in this world can’t be friends. I get that he is quirky and somewhat braggadocious, but so are you to a certain degree.”
This conversation wasn’t going the way I would have liked. Nothing in my life seemed to be going how I wanted. I had to swallow some pride. “I will try to be friends with him. Speaking of those murders, I don’t think you should be running around without protection.”
“My mom gave me that pistol a while ago and I don’t usually carry it, but now I think I should.”
I guess she hadn’t heard that the bullets bounced off the stone men. “I was thinking that maybe I could protect you. You can just stay around me and I will keep the stone men at bay.” I had forgotten about my vampire friend and quickly realized how that might complicate matters.
“Felix has already offered, and I took him up on it. He’s going to be right by my side, 24/7. Don’t you worry, I’ll be safe with him around.”
That was not what I wanted to hear. “Are you sure? I’m not trying to demean him, but I think you would be safer with me.”
“See, this is what I’m talking about. You think that you’re better than him.”
I paced around my room, tense. “I don’t think that I am better than him as a person. I know more magic than he does. It’s a fact. That is all I am pointing out. I’m only saying that I have a lot of skills that could keep you safe. That’s it.”
“Sorry for biting your head off. I’m just super-stressed out with finals coming up and everything.”
“I totally get it. That’s why I am making this offer. I want all your worries to be at bay and I just feel like I can provide the best security for you in the city of Pittsburgh.” Stop using the phrase, ‘at bay,’ you idiot.
“I appreciate it, I really do. However, I am going to stick with Felix on this one. Do you want to say hi to him?”
Do I want to say hi to him? I’d rather smash my testicles with a spiked hammer. But there wasn’t a spiked hammer handy. “I’m actually on the run, but just tell him I said, hello, and if anything happens to you, I’ll be having a long talk with him.”
“Sometimes you can be such a little boy, Mike. Bye.”
She didn’t wait for me to return the closing pleasantry and hung up the phone.
Am I really being that big of an asshole by worrying about my girlfriend’s safety? I just don’t see it. The list of problems, profession and private, was lengthening rapidly.
Girl problems. Daddy problems. Dybbuk Boxes. Sendal Spirits. Murderous stone men. Am I forgetting anything? The vampire tight rope. On top of that, Alayna hated vampires and I had one as a permanent house guest in the apartment she’d rented to me.
Oh yeah, I’m doing friggin’ great.
I went back downstairs and explained to everyone what a disaster of a phone call it was.
Alayna looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. “Should we work on a potion or experiment?”
I smirked. That normally helped cheer me up. “I do like that. With my mental state, maybe we should try for tomorrow. I have to get to the office today and pretend to do some real work.”
Feeling down, I decided to wear a suit to the office to give off that professional vibe. I rarely got walk-in clients, but I wanted to look sharp for the thirty second walk down the street. I strutted outside, but no one was there to notice. I rolled down the sidewalk and entered the front door of the office.
No missed calls, which meant no messages to check. I sat down at my desk and peered out the window at the cloudy sky, hiding the sun. I checked my email for the messages from Gretchen about the murders, but she hadn’t sent them yet.
I kicked back in the chair, realizing there wasn’t much I could do. I had no idea where the Sendal Spirits or the stone men were. Running around looking for them would be a colossal waste of time. The puzzle was beginning to come together, but I needed several more pieces to understand this fully.
I paced around the office, bored. I caught a long, shiny black streak out of my peripheral and went to the front door. I looked through the glass opening at a stretch limousine in front of my office. This was not an everyday occurrence, or an any day occurrence for that matter.
Chapter 13
A werewolf dressed in a classic chauffeur’s outfit walked around the front of the car and to a door near the back of the vehicle. I was frozen in place as the werewolf opened the door, pulled a red carpet from the bottom of the door, and backpedaled up to my office.
An old man in flowing burgundy robes emerged from the limousine. He had white hair with hints of black that curled and hung below his shoulders. His matching beard appeared to be braided in certain areas, but upon closer inspection, I believed it was just a natural entanglement. His shimmering robes were belted with thick golden rope, tied in a perfect knot.
The man was neither tall nor short, not fat or skinny, but his age was apparent from his hair and the way he grabbed the railing to help him get down the steps. He descended the final stairs and the werewolf pulled open the door. I stepped to the side in awe.
The man entered, hands buried in the chest area of the robes. I detected magic on this person and wondered if he was going to pull a gun out and shoot me. The magic wasn’t strong, lucky for me. We had a several second standoff, until I said, “Hello there, Micheal Merlino.”
I extended an open right hand. The older man thrust his palm into mine and we shook. His hands were a little fat and very soft, almost like a firm pillow. I looked into his gray eyes flecked with bright silver and waited for him to say something.
His bellowing voice said, “Socrates, the pleasure is mine.”
&nbs
p; Whoa. What? “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”
He smiled. “I get the same reaction wherever I go. You aren’t the first.”
I knew about the Greek Gods being in Pittsburgh, but this man was a mortal, right? “But I thought you died from having to drink the poison hemlock? In the prison?” I sank into my desk chair.
I pointed to the leather seat facing my desk, and he sat down and crossed his legs. “That wasn’t me. When the Greek Gods realized my life was in jeopardy, they sent in a body double to take the punishment. I didn’t agree with the death of an innocent man at first, but the Gods can be persuasive.”
The man didn’t have a Greek accent, although I’m not exactly sure what one would sound like. He didn’t speak like an ancient philosopher, choosing to go with the local vernacular. I assumed he adjusted his speech patterns to suit his audience like the Celtic Gods. Disappointing.
He continued, “I am here to talk to you about visiting with the Gods. They would enjoy conversing with you on a myriad of subjects.”
Cool, but suspect. “Why me?”
He shifted around in the chair. “You may not care to acknowledge it, but you are a rather unique individual. Your skills and moreover, your honor, have been noticed far and wide. They asked me to bring you back to the Olive Pit. I hate that stereotypical name, but they do have the most delicious briny treats down there. Would you like to talk to Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Demeter and even Hades?”
Hades, not so much. But the rest of them, hells yeah. “I’m still a little confused. Why did they send you?”
He leaned to his side and crossed his legs, trying to get comfortable. “Several reasons. First, I am a good representative. Please excuse the blatant narcissism. Second, they respect you. The Gods could have sent a seductive temptress to appeal to the shallowest of senses, but they didn’t. They sent me because we respect your mind, young wizard. There’s much to be learned, but we expect greatness out of you.”
“You do know that I swore an oath to the Celtic Gods and I can never take that back?”
He ran his middle finger over his golden belt. “We will not ask you to swear an oath. This is more along the lines of working together to keep Pittsburgh safe. An information sharing partnership. You help us and we help you. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the backing of two sets of Gods? Nobody else can claim such an accolade.”
I’d heard about the Greeks moving into Pittsburgh, but never expected them to recruit me. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to hear them out. Long as they know where my ultimate allegiance lies, I’ll take the meeting.”
He grinned, keeping his teeth hidden. “Wonderful news. I shall come back tomorrow, but I will leave a nugget for you to savor. If strange supernatural event started, and there is an all-out war, you aren’t very safe with the Celts. The Greeks will win out easily. Not the Celts, not the Romans, not the Egyptians, not the Norse. It will be the Greeks. You’d be well served to listen with open ears.”
“I understand.”
“Until tomorrow then.”
“I will see you then. Thank you for stopping by.”
Socrates had trouble getting out of the chair. He walked to the door and tapped it with his cane. The werewolf driver pulled open the door and held it as Socrates walked outside and up the red carpet to disappear into the back of the limo. The chauffeur rolled up the red carpet by using a little hand crank, closed the door, and hopped in the driver’s seat.
I stepped outside and shielded my eyes from the sun that had peeked out from behind the clouds. I noticed a crowd gathered on the other side of the street. What, they’ve never seen an immortal ancient Greek philosopher with a werewolf driver before? Normals.
That wasn’t exactly the philosophical experience I was looking for. I had wanted Socrates to impart some knowledge to me, not recruit me like a college football coach. I would never turn my back on the Celtic Gods, but double backing of both groups of deities would give me more power in the city.
I’m glad I wore the suit now. It did feel good to have another group of Gods show interest in me. Felix had said that he was close to the Japanese Gods, but I thought he was lying to impress Satoku. The phone rang, and I snapped out of the deep thought and went back inside.
I sat down and checked the caller ID on the phone. Jonathan Rickleshaw. Just the man, excuse me, vampire I wanted to talk to. I was surprised he was awake in the morning.
I kicked back in the chair and hit the Answer button. “Hello, Mike Merlino.”
“Mike, excellent news for you. This is Jonathan, by the way.”
“Great to hear, Jonathan. What did you find out about them?”
Not only was he awake, but I could hear excitement in his voice. “I knew they were old. Didn’t I tell you? I found out that they were crafted likely in the seventeenth century, most likely the 1620s.”
My eyes widened, seeing dollar signs. “That’s a little older than I had anticipated.”
“Here’s the kicker. If these were your run-of-the-mill petite cabinets from that time period, they would be worth a few hundred apiece. However, these are made with the highest level of craftsmanship I’ve seen in a long while.”
“Wow,” was all I could manage to get out.
He continued talking fast, “They have quite the history too. Apparently, they bounced around Europe before settling back in Poland. During World War 2 when the Nazis were blitzkrieging their way through Poland, the Jews were obviously desperate.”
Made sense. He continued, “Some of them even turned to dark magic to trap the malicious Dybbuk spirits into the boxes. I assume they planned to open them when the Germans arrived, but most of the time, they were forgotten and not opened. These particular boxes were sent home from a WW2 veteran and that’s how they eventually ended up in Pittsburgh.”
“Quite a life.”
He agreed, “Quite a life indeed. A harsh one no doubt, trying to keep those raging, malevolent spirits inside forever.”
“So what do those spirits do? They just scare people from what I know.” I’d actually heard much worse.
Jonathan cleared his throat. “They can, but I’ve heard it can get much worse than that if they start to work together. Dybbuk spirits work together to form into Sendal Spirits. Individually they aren’t very worrisome, but when they combine twenty spirits to make one super spirit, you can imagine the power. That’s why I didn’t want the owner to burn those other boxes. If the spirit from one of those boxes merges with another spirit, I can get both of them back into the box.”
I wanted to press him on that, but I couldn’t contain my excitement. “How much do you think they are worth?”
He paused for a few seconds. “I’ve talked to about a dozen people and a conservative estimate would be around five to ten thousand.”
That. Was. Awesome. “Total?”
He laughed. “Five to ten thousand per.”
I smiled as a one-thousand-dollar job just received a major monetary upgrade. “Now we’re talking. That’s a nice slice of cheese.”
His tone went from chummy to serious, “Don’t forget about fees too. You’ll be taxed and have to pay a fifteen percent premium on each item.”
Considering this was basically found money, I didn’t mind paying the fees to make it happen. I joked, “Then I won’t sell them.”
Jonathan paused for several moments and I could almost feel his heavy breathing through the phone. “Really?”
“No, I’m just kidding.” Our humor didn’t mesh very well.
He didn’t laugh. “Smart man. Have you made any progress with our friend that we discussed?”
I convinced my brain of the lie. “Still nothing on that front. Nobody that I’ve contacted so far has even the faintest clue as to where she might be.”
His voice latched on to some anger. “She will be found. That I can tell you.”
“Did you ever think that she split town? She could be across the country or even the world by now.”
“I have people
everywhere. She will be found and she will be dealt with. Let’s not discuss this much more over the phone.”
That was something we could agree on. “Good idea. Just give me a call if I need to do anything to facilitate the items for the auction.”
“I will need you to fill out some paperwork before we get those before the public. I will call you when I get the paperwork together.”
“Thanks, Jonathan.”
“All right, Mike.”
I still felt weird being in the middle of this vampire sandwich. I couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t going to work out well for me.
Just a normal day, you know, talking to Socrates and a vampire with a total combined age of about 2500. No biggie. I sat down and kicked my feet up on the desk.
An artic chill swept through the room, causing the windows to frost up. I shivered and jumped up from my desk, wondering what was causing the temperature drop.
Chapter 14
Not the thermostat. As I peered around the office, I zeroed in on a heating vent near the ceiling. A glimmering fog escaped from the openings and floated around before taking shape. The fog was a mixture of silver, blue and green with little sparkles.
It took on the adumbration of an ogre that must have been over eight-feet-tall. An object that appeared to be a club materialized in his right hand. The vaporous ogre drew the club back and took a long, slow swing at my head.
I easily ducked the foggy club. The follow through smashed the computer on my desk and busted out the window. How had I not detected any magic in the area? That realization scared me as much as the ogre did, who turned around and grabbed the empty desk in the corner of the room.
The see-through beast lifted the solid pine desk off the ground, whirled around and launched it at me. I slid out of the way, narrowly escaping a painful death. I couldn’t draw any fireballs in fear that I would burn down my office.
I manipulated an air pocket and formed it into a rectangle before heaving it at the ghostly figure. The condensed pocket went right through the spirit and crashed into a bookshelf against the wall.
