by K. N. Banet
We pulled up in front of the hospital, killing the conversation. We jumped out, seeing Hasan and Mischa in the car in front of us, then walked in together. A human saw us and waved us to follow.
“Good morning, Hasan. We’ve secured a private room for all of your children once they’re done with their procedures.” She smiled at all of us, her face getting slightly confused at the sight of me. Before she had the chance to say anything to me, Hasan gestured for her to walk.
“Lead the way,” he ordered. “How is everyone? They got here before us if I was told the correct information.”
“Madam Zuri’s injuries were easy to address once we could secure her and remove the rebar. We simply patched her once it was removed and laid her down to rest. She’s already on the mend and in the private suite. Mister Hisao is still undergoing his procedure. We’re trying to figure out the right dosage to put him under to rebreak the arm, but it shouldn’t be much longer before we wheel him into the room as well.”
“And Niko?” I asked. “He…”
“He’s currently under heavy sedation, and our best experts are working on him to realign his spine,” she answered kindly. “We’ve also got our best witch healers and fae healers there to encourage the regrowth of his spinal cord. His doctors and healers will have more information once the procedure is complete.”
A hand grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. I looked up as we walked to see Hasan holding me.
“He won’t walk out of this hospital,” he explained to me. “But he will walk again and much faster than any human would. Dirk has been working for you, and I would like that to continue, because I want Niko to stay with me at home when they discharge him. Dirk can’t go home to Germany.”
“He can stay with me.” I wasn’t going to ship the young man around the world. He knew me, and that would be easier than giving him to another one of the strange members of the family.
“We also need to talk before you hunt Lani down. I made you a promise.”
I stumbled and looked up at him as he grabbed my elbow.
“I’d forgotten our deal,” I said, swallowing. “Where…When…”
“The rooms here are soundproof, and I feel comfortable using them to talk,” he said gently. I nodded slowly in response.
We followed the nurse, Mischa and Davor quiet behind us.
She opened the door for us, then handed a key card to Hasan.
“We can have more made, sir, but we prefer to have fewer keys for high priority rooms, so if you must have other copies, please try for only maybe one or two more and send people out with them in pairs.”
“Of course. One should be enough for now,” he said, smiling at the nurse.
I could smell Zuri as I walked into the large private suite. It was more than big enough to fit everyone in the family, with three couches, space for the three hospital beds that would eventually dominate the space, and a large TV on the wall. There was even a door to a private bathroom. I opened it and looked inside to make sure.
“This is all soundproof?” I was too paranoid. Werecats had betrayed us, and Lani was still out there.
“Relax,” Hasan said, grabbing my elbow again to pull me along. “Come see your sister.”
I swallowed, not wanting to see her. She was hurt because I wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t fast enough. If I had gotten away that full moon, none of this would have happened the way it did. But Hasan pulled me to her anyway, and we stood quietly, watching her breathing. She was tucked under sheets that exposed her outline, but she was in human form now.
“I’ll need to ask them when she Changed,” my father said, leaning down to brush his fingers against her cheek. “Mischa, go find Jabari and ask him why he isn’t with his twin.”
“Yes, sir.” She left the room as quickly as we had entered.
“Davor, watch the door to help Jacqueline feel at ease. We might as well get this conversation out of the way.”
Davor gave one jerky nod and left as well.
I stepped back from him as he moved to sit down on one of the luxurious couches. Alone with him, with answers right in front of me, I found myself put on the spot and unable to speak. I wanted to get Lani. This could wait.
Right?
“Ask your questions, Jacqueline.”
“You let Shane die,” I said, swallowing. “Why?”
“Because I knew he would never survive the Change, and he was too far gone to save in his human life, just like you. You could survive, so I made the choice.”
I could smell the truth, no hint of a lie, but the problem with that statement was he believed he was telling the truth. There was no possible way he actually knew. He just decided not to risk it.
“How? How could you have possibly known Shane wouldn’t live through it?”
“I’m Talented,” he said softly. “Sit down. While the walls are soundproof, I don’t want to test that by turning this into a screaming match.”
I understood his reasoning, so I sat. He had sat in the middle, making it impossible to get any distance from him, but sitting on a different couch wouldn’t have fixed the problem.
“Some werecats, mostly very old ones, have what we call Talents, small abilities that are unique. Our family, as old and as powerful as we are, only has two, mine and Zuri’s. Well, Zuri inherited hers from my mate.”
“I heard Jabari talking to you about this before. You think Heath’s self-control, his ability to cover his emotional scents might be a Talent.”
“Having now lived in his house for a few days, I’m certain of it, but since wolves have short life spans, they probably lost the knowledge of it. It doesn’t really matter. He has a useful skill. Most Talents are very useful. Mine is…more dangerous, however, and I’ve grown used to hiding it. Only my mate and my children know of it, with the exception of you.”
“Why?”
“You’ll understand once I tell you what it is,” he explained. “Jacqueline, I can…smell out how likely someone is to survive. Before you jump in and say anything, understand that modern technology is catching up to what I can do, and my need for secrecy might become obsolete, but I’m an old werecat and can be stuck in my ways.”
My hands started to shake.
He can what?
“Keep…keep going,” I ordered.
“Take you and Shane. When I met you, you were a bright couple looking to learn how to ride horses. You were trying to have children. You were fighting against the way things were done by having your honeymoon two weeks before your wedding. You wanted it to be a small wedding, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I answered softly.
“I remember you talking about it. I thought it was charming.” He sighed. “You always had this look about you, though, that you were meant for other things. Like that life was the one you were settling for, and you would be happy, but you craved something else.”
“Don’t presume to know—”
“Don’t lie to me,” he said softly. “When I Changed you into a werecat, you had four glorious years where you were thinking of reaching for those goals.”
“At the cost of Shane,” I snapped. “And you know it. Now tell me…everything.”
“I can smell what science is trying to tell humanity now. The likelihood of someone surviving the Change. Sometimes, the answer is a clear yes, sometimes, it’s a clear no. Sometimes, you can flip a coin. If I taste their blood, the answer becomes clearer. Sometimes, very rarely, I can be wrong. It’s not perfect. No is always no, but yes…is not always right.”
“What…”
“I have raised more children than I have werecat children. I love children. It’s one of the things you and I have in common. We bond well with the youth. We like being parental.”
“Yeah…” I never really considered that. I loved having Carey in my life. I loved…the idea of her, the friendship, and those precious moments where I could almost be the mom I always wanted to be, and I loved how she loved me. I never really thought Hasan looked at the
world the same way. That he cherished being a father, guiding someone and being there for them. Seeing the world from a new perspective and listening to charming stories about homework and playing with friends.
“I had two sons, both human, who did not survive the Change. One of them should have been a clear yes. One of them was a coin toss.” He looked away from me. “And yet…they didn’t survive. I believe I can smell the genetic markers that make someone more or less likely to live through it, but each person must also have something unidentifiable, something…more to survive. Over the centuries, I have tried to find what that something more was. A will. A need. A purpose. Maybe even a touch of magic.”
“Me?”
“You…you felt right. Your scent made it very clear to me the likelihood you would survive was strong. Probably the highest likelihood I smell in people. You also had…something. I saw it when we met. I saw it every time I saw you staring at the ocean, your eyes filled with wonder and exploration, and a need to see it all. You had something. I wanted you as a daughter. I thought ‘yes, she would do well with Zuri and Mischa’ and ‘Jabari would get a kick out of her.’ You seemed to fit like a puzzle piece, and I couldn’t deny that.”
“And Shane?”
“He had nothing,” Hasan said with a gentleness I knew well. It was the same gentleness he’d used to explain to me the car accident and that Shane was dead. “And if I had tried, I knew for certain I was going to doom him to an excruciatingly painful death.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? About why you…left him to die…” Hasan truly believed he saved Shane from more suffering, truly believed he’d made the right decision, even if it broke my heart in half. “I might have…understood…”
“Imagine what a Talent like mine could do in this world, Jacqueline. Imagine what would happen if…Mikkel knew I could do it. That they could bring their human children to me, and I could tell them if their child would live or not.”
“That’s not a bad thing,” I growled softly.
“Imagine if the werewolves found out, then,” he said, his voice growing hard. “Silver is just as effective on me as it is on you or any werecat or werewolf. Imagine the danger I put myself in, letting the world know before science started to figure this out for them, that I could save their humans…or make them an army.”
I sucked in a breath, my eyes going wide. I understood.
He was protecting himself. For hundreds of years, thousands of years, he protected his Talent, kept it from the public, to keep anyone from capturing him and using him.
But something else bugged me.
“Hasan…you said you could see me in the family before the car accident…did you…”
“No. No…” He groaned and leaned over, rubbing his face. When he sat back up, he turned to me and grabbed my shoulders. “I didn’t cause the accident. I followed you and him around my territory because I was interested in your lives, making sure everything about your vacation was perfect. But that storm was a big one, and I can’t control the weather. I wish someone had told you two to stay off the road, but I made it a point to never interfere in the lives of humans on my island, especially ones who didn’t work for me. You were not the first, and you won’t be the last adult human I meet who I wished I had met sooner. I have met many, many people in my years. You were only the first I had a chance to save and bring in, though.”
As the realization settled, as his truths were told, I began to think in other directions. My mind turned with the implications of his ability. Science was still a long way off from being perfect. They were trying desperately to identify every gene that might make someone more or less likely to Change, but they were still failing at an alarming rate. Hasan didn’t fail nearly so often.
“And this is why I waited over a decade to tell you,” he whispered. “Never ask me because I don’t want to hurt you by refusing to answer.”
“What?”
“My children must decide on their own with their children if they wish to attempt the Change. I will not interfere. I will not tell you if your human family would survive. I will not tell you if Carey could or not. I will never tell you any of it.”
My eyes went wide. How had he known? Had my siblings tried before and failed to get that information?
“You don’t want…”
“I made that rule because not everyone is meant to be a werecat. There’s a violence in our world that needs someone with a strong spirit, or it will eat them alive.”
“Liza…”
He sighed. I could almost hear his thoughts, but I certainly wasn’t going to ask him to voice them, and if he chose not to, that was okay.
“So…the car accident happened, and you knew I would live, and Shane wouldn’t. Even if you had Changed him, he wouldn’t have survived.”
“I kept trying to tell you it was because he was too far gone, but…”
“But if he could survive the Change, he would have lived through his injuries. Our curse would have healed him if he could accept it, but he couldn’t, so he had to live human or not at all,” I finished for him, understanding why he felt terrible. He’d kept his Talent a secret from me, the key piece of information I was missing.
“You’re very smart,” he said softly. “And now, you know the entire truth.”
“You could make an army,” I whispered.
“Daughter,” he murmured, running a hand over my head. “I already have.”
Jabari, Zuri, Mischa, Hisao, Davor, Niko…and me.
That sent shivers down my spine.
26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Davor and Mischa still weren’t back twenty minutes later, and Zuri wasn’t awake. We had no word on Niko or Hisao, either.
“You can ask me anything,” he finally said. “We’re going to be here for a while.”
“I need to get to Lani…”
“You’ll wait for word on your siblings,” he said sternly.
“Who Changed you?” I asked, purely curious, and since I was stuck, he was right, I had the chance to know everything.
“The first werecat,” he answered. “But that’s all I’m saying about it and said werecat.”
I moved away from him, eyes wide again.
What a troubling thought. He was made by the first werecat, and he’d made an army of loyal children. Terrifying.
“Three wars,” I whispered.
“I’m not talking about the early days,” he said stiffly. “They were a very long time ago.”
“Okay.”
“Anything else?”
“Where’s your mate?”
“Your mother lives in Africa, though I couldn’t tell you exactly where. She left that information with Jabari and Zuri.”
“She’s not my mother,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Right?”
“If you meet her and say that to her, know that I loved you, and you will be missed,” he said softly.
“You’re not joking, are you?”
“No,” he said, a small smile forming. “It was a promise she and I made centuries ago. My children are her children. Always and forever, even if she never wants to come out and meet any of you. She vowed to never Change anyone.”
“And she’s just…hanging out somewhere in Africa?”
“Yes. The modern world never appealed to her, and she thought Rome was too modern for her,” he said, that small smile never leaving.
“Do you ever see her?” Felt pretty weird to know Hasan had a mate who was alive but never left her bubble.
“She visits me,” he said softly. “You heard all about Gaia and Titan. Mating and love are strange things for a species who only wants to be alone. We come to compromises and understand that forever doesn’t mean right next to each other.”
“Yeah…” I could accept that. “How would you tell her about Zuri?”
“I actually think that’s where Jabari has wandered off to. To send her word one of her twins was hurt. She’ll come give me an earful about it. It might take
a decade, but it’ll come back to haunt me.” He sighed, seemingly resigned and a little happy about it. It was clear in his eyes. He still loved her with every piece of his soul, and he would take his lumps for getting the children he shared with his mate hurt. He would take them gladly.
Perversely, I decided to ask more about this strange relationship. Anything to keep my mind off being stuck in the hospital when I wanted to hunt down my prey.
“When was the last time she gave you an earful?”
“Liza.” That wiped away the joy. “You’re feeling nosy,” he commented.
“You said ask anything, and I know nothing about her. Shit, you haven’t even told me her name. Isn’t the remaining seat on the Tribunal hers?”
“Her name is Subira, and yes, it is, but she can never claim it. That’s a story for another time.”
“Subira,” I whispered to myself, a pretty name.
“Be careful. If you say it three times, she’ll appear.”
“Don’t try to be funny,” I said, leaning back on the couch to get more comfortable as he chuckled.
It was another thirty minutes before Jabari and Mischa walked back in, Davor following them.
“How was the talk?” Jabari asked. “Mischa told me.”
“Good. Learned new, interesting things,” I said blandly. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it. It settled something between Hasan and me, and that was enough. “Any word on Niko or Hisao while you were out there?”
“Hisao is almost done; he just needs to wake up. They don’t want to move him because they know who and what he is. Niko might take a few more hours,” Mischa answered, sitting on Hasan’s other side. “Jabari called Mother.”
“I figured,” Hasan said with a sigh.
“She’s going to yell at you. Between everything Jacky has been through, my injuries in Washington, Zuri, Niko, and Hisao here, she’s not happy.” Jabari looked at our father with a raised eyebrow. “She thinks you’re willfully putting us in danger.”
“Did you tell her Jacky is much more of a handful than the rest of you?” Hasan asked with a yawn. I gasped as Mischa snorted in laughter.
