The Demigod's Legacy

by Holley Trent

  She felt Tito shift his weight on the bench. “What?”

  “My aunt’s husband. He’s the reason Alicia and I left.”

  “You never told me that.”

  “I never had a chance to tell you much of anything. We were … ” She set her teeth into her bottom lip and pondered language, as if precision were such an important thing at that juncture. “We were preoccupied.”

  “You’re distracting that way.”

  “So it’s my fault we spent more time horizontal and under the covers than upright and talking?”

  “Nah, I’m pretty sure I bear the blame in some of that.”

  “All of it. You came on to me.”

  “I did?”

  “Seriously? You really can’t remember? Are you so openly flirtatious with every waitress who crosses your path that they all start to blur?”

  “No.” He turned the stereo down a little more. “Nothing about you is forgettable.”

  “You had a hell of a way of showing it.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping you from getting attached.”

  “And not the other way around, right?”

  “I’m not talking about reciprocity. I’m talking about magic. Who wouldn’t get attached to you? You’re pretty and you’re fun. Thoughtful and easy to be around. Plus, I never had to ask you twice for a refill.”

  He joked, but there’d been a reason for her attention. “I could never stay away from you,” she said. “Didn’t matter how many people were at the bar. You were like a porch light, and I was like a moth.” She twirled her thumbs around each other and nibbled at a bit of dry skin on her bottom lip. The words were a little pathetic, but she felt lighter for having spoken them.

  “I can count on one hand the number of women I’ve been with since you, Dee, and none of those were for longer than a night.”

  “Nah.” Her scoff was barely loud enough to register. She didn’t have the fortitude for volume anymore. “That’s bull.”

  “Why is that so hard to believe?”

  “It just is. You’re this … this guy who’s, I don’t even know. Hundreds of years old, and who has probably been with more women than he can remember the names of. I don’t buy that there hasn’t been a lot of someones, and I’m okay if there has been.”

  The lie was sour in her mouth, but she smiled anyway, and pushed the picnic basket a little closer to him—anything to change the focus of the conversation.

  “You should eat.”

  “I don’t want to eat.”

  “Okay. Well. The food is there if you change your mind, so … ” She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her toes against the metal floor.

  Her brain wasn’t working the way she wanted. She was usually so much better at carrying on a conversation, even one about the most trifling things. Her uncle had once told her no one would ever want her, because she would never stop talking long enough to let anyone tell her.

  Her parents had asked her to talk less after that.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and tapped the toe of her boots faster.

  “I have this uncle,” she said, dropping her hand. “My sister doesn’t like to mention him by name, like he’s Voldemort or Bloody Mary or something. He’s a miserable human being.”

  “I’m afraid of where this story is going.”

  She shrugged. “Gotta tell you some things about me, right? Even if they’re not pretty.”

  He straightened up and put his back against the door, his dark stare pinning her in query. He’d always been good at looking like he cared, and that’d been more than she got from most people. “I guess that’s fair, given some of the things I’ve told you so far.”

  “There are so many stories I could tell about him,” she said, “but I’m just talking in generalities right now. He’s the reason my sister had to leave home so young, and I followed her because I didn’t think with the way things were going, I would be treated any better.”

  “What happened? Did he to—”

  “No.” She shook her head hard. “No, he never touched either of us. His venom was all in his words. He’s charismatic in that toxic kind of way a lot of sociopaths are, and we always seemed like we were the only ones suspicious of him. He had everyone else fooled. Still does, I think.”

  “What did he say to her?”

  “I don’t know if there was just one thing, or if circumstances came to a head, but he was always trying to get people to separate us. He tried to pit my sister and me against each other. He kept trying to tell everyone that I was too dependent on her, which didn’t make a lot of sense, you know? Alicia was bossy, sure, in that big sister way that most are, but she never tried to run my life or get in my way. When she left, I went after her because I didn’t want to stay if she wasn’t there. I didn’t think anyone else would understand how uncomfortable that man made us. I stayed awake a lot of nights wondering what exactly he got out of being that way. For a while, I thought he was just a dick. He’d make comparisons between me and my sister and his daughter, and really talk her up at the expense of putting us down. My parents started to buy into what he was saying. Suddenly, we weren’t good enough, and they kept reminding us of that.”

  “You said he was your uncle?”

  She nodded. “Through marriage. My Aunt Dottie’s husband. They got married when I was around five, I guess. Anyway, my sister took custody of me when she turned eighteen, and my parents didn’t contest the filing. They’d stopped caring about us, and that was obvious.”

  “That doesn’t sound right. That doesn’t sound like something normal people would do.”

  “Tito, I don’t want pity. I just wanted you to know that about me—why there’s no family except Alicia and my brother-in-law and their kids. That’s all Cruz has had until now. She’s never met my parents and, as much as I still miss them, I don’t think I’ll ever take her home. That’s why I had to come here. I had no one else.” She risked a look up, expecting him to be wearing his former look of stage fright, but instead, there was a deep furrow in his brow and his lips were pressed into a tight line. “I made you mad?”

  “I’m not mad at you. It’s just that a guy like me knows too much about a lot of things, and when you tell me about people like that, I can’t help but to question if they’re human at all.”

  “Don’t waste your brain cells on my family drama. I try not to anymore.”

  “But you said everything was fine before he showed up.”

  “As far as I can remember. I mean, I was young. My sister would have better recollection. Maybe I had my head in the sand on a lot of things.”

  “Yeah, well, I think things would be fine again if you got him to go away.”

  “Just that simple, huh?”

  “I’m serious, Dee. If I can get close enough, I might be able to tell if something’s wrong with him.”

  “You mean like possessed?” She hated wishing that were the case, but his suggestion would make her feel better than if she believed her uncle was simply a bad person. Him being possessed wouldn’t explain her parents’ behavior, though.

  She slumped. She felt like the sun had come out briefly only to be captured in a big, dark sack.

  “We could be dealing with any number of things,” Tito said. “If I can’t tell, maybe someone like Steven or Tarik could.”

  “As much as I’d love to be able to pump my fist in victory over this, since Cruz was born, I’ve had to become a realist. Thank you for being concerned, but you really don’t need to go out of your way to investigate him. My family lives in Rhode Island.”

  “How the hell did you get to Arizona?”

  “Following my brother-in-law from one military base to the next. When he came out of the service, he picked Arizona just because it seemed nice and he hadn’t lived there, I guess.”

  “You ever think about going home?”

  “Yes, all the time!” She sighed in the wistful way of cartoo
n fairy tale princesses and certain pastel talking ponies. “I miss the place. I still miss my family, exclusive of the uncle and his brat, of course.” She’d said the last part of the sentence in a mutter. “I’d like Cruz to know her roots, but maybe a reunion’s just not in the cards.”

  “She should know them. I bet I can fix things.”

  “I wish you could, but like I said—”

  “Hey, at least let me look. Or Ma. It won’t take her much effort to pop there and back.”

  “Assuming you can peel her away from Cruz.”

  He grunted and rubbed the shadow of a beard on his jaw. He didn’t used to shave so closely, but had probably started the habit with the new job. She liked the shave. She wasn’t sure about the rest of his new look, though. The Tito in her imagination in the past almost-six years took up more space.

  “Could send Tarik,” he said. “He might give you a hard time because he hates to waste the energy teleporting, but he’s the kind of guy who’d make you a deal.”

  She shuddered at the thought. “I’m afraid of any sort of deal that guy would offer. He’s kind of scary.”

  “Nah, he’s harmless.”

  “If he’s so harmless, why is he a fallen angel and not an angel-angel?”

  “Not my—”

  She put up her hands. “Right, right. Not your business, huh?”

  He shrugged and tossed her a smile that made her look away, because she couldn’t think when he did that. “You guessed it. You could always ask him. He might tell a pretty girl his secret.”

  She braided and unbraided a few wisps of her hair, pondering the pitfalls of negotiating with such a creature. “I think I value my life too much. He might want to make me an unbreakable deal just for him to answer the question, and personally, I’d like not to commit to any schemes that may take years off my life. I’ve got a kid I need to raise.”

  “You don’t have to raise her alone.”

  December thought that he sounded like he was volunteering, and that was what she’d wanted, but she was overwhelmed by all the other stuff that came with him. He wasn’t just her child’s father. He was some kind of cat shifter demigod, and a sheriff’s deputy, and he had a crazy cousin, and apparently lots of other supernatural stalkers who liked to kill people.

  Tito wasn’t normal.

  But neither is Cruz.

  Her lips parted, but before he could get any words out, he said, “Never mind. I guess that was uncalled for.”

  “No, I just … ” Though she scoured her brain for the words, nothing was right, and she’d learned when to shut up. “Can you drive me back?” she asked quietly.

  “Yeah.”

  He didn’t make any motions to do so, though, at least not as far as she could see in her periphery.

  She had to look.

  He was giving her that same handsomely neutral expression he’d worn the first time he’d stepped into the bar—just before he’d smiled at her.

  The smile didn’t follow, though. Apparently, she didn’t merit being flirted with anymore.

  “Are you going to start the truck?” she asked.

  “I will.”

  “When?”

  “When you’re done asking questions. That’s why you came out here, right?”

  “I thought I was done.”

  “You sure?”

  She did the princess pony sigh again, and then straightened up and squinted at him. “Why do you look thinner than you did fifteen minutes ago?”

  “Do I?” he asked flatly.

  She would have sworn her brain was playing tricks on her, but given the circumstances of the past couple of days, she knew better than to doubt her eyes.

  With one little twitch of his cheek, he morphed back to his previous constitution.

  “You just … That’s not … ”

  He turned his hands over in concession.

  “Do I even know you?”

  “Of course you do.”

  “I don’t think I do. I don’t even think I know what you really look like.”

  “This is me, Dee.”

  “But you just … inflated. For all I know, you’re some grotesque monster with fish eyes, talons for feet, and tentacles for arms.”

  He rubbed his chin again and grunted. “Nah, this is me, more or less. Might have been an Aztec god who came close to that, though.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “I was only joking a little. Really, I try to be consistent. Keeping a shape that’s not true is harder when I’m as tired as I am.”

  She drummed her fingers atop the picnic basket lid and chewed the inside of her cheek momentarily. “So, you could look like you did when I first met you.”

  “What, fluffy?”

  “I always thought your size suited you.”

  “Think so? Man, it was just part of a disguise. I started wearing the extra weight because, surprisingly, fat people can be almost invisible in general public. If they’re dressed a certain way, nobody stares too long or pays too much attention to them. People mostly left me alone when I was that way, and didn’t look into my background too much. That’s what people like me tend to prefer. I guess I got to the point where I was so used to wearing that shape that holding onto that form was like breathing or blinking. Felt natural.”

  “And then you had to change for the job.”

  “Yeah. It’s harder for me to maintain these in-between sizes because I haven’t had practice with them.”

  “So, you’re going to revert.”

  “Eventually. I just can’t do it all at once. Folks would be suspicious of how I lost the weight so fast.”

  “Is that why you’re not eating?”

  “Nah. Sometimes, I just don’t have to. Ma doesn’t have to eat much at all, but she’s in a much better mood when she indulges.”

  “That’s so weird. Cruz always wants to eat.”

  “Sounds like me at five. She’ll be hungry until she stops growing, probably, and then we’ll see.”

  We. She stopped drumming. “We” was a hell of a lot better than the lonely “You.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “I guess we will.”

  He turned the key in the ignition and then gestured to her seatbelt. “Hey. Put that on. I want to show you someplace.”

  “But—”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll have you back before Cruz knows you’re gone. We’re not going too far.”

  “Oh.” She clicked the seatbelt into the catch and held the ragged strap away from her exposed collarbone. The material was rough enough to cut open a tin can, but even if it scraped her, she’d probably happily endure. He was actually taking her someplace. In the past, they hadn’t explored much farther than her bed.

  “Okay,” she said cheerfully. “Show me.”

  chapter EIGHT

  “I’ve gotta be honest. I never thought I’d be driving a lady out to see this, but hey—in for a penny, in for a pound, right?” Tito mashed down the parking brake pedal and then reached over to release December’s seatbelt buckle. It sometimes jammed, and required a certain brute finesse.

  She furrowed her brow and tucked the belt into the gap between the seat and the door. “But where are we? This is just more desert.”

  “Yes and no. The fact you can’t feel the thrum sorta solidifies your categorization as perfectly human.”

  “What thrum? The only thrum I’m feeling is in my tailbone from all the rattling your truck did on that old path. I think your suspension is shot.”

  He snorted. “What suspension? Told you it was thirty-year-old truck, didn’t I?”

  “Tito—”

  “Hey, I’ll look into getting it fixed, but look.” He pointed through the windshield toward what he saw as a gauzy blue-green mist that marked a gateway to hell.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “That’s okay. Most folks can’t see the veil, including non-human folks.” He let his window down a few inches before opening the door. “Come on out. I’m gonna show you anyway
.”

  She joined him just past a duo of perfectly round, six-inch tall rocks set about three feet apart that marked the spot.

  She’d walked right through the gateway and, of course, nothing happened. Steven Welch was one of the few human people who could step through that particular portal without angelic intervention.

  She crinkled her nose and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her lacy little shorts. “Kinda smells funky right there. Like rotten eggs or milk that’s been left out overnight.”

  “Mm-hmm. Brimstone.”

  “Huh?”

  She crinkled her nose the same way Cruz did. He couldn’t stop himself from tweaking it.

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Stop being cute. Anyway, that spot is a hellmouth. It’s closed, more or less. Certain folks who hold the right keys can go in and out. Mostly, we try to keep this gate closed, for obvious reasons. Hard to get things back in once they come out. That’s like trying to get shaving cream back into its can.”

  She backed up a few steps—but not so fast that he couldn’t pull her back.

  “Hey. This thing’s all right, I promise. If anything came screaming out of there, those Foye cats would know. Cougars are sensitive to spiritual disturbances, but really—think of this as an inactive volcano. Assume you’re safe, but be wary.”

  “Why would you bring me here?”

  “Part of the story, you know? As always, we got distracted.”

  “And not even for a good reason,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, and you say I was the one instigating shit. Anyway, about a year ago, my cousin and his pack—Los Impostores, they’re called—”

  “Impostors? Why?”

  “That’s complicated, Dee.”

  She put a fist on one hip and cocked it. There was that sass he remembered. “And I’m too stupid to understand?”

  “Sheesh. No. It’s just any story I tell you will have another story nested within, and I’d be standing here until I have to leave for work again explaining the intricacies of supernatural family drama.”

  “You’d best start explaining, then. If anyone deserves to know more about family drama, I do, seeing as how apparently my daughter is all tangled up in a big old web somehow.”