World of Azglen (Full Moon Series Book 1)

by P. Mattern

  “Hey Charley Rabbit - will you be my designated driver?” she giggled.

  “Of Course”, he assured her. ”Although what I’ll be driving later - and how and where I’ll be driving it, I’ll have to leave to your fertile imagination.”

  Cass laughed explosively, spitting out bits of food in his burst of merriment and saying, ”Well played, Charley Rabbit!”

  * * *

  Chapter 23: Dancing / Destiny

  The band had started playing its first set before they arrived at the Cavern, and the music, especially the throbbing hypnotic rhythm of the bass, reached out to them and pulled them inside.

  Bodies were wall to wall - the nightspot was the most popular in town, with humans and vampires alike.

  The décor was eclectic with a ‘Magic’ theme - paraphernalia from old time magic acts was displayed on high shelves and the walls even up to the high ceiling with its multicolored flashing recessed lighting. Authentic Houdini posters were hung on the walls. The group wound their way through gyrating bodies to the two tables near the stage reserved for the band and friends.

  Up on stage Lux was playing a double necked guitar while Orry crooned an edgy love song into the mike-he winked at the group as they seated themselves. Lux joined him in a duet to finish the chorus of the song, the drummer announced that the band would take a break, and they came down from the stage sweaty but exuberant. “Man, I’m out of practice!” Lux groused good naturedly, taking a sip of a beer.

  “What are you talking about?” Orry asked, doing the same, ”You’re just fishing for compliments, Lux. Okay, you KILLED it - I really mean it. And how did it feel to be back on stage?” Orry leaned back and threw his arm around Makenna, his brown eyes flashing with good humor and the satisfied air of a musical artist in his element.

  “It felt great, my friend,” Lux replied. ”I do feel rusty though. I miss it. I can’t believe I’ve been too busy lately to play.”

  “Yeah, and about that”, Cass interjected. “Are we - as a group - ever going to meet the mystery lady that is absorbing all of your time, energy and attentions?”

  Lux flushed and gave his brother a terse, fleeting warning look, ”All in good time. We have to get past the next phase of our collective Rescue endeavor first. Then I will reveal ALL.”

  Charley clapped Lux on the back, ”I’m happy for you man. She must be a very patient lady to wait for you while you’re otherwise occupied.”

  Lux seemed to look away into the distance for a moment, a smile playing around his lips, before he answered, ”That she is. She is one of a kind.”

  The disc jockey filling in while the band was on break put on a lively, rhythmic song that immediately reenergized the club. Fress and Merilee shot to their feet.

  “BOLLYWOOD!!” They screamed together, running to the dance floor. Fress was wearing a very short chartreuse Indian inspired silk dress and long gold dangling earrings that shone against her blueblack hair. Merilee, her wild sunflower hair creating a halo around her beautiful Nubian face was in a belly baring silk crop top edged at the bottom with dangling golden ‘coins’ and a Indian style wrapped silk skirt. The music was frenzied and seductive. Merilee and Fress danced around each other Masala style, their hips undulating, twirling and clapping their hands at intervals. Soon other dancers cleared a circle and paused to watch them move in intricate patterns around each other as though following the directions of an unseen choreographer.

  As the music reached a feverish pitch Fress and Merilee finished with an expertly executed demonstration of belly dancing that brought down the house. The patrons, Charley and the band members gave them a standing ovation.

  As the sweaty but jubilant dancers slid into their seats, Charley stared at Fress with a look of wonderment.

  “Fress - is there ANYTHING you can’t do? That was amazing! And you too Merilee - talk about having moves!”

  Merilee and Fress shared a look and giggled.

  “Oh there’s more where that came from. This is only a week night. Both Fress and I share a love of dancing - all kinds - from the jitterbug to ballet. We used to get together and practice a couple nights a week.”

  The band including Orry and Lux got back up on the stage to play the next set and Fress, Charley, Merilee, Cass, and Makenna went back on the dance floor to dance until the wee hours, their recent problems all but forgotten.

  * * *

  Yaya Wiscievisc was on his second day of travel, happily ensconced in the restaurant car of a train traveling across the Ukraine. When he told clients he was “tied up” it was a white lie, because after every completed “job” he always needed a little down time to recuperate - a ‘mini vacation’ if you will, and he had found slow travel to be the perfect restorative. Being in transit from one place to another was the only time he really relaxed and felt’ at home.’ The limbo of travelling from place to place reenergized him, gave him an interval in which to process the outcome of his last work and hours to plan his strategy for the challenge coming up. The rest that he got when traveling was always, deep, dreamless and deliciously sweet and in deep contrast to the truncated, nightmare festooned subsistence sleep he engaged in when working. After all, the world was a huge place, with many beings to protect, and many evils to protect them from.

  A waitress sidled up to the bench table he was sitting at, carrying a large silver tray that held the cold plate’ Jewish Mother’ luncheon special offered to first class travelers that arranged for Kosher meals in advance. There were five types of poached cold fish, all parve, matzo cracked pepper crackers, bagels and pickles as well as a plate of cheeses. The only item served hot, that he’d ordered as a side dish, was a plate of potato pancakes with a side of sour cream.

  “Are you sure all of this is Kosher?” Yaya said - pointing at the sumptuous spread with an accusatory finger, his side curls bobbing with the motion of the train.

  The Provodnista looked down at him in his bowler hat, dark suit and wire rimmed glasses and said patiently.

  “Yes sir, I’m sure. Will there be anything else for you?”

  “No, thank you.” Yaya responded, anxious to dismiss the attendant and get started on his meal. ”But please keep the coffee coming! And bring more cream if you would.” Manners were not Yaya’s strong suit, and he was well aware of this fact - but he was a generous tipper and if the waitress stayed on her toes she was in line for one. He took a moment to look around the Club Car at his fellow travelers. Two Caucasians in business suits were seated 2 rows up on the opposite side from where he was currently sitting. A red haired woman and a little girl two seats over on his side of the train. His eyes stopped to rest on the little girl-blonde, petite, whiny… and the trace of a smile played across his lips. She was a dead ringer for the small naked unconscious child he had snatched from a ritual sacrifice in Provence several months ago. To accomplish that job he’d had to infiltrate a satanic ring that had been kidnapping small children from the U.S. for over three decades. The rescue also involved 7th level Magick - which he could harness when he had to, though he considered it akin to a double headed serpent. At best it was a slippery weapon, one that could turn on you without warning. Few on the Light Team could cross the line without being affected - he was one of the few.

  He returned to his ‘person watching‘ hobby. As the door to the Club Car swung open a well-dressed couple entered, both carrying briefcases. The woman was imperially slim, tall and had her blonde hair coiled in a chignon; her companion was dark, Slovakian and seemed tense - they were seated just inside the door to the Club Car.

  Yaya shook his head. In all his three hundred years of travel he had never run into another African American Hasidic Jew.

  His last job, the one he had just finished, was really a tracking job for the Russians, to clean up an impending ecological mess due to several genetic mosaic prototypes escaping from an officially non - existent government laboratory. This one had required most of his repertoire of talents, and prevented loss of life that would have mad
e Chernobyl pale by comparison. It was his experience that mutated animals, when set free into the greater environment, had two missions - to feed themselves and procreate as rapidly as possible - with any animal that would hold still long enough to be impregnated. These creatures had been a particularly nasty mix, huge rat like creatures as big as dogs whose brains were nearly humanoid and could be prompted to certain behaviors by radio waves. The epiphanic bonus, one unforeseen by the creating scientists who had also included genetic material from dolphins, was that they could talk. Like cunning humans they endeared themselves to their custodians and waited for the right moment to stage an escape. That was a nasty, messy business that had necessitated Yaya’s going on a “pure” diet just to keep his strength up. His prescience and innate GPS abilities assisted him in locating the creatures and eliminating them one by one. The first few were easily picked off by a Ruskie sharpshooting team that had been assigned to work under his orders. The last three were worse case scenarios. One had gotten so far away he had to catch up to it by portal to eliminate it. The other two – impossibly - got comfortably far away and proceeded to breed with farm cats. In the end, the male rodent had begged and pleaded most eloquently for the life of his pregnant, tearful, mate.

  But miscreants were miscreants - and their dolphin voices had been annoyingly nasally. Yaya hadn’t hesitated to put them out of their mutated misery.

  Yaya shook his head, remembering, biting into the cold poached salmon. Any time men tried to play God it usually turned out disastrously. But play they would.

  * * *

  Chapter 24: Explanations

  Byron, having been summoned to the private chambers of Adrastos, dressed casually in comfortable brown suede leather breeches and an ecru silk shirt, open to the waist. He wore an amulet Adrastos had given him - platinum in an ornate design with a single cabochon ruby held onto his neck by a sturdy chain. All the higher ups in Adrastos’ emply wore the amulet, so when it had been conferred on Byron he welcomed it as an honor. His initial naive assessment had been modified when he had attempted to take it off - immediately he felt a searing pain as tiny forks of electricity emanated from the necklace and caused slight burns on his neck and chest. Since then he had surmised, too late, that it was, if not a way for Adrastos to control his underlings, some sort of tracking device so that he could always know their whereabouts.

  His employer however greeted him warmly as he entered the chamber, where a roaring fire emanated welcome heat against the chill of the stone walls. He took a seat, after bowing slightly in respect and deference.

  “Ah - Byron Chance. I wanted to bring you up to date on our most recent adventures here at Faquier Hall. I am sure that you are not aware that we had visitors earlier today.”

  Byron sat up straighter. ”Who?”

  Adrastos smiled. ”Some of your ‘friends’actually, Charley Rabbit and company.”

  Byron seemed completely perplexed.

  “But why would they travel here? Are they working for you too?”

  Adrastos’ laughter echoed through the chamber and out into the darkened hallways. “Quite the opposite. They came to retrieve something they thought I had taken from them. Mitzi Rabbit, Charley’s mother.“ He answered quietly.

  Byron’s eyes opened wider. ”Mitzi is… HERE?” he said in a quasi - gasp.

  Adrastos nearly pouted. ”Are you not yet recovered from your stunning? You assisted Feck in bringing her here upon my orders.”

  “Feck - oh, the demon that you infected me with.” Byron said thoughtfully. He could scarcely breathe, but realized that it was a pivotal moment. If he had truly participated in the heinous event Adrastos was describing so nonchalantly, he had alienated the only friends he had ever made. If he indicated any shock or displeasure in his participation in Mitzi’s kidnapping, Adrastos would have him destroyed. What he said aloud, in as even a tone as he could muster, was,

  “Well, having been infected, I don’t remember. But glad it worked out to your satisfaction. She wasn’t hurt, was she?”

  Adrastos seemed to settle back and relax, sipping blood from a clear glass etched with the crest of Faquier Hall.

  “Not at all. And I believe she is accommodating quite nicely to her new surroundings.”

  Byron cleared his throat. ”Any chance I could see her?” Just asking the question was a risk, but one he had to take. He needed to let Mitzi know that he never meant to kidnap her, that he was acting under demonic influence…

  Adrastos laughed lightly, ”Well you can visit her if you like, but I fear your reception will be a chilly one. As far as she is concerned, she was kidnapped by you.”

  Byron decided to change the subject while he had permission to speak with her, ”Is she staying permanently?”

  Adrastos chuckled, ”She will be staying until I convince her to remain with me forever. And then she’ll be staying even longer.” He smiled fondly as he gazed into the fire. ”I know you are wondering why I am interested in her. The truth is that it took me centuries to realize that her existence was a possibility. She is the direct decendant of a woman of the same name that I loved very long ago. A woman that loved me so much that she was willing to be ‘turned’ so that our love could become immortal.” He looked over at Byron dismissively. ”I’m sure as young and untried as you are that it is difficult for you to relate to the concept of such deep devotion. But I assure you, once you have experienced it, nothing else will do.

  “This is why Mitzi - Parmitsvia is her full, given name, after the woman I loved so long ago - will become my queen.”

  Something occurred to Byron, and he asked,

  “Have you tasted her?”

  Adrastos answered with a conspirital smile. “The bouquet is still there, rather strongly. I was the one that took her blood’s virginity some months ago, though I chose not to reveal myself at that time. The experience was heavenly, intoxicating.”

  He frowned slightly before continuing,

  “I found, sometime after her arrival, much to my consternation that she has been twice - bitten by another vampire. I assume this was because of her determination to join her son in immortality… and I have forgiven her indiscretion which was based on motherly devotion rather than an attempt to defile herself.

  But I am counting the days until I can make her a thrice - bitten as I am. Then she will belong to me for eternity and beyond.

  Byron shifted in his seat and allowed his host to pour him another glass of blood.

  “You will need her permission for that”, he said, ”Is she willing?”

  Adrastos waved a hand in the air. ”I am counting on my charm, my wealth, and my formidable powers of persuasion. It will be accomplished. I am a patient creature, and I always get what I want.”

  Within a few minutes of leaving Adrastos, Byron was casually strolling the halls of the castle. By his calculations, Adrastos would certainly keep Mitzi close to his own quarters, probably with attendants and guards stationed around her. Well, he was in the top tier of Adrastos’ henchmen and free to wander as he pleased.

  And he was determined to locate her. Whether he could convince her to trust him - or leave with him - was another matter.

  As he was walking he saw ahead of himself one of the ‘wet nurses’ - a different one than the one he’d spent most of the day with. Catching up with her he spoke with authority.

  “What is your name girl?”

  The wet nurse first looked at his amulet, then swallowed hard and, keeping her eyes downcast, answered, ”Buttercup, sir.”

  “Buttercup I need you to take me to the Lady Parmitsvia’s chambers.”

  “Right this way”, the young woman answered, ”I was just going there myself. The lady likes to feed at this time, and I am her favorite.” The girl added a slight note of pride in her voice.

  The chamber Byron entered was located down a very narrow hall that he would have missed if he had continued to search by himself. The long hallway was so narrow that Byron and the wet nurse could not w
alk side by side, but continued single file until all at once they reached a huge cavernous, anteroom that contained several alcoves. At one end of the room was a huge pool, bubbling and steaming. At the other end, some ornate gilded furniture and a large fireplace. Mitzi was nowhere to be seen. Byron turned to the wet nurse, ”Tell your mistress she has a visitor.”

  The girl nodded in assent and disappeared around a corner of one of the alcoves. A few minutes passed. Finally Mitzi appeared, her head down, intently reading a book that she held in both her hands. Her much longer strawberry blonde hair was gathered in a bun with pearl strewn netting keeping it in place. Mitzi was wearing a white dress, likewise strewn with pearls, that was fastened closed with a single tasseled gold belt and golden slippers. It wasn’t difficult to imagine why Adrastos would want her to become his queen.

  Mitzi looked up and first saw Byron’s face from a distance of 15 feet. Tossing her book aside she closed the distance between them in nano seconds and began beating him savagely with her arms and hands windmill style. ‘Like a 3 year old’ Byron commented to himself.

  “I trusted you”, she was screaming, ”I want to go home!”

  Byron held her away from him so that her shorter arms failed to deliver any more blows. “Nice to see you too!” he responded sarcastically as Mitzi continued to surge forward against him, ”How long do I have to wait before you get tired of trying to pummel me to death and you want to listen to my explanation of why we’re here. It isn’t what you think Mitzi, I promise you!”

  It took about three more minutes of diatribe and fight before Mitzi suddenly stopped. “You’ve got exactly two minutes to tell me something, ANYTHING that will change my mind about you! I hate you, Byron Chance!”

  “As well you should, “he said unhanding her but keeping his guard up in case she decided to go off again.” Based on what you know, I don’t blame you.I would hate me too.”

  “YOU WORK FOR ADRASTOS,” Mitzi said accusingly.