Vidare 01: the Cabal

"Alright, I'm ready. Are you sure the little kid should be here?" Gerald, former head of an entire house of The Order of Hermes, had questioned David for the last time.

"He's my apprentice isn't he? Are you trying to overstep my role as his teacher?" David said coldly.

A small and scrawny Jason looked up at his master. "I can do it Sir."

"I'm not trying to overstep, I just know a thing or two about teaching kids." Gerald said with a glare.

Jason was a thin boy in an oversized red robe, black pants, and a power rangers T-shirt he had leftover from his parents. He looked with fascination at the mages room that sparkled with trinkets and charms. Rubbing his eyes on his robe, his ten year old body was out of place in the enormous library of materials, and the arcane vault of treasure. "Is it scary?"

"It might be a little too scary for you." Gerald said softly as he leaned down to the boy's bright green eyes.

"When my Master took over your position, you swore your oath to a new field and relinquished your old titles." David put his hands behind his back and stared again.

"Don't you dare pull rank on me. I watched your mentor fumble at the girls in highschool." Gerald stood back upright and got right into David's face.

"Do your fucking job, Elder." David nearly spat it into his face.

"Whatever. Just give the kid a bedtime story after this." Gerald sighed.

Flicking on the video, the twisted tape revved and ground its way back to life and started the cursed images burned into it. "What the fuck." David whispered. A man sat with his torso ripped at the belly and his pooling and blood soaked innards trailed onto the floor. Around him was a concrete basement with sigils and drawings painted on the walls. The video flickered as the overhead light slowly wobbled from the ceiling. The camera holder for the home made snuff film jiggled the camera gently as they adjusted the focus.

"Just wait for it." Gerald said with a hard swallow.

Slowly the corpse roused and two gray hands slapped themselves to the ground like he would pull himself into a push-up. Twisting and turning, the corpse did its best to rearrange itself into a more suitable position, but a large spike became apparent. Running through the intestine and sticking into the blood soaked concrete below, the head with a broken and mangled neck started to turn itself towards the camera. Jason whimpered and looked to his master with hope of being spared the image, but David stared ahead. What once held the man's eyes were gored sockets with two large nails driven into his skull. The bleeding fingers of the corpse who had tried to claw their way out of the basement while living slapped against his own face, and through the flesh his bone could be seen.

Shining blue runes etched themselves into his facial spikes and wrapped around the attachments. As the red face looked into the camera, it opened its mouth as if it could still scream for help, but inside were ring after ring of teeth. With a slow and shambling movement, it lifted its arm before the tape cut out.

Jason didn't mean to, but his legs ran dripping with liquid as his body shook. "Apprentice! You're approaching your final test in only a year, will you still be wetting yourself and your robes by then?" Davids words cut into his core.

"No Sir." Jason said quietly, tears running down his rosy cheeks and hitting his shirt. Gerald looked horrified at the young boy's face and stepped forward to David with a stern point.

"Go clean yourself up while Gerald and I talk." He ordered.

Jason nodded and grabbed for the doorknob, and the minute he shut the door, yelling began.

***

"Jason are you okay?" Kai shook him diligently to wake him. His strong features towered over Jason who was covered in sweat. "You did it again man. It's okay. I'll make tea."

Jason could only nod at his tall and dark roommate whose muscles and faint tattoos could be seen under his tight shirt. "Thanks."

Hearing Kai step down the stairs, he pulled back the covers and checked his bed for a spot. "You cant baby him all his life." Miles quipped at Kai through the walls.

"Take it easy. He's not like you." Kai set the kettle and as the clatter of it began, Jason slid on his clothes for the day. From a scrawny child to a thin and lanky adult, Jason was pale beyond compare, and his eyes shone with dark green and heavy bags wrapping around under them. His nails were still bleeding from the last time he chewed them, and his body was frail with bruises from his last mission still wrapped around his back.

"Hey Kai!" Jason called as he slipped on pants and a belt. Waiting for his roommate to bound back up, he pointed to his own back. "Do you mind man?"

"Sure, kid. Sit down and try to relax." Kai always had a warm smile. His ebony compared to Jason as he sat behind him made Jason see himself as a white painted wall. Pressing his two palms to Jason's back, he heard a familiar psalm begin leaking from Kai's lips and a warm sensation spread over him.

"Hey, you ever do this to chicks?" Jason asked.

"Heal women? Why would I heal a woman?" Kai chuckled warmly.

"That's not what I mean. When you heal it's all warm and nice. Do you ever like to give massages with your magic?" Jason smiled as the warmth sunk deeper.

"It's the divine, don't call it what it is with your words." Jason muttered an apology but Kai shook it off. "I had this girl back in Chicago, Riley. She was crazy, but it's always the crazy ones who have exactly what you like. I used to give her these massages after we were done. I can still smell the lotion on her skin. She used to tell me it was like nothing she ever felt." Kai and Jason laughed together and Kai removed his hands from Jason's back. "You gotta be safer."

"I just don't like hurting people." Jason mumbled.

"Next time someone comes at you with a baseball bat I'm gonna assume you know it's okay to defend yourself." Kai slapped him gently. "C'mon. Come get breakfast, we got work to do." Kai said, standing and walking out of the room.

Jason sighed and nodded, slipping on a dark t-shirt and eyeing his packed room. In the center was a large altar, adorned with various charms and ritual items, and next to it was a wall completely covered in bookshelves stacked to the ceiling in magical texts. His bed was pushed into a corner, and like every morning he spent as David's apprentice, he pulled the covers back and remade it tidily. Slipping on his socks, he looked at himself in the mirror one last time before he descended the carpeted stairs and greeted his other house mates. "Hey guys."

Miles didn't look up from his morning paper. Despite the internet age he hadn't stopped ordering the paper and made a habit of refusing to interact as long as he was still reading. Miles had jet black hair while Jason's was a delicate and thick blond with curls running through it if it got too long. Miles had a formal button down, khakis, and a pair of decently formal shoes. Ariana sat across the counter munching granola and she lifted a hand to wave. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her shirt was low cut with enough showing to make Jason avert his eyes. Her golden skirt had sparkles woven into it, either by magic or mundane methods. Ariana was always brash and bold, but today she seemed tired and slow to talk. Pouring himself cereal, Jason sat down at the counter and munched the dry rice based hunks with a foggy mind.

Kai set a steaming mug of tea in front of Jason who nodded a thank you. Miles folded his paper and let out a sigh before lifting his mug of coffee and downing it. Ariana's bracelets clinked gently as she munched, her dark red nails shining in the sunlight creeping into their home.

The large six bedroom house had been assigned to them for the last two years as they operated as a group, but with all of their space they still mostly existed in the kitchen together and parted ways when they weren't on missions. Kai volunteered at a local shelter when he wasn't slinging coffee for a small coffee house, while Miles worked five days a week at a bank, his hands constantly checking and rechecking money.

Jason had a quiet office job as an accountant, his mind humming with numbers and excel sheets most days. "What's our work guys?" He said excitedly.

"Kill a man." Ariana said flatly.

"It's not a man and you know it." Miles snapped.

"Kill a thing." She corrected.

Kai smiled at his teammates and joined them at the counter. "We have two leeches, a drop off, and a peace talk."

Ariana groaned. "I'm so tired of hearing the Second Light cabal whine about their problems."

"Garrett is doing the drop off and the peace talks." Kai folded his arms. "We got the leeches."

In a basement room, Garrett was a mess of wires and humming devices at all hours. His techno magic had him up all hours, and Jason suspected he didn't sleep at all last night to do the 10am peace talks. He was a programmer and hacker who got recruited into the Mercurial Elite when he broke into one of their batches of data they leave around to test new potential recruits.

"Are we bringing the kid?" Jason asked nervously and watched as his roommates exchanged hesitant glances. "He is an adult."

"Garret's sort of an adult, if he could stop pissing unfiltered mountain dew for five minutes he'd be a great guy." Ariana smiled into her food but Kai held up a hand.

"Not him. Derrick. He's sixteen, that's not an adult in my book." Kai said sternly.

"Derrick is more than capable of defending himself." Miles shot back.

"Have you ever considered asking the kid yourself? Maybe see what he wants to do?" Ariana sat up with a fierce look in her eye and stared down the three of them.

The tension was awkward as they waited for the next person to throw in, but as they sat it out, eyes slowly turned to Jason. "Don't look at me!" They all raised their eyebrows and waited. "...I say...we take him. He's a fighter and he can hold his own. Besides, Ariana is right. We can't protect him from danger forever."

"He deserves a normal life man." Kai sighed.

"He lost it the minute he awakened." Miles grumbled.

The four sat silently with remorse for a minute before Kai clapped his hands together. "I'll go wake him up." Leaving the room he headed down the hall and knocked gently on the kids door. "Hey Derrick...you wanna come on a mission?"

Slowly the door opened and a teenage boy with sandy blond hair poked his head out. For his age, he was overwhelmingly muscular. Derrick compulsively worked out to cope with his PTSD, his body scarred and mangled from his years with his father. "You mean it? You're not tricking me into going out for food again?"

"If you eat breakfast you can come with. Official business, I promise." The boy opened the door to his room that reflected his feral lifestyle. He had a mattress, a backpack and various school materials strewn about, and a small stack of books he stole from a library. Kai did his best not to mention the room's state but waited as the kid slid on a shirt. Seeing him emerge from the hallway, the others greeted him warmly, but Jason bit his lip.

In their first year, Derrick was found in an old hotel on the roof where his Dad had left him for five years. The boy was eighty pounds when they took him home, fed him, and realized he was one of the awakened. The boy had been brought up in the Akashayana, a group of warrior monks who train like demons, and were known for mentorships that got some of their people killed. No one really knew what he had been through, but after forged papers and fights and schools, Derrick had been enrolled in therapy through The Order of Nine Traditions. "I was told there was breakfast?" He mumbled nervously. His hands gripped and flexed when he was anxious, his completely scarred over knuckles popping as he adjusted to the room.

"Yeah! I'll throw some eggs on." Miles seemed to only tolerate most of the group at best, but he had a soft spot for kids. Cracking a few eggs into a pan he seasoned them lightly as he smiled back at Derrick.

"Thanks." Derrick mumbled and took a seat at the counter. "So...what's the work?"

"Murder." Ariana again threw out the words flatly. To her, every life was sacred. Her order of ecstasy seeking occultists and ravers never put much space between humans and vampires.

"Cool." The boy smiled for the first time in a while.

Kai thought for a while, his brows furrowed and his arms still folded. Catholics didn't have any knowledge of vampires, but he could imagine what they would say. Despite that, Kai saw the best in people every time he could. He saw the lonely and scared Derrick, the hurt and brilliant Jason, the adventurous and rebellious Ariana, and even had a few soft feelings for Miles. Miles and Garrett had stayed their distance from Kai when they didn't need healing, the buddhist Chakravnti preacher that Miles embodied clashing consistently with the Celestial Chorus proselytizing that Kai had. "As long as he's hurting someone, he's gotta go."

"If you praise the lord right now I'll spit in your eggs." Miles joked.

"Didn't do your morning meditation? You seem grumpy." Kai added, curious how far their playful teasing could go.

"Easy boys. Save the blood for the mission." Ariana smiled at them.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Derrick added.

"Sure little man, what's going on?" Ariana offered her hand as a sign of peace in her tradition.

"Why do you keep working together? I thought this was a temporary thing for...politics." The boy seemed uncomfortable.

Ariana looked to Jason who recited the decree from memory. "As the order of nine traditions has seen success from each of your members, it pleases us to keep your cabal, and now family together."

"Family?" Derrick looked puzzled.

"That's you. We adopted you. Technically on all the paperwork, Kai is your Dad." Ariana smiled at him.

"Who's my fake mom?" Derrick snorted.

"It's Jason." She watched as the kid looked at him with wide eyes before she laughed. "Sorry, you're stuck with me."

"That's...weird." Derrick thought as he clicked his tongue. Miles slid the cooked eggs to a plate and passed it to Derrick with a smile.

"Eat up. We have leeches to kill." Miles pulled out his phone and texted Garrett to update him on the situation.

When his plate was clear, the five of them gathered into two cars and drove across the wind swept city of Denver until they arrived at a run down house with the windows boarded up. Jason grabbed his supplies and started painting the corners of the house in runes, muttering and chanting as he then covered the front door in a large symbol. Splitting into two teams the group covered the front door and the back. "Ritual is good to go." Jason whispered to Kai.

"Ready?" Kai whispered to Jason and Derrick who nodded. Signaling Ariana with a whistle, the back door was swiftly kicked in by Miles who drew his pistol on the vampire sitting at the couch. Kai flung open the front door and cleared the corners of the room as they held the vampire at gunpoint.

"Who the fuck are you?" The leech asked with a gruff voice. He looked to be in his thirties.

"Shut your mouth." Miles cocked his pistol as they piled into the house and shut the doors as best they could into the now broken frames.

"We got a door here." Kai whispered. Grabbing the knob as quietly as he could he slowly turned the handle. From out of the dark that the door had hid another man came leaping out and wrapped his arms around Derrick. Shouts were overlapping as Ariana lifted her hands to channel her magic. Kai and Miles repeatedly shouted orders at the hairy man with his arms around Derrick.

The vampire holding him hostage looked from person to person as he inched closer to his partner who stood and drew a knife. "Don't do anything stupid now or I'll drink this little shit dry." Derrick began to struggle and kick against his grip but it was no use. "Think they're hunters?" The man holding Derrick said to his partners.

"Why would they bring the kid, and what's with the weird hand motions?" He pointed to Ariana.

"Fuck it. I'll deal with the backlash." Ariana slit her finger on the edge of her knife and began her chanting. As the others looked at her, it appeared as though she disappeared in a blink, but her movement quickly blurred towards the vampire faster than anyone could react. The leech started to pull back but the speed of her enhanced movement was more than enough to overpower him. As though she had teleported, she jammed the end of her knife into the leeches eye. He let out a scream and punched Derrick in the back of the head. Throwing the boy forward, he turned to face the time wielding mage.

His muscles tensed and soon the two were fighting faster than anyone could see. Jumping towards Derrick, the vampire with the knife bared his fangs just long enough that they were within an inch of the boy's neck before the bang went off. Everyone but the two speed manipulating combatants froze as the one leaping for Derrick hit the ground in rage, his chest bearing a large and blacked hole from the bullet.

Kai stepped forward, squeezing the trigger six more times as he put round after round into the man's chest, reaching him finally and pressing the muzzle to his face. With one final squeeze a burst of flame seemed to come from the muzzle but it quickly consumed the man. His bones appeared under his flaming skin, and with a puff, his body melted into a pile of ash and bones. Derrick turned around and let out a roar as he struck, his fist finding the knee of his previous attacker who let out a scream and appeared visible with a bloody bone poking through the flesh. "You fucking little child!"

Miles stepped in and gripped the jagged bone, yanking and twisting as he pulled on it. A bloody cry rang out from the beast as he slashed at Miles, the knife slicing right through his chest. "Miles!" Kai screamed, running to pick him up. Jason picked up the gun Kai had dropped and held it shakily at his target.

Gripping it tighter, he shook with fear. Derrick pulled his fist back and landed another blow into the vampire's spine, and the crunch of vertebrae smashing filled the room. Ariana struck his throat with the side of her fist and yelled for Jason. "Shoot him!"

Jason shut his eyes and squeezed the trigger. "You mother fucker!" Ariana screamed, her shoulder gushing blood as she covered it. The leech started a deep belly laugh at her wound, but as he reached towards the free meal, he felt a deep and ripping tear at the base of his spine. Derrick stood with a knife embedded deep into the man's flesh, his hands pulling as he screamed to cut further. With a wide eyed look of panic, he dropped to the ground. Kai pulled a stake from Miles's belt and threw it to Derrick who drove it into his heart through his back. With that, the man hit the floor, paralyzed.

Kai finished his prayer over Miles and headed for Ariana who had sunk to her knees panting and groaning. "Oh fuck Kai." She shifted to relax on her side as she covered the wound with her hand.

"It's okay! You're gonna be just fine. Breathe for me." Her shaky body settled into the shock as she waited for the healer to begin.

Jason stood shaking still with the gun in his hands while Derrick delivered another hard kick to the vampire on the ground. Miles stood and panted, his chest now healed into a large scab running across his chest. "It's okay Jason. Gimme the gun." Jason muttered more apologies as he shook harder. "Hey Jason, look at me." Jason looked up with a pale face. "It's okay, it's me. We all make mistakes." Holding out the weapon he still shook with his hands out as it was taken from him. Miles nodded and holstered it, walking back to Kai. "How's she doing?"

"Gimme time man. Take the freak into the basement okay?" Miles nodded and grabbed the vampire by an arm as he started to drag him down the basement stairs. Following behind him, Jason and Derrick walked down the concrete steps as the floor stained with blood. Propping him up against the wall, Miles sighed and sat down. "Did you do the noise thing?"