God Touched - 01 (34 page)

“It's going well.  Arkady is doing a great job and no one has raised any problems.” 

“That's
be
cause they're all too scared to blink.  Everytime our girl here says jump, we gotta talk them down off the ceiling.  And when the regular hangers-on heard we were coming to meet you, they evaporated.”

Gramps had recovered enough to look puzzled, so Lydia answered his unasked question.

  “Your grandson is fast acquiring a reputation in the supernatural world.  It seems like all manner of bad things can happen to bad monsters when he's around.”

   He asked why, and the Lydia started to tell much more detailed versions of the events of the last week.  Tanya and I picked a restaurant after only a little haggling.  While they would only drink wine or water, the girls had definite ideas on the kind of ambiance they wanted.  I offered to call a cab, but Lydia said it wouldn't be necessary and Tanya looked chagrined.

  “Why not?” I asked.

“You don't think Arkady would let the 'Young Queen' as she is now known, to travel unescorted would you?  The limo is waiting out front.”

So we took the big Mercedes limo to a trendy restaurant, one that I couldn't have got into without a SWAT team, but that magically had a prime table available at the mention of the Demidova name.   Dinner was amazing, actually, dinners, because I ate three by myself, which provided great cover for the girls, who only sipped wine.  But it was watching my grandfather talk with Lydia that suddenly sunk home the reality of vampire lifespans.  Lydia is only about sixty in vampire years, a mere child.  But she was close to twenty when she was Turned and the combined total made her a few years older than Gramps.  They had a ton in common and could talk about events and experiences that left Tanya and I out.  Which was fine by us it gave us more time to be together. Finally, about nine o'clock, my grandfather who had been up for over eighteen hours started yawning.

  “Ladies, my grandson's apartment is smaller than a shoebox.  Do you think you could keep him overnight, so I can have the place to myself.  He's really kind of a pain.”

Lydia laughed.  “That's funny.  I always compared his place to a litterbox.”

     So, we dropped him off and I got to spend the night with Tanya.  And oddly enough, when we walked in the door of the brownstone, the three vampires waiting to talk to Tanya took one look at me and decided their problems could wait.

“Cool, Tanya.  Now we know how to get a night off whenever we want to,” Lydia said, just before she disappeared into her own suite.

Chapter 22

    
When I woke the next morning, it was with a contented sigh and not a pain or bruise anywhere on my body.  So this was what it was like to wake up happy.  I rolled over and snuggled close the warm female form, savoring the novelty of her presence.  Tanya was deep asleep, as thoroughly sated as I, and tranquilized by daybreak.  I lay there until nature called then padded to her bathroom, which was about the size of my apartment.  After a quick shower, I dressed, kissed my snoozing vampire goodbye, left her a little love note and headed out.  Mr. Deckert was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, a travel mug that smelled of coffee in one hand and
aluminum
foil wrapped bundle in the other.

“Morning, Officer Gordon,” he rumbled.

“Morning, Mr. Deckert,” I replied, my eyebrow arched in question as I looked at the coffee mug.

“Sensors indicated someone awake in the Young Queen's suite.  Figured it had to be you.  Thought you might like some coffee, and the morning cook made you an egg sandwich.  The limo is waiting out front to take you wherever you need to go.”

He paused for a moment, as I had frozen on the stairs two steps from the bottom, stunned by his speech.  He waited for me to make a response, obviously enjoying my surprise.

“Young Queen?” I asked.

“That's what
they're
all calling her now,” he shrugged.

“Limo?” I asked.

“Both Arkady and Lydia were very clear about your status in this household.”

Great, now if someone would just let
me
know what my status was.

There didn't seem to be anything to do but to accept the breakfast and free ride with as much good grace as I could muster.

The giant behind the wheel seemed vaguely familiar, then I realized he had been the guard in the garden, when I had been wrestling the Hellbourne on the patio.  We didn't speak, other than me giving him my address.

Heading into my building, I no sooner hit the stairwell, than I could hear familiar voices on the second floor.  I found Gramps chatting with Paige in the hallway outside my apartment, him with a paper under his arm and a Styrofoam cup of coffee, Paige in her running clothes.

“Hi Chris, I just met your grandfather,” she said with a smile.

  The old man turned and arched one bushy gray eyebrow at me before adding, “Your delightful young neighbor was telling me all about the show you put on at that vampire club...what was it called?”

“Plasma.  Yeah, Chris, we didn't get to see you much that night, but Kathy and I had the best time!  The table you got us, our own hunky vampire to wait on us, the celebrities, and that fight scene!  It was amazing!  It looked so real,” she said.  “But it was too fast, next time you need to have them slow the effects down or whatever.
That part looked a little fake
.  But when the people at our table found out you are our neighbor, they started treating
us
like celebrities!”  “Well, I'm glad you two had a good time.  You got home okay?  No problems?” I asked.

“The little spiky-haired girl who seems to run things insisted that we ride home in your girlfriend's limo!  It was unreal.”

Gramps was looking at me in a bemused manner and I smiled and shrugged at her excitement.  Paige blushed a little, then excused herself. “It was very nice to meet you Mr. Gordon.  I need to get out on my run.  Chris, thanks again for Halloween.  I asked the spiky-haired girl what we should do to thank you and she laughed and said we should feed you?  Anyway, so we'll be making you some homemade ziti and bread some night this week, as a start.”

“That sounds great.  Lydia knows I like to eat, so she definitely steered you right.  Have a good run.”

With a last goodbye, she headed down the hallway, while Gramps opened the apartment door.  The futon was back in its couch position and the apartment looked tidy, so he had been up awhile.  Farmers tend to rise with the sun, pretty much the natural opposite of vampires.

“So what do you want to do today?” I asked.

He looked at me with a gleam in his eye that warned of trouble. 

“Well, Chris, the thing I want to do the very most is attend Mass at the Queen of All Saints church here in Brooklyn.”

I groaned.  I may have mentioned it before, but I
really
don't like church.  I've got so many issues with God that I want to avoid all of his houses.  Being in the demon bashing business requires a certain amount of contact with clergy, but most of them know my views.  Still, he had phrased his response in such a way that I pretty much had to comply.  Not without a fight though, however small.

  “Why?” I asked

  “Well Chris, I've heard a great deal about that particular church and
its
stained glass windows from Father Davis back home.  This may be my only remaining chance to see it.”

  He was healthy as a horse, but whenever he wanted to fight dirty, he brought up his eminent demise.

  I sighed.  “All right.  But I'm not getting dressed up.”

“Khakis and a polo?” he asked.

“I suppose. Hey!  What about our bet?”

Without another word he handed me the two fifties from the table.

The Church of All Saints on Vanderbilt Avenue is spectacular.  Modeled after the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, it has fourteen great
stain glass
windows, which contain two hundred and sixty biblical subjects from both the Old and New Testaments.  Sitting in a pew and staring at profusion of stained glass scenes, I felt fairly insignificant.  That people would put such love and passion, not to mention money, into the creation of a place of worship was a little humbling.  My reverie was cut short by a call of nature.  The Mass wouldn't start for fifteen minutes, so I excused myself, leaving Gramps in silent contemplation. 

It took a few minutes, but I finally found the facilities.  After accomplishing my task, I opened the door to leave and stopped in my tracks.  A man was leaning against the wall, his ankles and arms crossed, one foot tapping impatiently.

“About time!” he said.

He was about six feet tall, athletic build, short curly blond hair and vivid blue eyes.

“Hey, I wasn't that long.  And it was all business, not like I was reading in there or anything,” I said, just a touch defensive.

He looked confused for a moment, then shook his head in annoyance.

“No, not that.  I've just been waiting for eons for you to step into a church.  It's bad enough that
I
had to be the one to talk to you, but then it takes you like forever to show up.”

He stood up and I noticed he was wearing dark pants and a dark button down shirt, untucked.  I'm not one to notice another man's looks or even begin to judge what women find attractive, but I had a real strong idea that this guy was the type that caused women to swoon.  However, I had no idea what he was talking about, or what he wanted.  He didn't
seem
dangerous, but I was learning swiftly not to prejudge these things.

  “Look, buddy, I don't know who you think I am, but whoever he is, I'm not him.”  I started to slide by him, but he was suddenly in front of me, which was troubling, because my enhanced eyesight could see old vampires moving at speed.

He hadn't made even a blur.  He frowned at me.

“Of course you are he.  I mean you are certainly the him that I think you are.” He shook his head again. “I'm making a mess of this.  But it's all very frustrating.  I told Michael that I was the wrong choice.  Briathos or Eae would have been better choices.  They're both big fans of yours, what with all the demon bashing and all.  But no, he says, '
you're guardian of Scorpios, Barbiel, you have to talk to him
.”

I was thoroughly alarmed by his mention of demons and bashing, so I risked a quick view of him with my Sight.  What I saw shocked me.  His aura was almost equal parts silver and gold, colors I had never seen in an aura before.  And bright, so bright I could barely look at him.  Stunned by the sight, not knowing what else to do I just stared at him. 

“So anyway, you're stuck with me,” he said with a sigh.

“But maybe you could stop into a church a little more often?”

I answered with the first thing that popped into mind, still completely bewildered by this exchange.

“I was just in a church the other day,” I said.

He wagged on
e elegant finger at me. “Uh ah!
F
unerals don't count.  Particularly a police officer's.  Michael would have my head if I had interfered with Officer Sanchez's service.”

My brain was reeling from his casual knowledge of my recent whereabouts.

“But anyway, you're here.  Sooo...I'm supposed to tell you that you're doing a great job, but you need to be careful.  Your powers and abilities will serve the Dark as easily as the Light.  You mustn't let yourself get drawn down the Dark path.  Also, you need to explore your powers.  They can do so much more than you are using them for.  For instance, they will heal as well as hurt, although you
have
been helping the bear.  Oh, and congratulations on finding your other self.  Well that's about it.”  He looked immensely pleased with himself.

“Wait, what are you talking about?  Who the hell are you?”

He instantly frowned. “Hey, that's not even remotely funny!  I didn't say anything about you and Hell.  Why would you insult me that way?”  He was pretty mad.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that.  It's just that I don't have any idea of what you're telling me.”

“Oh, don't be so obtuse.  You understand it.  And if you need to do something, you'll
know
how.  Look, I've got to be going.  You're not my only assignment you know.  Sure you're all important and everything, but I do have other responsibilities.”

He brushed past me and I spun to try to get some answers but he was gone.  Vanished from one step to the next.  No noise, no poof, nothing.  Even Tatiana at her fastest would have left a breeze in her wake.  And he had felt solid as he brushed by me.

I stood staring down the hall, when suddenly his voice spoke from behind me.

“Don't forget to come back soon!”

  I spun again, but there was nothing and no one in the hall behind me.