Page 90 of Changeling
Sasha frowned. “Maybe…it doesn’t want its own flesh and blood.”
Nathan shivered as what Sasha meant dawned on him. “Wait. So…you think this thing has been jumping bodies, gaining power, so that…when it finally has enough it can just take over the last body it’s in? For good?”
“It could hide forever in a human host,” Sasha nodded solemnly.
Nathan and Cam exchanged equally panicked expressions.
“But that means we could be dealing with two villains here,” said Jim. “The dark sidhe and the person who summoned it. Unless it killed the summoner first…”
“Or it’s saving the summoner for last,” Nathan offered. He was about to say something more, but the paramedics had left with Tina and the students were starting to disperse. “That sidhe and maybe the person who summoned it are among these kids. We can’t just let them all go,” Nathan said in an angry whisper.
“But we can’t exactly attack,” Jim whispered back. “We have to wait until tomorrow. Come up with something new. We don’t know if it’s claimed its final host yet. Right?”
“I don’t know…but I don’t think so,” Sasha said. “It might go after Jennifer still, or Tina. Even if it went straight for the person it wants to keep for a body, it’s going to need to kill one of them, probably both in order to completely take over whoever it’s in now, at least if it follows its current pattern. If we can find the host and get it out of them somehow, maybe we can kill it without hurting whoever it’s in. I hope. Assuming we can pull any of that off…”
“Hey…guys?” interrupted a soft, somewhat frightened voice from outside their tight circle. It sounded wrong to hear that particular voice so timid.
Nathan turned back to see Leven standing behind them. The rest of the room was almost cleared out.
Leven attempted a strained smile. “I…uhh…I got Jenn to say she won’t tell anyone about…what she saw. She’s so scared, she just wants to forget it all anyway. And…and I won’t tell anyone either. I mean, I already knew you were both…Iknew, I just…”
“Just hadn’t ever seen it all in person,” Nathan offered. He knew firsthand how jarring seeing an incubus for the first time could be.
The smile on Leven’s face flickered real for a moment. “Yeah. Not that you’re scary!” he said to Sasha and Cam. “Not really, I guess I just wasn’t really prepared. Look, Wade’s here to pick me up. I think I’m gonna go home. You guys…you saved Jenn and Tina’s lives. I know this thing’s still out there, but thank you. Let me know what’s going on tomorrow, okay?” And with that Leven turned around fairly swiftly and headed for the double doors.
“You guys work on our plans for hunting this thing down tomorrow,” Nathan said. “I’m gonna make sure the kid’s really okay.” He didn’t wait for a go-ahead before he ran after the retreating teenager.
He was about halfway to catching up with Leven when he noticed something on the carpet that made him pause. A few drops of black, like paint—or like the blood from the sidhe when Nathan stabbed it. He shuddered.
Leven was only just opening the doors to leave when Nathan caught up to him. But something had started eating away at Nathan, something heavy and hot that burned in his gut and brought his mind back to the night before and those tarot cards.
He had so many things he had planned to say to Leven to ease the kid’s mind after tonight, but when Nathan finally reachedout and grabbed for Leven’s shoulder, only two words formed on his lips as he pulled back his hand and saw black there too.
“It’s you.”
The thin, agile body of the young teenager went rigid, and when Leven turned around to face Nathan, his eyes were slit.
Nathan regained a firm hold on Leven’s shoulder and made to call out to the others. He had barely taken in a single anticipated breath, however, before sudden pain shot throughout his chest as Leven—no, the thing inside of him, the damnsidhe—slammed an open palm into his solar plexus and sent Nathan flying back into the auditorium.
“Nathan!” came Jim’s voice, as the others rushed over to where he had fallen.
Nathan gasped past the painful blow and crumble to the floor. Jim was on his left so he reached across with his right arm, grabbed Jim by the front of his shirts, and yanked him down closer to his level. “The sidhe…went intoLeven.”
Pain seared through Nathan’s chest and shoulder as he lifted himself to a sitting position, and then Cam and Sasha on either side of him hoisted him up.
Jim’s eyes widened. “I didn’t sense anything off about him… He’s the final host.”
As Sasha and Cam helped Nathan steady himself, the four of them turned toward the double doors. Leven hadn’t moved. He was standing confidently with his arms crossed, slit eyes prominent and proud, with black blood oozing from his injured shoulder—a wound that had traveled with the sidhe from Tina. No doubt the cut on her leg was with Leven now as well.
“So…thought you’d take a better model for a ride, huh?” Nathan spat. “I don’t think the kid suits you.”
“Mm? I think it’s a perfect fit,” the dark sidhe grinned. “This beautiful boy is just what I need.”
Nathan and the others made a wall across the main aisle of the auditorium, side by side. The sidhe took a step forward to meet them. Even the movements of the kid’s body were different with that thing in control.
“So itisall about Leven,” Jim said. “But why? Why do you wanthim?”
An eerie laugh left the sidhe. It looked equally amused and disappointed in them. “This boy is better treasure than anything I’ve ever stolen. If we’re going to take over this realm then I plan to lookgoodwhile conquering it.”
