Page 74 of Changeling
“Nathan! Sasha!” interrupted Jim’s fierce whisper from down the hall.
“What is it, Jim?” Nathan started down the hallway after his brother. “Sense something? See something?”
Jim shook his head, but his eyes were wide as he turned halfway to Nathan with his other half still pointing down the hall, like he was listening very carefully. “I think Ihearsomething. Sasha?” He looked at the incubus for confirmation since Sasha did have slightly more attuned hearing than the average human.
They all stood very still to listen. Nathan couldn’t hear anything, but the look on Sasha’s face said that he most definitely did. “The main auditorium is down that way through the double doors. Think it’s coming from there?” he asked Jim.
Jim seemed to want to shrug, like he wasn’t entirely sure, but he just stood still. “I…I sense…something. But I’m not sure what yet. It’s kind of…familiar, but it’s almost as if there’s interference. Maybe we should have made more of an effort to see Wade before we did this.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “She probably already knows we’re here, and would have called us if she could offer any help. We can check with her later. Now, come on, let’s get a move on and take a look.” He walked past Sasha and Jim in the direction of the double doors. “Guns at the ready might be a good idea,” he said over his shoulder, reaching down to pull out his ankle blade while still holding the scanner in his free hand.
“Nathan, wait,” Jim said firmly, holding up a hand as if he was still trying to get a handle on what he was sensing. He was still back by the classroom door.
Sasha was a few feet behind Jim, but suddenly the incubus’ eyes went unnaturally wide. “Nathan!” he yelled, but Nathan didn’t get the chance to react to the warning. He was already on his back, having been rammed into the hallway wall by something very strong and moving very fast that had just bolted out of one of the classroom doors.
Whatever it was continued like a blur straight for the auditorium. Nathan didn’t get a good look at it, but he was on his feet a second later, ready to chase it down. “Sonuvabitch!” he cried, sore from his sudden striking against the wall and equally hard landing on the floor. He was already through the double doors to follow after the creature when he heard Sasha yell.
“Nathan, wait!”
Likehell. If this thing wanted to hit and run then Nathan would give it one hell of a chase in return.
The auditorium was large and very dark, but a big space like that always had emergency lights and this place was no exception. Nathan could see dimly the shape of something moving quickly for the stage. There wasn’t much of a set yet, being over a month before the production would open, which gave Nathan plenty of room and a clear line of sight. He raced after the small shadowy figure on the stage.
Nathan lost sight of it about the time he reached the ramp that led onto stage from the side. The stage itself was filled with shadows that played tricks with Nathan’s eyes. Distantly, he could hear the sounds of Jim and Sasha join him in the auditorium and their voices calling after him. He wanted to call back to them, but he also wanted to get the jump on this thing if at all possible.
A scurry off to Nathan’s left, back in one of the far corners, caught his attention. The figure was fast, but Nathan still saw it coming when it swooped down after him. He raised his knife and finally, at the last second before the creature plowed into him and knocked him off the edge of the stage, he saw that the scanner was flashing.
Nathan hoped the fall would be a quick drop to the floor, but the pit for the orchestra was an open gaping chasm where he had gone over the edge, and it had a much deeper drop. He hit the ground with a great gasp of breath as the wind was knocked outof his lungs and his wounded shoulder screamed in protest. The creature was still on top of him, but had at least managed to land without all of its weight on Nathan’s chest.
“Get off!” Nathan growled against the thing’s neck as he pushed at it. “You’re not killing any more kids, and you’re sure as hell not killing me!” He pushed again and was surprised this time at how easily the creature moved. It grabbed onto the edges of his jacket and lifted him effortlessly from the floor to push him back against the wall of the pit. Nathan’s head was spinning from the fall. He couldn’t focus.
“I didn’t killanyone,” came a gruff, out of breath male voice. “I was trying to find the thing myself. It wasn’t me.”
Nathan’s first instincts were to say ‘yeah right, likely story’ but then he couldn’t deny that this guy was stronger than him and definitely had the upper hand. So why was he defending himself instead of just ripping Nathan apart?
“It wasn’t me,” the creature said again, his grip loosening on Nathan’s jacket. “I wouldn’t hurt anyone. We don’t hurt people.”
We?Nathan strained to focus his eyes and get a better look at this guy. As it turned out, even with Nathan pressed back against the wall, the creature wasn’t any taller than him but actually stood about eye level. Nathan was much more interested, however, in the horns, fangs, claws,redeyes, andwings. The guy’s white skin didn’t fade to black but to a deep brown. Still, he was definitely an incubus.
Which would explain the flashing scanner.
And why Sasha had tried to stop Nathan.
Damn it.
“My bad. Seriously. Guess I just jumped the gun,” Nathan said, relaxing within the guy’s hold now that he knew what he was dealing with. “Mind letting me away from the wall here. My head’s still spinning from that fall.”
The incubus seemed thoroughly surprised that he was being believed so easily. “You…know what I am?”
“Uh…yeah,” Nathan said, as if that should be obvious. “And if you paid a little more attention, pal, you’d probably notice the pheromones onme.” He shook his head a little and righted his jacket when the incubus released him, favoring his shoulder as best he could. This gave Nathan the opportunity to really look at the guy, who had fairly short brown hair to go with his deep brown wings, claws, and markings. “Huh, didn’t know you guys had different color schemes.”
The bronze incubus stared at Nathan hard then surprised him entirely by offering a somewhat breathy exclamation of, “Are you…Nathan?”
Nathan gaped. It couldn’t be that widespread that Nathan Grier was getting it on with an incubus, could it? But Nathan’s slightly open mouth dropped even lower as he stared at the incubus before him. Those brown wings faded away along with everything else as he transformed back into a recognizably human form.
As a human the guy was a few inches shorter than Nathan, wore jeans, a T-shirt, and one of those sporty zip-up jackets, and had brown eyes with a tinge of gold to them. Nathan instantly remembered those eyesandthe incubus they came with, even if this version was about a decade older than the one Nathan had seen before.
“Holy shit,” Nathan breathed, “Cam?”
