Sons (Book 2) (93 page)

“I guess, I dunno,” I said, confused.  Two inches?  How could I not notice that?  Shouldn’t it have hurt?  “I’m not getting elfin, am I?  Are my ears pointed?  What color are my eyes?”

“Brown, like always, and no, your ears look normal,” Peter assured me.

“Why is your eye color a question?” Jimmy asked.  Peter and I both turned to look at him in surprise.

“What color are your eyes?” I asked.

“Blue, the same color they’ve always been,” he answered cautiously.

“And the men in the Garrison?”

“Various colors, blue, brown, black.  Why?” he asked.

“There was no change in your perspective once the geas was placed?” I asked.

“No, not that I could tell,” he said.

“Huh, well, I guess it’s just us then,” I said.  “We see it differently.  The only aspect of the geas that shows to us is around the iris of the eyes, like a second iris actually.  In the Seelie, it’s a bright orangish-red and in the Unseelie, it’s a bluish-silver.  For us, it’s the same blue of the diamonds and frankly, your eyes positively glow with it.”

“Really?  Huh.  Wish it was real then.  That color is a lot prettier than this common as a rock color,” he complained examining his eyes closely in the mirror, shouldering Peter out of the way.

Little Brother, tick tock,
Kieran opened and closed a quick Named link, reminding me of our time limit.

“Crap, we’re running very short on time,” I said and poured on some speed.  Thirty seconds later and three trips through my closet mirror and we shifted to Darius’ door in freshly tailored suits looking like we’d just stepped off the catwalks in Milan.  A brownie answered the door, happy to see us but depressed that her assignment there was coming to an end so soon.  Jimmy told her that her family could continue to reside there if they wanted to remain as that apartment’s permanent caretakers.  It was likely we would use it again for such guests.  Trills of excitement and agreement filled the air immediately, so Jimmy informed Ellorn of the decision.  Life on this side of the veil was just too cute.

They’d packed in the intervening two hours.  A small CD player sat beside a gym bag and a small satchel near the door.  I hadn’t given them much time to bring much.  Voices further back in the apartment drew us back to them.

“…thirty-two.  I’ve still got you by twenty points!  Admit it!  I won this one, Dad!” Sean said excitedly as we walked in, pumping his fist in the air at Darius.

“All right, you win,” Darius agreed, smiling as he looked our way.  “Looks like it’s time to go anyway.”  Sean turned and tried his best not to look crestfallen.

“Hi, guys.  Time to go already?” he asked meekly, smiling.

“Yeah, there’s no rest for the wicked,” I said, smiling back.

“Oh, then it’s definitely past time to get Darius back,” Peter said, chortling.

“Hey, now!  That was uncalled for,” Phillips said, coming in from the kitchen with a glass of water.  “Saturday would have been fine.”  Sean stifled a snicker while Darius glowered at Phillips.

“Your…
strangeness
has rubbed off on them,” Darius said to me, waggling his fingers at Phillips and his son.  “And I’m not too sure I like it.”

Smiling broadly, I said to Phillips and Sean, “Would you two check your rooms to make certain you’ve gotten everything and give me a moment with Darius, please?  It won’t take but a few moments.”

“Sure, Seth,” Sean said, getting up from the table.  “I just want to thank you for bringing us here this weekend.  I’ve had the time of my life.  It’s been a blast!  Really.  Thank you.”  Then he hugged me.  Surprising me only because it’s not something a fifteen year old guy normally does to another his age, unless he runs along the same fence as Peter, which Sean didn’t, although he might be willing to mess around with the right person.

“You are quite welcome, Sean, and don’t worry, it’s not your last trip to Gilán,” I told him.

“Come on, kiddo.  Let’s give them a few minutes to talk,” Phillips said, holding out his arm for Sean to slip underneath.  It was a curious relationship developing.  I sealed the room once they passed the entrance.

“Did you talk to Sean?” I asked Darius as he very nervously collected the cards from whatever game they’d been playing.  A consummate politician, on the outside, Darius appeared quite calm and controlled, but his aura told a very different story.

“Yes, I did.  We talked about it several times actually,” Darius said, sitting back in his chair, idly shuffling the cards.  “All of them quite emotional.  You were right, as I suppose you know well.  We’re going to make a few changes in our lives that will make even Mark a little happier.”

“Good, then this trip was successful and I didn’t break my ban without cause,” I said smiling warmly as I sat across from him.  “Now, explain to me why you were ignoring me last week.”

“Political pressure from the military,” he answered, his aura spiking into answer and regret.  “I received a phone call from Col. Morelli from the Pentagon threatening several high level defense contracts as well as my continued association with the Pentagon if I didn’t ignore you until the military could extract itself from whatever situation they had gotten themselves into.  He didn’t offer details and would not answer any questions, saying merely that it was very embarrassing to the government as a whole.

“With the FBI and the Marshals also involved, I assumed that the matter was under control, so I agreed,” he said, meeting my eyes for the first time.  He looked somewhat tired of politics.  “You, on the other hand, I only knew by reputation and second-hand reports.  And even now, after seeing you perform magic far beyond anything I will ever accomplish, you don’t look dangerous in the least, except perhaps to the father of a teen-aged daughter.”

“Shut up, First,” I said quickly, before he had a chance to comment.  I was barely in time.  “All right, Darius, I can accept that.  This time.  I am, after all, very new in this arena, in more ways than one.  But I don’t want my associations to be based on how dangerous I can be to my friends or enemies, I want it to be based on the benefits that we can bring to each other. 

“Right now you are in a unique position among your peers.  On the one hand, you have some perspective on how my family and friends live and how my realm is beginning to progress.  Insight on Daybreak himself, something that few people on Earth have.  On the other, you missed the Emissaries Meeting and a great deal of information and I have no plans to fill in the gaps.” He nodded distastefully in acceptance, penitent.  “But considering the magnitude of several occurrences, I can assure you that you’ll have little trouble in finding out what happened.  At the very least, you could offer your presence at a meeting on Wednesday in exchange for information.  Thomas Bishop is planning a conference in London on defensive strategies and since you’ve been the most successful, they’re hoping you’ll attend.”

“How have I been successful?” he asked.

“Yours was the only incursion to be completely defeated, Darius,” Peter answered.  “Congratulations, by the way.  From what Seth showed us, that is some impressive ward-crafting your father did.  Now, I must be off.  We’ve got a schedule to keep.”

“Okay, Pete, see you in an hour,” I said as he shifted away.  “And that was his not so subtle way of reminding me that I have a schedule, too.  It’s almost seven in New York.”

When we met up with Sean and Phillips, they were tossing a brownie high through the air several yards between them while he shrieked gleefully.  The few gathered around each of them scattered as we approached, returning to whatever chore they’d abandoned to play and saddened they wouldn’t get a turn.  Both Sean and Phillips looked like they’d been caught tossing babies around, but the brownies weren’t that delicate.

Erecting a Stone shield around the five of us, I shifted to the Fuller’s foyer and waited for Phillips to work his way into the wards.  Groups of armed security men hit the front doors behind us in moments and aides and secretaries flooded down the halls seconds after that.  I thought they were interminably slow, but I was used to shifting and portals and brownie speeds now.  Sean got a kick out of the pile of handguns I collected at Darius’ feet, confusing the guards terribly as they disappeared from their hands each time they aimed one at us.

Dozens of people probed at us, trying to decipher his condition as well as Phillips’ and Sean’s.  Security was attempting to push through my shield with the ward and separate Jimmy and me from them—unsuccessfully, of course.  Stopped abruptly and surprisingly by the undetectable Stone shield, they started calling for Darius and Phillips, getting louder to be heard over each other.  It was becoming riotous quickly.

“Shut up!  Everybody, just…shut… up!”  Darius yelled, losing his temper.  Everybody in the foyer froze.  Apparently, he didn’t yell often and he didn’t stop there.  “This is how my highly-trained and highly-paid staff acts just because I’ve been away for a weekend?  This is
very
disappointing.”  He lowered his volume as he went, turning in a half-circle and glaring at people.  Had he been my boss, it would have scared me.  “I have learned a good deal this weekend that has prompted me to make some changes here.  Now I will have to consider other changes as well.  Get back to your stations and conduct yourselves in a more orderly and professional manner.”

Like all floods, the flow reversed itself slowly, following Darius’ demand.  The guards were the most hesitant to leave, being bereft of their weapons.  A man and a woman remained in the center of the foyer, each holding small portfolios and stacks of telephone message slips.  I assumed these were his personal aides and this was their place and dismissed the shield.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, Lord Daybreak,” Fuller said quietly, turning back to them.

“No problem, President Fuller,” I said, choosing his title, too, and gaining a snicker from Sean in the bargain.  “I was hoping to continue a more familiar relationship, though.”

Darius smiled in relief.  “I’d like that, Seth.”

“Good, now if you’ll excuse us, we have some attorneys to see before our meeting at the Pentagon,” I said and shifted to New York.

~              ~              ~

“’FirstGuard Security Company,’ simple and sweet, works for me,” Peter said then shoved the second half of the Danish in his mouth. 

“You named it after yourself?” Ethan asked Jimmy across the table as he finished the last of the two dozen banana muffins we’d demolished.

“He disapproved the first thirty I picked!” Jimmy whined.

“I did not!  It was ten, and ‘Gleaming Blue Meanies’ just wouldn’t have worked,” I retorted, grinning.

“That was not one of mine!” he denied, laughing, but he knew he’d lost that battle already since I was walking away.  He’d have to find another way to get me back.

We were in a conference room in the Pentagon, waiting for General Harmond.  They weren’t expecting us this early.  Peter had sent a pair of Guards here by train first thing this morning, then sent them off to further points north so we had a few entry points into Washington, DC now.  My “ten-ish” phone call to Harmond came at nine thirty from the lobby personnel and was a bit of a surprise to him.  They were still rushing around to accommodate us.

They didn’t actually ward the conference room we were in, but weak wards around the offices and computers popped up fairly quickly around us as we devastated their pastry table.  I think even Messner could have rolled through these wards without working up a sweat.  The Night refused to acknowledge them.

“Children?” I muttered, as strong spikes of fear, suspicion, and longing moved into a nearby office.  Centering my senses on them as everyone centered on me, I watched as a captain gently ushered the twelve- or fourteen-year-old boy, tightly clutching the five- or six-year-old little girl’s hand.  They were both in a state of extended shock, suspending their epic emotional turmoil.  How the boy, much less that tiny, little girl was managing it just astounded me.

I realized I was crying when General Harmond and Colonel Barnett entered that room from an adjoining office with two aides.  Barnett spoke with the captain briefly as I wiped my face with my handkerchief. 

“Bring the children with you, please, General Harmond,” I said through a portal into his office, my voice cracking and choked, startling everyone and scaring the children immensely.  The boy pulled his sister to him protectively, huddling them closely together and staring at the walls and ceiling, searching for the strange voice from thin air.  The captain knelt down beside them, comforting them and gently manipulating their auras.  I hadn’t seen that part of her yet, but hers was a minor talent she barely recognized.

“Seth?  What’s going on?” Kieran asked, watching with me.  As Barnett knelt and began explaining to the boy and girl what was about to happen, using phrases like “big and scary but very kind,” I started explaining to my brothers their sad story, gleamed from several minds.

Their mother, herself a product of mixed heritage and a calculating, stone-hearted bitch, used the boy’s father to gain full citizenship and entry into the States.  Then she ditched PFC Dawes on his second tour through a violent Afghanistan for a returning sergeant, beginning her climb through the ranks.  She was a beautiful and alluring woman who knew very well how to use her charms on men and alternately used the boy and abandoned him to baby-sitters.  This led through two more marriages and countless escapades, including two that involved molestation on the boy.  Known or unknown to her, it didn’t matter now.