Chameleon (21 page)

Chapter 21

Twenty minutes passed, I think or at least it seemed like twenty. Things bumped, crashed, and boomed below.
Fin shrieked and cursed until finally the door in the floor opened. She peeked her head in. I jumped down, fell through the air, and landed on Wiz’s bed.

“How did you get
up in there?” Fin stood a bunch of boxes stacked on the bed. She leapt to the floor and jumped back.

“Wiz locked me in there.”
I rolled off the bed and yanked down the end of my gown. “Have you seen Wiz?”

“No. But kids are saying they spotted him with blood drippi
ng out of his nose and crawled down the wall.”

“Anyone see him after that?” I raced to his door and opened it.

“No. You’re welcome by the way.”

“Oh.” I turned to her and crushed her into a huge hug. “Thanks so much,
Fin. I would’ve been trapped up there for Shango only knows how long.”

Fin
’s face twisted in shock. “Umm. . .okay. I didn’t think you would be that grateful.”

“Things are different.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” She held her hands out. “Rich was all sad tonight. He just kept kissing and hugging me saying things are—”

“Rich!” I paused in front of the door.
Fin inched away from me.

“Why are you acting this way, Cameo?”

“Rich will know what’s going on.” I hugged her again. “We have to find him or his sister.”

Twins.

“They’re twins,” I muttered.

“Yes.”
Fin opened the door as I babbled like an idiot. “They’ve been twins since they were born, Cameo. By the way, maybe we should take you back to your place.”

The King’s assistant took a newborn Fortimer and the King’s twins when he escaped through the portal.
Well it wasn’t a fact
. But Rich had told me when I was Fin that she’d never believe how long he knew Wiz.
Are Rich and his sister the King’s twin children? And why did the King’s assistant take them?

“Come on.”
I increased my pace to a full out run as I sprinted through the hallway and pushed open the roof door. Kids chattered all around us in a panic.

“Wiz is gone,” one said.

“There’s Cameo.” A girl pointed.

“Maybe she’ll know.”

“Know what?” I froze as lots of kids surrounded me. Dirt smudged faces centered on me.

“They think Wiz isn’t coming back,”
Fin offered. “Apparently, he did some crazy goodbye speech.”

“He said he wasn’t coming back,” a little girl said.

“He is.” I bobbed my head up and down. “He just went to check on something.”

The younger ones brightened with hope. The older kids’
faces drowned in skepticism. Most of these kids could smell lie miles away. They’d been used to being lied to all their lives.

“Carry on.” I gestured to the
campfire. “Eat, clean, sing. . .play. Nothing is different. Wiz will be back in a few hours or so.”

“What Cameo is saying,”
Fin stepped in front of me, “is no excuses. Go back to your duties. Same thing as always.”

A few groaned, but the crowd separated into smaller groups as they ventured off into individual tasks and responsibilities.

What would happen to all of these kids if Wiz dies? Stop. Don’t think about it. But … what if something happened to Wiz?

“I’m the bad guy,
” he’d said to me.

How could you think that, Wiz? You took care of them and us.

I drank in all of Haven, standing in the center. Wiz’s unofficial post where he positioned himself many times before we left for a job. His eyes would glow and his mouth open wide as he . . .drank.

Fortimer, or
really Wiz, drew in power.

I slowly turned around. Kids moved
on the roof everywhere. Wiz’s apartment remained in the center of Haven. At any given time he stayed around street kids, children from battered and neglectful homes, purebloods to mixbreeds. He took care of them, feeding, providing food and water, maintaining order on the roof in the midst of chaos, and forever solidifying Haven as home to the unwanted.

But what did Wiz get
? Why did he do it?

I always figured he did it because it was the right thing to do, that we were stronger if we all worked and lived together.
I loved him for it, his need to take care of everyone one.

“I’m the bad guy.”

He took power from all of them. I couldn’t think of any other alternative. That’s what he was getting out of taking care of all the kids. Their power. Fear crept up my spine and shivered through me.

“
What’s wrong? You look scared out of your mind.” Fin waved her hand in front of my face.

“Come with me.”
Still barefoot, I ran to a ledge and leapt to another roof. She followed. I increased my speed.  

“Slow down, Cameo!”
Fin panted behind me. “You’re super fast all of a sudden.”

“Because I’m running for the truth.”

“Oh gods. You’re so dramatic.”

I
ceased from running and glanced back. We were already out of Haven, at least several roofs away. I stepped down from the ledge and landed on the roof. “Fin, do you have power?”

She looked away. “No.”

“I don’t believe you. Come on. You can trust me. Do you have power? I see you do things with locks.”

“I don’t
have any power!”

“I do.”

“Yeah right.” She stepped closer to me. “Show me.”

“
Promise you won’t scream.”

“I won’t.”

“Watch this.” I shifted into her. My hair sank into my skull. My skin tanned. She collapsed with a crash and passed out onto the ground. I raced to her

“Dang
it! Fin!” I grasped onto her shoulders and shook her. She opened her eyes. Her chest rose and fell like she was running. I gazed back at her, draped in her image. She screamed.

“Quiet.” I covered her mouth with my hand and changed back to my usual form.
Screams continued to rip out of her mouth. I was thankful she didn’t try to bite my hand or fight me. I didn’t think I could beat her if it came to that. “Are you going to be silent?”

She shook her head
yes and shivered under me.

“
Fin, my power is the ability to change into other people’s image.” I released my hand from hers. “What is yours?”

“I-I can open things.” She widened her eyes.
“It has to be metal, but if it is all metal than I can break the lock or twist it with no problem.”

“
Could you do more before?”

“Kind of. I used to be able to unlock doors by just walking near them. Once I moved a metal chair because I thought it was in my way.”

“So you have power over metal, maybe.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “Now all I can do is call my knife to me or unlock any metal doorknob when I touch it.”

I sat on the ground. “When did you start to lose it?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Was it around the time you came to Haven?”

She wrinkled her forehead. “Maybe. It makes sense. It was two years ago. I stopped being able to manipulate metal around a year ago.”

Wiz drank her power like he did everyone else in Haven.
Was that why he kept me far away from there?

“How long could you shift into other people?”
Fin rose to a standing position.

“Ever since I was born. Wiz
was the only person that knew.”

Wiz knew. But he never drank from me. Why?

But he had all my childhood pictures in his room, from birth to the age I ran away. He said he watched me all of my life.

  
Why?

“What in Shango’s name are you thinking about?”
Fin shoved me. “What is going on? You’re being weird. Wiz is bloody and missing. Rich is gone.”

“
I’m not gone. I’m always here, sweetheart.” Rich stepped out of the shadows as he always did, but this time he held a gun in his hand and a frown spread across his face.

Chapter 22

Fin and I
got up from the ground and raised our hands as if Rich had yelled, “Freeze!”

But he didn’t, instead he checked his watch. A cool breeze blew by my skin. Cars honked and sped on the streets below us.
My heart pounded in my chest.

Was he going to shoot us or something? What the hell was going on?”

“So you can shift into other people.” Rich shook his head. “That romantic fool. He fell in love with the damn shadow.”

“Excuse me.” I opened my mouth in shock.

“Nothing. You’re lucky my sister doesn’t know your power. She would’ve delivered you to B.D. against Wiz’s wishes. We just never knew who the shadow was. I’m glad I didn’t. I never would’ve have wanted to turn you in to B.D.”

“I thought it was a stone.” Fin opened her hand and gazed at the gun.

“Put your hands behind you Fin. I know you can control metal. I heard you both talking.” Rich gestured at her hands. “I don’t want to shoot either one of you. Trust me. I’m just following Wiz’s orders.”

“
And what is his orders?” I leaned my head to the side.

“Keep you away from the Bearded Dragon until they’re both dead.” The gun trembled in his hand. “Stop it, Fin!”

“I had to try.” She winked. “You know this lowers the possibility that I’ll date you. I’m not into guys that point guns at me.”

“I have all of my life to convince yo
u of otherwise.” He formed his mouth into a pitiful grin. “Wiz surrendered it all for us.”

“You and your sister?” I asked

“Yes.”

“So you’re the King’s twins?”

He nodded.

Fin snorted. “Cameo I can believe you shift into people, but I’ll never believe Rich over here is royalty.”

She laughed and stuck her hands into her front pockets.

“Believe it or not.” Ric
h’s frown deepened. “The Bearded Dragon grabbed us when he freed Wiz from jail.”

“Excuse me?” Fin balanced back and forth on her heels.

“I’ll catch you up later,” I said. “Why did he take you all?”

“As hostages and to use as a portal.”
Rich’s gaze directed to Fin. His eyes changed to hungry. “You really are captivating tonight.”

“A portal?” I snapped my fingers. “Explain.”

“My mother inserted portals within us so we could always return to her if we became lost. She was going to teach us how to use the portals when we were old enough to learn.”

“But you never did.”

“Nope. B.D. barely knew. . .well he knew how to trigger it one way.” Rich shook his head. “When we die the portals would open and suck our bodies back to my mother. Anyone holding onto us could catch a ride. I think that’s really why he grabbed us.”

“Yo
u said that years ago Wiz traded the shadow stone for you and your sister. Explain.”

He sighed. “Do you know how Wiz was made?”

“Yes.”

“No.” Terror spread over Fin’s face. “What do you mean how Wiz was made? What does that even mean? In fact you both are scaring the crap out of me.”

“We’ll catch you up.” I turned back to Rich. “I read a book about B.D. taking the King’s shadows from him, forming them into white glittery beings that shattered into any form. . .”

Rich’s lips shifted into a wide grin. “You’re a shadow too.”

I touched my chest. “I’m a shadow like Wiz?”

“Not exactly
like Wiz.”

“Your mom is your mom, but. . .”

“But what?”

He shifted all of his weight to his right foot.
“When B.D. grabbed Wiz. Later, Wiz eventually drained him of all his magic. At first, B.D. used the prison’s shadow stones to feed him, but Wiz as a baby just drunk as he pleased. He hadn’t learned control. He drained the stones and when he grew into a toddler he drained B.D.. We came to Santeria voluntarily, if I remember the story right. I think B.D. let us get caught. The government had no idea what him or the kids he had were, so they labeled us mixbreeds.”

“And
he let Wiz drank from the supernaturals here?”

Rich nodded. “
B.D. became weak. He’d been spending all his nights and days trying to find a way to trigger our portals without killing us.”

“So he wasn’t always bad?” I bit my lip.

“No. He loved us all, but years inside a caged city changed him. He became weaker and desperate. He taught Wiz spells, how to make potions and charms.”

“But what does this have to do with me being a shadow?”

Rich wiped his face as the gun trembled in his other hand. He didn’t notice.
“B.D. could take it away and form it into one glittery man. He was only a kid. He directed that shadow to have sex with a woman, not understanding that the shadow would simply rape the nearest one if found.”

“
I need to sit down.” I lowered myself to the ground.

“
I’m sorry, Cameo, but the shadow raped your mom.” Rich stared at his feet. “It had to be your mom. I didn’t know until now.”

My mom said my dad was the devil
.
Of course.
Some weird glittery being comes out of nowhere and assaults a female, demon and devil would come to mind.

“It happened so long ago.
I was just a kid.” Rich cursed under his breath. “I can’t believe I never noticed the resemblance. The shadow had that same pale white skin and white hair. And sometimes the glitter looked like scales when he walked.”

Mom scraped off my scales lat
e at night and shaved my head a few times. Whenever she could sober down long enough to do it. The scales and hair always grew back. Of course she hated me. I was the spitting image of her rapist. I was the result of a traumatizing event.

“
Wiz ran to where the shadow had gone, discovered it was raping someone, and sucked the B.D.’s shadow into himself so it would stop raping your mom. It was easy for him since he could drink power,” Rich continued. “Wiz never got over the fact that he’d harmed that woman, just because he didn’t have good control over the magic. Months later B.D. was happy to hear that your mom’s stomach grew.”

I’m the Bearded Dragon’s new body
?
Just like the King had his two shadows make love and create Wiz so that he could enter and wear Wiz’s body. He was supposed to enter me and shift me into whatever form he preferred.

“But how did Wiz separate from this guy?” Fin inched closer to
Rich. There was no way she knew what was going on. I figured she moved closer to grab the gun, at least that was what I hoped.

“Only Wiz knew who the shadow raped.
B.D. was in a comatose state the whole time it occurred.” Rich backed up, putting more space between him and Fin. “Wiz bartered with B.D. He did a blood promise with him that once the woman’s child turned eighteen he would give the child to B.D.”

“And what did Wiz get?”

“He got my sister and me, plus all of our freedom away from B.D.” Rich sighed. “The promise said that he wouldn’t harm us and Wiz would always keep the Bearded Dragon’s shadow safe. He was suppose to hand over Cameo tonight on her eighteenth birthday.”

“Why eighteen?” Fin asked.

“I think Wiz just wanted the shadow to have some sort of life. Wiz is a shadow himself, you know.” Rich twisted his lips to the side.

Wiz said he watched over me all my life.
I sat down on the ledge. That night in the dumpster when I shivered in the rain, he’d dived in and saved me.
For the Bearded Dragon.
He’d nursed me back to health.
For the Bearded Dragon.
The whole time he took care of me, keeping me from harm and even far away from Haven as he drank power. But it couldn’t have all been for the Bearded Dragon anymore, because now it was time for me to be delivered to him.

And now for me, he will die?

Because he would go against the blood promise, his deadline would hit midnight.
My birthday.
And the blood would drain away from his body as it was already doing. The magic knew his intention and so it warned him accordingly.

“I figured he was going to
break the promise when you told me that he was passing out after he cast spells. Blood promises read your subconscious, as the date gets closer it acts accordingly. You know blood promises are from the fairy realm right? My dad made them.” Rich beamed.

Fin dove for Rich’s stomach, knocked him over, and stomped him in his groin.

“Motherpounder!” Rich crashed into the ground with a wail holding his crotch. “Motherpounder!”

The gun levitated to Fin’s hand. I shot up from the ledge
with a new found adrenaline rush.

“So what do you want to do?” She kicked Rich
in his stomach again.

“Fin! What the hell?” he cried.

“Be quiet.” She pointed the gun to him. “So what’s up, Cameo? Do we stop Wiz from killing himself? That is what he’s doing right? Cause you’re the stone or something and he promised to give you to Dragon Beard.”

“Bearded Dragon,” Rich screeched.

“Doesn’t matter.” The gun shook in her hand.

“Yeah. Well. . .yeah.” I covered my mouth
with my shivering hands.
Everything had come to my mind so fast. I learned more about my life and Wiz in these few minutes then I’d ever learned all my years. The stakes were high. Both Wiz and my life were up for grabs. He was willing to save mine.
But who would save his?

“
So how do we save Wiz?” I targeted my gaze at Rich.

“Tina and I have been going over that for a freaking year. There is no way except to give him the shadow. You’re the shadow. If we give him you, it saves Wiz, but then Wiz will kill us for giving you up.”

Rich was right. The only way we could stop Wiz’s body from letting the blood promise kill him is by giving me over to B.D.

“So?” Fin asked.

He was willing to die for me.
I didn’t know what I could do but I could try to save him. Regardless, in him having a part in my. . .violent conception. Regardless, of all his lies he’d been trying to protect me, even from himself by keeping me living away from Haven. And in the end, I loved him. I had for so long, for everyday we spent together, for all the times he accepted me for me and nothing else.

“Where’s
does B.D. live?” I asked Rich.

He remained silent. Fin kicked him in the stomach. H
e groaned. I doubted they would ever be together after this.

“
Stop kicking me, Fin! I don’t know.”

“I’ll shoot you.”
Fin pointed the gun at him. “I already shot someone this week with no problem. I’ll do it again.”

“Wiz just told me to keep you away from Yemaya towers.” Rich cringed. “They’re going to meet on the roof.
I heard him tell Tina to stay on the roof and try and shoot B.D. once Wiz died from the blood promise.”

“What time
are they supposed to meet?” I asked. My blood raced through my veins.

“
At midnight, the moment you turn eighteen.”

“What time is it now?” I tore the end of my evening gown.

“Ten.” Fin dug in her pockets and tossed me her brick climbers. “You got time. I’ll stay here and guard the prince.”

“
Thanks.” I rushed off, stopped, and returned to them.

“What?”
Fin kept the gun pointed at Rich, but I guess she had let him get up. He stood in front of her. A smirk had replaced the frown he had on his face.

Maybe there will be some relationship after all.

“Shouldn’t you be running the other way?” Fin pointed in that direction.

“
Yes, but I had to say something to both of you.” I hugged Rich. A wrinkle appeared on his forehead. I released him. “I’m not sure what I am going to do, but just in case I don’t come back or something—”

“Cameo
, don’t say that,” Rich barked.

“Just in case.” I
rubbed my hands together. “I have to tell you that you’re an awesome friend. I’m proud of you for learning how to read. You can have all of my comics.”

“I’d rather
you come back.” He offered me a grim expression.

“Take care of Fin and Sasha, please.” I
headed to Fin.

“No hugs.” She pointed
the gun at me. “And no goodbyes. Go.”

“You can have my room
, Fin. It’s paid up for three months. Just let Sasha sleep there during the day.”

“Just go save Wiz.” She sucked her teeth. “Why do you always have to be so dra
matic?”

My eyelids filled with water. I turned before they spilled over
. “I love you two. You both made the habitat bearable.”

“Oh goddess! You’re acting like you’re at your funeral.”
Fin loudly groaned behind me. Rushing away, I sprinted off, hopped on a ledge, and leaped over to a new roof. Tears streamed down my face, dripping down to my chest and dress. My vision blurred. I wiped them away the tears away.