Chapter 26.

26.

It was just no use. This would be the last time the Rosenbergs moved. James was tired of trying to get away from the vampire, the witch and the paranormal bullshit, but it was just too expensive to move around so much, he and Jamie had packed their belongings once again, left New York, and moved to their parents’ old house (that he could never sell) in Baltimore. Jamie had sulked some, it was inevitable, since she once again had to leave her friends behind to start anew in a different city, but she had quickly recovered as she always did, plus this time it was different, more significant, because they were returning to a house she had been too young to remember. A part of their family history that was still somewhat of a mystery to her.

James was always cagey when she asked about any of it, how their parents were “gone” (she still didn’t know if they were missing or dead or what), how the house was always in pristine condition (she was sure he never talked with any person that could be a house sitter) and how he had shaken himself like a wet dog the moment they crossed the gate and walked into the yard.

They each went inside the house with a sense of reverence but for different reasons. Jamie was getting overcome with family longing watching the homey furniture, the opened book still on the coffee table, the half drawn curtains, and wondering how it could possibly feel like this house had never been deserted at all, while James was remembering how one normal night their parents had gone out to their usual Saturday date (they did it every weekend, to keep the romance alive they said, but James had suspected they just wanted to use him as a free babysitter since he was so close studying at the University of Baltimore) and the moment they were walking across the yard an impossibly intense white light suddenly engulfed them disappearing a few seconds later along with his parents.

He had believed in aliens ever since. And the fact that not that long after he discovered first hand the existence of the paranormal (in the most horrible way), well, it just made his belief even stronger. He also knew something else was going on with the house, he didn’t know what exactly, but he felt it in his bones the minute he stepped on the front yard.

Now his sister was going upstairs, locating her bedroom, her baby girl bedroom which was in need of a serious redecoration while he was bracing himself to walk into his own room (the basement, no wonder he always chose the basements for his equipment in all the other houses he had lived in), still full of his old study books, his posters, his old clothes, etc.

“The moving truck will be here 5 pm tomorrow,” he said to his sister, who was now inspecting the main bedroom that had belonged to their parents. Her eyes were suspiciously red, he suddenly realized this had been hard on her, but there was nothing he could do about it, because what he had to do now wasn’t going to be any easier either.

The siblings sat on their parents’ old bed, the Potion flask between them.

“Just trust me and drink it, it will help you.”

James was feeling very unsure about using the potion that Suri had given him, had debated with himself for days, but in the end, the wellbeing of his sister really was above everything else. They had tried everything in their power to cure her of her extreme aversion to blood (specially if said blood was anywhere near James) thanks to that vampire attack they had suffered when she was a little girl, but all the western, eastern and “alternative” methods in the world had help very little. The latest incident had been the last straw. It was time to try magic; after all, it had been given to him and it would be foolish to not try it at least.

“Fine.” Jamie looked at him with a dubious expression, but this was her smart careful grown-up brother asking her to drink that weird liquid so she did.

The moment she was done they both waited for something to happen, James even looked around the room, but no visible signs that the magic worked showed. He exhaled loudly, maybe a bit disappointed that no fireworks appeared out of nowhere; this really didn’t help him in selling the “magic is real” speech he had given Jamie.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

Jamie thought about it, “exactly the same?” she shrugged and regarded James with growing concern, “actually, big bro, how are you feeling?” she held his hand and looked at him with pity eyes.

He got a bit ticked off, “I’m not going crazy, Jamie. This is supposed to work, magic is real.”

“Whatever you say..” she answered slowly, as you would to a dangerous mental patient.

This was really pissing James off now.

“O.k., o.k., what we have to do is… test it!” He got up and pushed Jamie to the kitchen.

“Eh- James, I don’t think that’s advisable? I mean, I don’t wanna be out of commission again so soon, I gotta, like, go to school and stuff.” She was really getting worried, this was the first time she had to act like the sensible one in this little family of theirs and she did NOT like it.

James was rummaging around the cabinets sneakily having grabbed one of those ketchup single packages that came with their fast food dinner from last night and then went straight for the knives.

“James Rosenberg, what do you think you’re doing?” Jamie was slowly backing away.

This was as close to actual blood as he dared to go, he had to trick Jamie into believing it though, which was testing acting skills he didn’t know he had.

“Just watch!” he’d hidden the opened little package behind a big knife’s blade so she didn’t see it and put it on his arm, making a cutting motion while squeezing the ketchup on his skin.

“AAAaaaaaHHHhhh!” Jamie flailed and covered her eyes, but she had seen… she saw…

“You’re not passing out!”

“I’m not?”

“Yeah!”

“Hey! I feel fine!” she was laughing hysterically now, daring to uncover her face and take a good look. “Oh my God!” she shrieked and started running around the kitchen while looking at James’ arm again and again.

By now he was laughing hysterically too because this had turned into an actual test when he accidentally cut himself with the knife. Now he had to clean his wound which was getting ketchup in it.

He opened the tap water on the sink and washed the knife and his arm, he then put a paper towel on it to stop the blood flow.

“Oh! Oh! I’ll get the first aid kit! Bro! I’m so happy you’re bleeding! Where is it?”

“Mum and dad’s bathroom, top shelf on the right.”

James chuckled to himself, sending a silent thank you to Suri while Jamie ran.

As the excited teen girl rushed through the main bedroom she grabbed the flask she had left on the bed. She just had to see again if it had a label or something, she had to know all about it, berating herself for a second for not having taken this whole thing seriously in the first place. Well, she couldn’t be blamed really, who in their right mind would think it could work? But it did, it did!

She went back to the kitchen with the kit and the flask, a whirlwind of action as James cringed when she pulled his arm a bit violently (in her excitement) to drown it in alcohol and slap one of the big band-aids on the wound.

“So how did you get this?” She put the flask on the counter, “where did you get it? How did you know about it? How do you know about magic? I can’t believe it’s real! It says here Potions and Stuff, is that like a store where you buy potions? Where is it? Can we go take a look-see? Hey! If this works, then it must be expensive! How much did you pay for it? Actually, do we have enough money to buy something like this? I don’t think we do, mum and dad’s insurance money is beginning to run out, right?”

The insurance money they had gotten when their parents had mysteriously disappeared (and were declared dead officially) so many years ago was thinning, but James was wondering how Jamie even knew about it since he had been keeping the books very carefully away from her, she could be very impulsive when it came to shopping and he wanted to keep the majority of it all for Jamie’s college fund. That’s why he’d been working so hard for most of his adult life, to pay their everyday spending himself, selling his technology skills to the Lore contacts he had, he knew they were good for any price he said.

“Don’t worry about the price, it was a gift.” He said absentmindedly, not paying much attention to Jamie, who was still talking.

“Well, I trust you big bro, so if you say it’s all good then it is. Hey! There’s a phone number under the Potions and Stuff name, it wasn’t there before, how funny, it magically appeared! Hahaha! Oh my God! I bet I could call and ask for directions! I’ll do it right now!”

 James was now paying attention and he got worried yet again, it seemed worrying would never end for him, as Jamie, like a flash, was already dialing on her cellphone.

*******

River was loath to call him again, but with Toren, Joslyn and company otherwise occupied he needed all the help he could get. Calling Jack Jammer of the Sinn-Jammers again grated on his nerves, but he had to admit, the guy had a way in battle, blood-thirsty and no mercy shown, that spoke of his vampiric violent nature, even though River had never seen him actually drink blood. It was all too shady. But it was better to have your friends close and your enemies closer, as that human Chinese guy said, than them all against you. So he called Jack, and here he was, massacring everything in his path like a spirit of vengeance. He could be as good as a dragon.

River was convinced the annoying Templar armies were diverting their attention, but the fight had to be fought anyway, and until they could figure out what was happening, and how it was happening, the dragons needed to be on defense mode. He didn’t like to react, he needed to act. But until Toren got his business cleared with that damned witch of his, that’s all they’d be doing, reacting.

The bodies were dropping like flies, it was almost too easy, the dragons were winning though, thankfully it wouldn’t take too much time, that way they could concentrate on the information gathering.

“Can I ask you something?” Jack approach River as they both ducked to let a Templar be thrown across over their heads by another dragon.

River pulled his sword above him so that the flying body was cut through as it flew. “What?”

“Well, last battle I saw Toren charge in his Dragon form, he was guzzling up Templars left and right, quick and easy, I was wondering why doesn’t everyone just do that instead of fighting human body to human body, it seems much simpler and efficient to me.”

Jack and River put their back together and started punching and kicking their opponents forming a circle of motion around themselves, bones cracked all around, none were Jack’s nor River’s.

“Indigestion.”

“Really?” Jack chuckled.

“Yes, only Toren is strong enough to brave that, all the rest of us would be worshipping the porcelain God with just one Templar body.”

“I wonder why.” Jack asked as he pulled a human’s arm right off his body.

River had to talk a bit louder to be heard over the screaming, “it seems that they consume some sort of herb concoction that is non-digestible for dragons so they’re filled with it by the time they hit the field, we still haven’t been able to figure out what it is exactly.”

“It seems to me what you need is someone with knowledge about potions and such, like a witch.”

River rolled his eyes, Jack wasn’t being subtle at all, but he didn’t mind, because the bastard was right. He grabbed the templar next to him by the head and cut it off with his sword in one clean swoop from the body, if you can’t behead someone in one go then you were a liability.

River’s battle cry resonated all around the stone walls as he dived into enemy lines.

At that same time, Jack’s cellphone beeped, a text message:

M33t @ home, 2 min. Report due.

He growled at the phone, he hated been summoned like that, but he still needed to answer. Damn it all to hell. He turned to River, noticing the fight was winding down.

“Hey, do you mind if I go? I need to go back to my vamp.”

River yelled from afar, “go, we got it now.”

Jack didn’t wait any longer to teleport to Asgard. Time worked differently there, like in fairyland, so no one would know he hadn’t gone right back to Jime but had to make a detour.

Jack appeared inside the throne room, were Odin used to rule, but now it was the head-quarters of all the old Gods that were on decline.

There they were, the C.O.C.s (Celestial Omnipotent Coalition), bunch of useless dicks, demanding he answer them as if he owed them something, well, the joke was one them, soon he’d be out of their grasp, he’d be a new being himself, while the rest of those decrepit fucks continued to die slowly and inexorably. They didn’t want to accept that their days were numbered because humanity’s beliefs had changed and they no longer prayed to the old Gods, they were on their way out and looking for anything to cling to so they could still play their God games, it was pathetic, them acting like they still had relevance.

The COCs had formed when the Gods realized their life force was dwindling down and the humans were changing themselves into stronger beings (like vampires), some had acquired so much power they were dangerously becoming close to having god-like powers themselves, and no one knew how they did it, when it began, where it was going nor if it would ever end. For Gods, being left in the dark was not acceptable.

So when Ullr had grown so distanced from everyone else that he was “the Glory of Snow” incarnated, freezing everything in his path, not caring for anything or anyone in Asgard (a hindrance, basically), the Gods had decided to kill two birds with one stone as the humans liked to say and sent Jack to infiltrate and investigate the vampires. In Jack’s opinion, he had been banished, not that he cared.

“What news, boy?!” Odin yelled at Jack.

The fucker always called him boy, as if by verbally belittling him he made himself more important. “None, as the last time I made my report,” Jack gritted between his teeth.

“Ullr, you useless worm, what do you spend all your time in human lands doing?” Thor asked.

“The vampire whore, most likely.” Giggled Seth.

“Shut the fuck up.” Nephthys smacked his nape.

Loki smirked, “how is La Reina?”

Jack had to school his temper down, like always, to respond in a civilized way, “She’s acquired a new talent.”

“Has she?” Odin drummed his fingers on his chair, “well? What is it?!”

“She can transform herself into multiple bats and fly around.”

The COCs were speechless for a few moments. This meant the vampires did get stronger with time and there was no telling what else they would be able to do.

Frigg got up from her chair, flowers in her head and flowing woven drapes all over her, the damned hippie, and walked to embrace Jack in an I-care-about-you hug that was too awkward for words, “Go back now, and be well,” to his ear she whispered, “and remember we do all this for you.”

Jack scoffed, he knew better than anyone that the COCs were the most useless self-absorbed fuckers ever, which had been one of the reasons he’d grown so tired of them all in the first place, and after knowing his vampire, and starting to see life the way she saw it, the levels in which he despised the COCs had grown ten-fold.

So when the opportunity to finally get himself separated from the Gods for good and not die like them in the process had presented itself he took it, no questions asked, no doubts, no regrets.

The plan to turn himself into the ultimate Deadly Sin, Wrath, was working like clockwork.

********

“She’s not here” Sage was walking around in circles outside Potions and Stuff, he was starting to appreciate the new levels of worry he could muscle through by all this trouble his daughter had been putting on him. He had been so sure of her filial complacence, all her life, he didn’t know when he went wrong with her. All his preconceptions about his flesh and blood were wrong, he’d thought her responsible but here she was – or not, as was the case – doing whatever she pleased, doing magic she hadn’t prepared for yet, talking to people he didn’t know, how could he be sure they would be good for her? Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered to procreate. Scratch that, no, that thought never crossed his mind. If Angie ever learned he even thought about it, it would be his end.

“Well” Jime said expectantly.

“Well what?” Sage snapped at her.

She put her hands on her waist and raised on eyebrow at him, Sage looked back at her with a blank look, she huffed and pointed at the store.

“Did you ask around or not?”

Sage was furious, “A black mage like myself has no need to lower himself to speak with vermin, I did a finding spell that showed me she’s not here!”

“Unbelievable!” She yelled as she walked inside the store to do proper detective work.

Sage hated this, he was being reduced to a blundering idiot with worry, even if he knew deep down his daughter could take care of herself, and now he had to deal with his big sister, making him feel like a teenager all over again. It was not right. He was too old for this. Still, he walked after Jime inside the store.

She was chatting up the young mage apprentice that was working the counter. Ugh, typical Jime.

“So, I’m sorry, you are just too cute, you’re distracting me!” she bit her lower lip while making eye contact with the boy, making him blush.

“I’m sorry?” he looked the other way from her abashedly and saw his supervisor giving him the evil eye, so to speak, which pulled him right back into professional mode, “what can I do for you then?”

“If you could answer a few questions…” she bat her eyelashes.

The supervisor on the one hand, and now the mage that just walked in on the other, both looking daggers at them, made the boy nervous, but he stumbled through, “I could, if you buy something, I’m sorry, it’s policy” he whispered to her, “if it was just me, I’d do anything you asked gladly.”

“Such a sweetheart, adorable and hot, ok, give me… let’s see… you got any werewolf repellant? Maybe in spray?”

“Yes, we do!” he guided them to the spray can isle and bent over to grab the product, at which Jime checked him out while Sage made gagging noises, she rolled her eyes at him.

“We have mild and strong, which would you prefer?” the boy asked.

“The super strength at the back, I see it from here.” Jime whispered right by the boy’s ear, she had bent over to stand close to him. He shivered and grabbed the can.

Jime took it and started to gently caress the length of can, making the boy turn deep red, “see, this is for my niece, she’s got a werewolf stalker bothering her, but she’s so nice she’s waiting for him to get bored on his own and leave her alone, which is never going to happen because my niece is adorable, 5’6 tall, on the slender side, luscious milk chocolate skin, curls to die for, she was wearing this sexy black leather number that showed her killer curbs, actually, she might have come by earlier to get a can for herself, did she?”

“What?”

“Did you see her come by?”

It took the boy a moment but he responded, “I think I saw someone like that… yes, she was SO HOT-” Sage softly growled at him, “I mean, she was nice looking, I mean, I hoped she’d come inside the store so that I would attend to her-” Sage walked a threatening step closer to the boy, “I mean, well, she didn’t get to come inside because some wolves approached her, but I don’t know what happened afterward because my boss called me and when I got back she wasn’t there.”

“Interesting, how did you know those people she was with were wolves?”

“Well, they came to buy some beef jerky, telephone cards, and a brush, when the big guy saw our werewolf repellent cans’ sign, they’re on sale for the whole week, he started having a hissy fit and then the woman had to pet his head to appease him, and then basically insulted everyone who isn’t a werewolf like them. They left singing their superiority over us all and ran into the girl outside, I saw them because they were right at the front of the store, I could see them through the doors.”

They all walked to the register.

“Do you remember what they looked like? The wolves?”

“Uhm, yeah, the guy was tall, olive-ish skin, dark eyes, long dark hair, the woman was blonde, no, redhead, uhm, I guess, strawberry blonde they call it? They were all over each other, I guess they both were good looking but I don’t really know, I’m not into that.”

“Into what?”

“The fur.”

Jime giggled, “right, well, thank you so much for everything,” she gave him a light hug that subtly brushed her breasts with his left arm and part of his torso and left him stumbling to close the register to finish their purchase.

Jime as Sage walked out.

“Wolves kidnapped my daughter?” He knew Suri would never be friendly with werewolves, the only way she would interact with them would be by force.

“It appears so.” Jime was not happy, she got her phone out and called Jack who showed up beside her right at that very moment. His cellphone ringing.

♫ She likes to shake her ass, she grinds it to the beat. She likes to pull my hair when I make her grind her teeth♫

 Jime glared at him, “seriously? That’s my ringtone?”

“It’s you down to a T,” he shrugged.

“Except for one thing, one crucial thing, I’m NOT your girlfriend!” she grabbed his blood-soaked shirt to threatened him, their faces dangerously close.

“You two disgust me, now what about my daughter?!” yelled Sage.

Jime pushed Jack away, “call up the dragons and make Toren locate Suri.”

“What makes you think I have the dragons on speed dial?” Jack tried to look innocent and failed miserably.

“Don’t give me that bullshit, you like matching people to ringtones, as I just confirmed, and that other time you got called and Big Lizard in my Backyard sounded can only mean one thing, which got later confirmed when you guys appeared together at the hotel.”

“That’s an awful lot of assumptions, baby.”

“Don’t call me baby!” she screamed.

Sage wondered out loud, “ and why would the dragons be able to locate Suri so easily when my spells don’t work?”

Jack and Jime went mute too quickly, which only aroused Sage’s angry curiosity even more.

“What the hell’s going on?” he demanded of them.

But Jack deflected by calling on his cellphone while Jime just glared at Jack and pretended not to hear her little brother.

“River, sorry to bother you, could you ask Toren where Suri is?” Jack asked into the device.

“Uhm, I know where she is, I’ll text you the coordinates.” River said from the other line and hanged up. The phone beeped a second later.

“Let’s go.” Jime said.

Sage vowed he’d get to the bottom of that, but first thing’s first, he opened a portal directly to his daughter’s location and the three of them walked through.