Matthias

by Ariana Kenny

  ******

  Cam and Russell led Violet and I to the church, while Cassie and Elias returned to Myria's place to pick up supplies. Cassie offered to go to Myria and Russell’s place against my wishes, but only because she was the only one who knew where both places were. I went with Violet as, if there was a fight, we were the two most capable of protecting Myria. It was the least I could do for Cam.

  At the steps of what clearly used to be a church I hesitated. Multiple vampire tales washed through my head and I imagined writhing in pain, burning skin. I was lost in the thought when Violet knocked into my shoulder to bring me to. "Don't be so worried, you aren't about to burst into flames" she laughed. "At least not in this church."

  "What does that even mean? What church is this anyway?" I stared at the remnants located in an open field of what I imagined used to be a small farming community on the outskirts of town. The church had clearly been long abandoned, broken down, charred and with barely the basement surviving. We were about to climb through rubble into the basement as I wondered about the history of this place, and where Myria might be. This place was cold, lifeless. Why someone would run here for safety was beyond me.

  "This used to be my church" Russell noted in response to my question. "The pastor here took me in, I would help with collections, donations, play the organ.... Those things you do to fit in and earn your keep. He was a nice man until he died. When he did - die that is - the church was mostly burnt then left in ruin. That was a little over 100 years ago. I always thought I should rebuild it..... Just never got around to it."

  I regarded him with even more curiosity than before. "So what's your deal then? You aren't a vampire, I can hear your heart beating. How can you be around for so long? You are pretty stealthy when you move too, just not entirely like us." Russell smiled. I was pleased to get some kind of reaction from his stoic front.

  "Magic...." he toyed.

  "Magic?.... Care to elaborate?"

  "Cam and I used to have a mutual friend, a vampire - Maurice. He dabbled, then got serious with magic."

  Cam took over as we reached the last step and entered the surprisingly expansive stone basement.

  "It almost took him over more than once, but when we moved into town he promised to try and start fresh. He and I even tried to be part of the community here.... until he was found out. All credit to him, he actually didn't do anything terrible of course, but you know how scared people can get of what they don't know. Anything bad got blamed on him including the pastor dying of natural causes. Then they drove him in here one day and burned him. Russell was the only one, you see, who tried to tell them Maurice wasn't the cause of all their woes. So they threw Russell in to the place too."

  As Cam lit wall torches I caught a glimpse of something. A glimmer only, but dismissed it, as I obliged Russell who was finishing the story: "I still don’t know how, but in exchange for my support, rather than see me die too, Maurice made it so I would survive. I woke up 50 miles away, heart still beating, but ..... Not quite the same. When I came back into town Cam talked me out of staying here. Given I wanted to live, I needed to get out of the place before people realised I wasn’t quite dead. Never found myself going too far though."

  "I would have headed for the hills." I replied looking around curiously in the half light. "Hey, Cam. The friend you were talking about. Was he the reason Belil sent you away. Like Violet was?” She gave a half smile remembering something from her past. I took a cue and changed the topic. “There's nothing here, and if Myria is here, she is doing a hell of a fine job of hiding." Cam and Russell smiled in unison at each other as though I was an amusing child.

  Russell threw three small vials against opposing walls smashing them unceremoniously. Flames licked the walls, flaring as though sparked by a wind. The shimmer reappeared, glimmering, gaining substance and then Myria appeared breaking through nothingness. She seemed older somehow, not by much, but enough that I had to think twice about how long it had been since I saw her last.

  Myria rushed forward to hug Cam, then Russell. When she saw me she looked saddened and came up to touch my face. When she touched my skin she pulled back - from the cold maybe. She put her arms around me and whispered "I am so sorry. When I heard what happened to you I cried. But it's OK. I have a plan." I pulled back confused but Violet chimed in before I could get anything clarified.

  "Don't I get a ‘hello’ anymore?" she asked feigning hurt.

  "Well you never visited me. You've been back a nearly a year, and nothing!"

  "It's amazing, how much you've grown." Violet seemed in actual awe. Myria moved towards her smiling.

  "It has been a very long while. I must have been like eight when I saw you last. Aunt Violet."

  Violet shuddered in mock horror from the reference. "Seven actually little one." Myria gave a fake death stare before they broke off the charade and embraced. Myria placed her hands on the top of Violet's head.

  "Whatever. All I remember is how pretty you looked in red hair." Myria's hands swept down Violet's hair and it changed to deep red. Violet laughed and shook her head.

  "Are you going to even pretend this is a serious situation?" asked Cam.

  As if on cue, Elias arrived. He seemed breathless and had an aura around him of agitation.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  "I hate the man. He is one of the most irritating people I ever met!” came the reply from Elias. Elias spoke with utter menace in his voice. I furrowed my brow but then Cassie arrived with Viktor in tow and it became clear what had happened. Though I relaxed when seeing Viktor, Elias was far from calm about the situation. With his skill at sensing peoples intentions and emotions I could only guess why. Viktor dropped a medium chest at his feet.

  "Hey!" barked Myria at the treatment of her prized possession.

  "What brings you here?" Violet confronted Viktor moving to the forefront at meet him.

  "I hear a man has to have a conscience." he smirked back. "You look great in red by the way." Violet made a fake gag motion.

  "He just turned up saying he wanted to help. Saying Michael was looking for us." Elias hissed. He sounded less than convinced.

  From over by the door, Cassie gave me a look I could recognise without a word and I made my way over to her, leaving the others to sort out what they needed to. We exited in to what could have once been a well kept rose garden. A few large stumps and stone edging were all that was left, shining in the moonlight, breaking the darkness. I pulled her to me and kissed her, glad to feel her close. She looked up at me with a delicious pout on her lips.

  "What is it?" I asked but Cassie was silent. "My love!" I urged. “Cassandra! What is it?."

  She finally broke her silence. "She had all this stuff on you Matt. Something isn't right."

  "What?" I asked genuinely confused.

  "We went to Myria's place to pick up the chest. I opened the wrong one. It has all these photos, a couple of your shirts. Matt. Something isn't right at all. I can't trust her." I was relieved. I had thought something was actually wrong. I took Cassie by the shoulders and tried to reassure her.

  "She has a crush. That's all...Relax."

  "She may look like a child but she's powerful. Don't underestimate her." Cassie looked even more serious now.

  "I won't." I responded as Cassie clutched me.

  "We should go back in." she ventured reluctantly.

  "We should - before they start killing each other. But things are getting cramped in there." We walked towards the entrance in each other’s arms.

  "You don't seem surprised Viktor is here." Cassie commented.

  "I'm not really surprised at all. He seems to like getting punished by Violet. It's what Elias does next that's going to be really interesting." When she smiled I felt like I eased her fears and already I was better grounded and more ready to see what came next.

  Russell, Camille, Myria, Violet, Elias, Cassandra and myself. What a clan we made I thought to myself when we ventured
back inside and saw them all. Violet and Cam had an arsenal of weaponry laid out on a lone stone makeshift bench made from fallen sandstone blocks. Underneath a floor stone they had wrenched up, they had produced silver stakes, crossbows and three shotguns. Violet was calibrating the crossbow, while Elias and Russell were prepping shotguns.

  Cassie wandered over and took up a box with leather straps designed to hold a variety of weapons. She secured a belt and a thigh strap and placed a couple of stakes and a long dagger in the holder. I was in the thick of it immediately. Cassie strapped me up, securing a blade to my calf under my jeans, and kitting me out with a belt that accommodated a gun, a hunting knife and room to spare.

  From the retrieved box Myria proudly presented an array of tools, laying them out across the stone bench, while she ground several different herbs together with a pestle in her lap sitting cross-legged as usual on the floor. I examined the items, among them being empty shotgun shells and glass orbs that looked just like Christmas tree baubles.

  “Are those Christmas Tree baubles?” I asked.

  “Not anymore.” Myria smirked.

  “No wonder Michael wanted you out of the way.” I observed at the adept way she had been arming herself against the Old Ones. She gleamed back at me as though I had offered the highest praise. Cassie purposefully came to stand close to me and Myria’s glee faded.

  “This will work?” Cassie asked.

  “Of course!” Myria replied handing her mixture over to Russell who promptly shook the mix on to a sheet of paper and started filling shells with it. She then took a separate bowl she had prepared and started pouring the contents through a funnel in to the top of the empty baubles. She sealed them with candle wax, and held one out to me. I took it cautiously and considered it carefully as Cam came to stand next to me, taking another orb like the one I held from Myria. I shook the bauble to try and determine what the contents were.

  “It’s a mixture of ash, dragons blood (the herb of course), rock salt and silver shavings,” Russell stated in answer to my silent question. “Take it, throw it at them and as long as it is a direct hit, they will be out for a while.”

  “Then what? What do we do with them once they are out?” Cassie snapped. This was a side of her I wasn’t familiar with - jealous and irritable, staring Myria down.

  In reaction, Myria gave a look that could vaporise you where you stood.

  “We’re all tense” Cam attempted to reason, “Why don’t we just calm down.”

  As if in response to those very words, Elias’ voice became raised and he and Viktor stood toe to toe in the spot they had been talking quietly in until then. “Why don’t you just go back and pay your respects to your boss. That way I can take you out when we come for him. Nice and clean.” Viktor overshadowed Elias who was yelling at him.

  Violet went to Elias immediately, but he pushed her back, continuing to rant. “And she’s mine so keep your eyes off her.” Words he would shortly wish had never left his mouth. Viktor smiled menacingly as though he knew what the response from Violet would be before she even opened her mouth.

  Violet grabbed Elias by the collar. “Am not yours, Elias. I am not anyone’s but my own. Fool of a man.” She let him go and he dropped to the ground, stunned. “I made you, I am your maker.” She crackled at him. “I am not your property. I have walked the earth over 800 years, and you are less than a year old. Fear me, respect me. Do not think you own me.” She stalked around him. The rest of us watched in anticipation. Clearly hurt and shaken Elias rose to his feet.

  “Is that it then?” Elias asked brushing himself off. “Was I just meant for your passing fun? At your leisure.” He grew quiet then yelled out at her. “I left my life for you. For you! Do you think I would have done that if I thought you so easily distracted!?”

  “Distracted?” she repeated.

  Elias pointed at me. “First him. You spend all your time with him. You can be with him during the day. I don’t know what you two do together!”

  “Hey – I had nothing to do with…” I started but he cut me off.

  “Then him” Elias pointed at Viktor. “Then he comes along, and you defend him. Over me.”

  “At least he has the common sense to read a situation,” she simmered. “And at least he offers the strength and strategy of 1,000 years experience. Not a child’s response.”

  Elias acted as though he had been slapped in the face and went white. Then he disappeared into the darkness upstairs. I knew then he wasn’t going to come back anytime soon.

  “We could have used him you know” Russell said. “Numbers could have helped.”

  Violet disappeared upstairs, out in to the night. Cam went after her, and Cassie, Russell, Viktor and I joined Myria at the table, loading shells and glass orbs.

  It reminded me of a family dinner my mother had held when I was 12. She had roped myself, Anton, my father and uncle Theo in to stuffing cannelloni mixture in to casings, and glittering baubles as a centerpiece for the table. She had created a proper defunct process line, much like this one. A smile found me in the middle of the tension. In such a serious situation it seemed out of place but I couldn’t help myself.

  Cassie mirrored my grin, feeling how off the timing was. “What is it?” she asked me. “What’s so funny?” Even Russell gave me his attention, though his hands never failed to keep on track of his task.

  “Nothing, It’s nothing. Just something from years ago.” I assured her.

  “I thought it might have been the hysterical mix of tension between everyone busting out in a time of crisis.” mused Russell.

  “There is that.” I looked at him with amusement. Glad for the distraction. I already didn’t like making reference to anything from my past life. Or my life, as it were.

  “Nothing like a crisis to help see the funny side of things”. Cassie responded as though on my behalf. Myria giggled.

  Viktor started to list out the places Michael most commonly holed himself up in. “Wherever he is. He keeps around 10 of the Old Ones around him at any one time. But they do come and go as they wish pretty much.” Violet joined us and sat, serious, somber next to Viktor. “Can’t teach the new ones” Viktor stated to Violet, not breaking his glance from the paper he was scribbling on. “They have to learn themselves.”

  “Aren’t you Mr Miyagi…” Violet replied in jest, having become marginally less defensive. Viktor nudged her shoulder with his. She paused, not looking up. Then nudged him back.

  Cam sat herself in between Violet and Myria. Leaning in to Myria she asked the obvious question. “Once we have them down, what do we do next Myria?” We had planned as much as we could, with Myria saying she had the skills to locate them, had the capacity to trap them, but killing them remained another thing.

  “Easy enough” Myria replied. “A circle of salt around them, I can say a chant over them as they lay unconscious, and they should be sent back to which ever dimension they came from.” Cam nodded in acknowledgement. “With Michael feeding on them, taking from their strength, it might be harder to bring him down though. The OldOnes are slow at least in comparison, but Michael doesn’t have the hangover of the bulky demon body to move around. He will be as fast as most of you” Myria explained to us.

  I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. He’s mine to deal with.”

  “No need to be a hero on your own.” Cassie rebuked.

  “I owe him.” I clarified looking her in they eye. She paused, then reluctantly nodded.

  “Fair enough.”