Chapter 14 Dire Visions
DIRE VISIONS
Cesar
“Did you call Elena?” Artur yelled from the bedroom to the kitchen, where I was prepping a very late breakfast.
“No, not yet. Do you want your eggs scrambled con queso?”
“Yes, please!” Artur said while hiking up his beach pants. It was still swelteringly hot and oppressively muggy. The looser the clothing, the better.
“I wish you’d just forgo the clothing.” I arched an eyebrow while smiling devilishly.
“Then we would get nothing done.”
“Oh, I would get all kinds of things done.”
“None of them related to Dia de Muertos,” Artur giggled. “You’re a dirty old man.”
“You weren’t complaining about all my perversions last night. Mind you, it’s hard to complain with a cock in your mouth,” I chortled.
“See, dirty. Call Elena.”
“After breakfast.” I whipped the eggs in a bowl, getting them nice and frothy for the frying pan.
Artur handed my cell to me. “Now.” He took the bowl and fork away from me and continued making breakfast.
“My goodness, someone is a brat today.” I clicked a few buttons, then held the device up to my ear.
“Hello?” Elena sounded sleepy.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hi, you. What’s up?”
“Can we meet today? Artur and I want to ask you something.”
“Sure, but why don’t you just ask me now?” asked Elena.
“What fun would that be? Can’t keep you in suspense for hours if I did that. Besides, I’m sending Artur out for a few things we’ll need for tomorrow’s resurrection, and I was going to meet up with him for dinner. We thought you should join us.”
“We going somewhere fancy?”
“Nah, we thought a trip to Fridas was in order,” I answered, already wondering what Tom would say when he didn’t smell soap on my skin.
“Again? You know there are other bars in this city.”
“Yeah, but I like this one.”
“But there are more dead than living customers. Kinda creepy.”
“Oh gods, are you coming or not?”
“Fine. What time?”
“Say, six o’clock?”
“Alright. I’ll see you there. Bye, Cesar.”
“Bye.” I drawled out the ‘e’ just for emphasis, which I knew would annoy her.
I ended the call with a click of a button, then turned to find Artur staring at me while still whisking the eggs.
“What?”
“Back to Fridas?”
“Why not?”
“Okay, I guess. Why did Elena not want to go?” Artur questioned.
“She said there were too many dead and not enough living customers.”
“She has a point. But Tom was wonderful, and I haven’t ever had a welcome from a bar owner, so I’m game.”
“See? And because of that, we frequent his place,” I said.
“You just want to show me off. Now, what’s this about sending me out to collect stuff?”
“Before you got out of bed, I did a quick inventory of my stash of goods we’ll need for tomorrow. Turns out, I’m not as flush as I thought I was. There are missing ingredients we’ll need.”
“Hmm, sounds like a side quest.”
I chuckled. I didn’t really play video games, but I knew many who did.
Some were even invested in the old gaming consoles.
After the Revelation, the concepts of fantasy and magic were no longer relegated to the pages of fiction.
It was all real, and so a lot of that genre disappeared in favour of living out a life steeped in the supernatural.
If that was your thing.
For others, we were nightmare fuel.
“What are you sending me out for?” Artur inquired as he poured the eggs into a frying pan that had been heating on the stove. The crackle and pop of the eggs hitting the hot pan, and the smell of our imminent breakfast, made my tummy rumble in anticipation of food.
“Sanjivani and hyssop.”
“I don’t know what either of those things is.”
“Two herbs. Sanjivani brings the dead back to life, and the hyssop aids in communication for the corpse. We don’t have enough, and I need to stuff the rib cage full of it.”
“Eww! You mean to tell me you’re going to shove your hand inside the corpse upstairs?”
“Gotta be done.”
“Maybe I’m not cut out to be your assistant. I’m gonna have real bad dreams after this.”
I shrugged. “Hazard of the job, I’m afraid. I have nightmares on a regular basis.”
Artur shook his head as he tended to the stove.
We ate in silence, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off Artur.
Needless to say, the breakfast dishes didn’t get done, and the kitchen counter was tested for weight allowance.
But seeing as it was already past noon, we had to stop with our drive to manhandle each other and get down to business.
Dia de Muertos was tomorrow, and although the dead had the patience to wait, Luana Hurtado did not.
As I walked into the bar, I did a quick scan and found Elena sitting at a table not far from Tom’s usual perch. She waved at me to get my attention, but stopped mid-gesture and stared.
The look gradually morphed into a glare.
“Cesar Santiago Miguel Augilar. What the fuck have you done?”
Oh, she was mad. Rarely, if ever, had anyone used my entire name while addressing me.
“What are you talking about?”
Tom glanced over, the dead light in his eyes shining.
“His energy is wrapped all around you. I can see it. Your aura has changed!”
“Elena, sweetie, I know you’re a seer, but I am not. I play with dead things. You’re going to have to be much more explicit with your statements.”
Tom chuckled, stood up, and then came over to me. He slapped me on the back and whispered, “I see the charm I gave you has worked.”
“What are you both talking about?” I was thoroughly confused, but I knew this had something to do with Artur—and the fact that the hummingbird talisman I had made was now deeply embedded within us both.
“The gift I gave you.” Tom pointed at my robes, where my pocket was. I reached into it and pulled out a little pink crystal skull.
“What the hell is this?” It had an underlying vibration—subtle and indistinct.
“A love charm,” Tom chuckled.
“Tom! What have you done?” Heat flushed up from my shoulder blades all the way to the top of my head.
“Something you’ve needed for quite some time. I dare say Artur desperately required a little tender loving care as well.”
“Oh my gods!” I ran the palm of my hand over my face. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I do. Do you?”
“Roll up your sleeve,” Elena demanded.
“What? No!” I clutched my arm around the end of my robe as Elena struggled to pull it up.
“There’s something there. New. Different. Do it, Cesar! Now.” Elena glared at me. She was irate.
“For fuck’s sake, Elena, leave it alone.”
“Not on your life. Either strip or roll up your sleeve.” She wasn’t playing around. Once Elena got into one of these moods, there was no way to dissuade her. She would find out about the hummingbird skeleton at some point. I figured I might as well give in.
Rolling my eyes, I slipped off the top half of my robe, exposing my bare chest and arms to everyone in the bar. Thankfully, there weren’t many patrons.
Elena pointed at the hummingbird. “What the fucking hell is that?”
“A bird.”
“Yes, well, that is obvious. That isn’t a tattoo or a brand. Explain. Now.”
“Damn, that’s kinda cool,” Tom said, then ran his fingers over my skin where the bony ridges of the tiny bird’s skeleton had embedded themselves.
“I made a charm for Artur. Then we started to discuss how anyone can do any kind of magic, they just have to channel it through their own vibration—”
“You didn’t,” Elena railed, balling her fists. “How stupid are you!? I swear, Cesar, you attempted a complex spell like resurrection with an untrained chaos witch? Are you mental?”
“He was really good at it!”
“Yes, so good that now you have this? What happened? Out with it.”
“Quit being such a bitch. With my assistance, Artur resurrected the charm I made for him. He succeeded. The hummingbird flew around a few times, but then—well—it went a little sideways.”
“Explain.”
“The bird ripped itself in half and then burrowed into our skin. Artur has one exactly like this on his shoulder.”
“Ah, that explains it,” Tom said. “That’s why you smell different. You and Artur are bound now. Damn, when I give out charms, they do wonders!” Tom chuckled.
Elena glared at him. The muscles in her jaw tightened.
“You fool. Do you know what you’ve done?” Her voice had risen to the point where she was almost screaming. Everyone’s attention in the bar was on us now.
I glanced between Tom and Elena. Their expressions couldn’t have been more different: Elena was furious, while Tom was damn near giddy.
“No, I have no idea, other than I have a really cool new body modification. Doubtful anyone else has anything like it.”
“You’re an idiot. You and Artur are now entwined souls. Unbelievable. You’d think you were the untrained witch. Show me your mark.”
“What? Elena, you know where mine is.”
“I don’t care. Show me! Right now.”
I pulled my robes down further, exposing my Obscurus clan birthmark, which lay right above my hipbone, close to the groin.
Thank all the gods I’d kept up with my manscaping, but even still, my pubes were on display for everyone present. I blushed.
I wasn’t a shy individual, but this level of exposure was usually reserved for certain private parties. Still, once I’d revealed my birthmark, I was taken aback: it had changed.
The crescent moon still lay on its side with a skull superimposed over the base of the moon, but above the tip of the moon was a star—just like Artur’s—and a hummingbird now hovered in the middle of it all.
And, with everything exposed, the one thing every witch does when confronted with someone else’s mark happened.
Elena touched it.
It’s a compulsion.
It has to be done.
The minute she made contact, though, her entire body went rigid, and her eyes flooded milky white.
I’d seen her do this before—she was having a vision.
Seconds ticked by. Then it felt like minutes.
The entire bar had gone deathly silent.
Even Tom, who stood beside me, leaned forward, awed by what was happening to Elena.
Suddenly, the door to the bar flew open as a horde of imps scampered in. Black, red, and orange-coloured scaly creatures clawed and stampeded their way toward me. Their tufts of greasy hair flopped all over the place as their tails seemed to switch back and forth in unison.
Then the crowd of them that had gathered at my feet parted as one of the largest of their kind came forward and handed me a note.
Elena was still under. Eyes white as summertime clouds, body as rigid as the ice on a frozen pond.
I took the note.
Elena’s eyes returned to normal as she toppled over and fell to the tiled floor.
That sent the horde of imps scurrying out through the windows, over the bar and out the back, and through the front door.
“What the fuck?” Elena said as she paled.
“What did you see?”
“Too much—everything, Cesar,” she stammered as tears welled up in her eyes and began to fall down her cheeks. She hitched in a breath and sobbed. “You can’t. You absolutely must not reanimate Mistress Magdalena. If you do, your mind will be ravaged.”
I sat in my seat with a thump.
Tom’s hand rested on my shoulder.
On one hand, my heart was warm and fuzzy knowing that Artur and I now shared a bond closer than anyone could ever get. It was way too soon, but our connection made me feel young again.
On the other hand, Elena’s warning gave credence to what everyone else had said. My involvement with the Hurtados would be my undoing.
“What does the note say?” Tom asked.
Elena got up on her knees and leaned on my thighs.
I opened the letter.
Dear Cesar,
We have grave concerns that the resurrection of our matriarch is not your top priority.
We have Artur. The distraction he poses will not be tolerated.
As I mentioned before, bringing this city’s most powerful Oracle back, if only for the festivities, is my family’s primary ambition for the holiday season. You will not disappoint us.
We will release him after you have situated Mistress Magdalena, in all her finery and glory, upon the stanchion dedicated for the Hurtados for Dia de Muertos.
Luana
Panic surged within me.
My Artur.