Canticles of the Prophet Zachariah:
Happy New Year
Notes by Anthony
“As I drank in the memories, my arms shifted from restraining Birthday to cradling him in my lap. In return, he relaxed into my chest, neck languidly stretched to meet my teeth. I fed until the hunger receded and the visions faded. The Beast wasn’t full, but the offering had satisfied it. I imagined it curling up and purring somewhere deep inside my belly. I pulled my teeth free and licked the wound closed. Birthday didn’t move, and I saw he had been staked as I fed. Neither of us had felt it, too lost in the shared dream.
“Gwen, Asa, Ben, and Rose stood before me. My…coterie, I supposed. Gwen held a bloody rib in her hands. Walter’s, I assumed. I’m glad I missed that grisly affair. She said that Walter had known George. He would know where George had been. Gwen turned back to the corpse and began pulling his organs into a bag. I looked away and tried not to listen to the squelching.
“Gwen asked what we knew of Four. I confessed that I had fucked up and likely sent him to the Radio Station. Asa called him a “Caesar haircut-looking fuck” and said he was a middle-aged white man with brown hair and trenchcoat. With that information, Gwen ordered Prentiss to the radio tower to watch for Four and follow him for the rest of the night.
“Asa asked if Gwen trusted Prentiss to not murder or harm anyone while she was out. Asa hadn’t seen Prentiss’s haven, but I’d told him some. Gwen said Prentiss might need to drink from the “well of life,” but no humans would be harmed. That had to be enough. Rose told us the graveyard was safe due to Nana’s obscuring Fire, but once any of us left, we would be exposed.
“Gwen walked up to me. She looked far less angry than I had expected. She said she wanted to “run an experiment” and called a ghoul over. I felt ashamed I did not remember his name as she drew a knife and sliced deep into his arm. Blood dripped into a vial she held below. She offered me the vial, and it took an embarrassingly little amount of convincing for me to drink it.
“Memories flooded into my head. He’d spent much of his childhood training and studying in a loggia by the countryside. That’s like, a big house with an interior courtyard? Anyway, he’d been raised communally, and every adult he knew drank the Blood as a vampire or a ghoul. They weren’t called that, though. Everyone was a cousin or aunt or uncle. Then he was an adult, and it was time for him to prove himself. He’d had to kill, though whether his victim was another family member, or some stranger, I couldn’t tell. He’d witnessed the spirit of his kill rising as a grey-green wraith from the body. It called for him to “repent!” but I could feel no remorse in the man. He’d fulfilled his duty to the family. He had earned his Proxy Kiss. I remembered thrice drinking the blood of an elder Giovanni kindred, one he had never met before or nor seen again. But his loyalty to any one individual was irrelevant. He was family, now. And family was everything.
“I awoke with blood on my lips and Birthday still motionless in my arms. Faraway songs echoed in the quiet graveyard. Club and rock & roll, metal and country. I could even hear a fiddle playing live Irish music. Manassas was a small backwater, sure, but it was alive. Alive with dancing and – and drunken laughter and cars honking and babies crying and people clinking glasses and the whizz and pop of a firework as someone started celebrating far too early. I wanted to be with them. I’ve been a vampire for a month, and it feels like a lifetime. There is so much responsibility on me, listeners. So many people I have to care for and protect. Who need me to be The Prophet and The Gateway of Gehenna and Malkav’s Voice and DJ and a Sire and – and I needed a break. I couldn’t be like the Giovanni, so focused on duty that I forgot how to be human.
“I looked up and into the worried expressions of Ben, Rose, and Asa. I tried to smile. It worked, I think. I told them I wanted to celebrate New Years. We were in Manassas. We needed to feed. George was likely far away, and Prentiss could warn us if Four got too close. And we’d been on the run and fighting for so long – didn’t we deserve a night to be ourselves and party?
“Rose laughed and said she wanted to “get drunk and high and waste away the hours.” Asa and Ben looked nervous, but I think they needed time away from the Temple, too. Cedric said that people would be unruly tonight, but he could stay in Manassas until we were ready to leave. Comet was eager to get out of the graveyard and do something exciting. Gwen shrugged and left in a car with her ghouls. She was determined to interrogate Walter as soon as possible.
“But first, our uninvited party crasher. Rose pulled the stake from Birthday’s chest and apologized for hurting him. This was his domain, and we hadn’t known. We were in the wrong, and none of us were going to hurt him now. Birthday reached a long, trembling arm out to shake, and she did. Asa introduced himself and apologized for mistaking him for someone else. We were just trying to survive, and we’d thought he was an agent of the man we met in the graveyard.
“My turn to introduce myself. It felt good to do so, listeners. Like turning the frequency dial from static to an old, familiar channel. I helped Birthday to his feet and smiled. “Hello! I’m Zachary aka DJ Zachariah aka DJ the Prophet, fledgling Malkavian and former host on WRXL 102.1 FM, home of the hottest alternative this side of the Potomac.” Birthday looked astonished and grinned. Turns out, dear listeners, Birthday is one of you! He’s a fan of the show, and he even wanted my autograph! Listeners, when I tell you I was walking on cloud nine to hear those words.
“You see, so far everyone I’ve met has been all “Prophet this” and “Gateway of Gehenna that” and “eww no Malkavians allowed,” but Birthday knew me! He’d even heard my last broadcast, the one where I shared my vision of the Antediluvians and Caine, not that I had any clue who they were then. Birthday told me he’d always thought the visions were just a fun gimmick for late-night entertainment. And honestly, until my visions literally came to bite me in the neck, I also thought they were just my crazy brain spewing nonsense. But the Malkavians had heard the truth in my dreams and Embraced me, and now we were on a mission to stop the apocalypse.
“After realizing that the scary group of invading vampires were just a schlubby nighttime radio host and his long-suffering friends, Birthday relaxed a little. He told us of his Manassas coterie, including a Clanless one I hadn’t seen in his dreams named Breyed. I also learned that the Toreador’s name was Letitia. We arranged for our coteries to meet in a week. We were going to be new neighbors and stay a while, but we’d try to minimize our…footprint on the city. Rose offered to bring something shiny for Catrina, since Birthday said she liked sparkly things.
“Rose told Birthday that we were looking to celebrate New Years Eve in Manassas. Not cause a scene or a fuss – just have a night out on the town. I got the feeling this wasn’t necessarily a request he could say “no” too. Despite our friendliness, we were much, much more powerful than anyone else in town. Birthday offered a few places – an old Irish bar, a biker bar, a fancy country club, a New Orleans-style restaurant, and a dance club called “The Crossroads Tavern.” Birthday almost winced as he said the name, but he seemed too proud of it to leave it off the list. It was Alexander and Letitia’s new club, just opened late last year.
“Ben said he hadn’t been to a dance club aside from Desirée’s Euphonia, and that sealed the deal. I wanted to give him something new. Something good. A joyful memory, so Ben can see that life after death is more than just pain and struggle and loss. Ben has carried me through the darkness these past few weeks, listeners. I need to do the same for him.
“We said our goodbyes and drove under Cedric’s Obfuscation to the Crossroads Tavern, where Cedric and Comet excused themselves to the quieter Irish bar next door. The rest of us: Ben, Rose, Asa, and myself got in line for the Tavern. Rose and Asa got in easily, but the bouncer gave Ben and I the stink eye. Apparently, band t-shirts and jeans jackets aren’t going to be the fashion in 1995. Fortunately, Rose convinced him to let us in. She didn’t use her powers, as far as I could see. Just a case of a strong man listening to a very tall and attractive lady tell him what to do.
“Back at the ranch, Gwen summoned Walter. Or Wally, as everyone had called him. Much, much later, Gwen told us what she learned. George had approached Wally on the street and told him to wear a necklace. Wally knew it was strange, but at the time it seemed the most rational thing in the world to obey. George then cut Wally’s neck and then blew mist into his face. Wally followed George to a fancy apartment in Downtown Manassas. There, Wally had stood against the wall for days, unable to move or speak. He hadn’t been given anything to eat and he’d…George made him stand in his own waste for days.
“All Wally could do was watch and listen. There was lots of “security shit” in the apartment: cameras, motion detectors, and locks on the doors and windows. George was scribbling “weird shit on the walls” and brought people to the apartment to “eat them.” George would speak into a large bowl of blood on the dining room table, using different voices and faces. Gwen asked Wally if George had referred to any “Numbers.” Turns out, George had been telling the people in the blood bowl that they “didn’t need to send Number Four. Number Three is doing just fine” with the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Well, listeners, it didn’t take much for Gwen to put together than George might have diablerized one of his own Numbers, especially if they’d tried to take over his case. The “case” being yours truly, of course.
“Speaking of, Gwen learned one more thing from Wally. Something that sent her speeding from the Temple and back to Manassas with a truck full of armed ghouls. You see, Manassas isn’t that big. Downtown is a few square blocks. And George’s fancy apartment was right across from a large, newly renovated three-story building with shiny white paint. One that played dance music and had the words “The Crossroads Tavern” emblazoned in black across the front. And all of George’s targets had just paraded themselves right in front of his haven and into a club full of happy, drunk, and utterly helpless humans. Just like little vampire lambs to the slaughter.”