Shadow & Flame - Part One: The Collective - Season 1, Episode 4

by Elias Raven

  They had rented cars and driven up from San Francisco airport. Abel pulled up first in a black Hummer fully loaded with Gia, Baby Mia, and Chance in tow.

  Elias was driving a brand new red Corvette with tan leather seats with Genevieve smiling right beside him.

  The boys were styling, I had to admit, and at that moment, nothing could have been more beautiful or made me happier than to see all of them, especially Genevieve. It had taken her a long time to warm up to me. I mean icebergs thawed faster than she did toward me!

  Back in College, every whore bag wanted to screw Elias and Abel. Genevieve wasn’t going to have it from any skank trying to move in on her territory. She would growl and rip a bitch’s head off, if they even came near Elias.

  She was waitressing in the same bar that Elias and Abel used to play in called Decadence. I watched her more than once dump a drink accidentally on a “fan girl” that was going all in on one of the boys. Abel used to get pissed off because it never failed she would dump a drink on one of the girls he was planning on taking home for some after-hours play.

  I thought it was fucking hysterical though that the two of them had a recovery system in place if it was a girl Abel wanted to bag for the night and Abel glared at Genevieve and gave her the look, she would apologize to the patron for her clumsiness and get a new drink from the bar while tossing towels at Abel so he could clean up said damsel in distress. That way Abel came off as gallant and Genevieve still had the satisfaction of dumping the drink on the skank for even trying anything. It was a win/win for everyone!

  After the ice had thawed between us, she had taken me under her wing and taught me a lot about handling the weird After Hour Male Circus, well that is what we had nicknamed them anyways, that would pop into Decadence like they were the second coming of the Dominant Messiah. They would fall for me usually within one to two drink orders. No more than three at the most and they would grill me wanting to know if I was single or married, then submissive or switch. If I even hinted that I was into the lifestyle then look out! They went full on fifty shades on me. There was no black or white or even gray for that matter, they wanted to show me what a real Dominant man was.

  I remember one night as a gag; I had introduced one of these newly minted “Circus Dom’s” to Elias. They had just finished playing their set, and the bar was like beyond the decibels loud with the crowd wound up tight after Abel and Elias had torn the place up. You couldn’t hear yourself talking. It was like trying to escape from a tornado, it was so loud.

  I brought this guy over to Elias and leaned into his ear. “Elias this is my date for tonight Pencil Dick The Circus Dom,” and then I started laughing.

  The guy had thought it had been his lucky day until Elias leaned in and grabbed his hand and looked in his eyes and started squeezing. “Pencil Dick, my girlfriend says you’re bothering her, is that true?” he asked while crushing the guy’s hand.

  The guy’s eyes literally came out of his skull when he thought Elias was my boyfriend! “No, no, my mistake Sir! I didn’t mean to bother her at all! I was just being friendly!” he yelled, the bones in his hands screaming in pain.

  Elias smiled and let go of the man’s hand. You could tell that it hurt! It was bright red and bruised, Elias had really gripped it hard. My Pseudo Date had promptly excused himself and tried to weave back into the crowd. Elias gave the bouncer, David, “the look” and pointed at the man!

  David was a big ole burly biker looking type with huge arms and a shaved head. He loved wearing steel framed aviator glasses. His belt buckle was a screaming eagle that had USA in red and blue lettering woven throughout the standard. He wore boot cut jeans and black cockroach killers and had a black leather vest on with a black V-neck tee shirt.

  He had that I eat beer cans for snacks type of look about him and very few patrons ever messed with him before discovering the hard way that he was solid muscle, and didn’t tolerate fools or assholes. The poor fools that did make that mistake would usually be tossed out on their ass through the front door never to return again. Pencil dick was no exception. David helped him out while the crowd hooted and hollered! Like I said it was a loud and proud Rock and Roll crowd.

  I ran to one of the window booths and looked out onto the boulevard watching the man dust himself off and wave his fist at the bar. I couldn’t hear what the guy was yelling, but David made sure he had two more bouncers man the front in case he decided to try and return.

  David was a good guy; if you were his friend he had your back. He did not tolerate any of the girls getting messed with by posers and pretenders. Every guy that walked into Decadence thought they were the next big things as far as being a Dominant Male and to a man, they were all full of shit! I swear to God they went online and took courses over the Internet on how to shave their backs and grow a set of testicles too.

  I laughed my ass off every time I ran into one of them. Now, I am not saying there were no real Dom’s that came into Decadence because there were. It was just the ones that were attracted to me were all clueless douchebags that would go to porn stores and raid the kink section, and load up on leather whips and underwear. Then they would watch Japanese Kink movies like ‘Tokyo Decadence’ and come strutting into Decadence like they were at a Japanese Karaoke bar or something that catered to western audiences. Like I said, I got the pretenders.

  I had the real deal standing in front of me. The lead singer and frontman of Lethal Abel and his former band mate and one-half of Metal Insanity Elias Cain. Their live shows at Club Decadence were the stuff of legends.

  When Elias and Abel stepped onto the stage and plugged in, you never knew what the fuck was going to happen. It could be a Jimi Hendrix moment with two guitars on fire at the end of the set, or a tower of speakers blowing up and shorting out from the distortion and sheer volume.

  It was fucking nuts, and I loved every single minute of it. I got smart and started wearing earplugs after one particularly loud set. Elias slammed down on his guitar, and the sound was so loud it blew my hair straight back. They were constantly in a state of creation. The two of them fed off of each other. The rest of the bands were fillers, guys that would come and go to play bass and drums. The two constants, the alpha, and omega were Elias and Abel. They made Metal Insanity into a force to be reckoned with. I mean they were getting serious record label notice!

  Right after they graduated from UCLA, the band really took off. They were up and down the coast, playing bigger and bigger gigs, and picking up radio rotation and video and were selling CDs and DVDs faster than they could stock them and then suddenly… Elias got a call from his dad that it was time.

  He had enough time to sow his oats and be a free spirit, but it was time to come home and start training to run the company that his father had worked so hard to build. The company that every firstborn male of the Cain family inherited from their predecessor and that was Elias. I had never seen Elias and Abel go at it the way they did when he dropped the bomb about the phone call. Abel lost his shit. I mean the big gorilla really lost his shit!

  “Tell your old man to fuck off like I told mine, Elias. We have something good here. We are on the verge of writing our own ticket, and we don’t need their money or any of that shit. We are right fucking there man,” he had screamed. “We are getting shopped hard by all the labels. We are talking record deal, touring worldwide, it is all right in front of us man!” Abel continued to berate Elias.

  “I know Abel, believe me, I fucking know. There is no one else man. I’m the heir, and I gave my old man my word that when he called and told me it was time that I would do it. You know how I am about my word man.” Elias had told him quietly.

  Needless to say, their friendship really took a hit for a while. Abel eventually made some phone calls, and picked up the session musicians that had played with them over the years and formed “Lethal Abel.” He went his own way and came up with his own sound and image. It was completely separate from what they had together in Metal Insanity, and he had
been successful beyond his wildest dreams. He was a worldwide presence. He took the stage, and his fans knew what to expect. It was like a nail being driven right between the eyes! Abel and his band were a full on sonic assault on the senses.

  The shows were that good!

  That was why it was such a big fucking deal that he was going to open and play with us at The Fillmore. Shadow & Flame was coming up on that same point in our career that Metal Insanity had been.

  We have been playing bigger and bigger venues and I had been generating publicity (both good and bad) at an alarming rate. I couldn’t stand the Paparazzi! Nosey bastards had their cameras everywhere. I couldn’t go to the bathroom without one of them trying to get a shot.

  We were looking to sell out The Fillmore and blow away the owners. Once you start selling out larger and larger venues, then you could start getting a percentage of the gate, which meant you were successful. Abel knew what it meant to me to have him up here and with Elias no less. They hadn’t played together since UCLA, yet Metal Insanity still got regular rotation on the fringe metal stations on the net and college radio. Even after all these years, people still asked Abel if Elias and he would ever get back together.

  Royston had shown up at my house along with all of my band mates with the whole back of his car filled with Mexican Food and Tequila.

  Abel was going to only stay the night; they had already rented a house near me for their stay. It would give him some privacy and I knew that when he wasn’t on stage he loved his privacy. I could respect that.

  Elias and Genevieve wanted to stay with us. We hauled suitcases and food into my house and we ate and jammed until late. After the party had kind of died down, I was still good and drunk when I told them the entire story about my dreams that I had been having.

  Royston knew I was precognitive, so even drunk he still dialed into the conversation. As I started talking, it was like I had sucked the wind right out of the room. Thank God Misty had already gone to bed, and so had Genevieve and Gia. The band had crashed in the apartment over the garage already, so it was just the boys and me. I described the place, the creature, everything. Then I told them all about the follow-up dreams I was having. The ones that took place on the street. Abel suggested I write a fucking poem or a song about it. I went over to my piano and pulled a sheet out and handed it to him. Abel read the poem and handed it over to Elias and then it went to Royston. The look on Royston’s face was what really surprised me.

  “Have you been following the news?” he asked me.

  “No, unless it has something to do with music or when we are touring, I could care less. Why?” I asked.

  Now mind you we were all a little torn back, but Royston’s next comment started sobering me up quickly.

  “Well, it’s funny really. There has been quite a lot of killing going on lately. You remember, I am a bit of an amateur detective, and help the police from time to time when they need someone to get their hands dirty. Especially when it comes to computers and going into the deep net,” he said quietly.

  Elias interjected. “What the fuck is that Royston?” he asked.

  “It’s basically the dirty underside of the Internet, Elias. It’s the place no one talks about. It’s a place where everything is encrypted, where deals are done in Bit Currency, and you can pretty much get anything and everything seedy and dirty there for a price. Nothing is off the table,” Royston replied.

  Abel just looked at all of us and didn’t say a word. I could tell he was processing the conversation because it had gone from good times too fucking weird in a hurry.

  “You remember Mac and Reid? We see them a lot at Ava’s place, Del Mar’s?” Royston asked.

  “Yeah, I know them. Mac’s an SFPD detective, and Reid’s some kind of private investigator, right? I think that’s what Ava told me. What’s that got to do with my poem and dreams?” I asked with a little trepidation.

  “Well, I can’t divulge too much about what they are working on. But, your poem has certain elements both of them might find interesting,” he whispered.

  “You're shitting me, right?” I asked him incredulously.

  “My dear, I wish I was. You should go see them tomorrow at Del Mar’s. I’ll send a message to Mac and Reid telling them to look you up when you get there in the morning. Maybe you and Misty can ride your bikes up?” he said in all seriousness.

  Abel finally spoke. “That is a fucking trip, Royston! You're saying that Rhianna’s dreams have something to do with a murder investigation?” he growled.

  “I’m saying, there are some striking similarities in her poem and certain facts that I cannot divulge because of an agreement I signed,” Royston replied.

  Elias chimed in. “Abel, we can go hang out in the city for a while with the girls and let them take care of business,” Elias suggested.

  “I’m with you man, it’s been too long. Rhianna and Misty will be back before lunch, and we can all get-together and hang out after,” Abel replied.

  “Oh shit guys, I almost forgot. I didn’t want to show Misty this, but you guys are my family. You remember the dream? Remember when I told you about getting chased and I felt something push my back?” I asked them.

  Everyone was quiet except for Royston who looked around at the other guys before replying.

  “Yes Rhianna, we remember that part of the dream? Why do you ask!?” he whispered.

  “Well my back was hurting the next morning, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I went into the bathroom and took my shirt off, and I took some pictures you guys got to see?” My hands started shaking.

  I couldn’t work the iPhone. Royston reached over and grabbed it out of my hand, and I told him the code, and he brought up the IPhoto App.

  He flipped through the pictures, and I watched all the color go out of his face.

  “Bloody Hell,” he said.

  Elias grabbed the phone and looked, and his face got really grim, then he handed the phone to Abel.

  Abel took just one look. “Are you fucking serious? This is how you woke up, and your back was like this?” he growled again.

  “Look at all the pictures, it slowly disappeared, but I can’t explain what it was. I remember my Uncle’s stories about The Skinwalker,” I said to all of them.

  “You go see Mac and Reid tomorrow, Rhianna. And take Misty, I’ll do some research on your photos and story if you don’t mind?” Royston inquired.

  I nodded. Royston furiously typed a note into my phone and forwarded the pictures to his private email address along with the story.

  It was a hell of a way to end the night. We all went to sleep after that. Misty was curled up in a ball on one side of the bed. She had a grin from ear to ear. I was glad she was home. Maybe the dreams would abate now that she was here.

  Royston crashed on the couch in the living room. I could tell he was feeling a tad overprotective of us. I wasn’t complaining. It felt good to have him out there.

  I set the alarm on the nightstand for eight o’clock, and as I drifted off to sleep, I heard whistling again. I tossed and turned, but whatever I had fought the other night decided not to make an appearance.

  But if it wasn’t The Skinwalker that was whistling, then who was it?

  Chapter 6

  “My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems,

  give me work, give me the most abstruse

  cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am

  in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull

  routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.”

  ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle~

  ~Royston~ I hated the way my brain worked. It was fucking maddening at times. It was a constant parade of my subconscious and conscious mind locked in a gladiatorial duel of epic proportions, at least according to my ego, it was bloody epic. I longed for relief to shut the bloody voices up. Ah. There was the rub. If I were lucky enough to stop the incessant prattle, would I then cease to be Royston Munt? It makes you wo
nder just a wee bit!?

  I know, I know, the devil is in the details. I have laid awake at night staring out through the skylight in my loft in Haight-Ashbury with my mind all mucked up, asking myself these perplexities. All the while, the details of this case I was asked to quietly look at would weave around my noggin’ like a spider weaving the finest web. The silky gossamer strands would be shining in my mind’s eye, and I would be the daft one chasing the strands to and fro trying to fit the pieces together and solve the case.

  Of course, I am not one to be a braggart, but I do blame my parents for my incessant curiosity. Having a father, that was a detective in Scotland Yard, and a mother that was a forensic scientist in the criminal division of MI6 rather helped me along in my choice of profession later in life.

  I was a bit of a homely child, with a high degree of intelligence, but I couldn’t sit still and wait for life to come to me. No. That would have been far too easy. My parents gave me books at a very early age, and that became my way of not having to be social when I was younger. I skipped the beginning reading books and math and went straight to the more advanced books. I was hungry for knowledge, incessantly asking to be taught immediately, if I could not find the answer on my own.

  Once I had learned the solution, I would practice until I mastered whatever it was. Math, Reading, Spelling, Language, Gymnastics, Martial Arts, once it was in my sights, I wouldn’t stop until I had figured it out.

  My parents gave me my first Sherlock Holmes Book on my fifth birthday, and I was hooked. It was like I had taken a trip to the chemist and now was at the mercy of some evil concoction that you would give to drug addicts. I begged and pleaded for my dad to take me to the library and once there, I devoured entire wings of books. We were literally there every week, sometimes twice a week, taking piles of books home for me to read and absorb. I devoured everything I took a fancy too. I really loved mysteries and thrillers. I also loved adventure stories.