Burning the Witches Ch. 01

I sped towards the church with the roar of my bike letting them all know I was coming.

I kicked one of the furry things as I rode past it. I jumped off of the bike and ran as close to the burned out church that I could get. Every instinct that I have, told me to get the fuck away from the flames. But I had to get to Piety. One of the huge furry dogs leaped at me. I snatched it out of the air and slammed its head onto the concert street.

I saw two figures emerge from the darkness near the church. The larger figure was Penance and she was in rough shape. She was struggling to carry another person. I grabbed the unconscious form of Patience from her arms.

"Where's Piety?" I asked roughly.

"He took her," she said slowly and softly.

"We'll talk on the road," I said. "Distance is our friend."

"We can't all fit on your bike," she said. From the look in her eyes Penance was barely conscious herself. She dropped to her knees and I put Patience down near her. I walked over to the nearest car I could find. It was an SUV, and a big one. I used my strength and overwhelmed the door lock. I put Patience in the second row of seats and lifted Penance into the passenger seat. I broke the ignition lock and started the car. I heard a howling behind me just as the big motor turned over.

I gave it some gas, just as two large furry forms emerged from the darkness ahead of us. I ran them down without a thought and drove into the night.

For the first few miles I was sure that some of them were on our tail. But once I got onto the freeway I knew that we were clear. I drove back to the airport. The plane was still there. I hustled Patience aboard and then went back for Penance who complained all the way about being touched.

After agreeing to another exorbitant fee the plane took off again. I knew I'd feel better once I had them in my territory. Let whatever had started this shit try to take me on my home turf.

Patience slept the entire flight. Penance awoke several times to look around, but I could tell that she was out on her feet. When we landed I got them into a cab and took off for one of my apartments near the French quarter. I laid Patience in the bed and called a nurse that I worked with to come and look them over. Patience had a concussion. Penance had a couple of bruised ribs, a huge lump on her head and several scrapes and claw marks.

She looked at me and for once she had nothing to say. "Penance, snap out of it," I spat. "You're tougher than this. Where the hell is Piety? What happened?"

"We got a call about another werewolf," she said slowly. "We didn't take it seriously. Piety didn't tell you because she wanted to surprise you. Since we were less than three hundred miles away from you, she planned to pop in on you. We went to the church as usual to start our investigation..." She looked at me then with eyes that had seen too much death.

"There were real werewolves Mason. They changed right in front of us. And it wasn't one. There were seven or eight of them. And there were vampires with them. You know how hard it is to take out one vampire. There were three. And Mason, I don't know how but they went into the church. One of the vampires was so old and so strong that he didn't burst into flames when he stepped inside. He set the church on fire. Everyone inside of it died.

We were outmanned and outgunned. We called our plane to get in touch with headquarters. Every person on our support squad was dead too. Somehow they knew all about us. They knew exactly how we operate. They had us cut off and surrounded so we had no choice but to fight. The old vampire promised us a deal. He swore it would be a fair fight. The three of us would fight against him. If we won, we all got to go free.

I swung my mace at him, intending to crush his skull. He ducked under it and when it was over his head, he grabbed it in mid-air. He threw me across the field using my own mace. He snapped the shaft of it and threw it over his shoulder like it was a toy. Patience took several shot at him with her crossbow. She was trying to end things quickly, but really the idea was to get his attention so Piety could take him out.

Mason it was as if he'd practiced for it. He ducked the crossbow bolts and then slammed his huge fist into Piety's chest. She went down hard clutching at her chest. She was out like a light. He just looked at us and smiled then. When he looked at Piety, he got angry. Mason he spoke. He's like you. He's a sentient vampire but he's filled with evil. He picked up Piety and looked at her face. Then he looked at us.

"What the fuck is going on here?" he asked us. "I knew something was off when I watched you in New Orleans. She isn't the one. She's some kind of clone or something. If you want her back. If you care for this broken little toy, bring me the real one and bring her to the spot where you first killed one of my offspring." Then he left taking Piety with him. He picked up Patience's phone before he left. We tried to follow him, Mason. That was why the werewolves attacked us. I'm not sure if he controls them or not, because they were trying to kill us for sure."

"What was he talking about when he called her a clone? And where is the place he's talking about?" I asked.

"The only other vampire that we've seen beside the one you helped us with that was this strong, was a couple of years ago in Chicago. After that case our original third member retired and Piety took her place afterwards. Piety kind of patterned herself after Prudence, so from a distance it's easy to see why the vamp might've thought they were the same person."

I got up and made a few phone calls. The sun was coming up. "You're welcome to anything in this apartment," I said. "There's food and drinks in the refrigerator. There's more than enough money to get you back to your headquarters and the phones all work. The sun will be up in an hour or so. It's Autumn, so it'll get dark quickly again. Tomorrow night as soon as the sun goes down I'm going to Chicago."

"Mason, there's only one of you. You'll die. Wait for us to contact headquarters. We'll take care of this. You got us out of it. Even though you're a man...and a vamp, I guess you're okay. I don't want you to die."

"Penance, I was dead before you were born," I said. "But without Piety in my life, I'd be truly dead. I'll die without her anyway. I have no choice."

"Then stop by and pick me up before you go," she said. I nodded and went back to my real house.

* * * * * *

Sarah

I was lost in thought, wondering how the hell I'd gotten myself into this one. It had seemed like such a normal run of the mill divorce case at first. Now I found myself questioning things that I hadn't thought about in years. I smiled as I realized that Chris was, as usual, beside me holding my hand. It said a lot about us that we were so comfortable together. I looked across the room and everywhere I looked I saw varying degrees of red hair.

My aunt Angela, whom I love, despite the fact that she creeps me out sometimes, was lecturing Rebecca. Savannah was looking on and soaking up everything that Angels tried to teach Rebecca. Savannah and I got along well. Savannah unlike the other two was more of a listener than a talker. She was also far craftier than anyone gave her credit for. I wondered why Savannah was even here. Then I realized that she was here for the one thing that motivated her all of the time; her family. Savannah apparently believed that there was enough of a chance that this could all be true that she had taken steps to assure that her husband Greg and her kids were safe.

Savannah always did whatever the hell she wanted. So in that way she was just like the rest of us. But she only seemed to be forceful or driven when it came to Greg. I remember when I first got the announcement that my cousin was getting married. I dreaded the thought of going down south, but after hearing from Angela the story of how Savannah was getting married, I had to see it myself. I imagined that she'd live in some sort of run down shack, like the one I'd visited her in once or twice during summers when I was young.

I was shocked to find that Savannah lived in a compound that contained several houses and manufacturing businesses. The main house was a beautiful old pre civil war mansion that had been fully restored and modernized. When Chris, who's a big football fan, had seen Savannah's fiancé, he had gone ballistic.

"That's Greg Gates," he screamed. "You have Greg Gates at your wedding!"

"It was kind of important that he be here," smirked Savannah. I'd known Savannah all of my life and I had NEVER seen her like that. She positively glowed.

"You want to meet him?" she asked Chris. My normally laid back husband stood there nodding his head up and down like one of those dashboard dog figures.

Savannah crooked her finger in Greg's direction and he excused himself from the people he was talking to and came right over to us. The closer he got, the bigger he got. He was way over six feet tall and extremely muscular. His caramel brown skin contrasted starkly with that of the child he carried in his arms. Despite his size, he was really shy. He backed up when Chris started telling him who he was and what he'd done on the football field.

The child, that I recognized from pictures that Savannah had sent us about a year ago, was obviously Savannah's daughter Gigi. Savannah reached out to take her so Greg and Chris could talk but the little girl gripped the lapel of Greg's jacket and held on for dear life. She set her little lip and dug in she was where she wanted to be and nothing was going to dislodge her.

Chris was firing question after question at Greg, who politely answered them all. "Did you know that Savannah is my cousin?" asked Chris, as Savannah looked on laughing. "Well...by marriage, but that still counts, right?" Greg nodded.

"So how did Savannah get YOU to come to her wedding?" asked Chris.

"She's kind of marrying me," said Greg softly. Chris bit his tongue and then erupted. Greg sensed danger to the little girl in his arms so he turned moving his body between her and my husband whom he considered a nut case. I think that Greg expected, like some people down south, that Chris might not like the idea of a black guy marrying Savannah.

"Oh my God," screamed Chris loudly. Savannah narrowed her eyes and stiffened.

"Greg Gates is my cousin," screamed Chris at the top of his lungs. He went all over the room explaining it to anyone who would listen.

"He's a nice guy," said Greg.

"Very," I answered smiling.

"He's kind of excitable," said Savannah.

"Very," I said still smiling.

As I put the memory away, I noticed Evie with her feet propped up in a corner. She was talking on her phone and listening to her music at the same time. We had strict rules about not contacting anyone until this was over. Evie had obviously called her husband, Chance, anyway. Evie has always had a thing about rules.

It was beginning to get dark outside, but I knew that we had plenty of time. Nothing ever happened with Rebecca until about midnight. I decided to get some sleep when all hell broke loose. Rebecca suddenly just stood up and headed for the door. Angela tried to stop her but then remembered what the plan was. I looked at Rebecca and the shy retiring woman I'd come to know was gone. Her face was a robot-like mask with no expression and seemingly no human emotions. There was something else. There seemed to be a voice in the back of my head, calling to me. It seemed to want me to give it something that I was sure I didn't have. It was the same creature that had screeched at me from the night before. Only this time it was trying to charm me. Angela had her hand against her head. I knew the thing was talking to her at the same time. A check of my cousins told me that they were getting it too.

The voice was soft and soothing, it was seductive. Then I felt Chris squeeze my hand and I realized what I'd be giving up. I stopped listening to the voice and just tuned it out. It was at that moment that I realized that whether or not I believed in this shit, it was real and it was happening.

To be Continued