Tuatha's Children By Bert McKenzie Copyright 2011
Chapter 9
"Let me go," Roon demanded. He got a swift backhanded slap for his trouble.
"We've been watching you, kid," the man said. He was sitting in the back of the black car and facing the boy. Another big man was in the front seat, driving. The man in the back was big, broad shouldered and built like a small mountain. His face had that craggy look, like someone had punched him way too many times and everything had just hardened to take the abuse. His beady little eyes scanned the boy carefully. "You cooperate with us and we'll let your little friend go. We picked him up after we got you. He's our insurance. You don't do what I tell you to, and your little playmate dies."
Roon grew quiet, worrying about Raven. He felt so bad, knowing he had been the one to get them into all of this trouble in the first place. If he had listened to his friend they would never have left the castle with Rayel. They would still be safe at home with their parents. Now he was being held captive by this mean looking man who told him they also had Raven and would kill him. "What want you?" Roon asked.
"You got an accent. I'm betting you aren't even American."
"I am Tuathan," Roon said proudly.
"I thought so. I knew you came from Eastern Europe. Well you play ball with me and maybe I'll see about eventually getting you some papers so you can stay here legally. You don't want to be deported, do you?"
The boy had no idea what most of the words meant, but he shook his head. He didn't know what deported was, but it must be bad if the man was using it as a threat.
"I've seen you taking food from that store. You're good, no one saw you but me. So I figure you can be taught. Just so happens I need a kid for my next big operation. You play ball and we'll all get along just great."
"When?" Roon asked.
"When what?"
"When will we play ball? Can Raven play as well?"
"Raven...that your buddy? Well Raven isn't gonna do nothing. He's gonna sit tight until you do like I tell you. Then maybe I'll let you see him."
They drove on through the darkness. It was very late when they finally pulled to a stop in a rich neighborhood. They big man opened the car door and slipped out with Roon in tow. They walked down the lane to a big house. "Come on," the man growled as he led Roon around to the back of the building. "There," he pointed to the back door. "This is a test. You do good and I'll use you in the big job I got coming up. You just slip in there. They got a security system, but as long as you stay on your hands and knees and don't get up, you'll be fine. They got what's called a pet area so it don't go off when their dogs wander around the house."
"Dogs?" Roon said nervously. They didn't have dogs in Tuatha, but his parents told they that dogs were like small wolves that humans sometimes kept in their houses.
"Don't worry, kid. The people are on vacation and the dogs are at a kennel. You just slip in that little door at the bottom and stay on your hands and knees and your friend will be alright." He shoved Roon toward the door and pointed out a small doggie door in the bottom panel of the back door. "Now when you get inside you look for anything expensive, silver, jewelry, stuff you can slip out the doggie door."
Roon figured out that he was being used to rob the house. "If I take these things for you, will you let Raven go?"
"We'll see, kid. You do a good job and I might reward you. I have other jobs for you to do."
Roon slipped easily through the doggie door and into the house. He crawled through the mud room and into the kitchen on his hands and knees. The man watched his progress through the doggie door. Roon looked back to see the face staring at him from the little square entrance. "Go find something valuable, kid, but remember, don't stand up or you'll set off the alarm." Roon continued to crawl through the house. He came to a dining room and looked around. There was a beautiful silver tea service on a breakfront standing against the wall. He crawled over to it and sat back on his haunches. He didn't know why the man would want it, but he said silver and this looked to be made of silver. He slowly reached up and felt the teapot sitting on the tray. He pulled the tray slowly over to the edge of the breakfront and then slowly lowered it to the floor. He then slid it in front of him through the kitchen and out to the man waiting at the doggie door. The man reached in and grabbed the teapot and the creamer and sugar bowl. He then slid the silver tray out the doggie door. "Nice work, kid. Go see what else you can find. Maybe some jewelry or cash. Go upstairs and check out the bedrooms, but make sure you stay low to the floor, on your hands and knees." The man was busy slipping the tea service into a burlap bag he carried with him.
Roon turned and crawled back through the house. He came to a wide staircase and began to crawl up the stairs on his hands and knees. When he got to the top of the stairs he crawled down a carpeted hallway and pushed open the first door he came to. The room inside was dark, but he could easily see with his elfin eyes. He looked about and didn't see anything interesting. There was an expensive coin collection behind glass cases, but Roon had no idea this was worth anything. He continued back down the hall. He came to a game room and found a large table with smooth round balls in an open shelf at the end. He took them out and examined them. They were so smooth and hard and brightly colored. He had never seen billiard balls before. He thought they must be some expensive and worth a lot. He took as many as he could carry and pushed them in front of him to the door. When he got to the stairs he tried to gently push the balls down the stairs, but the heavy billiard balls rolled down and began to bounce down the steps. One rolled off the side and landed on a crystal vase on a table beside the staircase causing it to shatter. The boy panicked and jumped up trying to catch the rolling balls. In doing so he broke the beam of the alarm system and loud horn began to blast. Roon looked about, startled by the loud noise and ran as quickly as he could down the stairs. He just got to the doggie door and slipped out, seeing the big man running across the yard. "Wait," he shouted.
The man turned to look back at him. "Your little buddy just died," he yelled as he jumped into the black car. It sped away leaving Roon standing by the side of the road, the horn still blaring in the house behind him. He could hear other sounds coming in the distance and growing louder. More of the self propelled wagons were heading toward him, these with flashing lights on the top. He turned and ran down the street, dodging into bushes nearby.
"Thanks," Jeff said as he sat back on the mattress.
"Just doing my job," Craig responded.
Willow sat down beside his lover and stared at the floor. "What's the matter, lover?" Jeff asked, trying to get the boy to look up at him.
"I'm not a very good partner at all," Willow said dejectedly. "I should have realized you were thirsty. It's just that I kind of forgot what it was like since we...since we..."
"Since I became human again?" Jeff just laughed softly. "It's okay. I kind of forgot too. You'd think after all this time, I wouldn't forget something so basic. I'm glad y'all came when you did. I'd feel really bad if I made a snack of that young boy."
Craig laughed as well. "Not near as bad as you'd feel after that big guy with the sword took care of you. The one they say is the king. I think he'd not take too kindly to you munching on his kids."
"Well we still have one more to find. How long till sunset?"
"Several hours," Craig said, sitting down on the floor beside the battery powered lantern he brought with him. "You might as well get some rest. I plan to."
"Well then go back to the hotel," Jeff encouraged. "You don't need to sit in this dirty old basement with me."
"Shut up. Yes we do," Willow said, hugging his lover.
"Where are the others?" Jeff asked.
"I sent them back to the motel," Craig said. "I think Sharon is going to take the boy back to their land. She and that big guard are planning to go back to Illinois tomorrow morning. They'll take everyone with them back to fairyland except the king and his mate."
"Good," Jeff said. "Tonight after you two get some rest, we'll go hunting and see if we can find the other boy. Then we can all go back. Well all except you."
"Yeah," Craig agreed. "I can't go back to fairyland with you. I'm getting married."
"What? Congratulations. How long have you and Angela lived together? She finally said yes?"
"Well, actually we've lived together for about seventeen years, and I'm the one who finally said yes. You know, if you could delay your return a little bit, I'd sure like you to be my best man."
"Well, sir, I'd be honored," Jeff said with a grin. He looked over at his partner to see what his reaction was, but Willow had already fallen asleep.
Roon sat in the bushes of a nearby park and cried for quite some time. He was devastated that the man said they had killed his friend. He knew it was all his fault. What would Robin and Scott say? How could he ever face Raven's parents, Maggie and Dannemel. They would rightfully blame him. He didn't think he could ever go back to Tuatha and see them. But he knew he had to. He decided he had better pull himself together and head west as fast as he could so he could find the mountains and find a way back home. He got up and started walking toward the west, or at least what he thought was the west.
After several hours he finally came to a railroad yard. There were tracks upon tracks. He watched and saw the work engines pushing the cars around in the yard. They were routing various cars into various trains, and then they would head out. The big cars would link together and off they would go. He thought perhaps he could hitch a ride on one of these marvelous vehicles. They moved like huge serpents over the metal trails drawn out on the ground. He slipped down the embankment and came up against a chain link fence. He followed the fence for a way eventually coming to a spot where the fence had been cut and pulled up. Not knowing many vagabonds who rode the rails had taken this same route, Roon slipped through the opening and began walking along the metal rails. He heard a rumbling and jumped back just as a huge series of engines roared by, pulling a long line of freight cars behind it. Roon walked along side the slow moving train, looking at the various cars as they rumbled by. Suddenly he heard someone shouting. He looked back and saw a man in some sort of uniform, carrying a light stick, running in his direction. The man was shouting at him. Roon again panicked and began to run along side the train. He saw flat bed car and leaped for it, catching the metal rungs of a partial ladder on the side and pulling himself up onto the bed beside a huge metal box container. The man chasing after him was shaking his fist and shouting something, then began talking into a small box he was carrying. The train began to pick up speed and Roon sat back against the metal wall of the storage container on the car, watching the chain link fence drop behind him. The train was now out of the yard and smoothly rolling along the tracks, heading into the west.
Craig called a taxi and Sharon, Rood, Rayel and Raven all climbed in to return to the airport where the chartered plane was waiting to take them back to Illinois. Sharon was in charge of the party as long as they were in the human world. Raven seemed a little nervous with Rayel, but the man apologized to the child speaking in native Tuathan. "I should never have brought you to this world," he said. "I so wanted to find my own son that I was blinded to the evil I was doing to you and your friend."
The boy looked up at the older man. "It is okay," he said. "It was fun till Roon got caught."
"Don't worry," Sharon said in their language. "I'm sure they'll find him and everyone will be home before you know it."
"But this is not your home we go to," Rayel replied, giving the woman a curious look. "And you speak our native tongue so fluently."
She reached over and took Rood's hand. "It is now. I've been living there for over ten years. I've made Tuatha my home."
Rood kissed her hand and looked up with his characteristic crooked grin. "The lady Sharon is our prime healer. She runs the halls healing as well as any native born Tuathan, and brings in some of her human magic as well. I would not allow her to return to this world if I thought she would stay here."
Raven smiled up at the adults. "You two are just like my mom and my dad. Mom is human and dad is Tuathan."
Rayel shook his head. "So much has changed since I was young. Tuatha has changed. My son is born of two worlds and in love with a night walker from the human land. My son is a reversal, as is the high king of our world. The consort is human. There are many other human Tuathan bondings. It is so strange. You know I thought I would be exiled forever because I bonded with a human woman. I think I was the first."
Sharon shook her head. "Not hardly. If you really looked at your history, and ours, you would see there are many such instances of humans falling in love with fairies. Except in my world, no one thought they were real stories. They were discounted as legends and fairy tales."
The cab pulled into the airport and Sharon paid the driver as the others climbed out. As the vehicle drove away the cab driver shook his head. "Foreigner," he grumbled.
The short flight back to Illinois was uneventful other than Raven's excitement about his first plane ride. He was astounded that such heavy metal wagons could fly through the air like birds and that people could ride inside them. He was still babbling about his ride when they pulled up to the old Victorian mansion. He took one look and the house and suddenly grew very quiet. "What's the matter?" Sharon asked.
"I am going to be in so much trouble," he said quietly as he looked at the ground. They slowly walked up the walk to the door.
"Not as much trouble as I was in for bringing you here," Rayel wind whispered to the boy and winked at him when he looked up. Jennifer and Caseldra rushed out of the door to greet them, both girls hugging the child. Then they rushed him inside, up the stairs and literally shoved him into the closet in the unused bedroom.
When the back side of the tiny closet opened, Raven found himself stepping out into the wizard's library. Before he could even focus on the room around him, his mother was grabbing him and smothering him in kisses, sobbing hysterically. Dannemel just stood aside and smiled, happy to have his family reunited.
As night fell, Jeff gently shook his lover's shoulder. "Wake up, sleepy," he said as Willow blinked and looked around, disoriented. "Craig is waiting outside for the others. They should be here soon. We have to resume our search for the other boy."
"Great," Willow groaned as he slowly stood up. "Wow, my whole body hurts. Did you get any sleep on that uncomfortable mattress? Where did Craig sleep?"
"I got a little rest. I guess vampires are used to sleeping in hard coffins and on stone slabs in crypts. The uncomfortable mattress wasn't that bad for me. Poor Craig dosed off on the floor. But he never complained. I sure wish the two of you had gone back to the hotel."
"Motel," Willow corrected.
"What's the difference?"
"The cost and quality," the boy said as they pulled the door open.
The van pulled up to the curb just as they climbed the stairs to the street. The sky still glowed a rosy pink from the recent sunset. "My favorite time of the day," Jeff said. "Twilight."
"Would make a good vampire book title," Craig joked. Fred their driver climbed out of the van and handed Craig a plastic jug. "Thanks," Craig said and turned to Jeff. "Fred brought you dinner, as I requested." He handed the vampire the jug of blood. "Fresh from a nearby slaughterhouse. Willow will have to make do with a salad from Wendy's."
"Great, I'm starved," the boy said as he climbed into the van, greeting the others. Robin and Scott were the only two waiting for them. "Where is everyone else?" Willow asked.
"We sent them all home," Robin replied.
"And you should have seen the fuss Rood made," Scott added laughing. "I'm the captain of the guard and it is my duty to protect the king," he said mimicking the big guard.
"Yes, but when Sharon reached for his ear, he quickly changed his mind and decided to go with her," Robin added. "Now that we have all eaten," he continued, ignoring that Willow and Jeff were still in the middle of their meal, "where look we tonight?"
Fred gave Craig a folder. "This was faxed to you from your office."
Craig opened it and flipped through pages. He then pulled out a faxed photo and handed it to Robin. "This look like the culprit?"
Robin looked at the picture and smiled, nodding. "This is our son. He looks well. Where is he?" He handed the picture to Scott. It was a picture of the boy as he stood up after crawling through the chain link fence at the railroad yard.
"That was taken by a security surveillance system at the Burlington Northern shipping yards," Craig said looking at the papers in the folder. The railroad detectives say he hopped a freight heading to New Mexico." He read further and looked at some map sketches. "Fred, back to the airport." Craig immediately got on his phone and made some calls.
"Where go we now?" Robin asked.
"La Junta, Colorado. With a little luck maybe we can beat him there and catch him."
Several hours later a small private jet was pulling into La Junta Municipal. Craig, Jeff, Willow, Robin and Scott got out finding another of Craig's hired men waiting with a rented van. "I didn't know we had such an extensive foundation," Jeff said as he was introduced to Robert, the driver.
"We don't," Craig said. "We just know where to hire people." They quickly headed for the railroad area, only to find that the train in question had already passed by some time earlier.
"Damn!" Scott cursed. "How can one boy cause so much trouble? Where next?"
Craig consulted his paperwork. "Next stop will be in Albuquerque."
Suddenly Jeff perked up and leaned out the window. He then opened the door and jumped out of the van.
"What is it?" Craig asked, following him.
"The scent. He was here."
"Of course he was here," Scott said as they followed the vampire. "The train passed right by here. Right over these very tracks."
"I wouldn't smell him in a passing train," Jeff replied. "He must have gotten off." He turned and ran down the road.
"Come on," Craig said and they all piled back into the vehicle to take off after the man running along in the darkness.
"Man, that guy is fast. I've never seen anyone who could run like that. We're going almost 40 and he's staying ahead of us," Robert said as he tried to follow along. Jeff was running down the sidewalk at an incredible pace, but remembering to be slow enough for the people in the van to follow him.
"You don't want to know how he does it," Craig said.
"Steroids," Robert said, nodding knowingly.
They moved into the outskirts of the town. The neighborhood took on a decidedly seedy appearance. Suddenly, Jeff stopped. The driver brought the van to a halt. "What is it?" Craig asked out of the open window.
"Blood," Jeff said. "A lot of it."
"Oh God, no!" Scott said, jumping out of the van.
"There," Jeff pointed toward what looked like an abandoned house. The building had tall weeds growing in the yard, along with accumulated trash, old beer cans, fast food wrappers, plastic shopping bags and so on littered about or blowing in the light breeze that had sprung up.
Robin was out of the van and running toward the front of the building with Scott following behind him. "Wait a minute," Craig yelled and followed along, reaching into his coat for a gun. Jeff followed slowly behind.
Willow came up to Jeff. "What's going on?" he asked nervously.
"I can smell the blood. And another sent. I think there were other vampires here. I think they had a feast." He stopped some distance from the building. "They made a mess of it. I don't think I can go in there." The burning in the back of his throat intensified with the scent of all that blood.
"Holy crap," Craig said as he looked at the room. Robin stood in the center with Scott beside him holding him. There was blood splashed all around, staining the floor, the walls and even the ceiling. A few body parts and clothing remained, but mostly it was rapidly disintegrating. "Vampires. Looks like several of them," Craig said as he flashed the beam of his light around the room.
"Is that what these are?" Scott asked nervously. His voice was trembling. "Do you think...do you think they killed each other?"
"I doubt that. It's been known to happen, but pretty rarely on this scale. I think someone or something murdered them."
"Where is Roon?" Robin asked in a cold voice.
"I don't think he's here," a voice answered. They turned to see Jeff standing in the doorway. He looked like he was shaking. "I detected several other scents outside once I was able to get past the smell of... of here."
"Someone else did this?" Scott asked nervously.
"The Van Helsings," Craig said.
Jeff nodded slowly. "It certainly could be their work. By morning there won't be much left but the house and the blood. I think the vampires were surprised. They apparently came in here to dispatch a gang of humans and the Van Helsings surprised them in mid massacre."
"But what about Roon?" Robin asked again firmly.
"I detected another scent blended with his for the last few block. I think a vampire met up with him and brought him here, and not willingly from the scent of pheromones mixed in. But I also think I detected his scent outside leaving the area. I think the Van Helsings found him just in time and took him with them. But it's hard to make out. There are so many other scents obliterating it, and the smell of blood from here is pretty overwhelming."
"Let's get going. It will be dawn soon," Craig said and they all turned to leave the devastation in the house.
"Are you okay?" Willow asked as they walked back toward the van.
"No, I don't think so," Jeff whispered. "The smell, it's so...I just can't stand it. My throat is burning so bad. Maybe you ought to stay away from me for a bit." Jeff turned and walked down the block in the opposite direction from which they had come. He got to the end of the block and looked around, confused.
"What is it?" Craig asked.
"I'm pretty sure they had him with them, but everything seems to disappear here. I'm guessing they got in cars and left with the boy."
"Who are these Van Helsing things? Why would they take Roon?" Scott asked. He and Robin had followed Jeff and Craig.
"The Van Helsings are an organization of vampire hunters. Their mission is to wipe the vampires out. They think they are saving the earth by doing that. I'm guessing a vampire caught Roon and was bringing him here. Fortunately for your boy the Van Helsings showed up about the same time. They took him with them when they left."
Scott relaxed a little bit. "At least he's safe. But where would they take him."
"One of two places," Craig volunteered. "They would either drop him off at some social services organization, or they might take him back to their headquarters."
"How will we find out?"
"Simple," Craig said with a smile. "Over the last year we have managed to infiltrate their organization. We have a spy and he'll let us know."