by P. S. Power
“Drawing is good. Research as well. I used to like books, when I was younger. I still read but part of being grown up means that my job comes first, so most of what I do ends up being for that. If you ever need to know anything about vampires, the real kind, or one of the other groups, I have a whole shelf of books that aren’t too bad on the subject. You like to eat food?”
The words were stressed funny, at the end. As if he might enjoy eating something else, other than food. It didn’t make sense, given that anything you ate counted as such, as far as he understood.
“Nuts and berries, mainly. Meat makes me feel ill. I can have other things but I don’t need them. I don’t really eat a lot. I mean, I don’t need to.” He was a different sort of person than that.
Brenner didn’t look back at him. Both Agent and the red-haired woman had kept their gaze forward while operating the car. Scanning the road for obstacles and problems. It was clearly part of what his test would be on, when he took it. How that was going to work, he didn't know. It was possible that he would be getting that soon, so paid as much attention as possible to what was happening as they traveled down the road, into the night.
“You can have other things though? Bread and things like that? Or does it have to be specifically those foods?” There was interest in her voice at the idea.
Liam sort of had an answer for her.
“I think it can be anything that isn’t meat or too similar to that. I’ve had bread and even things like toast, a few times. In the novel the creature only ate berries and nuts, so mother had me stick to that to begin with, just in case there was something important to it. A single slice of bread is a day’s food for me, to give portion size.”
That got a surprised gasp. A thing that was soft and not followed up on. It could have been something else, though there was nothing on the road that should have left the lady feeling upset or stressed, as far as he could see. She pulled over to the side of the road. They were on the highway, as it was called and there were other cars. Brenner pushed a button on the side of her steering mechanism that make clicking noises. That had a triangle with an exclamation point in it.
As she did that, Agent woke up, sitting so he was no longer slumped against the window.
“What’s up?” The man sounded a little unclear. Sluggish from sleep.
Mary had done things like that, on occasion. Then she’d imbibed in coffee to help her wake up for the day. Agent didn’t have any of that to hand, so simply looked at the person he was with.
Brenner took a breath, then slowly pulled out her cell phone.
“I’m not certain. Something with Mitchel, I think.” She took a few moments, breathing hard, then dialed a number.
It was new to him, so Liam watched how it was done. Mary had a phone, though it wasn’t for him to use, not knowing anyone to call. Now, perhaps, he could use such a thing to get in touch with Mary. He also kept the specific number being used in mind, simply because he could see it being dialed.
There was the sound of a voice from the thing, which he couldn’t make out clearly.
Brenner practically barked into the phone.
“Mitch… What the fuck is going on?” She paused and laughed. It was a different sounding kind of thing. Dark and foreboding, instead of happy, like he was used to hearing from people when they did that kind of thing. Then, his pool for such things was limited. Mainly Mary and some people online.
The woman spoke again, her voice angry sounding.
“Of course I got the signal. I just can’t tell what it meant. We’re in transit here, so I was driving…”
Whatever the situation was, she listened for a while, then spoke, hurriedly.
“Got it. We’re about… an hour and a half away from there. We’ll head that way directly. Tell them… Ask everyone to be calm for a bit, so that we can get into place? It would take that long to get there from home anyway. Thanks Mitchel. I love you, too.” She hung up then and got them back into traffic, heading the same direction as before, being the only option possible without dodging cars moving the other way at full speed.
Looking over at Agent, she made a face.
“We need to get to Lewiston. There’s about to be an honor killing. A wolf bitch was caught with a local boy. A human, from the sound of it. So of course, the plan is to kill him for it. I hate this kind of thing. Half sharia, half The Hills Have Eyes. I need to know the off-ramp for it. Lewiston is to the south of here.”
Liam took up the map, which had been refolded but left with him. It meant twisting bonelessly again to lay the thing flat next to him. It took a moment to find the city in question, then work out where they were in the real world from the signs they passed. At the same time Agent worked with the small computer built into the car. The GPS.
Being up to date on how to read a map allowed him to have the information first, so he whispered, softly.
“Take the one-nineteen exit, toward highway three. That should be up on the right in… six miles.”
It wasn’t clear if anyone heard him or not, though the GPS spoke a few seconds later. It sounded like a woman, having a higher pitched voice.
“Turn right on the one-nineteen offramp, in five and a half miles.”
Agent sniffed from the front seat.
“So, you can read a map? Handy.” That was for him.
So, he nodded, being that he was used to doing things like that. Brenner didn’t explain how she’d taught him how to do that, as well as a lot of road rules, while the man had slept. It would be an awkward time for a testing of his driving ability anyway. They needed to travel fast, it seemed, at least the indicator for that was nearly double what it had been earlier.
Brenner didn’t look back, just speaking.
“We need to find some way to get those cuffs off of you, Liam. We can’t leave you in the car locked up that way, with these people. I mentioned that a few groups would be offended by that kind of thing? We can’t stop by a police station to get a key, either. Maybe find some bolt cutters… I don’t know.”
Liam understood. It was time for him to remove the cuffs, and important enough that destroying the things was allowable, finally. He simply brought his arms around to the front. That made a loud popping sound as the links in the center broke, snapping suddenly. The people in the front jumped, though Agent was the one that looked back at him. The man turned all the way around, watching him closely.
Rather than get upset at the destruction of the item, the man simply watched as he twisted the sturdier bits off. Those pulled at his skin as they stretched and finally popped. The work took both hands, but only a few moments. Mere seconds.
Then the tall man put his hands out to take the pile of scrap metal from Liam. There was a strange expression on his face.
Brenner glanced over at it, as the human man’s hand was held out, a mound of silver links and broken metal, stretched and distorted, grew on top of the flat palm.
Then her eyes went right back to the road, since that was important, while driving.
“Holy hell. That’s… not too bad, actually. I was kidding about doing that earlier but we can give the scraps there to Simpson as a Christmas present. We won’t even have to stop this way.” The lady seemed a bit different then, as she drove with great speed through the dark, the lights of the other cars marking the path for them.
Troubled, Liam thought.
Chapter three
Liam had to sit forward a bit to observe the operations of the vehicle. For a long while Agent did something, tapping in his hands, softly. It wasn’t until he looked back that the man noticed Liam had shuffled forward in his seat, examining what was going on.
When he did, the man grunted. Noting something or calling attention to it, without using a word, directly. Mary had done things like that occasionally, so Liam had learned that it was a part of speech, not simply a random noise.
“You need to have a seat belt on. It’s the law. Plus, the staring is a bit much… Um, why are you watching Tiffa
ny that closely?”
Questions were a constant part of learning, so he was used to being given both direction and quizzes at different parts of his day. It was strange, since it was night time. His mother often slept then, resting as she did. It seemed these people either didn’t do that the same way, like him, or they were staying awake for some reason. Possibly having to do with the trip and now that the strange call had come in, the new events taking place. Agent had rested however, as they moved, meaning that he, at least, had that kind of basic requirement or at least habit. Brenner had closed her eyes, without sleeping, as the other man had done.
Liam smiled then, since questions were a good thing.
“I’m watching to see how to operate this vehicle, in case it’s my turn to do so next, in the rotation. Brenner mentioned that I would be tested first. I don’t know which of you will be doing that, or when. It would be good to practice first, though I think I have much of what is needed.” His voice was as loud as he could whisper, since the noise of the engine tried to drown out everything as it struggled to keep pushing them through the world.
“What?”
Speaking the words again, moving closer to Agent allowed the human male to hear him. There was a soft chuckle then and oddly enough a head nod.
“You can’t drive until you’re sixteen years old, at least. Not legally. It’s probably a good idea to learn how but there are rules for that sort of thing. We don’t do that kind of testing, either. There are people trained to give those tests that you have to impress directly. For now… It’s a good thing to know, in case of emergency. Just sit back and make certain you have your safety belt on. If we crash, I don’t need to be hit by a hundred and eighty pounds of passenger, you know?” The man seemed to be making a joke of it, though the information sounded very likely at the same time. As if doing two things at one time.
It took a moment to work out how the belt system worked, which required a strap to be pulled over himself, covering part of his chest and hips. The light blue of his clothing rasped against the thicker black material of the restraints. Those were wide but soft. Likely strong, if it was meant to prevent him from learning to fly, if an accident took place.
Sitting back in the seat was also required, which would make it difficult for anyone to hear him. To that end, he didn’t ask any questions, simply listening and trying to take from context what the plans were. It was, he had to allow, exciting and scary at the same time. A streak of some emotion he wasn’t familiar with cut across his thoughts then. A thing that he’d never felt before.
Fear, while new to that day, was in the mix of things. Anger as well, if he’d recognized that correctly. People had come and taken his mother away, which he still didn’t understand completely. There had been a lot of new words involved in that situation. Things that could be, no doubt, looked up, if he had the needed connections. His computer was in the back of the car, in a locked container that was built into the thing.
Still, there was something more. He felt the lack of Mary. The one being that he knew. The only person that he’d ever spoken to or seen in person until a few hours before. That, sitting in the back of the vehicle, which raced to a place he only knew from the map, was the strongest of the things he felt. An absence of Mary Frankenstein.
The name, even if he was concerned for her, got him to smile. It was meant to be a game or teasing, he’d been told. Not a thing to be taken seriously, even if he’d never known her as anyone else. That she was called something else hadn’t been hidden from him. Mary had said, several times that she had a different name. That hadn’t been mentioned to him however. Now, after being arrested, he had to wonder if that had been about hiding herself from the bad men. The ones that had attacked them and threatened to fucking kill him and Mary both.
After driving for nearly an hour, Brenner spoke, her words tense. More so than she’d seemed earlier, meaning it probably wasn’t about him at all. That he wasn’t the center of the world outside of his home was clear to him. That was different than what he’d lived the rest of his life, of course. His mother had spent most of her time with him since he could recall and even before that point, if the hazy flashes of things in his head were correct.
The red-haired, rather pale woman took a breath.
“We should be there in about ten minutes. This…” She didn't make any sounds for a bit, looking instead over at the man in the other seat. “Werewolf social rules are different than ours. We can’t leave you in the car, Liam. That would be considered rude, both to the people we’ll be seeing and to you. That, you being offended might start a fight, at least an argument, even if they don’t know you. The thing is that a lot could set them off, especially if they’re already worked up about something else. It would be best for us to do the talking, so try not to do that, if you don’t have to. They shouldn’t attack any of us, given our positions with the government.”
Agent chuckled then. A dark thing that started low in his throat and which didn't manifest in the happy, bubbling sound that Mary used for such things. It was similar, while still being unique and different to him.
“No shit. Normally we wouldn’t be taking a call this late at night like this. The wolves have been being a problem lately, for some reason. There’s been tension in a lot of the alternate communities, which is showing up in different ways for each group. So, it shouldn’t be a problem. Which doesn’t mean it won’t be. On the nice side, we’re a good way off from the full moon. They can’t shift and won’t be as rough this time of the month. No more than anyone else in a stressful situation, at least.”
Nodding, Liam tried to take all the new information in. Other than the bad men, Agent and Brenner, he’d never met anyone other than Mary. He knew that people existed of course. Different sorts, as well. Men, women, boys, who were young men like himself and girls. He’d never met one of those but had seen them several times in videos. Teaching him things.
How to sing the alphabet and count to a hundred, for instance. Useful information like that. It made sense, given that most human beings seemed geared toward learning and teaching. Even Agent and Brenner had given him a lot of information that night.
The driver pulled over again, when they hit the edge of the correct town, so that she could call for a more exact address. That was given to her quickly enough, again from Mitchel, who was also called Mitch. Who he was, other than being a man, wasn’t spoken of. Not even as they drove in silence for a long while again. Minutes this time, instead of hours.
The vehicle was stopped in front of a house that reminded Liam of his own, at least a little. It wasn’t a vast place but had only one level to it, that was visible from the outside. Some homes were, he thought, larger inside. Often going downward into the ground. This one could have that, of course. As far as he knew, it was common. Some of his instruction had informed him that not everyone had that kind of thing in their dwelling. Mary had. Her primary laboratory had been below the door that led to the stairs. That had been where he was born.
No one told him to unbuckle himself, simply doing it for themselves in each case. He followed along, mastering the complex device in only three attempts. There was a clever button on the outward facing side of the metal tab which released him from confinement. That, being unbound, felt nice. A thing that he hadn’t noticed while he rode.
Then he had a new trick to learn, since Brenner waved for him to get out of the car. She did it easily enough for herself, touching something on the side of the door. That portion took him longer, since the controls weren’t a thing he’d used before. He did find a button which allowed him to make the glass to the side vanish into the metal of the door.
Agent smiled at him and nodded.
“Right, you’ve never done this before, have you? The handle is a bit down.” Reaching inside, he pointed to what he meant, not doing it for him. “Grab over the top and pull with your fingers. Gently. It will kick the door open.”
Then the man stood back, clearly seeming anxious about s
omething, even if he tried to hide it. That could be either the reason they were there or the fact that he feared Liam would destroy the car door, if he couldn’t figure out how it worked fast enough. He smiled, since that lesson had taken him nearly two months to learn. If things didn't work easily, you didn't use more force, you had to figure out the clever trick to the item in question. Many things had, indeed, been damaged by him before he’d understood that factor.
In this case the door gave over to him instantly, as soon as he knew what to do. As he climbed out, his bare yellow feet, looking large and very different from the others touched a new type of surface. It was rough and while hard to see in the dim light, seemed to be made of tiny, often jagged, stones. He could feel them as he walked, following his new friends into the house of the wolves.
If that was what the place was. They’d been drawn there for that sort of person, since they were having a problem that needed Brenner and Agent to fix. It might not be their place in the world, if many people were involved. Making assumptions was a poor plan for someone like him. He knew enough to understand that he didn't know much at all.
Softly, so that the little stones wouldn’t harm him too much, even if he’d heal from it, Liam followed the others, watching the world closely and staying behind them. No one had told him where to walk. They didn't wave him to the front, either, so he might be close to correct that way, being five feet away from Agent. Brenner was to the side and a foot ahead of him.
She didn't indicate she was there by screaming or breaking the door open. Instead she tapped on it with her second knuckles. It made a sound that surprised him, though Liam didn’t jump. A moment later the wooden panel opened up, a very thin man, one who didn’t seem old, opening it and leaning to the side to allow them entry.
