The House (32 page)

I worked
slowly and carefully but everything went by in a blur. I tried
several things that didn’t work and eventually had to wrap Jalas’
mind around the part of me that wasn’t working properly and do the
mental equivalent of pull. I had to be gentle to save both my mind
and his. Gentle sounds easy but it was so much more difficult than
brute force would have been.

Vaguely, I
could feel sweat trickling down my neck. The real world in general
was faded and washed out. I had to finish before that became
permanent. There is a reason that nobody looks into their own mind
in this way unless there is no other option. If there had been
anyone around we could trust with any kind of telepathy I would
have had them do it. But there was nobody we knew well enough, with
enough power that I trusted, to be inside my mind this way.

I had to pull
at it quite smoothly which meant that it took quite a while. With
Jalas’ mind wrapped around the damaged part, I was exposing myself
to the rest of my mind. If I wasn’t careful I was going to go mad
anyway. That’s the fate of people who spend too long unprotected
inside their own minds.

I knew when
I’d fixed it because everything suddenly felt right again. Clearer
and easier – I could feel everything and hear everyone around me
but it wasn’t threatening to swamp me anymore. I found that I could
recognise and dismiss the people around me quickly and with only a
little effort. I felt normal again.

There was
still the chattering in the back of my mind but it was background
noise. Almost peaceful, showing me I wasn’t alone. I rejoiced in
the relief the relative quiet brought me. Then I remembered that
Jalas was still inside my mind. He could not exactly move about on
his own but I’d forgotten to pull him out again. He could feel
everything and likely hear all of my thoughts; I really didn’t like
the idea of that.

Pulling him
out of my mind was a slower and more laborious process than letting
him in. To let him in, I had to find his mind and open myself to
him. To pull him out, I had to make sure I found every little bit
of his mind where it touched mine and sweep it away. I wouldn’t
have put it past him to hold on in there on purpose – it was one
way to spy on people. And the thought that Jalas could spy on me at
all was terrifying; the thought that he might always have a link to
my mind was unimaginable.

“Thank you,
Jalas,” I said as calmly as I could once I had extracted him from
me. My head was spinning and I felt like I was about to throw up or
pass out. I wasn’t sure which I would have preferred. Jalas put a
hand on my shoulder to steady me. His hand covered all of it.

“You are safe
for now but eventually you will have to go before the witches’
council. They will not give you a choice.” His voice had taken on
the same husky quality I remembered from when I was younger.

It should have
been sexy. In fact, when I had been working with him I thought it
was. Once, I would have given almost anything to be in bed with him
and that voice. Of course, in the end it turned out that the prize
wasn’t worth the price. Eventually I learnt to associate that husky
voice with him having just successfully tortured someone. I hated
to think what was in my mind that had brought on the voice; I never
wanted to hear it again.

“You should
go, Jalas. My grandfather will be waiting for news of how this
went. I’m sure you’ll be desperate to go and tell him everything
you saw in my mind.” I sounded cold and spiteful but it was the
easiest way to deal with Jalas. I could not get sucked back in.
“And I won’t have to go before the witch’s council because I am not
a witch. I am a shifter. Shifters aren’t welcome in the Covenant,
you know that.” The last sentence was almost a growl.

“You will
always be welcome in our Covenant, Beatrice. You should know that
by now.” He actually bowed to go with the words. I could only guess
it was some form of long ago chivalry. I just glared at him until
he ducked out under the umbrella and into the rain. He headed
towards the back of the garden and the gate to the alleyways.

I waited until
I thought I had my face in order and pulled the enormous umbrella
from the ground. It was reasonably heavy, too heavy for a normal
man to carry by himself, but I managed it like it was an ordinary
size. I barely gave a thought as to how it would look for a young
woman to be seen carrying something so large on her own until I
heard unfamiliar voices in the house.

I froze.

I carefully
put the umbrella away in its little stand. I’d not even thought it
was movable until Jalas had brought it out onto the grass. In fact,
I doubted it had been made for that purpose at all. It was fiddly
to get back into its holder, a tube stuck down through the patio,
and I cursed Jalas silently as I tried. The rain was starting to
get under the umbrella as well, gradually soaking me.

“Trix? Are you
out here?” It was Hercules.

“Just help me
with this damn umbrella would you? It’s awkward.” I was breathing
heavily with the effort of trying to manoeuvre the thing around and
I wanted to know who was in the house. Hercules ducked under the
umbrella quickly, just missing the edge as I moved it down to get a
better hold on it.

“You
struggling?” he asked, only half sarcastically.

“What does it
look like? Help me damn it, don’t laugh at me.” I was irritated.
I’d just let Jalas back into my mind, something I’d promised myself
I would never do again, and there were voices in the house, voices
that didn’t sound like they knew we were shifters.

Hercules held
the umbrella above my hands and between us we got it back into the
stand. I had to bend down and press something in on the stand to
allow the umbrella to slot in. That’s why I couldn’t do on my own;
it doesn’t matter how strong you are, if what you’re holding is
awkward, you’ll still need help.

“Who is here?”
I asked as we made our way back through the outer living room.
Hercules gave me a look. “They aren’t shifters are they?”

“No.” Then we
were in the hall and I saw them. A couple with a teenage son stood
in the main hallway. “Trix, may I introduce Mr and Mrs Trinbridge
from next door.” He gestured with his hand and hid his look of
annoyance from the people in front of us. I had no idea what my
face held but it didn’t inspire confidence in the neighbours.

“Hi...call me
Hari...this is my husband Neil and our son Freddie.” Freddie looked
vaguely embarrassed to be introduced as such. “We saw the missing
posters and thought we’d come over and see if you kids are
alright.” She looked around as James came through from the
kitchen.

“They brought
us some lasagne so we don’t starve,” he said. His face was deadly
serious, but then he could always make anything sound serious. I
had to hide a smile.

“We’re doing
alright,” I told them. I realised that between putting the umbrella
back and getting inside I’d been soaked through. The rain had been
driving hard by the time we’d finished our training session. For a
moment, I wondered exactly how long I’d been outside. Time can move
strangely if you’re inside someone’s head, especially your own. “If
you’ll excuse me for a moment I just want to find a towel. I’ll be
right back.”

I turned
around quickly and walked purposefully away down the hall. I
probably moved a little too quickly. However, I managed not to run
until I got to the stairs. I didn’t realise until I was in my room
that they would probably expect the stairs to creak when I went up
them. Normal humans just can’t move that quietly. In fact most
shifters couldn’t move that fast that quietly anyway. Maybe they
would just think we had amazingly quiet stairs. Or more likely they
just wouldn’t notice, people tend not to notice things that are too
strange to fit into their view of the world.

I’d just
finished drying and changing when Hercules walked in.

“What are they
doing here?” I asked. Hercules shrugged.

“I don’t know
but I don’t like the idea of them alone with James and Eddie.” What
he meant was...he didn’t trust the new guy not to say something
stupid. We’d all been there. Everyone was cautious of new people
around the House until we knew them. We had yet to meet someone we
didn’t come around to in the end, but there was always a first
time.

“Come on, we’d best get back, but I don’t have a clue what to
do with them,” I sighed and legged it back downstairs, slowing just
before they would have seen me to a human normal run. It
felt
slooow
.

Hercules was a
few seconds behind me. We never take the stairs at the same time,
not at those speeds. We’d had one too many collisions so Marie had
banned it. It brought tears to my eyes to think of Marie again.

The
Trinbridges were still waiting in the hall. Everyone looked
woefully uncomfortable standing around. Hari had her arm around her
husband in such a way that I knew she was nervous. Freddie just
looked lost and scared. I was fairly sure they had never been
inside the House before. We didn’t entertain guests much.

“Hari, Neil,
Freddie. Would you like to come in? We have tea if you want some,
or coffee?” I had no idea how to play hostess but I was giving it
my best shot. If only Marie had been there, but if Marie had been
there they wouldn’t have felt the need to come over in the first
place.

I wondered why
they had bothered anyway; we didn’t speak to them, ever. Then I
realised that there was a simple way to find out. I had control
over my power now, I could use it. But we’d try questions first; it
was easier and far less dangerous. I was never entirely sure that
people didn’t realise that I was plucking bits and pieces from
their minds.

“Tea would be lovely,” Hari said. Her voice was soft and
feminine, almost delicate. I looked at her, she
was
delicate. She was short, not as
short as Stripes but just about smaller than me, and with a frame
that looked almost deflated; like she should have been
bigger.

She looked
like she’d been sick but I was fairly certain that she wasn’t. Her
cheeks were rosy and her hair was shiny, if a little too styled.
She had it in a neat bob that suited her face; in a rich brown that
I was certain wasn’t her natural colour. She looked like she took
too many vitamins to make up for not eating enough. The
supernaturals tended not to idolise the thinness she had reached,
especially we shifters. She was thinner than most of the celebs; it
was still popular with a few people but most preferred a bit of
something on women. At least enough not to look emaciated.

Neil looked
enormous next to her. They both looked to be nearing fifty but they
were in good shape. For humans anyway. He wasn’t wasting away; it
looked like he was really having to work for his figure though you
could see in the set of his shoulders that it just wasn’t as
natural as it used to be. His hair was almost the exact same colour
as his wife’s but his smelt natural, as did their son’s.

Freddie
reminded me of a rabbit that’s bounded onto the road only to freeze
in a car’s headlights. He looked about twelve but I was betting he
was older. I was inside his head without realising it. He was
fifteen and he knew he looked young; he was worried that we would
all think he was a kid. He also hated being called Freddie and had
been Fred to his friends since he was nine.

I thought
about Marie – the Trinbridges clearly knew her but their son
didn’t. Marie integrated herself into the community well; she even
integrated me into the community. We went to charity functions and
block parties when there were any. I’d never considered that others
might miss her. I had been too focused on us as her family.

Dipping into
Hari Trinbridge’s mind I saw genuine concern for Marie. She thought
that Marie was a lovely woman, and that she was probably dead,
which was a great loss. She also thought that we were too young to
be on our own to deal with this but that she didn’t know us well
enough to try to help with more than just bringing us food. It made
me think better of them that they cared but it didn’t make me want
to get rid of them any less.

Pretending to
be normal is like walking on eggshells all the time. You forget
yourself so easily in your own home that sometimes you just don’t
notice that something isn’t quite normal. Our living arrangements
were strange enough; we didn’t need to spook them further. I also
saw that Neil wasn’t spooked at all. He was nervous that they would
be in our house too long and he would miss his date with his
mistress. I hated being able to see into people’s minds
sometimes.

I put three
tea bags in the tea pot that Marie insisted we use if we ever had
what she termed ‘polite company’. We normally only got it out for
visits from her family or mine, although I tended to make myself as
scarce as possible for the latter. I also put coffee in the
cafetiere because I wanted it and it felt rude to offer the
Trinbridges only tea if I had something else.

Hercules
pulled scones from the back of the cupboard, took one look at the
vague green coating on them, and shoved them in the bin. We were
running low on supplies; I wished again that I had gone to the
shops for food. It was so easy to forget about things like that
when life had turned upside down.

I poured half
the water into each container as Hercules found the reclusive
biscuits. They were hidden behind several family sized tins of
tomato soup in a little- used cupboard.

“I didn’t
think we’d even find these,” he said. Marie would have scolded us
no end for not offering our guests some form of cake or biscuit,
but she did like to hide the decent ones so that we still had some
when guests arrived. I had to blink back tears again to look at
them. I felt so silly, nearly crying at the thought of a box of
nice biscuits.