Sons (Book 2) (3 page)

Ethan
.

“It’s about time!” he all but shouted in my head.  “What happened?  Is everybody all right?”

“Yeah, I bailed out a few minutes after I talked to you,” I told him and finished the story.  “We’re gonna get Ian and come back over.  See ya in a few.”  We closed the connection and I looked over the crystal clear lake, bothered by the slight wrongness I was feeling there.

“Y’all wait by the door, please.  I’ll be right there,” I said distractedly, and moved them to the door by the gate, still holding the driver off the ground.  I stepped out onto the surface of the lake, walking above the water and looking into the depths for that wrongness I felt.  Near the center, closer to the waterfall, I found the biggest one: Calhoun’s Sig Sauer.  I grinned as I willed the gun from the bottom of the lake up into my hand.  Knowing what that the other wrongs were made them easier and faster to find.  The fourth coin was a little trickier to get, though.  How a three-day old fish had grown to over a foot long, I didn’t know, but I had to tease the coin forward through its mouth again.  Otherwise, I’d have killed it to get it out of its digestive tract and there was no reason for that.

I jumped to the door to find the driver exactly where I put him and Mike and Shrank blocking Calhoun from getting over the bridge.

“What’s going on?” I asked slowly.

“E’s trying to get a better look at the Palace and he won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” Mike growled.

“Mr. Calhoun, you aren’t invited,” I said firmly.  “Now let’s go.”

“And why does he get to decide?” Calhoun asked Mike.

“It’s his house,” Mike answered.  “The door’s that way.”

“That didn’t take long,” John said as he walked into my room.  “Ian’s barely made it to the stables.”

I shrugged when Mike looked at me.  “I’ll come back for him later,” I said smiling.  “Let him have some fun.”

“I’ll call him anyway.  Let ‘im know we’re all right,” Mike said, moving for the house phone on my bedside table.  Calhoun stood at the end of my bed looking obviously uncomfortable.  And still damp.

“John, I believe you know Mr. Calhoun,” I said.  “The other man is inconsequential.”

“Apparently,” John muttered, smirking at the man’s uncomfortable position.  “I take it he was at the root of the unpleasantness?”

“Our driver, yes,” I said, recalling that I had Calhoun’s toys.  “I believe these belong to you, Mr. Calhoun.  I don’t think the fish damaged that one, but you might want to check it out before you depend on it.”

Grimacing, he took the waterlogged weapon and coins from me gingerly, slipping the gun back into its holster and pulling a set of handcuffs from another.  “I can take custody whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay,” I said, releasing the Stone’s manacles and dropping the man in a heap on the floor.  “Play nice while you’re here, Mr. Morris, or I’ll show you the sharpest blade you’ve ever seen.”

“You know his name?” Calhoun asked as he jerked the limp man to his feet.

“Yep, Jim Morris,” I said, pulling slightly on the man’s top memories, listening for the voices in his head.  “Likes to be called ‘Cutter’ because he fancies himself an expert with knives, ex-Navy Seal, likes to bat his women around, makes him feel real big even though he’s below average in that department.  No family that’ll claim him, but he has a brother who does some sort of computer work in South Carolina.  Both parents passed away years ago.  You’re a real classy fellow, aren’t you, Morris?”  He stared at me with slack-jawed contempt, startled that I knew this much about him.

“Where would you like to be dropped off, Mr. Calhoun?” I asked the Marshal.

“Wh-what?” Calhoun stammered.  “I don’t know.  What do you mean?”

“We’re in Ireland, at the moment, Mr. Calhoun,” I said, grinning at his confusion.  “I need to know where you want me to leave you, though your choices are extremely limited in New York.  Basically, you’ve got the Customs office, the room where Harris gave us the passports, or wherever Ethan opens a door.  That and a few clothing store changing rooms.”

“You can open a hole across the world?” he asked in surprise.

“Well, yes, is that difficult?”  I listened to him sputter a moment with incomprehensible syllables.  “I’ll take that as a ‘yes,’ then,” I said, shrugging.  “Well, I guess that explains why Ehran rode the ley lines.”

“What?  That’s not possible!” Calhoun exclaimed.

“Really?” I asked.  “Maybe you should tell him that.  Where do you want to be dropped off?”

“JFK,” he decided quickly.

“Have a good day, then,” I said and opened the portal into the passport room.  Then, turning to John, I said, “Sorry to interrupt your day, John.  Will it be any bother for Ian to stay for a bit?”

“You mean you’re giving me someone who’ll keep Martin occupied for hours and you think it’s a bother?” he said, smiling.  “I think not at all, Seth.”

“Will overnight be a problem, too?” I asked, “Ethan said something about a late dinner in our honor somewhere.  I’m not sure how late that’s going to run.  It’s not a problem if he wants to come, but he’s really got to be able to stay up if he does.  We’ll be in someone else’s home.”

Seth, are you done yet?
Ethan called across the anchor. 

“Yes, Ethan, we’re about done,” I whined back, both verbally and projecting through the anchor.  “What’s your hurry?  You got a date?”

No, but we have to leave in an hour
.

“What?  It’s only three-thirty there,” I said.  “How far away is this place?”

Don’t know.  Get a move on
.

“Rain check?”

Move it!

“Ugh,” I said, leaving Ethan out this time.  “I don’t think I like the political life.”

“Better get moving, Seth,” John said, chortling.  “Before they find out you’re here downstairs.  Then you’ll really hate the political life.”

“Why?” I asked, regretting the question before I finished.  “No, don’t answer.  Mike, you get in touch with Ian?”

“Yeah, he’s gonna stay with Marty till tomorrow,” Mike said, standing up from the bed.

“Thanks, John,” I said, then buzzed Ethan.  “Let’s go, Blondie!”

Stepping through the portal that opened a foot in front of me, I found myself in a two-bedroom hotel suite.  Kieran stood in front of a dresser tying a bow tie with thick fingers and having a rough time of it.

“It’s been quite a few years since I’ve had to do this,” he muttered.

“Oh, God, you’re wearing that?” exclaimed Peter from behind me.  Mike and I turned to look at Peter, dropping our jaws at him. 

Peter looked good, damn good.  It was the most comfortable-looking and dressiest suit I’d ever seen.  A chocolate brown silk jacket hung loosely over a cream-colored shirt clasped together with white buttons bearing the sigil of Daybreak.  The shirt seemed skin-tight but slid so easily with him that every move was seductively powerful, even through the jacket.   His pants weren’t particularly tight, but every step accentuated muscular thighs in the fore and calves in the aft.  I needed to watch Peter when I started dating.  The man definitely knew how to use what he had.  I could learn from him.

“Damn, Peter, where did you get that!” Ethan said from a bedroom doorway. 

“From my closet at the Palace.  Didn’t you guys find your apartments?  They’re huge!” Peter said excitedly.  “Seth’s given the whole family a whole wing to ourselves.  I didn’t have a chance to go through the whole apartment because it was so big, but I got to the bedroom and the balcony.”

I looked at the Palace, seeing the layout clearly in my mind.  Defining how many floors the building had was rather confusing.  In some places, it actually had ten; in others, like the entire center, merely two, three if you count the outer concourse level above the Throne room that has a split-level on the sides.  I haven’t quite figured out what their purpose is yet.

“Actually they look like apartment suites and they appear to be designated already,” I said.  “At least the main apartments have.  Although there seems to be a lot of room for change.”

“I dare say there’s some nice clothes in your closet, too,” Peter said, perching on the couch.  “And definitely something better for Ethan than that blue suit.”

“We’re running short on time, guys,” warned Kieran.

“I think I can get this done pretty quick,” I said, glancing back at him fighting with his tie.  Spotting Mike fidgeting nervously, I decided to start with him.  “Okay, Mike, let’s start with you.  What do you want to wear tonight?”

I turned around the room and picked the large mirror on the wall as my visual aid.  Using the Stone, I lifted the lamps off the table and onto the floor then pushed the table out and down.  It blocked the second bedroom, but got it out of the way, clearing the wall for me.  Then I centered my attention on the Palace, shifting down continually until I conceptually stood in Mike’s bedroom in front of his closet. 

Daybreak felt the connection build between the plane of space in front of that wall into the doorway of Mike Ferrin’s closet.  Lights began glowing inside as the Palace sensed my presence in my realm as the volume around me changed slowly.  This was not a portal.  This was my world.  Here.  What the hell have I done?

“Well?” I asked as I turned to look at Mike.  “We’re on a clock here…”  All four of them were staring at me and all I could think about was how good it felt to be in my Palace.  There was a very different feel to the magic that emanated here.

“Um, well, this is a formal affair,” Mike started.  “Um, I supposed I should be in a tuxedo or black dinner jacket, white shirt, cuff links, that sort of thing.  I’m a background person.”

“Yeah, right,” I said, scoffing.  I looked up and down the aisles of the closet and picked through the aisles until I found suits.  It was all quite orderly and arranged.  Not a whole lot of suits really.  Everything was literally completely organized and together, as if one of us was completely socially inept.  That, or lazy.  I wasn’t gonna complain right now.  Reaching into the mirror, I pulled out two hangers and laid them over the back of the couch, blindly.  Just below them on the floor sat a pair of high-gloss shoes and on the shelf above the rod were cufflinks and studs for the shirt.  Both the studs and the cufflinks bore the same symbol as Peter’s buttons.  I had to reach through the wall to grab the cases that held those.

“This should do it, Mike,” I said, smiling as I put the cases down atop the suit and dropped the shoes on the floor.  He was gonna freak when he saw those studs were blue diamonds set in platinum.  So were the cufflinks.  “Why don’t you go get cleaned up and make sure this all fits.” 

Kieran gawked at me as Mike came up and started picking everything up.  Mike started chuckling suddenly, saying, “You know, Seth, I’d be highly surprised if it didn’t.  I really would.  Which room is mine?”

Kieran answered, starting his own chuckle, “The one Seth blocked.  Just use Ethan’s and mine.”

“Speaking of Ethan, you’re next, evil twin,” I said, turning to the bedroom doorway just as Mike disappeared behind him with a whispered “Good luck!”

Ethan was braver than Mike—he walked right up and looked in the mirror with me.  He noticed the difference immediately.  I could feel him casting about through space, searching for the differences and where they began, and what I could have done to create this, especially with both Kieran and him watching.

“Wow, what is this, Seth?” he asked as I shifted my attention to his closet.

“It’s a perspective into my realm,” I answered.  “You want to stick with blue?”  Ethan was a little easier to work with here.  Slipping my arm across his shoulders, I used the mirror behind the closet and dressed him directly from there.  “Blue seems to be a prevalent color throughout the Palace, a shade away to your eye color.  What do you think of this?”

Pointing to the mirror, I dressed his reflection in silk sashes of differing shades of blue in ways that definitely showed off his physique.  Kieran burst into laughter as Ethan turned his dark blue slacks but watched his bare leg and buttocks in the mirror.  A single deep blue silk cloth ran up between his legs, splitting around his waist and running up his chest to meet others.  Even in the reflection, I saw the resolve in him solidify.

“If this is what you want me to wear at a dinner in
your honor
, I’ll do it!” he said, crossing his arms and bulging in more places in the mirror.  Snickering, I waved my hand at the mirror, erasing the image and replacing it with a suit similar to Mike’s.  It was like dressing a mannequin, without actually having to do the work.  Just a thought and the reflection had it.  It was a reflection, after all.  Within a few seconds, Ethan’s reflection wore a predominantly black suit with circular swirls of the blue brushed into the fabric.  The vest was an inversion of that, predominantly blue with faint swirls of black.  As with Mike’s, the shirt studs and all the buttons were diamond studded with the same stylized glyph.

“What do you mean, ‘in my honor’?” I asked, waving toward the reflection again.  “You said ‘our honor’ before.  Better?”

“Quite,” he said, looking at the image appreciatively.  “They said ‘our’ but you know they’re just sucking up to you.”

The problem of how to get Ethan into the clothes reared its ugly head then, but reflections being what they are, the answer showed itself to me fairly quickly.  It was just a matter of sifting Ethan between the two, leaving the ugly blue suit on one side of odd dimensional twist I’d created and pushing Ethan physically into the new suit and back.  It was a virtually simultaneous switch with his old suit going straight onto hangers in the closet.  Daybreak has some pretty wild magic at his disposal.

“Why are they sucking up to me?” I asked.  “It’s not like I can get them anything.  Okay, Kieran, you’re next.”

Ethan stared between himself and his reflection, desperately trying to understand how I did that.

“What’s wrong with what I have on?” Kieran asked defensively, looking down at the black dinner jacket he wore.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Peter said with raised eyebrows.  “It’s a very fashionable suit.  We’d like a table for five, preferably near the balcony, please.  We’d like to look out over the city.”

“I’d rather not wear a suit at all,” Kieran muttered.

“How about this?” I asked as I switched to Kieran’s closet and adjusted his reflection as he walked closer to me.  I chose an almost black, dark green jacket with black lapels and black slacks.  The vest was a mixture of black and dark red, and when the light hit the lapels of the jacket just right, they would shine with emblems of either the House McClure in green or the other dominating sigil in red.

“That is nice,” Kieran said, nodding at himself in the mirror and stepping across the border into my realm.  He looked down at his feet as he crossed, then out and around, searching for the edges just as Ethan did.  “Is this a knowe?”

“I have no idea what that is,” I said, twisting the reflection around and creating the same shift onto Kieran that I’d done to Ethan.  I motioned for both of them to turn around.  “What’d’ya think, Peter?  Are they acceptable now?”