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I HATED BOSTON. WHAT’S more, I hated The Hunter’s Association. All of their cloak and dagger bull shit. I was sure if I didn’t keep my guard up around them at all times, I would surely find myself inside a titanium reinforced cage so they could study me up close. Hans Broadchurch was head of the acquisitions and customs departments, according to the public records I could find about him. I wasn’t sure what he could do for me.
My arrival at the Hunter’s Association was met with a curious tone. They didn’t know what to do about me, I set off all the alarms, but I wasn’t hostile, and they couldn’t find a weapon on me. I wasn’t gonna tell them if they didn’t know enough to ask. Gotta love that subdermal blade. When I approached what I thought was the receptionist, I was stopped by two large men in brown tweed suits.
“A little warm for tweed, don’t you think boys?” I laughed as they flanked me. “I’m here to see Hans Broadchurch, Herlihy Teague made the recommendation, on behalf of Sam McIntyre and the Archibald Family.”
I hoped dropping so many well-known names would at least pique someone’s interest. As I hoped, someone was listening. The receptionist nodded, putting her hand to her ear, she nodded several times without speaking, then waved her hands and the men in tweed were gone.
“You are a Dragonborn?”
I nodded. “I am.”
“Your access is only granted by the unsheathing of your subdermal weapon.”
I eyed her carefully as a drawer opened up in front of me with a hiss.
“You will get it back, just as you left it, I assure you.” She smiled. “It is just a safety measure. Hans doesn’t allow any weapons beyond the checkpoint, for anyone. Not even Hunters, Mister...?”
“Rembrandt.”
“Like the painter?”
“Exactly, like the painter,” I replied with a wink, as I leaned forward, grasping my weapon’s handle. I pulled my Katana and laid it carefully into the case.
She batted her long black lashes at me and pushed her darker than coal hair over her shoulder as the case closed. “Thank you, Mister Rembrandt. I will be sure it is well taken care of for you.”
“Be sure of it.”
“You may proceed. Straight down this hallway to the elevators. The center one will take you down to the Acquisitions department where Hans will meet you.”
“Thank you.”
“You are quite welcome.”
***
THIS PLACE WAS AUTOMATED in a way not even Herlihy seemed to be able to get things automated. As soon as I reached the elevators the center one opened. I stepped on and it descended, without my touching anything. It even stopped so that a young man could get on as I traveled, letting him off in the interim. I was amazed by the efficiency, and wondered if it were all done with cameras and people or if it were truly automated. When the elevator doors opened, I was met by a man that couldn’t have been more than forty-five, fifty tops. He had a freshly tanned complexion that I attributed to recent travel, deep blue green eyes and his blonde hair was just beginning to be salted, sprinkled ever so lightly, giving him a distinguished look. He was dressed in khakis and a button down black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, it seemed he was covered in some kind of white dust.
“You are the young Dragon?” He smiled, with a snort.
That was when I noticed it. The smell of salt in the air, much like the urns that I kept my parents inside. “I’m not that young,” I mumbled, my throat going dry.
“Young enough.” He put out his hand, his fingers at the base of my neck. I felt a heat that only a Master or other sensitive can cause and I looked at him curiously as he continued to chuckle.
“I have to make sure. See, I can’t have anyone trying to assassinate me before I’ve finished my workings. Now, what can I do for you, Siegfried?”
“How did you know my first name?”
“I’m the head of Acquisitions and Customs, I make it my business to acquire knowledge on all Dragonborn in my region. You are the only, excuse me, you were the only one, until recently. Now there are two of you. A female has come along. Excuse me for being forward, but have you decided to breed?”
I think I may have blushed, because his response took my initial anger and turned it to laughter.
He clapped!
“I, well, we are seeing each other. I’m not, we’re not.”
“Of course not, I forget you are Branded again. This time to the Teague Family. Although there is no record of an actual Branding...Taking place.”
“Because it never has. Keegan has allowed me reign over my sword. My fealty is mine to swear, and I swear it to him, have since he was born thirty-five years now.” I looked around, the place was huge and full of crates and boxes all overflowing with packaging materials. “What exactly do you acquire here?”
“Oh, this and that. Artifacts, fossils, it’s sort of the paranormal archeologists wet dream. Only it’s not a dream. I have a Vampire skull that dates back to the first century. Scary fucker, I can tell you. Would you like to see it?”
“Maybe some other time.” I couldn’t shake the salt smell, and I was on the verge of a sneezing fit. I puffed smoke, trying to stop it.
“You haven’t quite figured it out yet, have you, son?”
The way he said son flashed me back to my childhood. To a man that once cared for me. To a Dragon that was once my kin. A father, long dead. I was floored.
“That’s not possible. I have your ashes. Mother gave them to me when I was fourteen.”
“It was a necessary evil, my child.” Hans bowed his head. “Forgive me, but those ashes were nothing more than the salt and sand left behind by my resurrection.”
I choked, my heart racing, are you saying that you are a Phoenix?”
He nodded. “Much like your brother, and should you die with love consuming your heart, so shall you become. It is the fate of all the men in our bloodline.” He opened his arms to me and like a child, I fell into them.
He held me tightly and the rage in me, the need to shift died. I felt normal for the first time since before my Dragon awoke within me.
“Shh, my boy.” He stroked my hair as my legs buckled under us and we fell to the floor.
***
THAT WAS MORE THAN a week ago. In the time I have been with him, he has shown me wonderful things of our kind. That there was a time that we were free, allowed to love and to serve as we chose. He had given up his weapon long ago, hidden it as it were so that he might become a Hunter, when the talks of integration began. He wanted to learn about the Humankind, to understand them and their motivations, to see just what separated us so as to aid in uniting us. He agreed to help me find a way to help Keegan at Grigori, but said that it would be difficult. Ryane would make it difficult for us.
“You see,” he said to me as we went through the family records, looking for a connection that could smooth over the rift between the Vampires and the Fey that the loss of the Marriage had caused, “we have her family’s blood on our hands.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him wearily. “I’m not sure I understand, Father.”
“You do know that her mother was murdered by an Otherkind, yes?”
“It was speculated this was a possibility, but none could prove what, or who?”
“That was because of the type of burn.” He raised his eyes at me.
“Alewar?”
“Alewar.”