Erik nodded to them as he moved to sit in the booth opposite them.
Matthias seated himself next and one of the women spoke.
“So, this is the ‘Primo’?” Her hair was crafted into a faux-fro-hawk pulled and slicked up. She had dark skin and eyes and a round face that looked joyful but had hard edges. As Erik looked at her he felt a force around her. It was almost alive. It felt like being watched. The gaze felt predatory and cunning. Animal-like. Sometimes it hovered over the woman’s shoulder and sometimes it was at her feet.
Erik flinched at the title—Primo. He wasn’t used to it, and he knew the Organization had meant it as an insult. At first it sounded like a joke, but they were basically calling him a prima donna. He didn’t know what it was supposed to prove except that some of the members of the Organization had the maturity level of junior high boys. He wasn’t insulted by it. He just thought it sounded ridiculous.
“Yes, Citrine. This is Erik.”
“I heard he was young but damn, he can’t even drink yet.” The man had a heavy Southern accent, which Erik hadn’t expected to encounter in Oakland. He had gorgeous dark skin and a heart-shaped face. His hair was dark and up in a man-bun, which automatically killed any attraction Erik might have felt. He caught a hint of a tattoo coming up from the collar of his shirt. It looked like a piece of map, with lines that crisscrossed each other in thick black ink.
“I can drink just fine.”
“Not legally.”
Erik shrugged. “What the hell has the law done for me lately?”
The man laughed and pushed his hand forward. Erik shook it; his grip was firm but the man didn’t play that macho bullshit of trying to hurt the other person.
“Amen, brother. I’m Samuel.”
Erik hated the assumed familiarity of being called brother, but did not let it show on his face.
“Nice to meet you.”
The last woman looked younger than the other two. Closer to Erik’s own age. Her hair was down in two long side braids that reached her waist. She cocked her head to the side and studied Erik. He met her gaze and held back a yelp as her eyes slit vertically in the middle and started to peel back to reveal pure-gold orbs.
Then she blinked and they were gone and her head was no longer tilted. If Erik’s last month had not been so completely unbelievable he might have thought he imagined it.
“I like him,” she said to the other two and turned her attention back to Erik. “I’m Reina.”
“Erik.”
Then their attention was on Matthias.
“Well, you called this meeting, Matthias,” Citrine said with eyebrows raised. “Did you just want to show off your former Padawan here?”
Reina snorted.
Matthias ignored both and simply started the spiel. Erik sat there as Matthias explained about the darkness, the fight in the mall, and the fact that they were going to the Angelic’s home turf. Erik sat through the exclamations of surprise and horror and the automatic denials. He had heard it all before. Matthias was spreading the news around, trying to get the information out. He had also been encouraging people to work together more.
After the first meeting Erik had attended he asked Matthias why he was doing what he was doing. Matthias had explained as he drove them back into San Francisco proper.
“I hate to admit it and if you ever repeat this I’ll just call you a liar, but the one thing the Organization really does have going for it, and the Agency too for that matter? It is that they have a singular focus and goal. Independents sometimes form long-term cells but they’re rare, and all too often our paths rip us apart again. War is coming. If we survive I don’t want the Organization and Agency to take control just because they’re better organized.”
Erik had nodded at that and begun to accompany him regularly.
Erik was shaken back to the present as Daniel came through the wall of the diner and hovered over the three independents across from them and screamed, “What the fuck!”
Erik did his best not to react to the voice that only he could hear. The last thing he needed was to start speaking aloud and look like he was already cracking under the pressure, or worse, have to explain about Daniel. He didn’t need to go back through it for a second time today.
“I mean really, you just sat there and let them use my skull for some weird ceremony?”
Erik winced. Matthias noticed his movement and glanced over with a question in his eyes. Erik shook his head and gestured for Matthias to go on.
“What exactly did you think you were going to learn?”
Erik jumped, allowing his hand to fly to his pocket. He pulled out his cell phone, tilting it so that no one but he could see the screen and quickly pressed it against his ear.
He turned to the rest of the table. “Sorry, I have to take this outside. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Matthias looked confused but got up and allowed Erik to slide out of the booth and head out of the diner. Once outside, Erik turned his back to the large windows that made up the diner’s street facing walls. Daniel floated in the center of his gaze, still in his prison jumpsuit.
“What the hell? You know I can’t answer you in public,” Erik said.
Daniel rolled his eyes and floated closer. “I was in the middle of some important shit when I just faded from existence.”
“Important shit?” Erik narrowed his eyes at the ghost. “What important shit were you up to exactly, when only I can see you?”
“I never said only you could see me, I just explained why you could. And who said that my business was on this side of the veil?” The words were hissed out.
They stared silently at one another for a while. Erik gave in first this time. He was right anyway. That young woman Zaha had been able to see him.
“They showed up at my house without telling me their plan. I just decided to let them go through with it.”
Daniel was silent for another minute before he spoke, his voice much gentler.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”
“Yeah, I’m busy now anyway. I’m leaving in a few days.”
All expression dropped from Daniel’s translucent face, where Erik kept his gaze focused. Daniel was still in the prison jumpsuit and still with the ripped-up chest. According to Elana he should be able to control that by now but Erik didn’t want to bring it up, so he just kept his eyes away from it.
“Are you coming with me?”
Daniel was silent and just like that began to fade away. Erik took a deep breath and went back into the diner, schooling his face to show nothing. He slid back into the booth, this time on the outside. Matthias looked and him with a sad smile as if he knew exactly Erik had been talking to.
“You weren’t on your phone. Who were you talking to?” Reina asked bluntly.
Erik sputtered and hesitated as he tried to come up with something. “How did you know?”
Reina smiled. “Part of my power is I can feel energy really well, see it even. I know what a cell-phone call near me feels like.”
They were all looking at him now, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. Matthias stepped in.
“He was talking to one of our allies. That’s neither here nor there. What I’m here for is to let you guys know that something big is coming, and we need to be able to call on each other if we need help.”
Slowly the three independents looked away from Erik and back at each other. The expressions on their faces tilted this way and that as they had a conversation through that alone. Finally Reina turned to them. “Okay, we trust you, Matthias. You’ve got a good rep; if you say some big and ugly darkness is coming to eat us up, it seems better to believe you and hope you’re wrong than the other way around. What do you need?”
“Nothing right now and this goes both ways. While we’re gone consider the resources of the Agency in San Francisco at your disposal,” Matthias offered.
They all looked pretty susp
ect at that.
“Hettie Jayl and her daughter Dayida are going to be taking charge of it while we’re gone,” Erik explained.
“Hettie’s coming to town?” Citrine asked, a smile lighting her face for the first time.
The other two were also smiling widely and Erik couldn’t help but ask.
“You know my grandma?”
They were looking at him in unison again but their expressions were far less hostile.
“Hettie’s your grandmother?”
Erik nodded and the reception in the booth became warmer. Suddenly they were treating him as if they were the best of friends. They stayed, talking about contacting each other when in need and just shooting the shit for another half an hour. It wasn’t until they were back in the car heading across the bridge that Erik asked.
“Why do they all know my grandma?”
Matthias smiled. “Hettie was a big deal. Still is. When she was here she worked for the Organization but was always willing to help anyone who asked. She was a powerhouse. Maybe the most powerful Blooded in the city. Those guys? Hettie probably helped their parents as well as them. She was like an old-school knight. She would help anyone who needed her services, no matter who they were.”
He went quiet and Erik thought about what Matthias had said. It fit with the things that he had read. He loved his grandmother but he didn’t see her much. They had been in L.A. most of his life and then by the time they moved up to the the Bay Area she had already left and was traveling the world. He saw her at least once or twice a year but only for a few days before she was off again.
“Then your grandfather died.”
Erik looked over at Matthias. His grandfather had died before he was born. All he knew was that his grandma had really loved him and still got this sad look in her eyes when she talked about him. His mother was the same way. She couldn’t talk about her father without crying and so Erik didn’t ask.
He barely knew anything about the man.
“He wasn’t Blooded, as far as anyone knew. He went crazy one night and attacked your grandmother. She had to kill him.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Erik whispered.
“No one knows the details but Hettie blamed the Organization for it. She quit them the next day and became independent. She stayed in the Bay Area for a while after that but most knew it was only a matter of time before she left. They’d lived here their whole lives. Every street held a memory of her husband.”
Erik nodded and they were silent all the way back home.
HETTIE
Hettie smiled at the stewardess as she stepped off the plane. The woman, fully thirty years her junior, blushed. She moved down the ramp slowly, allowing the young woman to take in her form. She still had it. She moved through the airport swiftly. She had not bothered to bring any luggage but her carry-on. The bright turquoise of her dress and head wrap were their own camouflage. People would remember the shapely older woman in the bright blue but no real details about her.
She walked out of the airport and took the first cab she saw.
“Take me into the city, just drive around for a while. It’s been awhile since I’ve been back and I need to take a look around.”
The man was young and his pale skin was riddled with red scars from childhood acne, which he tried to hide with a patchy black beard that simply made it look worse. Under it all she could see a sort of rugged appeal. A harsh handsomeness. He opened his mouth to protest.
Hettie lifted her sunglasses and the dark black of her eyes met the light brown of his and pulled him under. She smiled and let her awareness fill the car. His eyes went wide with worship. She could smell his arousal. She hated to be so forward with her power but she didn’t have the time to argue.
He took her into the city past San Francisco State University. The car curled through the hedge-bound streets where the wealthy pretended the rest of the world did not exist. She lowered the window and took deep breaths through her nose. The sea was all over this city. It was one reason she loved it. Even in the dead center of the city, as far from the water as you could get in San Francisco, when the wind was right she could still smell it. She felt its pull. She had not returned to the city of her birth except for very brief visits. Grief and the changes she had seen coming to the city had driven her from the place she loved. She’d gone west to the ocean, spending more time over water than on land in the last twenty years.
She could spend an hour or more simply driving around and reacquainting herself with the city but there were important things happening. She had one stop to make before it all began.
“Take me to the Columbarium,” Hettie said quietly.
“Yes ma’am, but they’re already closed for the day,” the driver explained while giving her a wide smile.
“I know. It’s fine. I just need to pay my respects.”
“Of course.” He nodded and turned back to the road.
“Can you put on the radio?” She did not want the silence to fill the time before her visit.
“Of course. Any requests?”
“Anything.”
To Hettie’s delight, the rest of the ride was filled with classical music.
She tipped him generously and sent him on his way. Her effect on him would fade with distance and time. The main building was already closed but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She placed her hand over the lock on the door and concentrated until the metal begin to crumble beneath her fingers. She reached through the new hole in the door. The only evidence of the lock’s previous existence was the streaks of red rust that stained the wood where it had been attached.
She opened the door and walked inside. It was not hard to find her husband. Hettie could find it in the dark if need be. She traced her fingers over the engraved words.
Z.J. JAYL 1945–1999.
He had been a wonderful husband and father. She’d always suspected he was Blooded but he never awakened. She’d had his initials used rather than his full first and second names, though his mother had fought her on it. Z.J. did not like his full name. Zachariah Jahzerah was a mouthful but his mother had thought biblical names would protect him from something she could or would never name.
It was one of the reasons Hettie thought he might have been Blooded. One of the lines that disappeared into a miasma of self-hatred and denial. Maybe he would have awakened if the Organization hadn’t interfered. She frowned thinking of them, but then smiled at the coup her grandson had pulled on them.
Hettie lowered herself to her knees, keeping her hand on the plaque, and let a prayer slip from her lips. A prayer to her ancestors. A prayer for her husband. A prayer to the spirit that had granted her a measure of her power and grace. When she was done, tears ran down her face but sunk back into her skin when they reached her chin. An endless cycle.
She left the building and made her way to the street and hailed another cab. It was time to see the rest of her family.
When the car pulled up to her daughter’s house she took a deep breath, pulling her power back into herself. She had swum in Mami Wata’s waters so long that even when not actively calling, she leaked all over the place. Dayida could always see it and it tended to put the girl on edge. Hettie thought she should just get over it, but Dayida had not welcomed advice from her for many years. Maybe not ever.
She knocked on the door, and in seconds her only child was standing before her in the doorway. She and Hettie were of a height; taller than average. If Hettie had done one thing right with Dayida it was to show her daughter that their height and their wide shoulders were beautiful, and not something to hunch and hide.
“Hettie.”
Hettie sighed.
“Dayida.”
She did not try to hug her daughter but stepped inside when Dayida gestured her in.
“Where is Erik?” Hettie asked.
“He’s out with Matthias now but should be back in a little bit. They were off to meet some independents for introductions.”
Hettie nod
ded and looked at her daughter. She had never been that close to Dayida. Raising her had been Z.J.’s job, and when he died, well, Dayida had been mostly grown anyway. Hettie’s powers provided for most of her needs and she had neglected Dayida after Z.J.’s death. Her daughter’s presence reminded her too much of the father who had desperately wanted a child.
There had been no coming back from the rift and most would find it shameful that Hettie didn’t try that much. Hettie did not but others would. She was happy to take some of the blame but she had never really wanted children. That was all Z.J. Hettie had only ever wanted to help others. That was her calling. Not child-rearing.
“How have you been?”
Dayida pressed her lips together before answering. “Okay. I have a show coming up.”
“That’s great.”
They were saved from more awkwardness by the entry of her grandson and Matthias. Erik came in the door, looking left and right, as if expecting someone other than his mother to be inside. When he saw Hettie, his eyes widened with delight and he moved to embrace her.
“Hey Gram.”
“Hello, baby. I’m so proud of you! Only awakened for a little more than a month and already killed an Angelic and took over the San Francisco branch of the Agency.”
Erik smiled and shrugged, hugging her again.
“It’s so good to see you, Gram.” He pulled away suddenly and Hettie glanced to the side to see her daughter frowning at them both.
She rolled her own eyes and pulled Matthias into a hug.
“Hey, Ms. Jayl.”
“You know to call me Hettie.”
Matthias smiled and rubbed his neck. The boy was always uncomfortable calling her by her name. She spared him and turned back to her grandson, putting her hands on his shoulders and drawing his attention back.
“Tell me what’s been going on here, because I have news.”
Erik quickly filled her in on everything. His phone call had been purposefully vague, but he filled in all the details she asked about as they moved to sit in the living room. Matthias and her daughter left and came back with tea.