The World of Myth Magazine

The next morning Reese and Marlon sat at the table as Chris came in. He stopped in his tracks because he could feel the tension. Reese turned to look at him and he actually took a step back.

"Just came for coffee." He said quietly. He knew from his mother that when a woman looked at you with fire in her eyes, you better tread softly. Reese had that fire.

Marlon waved absently over to the counter. "I followed the directives, but I make no promises."

"You can not be serious Marlon. We haven't been back there since I freed those poor girls!" Reese exclaimed.

Marlon rolled his eyes. "You didn't free them. You encouraged a rebellion. They were still married. They still had to tend to those men after they got their houses and their gardens. They still had to lie beneath them. They still sent girls from France. You just wound them up."

Reese glared at Marlon and snorted her disgust. "The Rebellion wasn't just about preventing those boorish pigs from bedding the women. It was about teaching the women that they have rights, but they must use what tools they are afforded in the time they live."

She rose and poured herself more tea. "Unfortunately, the tools they had were their bodies. But men being men, being denied the right to their beds and to the bodies of their wives did eventually bring them around."

"Regardless, we must go back." Said Marlon, dismissing what was shaping up to be another rant on women's rights. He had been listening to her go on about it for more time than he cared to remember. He agreed with most of what she said, and had always had a great respect for women, but for the most part she would complain, talk about taking action, then maybe rile up a woman or two and kill the offending man. If she did more than feed, he would be more supportive.

Reese stared at Marlon. She knew how he felt about her ire towards the rights of women and how she had watched them fight for every inch they had. When she had locked them away, woman were just starting to have a voice, and to be heard. She didn't know the climate today as she hadn't bothered to ask, but from what she had seen of the scantily clad women they had passed on the way to the pub to get Chris, she was sure that they still had to use their bodies to get anything of value.

"How can you be sure your source is correct. You do not know anyone in this time." Said Reese.

A smug look came across Marlon's face. "While you were out screaming to the wind, Chris showed me how to use The Google."

"Uh…it's just Google." Said Chris. Marlon shot Chris a look and he promptly shut up and sat down at the table.

"Where you off too?" he asked. He had a sneaky suspicion that he would be driving.

"Louisiana." The two said in unison.

"New Orleans?" asked Chris excitedly. He had always wanted to go see Mardi Gras. It was still too early for that, but New Orleans was great any time of year.

"No." said Reese with an air of finality. "I will not go back there."

"You are being unreasonable!" Marlon argued.

"They issued a command for my death. For yours as well, if I remember correctly. You think that has changed? You think that they will have forgotten what we did, who we killed, after all this time?" she asked.

"Um…" Chris raised his hand. Both Marlon and Reese turned their eyes to him.

"What?" Reese ground out.

"History, historically, has been forgotten over time. I will be the first to admit that this new generation is all about forgetting what happened and erasing the mistakes of the past. Cancelling the bad and uncomfortable. So whatever you did a zillion years ago, I can promise, is forgotten."

Marlon cocked an eyebrow at Reese. "Excuse removed."

She huffed, crossed her arms and sat back almost petulantly, in her chair. "Fine. The trip will not kill me, spending time in the French Quarter will not kill me, "she leaned forward and stared at Marlon, "but it just may kill you." She whispered that last part sending chills down Chris's spine. Marlon seemed unaffected.

"I will pack." He said almost cheerfully. He had enjoyed his time when last they were there. Before the unfortunate incident with a Governor's son, Reese had seemed relaxed, happy even. She had laughed, and danced, her eyes had sparkled with life. No one had died. Well, no one until the son. Frankly he was nothing but a disgrace to his family and Reese had done them a service. Unfortunately, the Governor had not seen it that way and had issued warrants for all at the party that night. But the ones for Reese and Marlon were to be shot on sight. Deemed dangerous and do not approach. The town had formed a lynch mob and the two had fled to Canada.

Reese continued to sit at the table while Marlon left to pack. Chris stared at his coffee cup. He could still feel the anger rolling off Reese and he didn't want to make any sudden moves.

"Oh for heaven's sake would you move or something?" she snapped. "You're annoying me."

"Why don't you want to go back?" he asked.

"Straight to the point, aren't you?" she placed her tea cup on the table and steepled her fingers. "I killed someone who, although useless, was still the first and only born son and heir. His father was not pleased."

"Ah."

The silence stretched out between the two of them. After a time, Reese got up and rinsed her cup.

"Who is that?" she said in a voice so low Chris wasn't sure she had actually spoken. A man was walking around the back, spray a liquid on the plants that grew wild. Chris stood and joined her at the window.

"Oh, that's my cousin." Said Chris. He looked over at Reese's face and it was as pale as a sheet. Fear began to uncoil low in his stomach.

"Your…. cousin? You are family to that monster?" she squeezed out. Chris was confused. He was pretty sure that Reese and Kyle had never met before.

"Monster?" he asked. "Maybe I should get Marlon?" he walked to the bottom of the stairs and hollered up for the man. Marlon appeared at the top of the stairs.

"You need to come down man. Reese is wigging out over my cousin."

Marlon walked into the kitchen and there before him stood a man. Reese was frozen in her spot at the sink, staring at him. He could feel the faint whisper of a breeze starting to stir around her.

"Hey Chris, just came to put some weed killer on the back. Didn't know you had company. You need to tell me these things man. I'm running a business here." The man spoke.

Reese sniffed the air like a wolf scenting her prey. Marlon moved the same time she did and they both reached the man.

"Reese no!" he yelled. "It's not him. You killed him. Remember Reese, remember." He pleaded with her while he tried to pull her away.

Her eyes were wild. "You found me." She hissed. The man paled. Fear had spread throughout the room and Reese could taste it like a fine wine. She rolled it around on her tongue. She could feel Marlon pulling at her and she turned her gaze to him. The minute he saw her eyes he let go and backed away.

She began circling Kyle, sniffing the air and running her hands gently along his back. Chris watched as Marlon left the room.

"Where are you going?" he screeched. Reese spun to face him. She grabbed his face and looked directly into his eyes. "Leave." She said. Fear gripped Chris so tight that all he could do was stand and shake. She pushed him away and he landed on the other side of the kitchen, smashing into the wall.

Marlon returned with the suitcases, sat them down and then sat himself at the table. He knew there was no stopping her when she was like this.

"It's not him Reese. You destroyed him. All of him." He said quietly. She had returned to the man and was running her tongue along the back of his neck. Kyle wasn't a tall man so it was an easy reach for Reese. Kyle shuddered involuntarily. Whether from pleasure or fear, it no longer mattered to Reese.

"You have haunted my dreams for decades Witch Finder." She nipped at his ear and he yelped. "I have killed you so many times, in my dreams. Each time Marlon wakes me, tells me you are dead and gone, and each time I believe him." She drew a breath and a sound akin to a wounded puppy escaped Kyle's lips.

She came to stand in front of him, running her hands up his arms like a lover about to embrace her beloved. "Yet, as dead as he says you are, here you stand. Before me, tasting of fear, regret and something dark."

Kyle whimpered.

"I have not lied to you." Marlon said. "I was there when you drew the life from him. The bottle with his ash is in the tomb. Shall I get it for you?"

Reese reacted to the mild disinterest in Marlon's tone. She turned her gaze to him. "He is a descendant then."

He had reached her. "That may be, but he is not the man who hurt you."

She stepped back from him and cocked her head sideways, looking at him like he was some kind of specimen. "Maybe not."

"Let us leave this place. Leave this Kyle to whatever life he has left." Marlon stood and walked towards Reese.

"He is hiding something." She said curiously.

At that moment, a completely unexpected thing happened. As Reese touched Kyle, Marlon placed his hand on Reece's arm.

Every dark though Kyle had, every mistake, every evil deed he had done since he first discovered that drowning a kitten gave him a feeling like no other, flashed in Marlon and Reese's mind. The screams of the innocent and the not so innocent. The faces of each one buried in the gardens, in the woods behind the house. In the basement. Reese saw them all.

Marlon tore his hand from Reece and backed away. That had never happened before. He had felt what Reese had felt. The anger, the rage, the hunger. He wanted to see this man suffer and die at her hand. It was an almost all-consuming desire.

Reese had control now. She was what she was created to be. To some, she was a Goddess, to others, she was a Nightmare. To Kyle, she was judge, jury, and executioner.

"You may not be my devil, but you have been the devil to many others." She began circling him again, now with a distinct predatory walk.

"Your face has been the last many have seen in the terror of their last moments." She stopped in front of him again and drew another small breath. Kyle fell to his knees clawing at this throat. She had taken his air. The lungs in his chest were nothing but dust. His eyes bulged as he tried to draw a breath. She ran a finger down his cheek and the skin split like a ripe plum. Blood poured from the wound and she licked it from her fingers. She bent and licked the wound and it opened the beast inside of her. She tore at Kyle's chest, shredding the skin until all that was left were ribbons of meat. She drank the blood like it was water. Her pale face was now covered, her arms were thick with blood up to her biceps, like she had shoved both arms into a bucket of it. She paused and took a deep breath. The body before her shrunk.

Marlon had moved to stand behind her, he didn't know how he had got there, but he couldn't move away. He reached out and touched her shoulder and again he felt what she felt. The overwhelming need to feed brought him to his knees behind Reese. She pulled his arms around her and continued to feed. Marlon's head fell forward and his forehead rested on the back of her head. As she fed with him at her back, she also fed him. He drew on her energy like he never had before. It filled him. When there was nothing left of Kyle, he spun Reese around to face him. Both were on their knee's, she was covered in blood, he was vibrating with her energy. She reached up to touch his face and he turned away. No matter how much he was caught in the energy he still couldn't stomach the blood.

"What is this?" he said breathless.

Reese shook her head. She couldn't speak yet. He left her on her knee's and got a cloth from the sink. Wetting it, he returned to her. He wiped her face clean and then kissed. He devoured her mouth and she kissed him with just as much passion. The energy between the two was crackling in the air around them and the smell of blood permeated everything.

Marlon tore his mouth from hers and stared into her eyes. It was Reese, but something else danced there as well.

Chris's garbled screams brought them both back to their senses.

"We better deal with this." Reese said, a small smile playing across her mouth.

"Can't I just knock him out?" Marlon asked teasingly.

"No." she replied.

They both heard a thud as Chris fainted.

"Well, that works." Said Reese.

Marlon laughed and hugged her tight to him. "Let's get this cleaned up. It will be easier for him to accept if he doesn't have to look at it."

Reese agreed. The two worked side by side until there was no trace of Kyle. They had moved Chris to his bed and had planned on telling him it was all a dream if he questioned them.

They would talk about what happened eventually, but for tonight, trouble shared was enough.

-