The House (11 page)

“What did I
do
?” Eddie asked. He didn’t sound sorry; he sounded like a
spoilt brat. The pity I had felt about his lack of knowledge all
but evaporated.

“Congratulations. You just reminded an eighty-two year old woman of
her own infertility,” I said sarcastically. I was rude, and it was
unfair of me to sound so accusing, but I couldn’t help it. We were
all protective of Marie, and the female shifters in general were
wary of pregnancy. I didn’t speak again until Marie was out of
earshot, or as close as you could get with super-human hearing and
remain in the same house.

“She can’t get
pregnant?” Eddie asked quietly.

“She’s had
four miscarriages. It’s a miracle she managed to get pregnant four
times let alone survived the miscarriages. Most shifters aren’t
particularly fertile at all and carrying a child to term is almost
impossible.” I sighed. It wasn’t something I liked to talk about.
Partly because I knew that one day it would affect me; a part of
the curse as some said. “Your shifter parent should have told
you.”

“My what? My
parents were human.”

“Your shifter
parent. The person who changed you; the one whose blood flows
through your veins.” He really had been taught badly, or rather not
taught enough if he didn’t even know the general terms we used. I
mean, we have to call them something.

“Oh, he didn’t
… mention it.” He looked so sad, staring out into space. I wondered
what the realisation meant for him, if there was a girl somewhere
he had left. I couldn’t think of any other reason to ask the
question. Of course, it could have just been the natural flow of
the conversation.

“It’s a part
of life. Accept it and move on or you’ll drive yourself crazy
thinking about it too much,” I said. I knew from personal
experience that the only way to deal with some of the things in our
lives is simply not to think about them. Anything you can’t accept
you ignore and you survive to see another day. It had worked for me
so far.

“I really
don’t know much about this world do I?” Eddie looked up and I had a
sudden urge to hug him. I understood how Marie became a mother to
us; she found us weak and broken and brought us back. It’s hard not
to care about someone you talk back from the brink. I found that I
had some pity left, although it tasted like ashes in my mouth. It
wasn’t his fault, and he didn’t deserve the blame for any of it,
but it didn’t stop me. It’s easier to blame the messenger, or
rather the questioner, than to think too much about a painful
problem.

“Talk to
Marie. You can trust her but you have to let her in, let her take
care of you.” I jumped down from the counter and made to go back
outside. We were about to be interrupted again. I could hear
Shayana and Hercules’ laughter moving closer.

“But she’s not
a lion,” Eddie said.

“Neither are
we,” I said and I vanished. Well, not really, but I ran fast enough
that he wouldn’t have seen me move. I paused to smile at Shayana
and Hercules on my way back outside then continued on at a human
normal pace.

Eddie joined
me in the TV room half an hour later and took the seat next to me.
I had thought that he was done with me for the day.

“What did you
mean when you said that we aren’t lions?” he asked.

“We are humans
who happen to have a second form in the shape of a lion. We are not
lions, we’re shifters,” I replied. I hated explaining the basics. I
mean, could it get any more obvious?

“Oh, like
magic.”

I laughed. “There is no like about it, it
is
magic. There is no science so far
discovered that can explain us, or the witches, or the vampyre.
Which is also why we have to keep ourselves a secret.”

“What would
happen if they found out? Surely it wouldn’t be that bad?”

“We are
already hunted; none of us want a return to the dark days. The days
of the witch trials.” I was whispering by the end of it. Those days
had been hundreds of years ago but we all knew about them. They had
been imprinted on the collective psyche of the supernatural
community.

“The Salem
witch trials?”

“No, I don’t
think anyone they executed was actually a witch. In the fourteen
hundreds there was a purge from within the witches. They handed
over anyone who didn’t follow their rules as kind of a sacrifice to
the humans. From what I know it was horrific.” I shivered visibly.
I’d heard some firsthand accounts of that time and it had made me
glad to live when I did. We were safer as myths and legends.

“Oh,” he said.
“I guess that would be bad.” I nodded and sighed.

“It won’t
happen, nobody would be stupid enough to reveal themselves on
purpose and we have all sorts of contingency plans if something
happens by accident.” He looked deep in thought and I left him that
way. Information is always best given in small doses, especially
when it involves death sentences. I’d known these things almost
before anything else. Before I could talk I’d known that to speak
about what we were with others was deadly. It was the way of our
world; there was no other way to keep ourselves safe.

I slipped out of the room to give him time to think. I
thought he’d had enough information for one day; we were both going
to be there in the morning. The fight had tired me out and, despite
the fact that it was only ten o’clock, I wanted to go to bed. I
grabbed half a pizza that someone had carelessly left on the side
as I breezed past and continued upstairs without stopping. I was
halfway up the stairs when I heard the shifter whose pizza I’d
stolen notice his food was missing, I just couldn’t remember his
name. I stifled a giggle and kept going, else he’d hear me.
Shifters can be
very
protective of their food.

I woke up
fully clothed with Stripes curled up next to me. At least she’d
managed to get her pyjamas; jeans are not comfortable sleepwear. I
tried to remember why I was asleep fully dressed but for a moment
my mind drew a blank. Sleep gradually ebbed away and I remembered
throwing myself onto my bed without any effort to get ready because
I was already falling asleep on my feet.

“Hey,
Stripes!” She turned over but otherwise didn’t stir. I shook her
gently and raised my voice slightly trying not to wake up the rest
of the house. “Lily!” Stripes jumped up to stand on my bed and
slammed her head into the shelves that are rather inconveniently
located above it. She stood rubbing her head while I tried not to
laugh. “Are you alright?” I asked. It had seemed like a rather
violent reaction, but then I remembered what I was like when
someone woke me suddenly and I cringed. I was lucky she hadn’t gone
for my throat.

“Don’t scare
me like that!” she shouted.

“Shh, you’ll
wake everyone up,” I hushed her as she slumped far more gracefully
that I could have managed back onto the bed.

“It’s nearly
ten Trix, everyone will already be awake. You slept for twelve
hours.” I looked at the clock and swore loudly before jumping
across my room and wrenching open the door so quickly that for a
second I thought that it would snap off its hinges. It wouldn’t be
the first time I’d managed it.

“Shit, shit,
shit!” I veered around into the next room, which happens to be the
bathroom, and crashed into the door before I managed to get it
open. I barely saw the room as I whirled around it and jumped into
the shower. Then I had to jump out again and struggle out of my
clothes.

I ran back to
my room, still swearing, to encounter a flustered Stripes who had
clearly completely forgotten what day it was. She stood in the
middle of my room in her little hot pink pyjamas and stared at me
as I rushed through my morning routine. I had to go back to the
bathroom twice, once to rinse the shampoo out of my eyes and the
other to grab my make-up bag that I’d taken through when I went to
wash the shampoo out of my hair.

“Stripes, come
on we need to get dressed!”

“Why?”

“Because Marie
is going to see her father and we have to see her off.”

“Except that
she left at six this morning and the only person awake was James.
Slow down Trix, you don’t have to be up and ready. Besides you’re
trying to put those on back to front.” I looked at my jeans. They
were my lazing around pair and had holes in both the knees, which
were currently at the back because I did indeed have them on
backwards.

“Oh, well that
sucks.” I slumped onto the armchair. “Damn it, I promised her I’d
see her off and I wanted to ask her what we’re going to do about
the vampyre attack. And about the hunter MacKensie.”

“Well, crap.
She’s going to be in the middle of nowhere for a week and we have
to deal on our own.” Stripes pulled off my back-to-front jeans and
pulled them on the right way around. She handed me a brush and
breezed out the door to get dressed herself.

By the time I
got downstairs I realised why Stripes slept in my room; everyone
from last night had slept over. I should have figured they would,
they normally do, it had just been so long since we had everyone
over I’d forgotten. It also meant that I’d have to fight for
breakfast if there was any left at all. At least half of our
impromptu party guests had already gone home. It was Friday after
all and people had work to do. I would myself if I ever got myself
together enough to find that nine to five job that we all dream of.
Unfortunately, I spend too much of my time checking up on all the
local shifters to keep a steady job.

I help Marie
to run some of her businesses though and I get by. It’s a far cry
from the way my parents lived but when I left the Covenant and
dropped all ties to my grandfather I’d left his money behind as
well. I didn’t need it and I didn’t want it. Although, I had a
feeling that one day I might have to change my mind.

I sat next to
Shayana at the table, snagging the spot that Hercules had vacated
in search of pancakes. I took three pieces of toast and liberally
applied butter and jam. I practically swallowed the first one whole
before I turned to speak to Shayana. From the way she was eyeing
Hercules I knew she’d had a good time the night before.

“So…” I said,
slightly unsure of what to say. Which shows how long it had been
since I’d seen Shayana because we normally spent several hours
gossiping about our latest men whenever we got together. Of course,
the men aren’t usually still in the room with us. And we normally
have ice cream to go with our gossip.

“Yeah,”
Shayana replied and then we both burst into giggles without any
further prompting. I saw Hercules turn and eye us suspiciously; it
only brought on more giggling fits.

“You had a
good…” I asked. There was almost never a need to use full sentences
between me and Shayana. Marie always said we were just on the same
wavelength.

“Oh yeah.” And
then neither of us could speak for a few minutes as we laughed
silently, much to the chagrin of Hercules. He skulked out of the
kitchen before anyone could associate our good humour to him.
Although I saw a wide grin on his face as he left. I shook my head
at seeing it. He always was too big for his boots and sleeping with
Shayana was not going to make his head any smaller. Not that he’d
ever caused trouble with it but there was always the chance that
one day his head would get so big he wouldn’t fit through our
doorway anymore.

“What you
planning to do today?” I asked. I so rarely saw her that any time
she stuck around we liked to go out somewhere. The two of us
together in a club is quite something to see. Or even a day trip to
the park or a museum was great with Shayana. She had a way of
making everyone around her jump with energy.

“I’m supposed
to be home today. I’ve got work tomorrow and if I don’t get at
least six hours of sleep I’ll probably fall asleep there.” Shayana
worked as a dancer - in the ballet rather than exotic section of
the trade. She also taught dancing to local girls which is what she
normally called work.

“When do you
need to leave?” I asked her, slightly crestfallen. Shayana loves
her work but it keeps her very busy and with my responsibilities at
the house it always seems to feel like an age between visits.

“In about an
hour.” She looked sorry about having to leave but I just shrugged.
“We’ll catch up next time. Maybe you could even come see us.”

“Is your house
big enough to hold all of us?” Stripes leaned over us to reach the
last piece of toast, snatching it just before Hercules who’d sat
back down opposite us. He had apparently realised that all the food
was still in the kitchen. He gave her a quick scowl before moving
onto his cereal. She stuck her tongue out at him as she skipped
over to the counter to sit down and she didn’t look a day over
fourteen. Somehow I never manage to look quite that innocent.
Stripes never shows the shadows in her eyes unless we are alone. I
can’t seem to get away from mine. People notice. They know that you
aren’t an innocent anymore; that you have seen and done too much
for that. But there was nothing I could do about it and I wasn’t
the only one in the room with ghosts from their past.

“We could
stick a tent up in the garden,” Shayana suggested. It took me a
second to remember what we were talking about and I smiled. Shayana
and her brother lived in a large house but they always seemed to be
lacking in space. The spare rooms taken up with the mountain of
stuff her family had accumulated over the years.

“No thanks,”
James put in. He seated himself next to Stripes as she took the
last bite of her toast.

Shayana
laughed, “Who says you’re invited?”

“If you want
Stripes to come you’ll need to find a place for James; of course,
you don’t really need an extra room for him.” I ducked before I saw
James move but, sure enough, half a bowl of cereal landed on the
table next to me. Everyone laughed, even the guests that weren’t a
part of our conversation. Sometimes I think the only reason anyone
visits us is to catch up on gossip, or maybe to tell us all of
theirs. It’s hard to gossip with the humans.