Page 45 of Shadow Seeking

“I’ll get it, that’s probably Dante,” Penn said, exiting the room.

I turned to Dr. Anthony. “I’ve never met a demon specialist before,” I said, wincing as my head continued to pound out a heavy-metal rhythm.

“Call me Seton,” the doctor said. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Can you tell me what kind of demon you are, and which side of your parentage your demonic blood came from?”

I shook my head. “My mother was human. She never told me who my father was, except that he was a demon. I asked her time and again, but she wouldn’t ever say.”

“I need to take some of your blood. Please hold out your arm.”

I did as he asked. If Dr. Lara trusted him, I felt I could trust him. He quickly and painlessly drew three small tubes of blood and tucked them into his bag. After that, he asked Dr. Lara to stay while he performed an examination. He checked me out for birthmarks, he listened to my heart and lungs, did a throat exam, then examined my ears—which were slightly pointed—and looked over my hands and feet.

After that, he asked me to hold onto a crystal the size of a softball. It was quartz, striated with black tourmaline. As I took hold of it, a wave of energy flowed through me. It seemed to soothe the headache enough for me to take a deep breath. As I held onto it, he picked up another crystal, that looked almost like the sphere’s twin, and he fit it into a small object that looked like a round bronze bowl with a hole that fit the ball. Then, he set it on the nightstand next to me.

“If you would think of your mother, and—since you don’t have any memories of him—ask about your father, silently. Close your eyes if it helps.”

I tried to do as he asked. I closed my eyes and brought up an image of my mother. Then, I imagined myself asking her who my father was, and held onto that thought.

“What on earth—?” Dr. Lana whispered.

I slowly opened my eyes, trying to keep the question in mind. I glanced at the other crystal ball. Hovering over it was a symbol. It looked like something written in Chinese or Korean,but I knew it wasn’t one of those languages. It glimmered with an aura of misty fire, a faint red.

Seton stared at it, then let out a long breath. He sketched it onto a notepad, then took a picture of it. Then, he motioned to me. “You can relax now.”

“What is that?” I asked.

As soon as I spoke, the symbol vanished.

“That was the symbol of the Demonkin clan that your blood is from. I’ll have to examine your blood to be positive, but I can tell you that I’m ninety-five percent certain your father came from the Arosien Clan. And your demonic blood is starting to waken. You’re having growing pains as your powers from it begin to blossom in your body.”

I stared at him. “Growing pains? Arosien Clan? You mean I’m going through puberty?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said. “And it’s not going to be easy.”

At that moment, Penn peeked in the room. “Dante’s here. Can we come in?”

I slowly nodded. “Yeah. You’re not going to want to miss this.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I was still tryingto take the news in an hour later, after Seton and Dr. Lara left. Dr. Anthony had given me a potion to help my headache—which it did—and he had set up a time next week for me to meet with him to discuss my clan and to see if we could figure out what powers were starting to wake.

By noon, my headache was gone and I had managed breakfast and coffee, and was ready to head to work. I had a million questions, but until the next week, they wouldn’t be answered, so I pushed them to the side for now.

Penn suggested that she could clear out the guest room so she could bring her bedroom furniture in the next day.

“I closed the shop for the weekend, since I’ll be moving. When you called this morning, I decided I might as well make it a three-day holiday.” She rinsed off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. “What do you think?”

“I think that’s a great plan. I’ll be busy till late—I probably won’t be home until around nine or ten. Can you feed the cats their supper so I don’t have to run home to do so?”

“Sounds good enough to me,” she said. “Do you have a space down here where I can put my desk? I don’t know if it will fit in the family room with my living room furniture.”

I thought for a moment. While my house was mostly on one level and Penn would be taking one of the three bedrooms as her own, the spare room was mainly used as a storage unit. I used the second bedroom as a workout room, and the den for my own office.

“Why don’t we clear out my storage room and you can have that for your office—or you can have the bedroom as your office and the spare room as your bedroom. Whichever configuration you like. You ought to get more than one room for seven-hundred a month plus utilities.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh yeah. I can buy a shed for the back yard to put my storage boxes in. And anything else you’d like easy access to, but don’t want to keep in your room or office. Until we get the shed, we can move those boxes to the garage so you can bring your desk in tomorrow.” I glanced at the clock. “Okay, I’m good to drive, so I’m heading to work.”

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