Page 37 of Changeling
Nathan smiled back.
Truce.
“Hey...where’s Sasha?” Nathan questioned. “Did he go on without us?”
Jim frowned as he turned to stare up the staircase. Nathan turned to look as well. There was enough light pouring in from the risen sun now that they could make out more Gaelic carved into an overhang of wall at the top of the stairs.
“Above, the journey is longer, but it will appear as smaller steps," Jim read. “My guess is it means the second floor has bigger jumps. Starting with…” he trailed for a moment before turning back to Nathan, “twenty-five. Nathan,think. What would Sasha see of his life twenty-five years ago?”
That seemed like such a silly question at first since Sasha was twenty-five years old, but then Nathan remembered that these rooms were very specific, and technically Sasha would be a few weeks old if he were to step into a room marked #25.
Nathan’s eyes widened as he looked at Jim and understood immediately why Sasha hadn’t waited for them. The brothers hurried up the stairs, not so much worried as slightly concerned over how Sasha might be reacting up there.
When they walked through the archway of the second floor they came to a similar landing as down below, splitting off into two doorways or leading up another flight of stairs to the third floor. The correct path looked to be the same direction as before so they headed left.
It was a little too quiet for Nathan’s liking as they made their way to the first door. It indeed had a prominent #25 above it amidst the explaining Gaelic and, as soon as they looked inside the room, they understood why the silence was so thick.
It was a living room, simply furnished, modest, with shag carpet and a sofa in the middle. Sasha was crouched next to the coffee table just in front of the sofa. He had the blankest expression Nathan had ever seen on the incubus. Sasha could put on a mask with the best of them, but this was different. He didn’t seem to notice they were there, but neither of them dared enter the room and risk ruining this for him.
There was a man sitting on the couch, his head lolled back and his eyes closed gently in sleep like he had simply drifted off. In his arms was a tiny bundle, a baby boy only a few weeks old with the brightest little tuft of red hair.
Before Nathan or Jim could think to say anything, a woman’s voice called out.
“Deklin!”
Chapter 15
Thewomanappearedina doorway off the living room with a bemused expression and a hand on her hip. She was beautiful, much more so than any photograph could capture. The red hair falling in waves past her shoulders, the bright blue eyes, the quirk of a loving smile. She didn’t wear makeup; she didn’t need to. She was dressed in jeans and an oversized violet sweatshirt that hung low off one of her pale shoulders.
“Deklin,” she said again, calling to her husband as she approached him, “you’re supposed to put thebabyto sleep, not the other way around.” The smile on her lips shifted into a smirk. She stopped just in front of the couch, barely a foot from where an adult Sasha was still crouched.
Deklin stirred, lifting his head with tired eyes and a small smile of his own. He looked down at what was so obviously hisson, a wide awake little bundle of a boy who was happily squirming in Daddy’s arms. “Well, that was the original idea.You’re making me look bad, buddy,” he whispered to the tiny redhead.
A smile broke onto the real Sasha’s face, but it was a sad smile. His eyes were turned down at their edges and already shimmering wet.
“He’s like a little space heater,” Deklin said, resituating himself but not getting up from the couch. “Puts me out every time. I can’t help it.”
Sasha's mother, Solaris—for there was no denying who she was—looked thoroughly amused by the situation. She leaned toward Deklin and kissed his forehead, smoothing back his longer dark hair with her hand. Deklin had that familiar black Irish look to him—black hair, blue eyes, fairer skin, though not as fair as his wife’s. His hair was layered and wavy to his shoulders. He looked twenty-five, of course, but what surprised Nathan was the sight of rugged stubble.
Sasha didn’t even have a shaving kit. Nathan had certainly never seen the guy shave and assumed that, as an incubus, he didn’t need to. It made Nathan wonder if the rules were different for the initiated, since Deklin hadn't been born an incubus.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to put you to sleep if you weren’t staying up so late with all that research,” Solaris said chidingly.
“The bad guys don’t take days off, Sol, so neither should I,” Deklin replied. He looked down at baby Sasha again and smiled. “Besides, if I’m already up then I can take first shift with this guy. Male bonding time is very important for us, ya know.”
A melodic giggle left the succubus. “I’m not saying I don’t enjoy the benefits, just don’t wear yourself out. You can still get fatigued as an incubus. You’re not invulnerable. You’re a seal, a husband,anda father. Some might consider that too much for one man.”
Deklin just grinned. “I thought that’s what all the sex was for,” he said through a laugh.
“Very funny,” Solaris droned, bending down again to kiss him full on the lips. It was a slow, easy kiss.
Nathan liked to think his parents had been like that too.
Solaris pulled away. Deklin was smiling wide as ever, and that’s what finally made Nathan realize something that should have been obvious. Sasha looked just like his father. Pictures couldn’t really capture the resemblance well enough, but it was clear now. Sasha had his mother’s eyes, but the rest of his face, especially the smile, was all Deklin.
Maybe Nathan was thinking or feeling too loudly because that was the moment when Sasha turned and saw them. Nathan and Jim both shrank back but Sasha wasn’t upset. He just smiled wide with an expression so like his father.
A buzzer went off in the kitchen, startling the couple and bringing Nathan back to reality, too. He was about to tell Sasha that they really needed to move on. They shouldn’t have let themselves get so wrapped up in their pasts to begin with, but then maybe they were right in assuming that taking the tour was the best way to figure things out.
