Deamhan (18 page)

Veronica stood in the kitchen with her back facing him. She looked over his shoulder, said good morning, and attended back to her coffee.

Hours later, fully awake, they headed to a local coffee shop down the street called “Jubilee.”

Sean repeatedly apologized about what he called “the behavior of a virgin drinking college student.” Veronica assured him that he had nothing to be sorry for. He agreed and popped four Tylenol before ordering a small hazelnut coffee.

The vast amount of voices echoing in the café around him didn’t stop Sean’s vigorous typing. The sunlight glared on the monitor of his laptop, and it blinded him for a second. He repositioned the laptop again in hopes that he could avoid the stinging after affect. Veronica sat across from him, watching his movements. He told her he had received information from his informant in The Brotherhood when in fact, he skimmed through an email sent from her father.

The email demanded a status update. Sean replied that everything was under control and that Veronica didn’t suspect his true agenda. The email, filled with a list of demands, lacked brevity. On the other hand, it enforced loyalty. Sean read it over several times; once and awhile he shifted his eyes up to Veronica and curled his lips in a pleasant glance.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet.” He clicked on another email from Kenneth Dearhorn sent an hour after Mr. Austin’s email. The demands grew more explicit in concern to Dark Sepulcher. He was to suggest to Veronica the possible correlation between the sanctuary fires and her mother’s disappearance. He needed to persuade her to not go to Dark Sepulcher and that nothing could be found there. The email ended by stating that phase one was in progress and in Kenneth’s signature was the title “Midwest Region Leader. The Brotherhood.”

The Brotherhood was on its way to Minneapolis.

He brought his fist up to his mouth in thought. He still couldn’t believe that somehow that jackass had kissed enough ass to be promoted to Region Leader. Sean had no intention of working under him. Somehow he had to postpone their arrival. Again he looked up to Veronica, thinking maybe just looking at her would help him decide on what to do but the cafe’s menu had her complete attention.

Sean replied to Kenneth’s email in the best way he could, giving them what they wanted to hear. He agreed to the demands, stating that Veronica was already moving her search in a different direction, away from Dark Sepulcher, and that he would be in contact if anything changes. He lowered his monitor. Maybe now was the time to tell Veronica that The Brotherhood was coming back to Minneapolis with Kenneth as their Region Leader. “I think that’s it. I told my contact to get back to me before noon.”

Veronica nodded and sipped on her mocha. “These drinks are so sugary.”

“Now we wait again.” Sean’s mind went into thought. Along the streets, he noticed the parked cars and a few residents walking near the coffee shop. A group of bicycles strolled down the sidewalk, and a group of college students stood on the street corner, waiting for the light to turn green. “This isn’t a bad city, Veronica. I could live here.”

“With the Deamhan?” Veronica questioned.

 “They’re everywhere and in every city. No one can avoid that.”

Veronica cupped her coffee. “What if your contact doesn’t get back to you before tonight?”

“I don’t know.” He leaned back in his chair, positioning his hands on the back of his head. He knew Kenneth would send another email soon. But of what, he didn’t know.  He moaned and returned to his upright position. The Tylenol wasn’t working, and his head throbbed just thinking about the chance of The Brotherhood returning to Minneapolis.  “I think I want some more coffee.”

“Don’t get the white chocolate mocha unless you want a heart attack.”

 A group of businessmen nestled in a corner table, chatting raucously over their empty plates.

“Every time I look around, I can’t believe Minneapolis of all places has one of the highest Deamhan populations in the country,” said Veronica. “It’s cold here half of the year and humid the other half. This city is small compared to Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Orlando.”

“There are a lot of open spaces far from anyone here,” Sean said. “Farms dot the landscape; your neighbors are miles from you. This is a perfect state if you want privacy.”

He looked up at the ceiling, and his mind suddenly switched to Murphy. “Is your friend okay?”

“Murphy?”

“Yeah. He must have been scared out of his mind last night.”

Veronica shrugged. “He took it pretty well.” She paused. “Actually, really well. I was surprised.”

Sean leaned upright in his chair. “I still don’t trust him.”

“Trust Murphy?”

“There’s something about him that irks me. I don’t know what it is. I just feel like he’s hiding something.”  

“You should thank him.” She sipped her coffee. “He saved you from the two Deamhan.”

“I was doing all right.” Sean smirked.

“Yeah, well, you were running out of weapons. Trash cans are useless against them, Sean.”

“But it worked, didn’t it?” Sean teased.

Veronica observed a special alert bulletin on the television behind Sean. The volume was low, and the picture of another home ravaged by fire loomed on the screen.

“What is it?” Sean turned to look.

“Another house fire last night.”

No, not now! He watched the image of a charred home on the screen.

“I think I know where that is.” Veronica’s eyes danced. “South Minneapolis, just off the 35W freeway. Can you look up the directions?”

“We should wait and make sure it’s a sanctuary and not some normal house fire.”

“Wait? We all know the Deamhan are burning each other out of their own sanctuaries. Why would we wait?”

“It’s not safe.”

She gaped at him and he quickly stopped talking. “When is it ever safe?” Veronica stood up and yanked him from his seat.

Sean’s mind raced quickly to think of another excuse but he came up empty.

“You could just wait in my apartment until I get back, Sean.” Veronica gulped down the last of her mocha, which had turned warm.

“Yeah, right. You’re not leaving my sight.” He watched her eyes beam and her lips pull back into a smile. She placed a ten dollar bill on the table and she walked out of the coffee shop. He gathered his things, still trying to decide what to do. He wasn’t good at spying and he didn’t know how long he could hold out until Veronica finally discovered his true agenda.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The taxi pulled over on the corner of Cedar Avenue and Broadway. Veronica handed the driver a twenty-dollar bill, and she exited the vehicle with Sean just in time to watch the taxi drive off.

South Minneapolis was vastly different than the warehouse district. Two-story houses lined the vacant streets. They walked past an older couple moving debris and dried leaves from their front yard and a pre-school and its empty playground with swings drifting back and forth from the frequent gusts of wind. The sun had set and the air became colder. Veronica shivered and placed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Sean unfolded a small piece of paper written with the address of the location and rechecked it.

“It should be somewhere up there, around the corner,” he said to her. His lower lip shivered from the cold. Veronica grabbed his arm, and he placed it around her shoulders. Sean smiled and held her close. Any notion of his betrayal and the fact that Kenneth was on his way to Minneapolis, left his thoughts. He didn’t want to think about it; not now. At that very moment, walking down the street with her, there was no other place he wanted to be.

They continued down Cedar; a one way street, near the main avenue of south Minneapolis. Two-story family homes secluded behind high wooden fences lined the streets. When they reached the corner, Sean stopped. He glanced to their left and right.

“This way.” He pointed down a dark and secluded street. Veronica followed, and Sean picked up speed in his stride. Newly constructed homes adjoined the cul-de-sac. Halfway down the block, “For Sale” signs pitched in the front yards of finished homes moved in the wind. The charred remains of a home sectioned off by police tape, sat on the edge of the cul-de-sac between two empty lots.

“This is a perfect area for a sanctuary.” Sean looked around. “It’s quiet and less populated.” Spools of grass stacked the front yards, ready to be rolled out at will. A distinct smell of burnt wood lingered in the air. Crumbled remains toppled upon one another. They stopped only feet from the ruins, staring at the implausible environment.

Sean awed.  “Incredible.”

“Do you think anything survived?” Veronica asked.

“Let’s find out.” Sean ducked under the police tape and stepped into the ruins. He slipped on the burnt piece of wood and held out his hands for balance.

“I can still feel the heat.” Sean looked at Veronica.

“Be careful, Sean.”

“I will,” Sean replied. He watched her walk along the perimeter of the yellow tape, carefully observing the surroundings. He turned back to the remains and he started to remove the burnt pieces. He didn’t know if anything remained from the fire. If any Deamhan died, their bodies would’ve turned to ash and scattered to the winds. But if any Deamhan survived, they sure wouldn’t remain underneath the rubble.

“There’s an empty hole over here,” Veronica called out. “I think it’s a basement or what’s left of a basement.”

Sean continued to dig through the rubble. His feelings about his assignment resurfaced and he tried to ignore them. He found it harder to block his own thoughts from himself than blocking his own thoughts from a Deamhan.

His hands moved over a smooth and burnt piece of wood. “I think I found something.”

Veronica hurried back over to him. He tossed burnt pieces of wood to the side.

“What is it?” She waited for him to stop digging.

He cleared the remaining debris to the side, lifting up a piece of the blackened wood that stood taller than him. “A lid to a coffin,” he said, turning the piece to the side, examining it.

“A coffin?”

“Yeah.” His eyes fixed on the piece of wood. “It looks like it.” He lifted it and placed it on his shoulder as he walked toward her. He dropped it on the ground in front of her and breathed in heavily, trying to catch his breath.

“It has to be.” He couldn’t believe his eyes. Beneath the layer of burnt residue, he clearly saw that the board had the shape of a lid. A small metal piece on the side of the wood further proved his theory. He continued to wipe away the smaller pieces of burnt chips.

She placed her hands on the burnt wood that was hardened and cracked from the fire. “I don’t know, Sean. It’s too burnt to tell what it is.”

“It could be.” He bent down over the piece to examine it. His mind wandered to the various possibilities. “We might have found an actual sanctuary.”

 Veronica placed her hands on her hips. “The coffin could still be down there.”

Sean smiled. “If it is, then maybe the body is, too.”

“I haven’t heard that many stories of Deamhan using coffins, Sean.”

“I read one report about a researcher finding a sanctuary full of coffins,” he replied to her. Like vampires who used coffins to protect them from the sun during the day, Deamhan were also avid coffin users. But as time passed and their sanctuaries became more modern, they began to settle for beds and cubby holes, and basements.  

 “We should try to find the remains.” Sean turned his attention back to the ruins. “They could be down there.”

“And what if we find it? Then what?”

“This is your idea, Veronica.” He lifted himself up from the ground. “You wanted to come here to investigate.” The thought of discovering an actual Deamhan sanctuary rattled his brain. It was exciting yet at the same time terrifying. He wasn’t cut out of field research and he worried about running into more Deamhan like the ones at the bar a few days ago. He also didn’t want to admit the possibility that what he admired was nothing more than burned wood coincidentally shaped like the lid of a coffin. He rolled his eyes at his delusive theory and looked off into the distance.

“I know, Sean.”

His demeanor suddenly changed as his eyes slowly protruded. “I thought you liked exploring the unknown and flirting with danger, Veronica?”

“Don’t throw that back into my face,” she barked back at him.

His eyes caught a glimpse of the house behind her. “What’s that?” He pointed behind her.

She followed his stare to the wall of a vacant home. The writing covered the back wall of the home. Together they read the spray-painted construed bubbly-word “LUGAT.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Sean squinted. “They tag their territories like this now?”

“Yeah. I saw something just like this a few days ago, Sean.”

“Shit,” Sean painfully whispered. He looked down at the ruins he stood in.

Veronica placed her hands on the graffiti. “So that sanctuary was a Lugat sanctuary.”

Sean felt his cell phone buzz in the pocket of his jeans and the sound threw him back to reality. “Fuck.” Sean looked up at her. “I have to answer this.” He walked away from Veronica and he stared at his phone, knowing that Kenneth was on the other end.

“Hello,” he answered.

Kenneth’s voice echoed from the earpiece. “What the status?”

Sean’s high-spirits vanished. He sighed, paused and then licked his already moist lips. “So far, so good.”

“Good.” Kenneth’s robotic voice replied back. “How goes the mission?”

“We’re at a sanctuary right now, Kenneth.”

“Does she suspect anything?”

“Not yet, but she will.”

“Well, as long as she doesn’t now, we should be good,” Kenneth replied. “Your email sounded rather disheartening.”

“Really?” Sean cupped his hand over his mouth to hide the conversation from Veronica. “I don’t see how. She’s taking the bait. She hasn’t been back to Dark Sepulcher. She believes the fires are directly connected to her research.”

“Mr. Austin made his intentions clear, Sean. You are not to provide his daughter with any documented material.”