Three Immortals Walk Into A Bar...
Secret Shadows

Levant

I get to the gate too early to board, and there are no seats available in the waiting area. So I go to the far back corner, and stand in front of the last chair next to the window overlooking the busy tarmac, bustling with activity in the night.

The traveler on the chair doesn’t take long to look up in alarm as I stand before them, growling, pulling darkness to myself from the night, from the shadows in the room, from the very air around me. They flee to another area, and the seat is mine.

Soon I am crouched here, the adjoining chairs also vacated as the humans try to avoid my threatening aura, my cloak of shadows, my filigree tattoos and my unwelcoming expression. Exactly as I intend.

This trip has been such a nightmare already, and I haven’t even made it to New York to investigate the potential rival that Tepes has become aware of. I am not to take action, my assignment is simply recon. But the storm has disrupted everything, possibly even the mission. I have received text messages informing me that the target may be on the move, but I am still to go to New York and learn what I can.

In the meantime I have wasted an entire night and day stuck in Atlanta due to the godforsaken storm. I still can’t believe the circumstances that I found myself trapped in. The flight delay, the strange human with his ability to quench my darkness, the powerful vampire, their preposterous friendship. The hotel, the vault, the crowd, the fucking werewolves. I shake my head, and growl, and gather more shadows to myself, and another nearby seat is vacated.

Then today, as the light of dawn was strengthening after I finally got my hands on a motorcycle, I decided to hunker down in the basement of a destroyed building, clinging to the shadows within, protecting myself from the light trying to seep in from the sunny blue sky. I couldn’t afford to sleep, I had to watch the shadows and make sure neither the sunlight nor any humans were approaching too close. Although when one human did make the mistake of blundering into my lair, at least I was able to finally heal my injuries with their blood, striking so fast that they never knew what had happened. Then all I could do was wait until sunset.

At least things are finally going my way. There was one seat left on a New York flight tonight, first class so that I will be able to quickly get to sleep in comfort. I can hardly wait to get on the plane, glad that first class passengers board first. Once I am in my seat, I will turn towards the wall, lower the shade, and go to meet Maria in my dreams. I have a lot to tell her, since I was pulled away from our dream by that blond vampire in the vault last night.

I growl, and scowl, and bask in my shadows while I wait for the boarding call.

Gregor’s

“The first class passengers have been called to board for your flight, beloved,” I tell him. “Levant will be on the plane shortly.”

Gregor stands up. “All right,” he tells Clyde, “this is it. Levant is getting on the plane, so I’m going back to the gate.”

Clyde stands as well, as always several feet away from my beloved.

Gregor gives him a sad smile. “I wish I could give you a hug goodbye,” he says. “Or at least a handshake.”

Clyde grins. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere! I can’t resist watching this.” He looks down at himself. “Not like this, though. I’ll say goodbye to you now, my friend, but I’ll be watching.” His eyes flash red, then he discorporates again, his mist rising into the air, and clinging to the ceiling over Gregor’s head.

“You do know how weird that is, right?” Gregor asks dryly, and Clyde reacts with amusement.

“He knows,” I tell my dearest one, laughing.

Gregor shakes his head and strides down the terminal, gazing up at the ceiling as he approaches his gate.

Once there, about half of the passengers have boarded. He looks around at the remaining people waiting for their turn to get on the plane, knowing that these will be the passengers with seats at the very back. He intends to ask one of them to trade seats with him. “Any single flyers in the back rows?” he asks me.

I evaluate the remaining passengers. “A few.” I point out the one that I suspect he would most like to approach. Using a filament of my matter to point the individual out to his eyes, I say, “This man is in the U.S. Army, and is heading home for a few days of personal leave, to visit an ill family member.”

“Perfect!” Gregor thinks to me, looking at the young man. To all appearances, he is about the same age as Gregor looks, very early twenties, his hair is shorn in the typical military style, and he is wearing military fatigues. He looks very fatigued. “Is he all right?” Gregor asks me.

“He spent the last day assisting with local emergency personnel, evacuating civilians from storm damaged areas. He got no sleep last night as a result of volunteering to do this during the storm and its aftermath.”

Gregor nods, and wanders towards the man. Clyde watches overhead from his mist.

“Excuse me?” Gregor asks softly, coming up next to the young soldier.

The man looks up at him, eyes filled with a deep exhaustion. “Yes?”

“I’m wondering if you could help me?” Gregor says.

The man only nods, still willing even after his long day to be of service. Gregor is very impressed, and says, “I’ve had a falling out with my boyfriend, and I really don’t want to have to sit next to him on the plane. I’m wondering if you’d be willing to trade seats with me?”

Clyde’s mist rolls along the ceiling with amusement, to hear Gregor refer to Levant as his boyfriend.

The young soldier shakes his head with an amused smile. “You wouldn’t want my seat,” he says. “It’s the very back row, middle seat, won’t even recline.”

“Anything is better than sitting next to your cranky ex, though, isn’t it?” Gregor asks. “I’d really appreciate you doing me this favor.”

He shrugs. “Yeah, sure, if it’s what you really want.”

Gregor beams at him. “Excellent. If you don’t mind waiting to get on last? We can go through the gate check point together, since they’ll inspect our ID’s one last time, then we can trade boarding passes, all right?”

“Sure,” the soldier says tiredly. “Um, what row are you in?”

“First row in first class,” Gregor says.

“What, really? You’re giving up a first class seat?”

Gregor says, “Definitely. I really don’t want to see my ex. I’m sure he’ll already be asleep by the time you sit down, he was up all night growling at me.” Clyde’s mist roils with laughter, but Gregor isn’t watching. I know I’ll have to describe this strange looking phenomenon to Gregor later, after he is settled.

He continues telling the soldier, “Hopefully he’ll sleep through the whole flight. Please do me a favor, though, if he happens to wake up, and don’t mention this? I’m hoping he doesn’t even realize I’m on the plane.”

“Sure,” the young man replies.

“He is very excited to get the chance to fly first class, as he has never done this before.”

Gregor smiles at him. “I really hope you enjoy the flight.”

“I’ll enjoy it more now than I would have!”

“Me too,” Gregor assures him, “me too.”

Gregor

“As expected, Levant is still asleep.” Wolk tells me. “His ability to fall asleep immediately is so pronounced that I wonder if it is a vampiric power,” Wolk tells me.

“I’m almost jealous,” I think to him, amused. I certainly won’t be able to sleep on the plane.

The young soldier and I hang at the back of the crowd of passengers as they file past the gate agent who is checking boarding passes and ID’s. I wait another thirty seconds, wanting to make sure that the aisle is clear enough for me to walk past Levant without being forced to linger next to him.

We hand the agent our boarding passes and identification, then in the jetway I give the soldier my boarding pass, with the first class seat designation. I receive his back row pass. “Perfect,” I grin. “You go on ahead, and I hope you enjoy your flight. And please, not a word!”

He grins, and shakes my hand, and Wolk sends me a bit of energy to help him stave off his weariness from his hard day. I know he will be feeling quite well as he sits down, and I hope he enjoys all the amenities first class has to offer.

I linger again in the jetway, until Wolk tells me that the first class aisle is clear and I can walk past Levant quickly.

I look up at the ceiling, assuming Clyde is up there somewhere. “Okay, here goes,” I whisper to him.

“He wishes you luck.”

I enter the door of the plane, am greeted by the flight crew, and turn the corner. My new friend is sitting in his big comfortable seat, grinning at me, one finger subtly pointing to his seatmate. Levant’s burly form is hunched in his seat, leaning against the wall of the aircraft, the shade down, clearly sound asleep. I give the soldier a thumbs up as I pass by.

I am careful to squeeze myself into the opposite side of the aisle, probably annoying the person sitting in the seat there as I brush against them, but I am excruciatingly careful not to touch Levant’s seat with any part of my body or clothing. I get past as quickly as I possibly can and rush to the back, glad that I waited so long that hardly anybody is lingering in the aisles.

“Well?” I ask Wolk.

“He remains asleep. Your presence did disrupt his shadows to some extent, but not enough to wake him.”

Phew!

I go all the way to the back of the plane, and take my seat, squeezing in between two rather large passengers, glad that I am so skinny. Goodness gracious, it’s been a long time since I sat in the back of a plane like this. I know that there is no way Levant will come back here, or look back here, and that when we land in New York, he’ll be off the plane long before I am even able to stand up to disembark. This is going to work out.

“Look up,” Wolk advises me.

I glance up, and see that in the aisle next to my back row seat, the shadows on the ceiling are strangely mobile. It is not exactly mist that I am seeing, but I think it might be one of Clyde’s ribbons of darkness. Then, in the secret shadows there over my head, for just a fraction of a second, I am quite sure that I see his bright blue eyes, somehow disembodied on the ceiling like the Cheshire cat’s smile, watching me with amusement, and I hear his voice whisper, “Well done.”

I smile, and whisper back, “Farewell, my friend.”

“I’ll be in touch,” he whispers, then his eyes blink closed, the shadows withdraw, and he is gone.

Levant

Maria is waiting for me, again on the cliff overlooking Blackness Bay, watching the dark shore in the nighttime.

I come up behind her, snake my arms around her waist, and kiss the back of her neck. “Here again?” I ask.

“Mmmm,” she says, moving her head to lean back against my chest. “I like it here. It feels like home. Or the first place that really was a home for me. Here with you.”

“I’m glad,” I tell her. “I agree. This feels like home.”

She turns in my arms, and I lower my face to hers, and while we are kissing I bite her lip and enjoy her wonderful honey flavor. Her hands are roving down my torso, and starting to reach into my pants. Then I can tell she loses patience, for my pants are gone, obeying her dream command to disappear. I do the same to her clothing, without having even really looked at it first.

As I am lowering her to the soft grass overlooking the dark water, with the stars glinting overhead, she asks, “Aren’t you going to tell me what happened in Atlanta?”

“Later,” I growl, and move my hand down across her stomach to the patch between her legs.

There is a strange flash of light, and I wonder if she did that in her dream, but she asks, “What was that?”

“I don’t care,” I say, and silence her with my kiss.

~~~~~~~~~

The end.

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