Reborn

by Thomas A. Watson

  “They all die slow and with much pain, on this, I vow,” Tiffany growled as her face started turning red. Her breathing increased as the rage built inside of her. The room started shaking and Besseta realized it wasn’t the room; it was the house.

  “Tiffany!” she yelled, jumping over Kenneth and grabbing Tiffany’s shoulders. “We will. I swear to you on my life, but don’t make the house fall on us! Kenneth’s too weak and the dogs will die.”

  The house stopped shaking as Tiffany slowly let the power that was building up in her mind go, but the rage remained. “Sorry,” she said through clenched teeth.

  “Hey, I’m just thinking of the babies. I’m totally with you on getting inquisition-style retribution on their ass,” Besseta told her.

  “Tiffany,” Kenneth called out just above a whisper.

  They moved back over and with his eyes closed, Kenneth held up his hand, Tiffany was a little scared to take it, afraid of what she would see this time, but she placed her hand in his. As his hand closed around hers, Tiffany sighed, thankful another ride wasn’t in order. “What is it, Kenneth? You need to rest. We’ll talk when you wake,” she told him with a forced smile.

  He opened his eyes, looking at her. “Relax,” he whispered. “If you do this while your heart burns, you will make a mistake and they will go free from your revenge and vengeance will not be had.” Tiffany took a slow breath and was about to speak, but Kenneth spoke first. “Relax,” he whispered softly.

  The rage slowly left Tiffany, but the anger remained. “You need to quit it,” she smiled for real. “It’s not nice to change a girl’s emotions.”

  Feeling drained, Kenneth let her hand go, closing his eyes. “If you would’ve attacked them like that, they would’ve killed you before you got near them,” he whispered, barely audible. ‘They fear you’ Kenneth said in her mind. ‘That was why they killed your husband. They wanted you to kill yourself, so they wouldn’t have to. That is why your husband died.’

  As tears rolled down her face, Tiffany closed her eyes and laid her head on Kenneth’s chest. “He died because of me,” she wailed out.

  ‘No,’ Kenneth said in her mind. ‘They knew you two were hunting them with Maliki, after they’d killed one. Maliki took the blame, but they both killed it. Maliki didn’t want the cubus coming after you two for revenge, so he told everyone he did it. Herotho didn’t want him to, but was afraid of putting you in danger, so he agreed. The cubus killed him because they knew if they faced both you and Herotho’s ability to control metal, many of them would die before they could kill you. We will kill them, I assure you, I will personally make sure you get the one responsible.’

  Lifting her head up, she kissed Kenneth’s forehead, who looked like he was sound asleep. “Rest now, Kenneth,” she said, standing up. “I owe you more than you will ever know for letting me know this. I will try my best to repay this debt until I’m satisfied it is fulfilled.”

  ‘No, I still owe you,’ he said in her mind. ‘You wiped my butt. I can’t believe my wife would do that to me.’

  The tension from her body vanished as Tiffany threw her head back laughing, as did Besseta. “It wasn’t that bad,” Tiffany howled. It was a few minutes until she stopped laughing and Tiffany reached over, rubbing the top of Kenneth’s head. “Thank you, but now rest, you will need to feed when you wake.”

  ‘I will, and one last thing,’ Kenneth’s mind called out. ‘I didn’t cry when the bug hit Eleanor.’

  A smile was on Tiffany’s face and turned into a grin as she leaned over, kissing Kenneth’s forehead again. “Yes, you did, for almost an hour as you scrubbed the car down,” she whispered.

  Chapter Seven

  They sat with Kenneth until Besseta looked up at Tiffany and nodded. Leaving Bonnie and Clyde with Kenneth as he slept, they quietly went downstairs. After cleaning the bloody sweat spot up, they went back to the liquor cabinet, grabbing a bottle each.

  Before they’d sat down on the couch, Tiffany had drunk half of hers. “I can’t believe, all this time, I thought he killed himself,” she moaned, sitting down. “I really thought Elizabeth just said that to make me mad; which it did.”

  Taking the cap off her bottle, “Well to be honest, you aren’t a detective and Kenneth is,” Besseta said, taking a swig. Making a face as she swallowed before taking the bottle away, “I listened to Kenneth’s thoughts as I put him in bed. He kept thinking the scene hadn’t looked right. He replayed it several times, then found out he could link with Herotho and confirmed it.”

  Nodding her head and dumbfounded, “Yeah, he read and looked through someone’s mind that’s been dead for a millennia. I just can’t figure out how. That is some form of astral projection,” Tiffany said.

  “We’ll ask him when he wakes up,” Besseta said, taking another swig. “We need to get more liquor.”

  Holding up her bottle, “Don’t get this stuff from Tennessee; it’s nasty,” Tiffany said.

  Nodding, “This has definitely been a shock to the system,” Besseta said, taking another swig as Tiffany finished draining her bottle. “Can I ask, why you and Herotho talked about suicide?”

  Tiffany smiled. “You remember everything you saw through my eyes?”

  “Yes, Tafka,” Besseta said with a small smile, using the name Tiffany had been born with, as she passed Tiffany her bottle.

  Taking the bottle, Tiffany turned and looked off into space. “I haven’t thought of that name since Herotho died. My name was starting to draw attention, so I changed it. It means almost the same as my birth name. Tafka, is ‘appearance of nature’ and Tiffany, ‘the appearance of God’. Tiffany is the fourth name I’ve gone by, but they all meant more or less the same.”

  Lifting the bottle, Tiffany took a swallow and continued looking off into space. “We talked about how to do it if we were ever forced into a losing situation, since we were hunting cubus. Most of our kind take that way; the drinking of mercury. Some of the more foolhardy will guillotine themselves, but you can’t be certain it will work,” Tiffany said and looked over at Besseta.

  “Since you heard it, you know Herotho was a little down when I’d left and didn’t want me to go. But we needed information on the cubus, so I headed to Alexandria. I didn’t want him to come because when vampires travel together it draws attention, and we didn’t want that. Plus, I’m much better at research. He begged me not to go and I didn’t listen. When I returned, I just figured the depression had gotten to him,” Tiffany said, ending with tears rolling out of her eyes.

  Besseta scooted over until she was snuggled up to Tiffany’s side. “With what you had, I would’ve thought the same thing,” Besseta assured her.

  “I’ve been furious for so long at him and now, I know he didn’t leave me; he was taken,” Tiffany said with a whimper.

  Reaching up, Besseta pulled Tiffany’s head down, letting her cry on her shoulder. “Now, you know the truth, so that’s all that matters,” Besseta told her, rubbing her shoulder.

  “If this is just the start of Kenneth’s ability, I can’t even begin to think where it will go,” Tiffany sniffled, lifting her head up. “He can show his ability. He can go back in memories and go to people who were touched in that memory. He-,” Tiffany stopped, shaking her head. “Hell, he is doing stuff I can’t even imagine, much less label.”

  With a forced chuckle, “Trust Kenneth to break the mold,” Besseta smirked.

  “It was right there in front of us, you know,” Tiffany said, taking a swig. Besseta leaned forward and looked back at her, not understanding. “Remember Kenneth saying when he was at a crime scene, he could picture what had happened? Like he could see through the victim’s and killer’s eyes?” she asked and Besseta slowly nodded. “How he got the dogs to let us near them? How he was able to ‘feel’ those men chasing us, even with them some blocks away? He was showing us then,” Tiffany explained, then took a long swig. “It was on the fringes of his mortal self and when the virus hit his body, Kenneth’s perception changed an
d unlocked his full potential.”

  Thinking about that, Besseta’s eyes got wide. “I never made the connection.”

  “You haven’t been studying this as long as I have,” Tiffany said, looking at the almost empty bottle and passing it back to Besseta.

  Shaking her head on hearing that, “Yeah, about that,” Besseta said, getting serious, “you dissected vampires to study them?”

  “Well, yeah,” Tiffany shrugged as Besseta emptied the bottle. “They were jerks, anyway.”

  “I knew Henry, and yes, he was a first-class ass,” Besseta agreed.

  Tiffany smiled. “Yes, he and William were good friends. In truth, I was after William, but Henry was there and science mustn’t wait, so he got to be the test subject.”

  “I can’t believe you were going to dissect Bereno,” Besseta chuckled.

  “You act like I’m still not going to,” Tiffany replied with a blank face.

  Laughing, Besseta stood up and disappeared for brief second, then reappeared holding two bottles of wine. “Well, you’re going to have to talk to Kenneth,” she said, handing over one of the bottles. “He wants to beat Bereno to death, and I’m not supposed to get mad at the sorry ass slut that dumped him after his family was murdered.”

  Using her teeth, Tiffany pulled the cork out. “Well, you and I could go on a vacation,” Tiffany offered.

  Letting out a sigh, “Kenneth said she apologized and asked for forgiveness, then begged for me not to skin the bitch alive, saying it would hurt her family,” Besseta moaned.

  “Well, in Kenneth’s defense, I have to agree with him,” Tiffany said, earning a sneer from Besseta. “That doesn’t mean we can’t destroy her car and leave her a message, letting her know that we let her live only because of her apology. But, we felt some form of punishment was in order.”

  Thinking about that as she pulled the cork out of her bottle, Besseta nodded. “I like that.”

  “We should handle that first, before we take on the cubus,” Tiffany said, drinking the wine straight from the bottle. “The skanky ass whore may be dead, if we wait until we’re finished with cubus.”

  Really liking the sound of that, Besseta grinned. “We can wait until Kenneth is better, then take off.”

  “You know where she lives?”

  “Phoenix,” Besseta nodded. “Kenneth doesn’t know she moved.”

  “When we do this, we must get back soon,” Tiffany said, setting her bottle on the coffee table. “You calm his mind.”

  Sitting up, Besseta put her bottle next to Tiffany’s. “Yeah, I don’t know how, but I take the-,” she paused, trying to think of a word. “Stuff,” she finally offered. “The stuff making his mind run away and he calms down.”

  Shaking her head, “I swear, it’s like you two are one person,” Tiffany mumbled. “He can’t read your mind, you know. He can only hear your thoughts like what you described.”

  Besseta nodded. “He told me.”

  “He tried,” Tiffany grinned. “He wanted to know how Bereno treated you, so he would know how long to keep him alive.”

  Besseta jumped up. “How the hell do you know that?”

  “I heard it as Kenneth was holding images in my mind. He really wants to know, then sometimes not really, because he’s ashamed of what he’ll do,” Tiffany confessed, picking up her bottle. “He wants to know if Bereno ever apologized. He can feel your thoughts like you can others, but what lies deeper in you is a mystery to him. Yet, you can read deep into him and only him. It doesn’t make sense.”

  Stomping her foot, Besseta strode into the kitchen, making all kinds of noise while Tiffany just sat drinking her wine. When Besseta came back she was still pissed, snatching up her bottle and taking a long pull. After several long gulps, she took the bottle away and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. “He’s blocking his thoughts,” she growled.

  “You are too, so don’t be mad about that,” Tiffany giggled.

  Jumping up and stomping both feet, “I’m allowed,” she snapped. “I’ll eventually tell him what I’m blocking, but I’ll have to ask him, you know, how long that will take.”

  “Stop being selfish. He only blocks what will make you upset, as you do for him,” Tiffany told her, still smiling.

  Letting out a sigh, “I know, but damn it, I really want that bitch’s ass,” Besseta said, taking a drink and then putting the bottle down. “He’s waking. I put a bag of blood in a bowl of warm water. Will you pour a glass of how much you think he needs?”

  Tiffany nodded and Besseta vanished, appearing beside Kenneth as he slowly opened his eyes. “Hey, baby,” he groaned, stretching his arms over his head. Bonnie and Clyde jumped up, licking his face. “No kisses, you two. Your breath stinks.”

  Leaning over, Besseta picked the dogs up, putting them on the floor. “Go eat,” she said, pointing to the door and the two took off. Turning back to Kenneth, “Feel better?” she asked, sitting down beside him.

  “Much,” he smiled, sitting up. “Love you.”

  She returned his smile. “Always.”

  Kenneth dropped his smile. “Is Tiffany hurt in any way, like her feelings, about what I did?” he asked with a worried tone. “I didn’t mean to, I swear, it just happened. I was thinkin-,” he stopped as Besseta held up her hand.

  “I know why, I heard your thoughts before your body locked up, and I told Tiffany,” Besseta told him. “She’s not mad at you. To be honest, she’s way beyond grateful to you for what you showed her.”

  Kenneth kissed her lips as he scooted to the edge of the bed, “How she found him, just didn’t look right.”

  “Yes, I told her,” Besseta said. “How did you know you could link with someone who’d died?”

  “Tried it,” Kenneth said, slowly standing. “After you put me in the bed and I grabbed Tiffany, I found out the vision was much stronger and I could move about it easier than looking at her.”

  Besseta jumped up, but didn’t help as Kenneth moved toward the closet. She just stayed close. “Go slow, baby,” she said, standing in the door of the closet.

  “I am,” he said, then sniffed. “Oh man, that smells good.” Besseta smiled, smelling the blood. “Sorry about the dinosaur,” he said, putting on jogging pants.

  Caught off guard, it still gave Besseta a startle, “How? I’ve been blocking that,” she admitted.

  “As you were joining me on that little ride with Tiffany, you were hoping the dinosaur wasn’t going to be there,” Kenneth said, grabbing a shirt.

  Nodding that he was right, “I didn’t want you to feel bad,” Besseta confessed.

  Now that she wasn’t blocking, Kenneth cringed. “I can’t believe I screamed like that and wet the bed.”

  “Hey!” she shouted. “I’m a vampire and have been for almost a thousand years and I wet my pants, seeing that big ass lizard coming at us. When he snorted, blowing my hair, I wanted to run until I died, so if he caught me I wouldn’t feel anything.”

  Walking over, Kenneth hugged her. “I’m sorry about that.”

  “I’m not,” she said, buried in his chest. “I want to know what’s going on,” she told him. “Did you mean to grab my arm with Tiffany?”

  He nodded his head. “Yes,” he admitted. “I was hoping it would break the vision.”

  She looked up. “So, you figured out that I help keep your mind at ease.”

  “Hell, I knew that, the day I met you on the beach. When you stepped close, I felt peace inside,” Kenneth said, then kissed her. Breaking the kiss, “Please don’t drink Wild Turkey and red wine together, and not tell me beforehand,” he said, wiping his tongue off with his hand.

  “Hey, you should’ve smelled it.”

  “I smelled liquor. I didn’t know it was Wild Turkey,” Kenneth said. “Those two definitely don’t mix.”

  “Not my fault. The liquor cabinet is getting empty.”

  Grabbing her hand, “We’ll get more tomorrow, then,” he said, walking out of the bedroom.

  They fo
und Tiffany on the couch, talking to the puppies and Bonnie and Clyde, with two empty bottles of wine on the coffee table. “Hey,” Kenneth said, as they walked around the couch.

  With her head wobbling on her shoulders Tiffany gave him a weird grin. “Hey, yourself, big boy,” she slurred, getting up. “Feeling better?”

  “Much,” Kenneth said and she stumbled over and gave him a hug.

  “Thank you again,” she said, letting him go and then walked to the kitchen. “Can you tell me how you knew about the cubus’ plans? You didn’t read the one that touched Herotho.”

  “I couldn’t read him, but I heard his thoughts in Herotho’s mind. I tried pushing into his mind, but couldn’t,” Kenneth said, sitting down. “You know him,” he called out as she entered the kitchen.

  A wind blew, and Tiffany was standing in front of Kenneth. “What?”

  “You met that one in Jerusalem,” Kenneth told her.

  Shaking her head, “No, he didn’t look like that. I would remember him anywhere.”

  “They can change their appearance and can even look like the opposite sex. It takes them some time, but they do it frequently. That one, copied someone Herotho knew in a village nearby,” Kenneth said. “They don’t like being remembered.”

  “That motherfucker!” Tiffany screamed, sending the puppies to dig under a cushion and Bonnie and Clyde into Besseta’s lap. “I should’ve boiled the son-of-a-bitch in oil when I had the chance!”

  Kenneth watched her spin around, stomping off into the kitchen. “Knew she wouldn’t take that well,” he mumbled, looking at the stone floor and expecting to see cracks.

  “Babe, you just told her, she met her husband’s killer. How was she supposed to act?” Besseta asked.

  “I was hoping she caught his voice, they can’t alter it much.”

  Shaking her head and smiling, “You’re a detective, through and through,” Besseta said.

  Tiffany came back, carrying three mugs. “Here,” she grumbled, handing them each one. This time, Kenneth drained his without coaxing.