The Old

He who journeys to Hell also becomes Hell, therefore, do not forget from whence you have come.

-The Red Book

* * *

She thought of getting up. It was certainly time for work. But, instead, she laid back in his arms and let his long, large hands move over her shoulder and touch her hip. Laurie made a contented noise and his body, already curved to hers, moved even closer.

“You must think I’m such a slut,” Lynn said, sleepily.

“What?” Laurie half laughed, kissing her shoulder.

“You know I’m not usually this way. Just meeting a man—”

“A man in church no less!”

“Yes,” Lynn chuckled, while Laurie leaned over her and kissed her ear.

“It’s not something I do, you know,” she said, “meet men and go home with them to their very large apartments and king sized beds.”

“I believe, you said,” Laurie began, “last night, that you never brought men back to your place you’d just met.”

“And then you said,” Lynn turned around touching his face, “that this just meant I needed to come back to your place.”

“And you came.”

“Like a fool,” she said, placing a hand on his chest and running it down to his stomach. “You could have done anything to me.”

Laurie bit his lower lip and then said, looking more shy than mischievous, “I think I did a few things to you.”

“It was the wine.”

Laurie shook his head, pulling her to him and grinning, broadly.

“It was not the wine.”

“No,” Lynn said. “It was not.”

“What time do you have to be at work?”

“I have to,” she groaned. “I don’t want to think about that. But… damn, nine o’ clock.”

“Do you eat?”

“What a strange question. I’m pretty sure everyone does.”

Laurie shrugged. “Some people skip breakfast. I can sort of take it or leave it.”

I eat a bowl of Special K with a cup off coffee.”

Laurie frowned, “Is that a deliberate life choice?”

“That’s a not having time choice.”

“I tell you what,” Laurie, unfolded his arms from about her, “You get in the shower, and I’ll see if I can’t do a little something better than a bowl of cereal and coffee.”

“You’re going to cook for me?”

“Well,” Laurie said, smiling at her from the edge of the bed, “I once had a girlfriend who, when I said do you want to go out for breakfast, told me she didn’t do breakfast. It took me a long time to understand what that meant.”

“It meant she felt like a slut walking into a restaurant to eat pancakes at eight in the morning with a guy she’d been fucking all night.”

“I understand that now,” Laurie said. “So you can eat here and feel like a slut.”

When she started to say something, Laurie said, “Madam, I feel like a slut too. The things you did to me…”

He shook his head grinning.

When he stood up, she loved his body. Loved that he was not conscious of it or ashamed, loved even the imperfections, the little oddnesses she’s seen in him. He was such a well made and sophisticated man, and last night at dinner she’d noted his slightly large ears. When he’d called himself monkey faced, she’d noticed that a bit, but thought the large ears, the big smile added to the charm of dark eyes and dark hair that would have been generic otherwise. She’d fallen in love with the light pattern of dark hair up and down his arms, on his thighs, up to his sex which, she mourned, was now hidden as he pulled on his pajama pants and a tee shirt and left the large bedroom to head into the kitchen. She looked around the place, white carpeted, the broad window looking over the Gold Coast. She wondered if she’d ever be back here. What would Laurie want with her in the future?

“Look, I don’t understand men.”

“And I don’t understand women,” Laurie said as his finger slid over the surface of his phone.

“Lawrence,” Lynn put down her fork, “I need you to listen.”

Laurie put his phone away and looked at Lynn.

“Do you not like the omelet?”

“It’s a great omelet. Not the point. I want to know what you want from me?”

“Want from you?” Laurie frowned, looking a little pissed.

“Like, what was this? All of this. Last night. I don’t need a wedding ring, but I’d kind of like to know where we stand.”

“Well,” Laurie looked like he was genuinely puzzled. “We went out. You came back here. We spent the night together. I cooked you breakfast. I cooked us breakfast. We’re having a nice breakfast and now we’re on our way to work. I’m dropping you off. Of course.”

“But what after that?”

“I…” And then Laurie looked adorably blank.

“I hadn’t really thought about it. I assumed we would… do it again. All of it over again. Do what you want? Isn’t that how women live today?”

That question struck Lynn as so strange that she bypassed it and simply said, “There are men who are just out for a good time, and that’s sort of okay, But then there are those men who are nice. Really nice, who tell you the right things, cook for you, and then they never want to see you again either, and I have a problem with them. I need to know where we stand. Do you see what I’m saying?”

“Yes,” Laurie said. “Now I understand. Yes. I know just what you mean. Well,” he said. “We stand where you want to stand. I’d love to see you again. Lots of you. If you can bear with me and my… ways.”

Lynn grinned to herself and forked another bit of omelet.

“Yeah,” she said, “I can definitely bear with them.”

Lawrence did not go into the office. He called and said he would work from home, because when good things happen to you, you have to share them. And the whole way to Lynn’s office, he had stopped himself from the sort of driving he would do with Chris, or with Lewis for that matter, the type of driving that would have alerted one to his more than normal status. Now, free to drive as he wished, he arrived at the large building where Lewis lived in less than twenty minutes, and he was up the stairs and about to open the door when he remembered what Lewis had said before, and knocked.

A moment later, Lewis called, “It’s open,” and when Laurie stepped through he wondered, “Well, what’s the point in courtesy, then?”

“There’s always a point in courtesy,” Lewis said. “Do you want some coffee? I haven’t been back long, and Chris is still up”

In the kitchen, Chris was smoking a cigarette, and strands of his pale, spiky hair fell in his face.

“Laurie? How odd?”

“Not that odd,” Lawrence raised an eyebrow and took of his sunglasses.

Lewis handed him a cup of coffee.

“Thanks for that,” Laurie said, then turned to Chris and said, “What’s with you?”

“Well, well,” Chris said, a little distracted, his blue eyes now lifting to Laurie’s, “you first. Apparently something good happened.”

“Lynn happened.”

“You’re going to be seeing each other?” Lewis said, sitting down on the sofa beside Chris.

“Yes. Hopefully a lot of each other. Why do you look like you haven’t slept?”

“I have,” Lewis said. “But then I haven’t?”

“Is that witch talk?”

“He took on a new student,” Chris said. “I mean, Lewis is now teaching his cousin, Seth.”

“Like… he has a sorcerer’s apprentice.”

“That is the second time that joke has been made in twenty-four hours.”

“Well, you know,” Laurie shrugged, “it’s a good joke.”

“But more importantly,” Chris pressed on, “is what Lewis saw this morning.”

“I followed a vampire.”

“Really?” Laurie said, frowning. “I mean, we’re kind of impossible to follow.”

“He has my blood now,” Chris said.

“Oh,” Laurie said, then, “He would. I guess. I always have to be very careful with… impulses. When I’m with someone who doesn’t know what I am. But.. Still,” Laurie looked at Lewis, “why would you follow a vampire? That’s something dumb white people do in movies. You’re Black. And not in a movie.”

“Wait for it,” Chris said.

“I was compelled, and I saw her kill. I watched. When she had done it she turned around and spoke to me. We spoke for several moments.”

“And you weren’t terrified?”

“I’m standing in a room with two vampires right now,” Lewis said, “and you’ve both killed within the last twenty four hours.”

Lawrence nodded to this.

“I was not terrified. I was surprised, though, that I wasn’t. She knew it.”

“She?’

“I knew she was not like you, not of your House. She didn’t have to say it. But she did leave me a message. She sensed the two of you on me. I don’t know how she sensed you, Laurie, or maybe she just knew you would be where Chris was.”

“Evangeline,” Laurie said.

“Yes,” Lewis said while Chris nodded.

“But who is she?”

“It’s a long story,” Laurie said.

“I imagine once you’ve lived for over a hundred years you’ve got a lot of long stories. And why did she call me Aos si? Is that a vampire word for a witch? Lord Aos si? Lord Aos si.”

“It’s a Scottish word,” Chris said. “Or a border word.”

“For a witch?”

“Not exactly.”

“Is that a long story too?”

“Yes,” Laurie answered for Chris.

“Well,” Lewis said, “I’m not going any place, and you are both beginning to annoy me, so if you don’t want to see what an angry witch looks like, make your stories short and get to them right now.”

“Witch is, as you know,” Chris began, “a catch all type of term for all sorts of people. There are old words, wicce, derwydd, peller. But Aos si means something different. It is… It is the reason that no vampire would touch you. Not without your permission, at least. Some kid walking around with a Wicca manual or even one who went through an initiation wouldn’t have any effect on anyone. An Aos si is…. An enchanter of great power.”

Lewis thought of saying something sarcastic like, “Oh, well, I guess I can stop substitute teaching, then,” but settled on listening.

“It’s like the Tuatha de Danaan in the Irish stories,” Laurie said.

“The Fairy People?”

“It’s more than that,” Chris said. “In those legends, the Tuatha de Danaan are a race of people and they are like gods, but they become the fairies and, really, an Aos Si is a person walking around on the earth who is descended from what we used to called the Good People. The Firstborn, the Elder Folk. Their blood is full of power because they are descended from The First People. That’s how it is with all powerful wizards and enchanters, and a powerful witch is a wizard, is an enchanter. That’s… all I know, really. I’m just a vampire. One who has seen a great many things.”

When Lewis said nothing, Chris said, “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes,” Lewis said.

“You have to understand,” Laurie continued, “we’re not modern. We’re not like people now who don’t believe in anything. I grew up here, but my family was Irish and you didn’t use the names of the Good People. You left them things, but you didn’t bring them up or insult them or walk on their ground. And,” Laurie looked at his friend, “Chris is actually from the Old Country, so I’m pretty sure he grew up the same way. That’s why we’re not good at explaining this.”

Lewis looked to Chris.

“Did you know what I was?”

“I suspected. Like I said, all powerful enchanters… that’s where they get it from. In part. So… And then when I met Owen. Yes. I just… I couldn’t say it. You understand why now?”

Lewis nodded.

“I didn’t understand,” Laurie said. “I knew you were something I hadn’t met before. But… I didn’t really put it together until now.”

“Well,” Lewis said. Then he said, “Well, what about Evangeline?”

“Short story or long?” Chris said.

“Short and then the long?” Lewis said.

Chris nodded.

“Evangeline is my sister.”