Page 43 of Changeling
Nathan stopped dead in his tracks only a few feet from the car. He had no idea how to change them back. He had no idea where to even start. Bringing down the entire Animus House hadn't brought out the fae responsible, and Nathan had no other leads. He wasn't a seal. He didn't know how to play detective on his own and figure this out. He was going to need help.
Wiping a hand over his face, Nathan tried not to think about it right now.
“All set,” Nathan said as he slid into the driver’s seat. "You guys ready to go?” He accepted his phone back from Jim and shifted into REVERSE to get out of the parking spot.
Jim put on his seatbelt and stayed in the back with Sasha. Sasha put his seatbelt on too. At least Nathan had what were probably the best behaved five-year-olds in existence.
“Okay, now when we get to the new motel,” Nathan said, “just be yourselves.”
Thenewmotelwassmall, cozy, and seemed to be family run. Nathan left all of their things in the car to be brought in after they acquired a room, but he brought the ‘kids’ in with him. He quietly asked Walter to go back to the Animus House and scour for any clues, then to check in with him again later.
Nathan didn’t say anything specific about his companions to the demurely pretty clerk at the front desk as she booked them their room; he just let Jim and Sasha be themselves and waited for her to comment.
“Nathan!” Jim called, standing on tip-toe beside Nathan so he could tower over his brother. “Look how much taller I am! I’m taller than you! I bet I’m taller than Dad too!”
Nathan tried not to cringe at the mention of their father. He had no intention of explaining why their parents weren’t around. “Yeah, buddy, you’re an oak tree,” he said with a light chuckle. In reality, Jim was only the slightest bit taller than him.
“Nathan…” came Sasha’s voice as the incubus came up on Nathan’s other side. Sasha accompanied his words with the most adorable tug on the edge of Nathan’s coat. “Can we have something to eat? I’m hungry.”
“Me too!” Jim said immediately, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Nathan supposed he couldn’t expectbothof them to be shy and quietly contained.
“Yeah, sure,” Nathan said. “We didn’t get breakfast.” It was still early, only eight o’clock since they had gone to the Animus House before dawn. Nathan turned to look at the clerk, who was smiling genuinely at both Jim and Sasha. She was actually kind of cute in that schoolgirl, bookish sort of way. “Excuse me, uhh…”
“Umm…Ula. My parents are big Mel Brooks fans.”
“The Producers,” Nathan said with a happy nod. “Hey, when ya got it, right?” he added with a wink. Nathan liked to think he had a place in his heart for all women. Well, he used to. This particular girl looked a year or two out of college, had a short blonde pixie cut with a slight curl, and had very pretty blue-green eyes. He couldn’t help tossing her a grin and, instead of a simple blush, the girl’s whole face went red. She looked immediately embarrassed by it.
Jim was staring at Ula too, blinking curiously like he was trying to look through her, which couldn’t be helping the blushing; but at least Sasha had enough tact to stay poised.
“I don’t suppose you have room service or anything here?” Nathan asked.
“Oh, sure. I can send something up after you. The kitchen opened at seven so you’re fine. What would you like?”
Nathan turned to Jim and grabbed his brother’s arm before he could start rattling off every sweet thing his stunted brain could think of. He was reminded of the scene he had witnessed of him and Jim when they were actually that age, tussling with their parents on the bed. “Why don’t we go with pancakes to keep it simple? That okay, guys?” Nathan asked.
Sasha nodded right away, smiling subtly.
“That’s good,” Jim said, “I love pancakes. Thank you,” he smiled at Ula.
Ula beamed back at them. “Three orders then. I’m sure I’ll have it up to you by the time you finish bringing in your things. I’ll go back right now and make sure it gets started.”
Jim’s expression was blinding, literally like looking into the sun. He never looked that happy anymore.
Before they could head out the door to grab their things, however, Ula smiled at Nathan and said, "You know, it’s really sweet that you take care of them. Your brother and…is he afriend, I guess? Seems like this must be a special outing for you guys. Do they usually live in a home?”
Nathan returned the clerk’s smile. He knew she would think Jim and Sasha were ‘special’ in some way, and judging by most rules of tact, he knew she wouldn’t actually ask what was ‘wrong’ with them. “I look after them now,” he said, which was the best way he could explain things without lying. “And yeah, we’re on a bit of trip. They’re actually angels so it’s not as hard as you might think.”
“Were you guys out hiking early this morning? Maine’s usually so blustery about this time, but you lucked out with a nice, sunny day today.”
Nathan faltered for a moment. He had managed to wipe off both Jim and Sasha's faces somewhat, but they were all a little smudged and dirty yet, what with Nathan being thrown out of the house and Jim and Sasha ending up under tons of rubble.
“Yeah...thought we’d get an early start before checking in," Nathan said. "Guess we’re still a little dirty.” He made a point of dusting off Sasha’s leather coat, to which the redhead seemed a little startled but allowed it.
“I’ll have your breakfast up in a jiffy!” Ula called after them as they headed outside, which made Nathan smile.
He couldn’t not like someone who used the wordjiffy.
Chapter 18
