rogue shifter 06 - torn apart (2 page)

"Farrell is with him and young Jason on the grass near the patio. I believe they are throwing a ball." Sinlae sometimes had trouble understanding the normal activities of children in our mostly magic-less world. In Faerie, there would be no reason to throw a ball around, when anyone could throw it as far as they wanted and anyone else could catch it no matter how fast it flew. It was impossible in Faerie for a fae not to use magic, even a child not yet come into his full powers had a basic level of energy.

"What did Charlie say, exactly?" I asked while pulling on a robe then running fingers through my bed hair.

Sinlae imitated his voice perfectly. "Please tell Mommy that I need her to come and give me my birthday present before Daddy wakes up. Now would be best."

I laughed as I disappeared into the ley lines and reappeared outside, still wearing my robe and pajamas and squinting in the 9 AM sunshine.

"Mommy!"

Charlie dropped the ball and ran to me, throwing himself into my arms with so much force that I fell backwards and landed awkwardly on my butt with him still clutched in my arms. Our momentum continued to carry us completely down to the ground, so in the end I was sprawled on my back in the dewy grass with my enthusiastic son straddling my waist. Fortunately, Farrell had broken my fall with his hand behind my head, so I wouldn't be nursing a lumpy skull along with my bruised behind.

"Can we do that again?" Charlie asked, giggling.

"C'mon sport, let your mom get up." Farrell was doing his best not to laugh as he took hold of Charlie by the waist and lifted him high over his head then down on top of his shoulders. Charlie rewarded him with a loud belly laugh that had me smiling widely as I got up and brushed myself off.

Meanwhile Kyle was laughing so hard he was bent over at the waist, his hands on his thighs.

"Here I come, Dad!" This time it was Jay who wanted in on the game as he charged at Kyle, his seven year old body more the size of a ten year old. Jason was the adopted son of Peter, our lawyer friend and his mate, Kyle, a member of our Rogues, Inc. team. Peter's friend had worked a case five years ago where a young child of two bear shifters had been abandoned by his drug-addicted parents. They'd gone out to score and then crashed their car and died on the way back home. Luckily a neighbor had heard the two year old crying when they didn't return. Since there were no other relatives, he and Kyle had decided to adopt the young boy.

Kyle, not really the stay-home-alone-with-the-kid type, tended to bring him over quite a bit, which was fine with all of us. Jason was a typical bear, loud and quite large for his age. However, he had a sweet nature and seemed to get along well with Charlie even though he was two years older.

"Ha. Now you'll get yours..." I started to say more, only Kyle, in a very graceful move, scooped his son up, swung him around with no effort at all and then placed him gently on his shoulders.

He smirked at me, still wiping off a tear from his bout of hysterics, "You were saying?"

Jay was giggling so I called out to him, making a motion for Jay to mess up Kyle's hair, which the little monkey did without hesitation. Kyle had always been kind of obsessed about his spiky blonde "do", so this was my revenge for his mocking me.

"Hey, don't listen to her. I'm your dad." He laughed, which made Jay rub his hands around even faster.

"Watch out, Jay. Your dad uses so much gel your hands'll stick to anything you touch."

"S'okay, Aunt Jackie. Daddy and I are used to it." Peter was Daddy and Kyle was Dad.

Charlie whispered something to Farrell in the musical language of the fae and Farrell answered. "Please speak English when you're with people who don't speak Fae," He followed that up with, "If it's something private between us, you can always tell me later when we're alone." He gave Charlie a wink.

I watched my son nod thoughtfully, his lavender eyes a little bit lighter than Farrell's, a ninety year old fae warrior. Charlie was himself half fae, his birth the result of a rape by his birth father, Kennet, the youngest half brother of the Queen of Faerie. The rest of his ancestry was a crazy mix of my cheetah shapeshifter, which gifted him with his healing abilities, a great-grandmother archdemon and even a grandfather who was a full blood sorcerer. The sorcerer part got cancelled out by the shapeshifter, but there were still three powerful bloodlines residing within his small body.

"Will you please put me down, Sir Farrell?" He liked to speak of the fae warriors as if they were Knights of the Round Table, even the females, and they got a real kick out of it. When he'd been ill, his favorite books for us to read out loud were adventure stories, and lately we were astonished to see he was reading them completely on his own.

Farrell lowered him to the ground in another fast swoop that had him laughing all over again.

He ran to me but stopped a few feet away, looking worried when he saw me rubbing my behind. I'd probably have an ugly bruise if I didn't use some of my healing energy. "Sorry I made you fall. Do you hurt?"

"I'm sure she's cool. She's got plenty of padding." Kyle was still giggling.

I ignored him, crouching down and holding out my arms. Looking relieved, Charlie smiled his beautiful smile and walked into them, giggling again. I stoked his shoulder length light blonde hair and kissed his head as I hugged him close to me. "I'm fine, sweetheart. Perfect." He preferred to keep his hair long, because he wanted to look like Farrell and Liam, who'd both become heroes to the little guy. I tried to get him to tie it back, but he liked to have it flying out behind him when he ran around.

Taking him by the shoulders, I held him at arms length to get a better view. "I think you grew overnight. Is that possible?" I looked at Farrell for answers.

He nodded. "One day my shoes fit and the next day they were way too small." He patted Charlie on the head. "He'll be tall like his..." He stopped himself before he mentioned Kennet, wincing at me in apology.

I shook my head and smiled so Farrell wouldn't feel badly. "Yes, tall and strong."

Jay laughed and walked closer, Kyle having placed him on the ground. "Not as tall or strong as me. Dad's teaching me mortal arts now."

"Martial arts," Kyle corrected him with a smile. "We're starting with Tai Chi." he explained, mussing Jay's hair in affectionate revenge.

Jay was a single-minded kind of kid, paying no attention to his messy hair. "Aw c'mon, can't we do Kung Fu or something cool? This kind is like dancing really slow."

"It helps with balance and strength and teaches you to focus, something you need to learn. I was taught Tai Chi by my father before any other discipline."

"I want to do that kicking ninja stuff." He demonstrated by trying to kick Charlie, not out of malice, but just to show him what he meant. Unfortunately for Jay, my son saw it coming and moved to the side just in time to make Jay completely lose his balance and fall backwards. He winced when he hit the ground, wrinkling up his brow in pain. Kyle went to him instantly and examined the wrist that Jay seemed to have strained when he put out his hand as he hit the grass.

Farrell tried to distract the boy who was looking more and more like he might cry. "That was very smart to put your hand out like you did. You could have hit your head if you hadn't stopped your fall. You'll make a good fighter. Fighters think on their feet."

"Yeah. I'm gonna be—be awesome." He bit his lip and wrinkled his forehead, but the brave little guy didn't allow any tears to fall. Kyle looked pretty proud.

Liam, Garrett's closest fae friend and personal bodyguard, came out of the house with a bag of ice, passing it to Farrell. "This will help keep the swelling down. Bring him inside and I'll..."

"I'll do it, Uncle Liam." Charlie had moved to take Jay's injured hand in his, closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath through his mouth. By the time he'd expelled it, Jason was laughing, relief etched across Charlie's features.

"Cool. It doesn't hurt now." He looked at Liam. "Daddy always gives me ice, too, but this worked faster." He gave Charlie another grin. "You could be a hand doctor."

Charlie shook his head. "I'm gonna be a guitar player and a pirate."

Liam sent to me mentally, "
Did you see his aura
?"

I nodded, still too shocked to speak. His golden aura had turned emerald and orange as he'd healed his friend with his magic. Green was a healer's aura, a rare occurrence in the supernatural community. Liam and I were the only other known healers on the west coast, although there could be others we hadn't heard about. Sinlae had predicted before he was born that Charlie would become a healer when he came into his powers, but none of us imagined that it would happen at this incredibly young age. What other powers might show up early? I hid my worry behind a smile so I wouldn't upset him.

"What did you do to take the pain away from Jay?" Liam had crouched next to him so they could be on eye level.

He was beaming with pride, his lavender eyes sparkling with gold. "I ate the hurt. It went to my belly."

"You took it inside yourself?" He nodded. "Did it hurt you when it was there?" He shook his head, starting to look worried.

"It's okay, baby. Liam's just curious." I rubbed his back to ease his mind.

"Then what happened to it?"

"It dissolves in my tummy. It's cold like...like ice cream."

"Have you done this before?"

He nodded. Liam and I glanced at each other in surprise. "When, sweetie?" I asked.

"When Sammy visited he fell and scraped his knee and I helped him heal really fast. We didn't tell anyone."

He looked down at the ground, probably feeling guilty. I tilted his chin up so he'd look at me. "What you did for Jay and Sammy was wonderful. You have healer magic, and that's an amazing gift. Liam and I have it too. But will you please tell one of us from now on if you think you need to use it? It's important that you tell us before you do anything." If he tried to heal a serious injury, he could cause real harm, plus possibly injure himself in the process.

"Sure Mommy." He was grinning again. "I gave Jay a present on my birthday!"

Jay smiled back at him. "I got a present for you too, but you can't get it 'till your party. You're gonna think it's awesome."

"So he takes after Witchy Woman, huh?" Kyle gave my son an appraising glance and mouthed,
"Spooky"
. Witchy Woman was his nickname for me when I used my healing gift.

Charlie frowned. "Mommy, I need my present so I can learn a song before Daddy wakes up. I only have until later and it's almost later now. I promised him I'd learn a song and play it."

"He didn't mean that you had to learn a song in six hours. He just didn't want to get you the instrument if you weren't willing to practice. It takes time and hard work to learn a song on the guitar. And your fingers have to get used to the strings."

"I watched a video on the computer on how to do it." My son shrugged, confident that one could learn almost anything by going online.

"Daddy's going to give you lessons, honey."

His beautiful lavender eyes were wide with pleading as he took hold of both of my hands. "Please. You can take back any other presents you got me." He must have practiced this pleading expression in the mirror.

I looked from Charlie to Liam, who was standing behind the little imp laughing quietly. I sent to him mind to mind,
"Please get it."
He nodded and disappeared, choosing wisely not to comment.

Kyle on the other hand, couldn't resist. "Watch out, womankind," Kyle laughed, pointing at Charlie. "Don-Juan-in-training, here. He's already got
you
wrapped around his finger."

"Hey, I'm a Don Wand too!" Jay scowled at his father.

"Nah, you're a Ninja warrior, remember?"

"Oh yeah, that's cooler than a Don Wand."

"Mommy? Can I take tai chi too, with Uncle Kyle? I wanna be a Ninja Don Wand."

"I'll talk to Daddy about it." At this point I was fighting back laughter with every ounce of my will.

"Okay." He looked hopeful.

Liam arrived with the smaller sized guitar in a case wrapped in birthday paper, which Charlie tore through in seconds. "Happy Birthday, Charlie." I crouched, kissed his head and hugged him tightly, the guitar getting in the way a little. Neither of us seemed to mind as he hugged me back. I took in his scent with a slow deep breath, ambrosia to my nose: cheetah mixed with vanilla along with a refreshing hint of fae magic.

"Thank you, Mommy." He kissed my cheek so sweetly. "C'mon, Jay. Let's go watch the guitar video again."

"Sure. Cool. We can rock up." He tried to make some kind of rock and roll symbol only it looked more like the boy scout salute.

They ran off to Charlie's room, laughing and talking excitedly, Farrell following close behind. Kyle walked off to the side, putting a call in to Peter to tell him about the latest adorable thing their son had done. When I'd first met Kyle, he'd been full of fun, but also moody and immature at times. With the addition of Jay into their household, Kyle had grown up, becoming a terrific Dad and probably a more responsible mate to Peter. Still, I was glad his sense of humor hadn't changed. I liked goofing around with him.

With a loud sigh I looked toward the sliding kitchen door where they'd entered the house. "He's growing so fast," I said to Liam. "Last year I was worried because he wasn't growing normally. Now I'm relieved that he's well, but it bothers me that he's also more independent. How long before he doesn't need me?"

"He'll always need you. I still ask advice of my mother and look forward to the time that I spend with her. Charlie will feel the same." Liam reassured me.

I smiled at his kindness. "Thank you. I guess I needed to hear that. What about his being able to heal so young? Is it dangerous for him?"

He gave a very human shrug. "When you and I heal, we send our magic to repair the injury or act as a tonic. We don't take the pain into our own bodies."

"He said he swallowed it."

"Ingesting the pain into himself where it dissolved and, I believe, fueled his own magic, is very much the demon approach."