by brett hicks
“Now yer getting it, aye that’s the way of it, but this is not common magic Thea. If it were, then every bloody half-baked necro would be breaking wards with this rune pattern.”
“Well then who is known to use this?”
Liam scratched at the side of his nose with his free hand.
“That’s just it, we never knew who made the spell, only that it was used hundreds of years ago in the old country. There was a group of surviving necros looking to settle the scales with the unhuman population. They’ve been pariahs ever since the war ended and we won. That was long, long before Seri or I were born of course.”
“So, an unknown necromancer, and an unknown number of associates used this rune combination a long time ago to kill inhumans in their safe places?”
Liam nodded.
“Yes, they wore masks and such and from all the reports I heard, they used some form of alchemy to block their scent information out. The King, Seri’s da, was up in a furry about this, as you would imagine. He declared necromancers’ outlaws from birth. That did little to quell the tensions between the species as you could imagine.”
My mind flew back to the night I had been attacked, Liam pleading for Seri to help me, to save me. I remembered how she had stated plainly that it was illegal to help me under normal circumstances. I also remembered how Liam had quoted some loophole in their laws that allowed her to help me.
“Liam, if necromancers are to be killed, why did Seri let me leave her club alive? Why did she save me?”
Liam sighed and sat down his cup on my old battered coffee table.
“Seri and her father have a great many disagreements on the laws, and she might forget to mention spotting necromancers, if they are not violating her laws. Seri’s father once tried to marry her off as a political bride to a real bastard of a Necrovamp, a vampire turned from a human necromancer like you. Only, he was a son-of-a-bitch. He is one of the leading political powers in parts of Europe, and her da holds his court in London.”
My eyes widened in shock.
“There are others like me? What happened, and why would he try to marry Seri off like a damn prized pig, if he hates the necromancers?!”
My words came out fast and rushed, Liam held up a hand in silent plea.
“Easy there kitten, I suppose it would be for the best if I began at the root of all of this. You will hear of the war eventually, but you won’t hear many accurate a telling of what came before the war, how all inhumans were created.”
My nerves tingle at this statement of facts. Liam knew how inhumans were born? He knew the whole origin?
“Tell me, please, I need to know this.”
Liam swallowed and expelled a long shaky sigh.
“Very well, but don’t ye go round repeating this shite to every inhuman you meet. This is all ancient history and a lot of people will try to kill ye for spoutin this off at random.”
“People are already trying to kill me, and possibly frame me for murder.”
I pointed out with a bitter tone. Liam nodded and swished his hand through the air. He was clearly a man who liked to talk with his hands a lot.
“Right, so back in the day, I believe it was over three-thousand-years-ago now. So, 1000 BC roughly, there was a civilization that ruled the earth that you won’t find in any history books, or records. That was the alchemists. They were the first race born to earth, and they were immortal and vastly powerful. Besides the commonly known practice of transmutation, alchemists make even the greatest of modern witches look like paupers. They watched as early humans began to cultivate their own civilizations. The problem with these alchemists was they lacked all empathy. They were all intellect and power. They rounded up thousands and thousands of humans to use as test subjects in their experiments. Alchemical transmutation of the living, they were searching for ways to transmute themselves into something even greater. In the process, they created many; many species of inhumans from the test subjects.”
My spine was chilled, and my aching muscles were totally forgotten for the moment. I was listening intently to Liam’s historical account.
“Born and bred in captivity, the early generations of all inhuman kinds knew only cages and forced matting. They were treated as animals, even the term, “inhuman” indicates they were not even afforded the smallest of courtesies the Alchemists would give to the evolved species of earth. They managed to infuse many powers and abilities that were genetically replicated in the offspring. One of the created humans who had become the very first vampire refused to bow to the Alchemists. When they tried to force him to mate, he managed to rip out the throat of his taskmaster and incite a rebellion in that compound. That was Seri’s da, Cain Herrington. Cain became the liberator of all inhuman kind. Have you not wondered why all the species gather together in communities, not caring what race the other is?”
I nodded dumbly, still speechless.
“Well, we remember the oppression. The myths and books might suggest we all hate one another, or that werewolves and vampires are enemies, but the truth is very different. Werewolves and vampires are the two forces that keep the peace and patrol the world for evil. They are partners and respect each other’s power. After all, if not for the combined might of lycanthrope savagery, and vampire cunning, we would never have won the world war for liberation. We would have been house pets to alchemists to this day, and humans would have likely suffered a similar fate too. That is part of why we try not to harm the human population. The elders remember being the mortals, remember being victims.”
I blinked, and my mouth hung open in shock.
“So, what happened to the alchemists?”
Liam waved his hand through the air.
“Cain laid waste to their empire. He burned it down, melted down all the metal, and incinerated every library. It took him hundreds of years to transverse the entirety of the human world, visiting every single continent in his hunt for surviving pockets of alchemist settlements. Finally, once everyone was convinced that the war was finally won, he was asked by all the elders to ascend to the role of High King, and his bride to High Queen. The werewolf leader Alexandros ascended to the role of World Commander. The wolves recognized as the absolute head of all unhuman military might. Alexandros and Cain work together to this very day to maintain peaceful co-existence. Moreover, to this day, the two are still good friends, I have watched them personally. It is not just propaganda, or a story we tell the young.”
I licked my lips and I frowned slightly.
“What does all of this have to do with necromancers?”
Liam’s eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Yes, I was wondering when you would get around to asking me that. Necromancers are Alchemists, or at least you both evolved from the same bloodline. It diverged at some point, most became the tyrannical Alchemists, and a few became the death workers, both powerful and immortal. Nearly every necromancer stood in battle against the armies of the unhuman forces. They were not as cruel as the Alchemists, but they also wouldn’t sit back and watch us destroy their distant kin.”
My heart thumped in my chest and I sucked down a sharp breath.
“So, my parents were part of this? I am related to people who once enslaved the entire planet?!”
My voice rose in my understandable state of excitement and terror. Who wants to be told they were the product of a whole race of Hitlers? Not this girl, no fucking way was that acceptable!
I really am a monster!
My heart thumped quickly in my chest and Liam reached over and squeezed my shoulder.
“Ye are not any of the things your face tells me you are thinking. I have watched you, I felt something very right about you from the first, and I felt compelled to have Seri save you. Even after your traumatic waking moments, you have handled everything with as much dignity and grace as one could expect, hell I have seen much worse reactions to being changed after an attack! Thea Salvo, you are a priceless and rare gem in this dismal rock of a world.”
Eleven:
What do you say when someone explains that your history is written in genocide and megalomania? Point of fact, I said nothing for over an hour after Liam had finished telling me of the events that led up to war between the immortals of earth.
A conflict so bloody and violent that it left permanent scars on the world, example, the Grand Canyon used to be a metropolis controlled by the Alchemists. The fall of Carthage was apparently related as well. Many of the worst wars and battles that make it into human history were largely fought by immortals. Until the Romans adopted the Christian faith and bastardized it, making the Roman Catholic Church, and then humans began to burn everything not human at the stake.
The irony is not lost on me one bit. While I seriously doubted anyone powerful enough to call himself “High King” was truly selfless, I didn’t really know what to think. There were no history books to check out to corroborate this tale. The victors write history, and my street-rat mind told me not to believe everything I heard. Still, this meant that in the eyes of the masses, I represented evil-incarnate.
How could all Alchemists and Necromancers be evil, if I am sure that I am not evil? I want to be a bloody cop, so how does that make me evil? I’ve never done anything truly bad, and I survived so much shit!
My mind spun, I had been on the wrong end of so much abuse. Somehow, I had never been locked up, which is pretty hard to achieve, considering I lived on the streets in Boston for two years! I ran away at six-teen, because my new foster dad mistook me for free sexual labor. I might have busted his balls a bit, and left him with a broken arm, but nothing permanent. How could I possibly be born of evil?
Liam ruffled my hair as if I was some little kid. I shot him a murderous look.
‘What the hell man?!”
“Just trying to make sure you come up for some air there lassie. I can practically hear your fast mind spinning at neck-break speeds. You need not take this so personal.”
I gave him an incredulous look and snorted.
“Right, you tell me I am genetically predisposed to be evil, and there is nothing I can do about it!”
Liam shook his head and huffed.
“I said no such thing lass. Besides, you were born of one parent that is a human born witch. The other would have been a pure necromancer, so if you want my theory, your human blood probably gave you the full spectrum of emotions all other beings inhuman, or not received from their human ancestors. You have perfect recall, correct? You can pull up any memory at will and utilize it as one might use a toolbox full of different tools.”
He spread his hands in a motion and said, “There you go, that is from your immortal necromancer parent. You do have some, or most of the same gifts, but you also have humanity blended in as well.”
I mulled that over for a minute and I slowly nodded.
“If that’s true, then why are necromancers born of humans helping kill inhumans in the name of a long dead species of maniacs? That makes zero sense. I mean, I might be seven kinds of crazy, but I at least have the sense to leave ancient history well enough alone!”
His lips twitched into the beginnings of a smile.
“Aye, I believe you do, hence why I knew you wouldn’t have hurt anyone. Besides, I think about the timing of this murder, and how soon after the attack outside our club. Don’t you find this a little too convenient?”
I eyed him with my amber-brown fury boring into his skull.
“I would hardly call anything about that night convenient for me!”
Liam sighed placed a hand on my left shoulder.
“Calm down lassie, think with me here for a moment. You are a criminology student, right?”
I nodded in confirmation.
“Fine, let’s look at the facts.”
“Well, how did you say you got down to Cold Coffin?”
“Henry told me to meet him there for drinks, because my girlfriend had just dropped the slut bomb on me.”
Liam’s eyebrows shot up.
“I never saw Henry Jefferson cone into the Coffin on that night, I am sure of this.”
“Ok, table that for now. Next point is Seri creeped me out, so I bounced. The redcaps followed me, and violence ensued. Four of them got the pointy end of the blade, and well, you know the rest.”
Liam nodded.
“Did they say anything before the attack? Did they say anything during the attack?”
I pulled the memory up and nodded in confirmation.
“The leader was confused by my confusion. He asked if they were sure, I was inhuman. One of them told him that he saw me come out of the Cold Coffin. That was apparently good enough for the leader and then violence ensued.”
Liam nodded again and scratched his chin.
“What about tonight? Walk me through your arrival at the bar.”
I huffed and rolled my eyes.
“I barely even left the damn building, and you know it! I just walked outside and flagged down Henry. I walked back in with Henry, who seemed to have a Cold War worthy heated conversation with Seri. We hung out for a while, and then I lost sight of him. I threw myself into my work, as you should remember, since you were right there with me. You saved me from those assholes who were convinced I was going to lay down and let all three of them take turns with me! Fucking perverts! After that, we chilled near or at the bar, then you sent me to dispense shots and beers, and you know the rest.”
Liam looked thoughtful and he seemed reluctant to say anything. I began to slowly replay each night again, including my call with Henry. He had been adamant about me going to Cold Coffin, so why the hell hadn’t he shown up? Also, why had he ditched me so early in the night? Then, the last bit I remembered, those runes around the dead fae girl were the exact same ones I saw drawn in chalk in Henry’s apartment. I remembered how annoyed he was when I went poking around his “workshop.” I remembered calling it his “witch-shop.”
“Fuck me sideways and call me Susan!”
I exclaimed, and Liam chuckled.
“I didn’t know you swung that way lass, but if you insist…”
I popped him in the right arm, hard.
“Not literally you dick!”
“I believe we’ve established that I possess a dick Thea.”
I smacked him again, and he chuckled as if I was tickling him. The fucker loved to get a rise out of me! I am beginning to think he’s at least partly masochistic.
“Liam, Occam’s razor, the simplest answer is often the correct one. Both crimes occurred with Henry doing something out of character, enough so that I was curious why he had been so adamant to drag me to that particular bar, and no other. Plus, in the year I have known Henry, he tends to stick to me like glue, so him scatting after thirty-minutes is totally crazy. Lastly, the runes on the floor were identical and done in the same color chalk as the ones I saw in his apartment. All of this indicates the likeliness of Henry’s guilt in at least the murder. If nothing else, he knows something.”
Liam slapped his hand down excitedly on the sofa.
“A clue!”
I narrowed my amber eyes to deadly slits.
“If you start blaspheming the great Detective Sherlock Holmes, then I might just be forced to murder a vampire tonight.”
Liam looked at me innocently and pointed to himself.
“Who, me lassie? I’m a saint, ask me ma. I always go to confession and I only fool around with the girls who were already deflowered. Besides, I think they all found the good lord, I am known to make many a woman call out his name.”
Despite the fact that his boss, my supposed kin almost killed me tonight, I threw my head back and laughed at his ridiculous joke. Besides, I could totally picture a ki
lt-clad Liam doing all of those things, and then I wished I hadn’t had a big enough imagination to create the last image!
“How her royal grumpiness takes you anywhere and not incite a war, is beyond me!”
Liam beamed in pride.
“That wasn’t a compliment Liam!”
He waved me off dismissively.
“Nonsense lass, if women are speaking my name and telling tales of me prowess, then I am very much doing my job well.”
I really didn’t know what to say to that! Liam seemed to be dead set on derailing my analytical mind from consuming itself. It took me about ten minutes of his bantering to even realize what he had done. Damn bastard is like a verbal ninja!
“Liam, shouldn’t you be going? I doubt you should be this far away from Seri, considering one of your people is dead.”
Liam’s mood sobered quickly.
“I will call her shortly, but I am staying with you for the night Thea. You are in danger too, unless you think her enemies, or your friend, are going to just leave you be.”
That sent chills down my spine. I growled in annoyance and my fangs began to pop out of my mouth.
“I’d like to see him try to fuck with me. He knows I will bitch-smack his ass back to puberty!”
Liam chuckled, but didn’t disagree with me.
Twelve:
Sleeping was nearly impossible, but I had managed to crash for a while, maybe three hours. Heavy footfalls woke me in a start. My heart hammering, instincts I barely had a handle on, were screaming “danger.” Liam was here, I could feel him in the next room, but I felt something else, coldness in the world around me. I knew the feeling, because I had a basis for comparison, vampires.
Three, no, four of them, besides Liam and I, part of my mind was spinning, wondering why and how I could feel them, considering I now knew vampires were not death, rather a genetically different form of life.
No time for thinking Thea, get to Liam!
My apartment is tiny, and chances were good that I would run into one of these mysterious invaders, before I reached the couch. The cold energy or magic that vibrated lightly through the air was much too defused to be Seri, or any of her inner-circle. All of them vibrated with a different, thicker and more intense power.
