Inhuman Heritage

by Sonnet O'Dell

  “You really were telling the truth,” he said and his voice was small and weak when he spoke. I tried to look comforting and less pissed off.

  “I tried to tell you. You and Incarra don’t belong over here and as soon as I can I will get you back to the nice normal world where it’s safe. I tried to keep this from you because you shouldn’t have to deal with it.”

  “But you deal with it.”

  “I have to. I don’t have any other choice. I can’t stop myself from coming here believe me if I could I would. I resigned myself to the inevitable a long while ago.”

  I wrapped my arm through his and started leading him back down towards my place. He didn’t struggle, he still looked too dazed to get one foot in front of the other.

  “How did this happen to you, Cassandra? I mean, I can’t imagine living like this.”

  “It’s to do with my mother. There is a lot that I don’t know.”

  We were silent after that. When I got back to my apartment, LeBron was sitting on the steps next to Incarra who looked like she was explaining that Anton had gone running off and that I had gone to find him. I sat Anton down on the steps on her other side where she proceeded to belt him around the head and tell him off some more. LeBron rose to his feet after taking a look at the pair and pulled me off to one side.

  “Your friends seem a little...” He didn’t finish the sentence, he kind of just swayed and I got what he meant. They were out of place, poorly informed and I couldn’t leave them in my apartment. Incarra couldn’t watch Anton every minute; he was skittish and looked like he would make another bolt for it at any time. I needed someone to babysit them.

  “They didn’t know about me,” I said sighing deeply. I only knew one person who could keep them both safe and was unthreatening. “And we’re going to need to take a detour.”

  * * * *

  I clasped the heavy brass door knocker at Virginia’s and bashed it down hard while Incarra and Anton milled about on the porch behind me looking around at the woods that should have been a housing estate. LeBron had opted to stay in the car. I thought that was for the best. The door creaked and opened slowly onto the hall. Virginia was stood at the bottom on the stairs and she looked profoundly relieved to see me. She was about to speak but I shoved a hand up in front of her, a stop gesture.

  “I don’t want to hear it right now although I hope the words out of your mouth were about to be an apology. I have a problem and I need you to do this for me without any questions or excuses.” Virginia looked at me, her wizened face astonished but then she nodded conceding the point that we both knew that she owed me a great deal. I stood aside and with a wave of my hand signaled for Incarra and Anton to come inside. They did as instructed, looking around at everything. Virginia looked at them and then at me.

  “Guys, you go sit down in there for a moment while I have a word with your host.” Incarra took Anton’s arm and took him into the parlor where they sat on the old furniture amongst a cloud of exploding dust.

  “Who are these people?” asked Virginia walking with me across to the other side of the hall so that we wouldn’t be overheard so easily.

  “They’re friends from my day side,” I said leaning against the wall. “They ambushed me at sundown and crossed over to this side. Anton is skittish and won’t stay in my apartment, he’s already had a run in with a warlock that might have gone a lot worse if I hadn’t caught up and stepped in.”

  “Why did they ambush you? I thought you said that your normal friends had no idea about this life.”

  “They were on an intervention. I won’t go into details now because I don’t have time. I have to work tonight.”

  “For the vampires?” asked Virginia and she couldn’t hide the disapproving tone in her voice. I glared at her angrily and pointed a finger at her. She stepped back like she thought I was going to jab her with it and I was half tempted to.

  “Not that it is any of your business but no, it’s the wolves that have hired me. I need you right now but don’t think for an instant that means I have forgiven you. You have been lying to me for years, Virginia. You knew my mother.”

  Virginia opened her mouth to protest but quickly closed it again when my upper lip curled close to a snarl.

  “You knew her, about her and where she came from. You never told me who I was or,” I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself just a little, “or what I was. I heard what you and the Magus were talking about, you saw me here so we can’t pretend everything is okay between us. When I get back, I want answers.”

  “What little I know may not help and may throw you further into this world than you want to be,” said Virginia cautioning me. I shook my head wearily.

  “Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe you haven’t told me anything because it’s for my own good but really, when has complete ignorance ever been to someone’s own good?”

  She looked at me like she might sight an example but once again she stopped herself. Virginia was struggling with guilt making all her arguments heavy and inane. I looked across the hall to the big grandfather clock, it was just past half ten in the evening.

  “Answers can wait. I just knew this would be a safe place for them to stay for a little while. I’ll be back before sunrise if all goes well.” Virginia nodded accepting her assignment like I was the teacher and not the other way around. I put her easy compliance down to the guilt again and headed out the door.

  Chapter Twelve

  LeBron drove us back into town pulling up to a stop just down from the gates of the community. He cut off the engine and leaned his head on the steering wheel before slowly turning to look at me.

  “So, want to tell me what we are doing?”

  “We are providing an escort for a dignitary to a special ceremony here at the community.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

  “Special ceremony?” I leaned over so that I could whisper in his ear.

  “They’re picking a new king.” His eyes twinkled with a little light and he grinned.

  “Will we get to see it?”

  “Doubt it,” I shrugged. “We’re just supposed to pick the guy up and bring him back here.” LeBron let out a breath through his teeth and ran a hand back through his hair. I got out my phone in order to make a call. DJ had given me his cell phone number so that when I was ready to go I could just let him know, save him trailing around after us while I ran my few little errands. I’d picked up LeBron, changed clothes and safely tucked away my friends for the remainder of the evening. We were good to go. LeBron pushed open the driver’s door.

  “I need a cigarette,” he explained climbing out, shutting the door and leaning against the hood to light up. I hadn’t known he smoked. I flipped open my phone and made the quick call to DJ, he picked up on the second ring.

  “DJ,” he said in a very quick but firm tone. I had to admit that the wolf had a really nice voice.

  “We’re ready when you are Mister Tanner, we’re parked outside.”

  “Oh please; Mister Tanner is my father, Call me DJ; everyone else does.” I smiled a little.

  “Alright, DJ, but the facts remain the same. We’re just outside the gates when you’re ready.”

  “Be there in a minute.” He hung up. I swear people were forgetting phone etiquette more and more, no one said goodbye anymore. I climbed out of the car and leaned on the bonnet next to LeBron.

  “When did you start smoking?”

  “Seventeen, I quit for a while but started again, quit and then started again. It’s stress, it drives us back towards our foibles.”

  “Mmm, I can eat an entire tub of ice-cream when I’m down so I know what you mean.” LeBron coughed and laughed a little.

  “It’s not really the same thing.” He took a long drag and still had a wry smile on his face. I leaned back and looked up into the night sky. The gates opened to our left and a dark red jeep pulled out, turning to pass us and pulling up to the curb in front. I rolled my head to watch DJ climb out of the driver’s side and tur
ned to greet him. I gave him a little wave and he smirked looking at my T-shirt. It had a 1950’s starlet in a one piece swim suit on it with an image of Christ praying so that his hands rested on her bare knee with the slogan beneath of “I gave myself to Jesus, but now he never calls.”

  “Well you read my T-shirt, I guess that’s enough social interaction for today. Shall we get going?” DJ chuckled at me as I started around the car. LeBron threw down his cigarette, stomping it out and kicked it into a drain.

  “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” asked DJ. I looked between the two men.

  “You’re both grown men, I think you can introduce yourselves.” DJ turned to LeBron offering him his big hand. LeBron reached out taking it and shaking it firmly.

  “DJ Tanner.”

  “Michael LeBron.”

  “French?”

  “My father’s side.”

  “Ouch, sorry.” LeBron glared at the pavement while I burst out laughing. DJ looked between the two of us, confused. I waved him away to his car and climbed into the passenger seat of LeBron’s blue Mondeo. DJ pulled out ahead of us and led the way as I didn’t know where it was we were headed. The country roads were long, bendy and tangled. Hedgerows filled by night calling birds whizzed past the window, the trees tangled in the darkness until the land smoothed out to fields. We passed an old barn that stood shadowed and desolate up a worn dirt road that had not been travelled in sometime. I watched it fade in the rear-view mirror as we drove a few more miles to come to a newer farm that was brightly lit. Light glowed out of the worn brick farm house through the paned sash windows. The chimney sent plumes of grey smoke up into the star-filled sky and the jeep turned onto the driveway. As we drew closer to the house, it looked more and more like the type of house you saw on Christmas cards all covered in snow, it was picturesque. We drew around the back of the house, there was a man stood on the back porch. He waved but the jeep kept going so I signaled for LeBron to keep following in. We went along a tree-lined road past several fields of new growing wheat and turned right pulling in next to a small shed.

  The shed was made of green riveted sheet metal and was open on both ends. It looked big enough just to hold a small biplane for dusting the fields with spray that killed bugs. I checked the clock on my phone; it was still another hour till they were due to arrive. LeBron acknowledged this fact by climbing into the back seat and closing his eyes to nap the time away. I had no objection although I thought it was a little rude. Instead I climbed out of the car. Seeing this DJ did likewise. I sat down on the driver’s side of the bonnet and DJ leaned against the side of the jeep.

  “Do you need to check the area or anything?”

  He looked around him and then back at me.

  “For what?”

  “I got the distinct impression that your bosses brought me in because they are expecting some sort of trouble,” I said scanning the low lying trees and hedges around the long dirty strip of land that was the runway for the small plane that I could see sitting in the hanger. There was a small light above the entrance, guarded by a metal mesh across it that shone across the plane’s body showing that it might have once been red but was now a faded dirty orange color. The whole place began to scream to me abandoned airfield and I muttered something to the effect of, “I wish Scooby and the gang were here.” DJ chuckled. I blinked looking at him and then remembered, werewolf hearing.

  “The last time there was a new king, Colonel Torgerson was just a boy and from what he remembers, the anointer was much more comfortable with a female escort.”

  “How that bodes for me I can’t tell.”

  “When Simian said he knew of a woman who was not a member of our community but was comfortable around the preternatural, they asked no more questions. You are here to keep the anointer calm and I am here to protect you.”

  “No offence but I don’t need protection,” I said and I didn’t. I had never turned to any man and in a whiny voice protested that I’d always counted on the kindness of strangers. I had never been the sort of girl that waits in the tower for the knight on his white horse. If I wanted out of that tower I would have damn well found a way out on my own. DJ cocked an eyebrow looking me over again.

  “You brought a man with you,” he said gesturing to LeBron who was now snoring gently in the back of his car.

  “I don’t own a car. I think the candidates would have objected to me riding him into town on my motorcycle, especially as I only have the one helmet.”

  “You ride a bike?” He looked at me with a new appreciation. “I never figured you for a woman who enjoyed something with real power between her legs.” I glared at him, and he seemed to realize what he’d said and his cheeks flushed. He looked down at the ground. I shivered a little and wrapped my coat tighter to me. It may have been mid spring but the night air still whipped cool around you. When I looked up DJ had walked towards me with his arms extended, and before I could protest he had them around my waist and was lifting me. I had a minute to marvel at how strong he was before he sat me on the flat top of the front of his jeep. It was warm and I had to admit I made a little face of pleasure.

  “I’m going to run back to the farmhouse to get some tea or something.” He smiled and no word of a lie, took off at a jogging pace back down the road we’d come up. I had the feeling he was one of those men that had a deep urge to take care of people. I crossed my legs over and looked out into the night sky. I didn’t know where the plane was coming from but it wouldn’t be too big, this little strip of land couldn’t handle anything much bigger than the crop duster. They’d have to land somewhere else, a commercial flight into Birmingham perhaps and then a smaller charter flight out to here, the middle of nowhere. I closed my eyes and centered myself letting the sounds of the night settle into channels around me. I could hear the sounds of critters in the surrounding brush, the call of birds in the trees and the sound of footfalls on the road to the back left of me. I turned my head slightly towards the sound, he was getting closer and there was something sloshing at his side. I opened my eyes and all the sound blurred out into one again and he approached leaping onto the other side of the hood passing me a cup.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said to him holding the cup tightly as he uncapped a thermos and poured something dark and richly scented into my cup. It was hot chocolate. I smiled at him pressing the rim to my lips and just taking in the scent, there was cream and sugar mixed in, it smelt so good.

  “Sharing a drink with a pretty girl was worth it.”

  I nearly choked on my first sip and managed to disguise it well. DJ leaned back against the glass resting the plastic cup from the top of the thermos on his chest and keeping the thermos tight between his knees. He placed his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky.

  “So, what do you do outside of this?”

  “Hmm?” He rolled his head over to look at me. I noticed how blue his eyes were, it was like looking into the eyes of a husky. I wondered what color wolf he turned into. Despite what people think, hair color had very little to do with the color they were when they went furry. I’d seen a blonde werewolf that shifted and was as black as pitch.

  “You can’t always have some kind of emissary to escort.”

  “No, you’re right. I own the community watering hole, the Full Moon Bar.”

  “I’ve seen that, it’s got a door in the wall, you let normal humans in.”

  “As long as they don’t start fights it boosts the revenue.”

  The door to the Full Moon Bar was about half way down the community’s external wall and it had a blue awning that stretched out onto the street. I’d never been in because until recently I hadn’t been a drinker and even then I was not brave enough to go drinking with a bunch of wolves. They had impulse control issues at the best of times, adding in booze and pretty girls did not make the situation better.

  “I’ve never been there.”

  “I know,” he said and off my look continued with, “I think I would hav
e noticed you.” I smiled at him taking a long gulp of the hot liquid feeling it worm its way through my system warming me as much as his words. He flexed his arms and I could see the muscles twitch in his chest under his shirt. I had the feeling he was doing it on purpose so that I would look at him. Damn he was trying to flirt me into submission. I giggled. He darted a sideways glance at me and it just made me giggle more.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I got the message with the wink okay, you’re hot, and you think I’m hot, calm down on the subtle wolf prancing. I’m kind of involved at the moment.” He looked at the cup of hot chocolate on his chest and scowled. I relaxed lying against the windscreen next to him. “I am very flattered though.”

  He didn’t brighten. He took the cup in his hand and washed the hot chocolate down. I was hoping that now we had that out of the way he would concentrate on what we were out there to do.

  “Is it the norm?” asked DJ and I looked over to where LeBron was stretching out in the back of his car starting to come round from his nap. I shook my head.

  “No.”

  “Then who?”

  “Why is it any of your business, DJ? Did Simian push you at me? He’s got it into his head that I just need to meet a nice wolf boy.” He didn’t say anything so I knew I was right. I made a mental note to kick Simian’s butt when I got back.

  DJ’s head twitched and he sat up right on the hood looking into the sky. I listened and could hear the sound of an engine.

  “Plane’s coming.”

  “Yes I can hear it.” He turned to look at me a little shocked. Humans weren’t supposed to have that kind of hearing was clearly written on his face. I got off the hood of the car and stepped over to the other car tapping on the window. LeBron sat upright so suddenly he banged his head on the roof. I laughed and pointed to the sky. He nodded and started to right himself. DJ stood by the edge of the track looking up and to the left. I stood next to him following his gaze. He ran to where the shed was, locating a small power box and thrust the lever up. Little lights flashed on along the dirt track, one or two of them burnt out but there were enough so that the strip had to be visible. I raised my hand to my eyes looking for the plane, I don’t why I expected that to help, it wasn’t like I was trying to keep out the glare of the sun. Then I saw it wobbling in the air and coming down towards the ground. It was a banana and cream color from what I could see and it was coming in a little fast. The wheels hit the dirt, bouncing slowly along passing us and turning around it came back to meet us. The pilot was looking back over his shoulder, the little headset pressed over his ears and the mic next to his mouth. The blades of the propeller stopped turning and the back door to the plane opened.