House of Slide Hybrid

by Juliann Whicker

“She says that he betrayed her.”

  Lewis frowned as he focused on his driving, spinning the wheel in his hand as we took a corner. “Perhaps in a relationship of any duration there are times where betrayal becomes inevitable.”

  “What does that mean? Do you intend to betray me?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps I felt betrayed when you left me and told me that you wanted nothing to do with me. Maybe you felt betrayed when you found out more about me than I wanted you to know.”

  I looked out the window, feeling a mixture of emotions as he reminded me that however tightly he held me, I still didn’t know enough about him, and maybe never would.

  “Makes love sound positively unappetizing.”

  “I’m sorry,” he growled, reaching over and pulling me against him, spreading his warmth through me. “I’m supposed to inspire you to achieve greatness, to inspire trust and commitment, towards me and your House. How is your arm?” he asked, brushing my bandage with remarkable tenderness.

  “It doesn’t hurt at all. I think the cold must have numbed it.”

  “You can’t feel this?” he asked, stroking my arm carefully with his fingers.

  Heat spread up my arm and goose bumps too as my veins sung, thrummed, tingled.

  “I can feel that. A lot.”

  He nodded slightly. “Your Trainer took away the pain for you.”

  “Grim didn’t use analgesic to give me stitches, but my Trainer took away my pain? Shouldn’t there be some kind of consistency?”

  He laughed. “Carve will do as he likes. I dislike that as a general rule, but maybe his Training hurt you enough in other ways.”

  I sighed. “He made me talk about my feelings. Is there anything crueler? He took away my emotional distress and then gave it all back to me again. He told me that he’d helped my brother take my soul.” I shook my head. “I’m overwhelmed. It’s all too much too fast. And this outfit is horrible for winter weather. I think that I’m officially over sparkles.”

  He laughed, the sound so warm and delicious I couldn’t look away from him. His eyes glowed and his teeth glistened like a monster in the woods.

  I shifted under that gaze, unable to stay still, wanting to touch his skin, his teeth. “How is your collarbone? I saw it snap. How can you handle the pain? I would be crying all over the place.”

  He raised my hand to his mouth and pressed a hot kiss on my skin. “I’m tough. I burn and it heals. If I feel particularly like crying, I take a walk in the woods. We should go hunting. I would love to take you hunting. I’m not very nice when I’m with Pisces, not very human, but I think you can handle it. You are gloriously enticing when you hunt.”

  I felt my cheeks heat up as I looked up at him. “You’re not supposed to know about that.”

  “And you’re not supposed to know about my pet.”

  I shook my head. “No. I want to do something nice, something normal. That doesn’t involve other people and technology that I’d blow up. I want to see your world,” I said nodding my head firmly.

  “I don’t have a world,” he said with a shrug. “I make it a point to not create attachments with people that threaten my autonomy.”

  “Says someone who just became Intended to a House.”

  He grinned at me. “Touche. Although, for the record, I’m Intended to you, not Slide. I know where to take you. Somewhere different. Somewhere violence is theoretical.”

  “Such a place exists? I’m intrigued.”

  I settled against the seat, feeling warmth from him fill the car until I didn’t resent the sparkly tights anymore.

  I watched him drive, mesmerized with his movements until, before I knew it, he’d brought us to the edge of town by the river, not where the warehouses and docks were, but where the woods and surrounding countryside made the city seem far away, even in the barren, cold winter.

  “Here we are,” he said, pulling into a parking lot with frozen mud instead of paving. He had stopped at a camp or something with tents, not tents but booths I realized as people wandered seemingly aimlessly from one place to another, trading, buying, or chatting in an idle way, like everyone had all the time in the world and no one really noticed the cold. Of course with the sweaters and gear they had, they were probably warm.

  “Where is here?” I asked, wondering why everyone looked so familiar. I didn’t know anyone, at least I didn’t think that I did, but everyone moved, talked, gestured and smiled like someone I knew.

  “Farmer’s market. It’s a Cool hang-out. You said you wanted to see how the other half lives,” he said, shooting a slight grin at me before he got out, looking more beautiful than humanly possible in his suit pants and white button up.

  Cool. That explained why everyone seemed familiar, at least most of them had a bit of my dad in the way they moved. I shook my head and shoved open my door, unnerved when Lewis reached in to pull me out.

  “Thanks,” I muttered feeling disoriented as he took his time letting go of my hand, like he didn’t really see anyone besides me, didn’t think anything of prolonged physical contact.

  He leaned over inside the car while I looked around, trying not to feel cold without Lewis, then not feel self-conscious when he slung his suit coat around my shoulders, taking his time with buttons while I slid my arms in the still warm sleeves. It smelled like him. Like honey and grass, like leaves and sunshine.

  “How do you smell like that?” I asked, flopping the sleeves up and down where they covered my hands.

  He studied me carefully as he rolled the sleeves. “I took a shower this morning. Maybe I smell sweaty and…”

  I laughed and grabbed his arm. “You smell like sunshine.”

  “Oh. Thanks,” he said, a half smile on his lips as I hung on him, trying to remember that we were adults and I should not want to hold his hand, much less swing on his arm.

  “You’re welcome,” I said as I straightened, fiddling with the black buttons of the coat before I slid my hands into the welt pockets so I didn’t grab onto him again.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “Fine! Thanks. I feel weird. I’m not sure what we’re doing. Are we hanging out, or getting in trouble with the House and my mother, are you escorting me, or are we on a date?” I ended with a shrug.

  He reached into the pocket of his coat I wore and squeezed my fingers.

  “Whatever makes you most comfortable, whatever you want it to be, that’s what it is.”

  He pulled my hand out of his pocket, turned it over until he bent and brushed his lips over my knuckles.

  “Okay,” I whispered.

  We walked, hands entwined and I didn’t care who saw us, not that the Cools would report to Slide. Or would they? I looked up to ask Lewis, but then he was reaching into his pocket and handing money to an old lady over the booth for a steaming dough thing with veggies and nuts inside.

  “No meat here,” he said as we turned away from the booth.

  “Good. No meat, no blood. I didn’t know that Cools gathered,” I said, staring at a tall woman and man who were standing having some kind of transaction without using any words. The noise volume was very low, talking, light laughter, wind through the trees and chimes tinkling. The longer I walked beside Lewis, through the gatherings of Cools who acted so nice and calm, so steady and relaxed, the better I felt about everything. It seemed almost all right that Slide had crushed me after I’d leaned my uncle.

  The wind spread my blue hair over Lewis’s dark suit coat. The sun had finally broken through the cloudy day. Delicious flavors from the pastry, spicy and rich filled my mouth while we wandered, feeling perfectly content exactly where we were. We walked, looking at displays of hand-made crafts, clothing, dolls, rugs, and food. Vegetables, so many beautiful vegetables, cascaded over tables from baskets. Red radishes, purple beets, orange carrots, and greens, so many different kinds of green, filled my eyes until they became dazzled. The most lovely sight stood on my left, the sun rays lighting up strands of his hair like fire. Hi
s eyes glowed with warmth, his smile never wavered as he caught my gaze every time I glanced his way.

  His presence changed the world, allowed the beauty through.

  “Excuse me,” an old woman said, her voice filled with life and youth, contrasting with her wrinkled cheeks and drooping eyes.

  “Good afternoon,” Lewis said, bowing respectfully to her.

  I stiffened as she approached, studying Lewis with a calculating gaze that diminished the beauty of the world around me.

  “Are you here to assist?” she asked with a flash of silver in her eyes.

  “My friend is a Hybrid who lacks training,” he said easily. “If you agreed to teach her to control her leaning, I would be at your service.”

  I frowned up at him, his even gaze on the old woman as though he knew what he were doing.

  The woman looked at me, her gaze narrowing as she studied my features. “Woods child,” she said in a voice that pierced me before she returned to staring at Lewis. She took her time considering, as though we had all the time in the world. Lewis gazed back, unconcerned.

  I squeezed his fingers. “I’d rather not,” I said.

  The woman glanced at me with a frown before she snatched my hand in hers, sending a peculiarly euphoric sensation through me so that I barely noticed when she pulled me away from Lewis.

  “It is agreed,” the woman snapped, suddenly finding time of the utmost importance. “She will not lean you after this day.”

  “Or any Son while in a House,” Lewis added with a tight smile.

  I opened my mouth to protest, but then the woman turned on me, whispering words I couldn’t quite make out but that somehow explained everything. When I looked around again Lewis had disappeared and I was left with the woman who led me behind the counter of a booth and past another Cool one to a truck, full of boxes that had held the vegetables now piled on the counters.

  “In the truck,” she said, squeezing my hand.

  I climbed in numbly, looking up at the man with a frown who closed the door on me.

  “First thing,” she said, hopping spryly in the seat beside me behind the steering wheel. “You can’t just follow anyone who leans you. Blocking leaning is an extremely important skill. I can’t imagine why you haven’t learned this yet.”

  I shook off the numbness and glared at her, feeling furious with Lewis and myself for leaving me at the hands of this woman who could do anything she liked with me.

  “I have a Trainer. I don’t know why Lewis did this without asking me, but it’s not his right.”

  “No?” she raised a white eyebrow, crinkling her forehead. “He permeated protection, guardianship of you. I took him to be your Intended at least, not to mention someone half-blood bound to you.”

  I clenched my jaw before I forced a smile. “I see there’s no fooling you. What will you teach me, pain?”

  She shook her head and turned to gaze out the windshield, tapping the wheel with her long, delicate fingers. “Leaning comes from within. You must know yourself. You must accept yourself and those around you, or you will try to change them, to lean them.”

  “How can I accept things which are clearly wrong?”

  “That is a matter of perspective.”

  “No, it isn’t. Some things are inherently evil. I’ve seen it.”

  “Ah,” she said, turning to me. “Your father is teaching you through philosophy. That is a good way. It isn’t a very quick road, but so many people rush when they should be savoring the experience.”

  I stared at her. “Right. What were you going to teach me?”

  She answered by pressing her fingers delicately on my forehead, brushing my temples lightly. I didn’t even feel the pressure, not when I became swept up in a plethora of images, of feelings, of experiences that weren’t mine.

  A girl stood in front of two people who tortured her parents. I saw her, barefoot on a stone floor, screaming at them to stop, helpless, when one of the torturers raised his hand back and struck her.

  I reached out to stop them, to help, and felt a wall come down inside my mind, so heavy and thick that I couldn’t breach it. I turned away and ran down a dark hallway, passing barred doors, people crying and suffering behind those doors. A child wept at the end of the hallway, stretching his fingers through the bars to reach someone inside. He looked up at me, luminous eyes the color of warmth and beauty, Lewis’s eyes. I moved to help him but a stone wall fell down, cutting him off, surrounding me when I turned so there was nowhere to go. I looked up and started climbing, bracing my feet on one wall as I crawled out of the hole, scraping my fingers raw until I finally reached the top.

  I blinked and found myself in the truck beside the old woman who looked at me with pursed lips.

  “What was that?” I demanded.

  “Shhh,” she said, waving her hand in front of my face. “You have a strong sense of justice. From your father, I suppose. And so much protectiveness. From your mother,” she said with a slight smile. “The next time you try to lean, you’ll have that feeling, that memory of the stone rising up. You’ll have to force through the wall in order to lean, and you’ll find on the other side that those innocents are not as they seemed. The purpose of leaning is to capture demons. The more we use our gifts to create the world as we would have it, the more we become like that thing we hate.” She shrugged, turning away from me. “I hope your uncle is faring well. Sometimes we lean a little too hard and people break from the inside. That is never a pretty thing to witness.”

  I swallowed the denial, the anger. It wouldn’t affect her. I forced my voice to come out steady. “I could have hurt my uncle with leaning?”

  She looked at me. “Haven’t you ever had someone inside your mind, your father, perhaps?”

  I froze, remembering my father, what he could do. “I did that to him?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t there. All I know is that you have a lot of power, and very little control. Not exactly an ideal combination. But, I’m sure your father knows what he’s doing. He will not appreciate my intervention.”

  Her words did not convey her emotions, those held fear, fear of my father and what he could do.

  “Why did you agree to do this if you’re afraid of my father? What did Lewis agree to do?”

  She cocked her head, looking at me in a curious way before she finally said, “Hollow blood is in short supply these days. The Hollows manipulate the soul. When the soul fades, when those precious children become lost, there isn’t anyone to help them find their way back.”

  I stared at her blankly before I remembered Lewis saying that he’d drained a Hollow and that’s why I couldn’t lean him.

  “You need someone with Hollow skills to save your children? Does Lewis usually do that, help Cool people who need him?”

  She sighed. “Cools do not have many children. It’s not our way. We live long, slow lives, at least if we survive the transition. So many children fade away too soon. Of course your friend would not use his abilities without reason.”

  “Isn’t saving children enough of a reason?”

  She smiled at me. “So protective of the innocent. They choose whether they wish to live. We sometimes resented Hollows stepping in, interfering with the natural process, but so many have gone. Your friend pays a high price every time he uses skills he took from another.”

  “What price will he pay?”

  “There is only so much he can do before it consumes him. Bloodworking takes great balance.”

  “Where is he?” I demanded as I shoved open the door. I felt her leaning me because the stone wall came down. I felt a wave of gratitude as I left the truck, glad that I could do something of my own volition. I only hoped it would not cost Lewis more than I wanted to pay.

  I edged my way through the crowds of people, feeling the waves of peace and happiness that they exuded unconsciously. I kept the barrier down, aware of it like it was a shield I wore on my arm, holding it up took effort, but at least I had a shield to hold up.
r />   “Daughter of the Woods, you search for your friend,” a man said, smiling gently down at me as he put his hand on my shoulder. He didn’t try to lean me. He looked young but acted old.

  “Do you know where he is?”

  He nodded. “Don’t fear. In this place you are safe from those that gather.”

  “Those that gather?”

  He gave me a kind, fatherly smile then turned to someone beside me. A girl with frizzy dark hair and large eyes stared at me, so serious, like someone had died. Was she one of the lost souls that Lewis was helping?

  “Take her to the trailer,” the man said, leaning over to brush the girl’s hair back futilely.

  She nodded and turned, letting me fall behind her. I looked back questioningly at the old man, but he only nodded and raised his hand in farewell of peace.

  She moved with a bouncy step across the mud to the woods, a clearing barely visible through the trees. I followed her on a narrow footpath through trees that seemed friendly and happy in spite of winter to a gathering of small trailers painted bright and beautiful colors, reminding me of my childhood storybooks.

  Clotheslines stretched across the space between trailers with frozen looking garments hanging on them. I saw a face through an oblong window as I passed a trailer, bright eyes flashing silver before I turned away, embarrassed for intruding on someone’s privacy. I hurried to catch up to the girl, following her bright yellow hooded cape. She looked like an elf or fairy with her big eyes and her wild hair.

  Maybe I shouldn’t be trusting these Cools, not when they feared my father. I exhaled into the cold air.

  She danced up the steps to a small trailer that wasn’t more than nine feet long, throwing open the door before she turned to look out at me.

  “You can come in, if you like.” The flatness of her voice made me hold back before thoughts of Lewis spurred me on. When I ducked into the small, dark space, I closed the door behind me but held onto the latch.

  “Orrin,” she sang, her voice coming to life, sparkling, bright, enticing as she moved around the space, throwing the polka dot curtains wide to let the sunshine reveal the inside of what couldn’t be very comfortable living quarters for one person, much less two. There were two beds on the left, stacked on top of each other like shelves, the bright fabric blue, green, red and gold so happy and cheerful.