The daily minutia of someone’s life can often be boring, both for the person living it and the more than casual observer. Therefore, it is important to have a good support network to keep life from beating us down.
It is also important to have people that challenge us, frustrate us, make us step outside of our comfort zones and push us to continue moving forward. Stagnation and boredom are the anathema of personal growth.
Then again, constantly living with the world upending at your feet can be overwhelming.
It’s a bit like walking a tightrope.
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The Ravenswing Corporation was a well-established medical research and development working primarily under contract with the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences. I’d been trying to get Ravenswing to see reason for civilian work as well, but only recently had made headway into the argument. In fact, last week, he’d reviewed the project proposal and given it a greenlight. Why did a Demon Lord own a company heavily invested in medical research? Beats the hell out of me.
I parked in my usual spot, and my PA pointedly looked at her watch when I rounded the corner to my office, but she didn’t comment on the time. “You should have called me, Mister Shestin; I would have arranged for a better car for you.” Of course, she’d seen me arrive on the security camera. “I’ve taken the liberty of ordering lunch, and your schedule is clear until two-thirty. I’m glad you came in; the Board wants an update on the Longevity numbers and that was as late as I could put them off.”
Caroline MacDonald had been my PA for six years, almost the entirety I’d been working at Ravenswing Corporation. I’d be lost without her, but there wasn’t any chance of a relationship. Not only would that be entirely too Hollywood, but I had a strict rule for relationships: there weren’t to be any.
Now before you look at me like that, let me remind you of something: I’m a hundred and sixty years old. I’m in the Extended Life Archives, though it was simply a matter of record. It didn’t mean much, except that I could tie my histories together and claim my actual age and status, as well as my birth name of Teimhean O’Doire. I was on record as magekind, though I didn’t disclose my magics. Let’s face it… in a world where magic and science live somewhat ill at ease with each other, the authorities are quick to believe anything that might put a mage in the bad light, so the less they truly knew, the better.
But given that, try imagining having a relationship. You meet, you fall in love, they grow old while you don’t change. Time touches them, a gentle hand at first, only to turn and betray the ‘forever’ of love. They fade, they die, leaving you alone and knowing that it will only happen all over again, should you try to love another. I’ve buried three in my life; I have no desire to bury a fourth.
There’s dating services, of course, should I seek companionship. I could restrict my searches to another member of the Extended Life ‘Club’, but that’s never appealed. Besides, how would I go about describing myself? Irish, male, ???, Assassin for a Demon Lord. The question marks would be where I’d describe my genetics. I’m not an Elf; I lack the prerequisite pointed ears. I’d put Human, but I’m fair certain that I’m too steeped in magic to be fully Human at this point. And let’s just not contemplate using the term ‘Mutt,’ hm?
No, it was far safer to keep my heart to myself and steer clear of relationships. It was hard enough trying to maintain friendships. So, Caroline and I… weren’t anything more than a good working relationship. Besides, I was fair certain she was seeing someone in Marketing.
“Thanks, I’d be lost without you here to keep track of me.” It was true, and she’d heard it enough by now that her lips curled with the words. “I’ll take lunch in my office when it gets here.” I bumped through the door into my office and settled into the chair and set about the day.
Lunch was uneventful and I ate almost all of the pasta salad Caroline had ordered me, but the meeting with the Board was like pulling teeth from cantankerous hyenas. Two of the Board members, Kellen and Moren always nitpicked everything we reviewed. I often wondered if they were partners in this, trying to double-team anyone they didn’t care for in some bizarre effort to scare them off. I knew they didn’t like me; I looked too young to the mid-sixties crowd, but I was older and meaner, so I usually won.
Today had been no different. Kellen had questioned the legitimacy of the Longevity projected costs being so high. I argued that when you’re dealing with a lifespan expectancy of over two hundred years, there was little concern to it. It literally took pulling my publicly viewable records from the Extended Life Archives to prove to them that it wasn’t another ‘moon walk.’ Oh, yes… those two didn’t believe that Humanity had been to the moon, either. I truly wanted to introduce them to Suzu… she would have blown their minds, literally and figuratively.
I didn’t need to continue considering Suzu and figures in the same thought, so I forced my brain to focus on the computer screen in front of me and started clearing out my inbox. We had good spam filters, but occasionally, an email made it through. Today’s escapee claimed that a contact was trapped in Scotland and needed a loan to get home. I shook my head, deleted the email, and carried on.
What? Scotland’s not that bad of a place.
By 4pm, I was ready for my beating- I mean, meeting with Ravenswing. Of course, part of it was the interminable wait. My boss was, amongst other things, an ass. I think it went with the territory. So, I waited, paging through the paperwork on my desk, and then I saw a folder that had been left to the side of my desk. I read the name on the edge, cringed, and opened it. The name, of course, was Xelander Wexforth. I flipped through the first few pages, found the documentation, and despite my better judgement, started to read.
I'd not followed my brother's life. In fact, I had done my absolute best to remain blissfully unaware of his passage through the years. Just the knowledge that he was out there because of me was enough of a reason. Classic Catholic guilt? I've got it in spades. Ravenswing knows it, too. He also knew that once presented with an opportunity, I can't look away. Call it train wreck syndrome or something equally trite, but I was hooked, and I just kept turning pages.
Xelander was a doctor. Good on him. He'd been published in several journals and was spearheading a new movement in medical science. I followed the article to page two and rolled my eyes. Xenobiological research. Oh... great. Well, as long as he stayed out of Charleston, I’d be fine. I kept reading, and that’s when it occurred to me. See, I’d wondered why Ravenswing had suddenly seemed so open to the idea of funding independent researchers.
Now I knew. He’d greenlit the project knowing full well that Xelander was in the industry.
I was going to kill Valen Ravenswing.
Yeah, I know. I could dream.
Well, my life was just complete, and I knew that all too soon I was going to end up in a small room with my erstwhile brother... courtesy of my ass of a boss. He knew what he was doing and had gone to great lengths to make sure I knew it too. Xelander and I were nothing more than pawns in his perverse little game, and I'd have to play along if I wanted to make sure that Xelander stayed blissfully unaware.
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I looked at my computer, eyed the time, and sighed. This too was part of the game. When would I capitulate and call upstairs to tell him I was ready to just get it over with. It was only 4:30.
The telephone receiver was heavy; heavier than you might expect from a modern device, and I dropped it three times before managing to lift it fully. I hit the sequence to dial Ravenswing's office directly after a moment of contemplation. Of course, the bastard didn't answer. He wanted to make me stew as long as possible. I intended to stew as little as possible, so I got up and headed out of my office.
"Caroline, I'm going upstairs for a meeting. There's no need for you to stick around; call it an early day and go home." She looked up, startled, and I waved off her protests. "No, don't fuss; I'll be unreachable for a while, and there is no sense in you staying late." She knew me too well, twisting her lips into a smirk and shaking her head before standing.
I didn't give her a chance to reply, but I knew what she meant to say. She thought I antagonized Ravenswing far too much, and that one day I'd step over some line and he'd fire me. She couldn't know that I wished he would. But unless I found a loophole or I completed the contract, I would be around when the planet died around me.
The elevator to Ravenswing's office moves like an ancient thing. The building isn't ten years old, but the elevator acts like one of those hundred-year-old monstrosities that are driven by cogwheels and chain. It lurches along and yes, I am overdoing it, but the damned thing is slow. I'm sure it is on purpose. If you want to get to him quickly, you have to take the stairs.
When the elevator doors finally opened, I stepped out into Ravenswing’s office. It looked a lot like the office in that television show about people who were reprogrammed and sent off on missions. Dark woods mixed with brushed metal, accenting the wall of floor to ceiling windows. The area where his desk was sunken by a step, and to the side was a bar topped with either flawless black marble or onyx. I hadn’t yet decided which it was.
He was seated at that desk, his tie loose enough that I could see the button of his collar wasn’t fastened. His jacket was still on, and I wondered if he’d intended to leave and then return to have his meeting with me later. Those colorless eyes lifted at my arrival, and I watched his gaze flick to the clock briefly. “Either you have something important, or you’ve decided to move our nine o’clock to five.”
“It’s nine o’clock somewhere,” I replied, knowing full well that it wasn’t, unless you counted the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. “I’m here to discuss this new project that I found on my desk. I’d wanted a civilian division, yes, but I’d wondered why you’d given in so suddenly. I believe I have my answer now, don’t I.” It wasn’t a question.
“I’m reviewing the actual proposal now. I thought you’d be overjoyed to work with your brother again.”
I thought I’d rather be dropped in a vat of boiling hot acid, but I didn’t want to give Ravenswing any new ideas. “Overjoyed is not the word I’d use… but given that it has gone public without my knowledge, I don’t see where I have much choice in the matter.”
His pen made a soft sound against the marble of the desktop when he set it to the side. Those colorless eyes lifted from the paper he’d been making notes on, and I returned the gaze, judging his mood. How hard I could push him depended entirely on what I saw reflected. If I was lucky, I could manipulate the meeting into the expected brutality and get it over with early.
He rose and moved around his desk, his eyes veiled by a shadow I couldn’t read, and his lips thinned into what I thought he believed was a smile. I wasn’t going to be able to push him tonight. “Submit it to the Board for review. I have some things to attend to this evening. We’ll discuss things tomorrow, then.” He moved past me, entered the elevator, and was gone.
What the Hell was that?
I’d be lying if I said that I waited until nine in his office, but I was in the building. When he didn’t call my office or my cell, I went up to his office once more, but found it unchanged from when he had left shortly after five. Thoroughly unnerved, I decided to go out for pizza.
As I was driving down Meeting Street, my phone rang. It was Caroline, asking if she needed to order food to the office for me, or if I was gone for the day. She knew me all too well, and I told her that as I pulled into Bella’s Pizzeria, and rang off, promising to call her if the Mob was after me.
It wasn’t half a joke; Bella’s was where the bosses of Charleston’s underworld frequented, and I knew all of them. They knew me as Thomas, but everyone there had an alias. It was part of the game.
When I walked in, the place went quiet for ten seconds, and then most all of them resumed their conversations. They knew who I was, and they knew that I could drink most of them under the table and still keep going. Luigi, a regular whose real name was Louis, greeted me with a handshake and a hug and then nearly tossed me into the bench of his booth. “Bella, wine for Thomas, no stinking beer tonight!” Oh. It was going to be one of those nights, was it? Well, I could go with the flow… I’d been planning to take Wednesday as a work from home day anyway.
I shook my head, laughing at Luigi and his antics. “Easy, big guy… sounds like you’ve had a head start on me. I’ll have to drink double just to catch up!” They were passing a basket of breadsticks around, and I snagged one as it went past me. I didn’t eat much as a rule, but there was something about Bella’s cooking… it was almost as good as Suzu’s. Christ, but I needed a woman who could cook in my life.
Bella knows what I eat, and she knows what I drink, and bless her if she didn’t put the goblet of heady red wine in front of me and ruffle my hair like she would a favorite nephew. “Your calzone is in the oven, Thomas. You playing in tonight?” She meant cards. Sure, there had been a time or two when we’d played Russian roulette, but it throws the odds when an immortal plays it, not to mention that one becomes a bit of a legend when even a bullet to the skull doesn’t kill you. Still hurts like you wish that it could, though.
So now, Bella’s boys played cards. Sometimes poker, sometimes blackjack, but always apt to explode in arguments and drinking. I looked at her for a moment, and then shrugged. “Sure, whatever it is, call me in.” I picked up the wine, saluted her with it, and then drank a quarter of it in one go. Luigi started thumping me on my back, cheering me on, and it was all I could do to not spill the red liquid on my shirt.
Having proven my willingness to drink and play cards, I was drawn into the less complex game of talking to the bosses, eating when the food arrived, and joking and jostling about when the game of cards was called. I was on my fourth goblet of wine, and Luigi was well and truly drunk, so he was easy to shove out of the way.
I worked my way past Luigi and walked across the restaurant to the back room where the card games were played. It was a bit of fun and bluster to get into the room and find myself a seat at one of the card tables. Eventually I was settled into the corner with my back to the wall, and the cards were dealt.
I’ll not bore you with the lengthy details of what we played and for how long, and I will spare you the drinking songs that I couldn’t sing… not that it much mattered after the drinks started flowing. But I will say that the night was long, the game was longer, and it was well into the dawn by the time I made it to the car with Bella’s blessing in my ears.
The drive home was easy, and I parked the rental and headed up into the townhouse. I was exhausted, exhilarated, and not even Xelander standing in my foyer could dampen my mood. Which was fine because he wasn’t there. I sent a text to Caroline, explaining that the Mob hadn’t got me, but I had a headache from a drinking binge the night before and that if Ravenswing wanted me, he’d have to come to my townhouse. I wouldn’t put it past him, but the challenge remained.
I didn’t even wait for a reply, but I stripped and showered off the pizzeria and the alcohol, then dried myself off and threw on my robe to slip out onto my upper porch and indulge in a cigarette before I retreated from the morning to fall into bed. It had been a long time since I’d been to Bella’s for the entire night, and it felt good to make the connections again. I wasn’t certain that I’d be able to pull off more than one all-nighter every once in a while, lest my corporate image suffer, but it was important to maintain the relationships that I had built there. Magekind or no, it never hurt to know somebody who knew somebody who could make somebody else disappear.
I smoked a second cigarette while I watched the morning sun rise across the back of the townhouses. Sometimes I wished that the front of the building was facing the sun so that the morning light could cast a warm glow through the bedroom, but that would deprive me knowing the strange tranquility of the dawn from the other direction. Trust me; it makes more sense when you’re on the side who hasn’t yet gone to sleep before the dawn.
I didn’t go inside until the whole of the sun had risen past the trees, and I knew that somewhere in Charleston, the sunrise was being watched by Suzu as well. I wished her a good morning and even went so far as to blow her a kiss before I turned and retreated into my room. I sunk into my bed and at last fell asleep.