Fragile Brilliance (Shifters & Seers) (27 page)

“Love isn’t about needing someone.” He didn’t want to be with Scout anymore, hadn’t in a long time, but his dad’s words still pissed him off.

“Of course it is. Love is needing someone to be there to hold you together at the end of the day, because without them, you’ll shatter into a million little pieces. And it’s about them needing you to hold them together. You and Scout don’t need each other like that. You can’t hold each other’s pieces together. But Maggie…” He smiled. Like a real, I’m-thinking-happy-thoughts smile. “You’d already shattered, but she found all the pieces and put them back together.”

For once, his dad was right. Maggie had put him back together. She’d made him feel alive again. He needed her like he needed oxygen, and thanks to the events of the last few hours, he knew
exactly
how much he needed that.

The problem was, he didn’t know if she needed him. She liked him. She was attracted to him and liked all the hands-on activities they couldn’t do in the presence of others, but that wasn’t the same as need, was it? And while his dad might be on the Norman Bates side of crazy, he was onto something with this whole mutual needing thing.

What happened when you needed someone and they didn’t need you back?

There was a tap-tap-tap at the door and a blond doctor who looked a bit like she was manufactured by Mattel came into his room, electronic clipboard in hand.

“How are we feeling, Mr. Hagan?”

“Fine, thank you,” he said. There was a time when he’d been afraid of doctors. They seemed so sterile and God-like in their lab coats with all their fancy Latin words, but after a few months of being trapped in a hospital bed, he’d figured out they were just normal people. Normal people who were into big needles and other torture devices, but people all the same. “How are you this evening?”

“I would be better if my patients didn’t take off their oxygen and have conversations after being told to lay back and rest, but so it goes.”

Her face couldn’t have been more stoic if it had been made of plastic. Charlie tried for a laugh, thinking maybe she was joking, but when her eyes snapped over to him, he reached back, located the little plastic mask, and promptly slipped it onto his face.

“Your chest x-ray looks pretty good considering everything, Mr. Hagan,” she said, scrolling through his chart. “You’re a lucky man.” She came over to his bedside and pushed a few buttons on the monitor. “You need to stay overnight for observation, but since I know you’re not going to do that, I’m going to write a prescription for some inhalers and pain medication. They will come with directions. If you want to fully recover, I suggest you follow them.” She glanced up to make sure he was paying attention. Charlie gave her a smile and a thumbs-up. If anything, she looked even more annoyed. “Stay away from cigarettes of all descriptions, including pot. Don’t exert yourself.” Her eyes flicked to his torso, which was bare since his shirt reeked of smoke and he refused to wear one of the paper gowns. Charlie might have felt a flush of pride over what he knew was a well-defined chest, but her gaze was so clinical he felt more like a lab rat than a piece of man candy. “No working out for at least four weeks, and then I want you to go slow with it.”

Charlie nodded as if he planned on complying, which he did. Kinda. He would take it easy until the full moon when the Change would put everything, including his lungs, back to the way they should be.

Doctor Barbie turned her don’t-even-think-about-messing-with-me look on his father. “I understand he’s legally an adult, but I’m releasing him into your care. Watch him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything to further injure himself.” There was a slight movement at the corners of her mouth and eyes. In the world of Botox, it passed as a smile. “Your son is a hero, Mr. Hagan, and I have a soft spot for heroes. When he comes for his check-up in six weeks, I want to see him in top condition. I will be very upset if he isn’t.”

Charles, Sr., chewed on his lips, trying to hide a smile. “I’ll do what I can, ma’am.”

“You do that,” she said. “The nurse will be by with his orders in a few minutes. Once she gets everything unhooked, you’re free to go.”

“Thank you,” Charlie’s dad said, reaching out to shake the doctor’s hand. “Thank you for everything.” There was a roughness to his voice, and when Charlie searched his eyes, he was shocked to see a sheen of tears there.

A sheen of tears, but not the bloodshot bleariness he was used to. The moment the doctor left he asked, “Dad, when was the last time you had a drink?”

Charles, Sr., scrubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know. A week after your mother left?” He sat in the chair next to Charlie’s bed, seemingly fascinated with the tile on the floor. “I drank… God, I have no idea how much those first few days. I think maybe I was trying to drink myself to death. But then the booze ran out, and I sobered up and realized she was really gone. You were gone. And Toby…” He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Toby is gone forever.” He took another minute to collect himself before finally raising his eyes to his son. “I know I’m not perfect, and I don’t expect anyone to forgive me, but I’m trying, Charlie. I swear to God, I am.”

Charlie didn’t know what to feel. On one hand, his dad was a dick. He’d made Charlie’s life a living hell from the time he was old enough to understand fear. He could remember anxiously watching the door every evening when he was a kid, dreading the moment his dad stepped through. Charlie wanted to tell him he deserved everything he was going through and then demand he get the hell out of his room.

On the other hand, it was his dad, and no matter what had happened in the past, nothing could change that. Charlie wanted to hate him, but he didn’t. He knew the pain of being lost and all alone in this world. It hurt so much he’d chosen to not feel anything at all rather than suffer through it. He knew the anger that ate away at you until it was all you knew. In many ways, he and his father were alike. It always terrified Charlie. He worried one day he would become his father, giving into to those urges to lash out and destroy. That fear had as big of a role in suppressing his coyote as the pain and suffering.

Charlie knew his dad hadn’t been there to help him when he was in the gutter, but the point of being a good person was basing your decisions on what was right, not what you thought the other person deserved. His gramma had taught him that.
“If you’re always being the better man, one day you’ll find you’re the best sort of man,”
she’d told him when he was younger and constantly getting into fights with Toby and Jase.

“Where have you been staying?” he asked his father, his mind made up.

His dad blinked, obviously surprised by the question. “One of the barns on the east edge of the farm. It used to be the main horse barn, where they kept the geldings. It has an apartment.”

Charlie knew exactly what those barn apartments looked like, and hole in the wall didn’t even begin to cover it.

“We’ve got plenty of rooms in the main house.”

His dad did a deep breath and nose grip thing again and Charlie found himself working just as hard at fighting the stinging in his eyes.

“You shouldn’t forgive me,” his father said once he was able.

“And I don’t,” Charlie replied. “But I’m willing to work on getting there.”

“You’re not a lawyer.”

Scout leaned back in the hard metal chair, looking for all the world like she sat around in interrogation rooms on a regular basis. “And here I was thinking you were stupid,” she said, her eyes roaming over Reid’s gray pajama-style attire which had been accessorized with two matching silver bracelets.

“We have nothing to say to you,” Davin spat at her, his face twisted into a sneer that might have been intimidating if it had been aimed at anyone other than the Alpha Female.             

“Good.” Charlie’s voice was still raspy from getting a lung full of fire, but instead of making him sound weak, it added a rugged, I’ve-seen-a-lot-of-shit-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale edge. He was growing quite fond of it. “I don’t want to listen to your whiney-assed voices anyway.”

Reid’s lower lip quivered, and her eyes darted around the room so quickly it seemed impossible she was actually seeing anything. “You can’t be here,” she said, her chest, her heart galloping like Secretariat in the final leg of the Kentucky Derby. “My lawyer will hear about this. You’ll get into lots of trouble.”

“Seriously?” Scout laughed. “I’m going to be in trouble? What is your lawyer going to do? Put me in time out?” She leaned forward and put her elbows on the table. “I’m the Alpha Female. What exactly do you think you or any other human can do to me?”

Reid visibly paled, but Davin just ground his teeth together.

“I think it’s time you two had a seat,” said Liam, who was leaned back against the wall next to the two-way mirror where several members of the Alpha Pack taking in the day’s entertainment sat.

Reid immediately dropped into one of the chairs. Her boyfriend lasted about two seconds longer.

Liam’s crossed arms were resting on his broad chest and one foot was propped on the wall, but instead of looking casual like he thought, he looked like a wolf lulling his prey into complacency before devouring them, which Charlie supposed was a fairly accurate assessment.

The Alpha Pack’s inner-circle was together when the local news said the two prime suspects in the Sanders College fire were arrested. A chorus of curses filled the air, and then, because he couldn’t do anything else, Charlie picked up the TV and threw it into the giant stone fireplace taking up most of the den.

Getting into the jail was an even harder task than they’d imagined. Liam pulled every single string the Alpha Pack could get their hands on just to get a few minutes alone with the psychos. It wasn’t much, but it was what they had, and so they were going to make it count.

“Davin, you should know we’ve informed your father of the exact nature of your crimes,” Scout said, moving things forward as quickly as possible. 

“My father? Why the hell would he care? He’s just some guy my mother whored around with nineteen years ago.”

“Fair enough.” Once they knew who was behind everything, Joshua ran a thorough background check. He’d discovered Davin Simonds was the non-biological son of Kevin Simonds, member of the Simonds Pack in North Dakota. Simonds had three sons, but only two were listed at the Archives, because only two Changed during the full moon. Davin, who was the middle son, was discovered to be the product of his wife’s affair when he didn’t start Changing as a teenager. “How about I reword that,” Scout said. “We informed the Simonds Pack of your crimes against the Alpha Pack. They have removed all associations with you, including financial support for your defense. I believe it may be time to talk with someone about a public defender.”

Charlie had to give him credit. He didn’t show any emotion at the words, even though they had to hurt. It was bad enough finding out your dad isn’t really your dad, but to have the man who raised you turn his back on you would be like a punch to the gut, and Scout knew it. She’d been there, turned out by a pack she considered family, once before. For Scout, things had turned out okay in the end. Charlie didn’t think Davin would be so lucky.

“You know, Davin, I get why you’re here.” Scout seemed to think about that and then clarified. “I don’t understand why you think killing people and messing up their bodies is okay. I think that’s probably a sign that you have a severe mental illness. But I understand how you got messed up in Shifter stuff. I understand you not liking us. What I don’t get,” she said, turning her attention to Reid, “is why you’re here. We’ve checked everything everywhere. You have zero ties to our world. What did we ever do to you?”

It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Before Scout and Liam took over the Alpha Pack some bad stuff had gone down. The new Alphas were trying to right those wrongs, but it was hard to undo hundreds of years of evil.

Reid met Scout’s eyes, her sneer making her plain face all kinds of ugly. “You think you’re so special. You think just because you can turn into a wolf or coyote or whatever that you’re better than the rest of us. Well, you’re not. You’re nothing but a freak, and you deserve to die. You all deserve to die.”

“Why?” Charlie asked, even though he was supposed to stay silent during this interrogation. The only reason he was in the room was because he’d sat down in the chair reserved for Talley and refused to move.

“Why do we deserve to die? Because we’re different? Because we have something you can’t buy? Because we’re special, and you’re not?” He sounded calm and reasonable, but it was just because he’d been calm and reasonable for so long he knew how to fake it. But he wasn’t that calm and reasonable guy anymore. The coyote was back, and it was pissed. Soon Reid and Davin would realize just how scary and evil a Shifter could be. “Was this like a reverse
Incredibles
plot? When no one is special then everyone can be?”

Reid’s face blazed red, and Charlie thought it was more from embarrassment than the anger she was trying to project. “This is about doing God’s work. It’s about sending you demons back to hell!” By the end she was practically screaming. Her neck was veiny from the effort.

Charlie snorted. “I’ve got twenty-five bucks in my pocket that says you’ve never even touched a Bible.”

Reid’s skin tone crossed from red to purple.

“You are evil. God hates you.”

“And you’re a spoiled brat who is willing to kill people out of jealously. The entire world hates you. Even Davin probably hates you. He just put up with you because you could get him access to hundreds of thousands of security codes. How long were you dating before he started questioning you about your daddy’s business? A month? I’m betting it wasn’t even that long. Two weeks, tops.”

Reid screeched and grabbed onto the table with her bound hands. She tried to flip it, but since this was an interrogation room, it didn’t work. The thing was bolted to the floor for such occasions. When that plan failed, she went into a full on temper tantrum. She kicked out and thrashed around, the whole time making some horrible racket which was somewhere between screaming and crying. She didn’t stop until Liam walked around the table and stood over her. He didn’t do anything but stand there and look at her, but she finally put a lid on it and stopped her Linda Blair impersonation.

“Well, good. We’ve got all that settled,” Scout said once the room was quiet again. “Motive has been established, unless you have something to add, Davin?”

Davin acted like he hadn’t even heard her.

“Great. The next step is proving you did it.” Looking like a complete badass city cop, Scout grabbed a small bag off the floor and threw it on the middle of the table. “We found this in Reid’s room. It took him a couple of hours, but Liam matched every single one of those scents to the ones left at the crime scenes. And then we went to Davin’s room.” Scout shook her head, confused as to how someone could be so stupid. “Here’s the thing. If you’re going to kill someone and leave a hit list with the body in the form of a classic painting, you might want to get rid of your murder weapon and all the practice paintings you did. Don’t just leave them sitting around your dorm room.”

They weren’t investigators, and they certainly weren’t in the room legally, but they’d gone in, because it seemed like something they should do. No one had expected to find anything, but then they opened the door and realized they hadn’t needed Joshua’s forty-five minute lecture on how to find and collect evidence.

Davin had somehow managed to nab a single-occupancy room. A room he covered with photos of the Alpha Pack, copies of Luca Giordano’s
The Fall of the Rebel Angels
(both the original version and various interpretations of the one still hanging in the gym), and a collection of knives and metalworking tools.

“I think it’s safe to say we have some fairly compelling evidence, but since any of this stuff could have been planted, we’ve got one last nail in the coffin that is the not guilty plea I’m sure you would have entered if I’d given you a chance.”

Reid crinkled up her forehead. “This isn’t a trial.”

“Au contraire, mon frere,” Liam said from his newly reclaimed post on the wall. “This is the most important trial you’ll ever face. This is where the Alpha Pack determines your guilt in crimes against the Shifters of the world. This is the trial where we decide your true fate.”

Davin paled.

“Our final piece of evidence,” Scout said, turning the conversation back to her carefully planned script, “is the testimony of Charlie Hagan, Stratego of the Alpha Pack.” Her original idea was to read a written testimony he’d prepared on the way over, but since he’d bullied his way into the room, she turned to him instead. “Charlie?”

“They tied up Maggie with barbed wire and then set the room she was in on fire.” Remembering how she’d looked when he first found her put a tremor of rage in his voice. “I request capital punishment.”

“Thank you, Charlie,” Scout said, reaching over and giving his hand a squeeze. The contact calmed his coyote.

“Are we ready for a verdict?” Liam asked, pulling himself off the wall to come stand beside his mate.

Scout nodded. “Ready.”

“Reid St. James and Davin Simonds, we, the Alpha Pack, find you guilty of murder, attempted murder, and terroristic actions against the Alpha Pack.” Liam’s voice was so calm someone might think he was reading names out of a phone book instead of telling a couple of teenagers they were guilty of some of the most hideous crimes Charlie could imagine. “You are hereby sentenced to death by the hand of the Alpha Pack.”

“What? No!” Tears began streaming out of Reid’s eyes. “It was him. It was all him. I didn’t kill anyone. All I did was tell him how to turn off your security system. I didn’t kill that man. It was him.” The last words were muffled by snotty sobs, which Liam silenced with one of his patented looks.

While Reid made a spectacle, Charlie watched Davin. Throughout the sentencing and Reid’s dramatics, he didn’t change expressions. He sat stoically, the only sign of life was the clear malice in his eyes.

So, this is what a sociopath looks like
, he thought.

Was that what he would have become without Maggie? Would he have been able to shut out his coyote until he was no longer able to feel anything at all? Would he have committed hideous acts in the name of the Alpha Pack without ever feeling guilt or remorse?

Charlie shivered even though there was no draft in the room.

“There’s a catch.” Scout looked at Reid as she spoke. Her eyes would occasionally flick over to Davin, but only for a second. If Charlie didn’t know better, he would have thought the other boy frightened her. “As long as you’re incarcerated, we can’t touch you.” She waited for this information to sink in. Once Reid was looking at her prison wardrobe like it was the single best thing she’d ever seen, Scout continued. “If you want my advice, plead guilty. And if you’re really looking to buy yourself a few years, confess to killing Vincent Barros. Because the longer you’re in here, the longer you get to live.”

They had Charlie’s dad to thank for this sentencing. Neither Scout nor Liam was comfortable with killing someone, no matter how evil they were. They’d both been there, done that, and had the nightmares to show for it, thank you very much. But the Alphas couldn’t appear weak, and letting a couple of murderers go would definitely be seen as a sign of weakness. So, a death sentence they received, but since they were under the watchful eye of the federal prison system, the Alpha’s hands were tied. And it wasn’t like they were letting Reid and Davin run around free. They would be in jail, where criminals are supposed to be.

“This isn’t over,” Davin said, his calm voice at odds with the chaos in his eyes.

Scout made a production out of looking at the time on her phone. “Actually, it is. Joe B’s stops serving their lunch menu in thirty minutes, and I’m craving a breadstick like nobody’s business.” She jerked her head towards the window and seconds later the door opened, admitting two uniformed officers.

“You think you know what is happening, but you know nothing.” One of the officers put his hand on Davin’s elbow, but he didn’t immediately rise. “We are legion. You can’t hide from us. You can’t stop us. And one of these days, we will rid the earth of your kind.” The officer gave his arm a jerk, and he finally stood, but he kept his eyes on Scout the whole time.

“Well, that was fun,” she said once the door slid shut. She slumped back against her chair as if she was suddenly very tired. Charlie understood. He felt a bit like collapsing himself. It had gone just the way they’d hoped, but it didn’t give him the sense of closure he was looking for.