Nadia's Children

by Steven E Wedel

  Kiona couldn’t stop a short bark of laughter. “Sit down. Do you want anything?”

  “Pleasantries, huh? Okay. What do you have?”

  “Jack and Coke.”

  “Fine. Though I have a high tolerance for alcohol. I hope you didn’t hope otherwise.”

  Kiona went to the kitchenette and took the bottles from the mini-fridge. “If it was that easy, you never would have lasted so long.” She looked at him sitting calmly in the chair, and quietly put the gun on the countertop.

  “True.”

  She popped ice out of a tray and poured the drinks. Fenris had taken the chair by the little desk, near the window with the drawn curtains. Kiona took one of the low, blue padded armchairs and pulled it around to face him after handing him his drink. She sat and sipped at her own plastic cup. She’d left the gun behind.

  “So?” he asked. “More pleasantries, or shall we come right to it?”

  “Whatever.”

  Fenris nodded and sipped. “Where is Mr. Woodman now? And his son?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “No contact since they left?”

  “No.”

  “Did you try?”

  “No.”

  “Try it now.” He sipped from one hand and waved casually with the other. “Call his cell phone. Who knows, maybe he’s changed his mind again.”

  Kiona felt sure this was some kind of trap. She put her drink aside on a table and pulled the phone from her pocket. She kept looking from the phone to her guest as she punched in the old speed dial number for the man she’d spent seven years with. As it began to ring, she turned the phone to speaker. It went to voicemail after a generic message. Kiona hung up.

  “Not taking your calls, I guess,” Fenris said. “You want Woodman dead. Good. Me, too. You want the boy, though, and there we might have a problem.”

  “I won’t negotiate that,” Kiona said, tightening her grip on the gun.

  Fenris smiled at her before he answered. “Do you love him?”

  “Yes.”

  “As a mother, or as a woman?” he asked, pouring liquor and soda into his smile.

  Kiona glared at him. “Both,” she answered through clenched teeth.

  “I want to know everything that was said during your encounter with the witch, Cerdwyn Imogen,” he answered.

  “And what do I get in exchange?”

  “I won’t kill you today.”

  “Will you help me?”

  “We share one goal already. Woodman. I think we may differ on the boy, though. And then there’s Ulrik, himself.”

  “What about him?” Kiona asked.

  “Your loyalties to your dear old mentor, Ulrik. Have you completely given those up, Kiona Brokentooth?”

  “Of course! He banished me from his house. He separated me from Joey. He threatened to kill me on sight,” she said, her voice rising in anger with each word.

  Fenris raised a hand to stop her. “Okay. All right. Fine. I believe you. Ulrik will be eliminated. The boy, though. If we find him, I’ll give him one chance to join me. If he refuses, I kill him.”

  “Join you?” Kiona asked. “What about me?”

  “I assume you are with me now,” he said. “Are my terms acceptable?”

  Kiona thought about it. If Chris is dead, and presumably Cerdwyn, too, what will Joey do? Will he come back to me then?

  “Joey can’t know that I am involved in killing his father,” she said.

  Fenris shrugged. “I’m happy to do that little job myself.”

  “Okay.” Kiona nodded, then remembered. “There is one thing I didn’t tell you yet about Chris. He’s one of us now.”

  Fenris arched his pale eyebrow at her. “Indeed?”

  “I felt it would be best for our travel plans if he shared our abilities.”

  “You changed him against his will?”

  “Yes.”

  “You did this some time ago? And he stayed with you?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “How did he take that?”

  “He was pissed at first, but I think he finally learned to like it.”

  “Yes. Who wouldn’t? Now, tell me about the witch.”

  Kiona related everything she could remember about the very brief encounter in the swamp cabin.

  “She mediated between Woodman and the boy?” Fenris asked.

  “Yes.”

  “She wanted the boy to go with her and Woodman?”

  “Yes. But she kept saying it was his choice, that he didn’t have to go.”

  “I see. What else?”

  “That’s all. The whole thing only lasted about half an hour,” Kiona said.

  Fenris nodded. He finished his drink and set the cup aside. Kiona watched, surprised, as he stood up and shrugged his jacket off. “I just had a long flight. This too soon after many years away from home. Away from civilization. I was with, well, a friend who has left me. A male.” He pulled off his shirt and dropped it onto the chair behind him. There was no sign of a weapon anywhere.

  “What are you doing?” Kiona asked, looking at his milky white, muscled abdomen.

  He popped open the button of his black jeans and pulled the fly apart. “I came home to utter chaos. My house was in a shambles. People I trusted were dead or had left me. I have had no chance to relieve the needs every man has.”

  Kiona laughed at him, but it wasn’t a mean laugh. She had to admit she was more than a little intrigued by this sudden turn in the conversation. She finished her own drink in a couple of swallows and put the cup aside.

  “You did come halfway across the country to see me,” Kiona said as she felt her own blood heating.

  “Come,” he said as he moved to the big bed.

  Thirty minutes later the phone rang in Kiona’s room. She slapped the receiver off the cradle while Fenris continued to rut on her. “What?” she demanded.

  “Ma’am, this is the front desk,” a prissy male voice said. “People in the room next to you are complaining about animal noises in your room. We have a strict no pets policy – ”

  Kiona laughed at him, then dropped the phone to claw at Fenris’s back. He snarled in response and she deliberately gave a low, short howl.

  From the receiver on the floor she could just hear the desk clerk talking to someone else. “My God, I think they’re just having sex.”

  Joey

  Joey sat on the soft hotel bed and stared at the television. Although he had not been allowed to watch much television during their many years in the swamp, the novelty of having access to one again didn’t mean much at the moment. He stared vacantly at the screen, not really focused on the action movie unfolding before him. He was in the room alone, thinking about all that had happened in the last few days.

  Mom is coming here.

  That was his main thought. His mother. He couldn’t decide how he felt about finally seeing her again after all these years. He tried hard to focus on thinking about her. He found he couldn’t call up the image of her face. He remembered thick black hair and a certain smell he could only describe as motherly. The day she told him he was a werewolf came back to him, and her voice as she’d called after him while he ran away into the cold forest of Montana.

  After that, though, were thoughts of Kiona. She was probably out of his life forever. He realized that. She’d been hurt by his decision. Now that he was away from her, he could see that it was kind of weird that he’d ended up having sex with a woman he’d always thought of as an aunt. A woman his own father had loved. At least physically. Joey was pretty sure his dad had never loved Kiona in any emotional way. He had the feeling they had never really liked each other and were only together because they shared an interest.

  Me. The Alpha. But now I’m not even that because Mom had another baby. A girl.

  Joey was pretty sure Cerdwyn hadn’t told him everything as they traveled from the Arkansas swamp to this Oklahoma City hotel, but she had told him about the half-sister his mother had with Thomas, the man
she’d chosen over Joey’s dad that day in Mexico.

  A sister.

  The Old Ones had come to her, this sister, and bowed before her, and they were training her themselves.

  Joey turned off the TV. Cerdwyn had said that the sister was not coming to Oklahoma City. The new Alpha had stayed behind. But she hadn’t said why. Joey knew that meant something was wrong.

  I’m not the Alpha.

  He was a little surprised at how he felt about that. It didn’t really matter to him. In fact, it was almost a relief.

  Joey could hear his dad and Cerdwyn talking in the next room of the suite. Cerdwyn’s voice was low and earnest. “You have to put it behind you. She’s moved on, and so have you. You made a wonderful child together and you’ll always have that. No werewolf couple stays monogamous forever. We just live too long for that.”

  “I wasn’t a werewolf at the time,” Dad said.

  “She thought you were dead, Chris,” Cerdwyn argued.

  Joey listened, but he couldn’t hear his dad answer. Instead, he heard footsteps stop outside the door of the suite. People had been passing off and on since they’d checked in, but no one had stopped. He sniffed. Female. More than one, but he didn’t recognize the scent. Then there was a short, firm knock.

  Joey slipped off the bed. “Dad?” he called. “Someone at the door.”

  Cerdwyn came out of the room first, with Chris right behind her. Joey noted that his dad had a pistol in his hand; Cerdwyn was unarmed. Cerdwyn went to the door and hesitated, her hand on the doorknob. She sniffed, then nodded at Chris, who’d moved closer to Joey. She mouthed a name: “Kelley.” Joey felt his dad relax.

  Cerdwyn opened the door on a tall, stunning redhead. Joey gaped at the new arrival for a moment, completely forgetting himself. The woman looked like a supermodel with high cheekbones, emerald eyes, full red lips and that thick, wavy hair that was like an inviting campfire. She stepped into the room and into Cerdwyn’s welcoming embrace.

  Chris cleared his throat and Joey felt his father nudge him. He snapped his jaw closed and looked away, then realized someone else had followed the redhead into the room. The girl was his age, with long blonde hair and deep brown eyes. Like the redhead, she had a perfectly sculpted face and lithe figure. She wore tight jeans and a shirt of tiny red and white checks that hugged her breasts.

  “Kelley, this is Chris and Joey Woodman,” Cerdwyn said, pointing them out.

  Chris shifted his pistol to his left hand and shook the woman’s outstretched hand. Joey reached for her, too, and his whole arm tingled at her touch. Her smile was something he simply couldn’t endure and he had to drop his eyes to the floor when it shown on him.

  “The young man we were all so interested in for so many years,” Kelley said. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “Yeah,” Joey offered. “I guess. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

  “Cerdwyn, you don’t know her, but maybe Joey remembers Jennifer Brown,” Kelley said, pulling her young companion further into the room. Cerdwyn casually scanned the hallway, then closed the door behind the new arrivals.

  “Jenny?” Joey asked. He hadn’t thought too much about what she’d look like now. He’d still pictured the little girl with a front tooth missing. The one he’d bitten in first grade. The one to whom he’d unknowingly transferred the Gift.

  “Joey,” the girl said, and she couldn’t look at him either. The older people all laughed at the way the two younger ones avoided eye contact.

  “How have you been?” Joey asked.

  Jenny nodded. “Fine.”

  “I’m sure these two have things to discuss,” Cerdwyn announced. “How about if the rest of us go to the other room?” With some murmurs of assent, the older people filed out of the suite’s front room, into the large bedroom, and closed the door behind them.

  “Left out like a couple of little kids,” Jenny said.

  “Yeah. Like we couldn’t hear them in there if we wanted to,” Joey agreed.

  “Do we want to?”

  Joey shrugged and risked another look at her. She was looking at him, but turned her head when his eyes met hers. “Not really. I think they’ll talk over what we could do, then decide what’s best and let us know.”

  “It doesn’t bother you that you’re not included in that? I mean, you’re the Alpha,” she said.

  Joey looked at her closely. Could she not know? “All the secrecy is bullshit,” he offered boldly. “We’re all on the same team, as far as I know, so yeah, it bothers me.”

  “We could just go in and include ourselves,” she suggested.

  “We could. Or we could ignore them and go down to the restaurant. Are you hungry?”

  “Starving. Kelley wouldn’t stop for anything,” Jenny said, looking him in the face and smiling now. Joey decided she had a fantastic smile.

  In the downstairs restaurant – a dim place with walls covered by climbing green ivy vines – they ordered medium rare steaks, thick-cut fries, and ice cream sundaes.

  “I guess I should start by apologizing,” Joey said. He knew that, but it was hard to do. How does a person apologize for unknowingly making a girl he had a crush on a werewolf while they were in grade school? “I didn’t know what I was when I bit you that day. We were just playing, you know. I liked you. I really just meant to kiss you, and then … I bit you instead.”

  He looked up from the silverware he’d been toying with and found her staring at him intently. Her face was set, expressionless, and he was afraid she hated him. He looked away again, then hardened his resolve. If he was going to apologize, he decided, he had to apologize for everything.

  “And then, when you were in the hospital and, you know, Fenris did … what he did to your parents. I ran away from home before that happened. Dad told me about it.”

  “What – ” Her voice cracked and sounded thick when she continued. “What did Fenris do to my parents?”

  Joey looked up sharply. Her eyes were moist, but her face was still impassively fixed on him.

  “He killed them,” Joey said. “That’s what Dad said.”

  “Fenris told me Ulrik killed them,” she said. “He told me he found out what you’d done and he went to the hospital to help me. Ulrik and some of his people were there already. There was a fight. Ulrik killed my mom and dad and Fenris saved me.”

  Joey thought about that. He remembered Ulrik as a kind but stern teacher. He knew the old man was completely devoted to the Pack and the fulfillment of the prophecy. Could he have killed Jenny’s parents? Probably. Would he? Joey was sure Ulrik didn’t kill needlessly, and he couldn’t think of a reason why he would have killed Mr. and Mrs. Brown. He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s how it happened,” he said.

  Jenny lowered her head and the tears that had been brimming in her eyes slipped down her cheeks. She didn’t say anything.

  “I’m sorry,” Joey said. “It was all my fault. I … I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was, or what would happen, or even that anything had happened for a long time afterward. I’m sorry, Jenny.”

  A smiling waiter arrived with the food. His smile slipped away quickly when he looked at Jenny. “Is everything alright here?” he asked.

  “I think so,” Joey answered. “Jenny, are you okay?”

  She nodded. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she said, pushing her chair away.

  Joey was suddenly scared she would run away, alone. “Jenny.” He caught at her arm and just barely grabbed her fingers. “You’ll come back?”

  She nodded again. “Of course. I just … I have to … My nose.” She pulled her hand free and slipped away.

  The waiter put the plates of food on the table. “Breaking up?” he asked, his voice full of sympathy.

  “No. Apologizing,” Joey said, still watching Jenny. She disappeared into a hallway with a restroom sign beside it.

  “Another girl?” the waiter asked.

  Joey was suddenly annoyed by his snooping. “No. I bit her,” he said.
“She asked too many questions.”

  The waiter spun on his heel and stalked away. Joey toyed with his steak and moved his fries around for a few minutes and was really more than a little surprised when Jenny finally came back to the table and sat down across from him.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I don’t think about Mom and Dad very much. I guess maybe I knew what Fenris told me wasn’t true. I mean, he didn’t surround himself with people of high moral character, you know? But it was easier to believe somebody I wasn’t living with, somebody who wasn’t taking care of me, had killed my parents. Ulrik was blamed for everything. Ulrik and, well, your mom.”

  Joey nodded and cut into his steak at last, after Jenny did the same. They both ate a bite in silence. “I’m still sorry about everything,” he said. “Do you believe me that I didn’t know? I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known. At least, I don’t think so. I was kind of selfish, though. But I really didn’t know.”

  “I believe you.”

  “You would have had a normal life in Montana if I hadn’t decided you were the prettiest girl in class.”

  She laughed just a little, but it was enough to put some light back in her brown eyes. “That was a long time ago,” she said.

  “Growing up hasn’t hurt you,” Joey said, but his voice cracked as he fought to stay calm while giving the compliment. He felt the blood rushing to his face instantly and tightened the grip on his steak knife while Jenny laughed more. Now her eyes were as light as honey.

  “Thank you,” she said, and reached across the table to put her hand on his clenched fist. She lifted her class of iced tea and said, “You’re still pretty cute, too.” Then she drank.

  “Why are you here now?” Joey asked as they ate.

  Over the course of the meal and dessert, they shared summaries of their lives since that long-ago day when Joey had bitten her. Each listened to the other in silence, asking a few questions, but mostly just taking it in. Joey chose to leave out his short romance with Kiona, but otherwise told Jenny everything after hearing about her escape from Fenris’s compound in California.

  “Did you know Kelley was a spy for Cerdwyn?” he asked.