Page 116 of Changeling
They nodded and got up to leave the bar.
“Oh,” Alex said before they could get too far from their stools, “and if you see an old friend in there, tell her to keep to the back of the couch if she can. She’s been shedding something awful getting in her winter coat.”
Nathan brightened and saw an answering smile on Sasha’s face. They had almost forgotten about the resident mascot.
They made their way through to the lounge, passing by the few seals without so much as a glance their way, and found the room not only vacant but dark. Nathan remembered where the light was and groped along the wall to flick it on. There were no windows in the room so it got pretty dark even in daylight.
The second the light filled the room, Nathan heard a telling ‘prrrp’ sound from the couch. Sasha was already reaching over the back of it by the time Nathan looked that way, and a second later the incubus had a large, fluffy grey tabby cat in his arms.
“Wally, you’re so big,” he said, his smile beaming as the ‘cat’ continued to chirp and squirm in his arms so she could better rub her face up against his. She made a beautiful cat, the only real strange thing being her very human looking grey eyes.
Nathan approached the pair so he could reach out and pet Wally himself. She bucked up into his hand. “Remember me, do ya? You behaving?”
Wally chirped as if to say, ‘of course’. And since there wasn’t any great smell of cat about the place, or any wrecked furniture, and all Alex had said was that she was shedding a bit much, he figured they could probably believe her.
“I don’t think it’d be too risky to pop back to your real self for a while,” Nathan said. As much as he liked cats, he really did prefer Wally’s real look, like a baby Ewok with her tiny human hands.
The chimera chirped again. Then, without any seeming effort, there was a fluffy gremlin with floppy ears in Sasha’s arms instead. She definitely looked larger.
Nathan stretched back in a reclining chair and Sasha sat down on the couch with Wally. Jim had been fairly silent, preoccupied with the thought of Alex joining them, Nathan figured. He sat down next to Sasha and held out his hand for Wally to sniff, but when he got close to her, she jumped back a little.
“Whoa, it’s okay, girl,” Sasha cooed. “It’s just Jim. Remember?”
Jim frowned. He started to lower his hand, but before he could, Wally ventured out a little again, crawling out of Sasha’s arms so she could sniff Jim properly. She cocked her head at him, maybe a little timid, and then looked back at Sasha.
“It’s really Jim, Wally,” Sasha said. “He probably just smells a little…different is all. You’ve been using your powers so much more since we were last here,” he said to Jim. “I’m sure that’s all it is. Go ahead, Wally.”
The chimera gave a little head bob like a nod and turned back to Jim. She inched closer, sniffing the air, gauging if she trusted her senses, and when she finally reached Jim’s hand and he moved it to pet her, she sank into his touch. A few ‘prrrps’ later and Jim didn’t look quite so devastated.
“I think the day she’s actually afraid of me, we might have to start worrying,” he said, clearly only half joking. Shecrawled into his lap, purring like the cat she pretended to be, and Nathan could tell Jim enjoyed the calming effect of an animal’s acceptance. She was a supernatural animal, granted, but animals of any kind were still one of the best watchmen for knowing if something otherworldly was going on—something evil.
For a few minutes they merely sat there, quiet and relaxed, made easier by the steady rhythm of Wally’s purring. Alex came in with a plate of sandwiches for them after a while and Nathan resisted the urge to make some kind of June Cleaver comment, which probably would have gotten him smacked. The lounge had a hidden sliding door that could seal it off from the rest of the building, which Alex had promptly closed behind her when she came in.
She sat on Jim’s other side on the couch, and after some perfuse gratitude, they started to scarf down the food. Nathan was surprised how good Wally was about not trying to get into their food while they ate. Though she did sit on the coffee table and watch them with mournful eyes that eventually got Sasha to sneak her a piece of cold turkey.
“So, Colorado,” Nathan said between bites. “Any more clues as to what’s waiting for us there, Jim, now that we’re closer, or still just going off instinct?”
Jim’s brow furrowed. “I think another large gathering but not quite like what we saw at the barn. I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Barn? You guys gonna fill me in or what?” Alex prompted. “What’s really been going on lately?”
Jim set his sandwich aside and took on the burden of explaining. He started with the growing extent of his powers—without being too blatant about a few details, Nathan noticed—ensuring Alex that he had a strong handle on things and knew what he was doing. After hearing about how much more Jimwas capable of, Alex looked rightly skeptical that the older Grier knew what he was getting himself into, but also a little awed.
He went on to explain everything they’d been through, even about Malak and their night with the twins, which he ended with a long look at Alex and said, “They’re actually part of why I wanted to come get you.” He didn’t elaborate, but a silent understanding passed between them that they’d take some time to discuss that later—alone. Nathan wished Jim had mentioned earlier that he planned to invite Alex along, but he couldn’t really think of any dissention.
“So that’s what we’ve been working on the past couple of weeks,” Nathan said, if only to break the stifling quiet that had risen once Jim was done. He set his empty plate aside. “We’re hunting down as many sidhe as we can, hoping we can make Malak’s deadline. Even took care of a few stragglers on the way here.”
“And you’re getting close to meeting your goal, sounds like,” Alex nodded. “I don’t know how I feel about you working with a dark sidhe like this, especially when you think he might actually be—no, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“There’s no other way to get Nathan out of being taken into the Veil,” Jim said. “If we can send back all of the dark sidhe that have broken through then Nathan’s out. Free. I’d say that’s a fair enough trade and worth the risk of doing what Malak wants.”
“But why would a dark sidhe lord, the king himself maybe, want you to do that?” Alex asked. “Sort of a conflict of interest, isn’t it?”
“We think…maybe…” Nathan faltered. They hadn’t said this out loud, not since he had first told Malak to stuff it. “We think he wants to get Jim to use his powers too much, to make him…hell, I don’t know, turn on us, I guess. Live up to whatever the dark sidhe planned for the chosen changeling from the beginning.”
“It’s not gonna happen like that,” Jim said with quiet conviction when Alex’s eyes widened. “Even if that’s really what he wants, what he thinks he can do to me, I won’t let it happen. This is about Nathan. I’m using my powers because I have to, not because I want it. I don’t feel any less like me. And maybe you don’t believe that, but whatever I have to do to save Nathan, I’ll risk it. You know as much as we know now. If you don’t trust me then…I’ll understand if you don’t want to come along.”
Nathan watched the dissent spring to life on Alex’s face, but not fear, not distrust.
