Vampire - The Awakening Part 37

"How about this place?" Jade said.

She had stopped in front of one of the area restaurants that offered back terrace seating, with heat.

"Looks like we can find a quiet corner," Lucian said.

"Ah, sure," Finn said. He paused again, though, before following the other two in.

Darren was still standing at the corner, staring. He hadn't moved. And once again, he didn't seem to notice when Finn raised a hand, and waved.

"Quite frankly, I don't even begin to know what I'm worried about," Morwenna told Megan. "I mean, were anything bad to happen, it should be at midnight, and you and Finn will be playing at midnight, so everything should be just fine. It worries me, however, that I can't be there, but you know that it's incredibly major to us, and I am the head of my coven, and actually, there will be dozens of Wiccans-maybe hundreds!-from across the country taking part in our rites, and I am actually part of the major ceremony here, so... still, I wish I could be there."

"Morwenna," Megan said firmly. "You're right. Finn and I will both be playing at the hotel at midnight. We're not off until one, so there's no way we can be in any danger."

Megan wished she had never spoken about her strange dream with her cousin. Morwenna had taken it far too seriously.

"Right," Morwenna said. "Hm." She kept staring at Megan. "Still..."

"Still what?"

Morwenna shook her head. "I don't know. It's still all been just too strange. I can't forget what I felt when I did your reading the first day you and Finn were here. And Sara... she said the vibes coming off Finn were deadly."

"I thought you liked Finn."

"I do. He's gorgeous. s.e.xy. Talented. He seems to really love you."

"Then...?" Megan said.

"He's dangerous."

"To me. That's what you keep saying."

"You pointed out to me that he went through a wild time in high school, and that he's taken all kinds of martial arts. Put together a streak of violence with some real training, and you've got a dangerous man. But it's not... any of that." "Then what is it?"

Morwenna hesitated. "A streak of evil."

"You think Finn has a streak of evil?"

Morwenna sighed. "I don't want to think that. And maybe... maybe it's not really Finn with the streak of evil."

They were in the back of Morwenna's shop. Joseph, Sara, Jamie, and another girl, Cindy, were manning the shop, and despite the insanity going on in the main part of the store-people suddenly determined that they had to have a "real" witch's cape for Halloween night-Morwenna didn't seem in the least dismayed that she was taking time out.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Megan demanded.

"I don't know myself. Something creepy. Maybe not believable. But then again, we all know that there's good and evil. So, if we believe in magic at all-"

"Morwenna, make sense."

"Okay, Miss Catholic," Morwenna said. "You believe in G.o.d, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you must believe in the devil."

"Morwenna, I'm one of those people who happens to like church. The music, the words, the sense of healing. I don't believe in every bit of doctrine, I think that many things taught are parables, and like many people believe, I think that, if there is a h.e.l.l, it's just the absence of G.o.d, or goodness, or peace, or whatever."

Megan spoke with a.s.surance, fully aware that she was lying. She had seen the creature in the unhallowed graveyard, and she had seen it again, in her dreams. By day, all of it seemed silly. But when the darkness came...

"Finn has been wonderful," she said firmly. "Last night... I was nearly mugged in the parking lot, and he was there. He didn't insist on my coming back to Huntington House, he just followed me back to Martha's. And he was the one who insisted on leaving."

Morwenna frowned. "You were nearly mugged?"

"In the parking lot."

"Did Finn catch the guy?"

"No... he disappeared."

"Disappeared? Like-into thin air?"

"Almost. They fought... and the guy was gone."

"You saw him? You could describe him? If so, you should call the police right away. They're afraid that the guy who murdered that poor girl in Boston might be a serial killer. One of those lunatics who kills by the full moon. Which is tomorrow night, you know.

Were you able to describe the guy?"

Megan shook her head, feeling more uncertain all the time. "No, I didn't get to see him."

"Could Finn describe him?""I doubt it. The fog was really heavy."

Morwenna stared at her a long time.

"What?" Megan insisted.

"Are you sure someone was out there-other than Finn?"

Megan fought to keep from trembling. No, she wasn't sure! She'd had her own fears the night before. But there had to have been. She couldn't believe that Finn...

"Why would Finn need to mug me in the parking lot?"

"Maybe he was afraid that you were really through with him, that you would refuse to talk with him alone, be with him alone. Once he pretended to save you... well, you'd have to trust in him, right?"

"Morwenna, I am getting the most crossed vibes from you in history. You like Finn. You and Joseph are friendly with him, even when I'm not around. But you're suggesting that he's immorally devious, and might even have stopped by Boston on his way to reach me in Maine just to take a night out and commit a horrible murder!"

Morwenna looked distressed. "That's just the point-I'm receiving the most mixed vibes myself-from Finn."

"Morwenna, you're my cousin, and I love you. But I love Finn, too. So if you want to cast around unfounded suspicions, don't do it with me!"

"All right, all right, sorry... it's just that-"

"Don't!"

"No, what I've been getting at in a roundabout way is that you both need to start looking into past history. I mean, let's face it, your lives-your dreams, at least-have been ridiculously weird. All right, here it is-"

"No! I don't want to hear anything ridiculous."

"You have to. Because I think that Finn just might be a demon."

"A demon!"

"Right. You've really got to read some of the old things I've come across. If-"

"Morwenna, I've got to go." Megan stood angrily, staring down at her.

"No, wait."

Megan leaned upon the desk, staring hard at her cousin. "My husband is not a demon!"

"Megan, please-"

Furious, Megan turned. She didn't note the way that Joseph, Jamie, Sara, and even the new girl, watched her as she left.

The restaurant was fairly full, but out on the terrace, there was seating available. And there was a corner, secluded from the other tables by palms that must have been carefully tended by the owners throughout the winter months. The hostess had been bringing them to another table, but the mere suggestion from Lucian that the secluded seating would be better had brought about the change. They all ordered coffee to drink. Finn didn't give a d.a.m.n about what he ate, but Lucian and Jade studied the menu, and it wasn't until after they'd ordered and their coffee and water had been served that they both gave their full attention to Finn and the matter at hand.

With both of them staring at him, he suddenly felt ridiculous. "I... well, I hope you two were really coming here, because I probably shouldn't have called you. Anything I have to say is going to sound really ridiculous."

"Oh, we like the ridiculous," Jade said, glancing at her husband. "What's been going on, what made you call?"

He shrugged. "As I said on the phone, dreams. I would imagine that Freud could explain it all away easily enough. Except that...

well, it seems that Megan and I are both having them, and if I understand my wife correctly, they are frighteningly similar."

"What's happening in the dreams?" Lucian asked.

Finn hesitated again. "I'm either hurting or killing my wife."

"Ah," Jade murmured.

"Ah?" Finn repeated.

"The dreams started when you came here?" Lucian said.

Finn nodded.

"But nothing-nothing-unusual happened to either of you before then?" Lucian asked.

"No," Finn said honestly, then he frowned, and paused. "I-actually, yes."

"What?" Jade said.

"I'm afraid to even say this, because... well, you'll understand in a minute. Megan and I had been separated. Misunderstandings- normal misunderstandings, nothing to do with dreams-and I drove up to Maine to talk to her. I'd been driving really hard and I wound up stopping in Boston... and I wasn't drunk or anything, but I must have pa.s.sed out in a pub. I woke up on the street, being prodded by a cop. I've never done anything like that before in my life. It was as if I just lost the time, and any memory of having gotten from the pub and down the street. I chalked that up to being exhausted and road weary. But, I guess you could say it was bizarre." He hesitated. "I hate to mention it, because that was the same weekend that young woman was murdered in Boston."

"Ah," Lucian murmured this time.

"Hey, don't 'ah' me there. I know myself. I never saw that girl, much less murdered her."

"We're not suggesting that you might have done so," Jade said gently. "But it's interesting. Go on."

Finn lifted his hands, feeling flushed, wondering what in h.e.l.l had made him mention the entire Boston episode.

"Nothing, really. Just dreams. And then..."

"Then?" Lucian said. "Go on. What was the 'then' that made you call us?"

"Bac-Dal," Finn said flatly.

"Bac-Dal," Jade murmured.

"Well, you've heard of the 'demon,' of course," Finn said, "since you have a chapter devoted to him in your book.""Yes. But my book didn't make you call," Jade said.

Finn shook his head. "My wife's cousin is a witch. A Wiccan. She was all excited and said that I had to go to a bookstore and read this old text about a man named Cabal Thorne who came here, not long after the witch hysteria, and intended to bring Bac-Dal to life. No one wanted to cry 'witch' or 'Satanist' because so many innocent people had just suffered. So, apparently, I guess, people here got together and murdered Cabal Thorne and buried him in unhallowed ground somewhere without the local authorities knowing about it. Or maybe they knew about it, and sanctioned it. According to his own writings, he murdered a young woman.

He had gained so much power that he just walked into her home, took her with her parents' leave, and then murdered her. For the blood that he needed, I imagine. Or the sacrifice, or whatever."

"Well, what do you think?" Lucian said, looking at Jade.

She shrugged, and turned her attention to Finn. "I'd like to find out more about this Cabal Thorne. Can you take us to the bookstore or wherever it was that you learned about him?"

"Sure."

Their meals arrived. Lucian and Jade had opted for the special of the day, fresh Maine lobster.

He'd had the scrod. Ridiculous, but it's what Megan would have ordered.

"Tell us more about the people you've met here," Lucian urged him.

"About the people here... well, as you can imagine, there are many. As I said, my wife's cousin is a Wiccan. Morwenna and her husband, Joseph, own a witchcraft store, and of their employees, I've come to know a girl named Sara-who tried to convince me that I was the most evil being in the world, and now thinks she's helping me anyway, for some reason. There's also a young man at the shop named Jamie, who seems to be all right. My wife has a distant relative living here, too-Aunt Martha. She's the epitome of the stereotypical New Englander, sound sense, logic, all that. Megan is staying with her, out at her place. That's the family. The Wiccan and her place, and her total opposite. Aunt Martha seems to think that they're all commercial, cas.h.i.+ng in on Salem's reputation. I'm trying to think of anyone with whom I've spent time. Huntington House is managed-along with Susanna McCarthy-by a fellow named Fallon. I caught him cooking up Halloween herbs in the kitchen last night. Says he was making spells for protection, but he scared the daylights out of a couple of the kids in the place the night before. I don't know... I fell for his story. Could have been wrong, he is definitely a weird man. Susanna cooks, supervises staff such as the day maids, and takes the reservations. She's a dour old sort-amazing that they keep people coming back all the time with those two in charge. Who else... ? A guy named Sam Tartan hired us for the hotel, and he's got a body guard. Guy's name is-believe it or not-Adam Spade. Let's see... ah. My wife has an old friend here. Mike Smith. He runs the new museum, down-to-earth type. No-nonsense guy. I should like him. I don't The girl running the ticket booth for him is Gayle Sawyer, and she's a strange little thing, looks Ivy League by day, and Goth by night. There's a cop who really helped us out one night when a guy got drunk and frisky at the bar- Theo Martin. And he has a brother, Eddie-the guy with the bookshop where Sara brought me to read about Cabal Thorne.

They're identical twins, by the way. Let's see... there's old Andy Markham. He's the one with whom it all started, I think. When we first arrived, we went to one of his 'storytelling' sessions. That night, Megan woke up screaming. Then Fallon came to the door, apparently certain that I was beating her. The thing is... it's like the dreams never stop. And... you'll see tonight. There's also this fog... okay, so it's New England. There's often fog. But this is one strange fog."

"What about Huntington House?" Lucian asked.

"I told you about Fallon and Susanna."

"What about the other guests?"