Inhuman Heritage (23 page)

“I’m in the middle of something right now but as soon as my business is done I will drop by and we will talk.”

“Understood, Ms. Cassandra. I’ll make sure he gets the message.” A wail from the spare room made my nerves jangle. I slammed the phone down with only the briefest of apologies to Lance and ran for the bedroom.

Sorin was sat up in bed, tear tracks drying on his cheek as panic made him struggle with the covers. He stilled as I wrapped my arms around him and sniffed. My scent obviously reassured him because his wailing died away too and his hands clung to my clothes. Inc had put him straight to bed when the sun rose but now I noticed how dirty the little boy was. He had dust, dirt and bits of hay in his hair, his clothes were stained and dirty from the fight and climbing up a tree. My nose wrinkled as he smelt a little like a haystack. He pulled back and I used my thumb to wipe his tears away. I could see from his eyes I had a more important thing to address first.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

He nodded sadly and I stroked my hand repeatedly over his head.

“Dreams can’t hurt you,” I assured him even though I was pretty sure it was a lie. There was a whole level to dreams that I’d yet to explore. Aram’s talent had shown me that. Sorin seemed comforted enough for me to lower my arms and sit back.

“Where is Farai?” Sorin asked looking towards the door as if he expected the hulk of a man to walk in behind me any second.

“I don’t know, Sorin. He never came back. Maybe he bunked down in the community at dawn when he couldn’t find us.”

“Where are we?”

“My apartment in town. It’s safe here.” He looked at me, his eyes really focusing on me. He reached out tugging one of the curls next to my face.

“Like it?” Sorin smiled and nodded. “We’ll head to the community after dark okay, but first you’re gonna have to take a bath and eat something.”

Sorin pulled a face at the idea of having to take a bath. He changed his mind when he saw the bubbles in the tub though. I sat on the lid of the toilet reading a magazine while he cleaned up and I treated his clothes to a little freshening up spell.

* * * *

It turned out Sorin was very partial to macaroni cheese. I cut up some cooked sausage to mix in with it for protein, made him eat a banana and drink a big glass of milk, before sitting him down to talk. I’d made the mistake, however, of letting him turn on the TV while I’d washed up and although he knew I was trying to talk to him seriously, his eyes kept flicking back to the late afternoon cartoons.

“Sorin, please, you’ve got to pay attention to me. I need to ask you some questions.”

“Okay.” He gave a little head jiggle to acknowledge his attention was mine and I noticed-with some relief–that he’d stopped calling me momma.

“How much do you know about what you’re here to do?”

“Oh lots,” he said beaming, his face becoming animated as he ran on. “The monks sat me down and told me all about it. I paid real good attention because they were gonna test me. I got a gold star.” He waited a beat expecting praise. I smiled at him.

“Very good, Sorin. But what is it you’ll do exactly?”

“I’m special,” he chirped. “I can see into people, tell if they’re good or bad and see their path.”

“Path?”

“Father E calls it their path. I don’t really understand but I see lots of pictures and I feel stuff.”

“So you’ll look at the consciousness and just know which one is the right one?”

“Uh huh.”

“How?”

“Dunno, I just know.”

“Is that it?”

“I got some words to say and there’s a stamp involved.” He pulled out a leather thong that was around his neck. It looked a bit like it had a flash drive but at the base of it was a crown carved out of metal.

“And that makes whoever King?”

Sorin shrugged and tucked his necklace back underneath his clothes. I was going to question him further but I felt a shiver roll down my spine as the sun went down, a knock came at the door and the cartoons reclaimed Sorin’s full attention. I unfolded myself from the end of the couch and went to answer it. I opened the door till the chain from the catch was taut. I really needed to get a peep hole. Anything I was worried about could have broken that chain-and the door for that fact-with no problem at all. I was safe enough as it was LeBron on the other side. I pulled the chain off and let him inside.

“How’s the leg?” I asked as it didn’t appear he was even limping.

“Healed up,” he said twitching it from side to side a little, “your witch friend sure knows what she’s doing.”

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he looked away. I could tell he was choosing to ignore that a secondary symptom of lycanthropy was an increased ability to heal. He’d read enough of the literature-he had to know. I was about to push the issue because I was in just that kind of mood when he stared me down.

“I know,” he said in a deep growly voice. “I don’t want to talk about it just yet.”

I had to surrender when he put it like that so I quickly changed the subject by asking him if he’d eaten and if he wanted some of the leftover mac and cheese. He accepted and watched me carefully as I pottered about getting him some.

“What?” I asked handing him a laden bowl over to him.

“I may be wrong about the direness of the situation and all but how did you have time to get your hair done?”

That led me to explain that it had been an emergency and even showed him the battered remains of my braid.

“Ouch,” he said delicately wincing at the thought of the claws. I gave an involuntary shudder that they’d been so close to my neck. “Anyway I came to escort you to the community. I still figure that you can’t go in there alone not knowing who to trust.”

“Didn’t your car kind of get mangled?”

“I can escort you on foot and getting a tow to go pick up my car and not ask questions is a story I will bore you with at another time. But you get what I’m saying right?”

“You’re telling me you’ve got my back. It’s very decent of you as it seems I keep getting you hurt.”

“What’s a little blood between friends?” he said laughing it off and tucking into the macaroni. I smiled weakly thinking that LeBron would be a good friend for a long time-if I didn’t get him killed first.

Chapter Nineteen

There was a different guard at the community gates which all things considered was not necessarily good news. It meant I had no idea where Sphynx boy and the rest of his renegades were hiding. He was also the only one I could identify clearly in a line up. All the others had been in a wolf form and once you’ve seen one… My blasé attitude stemmed from my anger at myself for not being more observant. I had the bad habit of spending too much time punning rather than assessing the situation fully. I wasn’t much of a fighter preferring to antagonize my opponent into making tragic mistakes that would help facilitate me kicking their ass. Actually kicking a bad guy in the ass was both an injury and an insult, they really didn’t like that.

I’d called Simian from my place just before we’d left and arranged to meet at his house. He’d been worried about me but I’d stopped him before he’d barreled into a lengthy questioning of me. He would see me in little less than half an hour, we could talk then. The guard let us through after checking his list and I held tight to Sorin’s hand. I didn’t want to get this far and lose him now. He seemed fascinated by looking up at the stars between street lamps as we passed under them. Simian was sitting on his front steps clad in blue jeans and a dark polo neck sweater. I didn’t think mid-March was cold enough for the sweater and wolves tended to run a little hot anyway-it was such an odd choice. It made him look smart though, very grown up and responsible.

“I expected you back last night,” Simian said but as we stepped into the beam of light from his security lamp he blinked at me.

“What happened to your hair?” I glared at him and he hurriedly added. “Not that it doesn’t look nice.”

I ignored his question in order to respond to his statement.

“We had some trouble. Are they ready to see us?”

“I called the candidates right after you called me. They are prepared to receive us.”

“Good, we need to talk and then I need you to take me to DJ’s place.”

“Why? Where is DJ?” He looked around as if he expected the younger wolf to stalk from the shadows behind us.

“I’ll explain in a while. I want to get Sorin out of the open and under protection as soon as possible.” Simian blinked down at the kid who moved behind my body, peeking around my hip at him. He smiled at the boy. Simian was good with kids, especially his own, sometimes I didn’t know how he did it.

“Hello there,” he said squatting down to the boy’s height. “It’s very nice to meet you, Sorin.” Simian extended his hand and waited patiently while Sorin examined it from all sides before shaking it. Sorin came out from behind me as he did, I felt something from the little boy that made my pull my hand from his, it was a quiet little power. He read Simian and obviously liked what he saw.

“Hi,” Sorin chirped cheerily. I waited till the soft feel of his power died away before taking his hand again. It wasn’t that I was against being read but I feared what the child would see in me especially at the moment when my nature was still a confusing mess to me.

We started to walk toward the community council building. We passed the darkened streets and I swear I could feel eyes on me but whenever I looked in the direction of the sensation, it vanished.

The light that came from under the ornate doors I had admired before was dim. Simian held open the door allowing us inside. The main light was off but the flicker of the torches still lit the corridors. Simian hurried around to stand in front of us.

“Mister LeBron can go no further I’m afraid.”

“Why the hell not?” Simian looked at me disapproving of my tone but I had little to no patience left.

“Because he’s a norm.”

“Give him time,” I muttered under my breath and gave a sigh. I had no power to argue with the way they wanted to do things, although I really wanted to. I turned to LeBron to apologize to him but he beat me to the punch with a knowing shrug.

“What you gonna do? It’s okay. I’ll watch the door for trouble.” He took out a cigarette packet and tapped it absently against his thigh pushing the door open and going back out into the night.

“That’s a bad habit,” Simian said as we walked down the corridor.

“I can’t blame him,” I said in his defense and explained to Simian that LeBron might be joining their ranks. Simian looked back at the doors to the outside guiltily.

“If he only got bit yesterday and he’s walking on that leg today-I’d say we don’t need the full moon to know.”

“He had some magical healing.”

“Magic couldn’t fix it that good that quickly. Even I know that healing magic doesn’t work like that.” I nodded.

“He’s also firmly in denial. Maybe you could talk to him, he’s going to need a sponsor anyway.”

“He got hurt doing this for us, I would be honored. Come on now, they’re waiting.” He pulled the door open for us and we headed down the stairs. When we reached the doors to the main chamber, they cracked open and Brie, the shifter girl, stepped out. She looked up at us and startled a little.

“Oh you’re here. Good. They’ve been waiting.” Her eyes narrowed and focused on Sorin who was clutching my hand and keeping very quiet at my side. Brie bent down in front of him giving him a very pleasant and genuine smile. “Hi there. We’ve been expecting you. We’ve got a nice room all prepared if you’d like to come with me.” She extended her hand out to him palm up. The gesture was completely unthreatening but still the boy looked up at me for a sign that he should trust this person. I nodded my head and released his hand from my own. Brie rose slowly to her feet, turned her side to us and offered her hand out again, this time Sorin took it. She began to lead him away down a side corridor, I could tell she was talking to him but I couldn’t really make out the words, my eyes were transfixed on his little face as it peered back at me over his shoulder. I felt a little uneasy letting him out of my sight but I had done my job where he was concerned. I had delivered the boy to the werewolves. Simian held the door and we went inside.

It was amazing how much the room had changed in the course of a day. Garlands hung from the walls and ceiling creating a festive covering over the stone. Tables had been prepared on either side of the room, draped in fine white linen tablecloths, one prepared as a bar, the other as some sort of buffet minus the food. Plastic chairs had been laid out in neat rows bound with blue and red ribbon on the inside to create an aisle in the middle almost like a wedding. The candidates were sitting in a semi-circle of chairs at the front that struck me as being like an AA meeting in any church hall. I wanted to take a seat with them and chirp proudly-
I’m Cassandra and I’m lunarly challenged.
Except it wouldn’t have been true. I grabbed a chair from the front row, spun it around and sat on it backwards so I could lean my arms on the back of it.

“Fellas, we’ve got a problem,” I said cutting straight to the point. They looked at me and I could tell each of them were evaluating my new haircut but wisely chose to ignore it in favor of keeping on topic.