Page 3 of Incubus
Nathan knew Jim would be upset, but he also firmly believed that in time Jim would come to realize that what he had done was for the best. He said as much aloud.
"For the best?” Jim shot back. “You think throwing your life away is for the best?I'mthe one they're supposed to take, notyou!"
Nathan was sitting on the edge of the lone bed in their motel room, already with a beer in hand from the bottles he had stuffed into the tiny motel fridge before he left. Rather than respond to his brother, Nathan took a long pull from the bottle.
They had passed through the doorway in Porthclais and arrived back at Nathan’s Illinois motel about half an hour ago. Veil doorways could lead to any connecting location. All anyone had to do was think of where they wanted to go, assuming theyknew how to find a doorway in the first place. The afterimage of the one in their motel room was still faintly glowing on the wall.
"You should have let me go, Nate,” Jim said. “What do you think is going to happen now? They'll hunt you down, and if the mark doesn’t consume you first, after they've taken you through the Veil,they'll still come for me again too."
"They won't," Nathan spoke to the beer in his hands. “I won't let them. We can lie low like we always have, Jim. I thought I could pull the whole thing off scot-free…but I wasn't quick enough. That doesn't mean I'm letting any of those bastards claim this bounty until it's over. At least then...you won't have to worry about me anymore."
Jim huffed. He had been pacing but finally stopped to lean against the wall in front of Nathan. "Yeah, lucky me. It was getting to be such a pain always having my brother around to watch my back."
"Don't be an asshole," Nathan said. He stood, not particularly fond of his brother looming over him. "You think I want them to come after me? That I want to become a slave with no mind of my own? That I want todieif the mark isn’t claimed?! Of course I don't, but I didn't have a choice. It was the only way to get you back."
"And you expect me to be happy about it?” Jim countered. “Dying is the easy outcome, Nathan. If one of them claims your bounty and you become a Shadow Immortal, you're theirs forever. Do you actually have any concept of what forever would be like?"
"Something like this conversation?" Nathan said, and took another swig from his beer.
Jim snatched the bottle from Nathan’s hand so fast that half of it spilled onto the floor. “We're not kids anymore, Nathan!" he yelled. "You can't just make everything better by taking allthe burden on yourself! This is my life too.God...how long was I even gone?"
Nathan looked away.
"Nate? How long?"
"Two weeks," Nathan said, staring at the carpet as if fascinated by its collection of unidentifiable stains. "Don't know where in the fae lands they had you, so...no way to know how long it was for you."
At first, Jim didn't say anything, like maybe he thought he had heard Nathan wrong. "I don't understand. I don't...I don't remember anything after the pizza place."
"And you won't. Not for a while. The Messenger said she couldn't erase your memories, so you'll remember eventually. I don't know when. But I had to ask for that much. I had to make sure that when I first got you back…you'd still be you." Nathan twitched to reach for his beer again, but he knew better than to try and take it from Jim’s hand.
"We're fixing this," Jim said. "We're fixing thisnow." He slammed the bottle down into the wastebasket, a resounding chink telling Nathan that the remaining beer was no doubt leaking out over the rest of the garbage. "There has to be some way to remove the mark. You don't get to trade your life away for nothing."
"Jim—"
"No. We're fixing this."
As Jim renewed his pacing over the worn and dingy carpet, part of Nathan just wanted to collapse back down onto the bed. “It’s going to be okay, Jim,” Nathan said, sobered by the dampness he could see in his brother’s eyes.
Jim shook his head. "No, it’s not. You don't get to make these decisions."
"Sure I do.” Nathan tried for a smile. “I have to take care of you."
"I'mthe oldest," Jim countered, coming to a quick stop.
"Yeah, by like two minutes."
Jim didn't smile at the joke. He looked at Nathan stonily and said, "Don't you ever get tired of your life being just about me?"
The smirk that had built on Nathan's face fell. Without their parents they had had to rely on only each other for over a decade. But Jim was a changeling. Jim was the one the dark fae had always been after. It was Nathan's responsibility to watch out for him.
"Nathan," Jim said. "Please, can you at least promise me we will try to find some way out of this? We can't just hide and hope for the best. Not this time."
"Jim, come on. It's too risky. And how do you expect us to try anyway?" Nathan rubbed at the spot where his new scar was hidden beneath his shirt. He had changed out of his torn one as soon as they got back, but the Messenger's mark still itched like crazy. His left hand, wrapped in bandages to cover the carved divided circle, wasn't much better. At least he had reclaimed his knife before they left.
"Well..." Jim bit his lip, which usually meant he was about to suggest something that Nathan was not going to like. "We could try Wade."
"No. No way," Nathan said, finally allowing himself to slouch back down onto the bed. "We're not wasting our time with that damn psychic or any other scheme to get out of this. It's not worth it, Jim. Can't you just leave the whole thing be?"
