Just a bit from a scene that takes place in present day earth.  I like Irene.  She's got Razeal and Sevrin pegged and won't let anything slip by her.  In this scene we introduce Mind Shifting, which will be explained as Razeal  and Sevrin continue to search their past for answers to the problems they are facing in the present.  I hope you enjoy. 

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Scene 1

 THE PRESENT…

Razeal was pulled from his tortured sleep by the sound of a snippety, feminine voice.  Despite the tone, he preferred to hear that voice rather than experience the haunting dreams of a time long ago in a place he had hoped had been long forgotten. 

He shook himself upon the realization of what waited for him when opening his eyes.  Maybe if he just kept his eyes closed, he might get away with…but no, it was not to be.

“Nice to know the damn bastard thinks of me enough to inform me when his lover is coming back into town.  Damn it, Sev, I could have been there to greet you.”

“I think Raz and I needed some time to ourselves, Irene.”  Sevrin’s smooth and calm voice counterbalanced the ripping high-pitch anger in Irene’s.

Irene Shannon was a witch who was nothing if not passionate in her feelings.   Because of her empathic ability, her Irish temperament and the fact that she was an Aries, sometimes she simply had to vent away the uneven energies that assailed her from those undisciplined minds of an unknowing public, and her friends became the victims of the fall-out, such as now.  

“Maybe so, but look what happened as a result; your passion’s got the better of both of you, and I could have helped by setting a sealing barrier around this place.”

“That would not have kept this creature at bay, Irene. Trust me.”

Creature.

Shit.

Then it wasn’t a dream, and the lingering lethargy plus the damnable headache were not the result of drinking himself into oblivion the night before.  He groaned.

“Oh, looky there, the master doth awaken,” Irene said.

Razeal raised a finger at her, not a kind one either.

“Oh, isn’t that a lovely greeting from someone who is supposed to contact his business partner when things go haywire.”

Razeal ignored her.  “Sevrin, what the hell happened?”

The question was rhetorical, for he already knew what happened, so Sevrin didn’t go into an explanation.  For Irene’s sake, the less she knew the better. 

Sevrin helped him to sit up, offering him a tumbler of some medicinal concoction probably used for hangovers.  One of Irene’s remedies no doubt.  If the condition didn’t kill you, it was a sure bet her herbal craft works would at least make you wish you were dead.  Still, he couldn’t fault her, because ninety-nine point nine percent of the time they worked.

He held his nose and gulped the contents down, surprising himself and the others by not retching it back up again.

“Irene, what the fuck are you doing here, anyway?” he asked, making a face in her direction.  The flavor of the remedy made him wish the Gods had been more merciful in their creation of medicinal herbs.  Cooking herbs were always good, why not the ones made to make you feel better?

Irene ignored the ill-mannered greeting as it came from Razeal, and Razeal would never put on airs in front of a woman who could feel those airs with just a flick of her thoughts.  “Hampton’s watcher, Thea, called me under his instructions, said Sevrin had come back.  Course the minion waited until a half hour ago to deliver the message, by then the damage had already been done.  And with the damn barrier you two placed over yourselves, I would never have known about it had I not come by this morning.”

“Thea probably followed Hampton’s instructions to the letter,” Razeal argued.  “He probably wanted to give Sevrin and me a chance to bond.  The vampire just got a gold star in my opinion.”

Sevrin smirked.  “Letting us have time to ourselves is not worthy of him getting a gold star, Raz.”

“You kidding me?” Irene balked.  “Do you know Hampton at all?”

Sevrin shrugged.  “So he did a decent thing, big deal.”

“Big deal.”  Irene shook her head, and her dark auburn curls swished over her blue cashmere sweater.  “For Hampton, knowing how he feels about Razeal, giving you boys time to fuck the night away was no doubt like sticking a wooden stake into his black heart.  Trust me, for him it was a big deal.”

“Doubt he felt it, since he probably slept through most of it,” Sevrin replied under his breath.  Ever the logical one.

“So, then, what do we do about what happened?” Razeal groaned.  The medicine was taking effect, but his head still felt as though it were stuck in a vice.

“You have to report it,” Irene suggested.  “Garen will want to know what’s going on.”

Sevrin took the now empty tumbler from Razeal’s hand and gave it back to Irene.  “Garen won’t know what to do with this one.”

Irene, her beautiful high cheek-boned face showing disdain, simply crossed her arms over her ample breasts.  “Be that as it may the Guild Rules specifically state that any disturbance within this realm must be reported in order to give those that may be affected sufficient warning in order to put together a plan.”

Razeal looked at her as though she was crazy.  “What do you do in your spare time?  Memorize the handbook from start to finish?”

Irene scoffed.  “Ha, ha...ha.”

Sevrin ignored their exchange as he finished getting dressed.  “The damn thing eats mages, Irene,” he informed, “at least their souls and magick.” 

“Exactly my point.  More mages may very well be this creature’s next target if they are not prepared, and then you two will be held responsible for withholding information.”

Razeal lifted his blood-shot eyes to Sevrin who was buttoning up a black shirt.  “She’s right, Sev.  We can’t keep this a secret.  It’s found us.”

“Then we do the next best thing.”

“Which is?”

“We leave.”

“Leave.”  Razeal stared at him as though he had gone mad.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“You think running away from this thing is going to keep it from attacking the others?”

“It won’t touch them.  It wants us.”

Irene tapped her chin, and cast a raised eyebrow at Sevrin, her mouth drawn into a grim line.  “Hmmm, look up the word ‘arrogant’ in the dictionary and you just may find your face plastered next to it, O Great Blond God.”

Sevrin shook his head.  “Joke if you will, Renie, but this creature is something Razeal and I have faced before.”

“And it almost destroyed us,” Razeal reminded.

Sevrin shrugged.  “Different time, different world.  Maybe this time will be different.”

“This last attack felt worse, Sev.”

Sevrin sat on the bed and pulled on his black biker boots.  “Then what do you suggest we do?”

“Wait a minute,” Razeal turned thoughtful.  “Hampton said something about ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’”

“So?”

“Maybe he knows about this creature.  Maybe he was trying to tell us we can ally with him against this thing.”

“Hampton is not a mage,” Sevrin argued.

“No, but he is immortal.  And his soul…”

“What soul?” Irene scoffed.

Razeal rolled his eyes at the blatant insult.  “Exactly my point.  His soul is unlike those of other immortals.  That may be the necessary ace we need to trap this thing and kill it once and for all.  Hopefully this thing won’t detect Hampton, and if Hampton is offering his help, it may be that he knows something.”

Sevrin stood and went to where Razeal’s clothes hung strewn over the nearest chair.  He tossed them to his lover.  “I don’t like it,” he said.  “I don’t want to involve anyone else in this battle.  Even someone I don’t like, especially when that someone may want us in his debt.”

“Well Hampton’s motives are neither here nor there, for the moment,” Irene quipped, “as the Guild is already involved.”  She looked into the tumbler and grinned.  “Empty.  Perfect.”

“What do you mean?” Razeal asked.

“I put a spell on a little electronic tracking device that Harold made for me.  You just drank it down.”

Sevrin slumped.  “Damn it, Irene!”

“Hey, don’t ‘damn it, Irene’ me!”  She tossed the mug to Sevrin and threw up her hands.  “That’s what you get for trying to push us out.  Don’t think Garen didn’t suspect your reaction to informing us of this.  She’s able to stay three steps ahead of us, including you two.  If this damned thing followed you boys here, then you’ve endangered all of us.  I, personally, do not want to wind up dead at the hands of something I know nothing about.  So, you either pull us into this fight, or we keep tabs on you like hunters looking for their tags.  It’s your choice.”

Sevrin tossed the mug to the bed beside Razeal, throwing up his hands in defeat.  “You can be one conniving bitch, Irene.”

“And you can be one self-centered asshole, Sevrin.”

Razeal shrugged.  “She’s got you there, lover.”

Sevrin pointed a very determined finger at him.  “You’re not helping!”

“Hey!  Chill!  As much as the thought might appeal to us, it’s not like we could actually keep this from the Guild.  Besides, doesn’t she remind you of someone?”

Still naked, Razeal stood and walked up to Irene who remained unfazed as always when it came to Razeal’s lack of inhibitions.  He put his arm around the witch.  “She’s our ally and we need all the help we can get to make sure our goal is achieved this time.”

Sevrin scratched his forehead.  “I don’t want anyone getting killed because of us.”

“You’re forgetting one simple rule of warfare,” Irene ground out.  “If we fight we may stand a better chance at surviving.  You take away our ability to fight and we may end up targets.  Wanna be our mommy and make decisions for us, Sevrin?” She patted Razeal’s flat and bronzed abdomen.  “The Guild will track you with or without your consent.”

“Wait, how did you come up with this idea to track us if you didn’t even know about what we’re up against?” Razeal looked at her skeptically.

She put her hands on her hips and made a ‘tsk’ sound.  “I’m a witch,” she said, shrugging.

Razeal let out a weary sigh.  “Then why are you complaining as to why we didn’t tell you anything about last night, huh?  I mean you being a witch and all, you could have determined all of this on your own.”

“Sweetheart, I didn’t know what was going down, like I said.  Your barriers are very well constructed.  I only knew it had to do with you guys, and Hampton’s messenger seemed very convincing in telling us to keep our eyes on you both.  I put the tracking device idea into motion just in case.  It’ll stay in your stomach until I remove the spell.”  She reached up and tugged Razeal’s ear.  “Why do you think you didn’t retch up my potion?”

Razeal shrugged.  “Honestly?  I thought it was because you were starting to learn how to cook.”

She jabbed him in the side, and then pulled away, grabbing her purse from the kitchen table.  “Remember, boys, we’ll know where you’re going at all times.  So, don’t try to give us the slip.  The device is also charged with my energies, so anything happens to you, I’ll be able to feel it and move in.”

She headed for the door, waving at them as she left.  “Toodles!” she called out over her shoulder as the door slammed shut behind her.

Sevrin shook his head at Razeal.  “She’s your friend, Raz.  Couldn’t you have picked one with a little less upstairs?”  He pointed to his head.

Razeal threw up his hands.  “The Guild wanted in.  And what the Guild wants…”

Sevrin groaned, “The Guild gets.  Let’s hope it’s not biting off more than it can digest at a time.”

Razeal rubbed his stomach, belching and making a face.  “Please, don’t mention anything that has to do with the digestive tract right now.”  He started getting dressed; then suddenly stopped.  “Wait a minute.  Did she offer you any of her potion?”

Sevrin arched a brow.  “Yeah, but I was on my feet and working out the bugs by the time she arrived.”

“So you refused the drink?”

“Yeah.”

Razeal grinned.  “Then that means you didn’t take in a tracking device.”

Sevrin grinned with him.  “She’s not as smart as she thought.”

Razeal sagged.  “No, wait, she is.”

“You mean she got me another way?”

“Or she didn’t get you at all, meaning she intended for only me to be tracked.”

“Why just you?”

“Maybe to give us an out should the Guild put a stranglehold on us.  You know how they operate.”

Sevrin bit his bottom lip.  “Yeah,” he sighed.  “Yeah, you’re right, of course, which means Irene just…”

“Just nothing,” Razeal warned.  “We know nothing, we saw nothing, we heard nothing.  Irene makes her own decisions on how she operates, Guild notwithstanding.”

Sevrin threw up his hands in surrender; then cast Razeal a curious gaze.

“What is it?”  Razeal pulled his T-shirt over his head and rolled it down his body like a sheet of water rippling down his abs.
Sevrin was momentarily transfixed by the movement.  When was the last time he had seen Razeal wash his long black hair under a waterfall?  Too damn long.  Partly his fault for leaving him behind these last two years.  Well, it was time to make up for that.

He lifted his eyes, studying Razeal carefully.

Razeal furrowed his brow, clearly uncertain what Sevrin was doing.  “Why are

you looking at me like that?”

Sevrin walked up to Razeal, easing his hands up to cup his lover’s face.  He

leaned in and placed a gentle kiss to Razeal’s lips.

“What was that for?” Razeal whispered, uncertain, but pleasantly surprised at the same time.

He looked none the worse after their encounter with the creature, but that was only what Sevrin could see on the outside.

Razeal’s mind had been attacked.  Sevrin had felt it while trapped within the creature’s grip.  He had fought desperately to reach his lover’s mind, to connect with him, to form the Sygog union that would have proven a formidable weapon of defense, but something had built a wall between them during the attack—something cold and filled with a suffocating darkness.

Razeal had fallen into it for a few seconds, been engulfed by it.  His mind had been lost to Sevrin during that moment, and it had been the most frightening moment of Sevrin’s life.  He needed to be certain Razeal was whole, not some shell of what he had once been.  “I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered his fear, his voice barely audible.

Razeal understood, then, what Sevrin needed.  “I’m fine,” he assured.

Sevrin traced a finger down Razeal’s cheek.  “You weren’t fine after the creature attacked.”

Razeal closed his eyes and leaned into Sevrin’s touch.  “I was sort of reeling from the attack, and if I’m not mistaken you didn’t look too good yourself.”

“I’m fine, aside from sore muscles and a headache.”

“And that’s all I’m suffering.  Still, we weren’t able to connect like we normally can.  Did you feel that?”

“Yes.  I felt it.  Scared the shit out of me.”

Razeal kissed him tenderly, taking his hands into his own and pressing their brows together.  “What’s scaring the shit out of me now is that we didn’t fight off the creature this time.  This time it could have taken both of us, but it didn’t.  Why?”

Sevrin let out a slow and agonized breath.  “I think we’re going to have to talk to Hampton.”

Razeal tensed.  “Yeah,” he reluctantly agreed.  “The vamp knows something.”

“And if his watcher went to Irene…”

Razeal finished the thought, “Then those two may be trying to do all they can without interfering with Guild protocols.”

“We could just be speculating about that,” Sevrin prompted.    “Hampton seems the type to always have ulterior motives.”

“Well, that is true, he always does.”  Razeal eased his hands to Sevrin’s buttocks and gripped them, pulling his lover closer to where their hips and groins touched.  

Sevrin gave in to the invitation and kissed him again...and again...and again.

Razeal closed his eyes and laid his head on Sevrin’s shoulder.  “Hampton or no Hampton, something is telling me I better get back into mind shifting if we’re going to find out more than we know.”

“Can I help?” Sevrin offered.

Razeal pulled his head up and raked his eyes over his lover’s form, dressed in his tight black jeans and clinging black dress shirt.  “Yeah, you can stop looking so fuckin’ good.  You’re going to prove a distraction to me.”