The House (27 page)

Once James was
in bed we started calling everyone home; it was too dangerous to be
out. I sat in my room staring at my phone for a while; I knew that
I should be calling my grandfather again. I just sat there letting
the noise wash over me. The worry had pushed away some of my power
and I was starting to sink back into the voices.

As it turned
out I didn’t need to call him, he called me.

“Beatrice?”
There was an edge of panic to his voice.

“Yep, who else
would it be?”

“I heard that
Lily was taken. I wanted to check that you were alright...that you
weren’t planning to go after her.”

“I’d love to
go after her; we just don’t know where she is. James came back
covered in blood saying that he didn’t stand a chance.” I sat
against the wall clutching the phone to my ear. I hugged my legs
tight to me, a panic starting to rise in me.

“There aren’t
many people who could do that to James. I want you to remember that
and let me handle it. This is far too dangerous for you. Anything
that could incapacitate that man would have killed you. You must
not try to go after these people, Beatrice.” His voice was stern,
commanding, exactly the voice he had used to reprimand me for
sneaking out when I was younger. I sighed. It hadn’t worked then
either.

“I can make no
such promises and you know it. If they did that to James, I hate to
think what they’re doing to Stripes, Marie and Shayana. They don’t
stand a chance. And in this you will not change my mind; if I find
out where they are I’m going to get them. I’m not a child any more,
grandfather.” I was trying not to admit that my grandfather telling
me not to made me want to rush in all the more.

“No, you’re
not a child but you’re not an experienced fighter either and these
people know how to fight.”

“Are you
saying you know who has them? Because if you know, even if you only
suspect, and you don’t tell me I will never forgive you if
something happens to them,” I warned. There was something amiss
with what he was saying. The rumour mill amongst the supernaturals
was fast but he sounded like he had more inside information than
that. I wouldn’t put it past him to keep things from me.

“I don’t know
where they are; if I did I would send people in to go get them. You
always think so poorly of me but I can forgive it this time because
of the stress this must put you under. But you must not go after
these people.” His voice was strained but that didn’t mean he was.
He was always the consummate actor.

“You don’t
have that kind of pull, grandfather. You couldn’t send anyone
anywhere and the witches never have cared much if shifters are in
trouble. If you hear anything, no matter how small, you will call
me right away and I will get them out.” I hung up the phone before
he could reply and sat back on my bed rubbing my temples.

Of all the
times to start an argument with my grandfather...but I didn’t seem
to be able to help it. Everything he said made me feel like a
little girl, helpless and alone, and I didn’t like it. I was far
from helpless, I had my own family now and I was damn sure going to
get it back. No matter the price.

After a
moment, I went to check on James. He looked slightly better. The
blood was all gone even if the bruises still coloured his face. I
had a feeling the pain distorting his features had little to do
with his injures. In fact he should have healed all of the minor
injuries completely by then. We’d patched him up and Catherine had
fed him by the look of the empty bowls on the bedside table.

“We’ll get her
back,” I said as I sat down on the edge of his bed. “We will,
whatever it takes, we’ll bring her home.” He grasped my hand and
the look in his eyes was pure terror. It wasn’t a look I had ever
thought to see in James’ face. He was ever confident, ever
composed. My heart constricted at the sight of his fear.

“You didn’t
see them, they came out of nowhere. I couldn’t even tell you how
many there were, they were everywhere. I couldn’t see Stripes,
didn’t see when they took her. They beat me unconscious Trix and I
couldn’t stop them. I could barely touch them they were so
fast.”

“It’s
alright...we will beat them. Because we don’t have a choice. They
took our family and I for one am not going to let something like
the possibility of being beaten to a pulp stop me.” He actually
smiled at that. “There may be a lot of them but there’ll be more of
us. We have friends and they will help.”

He nodded
briefly. “I know. I feel so useless. I thought I could protect her
and I was wrong...anything they do to her now is my fault.”

“Don’t you
dare say that,” I replied. “If anything, it’s my fault; I should
have realised that they’d try for someone else. I’m so sorry.”

“You couldn’t
have known.” Catherine came through the door. “Nobody would have
thought they would come after us once we knew they were out there,
once we were prepared for them. To take on two shifters at once,
knowing what they could do? That’s not something anyone would have
predicted.”

“I guess...but
how do they know what we are? It’s not like we’re listed in the
yellow pages. Not just that but they knew where we’d be. Someone is
watching us and I just can’t see how they could be human. They know
too much, they can do too much, to be human,” I sighed. This was
our greatest fear – rogue supernaturals. That’s why everything was
so carefully controlled. Witches were taught by witches, vampyre
were kept bound and shifters took care of all their children.

“That means we
probably know who it is or at least know of them. There aren’t
enough of us to have something like this happen and nobody know.”
James was distraught; there was nothing we could do short of
bringing Stripes back that would help him. So we sat with him in
silence, thinking about all the people we knew, all the people who
knew who and what we were and pondered which of them had betrayed
us.

The voices in
my head had gained strength again. So beneath my own ponderings on
who was out to get us was a constant barrage of other mutterings,
almost unintelligible to me. The thought occurred to me that if I
knew how to control this new ability I could use it to help find
them. If I could truly see into anyone’s mind then all I’d have to
do was walk around and wait for someone who knew something. But I
couldn’t do that; the best I could do was try to block it out, try
not to go crazy. I was starting to think even that would be a
losing battle.

We were
sitting around the table eating breakfast. The difference to our
normal meal times was striking. There was no light banter, no
fighting over the toast or ham. We were there because we had to
eat, not to enjoy each other’s company and go over the night’s
events as normal. Subdued didn’t even begin to cover it.

Eddie took the
seat next to me. He was the last to sit down and the table was
full. We’d taken the food into the meeting room with the intention
of discussing what to do next over food. For some reason, people
seem to think better on full stomachs. So far, we’d managed
meaningless small talk at best with total silence most of the time.
It was unnerving to be in a room with so many people and so little
noise.

James had made
it down; he was just about recovered, more shaken up than anything
else now. Hercules kept glancing at him and then at me, panic
stretching across his face. There wasn’t a smile to be had in the
whole room.

“I spoke to
Talon,” Eddie said suddenly. I felt every eye look up at him at the
same time. He shifted uncomfortably for a minute before settling
down. I still couldn’t figure him out and I was beyond trying at
that point. His presence vaguely annoyed me; he wasn’t a part of
our grief and worry. He was an extra, an outsider, and I wasn’t
into trusting people I didn’t know right then.

“What did he
have to say?” I asked. Quite frankly, I didn’t think much of the
guy by the way Eddie had turned out. He clearly hadn’t been taught
the ways of our world properly and that was Talon’s fault. I just
hoped that it had something to do with Eddie being wholly stubborn
rather than Talon’s attitude to it. If he had changed more people
without teaching them...well, we dealt with rogues quickly but the
damage they did first was horrifying. I also didn’t think James or
Marlow was up to chasing after rogues at that moment and I wouldn’t
know where to start on finding someone else to do it.

“Not much. He
heard about what had happened and he sends his regards. He’s
keeping an ear out for anyone who might know something,” Eddie
replied between bites. He didn’t even look up. He seemed to have
decided that if he didn’t look at anyone we would go back to
ignoring him. I wasn’t about to do that; he had brought attention
to himself and if his maker could give us anything I was damn well
going to find it.

“Well, I
suppose that’s the least he could do. Do you have much contact with
him?” I asked. I didn’t know which would be worse; if Talon had
abandoned him or if he just never bothered to tell him the most
important parts about our world.

“Every now and
then he checks I’m not dead yet.”

“I’ve heard of
him. Nasty man.” I glanced at Catherine and made a face – insulting
Eddie’s maker was not going to get us more information from him –
but she continued regardless. I cringed inwardly. “Well, he was.
Haven’t seen him in donkey’s years,” Catherine added and I silently
cursed her.

“He’s no worse
than anyone else,” Eddie stated; not an entirely rousing
endorsement but it was probably the best Eddie had to say about any
of us. I was beginning to wonder if it was the best Eddie would
ever say about anyone. I might have been developing trust issues
with my friends disappearing but Eddie seemed to come with them
built-in.

“He tried to
change that little girl...Marie would remember. Sweet child – born
to a witch – but sickly from the day she was born. Poor
thing...terrible way to go,” Catherine added as if it were the most
normal conversation in the world.

“Well, it
sounds like she was dying anyway. Better to try and fail than not
to try at all,” Eddie replied.

“You think?”
Catherine asked lightly.

“Eddie. You
should probably wait until you know what you’re talking about to
comment...and Catherine? Talon is Eddie’s parent.” We all knew I
didn’t mean his biological parent. “And if he can help it will be
greatly appreciated, no matter what he’s done in the past.” I
emphasised the last sentence so much that it was almost comical.
But I needed Catherine to stop talking. She wouldn’t be the one to
deal with the fallout of her words, I would. We didn’t need to
alienate Eddie any further. For all that helping him was seemingly
impossible, to stop trying would be to insult Marie. We had to keep
going and I had to get my thoughts under control.

With that the
conversation died for the rest of the meal.

I had hoped
that when we all got together someone would have a great idea as to
what to do next. The silence stretched between us all and seemed to
cloud my thoughts. My mind drifted as I took in the silence; there
was nothing for me to add to the conversation.

I kept
thinking about Stripes, about when I’d first met her. She’d been
young and scared when she came to the house. She was an enigma even
to Marie. None of us had ever met a shifter who could change into
such a small animal.

I remembered
seeing her walk through the door with her shoulders hunched and her
arms wrapped so tightly around herself that her knuckles were
white. Her hair had been longer then, wilder. Her face and clothes
were dirty and unkempt. It was quite clear that she’d been living
on the streets for some months at least.

Marie had
practically grabbed her the second she walked through the door and
sent me to run a hot bath. I’d turned to stare at Stripes as I
walked up the stairs until Marie told me to hop to it. I blurred up
the stairs and started the bath. It’s not the fasted filling
bathtub in the world but if I didn’t watch it I was always scared
it would overflow.

The water was
almost too hot for me to stand. I’d debated putting some cold in
but decided that, since it was unlikely to burn anyone, the heat
would do the tiny girl some good. I’d sat staring at the tub and
trying to listen in to Marie and Stripes talking, although at that
point she was not yet Stripes. Nicknames came later – that first
day I hadn’t even known her as Lily, just the timid stranger on our
doorstep.

The disaster
arrived when she came to get in the bath. In those days, before
Marie had spent so many hours teaching her, Stripes was stuck in a
half form. I hadn’t expected it, and I didn’t react horrifically,
but I failed to recognise Stripes’ skittishness.

She had a
tail, bigger than it was in her tabby form, but the same brown and
gold stripes that had eventually given her her name. I had been
taken aback but have never made any excuses for what I did next,
save for that I had no idea that it would have such terrible
consequences.

“Wow...a tabby
tail,” I’d said. “Why do you keep your tail in your human
form?”

Stripes had
looked at me then as if she’d suddenly realised I was there. She
wasn’t wearing any clothes but it didn’t seem to bother her, or me
for that matter. She tilted her head and flicked her tail but said
nothing. Looking back, I have often wondered how much she was
thinking like a human being. Her movements were graceful and
floating but in a feline way that no human could have managed.
Sometimes if a shifter spends their life living as an animal
without any human interaction they can become strange, reverting
back to basic instincts.

Frustrated
with her lack of answer, I approached her. I was newer to the idea
of helping people overcome their pasts then. I didn’t
understand.