Burning the Witches Ch. 02

When we got to the airport, the guy had already landed and was refueling his plane for the trip back. We thought that he might want a few hours of down time, but he was refueling his plane. We had to wait for his passengers to leave before we could talk to him about the trip back.

There was something odd about his passengers. One of them, a guy, seemed like the typical grizzled Cajun guy. He was in his late twenties with a three or four day beard growth. He seemed to be really pale and really intense. Other than that there was nothing unusual about him. Maybe it was my years in the investigation game, but I just sense something weird about him despite appearances.

The two women with him on the other hand, freaked me out. They were both dressed in head to toe leather that had seen better days. One of them was an older bookish-looking woman. She was beautiful and could have been any age from forty to sixty. The other was the biggest woman I have ever seen in my life. She was an amazon brought to life and twice as fierce. And naturally she was another redhead. I was really glad that we hadn't brought any of the others with us.

The giant redhead looked us over and I swear something passed between us. Then she quickly looked away and started talking to her two odd companions. I wish that I had the time to investigate them further. I swear in the two minutes that we were near them, I heard her talk about killing something or someone at least twenty times. One of those times I think she was talking about us.

* * * * * *

Mason

Traveling with Patience and Prudence was an event. Patience, except for her clothes didn't attract any attention, and was no problem. Penance, on the other hand, was a piece of work. I'm firmly convince that Penance is a force of nature. Her suspicion of everything and surly nature had us constantly stopping her from staring at or confronting people around us. Adding that to the fact, that despite her size, Penance is beautiful, and we had problems.

There were men staring at her and a few women. When she caught them staring, she suspected that they were after us. Other times she thought they were working for the vampire we were running from, but seeking at the same time. That led to Penance whispering about murdering everyone we passed. And Penance suspected everyone. Men, women, children and even pets, were all on her list. I had to pull her away from a staring contest with a blind woman's seeing-eye dog. That led to a lecture from her about how if I ever touched her again, she'd find a way to bring me back to life so she could kill me.

Just as we were leaving the airport, she stared at a couple. She swore there was something about them. The guy was a thin blond guy. He looked like a slightly older surfer. He probably needed a shave, but then the same thing has been said about me. As I looked at him more closely, I could see there WAS something about him. He was looking at us as if he was sizing us up and trying to figure out how he'd take us out if necessary.

"Buddy, you have no idea," I laughed. The woman with him was incredible. She had long strawberry blonde hair that was almost a living thing. She was tall and lanky, with interesting curves. She wore those tiny square glasses that perched on her nose, making her look like the world's sexiest librarian. She too took in everything around her. If we had more time, it might be interesting to see what they were up to. But time wasn't on our side for a couple of reasons.

First I needed to find the spot where we were supposed to meet that asshole vampire. Second, I needed to convince Patience and Penance's old comrade to help us rescue Piety. Although the three of us felt guilty about trying to drag her back into this whole thing. So we left the airport without confronting anyone.

I used my phone to find two hotels within driving distance of the airport. I rented a car and dropped the two women off at one hotel without telling them where I'd be staying. Before I left Patience told me they'd get some sleep and then check out the place for the meeting and contact their old friend. We'd visit her the next evening when I rose.

I checked into my hotel, which was a little bit less touristy and more off of the beaten path, just before the sun came up. I hung out the do not disturb sign and then drew the drapes as closely as possible. Then I got out my suitcase and pulled out a long plastic bag that was lined in a very dark material, so it was completely impervious to sunlight. I put the bag under the bed and zipped myself into it. It was a risky place to sleep, but for Piety, I'd risk anything.

The next evening I awoke. It wouldn't have surprised me if I hadn't. But since I had. I had things to do. I called Patience and told her that I'd be in front of their hotel in twenty minutes.

They'd been busy. They had already paid a visit to the site of their battle with the other vampire two years prior. They had also contacted their home base and relayed everything that had happened. Apparently their superiors wanted to get them out of there and try to send someone else in. They kept referring to some mysterious "HER," and possibly even "HIM."

When I pressed them for information on who "HER," was they were vague. And they refused to even discuss "HIM." So with the higher ups in the church believing that the two of them should stay put until help arrived and time running out, we were on our own.

Patience had the address of their former comrade, but had decided against contacting her. "Mason, you have to understand," she said. "We love Piety. But we love Prudence just as much. It doesn't seem smart to risk losing both of them. Prudence has earned her right to a good life. And the church wasn't very good to her in the end. When they thought she'd been infected, they simply turned their back on her and rolled out another. That was how we came to work with Piety. We can figure this out...We will get her back..."

"Or die trying," interjected Penance.

"We just have to be smart and analyze all of the possibilities. We just have to out maneuver this vampire...."

"And kill anything that stands in our way," said Penance.

"This vampire is obviously very old and very smart," I said. "He's probably had hundreds of years of honing his strategies and battle plans and..."

"And aren't you Debby Downer," grumbled Penance.

"Let's take a look at the place we're supposed to do this exchange," I said. "Maybe we can use the area against him. Or maybe he has someone watching the area to see if and when we show up."

We drove to the area, which surprisingly wasn't a barren area with open land like the place that we encountered the other vampire a few months ago. It was a place that was filled with bars and restaurants. But their battles had taken place in an alley behind a strip of bars. With the excitement and noise of people partying, no one had paid any attention to the sounds of the battle. There was a small clearing about fifty yards away that led to a park that had a woodsy area and a small hill. I'd rather have our next battle there than the alley.

Looking around the area, my sense lit up. I noticed them in the darkness behind the strip of bars. Two people who shouldn't have been together. One was clearly a vampire. He was relatively powerful but very young. His companion was clearly not human. I smelled something on him. It was the same odor that I got from the werewolves back in Texas. We hung to the shadows to watch them.

We had an idea. We should probably send Patience for a walk in the area to see how they reacted. Maybe one of them would go after her. Or maybe they'd go back to report that we'd arrived.

We were just about to put out plan into action when they came out of the woodwork. Obviously Papa Tulu had not only scouted the area, but had been prepared for us to show up. Suddenly there were three more werewolves and another, older vampire behind us. They had us surrounded and out-manned. Four werewolves and two vampires. They had double our numbers and they were powerful.

One of the vamps, a bald headed man who looked like some sort of Goth or skinhead walked right up to us.

"Stupid," he said. "You showed up early and empty handed. This isn't worth continuing. You haven't followed his instructions at all. Papa doesn't like it when you break the rules. I guess a little ass kicking is in order. Perhaps we'll have to take another of your nuns to let you know that we're serious."

We had no equipment and no weapons. I, of course, didn't need any, but we hadn't planned on fighting. This was supposed to be recon only. It didn't matter. She jumped down off of one of the near rooftops dressed entirely in Red leather. Her leather wasn't like the outfits worn by Patience and Penance, but it wasn't very different either. Perhaps it was more modern. There were patches that were obviously Kevlar in strategic areas and it was both tighter, yet more flexible at the same time.

She landed almost silently in a three point stance and then rose to face the vampire. Both Penance and Patience gasped, "Sister," at the same time.

"I'm not a nun anymore," she said with a smile. As I looked at her, I was stunned. The woman practically glowed. Her long golden hair seemed to sparkle with every shaft of light that struck it. She stood there with more confidence than even I had.

"That's the one Papa wanted," sneered the vampire.

"Hey guy," she smirked. "You might not want to reach for me like that."

"Why not?" leered the vampire. "All of those phone commercials talk about reaching out and touching someone. Besides, your friends here are beaten down and afraid. The werewolves can smell the fear on them. You'll be fighting alone."

The vamp took a couple of steps towards her. He glared at her trying to put her in a trance. It was a really stupid mistake. "He's dead," gushed Penance.

As if she'd cursed him, the vampire died screaming in pain. It was so fast that even I could barely track it. Some sort of incendiary arrow streaked out of nowhere striking the vamp in his eye and setting him afire.

"Prudence is never alone," quipped Penance. The other vampire and the werewolves were obviously upset. A man dressed totally in black leather that matched the woman's red ones landed next to her and flung the modern compound bow and a quiver of arrows to Patience.

"The red tipped ones will ignite as soon as you fire them," said the man calmly.

The golden haired goddess faced the other vamp and the wolves. "I should have warned him," she spat looking at the steaming pile of flesh that was once a vampire. "My husband is the jealous type. He hates it when someone else tries to touch me."

Even as she spoke the woman drew a sword from a scabbard on her back. It was a white Katana that was marked with crosses.

The man drew an all black straight bladed Katana and the two of them faced the wolves and the remaining vampire.

"What about me?" yelled Penance, angrily. The woman had two long daggers strapped to her left leg. She threw one to Penance, who looked at it as if she'd been thrown a turd. Penance didn't really like cutting weapons. The man threw her a mace that he had in his belt and Penance's face lit up. She dropped the dagger and moved to join the couple.

"We're even now, right?" asked the man.

"Nuh Unh," grumbled Penance. "This doesn't count. Besides this isn't an antique."

"You have to let that whole antique thing go," sighed the man. And then the fight began.

One of the wolves began to change into its wolf form. The face morphed into a muzzle with long sharp teeth. I heard bones snapping into different forms as fur sprang out all over the body. The body itself elongated and narrowed. The hands became gnarled razor sharp claws even as they reached for the man. Obviously they'd been told not to harm the woman. But the man was considered collateral damage.

They moved as a team. It was like watching a high speed blender. His sword went up really quickly and hers came down. His neatly severed the beast's right arm and hers the left. The wolf creature howled in shock as blood gushed from the stumps near the shoulders. Her next stroke cut the beast's left leg off below the knee, while his went halfway through the animal's neck. The head lolled to one side gushing could blood. The creature bleated a plaintive sound that made me feel something like sympathy for it. It didn't last more than a second or two before she ended its misery by completing the beheading.

"Bad dog!" she spat.

Everyone there looked on in shock at how efficiently they'd taken out a supposedly immortal creature of the night. The remaining vampire's face twisted in anger. While the other three wolves looked at each other and took a step backwards.

Even Patience and Penance were impressed.

"One...Two...Three...Four," said Prudence as calmly as if she was reciting a nursery rhyme.

"Another dead werewolf on the floor," said her husband completing the rhyme. He wiped the blood off of his sword on the pants that the dead creature had ripped out of.

"I know it's your favorite, Honey," she said. "But you can clean it when we get home. It's only going to get bloody all over again when we kill the rest of them." That was all it took. Whether her claim was bravado or bullshit, the effect was the same. The werewolves and vamp took off. With the odds more or less even, in terms of numbers they wanted no part of that fight.

"For my part, I understood. Vamps and werewolves live, or can live for incredible amounts of time. The things that usually kill us are boredom and stupidity. We simply get tired of the pain of living while everyone and everything we know fades and dies, or we make a colossally stupid mistake like getting caught in the sun. The idea of dying by violence simply doesn't usually factor in. We are too strong, too cunning and in the case of a possible defeat, too fast to be killed by most methods. Even when severely wounded, we can usually escape to heal and to plot our revenge. Failing that we can always simply hide and outlive our enemies.

It was a shock seeing now easily two wolves had been taken down by two humans who didn't even have the holy enhancements that Patience and Penance had. Prudence was amazing. Even powerless, it was clear that Piety as much as I loved her, was a poor imitation of Prudence. Another thing about the comparison was that Piety is about 5 foot seven. She's in the tall range for a woman, but Prudence stood close to six feet tall and had the presence of a literal goddess. She was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at her.

Her husband, Jason, was another enigma. It could easily be understood if somehow, Prudence had retained some of the power the Sisters of fate called their "Grace," after all it supposedly came from a heavenly source. But how do you explain a man who fought as well as he did? I was at a loss. At the same time I was torn between happiness that we might enlist the two of them in our efforts to rescue Piety, and trepidation that unlike Penance and Patience, they wouldn't be as accepting of my presence.

Prudence turned to us and smiled. It was incredible. Her beauty almost doubled by the simple act of widening her mouth and showing her teeth.

"Patience, you're not doing your job with that one," she smirked, pointing at Penance. "Doesn't the commandment about coveting thy neighbor's things prevent Penance from constantly claiming my husband's toys?"

Patience was quiet for a moment. "I can't in good faith condemn our sister for sins that I myself am guilty of," said Patience quietly. "Jason can I keep this bow and the arrows?"

"It's not a sin," grumbled Penance. "Jason isn't a neighbor. He's like...family."

"In that case you CAN keep that one," smiled Jason.

"I was going to anyway," muttered Penance.

As she sheathed her sword, unmindful of her husband's groan of disgust that she'd put the blade away bloody, the golden goddess turned her eyes to me. "You must be Mason," she smiled. "You can come over here with the rest of us. Piety has written to me about you several times."

"Please," said her husband. "You being here can help to thin out the excess Estro-tosterone in the air." I liked him instantly. If the situation wasn't so dire, we all might've had a pleasant time. But my mind was on Piety, not pleasant family reunions.

"Prudence, we didn't come here on a social visit," I said softly. "They have Piety. The boss of those creatures is a very old, very powerful vampire. He wants some kind of revenge against the four of you for taking out one of his offspring some time back. Piety is his bargaining tool. He has us over a barrel. Like these two, I hate to get you involved in this but I'm begging you...I'll give you anything you want..." I paused and looked at her.

"I know that you holy types don't like my kind much," I continued. "When this is all over and she's safe...you can kill me. Just help us get her back," I said.

They all stopped talking and stared at me. Even Penance was at a loss for words. Jason coughed and then burst out laughing. He patted me on the back and kept laughing.

"Oh shit...sorry Patience," said Penance. "I swear I'm working on the swearing. But I really think we've lost another one. We're going through third members like Spinal Tap goes through drummers. Damn!"

"Don't pay them any attention, Mason," said Prudence. "They just don't understand true love and the sacrifices we make for it." Even as she said it her hand reached out and found Jason's. It reminded me so much of the way Piety always held my cold dead hand when we were together.

"Of course we'll help," she smiled. "That's what families do."

"Who doesn't understand true love," grumbled Penance. "I had the most beautiful antique pole mace. That was true love, until he broke it."

"Penance, I didn't break your mace," I said. "I just snatched it and threw it."

"You broke one of her maces too?" asked Jason. "I knew there was something I like about you."

"But..." I began.

"How many maces does she need anyway?" he asked. "I've heard she has like fifty of them."

"I need thousands," muttered Penance too softly to count as talking, but we could all hear her anyway.

* * * * * *

Sarah

The flight to New Orleans was far rougher than any flight that I'd ever been on. Perhaps it was the fact that I'd never been on a small private plane before. It could also have been because of the pilot's tendency to try to multi-task while flying. I caught him several times trying to fly the plane and talk and sneak peeks at my legs, all at the same time. If it hadn't been for the urgency of our situation, I think I'd have waited for a commercial flight. The next one that we could have taken, left O'Hare at 9 o' clock.

The flight time for a commercial Jetliner from Chicago to New Orleans is just less than two hours, but this little plane didn't have that kind of speed. The pilot estimated that it would take us two hours and forty some odd minutes so we'd be in the air for about an hour longer. But when you considered that we'd be in New Orleans before the commercial flight even left Chicago, our choice was obvious.

Once we landed, we rented a car and googled the fortune teller again. I knew that she owned four or five establishments. I called them that because some of them were actual free standing stores, while others were only booths inside of other businesses. We had no idea exactly which one she'd be found at. We picked the one closest to the airport and got driving directions there.

The store was exactly as you'd expect. A small store front building on a street lined with voodoo parlors and small restaurants. A very sweet older black woman who worked there looked at us curiously as soon as we stepped inside.