Page 79 of Concluded
“I want to be on the side that wins.And Mom, I’mstrong.I don’t want to be a lowly peon who’s just trotted out to do magic tricks.”He crossed his arms and tried not to think about the fact that this was also distressingly close to accurate.“Take me to whoever’s in charge.Not a minion like your two pals here.Not a screw-up like Ashley.I want the head honcho.”
“That’s a lot to ask, especially from a person who’s turned traitor twice.”
“A mother who abandoned her child with an abusive junkie is in no position to make judgments.”He lifted his chin.“I did what I had to in order to survive.I still do.And I look out for myself because nobody else does.”Also true, at least until recently.
She tapped her foot for a moment before responding.Then she turned to the men near the door.“Strip the agent and make sure he’s got nothing on him.No jewelry, nonothingthat could be used as a charm.Then tie him up tight and throw him in the trunk.”
Dee had to feign indifference while the goons pulled off Achilles’ clothing and then moved his body around.Apparently satisfied, one of them trotted out the front door and returned a short time later with an assortment of ropes and zip ties, which he and his partner quickly used to bind Achilles.They clearly had no qualms about this, although they didn’t show signs of taking pleasure in it either.Dee wondered what they got out of it.He found it terrifying that how no matter how cruel the cause, there always seemed to be plenty of people eager to jump in and do the dirty work.
He took a look at the bag of Thai food cooling on the table, the books he’d just bought, and the game he’d hoped to play with Achilles.
He turned to his mother.“Okay.Let’s go.”
* * *
It was a nice car,big and sleek and black, although the nighttime dark made it hard for Dee to discern the make.The goons were up front—the greyhound driving—while Dee and his mother sat in the back seat.Achilles, of course, was in the trunk.The charm would have worn off by now, and Achilles must be very uncomfortable, but Dee hadn’t heard him make any noise.He was probably too tightly bound to move, and the goons had gagged him with a wad of fabric.
Gods, what if he’d suffocated?
Dee didn’t ask where they were headed.In fact, for the first hour or so, nobody said a single word.Which was weird, because he had about a million questions for his mother, and he would have thought that she’d have a few for him.But they sat there silently, strangers hurtling east along I-84, the Columbia River invisible in the dark.
They were well past the town of Hood River when Dee finally spoke.“Who’s my father?”
“He was a djinn.Full-blooded, not half like me.His name was Kiril, and he was nothing like humans.He respected me.”She narrowed her eyes at him.“Do you want to know what happened to him?”
“Yes.”Even though Dee guessed it was nothing good.
“The Bureau,” she hissed, followed by something that sounded like a curse word in another language.“He escaped his human master and came to this country to make a good life for me.And for you.But the Bureau found him and murdered him.Shot him down as if he were a rabid dog.”
Dee felt sick.He didn’t know whether to believe her.If she was telling the truth, then either his father was dangerous or the Bureau was less benign than Achilles had led him to believe.Neither of these were welcome scenarios.
His mother continued her story—which was Dee’s story too.“When I didn’t hear from him for a long time, I came to this country too, with you heavy in my belly and with an empty purse.I searched almost a year before I learned what had happened to my Kiril.By then I had a baby to feed, and as you’ve learned, djinn don’t do well on their own.Martell… he was nothing like Kiril.He was a weak man.But I was desperate, and he was willing to take you in even though you weren’t his.I did what I had to do.”
He could understand this.Without someone to… well, to master him, he’d been aimless his entire life and had skipped almost eagerly into Ashley’s grip.And Dee hadn’t even had a kid to worry about.
“Did Martell know you’re a djinn?”
Her mouth puckered as if she’d eaten something sour.“No.Can you imagine what someone like him would have done with that knowledge?And, of course, it meant he didn’t know about you either.”
Had protecting Dee truly been one of her goals?That seemed unlikely since she’d left him with Martell, knowing full well that Martell was abusive.Memories of hard hands bubbled in the back of Dee’s head like boiling sewage.He pushed them away as irrelevant now.But he couldn’t push back his anger.“You left me with him.And you never came back.”
“He was killing me!”She took a moment to collect herself.“Men like that, even if they don’t know what we are, they suck at us like leeches until nothing remains but an empty husk.But I couldn’t leave him, not with nowhere to go and a child weighing me down.Until you grew old enough to grant your first wish.”She made a dismissive gesture.“The new one wasn’t much better, but this time I was wiser.I saved enough money to be able to escape him on my own.”
Tears stung Dee’s eyes, much to his frustration.“Why didn’t you take me with?Or return for me later?”
“Too hard,” she said, almost lightly.
“Did you even love me?”He hadn’t meant to ask, but the question escaped anyway.
Her hands were clasped in her lap.Long-fingered, like his, but with several bejeweled rings.She stared down at them for a long time before meeting his gaze and answering with a surprisingly soft voice.“I did the best I could.It wasn’t very good, but I was young and had so little to work with.”
Dee turned his head to look out of the window, even though there was nothing to see.He didn’t forgive her.Couldn’t.But she wasn’t asking for forgiveness, and somehow that made him more sympathetic to her.When he was young, he’d made bad decisions too.He hadn’t had a child, so those choices most often impacted just him, although sometimes others got caught in the mess too.He’d ended up in jail more than once.But like her, he had done the best he could with the little he had to work with.
With eyes closed, he tried to disengage from his emotions again.And, more importantly, from thoughts that did him no good right now: thoughts about his wretched little family, and thoughts about Achilles currently suffering in the trunk and headed for worse.
His mother, perhaps with a sense of what he was up to, made a sharp scolding sound.“Hold on to your rage, Dee.It belongs to you.If you’re angry at me, so be it.But think of all the others who’ve wronged you.Your father who got himself killed before you were even born.Your stepfather who hurt you.The children who sensed you were different when you were young and bullied you—they did, didn’t they?The society that never would have accepted you as you were.The goddamn Bureau that murdered your father and used you.Feelthat rage, my son.Let it strengthen you.”
He didn’t know whether anger was her weapon or if it was used by whomever his mother worked for.But he felt the truth of what she said.Yes, he had been mercilessly tormented as a child.And yes, fury lay within him like lava held back by a layer of solid rock.It always had.He could fracture that rock, let the lava freely flow.With that fueling him, he could accomplish astounding things.
