Anything but Ordinary (10 page)

They turned to go when a thought struck Stiles; he turned back. ‘I don’t suppose any of them have ever come back have they?’ he asked.

Hank looked surprised at the question. ‘No, not as far as I know,’ he said. ‘I mean, some of the Fons that went off returned recently, but they’re always disappearing and coming back again, you’d think this place had a revolving door on it the way they carry on. Anyway, no one’d be interested in Fons.’ 

‘
They
would,’ said Dawber darkly. ‘They’re interested in
everything
.’

‘You can’t question Fons, though,’ said Denny. ‘Too stupid.’

‘That’s true,’ said Hank. ‘And they can’t talk anyway.’

‘It was a good idea, though,’ said Denny. ‘We’ll keep in touch Hank and let us know if any of them do come back, we might learn something.’

Right ho,’ said Hank.

* * *

That night Denny dreamed about wolves. Snapping, snarling, growling wolves with foam flecked muzzles and mad fiery eyes. He woke up in a cold sweat.  Denny was used to this sort of thing and usually dismissed it summarily. It was either a normal dream evoked by his unconscious mind or, if it wasn’t, then it had been planted there deliberately by someone who wanted to mislead him in some way. This time it felt different. Although Denny did not believe in precognisance of any sort, he felt as if he had just been given a glimpse of something like it.  Someone, he thought, was trying to tell him something.

He got up and went to the kitchen to get a drink and found Cindy there reading the paper. 

She looked up at him and grinned. ‘Is Denny Sanger the sexiest man in the world?’ she read out in a singsong voice.

‘Don’t’ he groaned putting his head in his hands. ‘I thought I got rid of that.’ 

‘It’s not a very good picture,’ said Cindy. ‘In fact, I wouldn’t swear to it being you at all.’

‘That’s what I said,’ Denny agreed. ‘Now can we talk about something else –
anything
else?’

Cindy flipped the paper into the bin. ‘Such as?’ she queried.

Denny shrugged.

‘What you are doing up in the middle of the night, for example.’ she said.

‘Couldn’t sleep,’ he said.

‘I know,’ she told him. ‘You woke the whole house shouting and going on in your sleep. That’s why I’m up.’

‘Oh, sorry.’

‘That’s all right.’

‘Are the kiddies asleep now?’ he asked. ‘Did I wake them?’

‘They’re fine,’ Cindy waved a dismissive hand.  ‘Kids can sleep through anything and Fin just turned back over and started snoring which pretty effectively “murdered sleep” for me, so I got up. And fascinating though all this must be, I want to know what’s bothering
you
.’

‘Nightmare, nothing serious.’

‘Balls,’ said Cindy. ‘
You
don’t get up and come downstairs over a nightmare.’

‘Don’t push it Cind,’ said Denny. ‘I really don’t want to talk about it right now.’

‘Suit yourself,’ said Cindy a little snippily. ‘I think I’ll go and make up the sofa, there’s no point in me going back to bed now, with him snoring away like a road drill.’

‘
You’ve
had premonitions haven’t you?’ said Denny suddenly.

Cindy started. The last premonition she had had, had involved Denny in a rather personal way but he didn’t know about that surely? He
couldn’t
.

Then she realised what he was getting at. ‘Is that what you think it was?’ she asked, ‘your dream?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘How – how accurate are they?’

‘Depends,’ she said. ‘Mostly they’re allegorical or, at best, pretty vague. I shouldn’t worry about it, if I were you.’

‘But they
are
accurate sometimes?’ he persisted.

‘Almost never,’ she assured him. ‘The last one I had didn’t exactly come true,’ she blushed as she said this but Denny did not notice. 

‘I thought it
did
,’ he said. ‘Wasn’t it about Finvarra and how he wasn’t dead like we all thought?’

‘That was
part
of it,’ she said. ‘The rest was …’

‘Pretty vague?’ finished Denny.

‘Absolute bollocks,’ said Cindy firmly. 

‘What was it?’ asked Denny curiously.

‘I died,’ said Cindy tersely, which was partly true, but not the whole truth but certainly enough to explain why she did not want to go into details and hopefully dissuade Denny from asking any more questions.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ said Denny and clammed up.

‘Sometimes it’s the past you’re seeing and not the future,’ she said. ‘It can be hard to tell the difference.’

‘That doesn’t really make me feel any better,’ said Denny. ‘It might have even been the present by that standard.’

Cindy shifted uncomfortably; she wanted this conversation to end. It was making her feel oddly exposed, and being alone with Denny was becoming a trying experience at the best of times. Without Tamar around as a buffer, Cindy was constantly fighting the irrational urge to spill her heart out to him. If she did, she knew it would be a catastrophe. There were some things he just did not want to hear.

After a few moments of silence, she got up to leave.

‘Don’t go,’ he said surprisingly. She turned; Denny was looking steadily at her with such an expression as she had long wished to see on his face. 

She hesitated. Then she went to him, and he put his arms around her in silence. And then … Oh God it was bliss, just as she had known it would be.

‘I’m lonely,’ he muttered into her hair.

‘Me too,’ she told him. His hands were sliding up her back and into her hair.  She hovered for a moment, poised between uncertainty and desire, and then she pulled away.

‘This is a mistake,’ she said, hardly believing her own ears.

He looked questioningly at her. 

‘This can only end in disaster,’ she said. ‘I’ll end up devastated, and you’ll feel guilty. It’s not
me
you want. I wish it
was
. Maybe you can live with that,’ she continued.  ‘But I
can’t
. And I find it pretty hard to believe that you could either. This isn’t
like
you. Even under the Faerie spell, you wouldn’t have done this. You
didn’t
do this.’

Denny looked at her like a man coming out of a trance. ‘What’s the matter with me?’ he asked despairingly. ‘I’m
so
sorry Cind, I never meant to …’

‘There’s something going on,’ said Cindy briskly. ‘Something magical. And it started a while ago too.  First, you acting like such a prat with Tamar – No,
First
was her wanting to be ordinary and
then
you acting up about it. Then Tamar leaving, and not coming back either, and now … Well anyway, neither of you have been acting like yourselves for a while now, don’t you think?’

‘When you put it like that,’ said Denny. ‘I think you’re right.’

But did he really? He wondered. Or did he just
want
to think so? It was far less painful to believe that it was some magical conspiracy that had made his life fall apart rather than his own foolishness – and worse than foolishness. He was ashamed of his behaviour to Cindy. It had been selfish and ultimately cruel, but was it
him
?  Had he,
would
he – under no influence but his own – have done such a thing?  Cindy clearly did not think so, but he had never been in this position before. Tamar was gone, and Cindy was almost as beautiful, almost as strong … A pale shadow of what he had lost. 

And if he could have done
that
, wasn’t he capable of just about anything, even driving Tamar away in the first place? 

Cindy was watching him shrewdly. She guessed some of what was passing in his mind – she had entertained the same doubts at first, and had even told Stiles categorically that it was not magic at work. But now she thought differently.  Denny’s recent behaviour had decided her. He would
never
, under any circumstances, have tried to seduce her. She knew it.

‘It
is
magic,’ she told him firmly cutting across his welter of self-recrimination. ‘And I can prove it.’

~ Chapter Six ~

T
hey were all sitting in the Team Alpha control room, where Tamar had first been introduced to them, watching a series of still photographs flit across the large screen while Valerie briefed them about the man in the photographs and what they had to do about him. Tamar could not have told you so much as his name.  She had other things on her mind and, as far as she was concerned, all this was unnecessary. Valerie, she was vaguely aware, was ranting about atrocities and burbling about the creature’s background and other irrelevant details.  Tamar had picked up at the beginning of the briefing, while she was still listening, that they were talking about a minor sorcerer who had recently gone into terrorism. Tamar could deal with such creatures without breaking a sweat; therefore, she had immediately switched off and begun staring out of the window. The blinds were down, but that did not stop her. 

She had not forgotten Slev’s warning about The Director. In fact, it was this – among other things – that was preying on her mind.  Who, or what, was capable of bringing about such a transformation?  Denny would know, she thought with a pang, or, at least, he would be able to find out.  She was almost certain that The Director himself had no idea of his lupine origins. Although, if pushed, she could not have said what had given her this impression, but it was a very strong feeling.  He certainly did not
act
like a wolf.  And, despite what Slev had said, she did not think he was particularly dangerous. 

The other question, of course, was
why
someone would do such a thing?  No matter how many ways she canvassed this question, she simply could not come up with a satisfactory explanation; it just did not make sense. 

So why was she still here?  Common sense dictated that she use her escape plan and go home to Denny who would almost certainly be able to help her to find out the answers to these questions. But her
un
common senses told her … What?  That if she left now, she might never get back in.
So what?

That there was much more to find out about this place – like how she was being held inside. And what was that familiar feeling she had experienced when she had exited from the so-called “Teleportation Room” that was anything but? She had a feeling that these two questions were related.  And that if she could only use the room a few more times it would come back to her. 

She had not forgotten Slev’s other warning either, but Tamar was not given to introspection at any time and particularly at the moment, when she knew in her heart that any deeper examination of her motives would probably reveal things that she did not want to know. 

The briefing was winding down, and Tamar had made a decision.  She would deal summarily with the sorcerer,*
he
was
a bad guy after all. And then … there was one other person who might be able to help her to answer some questions … and fortunately, she knew exactly where she could lay her hands on him. 

*[
It would never have occurred to Tamar that she could fail to do this.  Even Cindy could deal with a small time sorcerer
.]

* * *

‘The only kind of magic that we know of that can do this, is the Faeries’ magic,’ said Denny sceptically.  ‘And even then, it wasn’t this strong. I managed to fight it the last time. I don’t think it’s magic.’

‘Trust me,’ said Cindy. ‘It is. And I can prove it.’

‘Prove it how?’

‘I’ll have to show you. Come on.’ she began to lead him through the house. 

A thought struck Denny. ‘We
do
have, not one, but
two
Faeries living right here in this house,’ he said, following her.   ‘Although I can’t imagine
Finvarra
wanting to make me … us … I mean …what we …’ 

‘He didn’t.’ Cindy said firmly. ‘It wasn’t him. It’s not Faeries.’

‘And yet,’ Denny mused. ‘If anyone could
… I mean he has access, we trust him, trust him enough to let him live here anyway and if our guard was down … he could, theoretically, have a far stronger influence than the Faerie Queen did. I mean we were wary of her.’

‘Have you finished?’ said Cindy somewhat astringently.

‘I’m being ridiculous aren’t I?’ said Denny, looking slightly ashamed.

‘It isn’t your fault,’ said Cindy briskly.  ‘I’m just going to assume, for the time being, that you don’t really mean
anything
you say.’

‘Really?’ said Denny. Then added mischievously, ‘I like your hair, have you had it done?’

‘Very funny,’

‘No really. Oh, all right then, I’ll say I’m sorry if you like. But how will you know if I mean it?’

Cindy laughed.  ‘Do you ever?’

‘Hey?’ Denny was indignant until he realised that he had asked for this.

‘So, what do you mean, it’s
not
Faeries?’ he asked still trotting along behind her obediently.  

‘I mean it’s something else,’ she said. ‘And I have an idea what, and so would you, if your brain was functioning on all cylinders, like it should be.’

‘Something that uses mind control magic like the Faeries, but clearly far more powerful,’ pondered Denny.

Cindy grinned. ‘Think about it,’ she said just a little smugly. 

‘Oh, you’re loving this, aren’t you?’ said Denny.’

They had arrived at the room that Tamar had recently converted into a nursery. This was where Finvarra was usually to be found during the day, which was why Cindy had come. He was sat on the floor with the boys; they were playing with some plastic dinosaurs.  

Denny had never been in here before, and as he walked in, he let out an involuntary. ‘My God!’ which he tried, unsuccessfully, to cover with a cough. 

Cindy gave him a dirty look, which he protested against. ‘We’re ignoring everything I say, remember?’ he tried.

‘No, no,’ said Finvarra rising gracefully to his feet. ‘’Tis a bit … ahem. Well it’s not a man’s style let us just say.’ He looked quizzically at them both.