The Delacours: Part Deux

one.

I played with the ring on my left hand, spinning it around, trying to put how badly I wanted to see my partners and son back home out of my mind. The air in England smelled so different from Massachusetts and I was getting anxious waiting for the car to pick us up from the airport. Anna came back from the bathroom; I gave her a side glance.

"You've got a little..." I said, rubbing my chin.

"Oh! Thanks, Liz," she said, wiping her chin clean, embarrassed that it wasn't clean. The car pulled up to the curb. A woman in a suit stepped out, opened the door for us to get in and closed it behind us when we got comfortable. She grabbed our bags and put them in the trunk.

'Hey, we just landed. Love you!' I texted my wife. She replied with a picture of her, one of our husbands, and our son in bed. Her dark red hair now sported a thin white streak next to her left temple. I smiled. Anna looked over my shoulder and I showed it to her.

"Where's Chris?" she asked.

"At my office. The New York Sheriff needed advice on how to deal with a rogue vampire."

"How is everyone else? How's the married life?"

"We're not actually married, Anna. But it's nice having something to make me think of them while I'm away." I touched my ring again.

"What is 'actually married'? As far as I'm concerned, you're just as married to them as I was to George. More so, if anything, because you four love each other. I married you four as your Magister, so I'm not sure how that differs from a justice of the peace marrying humans." I nodded and put my phone back into my pocket. "When we meet up with Alphonse, he's going to want to get right down to it. He's all work."

"What exactly am I even doing here, Anna? I thought you said this was a meeting for Magisters?"

"It is."

"Please don't tell me this is you initiating me into a Magister. It was bad enough being duped when I became a Lieutenant." She chuckled.

"No, I don't plan on stepping down anytime soon. Not anymore. I just thought that you should start having a working relationship with the other Magisters as well as the Imperator. You hardly even associate with the other Sheriffs. You know that the New York Sheriff's name is Jason, right?" I didn't. "You are a great Sheriff, but you need to start working with the others better. Also, Alphonse would like to speak with you about something. He personally requested that I bring you with me."

"I'm not moving back to England."

"I already spoke to him with that. I need you as my Sheriff in Massachusetts. Just exchange a few words with him. I don't want to make this trip any longer than it needs to be." We arrived in Winchester – there were a lot of large medieval buildings and castles, one of which barely stood. Anna thanked the driver and she told us that she would take our bags to the hotel and we could collect them later. We walked towards the destroyed castle where I saw a sign that said "Wolvesey Castle" in the distance. When we reached what was left of the entrance, a tall black man in a suit led us towards a hidden stairwell and underground to a meeting hall. There were thirteen chairs set up around a table. At the other end of the room was a tiny older man in a sweater. He didn't have much hair and what was there was all white.

"Alphonse! Good to see you!" Anna said, throwing her arms around him.

"Anna!" That's Alphonse? I thought to myself. He reciprocated her hug.