Page 18 of Changeling
“I miss anything?” he asked, looking hard into Jim’s eyes that already looked a lot better but were still wet and puffy. If Jim wanted to tell him anything, he would, and if not, then Nathan would understand.
As he expected, Jim just smiled a little wider and shook his head. “Nothing important.”
Nathan nodded. “Alex sent me up to get you guys for dinner. Figured we better get down there and offer some help. Wouldn’t want to look like loafers, now, would we?”
Again, the pair looked at Nathan with such mutual relief that he knew he had walked in at the perfect time. They weresuccessfully purged for at least a little while. He couldn’t help it if he’d rather goof around and get them laughing about something instead of talking out hisfeelingson the matter. Any thoughts he had on his bounty or Jim and his Awakening were equally unpleasant, and Nathan just didn’t want to deal with any of it. Not on their much needed vacation.
“Come on, boy wonders, let’s eat!” Nathan said, heading back towards the door with a quick look back to make sure he was being followed.
“Can I at least be Nightwing?” Sasha said, making a face.
“I might be persuaded.”
“Why do you always get to be Batman?” Jim asked with something like a pout.
Nathan grinned a little crookedly. “Because I’m awesome,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Whatever. I’m older.”
Nathan just laughed as they made their way down the hallway. His teasing earned him a hard smack in the arm, but there was a smile at the corner of Jim’s mouth despite his best efforts to hide it, and Sasha belted a laugh too, making Nathan feel overall accomplished.
After all, someone had to keep these sentimental guys in one piece.
Chapter 8
Afterdinner,whenAlexannounced that one of her last projects for the boys was knocking down a wall between two rooms, Nathan was all over it. Unfortunately, his crash on the sofa earlier led the others to believe he might not actually be well enough for all that hard labor, and he was denied. Nathan couldn’t sit still though, not after napping for so long, so without any new chores bestowed upon him, he snatched Sasha’s scanner from their room.
Nathan hadn’t given the device much thought since he first saw it in Minnesota, a ruse at the time so Nathan and Jim wouldn’t catch on that Sasha could sense incubus and succubus pheromones just fine on his own—no scanner needed. But the scanner did work for other creatures, and Nathan wanted to get it working as initially promised. After all, he needed the device more than Sasha or Jim, who could both sense most things naturally, and if there was ever another homicidal incubus orsuccubus around, he wanted to be prepared. He used this as an excuse to open the device up without first asking permission.
The crystal inside that powered its magic glowed purple much like the ones on the goggles they had sold to Schuester all those mouths ago. The only thing Nathan needed to add to make the device light up for incubus pheromones along with the other things it detected was the right rune on the inside of the cover. He found what he needed from one of the Gatehouse library books: a symbol that he figured translated closer to ‘sex demon,’ but it should do the trick. He snapped the cover in place after adding the new etching with his knife and turned over his would-be tricorder.
Nathan may not be fond of overly complicated technology, but he liked tinkering, and he wasn’t as averse to this type of science-meets-magic—not like he used to be. He smiled proudly at what he hoped was a job well done and decided to seek Sasha out to see if it worked. He hadn’t seen any of the others in some time, including Wally, and listened carefully for sounds of where they might be as he left the library.
Coming to the end of the hallway near the landing, Nathan felt a strong surge of déjà vu as he drew closer to Jim’s door. He could hear Sasha and Jim’s faint voices, just like he had earlier in the afternoon. As soon as he walked into Jim’s room, however, he relaxed, because they weren’t talking hushed or heated; their voices were faint because Sasha and Jim were out on the roof. There was access out Jim’s window, which had been left open and was letting in all of the cold air from outside.
Nathan could see the two of them out there, huddled around Sasha’s laptop as they sat wrapped up in the comforter from Jim’s bed. He shook his head. It was late December, for crying out loud, and Missouri was not known for being tropical.
“You are so not getting any sympathy if you two get sick,” Nathan said as he reached the window and started climbing outafter them. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing out here, geniuses? Coz if you’re watching porn…move over.” He had to grin at that, especially since Jim looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes.
Nathan came up on Sasha’s other side, already shivering at the cold temperature even though he was wearing layers today with a button down thrown over his T-shirt. It didn’t take long to notice what the two of them were actually working on, considering the intricate mapping of dark fae activity on the computer screen.
“The wireless works better out here. And at least we thought to bring the blanket. Hey…did you mess with my scanner?” Sasha asked, though he sounded more impressed than upset. “You got it to pick up incubus pheromones?”
The scanner in Nathan’s hand was already flashing from proximity to Sasha, but Nathan hadn’t noticed since his eyes were drawn to the computer screen. “Apparently ‘sex demon’doesmean incubus,” he snorted. “Just figured I should be prepared. Plus it’ll be easier to find you now. And I was bored. Now shove over, I’m freezing.” He plopped himself down and flipped the scanner off before setting it aside.
With a quirked smile, Sasha lifted the comforter and allowed Nathan to snuggle in beside him. They adjusted the blanket accordingly but still all managed to fit underneath, and with three male bodies pressed together, it was fairly warm.
“So instead of enjoying our last bit of vacation, you two are wasting your time on me?” Nathan asked, indicating the laptop.
“Nathan,” Jim said in a frustrated tone, “we’ve been over this. If we can track down the bounty holder, I might be able to use my powers to force them to release you. We wouldn’t even have to kill them. We just need to find a dark fae who actually knows whotheyare.”
“I’m not arguing,” Nathan said, “I just don’t want either of you getting your hopes up too high. We’ve found dark fae already, darksidheeven, and they haven’t been any help so far. How do we know the next time will be any different?”
“If this dark sidhe lord is as powerful as I’m guessing after our run-in with the dryads, then ‘they’ probably keep their True Name hidden from lesser fae. But that doesn’t mean dark fae don’t know who to turn the bounty into.”
Nathan blinked at Sasha, not understanding.
“Think of it like this,” Sasha went on, “even though no one seems to know the bounty holder’s True Name, they still know who…theyare, because the Muses and the Dryads were all afraid of them. Dark fae know how to turn the bounty in and to whom, but knowing another fae’s True Name gives a certain amount of power, so at most we’d probably only get a pseudonym. We need to stop asking for a name and start setting up a trap instead.”
