by Lily Luchesi
Alec inclined his head. “It’s possible, but not likely. Your brain won’t change just by coaching someone. Your blood didn’t change. It’s been proven that vampires can’t be psychic.”
“But how many psychics have become vampires?” Danny asked pointedly. “And my powers aren’t in my blood, they’re in my soul. And vampires have souls.”
“True, not many that I know of, but we can’t be sure. What were your other mental skills before you turned?”
Danny began to list them: the visions of the past and future when he slept, the random precognition while awake, mind reading, telepathy, and psychometry.
Alec seemed to have to think on that for a minute. “Hmm, that’s interesting. How did your powers first manifest when you were human?”
“I had a vision of the past when I had a near death experience as a cop. I was shot,” Danny explained. “It was quick, of Angelica and I in my past life. It took six more years for my powers to fully reveal themselves.”
Alec nodded. “Many psychics are late bloomers, in a way.”
“Were you one?”
“Late? Alas, no. I am, however, the first psychic in my bloodline. Angelica told me that you were trained by Brighton Sands? He’s something of a legend in psychic circles in England, despite being merely human.”
Danny nodded, still missing his old friend.
Alec reached for a notepad that was on the table and a pen. “All right, let’s try another approach for you. Was your vision literal? Or could there have been a hidden meaning in it?”
“They were always literal before,” Danny said.
“That was before.” He waved the pen in the air. “You’re no longer mortal. They may have been warped. The vision could have signified a fear you have, or something similar.
“You did, however, touch on something that could have jump started this. Helping your descendant might have awakened your mental powers. Again, it’s unlikely, but you’re a special case. Could you get him in here? Just for one meeting with me?”
Danny nodded. “I can try. He’s stubborn.”
Alec smirked, eyes sparkling with mischief. “I might not be able to read your mind, but I can read you quite well. Something tells me that the apple did not fall far from the tree in that respect.”
Danny wasn’t sure what to say. “Fuck you” seemed appropriate, but he didn’t want to piss off the only person who could help him.
“I’m going to study what you’ve told me, see if it can be deciphered as something aside from what you obviously saw. Hopefully that’s all it is and you don’t need to concern yourself with a prospective bloodbath.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Angelica wanted to concentrate, but how could she? There was something going on with the man she loved, and if his powers were somehow returning, someone was going to kill everyone in the PID. How could she concentrate on building a bow when that was on her mind?
“Angie, you release that trigger now, all those bottles of pig blood will be shattered.” Sean’s voice broke through the haze. “What’s going on?”
She jumped, turning the bow to face the target and releasing the trigger. The arrow hit the bull’s eye without her really trying, but the ampoule fell off and shattered on the ground, instead of in the target.
“What makes you think there’s something wrong?” she asked, gesturing to the perfect shot she’d just made.
Sean pursed his lips and just looked at her, arms crossed. He knew her better than that, and she couldn’t hide her feelings from him.
“All right. Danny had a vision.”
“Wait … what?” Sean asked. “I thought vampires couldn’t be psychic?”
“So did we,” she replied, proceeding to tell him what Danny had told her.
Sean threw his hands into the air and said, “See? You wrote your will and now he’s dreaming of your death! It’s a bad sign, Angie.”
“Suddenly you’re superstitious?” She sighed. “Sean, I’m worried. If it’s nothing, and it very well could be, then what is happening to my husband?” She noticed that she was now wringing her hands together and forced herself to stop.
Sean walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I can’t imagine how worried you are, but you gotta admit, Danny’s strong in his own way. Whatever this is, he’ll be fine.”
“I don’t want his mind to be breaking down,” she blurted out, stating what she had been too afraid to acknowledge in her mind. “I know what happens when vampires go mad, and if that happened to him…” She closed her eyes, knowing that a vampire going insane from being turned was the entire reason she ever formed the PID. “Would it be my fault? My blood that did it to him?”
That was the other shoe dropping. If he was going crazy, if his mind was truly breaking, then it was because of her blood. Her mother, Veronica’s blood had made Vincent go insane. Angelica had both Veronica and Vincent’s blood in her, and she had given it to him. That blood carried madness within it. If she was the reason she lost Danny this time, she’d never be able to live with herself.
Sean pulled her to him in a warm hug. She could hear his heartbeat, feel the blood pumping so close to the surface. Hugging a non-vampire was always strange for her, but this was her friend, and he was trying to comfort her.
“Whatever happens, it is not your fault. You did everything because you love him, and that’s what matters at the end. Your intentions were good,” he said.
“Yeah, and the road to Hell is paved mostly because of me and my fucking intentions.”
Sean scoffed. “Yeah, yours, mine, and every single friend I lost in World War II.”
That gave her pause and made her realize that she was being selfish. This wasn’t just on her. She didn’t make Danny have his powers, and if her blood was bad, as she always thought it was, that wasn’t her fault, either. She didn’t ask to be born half royal, half psychotic.
“It’s late. I’m going to get Danny and take him home to rest before the sunrise.”
This time Sean laughed. “Uh-huh. ‘Rest’. Is that what they’re calling it now?”
“Bite me.”
“That’s your line.”
Angelica smiled as she exited the room. After losing so many of her friends, she was glad Sean was still around. He always made her feel better.
3
“What did Alec say?” Angelica asked Danny in the wee hours of the morning.
They were laying in bed together, both of them warmed and comfortable from their blood and their nighttime activities. Angelica was propped up on her pillows, nervous hands toying with the edge of the blanket. Danny was absentmindedly playing with her hair and did not want to talk about this right then.
“Nothing but a lot of hypothesizing,” he replied. “It was almost like being with a shrink, you know?”
“Mind magic is an awful lot like psychology, especially when it comes to dreams,” she agreed.
“Anyway, he thinks it might not be literal. That my powers acted up due to prolonged stress and my usual amount of worry.”
“That’s good, then. It’s an explanation, at least,” she said. “And makes a lot of sense. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Danny smiled a little. “You can’t think of everything, Angie. You’re wonderful, but you’re not a superhero. This isn’t a movie where the heroine does everything perfect at the right moments. We’ve just started our lives … again. You’ve had a lot on your mind.”
She nodded, laying her head on his arm and he massaged her scalp. He was concerned for his own wellbeing, but he was more worried about her. Because she cared more than she’d ever let on, and he knew she was unnerved by all of this.
“Alec wants me to get Daniel back in. He thinks we can help each other,” he continued.
“Sounds like he’s on the right track,” she said. “I wanted Daniel back in under our watch anyway. Strategically, if we want him to come in, we need to give him time to see that the books he borrowed won’t help him properly
.”
“How long should I wait to visit him?” Danny asked.
“A week. He won’t read every word, just skim till he finds what he thinks he needs.”
“You’re awfully certain about that,” he commented.
She turned her head, looking over at him. “I’ve had to deal with my share of stubborn men all my life. Trust me, I know how he’ll act. He wants something instant that can help, but this isn’t something he can learn overnight.”
Danny nodded. “I agree with you there. Some of it can go quickly, but even at a hundred and twenty, I was still learning. The mind is…” He trailed off, unsure of what word to use.
“The mind is a many layered onion, not a how-to book,” Angelica supplied.
He nodded, pulling her closer to nestle against his chest. “Yeah. That.”
Danny didn’t have another vision in the next week. Each night when he woke in his coffin from undisturbed slumber, he thanked God for it. Perhaps Alec was right and it was just an overabundance of stimuli combined with his recent life changes that brought on a nightmare, not a vision.
He could only hope, but that didn’t mean that training was over. His mind now needed to be reevaluated like it had when he had been human, and since he was a vampire, the only person who could do that was Daniel. He was afraid that convincing him to return to the PID, however, would not be as easy as Angelica and Alec thought.
He knew what he was like before Vincent had ruined his life and changed his attitude. Daniel was similar, and Danny didn’t want to get into a verbal sparring match with the kid.
His nonna used to say that both he and his father had “heads like rocks”, and it seemed that he had passed that trait down. The good thing was, he had also passed down his curiosity to Daniel, and he could use that to convince the kid to return to the PID for mental training.
Danny woke up that night and went straight to Daniel’s apartment. He hated bringing him back, as well. Daniel was going to be a doctor, he was going to help a lot of kids. Bringing him into the PID would deter him, and Danny hated that thought.
Daniel buzzed the front door, and Danny walked up the rickety staircase with its stained carpeting to the third-floor landing. He’d never visited Daniel’s place before, and he thought that this building was depressing.
He knocked on the door and Daniel opened it, looking tired but content. Danny hated to disrupt that contention, but he didn’t have a choice at that particular time.
“Hey, what brings you here, Pops?” Daniel asked, ushering him inside.
The apartment was nicer than the hallway, with cream carpeting, a small kitchen with a dining alcove, a sofa, chair, and large entertainment center. Sports memorabilia hung from the walls.
“Really, the White Sox?” Danny said. “I thought you were raised better than that.”
“Not mine,” Daniel said with a laugh. “It’s my roommate’s. Well, ex-roommate’s. He didn’t take it with him when he left. I’ll burn it as soon as it warms up outside.”
“You’re alone now?” Danny asked. “Can you afford it?”
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, he gave me the next two month’s rent. So, I repeat: what brings you by? Angelica ask you to get those books back?”
Danny chuckled. “No, but it’s related to your condition. Angelica brought in a specialist from England. Or Scotland. Somewhere. Anyway, he’s a wizard specializing in mind magic, and he thinks that we can help each other. You can really get some control over your powers by using them on me.”
Why am I lying to him? Danny asked himself. Why didn’t I tell him I’m getting my powers back?
Daniel took a beer from the fridge and sat down at the table, gesturing for Danny to sit across from him. “Because you’re a vampire?”
“Yes. And my human soul carried the same powers yours does. It’ll help you, much more than those old books,” he said. He took the seat that was offered to him and suddenly felt as if his stomach had dropped down to his balls.
He heard a scream, a scuffle, and then a choking, gurgling sound. Someone whose throat had been cut. He knew that someone had died in that very chair, before Daniel had either moved in or acquired the furniture.
“You okay, Pops?” his descendant asked, worry clouding his face.
Okay, time to fess up, Danny thought. “Did you buy this used?” He tapped the table with a shaking hand.
“Yeah, why? I don’t have bed bugs,” he replied with a laugh.
“It’s not that. … The reason we want you to come back is that I need to see this mind wizard as much as you do. I’m getting my powers back, and I don’t know how or why.”
Daniel’s mouth dropped. “Really? That’s cool! I mean, not cool, if it’s not supposed to happen, but it’s still cool. … Am I making sense?”
“Not really, but it doesn’t matter,” Danny said with a weak smile. After a few decades, he barely remembered his powers and now they were back in full force and his psyche needed to get used to them again. Especially, he needed to get used to how brutal and realistic his psychometric visions usually were.
“I’m actually done with the books,” Daniel continued. “I didn’t find enough. So I’ll bring them back tomorrow and we can meet with the wizard man then?”
“Sure. … I’m surprised you’re so agreeable,” Danny admitted. “You were so certain that you could do it yourself.”
He looked down, a blush spreading across his face. “Yeah, and I was wrong. The visions I get are so strange. The dreams … I’m not sleeping, Pops. I’m sure you can see under my eyes. I can admit when I need help.”
“Then you’re a bigger man at your age than I was back then,” Danny said. He stood up, and immediately felt better being off of that chair. Daniel stood up as well.
Danny leaned over and gave his great-grandson a hug. “I’m sorry you got saddled with these powers.”
Daniel shrugged. “It gets me to know you better now. It’s worth it, Pops.”
Sequestered away in his realm, the Lieutenant of Hell smiled to himself. He could hear everything going on in the boy’s apartment, and everything he heard pleased him greatly. He was now one step closer to his plans coming to fruition.
He had clawed his way up — quite literally — from the bottom of the Pit, from the worst torture one could imagine, to get this position after Angelica Cross had murdered Leander Price, the former Lieutenant, and that had only been step one of his plot. For a long time he was unused to being a demon, and he knew he could never get to Earth and succeed in his plans without mastering his new abilities first.
And then, when he had tried to get up there, he found all of his ways blocked. Every city, every town, anywhere he could have created a portal or been summoned was closed. Angelica and the PID must have gotten new barriers against demons. The low-level demons could still get to the surface, but any with immense power, such as he, were trapped in Hell.
He needed to get through one of the portals, but they were all patrolled by PID agents and sealed shut by the Covens. It was then he knew he needed to get someone on the inside’s assistance. A barrier needed to be weakened for him to get through the portal. He needed to be let in manually, like a vampire entering one’s home.
Even when he had still been a human, he had been good at charming people. As a demon, his allure was nearly impossible to resist. He could detect the desires in one’s heart and tempt them. So far, he had not seen anyone he could use to help him break through a portal. No desire could override the fear they all had of defying the PID’s laws. The fear of defying Angelica.
Until he saw Danny Mancini’s lookalike descendant. More than look like him, he possessed the same powers, but lacked his great-grandfather’s morals. He was once hurt, abandoned by his father, had lost his mother young, and had few friends. Daniel Castorini was the perfect tool to use. His brash nature was going to be the catalyst, and what would enable him to actually dare to defy Angelica Cross and her team of lackeys.
The books he’d had Dan
iel borrow enabled him to coach the boy through a spell to get them to communicate without having to waste energy with automatic writing. Casting the spell hadn’t been easy on Daniel’s end — after all, he was the corporeal one in his world, not the Lieutenant — but it had been done.
He knew why Danny’s visions had returned. His touching the Earthly plane once again had caused a reaction in the psychic world, in the veil between Earth and Hell, and it had reactivated Danny’s visions, because his vampiric bloodline was still rooted in humanity. It could prove problematic, if Danny saw what he was planning. But it could also be useful. If it staggered him, threw him off his game, then that would make everything much easier.
Likewise, the skinchanger Dakota had made vampires more susceptible to his suggestions and Daniel’s leadership once he was topside again. He had it all planned out, and all he needed was a way back to Earth.
The wait was nearly over. He had done everything he could. Now it was only a matter of time.
“This is a mess.” Angelica wiped the blood from her hands and surveyed the room they had designated the compound bow trial area. It now looked like the elevator scene from The Shining, its walls and floor covered in blood. If the ampoules weren’t simply sitting in their niche, unbroken, then they were flying off and shattering everywhere. There was no happy medium.
“Can we get the ghouls to clean this place up?” she asked Sean.
“Ghouls?”
She turned to regard the new voice and saw Daniel standing in the threshold.
“Oh, hello. You’re early,” she said.
“Yeah, class let out early… You have ghouls here?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, they’re our cleanup crews. Disposing of corpses and blood. The great thing about them is they can eat nearly anything, and not only does working here pay them, it keeps their appetites satiated. Which means they don’t go grave-robbing or murdering for food. Some bodies go to the next of kin to be buried, but many have to be consumed, and this is a win for everybody.”
