No, almost every usual patron of the bar was avoiding it due to the still blazing temper of one blonde Welsh bartender against one foolish young fledgling who had managed to talk her into the entire debacle. Those that had witnessed the aftermath were steering clear and they had warned off almost everyone they knew.
The lack of customers did nothing to improve Elizabeth Bannon's temper, of course. Not that she needed the money, what with having been around for almost eight centuries - but she liked running her bar. She liked having bodies in the seats, breathing or not, and listening to the chatter of conversations.
She liked giving her kindred and their allies a place where they could gather in peace.
And now it had been ruined.
Beoir Àite did have a handful of occupants: some of its most loyal customers. And, of course, her faithful Viking bouncer, Erik Braed, who had never missed a day of work since the bar's opening in '79. Even their presence could not lessen her temper, however.
The five men - all vampires with the half exception of one - were seated at the counter, their eyes focused on the whirlwind behind the counter who was cleaning glasses with enough fury to break everyone one-in-four. Only one of them knew enough Welsh to understand what she was growling in a continuous string not quite under her breath and was looking a little green under the gills. A few of the others knew fragments of the language but actually knowing the translation wasn't needed. Her tone spoke volumes.
Eligius Vitus glanced to his left at Darien O'Connell, who still looked a little green, then as his right to Erik Braed, whose forehead was wrinkled heavily - a sign that the bouncer was looking for words to say to his boss. As the eldest of them - and the lover of the one who had caused the problem - he took it upon him himself to speak up.
"Lizbeth," he rumbled quietly but with the same tone he had once used to command men when he was alive. She snapped around towards him, her words cut off, and he held up a hand. "If you keep raging like this, cara, they will continue staying away. It is you they are frightened of."
Elizabeth opened her mouth, blue eyes angry, ready to protest his words but Darien - still looking a little green - spoke up.
"He's right, Liz. I've known you long enough, cousin, to know how people fear your temper." At her incredulous look, he glanced at his compatriots for support and they all nodded.
"So...what do I do?" she asked.
"Close the bar?" offered the carrot-haired Paul Outterridge from Darien's left.
From Erik's right, the werewolf-turned-vampire Walter Leitzervein growled, "Go kill?" in his broken, heavily German-accented English. The bouncer next to him muttered, "I don't think that's the right course, old man." Walter responded with an eyebrow arch that obviously translated to 'Who are you calling old?' towards the elder vampire then shrugged in Elizabeth's direction and turned back to his drink.
"I believe," said Eligius slowly before their dear bartender could get up in arms, "that closing the bar would do you good. Give them a week without you and they will come running later."
Elizabeth let out an exasperated puff of breath at that then asked, "And what am I supposed to do during this week?"
The Roman grinned brightly at that and Darien interjected, "I think by that smile he is suggesting you stay at home." The Irish vampire then smiled slightly himself as he tacked on, "And perhaps stay in bed with Eiyshi for the whole of that time."
"Ah," sighed Eligius, "that is a good idea, meu amicus."
The blonde looked between the five of them then sighed, her shoulder slumping as she shook her head. "All right, all right, I'm going." She pointed at Erik as she rounded the counter and growled, "You don't let them break anything, you hear? And lock up when you're all done here."
"Of course, boss," rumbled Erik. "Now go and relax. I'll make sure the children behave."
"Good luck," was her parting shot before she vanished through the door, flipping the sign to 'closed' as she went. As soon as she vanished up the stairs and they could no longer hear the sound of her boots, all five men breathed a collective sigh.
"Hopefully with a week of wild sex she'll calm down," grumbled Paul into his glass, breaking the silence. The others stared at him for a moment then Walter burst out laughing, followed a moment later by Erik. Darien and Eligius chuckled quietly, shaking their heads in amusement.
They spent several hours there, merely talking (and running off the occasional would-be customer who thought they might get free alcohol without Elizabeth's presence), until Paul left, grumbling about drinking too much. Walter followed him not long after, having gone long past even his considerable limit due to his two supernatural halves, and Erik had left to carry his friend home with a pointed look to the last two. Darien had nodded, relaying that he would lock up, and then it was he and Eligius alone in Beoir Àite.
"So," he finally said, "tell me the real reason you're with Edward. He may amuse you but that's no reason to be with anyone." His green eyes lidded as he peered under his bangs at the older vampire. "I've only been in love twice in my life but I know what it looks like. And you honestly love him."
Eligius frowned, the motion deepening the lines on his face, causing him to suddenly look more than the thirty-and-six years he had been when he was Turned. He lifted a hand to run over his face then sighed before saying softly, "I do love him."
Darien sat silent, waiting because he could tell that was not were the Roman was going to end.
"I taught him everything he knows, did you know that?" At the younger vampire's slight shake of his head, Eligius continued, "He was a child during the '50s and '60s and knew where his attractions lay by the time he was fourteen. By sixteen he had his first boyfriend and his father...he was not pleased to put it lightly. My Candeo, he tried to change to please his father, tried to find some attraction to girls. He kept coming back to boys, however, and when he thought he was safe to pursue one, he wasn't at all."
"He was at college, with someone he thought he loved, and his father came up to 'check' on him. To make sure he was playing 'straight'." Eligius shook his head and Darien felt his heart clench, knowing where this was going. "He was not pleased and...he hurt him. Took him away from the boy, down a dark alley, and tore him down with words and fists. Which is when Cael Ward found him."
Darien stiffened at that name, not having known that was Edward's sire. For a Kivana, the weakest of the six vampire Lines, Cael Ward had made a name for himself as one of the toughest and cruelest of their kind even in the modern age. And he was sweet, goofy Edward's sire?
The Fates were having a laugh when they orchestrated that one.
"What happened?" he asked softly.
Eligius smiled, the lines around his mouth drawing up tightly, before he answered. "Cael killed his father. Tore his head from his shoulders right there and spattered Candeo with his blood. Then he took him - in all ways possible." For a vampire of over two thousand years, who had seen almost as much war and death as any of the Elder vampires, Eligius' expression was one of a haunted man. "Meu amicus, he brutalized him so much that when he awoke...my Candeo was not himself."
"And Cael abandoned him," hissed Darien, knowing full well that vampire's modus operandi. Every vampire knew it but Kivana let it slide because she was a little scared of him herself and wouldn't even ask aid from her twin in taking him down.
"That he did. Because his last mortal moments were being beaten and berated by his father for attractions he could not control, he forced himself to forget. He spent months after he was Turned and abandoned, hunting young brunette girls, stalking them, attracting them to him like moths to flames, and killing them. Almost fifty bodies across one city and two towns in Washington before I came across him."
"He was mad," breathed Eligius as he continued talking. "Wild with rage at his father and consumed by the terror of what he had become because of how Cael Turned him. Oh if I could but get my hands on that pezzo di schiuma I would tear him apart with my bare hands for what he did." He heaved in a deep, unneeded breath, and shook his head. "It took time but I managed to coax out the real Edward, my poor Mico. Convinced him that his father had been wrong, that being attracted to the same gender was no sin, no crime; by Jove, if it were all of Rome would have been in flames before the Empire got off the ground!"
"After that he became what he is now?" asked Darien as the Roman chuckled softly to himself.
The older vampire shook his head negatively. "Not quite. It took...it took a great deal to change him. To begin the healing of those wounds Cael and his father caused." With a bitter smile, he picked up his forgotten shot glass and tossed back the whiskey in it. "He is...different...when we are alone. The flamboyancy is a shield to hide those half-healed wounds."
"And his lack of fear in the face of Liz's wrath?"
"When one has faced what he has in such a short life, our Lizbeth's minute wrath is little to fear," answered Eligius with a shrug. "You know as well as I that she was not really all that angry."
Darien nodded at that. "True."
They sat in silence for a long moment then Eligius asked quietly, "Do you understand now why I am with my Mico, meu amicus?"
The Irish vampire thought back over all he had just heard. Edward had been tormented and turned into a monster for a very short period because of his fears. He could sympathize with feeling like a monster; he had felt like that for half of his life. And Eligius had saved him, had brought him back, had shown him that he could be the person he once was and love those he wanted to love. The Roman had taught him what it was not only to be a vampire but to be human.
No wonder Edward adored him.
And seeing what he had done...Darien couldn't blame Eligius for falling in love with the fledgling Kivana.
"I understand," he finally answered just as quietly. "What you did..." He trailed off, leaving the words 'I wish someone had been able to do the same for me' unsaid.
Eligius seemed to sense them, though, and clapped him warmly on the shoulder as he slid off of his barstool. "I think it is time for us to go home, Darien. My Candeo is likely back from his work and I feel the need to hold him close after speaking of the past. And you, I think, need the arms of your lady friend as well."
Darien blinked then his cheeks flushed at his reference to the fierce little mortal detective he had gained a strange relationship with since saving her life (and his own at the same time). Then he nodded and slipped to the floor with a smile.
"Yes, I think we both need our respective lovers," he said. "I...thank you for being honest with me."
Eligius smiled as he opened the door and said, "You are meu amicus, I am always honest with you. And to fully understand him, one must hear that story." He then bowed his head and muttered, "Goodnight, Darien," before he disappeared up the stairs to the street level.
"Goodnight, Eligius," answered Darien. He then rinsed the used glasses, turned off the lights, and locked the door before he mounted the steps himself. As he reached the street, he reached for his cell phone and pressed the number one speed dial.
"Rana?" he said quietly as his somewhat-girlfriend answered. "Can I come over? No, not for that. I just...I learned something tonight and I... Yes, I am a big scaredy cat and I need my brave detective to protect me." There was a pause then he repeated, "What did I learn?"
Tilting his head back, Darien looked at the night sky and answered, "Bad things don't always end in tragedy."
No comments:
Post a Comment