Vivienne

Golden rays of the afternoon sun pressed their warmth through the small window and on Brian’s cheeks, taking him from the heavy sleep he’d been in. -That feels great.-  Reflectively touching the heated part of his cheek, the geomancer was once more reminded of love lost. “Casey.”  Brian whispered and turned to face the brightness of the sun.  He closed his eyes and rubbed his unlit rune, where he started whispering. “…It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads..”

“Revelations; Thirteen-sixteen.”  Denise calmly responded from the other side of the small bedroom. “Powerful verse.”  She went on to add, “…But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death…”

Brian sat up and realized that he was completely nude and under a warm cotton sheet. “Um, where are my clothes?”  He looked around frantically.

Pointing to an old rocking chair, Denise laughed. “You didn’t bring a change of clothes.”  She pointed to Brian’s dark rune. “Bible verses and rubbing your rune, I guess you are thinking about if what you are doing is right or wrong.”

“No!”  Brian blurted, “Right now I am wondering how I got from the quarry to this room and naked.”  He felt his rune flair to life and emit its soothing evergreen light.

First adjusting her dusky-blonde ponytail, Denise walked over where Brian’s clothes were and placed them neatly on the bed he occupied. “They are clean.”  Denise walked to the door and stepped out of the small bedroom.  “Get dressed and I will have some peach tea and something to eat waiting for you.”  She turned to face the big man, her ferronnière ominously glowing shale. “It is late afternoon.  It was a very long night and a busy morning for the others.”

With one final moment in the sunlight, Brian got dressed and found his way through Denise’s farmhouse and into her kitchen.  Along the way he stopped to look at the pictures hanging on the wall and admired the captured moments in time. “Did you take all of these pictures, Loved One?”  Brian asked as he caught the glimpse of a larger picture of a stormfront hovering over the farm. “This picture of the storm is epic.”

Opening the small refrigerator and pouring the peach tea over a large glass of ice, Denise lightly snickered. “That was my picture era.  I was obsessed with my camera.”  She put the pitcher on the table and strode into her small living room. “I was very young when I took those.  Probably ten or eleven.”

Turning from the stormy picture, Brian spun on his heels just to come face to face with Denise.  Drawn instinctively to her almond colored eyes and charming smile, he slipped his hands over his mentor’s cheeks and kissed her.  When the kiss scattered his mind of all his concerns, Brian pressed himself harder into the kiss.  It was after hearing a light gasp and a tap to his chest that Brian’s worry all came flooding back.  He pulled away, “Lo..D..Loved..” Brian stammered.

Holding her hand to the big man’s chest, Denise blinked and smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Brian.  Nothing to apologize for.”  She took a step back, and hooked her arm through Brian’s before almost dragging him with her. “Emotions are running high after last night, It will be our little secret.”  Denise lowly whispered. “Besides, I am not the one you want to kiss.”  She walked over to her stove and turned on the burner. “Have a seat, there is peach tea to clear your head.”

“Am I charmed again?”  Brian cleverly asked and sat down. “You really do like cooking and waiting on us, don’t you?”

Denise poured a bit of olive oil in her cast iron skillet and walked to the fridge, pulling out a bulky brown paper package. “Like we talked about before, call it a trade.  You are working with me and I am keeping you healthy.”  She unwrapped the package to reveal two very large strips of steak. “You asked about last night?”

Sipping lightly at his peach tea, Brian immediately felt better. “I..um, yes.”  Brian took a bigger gulp of tea, enjoying how it coated his dry throat. “What happened after the ritual?”

Chuckling lightly, Denise looked back at Brian. “A very large party.”  She pointed a tiny half crooked finger at the geomancer, “One where you had a very good time I might add.”  

“Why can’t I recall any of this?”  He looked down at his lightly glowing rune, “The only thing I remember is being very tired and excited after the ritual.”  He sipped more tea, “Did we make holy water?”

Tossing the steaks in the pan, Denise waited for the sizzling hiss of blood to settle before answering. “Yes, we did.  Everyone performed wonderfully.”  She pulled a piece of kyanite from her apron. “Why didn’t you toss yours in the quarry?”

“What?”  Brian coughed when some tea went down wrong. “I didn’t think I had too.  I just held on to it and kept thinking about the salt you wanted.”

Wiping her hands on her apron, Denise turned and leaned against her sink facing Brian. “You are going to be a key element this evening.”  She smiled and shook her head. “Truly amazing.  You don’t burn material components for earth, just like I suspected.”

“Key element to something I have no idea about?  Why is me having that blue rock important?”  Brian felt his stomach grumble after smelling the steaks cooking. “Loved One, You were right earlier.”  He lifted his runed hand. “How do I know that this is right?  I can’t help but think there is a reason why that bible verse came to me.”

Leaning to open the stove, Denise pulled a couple large potatoes covered in aluminum foil out and set them on a wood block to cool down. “Interesting.”  Denise flipped the steaks and added a pinch of salt and pepper to the meat, “You are calling to the most disastrous part of the bible to quote, while leaving the other sins behind.”  Denise walked over and took his hand into hers. “Funny that you pick magic as the corruption while you had a girlfriend you weren’t married to, had sex with and even more or less lived with.”  Denise walked behind Brian and ran her hands through his short black hair, tenderly. “Belief is a powerful weapon, my novitiate.”  The Darla carefully whispered gently. “What do you b..believe…is happening right now?”  The Darla crooned and kissed Brian’s ear.

Reliving the kiss that they shared a few minutes before, Brian forgot all of his worries. “I…I don’t…know.”  He confessed while Denise kept moving fluidly around him, bathing his senses in desire.  All he could seem to think about was the look from her hazel eyes and the syrupy words slowly flowing in his kissed ears.

“Intoxicating isn’t it?”  The Darla brushed her lips along one of his cheeks. “Yes…Brian.  Think about it all, if you can.”  The Darla kept up the pressure. “You’ve learned that human urges are sinful, and can cast you out from heaven, yet here you are.”  She reached down and felt his stiffening manhood, “Yes, Magic by those very verses are sinful as well.”  She purred more of her honeyed voice into his mind, “Different sin, different reaction.”  Denise pulled back and kissed his black hair, before walking to the steaks and flipping them once more. “Magic is no more wrong than you being excited or having sex.”  She pointed her tongs at the big man. “Natural and normal.”

Panting desperately, Brian picked up the large jar and downed the peach tea in a few gulps.  It took a few seconds before the cold brew to hit his stomach and start clearing his head. “What…what…was that?”  He inquired, confused. “Was th…that magic?”

“What do you believe, Brian?”  Denise cut open the aluminum and put the potato on a plate with a medium rare steak beside it.

Brian quickly opened the fridge and poured more peach tea into his glass, “I believe it was.  I…I..a very potent version of it, L-Loved One.”

Denise put the plate in front of Brian with a fork and knife, then grabbed a large bowl of salad. “The very same magic that you can expect tonight with the mission.”  Denise spooned out a few handfuls of ice cold salad, “Vampires live from sin.  It is their primary weapon.  Their kiss can disarm you, their breath can send you into a mindless fog.  Their bite will make you want them to feed.”  She snaps her fingers. “About twenty seconds later, you are no more.  Dust in the wind.”  The Darla sits down across from her student. “Is it a sin to defend yourself with what Gaia has offered you naturally?”