by John Conroe
“I'll see about getting some silver buckshot made for it.” He said.
“Don't bother, my team's armorer already has a huge supply of commercially made stuff.”
He nodded, reminded that my team was well aware of what prowled the dark.
The sun was streaming through the window and my stomach was calling attention to itself. “Hey, what say we grab some subs or something, and head over to Owls Head Park. Might not get another nice day like this for a while.”
He agreed and after I showered (still wasn't feeling clean enough) and threw on some jeans and a tee shirt, we headed out.
We got to the park by twelve thirty, bag of subs in hand and a big soda each. He had complained when I ordered two sea food subs, until he realized they were both for me. I ordered him his regular Italian meat combo.
“You really do eat a lot more now.” He said, a little amazed.
I swallowed a mouthful of seafood salad and replied.
“You should have seen me a few days ago. I'm actually slowing down, but I had to heal from some bumps and bruises and my body is craving the zinc in this imitation crabmeat.”
He snorted at that and took a bite of his own sandwich. About then I noticed a swirl of leaves about twenty feet behind him.
“Ah, Gramps, I want you to stay real still. Don't do any jumping around and don't have a heart attack, but you're about to meet one of my new friends I told you about.”
He froze in mid chew for a moment, then swallowed.
“I thought they slept during the day.”
“They do. You're about to meet Okwari.”
His eyes widened at the mention of the giant bear spirit I had filled him in on. An image of me and Lydia, followed by one of me and Tanya, and finally me and Okwari, flashed through my mind's eye. I spoke quietly to the blurry mass that was forming directly behind my grandfather. “Okwari, this is my Gramps.”
I played a series of memories through my head, figuring that would be the easiest way to convey my relationship to the man in front of me. A soft woof sounded just over Gramps shoulder and with eyes as wide as silver dollars, he turned to stare into nothing.
“Where is...?” he started to ask, but a big puff of moist bear breath blew back his hair as the giant made his presence known.
“Holy Mother of God, Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” my grandfather intoned. He wasn't cursing, but calling on his religion protectively. I took his right hand and gently set it on Okwari's barrel of a head, the images in my head telling me Gramps had nothing to fear. After a time the big beast folded himself onto the ground by our feet. Even lying down, his back was at least as high as the picnic table. He was sending me a series of messages about his neck and the awful itching it was causing him. I studied his neck with my Sight and when I looked real close I could see little spots of greasy black deep down, below the spot where his collar had been. I told my grandfather about it while experimentally using my left hand to draw one inky spot out.
“Probably residue from years of wearing the demon collar,” he speculated.
Gramps and I had spent years discussing the nature of the Hellbourne. I nodded my agreement. “I wonder if it would grow back on its own?” he continued.
I looked at him, thoroughly alarmed. The next forty minutes was spent painstakingly finding and removing every minuscule speck of black. Okwari would have purred if he had been feline in nature, rather than ursine. The images I was getting now was telling me we had a very sleepy and contented bear at our feet. By now, my adaptable grandfather had grown secure enough to rest his arm on the big furry, if invisible, back, that was sitting next to him. Luckily, we were far enough away from any other park goers to avoid arousing suspicions.
We spent the afternoon that way, Gramps filling me in on the news from home, Okwari curled up next to us. It was oddly satisfying to hear such vanilla happenings as tractor breakdowns, who was caught sleeping with whose wife and so on. A little after four, my cell buzzed with a text.
T: How's it going?
C: Great! I just introduced Gramps to the big, clear furry dude. We're at the park but heading back soon. Want to come over and meet him?
T: Is it safe?
C: Haha! He can't wait to meet you and Lydia.
T: Okay. See you in say twenty...thirty?
C: Thirty it is.
“Hey, now I'm nervous. What if your girl doesn't like me?”
“Plleeease! Like that could happen.”
Okwari woke up from his nap and after snuffling both Gramps and myself, slipped away in a column of air. We headed home, arriving back in only fifteen minutes. I was amused to see my grandfather sprucing up to meet Tanya.
Forty-two minutes after our text session, I felt Tanya's presence in the building. I looked at my grandfather and said softly. “They're here.” He gave me a look that said 'how do you know' and I said.”I got a Tanya sense. Hers for me is even stronger.” He looked a little wide eyed at that and then shrugged. What was one more piece of strange among so many others.
I answered the door before they could knock and ushered them in.
It took Tanya about four milliseconds to win my grandfather over. She entered wearing a blue sweater-dress over black tights, with a smile on her beautiful face, but also a hint of vulnerability. Game, set and match.
“Grandfather, may I introduce Tatiana Demidova and Lydia Chapman. Ladies, this is my grandfather, Alex Gordon.”
Lydia was wearing a green sweater and black slacks. She stepped forward to shake Gramps hand as Tanya gave her room. He looked stricken for just a moment, then collected himself and welcomed them.
“Miss Demidova, Miss Chapman, it's a pleasure to meet you both.”
“Please, Mr. Gordon, call me Tanya.”
“Yes and call me Lydia, although Chris calls me Pain in the Ass.”
“Christian!” he rounded on me, instantly won to their side.
I held up both hands. “Give her some time, Gramps, you'll see what I mean.”
“Oh please, Northern, like anyone of his obvious class will believe you.” Lydia snorted.
I gave up, realizing I couldn't win this one. There was a moment of awkward silence, then I spoke up.
“Ladies, I was thinking of taking my grandfather out for dinner. We could do that or order in, whatever you want.”
Tanya smiled, which had the immediate effect of causing my grandfather to have an erratic heartbeat.
“So, ladies, how goes the first day on the job?” I asked.
Lydia laughed and Tanya gave her a look then answered.
“It's going well. Arkady is doing a great job and no one has raised any problems.”
“That's because they're all too scared to blink. Everytime our girl here says jump, we gotta talk them down off the ceiling. And when the regular hangers-on heard we were coming to meet you, they evaporated.”
Gramps had recovered enough to look puzzled, so Lydia answered his unasked question.
“Your grandson is fast acquiring a reputation in the supernatural world. It seems like all manner of bad things can happen to bad monsters when he's around.”
He asked why, and the Lydia started to tell much more detailed versions of the events of the last week. Tanya and I picked a restaurant after only a little haggling. While they would only drink wine or water, the girls had definite ideas on the kind of ambiance they wanted. I offered to call a cab, but Lydia said it wouldn't be necessary and Tanya looked chagrined.
“Why not?” I asked.
“You don't think Arkady would let the 'Young Queen' as she is now known, to travel unescorted would you? The limo is waiting out front.”
So we took the big Mercedes limo to a trendy restaurant, one that I couldn't have got into without a SWAT team, but that magically had a prime table available at the mention of the Demidova name. Dinner was amazing, actually, dinners, because I ate three by myself, which provided great cover for the girls, who only sipped wine. But it was watching my grandfather talk with Lydia that
suddenly sunk home the reality of vampire lifespans. Lydia is only about sixty in vampire years, a mere child. But she was close to twenty when she was Turned and the combined total made her a few years older than Gramps. They had a ton in common and could talk about events and experiences that left Tanya and I out. Which was fine by us it gave us more time to be together. Finally, about nine o'clock, my grandfather who had been up for over eighteen hours started yawning.
“Ladies, my grandson's apartment is smaller than a shoebox. Do you think you could keep him overnight, so I can have the place to myself. He's really kind of a pain.”
Lydia laughed. “That's funny. I always compared his place to a litterbox.”
So, we dropped him off and I got to spend the night with Tanya. And oddly enough, when we walked in the door of the brownstone, the three vampires waiting to talk to Tanya took one look at me and decided their problems could wait.
“Cool, Tanya. Now we know how to get a night off whenever we want to,” Lydia said, just before she disappeared into her own suite.
Chapter 22
When I woke the next morning, it was with a contented sigh and not a pain or bruise anywhere on my body. So this was what it was like to wake up happy. I rolled over and snuggled close the warm female form, savoring the novelty of her presence. Tanya was deep asleep, as thoroughly sated as I, and tranquilized by daybreak. I lay there until nature called then padded to her bathroom, which was about the size of my apartment. After a quick shower, I dressed, kissed my snoozing vampire goodbye, left her a little love note and headed out. Mr. Deckert was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, a travel mug that smelled of coffee in one hand and aluminum foil wrapped bundle in the other.
“Morning, Officer Gordon,” he rumbled.
“Morning, Mr. Deckert,” I replied, my eyebrow arched in question as I looked at the coffee mug.
“Sensors indicated someone awake in the Young Queen's suite. Figured it had to be you. Thought you might like some coffee, and the morning cook made you an egg sandwich. The limo is waiting out front to take you wherever you need to go.”
He paused for a moment, as I had frozen on the stairs two steps from the bottom, stunned by his speech. He waited for me to make a response, obviously enjoying my surprise.
“Young Queen?” I asked.
“That's what they're all calling her now,” he shrugged.
“Limo?” I asked.
“Both Arkady and Lydia were very clear about your status in this household.”
Great, now if someone would just let me know what my status was.
There didn't seem to be anything to do but to accept the breakfast and free ride with as much good grace as I could muster.
The giant behind the wheel seemed vaguely familiar, then I realized he had been the guard in the garden, when I had been wrestling the Hellbourne on the patio. We didn't speak, other than me giving him my address.
Heading into my building, I no sooner hit the stairwell, than I could hear familiar voices on the second floor. I found Gramps chatting with Paige in the hallway outside my apartment, him with a paper under his arm and a Styrofoam cup of coffee, Paige in her running clothes.
“Hi Chris, I just met your grandfather,” she said with a smile.
The old man turned and arched one bushy gray eyebrow at me before adding, “Your delightful young neighbor was telling me all about the show you put on at that vampire club...what was it called?”
“Plasma. Yeah, Chris, we didn't get to see you much that night, but Kathy and I had the best time! The table you got us, our own hunky vampire to wait on us, the celebrities, and that fight scene! It was amazing! It looked so real,” she said. “But it was too fast, next time you need to have them slow the effects down or whatever. That part looked a little fake. But when the people at our table found out you are our neighbor, they started treating us like celebrities!” “Well, I'm glad you two had a good time. You got home okay? No problems?” I asked.
“The little spiky-haired girl who seems to run things insisted that we ride home in your girlfriend's limo! It was unreal.”
Gramps was looking at me in a bemused manner and I smiled and shrugged at her excitement. Paige blushed a little, then excused herself. “It was very nice to meet you Mr. Gordon. I need to get out on my run. Chris, thanks again for Halloween. I asked the spiky-haired girl what we should do to thank you and she laughed and said we should feed you? Anyway, so we'll be making you some homemade ziti and bread some night this week, as a start.”
“That sounds great. Lydia knows I like to eat, so she definitely steered you right. Have a good run.”
With a last goodbye, she headed down the hallway, while Gramps opened the apartment door. The futon was back in its couch position and the apartment looked tidy, so he had been up awhile. Farmers tend to rise with the sun, pretty much the natural opposite of vampires.
“So what do you want to do today?” I asked.
He looked at me with a gleam in his eye that warned of trouble.
“Well, Chris, the thing I want to do the very most is attend Mass at the Queen of All Saints church here in Brooklyn.”
I groaned. I may have mentioned it before, but I really don't like church. I've got so many issues with God that I want to avoid all of his houses. Being in the demon bashing business requires a certain amount of contact with clergy, but most of them know my views. Still, he had phrased his response in such a way that I pretty much had to comply. Not without a fight though, however small.
“Why?” I asked
“Well Chris, I've heard a great deal about that particular church and its stained glass windows from Father Davis back home. This may be my only remaining chance to see it.”
He was healthy as a horse, but whenever he wanted to fight dirty, he brought up his eminent demise.
I sighed. “All right. But I'm not getting dressed up.”
“Khakis and a polo?” he asked.
“I suppose. Hey! What about our bet?”
Without another word he handed me the two fifties from the table.
The Church of All Saints on Vanderbilt Avenue is spectacular. Modeled after the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, it has fourteen great stain glass windows, which contain two hundred and sixty biblical subjects from both the Old and New Testaments. Sitting in a pew and staring at profusion of stained glass scenes, I felt fairly insignificant. That people would put such love and passion, not to mention money, into the creation of a place of worship was a little humbling. My reverie was cut short by a call of nature. The Mass wouldn't start for fifteen minutes, so I excused myself, leaving Gramps in silent contemplation.
It took a few minutes, but I finally found the facilities. After accomplishing my task, I opened the door to leave and stopped in my tracks. A man was leaning against the wall, his ankles and arms crossed, one foot tapping impatiently.
“About time!” he said.
He was about six feet tall, athletic build, short curly blond hair and vivid blue eyes.
“Hey, I wasn't that long. And it was all business, not like I was reading in there or anything,” I said, just a touch defensive.
He looked confused for a moment, then shook his head in annoyance.
“No, not that. I've just been waiting for eons for you to step into a church. It's bad enough that I had to be the one to talk to you, but then it takes you like forever to show up.”
He stood up and I noticed he was wearing dark pants and a dark button down shirt, untucked. I'm not one to notice another man's looks or even begin to judge what women find attractive, but I had a real strong idea that this guy was the type that caused women to swoon. However, I had no idea what he was talking about, or what he wanted. He didn't seem dangerous, but I was learning swiftly not to prejudge these things.
“Look, buddy, I don't know who you think I am, but whoever he is, I'm not him.” I started to slide by him, but he was suddenly in front of me, which was troubling, because my enhanced eyesight could see old vampires moving at
speed.
He hadn't made even a blur. He frowned at me.
“Of course you are he. I mean you are certainly the him that I think you are.” He shook his head again. “I'm making a mess of this. But it's all very frustrating. I told Michael that I was the wrong choice. Briathos or Eae would have been better choices. They're both big fans of yours, what with all the demon bashing and all. But no, he says, 'you're guardian of Scorpios, Barbiel, you have to talk to him.”
I was thoroughly alarmed by his mention of demons and bashing, so I risked a quick view of him with my Sight. What I saw shocked me. His aura was almost equal parts silver and gold, colors I had never seen in an aura before. And bright, so bright I could barely look at him. Stunned by the sight, not knowing what else to do I just stared at him.
“So anyway, you're stuck with me,” he said with a sigh.
“But maybe you could stop into a church a little more often?”
I answered with the first thing that popped into mind, still completely bewildered by this exchange.
“I was just in a church the other day,” I said.
He wagged one elegant finger at me. “Uh ah! Funerals don't count. Particularly a police officer's. Michael would have my head if I had interfered with Officer Sanchez's service.”
My brain was reeling from his casual knowledge of my recent whereabouts.
“But anyway, you're here. Sooo...I'm supposed to tell you that you're doing a great job, but you need to be careful. Your powers and abilities will serve the Dark as easily as the Light. You mustn't let yourself get drawn down the Dark path. Also, you need to explore your powers. They can do so much more than you are using them for. For instance, they will heal as well as hurt, although you have been helping the bear. Oh, and congratulations on finding your other self. Well that's about it.” He looked immensely pleased with himself.
“Wait, what are you talking about? Who the hell are you?”
He instantly frowned. “Hey, that's not even remotely funny! I didn't say anything about you and Hell. Why would you insult me that way?” He was pretty mad.
