by Rain Oxford
“You can ask your questions. They’ll do whatever you tell them now.”
“Anything?”
“As far as I know.”
“Father, hold your breath until your wife tells me everything you know about my son,” he said immediately, as if he had planned this. “Mother, tell me everything you know about my son. And do it quick before you become a widow.”
“I dropped him off at Second Hope Orphanage in Arizona. I had a friend look into it a week later when you showed resistance and found out that he was in a foster family and in the process of adoption. I didn’t want his name. I told Carla to keep an eye on him. The orphanage burned down a month later and the adoption was set back due to medical complications, since he had no birth or medical records.”
“He’s sick?”
“The family thought so, but the tests were non-conclusive. After six months, he suddenly recovered. The family moved up north and he stayed with them for another eight months before they declined the adoption and sent him back into state care. When asked why, they just said they couldn’t handle his special needs.”
“Where was he sent?”
“I didn’t ask. He was fostered out again to a family with eight other foster kids. He was returned six months later. The family said he didn’t fit in with them. The orphanage evaluated his mental and physical health and determined that he was advanced, but needed more socializing. He was given to a childless couple who were prepared to challenge and socialize him.”
I looked up at Matheus, who was turning a dangerous shade of red. “Henry, you need to hurry this up or tell him to breathe.”
He didn’t even look at the man. “I need every detail. Keep going.”
“They were investigated after several anonymous tips and it was discovered that they were doing experiments on him including shock therapy to test his reflexes, pain threshold, and healing.”
“Oh, god.”
“He spent two months in a hospital before he was given to another family. They also sent him back for odd behavior. This happened again and again. He never spent more than four months with a family since then, except for his last one. They took him in a year ago and adopted him two months ago.”
“Give me a name.”
“I don’t know any names.”
Matheus collapsed to his knees. If he were human, he would probably have been dead by now. “Henry, let him go.”
“He could breathe if she said everything. Obviously, she hasn’t. I want a name!”
“I told you everything I know!” she looked up at her husband and true fear bled through my power. As cruel as she was, she loved Matheus.
“Henry, you don’t want to murder him.”
Henry shoved his mother against the wall. “His name!”
“Matheus, breathe and tell Henry what he wants to know!” I yelled, dropping my power over the household to focus on him.
Matheus desperately sucked in air. It took nearly two minutes before he could get the words out, all the while Henry was one inch away from choking Luana. “Bryson Stewart.”
Henry dropped his mother. “That’s his name?” He glared up at Matheus, daring the older jaguar shifter to lie. Matheus nodded, still panting. “If you ever even think about coming after me or my son, I will slowly burn every inch of your flesh and then skin you alive.” With that, Henry turned and started to walk out.
I felt a hint of relief in Matheus’s mind and I knew he was hiding something else. “Wait.” Henry stopped and looked at me. “What are you not telling us?” I asked Matheus. He glared at me, but I wasn’t going to strengthen my control over him unless he gave me trouble.
“A few weeks ago, a man came by wanting to know everything about Henry, including what was most important to him. He said Henry stole something from him.”
“And you told him about Henry’s son.”
“He offered us a lot of money. With Henry no longer listening to us, the boy wasn’t worth anything anymore, especially when we didn’t have to tell Henry about it. The kid is half human; we were doing what was best for Henry when we got rid of it.”
I had to shove Henry back to keep him from attacking Matheus. His hands shifted and I barely managed to avoid being nicked by his claws. “Killing him will just waste time.” He turned and left without another word. I let my power take hold of Luana’s mind again as well as Matheus’s. Fortunately, I had learned to distance myself from the minds I controlled so I didn’t have to hear their thoughts.
Luana smugness fell. I wouldn’t hurt her baby even though I wanted her to suffer.
“You will never do or say anything that might hurt or upset Henry or his son ever again.” I was speaking to them both. “You will not sell that baby. You will find a loving family who knows about paranormals to adopt him or her before the baby is born and you will not benefit in any way. It will be a closed adoption. Once you know the baby is going to be happy in his or her life, forget you ever had a child.”
I didn’t know if what I was doing was right. I didn’t know if I was strong enough to pull it off. I did, however, know that this power was dangerous. With a simple thought, a single sentence, I could make them kill themselves. I could avenge every person they ever hurt.
With two words.
I could also make the wizard council do what was right for all paranormals. I could bring the leaders of the paranormal world together and end the fighting. I could possibly even make Langril bring Astrid back to me.
“Devon?” Henry asked, having returned to the doorway. There was only concern on his face, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
But I wasn’t John Cross. I let the jaguar shifters go and left. When Henry and I were both in the truck, we sat in silence for a moment before he started the engine and I opened a link between Darwin and me. “We have a name.”
“Good. I’m ready.”
“Bryson Stewart. He was adopted two months ago. I’m expecting the family to be a couple with a young daughter. There might be a news report about him missing.”
“Come pick us up and I’ll have an address by then. Over and out.”
Chapter 6
Darwin did indeed have an address when we got to the library. There was a larger town about thirty miles south of us where a small family with the last name of Stewart adopted a five-year-old named Bryson two months ago. Darwin said the description fit, but there weren’t any pictures.
We picked up a couple of phones at the dollar store, dropped Marcus off at Henry’s house, and drove to the next town. Henry was very quiet and the tension was palpable. He had been in that town dozens of times.
The town had basically two shopping streets surrounded by blocks of residential neighborhoods. It didn’t take long to find the right house, but when Henry pulled into the driveway, he just stared at the basketball hoop over the garage. After a moment, I took off my seat belt and opened the door.
“I don’t know how to give him what he needs,” Henry said finally.
“No one does at first. You love, listen, and learn.” I got out and was followed quickly by Darwin. I reached the door and knocked before Henry caught up with me. I was about to knock again when the door opened to a middle aged woman with dirty blond hair and tear stains on her cheeks. “Are you Samantha Stewart?”
She shook her head. “She and her husband were killed three days ago. It was a robbery gone wrong.”
It wasn’t a robbery; my vision had been too late. Whoever Henry pissed off was going after Scott and could have already had him. “What about the kids? Are they okay?” I asked, although I already knew the answer. I had seen it for myself. How long could a five-year-old outrun someone who was able to track down a thief as skilled as Henry?
“CC is fine. Bryson…” She spotted Henry then and her eyes widened with shock. “You’re his…”
“Yes,” Henry answered. “What happened to him?”
“He was kidnapped. The police are trying to find him. There haven’t been any ransom demands o
r anything.”
“Do you have anything of his?” I asked.
She frowned. “Like what?”
“A favorite toy, a security blanket, anything. I’m a P.I.” Most people either thought we were wannabe cops or rebel cops. Fortunately, she moved aside, even though I had no legal right to enter. Of course, Henry wouldn’t have cared.
The living room was just like it had been in my vision, except the glass was cleared away. The woman led us down a short hallway to the farthest door on the right. Inside was a dream bedroom for any boy. The bed was designed to look like a red race-car, the light blue walls were covered in posters, and clothes were strewn about. Beside the bed was a small writing desk with the newest PlayStation hooked up to a television.
“I told them they went overboard on the boy stuff,” the woman said. “They were just really excited about being a complete family. They had this dream about a boy and girl, a dog, and a white picket fence in a quiet town. Who would have thought…?” She sighed. “They were going to get the kids a puppy yesterday.”
I walked around, trying to find anything the five-year-old would have actually picked out or treasured. “Did he ever act afraid? Did he ever think someone was following him?”
“Not any more than could be expected. He never relaxed completely; he had been in and out of too many homes. He was constantly waiting for Samantha and Will to kick him out. I guess that’s why he was so damn respectful and selfless.”
“Did you notice anything unusual about his behavior? Anything that would explain why a family would give him up?” She shot a nervous glance at Henry. “It’s okay. Henry’s not going to get mad unless you give him a very good reason to be.”
“He…” She hesitated. “He was just a little odd. Sometimes he would move in an odd way or make an odd sound, sort of like a growling sound. He sniffed everything. And Samantha could never get him to go to bed or wake up. He wouldn’t backtalk her or anything, he would just lie in bed for most of the night before falling asleep. Samantha said he was just a night owl. I’ve checked on him before when I babysat. He would just stare up at the ceiling, not making a sound, for hours. He could be extremely calm and quiet one minute, and playful the next. He played too rough with CC. He was too fast.”
“Did CC say she saw anything during the robbery?”
“She said she saw a big cat, but it was obviously some kind of nightmare.”
In Scott’s bed was a two-foot-tall, gray teddy bear. I picked it up and immediately sensed that this was what we needed.
“Do you think a hound can track a scent off of that?” Darwin asked innocently.
I nodded. I could use this to have a vision; hopefully one that would help us find him. “Let’s see how far we can get with this.”
Right before we left, Henry turned back to face the woman. “Was he happy here?”
She frowned. “He had everything he could want, but no, I don’t think he was.”
* * *
We got in the car, drove out of town, and pulled over to the side of the road. Without wasting any more time, I slipped the ring on while clutching the teddy bear in my hands. The images and thoughts that flooded my mind were not structured or in chronological order like my normal visions. I had to wade through his memories of being in and out of homes.
He once saw a puppy in front of a store building. His foster brother spotted the puppy too, and immediately kicked it. Scott asked him why and the older boy said that the dog was street trash. Scott knew even then that the boy thought he was street trash and that was why he was beaten by the older boy.
Henry’s loud and furious growled nearly pulled me out of the vision, but I forced myself to stay focused.
It was very difficult when I had to feel Scott being struck, burned, cut, and bled in the name of science. He didn’t know what he was or why, only that he wasn’t like these humans. When the experimentation got to be too much, he imagined he was a superhero who was stolen from his superhero parents. He imagined they were desperately looking for him and that if he just held on a little longer, they would save him and he would finally be normal. Sometimes, however, anger would boil up inside him and he would imagine his superhero parents torturing and killing the villain who kidnapped him. He thought that he kept being moved from home to home so that his real parents couldn’t find him.
When he was taken in by the Stewarts, he still never fit in. They didn’t hurt him, but they weren’t his kind. He wanted his real family.
He wanted to know why they never found him.
When the Stewart’s adopted him, he lost hope of ever being returned to his real family. I felt the teddy bear fall from my hands, but my instincts were driving me deeper into the vision. My sight changed and distorted until I saw him inside a building, climbing a huge, concrete staircase.
I tried to reach out with my power like I have many times to find the minds of those around him, but it was like there was a barrier between me and the vision. It wasn’t my own eyes I was seeing through, or Scott’s, so I had no idea how I was even seeing this. Then again, I had had several visions where I wasn’t seeing through a person’s eyes, which I probably needed to ask Vincent about.
The staircase was distinctive, but not one I recognized, and I wasn’t able to look around. When he passed the window, I couldn’t see through the glass, despite it being daylight outside. Come on. Give me something. Then a bell tolled. Scott covered his ears and whimpered because the ringing was coming from inside. My tunnel of sight rose until I was looking down on the kid and was able to make out that he was in a tower.
I pulled off my ring and let the sound that was distracting me pull me from the vision. I heard the exact same bell. “Of course. He’s looking for you,” I said.
“What?” Henry asked.
“He believes… or hopes… that you’ve been looking for him his entire life and that you couldn’t find him because he kept being moved. He’s still here because he wants you to find him.”
“Where is he?”
“Wherever that bell is coming from.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, we were pulling up in front of the library, which had a clock tower on it. Since it was the only tower in the town with a bell in it, it wasn’t difficult to find. When Henry parked and we got out of the truck, my instincts warned me to stop. “Hold up,” I told Henry and Darwin. They both stopped, but Henry just stared up at the tower.
“Is he not in there?” Darwin asked.
I searched for the minds around me. I sensed Henry and Darwin first. There were a few people in the shops around us, but only one person in the library. There wasn’t even an employee. “He’s in there.” His mind was not an easy one to reach. I could feel his emotions, but his actual thoughts were hidden deeper inside than for most people. Considering he was a five-year-old, I found that pretty impressive.
I sensed his jaguar at the same time I heard his thoughts. He was planning to hide here. Before I realized what I was doing, I pushed the command to run into his mind. I felt his confusion as he tried to fight it. “Get out of there!” Henry was heading for the door. “Henry, stop!” He did only because I made him. I hadn’t meant to do it.
“Let me go,” he demanded.
“Something’s wrong.” The danger was growing by the second.
“I don’t care. Let me go!”
My phone rang, but I ignored it. I let go of my power over Henry’s mind because I didn’t want to control him. When he reached the steps of the library, I couldn’t stop myself; I put an energy shield around him and another over Darwin. This wasn’t something I learned from Vincent or something that came naturally to me; I seemed to only be able to do it when someone was in mortal danger.
That was when a bomb exploded inside the library. Glass and bricks from the first level sprayed the surrounding block a few seconds before the second floor and the tower collapsed. I felt debris hit my shields with enough force that I thought that I had been impaled in the abdomen.
> Even though I knew it had to be loud, I heard nothing, as if I were wearing earmuffs. By the time the deafness gave way to the sound of car alarms and police cars, I found myself sitting on the ground. I was covered in dust and blood, but the pain was less than it should have been. My magic faded over Henry and Darwin. They both looked unharmed. Henry disappeared into the destruction with Darwin right behind him.
My damned phone was still ringing.
Police had arrived and one approached me to question me. I tried to stand, not caring that a police officer was trying to prevent me from doing so. Only then did I see that there was a chuck of glass sticking out of my calf.
I probably should have tried to protect myself as well. Unwisely, and as if to prove I wasn’t in my right mind, I reached down to yank the glass out before the officer could stop me. Still ignoring the man, I pulled one of my healing potions out and drank it. I had another, but I knew from experience that two at once would just cause me to vomit them both up.
I couldn’t get to Henry as fast as I needed to, so I did the next best thing; I sent my magic out again. My thoughts and reactions were slow, but my magic was not. I found Henry and Darwin easily and nearly regretted it when their panic tried to overwhelm me. Instead, I found Scott, who was alive and unharmed.
From the rate at which I felt him coming closer, I would say he was in his jaguar form and running. When I felt him less than ten feet away from me, I thought for sure I had a concussion… until he ran past me. “Are there underground tunnels?” I asked. My voice was horse, but the officer got the gist.
“There are some small ones.”
I was surprised there were any tunnels in a town this small. “Scott made it out through an underground passageway. He’s safe,” I told my friends in their minds. I got back a sense of relief from both of them.
The cop was saying something, which was probably about an ambulance. My mobile was also still ringing. I flipped open the phone and put it to my ear without a word.
