Powder Witch & Company

Every time Harris went out to St Mary's cemetery the roads seemed more ragged. Not pothole-ridden so much as disintegrating with age. The cemetery itself was in only slightly better condition. The concrete walls holding the bank back from the narrow road into the cemetery had been recently repaired and parts of the road stripped for a future project.

Devon's little home and shop was tucked away at the end of a spur that ran along the front of the cemetery, to a copse of trees that surrounded and shaded the building. Harris pulled to a stop in front of the stone work, grabbing the small cooler that sat in the foot well next to him, and walked up to the door.

No one answered when Harris knocked, but he could hear the radio blasting out old hard bass. 'Ah, a potion day.' He tried the doorknob, and it turned freely, so Harris stepped inside.

"Devon?" Harris called, and shut the door behind him. "Are you free? Or should I come back later?"

The music cut down to a more reasonable level, and Devon walked out of a curtained off area on the left side of the building. He was wearing safety goggles, a mask, and gloves, but just his usual apron over his clothes. "Harry!" He said, smiling. "You timed this well." Devon pulled off his goggles, apron, and mask, hanging them on a hook by the curtain and dropping the gloves in the trash. "I've got about an hour before I have to go check on those again. What can I do for you?"

Harris held up the cooler. "I ran into something strange on my last hunt. A kind of werewolf spider thing, or at least I think it was a werewolf."

"A what!?" Devon looked at him, mystified. "You're gonna have to give me a bit more than 'werewolf-spider', Har."

"Here," Harris dug out his camera, "I took photos after the fight."

"Ok?" Devon took the camera and flipped through the photos. The look on his face went from curious, to horrified, to astounded. "Did its head look more like a dog or a human? I really can't tell from just the remains of its lower jaw."

"Its head looked like a dog's, and it looked like a dog before it transformed. Some kind of lab mix, I think," Harris said.

"Hm..." Devon crossed his arms. "Weird for the kinds of wolves I've come across. Can I see the cooler?"

Harris handed over the cooler, and followed Devon back to a door on the right side of the building. It opened to a larger room that acted as a mini mortuary and forensics lab. Devon set the cooler on the lab table and opened it.

"You didn't bring me much to work with," Devon grumbled. He pulled a pair of gloves out of a box on the wall and put them on before pulling out the samples.

"I got knocked around too much to drag the whole thing back," Harris said. "These were all the sample containers I had with me at the time."

Devon shot him a look. "And you couldn't go back for it later?"

"Tried to," Harris insisted. "But it was gone before I got back. All of it."

"Great..." Devon sighed. "Poachers or wild animals?" He opened a sample of blood and poured a few drops onto a microscope slide.

"Neither, as far as I could tell," Harris said. He leaned up against the wall by the door. "My footprints from the night before were still there, as was the blood. Granted it was dark...either way, it's gone now."

"Interesting," Devon muttered. He was focused on the microscope, adjusting the lens slightly.

"What is it?"

"I'd have to run some tests to be sure," Devon pulled away from the microscope and snatched a sample of muscle tissue, "but this doesn't look like any form of lycanthropy. Its cell structure is all wrong."

"Really!" Harris walked over to the lab table. "Any idea what it is?"

"Not from this," Devon said. "I'll need to call Adrian, see if this compares to anything she's seen." He hummed in thought. "Oh! Harry, could you double check the time for me?"

Harris dug out his phone. "It's quarter after 7," he said, and froze. A chill ran down his neck.

"Hm?"

"Shit," Harris stuffed his phone back in his pocket. "I have to get going, call me when you have an answer?"

Devon stared at him blankly for a second, before, "Oh, right! His new show open tonight, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Harris couldn't hide the soft smile on his face. "Are you planning to go?"

"Well not tonight, obviously!" Devon waved a hand over the samples and out to the door. "But I should be free tomorrow."

"Then maybe I'll see you tomorrow," Harris said, nodding. "Bye, Dev." He walked out of the morgue.

"See you, Harry," Devon called out before the door shut.

From the outside, the theater looked to be a fairly plain building, only remarkable for it's location on Grandview Avenue. Sparsely decorated concrete walls broken by simple square columns and a set of double doors on either end of the building. The entryway had a lavish faux roman appearance, with crystal chandeliers and gold trim, all left over from the restaurant that used to own the site.

Harris walked up the short ramp to the lounge area. A bar and small dining area were tucked into the right side of the building, where a handful of people were milling about, waiting for the show to start. To the left was the ticket counter, partially obscured by a small queue of people making their way to the end of the line before breaking off for the bar or heading deeper into the building.

The queue moved swiftly, and within a few minutes Harris was standing at the counter.

"Oh hey, Mr. Harris!" The man behind the glass beamed at him. Alec? Or was it Avery?, Harris couldn't remember, one of the new hires that had apparently been around long enough to recognize him.

"Hi," Harris said.

"Here, I'm supposed to give this to you," Aaron (AJ?) said. He grabbed something from under his desk, and set a familiar blue pass on the counter. "You know the way up?"

"I do," Harris said, grabbing the pass. "Thanks."

As he squeezed his way out of the crowd and past the ticket counter he overheard someone shout, "Hey, what's this about 'taking your life force'?"

Further in, the theater carried the roman styling and paired it with victorian wrought iron to form the area around the main stage. Harris walked up a flight of fake marble stairs, his box was at the end of the hall, closest to the stage.

A few people had arrived before him, some of the casts' family, local organizers, and a pair of men in expensive looking suits. Harris found an empty seat and waited for the show to start.

Soon, the lights dimmed, and the band started their overture. A pair of actors stepped out onto the stage to give the usual safety reminders, and warnings against flash photography, before darting back behind the curtain.

The show properly opened on an angelic figure arguing with a booming voice from the sky. As the fight went on, the music grew tense, then sharp, before the angel's wings were broken and they were knocked down into a hole in the stage. The lights and music cut, then slowly built up to reveal the stage had been rearranged to resemble a factory.

The workers moved to the rhythm of the song, akin to a heartbeat, across scaffolding that stretched from the stage floor almost to the ceiling. Pouring and shaping liquid metal, or rather backlit colored water, into towering molds and machinery. They almost moved in sync, with one or another moving too far or too slowly compared to their neighbors, until one stumbled and fell to the floor.

The two closest to their fallen friend jumped down from the scaffolding to help them up. While the others on the line tried to keep the flow. But, before they could reach the ladder, another figure walked on stage. He was a burly character, taller than the workers on the line, and carrying a whip at his side. The overseer of the factory.

The overseer bolted over. He grabbed the smallest of the three, who was still unconscious, and hurled them across the factory floor to the shriek of the brass and a crash of cymbals. Then turned and laid into the other two with his whip.

Up on the scaffolds, another worker grabbed one of the sledge hammers, and jumped. Smoke shot up from the edge of the stage and a loud crunching sound reverberated around the theater. The smoke slowly cleared and there in the center of it was Mei, holding up a stained sledge hammer.

Mei was gorgeous, his usually shifting appearance settled into something lean to fit the role. Harris was sure he was missing lines, he was so distracted.

From there the play continued into a stylized retelling of the revolt against the last king of Thedra. Mei, as the golden general, led the haphazard army, first to an alliance with the strays of the city, led by a prominent thief, and then to siege the local lord's castle. The thief, familiar with this lord's habits, made contact with friends on the inside, a gladiator and a dancer. Between them, they turned all but a few of the inhabitants of the castle against the lord.

With one city secured the rebellion spread, culminating in the fight outside the king's palace.

High above the stage, the key actors on both sides of the battle bounded between towering props with the help of wires and aerial silks. Mei, in gilded boots and a glimmering skirt, danced around the set, keeping pace with the king's general in deep blues at the heart of the battle. While below, the band climbed out of the pit, carrying all but the heaviest of their instruments to join the extras in battle.

The battle ended with the king's forces defeated and scattered, and with the golden general on his last breath. Before his passing, the general charged the thief and his friends with deposing the king.

The thief pressed their advantage, and within minutes, and a scene change, the trio reached the king's inner sanctum.

The angel turned from the window overlooking the battlefield and held up their sword as the thief, gladiator, and dancer fell upon them. They juggled and whirled the angel around the stage, music clashing and tense, before trapping them in the rubble of the battlefield. The dancer lunged at the angel, stabbing them through the chest and knocking them behind the prop. She leaned over his body and, after a wet snap, lifted up the angel's severed head for all to see.

The curtains closed, as cheers and applause drowned out the end of the song. The lights slowly brightened, and the curtains reopened for the actors to take a bow, and for the angel's actor to hold up their prop head.

Mei looked up and caught Harris' eye. He flicked his gaze over to stage right then back to Harris, raising an eyebrow. Harris smiled back at him, then stood and left the box, followed by the other cast's family members.

Stage right was closest to the green room, where the actors retired to after the final curtain call. Harris walked in to the actors and stagehands flopped down on chairs and couches, ducking into changing rooms, or chatting with family and guests.

Mei stepped out of one of the changing rooms, now in jeans and a tank top, with his more typical fluid features hanging around blond hair and brown skin. He brushed his long hair out of his face, and pinned it with a clip.

"Mei!" Harris squeezed his way out of the crowd to get to the incubus. Where he was immediately pulled off the ground, into a hug.

"Harry," Mei whispered and kissed him.

Harris wrapped his arms around Mei's neck and melted into the kiss. Only pulling back, eventually, for air.

"So," Mei asked, resting his forehead against Harris'. "What did you think?"

"Spectacular!" Harris cheered, grinning wide. "But you know I have to ask."

"No, I wasn't involved in this one," Mei said. He gently set Harris back on the floor and took hold of his hand. "This was centuries before I was born. But cultures can take a while to shift, especially when stubborn demons are involved."

"Hah," Harris grumbled bitterly. "So unfortunately true."

They made their way out of the greenroom, slowly working through the crowd. Mei hummed, and curled over Harris' side. He was practically vibrating.

"Sooooo, what did you think of my costume?" Mei asked.

"I'm impressed," Harris said. "You got it working the way you wanted in time."

"Yes!" Mei had a wide grin on his face. "I ended up needing Sherry's help wiring the power supply, but it worked! And it lasted the whole show!"

Harris chuckled. "You're pretty hyper. Was it a good meal?"

"Did you hear the way they gasped when General Karick died?" Mei grinned wide, showing off his fanged smile. "I could run on that moment alone for the next week!"

"And you've got a bunch more shows this month to drink it in," Harris said.

Mei sighed. "But then it's back to the grindstone," he said. "I think the next ones going to be a fairy tale."

They walked out through the lounge, where a surprisingly heated, but familiar, discussion had taken over. What did the lead actor look like? The loudest voice of tonight's discussion seemed to favor red hair and paint-gold skin, but another camp, equally vocal, insisted on black hair and sun bronzed skin.

Mei led Harris to the office tucked away in the front of the building, shutting the door behind them as the discussion picked up again. Mei slumped back against the door with a sigh.

"Ok," Mei walked over to the desk in the corner and pulled a stack of paper in front of him. "Just a few small things and then I'm done for the day."

"Ah, ordering day?" Harris pulled over a chair.

"Mhm." Mei nodded and flipped through a few pages, signing or writing notes as he went.

"You know," Harris said. "Now that you've got six plays to switch between, I doubt anyone would mind if you took your time on a new performance."

"Certainly the crowds would enjoy themselves, either way," Mei said. He was almost halfway through the stack of papers. "I'll try to take my time on my next project, but nothing feeds quite like awe."

"Not even me?"

Mei made a sound like a strangled crow, and his eyes bugged out. "Harry!" he sputtered.

Harris couldn't help laughing. "I'm joking, I'm joking," he said.

Mei snatched Harris around the waist and dragged him into his lap. "You!" He had a sharp look in his eyes, then pulled Harris into a searing kiss. Mei had a sultry look on his face when he eventually pulled away. "When we get home, I'll show you just how much I enjoy a meal from you."

"Hmm." Harris felt his face heat up, accompanied by a small flicker of warmth in his gut.

"Do you have any meetings you need to get to tonight?"

"None what so ever," Mei said. His tail swished playfully behind him.

"Then how about we get going?" Harris said.

Mei grinned wide, showing off his fangs. "Let's."