Crystal Central Presents
It happened that the nights in Boston used to be lively when the drunkards and party-goers didn't hide in the speakeasies.
Although no curfew had been set, at night the main streets and avenues and shops now saw no traffic like before the prohibition. This had its reasons. Normal civilians were afraid of walking on the streets past ten at night; corrupt police officers who would accuse one of bootlegging for bribes, ruthless gangsters and gang fights were no longer legends. It happened. They lurked in the cold, silent and dead night.
But Boston was about to be lively . And not the carnival-comes-to-town, fourth-of-July, good kind of lively. It was the horror tales, here-comes-Freddy-Kruger, bad kind of lively. Bad for civilians, bad for the Police and gangsters. Bad for everyone.
On the spacious grey three seater valentine had her arm on Melanie's shoulder. The female Fenway lay her head on Val's chest after having vented through tears to her fill.
"Freddy Valdez has every right to be scared of talking about Aerth Sinclair, Mel. That guy has killed for less. Aerth is not as nice as he looks. He spends a lot of time at the Albatross so we know a bit more about him. There is a reason why he is the first man under the Sinclair Boss. He is as ruthless as they come; the kind that locks people in a building and then torches the place. He has done it."
"He's also sharp upstairs, scary sharp", Valentine quipped in on Dag's profile of Aerth.
"Yeah, I noticed, The guy is sharp like the suit he wears." Melanie voiced her observation. The room then went into an awkward silence.
She now knew what Aerth was capable of, and she was worried about Val and Dag now more than ever.
'Tommorow. Aerth said for them to go to the harbour tommorow by 6pm. From what Aerth said, and now what Dag and Val just said, he definitely has some plans for them. Bad ones. The thing is, why did he tell me so much? He surely has to know that I would tell them everything seeing that he appears to know us quite well, he should be quite the smart one from what I've seen and heard after all. Aerth feels like the type who has everything under his control; he even knows of Val's real name. No matter how worried it might make them, I have to spill the beans. Aerth is strange.'
Douglas looked at Melanie, their identical blue eyes meeting for a moment before Melanie lowered her head to avoid his gaze. Valentine pressed lightly on her shoulder to encourage her.
They knew Melanie. She had the worst pokerface in the world - She didn't have one infact. Douglas clearly saw the conflict, worry and fear in her eyes in their brief gaze, and Valentine saw how Melanie bit her lower lip (she would do this whenever she had something weighing on her mind.)
The fiery Fenway raised her head and softly withdrew from Valentine's embrace. She looked at Dag, who sat to her far left on the one seater for a moment, she then turned and locked her gaze to her immediate left, between her brother and herself; on Valentine. The one whom everything seemed to revolve around. Even Melanie was beginning to see this vague pattern.
Wet black eyelashes clumped together from her tears a while ago. Blue eyes as the sky shone with resolve behind them.
"Aerth invited me to his table before I left Timber and Toast," The emotional girl voiced with haste.
Dag's and Val's eyes suddenly flashed with alarm. A very faint red played in Valentine's pupils. Barely visible.
Mel ran her mouth like a broken dam after that statement.
None of the two interrupted her, letting her rant on, afraid to halt the burst of courage she had built up to let them in on her encounter with Aerth Sinclair.
"He did nothing after that?" Daglaus asked his sister with worry after she gave her whole report of the happenings at the bar earlier tonight.
" No, nothing. I confirmed I wasn't tailed as well. But this guy still gives me the creeps. He is strange, the Uncle Fate kind of strange."
Daglaus eased a little upon Melanie's response and focused on Valentine.
"We've got a problem Val."
"I know. From what Mels said, Aerth has done his homework on us; like he is targeting us. It feels like we're being hunted." Valentine concluded gravely.
_____________________
Sunday, Feb 23
Two hours past midnight. A new day had already began.
A few loud party goers broke the silence that reigned the chilly winter night as they streamed out of the diner flanking Commonwealth Avenue- Larry's underground joint, Timber and Toast.
Snow sat on the benches outside the joint on the pedestrian walkway and on the ground. The street trees were now bare of leaves.
No matter how illegal the booze business was, the gangsters still imposed a closing time on the underground bars. The irony of it all was that they were all to close doors at 2:00 Am, with the last drink served thirty minutes prior, exactly like the legal time before the prohibition.
From the almost empty parking lot, a black Mercedes-Benz S-class pulled out. It had its windows tinted.
The car pulled away from its parking beside road into Commonwealth Avenue, headed west toward Babcock Street and continued towards Brighton Avenue. The whole road was empty save for a few odd cars and the occasional police Patrol cars and snow.
Aerth sat in the back of the black ride. He watched through the slightly lowered window as the night zoomed past. The snow had stopped falling.
The big bald bodyguard sat on the driver's seat, also silent, eyes peeled on the road ahead.
"Any place you want to visit before we go back, sir?" The bald man asked, breaking the silence in the car with his deep voice. Anyone would have been amazed to hear the large man refer to the young man as sir. This was, after all, the third millennium
"No, go straight back to the Albatross." Aerth replied as he rolled the window completely shut.
"Alright, sir," came the bodyguard's reply.
"I hope you already found a hunter, Brad," Aerth said, his voice soft and clipped. "Especially now that the Hunting Season Opening is hours away."
It was a follow-up. Aerth had given Brad this task about a month ago when he was looking into Valentine.
"Yes, sir. I got one. Michael Walker is a good candidate. Going by your requirements, he is a fairly new Hunter with less than three vampire kills under his belt; both of which are the lowest ranked Rim Vampires; he will be hunting this season; he has lived in Allston for more than eleven years; as he has been a hunter for long -just three years- he is not well connected within the Hunters circle."
"Hmm," droned Aerth, "This Michael checks almost all the boxes perfectly; he sounds too good to be true, did you look into him? Not the Hunter side, I mean. Legal records, connections, finances, daily life and such."
"I did, he is clean - no association with any gang whatsoever; as far as friendships go it'll be his few colleagues at a garage on Eatonia Street where he has worked at as a mechanic for the last five years; I reckon he joined the hunters for the money so hiring him won't be a problem; he is also the loner type from what I gathered."
"Family?" Aerth followed up.
"He's got no one but three kids, triplets, all in college at Boston College. I bet that's why he hunts. That's also the only fault I found to his low profile character. One of them was once a potential football draft pick, that kid Jason Walker, if you can recall."
"Mhhh." Brad could see Aerth nodding thoughtfully in the rearview mirror. Once upon a time Aerth loved watching College Football games. He must have known Jason, who was a hot topic then.
" Travis Walker, the brother is now in the spotlight as well," Brad continued. "His daughter, Clarrise Walker, is not making any big moves though. Except for these, he is quite reserved."
"That's good, too low profile and they appear mysterious, and that makes them suspicious. Go on. How's his history?"
"Not much, he used to live in Kenmore, thirteen years ago before his wife died in an car accident. He moved to Allston after that and has been working as a mechanic in different Auto repairs since. That's all I have on him." The bodyguard exhausted the information he had collected on Michael Walker.
Brad was an elite bodyguard. He had graduated from an elite private bodyguard training center in Israel, where they were taught specialized skills like information technology, surveillance, marksmanship, bomb neutralisation, martial arts and emergency medicine.
He had been in a contract with Aerth for years. Working as a bodyguard, chauffer, an enforcer in the Sinclair Criminal estate and any other job Aerth had for him.
He was silently looking at the young man on the rearview mirror as he took a right onto Linden Street.
Aerth lay comfortably on the cream leather sit with his face to the roof of the car. Brad knew not to disturb his employer. He was probably going through the information he had given him. Tweaking and adjusting his crazy plans. Crazy plans to catch an Vampire Ancient, The highest ranked vampires in the great vampire commune. The heads of the vampire families.
Brad would dare call Aerth a genius if not THE Genius. Even with his special training on strategy and tactics he could barely keep up with his boss's plans.
"His number?" Brad heard his young employer's voice coming from the back. Via Cambridge street in Allston, the car had crossed the River Street bridge above the Charles River and continued onto River Street in Cambridge.
"At the Albatross sir," the bodyguard responded in his deep voice.
"Get us there fast then, we don't have much time left." Aerth said to Brad who responded by accelerating on the empty snow covered road. They turned right on Massachusetts Avenue. Their destination was on the right. A one story building- coffee brown wooden ground floor and a red first floor- with a sign above the ground floor windows. The Albatross.
Brad found Aerth's parking spot before the door.
Aerth opened his door and exited. This was his turf, it was safe. Nevertheless Brad rushed out taking his place behind Aerth to protect him.
Still walking ahead towards the Navy blue twin doors Aerth stopped Brad from following, by issuing a task, "Go prepare for tonight, get things at the harbour ready, today we hunt a Vampire Ancient."