Inhuman Heritage

by Sonnet O'Dell

  The man who climbed out from the back looked a bit like Michael Clarke Duncan, only not so smiley. His hair was shaven in such a way that it looked like a tribal tattoo on the side of his skull, he wore a white vest that made a stark contrast against his dark skin and showed the muscles on his arms that meant business. His jeans were tight and ended with motorcycle boots. He didn’t look even slightly religious, he looked like he should be engaged in a street fight in Brooklyn. He stepped down into the dirt that billowed around his toe caps and he extended his arm to DJ. They took each other by the wrist and shook.

  “Nice to see you brother,” he said greeting him. I didn’t think for a minute they were related, they were greeting each other as fellow werewolves. He stood aside and reached back into the plane. When he did I expected he was going to produce luggage and I wondered for the life of me why this guy requested a female escort and what it was I had truly signed up for. I’d been shocked before this but not as much as this as he lifted down a small child, I imagined he was about five years old, pale with curly brown hair and a small backpack on his back. I tilted my head watching as he placed him down on the ground and he inquisitively looked around him. Then he spotted me, his little face lit up and he ran at me wrapping his small arms around my knees, I nearly toppled over.

  “Mother.”

  I looked at the small round eyes looking up at me and then at the two werewolves. They shook their heads at me in short telling me not to contradict the child. He made grabby hands at me much like Zoe does when she wants to be picked up. I picked up the small boy letting him wrap his arms around my neck and nuzzle into my collarbone. I put one arm under his bottom using the other to cover one of his ears, pressing the other to my shoulder effectively covering that one as well.

  “Okay boys, do one of you want to tell me what’s going on now?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The small brown haired boy was called Sorin and he was the anointer, the person we had to escort safely to the werewolf community. He was very sleepy after his long journey so I laid him down on the back seat of LeBron’s car, strapping the seat belt around him and locking the doors. Farai, the tall, large black bodyguard leaned against DJ’s car looking over at me from the corner of his eye as I made sure the boy was comfortable, but the minute I turned away from him my face set into hard questioning lines.

  “You seem mad,” he said as I approached him. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked defensive. I placed my hands on my hips, he looked down and then quickly looked up.

  “He’s just a kid and maybe you can explain why he called me mother?”

  “Sorin is small for seven, he’s a sweet kid. He’s been raised by monks in our native Bucharest and the only way to pry him out of Father Anteneque’s skirts was to tell him he would meet his mother.” I cocked an eyebrow.

  “That wasn’t very smart in my book, because he’s only going to end up disappointed isn’t he. Thank god he’s young because otherwise he’d see how implausible it is.”

  “It’s not entirely implausible,” said Farai, proving that the man had absolutely no tact. I turned away from him flicking hair through the air as I headed for the other side of LeBron’s car. I glared at him over the roof.

  “I am not the sort of woman who would have been in the position to have a child at fourteen. Just for that, you have to ride with DJ.” LeBron unlocked the car with a smirk on his lips and I climbed into the passenger seat. I leaned into the back to check, Sorin was still asleep, his thumb pressed against his bottom lip like it had fallen out of his mouth. I reached over tucking a curl back behind his ear and caught through the window Farai saying, “She was a good choice, tough but soft with the kid.” I turned to face the front and signaled that they should pull out ahead of us. DJ nodded climbing in and starting his jeep with a roar of its engine.

  “I have to say,” said LeBron as he pulled out behind him, “that I’m a little underwhelmed. I mean how can a kid know who should be king?”

  “Maybe it’s something to do with innocents, seeing who people really are, which one of them will really be good.” LeBron turned the wheel following the jeep out on to the main road that would lead us back towards town. I watched the countryside begin to speed past us. Sometimes I wondered if it was actually us that was in motion and not the world that just moved around us. It made me smile and I turned from the passenger window to look out the windscreen. My eyes went out of focus and the world ahead of us became overlaid with a sepia tone. I rubbed my eyes and blinked before turning to look at LeBron who looked exactly the same and perfectly normal. He wasn’t seeing this, it was just me. I looked back ahead and saw a sign on my side of the road in sepia and then a few seconds later it was there in the real world. I closed my eyes and I still saw the sepia picture, the road ahead. I felt a shiver roll down my spine. Something was coming, something bad.

  “LeBron, slow down,” I said opening my eyes still unable to shake the sepia vision over the world. LeBron turned to look at me questioningly. He opened his mouth to say something but I put my hand up in a stop gesture. I was concentrating on the sepia pictures, I knew what they were, they were the future, only about half a minute ahead but this only happened to me as a warning.

  “What’s the matter?” asked LeBron completely ignoring me.

  “My spider sense is tingling.” LeBron arched an eyebrow at me and he didn’t slow down. I pushed at the pictures trying to see further, faster and I pressed back against my seat as the sepia picture exploded with starbursts across my eyes.

  “Break!” I screamed at LeBron. He turned his head to me to ask me what was wrong and I shoved my hand down, pushing magic, power so that I made the break slam down. LeBron looked at the pedals and gripped the wheel tight, he growled crossly until in front of us DJ’s car was thrown back by an explosion. It flipped over and rolled, if we hadn’t have braked the car would have hit us too. It continued to roll and skid away from the road, the roof wrapping itself around the trunk of a tree. LeBron looked out the window in shock.

  “How did..? You knew that was going to happen,” he said puzzled. We’d pulled to a complete and proper stop. LeBron jammed the handbrake on and stared out the window at the wreckage. I checked on the kid who was still curled up completely oblivious. I undid my seat belt slowly and pushed open the door.

  “Hit the locks and keep the engine running. This is no accident. Keep your eyes open.” I climbed out shutting the door behind me. LeBron pressed his finger down on the locks which clicked into place with a soft snick. I walked around the bonnet of the car slowly, keeping my eyes and ears open as I walked towards the steaming wreck of DJ’s jeep. It was lying on its side, the roof was dented, the windscreen was shattered but holding together, the bonnet was twisted and the license plate was blacked. The front axle was split in two and the wheels were spinning. I grabbed the under carriage and climbed onto the side. The driver’s door was smashed from hitting the road, misshapen metal scarred and battered. The window was just jagged shards left lying in the lining. I used my elbow to bash them out of the way and reached in to flick open the lock. I pulled at the handle but the door was smashed in so much that it refused to unlatch and open. I groaned getting frustrated as I yanked at it but it wouldn’t budge. I gripped the door directly feeling a strength surge to fill my arms and I pulled hard. The door ripped out of place and as I held it, surprised by my ability to do it, the strength faded and I had to drop it so as not to fall over backwards. Damn inconsistent super powers. I dropped to my knees and leaned in through the now open space. DJ looked at me wincing as blood ran into his eye from a laceration on his forehead, the look was quizzical.

  “How did such a small thing like you do something like that?”

  “Hush, don’t try to talk.”

  “Why? Do you think I’m really hurt?”

  “No, I just want you to be quiet.” I touched the cut on his head and he pulled back from me.

  “Ouch.”

  “Don’t be such a bab
y,” I said holding his head and checking to see if his head wound had any glass or debris in it. Werewolves healed fast and if something was in there, his skin would knit right over it and it would itch like crazy till he cut it back out again. “Does anything else hurt?”

  “No. Where’s the kid?”

  “Locked in the car with the nice police officer. He’s safe for the moment but I don’t think this was an accident. We’ve got to get you both out of here.”

  “Is his car alright? Why didn’t we hit you?”

  “I made him brake. I sort of saw it coming. Long story, I’ll explain it some other time.” I crawled over him, he didn’t seem to mind. I felt him move and looked back over my shoulder. He was raising his hands up.

  “Touch my ass and this car wreck will look like a walk in the park compared to what I will do to you.” His hands froze in a surrender position and I wriggled across him to check on Farai who appeared to be unconscious. Half his face seemed like a bloody mess, he had to have smacked it against the window a few times.

  I pressed my fingers against his thick neck, his pulse seemed strong, beating meaty against the tips of my fingers. His arm was trapped between his body and the door, it looked like it was dislocated at the shoulder and there was a piece of glass sticking out of his gaud thigh. I reached to the back seat where there was a jacket and a scarf. I pulled the scarf into the front seat and balanced myself straddling him. I looked at DJ who chose to turn away as I ripped the glass out of his leg. Farai woke screaming. He looked at me as I wrapped the scarf tightly around his wound. He touched the wounded side of his face, winced and then looked at the blood on his hand.

  “Sorin?”

  “He’s fine. We need to get moving.” I tied the scarf tight around his thigh and started to climb out. I climbed to stand on the wheel arch. DJ started to pull himself out balancing his foot on the steering wheel setting the horn off. He looked at me with chagrin. Then the growl came from in the darkness of the trees. The creature that stalked out of the woods was a wolf about the size of a pony, his coat was a deep silvery grey with white around the muzzle. He growled again, his lips pulling back from an impressive array of white fangs.

  “Nice doggie, shoo!” I didn’t know how much of the human mind transferred to the wolf form but when he growled at me again turning steely eyes on me I knew he’d understood my comment and he hadn’t liked it. DJ was part way out of the car staring at the wolf, and cursing under his breath.

  “I take it Rover is not a friend of yours.” The wolf growled again but I ignored it. Brave or stupid, time would tell.

  “No, I don’t recognize him but he smells newly turned.”

  I heard the sound of more large feet behind me and saw over my shoulder another large wolf, chocolate brown this time, stalking towards the car with a large bald man close on his heels. I recognized him as the gate guard I thought might be a Sphynx cat who’d let me into the community earlier.

  “This isn’t good,” said DJ hiking himself out so he was standing tentatively on the frame around the back door window.

  “No shit Sherlock. I thought you guys were positive that there would be no trouble.”

  “Only fools are positive.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive.”

  “Ha!” I said pointing an imperious finger at him. He smacked his hand against his forehead. The silver wolf growled, obviously not liking being ignored. I swung my head back towards him.

  “Hey flea motel, wait your turn!”

  Apparently I’d finally crossed a line with the grey wolf and he settled back on his haunches only to propel himself into the air towards me. The glass windscreen exploded outwards as a large white wolf, that I assumed was Farai, exited the car. I turned my back catching shards of glass against it. It was like being pelted by hail stones each one making a tiny bruise on my skin. When I turned back, the white wolf had his jaws around the throat of the grey one and was wrestling him to the ground.

  “That’s strangely ironic,” I said admiring Farai’s fur. DJ moved up next to me, he was shirtless and shoeless unbuttoning his flies. I blinked at him sheepishly.

  “I’m going to change, I’ll want clothes after,” he said going off my look. Another brown wolf came running out of the trees barreling into Farai’s side so that he had to let the grey wolf up. “I’ll take it from here, I think your friend needs you.” I turned to look for LeBron. He’d turned his car around and was gunning towards Sphynx man on the road. I cringed as he pounded his fist on the bonnet making the rear of the car bounce off the ground.

  “Damn it!” I leapt off the jeep looking back just in time to catch a quick rear view of DJ. The man had an ass you could bounce a penny off, then I focused. The brown wolf was biting at the back bumper and the man had ripped the bonnet off and was proceeding to rip the engine block out. LeBron’s eyes were wide as Sphynx leaned back, the engine over his head and started to throw it. LeBron scrambled into the backseat throwing his body over Sorin who was just beginning to wake up again. The engine broke the glass and crushed the driver’s seat against the back. I felt anger flare in me as I jumped using the brown wolf’s head as a platform to get me onto the car’s roof. I stood glaring down at him; he looked pleased with himself until I used power to thrust the engine back into his chest knocking him flat to the ground. I leaned over the window to look inside.

  “LeBron? You and the kid okay?”

  “Just about.”

  “Can you get out?”

  “Yeah, but there is a wolf in the way.”

  “I’ll take care of that!” I pulled myself back up to my knees, swiveled my body and ran my hand through the air in line with the wolf’s tail. “Ignis!”

  The wolf yowled with pain skittering away, first turning in circles to try to extinguish his tail and then rolling around on the ground. LeBron and Sorin got out of the car hurrying around the back to be as far from the wolf and its teeth as possible.

  I heard the grunt of Sphynx guy as he heaved the engine off himself and as he reset a bone that had popped out of place. When I turned to look at him, he was wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. He looked at the red stain on the back of his knuckles like he couldn’t believe I’d bloodied him. He grinned at me maliciously, an evil predatory smile that was nothing like the one he’d given me at the community gate; it showed a lot of white sharp teeth. I shook my head. I seriously needed to find the dentist these people went to.

  “You should have kept the dress, it’d have been a lot easier for us to have a little fun,” he said lasciviously stroking his thighs. So we’d gotten to the smack talk and vaguely obscene threats part of the fight. Oh goody!

  “I’m not afraid of you or your dick.”

  “It’ll give you pleasure you’ve never known,” he assured me. I put my hands on my hips.

  “What drunken lying actress...”

  “Cassandra!”

  “Damn it, LeBron, don’t interrupt me when I’m punning!” I turned to see that the brown wolf having put his tail out was advancing on LeBron and Sorin. “I can’t fight both LeBron, use your gun.”

  “It’s not silver shot.”

  “No, but it will still damn hur...” The car underneath me rocked and I fell onto my butt on the roof. Bald and crude, Sphynx boy had kicked a dent into the front grill. I looked down as he leaned over reaching for my foot.

  “Now that was just rude.” I kicked him hard in the face making his nose bust open spilling blood. He clutched at it growling. I heard the bark, bark, bark of LeBron’s gun firing and rolled off the roof to stand with him. Sorin wrapped his arms around my leg and I let a hand trail down to stroke his curls.

  “Mother, what’s happening?”

  The brown wolf was backing off as blood blossomed on his paws and shoulders where the bullets bit into his flesh.

  “We’ve come across some trouble. Do you know how to piggyback ride?”

  “Yes.”

  I crouched down and let him crawl
up on my back. He wrapped his arms around my neck tightly and his legs pressed into my side as I slid an arm around them to keep him in place.

  “Run.”

  LeBron looked at me but didn’t argue. I knew it would be taxing on his ankle but we were not in a good defensible position, we needed to get somewhere safer, where I could put the kid down where he wouldn’t get hurt. You can’t fight and watch what’s going on in another spot at the same time and hope to win.

  “Is this the plan? Tell me this isn’t the plan.”

  “I’m working on it,” I said looking around me for where we could go. The brown wolf behind us was whimpering but not following, Sphynx guy was resetting his nose and yelling at the wolf for not being in pursuit. It gave us enough time to get ahead. I didn’t know what was happening with Farai and DJ but they would have to find their own way. I knew that my job, the thing I was being paid to do was to take care of the little boy on my back who was shivering with cold or fright, I couldn’t tell.

  “It’s okay, Sorin, it will be okay.” I tried to reassure him, he buried his little face into my neck and I could feel the start of tears dribble against my skin. “I need you to be brave okay, I need you to be a big boy and do whatever I tell you to.” He nodded against my skin. “I need you to tell me you understand, Sorin.”