Curse of the Fallen - 11. Chapter Eleven: Story Time

Chapter Eleven: Story Time

Telling the others about their Talents was not as difficult as it was with the twins. Dane had some physical Talent. He might not know how to use it but it could manifest itself instinctively if he ever got in a jam.

When cattle started going missing five years ago Dane had lassoed a group of his men and hunted down the rustlers. When he found a group of rebel members of the Coven eating his cattle alive he called in the rangers. What he got instead were true members of the Coven. They were a team of Hunters, men trained to deal with those who dare go against the Master.

Dane didn’t trust them but they carried badges and seemed professional enough. Having always been the suspicious sort he trailed them to an abandoned pumping station.

Through his binoculars he saw the Hunters round up the rebels. Once they had them lined up in a row they tapped them twice in the head.

Killing the cow thieves didn’t bother Dane too much. What happened next did. The Hunters tied ropes around the dead’s ankles, slit their throats and strung them up. They showered themselves in the streams of blood that dripped out.

He admitted he should have hightailed it right out of their but found himself frozen where he lay watching. It was when they began to feed on the drained flesh that he pissed himself.

When two of them headed in his direction it dawned on him that they had known he had been watching the entire time. They were now coming for him to do to him what they had done with the others.

To this day Dane doesn’t remember how he got away. Looking back he remembered them grabbing him by the throat and kissing him with their blood stained lips. Everything went black and the next thing he knew he was in his truck driving back to the main house. Half his clothes were missing and his body was caked with dirt and blood.

When he got back home he went to the guest house. No one was using it so he could stay there and get himself cleaned up before anyone could see his present state. By morning he went about his business as if nothing had happened. But from that moment forward he rarely slept alone. Any time he did find himself alone in bed, the nightmares would come back and he would wet the bed.

When no one came looking for the so called Texas Rangers he began to believe maybe nobody would. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months. When a year had passed he dare to think that would be the end of it. The whole time he never once attempted to go back to the pumping station to try to figure out what had happened.

Then a year and a half later a rich woman came knocking. She claimed she was lost but one didn’t end up in the Badlands just by making a wrong turn. She seemed charming enough and she was defiantly pretty but underneath it all there was a coldness to her.

Once again he got the feeling something wasn’t right so when she started acting a little too familiar he ordered her off his property. She left willingly enough… too willingly to be honest. She would be back and next time she would leave her charming smile behind.

Terrified what would happen when she returned Dane drove to San Antonio and flew to Los Angeles. He’d never been there but from what he knew of the place was larger than any city he visited before. With plenty of money from his businesses he set himself up as a southern dandy. His fear of being alone led to daily trysts with the best hookers oil money could buy. None of it was fulfilling but at least he didn’t piss on himself at night with a woman in his bed.

It was in his search of sex that he started hearing rumors of a man known as the Graft. Supposedly you could sign long term contracts that would force whoever he signed with to remain with him until it expired. The prices people spoke of was more than his Orange County mansion but he needed someone who would not leave him when he wept through the night.

Finally, after countless bribes he got someone to invite him to one of the Graft’s parties. When he arrived he had expected to be greeted by bare breasted woman, but throughout the party he only saw finely dressed men.

Either he had never known a part of him was of the gay persuasion or something that night had changed him, but he found he actually kind of enjoyed the flattery of the other young men and rich millionaires. It took a little thinking but Dane found out why everyone was flirting with him. Most of those there were assuming that he was part of the entertainment.

Finding the tables had turned on him without him planning on it he loosened up and appreciated the moment for what it was. He received all sorts of offers. Some were for sex. Others just wanted his company. Some even asked what it would cost for a more long term arrangement.

He replied coyly to each offer, suggesting he was interested but not yet willing to commit. By the end of the night he found himself pocketing a gold, diamond jeweled pocket watch.

Before he knew it he received more invitations. It then became an issue as to which soiree he would attend. As the months passed he gained a reputation of a straight man curious to tip his toe in a gay love affair.

He never worried about having a dull time nor the net worth of the gifts they were showering him with. It was his fear of what he might become once he crossed the line in having sex with another man.

After six weeks of turning down every proposal someone whom he could not turn away came for him. That man was the Graft. No one could take up the trade without him learning about it and he was curious as to why a man like Dane would bother pretending he was for sale.

Without much digging the Graft found all the information he needed and not much of it he liked. While it was common for the wealthy Untalented to seek the company of his men just as it was common for young members of the Elected to offer themselves up for the sake of political influence. He knew of only a few cases where someone with Dane’s wealth tempt Talented and Untalented alike with his wares. He had never heard of one who resisted in sealing the deal.

Curious, he dug deeper and found things he would rather not have known. Crossing the path of the Coven and walking away unmarked was one thing. To cross that of the Order as well and walking away with your life marked Dane as an exceedingly dangerous man to hang around.

But the Graft being the Graft, he couldn’t stop himself from meddling. Wanting to know more he sent the only man other than Aaron who could draw Dane into his web… Ryan Harper.

Since Greg Balthazar had left the Lakes School for the Gifted the two were seen together less and less often. Gordon didn’t know what led to the change in the relationship between the two but knew better than to ask. As long and Dr. Balthazar continued to make payments on their contract then the nature of their relationship was none of his business.

Ryan, his best Untalented escort, was given funds to pose as a millionaire playboy out to enjoy the interactions between the Untalented and Elected much like Dane was. As no one had much luck at seducing the cowboy Ryan took a different approach.

It took a lot of planning and perfect timing but the staged fight between him and another one of the Graft’s men led to an all-out brawl. Whether Dane had wanted to get involved didn’t prevent him from letting his fists fly. When on cue the Graft’s security guards arrived Ryan grabbed Dane and escaped. From then on the two were inseparable.

With both of them supposedly banned from the scene, Ryan had no problem talking Dane into visiting the less polished parts of the world of the Elected. With his years as Chief Liaison of Chicago he knew the scene very well. He went from taking him to the shady underground duels to the death, the drug dens where the use of all forms of illicit substances were combined with the mind altering use of empathic and mental Talent. There were the sex houses, freak shows, and night clubs that only a man like Ryan could get Dane into.

Most of them were places were well known to the Graft and in some cases he was the proprietor. One club that Ryan took him to was not on the proscribed list, the Butcher’s Den. If the Graft ever learned that his trusted servant was taking Dane to the Coven he would have ripped him apart.

Located deep beneath what had once been the old Chicago Union Stockyards, the Butcher’s Den had been carving up chunks of human flesh since before the city was founded. It had been the first Coven west of the Mississippi and had been led by none other than the Master.

When Landon had been made Chosen of North America, control of the den fell to him. When he first went to inspect it he was disgusted with what he saw. The butcher’s den still sold human flesh by the pound but its glory days were long gone. Instead of meat taken from fresh victims it sold the half maggot eaten remains of corpses they bought from families too poor to afford a proper burial and from the city morgues. The once polished marble walls had been blackened by over a century’s worth of splattered blood. It stank worse than a sludge pit, and was more diseased than an isolation ward. The only customers present were the perverted and the insane.

The first decision Landon made was to send all those present to the den’s meat grinder. He shut it down for three years while his people cleansed it of decades of filth. In its place he set up a large bakery that became famous for its meat pies and red velvet cake. It still served the same purpose of converting the unknowing into servants of the Coven but at least it would be done in a more civilized environ.

If the Graft had known that Ryan had joined the Coven and that he planned for Dane to do the same he would have killed them both. While Ryan had been showing Dane the sights Gordon had been digging deeper into Dane’s past. If he thought Dane’s run in with the Coven was bad enough what facts he learned about Dane’s ancestry haunted him in his sleep.

According to what little his people were able to discover no one knew what had set Dane off. When Ryan sent out an emergency call to his fellow Liaisons the strike force found everyone but Ryan was dead and the shop torn apart. With so many body parts scattered throughout the building they could only guess as to how many had been killed. Ryan claimed he had no memory as to what exactly happened or what he had been doing at the Coven stronghold. On top of his amnesia he never once brought Dane up. In the final report Ryan sent to the Council the deaths were blamed on the actions of an unnamed rival of the Chicago Chosen. With inter-factional violence on the upswing the report was accepted without question by everyone but not the Graft.

The Graft had a good idea as to the nature of Dane’s subconscious Talent, both its usefulness and its dangers. When he finally tracked Dane he offered him his protection. In return Dane was expected to give him his loyalty and free access to all his assets and wealth. If he did as he was asked, Gordon would throw in a bonus… he would introduce him to the one person he knew who could help him with his condition, Mr. Mays.

As Aaron held Dane’s hands from across the table he didn’t sense any of the common forms of Talent. The closest he could point to was physical but if it was it was in a form he had never come across.

“So tell me the bad new… am I a Talent or ain’t I?” Dane asked after Aaron hadn’t given him a response.

Aaron sat back in his chair and shook his head. “I really can’t say one way or another.” When he attempted to pull his hands back Dane grabbed him. “

I’m sure if we put our two heads together we’ll be able to figure it out.” While Dane’s grip was as hard as steel his words were as sweet as sugar.

Aaron jerked his hands free. He didn’t know if it was his own weak empathic Talent or a subconscious use of the Talent by Dane but he felt a rush of feral hunger run through him. He looked from Dane to the Graft. The Graft’s left brow was arched as if surprised by Aaron’s reaction. Dane also looked surprised but his gaze was more predatory.

Too disturbed ask what was going on, Aaron moved on to Blair. Once their hands touched Aaron knew he was dealing with a subconscious empath. The man was a player who had left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. The bisexual didn’t care if his target was a man or a woman, money and power were the only two aphrodisiacs he needed to get himself hard.

That explained his success as a corporate lawyer. With his ability to sway the emotions of a jury he had never lost a case and had never had a deal go sour. As an independent contractor he moved wherever his money took him.

Blair always knew he was special, that he followed a more generous set of rules compared to his compatriots. His exceptionalism however left him feeling unchallenged. Given Blair could get his way with almost anyone he often found himself becoming bored by countless empty relationships.

Then he met Talia. From what little he knew of her at the time she was an up and coming lawyer from an old money family. With their shared ambitious nature and Talia playing hard to get Blair became obsessed.

It took three months just to get her to share a cup of coffee with him, another two to talk her into having lunch. After a year and without a single date he agreed to give up his freewheeling life as an independent contractor and work for her father.

Once Blair was where she wanted him she took to completely ignoring him. She wouldn’t take his calls, or even say hello to him in the hall. It was as if he no longer existed.

Instead of finding it off putting Blair committed himself to work ten times harder in the office to attract her attention. He went days without sleep, living off protein bars and Red Bull. No longer seeing himself having time for his old friends he became a recluse outside of work.

While it didn’t seem to be paying off in his romantic life the Balthazar Conglomerate profited greatly from his efforts. He had become their attack dog. Whatever company they unleashed him on was forced to sell itself for a fraction of its worth. Those that resisted were driven out of business letting the Balthazars buy what parts they wanted during when the company went through liquidation.

In the process of making billions for his bosses, Blair made plenty of enemies. None were more dangerous than those members of the Coven whose lives he ruined. While he didn’t see it the members of the Elected would have seen the pattern. Every company the Balthazars sent him out to destroy was either owned or did business with companies belonging to members of the Elected whose family’s had allied with the Coven.

That didn’t mean the Balthazars left him unprotected. Their agents followed him everywhere and he was under constant mental surveillance by the Order’s most powerful Talents. What protected him most was his assumed status as an Untalented. Given the rules and customs in regards with the Elected, interfering in the world of the Untalented the Coven couldn’t act to eliminate him without drawing the attention of the Council. The assassinating the Untalented employees of the Elected families would also draw the attention of the mundane authorities and risk the public finding out of the existence of the secret society.

The existence of a race of super humans with the ability to control the minds, emotions, and bodies of the more mundane might trigger mass hysteria and a worldwide witch hunt of the Talented. One day in the future, when the Elected controlled the world, hiding their existence would no longer be necessary but that day was not yet in sight.

The only way Blair’s enemies could have him killed without suspicion was to have another Untalented do it for them. For a race of men capable of controlling the minds of other one would assume that shouldn’t be a major problem, however there was a major one. The Untalented sent to kill Blair could not show any signs of having been mentally or emotionally tampered. If the Balthazars were to find such evidence they could turn to the Council for compensation. That usually took the form of being allowed to kill a vital Untalented servant of the guilty party.

Luckily for the Coven, Blair had destroyed the lives of so many people there was no shortage of people who would want to see him dead. They just needed to find a way of slipping past his bodyguards.

In this case the Coven cheated. Several years ago there had been an attempt against the Graft’s life. Whoever wanted the Graft and his guests dead, had used mutated Nulls, Talents who had the ability to cancel out the abilities of other Talents.

With the aid of the Chicago Chosen the Graft and his people managed to escape. In the process the Coven managed to capture several of the mutated Nulls.

Through years of research and genetic experimentation the Chosen’s scientists restored the Nulls some semblance of their former humanity. It was one of these Nulls that the Coven sent to deal with Blair’s bodyguards.

Ironies of ironies the attempt was made while Blair was enjoying the Graft’s company. That had not been Landon’s doing but was due to the actions of another of the Coven’s Chosen. If Landon had known of it he certainly wouldn’t have signed off on it.

The Graft, having been left emotionally scarred by the assassination attempt had gone to extreme efforts to protect himself against another attempt. One such precaution had been a genetic modification that allowed him to sense an approaching Null from over a hundred yards away.

Once he caught the scent of the approaching assassin the Graft went into a berserk paranoid rage. He tracked and tore the Null apart with his bare hands. He didn’t know if he or his guest and been the assassin’s target. Wanting to get to the bottom of things the Graft sent for his best mind scanners. It took a little neural roughing up but the Graft’s men found all the ways Blair had been tampered with. It had Talia’s fingerprints all over it.

While Gordon didn’t know who had sent the Nulls the Graft was not the sort to let an opportunity slip by. Just as Blair had ruthlessly increased the wealth and power of the Balthazars the Graft saw no reason why he couldn’t use the poor fool in the same fashion.

So under the guise of a romantic vacation he took Blair to his new secret retreat and had his people deprogram him. As a secondary precaution the Graft had him genetically modified to make further attempts at controlling Blair significantly harder.

Once Blair realized how he had been used he swore to have his revenge. At first he wanted to go back to the office and kill Talia but Gordon managed to talk him into taking a more subtle approach.

Under his tutelage and further grafting he helped Blair master his abilities of persuasion. As for Talia, once word of the assassination attempt reached her she knew better than to interfere. The Graft had claimed him. As everyone knows… what the Graft has he keeps.

When Aaron let go of his hands he sat back in his chair and shook his head in disbelief. At one point he had been engaged to Talia. While it was never his intent to marry her he could not help but feel relieved he hadn’t. Everyone had warned him she was dangerous. He now knew why. “It seems we both dodged a bullet.”

“How so?” Blair asked.

Aaron shared parts but not all of his dealings with the Balthazars. The main part he left out was how close he had Andrew had once been.

When he finished, some of Blair’s cocky attitude melted away. “Yeah… we both seemed to have lucked out of that one. I hope you don’t mind me saying but did you ever sleep with her?”

“No…”

“Good. I would hate to think you got further than I did.” He said half in jest.

There was another long period of silence.