The World of Myth Magazine

The train slowly rolled into Union Passenger Terminal. Reese gathered her suitcase and made her way off. The city was different since the last time she had been here, but it also felt very much the same.

She wove her way between the people and out onto Loyola Street. She took a breath and exhaled slowly. New Orleans has a smell, a taste to it. You could feel it caress your cheek as a slight breeze blew by or run it's fingers through your hair. It had a feeling of life, older than anything. She felt at home here, but also had an overwhelming desire to run as far and as fast as she could away from this place. It was here that Marlon had finally found her and where she had made the decision to return to the property she knew so well and lock the two of them away.

It was where she had lost her senses, her sanity, and her heart. There was very little that she remembered of her time here, but as she stood in the warm humid air, with the city humming around her, a small blues group playing on the corner, the memories slowly filtered through. The band started to play something slow and bluesy, and a couple had started to dance on the sidewalk. She smiled at them and watched for a moment. She walked over, tossed a few bills into the open case at their feet and hailed a cab.

She got into the cab as the driver put her luggage into the trunk.

"Where to darlin'" he drawled as he climbed in the front. She had missed that wonderful accent and she smiled at him.

"The Monteleone, if you please."

The driver let out a slow whistle. "Livin' it high!" he said.

Reese laughed, "I suppose so, it has always been a favourite of mine."

It was a short ride and soon the cabbie was pulling up out front. The hotel loomed high above them, and Reese stepped from the cab and looked up at the building. It was decorated with ornate carvings and pretty little balconies. She had always loved this hotel and was happy to see that it hadn't lost any of its charm over the years. So many older buildings fell into disrepair or were redesigned for a newer more modern look. The Hotel Monteleone was still family owned and they had spent a considerable amount of money to retain that classic architecture.

The doorman came quickly over, motioning for the bellhop who was just inside the door.

"Good afternoon, Madam, welcome to the Hotel Monteleone."

Reese smiled at him. "Good afternoon." He held the door for her as she walked it the lobby. She checked in, gave the bellhop her room number and walked into the lounge. She wasn't a drinker, but she needed something stronger than tea to bolster her nerve before she went up to her suite.

When she had booked the room, she couldn't put her finger on why she had to have that particular suite. As the train had raced closer and closer to New Orleans, the meaning had become clearer and clearer. Then she had seen his face, remembered his name, and it had come back. At least the memories of that suite, and the time spent in it.

Adrian. She allowed his name to whisper through her mind. She dared not let it be more than that. She had felt the incredible power he now wielded and suspected that it was just a small taste of what he could now do. He had been a practitioner of the arts. The darker arts. She had been drawn to him for that reason. He was wild, untamed, and dangerous. He was also very, very human. That she knew now, was no longer the case.

She sat at the bar and ordered a whiskey, neat. The bartender raised an eyebrow at her but didn't say a word.

She took a sip and felt the push of power. She shook it off, took a much larger drink and the power pushed at her again. She sat the glass on the coaster, very carefully, very slowly, so that he could not see her hands shake.

"Hello Adrian." She said as she turned.

Before her stood a boy no more than 15. He was dressed in a tank top and jeans. His mouth was smiling like he knew her, but his eyes were blank. Dead.

"Hello Catrina." Said the boy.

Reese smiled. That was the name she had used then. She had forgotten.

"This is not the body I remember." She said.

The boy laughed. "No, I suppose it is not." He came and sat beside her. Reese looked at the bartender and he seemed to not even see the boy.

"He isn't aware that I am here. To him, I look like a middle-aged businessman." Adrian laughed. "I appear to you as a child. I felt it was safer."

"Safer?" asked Reese.

"We did not part on the best of terms my darlin.' You did threaten to rip my throat out the next time you happened to put your hands on it, so I felt it safer to keep my throat away from said hands."

Reese furrowed her brow, she didn't remember.

The boy's face grew serious. "You really don't remember do you?"

Reese sighed in frustration. "No, I don't."

Adrian laughed. It was harsh and far deeper than the boy's throat should be able to make.

"Aw honey, well then, I will leave you to what you do remember. I am sure the rest will come back in time. When it does, I will be waiting. We have much to discuss, you and I." He blew her a kiss and suddenly the boys eyes held light again. A frightened light as he looked around.

Reese leaned over, touched his arm lightly and whispered to him softly. "Go child, remember nothing of this. You wandered a little to far, lost in your thoughts. Think happy tales and wander on home."

The boy got up and left. Reese downed the rest of her drink and headed up to her suite. The encounter had unnerved her. Adrian had seemed so smug, so excited that she had not remembered. What had happened that had made him afraid enough of her to inhabit the body of another to speak with her?

Her phone vibrated in her purse. She had been ignoring it for the last few hours but knew eventually she would have to answer it.

She pulled it out of her purse and swiped her finger across the screen.

"Where in that arrogant one-track mind of yours did you possibly think that this was a good idea!?" Marlon shouted on the other end of the line.

"Hello Marlon, how are you? Me? Oh, I'm fine, thank you for asking." She said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry but you know this is a bad idea." Marlon spoke a little softer now. "I didn't mean to yell. You know how I get when you aren't here. The physical pain I can deal with, the mental pain can be a bit much."

Reese sighed. She knew that a physical separation was hard on Marlon, but he had survived it before, he could do it again. She had tried making him hate her, but the effects of a physical distance were always the same.

"You knew it had to be this way. You can die, I can not. If we are to find out information from here it has to be me. Only me."

"NO!" he hollered. ‘You promised. No more running. You obviously lied." Marlon took a breath to calm himself. Reese felt his frustration level. She also felt a sharp pain in her hand. She looked down and a red circular welt appeared in the center.

"OW!" she said.

"You felt that!" Marlon exclaimed. Reese was silent. She was standing outside of her suite door looking at the scar on her palm. It was a quarter.

"Yes, I felt that. What the hell?" she whispered.

"That is what I have been trying to tell you, before you ran off in the night. The connection between us has deepened to a physical one. I hurt, you hurt, I feel, you feel, and vice versa. Its only the beginning. There is more that is happening too."

She unlocked her door and stepped into the cool quiet. "Like what?" she asked.

"Who is Adrian?" Marlon asked. "And why is he a 15-year-old boy with the power of someone much older?"

Reese froze. "How?"

"I closed my eyes, thought of you and suddenly I could see and hear what you did." He replied. "What is happening Reese?"

She walked, a little unsteadily, to the settee and all but fell onto it. "I don't know."

"I am leaving tonight. Tell me where you are." He said.

"No. There are things I don't remember. Things I need to remember. Until I do, I need you as far away from me as possible. I need to know you are safe."

"Reese please. I remember what you were like when I found you. The blood lust, the viciousness. It took all I had to bring you back. You know it's not safe there." Marlon argued but Reese remained firm.

"I need to do this alone. Adrian is more powerful than what I remember. I do know that. He should be long dead, and yet he lives. His power was one of reanimation, not inhabitation. What he did today he shouldn't be able to do. The details that came back to me of the ritual spoke of such power bestowed on the one they called witch. If he is of that line, then I need to know. I need to know how dangerous he is before I bring you near him."

Marlon knew he could not change her mind. He clicked the button to book his flight and decided that she could be mad at him in person. It was better to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission.

"Fine, but until you know the full scope of his power, stay away from him." He said.

Reese agreed and hung up. She knew he was on his way. There were powers that had developed for her as well. She knew he was coming. She knew that he was already on his way to the airport. She also knew that the plane wouldn't leave the ground. Not with him on it.

The airport switchboard answered the phone. Reese pushed all the power she could at each person she got on the phone. Marlon would not be getting on that plane. Not tonight, or any night soon.

She hung up her phone again and switched it off. She would know when he found out. She would feel it, she didn't need to hear him yelling at her on the phone as well.

She took her suitcase into the bedroom and laid it on the bed. A hot soak in the huge tub was just what she needed. She may be an immortal, with powers beyond her comprehension at the moment, but she was also still a woman. A hot bath soothed more than just the body.

She grabbed a small bottle of champagne from the mini bar, turned the radio on to a blues station and sunk into the hot steamy water.

Half an hour later she was wrapped in a robe and curled on the couch. A knock on her door pulled her from her thoughts.

"Come in." she said. She had ordered dinner from room service.

That was not what walked through the door.

A man, about 30ish walked in. He was trim, his beard neat and he smelled like chocolate.

"Hello, I am a gift from Adrian." He said. His voice, like his eyes, held no emotion, No awareness. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note.

Panic fluttered in Reese's throat. She moved away from Darius, but he followed her. She bolted for the bathroom and again he followed her. She could feel the hunger rising in her. She had been fighting it since she stepped off the train. Pushing those memories back, refusing to remember them. But with a meal so perfect, so sweet standing right in front of her, it was becoming harder.

She closed her eyes and tried to breath slowly. All she could smell was him. She could hear his heart beating, the blood moving through his veins. The last kill, the witch finder, had awakened that beast in her. It had long been dormant, and she had been able to keep it satiated with animal blood. The witch finder had awakened that need, that craving for blood. She needed more than just a sip of energy from time to time to keep her hunger at bay.

She opened her eyes and Darius had moved right in front of her. All she had to do was push herself off the wall and she would be touching him. He stood staring at her. She reached up and touched his face. The blankness faded and his eyes awoke. He stared at her.

"Who are you?" he asked. She stroked his face again. With a thought the door shut and locked. An invisible buffer surrounded the room. No one outside of that room would hear a thing.

"I am the last thing you will ever see darlin'" she drawled. He squinted his eyes in confusion.

"Your such a small thing." He laughed. "And not my type."

"Oh, I know." She smiled at him. She elongated one fingernail and opened the skin in his cheek. "But you are mine."

Fear leapt to his face, and he began to scream. She so loved it when they screamed. Fear made the blood taste like candy. Fear made the energy come faster when she breathed it out of them.

Fear made the unremembered memories come back. His fear.

She licked her finger and smiled at Darius again. "Scream for me again." She whispered as she opened the skin on his other cheek.

And he did.

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