by Anya Breton
“I tried to avert this, Aeon,” he reminded me. “But you wouldn’t answer my questions.”
“Do you blame me? I mean, now that you know the answer, do you blame me for trying to keep it a secret?”
“Are you really the daughter of a god?”
I exhaled noisily. “I don’t really know. All I know is months ago I had a weird dream where a guy claiming to be Chronos said he was my father. When I told my mom about the dream she had a panic attack, said something about a hot guy at a picnic seventeen years ago and then passed out. The next day I stopped time for five seconds and Wednesday I saved Guy the camera guy by freezing it for far longer.” I turned it back on him. “So you’ve never heard of children of the gods before?”
“No.”
That meant he was abnormal in a different way. “Then what are you all?”
Rather than answer me he asked, “Have you heard of other children of the gods?”
It annoyed me that he’d ignored my question but there was little I could do about it. I was still at their mercy. “Other than Hercules? No.”
It sounded as if his head shook but I couldn’t be sure because it was dark. “My family thinks you’re insane.”
“Well, I think your family is a menace.”
Quickly he scolded me, “You shouldn’t say things like that while in our house. They can hear you.”
My stomach flipped at the thought of them hearing me but I felt the need to defend myself. “They haven’t exactly been hospitable. Anyone who kidnaps a girl, demands an accounting of her parentage and then shoves her bound into solitary confinement is getting nothing but disdain from me.”
“Again, if you’d…”
“Yes, yes,” I’d have gestured dismissively if I could have moved my arms. “It’s all my fault. Look, did you get the answers you came in here for or what?”
“I guess,” he grumbled. “I’d hoped you’d be more cooperative.”
“I’ve told you literally everything I know. There is nothing left to tell.” I slowed the words down so he’d be certain to grasp them all. “I. Know. Nothing.”
He exhaled once more then turned for the door. After I’d been left in the darkness again I found it nearly impossible to ignore the pain in my tongue. It was such a minor discomfort compared to the prospect of death and yet I couldn’t seem to get past it.
An argument broke out again further in their house. This time snarls and growls were easy to pick out through the door. An inhuman screech that shook the walls sent me scrambling into a corner. Silence followed it.
Minutes later the door opened and light poured in. No silhouette blocked it this time. I craned my neck to see who was waiting out there but saw nothing.
Huddled within the corner I remained. I wasn’t foolish enough to fall for this trap again.
“You can come out now,” Alex spoke a moment before appearing around a corner. He held a downturned knife in his right hand. “You have to come out if you want me to cut the rope.”
I didn’t know why I trusted him enough to listen but I did. Into the light I crept and stopped in front of him with a deep breath. I knew Alex could have hurt me with the knife in the dark if he’d wanted to.
A swift movement had me free from the bind. He stepped around me and gestured forward. We walked across the cut stone floor into the broad room they’d first dropped me.
The leader stood with a hand to his chin and another wrapped around his middle. There were decidedly fewer people in the room now. The older male remained in his position directly beside the leader along with the younger and one of the women. The room was empty of all others.
“I apologize for the rough handling, Miss Still,” the leader bowed his head to me. “The most important thing to me is the protection of my family. I had to know we were safe.” His arms dropped and curled behind him. “Clan Chattan would like to extend the olive branch to you.”
Something told me Clan Chattan didn’t want to but the few people in the room did.
The leader’s voice adopted a grave tone, “But we think it is important that you know of the danger you wield. My father would like to say a few words.”
The older man nodded once then began in a gravelly voice. “Should you learn the art of Time travel you need to take care not to alter anything in the past. As you’ve no doubt seen in popular culture, it can have major ramifications on the present.”
My stomach flipped sickly at the thought time travel. I didn’t want to go to the past or the future. The present was frightening enough.
“Additionally, each time you freeze Time, you send a shockwave across the world,” the older man added. “Those shockwaves can be felt by anyone who is immune to the affects. They can also be traced.”
The leader took over from there. “We came here to be free from witches and have no wish to bring them to our door. You must curtail your power. In exchange, we offer you protection.”
I eyed him warily. First they’d kidnapped me and now they wanted to help me? All I had to do was not use the power I’d barely realized I’d had all this time. It seemed too good to be true which meant it was.
I asked the question at the forefront of my mind. “What do I need to be protected from?”
“Rogue witches, vampires who would enthrall you…”
My exclamation interrupted him, “Vampires? They’re real?”
The leader’s dusky pink lips turned down in a frown. “Unfortunately.”
My eyes widened yet further because that was absolutely unbelievable! But then, if I really could stop time and my father really was a god, vampires would be easy to believe. “Are there any in Junction Hill?”
“Not that we’ve seen,” the older man said.
“Which of those are you?”
The leader grunted in annoyance. “We are none of those.”
I stared at him in silence but a dozen questions swirled in my head. They could protect me from vampires and witches? What did that make them? I glanced at Alex. His steel blue eyes met mine for a moment before he looked at his father. The expression on his face was grim.
“I will show her,” he offered in a tight voice.
“Alex…” The leader began in warning.
Alex ignored the warning to pose a vehement question. “How can we expect her to trust us if we hide ourselves?”
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to that.”
“You had hoped she’d blindly follow us out of fear.”
“Alexander! Do not speak to your father with such defiance,” the woman beside the leader scolded in a motherly tone.
But the leader’s lips lifted slightly a moment before he gave a small chuckle. “He is right.” There was a short pause. “But you may serve only to frighten her further.”
Alex’s shoulders squared as he glanced at me then back at his father. “It’s a chance we have to take.”
The leader waved a dismissive hand toward me. “Very well then.”
The woman sighed wearily. “Do it outside.”
“Yes, Mom,” Alex grumbled.
I glanced between the three, marveling over the likeness between them. If I hadn’t realized it before then, I now had to recognize that these people were Alex’s family.
“This way,” my schoolmate stepped in front of me and gestured in the direction we’d come.
Unwilling to stay in the room with four strangers, I followed him through the hallway and out what looked to be the front door. In light cast by the fixtures beside the door I could see a black utility van parked nearby. Now I knew how they’d gotten me to wherever we were.
“Gah, it’s dang cold,” Alex griped while tugging at his sleeve.
My eyes widened when I realized what he was doing. A second later the shirt was pulled over his head and dropped to the ground. Then his fingers went to the waistband of his jeans.
I turned away with a blush and covered my eyes.
“You kind of have to watch otherwise you won’t believe me,” he said wit
h a wry tone.
My mouth dropped open in horror. “I’m not watching you get naked!”
Alex let out a quick laugh. “Fine, I’ll hide behind this bush if you’re so worried.” I heard him take several steps on the cement. “Okay, all hidden.”
Slowly I turned back and peeked between my fingers. “You’re not all hidden,” I griped because I could still see him from the waist up behind a dwarf evergreen tree.
“Like I said, you have to watch or you won’t believe me.” His lips spread into a small grin. “You got a problem with seeing me shirtless? Am I that ugly?”
The problem was that he wasn’t. The shirts he wore to school concealed a collection of defined muscles across his arms, chest and stomach that weren’t all that common with guys his age. I forced myself to look at his face rather than note them.
“I’m watching,” I informed him without answering his questions.
“Good, cuz I’m freezin’ my bare butt off.”
Crimson filled my cheeks again at the mention of his bare butt.
It earned me a laugh. He went serious a moment later. “Okay, here we go. Watch carefully.”
I didn’t know what I was supposed to be watching for but I watched all the same.
Alex held up his hands in front of him as if he wanted me to look at those as well. He grunted once, then after a movement that was little more than a powerful sneeze his bronze body disappeared and in its place was only gleaming black…fur? I could barely make out the shape of a black back in the light cast by the fixtures behind me.
The lack of illumination had made it nearly impossible to understand what had happened to him. From behind the bush I heard a menacing sound. It was a growling hiss the likes of which I’d never heard in person. But I had heard it on television. I’d heard it on shows about jungle cats attacking lesser creatures.
With a dull thump the miniature tree shook. I could hear sniffing as if something were trying to smell my scent in the air. My heart began pounding faster. Instinctively I took a step back. Three additional dull thumps echoed against the cement drive.
I stood frozen, staring in horror at the thing in front of me. The black back that had been hiding behind the bush had stepped into the light.
In front of me was a three-foot tall black panther with its steel blue eyes trained on me.
CHAPTER TEN
The black panther took a step forward toward me. I took two backward. The creature advanced once again. I retreated until I smacked into something behind me. The obstacle had me nearly falling over before two hands set atop my shoulders to steady me.
“He won’t hurt you,” the deep male voice behind me spoke. I recognized it as their leader. The assurance meant little when faced with a wild animal.
The panther lowered its haunches to the ground and stared at me. Its broad black nose shimmered with moisture in the light and several long whiskers stretched out on either side of his mouth. That mouth opened to reveal two large white canines and a wide pink tongue. The creature blinked its steel blue eyes while making a grunting noise.
His father laughed. “What did you expect her to do?”
“Is that…” I stammered to a stop.
“Yes, that is Alex,” he assured me as he released my shoulders.
“What is he?”
“We are shapeshifters.”
I visibly shivered but said nothing.
“You had better shift back.” The leader’s firm voice soothed little.
The black panther stood on all fours once again. It’s mouth closed with another grunt before it stepped back behind the evergreen. A cat-like sneeze started the process in reverse. The black fur disappeared until the back I saw peeking over the evergreen was bronzed. Several curses in a growling tone followed. Alex stood to his full height once again.
“It’s stupid cold,” he whined in a more familiar voice.
The figure behind me moved away. I heard the door open and close. Apparently the leader had returned inside.
Alex’s hands lowered, no doubt to put on his clothes. I dropped my eyes to the ground in front of me to avoid seeing it. Moments later I saw him reach down to gather up his shirt a few feet away. Then his bare feet stepped into view.
I could think of nothing to say. My shock was too great.
“I’m sorry.” He apologized tentatively. “It isn’t really something I could explain.”
As it stood, I wasn’t sure I believed what I’d seen. There was no way he’d turned into a giant cat!
He breathed noisily through his nose then spoke. “I totally freaked you out, didn’t I?”
The answer would have been “Yes. Yes, you did” but I wasn’t about to admit it to a guy who could scratch me in half. So I said nothing.
“Come on, let’s go back in where it’s warm,” he suggested.
I was quick to start for the door to avoid him. He followed me in then walked past me toward where the others had been. The large room I’d been brought to first was now empty. Alex continued through it into a sitting room behind it that had actual furniture.
The four people who had remained were congregated in a more familial grouping among the sofa, love seat and chair set instead of menacing lines in the stone-floored room. Their leader sat in a high backed chair beside a crackling fire while his wife rested against the right side. The older man sat on the far edge of the couch nearby. While the younger man stood warming his hands over the flame.
The youngest turned to face us. “She didn’t run screaming?”
“No,” Alex answered flatly.
With a jab of his head down, the younger male cursed, “Damn it.”
“Pay up, Drew,” the leader’s father made a grabby gesture, grinning as he did.
Alex’s steel blue eyes narrowed into fine slivers. “You had a bet on her reaction?”
Drew shrugged his larger shoulders in mock-innocence but he did pull his wallet out to draw out a bill. Seconds later he was walking to the older man.
“Like taking candy from a baby,” the older man laughed as the younger placed a ten-dollar bill in his outstretched hand.
“I’m embarrassed to be related to you,” Alex griped.
The beautiful raven-haired woman who stood behind the leader made a sound of displeasure.
Alex grumbled an apology.
That was when the leader cleared his throat for attention. “Since she didn’t run screaming, perhaps we ought to cease our rudeness and introduce ourselves.”
The younger man was the first to step forward. He held his hand out to me. His mouth spread to reveal a white smile of perfect teeth. The expression reminded me so much of Alex that I had to glance aside to make sure it wasn’t him.
“Andrew Chattan, the coolest member of the clan.” After Alex snorted, he added, “But everyone calls me Drew.”
I looked at his hand for a moment then took it tentatively.
He dropped my hand like a hot potato. “Dang, you’re freezing!”
The leader stood from his chair, closed the distance and offered his. “Please excuse my son’s insult. We’ve yet to adjust to New England weather. I’m Arthur. I apologize for how we began the evening. I hope you can forgive me.”
I shook his hand in good faith but I wasn’t certain I was ready to forgive them.
Arthur stretched his arm behind him to wave a hand forward. “This lovely creature is my wife Anna.”
Slowly the woman started forward to stop three feet in front of me. She gave me a brusque nod in greeting. She was indeed lovely despite her slight frown.
Arthur gestured behind him. “That incorrigible man is my father, Arnold. He is the wisest of us all.”
“And don’t you forget it, scamp,” the older man chuckled while folding his ten dollars in half.
Arthur nodded to the person beside me. “And you already know my youngest son Alexander.”
They all stared at me for several moments before I realized that it was my turn. “Hello,” I stammered. “I’m Ae
on Still.”
“That is such a cool name,” Drew said boisterously.
“May we call you Aeon?”
I nodded mutely at Arthur’s question.
He bowed his head politely. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Aeon.” Back to his chair he moved to resume his seat. His wife Anna followed him.
Alex spoke next, “I’d introduce you to my little sister but she’s at a friend’s house tonight.”
No one mentioned the others that had been in the room when I’d first arrived, blindfolded and bound. Where had they gone? Were they not part of the “clan”?
I glanced around then spoke without thought. “Where are all the cameras?”
Alex was part of the same documentary I was in. That meant the entire house ought to be wired with cameras. But I’d seen none. I hadn’t really been looking but it stood to reason that they couldn’t kidnap me while being recorded.
“There and there,” Alex pointed out the little digital eyes. “Everywhere.”
After what I’d seen I had to ask, “Did they…?”
He knew what I was stammering to ask for he shook his head and replied, “Drew hacked the feeds the day they were installed. We control what Mark sees.”
“Oh,” I responded dumbly.
“Do want something to drink?” Drew asked helpfully.
“No, thanks.” I dropped my eyes again and spoke tentatively. “My mom is going to be worried if I’m not home soon.”
“Alex will take you home, whenever you’re ready,” Arthur gestured beside me.
I bravely lifted my eyes to look at their leader. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go home now. I might be able to beat her home.”
The patriarch gave a regal nod. “Of course.”
“My car is out back,” Alex gestured to the French doors at the back of the room.
“It was…interesting meeting you all,” I told him before stepping toward the doors.
Arthur chuckled with good-natured mirth. “Our next meeting will be on better terms, Aeon. This I promise.”
I turned back to tell them good night as I stepped outside. The youngest waved with a smile then twisted back to the fire.
