Inhuman Heritage (29 page)

I had been sitting with my back to the room doing my best to keep my body hidden from any of the other eyes there. DJ handed me a long bath towel which I was grateful for as I wrapped it around me so that I could stand up. He’d put on a new shirt and I felt a wee bit disappointed that he was all covered up, he seemed to share the sentiment from the way he eyed the towel.

“I hope they fit, they’re clean but the shorts and shoes came out of lost property. Sometimes people get into fights and shift in the bar. The energy is contagious, so clothes get thrown and people give into the change. I salvage bits and pieces in the morning in case they want them back.”

I walked behind the bar resting the clothes he’d brought me on top.

“I’m kind of glad no one claimed them right at this moment,” I said wriggling the shorts up under the towel. I turned my back to him, dropped the towel and pulled the T-shirt over my head. As soon as I was covered, I turned and pulled on the sweater. I was a bit too top heavy to go without a bra but desperate times and all that. I was just happy not to be naked anymore.

“What was that?” DJ asked leaning on the bar looking at me. “I’ve never seen anything like it but now I am pretty positive you’re not ordinary.”

“I’m inhuman.”

“You’re a Marvel superhero?” he asked and I could tell he was teasing me by his smile. “You’re saying you’re not human. Never would have known it to look at you.”

“Yeah, now imagine that I only found out three days ago.” DJ made all the appropriate faces and gestures that accompanied pure shock.

“Didn’t your parents raise you in the ways of your people?”

“Nope. From what I’ve been told my dad only appeared on the scene once in which he attempted to kill my mom. She took me and went into hiding.” She’d found a really good place to hide too, another reality, a whole other world. A world where I had grown up fairly normal only now I knew it wasn’t the world I was supposed to grow up in. I still didn’t understand a lot, like how had mom kept me on the other side without making me wear some kind of charm like my locket.

“That sucks. I mean I know what it’s like. My dad is what we would call a lone wolf. He roams, he knocked up my mom and when she found she was having a boy they let her move in here knowing I’d be born with the gene.”

“At least you know there are other beings like you. I have no idea whether my mother had any family, if there is a ‘people’ to belong to.”

“What’s the name of your…err species?” I let out a little snort of amusement, he was doing his best not to offend me, bless his heart, but it was kind of nice having someone to talk to about it that kind of got it.

“Phoenix.” DJ cocked an eyebrow.

“And we’re back to Marvel superheroes again…”

I laughed, I couldn’t help it.

“Not like that. Like the mythological bird but human shaped. That’s how my mentor described it to me. I suppose like humans evolved from fish, we evolved from the ancient firebirds or something. I’m not a geneticist or an evolutionist so I’m just guessing wildly at the moment.” I looked intently at the bar like it would hold the answer.

“So was it true what Travis said? About you and a vamp?” I looked up at his face and felt confusion, he was waiting for an answer and I realized he was trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, I am, I was going out with a vampire. I don’t know where we stand right now. We had a massive fight and then well…” I waved my hand in a dismissing gesture because I was not going back to the other topic if I could help it.

“I hear they’re real cold.”

“They can be but then again he always told me I was hot enough for the both of us.”

“You’re certainly hot,” he said and then started to blush realizing what he’d said.

“Why thank you.”

“If you two are done flirting,” said Farir joining us, “we need a plan. Sorin is in danger.” He leaned his dark elbows on the bar and looked between our faces, we were both slightly embarrassed. I coughed a little and rubbed at my face with the end of the sleeve of the sweater. The cut on my cheek had completely healed without so much as leaving a mark, it must have happened at the same time the bullet wound healed.

“As I told you before, Sorin is in a room with Brie that is sealed by magic. She will have to let them into the room or they will have to bust through the wall. It all depends on how suspicious she is of Seth.”

“Well I know she doesn’t like him,” said DJ trying to reassure us. “He slaps her on the ass when she walks past him and that ticks her off, big time.”

“So she won’t be inclined to let him into the room you think?”

“It’s less likely that she will, especially considering the time of night and if she smells others are with him, she definitely won’t.”

“This is still not a plan,” said Farir who looked anxious to get moving and to cracking some skulls. I got that he was worried about the boy but surely we had a little time. Less than half an hour had passed since Seth and his crew had left.

“DJ, do you know where all the candidates live?”

“Yeah. It’s a small community. Pretty much everyone knows where everyone else lives,” he said shrugging his big shoulders like it was a big thing.

“Think you could wake them up and get them to the community building, we could use some back up.” DJ nodded and I turned my body to Farir. “While he’s doing that you and I will head for the community building. He took all his people with him which probably means he intends to secure the building, so we’ll have to take out his sentries on the way to find him.” Farir looked pleased at the prospect rubbing his fist with his other hand.

“No killing if you can help it, let’s just take them out quick and quiet. The less warning they have that we are coming the better, right.”

DJ got up from the stool he’d perched on and walked around to the side of the bar I was on reaching under the counter for something. He handed me an aluminum baseball bat.

“Thought you might want the help.”

“This will do nicely.” I swung it experimentally. “Let’s get going.”

“Shouldn’t we sync watches or something?”

“DJ!” He gave me a boyish grin as we walked out of his bar and then went our separate ways.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I learnt in short order that it is hard to sneak through the streets, even in the middle of the night, when you have a mountain of muscle like Farir following you. He had a vicious look in his eyes that said he was on the prowl, he was prepared to rend limbs if it would keep Sorin safe. We came to a crouch at the end of an alley just across from the community building. I could see two guys on the steps. I studied the scene for a minute checking that they were the only two sentries when I saw two others, they were walking up and down along the sides of the building, they only came into view from the front every five minutes or so. I was thinking about the best way to move in. Farir was chomping at the bit to attack.

“So how long have you been Sorin’s protector?” The question disarmed him, his breathing calmed slightly and he swallowed hard before answering me.

“Since he was born.” I was timing the side guards so I knew exactly how long it took for them to make a circuit.

“So you know what happened to his real mother?”

“Yes,” he said sadly. “She died in childbirth. We barely managed to save him but we made sure he grew up healthy and strong.”

“He’s a good kid,” I said leaning back away from the corner. Farir looked me directly in the face waiting for me to tell him something. I took a deep breath.

“There are four guys outside, two standing on the steps and two more making sweeps of the side of the building. That means there has to be another four inside including Seth and his right hand man.”

“Can you take out two by yourself?”

“If we do this smart I think we can. A circuit seems to take them seven minutes, if we catch them while they are out of sight of the guys on the steps then we can still sneak up on them too.”

“Good idea, last thing you need is for them to tag team you.” I rolled my eyes at his big tough werewolf bit and peeked around the corner again.

“The only problem is that in front of the community building is a nice open space. One of us needs to get across to the other side to be able to sneak up from the left.”

“No problem,” he said and he shot out from the alley skidding into one on the opposite side of the road. He’d been a blur of movement, I’d barely caught him.

I peered back around the corner and the guys on the steps showed no sign that they’d noticed him either. I was a little cross though, if he’d been seen he could have blown the whole thing. I signaled for him to go back and round the buildings. I ran as quietly as I could down my side and using the building for cover edged around to where I could see the wolf making his circuit. I hid my body in a doorway and hoped that Farir was being smart and waiting till the guy was walking back from the front to attack him or he’d be ready to jump the guys on the steps before me. I tapped the bat against my leg counting in my head and watched as he appeared marching down towards the back. I took a deep breath, and raising the bat I crept up slowly up behind him. I swung and it connected with his skull with a deep ringing thud.

He crumpled to the ground groaning, he wasn’t out so I closed my eyes taking a deep breath and hit him again. He stopped groaning and lay still on the asphalt. I crossed myself. I’m not really religious but it seemed like the thing to do. Giving thanks to some higher power for the smashing of a bat over someone’s head going right. I was painfully aware of the contradictions there. I could hear a scuffle from the front and cursed Farir for his impatience. I ran along the side of the building.

Farir was holding one of them up by the scruff of his shirt pummeling him in the face. It looked like the guy was already out but reason obviously really ticked him off because he just kept punching completely forgetting about the second guy who’d hit the wall but had not been knocked out. He was coming up behind Farir ready to stab the other man in the back. I leapt to the side of the step bringing the bat down hard on the guy’s hand; he dropped his weapon crying out in pain. It made Farir turn to look and his eyes were wide as if he had been sure he’d knocked the guy out.

I brought the bat in an uppercut into the guy’s chin sending him spilling down the steps backwards. This time he stayed down and I had to stare hard at Farir before he dropped the other guy like a rag doll against the wall. I shook my head in disappointment. I was very tempted to tell him he had to wait outside and watch my back until the others got here. I opened the door carefully. The other two I’d expected were at the end of the middle corridor watching the door down to the main chamber. I let the door fall silently shut.

“Two down the corridor, right in front of the door.”

“We could rush them?”

“And make a lot of noise in the process. No, I think this one you will have to leave up to me.” I placed my hand on the doors and focused on what was just inside, the pool of water with the wolvesbane floating in it. I wasn’t very good at magic that involved water mainly because I largely connected to fire magic but this one spell I was very, very good at. I could make mist. Well, technically it was water vapor or steam but it worked on the principle of introducing fire magic to water to create a smoke screen. I could feel it sweep over the surface, tumbling over the sides like it was dry ice and creep along the corridor towards the men. There were no windows in the main door so Farir couldn’t see what I was doing, it made him hop nervously from foot to foot. I let the fog creep towards the men, getting denser the closer it got, they breathed it in and it wrapped around their lungs. I made it heavier, made it press around them stopping them as they tried to breath. I pushed the doors open walking into the hallway, I could no longer see the men and the pool was empty of water. Farir stood behind me and I could see the hackles on his neck rise at the sense of magic in the air. There were two thuds as bodies hit the floor and I let go of the spell. I brushed it away and the fog cleared to show the two guards passed out on the floor. I fell back into Farir’s arms. Whatever my body had done to heal itself, it had pretty much taxed me magically. I was supposed to have accepted this great power but where the bloody hell was it when I needed it? I took deep calmly breaths and he let me rest against him for a moment.

“That…” he said, “was pretty creepy, amazing and well executed, but creepy.”

“Don’t worry, stay on my good side and I’ll never use magic against you.”

He gave me a little smile not sure whether I was joking or not, then again I wasn’t quite sure myself. I looked at the wolvesbane flowers that sat in the dried up pool and sympathized, they were left adrift in a sea of nothing. I started towards the left hand door.

“Sorin’s room is this way,” I said leading the way down to where we would find out if the boy was okay. I was not prepared for what I saw when we got there. The wall next to the door had been torn through like it was cardboard instead of brick and Brie was fighting manically to bite and claw at Sphynx boy who had Sorin tightly tucked under one arm. Sorin was squirming and kicking with all his might too but the small boy could not overcome the strength in the large man’s one arm. Farir snarled and began to advance. I threw myself in front of him and pushed him back out of sight.