Cabal of the Phoenix (8 of 8)

Temptation

The lights from the television flickered over Sebastian's sleeping face, sporadically sending colors and flashes dancing over his sleeping features, slumped as he was on the sofa. The room was otherwise dark and no one else was around. He had not known where anyone was and at the time he had not cared. He had just needed to unwind and get some rest.

The TV suddenly clicked off and the room was silent except for Sebastian's broken breathing, which caught and paused, as he was aware of the change that had taken place, yet he was still confused enough in his semi-awake state, to not realize exactly when it had changed: it could have been minutes or hours.

He felt the sofa resonate with the force of another person sitting down and his eyes snapped open, his body instinctively pulling away from potential danger.

"Who's dere?" Sebastian asked, his voice raspier than normal.

"It's me," a soft, feminine voice answered. He knew immediately it was not Lotus; it took him only a few more seconds to realize that it was not Siren. That left only Lee. "Don't worry, I won't bite," Lee said, letting the words hang.

Sebastian was silent, trying to guess what exactly was happening while his eyes adjusted to the darkness. She seemed willing to accommodate him and was silent also. Having just awoken and still a little off guard, Sebastian did not think to use Correspondence to let him see, but rather waited—like any Sleeper would have—to see in the dark. Sebastian's heart beat a little quicker than it should have and the man who would have stared down an elder vampire without missing a beat found himself uncomfortable in this unknown situation. When his eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings, he could start to see that she was sitting on the other end of the couch, her legs curled up in front of her, clasped by her surrounding arms.

"You always shun da light, girl?" Sebastian asked.

"When I came in, the lights were all turned off," Lee said.

"Funny, Ah don' 'member sittin' in a dark room."

"Well the TV was flashing, but I turned it off."

"Hunh," Sebastian grunted.

"I just wanted to talk to you," Lee said.

"'Bout?" Sebastian asked.

"Anything, everything."

"Two o' my fav'rites," Sebastian said.

"I was wondering what made you tick, actually," Lee said, looking intently over her knees.

"Well, well. Come right ta da point, doncha?" Sebastian said.

Lee nodded. "Yes."

"Dis could take awhile."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Ah don' even know if Ah got de answers," Sebastian said, looking upward, avoiding Lee’s gaze.

"Start me off with what you do know," Lee said. The young Orphan mage had a penetrating charisma that was almost impossible to shake off, and Sebastian was only beginning to understand that facet of her. What he did not know, or perhaps was afraid of, was if she really just wanted to talk, or if by entwining him irresistibly with words, if it was all just a prelude to something else. Either way, he was prepared to deal with it. Sebastian was quite a charmer in his own right and knew the tricks and inlays of manipulative conversation and gesture. He was confident he could hold his own.

"Okay,” he said. “Where’d y'all wan' me ta start?"

"How about the beginning." Even as she said it, even though visibility was nil, she could sense his suspicious glare. "Listen, I'm really interested in you. In particular because you're an Orphan, like me. But you’re not like me. You found something. You've been somewhere that I haven't; you understand something I don't. You believe in something and you fight for it. Me? I'm just here. Ever since I found I could read people's thoughts and emotions, I've been in this for kicks, for adrenaline rushes. That kinda thing. I've hung out with Cortland, Damon, Nathan, and Carr, for years now. Yet I've never found any of their philosophies appealing. What I want to know, is what makes you think you're so special that you can start your own craft?"

Sebastian laughed.

"What?" Lee asked, cocking her head.

"Anyone can start deir own craft. Makin' it a Tradition's da hard part."

Lee's eyes widened. "A Tradition?"

"Uh-huh," Sebastian nodded.

"But there's only one per magickal sphere, that's the way the Tradition Council works."

"So dey say; yet rumors persist a da Hollow Ones gettin' a seat, an’ dey don’ have no sphere."

"I didn't think they wanted one," Lee said. “Goth-punk, cynicism, cobwebs, counter-culture and all that.”

"So dey say," Sebastian said, a slight smirk escaping his lips.

"What do you mean?"

"Dey don' always say what dey mean."

"Who does?" she added, a gleam catching her eye from a light outside the room.

Sebastian shrugged. He could smell her from where he was sitting; he did not know if it was her natural aroma, her perfume, or his magickal senses picking up on something else altogether, but there was something sweet in the air, but yet not sweet, almost bitter: the mix was sensual and intriguing at the same time. Or maybe she was just messing with his head.

"Regardless,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “Right now it can only be done in one o' two ways."

"Bump out one of the current Traditions?"

"It's been done befo', but only not in dat order. When de Arabic mages known as the Ahl-i-Batin abdicated da seat of Correspondence, da Virtual Adepts claimed it. Most of us here got some proficiency at Entropy, so de tought had occurred ta me to take out da Euthanatos, since dey’re completely worthless, but dat may be a bit difficult—not to mention dangerous—wipin’ out a clan of assassins. Besides, de rest of de Traditions wouldn't like dat. The Euthanatos, for good or bad, have been around since de beginnin'. But, Ah do have another plan."

"The other way?" Lee asked.

"Uh-huh."

"But the only other way would be—"

"To create our own sphere of magick,” Sebastian said.

"Whoa."

For a moment, Lee just stared at Sebastian. Now it was he who would just wait for her to clear her head. Mages believed that there were many things about reality that were more malleable than the mundane knew, yet even mages recognized constraints on their power and behavior, and were not accustomed to thinking outside those expanded borders. Yet for over a year, Sebastian had not believed even in those borders: he just had not found a way around them yet.

"Have you found it?" Lee asked quietly, almost reverently.

"Ah tought so. But apparently Ahwas wrong. Ah did a lotta research, I consulted . . . ancients . . . and I experimented. Ah really tought I had it, but every time Ah tried—notin'." As he spoke, a faint life, a distant fire, burned in his eyes, a light, a life, which died as he finished speaking.

Lee swung her feet to the floor and repositioned herself, staring at the floor. After a moment, she looked up. "So now what?"

"Ah don' know. Ah keep searchin'."

"Hunh." Still staring at him, she squinted for a moment before talking. "How did you get there? What made you do all this? What made you want more than any other Orphan?"

"Ah don't tink Ah wanted anytin' more den any other Orphan wanted. Ahjus' found de answers dat many of you ain't found yet. Dat's what I want ta do more den anyting: tell de others da answers to the puzzles Ah've encountered. If dey don' wanna listen or believe, dat's dere choice. But Ah want to at least have da chance ta stand up and be heard." He paused. "It don' look too likely right now, dough."

Sebastian looked away from Lee as she again patiently waited for him. He studied anything he could see in the dark room, just to buy a few seconds to recoup his thoughts and ponder on where to continue.

"Maybe it ain't practical ta tell you everting, but Ah can tell you who Ah used to be, and at least part a what made me who Ah am now. When I came outta New Orleans, Ah didn't care 'bout notin' but havin' a good time; Ah was what dey called a bon vivant. Ah was quite a conniver, too; Ah could get anytin' by openin' mah mouth. Ah see a lotta dat in you," he said.

Lee smiled.

"Den all o' reality crashed down on me like fallin' harsh from a bad acid trip. Ah'd been called inta Rochester—dat is, in New York—by mah cousin Katrina, who as far as Ah knew, was my only livin' relative. Ah got caught up wit her cabal dere, a bunch a crazy, if typical, Tradition mages. She was wit da Order of Hermes. You know, dose stuffy, archaic, classical wizard types. Only she wasn’t too much like dat. Dere was also a Virtual Adept, an Akashic Brother, and a Euthanatoi. Well we got into dis crazy battle versus some ancient vampire, one of de Tzimice clan, name a Malevelous. Before we was done, we met up wit a Dreamspeaker, an ancient Brujah, an' her 500 year-old ghoul, a werewolf, an' two others I was never quite sure who dey were, one was named Anthony, I think. Well, here's what happen. When we got inta da tunnels' underneath da city, an' start encounterin' molified creatures—"

"Wait, what?" Lee interrupted him.

"The Tzimice have a power called Vicissitude, which is similar to our Life magick, in dat dey can change da features of any individual or animal. So we run into all dese weird freaks, an' some Black Spirals too (dat be da evil werewolves). As tinkin' become necessary an' not jus' fightin', my cousin’s team fell apart. Individual passions 'came more 'portant den da mission. Den because o' da fightin' and incoherency, we ran smack into incompetence, which led ta Katrina's death."

Sebastian paused for a moment, catching his breath. "Den an' dere, sometin' inside me snapped and Ah took charge. Dose dat followed, followed, dose dat didn't, didn't. Dat left me, Jess (da werewolf), Rebecca, (the Brujah elder), and da two others Ah weren’t sure who was; dat ghoul woulda followed I bet, but he was dead already. De other mages just argued tactics an' all dat.

"Dat night we won. We did more than jus' have fun wit our powers. We defeated de forces a evil dat no one else coulda or woulda stopped. It was den dat Ah realized a few important tings. One: not only did Ah not belong in any Tradition, but, but dey all had big flaws. Two: I could create my own Tradition meant ta fix, help, or lead da others, even if only trough example. And tree: working wit' other supernatural creatures was not only mutually beneficial, but highly intelligent, an' needed to be immediately re-prioritized."

Lee sat, rapt, inspired by Sebastian's tale of coming; yet Sebastian himself developed a grimmer and grimmer visage, as the cold memories left him feeling empty and angry, and more than anything else, frustrated.

"What did you do after that mission?" she asked, her eyes bright in the dark room.

"Ah set off wit a buncha friends, underground Streetfighters all a dem. We traveled west. As dey fought, Ah tought. Ah researched. Ah took all a mah savin's an' bought a top a de line laptop computer. Ah got access to da internet. Ah read, Ah learned, Ah tought. Ah came up wit de problems wit de other Traditions, Ah transcended—or so Ah tought—deir limits, creating my own philosophies, creating de start of what I called de Harbingers of Equitransumation. Yet look where we are now. Jus' me."

"Those Streetfighters are now your students?" Lee asked.

Sebastian shrugged. "Yeah. Not dat Ah've seen dem much lately. Dey just don' seem interested anymo'. I don' get it."

"The dark-haired one's your girlfriend?" Lee said, seeming to stare right through Sebastian.

"Uh-huh."

"That's too bad."

Sebastian coughed out a short laugh. "Why y'all say dat?"

Lee inched closer. "I don't know. I find you fascinating."

"How so?" Sebastian asked softly.

"You've just told me about some of your history. I've heard other bits elsewhere—"

Sebastian's eyebrows raised at that.

"—and I've actually read some of your philosophies that were laying around for your students. I can feel your emotions. You’re a very captivating person. Captivating others with your drive, your energy, your intelligence, as well as physically. You are beautiful, graceful—"

"Wait one minute, Lee—"

Lee continued to inch closer to Sebastian on the sofa. "She never pays any attention to you; she doesn't care about what you believe in.” She stared right into his eyes. “I do."

Lee put her hand on Sebastian's chest and leaned into him, even as he inched away.

"How many times have you done dis?" Sebastian asked softly.

"What do you mean?" she asked huskily, softly, moving closer.

"Your teammates. How many have you had? Is dis some kinda game? You lookin’ ta conquer?"

“Aren’t you suspicious?” Lee asked with a smile.

“Shouldn’t Ah be?” Sebastian asked.

Lee did not move her hand away from his chest, but shrugged. "Carr was all too eager. Nathan was caught by surprise and regretted being so easy later. Damon was the first to know me in any way, but since his brother's death, hasn't been so happy. And Cortland never has and never will. Is that what you wanted to know?”

Sebastian said nothing.

“Does it really make any difference?" Lee asked. "If you want a litany of sexual exploits I can make a list,” she said, moving her face close to his. "I can get anyone, is that what you want to hear? I didn’t think so,” she said as Sebastian remained silent. “Let's not talk about that anymore. I’m here with you. You’re the one I want."

Already close, Lee kissed Sebastian. At first his lips only shuddered under her touch and he did not respond. Then he could not help it; he returned the kiss. He could feel her tingles of magick, soft empathy linking them both and drawing them closer. Sebastian did not know if he had ever felt so good, even with the Ecstatics he had known back home. They continued to kiss, and their hands began to rove, taking them closer and closer to an irreversible precipice.

Suddenly, Sebastian pulled away and jumped up from the couch, pushing Lee away and walking out of the room. Lee sat back in rapt shock, not understanding what had just happened: not sure if she should feel disappointed, hurt, or impressed. As she thought about it, she absently rubbed her lips with her fingers, smiling. Sebastian, meanwhile, just disappeared into the dark of the house, wondering who he really was.