teganweekly

Rough Draft,

As they drove past Schartzer Villa on their way to the airfield, they saw a woman struggling who had just been hung from a tree on their front lawn.

“Stop the car,” Henry yelled.

“No, keep driving,” Tegan said.

“Why, we can save her. Stop the car.”

“It’s Petra Wolf, Henry.” Tegan said.

Milton stopped near the tree. Henry seemed not to care, he jumped out of the car and ran to her. Tegan followed behind him. Petra dangled and kicked.

“Milton, please keep Elia in the car,” she said.

“Try to be still, Petra. I’m going to shoot the top of the rope.”

“Henry, you are saving someone who does not deserve to be saved,” she said. “This woman turned people in to the Gestapo. Innocent people died because of her. Friends of mine died because of her. Her choices have consequences.”

“We are better than that. If we don’t save her we become her,” he said as he fired and missed.

“Henry, you may kill her accidentally.”

Tegan jumped up onto the tree and climbed to where the rope met the branch. She pulled the knot apart with her bare hands dropped Petra to the ground. She gasped for air as rolled to her side.

“Who did this to you?” Henry asked. “Help me get her into the car.”

“No, I’ve done my good deed for the day.”

“You will all die. The Shadow has seen you,” Petra said. “The Reich will rise again and ….”

Tegan knelt down and ripped Petra’s heart out of her chest. Petra gasped one last breath that came out as a loud groan.

“Some people are always ungrateful,” Tegan said as she pulled out a handkerchief from her sweater pocket. Henry stared at Tegan as she wiped the blood off of her hands.

“You were right,” he said as he hung his head.

“No, I’m just old. In my thousand years I’ve seen the same patterns in people repeat over and over. They never learn. They are slow to evolve.”

Morning Write:

Tegan could hold a fake smile for hours and knew this would be one of those evenings. She looked around the room at Munich’s bourgeoisie, eccentrics and occultists. Wilhelm wasn’t so good at faking.

“Who the hell is that? He chuckled.

Tegan looked over at a slender woman, too slender wearing a long flowing purple dress, long blonde hair nearly hit the floor just above her ankles. Her voice filled the room with her opinions on the rightness of the Reich.

“Don’t laugh,” Tegan said. “We may need her.”

“Doubtful,” he said. Oh schiesse, here she comes.”

Tegan extended her hand. The woman didn’t respond. She just stood there with her hand on her hip.

“I’m sure you know I am the leader of many influential groups here, but mostly I’m a light bearer.”

Now Tegan had to hold in her laughter. Oh goodie one of those, an arrogant socialite who thinks they are saving the world by being a Nazi.

“Very nice to meet you,” Tegan said. I am Teg….”

“I know who you are….American.” she said.

Oh if only she knew. Tegan thought.

The woman turned to Wilhelm.

“What brought you back to Munich, Herr Emmerich?”

“Family business,” he said. “And you are?”

A red blush swept across her sharp Aryan face. She let out a laugh that roared through the house.

“You are funny, Herr Emmerich, I hope to see you soon at one of my classes. I make magicians out of those who are called. I can feel your strong vibration.”

My wife Tegan, has also been called.” He actually said with a straight face.

“Many people think they are called,” she said as she turned and walked away.

“Her spiritual and racial superiority are impressive, don’t you think? Tegan asked?

Wilhelm laughed.

“Get me out of here,” he said. “Is this what we are supposed to working with?”

“Against, dear, we are working against them. I want to eat her, the spiritually arrogant have a light black pepper taste in their blood.”

“I know I said no feeding in the house, but I will make an exception for her,” he said.

Meredith came to Mass General prepared, she brought two lawyers and Dan’s favorite coffee. 

Ron was drinking a coffee outside of Dan’s room. She saw his soft blue eyes dart to attention at her entourage.

“I’m not sure we can have all of us in the room,” he said. “I can head to the café, would you like anything?”

“No thanks, I actually need to speak to Dan alone and they need to speak to your idiot boss Weller.”

“He went back to the office. There was an FBI agent here earlier, Weller is saying Sean embezzled.”

“We have more money than….” Meredith stopped. “Sorry I don’t mean to be obnoxious. But Weller is an ass.”

“No worries, you’ve been through a lot. Definitely lawyer up.”

Ron smiled for the first time that day as headed down the hall. He had known the O’Rourke family for years. She had the O’Rourke strength. Weller was about to get pommeled.

She straightened her silk pink blouse and took a breath as she entered the room.

Dan’s heart jumped when he saw her. He sat up trying to comb his black hair. What could he say? The truth was not going to help or at least what he thought was the truth.

“I heard you hit your head, how are you feeling?”

“Alright, they say I’m fine, but they won’t let me leave.”

“I heard, it’s ok to tell me what you saw,” she said. “What you really saw. It will help me find Sean before anyone else does.”

He felt a sudden calm in her words. Could she understand or at least want to?

“Sip on this, it’s got to be better than hospital coffee.”

He took a long slow drink. The chocolate flavor centered him as it did each day before work.

“I’m going to be completely honest,” he said. “Bear in mind I hit my head during the attack. But I swear Meredith, this woman bit him like a vampire and she was strong. I couldn’t fight her off. She threw me down the alley.”

He waited for her to respond or walk out in disgust.

“Go on,” she said.

“Then another woman appeared, she was strong like the one who attacked us. I swear I met the second woman earlier that morning at the coffee shop. I know I sound crazy.”

“What did the woman at the coffee shop look like?” She asked.

“Red hair, amazing green eyes.”

“Tegan,” she interrupted. “Did she say her name was Tegan?”

Dan’s heart skipped. 

“Yes, did Ron tell you?”

“No. You are probably the only person I can tell this to because of your grandfather being in occult circles.”

“Oh Christ, did this really happen?” He asked.

She nodded in the affirmative. 

“I don’t know whether to be relieved that I’m not crazy or be completely terrified now.”

“When you are up to it and please take your time in making this decision. I would like you to move to Ashton with me to my parent’s second home.”

“Leave Boston? Why?”

“Because that is where the vampires are.

• 

• 

• 

Morning ReWrite:

He couldn’t get enough, he drank and drank, each drop touching a part of him he had lost.

He bathed in the warm glow of it, but knew he had to leave, fast. He felt someone coming, someone stronger. He looked ahead and saw a thick fog, that chilled him from hundreds of feet away. It wasn’t a cold fog, but it was what would emerge from it that stirred him. He didn’t have time to move her body, he just run off to the park across the the street, hiding in the big oaks, peering from between the bushes hoping it would pass him. He was still high on Lana’s blood so his senses were heightened he felt pins go up his spine. The fog followed him, he was surrounded in its thick gray mist. He felt a hand grab him by the neck and push him up against an old oak.

“Time to go where you belong,” a man’s voice said.

Dan turned and looked straight into the blue eyes of the man who had been his mentor at work for the past eight years. The man he trusted as his friend. Ron was a laid back, gentle guy. This was the first time Dan had ever seen such stern resolve in those normally carefree blue eyes.  He suddenly felt a spark of his old self and a buzz in his pocket. 

“If it’s Weller don’t answer,” Ron said.

“Its Detective Martinez, I don’t remember putting her number in my phone…. “

“Put her on speaker,” Ron said. 

“This is Dan….”

“Mr. Okada, I’m at Sean O’Rourke’s apartment. How fast can you get to Beacon Hill?”

“Ten minutes.”

Detective Martinez was already sitting in Sean’s brown leather recliner with her feet on his matching ottoman when they arrived. She sipped her latte and looked right through them. 

“Do you know what we found when my team searched this apartment?” She asked.

They both looked at each other and kept their mouths shut.

“Not a damn thing!”

They both relaxed their shoulders.

She jetted out of the chair and moved toward them, picking up what looked like another journal from the glass top coffee table. She shoved the journal into Dan’s chest.

“Open it and read the first damn sentence.”

Dan knew not to mess with her. He looked at the inside front cover. It was another of Henry Cahill’s journals.

“August 26, 1996. Boston Gazette reporter Sarah Devers has been missing since Saturday. She was last seen at a local Vampire themed club called, Rouge where she was investigating the Vampire cult scene.”

“What is with you people and this vampire obsession?” She asked. 

“So you found nothing about embezzlement?” Ron asked.

“Bingo, where is the damn money?”

Dan just shook his head.

“Sean had nothing to do with this. Why don’t you investigate that prick, Weller?”

A huge grin swept across her face. 

“If you want to help your friend, you should help me.”

“What can we do?” Ron asked.

“Get me access to Weller’s computer. I’m guessing he has two sets of books.”

Dylan tried to focus as snow flakes fell on the windshield.

“How is our friend,” he asked the old man in the passenger seat.

Elia looked back. “He’s sleeping. We have another four hours before the wolfsbane wears off. But we will need to give him another dose before he gets on the plane.”

Dylan looked back at the snowy road ahead. A cold jolt of electricity went up his spine.

“Something is wrong,” he said.

“I feel it too. Could it be him? Is it Wilhelm?”

They both looked straight ahead toward a man in dark clothes with blonde hair walking toward them.

“Oh fuck it’s him,” Dylan said as he sped up.

“You can’t run him over he will stop us…”

Wilhelm put his right hand forward, the force of his power hit the SUV head on.

Dylan was losing control on the car. He felt it lift off the ground and roll over. The air bag exploded onto his chest as the vehicle slid sideways on its roof crashing into the White Pines on the side of the road.

He looked over at Elia who was out cold with blood streaming down his left cheek from a gash in his head. He had to move fast. The driver’s side door was sealed against a huge pine. He ripped off his seat belt and jumped into the back seat stepping on their sedated guest who was unshaken by the accident. He threw off the right back passenger door and sped out. He picked up the door and threw it at Wilhelm, who was now only three hundred feet away. He ducked and kept coming.

“Is that all you got, vampire? Hand over the O’Rourke boy and I will let your magician live.”

“Elia has always had a death wish so you can kill him.”

Wilhelm stopped. Dylan smirked when he saw the puzzled look on his face. He looked straight through his adversary’s cold gray blue eyes. Nothing, nothing in there, still, just like in Munich.

Her villa was simple on the outside, with ornate mahogany and black marble floors throughout the downstairs. I followed her into the backyard where A young man was already digging.

“How…”

“Telepathy,”Tegan answered.

The young man looked up and grinned at them.

Henry’s heart jumped a few beats. He knew him, well knew of him. Dylan was one of Tegan’s oldest allies. They were rumored to have been married centuries ago.

“Your heart is beating to fast Henry.” She said. “Everything is alright. You are safe here.”

Milton placed the officer’s body into the hole.

Dylan moved fast covering the officer’s body with dirt, then stopped.

“Get back,” he said as the officer arose from his freshly dug grave.

Tegan leaned back and closed her eyes. Henry knew she must have trusted him. When they reached the hotel he gently nudged her awake. She opened her eyes as the hotel doorman opened the car door. She exited falling to her knees.

The doorman gasped, then moved quickly to life her.

A knot formed in Henry’s throat at the sight of it. He summoned all he had.

“Tegan,” Henry called to her. He slid over and jumped out to help her. He took her arm under his.

“Which room do you need?”

She turned to him, a shell of the vampire he had researched, feared.

“It’s room… oh he’ll do.” She said as a young Nazi officer approached.

“Let me see your papers, Yankee,” he said to Henry.

“Close your eyes Henry,” Tegan said.

“Why…”

She lounged forward and embraced the officer sinking her fangs into his neck. Henry’s heart raced. He looked up and down the sidewalk no one seemed to notice, what was happening. Even the doorman asked..,

“Too much wine? We have coffee inside for the lady.”

“We…were good!” Henry stuttered.

Drive,” Tegan said.

“I need to feed. Take me to Hotel Wolff.”

“We can’t…,” Henry stopped himself. How could he argue with her? Even in her shaken state, she could overtake him.

“I have a regular there, it’s not what you think. He gives me blood.”

“Ok, Milton head to Hotel Wolff in the ArnulfstrauBe,” he told the driver.

“What happened tonight,” he asked.

“I touched him as I said and I saw what is to come….” she said. “Complete devastation, death, genocide.”

Henry’s heart jumped. He believed her.

“We need you,” he said. “We need your organization, we must defeat this monster.”

“I actually agree with you.”