The Beasts: A Winter's Tale

Levy Berringer was only half conscious. He heard the air whistling all around him and saw brown white and grey and blue shooting past him. This was the feeling of shooting through a subway tunnel, watching the lights flash in the darkness while the train sped. The more he tried to think what this was like, the more the wind whistled past him, pulling at him so that now he understood why Kruinh and Sunny had taken such care to strap him to Dan, and to cover him. He would have been frozen, he would have been torn from Dan’s body. There was nothing immortal about him, and even as he was thinking this, trying to understand that he must have been high, very high and hurtling through the sky, things lowered, the wind slowed, grey and white resolved to cloud and blue sky, and still they sped, but it was lower and slower and slower now and for one awful, vomit inducing moment, Levy lifted his head and saw further down below than he ever wanted to see anything, water sparkling, the skyscrapers and massive buildings, the grid patterns of a city. He ducked his head and then he felt a bump and there were hands on his shoulders and he was being peeled down and there was laughter, not unkind, and Kruinh was saying, “Take him gently, gently now,” and Sunny was saying, “We got him, Kruinh,” and a new woman’s voice was saying, “A little boy? What in the…?”

“He’s Chris’s,” Dan was saying, and Levy, held up by Sunny, felt unsteady as he turned around, saw that Anne and Laurie, the first straightening her hair, the second dusting off his expensive patent leather shoes, were standing right there, had apparently traveled right after them.

“You need to sit down,” the new voice said,.

She was chocolate skinned like Kruinh, with a small round face like Kruinh as well. She reminded Levy of his mother but that her eyes were a bright and amazing blue, and her hair was black and thick, flowing down her back like an Indian princess’s. She took him by the hand, though she was shorter, and taking him up the back porch called, “David, David, put on some cocoa.”

“Oh, you must be so cold,” she said as they came up the steps, “and you don’t even know me. I’m Tanitha, Tanitha Tzepesh. I am Kruinh’s daughter.”

“Another vampire?”

She looked at him, bemused.

“You’re a quick study.”

“Ma’am—”

`“Tan,” she said, entering the large kitchen. “Tan, or Tanith, but never ma’am. I’m not old enough for that. Well, come to think of it, that’s a lie, I’m quite old enough for it, but all the same. Sit in that chair, Sit in that chair. You need a rest. I bet you’ve never flown before, not like that.”

“How long did it take?” Levy asked.

“I feel like,” Tanitha said, reaching into high, but ordinary cupboards and pulling down very ordinary cocoa powder, “from my experience, a good three minutes. Maybe five if you’re worried about planes.”

There had been a sort of toneless singing coming down the steps and now, as the others came into the kitchen from the backyard, down the steps came a tall, affable white man even thinner than Laurie, who kissed Tanitha on the cheek and then looked at him and said, “Well you must be Levy.”

Shaking his hand briskly he said, “I’m Dave. Tan, put a shot of bourbon and the last of the coffee in that cocoa. You ever had bourbon in your cocoa, Levy?”

“Sir,” Levy said, “Bourbon in my cocoa is actually the least strange thing I’ve known in the last twenty four hours.”

“The boy’s asleep upstairs.” Kruinh said.

“Already?” David Lawry raised an eyebrow and took a hand through one of the dark wings of his hair.

“You would be too if you’d had the night he has,” Kruinh said, “and if you had been dragged through the air from Chicago to Lake Erie in five minutes and were still mortal.”

“Fair,” David crossed one leg in front of the other and sipped coffee as he leaned against the counter.

“You work all night, don’t you?” Tanitha said.

“Yup, honey. All night every time you ask.”

Tanitha smirked at him and David added.

“Three kids got killed by the college. And that’s the latest. It’s been going on for the last few days.”

“Is is natural?” Tanitha’s brows knit together.

“No,” David said flatly.

If Levy had been here, Dan thought, he would ask what the hell could be natural about murder.

“I should go check on him,” Dan said.

“I have other things for you to do as well,” Kruinh said, though. “You know a Myron Strauss.”

“He’s my friend. In my band.”

“You’re still in that band?” Laurie. in fitted dress shirt and tie, crossed his arms over his chest so his biceps were visible through his shirt sleeves, and furrowed his brow.

“Why do you say it like that?” Dan said.

“No reason.”

“And we’re going on tour this summer, so how do you like that?”

“I like I just fine, Daniel.”

“I like it just fine, Daniel,” Dan mimicked.

“Now, what’s that supposed to mean?” Laurie uncrossed his arms.

“It means you’re always really condescending about…”

“Everything,” Anne said, dryly.

“I am not condescending abut everything,” Laurie returned. “It’s just, I’m the oldest.”

“Actually Chris is the oldest,” Dan pointed out.

“Actually,” Tanitha said with a quiet smile, “I am the oldest.”

“Actually,” Kruinh said, “I am the oldest, and Daniel, you need to not be so riled up, and Lawrence you need to—”

“Pull the stick out of your ass,” Dan murmured.

“What?” Laurie’s nostrils flared.

“Do you even own a pair of blue jeans?” Dan murmured while Laurie returned, “Do you even have a tie?”

“Children.” Kruinh laid a hand on the table, and though it was done softly, it was all he needed to do, and they were silenced.

“I need you to bring Myron Strauss to this house as soon as you can,” Kruinh said.

“This house? Or my house?” Dan asked.

“Am I incoherent?”

“This house,” Dan said, nodding his head and flushing.

“Are you going to ask me why?”

“I wasn’t actually,” Dan said. “I assumed you had your reasons.”

“Why can’t you be like that?” Kruinh turned to the blue eyed Tanitha.

“Because I’ve known you too long.”

“Well, then why?” Dan said. “Why am I bringing a band mate here?”

“And childhood friend, don’t forget,” Kruinh continued.

Dan said nothing, but just kept looking at Kruinh.

“So you can tell him what you are,” Kruinh said simply. “So you can tell him what we all are.”

Laurie frowned, but said nothing, and Dan said, “Why in the world would we do that?”

“Because we are about to tell him what he is.”

“He… is?” Dan said. Then, “What is he?”

“Do you remember Kris Strauss?” Kruinh turned to Laurie.

“Yes,” Laurie said. Then, “Myron is his cousin.”

“I’m so confused,” Dan said.

Kruinh added, “And Myron is also a werewolf.”

“Lawrence Malone,”Tanitha said, heavily.

“Hello Tanitha,” Laurie said with more heaviness.

“As elegant as you look moping in Armani, it’s still moping, and quite frankly you seem even more tightly wound than usual.”

“My mind is occupied,” Laurie said, savagely turning the page of a book. “I am brooding. It’s my right. That’s what vampires do. We brood. It’s in all the novels.”

Tanitha sat down in the chair across from him, wrapping herself up in her shawl.

“In the novels they don’t have older sisters like me, though.”

“No one,” Laurie pronounced, “has an older sister like you.”

“I’m going to interpret that as a compliment. Are you worried about Chris? That can’t be it. Or this Lewis—who sounds most fascinating, but I don’t think that’s it, either. Or…”

“Did your father tell you about Lynn?”

“Not much,” Tanitha shook her head.

“Well, ask him. Or ask Dan. Tell them you’ve got my permission.”

“And she’s your trouble.”

Laurie sat up straighter.

“You know what? No, no. Not anymore. She took care of that. I try not to be angry, but the anger is not for losing her. It’s…”

“You do not wish to speak of it.”

“No,” Laurie said, “Not really. And besides there is… something else I am now thinking about.”

“Someone else?” Tanitha raised a playful eyebrow. “You move quickly.”

“How do you know there’s someone else?”

“What is her name?” Tanitha asked, ignoring the question.

“Loreal. She’s with Lewis. She’s his cousin. You’ve heard of Augustus Dunharrow.”

“Yes.”

“Who seems to be, if not at the center, then close to the center of all this. Well, she’s his granddaughter.”

“You’re in love with a witch!” Tanitha clapped her hands together.

“Yes.”

“And a Black one at that! Please tell me she’s at least out of high school. Vampires with high school girls is so cliché.”

“She’s a senior in college.”

“Well, that’s better.”

“And…” Laurie shook his head, “all I do is think about her. I just want to be by her side. Make sure she’s safe. Protect her.”

“Do you want to protect her, or do you want to,” Tanitha thrust out her two right fingers, made a loop with her left ones and thrust her finger through them, “her.”

“Tan!” Laurie went red, and Tanitha threw back her head and laughed.

“You’re a horrible old vampirex,” he said, halfway between sulking and something that was almost like laughing.

“You can want both,” Tanitha said. “You know that, right?”

She continued, “But…. I think you want one more than the other.”