Red Queen (25 page)

By then we were pretty sure we were in the clear. Still, we took a third taxi to my father's place, a rented condo in a high-priced complex four blocks off the Strip. It was not a hotel but the place appeared to function as one. A person could rent a condo for as little as one week, or as long as a year. I assumed my father knew the best places to hide in the enemy's territory.

My father looked the same as he had years ago. He hadn't aged a day. He was dressed casually but still projected an aura of a successful doctor. Indeed, he radiated a power that Jimmy couldn't ignore. My boyfriend's grip on reality was trembling. Each brick I removed from his self-constructed wall brought him closer and closer to full acceptance of my story.

My father embraced us both, but held on to me the longest. He kissed my forehead. “I missed you,” he whispered.

“You saw me last night,” I said.

“I missed this version.”

I hugged him tighter. “Not as much as I missed you.”

He finally let me go. “There is much we need to discuss.” He gestured to Whip. “First, tell me about this little guy.”

I explained where we had found Whip and why we'd decided to take him back to Las Vegas with us. My father was intrigued with his ability to write and puzzled that he couldn't speak. A brief exam revealed nothing wrong with his vocal cords.

But it revealed something else.

A little detail that Jimmy and I had been idiots to miss.

Whip had a tail!

Jesus Christ,
I thought.

It came off the base of his spine. It was almost as long as his body was tall, and it tapered to a point that allowed him to curl it into a fully functioning finger. The bulk of the tail was as thick as one of his bony legs, however, it was solid muscle and cartilage, free of any bones I could see.

Whip managed to hide it by carefully wrapping it around his waist, beneath his clothes. My father was light-years ahead of Jimmy and me when it came to understanding such mutations. He asked for Whip's pens and notepad and handed them to the child.

“Do you like to use your tail to write?” my father asked.

Whip effortlessly picked up a pen with the end of his tail and opened his notepad with his hands. He wrote ten times faster and clearer than he had out in Inferno.

I like to use my tail to do most things,
he wrote.
But I know I have to be careful to keep my butt secret.

We all laughed at his choice of words.

His tail was dragging down a pair of underwear my father had given him to wear but Whip was nevertheless doing his best to remain covered. I was impressed. Given where he had grown up, I had assumed he was devoid of most social skills.

“When we're with others, we'll do our best to keep your tail hidden,” my father told him.

Thank you,
Whip wrote.

“Does it embarrass you?” my father asked.

Not when I'm alone. But I know I'm the only one who has one.

“Do you live alone in Inferno?” Jimmy asked. “The town where we found you?”

There are others, but most are not nice to me.

“Who brings your food to you?” my father asked.

Frankie. A scary man.

“Frank,” I gushed. “That might be the Lapra I spoke to last night on the phone in witch world. Whip, does Frankie have a deep voice?”

Yes. He yells at me.

“Why does he yell at you?” Jimmy asked.

He says I'm ugly. He throws rocks at me, if I get near him.

“If he doesn't like you, why does he bring you food?”

Whip hesitated.
She makes him bring it.

“Who is she?” my father asked.

Whip shook his head. It didn't matter how my father tried framing the question, Whip continued to refuse to answer.

My father took him in a bathroom and gave the child a bath, which Whip appeared to enjoy immensely. My dad also gave him a much more thorough exam. When he was finished, my father returned to the living room, shutting the bedroom door carefully behind him.

“I have bad news,” he said. “Whip's far from healthy. The marks on his arms and legs are from cellulitis. That's a form of
bacteria that spreads beneath the outer skin layers. I've put him on an IV drip and am giving him antibiotics. And I gave him a mild sedative to help him sleep.”

“He can't just take a pill form of the antibiotics?” I asked.

“The infection's too far advanced. We need to kill it now. But I'm more worried about his lungs. His breathing's poor. I need to get a chest X-ray and do some other tests. It's possible he has tuberculosis.”

“Isn't that infectious?” I asked, privately wondering if we could use our witch genes to heal the boy.

“Yes. The child might have to be quarantined.”

“I can help take care of him if you can get your hands on the medicine he needs,” Jimmy said.

To hell with that,
I thought.
I like the boy, but TB?

My father smiled at my boyfriend. “That's very noble of you. Let me do a few more tests before we decide whether we have to move him out of town.”

“If he's under the control of the Lapras, then we definitely have to get him out of here,” Jimmy said.

“It might be a mistake to interfere in their business,” my father said carefully. “At least when it comes to this boy.”

“From what I've heard, you specialize in messing with them,” Jimmy said.

My father sat down and sighed. “True. But my partners and I try to keep our eyes fixed on the big picture.”

Jimmy was offended. “So Whip doesn't count because he's just a kid with a tail?”

“Jimmy,” I said. “My dad's doing what he can. There's so much we don't know. Like who is this ‘she' he mentioned.”

My father nodded and caught my eye. “You felt something when he brought her up,” he said.

I nodded. “Yeah. Something dark and creepy.”

“Since I haven't died and seen the light, I can only see the small picture,” Jimmy said. “But do I need to remind you guys that it was her intuition that led us to Whip?”

My father looked surprised, but I felt I needed to show my support for what Jimmy was saying. “I didn't know why I had to go out there. I just felt compelled. And after we found Whip, the compulsion left me.”

My father considered. “That's interesting.”

Jimmy crossed the room and sat on a chair near my father. He leaned toward him as he spoke, and I knew what was coming.

“I need to experience what Jessie's experienced,” he said. “Until I do, I'm useless to her. I can't tap into my powers and I can't reach this other world you keep talking about.”

“The other world you don't believe in,” I teased.

“That's not fair. I've swallowed a remarkable amount of insanity since we left town this morning. I think I deserve some credit. But the only way I can get a grasp on this stuff is to become a witch myself.”

“Has Jessie explained that you lack the healing gene?” my father asked Jimmy.

“Yes. But that's no barrier to a man like you. I've watched enough medical shows, I know what a heart surgeon does. Every day you operate, you stop a person's heart and put them on a heart-lung machine. I bet that procedure is close enough to the death experience to activate my witch genes.”

My father didn't respond. I had to prod him.

“Would it work, Dad?” I asked.

My father sighed and shook his head. “Frankly, I've never tried it before. It might work just fine. But it's a risk I'm not allowed to take.”

“Are all witches lacking in the healing gene forbidden to join your secret society?” Jimmy asked bitterly.

I was surprised Jimmy was so anxious to risk death when he'd made such a big point of being there for Huck. But the more I thought about it, I realized I'd feel the same way. Jimmy kept hearing from us about invisible enemies and dangers. He probably felt he could not protect his son unless he could confront them directly.

“No. But like Jessie, you're special, you're unique, and a lot of that deals with your relationship with my daughter.”

Jimmy paused. “I don't understand.”

My father looked at me. “You haven't told him about Lara?”

“No. He got so upset when I tried to convince him that Huck was still alive, I saw no point.”

“Who's Lara?” Jimmy asked.

I reached out and took Jimmy's hand. “Our daughter.”

He snorted. “Gimme a break.”

“It's true,” my father said. “There's no Huck in witch world for the simple reason that you were never with Kari in that world. You stayed with Jessica and when she accidentally got pregnant and had a baby girl, you two named her Lara. Only the child wasn't an accident, not to the Council. It had been planned for centuries.”

Jimmy frowned and looked to me to clarify the situation but I shook my head. Pieces of this were news to me. “Please don't tell me that Jimmy and I are part of a breeding program,” I said.

“Don't act surprised,” my father said. “You suspected as much when we spoke last night. You were told again and again how extremely rare it was to have seven witch genes. You were told five was also rare. Surely it must have occurred to you how unlikely it was that the one guy in the whole world you happen to meet and fall in love with has almost as many genes as you do. Not only that, Jimmy's genes are complementary. The three that you're missing, he has them.”

“What are they?” Jimmy asked.

“That's not important at this time,” my father said.

“So that's why Lara was born with all ten,” I gasped.

“Yes,” my father said. “You two were deliberately put near each other. It was even arranged that you'd share a few classes. But we didn't have to overdo it in that department because we
knew you would spontaneously be drawn to each other. On some level, witches usually recognize each other.”

“Why did Jimmy leave me for Kari in this world?” I asked.

“I was with her before I was with you,” Jimmy said.

“True. But you went back to her.”

“You know why I went back to her,” Jimmy said, annoyed.

“I want to hear my father's explanation,” I said.

“We're not sure but we can only assume the Lapras became aware of our genetic program. They might have tampered with Kari's and Jimmy's minds, just enough that Jimmy would choose the wrong time and the wrong girl to start dating.”

“You make it all sound so calculated,” I said, and it was my turn to show bitterness. “I assume you married Mom because you were supposed to. Of course, that would explain why you couldn't wait to dump her once I was born.”

My father took a long time to answer.

“I love your mother as much as you love Jimmy,” he said. “It broke my heart to leave her, and to be away from you in this world. I explained all this in witch world. I only did it because I knew the Lapras were watching me. It was the only way I could keep you safe.”

“But you let Jimmy and me grow up in a town not far from their headquarters!” I snapped. “It makes no sense.”

“On the contrary, it makes perfect sense when you realize that Apple Valley was the last place they would have thought to look for someone we were hiding.”

“Because it is so close to their stronghold,” Jimmy said.

“Exactly,” my father said.

“But you said they found out about Jimmy, Kari, and me.”

“They didn't know about you while you were younger. Actually, there's a chance they didn't know about you until you got pregnant with Lara.”

“What are you talking about? Did her conception send out some kind of signal?” I asked the question as a joke and was surprised when my father nodded seriously.

“Her birth might have,” he said.

Jimmy shook his head. “Jessie, have you even seen Lara? Are you sure she's for real?”

“I haven't seen her. But I spoke to her on the phone. I heard her . . . cooing. She's ours. I have no doubt about that.”

Jimmy heard something in my voice. “But there's a problem with her. What is it?”

Neither my dad nor I wanted to tell him the truth.

“The Lapras have kidnapped her as well,” I said.

Jimmy looked deflated, disgusted. He pointed at my father. “Jessie told me a little about that Council you're involved with. You're supposed to be a bunch of superpowerful witches. But all I hear about is how you guys keep screwing up.”

My father didn't flinch at his accusations. “We have made mistakes. We're not perfect. But we're faced with a formidable foe. And if the Council has made mistakes, they've made them out of a desire not to interfere with humanity's free will. Even
when it came to you two. We put you near each other but we didn't force you to fall in love. This might be hard to understand but a soul as bright as Lara couldn't have entered this world except through a couple that was deeply in love with each other.”

My father spoke with such conviction that neither Jimmy nor I felt we could challenge his last remark. But to be honest, I thought he was overly infatuated with Lara. My daughter was superior to others because her genes were better but she wasn't some kind of goddess.

“So your Council doesn't want to risk me going through the death experience because I might die,” Jimmy said. “And if I die, there's no one else around who can sleep with your daughter and create perfect babies.”

“That's one way of putting it,” my father said.

“But you didn't mind risking Jessie,” Jimmy said. “From what I heard, she could have died a dozen times while she was in your hands.”

“No. That was the problem. She got out of our hands.”

“I still think you were careless,” Jimmy said.

“We did the best we could, but we were forced to risk activating Jessie's genes because of what happened to Lara. Otherwise, I would have been happy to wait until you were both thirty years old. I want my daughter to go to college, to have a career. I want the same for you, Jimmy. But Lara came to this world when she wanted to come and with her she's
brought a magical light none of us can begin to understand.”