Page 45 of Changeling
“Well…I said that an incubus,” sounding like ‘inky-bus’ again, “is just like a human but…we’re stronger, and we can fly, and some other stuff too. But even though some people think we’re scary, we’re not. We just need to be around people coz we feed off how they feel. Like food. Only I need real food too.” Sasha's eyes were far away like he was checking his memory to be sure that was everything. “Yeah,” he said, “that’s all. Was…that okay?”
Thatwas a mouthful. Nathan had started to doubt Sasha could talk that much as a five-year-old. “That was fine,” Nathan said with a smile, squeezing Sasha’s knees. “And…what did Jim say to all that?”
“He said he thought that sounded real cool, and that he wants to see me fly sometime. I said I wasn’t sure I could show him coz I’m too young to do a glamour, but my body seems to know, I guess. I just don’t wanna change and not be able to change back. Oh! And he told me he’s a changeling. He said that if we’re friends, and he knows I’m an incubus, then I should know what he is too. But it’s okay. I’m not scared of changelings."
Nathan sighed in relief as the brunt of all that sunk in. “Good to know,” he said, reaching up with one hand to smooth back Sasha’s hair. “I’m just glad you and Jim are getting along okay.”
Jim. Where was Jim? He had been in the bathroom for a long time now.
“Hang on a sec,” Nathan told Sasha, and got up to walk over to the bathroom. He knocked a couple times before calling out, “Jim! What are you doing in there? Food’s gonna be here soon!”
But even as Nathan said all that, it started to dawn on him what Jim was almost certainly preoccupied with in the bathroom. There were definitely some differences between a five-year-old body and a twenty-five-year-old one. Nathan grimaced. He suddenly really didn’t want Jim to answer honestly.
“Never mind!” he called quickly. “Just…just hurry it up, okay!”
The bathroom door opened and there was Jim, blinking at Nathan innocently. “I’m done,” he said before stepping out, “I was just—”
“I haven’t even heard it yet and it’s too much information,” Nathan broke in, a hand held up like a stop sign to make sure Jim didn’t speak further. “Just, uhh…keep some things to yourself, okay? I need to figure out how we're going to fix all this.”
And then Nathan was back to thinking about reality and just howfuckedthey were.
He sat on the edge of one of the beds, touching a hand to his sore chest, then to his bruised and battered shoulder. It seemed he was never going to recover fully; not with his luck. He quickly downed an extra dose of his meds.
Nathan remained lost in thought long after Ula had brought in breakfast, as Sasha and Jim ravaged the food at the small motel room table. He dug the book out of Jim’s belongings, the one he had originally used to summon the Messenger to get Jim back from the dark fae court. He paged through it for some time before coming to the conclusion that there was nothing within its pages that could help him. Not with this. It was mostly forsummoning fae, and Nathan didn’t have any of the things he would need to try and summon whoever was responsible for the Animus House curse.
As he contemplated his options, his eyes drifted to Sasha's now discarded leather jacket. Without a moment's hesitation, Nathan grabbed Sasha’s cell phone out of the jacket pocket. It rang only once before a familiar voice answered.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Shiarra said from the other end of the line. “Everything all right?”
“It’s Nathan.”
Silence. Then, “What happened?”
Nathan swallowed thickly. “I need your help.”
Thedaydraggedby.Even at top speeds and with use of doorways, Shiarra wouldn't arrive until morning. Keeping two five-year-olds occupied for an entire day proved more trying than Nathan anticipated, until Ula thankfully showed up with coloring books and DVDs from their stash for children. The sweet girl had thought Nathan might be offended by the gesture, seeing as how Sasha and Jim were 'special' and not actually children, which almost made Nathan wish he could tell her the truth.
Walter returned with news of the Animus House a short while after Ula had left, but notgoodnews. There was no sign of dark sidhe activity at all anywhere near the rubble. Whoever controlled those spells was long gone, and Nathan was going to need that person—sidhe or otherwise—in order to change Sasha and Jim back.
“I sense faehere, Nathan,” Walter commented as he looked around the motel room. “Nearby. Not sidhe, however, so it couldbe a coincidence and not a threat, but you should be mindful. Something is not as it seems.”
Nathan couldn’t concern himself with random fae right now, at least not while he had sole responsibility over Sasha and Jim. He just hoped Shiarra could help.
He spent part of the day repairing the broken scanner. It wasn’t in as many pieces as he had first thought after Lindsey caused him to drop it in that alleyway, and Nathan had it back together and working again in less than half an hour—at least he assumed it would work, though he couldn’t really confirm since it no longer picked up on Sasha’s pheromones.
When it was finally late enough that Nathan could declare bedtime, he had forgotten about one small thing.
“But, Nathan, I don’ wanna go to bed. I’m all dirty. I need a bath,” Jim whined.
When they had settled into the motel room, Nathan hadn’t even changed their clothes. He didn’t want to deal with them naked or anywhere near it. It was too awkward—kids in adult bodies. Way too awkward. Leave it to Jim to be one of those kids who liked bath time.
Sasha proved to be much the same. He was wrinkling his nose at his dusty, dirty clothing. Really, Nathan couldn’t blame them. He wouldn’t have wanted to crawl under clean sheets if he was still dirty. He had planned to shower after they fell asleep.
“Nathan,” Jim whined again.
“Dude, you’re an adult. You’re not gonna drown in the bath by yourself. If you want to get clean, go do it yourself,” Nathan said. He was not going to budge on this.
“But, Nathan,” Jim argued, “I don’t wanna be in there alone. Can’t you sit in there with me?” He summoned an impressive pout.
