Page 41 of Changeling
“There’s no time to explain, but you have to trust me,” Nathan said to Sasha, who thankfully looked just as uninjured as Jim.“You’re not five. You’re an adult, but something happened to you. I’m your friend and I’m gonna help you figure it out, okay?”
Sasha was still looking wildly between Jim and Nathan, and Nathan knew that if he made the wrong move, he might lose Sasha. If the incubus got up and ran, or heaven forbidflew, Nathan might never catch him. But as Sasha looked down at himself to find an adult body, he looked much as Jim had—scared but more inclined to believe that things were messed up.
“Yeah, I know this is weird. Right now my brother Jim is in the same boat as you.” Nathan gestured over to Jim. “See, he looks all grown up too, right? But he thinks he’s just a little younger than you. The same thing happened to both of you and you’re gonna need my help to get better. Please. We have to get out of here.”
Nathan looked from Sasha to Jim and back again. They were just scared little kids but something in their faces told Nathan that they trusted him. They were smart enough to realize something was wrong and that Nathan was the only one who could help. If that’s the only grace Nathan was going to be offered right now, he’d take it.
“Okay, our car is parked down the street. We have to get to it and get out of here before any…any bad guys show up. See…they’ll try and take you away and…and you won’t know anybody. I know I seem like a stranger, but I’m not. You gotta come with me.”
There were so many questions both of them wanted to ask, Nathan could tell. Therefore, he could have kissed them both when they got to their feet on wobbly legs, unused to maneuvering such large bodies, and gave him little nods of approval.
“Good,” Nathan smiled, standing as well and reaching out for Sasha to take his hand. “Youknowyou can trust me.”
The incubus hesitated, his head lowered like he was the shyest thing in the world, but he took a step toward Nathan and grabbed his hand anyway. Nathan led Sasha back closer to Jim and reached out with his other hand to his brother.
They probably painted the strangest picture—three young men walking down the streetholding hands. If the others had the bodies of five-year-olds, it would have been sweet. But even if they did look strange, Nathan knew it would make Jim and Sasha feel safer to have the physical contact, and frankly, it made him feel safer too. He felt as if letting them go would mean losing them forever, and no matter how bleak things looked right now, Nathan could not let that happen.
The strange thing was how both of them went for their usual doors when they reached the car—Jim in the front seat, and Sasha behind Nathan in the back. Maybe there was still some sense memory left. That didn’t actually make Nathan feel any better about this. A five-year-old Jim wouldn’t really have powers and a five-year-old Sasha would have few. But if their bodies remembered otherwise, things could get complicated real fast.
Chapter 17
Nathanconcentratedonkeepingan eye on his mentally stunted brother and incubus. About halfway back to their most recent motel, with Walter riding beside Sasha in the backseat, Jim shifted uncomfortably in the front seat only to reach back and pull out the gun that had been tucked securely into his jeans. Nathan immediately snatched it away.
“Easy rule, Jim. What is it?” Nathan said, slipping the gun under his seat.
Jim’s eyes bugged out from having found the gun at all. “Never play with guns.”
“That’s right,” Nathan nodded. He glanced up at Sasha in the rearview mirror. “I’m gonna need yours too, pal.”
Sasha’s head was slightly lowered with his body hunched like he wanted to curl into a ball and hide. He reached to the back of his jeans hesitantly and found a gun just as Jim had. His hands shook when he passed it up to Nathan.
“Don’t worry. I’m gonna take care of you guys,” Nathan said reassuringly, turning his head back to Sasha just long enough to smile before placing Sasha’s gun under his seat with Jim’s. “We just…we just gotta figure this out. We’ll have to move to another motel, too. The one we’re at now knows you guys as…well, normal. Safer to find a new one.”
“This kind of magic almost certainly originates from a darksidhe, Nathan, not just fae,” Walter offered. “However, I do not understand what one could possibly gain by stealing years.”
Nathan was having a hard time wrapping his head around that too.
“M-Motel…?” Sasha’s uncharacteristically soft voice stuttered from the back seat.
Nathan glanced up at the mirror again and caught Sasha’s frightened expression. This was a five-year-oldincubushe was dealing with. There was a whole other world of anxieties Sasha was facing. It made Nathan’s stomach turn to think that Sasha was caught somewhere between really trusting him and fearing him.
Thinking quickly of a way to comfort the redhead, Nathan reached across to flip Jim’s visor down where there was a small mirror.
“Hey, take a look at yourselves, huh,” Nathan said, nodding up at the rearview mirror for Sasha to look, too. They both obeyed, curiosity getting the better of them most likely, and stared at their unfamiliar reflections. Jim touched his entire face, pushing fingertips into his cheeks like the whole thing had to be a mask.
“I look like Dad, too,” Jim grinned. Family resemblance was definitely helping Jim in the trust department, but Nathan had to go a step further for Sasha.
“You look more like Dad than me, I think,” Nathan smiled back at his brother. He looked up to catch Sasha then, who was still gauging the image of himself in the mirror and touchinghis face like Jim had. Nathan pulled his phone out and started covertly searching through pictures. When he found the one he wanted, he passed it over to Jim first. “Check that out.”
Jim was at first awed by the phone itself, and then his whole face lit up as his eyes fell upon the picture. “It’s us!” he cried happily, and without Nathan having to prompt him, he passed the phone back to Sasha.
Those same shaky hands accepted the phone, and Sasha’s eyes widened in wonder. “That’s me…” he said, touching a finger to the screen. It was a picture Nathan had taken the previous night, before Charis and Lindsey's arrival. It was at an awkward angle since Nathan had simply stretched his arm out to fit them all into it. All three of them were visible, though, Sasha in the middle with an arm around both brothers. They were smiling.
“See? Friends. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said to Sasha’s reflection. Bright, watery blue eyes looked up at him. “I’m not going to do anything to you but try and get your brains back to the age of your bodies. Now...do you guys got any knives on you? Any other weapons? Give yourselves a pat down. I don’t want you cutting yourselves.”
The response from the others was equally confused and shocked stares. Nathan was pulling into the motel finally. He had passed another one on the way that would do well enough for them to move to. Nathan pulled into a spot in the motel’s lot and shifted into PARK, but when he looked at the others, they were still just staring at him.
“Here. Like this,” Nathan said, unbuckling his seatbelt and leaning towards Jim. He placed the flat of his palms on Jim’s chest and gave two firm pats. “You just pat down your body like this and see if you feel anything under your clothes that isn’t…you.”
