by M. J. O'Shea
“Yeah.” I sighed. “I just want to go home.”
Chapter 3: The Truth
“ARE YOU going to tell me what your deal is or what?”
Xan and I were huddled in the back corner of a bus headed into New Haven. It was late and the bus was nearly deserted. Not completely, though. There was a mother in the front with her two sleeping children, a few kids who looked like they were on their way home from the clubs, and an older man reading a newspaper a few rows ahead of us.
Xan shook his head. “Not here.” He nodded toward the few other passengers. I rolled my eyes. Like any of them were listening.
“Fine.” It was a long trip to ride in total silence, but I was willing. If Xan wasn’t going to tell me how he knew that the others were different, which clearly made him different as well, then we really didn’t need to talk at all.
“Charlie, I will explain. I promise. I didn’t know….”
“Didn’t know what?”
“Just wait. I swear, when we get home I’ll tell you everything. Okay?”
I groaned.
“What’s the matter?” Xan asked. The question was more like “what’s not the matter,” but I didn’t correct him.
“My mom is going to have such a cow when she finds out we took off in the middle of the night. I don’t even want to deal with going home.”
Xan shrugged. “You want to sleep at my place?” He said it like it was no big deal at all, when I’d never been to his place in over fifteen years of friendship.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. If you’re going to find out, you might as well find out about all of it,” he murmured. I didn’t know what to say in response to that, so I didn’t say anything. I texted Colin to tell him I was safe on the bus and was going to sleep at Xan’s house and not to call Mom. The last thing I needed was a bunch of angry Fitzgeralds pounding down Xan’s door in the morning. That is, if they had any idea where to find it. I certainly didn’t.
THE BUS ride felt like five hundred years. I was tired, and it would’ve been nice to close my eyes, but every time I tried, my brain would start cataloging all I’d learned that night and I couldn’t even come close to relaxing. I couldn’t believe I had relatives who were vampires. And apparently everyone in the family knew about them but me. Noah, and even my aunt Bianca, who’d been living a few miles away at my grandparents’ house for over a year, were actual freaking vampires. I’d been so wrapped up in myself that I never noticed something was different about her. I felt like a moron. We pulled into the New Haven hub station downtown just as the first few rays of dawn were lightening the horizon.
Xan turned to me. “Think you can carry your bag? I know it’s a long walk, but we have a lot of stuff to talk about.”
I nodded. I was ready to agree to just about anything if someone would tell me what the hell was going on.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, the bottoms of our jeans getting soaked by the dewy grass along the side of the road. Xan had turned away from the subdivision I lived in and was heading toward the woods. We didn’t have much road left before we were under the trees. I was getting worried.
“Where are we going?”
“My place, remember? It’s, um, not what you’d expect.”
“How do you know what I’d expect?” I didn’t appreciate the “you don’t know anything about anything” routine from my best friend. It was bad enough coming from my brother, and I’d been getting it all night.
Xan made a noise in his throat. “It doesn’t really matter what you pictured my house to look like. Unless you’ve followed me home before, you wouldn’t even know where to start guessing.”
I stopped and dropped my bag on the street. “And right now is when you’re going to tell me.” I glared at Xan. He looked back, uncomfortable. Then he cleared his throat and picked my bag up to sling over his other shoulder. He gestured for me to start walking with his pretty pointy chin. I did, but only because I didn’t want to be left behind.
“I don’t have to tell you that I’m not quite like everyone else.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m guessing not. That little United Paranormal Nations moment you had with Leila seemed to point in the ‘not like everyone else’ direction.”
“Charlie….”
“What? This sucks. My family treats me like a kid, my best friend isn’t… are you even human?”
Xan shook his head. “But close. We’re the closest nonhuman creature to you. I think.”
“And what is we?”
His answer was interrupted by my mother squealing to a stop on the side of the road. Her hair was in a raggedy ponytail and her eyes looked frantic.
“Charles Fitzgerald, get in the car!”
“What the hell, Mom? I told Colin I was fine. I’m just going to Xan’s house.”
“You rode all the way back from the city in the middle of the night.” She looked like she was about to lose it. Jesus.
“I’m eighteen, not ten. And I was with Xan. We were fine.”
“Get in the car. Xandrien, do you need a ride home?”
I looked at him. “Xandrien? Your name is Xandrien?” No one had ever said it to me. I’d only heard Xan at school and home. I supposed if I had to guess anything, I would’ve thought his name was simply Xander.
“Yes. Xandrien. It’s a long story.”
Xan seemed to have quite a few of those long stories up his sleeve. We were going to be discussing them very soon. But not before I went home and got yelled at. I knew better than to fight my mother when she was in one of her bitch from hell moods—and if she had to get up before eight on a weekend, then it was safe to assume she would definitely be in one of those moods. She’d feel much better if she got to take it out by screaming at me. I tossed my stuff on the backseat and climbed into the SUV.
“See you later, Xan?” I called out the window. I didn’t ask if he’d call. Xan and phones didn’t work out too well. He usually just showed up.
He shrugged. “I’m guessing my mom won’t be too happy with me either. Maybe I’ll have to see you Monday.”
Xan was evading me. I wasn’t stupid. Fine. If I had to wait until Monday to get my information, I’d wait.
“DO YOU want Starbucks?” My mom still wasn’t looking at me, but her voice wasn’t overly hostile either. I was pretty surprised. I’d been prepared for more screeching, or at least a few choice four-letter words. Starbucks hadn’t been on my list of expectations. It was welcome, though; the morning was far from warm.
“Um, sure. I could go for some.”
“Good. I’m freezing, and I doubt that either of us will be going back to bed any time soon. We need to have a talk.”
“The talk?” My heart raced.
“Yes. The talk.” My mom sighed. It didn’t seem like she was looking forward to it. “Colin told me that you found out about Noah and Bianca this weekend.”
“Yeah, and Xan’s not what he said, although he didn’t tell me what, and what’s with me being treated like a big freaking baby? Isn’t it time for me to learn everything?”
“Stop.” My mom held her hand up to her forehead. “I need coffee before we start this. Maybe even a blueberry muffin or two.”
Despite my annoyance I chuckled under my breath. For my mom, sugar and caffeine were cures for just about everything.
“I wouldn’t mind a cocoa, if you’re offering.” I liked cappuccinos, but my mom didn’t like when I got coffee. I supposed if there was any growth stunting in caffeine it was probably best that I didn’t have it anyway. I towered over, well, no one. Five five wasn’t exactly a badass height.
She pulled into the Starbucks drive-through closest to home and ordered her coffee, my cocoa, and a few snacks for the road. We had a long talk ahead of us. And since I most likely wasn’t going to hear Xan’s story, I figured I might as well grill her for all I was worth about the Fitzgeralds and hunting. I only hoped she was in the mood to really tell me finally.
It was abou
t damn time.
When we pulled into the driveway, I reached for my bags and shivered in the chilly morning air. It was going to be a gorgeous fall day in a few hours, and the sun shining through the orange leaves was already really pretty. I was too keyed up to notice it much, though. I wondered for a minute how things went the night before with PC and whatever it was he was going through. It must’ve been okay if Colin had the time to call Mom to tattle on me and Xan.
“Have a seat,” my mom offered when we got into the kitchen. I’d always loved the kitchen—loved to cook, loved to eat, loved everything about it, really. The walls were a pretty lilac color and the cabinets and furniture were all a distressed country white. It was the room other than my own bedroom I felt the most at home in. I grabbed a couple of saucers for the muffins and a banana, then sat there facing my mom, who was inhaling her coffee appreciatively.
“What are we going to talk about?” I knew the basics, but that was really all.
“The Fitzgeralds, I suppose. The Harpers. You. If you’re going to be out on your own in the city, or anywhere else, you need to know some facts.”
“Starting with?”
“It’s dangerous to be us. Always. Just being born a Fitzgerald put you in danger.” I smiled. “I’m serious, Charlie. Even if you’re not actively hunting, even if you never become a hunter, if you’re a Fitzgerald, you’re marked. And believe me, all the people you’d want to stay away from are very aware of your existence. They have been your whole life. They’ll hunt you even if you don’t know they’re there.”
“So… just to get this clear, even if I never become a hunter, I’m in danger just because my last name is Fitzgerald?”
She nodded. “It’s the same with the Harpers. And there are a few other old hunting families. We’ll talk about them just in case you ever run into one of them. It’s always best to know.”
“So why the hell wouldn’t you want me to hunt if I’m going to be in danger anyway? That’s ridiculous. I want to know how to protect myself, if nothing else. Going off to college would be dumb. I’d be like a sitting duck.”
“No, that’s not my point. You’ll be in more danger from hunting than just from existing. I’m not encouraging that. It’s just not safe for one of us to wander around clueless. That’s all.”
“So tell me what I need to know. Tell me what Colin and Callum know. I don’t want to be clueless anymore.”
She took a long, deep breath and nodded. “I’m going to skip a few steps here; you already know way more than either of your brothers did. You were always my smart kid.” She smiled and reached out to brush my hair out of my eyes. “Neither one of them could shut up long enough to listen. Someday they might learn that skill.”
I rolled my eyes and thought of how bossy Colin had been the night before. “Doubtful.”
She snorted softly. “I guess I’ll start with the family. The Fitzgeralds, the Harpers, and my family, the Claymores, have all been hunting for generations. The Harpers probably have been the longest, but there is some wacko blood in that family—don’t tell your cousin I said that. The Claymores started hunting when my great-great… great-grandfather, I believe—there might be a few more greats in there. Anyway, he was attacked by a werewolf and killed. His brother and wife wouldn’t stop investigating, and mind you, this was back in England when nobles didn’t do anything but go to parties and host socials.”
“Nobles?”
Mom smiled. “Yep. The Fitzgeralds were Irish farmers and fisherman until they began hunting. But the Claymores were nobility. There are actual lords in your bloodline from my side of the family. I’ll let your father tell you more about his when he gets home from his trip.”
“What’s Dad out hunting?”
“A kappa. A pretty nasty one that’s inhabited a high school swimming pool in the Bronx.”
“Why are all the cool hunting things in the city?”
“They’re not. We go all over. But I will say that paranormal creatures, at least the brutal violent types, tend to gather around big cities. More people, so less likely for a stray body to be noticed right away.”
That made sense in a sadistic kind of way. My blood stirred at the vision of going barreling back into Manhattan and searching some of these violent offenders down. Even I was smart enough to know that wasn’t happening anytime soon. If nothing else, I was going to need to start some serious weight training. As it was, I wouldn’t be able to take out much more than a city cockroach.
“What’s out there? I know about the vampires and the lycans. I had some interesting first-hand introductions last night.”
“Lycans? You met a lycan?”
“PC. He’s Colin’s friend. Seemed pretty cool until he freaked out and turned into a huge wolf out of nowhere. But he didn’t hurt anyone—just took off running.”
“The lycans are for the most part very civilized, although they tend to look down on humans. Colin’s friend is probably still an adolescent who’s having trouble controlling his urges. It happens to the best of you.”
“Everyone seemed pretty freaked out. Said he hadn’t done something like that in a long time.”
My mother shrugged. “I’ll ask your brother about it. We can’t do anything for him, though, and he has plenty of people to go to for help. The lycans have a very strong culture.”
“So, vampires, lycans, you said werewolves?”
“Yes, and you know they’re different from the lycans, right?”
“How?”
“The lycans are shifters—they can change at will into fully realized and totally rational wolves. The werewolves change with the full moon into a creature that’s nearly all wolf, with some human characteristics. They go feral until they turn back into their human form at dawn. If lycans look down on humans, that’s nothing compared to the disdain they usually show toward the weres.”
“Oh,” I mumbled. I didn’t know what else to say. I was mentally adding to the vault of things I knew to be true.
Vampires existed, of course. I’d known that for years. Lycans and werewolves apparently roamed the earth as well, beneath the notice of most normal people. Then there were kappas, whatever they were. I had to look that creature up and hope there was some information somewhere. There was no way in hell I was asking my mom to explain what they were. There was already too much I didn’t know.
I still couldn’t believe I had actual family members who were vampires, and everyone seemed perfectly cool with it. I’d seen Bianca, Noah’s mother, in the past few months. She seemed normal, Noah seemed normal, and his boyfriend and the girls were perfectly nice too. And then there was Xan—whatever his secret was.
My mom and I sat there in the cold early morning, talking for hours. She said she was reluctant to tell me about the hunting, about all the creatures that were out there. Her reasoning was that she didn’t want me to be a part of that life, and I could tell she was worried about getting me too excited. I figured the longer I was coddled, the more danger I’d be in, since our family was marked anyway. I’d probably be more dangerous myself, too, since I was determined to follow in my father and brothers’ footsteps. I wanted to be trained. I wanted to become a hunter. I didn’t know why my mom couldn’t understand that.
“But you’re so smart, darling. Don’t you want a degree?” she said at one point. The woman was near tears. I wanted to scream, but I knew that wouldn’t get me anywhere.
“Why would I waste your and dad’s money? I’m not going to use whatever degree it is, so what’s the point in getting it?”
“I just want you to have some bit of normalcy for as long as you can have it.”
“But I don’t want it. I don’t want to be like every other lame kid in this dumb town.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being normal, sweetie.”
I didn’t reply. The argument wasn’t going anywhere and we both knew it.
“Will you at least agree to give me some training so that I’m not a walking disaster out there if so
mething ever does come after me?”
“I’ll talk to your father when he comes home,” she said quietly.
“Aren’t you a trained hunter as well? Why do you need to ask him?” My mother had never been the deferential type. In this case, it wasn’t working for me.
“Yes, of course, but we agreed that we wanted you to go to college, to not get involved in the business for as long as possible, if ever. This is something he and I need to discuss. Neither of us would make a choice on our own.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t your choice or Dad’s. It’s mine. I want to be a hunter. I’m in as soon as I can be. You know I’m graduating early.” I’d gotten extra credits on purpose, taking zero-hour classes to get my butt out of high school as soon as possible. “Maybe we can start my training after Christmas.”
She made a choking noise. “Maybe.”
That “maybe” sounded a whole lot like “no.” “Did you hassle Callum and Colin this much when they were my age?”
“Your brothers are… larger. And rougher. And don’t tell them I said this, but while they’re perfectly capable, they don’t have your intelligence either.”
“So they make good hunters, and I make a good bookworm? Thanks.”
“Charlie, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“No, you don’t know what my skills could be. Maybe I’d be good at hunting. Muscles only get you so far.”
My mother gripped her coffee cup. “Why don’t we save the rest of this conversation for when you graduate? It’s only a few months away.”
“We were supposed to have it a year ago.”
“I know. But let’s just wait. Once you’re done with school, you’ll have a clear plate and we can start from scratch.”
That sounded perfectly logical. Or at least, it would if I didn’t know my mother so well. She was putting me off. It was the same voice she’d used when I was eight and she’d had told me we were going to go to Disneyland someday soon. I’d still never been there.
