Chapter 7: The Moon Approaches

It was hard for Mitch to concentrate at school, he was devoting all his energies into thinking about the ceremony. He wanted to forget that he could possibly die, but kept imagining his own gruesome death at the most inappropriate times.

“Dude! Are you listening to me?” Adam snapped as they were walking home.

“What? Oh yeah, totally…” Mitch replied, snapping out of his dream.

“Ok, spill. What the hell is eating you? You can’t even pay attention in class!” Adam demanded.

“It’s her isn’t it? That crazy bitch has done something to you”

“Nah man, it’s just that I’m some kind of sacrifice for this ritual tomorrow night” Mitch explained. Adam stopped walking, his mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“A sacrifice? You? Why?” Adam half shouted. Mitch clapped his hand over Adam’s mouth to stop him from shouting again.

“Dude! I’m not supposed to know about the ceremony! The good guys are rebelling against the bad guys and the bad guys could kill me!” Mitch hissed into Adam’s ear. Adam paled under his tan.

“Dead?” Adam mumbled through Mitch’s hand. Mitch nodded, releasing Adam from his grip.

“Dude! That sucks!” Adam muttered.

“Tell me about it, they expect me to take it rationally and not really care. Which sucks” Mitch replied, glad his friend understood him. Raven was no help; she couldn’t understand his fear of death. Adam on the other hand was suitably outraged and annoyed; he at least could give Mitch the reassurance he needed. If she wasn’t dead Mitch would have spoken to Kelly about it, and possibly had an hour-long make-out session in the process, or he might have told his sister about it. Although, if truth were told, Mitch was glad Adam was the one he was talking to about it. There was only so much you could discuss with a girl.

“Why don’t you just tell them you won’t do it? This is America for crying out loud! Claim the fifth or something!” Adam suggested. They had gone to their favourite hang out to have chilli fries and sodas. Although Mitch probably should have chosen somewhere else to go, it didn’t stop him finding a suitably crowded space.

“They wouldn’t listen, these people are above the laws of men! Plus, they would tell me my choice in the matter disappeared when she came into my life” Mitch replied, sipping his soda.

“Bummer, so what are you supposed to do?” asked Adam.

“Dunno” Mitch said shrugging. The waiter, a man with red hair and an air of arrogance about him, served them their chips.

“That’ll be ten dollars” he told them, with a noticeable Italian accent. Mitch handed the waiter twelve dollars, not noticing the white skinned hand.

“Keep the change” Mitch added casually. The man sneered at him, before moving off to serve another customer. If Mitch had been as observant as he should have been, he would have seen the waiter was moving fast enough for him to be a blur. Had he looked into the man’s eyes he would have seen intelligence and understanding in their blue depths. Had he looked, Mitch would have seen the bringer of his destruction.

Julius couldn’t help feeling superior to these humans, it was in his nature. In the old days, when he was still human, Julius was a powerful man and old habits died hard. He was putting up with the demeaning task of actually serving these mortals so he could watch Mitchell Carlson. The boy was complaining about something to a friend as they ate chilli fries, not noticing the particular attention that was being paid to him.

Not very observant are you? Julius thought as Mitch handed him the money for the food. Humanity had fallen since the Roman Empire, according to Julius, it had lost it’s essential culture and grace, and above all else it had forgotten Rome. Admittedly Julius forgot about the brutal arena and the slavery, but in his way of thinking Rome was the epitome of human greatness. If this had been Rome, all these humans would honour him as a senator, although if it had been Rome Julius would not even be in this hole. Julius maintained that to the end of his ‘mortal life’ he had been a senator, even though he knew he had been stripped of his title and rank after being tried for treason and sentenced to exile. It was his own ambition and desire for power that led him to make deals with the emperors enemies and attempt to murder the emperors son, and it was pride that stopped him from begging forgiveness from the emperor. Julius left Rome a broken man, cursing his gods and the man who had told him where to find the emperors enemies. He vowed to kill Helios, since he could not kill the gods and in Julius’ mind it was all Helios’ fault. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Julius it was Helios who found him, on the verge of death and at the mercy of a band of marauding Huns. Helios offered the power to overthrow the emperor in exchange for Julius’ soul. The concept of men having a soul was new to Julius, and it seemed a small price to pay for power in his mind. He had little to lose and so much to gain, so Julius accepted the offer.

But Julius did not like his new immortality, he couldn’t accept the fact he couldn’t die or that he lived off the blood of the living. His displeasure increased when Helios told him there was no going back. Julius had gone off to sulk for a few months in what was now Vatican City, refusing to believe he was doomed to an immortal life. It was only after the fall of the Roman Empire that Julius began to accept his situation. Helios taught him about the world, and how to hide amongst the mortals. Julius learnt how to ‘turn’ people, passing on the curse to others as Helios had done to him. Learning to accept that the gods meant nothing anymore was hard for Julius, he had no trouble accepting that the other religions were just ploys to control the populace, it was harder for him to accept that about his gods. Helios soon began to trust Julius with greater tasks, and by the time the renaissance rolled in Julius was Helios’ second in command and the coven had grown. Now they were going to increase their hold on the rest of the coven, and the success of the plan revolved around the boy before him.

Such a pity, the boy would have made such a lovely plaything for my beloved Julius thought. He hadn’t seen his beloved since the coven gathering, and he missed her terribly. Julius loved the way the small woman, he could safely refer to her as woman since centuries had passed since her turning, moved and the way she could convince even the biggest oaf she was just an innocent little girl. Julius had loved her ever since he had laid eyes on the newly turned daemon. She bounced off him in a certain way, her biting sarcasm and surprising wit made him laugh. He found it worrying that she had never believed in the Christian God, but dismissed it as teenage rebellion and never questioned how a sixteen year old could be as wise as she was. She seemed wiser than Helios, and he was two millennia’s old! The only daemon older than Helios, to his knowledge, was Cleopatra. Cleopatra was the first, she had been six hundred years old when she turned Helios and was considered the mother of their race. She had been the only daemon queen of Egypt and was the also the last ever Egyptian queen. Everyone in the coven either respected the Dark Mother or feared her wrath.

The evening of the ceremony arrived too quickly for Mitch. He found himself kneeling before the small alter to the saints he had erected earlier that year. The serene face of the Madonna stared at him, her form beautiful.

Was the Madonna a daemon? Mitch thought distractedly. It wouldn’t surprise him really, after everything that had happened to him so far, he was convinced he couldn’t be shocked by anything. Mitch picked up his rosary beads, preparing to pray when he saw Raven watching him. She had a pensive look on her face, an expression Mitch hadn’t observed on the daemon before. It made her look more like the wise creature she was, instead of a sixteen-year-old human girl. Something about the way she was looking at the picture of the Madonna made Mitch realise something he should have realised earlier.

“Do you miss Him?” Mitch asked quietly.

“Miss who?” Raven replied. Mitch indicated the crucifix on the alter, hoping she’d get the meaning.

“I miss him, a little. I miss many of the humans I meet, although I don’t make a habit of mourning their passing. If I did that I’d be in mourning constantly” she said quietly. Mitch saw the pensive look return to her face as she rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. He took up his beads again, going through the rosary and praying. He wasn’t sure about what to believe now that Raven had told him that Christ had not been the Son of God. She had told him the full story, comparing Jesus to the likes of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther-King. Mitch didn’t believe her at first, until he realised that her story could possibly be true. Raven had no reason to lie to Mitch, after all why should she bother to lie? She herself admitted that most people wouldn’t believe the things she had told him. But the fact she had been alive at the time weighed on Mitch’s mind. Raven would remember if any sort of miracle had happened, wouldn’t she? Mitch shook his head; he knew Raven was lying about Jesus Christ. She had been hurt enough times by Christianity to develop a hatred for them, and therefore would say anything to make a good Christian question their God. Then again, Raven enjoyed teasing Mitch about his beliefs. Why would she do that, aside from her own sick amusement, if she knew something he didn’t?

“I have to go Mitch, I need to meet the others” Mitch turned to watch her go, praying for her in spite of himself. Raven needed all the luck she could get. He continued in his rosary, going through a succession of beads before he realised that Raven had called him Mitch, instead of Carlson.

Who’d of thunk it, I’m growing on her Mitch thought. He got up, deciding he might as well get some sleep.

“Praying, how cute” snarled a voice Mitch vaguely recognised. Julius, in his full senatorial regalia, was leaning on the doorframe with a sneer on his face. Mitch scrambled backwards. The bastard was early!

His hand closed over a crucifix.

Stall, the logical part of Mitch’s brain told him. He held up the crucifix.

“Get thee behind me foul Satan” Mitch yelled.

Get thee behind me foul Satan? That was the best I could come up with? Mitch thought angrily. Julius on the other hand found it amusing, his laugh was the most malicious sounding laugh Mitch had heard in his short life.

“If you insist” Julius paused to flick something off his toga, “but if I’m behind you, you won’t see what I’m doing”.

Mitch backed up against the wall, again trying to find something to throw at Julius. He felt around with his free hand and came across the second worse thing he could find…

A toothbrush.

“Now let’s not play games mortal, your fate is inevitable…” Julius said in a patronising tone. Mitch dropped the toothbrush, he felt around again this time coming up with something more useful.

A knife.

What the hell a knife was doing in his room was not important to Mitch right now, he was just thankful the damn thing was there. His hand closed over the handle and he kept his hand behind his back. Julius was staring at him silently, the calculating gaze of a predator Mitch had noticed amongst all the daemons.

This is it… Mitch thought.

He lunged forward with great speed and plunged the knife deep into Julius’ chest. The full stupidity of what he had done finally hit him as he stared at the knife.

Well that was stupid, any more great ideas genius? Mitch thought angrily.

“That was very foolish of you mortal” Julius snarled. He began to advance on the boy, moving with supernatural speed. He caught Mitch by the collar and threw open the window and jumped out…and didn’t land again.

Oh God, they can fly?

Mitch didn’t remember anything more.